celebrating the risen son at twin peaks

lots of family time this weekend...

hang ching

made the annual trip on sat to the cemetaries for the gone relatives on both sides of the family. this time i took pictures of the places, so that i would remember where to go in the future. it seems that everytime i go i learn something new about the families...like random stories i'm not allowed to share involving paper and a bunk bed. (it's sorta funny how my relatives keep saying that some info better not be showing up on my website...some of them check it from time to time.)

have you gone yet? the official hang ching weekend is next weekend on the chinese calendar. the places were pretty packed this past sat. it was probably worse today. and even more so next weekend.

easter brunch

had the annual easter brunch on my mom's side of the family at the hyatt regency. really great food this year. i had 2 1/2 lobster tails, two servings of lamb, one serving of roast beef, and about 6 thin crab legs...plus a lot more stuff. these brunches are always fun family catching up times with my mom's side of the fam.

what was extra cool this year, was having some people there making baloon animal hats. po po got a purple butterfly balloon hat made. k had an alien spaceship balloon hat. m and i got alien goggle balloon hats made. (man...i wish i had brought my digital camera. i was in a rush and didn't go back for it. never again...)

afterwards i passed out at my grandma's while my fam played true colors. i had been up since 4:50 am to see the sunrise. i woke up an hour or two later...then hung out with the fam some more. we did some different social dance stuff in the living room. my sis gave me a brush up in swing. (this reminds me, that i need to revisit my new year's resolutions...one of them was to take up swing/ballroom. i'll try and start this week.)

the day my easter bunny world ended

i have a lot of good, fun family memories around the holidays. i think a big part was because my mom was a school teacher and she was also having fun thru my childhood.

the following is a story as told by my father (recorded here for posterity)...

one easter long ago, when greg was a little boy around four or five years old, he was looking through some bags that were behind the bedroom door. as he opened one of them, he discovered a brand new box of crayons. (he was a budding artist.) when he realized that it was a gift for him, he got really excited and ran down the hallway.

i was wondering where greg was going, so i followed him. he was running down the hallway (as quickly as a four year old's legs could carry). where was he in a rush to go? in such a rush so excited?

he turned the corner into the dining room, so i followed him. greg was now standing in front of this paper pin-up poster of the easter bunny we had on the wall. it was hung up for easter holiday.

greg then started talking to it..."oh thank you, easter bunny. thank you, thank you, thank you for the crayons."

this was when i realized that i had to tell him the truth about the easter bunny. "hey, greg. let's sit down on the sofa. let's see that box of crayons." i sat him on my lap and looked into his eyes. "you really like those crayons, don't you?" greg nodded his head up and down many times happily. then i told greg that mom had bought the crayons and that we were going to give them to him as a present. and there's no such thing as the easter bunny.

so that was the sad day the existence of the easter bunny ended for me.

did any of you ever believe? i don't think i know of any others who have. after me, my parents told my sister right away that there was no easter bunny.

interview with god flash movie

happy photo days are here again

woo hoo! i just got a brand new s30! canon replaced it as a courtesy to me, cuz my old one had blown out. now i can record the easter sunrise!

1. If you could eat dinner with and "get to know" one famous person (living or dead), who would you choose?
definitely considering today...jesus.

2. Has the death of a famous person ever had an effect on you? Who was it and how did you feel?
for sure, the death with the most impact (which also changed my life)...jesus. remorseful. grateful. loved. joyful.

3. If you could BE a famous person for 24 hours, who would you choose?
no clue. i'd like to be famous one day tho.

4. Do people ever tell you that you look like someone famous? Who?
when i was a kid...a daycamp leader said that i looked like the kid on who's the boss. i dunno about that.
when i was in china...my students said that i looked like one particular actor...i don't know his name in english. i have his name scribbled down in chinese and really mean to look it up one day. he nickname has something to do with "monkey." (if you think you can help, lemme know.)

5. Have you ever met anyone famous?
alex trebec and zhang zi yi. got autographs from both of them, too.

easter events

lots of busyness these next few days. easter has always been a huge thing on the calendar for me. coming up for me...

* exploration of easter nite at lumps
a special event nite to investigate the claims of easter and see the relevance it has today for us. 7:35 pm.

* good friday service
my church, scbc, is holding 7:45 service. different guys in the church will be sharing about jesus' 7 last words on the cross when he was crucified. i don't think i've looked at his death from that perspective before. should be interesting. i'm one of the 7 guys sharing for a few minutes. i'll be talking about jesus saying "i am thirsty." ( i really ought to be working on that sermonette now, but i'm procrastinating.)

* easter services
one of the three services at scbc. i'll be attending the first service (8:30). no, that's not early at all. 5:30 is! the crack of dawn. before early service i should be up at twin peaks having an informal sunrise service which my lumps buds fl and dy are putting together again. (it was a really great service last year, i actually got more out of it than the regular church service.) a time to really celebrate the miracle and rising of jesus. a reflective time and a joyous time.

if you're the slightest bit curious about the big christian hoopla over some long ago story about jesus, you're welcome to ask me my take on it. or even better...check out any of these easter events with me. just holler.

i also have my annual easter brunch with my mom's side at the hyatt regency. (no more po po produced easter egg hunts with my sis cousins. so sad. we're supposedly too old now.)

easter egg hunts

late tonite i got to help prepare some eggs for an easter egg hunt. i really like easter egg hunts. they hold a special place in my childhood memories. yep, that was a great 20 or so years of hunts.

the portfolio is back

i got my portfolio fed-exed back today. i looked at it again and didn't catch any last minute mistakes yet in my rush to get it out. if anyone's interested, i'll show you how my stressed sleep-deprived week a while back turned out.

also got a postcard in the mail today from art center. i'll be waiting another month to 6 weeks to see if i get a scholarship.

ah well...patience is a virtue i'm familiar with. and i'm pretty flex about what the future holds.

joy of the day

yesterday, i got an e-mail from tw, who found my blog off aarisings. tw's an old bud from college who i had lost contact with over the year's. it's really good getting in touch with him again, since we still have a lot in common...church, creative interests, comics, movies, etc. you can check out his generasian x site. after a flurry of e-mails back and forth...we're chatting online right now, while i'm blogging. i'll definitely be lookin him up if i head down to la.

how funny. tw just told me that wahine just gave him a shout out. (b/c he just signed her guestbook after checking my links.) this asian web world really is a small place. the random connections still surprise me. it'll probably happen more after i launch my site for real. (maybe next week?)

disappointment of the day

last nite i stopped by borders to do some work. i saw one of my old ak high school guys, whom i met with often. he was sorta like a younger bro to me who i tried to mentor somewhat. he was doing something in front of copeland's with some friends which really disappointed me. sorta broke my heart to see him. i said hey to him loudly and thought he saw me, but he turned away (an accidently dis?). said hey to him again. casually talked super briefly. told him we oughta hang out during his spring break. we'll see if he wants to or not.

sometimes for younger brothers, you can give them the best advice...they might even accept it at first. then go choose to do something different on their own. ultimately it's their decision. maybe my ak kid will be making some mistakes, but i really hope that he learns and gets on the right path.

the sun run

it was such a beautiful day today that i decided to go for a run in the sun (as opposed to a weak-solo work-out at ocean.. parked close to the end of gg park and took a jog around by the windmill, over to the soccer courts, took some random paths, and explored a few blocks around the richmond towards the cliff house. i discovered a few new places...

whoppers by the water

all this time, i never knew that there was a burger king close to the beach! i was amazed to find one out here, cuz i had never known of it. it's on balboa and la playa, somewhat close to the safeway over there. man...next time i want the simpsons toys, i don't have to drive out to geary st or 9th. i guess there's a bk, cuz it looks like there's a school close by. (balboa?)

the best scenic ocean spot in the sunset

i was on my way to jog up towards the cliffhouse, when i noticed a high up vista point on the cliff opposite of the cliffhouse. it looked like a path went up the side, so since i've never been up there, i just had to go. i went up this long windy path up thru the terracing plants, past the side walls of some lots, and thru the trees. (i wouldn't recommend a girl to go this way by herself.) i was sometimes faced with multiple paths...feeling somewhat like a pick-a-path book (familiar to you scholastic readers back in elementary days). i also felt like frodo in the lord of the rings, trying to find my way through the forest.

after a little trial and error, i found my way to the top into the really magnificent sutro heights. (i think that's what the place is called.) there were some ruins of the sutro house and the conservatory there. a couple of benches near the edge where there's a breathtaking view. great lookout point high over ocean breach. with the clear skies, the sun was glistening brightly off of the water. sorta felt like what a so-cal sunny day might feel like. there weren't a ton of people. a few people on the bench reading. a couple of elderly folks hanging out.

i think i'll go back there soon the next few days. especially after i get my beloved s30 camera back from repairs. it should only be a couple of days. will go back to snap a few pix while we have the good weather and to do some reflecting. i usually have a better quiet time with god when i'm closer to nature. walking along the beach and thru the park. (i need to explore the park more...i still amaze myself with the different cool local discoveries i've been finding out here in the sunset.)

one reason i ran was to really try to get my mental juices going. i was pondering and sorta feeling some of jesus's last words - "i am thirsty." i figured that a run in the sun might make me more thirsty and start to identify with his condition. i have 48 hours now to really think about it, in order to prepare a 2-5 minute sermonette for our friday nite service.

the home schooler

last nite i got to talking to a kid named akoni at the cafe. he was pretty friendly and started talking to me after the lesson. it turns out that he's a homeschooled 7th grader. i've never met anyone homeschooled before. he seems like a really bright kid, pretty confident and interesting to talk to. he admitted that it is a little lonely to not know a lot of kids his age, but he hangs out with his family a lot. he told me that one of the advantages of home schooling is to be able to go at a really fast pace and the flexibility of being able to get his homework done faster...b/c time is spent more efficiently. he also told me that some colleges prefer home schoolers? i hope that he makes a good social transition to high school and college with a lot of other kids. i know that it can be tough going from a small private school to a large public school. i can only imagine how it might be for a home schooler.

tiny bubbles

tiny bubbles in the wine
make me happy, make me feel fine
tiny bubbles, make me warm all over
with the feeling that i'm going to love you
til the end of time

beyond the reef

beyond the reef
where the sea is dark and cold
my love has gone
and our dreams grow old
there'll be no tears
there'll be no regretting
will he remember me-will he forget

i'll send a thousand flowers
where the tradewinds blows
i'll send my lonely heart-for i love him so
someday i'll know
he'll come back again to me
til then my heart will be beyond the reef

the sub test

i'm on my way to becoming a subsititute teacher. i just signed up for the cbest test on april 6th. if you're interested...sign up now. the late reg deadline is at 5pm today! it's supposed to be pretty easy to get assignments, ok money (better than unemployment for sure), and a real popular thing for ex-tech people to do now. my sis is gonna do a story about it. beat the rush before it hits the paper. (btw, if you're an ex-tech person who's subbing, my sis would like to talk to you.)

the norm of newness

feel trepid and nervous.
join an unfamilar group.
know nothing.
be vulnerable with inability.
assert and present yourself.
struggle along and observe happily.
take on a learning curve.
absorb everything.
dare yourself to be different.
embrace failure.
accept other people's offerings.
find joy with friendly faces.
grow with experiences.
push your personal limits
think differently.
take on new perspectives.
pick up new stories.
reach a refeshing ability.
stimulate your soul.

newsgirlnic

a news article by my reporter sis that has been getting a lot of attention in the paper.

Redwood City high school student, family try to recover after fatal crash.

Ron Gordon at age 56 is old enough to know life isn't fair. But that hasn't stopped him from crusading against misfortune. The Sequoia High School teacher believes it's his duty to help when he sees a family suffering... read it online.

rained out reunion

sat nite i headed down to south sj with some buds to hang out with a big bunch of mutual friends. it's cool hangin out with them, cuz some of them are different than the normal people i see week to week. we were originally gonna have a bbq at jw's, but the rain changed some of the plans. we ended up eating a lot of great food, courtesy of sw and chilling indoors watching the one, kings of comedy, and most of memento. afterwards we ate more food at vung tao II in milpitas. lots of good filling food. we ate a lot of vietnamese dishes i've never had before.

comedysportz

afterwards we headed to comedysportz in santa clara. it's a very clean (family-oriented) improv show...with two teams of three battling it out for points. it was really funny seeing how teams had to try to mime out and guess fictional movite titles made up of several randome long words, each more than three syllables long. (it would make for a really great icebreaker.) the show depended on a lot of interaction with the audience. i didn't have high hopes for the show, so i was pretty pleased with the nite. i think it's definitely worth checking out if you've never been there before.

the mylar packet

so i got into art center. no need to congratulate me. it's not too terribly exciting to me, since i was anticipating it. i'm waiting to hear the next week (or so) how much they want me, and if i'll get a scholarship of some sort. figuring out the finances will be a big thing in deciding to go.

blade 2

just caught a matinee show at amc 1000 with wc, jf and ak. i'm so glad that i went then and not during a peak time cuz the line when we left looked horrible. i liked the movie. blade 2 is like a action packed, high tech, vampire nation matrix. a whole lot of fighting. pretty good action. the production sets and character designs were prettty cool. the movie was pretty gruesome tho and maybe a tad bloody at times. i don't think that i would not recommend this to any girl that i know. (not that girls can't stand this...just cuz i don't know any who would really be into it.) story was ok. it was pretty enjoyable. seeing the movie gets your adrenaline going...maybe i'll go work out now.

one of the trailers shown before the movie was star wars. ds is gonna love that tomorrow. (probably better than the movie itself.)

cost of living study

i just found a cost of living comparison study on yahoo.

higher value=higher cost of living (100 = national average)

new york 364
burlingame 222
san francisco 217
berkeley 167
pasadena 139
sacramento 101

analyzing art history

jayville and i went to the art history study session today. it was the very last day before spring break, so attendance was pretty low. it was just us two and the t.a. i was really suprised that he raised his hand on wednesday saying that he wanted to go. i thought he was nuts...since there was no one else who really wanted to go. we went mostly for the extra credit, hoping for an A in the class.

i'm really glad that we showed up, b/c the t.a. was there by herself...waiting for students. she was about to leave. she had prepared with slides and everything to show us. i made sure to thank her for her trouble after it was all over. it was pretty funny how it ended up being a private tutoring session. it looks like we probably won't need the extra credit after all. (altho...if i want a solid A, i should. readers of jayville already know what grade i got.) the t.a. told us that she got an A without extra credit. going there was pretty helpful tho, since we have all the answers now to create our own study sheets for the final. i gotta be planning ahead for that. i don't want to be cramming.

oh yeah, the t.a. thought that i was crazy to have made individual color flash cards for each of the paintings. it was a lot of work, but i didn't think it was too expensive. i had gone on the web, found thumbnail pix of each of the assigned paintings, printed them out in color, and attached them to index cards. i did this all pretty much the day before the test! i think it was necessary for me to do the hard core cramming. i just about got perfect on the identification section. the cards also allowed me to share the art with friends (and be a nice distraction for ln and tn during a pretty dry perspectives session).

1. What is your favorite time of year? summer. (winter's a very close second.)

2. What is it about your favorite season that, well, makes it your favorite season? marginally nicer weather here in the bay area. vacations and trips. and i guess, my bday.

3. What is your least favorite time of year? Why? fall. no more summer.

4. Do you do anything to celebrate or recognize the changing of seasons? i do a lot around the holdiays with family. i also love to go to the touristy festivity stuff (tree lighting ceremonies, city events, etc.)

5. What's your favorite thing to do outside? hmm...whatever that takes me a really scenic place. nice warm beaches (like in thailand). snowboarding. getting away to appreciate nature in general.

jake: army of love

yay...my jake cd finally came in the mail today. i had ordered it and a few other cds from grassrootsmusic, which has relatively cheap prices for christian cds and free shipping for 3+ cds. i started to stock up on some future birthday gifts (and one belated one).

i really like jake. i have their debut cd from last year (i think). they're like a christian n*sync. (yes, i like n*sync.) i think you might describe the music as an acoustic (or hard) pop. they're current song on the radio is army of love (listen to it on low real audio). their songs are a mix of faith centered and girl inspired. these guys (who are three brothers, actually) are really good. i like the upbeat songs a little better than the ballads tho, but that's just my personal pref for music.

i'm now on my third or fourth straight spin of the cd now. i'll later blog some lyrics which get burned into my mind. i think that the songs are pretty well written (by the jake boys too) and i can connect to a lot of what's expressed.

back to ad school

i missed most of lumps tonite. i finally got in around 9:30 or so. i don't think anyone probably noticed me gone earlier (well maybe those in my small group). instead i went to support my ad school bud kl at the end of quarter award show tonite. the school is in a pretty cool space now. better than the giant-sized cubes at gmo.

it was really great to catch up and see some of my ad school classmates. i'll try to hook up with a couple of them later next week. i think most of them remembered my name. :P

the school has grown a whole lot. maybe like 60 students now? is that right? much more than the 15 last summer...but that was in just the second quarter of existence for the sf school.

the nite started off with an improv show, featuring about 15 or so students from two classes. some of the stuff was just ho-hum. some stuff was pretty funny. kl was pretty good. some of the group improv techniques were interesting (and might make for some good ice breakers). like the dating one...three guys speak together in unison as one guy, and three girls speak in unison as one girl. the three on three interact on stage enacting a date. it's improv, so it's not prepared. so the groups of three talk very slowly to speak in unison, with different people taking the lead. i havn't seen anything like that before.

another fresh technique to me was having a small group of people to act out a scenario. but the catch is that the group has to progressively go through the alphabet by starting their individual speeches by choosing their first word. so if one guy's sentence/speech starts off with an H-word, the next guy's sentence/speech needs to start with an I-word.

what was also cool was how the emcee was trying to engage the audience. calling out for the audience to throw out ideas and suggestions for the improv'ers to feed off of. they couldn't be really funny suggestions tho. the improv people were supposed to be the funny ones.

the teacher/emcee (a comedian i'm sure) had pretty good presence. very upbeat. i don't see too many live emcees like that (myself included).

the awards show was cool. props to kl for winning a couple of silvers and one gold. i wonder how i would have done if i would have stuck around at the school. maybe not too well...since there isn't much of a design program. but i know my creative/technical skills would be farther along than they are now. (and i'd be on a track to finish by the end of this year, as well as be living somewhere else in the world right now.) improv would have been fun for me to do. i think i could have done well with some tutelage. i once looked into improv classes under the recommendation of my boss, but it never came to be.

face

in attending perspectives, i've recently learned about face [fellowship of artists for cultural exchange], a missions agency (based in pasadena). from the scraps of info that i've found on the web (they don't have a site of their own), it seems pretty interesting.

here's something from the us center for world missions

We've been at the USCWM since 1977. We train, recruit, and mobilize Christian artists to reach the unreached peoples of the world in the context of their own cultures. This includes visual artists, performers, writers, and musicians. Since 1979, we've held a summer institute of training. This is a five-week study on the role of the arts in missions, including three weeks which we spend ministering with the Navajo Christians in Northern Arizona. Of more than 200 students who have gone through this program, nearly 50% have gone on to serve with with mission agencies including YWAM, TEAM, SIM, etc. Since 1984 we've taken dozens of artists to China in cultural art exchanges. The teams have taught Western Art, given exhibitions, and performed in ten provinces to over 50,000 people, developing close friendships that have opened the way to share Christ.

there are actually a lot of interesting partner agencies on that uscwm site.

making visible the invisible

hmm...from a link off of a linked site, i just came across civa [christians in the visual arts]. now this site looks interesting. it looks really well designed, too. very clean. good informational structure. i really like their tag - making visible the invisible.

one of my big long term goals is to apply my creative gifts to my christian faith. i think i've recently been learning more about it's place in a world faith context. ultimately where that calls me to go still remains to be seen. hopefully i'll figure that out along with everything else in the next couple of months.

le petit robert - a nice french bistro

i met up with my po po again for dinner. it seems like we havn't caught a meal together for over a month. way too long. we enjoy exploring new places with each other. altho she won't go to all the places that i would go to, my grandma is pretty adventurous and enjoys trying new experiences. (i'd definitely attribute her as a big influence on me in that way.) ro had suggested that i one day check out le petit robert with my grandma (along with galette). she was right on both counts. le petit robert is a great place with some pretty good french food.

even tho i had to keep asking the waitress about some of the different french words on the menu, we managed to order some good stuff. we both ordered the french onion soup (which was ok), and we shared two entrees...the niman ranch beef shortrips and the duck. both meats was so soft that it seemed to melt in our mouths. the caramel creme brulee was also really great. according to po po, this restaurant was good from "top to bottom."

as usual we had some interesting conversations. i think i was sorta inspired by lana's character on smallville to ask about her and gung gung's old haunts. i'm always on the look out for new places to check out. i think any places which i havn't been to and which also hold familial historical significance will get bumped to the top of the list (particularly if i might be elsewhere come the fall).

we also had a funny conversation about clothes shopping (illustrated with a bunch of blue sweetner packets). it seems that i need to really shop around and try on different sweaters. now, if i only know about the black sweater and the white sweater, then i might choose and settle for that black sweater, when there are a lot of other sweaters around, which might be a better fit. now i think i'm a pretty good judge of different clothes, from a lot of observation and window shopping. maybe even up by close inspection on the mannequins (yes, like the ones at bluestar exchange), even though i don't always try them on. maybe depending on the class of the store i'm in, i get hesitant about trying them on. i'm definitely not the type of shopper who goes on a daily shopping spree buying all the different sweaters and taking them home, wearing them, and returning them later on. i know i've gotta make purchasing decisions sooner or later. hopefully my fashion tastes can still be up to date as i seek out the right timing for the sweater sale. according to econ, there's also the whole thing about the supply and demand curves which is also necessary for consideration. (i think i forgot a lot of my econ.) oh well.

another wisdom nugget from po po: don't let a past experience dictate your future. i think she'd be really good writing for fortune cookies.

joy of the day

notice on receiving 13 weeks of new life.

bummer of the day

notice that dumb yahoo! will discontinue pop3 access and mail forwarding by april 24th.

this just means that i have a little over a month to get my gw.com addresses fully set-up and publicized. looks like i may be leaving free webmail behind.

boo yahoo!

You are Spaceman Spiff!

Zounds! You are the intrepid Spaceman Spiff, the engaging explorer ensconsed in an unending universe of exotic and evil extraterrestrials! You're brave, but you should give that dictionary a rest.
Take the What Calvin are You? Quiz!

am run

went for an early am run with jh and bp today along the land's end fire trail. it's been a while since i really ran. the weather was really nice, and the view over the bay and the cliffs was extremely clear. jh's taken me along a trail run before, but i think the last time was a year or two ago. this is the first time i went in the morning, and i gotta admit that it was a good early start to my day. unfortunately i got really pooped later on, with all of the walking i did downtown (on top of working out with these two and me the nite before).

the gallery gallup

jc and i both have this assignment to write up a review on a gallery show. so we spent a few hours midday to checking out some of the modern art galleries (free to the public) on geary st (x kearny). man...two buildings on the same block contained 16 different galleries! it was pretty tiring after a while...but a cool experience none the less to look at all of the art.

there was one show which i enjoyed more (and chose to do my write-up on),,,

masami teraoka

"In a world gone mad for cash and convenience, we need a superhero to put our globalized chaos in proper perspective. Sounds like a job for Masami Teraoka...Teraoka has brilliantly captured cross-cultural consternation in all its tragicomic manifestations for 25-plus years. In his "McDonald's Hamburgers Invade Japan" series, he takes on the clash between globalized corporate culture and localized cultural traditions, using the time-honored technique of Japanese woodblock printmaking and traditional imagery of geishas and Kabuki actors to satirize the arrival of time-is-money culture in Japan. In one incisive image, a geisha's foot trods upon a discarded Big Mac wrapper..." sf gate.

i like the traditional japanese pop/woodblock print look, and saw how the art was infused with societal commentary, which was pretty extensively about aids. still, pretty cool stuff. the retrospective exhibit was on display at the catharine clark gallery. this gallery was the biggest of the 16 we went to. i think this exhibit is worth checking out...the others you can probably just peek into.

a forgotten foodie adventure...

hahn's hibachi - good japanese salads

last fri, i grabbed lunch with jw and a bunch of my free friends. it was a great time to catch up with him. we gave jw a briefing on the world of blogging and got a chance to share about some of our recent exploits. he enjoyed learning and getting a better feel for the pulse of lumps. a good time, and the food wasn't too bad. jc had recommended this place for it's salads. i ordered a flank steak japanese salad. pretty good. i need to really eat at least one big meal salad a week for some minimal roughage intake.

hahn's hibachi has several locations in the city. that is, i think this one on west portal is part of that big chain. the copy on the menu's was kinda funny.

no go

looks like i have to become a wood craftsman before i become a ukelele musician. it would cost about $40 to get a little bridge-thing-a-ma-bob custom made. instead i'll try to go to a craft store and get some rosemary or ivory and make it myself. it can't be that hard, right? definitely won't have time to do it before the lesson today...sigh...maybe by next week.

no go

looks like i have to become a wood craftsman before i become a ukelele musician. it would cost about $40 to get a little bridge-thing-a-ma-bob custom made. instead i'll try to go to a craft store and get some rosemary or ivory and make it myself. it can't be that hard, right? definitely won't have time to do it before the lesson today...sigh...maybe by next week.

ukelele repair

i've been calling around to see how much it will cost to get my childhood ukelele fixed. it can't be that much right? i don't think that the thing is worth more than $30. (you can buy a cheap new one for that price.)

i just need a new upper white band piece on the neck (a bridge?) which separates the strings. the old one had fallen off. after making a phone call to guitar center and guitar solo, i was referred to real guitars and peacock music. i think i'll go check them out now in person. hard to get an estimate over the phone. (they probably also think that my uke a good one, which it's not.)

more foodie adventures

isuzu - hawaiian japanese food in j-town

i first really noticed isuzu, on my j-town trip last week to get film fest tix, and i noticed the sign showing it's hawaiian food (yum) and that film fest attendees get 10% off the bill (yay). i just new that i had to get the betelnut beauty crew to check it out last wed.

we easily got a table for 6. the place was a little busy with some other young people. we got seated in the corner in what i think jt called the mafia table, since we were sheltered off in the corner. the food was good...normal japanese food with a back page listing the hawaiian plates. i got some sort of breaded chicken katsu thing (i think). an enjoyable meal, but probably mostly cuz of the conversation and company, talking about the movie and life.

i need to discover more of the good places to eat in j-town. even tho mifune and that place to the right of sophie's crepes by the japanese bookstore (the name escapes me...but it's that place with the japanese pizzas) are good, i know there are a lot of places that i've never been to. still, even after all of the years. suggestions?

celia's - sit-down mexican in outer sunset

a month (or two) overdue for an accountability catch-up, ot, jf, and i met up for a pre-lumps dinner at celia's. at first i wanted to go to the indian/italian/pizza/burger place right by 7-11 on judah (which looked semi-interesting and is open til midnight), but one guy didn't really like indian (or whatever it was that this place really served), so we decided to get mexican at the random place across the street that none of us have been to.

so we poked our heads into celia's, which really surprised us. it was a full-sit down mexican place, decorated native style, and bustling almost as much as chevy's. we had no idea that a place like this existed way out here. since it was busy with dinner traffic and offered free chips and salsa, we decided to plant ourselves down here for dinner.

i had a combo plate with a tamale and enchilada. it wasn't too bad...standard mexican fare. (which is pretty good for outer sunset, i think.) it was sorta interesting that they served us each a mini-dish of salad...i've never really had that offered at a mexican place before. (altho salads are big in mexico, right? the caesar salad is from there if i recall correctly.) the chips weren't as great as chevy's, but it was still nice to munch on. overall, prices and food were ok for mexican in this location. i'd be willing to go back (or check out the other chain locations in berkeley or elsewhere...which i learned about later on.)

new eritrea - messy eating the ethiopian way

friday nite i had dinner with my dad and grubbed at new eritrea. eritrean and ethiopian cuisine. if you havn't had it before, you eat the different foods with your hands using a flat bread. the food wasn't too bad, but i think that the blue nile in berkeley was a lot better. this place is only open for dinner, too, which kinda sucks. i think there are a couple of other places similar to this but in the haight, that i need to try. (i think i need to make a list of places i need to try, before the summer is over.)

bistro e europe - home of the j*nyce gypsy jamboree

over a year ago, i was searching citysearch for new restaurants to go to. (yeah...i usually do research for my new city adventures.) i think i searched for places good for live music and groups. maybe i was also searching for comfort food, all things i really like in a restaurant. anyhoo...i came up stumbled across the listing for bistro e europe. it looked like a lot of fun and uncomparable experience in the bay area. it looked like a great place for parties, and i wanted to have my birthday dinner here, but alas...it was closed on mondays (and we went to Q instead). anyhoo, finally got a chance to go since i helped plan the j*nyce gypsy jamboree for his bday.

just like all of the reviews say, the owner/chef julia is extremely warm and friendly. she gives lots of people hugs. really nice to the birthday dude. it can't just be part of the hungarian/gypsy culture...she's that nice. she hugged me immediately upon seeing me (maybe cuz i had organized a party at her place).

the stuffed cabbage was good and the chicken wasn't too bad. i did expect some of the dishes to be more heavily spiced. an appetizer + an entree comes to about $20 (before tax). for that price we got to try different entrees and appetizers, since it was served family style. the fried bread was great. my table had cleaned up on our entrees pretty quickly quickly. i guess our family style portions were just ok (not monsterous like bucca di beppo), or maybe we had extremely hungry people at my table. julia came around and gave my table and another table a free huge second serving on the chicken entree with some of the mushrooms mixed in. that was really nice. (i guess she had a whole batch stewing in back.) when she came by and asked if we were still hungry, some of us didn't know what to say...since we were but we didn't want to pay for a whole second entree...but she gave it to us (and another table) for free. that was great...i think i'll be back one day to try some of the other options on the menu.

got to talking with a random lady at the table next to me. she told me how great this place is and how she stumbled across it. (she wanted to submit this place to some program on the food network, actually.) julia doesn't really do heavy promo'ing, but relies on word of mouth.

we really lucked out coming on a third saturday of the month. it was the one saturday (in addition to every friday) that they had live gypsy music. they were pretty entertaining and made for a really fun atmosphere. it was really great with the one guy (in the band) dancing and kicking his feet up in the air. i think bistro e europe makes for a prettty good date/party place (a lot of the reviews say that too), but i would make sure to go on a nite when they have live music. altho the prices might be a little on the high end, it makes for a really memorable experience and is worth it, when you consider everything all together.

oh yeah, really funny thing....while clearing the dishes, one of the waiters had dared tc to dance on the table! he even pulled out $10 licked it (i really don't know why) and stuck it on the table! tc didn't do it tho. i think the waiter even left the $10 on the table for a while! sorta odd.

for jc's bday cake, she gave him a flambe dessert. that was a really unique birthday candle for him to blow out. it was drenched in really strong alcohol...really potent when you taste it.

man...i really oughta go to europe and experience more places like this. someday soon. it would be really nice if i could pull that off before i turn 26 (cuz it would be cheaper).

galette - brittany crepes on fillmore

ro had told me a while back about this great crepe place on fillmore that i should go to with my grandma. i tried to go before for dessert crepes with a bud before, but it was just about to close. the place looked nice, so i knew that i had to go one day. after service today, i spontaneously ended up grabbing there lunch with cl. there was a small line, and the place was packed...but i think we only had to wait for 10 minutes or so. while seated, ended up seeing al from la up here. really random and unexpected. she was up here just for half a day for a work meeting (with rd - her lunch date). they ended up taking the square table for 2 right next to us, which was really nice to be able to talk to them.

[start reflections tangent on the lunch conversation]

the conversation pattern was really funny. first i had my conversation with cl, then al and rd joined us...turning it into a group conversation for a bit. then al and rd broke off into their own conversation (i didn't want to break it off first), causing cl and i to go into our conversation again...later to go back and forth a couple of times switching from group conversation to pairs conversation. so funny...we talked about what each of us are up to. rd's a pretty interesting guy (and a pretty sharp one in many different ways).

i got into a pretty good conversation with rv about church (since we had just come from there), the application of the sermon, and differences church and catholicism. i think i could understand his perceptions about the christian faith coming from a catholic background. he objected to some of the formalization and reliance on the organizational, and hierarchal aspect. i agree with that. i shared some of the insights and differences that people with a catholic background find when exploring christianity (at least the type at my church). foremost, a different focus on faith (my church emphasizes much more the personal relationship with god). secondarily how people are guided to live (by a mature understanding of faith to be the internal motivation, not boxed in externally by a strict set of rules and laws) sort of like not drawing the shape of a box and forcing people into it, but rather inspiring the idea of what a box looks like and feels like).

we had some other interesting conversations with rv about fashion and art. maybe we'll be in touch. he might check out scbc too. i passed him my info on a lumps card. hopefully he does. i know a lot of non-christians can get a lot out of pastor jeff's messages, because of his really pragmatic messages full of a lot of good stuff (they're not merely entertaining)...even for someone who might not have the same perspective of faith as me.

[end reflections tangent on the lunch conversation]

back to the foodie review. the portions were not super huge like crepevine, but more along the lines of ti couz...but it was still good. i had a smoked salmon crepe, which came with a small salad (as with all of the savory crepes). the spinich chicken crepe was pretty good too. these meal crepes were made out of buckwheat, which was interesting. i got an apple tart with ice cream...good stuff.

i think i'll definitely come back with my po po soon. i'm due to meet up with her for another meal.

(whew...that was a heck of a lot of new food discoveries. 5 in 5 days. i wonder what's up for tomorrow?)

separated at birth?

the star of better luck tomorrow, parry shen, looks so much like my bud, jf. altho jf is a bit taller, a little lighter, and has sorta different hair. (it wasn't just me who thought so!) maybe jf can be destined for stardom too. (btw, jf is full chinese, not hapa.)

finally...the reviews...

drink my pocari sweat

there were a bunch of sick and twisted shorts. overall it was a pretty enjoyable program. from what i read of the quest for length, it sounded a bit too extreme for my tastes. all about an asian male's quest into different treatments for his situation...ranging from an african witch doctor...to surgery. it got my groaning and covering my eyes at one point, but it was actually a pretty well-crafted story and pretty polished, imo. the toilet republic was my second fav. really awesome pixar type animation brining some public toilets to life. it really cracked me up. profiles in science about dr. albert chong's time-lapse photography experiments was really original and fresh. it felt a lot like an old-high school science video (the type you saw shown on the wonder years.) 100% human hair was pretty entertaining, since it was a musical. i thought that the grandfather guy was really funny. i didn't really care for pedro + tony? that was all about a gay animal couple - a rooster and a dog. all done claymation style. not my cup of tea. animation was ok tho.

better luck tomorrow

this was the opening flick for the film fest. jl hooked up the tip on the new 2nd screening, so we got a small crew to check it out. it was a teen psychological drama (maybe a bit like the virgin suicides...which ds absolutely hated).

synopsis:

At age 16, Ben Manibag (Parry Shen) is a normal kid on the fast track, making the basketball team (as a benchwarmer) and academic decathlon group, memorizing SAT words and prepping for Stanford. A bit self-deprecating, he's infatuated with cheerleader and lab partner Stephanie Vandergosh (Karin Anna Cheung), but she's already got a patronizing rich-kid boyfriend (John Cho). All the while, though, Ben is drawn into a shady, competitive world of valedictorians-gone-awry. It starts innocently enough with shoplifting and cheat sheets, but quickly escalates into guns, drugs and Las Vegas hotel gang bangs. He doesn't realize it, but his academic, criminal and romantic pursuits are all about to converge….

this was a pretty good movie. the asian-american characters were pretty 3 dimensionable and felt like real asian high school students. it didn't play up to the stereotypical media portrayals out there. it did a good job showing the pressure and drive that most asians feel to succeed and do well in school...like going to clubs in high school just to juice their college application. ao said that the scene felt a lot like her LA high school. i know that my lhs experience was different...but probably b/c it wasn't in suburbia.

go check out this movie when it's released nationally in the fall. it'll be distributed by mtv films, so it oughta be pretty big.

after the screening we took a picture with karin who had some random fellowship connections to a couple of my friends and myself. (i hope the pic turned out ok...i still don't have my digital camera back, so i used my ancient aps elph.) we also got autographed poster postcards by most of the cast and the director. pretty cool stuff. i got them to each sign a different one. (maybe one of em will make it big...who knows?)

betelnut beauty (ai ni ai wo)

synopsis:

Two rebellious youngsters deal with the harsh realities of life on the streets of Taipei in this tough but compassionate drama. Fei-Fei (Sinje) is a young woman chafing under the restrictive yoke of her mother's authority, and when she discovers her mother has been reading her diaries, she decides it's time to strike out on her own. Fei-Fei moves in with her best friend Yili (Kelly Kuo), whose boyfriend Tiger (Leon Dai) is the top man in a local street gang. Fei-Fei joins Yili in selling betelnuts on the street -- a pepper which in sufficient quantities produces a mild high not unlike marijuana. While hawking her wares, Fei-fei meets Feng (Chang Chen), who has just finished a hitch in the army and is looking for something to do with his life. Fei-Fei and Feng fall in love and move in together, but their lives quickly take divergent paths -- Feng makes friends with one of Tiger's underlings, Guang (Kao Ming-chun), and soon becomes a member of Taipei's criminal underground. Fei-Fei, on the other hand, is looking for something better than selling low-level drugs on the street, and tries to strike out in a new career in show business. Ai Ni Ai Wo (which literally translates as "Love You, Love Me," though the film's official English-language title is Betelnut Beauty) won an award for Lin Cheng-sheng as Best Director at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

i enjoyed this movie. i'm glad that i was able to catch the second screening of it, after missing the sat nite showing (but that all worked out since i got to see blt.) it had a good mix of enjoyable elements for me...an insight into an asian street youth culture, an interesting love story, a protagonist character i could identify with (a creative guy seeking out a new path in life, trying to get away a reality of working drudgery to follow his interests), and of course some guns and asian mob stuff. endings a little bit of a downer...but i guess i'm used to the some of the different asian/european/alternative narrative sensibilities. (a few friends weren't.) jt really loved the movie and said that if possible it would be in his movie collection. i didn't really think that the girl (fei fei) was too pretty at first, but i guess she grew on me a little as the movie went on.

the movie reminded me a little of chungking express, with a quirky, endearing girl and the wearing of wigs. (what? you havn't seen it? go rent it!) i'd like to get the dvd one day...i'd probably settle for a vcd for now, tho.

after seeing the movie, i'm now sorta interested in trying a betelnut (altho it's supposed to be pretty gross some say). however, i know if i were in taiwan...i wouldn't wanna support that shady industry behind the betelnut girls.

i was a little nervous that i would fall asleep in the movie, since i don't have a stellar track record of staying awake in foreign language movies, especially when i'm bordering on sleep deprived (from the nite before studying for the midterm...which i think i did ok in, btw). but i made it thru to the end wide-awake. :)

the sfiaaff experience

i really enjoyed it this year. i think i picked good ones to watch. it's fun seeing it with a group of friends. what was really cool was that the collection of buds were different for each nite...so i got to spend time catching up and hangin out with different people, some who i don't often get to see. as expected, i always ran into random people each nite at the kabuki. the first nite...the lhs crew that i hung out with at the senior prom, second nite saw another person from lhs, third nite ran into kl in the rush line and gl on the way up, both people i havn't seen for ages.

for some of my friends who have never been to the film fest before, it was a pretty interesting experience. sometimes the feel for the crowd is just like those at the asian parties or clubs. it's interesting to get into a dialgoue with some of the directors and cast after about the portrayals and intents in what they're trying to communicate about asian-americans thru the works.

wanted: adventurous, daring buddies

i just read about the go game in the sf chronicle. (i also found another write-up in the sf weekly.)

it's a crazy urban adventure which takes place in san francisco. supposed to really utilize exercize, logic, and hijinks. if you did the video scavenger hunt and or the photo safari which i helped to organize, this should be even bigger than that...

The Go Game is an all-out urban adventure game, a technology-fueled, reality-based experience that encourages hard play and a keen eye for the weird, the beautiful, or the faintly out-of-the-ordinary. The rule book is reality, the board is San Francisco, and the pieces are the players -- you and your team.

hmm...from what i've read...this could possibly top stuff that millbrae has done or make it look tame. this sounds pretty cool to me. it just started in dec of last year. the next available date to sign-up is sat, june 15. the one before that is all booked up. anyone up for a new experience? lemme know and i'll organize get a team registered...bet 3-6 people. (i guess i could do it by myself, too. i don't think that a lack of daring friends would hold me back.)

the friday five

1. What's your favorite animal?
i think cows are pretty funny animals. there's a lot of funny stuff connected to them and they look kinda funny too. i have a couple of stuffed cows. i got one at circus circus during a college reno trip. i named him clarence (sorta after a grand-uncle, but i just liked the sound of it). i have a cow sticker on my lumps nametag (from back when the SGs all had animal stickers). i also really liked milk when i was a kid.

2. What pets have you had in your lifetime?
none. i was a pet-deprived child.

3. Is there any specific pet that you've wanted but never had? Why?
not really

4. Are you allergic to any animals?
not that i know of

5. Do you have any 'pet' pet peeves (your pets or others')?
dogs barking at me thru garage doors right when i'm passing. it just happened last week around the corner from church. it kinda made me jump...i also don't like doggie doo on the bottom of shoes.

darn tricky french names

i'm having trouble remembering...
manet's le dejeuner sur l'herbe
manet's bar at the folies-bergere
burne-jones's king cophetua and the beggar maid

i'm hoping that blogging about them will help the long names (which i can't pronounce) to stick in my head.

google loves blogs

lots of fun so far at the san francisco international asian american film festival. review preview...

friday nite: drink my pocari sweat (the collection of sick and twisted funny shorts was great.) i definitely wouldn't have paid money to see the quest for length if it was a feature length film, but it was the best of the shorts...good storytelling, original, funny, and emotionally wrenching at times. some other good ones too. (i'll try and do a bigger review later.)

saturday nite: better luck tomorrow. a really great movie. jl hooked up the info that an additional screening was added of this opening nite movie. we quickly assembled a group of about a dozen lumps ppl in a few hours and got tix. pretty soon after we bought tix (right before pocari sweat), it sold out. good movie, with a couple of familiar faces on screen. the pretty lead girl i had met before at aacf ltc about 6 years ago. (it's funny how you can remember people from a week long camp years down the road.) the lead boy looks a lot like my bud jf. (i'll get a couple of pix together to prove it to the world.)

i'm going to see betelnut beauty wed nite (7pm). it looks like tix are still available. it sold out for the first showing. looks pretty good. i might be by the box office later today, so gimme a ring if you want me to check on tix for you.

wake up call

just got a dose of urgency this morning to get my act together for my art history midterm wed am. my study bud jc will definitely feel the same way when he gets back later. 50 works of art to memorize, which isn't too bad. take home essay questions too...now i'm really being snapped back into my college mode. hope i havn't lost the cramming capability. (i'll have to isolate myself in a cafe...or else a library if i want to do my memorization pacing practice again.)

flashing back to thur...

test drive

i helped out kl to go test drive a bmw, so that he could get the right interior shot for an assigned ad campaign. i drove a 325i, which was pretty nice. when we asked for a salesperson, the dealership called down the one chinese saleslady to talk to us. pretty soon after we met her, she said in chinese "special discount if you can speak chinese." of course, i had no idea what she was saying, but kl understood. she went along for the test drive with us, which was a bummer, cuz then we didn't feel that we could do the photo shoot. has anyone ever had experience test-driving a new car without a salesperson? if so, was it a bmw?

pub grub

before lumps i had a dinner reunion with some of my recent snow trip car ride group. we hung out in an irish pub on irving and 25th, called durty nelly's. i had tried to go here for lunch with m about a year ago, but i think we went on wednesday, the one day out of the week when it was closed! (i had originally read about this place as a good bargain bite in the sunset.) we weren't really sure going in, since we didn't see anyone eating. there were a bunch of people drinking there. we ended up being the only ones eating, and not drinking.

it was a pretty cool place. really different than anywhere else i've been to on irving street. it looked like they had some karaoke set-up. some slightly old 80s music was playing loudly. pretty cool. some more recent music now and then too. hearing bon jovi's it's my life really flashed me back. (i heard that song on tv all the time during my thailand missions trip.) the atmosphere of the place felt straight out of europe. (are you allowed to smoke in european bars? cuz they sure were inside of this one.)

food was ok. cheezy chips (here, chips are fries) weren't too bad. our cottage pies were sorta bland. no cheese and we added the house steak sauce (which helped). the fish and chips (fries again) were humungous. the owner had told us that it's their most popular dish. the other favorite is the steak...which is supposed to be really great (for only $10). maybe next time. i'd go back there again with these buds.

for those of you stuck with blogging-block, try doing the friday five:

1. What makes you homesick?
hmm...i think missing foods and music when i'm away in a foreign country. oh yeah...also if i can't really speak or understand the native language, i miss english!

2. Where is "home" for you? Is it where you are living now, or somewhere else (ie: Mom & Dad's house, particular state/city)?
home is here in the city...but i'm getting a little restless. been here for too long. also havn't really traveled the past year and a half.

3. What makes it home for you? People? Things?
mostly things, since i can still be in touch with people over long distances. also, i don't form emotional attachments to people. :P

4. Where is the furthest you've been from home, miles-wise?
beijing, china. summer 1998. right after i graduated, i traveled with 4 girls for a summer english teaching job. the second best decision in my life. i think it changed my life in terms of opening up my perspective on life, people, and the world. it was my first time away from home for more than 2 weeks! the first time i ever had to really do laundry away from home.

5. What are your plans for this weekend?
sfiaaff films (drink my pocari sweat, possibly rushing the art of woo beforehand, maybe seeing nabi), bday lunch for tl, church, and the rock. also i better be studying for my art history midterm coming up next week. i only got 4/40 on a non-credit quiz on wed!

not quite enough time

it seems like i've just been running short on time all around the past few weeks...pulled in a lot of different directions with family matters, tons and tons of chinese new year stuff, school apps, hanging out with out-of-towners, housework, the normal maintenance errands, and other stuff. i definitely havn't been getting enough sleep. i think different personal projects have been slipping a lot. (still don't have a new blog design or portfolio site. never got around to sending chinese new year cards to schmooze with my contacts.) you can tell that i've been really busy since my blogging's been kinda spotty.

i've definitely appreciated how some people have taken the attempts to catch up with me and see what's going on in my world. a couple people saying that they havn't seen me forever. a few encouraging me in my app deadlines. that was so appreciated. a few ask how i'm doing, and that's pretty cool. when i've been unable to share stuff on my blog, for whatever various reasons, i've usually left doors for people to go thru to find out more, with mini-mentions and encouragements to contact me.

i think it's sorta sad if people genuinely feel out of touch with me during whatever lapses in my blogging (since i've tried to be regular), and they don't try to contact me. (it's always nice to get those out of the blue calls or e-mails.) even much more disappointing to me if some people hear stuff second-hand (or third-hand) and have serious concerns about stuff, but do nothing to help the brother. but oh well...it's not a perfect world with perfect people.

now that my apps are done and everything else is wrapped up, trying to move on to the next phase of my life (for this year). pretty much to figure out whatever now til the end of summer will hold for me. if it's the right thing, maybe whatever oppotunity will go on to that. although february was fun and busy, i don't need to relive it too much, but rather need to march on with the rest of the year.

okay...this was my needed introspective, reflective rant. on with the new stuff!

java clock

very cool.

settling back into a new normal mode of things as my february busyness is over.

mini-reno recap

free trip on harrah's, bus ride to reno (super-cramped), steak and lobster (yum), new year's celebration (dress-up again), chinese food dinner (gross), "jerry" and sandra (hillarious), vain search for a walgreens (long walk), circus circus (black gorilla), games (balloon pop, kings, 21), food (so-so breakfast buffet), ride home (a long, yet fun 5 hours).

still more chinese food

i had to eat with the family at bamboo garden on clement. chinese vegitarian food. not quite my thing. even tho i need my veggies, i need something with a little more substance to balance out my meal.

again to chinatown

seems like i can't escape chinatown. having to meet there for the harrah's trip, then last nite having dinner with bw, pl, and sc. a good wrap up dinner to my vollunteer work with prime rib at jackson pavillion. good chatting with sc, and it was really good to hear his perspective on different things. dispite the usual controversial things, i have faith that everything was handled pretty fairly.

i'm probably gonna be checking out a few shows, but havn't decided what. anyone interested? anyone hear good things about any particular shows? i usually go see some of the cool asian american ones (done in english), the popular short programs, and an hk action movie. the SFIAAFF has always been a good time for me for the past three years. check out the festival website.

i'm considering these shows...
- drink my pocari sweat (fri nite),
- betelnut beauty (sat nite/wed nite)
- 24 hour fitless(sat nite),
- e-dreams (sun nite...it's about the rise and fall of kozmo.com).
- lolo's child (mon nite)

interested in checking any out? suggestions on shows? i should be on the lookout for you at some of the screenings? lemme know.