The past 3 days, I've been having chronic headaches.  It's not like a throbbing one, but it's maybe....every 3rd heartbeat, just a small thud around the temples.  It occasionally moves to the back of the head, but most of the time stays up front.

Since a few days ago, I've taken now 3 Advil [I never take headache medicine because I'm a man, and I tough it out!].  I've been trying to figure out what this is and I thought I had the right answer...

My conclusion was that I was somehow stressing out about school.  Here's why:  I have a test this upcoming Thursday and the following Monday.  I haven't studied too much as I've been getting myself pumped for the Illinois vs. Michigan game which I will be attending.  This then results in minimal study for the Thursday test but like absolutely none for the Monday test.  My flight leaves Thursday evening (redeye) so I can't study during that.  There's a small chance (1/140) that I'll study over the weekend while I'm playing in Michigan, so this leads me to believe that I'll be studying when I get back.  My flight arrives Sunday at 6:00 pm local time.  My test is Monday morning before noon.  Excellent.

So...I came to the conclusion that studying was the reason for my headaches.  But as I told myself this, I didn't seem to be anymore stressed out as I didn't want to prepare for my test on Thursday.  In fact, I'm writing this entry instead of preparing.  I couldn't justify that a 3 day headache was due to stressing out about school.

Next contestant..... food.  I've been eating the same stuff for the past few days and thought that could be an issue.  I've been having pork chops and maybe the meat is bad?  I know last week I made fried rice with similar pork and for the 3 days that I ate those, I had diarrhea.  It wasn't like....fully diarrhea, but I would definitely say about 70% diarrhea.  The day I stopped eating fried rice, my poops turned back to normal.  Why didn't I stop eating the fried rice earlier?  Good question.  I don't know.  But I found out the cause didn't I?

Today's analysis:  I thought more about the food that I've been eating and thought about what I've been eating less of and what I've been eating more of.  I concluded that I've been eating WAY too much soy sauce.  I've been drenching those pork chops in soy sauce to marinate.   Something I normally don't do.  It turns out that soy sauce generally has MSG and that can be a huge cause of headaches.  I'm probably MSG man right now.  Soy sauce also contains tyramine and while I have no idea what that is, Google definitely brought it up when I typed in soy sauce headaches. 

My solution:  So I thought it might be food so I decided to not make another pork chop and try something different today.  I stopped by Sushi Teriyaki on the way home.  I ended up ordering a plate of Teriyaki Beef.  You may be thinking to yourself....Jon, you are an idiot, teriyaki sauce practically is soy sauce.  And....I've come to that realization, after another headache.  See, I thought it was the pork, not the soy sauce, so I figured something else might be good for a change.  As I reflect on my dinner choice, I also remember how instead of giving me 2 different sauces (one for the tempura and one for the salad), they only gave me one.  As I poured that dark (which I thought was salad dressing) sauce on my fresh delicious crisp lettuce, I noticed that the smell wasn't quite right.  As I took bite after bite, I also told myself that this salad dressing sure tasted different.  Turns out it was the tempura dipping sauce, which is also practically soy sauce.  SOY SAUCE GO AWAY!!!  So I came home after doing pretty well on headaches for the majority of the day, only to get another one.

Soy sauce seems to be the culprit and the death of me.  I tried getting it out of my system with some ice cream and a peach.  Hopefully that helps.

Further evidence that soy sauce could be bad: (conversation with V. Jaw)

me: i think i might know why i have headacheVicki generally asks how my urine is doing so that's pretty normal.

Just kidding.  She doesn't do it that often.  DEHYDRATION!!! I get those pretty frequently!! Could I have been dehydrated because of soy sauce?  Maybe.  But it sure would explain the headaches!

Moral of this entry.  Soy sauce doesn't just turn your skin black, it also gives you headaches.

*I vow not to eat soy sauce in the next few days and see if headache goes away.  Will update with results

• A lot of this past summer has been pseudo-real to me as it felt like the previous two summers. (Background: the past 2 summers I did internships out in California, where I currently reside).  As this summer winds down, I realize that I'm not going back to Michigan.  Although this had been clear to me since I moved out here, it's finally beginning to kick in. 4 years in Southern California, here I come.
  

• The pursuit of my MSEE begins tomorrow as I have my first class at USC (holler for online DEN classes).  As people scramble back to Ann Arbor and begin buying books / moving into their dorms and apartments, I stay in California.  Hmm... this will mean waking up extremely early to watch College Gameday.  Lame.  Boo USC.  GO BLUE! College football w00t w00t.
  

• In other news, I have picked up beach volleyball and in the past 3 weeks, have probably put in....a little over 20 hours at Hermosa Beach hitting a yellow-and-white AVP ball.  [If any of you want to buy an AVP beach ball, be sure to get the official AVP ball, not the replica - there is a big difference.]  Along with volleyball, I have dropped surfing and picked up biking.  We'll see if this continues.

After four long awesome years being a Wolverine, it is time to change loyalties to the team that has consistently beat us in bowl games. Yes, that's right, USC. Just kidding. Well... not entirely kidding, because starting this Fall, I will be attending USC for my Master's in EE. However, I am kidding on the change loyalties part, for I will forever bleed Maize and Blue. (I'm hoping I'll get to go to the USC/Ohio State game this year. oooo. ahhh )

My first impression of USC is that they are very much like Comcast. Not in the sense that they monopolize Ann Arbor by being the only cable/internet provider. Not in the sense that they have terrible commercials that directly rip on other companies. Not in the sense that they come up with weird sayings like, "It's Comcastic!" But in the sense that they have terrible customer service. After being transferred to 3 different lines this morning to ask about my enrollment, I was transferred to an automated machine that told me to call another number and then hung up on me. Boo USC!

Goodbye Big House...Hello Coliseum

A few years ago, my mom met this Taiwanese guy that worked for Leader Dogs for the Blind back home in Rochester.  Apparently they train the dogs in downtown Rochester and she met him at the bank where she works.

Fast forward a couple of years. (Fast forward from now on will be noted with this symbol >>)  The dog trainer and my family have developed a friendship.  The dog trainer was here in the United States for two years training at the Leader Dogs facility and then went back to Taiwan.

>> again.  The trainer comes back to the states yearly during the summer where he brings students from Taiwan that are blind in order to set them up with dogs so that they can return back to Taiwan.

>> to this summer.  Since the time many years ago when the trainer came, I've met him sporadically throughout as he would come visit our house and we'd all go out to eat.  However, this summer was the first time that I met the students.

It was a Mother's Day lunch gathering at this Taiwanese congregation and my dad had went ahead of us to pick up the students and the trainer from the Leader Dogs facility.  Once we all met in the church building, I wondered to myself how the blind students would eat.  The trainer simply got the food for them and set it down in front of them, indicating that a pair of chopsticks was at on the left and a tea, "be careful, it's hot" was placed on the right.  The students proceeded to eat the food, to my surprise, in a very normal fashion.  Picked up the chopsticks, picked up the food with the chopsticks, and put the food into their mouths.  When they would get thirsty, they slowly felt around their right to find the cup of tea, and drank just as any normal person would.  I watched them carefully, but not to the point where it would be awkward.  [I actually wondered if they could feel people staring at them... probably]  And as I watched, the more I realize how good I have it.  I am able to see, I am able to choose what I want to eat, and better yet, I am able to choose what I don't want to eat.  And granted these students could choose what they didn't want to eat either if they didn't like the taste, but it made me realize how fortunate I am and at times how picky I am as well.  [I still don't like / will probably never like cheese.]

>> a week or two.  The students were about to head back home with their newly acquired dogs and a new sense of freedom.  For now that they had their dogs, walking places became much easier and could do so with much more confidence.

It was time for the puppy trainers (the owners that raised the soon-to-be-leader-dogs) and the students to have their first and final meeting just to say hello to each other and for the puppy trainers so say good-bye to their dogs.  For some, it was an emotional time because they could get pretty attached to the dogs.  I found myself somehow becoming an interpreter (mom was working late) between one of the students and the puppy raiser.  My broken Mandarin Chinese was put to the test while I was asking questions back and forth regarding the dog's history and explaining things back in English back to the puppy raiser.  Throughout the entire time, I could tell the student was so deeply thankful.  Whenever he got the chance, he kept saying thank you.  At one point, he brought out a gift and he told me to tell her that this is just a small token of his appreciation, that he wished he could give her more, but he doesn't have much to give.  They were these sweet looking pineapple cakes.  Throughout the entire meeting (about 1 hour long), he kept petting his new friend and I could just tell that it made him so happy.  At the end of the meeting, I apologized for my terrible translating abilities and let them say their final good-byes.

I learned through all of this that we have a lot to be thankful and that we are very blessed to have so much in our lives.  And although it wasn't directly mentioned in any of the conversations that I had, I knew God had his hand in this, He had to. [come to think of it, I remember the puppy trainer mentioning that the dog was always quiet in church.  I guess that doesn't mean much though...]   I later tried closing my eyes and pretending that I was blind for a bit and realized how freaking hard it was.  I don't think I could balance myself while walking let alone eat perfectly fine.  I wonder how Dare Devil did it...

I also learned how obedient dogs can be and how cool that is.  But strangely, I want a weiner dog (Dachshund)with a belly so large that it drags along the ground when he walks.  Just kidding.  But I think that'd be kind of cool to see.

Today is Wednesday and I have decided to start writing stories online again.  If anything, I figure this will be a good way to look back on things.  I also gave into the new cool remix theme application.

Note to Xanga: Your new interface is terrible and very confusing.  I spent way too much time making it look pretty.  And by pretty, I mean various shades of gray. 

Also, I need to start thinking of things to pack for I am heading to California soon.