So You Think You Can Dance Bracket is Finally Up! PRINT IT NOW

I've been meaning to do this for a while and I've finally put together a bracket for the current season of So You Think You Can Dance. Laugh all you want haters, but this is a serious competition. So those of you who are fans and want to participate or compete with your friends, feel free to print out the bracket below and start betting or dance battling (whichever you prefer). There's a Facebook version of this called SYTYCD Predictions Game, but who wants a fancy app game when you can have old school paper and pen.

Click image to enlarge, then print to fit-to-page or download the PDF here

Nothing But PRIDE and Lady Gaga in NYC Today

It was only days ago when Governor Cuomo passed a bill that allows same sex marriage in the state of New York, which gives even more reason to celebrate today's annual Pride Parade in West Village!!! I decided at the last minute to head down to Christopher Street where the parade ended to join in on the festivities, and as expected Lady Gaga's Born This Way was the anthem of the pack and everyone was in a joyous mood. As I read the signs "Our Next March Will Be Down The Aisle" and "It's All About LOVE", I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with happiness. I <3 New York.

Boston Bruins Parade, BEST DAY EVER [PHOTOS]

It's 5:00 am and I'm still buzzing from the energy I gained earlier today at the Bruins Parade in Boston. The parade started at the Garden and ended at Copley Square where I patiently waited since 9:30 am for Captain Zdeno Chara and MVP Tim Thomas to arrive a little past noon with the Stanley Cup! I was joined by a million other Bruins and Boston fans, all decked out in Black & Yellow. This day along with Terrier Day (parade for the 2009 BU Hockey Champs) lives on as some the best celebrations in my life. Yay, Boston is back to being a hockeytown!

Cute Girls Are Taking Over Advertising

No, I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about the T-Mobile girl in pink and the red headed Best Buy hipster chick--cute girls are taking over Advertising. No longer is it the days of Justin Long Apple commercials and Can you hear me now? Verizon man but the days of awesomely cute/hot/techie girls (queue Beyonce's Run The World (Girls)). Maybe marketers have finally discovered the hypnotizing power of cute girl looks that appeals to both males (girlfriend potential!) and females (I wanna be like her!). Also intriguing is how T-Mobile girl Carly Foulkes and Best Buy girl Wendy McColm are practically unknowns with little star power compared to past spokespeople like Luke Wilson and Catherine Zeta Jones. Carly and Wendy are the new advertising superstars, dressed in their uniforms like cartoon characters with big smiles and selling us the latest and greatest technology!! 

Who run the world? Girls!

Boston Bruins are Stanley Cup Champs (& I Can Finally Get The Hat I Wanted)!

Just when I thought I couldn't get back into hockey again, I witness my favorite NHL team the Boston Bruins win a Stanley Cup Championship in Game 7. My Boston friends always told me to not get attached to the Bruins because they will only break my heart, and they sure did year after year, losing 3-goal or 3-game leads. Painful as it was, there is no other arena than the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston that I feel at home in--the mustard yellow seats, fully loaded nachos and organ renditions of top 40 hits. Bruins are my team and the only professional team I have seen live; however, I have never seen them win in person. Nevertheless, I couldn't be happier that after 39 years the Lord Stanley's Cup is back in Beantown.

A year ago, I had the opportunity to touch and kiss the Stanley Cup while dreaming about the Bruins winning, and now a year later my dream has come true!! I'm planning to go to Boston for the parade and am pretty pumped to finally buy the Bruins hat I've been wanting for a while. I'm glad I waited because now there's a real hardcore version out with "2011" on the back and huge ass letters saying "Stanley Cup Champions" on the front, just the way I like it:

My Favorite Season is Here--SUMMAH!

A photo I took last summer at the Frying Pan - what a yuppie cluster****. Yay Summer!

NYC Summers are the best (minus the heat) because you can actually take advantage of all the public spaces the city has to offer and not to mention awesome outdoor day-drinking spots!

Here are a list useful New York City Summer Guides:
Book Report: https://s3.amazonaws.com/book_report/summer_guide_pdf/SummerGuide_2011_BookReport.pdf
TimeOut New York: http://newyork.timeout.com/things-to-do/39008/101-things-to-do-in-new-york-city-in-the-summer
NY Mag: http://nymag.com/guides/summer/
Brokelyn: http://www.brokelyn.com/our-brand-new-list-of-everything-free-this-summer/
NYC Go: http://www.nycgo.com/

I'll be checking out W+K's pop-up shop SHOP on Thursday, celebrating two birthdays at two different beer gardens in the burg on Friday, checking out Crest Hardware Art Festival near my apartment on Saturday and taking my elementary school bestie Melodee on the East River Ferry for FREE on Sunday. SUMMERS ARE AWESOME! LET'S HANG!

Keeping Up With The Huangs [PHOTOS]

I see my family for only about a month's worth of time in a full year, which is why I was super excited for my entire family (usually my dad doesn't make it on trips because of work) to visit NYC this past week. Originally we had planned to go to China to visit my dad's hometown, but due to some recent circumstances, my mom decided it would be best to visit me in New York.

I couldn't wait to take my family around Williamsburg, to the Brooklyn Flea market, row boats at Central Park and maybe catch a Broadway show (this didn't happen, so I guess I still have to check that off my NYC bucket list). My mom, dad, popo (grandma on my Mom's side) and three younger siblings Zachary (20, a Junior at BU and a hippie rock climber), Zadrian (13, does kung fu and is training for a lion dance competition in Malaysia this Summer) and Zoe (my 7 year-old sister who has way too much energy) all stayed at my apartment in Brooklyn, so the day before they arrived I bought new pillows, sheets, towels, an inflatable mattress and stocked up the fridge with snacks and milk. I wanted this vacation to be perfect.

At the instant I heard my mom's loud voice echo through my apartment and my entire family flooded the living room, I knew this vacation was going to be crazy, like the first 18 years of my life living in the Huang household; however, things turned out to be imperfectly perfect: my dad ate his first Oasis $3 falafel sandwich and loved it, my mom drank more beer than I've seen in my 24 years of existence, Zachary was able to rock climb at Brooklyn Boulders and took Zadrian with him (converting him into a slack line enthusiast) and Zoe roasted her first marshmallow and made her first smores. My popo happily cooked me Chinese dinners every night. There were moments where I was stressed, tired, hot and annoyed but I couldn't have been happier than in the last seven days I spent in New York with my family.

My dad calls me and my siblings the "4 Zs", like we're some superhero team, and his only goal for the trip was to let the "4 Zs" reunite and spend time together. Mission Accomplished. Here are some photos of my crazy week vacation in New York with the fam:

Learning To Love NYC

In a month marks my two years of living in New York City, and I can finally say that I'm comfortable calling this crazy place home at least for the next few years of my life. I can navigate the local and express trains without using a map, I have seen my share of celebrities (bumped into Chuck Bass smoking a cigarette in the LES, NBD, and ate lunch next to a real housewife of New York, you know the one that lives in Brooklyn) and I can't imagine living somewhere that didn't have a beer garden in the neighborhood. Am I a New Yorker now?

It's easy for tourists to quickly fall under NYC's enchantment and sport their "I HEART NY" shirts with pride, but it took me about two years and a lot of beers to come to terms with the chaos (overworking job, hobos on the subway, $6 boxes of cereal). New York City is a place that can destroy and save you at the very same time--and in this process I have learned to love New York.

Below are some interwebs stuff that capture what makes this city so great:

Mindrelic - Manhattan in motion from Mindrelic on Vimeo

Tiffany & Co. - Love Is Everywhere Map (especially in NYC)

Dear NYC - An interesting collection of personal notes to NYC, you can make your own as well

Ottavia Bourdain (Anthony Bourdain's wife) served me ice cream from a truck called the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck--only in NYC!