Brian Jae June Ahn (formerly Lomy Jae June Ahn) was born August 26, 1985 in Torrance, California. He is the first born son of two Korean-American immigrants. Brian has one sister, Stella Ahn, who is one year younger.

The Beginning

Brian was born in Torrance, California and lived in the neighboring city of Gardena, which is located about 15 miles south of Downtown Los Angeles. Even as a young kid, Brian was athletic and loved to play sports. He started with soccer and baseball, and later moved on to golf and basketball.

Education

Brian attended 186th Street Elementary School 1st grade through 5th grade. He then transferred to a nearby privated school, Gardena Christian Academy, in 6th grade. The school was composed of mostly Asian-American student. Brian dominated the playground with his superior athleticism and because most of his class mates were Asian-American who are stereotypically unathletic. Since there was a lack of competition at his school and because Brian hated participating in chapel, he transferred schools again after one year at Gardena Christian Academy.

After the brief stint at GCA, Brian attended Bert M. Lynn Middle School in West Torrance. Since Brian and his family were Gardena residents, he normally would not have been able to attend a school within Torrance. Fortunately, the Ahns had a close family friend, the Kims, who lived in West Torrance. So by using the Kims’ home address as his own, Brian was able to register in the Torrance Unified School District.

Not too much is known about the 2 years that Brian spent at Lynn Middle School. Brian was considered shy and quiet in his pre- and early teen years. One important fact that we know is that in the 8th grade Brian Ahn was voted to have the best hair by his classmates. After his 8th grade promotion, Brian moved up to the nearby West High School.

Following his high school graduation, Brian started attending college at the University of California, Irvine and studied Economics/Management. During his four years and a quarter at UCI, one of Brian’s favorite memories is the times he spent living in an apartment called Exeter. In his two year stay at Exeter, Brian was roommates with Elijah Kang, Alex Kim, Matt Chong, and Mike Ji.

Hobbies

Over the course of his lifetime, Brian has dabbled in a wide variety of hobbies. As a youngster of the ‘90s, he collected basketball and baseball cards as well as participating in the usual outdoor activities and games that bring neighborhood kids together. He also took an invested interest in video games over his middle school and high school years, though his thirst for competition always drew him to multiplayer games rather than single-player ones. Some games in which he has demonstrated an exceptional level of skill include the following: Starcraft / Starcraft: Brood War, Diablo II / Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, Counter-Strike, Tekken 5, Super Smash Bros. 64.

Brian demonstrated that he had a knack for cards as early as high school when he discovered the game of pusoy. However, card playing did not truly become a hobby until he stumbled upon the exciting game of No Limit Texas Hold’em. Once exposed, Brian quickly became a student of the game, studying the habits of professional pokers on TV, and reading Doyle Brunson’s Super System, even while being someone who does not enjoy reading. Though work and preparations to be a Chartered Financial Analyst take up much of his time now, it is no surprise to find Brian sitting at a poker table on any given night, whether it be at a casual house game, in a local casino, or even Las Vegas.

Another one of Brian’s hobbies is to continuously flip pillows while lying on his back using his hands and feet. He would start by using both his hands and feet to hold up the four ends of a pillow. Then he starts the flipping motion by pushing the bottom part up with his feet and pulling the top down with his hands, thus, creating a constant rotating motion of the pillow (this is actually more difficult than it seems). This is one of Brian’s favorite hobbies when hanging out with his friends. While conversing with his friends in his room, Brian will frequently lie on the floor and begin flipping pillows.

Personality

Brian is known to have some interesting sleeping habits. First of all, he has the ability to fall asleep incredibly fast. One time at Exeter, Alex and Brian were getting ready to sleep and had settled into their respective beds. Brian must have been more tired than usual that night, because after he had said goodnight, he was snoring away in literally less than 5 seconds. This is not an exaggeration, says his roommate Alex, “I was timing him with my watch, ‘Goodnight Al... *snore.’” Brian also has a tendency to talk in his sleep... and not just like a few words. Sometimes he will mutter full-length sentences, prompting his roommate Alex to think that he's awake and having a conversation. He also laughs a lot, and one time, just once, he has been heard sing a song in his sleep.

Brian likes to keep his things extremely neat and organized. He's been known not to wear his new shoes or hats until months after he's received or bought them, usually keeping them in the boxes or bags they came in. He has a receptive nose and finds it difficult to tolerate bad smells. Brian is usually very mild-mannered, but he also has a whacky side that emerges at times under special conditions. On rare occasions like during midterms and finals, you can find him randomly blurting out nonsense syllables in frustration like he was speaking in tongues, or sobbing uncontrollably in mock despair and depression.

Brian has an even temperament, and his personality is witty and ironic. Maybe that's why sometimes when people hang out with him, they get the sense that life likes to play little tricks on him. Weird things happen to Brian. It's never anything that turns out to be cause for alarm, but reality always seems a little more warped in Brian's world, maybe it is because his ironic sensibilities allow him to appreciate it more than others. In Brian's world, it is not unusual to be walking along and seeing a random bicycle in a tree, or having random ducks walk by you like people. It is not unusual for it to be scorching hot the day he decides to wear a jacket, only to have it start snowing as soon as he changes into shorts and a t-shirt (while traveling in Japan, a good rule of thumb his friends went by was to dress for the weather exactly the opposite of Brian). Others tend to find the things that happen to him weird and mildly disturbing, but Brian seems to have adjusted to it. "It WOULD happen to me," is one of Brian's most frequently uttered phrases.

Thankfully, Brian hasn't let the undercurrent of irony in his life affect him undesirably, hasn't let it turn him into a fatalist or pessimist (although his outlook on life can be pessimistic at times; he would probably say he was just being "realistic"). He is still one of the most solid guys people will ever meet; generous, and loyal to a fault. His wit is razor sharp and he employs it well, often with hilarious results. He is truly one of the funniest individuals, and some say talking with him helps them look at life from a quirkier, more wry perspective.

Athletics

Brian’s first venture into the world of organized sports as a young boy was through baseball and soccer. He enjoyed several successful years in various leagues, due largely in part to an intense work ethic fueled by the constant push of his competitive father (rumor has it that Brian once scored three goals in a soccer match but was still yelled at by his father for not competing at his potential). However, Brian suffered an unfortunate injury once in a soccer match resulting in a broken nose, which he later got surgery for as a teen.

As Brian got older, his athletic interests turned to golf and basketball, with basketball ultimately becoming his sport of choice. He spent many hours on the golf course and driving range in practice and in tournaments, but it pales in comparison to the countless days and nights spent on the basketball court. Brian built a name for himself around the parks of Torrance before joining the West Torrance High School basketball team for three years, playing at the freshmen, sophomore, and junior varsity levels. Despite a countless number of ankle injuries, Brian continued his basketball career throughout college, participating in various local tournaments and in the intramural league at UC Irvine.

The aforementioned ankle injuries however, have left a lasting impression on Brian’s otherwise flawless physique. His ankles are much thicker than the average athlete’s due to the build up of layers of scar tissue that result in the healing process. This leads to the appearance of Brian having the dreaded physical deformity known as “cankles” or calf-ankles or “fankles” or fat ankles. However, this is not the case as his ankles are thicker not due to weight issues, but because of him being prone to ankle injuries.

Another interesting aspect in regards to Brian’s high school basketball career is that he was the only member of the team to have a basketball play revolve solely around him. This play was called “Four Down” and this involved the entire team shunting the defense away from the key so that Brian could take his man on a virtual one-on-one situation. His ability to breeze past defenders with ease made Four Down an effective weapon against the majority of the high school teams that West High faced.

Brian’s prowess on the court, however, did not lead him down a road of pride, as is the case for many young athletes. Brian was always willing to deign himself and play pickup basketball games with friends and strangers alike. For obvious reasons, Brian held back the true potential of his basketball skills during these humble games to allow everyone to have fun. However, losing was never an option for the young Adonis. Frequently, the lack of talent on his team, coupled with the lax attitude of Brian himself would result in his team losing by a huge margin of points. At these key moments, Brian would ask for the score and after finding out how badly his team was losing, he would immediately demand the ball and go on a scoring binge that would result in the complete and single-handed decimation of the opposition. The berserker like mode that Brian enters when faced with a deficit in the points came to be known as, “Red Brian.”

Brianisms