08/30: yesterday at church my moms friend gave her two FREE TICKETS for FORMULA D (car show and drift race)... but nobody told me the race was also yesterday. so owellz... i sOo wanted to go though... n i told benben about it and he went crazy too. n then i was readin kylies xanga n it said she was gonna go too! gRr if only i got those tix earlier... anyways last nite eve was tellin me about her modeling training thingy... n she was teaching me professional crunches. i sUck!! haha ish ok i'll start workin hard n maybe by this time next year i'll have a sixpack! hahaha ok anyways i'll shut up now

08/29: *yAWn* sooo tired!! haha im prolly gonna sleep early tonite (even tho i dun have school tomorrow unlike some poor pplz *cough*diamondbar haha)... so um yesterday was the last day of seminar... went to pueblo burger with steph for lunch. as usual i got way more food than i could finish. hehe anyways im sOo sad that the seminar is over... the past week was soo eventful but also soo short. in a way i guess the seminar feels kinda like a retreat, except instead of being isolated from the world, i'm still a part of it at the same time. i do the same things i do everyday... sleep at home, hang out with friends, drive my car, go to work, etc... and then mon-thurs every night i learn soooo much about who God is and who i am in relation to him. and then friday-saturday i spend the entire day getting educated even more. and of course, just like last year i made friends and strenghtened friendships through the seminar. i learned sooo much not only from the videos, but from my interaction with my seminar friends. some cool quotes i learned: "good things are enemies of the best things". "love can always wait to give". "to have the right friends, you must be willing to have the right enemies". oHh and i luv this one: "if you can't fall asleep at night, don't count sheep, talk to the shepherd!" hahaha yupyup i think after school starts i'll be using the semnar notebook as a devotional, along with the bible verses and passages that it quotes. i think reading 'the purpose-driven life' twice really opened my heart to accept what bill gothard had to teach... so now it means so much more to me than it did last year. i really feel like i should vow to doing short bible study every day... and thanks to pplz already keeping me accountable =).

sOo anyways last nite after seminar i went to the LUAU! hehe i got to laugh at all the pplz that didnt have a parkingspace (cuz the seminar was still going on when it started)... cuz i had a space only cuz i got there at 9:30AM (luau was at 6PM. haha). luau dinner food was great =). me joseph n priscilla helped our table win 2nd place on icebreaker so were the 2nd table to eat. and when i finished the last table was still waiting for theirs. haha but it was fair cuz they got dessert first. o and u kno wut sucks? eve didnt go!! cuz she was at some supermodel training thingy... pSh betta not forget me when u get famous okee? haha then the cell theatre thingy... SNLs programs were soo nice! (i didnt even kno wut its about until i watched it last nite). as usual SOLDs was all last second... but it turned out well =). good job kelley on the editing. hehe anyways then afterwards we jus chilled til like 11:30 then i came home. then at 1:30 i was about to go to sleep then i suddenly remembered i was supposed to memorize romans 6. haha... yea i kno the seminar is pretty demanding. but its for a good cause =). so i worked my way to the bookshelf and reached my bible and started memorizing. so that was my 5 minutes of bible study for yesterday. haha... so yea if u ever call me and run out of things to say, jus ask 'so did u do bible study today?' and if i say no then make me feel REALLY bad! haha... ok anyways.. now moving on to today.

got to church at 9... steph n jen actually came! haha... n u kno wuts funny? they were both wearing like all pink! and they didnt plan it. hehe we listned to jay chou n chilled in the classroom... oHh and before i forget, i saw jacob today!!! finally =). and he got me this special brush to dust my cars. i alway thought toilet paper was ok, then when he saw me do that last time he was like about to cry... so now he got me a real brush =). hehe thanks soo much!

anyways after church was claymusic practice again. so we were doing the 'glory to god' song (the techno one, for those of u who heard the cd)... and guess wut my aunt busts out... glowsticks! haha... gOsh if we can get it to work right, its gonna be soooo cool. turh off the lights and *bOOm* there's a rave at UCC! hahaha anyways yea that was a lot of fun even tho i was tired as heck. o and i didnt have lunch, and carol didnt either, and it was like 5 when we left church, so my mom brought us to lollicup. yupyup.. bObA! =) bought dinner n came home to eat. and then here i am writing this entry. hehe ok theres a lot more to say but i'll save that til next time cuz im soo tired n i wanna sleep!

08/27: moms friends came over for lunch... so she cooked WHITE RICE. and a bunch of other stuff of course, but i havent had homecooked white rice in like um... a year? haha ok anyways afternoon jus stayed in my room n played piano. o yea jacob finalyl came back from taiwan! =) hope we'll get to meet soon... and jackie came back too n she took like all these professional fob pictures... it barely looks like her anymore! o and steph (lin) called cuz she was at a park with a bunch of lil kids n bored to death. and my mom was on the phone, so i had to use my cell, so i decided to bike up to the top of the hill to get reception (hey... i need the exercise ok? haha) so i was standing in the hot sun, and she was standing in the hot sun too. haha ok anyways seminar last nite was great as usual... last nites was opent ot eh public so betty brought wayne =). breaktime me alex steph n esther went to 7-eleven (finaLLy!! havent gone this year yet!)... got a huge slurpee to keep us busy after the break. oHh and esther has this stack of photos in her binder and everytime she takes out the binder, it falls all over the floor. she did that like... three times last nite? haha... oH and betty fell asleep with her head down in front, then she suddenly woke up n hit the chair in front of her really loud! hahaha oH and bill gothard's chalk drawing was sooo pretty! i wanna buy a copy of it!! haha anyways then i got home n started workin on more piano stuff (theres a new claymusic song we wanna use for the 9/12 concert... and guess whos tryin to do the arrangement? *wink*)... then steph called me again but she had to call secretly so she whispered and at first i was like 'hello? HELLO!?' n was jus about to jump to the next step (fine dun talk to me... bye!) then i heard her like realli realli soft whispering. so we whispertalked for like a long time. then i went 2 sleep.

today - ALL-DAY seminar!! *yAWn* woke up at 8:30, had breakfast (and coffee) then went to church. stayed there for the next 11 hours. haha it was pretty insane... went with steph to mcdonalds for lunch (everybody else either had to leave, didnt come yet, ate with their parents, or disappeared). dinnerbreak everybody went to pueblo burger n 7-eleven and we got chili fries n slurpee =). but its only 40 minuts... way too short! tomorrows is longer though =). anyways bill gothard did another chalk talk =). gOsh its too pretty!! i really really want one now. hehe oH and u kno wut sucks? tomorrow allys havin a party at her house... actually i'm invited too (i was soo happy when i found out... cuz i get sooo happy when i only meet someone once n they actualyl wanna see me again), except i dun wanna miss seminar (i missed most of saturday last year too...). but the partys still gonna go on, so its gonna steal esther n betty =/ but the good thing? esther said shes gonna try her best to go to luau (yes... dun think i mentioned it but the annual luau is TOMORROW NIGHT! 6:00PM at church! lemme kno if ur coming =) )... and if she comes then she mite bring some of the party pplz over too. n then sunday shes bringin ally to church! (yaay!) hehe...

soo i got home at like... 8:30? haha ate late-nite dinner (leftover from yesterday)... madelyns mommy came over earlier today n helped us get new blinds. and she hole-punched mine too (yes i know.. .i SITLL didnt finish puttin them up). so finally i put them up now. and at first it was STILL too long.. by like 0.0000001 of an inch. so i was like screw those minimum wage home depot pplz n i jus cut it myself. pShh... looks a bit messy but if i bring it back they're prolly gonna mess up again. owellz at lesat it looks pretty good n its workin now. oH and downstairs is sooo pretty! the new blinds are awesome... u gotta come see it sometime! haha ok anyways last thing before i shut up - im not goin to sanfrancisco anymore... lotsa random reasons but basically im going jus to play keys for claymusic, and everyone else is gonna jus sing with soundtrack, and plus their live soundsystem sucks. and if i go i mite hafta pay registration otherwise i dun get food. so i decided not to go. so next weekend i'll be free still... anyone wanna go anywhere/do anything? come on i kno u all wnana see me one last time before school starts! haha j/k but yea if u want lemme kno okee? and come to luau tomorrow! okee i'll shutup now byebye!

08/25: wow jus got bak from a realli fun day/night. but first a quick recap of yesterday... mostly a day of work... math tutoring @ 2, then straight to yamaha at 4:30, then back home for dinner, then seminar time. again... learned sooo much at the seminar. i think i figured out why i like it so much... last year when i went i didnt really pay attention (and i jus copied the notes from my friends)... but over the last year i actually spent a lot of time thinking about my faith and my lifestyle, and even though i seemed to have forgotten everything i learned last year, apparently my new outlook on life is almost identical to what bill gothard is teaching. so when im at the seminar i feel like i'm simply making myself stronger. and of course, i luv it when i get to share my insights with people so i can help them. steph (lin) imed me for the first time last nite n we talked about a lot of stuff until like 2:30 in the morning. great conversations... prolly one of the best i ever had. hehe ok anyways now about today.

morning i went shopping with my mom n carol... got new jeans n shorts... its definitely gonna come in handy at school =). then we had lunch at hong kong plaza... n i ran into rebecca (chen)! wow... didnt think i would see her anytime soon. but its definitely a good thing =). ok anyways then at 2 i went to yamaha for more tutoring. (these few weeks are the best time of the year for piano tutors like me... cuz everyone's coming back from vacations and they need make-up lessons and i'm the one in charge of most of the make-ups =) ). the only problem? i found out yesterday that the school wasnt gonna open until 4 today, but karen was nice enough to offer to let me borrow her key. so that saved me the work of having to call my student last minute to change a time (i really hate last minute changes... so i would do wutever i can to avoid making others hafta go thru the same trouble). the bad part is that karen duznt get to yamaha until 4, so i hafta wait there (i finish at 2:30) until she comes. not that i was actually bored tho, cuz i called steph (lin) n we talked the whole two hours. actually i ended up chillin at yamaha til almost 5... then went to the next big even ttoday =)

soo catherine (from SOLD) is goin to minnesota (for college) on saturday so she wont be able to see any cellgroup friends until thanksgiving break. (*sniff*...) so of course, we couldnt just let her leave without a nice goodbye. i did hafta sacrifice half of the seminar, but then again even before i decided to attend seminar i already figured that sometime this week our cellgroup was gonna do something together with catherine (so its not really a last second decision... hehe). sOo i went to catherine n debra (n christine... i didtn even knwo they had another sister until today!)'s house at 5 (ON TIME, unlike SOME pplz *cOugH* haha). they got this new fishtank and i was the first guest to see it =). this one huge fish was supposed to eat the little ones! poor fishies! ok anyways then steven n andy came and we went to speedzone for golf. remember like 50 billion years ago that one time i was at speedzone with like 20 pplz and we ALL had $5 off coupons? and then the cashier person was all pissed cuz they made like no money from us. haha... steven actually still had two more of them! and they still accepted it! =) ok so about minigolfing... one of my hits almost went to the racetrack (again)... but luckily me n andy saved it. on the other hand, catherine's ball went straight for the pond, and when we tried to save it it was too late. (and in case u were wondering, i did capture these wonderful moments with my camera, which means u can expect some new pics soon =) ). o and everytime i collided with another ball, its ALWAYS the yellow ball (christine's)!! its jus always in my way! haha j/k oHh and as usual my luck is soo bad and i keep on missing so much. (pSh jus cuz my ball was black...) haha ok anyways then we finished golfing and wnet bak to catherines house for yummy spaghetti dinner. everyone had fun makin fun of her n debra. hehe anyways then i thought its about time i start heading over to church so i said byebye n left, hoping they would all still be there when i finished at 10 (i said i woudl call when i get out).

at churcH: i was like soo late its not even funni, but luckily melody winnie n stephanie had an empty seat by them... jus for me! haha j/k i doubt they saved it intentionally but i took it anyways =). then afterwards i chilled with alex until he had to leave. then i called catherine as promised... they were watchin a movie and it was jus about to end, so if i went it would prolly be too late. so i said all the 'keep in touch's and 'good luck in college's then we said byebye. *sniFf* so i started driving home, a little sad but still very satisfied already. then suddenly catherine calls me again n says that andy n steven decided to stay after the movie to play guesstures. so i was soo happy n i went back to her house n we played for like another hour. gOsh i suck at that game... it was guys vs gurls and at the end we tied. actually no, GUYS WON!! seriou5ly we so did! they didnt set the timer all the way and that distracted mE! haha ish ok though we all had fun n thats good enough. o and on the last round i had a nice weapon that made catherine get a zero (hehe) - my camera! i havent looked at hte pics on the computer yet, but now that im done writing thats wut im gonna go do. i think they turned out well... hopefully... and of course they'll all be online soon, probably within the next couple days. or maybe i shoudl wiat til after cahterine leaves so shes gonna be too far away to kill me. haha dun worry it cant be THAT bad. hehe ok anyways i'll shut up now... byebye!

08/24: sorry... there was a lil problem with the beach pics page - i forgot to upload the folder =/ haha thanx amanda for notifying me... now it's working perfectly! =). soo um... heres a quick enttry for yesterday and today: church was great... it actually feels weird to be at church and NOT have to play for worship in either congregation. so during first service i jus chilled... and SOME PPL *cOuGH* didnt show up to keep me company... haha j//k ish ok i still luv u =) talked with benben steph lin n tiff tai until they went to reality... then i went downstairs n saw kevin - he jus got bak from taiwan! i was jus sittin there by myself at first then i see this really familiar blue solara coming in the parkinglot n i was thinkin 'gosh that soo looks like kevin's car (cuz he modified the grille and intakes), but it was so much louder than last time i saw it. and then a few minutes later kevin showed up n told me he took off the muffler. haha... jus hope no cops ever drive right behind him. so we talked til xperience, then steph n jen finally shows up! hehe so we went in for service.

i had claymusic practice as usual and before that i decided to go where i always hang out by myself - the sanctuary... then i opened the door n heard someone already playin piano in the dark so i felt bad for interrupting and left... then i heard footsteps realli loud and then someone slams the door open and call my name... its karen! haha she n kelley were in there. guess im not da only one that plays music in the dark =). so yea... i joined them for a while then went downstairs for practice. now that josh is back (from taiwan) hes gotta learn all the songs too... cuz were supposed to eventually switch off... like i play for one concert and he plays for another, etc. n then everyone was talkin about how to make the concert better, and guess wut eventually came into the picture... GLOWSTICKS. haha... (hey, there is a techno song remember?) so that brings us to today - went downtown shopping with my mom, carol, steph, n her mom. and of course we got glowsticks. rite now we're debating over whether or not to get more to give to the audience (in case all this sounds very calvinish, most of these were my ideas. and yes i got them from the jay chou concert). o by the way new jay chou cd is great (thanks steph (liang)!!). after shopping we stopped for boba =). 3bpw (bobas per week) so far... hehe...

some of u mite remmeber last year's summer for me kicked off with a week of the "basic life principles" seminar. well now its happening again, and it started today. so many of my friends went - i saw steph (lin) when i first got there, then esther, then madelyn, then winnie n melody... then just as i was wonderin 'where are all the guys?' alex appeared =). hehe o and betty didnt go! *crying* her mom had to work extra late or sumthin... but they better go tomorrow! during the 15min break (aka '15-minute 7eleven run... remember last year? hehe) i was walkin n talkin wit esther n steph but we didnt have time for 7eleven so we walked out to the street and went in a huge circle around the church then came back the same door we exited. haha... it was fun though... as far as i can remember, even though i've been going to UCC since 2nd grade, i've only walked on that sidewalk ONCE. and that was like in middle school.

ok so about the seminar itself (sorry i kno this is gettin long... i'll shut up after this... promise!)... i know a lot of u probably heard some pretty crazy stuff about it. and yes i admit a week of staring at a video screen staring at the same guy talk (and he wears the same thing every day) is pretty crazy. those of u who were there last year probably remember frantically taking notes the whole time. at least thats wut i did... so this year i jus brought my old workbook and listened and wrote only what i felt like i needed to write. and trust me the seminar is SOO MUCH BETTER the second time. this week is gonna be great... and im gonna have so much stuff to think about. if i cant sleep well tonight, u know wuts keepin me up...

08/23: behind every good story there is some kind of motivation. my life is simply a huge collection of stories (some long and others short) woven together, some which have already ended, and others which are yet to begin. many of these stories are hidden among the more prominent events in life, and the only way i discovered them was through journals, which i have two of. the first dates back to almost three years ago, when some events that took place at school prompted me to go on a one-month break from chatting on AIM (which i did every day), during which i used my homepage as the only means of updating my friends with what's been going on in my life. unexpectedly, after a month passed i realized that i had discovered the perfect solution to my problem of how to make a meaningful 'main' page for my site. from that point on the journal was updated regularly, with the most recent entry being the one you're reading now.

my second journal, which i began about three months after the first, was born after i realized i was about to undergo my life's first dramatic and emotional story involving my friends. this was a personal journal where i wrote about not only the actual events of the story, but my feelings towards people. almost two years passed, and as i allowed the story to unfold itself before my eyes, playing only the role of a scribe, the story which began as a tragedy evolved into one of my life's most beautiful love stories. then after realizing that the journal had fulfilled its purpose already, i wrote in it for the last time. not only did the story come to a most satisfying end, but i also learned to express my emotions and feelings through words.

at that point my life was at peace once again, with no drama other than my struggles with God. i decided to begin a new life of "no secrets", having already understood the power of putting my feelings into words, and knowing that revealing the ups and downs of my life can only serve to help others learn from my mistakes. while it seemed logical for everyone to have their own secrets, my only secrets were "personal" things, meaning that even though i didn't post them for public view (usually for a good cause), i still shared them with my closest friends so they could give advice and prayer, because a life with secrets is simply one trapped in fear, in need of help and healing. and so my homepage journal once again became the only written record of my life, except i began to write not only about the fun times i have with my friends, but all of my feelings, both good and bad. i know that when i look back at this site in the future, i will be able to discover even more stories, not only those told for entertainment, but those filled with meaning.

i often ask myself why i was so determined to purchase a domain and website , after figuring that most people probably won't bother taking the time to read my insanely long journal entries. then i remembered when i first got my Geocities account, i used to thank God for helping me make my site, and i prayed that it could be used for his glory. five years passed, and despite how much the site has grown, it really hasn't accomplished much other than glorifying myself. even though i am the one compiling this library full of my stories, God is the author of every one of these stories, and he deserves much more than i have given him.

of course, i also want to thank everyone that has ever visited my site, left comments in my guestbook, or encouraged me about this site, because it was through these things that i felt motivated to keep this site growing through the years. i must admit that when all my friends started getting xangas and livejournals, i really wanted one too, except i knew that two journals with the same purpose would eventually conflict with each other. so i held on firmly to what i already had, and as a result my site has become something that very few people my age have - a public account of the last three years of my life, told through both words and pictures. and for something so rare and so precious, i was definitely willing to provide a bigger place for it to continue growing.

owning a domain is something i would have never ever dreamed of when i first made a homepage, and even now that it's finally up and running, i'm not quite sure exactly where it will lead. this site itself has become a story, and like all the other great stories in my life, i will let God write it, as well as all the stories contained within it, according to his will. i wish you all can understand that even though much of this site is devoted to simple entertainment, the very essence of it is the celebration of my life - the greatest and most undeserved gift that God has given me.

now that you're here, i hope you enjoy the changes i made to the old (geocities) site, and of course, don't forget to check out all the new pictures! o and for your information, right now i'm still experimenting with how much bandwith this site will actually consume, and to prevent exceeding the limit, some of the pictures (mostly the old ones) are still in their original geocities accounts. (you'll know which ones they are when those annoying pop-up ads come out. but hey, at least everything else is nice and clean now!) and of course, it would be very nice for you to leave a note in my guestbook so i'll know you stopped by! =)

08/22: 3 more hours... =)

08/21: me again... i jus got the newest Autoweek in the mail today and the more i read it the more i think i should write about it. new mercedes A-class is sooo nice. i dun like the grille, but everything else is soo nice. and the new ford GR-1 concept is BEAUTIFUL... if i wasn't asian, that would be my dream car. ford hasnt made something so beautiful in the longest time, and if they dun put it to production, they're stupid. haha...

*turns page* hmm.. new bimmer 3-series. so the car itself is still disguised, but apprently bmw already made a german ad for the car (with actual photos), and somehow it got in public hands, and now its ALL OVER THE INTERNET. haha... sucks for them =). the car's actually not bad compared to the Bangle's other models. still kinda weird (why the x3's headlights??) but much more conservative =).

okee... *turns page again* so mercedes benz wants to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the G-class (for those of u who dun know wut it its... its a huge SUV designed originally for german military... kinda like hummers). and guess wut they did to celebrate? *drumroll...* introducing the new AMG G55 with SUPERCHARGED engine and SIDE EXHAUST. a 5600-pound metal box that can do 0 to 60 in 5.5 seconds. top speed? A WHOPPING 130 MPH. 10 miles faster than my 14-year-old nissan pathfinder. and yes they're actually gonna sell this thing. price? OVER ONE HUNDRED GRAND. last time i checked, that money can get me a corvette AND a hummer. or if i wanna be really azn, i can get half a dozen honda civics, then start saving more money and supe them up one by one.

anyways... *turns page one last time* someone just auctioned off a jaguar xj220... *siGh* even tho its 10 yrs old i still think its one of the most beautiful cars ever made... i dun care if it duznt have a v12 or anything... if i had an extra 200 grand then it is soo mine! hehe...

and on the other side of the page - autoweek staff got really bored and decided to test-drive the new FISHER PRICE "GT RACER". hmm.... 'ages 3 and up' eH? well check out wut these adults did - (copied from page 24) "that's right, the office. we set up an oval course that looks downright Indy-like. Four corners through the cube farm match The Speedway's 2.5 miles almost exactly. Just don't hit the copy machine at Turn Two." hmm... and you thought i was immature!? how about this: they set a lap record so fast that racing expert danny panoz couldn't beat it. if i ever work in an office, that's where im gonna be. and hopefully by then i'll have an extra $200 gift certificate for Toys R Us. =)

08/21: wOw.. very interesting day. 10:00AM went to church to work on SOLD's luau video. it's actually really cool... i heard how the plot works n it sounds really interesting. we did a lot of filming in the sanctuary today... it was soo fun watching nina julia digimon n chris goin crazy on the stage like rock stars. hehe so yea, if u wanna see it on tape, come to the luau next saturday (week from today)! as expected, we went out 2 eat afterwards. we decided to go to the boat (in diamond plaza) but then nina julia n chris went to pick up some friend first, and so i brought christine nadine kelley n karen there first. actually kelley n karen werent gonna go at first, except it turned out their mom was at life plaza gettin a cellphone plan thingy... so we all went to chill at the lil gift shop place at life. and of course i was REALLY tempted by the buy-one-get-one-free boba offer... but i decided to forget about it and save my money. and guess wut... a few minutes later kelley n karens mom offered to buy me a drink! that was TOTALLY unexpected. n then it was really funny.. cuz they have this buy one get one free thing going on, but it turned out all four of us wanted different drinks. so the waiter dude was like soo confused. and we were gonna jus get 4 different drinks, but then i was like 'ok so if we're paying for it why not jus get the free one too? we're azn rite?' haha... so we ended up with EIGHT freakin drinks - two bobas, two peach teas, two canteloupe juices, and two taro drinks. oH and i went with kelley to look at the free prizes in the gift shop, while karen was watching all the drinks. so she was jus sittin at this huge table by herself with 23409823 drinks. hahaha gOsh where's my camera when i need it? so then me n kelley both got this cool teapot thingy. and while i was exchanging my free points for the teapot someone called my name n i turned around n see eve! haha... another totally unexpected thing. her mom was doin hair stuff so she was jus chillin there looking at chinese cds that she cant read. (i cant either... haha). and i was lucky enough to be mentioned in her LJ, so now she can feel special on my site too =). o and i kno this is random, but while we were waiting for the drinks, karen ran into a pole. TWICE. it was yellow too... i think they painted it jus so people like her would notice it. but guess that plan failed. hehe...

so where was christine n nadine this whhole time? they bought their own drinks right when we got there, and eventually went to meet nina n everyone else at the boat... WITHOUT ME! haha... i didnt even kno they were all there until nina called me, then i asked her to order for me first... then i said bye to eve then thanked kelleys mom for the drink then said byebye n left lifeplaza. so i walked out with that free teapot thing, plus two bobas AND an extra taro tea that they didnt want. and i offered them to everoyne at the boat too but nobody wanted it, so i brought it all home. so anyways... lunch was great. my food came rite when i arrived =). and chris was playin with his straw in the cup but he wasnt watching his cup so it tipped over- MY DIRECTION! haha... lucky it was only ice =). o and that friend that they went to pick up... apparently he/she/it never showed up. i didnt realize that until after i left, so for now it remains a mystery. haha then after lunch they all wnet to cue for pics, but i had to go cuz it was like 3 and i had other stuff planned...

wut stuff? *drumroll...* the video shoot for the newest 'listen to me' video! this ones about my aunt and how she started clayMusic... n i was so glad they recruited me this time cuz i really want a chance to reedeem myself after the last three episodes that i was in (my family testimony (two parts) and last year's english summer events one). soo many people see me and they tell me i sound/look too nervous. and i think i talked WAY too fast. last time they showed the summerevents one i didnt' even know, so then eve was like 'hey mom saw u on tv' i was like 'wutda heck!?' haha... n then that night krystin told me that her GRANDMA was watching the program in the hospital n then her mom saw it and shes like 'isnt that calvin?' (she still rememberd me from disneyland over a year ago! *feels remembered* hehe) so yea... im pretty sure today's recording is a LOT better. improved chinese, talked slower, didnt look as nervous/serious. hehe...

so then at 6 i left to go to SNL... really really great cell meeting. i'm starting to get addicted to wilson's sermons =). and then sharing time was great too. o and me wilson n mark were talking in the big hallway where its all dark... except the light inside the girls bathroom. so alicia was going to the bathroom and she opened the door, and at the exact same time alli was coming OUT of the bathroom and she opened the door, and they SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF EACH OTHER. sooooooo funny!!!! hahaha ok anyways then afterwards some ppl wnet bowling (they're still there now.. prolly jus started) but i went home cuz i waas tired (didnt sleep too well the past few days). so yea... hopefully i can sleep early today and actually fALL asleep instead of jus lying in bed and too hyper to sleep. haha... and no i didnt have any caffeine! (except those bobas... but that was like 7 hours ago!) haha ok anyways i didnt eat dinner yet so im jus gonna grab a little food to stuff myself with. byebye!

08/20: forgot to mention one thing in the last entry... wednesday 7PM i was goin home from yamaha and i was lookin in my rearview mirror n i see this camry goin really fast n i was thinkin 'hmm is he THAT desperate to pass me? am i that slow?' n then there was a redlight so i was thinkin 'muahaha he cant pass me' then he pulls up next to me and honks and i was like 'wutdafeck??' then i look over n realize it's alex wang!! he was only tryin 2 say hi! hahaha...

so anyways guess were i went this morning - emily's house! well more like noon... but close enough =) i went to help her with homework for like 2 n a half hours. haha... yea yea i kno i seem to enjoy the weirdest ways to hang out with friends... but ish ok, cuz with ppl i dun get to see very often it duznt realli matter wut were doin.. i still consider it hangin out. hehe... o and i put up an away msg on emilys comp sayin she was smoking weed... and all these ppl IMed her n laughed... hehe so we spent the whole time talking n eating (yummy rice) while drawing coloring n labeling maps of the US. gOsh WHY are there so many freakin states in the east coast?? they shoudl even it out so it's easier to label. o and at one point emily was like 'wait... theres only 50 states? dont they keep adding more? i thought there were 53!'. hMm... *no comment* haha o and she gave me this yummy azn drink... its called 'super supah' or usmthin like that... sOo good! hehe... ok anyways thats all for now... byebye!

08/19: lotsa random stuff to say... i was on my way to yamaha earlier today, and i made a turn out of my neighborhood and guess wut i saw... a freakin black BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT. honestly i didnt like the way it looks in pictures, but seeing the real thing on the street is like WOW... who knew that someone in my city would have an extra 160 grand lying around? hehe...

tuesday nite i was playin tnet but i kept losing, so i asked kylie to play pool hoping it would increase my chances of winning at least a little. turns out i never lost as badly before... freakin 8ball hates me. haha... so on the last game (cuz i already told her i was goin to sleep afterwards) i only had the 8ball left, and it was like perfect aim. kylie had to hit her last ball, and then hit the 8ball to win. and it was my turn, so basically i won rite? so i took my shot. the 8ball missed the hole by like one pixel... then it bounced back across the table and collided with kylie's last ball. and HER BALL WENT IN THE HOLE. and then the 8ball went a different direction and fell in a hole too - THE WRONG ONE. so i helped kylie get her last ball in, AND i mademyself lose. sumthin is REALLY wrong with that picture. haha... ok anyways enough about pool

yesterday i spent the morning washing windows before putting up the blinds. now my windows are like sooo shiny n clean! *soo happy* hehe.. then afternoon i went to rowland high to visit the choir pplz after they finished choircamp. so i got to see esther n kat =). and i also met esther's overcaffinated friend ally. shes gonna be in the same choir (a capella) as carol next year, so hopefully they'll be good friends. who knows... maybe carol's gonna end up that hyper too? *scared* hehe

ok now last but not least - the NEW SITE. this afternoon i figured out how to work ftp (yea i kno im stupid, its about time i learn). now everything is going as planned. just a few more days to go, then it's all done...

08/17: yea yea i know you guys are all desperately waiting for the new site to come up. so heres the update so far: remodelling of the current site (on my computer) is 98% done... i jus need to finish the top banner, then its all finished. yesterday i bought the domain name n stuff... and u wanna kno wuts cool? when i first decided i wanted to buy a site (before summer) i was thinking of simply sticking with geocities Pro. heres the details: $8.95/month, $15 setup fee, 25MB storage, 10GB/month transfer limit. but i was lucky i waited - cuz then claymusic got a site too, and so i asked my aunt where she got it and now i'm using the same service (www.1and1.com) - $6.99/month, NO setup fee, 500MB storage, 25GB/month transfer limit. o and all the free services and stuff... but the only problem is that i'm an idiot thats been using geocities all his life and doesn't know jack about owning a real domain, and so i dunno how to upload files or anything. tomorrow i'll call up jeffrey (since he did the claymusic site) and hopefully he can briefly tell me how it works and get me started. o and one last thing - for the domain name i decided to jus tstick with my real name, cuz all the good creative names are taken (by good i mean names that don't outgrow themselves in time, since i plan to keep it for as long as i can). and besides i think its a good idea to have my own name as a domain, since it might come in handy in the future. ok so anyways... i'm gonna go back to working on the banner now. shouldn't take any longer than a day or two. o and just a little extra thing - the new site will finally have an updated wallpapers section, with three very nice photos that i took (if you've seen my laptop during school then u probably saw at least one of them). one of them is what i claim as the most beautiful photo i ever took'. so yea... hopefully thats sumthint o look forwrd to. hehe... so anyways, if all goes as planned, the new site will be up before the end of this week! no promises though, but i'll try my best okee? =)

08/16: very productive weekend... saturday morning went to yamaha twice then wnet to esthers house cuz his dad wants met o play for this worship thingy... gosh im starting to feel like i live there or sumthin cuz its like im ALWAYS there for some reason. n then at nite i went to SNL again... finally! so far i think i've missed more cell meetings than i attended (missed the first two, went to the next two, and missed the most recent two). wilson's message was REALLY good =). it was so good that i ended up an hour late to worship practice. hehe... so that leads right into sunday - three services of c-worship (no riverside next week, luckily). because all the claymusic pplz are soo tired after the concert, we decided to drop practice and continue next week. so then i was able to go to the bible jeopardy thingy upstairs. it was pretty fun i guess, except i honestly didn't want to get drafted to go up, cuz i didnt even plan on going until 10 minutes before it started. but wuteverz... the scoring thing was pretty messed up cuz there were more than three cells so its hard to get everyone represented. and the questions were sooo hard! haha... but it was fun =). then of course everyone was starving, so we went to eat at some japanese place... starts with a t and even though i've been there beofre (with HOC pplz) i still cant remember wut its called. anyways... then today - my mom took m en carol out to souplantation for dinner =). gosh i love those baked potatoes. n then we went to home depot, cuz that last idiot didn't know the difference between 33 inches and 35, so my new blinds didnt fit. but now they're perfect =). i still hafta put up the big half, but then again i wanna wait til i finish washing the outside of the windows first. wow... gonna climb on the roof again. haha ok anyways thats it for now.

08/13: i jus woke up n finished breakfast when betty called me.. finally she wants me to visit =). so i went to pick her up at Ivy n then we went to the library (shes there like all the time... its really not that bad of a place to hang out once u get used to it). we jus talked n talked... and then my mom came with her class! haha... all the kids were like harassing me. i wonder wut all the other ppl were thinking. haha anyways then i came home and spent the next couple hours eating like crazy cuz i was supposed to leave at 4 for the concert and theres no time for dinner. kinda like the POM canada tour last year (starve for dinner... then after the concert everyone rushes to some restaurant to pig out), except i actually get to be home fo rthe first half of the day so i can do my pigging out beforehand =).

so anyways... the concert. i guess the only thing that didnt quite meet my expecctation was that not all the seats were filled. hehe yea i kno its a lot to ask, but we really didn't promote the concert, so there could have been a much larger crowd. and the event itself was like soooo good. i barely messed up at all (thats a first...), and all the mistakes i made were barely noticable even to myself... everything just worked out so well =). and over a dozen ppl accepted christ! o and u kn othe wierdest thing? after the concert i was helping at the merchandise table (why me?? my chinese sucks!) and some dude asked for my autograph! *totally amazed* thats definitely a first for me. the funny thing is that half of the live band isnt even the same as the people that recorded the CD. i guess we jus did a good job imitating. and i guess wut made my part so great is that i was almost not nervous at all! again, that's a first too. hehe... and of course, after everyone left, we packed our gear n headed straight to this one chinese restaurant a few blocks away... and we had FRIED CRAB!! gOsh it was soo good. i ate like half the plate. hehe... i usually never eat late-night meals, but i guess these little afterconcert gatherings are a good time for exceptions =).

*deep sigh of relief* so now its finally over... all that work finally paid in, for the team that had a great time working together, for the audience that (hopefully) enjoyed the music, and most of all for the people who accepted christ through this event. soo... wut's gonna happen with ClayMusic now? dun worry, remember this is the FIRST official concert. and in the last entry i called it a 'tour', obviously cuz theres gonna be several events. first week of september theres gonna be a small concert in San Francisco! not sure if im going to that one, but so far they dun have any local keyboardist, and if it stays that way then i'm gonna go. and then 9/11 theres a concert in diamond bar, and 9/12 theres one at UCC (my church, hacienda hts). and then 9/25 theres another one in pomona. wow.. very exciting month coming up =). but for now i need to stop thinking so far. lemme rewind to the near future - TOMORROW. haha... or actually today (since its 1:45AM now). i hafta go to yamaha at 9:30 in the morning... which means i gotta wake up early. so i guess the most important thing now is to get some sleep. carol forgot to open the windows after turning off the AC, so when i got home my room was like an oven and im only online now cuz im waiting for it to cool. and i guess rite now its finally cool enough. so goodnite! =)

08/12: its really late already... i jus got bak from practice for tomorrow's concert - the first official event on the claymusic 'dear friend' tour! =) the church (in monterey park) is sooooo freakn nice... reminds me of the churches that i played with POM at (in canada). the sound system is soo good even though it took forever to learn how to use (our 'setup & soundcheck' was like 2 and a half hours... thats why i got bak so late). and they even have really nice stage lighting effects that change colors. this is my first time ever getting to play keyboard while watching different colors reflect off the keys. it was kinda distracting at first but after a few seconds i learned to love it =). i guess the miniconcert a few weeks go serves as a great warm-up to get us ready for the big concert tomorrow. so im not nearly as nervous as i was the first time (even though i still think i'll mess up at least once). o and for tomorrows concert we're gonna be playing some live chinese techno =). so since i have two keyboards to use, i used one of them to try sumthin i never did before - DJ turntables! haha... yupyup the roland (jacob's keyboard) has a whole scratcher set built in... so i got to add all these funky effects. adn its soo fun! gOsh its like 1AM but im soo hyper n excited... and of course, NO mocha frapp tonite... so im actually gonna sleep well. actually i HOPE i can sleep well, cuz i took off my old bilnds today to put on the new ones, then i found out the stupididiot at home depot does NOT know what 33 inches is... so sometime next week im gonna hafta go back to get everything re-cut. meanwhile theres a huge blanket hanging across the window, cuz if i leave it open then the sun will definitely wake me up at 8:30 tomorrow morning. hEhe ok well thats all for now... goodnite!

08/11: make that 280... =)

08/10: soo um... *clears throat* hehe... you guys all heard that i'm doin some kind of 'upgrade' on my site this summer... and you've been waiting ever-so-patiently for me to post pictures, since ive been holding those back since january. im soo sorry for makin u wait so long, and now that everything is almost ready, i'm jus gonna go ahead and let everyone know wut the 'upgrade' really is: I'M BUYING A REAL WEBSITE!

ok so why spend money on a personal site?? first of all, Geocities has this 5MB/hour transfer limit thingy, which means that when i post pictures i hafta use a gazillion different accounts and link them to each other. at this point it's becoming impossible for me to manage all of them regularly (otherwise they'll get shut down... i already lost a few pages like that). buying a site is actually not very expensive, and as long as i have SOME kind of monthly income, im sure i can handle it. and i won't really have to worry about taking care of so many accounts anymore, as well as the stupid transfer limit thingy...

another reason i'm doing this: those of u who tried convincing me to switch to using xanga probably go the response "try keeping a journal for three years, then tell me what to do". yup... this online journal has been with me since the beginning of my junior year, and i've been updating it regularly since then. (every entry i wrote is still in the "archives" section if u wanna see them). one thing i believe makes me unique compared to most people is that i rarely let myself get influenced by anything except my own heart... and thats why i stuck to this homepage even though everyone is getting xangas and livejournals n stuff. and the result? something that very few people my age have: a space on the web that tells my life for three years, through both words and pictures. something this rare isn't easy to let go, and after growing so much, this site has finally outgrown its shell.

for those of you who want to contribute to a very important part of this site, here's ur chance: i'm desperately trying to think of a good DOMAIN NAME that hasnt been taken yet. i wanted to have it just 'ckcc' dot something, but those are all taken... so the best thing i have now is 'calvinchang.net'. if u have any ideas feel free to let me know, and i'll definitely take it to consideration. at this rate, the new site should be up within the next couple weeks... it's gonna be basically the same layout and design with a little facelift. and of course, the new site will kick off with all those pictures that you've been waiting for - over 250 of them! =)

08/09: havent written anything about tetrinet in a while... yes i still play and i still luv it =). u kno how theres like different settings u can choose when u start a game rite? well last nite i got really bored so i invented my own version - BLOCKS! haha... yupyup... pretty much the same idea as Sticks, except its only blocks. sounds stupid eH? trust me... theres more strategy than it seems. first of all, getting special items is very hard, but still possible. and u can't downstack anything added to ur field without items. i was playin again today with random pplz in the game, and they actually like it (even though we all agreed its crazy). hehe... so yea, sumthin new for u to try if ur bored =)

08/08: this entry's gonna explain the following things - what the 'big event' yesterday was... why i didnt show up at SNL even though i rarely (if ever) change plans without a full week's notice... why i'm so freakin tired right now (it's 6:30PM sunday evening now... i just got home like half an hour ago after two full days of almost nonstop activities inlcluding sleeping). ok i think i covred everything. so lets start with friday night at SOLD.

another great cellmeeting... not a lot of people were there, but its still good =). afterwards they were planning to go watch the Villiage (10:50PM... two hour movie... *yAwn*) and somehow i ended up saying i wanted to go too. actually i did. hehe... jus that it was so late at night and i wasnt sure if getting home at 1AM was a good idea. but then again i didnt get to hang out with SOLD pplz outside of actual cell meeting in soooo long (since the dinner for andy like a few months ago)... and now that it seems like we've all learned to separate the desire to have fun from being in fellowship with god, i thought these little movie outings (they did one last week too but i couldnt go) is actually beneficial for us. so i went =). very interesting movie... its totally not what the previews show... its not exactly a total horror movie. more like a bit of horror (mostly just suspense), a bit of a love story, plus a lot of stuff worth thinking about after the movie. the ending was kinda weird (dun worry i wont kill anything), but overall i like it =). so yea... got home at 1AM. sooo tired, especially since i didnt sleep well teh night before (not sure why... i jus couldnt fall asleeP). so yea thats it for friday. now moving on...

so saturday (yesterday) went to worship practice at 10 in the morning with esthers dad. ended at a bit past noon... perfect timing cuz i was just about to say that i had to leave. to where? a very very special event at smith park in san gabriel - rebecca (lin)'s surprise party!! so heres how it all happened... earlier this week (tuesday nite i think) i was talkin with krystin online and she mentioned she and virginie were planning this surprise party thingy... and so i did my typical 'and i'm not invited? *sniff* j/k' thing... then she was like 'u can come if u want'. i kinda hesitated at first cuz ish such a far drive to san gabriel, and plus last-second present shopping really isnt my expertise. but on the other hand, because of worship practice i was already halfway to SG. and i had SNL at night at church again, and that's halfway home from SG. and even more importantly, i havent seen krystin for over a year, and havent seen rebecca n virginie for two years (rebecca did visit a couple times, but only for like 2 seconds so that duznt count... and even that was over a year ago. and we havent talked at all for a few months arleady). perfect opportunity? absolutely =). so i went on her xanga and researched everything i could to see if theres anything she wants for her bday. all i found out was she likes pink. haha... i ended up getting a pink photoframe thingy from morning glory, and decorated it n everything. i showed krystin a pic and she LOVEd it. so that was encouraging, cuz im really not too good with gurly decoration stuff. so yesterday after worship practice, i went straight to smith park, with NO idea wut to expect at the party.

krystin n virginie n other pplz were there already... and the trees were all nicely decorated n ballooned n everything. but they were desperately calling pplz on their cellphone addressbook cuz apparently most of the ppl they invited couldnt come n they thought it would be a dead party. i didnt mind, cuz i didnt know the ppl that couldnt come anyways. i was jus worried about one thing - how rebecca would respond when she sees me there. i was so scared she would be like 'omg wut da heck is he doing here!?'... anyways, suddenly rebeccas mom shows up with all the food n stuff... n i was helping her carry stuff from the car (along with the other guys that were therE)... and i asumed she jus thought i was one of rebeccas random guy friends. then suddenly she was like 'so how are you? long time no see!' and i was like WhOA! haha... so she still remembers me from the party two years ago! *sooo surprised* so anyways, eventually rebecca showed up n we greeted her with a bunch of 'surprise!'s, 'happy birthday!'s, and water balloons. hehe... then we ate the wonderful food her mom prepared (pizzas, soda, pasta, and a bunch more). then she opened alll her presents. so anyways, the party didnt go on too long, cuz most ppl had to leave. of course i had my camera ready n we took a buncha random pics before cleaning up and leaving. i think i kinda mentioned that i had nuthin to do until night (SNL @ church)... and then i found out rebeccas mom was takin her shopping. and guess wut... they invited me too =). and krystin didnt have to leave either so she came along too =). and u kno wuts so funny? i was helpin clean up stuff, and rebeccas mom was like 'can u drive?' (to the Grove that is...) and at first i was kinda confused, but i said yea anyways. so first we went back to their house to drop of stuff. i chilled in her room while her mom went to take krystin home to change... then when they got bak we jus watched tv n talked for a lil while. then we were on our way to the grove =)

so i was the driver, and also in the car were krystin, rebecca, her mom, and her grandma. very random but interesting combination to end up on my car. haha... dun think i ever drove this far west before (i think its farther than the auto show). but rebecas mom was good with directions n she knew exaclty which lane on the freeway i had to be in, so there was nuthin to worry about. so anyways we got to the Grove (which i never heard of before until i went there)... and i was like WOW. everything was soo big n soo nice. the stores are all lik etwo stories... for those of u who love shopping, trust me ur gonna LOVE this place. hehe so i was switching between talking with rebecca n krystin and talking with the adults. i guess i actually fit in well on both sides. hehe... we spent forever in forever 21. (not that its anything new though... since guys rarely go shopping without at least one gurl, and the guys usually end up followign the gurls as they go to their favorite stores, which becomes VERY predictable after a few experiences). hehe rebecca n krystin took like half the store to the fitting room. n then we went to the huge foodcourt that i would probably get lost in if i went by myself. then more shopping... rebeccas mom took grandma to shop since shes been kinda lonely all day. meanwhile i went to borders with krystin n rebecca and we stayed there for like um... a few hours? they had to decide wut books to choose and buy out of like a thousand, so i kept helping them flip coins =). then at the cashier rebecca n her mom was at one stand and krystin was at the other, then suddenly krystin runs over n asks to borrow money, and suddenly the cashier dude jus laughed soo hard. haha... then we left the beautiful grove and went back to rebeccas house. it was like 11 already. and rebeccas mom insisted on paying for parking, plus she got me a root beer. gosh why are ppl so nice to me... haha o and did i mention none of us had dinner (except for a soda)? luckily we had like a billion leftover pizzas and stuff, so there was plenty to stuff ourselves with. i was talkin with rebecca bout when she used to go to UCC a few years ago... she still remembers all those lil trips to 7-eleven... gOsh soo many good memories. then we watched tv while digesting. actually i knew it was late already and i should leave, but i purposely waited til midnight so i could be the first one to say happy birthday (her real bday is today!). n then shes like 'no that clock is 10 minutes fast'. gRr... so the correct clock is the one on the TV, not the wall one. i took a lil break and went to get my camera (before cutting the cake). then i got back and its like 11:59 so i sat down and 'watched tv' (stared at the clock, that is)... and then when it turned 12 suddenly me n krystin were both like 'happy birthday!' at the same time. i think we both surprised each other. haha... then came the cake, and more pictures, and then time for goodbye...

soo... that was my saturday. when i was driving home i kept feeling like the last 12 hours were just a dream... or at least it couldnt possibly have happened all in one day. but of course i was really reall yhappy, especially for one reason: rebecca was happy that i came =). and u kno wuts even better? when i went in her room i was like 'soo... where are u gonna put that frame that i gave u?' and she pointed to her bookshelf and the frame was already sitting there. so she actually likes it. *soooo happy* so i accomplished everything i wanted to accomplish in this day. got to see my friends that i only get to see like once a year or two years, and help make rebeccas birthday more enjoyable (hopefully? hehe). not sure when we're gonna see each other again *sniff* but at least we know we're still friends and we're gonna keep in touch. and i guess thats the most important thing =).

so now about today. first of all, HAPPY (real) BIRTHDAY REBECCA!! haha actually i already said that at like 12:01AM. but anyways went to church at like 8:30 for c-worship. and also did the lil mozart trio thingy with alex and ben. we jus waited for each other to show up at church then practiced for like two times. haha... turned out pretty good though, at least better than i expected for my part. o and 2nd service i had to play that Amen song at the end. who da hEck wrote that thing!? and WHY DID HE CHOOSE A-FLAT MAJOR!? haha... luckily i didnt screw up cuz i was sooo scared. then afternoon was claymusic practice. havent done that in a while... i almost forgot a few of my parts. *scratches head* hehe.. well this fridays our first OFFICIAL concert (in monterey park)... and we had a few new additions to the band - professional (paid) drummer and guitarist. and it makes such a big difference.... i felt lik ei was the dumbest one in the team. so i hafta practice hard. hehe then right when we finished practice, esthers dad shows up to practice for evening service. haha... so more keyboarding for me. in other words i stood there from 2 to like 5:30. and plus i was tired as heck after sleeping late for so many days. so i jus quickly left n came home. and tonite im gonna sleep at like 10 or sumthin. hehe... ok so anyways this is lik ethe longest entry i ever wrote... if u read it all, good job. hehe... and luckily i'm done, so u can stop reading now =)

08/06: o no... forgot to mention one thing in the last entry. when i was at da mall yesterday guess who i saw @ ross... karin! such a big surprise... we both suddenly saw each other (she was waiting in line when i was goin in) and had that 'wut da heck?' look on our faces... really funny. too bad she couldnt stay long, but at least we got to spend a minute catching up on each others lives... and of course i did NOT forget the good old days when i always went to hang out with the JACK gang (Jeff Anna Calvin Karin... hehe) maybe we're gonna have a little reunion before summer ends? i sure hope so... anyways i'll shut up now..

08/06: quick recap of yesterday n the night before. wed night i was play pool with kylie again... so guess who kept losing like crazy =/. hehe i think im improving... but still that stupid 8ball really duznt like me... n then we were telling stories of how we met like 3 years ago... gOsh soo many memories.

and wed night i also wnet to homedepot to get new blinds for my room and carols room, and also that stupid power switch that i desperately needed. but now my room is all wired up and working well. wireless computer speakers are all the way on the top shelf, and all i gotta do is flick a switch to turn them on/off =). so when im using the computer the music actually comes from behind me. hehe gOsh i luv my room now. jus gotta find time to put up those new blinds...

thursday (yesterday): spent like 5 hours with stephenie n jennifer =). 11AM went to stephs house n ate ice cream n watched shao ding dong (doraemon) dvds. havent seen those since i was in taiwan. hehe... but shao ding dong is soo cool =). anyways then we went to pick up jennifer n went to the mall! (i had to go to the mall anyways cuz i needed to buy stuff for saturday's big event). went to all these typical gurl stores. haha.. i cant believe chatterbox closed down. cant even imagine how many girls are gonna be crying... hehe anyways then we were gonna go eat but didnt kno where to go, so i flipped a coin and we chose in-n-out. then after lunch we went to life for boba (yummy...) and then we went to *dRumroll* CUE. haha... wut a surprise. o by the way, steph told me that she had a dream the night before that she went to cue one day, but they closed down and became some arcade place, and then she got pissed n started yelling at the boss n everything. haha sooo funny... but yea so we went to cue and it was still there. hehe n there was this new machine that was soo nic ebut after we took the pics it was broken so we were soo scared they werent gonna come out. but at the end they did =). yupyup... more stuff to scan. but i might hold back on that until after school starts so i can use the supergood scanners in DeNeve. then i sent jennifer home and then sent stephenie home. o and there was this poor car on the freeway that got rear ended by a bigrig... sooo scary! hope the person is ok... *worried*

so then i got home and my mom told me that we're goin out for dinner (cuz its robert n catherines moms birthday and they were gonna go celebrate, but the kids are all invited too). so first i sent carol to church for this worship workshop thingy every thursday. then came home n went to buca di beppo to meet with everybody else. food was great except i ate lunch too late AND had a boba, so i didnt have the capacity to take advantage of the food. then it was like 9:30 when i got home. i took out the thing i bought at the mall and started working on it. carol had to help me a LOT. hehe... so yea.. .saturday i'll be out the whole day. its pretty unlikely that anyone whos not supposed to know is gonna read this, but still to be safe i'll keep my mouth shut until after its over. hehe so i was working on the thing all morning until about now (2PM).

ok so thats it for this update. tonite im goin to SOLD again (probably gonna take emily again =) ). its sooo far (julianns house) but now i actually think its worth me going to even though i have SNL too. o and in case i forget, pleez remind me NO FRAPPACHINOS AT NIGHT!! i'm already sleep-deprived enough! hehe ok so yea... gues this is the parrt where i shut up. byebye!

08/04: (noon) spent most of yestdrday eithe rplayin with the keyboard or workin on homepage stuff. for those of u who know about the "upgrade" thats gonna happen this summer, dont worry everythings going as planned, and i'll probably be announcing the details publicly here within the next few days. anyways, went to tutor esther lsat night. i felt soo bad cuz she was sick and she still had to had class... hope she gets well soon. then i went to tiffany (tai)s house cuz it was her birthday! i called her in the afternoon n she was soo happy i remember =). she asked me to stop by at night to get some cake, n felt bad cuz im jus going and getting free food, but she wanted me to go so i did. yummy ice cream cake... and i stayed there n chilled for like half n hour. n then came home and went online for the rest of the night. played yahoo pool with kylie =). i actually thought she forgot me until she suddenly imed me again like last week *soo happy* hehe gosh i kept on getting owned in pool... on the last game i soooo won except the cueball went in after the 8, so i lost ò.ó. so first i thought i lost, then she thought she lost, then i thought i won (cuz the 8ball went in already), and then i lost! gRRrrrr... owellz i'll get better next time. hehe o and i found out that on saturday i mite be doin something really special. not sure if im going yet, but its gonna be so great if i can. more details on that to come later. guess i'll shut up now...

08/02: bunch of random things... as of saturday night, i am officially ranked number one on nina's superhero list, just on top of Harry Potter! (yea yea i kno... the worlds comin to an end... so get ready....). finally got myself a freakin powerstrip, so now my keyboard and speakers are fully functional... and all i need is a power switch from home depot, then my room is complete. catherine and erica are my two newest friends to become tetrinet addicts. they play like the entire day... literally... the first claymusic concert was awesome... i messed up a little like i always do, but then again everyone else did too. the mocha frapp on friday night did NOT help me sleep well before the concert. after soundcheck i desperately begged for caffiene and actually got some, cuz we had food n coffee/boba for the whole team. i kept a cup on stage behind a big pulpit thingy so during the last song (soundtrack + vocal only... no instruments), i jus sat behind the pulpit drinkin away, and choe was laughin at me. hmm... wut else is there to say? o yea sunday after church we finally went out to eat as a big group again... first time in FOREVER. so like 30 asians all went to Little Cafe. they were out of seats so the late pplz had to wait. haha... dave got pulled over by a cop, cuz he was accelerating in his bro (gary)'s evo, and the cop was checking for illegal parts... yes there were some, but the cop let him go at the end =). i went with carol n my mom to the CIRCUS. very random but really fun. similar to the show last year, but with some new stuff. they said no recording devices (as usual), but they had no metal detector or anything. but they did have a huge line to check bags for *drumroll* FOOD. yea... no outside food or water in the arena. bullcrap... i'll wear one of those huge clown hats with waterbottles in it, and they'll let me walk right in without checking. haha... last night stephenie suddenly appeared at my house... prolly cuz her parents had to drop off sumthin. she said she and jennifer miss hanging out with me (aww... i feel soo loved =) ). one mor ething on my to-do list. 11PM steph (my cousin) called to see if i could play piano on sunady for trio with alex n benben. alex mom was on da phone n i agreed to go pick up the music. then i went to alexes house and realized i was an idiot, cuz if steph was on the phone too, it must be her house. so i went there. go thte music, made a very stupid attempt to sightread. haha.. got home at like midnight... slept well (finally). today: stayed at home, talked online all day. ok thats enough randomness... time to sleep again. goodnite!

07/31: wow... its been a while... cuz the first half of the week waas kinda quiet so i didnt have much to write about. but rite now (1:34PM saturday afternoon) i'm very happy, satisfied, and excited for lots of different random reasons... and this entrys gonna explain why. ok so remember how i used to tutor piano at yamaha before i went to college? well mrs esther did ask me to go back this summer, but she never called me ever since i got back from catalina... so i had NO idea wut was going on. anyways then on thursday i had to drop kelly (one of my moms students) at yamaha, so i decided to go in for a while, and i told karen i was supposed to tutor again so she told me to leave my phone # again, and *pOoF* i have my old job back! hehe... anyways then thurday night was claymusic rehearsal again... it was really fun... theo kept dropping his pick inside the guitar. hehe.. and then we had to clean up and load all the gear afterwards, so i didnt get home til like midnight. (meanwhile jennifer n stephenie were playing tetrinet and wondering where da heck i was... gosh... of all days to play... hehe).

friday (yesterday): when i first left SOLD (almost a month ago), i never really planned on going back, except for occasional visits, and i originally wanted to go last night simply cuz i heard a lot of stuff changed since i left, and also cuz it was at julia's house so its really close. and plus emily wanted to go too, so it was only right for me to bring her... so she came to my house and we went to cell... and knowing me i tend to be very nervous everytime i bring new people to cell/church, cuz im always afraid that they wont like it. but after last nites cell it totally changed teh way i feel about the group. seriou5ly... i found it sooo hard to believe how much the cell changed (improved) since i left. and a lot of people didnt really know each other well... so everyone was really really open. and the diversity of the group is simply amazing. there were these two sisters from minnesota... i was talkin to catherine (the older sis) and found out she was born in canada, then moved to taiwan, then moved to england, then boston, then minnesota, and now diamond bar. WOW. haha... and then there was alba from mexico who comes and joins us every summer. o and it seems like emily had a great time too (of course that made me really happy n relieved... hehe) so anyways, afterwards i had to bring jackie n emily home, but we werent in any rush, so we chilled at starbucks for a while then went to blockbuster jus to look around. and the guy athte counter was all sad cuz we didnt rent anything at the end =/ owellz... then on the way to emilys house i was at the red light (on grand... crossing db blvd) and then this integra pulls up next to us and emilys like 'hey that looks like jeff (yin)' and i'm like 'omg it is!' hehe so yea... havent talked to him or seen him in FOREVER. and then he suddenly appears.. for like 20 seconds (until the light turned green). hehe... so anyways then i sent emily n jackie home and when i got home it was like not even 11 yet. but yea... about SOLD... i guess now theres actually some good reasons for me to be back, and so i guess its safe to expect me there regularly again =)

now for today... not long after i woke up, i got my first call for tutoring at yamaha again =). so i went today at 12:30... and i jus got bak not too long before starting to write this thing. it feels soo great to be back... and karen said that since i'm only gonna stay til end of september (when school starts), shes gonna refer most of the make-up lessons to me, cuz she said she figured i probably need the money. wOw... how did she know? =) so yea... looks like i'll end up being able to earn back all my summer spendings after all. ok so maybe after all this, u still cant see why i'm EXCITED. well heres why - i'm updating rite now cuz i'm leaving in a bit and wont be bak til like midnight. u kno why? *drumroll...* the first ClayMusic concert is tonight!! =) so im gonna go pick up some gear first, then at 4 we're gonna soundcheck n practice, then the church (in Rosemead) will provide us dinner, and at night its the concert! im soo excited even tho i know i'll end up being nervous on stage. hehe... but yea im definitely lookin forward to it. omg i jus remembered before i started writing i just finished microwaving a little costco burger thingy for lunch, and its still sitting on the table downstairs now, prolly all cold n hard. owellz... better go eat now. hehe... byebye!

07/26: its like... past midnight already, thats why im putting monday's date for this entry. hehe... i jus got bak from kelleys house =). very very busy day... first of all emily came to UCC! hehe... she got to hang out with me for a long time... i prolly bored her 2 death =/ n then i was supposed to have lunch with choe n jacob n some other pplz, but when i wnet to look for them (after realizing nobody was calling me) they were all gone... so i wnet to find my own food. knowing me, i usually go for a slurpee, just cuz its soo close and it helps fight the heat, plus its cheap and huge =). but like every single slurpee flavor was brokened... i finally got some pepsi out and it was like... just liquid pepsi. so i decided to skip lunch (and save up for the big dinner =) ). chilled with kelley in the hallway while she was waiting for her moms worship team to finish practicing and i was waiting for claymusic rehearsal. they jus made these really cool promo posters for our tour... theres like 5 confirmed events already, plus one in nor cal (most likely not gonna bring the band unless needed). we finished rehearsing at like a bit past 4, then i loaded the instruments n left church to go to RANCHO! hehe gosh we really all should have carpooled there... but i had to go late, and some ppl had to leave early, so it was kinda hard. so here's the gang: karen n her friends brittany n melissa (i think thats her name... correct me if im wrong), christine poon, kelley, her mommy, me, alex, baldwin, alba, ken (yeh), marian, jon, joelyn, n my wife liz. hehe... very interesting combination of people, but definitely nothing wrong with that =). so we had our yummy barbecue dinner, and i got to practice my rusty spanish skillz with alba (cuz shes from mexico)... and everytime i say something she jus gives me this weird look... *soo embarassed* hehe anyways then after dinner we watched Last Samurai. actually i already saw it like 2andahalf times... but its still good. i think its gonna be one of those movies that people will like even when its like 40 years old. then baldwin alba ken n marian had 2 leave (baldwin n alba had ANOTHER party to go to... gosh soo popular! hehe) and karens friends went 2 her room and me alex n the RCHS pplz played baalderdash! gOsh i luv that game... i usuall ysuck though cuz my definititions are always so predctable. but at least alex is the only one that knows my style. i was pretty lucky for the most part, except i picked liz's definition like every single time! and there was this one word that has a lot of K's in it, and liz n i both wrote something about the KKK! of course... husband n wife think alike rite?/ hehe... ok u kno wut... its like REALLY late now (like almost 2AM) so im gonna go sleep and continue writing in the morning... and no i didnt just spend two whole hours writing that... im not THAT slow. hehe dun worry i'll explain later...

ok where did i leave off? o yea ballderdash... at the end i actually won =). and i usually nEVER win games like this... so yes i was really shocked at the result. actually me n alex were tied on the last space but we didnt move for a few rounds... and then we both won on the same round, except i technically moved farther past the finish line, cuz i wrote the correct definition =). hehe anyways... by the time we finished the game it was like 11 already, and we were jus about to leave when jon n alex suddenly deicded to play super smash bros... they only had time for one game though cuz liz's parents came and they wer ebringing jon home too. but yea.. such a fun evening/night. and i think by now i've been to rancho enough times to actually start recognizing places. hehe... wonder whens the next time i'll be there again...

anyways so why did it take two whole hours for me to write that first paragrph? well i was like freakin tired already when i got home last nite, but i realli wanted to take a look at the pics i took at kelleys house, so i turned on the comp... n then i decided to sign on AIM jus for the heck of it. jennifer was online n i asked her why she wasnt at chruch... then we started talkin about tetrinet n i told her i thought eve prolly thought i was annoying cuz im always askin her to play tnet. then jen told eve n eve imed me and we talked n talked n talked for like FOREVER. and then othe rpplz iMed me too cuz they were all surprised i was online so late. so even tho i was soo tired, i didnt wanna leave cuz i was havin such a good time talkin to everybody. so i chatted til like almost 2... n then finally went to sleep. hehe... then dis morning when i woke up i swear i thought it was like noon already... but it was only 8. i luv it when that happens... cuz then i get to go back to sleep and not feel guilty of being lazy =).

as for today, i did like nothing... didnt leave the house at all except to walk the dog after dinner. but i wasnt bored to death like i usually would be, prolly cuz i already made up for it by bein out like all day yesterday. i went back working on my room... theres soo much stuff i need to get - a few powerstrips (why does audio equipment take up so many plugs!?!? the keyboard, keyboard speakers, and computer speakers alone take up SIX freakin plugs (three fat ones)), a power switch (so when i put my wireless speakers on the high shelf i dun hafta climb everytime i need to turn them on), n a bunch of other random stuff. i was jus calculating my summer earnings/spendings earlier today, and figured out that at this rate, i would be out of debt by next week =). then at nite i found out that after this week, over half of my income will be terminated =/. dun worry i didnt get fired or anything... but of course i was realli frustrated about it. if i start complaining again about being too poor to do anything, pleez do me a big favor and remind me that before summer began, i made the choice myself to live this kind of lifestyle (work just about enough to survive, while devoting my time to learning skills that will help me in the future much more than a stable summer job would)... i really have no right to complain, especially since god already showed me soo much about trusting in him to provide everything i need. but pleez pray that i will have some more opportunities to make money so i wont hafta worry about not having enough to use... theres a few particular things i really realy want to buy this summer... and strangely enough, one of them is the reason why i havent been posting any new pictures on m site for a very long time. more details to come later... once again its past midnight and im gonna go sleep! goodnite!

07/24: last few days have been really up n down for me... so wednesday i got my car back and it was fine... the mechanic put a new starter in and everything seemed ok. then thursday morning i was about to go pick up carol from school and guess wut... the car wont start! i was pretty pissed off at that for most of the day, but luckily the mechanic did say that if i had any more problems i could go back and find him... so thats wut i did. it was still the starter problem, so he fixed it up n i got it back yesterday evening, and so far everythign seems fine. got my oil change today too, cuz thats pretty important to keep my car healthy. well anyways, its kinda weird how on thursday when i was really unhappy about my car, i already knew that by nighttime i would feel fine. cuz thursday night was the first official ClayMusic event rehearsal! yupyup... for those of u who didnt know, our first (unofficial) event is next saturday night in Alhambra. so who's in this team? hmm.. its basically a combination of vocalists from my aunts worship team plus gilbert n jean, and other vocals/instruments from the alhambra church. one of the singers (johnson) used to be a backup vocalist for CoCo. isnt that cool? hehe... o and theo (see 7/19 entry (first one)) was there too playin guitar, so i got to see him again =). he actually gave me all the soundpacks for Reason on CD so i can upload them when i need. one of these days i need to ask him to teach me how to actually use the program. hehe... so anyways i figured that playing in a band means a having fixed set of equipment, and so i brought jacob's keyboard (i was kinda hesitant before since its not even mine, then jacob was like 'how come u didnt bring my keyboard?' so i guess he wants me to =) ). and i got to church and went to the stage and realize that uncle samuel (soundboard guy) brought his keyboard too! so then i decided to get smart and STACK the two keyboards so i can use both. yupyup... rs70 AND motif8. it was sooo fun! trust me its not as easy as it looks though, especially cuz i have four pedals to worry about (sustain n volume for both keyboards). i ended up putting the two sustain pedals together so i can do both with one foot. hehe... and the vocalists are all insanely good... they sang 'amazing grace' acapella with harmony and it was like WOW. i think this is probably the most musically advanced worship team i ever participated in. theres soo much room for me to grow and learn more...

ok so moving on down the week... yesterday after i got my car back, i went to watch i robot with ken. awesome movie =). that audi is soooo nice! anyone know if they're gonna display it at the LA auto show next year? i would love to take a pic of it and put it next to the pic of the minority report Lexus, which is already on my wall. hehe... then today i went to drum lesson again in the morning. sadly sam (the teacher) is goin to France until end of september, so no more lessons for a while. he's sooo nice though, he gave me enough stuff to work on so i could continue to improve while he's gone, and he even gave me an address to write him and show him my "homework" so he can correct n send back to me. then afternoon my mom brought me shopping and i got new shoes (which i desperately needed... have u noticed how dirty my year-old shoes became after the 6-mile catalina hike?) . then we ate at quickly and then i went to church for SNL. i liked todays snl so much more than last weeks, prolly cuz i felt more involved in everything. baldwin victimized me to hide whne we played Sardines... so i hid in the storage room (behind the stage). the room was like... one square foot. and soo many people went in and out the other way and didnt notice me. and the best part about being there was that i could hear EVERYTHING people were saying, both in the hall and in teh sanctuary. then some ppl finally found me and we wer esoooo loud... dave kept saying he's hungry... and then i took my cellphone n called alex cuz he didnt find me yet and i just whispered 'u cant find me.....' and then hung up. hehe it was soo much fun! we gotta play this game more often =). after cell i talked with amanda for a realli long time... cuz we're both goin through some hard decisions and we totally relate to each other on that... so we talked til her dad came to pick her up. ok aynways... its almost midnight now and i should go to sleep, cuz theres lotsa stuff happening tomorrow like the whole day... church in the morning, then lunch with jacob (cuz hes goin to taiwan), then claymusic practice (hopefully staccking keyboards again? =) ), then a special barbeque dinner at kelley's house! (yea... im goin to RANCHO! haha...) so anyways, my point is that i need lots of rest so i can have enough energy for all those activities. so um.... i guess i'll stop babbling now. good nite!

07/21: im gonna try something new today... how about a FOUR-part entry? never done one of those before... ok so part one: thanks sooooo much to everybody who cooperated by calling me on my housephone... my cell battery lasted a full week =). for those of u who dont know, its cuz my cell duznt work at home, and i'm usually home most of the time. so yea, keep callin house # first okee? thanks sooo much!!

part two: on monday night i was kinda depressed n frustrated cuz of stupid little compute rproblems, plus realizing that my car officially decided to stop working... usually when im frustrated the one thing that cheers me up best is to get a surprise =). and u kno wut surprise i got? emily IMed me but she signed off becore i could answer, so i called her... and then it turned out she was comin over the next morning! so i woke up an hour early (come on... i had to clean my room too! hehe). at like 9:15 emily came n we played piano and talked n everything... then we went to pick up carol and emily saw her friend tiffany... i talked to her like a long long long time ago.. not sure if she remembers me tho =/ owellz anyways then me n emily went to banana bay for lunch, then this konjac place by hong kong supermarket. those ice drink thingys are pretty good =). then i sent emily home at 3 cuz she had to be back... o and by the way all this time my mom was letting me use her car... thanks mommy! =)

part three: tetrinet!! hehe... the games every night are becoming more and more intense... monday eve actually said i improved =). last nite bruce got an account too and started playin... so it was me him and some other random pplz... and then eve came in and started kicking everyone's butt so we teamed up so its like everyone versus her. and she still kept winnign for a while! gOsh freakin pro... haha then at the end it evened out to 3 on 3... and both teams were winning so it was really competitive. i played til i was too tired i couldnt focus anymore... then i went 2 sleep. hehe... wut a great way to end every single night =)

part four (last part, for those of u who are keeping track): i guess the past couple days have been another humbling experience for me... nothing crazy n dramatic this time (like most of my other humbling experiences), but i simply realized how much god has given me while i was busy worrying about myself not having enough money to spend during summer. yes, i've been extremely irritated by being in debt, and at the same time having to spend so much gas money every week driving people around. but i guess i finally realized that in reality i'm actually beging given so much more than i'm giving - in the past few week or so i didn't have to pay for a single meal- people just randomly decided to treat me... and my uncle who spent so much time bringing me back n forth from the car shop decided to pay for the repair too. i guess i really need to learn to be thankful, because god knows my struggles and has sent angels to accompany me in everythign i do. thanks sooo much to everryone that contributed to one of many angelic acts done for me =).

07/19: okee im back!! now for the long awaited beach trip entry =). yesterday (sunday) morning i went to church with my mom... stephenie n tiffany were already sittin downstairs as usual, so thats where i spent my first hour and a half (until xperience). steph was listning to her new FIR cd... and just the night before i was chillin with their future studio guy. isnt that wierd? haha then later jen n eve showed up and we all turned in permission slips n stuff (i filled one out even tho im old... just in case). so after service we all paid our 5 bucks and were assigned to our drivers. me being on ken's car was arleady a given (since i told him we would stop to check out his apartment which was like 5 min from the beach). but guess who else was there - steph jen n eve! i guess one of them must love me soo much that she decided to sign them all under the same car as me. hehe j/k i wish....

ok now the car ride: ken stopped to get gas (at diamond plaza) first, and meanwhile the girls went to get drinks. eve bought me a boba =). so anyways we went to ken's apartment... gosh its soo nice compared to the UCLA dorms... except maybe that top bunk that he complained soo many times about cuz it was too close to the ceiling. we chilled there for a few min then went off to the beach!! hehe... and we were lucky cuz we actually got a decent parkingspace in the neighborhood (its $10 in the lot...) then right when we got off the car, steph realized that eve was about to step in a pile of dog poop in the grass, so she quickly warned eve, but eve thought it was like a bug on her or sumthin, so she suddenly started jumpin up and down adn going "eek eek eek EEEK!" (extremely high pitched voice). gosh i should have brought a video camera just for that moment =). anyways then we walked n walked n walked n finally got to the beach. as with every year, we simply searched for a group of a billion asians. the beach (corona del mar) was pretty crowded but we got a decent sized area... and we had a bunch of tiki torches to fence it off since our stuff was scattered all over the place. from that point on it was just hours and hours of beach fun =)

usually at these big church events i always have my little moments when i feel like a loner.. but not this time =). i actually had people to hang out with the entire day... first i went to the water with steph jen n eve... and yes i did take off my shirt.. and YES I'M tOO WHITE!! but guess what... u probably ownt believe this, but i actualyl found a guy that's whiter than me! yupyup.. david wang is the coolest person ever!! hehe... well the water was lotsa fun... jennifer has this crazy fear for seaweed... its kinda funny actually =). ken n steph (lin) were also there... and later ninjadan n david wang. gosh thos little kung fu moves were soo funny! anyways then jen eve n steph ditched me! ok u kno wut... the three of them are ALWAYS together so for the rest of this entry im jus gonna refer to them as JES (jen eve steph... get it? haha ok that was lame) anyways wlel they didnt really ditch me cuz they said they were goin back (they were in the bathroom... how da heck did i geuss?) but anyways i got back to the ucc territory just in time to join a game of TAG with ben (chen), slingluff, michelle, tiff tai, baldwin, steven, and abuncha other pplz. tag is like one of my favorite games =). especially in teh sand... i luv makign sharp turns so its like i'm about to slip but i dont actually fall. and we went all over the place.. i think all the other ppl at the beach probably got osoo annoyed cuz we wer running around them... owellz hehe then jes came back from the bathroom and we went to take a lil walk on the rocks... and we took a bunch of pics =). o then there was the annual Hole that was already finished by the time i got back to our tent... ken was gonna take a picture of me posing like i was standing at the edge of the hole abou tto fall in... but then right before he took it i lost my balance... and fell in!! but then he got a pic me me while i was actually falling (and another one after i landed at the bottom). hehe and during dinner wilson stole half of my towel! and his butt was wet so it left this huge wet spot! haha but of course everybody wants my towel cuz i claimed the spot closest to the firepit =).

(new paragraph... cuz its starting to get too long) hehe ok so after dinner me n jes went for a walk along the beach... theN on the way back we stopped to watch a buncha guys play ultimate frisbee. and then another unforgetabble moment - right before we were gonna head back to camp, i stole one of eve's sandals... then she started lookin everywhere in teh sand for it and finally realized i had it, so she started runnin after me, and i went behind one of those lil trash bins and kept running... and then when eve caught up she realized both my hands were empty =). then we got back and she kept making me tell her where it was, even though i wasnt holding anything. and then i was like *pOoF* and pointed behind her, and the missing sandal was sitting right there! gosh i never realized i was good at magic... hehe j/k actually heres wut REALLY happened: while i ran behind the trash bin, i dropped the sandal and continued running as if i was still holding it. so eve didnt even bother going around it and she just ran after me. meanwhile carol (who was also goin back) took the sandal and walked off quietly with it, and since eve was too busy running after me, she didnt see a thing =). then back at camp carol left the sandal behind eve so only i saw it but she didnt =). and then carol ran off. hehe... i neva realized my sis n i team up so well. but anyways... the bonfire: this year we actually had a fire when it was dark =). but the fire died so we had to move to another pit... but at least it still worked, and my towel was still at the front. hehe and of course we had smores... catherine lee was makin her smore while turning her head behind her to talk to sumone else... and meanwhiel everyone else was watching her poor marshmellow catch on fire and burn up... and when she saw it it was like all black already. hehe actually mine caught on fire for a little bit too... but then again it does that every year (yea yea i kno... i suck at making smores...) and of course, it was gettin late already, and even though we all didnt want to leave, we had to bring the fun to a close. i was gonna go home with carol on vince's car, but when i told ken he said he could take me back since it was on the way. poor ken had to drive from the beach back to church to drop pplz off, then all the way back to his apartment again. so everyone that was in his car better thank him! hehe and of course, since i found my own ride home, i was able to spend more time with ken n jes on the car =). and then we got to church and... *sniff*... said byebye. gOsh i really didnt want to leave... after a whole day with my friends its sooo ahrd to say byebye. and im prolly not gonna see eve again until god only knows when... except in the tetrinet gamerooms. hehe... but im definitely not gonna forget her lil eek eek eek thingy... sorry i had to mention it again but seriou5ly it was too funny! when i told her i was gonna write an entry on the beach trip, her first response was 'WHY ARE U GOING TO MAKE FUN OF ME??' haha... im only telling the truth *innocent smile* hehe ok well anyways guess thats all i hafta say for now. o yea... and to end sunday night, after ken dropped me at my house we talked outside for like an hour. that was really fun... hope we didnt wake up too many neighbors though =/ hehe ish ok its not like they never have late night parties with blasting music ne verything. but yea... now im done writing, i can finally post this freakin entry. so wut am i plannign on doing next? you go figure....

07/19: yea i kno... lotsa stuff to write about the beach trip... but first let me brief thru wut happened yesterday. i went to church at 6 for SNL, and there was a bunch of ppl downstairs cuz alex wang's senior recital (along with all of mrs diana's other students) just ended... david (liu) was there! and so was kevin mak!! wut a surprise... i knew lik ehalf da people there. and then after they left i went to SNL upstairs... couldnt stay for the whole thing though, cuz it went overtime and i had to leave right at 8:30. but yea... its pretty fun i guess... i guess its just that i'm really bad at learning to bond with a group that i'm not too familiar with. but hopefully i'll improve on that =). anyways... then i left and went straight to jacob's house so he could take me to meet his friend theo. we agreed to take my car, but then guess wut... it wouldnt start! most of u who rode my car before probably know that happens a lot, but it ALWAYS works after like 5-10 tries. not this time =(. so anyways we left the car alone adn took jacobs car instead. well it was definitely a great night... i stayed at theo's place til like midnight cuz he was giving me soo much good stuff. i got Cubase which i gotta leran how to use... and then he was lookin at my computer and realized i use FruityLoops (finally... someone actually knows wut that is! hehe) and then he decided to give me Reason ... its like the best program of its kind... now i REALYL have to learn how to use it =). o and u kno the coolest thing? on the way back to jacobs house i found out that theo used to play in the band Losing Daylight (remember them? they were at Transformations camp the first year!)... and now hes doing some studio work, and in the future he will be goin back to taiwan cuz he's already signed to do recording stuff for F.I.R.!! isnt that soo cool? haha ok so yea that was my saturday. o and in case u were wondering, my car DID start when i was about to drive home, but it still sounded kinda weird when it did. so im kinda worried now... and also both my car and my moms car are now outside the house, cuz the garage door broke too! repair guy's comin over tomorrow morning... hopefully its not another crazy super expensive repair... ok anyways im done for now... gonna take a break then work on the beach trip entry!

07/17: soo yesterday i left off at where i was about to go play ttnet... i wanst really even surprised anymore when i saw eve there... then later jen came in too... and so once again we playe dtil like realli late. u kno wuts realli weird? soo many times i was like one row away from dying, and suddenly i'll either get nuked (so i can start with a blank screen again) or like 50 clearlines in a row. thanks eve =). hehe apparently she really likes to perform all these random heroic rescues... but u kno wut really sucks? she rescues me, and then at the end i STILL lose. isnt that sad?? ok and then there was one game when it was jsut me and eve left... and so of course i was getting owned pretty badly... and then right before i die she nuked me and then continued killing me all over again. and so at the end i still died. haha... owellz i guess i hafta work on my skills a lot more... but anyways tonight i'm going to the SNL cell for the first time, then goin straight to jacob's house (drive to north arcadia... yikes!) cuz hes gonna take me to meet his friend whos gonna give me a sequencer for my computer =). and then tomorrow's the long awaited uCC beach trip... so im pretty sure i wont be online until tomorrow night, or monday depending on when i get home from the beach. so yea... everyone else goin to the beach hope to see u there... hope its gonna be just as fun as the last couple years (i didnt go the first year). ok i'll shut up now... bye!

07/16: okee.. i kno i havent really written much about this week except tetrinet... so heres my week in two minutes: monday alex wang came over to get a CD-R... and we played around with the synth in my room for a reali long time =). tuesday i promised tiffany tai i would hang out with her the whole afternoon, so thats wut i did. i played pokemon for the first time ever! haha... n then yesterday i helped rose with math homewerk then we ate at life plaza and went to her cellgroup. seriou5ly im startin to love that cell soo much... but i kno i cant commit to it, especially once school starts. and also SOLD is now on fridays, and even though im not an official cell member anymore (see 7/7), im probably still gonna visit occasionally while summer lasts. (im not saying i alreadyk now i wont be back friday nights when school starts... it all depends how my schedule works out.) i heard a lot of new n special things are happening at SOLD and i definitley wanna see it. maybe i'll wait til cell is close to my house, then i'll go... cuz so far i'm still waaay behind financially and i simply cant afford additional 5-10 dollar drives (trust me... my car uses sooo much gas its not even funny). but ok... that was my week in 2 minutes. hehe... if i forgot anything i'll add it later. time to play tetrinet! =)

07/16: those of u who were with me in middle school and freshie year might remember AIM conversations similar to this one:

Person A: hey
Person B: hey
Person A: ttnet?
Person B: sure... you be server :)
Person A: *gives IP address*
Person B: ok... cya in the game
*tetrinet theme song plays as six people engage themselves in stacking blocks and attacking other players*

...sound familiar? well its been a very very long time already... i remember i was one of the last people who still wanted to play, and by the time i started getting good at it, everyone else was already sick of it , so eventually i gave up asking people to play... and as time passed i simply forgot about it... but of course, theres a reason i'm suddenly bringing this up. believe it or not, TETRINET IS BACK!!! on monday night i was talkin with alex (wang) and suddenly he mentioned that he and a friend were bored so they were gonna play tetrinet. and i was like 'oOh i wanna play!!' so i downloaded it and played... the game itself is soo much better than it was a few years ago... cuz now there's TETRINET 2... same game, but less lag and less bugs, and it has a central server now, so no need to give out IP#s or anything. the only annoying thing is having to sign up for an account.. but that takes 30 seconds and its definitely worth it. ok and if you have absolutely no idea wut da heck tetrinet is, go to www.tetrinet2.com and find out. wanna play too? feel free to ask me whenever i'm online =)

so yesterday afternoon i was online chatting with jennifer (ting), who was about to dye her hair black and look azn again... and it turned out her friend eve was there... i actually met eve before like a long long long time ago and im surprised she still remembers me =). anyways then she read my profile and realized i played tetrinet too... but she said ttnet2 is too fast and hard, so i downloaded the old one and we played for a lil while... then at night i went to tutor esther and got back at like 9:15ish... and i was in the mood for more tetrinet. so i went on ttnet2 and randomly entered a room, and guess who happened to be there... eve!! haha guess she decided to give the new version a try =). and meanwhile i kept IMing jennifer and telling her how eve was kicking my butt... and then later how everyone was getting owned by me (at least for a little while)... and then suddenly jennifer really really wanted to play too, so she got an account and joined. and while we were playing carol and benben (who both play too) were watching... and later benben went home and signed on and came in the room too. there were other people comiing n going in the gameroom too... but they were all really nice. then it was like 1AM already and only the four of us were left, so we split in teams, me & benben vs jen & eve. and omg i swear the game is soo sexist... jen n eve won like every single freakin game... i cant believe it. trust me one of these days we'll get our revenge! hehe... o yea and did i mention i originally wanted to sleep really EARLY last night? guess that plan didnt really work out... but anyways i'll stop writing now, cuz im gonna go play more ttnet! hehe... wish me luck! byebye!

07/13: just a little request to everybody... during the summer if u need to call me, pleez call on my HOUSE PHONE. (if u dun have the # then ask me for it... for UCC pplz it's the one in the directory). my cell has really really bad reception at home, and i'm usually home more often then i'm out... so if u call my cell chances are its either not gonna work at all, or i'll pick up but cant really hear u so i'll tell u to call my house or i'll call u back with house phone. dun worry if im not the one that picks up the phone... my mom n sister dont bite. o and pleez dun do something stupid like calling me at 12:30 midnight... cuz ur prolly gonna wake up the whole house. (if its an emergency, then go ahead and everyone will understand...) so yea... i hate knowing someone called but not being able to hear wut theyre saying, so pleez, house phone first. thanks! =)

07/11: almost 11PM... i just got home not too long ago. hehe... very tiring but fun day. yesterday while i was at harvest all day, my mom was nice enough to help me organize my schedule cuz so much stuff was still uncertain... so heres the situation thats been goin on over the past week: last sunday mrs yen led worship, but technically she only leads worship when mr yen is speaking, and mr yen didnt have to speak at riverside this sunday, so mrs yen assumed she wasnt leading worship (since thats wut happened last time she led). meanwhile the church staff assumed that choe & the rest of the team will lead at riverside without mrs yen. so then on friday i called choe to make sure wut was going on (cuz i had to tell my aunt whether or not i would make the claymusic practice which was at the same time as ucc-r). and then it turns out choe didnt even know he was supposed to lead worship... so then he called the church and mrs yen and blah blah blah and to clear all the confusion mrs yen still went to lead anyways. but of course, mrs yen is always soooo incredibly generous and everytime our worship team meets she ALWAYS prepares plenty of food for everyone. so today she decided we all meet at Maxim at 11AM so she can treat us... then we all go to riverside together! hehe... it turned out i was the only instrumentalist that went... but hey i got my boba =). so mrs yen brought me and jaclinne (did i spell that right? i assume it is cuz thats how its spelled on choe's email list... hehe) to riverside and we did worship, then afterwards we went shopping... there was this really HUGE antiques store thats like 3 stories and we didnt even finish goin through it all! o and mrs yen got us all ice mochas =). gosh shes tooo nice! i feel soo spoiled... anyways then i get home and call my mom, who was still at church with the rest of the claymusic pplz... and it turns out they still want me there, so i went rite away and we practiced for the last like... 5 minutes? hehe ok anyways then i was free until 6 when i went to me dan and jacob's second jam sesion. so i had like an extra hour and a half with nuthin to do (and i was definitely not about to drive all the way home then back to hacienda hts again)... but luckily i remembered my drumsticks were still in the car from yesterday's lesson, so i went upstairs to the english sanctuary n practiced the whole time. i kno i sound like afreak... but i really love practicing... it gets tiring but its soo much fun! hehe ok anyways then at 6 i went to dan's house and we got everything set up and started jammin... its sooo much better than last time, prolly cuz i actually practiced so i had the songs down pretty well. and then afterwards we went to get malan noodle and brought it back to dans house (i got to ride in his infiniti FX... its soooo nice!) and i stayed there until like 10 then left and got home and unloaded the keyboard and set it all back up in my room and *pOoF* i'm at the computer wtiting this! hehe ok so now that i'm caught up with the present again, i guess i can shut up!

07/10: three things to write about- first thing: i had my second drum lesson today! learned a lot of new stuff... finally starting to do some basic beats. next week is supposed to be a special two-hour class... hopefully i'll practice well enough to benefit from those two hours. hehe...

second thing: as many of u can probably tell, when i go to any big events (concerts, movies, wutever) i always like to try and organize things as perfectly as possible in order to give everyone the best experience and avoid any problems that could get in the way. but apparently people aren't mature and responsible enough to make these plans work... and at the end i'm only hurting myself. so from now on i'll be doin things a little differently... next time i have some kind of invitation on my profile or anywhere, dont expect it to look the same.

third and last thing: as usual, harvest summerfest/crusade was great =). dun remember if i mentioned this before, but this years event is only one day (today), in order to help support the billy graham crusade (formerly in a few weeks, now moved to november). summerfest was good but not as exciting as last years, mainly cuz they moved everything into the stadium instead of in the parking lot. so it lost the whole 'carnival' happy atmosphere... and all the booths were totally scattered and hard to find. and of course people couldnt get close to teh stage since it was so far in the field. for me it was a bit um... lonely at first. but being lonely at concerts can be a good thing, especially since i got the best seat i ever had in the stadium over countless years that i've been goin to harvest. and there was no time for dinner, cuz the stadium stayed open between the events, which means if i leave then my seat is gone. but i came out for a little break, and after a billion battles with bad cellphone reception (i had almost full bars... maybe my phone had problems?), i finally ran into rachel and her sis michelle. go mark 1!!! haha it turned out they were by themselves too, so we ended up sitting together for Night of Worship. and the funny thing is that even during summerfest before we found each other, we were sitting in like the same section, but on opposite sides! hehe... so we had good seats for night of worship too. and it felt so great having people to scream with. rachel's so enthusiastic, and enthusaistic peopel always make concert experiences better =). and then after everything ended i got to see cissy! hehe i was gonna see her earlier, except she got there late and my phone was already off cuz the concert started. but still... i finally got to see her after like over a year! hehe and her friend jared was there too. really interesting guy... loves math more than anyone i've ever met. he almost makes me feel ashamed for dropping engineering. hehe then i went outside to find rachel n michelle again, and guess who else was there.. .james! also from mark 1!! hehe... i bet a lot more mark1 pplz were there, except we didnt know each other was gonna go. i think ngoc-an said she goes every year too... but none of us had her phone#. o and i heard UCLAs fallcon isnt gonna be with UCI this time =(. *about 2 cry* owellz... one of these days we need to have a mk1 reunion! hehe ok anyways back to harvest - i kno i didnt go into details about the programs... but thats simply cuz its gettin late and i want to sleep (ucc-R again tomorrow!! aAH!!!! *dies*) hehe and of course, i'll be puttin up pictures, and those will come with cool little captions that explain the entire program! =)

07/09: rose and esther are both leaving for taiwan soon, so of course i hafta see them one last time =). as i promised from a longlong time ago, i finally went to their cell group! hehe... so of course i expected to not know anybody except them two. and then gilbert shows up and looks totally shocked to see me. and then jean shows up too! yea yea i kno it really IS surprising that i appeared at a chinese cell... and it was hard for me to even explain how i knew rose and esther when gilbert asked me cuz it was so complicated. but the cell is really fun... who knows, maybe i'll be back again one day? =)

rose n esther wanted 2 leave early so we went to lollicup and played big two until 10:30 (since they close at 10:30). it was sooo intense... i lost a lot but i also won alot. hehe and seriously there were so many weird patterns with the cards each game that it seemed like they were alive or sumthin. and then afterwards rose had to go to the bathroom but there wasnt any and the whole plaza was like closed already so i had to take her home before she got to go! hehe ok anyways thats all for tonite... tomorrow is harvest and i'm totally lookin forward to it. i have my usual stack of posters to get signed =). but of course, standing for the entire afternoon in the hot sun will be REALLY tiring, so i better give myself some good sleep first! and thats wut im gonna do now =)

07/08: little update on ClayMusic - the long-awaited "Dear Friend" cd is finally out!! *cheering* so last nite my aunt had 2,500 cds sitting in the garage, and she had to inspect all of them to take out the cracked and wrinkled ones. trust me its a LOT of work... i was there helping til almost midnight. i dont think i've ever seen so many of the same CD in one room before... not even CDRs! hehe we ended up with like almost 100 badly damaged ones... the worst one had the front insert BACKWARDS. isnt that just ridiculous? o and if u wanna include the 'somewhat wrinkled' (probably can sell, but too ugly to buy as presents), then add about 380 to the list. we were like going crazy last nite after staring at so many CDs... o and steph kept coming in to talk, then farting and running off... it stinks!!! ò.ó and then benben just got a digital camera today so he's been playing with it all day, and he got so obsessed that he forgot to bring his music to violin class at night. hehe... i wonder how many times he filled the 64mb memorycard already. anyways, now that the CDs are out, the next big thing is the promotion tour that will kick off in september. saturday 9/11 we're gonna lead worship for another organization, and then sunday 9/12 will be the first real concert. in the past few days when i said i was bored to death, most of that time was spent practicing all the songs... we're gonan start rehearsing every sunday maybe starting this week... its gonna be a LOT of practice but i'm sooo excited!!! hehe ok i'll calm down n shut up now... byebye!

07/07: couple things to say about Saturdays: first, this saturday is the long-awaited HARvEST CRuSADE!! for those of u who havent heard, its gonna be like last year's crusade, with Summerfest starting at 2PM. this year's lineup will be skillet, the elms, tait, and by the tree. and of course theres gonna be motorcross and skating shows again. and then the actual Crusade ("Night of Worship") will feature matt redman, fernando ortega, and lots more. and in case u didnt kno, everything is FREE (except food)! its gonna be at the angel stadium again... i'll be there at around noon. anyone else wanna come? (u dun hafta be that early... im jus trying to beat security so i get free parking like last year =) ). o and if u have any merchandise for the summerfest bands, bring them to get them signed, cuz at last year's summerfest almost all the bands were just chillin at their booths taking pics and signing stuff! so yea... let me know if ur going so we can meet there! =)

other thing i was gonna say - i'm gonna miss cell this week cuz of harvest, but starting next saturday i already decided where i'll end up going. last saturday's meeting about SOLD was great, and so far it seems like the cell actually has a chance of surviving. but one thing that really struck me hard was that everyone kept on emphasizing the fact that SOLD is only meant to be a high school cell, and college people have no purpose there other than to help. i guess i knew that the whole time, but personally i think they're drawing the line a little too hard - i never stopped going to SOLD since i went to college, and ever since the UCLA cell disbanded last year, i considered SOLD my home cell and fully commited to it. last summer everyone was worried about college people leaving and not coming back... and i think by now most of us already proved that we all love the cell and want to continue being a part of it as much as possible. but suddenly it seems like i'm almost not allowed to be a 'member' of the cell unless i'm involved in leading something. so yea... starting next saturday i'll be checking out SNL and most likely commiting to it. as for SOLD, i'm' definitely still praying for it at lesat for now, but don't expect to see me there regularly, unless there's a specific reason for me to be there.

07/06: i dunno why but today i felt extra bored... prolly cuz i was still bored from yesterday. but luckily rose called me adn then i went to pick her up then went to pick up esther then went to the mall! and guess wut we did... watch spiderman2!! haha... it was the same theater room as sunday night's too. but its worth watching twice (jennifer was watching it her second time when she saw it with me). then we went to this comicbook store then ate dinner at life plaza. on the way back there was like a huge accident so the freeway and street under the freeway was all closed and we had to go all the way around it. u kno wuts sooo sad? next thurs esther's goin to taiwan, and the week after rose is going too.... and they're gonna be gone til end of summer! gosh soo many people are leaving for other countries... america's gonna be soo empty! owellz anyways im gonna go shower then sleep now... goodnite!

07/05: happy birthday america... i hope you love all the pollution from ffireworks. hehe wait did i say that last year too? i cant remember... owellz anyways today is liek really wierd cuz i woke up late (slept at like 3 last nite) and i feel so out of energy, plus its so hot and theres nuthin to do all day. but then yesterday was the exact opposite. i love being drafted to CWTs, but the most difficult times are when i play two weeks in a row, which means that the second week i hafta first do the two morning services, then go to ucc-r (riverside) with the previous week's team, then come back and play for evening service. and guess wut... today happens to be the second week. so i was at church from 8AM til almost 7PM. but it was a lot of fun playin for worship and everything. i got to use the big piano... usually im at the keyboard, and it definitley feels different being on the other side of the stage, and actually higher than the audience. hehe luckily my mom knew i didnt have lunch, so after riverside she took me n jacob to quickly's and we ate (and drank bobA!) until evening service. and i didnt go home after that either... cuz i had more stuff to do - more relaxing stuff actually... like goin to the mall to watch spiderman2. hehe bruce asked me to go yesterday but i didnt have time, so we went today instead. first i went to pick up stephenie n jennifer at stephs house (dun worry... usually im not nice enough to drive specially to pick up people, even though i'm already by the theatre... but i already told steph i would go watch s2 with her, so i actually saved myself a second ticket =) )... then went to the mall to meet with bruce n david(liu). and before the movie steph/jenn went to take those $2 picture thingys, and they asked me to go in too, but i was in da front so my head is SOO huge and its so ugly! hehe anyways about the movie... just like everyone said, spiderman2 was really really good. i really wish i could be like him and fly around everywhere. and it actually seems fun to have such an exciting life and have to save the world and fall in love at the same time. so anyways, after the movie i sent steph n jenn back, then went up the hill to watch fireworks before going home. in case u didnt know, the hill at the end of my street is like the best place to watch fireworks... cuz u can see so many cities, and all the fireworks both close and far. so feel free to stop by next time... i mean next year. hehehe so anyways thats all for now.. i'm soo bored today... someone pleez call me and say that u wanna go hang out or sumthin. or at lesat wish i can find somme way to entertain myself so i wont be so bored anymore.

07/03: big decision i have to make - SOLD or SNL?? soo hard to decide... for tonight i think i'm sticking with SOLD, simply cuz i already missed the first meeting of SNL last saturday and i also can't make it next week... so if i decide to switch, i'll do it after i can actually commit to it. tonight baldwin's comin to SOLD for some important decisions on wuts gonna happen with the cell in the future. hopefully everything goes well (i'm not sure wut 'well' really means... lets see wut god decides to do...) so aynways, heres a quick summary of my first few days as a 19-year-old...

Thurs 7/1: i got to see emily (shih) again!! for the first time in like FOReVeR! seriou5ly its been sooo long and we barely even talk now *sniff* but yea during summer i'll be helpin her learn to play piano for worship. i've been to her house like... two times? hehe.. and everytime she asks me to stay for a while... in today's case the whole afternoon. we played this donkey kong game on super nintendo... it was so fun but i kept dying! and then we went to starbucks n got coffee and drank/talked outside. then i sent her home at like 3:40ish and said bybeye cuz i had to go pick up a bunch of pplz for some worship meeting thing at church. i was supposed to get andy liang (in walnut) then jessica yao then carol (at home)... and since i was coming from emilys house i went to get andy first... and on the way i passed by alun's house and thought to myself if maybe he needed a ride too. but i didnt bother asking anyone, since i was already sooo late. so i picked up andy then went to jessica's house, and guess who else was there? alun!! then he got on the car and saw my frapp and hes like 'o so you WERE at starbucks!'. it turned out he passed by starbucks while BIKING UPHILL all the way to jessicas house, and he thought he saw me, but figured it probably wasnt me, since he didnt expect to see me there at that time. poor alun... so anyways then i went home and picked up carol and went to church then came home for dinner. then i went to blessing n luia's mommy's house to practice worship with her team. (surprise surprise... drafted once again! hehe) actually the team is pretty much josh/gilbert/choe's usual worship team people, except with a different leader. o and their dog is soooo cute and obedient! haha ok taht was random... anyways thats all for thursday.

friday 7/2: very very exciting evening... remember that whole jam session thing that jacob was trying to plan? even though we didnt have much ready, we deicded to start today =). so far the team is just me (keyboard), jacob (bass), and dan (acoustic/vocal). i havent seen or talked to dan since several years ago when he left UCC, so it was really nice to see him again. actually we had our jamsession at his house, since he has a little studio room there. our first song was 'just the way you are'... took several tries, but we actually got through the whole thing. then we tried 'my life' and it was like sooo hard and we decided to save that til next week. then we did 'honesty'... pretty crazy vocal part... dan's gonna have fun trying to hit that high A. and yea i know all of these are like really really really old songs. but theres seriously so much for us to learn from them... and we already have a bunch of other songs in the queue. the only problem? at the end of this month jacob will be leaving for taiwan, and he can't promise his return. im definitely hoping he will be back, cuz i dont think i'll ever meet anyone else that can completely understand the way i feel about music and about car models and stuff... and i can see so much potential through our jam session... im definitely gonna practice hard so we can have at least one perfect song done before he leaves.

ok... now that i'm caught up with the present... here's wut happened TODAY! i had to wake up at like 7:30 today... but for a good cause. this morning was my first DRUM LESSON! yupyup im learnign drums dis summer! sam (the teacher) is really cool n nice... and he's soooo good! i never even knew there was scuh thing as professional drumset drumming until i watched him demonstrate. and rite now my hand/feet coordination sucks soo badly... i dunno why im suddenly so interested in drumming, but i really wanna get good at it... hopefully after my lessons are over i can be good enough to improvise on drums. yea i know... u prolly cant see me as a drummer. i cant see myself like that either. but who knows...

07/01: ok i'll admit it... yes there was a specific reason why i wanted to finish cleaning my room before yesterday... i simply want to wake up in a clean room on my bithday! =) yupyup... i'm now 19! (i know i'm old... go ahead and rub it in, cuz everyone else already did!) for those of u who didnt know, i've always kept a tradition of not mentioning my birthday until it's over. of course i definitely end up with less presents, but each one of those presents is soo much more precious when the person who gave it to me gave it out of his/her own will rather than because i asked for it. (by the way, i consider even the smallest things presents... even a happy birthday IM or something like that). this year was especially different, cuz i was a catalina for a whole week, and barely went online at all until yesterday. but the outcome was really surprising. so here's an overview of how i spent my 19th b-day.

tues 6.29: went to steph liang's house to pick up something very very special that she made for me - a cake!! its the first time anybody made me a cake, and it was sooo pretty and so yummy! and then at night my mom took me n carol out to my favorite restaurant - Red Lobster! i kept tellin her she didnt have to cuz it was so expensive n everything, but she still did anyways. (and we would have gone on my actual b-day, except i already had plans at night, so we pushed it a day ahead). i ordered the Ultimate Feast dish... it had shrimp n lobster n crab n everything.. soo good! of course its not nearly as big as the lobsters from catalina, but hey at least i finally ate one =)

wed 6.30: at last it's my real birthday... and i get to open presents! hehe... i usually save all my presents til my actual b-day, unless the person who gave it to me specifically asked for me to open it early. my mom gave me her present rite when i woke up - a portable car jumper / air pump / flashlight / 12v outlet, which i really really needed for my car. i went to pick up carol after summer school (at rowland) like i do everyday, and i got to see kat too! we were on da phone the night before, and she said she woudl come say hi to me =). then i took carol to lollicup to get our food n boba, and after getting home and eating, i went to my room and found carol's present sitting on the chair. its probbaly the strangest present i got this year, but i love it and i'm not gonna say wut it is until later =). so anyways... i spent the next few hours returning phone calls and IMs, and also opened all the rest of my presents n cards. stephenie gave me this shirt that says 'out of my mind, be back in five minutes!'... seems pretty suitable for me =). at about 4 i ate the beautiful cake she made which was still in the frige... then at 4:30 i went to meet jessica n crystal at life plaza! they were already sitting outside waiting for me, and jess gave me dis little bag stuffed with the white tissue thingy... and i opened it and there was a little fluffy doggie! she had a bigger version of the same doggie in her dorm room and everytime i wnet to visit i would play with it... and now i get my own too =)! we took a lil walk around the life plaza giftshop... then got boba (my 2nd boba today!) and sat there n talked. then we had dinner at some Hainan Chicken restaurant thingy... and then they wanted to have me try this icecream thingy called 'crepe' that i never heard of or ate before (when they first said it i thought they said 'crap'!) we wnet like everywhere but nobody had it... except the lollicup at hongkong supermarket... but they ran out of crepe or sumthin... so anyways we jus chilled until about 7... then said byebye and i went to esther's house! and the weirdest thing is that i didn't go for anything related to my birthday... its really strange how the whole thing happened - on monday i got a call from her dad asking if i could tutor her with school stuff and i said ok. so we were tryin to decide what day would be good, and i suggested wednesday night (since i knew i would be busy thursday n friday). so we decided on wednesday 7-9pm. and then later i went downstairs n told my mom, and she just stared at me... and i was like 'wut... am i supposed to do sumthin wendnesday night?' and i was all worried, cuz im always scared of doublescheduling... and my mom jus kept staring at me... and then finally shes like 'uh... its ur birthday?' and i was like 'OH!!' seriou5ly... i totally forgot about it! gosh im sOo stupid *smacks self on head* meanwhile esthers dad already told her that i was gonna tutor her, except she wasnt sure which night yet. so she got home and i was already at her house and i heard her outside yelling 'wHat?? u made calvin tutor me on his birthday???' (her dad obviously didnt kno its my bday) and she kept tellin me to leave and go home n have fun... but i said ish ok... so i stayed til like 9-ish... then i got home and my aunt/uncle came over, and later benben came over too. and then not long after they left, the clock struck midnight and *diNg!* my 19th b-day is over!

actually... there might still be a few more birthday-related events coming up... but for now i'm definilely more than satisfied. i got soooo much more than i expected... 30+ happy birthday IMs, phone calls, emails, etc... not including family n relatives. and of course, everyone made fun of me for being old. but carol, on the other hand, decided to make me feel YOUNG through her present. i guess i'll announce it now - its my favorite book... 'fox in socks' by dr. seuss!!! hehe... i'm really surprised that so many people remembered my b-day and made me feel special... thank you all for making this such a wonderful birthday! and dont think of me any differently just cuz im old! =)