A life-long mantra of mine is to only do things that make kickass bedtime stories. Below is a pretty exhaustive list of fun facts that you can either use to complete your Brandon shrine or as talking points if you need a segue:
Music:
- In freshman year, played both the Beast and Simba in my school's Broadway adaptations of Beauty and the Beast and the Lion King
- Played the violin for most of my childhood and barely passed with a Merit under Grade 6 of ABRSM
- There's a lot of music on SoundCloud / YouTube that I uploaded when I was 15
- Sang for The Collective Church for a 2-year period
- Led the music direction for most of my junior and senior years of high school chapels
Video games:
- Spent lots of my after-school time playing competitive Street Fighter and League of Legends, making side money that went back into video games (a Nintendo DS and my first ever computer I built)
- Played mostly Hakan, Ibuki, Sakura, and some Balrog
- Peaked around Diamond 2 on the Indonesian / Oceania in Season 4, 5, and 6 playing support and top lane. Favorite champions are Bard, Camille, and Gnar
- I'm carnitas on NA and enjoy the casual game of League — add me!
Sports:
- Apprenticed under senseis Cuncun Wahyudi and Bobby Hewell to receive 3rd kyu in aikido
- Practiced Krav Maga and Muay Thai under Brooksie Bayard
- Fought in a pretty sketchy MMA league in high school
- Threw a mean discus back in the day
- Played the 3, 4, and 5 in amateur basketball tournaments in Indonesia (5'10" was tall in Asia) and New York
- Tore my right ATF playing pickup in Adidas Ultraboosts, continuing the hereditary basketball-career-ending injury in my family
- My dad played pro basketball in Asia before tearing both his ACLs, my sister was the first international female NCAA player before she fractured her kneecap
Other:
- Was part of an underground slam poetry / battle rap league in downtown LA on weeknights in high school
- Lived in Jakarta, Pasadena, Berkeley, New York, and Philadelphia for 6+ months each
- I could've gone to boarding school
- Took most of my classes virtually while I toured lots of the United States interviewing for boarding school as a prospective high school sophomore / junior. Options came to Andover, NMH, Master's, Stevenson, handful others — didn't end up taking them!
- I really enjoy cooking
- I'm on a shared Google Drive of 20 home chefs with recipes that are constantly being added, tested, and created
- My favorite thing I've made is ramen from scratch — 15 hours of noodle pulling, pork boiling, and love
- I'll sporadically brainstorm on a dinner series that I want to start encouraging slowdowns, anything-but-work conversations, and community — the menu's gone through probably 100 revisions