Happy "We beat the British" Day

It's no fun watching fireworks at the pier when it is cloudy. And there's no music. We made it up by lighting various fireworks in the street afterwards.

I found out today that one of our dragon boat team members is the sister of Gil!!!! Gil is a good friend who came to Ohio with my cousin Dave for their residency. We've hung out for the past few years, and now I found out I've been rowing with his sister for the past few months. That's crazy. (insert "It's a small world" song here)

I start work tomorrow. I hope I like it. And I hope I'm not late.

signs of addiction

Ahhhhh! I have to board! My access to the internet will be cut off for the next 8 hours! What will I do? WHAT WILL I DO? I can feel the connection slowly being pulled out of my hands with every step I take to the gate.

Free wifi

I'm here sitting at a table in the Columbus International Airport, waiting for my flight to board. I love it when airports have free wifi. It makes the waiting so much less boring. I have to say that is a huge draw for owning a laptop. Watching movies on the plane (that you choose, so it's not a crappy selection), watching movies during layovers, and accessing the internet.

Everytime I come back to Ohio, it's......weird. This is where I grew up, my hometown, my origin. But it's not 'home' anymore. Sure, my parents live here (and Just), and I'll always have a room when I come, but it's no longer my base of operations. But when I'm in LA, I'll always say I'm from Ohio. It feels like this is a place where I visit rather than where I come back to. If I buy stuff, I have to have it shipped to LA. All my stuff is there, including my car. It's almost like living in a hotel that has a permanent room for you. Is this a part of growing up and moving on? Maybe.

prodigious amount of pics

I'm still in the process of uploading all the pics off my camera. Here are the galleries to my knowledge. I will add more as I become aware of them.

Sherry Wang-Axelrod's pics	count: 52
Joseph Huang's pics	count: 75
Jennifer Lee's pics	count: 69
Eric Mui's pics	count: 32
My pics	count: 146
	Total pics: 374

wedding slideshow/video

If I say wedding "video", people are like "huh?" If I say wedding "slideshow" they're like "oooooh."

If anybody wants to watch the video/slideshow that was played at the banquet, here it is. WARNING: this is a 70MB shockwave flash file. (i.e. it's BIG, and you need shockwave flash to watch it) It's recommended you right-click and save the file to your computer before playing it for smoother playback. Just double-click and it *should* play in your favorite browser.

Start from the beginning

I arrived in Columbus early last week and hung out with some friends. Then the chaos began.

Too many things happened in the past week. I'll just run the highlight reel.

• some relatives didn't arrive because they checked in 4 minutes late at the airport
  
• some relatives didn't arrive because the airline cancelled the flight
  
• waiting to do the slideshow is not a Good Idea^TM. But having cousins and a sister to help you is. Thanks to JH, EH, DC, and JW. You guys saved me.
  
• playing poker with fruit loops is.......different
  
• when playing Mafia with newbies, don't assume they know what to do
  
• watching movies with a projector on a wall is the way to go, but not as cool as our neighbor who projects it on the side of his neighbor's house
  
• tying balloons to a car and then leaving it outside in 90 degree weather means the balloons will pop
  
• if the Maid of Honor wears a different dress than the bridesmaids, everyone will think she is the bride and wonder whether to stand when she walks down the aisle
  
• nobody can pronounce my sister-in-law's name. It's either Marissa, Militia, or Maw-lee-saw.
  
• some people don't know you are supposed to wait to blow the bubbles when the bride and groom walk down the aisle
  
• shaking the hands of 180 people as they leave the ceremony gets tiring after the first......20.
  
• stuffing 30 or more people into a house makes it VERY hot, especially when they are dressed in wedding attire
  
• you don't eat at your own wedding banquet because you don't have an appetite (or you are frantically trying to finish the slideshow)
  
• your dad will advertise your single-ness at your brother's wedding
  
• if Bostonians come to Ohio for your brother's wedding, take them to Cedar Point, they will enjoy it
  
• you don't get any sleep the week around your brother's wedding
  
• lack of sleep and yelling at Cedar Point will make you lose your voice
  

Having a sister-in-law doesn't feel any different, really. Just one more person to make fun of around the house.

Congratulations to Mr. Stanley Wang and Mrs. Melissa Yang! (this whole not changing your name thing is starting to become a trend) May you have smart kids so I don't have to tutor them in math. And may they have as much fun playing together as we did, Stan. I'm sure they'll have plenty of embarassing stories to tell at their weddings, too.

Wedding pictures to come......

Weddings are exhausting

I'm tired.

Oh, you mean that guy

I used to be an idealist. I used to want to change the world. I used to want, no demand, perfection. Then I took Latin 2 as a sophomore in high-school and got lazy with all the memorizations of all the different forms of words and whatnot. I stopped caring so much and started procrastinating more. ("More?" you ask. "You can procrastinate more?" Apparently. 'finishing projects not the night before, but the day of, and then turning in half complete assignments' sounds like more to me.) I somehow(*) managed to graduate high school and get into college, where I became an idealist again. I wanted to make a difference. Improve the world. Better society. I made plans. They were forgotten. New, better plans were made. They were left in Kyle's pants pocket and went through the laundry. We attempted to piece together the plans. Then, slowly, the pressures of the world took root.

Graduation came and went. I didn't attend for fear of contracting "boring-graduation-ceremony-itis". No one said a thing. After all, I'm Asian. College is just the first foray into the academic career I'm expected to achieve. In my parents' minds, there would be many more graduations. I went to Taiwan to learn Chinese because "it's embarassing to not know your own mother language". Well, that and I wanted to travel to another country and I knew my parents would be glad to "send" me to Taiwan. When I say send, I really mean fund. I found out I got accepted for who-knows-what-reason(*) to USC and came back to study.

Now that I've finished my first year, and somehow(*) got a full-time job, I find myself not wanting to change the world, or even to improve it. All I want is security. Financial security so I can maintain my current standard of living. Job security so I can have the means to ensure my financial security. Health/well-being security so I can keep working, playing, travelling, and enjoying life. I no longer am the person I used to be. I am content to settle for being another consumer in a consumer driven society. Sure, I care about the environment, religious matters, and personal freedom. I take interests in current events, politics, and the stock market. I have an avid curiousity about all things technology-related. But what am I doing? I'm just living life and it's passing me by. Thoughts that crowd my mind are now, "What kind of experience can I get from this job?" "How should I invest my money?" "How fast should I finish my degree so I can do other things?" "Should I continue school? Get a PhD?" "What does God have planned for my life?" "I hope God wants me to be rich and comfortable." Notice how many "me/my/I"'s are there. What happened to that guy that wanted to be benevolent, altruistic, a do-gooder, a catalyst for change, a joy-spreader? He's hiding in the corner waiting for someone to talk to him and ask him where he's been all these years. The only other person in the room is me and I'm too busy surfing the net posting random thoughts on my blog to notice I'm not alone.

(*)Kyle's Jeff-is-blessed theory: Jeff is blessed by God and no matter how many tests he fails, he'll always get a passing grade. No matter how many schools reject him, he'll get accepted into one. No matter how many classes he misses, he'll end up with a higher GPA than the previous semester. No matter how bad he messes up his interviews, he'll get the job. And most important of all, no matter what he posts on his blog, people will read it.

pictures from Eddie's wedding are up.

the smell of fresh cut grass, and the poo you just stepped in

I mowed the lawn today. Yes, you read that correctly. Ohioans actually mow their own lawns. We are too far away from a certain other country to have much cheap labor. And we actually have huge lawns to mow. It's so weird how there are huge lots in Ohio that cost less than half of a much smaller lot/house in LA. Too bad land is not transportable. We should have teleporters so you can live in one place and work in another.

Weddings are a very strange phenomenon. It's like showing all your friends and family how big of a party you can throw. But shouldn't they be the ones throwing you a party? What if weddings were planned out by family and friends and the couple just came and were entertained? I think that would be more enjoyable. Unless you have friends with vastly different tastes than you. Or cheap friends. Or no friends. That would suck to get married and have no friends. Maybe you can marry someone with a lot of friends. Starting to get off track here....

Anyway, I'm gonna post pictures of Eddie's wedding.

The best was when Joe broke a wine glass when the procession was coming in. And immediately after, Sam yelled, "Joe, Joe! Fire! Fire!" as the candle on Joe's table grew into a 5" flame. Good thing Joe is a firefighter. He did a good job watching as the waiter came to put it out.

Joe also tried to get all the male cousins to pick up Eddie (the groom) and parade him around the table when they came around to toast the tables. We didn't really know what he was talking about, so Joe ended up picking Eddie up by himself. He had a 3-person cheering section made up of his kids. And all the cousins were just looking at him thinking, "What is going on?"

2 weddings down. 2 more (and 1 reception in Israel) left. And the one in Taiwan this December. Nobody else get married this year. I don't have any more vacation time to allot. Man, working is gonna take up all my free time. And when I say free time, I mean sleep time.

Should I make my speech funny? Or serious? A lot of the funny stuff about Stan you had to be there to understand. Or have the same sense of humor as our family.

Pictures from Judy's graduation are up. Also, 3 pictures from Steve/Joe's BBQ are up.

Back in Ohio

I am back in Ohio. I'll be here for 3 weeks attending to matters of great importance, namely seeing that my brother's marriage celebration goes off without a hitch. Ohio is a lot more humid than I remember. It must be all that dry SoCal air I'm getting used to. It's cloudy here. But the air is a lot cleaner.

Since attending E3 a few weeks back, I've wanted to write an article exploring video games and why people play them. Here is an article interviewing the founder of an online "game" called Second Life. Basically it's a virtual world where people can customize their characters, buy virtual land, and interact with each other. What makes it different is that you can build anything you want. I assume there are no/few built-in items, and most of the stuff (vehicles, buildings, weapons, clothes, etc.) is user-designed. People buy/sell these items in-game and then the game currency can be exchanged for real $US. There have been other games where people will buy/sell items or characters in real life on eBay, but this is different because these things are user-created. You can start your own store in a virtual world and earn a living. Making things that don't exist.

Ever heard of funhi.com? It's another social network thingamajig but you buy stuff for other people. Virtual stuff. People are paying money for this kind of thing.

Jeff's fables

Monday: Got an interview with JL's company. Cousin's kid got a cut on hand. Had to watch one of the stunt-doubles while Cousin and cousin's wife took cousin's kid to the emergency room. Called for backup to watch the stunt-double because I had to leave for interview. Shower;change;drive. Got to interview on time. Said stupid stuff in interview. JL calls me later and tells me they offered me a job despite my stupid comments and inexperience because JL used his influence. Thanks to JL for my future job and income.

Moral of the story: treat your pastors nice. You will need them someday. And treat God nice too. You need him everyday.

Tuesday: stayed up til 1:something AM fixing some girl's computer. Turned out her harddrive on her laptop, where she keeps all her pictures, papers, email, assignments-she-needs-to-turn-it-to-graduate (aka her entire life), had some bad sectors and the file system got corrupted. The computer wouldn't boot, we needed a Windows XP CD to use the recovery console, and no one in the vicinity had one. We musta spent 30 min trying to call someone who had one. Finally JT's landlord came home, who is a programmer at JPL, and we used his.

Moral of the story: backup your important data. Don't trust your hardware; expect it to fail. Drink milk. Use sunscreen. Exercise. Eat your leafy-green-veggies. Eat whole wheat bread. Treat your geek friends nice, you will need them someday.

As a sidenote, I'm surprised we were able to get the computer running again. If history is any indicator (when does history repeat?), the data would have been lost. I've only seldom been able to recover data when my hard drives crash. But that's usually because I do things stupidly and I don't backup my data. God was with us on that one. The fact that her graduation is on Saturday and all her assignments were on that disk didn't help either. "I'm gonna cry/What should I do?/What if it doesn't work?/Can you fix it?/Is it fixed?/Does that mean it's ok?/What does that mean?/How long will it take?/Make sure you have the 'codes' " were common phrases heard that night.

Wednesday: helped paint my cousin's newly acquired boat. Got toxic paint dust all over myself. I wonder if this will lead to cancer in the future. Probably.

Moral of the story: treat your radiation-therapist friends nice. I will need them someday.

If all goes well...

It looks like my job search is over.

Stupid auto-pay

I can't believe how stupid the auto-pay system is for my credit card. The reason I signed up for this so-called 'Auto-pay' is so that it will automatically pay my credit card bill and I won't forget and have to pay fees. I assumed it would just deduct the credit card bill amount from my bank account at a predetermined time every month. But, alas, no.

I found out today, after much "huh?"-ing and poking around, that the system pays ONE amount every month. So for example, I can set it to pay $100 every month. Or $200. But I can't set it to automatically pay my bill. I found out that when I started this thing, I owed something like $900. The next month, my bill was only $450. I thought the payment would change and only pay $450. It didn't. It payed another $900. And I didn't have that much in my bank account, so I overdrew, and got charged. Stupid. So now, even if I sign up for this system, I still have to change the amount every month to reflect my current balance. Wow, it really simplified my life.

My job search continues.

I present to you, for your enjoyment...

Pictures have been posted. Features include but are not limited to:

• E3 photos


• a Benny Mao^TM production


• miscellaneous other weird stuff

Weddings are creeping up like a fart someone let in the corner of the room and then slowly spreads to cover the entire area. I have to come up with a speech. And finish the video.

Summer is nice

I like summer.

Went to E3. It was crowded and they gave away lots of useless free stuff. Took pictures of the new Xbox 360. The whole show is like an amusement park. You wait in line for everything.

Saw Episode 3. It was good. I fell asleep during the first half though, cuz we saw it at 3am. I love being unemployed.

We started a new blog for random weirdness that goes on at the Exodus. Check it out.

Be careful what you wish for

me: "How come all you guys moved to LA?"
DVJ: "I dunno, it has to be God. I remember in college when I said 'I will never, never move to LA.'"
me: "Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?"
DVJ: "I know, God has a great sense of humor."
--pause--
DVJ: "I will never, never marry somebody hot."

Proof the commentators really have nothing to talk about during high speed chases

I was watching yet another high speed chase on the news today when the commentator said, "The suspect is coming up on an intersection where he will once again have to make a decision on whether to go east, west, or continue south." Thank you for that bit of information. I was getting confused there for a minute.

Huh?

BH: "You only look like you do."

Translation (courtesy of BM): "Only you look like you do." (Referring to Pax Americana and the unique position Asian Americans have in that they speak English, yet have an Asian face, which gives them an advantage in Asian missions.)

Allergies are bad for you

I'm too tired to write about anything funny. There were too many interesting things that happened during finals up til now.

• Someone was moaning and passed out in one of my finals, we had to call campus security
  
• Made it to Ohio safely, it was cold, I missed my friend's wedding ceremony because we were late (it was only 10 min long)
  
• Made it back to California safely, where the sun shines year round
  
• finished finals; am pondering on what to do with the rest of my life
  
• helped out Exodus at the OMF conference, where many funny conversations took place
  
  • JT: "Let's all share our insecurities about ourselves."
    
  • BM: "You can't swim with stingrays."
    NS: "You can in Stingray City."
    
  • BM reverse dunking into thin air when he thought the hoop was behind him.
    
  • Eating at a restaurant when NS decides to order and looks at a menu from a different restaurant than the one we were at
    
• Suffering through allergies all of today (not fun)
  

Did I mention that in Taiwan movie theaters, when you buy a ticket, you get assigned seating? We went to go see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy today and my visiting Taiwan guest asked me if there was assigned seating. In Taiwan, every ticket is printed with a seat number.

free country n. a country in which you can choose your seat in a movie theater rather than being assigned one.

Finals are over

Finals are over. I locked my keys in my car when I parked in the garage. Now I gotta call Acura Roadside Assistance.

Finals

Finals are here again. They still suck. Possibly the last finals I take in a while? Who knows.

Exodus Worship Night

Pictures from the Exodus Worship Night and other moments are posted.

Too bad I don't have any other funny ones of DVJ.

This is for you Dr. DW.

Academic fondness

Don't you love it when you've just stayed up all night finishing a project that is due the next day so you can go to a casino with your friends, only to find out that you have a paper due that same day that you haven't started on? Me too.

Don't ask

Congratulations, you are the millionth reader of this website! For your efforts, you get a special 3-in-1 post.

A few weeks ago, TC was wearing glasses because he had an allergic reaction and his contacts were bothering him.

TC: "I hate wearing glasses because they make me look old."
(jump to FC, who is the oldest one in the room, and also wears glasses)
FC: "Thanks."
< insert laughter here >

Flash forward to tonight, at men's group.
It was JN's birthday last Saturday, but he went back to North Carolina to visit friends. He came back today, and JT made a cake. After we sing a horrible rendition of Happy Birthday, someone asks JN how old he is.
JN: "I'm old. (in chinese) 29 years old."
(jump to FC, whose age is greater than 29)
FC: "(imitating JN in a whiny voice) I'm old, I'm turning 29."
< insert laughter here >

About 20 minutes later, it is announced we have _another_ cake. Mud Pie ice cream cake. FC has recently hired a physical trainer and is on a strict diet.
FC: "C'mon, don't you know some of us are on a DIET?"
< insert laughter here >

Man, we're too nice to our friends.
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While playing basketball on Monday, Transhi was shooting with one hand. He broke his arm about 2 months ago (also playing basketball, people never learn from their mistakes) and so he couldn't use his other hand. He usually wears a sling, but that night, he just wore a brace-like-doohicky under his shirt, so it wasn't very noticable. He just kept his arm by his side and used his other hand to dribble and shoot. We kept calling him the one armed bandit. There was a little kid that was shooting with us and when he heard us, he noticed Transhi was only shooting with one hand.

Little Kid (incredulously): "You don't know how to shoot with two hands?"

What is a middle-schooler doing out at 9pm playing basketball with a bunch of strangers, anyway? Asian strangers, at that. Doesn't he know we're dangerous?
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A Native American is walking down the sidewalk in an upscale suburban neighborhood behind two strangers. He is good-looking, about 23, and plays the bass like none other. The two strangers are Caucasian, one male, one female. They look like they are a couple. They are about the same age, and attractive (as attractive as Caucasians can be, anyway. We all know Asians are the best looking people in the world). The female suddenly turns around with a disgusted look on her face. The Native American looks down and to his own horror, finds he has peed his pants. Embarrassed, he picks up his pace and walks past the two disgust-stricken Caucasians, who can't help but stare at him. The girl makes a comment about how 'they' can't help it, as if Native Americans are infamous for uncontrollably urinating in their pants. Out of nowhere, the Native American notices a truck coming down the street. He seizes the opportunity, and pushes the girl into the street, just as the truck is passing. The girl screams, and is instantly killed as the truck hits her. Her male companion is shocked at what he has just witnessed, but soon he turns furious. The Native American turns and runs down the sidewalk, hoping to escape the inevitable fury of this unknown aquaintance(there's an oxymoron for ya). As he runs, he turns into a house with an open door. As he is about to enter, two girls appear in the doorway. (For clarity, they are called Girl A and Girl B) Girl A says "I'm responsible for 3 girls who don't like you anymore. Me, my sister, and my friend (referring to Girl B)." Apparently, this is in reference to what has just transpired. Girls don't like random murderers, apparently. Girl B says, "I saw that digusting thing you just did, but are you currently dating anyone?" At which point Girl A pulls Girl B back, dumbfounded that she would still be interested in this heinous person standing in the doorway. Just then, the male counterpart to the now deceased rag doll on the street arrives at the house and the Native American starts to punch him into a bloody pulp. Blood squirts everywhere a la "Kill Bill" and the screen fades to black.

I had this dream while I was taking a nap on Monday. I was the Native American. Go figure.

Stan, got your message

Correction, YOU'RE the loser.

Note to self

It is possible to fit 2 Oncology fellows plus 1 PhD fellow plus their luggage into my car.

Driving fast on CA freeways freaks out people from Baltimore.

It is possible to go from Anaheim to Long Beach, grab dinner, go to UCLA, drive thru Beverly Hills, find Mann's Chinese Theater and back to Anaheim in 6 hours.

Mann's Chinese Theater is on Hollywood Blvd. not Sunset Blvd.

It's pretty easy to beat a dragon boat team with half as many people as your team. Even if it's your team's first practice.

California beaches are the reason it would be hard to move back to Ohio. That, and the weather.

If you show up late to a dinner with your Uncles, Aunts, and cousins, they will want you to finish off the rest of the food. They will also try to make you eat as fast as possible by pouring your tea for you, clearing your plate, putting food on your plate and giving you clean wet-cloths. And they will talk about you the whole time.

Breaking up with your girlfriend is big news to the extended family.

Having a big family is great. There's always someone to talk about or someone to help you out when you travel.

Going to bed after a long day dragon-boating, playing beach volleyball, eating dinner with relatives, and putting over 100 miles on your car is priceless. Especially if your body is sore.

DW, hope you had fun reading at the beach. What a fun day, it was great to hang out. Share that boba with your roomies.

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.