arkansas
no need to file a report to the police for a missing person, i'm back in one piece after disappearing off the face of the earth for a few days.

no, i wasn't in vegas gambling away my life savings, that'll be next year ;) i was in arkansas, visiting grandpa and grandma!


i guess the secret's out now -- i am 1/4 white.

just kidding. pictured above along with the rest of my family are my dad's "host parents," aka the people who welcomed my dad into their loving home when he arrived fresh off the boat so many years ago. so i suppose i have them to thank for me being here in the united states and not in china being groomed and developed into the next yao ming.

anyhow, it was a wonderful 4 days, much better than i anticipated. i realized 2 things on the trip:

1. i love baseball.

grady crain, aka "pawpaw," is an incredibly selfless, caring 85-year-old man, but i had no idea how i would be able to really connect with him on anything given the huge age difference. that's where baseball came into the picture.

that guy is as big a houston astros fan as i am. we talked about biggio, bagwell, beltran, clemens, oswalt, pettite, and even albert pooholes. his eyes would just light up whenever i mentioned that the astros were winning or were headed to the postseason once again.


you know, i've heard countless girls wonder aloud about why guys are so into sports. sports brings guys together. whether they're watching, playing, or just talking about it, sports forms instant bonds and gives us a common ground much like girls and their _____ . (yeah, i dont know about girls.) i am convinced that if all the girls in the world somehow died off or if God just decided to only have guys live on this planet, we would be perfectly happy as long as we still had sports. (okay maybe a little exaggeration, maybe.)

2. i love jack johnson

a few days ago, i had no idea who this guy was, but now i can't stop listening to him. if i was a girl, i'd be all over jack like white on rice.


that's all for now. tune in next time for a recap of tomorrow's adventure where your favorite action heroes, jonathan, jennifer, and jason mok, will attempt to build a basketball backboard! (commercial break)