too cheap to call 411

when you're trying to find the exact location of a nite spot, and attempts to call friends to look up the information online have failed, the next best thing to do before giving up and calling information is to try to locate a phone booth. run up to it and look up the information in the yellowpages to find the exact address. if it's really dark out, get your face really close to the listing and use your cell phone for a light.

stinson beach

from last saturday...

at 10 pm at nite, four of us somehow spontaneously decided to go to a beach. i didn't want to go to ocean beach (cuz it's crummy) and wanted to go somewhere new. the driver didn't really care where. at first we were gonna go to half moon bay, but he got the idea to go to stinson. that was fine with me cuz i've never been there before. the road was pretty windy and it was a bit of a drive to marin. good thing no one got car sick.

the walk along the beach was so amazing. the view exhilirating. the cloudy sky covered up the starts but draped the moon light across the sky. holes in the cottony cloud covering allowed patches of light to penetrate thru to the water, creating a glistening horizon line. no one except of us was around. all was peaceful. practically as far as the eye can see was darkness covered nature - cliffs, beaches and water. a reflective, calming nite.

one really wished that we could have created a bonfire and roasted marshmellows. we saw two bonfires there. but i think it was actually better this time that we didn't. we just walked and walked along the dark stretches of sand observing and absorbing the night.

we hung out for a while on a life house, where i took pictures like this one here. it's now my pc wallpaper, which i'll put up to share with people soon. (for you in the digital camera club, i set my camera to a long timed exposure, positioned it on the mini-tripod i luckily left in my jacket pocket, and set the auto-timer to go off.) major bummer that my camera battery ran out. the night scene got even better. i really need to buy a second one.

i'll definitely come back here again. saw a sign for shakespeare at stinson. $13 fridays sound interesting to anyone?

Clue City Challenge Solved

Captured: Mr. X

congratulations to the detectives who found the nefarious mr. x. (a.k.a Jason X). a lot of lumps detectives were up to the challenge of rushing around the streets of san francisco, solving cryptic clues, performing random tasks to coerce information out of the henchmen (like make free throws or going three blocks away to buy donuts). everyone did a really great job. some were stumped. some were super sleuths. i, inspector greg, held down the clue city police station while 7 teams of 4-5 people each were out on the hunt for mr. X and his gang.

watch this space here. i'll try to post the collected clues and the found locations.

which Episode II character are you?



Probably the greatest Jedi Knight of all. Like Obi Wan, you are wise and keep your feet on the ground at all times. You will not be outsmarted by anyone. You are always faithful to your friends. Be careful though, danger lurks around every corner - you could even be betrayed by those closest to you.

Clue City Challenge Rap Sheet

I just received the following rap sheet on Mr. X's gang from the Millbrae precinct. Oh boy. We're going to need all the help we can get!
___________________________________________

Jue Manchichi

Profile: Wanted for escaping the New York penitentiary. Known for distributing hallucinogens such as White Out, paint thinner, and various types of fungi. Jue has been spotted at various cafés around the city. The authorities have not been able to locate Jue due to his ability to blend in with his surroundings.

Earl Blim

Profile: The Earl is wanted for recruiting the youth of San Francisco into his gang. He’s been known to recruit kids starting from the age of 4. The Earl’s place of residence is unknown, but it’s rumored to be in a place near the San Francisco airport.

Tablehead

Profile: Mr. X’s right-hand man. Tablehead got his name from an incident where he headbutted a table during a fight with Papa O’ Caca. It is rumored that he will be seeking P O’C in Thailand to seek his vengeance. Tablehead is an avid basketball player. He is really good at hitting the boards for rebounds.

Nguyen Cho

Profile: Half Vietnamese, half Korean, this deadly henchman is wanted for holding up various donut joints around the city. His trademark has been to spray paint his name onto the donut shops signs and yelling, ”Nguyen Cho rules!” Past the prime of his career, the aging, hair receding Nguyen has developed an addiction to the drink.

Papa O’ Caca

Profile: This henchman has committed many serious crimes in his home country of Mexico. P O’C has expanded Mr. X’s empire overseas. He has fled to various countries including countries in Europe, China, and has been rumored to be heading to Thailand. It has also been rumored that he has a meeting with Mr. X in San Francisco to discuss global operations.

Mr. X
Identity: Unknown
Profile: Wanted for masterminding an intercity crime ring. This slick dressing criminal has built an (criminal) empire greater than Colonel Sander’s KFC. Mr. X use to be known as Mr. R back in the day. He used to rate movies in the San Francisco Chronicle, thus a movie being known as an R-rated movie. Mr. R decided to convert to Islam shortly after, thus changing his name to Mr. X. After renouncing his faith, Mr. X decided to wreak havoc on his fellow
man.

___________________________________________

If any of you know anyone outside of Lumps who can help with the Clue City Challenge, we desperately need them! Co-workers, friends, classmates. Bring them along for the adventure and fun!

Please show up on time for the 7:35 pm briefing. Case files, maps and investigation documents will be presented for adventurous teams of detectives. We'll be assembling the search teams in groups of 4-5. Teams will be sent out by 8pm. I'm confident that many of you will be successful in locating Mr. X's gang. Once you locate Mr X's gang members, hidden somewhere in the city, you should find clues to find the nefarious Mr. X himself.

See you tonight.
Inspector Greg

still here

whoa, nellie. this has been one of my longest blogging breaks ever. i don't like blogging on my mac, and would rather do it from a pc. for now a pc's easier with the photo editing and the java buttons to auto-format some of the text in my posts.

i havn't gone anywhere. still in the country. just got word that i should know by friday or monday at the latest. hmm...do i rsvp for that wedding in two weeks? i think they'll still let me come. do i rsvp for the wedding in a month? decisions, decisions...

exciting stuff i've done that i'll catch up on probably in a day or two...
* unromantic full moon stroll with friends along stinson beach. fantastic pix to share.
* nite-spot hopping in the castro and the mission. i shouldn't bother drinking when i'm tired, just makes me more tired.
* hung out at isuzu for dinner. good hawaiian food. really weird group ratio that nite. 8:1. man, gotta do something about that. really great ukelele band. they played "drop baby drop" per my request. dc wouldn't get up and dance.
* visited grx. the legend of lumps is spreading down there. heh heh.
* back to alburqurque to say bye bye to ap.
* ate dinner with po po at ristorante milano's. fabulous place.
* ran around tonite planning or shooting for the Clue City Challenge tomorrow nite. should be a really exciting time.

pix on everything later!

picture pub pizza - speakeasy theater

at around 5pm on friday, i scrapped my friday nite plans to go to the hip hop class in order to go catch a screening of amelie at the parkway speakeasy theater in oakland. i've seen amelie way back in november, but it was worth watching again. particularly at the parkway theater.

i've heard of the parkway theater about 5 or 6 years ago when i was still at cal. it's a 'speakeasy theater'. there are supposedly no other restaurant/pub/moviehouses like this in ca. (foreigncinema is a totally different format.) it's very cool and comfortable. sit on couches (if they're available), eat real food like pizza or drink beer. (you gotta be 21+ to enter.)

if you want a good seat, i'd recommend going 30+ minutes earlier, not like we did...just making it with 10 minutes to spare. we had so-so seats, but it was still cool. the screen there is actually pretty big and decent. pizza's pretty good too.

going to the parkway is something i knew i had to do before potentially leaving the bay area. if you havn't been yet, go! (maybe i'll go with you if it's a good movie.)

sunset hike

for my lumps sg outing on thurs, ot led us in a hike around land's end to check out the sunset. really great views. wish we had made it up to painted cliff tho, but we ran out of time. shucks.

i'm amassing a pretty good collection of nice sf views. good stuff for wallpaper. if anyone wants a copy, lemme know.

the sub life - educating tomorrow's drivers

today i went to A high school and filled in for the driver's ed teacher. (i thought i was gonna be teaching english.)

the regular teach had planned for the class to make collage posters out of magazine tear-outs about safety driving habits. here are a few good ones. (like most of my posted pix, place cursor over image to see alt text captions.)

my next period i taught "peer helping." i never heard of a class like that before. the class was supposed to break into groups of three and assume the roles of peer counselor, problem person and observer. some groups started off like that, but ended up just playing and talking. oh well. i chatted with some of the kids about the sub life and school. they seem impressed by the schools i've been to and why i'm sub teaching if i went to cal. i met one girl who is a part-time cadet and plans to join the police academy when she finishes in a few years. pretty interesting.

A high school was the nicest of all of the district schools i've been to. reminds me a little of lowell. weather was nice today so i spent my lunch break outside reading. in the quad the students had some sort of version of "kidnapped" going on.

the friday five

1. What's the last vivid dream that you remember having?
i think i was on some sort of detective adventure. sort of like scooby doo.

2. Do you have any recurring dreams?
not anymore. but when i was young i would have dreams about losing my teeth. by eating an apple. eating something. getting knocked out. someone told me that it means something in chinese dream-lore. maybe something to do with my liver?

3. What's the scariest nightmare you've ever had?
i remember i used to have a "scary lady" dream often when i was young.

4. Have you ever written your dreams down or considered it? Why or why not?
yep. i figured that it would be a good source of creative story ideas. i rarely journal them on a regular basis.

5. Have you ever had a lucid dream? What did you do in it?
can't really remember the last time.

belated bdays

dinner #1

earlier this week i went down to left at alb in palo alto to celebrate sw's belated bday. not just her real birthday, but her recent spiritual birthday, too! so exciting. it was cool meeting a bunch of grx peeps. it felt sorta odd being one of the outsider new people at a huge large gathering, but that's ok. i like meeting new people and observing different groups. the gathering sure had a lot of guys. but that's what my group has been looking like lately.

lc goes to grx and was at the group too. he said that he was pretty amazed by how i've changed over the past 10 years, since he knew me as a super quiet high school kid at sunset. he's heard of my recent exploits (thailand and other out-of-the-box adventures), and said that it was a sharp contrast to what i was like 10 years ago.

my sister is one removed from a bunch of the people who were at the dinner, b/c of a cell group held at her place. it's been really funny how i hear little stories about me floating around and coming back to me. nothing bad. just funny. i know some people who i've never met have heard stories about me.

dinner #2

last friday i went to maya for mw's bday. i know mw from college, but we don't really hang out in a common circle. i got an e-mail from one of her friends (who i didn't know but had gotten my e-mail address) to come to dinner to celebrate her belated bday. now i realized that if i went, i probably wouldn't know a single other person than mw. and i know how large bday dinners go, you don't usually spend a lot of time with the birthday person. i knew that i could always try to celebrate with her on my own...but i think that would be kinda lame, to let a case of xenophobia to stop me from going. (especially when i had no other plans).

so i went to diinner. mw was actually pretty surprised to see me and that i was sticking around since i didn't know anyone. to my luck tho there were a couple of other people like that. there were also a couple of people that i knew too. i also met a few other pretty cool people and we talked about movies, work, life, traveling, etc. it was all good. i'm glad that i went. i did also get a chance to catch up with mw some too.

what would you do if you were in my shoes? if you got an invitation to a sit-down diner party where you only knew one person, woudl you go? i think if people were new to an area, they would go for sure. but what if you're already settled with in a place with a good sized community of friends? how open are you to meeting new people and to going to places by yourself?

stealthy sub sneaks

jing ding

signs to go? i dunno...

* on sunday when i was looking at our missions board in the hallway, i noticed dr. smith's prayer letter nothing that a new missions website had just launched out of singapore.

* one of the last speakers at perspectives noted pasadena and singapore and nearly the same breath.

* yesterday, while thinking about singapore and fishing through my bag for something, i randomly came across a phone calling card from months ago.

* while checking e-mail last nite for an update from my singaporean contact (who was breaking down how much living expenses for me), i also got a much belated reply from a friend (2 or 3 weeks late now), with some of the additional info i was looking for to figure out living expenses.

* yesterday while at the sf design school registration, i was in line to get my picture taken for a student id. when it came up to the line, it just so happens that the machine had just broken down and that there would be no more photo ids processed for the day.

all this makes me go hmmmmm...

my days are numbered

i'm procrastinating cramming for my 8am art history final to blog.

i registered for classes at the sf school i was considering (to keep the option open). it was a bad experience. i couldn't waive out of classes i hoped to. very few class options offered. i ended up signing up for a class that i don't really need, don't really want, just because there weren't any other possible classes opened to me. so frustrating, it's ridiculous. i really think this is the sign that i was looking for in debating between pasadena and sf.

i called my contacts in singapore. no offer yet, but things look positive that a one month creative work opportunity could materialize. (positive enough for me to share about it.) i should know within the next week. if all goes well, i'd leave the bay area before tn.

as i'm pursuing multiple directions and options, i'm still looking for how god opens and closes doors. i'm hopeful and trusting in him. i think i'll be content with however things turn out.

more on the sub life

my sis wrote this front page article for the merc:
laid-off workers head back to school as substitute teachers

the chinese sub

i'm a chinese language sub today at H high school. the regular teacher had left the video "red firecracker, green firecracker." it seemed like a good movie, with some funny parts. one slightly racy scene. i didn't bother to watch the whole movie since it was 2 hours long and the class was only 90 minutes. i was catching up reading the sfweekly's best of sf list. (i now have a brand new list of places i wanna go to.) showing the video again for the 2nd class. don't you want to be a sub?

star wars geekiness

it's fun being a star wars geek on opening nites. here's more pix and words...

i finally opened up my star wars dvd that i got for christmas for an in-line screening. i barely watched it tho. i was too busy taking pictures and keeping myself busy...

just like with episode I, i busted out skywalker style with my light sabre. there were a bunch of other people like me. (i wish i had gotten a picture of these two girls who were fighting.) jedimasterdan brought his darth maul and gui-gon sabres. ml joined in on the fun with us sparring in front of the theater. some random people kept taking our pictures. we were hoping to get on the news, but channel 3 passed us up. darn. it was sorta tricky having a three person sparring battle. we tried to go for super dork status and choreographed our moves for a nice public performance.

no, we were'nt the biggest star wars dorks in line. we were surpassed by some guys in costume. some were lame. this guy in the middle was cool. i wonder who he was supposed to be tho.

in one of my most spontaneous and embarassing moments, i got ml to sabre fight with me inside the theater. it's one thing to do it in front when you have all this room and some people are watching you, some people aren't. it's quite another thing to do it at right in front of the screen with 200-300 people looking on at you. i was really quite nervous as we were trying to figure out how to do it and exactly where.

we ended up going to opposite ends at the front of the screen. we both powered on our sabres and charged at each other towards the middle. we battled it out pretty well. soon the crowd was clapping and cheering for us. (everyone was bored and had nothing else to do.) that was a real rush. i finally killed ml. more clapping. lots of fun. i definitely don't regret it.

ds tried to take pictures, but it didn't come out as well as i hoped. so we resparred, this time in the middle aisle. not as much room, so we couldn't go at it as fast. it ended up being a little lame. some people booed us. (that might have been our group, i can't tell.) oh well...it was still great. i definitely don't regret going all out and being a star wars dork.

i also continued a long-standing star wars tradtition and started reading the lines out loud. got a couple of shut-ups. (thanks, dc.) i only read the first line outloud, "a long long time ago..." man, i bet if i were watching in sf, a lot more people would be into it. i had to loudly cheer a few times to get the crowd cheering. (i think when yoda came out.) it would have been more fun if there were more loud fans in the audience.

it was still fun tho watching it opening nite. all of the excitement made the hours pass by really quickly...it's the only way to really see a movie blockbuster. you become an observant and participant of current american culture and news, rather than a late-comer follower just trying to figure out what all the excitement and hype is all about.

i won't bother with too much of a review, since everyone else has. yoda cool. dialogue stiffled and bad. pacing slow. good movie, but not great. had some higher expectations. maybe i'll watch it again on a dlp screen at amc. maybe no sabre next time, but you can bet for sure that i'll be reading the lines out loud again.

the easy sub

special ed today was pretty much 3 or 4 sessions of study hall for these special-ed kids. these aren't mentally retarded kids. they're just normal kids with "learning disabilities" or stuck in a remdedial track. the whole day blurred together. there wasn't too much of a concrete lesson plan and the class periods were "directed study." they'll probably just remember as an average sub who didn't do too much. shucks. this school is kinda strange compared to lowell.

i ate the pre-packaged sweet and sour imperial chinese food from the a la carte school stand. it wasn't too gross.

another time around

i got a sub teaching assignment phone call waking me up again this am. i'm now doing special ed at C high school. it's basically just a remedial class, i think.

why Z 95.7 went away

i know many of you are wondering what happened to the Z. when i heard the new format, "the drive," i was thinking "what the heck?" i immediately deleted that preset.

you can read the story here... geneandjulie.com

it's pretty much a business decision for a low-matenence format which is programmed and run out of chicago. practically no djs, big contests, cool promotions and concerts. just dumb oldie music. boo hoo!

i had heard from fly girl e (there was a bday thing tonite for a friend at her place) that they had just come back from a vacation after Z went bust. also heard that diana steele is now filling in at Alice.

if you're missing out on your top 40 fill...e also told me that 92.7 is starting to play top 40s. sooner or later one of the other stations will move in to fill the bay area void. if you're missing out on pop, tune in to radio disney.

looks like i'll be having a lot of blogging breaks today. you may wanna go down and read in chrono order for this to read logically.

mr. wong, what are we doing today?

i'm still continuing my second day as a sub. i havn't gone anywhere in the past 20 minutes. english 2H. currently their studying a midsummer night's dream. (i've never read that...i've always claimed that my lowell english education was sub-par. it seems like i havn't read most great american literature.)

the assignment is to look at act III and see who can insult best, male or female? looking at how they insult each other says something about gender differences. then students will be reading a loud act III in assigned roles with props. maybe i'll learn something from them.

i enjoyed my time here working with the special-ed kids. it's these kids who really need help. many of them don't have anyone at home who can help them out. some of them need role models too. one teacher told me this and also that they really need younger teachers of color. this is definitely interesting temp work (which pays $120 for a school day, 8-3 or so), but that one day hasn't swayed me in terms of a career change yet.

during my free time prep period, they're making me cover for another class. a choral class. oh boy, this is going to be interesting. i don't really know how to sing beyond karaoke. this sub stuff is definitely giving me a lot of new experiences.

more to share on the star wars screening still...but first a catch-up on my current temp day job...

mr wong, can i go to the bathroom?

i'm blogging right now from a computer in rm 105 at H high school. this is my second day assignment as a sub here. this morning i taught esl english, but i didn't really do anything since they had independent reading/writing assignments, and my instructional aide dorothy helped me out with the coordination of the class. right now is the 15 min reading period before the start of my second class, english 2h. i can feel a huge difference from the esl class in the morning.

i got my first sub assignment call yesterday at 8am. it woke me up. i had slept at 4am b/c of the late nite star wars screening. i wasn't planning on getting up nearly that early, but thought it was worth taking the assignment since i havn't had one yet. i had a choice of two assinments: autoshop at one high school or special-ed at hillsdale. well, since i don't really know much about cars, and i would have an instructional aide for the smaller special ed class, it was an easy choice.

teaching was pretty easy. first history special-ed class tried to engage them in discussion about "resistance fighters." (the regular teach leaves teaching notes for the sub to follow.) of course i brought up star wars. the security guard guy who was helping me out talked about vietnam and guns a lot. just after the class i got a compliment from the aide and another teacher who observed, that i was one of the better subs. that was very nice to hear. supposedly a lot of the older retired people who sub don't really do anything or care...just see it as baby sitting. it does feel like that way sometimes. especially with all of these in class silent reading times. what's that all about? i never had that at lowell. it felt a little more like middle school to me.

later on that day i had two study halls and a small class with 4 people. piece of cake. i had plenty of opportunities to do my own thing and study for my art history final. of course whenever there was opportunity, i'd try to interact with the kids. maybe make half of an iota of a difference. i realize that i'm possibly the youngest sub that some of the kids have ever had. (or at least i look that way since i'm asian.)

today i'm doing english and have english honors for the rest of the day. they're taking away my free prep period so that i can help cover for another absent teacher. whoop...there's the bell...more later.

star wars nuts

thanks to ds, we caught a midnight showing of star wars at mercado wed nite. ee staked out the spot in line at 4pm. we had great positioning. i brought my powerbook with the episode 1 dvd, which caught some attention from people, including a japanese paper reporter/photographer.

a photo similiar to this might appear in some japanese paper. the photographer dude took a pic with his camera of us posed (but this is the shot from mine). he interviewed ds extensively about star wars and his fanaticism for the space saga.

check out a movie clip of the interview. (caution: 6 meg download.) ds may be famous in japan soon. maybe there'll be a lot of female japanese star wars fans wanting to meet him. hope he still remembers us little people here.

if any of you think that's nutso, believe me, i can top that...

finally got a decent comment system. yaccs is accepting new users. go hurry on up!

yet another clone story

spidey now has some real competition for the box office with the attack of the clones. star wars will probably be strong enough to beat the high flying spidey flick. i'm off to see it in a few hours at mercado. it's gonna be nuts. ds wanted me to bring lawn chairs. i think i'll bring my dvd and laptop to watch in line. when my battery juice runs out, i'll study my art history notes for my final and sabre-spar against my other wanna-be jedis in line. you bet i'll have some funny pix to share.

the gw rs adventure

i hung out with rs today for lunch and to run errands in chinatown. it seems like i havn't really hung out with him for half a year at least...or has it been a whole year? it was great to catch up on life, reminisce on our adventures in thailand (two and three years ago).

crossroads cafe

we were heading towards town's end for some lunch...but along the way we took notice of a really cool looking place, the crossroads cafe. very airy. lots of good lighting. a bookstore/cafe. not much of a breakfast menu, but good selection for a light lunch. wide selection of wines and teas. it's amazing how big this place is. lots of cozy seating. huge, sprawling patio and garden with outdoor seating, which we took advantage of to enjoy the beautiful day today. the cajun chicken sandwich came with a side salad.

while chatting about life, dy gave me a call and told me to look one o'clock. he was hanging out with fw inside (who lives right across the street). we got to chatting with them on our way out and talked about missions a bit.

i would most definitely drive across the city to hang out at this cafe. there's two hour parking in the neighborhood, too. i wonder if that's true on weekends. i'd enjoy just going there with a book or browsing their selection. it's surprising how much space this place has in soma sf, where space used to be a premium. it's at the bottom floor of an apartment complex. they could easily squeeze in another restaurant or something on their lot. i think this place might now tie the grove on chestnut as my favorite place to hang out in a cafe on a sunny day. lemme know if you wanna check it out, cuz i'll definitely be back.

mr. watchman

it turns out that rs and i both had to run errands, so we our lunch hang out extended even longer. i got my watch battery changed on the cheap at this place my dad recommended. he's been going there for the past 20 years. wong chong kee jewelry in chinatown. it's on pacific and mason, across from the gas station.

my dad would often bring my watch there to get fixed to change a battery ($4) or to replace one of those pins on my metal band ($1). some other shop would usually cost 2x as much. i had rs ask mr. wong chong kee to fix my watch, since i can't really speak chinese. (just in case so i won't get jipped.)

visiting dr brad

rs had to go to visit dr brad to pick up the mrs's contacts and to get his eyes checked out. the office was closed for lunch, so we hung out for an hour rambling about chinatown. it felt a lot like our days in thailand, adventurously and spontaneously exploring lopburi and bangkok. while the rest of the team would be pooped out, we'd be out and about venturing around.

we had a nice laugh remembering how a couple of um...life-experienced people, would be up very late praying for us, while we'd be out eating at the nite market or elsewhere. today we popped into random places like the chinese cultural center in the holiday inn (they don't really have an exhibit going on now, but there's some artwork up in the room across the way), the chinese historical society of america museum and learning center (looks very interesting...will be back another time to pay it a visit), and tofu land (a korean restaurant off grant). i also showed him my fav places in north beach, tommaso's and niebaum-coppola. we walked by the ping yuen center and rs told me about how they sell fireworks in the basement and some of the different gang territories in chinatown.

yep, we covered a lot of ground today and explored quite a bit. today was a good day.

- spider-man, which became the quickest movie to reach $200 million at the domestic box office over the weekend, also appears on track to be the fastest to $300 million. Brandon Gray of the box office mojo web site is projecting spider-man to reach $300 by may 25, its 23rd day of release. current record-holder star wars: episode I - the phantom menace earned $300 million in 28 days. titanic is currently second at 44 days. spider-man is now no. 28 on the all-time chart. (comicscontinuum)

i'm up early today to see if i got an e-mail from the other side of the world....nothing.

i'll have pictures to share tomorrow of the die-hard fans who are seeing star wars at the midnight showing tonite. time to dust off my light sabre.

going back

grub at jd's
met up with jy and jt to eat breakfast at jd's in castro valley. pretty good food. jt ate this monster special in the picture above.

small town rodeo parade

afterwards we hung out along castro valley blvd for the rodeo parade. i was expecting full on horses and cowboy stuff. well there were some horses....but mostly small town acts. it felt sorta like a kevin smith movie to me...

these jugglers were pretty bad and kept dropping things. it was a really tame start to the parade.

everyone had flags to wave. i left mine at home. fortunately they passed out some free ones. yay. i'm proud to be an american. (altho i heard that song a little too often at the parade.)

these people waved their flags up high and proud, waiting for the planes to come.

two poor boy scouts were earning their pooper scooper badge or something. it was actually one of the highlights of the show for me, seeing them pick up after the horses.

crazy roach guy. he looks like he oughta be in mystery men.

this kid was walking the parade route with his pop saluting everybody. cute. and odd.

this kid's day was made when he met a fake spidey. his costume was kinda lame.

i know i can't live in a small town like this. i would be so bored out of my mind. i was falling asleep in the middle of it...tho of course i was a little sleep deprived from the nite before. if i were free next sat, i'd go to the rodeo. wild cow milking!

cleaning up

if you're in my links list and you havn't update your page in the past 6 weeks, you've been delisted. you can get back on if you achieve active blogging status.

newness this weekend

- early morning grub at jd's
- small town rodeo parade in castro valley
- a homeless chat on life
- family fun

at dinner tonite, i learned that mariah carey had once sung happy birthday to my uncle k on his answering machine. he didn't know it was her, thought that it was one of his friends who was really talented and could hit a really high note, and then he erased it! doh! he found out later...he goes back with her brother before she was big. he's met her a few times too. (this was all way before glitter.)

- following its $114.8 million opening weekend, the film became the fastest to reach $200 million. spider-man - which is at $223.6 million -- reached the mark in 10 days, beating the record of 13 days held by star wars: episode I - the phantom menace.
- spider-man's second weekend was the fourth-biggest weekend ever.

mum's day gift

finally, i picked out a gift that my mom likes! (just gave her the gift from my sis and me right now.) we gave the the strictly ballroom dvd (i first learned of it from tw of generasian x) and the dance of a dream dvd (which i got rather than vcd, since wahine told me about the bonus material on there). although the ending for that latter movie is a little funky, they can watch the alternate endings too. my parents are really into the cheezy ballroom dance stuff. they really loved shall we dance.

whew

got word that my portfolio made it ok to my friend. was worried that she didn't get it in time to take it with her. still looking into a possible summer opportunity. i don't know what my chances are...but it's the only (possibly open) door that i see for now.

- kirstin dunst will be on SNL tonite.
- spider-man may reach $200 mil on sunday. 10 days after it's release. i better hurry up and see the movie again to help it along!

filipino food

my dad and i had dinner and felt like making a filipino food run. we drove out to san bruno where it was closed. gave my a call and learned of a place in daly city. drove by there. no one was inside eating, so we passed. we finally drove around some more and went to this small whole in the wall and got food to go. some of it was a litle cold. no fried chicken. not on the menu. shucks.

RIP Z 95.7

the Z is gone. it's now some oldie lite rock listening junk. accoding to lk, they had a board meeting or something monday and it came out of the blue to switch formats. lame. now i have one less station to listen to. i don't get my fulll fill of pop on Wild 94.9. i'll have to compensate by switching back and forth between Wild, Alice 97.3, and Radio Disney AM. (i listened to it for the first time a couple of weeks ago after seeing a bus ad.)

i guess i'll just have to move to get good radio. hmmm...

Kathy talks to me

my new computer's name "voice" name is Kathy. she talks to me whenever i get an IM message. she'll say your screen name and read what you messaged me. weird.

- spider-man remains on pace to become the fastest movie to $200 million, feat it should pull of by sunday, its 10th day of release. it's already surpassed phantom-meanace's pace.
- check out some spider-man movie mistakes.

no friday five available today, and i've been scattered all about with new stuff (altho i am learning how to use a powerbook and osX now). so here's something else...

another me list

What's on your desktop: a twin peaks view of the sunrise on easter sunday
What book are you reading right now: psalms and packer's knowing god
What's on your mouse pad: i usually use a tablet
Favorite board game: scotland yard
Favorite magazine: hmm...i guess it's wizard, since it's the only one i have a sub to.
Favorite smells: the ocean
Least favorite smells: rotten durian
Worst feeling in the world: anxiety
Favorite sounds: the ocean
First thing you think of when you wake up in the morning: shoot, i'm late! (this week)
How many rings before you answer the phone: a couple rings for my cell phone.
Favorite color: metallic blue
Favorite food: itallian. mamma mia!
Chocolate or vanilla: vanilla bean!
Worst disaster you fear: death of loved ones
Storms, cool or scary: cool.
If you could meet someone dead or alive, who would it be: Jesus
Favorite drink: vanilla cream soda...mmmmmm!
Favorite vegetable: potatos
If you could have any job, what would it be: travel
Hair, long or short: short
Is the glass half-empty or half-full: half-full (but looking even fuller)
Do you type with your fingers over the right keys: but of course
Favorite movie: hmm...currently out...spider-man.
What's under your bed: trillions of dust mites
Favorite number: 13
Favorite sport to watch: football now and then
PC or Mac: pc (at this moment) but i got my first mac yesterday!
What's on your nightstand: more dustmites
In case of fire, what will you remember to take with you: my new powerbook
What/who do you admire: happy successful, creative, passionate people
Favorite places: the beach, asia
Do you say your prayers: yes...quiet times every morning before i let myself get on the net
Minutes you spend in the shower: 5-10
What's your best asset: creativity
Jewelry you wear: none
Coke or Pepsi: coke. i want to try that vanilla coke thing i've been hearing about
What did you have for breakfast: frosted flakes (it has spider-man on the box)
Favorite time of the year: summer
If you were a cartoon character, who would you be: one particular slinging super-hero

still up

trying to put together a mini-book (portfolio). nothing like the silence of night (and an approaching deadline) to get me going. sometimes it's like my body lives in another time zone. hopefully that could be true.

foreign cinema

"If memories could be canned, would they also have expiry dates? If so, I hope they last for centuries."

last nite i went to foreign cinema with a small group of buds. i enjoyed hangin out with some ppl i havn't hung out with in a while. it was a lot of fun eating dinner outdoors, sharing desserts, and catching chungking express projected on the wall. dinner was ok...but i think next time maybe i'd go to luna park for dinner and then get dessert & movie at foreign cinema.

the set-up is pretty cool and different. we ate outdoors at a table under heatlaps, with speakers (drive-in style), and in good view of the movie projected up above. i think chungking express is the perfect movie to see in a setting like this, cuz it's a lot of fun to watch. different little things to talk about, like planned coincidences and repetition.

some of my buds who weren't too familar with the film commented on how pathetic the guys are over the broken relationships. i think this would be the movie for guys to watch if they're trying to get over someone. i think it'd show guys what they don't wanna turn into - too obsessive and hung up. if you havn't watched this movie, go rent it already! (i saw it for the first time in 98 in beijing. it was really great to watch before i went to hk. my traveling buddy et made us go to all of the places shown in the movie.)

life introspection

been doing a lot of thinking about the choices and opportunities in front of me. some close down while others suddenly bud on the horizon. it's hard making decisions because there are so many directions that i can go in with different end goals. some are comfortable. some are risky...advice and influences come from all around me. friends. teachers. perspectives. i sometimes wish that my options were more clear cut, but i know that i'm blessed to have different avenues open to me.

it's so easy for me to accept a given institutional track laid out before me. completely buy-in to what's prescribed for me to do. meeting up with my creative friend rv has been really good. hopefully the opportunity will work out to learn more from her some more. she offers glimpses of another path and a different perspective. helps me to gain a better insight into my situation.

i think i figured out the one thing i really need now for my growth. it's not another education degree in another field. it's not simply a job. it's not money. the one thing i really need is a little more abstract...momentum. i know that i can't get that momentum all on my own. i need forces around me pushing me towards acceleration. it will be immersion in new environments. changes from my norm to push and stimulate me.

after more of my research, it's become clearer to me that i can handle the job, once i get my toolbox completed. once the training wheels come off, i'll be ok riding. i think it'll be me deciding when i'm ready, not when i hit the end of the practice course. considering past experiences, i think i can fly again before reaching the end of the take-off runway. (i gotta talk in absractions since it's a theoretical thing that i'm after. that and i just saw chungkinhg express with all of its double entendres and metaphors for life.)

so i'm finally starting to embrace the idea of flight. it could happen in three weeks or three months. who knows? i'm still keeping all options open for the next two months, so i'm flex.

(more to come on expiry dates and pineapples.)

kristin kreuk chat

read up on smallville's lana. she had a body double in the nicodemus episode.

gregwongdotcom is back

the gw.com hiccup is over. i'm now switched over to gandi. now i can build this site for real! working on the logo and layout pages now.

people actually read this

yay. i discovered that people are actually leaving comments for me on my blog. my kid cousin k just told me he posted, so i went looking and found a bunch.

keep on posting. i'll be integrating and updating the comments more on my blog soon (hopefully).

gregwongdotcom for keeps

i finally successfully transferred and renewed my domain on gandi. $10 or 11 a year. best legit deal you can get i think. cheap, easy to use, good legal protection, and no hidden penalties to transfer if i want to switch it. two of my buds just used it to buy their domains, too. cyber-savvy commiechink has been using gandi for a while. if you don't set-up your own dns, it'll just be a redirect tho. i'll need to do some work on the domain this week. sigh...more stuff to do. let me know if you notice any bumps in the transition.

i discovered gandi two years ago back on domainnamebuyersguide, but that guide has disappeared. too bad. it was a great resource. for your reference, here's the cached google info with the review on gandi.

a couple of my friends use namesecure. it got a pretty good review on the buyersguide, but there's a fee if you want to break the contract and transfer to another registrar. their yearly prices are reduced now to about $15 a year.

i've been using gandi for lumpsofclaydotcom for the past year and a half. no major hitches. go get a domain today! or else transfer your domain ownership for a cheaper price! (if you're a newbie, a big added plus is having your own personal domain e-mail addresses. if you like to pop your mail, it can help provide an out from the constricting policies of yahoo.)

the sony spider

back to blogging

i'll try to keep it up, but the posts might be minimal again. this next couple of weeks will be insanely busy (if i don't slack). among other things, i'm looking into the good possibility of doing some short-term agency work in singapore. i gotta get my online portfolio together and also figure out cost of living and pay over there.

does anyone have friends there who can give me some advice? tell me asap!

i'm gonna have to live my next two weeks as if they could be my last two weeks before going away for the entire summer. tie up a lot of loose end projects. you never know...need to keep my options open.

the web-head movie review

friday afternoon i saw the movie i've been waiting most of my waking life for. spider-man. overall it was good movie translation of my favorite super-hero (since i was 4 or 5). the movie was pretty faithful to the characterizations with some reasonable adaptations to the origins and situations. i didn't mind the organic webshooters. it logically worked. (i could list every single difference from the comics for you, but i know you can find that somewhere on the web, so i won't bother unless someone asks.)

a bunch of us caught a 4pm matinee at amc. i think it would have been much more exciting seeing it at nite with more die-hard fans. i didn't hear as much cheering as i expected. i think i cheered a couple of times when no one else did. sort of like with the matrix, star wars, and batman, i was expecting some really loud cheering when the hero appears on screen for the first time. but no one cheered. maybe it's b/c we saw peter parker's evolution into the hero, not the hero fully born all of a sudden into the story. maybe people will cheer for the second movie.

i was expecting some big dramatic hero shot or freeze on spider-man in full red and blue costume (so that i and other people would cheer), but that doesn't exist in his costumed introduction, or else i just totally missed it.

at parts the movie was definitely funny. i wish spidey would have had more playful banter, as reflective in the comics, but he wasn't so much the wise-cracking web-head that i know. i read somewhere that it may be because spidey wasn't immediately like that in the early days.

moviewise and storywise, it's good, but not great. i think the plot fell a little flat in some paces. the first half was really great with the origin story and adapatation. there's a lot of drama and connecting to the audience. the great thing about spider-man is that he (peter parker) is a normal guy that we can identify with. as a kid he was shy, picked upon, had overbearing family figures, and had a huge host of teenage angst and problems. that was definitely central to the whole story, which was the way to go.

the movie did feel like a comic book come to life. (i think it didn't necessarily need some of the cheezy montages, but i guess they're not too bad.) i really liked how spidey moved and appeared on camera. that was pretty awesome.

if you wanna read some good behind the scenes stuff into the movie, read comics continuum.

one bummer was that the film quality for our screening was flawed. there was this horizontal green line in the beginning on the screen. it disappeared for a while, then came back later. i also think that the sound could have been louder. amc ended up giving everyone free movie passes to watch another movie. i definitely plan on using it to watch spider-man again. if you wanna go, lemme know! next time i'll be going at night when there aren't any darn kiddies around to talk during the movie!!

my experiences with open dance week here in sf. when a lot of free workshops and classes are offered to the public, promoting dance.

hip hop with micaya

last monday i went to the jon sims center for a free hip hop class taught by micaya, one of the most well-known hip hop dance instructors in the bay area. i've heard of her from several people. she's the teacher of k who teaches at 24 hour. it was a pretty good time. she was really good in instructing us and telling us how we should move. one of these days i think i'll check out one of her intermediate classes.

googly arms, googly arms!

on sat i went to another free hip hop workshop, this one taught at dance mission. now this class was something else...here's the description...

Hip hop, yeah, you know what it is. It's that flashy, funky, oh-so-sharp dancin' that goes so well with today's music. This class for beginners and shy people of all sizes will get you out there and moving in no time. All sizes and genders welcome.

the thing about all sizes was right. when i opened the door i wasn't sure if i had the right class. about 90% women. 20% of them were really big, including the instructor. like shallow hal big. the female instructor had armpit hair. i havn't seen that for a while. when we got there (late), we immediately got involved with big steppin. it was all about stepping with attitude. the instrustor had some of her usual girls, three big girls demonstrate. they did it with a lot of attitude, which was a good model for the class.

this teacher's technique was much different than the other classes i've been to. she broke it down a lot slower and had funny ways of describing what we had to do. "googly arms" was sort of like moving our arm side-to-side like an octopus while moving our legs sideways. sorta funky. finally at the end it all came together into some choreographed sequence.

well, it still was sorta fun...but this class definitely wasn't for me. i think this class was for super beginners and all types of people who need practice in moving. (i think this hip hop stuff is good for everyone. it'll definitely help you move better and give you better posture and body awareness. the music's cool, too.)

i already reviewed dance of a dream. here are the other movies i saw at the sfiffs.

millenium mambo
a beautifully shot film by that taiwanese director, hhh. same cinematographer as in the mood for love. about a taiwanese girl (hsu chi) and her relationship with some dj dude. too bad it was kinda hard to follow the story and it was a bit slow. betelnut beauty was better story-wise.

princess blade
a really great japanese futuristic martial arts action movie. feelings of matrixy, in terms of a band of outlaw warriors traveling around all dressed in black. but here they are expert swordsman. really amazing action and swordplay. as intense as the best jedi light saber battles. this was a really great movie, but i fell asleep in the middle during some of the relationship development. (it was 1am at that point and i had a long day! i better stay awake for the midnight screening for star wars.)

man 'o man...have i been slacking with the updates! here we go....

the conclusion to jaybongee

famous taiwanese dumplings
we finally met up with bp on sat and had brunch at din tai fung in arcadia. it's a well known taiwanese dumpling place. i think it's the only one in la. jet li supposedly comes here since he has a house in arcadia, but there was no sign of him. darn the heck. the food was good tho.

beach-side blading in sunny santa monica
fun in the sun. always wanted to go blading along the la beach. we met up with ds and skated along santa monica. didn't go all the way to venice. had to make it back in time to fight traffic. i was the only one who didn't fall, but maybe it's cuz i didn't push myself too far out of my blading comfort zone. i was content with just going along, enjoying the scenic views of the sun and the sun. ahh...the la life.

way cool newsong worship
sunday we went to newsong in irvine for church. it was a pretty cool experience. pretty good worship. very well organized young-adult based church. it had the best use of multimedia and design that i've ever seen in a church, in terms of presentation and informational materials. met up with tw (generasian x) there. (he actually just posted some pix from our lunch at the fake sam woo.)

we met up with cw at newsong who came out to lunch with us too. she gave us a ride again, when our driver friend had left us to our own devices. mulling around after church, we met a bunch of different people. friends of friends of friends. one girl just kept bringing up people to introduce to us. that was kinda cool. i think they were from her sg or something. i enjoy meeting new people (if i have enough time to get to know them, time enough to make an impression and remember their names).

cl met up with us for lunch. i enjoy catching up with her and hearing the inside scoop about art center, a lot of stuff which deflates some of the hype of it for me. we had some random connections going on at the table. cl had a high school dance connection to tw. cw sat at the same wedding table as tw's friend r. during lunch we had shared different stories of three different girls named michelle. really random stuff. it's crazy. i shared about the other gw out there.

i think it would be so much fun to be in la and to establish a lot of new connections, or meet friends of friends. (just popping up on my radar is a potential chance to work in singapore this summer. dunno the likelihood for that, but man that'd be awesome if it does turn out. more on that later...i need to do a lot of research into living in singapore this week.)

tapicoa express
we went to this boba place called tapioca express. it's a popular chain down in la. (i didn't realize that millbrae's bro's davis place is a tapioca express also.) i liked it cuz the drinks were cheap, the boba was decent, and the atmosphere was inviting. there were chairs and tables to kick it at. sf needs a good place like that. a cheap, decent place to relax and drink boba.

big-time black bear grubbing
on the drive home from la, we decided to get dinner around gillroy. i opted for us to get something random and different. (no in-n-out or mickey d's would cut it for me. why pass up the chance to discover a new grub spot?) at first we headed towards one big bold sign which said rotten robbie's. as we approached it turned out to be a gas station. shucks. across the way i spotted a black bear diner. sounded interesting, so we went there. it also seemed to have people inside, a good sign.

well we got inside, and this place was a real find! rustic charm. lots of bear motif things going on all over the place in the furntiure and in the drapes. the wait staff was incredibly curteous and friendly. lots of locals waiting to eat. and then there's the food...huge, hearty portions. imagine cheesecake factory sized plates with old-fashioned american food which is inexpensive. man, this place is an absolute must to go to anytime i'm in gilroy or passing by that way. for abour $9, i got a 3/4 chicken fried steak, hash browns, three eggs, and two monster sized biscuits. even the salads and desserts are big. it turns out that this isn't just a local eating spot, but part of a small chain. a bunch of locations in northern northern ca, oregon, and even in las vegas! closest ones are in sonoma and gilroy.

definitely try this place out! (for you skeptics out there, see how venturing to try something new can pay off? i've asked around, and i havn't met a single person who's been to this place before, but i know a lot of people will now.)

one more chan clan!

congrats to jc x 2! i'm happy for you guys. :)
i figured the news would come one of these days.

(wowzers...two announcements. within nearly a week...wonder when the next one's coming...and on the beach too?)

the LA jaybongee journey

i'm finally finding some down time to catch up on recent explorations during the LA jaybongee journey.

(if you havn't seen the photojam, click on the link now!)

madres - j.lo's new restaurant

after sleeping in for a bit at jy's place (we had arrived at her place at 4am), we decided to go grab some lunch. we lucked out and learned about this new restaurant from cw. we were gonna go for dinner, figured out that wouldn't work, so dropped in for lunch. it just so happened that this was the very first day that it was open to the public! we lucked out. dinner was booked solid for the next week. ah the joys of having the daytime free.

the restaurant, madres, is a nice cuban restaurant. j-lo does own the restuant but doesnt feel at all like a celebrity restaurant. it's in a normal hood too, in southlake in pasadena. it seemed like a nice normal ethinc resaurant, very well designed. the only slightly funny thing i noticed was that at one point, r. kelly's bump and grind was played while we were eating lunch. sorta weird music. later they switched to some latin stuff.

food was good. moderate prices. i think entrees (with beans/rice/etc) ranged betweed $10-20. food was delicious. atmosphere was nice and pleasant. really good eating adventure.

LACMA - an egyptian tomb meets the american garage
checked out the los angeles county museum of art. pretty cool. we only got to see two of the floors. one pretty cool. this central meridian exhibit was a really cool immersive environmental installation. recreated an american garage from the 50s with thematic similiarites to an egyptian tomb.

art center grad show - the real reason why we went down

jc and i made it to art center to check out the senior show. we had no where to put our bags, so jc stashed em on top of a locker. if we didn't dump them, we would have definitely knocked over some of the work out on display. a lot of the stuff was pretty inspiring. i took a ton of shots of the work, for the few of you who would be interested in checking it out.

we were really lucky that cw was willing to come out to art center to pick us up. we had no ride otherwise. she drove out and took us to dinner with her friends. (they were the ones who originally were gonna go to madres.) it turns out we were sorta crashing their all girls dinner, but they were all cool with us coming along. i think.

we ate at this restaurant right across the way from the derby (that was the place in swingers). vida is "part tribute to Eastern philosophy and minimalism and part hipster hangout." it was a pretty cool. dinner was about twice as much as lunch, but that's ok. food was good and it was fun meeting new people.

afterwards we went to hang out on the sunset strip to see some of the nightlife. no one else wanted to come (it seems that everyone said that they were sick or something), so cw took us on her own. we walked about a good 2 miles walking up and down the famous strip where cruising is illegal. we walked into miyagi's, the famous japanese place where girls get up and dance on the tables. it was a really packed club/restaurant. we just walked around tho. we also ventured into one really cool hotel/restaurant/hang-out...

the standard

we saw a bunch of people waiting to get into this place called the standard. no cover and it looked interesting, so why not? we didn't know anything about the place, but it looked sorta intriguing. the standard is one of the coolest places i've ever been to. everything well-designed. everything had a retro-mod flavor...interestingly, they had a pretty asian girl sitting in a glass vitrine (box). dressed in white. and sitting there reading a book. it was live art. jc tried to take a picture but got shut down by some guy. if only my camera wasn't out of batteries...another really cool thing about this hotel hang-out was that they had an outdoor pool lounge area. you can just sit on the chairs, have a drink if you wanted, or enjoy the view (which was really nice). i think it would be ok hanging out here if you didn't want to order anything either. if i'm in the area at nite with friends, i think i'd definitely go back there again.

well those were the newness highlights from our friday in la. interestingly enough we didn't see our third travel buddy all day (she was the car), but we still managed to get around pretty well. (i think we still owe those friends of mine big time.)

more on the rest of the trip soon.okay i'm beat now...

foreign cinema

i've never been here, but it's one thing i gotta do if i'm even potentially leaving the bay area. (no, i still don't know if i am.) this favorite movie of mine is playing at this cool theater/restaurant in the mission. anyone wanna go?

island food

ever in the mood for hawaiian? the day after the ukelele festival i took a jaunt over to hawaiian drive-inn in daly city with jc for some grub. if you havn't explored the selection of hawaiian food here in the city, you're missing out. here's a simple list of most of the places here in the city and another list with some descriptions of the bay area hawaiian food spots. (thanks wahine.)

i think i'll try to go to roy's in the next couple of weeks with my po po.