Aguas de...Abril?

These next 3 weeks are going to be ridiculous. My mind is all over the place as the spring term nears its end. I can't even remember what I was going to blog about. Okay, here's a picture.



Alright, now I remember. I'm going to make the switch to Wordpress. It's just that much more robust and will make you web-savvy friendsters happier with layout. Right now, things look le sigh.

The Typeface is "Rosewood"

Twenty-Five

I'm giving in to the Facebook epidemic.

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. I have a thing for ponytails and head/hair bands. So excuse me for staring if you rock it.



2. If I see a baby’s head uncovered when it’s cold out, I become livid...enough to approach the parent/guardian and say “please cover said baby’s head.”



3. Like Bonnie, I’ve smelled my flesh burn. In high school, I had to burn off two warts on the side and bottom of my right foot as a result of improper care during the tennis season. The local anesthetic injected into my foot made it look like a balloon. Then they torched it and sliced off that -ish. Lovely.



4. During a trip to the snow my frosh year of high school, I attempted to sled down this embankment but I quickly lost control, flipped forward and skid face-first down the slope. I
   ripped off the flesh on the right side of my face.



5. The first girl I ever met in life is also the last girl I have danced with.



6. My grandma used to be one of the most active seniors I’ve known; we would go in the yard and play H.O.R.S.E., football and baseball. All while she yelled Cantonese obscenities at me.



7. Levar Burton’s (Star Trek’s Geordi and Reading Rainbow) son was my basketball coach. He crazee.



8. I used to play a lot...like a lot of club basketball like AAU...and I’m fairly certain that I played against Gilbert Arenas.



9. When I met Omar Vizquel (former San Francisco Giants shortstop), I was so star-struck the only thing I managed to say was, “great season, Omar.” It so happened he was on the injured list at the moment and was having one of the worst statistical years of his career. Way to go.



10. I’ve had two dreams when it came to sports: to be a professional baseball player or be the first Chinese NBA player. I got beaned in the head by a baseball (resulting in concussion) so my mom never let me play organized baseball again. And the second dream was...well you know.



11. I rarely cry, but my moments of weakness occur when watching sports. I remember the last time I really broke down was when Michael Chang retired from tennis.



12. Friends are always surprised to learn that I’m often older than them. I was held back in pre-school, OKKKKK? And then later on they say, I’m not surprised, you act older. -__-



13. The first instrument I learned was the piano. FAIL. Second was Clarinet. FAIL. Third was drums. FTW?



14. The first house I lived in had birch trees in the front yard. I wondered why they looked so different from the rest, so I would tell people they were just naked.



15. I want: two dogs; black and brown labs. Their names: Ooga and Booga.



16. When I used to baby-sit the little ones at church, I would sit next to them and smell their heads. Baby smells are lovely (when clean, of course). Needless to say, some of the other caretakers must have thought strange things about me.



17. I baby-sat Mike Sweeney’s (baseball player) kid once. Real cool guy. Ever since then, I have been a Kansas City Royals and Oakland A’s fan.



18. The trip I would like to make someday includes a journey to all of the baseball parks in the country in a season.



19. I love the Spanish-speaking world. That’s why my friends wonder “por que no tiene novia?” Believe me, I have tried.



20. I’ve been to the World Series (2002 Giants v. Angels).



21. I’ve held a signed copy of The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama. I delivered it to one of the (then) Senator’s supporters when he was on his book tour in the Bay Area Fall 2006. Can I say I called it? I knew he was going to make it.



22. I used to beat my frosh roommate with a wooden stick. For no reason. So nice, huh? But I must say, you were the best roommate I’ve ever had, David Phung.



23. I used to have this blue mole near my left triceps. I would tell people that I stuck a blue ball-point tip there and it left that mark. Then I had it removed and now I tell people that the scar that remains is my “fob mark.”



24. The happiest I’ve ever been was when I traveled through Europe. Ask me about it.



25. The most content I’ve ever been was my missions trip to Thailand. Ask me about it.

Can you dig it?

Of Friends Parte Nueve

I apologize for the delay; sometimes events and people converge to create extenuating situations, you know?  But despite the busyness of life, there should always be this awareness that we have something to keep as motivation, which keeps us going when the next big one comes around.  What do I mean?  I'm not really all that sure, it just makes a lot of sense to me to anticipate that the fruits of our labor and investment will return to us in some way.  I have to believe that this happens- otherwise actions can become trivial and eventually feel next to empty.  

Today's person is Jason Kwock.  We met briefly frosh year of college but I did not get to know him until our sophomore year and I still did not know who he really was then either.  But as we both became more involved at church and saw each other, we clicked from the start.  He eventually moved in with our crew during senior year.  I did not know him for as long as the rest of the roommates but he quickly became one of the closest friends.  I think it is his casual attitude and laid-back demeanor.  I detect his values and his humility when in the company of others and he's always been a hard worker and loyal friend to me.  Whenever I've needed something, he's been there to help me out and not lazily question why he needs to do it nor bail out on me.  That goes a long way in my book- a person consistently keeping his word with the small and big things.  We've remained good friends ever since we graduated and I usually stay at his apartment whenever I visit Irvine.  I don't worry about our friendship.  We both approach the problems and ish that come our way in similar ways.  It's funny because I usually don't like the people that are like me in mannerisms and personality; it's like the laws of magnetism and how polarization occurs.  It's how my social dynamic (not) works.  

Jason's a friend I can rely on.  I define the best friends as those who are able to drop whatever they are doing and go the extra distance to bail someone else out.  It's not about how well we know someone; it's a comparison and measure of how much we love ourselves and others regardless of proximity.  

Of Friends Parte Ocho

She's flamboyant, aggressive, crazy, and in-your-face...but she's especially someone I've loved from the start: Agathe Philbe. She's about to move back home to Paris. I haven't been this sad to see a friend leave in a long time. Our time together was much too brief. We met up with some friends at Bossa Nova in SOMA...ah Brazilian Vodka. It was good to enjoy her company one last time (for now).

I met her last fall when we both took Butler's lighting class. I admired her courage and backstory, especially learning of her time spent in Spain. Spain was one of the countries I visited after my time at Cambridge on my own. I remember the thirteen-hour bus ride from Gallieni to Madrid. It was one of the most memorable bus rides I ever took, sitting next to a man from Ivory Coast who described the French country as it zipped by and educated me about the internationals all on the bus. He could tell me who to watch out for: "Be careful about those men; they know Spanish, French, English, whatever the people speak here. They'll take advantage of you."

I'll remember the smile of the young French woman that I asked for help at the transfer station...she didn't respond to me, but her pursed lips perhaps belied her shyness. But we rode together on that bus from Gallieni. When we stepped off that bus during the early-morning hours in Madrid, she gave me the same smile and walked away. I'd like to be cheesy and I'd also like to be thoughtful in saying that Agathe's smile reminds me of that woman. I don't have many strong memories of France. I fell in love with the place like a person would with someone that instantly enchants him; it's the mystery that pulls.

Agathe's an honest person. She's open about her misgivings about herself and about others but it has never felt like grandstanding. I've felt a familiarity with her and smile whenever we meet up because she has something to tell me...not just in words but with presence. Her words in person as well as her blog are not prosaic whatsoever. In fact, I wish I could communicate my heart as well as she does in print. I really do. It's fantastically poetic and candid. I wish I had a chance to sit down and read more of her thoughts.

I don't worry about Agathe that much either. I'd like to think that her travels calm my wanderlust to some degree. It's probably because we share a sort of perspective on the world that we can only deduct as a result of being there. We can talk about a place and that switch goes off...and I liken it to that woman from France: I don't remember what she looked like but I remember how she made me feel.

Agathe, besos dondequiera te vas! Fue un placer por todo el tiempo. Me hare un viaje alli algun dia :)

Of Friends Parte Siete

Today was our last day of usability class...man it feels good to be done with that. Afterwards we went to House of Shields right by 79 N. Montgomery. I miss those chill times at the pub and just dishing, you know? I always enjoy those times with my classmates, new and old. There's always something to discuss.

Who do we have today? Juliet Chung. Ah, I cannot say enough about this gal. She's close to the top of my best friends list. In all honesty I'm not sure what connected us in the beginning but I've always trusted Jules to be around. She's got a full heart...much more full than I think she'll ever admit. But she's honest with me all the time and that takes the cake for me. We've both been through a lot together and it's tough finding the time to talk with the distance...but that does not worry me too much. She's one of the first I call whenever I visit SoCal and I don't ever feel bad about letting her know what's up. That's something I take for granted too often. You don't find a lot of people that'll find the time for you...I mean really drop what they're doing for you. We can just slide right back into life like it was back in the day whenever we reconnect. She's easy to love. I'm lucky to know you Jules!