06/29: still frantically working on my room... at this rate i think i'll be able to finish the first phase tonight... and later in the week i'll begin the rest (closet, drawers, etc). the only problem now is that the vacuum cleaner is being an idiot and its overheating like every 10 minutes... so i cant work as fast as i want to. and thats why im taking a break to write now. by tonight my room will temporarily have something i've been wanting for the longest time - a synthesizer! yupyup... yeterday jacob called me and said he could let me use his synth and leave it at my house, so i can start practicing some songs.. he came over for dinner and showed me how all the functions work.. and he's coming again today cuz he still needs to bring the stand, volume pedal, and instruction manual. if all goes as planned, our jam sessions will begin next week =). so yea... i had a lot of fun last night. and u want to know the weirdest thing ever? during dinner my mom mentioned to jacob that my biggest non-music-related hobby is collecting diecast cars... and u kno wut jacob said? "ME TOO!!!" he actually knows a lot about UT models and kyoshos and maisto and everybody... i dont think i ever met someone that enthusiastic about car models. so yea... not only are we helping each other achieve our musical dreams, we also share the same second hobby!

at about 9:45PM i finally went back on AIM.. i've always told people that the less often they go online, the more people will talk to them. at least it always works with me. and last night was probably the best example. a bunch of mark1 pplz IMed me... and also lots of my other friends that were worried about why i disappeared for a week, or simply wanted to hang out sometime this week. i felt soo welcomed its not even funny. thanks everybody =)

06/28: by the way, when i posted that last entry it was monday (today) morning at around 10:30AM. i wrote till 11:30 last night, then continued this morning and finally fnished. hehe.. sooo now that i'm home, its time for cleaning my room again. its getting much cleaner now... hopefully i can finish by wednesday-ish. sooo as u might have noticed, i havnet been on AIM since i got back. dont worry, its simply because i havent had time... i went straight to church after dinner saturday for worship practice, and i was at church and then life plaza yesterday until evening... and now i'm finall yback and trying to catch up on everything. hopefully i'll have most things under control and be back on AIM by tonight.

06/27: wow... it really feels weird returning home from a world completely different from where i live. catalina was like nothing i've ever seen before - even though i've been there once in 7th grade, i didn't know how to appreciate the landscape as much as i do now. but anyways, since i was there for a whole week, there's obviously a lot to write about. its 9:19PM sunday night rite now... lets see how long it will take for me to finish. sooo about the place i was at: Campus By the Sea, a couple coves north of Avalon (main city of Catalina Island), owned by InterVarsity for over 50 years. its basically a campsite surrounded by mountains and the beach, with cabins and tents, main deck (general meeting hall and classrooms), kitchen/dining building (indoor & outdoor tables), and plenty of recreation (hiking trails, volleyball, basketball, bonfire, pingpong, kayaking, fishing, snorkeling, and usual beach activities). did i forget anything? *thinks* o yea... this conference was for intervarsity members from both UCLA and UCI, so i got to meet a lot of new people too. ok so anyways, lets begin with sunday:

Sunday- most of you probably know that i'm the type of person that doesn't speak unless someone speaks to me first. apparently all the IV people are just the opposite... not that its a bad thing, but i guess thats why i havent met that many friends at IV the whole schoolyear besides the guys accountability group and the rest of the worship team. thats probably one reason i didnt bother joining any of the conferences before. to be honest, i wouldnt have gone to summercon, except i felt bad for missing every single event (even though i'm supposed to be there since i'm on the worship team), and so i promised everyone i would go to this one. of course, 200+ bucks isnt easy for me to dig out, and before going i was really frustrated at the fact that i put myself on the financial help paper and got nothing in return (even though IV kept telling everyone that money isnt a problem). but i went anyways... before getting on the boat, everyone was just walking around and talking to people, and i just kinda sat there, and once in a while people talked to me and it was great. but still i felt kinda left out. during the boat ride i stayed on the top the whole time and it was really fun being blown in the wind so hard that i could barely stand up without holding the rails. again, most of the boat ride was spent alone, but i enjoyed the solitude. then we arrived at Campus By The Sea and got off the boat... there were many things i learned to get used to throughout the week, and the first was that the cabins were simply arranged by school and gender, and within my area i could pick any cabin i wanted. i was hoping to stick with a few people i know and room with them, except someone decided to run off with my sleeping bag not realizing it was the wrong one, and so i waited there for like forever, and had to announce it at dinner, and even then the person that had my bag decided to not follow the directions and bring it to Buffalo Billet (my room), but instead leave it outside the main deck without saying a word, so i didnt even know it was back until someone told me the next morning. so yea... as u can tell, things started on the rough side for me. i wanted to hurry up and meet friends, but at the same time i was so angry at everything i didnt want to talk to anyone. after dinner, we had a little free time, and i took the trail up to where there was a Cross built on a high mountainside over the ocean. i told God that i know he must have broung me there for a good reason, and i prayed that all the bitterness in my heart would be gone by the time the week is over. then at 7 it was time for the first session of our classes... i was in Mark 1 (studying the first half of mark). again, it was a pretty surprising experience... i realized that this wasn't gonna be like a usual church retreat with typical worship-word routines... but rather hours and hours of classes where we analyze and interpret the Bible. i thought i knew the stories already and i believed they were all true since its God's word... and i really didnt want to spend a whole week in a college lecture-like environment. but luckily i got to meet some cool friends that sat around me - patience, mo, and steve. it turned out steve was living in the same cabin as me, so after study we walked back together. it was past 10PM already, and everyone finally realized why the IV staff told us to bring flashlights. the forest was completely black like nothing in LA is. luckily i had my superpowerful half-mile-beam light, which helped guide the way as steve and i went to our room. when we got there we realized another big surprise - the cabins had no electricity or lights. (they were actually built by students in the early years of Campus By The Sea, and they didn't even have windows... theres a huge gap between the walls and the roof, so from my top bunk i could pretty much reach out and touch the outside wall). steve and i kept each othe company... we went to shower together (different stall of course... hehe). and when we got back, i heard something moving on the slope right outside our door and i pointed my flashlight in that direction, and there was this huge deer just standing there... when it saw me it didnt even run... it just stared at me... and i called steve to come out and it stared at him too... then it just walked off quietly. so that was my first encounter with catalina wildlife... and a great way to end the first day at camp.

Monday: since steve and i went to sleep earlier than everyone else, i didn't even knwo who else was in my room until when we woke up in the morning. we all went to breakfast together (8:30AM)... and after that it was quiet time until 9:00 (more mark study). i spent that time at the Cross again, praying for the rest of camp, and thanking god for the friends i already made. during free time (lunch - 4:00PM), i decided to spend a few hours connecting myself with nature by walking through the trails... i took Shady Grove all the way around the southern hillside border, then took Fletcher for the heck of it... on sunday they announced that there will be a 3-mile hike to avalon on Thursday... and under the Fletcher sign it said "To AvaloN'. so i decided to see how high i could get . i dont think i've ever been so tired from walking. some of the hills were like45 degrees (with loose dirt and pebble)... so climbing wasnt easy. several times i stopped to enjoy the scenery from the top of the mountain. then i turn around and realize that theres an even higher mountain ahead of me... then when i finally make it to the top, theres still another waiting. i encountered a snake, but he just kinda walked away pretending i wasnt there. and then there was another deer. at one point i just sat at the top of the hill and admired the view. i suddenly realized that this was the first time i got to see forest, mountain, and ocean all in the same picture. and its so beautiful i dont know how to describe it. i kept on going up until finally i looked over the hill and saw Avalon on the other side. then i felt satisfied and headed back down. that took up most of the free time, but through the hike God really humbled me by letting me climb the mountains he created, and seeing how impossible it is to conquer it completely.

Tuesday: worship is every night after dinner, and the UCLA and UCI teams take turns leading. monday was irvine, so tuesday its our turn... during free time we practiced our set. the piano there seems as old as the campsite, and it was kinda flat... the Gb was totally out of tune, so i muted it with a staple =). worship was great... everyone was soooo enthusiastic about it. then i was in the Mark 1 classroom again. by this point it was becoming obvious that most of the people were getting sick of sitting there and studying about jesus casting out demons and healing sick people for so many hours. but God knew that too, and decided to bring what we were studying right into our classroom that night. we had a bathroom break, and when we came back, Susanna (one of the girls in our group) said that while she was outside she encountered evil spirits telling her scary things, and then suddenly she started rocking back and forth and crying uncontrollably. so our leaders steve (a different steve) n sherilyn told us to all pray... and several others in the room started crying and feeling spirits working in the room. we decided to pause mark study for the night, and instead share about spiritual encounters and pray in small groups. some people never saw things like that before, and we explained what was going on. others were totally scared (even guys) that demons would enter their souls. some people were even scared to sleep with the light off, until they were assured that by believing in God there was no need to fear any demons. after that experience, mark study was never the same. everyone was so much closer to one another, and as we discussed jesus's life, we also openly shared our own lives throughout the rest of the week.

Wednesday- i didnt have a chance to go in the water yet, but during lunch they announced that theres gonna be a kayak race at free time. so of course i signed up =). it was actually a relay for 8-person teams (there were 6 teams.. one for each class. go mark 1!! hehe) we got 3rd place... pretty good i guess. kayaking against the waves is REALLY hard. after the race me n steve went to kayak some more... i had my swimtrunks on and was already wet (bottom half) from getting in/out of the kayak, so i just stayed at the beach for the rest of free time until i went to shower before class. after dinner, i walked along the beach to where the big rocks are, and encountered a crab. he saw me and ran away, and so i kept walking, and then there was another crab... and then another... and eventually i could lift a rock and there would be like 5 crabs under it. the larger ones were like half a foot wide... not very big, but still cool to watch. so i started telling people about them. after study ended at around 10, i went to the bonfire for the first time. it was sooo great... people always come and go to/from the fire, and sometimes they come with a guitar and start leading worship... and others just come and talk. it was like a bit past midnight already (the latest i ever stayed up so far)... and i made a visit to the dock before going back to my room. there was a group of people fishing, since anita brought all he rfishing stuff with her. at first i thought they were crazy, until i pointed my flashlight into the water and saw a few dozen fish all swimming, sometimes jumping out of the water. they were all ove rthe place... there must have been a few hundred ofthem just along the dock. and i heard that if u bring a fish to the kitchen, they'll cook it for you. they did catch one fish, but they said it wasnt yummy (and it was too ugly), so they put it back in the water. and they were all about to head back to the cabins too, until danielle realized something was on her line. and it was really realyl heavy... so i turned on my flfashlight as she pulled in the line, and everyone gathered around to watch. this huge chunk of reddish orangish stuff slowly surfaced, and it looked like a bunch of seaweed and kelp. and then she lifted it above the water, and suddenly we all screamed in shock... it was a LOBSTER. it was like a foot and a half long (not counting antennae), and the tail was literally twice as fat as the $30 dinners at Red Lobster. the only problem is that its impossible to lift that thing without breaking the line or even the pole. so we jus twatched as it hung there and kicked around, and then eventually it kicked itself free and left. recovering from such a shocking sight wasnt easy... but it was definitely a great way to end the night.

Thursday - even though a lot of people (including myself) had expected the week to be a boring one, by this point we all realized it was coming to an end too soon. mark study was teaching us countless lessons, and free time simply seemed too short. of course, there was that big 3-mile hike that about half of the camp signed up for. after morning study, all the hikers gathered outside the main deck and got our sack lunches, then we split in small groups and started the journey up the mountain. i already completed most of the trail on monday, so i knew what to expect. but still it was soooo exhausting. the best part is the weather at catalina - even though it's hot and the hike is soo hard, it's also a beach, so when u stand still, u immediately feel the breeze and it cools you down. when i took the trail on monday, i didn't get to the top, mainly cuz i wasnt sure of the time and didn't want to miss study. but it turned out i was only about 2 minutes away from the highest point. this time me and the other three mark1 guys all made it there, and ate lunch while taking a break. the view was simply amazing... seeing both sides of the mountain and the ocean in the distance. on the south side was Avalon, and even though it still seemed so small, at least we knew the rest of the walk was downhill. and it was a paved road, so we didn't have to worry about slipping. the only problem? we didn't realize that the incline was only half a mile. and 2.5 miles downhill is still a long long way. we actually had to follow the road and curve away from avalon and make a huge circle, then come back. the only other option was to go down the edge, but then again it's a clifff, and even if i slide down in one piece, im sure theres plenty of snakes wanting to join me. so yea... we chose to take the road. and at last we arrived in Avalon. about the city- it's nothing like any city i've seen. everyone living there probably knows each other, and maybe even grew up together on the island. almost nobody had cars... they all used golf carts, since they never have a chance to drive above 25mph anyways. it was really fun watching people drive around in carts... some had sports car and convertible carts... some had luxury ones with a rolls-royce grille... one had a pink 57 t-bird cart... and there were even limousine carts. not much different from home, except at a much smaller and more peaceful manner. everyone in the city was nice, and every driver we passed by waved at us and said hi. it was only like 2... and the plan was to take a boat back to CBS at 4:30 (the 4:00 class was cancelled today for the hike). but for some reason the group of einsteins that i came with decided to walk back. and so i joined them. actually its not that bad... the 2.5 mile uphill seemed fast since we were talking the whole time. we solved riddles and told jokes, and also talked abotu some more personal stuff... it was really great getting to bond with friends while hiking. and when we headed back down Fletcher, we slipped sooo many times. but it was fun.. when we got back to camp we went straight to the shower... and after that my legs were like paralized... i had to walk real slow and some people even said my legs were shaking when i stood stilll. but it was worth it... when i told everyone i almost never exercise or work out, people found it amazing that i actually completed over 6 miles. i was amazed too... but even though i felt so tired, i knew it was worth it. at night, i was back at the bonfire with Ben (from UCI, also in mark 1). we started the fire with a huge stump instead of logs, and it was the ugliest fire ever. i collected a bunch of kelp and threw it in the pit, and it kinda became firecrackers... cuz each of the little bulbs expand and explode and it goes *pOp!* really loudly. when it was midnight, nobody wanted to sleep yet... i guess we all realized that we only had a few more days to spend at catalina, and we wanted to enjoy the experience as much as possible. me and ben and a few other guys were all kind of in an adventury mood, so i suggested going to the rocks to find crabs. actually i didnt even know they would be out at night, but then when i turned on the flashlight and saw a bunch fo them right in front of me, we all ran back to get sticks and a crate to catch them in. we got 4 pretty big crabs... and the first one served as a snack =). there wasnt much to eat though, so we decided to use the rest of the crabs to do experiments to figure out what animals are above crabs in the food chain. we got permission from anita to use her fishing rods... and ben knocked a crab unconscious and put it on the hook and dropped it in the water. and we just stood there not knowing what to expect. and then i went to the other side of the dock and pointed my light in the water for the heck of it... and on the pole underneath the dock there was a huge lobster grabbing on to it. so we all left the fishing rod to come and see the lobster. and u kno the most amazing thing? when we went back to the pole, another lobster was already trying frantically to eat our crab. so once again i got to see the same scene i saw the night before. (all the lobsters there were as huge as the first one i saw). we actually had plans to handle lobsters though... so we started pulling it along the dock to the beach so we could go down and catch it in a crate. but it let go too quickly, and it took our crab too. so of course, we invested our remaining two crabs for the same purpose. on the last crab, we actually got the lobster hooked and pulled it all the way until we were in teh water with the crate and actually put it over the lobster. but somehow it got away. it was soooooooo freakin close. and we really wouldnt mind having a free $50 snack in the middle of the night. but since our last crab was gone, we decided to continue the next night and go to sleep. it was like 2:30AM already... and even though i was tired, i decided to make the night extra special by not sleeping in my cabin. a lot of people have told me they slept outsidse on the dock... and i never considered doing it myself... but then i realized this was probably the only place i would ever be allowed such freedom. me and ben went to grab our sleeping bags, and took the trail up to the cross and joined several others who decided to spend the night sleeping there.

Friday- waking up and seeing the sky above me is definitely incredible. everyone was a bit sad, cuz we all knew it was the last full day at camp. i spent my free time resting in the main deck (cuz i was too tired to go anywhere after the hike), and then played the piano until study. at night, mark 1 met for the last time, and we all shared about the many things we learned. soo what did i learn? hmm... honestly i guess i didnt pay as much attention as i should have, but i definitely learned to study the bible with more depth. i used to think i knew all the stories, and that as long as i believed them there was nothing more to worry about. but through the past few days i got to see fellow christians debating and agruing over the meaning of our own text... and in the end it only helped strenghten everyone's faith. by the way, 7 people got baptized in the ocean, while everyone else watched from the beach... it was the most beautiful baptism i've ever seen, and it happened just like it did back in with john the baptist. after the final study, we split up by schools (ucla/uci) and had separate sharing times. after that, ben and i agreed to meet at the bonfire, along with everyone else who wanted to join our adventure with crustaceans. we went straight for the crabs... got like 4 of them, then went to get lobster. but apparently the lobsters were not interested in getting caught on the hook, so we didnt get anything at the end =(. and we were all way too tired to go for more crabs and start over, so guess we'll have to wait til next year! it was pretty late already, and i decided to spend my final night sleeping on the dock. i fell asleep watching the stars and hearing the waves crashing under me... it was the most wonderful experience ever. i allowed myself to become a part of nature, just like the deer and the birds and the lobsters and everyone else... there was no need for pajamas... i just wore the same thing i would wear the next morning to go to sleep. and i probably wouldnt even have used a sleeping bag, except i didnt want to get sick. at first it was really weird sleeping over the sounds of trees and waves (trust me... its REALLY loud when ur trying to sleep)... but after about 5 minutes i learned to love it.

Saturday- before breakfast we had to get everything packed and brought out on the dock. then after our last meal, we were assigned various jobs to help clean up the campsite until the boat arrived at around noon. i helped burn leftover palm fronds at the bonfire =). there was a little bit of free time, and i spent it climbing out on the rocks until i was prretty much surrounded by ocean. crabs and hermitcrabs and sea anemone and lotsa other stuff were all around me, and in everyone one of them i saw god's great work of art. i looked back at the mountains, and suddenly it became clear to me that the entire island is simply a giant sculpture created by the hands of God. at one moment i could be in the water, and 10 minutes later i can be above the clouds. i stayed on that rock for a very long time, looking in every direction and praising god for his creation. i realized that anytime i feel like i'm better than anyone else or become too prideful, all i have to do is stand right where i was standing and look around, and immediately i would understand my role in nature. back at the beach, i told god about all the things that made me angry or frustrated - people who werent nice to me, the person who had my sleeping bag, all the people involved in various misunderstandings, and many many more. for each of them i prayed for forgiveness, then picked up a rock and threw it in the ocean. i thought about my first trip to the Cross and the things i told god there. perhaps during this camp i didn't experience any supernatural miracles like many people did. but the greatest thing i got out of it is complete freedom from everything that concerned me back at home. and that helped me see God face to face, and worship him like i never did before. and to think that i was too narrow-minded to sacrifice 200 bucks for this trip... it turned out to be an experience that millions of dollars cannot buy. from this point on, whenever i'm angry or prideful, i want to close my eyes and dream about this piece of heaven that i spent a whole week at. and by doing so i don't think i'll ever be the same again...

06/19: i guess dis is the last time im gonna be postingg for a while. for those of u who didnt check my profile or read recent entries, i'll be spending my first full week of summer in catalina! hehe... honestly i realyl dun know wut to expect... probably cuz i'm not that close with a lot of people at InterVarsity. but then again thats how i felt about my middle school friends when i went to catalina last time. and by the time we returned home, things were totally different. i hope sumthin like that will happen again. hehe... then theres' all the great bible study stuff i've heard about so many times. hope its really as good as everyone says it is. but yea... im sure i'll have a great time there anyways. of course, as u probably figured, i'll be separating myself from the rest of the world (outside the island) for a whole week (i'm leaving tomorrow morning after Reality, and i'll be back saturday 6/26. chances are i'll end up going straight to church for cworship practice, so i prolly wont be online til night or sunday). its gonna feel realyl weird being gone for so long, cuz the longest i'm usually gone is for church retreats, and this trip is twice as long as a usual ucc retreat. i'm actualyl a bit scared too. hehe.... hope i dun get seasick or anything. but yea... its realyl late already and i think i should go to sleep. o yea one last thing - tonight was soo fun! rose came to SOLD with me =). i was so scared she wouldnt like it too much, but at the end she was talkin with andy and i think she had a grea ttime. or at least i hope so. hehe yea so back to catalina stuff. tomorrow morning i'll be gone, so no more updates for a week. hope you guys enjoy this full week without me... dont miss me too much (if at all)... hehe ok i'll shut up now. byebye!

06/18: serena got a celica!! its a 95, but still i totally cant picture her in it. actually i totally cant picture her in a car at all. hehe but anyways this morning i broke my sleeping record (excluding jetlag & sickness) - slept til like 1PM!!! haha i know thats not very late for a lot of u... but for me its like impossible to sleep that long even if i try. so yea... today seems alot shorter than it actually is. i dunno why, but every year around mid-late june, i start wanting to fix up my room. i usually have a habit of periodically cleaning my room, but after going to college that kinda faded out, probably cuz im only home a couple days every week. so yea... now its time for some major clean-up work. basically just eliminating excessive dust and getting rid of some extra boxes, so my room will be ready for summer (when i actualyl spend a lot of itme in it). its probably gonna take um... a week? hopefullly sooner... but theres a LOT of work to do. so thats wut i spent the first half of the day doing. and then at night jacob came over and had dinner, and we talked about possibly putting together a small band to jam for fun. sounds like agreat idea =). i cant wait to get started. we listened to dis one band called the Yellow Jackets... honeslty i never really appreciated jazz until now when i'm actually paying attention to the insane chords they use. and yes, one day i'm gonna learn all of those chords myself =).

and of course, cant forget about yesterday. move-out was very smooth, especially since they had these huge carts that i coudl check out, so it only took me one trip to get everything out. and i was lucky enough to be one of few people to find the best parking/loading spot that wasnt closed - the saxon parking lot. my mom arrived much earlier than i expected, but i was pretty much ready, so i said byebye to my roommate and some other friends on the floor, then i was gone. sooo wut did i do on the first day of summer? i went to have lunch with my mom, carol, and mrs esther (former music teacher from a long long long time ago, owner of yamaha where i'm gonna be tutoring again this summer). we talked about a lotta stuff... we sat at garden cafe for like 2 hours but it was really fun. and then at night went to church for cworship with aunt amy. we're actually leading on 6/27, but since i'm gone the whole week before, we decided to practice way early. i love this worship set... soo many fun songs, including a few new claymusic ones =). we stayed at church really late and i got home at like um... 11:30? sumthin like that. but still... its not THAT late, so i really have no clue why i ended up sleeping in so late this morning. my mom says its cuz im finally home. i guess she's right =)

06/17: *siGh* its all over soo fast... feels like i just started going to college. but at least this year ended really well. the pizza party turned out much better than i expected. almost everyone i hoped would come actually came - my rieber friends, hedrick friends, sproul friends, everybody. it always makes me happy when i see all my friends together, and thats exactly what i got to see. first we chilled in jessicas room for a while, then some people left to go study/sleep and everyone else went down to the janss steps to play with these little handheld firework sticks. we lit them and ran around laughing and screaming like little children. its through things like this that we can connect with a part of ourselves that is usually hidden underneath academic stress and our role as college students. but hey, it's summer now, so why not just push back all our worries and allow ourselves to enjoy pure happiness like children again? i guess for me my first year of college has come to a most perfect end. thanks everyone for being great friends... for those of u who still have finals, good luck! and whether or not you're finished, i hope u have a most wonderful summer!

06/16: ok so as all of u know, i have about a trillion meal swipes left. and dont worry, i'm NOT wasting my money by not eating... it simply beacuse i learned to take advantage of the dining halls' unlimited supply of cereal and tea, and i had a constant supply in my room so i didnt have to swipe every morning. so yea... it seems like i'll be getting a smoothie with every meal this week. and needless to say, i stopped taking free food this week, since i'm simply trying to get rid of my swipes. so yesterday morning i woke up early to swipe for breakfast, and then for some reason my card wasnt working right, so at the end the swiper just let me go inside. GRR!!!! hahaha anyways i came up with a great idea to help me use my swipes, but i'll talk about that later...

for now, i'm just glad that FINALS ARE OVER!! i know i have kind of this weird stress-free mentality about finals week, but seriou5ly i looked forward to my LS final, knowing that when its over i'll be all done. and now that its over, i'm all done! so finals turned out pretty good overall... hope my grades are just as good. hehe and rite now i'm packing and taking down everything on my wall, cuz im leaving tomorrow morning!

soo... about those extra swipes... if ur a ucla student and ur reading this, then ur officially invited to my Goodbye Pizza Party tonight! 10:00PM in jessica's room (hedrick 5N). i'll provide two pizzas, two 6-packs of soda, and buffalo wings. feel free to add to the list (i know you all have extra food in ur room!) i thought about doin sumthin like this 1st quarter, but never got around to it. and now its gonna happen for sure. so why pizza party? three reasons: (1) help me use up my swipes for a good cause. (2) thank everyone for being such good friends this year. (3) have one last opportunity to hang out and take pictures and enjoy time together before we all leave. even if u cant come for long, at least stop by and visit for a few minutes, sinc ei'm probably not gonna see u again until a very long time. so yea... i hope this will bring a great end to my first year in college. for now, im gonna go back to packing. bYe!

06/14: welcome to this belated edition of sund-, i mean, Monday Night Update! so my mush final turned out pretty good (i think), and now i can chill until wednesday (when i have LS final and h-mush paper). hehe ok so abotu the weekend: starting with ffriday. i was at the Secret Place in the morning like i've been doing all quarter, and when i was leaving i saw the cutest thing ever - baby squirrels!! little tiny versions of the regular ucla squirrels, there were like 5 of them running around! gosh where's my camera when i need it? owellz...

anyways, last friday was a bit different than usual fridays - my mom didn't have to come pick me up! hehe... as u might hav eheard, andy is leaving SOLD, so all the SOLDers decided to put together sumthin special for him. and we ended up going to the cheesecake factory in beverly hills! i felt like such an idiot, cuz the whole time i was wondering how its possible to have a nice restaurant that only serves cheesecake! *smacks self on head* anyways we had a great dinner and took lotsa pics, and the girls had fun writing a napkin letter to the hot waiter! hehe so yea... it was a great night. got home at like after 11... thanks andy n jolie for letting me put all my crap in their trunks (cuz i've been bringing unnecessary stuff home every weekend to avoid having to make so many runs when moving out).

saturday- nuthin planned other than c-worship practice with gilbert for tomorrow . so iw as home all morningg, n then went to worship practice at 3. and when i got back the BIG cell was at my house (since carol goes there now), so when they finished i went downstairs to talk with them... then luias mom came to pick her up and she wanted to go talk to my mom, then suddenly she decided to take my mmo out for dinner. and carol decided to go with some of the BIG pplz to watch a movie. so i went with them too. its called stepford wives or sumthin... we went to regal cuz its closer, but we did sumthin really stupid: go to the movie without checking the playing times first. so yea... we missed it by like 10 minutes and the next one was in like 2 hours. so everyone jus decided to go home. and carol went to luia's house. so i was suddenly all by myself with nuthin to do, and no dinner either. first i sent ricky home then sent alun home, and alun's place is a bit farther, but on the way there ken wu called and asked if i wanted to go chill at denise's house. and from alun's place i'm already REALLY close to denise's house. so of course i went. and guess wut... denise ordered pizza for everyone, not knowing id idn't have dinner! haha... thank u soo much! we played this realyl weird but fun xbox game called hit n run... for those of u who play it, here's a little piece of advice that can help u win (apparently nobody else knew this). if u stay on the RIGHT side of the road, you hit less cars! hahaha yea... anyways francis n ling were also there along with me ken n denise, and we played xbox the whole night. then afterwrads i sent ling home (not knowing her birthday was in a couple hours! aAH!!). and i went home myself.

sunday - went to church at 8 for c-worship. played for all three services. after first service i talked with stephenie jennifer n tiffany... then after 2nd service worship i went to xperience. and then i was in da club 247 room with kelley n ken, and since it was liz (my wife)'s b-day, kelley called her for me ! haha it was fun even tho we wer ekinda quiet cuz we were both at our own churches and she was eating and celebrating and everything. but yea... then i went to 7-eleven for a slurpee (my lunch), and came back n talked with kevin about crazy rich people with good cars. then went in chinese sanctuary for ClayMusic rehearsal. it looks like the first concert is official now - saturday 9/11/04 (no speical reason for choosing 911... its just a convenient day) at UCC. its gonna be soooo cool. icant wait, even though i still hafta practice sooo much. i'm slowly starting to get the hang of that crazy jazz improv stuff, hopefully i'll practice a lot more in the summer, cuz i REALLY ReALly want to play that part perfectly! me and josh are like going insane cuz we love it so much but we cant play it nearly as good.

ok so thats about it for the weekend. as for now, i'm trying to focus myself on the fact that there's only a couple more days of school left. since i have so many extra meal swipes, i've decided to throw a pizza party on wednesday night (since i'm leaving thursday morning). everyone that wants to come is invited. its probably gonna be the last big hangout of the schoolyear for a lot of people, so i hope everyoen cam come and enjoy themselves before leaving. and also i'm planning on writing a huge entry about my first year college experiences, both as a reflection and as something future college students can learn from. so yea... be expecting that in the next few days. for now, i guess i'll shut up!

06/13: welcome to SNU again, unfortunately here's some bad news for those of u who are dying to see wut i've been up to this weekend. the bad news is that this week's SNU will be postponed until tomorrow, because my musH (music history) final is tomorrow morning and if i update now then i wont have enough time to prepare (as u might already know, i don't study at home, so pretty much i just started studying a couple hours ago). but yea... other than the bad news, here's some other important news. i'm gonna be GONE from 6/20 (this coming sunday) to 6/26 (saturday)! and by gone i mean like away from home on a little island. i'm gonna spend the first full week of summer chillin at catalina island! hehe... its for intervarsity's summer conference, and i hafta go cuz im on the worship team, and i feel really bad for missing all the other conferences since im always busy. but i made a promise on this one, so i'll be there for sure, even though i have no idea how i'm gonna crank up 200 extra dollars. but yea... and in case u didnt know, when i go to events like this, i simply hate having internet or cellphone access, even if it's available. its such a distraction, and only people who know how to temporarily disconnect their minds from technology can truly experience the beauty of a place like catalina. its actually gonna be hard for me too, cuz i havent gone this long without my cellphone ever since i got it. but yea, if u miss me, go ahead and leave me messages anyways, cuz it would make me really happy when i get back. as for wut time i'm leaving and returning, i'm not quite sure yet. but i'll get back to you on that. anyways... enough talking now, time to study more! hehe... wish me luck on my mush final! byebye!

06/11: classes are now over... two more finals next week then i'm all done. soo... summary of this week- lets start with the fun stuff, movie recommendations for the summer!

The Notebook: i never read the novel, but the movie is great... very very emotional, lotsa pplz cried. Dodgeball: what exciting plot would u expect from a dodgeball championship? but still its one of the funniest movies ever, even though some parts went too far for me to laugh. but yea, great movie overall. Garden State: something completely different from anything you've ever seen... pretty much everybody liked it. definitely worth watching. o yea and i got to meet zach braff (director and actor of garden state, also in the tv show Scrubs). really really funny guy, except he cusses too much. i really love his attitude for moviemaking- his style is very unique and often criticized by professionals, but he still stuck to the way he liked it, and garden state is much more of a way for himt o express himself through moviemaking rather than a way to make money. yea... that only made me love the movie even more. hehe but anyways as u can see, i had a lot of fun this week. special thanks to UCLA CampusEvents for putting together so many great movies. i'm definitely gonna miss this over the summer...

on a more serious note, as the schoolyear comes to a close i'm starting to understand the lessons God wanted to teach me during this year. i'm continuously being humbled and forced to realize who i really am, and even though its hard, i love it. last sunday baldwin was praying for me at church and god told him that i was 'confused', even though he couldnt tell why. in fact, i'm very confused about a lot of things, and even though some of them will be cleared before the schoolyear ends, others will remain mysteries until the right time comes. a lot of strange things happened this week, so strange that i have trouble figuring out whether or not it was real or just a dream. but anyways, i wont get into details on that rite now...

of course, as the year ends i'm also starting to feel sad cuz i need to say so many goodbyes, especially to people i won't be seeing over summer. but i guess i'll save those until next week when i'm actually out of here. so yea, its been a great 10th week, and i hope next week (finals week) will be even better!

06/07: actually just kidding... im not quite ready to shut up yet. today i had lunch with jessica and crystal, and they were kind of um... different. they suddenly decided out of nowehre to starttalkingreallyreallyreallyfastandactliketheyretotallycrazy. and the only thing i could say that fast was 'justcuzimsurroundedbycrackheadsduzntmeantherestoftheworldiscrazy!'. hehe yea... that was pretty weird. and as i promised them, here's an entry about their weirdness =)

06/07: sorry for the delay on this week's SNU... i was supposed to write last night, except serena suddenly decided to challenge me to jippi minigolf. her sn was 'i bet you suck'. so im assuming she thinks i suck. but if thats the case, then how come i won both games? haha... so yea thats how i spent my sunday night... i also met with my LS group for our project on Flying Squirrels... we're gonna meet again tonite to finish things up, then present tomorrow. anyways, last weekend was totally great, too great to not write an entry about. hehe it was so fun yet so productive (i guess). lets start with friday:

i was eating lunch at home and suddenly got a call from alex(wang)'s cell... it turned out it was David Liu and he was back home from colleg ealready, and he was at troy! apparently they read my profile during the week and knew i was going to troy, so they decided to call me and say hi. so yea, i went to troy and saw david again after not meeting since high school. and we met at troy... gosh it brings back memories. hehe and of course i saw alex and nelson and catherine and everybody... so anyways, why did i decide to go to troy in the first place? cuz lucy's going to china right after finals and shes gonna be gone all summer! and she decided to spend a day with me before leaving =) *feels very very special* soo after she got out of class we went to teazone for lunch. and on the way there were these two girls walking to starbucks and they knew lucy and said hi, so i decided to be nice and give them a ride since it was soo hot. and then one of them suddenly said my name, and it turned out she was jessica (roan) who went to my mom's chinese school class a long long long time ago and knew me from there. and she still remembered me! haha *surprised* so yea, then lucy n i went to eat and we got boba =). when we were ordering lucy suddenly started teasing the register guy, and i was thinkin 'gosh SOMEONE is desparate for a discount', then i found out they knew each other! hehe ok anyways then we went to the mall and shopped then went to this one bookstore in brea that's entirely on sale... i was readin this book on office cubicle pranks.... sooo funny! sounds exactly like the stuff troy people used to do. hehe then i sent her home at 5:30, and i had an hour to kill before going to her (and betty's) church at night. so since i was already in fullerton, i went to visit my composition teacher =). he was sooo surprised to see me and we talked for a lil while, then i went to troy's parking lot and hooked my laptop to the trunk speakers and worked on my remix. gosh isnt it great having a fully portable dj studio? hehe and there was like nobody in the whole parking lot, so i could turn my volume up high and enjoy =). hehe anyways then i went to lucy n betty's church at 7:00. they were actually having this special seminar program thingy, and betty n lucy were supposed to help watch the children. i agreed to 'help' too but not get paid, since i was just visiting. so then me n lucy got there first, and then betty came and guess who else... esther! haha... wut a surprise... she was stayin over at betty's house so she decided to come too (cuz everyone knows shes soo good with children! hehe). and the church was sooo nice.. they gave us free dinner and it was really good =). and i also got to see frank (from troy) there, but he suddenly disappeared after betty threw fruit at him (sooo mean! rite?). and then after dinner the program began. i got to meet the ah-yees who were in charge of tellin us wut to do... at first me and betty went to the little kids place and esther n lucy took the older ones... the we eventually all figured that i have NO idea how to handle crying babies... so i switched with esther. and i joined lucy and the older children to watch brother bear... then we put on this really stupid series of acts that the kids liked =). actually i liked it too. hehe... so that made me feel a lot more confident, cuz at last i was actually offering SOME help to keep the kids occupied. and when we finished, guess wut was waiting in the frige for us? BOBA! hehe... wut a great way to end the night.

saturday: june 5... somehow that date rings a bell... *thinks* o yea, its steph liang's birthday!!! hehe we decided to go out n celebrate, so i went to pick her up then picked up jennifer n we went to life plaza and got BOBA, then went to take pics at Cue! gosh we took soooo many its not even funny! but yea, i already have them scanned and they should be up soon. (by the way, i know i'm really behind on posting pics, but theres a good reason for that and i'll write about it some other time). then we went to the mall and shopped until we all got tired of shopping, then we got back on the car and jus sat there trying to decide where to go next. o by the way, we had 4 bobas instead of three, and steph n jen both didnt want the last one, so it was mine =). yea, 4 bobas in two days. thats about as crazy as it will get... ok anyways, so we were in teh car like FOREVER and reaching no conclusion, then i realized someone was waiting for my parking space the entire time, so i felt bad and moved out to the tire center parkin lot cuz it was really empty. and then we finally decided to go somewehre: TOYS R US! yupyup gosh it feels so great to play wtih toys again =). its been sooo lon gsince i was last there... everything looks different now. but owellz... so after that i sent jennifer home then stephenie then went home for dinner. then at nite went to jasmin's house for cell. yea i kno... lot of driving in one day- my house to diamondbar to hacienda hts to city of industry, then back to hacienda then db then my house, then pomona for cellgroup. haha i seriously need a hybrid car so i can save gas. hehe anyways cell was really good. i got there a bit late and found out nobody was doin worship so i volunteered myself. then we played this game about stones adn turtles. i think i'm a turtle. hehe anyways next friday we're planning this really cool thing, but i'll add more details when the time comes.

sunday: tutored steph in the morning since her finals are next week. then went to church for xperience, then i went to eat with steph li and her dad (my uncle). real chinese food! hehe then came back for chinese worship practice. yup, gilbert is up this sunday! hehe we practiced until we were too tired to continue, then i went home n ate and went back to school and met with my group for squirrel project and blah blah blah and now suddenly i'm here! and i just realized i wasted a LOT of time that i should spend writing my essay! so yea, u better read all of this cuz i sacrificed so much for it! hehe ok i'll shut up now byebye!

06/03: today was soo cool... professor knapp was at a meeting, so we had a substitute... turns out she's a piano expert and she decided to do a lecture on the history of piano... so when i got to class there was this huge replica of an original clasical fortepiano... its sooo cool!! it has 5 legs and no pedals and only 60 keys... we ended class early so i got to go up to the stage and play with it. soo hard to get used to... the black keys are white and the white keys are black! hehe... yea very werid i know... but its soo cool!

anyways about the rest of this week so far: its 9th week already and i'm finally beginning to realize that the year is coming to an end WAY too quickly. last night i went to the guys smallgroup and found out it was our last meeting. and jesse gave us BEER!!! haha dun worry its non-alcoholic beer... but its still cool. duznt taste as good as real beer (of course) but close enough... at least for small group. hehe... so yea, next week is the last week of class, then it's finals week, then *pOoF* everyone around me on the college side of my world will disappear. for those of u who wanted to know, i'm leaving thursday morning. finals isnt really a big deal to me, so i'd much rather spend my last few days having fun (as long as i have enough time to study too... shouldnt take THAT long). so as u can see, i've been in a more or less reflective mood lately. not that its a bad thing or anything... but yea, i jus hope these last few days can bring my first year to a most wonderful end. okee... thats it for now. gotta go work on essays... byebye!

05/31: monday afternoon now... i jus got back to school not long ago. actually i could have been home rite now, cuz when i was at tiff's house steve ringler called and said IV worship practice tonight is cancelled (we're jus gonna wing it on thurs), and at the same time mom called nina and foudn out she was going back to school at night. in other words, i could have waited and gone home with nina. but when i tried calling sumthin was wrong with ehr phone and it wouldnt work... so owellz. anyways, today's BBQ was sooo great. special thanx to tiffany n her mommy for inviting me. by the way, does anyone else besides tiff think turtles can photosynthesize? hehe... if i was a turtle, i would leave that job to the algae on my back.

so as u can see from this entry and the one before, i had a great weekend. but if i had to sum up the past few days in one sentence, i guess it would be an official transition to my summer mood. its soo weird... i never intended it to be this way, but i accidentally did so many things that remind me of summer its not even funny. first there was the cd thing that i wrote about last night. and about friday's ddr party... events like that were quite common in teh summer when cell group pplz always came over to play. and last night i was waiting for my downstairs computer to start and suddenly found myself walking outside to sit at the backyard bench and look at stars. i used to do that like every single night... and this went back all the way to like 2-3 years ago. i remember i used to go outside and look at the stars and the moon every night... and i would think of people that i held close to heart, and make myself believe that perhaps they were also looking at the same moon and same stars at the same times. and by doing that i was never lonely. sometimes i jus sat there and talked to my self or prayed or petted my doggie (since he always jumps on the bench next to me). yesterday he was on the bench eating his bone, and when he finished he stood up next to me and stared at me, then tapped me a few times with his hand, then sat and started wagging his tail. gosh wut a cute way to tell me he wants me to play with him... hehe anyways i thnk i should stop thinking about summer until i finish with school first. but of course, even at school there's plenty of stuff to look forward to. campusevents finally announced the 10th week free movies... tuesday is "the notebook", wendesday is "dodgeball", and thursday is "garden state". yupyup... three free screenings in a row. looks like campusevents really wants us to study hard... haha ish ok im sure i'll work out the time to study AND watch movies. hehe... but then again i still have to do two of the three essays due either this week or next week... so i think i'll go work on that now!

05/30: hello and welcome back to Sunday Night Update with calvin... this week is gonna be a bit different, cuz even though it's sunday night, i'm still at home! of course, that's because there's no school tomorrow. but its not like i need anymore holidays anyways =). sooo... moving on about this weekend:

friday - i went to get gas and forgot to bring my cellphone, and then when i got back my mom was in the garage waiting for me and she told me stephenie jus called and asked if i could go help her on math. so i went since there was nuthin to do anyways... and then of course we chatted for a while. and we walked around her neighborhood... its sooo nice! hehe and then after dinner i did sumthin that i promised rose a LONG time ago - i went to visit her (chinese) cellgroup! or at lesat thats where we were SUPPOSED to go... 7:30 i went to pick her up in diamondbar, then went to pick up esther who lives really close, then we headed for cell in hacienda hts. we were like 10 minutes early so we stopped @ life plaza for a drink, then went to cell. and we were still in the parking lot when rose got a call saying cell was moved to somewhere else like in chino hills or sumthin. it was like past 8 already and we actually planned on leaving early at like 9. and chino hills was like waaay opposite direction, so we jus said screw it and went to my house for DDR party. actualyl we were gonna do that after cell anyways, but the change of plans just made our party longer... maybe like 2 and a half hours? haha... i never played so much DDR in one night... so of course i was soo sore afterwards. but it was worth it. we were all really hot so we went out to the backyard and it was soooooo nice... not cold at all. just very breezy and comfortable. and i drove them back to esther's house with open windows too and it felt sooo nice... like a little bit raining but not really even raining. and when i was driving home myself i (of course) had windows all open and music really loud... and all the way down golden springs everyone was driving like 55, and then suddenly this cop turns in front of us and ruined all the fun =/. everybody slowed down and we were all scared to pass even though he was going at liek 35. hehe ok so thats enough about friday...

saturday: a lot of things have changed since i went to college, including my attitude towards music... today i took my first piano lesson since i left for UCLA, and it definitely brought back soo many great memories. of course, in the past few weeks i had to review all the pieces i played, and even though they seem harder than before, i'm sooo glad to say that i haven't lost my old touch (my mom and mrs lucy both said so). they say that the way i play piano somehow sounds different from other people, and i was sooo relieved to know that i haven't lost that, because i was REALLY worried about it. but yea... now i have a lot more to practice, but at lesat i know i'm on th eright track. soo about my whole switching to music major thingy... its going pretety slow rite now, but i was talkin to mrs lucy before my lesson and she told me a lot of really encouraging stuff, and i hope thats gonna motivate me to push harder and make my dream happen.

saturday nite: cellgroup was cancelled cuz too many people couldnt make it.. so instead andy decided to go watch Shrek 2 at night. it was only me him and jackie at first, then carol wanted to come and so did albert and 'albert's friend' (who turned otu to be Bruce! =) ). so the movie was at 7:30 and andy said he and jackie would get there at 6:45 in case tickets run out... so of course i ate dinner really fast so they wouldnt hafta wait too long, and me and carol got there at like 6:50. and i called andy and he wasnt even close to the mall yet, so we jus got our tickets first and went inside. we were literally the first people in the whole freakin theatre. hehe... and then lik e7:20 andy calls and says he's there but hes waiting for albert and bruce. and he waited like forever, so right before the movie started i told him to just come in... and then albert and bruce came and found us later. so yea... we all made it at teh end. hehe... and the movie was GREAT. i'm seeing it again on tuesday with crystal and amy and whoever else they invite... hehe anyways then after the movie we all went to maxim to eat and chill for a while. and that's it for saturday!

today: i actually didn't have to drive to church today, cuz aunt amy was doing rehearsal for her cd at 2:30 and my mom was gonna stay too, so i just went with her. during reality i had nuthin to do and then suddenly tiffany(tai) came, so we talked to each other the entire time. after xperience i saw Venus for the first time in like um... i cant even remember. gosh its soo nice to bring back old friendships. she needed a ride home and i would have brought her except i didnt have my car. hehe but someone ended up takin her anyays. there was this lunch thingy for sharon, but i didnt go partly cuz i had to be downstairs early for practice, and also for some other reasons... but to keep this entry from being too long i wont write everything here.

anyways so for ClayMusic practice (claymusic is aunt amy's organization for her cd). me and josh were both supposed to learn the piano parts, and we started with the hardest song and tried to play along with the cd (recorded by insanely professional musicians). and we were both totally overwhelmed... that guy is SOOO GOOD its not even funny. his crazy jazz improv... not sure if i can ever master that. honestly i think this is one of the most challenging things i ever had to do on piano. even for classical pieces, at least i had music to follow. but mastering this song requires us to learn a whole new set of advanced (7th and 13th) chords and know them well enough to improv fluently. thats gonna take a LOT of effort, but i'm pretty excited abotu it =)

aunt amy is also leading worship on 6/27, and josh is leading on 6/13. like i menioned last week, CWT season isn't gonna be over for long. hehe... the biggest problem was trying to find time to practice. we spent literally an HOUR sitting there figuring out when we could practice. so now lets just say my weekends (fri-sat-sun) are entirely filled until the end of june.

the rest of today was definitely great... i didn't have anywhere to go other than my room, so i decided to let myself enjoy the sounds of my cool cd player (which i dont use much anymore since i'm at school most of the time). usually i just use the sleep mode to put myself to bed every night when i'm home (gosh i LOVE doing that!), but today i finally decided to turn UP the volume and enjoy the bassboosters and everything. and i listened to some old cds that i havent heard in liek almost a year. u kno how sometimes certain cds can remind u of certain moments? well that tends to work REALYL well with me, and sometimes i dont even realize how powerful the music is until i leave the cd alone for a long long time then listen to it again, and suddenly go wHOOSH and find myself reliving a different time period in my life. i decided to listen to jump5's "all the time in the world" today, and suddenly i found myself back in time to last summer. it was soo neat, i realized that i've been blasting the cd every day in the car after work last summer, so it naturally became imprinted in my brain next to all the memories of summer. and then after dinner (my mom made lollicup-style spicy chicken! yumyum) i lisstend to MWS "life the life" single and earthsuit "kaleidoscope superior"... and that totally brought me back to those high school evenings/nights when i was in my room studying or writing or doing wuteverz. then i went back to chatting online and this gurl named lingling imed me out of the blue and we chatted for a long time. and she just signed off like 5 minutes ago... so as u might have figured, this edition of Sunday Night update is now caught up to the present!

one last thing before i go - tomorrow's another great day to look forward to... today at church tiffany tai's mom invited me to join them for barbecue lunch tomorrow! and i always tell tiffany we dun hang out often enough cuz shes too busy... now we WILl have time to hang out! hehe gosh i cant wait... havnet had a house BBQ in soo long! hehe... o yea and for those UCLA pplz that miss me too much (hehe yea rite...), i'm gonna leave home at 2 tomorrow, so expect me to be back for dinner (5:30 as usual since i have IV worshippractice afterwards). ok thats all for now... byebye!

05/28: i always thought of myself as someone with an abnormally vivid imagination, whether or not its a good thing. this is especially true when i have dreams at night... my brain literally never stops coming up with the randomest things. and the scariest thing is, i sometimes have trouble separating imagination from reality. on wednesday night i specially planned to sleep early (11:30ish), so i finished showering and everythign BEFORE accountability group meeting, and i even made sure i didn't drink ANY caffiene at night, just in case it would get in the way. so i got back to rieber at like 11:30 and went straight to sleep. then i jus rolled around in bed and could NOT fall asleep for some werid reason. and the more i couldnt sleep, the more frustrated i got, and it made it even worse, and when i checked the clock it was already 1 and my roommate was asleep already... and since i couldnt sleep i jus got up and stared out the window for like 20 minutes, then i went back and finally fell asleep eventually. so yea... there goes my wonderfully-planned-out 8 hours of precious sleep. but u kno the weirdest thing? the next morning i woke up and felt perfectly normal, and i started to ask myself did i REALLY lie in bed for an hour and a half last night, or was it just a dream? and seriously... i had no idea what really happened that night. and i guess it's one of those things i'll never find out...

but on the other hand, there's also things that SEEM like they're just my imagination, but they're actually real. for example, there was this big raffle giveaway thingy last night, and this morning when i walked to class with jessica she told me that crystal won a CAR. yes... a freakin car. i'm not kidding... it took me a while to believe it too. but my friend actually won the grand prize... a tuned-up classic beetle with a root beer logo on it. and they're driving it to her house today. gosh i wish i get to go see it sometime... and we can both learn how to drive a stick! haha... so yea, there's a little something for all of u who think life is too boring. as for me, i don't think i'll have much chances to be bored, especially on weekends, since my schedule's pretty much filled until the end of june. more details on that later...

one last thing before i shut up - last night was a really happy night for me, even though i had no idea that crystal was getting a new car at that very moment. first of all i got to talk to lucy on the phone for the first time in FOREVER... shes gonna be in china all summer (*sniff* soo sAd!) and she wanted to make sure we get to hang out before she leaves. so next friday we're gonna go hang out and do wuteverz after her school, and maybe i'll attend her youthgroup after that, since i wanted to visit for like the longest time already. and then not long after we got off the phone (cuz she ahd to go study), i got a message from karin. not sure if i mentioned this before, but me her and anna kinda got into a little conflict a few months ago, and its one of those things thats always been on my mind and kept me feeling really guilty, especially after my accident and everything when i realized wut an idiot i was. i already talked to anna and we're cool again now... and on monday i left karin a voice msg to say happy b-day, and she didnt call back so i thought she was still mad at me. i mean, she didn't call back until last night. so yea of course i got her message and called and we talked and now everything's good like it used to be. it always feels so great to be able to work out problems and revive dying friendships.

anyways... now i'm back at home again and preparing for another busy weekend. tomororw i'm gonna return to taking piano lessons, at least just for this once, and maybe more in the summer. i tried practicing all my old pieces and it hurts to realize how much harder they seem now. but yea... hopefully it wont take THAT long to bring up my performance again. and now i think i'm officially out of ideas on wut else to write, and since this entry's probably long enough already, i guess i'll stop just about... NOW!

05/25: crystal had these free starbucks coupons, and guess who she decided to invite? me and amy! *feels sOo special* ok so when she asked me if i wanted to go (yesterday afternoon) i was busy workin on my LS debate, and i was jus about to go to print out stuff at the FA office (free printing =))... so i told her and amy to go first and i'll catch up after printing my stuff and we should get there at around the same time (i love scooters...) so yea.. i got to starbucks like rite after they got their drinks... and then i got mine too. vanilla bean coffee is soo white! haha.. its really good though. this is like the 2nd time i ever had starbucks. usually i choose the cheaper alternative - Puzzles coffee =). but yea... then at night i went to worship practice and i hafta admit this week's set is um... difficult. partly cuz i dun know a lot of the songs, but also cuz theres a lot of insane, somewhat jazzy chords that i can't really improv with, so i actually had to keep messing up and PRACTICE until i got it. haha... yea so i guess its a good thing to have a challenging worship set, cuz i really really want to learn those chords =). many ppl said if i wanna do well in music im gonna hafta know jazz... and jacob seems very enthusiastic about hooking me up with a jazz teacher. so yea... we'll see how it goes. anyways, today was the LS debate and my group kicked butt. yea... GLOBAL WARMING SUCKS! haha... we had lotsa fun even though i was soo nervous. so yea now its all over, all thats left is three essays due before finals. and i think tonight i'm actually gonna be able to sleep early again!

05/23: Sunday Night Update, it's me Calvin again... thanks for tuning in to find out about my weekend. it was a really awesome weekend, i did a LOT of stuff that wasn't originally planned in my schedule starting wtih friday:

i had NOTHING to do on friday at all... jessica was bored too and wanted to go hang out except she was all the way back at school and i was all the way at home =/. so i was at home playing Underground and talking online with a few peoplez, and rebecca (lee) asked me to go visit her at the KFC cell. and then carol asks if i can send her to church (for KFC) after dinner, and i said ok. then she suggested that i get off the car and say hi to a few people, and i agreed too. and i was welcomed a LOT more than i expected, by both KFC and JOY people... it was a really weird feeling, cuz i left JOY ever since i went to ucla. to be honest, it's really stressful working with so many kids, and even though its a lot of fun, they require more love than i have to offer... and even though college was somewhat an excuse (i wasnt home every friday night anyways), i really didnt think i was able to commit to the cell much longer. but now its been like half a year and i go back and see all the kids, some familiar and others not, and the ones that knew me all remember me and came to talk to me just like they did before i left, and i suddenly felt like i've only been gone for a few weeks. and then mickie (who is already on summer vacation) showed up and said she was gonna help at the cell over the summer, and it was her first time. there were about 40 kids (thats about as many as there could possibly be), and baldwin was all by himself. so suddenly i realized that since i had nothing to do anyways, i might as well stay and help for a while. so we split in two groups and mickie and i took one group while baldwin took the other and we played games, then we came together for worship. and since i was already there, i decided to volunteer myself. and i love playing on the spot without knowing the songs ahead of time, cuz that justifies any messing up that i do =). ok im not gonna go into EVERRY little detail, but basically the longer i stayed, the more i felt like i couldnt just get up and leave in the middle. so i ended up staying until the end when all the kids left. anyways, i was soooo glad to see all the JOY kids again, and i never realized how much i missed them until tonight. especially when i hear them worship... they're sooo into the music and they sing really loud and really beautifully and when i play piano as they sing, its simply impossible for me to not be worshipping God myself. soo... does that mean i'll be re-committing to JOY? so far, probably not, mainly cuz my summer schedule isn't quite settled yet and i dont want to make too many commitments until i know what the summer's gonna look like first. but even though i still feel like i don't have enough love to give, i definitely have more than i did when i left the cell.

anyways... after cell i brought ben and carol home and ben and i played Underground until like 1AM (cuz he was waiting for his mom to pick him up). and then saturday - believe it or not, i didnt have to do ANY math tutoring this week, so even though i slept late last night i got to sleep in as long as i wanted this morning. biggest activity today: carol's VYMA trio recital. it was relaly good.. and i got to see mrs lucy again =). next week i might be taking some lessons again, so i can prepare myslef for any possible chance of auditioning for UCLA's music program. and after the recital i had a haircut and then went to eat at Souplantation with my mom and carol. it was Esther (chen)'s b-day so i tried calling her between all my activities, and she wasnt home =(. and then after dinner i went straight to cell at nina/julia's house. we talked about some stuff going on with our church, and i guess all i have to say now is that i hope people won't be discouraged by the fact that such a large portion of our leadership is leaving. SOLD people should know this very well - for a while we never bothered commiting to serving our cell, even though we knew we could, and the few people who did all the work couldn't take it anymore, and at the end we had to decide whether we want the cell to continue or disband. we chose to try again, and now with everyone's joint effort we're rising once again, much better than before. in a time like this i have to assume the worst and expect an even larger amount of people to leave UCC, mostly based on the idea that a lot of our role models are leaving. this will trickle down to the congregation, and i really won't be surprised if there is a significant drop in attendance. but to be honest, we've been spoiled for too long, and thats why so many of us dont take church seriously. the people who decide to remain at UCC will be forced to play a more important role, and when our numbers rise again, we will be much stronger than we were before, even when all the counselors were there. i can totally see this happening, and it's definitely a good thing. like Sharon preached, we aren't at the "land of milk and honey" yet. so even when people are leaving and it seems like the congregation is falling apart, don't give up hope, and continue to pray and see what YOU can do to contribute to the church, and when we all work hard as one body, the spiritual level of the congregation will finally meet the physical size of our building.

wow... sorry i started preaching there... anyways that was saturday for u. now for sunday - amazingly enough, i did NOT have to play for worship today... at all!! (dun worry, the next wave of chinese worship is starting soon) hehe i got to sleep in and then leave home at around 10, so i got there when the Reality people came out. Tiffany tai was there and i got to tell her how sad i felt last time when she didnt answer my phone call. and we are soooo gonna find time to hang out soon! hehe... and then guess who i saw - Esther!! yup... she finalyl came to church after disappearing for like forever!! hehe... then i talked with nelson about troy and eugene about his new WRX that he's gonna get in a few weeks (no fair!). during Xperience i got to sit by jennifer and priscilla... jennifer gave me this asian melon gum thingy.. it was sOo good!! and priscilla gave me her box and i thought she was being nice and offering me some, and then when i opened it all tha twas inside was her already-chewed piece of gum!! gosh why are people sooo mean to me? and then after service jennifer SOCKED ME! oUch ò.ó hehe then i talked with ken n esther and ken was suddenly in the mood for korean bbq buffet. my first reaction? TOO EXPENSIVE! (typical me... always goin for the cheap food). and then i gave it a second thought and realized i havent gone out to eat with UCC english congregation friends in like over a month, so i thought it was definitely worth the cash. and of course, we made sure Esther got dragged along. the buffet was at the corner of nogales and colima... i never knew it existed until today, and i swear its the BEST PLACE EVER! for eleven bucks i get: unlimited amount of a wide variety of meat for the grill, plus squid and octopus (spicy or non-spicy), white rice, fried rice, mabo tofu and some other common asian dishes, sushi, fried crab and scallop (the scallops were the size of zucchinis), AND ice cream. of course, i was done long before i even considered getting the ice cream, especially since i get it everyday in the dorms anyways =). but yea... i ate soooo much i thought i was gonna die. and i ended up skipping dinner entirely cuz i was so full. hehe... anyways then after eating me ken n esther went outside and talked in the parking lot for a really long time, mostly about church stuff. then ken had to go home so we said bye and i brought esther home (it's on the way to my home anyways), and to my great surprised she asked if i wanted to go inside for a while. it was like sooo amazing to me, cuz most church people barely even talk to her, and now suddenly i get to go to her house =). gosh her house is sooooo nice... its small but has a really nice atmostphere, and a HUGE backyard with realyl nicely done plants and everything. gosh if i live there i would be in the backyard soooooo much. and esther/nancy's room has their own door to the backyard, so if i was there i would go out and watch stars every single night and it would be soooo fun. but anyways... esther gave me a tour of the house, then her mom came back after a lot of work at church, and she didnt even eat lunch yet! so we talked as she was eating, then joshua came out of his room and we talked about how their dad bought an inflatable boat for one person, but he tried putting two people on it and it flipped, so then he bought a bigger one, but when they were fishing he caught a stingray and it stung the boat so they had to quickly row to the shore before it deflated. really really funny story =). and then i went to esthers room to watch this video thingy she was working on.. .its sooo nice! i never knew she was so good at adobe premiere. if u ever have problems with video editing, go talk to esther! hehe... then we looked at some pictures and random stuffs and i decided to go home at like 5. then at home i helepd my mom with some computer stuff and packed while they ate dinner (cuz i obviously wasnt hungry), and now i'm back at school. gosh theres still a lot i feel like saying, but i know this entry is WAY too long already. but of course i'm glad its been such an awesome weekend. and yes i'm definitely going to make esther go to cell/church more often =).

05/18: wouldnt it be weird if u were going to class like any other day, and then suddenly u find out ur gonna see mandy moore at night? hehe yupyup... i was definitely shocked to find out. tonight was the screening of Saved, and after the movie there was a Q&A session with brian dannelly (director/writer), michael urband (co-writer), sandy stern (producer), and mandy moore! jen first told me about it when we were walkin bak after Life Sci, and i checked the CampusEvents website and they actually confirmed it there too, and they said no cameras are allowed (as usual) except disposable ones. and thao called me and said she wanted to go too, and she had a disposible, so she brought that AND her digital. jen and i went to line up at like 6:30 and the line was like WAAY long already, so before they started letting pplz in we went to the front and merged in... so we were liek among the first 5 people to get inside and we saved the whole first row until van mike and thao got there. hehe... i was carrying thao's disposable camera and when i showed the security guard he wouldnt let me in! he kept sayin its not allowed, and i told him that disposable ones are ok, and he had to go and ask some other guy to confirm it, then he let me in (and he forgot to metaldetect me too... hehe). and then by the time thao got in they didnt even check anymore, so she jus walked in with her digital camera. hehe... so of course there were a LOT of people, and after the movie we all stayed there to see the stars. too bad theres no time for autographs or anything... but still, I SAW MANDY MOORE! AT MY SCHOOL! haha...
ok so about Saved... let me make it clear for everyone who hasnt seen it: it's NOT a movie mocking christianity or religion at all. the director even told us afterwards the only thing the movie mocks is 'religious fanaticism', or simply acting 'superchristian' without knowing what u really believe. and i never supposed people like that anyways. most ppl say the movie is good, i guess its safest to say that its simply a good conversation starter. it points out a lot of debatable issues and doesn't really take a firm stand on either side. anyways... enough a bout the movie. afterwards i went to my room to drop off posters, then met van and mike at puzzles and we ate for like a long time. and now im back in my room and i really feel like playing Underground again cuz theres like one more level then i beat the whole thing! hehe wish me luck... byebye!

05/17: at night i had to go scan some stuff at Covel, and i ran into crystal by the door, and she told me she had mint choco chip icecream in her room, so of course i said i would stop by and get some. she decided to jus stay with me while i scanned and then we went up to her room and ate. so here's wut happened: her friends who are on summer vacation already came over earlier today to celebrate her (very belated) birthday, and aside from the ice cream cake, they gave her clothes, a pot of flowers, a toe ring, AND a coach bag. isnt that sooo crazy? anyways, amy suddenly appeared at her room too, and she saw the bag and totally freaked out cuz she wants one too. so while crystal was playin with my scooter in the hallway, i took the bag and hid it under her top bunk pillow, and when she came back she had NO IDEA where to look for it. so me and amy drove her totally crazy for a realli long time, and at the end she FINALLY found it (i wasnt about to tell her were it was, cuz she would have found it when she went to sleep anyways). yea... that was very very fun.

05/16: hello and welcome to this week's edition of Sunday Night Update with calvin! hehe... so my weekend can pretty much be summed up in one word - WOrSHIP. first josh called me and asked if i could go to riverside on sunday and i said ok. then aunt amy asked me to join her team for praise night, and i said ok too. then wilson asked if i could play for reality and xperience. gosh do people love me THAT much? hehe j/k... so of course today was a pretty insane day, starting at 8:00 practicing for wilson's team, then playing for both services, then leaving xperience early to meet with josh's team to go to riverside, then coming back to church to make the last 20 minutes of aunt amy's team practice, then goin home for dinner and pack all my stuff, then goin to church again for prase nite, then goin straight back to school! yupyup that was my sunday. very productive eH? i find it weird how i never get sick of playing for worship, even though i was already about to fall asleep before the praise nite. but yea... now for the rest of my weekend:
saturday - morning was worship practice with wilson, then i came bak for lunch... in the afternoon carol had a few friends over to study math and i stayed home to help, and ken wu came over so i could help him make a website for school... and then at night we went to the big farewell dinner for Sharon. so at last UCC broke its record number of people in one restaurant... we had like 80+ pplz and we reserved the entire place (Big Sky Sushi), and when sharon came in everyone was already seated and we started chanting and cheering and gosh i think we drove the waiters/waitresses insane. but yea it was a lot of fun. food wasnt all THAT good, at least definitely not for 15 bucks, but the fact that we rented ou tthe whole restaurant and everything probably made it worth the price. so anyways, hope sharon liked it too. hehe...

05/14: sooo the quarter's more than halfway over already, and its time to start our second geography project. kinda weird assignment... professor's makin us go to two cemetaries and analyze the cultural geography and landscape stuff. so me jessica crystal n james walked alll the way to the veteran's cemetary (corner of veteran and wilshire), and we couldnt find te entrance, and then we were almost at the 405 freeway already and finally there was a little opening in the gate so we went in... and we took pictures and notes and everything... we met this really really nice guy thats in charge of the cemetery, and he reopened the main office for us after it was closed just so we could get more info about the place. and then it was like 4:30 already so he called the other cemetery for us to see if they will still be open, and then we said bye and walked to the other cemetery and did some analyzign there. and it was like 6 when we finished, and since we were already in westwood, we went to curry house again for dinner =). on the way there i saw a ferrari 456 for the first time ever. its sooooooooo nice! hehe... so about curryhouse: yumyumyum sooooo good... i asked for more rice just like last time, but they forgot to giv it to me for a really long time so they ended up letting me have it for free =).
last nite i was gonna go watch 'in america' but for some reason they suddenly canclled it, and the 9:30 one tonight is going on rite now but its gonna end too late and my mom will be here already. owellz... i actualyl walked there to see if theres any posters, and there werent any, so i jus left. hehe... thats almost as ridiculous as the time when van walked all teh way to the gym, then suddenly decided to head back and eat dinner. hehe... i guess thats all i hafta say for now. another realli busy weekend ahead of me, and u probably know when to expect an update already =)

05/12: o the horror of mass advertising ... there's only one way to fight against it:

05/11: as with all mondays and wendesdays this quarter, i was supposed to lunch with jessica and crystal at rieber(usually). and then suddenly jess called me and said we were goin to in-n-out! hehe... big surprise, but definitely a good thing. so we walked all the way to in-n-out and ate, then went to get ice cream and came back. at night i went to this guys' accountability group in Hedrick (room 666... isnt that weird? hehe). tim invited me during worship practice on monday, and i said i might go... and this week's devotions (from the Purpose-Driven Life) happened to be about unity among believers, and i really felt like its important for me to get more involved in fellowship (IV duznt really count cuz its such a big group and not that personal). also in our group were Jesse and Will... really cool guys (tim is very cool too)... we jus went around and talked and shared about our lives and prayed... it was soooo awesome. maybe i'm gonna start going every week from now on... it's definitely a good place to invest my time =).

05/10: at last, the long-awaited day has come... the free screening of TROY!!! before you get jealous... remember there's hundreds of others (including ucla students) who didnt get to see it either. last thursday the tickets came out at 11:00AM, and before that there was already a line of people along the kerchoff stairs. i went to get mine at 12:15 after life sci class and there was actually a line of people getting the TICKETS! that NEVER happened for any movie before... and u know the scariest thing? at 1:00 the tickets were ALL GONE. only two hours! usually they last a few days... and i only had two tickets and i was on my way down to get a few more when i ran into van and she told me they were already out. i had already expected a big crowd at the movie, but nothing compared to this. and i've been trying to round up all my friends who wanted to go, and wanted to make sure they could get in, except there weren't enough tickets for everyone. so last weekend i decided to have a little fun. see for urself...

05/09: me again... jus got bak from worship practice. actually... jus got bak from the apartment after coming back to rieber then going back and coming back again... cuz i left my phone there so i had to go all the way down veteran and back. but thank God for my JDBug ... the whole trip there and back only took like 15 minutes. its actually a very fun ride, cuz theres a lot of hills, but none too steep to ride up, and down is always really fun. and theres this part where the sidewalk suddenly ends and becomes dirt, so have to do a jump otherwise it would scrape... and the dirt is really bumpy but hard enough to ride and remain stable... gosh i love that part. hehe ok anyways so now im back in ym room and i can finally write about tonight' sowrship practice. or should i call it practice at all? hehe it was the funniest night in my life... we all said/did so many stupid things. our band is now officially called ONIION FLAVA! and yes theres two i's in 'oniion' cuz one particular band member *cough* didn't know how to spell it the right way, so we'll stick with the more unique way. one of these days we should seriou5ly make a behind-the-scenes video of our worship team, and you will not believe how much time we spent fooling around vs. how much time we actually practiced. hehe but its all good.... theres one song that i still dont know cuz i neva heard it before... so i'm jus gonna follow the chords and pray hard! (being on wilson's worship team at UCC kinda helped me develop that skill already) hehe well enough babbling for now... my Beethoven midterm is tomorrow morning and i NEED to study! and if you catch me playing Underground anytime before tomorrow morning, feel free to smack me! hehe ok i'll shut up now byebye!

05/09: two things to write about... first thing: i got need for speed underground!! thanks soo much benben! so obviously you know wut i've been doing in my free time these past few days. hehe...

second thing: last nite a lot of drama happened between some of my friends... even though only a few pplz are directly involved, it definitely impacts everybody else too. i'm not gonna write details here cuz i dun think they want the whole world to know... but i'm mentioning it because last nite a couple of my friends came by my room to seek advice and shelter away from the conflict... and it really surprised me cuz i never expected people to come to me for help. but dun get me wrong, i LOVE to help people whenever i can... if theres anything i can do, dun hesitate to ask... and i'll try my best to help. a lot of issues involved are things i have been through myself, and i want to let you know what i learned from my experiences so you won't make the same mistakes. actually this conflict seems to be part of an ongoing build-up of tension thats been going on for a long time already... and if it settles, i want it to settle completely so everyone will learn something and be at peace again.

05/08: so waddaya know... it's sunday night again... i can sense 'update' in the atmosphere.... hehe soo about this weekend: friday i went to stephenies house again and after math tutoring we talked for a long time =). saturday i got to sleep in cuz i didnt have to do any math tutoring... afternoon i went to my aunt (steph n ben's mom)'s house. not sure if i mentioend this before, but she's coming out with her own CD soon! she spent a LOT of time at the studio and now most of the songs are already finalized. i went to her house to help with some chords for the sheet music book... and i got to here a few of the songs and i LOVE them. there really aren't many chinese worship songs with the same flavor... im not sure when the cd's gonna come out, but im assuming its gonna be within the next couple months... so be on the look for 'clay music' by amy sand-li! hehe alrite enough advertising... so continuing with saturday: 3:00 wnet to church for worship practice with josh... choe arrived at 3:45, and when we told him he was late, he commented he thought practice was 3:30. but even then he's STILL late! hehe so after practice i went home for dinner then went to cellgroup. another great cell meeting... we're starting this prayer partner thingy and i think its working pretty well =). after cell alex and i played PINBALL on albert's computer... gosh i love that game! theres soo omuch more strategy than it seems, and that makes it a lot more fun. and then sunday morning choe called me and invited me to breakfast at mcdonalds! yummy... hehe and then we played for worship. after church i went to a special lunch for mother's day... with my mommy and aunt (and her whole family) and grandma. we went to this japanese seafood buffet... called Onami or sumthin (i cant remember)... it was sooo good! very very expensive ($25) but still worth it, considering the unlimited supply of crab and lobster and sushi and teriyaki and everything. so yea... i stuffed myself quite well, and got bak to church in time for evening service. then i went home and packed and blah blah blah you know the rest. so yea... that's my sunday night update for this week. i have a midterm on tuesday and i havent started studying yet.. so guess i should go do that now!

05/07: wow... i dun hafta go to UCC-R on sunday anymore =). that means i only hafta play for THREE services! grr... haha guess wut... i got an A- on my geography essay! u kno the one that was 8 pages and i had to shrink it down to 5... cant believe i actualyl did well =). today i went to the bathroom before class in Schoenberg and there was this dude standing in front of a urinal trying to open a newspaper... and he finally got it open and then he jus stood there reading for like FOREVER. he wasn't even peeing! i washed my hands and washed my face and rinsed my mouth and everything jus to stall time and by the time i was getting out of the bathroom he was sitll standing there reading the paper! wut da heck... ok that was probably the weirdest entry i ever wrote in a LONG time... or mabye the weirdest one alltogether. is there a weirder one? i cant remember... if u do pleez tell me! hehe ok i'm gonna shut up now byebye!

05/05: *yAwN* guess wut... today i got to sleep in for the first time all quarter! cuz i had no class today =). my geography class (my only wednesday class) got cancelled cuz we have a midterm on friday... it felt soooo weird cuz i had nothing to do at all. all i did was go to the post office and go to the secret place for a super long solotime. and i spent a LOT of time at the computer playin games and chatting and remixing and everything...

o yea i almost forgot... Tiffany Lin called me today!!! hehe we havent talked on teh phone for like FOREVEr. it was soo nice to talk again... hope she will call again soon sometime =). hmm... now im kinda out of ideas on wut else to write. today's finally starting to cool down and it feels sooo nice now with the windows open cuz theres actually wind! haha... on monday we were lookin outside the window during worship practice, and the trees were like perfectly still. and that night i couldnt even sleep cuz it was soo hot in the room... tonight will be sooo nice. can't wait til bedtime. hehe... for now i'll go play Porsche Unleashed =). byebye!

05/04: guess where i went for dinner... Curry house!! gosh it was soooo good! went with crystal jess n james... same gang that took the bus to downtown last time... this time we took the big blue bus down westwood blvd. actually we left the dorms late so we werent sure if we would get to the bus stop on time... and when we were one block away we saw the bus coming... so we ran faaaast and made it =). and then it turned out the second bus we had to take was liek a really short distance, so we jus decided to walk the rest of the way. the plaza with curry house is sooooo azn its not even funny. theres a boba place, a kumon, a nijiya market, and a bunch of familiar names from rowland hts. hehe anyways the curry was SOOO GOOD! i had to get second plate of rice to fininsh all the curry =). yumyum... then we went to get boba but i didnt get one cuz its too expensive and i was too full. then we went to wander around the market and stare at all the exotic azn snacks =). i wish i can own that store so i can eat all i want. hehe then we walked back to teh bus stop and found out theres a different bigbluebus that supposedly takes us all the way up to ackerman (like 3 blocks closer than the other bus), so we took that one instead, and we were the only ppl left on the bus, and it was going up westwood like its supposed to, then it suddenly turned! ayia... so maybe it doesnt go to ackerman after all =(. just like last time we had to take a detour, this time from teh botanical garden place all the way back. its ok though... more exercise for all of us. so we cut through the CS building and when we went up the stairs to the 2nd floor, there was a door with a really scary face (a picture) with red eyes looking ou tthe window. jessica saw it and screamed soooooo loud... and that scared the crap outta me too. so we were talkin about it like the whole way back. seriou5ly it was really really scary... im surprised nobody got a heart attack and sued the person yet. hehe...

so at last we make it back to the dorms and say bye to james and crystal when they went in sproul... then me and jessica wnet to get stuff at puzzles and we stopped outside rieber to talk for a long time. and then the weirdest thing happened... jessica suddenly sees Felicia (her friend from walnut, who i met in the summer at ken wu's b-day party) appear out of nowhere... all three of us were totally shocked to see each other... and felicia explained that even though shes supposed to be studying for finals (her school gets out next week... no fair), she decided to visit ucla instead. and she was waiting for her friend who showed up a few minutes later... and even thoughg we didnt have much time to talk, i swear he looked very fammiliar. it turned out he was brian park, also from walnut, but also my friend from middle school!! gosh it was lik ethe weirdest thing ever... random people that all know each other suddenly showing up all over the place. but yea... after they all left i went back to puzzles to jack a coffee so i can fridge it and enjoy it tomorrow when its freakin hot. hehe... so that was my long and exciting day. now its time for bed... good nite!

05/03: back from IV worship practice... this week is shannon's turn to lead! hehe ok here's a little secret about our worship team... we've been trying to come up with a name for ourselves for a long time, and either nobody has any ideas or we start comin up with the weirdest things. how about 'onion flava'? haha... yea i kno sooooo random. we were gonna call oursleves the United Nations cuz of the huge diversity in our band. tim alone represents like all of east asia... he's korean japanese chinese AND filipino! and steve's family traces all the way back to the original colonies... isnt that cool? hehe so yea... if u have any ideas for a good band name, let us know! hehe =)

05/02: its chinese worship team season again... i'm played for my aunt's team today and im playin for josh next week... and of course both teams have two morningg services, one evening services, plus practice times... and next week i have riverside too... so i'll be doing FOUR services back to back. *dies* but of course i alwyas have fun playin for worship =). i got to meet jacob today... he played bass for aunt amys team and hes the studio/mixing person for her new CD coming out soon... so of course we had a lot of fun talking. he said he knows the guy that makes arrangements for michael w. smith and he also met jay chou's producer before... and we talked about composition and remixing and everything... finally someone understands why i'm so crazy about my little wannabe studio =). and then when i was playin around before worship he told me i sound like david benoit... wut a surprise... i actually met david a few times before and we got to perform at a few concerts together. this was back in the good old JOC days... but still when i told jacob i performed with david he thought i was jokin at first... soo funny!

ok anyways... so heres a summary of the weekend. friday: emily couldnt go to the christian club party at DBHS, but i went anyways. and i saw my cousins steph n ben, who totally didnt expect me there. and i got to meet a lot of cool people and get free food and join their games and everything. and wilson came too with his brand new bike and he tried riding down the amphitheater steps... and everyone noticed him only after hearing loud clashing metal comin down the steps very fast. not smart... luckily he didnt fall and hurt himself. sOo i stayed there until the party ended, then went home for dinner. its the last friday of the month so its the last tiem my moms cellgroup is meetin at my house... of cours ei made sure i stayed home so stephenie could come and chill all night. she got OWNED in big two!! haha it was so much ffun and then we went outside to talk like last week... i got to tell her my Story (u kno which one im talkin about rite?) but didnt finish yet. hopefully next time. hehe ok and then saturday i went to catch insects with catherine. gosh i didnt think i would ever go bug-catching again but still i love it so i volunteered to take her since her project is due this friday. so we went to a couple parks and i hiked all the way up the mountain and it was soooo pretty! and at the top there was this really weird plant... looks like a mix between a pumpkin and an orange... hopefully its not poison =/... o and i caught a LIZARD! haha he was such an idiot... i caught him with the insect net and he jumped right in.. and then i held him in the air and tossed him... soo funny! and yes we did catch some insects, though not that many, cuz most of the bugs she already has.

ok mentioning the bug project... in case any troy freshmen read this, here's my advice for you (based on experience)... (1) don't worry about finding rare bugs... get as much common ones as possible, even beetles and ants and everything. have them pinned and labeled like u would if ur actually using them for ur project.. . (2) remember, the insect collection project is not biology.. it's all about business. on the last few days before the project is due, some idiots will suddenly realize they don't have enough insects at all, regarldess of rare or not... and they'll be willing to trade you for wutever u need. if an ant seems too cheap, give them a small package, maybe ant + grasshopper + beetle or sumthin lik ethat. and if that really doesn't work, SELL ur bugs. seriously... people are desperate. i had a sign on my backpack with a list of bugs for sale and the price (usually $1 each).. and i made $30 in one day. and wutever bug u need, im sure someone will give it to u if u offer them $10 for it. and wut if more than one person wants ur insect? AUCTION TIME! highest bidder gets it. and seriou5ly the teachers dun mind... someone auctioned a bug in front of the classroom and got $10 for it! hehe if u have any more questions about the project, feel free to bug me for advice.

anyways, then saturday night went to cellgroup... we played MAO and it turned ou tsooooo crazy and i was like totally lost. and then i had like the worst allergy attack of my life probably cuz of all the bugcatching stuff... i sneezed so much my back hurted... i thought i was gonna die or sumthin. guess it's pointless to try and stay off medication... and of course i needed to sleep well cuz i had toget to church at 7:15 this morning for worship practice! hehe today's sechedule seems pretty self-explanitory. played for aunt amy's team three services... and after going to xperience i got to chill with kelley for a while... she duznt go to church much nowadays so i decided to sacrifice my lunchtime. and then i practiced with josh's team in the afternoon, then when i got hungry i went to get a slurpee. then i came back and found choe and kevin in the hall ennjoying the A/C. so i stayed with them... and then they decided to go to 7-eleven too! haha why didnt they tell me earlier!? owellz so i went again (hEy... i ggot a ride in choe's bimmer... so of course i went... hehe). then i got bak jus in time for evening service, and then i went home and pacekd and blah blah blah and *pOoF* i'm back at school! haha yea i kno it seems like i ALWAYS update sunday nights. i guess i'm always in an updating mood when i return to school. so anyways... congratz if u read all of that jibberish, cuz u finally made it to the end. and now here's the part where i shut up! hehe *shuts up*