Unexpectations
(New Heights - Peaches)



Great video to raise the awareness for the deaf. Also a great video to remind us that there is still a lot of humanity in this crazy world. Finding humanity sometimes comes as a great surprise to me. It's an even greater surprise when I find it in myself ;)

When was the last time you found a little unexpected humanity?

This Will Be Legen...wait for it...dary.
(Keane - Everybody's Changing)

When you're younger, you always have these grand ideas of how your life would turn out. Things like your career; when you'd get married; how big your house would be; how many kids you'd have; and what age you'd have them.

And it's a recurring theme in my blog, whether explicit or implicit -- the path you take is never the straight and shortest path. The path is a winding one. One that curves around the everyday obstacles in your life. And occasionally along that path you may stub your toe on some poorly paved intentions but knowing that your journey holds some exciting stories to tell your children one day, makes it all worth while.

And in the latest part of my journey, I have found out that I will have someone to tell my exciting stories to come late July/early August. Yes, I will be a father. It's something I always knew I wanted to do. When I was younger, it was something I thought would happen sooner rather than later but you can't always time these things.

So the preparation has started for the arrival of said unnamed baby. I bought a new car a couple of weeks ago which is a larger vehicle than my last car. I managed to convince Sonia to let me purchase a vehicle that's both sporty and fun to drive and still has the features that a family would look for. It's my last bit of splurging before I have to compete with the child to see who gets their toys first. As most fathers will testify, that's not a winning battle.

The baby's room will start taking shape in the next couple of months as I do some spring cleaning on our 2nd bedroom, repaint it and furnish it with the typical things a baby room should have.

There are so many things that need to happen between now and then. It's a bit overwhelming. And though I may joke to my friends with the occasional "It's too late for me, save yourselves!", it's all very surreal if not mind-blowing amazing.

For me mind-blowing excitement is something I've never really been able to grasp. My moods and excitement levels have always been on a more conservative scale than the average person. Here's where my friends would say, "That's because you're a robot." I know Sonia and a few friends are hoping that when this baby is born, that the robot in me will leak some oil in the tear duct area. I can't guarantee that but I can guarantee that I will cherish every day that this baby is in my life.

Just Let Yourself Fall Into Landslide
(Crystal Castles - Not In Love fet. Robert Smith)



One incredible remake of a classic Platinum Blonde song from the 80's. This is arguably better than the original when you factor in the great vocals by legendary Robert Smith.

It's been a very busy two months. As my life starts picking up some steam, I'm finding myself less and less able to find the time to update this blog. And it's not without desire because I find blogging as one of the greatest cathartic mediums. Especially for someone like myself who never grew up with much of an emotional outlet. Even robots need to flush their engines every now and then.

As proof of my desire to keep my writing alive, I submit the following evidence to the court. I recently bought an Amazon Kindle to kick-start an old hobby of mine. Yes I do read! I find there's no bigger inspiration to writing than reading. I'm currently reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. If anyone's read this, I'd love to hear your opinion.

I'm currently in Tampa Bay for a couple of days for work but I promise, I'll have an update for you guys within the next week.

To be continued...

Happy New Year
(Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Home)

First post of 2011. Happy New Year!

Let's start off with some good news. I'm getting promoted to project manager at my company. It's not exactly VP of Add More Awesome but it's something. If I did however get promoted to VP of AMA, I'd definitely add this video to our company website.



You'll often hear me say in reference to being around kids, "This is my nightmare." This kid is one of the few exceptions. Phenomenal.

Starting this year off right by going to visit my grandma who I haven't seen in over a year. Just bought a ticket to DC on points to go visit in February and saw this on my bill.

Fuel Surcharge $54.00
Canada Goods And Service Tax $4.06
NAV Canada - Air Navigation Services $15.00
U.S Agriculture Fee $5.00
U.S Immigration User Fee $7.00
Canada Domestic/International Airport Improvement Fee $25.00
Canada Harmonized Sales Tax $3.25
U.S. International Transportation Tax $32.40
Canada Domestic/International Air Travel Security Charge $12.10
U.S. Passenger Safety Fee $2.50
U.S Passenger Facility Charge $4.50
Total airport taxes, fees and surcharges per passenger $164.81

So if any of you were wondering why the airline industry was suffering so bad, here's proof in the pudding that they need to fire their VP of Add More Suck and hire a VP of AMA. I mean I realize that you have to pay taxes and fees to keep the airlines running but this is a bit ridiculous.

In other news, lately I've noticed from my blog traffic summaries, that my readership has tripled. It's gone from around 3-4 page views per day to around 11. It's not much but I'll take whatever I can get. It could also be simply spam bots but judging from the average length of time that is spent per visit, which is around 2 minutes, it's not just the tip but a bona fide quicky these readers are having on my page! And I thank you anonymous readers because without you, this would be the blog equivalent of masturbation. I hope one day we can upgrade from these quickies to a real relationship.

Lastly an update on my fashion-stealing coworker. Apparently stealing my cardigan outfit wasn't enough. He showed up to work this week wearing the cardigan outfit and rocking a pair of converses. I was so tempted to tell him that his outfit was so "Khiem 2010". Before any of you start calling me a hipster, I will note that my jeans have never been tight (excluding the day after thanksgiving) nor have I wore ironic glasses and downloaded an app on an iphone.

Fashion Lessons From the Unfashionable - My Cardigan Story
(Weezer - The Sweater Song)

So I'm not going to lie and tell you that I brought the cardigan back in style. In fact it's been in style for a couple of years now. I will tell you that I bought a cardigan about a year ago and got a ton of grief from my friends for wearing it. Apparently, it was a drastic change in my wardrobe from my classic jeans and rock band t-shirt look. My fashion sense has changed over the last few years as I've matured and my career has progressed. Only natural.

So the story goes -- I bought a gray cardigan about a year ago while in Hong Kong on a work trip. I thought the look was smart but still fun. I wore the gray cardigan occasionally at work and occasionally when I went out at night. You can wear it with a white t-shirt for a casual relaxed look or you can wear it with a tucked in dress shirt with a tie for a more formal look. It's a very versatile piece of clothing.

Then about a month ago, my coworker who sits in the cubicle right beside me decides to change his wardrobe. Let's call him "Tim". He said he needed a change. He wanted to dress more mature at work. So he goes out and buys a bunch of cardigans, dress shirts, dress pants and ties. He proceeds to wear this outfit everyday of the work week. For awhile it was the story of the office. People would ask me, "What's up with Tim and his new cardigan outfits?" Each day he had a different coloured cardigan to go with a different dress shirt or tie.

At first I didn't realize how this would impact me. Then came the day that I wore my cardigan to work. Every other person I spoke with said, "You look like so-and-so today." or "Are you trying to copy Tim?" So here I am with probably the biggest dilemma I've had at work since that time I couldn't decide between a burrito and a big mac for lunch. How do I wear my cardigan again without getting ridiculed and compared to a guy who was 2 years late into the cardigan game?!?

So I schemed and thought hard for a couple of days. The strategy I came up with was simple. I was exaggerating when I said he wore a cardigan everyday of the week. He probably wore a cardigan about 3-4 times a week. However he rarely wore it more than 3 days in a row. So I mapped out his cardigan wearing patterns. And on one fateful Thursday in December, I decided to make my move. It also coincided with the company Christmas party. I wore my gray cardigan with the new festive red tie I had bought while in Seoul, Korea for work. It was time for my cardigan to make it's return!

As I strolled into work, feeling great about this fantastic festive outfit I had put together, I walked by Tim's desk. BLUE CARDIGAN!! WITH A TIE!! 4 DAYS IN A ROW!! So for the rest of the day I had to endure the "Hey where's your twin?" and "You're ripping off Tim's style." comments. Amplified by the social atmosphere at our company xmas party, it was my version of a Nightmare Before Christmas.


(You could say I was "Schuestered".)

And I can sit here and argue back and forth about how I wore the cardigan well before Tim ever sported one but I have no one to blame but myself. I made some key miscalculations in my plan.

1) I miscalculated the risk of wearing the same outfit at a social event as my coworker. It doesn't matter if the chance of Tim wearing the outfit was 50% or 5%. The fact is, if it does happen, it's the equivalent to social suicide. Every woman will tell you this.

2) It doesn't matter who wears the outfit first, it matters only who "OWNS" the outfit. That doesn't mean who looks better in the outfit, because we all know I look better in the outfit. It just means who wears it the MOST. I was never going to "OWN" this outfit, it was merely a compliment to my wardrobe -- not the defining piece.

So I've officially retired this cardigan from my work wardrobe and any events where said coworker would be attending. It is simply not worth the ridicule I faced that day. Just to let you know though, I just started wearing split toe brown dress shoes with some of my work clothes. If Tim shows up to next year's xmas party sporting these, someone better be telling him he's ripping off Khiem's styles.

P.S. The new style of wearing mismatched patterns in an outfit (e.g. plaid shirt with striped tie) was patented by me back when it was a fashion faux pas. You could say I'm years ahead of my time or a fashion pioneer - but I know you won't.

A Le Dong Christmas
(Wham - Last Christmas)

Christmas is here and you can’t help but enjoy the spirit of the holidays. And when I say spirit, I’m not talking about people rushing around buying gifts for others. While it’s a nice gesture, gift buying these days is more of a routine and obligation than it is about sharing with those who have less than us. It goes without saying that we should be giving to those less fortunate but this post isn’t about being a humanitarian or a philanthropist. It’s about enjoying the season and being thankful for what you’ve got.

I love Christmas because it’s the anticipation of seeing family and friends. It’s people going out of their way to decorate their houses and trees for others to enjoy. It’s the look on a child’s face as they see their first Christmas tree. Even in a family like mine where we didn’t grow up with the luxury of spending hundreds of dollars on a Christmas tree and ornaments, seeing the Christmas tree always brought a smile to our faces.

Fact be told our Christmas tree was probably the ugliest tree on the block. It made the Charlie Brown Christmas tree look good. For starters, we didn’t have a lot of ornaments. The ornaments we did have, didn’t match. The tree itself was probably the cheapest fake tree you could buy. I remember one year in an attempt to fill the tree up, we placed all the Christmas cards we got in the mail from family and friends on the tree. Another year we filled the tree with all of our old used toys. The tree was filled with old WWF figurines, GI Joe’s, Barbie accessories and a giant yellow popple (an 80’s furry toy). I believe that was our favourite Christmas tree of all time. I’ve tried to reconstruct what our tree would look like today.



Our gifts were always a mixed bag of WTF and FML with the occasional epic gift. My favourite WTF gifts – underwear, socks, Tiffany’s CD (I might have actually liked this) and the ever popular giant Toblerone. You have to remember, being a kid, wearing underwear was not one of my primary concerns. It still isn’t actually. The FML gifts were the ones my relatives gave to me that I had to wear to school that looked ridiculous. This included a teal coloured sweater with giant polar bears on it, a full body black snowsuit, a jean outfit that included acid washed jeans and matching vest, topped off with cowboy boots. Of course you can almost forget and forgive those presents when you get your favourite Transformer, GI Joe and a red bmx bike. In retrospect having more shitty gifts always keeps you humble and more appreciative of the few great gifts in your life.

There were always those great treks to see relatives. Driving 10 hrs down to Washington DC to visit my aunts, uncles and grandparents. During those trips we would be huddled in the backseat with blankets as my dad rolled down the window every 15 minutes to smoke. You see, he wasn’t allowed to smoke with the window because 2nd hand smoke kills. However, -20 C winds blowing through the car was a mere nuisance easily cured by jackets and blankets. And since this was pre-GPS, my parents were always good for at least one argument after we got lost b/c my mom would fall asleep in the passenger seat (a family skill passed on from generation to generation) and my dad would continue to drive straight until someone told him to turn. All was well though when we arrived to a large family gathering with our grandparents happy to see us. Of course there were always tears of sadness from my grandparents as we left to go back to Toronto.

Now as we grow older, we still do the family gatherings but we don’t make those long treks anymore. At least not as frequently. Most of our holidays are spent locally with the immediate family. And our family Christmas tree doesn’t always make an appearance anymore. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was all of those years of us kids making fun and being ashamed of it. Maybe it’s because now that the kids have grown up and left the house, my parents have no one to decorate the tree for.

So this year I’m having the family over at my house for Christmas dinner for the very first time. It will coincide with relatives coming into town for my baby sister’s engagement party. It will be another large gathering and reunion. This year more than any year, I’m looking forward to buying and decorating my own tree for my parents and our relatives.

Happy holidays everyone.

Tokyo Drift
(Stars - Wasted Daylight)



(In the way your hand hits the wave
In between the dreamer and the breath
Long beside the bitter of the skin
Today won't know when to begin)

About 10 yrs ago, I was suppose to move to Japan to teach English. At the time, everything in my life was very uncertain. I had just graduated from university and I wasn't sure as to what my next steps in life were. My parents had hoped I would go to medical school but I couldn't live up to their expectations. I was also in a relationship with a girl from Texas that I didn't know was going anywhere. It was a struggle daily to figure out how we would bridge that distance between us. It seemed like the wrong time for me to just get up and go wander the world, make the distance between us larger. I convinced myself that I needed to sort out my life, understand where it was headed before I could go on an adventure. It was my responsibility. It was also an excuse for me to avoid my fear of uncertainty.

So I turned down the offer and stayed in Toronto. I found work at an electronics manufacturing company. It wasn't related to my degree but it would help me get started in paying off my student loans. Ironically, it paid half as much as I would've got paid in Japan. The long distance relationship didn't improve. I didn't have any experience that an employer would want to go through the trouble of arranging a visa for me to work there. So I spent a year trying to sort things out but got absolutely nowhere.

The following year I decided to throw caution to the wind and re-apply for that job. I got an interview with the same company. In the interview, they asked me why I turned down the job the previous year. I told them I wasn't ready at the time to make that leap of faith. I waited anxiously for them to call me back. They called me back a week later to let me know that I did not get the job. They felt like I couldn't commit to it. And there you had it -- an opportunity that stared me in the face and I let it slip by.

As the years went by, my friends and family all had the opportunity to go to Japan. Each and every time, they'd come back with stories of how wonderful it is there. The adventures they had. The great culture they soaked in. Each time it was just more salt in the wound for me.

So here I am sitting in my hotel room in Seoul. Trying to collect my thoughts about the weekend I just had in Tokyo. I took a day off from work on this 2 week business trip and decided to fly to Japan to finally see what I had missed out on all these years. After watching inception on the plane ride to Seoul last week, I had hoped that Tokyo wouldn't be as overrated and overhyped as that movie was for me. You have to remember that Tokyo had been hyped up in my mind for the past 10 years. If it didn't live up to my expectations, I would've been devastated.

And there were many hurdles in getting to Tokyo once again. This time I couldn't find a cheap direct flight there from Seoul. The flights using my air miles were only first class and only left early on Friday morning. I had hoped to not miss too much work and fly out Friday evening. I finally told myself, "Who knows when you'll have this opportunity again. Missing one day of work will not make or break the project." I booked that flight. I had a wonderful time. Tokyo was more than I had ever thought it would be. Extremely clean, wonderfully built and so immersed in history and culture. Not to mention the great food and great company I had with a few friends who were there as well.

Now I'm back to reality getting prepared for work tomorrow. I've got one more week in Seoul and then it's back to Toronto for the next little while. It doesn't seem like I've missed a step even though I took time off for myself. And that's what I need to keep telling myself. That taking time off doesn't mean I'm going to derail my career or my life. I just need to step back sometimes and regain my balance before getting back on this high speed train that is my life.

That's what I will tell my grandchildren one day. Don't worry about the uncertainty. Life will not leave you behind. Don't regret missing out on your Tokyo.

Hello From Narita
(Eminem - Love The Way You Lie)



Did a crazy wicked rendition of this song at karaoke last week. Channeling the anger and passion of Marshall Mathers. It was nice to get some anger out. I guess maybe I'm angry at overworking myself and just tiring myself out when I should be enjoying life. It's been 5/6 weeks on the road now. I'm back to Toronto for 2 weeks and then I head out for another 2 weeks to Korea. I missed basically half of my summer. I know I have no one to blame but myself. Sometimes I don't know how to say no to people and sometimes I just like to be a workaholic. That's why this song is so perfect. I know sometimes I torture myself.

On a lighter note, here's a funny story. I'm sitting in Narita airport right now on a 9 hr layover from Kuala Lumpur. Just woke up from a nice 3 hour nap in a private sleeping area where they have lounge chairs with foot stools so you can put your legs up. The nap felt pretty damn good but after I woke up I discovered that the chair I was sitting in actually pulled completely out into a bed position. Of course I'm wide awake now. FML.

Oh...I bought a ninja outfit in one of the souvenir shops here. Will go great with my sword and throwing stars at home. Parents never allowed me to have a ninja costume when I was younger. Never too late to be a kid again. I should wear it the next time I go visit my parents just to spite them. Yeah that's right, your 34 year old son bought his own ninja suit...how do you like them apples?

Does anyone take a lot of enjoyment out of being able to bypass lines at the airport with their Elite airline status? I mean I have an unhealthy enjoyment out of essentially budding in line and then looking back at the 30-40 person deep line and chuckling under my breath. Sorry losers, I've been in transit for 31 hrs so you can suck it! Wait, I've been in transit for 31 hrs, I'm probably the loser here. At least I have status bitches!

Wow...this was an unnecessarily angry post. I'm sure I will be happier when I arrive back in TO.

I think someone once said, "You only have one life, but if you do it right, one is enough." I'm not doing it right, right now. I need better work/life balance. It's a continuing work in progress for me.

One comes by the sea; one comes by the land and no one lives to tell the tale.
(Sigur Ros - Glosoli)

149, 150, 151, 152...oh Hi. I didn't see you there. I was just doing some pushups.

So my stay here in Kuala Lumpur is winding down. I've been here 5 of the last 6 weeks. Some highlights of my trip?

- Finding out from my life insurance company that my quote went from $28/month to $186/month after they found out I've been travelling here for work the past couple of months.
- Eating a rubbery piece of freshly shucked oyster at an all-you-can-eat karaoke bar and not getting sick.
- Watching a coworker sing and dance to Kesha's tik tok (that nearly made me sick).
- Realizing I had only packed enough underwear to last me til the 2nd last day before I leave for home. It's ok though, I can just turn my last pair inside out.
- Total days missed because of weekend travel, missing Canadian holidays and/or working weekends = 10, FML.
- Diarrhea from something I had eaten...twice.
- Total number of fake watches asked by friends/family/coworkers to bring back = 9.
- Haven't had a haircut in about 5 weeks so my hair is in the "too long to gel, too short to put in a ponytail" stage.
- Saw a monkey on the street begging for food.

So looking forward to being back in Toronto for a couple of weeks. I really miss my bbq. And maybe my wife. ;) Looking forward to playing bball and vball. Lots of home stuff to take care of when I get back...ughh.

Oh...and at the beginning of October I have a date with destiny. Her name is Korea. Haven't been there before. Probably would enjoy it if it weren't for work and if it weren't on the back end of a 5 week trip to Kuala Lumpur. Le sigh.

Anyone know Hyori Lee's or Yuna Kim's address?

Ok...gotta go...

You hang up! No, YOU hang up! Ok, on the count of 3, we both hang up together.
1-2-3. I knew you wouldn't hang up!

Hello From KL
(Michael Buble - Home)

Home in 2 weeks but then the week after that off to Seoul, South Korea for 2 weeks.

By the end of that trip I will have travelled 7 of the past 9 weeks.

It's lonely. Work is stressful. I miss home. Where is my salvation?