Lance Chang

I think I'm going to officially change my name to Lance. Why you ask? Because I think about 75% of the time I tell someone my name, say for example at Coffee Bean when they take your order, this is how the conversation goes:

Server: "Your name please?"
Me: "Clint"
Server: "Lance?"
Me: "No, CLINT"
Server: "Cliff?"
Me: "No. Clint. C... L....I... N....T"
Server: "Okay! Got it"
(Then I get my receipt and sometimes it says CLIENT)

So just to make it easier on everyone, just go ahead and call me Lance. I prefer to be thought of as Lance like Lance Armstrong, rather than Lance, like Lance Bass. Thank you.

Lalaland

Back in business here in the city of Angels... and to kick things off I decided to go on a 15-day non-stop day/night work orgy that reminded me why I deserved to take a 10-month vacation in the first place. This weekend I finally had the luxury of having 2 days off, so I took this precious time to catch up on some long-overdue sleep, enjoying the sun, some poker and checking out some new cars.

Yes everyone, I've decided that it's time to upgrade the old Terse... it's served me well and faithfully since my sophomore year in college, but I think at this point I've worked hard enough and am old enough to enjoy some small luxuries in my life (plus I think it's embarrasing to have a giant-ass dent on the side of your car.) I'm thinking about getting the Audi A3 or the Lexus IS250... My friend Johnny wants to get the IS as well, so we might end up getting matching cars. Awesome!

I'm also having to look for a new place to live, which is totally annoying and a pain in the royal ass. I really wish LA was hit by the BIG ONE back in the 90s so that all the housing would be mordernized and rebuilt and I wouldn't have to sift through all this garbage from the 60s. I also had to give in and pay for a stupid West Side Rentals account, which is also totally crappy and makes me want to start my own housing search engine that doesn't charge an arm and a leg. Fuckers.

I'm about to redesign my web site which was last touched two years ago, so look forward to some awesomeness coming from ME-VS-YOU. Looking to go big in the near future, yezzzir (as Pharrell would say.)

Backity back.

Ni hao mofos, I'm back in Los Angeles now working working working. I took 1 whole day off to let myself recover before jumping headfirst back into the whirlpool of doom that is my line of work. Don't get me wrong, I do very much enjoy my work, but after one week of not getting more than 6 hours of sleep per night, I sometimes question my sanity. Nevertheless, it is nice to be back in a clean, quiet environment with civilized people. Time for shrimp burrito!

9 Days

Ok, down to 9 days left here in Shanghai. Contrary to my previous post, I've decided not to make my trip to Vietnam as I found no one interested in joining me for an orgy of pho, and I need to clean up, pack and say tons of goodbyes to friends. I've spent the last week going to numerous going-away dinners and parties- it's difficult to see good friends leave, especially in the droves. Saying bye to all these people makes my leaving a little more bearable as I realize that without all these companions, remaining here would be much more lonely and foreign. At the same time it will still be tough to leave because there are a number of good friends that are staying here and I'm going to miss all our antics and going out.

And now for some random lists I've decided to compile.

Things I'm looking forward to about going home:
1) Shrimp burrito in Venice
2) Clean air
3) Civilized people
4) Seeing my friends
5) Getting a new car
6) Good weather
7) American TV
8) Democracy
9) Fast Internet
10) Work

Things that I'm going to miss about Shanghai:
1) Guandii, and partying in general
2) My friends
3) Convenient and cheap as hell taxis
4) DVD shopping
5) Being able to say crazy shit around people and have them not understand at all
6) Not working
7) Pineapple You Tiao Shrimp dish at Charmant/Bellagio
8) Being in one of the fastest-growing/hottest cities in the world
9) 2 hour massage, $12
10) Gay Tony cutting my hair and then hitting on me

On a side note, William was recently here for about 10 days and we took a short trip to Xi'An to see the terra-cotta warriors. A very impressive site indeed but the rest of the city of Xi'An wasn't my favorite. They did have a very cool old city wall, interesting muslim quarter and good food though. I think William had a good time overall, especially enjoying the 2 hour massages. Right now Dave is in town as well- he recently got married to Marilee (Hi Mare!) and so I'm making sure he stays out of trouble and doesn't eat any beef products.

7.17.06

That's the date I'm going home, FYI.

Wakeup call?

Ok everyone, my time here in Shanghai is coming to close... only about a month left of class and then I'll have about two weeks to make a trip to Vietnam (maybe. anyone want to come?) and then I'll be back in LA before the end of July. I just wanted to make this point because it's something I see looming on the horizon so I think I should mentally begin to prepare myself for a life void of wonderful things such as going to Guandii three times in one weekend, rollerskating drunk and being taller than the average person around me.

Recently it's come to my attention that some of my friends/peers have been analyzing their lives and wondering if perhaps its time for them to be more serious in their attitudes and directions. Unbeknownst to me, we are all going to be 'old' sooner rather than later and its time to start getting our futures and all that boring stuff arranged to ensure that at the age of 30 we're not still hanging out at night clubs with 20 year olds drinking from the spout of a bottle of Johnny Walker. While I'm reluctant to accept this impending deadline of adulthood and the responsibility it entails, I do aknowledge that they raise a good point and thus I should perhaps turn the magnifying glass on myself and take a hard look at the facts.

At the same time though, I'm against any sort of panicking due to some sort of imaginary socially determined state of adulthood and responsibility and I implore everyone not to make any drastic changes in lifestyle or rash purchases (such as Porsches, Ferraris, wives) just because they see the number 30 creeping in the shadows. We've all got to grow up some time or another, but if you do it in moderation and strategically I think you can avoid a lot of heartache and headaches and hopefully not realize one day that you grew up too fast because you thought you were older than you actually are. Trust me, I know some people that grew up too fast and I'm sure they'd love to spend a day in your shoes.

So everyone, please continue to be immature and play and break rules and take chances. You've got plenty of time to be old and safe.

Tour de China 06

Hello hello. Just back from a whirlwind week-long vacation around the big C. I along with Eric, Mike and Keith travelled to Sichuan (means 4 rivers) to eat Philly Cheesesteak and hellishly burning flaming nuclear death hot pot. Our first stop was the lovely city of ChongQing, which somewhat reminded me of Hong Kong with its hillside location. I disovered that the people of Sichuan are very laid-back and friendly compared to their Shanghai brethren. Also as Eric had reminded me more than once, the girls there have big eyes and nice pale skin, as is the fashion in many parts of Asia. ChongQing is also rather clean which is always a plus.

From there we hopped on bus to the biggest city in Sichuan, Chengdu. Chengdu reminded me quite a lot of Beijing: wide streets, dull-grey polluted sky and short squat buildings. Basically nothing remarkable within the city, except for the burrito I ate.

Sichuan is known for being home of the panda bear, so we took a little excursion outside the city limits the check out the little endangered guys. Fortunately Mike has some big connections in Chengdu (he knows the guy who controls all the electricity in the city), so we were actually allowed to take pictures with a panda and even pet it. It was kind of a magical experience, something I definitely never imagined I would be able to do. That and eat a burrito in Chengdu. Mmmmm....

Around Chengdu we also went to see a giant Buddha carved into the side of a mountain. This experience, although quite amazing in retrospect, will forever be overshadowed by the tortuous 3 hours we spent standing in line fighting with Chinese bastards trying to cut in front of us using their children, and only to gain a 1-spot advantage in line. Yes all you Chinese line-cutters out there, you are bastards. Whether you are an 80-year old grandmother or a 12 year old snotty single-child policy baby, you are a bastard coated bastard with bastard filling (to quote from Scrubs.)

We also went to a very nice mountain called Emeishan where someone in our tour group was bitten by a monkey. Normally this would be something terrible, but I think everyone in our group felt it was genuine karmic retribution to the most annoying and obnoxious person in our tour. This also inadvertently caused us to be extremely late leaving, so Eric and Mike gave our feisty little tour guide a piece of their minds... quite an interesting day.

After Chengdu we headed out to Shenzhen and to Hong Kong to enjoy some good Canto food and civilized behavior. More and more I enjoy going to HK to hear the familiar sounds of Cantonese and to eat the delicious Dan Tat. They also have a nice bar street where you can go to 7-11 and buy yourself a $9 HK Heinekin and party on the street with ex-pats.

All in all it was a great trip and I quite enjoyed myself. I will eventually post pictures of said panda and some of the spicy food which destroyed my inner stomache lining.