Microsoft Surface computer brings Minority Report a little closer to reality.

How cool does this sound? A computer that looks like a table and operates like a big touch screen where you can sort through pictures, resize them, and use the web using only your fingers! It reminds me of Tom Cruise sifting through files in the air in Minority Report, but just the fact that it is becoming more and more of a reality makes it pretty exciting.

Christmas 2010? Done.

Maybe it's the Asian in me, but something about this is really exciting.

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Home of classy business meetings and exhausted football players and staff. I'm sitting in the same leather chair that I passed out in during bowl week.

A new dawn, a new day

Ended last night with some Sprinkles and an episode of Rob & Big (what's up Mini Horse).

Checking out the summer TV schedule, what new shows made it on the DVR?
- On the Lot
- So you think you can dance
- Rob & Big
- Hell's Kitchen

One day, maybe I'll grow up and stop being in love with reality TV. Today is not that day.

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Dropping off some stuff for work this morning, stayed here last year for the Rose Bowl, would otherwise be kind of cool.

A little defeated.

Ever have one of those days when you just feel a little defeated? That's me today. Defeated at a few things, but at the same time, just defeated in general, at nothing in particular.

The right words don't get said, nor heard, the people you expect to be there aren't, and you're just left thinking about nothing, with no direction, which I feel like is dangerous all the time. And while you're blessed with the people who call to check in and truly manage to make you feel like you matter - you wonder what happened to those who were always supposed to be there.

I am a firm believer in the fact that anyone, no matter who it is, will think crazy thoughts if they have enough alone time and I'm trying very hard not to have that alone time this week.

Sanity this weekend comes via a trip to Santa Barbara.

Is it time for me to start over already so soon after everything was just supposed to officially start? The thought has crossed my mind a few times today.

Just defeated today. Will bounce back tomorrow.

Have to bounce back tomorrow.

Rampage Jackson knocks out Chuck Liddell to become new UFC light heavyweight champion.


We checked out this fight while we were up north this weekend. It's got to be a little bit of a disappointment to the UFC that Chuck Liddell was really reaching mainstream popularity only to go down on a very big stage.

Miss USA (Rachel Smith) falls down at Miss Universe Pageant


While this will no doubt go down as one of the more embarassing in her life, thankfully, it looks like Miss Smith had enough "junk in the trunk" to bounce right back up from what otherwise might have been a bruised tailbone for a non-pageant queen.

Apparently, our very own Miss USA was being booed at the competition in Mexico. Her response? "Buenas noches Mexico. Muchas gracias!" In response, the crowd cheered.

Handle that, Miss USA.

In the end, she placed as the fourth runner up.

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The new car is in need of a roadtrip where I can drive slow (still breaking it in). Grand Canyon perhaps? I figure it has to be a big deal for a reason...

An extra day up north

It's Sunday night and we're still up north for an extra day. We spent the day in San Francisco today, walked around a bit and hit a few spots today. It's been a great weekend and it's been good to get away for a few days. I'll be back in LA tomorrow and will post again in a bit. Hope everyone is having a great and safe three day weekend!

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The Bay Area from above. Air is cleaner. Trees are greener.

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1:11 AM: Welcome to the Bay Area. Charisse is officially a better long term driver than I.

American Idol Runner Up Blake Lewis and Doug E. Fresh bring down the house at the American Idol Finale.

Blake might not have won Idol, but this performance made the show really worth watching.

Even better than this one.

Probably the closest thing to an opening act at a hip-hop concert that network TV has seen in a very long time.

Hey all, hope everyone is excited for the three day weekend. I am excited to spend the weekend in San Francisco to see the city and get some time to just relax and be. It's definitely been an interesting transition trying to get used to the fact that I don't have to do homework on the weekends anymore. Hopefully, I'm able to enjoy the weekend like everyone else, but traffic is no doubt going to be a mess.

I wanted to take a minute to really thank everyone who has been so supportive of me and davechung.com since its launch about six months ago. It was pretty devastating for me to lose my newspaper column and this website was really my release and way that I was able to cope with letting go of what was one of my goals coming into college - having a weekly newspaper column where I wouldn't be bound by topic and would be able to interact with my readers. My column gave me that and it felt good to see my classmates reading my column in class and laughing at my lame jokes, not even knowing that its author was sitting just a few seats away. It was such a privilege and there was nothing that I loved more than meeting another deadline and seeing my name in print a few days later.

It looks like we're looking at another month of growth here on my blog and while the official numbers aren't in just yet, they're looking pretty good so far. I appreciate all your support, especially my daily visitors (which is really amazing to me) and those of you who even take the time to check out and click on the advertisements that help keep my page alive!

We're almost at the half year mark and I'm looking forward to continuing the growth that we've seen over the past six months. Thank you again!
-dc

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While waiting for my car to have some goodies installed, I tried to give myself some buyer's remorse with the 2007 Yaris S. Thankfully, No remorse was found.

I'm going to be testing out mobile blogging this weekend while I'm in the Bay Area (Northern California). Tune in for pics and more!

A day working the red carpet at the American Idol finale.


First and foremost, congrats to both Blake Lewis and the newest American Idol Jordin Sparks! While I've been a big Blake fan all along ("Yo, yo yo, dawg, you know I'm a big Blake fan, right? You in it to win it baby, yea yea yea yea!!") the reality is that the song that won the American Idol songwriter's competition, "This is my now," could not have been a worse song for Blake to sing ("ehhhh it was a little pitchy for me...").

Even if you wanted Jordin to win, like most of America, I think anyone would have a hard time saying that Blake's performance with Doug E. Fresh was not anything short of incredible.

Sorry for the late update, it's been a busy couple days out here! As some of you guys know, I worked the American Idol finale last night, helping out with the live web cast for the official AmericanIdol.com website. If any of you guys watched the live photo feed, that was the work of many of us working together, literally running to get it up, get it done, and hopefully, have it look good as well. And I think it turned out great!

I was working the red carpet with a great photographer and then running the photos up to our publicity room so that they could be uploaded onto our website and I think it came out great! I got to see a ton of celebrities while I sprinted back and forth throughout the mall at Hollywood and Highland, up and down the red carpet. Some of the more notable people that I got to see were of course, the judges - Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell, along with many former Idols, and other TV personalities. Unfortunately, I missed Carrie Underwood and Katharine McPhee while I was making a run upstairs, but at least I saw Haley Scarnato, which almost made up for it.

Anyways, less talking, more pictures. I feel really blessed to have had the opportunity to be there and just really enjoyed working the whole day and getting to know a lot more people that I work with everyday. It's crazy that the Idol finale is probably the third largest television event behind the Super Bowl and Oscars and I got to be there!

Here we go, a day in the life of working the American Idol finale.

Pulling up to the Kodak Theater.
The Kodak Theater getting all Idol-ed up.


A little photo op before the madness begins.

The crew from Good Day LA. Jillian Barberie looked really good!

One of the hottest contestants ever to grace the Idol stage, Alaina Alexander on the red carpet

Our newest American Idol Jordin Sparks, a couple hours before being crowned.
Very leggy Idol finalist Haley Scarnato, being rushed through the red carpet with Blake

The Return of the Velvet Teddy Bear, Ruben Studdard to American Idol.

After a hard day's work (you can see how sweaty I am, gross...), we ran into former Idol finalist Anthony Fedorov in the Renaissance hotel.

After a quick change of clothes, we're off to the official American Idol after party in search of Idols!
Inside, it's like My Super Sweet Sixteen: Idol Style. A lot of fun!
Me with this year's Idol contestant, AJ Tabaldo

Me and Season Five finalist and AmericanIdol.com webcast host, Lisa Tucker - who was incredibly sweet, fun, and appreciative throughout the day. Great person to work with!
Former Idol finalist Constantine Maroulis has not forgotten how to pose for the camera

Many a female's favorite this year, Jared Cotter!
One of this year's most memorable early auditions.
Even more memorable, the incomparable Ian Bernardo.

To end this photo heavy post, we'll close out with a video that I shot of Ian getting down at the after party.

A great day and night. As one of the biggest Idol fans I know, it was such a thrill to be there.

Hey all, hope everyone is having a great week and that we're all looking forward to the three day weekend.

No updates until Thursday, but with good reason! I'm off to the American Idol finale and after party tomorrow night. However, Thursday's update should hopefully have a lot of great pictures to show and good stories to tell.

Goodnight!

Urban Ninja - One of the most popular videos on YouTube.

Ninja Gaiden has nothing on this guy.

I'm sure that a lot of us have seen this because it's one of the most popular videos on YouTube of all time, but this video is amazing!

Today, I Googled "Dave Chung" and I (DaveChung.com) am the eighth result that comes up. At least for today, I'm sure this will change soon.

For some reason, that is pretty incredible to me that this blog has made it this far that I come up on Google on the first page.

Unless you have an incredibly unique name, Google your name (don't cheat by putting in your college, hometown, or a club) and see how far down you have to go to find yourself.

Ok that ad was staring in my face for too long. I broke down and took The Gay Quiz.

35%

Not Gay, but just barely.

Which is actually quite good. You're able to express yourself through emotion while still being a man around your buddies. This means that you are in touch with your feminine and masucline sides, meaning that your masculine side will touch more feminine sides! ;)

While I would love for you guys to click on my ads and allow me to break even on my webspace, I have never, ever had to decline so many "special offers" in my life to find out my sexual orientation.

I see "The Gay Quiz" advertisement is back up on my site... Interesting. Thanks, Google Adsense for posting relevant content to my site (but really, Google, you know I love you and your Adsense).

So once again, gas prices have hit a record high in the United States.

At this point, it's only a matter of time until we hit $4/gallon and companies like Exxon will likely continue to post record profits, yet we will continue not to care. Why? Because people have a hard time sticking to anything that requires a new commitment.

We say that we're going to eat better, but then the wonderful greasy smell of Tito's Tacos on your drive home makes you put it off another day. We say that you're going to join a gym, but then we realize that we just really need another iPod. We often do the things that we say we'd never do, but then we convince ourselves that we're not actually selling out.

Welcome to the world of cognitive dissonance - where we do things that we know we shouldn't, but create compromises in our own minds so that we can live with ourselves. We'll pledge to buy a hybrid for our next car, no matter the cost (See: Me), but then justify the purchase of a 31/38 MPG compact car because of how much easier it'll be to parallel park with the third smallest car in the United States (1. Smart Car 2. Mini Cooper 3. Scion xA). I tell myself that I bought a car with good fuel economy and one that does minimal damage to the environment, but in the end, it's still not a hybrid. But I justify it to myself by looking at Ford Explorers and Yukons, thinking that I'm saving more gas than them...even though I drive by myself 95% of the time and probably don't.

Cognitive dissonance, it's a beautiful thing.

In Los Angeles, we say that you just can't survive without a car in this city. We say, "You could take the bus!" And follow this statement up with a laugh, because really, what could be more ridiculous?

I'm totally kidding.

However, it does just take forever to get anywhere using public transportation in Los Angeles, which is probably the reason why many people choose not to take it (this doesn't include the train, which people tell me is actually pretty nice!). I remember growing up in Mill Creek, Washington, we had a field trip where we got to ride the Community Transit buses (probably a step up from LA's Big Blue Bus that cruises around West LA) and it was such a thrill for me as an elementary school student.

I thought I would take the bus all the time! $.50 for ultimate freedom! And the bus flexed in the middle! Incredible!

Did I ever take it after that field trip? No.

Because a car was easier.

The only two times I've ridden a bus in Los Angeles were very different. I took the Dash from USC to the Los Angeles Convention Center for the LA Auto Show once. It was nice! Much better than I thought. However, I was forced to take the Metro (the orange one) back to USC because the Dash had stopped running. I have been in many a public restroom that smelled significantly better than that bus that afternoon. To this day, that is probably one of the worst smelling places I have ever been. This is how I justify to myself that I need that "new car smell," instead of the smell of poop emanating from individuals and soiled cloth covered benches inside the metro.

Wow, this got off topic.

Watching that video, I am just wondering how much money these older women are spending on gas to make it across the country in their SUV. Unfortunately, everything about those ladies (not in a bad way) screamed "old money," which made their road trip a bit easier for them to swallow. Show me a guy who is driving across the country with his McDonald's uniform on from work and smiling about it, then it'll matter to me.

Gas is expensive. It was $.87/gallon when I started driving. The other day, I spent $3.55/gallon here in LA and it didn't even phase me. I remember when I made $18 at a garage sale and thought I was rich. Today, $18 would put my gas tank a little bit above the middle and would be a little under a quarter tank on an Escalade. It's not inflation, it's gas companies getting paid.

Does anyone else ever have those days when you scroll through your phone trying to think of who you could talk to when you have nothing to talk about? I've been having those days lately.

You search and search, scrolling through, to try and find those people who you don't need a reason to call. There are certain people who never ask why you're calling, they're just happy that you did. Those are the good ones.

Yesterday, Bonnie was my victim and a great one at that. I think one of the most rare things to find in the world are those relationships that make those moments seem normal. Even if you don't see these people, nor talk to them all the time, there are certain people you can always count on to just be there. Hopefully, I'm one of those people to some, although I often find myself silencing calls just because I feel like I'm in the middle of something.

And that's not fair.

Maybe this is what happens when you don't have class and aren't forced to see people all the time. Maybe this is the transition into post-college life. Maybe it's just been a rough week of wheeling and dealing, financing cars, and driving under 3,000 RPMs. Maybe I'm just tired.

Maybe I really need this 3 day weekend.

Maybe there are too many parasocial relationships with television characters that are being put on hiatus after season finales of Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, The Real World, The Hills, Ugly Betty, and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Maybe today, I just need to get over it.

Or maybe, just maybe, disappointment becomes more real than you want to believe and you're actually justified in it, as much as you want to deny it.

Tomorrow is Tuesday.

On Wednesday night, I'm at the American Idol finale. This should be a great week.

But why isn't it?

AmericanIdol.com - Finale Red Carpet Edition

Check out #2 and #11! I'm so witty sometimes...

House is stripped via fake Craig's List (http://www.craigslist.org) ad

This is one of the more horrible stories that I've read recently. Basically, someone seems to have been mad at a woman and placed a free classified on Craigslist telling people to come and take everything from her house. While the ad was taken down within two hours, the damage was done and everything was removed from the house by numerous people who responded to the "ad." While you can't really blame the "looters," because free ads are placed all the time on Craigslist, it's pretty sickeningly brilliant, yet horrible that someone had a bunch of complete strangers carry out what was inevitably his or her own dirty work.

Now that the story has gathered national attention, maybe the police will actually care about the issue and do more than paperwork to solve it. Unlike my car getting stolen, when I was comforted by the words of my local Culver City police officer with the words of, "There's no way your car is coming back. This happens all the time."

Thanks, officer. My dreams of police officers taking prints and going to the scene (they told me to drive to the police station if I wanted to fill out a report, after my car got stolen! At least Enterprise Rent-a-Car will pick you up!) are long gone. Hopefully, Laurie Raye finds some justice and some peace after becoming the victim of a prank gone horribly wrong or a malicious act that unfortunately went right.

Take a ride in my car, via YouTube!

Ridin' along in my automobile.

While a little disgruntled doing it, I took some similar videos (less informative and entertaining than those that were erased) of my new car today. I definitely like the car more today than I did yesterday, which I think is a good thing and I'm getting more and more used to driving it (but still have absolutely no concept where the front of the car ends).

360 Degree walk around of my Scion xA.

Just in case some of you were wondering why I'm buying a brand new 2006 Scion in the year 2007, it's because the Scion xA has been discontinued and this model is the last model of the xA that will be in production (for now). Clearly, this has its upsides and downsides. On one hand, there will never be that many Scion xA's on the road. They're made in limited production compared to other more popular Toyota models and Scions are only sold in select states. However, now that the car is discontinued, will the resale value plummet? When I bought my car, used xA's were going for more than new xA's. I don't really know how to read that, but to me, it said "get a new one." So while we see tons of xA's on California roadways, I wonder what it'll be like in a couple years if I take the car out on a road trip to a state where Scions aren't even sold! It would be a lot of fun to have a car that was the "first one that someone ever saw."

The only thing that was giving me some buyers remorse was the Honda Fit, a car that I initially really wanted and generally comes at the same price as the xA. While the Fit is supposed to be better in nearly every aspect, something about the look just doesn't do it for me. I've tried so many times to like it, but it looks so much like an angry bird or an Asian owl for me to like it as much as the editors of numerous car publications have expressed.

Today marked not only my first full day with the Scion, but the first time I've been back to Bel Air Presbyterian in a couple years. It felt good to be back.

My brand new, 2006 Scion xA

I did a huge video blog about the car, complete with full tours of the interior and exterior of the car, but then my Treo (which I hate more and more everyday) crashed and I lost all the data. It's like writing an email, then having your computer crash - there is just no way that you can ever recreate the same voice that you had initially because you're so frustrated in the back of your mind.

Anyways, here's a pic!

The only picture that could be salvaged from my phone crashing.

More details to come if I can get over my frustration over losing my video entries...

Orange County plans to alleviate traffic on the 5.

Alleviate traffic... Realistic? Probably not. Orange County has some of the worst traffic in Southern California. I know it's unsafe, with earthquakes and all, but why don't we just get some double decker highways out here? It's just delaying the inevitable.

Seeing this video reminded me of when I was so bored in the car one day that I took videos for the site while I was in the car. Clearly, this is not my car anymore and my lobster, Bowzer, and GPS may rest in peace along with it. You know that you're really bored and traffic is really bad when you take videos of yourself while you're driving.

This is the bad part of Los Angeles. Well, other than the hood... And getting your car stolen.

But this is not to say that there are not great parts to the city as well. For those of us who don't live in Los Angeles, I took a video of the fountain at our local mall, The Grove, often seen on shows like MTV's "The Hills" to show people who don't live in Los Angeles, what a normal shopping day is like here in West LA.

Pretty sweet, but pretty normal after a while!

MINIMUM OF 152 UNITS ARE REQUIRED FOR THE DEGREE:         
  EARNED:152.00 UNITS     
A MINIMUM OF 128 UNDERGRADUATE UNITS IS                   
        REQUIRED FOR THE DEGREE:                                  
  EARNED:128.00 UNITS 
A MINIMUM OF 24 GRADUATE UNITS IS REQUIRED                
        FOR THE DEGREE:                                           
  EARNED: 24.00 UNITS

And suddenly, I'm officially done.

Five years later, no more red on my STARS Report.

Wow.

So last night, I had the pleasure of going to an American Idol taping for the results show for the top three contestants (Blake Lewis, Jordin Sparks, and Melinda Doolittle). By now, most of us know that Blake and Jordin made it to the finale, which I was happy about, but I just wanted to blog a bit about my experience at AI.

First, like all television studios, the Idol studio was nowhere near as big as I expected it to be! The Idol stage with the band and everything looks so huge on TV, but it's really about half the size that all of us envision it to be. It really didn't take anything away from how incredible it was to be there and how bright the stage and lights all looked! It literally took my breath away to be in the studio because I've been such a big Idol fan since the days of Kelly Clarkson in Season One. After taking our seats for the live broadcast, I got to take in the whole American Idol experience.

Yes, the show was great overall, but here's some things that really stuck and were memorable to me.

• Seeing Elliott Yamin was a great surprise, seeing as I'm listening to his CD right now.
• Maroon 5 was pretty good as well and they had a pretty huge set up for their performance!
• One of the coolest things was just seeing Simon Cowell interact with the contestants before and after the show. He really seems to care about the contestants and he was all smiles, much different than the casual viewer would expect him to be.
• Speaking of the judges, Randy, Paula and Simon all seem to get along so well! It seemed like they were having a really good time during the commercial breaks saying hi to friends and family and talking with each other as well while they were watching the video montages!
• Luckily, I was sitting next to some Blake fans who had flown in from Oklahoma that morning, so I was in good company.
• Haley Scarnato is really, really good looking in real life! I proclaimed my love for her a few times before the taping started... I'll take her not hearing me, nor looking at me, as a connection between us.
• There's more suspense when you're watching it on TV compared to when you're watching it in the studio. There's a lot of down time during commercial breaks where a "hype man" type guy runs around and makes tons of comments, which makes it tough to really get caught up in the emotion...but that doesn't take away anything from being there.

Feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to go to an AI taping. It was truly a night I'll never forget!

I'm going to the American Idol taping tonight!

Excited.

XM suspends Opie and Anthony
FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

May 15, 2007, 3:03 PM EDT

Satellite radio giant XM announced Tuesday that it has suspended Long Island shock jocks Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia and ceased broadcast of their show for 30 days, effective immediately.

The duo had issued an apology last week after airing a segment in which a guest expressed desire to have sex with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as well as First Lady Laura Bush and Queen Elizabeth.

According to XM "comments made by Opie and Anthony on yesterday's broadcast put into question whether they appreciate the seriousness of the matter." The decision to suspend the duo was "to make clear that our on-air talent must take seriously the responsibility that creative freedom requires of them."

The original remarks were made on their show last Wednesday by a guest the duo call Homeless Charlie. As the name of each woman came up, the guest said he would like to have sex with her -- using language not fit for print.

Opie and Anthony laughed as they imagined Rice's "horror" while describing a violent sexual encounter in which Rice is punched in the face.

Washington-based XM condemned the remarks at the time.

"We deplore the comments made on Wednesday's 'Opie & Anthony Show,"' XM spokesman Nathaniel Brown told The Associated Press last week.

Opie and Anthony apologized to listeners on Friday's show.

"We apologize to the public officials for comments that we made on our XM show on May 9th. We take very seriously the responsibility that comes with our creative freedom and regret any offense that this segment has caused," they said.

Because the show airs on satellite radio, there are no federal restrictions on its content. According to XM's Web site, the radio service has parental controls that allow users to block access to channels that frequently contain explicit language. Those channels are designated with an "XL" notation.

The same radio duo was dumped by CBS Radio in August 2002 for running a contest in which they said two listeners had sex in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral. They were hired by XM in 2004.

The remarks could become an issue as XM seeks approval from the Federal Communications Commission to merge with New York-based Sirius Satellite Radio, said Tom Taylor, editor of the trade magazine Inside Radio.

"XM and Sirius don't want any regulation," he said in Friday's New York Daily News. "But it's come up in four congressional hearings -- and at this point, the merger is such a close call, any issue could become important."

Something about reading mainstream media try and describe what I'm sure was a "jelly donut" in a way that is fit for publication makes me laugh a little bit.

In case you're unfamiliar, here's the urban dictionary definition...

jelly doughnut

"the act of ejaculating onto the face of a woman after oral sex and then proceeding to punch her nose for the desired result of cum and blood on her face, and she finds it erotic. (note: the term 'jelly doughnut' is derived from the combination of cum and blood resembling a freshly bitten jelly doughnut.)"
Example: Things really started to heat up when she told me to give her a jelly doughnut.

Ok. so I'm on a bit of an uploading spree and decided to upload a video of my two favorite dogs, Gunny (bulldog) and Pearl (pug), taking a midday nap in San Diego, California.

Best. Dogs. Ever.

Today, I joined the user content created video world and uploaded a few videos that I shot with my Treo 650 to YouTube.

This is USC's own Reggie Bush running his 40 yard dash at USC's Pro Day last year.



Yes, this Reggie Bush.



This second video is of USC's LenDale White working out for NFL scouts on the bench press. LenDale was injured that day and was limited in the different drills he could perform for scouts.



But you put them together, and you get this!



Oh nostalgia...

ABC.com to go HD

This summer, ABC is going to start streaming its most popular shows - Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and Ugly Betty - in high definition online. I remember when I first started watching TV shows online. The first series that I watched in its entirety was Commander in Chief - the show where Geena Davis is the President of the United States. Filled with advertisements, yet totally worth watching (I still remember the advertisements for Apocalypto that were so insanely loud that they ruined the drama of whatever show I was watching, this signaled a new beginning to me of how people were going to watch TV in the future.

Now we have something like Joost, still in beta, but making waves throughout the industry. I probably watched about 8 episodes of MTV's Laguna Beach via Joost on a wireless connection that couldn't have been pulling more than 150 KB/s (thanks to you bastards who jump on our wireless connection and put in weird addresses on MapQuest...don't think we don't see those), in a higher resolution and better quality than I would have gotten through a non-HD feed via my overpriced, monopoly cable company provider Time Warner!

Television is on its way to becoming this on demand-only world and networks are realizing that more and more viewers are like me and have their computer monitor and television in the same unit, allowing them to broadcast in HD and have it be totally worthwhile to the consumer.

Kristin Cavalleri presented in Joost near-HD? Best. Bandwidth. Ever.

Blogging for Publicity

CBS recently invited some prominent bloggers to the set of "The New Adventures of Old Christine" to generate some buzz for its TV show.

One day, I'd love to get to that point, but I have to get more focused!

On a side note, I'll be going to the American Idol Finale next week and will hopefully have some great pics from the afterparty!

So I'm trying out a new service called "The Newsroom," which allows me to legally embed clips from CBS news and other websites onto my site for people to stream and view. Hopefully, it's pretty cool and I'm giving it a trial run on the site this week with some different stories that I think sound interesting.

We'll take the service for its maiden voyage with the recently controversial Katie Couric's Notebook on 2008 Presidential candidate Barack Obama. What I find interesting about the whole Couric-gate is that a member of the CBS News staff basically plagiarized another writer's piece for Katie Couric's notebook segment on the CBS Evening News, something that will get you expelled from college, and apparently, fired from your job. Even though I clearly have no concept of how busy Couric's life is, it was a little disappointing to me that this happened and that Couric allegedly had no knowledge of it going on. I have always wanted to trust newscasters and believe that they were involved with the writing of the news, but when you don't even create original thoughts for your own "notebook," it makes me feel as if our biggest mainstream television anchors today are merely personalities, rather than journalists who create their own stories and provide their own opinions.

As CBS struggles in the evening news rankings (ranking third behind ABC's Charles Gibson and NBC's Brian Williams) and hopes to gain and hold onto viewers with a more news focused broadcast, this scandal did nothing to help CBS and justify its signing of the top draft pick signing in the history of the evening news. CBS's drop in ratings, which are even lower than when the quintessential grandpa (but very charming) Bob Schieffer was the interim anchor, must be tough for the network to swallow, but I cannot even imagine anyone at CBS News that would be willing to admit defeat, nor admit a mistake after the fanfare that accompanied Couric when joined CBS. I was and am a huge Katie Couric fan, but until they can figure out an identity for her and the program, the network evening news industry, which I hear has a median viewer age of 60, will continue to scrutinize her signing. Right now, Couric's stint with CBS can be comparable to Randy Moss' run in Oakland. A lot of hype, but not a lot of results. Let's hope that both Couric and Moss can turn it on in this second leg of their careers.

Joost is sweet.

Created by the guys who made Skype, Joost is a program and online community that allows you to use your computer and an internet connection in what is truly a near marriage of TV and Internet. You watch programs on demand that look just as good as they would on your TV over broadcast airwaves (except for if your monitor is hooked into your computer via an old school VGA cable, like mine).

If you have some time on your hands, you should definitely check it out. It's invite only, but you should be able to find one on eBay for $.99 no problem. I cannot say that I am not watching episodes of Laguna Beach via Joost and falling more and more in love with Lauren Conrad with every passing "like" filled (i.e. "omg, like that was like so not like cool, y'know? Like he should like totally know better") episode. A full season of something I wanted to see anyways and just for $.99!

Eventually, TV will transform into some form of something similar to Joost. I feel like me using it now will slow down the inevitable of me getting old and having no idea what people think is cool.

Welcome to life after graduation.

No homework. No long term projects. No more waking up with text books and journal articles on my face and highlighter all over my bed.

I woke up today and cruised Facebook for a bit and started to come to grips with the reality that I am no longer a student. Finally, a year late, I'm officially done with school and a part of the "real world." While I have been working full-time for the past two years or so, I've been a student for the entire time as well. And now finally, I'm home on a weekend and just don't have anything school-related that is pressing to do. Undergrad was such a whirlwind of just being busy and grad school wasn't that much easier because I was working a lot more, but now I'm just a regular guy who works and comes home everyday.

I can't say that I have a ton of reading to do, nor papers to write. I don't have to rush back to campus for group meetings. And yes, my car is stolen, but suddenly it doesn't matter that my USC parking pass got stolen as well. And even though this is what I've wanted since the day the 2006-2007 school year started, there are definitely things that I'll miss about my disgruntled existence in grad school. It was so much fun to make class fun and to meet fun people to joke around with during class. I can't say that I didn't love being incredibly nonchalant in all of my classes, but yet still finding "academic success" through my grades. Inevitably, as the past year and even past few months have shown, you lose people along the way. You lose people in undergrad and there's no doubt that I'll be losing people from grad as well. Sometimes it's people you expect, sometimes it's the people you least expect.

I shed no tears, had no overwhelming sense of pride or joy as I walked across the stage two times to claim both my faux degrees (real degrees come in 4-6 weeks). It was just another motion to go through in life for me, which is perhaps sad and a little too mature for a day when people are supposed to be jumping for joy or out getting wasted before and after the ceremony. My joy came from just seeing people come out to celebrate with me after my graduation. From family, to my San Diego family, to friends who came in from other cities, states, and people who took time off work that normally really shouldn't, that was what mattered to me.

A part of me is really sad that I didn't graduate last year with my Freshman class. I missed not having that feeling of togetherness and celebration with tons of people that I knew on Friday, as the number of people that I knew from grad school was a fraction of the people I knew graduating in 2006 (not that the relationships I formed during graduate school aren't valuable, because they are, but there's something about the bond of having classes with people for four years that changes things). It would have meant more, despite the fact that I would have just had to do it again the year after. I wish I had walked with my class, but clearly that's an impossibility at this point.

To everyone who came out, thank you so much. I appreciate your presents and all the unexpected gifts! Many of you will technically be a part owner of my next car, as that's where all my money is going to lately.

So overall, graduated, but not changed.

This weekend was great. Busy, but great. Today, I'm cleansing my room of academia and doing some reading for fun, something I've been looking forward to doing since forever. Saw Blades of Glory last night, which definitely had its moments (I got distracted by Jenna Fischer for too much of the movie).

Distracting in a good way.

What am I going to do with all this newfound freedom? Hopefully I'll at least be able to start with a clean room.

Results of American Idol Insider Blog Limerick Top 10

Check out #2 and #5! I didn't win, but I got a shout out.

Heading out to Orange County to have dinner with my favorite little sister in the world today! It's going to take me about 2 hours to get there in traffic, but I'm sure it will be totally worth it.

American Idol Insider Blog - Limerick Edition

One of my posts on the blog started a flurry of posts over at the official American Idol Insider Blog courtesy of official Idol blogger MarnieSl. Check it out! Some of them are pretty funny!

For some context as to how big Idol has become, despite people saying that its popularity is dwindling check out this article on Idol's website hits compared to other television-based Internet sites. Could it actually be the most important show in television history?

Might be a stretch, but some think so.

With the potential of a new car comes the potential need for a new job.

I may have finished school today and have now completed my Bachelor's and Master's degrees, but that doesn't mean that I won't end up back to my roots - food service.

Tonight, I applied for weekend positions at AMC as a Box Office Cashier and Apple as a retail store cashier. With my student loans and other life expenses, unfortunately, there is just no way I would be able to survive on what I'm making at my current job while making payments on a new car. So for now, Master's Degree and all, I'm probably heading back to retail, cashiering, or even food to try and make some extra cash on Friday nights and Saturday mornings apart from my 50 hour week at work.

Other places I'm thinking of applying? Nordstrom, In-n-Out, McDonald's, Pacific Sunwear, and yes, even Tito's Tacos. I would love to work on my Spanish working there! I think they want people who work more hours, but I'd love to give it a shot!

Such is life, right? More like, such is life when your car gets stolen. If I end up at the McDonald's Drive-Thru, don't give me a hard time.

Diet Coke and Mentos Video on YouTube


I hadn't seen this until today, but now I know what I'm doing this weekend.

Yesterday afternoon, I took a Scion xA out for a test drive around the mean streets of Culver City. I told the salesperson (Rommel) that I was not looking to buy that day because before I can make any moves, I have to make sure I get a check from insurance! He was totally cool with it and really lived up to the upfront pricing, no haggling service that Scion advertises. We drove around and talked about his job, differences he's had working at Toyota versus Scion, and things of that nature. Luckily, because of my experience working with CarsDirect, I can talk the talk pretty well when it comes to speaking with people from the autos industry.

Completely fell in love with the car! If I get a decent enough check from insurance, I'll definitely be looking to pick one up. $14,600 brand new with a Pioneer sound system and iPod connection! What's funny is that a brand new 2006 is actually cheaper than a used 2004 that I saw on the lot (likely had more features that I don't really need). The car was really comfortable to drive, loved the seats and its semi-sluggish acceleration. Big fan of the size and just overall feel of the car (and it has 4 doors! Cool!

I found this on Google Image Search. Heading was "Ugliest vehicle CURRENTLY available?"

And soon, it could be mine! At this point, I'm just hoping my car doesn't return so I can pick up one of these little aliens.

Going to test drive a MINI later today just for fun as well. I know I'm going to love it. I just know I won't be able to afford it.

On another note, I'll be taking my last test of my academic "career" tomorrow!

I am realizing that there is a small chance that my car might be recovered and not declared a total loss. This thought frightens me.

If your car was stolen, only to be found later missing about 50% of its parts, would you want to keep it?

Right now, I'm thinking about a Scion Xa. Seems like less people would steal that.

Would love a Honda Fit, but don't think I could afford it. Arlene tells me the VW Rabbit is for girls and that's definitely not me...despite what the variety of skin care products in my bathroom would say.

I love the Hondas (it's in my blood, as an Asian), but I don't know if I could handle another one getting stolen.

I'm realizing that I'm about to experience my first week without being in school or having pending school in about 19 years and I will be driving a rental waiting for my car to be reported as a total loss.

It's really depressing.

Two months ago, I started saving for a "new car down payment" in my ING Direct savings account. I have $175.69 so far. Who knew I would have to use it so soon?

On a positive note, I just set up my bench press in my room last night (for which I was saving for almost a year). It's pretty much the only thing keeping me sane today. It was really hard to set up with a socket wrench, but I'm happy I did it. The walls not being broken and the doors not being slammed to the point where I cause visible damage are likely also grateful.

So I just walked down to my local Enterprise Rent-a-Car (choosing not to have them pick me up like they say in the commercial because I thought it would be more expensive for some reason) and picked up a sweet 2006 Kia Spectra to drive while my car is being violated and in "stolen" purgatory.

Ladies, ladies, please try and keep your hands off me in my super effeminate Baby Blue 2006 Spectra! Please try and contain yourselves, I know it's hard!

Why did I choose the Baby Blue Spectra out of the wide variety of cars at the rental car location? The Chevy Cobalt didn't have power locks or windows (first choice). The Hyundai Elantra didn't have a CD player (second choice). The Ford Focus didn't have keys (third choice, keys were lost, which I could foresee being a problem for the location down the road). Leading me to the beautiful, body damaged and significantly scraped up, Kia Spectra. It has a CD player. It has a weird smell. And it's all mine for at least 15 days. I couldn't see myself forking out $40/month extra even with insurance just to drive a Dodge Avenger (not hating if you drive that car).

I used to make ridiculous turns in my Civic because I knew the dimensions so well. For the next 15-30 days, I will be driving like an old lady. What's worse is that I'm Asian. This is going to be a mess... maybe I should have got that extra insurance...

Viva La (and yes, it's feminine) Spectra!

Since I don't have a car anymore and am stranded, I figure this is as good a time as any to post something happy - my website hits since I've launched! :)

Dec 2006: 109 (most of them were me making sure the site worked)
Jan 2007: 360
Feb 2007: 283
Mar 2007: 484
Apr 2007: 1,065

So other than February, where I didn't post nearly as much as I should have, DaveChung.com is alive and well! Hopefully everyone can come along for the ride in May and beyond! No doubt this month will start out with my graduation, then we can all experience the joys of me trying to get a car after my car is finally declared a loss.

As always, thanks to everyone who checks in! It means a lot to me!

Goodbye car! You had a wonderful life, but now you are stolen.

At some point last night/this morning, my car was stolen. I'm pretty bummed about it. Not having a car in California is definitely a huge downer. I'm sure my car was taken for a joyride out and about town for a bit before it has now likely been chopped up into thousands of pieces and spread out around the globe. I hope that whoever stole my car enjoyed it as much as I did. If they didn't turn off the CD player, they were jamming out to my new Ne-Yo CD. Chances are they're using that same CD right now to seduce women while the rest of my car is chopped up so some Asian can plop my 1.8L motor with about 40k on the ticker into his 1981 Civic hatchback or CRX so that he can be 2Fast2Furious.

I used to hate Honda Civics, but I learned to love mine! It always started (except for when the battery cable came off every now and then). He always made it back and forth wherever I needed to be and I took care of him to thank him for that. I always had spare light bulbs, windshield wipers, and even had wheel locks on the car so that his shoes wouldn't be taken! The stock CD player gave me many a great day jamming out in the car and I always kept the interior clean (sometimes messy, but clean). And while he did emit a fart smell through the vents after I hit the wiper fluid button, that was pretty much the only downside!

Many a trip to visit my grandma and trips to San Diego were done with that car and it is sad that I will likely never see him again. I would leave him for months on end when I went on trips for the summer happily garaged in Fullerton. Everytime I came back, he was still happy to see me and greeted me with a joyous starting on his 1.8L underperforming engine. If I do see him ever again, I'm sure that it will likely have a swear word spray painted on him, along with urine and poop stains all over the seats, in which case, I'd rather not see it again.

It's funny how just when things seem to be going well (for me: new job, double graduating, finally not poor), things seem to blow up in peoples' faces. I wonder if it's really "the story of my life," or if this is just how it appears every time something unexpectedly bad happens because all of us say it! Now I'm going to be strapped with car payments for the next few years all because someone decided that they wanted to steal my car. Sweet!

Apart from the car itself, which totally blows, I lost a lot of other good stuff!
- GPS (Only used it 4 times!)
- Sharper Image Air Purifier
- Tons of new, packaged car parts that were excited to be used
- Stuffed lobster
- Bowzer beanbag
- About 100 burned CDs
- Bluetooth headset
- Two pairs of glasses + sunglasses

And I'm sure a whole lot more. I don't even want to think about what other good stuff was in there.

Goodbye car, you'll be missed and your clean exterior and interior will likely be replaced by an absolute beater.

RIP 2000 Honda Civic EX (2004 - 2007 with me). May your chopped up body parts cause every other car that uses them to experience spontaneous combustion on the freeway.

Google is now the world's most valuable brand

When I was interviewing for a few different positions with Google, I couldn't have been more excited. When I flew up to Mountain View, California to endure a five hour interview with various members of their recruiting team, it was an overall great experience. I was so set on working in the sports industry when I started college, but ended up turning down a full-time position with the USC Football team. While all this Googleviewing was going on, I also had the opportunity to drop out of grad school to pursue a position with the Atlanta Braves. However, Google seemed like it was as cool, if not cooler than all of them.

Why? I don't know. Maybe it was the way peoples' eyes lit up when I said "I'm interviewing with Google." Maybe it was the fact that everyone knows what Google is, was, and is en route to becoming. People say that every great empire eventually falls, but I just think it's amazing that they've become an empire over the course of what, a decade? People say it can't last, but when you're attracting and maintaining top talent because "everyone wants to work for Google," you have a great shot, even when the world is against you and your "do no evil" ways. It's really incredible to see! And they have free Naked Juice in their coolers! (I drank four while I was there...didn't get the job, but at least I got some good free drinks)

Now, I'm here. About ten days away from graduation, after about ten serious considerations of dropping out of grad school (under the guise of a 3.8 GPA), and I'm happy to be here. Google or no Google.

My favorite song of the moment: Ne-Yo's Because of You

Ne-Yo's new CD drops today! May 1st, 2007. Even though I won't have time to listen to it until Wednesday, I'm as excited about it as I have been about any CD that's come out lately (but yet, I still manage to buy so many...)

These are the states that I've been to and eaten a meal/slept for a leisurely night in. This does not include just driving through en route to somewhere else.


create your own personalized map of the USA
or write about it on the open travel guide

The bottom and the middle could use some work.