not just another guitar

KCDC Lesson 1: Reapply Sunscreen Often, Don't Get Lost

2011-07-05T22:39:00.000-07:00

So today was the fourth week of CTBC's Koinonia Children's Day Camp, but it was actually my first day and I can honestly say I am completely wiped out!! Even though I was fully aware of how tired I was going to be due to my experience in years prior, I forgot exactly how TIRED a day of KCDC makes you. Of course it probably didn't help that our group left for a field trip right away and then proceeded to get lost and walk an extra 30+ mins (the kids walked up and down the mountain side 3x more than they needed to and we felt so bad that we bought them popsicles). Because I can't share pictures of my kids, this picture of how far we walked up will have to do.
(taken when I was sent to scout out the Randall Musuem...never again)

Then walking around the insect and animal exhibits, playing freeze tag sporadically at the park (my bad for ditching you Chris Chu)for over an hour and then running away from different groups of kids back at site. All I wanted to do when I got home was shower and sleep. As tiring and long as the day seemed to be though, there are few joys that I think compare to a day of KCDC(despite the frustrations and physical exhaustion). There's something incredible about serving in this ministry that has stuck with me for all these years as well as in serving and fellowshipping with my fellow brothers and sisters. Time to go put aloe on my sunburned arms and get some rest before day 2. Stay tuned :)

Life Lesson #11 - Don't Get Discouraged

2010-10-13T15:52:00.000-07:00

This is coming almost 2 weeks late but midterms, problem sets, and paper have been keeping me busy. Last last Friday, I had an interview with the media resource center in Moffitt library for a job there. Here's the breakdown.

The bad: Since the time I applied for the job and my interview, the work shifts had changed days and I would be unable to work those hours due to classes, MOC, and college group.

The good: My interviewer said the interview went great and she thought I would be perfect for the job if my schedule had worked out.

The redeeming factor: My interviewer said that if I still want the position for next semester instead of this one, she would hold my application and I would basically get the job without having to interview again.

As I said, I've been pretty busy these past couple of weeks with school. There is always another article to read or paper to work on or midterm to study for. Honestly I don't know if I would have been able to handle a job on top of 4 classes all for my majors. I think spring semester is going to be a lot less stressful than this one and I would probably be able to balance the workload of school and working a lot better but I was still pretty disappointed that I did not get the position. That being said, the last thing my interviewer said to me was, "I hope this doesn't discourage you from coming back and working here in the future". So I'll try my best to not get discouraged and in the mean time, will just enjoy the free time I have to hang out, and I guess really relax before classes become harder and the workload heavier.

Life Lesson #10

2010-10-09T02:32:00.000-07:00

connecting with tumblr

For as long as I can remember, my parents have stressed to me the importance of finishing what I start. This has not only included completing tasks, but also not being wishy washy, constantly changing my mind(though this one I kind of fail at). I was reminded on Friday the importance of this simple but age old advice.

On Friday I had an interview at the MFC in the library at 2pm. Knowing my habit of being late, I decided to go early. It was interesting how everything played out. I ended up going 10 minutes later than I initially decided, and walked a different route than I normally would to the library. Right in front of Cafe Strada, I was stopped by a lady who looked to be a couple of years older than me. Maybe it was because I was a short asian like her, or because I wasn’t rushing by her or because I made eye contact with her but she stopped me to ask if I knew where 2251 College was. I basically told her I did not but that she was on College now. She thanked me, and began to walk down college towards the units.

As I crossed the street, I noticed the address sign 2300 with an arrow pointing down the street. Realizing the lady was going the wrong direction, I didn’t know what to do. I looked on the campus map, was able to find 2251 and looked at my cell phone. I had 15 minutes to get to my interview in Moffitt. Realizing I would never feel good knowing this lady was going to get further and further lost, I turned around and started to run trying to find her. I caught up to her as she was about to cross the street to Underhill, told her I found where her class was, and walked with her back to campus. We started to talk (her name is Yin-Yang) and I round out she was actually a visiting research student in the Political Science department(my major) specializing in East Asia Comparative Politics (what I want to emphasize in). What are the chances of that happening? We had a really good talk, and I got to my interview at exactly 2:00. Even after my interview(a post for another day) I could not stop from thinking about this experience. I don't know why it affected me as much as it did but I think it was a great reminder to not let the stress and day to day grind of life stop me from a simple lifestyle of compassion, kindness and care for others.

Going Going Gone

2010-07-09T01:49:00.000-07:00

After KCDC tomorrow a large group of the college KCDC leaders will be heading off to Del Valle camp grounds for a mini weekend retreat. This will be the first year the class of 2008 will get a chance to experience real camping as part of the college department. I have to admit I'm kinda excited for it but at the same time I am up at nearly 2 in the morning trying to finish packing and finish hw and clean. It has definitely been a busy couple of weeks and honestly I am completely drained both physically and spiritually. I don't know what's planned for this weekend but I will be praying for God to meet with me, to revive my spirit and to really give me some guidance and direction as to where He wants me to go.

On that note, I feel like my brain has been working overtime these couple of weeks as I am constantly thinking about what needs to be done next, what I need to plan ahead for, all the different worries in my life. This is not to say I have spent these past weeks moping around like a dejected child in a corner. I have been blessed with a lot of people who have been keeping me afloat but I think I'm at the point where I need to really just support myself. Don't get me wrong. I'm entirely grateful and thankful to those who have been continually encouraging me and have been sharing my burdens but I can't only depend on them and not try to help myself right? That's what I will leave you with.

Actually I feel bad that I have not updated my 3 part blog so here is the song part. I was actually going to post up a different song but after last Friday it got changed (in my mind at least). Terry W-L introduced a new idea of meditation on the Word last Friday at fellowship and I wanted to share my experience with you guys. As John 19 was read out loud, the college folk closed their eyes and were instructed to really rest on the word, on taking in the gospel. As the reading ended, an extremely bright but at the same time, faint picture of Jesus on the cross came to mind. As I was staring at the sight before me, I realized my eyes could not stay on the image any longer and my eyes were drawn to the feet of Jesus. In the kneeling position I was in, I could not help but feel like I finally understood what it meant to be at the feet of Jesus. It's hard to explain but in my mind, the physical act of kneeling at the feet of Jesus was so incredibly powerful. For the rest of the meditation time, my mind kept going to this song written a couple of months ago. It's nowhere close to being finished and I don't know the direction I want to take the song but for now, here it is. I haven't had the time to add instrumentals to the recording of it yet but hopefully I can get that out ....before the year is done? We'll see. You guys all know how bad I am at following up with these things.

Chorus:
I am spoken for
Each and every day
My hope is in a God who
Reserved for me a space
Picked up from the ground
From the rumble of my life
In His hands I’m safe and sound
I am spoken for

Bridge:
Hands that washed my feet (I am spoken for)
Hands nailed to the cross (I am spoken for)
Hands that hold me close (I am spoken for)
Hands that shield me (I am spoken for)

(2x)
These hands made me new and
These hands paid the price
For my sin that caused me death
He has given me life

A Heart to Heart

2010-06-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

There have been quite a few lingering thoughts in my head these past couple of weeks. Well more like the past month or so. The plan? A 3 part post that will be posted throughout the week ( if I remember and if I'm not too tired from KCDC that is). The topics will be: songs, driving, and humility.

Since I just had a driving lesson today why not start with that. So for the past month I've been getting driving lessons and I must say, as much as I think driving is pretty cool and kinda fun, it feels like school. And I don't mean the good school either. Here's some context. Now this is not to sound boastful or anything but I've never really been chastised in school by a teacher since like.....1st grade(Ms. To just really didn't like me and I think the feelings were mutual and D.Yee in high school doesn't count either cause he holds a grudge towards anyone who corrects him). School up until this point has been relatively nice. My grades aren't perfect but I do my best and I think a lot of times that is reflected in my work and my teachers have respected that.

Now on with the story. So far school hasn't really felt like school. It was just something I did and I more or less enjoyed(not including finals and midterms). But my driving lessons feel like school. I'm sure it's for my own good so I can learn how to drive properly and whatnot but every negative comment burns itself into my thoughts and I can only imagine it to be equivalent with how people feel when teachers give you a bad grade. Or not? I'm not sure but that's the comparison I'm going with. Plus as much as I do actually enjoy driving and think it's exciting, I find myself checking the clock constantly to let myself know how much longer I have to be in the car. Now I know at times I've done this in high school (especially in apbio with meng) but that was just an 'I'm bored when can we go to the next class or eat' not 'When will this end so I can leave this car and not see it for another week'. I'm pretty sure this story has no point to it but I
thought I'd just put it out there.

Life has been ...

2010-06-04T01:36:00.000-07:00

GOOD!

I didn't realize how long it has been since I've updated this blog but that might be because tumblr is quite addicting. In the past month or so, I have....finished my second year of college, enjoyed coffee for the first time (soooo yummy), lounged around at home, went driving for the first time, had an amazing week at chapter camp, and lounged around some more.

It was definitely weird ending the second year of college. It's really hard to believe that 2 years ago I was barely graduated and now another graduation is somewhat looming.

Chapter camp was an immense blessing. As interesting as the manuscript study time and worship track was, I think my favorite parts of chapter camp was when I stayed up having one-on-one conversations with people in the molly murphy cabin. Lots of open honest sharing that really brought a lot of joy into my heart. Thoroughly wonderful =] I'll keep those conversations to myself though.

*goal for next year = see someone fly off the blob*

At the beginning of the year/semester I had a list of sorts up to keep track of active changes I was making in my life. Not sure what number I'm on but one to add to the list is definitely based on

"Better is open rebuke, than hidden love" Proverbs 27:5

I think it's become somewhat of a theme for me these past couple of weeks. Before, I was incredibly scared of confrontation of any sort. Now though, I know that if something is really burdening me, it's important to share that with other people so that things would not turn into bitterness but instead would be let go. Wise words from the senior class (plus the bible)

My life is boring so I don't have anything else to talk about. I think if I blog in sorter intervals I'd remember the small happy things better and be able to blog about then but I don't so oo well. Hello bob :]

Green Tea Tapioca

2010-04-16T03:50:00.000-07:00

So I was just....not feeling very good today. I think a lot of it was spiritually and it was carrying over to the physical side. But my trip to moccachios for a hot green tea tapioca right before my Pol Sci 2 lecture changed everything.

First of all, I think a hot green tea tapioca always makes me happy. And as soon as that cup was in my hand, I had a smile on my face. Then I proceeded to go to lecture to watch my GSI give a guest lecture on civil societies, specifically in China. And I have to say, I sat there captivated for an hour and a half. Lots of funny first hand stories but I think the clips that were shown and the in depth descriptions and narrative of what happened and the emotional response by the native people just struck me and I could do nothing but try to memorize every fact my GSI was saying. I mean I was literally tearing up listening to the emotional response of the parents of students who were part of the Tiananmen riots. And then to see the original footage of the Tankman was so...time stopping. Yeah I walked out ofS that lecture hall very content with my day.

But the day was not over. Nope. Ran over to cafe 3 to have lunch with Becky. I think Becky and I try to eat together at least every other week or so....or really when one of us realize it's been awhile since we've seen each other. This particular dinner, we met up around 6:30 and stayed in cafe 3 talking into 9:30. Yes that's right past closing. Such a wide range of topics from Boy Meets World and Psych to consumer spending and greed to international issues fueled by western capitalism. Conversations went from light to really heavy and then back to light again. But for sure, lots of really good and encouraging conversations.

And now to cap off the day, Becky told me to go read givesmehope.com and mylifeisaverage.com the latter was quite funny and the former was downright inspiring(which is the goal of the site). Loved reading all the different posts thougt it has monopolized the entire rest of my night. Regardless, it has been worth it and I still have a whole bunch left to read.

It's been a really good day :]

*talking about the guy in my discussion who thinks eugenics is wonderful*
Becky: ...what's wrong with him???
Me: Iono....maybe he's Republican?
(this was a joke.......hope no one was offended)

One of those weeks...

2010-04-15T02:48:00.000-07:00

I'm having one of those weeks, where nothing out of the ordinary happens, and I really think that everything is fine. And then something simple and small happens, and I am entirely off kilter.

2010-04-06T04:36:00.000-07:00

as promised here are some spring break pics. there was a lot of joy and happiness in that week :]

March...ing on

2010-03-27T01:28:00.000-07:00

Corny title I know. But March has traditionally been a very packed month. For 4 years in high school March meant Spera presentations. The culminations of a whole year of hard work, planning, researching, rehearsing, resting on 2 15 minute presentations. With one year we knew what was coming, one year we were incredibly hopeful, another we were far too cocky about ourselves, and lastly our year of high hopes, depression and an incredible pulled out win.

March has also been the month of the beginning of the track season. Which meant all my time was going to be divided up between track and spera. In senior year, March meant college. And in the same sense, that was also the beginning of fat lard.

One of the key features of March has to be eating. Very much so connected to spera, the meals in March had to be one of the highlights of the entire year. Not because of all the good food we ate, but because of the company. March was definitely the month of close bonding, laughter, lots and lots of eating pictures.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=30810&id=580911652
look if you dont believe me. and this is just one of the years

if you look closely theres a script being worked on

and we sure do love food

but food also leads us to be really weird

and do things like this

These past two years March has been different though. Sure there's still a lot of eating. And yes lots and lots of bonding time (plus couch pictures) But March has also become a month of high hopes, fast crashes and above all else, new confidence. Well at least that's kinda what it was last year. I guess I was expecting the same to repeat itself this March but it hasn't exactly happened.....not entirely sure what I expect right now... Still though, March has not let me down and it's been a pretty good month, this week in particular. Once I get a chance the new couch pics will go up. Bound to bring a smile to someone's face :]

And as the month comes to an end, I guess there's not much to do but hope April will be just a bit better. "Only time will tell" =p guess what script/what year + what scene this is from

3:54

2010-03-22T03:54:00.000-07:00

Spring Break! Though I have to admit it didn't start feeling like spring break until today as I've seen a deluge of people coming back to the city from their respective schools. Before I forget, this week has definitely been a week of experiences both good and bad.

The bad: Tuesday morning I turned on my laptop and it didn't work! I felt like my entire life was lost....well not really but still!! And the worst part is all of my work for this past semester was not saved somewhere else, including the pages of research I found for my research paper just the day before. It was an incredibly stressful day. Found out that my laptop had a defected video graphics card that was ruining my motherboard...in other words, I needed to spend hundreds of dollars replacing most of the laptop.

The good: Tuesday night by the advice of youtube videos, I overheated my laptop and turned it off and on again and voila it worked!! Temporary fix but long enough for me to at least save all the important stuff.

The really really good: Wednesday
I had one of my most favorite Wednesdays of my life!
Started the day by being literally 3 mins late for my 2 hour PS 2 discussion (I was half an hour late the previous week and my GSI had me take the pop quiz I missed by myself in the corner....and I really do mean literally the corner..by myself....separated from the rest of the class) As I was running to get to class, I see the whole class walking out! Apparently my GSI was convinced that it was such a nice day that we would have discussion outside on the grass of Wheeler. A few more minutes late and I would have showed up to an empty classroom(they didn't even leave a note!). Outside discussion was such a wonderful experience. Everyone was just so happy :] smiles all around. plus a guy playing an accordion slowly walked by us so we had some pretty background music. plus plus a guy playing guitar sat behind our class the whole time strumming beautiful things pleasing to my ears. On top of that, discussion got cut 1 hr so I basically had the whole day free. And THEN I decided to stop by the berkeley laptop repair place and the guy said if I talk to LENOVO they should be able to set something. So I did.....and the person helping me out (Mark H.) basically said it wasn't my fault so even though my warranty expired, he's gonna set up an exception repair, and I can even get it fixed in Berkeley so I don't have to send anything in!! This already set me in a really good mood but to top if off, I decided to lay on the grass and work outside to enjoy the wonderful sun. Had to be one of the best decisions.

Definitely a day of me just being happy and smiling :]

improv everywhere

2010-03-21T00:11:00.001-07:00

new life goal added to the list =p

dying dying dead alive

2010-03-17T00:15:00.000-07:00

me: i am too
jesus is so good to me :]
Sarah: he is he is!

my laptop decided to die on me today.....

well actually it's not my fault .... i think..... apparently my laptop uses a faulty nDIVIA video graphics card that fries my motherboard....this is really nerdy. but i've been stressing about this all day and I've had to keep praying about, not that my laptop would be fixed, but that i wouldn't worry so much about something so material. And so after reading lots of posts online about it, I overheated my laptop, turned it on, and it works!! it's only a temporary fix but still i was able to save all of my work for this past semester. *sigh. this is the most calm i have felt all day. jesus makes me smile =]

You Know When.....

2010-02-26T14:44:00.000-08:00

you have those days where you wake up and you know it's just not going to be a good day? im having one of those days...........

and i blame this thing

Resolutions

2010-02-13T03:50:00.000-08:00

I feel like I've had so many things going on in my mind recently...It's been pretty hard to organize all my thoughts so get ready for a good amount of reading.

First off, I am still unsure of what my summer plans are going to be. So far, I've signed up for STATS N21 but it's going to be mostly online so it won't interfere with other plans. Here are the possibilities, KCDC, summer session, or nothing at all. Actually to be honest that last one isn't really even in the running. After I didn't get into either of the classes I needed to (R1B/arts and lit breadth) I really thought okay for sure I need to do summer session but after figuring out a tentative schedule for my classes for the rest of my college career with my pol sci adviser, it didn't seem necessary anymore. In fact, after talking about it to several people, I really feel like God was clearing my schedule this summer so that I could do this program. Still though, I am hesitant to make a commitment, because it seriously is a lot of work. Trainings every Sunday for the next 3 months(at least I get to skip basic training), 6 straight weeks of the program in the summer, lesson prep, craft preps, examples for people in my age group... well you get the idea, just a lot of work. I think I'm definitely at the point where I know what I should do, I know what I need to do, but I still want to put it off. Knowing me, I'll probably just agree the next time I'm asked.

Secondly, resolutions. I know it's already February but it'll count for the Chinese New Year =]. Actually I've had these resolutions for about a month now but just have not really told them to anyone. First off, I want to be less.....what's the word....hermit like? and more ....social? Okay explanation time. I think I'm definitely the kind of person who doesn't mind keeping to themselves. That's not to say I don't enjoy being in the company of other people, but I don't mind the quiet. It's a comfortable setting for me. But I definitely get comfortable with keeping to myself and not really speaking out. For those who know me fairly well, you know that I tend to really bottle everything up. If something is bothering me, if I'm struggling with something, if someone says something that really upsets me, I don't say anything. I let it pass and hope that it'll go away. I also tend to keep a lot of comments to myself for fear of offending anyone or seem condescending. Well I'm gonna try really really hard to not do that anymore......well as least not as much. I should have no fear if my intentions are good right? Well.......I'll work on it.

Very related to that, I want to take more chances. I have so many fears, inhibitions, EXCUSES! I never want to do anything that will put me in the spotlight for fear of being judged. It doesn't even have to be something big. I just DO NOT want to stand out. Maybe that's why I enjoy the social sciences so much. Way back in 10th grade in Mr. Vedar's Modern World Class, discussions were centered around a back and forth between me and maybe 1 or 2 other people. *ask Meng for comfirmation* And for the whole first semester, even though I had something to say or I knew the right answer, I would get so scared!! Like seriously, I had this really really bad habit of raising my hand during open discussions (okay I seriously still do this now ALL the time) and my face would turn crazy red. Think.....whole face the shade of a tomato. I kid you not, people in class used to comment and yell it out whenever it happened. And then there was of course the hyperventilating and speaking at 3x my normal speed during presentations.....those were the days.... But back to my original point, ever since then, social science classes were the only classes I felt confident enough to voice my opinion. So again I'm trying to get away from this comfort zone that I'm in. So far I have:

1. agreed to lead worship for LD
2. brought in a song to hopefully play for worship for band ministry (before I would always write an email and say we should learn this song and they would tell me to bring the song in and be prepared to share it......and i did not...)
3. confronted/kindly brought up issues to friends
hopefully this list gets really long by the end of the year
4. volunteered to lead bible study

another example of my desire to fade in. I recently acquired 2 american apparel sweatshirts(gotta love those vendor sales - thanks Chris!). I went to the store to kinda look and see which colors I wanted and I had already decided on the forest green and was thinking about getting either the mermaid green or sea blue. I ultimately decided on the sea blue because the girl at the store said most people get the sea blue because it's an easy color to pull off. And I agreed. It's a pretty dark, normal color and had I gotten it and worn it, it wouldn't be very noticeable. Still my eyes wandered ever so slightly to the mermaid green but I figured, no its too bright, too noticeable, too...not me? But lo and behold, I now have forest green and mermaid green. The more I think about it, the more happy I am that it turned out this way. I really did like the color of mermaid green but would have gone with the safe choice of sea blue....okay I can't believe I just wrote a whole paragraph about my american apparel sweatshirts......for those first time readers, I'm usually not this...vain? no judgment please =]

Switching topics now, for awhile, I stopped trying to write songs. I was never ..satisfied with them and that was because I would always compare it to other songs. But I figured out the real problem. I tried to write songs that other people could sing. I was more focused on writing something that could be sung by other people in worship that I forgot that the reason I started writing in the first place was because the song was true for ME. That seems kind of conceited but am I writing these songs for people, or am I writing them for me or for my growth or for my relationship with God? My heart needs to be at the right place first and foremost.

It's nearly 4am so time for a quick nap before chinese new year breakfast with the fam and then church and EGGETTES with the fellowship =]

On my last day in LA, this was the fortune in my fortune cookie. It's pretty cliche but....well.....maybe

Remember when...

2010-02-12T01:55:00.000-08:00

Remember when......

these were the coolest pencil cases to have ever???

i miss these.....
i used to not pay attention in class and rearrange my pencils and erasers instead...so much fun =]

2010-02-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

Why hello there. I won't go into too much detail about all the things from my socal trip(which was over a month ago already! time sure flies)

the car was packed to the brim with our stuff

we decided to stay in irvine for a day to hang out. lots of yummy snacks to tide us over

>
and of course once we got to LA we had to go get some 9.99 Korean BBQ

I have to say we look pretty normal for people who were stuffed with meat

I also got to finally try diddy riese

my new fav toy. toby! whose face is square while all the other trains are circular

this was taken in ochem right before we left. What shifty eyes from the guy above us

meng and i had a really long laugh about this one....i dont really know why

most nights we'd stay up talking...okay so it was more like I would tell Meng about political science terms and she'd fall asleep

LA dc food was pretty good. best part? they always had good fortune cookies. this is the fortune from the last meal. good advice i would say

anyhoo recently things have been....well they're better now let's just say that. Class scheduling was crazyyyy and now I have class every single day =[ Oh well at least I can't be lazy and sleep in until crazy hours on Fridays. All about being productive.

yesterday i finally got around to talking to the political science adviser and all the stress i had felt about class scheduling for the next two years virtually disappeared! i'm actually more on track than i had originally thought which was so good to hear and while my classes will be stacked for the following 4 semesters, it's very much so doable. but last night as i was telling aileen this, i realized that maybe God was providing me with a way to do KCDC this summer. It's definitely something that's been on my mind a lot and I do see the need for leaders but it's difficult to agree to give up my summer. oh well we shall see.

on a lighter note, i am currently snacking on these

and it makes me happy =]

4:10

2010-02-05T04:10:00.000-08:00

I am starting to write this blog at 4:10AM. Why? Because it's been so darn long since I've last posted. After LA, I kept telling myself to post, to update, to put my thoughts down on something more tangible than my head. And yet I keep putting it off! The great hope? To produce a full updated post within the next several days. For those faithful few who still check to see if I am alive via blogosphere, here is something to tide you over

quick fyi, this is the burger I ordered from Jack in the Box. It was supposed to be a bacon burger.....except that it did not come with bacon.....or anything else for that matter!

I can't help thinking....

2010-01-07T09:34:00.000-08:00

I know I'm skipping over some updates but this is quite a prevalent post. I was awaken today at 8:05am by a phone call that I promptly rejected because I thought it was my phone alarm. At around 8:45am I was awaken again but this time by a call to get up for breakfast and I noticed that I had a voicemail message in need of checking. So basically southwest decided to cancel my flight home...yes that is right they canceled my flight home. And to make matters worse, the flight I was debating between with the one I chose was not canceled. Cost for a new flight you ask? $104 more. Fail to massive proportions.

post break to speak to a southwest rep

Oh thank Jesus,.... and Steven my southwest representative... They were able to get me on another flight today! yay okay but to continue with my train of thought.

So here I was after listening to my voicemail thinking....I cannot believe this ACTUALLY happened! like really?? why!!!! And then as I went online to check my flight and look for alternative flights I kept turning to Meng every other minute saying, "I hate southwest". I have to admit I was really ready to get mad and demand for a flight without having to pay the difference. So I call southwest all ready to justify a flight and they put me on callback hold for 20-30 minutes. At that point I'm just thinking I'm never going to fly southwest ever again. So I hang up and then as I'm checking email and waiting for my callback, I realized that I did not read my devo yesterday because we spent several hours looking at videos online, pictures of spera in past years and then also taking a whole mess of pictures. So I decide to read it to kind of give myself something to do/calm down and as I read it, I couldn't help thinking how fitting it was.

I definitely needed a reminder to check my attitude about the situation and as always God provides in both the physical sense as well as the spiritual one. My anger over the issue would have not made it easier on either party but it would have just caused more stress so the situation (I know it definitely made me feel more stressed out) Also as I checked gmail, my word of the day just so happened to be

As in I chose to magnanimously speak to the southwest representative and not throw a fit over my canceled flight. I think imma have to name my child Steven now to repay him.....or probably not. Anyhoo summing it all up, God provides and even if I didn't get my flight, He is still good.

Okay so that was going to be the end of my post but really feeling the parental love right now. Called my dad to tell him my flight got canceled and rebooked. Sometimes I forget how reasonable my father can be. Probably should have started it off with more than, Dad southwest called at 8 this morning and canceled my flight. But after explaining everything, his response to the cancellation was, "I know it was not your fault and there was nothing you can do about it and your flight is only delayed by a couple of hours. Not too bad. If they try to charge you more for a flight just go ahead and let them. Do whatever you need to do" well I probably shouldn't put that in quotes but it works. Can't help feeling incredibly calm after talking to my pops.

part tres

2010-01-02T02:40:00.000-08:00

quick update before heading socal to ucla!

christmas eve consisted of really early morning shopping with christina and meng! I haven't seen Christina in such a long time very fun to catch up but trying to figure out what gift would be good for someone we don't really know was very tiring. so tiring in fact that once we bought what we needed, we promptly decided we needed food fast! so off we went to tofu house!! yummmmmm tofu. i wonder how long it will take to sit at every table in that place. so far i think I'm at 5 but we were already given the super secret table hidden in the back by the kitchen so the others shouldn't be too hard....

Christmas eve also ended up being our spera baking day. our first one but it was quite a success with s'more cupcakes. very yummy but i knew it was wayyyyy too much butter with the graham cracker crust. the graham cracker bottom and cake part was simple enough but we decided to get creative with the marshmallow topping. ill have to post up pics next time =p

time to sleep

part dos

2009-12-27T02:22:00.000-08:00

part 2 of my supposedly long post

Break has been really good so far. Been pretty busy but loving it all the same. Time for more recaps

Started winter break off on the right foot with tickets to Wicked! It was super uber good. I was kind of worried that it was far too hyped up and the musical wouldn't meet my expectations but I did and then some. Wasn't allowed to take any pictures inside the theatre but was able to take a contraband shot of the stage before the musical began.

waited outside of the stage entrance after the musical was over. was able to snag 3 autographs. 1. Deedee Magno Hall (Nessarose aka elphaba's sister aka the wicked witch of the east) 2. Nicolas Dromard (Fiyero who was soooo nice and chatted with people asking for his autograph) 3. Teal Wicks (Elphaba who was also really nice but took a really long time to leave)

while waiting for autographs, also mangaged to walk around and take some pics

sneak peek of part 3
shopping, tofu, and cupcakes

sneak peek of part 4
city impact rescue mission

Be prepared

2009-12-25T07:49:00.001-08:00

It is now 7:50 in the morning and I am incredibly tiredddddddddddd but not as bad as I could feel I guess since I decided to be smart and sleep at 1am! I can't even remember the last time I slept that early......I guess winter break is really good for me after all. Anyway there are going to be an onslaught of posts coming within the next several days so be prepared =]

So here's part 1. Let me take you back to half an hour ago when I first turned my computer on. Upon checking my gmail, I noticed a new word of the day, awaiting my eyes.

To understand this word I guess you would have to have been in Winchell and Lori's group at CEBC camp '06. I'll have to try to find the video of Winchell jumping up and yelling wassailin =]

preview of part 2

on another note, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-15T03:09:00.001-08:00

i have found myself doing anything and everything possible to put off studying. i will pay for it all tomorrow....

on a lighter note, imma cited for switchfoot!!! finally get to go to another of their concerts =) jan 9 im ready.

2009-12-05T17:02:00.000-08:00

With this world in mind,
We strive for goals,
Always on the fast track,
Don’t want to fall behind
Or judgment will come
By the hands of others
Comparing each to the next.
And so we will mindlessly go on
Never questioning
Never wavering
From this single-minded thinking

And our goals do not satisfy
As instant gratification
Is here in an instant and gone in the next.
Yet moving from goal to goal,
We’re blind
To the emptiness,
To the complacency,
That we fall into.
This rut,
Which becomes a well,
So deep,
That light is but a speck,
When we dare to look up.

And the thought
That we're comfortable,
Our place is at this bottom,
Takes over,
And we think this is normal.

But for those who dare to look beyond,
The recognition of something more,
Something greater,
Something better,
Something that is good.
For those who realize,
We are so deep down,
We are so low,
Are pulled back up,
Out of "normal",
Into a presence,
Of something else.
An indescribable force,
That judges
But forgives,
That sacrifices
To redeem,
That takes my life
To save it.

=]

2009-12-03T19:50:00.000-08:00

Fall 2009 semester is finally over!! Well except for finals..and reviews next week....but no more lectures or discussions =) how wonderful. Surprising how quickly the semester has gone by, though I'm not complaining. Anyhoo here's a quick photo update on thanksgiving.

we decided to go black friday shopping again this year so we met up after thanksgiving dinner, played a lot of nerts (what a super fun addicting game), got fresh donuts at bob's donuts, and headed off to old navy for their wonderful $15 jeans deal. decided we didn't want to wait in line for H&M to open at 5 so we hung out in our usually place at union square.

yeah i never understand what this guy is doing

the lights on the poles were different this year...=(

but we're always there to cheer each other up =)

lots of hugging going on.......though greg seems way more happy about it than kevin...

........nevermind hahaha

and what's a spera reunion without trapping kevin in a rotating door

2nd annual trip to the St. Francis to ride their elevators and take pictures of a wonderful view. they already had 2 giant christmas trees up and decorated! presents galore!!

H&M opened and keegan and I decided to try on the most random things we could find

i picked out a very normal set of accessories for keegan to try.....

...and she picks this out for me....oo joy....

keegan chris greg and i decided to pick out the worst outfits for each other. can you guess who won? =p

lots of fun and an overall great day. left my wallet at greg's but chris was kind enough to drop it off later.....with his trash inside of it....

Another week and they're all back again yayyyyy =]

post 100

2009-11-14T02:38:00.000-08:00

For awhile now
I’ve had trouble putting my thoughts into words
My desire to be eloquent
For my words to have meaning to everyone
For the praises of others
This is what I struggle with

But the words that you have spoken to me
The song of love that you have placed in my heart
Remains in its true form
And when I am only seeking your praise
Will these words come out right
Will this song be yours
So you will be at the center
And not myself

I attempt to put into words
My desire for you
The blessings I have received
The calm you have given me
And I always go back to one word
Grace

Because without it
I would not be here
We would not be here

I would not have been saved
And instead would be forever lost
In a sea of faces
But now I know better
And to you I stand above it all
Because my desires in life
Are no longer monetary
Or longing for the acceptance of others
Because these things are of this world
And will not last

But you have been here before I was
You are here now
And you will be here forevermore

How can anyone put all these emotions into words
How can I sum up
Everything you have done for me
For this world
No matter what I say
I will only be scratching at the surface
And I will still be left with one word,
Grace

I always end up comparing myself to others.
They're more artistic, better with words, a better voice.
And i fall into this trap
that Satan has put in my path.
And i am consumed with timidity,
always aware, also calculating of what others think of me.
I worry about who reads this blog, what they think,
do they agree, do they think
I'm just saying words that have no link.
But i know better than this.

That God will always look at my heart first.
That even if no one else understands what I'm trying to bring across,
God will not be at a loss,
for He never is.

And this will bring a smile to his face,
because His child has felt His endless grace,
His endless love
His warm embrace
And He will rejoice,
that another has been saved

*don't worry I wasn't trying to rap or anything it actually just ended up rhyming when it was all written out*

Operation Christmas Child

2009-11-13T03:42:00.001-08:00

Sorry this is coming so late but I was wondering if anyone was interested in doing Operation Christmas Child with me this year. The drop of days for the boxes will actually be this coming week so if you want to join me in sending a couple of boxes drop a comment or email me =]

dont know what I'm talking about?

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/

Safe

2009-10-29T04:09:00.000-07:00

"Course He isn’t safe. But He’s good. He’s the King"

So this here was posted up before I went off to IV's Fall Conference retreat. I was given a CD full of sermons a couple years ago and one of the tracks that always stuck with me was one in which Derek Webb introduces his song, "Wedding Dress".(very blunt but good song btw. should give it a listen or ask if you want the file =]) Anyhoo he talks about how being a Christian and the Christian faith is NOT SAFE. It is NOT an easy path.

In Narnia when the kids first ask about Aslan, the response they receive is that he is not safe, but he's good. He's the King. I went into Fall Con with this thought very heavy on my heart. Did I really know what this meant or did it catch my attention because it sounded good? I didn't really understand it but God made is so known to me this past weekend that IN ALL THINGS He is still very much so present and He is AT WORK and He is GOOD

tbd

2009-10-10T03:30:00.001-07:00

i know this video has been out for awhile but for some reason I decided to watch it again and it doesnt get old!

notebooks

2009-09-25T12:00:00.001-07:00

=[ i have this weird habit that if I do not write down my homework I am unable to even start it. For the past year I've been using the kind of notebook observed up top and I love it! It's separated by colors and has a title box at the top where i can put the title. Sadly to say though, I have been unable to find said notebook at the Berkeley student store, in desperate need for a new one, I decided to try to find it online, just to find that it is discontinued and if I want to buy a few of the remaining ones I would have to spend $15 on shipping alone!!!! *sigh...this saddens me...so i thought i would share it =] okay that's all

2009-09-19T23:14:00.001-07:00

giants

2009-09-19T15:13:00.001-07:00

hehehe funnnnnny

finish last

2009-09-15T11:46:00.000-07:00

107 year-old woman seeking 23rd husband
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090914/od_afp/malaysiamarriageoffbeat_20090914080426;_ylt=AioU9xL.DxlsWzJgN5a1cRWgOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTJ1cXJqOTJxBGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDA5MDkxNC9tYWxheXNpYW1hcnJpYWdlb2ZmYmVhdARwb3MDNARzZWMDeW5fcGFnaW5hdGVfc3VtbWFyeV9saXN0BHNsawMxMDcteWVhci1vbGQ
yeah....no comment.

its been almost a month since i've last updated and several times, i drafted posts to put up but i just never got around to doing it. but im gonna disregard all that =p

school has started and the schedule i used to have(when i only had class on tuesday, wednesday, and thursday) has been completely switched around. I only have 1 class remaining from my phase 2 schedule but I think I like my new schedule much better. Political Science is my favorite class right now. My GSI reminds me of Ochi in the whole learn the concepts to learn not to get a grade attitude. Very funny guy, chill, and encouraging. I'm sure it helps that I'm absolutely loving the subject as well. Most def made the right decision to switch over to Poli Sci.

A couple of weeks ago Caroline was ever so kind as to impart wisdom that I will share with you.(though this is actually 3rd hand because she actually heard this from Peter Pun) When we're choosing our majors, as Christians I think there's always this period where we ask ourselves, Is this what God wants me to do with my life? And here's the interesting point(ie the point of this little paragraph) There is a reason we like our major. The Holy Spirit in us calls us to like certain things. There is a basis for our likes and dislikes and our major is included in this! I'm sure I completely butchered it but hopefully you got the idea.

Last...last week? yeah...well it was Cornerstone's annual youth rally musical! very entertaining and the high schoolers did a wonderful job. The name of the musical was Finish Last (I assume after the song Finish Last by Stellar Kart? ...which was one of the songs they sang). Anyhoo, so this morning I kind of woke up thinking about the song. Weird right? But the first thought that came to me was one of the lines in the song, "I wanna finish last, last in the world's eyes". From the time I first heard it to now, I find it a very hard concept to grasp. I mean cmon right? We live in a society that tells us that we need to finish first, that we need to be the best at everything we do. We are judged by this standard, by how we compare to the rest of our peers. So how are we supposed to be last? Why should we? And then oddly enough, I thought about KCDC. More specifically, leading the kids in line during KCDC. So the set up is usually 4 leaders. One in the front leading the line, 2 on the side and then one in the back. And I thought, well maybe God wants us to be last because of how important it is to have someone last in line.

So the leader in the back is simply that, a leader in the back of a line. But that leader is crucial. When you're in the back, you're responsible for making sure that all the kids are in front of you, that way you won't lose one. You make sure the kids catch up if they're lagging behind. You have a view of all the kids in front of you(supervision is key) The leader in the back helps to usher the kids onto the sidewalk when crossing the street. If someone is feeling sick, the leader in the back will usually walk with them, keeping a close eye on them. Not sure how this all relates? Well maybe this is a stretch but when God calls us to be the last, maybe it's not simply being last. Rather, maybe God tells us to be last to give us the responsibility of others. Just as the leader in the back of the line has all those responsibilities, don't we have Christians have the responsibility to help bring others to know God, and to help further their walk? Are we given the task to help guide? When our brothers and sisters have fallen, are we not called to bring them back? Our society tells us to look out for ourselves, finish helping ourselves and then help others. Maybe it's not about us finishing last, but rather about helping others to finish "first". anyhoo that's my two cents. comments?

BASIC

2009-08-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

a month or 2 ago, anthony bong said something that really hit me after combined singspiration one fellowship night. it was something along the lines of, if you are truly my brothers and sisters in Christ, then I should know about your walk and you should know about mine. again it was something along those lines. but those words have stuck with me ever since then and I cant help but think that as fellow brothers and sisters, we are not always open with one another when struggles and trials come our way. im sure that doesnt hold true for everyone but i know i definitely dont always share about what I'm going through. that being said, from camp, there were 3 main things that were brought to light for me. the first of which is the need of a conviction, a foundation, a faith. if you do not know what you are believing in, then is it really faith? if you are not standing for anything, then what exactly are you doing?

second. praise. up at camp, singspiration is pretty crazy. you have people shouting at the top of their lungs, people standing on chairs, hands clapping with all their strength, and even people running around the room. but then i think, what is their purpose? is it all for fun, or do they feel so moved by the spirit that they are doing what they're doing? i definitely struggle with this one too. i stand when others stand, i clap when others clap. all i can do is try my best to sing not just words, but truth right? to sing and praise with the sole purpose of glorifying God.

third, honesty. when things in the church or in fellowship or of fellow believers bother me, i tend to not say anything, keep it inside. recently however, ive been trying to be more upfront, truthful about my opinions, and perspectives. yeah..........we'll see how that works out.

this day has been definitely a memorable one. i havent felt such pure joy in awhile. more to come.

it's been awhile

2009-08-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

wow i have really been slacking when it comes to updating this blog. to sum up the last month or so.....

kcdc is now over
college camp at koinonia has come and gone
and i am packing to go back to school

kcdc was definitely a different experience this year but nonetheless it was fun and i was continuously being taught various lessons, one of which is humility and dependence. but more about that some other time

umm college camp was.....well it was good. again a different experience. i am very thankful though that this has been the first year i did not get the so called "spiritual high". i think in previous years i have somewhat just expected to get one from camp but it always results in a slow gradual crash. this year not having one has reminded me to stay grounded in my faith and convictions which i would say has been good so far.

i definitely have a love-hate relationship with school right now. on the one hand im excited to go back and see everyone again and kinda live on my own but at the same time, it's school..... oh well, we'll see what happens. one thing i really am looking forward to is that my cousin will be at berkeley next year as well so i hope i can take advantage of the opportunity and share Christ with her. gotta remember though, i am merely the messenger, He will ultimately be the one to change her heart.

been finally catching up on sleep that i was definitely lacking during kcdc and camp. it's been really nice but kinda makes be sad to be wasting my day away.

dum de dum....ooo so yesterday we had a fellowship outing to great america! last day before caroline headed back to usc. it was pretty fun. lots of rides. lots of walking. and more importantly lots of good fellowship bonding time.

didnt take too many pictures but these kinda sum up camp this year

fun in the cabins

lots of praising

brought back the tradition of mattress sliding...

which was new for some people

in other news..my cousin got married(not shown in pic) but it was pretty cool to have a big ol family reunion

finally

2009-07-07T23:14:00.000-07:00

kcdc has officially started!...3 weeks ago.... yeah i know im pretty slow on updating but that can be expected for the next month or so. bur for now, here's the scoop

kcdc has been tiring. thats not a very big surprise but for some reason, this year feels even more draining. maybe its working with kids that are older or maybe its the new site but for the first week, i would end up not being able to move once i got on the couch. it was pretty bad. thankfully im getting used to it and i've been able to actually get things done after kcdc is over.
i
but yeah for sure this year has been a struggle but at the same time its been a really big blessing. i have the same group i worked with for 3 years now and so it was kind of disappointing to see the numbers go back down to those of my first year with them but i think it forced me to see the urge of sharing God's love with each individual child because in all honestly there is always the possibility that they choose not to come back to the program and then what happens right? so ive kind of decided to take a no inhibitions attitude this year. i refuse to let my own comfort zone or my limited ability to love, stand in the way of sharing Christ with these kids both in words and in action.

jump of topics but for those who remember, last june was the month that ctbc held our youth praise night, "Hold up wait a minute". For the praise night last year, band decided to perform 2 original songs. I had the chance to write one of the songs but honestly, i was pretty uncomfortable about it. It wasn't a matter of humility, but more simply I didn't think the song was very good in comparison to the other one, i didnt' feel like i could really sing it, and all in all, i was just embarrassed by the whole thing. but one of the things that i feel God has really taught be in this past year is that it isn't mine, nothing is. The words that come out of my mouth are not mine, they are the sole property of God. I am merely a tool, an instrument if you will, of God and I should be so honored that He would choose someone as lowly as me to take part in His plan. If i were ashamed or embarrassed, wouldn't that mean i was ashamed or embarrassed of God? I would like to think not.

gonna end with this little note. I encourage anyone who reads this to do something. in everything that you do, BE BOLD!

take 2

2009-06-27T00:30:00.000-07:00

first week of kcdc

inhibitions

reservations

and song writing take 2

standing on a curb

2009-06-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

as i was standing on a street corner, waiting for the light to turn from red to green, there were several people who decided it wasnt worth the time to wait and proceeded to jaywalk across the street. to where you may ask? simply across the street to the bus stop...where there was no bus coming. it made me wonder, what was the rush? did they simply cross the street to make it seem like they were closer to getting on the bus than they actually were? did they think that being at the bus stop made the bus come more quickly? or did they even realize that their impatience was completely unnecessary?

though i waited to cross that street, i must admit that i AM STILL that jaywalker, not content to stay where i am and wait, but rather impatient to rush towards my goal, no matter how empty that goal may be.

now sometimes its better to be impatient, to want to take initiative, to have a goal in mind and let nothing stand in the way of reaching it. for the past few months, that is how i feel like concerning my walk. ive been impatient, wanting change within myself, as well as within fellowship and the church. but what is my goal then? am i simply rushing to the other side, only to have to wait longer, accomplishing nothing while making myself believe i have accomplished much? or am i being told to stand and wait, and let change come on God's time rather than my own? we'll shall see.

bad memory

2009-06-02T23:57:00.000-07:00

yeahhhhh im gonna start being bad at updating now. and the things i was gonna update about.....well if you really want to know you can ask me but i think im just gonna bypass most of it. but yup summer is here early this year and im getting back into the hang of being home full time. its definitely different. but as i was cleaning and organizing my room, i came across some pretty interesting artifacts. and yes i do consider them artifacts. the first of which are these tshirts.

now they may not been much to most all of you but these tshirts were part of the best years of high school for me. got one every year i participated in the world affairs challenge. the simple decision to do this project has basically changed the course of my life. and i kid you not when i say this. now i could always find a few of them but this is one of the first times ive had all of them together at once and it was just a nice sight to see for me.

artifact #2

.....stupid photographers who always make children pose oddly......but like it or not(more like embarrassed by it or not) its cool to have a tshirt with my 4/5 year old face on it. definitely worthy of being considered artifact #2

and though i found many different random things this was probably one of the most significant

back in sophmore year for modern world in vedars class, he had us do up an identity chart. it was a pretty simple assignment. take a picture of yourself(i took the picture off to put on my identity chart for his class the following year- 8th grade softball pic) write down 10 things people see me as as well as 10 things i see myself as. simple enough. it just meant asking people on aim. lastly we had to complete the 3 phrases, i can, i value, and i need.

i guess you can say that the 10th grade judy and college judy is pretty different from one another. back then, i had "i need a good eduation", "i value my relationships with my friends and family" and "i can always find comfort in my friends" on my identity chart. if i were to make one up now, i would like to think my answers would be slightly different, slightly more centered on God. my priorities have changed, as have my ways of thinking and my attitude. seeing this poster again has made me realize just how different i am than the person i used to be. not really sure where im going with this post. and maybe for now, ill just leave it at that....

time to go white?

2009-05-26T22:24:00.000-07:00

i dont usually post up articles but this intrigued me

"Making roads and roofs a paler colour could have the equivalent effect of taking every car in the world off the road for 11 years"

read more here

patience is a virtue

2009-05-24T01:36:00.000-07:00

okay so it seems as if im busier now that finals are over than when i was studying for them! what with all the packing and unpacking and then cleaning of the multiple rooms and all that stuff. update will come....eventually i aim for before wednesday. but for now im just enjoying the end of school(though it is sad that people are leaving =( ) but yeah its been a really good year, got lots to be thankful for, and am definitely realizing that ive truly been blessed this year. end with that for now. actually ill end with a congrats to the class of '09 (specifically matt and tiff..though i do not believe they read this)

blog update part 1

2009-05-18T01:56:00.000-07:00

okay so i realized that i actually do have a lot of things to talk about. so much in fact that i decided to split my post into 2 parts. and so to avoid studying and sleeping, i shall post part 1 up today and then part 2 after my final.

anyhoo, to address my first mini outline blog, things im looking forward to:

1. possible TB or not TB presentation take 2? we shall see if we can set it up ( its okay if you have no idea what im talking about. im sure thats pretty common)

2. inductive bible study! for those of you who don't know, I've really gotten on board with inductive bible study. i just feel like its really unbiased. like usually certain passages are known to cover certain topics but when you go through a passage inductively, you get such a different perspective and plus i always feel like when i read a passage to do for lesson or whatever, i manipulate phrases and different parts of the passage so that i get a specific message at the end but with inductive bible study, you get what you get and you just take the word for the purpose it was written. that being said, i was so moved by the bible study that we've done these past 2 semesters that i've asked a couple of people(both christians and non) if theyd be willing to have some bible study during the summer and so far everyone is up for it so yay!

very much so connected to that is what i wanted to talk about concerning pride.
i think going into trying to share Christ with non believers, I always feel like I need to be eloquent or I need to be able to answer all their questions etc etc. I think the mentality I had was that I should be a good enough Christian that I should be able to bring others to Christ. but the problem with that is pride. I think I have to constantly remind myself that it is never what we can do. In the end, it will all be God. Nothing we say or do can really change anyone's heart. Rather, it will be in God's time and God's will when people come to know Him. Sure we are used by Him and He has a purpose for us and He wants us to share the good news but remember, it is not what we do but rather what He does through us.

been lacking of sleep so that will be all of part 1

things to look forward to in part 2?

love - what it is, but more importantly, what it is not
what went down during our last bible study group time and community time
*ill post up some pics soon too but if you really can't wait that long then just check fb*

update outline

2009-05-17T01:23:00.000-07:00

ive had quite a few mini posts these past weeks but i will do a serious update some time soon ie after my finals are over...well not that im really studying at the moment anyway.

so i am once again back in the city......though ill be here for less than 24 hrs before heading back to school..........but these past few weeks ive been bringing home more and more clothes and i finally could no longer ignore the pile of clothes on my couch that needed to be folded and put away(and no the clothes does not stay in my living room i have an old couch in my room.............) but anyhoo i decided to totally clean my closet and what not and i have found quite a few gems. preview?

my super old track sweatshirt(from way back in the day)
my old softball uniform
all my WAF spera tshirts..... if i dont remember, someone remind me to posts some pics

okay thats it for now

ooo actually wait. so i just opened a new tube of toothpaste and its the colgate blue gel ones with the white strips. you know what im talking about? well anyhoo i really like how when you first use the tube, it comes out like really nice and the stripe and blue gel is separated and it looks just like the picture on the box.........................that was my nerd moment =p

free to be

2009-05-13T03:51:00.001-07:00

oo so much to update one.........

coming up

2009-05-05T01:06:00.000-07:00

i seem to be doing everything possible to not get my work done................

next blog update will be about.......

1. things im excited for this coming summer (part 2)

2. pride

update

2009-05-03T23:10:00.000-07:00

okay so quick recap of the weekend.

rain rain go away come again never. or maybe just not right now.....anyhoo though it was still sprinkling friday night, CK 1 and 2 made the trek down to ATT park for a giants game against the rockies! fun game. lots of laughs...and food...and major failure eating sunflower seeds. totally forgot about my camera until practically the last inning so the only pics i have are these

lots of lots of birds....reminds of me lunch at wash when those sophmores used to throw food around the seagulls.....

edit on fun fact #2: thinking back i actually remember more about ap testing than just physics. like the fact that i was in a shop building that was super ultra stuffy and everyone was uncomfortable in the room while the other testing room had AC on the whole time...... oo and then during the test the paint from the ceiling kept chipping off and falling on mine and meng's desks....

scary fact # ichi: i get carsick so whenever my dad drives me back to berkeley i try to just go to sleep and i always wake up on my own accord once we get off the freeway. but tonight i couldn't really fall asleep but i was getting to the point where my eyes were feeling heavy and then i see the car in front of us drive over a black circular thing. initially i thought it was just a black piece of poster board that was curled a little bit but then right when the car in front of it drove over it i got a closer look and it was a tire with the metal parts still in the middle! and of course at this point my dad couldnt do anything but drive over it. woke right up. quite scary actually and my father was not pleased at all.

okay that's all dum de dum de dum

oo actually ill leave you with this.

canon rebel xt1i dslr. not a big fan of the name but the specs for the camera itself are quite nice

mini update

2009-05-03T19:34:00.001-07:00

okay so this will be an outline of my next update which will come up in roughly.....4 hours i wanna say? first off giants game on friday was very fun! pics and full details to follow.

fun fact # uno: giants are now in second place of their division, 4.5 games back from the dodgers with a percentage over .500. m-a-zing yes i know

fun fact #2: this time last year was the 2 weeks of 7 AP exams........yeah i most admit i hardly remember any of it...except for the fact that during the 2 physics test i studied for econ by proving that it was actually more beneficial for me to fail physics....strange but true.

more fun facts to come

jealousy runs through my veins

2009-04-26T23:27:00.000-07:00

So for those of you who don't know, my parents recently purchased a new cafe! well....i call it a cafe because i have no idea how to classify it....its got....viet sandwiches, a few rice plates and soup noodles...smoothies.....sushi.....and of course mitchell's ice cream! yum.. anyhoo i have been mia these past 2 weeks from church helping to get everything ready and we had a grand opening party for family and friends today.

so now you might ask, what does all this have to do with your title? easy. like i said a family and friends event so this meant almost all of my cousins were there (college midterms and ...china prevented the ones who weren't there). met my cousin tim's fiance which was nice (wedding a week before my birthday) but i got to see my cousin Thomas who just so happens to be a a professional photographer on the side( along with working for Intel, owning his own computer consulting company, working on the hybridization and fusion of ...(stuff i don't remember) amongst other things) *sorry for that slight brag but hey i'm proud of the guy*. anyhoo so my cousin who is the pro photographer just so happened to bring one of the cameras he uses along with a very nice 35-70mm lens and i got to use it for hours and hoursssssssss! soooooo much fun! he was teaching me all this stuff about figuring out the best settings for dslr's and using focus and doing all this stuff manually instead of on automatic (like i usually do).

*sigh* i must admit i have not thought about getting a dslr seriously for awhile. i hardly take my regular point and shoot out anymore but using that camera today has really revitalized my desire to get one........booooooooo and that is where the jealousy begins. *sigh* oh well.... i guess one day right? okay i will go and try to get work done and let this jealousy eat away at me.................

flashback

2009-04-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

havent celebrated a spera birthday in a really really long time! the last time we really did anything was before school started....well before school started for the quarter system folk. that being said, ive decided to try to do "this week in history.....of my life =)" posts. have no idea what im talking about? thats okay you'll get the hang of it.

so this week in the history of my life....

celebrated the first 18th birthday of spera folk!

started the day with a beautiful singing balloon

anybody remember that hair?

our first time eating at tofu house....yummmmmmm

and there was the "whipped cream incident".... =p

dont worry we werent entirely mean. got him a cake to match his balloon

and a lightbulb too!

from here on out, there is at least a birthday a month....yummy cake

its all coming to an end

2009-04-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

school is almost over! i had my last lab today an we were already talking about when our final review session would be.....what a scary thought. but i can not wait for summer! what i'm looking forward to? let's see.....

oo yes i am most def looking forward to this movie FINALLY coming out!

other things?

maybe a trip down to visit the socal folks. unfortunately, the most convenient time for me also equals a ucla fellowship retreat....so iono we'll see. i guess i can always go anyway....

first year of college camp!

and the best of all. free time1 super long break between end of break and the beginning!1 yayyyyy

betrayal

2009-04-18T14:51:00.000-07:00

hahahaha oooo michael.........

imeem

2009-04-16T14:37:00.000-07:00

after a year of telling myself, i finally got around to trying out imeem only to find.......... it's cool! so cool that i found this song! so yup i'm happy. but that's not the only reason for my happiness, i finished my last midterm as a college freshman yesterday! feels good. you know what else feels good? softball practice! ......okay that is until it's over and then the pain kicks in....but still it was pretty fun going out there again on sunday. oooo one last bit of happiness? my econ discussion got canceled! first class that has been canceled........i know it might seem like a minor deal but it feels really good to have only one class at 330 =)

It's a pretty good friday

2009-04-10T23:35:00.000-07:00

So today is good friday and for those who don't know, this is the day of Jesus's death. This death on a cross and resurrection is celebrated above all else, not even Christmas compares (though our society says otherwise). Most of the time, I'm still so lost as to why and Christ can willingly and obediently give his life up for someone as undeserving as me. Don't understand? Here let's put it in context

Say you had a test and you just didnt understand the material no matter how hard you studied. Your friend, instead of studying for their own test, goes over all the material with you until you understand and are ready to ace your test. The downside? Your friend hasn't studied at all and gets a failing grade. Pretty good friend right? So willing to help you with totally disregard for their own studying.

So you might think, okay you're right that's a pretty good friend. but...I'm sure there are people out there who do that. It's a pretty big deal but not THAT big of a deal. So let's take this one step further.

You're walking with your friend and your friend stops to pick something up. You walk out onto the street and a bus is coming at you. Your friend, seeing this, rushes over and pushes you out of the way.

Once again, a great friend right? To have a friend that is willing to disregard their own safety to save you. That's a true friend. But wait, you might be thinking......well iono I have some pretty close friends and I'd like to think I'd die for them.......and this is true. there are people in all of our lives that we love and would be willing to die for.....hmmmm i guess we gotta take it another step

This time you're by yourself, walking across the street, and again there's a bus coming right at you. (remember you're supposed to look left right left when crossing the street!) this time, no friends are around, but you feel yourself being pushed out of the path of the bus to safety. you turn back and a stranger has saved your life.

Wow.....that's... pretty incredible right? what a great person this is who would save you without knowing who you are. a really good Samaritan. there are still good people out there in this world.......but wait. maybe youre thinking...i'm a pretty good person....i'd like to think that i'd instinctively try to save someone if i had the opportunity....maybe? ....and true. maybe instinctively some of us would. but then again maybe some of us wouldn't. there are always feel good stories out there about kindhearted people right? good point. one more step then.

imagine that you are the scum of the earth(sorry i know this sounds harsh). you're a pretty bad person. you lie, you cheat, you've stolen before. you treat people differently than you should, youve hated people. you're unfair and prejudiced, quick to judge and anger, stubborn and a hypocrite! you've hurt others and about some, just didnt care. these characteristics only skim the surface of you. oh wait but .....you consider yourself an okay person right? overall nice? so you were mean to that person, you were nice to someone else so that makes up for it. you just told a....small lie... it won't hurt anybody? it doesn't REALLY count as a bad thing does it? it might be hard to hear but we are all these things. no matter what we do, we can not make up for all the bad that we have done. with all this being said, what do we deserve?

some of you may think, well i DESERVE my laptop because i need it for school. my parents work hard so i DESERVE to be able to have nice things. the list goes on and on. but the truth is, we don't deserve any of this.... keep that in mind.

this time, imagine this. Christ died for you, not as a perfect stranger, but rather, he knew and knows everything about you. he knows your past and all your faults and shortcomings. if someone were to look at you and judge you, they would easily come to the conclusion that you DO NOT deserve to be saved. and yet Christ willingly, obediently, and above all, lovingly, died for you. that is what Easter is about. it's the FACT that Jesus Christ, would know that I am the scum of the earth, the lowest of low, and still without any hesitation, die for you.

It can't help but humble me. And it makes no sense to me, why this would happen because knowing myself, i admit that i do not deserve any type of love and i do not deserve the gift of grace. it's astonishing to me, that this can happen. and it really makes me question, how can He love me that much?

Picture Update

2009-04-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

Alright lets take a stroll down memory lane.....back to a couple weeks ago when I was still on spring break! *sigh* spring break....how i miss you..anyhoo prepare yourself for a very long posts with lots of pictures

met up with everyone on sunday night for some sushi and of course mahjong - chris wouldnt share the blanket...

had lunch with spera in the afternoon before going to visit the track team

went to greg's to see if his wisdom teeth made his cheeks swollen but.....darn no change - all of us are back again!

guy love ...or i guess bromance

flashback to last june and i swear we have this exact same picture .......

it was really nice weather

and no one could really see anything

but meng's eyes are kinda open...

not even greg could see

they made me go answer the door and took weird pics on my camera

luong goes straight for the food

for some reason we kept throwing out the chinese numbers.....

uhhh molded!

thursday was lunch with andrejeff....unfortunately we forgot to take pictures with her before she had to get back to class

href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HFbPBbv37ZU/Sd0FMxymuDI/AAAAAAAAAnk/R3x43TQ4AF8/s1600-h/DSC00429.JPG">
but still we had a good time

no idea what he's doing though. but he was sitting very isolated from the rest of us

waited around to sneak into wash to visit teachers

hung out in andrejeffs.......unfortunately it was just me and the guys.....

Friday was our trip to Davis...but times got mixed up so we decided to take a detour

in the car about to head on our mini road trip

stopped at zachary's pizza! yummy. took lots of pictures while we were waiting for our pizza

no love from kevin?

surprised?

really yummy pizza

our driver for the whole week! thanks chris

greg wouldnt be unsafe with us and decided not to go up to davis....but we found him there anyway!

we also found a really cool duck....we think hes where kevin got his inspiration for his new hair

lots of bench pictures by this really nice lake

lots of laughing lots of fun

sitting around enjoying the view

and what a view

ladybugs were attacking keegan

and finally, we got to fuji's

ate a lot!

kevin's food baby.....

chris's couldnt even come close to kevin's

decided to walk around to digest

mengs trying to get into our pictures

i thought we were taking a normal picture.... guess not

keeg's turn to sneak into our pics

the guys

overall awesome spring break. nothing in particular made it that special but just a lot of good hang out time. can't wait for the next reunion. may maybe? socal trip? we'll see. okay now gotta go back to studying for my many midterms

2009-04-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

hello so spring break recap will come most likely thursday night. for now enjoy

wild things

2009-03-28T01:07:00.003-07:00

one of my favorite books from back in the day

potential to be a good one

spring breakkkkkkk

2009-03-26T17:42:00.000-07:00

hello all. so usually if anyone wants to talk to me its pretty simple. im always online! but not this week. everyday has been an adventure.....well not so much an adventure but rather just some good ol hanging out. havent taken many pictures but of what i have ill post them when im back in school. exciting news? i finally go my permit!! full details to come. more exciting news? gonna go all out for all you can eat sushi tomorrow in davis. oh what fun it is to ride in Chris's car again. yay.

nothing is better than just hanging out in the sun around a bag of kettle chips

the guys sure did miss each other....

which is why they had to reconnect through so jongmah

but chris was kind enough get away from them and take a pic with me and meng

spring break sleepover

2009-03-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

oh what fun. sooooooooo not much has been going on recently. I ended my cycle of midterms last monday so i've actually just had some time off from studying. the other problem is that the second cycle of midterms are going to start up right after break so looks like I'll be studying during spring break but oh well. started spring break early last night with some good thought provoking bible study and of course ...a sleepover with chris and keegan!! yayyyy. both of my roommates left early and it was a pretty last minute decision that keegan and chris made to come out here but it was fun. consisted of a lot of eating and talking and joking around. good times good times. ill post pictures up.....when im not sitting in my chem lecture lol. dum de dum de dum okay bye

10 random things

2009-03-11T01:12:00.000-07:00

Ten Random Things About Me

1.Sometimes if my desk is too messy, I have to stop whatever I’m doing and clean everything up………..and I mean everything
2. When I’m doing homework, I always need to be listening to something, may it be music or a tv show or the radio
3. The one thing I always wanted as a kid were multiple bookcases filled with my favorites
4. I always carry first aid stuff with me….just in case
5. I love The Office, and Psych….and Chuck….and The Mighty Morphing Power Rangers =)
6. I only learned how to ride a bike less than 2 years ago…and can only really ride straight, no turns
7. Sometimes if I feel like I’ve been doing work or studying for a really long time, I’ll go and stretch out on my bed for a couple minutes
8. Most of the time, I prefer just hanging out at home (or other people’s homes) instead of going out
9. I wrote a song….and had it performed
10. I plan to go back and teach at the high school level sometime in my future…and that’s most definitely for sure

Nine Places I’ve Visited

1. China
2. Thailand
3. Hong Kong
4. Canada
5. Reno
6. Los Angeles
7. Las Vegas
8. ….. I think that’s it

Eight Things I Want to Do Before I Die

1. Do something I’m really passionate about
2. Have children and see them happy
3. Stay up 24 hours straight
4. Learn how to play classical piano and music theory
5. Be surrounded by people I love
6. Love completely, honestly and wholeheartedly
7. Have a day where I just enjoy everything without any thoughts about what I have to do or get done
8. Bring others to know Christ

Seven Ways to Win My Heart

1. Be able to make me smile and laugh even when I’m crying
2. Always be sincere
3. Have good intentions and a good heart
4. Be able to have a conversation with me about anything and nothing at all
5. Be willing to put up with me when I’m annoying or frustrating
6. Show compassion and kindness to others
7. Be yourself

Six Things I Believe In

1. Everyone is inherently good and has good in them
2. That everyone is loved
3. Second chances
4. True love and soul mates (and they’re not always the same too….maybe)
5. That my trials make me stronger
6. Jesus

Five Things I’m Afraid Of

1. Losing someone I love and care about
2. Any and every scary movie (stupid ring girl)
3. Being entirely alone
4. Not being loved
5. For others to see my failures

Four of my Favorite Bands/Singers

1. Matt Nathanson
2. Jon Mclaughlin
3. Relient K
4. Robbie Seay Band

Three Things I Do Everyday

1. Sleep
2. Read
3. Observe

Two of the Best Feelings

1. When I listen to songs that have a lot of meaning, I like to kind of just close my eyes and let the words speak to me and it’s just…indescribable
2. Sitting around with 6 other people on one couch, enjoying the company
One Quote to Live By
...too many to choose from

frustration

2009-03-05T17:23:00.000-08:00

okay so most def been frustrated recently, both from myself and at others. and by others, i mean the housing people at berkeley. they decided that it would be a good week to check their fire alarms. so throughout the day, they like to have the alarm go off every other minute.........literally every other minute. so its been going on since monday morning and i can't get any work done when im in my room during the day. so thursday is just about the only day that i can really sleep in and catch up on much needed rest and i was hoping i could sleep straight until i had to get up. yeah did not happen. woke up at 9 because my roommate did not react to her alarm going off for a full minute. fell back asleep only to be woken up by the fire alarm going off (which scared me silly) fell back asleep again to be woken up by my alarm and then tried to get 20 more minutes of sleep but the alarm kept going off so that didn't work. now im not grouchy or cranky about it. once I'm up I'm up but its been going on for 4 days for pete's sake!!!! okay i will stop ranting about random things now

2009-02-26T03:15:00.001-08:00

my bad just got one more song for you guys to watch. inspired by the word of God 1 Cor 13

2009-02-26T03:14:00.001-08:00

Hello all. ...or maybe few loyal readers? Just a quick update. I finally finished my 4th final in the span of 3 weeks! That's a midterm for every subject I'm taking and I'm most def relieved that it's over. Of course I have a chem midterm next next monday so it's not too much of break but I can finally stop studying from 5pm to 5am...at least for a day or two. Anyhoo...after I finally finished today, I decided that I needed some new music so off I went in search for something new and catchy. and I came across this

almost immediately I was captivated by the words of this song. and unfortunately I can not find anyplace that sells this song! The song is on a CD that is no longer in production..........booooo! I will one day find it. But for now, this is a good one too. Much more recent.

both are catchy people but most importantly look at the words.

I've told a couple people recently that with all the things that happen in the world, I'm starting to lose my hope in humanity. It's hard not to when everything is so crummy out there. But this song is a good reminder that the things that happen in this world happen for a reason(as cliche as that sounds). I am merely a pawn in the grand scheme of things and all I can do is ask for God to give me understanding of the things that happen. There are many things I will never be able to comprehend or maybe even accept but at the same time, I have to just put that aside and let God work.

Alright now you probably will not hear from me for a month =)

2009-02-20T13:25:00.000-08:00

I've been extremely MIA these past few weeks and my posts have been random and about nothing....well yeah that's expected. have been really swamped these past couple of weeks because of midterms which are still going on...yeah i basically have midterms like 4 weeks in a row. its really not fun. but yeah nothing important has been happening in my life so theres not much to update on anyway.sooooooooooooooooooooooo yeah im in chem lecture so ill stop messing around on my laptop and actually pay attention

2009-02-03T00:15:00.000-08:00

A movie in the making....

2009-01-29T00:43:00.000-08:00

hey so yeah im back to being bad at updating. so ive decided to just slash the whole vacation recap blog. ill just post pics on facebook and if you wanna know you can ask. what's been going on recently? lots of work. no free time. lots of hours of webcamming with meng though. one thing for sure that is happening? i am starting blog #2. ive been thinking about it for awhile now and i realize i dont have a median for whats really going on in my life. sure this blog covers the physical aspects of what i do and all that but there isnt much about my spiritual life or how im really feeling and what now. for those who know, you gotta agree that i usually dont tell people when things are bugging me so i figure a seperate blog would be a good way to let you guys know. this blog will be restricted to only those that gain approval for obvious reasons but yeah hopefully its good for me and it'll keep people updated to whats really happening with me. yuppp. maybe it'll last maybe it wont but we'll see.

ooo one great thing about vacation. got to go through my ipod and listen to a lot of artists that i had in there that i hadnt listened to. for sure justin mcroberts back at the top of my playlist

2009-01-19T00:39:00.000-08:00

yeah yeah i know i said i would update... and its coming as soon as i get everything organized but i finally got a new mouse after my old microsoft old stopped working in november (same time as you right keeg?)

im loving this thing right now and its perfect for laptops. plus the hyperscroll and customized buttons are quite handy. and now i will stop being an ultimate nerd and continue cleaning =)

back

2009-01-17T03:32:00.000-08:00

well this will most def not be a full post but for those who dont know...im back home! finally. unfortunately school is starting in a couple of days so i will not be home quite soon. anyhoo full update with pics once i get settled in at school.

international

2009-01-01T01:50:00.000-08:00

first post in a different country! hope you guys all had a good christmas and....i think its been the new year in all the time zones now....if not then oh well. happy new year! though im often mia from this blog im hardly ever off of the internet for long so its been weird being internet deprived for the last couple of days. time to catch everyone up. i figure it's easier to write about my trip in intervals rather than do a whole long post when i get back...id probably forget and leave out a whole mess of details though im sure ill still do that now. okay so day 1

dec. 26
flight at noon but had to wake up around 8 to get everything together and get to the airport. the wait wasnt too bad but the lines to go through the security checks were pretty long. from there everything was a breeze. our flight was off schedule about half an hour but im pretty sure thats just because people were taking a long time to put their carry ons away and such. for those who have not been on an airplane with me, i hate flying! take off is okay but landing.........not fun. so its like a 14 hour flight or so to hk but after about 8-9 hours we started to experience turbulence. in the beginning it wasnt too bad but it continued on and got worse...and worse.....and worse..... and of course i felt sick to my stomach at that point. so sick that i threw up twice on the ride. to make matters worse, we faced so much strong winds that we actually had to make a pit stop in taipei and refuel.........so thats 2 landings just to get to hk. from there we had to transfer planes to bangkok so another landing. by the time we finally land its around 1 in thailand and....well i was just glad to be off planes. took awhile to get our passports checked and when we went to get our luggage, it was not there.......................yeah so we had to go and report it. our tour guide told us later on that the hk airport is partially on strike and so about 80 bags from our flight did not get transferred to our plane to bangkok. by the time we got to our hotel it was past 3 in the morning and all i wanted to do was collapse in bed. so i did =)

dec 28 (time difference throws me off still.........not entirely sure what happened to the 27th.....oh well you get the drift)
grand palace
ate at the tallest building in thailand

okay so i cant give you a day by day description because i dont remember what order we did everything but thats okay right? lets see rode on an elephant. saw a tiger show. oh so yesterday we were brought to this zoo/animal show place. so we saw a crocodile show and a tiger show. and right afterwards, our tour guide brings us to the zoo restaurant where we're served crocodile soup and crocodile kabobs.................very very unsettling. yeah i couldnt stomach eating any of it.

so today is.....the 1st in hong kong. got to hk yesterday afternoon. ate with my mom's old friend and we saw the fireworks show here in hk. gotta admit it was pretty simple and wasnt too great but the crowd was pretty funny. every couple of minutes, the crowd would start cheering and it was like a chain reaction throughout the entire area. good experience i guess.

today ate with one of my dads old friends but not before seeing damon's family! surprising to look up (at the computer station i must admit) and see him there but that was pretty cool. hk is crowded! lots of places to shop but after awhile the stands seem to all sell the same things. as meng put it, my mission is to find the north face store. so far, fail. but i still have a couple of days before heading off to mainland china. we'll see. sorry thats a lot of writing and no pictures but ill be sure to upload them when i get the chance......yeah those who read this might just have to check facebook for pics. anyhoo gotta get ready to go out for dinner soon so more later.

laterzzzzzzz

2008-12-25T23:59:00.001-08:00

China tomorrow! not sure if im entirely excited or not...but found some cool vids on youtube so............yup

like it?

im a fan of this one too. for now. have a great winter break.

update

2008-12-25T00:09:00.000-08:00

hey so sorry but no pictures! or at least i dont think so..........

so to quickly wrap up my first semester of college...FINALS!

i had 3 of them .. psych, history, and calc.

ever since thanksgiving, my sleep schedule has been really messed up. like sleep at 6am messed up. there were quite a few days where i finished working and went to sleep with sunlight filling my dorm room. yeah most def not good. for my psych final, i just could not stop thinking about random things so i ended up taking the final without sleeping. yeah not too sure how that worked out because halfway through my essay question i was sitting in my chair not thinking at all for about 5 minutes. the final was from 8-11 but i finished around 10 so i guess it hopefully will not be too bad. that was monday

WEDNESDAY - history final. once again i had a hard time falling asleep. i did manage to get about an hour, an hour and a half of sleep though so yay. not a bad final at all just a lot and a lot of nonstop writing. i finished up an entire bluebook. major hand cramp afterward but happy to have finished.

THURSDAY - calc final. well it wasnt too bad but i know i already made a mistake.....iono we'll see. but i did come back on thursday. last one out of the dorm so it was really weird. one of my roommates moved into her sorority house so the room felt really empty. really glad to be back though.

later that night, gingerbread house making/competition/race.....well no nguy and chris were the ones who were making it a competition and race. but still i say meng and i had the better one. anyhoo a 4 story gingerbread house (including roof) that we lightly froze/refrigerated so that the icing would harden quicker. as we're decorating, greg goes to grab his camera and the roof collapses right before he is able to snap a picture......yeah. and then we just destroyed the house....destroyed as in physically broke not ate. good times

highlights of the week, finally trying crepevine, eating at tofuhouse multiple times, baking japanese chex mix and making jello with meng, squishing keegan and yelling to be louder than mark's friends, reclaiming our couch!, buffalo burger, and of course, a 3 1/2 hour game of monopoly.

2008-12-16T03:23:00.000-08:00

okay gotta finish up thanksgiving post and then update on recent outings

pho on irving ...no tax =)

chris was always ready to smile for the camera

we now officially all have cameras

..yeah i dont know

oh the oh so famous couch

cant forget the mahjong
more couch pics

all tired at the end of the day

TWIN PEAKS
having cars has definitely opened up more hang out spots. super cold but really pretty
huddling together because of the cold
meng is surprised

lol

no smiles

or at least no smiles from chris

2008-12-08T03:08:00.000-08:00

well my update is definitely late but better late than never right?

so lets backtrack all the way back to thanksgiving.

after thanksgiving dinner, around ....11:30ish, went over to Chris's house. When I got upstairs, I recieved the first of many painful group hugs. it was pretty fun, epecially with meng on the webcam.
hung out for awhile trying to think of what to do or where to go.

of course not before taking a whole mess of pictures (Chris loves his

and an ode to ochi - SUPPLY AND DEMAND.............yeah not many people will actually understand this picture

finally, we decided to go to the Starbucks in Laurel village
heres the Subaru carload. every red light/stop sign we were at, we were taking pictures =) good thing no one was around to witness reckless driving

finally we got to Laurel Village and guess what...............

well first off heres the other car, can you see luong peeking in the back?

it's closed!!! the one starbucks that is generally always open....................major fail

one of the things witness that night/morning........bad parking lol guess who

after that we decided to walk around ..... power rangers pose!
pictures in the middle of the street and some trademark jumping pictures

then we decided to go to circuit city..........but we didnt want to wait in line if we didnt really want to buy anything sooo............

more jumping pictures in the parking lot!

after that, decided to go downtown but not before getting some jack in the box

of and of course we had at least one carload change

the bonsai tree still lives!!

luong is most def in his element sitting in the wai kitchen eating

................theses signs need to be more invisible...............all i can say lol

hanging out in Union square.....ish ...it was closed so we were on the side

one was not lighted =(

.............i dont even know.........

luong was tired.............

lots of dancing

awww what love

old navy hands down had the longest line for the free mp3 player

st. westin elevator

it had a nice view...........though i wouldnt go near the window

part 2 tomorrow........or sometime in the future

dum de dum

2008-12-03T15:28:00.002-08:00

not an update but in history discussion

we're talking about globalization and US companies opening stores in other countries

this one girl in class declares it unfair............why you ask? well because you never see Latin American stores in America............well it depends on if Latin Americans want to come to America to open a store, it's not like anyone is stopping them........................well, its still not fair.............................huh? makes you question the direction of our country

packed

2008-11-29T06:06:00.000-08:00

just realized that ive been slacking on the posts again. just quickly as it is currently 6am.

ill do a full update later on in the weekend but for now just an outline

thanksgiving dinner
reunion!......several oh so painful hugs
a left turn
one way streets
green lights
downtown
circuit city
pho
couch pictures
monk and psych
downtown adventure

2008-11-12T15:13:00.000-08:00

O..........M...........G in history class and just had a discussion about waterboarding.........theres this one girl in my class who says its okay to use it as a form of punishment because the people do not die they just think theyre drowning and then later they go back to their cell like nothing happened.....................WHAT?! it was basically the whole class against her. heres part of the discussion......
its like theyre drowned and then brought back to life over and over again. its physcial and psychologica torture
her* its okay. because they know they arent going to die.
havent you ever felt like you were drowning or something. its horrible
her* yeah im sure its bad....but its fine
..........................i swear every class the things she says.........
another time we were going over 1940s ads for a piano and she said the ad was such a liar because just because you have a piano doesnt mean you can play
us* well if you dont have a piano you wont have the opportunity to have something to learn how to play
her* no but if you have it you still need lessons so it should say you need to take lessons on the ad
us*.....................okay......sure... but its a piano ad.....
her* but it say you need to take lessons so its lying

*sigh* i know that was a random rant but serious every time we have a discussion its her against everyone else

okay thats it.

nvm heres another one that just happened

talking about if we should bail out the major american car companies, she says no, which okay thats fine but heres what she says
us* how about all the people that will lose jobs
her* well its the companies fault we cant just bail them out, its their fault that they didnt do more energy efficient things earlier
*but how about the lose of jobs and the effect of losing the auto industry on our government
her* well thats just how it is..............

...............what?

office

2008-11-06T23:40:00.000-08:00

Random Facts Update

2008-11-05T14:44:00.000-08:00

more random facts via history 7b

At Berkeley, you are only guaranteed a parking spot if.......you win a nobel prize. yes thats right. the nobel prize equates to a parking spot at berkeley. thats how hard it is to find parking around here....

anyhoo wheres something cool that's been on the news

so last night the students of berkeley decided that a parade was necessary in order to celebrate obama's victory. soooo they decide to run around the campus and all over the units twice. from what i heard, there ended up being 2 celebrations. the first was on telegraph where the crowds bodysurfed and even started a small fire. The other group, which im assuming was much bigger, got so big that the chancellor came out to give a speech. pretty cool stuff. dont believe me? see for yourself.

anyhoo...mccain's speech was pretty respectful, very classy and very soon my posts will be much less political

but if you do get the chance, for sure wath obama's speech and i would say watch colin powell's interview on cnn

MAJOR QUESTION!
my history professor and my class tell me that i remind them of juno. personally do not see that at all....comments? agree? disagree?

Update

2008-11-04T21:31:00.000-08:00

So i went to dinner with erika from IV knowing that when i got to my computer next, we would have elected a new president. after dinner we had community time for IV and as we were sitting in the lounge, all of the sudden we hear incredibly loud screaming coming from the courtyard along with chants of OBAMA and USA. it was pretty crazy. even in the room we were in, we could hear people running through the builiding screaming about it. ....i have no idea where im going with this post..........but i do know i have to study so it'll probably be awhile before i update next. but um yeah intense community time today

update.

people are super excited here. im not even kidding here. there are still a whole bunch people running around celebrating, cars are still honking. i must admit i find it exciting too ;) wow that sounded incredibly dorky even for me. heres very very small part of it. not close to the noise in the first hour but still .....
day didnt start off that great....but it was a good day

VOTE

2008-11-04T16:37:00.001-08:00

finally got around to dropping off my absentee ballot today. they even gave me a sticker :) i must say though there were quite a few things i didnt vote on just because i didn't know what the consequences would be. oh well its better not to change anything than to vote for a bad change right?

so votes started being counted about half an hour ago and i have been using yahoo to keep up with it since i still have no tv in my room and i dont want to go down to the lounge. as of 4:30 PM PST this is how the votes were

*i dont know what i would do if keegan didn't tell me how to use prtsc :)*

as of 5:20 PM i love how fast i can upload pics with internet at school
ohio and florida are surprising me. all shaping up to be an obama victory

the end is the beginning of change

so that's why............

2008-10-30T17:23:00.001-07:00

so i woke up today and ....definitely sick. not fun at all. whenever im in class i feel really bad for the people around me because i keep sneezing and whatnot.....oh well. so for the past couple of days ive noticed that i've been like ....10 minutes or so late! i just dont understand it because when my alarm wakes me up i get up and i dont take too long to get ready......so finally i looked at my alarm....and i realized it was 10 minutes slow!! no wonder. it all makes sense now. just found out i have an essay due on tuesday :( college is no fun. oh well at least its almost the weekend. anyhoo its been awhile since i've had any pics up so i might as well take advantage of the super fast internet connection and upload stuff

this has been up on my white board for 2 months now :) i like how Chris and Nguy added on their names lol

a couple of weeks ago, i looked out my window and saw this across the street...

got this in the mail....now the hard part is figuring out what to actually vote for
extremely bored in my room so here are my keys

2008-10-29T12:14:00.000-07:00

Definitely not a good day today. Normally I would be in class right now but I took a nap between my calc lecture and discussion class and i overslept! by the time i got to the building of my class i figured......walking in a half hour late would not be good.................so i went to the study lounge and am waiting around for my next class. Problem number 2. I'm getting sick! when i woke up this morning my nose was all stuffy and my throat was hurting....never good. kind of went away after 20 minutes but after I woke up from my nap, it came back full force. wonderful

2008-10-25T21:44:00.000-07:00

hmm i think im getting lazy about my updates again. midterms are over but they're starting again in like.........2 weeks so i guess i should get cracking at those books...again.... oh well i guess thats college life. but everything's been good. IV has been fun, especially our smaller small groups for bible study. my room continues to be suffocating! i swear even when its cold outside you walk into the room and the stuffiness engulfs you. it's pretty gross. but now i at least have a fan so its not as bad. gotta figure out my schedule for next semester. hopefully i get all the classes i need to take.

things i have learned at school?
if you are part Indian you get A LOT of money - i mean tens of thousands - ....each month...yeah

Kirk Cameron actually does pass out 1 million dollar bills!

things i'm looking forward to

THANKSGIVING! for some reason, today i got really excited about thanksgiving and people coming back home for the holidays. cant wait

ill end on some interesting passage ive come across this week

Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.
You hem me in - behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful ofr me, too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
Psalm 139:15

In class

2008-10-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

so i'm literally in class right now. remember that psych midterm i forgot the date of and ended up cramming the day before? well...............just got it back......looking over the multiple choice questions and i must say im disappointed. Essay responses were fine but looking back at some of the multiple choice questions.............i pickedthe obvious wrong answers...............great

be that light

2008-10-13T00:56:00.000-07:00

been meaning to put this up for awhile now

Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

Daniel 12:3

First Wave

2008-10-11T01:05:00.000-07:00

quick updates..........had a nice visit from Clifton Adrienne and Riley. Good eating at Le Cheval

what else? ummm bad memory....umm well we had our leader leader and it seemed like the picture frames were enjoyed. watched iron man but not before making a stop at eggettes!! good tapioca is hard to find in berkeley. ooo so had my first rounds of midterms this past week and a half. Accidently messed up the dates for my psych midterm so at 12:30 that night, I looked at my syllabus and my midterm is scheduled for the next day!! so of course i start cramming for hours and hours and well....i don't think i did too bad but everyone came to the consensus that the multiple choice was hardddddddddd. had a calc test and my history midterm today which weren't too bad. just glad it's over. and now i finally have some time to tokbox so its nice to catch up with scoal people. anyhoo gotta catch up on all the work ive neglected studying for these finals so update later

VP Debate

2008-10-02T17:47:00.000-07:00

with the VP debate starting in roughly 15 minutes you can watch this for a good laugh :) hilarious

sadly enough.......if you watch the real interview between palin and couric, there are actually a lot of things that are the same......"let me get back to you" i mean really cmon

one of my favorites quotes " or bono the king of ireland"

oo and of course " .........katie i'd like to use one of my lifelines...i want to phone a friend"

ending is pretty hilarious too

heres another one i like

Georgia stole my cell phone

2008-09-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

waiting for class to start so i might as well update now right? so saturday we had a band bbq at winchells house. later on in the night, i realized i didn't know where my phone was.....odd .....well i had thought it was in my pocket but i guess not. so were were looking under the couch(which was really comfortable by the way) and it was not there!!! i had only stayed on one side of the couch and i did not go to the other side....AT ALL! the next day, winchell gives me my phone.....guess where it was? on the side i was never at! how is that possible? georie likes to play her tricks

christmas comes early

2008-09-26T02:20:00.000-07:00

another post? amazing

so it's 8pm and i think....im missing the office!!! how can i?! then i remember it starts at 9pm! yay :) problem though. the only tv is in the ground floor lounge and there are people in there watching the usc vs. oregon football game. at 8:10ish it was 7 left in the third so i figured they'll finish in plenty of time for me to go down and hog up the room. i thought wrong. i went down at 8:40ish and the game was like 10 left in the 4th!!!!! noooo wait there's still time. all is right in the world.... that is until i realize that there are far too many breaks in football. so it's 9:15 and they're still watching............all the while i have my calc stuff out studying for my midterm thinking.....someone please hurry and lose so i can watch!! with 4 min left what do you know an interception and they don't care about the game anymore. in their books its over meaning though i missed the first 15 minutes of the offices, i got to watch the rest.......i was deliriously happy.........and then even more happy :) dont worry i wont spoil anything. but i must say, this was a good episode

also good, this is the first time in awhile that i actually sat down and watched TV so i saw this niffy comerical

does it equally rival the I'm a mac commercials?

quick update
just found this

it's back!

2008-09-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

ITS BACK!!!!! IT'S SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITING!!!

it's so wonderful :) :) :)

don't worry, i wont spoil anything but season 5 episode 1 is a MUST WATCH!!!!!!

random

2008-09-23T17:58:00.001-07:00

random update. ill update for real soon but for now.........enjoy a very random fact.

you know that really annoying static sound that people sometimes have as ring tones for their cell phones so that older people (ie teachers) don't hear if a cell phone goes off in class? well apparently stores that don't want young people loitering in the front of stores use this sound to keep them away........weird

also some pictures

the awesome Mahjong tiles Greg's mom gave me!

Rachel you're not a kid anymore

what you can expect when you visit me at Berkeley.... mahjong with tiny tiles :)

awww

they were trying to push me down

our infamous circle pics

asleep on the ground

walgreens sale = i finally developed all my pictures......see the comparison

they had to give them to be in 2 boxes and an envelope

the pinata from Chris's sister's play

chris and nguy enjoying their topdogs

School continues

2008-09-08T22:27:00.000-07:00

Well school is school....a lot like high school actually except for the constant reading and the cost of textbooks which is outrageous by the way. Third week has already started and the musical is coming up really soon! This Saturday and Sunday......ooo boy....

nothing to do

2008-08-26T22:06:00.001-07:00

2 posts in one day? its amazing. soooooooooo god's working. first night......not feeling it. not everything was exactly feeling right. wasn't exactly comfortable even though everyone was really nice. not exactly liking my stay. but god knows. he's blessed me with allowing me to meet a lot of christians and guiding me towards different fellowship groups. looking forward to Intervarsity Cal Christian Fellowship small groups which is basically bible study on campus. definitely a good way to stay on the path. anyway school starts tomorrow and i should probably get ready which means ill stay up and do random things totally unrelated to school....out

Back to school

2008-08-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

college officially starts tomorrow....how weird. well i guess not really. but anyhoo not much on this front except im all moved in now. lots of events going around berkeley and i had the chance to eat and participate in a board game night yesterday with sammy and IV(fellowship). plans for tomorrow? school and acts2fellowship korean bbq welcome. so much free food. wherever you go, the different clubs and what not offer you food to get you to go and stay. feeling the freshman 15 early on. hopefully ill start walking more once i have to rush to class.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry

2008-08-16T00:21:00.000-07:00

So I figured I don't mention my spiritual life very often in my blog.....here's my attempt

If you've heard this already then sorry

So I was not guaranteed housing for school this fall. To sum it all up............no place to live! School emailed me telling me they would send out assignments in mid july. They did. I was wait listed. My number was 168 and then offered housing to 130 students. So this is mid july, the same time as senior dinner and a pretty hectic time at KCDC (though all six weeks are hectic). I spent a lot of time worrying and being paranoid about not having a place to live. It was so bad that I was even having nightmares about getting emails from the housing department saying I had no place to live. Then I took a step back, and realized Matthew 6 says not to worry. I stopped and told myself nothing I think is going to help. At this time, I was also doing a lot of praying. I basically told God, he has a plan for me. If that meant being in a dorm or being in private housing or even staying at home and commuting, I would be okay with it because that would be the way God wanted me to testify to the people in my life. Right before camp, I got another email from school. This time it said that they had already made a second round of housing offers but they only went up to 140! Only 10 offers!! In my head I was thinking, how is this possible?!! I was definitely frustrated. What's worse? They actually said that the chances of getting housing was really bad so I needed to start looking for a place around school.............how discouraging....So I started searching online for private apartments around campus that would house only Berkeley students. I gave my sister all the papers and I told her to just fill them out as soon as I got emailed all the info for the forms. Going up to camp........my attention was not on getting away from the distractions of the city and spending quality one on one time with God, instead I was worrying about housing. Then Monday night, I called home and my sister said I got an email from UCB housing offering me a triple mini suite. How amazing God works.

All those times I could have been trying to find a place during KCDC or during camp, God reminded me to focus on Him and that I didn't need to worry because he would always provide for me. So like I said up at camp, I give it all up to him because I know He was at work and that all things are possible with Him.

Video Blog 2

2008-07-30T21:54:00.000-07:00

by leslie's request....part two of my video blog

Busy busy busy

2008-07-20T21:33:00.000-07:00

so much going on, so little time!

Back track and reminisce with me.

Disneyland trip.....went to sleep really late....like around 2am late....and then woke up at 4am!! oh yes not much sleep, more of a nap. got picked up by chris and then picked up kevin and meng as well. got to the airport where we messed around with revolving doors and boarded our flight at 7? sunscreen and lotion did not meet the ounce requirements so they were taken............wonderful. thankfully that was my spray on sunscreen and i still had my other one with me.

shuttle took us to our hotel but it was not check in time yet so we dropped off the luggage and walked a block( it might have been called a block but it was like a 10 min walk!!!!) to DISNEYLAND!! Of course it would have been more exciting if I did not have to walk back to the hotel right after we got there with Meng because no foldable chairs were allowed into the park...........very not cool. But the weather was extremely humid. First ride was Autopia.

Anyhoo I'll just give a quick summary of the couple of days that we were down there. Ate....a lot. Can't ever miss out on the churros. The Kevins each tried the turkey leg but only Nguy succeeded. We all fell in love with the bread bowls....especially Kevin. Ate some more. Watched the fireworks show practically every night. Bought a good amount of souvenirs

Rides you ask? Lets see Buzz Lightyear a couple of times - Autopia to begin and end our trip - squeezed in peter man, mr toad and another one in the last 20 minutes the park was open. space mountain (3x) .....no drop? yeah right thanks guys...but actually thats the new fav. - pirates - indianna jones was fun too even though it broke down during our fast pass time (11:3o) so we went the next night and they said it still worked!! soaring in california - alice in wonderland - teacups - star tours always a good one iono what else.

last day hung out at downtown disney. was at the park hotel for awhile just hanging around. bought more things. got to the airport around 4 but our flight was at like 830? still fun though. we played uno(special disney adition uno) for the longest time. we all had a good time ganging up on whoeve had the least number of cards. after playing for a good couple of hours, we gave up in order to buy food before the ride home. hung out at greg's where keegan joined us. 12 layer jello was awesome!!!!! got really cool mugs from greg's parents. here are some pictures. .. still gotta upload to facebook but yeah facebook the albums if you want to see them( it seems as if jeff gee has done so already)

virgin airlines - appreciate the touch screen features but mad bomber game ..... cmon now

first thing we saw when we walked out of lax

christopher enjoying the mini bottle of water from the plane

nguy .......waiting around

kevin trying to act cool

this unfortunately was not the entrance and we had to walk more to get to the park

slogan for the year

the guys
waiting around for people .... so we take pictures

going on buzz lightyear....again

my messy bed

soldiers promoting toy story mania....unfortunately didnt get to go on it since the line was like 5 hours long

tired of walking so we decide to take a break after shopping in downtown disney

always busy on her phone

christopher is just a tad annoyed

nguy loves his jamba

greg wanted to talk to other people because he was so sick of us

last shot of our hotel was we were driving by

they just opened up a coldstones!!!! so yummy

the girls of the trip
this is the last picture i have with my nike viser because i proceeded to take it off and leave it on the seat .... which gregory failed to mention as were got out of the shuttle

yes it is real... the 12 layer jello

hanging out

until next time.................which might be a long way off

its been awhile

2008-07-12T21:34:00.000-07:00

soooooooooo okay must back track to a month ago.

June 9 - lunch with Andrejeff (gift was almost a tear jerker...................) lunch at kirin then it was off to greg's house to be weird and make human pyramids..........as well as take a whole bunch of jumping pics. then more pics on the trademark spera couch........yes mark and matt not for your friends

Hmmm then june 10 - senior awards...ate with lunch with meng and christina........after senior awards ate with spera for the last time before grad at kitaro(another trademark spera spot) which was good.

june 11 - senior breakfast - food was okay i suppose...nothing really fresh but hey anything is better than cereal right? did a lot of yearbook and senior portrait and prom picture signings done. thennn finally got driven in vedar's veggie car. so vedar me irene and chun went to in and out which was pretty fun. vedar definitely upgraded veggie cars. then it was off to watch kung fu panda with jared. what a great movie. so entertaining for a kiddie movie. then after that we had sports awards! good times good pictures

set up for grad stage
in and out palm trees

the message i left to next year ochi students
the field team (jumpers throwers)

june 12 - GRADUATION!!!! boy that feels like so long ago.....surprisingly no crying yet. didnt really sink in that it was graduation. a really hot day though so better than last year where it was just freezing. being called up feels so surreal. everything is such a blur i just remember thinking i hope i dont trip and fall and embarrass myself.......took soooooooooo many pictures (to see them facebook me) ill leave you with this

these people are the reason why high school was a blast

cant forget the family

june 13 - hung out with spera at mengs and helped babysit her nephews who are both really cute. sorry no pics for that

june 14 - YOUTH ARTS NIGHT - thanks to those of you who came out. much appreciated. it was nervewrecking but very fun at the same time. everything done that night i give all up to G-O-D. (cause we down like that)

random

as we walk the highways one last time as students....we remember....we reflect....we enjoy the moment

bad blogging

2008-06-21T01:42:00.000-07:00

i know its been awhile but it's been hectic with the last week of school including graduation......and of course LA/Disneyland trip. will update................eventually

Last Friday

2008-06-05T22:17:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is literally the last Friday of High School I'll ever have.............I think I haven't fully comprehended it yet. More to come later. New videos to upload, including the killer fish at my work and the sparks and burnt paper clips in physics. Alrighty laters

a new month

2008-06-02T22:50:00.000-07:00

first off gotta promo this
this will be one of the rare times you will see me dance, sing, and act! I know what a deal. For more info.........either leave a comment......IM me........call me.......whatever it takes! anyhoo

June means...........graduation! we got our yearbooks last Thursday. They're pretty good. definitely better than last years. don't really want to sign yearbooks though because then it'll really feel like school is almost over.

In the beginning of the year, I thought......well since all my classes are AP classes......I at least won't have finals since I'll be done with the AP tests.............ooo how wrong I was. Stats, English, BC Calc, and Econ allll have finals............on the same day! Not cool at all. But after this week I will be done. Next week consists of 2 grad practices, and a senior breakfast (note to spera we should just make breakfast for ourselves again)

Mayfest was on Friday andddddd it was really bad. Not many booths this year and the food wasn't that great either. Did get some cotton candy at the end though. Went with Meng Chris and Christina to Stonestown to try to find a gift for Ms. Andrejeff but unfortunately we were not successful. We'll see what happens....................... yup I'm done I think.......