She’s my #1 protector.

I knew this at an early age. On my first day of kindergarten, walking into this weird world where my older sister went to this thing called school, I remember being overwhelmed. Where did my instincts lead me to go? Hiding behind my mom, of course.

Of course, this was back in the day when the Ho Chen was super duper shy. Boy, has that changed…

But anyway, there was a reason I hid behind my mom. She has always been there since Day 1. I remember, when I was really young, just how amazing she was in looking out for me. I’m talking about when I was like four years old or so. Laundry would be so neatly folded. Meals cooked for when my Dad got back home. If I was sick, coming in during the middle of the night to make sure I had a fresh cool towel on my forehead. Teaching me both English and Chinese (I still remember the magnets used to teach me the traditional Mandarin “alphabet”). All the tapes of “Electric Company” and “Sesame Street” prepared to have me watch so that I could get a head start on learning.

As my childhood progressed, I still remember the pride and joy my Mom had when she bought fabric and made two pairs of pants out of them. Seriously, she spent WEEKS making those pants. She really really wanted to make them the coolest pants any kid had in my elementary school. The same effort went into making curtains for my family’s current home in Sugar Land, Texas. If you walk through our house, some of the really nice curtains were made by my Mom. She also made some curtains specifically tailored for our table tennis area so that when my sister and I trained, the balls wouldn’t fly over the balcony and to the first floor. So much effort. So much heart.

Recently, on a trip home for a wedding videographer gig, she only had the chance to see me during a lunch. She knows I love a specific type of OJ, and she brought it with her. TOTALLY unnecessary since I could’ve just gone to a store with my sister and got it for myself, but it showed how above and beyond my Mom is.

She’s amazing.

And I totally feel like, to this day, she is STILL my #1 protector.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!!!!! And the same for all the other mothers out there! Y’all deserve so much credit for seeing your children through to their various stages in life!!!

That's me and my Mom enjoying some Taiwanese cuisine!!!

It’s been well documented that Dane Sanzenbacher has made a living out of proving people wrong.

When you look at the former Central Catholic star, “NFL stud” doesn’t exactly pop in your head, at least not at first glance.

Of course, after you watch him on the field, it’s probably a different story. He was THE playmaker during Central’s run to the state title. He was this past year’s Buckeyes team MVP.

To be team MVP, you have to pretty much be able to perform both on and off the field. Dane was always precise with his routes and has great hands. Off the field, he is impeccable.

Thing is, like I said earlier, he’s not blessed with Randy Moss-like physical talents. That said, most people expected him to at least be drafted by somebody. The thought process was that once he made it to the NFL, his work ethic, leadership, and precision would have coaches falling in love with him and he could probably at least make a living being a possession-type receiver or maybe a depth guy.

Then the NFL lockout came along and made things tricky.

You see, in normal years, when a player goes undrafted, they’re pretty much immediately contacted by teams who’re interested in them and then they can take their pick of where they want to go. Arian Foster mastered this by choosing the Texans because he thought he’d have his best opportunity there. As we saw this past season, he was right.

Locally, guys like Brett Kern, Barry Church, and Stephen Williams from the University of Toledo made their decisions and made their respective teams.

If they could do it, you’d think that Dane could do it too, right?

Not so fast.

If there wasn’t a lockout, I’d have the utmost faith that Dane would pour all his time and energy into studying the playbook. Right now, the only thing he knows is that teams are interested. But who’ll sign him? And when? When will he actually receive his playbook?

This alone is a huge reason why the lockout is affecting Dane and similar undrafted free agents in such a big way. They simply cannot prepare for the next step because they have no clue where they’ll land. And the clock’s ticking.

Meanwhile, for the rookies who did get picked, they at least know where they’re going. Veterans can probably find a way to get those drafted rookies a playbook and to help guide them through it.

For Dane, when the time comes, he’ll not only have to battle the usual obstacles that come with being undrafted, now he’ll be further behind when it comes to knowledge and schemes compared to the veterans and drafted rookies trying to fend him off and keep their roster spots.

This just makes it tougher on Dane. I’m pulling for him, but he’s got his work cut out for him!

I was a senior in college when the 9/11 attacks occurred.

That doesn’t sound like anything special… except that I went to school at Syracuse University, which is located in Central New York. Naturally, there were plenty of students from New York City who went to school with me. So when that day happened, I just remember how everybody was trying feverishly to get the 411 of what was going on back where they were from.

Let’s face it – the World Trade Center’s a national symbol. But if it’s located in your hometown, it means that much more.

I also had a college buddy whose family member was on one of the hijacked planes. For the next two weeks, you couldn’t find a smile on the face of this usual fun-loving individual.

Fast forward to last night – my Tweetdeck was going crazy about how Barack Obama was about to make an announcement. That was followed by tweets from reputable accounts that Osama bin Laden was killed. None of this was online. It was all on Twitter. It was a powerful night that proved social media has surpassed even the Internet in the Information Age.

As far as Osama goes, last night was truly monumental. Obama’s speech will probably be forever in the minds of everybody who watched it. America’s not safe from terrorism just yet, and may never be.

But as President Obama said last night in his address to the nation…

“Justice has been done.”

I’m sure that all those affected by 9/11 – from those directly affected ten years ago, to all the soldiers involved in the counter-terrorism effort, to ALL the families of everybody involved – feel the same.

You go, America!

Those who know me know that I’ve been a fan of the gym ever since my college days.

I’ve always motivated myself to see what my body can do without any protein shakes (I know they’re not bad for you) and/or supplements. Just a personal thing. I want to see what I can do to the max MYSELF.

And, over the last few years, I’ve been pretty proud of what I’ve accomplished. I’m no Earl Boykins (homeboy benches 325, last I checked), but I got to a point where I was benching more than 1 1/2 times my body weight.

That’s what makes these last few months especially frustrating.

One night, I noticed that there was a pain in my left side as I reached back for my seat belt. Upon isolating where the pain was coming from, I noticed it was a muscle above my left bicep, below the shoulder, but towards the pec area. When I hit the gym, I felt pain as I was just warming up on the bench, so I immediately stopped.

I called the doctor. His next available slot for me was 3 months away. Forgive me for being impatient. I decided to wait for my sister’s acupuncture treatments instead.

Three weeks after returning from these treatments, my left arm felt almost normal. I could close doors again without pain. So I felt that maybe, MAYBE I could head to the gym again. I haven’t been there in four months!

So today was the test. I went there, was pretty nervous about the bench warm-up, did some stretching, and gave it a shot.

Pain.

That was followed by frustration.

I guess I have to wait maybe another month before I try to bench again. In the meantime, I guess I can focus on my other muscles, but it’s just kind of disappointing especially when I know I’ll have to start out way below what I used to be able to do anyway. The bench really gets my juices flowing as far as working out the rest of the body. Call it a mental thing.

Sigh…

Sorry to vent, y’all, but that’s what’s up right now.

Right now, I only have one grandparent still alive in this world, my grandma on my mother’s side.

I remember she was so nice when I was a little kid visiting in Taiwan. I remember being so happy when I heard she was moving to Canada to come live with us. I felt the same way when she decided to move from Canada to Houston and, again, live with us.

My grandma’s world seemed to revolve around her children and her grandchildren. I remember her knitting a sweater for me to wear. Thinking back, I probably didn’t appreciate it as much back then, but right now, realizing the effort and heart that it took to finish the thing, I totally appreciate it.

And it’s sad I think of this now.

Because roughly about a month ago, my grandma suffered a stroke. The good thing is that she’s out of the hospital. The bad news is that she has a tube plugged in her to feed her food and her memory is severely affected. My mom is back in Taiwan helping her out and my grandma barely remembers her own daughter. When we connect by webcam these days to talk to my grandma, she’s a semblance of her old self.

It makes me think back to how it was just about a month ago, when every single little thing that my sister and I did seemed to bring a smile to her face. Right now, my grandma has difficulty expressing any emotion and it’s hard for her to speak to us.

However, it is not time to feel sorry for her. As a family, we’re trying to instill positive attitudes to this whole process and seem like this is not affecting us.

It’s tough though, especially thinking back to all the good times.

Down below is a picture of a webcam conversation with my grandma and my uncle (they were in Taiwan) on my 30th birthday… when times were really, really good.

My sister holds up the computer so my grandma can join in the bday fun!

As you all are well aware, I wanted badly to be a part of the 2012 Men of AAJA Broadcast Calendar. In order to do this, I needed to make the Top 12. I spent most of the last month-and-a-half in the 6-12 range. There were roughly 50 men to contend with.

Then, in the last few days, I started to shoot up the leaderboard. By Championship Sunday, I was 2nd with over 500 votes. When I left for dinner, I was still 2nd with 527 votes. When I came back from dinner, I had over 800. My reaction was both stunned and shocked, both in a good way.

So I had the lead in the final few hours until the FINAL TEN MINUTES. I had passed George Kiriyama, a reporter for the NBC station in the Bay Area. It was around this time that the Lakers game ended and George’s friends put him over me 842-826. A few minutes later, one of my cousins let me know he had given me the 846-842 lead.

But in the FINAL MINUTE or so, George’s mother came in and snatched victory for her son! 75 votes provided the final margin and the win! So, in the end, Mama really does know best!!!

Honestly, as neat as it was to be first for a little bit, it is truly an equal honor to be anywhere in the Top 12. Just to be chosen to represent… that’s part of who I am. It defines me. It’s why I’m in this business.

Also, if I was going to get 2nd to anybody, it would be George. This guy has always treated me with respect, even when I was working in a small place called Zanesville.

There’s a reason George finished first. It’s because everybody loves him, including myself (yes, I have a mancrush). And he truly deserves that number 1 spot.

What. a. finish.

Just unbelieveably epic.

And because of it, I’m here blogging because there’s no way I can fall asleep right now.

FOX Toledo represent!!!!!

The final standings (top 12 make it):

1 George Kiriyama 917
2 Howard Chen 846
3 Shawn Chitnis 662
4 Christopher Nguyen 573
5 Chris Jose 565
6 Brian Tong 564
7 Randall Yip 546
8 Toan Lam 543
9 Lloyd LaCuesta 535
10 Archith Seshadri 505
11 Owen Lei 482
12 Stanton Tang 475
13 Hari Sreenivasan 464
14 Kenny Choi 427
15 Sean Dobie 352

Just to preface this, this is totally shameless self promotion and I realize that, but at the same time, it really is for a good cause.

ONLY TWO DAYS LEFT TO VOTE!!!!

https://www.aaja.org/aajamobcalendar/

Basically, you could have either your most beloved or hated local sportsguy (that would be me) in a national calendar featuring Asian men in broadcast!

I’ve said before how much it would mean to me to make the top 12. I still feel that way. I am in this business to represent the underrepresented and this calendar would serve as an outlet to do just that. It costs $1 per vote, you can vote as many times as you want, and all proceeds go to AAJA to help current and aspiring journalists with their many programs and clinics.

Right now, I’m in the top ten, but I fully expect a strong push from those behind me to make the top 12.

So Toledo, I’m calling you out! Let’s go national, and let’s get me AND Toledo on this calendar!!!

So I’m going into my closet in my old bedroom in Sugar Land, Texas (a suburb of Houston), looking for some of my old hockey and baseball cards.

What I ended up doing is spend a boatload of time looking at some of my other card collections. Pretty cool to see Deion Sanders in a Yankee uniform. Or a skinny Barry Bonds with the Pirates.

Anyhoo, I also came across the below pictured souvenir. It’s an old radio that I found in one of my desk drawers way back when I lived in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I think I first found it towards the end of the 1987-’88 NHL season. For those who don’t know, my parents didn’t exactly allow me free reign to watch whatever sporting event I wanted. They thought, and rightfully so, that it would affect my grades. So they limited me to watching the third period of hockey games, the fourth quarter of football/basketball games, and the final innings of baseball games. I was not a fan of this.

But I found a way around it.

It was this portable radio. Basically, I found batteries around the house, put them in, and stuck the radio under my pillow to listen to Calgary Flames radio broadcasts. My parents must’ve thought that their son loved sleeping a lot, because I took a LOT of after-dinner naps, heh.

Yes, my parents eventually discovered my shenanigans. But this picture represents some serious Ho Chen history!!!

Ho Chen's Old Radio

So last night, I got word about this from the Japan disaster:

http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?ID=201103230050&Type=aSOC

Last night, my family was already thinking there were too many coincidences for us NOT to know the victim and her family. Her last name matched. Her surviving husband’s last name matched. The husband’s occupation matched. The age matched.

Today, I received confirmation that the deceased was indeed who we thought it was and it really doesn’t feel very good. I’ve known the victim’s family ever since I was in middle school. The eldest daughter is a year younger than I am, and we always rode the same bus to school. Her younger brother was always pretty close to me and he has the same first name.

I still remember their Dad coming to our house along with his kids to get my sister and I to play tennis. Really really nice guy. For some odd reason, when I think of their family, I think of a bunch of stuffed koala bears because I think stuffed koala bears are cute like that.

But then, in moments like these, even when I feel so badly for them, I feel worse because I’m not really breaking down in tears right now. The same happened when my grandma on my Dad’s side passed away. I felt badly, but emotionally, I just wasn’t capable of showing it.

So I guess right now, I’m doing a little self-analyzing: am I just a horrible person? It sure kind of feels that way.

Just sayin’.

The guy’s a team player for reals and has my back.

For that, I’ve got his.

Get ready for a lot of Joe these next few weeks as I go on vacay!

Peace, y’all…