the few places i know to eat around my area

glad to see the comments from la peeps. your input's helping me to complete my list of places to check out.

here's the list of places that my neighbor nicole gave me. any suggestions or additions?

mexican
* taco truck [fair oask, south of del mar, east side] - 8pm-2am. i'm sure i'll hit this place a few times since it's open late.
* el cholo [fair oaks, south of del mar]
* senior fish [1) south pas - mission st. 2) main.]

dim sum
* empress pavillion [chinatown]
* sea star [alhambra - main/atlantic by target]
* nbc [monterey park - garvey]

chinese on valley st.
* abc cafe
* regents
* ok cafe - went there last thur. it was ok. sorta inconsistant with portions!
* phoenix
* lee's garden
* yung ho [valley/walnut]
* 99 ranch [valley & new / del mar]
* hawaiian supermarket [east of del mar] -good for porridge
* happy family - shanghai

random
* zankou [colorado/hill] - been to the one in glendale already. randomly found it on my own. it looked different and interesting. i got lucky.
* thai barbeque [glendale]
* pho 79 [garfield/main] - tony (dshih's friend) took me there a month ago! good stuff.
* sam woo - i wonder if it's the same as 5 years ago. are there better locations?
* macaroni grill [monrovia] - yep, it's a chain...but i haven't been there yet.
* versailles [venice] - cuban food. i've heard sooo many people rave about this place. gotta go.
* saladang [fair oaks] - jen introduced the place to me a month ago. i'd definitely go back. almost went last nite.
* sushi mac - [15030 ventura blvd #21, sherman oaks] far but supposedly really cheap and good

since coming down i've already been to noodle world, sunny cafe, king taco, din tai fung, au - tea zone [arcadia on baldwin], savoy (for the famous hainan chicken), clearman's village (huntington/rosemead), bella italia (same intersection) and the hat.

anywhere else good out there?

kabuki

yesterday had dinner with erica and ting at kabuki, right by my place. the regular sushi rolls are always half off...so it wasn't too expensive. the day before i had gotten a ton of food recommendations from my neighbor, and she said that this place was good. it won best japanese in pasadena for several years, up until the year 2000. i wonder what's the best place in the past few years.

lumps LA

seems like we're going thru the same sorta thing searching for a new church and community having all been transplanted over the past few months. even people who've been down here for a while seem to be still on the search. i think this saturday we'll have our first lumps la gathering, which should be swell. even if its just lunch or dinner...to get us together. i see that it could very easily be a loose, casual group for encouragement, support, and community...which would meet a lot of personal needs for us. something helpful as we're on the search for new church communities and making a transition. it wouldn't necessarily be trying to recreate what we had before...no way. but something on another level. since some of us shared community together before, there's no reason we should let those bonds wither away b/c we're in a different place. no way it would work on a weekly basis...esp with driving distances...but more like on a super cas' monthly thing.

if anything...i think it'd help me be more efficient with my time. i can meet up with all these people quick and easy maybe just once a month...than different people on separate occasions. heh heh.

i think it could also be sorta nice for the peeps who periodically visit to easily see everyone (including those that they might not call up on their own). also for the people who will be following the la transition.

been seeking for god to stretch my vision and imagination down here. not only to grow in my AC creative career...but how to really live and grow in other ways in this new environment that i'm in. we'll see what happens. not really planning on diving too deep into anything yet (besides school).

maggiano's and more

last nite met up with tina and elaine who were originally three and four degrees removed from me when i met em over a year ago. drove down to cerritos, which wasn't as far as i thought. ate at maggiano's at southcoast. really great italian. huge proportions. if we had a few more people we coulda done family style. i think it's a so-cal chain. i think i like it better than bucca. i wonder where there's one closer to me. the food was so filling. we tried a spinich and avocado dip to start off. i had the chicken and spinich manicotti, which was pretty good.

afterwards we met up with more people at some ygap social thing...one of those young asian professional groups...not really my crowd. a little older. but it was still sorta interesting. went to the shark club. too bad we didn't see any real sharks there. supposedly they have em. club was just ok. it was probably good for being OC...not LA. i don't think i'll have the time to hang out a lot down there...especially once stuff ramps up more and more.

half the time at the club i was thinking about the work that i could be doing at home. i think sometimes i looked bored, but it was cool. my first time out in la.

ebcla

made it out to ebcla today for church. was last there a year ago. erica met up at my house and we carpooled over. the service was good. similiar to scbc...but no pastor j there. i wonder what he spoke on today. i'm finding myself comparing every message (style/format/content) to how he speaks. man...i wish that they put his messages back online. i think i need to order tapes of his messages when i come home for the holidays.

the message was about giving and investing in the kingdom. good messsage and very applicable. there was someone who shared a testimony during the service about fully bank rolling a church the past month to reach out the immigrant chinese. really powerful testimony, directly speaking to everyone about how we need to view wealth and have faith in god to provide. ebcla will be doing some really interesting things throughout the whole church to invest materially in the kingdom around us. reminds me and challenges me in viewing posessions.

sunday cafe

went to lunch afterwards to sunday cafe in monterey park on garvey. food was cheap and good. great lunch specials. it was really interesting being the only guy in a group of 6. reversed of what i'm used to at home. kinda odd.

it seems that at hk cafes down here, you can get nai cha (milk tea) with your meals. i don't think it's that popular at the hk cafes up north. odd.

older / younger

at home i used to hang out with a lot of people my exact age. i think about 1/2 of my friends were born the same year as me. i guess cuz we're all dragons...but i haven't met too many new ones down here. here it seems that i'm meeting people a few years younger or one-three years older. but the age difference doesn't matter that much now compared to before.

down here people often guess that i'm younger than i am. i think when they hear that i'm going to AC, they assume that i'm 3-5 years younger. that's why when i'm in introductory coversation...i give a little too much info than what they ask for on purpose. i subtlely tell them that i'm going to AC for my second degree, having finished cal some years ago, and having worked for a few years.

maybe i should start wearing my glasses when i meet people. a pair of specs and a cal alumni shirt.

lots to catch up on...something new every day!

thur: citylight

we're lucky enough to not have any fri or sat classes this term. (smart and lucky scheduling). so thursdays we can relax a little bit after the end of a hectic week. we can find a little time to hang out, to do some housekeeping, and possibly fellowship.

thur was the start of a brand-new young adult group at ebcsgv called citylight. it's supposed to be for young adults. i was looking forward to checking out a fellowship group that who knows...could possibly be for me in la what lumps was to me in sf - a place of growth, community, and service. coming down here i wasn't expecting to find a group like that, but it would be really nice if i did find one.

i learned about it in the bulletin when i visited the church a couple of weeks ago and jl a friend who i knew from college who i saw that sunday told me about it. i told a bunch of other friends about it who also came - ting (who brought her friend mike), and pat (who brought gerald).

[i think sometimes i'll use first names if i randomly refer to groups of people i just met or haven't referenced before...or whose last names i don't know! maybe it'll also help me find more friend of friend connections.]

anyhoo...before going to the group, we went to eat dinner at this hk cafe on valley called ok cafe in san gabriel. we met up with pat, gerald (who everyone seems to know), and their bud brian. we all had combos with sea bass, which was extremely inconsistant. i had this dinky piece while j got this huge thick piece. the food was ok for ~$8. i would think that the hk cafes would be cheaper tho.

so we then went on to citylight, held at their church offices. we got lost a couple of times, so we showed up about 30 min late, during the icebreaker. it wasn't a very exciting group game. pretty much you work in teams and try to find hidden book names in a creatively written passage. worship was stylistically ok...kinda low-key...but it was also great in terms of being able to gather together with others in the middle of the week to worship. something i miss.

the night was low-key and simple. the pastor j shared about his heart and vision for the group. he's only a few years older than me i think. i liked what he had to share.

dynamics of the group seemed somewhat peculiar and slightly different. i was kinda expecting but not used to a wider age range...mostly middle 20s - 30s...with a few into their 40s. gender balance seemed like what i was used to at home. one thing that struck me was that there were about 4 women and one guy on core...pretty much opposite of the balance of the group and the worship leaders. kinda puzzling. one of those was a bud from college, ac who i had heard was down there...and i think that she had heard from another friend that i was coming down. it was nice catching up with her...and learning more about the history of the group from her.

it seems that the end different incarnations of the young adult group every three years. the recent one, praxis, had ended several months ago. i guess many of em get married or something...or move on. then they start a new one. i wonder how well that strategy works out. perhaps you can attract new people willing to vest in something new, but you also lose a lot of momentum, structure and leaders, each time. not clear if it's something they purposely do every time...ending a fellowship group...to start a new one. i think i'd like to ask the head guy about that.

i'm really not sure if i'll stick around. the dynamics of the group seemed a little foreign...but i'll probably check it out a couple more times. check out what the studies, teaching and community is like. i'd hope that it works out for me, since thur nites are so ideal for me to have a nite off.

i've been chatting with different people about the nature of churches and fellowship groups down here. it'll be interesting to explore and to see how god leads. i'll definitely be seeking out where i might be called to be invest in and to draw encouragement and strength from. if it's at all possible for me to find time to be involved in something, i probably would still need the first few months now to figure out how school and work fill up my time.

afterwards we made our first real trip to the supermarket (von's) and did some big housecleaning. it was getting kinda bad...but understandable as we get consumed mid week with projects and work.

fri: alfred hitchcock festival

so my roommate left me alone for the weekend...i found a few people to hang out with. i met up wtih pat for lunch at king taco. it was just ok. nothing like mexican in the mission. if you're reading this in sf and you haven't eaten much there...man you're really missing out on great stuff. e-mail me and i'll tell you where to go. nothing like being away from home to begin to appreciate it more. pat came by and fixed our router. all he did was push a button! geez louise.

the weather's getting colder...like sf. today was the first day that i got a chance to use my jacket. finally! i like wearing my grey jacket.

i recruited some to check out the free outdoor film festival at one colorado. pat and i ate at a place called ciao pasadena which wasn't too bad. we then met up with may (friend of friend) and carline (may's friend). it turns out that they recognized pat from a church connection and this roommate (who really seems to know everyone).

the movie, the man who knew too much, was good. very suspenseful. hitchcock is good. unfortunately i fell asleep for a little in the middle. not much sleep the nite before. but i still enjoyed the movie. the ending was a little funny. somewhat of a mystery.

afterwards we went to boba world, where may and carline ran into an old church friend eric. i got to chatting with him and will probably be in touch, probably visiting his church at some point. i talked to his friend, who it turns out was roommates at ucr with a high school classmate of mine, who i hung out once with last year with rw. she's church hopping too, and i'll probably see her around when i hop around to ebcla soon. oh yeah, may is also checking out that church now too. it's really so funny how many people i'm meeting that are looking for a new church.

it seems like i'm meeting on average a new person every day (that i may have some future or continued contact with). mostly a lot of friends of friends...and then their friends. and a couple of those people are church hopping. i wonder how long it can keep up.

sat: garage sale and ranch 99

i checked out tq's garage sale today. didn't find anything. but did have a nice chat about random stuff about the chinese debutante experience, a random connection, and AC. learning more about scholarships. i really hope that i get one this term. she gave me a tour of her old house. the set-up was really interesting and kinda twisty. i don't think that the ceiling heights were legal.

wandered on my own to ranch 99 in arcadia. got a ceramic bowl to use for mixing paint. i need to finish that project tomorrow.

tonite i'm off to cerritos and then irvine. seeing a friend (who i met a year ago in sf...as a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend). then going to a friend of that friend's party or something. not really sure what it is. i hope i don't get too lost. i really don't like driving on unfamiliar freeways at night by myself!

another long day

* woke up around 7 for my 8:00 class. (slept around 3 or 4 or so finishing stuff up.)
* survived class til 1.
* the school had a voluntary evacuation b/c of the smoke from the fire blazing in west covina (since sunday). my car was covered with ash flecks. smoke was around and getting to people. we saw the fire over the hills last nite when we were at home depot in monrovia.
* drove home.
* we went to clearman's village (huntington/rosemead) for a cheap burger lunch.
* drove home.
* got a phone call, continuing to work out part-time work.
* drove to old town to go to archetype press for a class field trip.
* drove home.
* took a nap.
* woke up and drove across pas to go to school. had to finish my flash homework.
* finally got about done at 9:30. i missed meeting up to watch smallville. was about to go and meet up to catch the last bit, but then i remember that the outdoor student pavillion had a tv. i found the tv. i sat in the dark watching the last 30 min.
* drove home. randomly took a new route, and discovered the nice local route home. trying to take as many variations on my home-school commute asap.
* picked up jc and drove to teazone in arcadia for a cheap dinner. good stuff.
* drove back home now. still relaxing a bit before settling in for another couple of hours of work tomorrow. hope i don't fall asleep too early.

s30 update

my camera's being fixed. their still waiting for a part. hopefully i can get it before the end of the week.

vegas trip

we got back last nite from the vegas field trip. i'm sure that two day trip will be one of my best experiences ever at AC...and i've only been there for two weeks! this one teach ts puts on this trip every term. i'm not in his class (jc is)...but it's cool for other students to tag along. AC subsidizes the trip with transpo and admission costs. we just pay $30 to stay at the hotel for one nite and our own food and personal costs. this was a really great time. too bad i didn't have my camera to document it! i felt so naked...esp with about 2/3 of the 40-some people group running around with their own cameras! everyone was taking pix like crazy. sigh...jc had his digital camera tho...so he shot photos.

we left friday am at 9:30. everyone piled onto this huge, new bus. there was a cd player...so we popped in the changer jho's mod rock mix. it didn't really go over well with people on the bus. man...what's wrong with them? the bus ride was fun. everyone had a lot of energy. the school also provided some water and "root beer" for the ride. we were totally hooked up!

our first design stop on our tour was at this place in hesperia (in the desert) called cal-earth. it was an artistic architectual commune with houses and huts built entirely from earthen materials. it was an amazing technology creating shelters which protected extremely well from the conditions. one major application of the technology is that these houses can be constructed as emergency shelters in third world or war torn countries...all they would need are the bags to build with and a training video. very cool stuff. it was also really hot out there in the desert.

we stopped in barstow for food. went to some random burger joint, that wasn't a nationwide chain you see everywhere else.

when we finally got to vegas, we stopped off at the san remo where we were staying. a decent hotel just off the strip by the mgm. i was thinking that we were gonna stay at some motel 6, but we didn't.

guggenheim vegas

this exhibit at the guggenheim vegas was incredible. i'm not that into trans design...but i could still appreciate the beauty in the design and evolution of the motorcycle over the years. it featured every single model which was noteworthy or had a big social impact on society. the motorcycle's been featured in countless movies. there was a really cool video panel integration with this frank gehrey designed installation. very nice dramatic spaces and reflective surfaces.

the security guards there were very uptight. they caught one friend of mine taking stealth shots. hee hee. i would probably be doing that if i had my camera. they made one guy who was drawing sketches with a pen stop. instead the security guard palled out one of those mini library wooden pencils for him to draw with.

the hermitage museum was just ok. the history of painting. not a big wow for me after the louve and d'orsay in paris.

up and down the strip

we went window shopping around caesar's palace and the venitian. ate at the bellagio buffet. it was soo good...but i ate too much and felt it very quickly later on. eck. walked to the hard rock. further than we thought. shoulda taken a cab. it was a hoppin place, just as i had recently read. too bad the palms was kinda far. that was supposed to be good to go to also, specially since it's a newer casino...and they want people to spread by word of mouth that they won xxx$$ at new casino. i didn't really gamble this time. i probably spent like $2 or something on slots. after hard rock went to the house of blues at mandalay bay. got into their club for free. just hung out there for a little bit then took off. not really my scene. really pooped when i got back to the hotel (which we walked to from mandalay).

in the morning, we went to ny ny to find some food. ate at a small to go italian place. huge vegetable lasagna with garlic bread. mmm. then we met up with everyone...and after what seemed like another hour and a half waiting around, we took off.

hoover dam - one of the seven civil engineered wonders of the world

visiting the dam, about an hour south east of vegas, was particularly meaningful to me because of one transformers season one episode, when the decepticons hijack the dam to make energon cubes. i wanted to call some friends while i was there to ask them what they remembered from the episode, but we had no cell phone coverage. ds and pob, do you remember what happened exactly?

it was gigantic. one tour guide was really helpful and informative on the history of the dam. back in the day the heat was up to 140 degrees...with the hot concrete and the desert sun. workers had to be on the job pretty much every day of the year (except for thanksgiving and christmas. two guys went to the funerals of their parents and they were fired for missing work. there were about 1700 workers on record for the dam, but it was really like 1400. some guys had registered under multiple names, so that when they were fired for missing a day, they then told the overseer what new name they could be rehired on. this dam paid for itself in electricity revenue in 50 years. it worked do well, that the us gov never did a project like that again. ha.

some really nice views at the dam. too bad i didn't have my digital camera to record it. sigh...

this was a really great trip. bus was cool. on the way back we saw enemy of the state, the beginning of speed 2, til they took it out and put it the first half of erin brokovich. we didn't get back to AC til about 10pm. good thing my plans to meet up with friends were pushed off til next weekend. was gonna check out a beach luau put on by oikas, but we had to miss that. oh well. it was worth it going on the vegas trip.

another thursday nite group

we went to check out the AC christian fellowship. it wasn't too bad. we knew tq and n8 already...both leaders of the group. it was small and low key...like 15 people. went from 7:15 - 9 or so. some of em are young! the two worship leaders were both 19! jc and i weren't the oldest elders of the group tho. one dude was a year older than us. it was great meeting students who i share a bond of faith with. also shared about different backgrounds and current situations. it's somewhat refreshing to be able to dialogue like that on another level with classmates, in a way that you wouldn't do so in the classroom.

missed out on lumps tonite. wish i coulda been there to hear sl share. i wore my brand new lumps shirt to represent still tho. spent some time last nite and early today transfering a 27 meg quicktime slideshow to peeps in sf so that they can watch it. i can't find a place to put it online, but you can check out the retreat pix right here on shutterfly.

field trip

looks like i'm gonna try to go on a school field trip tomorrow with jc to vegas! school sponsored. just $30 for lodging (and of course pay for food). hope it works out to go. too bad i don't have my camera tho.

AC week 2

it's almost over. it's been a long short week. my school week is over at 1:00 tomorrow after my form and letterform class. yay. i just finished my assignment for it about 20 min ago. our big term project that we're working towards is to create a stamp and a t-shirt of a 2-3 word phrase (~14 letters) that we design type-wise. what words would you wear? i decided to go with the phrase..."great oogly moogly." i think it's quirky, funny cool...and gadzooks is too short to use. hee hee. i'm wonder what color i should make the t-shirt. not pink.

last nite was the first nite that i slept in my fully assembled bed...since i got the boxspring on friday. i was at retreat the past weekend. sun nite i crashed out on the couch trying to do my reading for mon. the next nite i fell asleep on the floor under my desk (i just laid down on the carpet) while trying to work on stuff for my comm design class today. it felt so good to crawl into my real bed for a few hours this morning.

to work or not to work?

everyone tells me to not get a job this first term, but it looks like a friend of a friend (or course) might have a good lead for me that i can't pass up. we'll see tomorrow afternoon. pay would just be ok but it would be about twice what i could make doing work study. we'll see how it all turns out.

hot dog!

our dsl is up and running! time to cancel the dial-up. now i can finish uploading the last of my paris pix and about 170 pix from the lumps retreat! if i can figure out how to login to my server again, maybe i'll upload the retreat slide show file.

too bad i left my webcam at home. phooey.

to the bay and back

on the go this past weekend. left here on friday to go to sf. caught a ride at 9:30 from alan to make it to the lumps reteat. it was a good weekend...things are already changing since we left two weeks ago. exciting stuff. i wasn't really too excited about going to the retreat until the ride up to sf. so much has been going on...only then did it really take precedence in my mindscape.

well...i guess it did hit me a few days earlier...since i felt the pressure to get the lumps t-shirts done in time for retreat. it defintely was a blessing how it all came together. i had the concept down a few weeks ago...but didn't finish executing it. on tuesday this week...i finally dropped an e-mail to one la t-shirt vendor (who does zoe wear), to see if they could help us out with printing and to look into the off chance that they'd be able to get our shirts done in 3 days. well the guy told me that they could deliver if i got them the specs on the product sizes to order within a couple of hours...that same day. so i made a few calls and got that to happen...ordering 77 shirts.

that nite i worked on finishing the shirt design....up til the wee wee hours of the morning. slept a few hours...then finished it up.e-mailed it to him around noon time on wed. it all checked out. the shirts were printed the next day on thursday, and we picked them up from my contact on friday on our way up to sf . whew. i really need to stop working up to wire for deadlines.

the shirts turned out well. i don't think i would have really changed anything. i'll post a picture later.

retreat 2002

it was nice to be back. good to see all the familiar faces. i really don't know when i'll see everyone again. thanksgiving? christmas? who knows.

i missed out on the fun icebreakers friday nite. we had cabin time. my boys and i kept going til 1:30 am...when we finally decided to crash. i had a terrible nightmare that night. i dreamt that i was holding my s30 camera and that someone violently knocked it out of my hands, making it fall to the ground. i woke up yelling (a little). i woke up ww and jl at 7:30 am. who needs an alarm clock? one of them had thought that i had fallen out of bed, but that obviously wasn't the case since i was still in my bed. kinda funny. kinda not.

i used ap's same s30 camera for the weekend...and now have about 170 photos. i was a tad nervous about dropping it or letting anyone else drop it. but that never happened. whew. i'll put a 12 meg quicktime movie slide show up soon. (i can't get it any smaller...sorry.)

it was great fellowshipping with peeps. i got into a handful of good conversations with peeps. esp sat nite around the fireplace. replayed compatibility against millbrae and kc . ds and i weren't able to beat them.

i enjoyed eh's messages. presented well. there wasn't really much new information presented to me. i had studied the book of ruth before. i did like that we went thru the comprehensive story over the entire weekend.

i wonder how differently lumps will look by the time that i come back. the anual retreat is always a catalyst for group growth. i bet the numbers for lumps will be in the high 70s regularly over the next few weeks, with the momentum from retreat (and timing of the year). the group shall be changing...but that's the only way that lumps should be anyways.

meeting some AC peeps who have time for fellowship, and being immersed again in my fellowship family, makes me wonder what kind of fellowship i'll be finding down here. i have fridays off so that should help a little.

ok that's it for now. time for more work. pix hopefully when we get dsl this week.

the end of week 1

made it thru the first week of AC. just 13 more to go! if i want to finish with a degree...111 more weeks to go (not counting the 3-4 weeks of breaks in between each term).

yay. i just checked my schedule online. i successfully changed two of my classes. here's what i'm currently enrolled in...

* intro to modernism (shouldn't be too hard)
* history of letterforms & type (this is a 3 hour lecture right after lunch. darkness. slides. i hope i can stay awake.)
* design I (i switched into a class with a really killer teacher...this is probably going to be the biggest time suck for me this next term.)
* communication design (with ry, another really killer teacher, who "owns" us now.

i got waived out of digital design, english, and comm sketch. i still need to pick up another class. wed nite i crashed motion and sound. this is pre-req further down the area. today i crashed a 3d computer animation class, a survey of maya. most ppl there were 4th - 7th terms in illustration. they were probably wondering who the heck this new kid is (even tho i'm older than almost everyone except for the teacher). i know a design education is more than programs, but i think think that i need to continually gain new computer skils.

speaking of computer stuff...there's a fat deal to get new powerbooks at the susant store. for $2499 you can get an 800 mhz dvd with a 40 gig hard drive! such a great deal. jc just told me tonite that he heard that a year from now...that AC will require all students to have a powerbook. students can get them top of the line to rent to own for $50 a year. it would include all the software needed. i think that will help prevent piracy. makes me sorta wish i waited...but i got a lot of good use out of it.

more and more friends of friends

tonite we met up with e who happened to be in the area thru the end of this week. e got my number earlier this week from tl, who i talked to on the phone on sunday. about a year ago, i met e and her pal tl via the friends of friends network. the connection was my bud rw. his ex was good friends with e, and he had to show e around while she was up visiting. e brought her pal tl along too. i ended up meeting up with rw and then met them. that was the last time i was in touch with e until this week. i'm glad that it worked out to meet up, and now we have another friend to hang out with.

tonite we ended up at noodle world at old town. after we're sitting there a while...who should show up, but n8 and tq, who were coming from the AC christian fellowship. (we missed the chance to check it out b/c of a big art store sale.) it was pretty funny...when n8 asked how we knew e and she said the friend of a friend thing. (n8 was a friend of tq who was a friend of th who knew my friend wm.) ha ha.

busy busy

this first week has been keeping me pretty busy. not much time for aim. (i think i'll delete the shortcut from my desktop soon...to cut down the temptation.) very little time to return some long distance phone calls.

i now know how it can conceivabley be hard to return a phonecall within 24 hours. especially if you don't wanna overuse your peak minutes during the day on your cell.

i got the bulk of my supplies tonite. i owe ls (an AC friend of a friend) big time. she saved me a lot of money loaning me a lot of her old supplies. afterwards we went to the swain's to take advantage of the fat AC student sale.

we're off tomorrow...but we've got so much to do before our trip north. 7-11am wait for my box spring delivery. 8am, one of our party guests comes by for her lost sunglasse. our place is deteriorating to a sty.we need to clean up the place so that it's clean for gl on friday.

tomorrow we also have to stop by the printer and get the lumps t-shirts which i just e-mailed out this morning!

i want to really cut my hair now...before going up to retreat. (yep, we're taking off tomorrow to make a run to sf and then to happy valley in santa cruz. we head back here on sunday after that.)

isolated

was consumed most of the day and missed out on most of the 9-11 retrospections in the media. it's sorta weird. we don't really have a tv. no newspaper. i caught up a little online. heard fragments on the radio during the 15 min commute to AC. one class instructor talked about it and offered to give us a chance to share our personal thoughts (which no one did). it's hard to believe that it all happened just a year ago.

pretty busy today. got a few hours of sleep and completed a personal design project. just made the deadline. it looks like everything will work out in time.

my first class was the infamous comm design class with ry. a well-known teacher. it could potentially be one of the best classes that i'll ever take.

some of the gems that he shared/scared the class with today...

* after you face the demon (him/AC), you get you.
* the workers work... the heroes are the workers. like grains of sand on the beach.
* watch out for karaoke graphics.
* a teacher that gives answers is boring. (he gives questions.)
* nothing (in life experience) is wasted. (sorta in contradiction to a message i heard on friday from a seminary dude...who talked about wasting years of one's life with the wrong decision...something i totally disagree with.
* illustrators are highly intuitive.
* he's looking for mistakes, quirks, looking for you to come out of the karaoke stuff.
* over the weeks, the work grows geometically. if we miss one session it's like missing a semester.
* being safe = being half dead. without risks you don't feel alive.

my favorite comments for the day from him...
* this school, there's no football team...you're alone.
* you better get a mirror and say hello.

i'm not scared. i'm looking forward to the work...as long as it's not meaningless work and it's something i can learn from. with my advertising experience and my various school experiences, i have a sense for what he's looking for. wonder how i'll survive next week's crit in spite of those insights.

i've been impressed with each of my teachers so far. they're all pretty good. it's going to be a long, busy semester.

home alone

it's sorta weird. home all alone tonite. i haven't had a night like this for a really long time. i could find people to hang out with...but still have a lot to do. write cards. finish a few overdue projects. catch up on reading.

maybe i'll try one of those chicken bakes we got from costco. now that we got our microwave on sunday.

no boob tube to watch. no antenna and no cable. of course we have plenty of movies...and there's always the wherehouse about a block away. i heard that they have $1 dvd one-nite rentals.

no use going over to jy's place to watch tv. smallville season premiere isn't for a few more weeks. we were siked out about it last week.

too much ice cream here. healthy choice mint chocolate chip. two tubs of organic soy delicious mint chocolate chip. breyers cookies and cream. we don't really have spoons. i just used a chinese soup spoon to eat a little of the breyers coffee.

back to school

my school schedule's coming together. no school on fridays or saturdays. (but no way am i going to be playing much on the weekends.) too bad i don't have lumps to go to on thursdays. (hmmm.) the AC christian fellowship is kicking off on thursdays. i'll probably check it out. too bad the kick-off meeting conflicts with a huge nearby art store special AC student sale. i won't have to get too much, i think. ls is hooking me up with her stuff big time.

first week's not too bad. i have a couple of assignments. reading. finding examples of good/bad design across different catagories. need to figure out which additional class i'd wanna add. better call a couple of people and ask em for advice.

i'm so thankful that i have a few (younger) upper term student friends to give me tips. i feel that i really have the inside track from them. i wonder if and when i'll have some new friends in my 1st term class. got a few numbers and e-mails. it's not that hard to exchange contact info. but i'm not really looking to hang out too much. like my new design I teacher puts it...short term goals (like hanging out, like having dinner with friends, etc) come and go but what really sticks longer are the long term goals. at least in an environment at AC.

i could have taken another design teacher...which would be a lot easier on my schedule and a whole lot cheaper on the wallet...but everyone i talked to highly recommended this other one. even tho he's tough. his class will probably be the hardest on my schedule. but i'm looking for my standards in craft and execution to be raised and challenged. i don't think i really care too much about grades...i just want to be raised to the next level.

from the various conversations with everyone at school...it definitely feels to me that this is the right place for me to be. already with some freedom to take different classes 1st term, i like it a whole lot better than that other school that i registered with previously.

i know i'm going to be challenged. we've already been warned that we may have been the artistic or design hotshots at home, in school, whereever...but now we're in a pool where everyone was that before. no longer the big fish in the small pond. now swimming in an ocean. but i feel that i'll do well...not necessarily b/c of any talent...but b/c i know what to expect, with various school and work experiences under my belt already.

i think that AC would definitely be a really scary place to be if i were 18 or even 21. one upper term girl told me about how she regularly cried under her bed trying to adjust here. i think even last term! i know that it'll be a rough road ahead...but i think that i'll enjoy the riding out the bumps.

it's really different for me, to now try to primarily focus and develop a new set of passions. sorta leaving behind one set and aiming towards another.

okay...enough relaxing! time to work.

second day

we got here early at 7:30 to get carpool passes. now we can park in the reserved spots when we come together.

i'm working out my schedule to be more compatible with jc and to also get better teachers. looks like i'm able to switch design I teachers. yay.

5 more minutes left in my break. i'm in the library. we just got a 30 min break from the 8am - 1pm class. longer break than normal since we had to get some photocopying done. there might be 24 or so people in the class.

i wonder what i'm going to do for dinner tonite, since i'm on my own. we ate most of the potluck pad party leftovers already. we have a lot of ice cream which i don't eat. of the 5 or 6 tubs, i only eat the coffee one.

first day

sitting here in the library now with jc waiting for class to start. i'm trying to crash another intro to modernism class at 9. i'm looking to drop my 2-8 class today, but i think that i'll go to it for the first time for the heck of it. it's going to be a long day. in fact every single day looks like it will start around 8 or 9ish and go til 7ish...just until i get add and drop all of my classes.

i don't really feel nervous. i'm sure that since i'm experienced having finished school a while back, worked for a while, and have gone thru a portfolio school for a little while and also a lot of AC at night classes in sf, that it'll be a smooth transition. i'm sure that i could easily be at the top of my classes most of the time here starting out. i just need to stay awake. it's a big adjustment having a lot of class hours...and also having an early morning schedule now. first class today is 9-1. then later 2-7.

i'm now 3 years older than the average incoming age for my class. (but there are still some people older than me.) my roommate is my age too. having him around definitely makes this whole transition a lot easier.

we came here early to get carpool stickers. the forms are out. frick. hope we get them at 1.

hey they have scanners to use here for free in the library! cool. this orange iMac (they're all orange) also has an external zip drive attached.

i haven't figured out how to check my AC e-mail yet.

hope we get our dsl today.

we both packed lunches from our leftovers. forget the cafeteria food. we both have those meal dish partioned tupperwares sitting in our lockers holding kfc, some fruit/spinich salad, macaroni salad and potato salad. i better be drinking coke or something at lunch. all of that food might put me out.

i think you'll probably be seeing more and more posts in the morning, since we wanna get here early before class. today's commute took 13 minutes, with some heavy morning traffic on the freeway.

i don't feel super excited or anything right now. i know that this week will be very long. i'm not looking forward to going the hassles and lines of trying to crash classes. i'm trying to rework over half of my schedule, since i got the dealio on teachers.

the computer clock says time for class! my watch is slow. better fix that.

pad party

lots of fun tonite. i think over 30 people stopped by. we really packed out our living room. some peeps found random connections. it's fun being able to be hospitable with your place and helping to foster community. it was a really great thing to do right before school started. we don't have to go grocery shopping this week, since we scored all of the leftover food!

put up a poster for people to sign-in at our party. asked them to drop us a note, their contact info and also any random connections we have with them. n8 drew a very funny illustration on the poster. i don't think he intended it to be interpretted that way. you'll just have to visit us to see it. hee hee. i really should have borrowed my sister's sticky pic camera to take mini photos with people and stick em on the poster. oh well. i can just print out mini pix with my digital camera...whenever it gets fixed.

i took pix with most people. one bummer was that one guy dropped my camera and now it won't work. at all. jc remarked that it's sorta like me losing an arm. sorta sad but i didn't let it ruin the nite. i know i was preoccupied a while after that. sigh....i think that it can get it fixed. i was supposed to check with the manufacturer anyways, b/c it was already malfunctioning. if all's the same as last time, i will be sans camera for 4 weeks. sigh...

got some great furniture from one married couple friends. i'm now totally hooked up with the gaps in my furnishings...a desk chair, a night stand, a book shelf...and a couple of other things. yay!

got lots of good advice from my AC friends about classes. right now i have classes just mon - thur, and it looks like it'll stay that way. i'm going to try to do the switcheroo on three of my six classes, to try to upgrade to better teachers. i think it'll be easier to carpool with jc that way too.

we need to get to school tomorrow around 8. we hope that we score carpool sticker passes. must sleep now.

the whirlwind week

again...i'm tired. been doing so much trying to get set-up. we went to ikea for the third time today. this time got the black/grey eneryda coffee table. man...wish we had time to set it up while jho's power screwdriver was here. it was greatly missed when it came time to attach the caster wheels to the table. he and pob took off after dinner to head back up.

too bad that they're missing out on our pad party tomorrow. i invited the handful of close ppl that we knew in la, visiting bay area ppl originally from so-cal, old college friends to get reacquainted with, and a lot of friends of friends. some of whom we never met in person...and may have only talked on e-mail once or twice to (if at all). i took a look at the evite. it looks like we have about 35 ppl who will be coming for sure or at least trying to stop by. should be interesting.

i'm planning to take photos with everyone. just like i did when i left the bay area. i was chatting with tw just now and he asked me if we were gonna have any ice breakers. didn't really feel like it. but i told him that i was gonna somehow track the connection that ppl have with us. maybe write it down on people's paper cups with a sharpie. (that way, ppl don't have to answer over and over how they know us when talking to new ppl...they can just show them their cups! that would be kinda funny to take a picture of...ha ha...we shall see) now the tentative plan is to have a big type of degrees of connection flow chart in different colors. ppl gotta fill it out when they come thru our doors. hee hee.

it's so funny the random connections. last nite we met up with one girl who used to go to fellowship with us to go check out another group. i invited one of my friend's from college...and he brought his roommate. turns out that his roommate used to date that girl who we went with. so weird.

yesterday we ate the world famous pastrami sandwhiches at the hat. very good. today we went to din tai fung in arcadia. second time this week for me. i think that's enough for a while. also stopped by the westfield santa anita mall. i really need to get a new pair of shorts and sunglasses.

connecting

it was cool checking out oikas. about 100 ppl. sorta like lumps...but it was a special nite. usually they all meet separately in different sgs. so it was their first ever sort of large group nite. not a lot of ppl knew each other. in my sg i met this one girl sarah who came from seattle. i took a random guess and she knew jw, my bud from seattle who i met this year. they hadn't seen each other since college. i took a picture with her to e-mail to jw. took another picture with a girl who went to my high school. we didn't really know each other...it took me a while to place the face...but usually i can with lhs people from my year. also took pictures with these other two people who knows ds. (i can see myself developing a reputation as that random photo guy.)

i'm interested to find more random connections and to see how my friends from disparate parts of my life might be unknowingly connected. sorta like how you might go to a wedding, and see someone you know, and only discover then and there that you have a mutual connection you never knew about. we all have those connections around us. you just gotta look and try to discover them. schmoozing, networking, and leveraging all of those connections are so important to finding a job, finding a place to live, finding a church, and finding that special someone (according to to other ppl).

it's pretty sad when you let a lot of opportunities for connecting to go to waste. moving to a new city can present a lot of opportunity or it can present a lot of challenge. it just depends on what you do with your situation. you can easily do the same thing if you stay where you grew up and never move away. some friends lament about that and the lack of new, intersting scenery around them. it really all depends on yourself. you can still stay at home and push yourself into new social circles. or not. all up to you.

i know in order to succeed in my industry...i still have to improve with my connecting skills and really work it. particularly at AC.,

so much to do tomorrow. after church, set up the kitchen, clean up some more, get groceries, go to the hardware store, look up classes. i should be sleeping now, but blogging all of these thoughts actually helps me to organize mentally and process things thru a little.

orientation days

day 1 had to take an english test and a digital tools test. day 2 (today) sat thru a boring presentation and got a tour of the school. tomorrow we register for our classes, get parking passes, photo id, and meet with our major.

jho and pob are here now. drove down today. big help with the ikea furniture. still not done. we ate at bella italia, recommended by alf. good stuff. great bread. so stuffed. thanks for the reco!

we went to hollywood at nite to see simone. it was just ok. we thought we were gonna see it in groeman's chinese theater, but it was just in one of the other mann theater screens next door.

la-la life: too hot to trot

it's so hot down here. on our first day...it was 106 degrees. the hottest day of the friggin year. the perfect day to move lots of stuff huh? i really need more than 2 pairs of casual shorts. i also have too many black jackets.

still no phone line (coming tomorrow) or dsl (coming in 5 days). we're now at a icafe in arcadia doing our e-mail. we don't wanna mooch too much off circuit city. $2 for an hour. better than paris! three kids next to me are playing cs and blowing each other up. there's a really funny sign here by the computers. "DO NOT sit on the computer table! note enough to hold a human's weight!"

said good-bye to the parents today. i wonder when's the next time i'll see em. they helped me get set-up with bank stuff.

had lunch with ec today at din tai fung in arcadia. i bet we'll probably be eating there every time we get a bay area visitor.

on our first nite here, we got the huge projector screen set-up. a real guys' pad now. no furniture but the a/v is set-up of course. we sat and lied on the floor. the first nite we saw romeo must die on dvd. well actually, i slept thru most of it.(i only had 2.5 hours of sleep the nite before...up all nite packing...then drove all the way down here.) we all finally went to bed around 4 am.

i need to get some sleep tonite. our orientation is at 9am tomorrow. i can't believe they're making all of us take the friggin english test! i hope that i pass the digital skills test.

i'm starting to wear a new bucket hat now. maybe it'll be my new LA look. gotta protect the head!

moved!

i'm now using the internet connection at a circuit city in pasadena. heehee. jc, jw, and i were here to get an s-video cable and got lucky with three available connections. we've been net deprived since we drove down sunday am.

we moved stuff in my car, my parents car, jc's car, and ap's car. dc's car is on the way down. we might have to try to get him some forgotten items back in sf. i think i left my palm there! phooey. gotta unpack and check for it. we sure moved down a ton of stuff.

spent about three hours in ikea today searching for stuff to buy. we're making our list. didn't get anything yet. it's kinda cool to see the possibilities we can do with our living space. we need to get a sofa, kitchen table, coffeetable, entertainment center, chairs, desks, bed frames, and dressers. the only furniture we brought down were our drafting tables.

i slept last nite in a sleeping bag. looks like i might be doing that for about 3 or 4 more days. i need to get a mattress and bed pronto.

we tried to go to costco today but it was closed.

very happy we found this high speed net connection. the back-up plan was to go to kinko's and use free dial-up access with my laptop. we have no phone line. hopefully we can sign up for it tomorrow.