In an ideal world...

"In an ideal world, women would be seen and not heard." --DVJ

Pictures from Kayla's birthday party and the Exodus excursion to Mana are online. See the link on the right.

I now pronounce you...

So many weddings. I called my RSVP in to my high school friend's wedding tonight. Time: midnight EST. Oops. Woke her up. It said on the invite to RSVP on or before April 11. Granted, they didn't send it to me til a week before it was due, but that's forgivable.

So forget the tax poll. Who cares about taxes. (I still haven't done mine). I have a much more useful (to me) poll. You know how you have to give a wedding gift when you go to weddings? Well, you do. How much is the "appropriate" amount to spend? $50-100? In that ballpark, right? (I'm a grad student, I'm not rich.....yet) But what if you're giving money? Do you give more? Or less? Or the same? And why? Discuss. Give a 500 word essay. You have 20 minutes. Starting.....now. #2 pencil only please.

I've already had this discussion with BM the other day.

Now I found out I'm supposed to give money to another "oh-so-close" couple too.

And why are weddings nowadays supposed to entertain the guests? It's like you have to have a slideshow, games, entertaining MC, door prizes, parting gifts, raffle, movie, and a free car giveaway. What is this, Vegas? Oh wait...

What other uses of pronounce are there? Dead. He was pronounced dead after he died. Weird.

Grueling

Sunday night 9:45pm to 6am - help Jean shoot his student film
Monday 6am to 4pm - drive home in a daze and crash on my bed
Monday 5pm to 6:20pm - class (more sleep time)
Monday 8pm to 1am - help Jean shoot his student film
Tuesday 11am to 12am(midnight) - help Jean shoot his student film

Making films is tiring work. But I did drive on the wrong side of the road last night (this morning?). Can't say I've done that before. It was in an empty park though, no oncoming traffic. Maybe next time.

East Coast vs. West Coast

Pop - Soda/Coke

Highway - Freeway

Middle School - Jr. High

There's also a lot of "s" adding around here. Laters, whenevers, Septembers, etc.

Safari users

I'm hoping everything shows up right for all you Safari users out there. Please let me know if the poll shows up on the right hand side now.

Chinese restaurants have great service

Chinese are known for their great service. Consider the following:

Four Chinese American guys decide to go out to eat one fine Southern Californian evening. This is not a suprise because, let's face it, Southern California has some of the nicest evenings anywhere.

They decide to go a Chinese restaurant, not that the restaurant building itself is of any ethnicity, but rather the food that is served there. This restaurant will go unnamed because I don't want everyone crowding it because of the awesome service. Also, because this is supposed to be a hypothetical story.

They walk in, are seated in about 5 minutes, and proceed to pour over the menu. When the time comes (read: they are starving and tired of all the waiters/waitresses ignoring them), they need to flag down a waitress because all Chinese restaurants have waiters/waitresses that come when you want them to. The waitress proceeds to take their orders and leaves to fill them. Time: approx. 10:15pm. The orders: One "Chicken a la king", two "Pork Chops", one "satueed shrimp with rice".

It take an usually long amount of time to receive their drinks. They spot the 4 Thai teas at the counter and know it is for their table. No one brings them their drinks. Grass grows and gets cut. Nations rise and fall. Bad movies are sat through. Finally, BM goes to the counter to see if he can get the drinks. The counter guy says, no, but he will bring them over.

The waiter at the counter brings the four drinks, all of which are Thai ice teas. At least 3 of them taste like they've been made with sour milk, so the waitress is again flagged down and 2 are exchanged. A few minutes pass, the waitress returns with 2 soups, saying the other 2 will come shortly.

A few more minutes pass, with no sign of the soups or the remaining food. The four guys flag down a waiter and tell him that two soups have yet to come out. He goes into the kitchen.

The waitress comes back a little bit later with the two soups. They are quickly consumed. The waiter comes back after the soups are consumed and gives 2 more soups. The guys have now received 6 soups when they ordered 4. All Chinese restaurants have excellent communication among their workers.

3 of the guys' food comes out. The two pork chops, and the shrimp with rice. The conversation gets into gear; 3 guys chow down on their food. Approx 20 min have passed since ordering.

Everyone wonders where the "Chicken a la king" is. The four guys flag down a "manager" (he's wearing a shirt and tie, not a uniform). They proceed to tell him the "chicken a la king" has yet to come. The following conversation takes place.

DVJ: "We ordered a Chicken A La King and it hasn't come out."
Manager: (shakes his head and puts his hand on the guy's shoulder as if somebody just died) "Awwww, sorry, we ran out of chicken breast and we forgot to tell you. Do you want to order something else or just take it off the order?"

Dumbfounded that a restaurant can "forget" to tell someone their order isn't coming, DVJ says to take it off the order, and he'll go without food. He changes his mind and walks off to flag down a waiter and order pork chops.

Restaurant: 1 DVJ: 0

He comes back, conversation again picks up. Meanwhile, the Thai ice teas and other drinks have been consumed and refilled. DVJ asks, "Do you get free refills here?" "Yeah." DVJ finishes his tea and flags down the waitress for a refill.

Waitress: "Oh, that drink you only get one of."

Restaurant: 2 DVJ: 0

Another 10 min pass. They flag down the "manager" again, to ask about the pork chops.

DVJ: "I ordered pork chops, and it hasn't come out."
Manager: "Is this before or after you took Chicken a la king off the order?"
DVJ: "After."
Manager: "Who did you tell? Which waitress or waiter?"
DVJ: "I told that waiter over there."
Manager: "Oh. They're not making it for you. Sorry, I'll go check on it right now."
All Chinese restaurants have excellent communication among their workers.

This is immediately followed by the waitress bringing a glass of ice water for DVJ as a consolation prize because his drink doesn't get refills. Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.

Restaurant: 3 DVJ: 0

Time: about an hour since walking in. DVJ has had a bowl of soup and one drink. Everyone else has finished their meals. The pork chops have yet to come out. The manager stops by and says, "I'm sorry about this." TC did get DVJ a free refill though. Another 10 min pass. The pork chops still don't come out. Everyone wonders if that last statement means the manager is sorry because DVJ will not get his pork chops. (maybe they ran out?)

DVJ accepts the fact that he will eat nothing tonight and flags down the manager to get the check. DVJ goes home hungry, but with first hand knowledge that Chinese restaurants have the best service.

Time: a little over an hour
Meal: none for DVJ (plus a drink with no refills)
# of times 'flag' appeared in this story: 8

EH: "I stopped playing Halo 2 because I was addicted to it; it was taking over my life."
EC: "What do you do now?"
EH: "I play hold'em everyday."

California word of the day

weak sauce - wimpy

Oh what a predicament

Have you ever been in the mall on Easter Sunday when it was closed? I have.

Our church meets in the mall, usually in a community room. Since today was Easter, the mall was closed, but we asked for special permission to meet there since we were having a potluck. They were nice enough to let us use the foodcourt.

Sometimes we are presented with dilemmas. Purely hypothetical example:

Say you were at a potluck, and a very enjoyable one at that. Say you brought food, as did everyone else. Say everyone brought more food than was consumed, therefore leaving so called "left-overs" (so named because they are literally left over. See? This blog is educational! You've learned enough today, go play outside. But I digress....) Say you are helping to clean up and notice that one dish has not been touched. Say it was no one's fault; this dish was hidden by other food and no one saw it. What do you do? Hmm, sounds like a poll to me.

Read this and tell me what YOU think it means.

www.getfirefox.com

Ok, I've fixed the poll so IE users can see it now. But you should really switch to a more secure browser that WORKS WITH OPEN STANDARDS!!!! (/me kicks IE).

If you haven't heard of all the security problems IE has, do a search for "internet explorer cert". If you don't know about IE's (non) support of standards, do a search for "internet explorer standards".

Or, better yet, just switch to a better browser and start enjoying the web today!

Oh, and I moved the poll to the top. (you really needed me to tell you that, I know. don't worry, I'm here for you)

Get ready for recounts

So I finally implemented something that I had wanted to do for a long time: I added a poll to this blog. There are a bunch of free polls out there, but they all look ugly or don't do what I want them to. So I found a free poll php script and am hosting it on my computer, (yeah the same one all those pictures are on) so hopefully it'll work out. As always, let me know if there are problems. Hopefully the comments show up, too. You might need to reload the page to see the comments after you've sent them.

Great mysteries of the world

There are these things people refer to as "great mysteries". Usually it's defined by something that is unexplainable, either because nobody can adequately explain it with our current understanding of how the world works, or because it has not been observed enough times to be properly studied. Examples include why there are an odd number of socks in the world, why women demand men put the seat down (we have to put it up to pee, you should have to put it down to pee, we're just treating you as equals), the existance of eyebrows, and why Jeff keeps posting on his blog when nobody reads it.

Today, I am here to present you with another so-called "great mystery". Where does all the toilet paper go? The past few weeks, I have replaced the toilet paper 3 times, if not more. All over the course of 2 weeks, _maybe_. It's probably been shorter than that. Does that not warrant some investigation? I could have sworn that I replaced the roll 2-3 days ago. Today, what do I find? An empty roll. "How is that possible?" I ask. Deep, empty silence answers me. I realize I am the only one home and wonder why I bothered to wait for an answer. Or better yet, why did I ask the question out loud? (that is another great mystery to be solved in the next installment)

So I put it to you, dear readers. Today I replaced the roll again. When I replace it again, you'll know how quickly it disappears. "Where does it go?" you might ask (only if you're at work and you're bored). The great toilet in the sky is my only guess.

The adventures of someone on the internet

Spring break has come and gone. And it's raining in SoCal.

First day of class: boring, as usual.

We go to the mall the other day to check on movie times. As we get into the elevator to ride up to the second floor (because the escalator takes up too much energy), a bunch of younger Asian girls get in the elevator and ask us if we're going to Dave & Busters. We say we're going to the second floor where the movie theater and D&B's both are. Then they ask us if we're over 25, at which point BM points to BH and says, "He is. He just turned 25." Keep in mind that BM is the oldest of all of us, which makes him a few years older than BH. They need someone to get them into D&B's cuz they're under 21. BM says, "His name is Ben and he's a nice guy" at which point all the girls introduce themselves to BH. BH did his good deed for the night by getting some younger girls into D&B. What a guy. I guess he should thank BM for volunteering him in the first place.

I was also later asked if I was 25 by a crowd standing outside the door. Man, do I look over 25? I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Commenting on the many newcomers at his church.
"How do you know they're newcomers?"
"Because they all stand up and I don't know them." -BH

Talking about playing basketball after the winter hiatus.
"It's getting warmer because it's Springtime." -BH

After meeting a friend's boyfriend for the first time.
"Is he Christian?" --someone
"I dunno." --everyone else
"I don't think so." -BH

Plumber jeans, they're all the rage in Taiwan.

got gmail?

Looks like Google finally is letting people sign up for gmail.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/buzz/archives/004488.html

Apparently, if you go to google.com, random people will get a link that they can use to sign up for gmail. Here's one I got that I haven't used.

This will only work for the first person who signs up using this link

I still have 6 invites that I never used because nobody ever wanted to join. Oh well.

Or you can just go here as they have about 500,000 invites available.

You never know

I went fishing Saturday morning with a friend. We didn't catch anything, but it wasn't a total loss.

On the way to the lake, we stopped by a grocery store to pick up some coffee and donuts. As we were standing in one of the two checkout lines that were open, some of the workers came up to the line and were saying something about the manager and people who were buying small things. We assumed they were going to open another checkout, because the line was getting kind of long. A few people went over and asked if the things they were buying were small enough. The workers said, "Yeah, you can go." Go? "Where do we go?" we all asked. They said, we can LEAVE because their systems were down. Free coffee and donuts for us! Too bad we didn't "buy" more stuff. Then we went across the street to see if their systems were down, but no luck.

Russell Peters

Just in case you still haven't heard of Russell Peters, he's an Indian Canadian comedian. You can watch one of his shows here:

Windows Media version

Real Media version

Both videos are the same, it's just whatever format you prefer.

As of tomorrow, Spring Break starts. I'm not going anywhere in particular. I'm getting more and more antsy about starting a company though. Anybody bored with their life/job and wanna join me?

Cool flash thing

"What is this?" --JT
"It's a Flash thing." --me
"But, there's nothing flashing." --JT

Response when viewing drum machine.

Favorite quotes for today

We went out for BM's birthday tonight. Some people were less than sober. Including me. I wasn't drunk, I was just a little loopy. After 1 beer. This list doesn't include the bad stuff said while people were inebriated. Those are just not appropriate to post.

"Are you making up your own Manderin?"
--JT's reply to DVJ after he butchered a chinese word

"誰是你的爸爸?"
"se2 shi4 ni3 de ba4 ba2?"
"Who is your father?"
--DVJ's favorite Mandarin phrase meaning "Who's your daddy?"

Tomorrow night, Dave and Buster's for JC's birthday. I wonder what will happen...

Question of the day (raised by TC): "Why do Chinese restaurants put ice in the men's urinals?"

Hopefully tomorrow will be sunny so we can play some beach volleyball.

before we started the Race for the Cure and I almost died

The best post ever

Just got done with 2 midterms and a project. You know that feeling you get when you're about to take a midterm for a class you always attend, take good notes, read the book, and studied the material for the same amount of time it takes to bring a child to full term? Yeah, that's not how I felt. Probably because I didn't do those things, but there's a slight possibility it could have been something else (dinner the night before?). Anyway, I think I did ok on the midterms, which doesn't give me any incentive to actually attend the classes. Maybe I'll turn over a new leaf. Or maybe I'll turn it over and realize it's not a leaf but a blood sucking alien that just ate my hand (which doesn't make sense since it doesn't eat hands, it SUCKS BLOOD. But I digress...). Either way, it has nothing to do with what I'm about to say.

So I ran in the Race for the Cure Marathon on Sunday. I haven't been able to blog about it because 1) I've been busy or 2) My legs are so sore I can't even stand up to reach my computer. You pick which one is right.

I am seriously out of shape. There were old ladies that beat me. But then again, they _have_ beaten cancer, so they're pretty tough. On the other hand, there were mothers who were pushing those carriage-on-wheels things that ran faster than me. I think those things are really motorized and they just hung on. Lucky.

Next up: dragon boat racing.

From a theme park in Taiwan. Is that face supposed to make me want to get on the ride? Notice, if you have short children or an expectant mother, you are not in good health.

from the "what were they thinking?" dept.

You'd never know how interesting this world of ours is, until you step outside the hyper-commercialized, standard-of-living-so-high-you-could-fall-off-and-die, fat and lazy, awesome country that is the US of A. I was sorting through all my digital pics, and I came across some that I took in Taiwan which I forgot to post. I feel fairly certain that I will never see this in America. I present to you..........well, see for yourself.

I found this in The Body Shop (a Bath and Body Works kind of store). The chinese sticker on it means "for sample use". You'd think it was a spray....

....but no, it's a roll-on.

If you want it done right....

Since I have not found any satisfactory online picture hosting solutions (read: free with lots of features and easy to use), I just decided to host them myself.

If you want to see ALL the pictures that were taken during the 2004 Taiwan Mission Trip, please find the Link on this page.

You don't have to bookmark this link, because there will be a "real" URL soon. It's going to be calculon.no-ip.org. However, that isn't working yet, because the DNS servers (servers that tell you where to go when you type in stuff like yahoo.com) aren't updated yet.

This is hosted on my personal computer in my room. Please tell me if it is too slow, or if the comments don't work, or what have you. This is very much an experiment, so don't expect too much. But please let me know what's wrong and how it can be improved.

I got tired of putting captions on all of the pictures. If you want to help out, let me know, and I'll give you an account so you can edit stuff.

Comments can be placed by anyone with or without an account.

They don't make em like they used to

BASED ON A TRUE STORY

The scene: A 20-something year old's town house. A spacious place, but cluttered. There are signs that only a bachelor lives here. The living room is intruded by two monumental pieces. One is a large 50-inch projection TV, the other a 130 gallon aquarium. They are like yin and yang; one representing the sophistication and complexity of technology while the other a representation of the beauty and simplicity of nature. There are scraps of paper strewn about, and numerous gadgets wantonly placed in places that could only be random. The kitchen has dishes in the sink, some probably more than a week old. In order to navigate to the bathroom, you must pick where to step around various articles of clothing, trashcans, and boxes. It is raining outside. Hard. The time is late evening.

There sits 6 people around the kitchen table. Each is of Asian descent, but all fall under the all-encompassing catch-phrase "Asian-American". They range in age from 23-27. They speak candidly about life topics. Jokes are as numerous as the drops of rain pouring outside the window. They are playing poker.

All seems well, but none of them could be prepared for what happens next.

"You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of text. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the........" Your ship has just broken down. No, worries. On with the story.

As the game progresses, each player eases into his routine. Some fold, some raise, and some call, eager to see the next sequence of cards. The game is Texas Hold'em, but this is a place far from Texas.

One player in particular has his head shaved. Even so, there is a strange handsomeness about him. We'll call him Jeff (all names and descriptions have been changed to protect the identities of the innocent). The player to the right of Jeff is the chip leader. He has won a few big pots and is sitting comfortable behind a large stack of chips. We'll call him Benny.

Benny is a rock star who spends his time traveling the world spreading elation to those who hear his music. He is a busy man, stamping out evil-doers with his generous actions and spreading joy and happiness to those who lack it. He also spreads his CD wherever he can. It's only $12. Get it here. In his spare time, the little that he has, he plays poker.

Benny is not confident in the hand he has been dealt. As the bid comes to him, he glances at Jeff. Knowing he cannot win against such a professional player, Benny reluctantly folds. As he does, he leans back on his chair, confident in knowing he will lose no more money this turn. Play continues to Jeff. Jeff raises as only one-who-is-supremely-confident-and-good-looking would. But as he does so, a strange sound distracts him. The sound of wood cracking. It seems as if it is coming from right next to him.

In the next instant, everyone's attention is turned to where Benny is. Or where he should have been. All 5 other players watch in amazement as the chair underneath Benny crumbles under the weight that mistakenly is now only supported by 2 legs. The legs and seat break like twigs as a horrible snapping sound thunders through the air. Benny plants his feet down and jumps off the chair just as it gives way. All that is left is a pile of broken wood, a seat covering, and the back of the chair. Benny stands there in awe of what has just happened. Everyone else breaks out in hysterical laughter.

For the rest of the night, Benny is forced to sit on a metal swivel chair for fear of what further diasterous rampage he will cause.

People should watch the road when they drive

There is this category called things-you-do-that-make-people-stare-when-they-drive-by. Today, I did one such thing. How do I know? Because people stared at me when they drove by.

So lately, some people at church have been discussing shaving their heads. The reason for this is three-fold. 1) Shaving your head is cool. 2) Em usually cuts a lot of people's hair. She is just that good. And since she has been benched for the rest of this haircut season due to injury, we are without a good head-covering manager. 3) Shaving your head is cool.

So for who-knows-what-reason, I went ahead and did it. Sure, it took some coaxing, but let's face it, I'm weird, and sometimes I do things that are not normal.

Refer to the images below for further research into this event.

Please note that the fact that I am the only one who has shaved their head in no way has any influence on my post. Did I mention shaving your head is cool? The others apparently have some hang up on something called "weddings" that they need to attend.

One thing I noticed, you know how after you shower, you dry off your hair with your towel? Well, my towel no longer moves when I try to dry my head. It gets stuck. All of a sudden, 300 million exposed hair tips are slowing it down. AND, when I put on my shirt, it kinda just sits there on top of my head, until I have to pull it down. It used to just slide over my head, but no, there is no sliding with this haircut.

I'm anxious to see how long it takes me to grow my hair out again.

Credits:
Barber: Uncle B
Jeff as himself
and featuring garbage bag as an extra

The before picture. Why do I look so angry? It's the sun shining in my eyes. Yes, that's right. Sun. Today's date: February 16th. And I'm wearing a T-shirt! <evil laugh>hahahahahaha</evil laugh>

Before picture #2. I look back on this picture with fond memories. And a warmer head.

I either look like a really sad kid on Halloween, or ....there really is no end to this sentence.

Thoughts running through my head: What have I done? Why is he laughing? Why is he taking a picture of me? This garbage bag is pretty fashionable...

Native American? No, it's just me looking like one. Like the Christmas decorations in the background?

The inverted mohawk. Don't mind the Nissan 200SX in the background.

The after picture. Complete with garbage bag. Weather: 65 degrees.

I think I look kinda like a black person.

Get Well Soon! Happy Birthday! Happy Valentine's Day!

From an older Asian lady:

"My sister's birthday is the same day as Valentine's Day. One year, she was in the hospital and I wanted to buy her a card that said Get Well, Happy Birthday, and Happy Valentine's Day. All in one card. I couldn't find it."

Sometimes I just don't understand what people say.

Picture fixing

Ok, so I just had lunch with Dave and Steph (this probably isn't sensitive information, so their first names are probably ok). I fixed the pictures now (hopefully) so you guys can all bask in the glory of the Taiwan pictures again.

People don't know how to drive in LA when it rains. Actually, take out the "when it rains" part.

Thanks for lunch, Dave! Thanks for ordering, Steph!

The tube going in her nose is to feed her.

Little humans

I went to visit some friends in the hospital last night. They just had their first nightmare wonderful little baby. It was also a little premature; it was supposed to come out March 20th. This past Sunday, they were driving to REI (a sports store) and the wife felt two 'pops'. She didn't know what it was, but went to the bathroom once they got into the store. She went pee, and everything was fine. As soon as she stood up, water started gushing out. Luckily (or not) her pants absorbed most of it. As soon as she came out, the husband knew her water had broke. These were his exact words: "Do we have time to look at...." It's ok though. According to the wife, he's a doctor, so he probably knew it would be awhile til the baby came. Yeah, that's the reason.

Question of the day: What is the water that comes out really made up of? Is it water? Or is it more sticky like mucus?

Something I learned: The doctors are giving the baby caffeine to stimulate her brain. Her brain isn't fully developed yet, (whose really is?) so she 'forgets' to breathe while she is eating.

Another person to join the human race. Sorry we didn't clean up before you came.

car chases

I just watched my first live LA car chase. A murder suspect drove around LA for 1 hour and 35 min. At first there were unconfirmed reports of a victim being in the trunk of the car and calling 911. That turned out to be false.

Let me just say that people who flee in cars and lead police on a chase are the dumbest criminals. What do they expect to happen? Just give up already! Plus, the ending is the best part, haha.

One thing I learned is that after the police apprehend the suspect, they PULL DOWN HIS PANTS! This is so he/she cannot run away. I don't know if they would do that to a woman, or someone wearing a skirt/dress, but that's what they did to this guy.

Question of the day: Why do car chases only happen in California (that I'm aware of)?

Update on Em/Jo: Em is still in the hospital. She's been there for a week. She is still under observation. This is her 27th week I believe. Sucks. Li from Li/Le is coming in today to help take care of Ka. I will send out an email to the whole Wang family soon.

Update on Mom: Don't know. Haven't talked to her since she got home from the hospital. I'll probably call tomorrow.

For those less in the know (Just): The reason for using only 2 letters for people's names is so that they can keep their privacy. (Supposedly) Only the people who know who I'm talking about should know who they are anyway. I haven't received permission from anyone to post this stuff, so just in case they don't want the whole world knowing. (Note: the whold world in the previous sentence refers to the 8 people who read my blog).

Hospitals

My cousin is in the hospital. Em/Jo. Apparently she is having complications with her pregnancy and is having some contractions. This is only the 26th week, so it is very early. Anyway, I'm about to go visit her.

Also, found out my mom is in the hospital. I tried calling, but nobody picked up. I'll try again tonight. Crazy. Please pray for them.

I have yet to put up pics. But soon. Real soon.

Sup

How's it going? Good to hear.

LA is a fake city

Today ended the third day I have been on the set of a student film. Jean, (pronounced like a French 'John' not 'Gene') is a friend from church who is also a student at AFI (American Film Institute). He is producing a film, "Amy Ling" and I said I was interested in coming out to help. I was part of the Art department, which basically sets up the set for every shoot, and I also worked the boom mic, which is that long mic that is held above the actors'/actresses' heads. It's tiring. Your arms start to hurt after a while.

It was really cool to see everything that goes on during a movie shoot. I have come to a couple conclusions.

1) Making a movie is hard work. The last 3 days have been 12 hour days. You work HARD. They have to set everything up BEFORE the shoot (lights, camera, set, props, EVERYTHING has to be perfect), and then DURING the shoot, they take a couple rehersals, and then do probably 4-5 real shots which they actually record. During the shoot, everyone has to be silent. Even if you're on the other end of the house. Or outside.

2) Everything is done out of order, so you really don't get a sense of the movie even if you've worked on it. I always read how directors, actors, etc. say, "Yeah, the movie came out great" after the screening, and I'm always thinking, "Weren't you there when it was being made?". But seriously, you don't know how it will turn out until it's all put together. Everything is shot out of order, there is no background music, and you don't really get a sense of the movie. All you see are individual scenes. I don't even understand how the director can keep everything in his/her head while the movie is being made.

3) Continuity is a big problem. Now I know why there are so many mistakes in movies. There are so many takes, and everytime, they try to make everything the same, but things slip through the cracks.

4) EVERYTHING IS SO FAKE. The set is so fake. You just make things 'look' like you want them to, but it's not real. Perfect example: the milk in almost all commercials is not real milk, because it would look blue under all the lights. They use Elmer's glue.

There are often things hiding behind tables or shelves that you're not supposed to see. The crew is just too lazy to move everything. The actors/actresses are one minute joking with you, the next they are in character. It's pretty impressive. All the lights are artificial. They use all sorts of lights, filters, mirrors, and whatnot to achieve the perfect look. If you only see the top half of a person in a suit, chances are, they are wearing jeans and tennis shoes. It's cool to watch, and very enlightening.

I now understand why LA is the way it is. The entertainment industry influences society here. So everything is based on appearance and is so artificial. I seriously have never seen so many 'beautiful' people in the same place in my life. But not everyone is fake. There are also a lot of really nice people here.

Only in Taiwan do they have Mercedes taxis.

These are some quclyty socks. Click to see the big version.

Chinese business sense

Just got back from the Chinese supermarket. Back in Ohio, when I go to the (one of three) Chinese supermarkets, I see only Chinese food. Well, some Japanese, some Korean, but whatever. Here in LA, the Chinese supermarket sells everything. Laundry detergent, bottled water, there's even a bank inside. They are trying to reach out to non-asians, maybe? I did see one white person there, though. Anyway, the point of this babbling is there is a section that sells American juice, milk, etc. It was virtually untouched. It was in its original pristine, everything-perfectly-stacked condition. Guess that's not their money making section.

Make a decision and stick to it. Either jump in or jump out when the train is departure, but not both.

Redirect

I moved my blog to calculon0.blogspot.com because the canaan.org.tw site was my church in Taiwan's server. If I start posting a lot of pictures on there, it'll eat up their bandwidth and my web space. Also, blogspot hosts my pictures for FREE. So I'll probably start posting my pics, a few at a time starting with the previous post. I'll probably post the regular pictures at photobucket or something for Stan, Melissa and Just who want the pics from Taiwan. Do you want just one big zip file with everything? Or do you want a gallery?

My car is still not fixed, but at least they have ordered the parts and will be working on it. I went to play beach volleyball (76 degrees in LA) on MLK Jr. Day.

Don't you love Taiwanese advertising?

Pictures, hold on

My car is still not fixed. I don't know how long it'll take, but hopefully by the end of this week I'll have it back. In the meantime, I got all the pictures from Taiwan and I'll put them up soon. I'm looking for a picture place online that I can start putting my pictures at.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. No school, whoohoo!

Check out this video Kyle sent me. http://www.funpic.hu/swf/numanuma.html

Welcome to 2005

I got back from Taiwan on Sunday night. I'll upload the pictures soon. Someone tried to steal my car while I was gone (it was parked at my cousin's place in West LA) but all they managed to do was to rip out my ignition.

This is the second time my car has been broken into. The first, back in Ohio, they tried to pick my lock, failed, broke my window instead and didn't steal anything. This time, they didn't steal anything, either, but they picked the lock. Californian car thieves are better, I guess.

Anyway, school has started, and it's pretty boring so far. I do have one funny professor for my database class, though. Half the things he says, he's kidding. But you can't tell when he's kidding and when he's not. He says even his research students have a hard time. It'll be an interesting class.

How many of you take showers at night? And how many that do are asian?

Apparently, Taiwanese people are very touchy about this topic and consider American showering habits to be very strange and disgusting to them. Well, if you could just see all the professionals going to work in the morning with their hair in disarray, you'll know why we shower in the morning.

The lean-over

I'm here back in Taiwan, where this blog originally started. I've been taking pictures of botched English, as usual.

One thing that falls under the I-really-have-no-idea-what-they're-thinking category is how Taiwanese people will use their cellphones anywhere, anytime. I was at a church service yesterday when someone's cellphone went off. If we were in say, I dunno, the USA, the person if he was half-polite, would either turn off the cell phone, OR walk outside if he/she really needed to answer the call. In Taiwan? No. I have seen this many times. The person just looks at the cellphone, determines if they NEED to take the call (this has a positive result 95% of the time) and then LEANS-OVER right there and takes the call. It's as if they are hunched down in their seat then nobody else can hear their call. ?????? I don't even know what to say.

I have seen this in class, in church, etc. It's SO foreign to me.

I'll be updating this blog as I have time.

Ah, the stories we'll tell

December 15, 2004 flight to Taipei, Taiwan with layover in Narita, Japan

9:00AM Leave my cousin's house for the airport to catch my 11:05AM flight to Taipei
9:30AM Arrive at LAX, get in line to use an eTicket terminal to check in
9:40AM Slide in my credit card, am presented with many flight options, none of which are mine. When I punch in my ticket number, the machine says "Cannot find your reservation."
10:00AM Finally am able to speak with an overworked counter agent, who tells me I need to get in a different line to talk to a ticketing agent
10:02AM Get in other line to talk to ticketing agent
10:05AM Call United's toll free telephone to ask about my problem. Am told my ticket was scheduled for NOVEMBER 15th.
10:10AM Call Taiwan to wake up my dad (Taiwan local time is 2:00AM) to let him know what has happened.
10:40AM Receive a call from Taiwan saying my dad has changed my flight to today's flight.
10:45AM Finally can talk to a ticketing agent. I am notified that the gate is already closed and the plane is about to leave. There is no way for me to make the flight today and there is only one flight per day leaving for Narita, Japan.
12:25PM Get picked up to go back home

What a hectic day. I'm now scheduled to leave tomorrow.

On another note, there are these monks who roam the airports and give you books on Yoga, Dharma, the Dali Llama and whatnot. They come up to you, TELL YOU YOUR HAIRCUT LOOKS GOOD, and then hand you a book. They say it is FREE but they then proceed to ask you for a donation. This happened to me on the way to Ohio for Thanksgiving at the Chicago O'Hare airport. This also happened to me TWICE today as I was waiting to get picked up. They look like any other person getting ready to fly; one of them was actually pushing around one of those luggage carts with boxes in it. I just said I already had the books and they pretty much left me alone. Crazy. Just be warned. If someone comes up to you and compliments you on your hair, you know what's coming.

End of year babies

I was reading a friend's xanga and he mentioned that there are a lot of babies being born this time of year (he was doing his OBGYN rotation). Do the math, and that amounts to (approximately) Valentine's Day conceptions. Go look on Yahoo's homepage right now and pay careful attention to the "Popular Searches". I wonder what the breakdown of people born in which month looks like. I should start a poll.

Yeah, I'm supposed to be cramming for my last final tomorrow, but you need breaks, right?

I just realized that I must be one of those babies.

White Castle

Sliders were mentioned on last Thursday's ER.

Reality of dreams

I was dreaming this morning about buying a new car. A car that doesn't exist, but that's not the point. As I walked into the dealership, my eyes couldn't see anything. You know when you go outside from a very dark building and it's really sunny outside? You have to take a minute to adjust your eyes. It was like that. Except in my dream, my eyes wouldn't adjust. I kept squinting and not being able to see anything really clearly. It was very strange. This happened in another dream of mine about 2 weeks ago. I woke up today to find the sun shining into my eyes. That's the same thing that happened 2 weeks ago. It's so weird that real life things would impact my dreams. And that I would find a rationale for them in my dreams. I "thought" (in my dream) that my eyes had to adjust because I was wearing sunglasses and my car window's were tinted.

Do you dream in color or black & white? I have yet to find someone who dreams in black & white.

The solution to all your problems (assuming your problems are my problems)

tstayp: RSS.

There exists, in this crazy world of ours, a neat little protocol known as RSS. Really Simple Sydication. You may find that people say it stands for something else, but don't believe them. Believe me. After all, that's why you read this page, right?

Anywho, (never thought I'd use that word) this protocol lets you know when an oft-updated site has been oft-updated. Example: a news site such as nytimes.com (great newspaper, BTW). Basically, you use your handy-dandy newsaggregator and subscribe to an RSS feed. Then, presto-whamo-chango (I always thought I'd use that word), whenever that site is updated, you get a message containing the title, maybe the first few lines, and a link to the page.

Why is this tstayp? Because now, those of you who read this blog on a regular basis (all 3 of you), can be instantly auto-magically notified when I post something new. AND, get-this, are you ready? This works with comments as well. So no more digging through the comments to see if anybody posted something new. Now, you'll KNOW.

And, this works for torrent-sites as well. So, sta&jus, you no longer have to ask me or check any website to know what torrents have been released. If you subscribe to its RSS feed, it will notify you of all its torrents, when they are released. Cool, ya? Now I sound Russian.

If you are confused, please be. Go google RSS. OR, forget that and just subscribe to my blog.

I'm using Mozilla Thunderbird to get RSS feeds, because it's the greatest email program in the world. On the internet anyway. Yes, that's right, you can check email AND receive RSS feeds. All in one program. The feeling your feeling right now is probably what Adam felt when he found out his urine could water the plants. (It's harder for Eve, but anyway....) goto www.mozilla.org to get it.

You can use Mozilla Firefox to get RSS feeds too. It's called a live bookmark and it works like any other bookmark, except it'll constantly be updated to show you the articles/blog entries that are new.

Now, all you have to do is subscibe to my blog using this link Mozo.

This link is for my comments: Mozo comments.

The links are meant to be used to subscribe to the RSS feeds, not to necessarily be clicked on in your browser. Also, blogger.com uses Atom (competing RSS protocol) instead of RSS 2.0, so if you use something other than Thunderbird, make sure it supports both RSS and Atom.

BTW, welcome to the new font. Mozo v.1.0.0.0.0.0.1

Comment system

Man, you guys leave comments WAY after the original post was made. What do you do, go back and read the comments to see if anybody else has left any new ones? Of course, who am I to talk, since I obviously do the same or I wouldn't have noticed .....

Stupid Americans and balloons

My aunt watches game shows (almost) every night after dinner. Usually Jeopardy, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and Family Feud. So the other day (last night I think) they were playing the "Fast Money" round on Family Feud. Basically, you have to answer 5 questions, and based on a survey of 100 people (this is the key), however many people gave the same answer as you, that's how many points you get. For example, "Name a female in a fairy tale." There are 2 people, and you need a combined total of 200 points to win. Let's recap what happened....

Here's the questions: (I forget #3)
1) name something people have on their skin
2) name a female in a fairy tale
3)
4) name a sport in which athletes are paid the most
5) name someone who sets you up on blind dates

The first person goes. She's not very good, and gets a total of 53 or something. (Her answer to #1 was "clothes") Question #5 she gets 25 points (i.e. 25 people answered the same as her on Ques. 5) . The second person goes. He is asked the EXACT SAME questions. He answers them, and they start going through the results. After question #4, they have a combined total of 123 points. He needs 77 points on Question #5 to win. The host (Richard Karn, Al Borland on Home Improvement) is like, "Let's see if 77 people answered the same as you..." I was like WHAT?! How stupid is the American public?! (Don't answer that, it'll take about 50 years to answer) Anyone with basic math skills and common sense can see that he already lost. If 25 people answered the same as the first person, then there are only 75 people left. Man, we live in a society that is getting fatter and dumber everyday....not everyone, mind you, just the fat and/or dumb people.

Also, if you don't believe me about what they did to my car on my birthday, check out the pics and video here: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=exodusLA.

Finals

Finals week has descended upon those of us still in school. Sucks.

I have 2 finals, one on next Monday, one on next Tuesday. All this week, I have nothing to do except to study. I'm sitting here in the computer lab listening to lectures online. I'm gonna be so burned out by Friday.

Dennis won an Xbox at his company's casino night. This is the second Xbox that he has that he did not pay for. The first was won by his parents in Vegas. That one broke. He has held off on buying another one because his wife, Wendy, doesn't really want him to get one. The funny thing is that Wendy was playing craps, and Dennis had to go answer a page. When he got back, Wendy had all these chips in front of her. They put all the raffle tickets (the casino night was a raffle system) in the 3 Xbox boxes and they won one. Crazy. We'll probably be playing lots of 4 on 4 Halo 2 on Wednesday.

I was talking to Jean (pronounced 'Jean' like a French John) who is currently studying at AFI (American Film Institute). He is studying to be a producer. He said the next time he does a shoot for his student project, he'll call me. Cool. I wanna see what it's like to shoot a movie. He already was working in China producing TV shows and movies. Crazy. He showed us some of his work. It was really good, very professional.

Man, I wanna be done with finals and go to Taiwan.

Stuck on a freeway

So last night, after our monthly prayer meeting, I was driving home with Benny. And my car ran out of gas. On the freeway. We pulled to the right and called Sam. It was like 1:00AM in the morning. (that's kinda redundant, but whatever) We waiting for about 40 min for him to come with some gas. Thanks Sam!! I feel bad for waking him up. There were like 5 cops that passed us and they didn't stop to help. Our tax dollars at work right there.

I bought a digital camera off ebay, cuz I don't like mine. The battery life is too short, it takes too long to charge the flash and there's no manual controls. But the thing is, the seller just emailed me and said she doesn't have the camera. Apparently she let her friend borrow it and it hasn't been returned yet. So she's offering me a refund. I took it. Now I have to buy another one.

23 years and 2 days

I gotta say, the first two days of being 23 have not been up to snuff. That's probably because I spent all yesterday finishing a semester project. At least it's done now. In other news, both my partners are very deep into World of Warcraft, a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game for the less acronym inclined). It actually looks like a lot of fun, but I know if I start (which they are trying to get me to do) I will waste wisely spend a lot of time on the game.

Tonight, aside from the usual poker, I'm going to bring my bass over and use Wendy's amp. The Exodusians want me to play for Sunday worship. I've been very noncommittal up to this point, but I'll probably play this Sunday.

All I have left this semester is to study for finals (and one other homework, but whatever). I hope I pass at least some of my classes, haha. /me cries

It's cold in California at night. I'm getting wimpier by the second the longer I stay here. C'mon! I'm an Ohioan! I can go outside in below freezing weather and not flinch at the shockingly cold air that blows against my face, hands, and sometimes goes in my jacket and makes me want to set myself on fire just to keep warm. Yeah! Californians can't take anything! Ok, I'm going back to bed where my sheets keep me warm.

23 years young

It's hard to drive a car full of balloons. That's how I drove home last night. After I got picked up and taken back to my cousin's place, I see my car filled with balloons. That's how my friends decided to surprise me for my birthday. Crazy. Good surprise. Not an easy driving experience.

Two more weeks til I leave for Taiwan. I bet I won't be completely unpacked by the time I leave. Thanksgiving was great. Got to go home and hang out with family, cousins, and friends. Now I'm back and I have to finish a project in the next two days. *sigh*

It's cold in California when you don't have a heater.

Master crastinator

Another great time to blog is when I'm procrastinating. I have 2 assigments due this week (read: before Wednesday cuz this is Thanksgiving week) and a project due next Monday. But since I'm heading to Columbus for Thanksgiving, I really need to get it done this week too. So that's 3 assignments. And I'm here blogging. Whoo hoo! I wanna get out of school.

Yesterday, had a church Thanksgiving potluck. Lots of food. It was good. Lots of leftovers. Then we played poker. And I lost $5.

I wanna play football this Thanksgiving.

still waiting

Again, waiting for my group members. I find this is a good time to blog.

My high school's 5th year reunion is coming up. It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if I am going or not. On one hand, I wouldn't mind seeing what other people are up to, but on the other, it's being held in a bar, and I don't drink. And I would rather spend that time with friends and family since I'll only be in Columbus for a few days.

I need some places worth linking to. Everyone that I told to use Mozilla, you can go download Firefox. It's the new browser for Mozilla. It's only a browser though, so if you use Mozilla for email and stuff, you'll need to download Thunderbird also, Mozilla's email app. Goto www.mozilla.org and get Firefox now!

My razor doesn't work. I'm gonna go unshaven until I go back to Columbus and I get another one from my Dad. I could just go buy another one myself, OR buy a regular (non-electric) razor just for the next 3 days, but where is the fun in that?

Thanksgiving potluck at church tonight. Good food, oh yeah. I'm bringing corn.

waiting

I'm waiting for the rest of my project's group members to arrive.

Billy Graham crusade is here in LA this weekend. Some people from church are going tonight. Benny is playing at a friend's party tonight also. I'm here trying to finish a project.

How much time is wasted on waiting? Probably lots. Especially here in LA. So much traffic. We need some private jetpacks or something.

Wednesday, November 17th, 2004 A.D.

Hmmm, 10 days since I last posted. I've been busy with school work. A particular project actually. Didn't realize how much I disliked school. Parts of school, I guess. I wonder if I would feel the same if I had gone straight into grad school instead of going to Taiwan for 6 months. You know what they say (and by "they", I mean "I have no idea who they is"), after you start working or whatever, your lifestyle changes and it's hard to go back to the "student" lifestyle. Sherry, what are your experiences with this?

SCUBA diving was fun, but tiring. I almost died out there. It's pretty hard to swim with 40 lbs. of stuff strapped to your body. I'm really looking forward to going home for Thanksgiving, because 1) who doesn't like vacations? (except Dad) and 2) my part of the project should be done by then.

I want to play the single player for Halo 2. And I want to play Half Life 2. And I want to get this stupid project done. And graduate school. And be taller. And I wish my girlfriend lived in California. Ah, so many dreams.

Let's go out for some smog-filled air

I went to see Sam's musical today. His high-school was putting on "Miss Nelson is Missing" and Dwa-yi, Joe, Kathy, the 3 "future stunt doubles", Karyn and I went to watch. Good musical. Reminds me of when I used to play in the pit orchestra for our high-school musicals. Their theater is not as big as ours. It probably seats about 300-400. And it's brand new. Which tells me that California high-schools are not used to the 1000+ auditoriums that are common in Ohio. Anyway, one thing that I talked with Sam about was that they do not have a cafeteria. They just sit at the outside tables. Nobody sits inside to eat lunch. And their buildings are not all connected. So you have to walk outside to switch classes (possibly). This was similar to Taiwan where the whole building was basically outdoors. The hallways were not "enclosed". Basically it was just a collection of classrooms. Once you exited the classroom, you were outside. Places that have nice year-round weather can afford these luxuries. Very different from "when I was their age."

The size of the United States, and the money really make our lives much more comfortable than in other places in the world. You really, really realize it once you leave the country.

The incredible Incredibles

I saw The Incredibles last night. I have to say that in my opinion, this is the best Pixar movie so far. It was that good. Hilarious moments, great pacing, animation is awesome as usual, and great plot. This is the reason Pixar is where it is, and the Final Fantasy movie sucked. Pixar starts with a great story and then does everything else. They know if they don't have a good plot, the movie will suck.

If you watch the movie, don't stay until the end of credits. There's nothing to be seen. There's also no outtakes in this movie. Minor disappointment in what is otherwise the best movie this year probably.

If you see the movie, notice the part where the Mom looks at the computer screen to figure out where the Dad is. I was thinking, "That is so not real." There is no program that I think is that user-friendly. What are the odds that you randomly are given a computer screen of someone at work, and you will be able to interpret it in a few seconds time? That doesn't happen in real life. No wonder computers are so hard to use.

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.

Forbes

If you look at the Forbes top 400, out of the top 10, if you exclude the Walton family (who inherited the Walmart fortune), the rest are self made billionaires. All but 1 are in the computer industry. All but 1 dropped out of college. The only one with a graduate degree is Warren Buffet, who made his riches from the stock market.

Really makes you think. The old adage, education = success is no longer true. (was it ever true?) If you read books like The Millionaire Next Door you'll see that our common idea that education will guarantee wealth is not true. In this day and age of information technology, a college degree or graduate degree has a different meaning. The people who are the richest are not those who have the highest degrees. They are the ones who found a great opportunity, weren't afraid to go for it, and persevered. How many of us are willing to go outside our comfort zone and take a risk that might have a big payoff? This has parallels in our spiritual lives as well. Interesting.

Part 2

Ok, last time on Mozo...

"The funniest thing that happened was when we were playing Halo. Me and Eliah were the best, so we got put on a team vs. everyone else. We were playing capture the flag 2 on 3, and the other team was up 2 to 1. Timmy is on their team. Timmy is Leonard's brother, and Leonard is Liz's (my cousin) husband."

So we were in the middle of the game, it's like 2:00am and Dennis says "If we lose this, that's gonna be really sad." Dennis is on the other team. All of a sudden, you hear a *snore* and we all turn to look at Timmy and he's asleep. We all bust out laughing. "No wonder they keep capturing our flag!" hahaha. That's awesome. Timmy can sleep anywhere. Doing the projector slides, during prayer meetings, anywhere.

I've been busy this week with projects, midterms, and stuff. Thursday night I played football with some KCM people. It's a Korean Christian Missions group on campus. Friday night we went to see "Napoleon Dynamite". If you haven't seen it, you HAVE to go see it. It is the funniest movie I have ever seen. You'll want a T-shirt of a liger, too.

Yesterday we went to the beach and I learned how to boogie board. It was fun, but the board I was using was really rough and it tore up my stomach and chest. My front is really sore now. When I say 'front' I really mean my nipples. Yes, I have man-breasts, Just. Man, living close to the beach, and when I say 'close' I mean in the same state, is really nice. It's gonna be hard contemplating living somewhere where there is no beach.

Don't you hate it when...

Ok, I'm finally done with that project and my midterm today. I stayed up late studying for the midterm, trying to watch the recorded lectures online. It turns out, the midterm is only 4 questions and probably only covers about 20% of the class. Great. I'll still probably do bad though. I went home after the class and took a nap, only to go to my afternoon class and sleep through that too.

Ok, here's the lodown on the retreat. "The Exodus 3rd annual retreat" was held in San Diego. We rented a beach house on the bay. It was NICE. 3000 sq. ft., 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, 2 outdoor patios, and it's right on the bay. You walk out the back door and there's sand. Oh man. I'm really getting addicted to beaches, sand, and water. No wonder more than 50% of the world's population lives close to some coast.

We met the owner on Friday to get the keys, and he was like some guy in his 50s. He owns the entire building (4 or 5 beach houses) that we stayed in, and from the looks of it, he just takes walks along the beach with his dog everyday. He probably owns some really nice house right on the ocean and just maintains his properties. That's a pretty rich life. Just think, all you need is couple million dollars and you could have it too. Too bad we're not all born with $1 million to invest.

Anyway, we spent the whole weekend hanging out, playing poker with official weight poker chips that Timmy just got for his birthday the day before, playing 3on4 Halo, beach volleyball, kayaking, BBQ's and singing worship songs in the morning and at night. What a nice weekend getaway. And people actually live in places like this. Wow.

One thing I've noticed is that the more you're exposed to things, the more you want them. For example, I'm sure everyone in Ohio wants a beach house. But nobody talks about it. But in California, where beaches are just a 30 min drive away (or walk, depending on where you live) you'll hear lots of people say stuff like, "I want to get a beach house someday," or "I want to live in a muti-million dollar mansion," "I want to get a boat," "I want to scuba dive," "I want to be a professional actor/actress," etc. Very interesting how the mentality of people is totally different.

At the beach house, the bay is used a lot for sailing lessons apparently. We keep seeing tons of sailboats sailing around. We kept rooting for them to crash or flip over, cuz it would have been cool. Not cool for the people, but cool for 12 Chinese Americans staring at them through the dining room window.

The funniest thing that happened was when we were playing Halo. Me and Eliah were the best, so we got put on a team vs. everyone else. We were playing capture the flag 2 on 3, and the other team was up 2 to 1. Timmy is on their team. Timmy is Leonard's brother, and Leonard is Liz's (my cousin) husband. Ok, gotta go now, but I'll finish the story later. And put up the pictures.

My brain has overheated

Sorry, no updates yet. Just finished a project due today, and now studying for a midterm tomorrow. I'll update about the retreat when I have time.

"Retreat"

No updates for the next few days b/c I'm going on a "retreat" to San Diego with my church. It's not a formal retreat, cuz we're not having speakers or anything, it's more of just a getaway where we can hang out and stuff. We rented a beach house for the weekend.

I have a midterm next week. Should be fun to study after I get back. Yeah, right.

a mile a day.......keeps the starting line away

Ok, I'm waiting to go eat at some Korean place, so I can update a lil bit. My legs are so sore. I haven't played any sports for like 5 million years (back when I was chasing dinosaurs) and it's not cool to just jump right into playing basketball. It was fun though.

I'm so out of shape. The other day, Benny (go buy his cd here) was talking about how he has to work out just to keep equilibrium. If he wants to get in shape, he has to work EXTRA hard. I started laughing, and he was like "You're still young, so you don't know yet. But once you get older, you'll see." Man, I'm only 22 and I'm already starting to get fat........ter. fatter.

I'm almost gonna start taking SCUBA lessons. I'm waiting for Joe to teach a class so I can take it with him. I have this whole packet that he gave me. There's a book to read, a test to fill out (open book), a video to watch (Kathy said it was really boring, she fell asleep after 40 min) and a CD. There is so much gear to buy. And the classes are like $200 something. Plus each time we go in a pool (4 times) it costs another $100 or something. Man, this is gonna get expensive. Good thing Joe's gonna lend me his stuff. I can't wait. If I die in the next few months, you'll know that I died while I was having fun. Or a shark got me.

Also, today, we had this presention done by this PhD guy at USC. He was a bizarro-Kyle. First of all, he's a robotics guy ("my girl robot"), he's white, tall, has short brownish hair, and all his mannerism are the same as Kyle's. The way he talks, the way he stands, the way he thinks, man, it's all there. Man, I miss Ohio. Speaking of which, I met a Korean girl who is from Ohio. She went to Upper Arlington for high school and is good friends with Angela Chung. That's the only person we could figure out who we both knew. Anyway, I'm looking forward to going back for the Rongster's wedding. Still need to buy tickets, haha. Ok, I'll do it today. I'm such a slacker. Speaking of which...

I have this one class in the mornings on MWF. I never go. I went to probably the first half of the classes we've had so far. Then I found out the classes were videotaped (for off-campus students, like people who have jobs and such nonsense). I was happy because I could review the lectures at my own leisure. Now I realize, that is the worst thing you can possibly tell me. Now I just don't feel like waking up, so I'll get up late, and I won't feel like walking into class late, and I'll tell myself, "I can just watch it later on the internet." And my whole trip to school that day gets cancelled. Yeah, I only have one class most days, and I don't go. I'm such a slacker.

In other news, ..........no, wait. That's it. I have nothing else.

So tired....

Just got back from eating dinner and playing basketball with Exodus people. So tired....I'll update the blog tomorrow.

Another great thing about living in LA. Chua bing (shaved ice). Oh yeah.

Something's Afoot

So I went to see Sam's new musical yesterday. It's called Something's Afoot. It's a spoof on the typical murder mystery. You know, 10 people go to a mansion, there's a storm, they start dying. It was pretty funny. I was sitting in the first row, but Sam had on these really thick glasses so he didn't even notice. I wonder if he got a headache from wearing those. Seriously, he looked like a cartoon, his eyes were so big. He was playing a doctor, but it was stereotyped for an asian. So he had on big glasses, and he spoke with a broken English accent.

Later as I was driving home, I got annoyed that the CA highway signs are so non-informative. They only tell you which was is North, or South, like 3 signs before you exit. All the signs after that only say "Los Angeles" or "Pomona". Man, if I didn't know that I was heading toward LA, I would have got on the wrong freeway. California really needs to revamp their traffic system. It sucks. Really bad. I think that is the only reason that I wouldn't consider living here.

In other news, I'm opening an account with an online broker. Since I have no job, and I have lots of free time, I've been learning a lot about stocks and investing recently. We'll see how I do. Or I guess, I'll see how I do, you will only read about it.

I found some old pictures from Taiwan that I never posted. I hope you enjoy going to 7-star and eating some KLG chicken. Notice the KFC sign above it.



Oh yeah, today is the anniversary of 9/11. I don't know if I should say Happy 9/11 Day or just be solemn and sad. I still remember what I was doing when I heard the news. I was driving my car home cuz I was getting ready to move (yeah, I moved on 9/11) and I heard it on the radio. I thought it was a joke and I had to think what day it was to make sure it wasn't April Fool's day.

The Complex Malibu

Just finished watching The Complex: Malibu. It's not that great. If you've never watched it, it's about 8 couples who are split up into two teams and they have to refurnish two luxury apartments. Whoever's team adds the least value to the apartments, they get to vote a couple off. Not great TV. Ever notice that all these imitation reality TV shows just are not good?

Anyway, yesterday, some people from church went out on a mission. Some guy, let's call him Joe, who used to go the church is going to law school and has moved into a house. But his room doesn't have air conditioning. So we decided to buy him one. And when I say 'we', I mean they. So we go to Home Depot and they laugh at us and are like 'all our air conditioners have been sold out for weeks.' Great. So we head over to Target, (ya know, the French store) and we're like, does Target even sell air conditioners? So we're looking around at 9:50pm, 10 min til it closes, and we don't find it. They have fans, humidifiers, and air filters, but not air conditioners. So we're about to give up, when, lo and behold (when have I ever said lo and behold before? Weird), we spot them. And when I say 'we', I mean Timmy. It's like sitting in totally not the right section, and there's only 3. So anyway, we go over to Joe's house and install it. He lives in a really bad area of town. We were really scared to look at people in the eye. So the air conditioner is one of those that sit in the window, but his window opens horizontally. And there's no brackets that come with the air conditioner. So basically the air conditioner is sitting on the window sill that is probably only like 5" wide, screwed into the wall, with a piece of cardboard on top to keep out the outside air. It's a job well done. Next week, we'll probably do something just as crazy. If you're in the LA area and need some home improvements done around the house, give us a call. We can't guarantee it'll work, or be pretty, but we'll have fun doing it.

O.C.

The O.C. doesn't start til Nov 4. What's up with that? Anyway, all this info can be found on www.tvtome.com. Good site for TV schedules and episode guides.

It's weird. I can actually go to Orange County now.

Father of the Pride

Does anybody watch Father of the Pride? Do you like it? I saw the premiere, and I was disappointed. But then I downloaded yesterday's episode (I forgot it was on) and it was a lot funnier. I wonder if it'll make it. Joey and Apprentice start on Thursday. Smallville starts Sept 22, two weeks from today. Alias will not start until Jan 2005. I don't know if it has anything to do with J.J. Abrams writing Mission Impossible 3. He's also writing Lost, the new TV show, so maybe he's just busy.

I can't believe how many people watch Alias. Like all the cousins. Weird. They're all gonna be disappointed when it doesn't start til next year. To quote Kathy when I told her, "What?! Nooooooooooo!" It was something like that anyway.

Joan of Arcadia starts Sept 24.

I have to study for a quiz. And I don't have my calculator. To quote Stan, "Boo."

Voting

Oh, I almost forgot. We all know we should do our patriotic duty and vote. (What? You didn't know? Who are you? Am I your friend?) Well, there is a site that is using a sweepstakes to try to get people registered to vote. Check out the link on the right. You enter for a chance to win $100,000 and $100,000 for the person who referred you. They promise not to use your information for advertising and stuff. Oh, you have to be a registered voter in order to be eligible to win.

USC, ants, Latin Grammys

Ok, I just got back from my class. My professor has this weird thing where a little spit will collect on the left of his mouth (facing him left, his right). It's so weird. It's like a ball of spit that just starts collecting there. It's so obvious too, cuz it's white. So strange.

Another thing I remembered today. USC has no bells. Or tones. Or any signal whatsoever to tell you when class ends. So basically it's up to the professors and the students to remember. AND THERE ARE NO CLOCKS IN THE ROOMS. I don't think I've seen a single clock on campus. You would think a rich private school like USC would provide us with clocks. Guess not.

In other news, I have a colony of ants living in my closet. I found them like 3 days ago, but I had no idea why they started to invade my room and climb on my desk and stuff. Well, last night, I found a dead cockroach on the floor underneath my desk. So I guess that answers it. But even after I moved the cockroach and cleaned up all the ants, more are coming out. I hope I can find some way of getting rid of them. Wait....what I MEANT to say was I hope I can find some EASY way of getting rid of them.

Stan, nice comments. It's Emily's birthday today. She turns 30. Happy Birthday Emily! We're gonna have a BBQ tonight at a church friend's house.

I finally got my car washed after it was shipped over here. On the way from Columbus to LA it collected like 30 pounds of dirt. It was pretty nasty. I went driving around and found one of those do-it-yourself car wash places. Pretty cool. It only costs $1 for 3 min (you can switch from soap to foam to rinse to wax). After time runs out you need to put in more money. They also have a vacuum (another $1, just like the ones at the gas station) so I finally got the sand out of my car after I gave people a ride home from the beach. Yeah.....that's right....I can go to the BEACH. =]

Oh yeah, I forgot. I couldn't buy a parking pass at USC, so I had to buy a pass across the street at Shrine Auditorium. It's where the Oscars and other award shows are held. The Latin Grammy's yesterday were held there. They didn't let us park there. There were all these signs that said "Limo, Red Carpet ->". They have these super long parking spaces that at first I had no idea what they were for. I thought they wanted people to double park or something. Then I figured it out. It's for all the limos. Yeah, pretty dumb of me.

California, what to say....

Well, now that I've been in LA for almost a month, here is my current opinion.

PROS
The weather is awesome. Everyday is sunny and warm.

Very diverse population here. There are so many indians, blacks, asians, latinos, etc. on campus, and everywhere.

Beaches. 'nuff said. I have pictures to make you all jealous.









CONS
Traffic SUCKS. Rush hour is 3pm - 7pm. And Rush Hour doesn't mean lots of cars. It means lots of cars bumper to bumper and you crawl along at less than 5 mph. Even in off hours, there are just random patches of traffic where you have to wait 10 min to go like 1 mile. This is all highway of course, but you have to utilize the highway to get anywhere almost.

The air is dirty. Not as bad as Taipei (where you walk outside and there is just a stench), but still bad. You know those window cleaning squegees at the gas stations? I've used those like twice in my life before California. But here, EVERY time I go to gas up, I use them. Why? Cuz my windows have a brown nasty film caked on them. Which brings me to my next con.

It almost never rains. Some people might think this is good, but not me. I depend on the rain to wash my car. And plus, this is the reason almost nothing grows in California. My cousin (Andrew) was telling me when some guy from Taiwan first came to California, he started drawing GREEN mountains (this was like in elementary school). All the kids laughed at him and said the mountains are BROWN. It's true. So sad. Taiwan has pretty mountains though. I miss grass. Not dry, crunchy desert grass, but real, long, flowing, green grass. Ah, Ohio.........

ok, now to my rant.....

My roommate today decided to clean the bathroom. No biggie, we're gonna take turns each week. So what does he go and do? He takes the floor mats (carpet kind) and THROWS THEM IN THE WASHER. I didn't realize this at the time. Later when he goes to get them out, he's like "Oops. I guess I shouldn't have done that." All the stuff on the back of the carpet (white rubbery material that holds it all together) was coming apart. There's like chunks of it in the washer. Man, who does this sort of thing? The only person I could think of is Hoan. Which is a funny thing, cuz Hoan is Vietnamese, and guess what my roommate is? Yeah, Vietnamese. I sense a pattern here.....(note: just making an observation, not saying anything bad about Vietnamese)

The other thing is that everytime after he takes a shower, there is a huge puddle of water on the floor. I don't know how he takes showers, but I'm thinking he doesn't use the shower curtain or doesn't close it all the way. Weird.

Super Roaches

Back in Ohio, you don't see too many cockroaches. I don't think I remember even seeing one. As you all know, Taiwan has LOTS of roaches. And they're BIG. I never knew how big til I came to California. I just thought, "Cockroaches, they're supposed to be big right?" You know, comparing them to the roaches I see on Fear Factor or whatever. But no. There are also cockroaches here in California. (I'm guessing the cold in Ohio makes it not suitable for roaches) But the roaches here in California are SMALL. I will take a picture of one. But they are about the length of a dime, or a quarter (they range in size). That makes the roaches in Taiwan look like giants! Those super roaches are scary. I'm glad I was exposed to the super roaches before the regular ones or I probably would have freaked when I went to Taiwan.

We're all family....

Ok, so this morning I was woken up by my girlfriend calling from Taiwan. After my cell phone battery almost died, we got online, and I was explaining to her who everyone in my family was. *sigh* It was pretty tough. I sent her some pictures and was going through every person, who their parent's were, who their siblings were.....it took like an hour just to get through one picture. And we're not even done with my Dad's side yet. So anyway, I'm thinking of making a family tree to show her who everyone is and how we're all connected. I'll probably put it on the web somewhere. Then everyone can be mortified when they see exactly how big the Wang/Lin monster really is.

Aren't big families great?

Annoying idiosyncrasies

I've noticed one thing that really annoys me in class is people who nod their heads. You all know them. As they listen to the professor, they nod their head in agreement. For some reason that just really annoys me. I can't concentrate if they are in my field of vision.

In other news, HP has started selling iPods.

USC

Ok, I haven't updated this blog in a while. Let's get up to speed. I'm currently in LA, going to USC (school started today). I've been going to The Exodus (http://www.theexodus.org/), a "mission plant" from Harvest LA.

This Sat, I'll probably go to the beach with some of the people from EFC LA (Harvest LA) and then head over to a friend's house to watch the USC football game. Later, we're going to a concert put on by Benny Mao. He just released his first solo album (http://www.bennymao.com/) and we're going to support him. You might also know him from the Exodus Worship CD (http://www.exodusworship.com/).

In other news, I have been hit with 3 parking tickets over the past week, $35/each. One was at USC, I overparked my meter by like 5 min (!) and they gave me a ticket. The two others were because I forgot that the street in front of our house has street cleanings on Monday and Friday (one side each time) and I kept parking on the wrong side. Doh!

Oh, I'm also trying out the freeipods.com website (http://www.freeiPods.com/default.aspx?referer=8164924) to see if I can get a free i-pod. I still need to refer 4 friends (thanks Soph!) to see if I get one. If in doubt, read this http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,64614,00.html. It seems like this is legit, so we'll see.

Oh yeah, Stan got engaged two days ago to Melissa. Congratulations to them. I'm gonna be the best man! When's the wedding? Everyone is excited to come see Ohio, so hurry up and start planning, haha.