This isn’t going to help you or get you anywhere.

Martial Arts

Before I did Vovinam, I took Taekwondo/Judo/Aikido back in the elementary school days at academy called Van Binh Self Defense Academy (Now, it’s called American Self Defense Academy for some reason.). I always look back on it and wish my parents knew about Vovinam/or Professional Korean Taekwondo Dojo’s. (Perhaps it was because I was young and didn’t have a care in the world. I’m sure my attitude back then was just too have fun. I’ll lean towards that, but for the sake of the rant, I’ll continue. I was just a kid back then anyways! What can I say?) I just might be partially wrong about what I’m about to say, but I felt that some mediocre martial art schools that don’t take their martial arts teachings that seriously didn’t give me a enough of a competitive drive. Especially when they have young kids passing rank test after rank test like it’s nothing. The funny thing is, I stopped at brown belt. Never got my black belt, and I’m glad I didn’t. My two cents.

Here’s a picture of me and my twin brother during our TKD days when we were blue belts (Back when Brian still had straight, flat hair, haha). Check out those teeth gaps!:

Currently a Vovinamer:

 So did any of you guys ever do any form of martial arts?

I’ve noticed that I tend to wink whenever I make a playful joke to a girl, haha. Is that odd? (Sometimes I have a feeling that I might come off as creepy or just plain weird)

Today, a majority of our new generation is controlled by technology and greatly fueled by the attention of others.

-Just my two cents

The Breakup

I don’t mind at all, and thank you for asking. We mutually broke up after we were a bit rocky for quite some time. With school and all, it would’ve been difficult to put in more effort into getting back into a “full committed relationship”. But don’t get me wrong though. We still did try our best and still loved each other then, but we realized that it best for us to respect each other’s priorities and put our full effort on one thing, ourselves. Relationships are a lot harder than it sounds. And if you ever were in one, you’ll understand where I’m coming from. A lot people think that “love can prevail and overcome anything” but there seriously is a lot more to it. It’s not going to be like the movies we watched, the books we read, or the puppy love romances we imagined in our heads. And with all the “cute couple pictures”, “relationships quotes”, etc. all over Tumblr, it’s easy for people, especially the relatively younger generation like middle school/high school, to imagine being in love as easy as 1,2,3. This is because a majority of the time, they think of all the good things like the cute kisses on the cheek, the cuddling, the feeling of always having someone there for you, etc. and not all the other things like the fights, the breaks, the struggle, and so forth. It’s difficult to understand what true love is, and it’s just something that you have to experience and go through. Love is hard. Love is complex.  And relationships will never be “that perfect relationship you imagined”. That’s reality. And so, back to us. Nicole and I left it at “This is for the better. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. And whatever happens, happens.” And so months later, we’ve moved on, kept on good terms, and still remained good friends, which I am so happy and so grateful that we still are. I actually had dinner with her the other night, and we, as usual, picked right back up smoothly like two good friends would. And we told each other as we have before that “if we both were to ever find somebody, we would be truly happy for one another.”

Note to self: After you confront the shoplifter, make sure he/she doesn’t get out of your sight and personally returns the merchandise back to the store. A crime is still a crime.