Matt Chung's Site

Category: Daily Reviews

  • Daily Review – Sunday – May 03, 2026

    Summary

    • Cooked E breakfast (eggs and rice)
    • Walked Mushroom at Morden Hall Park
    • Swimming at David Lloyd’s
    • Scarfed down chicken curry (E Udon) at Cafe Mori
    • Cooked chow mein (recipe discovered on YouTube shorts)

    The Karate Kid – The Musical

    My appreciation for musicals have increased, as someone who has started practicing dance seriously these past couple years. I also enjoyed this particular musical — The Karate Kid — because the film holds a special place in my heart, as someone who binge watched the whole Kobra Kai (Netflix) series. And I the lessons that The Karate Kid tries to convey, are applicable not just to the discipline of Karate, but across other domains, including dance as well.

    “He gets injured a lot doesn’t he?”

    I was cackling when E nonchalantly said this, her (not so) whispering these words during the scene in which Mr. Myagi was healing Daniel LaRusso’s knee that was injured during the semi finals of the All valley championships.

    Unexpectedly cried when Mr. Myagi appeared out of thin air when Daniel was getting beaten up by the outnumbered Kobra Kai. Unsure why I felt so emotional seeing Mr. Myagi step in and defuse the situation. Something beautiful about someone else witnessing injustice and taking action someone else’s behalf.

    Dinner

    During dinner, E was scarfing down the chow mein, the dish becoming one of her favorites. And while we eat at the kitchen dinner table, we’ve sort of established a routine of playing snakes and ladders. While I am fully aware the game is pure luck — come on, you roll a dice — I find it apocryphal that E wins … every time.

    Speaking of winning every time, I had explained to E a few weeks ago how, while of course we all want to win (i.e. competitiveness), cheating — she was re-rolling the dice during board games and peeking during other card games — reduces the likelihood of anyone (including me) wanting to play with her since nobody likes playing when it’s unfair. And I’m proud that she was receptive to my explanation and I do so in a way that was non-judgemental and did not induce any unnecessary guilt or shame on her.

  • Daily Journal (Saturday) May 02, 2026

    It’s 08:08am and my daughter is still sleeping. So, I’m taking advantage of the limited solo time I have, using the last 60 minutes or so to play catch up on Math Academy Foundation I:

    My goal is to work towards Calculus I again and in order for that to happen, I need to finish the following courses:

    • Mathematical Foundations I
    • Mathematical Foundations II
    • Mathematical Foundations III

    I’m currently playing the long game. I’ve always wanted to learn about machine learning as well as take a linear algebra course. However, I recognize within myself that I’m shaky on “foundations” and as such, I’m pursuing a path that is both effective and efficient, although of course there’s an urge to jump straight into the deep end, which would no doubt create a sense of overwhelm and in fact, slow down progression due to missing requisite knowledge.

    Missing Metric

    Every morning, I wake up and think of Metric. Today is no exception. I’ve had the thought to get some grief counseling. I long for her. I wish she were still here. These thoughts and feelings, they are normal. I recognize that pet owners out there get it. Actually, I know that that’s the case because after posting (2) Instagram reels of Metric, the outreach has been insane.

    I didn’t expect to get such high engagement from these two clips. Between two clips, about 100k views each. Hundreds of comments per video. My interpretation? My pain and suffering is not unique. I’m not alone. And that brings some solace.

  • Daily Journal: Rebuilding daily habits of writing, scattered brain, dating

    I miss writing.

    I miss posting daily entries in my blog and I’d like to return to the practice. I’m unsure if the cerebral sensations when the creative juices flow or whether the process helps me brain dump and gain more clarity (or give me the illusion of sense of control) but my intention is to start (once again) posting more on my blog and writing about some of the current activities in my life, which tend to predominately revolve around my dance journey (on the path to becoming a professional house dancer) as well as developing hardcore math foundations (using Math Academy) and navigating single parent life.

    Dance Journey – Newsletter

    I had thought about starting an e-mail newsletter that documents the dance journey, written prose accompanying the edited training videos that I create (some of which have gone viral, accumulating tens and thousands of views). The idea would be to for the emails to contain something along the lines of:

    • What we worked on
    • What was challenging
    • New insights (for me) that were gleaned

    Basically, documenting not just my own progression, but documenting the new knowledge accumulated throughout this predictably unpredictable journey.

    Projects and scattered brain

    What’s fascinating, I’m finding, is as I type all this out, there’s this inner feeling — this urge — tugging me in so many directions and suddenly, I’m reminded of all the various projects that I want to work on, ones that I somewhat accept that I may never have time for, including (but not limited to)

    • Re-taking “Writing from a reader’s perspective” by George Gopen
    • Creating an e-book similar to “The Math Academy Way” but for street-style dance
    • Producing some additional house music beats
    • Increasing my flexibility and mobility and continuing to document the journey on Stretch Therapy
    • Re-reading “Meditation for mortals” and practicing daily habits (e.g. “figure out the price and pay it”, “adopting a kayak mindset approach”)
    • Re-start “Waves of Focus” and re-develop organizational habits and come to terms with my wandering mind
    • Re-visiting “Rhetorical Structure Theory” since, I find, those concepts help me write better prose
    • Finishing the e-book “The Math Academy Way” (follow up from “Advice on upskilling by Justin Skycak”)
    • Creating a “Fix your farmer” tutorial video to post on both YouTube and Instagram
    • Begin marketing process for “Taste of the Kitchen”, (2) 120 minute workshops by DJ Renegade / Kevin Gopie

    Dating another dancer in the scene

    I’ve been very very reluctant to date someone in the (house dance) scene, despite being attracted to quite a few of the women. And although I’ve dated several other dancers, they were members of other dance communities (e.g. salsa, contemporary) and I had felt would reduce the blast radius, the impact, if/when the relationship dissolved.

    Despite being careful, I still had/have thoughts on the idea of dating someone who is as ambitious (if not more) in achieving their own dance goals, with the idea that the two of us can train together, debate with one another, support one another. At the same time, I recognize that good things come in small doses as well, and that, sometimes it is beneficial for two individuals to have their own hobbies, own social circle.

    Despite all this, I’ve recently started seeing someone who is, in my opinion, fairly integral to the scene. And while I am exciting, I am going to be fairly cautious and tread lightly.