04/30: current progress... theory homework - 100% finished. computer backup - 85% finished. transcribe song - 40% finished. overall better than i had expected... plus i went out to lunch @ malan after worship practice today, so i didnt exaclty work nonstop all day. thanks to everyone who understand that i'm really busy and did me a big favor by not trying to take up any more of my precious time. i would love to go out more like i usually do, but this stuff is clearly much more important at this point. so yea, i'm pretty sure i can have everything done by tonight. then i can start thinking about what to do with my computer. but anyways, i just felt like writing cuz its the end of the month, which means these past entries are gonna be archived. i guess thats why i posted so many car pics in a row... cuz once its archived theres not gonna be as many people clicking it. (its not like it really uses up bandwith anyways hehe). but yea, byebye april, hello may. hehe... for now, i'm going back to work on the song.

04/29: this weekend's theory homework is awesome cuz i actually found a CD of the symphony, and knowing my listening is MUCH better than sightreading, its gonna take me less than half the time to finish this assignment (its only friday and i'm halfway done =) ). so uMm... i spent most of the day working on my laptop... so far i'm actually ahead of schedule, meaning at this rate i'll be ready to let my computer get erased by the end of this weekend. yea i know, i did say a long time ago that i simply cannot stand having to reformat and would do anything possible to prevent it. but then again as you can tell, i've learned so much from spending a whole month without regular internet access, and right now i'm really starting to see the bright side of things (assuming all my files get backed up successfully that is... hehe... so far its doing pretty well). howard had to borrow my car to go to work this week cuz his car's in the shop. i specifically told him to not worry about the misleading fuel meter (theres a whole bar more gas than it shows, which is definitely enough for what he needs). then today i was going to pick up carol and i start the engine and the meter just started going up and up and up... to the top. i just sat there in the garage staring at it for the longest time and i almost cried cuz i was so surprised n happy. thank you soooo much howard =).

one other thing for people who dont remember - during the weekend, my cellphone isnt the best way to reach me. im sure everyone knows by now, especially people who call me often. the past few weeks i tried to be nicer and actually answered my cell, but immediately people started taking advantage of it and assumed my house suddenly has good reception, which is NOT true. for those of u who still cant understand, i'm NOT asking people to call my housephone because i'm being stingy with my minutes or because i'm too lazy to hold the phone... i'm only doing this cuz reception at home is really bad and i randomly lose connection after talking for a few minutes, and it really really bothers me when i'm trying to have a good conversation but know that at any moment i might get cut off. thats the only reason i'm asking people to call me at home. is it really that hard? for now i'm going back to not checking my cell at all unless i happen to be outside the house when it rings. ok, enough ranting about that... theres nothing much more for me to say. i'm on a crazy CD-burning spree right now trying to get all my laptop files to a safe place. i've never burned this many cds in one day before. but its all worth it. and somewhere inbetween all the computer madness i'm gonna hafta find time to transcribe a song for next week's concert (with jacob & gang)... i ONLY have the weekend to do it cuz without my computer i'm completely depending on my stereo & keyboard to do the work. wish me luck...

04/28: catalyst tonight was soooo great... speaker was simply amazing. same guy as last week, did a talk specially about um... sex. its really not an easy topic to preach on but his message was sooo great, and it definitely relates to everybody in the room. and of course, a powerful sermon is made even better by powerful worship. in my opinion this week's worship was the best ever... during those last two songs it was like *WOW*... very rarely does the music move me so much that i completely forget i'm standing on the stage (in case u didnt know, i tend to get VERY nervous on stage even now). so yea, that was really awesome. then went to ym room, ate my 'dinner', and on ym way downstairs to the lab i heard someone call my name but the entire hallway (2 north) was empty. sooo weird! haha... turns out thao was heading to her room in the other hallway but said hi to me and when i looked up she was gone. hahaha so i chilled in her room for a while, then we went to puzzles. and now i'm here at the lab. this past week i've been realy busy at nights and today i finally get a full 2-hour lab time =). got to catch up on lots of stuff, listen to music, enjoy my smuggled rootbeer and the breeze of my minifan =). so um... tomororw morning i'm going home as usual. and as u can probably tell by the past few entries, i no longer find it necessary to have my camera out on the freeway. so yea, i can just relax n talk with my mommy the whole time. hehe... this weekend i plan to spend most of my time at home, and hopefully i can finish having everything on my laptop backed up on CD so i can start thinking about how i'm gonna get it fixed. so yea, the hard drive is the only problem as far as i know. i can either (1) buy one and put it in myself (or if i get confused then im sure i can find someone to help me). or (2) have dell fix it for me. i heard they pay for shipping & handling... is that true? or did i have to pay extra for that when i bought the computeR? but anyways theres no need to think so far right now. i'm totally enjoying my life these days... literally spending less than two hours awake in my room every day and allowing myself to realize how awesome it really is to be at ucla. anyways... its 11 right now, so labtime is over. hehe... time to pack up and head back to my room. maybe i'll sleep earlier today. anyone up for breakfast tomorrow? i'll be there (rieber) at 9 =)

4/27: just got back from dinner @ hurrycurry to celebrate crystal's bday (sunday)!! its pretty late already so im not gonna be in the lab very long. but lemme sum up the day real quick.. breakfast w/ steph in the morning... gosh i love running into people during breakfast, its such an awesome way to start the day =). then practiced chorales/chord progressions and went to class. this weeks keyboarding and lecture are switched so today was severins class. i totally smoked the quiz =). first one to finish and it was only 2... but i stayed to improv for 20 minutes anyways hehe. still i got back to sproul really early, so i treated myself to a #3 smoothie (that was my lunch, along with a banana steph gave me hehe). my original plan for the afternoon was to finish up my essay (cuz i wasnt sure how long dinner was gonna take), but i got really far last night and only had a couple sentences to add, which would take no more than half an hour. so i um... went for a walk. to the corner of sunset and beverly glen. ok im sorry!! its not my fault the sun came out hehe. but yea, pretty much did the same thing i did yesterday, except i didnt cross the street and only stayed there for a little while. and there werent nearly as many exotic cars as yesterday (probably cuz of the weather... it was still kinda gloomy). but yea, i did take some nice pics, so lemme post them:

4/26: i'm actually reconsidering whether or not i really need to have my camera on my lap on the way home from school this week. but dont worry, its not bad news. its just that theres much easier ways to see nice cars and get pictures of them on the road. for example, today i brought my camera with me to theory class, and afterwards i went straight up Hilgard (to the northeast border of campus) and right on Sunset, which would eventually lead to Beverly Hills. of course i didnt walk out that far, but i stopped after a few blocks only cuz there was no sidewalk =/. (dun worry i'll eventually find a way around it). turns out that location was already good enough - intersection of sunset blvd and beverly glen / bel air (entrance to the millionaire neighborhood). and how did i know its good enough? within a couple minutes i saw a rolls-royce, a bentley, AND an aston martin. too bad there wasnt any place i could sit down and chill (well theres a tree, but sitting and standing really wouldnt make a dfiference). my original plan was to just stay out for like 20 minutes and enjoy exploring the area. i ended up standing under that tree for a whole hour. then instead of going back on campus i decided to keep walking west (along the north border of ucla) and stop at bellagio. that took almost another hour. hehe... yea yea i know im crazy, but i definitely enjoyed a long feast of great cars. took lotsa pics too, and i'll post up the most significant ones. right now im trying to remember exactly wut i saw. lets see... on average there was a porsche (996) every other time the light turned red. saw 4 continental GTs but thats not even a big deal anymore. hehe... saw a previous generation Continental, an Arnage, an Azure (dont see those very often) and a couple RR corniches (old ones). at one point i could see two maseratis and an aston martin (db7 convertible) all at the same time. what about ferraris? duh... haha, i'll start with two 360 spiders. it gets better from there, but i'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

04/25: sorry didnt have time to go to lab yesterday, so i'll do a huge update now. yesterday after church me kathie n ken went to eat phó and got boba (yum) hehe. after i got home rachel came over and me her n carol went bug catching! i still think its crazy that i enjoy helping people with bug projects even though its been 5 years since i did my own... the weather wasnt exactly the best, but at least it didnt rain, and we actually got a lot of bugs. found a cricket that was in a hole and pried it out and caught it, but it had this big chunk of stuff on its butt... maybe i caught it while pooping? =/ eww owellz... but yea i really do enjoy helping people with insect projects, so if anyone else needs help (i know its gonna be due soon) just lemme know early and if im free then i would love to help =). hehe anyways then at night came back to school, dropped by crystal's room to say happy bday and i got to meet junior, her new hermit crab! hehe... and then i went to yolanda's place for a few hours of intense music theory action with a big gang of classmates. hehe... so we have this insane 3-part homework assignment, and some of them needed help on the first two, and i needed help on the last part (which they had no problem with). perfect huh? thanks yolanda n kat for helping me out and/or waiting patiently for me to walk back to the dorms. and i actually got back early enough to sleep BEFORE my usual bedtime =). ohh one thing i gotta point out though (with no names mentioned) - you guys all know i love to help you on theory as much as i can... but if u call me at almost midnight the night before it's due and tell me you have no clue wuts going on, you're not gonna get wut u wanted. yes i know i procrastinate too, but only when i know i have enough time to finish the assignemnt. and if not, i'll face the consequences rather than dragging others into the problem. as a friend i wanna be there to help you, but not if you arent willing to help yourself too. so yea, enough said about that. moving on...

today: i just finished worship practice not too long ago... after practice we were moving the equipment back to 3S but it was past 9 and lydia didnt wanna swipe so we put her in the cart and covered her with a snaredrum and cymbal and we passed right by security easily. hahaha that was hilarious =). so anyways... it feels really weird being in my dorm room, cuz i decided to leave my computer at home this week (cuz theres no point of bringing it if im only gonna work on it at home anyways). but like i mentioned before, i end up with sooooo much free time... amazing thing is that i'm actually staying ahead in all my classes cuz i have so much time to do readings and so less distraction hehe. i think its great to keep my labtime at night, cuz it keeps things organized and also limits my time in front of the screen. the one downside is that i dont get to listen to music unless im in the lab (cuz my computer is my cd/mp3 player too). so in the afternoon if i wanna hear music, i gotta play my own. haha... it usually ends up being bach chorales though hehe. but anyways, with all these free afternoons coming up in the next few weeks, im really planning to use the time to 'maximize my college experience'... something i've always encouraged but still feel like i can do more of. that simply means get out of my room, explore the campus to see all the things it has to offer (i bet there isn't a single student that has explored EVERYTHING this campus has to offer hehe), walk around and meet people, say hi to my friends and enjoy great conversations, etc. and as crazy as this sounds, i'm actually planning to spend a whole afternoon carwatching. im starting to understand how fortunate i am to be living so close to a bunch of millionaires... so remember the geography project last year? (4/16/04 entry) my plan is to follow that bus route a few blocks off campus (with my scooter... but it should be the same distance as westwood)... find a place to sit down thats close to a traffic light, and hold my camera while studying or something. hehe... its gonna be lotsa fun. (and those of u who think its ridiculous to take pics of cars... in case u didnt know, automotive photography is an art of its own and is getting more and more popular.. theres actually books teaching u specially how to take pictures of cars). hehe but yea i admit im crazy. hopefully i can go carwatching sometime this week, but its supposed to rain so i dunno how many people are gonna be driving their lamborghinis in the rain. hopefully i'll find a good time. other than that, im supposed to have an english essay due thursday, so gonna hafta work on that too (additional labtime maybe?). well yea... thats about it for now. theres a bunch of other stuff i hafta do before i leave the lab so im gonna get to work. byebye!

04/22: i have no life. i see a nice car, take pictures of it, and even do research on it (thats how i knew all the color names). so about that bentley... i'm becoming more and more certain that it owner is hing wa himself, a super rich (chinese) guy who not only owns the chain of jewelry stores, but the entire plaza where i saw his car, as well as the plaza across the street. who knows, maybe the bentley is the cheapest car he owns. haha... anyways im jus writing a quick update about my laptop... i found out the hard drive is really really messed up, so im probably ognna hafta invest in a new one. (and my 70GB is definitely NOT cheap... so i guess its time to start saving money hehe). havent finished checking the rest of the computer yet... hopefully there aren't any other parts that need to be replaced. right now im desperately backing up the rest of my laptop onto the home computer to be burned on CD. and thanks to the kind ah-yee and shru-shru last night, i found out my laptop is still capable of being networked to the home comp, which means i can directly transfer my stuff. i sent a print job through the network earlier today while carol was sitting next to the printer and it totally freaked her out hehe. transfering files still takes a long time though, cuz i'm talking several GB of stuff, namely the stuff i've been doing on FruityLoops for over a year. if i lose that stuff then i know i'll be pretty close to wanting to jump off a cliff cuz i spent over a hundred hours (literally) working on them. but yea, so far everything seems safe. nothing to worry about. so um... i guess thats all for now. gonna sleep in a bit so i can wake up for sunday school tomorrow. anyone up for lunch after church? hehe... can u believe it? a whole weekend without really going out. i guess my schedule duznt fill up nearly as fast without AIM. hehe... but then again, a week without visiting the gas station saves me sooooo much money. and im really trying hard to save up a few benjamins, cuz first i need it for my computer, then i need to save up for summercon (cuz i had a really bad experience with last year's 'financial aid' and prefer not having to deal with it again). so yea, thats all for now. gonna go shower then sleep. bye!

04/23: got the bentley pics... here they are =)

04/22: its been a long long time since i posted car pics huh? i bet u all miss those hehe. so this morning i brought my camera with me to class as promised and left my room 20 minutes early to search for that Smart. and luckily i found it =). so yea, heres some pics:

04/21: i hafta admit its been a pretty awesome week... lotsa random ups n downs, but when i really think about it theres still so much to appreciate. randomly running into people to eat with me, great conversations i had with my friends, etc... so quick summary of today - writing class was so fun.. we got to draw pictures about poems we were studying... its like a high school class! =) and my group (me anthony n rita) is great too.. then on the way back i ran into kat going up bruinwalk and called her to tell her to look right behind her. hehehe we lunched @ deneve together and amy n shelly came to join us too. turns out amy and kat knew each other from high school!! thats so crazy! hehe anyways then i went back to practice my chorales while kat went back to 'practice sightsinging' (talk on the phone the whole tiem) haha... so yea, severins class was great too, i totally owned the quiz today!! cuz everything was only soprano and bass so it was really easy. and i was actually one of the first ones to leave (finally! didnt hafta wait forever in line just to do like one chorale hehe). i finished right before the line started getting long... it was hilarious everyone was getting confused over who's going after who (i say we get a sign-up sheet, will anyone second that?) and poor yejee was begging severin to let her play a stupid half diminished chord. haha.. ohh and next time someone remind me to bring my sustain pedal, cuz the one at my keybaord duznt work (but i like that spot so i dun wanna move away). i kinda stole the pedal from another station today... hope it wouldnt cause too much trouble hehe.

wow so this isnt really a 'quick summary' huh? sorry.. hehe so i got out of class like 45 minutes early and i passed by the people setting up for the book festival thingy this weekend. and guess wut the security guards were driving - a SMART CAR(the original one, a.k.a. "fortwo"). how cool is that? i've NEVER seen one of those before, not even in the auto shows! and they're not on sale in america... i wonder how it got to ucla. maybe from mexico? hehe too bad i didnt have my camera on me... im gonna bring it to class tomorrow morning and hopefully run into it again cuz its sooo cool! so anyways... then i realized i had the entire afternoon with nothing planned, so i decided to take a trip to the Secret Place... gosh havent been there in such a long time. but its nuthin to worry about cuz next year my room sooo close to it that i can go there like every day! so yea, stayed there for like almost two hours. then went to IV... soundcheck, worship, you know the routine. and now i'm here at the lab again updating my site like i do every night hehe.

ok one last thing before i shut up - believe it or not, this might be the last of my daily lab times. tomorrow morning i'm going home and my laptop will get surgery, and if it works then i can start going online in my room (both at home and school) again. if not, i'm screwed. but please pray that it does. ok anyways i'm finally done so i'm outta here!

04/20: u kno the saddest thing ever? some guy was selling a Ford Aerostar on ebay for ONE BUCK, with no reserve. and NOBODY BOUGHT IT. gosh if i saw it earlier i might have even bought it for the fun of it, and maybe even supe it up with cardboard bodykit hehe. but anyways, nothing too special happened today, went to class, in theory yejee dropped her pencil like 984324 times hehe. and lefko assigned soooo much homework this week =/. luckily denise saved my life once again by letting me borrow her book. thanks! =) i still dun quite understand the whole AABA thingy, someone please explain to me! anyways dinner was really depressing... i was kinda waiting for my usual dinner gang to call me to go eat, and then at 6:30 i gave up and went to eat myself (cuz they rarely eat any later than that). then i see like ALL of them file in one by one to eat together, and not a single person noticed me even though they passed by me a trillion times. weird huh? i dunno wut i did wrong... hopefully they just forgot. but yea, i dun wanna think too much about that. right now i need to get out of the lab and go back to my room to practice chorales for tomorrow. its not that hard this time but still needs a little practice. and i spent the last half n hour transcribing the Organ solo from Phantom of the Opera, so cant wait to try playing that. hehe ok well i guess thats all for now. byebye!

04/19: jonathan's piece is awesome... its like an insane atonal version of the bach chorales... and its soo ahrd to sightread! imagine trying to do that thing in solfege. hahaha so yea, rehearsal was awesome, i sucked but owellz, so did most of the class anyways. and we all got free pizza too =). i also got a little bit of free curry rice from jessica who got it from crystal who got it from her mom. hehhee it was soo yummy =) ohh and apparently crystal never saw my gray american eagle sweater before and she never saw me wear kakhis either. weird... hehe anyways, im just concluding my daily lab time with yet another update.. nothing much to say. so i couldnt get any of the computers with outlets for my fan today cuz these idiots were sitting there the whole time and not even using the computer the entire time. luckily it wasnt that hot today otherwise i would have died. owellz, i should come earlier tomorrow. hehe so wut else happene dtoday... *thinks* oohh lunched with richard =). future roomie bonding time. and margaret n lois walked right past me so many times n didnt even say hi =/ hehe owellz anyways, i'm gonna shut up now so i can get out of here.

04/18: as many of you have noticed, i'm slowly starting to get used to a fixed lab time every day... usually around 9PM to 11PM. kinda sucks cuz thats when the heater comes on. but my mini fan makes things soo much better =). so anyways heres an update on my computer - i called Dell last week and they said i could probably order individual parts, but im sure it would be freakin expensive, plus shipping... so somehow i decided to go check on ebay, and amazinly enough there was ONE PERSON selling an inspiron 8600 cooling fan, and it was a Fixed Price sale, so i bought it... spent less than 20 bucks total. but seriously, wuts the chances someone would sell a cooling fan for a computer model thats barely over a year old? so yea, the fan is waiting for me at home right now, so this weekend my computer's gonna have its first surgery. should be a painless process that takes less than 5 minutes, and all im wishing is that the fan is really the only problem, cuz i really really miss using my computer! i guess its a lesson for me to be more patient and treat my computer more nicely... and i promise i'm gonna try my best as soon as it works. hehe

so today during the break in theory class jonathan asked me to do him a favor and i agreed. ur not gonna believe it, i'm gonna SING! hahaha cover ur windows cuz they're gonna break! i have no clue why he asked me but apparently he needs a small choir for some song (i dun know wut it is... i think its his composition but im not sure), and i told him OK as long as its all group singing and i dun hafta do any soloing. so yea, first rehearsal tomorrow night. i just got his email, and apparnetly a lot of people from theory is in there too so its nuthin to be scared of. but i have NO IDEA wut to expect. hehe anyways thats about it for now. gonna go sleep earlier so i can actually be awake (physically & mentally) before writing class tomorrow. byebye!

04/17: SNU time... actually lemme start on thursday night - for the first time, i decided to give a one-hour extention to my strict bedtime, partly cuz i didnt have class friday, and also cuz it was yune's birthday!! we had a little party with cake n everything in her room at midnight... it was soo fun! too bad all that sugar kept me up like the whole night haha. owellz n then friday was pop show (see previous entry).. saturday i went to teach in the morning, and when i came home geuss was was on TV - an hour coverage from the chicago auto show! believe it or not, i actualyl sat down to watch TV for an hour. crazy huh? haha... n then in the afternoon i played some Orisinal games... i love that piggy stackig one. last week i tried getting the high scores and almost got it. apparently they reset the chart every week or sumthin, cuz suddenly the scores are lower, and i ended up getting first place! *soo happy* hehe anyways then at night went to worship practice with robert ricky n alun.. chilled downstairs for a while then i came back home. of course, spent a lot of time playing with the Phantom. too bad it was so hot today so i felt really sleepy the whole day and napped away like a whole hour. hehe owellz anyways then today - it took like half n hour to load all the gear on the car... n then went to church.. then it was time for the concert. so um, i guess it went pretty well. but there were a LOT of speedbumps throughout the afternoon... first it turned out jacob ddint come meet me at church as planned, so i had to write down directions on the spot and navigate my way to temple city. im usually good at directions, but thats cuz i make a map ahead of time and know my way around the area perfectly before i drive. so yea, i got lost and ended up at the 210 freeway, n then called jacob and he told me another way and finally i found the place. sam got lost too, except he didnt have a cellphone, so nobody knew where he was, and we actually planned on skipping the fast song and settling with the two easier ones - with NO DRUMS. and we were short one keyboard too, cuz SOMEBODY *cough* hehe forgot to bring it... and then right when it was our turn to go up, sam arrived (after wandering around cluelessly and finally finding someone to donate some money to use a payphone, but still ended up short 15 cents and too embarassed to ask for more change and somehow still found his way an hour n a half later)... the program was already like half n hour behind schedule, and they had to stall while everyone watched us frantically put together the drumset. but at least he made it, and we didnt sound all THAT bad. hehe... ohh and another problem - no lunch! somehow i can swear i remember an email saying lunch would be provided. apparently not.. hehe. and by the time we went back to ORTV to unload everything it was already almost 5, so i just said screw lunch cuz all i wanted to do was get home before rush hour (yes theres traffic on sundays too... stupid 60 freeway hehe). went home n ate a bunch of snacks, then had dinner right after that. so right now i'm very very full. im back @ ucla and ive been in this lab for over two hours. yes, that stupid mother of all heaters is still blaring, but im sitting in the far corner which means i got to smuggle a soda without the administrators seeing it, and also i have my super cool Brookstone mini fan in front of me, so thats keeping the temperature down a little bit. but yea, feels like ive been here forever already, so i guess i'll shut up and go back to my room now. byebye!

04/15: pop show was awesome, got to chill with a bunch of my rowland friends and watch a great concert. got to meet albert in person... before we only knew each other cuz we both post on ally's chatterbox hehe. if i was rich i would definitely donate some money to get rowland a new sound system with wireless mics that actually stay on, but still wut amazed me most was how everyone was able to respond to various technical difficulties and not let it affect their performance. i dunno... listening to choirs sing always makes me happy. so yea im in a good mood right now. and u wanna know something better? jacob's phantom x6 is spending the weekend at my house! so today before we left the office i volunteered to take home everything he wants me to bring on sunday (cuz its not all gonna fit in his car) so i didnt have to go pick them up at arcadia again before the concert. its a LOT of stuff, but half of it is in my room now. the phantom is such a nice keyboard... come on, how many synths out there have six different harmonica sound patches? haha... and after playing with it for about 30 seconds (literally), i was overcome by temptation to run to the garage and bring in the kc350 (amp) to enhance the sound. that thing is SO HEAVY!! haha but its all worth it. this afternoon i finished running a bunch of errands... haircut, post office, music store, everything... and carol was at school with nothing to do so i brought her along too... we got lollicup for dinner =). so yea, tomorrow im free the whole afternoon, which means plenty of time to play with the phantom (cuz after sunday its gonna be gone again =/). ok anyways, its gettin late and i should go sleep cuz i hafta teach tomorrow morning. so yea, goodnight!

04/14: woke up to some loud shouting this morning, looked out the window and saw this:

04/13: ok im kinda pissed off cuz i just closed my new entry without saving so now its all gone. i thought this kinda thing only happens with xangas... ok anyways, guess wut, eve is coming to ucla next year!! yaay! and serena n connie better decide to come here too hehe. but either way, im gonna end up meeting lots of freshmen cuz i'm in hedrick. so yea, hedrick 2 north, room 216. i doubt i'll have lots of visitors, cuz most people aren't willing to walk 5 extra minutes to see their friends. but if thats the case, i guess i'll walk downhill to visit them=). so anyways, today was pretty much busy work day, after class went back to my room and practiced bach chorales while doing laundry, n then went to computer lab to work on essay. but at least i got to eat breakfast n dinner with friends. so anyways its like 10Pm rite now and i just finished my essay... its due friday but i wanna turn it in tomorrow cuz friday's jazz discussion got cancelled so i dont have to go on campus at all =). anyways, tomorrow im gonna join the IV sproul dinner before catalyst for the very first time!! cuz i dun hafta be there for soundcheck... well actually im 'supposed to' play for gospel choir, but since they notified me with only two days to practice, i cant give them an OK cuz its simply impossible to learn the songs on time. (actually its more like 2 hours, cuz yesterday i was at rehearsal all day and today ive been doing homework and still have to go back n learn the rest of the chorales, and that leaves a little less than two hours tomorrow between class and soundcheck). and considering how much i know about gospel harmony, the only way for me to learn it is to transcribe the songs note by note and memorize them - it takes a good 3 hours per song. so yea, probably not gonna happen this time. owellz, at least i'm off the hook for one week so i get to join dinner =). the last time i checked the worshipteam was doing half of the worship set (acoustic guitar and vocals only) and gospel choir's doing the seocnd half. i feel kinda bad that i cant help out this time, but i really dun have a choice. if they expect good music, they hafta give me enough time to practice. so anyways, for now i think i should shut up and go back to my room to practice chorales for severin's class tomorrow, cuz both chorales are in like phrygian mode or sumthin weird like that, so its soo hard to learn. i better get started now. byebye!

04/12: *yAwN* imsoo tired i wanna go sleep but i wanna update at the same time. hehe... and its no use sleeping now cuz i know im gonna have Spyro Gyra songs stuck in my head and wont be able to fall asleep for a few hours. but hey, its all worth it =). i jus got back from the final rehearsal with jacob & our gang... amazingly enough we're actually almost ready for the concert. my part still needs some polishing, but thats probably cuz i practiced for about 5 minutes before going to rehearsal. so by sunday it shouldnt be a problem anymore. at least thats wut i hope.. gosh that synth solo is INSANE. hehe so anyways jacob picked me up at 3:30ish (after theory class) n then we went to ORTV to pick up gear, loaded a bass, big amp, keyboard stand, lotsa random equipment (cables etc), and THREE keyboards (yes three)... in jacob's CIVIC COUPE. cant believe it actually fit. then went to UCC to start setting up... so the whole church is at some conference thingy which means nobody has the key to turn on the AC for us. luckily satina ah-yee showed up to rescue us. ohh and we got Quickly's for dinner, and i had a boba. only problem? the person who bought it (im not mentioning names hehe) didnt get any straws. smart huh? haha... well eating boba with a spoon wasnt THAT bad.... kinda fun actually =). so anyways, we were REALLY good at managing time tonight... right when everyone got there we were ready to start cuz all the stuff was set up already (cuz jacob n i got there so early hehe), so we had a LOT of time to actually work on the music. gosh im starting to love this jazzy stuff so much its not even funny. im gonna be sooo nervous though, cuz this is my first concert with a jazz group (ok fine i'll confess that i actually memorized all the music so its not improv like its supposed to be. but dun worry i'll get there one day). so yea, the night totally flew by... when i got back tos chool it was 11:30 already and i just dropped off the stuff in my room and came to the lab. but of course, thanks jacob for the ride =). he just called me right now and told me he went on 101 west instead of east (on his way back home), and he made the exact same mistake earlier today when i was on the car. hahaha...

ok anyways, u know why im so desperate to update today? cuz i didnt update yesterday either. and why is that? well i didnt get back to my room yetserday much earlier than i did today. but again, its totally worth it. Cross COnnect was awesome... i wish they could have promoted it a bit more so more people would come, cuz it was such a great program. both of the speakers were awesome, probably some of the best outreach-related sermons i ever heard. so after class i went back to sproul, got my monitor, and went to ackerman for soundcheck. it was suppsoed to be at 3:30 but we didnt finish setting up until 5:30 haha... thanx to johnny for driving back n forth with all our equipment. only problem is that they forgot the keyboard stand so we went back to get it. and then while i was in the storage room mike called n asked me to grab the bass amp too. come on, did he think i could carry both things downstairs by myself? luckily i found a lil cart thingy in the room so i put it to good use =). ohh and u kno something so cool? mike showed me a secret about the ackerman grand ballroom. behind the curtains there's a steinway grand!!! its so dark back there but i could smell the dust just standing there... if nobodys gonna use it, i would love to keep it and put it to good use. or at least trade it with one of the crappy practice room pianos in schoenberg. ok anyways, enough about pianos. so yea, worship was awesome. Onion Flava reunited once again. and yes i was really nervous... first time being on such a big stage at school. it was fun though... n then at the end we had to load away all the equipment, and that took like wut, two hours? plus waking the stuff that wouldnt fit in the car up the hill to sproul. hehe... so yea, i was pretty dead by then. and at 11PM i finally went to eat LUNCH. ok well i had a little can of apple juice and a banana. but that duznt count... and gosh that clam chowder bowl from bruin cafe was the best thing i ever had! haha... seriou5ly though its the first time they gave me a totally fresh and hot one. so the bread was easily chewable and my fork didnt break when i stuck it inside (cuz it broke last time). hehe... ok anyways thats about it for now. its almost midnight, which means its time to get my butt back to my room and go sleep. hope i wont have TOO much jazz in my head... worst case i'll get up and listen to some techno on my computer to wash it out. ok fine, classical music. thats gonna work for sure. o wait, my computer's dead =/. owellz... im hoping to take care of the problem this weekend, so within a couple weeks it should be working again (depending on how long it takes to get the new fan if i have to order one). for now, im kinda getting used to coming to the lab every night. ok anyways, im gonan shut up and go sleep now. goodnight!!

04/10: (11:15PM) soo lefkowitz emailed everyone TONIGHT and told us that the page numbers for tomorrow's homework are wrong. great... luckily it wasnt some big crazy harmonic analysis otherwise i would have gone crazy. so i called kat and turned out she was with deena n yolanda doing homework, so i got to photocopy the music and join them until we finished. didnt take too long, they wanted me to play the thing on piano but i cant sightread for jack =/. but when i said i cant play heres deenas reply - 'you have to! you're a music major now!' ok, she got me on that one. all those bach chorales already improved my sightreading sooooo much and im gonna keep on working hard until i can actually read notes decently. hehe... then we went to bruin cafe - yolandas first time there!! too bad her bruin sub took about FOURTYFIVE MINUTES. but at least the person working was nice and felt kinda bad for us so she jus took the recept and gave us the sub. and now here i am at the lab writing this update... im not gonna stay long cuz i really dun want huge panda eyes when im on stage tomorrow. but heres one last thing before i shut up - and yes, its a BIG surprise.

are you ready? i promise im not gonna lie... and yes i already made up my mind so im sticking with it. here it is...

I'M LIVING IN HEDRICK NEXT YEAR.

when i told sara earlier tonight her first response was *speechless and shocked* followed by "what da hell!?!?" a few seconds later. i also got a lot of "why??"s and "no!!"s... but hey, i should be the one complaining, and obviously im not. honestly my biggest concern regarding location is cheap cost and good social life, in otherwords the res halls. i said i prefered sproul cuz most of my friends are there. but then again, i'll gladly come down and visit them whenever they want me to. these past couple years i've had awesome roommates, but i realized that my faith has become such an important part of my life that the one thing i want most in a roommate is someone who shares the same Christian morals and is preferably involved regularly in a fellowship, in this case intervarsity. so we will be able to attend IV activities together, be part of the same community, and at the same time be friends who live by the same standards. so yesterday night i was about to go sleep but i suddenly felt prompted to go sent out an email to the IV community to see if anyone still needs a roommate. and sure enough, lots of people responded and pointed to Richard - my current floormate. only 'problem' is that he's gonna be in hedrick. but then again, i already told God that as long as my roommate can be beneficial to my christian life, any sacrifice is worth it. and i've always said that i am not lazy and i dont mind walking far to go places i want to go. so i guess im gonna be putting my words to the test. we're gonna live on the hedrick community floor, which is another thing i really wanted. just to think about how many friends i might run into with during those 5 extra minutes of walking every day makes me feel like its all worth it. yes i do agree that i'm kinda crazy. but then again, i know for sure this is God's plan for me to step out of my comfort zone and take up a new challenge. its gonna be far, but if all the freshmen can do it, theres really no reason i cant, especially when i know that god's the one that put me there. so yea, tomorrow richard's gonna pick our room... either 2nd or 4th floors. it feels realy weird to suddenly realize that im not gonna be in the same building as most of my friends anymore... but dont worry, i'll come down and visit as often as you want me to. honestly, all i feel now is peace, the kind of peace that tells you when you did something right. i had many people i could ahve chosen as roommates, but i chose richard and i chose the long walk because ultimately this is the only way to get what i really need in college. praise god for finding me a great roommate and giving me a new schoolyear that i'm already looking forward to. hedrick here i come... =)

04/10: (6PM) im still at home and i guess i'll do my SNU now to save myself some lab time later, cuz im guessing they STILL didnt figure out how to turn off the heater that seems to automatically start working at night and roasting everyone in the lab. but anyways, about the weekend - mostly doing a bunch of work, but lots of fun work hehe. so first thing - im so glad that i finally found the problem with my computer - special thanks to jeffrey, who after hearing me describe the problem for about 5 seconds, immediately told me it could be a dead fan. and he was right. so this week i'll be getting in touch with dell to see how i can buy a replacement. for now, im pretty sure the coming week will be just like the past one - lab work every night to do updates. actually its gonna be a pretty busy week - tomorrow is the One Vision event "Cross Connect", which involves all the campus christian fellowships. im sooo excited cuz (1) Onion Flava is gonna reunite to lead worship (the closing set) and (2) its not everyday i get to play in the ackerman grand ballroom. this is gonna be the biggest crowd i ever played for at school and im so nervous hehe but i know its gonna be a lot of fun. so yea, its gonna be tomorrow 6PM @ the ballroom, if ur not doing anything then come! hehe...

ok and then tuesday - after class jacob is gonna pick me up and we will rehearse for sunday's concert. rewind to yesterday afternoon - rehearsal was awesome, especially cuz sam came to play drums... it made such a big difference... we're actually doing better than i expected, and most of the time was spent setting up and cleaning up, and trying to figure out endings for the songs that Fade Out at the end . hehe so anyways sam cant rehearse on saturday so we're gonna do tuesday instead. and after that its time for the concert! so details on teh event - its gonna be 3:00 sunday (4/17) somewhere in san gabriel. im not sure where yet. haha owellz...

waitaminit i forgot this is an SNU so im supposed to write about the past weekend. hehe ok so um... after practicing yesterday i stayed at church and worked on theory homework n then went to mcdonalds for dinner and to laugh at kathie cuz shes working there hehe. some guy ordered a pizza!! hahaha so random! ok anyways then went back to church at night to practice with alex shru-shru (nina n julia's dad). so yea, spent like 8 hours at church, and this morning i went there at 7:30(!!!). *yAwN* hehe it was a really fun worship set though, probably the jazziest set i ever played (not counting claymusic hehe). n then after service i went to maxim for lunch with kathie rose and people from chinese cell group. that plate of fried rice was soooooooo huge!! i cant believe i finished it hehe. and then i sent jason home and went home myself to start packing and finish transcribing music (cuz its gonna be REALLY hard to do that at school without a computer). so right now everythings ready and im jus chillin... and i think its about time for dinner (even though im not even close to hungry after that huge lunch), so i'll shut up now... byebye!

04/08: summary of yesterday - intervarsity is in a new room this year!! rolfe 1200... some people might not like it but i LOVE it... back in CS50 theres a big long table built into the front of the hall, and when we do worship we have to stand around that thing and its so annoying. plus i'm right behind it which means i cant hear the monitors, plus theres no room for a music stand. but now we have a STAGE!! i was so nervous hehe... i think this is my first time looking down from stage at ucla. and of course since its the first time there were lots of stupid technical difficulties that didnt exactly help us sound good. but its ok... hopefully next week everything will be fixed. ohh and i didnt have time for dinner, so afterwards when i saw chips outside i ate like almost a whole bag hehe... there was supposed to be some meeting for people that want to live in sproul next year but i kept going back inside to check and didnt see any meeting. which kinda sucks, cuz i still need a roommate for next year. im still gonna stick to my original standards and believe that god will provide the best roommate for me. but if so, thats gotta happen soon, cuz room sign-ups are like next week.

those chips kept me occupied for a while, which was a good thing, cuz when i got back bruin cafe was closed cuz sproul was having the fire drill. and luckily i missed it =). at least the evacuation part... thats the most annoying cuz it interrupts everything ur doing at the moment and u hafta fight through the crowd to get down the stairs. so i just went to puzzles, got a soda which was sooo good after all those chips, then went to the covel lab again. i went on AIM (express) for a few minutes only cuz i was desperate to find someone that had the book we need for this week's theory homework. and denise imed me right away and guess wut, she had the book!! so i went to her room and got the music and went to the deneve front desk to copy it. and the guy at the front desk was like 'lefkowitz right?' and i was like WHOA... haha turns out hes a music major too! hes already in 120C... thats insane i wonder wut they're learning in that class. ok anyways then went back to return denise's music, then went back to covel where yune was still saving my computer (we ran into each other in the lab earlier and were both staying there for a while). then i stayed at the lab til like 11:30ish and went back to my room to sleep.

fast forward 8 hours, and thats about when i woke up. hehe got a huge breakfast (giant bagel and omelette) and went to jazz discussion. theres like 5 people in that class hehe its a lot of fun though. im usually kinda scared of discussions cuz i dont talk much, but this is definitely one of the more interesting ones. i just gotta make sure i do all my readings before class hehe. anyways then finished class and went back, packed, and went home. and thats where i am right now, using the home computer to write this update.

soo how is the laptop doing? well its about 10PM right now and after a full afternoon of work, i finally found a way to successfully do a virus scan of the entire C drive. problem is no virii are found. and thats a huge problem, cuz then it must be the computer itself or maybe windows itself. next thing i wanna do is try and successfully defragment the whole thing, but thats gonna take a while. for now most of my important files are already backed up on this computer so im not all THAT worried anymore. but if i really have to settle for the r-word, theres still a LOT of preparation to do. anyways, i think im gonna take a break now and go transcribe some more jazz hehe... the computer problem is definitely hindering all the transcribing i have to do before tomorrow (jam session), but then again tomorrow morning i have a break from teaching piano, so it should give me a lot more time to do some last second work. hehe ok anyways im gonna shut up and get to work now. byebye!

04/06: its almost midnight and surprisingly enough i'm still at the lab. haha dun worry im not gonna be here long, cuz theres sumthin wrong with the AC and its sooooo hot i'm about to die. so yea, i'll make this nice n short. slept in an hour later today (usually i wake up at 8 but i didnt have class til 11), went to breakfast at 9ish and ran into steph! yup, breakfast buddies reunite! haha n then went to class most of the day, came back and chilled in my room/did work at the lab. ate dinner with vince swathi elena sara and ky, went to watch Sahara afterwards. gosh... remember back in the day when i used to go to every single movie screening? well i was kinda obligated to cuz of my 'job' hehe... but then i didnt have time anymore so i stopped going. havent seen a campusevents movie for like um... a whole quarter? gosh its been so long. and surprisingly enough we were almost at the way front of the line. and to make things better, the goodie table was full when i got inside. i came back with soooo much stuff, probably gonna put them to good use soon hehe. kinda sucks that i dun have a computer to use, but im pretty sure one or two trips to the lab everyday is enough to keep my sales going well. there were some technical difficulties so the movie started like almost an hour late... thats why im still here now, cuz i have an english assignemnt due tomorrow and i had to get that printed out. and while im here might as well update too =). ok i think i'm done... im sweating so much its not even funny, probably gonna go to puzzles to grab a free soda on my way back. but before i shut up, time to post some pics!

04/05: at the computer lab again... i just realized ive been in here for like almos tthree hours already and i told kathie im gonna call her in abotu 15 minutes so im gonna hurryt up and finish writing this thing. hehe so yea, today was really awesome, serena and connie came to check out ucla!! yea i kno theyre both super smart people that somehow made it into all the UCs, and all i need to do now is convince them berkeley sucks so they'll come here hehe. so connie booked a campus tour in the morning but when i called them after my writing class it turned out twhen they got here it was too late and they missed the tour, so they ended up hanging out with me instead =). so i gave them an unprofessional tour... walked aimlessly around campus telling them random stuff about each building and about the university. they wanted to see wut college lectures were like so we went to CS50 and the room was like completely filled with people and the professor was lecturing about stuff to bring for chem labs... and then connie the genius decides to bust out her camera and take a picture, not realizing the flash was gonna go off. hahaha it was so embarassing and funny... we ran off right away after that. so anyways then we met with their friend kelly who brought them to her room in deneve while i went to eat lunch and go to theory class. section with jonathan was awesome.. we got to sing outside again =). kinda embarassing tho cuz there was a whole mess of campus tours going on and they all stared at us. haha ohh and guess who was in one of the groups - serena n connie! luckily we werent singing yet when they passed by hehe. so anyways after class i realized how difficult it could be to hunt down a big tour of people even though i just saw them 15 minutes ago. haha... luckily with my scooter it was a LOT easier, but still took forever and i finally found serena n connies group at the wooden center. i jus kinda tagged along and joined the tour of my own campus hehe. after that we went to eat in ackerman (panda express)... gosh they waste so much food! haha i finished connies noodles and would have finished serenas fried rice too but she already threw trash in the bowl before i got to it. haha owellz next time i should take them to see the homeless people in westwood. yea yea i kno im jus makin them feel bad. hehe =) so then we wnet to check out another lecture but stayed for like 10 seconds... then went up to sproul - my room! hehe... then went to see stephs room (cuz they wanted to see sunset village)... then went down to the ucla store for a little shopping. then time for byebye =/. ohh and theyre so mean cuz i said i was gonna guess which car is serenas but then after i guessed right they still wont tell me! haha hey at least i got to ride in the celica back to sproul =). so yea... from wut they said, they like the campus. thats good to know =). and if they stayed longer i would ahve swiped them for dinner, cuz we all know our dining halls are soo much better than berkeley's right? hahaha ok enough about that... im biased cuz i got rejected from berkeley. haha but hey i helped serena on her personal statement and she made it =). lets see where they end up choosing to go. (ucla! ucla! hehe) ok ok i'll seriously shut up now. i dun wanna keep kathie waiting too long for my call hehe... byebye!

04/04: first day as an official music major - not really a surprise anymore cuz i already sent out mass emails thanking people for their prayers, and most people already know by now. so my first day isnt much different from before cuz i was already taking lotsa classes in schoenberg anyways. (yea yea i know, whatever happened to "The Journey Explicated - Coming Soon..."? dun worry im working on it)... so anyways met with betsy foster (school of arts & architecture counselor) this morning and went over my new requirements. surprisingly enough, i'm not behind at all , and i can still graduate in 4 years at my current pace. the more i think about it, the more i realize how amazing it is that i decided out of the blue to start taking theory early - i'll save details for the big entry though. hehe ok anyways i think i said this before, but one thing i love most about the music school is that its a lot like high school - especially theory class. same teacher, same class, and we're all excited to see each other after spring break. kat decided to play with my scooter before class and it was soo hilarous hehe... oh by the way yes i love my new ride, took a while to get used to though. its a lot smaller and lighter, but its so rigid (a good thing) that i almost fell... haha and that wheelie bar is prettty cool, im gonna learn to use it eventually =).

earlier tonight was the first meeting for the new 2005-2006 Intervarsity worship team... i love it just as much as onion flava... hopefully we'll come up with a cool name too hehe... and im soo not used to how long practice is cuz by the end of last quarter we barely practiced at all. ohh and at the end lydia was trying to wind a cable and accidentally tied it around her own arm and couldnt get it off!! hahaaha so afterwards we wnet to chill @ bruincafe, and we just left about 5 minutes ago, and now i'm here at the covel computer lab writing this thing. so um... about my computer. its still in really bad condition, and i dunno wuts wrong. basically now it works perfectly for the first 5-10minutes or so, then starts lagging worse and worse and eventually gets the blue screen of death (physical memory dump). so during the first few minutes i can go online and do everything i usually do, except im probably not gonna use it cuz im afraid it will get worse and i dont want to risk it dying on me until i get home this weekend and finish backing up all my stuff. so for now i think the plan is to come ot the computer lab once a day (twice if im really desperate) to check email and/or update homepage. as for the pictures i need to post (virginies bday, carols bday, beach with jessica, maybe ucsd trip if i get the pics), those are gonna be postponed until further notice. if u kno a lot about computers and can help, please let me know cuz im pretty desperate here. hehe thanx =). ohh and i think i was gona post a pic of my renovated dorm room decos too... i can probably do that sometime this week if i remember. so yea, thats about it for now. theres a little more stuff im trying to finish in my room and i have just about enough time to finish before going to sleep. so i guess i'll shut up now. byebye!

04/03: amazing that i'm even online right now... after so much fun, spring break came to end with my laptop nearly dying... i still dun know wuts wrong but its in really really really bad condition, and hopefully i can either fix it or have all my files backed up before it dies, otherwise i'll be seriously screwed. so anywyas, went to lunch @ q noodle with ken today... gosh havent been to that place in soooo long, i love it!! =) jeff yen came over in the afternoon... i feel kinda bad cuz we didnt takl much cuz i was so worried about fixing my computer. at least i was able to back up about half of my stuff onto the home computer already. but still, the other half is just as important. anyways... back at school right now, but dun be surprised if i dun update often or if u dun see me on AIM much, cuz obviously i'm gonna let this compute rest as much as possible. yea i kno it scuks, first week of school with no computer. really really sucks, i hate to begin my new life like this, but owellz. on a lighter note, im definitely looking forward to this quarter - so far my classes are english 4w, history of jazz, and theory 20c. might add a 4th one if i feel like. but anyways tomorrow morning is my appointment with the arts&architecture counselor. so you know what that means right? if u wanna call me a nerd, do so before 9:30AM tomorrow cuz it will be your last chance. hehe... and turns out the office is at kinross building south, thats like on wilshire!!! but that means i get to put my new ride to the test and see how it performs compared to my old one. hopefully i get there in one piece haha j/k dun worry i will =) anyways thats about it right now. its almost midnight, and i jus got back from chillin at covel with yune vince swathi kitty n sara. we got food at bruincafe and randomly picked a sutdy lounge to chill at. haha but some of them have 8:00AM classes tomorrow. lucky me, no class til 11. but still, i better be ready for that meeting at 9:30. so yea, time for me to get ready to sleep. goodnight!

04/02: just got back after a very long stay at the hilltop... another great day was about to end, and as spring break itself reaches its very last day, i simply wanted to spend some time reflecting on the past and praying for the future. i got to spend so much time with family and friends, went to many places i didnt think i would go, saw lots of people i didnt expect to see, and witnessed god's miracles in my own life. so maybe a few things left me very disappointed... but im glad to say that the one thing that bothered me most in the past few days is now no longer a problem. soo... today was a typical saturday - went to teach piano, jam session, etc. ohh jacob got a new synth - roland fantom x6... small model but awesome sound, especially with a great amp. i had sooo much fun playing with it. we were eating lunch and watching this really good live concert video, and the bassist (who jacob loves) is this fat black dude, n then tzufang comes in and shes like 'wow who's that gorilla?' hahaha how sad... she called the band a zoo cuz the other guy looked like a rooster haha soo we made some more progress today, next week sam will come join us so we'll actually have drums =). ohh and i found out how big of a difference it can make to leave the ORTV office (arcadia) before 4... traffic is sooooooo much better! so yea, made it home really quickly and just sat at the computer and chilled...

didnt sit there for long tho, cuz then i got a phone call from... *drumroll* jeff ho!! he was going to dinner with anna n karin and asked if i wanted to join. i asked where, he said its by 99 ranch, so i said sure. (karin already asked me to hang out with them, except i said i wasnt sure, cuz i really didnt wanna go all the way to fullerton after already driving from arcadia). they were already there so i left right away and i was at the parking lot and called jeff and realized they were at the haciena hts 99 ranch! hahaha gosh im so stupid, jeff told me its the azusa one and i totally heard it wrong. but since i was already out, i wasnt about to turn back. so yea, dinnered at tokyo lobby with three friends that i havent seen (and almost never talked to) for the longest time. moments like these always make me happy, cuz then i realize that even though i only have so few friends from high school (and didnt meet them til senior year), our friendship is able to last even though we dont see each other often. so we finished eating then went to SF supermarket haha... apparently anna says theres a difference between yams and sweet potatoes. i cant tell haha so anyways in the parking lot before i left i was like about to cry cuz i dun kno when im gonna see/talk to them again... but at the same time i was sooo happy, cuz i kno they didnt forget me =). so yea, we're gonna keep in touch and hopefully hang out more often. and it was that joy that made me think about how amazing this whole spring break has been, and prompted me to stop at the hilltop before going home. i guess i sometimes abuse the prilvege of having such a nice place to run to all the time, but that place means so much to me, because everytime im there god speaks to me and calms my heart. tomorrow night i'll be going back to school, ready to begin my life from a new perspective. ohh and one more thing - serenas gonna visit ucla on tuesday!! *soo happy* hehe i cant wait... so yea, thats about all i have to say. thanx everyone for makign this such an awesome spring break. and to all my school friends, lookin forward to seeing u again soon! =)

04/01: sorry, came back really late last night so didnt have time to update. ucsd is awesome, i totally love the campus, it makes la looks like a mess hehe... got to see a bunch of friends and meet new people too, and i even ended up taking a late-night campus tour by myself. well that wasnt exactly intended, but i managed to enjoy myself anyways. ok so i'll be honest, things didnt go nearly as well as expected. dun get me wrong, im very very satisfied with having the opportunity to go all the way down to SD and getting to hang out with a bunch of my friends. but i was also hurt really badly, and it left me very confused about whether or not people actually wanna be my friend. i dunno wut i did wrong, all i tried to do was keep in touch with a friend that i might otherwise not talk to for a very very long time. you guys know me well enough- all i want is honesty, even if it hurts, cuz lying only makes it worse. just a few days ago i heard a voice over the phone so excited to be able to see me again. after traveling an hour and a half to get there, i barely heard any voice at all - 'i added another class', 'my phone broke', whatever... i try my best to accept every apology, but it hurts me even more when i start feeling like people are intentionally trying to avoid me. 'sorry, bad reception, i'll call you later'. apology accepted? yes. did the call ever come? no. and its a safe guess that its not gonna come until somday when i make another attempt to revive this dying friendship. so anyways, the fact is that i already traveled so far, and that i couldnt do anything about the situation. and i feel really bad for complaining, because the truth is that i did have soo much fun with all the people i did get to see. met a bunch of cool friends on the car, had lunch and dinner at the dining halls, and visited a bunch of friends that i dont see very often. even ran into some ucla/church people hwo were also visitng! at the end we all went to this one mexican restaurant thats supposed to be REALLY good (cuz its close to the border! haha)... and even though i dun like mexican food, ken was sitting next to me and the smell of his frenchfries totaly got me hooked and i fell in love with it too. hehe anywyas thanx everyone for making me feel so welcomed and loved... all in all i must say this trip was definitely worth it. but i just wanna use this as a chance to tell my friends that one of the most important things i ask of you is to be honest. i know that there are people who might think im weird or annoying or stupid, because honestly i feel that way about some people too even though i'm not any more perfect than they are. if you think i talk to you too much and want me to shut up, then dont pretend you like talking to me - just tell me to back off and i'll do it. of course its gonna hurt, but it gives you what you want, and it helps me know my mistake and learn from it. and thats what real friendship is supposed to be about. so please, if you care about me at all, dont make me go through this kind of pain...

so anyways, right now i guess i already got over last night's problems, and in fact i'm in a really great mood. woke up at like 11 (i havnet slept in this late all springbreak, but its only cuz i got home at like 2AM yesterday. not a big deal though, it was totally worth my time =) ), chilled at home for a while, then picked up jessica and went to South Coast! its funny how girls are always afraid of me getting bored while they shop... i actually enjoy walking around the mall and watching people shop. i guess its sumthin every guy has to learn to get used to eventually, kinda like girls have to put up with guys talking about cars and video games all the time. hehe. but yea, i dun get bored shopping at all. jessica taught me so much about skin care stuff hehe so theres this one kind called 'the greatest love' and it sounds cool so i tried a sample and turns out its this wierd sandy scrubby thingy that was stuck all over my hands haha... i was like totally freaking out. gosh im stupid haha owellz anyways then we had like an hour left before heading back and jessica, being random as usual, decided to go to the beach! i figured since we already came so far it wouldnt hurt to drive another 10 minutes, but we didnt have directions so we just randomly circled the city... we ended up at UCI haha too bad they're not in school yet or i would have stopped to say hi to people. so anyways we miraculously ended up on PCH and found the beach. its so great, after a hot day it wasnt too cold, and people were leaving already (it was just before sunset) so parking/traffic was no problem. so we just walked around teh water, took a few random pictures, and left. haha... so random yet so fun =). i think this is my first time driving to the beach (i walked back to the car barefooted and luckily my feet dried up so i could put my shoes on hehe). and then what i originally thought would be the worst part of the day - rush hour traffic all the way back to walnut. turns out it wasnt all that bad, and we actually made it back in 45 minutes. jessica had to get back cuz she was eating dinner with her family, but guess wut... i was invited too! =). that was just as big of a surprise as going to the beach... we went to souplantation, got to meet michael (jessicas brother) and their parents... i saw them before but didnt really get to talk until today. ohh and afterwards michael was talkin with some friends he ran into, and jessica n her dad were outside taking pictures of him! hahaha it was hilarious =) anyways thats about it for now. its almost 1AM and i should go sleep so i'll be awake while teaching tomorrw morning. and of course, another long long drive to arcadia tomorrow - hope the traffic wont be THAT bad... ok well im gonna shut up now. goodnite!

03/30: went downtown to shop today, bought a bunch of stuff... took a lot longer than expected and iw as soooo tired but ishok cuz i easily fixed that problem with a nap. hehe... went to tgi fridays for dinner to celebrate carol's bday =). she got a gazillion balooons, too bad they didnt tie them to her ears haha. took lotsa pics, probably gonna post them up soon. ohh and the waitress suddenly started speaking to us in chinese!! hahaha gosh its too easy to tell if we're in rowland hts or not =). so anyways we came back n had cake them went to steph n bens place to chill... watched 'around the world in 80 days', and now it just passed midnight and i just said happy bday to carol so im gonna go sleep, cuz tomorrow i'll be at UCSD all day! cant wait to see all my friends there, some that i didnt get to hang out with for over a year. gosh im so excited i dun think i can sleep tonight. owellz haha i'll shut up now. byebye!

03/29: two big announcements... first- i'm still on the IV worship team next year! i was really not sure if they wanted me for another year cuz mike said we needed to talk about it first but we never did. my prayer was simply that if everything i needed to learn from this experience was already learned, then i would be more tahn willing to give my position to someone else who needs/wants it more, but if my work with the team isn't complete yet, then i would be willing to serve another year. and turns out i was called to serve another year =).

second big announcement - a very big change of plans - i'm still going to UCSD!! turns out we're gonna celebrate carols bday tomorrow instead, so thursday i'll be free. plan is to arrive in the afternoon and stay til night.. i already told most of the people im gonan visit, but if i forgot anyone please remind me cuz its not everyday i get to go to SD! hehe...

soo today went to lunch with rowland buddies again... ate at carls jr n had a grea ttime. spent most of the day building a new shelf for the garage. once everything gets on there the garage is gonna feel so much bigger! =) but then again theres sooooo many spiders.. so scary! =/ im always walking around with a bottle of poison (antspray) hehe.. went shopping with mom and carol in the evening. and yea... thats about it. seems like most of the week is pretty much filled up now. im definitely satisfied =). ok i'll shut up now. byebye!

03/28: Journey Update #6:

It's been over a year since I began the journey, and at this time last year I was on the ground mourning helplessly after bring stripped of my belongings. It was through that humbling experience that God opened my eyes and showed me the way to the castle. A year later, I am still learning the same lessons. But now I have become so much stronger and much more willing to accept the challenges God has for me. And I have seen enough miracles to know that there is no need to fear, because God is always faithful. There are still many battles I have not won, but I have fought long enough to understand that even though some battles can last a lifetime, victory is not impossible. Today the long-awaited moment finally came, when God told me that I have fought hard enough to bring this journey to its close. I received the letter I had been waiting for, letting me know that I have been accepted as a member of the village and will soon become one with my heart.

And so after a year of longing, praying, and fighting, this journey has finally reached its end. Soon I will enter the castle again to be reunited with my heart, and countless people and angels will rejoice over this victory. Looking back at the path I took, I remember when God once told me that even though the journey would be full of obstacles, everything would work for the good of my victory if I trust Him. And time after time He has proven Himself faithful. Everything that happened in the past year - all the friendships and the fears, the smiles and tears and countless emotions - unite to complete an incredible story of faith and love. Now that this village has become my home, and my heart a guide, I will wait and see what adventures God will lead me to next. As suddenly as this journey ended, a new one will soon begin, and there will be many more to follow. This past year has been very long, yet it is only a small piece of the journey of my life as a whole. I know that there will come a day when my mission in the village is complete, and I will be called to travel once again to new and unknown places. This journey is only a glimpse into what the rest of my life is all about - facing obstacles to grow in faith, and giving up my pride to let God lead me to places beyond my dreams. Each journey will be increasingly harder, but same God who places me at the start will lead me to the end, and with each new adventure I will become stronger in faith, love, and whatever other lessons I must learn. Then one day when I have fought every unfought battle and traveled every journey, God will open the doors to his own kingdom, and I will live there and rejoice forever.

(The Journey Explicated - coming soon...)

03/28: (evening) summary of the day - went out to lunch with esther ally n tanya... we went to kfc even tho ally n esther went to get other food haha... we chilled there until their lunchbreak was over (they were at drivers ed class). we had so much fun we might actually go again tomorrow hehe... and then afternoon i went to brea mall with mom n carol.. did lotsa shopping.. and now im back at home. mom just went to get the mail and there was some cool surprises for me. im gonna write about one of them - a big box from colorado waiting outside the door...

03/28: (morning) soo its spring break =). i really hoping the week is gonna eventually fill up cuz theres so many people that i dun really get to hang out with durring schooltime (and so many people that i wanna chill with anyways even tho i see them during school too hehe).. so if u have any plans pleez dun hesitate to at least invite me =) hehe ok so anyways as some of u mite have noticed, i've actually been going online!!! the internet here is working a LOT better than before, but still has some problems. im gonna go on AIM once in a while just cuz i dun wanna completely lose contact with a lot of people during spring break ... but if i suddenly stop responding then chances are i got kicked off, so pleez forgive me =/. and apparently most of the internet problems tend to happen between 7PM to 10PM , so that would probably be the time im gonna try to avoid signing on.

one other announcement - i really hate to say this, but the UC San Diego visit is cancelled forever =/. im supposed to go with ken and weve been trying to go since last year, but hes going on carol's bday which i kno i wanna stay home for, so yea... probably not gonna be able to visit anytime in the near future. im sooo sorry...

ok now to end on a happier note- so yesterday denise asked me wut grade i got in theory last quarter and i gave ther the usual 'i didnt check yet'... so then i went to check. ok so uMm remember near the end of 1st quarter (theory 20A) i kinda set an impossible goal for myself that i lost hope in after taking the final? well umm i guess even impossible things can happen once in a while. i thought the final this quarter was really really hard, but apparently i aced it and ended up setting the curve (is there a curve? if so, im sorry! *angelic smile*)... and wut about my grade for the class? take ONE guess =). (if u really have no clue, my 'impossible' goal is in the 12/08 entry)... so yea, i saw it and i was like *GASPP*. until i began taking theory i have completely forgotten how it feels to be encouraged and motivated by my own grades (i havent felt good about my grades since middle school). now finally i get to have something exceptional =). the only question left - am i gonna end up in a major where this class actually counts? we'll just have to wait and see....

03/27: someone please tell me what da heck this is... (its sitting in front of the Concourse plaza) it's so big that it frightens me.. and apparently it causes traffic on the freeway cuz everyone slowed down to look at it

03/25: imagine yourself being beat up by a bunch of gangsters, and just as you're about to give up, a friend comes and pulls you aside and fights in your place, and gets beat up so badly its hard to look at him without feeling disgusted. what would you say as you watch your friend suffer for you? imagine what would happen if he dies...... these are the things flashing across my mind while watching a clip from the Passion of the Christ earlier tonight. i have to admit i never gave jesus's death on the cross enough respect, simply because its such a difficult concept to grasp with my mind. tonight i went to RHCCC's good friday service and remembered once again how difficult it is to watch the movie without turning away. as i was debating whether or not to shut my eyes, that was when i thought of the gangster scenario - i should be the one suffering, and every ounce of pain that jesus suffered was done for me and totally undeserved. i forced myself to watch the entire clip, and even so i still shut my eyes occasionally. but the reason i made myself look at the blood was because the person on the screen is not only some supernatural god that can save me, but also my friend who is suffering for me.

well-planned good friday services like this are always among the most incredible church experiences, and an awesome time of fellowship afterwards only made it better. originally it was carol who wanted to go cuz her friends were there, and eventually i decided to go too (mostly cuz emily said shes going too so i knew i wouldnt be a total stranger hehe). last time i was there was for a priase night in summer 03 when i played with the Prodigals. and some people actually still said i look familiar. so yea, i ran into a BUNCH of people i know... and all from the randomest places too. saw lois who met me once(!) when i visited the DBHS christian club picnic thingy last year and still remembered me. met tiffany who said i looked familiar but wasnt sure why... now i remember it was cuz last summer i brought emily to pick up carol from summerschool and she went to say hi to tiffany (also at RHS with carol) so i met her for like 2 seconds. also very surprised to see martin (from troy and from carltons music school)... so apparently he's at ucla too and i never ran into him there. and the most surprising of all - i was at the refreshments place and ran into Abraham from lefkowitz' theory class!!! he was like 'hey you look familiar' and i was like 'you look familiar too' (thats wut ive been saying to everyone all night haha) and then when we realized how we know each other i was like *GASP* haha... so turns out he used to go to UCC a longlonglong time ago and left during the trailer days. so maybe we actually knew each other before! haha so yea... all this plus chillin with my friends that i already knew and also meeting new pplz. and i was afraid i would be lonely.. haha but yea its past midnight and i should seriou5ly be sleeping cuz i gotta teach tomorrow morning. and the first jam session practice is tomorrow too! i cant wait... we're doing three spiro gyra songs and its really hard but still gonna be so fun. hehe... so yea anyways i'm gonna go sleep now... goodnite!

03/24: Journey Update #5:

In preparation for my third encounter with the robber, I went to an isolated place outside the village to pray and seek wisdom from God last night. I must confess that my bitterness toward my enemy had prompted me to make an effort to plot my revenge, and I knew that unless I offered those plans to God, he could not teach me to love. I spent a long time in meditation and prayer, and finally understood that the robber was not my enemy; he could take all he wanted from me and it would not matter. But my true enemy was the bitterness inside me, because what I was unable to face was the shame and humility involved in the process. I knew that in order to accept my heart from the castle, I would have to learn this lesson, because the rewards of this journey are far greater than what I deserve for my constant lack of faith and love. With these things in mind, I took out my written plans for possible revenge, which I had brought with me to the isolated place, and after the Lord's prompting, burned them in his presence.

Early this morning, I went to meet the robber. He was no longer an enemy to me, and I was able to approach him confidently. As God had promised, I lost nothing that was essential to the completion of the journey. The meeting was a very short one, and I left satisfied. Earlier this week I found out that there is still a chance that this may not be our last time seeing each other. But even so, my plans for revenge are already in ashes, and I will not allow myself to begin a new one. For the lesson of love, I am willing to give up anything, because love encompasses every one of the smaller lessons I have learned and am still learning now through fighting all these battles. Now that my spirit is at peace, I pray that this peace will remain in me, and not be overshadowed by my true enemy ever again. I have passed the final test, and all I can do now is continue to have faith and wait for my final reward.

03/23: theory final was actually pretty hard, and for the first time i was actually worried about the clock (it took me 2 and a half hours)... i think i did pretty well though so no need to worry. i just got back from dinner with yune elena n vincent - the last dinner of the quarter. its funny how no matter how long a quarter seems, at the end it always feels like its too short. i would take the time to write my quarter reflections like i usually do, but i basically said it all already in the journey updates (and yes, you can expect one tomorrow for sure). and mentioning the journey... yes i'm very very scared right now. and i know its gonna get worse later in the night. but its ok... tomorrow its all gonna be over, and i will officailly be on spring break =). as you may recall last year's spring break turned out totally different from wut i had planned. as much as i've learned from that week, the truth is that i really dont want to lock myself in the house for a whole week, and if i have the choice i'd much rather go chill with all my friends and enjoy the break. right now i think i'm finally on the winning side of my fight for love, and i dont think theres a need for me to lock myself up again at this point. and for those of u who knew about last year and also know wuts going on tomorrow, isnt it just amazing the way god lets me start off spring break each year? hehe... i still dont consider it an official 'break' until after tomorrow morning, but the truth is theres really nothing to worry about. and what i really want to do is hang out with my friends like i had planned, but at the same time constantly remind myself what it means to love. so yea... if u wanna do anything during break, please dun hesitate to invite me =). my week (weekdays) are basically all open right now and i look forward to filling them one by one. ok, time to start packing cuz i'm about to go home. im gonna go to bruin cafe in a bit and use up my LAST TWO SWIPES to get smoothies for me n my mom when she picks me up (shes on her way already). next quarter i think i'll start treating myself to drinks a little earlier... 30 premiere is great but i would probably prefer just 20 with an additional couple weeks. so yea... i think i'll shut up now. everyone else that still has finals, good luck!! as for me, i'm outta here!!

03/23: enjoying my #14 (vanilla) while finishing up my essay. i have all the BSing done, now i just need to come up with a thesis to connect all the crap. haha... so yea, hopefully i'll finish in the next half n hour or so. anyways to sum up this week so far - dinner gang prretty much became dinner & lunch gang this week hehe monday we went to HEDRICk again!! wow im so glad my friends are not being lazy anymore =). yesterday during lunch we somehow started talking about those lil '10 best ways to waste your extra swipes' papers in the dining halls, and they said they thought i should read it. wel lguess wut... I WROTE IT. hahahaha that was just way too funny =). anyways then the comp lit final - dun think i reall yexplained it clearly, but because of tomorrow morning, i had to reschedule my final which is supposed to be tomorrow (which is actually a good thing cuz now i get to go home a day early). luckily the professor/TA was really nice about it... so jordan wrote an alternate final just for me. pretty scary actually... taking a final alone with my TA in a little room on the top floor of royce hall. and halfway through it started to rain like crazy. and then a few minutes later there was some kind of organ recital downstairs so i got to listen to a lot of frightening music.. hehe then ran through the rain and yea you know the rest. last night kat came over to study theory... i finally STARTED studying haha and no im not gonna ace the test without studying... its not THAT easy. plan for today is to finish my essay by lunch, then study afterwards for a couple hours and then take the test and get it over with =). ohh and one last thing before i shut up - yesterady during lunch i bumped into kay... remember the last time we met? it was in the practice rooms the week before auditions. and guess wut... she made it!! and did i? um... pretty much... but then again im not gonna start celebrating until i get the official notice. and if the Journey is progressing the way i expect it to, i should be seeing that notice very very soon =)

03/22: complit final is over =). for those of u who want some really really good stress relief, try walking from campus to the dorms in this weather with just a t-shirt. i tried and it works =). actually i didnt have a choice... but it left me with no choice but to enjoy it. and i did =). and i was singing n dancing cuz nobody was looking haha... so yea um... i had a 2:00PM final. how special is that!? everoyne else is either 8:00, 11:30, 3:00 or 6:30. and i get 2PM... and im the only one in the whole school taking that test. gosh i feel special haha so yea... i'm soaked and i dont plan on changing. hey its realli not that bad once ur used to it... feels like i just took a shower, and plus my hair's all spiked by itself. haha ok why da heck am i writing about all this? i still have a final otmorrow and gotta finish that essay too. so um... anyone wanna study theory? dont come running for help an hour before the test hehe... ohh one last thing - i bought my new ride this morning! its almost identical to the jdbug... also made by sharper image and based on Razor platform with front suspension (its red too just like my old one). down side is that it was a lot more expensive than i had hoped - $36.95 total (with shipping and everything). thats like 10 bucks more than the last one. it was so hard deciding whether or not it was worth it. i figured the last one could have lasted a lot longer if i didnt crash it last year =/ (cuz thats when it started having problems)... and besides i bought it used and it was already in pretty worn-out condition. this one actually looks a lot newer in the picture, plus it comes with some cool accessories (wheeliebar, shoulder strap and carrying bag). so yea... should be getting it in the mail over break. hopefully its worth the money. hehe ok anyways i'll shut up now. time to treat myself to some tea (bruin cafe not open rit enow =/) and get back to work on that essay.

03/22: just got back from breakfast... there was this crazy humongous mushroom in my omelette... its like as wide as my glass of juice. took up like half the omelette haha ok aynways still workin on that stupid comp lit essay. got a LOT done yesterday, and now im just chillin and studying (final at 2PM)... prolly gonna finish up the essay after the test (cuz all the crazy analysis stuff will be fresh in my mind then). soo um... i have like 16 swipes left. any takers? haha... im gonna go down to bruin caffe in a bit... i think the swipers there already recognize me cuz im pretty much living there now. and i almost memorized the whole list of smoothie/iceblends in order. but yea... all that said, finals week is still full of unexpected (and unwanted) ups and downs, not for my academics but for the crap that i hafta face on the first day of spring break. im takin ga lot of time to think about how this corresponds with what happened last year (i know there MUST be some connection), but wut really really worries me is that the situation now is a lot more complicated than it was supposed to be. it looks like theres only one way out - complete surrender: not to my enemies, but to God who will give me the ultimate victory. the more i think about it the more i realize its really not that big of a deal. i already know the solution - its just that i'm not strong enough to accept it. and i know that this is the perfect week for me to learn and grow, because after the fighting will come a victory so great that every battle in the past becomes insignificant. so yea... whether or not you know the situation, please pray simply that i can have peace and wisdom and not worry too much about it. for now, im gonna shut up and end on a happy note - ive been spending a LOT of time decorating my dorm room, and its almost finished! and now my wall is sooo beautiful =) you should stop by and see it sometime hehe. i'll take pics of it and post it here when its all done. but for now im gonna go treat myself to some bruin cafe =). wut should ig et this time? *Thinks* hmm... how about a vanilla ice blend =). okee sounds good.. byebye!

03/20: back at school and taking a break from my comp lit essay. soo quick summary of the day- church was great, we had a sub for sunday school but hes just as awesome. matthew george, substitute for james john matthew. hahaha crazy huh? so many first names haha (and they're both indian... none of those names sound indian! haha) chatted with andy (liang) about Troy for a long time haha... seems like lots of stuff changed since i left. great to be updated once again =). anyways after church i chilled with jennifer n stephenie at the kids place downstairs.. then sent tina home and came back... gosh theres so many car accidents today its not even funny. one right in front of church while i arrived in the morning, and another on stimson while i was coming back from tinas house. and they both look really bad... hopefully the people are ok =/. so anyways it was kinda weird today cuz all my usual lunch buddies werent there... i was just sitting downstairs and then some ah-yee (brendas mom) came n asked me about troy... i told her a LOT... all the little dirty details that most people dont know about... except i had to speak chinese haha... actually i realized my chinese is getting a LOT better recently (yaay hehe). then kathie called after finishing her piano test and we decided to go to get crepe. its so weird how ever weekend now seems to have a particular food theme for me. last week it was rice (for like 4 or 5 meals haha) and this week it's crepe. yup... exact same place as friday night. i got another nutella (yummy) then before going for boba at life guess who i ran into... esther and rose!! soooooo scary but so funny. haha i thought i was crazy for getting crepe twice in the same weekend. apparently they were doing the same =). ohh and kathie went there three times this week! hahaha gosh this stuff is so addictive.. so anyways me n kathie took a walk around diamond plaza... found out theres an arcade hidden in the corner of the 2nd floor. haha this one dude went soooooo crazy on DDR! n then we went to church to meet with steph & gang cuz ther'e filming some dracula video thingy. then i went home, cleaned my room (next time i go home its gonna be spring break. well, kinda... u kno wut i mean. still i want it to feel like a holiday =) ). ate dinner and *pOoF* i'm back at school. this freakin comp lit essay is driving me insane... soo hard and i dunno wut to write. maybe i'll use a bunch of page-long quotes again haha anyways wish me luck on that and on finals too. i better get back to work!

03/19: wow... its so lonely without the internet haha owellz so um... piano this morning was really great... i wonder if all the other college musicians get nervous when they teach, cuz i was soo nervous its not even funny, and i was praying desperately the whole way there haha.. but the good side is that i always end up having a lot of fun. and also the whole thing with not having to worry about spending too much money is starting to sink in. ive been doing a LOT of driving these days... upland, arcadia, wutever... but i realized even with all that driving (and eating out) im still gonna end up with plenty of extra money each week. and my job came at the perfect time - from now on i'll be going to rosemead (at P.I.) every saturday afternoon for... any guesses? hehe jam session is back!! after a long long break of over half a year, we're finally about ot make progress again. jacob already organized a little gang of musicians and we'll be learning a bunch of stuff... and we hafta do it quick, cuz in less than a month we're gonna perform!! yupyup... more details to come later. but yea, i'm VERY excited in case u havent noticed. gotta start practicing tho cuz this stuff is freaking hard. and we had so much trouble sorting outt our music today that it was actually funny. hopefully we'll be able to play all the songs we intend to (theres like 6 of them! *dies*)

now for a sudden change of topic - today i finally got something ive been wanting for the longest time - a bunch of my digital pics are now printed out! which means they can go on my wall at school!! remember how i didnt have enough pics in the beginning of the schoolyear? well guess wut... i never got enough pics, until now. in fact i have so many that im in the process of remodeling my wall display to make room for them all. yea i kno its finals week, not exactly a good time to start new things that take hours (yes hours... for a stupid wall. i have no life ok? haha)... but im using it as a break between studying/essaying. i'll post pics of it after i finish (hopefully before spring break, if not then 1st week for sure).

03/18: me again... its about midnight and i just got home and i know i need to go sleep to wake up early tomorrow, so i'll make this nice n short. went to eat crepe with rose n esther... got boba too =). stopped at cell for a little while then went to the mall and watched Ice Princess. it was sooo good... much much more than just a typical G-rated movie. yea yea i kno its just another happy disney fantasy, but i think this is the kind of thing everyone needs once in a while. just sit back and let yourself relax and believe, because movies like this are only impossible if you dont allow yourself to believe. the whole time i was watching it i was soo happy, cuz what i saw on the screen was an image of myself. sounds stpuid but im not kidding... wanna know why? check back in about a week and you'll find out ;)

03/18: home sweet home =) soo tired though cuz i had an 8:00AM final (!!!) i thought im already crazy enough waking up at 8 everry morning, and now i hafta get up even later. plus i walked to take my final, cuz my jdbug is officially retired as of wednesday. im very happy though cuz it collapsed at the perfect time - just seconds after the events of the last journey update took place. just like my last ride, it retired at the knowledge of an upcoming miracle (1/12/04 entry). i think its actually nice walking to take finals, cuz i can actually study on the way there. and i need the exercise anyways =). but yea... hoping to get new ride by next quarter. i already found a couple possibilities - one is a jdrazor (almost identical to the jdbug which i totally loved) and another is a rim roxx (new brand, not sure if its all that reliable). i'm gonna try to win the jdrazor... wish me luck hehe.

so anyways yesterday i went to take keyboarding final (on foot haha)... walked from HEDRICK (can u believe it? my friends actually went up there with me! haha) to schoenberg, bringing only my chorale book cuz i figured i can just play it and get it over with. then guess wut i find out - last week's 'final' doesnt count as a final so we have to do dictation and rhythm stuff all over again. wutda heck!? i got soo confused and i didnt even bring a pencil haha owellz. and the test is identical to last weeks. wutever... as long as i get a good grade. hehe chorales werent perfect but pretty darn close. and of course, made it back just in time before bruin cafe closed so i could get another #6. yummy...

last night - dinnered with charlton... last time i got to hang out with him was a year ago. pretty crazy.. so much stuff to catch up on. and he's already graduating =/. we better keep in touch! hehe after dinner it was like 9 already so i went for a #10. yes ANOTHER ONE. i still have swipes left! haha ok so then i studeid spanish at night and went to sleep very very early to wake up for today's final. it wasnt too hard... pretty sure i did well. and i came back early enough to get a pair of #13s for me and my mom =). so yea.. back at home chillin rite now. another great weekend to look foward to - gonna hang out with rose n esther tonight, then tomorrow meeting with jacob and a potential new jam session group! hehe... ok im done babbling for now. byebye

03/16: Journey Update #4:

My ever-increasing fear has finally prompted me to enter the castle and ask about my status in person. All I really wanted to know was when and how I would be notified, so that my worries would be slightly eased. But deep inside I had a feeling that perhaps my fate had already been determined. I hesitated to take action at first, because there is still so much for me to do before I can accept victory, and I wasn't sure if it was right for me to find out the result at this point. But I figured it would do no harm to put an end to my worrying. I prayed once again for faith, and allowed God to comfort me until I was able to admit that I knew He was about to show me a miracle. Then I stepped into the castle, ready to accept whatever was in store for me.

By now my face and my name have already become quite familiar in the castle, probably I am such an exceptional case. After a long, anxious wait in the lobby, I was told that I had arrived just in time, because the decision of my residence was already waiting for me. Then with a humble spirit ready to hear the best and the worst, I received the news that I had been accepted, followed by congratulations from the rulers. They asked me to fill out some documents, which will be reviewed for an official approval. Even though my stay is still not fully guaranteed (95% certain, as I was told), the words of the rulers were full of faith, assuring me that there is nothing to worry about.

Though the majority of my fear has been quenched, the time of celebration has not yet come. For now I must once again focus on fighting battles and preparing for my third encounter with the robber, which is only a week away. I believe that today's miracle serves both as an encouragement for my current struggles and as another reminder that God will never fail me. As I filled out the documents and signed my name, I thanked God for what he had done, and realized I am now closer than ever to being reunited with my heart. In the same way its beauty has inspired and motivated me throughout the past year, it will continue to be my strength as I face the final steps of this journey. The end is finally in sight, and all I can do right now is praise God, because on this day He has once again performed a miracle and proven Himself faithful.

03/16: mid-schoolweek summary- wow this quarter seriously flew by... today was the last day of class already. some highlights of these few days - yesterday was sightsinging n dication final... i was in a pretty big rush in the morning (cuz i wanted an iceblend on the way to class) so i totally brought the wrong book to class (i took the lecture book instead of sightsinging) which means i had nothing to study from before the test. and i was like the 3rd person to go. its not like i study sightsinging anyways, but then in the hallway kat told me the ones we're getting tested on are all new ones (i thought it was gonna be the same ones as we did in class =/ ) and it was sooooo hard. i was totally freaking out and i was only haftway reading thru one line when i got called inside. gosh i was soo nervous... luckily jonathan gave me F major and D minor.. and none of that alto clef stuff, so i winged it pretty well. a few little mistakes on solfege, but still aced it for sure =). last night i went to get a smoothie (surprise? haha) and just as the 10PM rush was coming in, guess wut happened - the computer system broke. they lost all the orders, so we had to give them our receipts so they know wut to make for us. in other words, u can just grab a random smoothie and say its urs, and nobody can prove u wrong. only problem is i have so many extra swipes that i dont even want free food anymore. haha... one more thing - my finals schedule is finally starting to settle - comp lit is gonna be tuesday (time TBA... jordans gonna talk with professor kristal first), so im gonna go home wednesday night after theory. my spring break officially begins thursday afternoon, so if u wanna hang out please dont forget to count me in =).

one other thing - classes for next quarter! yes i'm actually thinking ahead this time hehe soo theory 20C for sure (MTWR 1:00-3:00), and two or three more classes. i think im gonna do English 4W... heard thats pretty tough though so if u know any easy classes that satisfy writing2 let me know! after that i'll be done with GEs... hopefully i can stick in some random music classes too. history of jazz maybe? looks like a cool class and its 5 units. any other recommendations?

anyways today was also the last day of theory... pretty sad if u ask me. seriou5ly i kno im so weird but i look forward to that class everyday. got back our last homework assignment of the quarter, and i was one of the highest grades (yes its surprising cuz i really didint think i did too well). on one of the pieces it simply says 'perfect' without any other markings. how perfect is that... seriou5ly this quarters had a lot of little unexpected ups n downs, and its so great to know this is how it ends. and the best part is that this was only a hint of what was to come an hour later. not gonna write that here though... i think it deserves an entry of its own. hehe... i'll probably have that up later tonight. ohh and one last thing - college pictures are back up! all the old pics from freshman year, plus new ones from this year that will be updated as the year continues. go take a look and hope u like them! meanwhile im gonna give myself a little tea break n then work on the next entry =)

03/15: Journey Update #3:

Many have tried along with me to establish a home in the village, and already they are finding out one by one if they are among the few who succeed. As one who traveled so far to get here, my case is different, and I have yet to find out how and when I will be notified of my status. But with each day that passes, I know that I am getting closer, and I'm pretty sure that within the next couple weeks my heart will be at peace. The battles I fight are leaving me very frustrated, because my losses are greater than what I had anticipated. But I now understand that it is simply impossible to have every battle won by the time the journey ends, because life will always involve facing new obstacles. God had told me a long time ago that even after this journey there will be countless challenges I must learn to face. For now, all I can do is pray that when I win back my heart, I will see it as pure and beautiful as He allows me to.

By now I have already prayed so much for this journey that words can no longer express my feelings. I have begun to speak in tongues beyond my knowledge, screamed by the silence of my mouth and understood only in the spiritual realm. Though I cannot comprehend these prayers, I know for sure that they are the desperate cries of my soul to God. And through them God gives me peace. In the past few days, I found myself filled with fear once again, and when I called out to God He reminded of the simple words I prayed before entering the castle two months ago - "I believe; help my unbelief". These words have helped me through many obstacles, and I believe they still carry the same power they once had. Only God knows exactly how and when this journey will end, but until then there are still battles to fight, enemies to face, and lessons to learn, and I pray that no matter how afraid I am, I will not lose focus on the things I must do before the final victory.

03/14: dun remember if i said this already last year, but happy PI day!! hahaha even tho i dun consider myself an engineer anymore, i guess there are certain parts of nerd life that i will never forget. haha.. ok so finals are coming up very very soon - tomorrow is sightsinging, wednesday spanish (part 1), thursday is keyboarding (bach chorales), friday spanish (part 2 - 8:00AM!!! im happy tho cuz it ends at 11 so i can still go home). next wednesday is theory (lecture final)... and as for comp lit i still have absolutely no idea... im gonna talk to professor kristal once again tomorrow (cuz its the last day of lecture) and hopefully he worked something out already.

soo it seems like most of the UC application results are out already... congratz to Eve and Serena for making UCLA!! and everyone else who made it too who hasnt told me yet.. hehe why is everyone so hesitant about coming to ucla just cuz berkeley results arent out yet? haha... screw them cuz they rejected me hehe owellz anyways before i shut up, good luck to all the people who have finals this week (UCSD... anyone else?) and next week. hopefully u guys dun stress too much... it makes me really sad when the whole world around me seems so worried. if u wanna chill for a while and get ur mind off the stress, feel free to bug me anytime. come chill in my room, have some tea, walk to westwood, wutever... and of course i'm more than happy to give you a swipe or two if you're hungry =)

03/13: church pplz - u guys all heard james's sermon today, and if u liked it, lemme tell u his Sunday School lessons are just as good! almost everyone that went once ended up going every week when possible... but is there anyone else on the planet besides me n steph that understand wut "9:00 AM" means? haha come on pplz it would be nice to start sunday school with more than two people. if its that hard to wake up that early, then how about try sleeping a few minutes earler the night before? and besides even the reality kids can do it every week. hehe ok anyways enough about that... so after church went to eat with ken at *drumroll* mcdonalds! haha cuz i was in a really big rush so i had to get sumthin fast... so why the rush? cuz i had to get to Upland at 2:30 for kelleys chamber singers concert! i almost got lost cuz on Euclid it was a long long way the the streets were like "A street", then "B street", and so on, and i was thinking if it was gonna really last for 26 blocks then i wa sprobably going the wrong way (i was supposed to turn on 4th street). and then 4th street just appeared out of nowhere. haha... and then i went into the wrong parking lot so i got lost and luckily kelleys mom called me and told me where to go. but i made her a few minutes late too =/ *feels soooo bad* im soo sorry! but she fell asleep in the middle of the concert haha so anyways the singers were soooo crazy!! really reall ygood, im so glad i went =). and its free too (cuz i look like im under 18 haha). got to see joelyn too... and liz was supposedly there but i didnt get to say hi =/ owellz ohh and theres one part i will remember for the rest of my life - that one person going "whee! whee!" everytime someone taps her shoulder. its sooo funny!! im still laughing now thinking about it haha ohh and after the concert i went back to my car and guess wut i realized - the front passenger window was completely open for the past two hours (and my camera was sitting on the seat)!! i guess i was in too much of a rush to check all the windows before running off the car. luckily nothing was missing =). ok anyways i totall yprocastinated on theory homework this weekend but luckily i still finished cuz its not too long. now im back at school and just finished a #9 (smoothie). hehe... 56 swipes left. any takers? ok anyways im done babbling, time to go back to work on the college pics page. so far its going faster than i expected.. should be finished and running again (with new pics) in the next couple days. so yea, im gonna go do that now. byebye!

03/12: college pictures section is gonna be down for a while cuz i'm gonna be moving stuff around to accomodate new pics (from this year). give me at most a week and everything should be back up, hopefully with some new pics already up too.

last night cellgroup was awesome... dinnered with rose at the same place as last week. magical blender, thats wut its called. hehe cell was at church tonight, we all met at the childrens area cuz theres a lot more space. so today we split word/works into two groups... i'm not in rose's group which kinda sucks, but i still knew people so its ok... now im thinking whether or not im actually gonna commit to this group, cuz i really like it but at the same time im not sure if its the right place for me. so yea... i'll take some more time to think about that. ohh and its so weird cuz afterwards i went upstairs and first i saw the JOY cell (which i used to help at like a year n a half ago) and got to visit them for a while. then i saw some chinese adult cell and jacob was there! then the next room was JIF (thats wut theyre called rite?) so i knew a buncha ppl there too. wow i felt so loved hehe so anyways went to pray on the hilltop again on my way home, then went home to sleep. this morning i went to teach piano for the first time. i was soo scared but it was a great experience. the house is sooo nice, has its own circle driveway and the whole place is really nicely done. piano is realy new too... so im teaching three pplz - isaac valerie and their dad. yea i kno, kinda scary teaching adult. but its actualy a lot of fun. i usually dont do anything saturday mornings anyways, so this is like the perfect time... i go there for an hour n a half, and i leave with more money than i usually spend. and luckily all of them are beginner level so i dun hafta worry about crazy fancy technique stuff yet. (thank god.. .hehe).

had to go to the mall today and decided since im already gonna be heading that way, might as well go with my mom to help jean a.y. and datong s.s. cuz they're moving. stayed there for lunch then went to the mall, then came home. just ate dinner and im probbaly gonna spend the rest of the night updating pictures and/or doing theory homework. wow this is like the last theory homework assignment huh? im actually gonna miss it haha im so weird =/ owellz i'll shut up now!

03/11: friday afternoon and i'm back home again =). surprisingly im really starting to like the idea of spending a few days with almost no internet, so once again i think i'm gonna stay offline this whole weekend except maybe to check email and update homepage (if even possible with this crappy connection hehe). im gonna hopefully spend a lot of time editing pictures to add... cuz i wanna hurry up and put up college pics from this year. but before that lemme post one pic here:

03/10: just finished owning the first part of theory final (rhythm dictation and chord progressions)... i signed up as the 2nd one to play for severin so i was done at like 1:50... he was supposed to give me the key (b major for me) 10 minutes before my turn and he totally forgot so i only had like 2 minutes to practice!! luckily i already practiced yesterday hehe oHh and u kno the best part? i made it back before 2:30, which means bruin cafe is still open. so right now i have an ice blend in front of me. hehehe gosh i love 30 premiere =) anyways last night there was a crazy power outage on the north side of sproul... pretty cool actually cuz i NEVER saw the building with all the windows dark (trust me... even if i go outside at 5AM im sure some crazy yahoo is still gonna be studying). this is one of those times when u all wish u have laptops hehe i got to stayin my room and go online the whole time =) then at night called kathie (cuz its her bday!) and talked til i went to sleep hehe. ohh and theres this bottle recycling thing going on on my floor and so last night josie n carol were counting bottles in the hallway and i was like 'lemme guess... a hundred and thirty two' (completely random guess)... and 10 minutes later they came knocking on my door telling me there were *drumroll* 132 bottles!!! and it was all luck too... i totally scared myself with that guess. hehe ok so anyways right now im jus chillin in my room.. gonna be here til like 5 when i leave for catalyst. tonight is the last time Onion Flava leads worship... i dun really know how sad i feel cuz im not sure if im on the team next year... and we're all gonna see each other anyways. but still this year has been sooo great and im really gonna miss jammin with everybody.. *sniff* owellz thats all i hafta say now. i guess i'll go drive around Bayview some more. ohh ohh last night i finally broke my old speed record! 240mph with a skyline!! (on local street too hehe).. i got a screenshot at 238. maybe i'll post that on gamespot soon. or maybe i'll try getting a pic at 240. in fact i'll go try right now =)

03/08: this schoolweek so far- sunday night went to dinner at malan then came back to school.. started scanning the zillions of pages of music i have to scan (yes jacob im finally doing it! hehe). went to the covel lab and for some reason i couldnt get the scanner to work... took forever figuring it out, i ended up asking the girl at hte desk and she didnt know either and she felt really bad =/. then i eventually figured out the problem and got the scanner to work. and then it had trouble scanning properly so i had to switch it with another scanner and finally it worked. all that took like... half an hour. haha... so i scanned til like 11 and finished 4 songs. monday(yesterday)- a more or less sad night for Onion Flava- it was our last rehearsal! we all sat around and talked about everything that happened this past year. gosh it seriou5ly duznt feel like a whole year already. and already we're at our last week. *sniff* gonna miss u guys soo much... ohh and by the way, so far it looks like im gonna be staying on the team next year, even tho im gonna hafta confirm with mike n steve first. shannon and mike are staying too, everyone else will be new. i dun even kno the team yet haha ok anyways so yea now for today- breakfast with steph brianna vanessa and lawrence! hope hes gonna join us from now on... i love having breakfast buddies! =) fast forward through classes n everything, dinnered with my dinner gang (i have dinner buddies too! hehe) at 6, then went to ackerman at 7 to *drumroll* eat dinner- again! haha actually i ended up not even buying more food cuz i just ate. saved a few bucks =). chilled with kat annie n deena then we went to schoenberg for the 2nd grad composers concert! got to hear jonathan's new piece =). n then came back (thanx annie for the ride!) and got a smoothie which i'm enjoying right now. and u kn owuts so weird? im at the end of the smoothie and guess wut i find - a STRAWBERRY! that foo somehow survived the blender completely unscratched! but i ate it anyways =) hehe and yes i kno... its that time of the quarter when i start treating myself to smoothies and iceblends on a daily basis. 30 premiere rocks!! hehe anyone need swipes feel free to lemme know (just dont wake me up at 2AM to swipe you hehe). ok time to start studying for spanish (quiz tomorrow)... byebye!

03/06: working on theory homework right now and i can definitely use a little break. so um... some of u might have noticed i havent been online since i came home. dont worry i didnt die or anything... and my computers not brokened either. but knowing how bad my wireless connection has become recently (and how uncontrollably angry i can get about it), i decided to simply not go online at all (except to check email and update site... cuz the most i can stay on without interruption is about 5 minutes- literally). actually i didnt think it was possible to spend a whole weekend offline, but i definitely surprised myself =). i guess as ridiculous as it may seem, it really doesn't kill to live without AIM. and hopefully this will remind me to not spend countless hours everyday in front of the computer (its really killing my eyes) at school.

so anyways... friday night after cell i went to the hilltop again - this time i wasnt trying to escape from anger - i simply felt like going up there to let myself calm down and think about my life after a night full of fun. came back at about midnight... saturday morning went to worship prpactice with steph's team. gosh someone really needs to do something about the keyboard pedal, cuz its randomly deciding whether it wants to work properly or not(!!) luckily i have one at home to bring just in case. hehe so um... spent the rest of the day doing theory homework and just chillin at home.

today - went to church at 9 for sunday school (last week was my first time and i loved it)... and nobody was there! it was so wierd... the room was open and lights were on but it was all empty. then like 10 minutes later i was talking with steph (li) and james (the teacher) comes out of the room and asks where everyone is. seriou5ly last week there were at least a dozen people... today we started with a class of like... 3! haha... then robert came then more people came (thank god). come on people its not THAT hard to understand what 'show up at 9:00' means right? if its really that hard, how about go to sleep 20 minutes earlier the night before? hehe so yea... another awesome sunday school, followed by worship practice then xperience. kathie couldnt come today and ken had to leave to go work, which meant lunch was gonna be really lonely and sad for me. n then i went downstairs and saw jacob! finally.. for the first time this year (literally). hehe and yes yes i know i'm gonna hurry up with the music scores before he kills me! hehe n then i went to the little kids place and chilled with kelley in the classroom.. and u kno wut happened next? her mom invited me to join them for lunch at life plaza! wow, how much more perfect can it get? the one sunday i'm worrying about not having anyone to eat with, and suddenly everything just works out fine =). yes yes i know, life plaza AGAIN!? haha come on i'm asian ok? hehe ohh and before leaving church i had to find rose cuz i had her essay that i was proofreaidng and was supposed to give her today. but i looked everywhere n she wanst there so i gave up and went to lunch. for some reason diamond plaza was soo crowded today.. the line of cars went all the way to the gas station. soo crazy! ohh and too bad there was no 360 modena this time (come on, doesnt that guy want another chinese newspaper? hehe). so we (me kelley karen their mom and another ah-yee and her two kids, one of them is named calvin! soo confusing hehe) lunched then we were walking around the store and guess who i see - rose!!! apparently just having someone to go to lunch with really wasnt perfect enough. haha so yea... gave her the essay, we all chilled there for a long time n then went home. so now im at home and just finished almost all my homework (except the voice leading stuff... probbaly gonna take like 20 minutes).

so yea... im probably gona go back to school regular time (9-10ish)... for now im jus gonna chill and entertain myself with things other than the internet. hehe.. all in all i guess this has been a great weekend. today baldwin's sermon was about the wrath of god vs the wrath of people... its definitely gonna help me as i continue to fight my own anger problems. i still lost control a few times, but its already way better than before. i'm pushing myself to learn right now cuz i heard the UC admission results are coming in the next few weeks. and u guys all know wut that means! hehe yea yea i know, i'm already a second year in college and im STILL worrying about being rejected. pretty funny actually, but yea.. i guess im running out of ideas to write, and this was much longer than a simple break from homework. hehe so yea time to get back to work. byebye!

03/04: i just got back from *drumroll* rose's cellgroup! it was really great... first we went to dinner at this tea house place called magic something... i forgot. hehe it was good food though. and rose gave me like almost all her rice. ohh and the chicken was soo spicy, i was sweating and crying so hard its not even funny. haha n then we went to cell - so this is um... the third chinese cell group i've visited? and each time i show up im surprised cuz theres people i know and people that know me. so i walk in the door and natalie (one of the leaders) sees me and has this totally surprised look. come on... my chinese isnt THAT bad right? ok maybe i cant exaclty read all the words during worship, but i'm definitely learning. and i know most of the songs already anyways. and then geuss who i see - tina! i seriou5ly had no idea she even went to cell at all... so first i bring her to church a few months ago, then suddenly i show up at her cellgroup! haha so weird... oh and their food was totally awesome =) they actually take time to make and cook the stuff... its so insane! in the past when i visited chinese groups i always had to leave righgt after worship, todays the first time i stayed the entire time. one thing i love about this group is the age diversity. nobody tries to classify me as a college student (it always bothers me when people try to fit me into certain norms, especially by grade)... i'm simply me, regardless of what school i go to. and plus i get to grow spiritually, meet new friends, eat great food, and learn chinese! now the big question - am i gonna go again next week? hmm... *thinks* im pretty sure im free next friday, and plus i think theres some people who are expecting me to return (hehe). so yea... if im not doing anything, i'll definitely go again =).

03/03: its 10:30PM on a thursday night, and guess what... i'm at home!! i get a very special 3-day weekend all to myself, thanks to not having to go to spanish (my only class) tomorrow. my mom had the option to pick me up tonight or tomorrow after class (as usual), and she chose tonight. so after Catalyst i went back and packed and *pOoF* i'm at home! hehe so anyways... i think this is the first time i'm sumarizing a whole schoolweek in one entry. so yea, hopefully it wont be TOO long. actually waitaminit... just kidding i updated on tuesday already huh? *smacks self on head* ok then i'll continue where i left off: wednesday lunched with crystal amy n donna (thats her name right? i just met her and im so bad with names =/). apparently they didnt have any locker tokens at deneve so they used REAL MONEY. haha they were giving out pennies at the counter. i wonder if that means i can use tokens in vending machines too. hehe if i stayed there long enough i could have accumulated enough money for a free boba. but i was really hungry. hehe... ohhh and on my way to lunch (after spanish class) guess who i ran into - david!! my roomie last year! its so weird, i havent seen him this whole SCHOOLYEAR... not even once! until this week that is... hehe.. ok anyways then in the afternoon tiffany came over to study. yes i know, im still helping people with theory. *sigh* for those of u who know wut im talking about, even though i feel really really hurt, im simply gonna learn from my own mistake while still doing what i can to help others. but yea... me n tiffany studied til like almost 9, so i got bruin cafe for dinner - clam chowder bowl =). actually i dunno if that happyface is really appropriate, cuz the bread bowl was literally as hard as a bowl. i stuck my fork into it and THE FORK BROKE! its times like this when u know you're eating dorm food. haha luckily i have an extra batch of forks (and spoons n knives too, and straws and cups... you name it hehe) in my room, so i didnt have to go back to bruin cafe for a replacement. anyways, i played underground while eating (ive been playing a lot less than before these days... lotsa other stuff to do) and broke my old speed record - i got 229mph with my skyline! too bad i hit a wall before i hit the printscreen button. so no screenshot to post on gamespot =/. owellz maybe next time =). after dinner i studied spanish and then talked on the phone with kathie til it was time to sleep. gosh i cant wait to see her 'spiderman' suit. haha anyways now for today (i'll start a new paragraph so its easier to read hehe)

ok so today: spanish oral exams are today and tomorrow, and me and eric (my partner) were assigned to today's. i was really happy cuz that means i dont have class tomorrow, and thats why im home now =). really funny how much people are stressing over this thing... yea i know its hard, but its really only 5% of the total class grade. no matter how bad i did im sure i didnt flunk it, so maybe i lost like 1%. owell... not like cramming would actually make the difference. hehe.. actualyl me and eric did surprisingly well. we were both really satisfied with how we did... hopefully our grade reflects that. hehe.. so thats about it until Catalyst... worship rehearsal, soundcheck, pray, etc. we had this special team called the Traveling Team come to talk about missions... learned soo much stuff. didnt stay too long afterwards cuz i had to get back to pack everything.

back at home: theres TWO autoweeks sitting on my desk. so they've been arriving later and later every week, and now suddenly its back to schedule. haha so im looking at the 2/28 issue and guess wut i find on the 4th page - an AMG-TUNED MAYBACH. im soo not kidding. remember back at summercon (at catalina) when i was drawing ridiculous pictures of a suped up maybach? i guess the people at the car companies are even more crazy than i am. as with all AMGs they decide to twitch the cars styling a little bit. theres a new chrome front grill and it looks like a freakin HYUNDAI. and they got rid of the two-color paint theme (which i thought was a maybach trademark), so now it looks like an ordinary sedan. o and the price. $475,000. that can buy you a new Civic every day for a whole freakin month (!!!). haha ok so anyways enough ranting about cars. apparently this entry DID turn out to be very long, and i'm gonna end it with a picture!

03/02: Journey Update #2: (followup to 2/04 & 2/18 entries):

My heart still awaits me in the castle, and I have yet to witness its beauty in person. In my visions, I am still scraping off the mud surrounding it, and the closer I get the more difficult it becomes. Accepting the robber's letter was extremely difficult, and it took several days before I was able to return to a state of peace. I guess it's not going to be as bad as I thought, because God has agreed to protect for me whatever He knows is essential for my final victory. But through such an unexpected twist in the journey I came to realize that there is far more work for me to do before I can reach the end successfully. The month of waiting, which at first had seemed extremely long, suddenly seemed too short. In the past couple weeks, I realized I still had many enemies, and I summoned them one by one to wage war against them. I fought with everything I had, and sometimes when I was too tired to fight, I would retreat from the battlefield and isolate myself to seek God's help. It was during those moments that I received strength and wisdom. The battles are still going on now, and I cannot predict how long they will last. But the wisdom I gained has prompted me to pray wholeheartedly that on the day the journey ends, there will not be a single battle left unfought.

Earlier today I learned that even in this village which I have fallen in love with, things are not always perfect. My good deeds can end up hurting myself, and people don't always treat me the way I expect them to. I guess I may have a little fault too, and this is the first time I was caught off guard and actually lost a battle. The loss still hurts me deeply, but it does not discourage me, because at this point I already know as a fact that this is the place where I belong. Whether each battle results in victory of defeat, the important thing is that I learn a lesson from it. Each lesson so far has brought me new insight from God, and I'm slowly starting to understand why this tedious process of scraping mud off my heart is so important. Beauty in its purest form is simply too powerful for corrupt eyes like mine, and if I see it now I will surely go blind. Only at one point have I ever seen my untainted heart - the moment I took my first breath nineteen years ago. Since then I began to stray from it, allowing layer after layer of mud to cover it until it was barely noticible. Now I must work to clean the mess that took years to form, because only so can I slowly adjust my eyes to beauty that will otherwise blind me. The knowlege of such unfathomable beauty excites me, and I want God to do whatever it takes so that when I finally see my heart, it will be as pure and beautiful as possible.

03/01: quick summary of the schoolweek so far: yesterday breakfast ran into sean n crystal... didnt really expect company on mondays, but definitely a good way to start the day. afternoon worked soo hard on gospel choir songs, then practice with worshipteam at night. o excuse me.. i meant to say rehearsal for sproul recess. hahahaha that was so funny =). a ltitle unexpected change - from now on worship practice will be in sproul!! definitely a good thing for me and matt... hehe. downside is that we have to bring all the equipment from the 3-south storage room. so we checked out one of those big moving carts from the front desk and brought it up the elevator (and it was around dinnertime so everyone else waiting to get in the elevator were probably not too happy... hehe). filled it up with um... lets see... a keyboard (88 key... in other words very very heavy), bag of cables and stuff (about the same weight as keyboard), bass drum (i can fit inside the case), snare drum, guitar. i think there was also an amp or two... cant remember. but yea it was one mountain of a cart. and the frame was made out of WOOD. we were so surprised it didnt collapse. so of course we got a lot of curious stares while moving that thing into the lecture hall (where we practice). we pushed it right across the front desk and the guy had that 'wut da heck are you trying to do with our carts!?' look on his face. pretty hilarious =). oh and todays practice was just me mike matt n jared cuz everyone else couldnt make it. so we jus ran thru a few songs and thats it. rest of the night - talked on the phone wiht rose for a really long time then did more gospel choir transcribing, then wnet to sleep.

today - breakfast with steph vanessa brianna as usual, i made myself get up extra early today cuz i still feel bad about last week. talked with professor kristal after class about my little dilemma... apparently jordan didnt talk to him about it yet, but he said its not gonna be a problem, annd since hes the professor im sure everything will be fine. so yea... one less thing to worry about =). theory class - jonathan let us rehearse our chorales OUTSIDE today! my group wnet to the inverted fountain and we just started singing chorales really loud... it was so funny, everyone was staring at us. i say we do this on bruinwalk sometime =). haha anyways back in my room: dun hafta worry about comp lit anymore, but instead i get to worry abouy my FAFSA! haha... thanks sooooo much steph (li) for reminding me to get my PIN. otherwise i so would have passed the deadline. then more gospel choir stuff... finally forced myself to finish transcribing the songs needed for tonight's rehearsal. had dinner with ky yune swathi vince n elena, came back to my room just in time to get my floor t-shirt. so the 407 girls decide to pull a little trick and hide liz inside the big t-shirt box and put the shirts on top to cover her, and have her jump out and scare the life outta whoever attempts to pick out their shirt. i definitely fell for it, and so did liek everyone else. so every couple minutes someone would scream and everyone else would laugh. it was soo hilarious. hehe and then at 8 i took my keyboard and amp and everything n walked over to 449 for gospel choir. met this guy named michael on the way there who saw my keybaord and told me hes a songwriter... he gave me a flyer for his cd n stuff.. maybe i'll go check it out. anyways then i finally arrive at 449 sweating like crazy (long walk up a hill and back down) and open the door and guess wut i find out - there's no practice today! thanx for telling me any earlier... seriou5ly i get really really ticked off when stuff like this happens. sometimes i just drop out of the group permantnly for not being responsible to its members... this time im taking it a little lighter - i guess this is just another test god's putting me through. i can start ranting forever about how i didnt do anything wrong to deserve this but like i mentioned in the last entry, all that would be coming out of hate, and so im forcing myself not to. im sure this crap happened for a reason so im not gonna complain. ohh and the 9th week concert turns out to be saturday night instead of morning. in other words, im not going (i was already hesitant enough to arrange to stay just for the morning). so sorry... for weekends my first priority is at home. they seemed ok with it though so i dun think im causing that much trouble. and the 10th week concert is being moved to next quarter. i'm still gonna be in that one for sure =). anyways... i walked out of 449 just in time for a call from steph (lin). what perfect timing... seriously talking always helps me calm myself down. so we talked for like the next iono... hour? haha anyways that brings us to right now - me sitting in front of the computer writing this thing. i see a lot of flashing IM windows, so i think i better shut up and go answer them!