Call Me Kung

2014: From Toronto, With Love

I had been looking to leave the country, or at least the greater Chicagoland area, for a variety of reasons. My grandmother recently asked me to move out of her house, for reasons unknown, as she won’t even be back until February. And, in retrospect, I realize that even being in Chicago itself was causing me undue stress. I think it came down to having too much control over my schedule. I was ultimately responsible for everything I did as a result of living alone. I was also responsible for taking care of my grandmother’s house, my aunt’s tenant, and other things.

The end of the year is a weird time for me. I become at once withdrawn, waiting for various events to occur, and outgoing, captured by the idea that I should do something for my birthday. It’s an anxious sort of back and forth. I generally tell myself that I’ll let my birthday slide right up until the night before, and then do something impulsive to try to get people together, with mixed results. This year, I gave myself a trip to Toronto as a birthday present. It was my friend’s post in his Facebook event page that finally got me to leave the country. “Snowboarding in Toronto a week from now? I can do that.” I invited myself and booked a flight.

The week passed by in a whirlwind of food and lobsters and talk about dicks (Thanks, Alex. Alright, it was all of us). The theme for every meal was, “Tonight, we FEAST!” and trust me, we did. I had also been primed for night life. Moving back to my parents’ home in the suburbs meant having a reliable broadband internet connection and random, eons-old stashes of booze. I became a night owl and, for the first time in my life, I had an active urge to consume alcohol. Finally, moving to Toronto meant being able to stay up later due to the timezone differences.

I noticed this the first couple of times I visited Toronto, but people seem genuinely more content. Whether it’s the fact that people my age can actually find jobs, or just a facet of Canadian lifestyle, everyone actually seems at peace with where they are, career wise. There’s less neurotic tension in Toronto than I encounter in Chicago, on average.

At first, I dismissed this as weakness. They seemed less ambitious, on the whole. Now, I see it as a strength. My sister recently made a realization that in order to take big risks, people have to be very secure in certain aspects of their lives. I feel like Torontonians must have a kind of security, whether social or financial, that we lack here in Chicago. Toronto recently overtook Chicago in population. I feel like there’s a vitality to the city that is missing from Chicago.

Oh, also, a preponderance of middle/upper class people of color. Wow, so many different kinds of people to look at in your average mall!

Putting distance between myself and Chicago also let me examine myself. While I understand that traveling in order to solve your problems is an American habit and hardly a universal psychological tendency, it worked wonders for me! I realized that I didn’t have any strong ties to Chicago, other than the fact that rent was free, and now that I’d been evicted, that tie was gone. If I was going to pay rent to stay in a major metropolitan area, it might as well be somewhere else. One thing that particularly attracts me to Toronto is my good friends who are dedicated to their respective arts. There’s nothing I want more than to be able to work side by side with friends, on our own projects or as a team…

Anyway, this post has rambled on for long enough. It’s been a promising start to 2014. Here’s to keeping up the momentum!

Run in with an Actor

I’m only writing this blog because I’m obligated to you, my readers, to spew some sort of verbal diarrhea onto the internet.

Just kidding, I just feel the urge. And my sister is peer pressuring me into writing. But I have no grand narrative to tell. Maybe I’ll stick with less grand ones.

Today I had the opportunity to rehearse with Chicago Dance Crash, a mixed discipline (hip hop / contemporary / acrobatics) dance group. I was invited to perform with them in Austin, Texas as a guest artist, a role I approached with trepidation – I’m no damn artist! I’m a tricker! I hope they don’t want me to do choreography – and accepted, posthaste. I wasn’t about to turn this down, even if it was uncomfortably difficult or compromised my work schedule. I don’t know when or if I would ever get this kind of opportunity again.

Also, the Crash dancers are a helluvalot of fun.

Anyway, I was chatting with the other guest artist, one Aaron Dalla Villa. It was pretty interesting. He’d been in the professional entertainment business for about three years, going from contract to contract with dance companies (mostly ballet or contemptorary) until he’d landed in Chicago. It wasn’t his destination of choice, which went to either LA for film work or New York for more classical jobs, but it was a place that seemed ripe with jobs relative to the other places he’d been. He told me about a few casting agencies I should apply to, among them Joan Philo for stunt work and Planet Earth for dance print opportunities. Those are definitely interesting. He also told me that Chicago is a hotbed for print work, which is also intriguing. Ah, not crucial information, but he started acting because one of the dance companies he contracted out to somehow managed to wreck his ankle.

It’s a really interesting world, entertainment is. Hard, though. I’m just glad I can gaze into the peephole for now.

Show in Austin in September, practices Tuesdays! Wish me luck.

a short update

I spent a few hours this morning (I mean “now,” if “now” means the past two hours) watching dance videos. Then I moved on to tricking. I had actually intended on learning some guitar (which I did, thanks to Michael Beverly – going to practice those bar chord shapes), but ended up getting sidetracked once I figured out what I wanted to drill on the guitar.

I’m staying at my grandmother and grandfather’s house these days (婆婆公公). After a bed bug scare at my cousins’ condo, we moved out to fumigate and just never moved back in. One of the requirements was that I not bring any of my old clothes, as my grandmother was adamant that I not bring any of the bed bugs with me. Even though they should die in the wash / dry cycle, I complied and took the chance to do something I’ve been wanting to for a while. I went to Target and bought all the clothes I would need. Ever. It turned out to be about three sets of clothing and roughly $200. My biggest single clothes purchase ever. Until I went to Trunk Club and got a single pair of jeans for the same amount. This makes me cry a lot internally. I’m going to try to make up for this by abusing their free open bar. No, I don’t even like alcohol all that much.

Which brings me to this weekend. I don’t know how the idea came to be, but a few friends and I thought it would be a great idea to pregame before heading off to Big Joe’s for a night of turtle racing. I thought it would be a nice gesture to get a bottle of vodka for our host, Cassie, who we could then leave the remainder for. Except that we drank all of it. “We’re not making it to the bar,” was a common refrain. Cassie and I lost pretty badly at Mike’s drinking game (high / low), and then hailed a cab to go to the bar via Uber. I have to say, we were a very friendly bunch of drunk people. Sebti, our first driver, was Middle Eastern (Paki? Afghani? I don’t remember) and put up with us.

At the bar, we only saw two turtle races, which were very confusing to get into due to the fact that we were drunk and had never taken part before. Apparently, you get raffle tickets to be entered into the race by buying beers. I’m not sure whether it was the beer or the entire bottle of vodka that we had downed, but it ended up being a bit too much. The ride back was significantly more fraught with hazard for our return trip driver, Miguel. Drive smoothly, friend, or else the results could find themselves along the insides of the cab.

Forgot to mention that we played that violent Korean slapping game, “ABCD,” with a bunch of white people at the bar. Basically, the concept is that you have four shapes that you can make with your hands, with corresponding labels. Whoever’s turn it is chooses one shape on “Go!” and everyone else chooses their own as well. Anyone who matches the current person’s shape gets their hands slapped. It’s much less painful when you’re drunk. Jose was concerned that my hand looked fucked up the next day, until I explained that that was just how my hand looked all the time. Thanks, Jose.

I spent most of the following day slowly making my way back home whilst making the occasional visitation upon toilets and trash cans along the way to fill them with goodies. Except that by “goodies,” I mean “vomit.” A rather pathetic tour of the city, I know.

Life is interesting. Learning to chill has been good.

But learning to busk would be better.

RapChat.co – Snap Chat for Battle Rap #SWChi

Tracing an upward curve

Shit’s so boring when it’s going according to plan.
-me

Yo! It’s been a long time. I haven’t updated because I felt like nothing that eventful has happened. Nothing has surprised me, and I haven’t disappointed myself too much lately, which I’ve found is a great reason to start writing – so that other people don’t make my mistakes. Everything is pretty much on track.

I guess a few updates are in order:

Teaching

I seem to keep acquiring people eager to learn programming, and it’s exciting and scary to be guiding them toward…toward what, exactly? For those who are motivated and interested, I want them to achieve their goals. That generally means a job in the industry, which, while I don’t think is as difficult as many make it out to be, as developers are in such high demand, I find myself wondering who actually can do it. There is probably some truth to both statements: that some people just can’t program, and that everyone can program.

It’s the play between the two that’s scary. At least, when it comes to helping people achieve their goals of entering the industry. But, I live to serve. I will continue to be a resource for as long as I can.

Aggrego

Work is still awesome. It is a great, relaxed environment, built by programmers for programmers. I am organizing a hackathon in April, so stay tuned!

Speaking of which, I think the cool thing about work is that I am relaxed enough so that my personality bleeds into the company culture. My coworker, Erick, made a powerful comment when we were visiting another company, something along the lines of the fact that, as a young company, each of its members is crucial for the formative company culture. It’s true, and it’s incredibly empowering. But it’s also effortless. It will become who we are. That said, I think it’s still important to keep an eye on what kind of company it becomes.

I think I’ve been the most active in the Chicago development community, and I’m thinking about leveraging that activity into ways that helps Aggrego/Wrapports out. We’re hiring, for instance, so if you’re a Rails dev or a User Experience person, you should email me at brian.kung AT wrapports DOT com to say hi and get the ball rolling

Life

The opening self-quote and the title of the blog post are really what I was supposed to write about – about how I am basically on track and things are proceeding as planned. I am being challenged, personally and in career, but I feel like these are challenges that I anticipated. These are learnings that I knew would happen. I’m building up a nest egg for launching into my own startup and building up my technical skills.

No surprises. Just tracing a slow upward curve.

Let it fade

Heads up – this is another rambling post, a collection of random thoughts orphaned of any context and therefore undeserving of a full on blog post. Similarly, the title. Let’s see what happens.

Let It Fade

Last year it was my left elbow. This year it’s my right foot, possibly my lisfranc ligament, a tiny piece of cartilage responsible for holding my foot together in one piece. I am seriously endangering my ability to do touchdown raizes.

Which brings me to my tricking ‘career,’ whatever that may be. I think it is time to accept that my physical capacity for tricking has passed its zenith. I may be able to condition to overcome my injuries and even learn new tricks, but the truth is that I would have been able to more easily do so prior to my injuries. I have to acknowledge that I am on the way down.

A renowned tricker named Dogen, one of the first, quit tricking for similar reasons. My friend noted that by the end, he could barely walk, but he could still double corkscrew. I, meanwhile, am still limping from my injury. I hope I can regain a normal gait and even start running again with aggressive rehabilitation, but it does remind me of him.

This does not mean that I will stop. This just means that I have to work harder to fight the fade, even while acknowledging that it is happening. If or when I give up this Sisyphean struggle may hinge on gaining what peace of mind I can from the process of building and rebuilding my broken body.

We are human. It is as it is. We fade.

The Sun Also Rises

But for the unfortunate incident involving my foot, I have felt like an eagle about to fledge. I am employed, moving into the city, and ready to rehab and dance my ass off. Moving into the city gives me 15 more hours on weekdays, hours that I can turn toward my own use – investigating a new idea, learning, chilling out, swimming, dancing, tricking, or otherwise. An income means more flexibility in some ways, and less flexibility in other ways.

I’m excited.

Oh, it’s also my birthday.

Ideas suck

But they are, in fact, still all I have. I am working on my ability to execute, but I think my graduating from a thinking of myself as a beginner programmer will depend on my ability to execute on my concepts in a test-driven manner.

Werk it, gurl

So, working at Aggrego. I’ll fess up – in prior posts, I’ve mentioned it only as a source of income. This is due to some severe mental partitioning between work and personal life that’s reflected in my github accounts – one for personal, one for work.

Work has been great.

I am surrounded by really smart coworkers, a boss who programs and doesn’t just manage, in an interesting industry, in the best city on Earth (I am a bit biased). It’s a young company, so, as a friend said, everyone counts. I feel like my contributions, beyond simply code, have a chance to become part of the company’s DNA.

Nifty.

How to Get a Job as a Web Developer in Chicago

My friend Nikhil sent this list my way:

Life: Red, Green, Refactor

Breaking in my Creative Recreations a month ago.

 I’ll build my life around it.

-Brian Kung, Code Academy Interview

I have a lot of things going on in my life at the moment – dance, tricking, software craftsmanship, entrepreneurship. My intent upon entering the Spring class of Code Academy students was to focus entirely on Code Academy. This, though admirable, was complicated by the fact that Code Academy has a dual focus: learning software development as well as entrepreneurship. The former is mostly studying, the latter is mostly networking. Both can take up all of my time.

Furthermore, it was far too tempting for me to start dancing, as Chicago has many more opportunities than the suburbs for that. Dancing with EVO was actually the first thing I did after moving into the city, and now I am dancing with Troy Darnell. Meanwhile, tricking and growing the Chicago tricking community are inseparable parts of my life.

Long story short: I’m a little frazzled by these multiple pursuits.

My life needs some Single Responsibility Principle, which I see as an expression of Curly’s Law for Success (read: Do One Thing). But, barring that, I could really use a refactoring of the existing codebase to make my life leaner, meaner, and more organized. Most importantly, I need to be able to get a grasp on what’s going on in life immediately (Clear Intention, anybody?). So I went to the drawing board…literally.

Refactoring life: Capturing current pursuits and to-dos. Having visual targets is a must.

I have a chunk of the board dedicated to the single most important thing I can do out of all of these targets. It’s useful in orienting myself toward a task that I know will have an important impact on one of the four aspects of my life.

The Long Road

I still have a Long Road ahead of me, but at least the landmarks ahead are clearer.