Archive for category Life and Stuff
2011
Posted by Doug Chan in Exercise, Life and Stuff, Music on February 17, 2011
So far, the new year has been great to me.
I got back to the Philippines on the new year. Great way to start the year fresh after a nice vacation. Now that I’m back, I’m finally settled into the new year after a month of stressful juggling of new things.
First off, I now have 25 students. I usually max out at 15 students, but now this is just insane! All the cracks of my schedule are filled, and I barely have any time to do any of the other things I love to do (for work and enjoyment), like recording and programming websites. I still have time actually when the weddings are slow, but surprisingly enough, even tough we added a pianist at World Bridal, my hands are still pretty full. I may finally have my first student recital too, since I have a good number of students.
In addition to having lots of students, I have also opened my other room for my friend Jean Ann Hu to teach flute. She’s fresh out of college, so I’m excited that she’s able to jump on this opportunity and help me out.
Another thing that I’m really proud of is that I’ve started running! No more of this Wii-fit business (not that I didn’t enjoy it). Wii fit was great, but it’s time I graduated to some real exercise. Actually, I’ve always wanted to run, but the only convenient place really is UOG, and that’s a 15 minute drive from my place. Now there’s a pool near my house (just about 5 minutes away) and it has a nice .5 mile sidewalk surrounding its perimeter that a lot of people run on.
Anyway, I’ve been doing the C25k (Couch-to-5k) program, which is a 9 week program to get you to run a 5k nonstop. I started it since the new year, and now I’m on week 6. I’ve been able to work up to running 20 minutes straight from only being able to run for about 60-90 seconds at a time. Talk about a milestone! I can’t wait to finish the program and try to tackle another 5k to see if I can run it in about 30 minutes.
I also have a few recording projects still open. I am still working on Freedom Fries’ recording as well as recording a new band called “Flyspeck” (sp?). They have a pretty cool song coming out that you might hear on the radio soon! 
That’s the year so far. Oh, and I’m looking to start recording YouTube videos once again if someone is interested in helping me out. I have a nice video camera and editing software. I just wonder if someone out there is wanting to get into video editing and is interested in helping me out. I want to upload a video every week onto YouTube. Let me know if you’re interested.
Oh, and I may try to blog a bit more. Or maybe not. Who knows! Ciao.
Lunch Disaster
Posted by Doug Chan in Life and Stuff on December 7, 2010
So today, I had two weddings: 11:00am Crystal and 1:00pm Crystal, both with Gigi. So since we had about an hour in between, we went downstairs to Magellan restaurant for buffet. It’s like only the best buffet evar!!! Plus we got tip from the wedding ($20 each!), so like yay.
We got a table, sat down, then proceeded to the buffet table. When we I got there, I’m like… oh look, the first dish is seafood. Let’s take a look at the next dish… more seafood. I walked around the whole buffet table… ALL SEAFOOD!! WTF?! Oh, for those of you that don’t know me, I don’t eat seafood. :/
Anyway, since I’m already there, I figure I might as well just try… So I get one of everything. They still have the bread I like, which is awesome. They had some seafood veggie soup, which my parents make all the time anyway so I had some of that too. Got a piece of shrimp, seafood pasta, a fillet of sea bass…
It turns out I really like sea bass. At least, the way they prepared it. It was very un-fishy and nice any crispy with a spicy sauce. The soup was even better than my parents make it too (probably all the MSG), so I found a few things that I could really like.
Anyway, turning lemons into lemonade, I managed to get full, so it turned out to be alright after all ^^ Oh, and of course, it was so much fun hanging out with Gigi as usual.
Seaside Concert
Posted by Doug Chan in Life and Stuff, Music on December 6, 2010
The symphony seaside concert was pretty alright. It’s the same old same old. It started with a Bell Choir, then UOG Singers, then GTB Brass Group, then UOG Jazz Band, then the Symphony. All groups did just fine, although I have to admit that the acoustics are pretty terrible. The sound amplification does an okay job, but without any monitoring, it’s almost impossible to hear what exactly is going on on stage.
I actually really hate the Ypao beach shell. It’s facing the worst way possible, because the sun is shining right into it for all of the afternoon, so it’s pretty damn hot for the whole entire concert.
Either way, each group performed just fine and I’m glad this musical weekend is over! Except I have another gig coming up on Friday for the Guam Woman’s Club and another concert for a church on Sunday, so meh. I was hoping to get some relaxation in before my PI trip, but I guess I might as well make as much money and stay as busy as I can, and my trip will be that much better.
Music Week
Posted by Doug Chan in Life and Stuff, Music on December 5, 2010
It’s been a very musical week. Of course, on top of my weddings and lessons, I took part with UOG Jazz Band concerts and I’ll also be playing tomorrow with the Seaside Concert at Ypao beach from 3pm-6pm. I’m still having some body aches, but overall, it’s really fun and I’m glad to be a part of it all. I can’t wait til it’s all over and I get a break! That’s what PI is for I guess
Also, one of my students is going to be playing for his church, and he hasn’t been the bright student of mine, but his mom has insisted on him taking lessons almost every day and he’s gotten way way way way better than any of my other students have been. This makes me want to start a daily class for people of certain levels, because it turns out, I guess meeting with my students once a week isn’t enough.
Anyway, he will be playing 4 short pieces, and he had such a hard time with it before (not to mention a bad attitude about hating all the songs I gave him), but now he loves them all and is doing really well. Hopefully this will inspire me to try to alter my teaching methods for the better and trying to recommend my other students to meet more often throughout the week.
Going to PI!
Posted by Doug Chan in Life and Stuff on December 4, 2010
So I just bought my tickets to go to the Phillipines with Rhea. Very excited 
Pinched Nerve
Posted by Doug Chan in Exercise, Life and Stuff on November 16, 2010
So it turns out I have a pinched nerve. At least it’s not carpal tunnel, I guess. So I read that Yoga *may* help relieve a pinched nerve, so I started Wii Fit’ing again along with doing my normal arm stretching exercises. I’ve been keeping up with that for the past couple days, and things seem to be getting better, so I’m really gonna cross my fingers on this one.
I got referred to see a neurologist. It’s gonna cost me $300 to get a consultation! Not to mention I might have to do a testing (x rays and such). I was thinking about seeing a Chiropractor in the meantime because I’m starting to feel some pains spread toward my neck.. eh :/
Week Recap
Posted by Doug Chan in Life and Stuff on November 7, 2010
Hell week is finally over! Last week I had to rehearse for Cinderella Mon/Tue/Wed night. Thurs/Fri/Sat night were shows. On top of that, I had morning matinee shows on Thurs/Fri, and I had a pretty busy wedding & lesson schedule. So glad that’s finally over.
I went to Von’s Chicken last night for the first time. People were saying it’s better than Pochon. I was quite the skeptic, but let me tell you, it’s pretty damn close. The only problem I had was that the chicken wasn’t spicy, but it was definitely more tasty and more juicy. Pochon is pretty dry. Either way, great experience.
So Alan’s leaving tomorrow to go back to the states. He’ll be back before Christmas, though, and he will be moving here for a couple years I think that will be pretty fun. He’s having a baby with Marissa pretty soon, so it will be pretty fun to see how things change around here.
Alan bought me a couple early Christmas presents: Just Dance 2 and Rock Band 3 with the keyboard It’s pretty fun, but almost impossible to keep track of all the different colors. I’d do way better with actual written notation, but maybe I’ll take some time to mess around with it to see if I can sight read.
I finally see the Doctor tomorrow for my arm problem. I hope it’s nothing too serious. I waited really long to get this checked, so I hope it didn’t escalate. Will post an update about that ^^
One of those days…
Posted by Doug Chan in Life and Stuff on November 3, 2010
So it’s one of those days you don’t really feel like doing anything. I finally have a light wedding schedule this month after a few months of being crazy. My jury duty term is finally over. There are so many things I could be doing right now:
- Laddering Starcraft II
- Working on my “secret web project”
- Working out (something I haven’t done in a long long time!)
- Recording YouTube vid.
But there are a few things bogging me down. I woke up today at noon. I been trying to get up since like 9am or 10am but kept snoozing because I had a massive headache. The other thing is, I have this stupid shooting tingling sensation going down my right arm. I haven’t had time to get it checked by a doctor because of my really busy wedding schedule last month, but I finally get to see the doctor next week and I hope they can help me!!
I have so many things to do. I finally have a day off from weddings today so I can do other things, but I just wanna be lazy today. Haha well, who knows what I’ll end up doing… meh.
New Chapter in Life
Posted by Doug Chan in Life and Stuff on February 27, 2010
Not mine. Someone else’s.
My best friend on Guam, Victor, has left for boot camp. That actually affects my life directly. It hasn’t been so bad though, because after he had his baby about a year ago, I haven’t seem too much of him anyway. Every time someone leaves the island though, like last time it was Rommel, it makes me wonder what I’m still doing here.
Guam really isn’t a bad place to live. I have great connections here and am making a good amount being self employed. I don’t know though… What brings people back to Guam are their friends and family, and all I have left here pretty much is Rhea and Rich. Jhonjhon is actually my last best friend on the island, but between WoW and work, I barely see him at all (once, twice a year maybe?).
Anyway, Victor leaving feels like a new chapter in my life too, but he’s been gone, and life goes on for me. Good luck Vic! I wish you all the best, because that’s what you deserve. Just wish you didn’t have to go so far to get it :/