Jin Ink.

BzzReport

2011-12-21T21:14:00.000-08:00

I'm back

2011-08-13T22:45:00.001-07:00

With vengeance.

I'll be actually reading my Google Reader RSS feeds, making new posts, and all that good stuff.

Have a great weekend!

Somebody's Been Doing the Herbal?

2011-01-27T12:47:00.000-08:00

Did Herbal Essences really change their ad campaign from the orgasming woman [deemed too risqué] to the motto..."Somebody's been doing the herbal?"

Wow.

More Reason Why Baseball is Amazing Part 1

2010-12-21T12:39:00.000-08:00

From ESPN:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=5932950

They say you can make as many mistakes as you want, so long as you only make them once.

2010-12-08T16:05:00.000-08:00

From ESPN:

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/news/story?id=5899769

I despise the Jets. As an organization, recently they've run themselves like Animal House. Pick up players with checkered pasts (despite their football potentials) and see if they can piece them together. They just lost 45-3 to the Patriots this past week after beating them in Week 2.

That being said, they're 9-3 and up there in the AFC as we speak. I do like Rex Ryan because he does what a coach does best, motivate. Whether that is to take the pressure off his players and be a huge goof-ball and have the media poke and prod him instead of his players, or whatever, he's quite the entertainer.

Same can be said for Chad Ochocinco. He would be up to his antics so the pressure was deflected off his team and onto him. Sadly, T.O joined forces with him and is drastically outplaying him with none of his typical antics. The Bengals are an awful 2-8 this season.
#85 Ochocinco 59 rec, 724 yds, 4 TDs, 12.3 avg, 42 long VS
#81 Owens 71 rec, 961 yds, 9 TDs, 13.5 avg, 78 long

Also another good story: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5900267

Why is using Riddell so important? There needs to be more pressure on Riddell to make safer helmets, or otherwise the NFL should just let players pick their own helmets that at least provide the minimum risk allowed. For car insurance California has state minimums, but people can buy the pricier premiums for more coverage. Same should be done for the NFL who does not want to assume health responsibility for its players, to be really honest. So mandate a minimum for helmets, and if players want to use the more padded ones, perfect they'll be good role models. If not, then they're liable under their own assumed risks.

December 7, 2010. Thanks Republicans, Again.

2010-12-07T18:49:00.000-08:00

From the New York Times:

The wealthiest Americans will also reap tax savings from the proposal’s plan to keep the cap on dividend and capital gains taxes at 15 percent, well below the highest rates on ordinary income. And negotiators have agreed that the estimated $900 billion cost of the cuts will simply be added to the deficit — not covered by reductions in spending or increases in other taxes. That is good news for hedge fund managers and private equity investors, who appear to have withstood an effort to get them to pay more by eliminating a quirk in the tax code that allows most of their income to be taxed at just 15 percent.

In fact, the only groups likely to face a tax increase are those near the bottom of the income scale — individuals who make less than $20,000 and families with earnings below $40,000.

“It’s going to look like the rich are getting richer again,” said Anne Mathias, an analyst for MF Global Inc.

"The marginal tax rate on high incomes will also remain unchanged. The top brackets had been scheduled to increase to 36 percent and 39.6 percent, from 33 percent and 35 percent.

Under Mr. Obama’s failed proposal, which would have raised the rates on income over $250,000 for families and $200,000 for individuals, the taxpayers at the top 1 percent of the income scale — those with incomes above $564,000 — would have received an average tax break of $28,000. Under the agreement reached with Republicans, the top 1 percent will receive breaks of about $70,000.

Simply:

If you are an individual that makes under $20K or a family that makes under $40K, your taxes are going up
If you're a hedge fund manager (making millions already), you get to continue to cheat the program and pay a 15% capital gains tax instead of your proper income tax bracket of 33-36%
Those making over $200K a year as an individual, or $250K as a family, your taxes aren't going up to the pre-Bush [Clinton Administration] tax bracket percentages of 36% and 39.6%
All in all adding $900 billion to the deficit, the thing that Republicans kept preaching they would not do from this recent election campaigning [we need to balance the budget, blah, blah blah rhetoric]

Dandy.

Happy December. I'm back, and with a serious social question

2010-12-03T19:52:00.000-08:00

I promised that I'd blog more often. Thinking of what to blog about, I think I watch too many sports, so I'll discuss that, and I follow too much news coverage, so that'll be of issue too.

Today:

First of all, everyone can agree that is pretty sexy. Women's bodies are beautiful, the physique has always been deemed a sign of beauty.

But it made me think of quite a few questions:
1. It was directed by Michael Bay, the same guy who capitalized on several elements to make Transformers work, namely:
a. Transformers is beloved by our youth and brings about a sense of nostalgia
b. To appeal to more men, it features sci-fi elements, and over-the-top special effects and violence
c. Attractive female lead [Megan Fox]
I don't think Mr. Bay has done a VS ad before, but watching this sole creation made me think, is this supposed to make women be sold upon buying more lingerie or sold to men to drool over?
2. If sold to men:
a. Are we supposed to aspire to date/have sex/marry these women, who are deemed our "fantasy?"
b. And if so, should we feel bad about the women we currently are dating/have sex with/are married to?
c. Do I want to buy my special woman lingerie from VS because it makes them this sexy?
3. If sold to women:
a. Is this the only way to be sexy? Do I have to look this way?
b. Is it solely marketing, and the combination of beautiful women and beautiful lingerie means higher sales?
c. If I buy stuff from VS, I will be deemed sexy?
d. If I don't look like that, am I not some man's fantasy?

If the ad is solely supposed to be "These women are sexy," then that's that. But you know VS is a publicly owned company, a subsidiary of Limited Brands Inc., so they have to make a profit to stay a viable business. Are they just selling their lingerie? Could they sell their beautiful lingerie with unattractive models?

Which begs further questions:
The history of VS is simple: It was designed by men so that men could shop for lingerie for their special lady, or with a female companion and not feel awkward. They hired beautiful supermodels, deemed Victoria's Secret's Angels, and do an annual fashion show on CBS which garners high ratings.

Therefore is it fair to call these women sexual objections without feeling like you're degrading them? Isn't their career--modelling--utilizing their physique as a canvas for that sole purpose? Can we say it's fair they have a choice not to be lingerie models?

It's a slippery slope for sure. Shoot me some feedback on what you think. I'd love to see your opinions. I'm not here to bash VS, their marketing styles, their employees, or lingerie models in general, I just want to pose a bunch of questions that make you think.

Boost Mobile & ReBoost!

2010-09-15T20:42:00.001-07:00

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.
- - -
Have you heard of Boost Mobile or Re-Boost?

Frankly, I didn't know much. I knew they were a pre-paid phone service that had some funny commercials but have had been fairly quiet recently. Remember the "Where You At?" commercials? Yup that was Boost.

But after reading more about their company and their very competitively priced plans, there's a lot more to this wireless carrier than funny commercials.

They mean business. As in, tons of it, and offering some of the best priced plans available.

You want unlimited? Bam. $50 a month gets you unlimited everything. What's in the everything? Oh, just only calls, texts, data, and walkie talkie functionality. You even get free incoming international texts. Yup. So send as many picture messages, update your Facebook and Twitter accounts every second, and make all the calls you want every month for one fixed price, $50.

What's that? You want a Blackberry? Sure why not? You get all of the above mentioned with the unlimited, but with BlackBerry reliability and push e-mails for only $10 more.

Think about what you want out of your phone. You want it to be connected to all your friends and family all the time right? Then get the unlimited plans with a great phone. Best yet, with ReBoost it's so easy to pay your monthly bill. You can set up automatic payments through your debit or credit card so you'll never be disconnected from your phone, ever. Pay it online, through your spankin' new phone, or in person at any convenient Boost Mobile store. So simple. Why complicate a great thing and a great deal?

What are you waiting for? Get more info and make the dive! Stop paying too much for your non-unlimited plan!

Inertia

2010-07-28T21:59:00.001-07:00

A body remains in rest until acted upon. Momentum is infectious.

Good Weekend in Vegas.

2010-06-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

From Bill Simmons, a writer for ESPN:
"Q: So I'm in the grocery store the other night buying ramen noodles 'cause that's literally the only thing I can afford to eat. Right after I had put the fourth huge case into my cart, a really cute girl approaches me and says, "Wow, that's a lot of ramen." For whatever reason, my immediate response is, "Yeah, I'm buying it for a local food drive for the homeless." Wouldn't you know it, but the girl finds this extremely sexy for some reason, and we continue to talk for a few minutes. Eventually, I ask her out, and we decide she will come to my place for dinner and a movie later on this week. What in the hell am I supposed to do? I have no money and a kitchen full of ramen noodles that are supposed to be for some mysterious food drive. Your thoughts?
-- Shane, Baltimore"

Yes.

I Am A Pencil

2010-05-27T23:41:00.000-07:00

<-- Best book ever. Simple as that. It's everything you want in a book. It makes you laugh, cry, angry, cheer, and non-stop it tugs on your heartstrings hard.

Strep. But, hopefully gone soon.

2010-04-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

<-- You should buy me one while mine is in the shop (:

Anyhow, turns out the:
Sore throat
Fever
Headache
Muscle aches
Difficulty swallowing
Malaise/fatigue
Tonsillitis

Means I have Strep. Cool. Saw the doc today, 2 more days of the antibiotics to go, some steroids to help clear up my swelling in my throat so I can breatheee, and I should be good to go. My mom says the steroids will make me fat, thanks mom.

Mundane Mondays.

SOTD: You know those little pleasures in life? One of my favorites is ordering something that's fried and getting a little somethin' extra. You know, ordering regular fries and having a few curly fries being tossed in, or getting the onion rings and getting some cheese sticks too? Why is my life with food such uncomplicated bliss?

Happy Eurrf Day.

2010-04-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

Reviving my blog. Frankenstein style. Rise my child!

Tonsilloliths. Yeah. Don't Wikipedia it, I promise you it's pretty gross. Like H2S gross (Hydrogen Sulfide). But it's what I've got goin' on as well as the cold because all the cool kids are doing it. Note to self: No dairy for a month. Who needs it anyways, I'm 22 and I ain't growin' no mo anyhow. Except horizontally \:

Subtlety of the day [SOTD]: I thought I'd create a cool little thing that I'll add some fun facts everyday. So here we go.

SOTD: The song I Made It (Cash Money Heroes) by Kevin Rudolf f. Birdman, Jay Sean, & Lil' Wayne has a tricky chorus. I couldn't distinguish that the chorus is sung by two people not one. Video below:

Then you'll notice that the first line of the chorus is sung by Kevin Rudolf then the second line is sung by Jay Sean. Madness, they sound almost the same.

Captain Obvious: the song incorporates a song lyric/title from each of the performer's hit songs, and the video has some "home footage." It's like a victory mixtape that your parents make of your football plays or something to give to you for your wedding. Yeah.

Stay tuned for another version of SOTD. (:

2010-03-25T13:44:00.001-07:00

Joe's Goals

2010-01-25T16:56:00.000-08:00

www.joesgoals.com

Peep it. What an amazingly simple idea, perfect execution.

What's with the crazy weather San Diego? Get with it please ):

It's too easy.

2009-11-08T00:45:00.000-08:00

It's too easy on the weekend to be overwhelmed...by nothing. Fuck.

All week I work my 40 hour week, 8-5 or 7-4, and soon 6-3. Then the weekend? I sit on my butt, and plop in front of the computer. No more cable means more Hulu and Surfthechannel for sure. But after watching that, it's just wasting time. While shit sits on the floor. Tomorrow morning, I'll be productive. Til then, good night.

Currently: Rihanna - Russian Roulette

There's not that much to say, RIP Clement Tsai.

2009-09-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

That's about it. RIP Clement. I know you're smiling down right now thinking, "I've made a positive impact on so many lives." And you're damn right you have.

Yesterday was a really rough day for a lot of people, myself included.

You see, I've been blessed by God to have some of the most amazing people surround me. Sadly my family is quite small, and I only have one grandparent left. My father was an only child and I have no uncles.

In 3rd or 4th grade, one of my classmates was struck by a car while crossing the street near Park Village Elementary and Park Village Community Park. She was jaywalking with her friend to get to the park from school and as she almost reached the other side, a car stopped and waved her across. That driver had no idea that in the next lane over, a car was unable to see the kids running across the street and tragically, struck the poor girl and that was it. The parents were distraught and the entire neighborhood was shaken. How could such a thing happen to such an innocent child? Then the usual came. Blame. Blame it on the driver who stopped, who should have seen the other car coming. Really? Is that who we should blame? Or perhaps we should blame the kids for breaking the law and jaywalking? No, we couldn't ever do that. How about the driver who wasn't paying attention enough to see kids crossing the street? Sure, let's blame them.

I hate that. Let's not point fingers, let's properly mourn those who should be mourned. To be honestly I never really knew her. She was in my grade and I should have known her but it didn't shock me to the core because we weren't very close, and barely acquaintances.

Suicide hit in high school with a friend of many of my friend's. I didn't know him personally, so I wasn't really shaken, but it still affects you because they took their life into their own hands. Thinking that it was a solution. In reality, it was a "permanent solution to a very temporary problem" just like Will says. That loss affected many people because he was considered one of the nicest kids around.

Freshman year college, one of my roommates took his life into his own hands. I did know Danny personally and my memories of him are jovial and positive. How could they not be? He was easily one of the smartest kids I knew, guaranteed 4.0 kid who screwed the curve over in Chem and Bio classes, yet you couldn't meet a more humble kid. Never put others down to build himself up, never. He was a truly genuinely nice guy. Sadly I didn't get a chance to really know the inner Danny, and when he passed I was really shaken. Shaken at the thought that somebody that physically close to me, he lived right next door to me in my dorms, could be gone, and we'd never see him walk through the front doors again. But emotionally, because he wasn't a best friend, I guess I wasn't extremely torn. Sure emotionally ravaged enough to alter my studying abilities, but we weren't the closest of friends, but I can still consider him a friend. He was always full of wisdom, in an awesomely nerdy way, yet he was always quick enough to create a comeback out of the blue to really knock you off your feet. He had such a beautiful mind, and although the details of his passing are kinda hazy, a lot of things don't quite add in up his suicide, he is gone. And hopefully, to a much better place than this crazy world.

Likewise, I want to talk about Clement. Danny was a roommate and a friend, somebody I should have known better, but I was too involved in my own things that I didn't get a real chance to hang out with him enough, or spend time with him. Clement I knew a bit better, somebody I would always see on campus. I remember I really grew close to TKE because of Greek Week and being paired with them allowed me to expand and meet some new people, some amazing new people. He wasn't part of TKE when I got to know most of the TKEs, but because I built good relations with them, I natually met him at their booth.

He was a goofy kid. Always quick to say what's up or hi to me, and I barely knew him. And sadly I will always barely know him. I know the brothers of TKE at UCSD are completely torn to shreds by losing a brother. I know that I won't have that exact same experience or bond because I didn't know him as a best friend would. But I am proud to say I did know him, and he was my friend. A person who I never saw upset, always cheery and full of life. Whether it was a quick handshake on Library Walk, chillin at their booth, drinking at parties, I would always see him and he treated me like somebody who he always hung out with, just like any other brother. It would be stereotypical to say that all fraternities hate each other. And sometimes it's true. Mostly it's not because it takes a lot of time and energy to hate every single person in another chapter. I'm proud to say that I have friends throughout the Greek system and I'm not afraid to step outside of my own chapter, for fear of what? Clement always was a part of why I felt welcomed by their brothers. He never judged, and to be honest I don't think many people judged him because of this. He was a genuinely decent person, a kind heart with a huge smile to match. A true cool cat. Never judging, never had any qualms, just seemingly content with life and being alive. It's a tragedy that that is no more.

No parent should ever have to bury their child. Ever. That is perhaps one of the worst feelings in the world that I can't even bear to imagine. It's not fair. It truly isn't.

This one's for you Clement. You see, we might not have been best friends, or ever had a serious heart to heart talk about life or anything. We did shoot the bull a lot, because hell, why not? But amongst all of that, I saw your true colors. I knew who you were and who you are. Everyone will remember your smile. It was not only a defining feature, something that we can all visualize, it was the perfect external reflection of how you were in an entirety. You were happy. Jovial, full of life. Perhaps it seems trite to say you never had a care, but to me you seemed to just flow with life and that in itself is a beautiful quality to have.

We're going to miss you, hell we already do. I hope wherever you are now, with your beautiful soul, that you can see, feel, and hear our sadness. But let our positive and happy memories of you burn eternal, and outweigh any mourning. It is only right to mourn you, but let that be brief. It only seems right that we celebrate your life, however short it may have been, but packed full of life. So we celebrate the person you were, and will always be. Son, student, brother of TKE, citizen of the world, friend. You have impacted us all. Of course you know that. I just hope that these few paragraphs properly sum up the impact you've had on me.

Please don't drink and drive. The consequence might not only be a DUI, or a damaged car, but imagine a tarnished family. Destroyed. Feel lucky that everyday we are giving a present, a life. Drive safely people. Be aware. Because if you drink and drive, you are putting not only your life into your hands, but innocent bystanders as well.

Rest in peace, bless your soul, Clement Tsai. March 23, 1990 - September 10, 2009.

Could have wished to see how you would have celebrated two decades of life. We will forever miss you and you're impossible to forget. It hurts to say this, but goodbye. Smile on buddy.

Days 4&5 of the Great Sleep Experiment

2009-07-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

This is actually written on July 21st, but I'll try to keep these posts consistent so I can backlog them.

Saturday, I went out a movie, saw The Hurt Locker and it was a really cool, really moving somewhat indie film. No major stars (except for Evangeline Lilly, Kate from Lost but her role was so minor and only 5 minutes towards the end). The acting was superb and it just shows that we should be thankful every day that we have brave men and women in the armed forces fighting a senseless, unwinable war and putting their lives out there even if they don't necessarily agree with the politics of it. Thank you for our freedom, thank you thank you US Military. I really pray that Iraq will someday not need us, and have peaceful days without IEDs and senseless fighting. Someday we'll clean up our mess.

As for sleeping, the movie was from 1010pm, so I got back around 1 and went straight to sleep. Had to wake up by 630 to get to work at 7am. I guess I fell asleep around 130 and tried to wake up at 6, that's what 4.5 hrs? Really pushing it when I'm so used to 9 hours on the REM cycles. Woke up around 620,630 and then went to work. Yay.

Sunday, didn't really get to take my 1.5hr nap, but I slept at a reasonable time for Monday I think something like 12 or 1am.

Day 3 of the Great Sleep Experiment

2009-07-17T14:31:00.001-07:00

So far I'm liking the results. This morning I kinda screwed up my brain a bit by hitting snooze repeatedly. Whoops.

Last night I fell asleep around 2am, and I planned to try and get just 4.5 hours of sleep and wake up at 630am. False.

I woke up at 620am, and thought I was doing okay. Then I fell asleep again and woke up around 9? I don't know how my cycle worked during that time.

Not tired enough to take my 1.5hr nap yet, but looking forward to it.

So far is this bi-phasic sleep pattern working? I'd think so. It might be psychological for now, but I do feel a bit more alert in the morning and I actually get a bit more done, instead of slowly trying to wake up. I kinda over did it with the 2am last night because I was in bed before 1, but I just ended up listening to music and not sleeping ugh.

Tonight I'll probably shoot for the 6hr goal, so maybe sleep around 12 and wake up at 6? We'll see.

I'm pretty excited for my job interview, well lesson planning, next Tuesday for Revolution SAT Prep. I think their job interview is really cool, basically I'll have to give a lesson for 2-3 minutes on any topic. Really dynamic and innovative, I like their thinking. Not sure what I'm going to cover quite yet, but I'm def. leaning towards something fun like hip-hop. Apparently somebody taught how to tango last time, but I wonder if I'm teaching hip-hop, which I never formally was instructed on, I'm sure I should cover the history of it first and then go into the dancing...yes in a shirt, tie, slacks, and nice shoes. Sweet. I'm really stoked actually, it'll be a cool little thing and I really hope they like it.

Really catchy Lil' Wayne, good work. And bringing in Young Money and Drake? Solid. Love the new track. Sadly I feel like there aren't that many great new songs recently.

~~Lil' Wayne - Every Girl f. Young Money, Drake~~

--> Young Money | Every Girl

Correction: Lil' Wayne, Drake and a bunch else from Cash Money Records are forming "Young Money", a hip-hop supergroup. I mean nothing will compare to NWA, but I guess copying Dipset....well, I've only been a fan of Juelz from there anyhow. Best of luck to ya boys.

Day 2 of the Great Sleep Experiment

2009-07-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

Last night the last time I remembered looking at the clock before falling asleep was 1:08am.

The first time I woke up today was 5:43 am. Wow, pretty perfectly 4 1/2 hours. I had to piss like a racehorse, then again I drank a lot of water last night at Karl Strauss. Good free food, but $5.50 for a beer plus I was driving, no thanks.

So I went back to sleep, and I woke up, no alarms, at 8:40 or so. My alarm was set for 8:45am this morning trying to get 7 1/2 hours of sleep from 1:15 or so. I love waking up right before the alarm, but of course I snoozed it until 915. Then I set another alarm at 930, woke up at 10 ugh.

I'm starting to get sleepy, I need to take that 1 1/2 hour nap soon. Excitement.

Currently hooked on Dexter. What an amazing show that keeps you thinking. Big time fan of shows with a good narrator too. Love it and can't friggin wait until Nip/Tuck comes back in October. YES.

Update 511pm: So I took that hour and a half nap. Felt great. A little groggy at first waking up, with my usual snooze routine, but only hit it once and was able to wake up fairly quickly afterwards. Currently I feel great. It's hot outside so I do feel a bit drained, but so far I'm diggin this sleep schedule. That 7 1/2 from last night was a bit long, because eventually I will be able to cut it down to 4 hours. Maybe I'll try 6 tonight.

Day 1 of the Great Sleep Experiment (BI-PHASIC)

2009-07-15T22:51:00.000-07:00

So I've been reading a lot about sleep recently. I tend to get enough sleep, but like most people I feel lethargic hitting that post-lunch time. I hate waking up early, I'm just not a morning person and I hit snooze a million times. But recently I've been better and better about getting myself to wake up around 9, and definitely before 10. BUT I love my naps. During the middle of the day, they suggest the 20 minute power nap...and that never happens. I tend to do a 30 min, sometimes the dreaded hour, which'll make me groggy. Whoops.

What I've been reading up on is to change from the monophasic, the standard go to bed at say midnight, then wake up at 9, kind of sleep. It's one "bed time" and you sleep that chunk. However, research shows that you tend to cycle every 90 minutes or so because of REM, Rapid Eye Movement, sleep. The good, deep kind of sleep where you have dreams and the time so your brain can categorize your thoughts, experiences, and memories properly as well as heal your body. And if you wake up halfway through, you're going to feel ever more tired than not have napped because your body isn't ready yet.

Given that I love my naps, I think the bi-phasic makes a lot of sense. The goal is to feel more refreshed every day when I wake up. Eventually I can even sleep less, making me more productive (apparently).

So here's the thing. Sleep in cycles of 90 minutes, followed with a nap sometime in the day for 90 minutes. That's it. Tonight for day 1 I will be sleeping 7.5 hours. Then later on I'll take my 1.5 hour nap. Simple? I think so, and if I can do this consistently and feel better, then I'll be really excited.

So wish me luck. Good night.

3. I'm a dreamer at heart, a realist in my head

2009-06-01T03:27:00.001-07:00

First off, HAPPY JUNE. Wow. Anyways, growing up I had a few strikes against me.

1. I'm Asian.

2. My parents are Asian and both are scientifically-inclined

3. I grew up loving science and math

4. Then I grew to be a hopeless romantic

5. I now consider myself one of God's children and while my faith is constantly challenged, I am always renewed in it after overcoming difficulties

6. I follow the media way too much and I watch too much TV

So what to do? Do I follow these wild dreams of the great amazing world, with all of its wonders, or do I try to add up the numbers and see where I could possibly go based on those figures?

I've grown to realize that I tend to be too laid-back and overconfident in my abilities. Like right now coming back from a weekend at formal and trying to do homework...and it's 330am. Fuck.

But I continue to grow. I like to think myself as 21 years young, and remember today will be the youngest you'll be. Act like it, continue to learn, and be smart.

Tomorrow, June 2, will be 2 very happy and amazing months with my dear dear Katie. Even numbers honey, happy? Jeez. Does that mean our 3 month will be boring or terribly unlucky?

God Bless.

2. I LOVE Legos and miss them.

2009-03-10T01:03:00.000-07:00

Apparently I only post once a month, I will def. change this.

With my creativity as a child, I should have been an engineer in college. But that probably would have required me to be better at math, including taking the 20 series and I'd probably be crying right now. My head barely wrapped around the idea of vectors in 10C and I barely passed that class, but then again I never really did the homework. The only time I've done really well in math was when I do the homework everyday, thank you Rodarte for AP Calculus AB and my A both semesters, and the 5 I got on the AP test.

I still have all of my Legos though. They're sitting in about 5 different IKEA bins in my brother's room. The last time I played with them was with him about a year ago. How depressing is that. I have all the time in the world to go out, play outside, watch TV, movies, play Xbox...but I can't step 5 steps to my brother's room and dump all the Legos out just to tinker around with them. My specialty? Making vehicles. Cars with 20 wheels? Check. Airplanes with multiple wings? Oh hell yea. My mind would wander all the time with giant creations and they kept getting more elaborate as I went along.

My first set ever was a $50 one my parents got me that was a gas station. The gas station was called "Octane" and it featured multiple pumps, flowers in the grass next to it, small cars, tons of workers, and glass paneling for a windowed-ceiling. Sick right? I built it in a day, then tore it all down the next. From there, I got a few Star Wars sets, and other kinds here and there. Now I have those giant bins of Legos, with almost every piece imaginable. And they're all still in amazing quality, sans the few that I had to use my teeth to separate apart whoops.

Apart from that, my other favorite toy set were my Hot Wheels. In Japan, there's a set made by Tyco that feature working doors, trunks, hoods, and all parts are nice quality metal. My mom would blow a huge portion of her pay check just to support my car fetish. Haha. And I'd line them up like a parking lot complete with a cement mixer, bulldozer, 4Runner, police cars, ambulances, everything you'd expect in a city. Then Costco sold rugs that had roads and parking lots and I became obsessed with it, leaving cars in their parking spots overnight. When my parents would check up on my at night to make sure I was asleep, it was guaranteed they'd step on the cars or Legos. I'm sorry for all the pain I caused as a kid, sorry.

Then I got my brother involved with the Legos. At first, because he was young, he sucked balls. Honestly, his creations were so terrible I'd tear them apart because he was using up my good pieces. Ugh, terrible child I was. Then he got a stroke of genius, probably because he's left-handed and somewhat artsy, and then his creations were amazing. So much that I wanted him to take pictures and send to them to Lego Magazine hoping that his creations would enter their contests. He'd even make elaborate things and give them to my dad for his birthdays. That lasted a few years. My dad loved them so much that he'd keep finished models, collecting layers of dust, in his office for months.

Today I asked Katie, because she said she has a good memory, what her first memory of life was ever. Me with my poor memory, I can't even remember what her answer was, whoops. But she brought up the thing about how you can "remember" things when you've seen a photograph of it later on, and you're somewhat refreshed about what happened. For me, the refreshing picture is me playing with those arm exercise bands. However, my first few memories of childhood involve a BRIGHTLY colored set of Lego-like toys. There were neon green parts for wings, and such and I think my mom spent a big chunk of her paycheck for me for that set. Thanks mommy, love ya.

Song of the day: Jamie Foxx | Blame It

1. I live for naps

2009-02-01T21:13:00.000-08:00

It's already February of 2009, and still I'm finding out who I truly am, what I should be, what I might be, what I want, etc.

So I thought for this entire month I'll drop something about myself everyday. That way I can look back and think hey that's what makes me, me. If I built the momentum, who knows I might even do this throughout March.

1. Naps. How do I function without them? Based on research of human sleep cycles, we are supposed to be diurnal animals. We have two long cycles of awakeness, something that you see in babies all the time. They're super awake for a while, nap for days, then back at it. Normally, people get tired right after lunch say 1-2PM because of this cycle, and usually compounded with a heavy lunch. In Japan they had this little test run of this school where all the kids were forced to take a power nap of 30 minutes after lunch, and ALL of their test scores improved about 30%. Why did we take away naptime? It helped us all grow when we were kindergarteners, whyyyy.

The other day I slept for 13 hours. It was so unnormal for my body that I slept at 9PM only to wake up sometime late at night, then again early morning and then finally up at 10AM. I was really energetic in the morning, which was a plus. But I still had my dip at 2PM and I felt really dissapointed. Then there are the days when you sleep at 4AM, wake up around 8 or so and feel really energetic but CRASH later. Screw you Newton and your laws of physics.

How sad is it that at 21 years of age, I still don't know what my "optimal" amount of sleep is? I love sleeping in on weekends, but I still will wake up groggy. I try waking up to music, slowly, sunshine, etc which are supposed to help. Personally, I'm going to try to go outside in the morning before going to school. I don't think that could backfire right? I've sadly conceided to the fact that I'll always be tired sometime during the day, but I don't want to face that reality.

Dreams: Probably from a week ago, I dreamt that I was playing baseball with friends. Standing on second base, there was a hit towards the gap and I remember chugging towards home. But for some reason I probably weighed somewhere near 250 lbs but didn't look it. Somehow I was fast gunning it to third, but then my weight caught me by surprised as I rounded the base and I was slow beyond belief. I beat the throw at home, but wobbling around and when I dove for home head first, I did that slow motion grab the base and slightly twirl thing and there's this giant grin on my face when I was safe. And that was a run-on, fuck me.

Let's hope I don't end up that big and/or slow. I know I'm nowhere near the speed I used to have when I played Little League, but yea. I need to get back to running.

PS. I watched the Super Bowl halftime show and sadly I don't know any of Springsteen's songs. But I do know that they're trying to get acts that won't stir up controversy a la Janet Jackson. Somehow I couldn't help but notice the FIRST thing he does when he gets the stage though. Maybe it's because I'm older know and I'm not aware of the little quirks of life, but did anybody else notice that he was on his knees, the mic stand in between his legs thinking...how is this not awkward?

PSS. Ciara, fuck you. You turned an amazing oldies song in Simply Red | If You Don't Know Me By Now and stripped it just to turn part of it's chorus of "He will never ever love you." Not only are you not even close to key, I don't know what you're doing with your voice to make it even worse. It hurts my ears, I hope your song tanks because that's what I foresee.

Amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv-bFQFDwRA

Worthless: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB20-srRI2U

Song of the day: Jay Rock | All My Life f. Lil' Wayne

Vegas/China Dream

2008-12-15T11:49:00.000-08:00

my dream last night involved me in las vegas on a pitstop with my family. we ended up in chinatown, which was underground somehow and that reminded me of when i went back to china and most of the markets were underground. it was interesting because i felt some kind of power because i knew english, and everybody was speaking chinese the entire time as if they didn't, so my brain felt as if it was in china but i didn't realize i was in vegas until i woke up.

i really wanted the food there, so yea i dreamnt of food. i got the usual hot food thing, like panda, 2 item combos with rice and i was kinda disappointed because i was so excited about it in the first place. so much so that i walked to each food place trying to find just one that i'd enjoy. it was really crowded, so much that i remember some old white guy who had a translator accidentally shove me aside, but then we conversed afterwards. the last thing i remember is knockin over a giant box, that inside was some kinda wine. there were two white girls at the counter and just me speaking english was astonishing to them. it's as if i really had dug a hole to china...but i knew it was vegas, what the crap?

triggers: I was at TGIF last night with Katie, talking about Vegas.

I've been eating the 2 item combos from 99 Ranch a lot recently.

Two nights ago at the work party there was a family that was going to go to China soon, and I remember mentioning that I haven't gone in a long time.

Sleeptime

2008-10-18T23:07:00.000-07:00

For the first time in a long time I'll be sleeping by 12. Crazy.

You know what else is crazy? The fact that in the next 5-10 years, I will be attending my friends' weddings. Especially because I've never gone to one myself, but chances are I'll be bombarded with invitations. I'm getting old. Who knew?

6:45am for a breast cancer walk? Sign me up! Def. not a morning person.
Greek IV Conference in Long Beach next weekend. STOKED.

Holy shit i can time travel.

2008-10-03T23:03:00.000-07:00

In my dreams. As in this morning, when I decided to take a nap. It was intense, action packed, and best of all amazing.

I was also able to teleport, my most desired superpower, right after my hybrid had run out of gas and was then smashed into by another car in an empty parking structure...boom, teleported back in time to a party of some sort and because I had teleported, EVERYTHING changed. I can't remember which party, but all the events that happened that night were shifted somehow.

So yea. I can time travel. Who wants to come along?

Padre Gold

2008-09-27T10:58:00.001-07:00

Last way was a lot of fun.

The bus ride was one of the best parts as always, so many people. But friggin cops...providing that saran wrap-cockblock of the night. Same cop that wrote me up in Marshall back then...fuck him.

High school gym dance set up anyone? It's okay. They had an ATM...

Shake that monkey.

Eclipse was good. Rush SigEp.

Life Goals

2008-08-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

Simple stupid shit, like idiots who fail to realize it takes 1 extra second to lift a toilet seat up, annoy me. If you have to piss, fellas, I know you love to try to aim it through that gap but I'd say a good 85% of the time, especially incorporating drunken times, you're gonna splatter. And when the time comes to actually sit down because you're:
a) taking a shit
b) tired as hell from the day and don't want to stand anymore
c) both, and want to read a newspaper or whatever other reading material is around
d) trying not to splatter on yourself or the toilet seat

I don't want to sit on your piss. Yes I know it's sterile and clean, hell even potable need be. But I'd prefer not to sit on your piss. Simple right?

And also, go green. Most regular public restrooms use a 1.6 gpf (gallon per flush) toilet, but the urinals are use 1.0 gpf. If you have to piss, make it quick. You want to stand up and piss anyways, why splatter?

And I've decided that every person should do at least one significant excursion or something that is life altering, especially for the people around them. Like volunteer work in another country, or something to that effect. And I've found my calling. Somewhere in Haiti. The poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere that also has to deal with lovely hurricanes every summer. They share the island of Hispanola with the Dominican Republic (1/3 is Haiti, the other 2/3 is DR) and it sucks because the DR is very well off in comparison. Also, being a francophone nation, I'd love to improve my francais while I'm there. I think it'd be a neat experience. Especially after graduating where I have no money, like most of their citizens, to truly experience what it's like. Recently I was listening to NPR (the shit) and they talked about how poor Haiti is so that people eat "dirt biscuits", essentially taking a handful of dirt to fill your stomach, so that they would feel less hungry. That's awful. Why can't we do anything for these people? And it's such a beautiful island too. So yea, that's somewhere I'd definitely like to go to. Haiti. Wyclef Jean, I'm lookin out for you. Party to Damascus.

Young People Fucking.

2008-08-14T18:09:00.001-07:00

In case you haven't see it, it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. And it's fucking hilarious. Why? Because it's a realistic movie with an outrageous title.

http://www.ypfthemovie.com/ in case you wanted to see the trailer

Best sequence in the movie? Between Kristin and Matt, who are best friends who want to become friends with benefits.

Kristen: Sometimes a fuck is just a fuck. It's grindin your shit and emptying your balls and falling asleep right after you cum. And that's what you and I are gonna do to one another because that's what friends are for. So stop fucking up the game plan and down that shot because after that your old buddy Kris is gonna blow you.

Hot, confident women.

We're going streaking!

2008-08-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

Dipshit driver of the day?

You're driving a nice new Toyota Prius. You're saving gas, and the Earth.
You're also driving the entire time with your hi-beams on me while tailgating me. Is that necessary dipshit? Didn't think so.

We're going streaking!
What NOT to do on your 21st:
http://journalstar.com/articles/2008/07/17/news/local/doc487f5c7bf317d913853775.txt

Too cute to pass up

2008-08-11T14:24:00.001-07:00

This was too cute to pass up. In case you didn't know, PostSecret is amazing.
Mrao?

The weather has been so nice recently, how could you ever want to get anything done? The beach was prefect yesterday. The pre-beach lunch buffet was also a good idea.

I hate the GMAT. It should die a slow burning death. How nice it would be to just go straight into business school right after....

More Driving.

2008-08-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

Idiots drivers. Why are you the bulk of San Diego drivers?

Lady in a Dodge Durango. Don't think I wouldn't remember you. You and your shit ass driving skills. How did you get a license? Oh wait, you can get up to, what, 15 mistakes on that thing and still be licensed? It's pitiful our system really.

You don't drive all the way to the divider lines when you're the only car in that lane. At least you weren't tailgating me. Instead you were ahead of me, pumping your breaks every 10 seconds because you were tailgating the person in front. And then in the far left lane, you're about to knock my rear-view mirrors off by hugging the right side of the lane. Is that necessary? Then your stupid ass cuts in front of me to get on the freeway. Great.

Now you're hugging the far right lane and there's a slow ass driver in front of you. But no, I'm on your left side this time and you had to cut in front.

The irony in all of this? Behind me came a reasonable, sensible Dodge Durango driver. Who knew how to use his blinkers and actually change lanes without hugging the side closest to the next driver.

You dipshit driver. I hope you get what you deserve.

Get Stupid FCC

2008-07-31T23:47:00.001-07:00

On the drive home from GMAT classes [which I not only abhor, but detest greatly], I heard Mac Dre's Get Stupid play on Z90. And they censored the most ridic. parts of the song. So much that I was really confused. Who is Z90 catering to now, retired old Republicans?

"This beats poundin cutty, where'd you get it?
Oh you ain't know? **** did it"

How do you edit out Dr. Dre? It's not a 4 letter word.
It's not code name for anything like drugs or sex.
I've heard many a times "roll a Philly" as in rollin a blunt, but that's never been edited out.
FCC. You're retarded. Get stupid with me dammit.

There was another part of the song edited out, and that too was a stupid edit. This all reminds me of a segment on Jimmy Kimmel's talk show about "unnecessary censorship" and it's hilarious with him just bleeping random words out to make it sound worse than it was intended. Ugh.

The Other Day

2008-07-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

Some douchebag driver was tailgating me and I really just wanted to pump my brakes just a little bit to get his irked, but then I saw this FATTY dent in his front bumper.

Some people just don't learn do they?

Take one quick look back

2008-06-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

On April 28th I said I'd write something everyday. Whoops. That def. did not happen as you can clearly see.

I'm off to vacation to Vegas on Monday for a week. Haven't finalized what exactly what we're doing, but I think we'd be making stops in the Grand Canyon and other things nearby in that giant Mojave Desert. I expect 110 degree weather. Fuck my life.

What else is new? I think that I've finally sorta decided what I want to do in the future, as in past this upcoming senior year of college, and potentially the first few years of living in "the real world" and dealing with society. It's exciting, but scary at the same time. I hate that all these fliers and brochures about graduate school make it look so exciting, but the idea of being out there is somewhat terrifying. I need to move out of this house soon.

Good God I'm going to miss the seniors that are graduating.

Little Brother Intelligence

2008-05-26T20:51:00.001-07:00

"Please don't smoke in my office! I enjoy sex more than you enjoy smoking and you don't see me screwing in your office."

These kids these days.

My Pledge.

2008-04-28T00:26:00.000-07:00

I pledge to write something here everyday. So that when I look back, I'll have a better glimpse of what this quarter, these weeks, the months, what all of that meant to me. Of the mundane things I do on a daily basis, to the exciting times that I get to witness or be a part of.

Today was church. Then meeting. Visitors as usual, sloppy as usual with the savage attacking of food that is brought in...as usual in traditional SigEp fashion.

Tired by 1030, but convinced to keep watching episodes of Lost. Currently on Season 2, Episode 11: The Hunting Party. To date, that's roughly 35 hours of TV that I've consumed. Holy crap.

Baseball.

2008-03-30T18:56:00.000-07:00

Spring break is over technically in 5 hours, practically in 16 hours at 11AM for my first class Monday. But this break had me thinking, especially with me watching The Rookie just tonight.

Baseball. America's past time. I've missed it.

I'm glad baseball season is coming up, only the best time of the year. No one can deny the fresh cut grass, the fine dirt that always has a way of showing up in your pants towards the end of the game, the sound of aluminum smattering leather...all of it. Yea Little League, with all 6 innings of action, those early Saturday mornings with the game right next to a girl's softball game, which always was a good 10 times louder than our games...endless cheers, chants, sorority anyone? Just kidding.

So yea I never made it to Pony League, I could have signed up before high school, but I think the whole moving to Torrey Pines made me insanely bitter and therefore, fuck it.

Kinda regret it though. Now, I was no star athlete. Hardly from it. I was a lousy pitcher with a decent curveball and a sloppy splitter, a Mendoza-line hugging batting average, but I thought I was a pretty good baserunner and I covered center field pretty well.

But I guess it takes a good ole baseball movie to make you fall back in love eh?

The Rookie. You know, the one with Dennis Quaid, the one where he throws a baseball past one of those speed limit radar things and it shows up as 76 mph...and then the lights flickers and then it shows as 96. Yea it's magical. But I love that it's based on a real story of a guy, who through tragedy [tearing apart his shoulder in the minor leagues] had to give up on his dream of becoming a baseball player in the majors. Then he goes on to teach science in high school, and through a bet with his baseball team that he coaches [they make the playoffs, he tries out for the pros again] he becomes a Tampa Bay Devil Ray [now just the "Tampa Bay Rays"] and strikes out his first batter. It's magical. Note that he's 35 when he turns pro, I mean it's really only in baseball where you can be so far away from the game, yet always at it's roots.

Roots. Baseball started as a humble game, a Civil War time game with sticks and rocks and soldiers. It grew, got spread to other American military bases around the world like Japan and Korea, and it became more than just a sport, it became a part of their culture too. People view it as such a hard to watch, difficult to understand, and slow game. But behind that, realize the beauty.

Only in baseball do you score when the OPPONENT has the ball. And there is no clock and the game lasts 9 innings, unless there's a tie.

It's in their hands. And face it, when they're up 2 strikes on you, it really doesn't matter because you're still good with foul balls and working the count. It's where close counts, but in the game of inches, it all boils down to nerves. The game is truly 90% mental, 10% physical. Sure you can roid it up like Barry Bonds, which increases your bat speed, but in the end it's mental. It's anticipating the pitcher's pitch, watching for spin, watching where his arm delivery comes from, realizing where the fielders are positioned, if there are baserunners, how the fielders hold the runners to their bases. It's a game of inches and everything happens at once. As the pitcher, you have to guess what the batter's guessing. You dictate the speed of the game, and you're grateful for the 7 fielders behind you hoping they'll dive for the ball and hustle for each play.

In basketball, the star player dreams of having 10 seconds left on the clock, and draining that last second fake-out the defender and swish to win the game. In hockey it's one on one with the goalie with 10 seconds wide open ready for a shot. In football it's 10 seconds on the clock, the quarterback scrambling out of the pocket heaving towards his receiver. In baseball, it's not 10 seconds, it's the 3 balls, 2 strikes, bases loaded, bottom of the 9th inning, fireballer pitcher on the mound and you hit the grand slam out of the park to win the game.

I love having no clock. Call the game slow, but I think it takes as long as it needs and that's perfection.

Baseball has the greatest fans, who live and die with each pitch, who realize yes you're supposed to boo at your rival team the WHOLE game. Who desperately don't want Chicago to sell the naming rights to it's beloved Wrigley Field, a beautiful 92 year old park. Then there's Fenway Park in Boston, 4 years older than Wrigley, and just a legend by itself. Hell I even miss good ole Jack Murphy Stadium where the Padres used to play with those beautiful palm trees.

So boys will always be boys. And baseball is just that sport that every father dreams of having his son play, while they play catch in the yard. I hope it forever remains America's past time.

Easter 2008

2008-03-23T00:56:00.000-07:00

For the first time ever, even despite the fact that I am not a Catholic, I made it through Lent. It wasn't 100% perfect, as in I did have meat on Fridays, but I actually stuck through with the 40 days of giving up something. And honestly, I'm quite proud of it. I always suck with New Years Resolutions, but for God, I can def. live another 40 days devoid of something.

And hell, I might even wake up at 830 and make it to service at 930 for KUMC. It's been too long. But then again my first ever church service was at KUMC on Easter Sunday, two years ago. Tradition. Roots.

Thanks be to God.

Baby It's Cold Outside

2008-01-09T17:43:00.000-08:00

It's 2008. Time for resolutions, reflection of the past year. But you know what? I'll sum it up this way. 2007 was fun, it wasn't perfect, I've grown and learned a lot, and I hope to make it the reason why I'm successful in 2008. I look forward to 2008, the madness, the intense studying, everything all put together. So cheers. I hope everybody has a great 2008, let's make it memorable in a good way.

Marques Houston - Do You Mind
Jay Sean - Ride It

Christmas

2007-12-22T00:15:00.000-08:00

is truly the best time of year. Yet, with the media blitz, the movies, the everything, everybody falls in love and wants to spend a Christmas with that special someone, and a New Years too. That's what I want. Damn you Hollywood. True love please.

Not 10/10

2007-10-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

I work in downtown La Jolla and I stumbled into a very ironic situation.

You see, La Jolla is famous for being mad expensive and ritz-y. Therefore even if you're an employee [temp, part-time, or prez, whatever] you're not entitled to free parking anywhere. Except for the 30 minute, 2 hour, and 3 hour spots. That's probably why everybody is always gone all of a sudden. To enjoy a nice break and move their car. Personally I park in these nice 3 hour spots that overlook La Jolla Cove, mmm.

Anyways, I was moving my car after a break and on the radio was Ludacris | Move Bitch. I was going to make a left, and of course there are some old people crossing the road, one of which was in a wheelchair. I immediately turned off the radio.

Dig this: Gorilla Zoe | Hood Figga

Hawaii 2007

2007-09-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

Gotta recap my 2nd summer vacation of 07:
I am never traveling with my family ever again. Despite how much I love my parents, they can very muchso be the stereotypical annoying tourists, asking the dumbest questions, etc.

Saturday, September 15

Left San Diego around 6 am for a 10 am Hawaiian Airlines flight at LAX
My parents basically expected all the people at the counter to check you in, label your luggage, make sure it's on the plane, find seating, etc. It's too bad they were standing right in front of the electronic confirmation device and that was ridiculously easy to use...gah
At the security checkpoint, the TSA employee who asks you for your ID and boarding pass asked my mom for her ID. She showed her driver's license and boarding pass. The TSA lady asked my mom to take her driver's license out of her wallet to show her, and my mom throws a hissy fit, eyes rolling included. Afterwards, of course she has some very lovely things to say about the quality of employees at the airport. I think there's a very basic idea to all of this and this is my advice. Chill. The. Fuck. Out. It's an airport, it's traveling and vacation time. If you're gonna bitch about the poor quality of employees at the airport, that's fine. Just remember that you'll get onto your plane towards your VACATION pissed off and annoyed. That's up to you. You think these people enjoy waking up in the wee hours of the morning to show up to the airport and deal with thousands of tourists daily? Yea not quite the most wonderful thing you'd want to wake up to every morning. So cut them some slack, and just listen to what they have to say instead of bitching. /rant
I felt bad because I got one of the last decent meals and the lady sitting next to me couldn't have what I was having...which was fairly good food...
Slept through Ocean's 13
Arrived 5 1/2 hours later around 1 pm, exhausted and checked into the Ala Moana Hotel.
Had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.. Never had it before...Hawaii and I think we have one downtown.

Sunday, September 16

My mom had her ASBMR meetings all day, and so my dad, brother, and I headed to the pool. We went to the Ala Moana Beach Park and tried to snorkel, saw absolutely nothing. Just lots of sand and rocks, and the water wasn't very clear.
Had lunch in the Ala Moana Shopping Mall...holy crap that place is huge. It's like Fashion Valley combined with Horton Plaza. While there, my parents saw some old friends from Japan [this meeting had tons of people from Japan] and I was introduced to their daughter. Too bad she couldn't speak English and I couldn't speak Japanese. I will say that girl sure could dress. I feel hella awkward being introduced to family friends' daughters...
Had dinner at Ruby Tuesday, another place that's prevalent in the mainland, and of course my first time is in Hawaii.

Monday, September 17

Mom had meetings again, so the gang went to Waikiki Beach. Roughly a 15 minute walk, and we set up camp near the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Clear water, saw hella sea urchins, some crabs, and schools of fishes.
On the way to Waikiki, I just remembered that there was this man who was pulling out of a parking garage around...Ala Wai? And he pulled out too far and I was just about to cross the road. For the first time in my life, the driver pulls back and gestures that he's sorry. Does that happen in California? Hell no it doesn't. Props to that guy.
Dinner with Professor Suda, my parents mentors in Japan at Roy's. Delicious. He apparently was awarded with the highest honor at the ASBMR meeting, so congrats to him. I haven't seen him since he last visited San Diego, which was a longgg time ago.
Again, my parents saw some more friends, I was introduced to yet another daughter. The first one from Sunday was 20, I'm 19, and this girl was 18. What the hell?

Tuesday, September 18

We really wanted to go to Hanauma Bay, but of course because we didn't plan, they're closed on Tuesdays. I'll def. have to come back and check it out.
Ended up going back to Waikiki, this time taking the trolley to the Duke Kahanamoku statue. My dad asked if the trolley went to point F, the statue numerous times when the trolley pulling up explicitly said it was the Pink Line and the map said Pink Line Map... Then one trolley left while I was wandering around and my mom acted as if it was the last trolley ever, giving me an earful. Jeez, it's a vacation chill they come every 10 minutes. More snorkeling, it seemed promising, esp. with me seeing a big school of fish first time I went out, but then after that almost nothing except coral that decided to cut me. Yea thanks. Tried surfing, and I'll admit I sucked ass. Big time. Couldn't even stand up a single time, and ended up chafing like a fool using a softtop board as well as a standard board. Someday I will learn how to surf. You shall see.
Dinner at Kobe Japanese Steakhouse. Much thanks to Mr. Ribao and the rest of the family for the hospitality and the amazing food. I'll def. have to come back and visit. Yum. Forgot to take a picture, oh well next time.

Wednesday, September 19

Eaaaaarly morning flight at 8 am, which meant getting up at 5 am. Gah. Traffic on H1. Dude, Hawaiian freeways have traffic at 6 am. Traffic sucks.
Saw Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and that movie sucked. But I can live with a Jessica Alba movie. Mmm. The first one wasn't that great either to be honest.
Got to LAX around 4 pm, decided that it was smart to drive through rush hour traffic back home...didn't get home til 6:30. Starvin' like Marvin. Typical post-vacation ramen dinner mmm.

Thatsssss it. Summer is almost over, I'm looking forward to the all campus dance Sunday, Week 0 festivities, and Fall Rush. Can't believe it's almost Fall Quarter. Gotta rock it. I start work on Tuesday, 8:30 am oof. We'll see how this goes. Good night.

Annoyed as fuck.

2007-09-13T20:39:00.000-07:00

It's one of those days where every little annoyance bugs you incessantly.

Yesterday I had a 5-panel drug test. Never done that before, but yea this whole pre-job hiring stuff is pretty intensely legit.

Here's how today went:
The water purifier in our garage, it's this giant cylindrical tank, is leaking. What the fuck. There's a wooden table set up next to it where I've got a TV on top. Hooked to that is a PS2 and DDR pads, and the back legs of the table are starting to melt away basically. Gah. And then there's this crap with everybody overwatering their lawns and that leads to water building up on the pre-driveway part, you know like against the curb. And it's hot as hell recently, and so hella green shit has been growing in those nice little puddles, and no matter how much you sweep em into the sewer, they keep coming back because, you guessed it, everybody and they mamas is overwatering.

That was 5-10 minutes before I left for my fingerprinting, no biggie but just kinda irked. Then there was fingerprinting. Mind you I drove around for a fuckin good hour or so, damn you Google maps. It's not entirely Google's fault, they gave accurate directions, but instead of offering to tell me to make a right onto a large prominent street, it told me to take a right at a basically unmarked street. How the hell was I supposed to know? I drove up to Oceanside basically, that was friggin retarded. Past the 76 and everything. Granted I was supposed to go to the Carlsbad Police Department. CarlsBAD. Bah. I get there eventually, 1/2 an hour before they were stopping the fingerprinting thing and of course, I'm appointment-less. Here's where I'm pissed off. Wachovia utilizes a company called ChoicePoint to handle the administrative things as far as fingerprinting and drug screening go. They were really good with helping me get things set up and even sent me a fingerprinting kit overnight express and it got there the morning after. Great service so far. However, the lady who was helping me on the phone told me that as long as I went on a Thursday afternoon from 1-3:30, then it was all gravy at the C-bad PD. It wasn't. I needed an appointment and I obviously didn't have one. So I had to schedule an appointment for next week Thursday. What kinda crap is that? Thanks ChoicePoint receptionist #1. As for receptionist #2, she was good. She helped me rearranged my appointment so tomorrow I'm going to the YMCA off Camino Del Rio & the 8 to get this fingerprinting business handled. Gah. I better fucking get hired after all this here and there crap.

I've been having some vivid dreams recently, I can't remember all of them, or any at all actually, but I think it has to do with me sleeping deeper...you know why? Because I've been sleeping with the window open for the past week. Apparently that helps you sleep deeper and I've gotta say it's worked so far. One involved me on this crazy train/walking sidewalk from UCSD to SDSU. The hell?

I'm off to Hawaii in 2 days. I'm stoked. Sorry Lisa, we'll roadtrip it next time I promise. :]

Then there's Fall Quarter. Super stoked. So much to do, so much to do. I will most def. be keepin busy and that's something I'm going to hate and appreciate at the same time. Time to time managed effectively, instead of lounging around. Put that booty in motion.

September 3, 2007: Labor Day

2007-09-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

Today you might be the object of someone else's attack. What did you do to deserve it? Maybe nothing, but right now that doesn't seem to matter. You still need to deal with the issues. Nevertheless, avoid getting hooked into complex situations just because you love someone deeply. Ultimately, everyone must take responsibility for his or her own problems.

Wow. What the fuck. Have you ever been frustruated with trying to explain something that's inexplicable? As in 'do you have a plan, are you prepared etc etc etc' and you answer with 'yes...' but that doesn't even begin to explain how you really feel? Because you're tired of dealing with the same fucking questions and coming up with 'new' explanations for each 'new' question? Gah.

Here's to the weekend.

2007-08-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

I'm looking forward to this weekend. This past weekend I feel like I've been everywhere. Yesterday felt like a lazy Sunday, no work, went to LJ Shores with the fam and it was nice. I'm really grateful for the past few weeks for how the whole family thing has been good. Can't live without it.

This weekend looks like it should be good. Lots of people to see, things to do. School is creeping up, I can't believe we just finished week 3 of summer school. Time flies for sure.

You know what's interesting? I think Lindy Hop and West Coast Swing are basically like breakdancing for white people. I kinda wanna learn WCS, it just seems like so much fun and and it's fast paced.

So anyone got $40 lying around so I can get this? :]

Sometimes you just need to let it all out.

2007-07-22T19:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I broke down and just let it all out. A good good cry. I think it was mostly a “I’m so frustrated with everything and especially myself that I’ll be frustrated with other people” and I rubbed off on my parents completely wrong and that lead to a huge misunderstanding and well yea. Bad. There’s something undeniable about getting upset, swearing, and throwing stuff. Strangely therapeutic. I think it’s the typical short-tempered Korean male syndrome. Sorry.
I rocked my Econ midterm and got a legitimate A. Not one of those 75%–>A via curve dealios. No idea how good that feels. Especially with people telling me that Econ2 [although a lower div] was somewhat confusing. Nerdgasm… ;]
I’m extremely grateful for the people in my life who put up with my antics, my laziness, and my stubbornness. I certainly question why some of yall do it. Then again I do the same for you suckers…haha just kiddin. But no seriously, thanks a million. Thanks for making me feel less and less like a tard, and more like…myself?
I was pretty late to church today, like 25 minutes late. And still I didn’t miss out on too much. I’m pretty proud of myself, figuring in the past if I was late for church, I’d just go back to sleep. Dedication mmm.
I’m off to Yogurt World with some peoples woohoo. Patty you’re not allowed to leave us. Otherwise…
Will I be up in LA this coming Saturday? We shall see…we shall see. :] Partay!
I start working for AFLAC tomorrow at 9. I hate waking up before 9 :[
And oh yea. If I haven’t seen you this summer, what the fuck is wrong with you? Why haven’t you called? Jeez. That’s all I ask of you. Call me! I know yall are busy, but we can all spare an hour sometime and grab lunch, dinner, desert, whatever you fancy. I know I def. owe Chris a visit, sorry bro. We gotta weekend something yea?
Beach naps are the best. I had a real good time today. I probably got burned, but I def. feel exhausted being out in the sun
I need to keep practicing piano. It’s nice to be able to pick up sheet music and play some popular songs ie. Because Of You, or some Final Fantasy music, or what have you
Nothing beats a California burrito or carne asada fries. Not even In-N-Out sorry.

Aspirations

2007-07-11T15:42:00.000-07:00

♣ Goals

Ace my Econ classes. Impossible? Probably. But I figure I’m only taking 1 class per session so if I read and review everyday I should be good.
Land a paying job by next weekend. Hopefully somewhere out there is willing to take on a part-timer who can work all weekend long and sparingly during the weekdays.
Get out more often. Meet up with random people just because you haven’t seen em in a while.
Exercise 3+ times a week. I did 4 last week so this is very possible.
Relearn good posture. Yea I slouch in my chair a lot, but at least when walking I’m pretty sure I’m losin an inch or two by walking like a tard.
Anybody remember the Jaime Foxx Oscar acceptance speech? It was about his grandmother: She told me, stand up straight, shoulders back. Act like you’ve got some sense…She said act like you’ve been someplace.”

♦ Work

Econ class really isn’t that bad. Don’t know anybody in my class, but there’s a Letty clone. I wonder what her name is hmm…
Started my IFIS internship last week on Monday and got up to speed. The people I work with are awesome. Good times indeed.
Making to-do lists are easy. Executing…well that’s where I need some work on. But I’m getting there.

♥ Random

Yesterday my fam and I were eating dinner. My dad made some of those red bean mochis, the frozen kind. After my brother started eating one, he said, “BLAH. This tastes like nothing!” I have always loved those mochis, and so I proceeded to eat mine. What the freak! It was pretty much all dough. Where was the filling? I’m used to the kind that had the red bean crushed into a zillion pieces and usually oozing out of the dough. Nope not this time. I proceed to say blah myself…when Stephen starts cracking up. Who couldn’t help but laugh at this retarded situation? My parents chime in, and pretty soon we’re all choking. My brother says, “Are these cheaper?” and my mom responds “Nope. The other ones were buy one get one free…” We all die in a span of 10 minutes. Definitely a really nice, happy moment. I live for these.

1st Post

2007-07-09T23:49:00.000-07:00

This is the first post.
This blog was created July 9, 2007 @ 11:49 PM.
This blog is going to have mostly bullet points that get to the point…
But hopefully illustrate complete thoughts
It’s summertime and I know for sure that my English skills will deteriorate with my brain so hopefully writing in this time to time keeps me somewhat intelligent before Fall Quarter starting September 27th.
Ma français est terrible. Je suis en retard. I just made a French joke wow. I really hope I can relearn some of those 4 years of French classes.
I need to learn Korean. I feel so uncultured at times.

Buona Notte.