25 and Beyond

DOUBLE EDIT: Wow I really hope I finish it by the end of this month.

EDIT: So I am terrible at timing with these kinds of entries. Though I had sincere intentions of finishing this before my birthday, alas it was not to be.

A quarter of a century of my life will officially be over tonight (well I think sometime early tomorrow morning but I forget). I just wanted to take some time and reflect on what's happened since my 25th birthday.

In short, 25 was probably the best year I've had so far living as Kevin Cheng. I think I can call year 25 "The Year of Right". As in I did a lot of "right" things this year. It's really the first time I've ever felt like this. I think I'm starting to live for the first time. This past year I feel like I have better sense of who I am.

Perhaps it was because I was hitting 25. Or perhaps I felt that the last couple of years were spent in inertia but I remember saying to myself, "Okay Kevin, 25 is going to be the year something happens. You are going to have to set some goals and really kick some ass this year." I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish. I kept them in my Treo Palm Pilot phone. Some times I looked at the list frequently to see where I was at. Sometimes I forgot to look at them. Sometimes I felt like I'd never get any of them done.

But all in all, I actually got a lot done this year. Which is surprising. Here are some of the highlights of this year.

My First Car, Saber
Perhaps this was the catalyst to all the "Let's kick ass this year!" mentality but I bought my first car on my 25th birthday. It was the biggest purchase I'd ever made and it was a little nerve racking to say the least. Looking for prices. Agreeing on the kind of car. Balancing coolness and practicality. Test driving. DEALING WITH CAR SALESPEOPLE. Not that I have anything against car dealers but next to lawyers they are the most conniving and manipulative beings in this world.

Oh yeah, let's not forget the a month long scare that the car I bought was stolen (my guy "lost" my registration papers twice). I named my midnight blue 2007 civic "Saber" (as if naming your car is uncool already I'd rather not get into the origin of the name). Okay, so it has a cute "beep" honk but it handles well and looks pretty sporty and sexy. I love my Saber.

Moving Out
I remember meeting up with Gus, our landlord, on a cold November night. I remember signing my name to a lease that was drafted just minutes after I met with Gus at a "hole in the wall" law office. I remember getting brand new keys to our apartment in Brooklyn Bay Ridge. I then remember hyperventilating and then stopping in at a McDonald's in Manhattan for some coffee. I was officially moving out.

Talks of moving out with one of my best friends Tommy go back to probably 2 or 3 years ago. We would bullshit about it. Talk about going out and partying out every night. Boasting about how many girls we'd have over. Counting the number of times we'd play video games till the crack of dawn.

But up until last year either we couldn't sync up our lives to make it happen or we just were too scared to pull the trigger and do it. As someone that lived at home for most of their life (I didn't dorm in college), the concept of moving out was actually pretty frightening. It was kinda like taking an elephant raised at the Bronx Zoo and then making it move to South Africa to live among the wild and free.

And of course the parents made it even harder to pull the trigger with their rigid and tangible reasons for not doing it. "You're going to lose XXXXX amount of money. Who's going to cook for you? Do you hate us or something?". I even got a phone call from my uncle (who never really calls) on Thanksgiving telling me how moving out would ruin my life. If that was the case then the hundreds of thousands of people living in the city just screwed up their lives too.

All in all there were very legitimate and tangible reasons for not moving out. Economically and convenience wise. But nonetheless I couldn't shake off this belief that moving out would be the way for me to grow up if only for just a year. I don't know why I felt this.

Freedom. I only knew about it through others that are living away from their parents. It's probably why dorm life was so awesome in college. Moving away gave me a real opportunity to learn how to "choose" things in life. Anything from what I did with my free time, to what I cooked for dinner, to the shampoo I bought at Duane Reade. That allowed me to experiment with things, make mistakes, and go through events that really help define me as a person.

And against every tangible and logical reason out there for me not to move, the intangible benefits were far greater. I don't think a lot of the other great things that have happened to me this past year would be possible if I was still under my parent's roof.

Moving out was one of the best decisions I've made ever.

Going to Japan Before 25
As far as I can remember, I think I've always wanted to visit Japan. The pop culture is quirky, the music is fun and rocking, and it helps that the girls are cute as well. I had this weird rule though that I have to visit Japan before I hit 25. I just personally felt that the older you get, the harder it is to enjoy the weird and fun cultural fads that are everywhere in Japan.

Tommy and I had tried to plan an Asia trip several times over the last 2 years but again our schedules didn't sync up. So after the 3rd try, we decided to really buckle down and go somewhere. And that somewhere was Japan at the end of June 2007.

Japan was every bit as cool as I thought it would be. I won't get into specifics but I was glad to be young and enjoying such an awesome culture.

You can check them out in a 3 part series on YouTube (search for "beefnbrocli").

Kenshinkai and Kendo
At the end of November, I will have practiced Kendo for 10 months. I can't remember the last time I did something did 10 months straight. I like kendo a lot. As cheesy as it sounds it really helps me focus my mind, gives me an awesome workout, and helps me become more confident as a person.

I don't think I ever remember saying, I want to do kendo. But I did have a fascination with swords--especially Japanese swords. I also wanted to do something physically competitive. Kendo was the closest thing to both worlds (without requiring real combat with real bloody consequences).

Little did I know that picking up kendo and joining Kenshinkai would lead to the first major social circle expansion since college. Though many of us take our kendo seriously, Kenshinkai felt like very much like a club. It wasn't once practice was finished everyone went home. It's like let's go out for a beer. Or let's go Karaoke. Or...something something.

I grew a lot coming to Kenshinkai. I met many friendly people from different walks of life. It really demonstrated to me that I didn't have to be afraid to deviate from the cookie-cutter life because all of them ended up just fine.

Since joining Kenshinkai I've really learned to become more aggressive and confident about myself. Two traits I really lacked 2 or 3 years ago.


Working in the Music Industry
This was the achievement that topped all others. I didn't expect it to happen this year...or even perhaps ever. It was probably the most exciting moment of my life career wise. After working 3.5 years at Deutsche Bank, I became frustrated that I was not all interested in the product I working with. I really wanted my job to be closer to my personal interests. I wasn't sure if music was my thing but I like music a lot. I believe in it.

And so began an on and off 9 month search for a job, ANY JOB in the music industry.

I still remember running to and from the train station to the EMI Music head quarters in Chelsea for interviews. Luckily my boss's policy of working at home whenever you want made it fairly simple to sneak out for interviews. But still to travel to Manhattan and then back down to bay ridge was no easy feat. I would always get concerned as the R train pulled into Rector subway station. Perhaps I'd find my boss on his way home catching me in a suit? Or a co-worker who decided to go home early to take care of something?

After several interviews, it worked out. I couldn't believe it.

I've worked at EMI for about 5 months now and it is a world of difference from Deutsche Bank. I really wondered how I could've been working there for 3.5 years. Everything is somewhat of a memory at DB. Working at EMI and in the industry itself was like finding the perfect fitting suit.


Picking Up A New Language: Japanese
Our trip to Japan during the summer made a most favorable impression on Tommy and myself. For Tommy it kick started the travelling bug and for me well it left me with a desire to learn the language. And so Tommy and I started Japanese lessons during the middle of August. It's been about 3 months and I have to say we've learned quite a bit and looking forward to the next 3 months.

With Tommy going overseas I'm hoping to be fluent enough to not be a stupid ganjin.

As I said it was a pretty good year. But (as in the words of Bon Jovi) where where do we go from here? Stuff to deal with in the next year...

I'M MOVING BACK HOME!!!!
Yes ladies and gentlemen, ironic isn't it? If the year of right was about moving out, then why the heck am I moving back in? I can probably sum it up to you below:

Money - I need to save MORE money. Yes 700 isn't that much but I think about how expensive my hobbies are getting which leaves me not saving very much. Any extra money is nice.

Laundry/Cooking - Yes I knew this would happen and my mom told me it would happen. I hate chores. I like cooking but it's time consuming. And I hate cleaning dishes.

Family: It's good to be under the same roof as my folks again. It's also good that I don't have to drive to and from my blasted apartment every other weekend.

So yes, the obvious challenge here is to see whether or not my growth will be stunted, interfered, or not impacted at all. I am a different Kevin coming back into this house and I hope I stay that way.

My Career
I will have worked at EMI for 5 months at the end of November. And the thing I was afraid of happened. Somehow I've just gotten lazy about my career. I've gotten too comfortable with the relaxed environment and great people. I had imagined myself to working double time. Getting in early and reading the news, doing the online training, etc. but to this point I'm lucky if I ca get myself to work by 10.

I need to get back to my hard work ethic and start kicking some ass again or else I'll really have screwed myself.

DJ Krazybeef
One of the regrets I'll always have is that I never was able to record an awesome song or record a really great DJ mix while I was at the apartment. I have slacked off on my DJing, music creating aspirations as well during the year. It's been about 2-3 years since I took that SAE electronic music producer course and I've completely lost the momentum on doing anything creative.

Luckily thanks to some really thought friends, I'm trying to get it started again with DJ classes at the Scratch Academy. Today was my first day and I am really happy I'm taking classes again. I'm going to try really hard not to drop the ball again...

Continuing Japanese and Learning Chinese?
I hope to continue Japanese for another 6 months or until I have visit Tommy in Japan. Learning a language is such a difficult thing but I hope in the end it pays off.

I do have a yearning to learn Chinese (Mandarin) again. I think it's a bit shameful I don't know my own country's language. That and think of the economic opportunities that could open learning this language. I don't know how I'll do it but I would like to tackle another language if I have the time.

There are things I'd like to do more of this year...

Write More
I think my writing is getting worse and worse every year. That and I don't document too much of my life anymore unfortunately. As exciting as last year was, this whole entry is really the only documentation you'll get.

I hope to post at least once a week with something interesting.

Read More
I've never been a big book reader but I think I'm missing out on so much just because I don't read books. I hope to gather a list of books from people and try to read them when I can.

Re-learn the Violin
It kind of breaks my heart that the one skill that I spent 10 years of my life learning is all but gone after 5 years of hiatus. It sucks when you tell someone, yes I learned something for 10 years but I've forgotten all of it. So yes, whether it be 30 minutes a day or every other day. I hope to relearn the violin.

I'm sure there are other things but those are the ones I can think of right now.

So there you have it past, present, and future (well some of it). I suppose we'll have another check point at around new years. Who knows how valid this stuff will be in several months.

Sad Flashback

I'm just updating my iTunes list for the Korean songs I have and was doing research on YesAsia when I found this reviewer's comment on a Baby VOX album:

"I'm from America and I just love Babyvox. It's hard to get these albums here in this country. I always check out the pictures of Babyvox and try to listen to some songs on their website, but that is hard too, because I don't have a computer, I'm using the universities. I'm not in college. but in high school, it's kind of a special program, and our school is the only one that has this program in the whole entire nation it's been going on for about 10 years. I'm not korean either, but every day I wish I was, I always get comments from everyone I know about how well I can sing, I have to go know I WILL be back the next day, today is 5-9-03, and I will continue on, bye again, and pease dont take it the wrong way if you're thinking I'm blabbering about what I'm typing, because it's just my fillings. my very peronal fillings and I dont care if the whole world knows,also just to tell you that meeting or hopfully singing with babyvox is a big dream to me, so bye again for the last time, and babyvox, keep it up and goodluck on everything you do. My number is (559)- 226-0478 just incase you want to talk to me, hopfully you will, remember I live in america but I might not live in this STATE anymore (california), so if your going to talk to me, please do it fast."

All I have to say is that is pretty sad.