dogs, health ratings, seperate checks

So after playing beach volleyball yesterday, we go out to eat. As we're sitting outside, enjoying our meal, a car alarm goes off. Everyone sitting on the patio turns and looks, and lo and behold, there is a dog in the car. Sucks to be him. Actually, sucks to be anybody on the patio, because the dog set off the alarm twice. The owner will probably never know.

California is the only state that I am aware of that has the health ratings for restaurants. Basically, every restaurant or place that serves food/drinks has to post a sign that has a rating, A down to D or F? A being the best. Funny thing is, ever since I started noticing them (probably like 5 years ago) I have never once heard anyone say "Let's not go eat there because they are rated C". If anything, all I hear is that Asian restaurants with lower ratings have better tasting food. I'm so glad the rating system works as it was intended. If Amir lived here, I bet he would only go to places that had A's.

The other things I've noticed is that not once has any restaurant in California given us seperate checks. Maybe that's just not done here? Maybe it's cuz I don't have very many college age friends here? I dunno.

grocery shopping

Just got back from grocery shopping. Bought $50 worth of groceries. Learned 2 things:

1) College age kids are easy to spot. They only buy snacks, drinks, and food that is instant or semi-instant. Example, the most complex thing I bought was dried mac & cheese. Runners-up include frozen food, canned soups, and canned spaghetti-o's.

2) Never buy more groceries than you can carry at one time. I found this out when I got back home. I'm so used to buying food for a family, like when I was living at home. When you're only shopping for 1, it's a lot different. I can't finish all the food before it expires.

Ah, the lessons you learn while growing up. Growing up sucks. I want to be a Toy's R Us kid.

oh yeah

I finally lost at poker last night. The first time I've lost since we started which was probably like 5 weeks ago. I had 2 Queens in my hand. The flop had a 5, an 8, and a Queen. I went all in. Pat (the guy I beat on the first night with a miracle hand) calls. We both show our hands, and he has a pair of 8s. I'm thinking I'm going to win. The turn comes out. It's an 8. What the???! What are the odds of him getting 4 eights in a hand???? The river was not the 4th queen, so I lost. Oh well. Only $5.

Just, you said you know how to play poker, so I'm expecting you to understand what I just said.

Just voted

The title should be read "I just voted" not "Justina voted". All of you who know my sister know what I mean.

Anyway, just finished punching out my absentee voter ballot. It took me about 1 hour 45 min. I read up on all the candidates and issues on the internet while I was voting. This is much more convenient than going to the polls. And what's up with our ballot this year? There are seriously like 1 million questions. How are you supposed to remember all that when you go to the polls? I guess you can write them down or something.

I hope they receive my ballot before the deadline. I wouldn't want to feel like I voted and it didn't even get counted. Wow, that would suck. Here's hoping that the mail is speedy.

And for those of you who were wondering (I know you all are)...................................................I voted yes on issue #4. Whew. It feels good to get that out in the open. I know I'll sleep well tonight.

news for today

at&t and cingular finally merged to become the biggest wireless company in the US. apple came out with a new photo ipod. GTA: San Andreas came out. they are now selling hypo-allergenic cats. Stan, you can get one. www.allerca.com

and finally, some breaking news: it's raining here in LA, and my clothes dryer broke. at least my car will be clean again.

been a while

Well, it's been almost 2 weeks since I last posted. Lisa's wedding went well. It was really tiring being an usher. Her wedding coordinator was a very fobby MC for the reception. Stan and Melissa, don't hire her.

Nan-Rong's wedding went well, also. Dad did the ceremony and forgot to have them kiss. Good catch, Stan and Melissa. Good thing they whispered to me from the side so I could remind Dad. Stan and Melissa, don't have Dad do your wedding.

Speaking of weddings, there have been soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many people getting engaged. A lot of them I don't know. Just friends from people at church. Here's the ones I know. My cousin Eddie and Wanda, cousin David and Steph, cousin Sandy and her lawyer fiancee (or fiance according to some people) and of course Stan and Melissa. All next summer. Plus, the whole Israel trip with Sherry and Amir's gonna be next summer too. Way too crazy.

It was nice to see all of the relatives again. Granny left this afternoon. She was the last one to leave, as far as I know. She said her goodbye in Japanese, so I don't really know what she said, but I know she said something about God. She's such a nice sweet lady. I hope I am still as on fire for God as she is when I'm that age.

Dude, another midterm tomorrow. All these projects and stuff. Man, lately I've been totally wanting to drop out of school. I'm too lazy. I have figured out that I don't know how to work hard at school. Ever since I was little, school has been too easy for me. I never developed the skills to study hard. It's coming back to bite me now.

California phrase of the day: making bank - to make a big profit or to have a large income. Dude, I'm not making bank. I only make $10/hr.

I've never heard that phrase til I got here.

hectic

Well, my mom is here, my granny is here. Melissa is coming tomorrow. Stan, Just and Naomi's family are coming on Fri. Dad is coming on Sat. The soap opera has already begun. I don't really think it's appropriate to put on my blog, but suffice it to say that this wedding is not without it's fair share of yelling matches and frustration levels going through the roof. Be warned, I heard it is the result of a big wedding.

Another poker night (today's Wednesday), and I won $18. We've switched over from the everybody-put-in-$5 with winner-take-all to casino style. You can buy in at any time, as many times as you want and you'll receive chips that are equal to your buy in amount. You can also cash out at any time. This makes it so that anyone can leave at any time and everyone doesn't have to wait around until there is only 1 winner. They all think I am good at poker because I won the first two nights and I am the "big winner" of tonight. It's the cards. And God loves me. Haha. Really, I don't know why I keep on winning.

Lots of schoolwork to do. And SCUBA stuff. And wedding stuff. Man, I still haven't come up with my wedding speech for Nan-Rong's wedding. I really need to start working hard at my school stuff. I've been slacking off way too much.

gmail invites

I still have 6 gmail invites if anybody wants them. Let me know what email you want it sent to. Also, if you have any friends who want a gmail account, you can let me know too.

Have and have nots

Today while I was on the phone, I walked outside (better reception). I started thinking, pretty much anywhere in the US, you can walk outside barefoot without even thinking about it. But, back when I was in Taiwan, there's NO WAY you could walk outside barefoot. Everywhere there was concrete or paved roads. Virtually no grass (in Taipei). And the roads are nasty. Dirt everywhere.

Just got me thinking how blessed we Americans have it. Unlike some other country I know with a lot of Americans in it right now.

Where am I?

Ok, good news. My computer works again. My motherboard wasn't working because I screwed up the BIOS. I bought another one, because I can't wait to get my old one fixed.

I feel like I'm in another country (which has an economy that's the 5th largest in the world). I've noticed that there are some current trends around campus. First, retro bikes. They're like curved and have these huge handle bars. And no gears. Everyone rides them. And that's a lot of people considering probably like 40% or more of USC students ride bikes. Another thing. Skateboards. I have never seen so many people skateboarding in my life. Gotta be a SoCal thing. Also, pleated miniskirts. The first week of school, all I saw was the same girl around campus. Blonde hair, pleated miniskirt, riding her bike. Oh, and the other girl, Asian, pleated miniskirt, riding her bike. Our school was full of twins that week. Not anymore, though. Everyone is wearing long pants and stuff cuz they think it's so "cold". Whatever, Southern Califonians don't know what cold is.

Another thing I've noticed is the prevalence of laptops. Everyone (almost) at church has one and they just bring them to each other's houses and use the wireless. Actually, I've found that students in Taiwan are very computer savvy. Even the girls. It was very surprising. People in California are too, but that's probably because of Silicon Valley. People in Ohio aren't so much. Interesting.

I went to Fry's Electronics today to buy a motherboard. This is another reason I like California. Yup, because of a computer store. That's how great it is. Man, I wish we had those in Ohio.

Presidential Debate #2 tomorrow night. Hopefully I can sit down and watch the whole thing, unlike last time when I had to babysit for Tabitha, Kayla, and Garrett (Joe's kids). They are way too wild and energetic to let me watch TV.

Off to SCUBA class. I'll go pee first....

Just pee in your suit!

Our men's group played poker last Wednesday. $5 buy in, and you can buy in again once within the first hour. Winner take all. As we were getting in close to the first hour, lots of people started going all in so they could buy in again. Anyway, I won, but I'll spare you the details since I think only Stan knows how to play poker and I already told him about my miraculous win.

Saturday, we went to the beach again. Boogie boarded, but the waves were really crazy. Big and unpredictable. We played volleyball again, and went to eat dinner, then watched Garden State. Pretty good movie, lots of good memorable quotes about life. I'm glad I found people who like to watch indie films. A lot of times, they are much better than your standard action flick/chick flick/comedy/adventure movie that is peddled to the masses.

Anyway, something I noticed at USC. There are a lot of asians, of course. And a lot of them are from Taiwan/China/overseas. One thing you'll notice if you go to a foreign country (Taiwan) is that the girls hold hands a lot. They walk around hanging on each other's arms, giggling and stuff. Very....uh.....different. But when I was walking around campus, I saw it here too. I think someone should tell them that isn't an "acceptable" practice here in the States.

I went to my first SCUBA class yesterday. We basically learned the basics of pressure/volume/density and all that good stuff. Lots of precautions you have to take to make sure you don't pop your eardrums, or make your lungs explode. But the best part is this: (quote from my teacher) "There are two types of divers, those who pee in their suits, and those who lie about it." Great. So basically, you are diving, right? And you're underwater for like an hour. And the water pressure increases so it makes you want to go pee. What do you do? Go to the surface and find a bathroom? Nope. You just go right there in your suit. That's why he said we would all want to get our own booties (SCUBA shoes). The pee just goes down, and has nowhere else to go, so it just sits in your booties. Doesn't that just make all of you want to learn to SCUBA dive? I know I do!!!

First SCUBA session in the pool today. Hope I don't have to pee. We don't actually wear our wetsuits until the 4th pool session, but still.

Dave and Busters tomorrow for men's group. Maybe we'll play poker again. Maybe I'll win again. Nah.

Anybody watch the Presidential debate? Anybody gonna watch the VP debate? Didn't think so.