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.