longin to feel my roots again

okay. i've decided. i'm coming back to SF for a long weekend in a week. might as well take advantage of my 4 day weekends at least once to visit home. plus, i can really use my light table down here. along with a bunch of my comics and graphic novels for my next drawing concepts project - a two page graphic novel spread about a character running around LA. was back last month and missed some people. it looks like i'll be missing some people again the next weekend, but that's ok. i'll be back again in a month. also my school and social calendar is kinda empty that weekend...so might as well.

another excuse i have to come back...besides the excellent timing and the aforementioned things...is the 21st annual sf intl asian american film festival. yeah, they have one in LA...but it might not show the same shows or it may not work with my busy schedule.

finally took a look at the schedule...here's what's piquing my interest...

friday
* book of rules - bay area 20-somethings. english.
* crouching asian, hidden cheese - program of funny shorts.

saturday
* charlotte sometimes - asian american engligh romance/drama.

sunday
* where's the party yaar? - looks pretty funny. indian FOBs.

dunno if i'll make it to all of em. prolly not. if you're gonna see something that weekend, lemme know.

a

the long trip home from death valley life weekly

grubbin at the hotel diner... visiting the goldwell open air sculpture gallery... checkin out the ghost town rhyolite. used to be the third largest city in nevada during the gold rush boom... the guys in my car keep having to tinkle, but not me...another pit stop to take pix. i scampered up a hill to take some fab dune scenes shots... scoping out the umhebe crater. stoppin by scotty's castle... quickie visit to the tecopa hot springs. didn't go in cuz i had no shorts and no towels... we got some nite grub at the mad greek: where the greek gods drink & celebrate. i had the privilege to drive the last three hours home. didn't have time to stop off at the calico ghost town tho. next time.

peep out me 103 highlight pix from the last leg of my road trip. don't forget the other two parts if you're coming in late. if you need to gotta get ready for the next vacation!

hankerin for some globe trottin

this past weekend reminded me how much i enjoy traveling. i'm narrowing down my destinations after spring break. since i don't know anyone willing to go on a long road trip with me...i guess i'll fly. over the past several years, i've amassed 80k miles logged in points and i wanna use em while i have the time or before war really affects the airline and air travel. i could blow it all on a nice overseas biz class flight to south america or europe or do a couple of smaller economy trips. whereever i go, i'd have free airfare from earning it over the many years.

i could go to the east coast. if i go to ny now (for the first time), it would be great to check out the museums and the scene to fuel my creative juices. everyone says that ny is totally my style, too. but i'm thinking that it might be better to go out there next spring so that i can combine pleasure (visiting friends) with business (maybe shopping my improved, future portfolio around for work...or do research into east coast agencies to work for...if i were to considering working there, specially if i start looking for a job later that year). also...maybe i'd know a couple more people there in a year. just considering everything.

i have zero desire to travel to south africa. hmmm. asia is always nice...but i need to see some other regions first, i think.

i'm thinkin more about europe. one bud is going to prague and i could follow along. not really in the mindset to travel all alone (yet)...tho i could. everyone says prague is fantastic...and cheap (so it's within my modest budget). altho i'd have to pay for housing...i'd probably end up spending less than i would in ny staying with friends. my international student card (with the big headshot) is still valid, too. i don't know too much about prague tho. i think other places are higher on my list...london, italy, germany. if i go, i'm not looking to do the independent, backpacker country hop. i'd like to stick to just a few cities and be able to really absorb some international culture. hostel or modest hotel.

hmm...if i travel for two weeks...i'll either need my powerbook to download the hundreds of pix (like i was doing a couple of times a day in death valley) or another memory card.

ideas? suggestions? anyone else wanna travel? i'm not gonna wait to push off the trips till after school...cuz i know i'll be hustling to get a job.

walk thru the valley of death life weekly: saturday [ part 2 of 3 ]

4:45 am. woke up early that day before sunrise. went hiking for a mile. matt and i got separated from our car. contemplated hitchiking. the car that came by was our car. whew.

lots of random photo pit stops. checked out the death valley museum. took a picture of a red ant. soon 6 other people were taking pictures of the red ants.

visited the furnace creek hotel. nice, lush oasis like place in the middle of the desert. it's the location for our hypothetical earthworks symposium (that we're doing a poster on.)

class drove to zabriskie point. wandered adventurously to the bottom of the creek bed... scampered over the salt creek rock piles to scenic heights. rock climbed leading the way. didn't get in trouble with the ranger.

retired at the stagecoach hotel in beatty, nevada...after a prime rib dinner, some nickel slots, homemade peanut brittle ice cream, and the musical stylings of the enchanters.

135 highlight pix from that busy saturday. i'm not going to bore my non-classmate readers with the total 324 pix from that day...a lot are repetitive nature and landscape shots that i snapped for poster images.

the death valley road trip life weekly: friday [ part 1 of 3]

here's the first day of my road trip up. 75 highlight pix of the beginning of my death valley adventure.

i'm in the dude car with bobby, matt, and rob. the drive is about 6 hours long. we take lots of random stops at interesting places. i see a town called "inyokern," and we just had to stop there! a few picture pit stops at purty places. we make it to stovepipe wells just after sunset. relaxin. grubbin at the restaurant. hanging out in the saloon. checking out the stars at nite. my camera just doesn't do the sky justice. shucks.

visiting the valley of death

i finally got back at 11:30 pm tonite from my weekend journey to death valley with my comm design classmates. it was a really fantastic trip. it will probably be one of my most fun and creative road trip experiences. the only other road trips i've taken have been to LA or SD. this was really the first one to explore a new place. got to know some of my classmates well. at times a little too well - smell wise.

our teach, ramone, sent us an e-mail enouraging us to note our impressions of death valley before they "get trampled by the demands of AC reality." here are some words that come to mind about the desert:

* space * contrast * vaccuum * flat * expanse * beautiful * plain * rich * shadow * crumbly * soft * red * climb * adventure * frontier * discovery * tall * deep * canvas * breath-taking * natural * beauty * creation * wild * frontier *

some general thoughts...

shutterbug crazy

normally i take the most pictures in whatever group i'm in by far. this time there were a lot of people in my group as snap happy as me. i'm probably still one of the most adept with a digital camera (different modes, and composition). i probably took about 1000 pix...but i've been whittling them down to a few hundred keepers. at times it was like traveling with a pack of japanese tourists. well that was the primary intention for our trip...to experience and record images of death valley (to be used in our poster project). but i also took a lot of group documentarian style photos (as you my weekly life viewers know by now).

i snapped a few pix of some classmates doing some desert watering off the side of the road, recorded the pit stops and food stops, documented interesting signage, and tried to capture interesting slices of life at times. otherwise it's just a lot of dry rocks and sky.

i'll be picking a varied selection of my images and share albums here day by bay. right now i have about 2 gigs of death valley photos on my computer, b/c a bunch of people were downloading their photos into my powerbook, b/c we were taking so many different pix that our cards got filled up.

just call me indy

tapped into my adventurous streak again. ahhh...that was nice.

i see a funny place on the map or off to the side of the road, and our car comes to a quick stop. we pile out and start looking around and taking pictures.

we forego the ho-hum food of taco bell and burger king to go explore a diner cafe following a suggestion i got from the gas station attendant.

i usually quickly scamper to the outer limits of the sites we visit. helped to organize a carload of classmates to wake up at 4:45 am saturday morning to check out the valley at sunrise...i drive for close to an hour looking for the right spot...i go off wandering with matt to red cathedral for an hour at sunrise. a mile trek we took in the badlands. unfortunately the rest of our car didn't follow...on my own i quickly descend to the bottom of caverns, climb to the top of peaks, scale rocky sand dunes, and cross over large salt rock mounds. as a result i got a bunch of unique shots that no one else got.

we managed to do just about everything we wanted to... all except for the chinese fire dril. drat.

me in the group

it's interesting traveling with a new group of people and getting to know them. with any experiences with a strong dose of interaction, you get a strong sense of your own being in contrast to the other personalities around you. at times i'm adventurous and forward thinking...othertimes kinda quiet...fun-spirited...conceptually geared...different senses of humor and language. also got a chance to chat about faith with a couple of my believing classmates (who i didn't really know). so that is cool.

the link for the pix are a little late. will put it up one day at a time. lemme know what you think. if you're itching for a road trip like this around late april/early may...lemme know.

naked chubby bunny

today got off to a rough start. woke up over an hour late. finally rolled outta bed at 8. my class starts at 8. and i still had to prep my presentation boards at school too! and buy supplies. crud-o-la. i rushed outta the house and narrowly avoided a street cleaning parking ticket. wowzers. the meter maid was across the street writing out tickets but i just escaped. after doing my business at school, i finally got to class at 9. good thing that this class always starts late...like around 8:30 or 8:45. (illustrators!)

today for class we were drawing a chubby girl model with reed pens and brushes. she's the one with the hairy armpits. i don't like her as a model too much. she takes too long to settle into her poses. and half-way thru my drawing, i find that she shifted some. her poses are also kinda ridiculous too. oh and worst of all was when she scratched her chest. eck.

i gotta kinda fed up with the class. maybe it's b/c of my rough morning. but the squeaky scratch of the reed pens really started to get on my nerves. i (and the whole class) was getting noticeably tired and exhausted with this drawing exercise. intense focus is needed. i'm not too adept at a brush too, so it was driving me bonkers. i was so glad to get out of the class and to also hear that we have no homework this week. woo hoo! i get to relax just a little more in death valley this weekend. yay.

a week long wednesday

that's what it felt like. i got about 2.5 hours of sleep tonite. got to school early at 8:45 to print out my type homework in the computer lab. it's dumb to waste my own ink at home. i guess i'm chinese-cheap like that....one of my classmates from design I noticed that i was very frugal with my gouache paint. i ended up using about a third of the paint she did. art supplies are expensive...

anyhoo, got outta that type class early. did work in the library and in the shop. was gonna cut my next class (even tho i like it) to get some sleep and ahead in my work for the day, but i felt bad and went to my propaganda class. it was worth going to class. i learned the the boy scouts (and another group called the boy spies) were originally created by the US to monitor the germans. little boys would report on their parents or something like that. crazy huh? also learned about the semiotic ideology of the cowboy...pervasive througout mass media and culture.

was planning on going home and sleeping once i got done around 4. but ended up sticking at school...and doing my work. (good thing, since i was able to still remain focused at school and in my mode.) stayed working on digital painting for my drawing concepts movie scene til about 7. i picked up a mexican torta (sandwich) on the go and then went to rhon's place.

rhon offered to carpool with me to the mosaic life group. we went out to van nuys for a small group meeting. i really do like this group. i connect to the guys in the group, who are about my age. not too old. not too young. (like most of the other fellowship groups i've visited.) they're solid in the Word. live it out. are open and honest. creative. understand having a healthy relationship with God and with the body. i haven't felt this good about any small group dynamic since college. it's a co-ed group, but the two times that i've been there...there's only been one girl, who's married. but she's cool (and creative too.)

afterwards the group fellowship time. went back to school. worked on my illustrations for a few hours. finally remembering how to paint in phtoshop again. then came home. lost my focus. surfed the net searching for info on death valley. i'm excited about going this weekend. it should be a highlight of my AC career. i'll probably have about 400 photos when i'm done. a full weekend out in the desert. maybe i'll find a way to still blog. i have my resources.

wreckyard shutterbug

i went on a photo safari for broken windshields on monday. there's a really great windshield/auto glass district off mission street and the 5. took about 140 pix of cracked glass and stacked cars. wreckyards are fantastic visual places. i'll stick a few of those best pix in my next weekly upload. coming up sunday nite.

blue jeans boy

all of my 3 pairs of old levis are shot. they must be like 5 or 6 years old. they all have holes in the knees or around the pocket where i stuff my wallet. and the holes aren't cool looking at all either. they're also faded to light blue now too. i think they were at least a medium-dark shade of blue before. it's good to have some cruddy pairs of jeans for the shop and for some of my messy studio classes. but i don't like dressing like a scrubby AC student all the time.

so i finally went jeans-shopping today for some new levis. took advantage of some pres-day sales. picked up a "low and loose" sliver tab and a "relaxed" 550 at macy's. slight sale going on. i got the darkest blues and the vintage wash (never had one of those before) to try to finally look a little more up to date. i've never been too into jeans fashions. who many people really do complement guys on jeans anyways? people usually notice the shirt or jacket...also the shoes...but who really says "nice jeans?" i think maybe girls might get complemented on their jeans more...especially if they're fitting well or a funky cool color or pattern. (tho i've never complemented anyone on their jeans.)

then decided to go to robinsons-may. i'm not really used to shopping at that store since they don't have it in the bay area. but i recalled that it's like a macy's quality store. (am i right?...or is it better/worse? someone please tell me.) ended up finding some silver tabs and other similar styles on a close out table for $25! i think some of those pairs on the table cost $10-15 more at macy's. i picked up two of the dark denim "low and loose" silver tabs...exact same color and size.

i normally wouldn't buy the same color and cut pair of jeans...but i thought it was such a great deal so i got em. i'm thinking about trying to scuff one pair up with sandpaper or something...to try to create my own vintage/worn look on the dark denim. i went into A/X recently and saw that it's their latest thing. custom sand jean. they include a sanding block to sandblast it your way. to rub a seam or scuff a knee. don't really wanna pay $88 to them for that privilege tho.

so how many blue jeans do you have? i started to ask people out of curiosity.

wanderlust

i'm feeling it. the itch is creeping more and more. i'm going to death valley this weekend on a field trip road trip, so that should satiate it for a while. i'm gonna have two free weeks at the end of april to the beginning of may...and i wanna get out of CA. where to go?

* on a whim i thought about going to new orleans to see the jazz festival...but i dunno if i'd wanna go there by myself. i wouldn't mind driving...if i found the right willing person to go. if you ever wanted to take a cross-country road trip, spring is the time to do it, compared to hot summer or snowy winter.

* i could go to new york and the east coast to visit people. i need to experience that sometime soon and visit ppl while their out there. and while it's not too hot or cold!

* just chatted with cool mike, who just returned from the far east, and he told me that he saw my clones in hk! i was stoked to find out that they're still there. (this is actually the second time that he saw them...he saw them a year ago also but didn't tell me til now!) i would love to go over to the blue star exchange store, dress up in the same clothes as the mannequinn, and take a picture with it in the window. (if you never saw the famous picture of my hk mannequinn clones...lemme know.)

* maybe i could go to england. i heard recently that rt flights are just $200. i could probably survive in england by myself...since the tongue wouldn't be that much of a problem, as it is in asia for me.

* prague's supposed to be cool, too. erica's going around that time. even if i couldn't find a cheap fare, i still have a free trip using my frequent flier miles.

* i have another friend, pat, moving to shanghai. (one of my good guy friends down here leaving...gonna have to find new buds to hang out with.) maybe i'd go visit if i found the right cheap fare.

* or maybe i could go to singapore finally. pick up my portfolio that's sitting on an agency desk still (unless they threw it away). sigh. that would be another place where i could survive with my tongue b/c they speak english.

i dunno. suggestions? anyone looking to travel anywhere interesting around late april/may? you won't have to bring a camera if you travel with me. hee hee. i hope i get to go somewhere. i need some fresh new experiences to recharge me creatively.

the 12.28 LA life weekly

only 56 pix to share with you from the past week. enjoy. share any thoughts.

lots o catching up to do...

meeting buz

on my way up to sf last weekend at the airport, i met a pretty cool dude in the terminal. i was sitting next to him waiting to board. then he pulls out his powerbook and starts playing around with it. soon i pull out my powerbook too. my opening line was "so how fast is your powerbook?" (a real guy thing to say, huh? haha...his was 500mhz while mine is 667...haha.) soon we were chatting away and swapping some files on his removable hard drive. he gave me some snes and atari 2600 emulators and games. i gave him the shareware image-browsing program curator.

so we're chatting away. it turns out he's my age, is a record producer who's worked with well-knowns like smashmouth and matt redmond. he also is involved with a lot of international worship conferences. very cool stuff. i tell him about my pal alice in sf who has an amazing voice and gift. we'll see if they can hook-up sometime. we chat a lot on the plane. about church, negotiating, propaganda, real worship, places to eat in pasadena, etc. we chat all the way until we both get picked up from the airport by our rides. we thought it was pretty amazing how we got to meet each other (altho i think he meets a lot of random ppl in airports), and think that it's a god-thing for sure.

so i call alice the next day and tell her about buz. it just so happens that she's coming down to la for work (she never comes down to la for work) this week. so i set up a meeting time on wed for her, stu and buz to meet up at my place. fast forward to wed nite. it was a really good time of chatting and conversing about worship. my two sf worship leader buddies play their stuff for buz. we also move the party after a couple of hours to meet buz's mentor malcom. it was really great and inspiring to hear malcom's background, testimony and vision. it turns out that's he's been praying for the past few weeks to meet asian american worship leaders...influential individuals who can be an impact on the asian american community. lots of asians come out to these big worship conferences, yet there are no asian worship leaders in the industry. so we're all again amazed about the connections that happened over the past few days...and know that it is a god-thing for sure. we all got together by the alignment of some pretty unfathomable circumstances (like how alice's schedule opened up and work got cancelled). that nite happened to be alice's bday, and it turned out to be the best possible birthday gift for her.

i think everyone was blessed that nite by the sharing of visions and encouragement about worship. i dunno if any new oppotunities will open up for my worship leader pals, but contacts have been made and we'll wait and see. i think that something more will develop and come from that nite.

it was definitely well worth the 4 hours to be a part of that god-created nite and the conversations...and to forego the 4 additional hours of sleep that nite. after i got home i worked for the next 4 or 5 hours on my stuff.

sf chinese new year

backtrack to the weekend. it was a really great and refreshing trip. priority for the trip was the various chinese new year celebrations that i had scheduled down for over a month ago. i squeezed a lot in, but still missed out on some stuff that weekend b/c of my previous scheduling...

* family eating meetings to open the new year
i saw family for chinese new year (coincidentally...at two italian places). the second place was somewhere on ocean st, and it felt like i was in the twilight zone...b/c the average age in the place was about 45 and it was nearly all white.

* catch me if you can
spent some quality time with my mum and finally saw catch me if you can. very enjoyable movie. i felt like that could be me...(b/c i'm such a slick spy guy...haha)...and i feel like i'm changing hats all the time.

* revisiting chinatown
returned to the miss c-town scene. i caught up with old pals and out of town friends. it's always been a great experience of bonding with people and exploring the fantastic, rich chinese heritage and community in sf. (it's really not all about the girls...altho they do play a part of the experience.) i usually meet a lot of new people that i would normally never meet in my usual circles (like cops, the police commissioner, out of state peeps, etc.) wasn't around long enought to really connect with the new people tho.

the first day i was in they had me design a sweatshirt. i quickly sketched it out on paper and handed it off to give to some dude in chinatown who probably doesn't know adobe illustrator too well. i wonder how much he butchered the design. ah well. if you saw the sf chinese new year parade and saw a bunch of guys wearing grey sweatshirts with a dark red design on the front. that was me. i think it stands out from the normal chinese new year designs...which are usually pretty crappy in general. my drawing zoomed in on the right hand side of a ram's head and it has a big "03" rather than the traditional 2003. man, i hope i get a sweatshirt.

saw the rehearsals, the pageant, and the next day of family association vistations...then i was outta there. that association day is always a lot of hard work. we trudged around chinatown to about 14 different family associations. the dudes escort them upstairs, take off their coats, seat them, serve tea, squat and pull out the chairs and push back the chairs, move tables and chairs, put on the coats and move on. that is repeated about 14 times that day. a perk is that you get li see for your work. i collected $85 in li see tips that day. more than enough to pay for my flight that weekend. woo hoo! too bad i didn't schedule a later flight the next day, otherwise i coulda collected enough for a second trip. ah well.

* the rock

sunday nite i made it out to the rock, an all-city praise nite. this one was led by alice and stu. it was a good time of worship...altho to really worship god...one doesn't need a big band or even music. it's all about the attitude of your heart. got a chance to catch up with a lot of friends afterwards. that was nice...especially since some didn't know that i would be there.

* brazilian bbq birthdays

friday nite when i got in, i hung out at a brazilian bbq place on market. i opted to not get the bbq all you can eat, b/c i didn't think my stomach can handle all of that meat. i haven't been eating all that much in the past couple of weeks. so i created my own combo plate with a couple of other like-minded individuals. i think i also saved $8 in the process. it was a fun festive place. especially with the dude with the hat who comes around with large shanks of meat on skewers. (you can see pix off all this in my last life weekly picture update.)

* breakfast with pop

my daddyo took off from work monday to drive me to the airport. i selected our breakfast spot -- rick & anne's in berkeley/oakland. (right by the claremont hotel.) if you haven't been there ever...you're missing out. it's one of the best breakfast places in the entire bay area. the last time i was there was back when i was in college. i think i learned about that place years ago, by following the restaurant recommendation by the local area paper...a practice i continue to do today to find the great foodie experiences to explore. (i really, really hate not knowing where to go and eat...and then just default to some old tried and true place to go to...when there's so much good stuff still to explore.)

i didn't meet anyone on my plane ride back. i just konked out.

freebird friday

fast forward now to v-day, friday. started off the day calling family wishing them happy valentine's day. i didn't get around to sending any cards this year...not that i've ever really sent any cards...but it would have been a good thing to do since i'm down here now. next year, i'll make my own cards, hopefully.

i then rolled into work around 10:30ish to find the office locked. what the heck? i figured maybe they were just rolling in late (sometimes they do from a very late nite). i called a couple of the guys on their cells and left a message on the office phone. no one ever got back to me. i still don't know why the office was closed. perhaps in the last week, all three guys in the office planned an important business trip to china or canada, where their cell phones do not work...and couldn't really reach me. i think some ppl in my position would have been p.o.ed but not me. not like i'm losing that much income from not working that day...and there were some other things that i wanted to do with my time. still...it would be nice to know what happened to the guys!

i spent part of the day figuring out my plans for the nite. not really a v-day thing. the day's never been much of a big deal to me. i was really excited to see daredevil. i ended up driving around LA for about three hours that day. drove out to santa monica to get alice (still out for work). drove back to hollywood (sorta stuck in slow traffic). met up with the other peeps at grauman's chinese theater. then we drove to canter's (not too far away) for some excellent jewish deli food. then dropped off 2 girls at sawtelle (along the way to santa monica). nearly drove to lax, b/c i missed my santa monica exit. dropped off alice at her oceanside hotel. then 40 some minutes back to pasadena. that went by fast b/c i was talking on the phone. whew.

i think if you were to map out the driving distances in the bay area...it would sorta be like driving from sf to hayward to pick up a friend to drive to san jose to see a movie and dinner, then back to hayward to drop off a friend then back to sf. crazy for the bay area...but a little more tolerable here. it still was a lot of driving, but i remember how some people drove me around a lot when i was visiting LA and didn't have a car. so i really don't mind paying the service forward to others. plus, cabs in friday afternoon LA traffic would be outrageous.

daredevil: the man without fear

i enjoyed the movie. some of my company had mixed reviews of it. but i liked it a lot. stylish and very moody. i think it captured the spirit and essence of all of the characters. (i don't really think that daredevil would let a guy die tho...so there were a couple of moments of abandoning character.) i enjoyed all of the actor's performances...particularly collin farrel's portrayal of bullseye. the radar sense effect was great. kevin smith appears as the dude working the morgue (b/c he was a recent high profile writer on daredevil.) if you wanna check out his amazing run on the book...go to any comic book store and pick up his "guardian angel" run now in trade paper back (and probably also at borders). an elektra solo movie and daredevil sequel is already in the works. i enjoyed this movie much much more than i did spider-man. i agree with roger ebert's review that the characters were appropriately not overacted (like some other comic book movies). i also liked that it wasn't an origin story (like spider-man was). i don't think all comic book movies need to be (altho they must tell how the hero came to be).

i'd buy the dvd for this movie when it comes out. i just hope they don't do a dumb 1.5 verison of the dvd, like they did for x-men, (conincidentally...dan told me of a deal where if you buy the 1.5 x-men dvd, you can get a free ticket to daredevil.

chinatown galleries

earlier last nite i went to some gallery openings around chinatown. showcases for some emerging artists. i didn't care too much for a lot of the stuff...but some of the stuff was cool. went with a couple of classmates and met up with my uncle there. they have these events about once a month to draw peoplet to chinatown. most of the galleries are on chungking road. i took lots of pix since it was my first time to chinatown down here.

songs of joy and destitution

later on i went with some classmates to a play highly recommended by one of my teachers. songs of joy and destitution at the open-fist theater. it had a lot of social commentary about war. it was also one of the most disturbing things that i have ever seen. i felt like it should have been halloween...seeing bloodied scenes and portrayals of some murderers and a couple of other somewhat-perverse things. i think that part of it was the reaction intended...but i still don't think that i really understood the entire narrative. we sat on buckets all spread around for the first act (a couple hours long). then for the second act we were split up into different groups, led around by a tour guide to some dioramas of horrific scenes. maybe i just don't get conceptual performance art so much. i dunno. i don't think i'm going to write a paper about this like i intended.

relaxing and recharging

i've been catching up on sleep and playing a lot. saw daredevil last nite. i liked it better than spider-man. be sure to stay part way into the credits for a special extended segment. more on my week tonite. and of course...pix online late sunday nite.

i'm going to sleep. finally. 2 hours last nite. ugh. i've been up for 23 hours straight now.

inspired and awed

just spent the last 4 hours hanging out with some people that got together truly by divine appointment. it was a great nite to hang out with people who are really passionate about worship and seek to serve god with their gifts. i got to hook-up an amazingly talented singing friend with a brand new bud i just met at the airport, who's in the christian music biz. we all got to hang out tonite...on her birthday of all nites. it really was god's hand in how i met the guy sitting next to me, how we all got hooked up together tonite since she and her bf just happened to becoming to LA today. just incredible and amazing how it seems that god's orchestrating something. altho i'm not way into worship music (or the industry) like everyone else was...i'm definitely encouraged and amazed by the way god can work. i can't wait to see what's next.

being a witness to all of this is definitely worth the very little sleep that i'll be getting tonite now. gotta do a few hours of work for my 8am class. gots to go at it now. more catch-up blogging tomorrow (after i do a little catch-up napping after my 11 hour day.)

the sf-gung-hay life weekly

lots o pix of some current projects. lots o pix of my chinese new year festivities weekend. i think i got a bunch of good shots here. especially of a lot of stuff most people don't see in chinatown. this is probably one of my better weekly life albums. click and see 146 pix.

i haven't had time to blog about all the different stuff i did. swamped with work. (i didn't even watch smallville last nite...but i taped it.) but go ahead and comment away and i'll get around to answering your questions in my next post.

finally the server is up again!

distant disclosure

went back for a bunch of chinese new year celebrations the past weekend. it was a really great time. caught up with family, did my annual community service, and caught up with friends. many highlights to share. you'll have to wait for my overdue weekly recap. lots of interesting festivity stuff to share with you.

it's always nice to catch up with people. especially when greeted by friendly smiles and hugs from buds. distance does make you appreciate people more. your conversations and degree of sharing is also a lot more efficient and goes deeper than it would normally go...b/c you're catching up for lost time. it's great to be privy to the latest exciting developments in my friends lives. i enjoy being in the loop and caught up with my friends...of course, that usually is offset by being behind in school. didn't get anything done over the weekend. but it was worth it.

time to sleep. looks like just 2 1/2 hours tonite tho. gotta work faster. good thing i slept on the plane. too bad it was such a short flight!

li see sayings

saw some relatives for chinese new year today. i got my hung bao (mandarin) / li see (cantonese) / red envelopes (english). my aunt and po po taught me a new saying in cantonese.

gung hay fat choy
li see jel loi
uhm ga seen, hum oui.

tired eyes and hot stuff

i made it to my 8am drawing concepts class. i was feeling ok in spite of just having 45 of sleep. i spent a lot of hours last nite trying to illustrate a half dozen movie scene stills. it turns out i did it slightly wrong...and spent a little too much time penciling when i shoulda done tonal renderings. (faster and easier)...but it was all good still. my teacher said that two of my drawings were "hot" and that i was a good draftsman. yay.

i thought that i got by ok with minimal sleep. (i broke my 4 hour minimum nitely sleep resolution. phooey.) i drank an energy drink last nite and one this morning...peter saw me passing by in the mid-day and said that i looked tired. he said "the color of your face was different...it was dark, heavy, and just looked dead tired and hopeless." eck.

in class today we did facial expression drawings. that was pretty cool. i'm ok. i think i could probably do venice beach or something as a street artist. but i can still push myself to get better...have my lines flow better and smoother...also exaggerate the expressions a little bit. the dude would hold his facial poses for about 5 min. very cool.

this weekend should be fun and belated chinese new year stuff. it'll be good to relax a bit. just hope i don't set myself up for disaster come mid-week.

i finally just finished my drawing work for my 8am class. uggggggghhhh.

blue today, black tomorrow?

i always wanted to dye my hair blue. not an ugly light blue...but a svelte, darker shade...subtle so that you would only notice in the light. back in beijing five years ago, i almost took the plunge and did it. i had my two girl translator friends tell them that i wanted my hair blue, but quickly changed my mind when the stylist told me that i'd have to bleach my hair white first, and then blue. too much for me. (so i just got the red-brown dye job instead, along with a perm. that was the most exciting, yet also long and drawn out boring 4 hours of my life.)

anyhoo...i have blue hair today. i woke up really early and put it on. then i kinda forgot about it...until i went to class and a bunch of my classmates noticed (and said that it was really cool). it's dark enought to be subtle...but still somewhat noticeable in direct light. maybe i'll do black tomorrow. we'll see. i don't have a lot of the mousse left and it's from germany (thanks to ro).

bibliophile

spent an hour and a half tonite checking out the library just a few blocks away from home and the pasadena central library. it was my first time checking out the pasadena dewey decimal system. i was doing research on teenage drunk driving (still) and kicked off my death valley investigation. i'm feeling the urgency and the need to feed my brain with research on these projects. that's the only way i can effectively design communication. i kinda wanna get the jump on my class too in terms of checking out resources. there can exist some degree of competitiveness (in my perspective) when about 20 some of us are all working on the same assignment...and i know how bad it is to procrastinate.

the libraries here really weren't all that. when i think of libraries...i think of the cal library (massive) and the main library in sf. didn't find too many useful books. looks like i'll have to turn to my commercial libraries...borders, b&n, and vroman's (a LA bookstore chain). i did pick up some books on death valley (some of which were in the kiddie section). also picked up a teenage drunk driving video...something about dying within 5 seconds. had to pay $1.50 for a week's rental! i don't think the sf libraries charge.

maybe i'll get around to checking out the glendale and downtown LA libraries...wherever the heck that is.

news hound

i started a two week trial subscription of the LA times. the telephone solicitor was lucky she reached me at home when i was in. i've been thinking about picking up the paper for a while. was thinking about being cheap tho, and just getting the weekend papers...since i can read the paper at school, too. but i probably only frequent the library about twice a week...so i'd still be missing out on a lot. it's been fantastic getting into the news. it feels like i'm watering my brain and for a half-hour to an hour each day can escape beyond the microcosms in which i dwell in. (hmm...i wonder if reading the newspaper will inadvertantly increase the writing level on my blog.)

i know that it's important to know what's going on in society and culture. i bet a lot of my classmates don't bother to read the paper...not with the time demands on us. research and awareness is really important to be able to talk intelligently to different audiences on different topics. i've also already been wired this way, b/c of my mass communication education.

speaking of wired, i just subscribed to that mag and a couple others for just $4 each for the next year. i gotta feed the guy-culture, tech-geek, and cyber-nerd parts of me too. i've been neglecting that. i got the deal on bestdealmagazines.com. the only catch is that they harvest a legitimate e-mail address from you, for supposed monthly e-mails from the publishers. so just sign up a secondary spam account. (everyone should have one!)

forecasting my experiencing career

since i'm sharing about books and wired stuff...here's the next book that i'm gonna buy. experience design. it's written by an AC grad. it's been on my to browse list for about a year or so, but i've never flipped thru it til a week and a half ago at work. it seems to perfectly describe the transdiciplinary, conceptual branded storytelling focus which i want to take my career. i really don't give a hoot about print or editorial layout. print and broadcast ads are intriguing, but still somewhat a one-dimensional form of communication.

i think very few friends or family still really get what i wanna do. so for those of you reading...here's the dealio. i want to conceptualize and design experiences and narratives which will communicate on different levels. it can possibly be multimedia exhibition, perhaps some new media narratives. or maybe just on the cutting edge of entertainment design. this interest has been the same for the past couple of years now. the author (who was a transportation major many years ago) has a pretty good site about the field of experience design. influences, resources, etc are listed. also good travel experiences in different cities (like the tactile dome in SF). i think minority report prophesizes a lot of what's to come in terms of technological experience design.

i really gotta order this book soon. probably will get it off ebay. one of these days. i've still never ordered anything off of ebay. can you believe it? anyways...it's the place to go first when lookin for books.

gw shows you how to make butter

the new challenge butter website up. it has a 4 page butter process section, which features the illustrations i did back in december. i tried to do a simplier style and drew it in illustrator. click, see, and learn how to make butter!

retro running

i read a great article in the LA times the other day about a better way to run...one that is scientifically shown to work the lungs more, burn more calories, and allows the bones to absorb shock better. this way is also a 20% better workout than traditional running. it's all about running backwards.

yeah it seems silly...but the proof is there. here's one site dedicated to backwards running. there's a lot of biomechanical proof.

so i did it this afternoon. i didn't trip either, like j thought i would too. hah. ran around the neighborhood. it was fun. altho my hood is pretty empty in the afternoon...of course i still got a bunch of head turns. go try it! i think i'm gonna do it a couple times a week now. we'll see if i build up the courage to backwards run around the rose bowl.

the buckling-down LA life weekly

not too much to share visually here. just 32 pix from this past week.

the mellow weekend

didn't really do any homework at all this weekend. sigh. sat i stopped by work's video shoot for a little bit... hung out with n8 brainstorming the communication for the rebooted school fellowship, lightbox (yes, i got a thing for fellowship groups that start with the letter "L".)...then came home intending to do work...but didn't do any. i ended up cleaning up the apartment. got fed up with the mess. maybe deep down the chinese instinct part of me felt moved to do it for the new year. yeah, yeah...not supposed to do it before the new year.

i think i'm gonna talk to my grandparents about their insights into chinese new year traditions. i'll probably blog it here very soon...since i don't think i'll ever get around to writing a book about it. it's always been an interesting thing. i called them wishing them a happy new year and started chatting a little about it. we talked about the date to open the new year. she told me that people from hk tend to celebrate the new year on the actual first day...whereas we (not from hk), celebrate after the actual date to open the new year. we also close the old year before hand. it's a village tradition.

anyone got any interesting traditions?

today, i went to mosaic. heard the first segment of the "romance unleashed" series. it was interesting. more like sharing from the pastor and his wife about dating to the singles. (they're having a speaking session at borders in westwood monday nite if anyone wants to check it out.) afterwards, i went to a new young adult ministry. it's called "rhythm." it's for the "roaring 20-s." (i kinda like that name and tag.) it was interesting to be there for another 20-somethings ministry getting started off the ground. wonder where it'll go.

my straight, black, good luck is a lot shorter now and in little bits around my bathroom. so here's a hui chun for you...

shen zhuang li jian