Greetings From SoCal

I've been told that a good lot of you will be in Berkeley this holiday season. This makes me sad because I'll be a bear on a plane to cold cold NYC and Boston (yay Dylans). I'm going to be meeting my bf's parents. I still haven't figured out exactly what to get them yet, but Thomas never gave anything to my parents, so I'm wondering if I'm obligated to get something really nice or not?

Anyway, most of you I haven't seen for at least a year and the last time I saw you, I think I was in between jobs. Well now I have a job. I now work in the biofuels industry--I make beer for your cars! Work is pretty nice. I like my coworkers a lot. It is a chill and fun place, plus I feel like I'm doing something relevant.

Alas San Diego hasn't been that good to me. Since I now drive everywhere I hardly get any exercise, plus there was that past winter where I was all depressed w/ no job...long story short Ms. Size 6 is now a Ms. Size 10/11. I'm starting to find odd comfort in watching BET movies about fat black chicks who go to africa and are deemed sexy. Yup. So I'm going to take advantage of my company subsidized gym membership and get back down to college size. If I lose 10 lbs I'm going to buy myself one of those Swarovski crystal flowers (like the one pictured above). Wish me luck! Linli, be my sponsor!

I do want to take a trip to norcal, I hope we can organize some stuff. I'll be unavailable MLK weekend and week containing Feb 5. My parents will be celebrating their silver anniversary (25th). I think I should get them something for not making me a bastard and staying together so that I can grow up in a tension filled joint household, instead of a cash strapped-emotionally charged split household.

You know something I do miss very much about being out of school? I miss the ease in which you can socialize. Remember when we'd just call ahead like 5 minutes to hang out at someone's house and doing nothing in particular was a very good way to spend time? It almost makes me want to go back to school. Almost, because I know it's going to be nothing like those 4 years we spent in individual misery and shared joys. I can safely say that there's nothing redeeming or worth reliving in college save for every moment out of class. Working has been weird because I have the time and money to chill, but I don't have you guys to chill with anymore. I miss you all terribly on some days.

***Addendum***

I just read through that entire passage and went on to read old passages. I'm sorry that this is so boring. The other down side of working is that you become less profound and start writing like an idiot.

I dislike the fact that I can't be witty and clever if I don't have copious free time, nor can I tell a good story anymore. It's like as if god said, be thou boring and happy or interesting and sad. Why? I don't know. See I can't even make that into a good spiel!

Ok I promise you guys something better by the end of this week. I don't know what yet, but the above is unacceptable. I've been brain farting since May. Hopefully I'll pop out a good solid cerebral turd this week.

Updated

Well, I must be one of the "missing people" mentioned. :P Sorry guys. I've just gotten really tired really easily lately. I'm glad that you guys are doing all good! :) The below will be a bit depressing. I was told by a friend just yesterday that my writing was depressing them... so ... read at your own discretion!

Hm... what have I been up to? Social hermiting. I'm trying really hard to re-engage with my friends up here, but it's hard because we all had such different college experiences. That and about half of them have either moved out of state or are doign some other higher education somewhere in the world.

Been working as a Comissioner. That's fun stuff. Lots of local politics. As opposed to increasing the amount of respect I have for the "field," I think this work has successfully made me feel that even on a local level, most people are in it for personal gain. And that makes me sad. At the same time, there's a handful of people who are really in it to hammer out policies. Dear goodness, I thought I was going to go mad after debating one sentence about whether or not the city would support a DBA with seed money. It took over 2 meetings and ten hours of work to hammer out ONE sentence.

Been working out. Yeah. I got fat in college. And I'm trying to regain some semblance to my curves. So I don't have to buy new clothes and I can actually fit in the things I already own. I've never had much of a sense of fashion, but right now, I feel hideously blasee with what I wear. Trying to make every day's clothing/make-up an artistic experience.

Been playing the piano. It's like re-learning to ride a bicycle. After about an hour, my hands were shaking. Nothing like Chopin's Waltz in B Minor to remind you just how formidable a piano really is.

Been realizing that having time off is great. But having accumulated two weeks of vacation is pointless if I can't use them at any time that I want to. Bleh.

Been reading a lot more. As part of my social hermit program, I've been reading books. Twilight Series. The Host. Anathem. The Gargoyle. Becoming Mexican-American. Main Street. Words that Work. The Economist (yes, they have books too).

I think I'm becoming a boring person. Finally bought an iPod. I need a way to tune out the world. :P Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Still alive!

I've been wondering about this blog too. I"m glad someone posted, haha.

I'm happy to hear that Mel is doing well. I've been pretty busy myself, although probably not as bad as Mel. My everyday consists of going to lab and staying there the whole day, either doing lab work or sitting in my office taking care of other stuff. I decided to join the university choir this year, so I'm doing that every monday and wednesday from 7-9pm. I also decided to be the organizer for the mentoring program that we have in our department, so that takes up a chunk of time as well.

Aside of that, I really haven't accomplished much. I hang out with my friends occasionally, or go over to my boyfriend's place to just chill. I played Risk for the first time last weekend, and while I lost, it was a lot of fun. It's starting to get cold over here, so that also means cold season for Yuri.

On the other note, I went to see Cirque de Soleil few weeks ago with bunch of my friends. That was a lot of fun, because the tickets were fairly cheap (student discount!) Also, I went to see a show at a nearby venue the other day as well (local band, but still pretty good). I was sad that I couldn't go see Weezer (it was 2+hours away from where I lived), but there are still pretty good shows around here every once in a while.

The other three peepz should also update us on what's going on in their lives :)

Wake me up when September ends...

Hey guys!

I guess I'm relieved to know that I'm not the only one not updating this blog! I just thought I'd check in and see how everyone has been... um... so I guess if anyone checks this, give us an update!

September really has been the month from hell for me. In work related news, PSP toxins have been rampant in northern California, so naturally testing has increased. We're wrapping up the last year of the project, so lots of write ups as well. Schoolwise, I've been doing my long delayed graduate school search and everything that comes with it (researching professors, personal statements, GRE, all that good stuff). On top of that, I'm still taking a chemistry class during the evenings on Mondays and Wednesdays which has been good so that I don't forget what a classroom setting is like.

I hope that you all are doing well, whether that be with work, graduate studies, or exploring Guatemala... that is if any of you get this message ;)

MeLp.s. who doesn't love random squirrel pictures?

Cali here I come

Hey guys. This is a last last minute trip. As in I scheduled it at like 8pm last night. I'll be arriving in SFO at 11:15 on Saturday and leaving at 7:30 AM on Monday. It was a free ticket and Alaska has all these rules about when those can be used. Sucks but oh well. Anybody know of a better mileage plan?

See y'all this weekend!!! I can't wait!

Get me cheap tickets!

I'm still figuring out where my free ticket is!!!

I thought I'd just pay for it since they don't seem to want to help me do this on such short notice. It costs me $338 to go to SF? Holy cow!!! ..... That's almost as expensive as flying FARTHER....

So it's this weekend or July 4..... help me!!! Find CHEAP ticketS!!!

Memorial Day

Mel, it sounds like you died and went to heaven. Did you at least FILM your meeting? ;) Man, what ever happened to "Finding Green Day?" I'll need crashspace if I can manage to plan a super last minute trip down to see people graduate this coming weekend. :P

Liang, that's cool that you're going up. I wasn't sure when I would be able to make it down or rather up? So I didn't plan well... I started working at an OHSU lab in the medical school. So I do that in the day 8-5 and then I do that other job that I do now shifted to evenings and sometimes weekends. It's actually pretty neat. I'm seeing a lot more than I used to and every new encounter is something worth writing down. I don't have vacation days built up at the lab yet. Just lots o' paid sick leave. I do have a free flight... I think. I'll have to double check on that.

Yuri, you'll do fantastically on your next cumulative!!! *I'm giving you a charm*

The last few months have been pretty calm. It's almost always calm at home. I've met up with some high school and elementary school friends. I've worked. I've pretty much become a good cook, which is amazing to me because I never thought I'd be in that category of people. I guess the best way to put it is the same way that Rome was described --- that is, "everything has changed and yet, nothing has changed at all."

I met a person I really liked at the lab, but he went to San Diego. Then a few days ago, I found out that he had Crohn's disease. I felt like such an ass for joking around and saying "I'm never going to see you again." Some people with Crohn's don't live past age 40 and he was already getting blood transfusions regularly...

I went home and cried a bit that day. Then spent time remorsing over my other friends who died abruptly. I thought to myself, is this the fate of all people? Do we only live on in other's people remorse?

On a total aside now, I was also wondering if I should go to Anime Expo this year? I really miss all the friends I made the first time around and I'm happy as a fish in water around manga and anime. It'd suck because I'd only be able to do part of the three day thing. Meh, it might not be worth the hassle this year. Maybe I'll wait until next year.

That's the other thing, I'm getting into the habit of saying "Maybe next __[fill in date]____" I'm starting to think that I may never get plans actually set in place. >_< I keep pushing things out of my schedule like that.

Well, my friend is coming back from being stationed in Cuba in another month or so! I'm excited. We've known each other since 3rd grade.

Well, off to work out. Still fat as ever, but I'm trying to actually make a point of slimming down so I don't need knee surgery in the next few years.....

Foxboro Hot Tubs... don't mess around with the mess-around!

After being a fan for 10 years, bought 8 of their albums, went to 6 of their shows, and lived in the bay area for the past 5 years, I FINALLY met Green Day.

So here's the deal... Green Day recently started doing this thing that in between albums they start side bands... between Warning and American Idiot there was The Network, and now between American Idiot and Green Day's next anticipated release, there is the Foxboro Hot Tubs.
Last week, Foxboro Hot Tubs announced their "world tour", which consisted of shows in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, and three SoCal shows. Everyone in the bay area was like "WTF? No hometown shows?" Well, just when everyone was about to give up hope, Live 105 announced on Wednesday that there were going to be TWO bay area shows... one in downtown Oakland on Thursday and one in Crockett (which is right next to the Carquinez bridge) on Friday. These venues had a max capacity of about 200-300 people.

I'll save you all the boring details of waiting in line during the two hottest days that the bay area has seen all year (Oakland hit at least 95 degrees), and I applaud you if you've managed to get this far into my story, so let's cut to the chase... at the Oakland show I managed to get to the front of the stage (which was elevated about six inches off the ground), got stepped on by Billie Joe, crashed into Tre Cool's drum kit, and got the ugliest bruise ever on my knee from hitting the stage. In return though, Tre Cool came up to me and handed me his drumsticks and Mike shook my hand and gave me his guitar pick. After the show the guys were all hanging out and I got to meet them... FINALLY. The best part was that they weren't jerks with rock star egos... not at all. They were genuinely nice, appreciative for their fans coming out, and excited to be playing these shows. The show in Crockett was even smaller than the one in Oakland (it was at the local bar) and all of their friends and family were at that show, so while they weren't able to come hang out with the fans after that show, everyone there still had an amazing time. Although Tre Cool did hang out in the mosh pit next to us for one of the opening bands.

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you coming out for graduation season! Let me know if you guys need a place to crash or pick ups from the airport. And for those of you who aren't... those of us in the bay area are still expecting a visit from you eventually ;)

Memorial Day Weekend

Hey Boys and Girls (just girls),

I will be up in the bay area this memorial day looking forward to dararith chumpa-chuga-lug-a-lump long graduate. Like a proud parent I'll be bring film equipment. hezhezhehzers. Also looking forward to seeing MELicious and my long lost wife Anna. Hopefully Linli will be around as well. Then we can pow wow, catch up, get facials, and paint our nails and get our hair did. OH I'm so excited!

Love,
Liang

The May has come

People really need to update this blog.

I can't believe it's been a year since we all graduated. Can you believe it? It feels just like yesterday when I was standing in the hot weather, wearing my ridiculous robe....

My life has not changed as much. I failed my april cumulative, so my score is 1/2. I need to pass the next 4 to stay here. or...just 4 in general. But, I really need to study hard for the next cumulative to be comfortable about staying here.

On the other hand, I have been so lazy about planning for summer. Main reason is that I'm not sure how long I can take off. My break isn't dictated by the company or anything. I can take off whenever I want to, because they don't check. The problem is, I would have to tell my boss when I'm taking off and how long. I'm not sure how long I'm allowed to take off, because I'm technically being paid for that time. So...yeah, I need to talk to my boss and see how long other people are taking off. I might just spontaneously decide to go to California for a bit. Who knows.

Aside of that, I have a camping trip and rafting trip set up for this summer with my friends here. Exciting, I know.

What are you all doing for the summer?

Where'd Everyone Go?

It's high time to update this blog. :) I was wondering if y'all are going down for graduation so maybe we can all meet up? I'm trying to figure out if I can squeeze a trip in.

Today, I watched Taiko. Man... do I miss practicing Taiko.

Then I had some Takoyaki.

After that I made some ramen.

It's been a remarkably Japanese day.

I hope you're all doing well and I miss you!

Belated Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!

I just realized as I was going down the memory lane. We never really had a St. Patrick's day celebration. We usually celebrate stuff like, Halloween or Birthdays, but we never had a St. Patty's day Party. Perhaps because most of us are asian and are not Irish decents....

Anyway, there are way too many white people in Massachusetts, so we actually celebrated irish style at my friend's house a day before St. patty's day. We had Guiness, Jameson, and Bailey's with corned beef, cabagge, vegetables, you name it. Although I don't remember much of it, due to two shots of Bailey's that I took, I remember food being delicious.

There's not too much to update on my life. I'm thinking about going to California for the summer, but I haven't completely decided yet. I'm not sure how long I can take off from my work (since I'm still getting paid even if I take a leave), plus, I still need to pass my cumulatives.

The good thing though, it is getting warm here. Intramural Soccer season is starting soon, and I decided to join, so the practice starts soon. I hope I can run...

I can right click!

I've been using an apple mighty mouse for the last 2 years and have been a mac user for the last 4. Now I know that apple is notorious  for it's long held 1 button mouse mandate. After switching to a mac, I was dismayed but I got used to it. When the mighty mouse first came out it was touted as Apple's first multi button mouse. I thought that meant that it had a click on the scroll wheel and side clicks. Only YESTERDAY did I find out that they also meant you can right click on a mighty mouse. So now I'm on a long journey back to relearning the art of the right click. 

I tried to wash my rabbit...

My rabbit this year is probably between age 4 or 5. Which is like mid-life to late life rabbit. Like all old things, she starts to stink. I've ignored it for a while now, but it's getting really ridiculous and she seems not to be able to take care of it. So into the shower she went. Needless to say she came out ridiculous. And spent the rest of the day painstakingly re-cleaning herself. She no long stinks, which is great, but I don't think I'm going to try that again. I spent a good 2 hrs blow drying her after the sun went down. Eventually if the stink comes back she'll be exiled to the garage forever. Cruel? think of it as a retirement home. My mom likes to leave the rabbit in the yard (she hopes that the rabbit will runaway) . The rabbit likes it as well. However, given the animals in socal, rabbit will either become dinner or flea/tick infested. Also the turtle doesn't like her very much nor do the plants. 

In response to the MTV dance off: AC Slater you've grown up to be a hotter than Zack Morris grease ball. Mazel Tov! 

Job search still going on. Meanwhile I've been getting into reading instruction manuals. You learn a lot. Yah don't ask. I'm also addicted to NPR. Lots of great story programs. One of the coolest is This American Life with Ira Glass or it's post college angst version: Love and Radio. They're all available for podcast. Check them out. 

How did I get onto NPR? it's a free audio version of the Economist. Don't get me wrong Linli, I think the Economist is a great mag. In fact my respect for people goes up quite a bit when I find out they read the Economist. But after a while it's practically unreadable. There's that curt monotonous and professional tone that can only be ameliorated by an audio version. Luckily if you're rich enough, you can buy the audio version. If you're poor, you'll have to read it. It says something about the magazine's clientele when it offers free print versions online and also has an audio version for subscribers--that they are important people who pay ridiculous amounts of money. Anyway along with everyday news there's a lot of programs dealing with comedy, music, short stories. Pretty cool stuff if you're a boring bourgeois hehe. 

Yup I think that's all the updating so far.

The Economist

I am utterly convinced that everyone ought to peruse through the Economist at least once a year. There are some fascinating articles that are written to the utmost succinctness, while being capable of being bitterly amusing.

Life is pretty slow. I'm now up to 10 screenplays that are brief outlines that are half finished. I really need to finish at least one of them this month. I guess I'll post it up when I'm done and you guys can rip it apart and tell me if it's any good or if it's just dirt. ;)

Manga was on sale at the local book store at 40% off per tankoubon so that brings the price to what they would reasonably charge in Japan. Man, I'm so jealous of all the people who get to travel.

Which brings me to a question. You guys going to be going down to Bear Town for graduation to partake in graduation festivities for our friends who are still there? I was contemplating a trip to do just that since it'll probably be my last excuse for visiting in the near future. :) Maybe we could plan something.

Liang!!! Where have you been? And Anna!!! I never hear/see any news from you! I hope you guys are all doing well and yeah... I'm bad at keeping in touch. I've been sleeping a lot lately again. I went to bed at 7pm on Friday and I woke up around 9am the subsequent day. I have no idea why I'm so darn exhausted and watching politics just depresses me.

Oh you guys should watch MTV's America's Next Dance Crew! I'm sooooooo enamoured with Kaba Modern. Now it makes me wish I woulda visited Irvine to see what it was like. I love their rendition of the GSlide. Oh yeah, any of you up for a trip to Las Vegas come August? There's a hip hop international competition I'm dying to go to!!!

Where did February go?

Seriously, where did February go? We had an extra day in the month too and it still seemed to just whiz by.

I'm glad that you guys have been updating, it's good to know that you all are still alive (well... as of the date you posted at least) I saw Anna last week, so I know that she's still alive, regardless of not posting here ;)

Three things continue to dominate my life: work, school, and sleep (but I've been getting very little of the last one, so it only dominates on the weekends). At work, we're doing a matrix spiking study with shellfish extracts, blah, blah, blah-dy, blah... School (I can't remember if I've mentioned this already, I'm taking a general chemistry class in preparation for grad school because they desire it) is just basically boring chemical formulas.

Churro - I'm sorry to hear about you being sick and breaking up with DJ. If you ever need anything, give me a call and let me know. Side note: I'm so proud of you for passing that test, I totally knew you could do it!

Linli - Geezus, how long are we going to play phone tag? Maybe I should be calling you right now... Oh this Twilight thing... you're doing the casting call? You're a part of the casting call? You're going to the casting call? AND you got a duck?!?!

Liang - Did you hear that? Linli got a duck! Anyway, how's the SoCal life going? Whatcha been up to? Hit any mega waves yet brah?

Long Story Short...

I broke up with DJ. And I'm horribly sick. I hope I get better soon.

Quick Updates

Sorry been busy!

(1) Lunch with Brian and Colin who are planning a trip to asia. I'm so jealous.

(2) Casting call for a movie called Twilight! 'Bout vampires.

(3) Quack Quack

(4) Whoo hooo finally signed the Gifting agreement.

(5) Rocking manga empire.

Good news

Contrary to how I thought I did on my cumulative test, I have passed.
One down, three more to go.

The worst week of my life...well, probably more to come.

I feel bad following Liang's very logical thoughts on Valentine's day with this crappy self-vent entry, but I must do it.

For those of you that didn't know, I had my first cumulative exam today. This is first of our ten tests that we need to pass. We can either pass four in a row, or five out of the ten tests that will be given. They are given every even months on thr second Saturday...so the first one was last Saturday.

To prepare for this exam, I have worked my ass off. I mean, seriously worked. The last two weeks were probably the most I had studied in my lifetime. I stayed at school until around 11 or midnight in my office, studying, studying, studying. I was quite proud of myself for having that much motivation.

But, the test was awful. It was beyond awful actually. I'm pretty certain that I failed this one. And even though I can tell myself that I can pass 4 or 5 our of the next 9 tests, it is still very depressing. The february test, technically, should be the easiest one since it only covers the first semester material, whereas after this anything covered in second semester is possible to be on the test. So, I pretty much feel like I'm screwd. I don't know what I can do differently because I really worked my butt off and I don't know if I can do any more than what I prepared for this test.

So, as I am hitting my intellectual limit, when I was pretty depressed about this whole test, my parents called me. That made me feel so much better for some reason. I never doubted that they would support me under no circumstances, but it's good to know that their support still holds even though they are miles away. My mom tried to convince me that I'm under a lot of odds because I didn't have any polymer science background, and she's right. I didn't. Compared to these people that are here, I probably am the least prepared of all when it comes to undergraduate education. But at the same time, I don't want that to be my excuse for not passing my test. I would still feel like a loser if I fail out of grad school.

I am seriosuly weighing out my options right now. I'm not confident to say that I can pass four or five out of nine tests.

I just needed to vent it out. I'm still going to try no matter what. And if I fail after trying my hardest, then I'll convince myself that this was not the path for me.

Count down to V Day!

By V I mean Valentine's. A holiday where all non native speakers and children under 10 mistakenly believe that it's Valen-times. Valen being old english for love or something sexier. I guess I'm just unhappy with the mentality saddled with the holiday.

No one ever accuses Valentine's Day of being over commercialized. The meaning of Valentine's Day is never lost no matter how retailers try to corrupt it with nifty marketing campaigns. The reason is pure and simple Valentine's Day is a very self serving holiday because in our culture romantic love s a very self serving notion. It can range from silly to serious and grade school to matrimonial. From Valentines Day cards marketing favorite Disney characters catering to the prepubescent crowd to thousand dollar engagement rings with ethically questionable diamonds, and everything in between. These are all perfectly acceptable expressions of the Valentine's Day spirit.

In the realm of romantic love, Valentine's Day tells us that it's totally all right to be asking instead of giving. It tells us to be sad when we can't expect anything. Worse of all, it tells us to be sad and broken when you give and don't receive. When we can't expect anything from others, it is also reasonable to love ourselves and lavish ourselves with some sort of consolation gift. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this isn't respectable mentality for Christmas (supposedly the holiday of charity and love for humanity--and Jesus if you're of that persuasion). You might get yourself stuff while shopping for Christmas--or after, but you wouldn't think of it as a gift for yourself.

Maybe it's the backlash from all that selflessness from the end of last year. Then again, this amorous holiday is more on topic than other February holidays. Read: President's Day where the nation celebrates steep discounts on furniture and automobiles. Certainly this could be read as a far reaching economic stimulus package from Washington and Lincoln. (I'm going to get out while I'm ahead. Before I go on a spiel of Lincoln's most economically brilliant plan: Thanksgiving).

The rain rain rain came down down down....

Hello everyone! I hope that this latest installment of the blog finds you all well!

First and foremost, thank you guys for your birthday wishes, both messages and images. I really enjoyed hearing/seeing them. On my birthday I went out to dinner with Anna, Dararith, DJ, Roger, Rosana, and Dian. It was nice having them there for my birthday, I only wish that you guys could've all been there!

This past weekend Rosana, Dian, and I ventured to Sin City... um... I mean Las Vegas. Instead of telling you about everything that we did and saw, I'll just summarize it with a picture montage...

-MeL

Happy Birthday Wishes

I like how everyone posted their happy birthday wishes. I'm not that creative, so I just called and left a message :P Linli's little anime makes me want to laugh because the guy is amazingly pretty. I wish I could look like that.

So update on my life, I haven't really done much lately. I moved into my office fully, so I can actually live there. I have tons of food in there, my laptop, my books, and everything else I can think of. I've been studying a little bit so far, but haven't really accomplished much. I got trained for AFM (atomic force microscopy), so that is kind of cool. I think I get to play around with it next week, so maybe I can get some cool images to show.

I've been pretty antisocial lately, due to the fact that 1) I'm still sick and 2) I just don't feel like drinking or partying too much anymore. I felt the need to do that last semester, because I had so many classes, but right now the classes haven't started yet, and I have research to do. I realized after last semester that I really don't like drinking too much because I just get tired and sleepy. Some drinks taste good (like champagne), but I definitely hate beer.

So that's my update on my life.

Happy Birthday To You!

[The girl looks around. Rings the doorbell of the apartment and waits. Door opens.]

Girl: Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Mel-where's-at-cuz'-she's-missed- to you. Happy Birthday to you.

[The girl looks up from her pre-scripted notecard. Tentatively]

Girl: I think that's the end of the message.

[A stunned man stares while frozen in the door way.]

Girl [Says to herself]: I didn't know guys were often named Mel. Maybe I got the wrong apartment.

Happy Birthday Mel!

Dude, I was going to email this to you, but I found out that calmail doesn't support HTML. So in true brutal fashion I took a screen shot of it and posted it here. LOL. Happy Birthday nonetheless. 

Splash, Thud, and Tears

Your New Year's sounds exciting. :)

So my update is about the recent festivities. I went out of town to visit some friends and family that I haven't seen in a long time. You know, the family thing. When I got home, I was exhausted. I check my email to see that I received a seemingly angry e-mail about my British Petroleum report. I was accused having not given a fair and balanced viewpoint and writing something that could be published for the SF Chronicle. I don't know if I should be flattered, sad, or disappointed. Flattered that he took the time to even peruse my publication before throwing it in the trash (I had sent my copies out thinking people would just keep it as I don't know, a souvenir). Sad that he didn't read later pages that actually SUPPORT the deal. Or disappointed that the way I conducted my research could ever anger anyone to that extent. There was a lot of guilt and sadness for a few days.

I spent about three hours bawling my eyes out. The way the letter was written was more like damage control. But ... I didn't send the report out to many people because they were so expensive to bind and tedious to print. I'd actually kind of forgotten about it.

Ugh. I need to improve so people don't misinterpret what I'm trying to say versus what I've said versus how I'm saying it.

There's been storms raging all over. And well, where I'm living is not exception. There are about 10 trees in my backyard. Full grown hawthorne, firs and maple trees. They were swaying in the wind and looked to be on the verge of collapsing. Several other trees in neighboring areas were found snapped and broken.

The older I get, the more I realize that family is the most important thing in life. Well, as a group, family and friends. You can lose your home due to a tree falling on it, you can find out that you have a terminal disease, you can triumph in something that you do or fail miserably, but in the end, one thing remains constant. You cannot deny your friends and family and they will often, but not always, do their best to not deny you of support--- at the bare minimum.

I spend times with the little kids that I take thursday nights volunteering with. They're growing up fast. I met this girl in 6th grade who was crying the whole time she was at the library, lamenting that her boyfriend had just moved away. She asked me if I knew so and so singer, I replied no. Apparently her ex-boyfriend's mother is a up and coming country singer. It made me reflect whether or not I had ever reminisced about a lost (puppy) love in middle school.

The dynamics of little kids. Geez. How obvious we must all have been when we were younger. Well, I could droll on, but that would bore you to tears. Take care everyone!
That's all for me.

P.S. I made chocolate banana pancakes this morning. Liang, it's your turn ;)

What a way to begin 2008....

Happy New Year my friends! I hope that it has indeed been a happy one for you guys. It's only been five days into the year and I think I've experienced some of the highest highs and lowest lows.

• New Years Eve/Day - I rang in the New Years at the Mezzanine for Disco 2008, featuring Blaqk Audio. The night started off alright, some free beers and a little dancing. Over the course of the night, I got to rub elbows with some of those "famous" folks. The countdown featured a champagne toast and balloons. 2008 was welcomed in by a performance by the band, followed by some more dancing. Overall I had a fun time that night.

• January 2 - I noticed that my little hammy wasn't doing so well, so I took him to the vet. They said that it was possible that he had caught a cold or aspirated some water. They gave me antibiotics, told me to keep him warm, and hope for the best. Over the course of the day though, he wasn't doing much better. By the end of the night, the little one had passed on. I'll miss him, he was quite possibly the best pet I ever had.

• January 4 - I woke up that morning to hear the trees and raindrops banging against my window. As I got ready for work, it just seemed to get worse. The drive to work was insane, it was raining really hard and the wind was blowing pretty fast. I checked the news when I got to work and several roads had been closed, the ferry service was out, BART had delays due to fallen trees, and the Richmond bridge was closed. Based on the following picture, I can understand why.

So that's how I've been kicking off 2008. To say I've had better years would be an understatement, but I still think that it could get better. There are another 361 days left.

Visiting Berkeley

It was definitely an interesting winter break. I got to visit Berkeley, drive around Bay area to see Dj's family, and I got to hang around Berkeley some more. It felt weird because I was actually visiting the bay area, not living there anymore. I enjoyed the weather very much, even though I got sick and I was inside most of the time. I got out to SF twice, once with Mel and once with DJ. When I went with Mel, we went to the shopping area, and then we took the MUNI to the pier 39. When I went with DJ, he drove me to Japantown, and also stopped by the Treasure Island to see the cityscape in the sunset. It was gorgeous. I really enjoyed my time there.


I hope y'all had a wonderful winter break as well. Update me on how yours went.

Happy New year Everyone!

I hope you guys' enjoyed your new years. I went to a new year's party with DJ at his friend's place. It was alright. I did the countdown for the first time.

May all your wish come true in the year 2008 and I love you all :)

PS. Sorry I haven't updated this in a while. I promise I'll update you on "visiting Berkeley" when I get back to Amherst with pictures. Speaking of which, can you put video on this thing? I have a hilarious movie that I want to show you guys. Mel, you know what I'm talking about ;)