08/31: wow, long time no write. nothing much special these past few days... ever since half the high schools started (and the other half is getting ready to start) everything sorta quieted down for me too. ok fine my life wasnt THAT uneventful. yesterday night i went to claymusic rehearsal again... played with uncle samuel's mixer again =). and talked with ivy for a long time =). got home pretty late, went to sleep right away. other than that, i finally finished transcribing 'variations on pachelbel's kanon'!! 50 measures of 32nd notes... thank god it was in C major =). now im gonna start learning to play the whole thing!

other news - for those of u who didnt know, this coming quarter i'm officially starting as a music (composition) major. thanx denise for giving me info on classes n stuff... i also called al bradley yesterday to get some help... so here's my classes for next quarter - THEORY 120A (same time as last year... nothing new, even though i really need to prepare for it cuz im feeling really rusty after summer). HISTORY 26A, friday 11am-noon section. im not sure which section everyone else is in, but this is the only one that fits my schedule (cuz i hafta finish class before noon on fridays). other than that, im not sure about the other classes. one thing for sure - i'll be taking PIANO! how awesome is that!? its exactly wut i wanted... i was soo scared i dont get to learn piano in composition, but apparently its a requirement =). i heard im gonna be studying with a grad student... hopefully i can get a professor, but either way its fine as long as i can improve. and now the last class - hard for me to believe i actually ended up here, but apparently i need two years of a large performance group, and since i only play piano, my only option is CHOIR. crazy huh? i already made enough people deaf in jonathan's section last year... duz it hafta get worse than that? haha... ohh and al bradley says i have to audition for it too. its gonna take a miracle for me to get in... and if i dont, wut else can i do? *kinda worried* wuteverz... i'll jus wait n see wut happens.

got my housing letter earlier this week... so for those of u who didnt know (or forgot), its about time u get surprised - i'm living in HEDRICK. but hey, im always the one saying i try not to be lazy, so now its time to put myself to the test. hehe... and i'm on the IV floor, with an IV roomate - exactly wut i wanted. soo im supposed to move in on the 23rd (friday)... but i think i'll probably hafta get an extention to sunday again, cuz my teaching schedule is already moved entirely to friday and saturday, and plus i have cellgroup and church. i really dun wanna miss all that.

oltbisu, i got the east coast tour pics from uncle samuel last night =). too bad they're all low resolution, but its ok... now that i have all the pics, i can start selecting which ones to post! oh by the way, new york (times square & niagara falls) wallpapers are already online! =) regular pics will be up soon hopefully, depending on how long it takes me to sort them out. but hey, im always sitting in my room these days, so im sure it wont take all that long. anyways, im done babbling for now. byebye!

08/28: went to cell yesterday, and right when i walk into the door i get drafted for worship this morning. hehe... dun worry its definitely a good thing... i love playing for worship, especially since i dun think i played for the english congregation all summer. todays team was garland ernest daniel ben and me... i heard this is my new worship team starting next week once the new schedule kicks in. anyways... back to last night - cell was awesome... havent been there in soo long. i played fooseball again and did decent, but only cuz baldwin was on my team hehe. ken came over at night n we talked a little bit... then i went to sleep to get ready for today. worship turned out pretty good =). wow... i cant believe its the last Xperience service. next week is gonna seem so different... but i guess thats a good thing. so anyways, after church i went to lunch with ken n melanie @ kingswood. yes, i actually got expensive food. haha... dun worry, its just once in a while... and that stuff is GOOD. why didnt i know about the fried rice earlier? haha... after that we went to melanies house... drooled over her sc430 and nsx again... actually rewind a few minutes - since i drove there myself, i sporadically decided to pass her house and keep driving down the street, cuz melanies family isnt the only one in the neighborhood with nice cars. and a few seconds later guess wut i saw -

08/27: ok, here it is... East Coast Tour day-by-day summary... if u have nothing better to do go ahead n read it all, otherwise im jus gonna write this for my own memory...

DAY 1 (Sat 8/20): left for LAX at around 5AM... got to the Newark (new jersey) airport in the afternoon (eastern time). met Allan (tour guide) and a few other people on our tour from the same flight... went to check in at the hotel (Sheraton). mom carol n i had dinner at the hotel... i got a new england clam chowder - sooo good!! i actually felt kinda out of place there cuz we were the only asians hehe. but everyone was sooo nice... the waiters/waitresses actually walk around asking people how they're doing =). ohh and they were playing CCM the whole time... and im not talking about all the 'christian-secular' stuff... its real ccm... deliriou5 worship songs, jeremy camp, out of eden, etc. pretty awesome =). and then at night was the first tour event - NEW YORK CITY NIGHT TOUR... time square - sooo cool! insanely crowded... i wouldnt wanna live in new york, but for vacation its great =). ran into uncle samuel, ivy, and esther at the rockefeller center! we werent sure if they went on the night tour too (cuz we came on different flights) but its soo weird running into familiar faces so far away from home. last stop - brooklyn bridge. beautiful night view... soo much traffic on the way back, got to the hotel at like midnight-ish.

DAY 2 (Sun 8/21): NEW YORK CITY - Empire State Building - we were among the earliest people in line when it opened, so the wait was really short. allan is really good at planning our schedule to minimize time wasted while waiting in line. view from the 86th floor was awesome even though its pretty foggy. still, there was supposed to be thunderstorms but it never happened, so we got really lucky =). ivy gave me an extra box of fries from burgerking so i guess thats my brunch. and then we had lunch at mcdonalds - more fries. haha... the new york mcdonalds do free deliveries!! thats soo crazy! haha.... USS INTREPID MUSEUM - went inside a submarine, a concorde jet, and the intrepid. it was soo crazy hot though... i dont know much about military vehicles, but its definitely pretty cool to go inside and check out all the gadgets. made a bunch of other stops around new york... wall street, ground zero, rockefeller center... ohh and we took a boat that passed by the statue of liberty. and we went to the united nations building too, took pictures with two random officers hehe. also visite st patricks cathedral. sooo beautiful!

DAY 3 (Mon 8/22): PHILADELPHIA - Liberty Bell & Independence Hall... saw my first "Duck" (those tour buses that can go on land and water... turns out theres lots of them around the east coast.) WASHINGTON DC - i basically knew wut the capitol city of the united states looks like, but seeing in person is like WOW... everything is sooooo huge!!! i know this is stupid, but i seriously thought the capitol building was like only 2 stories tall. guess im wrong hehe. we had free time in the afternoon to check out the museums (smithsonian, aerospace, natural history)... then went to fords theater (where lincoln wasa assassinated) and peterson house (where he died). and then we went to all the memorials/monuments (washington, jefferson, lincoln, vietnam war, korean war). the lake in front of the washington monument is sooo pretty =). and of course, the white house. didnt get to go inside, but still cool. and theres a lot of squirrels there hehe. we had dinner at Chinatown - the second chinese dinner in a row. poor uncle samuel hehe... he cant stand chinese food, and we went to chinese dinners like every single night (its an asian tour so wut did u expect? hehe). so apparently theres a chinatown right next to the capitol. wow, chinese people are seriously taking over the world hehe. went to the pool with ivy esther n uncle samuel at night... took random pictures hehe... they were pushing each other around in the luggage carts down the lobby! hahaha =)

DAY 4 (Tues 8/23): why am i even writing the dates? haha... its not like i actually kept track when i was there. but owellz... we began the super long drive to niagara falls. CORNING - that was basically our only stop not counting food/restroom breaks until we got to new york. the glass museum is awesome... didnt know such an ordinary item could be used for so much creativity. the hot glass show was soo cool... they made a huge glass bowl on the spot! too bad they had to destroy it to re-use for the next show, otherwise i would have asked to keep it hehe. NIAGARA FALLS - we made it there in time for a quick evening stop after dinner (chinese food hehe... iono why we all got SOO HYPER afterwards). i dun know how to describe it... the view was simply amazing. seeing big rivers is already pretty cool for me (since theres like none around here... at least no clean ones hehe), not to mention america's biggest waterfall. CANADA - after checking in to the hotel, we took another bus across the border to the other side of niagara falls.. went up the skylon tower to see the falls... its all lit up at night with different colors. i took like a million pictures, but i totally forgot that i never set my camera's manual mode to large size, to all the pix are like 600 pixels wide =/. that sucks... cuz they would ahve turned out soooo well!! im soo gonna go back there again sometime hehe.

DAY 5 (Wed 8/24): GOAT ISLAND - the six of us were among the first people to go there early in the morning (its walking distance from the hotel)... so we got to take pictures n stuff without too many people there. took the "maid of the mist" boat ride to the bottom of the waterfall!! we all had to wear fancy garbage bags a.k.a. "raincoats". hehe... soooo fun... then we got to walk like right next to the falls. then came the long (8-hour) bus ride to Boston... i just happened to be playing with my camera when i saw two yellow spots approaching from a distance. they were really really fast though, so i just stuck my camera in the air and snapped - of course, it was blurry. really blurry... but it was an amazing sight - a lotus europa and a lotus elan!! its the first elan i ever saw and the 2nd europa. in the evening as we approached boston, we encountered rain for the first time this week. usually it always rains, but we got really really lucky. we got to experiecne the east coast's sporadic rainfall and sunshine, but it was all dry by the time we reached boston =). and it never rained afterwards. BOSTON - we had one of the most amazing dinners of my life - lobster!! its not the usual restaurant kind... its actually a whole lobster sitting on a plate with nothing else! and east coast lobsters have claws... huuuuuuge claws! it was so crazy... and sooo yummy! that, plus a full chinese food meal, was just $20 per person. that night we had a lil party in the hotel room cuz its the last night of the tour. the beds were sooo soft on the sides that i fell off - three times!!! first time was cuz i was laughing too hard, but i kinda expected it so i caught myself... then when i was trying to climb back on the bed i fell off again. and the third time i really fell... totally unexpected, and it hurted soo much =/. lucky i didnt break anything hehe...

DAY 6 (Thurs 8/25): BOSTON - visited harvard and m.i.t... they're sooo tiny compared to ucla hehe. and no buffet style dining halls. visited the massachusetts state house... that solid gold roof is crazy! took a boat along the boston harbor... and then the last stop - quincy market... actualyl we didnt' even get to go, cuz we had a super early flight so we had to leave first. but owellz... everything ended soo quickly. im surprised i even remember everything that happened in the past week... actually i prolly left out a lot of stuff, but hopefully they'll be included in the picture captions once i post them. im gonna wait til i collect all the pics from my camera, carols camera, and uncle samuels, and then post the best ones. its gonna be so hard to choose cuz we took like five million pics. and im gonna try to get the wallpapers up soon too...

so yea, that was my vacation. feels so weird to be back home again (not that its a bad thing hehe). thanks everyone who emailed/imed/called me to welcome me back =). now a quick summary of yesterday - went to teach piano... next time im gonna go early and bring my camera, cuz theres quite a bit of exotics there... ive seen more than one viper, and yesterday there was a ferrari (328) and a yellow mid engine exotic i never saw before... dun even know wut it is =/. probably a custom bodykit or sumthin... iono... last night i went to visit shienan n vanessa's church =). met some more people... but they all left right after the bible study ended, so i didtn stay long either. talked with michael afterwards for a bit then went home. and then today - went to buy a new printer/scanner/copier/fax machine. hopefully its gonna work well. finally going to college cell again at night. (sorry SOLD people... i really wanna join the outing, but its been way too long since i went to cell so i think i really should go there). tomorrow i might go to church early cuz ally n esther are doing a skit for the kids and i wanna see it =). ok anyways, this entry is waay too long so i need to shut up. bye!

08/25: (10:00PM) i'm back!! east coast tour was awesome... super-long entry coming tomorrow (if i have time) and pictures coming soon too - zillions of pictures. its gonna be insane sorting them out. ohh and im gonna add some new wallpapers too =). anyways, for now im gonna finish my cup noodles (dinner) and then get ready to sleep cuz im sooo tired. and i think i hafta teach tomorrow. gosh i dun even remember my schedule anymore =/. gotta call lotsa people too... but i'll do that tomorrow. im jus writing to say that i'm back and i had lots of fun. hope all of you had a great week too (without me bugging u hehe). ok, goodnight!

08/19: today i got to experience wut my friday schedule will be like from now on - teach piano at 3:30 in rowland hts, then another student at 4:30 in fullerton. its a lot of fun though... im still so bad at working with kids, but i'm learning =). and the new student (michael) really liked it today... his lil sis realyl wants to learn too. ohh and i got soooo lost on the way there... missed a turn so i u-turned and then got lost =/. ok fine i'll be honest - i could have saved about 5 minutes of that lateness, except i decided to follow a Viper into a side street, and ended up on some crazy mountain road and the viper was long gone. haha... stupid me. owellz... so yea, pretty busy day. feels great to relax at home, even though im only gonna have a few more hours here in my room before leaving for... the East Coast!! yup, im leaving tomorrwo morning! like 5AM =/... sooo early! ivy's family is already on the plane... they're jus gonn achill in New York tomorrow and then meet up when we get there (evening, eastern time). so yea, this is my last update until next thursday or friday, depending wut time i get back and how tired i am. im still gonan be teaching next friday too, so hopefully im not TOO tired.

soo anyways... i guess this is my goodbye entry. for those of u who are wondering, im probably still gonna have my cell phone with me, even though its prolly gonna be off during the tour. but leave me a message and i'll call back during free time =). and those of u who live in new york... the tour schedule is pretty busy so i prolly wont have time to say hi =/. unless u wanna come out and wave at hte bus when it drives by hehe. but yea... i think i said everything i need to say already, so i guess i'll shut up. time to go to sleep so i wont be too tired going on the plane. so yea... byebye everyone! dont miss me too much! (yea right hehe) see you in a week! bye!

08/18: awesome day... early lunch @ red tomato house. yup... i FINALLY went there after kathie asked me to go like 53458437 times. hehe... got to see kathie steph n chris again... havent seen them all summer! went to chill at the mall afterwards... table hockey, calvin vs kathie, round two. hehe.... it basically ended up the same as the first game (12/26 entry)... ohh n she tried soo hard to get a stuffed animal from those claw games but gave up after spending like 5 bucks. hehe... anyways, next stop: tapioca express!! today was the last day of elite. im not sure how everyone else feels, but i was REALLY SAD. i think these couple weeks i've been going to elite often enough to feel attached to it hehe... vanessa, jackie, lily, grace, raja, everyone else i met, im gonna miss u all! well actually i'll still see some of u around... but still.... today was actually pretty funny. i was sitting in the classroom with vanessa before class started n then the teacher walks in and she was soo nice! shes like 'oh we have a new student today!' n she even asked if i wanted to stay and take the quiz with them. i would have, except i would probably get the lowest grade in the class. but hey, at least im not trying to cheat like SOME PEOPLE haha... ohh and jackie actually showed up early today! haha... so anyways, then class was about to start so i said byebye n left (i wonder how long my bear stayed on the whiteboard hehe). the teacher was right by the door so we were talking n i told her i used to go to elite and she got all excited so she took me to the front desk to talk to the administration people... too bad i'm so old that everyone at the office is different. they still know Chrisitan (the director when i was there) though, but still i guess im jus too old hehe. and they wanted me to go say hi to mr. mann (i doubt he remembers me) but he was already teaching class. owellz... on my way out i passed by all the rooms n waved bye to people i knew... then i left... luckily i have something to remember all this by -

08/17: ok im breakin the cycle and updating on an odd day =). jus got back from dinner @ furaibo with ken. first time there... i love it! good choice ken =). then we had another one of our awesome 'parking lot conversations' hehe. anyways, im updating to say that for those (very few) of you who are entertained by the gazillion car pictures i post here but have trouble trying to find all the pictures cuz theyre posted so randomly, your problem is now solved. i just opened my newest special interest site - my Exotic Car Photo Gallery!! WWW.CALVINCHANG.NET/CARWATCHING . pretty easy to remember right? =) most of the site content is hosted on geocities though, so theres gonna be a few ads on teh side. hopefully its not that big of a deal. but yea, now all my car pictures are organized and labeled by car, date, and place (just like on exoticspotter.com hehe). and theres at least a few dozen that i never posted here before. so go take a look and enjoy the eye candy =).

08/16: seriou5ly, why am i always updating every other day?? haha owellz anyways, starting with yesterday - went to tapioca express... actually mcdonalds this time. close enough. vanessa borrowed my calculator and she was so fasincated by the games hehe. brings back so many troy memories... i actually thought i was cool for having the highest Falldown score in the school. haha... went straight to emily's house after that. i totally thought i would be late but i got there at exactly 3 hehe. did some more SAT tutoring stuff, plus a little worship and housework hehe. she has a phone in her room now =). and i was the first one to call it! hahaha n then we talked about college stuff until i ahd to go pick up carol (she was filming luau video stuff) and get home for dinner. bryan shaw came over to eat with us... my mom told him stories about when she used to work for china airlines n stuff....

today - another fun day at... (i told grace to guess and she got it on the first try)... dbhs! painted posters with USB people. they're finally about done.. and they look great! so all you brahmas better pay attention to the beautiful artwork on the first day of school rally =). ohh and lois painted my arm red! haha... its ok, im probably one of the cleanest ones at the end cuz so many people either stepped in wet paint or tripped over a paintbrush hehe. meanwhile band camp is also going on, so me n lois went to say hi to ali and krystle and we all decided to get lunch together. went back to usb to see if other people wanted food, and got shienan to with with us too. went to jack in the box. i decided to try mixing coke with strawberry fanta and a slice of lemon. it was sooo good!!! another one of calvin's random recipes hehe. back at dbhs - ate our food, did some more poster painting. n then i left to go visit vanessa again. i totally forgot that i locked all my programs before giving it to her yesterday, so she wanted to play games but couldnt =/. my bad... vanessa wanted a smoothie, and i told her we'll go across the plaza cuz i can swear there was a jamba juice right there. but it wasnt there! wut da heck... i guess it closed =/. so since we were already in the car we went to 7-eleven... back in diamond bar right by jack in the box. haha... she got her slurpee but she was late to class. but she said it didnt matter. and on the freeway some foo driving a huge RV almost forced me off the freeway =/. so anyways... back at elite, vanessa wnet to class, opened the door, i peeked inside so technically i saw jackie (she said she saw me), even though the door closed too fast for me to point her out. then i went back to dbhs... the posters were pretty much done by then but i went back anyways cuz i told ali n krystle i would get dinner with them at 4 (their dinnerbreak). shienan n lois didnt have anything to do so they were in the usb room helping wiht registration - selling bricks. yes, the most impossible job of all. why would anyone buy a brick for $100!?!?! or a "purple brick" for $250!?!? i dunno about u, but id rather stick with a Playstation2. so yea, we sold like nothing. pretty much jsu sat there n entertained people. then we went back n took one last look at the posters. me n shienan took pictures ON the poster. haha... i got several random pics throughout the day so i'll prolly post them sometime. so anyways, rolled up our beautiful artwork and brought it to the usb room. i carried the big poster wiht my head - it was SO HEAVY!! i never knew paper could weigh so much. it was the biggest single piece of paper i've ever seen in my life - its like 3 or 4 times the size of my room!!! someday i'll make a paper airplane that big and throw it off the roof of the empire state building. haha... ok im really random. anyways, i think mrs. reis noticed that i appear in the USB room very very often so when we were leaving shes said thanks for all my help. i didnt even see it as work hehe... it was fun =). and she thought i was in high school too. haha... then the band geeks (i get to make fun of them cuz i used to be one myself hehe) came out for dinnerbreak. there was a whole army of them... it was scary! haha... lois couldnt join us cuz she had to go home to do homework (and still shes online chatting rite now hehe). we decided to go to puente hills mall cuz shienan wanted to visit michael at gap (its his first day! =) ).... but krystle didnt like that mall so she ditched us and went with other people who were going to brea instead. wut a traitor! haha j/k so it ended up being me shienan tiffany ali and alison on the car. went to the mall, walked around for a lil then went to eat. thanx to tiffany i tried the mongolian bbq place for the first time.. its sooo good!! =). and since i only had $3 on me (i spent the rest on lunch) it was perfect cuz we shared the food and it was like 6 bucks. and i dug out all my coins for exact change hehe. dinner was hilarious... we did SO MANY STUPID THINGS. shienan said her phone number started with "s". i laughed so hard that i dropped a noodle on tiffanys foot. so many hilarious memories =). shienan stayed at the mall to wait til michael was done with work, meanwhile ali alison n tiffany (the band people) were terribly late so we went back. seems liek everyone that rode on my car today ended up being late huh? im soo sorry!! =/. nobody got in trouble though so its all good =).

so anyways, it was only like 6:30 (after another hilltop visit =) )when i got back home... start working out my teaching schedule for the rest of my summer, and planning out how its gonna transition into the schoolyear. good thing - more students means i'll be getting almost as much pay as a part-time job, but only working for a few hours each week. bad thing - those few hours will all be crammed into my weekend once school starts, plus im also doing lotsa worship team stuff (but im not complaining cuz i like it =) ) so my free time will be REALLY limited. but its ok, im pretty sure everything will be fine. and since its getting realyl late, i should go to sleep. goodnight!

08/14: ok this is weird, seems like im starting to update every other day. new trend maybe? iono... so anyways, yesterday morning i went downtown with my mom's cellgroup for homeless ministry. we didnt really do much, but its such a great experience. their worship is amazing - soooo much energy, even out in the hot sun, and people are so into it. yesterday night - backyard BBQ party #4, party for shaw's international students! it was so much fun.. great food, great games, great fellowship. we played "spiritual mafia" (angels n demons hehe), and i kept getting killed! gosh even international students like to pick on me haha. helped catherine with math stuff... realized i was really stupid cuz i totally forgot all my highschool math. took me sooo long to relearn it all again.

today - went to church... grace gave my doggie a chair! remind me to take a pic n post it sometime. lunched afterwards with ken esther and ally. yup, ally came to church today! =) she had to leave rite after lunch tho... then me ken n esther went to chill at the mall. we were gonna watch a movie but couldnt find any good times so we jus walked around and sat down n talked hehe. still fun though =).

soo... as most of u kno, i'm leaving for the east coast tour on saturday (early morning). theres a LOT of stuff to do this week... im finally starting to pick my classes for next quarter hehe. only problem - the earliest music history discussion is friday at 11 to 11:50. im supposed to be done with classes before 11. hopefully my mom can still pick me up, or i can find a way to get home, cuz im gonna be doing a LOT of teaching so im gonna hafta schedule at least one student on friday. pleez pray that everything will work out well. other than that, lotsa fun stuff this week too. going to DBHS again to help paint posters. thats prolly gonna happen tuesday. tomorrow - teaching in the morning, come home for lunch, go to emilys house. oh and maybe a tapioca express break if i'm still invited =). theres still 4 days left of elite.... hopefully i still get to visit.

one last thing before i shut up (oltbisu), as of today my camera is officially a part of my outfit, meaning it will go with me pretty much wherever i go. why? yes, it has to do with cars. haha... (by the way, the website's going really well. its almost done =) ). ok so yesterday everyone met at church to go downtown, and i got there early so i went upstairs to play piano - the one in the hallway facing the window. usually when ur sitting there u cant see the cars except for a few trucks that are high enough. so i was jus playing piano and suddenly i see this car transporter truck pass by, and guess what was on the top - a freakin FORD GT. the truck stopped at the stimson red light, and i could have totally ran downstiars and outside and took a picture. it was the first Ford GT i saw on the street! well, it was on a truck, but according to exoticspotter it still counts =). sooo beautiful, but no camera. and earlier that morning i was totally debating with myself over whether or not to bring my camera with me. why the heck did i not bring it!? why!?!?!? i'm such an idiot. not gonna miss anymore perfect opportunities like this. never! ok ok i need to calm down. hehe... in fact, i need to shut up. bye!

08/12: awesome day yesterday... went to buy lotsa stuff with carol in the morning, then we had lunch @ in n out. came back just in time to go to *drumroll* tapioca express. is it even surprising anymore? dun worry, i didnt go today cuz theres no class on fridays. but next week tehres still 4 more days. i wonder if im still invited... so anyways got to see vanessa grace n lily again for the 3rd day in a row =). and of course, everybody else who remember me as "ben li's cousin" hehe. didnt get to say hi to jackie tho cuz i had to leave early.... to where? *drumroll* DBHS!!! yes, i went there AGAIN. haha... lois needed me to sub in for her friend at registration, so i went for like the last hour or so. barely had to do any work hehe. i heard shienan was there too so i wnet out to find her n say hi, and she jus happened to be right by the door! haha... kinda funny how last time at registration i was workign w/ tiffany and now im working w/ krystle (tiffanys twin sis). she biked to school for registration in the morning. tiring, but it seems fun. still i gave her a ride home anyways =). ohh and a little piece of advice for people who bike to places - when ur riding on loose gravel and ur going downhill realyl really fast, do NOT slam the brakes hehe. ohh and there was this one gurl named pamela... we jus introduced ourselves, and then a few seconds later she said she likes my eyes. hmm... *blush* hehe... ok anyways then after sending krystle home me n lois dropped by my house (cuz its like a minute away hehe) to say hi to carol... and i had to give her a lil pooh bear keychain thingy i got for her =). and then guess wut... i lost my car key! i jus got off the car, gave carol the keychain, petted the dog, washed my hands, and *pOoF* my key disappeared! sooo weird... we searched for like over half n hour, and it was on the car the whole time hehe. next stop - gracefang's house. we were like sooooo late... sorry grace! =/ picked her up n then went to lois' house to work on CCF posters. lois has the most awesome house ever... how many houses have u seen that have a driveway going around the entire house (front and back)!? its like a little maze... soo cool! ohh and thanx lois for the dinner. she gave me THREE hot dogs hehe. yummy... poster painting was fun even though i suck =/. lois' monologues are sooo hilarious hehe. so all u DBHS people, when school starts look for a see you at the pole poster with a flag painted on it, cuz i made that one! hehe... it sucks, but owellz... ohh and i learned a LOT about how to mix colors hehe. apparently its impossible to mix colors and get yellow. thats why i tried so hard and it turned into brown =/. haha im so stupid...

anyways, today was kinda sad in the beginning, cuz i said i would try to take shienan n vanessa to the mall. ive only been to the mall TWICE this whole summer. whats going on!? i used to be at the mall like every week! haha (yes, i actually enjoy shopping ok? =) ). but i couldnt get my schedule worked out on time so we couldnt go today. i felt soooo bad... hopefully we get to hang out some othe rtime before summer ends. did some tutoring / random work throughout the day, and also spent a lot of time on my new website project. i guess the decision came easier than i expected - my exotic car photo gallery website is almost done! hehe... it took FOREVER to organize all the pics (theres over 120, and still some more i didnt add yet)... but i think once school starts again and i start doing more carwatching expeditions (with my new camera =) ), im gonna need this website to keep my stuff organized. so yea, hopefully i'll have that done soon. i actually wanna work on it some more right now hehe. so i guess i'll stop writing now. bye!

08/10: wnet to life plaza last night w/ ken christina n kenneth. christinas leaving for missouri today =/. then when she comes back thats the day i leave for east coast. then when i come back summers about over for high school people... so yea, last night we got drinks @ life... yes, i got ANOTHER boba. my 2nd one yesterday and 4th one in the week. i think thats enough for a while hehe. we chilled outside at the benches the whole tiem cuz life was closing. apparently they hafta close really early now cuz they need some kinda permit thingy. iono... but anyways, that was last night. then today - another fun day with my friends. usually i dun like to invite myself to anything, in case people dont want me there but theyre too nice to say no. so unless i'm in charge, i wait for people to invite me. and last night was prolly the most interesting invite ever - let the convo speak for itself.

vanessa: hows your day?
calvin: ohh my day was great
calvin: my friend invited me to go visit her at tapioca express
vanessa: and who could the friend be?
calvin: ohh her name's vanessa
calvin: do u know her?
vanessa: nope, but im sure she's awesome
calvin: yup, she is :-)
vanessa: yes i heard that she's like..the coolest person in diamond bar
calvin: i know! seriously
calvin: i felt so sepcial
calvin: that i got to see her today
vanessa: you lucky butt
vanessa: sigh....how great would i feel just to SEE her
calvin: shes at tapioca express every day i think
calvin: u can go visit her
vanessa: REALLY?
vanessa: NO WAY
vanessa: im going tomorrow
calvin: ok well i'll tell her to expect you
vanessa: k tell her she'll be expecting you too
calvin: ohh why is that?
calvin: she didnt tell me to go too
vanessa: because you are coming with me
calvin: i am?
vanessa: yes you are
vanessa: im telling you to go
so yea, how could i not go? =) and u kno wut i found out when i got there? she remembered this morning that she actually doesnt hafta go to tapioca express an hour before elite on wednesdays, but she didnt have my # to tell me, so she went anyways! *feels soooooo special* =) and lily gave me a lil winnie the pooh keychain thingy =). thanx! hehe... ohh and i did find good reasons to stop at hingwalee today - once was while walking around with vanessa, and once was cuz there was *drumroll* another conti GT! not the same one as before... this one's black. and its new (no plates yet). of course, i got some pics =). but i wont post them yet... im actually thinking about branching out a separate site for car pictures... shouldnt be too hard to make and it will defninlteyl help me organize my gazillion car pics. melanie came over in the evening to go running with carol but then it was too hot so we went to coldstones in brea mall. gosh mel has crazy connections hehe =). ohh and we stopped by her house. i love that place... plenty of eye candy for me. first a SC430 and NSX in their garage... melanie revved the NSX for me... i was like haaa-le-lu-jah! =). and then i got to see her dad's 996 turbo for the first time. its yellow!! sooo beautiful! then jus before we left her friend passed by on his way home - he has a freakin Modena!!! i didnt see it though, but i did see the garage door open and the whole place was all nicely tiled and had a spare set of wheels sitting on a rack! totally amazing =). coldstones was awesome... melanies cousin n friend work there but they almost refused to sing when we tipped! hehe... then we walked aournd the mall a bit, then came home. the ice cream was basically my dinner. im not even hungry now.. prolly gonna feed myself a little rice later. but anyways, thats all for now so i'll shut up!

08/09: starting with yesterday... went to teach piano in the morning then went to albertsons to buy some stuff. since i was already in the plaza i figured might as well drop by elite to see if jackie n vanessa were there cuz it was lunch break. didnt see them though =/. went to emilys house in the afternoon for tutoring/music stuff hehe. that was fun =). spent most of the night chatting online... and vanessa told me shes in the afternoon class at elite, but invited me to visit again, so thats where i went today hehe. theres a tapioca express right by elite... i never knew that! no $1 boba though so screw it hehe... but still, i got there and looked inside and totally didnt see her (cuz she was sitting with her friend grace and her back was facing me) so i wandered around outside for a few min. then vanessa came out to find me haha... shes like 'were u that guy looking in the window earlier?' yea i was hehe... now i feel stoopid =/. and OLD. hehe... tapioca express has these lil winnie the pooh keychain thingys... they're sooo cool! EVERYBODY has one except me haha. owellz.. ohh and when we were about to leave some foo spilled a box of black GO-checkers on the floor, and it went all over the place. so everyone there started picking them up for him hehe. went to elite n sat in with vanessa's class for a while before the teacher came, then i left cuz i didnt wana get in trouble (even though i blend in pretty well hehe... but its like the 2nd to last week of class so im sure the teacher knows his students by now). gosh, its been sooo long!!! i really miss elite actually, except now they give detentions. i guess i was lucky back then =). i heard mr. mann was still there. he prolly wont remember me though, but still he was the funniest teacher ever! then me n vanessa waited outside for jackie to come cuz she was soo late hehe. got to say hi to her too =). then i went home. actually wait, elite happens to be right next to hingwalee plaza, so of course my camera was on the car. nothing pictureworthy there though, but i did run into a Z8 at the intersection (in the plaza where yamaha is), so i made a quick left-turn detour to get some pics. not the rarest car out there, but still beautiful, and exoticspotter.com will definitely use these pics hehe. im gonna post one here:

08/07: last night was freakin insane... in a good and bad way hehe. i got my boba, so i'm happy =). but still, very interesting concert... got there at around 3 to set up and soundcheck n stuff (concert started at 7), to summarize the next few hours of chaos, the church had NO EQUALIZER. they have a huge stage and a pretty nice sound system, but i guess they aren't used to having a guitar, two keyboards, a bass, a drumset, and 5 vocalists on stage at the same time. musically it turned out pretty good, and some people accepted Christ, making it even better. 99% of the problems were technical-related.... but we cant really blame anyone for it. there simply wasnt enough time to practice by the time we finally had the system working. special thanks to Larry and Samuel shrushru for putting sooooooo much work into making everything sound good. and yes, i messed up a few times, but nothing all that big. hopefully nobody noticed =). ohh and in the backstage bathroom was like haunted!! it looks all nice n clean but its so scary. theres nothing inside except a sink, a toilet, and a toilet paper dispenser. yet when i pulled on the toilet paper, i felt an object hit my hand then fall on the floor - a huge SPIDER!!! aaaaaah!!! i was totally freaking out =/. but why would any idiot spider spend their life inside a toilet paper dispenser!? haha... craziest moment of the concert - we were all backstage listening to the DVD and realized they played the wrong video! so we had to rearrange the song list on the spot. that was insane.... i was sooo nervous hehe. but luckily it worked out well. people knew there were technical difficulties but didnt know wut was wrong, so i guess its ok. and of course, a Banana Bay afterparty came shortly after the concert =). that was the first thing i ate since lunch (except for the boba and a piece of gum). and yes, i finished my fried rice =). that stuff is SO GOOD. and i was SO TIRED. somehow i actually woke up for church today. and church was awesome... great worship & sermon. lunched afterwards at some japanese restaurant in hongkong plaza with ken madelyn n esther. ally was gonna come too but she ate already =/. but she has to come next week =). we're proly gonna go hang out n watch a movie or sumthin after church next week. *cant wait* hehe...

soo... my calendar for next week looks pretty empty. anybody wanna hang out? or maybe theres more work i can do for DBHS? hahaha... we'll see... and apparently friday's luau is postponed til next month. gosh, thanks for planning ahead. seriou5ly, i dun see why it takes this long to organize this thing. and i already invited people too and now they change it. wut da heck... owellz i guess i'm free friday too. hehe... anyways, i'm having some interesting conversations online right now so i think i'll stop writing and go answer those orange flashing windows. bye!

08/06: took carol to SYMF yesterday... first time driving there myself. luckily traffic wasnt all that bad. and besides, being in the carpool lane gives me plenty of eye candy from the other side of the freeway - NSX, viper rt/10, continental GT, a few Carreras, and a DB9. the DB9 was light blue!!! sooo beautiful! =) ohh and i ran into ally there =). soo surprised! haha... i think i should write a letter to SYMF to address a couple things - first, non-piano students (namely violinists hehe) need to shut up while in the hallway. the classroom doors aren't soundproof, and everyone can hear you tuning while they're performing. and its REALLY loud. if ur that desperate to practice or tune, go line up for a practice room, or lock yourself in a bathroom stall. they seriously need to hire someone to maintain peace throughout the day. aside from that, my other complaint is this - Asian men wearing hot pink who have bad eyesight and can't speak English should NOT host the awards ceremony! by the way, carol won 4th, thats why we were at the cermony. congratz! =) ). back to the chinese guy... sorry if i sound like i'm being overly discriminating, but im sure everyone who was there agrees with me. carol videotaped him trying to read off everyone's names.. ask her for the video if u wanna see it, or jus ask me and i'll get it from her. ok fine, some of the winners' last names are hard to pronounce, but he couldnt even say the asian names right!! and he has no idea wut hes talking about. how many people FORGET to tell the first place winners to perform!? thats just wrong... if i was a parent and it was my kid's first award i would be sooooo mad. i really dun like to be mean, but it was ridiculous. that guy needs to find himself a job he actually knows how to do.

last night i had a crazy (but hilarious) debate with david (liu) about cars, namely the mercedes G55. i still think it's a ridiculous idea especially for a hundred grand. but anyways... that talk is over, at least for now hehe. in other news, Ivy & family will be joined my family on the East Coast trip! yea yea i kno... i havent really told anybody (except my piano students... cuz i hafta take a week off). long story short, the Taiwan trip was cancelled not long after i mentioned it here in the beginning of summer... and instead we'll be going to New York, Washington DC, Niagara Falls, and wutever else the tour covers. we leave on 8/20 (saturday) and come back on the 25th (i think). its my first time going on vacation in like 3 or 4 years. concert tours dont count hehe.... so yea... definitely something to look forward to. i already pretty much forgot what it feels like to be on vacation. but im sure its fun. anyways... i'm leaving in about 2 hours to go setup n soundcheck for tonight's concert. soo many people are going! its makin me nervous hehe... hope it turns out well. i better go practice now...

08/04: just got back from rehearsal for saturday's concert. first time me n josh are both gonna be on stage at the same time... which means wer'e gonna need a LOT of keyboards. its my first time seeing two Motifs (samuel shru shru's 8 and amy ah yee's ES8) next to each other, plus the RS70. i'll be taking care of my usual parts and josh is adding a bunch of effects... and i mean really good effects. too bad the sound wasnt all set up today... cant wait to hear wut it sounds like coming out of the system. ohh if anyone wants to come to the concert, its in hacienda hts (corner of hacienda blvd and tetley i think), saturday night, its free =). ohh and guess wut i got during rehearsal today... a BOBA!!! my first one in like... a week n a half!? i was dying!! ohh and this saturday the lollicup in walnut (by mt sac) is doing buy one get one free all day. i'll prolly drop by after teaching piano. anyone wanna join me? =). im sure all of u know me well enough: calvin + boba = happy =).

other random stuff... today i was on my way to go teach piano and i looked next to me at a redlight and there was emily! haha... we were sooo surprised. wonder where she was headed... this week theres SOOO MANY BIRTHDAYS. it's insane. tuesdays was rebecca (chen)'s bday, yesterday was tiffany (tai)'s, today is gary's and christina's. called both of them, and i asked my typical 'do you know who this is?'. gary knew right away... i was soo surprised. christina guessed right on the second try. again i was soo surprised, since i've only talked to her twice. but anyways... back to tonight - that boba made me sooo happy, but wut can possibly make the day better? take a look:

08/03: jus got back from samuel shru shru's house again... so they practiced recording a song this time, and he let me play with the mixer and record some stuff too =). its sooo fun!! ohh and ivy came out to say hi again =). we played kung fu chess against this one newbie person... i felt soo bad cuz i suck and i still owned him both times haha... anyways i wanna do the mixing/recording stuff again but too bad its the last rehearsal =/. they're trying to arrange more, but its prolly not gonna be until next month cuz everyones gonna be on vacation n stuff. but owellz... another claymusic rehearsal tomorrow night @ church, cuz we have a concert on saturday! its in hacienda hts... not THAt far, so come if u want! listen to some awesome chinese christian music hehe... and plus u get to see me play piano for a whole night. wait, who would want to do that ? haha... ok i'll shut up now bye!

08/03: went to grace fangs house today... me her n lois were working on stuff for CCF (dbhs christian club). yea i kno, jus call me a brahma now, gosh. haha... but it was fun... thanx grace for the awesome food =). ohh and we went to her room and geuss wut i see - my picture on the wall!! (and i didnt even nkow her until today). turns out shes carols friend from chaparral so thats why she has our pics. crazy huh? haha... lois tried teaching me taiwanese. i SUCK =/. haha... it was fun though =). ohh and i farted on lois. but she asked me to so i did =). anyways hopefully our work today will turn out well. im not supposed to say wut it is so i'll keep my mouth shut hehe. ok, g2g now byebye!

08/02: today was so awesome it deserves a second entry. hehe... after the last entry i ate dinner then called rebecca chen to say happy bday =). n shes like 'wanna come over?' and so i went. she told me she had a couple friends there already... then i got there and saw annie at the driveway! totally unexpected... so turns out were both friends with rebecca, and they were waiting outside for a bunch of other people to show up for a surprise party! steph liang showed up too... shes like 'calvin? wut are u doing here?' and i was like 'wut are YOU doing here?' ... and i had no clue was going on... but i ended up being part of it anyways =). so the 'couple friends' ended up being like over a dozen people. it was sooo fun!! highlight of the night (whoa that rhymes hehe) - joey gave rebecca a piggyback ride, which ended with her in the pool!!!! hahahaha.... of course, i put my camera to good use. one thing this baby can do that my old camera cant is take VIDEOS. i think its my first time videoing with it, but it was totally worth it =). if u want it jus ask me to send it to u. and pics will be posted soon too. buncha people had to leave, then afterwards everyone else stayed to play BS for a while... pretty fun... i suck tho. rebecca kept BSing me. how did she kno? =/ haha owellz.. anyways thats all for now. tomorrows another fun day - i get to see lois again =). and no its not at DBHS again haha... even though i really wont mind if i get invited to go help out again. but yea... i'll update more tomorrow. for now, goodnight!

08/02: random stuff... first of all, last week apparently nobody submitted pics to exoticspotter.com after me, (either that or their pics all got rejected hehe) so my pics are on the top of the list!! i submitted the black prowler (where the guy was staring at me hehe) and the f430 spider from beverly hills trip #2. my dream is to get picture of the week someday... but first of all i'm gonna need to see something expensive enough to shoot. maybe next year... gosh suddenly i miss ucla so much hehe.

wut does ice tea, chocolate, melons, and an Eggo have in common? its all stuff that was fed to me while i was at emilys house yesterday! haha... did some SAT work as usual then did some fun music stuff again. i did something i never thought i could do in my whole life. dun worry, its a good thing. but yea... ask emily haha... i still cant believe i did it... but i guess its good =). last night ling called me!!! can u believe it? i actualyl got a phone call! and calling to go hang out n stuff duznt count hehe... i mean real phone call to actually talk =).

today - drove carol to piano lessons... i actualyl survived driving that far. i think its the farthest i ever drove (a little farther than billy graham crusade @ the rose bowl) without an adult next to me. kinda scary but its ok. (and yes, im still trying very very hard to fight my driving problems... pleez continue to pray for me for that =) ). then me n carol ate @ jack in the crack.... i got to see kat again! =). went back home, then i went to *drumroll...* diamond bar high! AGAIN! hahaha... i seriou5ly need a life =/. but it was soo fun. i was gonna go help shienan at registration cuz her friend had to leave early, but turns out they didnt need help in the usb room so i ended up helping to make some huge poster thingy. i got lost finding the usb room =/. why is dbhs so much bigger than troy? haha... but the poster thing was soo fun =). got to meet a buncha cool people too. first it was me shienan james n kumar... james n kumar didnt believe i was 20 either. gosh... haha we went to the "golden horseshoe" to work... (wut does a horseshoe have to do with brahmas!? haha)... james is crazy at drawing action figures. everyone else's efforts probably made him feel so bad cuz we screwed up his art hehe. then i met garret n ishmael when they came to join us... shienan was soooo hyper! rolling around the floor and kicking sandals at the ceiling n stuff haha. ohh and she ran into a pole =/. actually that was hilarious =). we were walking out n she totally wasnt looking forward n then she turned around n *BOoM* haha... ohh and me kumar garret n ishmael had the craziest conversation about racists... we covered everything from chiang kai shek to martin luther king jr... did chinese people really conquer africa!?!? wut da heck... haha... it was hilarious though =). n then afterwards we chilled outside in the parking lot until they all had to leave, then i left too. now i'm back home again writing this entry. haha...

one last thing - a few minutes ago i found out my site is actually on the yahoo search engine! even my Xanga is on there! hahhaa.. people are gonna stalk me now *scared*... anyone know how to set search keywords for a page in html? i forgot... never though my site would end up on search engines. but now that it is, i really need to refine it a bit. at least i'll make it searchable under "calvin chang" instead of "calvinchang". haha... anyways, thats all for now so i think i'll shut up. byebye!

08/01: (followup to 7/1 entry.) It's already been a month since I returned to using Instant Messaging. Coming from a three-month hiatus, I can't even begin to describe how thankful I am for all my friends, especially those who remembered me when I disappeared and made an effort to stay in touch. First of all, I was amazed at how many people remembered my birthday even though I didn't go online, and at the many ways they tried to wish me a happy birthday - some left notes in my guestbook; others wrote to me in their online journals; still others IMed people who knew me to deliver the message. Also, it was great to return to AIM and be greeted with an unexpectedly warm welcome. Many people had noticed my disappearance, and when I returned we were able to pick up right where we left off; I strongly believe that not a single friendship has been harmed through my absense, and it touches my heart each time I realize how much my friends care about me.

Some people have talked to me about my original entry regarding the hiatus. My own experiences always become more meaningful when I realize they can be used to help others too. Limit something that you were once so attached to will definitely make you feel empty at times, and that's perfectly normal. Don't be afraid of those temporary fears; just allow yourself some time, and you will begin to see the benefits of being set free again. Even now, it's still tempting for me to go back to the way I was before my computer broke, and because of that I gave myself a few rules to follow. First, my time on AIM is limited to no more than two hours per day. Second, I must sign off before midnight. Third, the computer stays off until at least past noon every day. The first two rules have helped me maintain a healthy social life independent from the Internet, while the third is simply for my own well-being. By asking my closer friends to remind me when I'm breaking my own rules, I have been able to remain in check most of the time. Of course, there are exceptions to my rules, namely when other people need help and it requires me to break a rule. In those cases I do so willingly, because one of the greatest experiences in friendship is to be reminded of love for one another. You can't love your friends genuinely until you know what it's like to be loved first in the same way, and that's exactly what I experienced when I returned from my hiatus.

What about the majority of my "friends" who didn't notice anything different even though I had disappeared for three months? Chances are they won't find their way to this entry anytime soon, but even so I have no right to judge them, because I had been one of them until I was involuntarily removed from their world. It's possible that they simply have enough friends already and don't need me. But perhaps they are exactly where I was before my hiatus - searching for a deeper love to fill an emptiness in their heart that worsened with their everyday routines. The excitement of having a convenient alternative to talking on the phone or seeing friends in person is only temporary; once Instant Messaging becomes a substitute for other methods of communication, it creates a longing for intimacy that can't be sent through the computer screen. Today, my desire for Instant Messaging is no longer for the feeling of security that so many people nowadays have become dependent on, but rather for strengthening my friendships and giving out the love that has been given to me first.

True friendship takes time to form, and love must be given and received constantly in order to satisfy our needs as social beings. We all go through times when we need love, and sometimes sending words over the Internet just doesn't do the job. Staring at the monitor all day and waiting for IM windows to pop up won't solve the problem; that's the reason I used to stare at my full Buddylist and still feel so lonely inside. Don't be fooled into thinking your whole list of friends will always be there for you, then become disappointed when you realize you're not getting the individual attention you deserve. Let your true friends know that you notice them even when there's nothing around you to remind you of them. Write them the letters they can look back on when they feel unloved. Be the voice that they hear when they are lonely, and the smile they see when they need encouragement. With all that in mind, Instant Messaging can be a good thing. In fact, in this past month I've strengthened many friendships through my daily two hours of AIM time. Now that I have allowed Instant Messaging back into my life, it's my job to remember the gift of genuine love that my friends gave me and continue to bless others with it. And it's my wish that we can all learn to reciprocate such an incredible gift, so that those who need it will receive it, and those who have it can give it away and be blessed with even more.

07/31: just got the September issue of Motor Trend, and i flipped to the page with a test drive of the new Carrera 4, and the photo looked REALLY familiar. check this out...

07/30: this is a really random entry. i love my SD400... look at this -

07/29: went to RHCCC's praise night with worship by the Exodus. totally amazing experience... thanks lois for inviting me =). and no, im not sick of seeing u so often. im gonna see u again next week right? hehe... finally got to meet grace too =). and her sis tesia. yes i remembered her name! hehe... and like 5 minutes after i met grace we (me lois grace tesia) went to lollicup and she bought me a boba!!! gosh people are too nice to me... also met a gazillion other people, some of them actually remembered me from the last priase night (cuz i went to that one too). also met a new friend gary who came from china and grew up partly in africa. isnt that cool? hes going to dbhs next year so all u brahmas better be nice to him =).

anyways, worship was awesome and so was the message. funny how we learned about "closets", cuz i had already planned to head straight to my "closet" right after leaving rhccc. but of course, i go there all the time anyways. its an amazing place to be after a long day, whether a happy one or a stressful one. and i can stay there as long as i want and talk out loud and chill with God and tell him everything. soo this past week i have learned a LOT about the battles i've been fighting. for my bday ken gave me this book called "12 christian beliefs that can drive you crazy". i thought it would be something i could read just for fun, but its seriou5ly amazing how i always tend to open the right books at the right times. remmeber "the purpose-driven life"? still one of my favorites... if i hadnt opened it right there and then, my life would not be the same now. and once again, God had led me to another book that could change my life. i just started reading the first few chapters, but i realized the book described exactly how i feel and where i am right now, and it offers me solutions that i never thought off before. kinda scary to put it this way, but i think after spending soooo much time with God in the past few years, a part of me feels soo close to him, but at the same time i forgot a lot of the essential basics, and thats what screwed me up. and through recent events god is waking me up so i can turn back and recover what i left behind. i'll write more in detail next time, but thanks to everyone who has been praying for me... please continue doing so cuz im gonna need it. anyways, time for me to shut up once again. bye!

07/28: wow... what can i say, today has been simply amazing. its one of those days that im gonna remember forever, you know, days when u get to enjoy great moments with friends, meet new friends, and make great memories. its like 11 and i just got home and im soo hyper and soo happy right now. i dun even know why haha... ok well maybe part of the reason is cuz i found out i can totally say i'm a 16-year-old and blend in perfectly =). so yea, i said i was gonna explain why helping with dbhs registration is such a special event to me. those of u who knew me from Troy can testify to the kind of person i was back then. havent really told many people this, but i always looked at the people who were in student leadership and envied them, cuz everyone seems to love them so much and they have so many friends and they're not afraid to look or act stupid, cuz people will love them anyways. i comforted myself by realizing that contrary to what people at troy believed, i actually did have a social life (at least starting my junior year), its just that i'm so 'different' from all the people at troy that it simply wasnt the right place for me to fit in. i often regretted my initial decision to go to troy thinking i was smart enough to still be one of the top students like in middle school, and resulting in complete failure and loss of self-confidence. if i hadnt gone to troy, i would have been at DBHS, where students have so much more motivation to do things outside of academics. (i hate to stereotype either school, but im sure those of u who also know both sides will agree with me). but because it was already my last couple years and i didn't wanna switch schools, i decided to stay at troy, and finished high school with many unfulfilled dreams. its amazing (and even funny sometimes) how God reminds me to not worry about my past by fulfilling my old dreams even when i almost forgot them already. now, after two years of college, i get to sit in diamond bar's usb room and help sell yearbooks for registration. ok so its duznt exactly sound like a fun job. but even though i got there at 7:15AM (ok fine, i was a few minutes late =/), i dont feel the least bit tired. and not once during the 8 hours of working did i consider what i was doing as "work". i was just having fun. sure, i'm old (and no tiffany thats not supposed to make u feel old too hehe), but i feel like i got to do something i've always wanted to do but never had a chance to.

so anyways, lemme start from the beginning. went to dbhs in the morning, met with lois n debbie at the parking lot. lois gave me a quick tour of the campus (ive been there several times, but i still get lost =/ ), then we went to the usb room to get ready to start. got to meet tiffany who sold yearbooks with me (actually she was more passing out the class ring n photo papers and not paying attention half the time hehe =) ), and lois was next to me doing activities cards. by the way, in case i forget later, thanks lois for inviting me today. even though u kept saying u feel bad to ask me to work so hard, i seriously had sooo much fun. ok anyways, so we sold stuff for the next several hours, talking to each other n drawing when there were no customers. and no tiffany my cars are not unproportional! hehe =) there were some really unexpected moments.. some kid's dad wanted to buy him a yearbook but he insisted he didn't want one. isnt it usually the other way around? ohh and there was this one asian dad that didnt see where the line started, and we kept telling him to come back but he totally ignored us and kept on wandering around, then at the end hes like 'why duztn my son have an ID card?'. i wonder why.... hahaha anyways debbie took like 987435899473 bathroom breaks, like one every 2 seconds. she almost got in trouble hehe. there was this one old guy that was really strict n mean with everyone and he lectured her for leaving too many times hehe. we did get a lunch break though (food courtesy of usb =) ), they ordered ameci for everyone. and we got a free drink from the student store. after lunch the selling continued. and of course, when we had time to talk the whole world wanted to know how old i was. i kinda wanted to see how well i blend in first before revealing my real age, and lois agreed to help me keep it a secret hehe. debbie knew too (cuz shes carols friend) but she kept quiet too. they asked wut school i go to so i had to say 'troy'. and then somehow (i forgot how) lois was like 'yea hes a junior' (i really am hehe)... and they jus assumed i was a junior at troy. after lunch i was sitting next to shienan (another new friend =). she subbed for lois during our lunchbreak but took her spot afterwards hehe. im usually shy when it comes to meeting new people, but i simply couldnt ignore her when shes constantly singing Goldfish commercial jingles =) ). so we were talking n she said she went to chaparral for middleschool and i was like 'oh i went there too!'. thats when things started getting out of hand... since they thought i was a 'junior', it means i should have been the same class as shienan at chaparral, but she didnt know me! fast forward a few minutes, we were both talking to one of the staff people, and she asked me if i go to troy now, and i didnt wanna like to the stuff (cuz they're gonna be paying me for my work hehe) so i was like 'yea i graduated already'. but she never asked where i go for college cuz someone came in to register hehe. i totally thought shienan heard me say that (cuz she was in the conversation too) but i was wrong... and at the end i felt REALLY bad when i had to tell them how old i was, cuz i didnt think tiffany n shienan were gonna actually assume i'm a junior in hs and believe it. i was expecting maybe a first year in college or sumthin, so it wont be that much of a shock. and it got to a point where we all knew each other pretty well already and i actually felt like i lied to them purposely, even though that wasnt my intention at all. so yea... told them how old i am. i felt sooo bad =/. it was kinda funy though cuz shienan didnt believe it at first, and had to see my drivers licence for proof. tiffany said (afterwards) that the whole time she didnt really think im a junior in hs. but still, hard to believe im so old =/. i felt really really really bad... they said they forgave me and i hope its true. *worried*

wow, so this entry is already REALLY long huh? sorry... but its been an eventful day, so i hafta end it with an eventful entry to remember it by hehe. so me n tiffany successfully passed our quota by 20 sales (yaay! =) ). hopefully we win a hundred bucks hehe. small chance but not impossible =). after all the selling ended (like 4:15ish), me lois tiffany n shienan (everyone else from our table was gone already) went to the parking lot... lois had to leave =/, but the rest of us went to coldstones!! its only my 2nd time there... first time was when they were giving out free ice cream hehe =). so yea, i actually BOUGHT something this time. but hey, i earned 10 bucks (as u can tell didnt work just to get the money...), so might as well spend it well. and besides, shienan said she forgave me for lying to her only cuz i bought her ice cream. does money REALLY solve problems? haha... so anyways we chilled outside while enjoying ice cream... watched this one old guy watering the plants outside... from our angle he was totally taking a big piss. and he watered teh same plant for like half n hour. wut da heck, dont drown the poor tree!! ok anyways, then sent shienan home then sent tiffany home (tiffany lives in my neighrborhood. kind of... like a minute drive. but still, thats so cool!), then went home myself (after a little break on the hilltop of course. ive been going there a LOT these days).

went online for a while, partly to chat and partly to print out directions for *drumroll...* shienan's church! yea that was totally unexpected, but hey, i had no plans for tonight, so why not put it to good use? hteres this Vacation Bible Study thing going on, and shienan asked me to come and i was like sure... she gave me the address n everything, so i went =). ate dinner at home first (come on, im not gonna ditch my family all day... im sure they expected me home for dinner hehe), but i said i was gonna be at church late so its ok. got there at like 7:30ish... i had no idea wut it was for at first, but i always love surprises hehe. i jus walked in there totally confused, and i found shienan only after hearing her trademark super-high-pitched "wooHoo!!" (hehe)... she was actually surprised i showed up (come on, did u think i was gonna lie to u again? =/ *still feels really guilty*). so turns out its this kids camp thing going on this week at their church (EFC Walnut), and made it just in time for games - waterfight! haha... that was fun. so they all had little groups and of course i went in shienans group cuz i didnt even know what was going on. and then suddenly mike (one of the kids) starts launching wet sponges at me! and there was only one person left (shienans friend michael) and i didnt even meet him yet and the first time i said his name i had to throw a sponge at him. what a great way to meet friends hehe... he had to leave early though so didnt have much time to talk to him. i got to meet a bunch of other people at their church, and the scary thing is that so many of them know me!! we were all in the sanctuary watching a video (omg what happens to Chadder at the end? i cant go tomorrow but i really really want to know! =/ hehe) and i meet this guy named albert and hes like 'hey arent u the guy that plays piano for IV?' thats the one scary thing about worship team... random people will come to u and say u look familiar. we were actually both at catalina too but never met until today. also met mary magdaline, i mean, natalie (hehe... whe i first saw her she was getting ready for acting the scene of Jesus' crucifixion) who went to troy and is going to ucla next year (yaay bruins!)... how do people remember me from troy even though they never met me? i always thought i was the weird kid hiding in a corner cuz nobody wanted to talk to me. the weird part is definitely true, but i guess i didnt do too well hiding hehe. nothing wrong with that though =). met jay who also went to troy and goes to SD now. he knew ben (chen) and steph (li) since preschool! wow... if i ever need their baby pictures i know where to look hehe. also met vanessa (shienans best friend)... we were talking after the program was over and then suddenly shienan left without saying bye! *soo sad* so vanessa kept me company for the rest of the time i was there. i met garrick (thats his name right?) who supposedly looks a lot like me. and met like a gazillion other people... and thre were a bunch of birthdays so there was a big cake, and i guess i got invited to have a slice too =). talked to like a gazillion more people... ok by the way, if i messed up on any names on this entry, PLEASE correct me... im sooooo bad with names. go ahead, make me feel guilty, cuz i need to improve on this really badly. hehe ok anyways, then we all wnet outside afterwards, attempted to play boom chiga boom boom, but didnt get very far... tried jiggalo, wasnt much more successful. we were all really really hyper though, possibly cuz of the cake. i was jus in a really good mood cuz i always love meeting friends. ohh and most of them didnt believe i was 20 either. but i learned my lesson already.. so anyways people started filtering out one by one cuz they had to leave, then at the end theres like 6 or 7 of us left and suddenly we turn around and EVERYONe was gone except for their parents waiting for them, so we broke up the party. i seriously could have stayed there forever if nobody had to leave hehe. and even now (its past midnight) im not tired at all. did i really spend a whole hour writing this entry!? haha ok anyways, lemme stay on topic. everybody said byebye n left, then i took vanessa home... its like the first time where someone sits on my car for a few seoncds and says 'i like your car'. seriou5ly, i was soo surprised =). but anyways, after sending vanessa home i went to the hilltop (AGAIN hehe... come on, its been such an awesome day. i cant only go there when i'm desperate right? sometimes when im happy enough, i feel just as desperate to go there =) ) for a lil while before coming home. and now here i am writing the longest journal entry on this planet. if u actually read all of this, go get a life hehe. j/k... unless ur one of the people i saw today trying to find out wut i wrote about u. dun worry, i didnt say aynthing bad. did i? hopefully not hehe. (but if i wrote anything wrong please lemme know!). ohh and by the way, "i love God". "WOW!!!!!". hahahahaha omg that got rubbed into me REALLY well. if i was a kid i would totally sign up for VBS. they decorated the whole church sooo much and even turned a classroom into Jesus' burial scene. it was insane (in a good way. apparently not everyone understands that 'insane' can be a good thing hehe). ohh and i learned a new theory for people who are skeptical about Jesus' resurrection - maybe people stole his body from the tomb so they could sell it on eBay!! hahaha that was hilarious =). ohh, and a receipt for camel rentals!!?? hahaha wow, they're SOOO creative! haha... too bad they ran out of little giraffes so i couldnt get one at the end. ohh and someone better tell me what happens to Chadder after tomorrow night! i cant stand hearing stories and not knowing the ending. omg, im so hyper right now its not even funny. and i thought i should be sleeping soon. maybe i should just go online n calm myself first =). ok either way, i'm gonna stop writing now. again, if u read this far, go get a life hehe.... j/k i love it when people come to my site. but anyways, how many times did i say i was gonna stop? AAAAAH!!! * going crazy* ok bye!!!

07/27: ok now this sucks, i sent out email #3 last night, and the seller RESPONDED. so now hes not exactly guilty anymore, but i still didnt get my stupid item. either way im waiting til end of this week, meanwhile if it doesnt come i already found a backup plan.

anyways, tonight i'll be tagging along for claymusic rehearsal again, and afterwards im coming home and heading straight to bed. why? tomorrow i'll be at DBHS at 7:15 AM for registration, and i'll be there all day! yupyup... i get to be a highschooler for a day. how cool is that? dont forget to say hi to me if u have summerschool/registration/or anything else that makes u go to db anytme tomrorow. i'll be there all day with the usb people thanx to lois who invited me =). seriou5ly, i think its a very special day for lotsa reasons which i wont explain til afterwards. but yea, im kinda nervous and really excited at the same time. im so wierd...

07/25: clock just struck midnight. no email from hong kong. second email already sent, slightly harsher than the first, and asking for IMMEDIATE response. each day without a response i'll send another email. soo as u can see i've moved on to plan B. if nothing shows up in the mail by friday, i'll assume its not gonna show up at all, and as soon as i find a replacement and buy it, that first seller's feedback is gonna turn ugly, and i'll make sure all of his sales drop significantly (trust me, theres ways to do it. perfectly legit ways too).

07/25: next time you think ur so azn, try walking down the sidewalk eating a corn while holding a plastic bag (from myStore) to use as a trashbag afterwards. it was pretty interesting... luckily not too many people noticed, except emily, since the corn was from her house. tutoring today was pretty good... got some work done and also had fun... we played piano n guitar again. soo fun! i realized i can actually play G major stuff on guitar now... still sounds bad though =/. and her grandma gave us SO MUCH FOOD! haha... we had a plate of pineapple, a plate of melons, some cake, and the corn. haha... and i couldnt finish on time so i brought the corn with me cuz i didnt want emilys grandma to think i dun like her food. and i really do like it =).

07/24: so about all the stuff i've been praying about... i dont mind writing about it here cuz i've already mentioned it in detail several times in the past. apparently i still have trouble controlling my anger sometimes. and for those of u who dont know, its REALLY BAD. bad enough that my own behavior scares myself. and the biggest problem is that i cant really trust God to heal me, because its been a problem i struggled with for years. addictive anger that somehow found its way in my life (i still dont know how) and grew and grew, and eventually reached a climax where something bad happened and God reminded me to be humble and pray. so i prayed, and i thought he healed me. but then as time passed the same problem came back and grew so much worse than the previous time. then it reaches a much higher climax, and once again i'm humbled and i pray, and i'm healed, and then eventually the problem comes back again, even worse. you get the picture. the last of such 'climaxes' was several months ago... i thought it would finally bring an end to this problem, cuz when i asked for healing, i prayed specifically that i would be freed ONCE AND FOR ALL. and so when i was healed i thought it was real. and apparently it wasnt. im not sure if i would consider yesterday a climax, but its definitely pretty bad, worse than i've seen myself before. God definitely humbled me and calmed me down though. but im not even sure if i should be praying for help anymore, because the only thing i want is COMPLETE freedom and not anything temporary. in fact, if God's gonna make me believe he healed me and then realize that its only temporary, I would rather have him leave me alone until his time comes for completel healing. i dont want him to use climaxes to scare me into being humble, because through the humility i will develop strength to move beyond the previous climax and make things even worse. maybe i just dont understand what God's trying to tell me through all these times i felt mislead by him. and whatever it is, i need to know soon, cuz i dont even wanna imagine how much worse i can become when i'm under the control of my anger. i told a lot of people about this before (and recently too) and it seems surprising to them because they've never seen this side of me. im always encouraged when i realize people think im a nice person, but i cant let them go on thinking of me as someone i'm not. truth is im not any better than anyone else. they have their struggles, and i have mine too. my case might be different from most people, but its equally as bad, if not worse. i used to always humble myself by reminidng myself of all the things god already blessed me with and being satisfied with them. just like being scared into humility, it doesnt work. simply cuz it doesnt come from my heart. wherever this struggle came from, i know its roots are hidden somewhere in my heart, and the only way to destroy it is to pull out its roots completely. but how can i find out? ive been trying for so long... i used to just think 'ok i have a problem, so i should pray'. but its not like that anymore... im not jus gonna randomly pray for healing. i wanna know specifically what the problem is so i can offer it to God and let him take care of it. i'm not going to let this battle end until i find the deepest root of my anger. even if i wake up tomorrow morning and magically get healed, im still not gonna just accept it as another miracle and rejoice over it. im gonna keep fighting until i know without doubt that the root has been pulled out and destroyed permanantly. its gonn abe hard, and for those who pray for me, please continue to do so cuz i really need it. i feel so unstable... one moment i'm all nice n happy, and suddenly i get bitten by the monster inside of me and everything changes. i've lost control of myself. i'm still strong enough to believe that God is making this happen for a reason, but honestly im so sick and tired of rebounding exponentially back n forth between good and bad. a couple things i know for sure. first, through all the times i spent in prayer and worship these past couple days, i've already become so much closer to God. second, God WILL rescue me from my anger. but how? and WHEN? i hate to question the power of God, especially because he has already proven himself faithful to me countless times. but i'm so confused... so tired of waiting... so tired of trying... when will i finally learn what it means to love again? i know that the solution to my problem has to do with love... and nothing has the power to overcome love, because God IS love. please God, show me what i'm supposed to do now. this is your story, not mine. write it according to your will. write it so that it may become a testimony to others, so that when i learn how to love, i can use it as a tool to aide my love for people. write it so that in the end all the questions will be answered, all the confusion cleared, and all the struggles defeated. thank you for doing whatever you're doing in my life now, cuz i know your will is always better than my own, and your plan is always best for me, even if it doesnt seem like it right now. help me to believe in you... help me to trust you.. to love you... im sure things are the way they are now becuase you love me. if you are willing, show me what you want me to learn from it. if you are willing, help me to find the root of my problem so i can be set free once and for all. you know all my deepest feelings, even the things im afraid to confess, the enemies i'm afraid to even think of, the people i need to learn to forgive. theres nothing i can hide from you... take my heart, soul, and mind away from me now. even when i try to fight back, hold them tightly and make sure they dont return to me until i'm ready. i want to be right with you again... i want to be free again... and i know its possible because i used to be free. what happened to me now? whatever your reason is, i pray that you let your will be done, and in the end i pray that you will be glorified.

07/24: soo many great moments with josh's c-worship team today - right before first service started people were still quietly praying/reflecting/meditating/whatever and we went on stage to get ready... and luis was like *CLANG* on the cymbal (accidentally)... hahaha... we went waay overtime and pastor chen tried to come up so many times but josh kept on repeating the last song! haha n then before second service while everyone that arrived early were praying quietly, we were sitting in the front quietly discussing why everyone on stage couldnt hear themselves during first service even though it was fine yesterday during rehearsal. then samuel s. s. heard us and went up on stage and picked up a cable that wasnt connected to anything - THE MONITOR WASNT PLUGGED IN. we all cracked up sooo loudly... gosh that was hilarious. during 2nd service someone in the front row put on SO MUCH BABY POWDER and i had to hold in my sneeze the entire time!!! haha english service was awesome... got to see some people i havnet seen in 843453453 years, namely tiffany ling jackie n esther. after service me ken n esther went to lunch @ garden cafe, and we arrived not only to find an insanely long line, but also that half the people waiting in line were UCC people. haha... as much as our church needs to work on bonding more, we're definitely pretty united when it comes to food choice. at least for this time. so yea, waited for a while then went in to eat. sent esther home afterwards... on the way we passed by the intersection of colima and nogales and guess what i see at the red light - a yellow F355! then we drove past the intersection and guess wut i see right next to it - a yellow 360 spider!!! thats right, TWO FERRARIS TOGETHER IN ROWLAND HEIGHTS. like ken pointed out, that definitely made my day. its one of those moments that can humble any kid in a ricer civic, no matter how loud their exhaust is. haha... wonder where they were headed... maybe HWL plaza? if i ever see those two ferraris next to the RR and Bentley at HWL, i'll literally go out there n stand in the hot sun staring at them until the heat forces me to go home.

anyways... on the way back to church (i had rehearsal with claymusic n ken had a meeting too) amy a.y. called to see if i could bring back some drinks. we were just about to pass Quickly's, so we wnet in and ordered like 30984835 drinks. and we took like all the straws in the dispenser hehe. went back to church, started practice for the next event (saturday 8/6). gosh i forgot all my parts =/. must listen to cd and work hard to relearn them hehe. me n josh were jazzing up everything... actually turned out pretty cool. TAIWANESE JAZZ. hahahaha.... i love it =).

and at last, i'm back at home again. stopped by on the hilltop on the way back - in the past 24 hours i spent several of those hours praying - last night on my way to cell, after cell at the hilltop, before going to sleep, this morning before church, during first service after c-worship, and just now before coming home. theres so much i need to tell God about... by the way, last night's cell was awesome. looks like i found myself something to do every saturday night from now on =). we played sardines in wilson's backyard. worship/word was awesome, and smallgroup time only made it better. this cell gave me so much that i expected from previous groups but didnt really get. first, it seems like a lot of people believe that as a college/adult group we're too mature to have fun, and have to keep everything serious and "holy". also, lotsa people think that because we basically all know each other already, theres no need for icebreakers. i never really agreed with either - unless everyone in the group is comfortable enough to share their every feeling with one another (pretty unlikely huh? i'll admit i'm definitely not one of them), there is ice to break before we can worship as one body. it's great to keep everything "holy" and serious, but realistically speaking, most cell members aren't pastors, and keeping everything so serious makes it hard for us to make friends with one another. and fellowship among cellmembers is just as important as fellowship with God. so yea... college cell gave me exactly what i wanted. and i didnt really feel like i couldnt fit in at all. during smallgroup i was counted off to ken and eugene's group. havnet talked with eungene in the longest time and its great to catch up once again. and i finally got to meet ken (jung) personally. hes an awesome guy, able to keep things casual n fun but posessing so much wisdom and insight at the same time. im definitely looking forward to getting to talk to him more.

when it was my turn to share, i had two prayer requests. first, i want to know God's purpose for me this summer. in the past he has given me a clear purpose every summer (and schoolyear), and i want to know whay i should be spending my time on this summer too. second, i (very briefly) shared the struggles on my mind before i went to cell. its a lot of stuff to explain, and i know this entry is already long enough the way it is. maybe i'll write later tonight. its 8PM already. how come im still not hungry? guess that fried rice & boba filled me pretty well =). but still... iono... maybe i'll eat soon. whatever... anyways i need to shut up now.

07/23: interesting day... taught piano in the morning, came home for a quick lunch then went to church for worship practice with josh's team. car wash (for the english group) was already taking place so i dropped by to give my car a bath while helping out a little bit too. only problem is that i cant drive with windows open after washing (or else all the water inside the door panel will mess up the windows again) so it was freakin hot. but owellz...

speaking of hot, wasnt there supposed to be a thunderstorm today? well its almost 8PM and the clouds are starting to build up. when i got home my mom was watching the weather channel... apparently theres a severe flash flood alert too. and a HAILSTORM. ok so even though a 95-degree thunderstorm is crazy, at least its somewhat believable. is it really gonna hail tonight!?!? we'll see...

mom switched the TV channel to chinese news. they seriou5ly have the randomest stuff. some foo rode his motorcycle over a flooded bridge and got washed away. i dun like to make fun of people getting hurt, but he seriou5ly asked for it. some famous model person was injured at the hospital, and there were sooo many people at the hospital taking pictures. one old man in a WHEELCHAIR waited outside the hospital to see her, and he waited so long that he fell asleep! so the news person videoed him asleep in the wheelchair. hahaha... so they were interviewing the spectators in the hospital, and there was this one clip where the entire time the guy was talking, the camera was focused on someone's butthole. that happened twice too. i wonder if that guy will watch the news and identify his own butt. haha...

rewind real quick to last night - went to Phoenix (the food place not the city... i told my mom n at first she was like hUh!? haha) with ken & gang. it was supposed to be me ken francis denise n madelyn but so many people showed up haha... luckily it wasnt one of those super picky places that would consider our table a fire hazard and make us split up. hehe...

fast foward back to now. checked the mail earlier today. no ipod case. postman doesnt work on sunday, and on monday it will have been 20 days since shipment. the return policy says "20 days after payment". what da heck!?!?!? im not exactly pissed off yet... but i already emailed him (nicely) and will give him til monday night to respond. if he doesnt say anything that makes me feel a little better, things are gonna get really ugly from there...

not exactly in the best of moods this evening... no worries its nothing big. i cant stand this world... people are just so messed up. theres so many lessons ive been trying to learn for years and still cant seem to grasp. sometimes it scares myself how crazy i can become at times. maybe im not praying hard enough, or God's trying to show me something i havent found yet. after posting this entry i'm going to the college cell (i guess thats wut its called... "The College Cell." haha...) for the first time. kinda looking forward to it, but kinda scared too. not sure wut to expect there. mostly older and more mature people. i know i need a place like this to help me grow, but at the same time i never felt like i could really fit in. at least ken and madelyn are gonna go too... ken only goes once in a while and madelyn hasnt gone before either. so i wont be the only newbie. and even though i heard they run on typical azn time, im gonna try n not be THAT late. in fact, its a bit past 8 already so i should get going. bye!

07/22: its friday. no ipod case in the mail. im gonna be nice n give it one more day, after that i'll email him to have him explain what happened. if that duznt work, its only gonna get worse from there. and trust me, with all this free time in my hands during the summer, i'll make sure his business suffers severely. but why the heck am i worrying now? mite as well jus take my time n see what happens. who knows, if my case arrives soon everyones still gonna be happy =).

anyways... summary of yesterday - went to steph (liang)'s house in the morning... we went to albertsons n 99 ranch market haha. bought some flour thingy, went back to her house and she made this lil octopus ball thing thats SOOOOO GOOD!!! finally got to meet anthony =). stephs been telling us about each other (both carfreaks hehe) for the longest time! n got to see rebecca again too =). chilled there until i had to go teach piano... then went back afterwards hehe. we had a crazy nintendo 64 party.... mariokart battle mode was crazy! haha so yea... stayed there til like almost 7. came home for dinner then went to church for worship practice with josh's team. afterwards me josh gilbert katherine luis n larry went to tea station. i didn't get a boba. i repeat, i did NOT get a boba. why?? 3 bobas in 3 days is already pretty satisfying. ken brought boba when he came over on monday... wednesday me n carol got lollicup for lunch, so another boba. wednesday night at rehearsal, another boba. so yea... no need for another one, especially not late at night since i actually wanted to sleep. so i settled for a mango shaved ice. or SHAVE ice as elaine insists hehe.

so anyways, rewind to wednesday night. apparently samuel s. s. is really interested in music theory. he always asks me to explain stuff, and after rehearsal i found myself with a sheet of music labeling weak and strong beats and explaining meter. gosh, i'm SUCH A NERD. why do i seem to remember everything professor Lefkowitz lectured about? its SUMMER! i seriously need a life haha.... but then again i geuss this is my life. so why am i complaining? =) anyways, i think i babbled enough for one day. time for me to shut up!

07/20: wut da heck... it just started thundering n raining out of nowhere, and like 10 minutes later it stopped. wuts going on? theres supposed to be a storm on saturday even though its over 90 degrees. thats gonna suck soo much, its like standing in an outdoor hot shower. anyways... jus updating to say that new pics are finally up! theres about a hundred of them, from my birthday, the SOLD reunion, harvest crusades, and the beach trip. thanks to people donating pics and sending them to me really really fast, and the fact that i have so much free time nowadays, i really have no excuse to delay. so yea, go look at them if u want. in other news, my ipod case that i bought on ebay over two weeks ago still hasnt arrived yet. the seller said 6-10 days. im gonna give him/her/it until this friday, and if nothing shows up at my door i'll be emailing to see wuts going on. and if all else fails, i'll settle for leaving red feedback *evil smile*. for now im assuming its simply taking a long time cuz its shipping from far away. lets hope im right... wow the power just went out for a moment. looks like im gonna hafta reset my stereo clock again. or i mite as well jus wait til after saturdays storm is over. by the way duz taht mean the carwash will be cancelled? im not even sure if i can go... we'll see... anyways this was a really random entry. i guess i'll stop now.

07/19: gosh its been a while.. sorry no time to update until now. sooo beach trip last sunday was awesome... went on kens car with the same gang as last year minus eve =/. so nobody stepping on dog poop n freaking out this time =/. hehe but yea we went to huntington beach this time... first we got lunch @ togos/baskinrobbins... we were like one of the first cars to arrive at the beach too. not surprising though hehe. walked in the super cold water, got hit by a few waves, watched steph liang get completely soaked, buried lots of people in the sand (hehe), dug a hole (kinda... not a super big one), jumped n rolled aorund in the sand, played tag with kelley karen n christine and owned them all =), met new friends, worshipped at the bonfire, came back home, and yea thats all. ok of course theres way more i can write about but im sooo tired, and i'll save the details for the pictures, which i hope to post later this week if i have enough time. all the other pics (sold reunion, my birthday, harvest crusades) are ready to post already but i think i'll do all the posting together when they're all done.

yesterday- i think all that harvestcrusading and beachtripping left me more tired than i expected (its all worth it of course hehe)... woke up, picked up carol from summerschool, went back to sleep til noon, got up for lunch, and slept again until 2. got up jus in time to get ready to go to emilys house. her grandma always gives me soo much treats... this time its watermelon and cold noodle... yummy =). so we did SAT stuff for a while n then played piano/guitar for a while. learned some cool songs hehe. too bad i cant sing =/. but owellz... came home for dinner... ken came over at night... after that i went to sleep. today i was STILL tired. better than yesterday, but still, *yawn*. afternoon nap definitely helped =). went to jessica yao's house to drop off her birthday 'present' hehe. afterwards i was about to leave so i said happy bday again adn shes like 'you too! i mean, thanks!' haha... i think i did that before too =/. dinnered at home in our almost-finished backyard. looks pretty nice now... needs a few more things that i hope will get taken care of soon. well its 11 and i'm already offline =). that means early sleep today. tomorrows the claymusic rehearsal again... who knows, maybe i'll end up at the studio til 1:30 again? we'll see hehe. for now i'll shut up and get ready to sleep. goodnite!

07/16: its actually 1AM (7/17) and i was already about to go to sleep when i suddenly decided its best if i get this entry out of the way first, cuz i know tomorrow after the beach trip theres gonna be plenty more to write about. theres so much on my mind right now - its been an awesome day, another amazing night at the angel stadium. i had a full car - me ken robert melanie n grace - we left a bit later than i planned but made it there around the same time as yesterday (cuz i didnt hafta stop for gas or food). the line was WAY longer than i thought it would be - at least a good 4 times longer than yesterday's when we arrived. but i did predict one thing right- with this many people, there isnt really a line. in fact, anyone who thought there is would probably end up standing at the same spot for a long time, until he/she/it finally realizes that everyone else in line has already slowly merged into giant glob of people forming around the entrance. so yea, we got in pretty early still. seats werent as good as yesterdays, but close enough, and seeing how many people there were made our seats seem like a miracle. thanks robert n melanie for walking to starbucks n getting drinks for everyone =). and with enough people already there, it was no problem saving extra seats for lois christine n cissy. fortunately our seats were still in the range of the speaker cluster. in fact we were smack in the center of it. mix that with the artist lineup and its abotu as perfect as it can be.

6:30- the pre-crusade event began. kutless kicked off the night with a couple songs, followed by the freestyle motocross show. thats when i became even more thankful for my powershot SD400 - accurate shot timing saved me so much stress, and gave me much nicer pics too. you name the stunt, i probably got the shot (yes, even upside down in the air). and dun worry theres another big batch of pics coming soon... i'll start working on them after the beach trip tomorrow (i'll probably take carol's advice n bring my HP tomorrow cuz i dun think the new camera is ready for its first sand scratch yet). so anyways back to Harvest - Kutless kicked off the main event with a couple more songs, including "sea of faces" - always a good choice for events like this. and tonight was more a sea of faces than i've ever seen at Harvest before - there was actually a full house - 48,000 people (!!!)... even the overflow sections in the back, and a zillion people were standing at the railing too. the Jeremy Camp - first time hearing him live... actually i didnt really know his songs until i jacked carols cd this morning n put it on repeat mode hehe. but yea, he's definitely awesome. the Toby Mac. now THAT was insane. as far as i know this is the first time in Harvest history (this year's the 16th year) that they had a hip-hop/rap artist perform. tobymac's medleys at the end were sooo crazy... we got everything from "we are family" to Usher trax to "Extreme Days". its one of those things that just kept the crowd hyper throughout the entire performance. too bad most of the people in my section werent all that hyper.. but still its good enough for me. following that was another amazing message from Greg Laurie. ok so i know a lot of people think theres no point of christians attending events like this unless they bring nonbelievers. i'll admit i go mostly for the free concerts. but i dont think any of us there tonight can deny we learned at least a little bit that we didnt know before.

afterwards we went outside n walked with cissy to find her dad, enjoying the disneyland fireworks ont he way hehe. u kno wuts so scary? cissys dad still remembers me! the only time we met was um... TWO YEARS AGO at bill gothard. and i didnt even really meet him... how duz he remember? wow.... haha then we stopped by the picketers ("laurie leads to hell" n all that stuff) to see wuts going on. its kinda weird, they didnt seem like they know wut they're aruging either... and everyone jus kinda got confused over wut they meant by stuff like "God" and "church". then after spending 2039480984 hours in the car we finally made it on the freeway... went for a late night dinner at Garden. yes, garden again. remember billy graham crusade? dont worry, my car did NOT break down this time =). we got there and the first thing ken noticed was stanley's car (bright yellow suped up IS... cant miss it). sure enough he was inside. then just as we opened the door we saw vince coming out. then we saw ruth also there about to go inside. crazy huh? these asian hangout places make the world seem so small hehe. so we ate n chilled there for a while then came back. i did one really stupid thing - at Garden my phone rang but i was in the bathroom so i called the number back after i got out... and some shru-shru picked up and said he was grace's dad. and the first thing that came to my mind was lois' friend grace - we were gonna meet up with her after harvest but lois n christine had to leave early, so lois sent grace my # and told her to call me afterwards if she wanted (we never met before)... so when i first picked up the phone at garden and realized its a new number, i totally thought it was her, then the shru-shru said 'graces dad'. and we had the weirdest most awkward phone conversation ever... the shru-shru said grace was supposed to be with me and i was confused cuz i thoght she was with him. and it wasnt until after eating and i was back on the car that i finally realized it was the OTHER grace - the Grace that was on my car the whole time! cuz she used my phone to call her dad earlier, so he was calling back cuz he didnt know who it was. gosh, im such an idiot. i forced myself to get off the car when i sent her home and say sorry n explain everything to her dad. it was soo awkward!! hope he duznt think im some crazy weird guy...

but yea, now im back at home and done with harvest for one year. theres still one more night tomorrow but i obviously cant go even though i realyl really want to. im definitely not complaining though - this year's harvest has been the best ever for me. thanks everyone for coming along, especially those who went super early with me to wait in line. i know its not exactly your favorite thing to do with ur free time, but having a bunch of friends makes events like this so much better. im sorry once again for being so strict with my rules... if anyone felt like i was bossing u around, im soo sorry. but as we all could see after tonight, those few minutes of punctuality definitely made a big difference, and people who have gone to harvest more than once know that having ground level seats makes the whole experience so much better. yea i know, these past few days have been a lot of gas and parking money (much more than i usually allow myself to spend). but i would have spent this money even if nobody else wanted to go with me. all i wished for was that people could cooperate and that everyone would get the best out of the crusade while enjoying time spent with each other. and i got everything i asked for =). thanks again everyone for coming. hope u guys all enjoyed it as much as i did. u know wut i jus realized? i spent a whole HOUR writing this entry. and its TWO IN THE MORNING right now. wut da heck am i still doing in front of the computer!? i'm soo gonna need caffeine tomorrow morning... goodnight!!

07/15: harvest was AWESOME - for once everything worked out as planned, if not better. took carol n robert there with me, we got "dinner" at mcdonalds first then wnet to line up. juliann n jolie came to join us in line a little later. honestly that hour of lining up went by much faster than expected... and we were pretty close to the front, meaning we got AMAZING seats. side-center (best view), first row of second section (meaning close enough to be within range of the main speaker cluster, but not too close that all the cameramen are in the way. and when everyones standing up we're way above all the people in front of us and have a railing for handrest/footrest =). ken came to join us a few minutes after we found our seats, and cissy came later too. worship led by the harvest crusade band, then casting crowns, then deliriou5?. "who am i" is such an awesome song, even better when its live. deliriou5 was awesome as usual, except they only did songs from world service (and a few new songs)... im sure lotsa fans expected at least one classic. but still, "majesty" is one of my favorites so i really cant complain. and yes theres pictures, but i'll post them later at lesat after tomorrow is over... soo, who wants to go tomorrow? hehe... im going at the same time, but because tomorrows program starts half n hour early im not expecting the same seats. but its still gonna be really good. and i found out that we ARE allowed to bring food inside, so tomorrow we can eat a bit later hehe...

anyways, now for a little change of topic. today i went to help carry some REALLY HEAVY STUFF for our backyard renovation (again, details to come later hehe). almost died by the time i finished, but i did encounter something amazing on my way, so amazing that it prompted me to go there with my camera later in the afternoon. heres the question - remmeber that bentley from Hing Wa Lee plaza (4/23 entry)? and remember how it disappeared for a long time and then there was that rolls-royce at the same place (7/3 entry)? seeing a $160,000 car in Walnut is insane already, not to mention a $330,000 one. but what could possibly be better than either of those!? see it for yourself...

07/14: wow... long time no update. yes, two days is long hehe... so starting from where i left off - tuesday night: recording was sooo fun!!! again its just a small small part, so nothing to be too amazed about. but still, awesome experience. yesterday- i kno this is random, but in the afternoon i went with howard to play *drumroll* GOLF! my first time =). it all came out of noehwere, i was chillin at home and howards like hey wanna go play golf? and im like sure why not and so i went hehe. pretty fun but i suck =/. soo much harder than minigolf hehe. meanwhile the gardeners came and did some major work with our backyard... stop by and visit sometime, cuz it does NOT look the same. i'll write the details (with pics) when its all done. at around 6:30 a telemarketer for MCI called - for the FOURTH TIME this summer. (not counting times when i didnt pick up the phone - he jus reciting the same identical speech as soon as anyone answers hte phone). after hearing him babble for a little while, i put the phone in front of my stereo and fed him 400 watts of bass. he was gone within 10 seconds =). next time he calls i'll go for an even more interesting way - talk back to him with the same marketing tone he used on me, but telling him to find something better to do with his life. haha... yea i know im mean to telemarketers. seriou5ly they DO need a life though. hehe... anyways, at night i went to samuel shru shru's place again hehe. i decided to tag along to the vocalists rehearsal again so i can hear all the songs n stuff (and play with the motif8 hehe). ohh and ivy finally came out to say hi! =). afterwards samuel shru shru asked me to stay to do some MIDI stuff... and he showed me this catalog with the newest Korg Oasis keyboard.. its over $8000!!!!! thats almost the price of a car. sooo crazy. another one of my overly unrealistic dreams hehe. we jus played around with the keyboard and mixer til like... 1:30AM. *yAwN* i was soooo tired this morning, didnt wanna get out of bed. but i did anyways hehe. benben appeared at my house after running and of course he wanted a ride home hehe. went to teach piano in the afternoon - new student =). hope it keeps going well cuz i can definitely use a little extra income. hehe anyways, now that im done babbling, take a look at this-

07/12: viper display is almost finished... i should be done by tonight or tomorrow. then once all the construction crap is off the floor my room will be clean once again =). ive given myself a few house rules to keep my room clean throughout the summer - (1) make my bed every morning. i do it at school, so why not do it at home too? makes the room feel so much more comfortable when i walk inside. (2) vacuum on a weekly basis. this includes floor and all shelves, cuz with all my cars sitting out, my room collects dust like no other. (3) when the computer is off, the lid must be closed. again, one less delicate area to worry about when it comes to dust. (4) synthesizer must be covered with a blanket at all times when not in use. why didnt i think of this earlier... cleaning the keys and buttons take forever, especially cuz im being extra careful cuz its not mine (and i cant afford to buy jacob a new one if i break it hehe). so right now im taking a little break from following rule #2 - i was in the middle of vacuuming my shelves, and suddenly my mom comes in and gives me.. *drumroll* a BOBA!! one of her students (megan)'s mom gave it to her and she didnt want it, and carol didnt want it either even though i gave her a share before it became mine =). yummy boba... that definitely makes my day, at least so far. it can get better, if all goes well with the recording tonight.

soo ive been trying to figure out a nice happy little mallet melody (wow try saying that fast out loud... 'little mallet melody...' hehe) to accompany the current midi track. finally started writing it out yesterday after returning from emilys house. tutoring was fun... eating kiwis with a fork is sooo hard!! hehe.. anyways i was writing the music at night while chatting on AIM... finished most of it already. then chatted til um.. 2AM. yes, i was awake til 2 in the morning. i kno i have lotsa rules for myself, but theres always exceptions, and when people need help i would love to stay up to help. its such a great feeling knowing u can make a difference in someones life... that makes the lack of sleep totally worth it =). and i actually dont feel too lightheaded today either. woke up this morning thinking i totally needed an afternoon nap, but apparently i got by fine without it. so anyways umm i have about an hour before going to uncle samuel's studio.. gonna work on my part a little more (duznt hafta be perfect, cuz i have all night to mess with it hehe), then eat dinner and finish my boba =), then i'm off to my very first studio recording expereince. ok yea yea i know its not like i'm writing my own song or anything, just a little tiny part... but at least i get to see how the whole process works n stuff. i cant wait hehe... and ivy better come out to say hi to me =). hehe ok well i dun think i should be sitting here any longer, so i'll shut up now. byebye!

07/11: havent written about exoticspotter.com for a while, but definitely go check out this week's new postings - i actually gasped out loud at one point when i saw the pics. hehe... ohh and yes i kno i havent been submitting pics every week like i said i would, but from now on i'll definitely try n keep it a weekly thing. i currently have 16 pics (i think) on the site and will try to double that by the time summer ends =).

anyways... quick update on these past couple days - saturday after leaving the cellphone place (by the way, SPECIAL THANKS to HOWARD for figuring out how to directly transfer my whole phonebook to the new sim card. saved me several hours of work!), we went to jack in the box and guess who i saw working at the drive thru window - kat!! wow... not everyday u walk into a random restaurant and the person working happens to know your name. haha... then sunday - went to church as usual... awesome sermon by ken jung =). lunched afterwards with ken(wu) and melaine at yoshinoya. i decided to walk a couple doors down to quickly's for a 99cent boba too =). thats my 3rd boba this week! hehe... spent a lot of time at home working on the upcoming Viper exhibit in my room. ive been working on this thing for at least a good 7-8 hours in the past week and gimme a few more hours of work and its gonna be done. i'll post a pic of how it turns out =).

its almost 3... that means time to get ready to go to emilys house! hopefully tutoring goes well (trust me, i get nervous everytime i tutor anyone anything haha), and hopefully theres time afterwards for super mario world and/or the movie we started last week. ohh and tomorrow night i'm going to samuel s.s. (shru shru)'s place for.... *drumroll* my first studio recording! its just a little tiny part, but i cant wait to see wut its like. actually i need to finalize my part first before thinking any further. so yea, hope it turns out well. for now i'll shut up and go get ready. byebye!

07/10: ok here it is - HARVEST CRUSADE INFO!! its gonna be this friday through sunday (7/15-7/17) at the angel stadium. FREE admission. performers: Friday- casting crowns & deliriou5. Saturday- jeremy camp, toby mac, kutless. Sunday- steven curtis chapman, jars of clay, crystal lewis. crusade starts at 7:00 all three nights, and on saturday the pre-concert (kutless concert & motorcross show) starts at 6:30. i'll be going Friday and Saturday (since the ucc beach trip is on sunday), and there's still more room on my car, so if u wana come let me know (read down for more info).

i would love to bring as many friends as possible, but because more people means more possible complications, im jus gonna set down my rules first - my car leaves no later than 3:45PM both days. that should help avoid possible traffic jams, and we should be parked and in line by 4:30. stadium gates open at 5:30 (both days), and trust me when we get inside you'll know why i chose to arrive an hour early =). please please please try to find your own ride to my house (ask for directions) before 3:45, cuz two round trips to anaheim is a lot of time & gas, not to mention parking fees. if u really really dont have a ride to my house please let me know EARLY and i'll see wut i can do.

for those of u who are getting there yourself, i'll be glad to save you seats in the stadium - its always great to have a big group of friends at events like this =). but as the crusade is about to start, the security guards might make everyone surrender all empty seats to make room if the stadium is too full, and if that happens i dont have a choice. also, as with all concerts i go to, once the event starts my phone is OFF, so please get there on time. i know some of u have stuff to do and cant make it early, and i'm more than happy to save you seats. but please try to get there as soon as possible too.

ok, with all that said, i apologize for sounding so strict with the rules. im only doing this because i want to have a great experience both nights and i want everyone else to have a great experience too. if u wanna go with me friday and/or saturday, or if ur going already and want to meet up there, please let me know =). every year i always find out later that so many of my friends went and i didnt know they were there. it would be awesome to sit together as a big group right? if u havent gone before, trust me its an awesome experience - great music, great sermon, and a night spent with friends. if u have questions dun hesitate to ask. and if ur going, i look forward to seeing u! =)

07/09: went to lucy's church last night, cuz its the last time im gonna get to see her in a very very long time. shes leaving to philadelphia on thursday =/. *sniff* im gonna miss u!! so me lucy n cissy went to get dinner at foster freeze ('froster freeze' *couGh* haha) n then went back to church. met a few of their church friends, some who i met like several years ago at harvest crusade (by the way i still have open seats on my car for anyone that wants to go this year! check back in the next couple days for more details). we had to babysit kids most of the time hehe... annie stole candy during worship (tsk tsk) and she threw a ball at me =/. ouch... hehe and apparently she duznt kno wut an oyster is. see wut troy does to people? haha anyways afterwards we went upstairs to say bye to lucy before she left, then me lisa n cissy ended up chillin until like 12:30 in the morning. didnt kno we had THAT much to talk about hehe... lisa also goes to troy. gosh so many troy pplz!! im pretty sure she knows wut oysters are (hehe), but she seems to have trouble opening freezer doors or keeping her feet on the sidewalk (rather than stepping in the grass and going 'eww its wet!!' hehe). was i the only person who made it out of troy normal? hehe j/k im definitely NOT normal. dun even get me started hehe... so yea, the three of us jus sat in the ilbrary n talked n talked n talked, and i was the last one to wish lisa happy bday right before midnight =). anyways then their parents finished their fellowshipping upstairs and we all went home. i was soo tired but its all worth it =). hope i'll get to visit their church again sometime.

today - went to get a new cellphone. kinda... ok so heres the story. carols always been wanting a camera phone, and we got this offer from cingluar yesterday for an upgrade or sumthin, so today we went to check it out. turns out we were gonna sign for a new plan which means switching numbers n everything, and u guys know i absolutely refuse to switch numbers, especially in such a short notice. let me know a few months ahead of time and i'll be more open to it. but like this? heck no. (thats another story, im not gonna describe it all here). so yea, it would be $140 more to keep our old #s and get carols new phone with the new plan, so at the end im like fine i'll pay for the extra cost. and to make a long story short, after signing the contract and everything we finally realized that we were gonna end up paying more monthly fees than before for a new plan that we didnt even need (since the current one is already good enough). so we canceled the new contract and decided to renew the old plan for another year. basically after a few hours of trying to figure stuff out, we ended up just buying carol a new phone. and apparently the phone would have been free if we got new #'s, so it ended up being my fault that it wasnt free. so now basically i'll be using my mom's old phone (since mine is slowly dying, even though i wouldnt have complained for a new one until it actually broke), mom will be using carol's old phone, and carols using the new cameraphone that the three of us are all paying for because its my fault i wanted to keep my #. dun get me wrong, i dun mind paying at all since i already agreed to it in the beginning, and i dun mind carol having a good phone cuz all i really care about is that i have a phone that works - i could care less about the fancy stuff. but all this crap literally happened overnight... yesterday we were all using our phones and everything was fine. and now suddenly its all a mess. apparently renewing our plans means we all had to get new SIm cards - definitely a good thing, except they disabled our current accounts without telling us, so my # wasn't in service the entire afternoon/evening and i didnt know at all. sorry if anyone called and didnt know what was going on. i was just as confused as u were. i just got my # working again about 5 minutes ago, but now i'll hafta transfer 2309483204 numbers back and forth. if anyone knows a way to directly transfer numbers from sim card to phone and vice versa, please let me know, cuz its gonna save me a few hours of unnecessary work. thats one big reason why i dont like siwtching phones n plans n stuff - everythings working fine the way it was and i simply didnt want to go through unnecessary trouble to change it. ok so everyones telling me to just tell all my friends to call me so i can re-enter their #'s. problem is that a lot of the people on my phone probably wont be calling me anytime soon, but because i care about them i DONt want them to finally think about me half a year later and realize they can't reach me anymore. anyways, why da heck am i writing all this in the first place? theres so much better things i can be doing right now. and if i sounded really mad, no im not mad at anyone particularly, its just that im really frustrated at having to suffer unnecessary consequences. but i'll get over it eventually... and besides, its really about time im upgraded my phone - even though my 'new' phone (that i pretty much ahd to pay for) isnt even new, im sure its a lot better than my current one. so yea, enough said. to summarize all that ranting, my cell # is still the same. but dont get mad at me if u call me these next few days and i dont know who u are at first, cuz its gonna take a LONG time before i can finish my new address book.

07/06: woke up at around 7:30AM to the sound of drilling... the house across the street was fixing their swimming pool... they already had crazy drilling once last week when they were getting a new roof. i tried sleeping thru it but its impossible so i managed to pull myself out of bed, walk across the room to grab my Armin van Buuren CD and place it in the stereo just before falling back in bed. i gotta admit its amazing how much u can do with trance music... a few minutes later i was completely knocked out even though the music was loud enough to be heard outside the house (if there was no drilling hehe). that trance drumbeat really hypnotizes fast... but hey it worked =).

rewind to yesterday - last night i got to meet a girl named claire - a future music major! hehe... at least thats wut she really wants to do, and somehow she got referred to talk to me about it. not like i know much about the music school yet hehe, but still we had an awesome conversation - at mcdonalds! hehehe... she loves playing around with the keyboard too. i guess im not the only one hehe

today - after bringing carol home from summerschool i dropped my car off at the shop to get it checked/fixed. so basically the battery's getting abnormally weak, and also the car desperately needs its long-overdue oil change. so i got it all taken care of at once. then took my moms car (cuz mine was sitll at the shop) to san gabriel to fix her copier. it was like 2 minutes away from where rebecca n krystin live so i called both of them, and turns out they both got new cellphone #s that i didnt have =/. well now i have them so that wont happen again hehe. wrote a bunch of letters to my friends in the afternoon (yes, i luv writing letters, so if u want one lemme know! and u bette write back hehe), then joined my moms class in doing some crafts. look wut i made =)

07/05: forgot one thing on the last entry - for those who havent noticed yet, i did add over 150 new pictures on my bday =). its pretty much all the stuff i was suppsoed to post in the last 3 months (and even earlier) that i could finally post after getting back online - BBQ @ Kelley's (7/25/04), Virginie's bday party (2/26), Cue pics w/ Rose & Esther (3/26), Beach w/ Jessica (4/1), Yune's bday (4/14), Crystal's bday (4/27), Cue pics w/ Rose (5/13), Carnival of Desserts (5/26), Jonathan's party (6/10), Catalina (6/19-6/25), and an updated College 2nd year Misc. pics page. and i kinda rearranged the categories a bit, adding a new page for Studio/Sticker pics =). ohh and if u havent notticed theres also scenery shots from Catalina on the wallpapers page. so yea, hope u like them. i'll shut up now =)

07/05: so um... theres been a lot of missing pieces in recent entries, and its about time i fill them in right? to sum it up in two words, I'M OLD. two whole decades old (!!!) thanks everybody for making this one of the most awesome birthdays ever =). i waited til now to write about my bday cuz im still sticking to my tradition of not saying a word about my bday until it passes, and also i didnt want people to feel bad if they forgot and try to rush in last-minute presents. so anyways lemme start from the way beginning:

Friday 6/24 (late night): it was the last night at catalina and several sophomores asked me to join them for a meeting at the bonfire. i was gonna eventually head down to the fire anyways but i wanted to go later so i told them to go first. and then more people came n asked me to go, and even more people, and at the end im like 'fine i'll go for a few minutes'. so i went, and everybody was already sitting around the fire and they even saved me a seat =). n then the 'meeting' began - "let me share a song that i learned from Mark Study - it goes like this: Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday eugene & calvin, happy birthday to you!" (eugene n i have the exact same birthday =) ). i was SOOOO surprised... honestly i kinda got sick of the usual Intervarsity birthday routine of meeting at 11:45PM the night before and going to surprise the birthday person - its been done so many times that its pretty much expected already. and since i knew my bday is in the summer i figured there wasnt much to expect anyways. but turns out they totally surprised me =).

Sunday 6/26: while practicing for worship before service, steph (lin) n grace appeared with colorful boxes =). after service steph made me open it (another one of my bday traditions - never open presents early unless the person giving it to me makes me open it on the spot)... there were like 3298432743 layers of wrapping paper, and each layer had a note on it =). i took sooo long opening it all n finally made it through the last layer - a webcam! im guessing she has one too, which means we'll be putting it to good use after she goes to UCSB. anyone else have a webcam lemme know cuz stephs in taiwan til august and meanwhile i really wanna try the whole video chatting thingy!

Wednesday 6/29: those of u who knew me long enough probably know that one of the reasons i do an annual room renovation is cuz i want my room to be totally clean for my bday. i actually finished just in time (wednesday night), even with a few surprise 'delays' hehe. in the afternoon kathie called n said she wanted to talk to my mom and she made sure i hung up first. so i just went back to working on my room, then suddenly kathie n tiger appeared right behind me!! scared the crap outta me hehe... we chilled in my room despite the big unfinished mess... ohh and the present - a viper srt/10 model. u kno the craziest thing? when i stopped buying models a few years ago (due to lack of money & space), this was the last one i planned on getting but never did. (well actually i was gonna get the hotwheels version cuz this one wasnt out yet, but either one would have worked). and i had already set up a viper chronology display (shelby cobra, viper rt/10, gts coupe, gts-r, copperhead concept, and an open space reserved for the new viper) which sat there collecting dust for a few years. just earlier that morning i was undusting all my cars and i was thinking about tearing down the viper display, figuring i would probably never bother getting the last car. and of all the cars kathie n tiger could have chosen, it just happened to be the viper =). amazing huh? anyways, fast forward several hours and i finally finished my room at around 10. mom n carol told me to stay in my room for 10 minutes and not leave... and knowing that my bday was coming up in a few hours, i was VERY obedient =). turns out carol had prepared an elaborate 20-stage scavenger hunt for me, all around the house (garage & doghouse included hehe). she, howard, n mom watched as i went frantically up and down the stairs, looking for clues... and every few steps there was a present waiting for me. and te presnets were... *drumroll* a NewEgg alarm clock (yes my family is chinese but theyre not too into traditional rules and they know i need an alarm in my room... and plus it actualy came free with the big present hehe). next, a little morning glory teddybear (yes, i do like small furry things hehe). then a camera case which was clearly too small for my camera. next, a digital camera, i opened the box just as carol told me not to be fooled by it. there was no camera inside!! the whole process of the scavenger hunt plus stopping to open and admire each present took a VERY LONG TIME, and at last i arrived at step 20, which happened to be in my room! i dun even know when carol dropped off the present on my bed! haha but yea its pretty predictable by then, but still amazing and surprising - a new digital camera - a really really nice new digital camera. powershot SD400.. FIVE megapixels!!! guess whos gonna volunteer his camera for the winter retreat group picture this year? =) hehehe...

Thursday 6/30: finally, the day i turn old. REALLY old hehe... started getting phone calls before i even woke up (voice mails hehe). for me thats the best part of birthdays - just knowing that people remember =). i had originally planned to make this the day of my return to AIM, but i decided against it cuz i didnt wanna let people suddenly see me online again and realize that the numbers on my SN match their calendars hehe. at night my family (everyone at my house plus grandma aunt uncle ben & steph (who came later after work) ) had a BBQ in the backyard. food was awesome... ben's curiosity prompted him to pour a bit of his dad's Corona into his own cup, and he almost choked on it hehe... back in the house - actually no lemme rewind first - before BBQing ben put together a little maze for me - 20 pennies, one to represent each year of my life, eventually leading to my room where there was another colorful box hehe. i opened it at night after dinner... ben kept telling me it has to do with '20' but i seriou5ly had NO idea... and then suddenly it all made sense - 20 Gigabytes. any guesses? its... *drumroll*... an iPod!! that left me just as speechless as the camera from the night before. then it was cake time - a very special mint choco chip ice cream cake that carol & howard got from baskin robbins, and even had it custom designed for me. that pretty much wrapped up a totally amazing day... now time for a few pics-

07/04: happy 4th of july =). just got back from a walk to the hilltop with steph liang... this year's fireworks are amazing - how often do u get to see 20-30 separate fireworks shows going on at the same time? those of u who havent been to the hilltop, its simply amazing - u can see the entire city from there, and if u look really far all u see is a whole row of fireworks across the horizon, cuz theres so many people doing it. so anyways, lemme rewind back to last night. the SOLD reunion was awesome... thanks everybody for coming =). we BBQed and played games til 10:30ish n then people left and other ppl chilled til midnight. got to see a bunch of friends i havent seen months or even a year. hopefully we get to hang out more during the summer. today - woke up at 10:30ish... my mom just got back from buying groceries - and the groceries looked REALLY familiar. turns out she decided that tonight we were gonna have *drumroll* ANOTHER BARBECUE PARTY. yes, the third one this week!!! hahaha... guess there's so much leftover food from last night that she decided to do it again... she invited her cellgroup over, so thats why steph was here. and no, im not sick of the food yet hehe. lemme rewind a bit first - this morning my mom brought me n carol to get new shoes then we had lunch @ banana bay. in the afternoon i got to see emily (shih)!! i'm tutoring her for SAT stuff every week starting today. its always great to help my friends with stuff ive already been through, and even better when we have time to talk n chill afterwards since we havent talked for like 3 months or so. bianca was swimming at the community pool so me n emily walked over there ... bianca's friend stephanie was there with her, and turns out i actually know stephanie cuz i used to be her piano tutor at yamaha! (that reminds me, i should go back to tutoring at yamaha this summer huh? i'll think about it...). and then emily ran into her friend bonnie who was the same age as her but totally blends in with the little kids at the pool haha. anyways then back at emilys house we had cereal and watched this cool movie about some guy with scissor hands. it looks really good but we only finishe dhalf of it. we'll finish next monday =). so anyways, i got home at around 5:30ish and found howard washing his car on the driveway, so i decided to join him =). my car's actually been kinda weird these days, but i think its cuz it desperately needs an oil change so i'll be getting that sometime in the next couple days. but i still washed it for the heck of it hehe... then the BBQ started and now its just about over, people are starting to leave (and steph left soo early =/). theres still lotsa fireworks all over the neighborhood and i'm watching from my window as i write this. next year i think i might make it an open invite for friends to come and walk to the hilltop together... seriou5ly its soo awesome up there! but anyways, for now i feel like treating myself to a little AIM time hehe.. so i guess i'll shut up now. byebye!

07/03: summer has been awesome so far... a little bit of AIMing here n there definitely spices up the day =). friday night i went to maxim cafe w/ ken n denise then we went to pick up tiffany, went to starbucks and then chilled @ my house. so apparently tiffany can't stand heartbeat sounds, and denise happened to discover the heartbeat patch on the rs-70 in my room and used it to drive tiffany crazy hehe. i have pics to remember that moment by, but im NOT gonna post them because i will get murdered hehe. my moms cellgroup was meeting downstairs (we were upstairs in my room so it wouldnt be too loud) and afterwards steph(liang) came over for a bit. her dad just got a tbird... random huh? pretty cool though... not many azns driving tbirds hehe... ohh and shes getting insurance next week so she can drive herself! and jennifers gonna drive soon too! she just got a scion tC... a blue one! cant wait to ride in it someday hehe...

saturday (yesterday) - remember that bentley at hing wa lee plaza that i kept saying i was gonna take pics of but never did? apparnetly it never showed up again... but its still a habit for me to slow down and peek into the parking lot everytime i drive by there, namely every saturday morning when i go teach piano. yesterday morning when i peeked inside, there was no bentley, but something else caught my attention - LOOK AT THIS BABY...

07/01: As most of you know, I haven't been on AIM for a very long time. Some have assumed that I got a new screen name without telling them, and others have simply concluded that I blocked them. I had wished that anyone who considers me a friend should know better. In fact, I'm taking the time to write this because I care about all of you, specifically those who haven't kept in touch since I stopped using AIM. It began with my laptop having problems for the first time just before spring quarter began. I made several attempts to fix it, and after failing unexpectedly time after time, I realized that there were important lessons to be learned through its absence. The one thing I missed most was chatting with my friends online; even though I went to the school computer lab regularly to check email and do homework, I wasn't able experience the comfort of being in my room with a list full of people to talk to anytime. I decided to use this as an opportunity to test the strength of my many friendships by seeing who would notice my sudden absence and how long it would take them to notice. And it broke my heart when I found out how many people actually called me to see why I disappeared. For all I know, it could have been a lot worse than simply a broken computer. All that time I had thought I had a Buddylist full of friends to depend on. At that point I knew I had been wrong.

Which is more meaningful, an email written while talking to a bunch of other people online or a letter handwritten with the love of a friend? Which is more valuable, reading digital characters on a screen or hearing a friend's voice? Yes, Instant Messaging makes everything so much easier. But as much as we hate to admit it, so many of us have been spoiled by this convenience. We choose who to talk with simply based on who we see online. But if you aren't even willing to pick up the phone and call someone, how can you consider him/her your friend? If you aren't willing to sacrifice a negligible amount of comfort, how can you expect a friendship to last? When I decided to stop using Instant Messaging, I made things harder both for myself and for my friends. I had to face the reality that the majority of my friendships are unbelievably shallow. My friends (those who noticed my disappearance) had to conquer their own laziness to talk to me. But even though I felt lonely at times without the security of my Buddylist, every phone call or visit I received became so much more meaningful, because it told me that someone had thought of me and made the effort to strengthen our friendship. And even though such friends are scarce (at least in my life), every conversation with one of them means more to me than a thousand with one who needs a computer to remind them of me.

On the last week of school I was playing video games in a friend's room, and it reminded me of over two months ago when I would sit at my room and play games for hours, occasionally answering a few IMs or doing a couple homework problems and letting time fly by. After a whole quarter had passed without a computer, I couldn't even picture myself like that anymore, because my lifestyle had completely changed. I had successfully detached myself from my computer a few weeks into the quarter and put it away indefinitely. Over the next ten weeks I realized that I had more free time than I could ever ask for. Not only did I stay ahead in all my academics (a first since I went to college), but I also had countless hours of extra time to do whatever I felt like doing. Sometimes I would go for random walks around campus, wishing to run into people I knew. And each time someone pointed me out from the crowd and called my name, it reminded me that I was a unique individual in the eyes of a friend. I tried to do the same to others too, forcing myself out of my introvertive bubble, and as a result I revived many friendships that had slowly faded over time. By realizing how much it means when a friend says hi to me, I concluded that I had no excuse to allow myself to sit in front of a screen all day anymore, and as a result I intentionally banned myself from Instant Messaging until I felt like I have learned and matured enough to return. I began spending more time calling my friends and writing letters to them, knowing that all of us need that occasional reminder that we are loved. And each time I blessed a friend with a greeting, it only made me feel more blessed myself.

On a closing note, even though my laptop has already been fixed and working for a couple weeks, I purposely decided to wait until today to return to Instant Messaging because it's my first day as a 20-year-old. I have always believed that birthdays are one of the best opportunities to evaluate friendships, by seeing who actually remembered. And to everyone who did, thank you so much. Simply knowing that you remembered is more valuable to me than any present money can buy. In the past I've received several emails from my friends asking me to enter my birthday into their address books, and each one breaks my heart, because it hurts so much to realize that the only way for them to know me is by having me give my information to their computer and letting the computer remind them of me. I've forgotten several of my friends' birthdays too (and if yours was one of them, I'm very sorry), but then again an important part of friendship is to accept each other's flaws, because none of us can be perfect, and using computers to make us seem perfect will only result in a failure to accept one another the way we are. To be honest, I would rather have people not waste their time on me than form a friendship that cannot stand on its own. I want to be a part of people's hearts, not their hard drives. And as I return to Instant Messaging after three months of absence, I will make every effort to keep my friends in my heart too. I'm not going to spend nearly as much time online as I did before my laptop broke, because I want to always remember that even though computers make life easier, they cannot substitute for the essence of human nature - love. Having been freed from bondage to my computer, I can easily spend another three months without it. But I know that there are so many of you who may never find me until I show up on your Buddylist again, and because I love you I want you to understand the reason I disappeared, so that it may help strengthen both our own friendship and our friendships with others. The things I learned may seem very basic, but how many of us have actually been able to apply them to our lives? If you feel hesitant to switch off your cell phone when you can't talk or sign off AIM when you're not at the computer, then truthfully you are already addicted. And until you force yourself to give up your addiction, you will never see how much more meaningful life can be. Even though it's great to have a long list of people to talk to, the ones who truly matter are those who think of you even when there's nothing around to remind them of you. Computers will always fail eventually, but in your heart those who you hold dear will never be forgotten. Keep me in your heart as I keep you in mine.