n e w s~~
global network!!
march 31\99
have you ever had one of those times of feeling cheated or left out
after watching a movie?! well, i watched an anime called "Twilight
of the Dark Master" with my brother. I don't know what to think about
it! THe ending.. well, hmm. i can't describe it. its cool .. but,..
aaa. well, the movie isn't bad.. the main character, "Shinjyo Tsunami",
is chotto hen yo. He is a man with white flowing hair, red lipstick
.. makes me wonder if this is the view of the future, since this anime
takes place in the future. but that Tsunami guy is a weirdo and acts cool!
..... well, you should see it and tell me what you think about it!!
My brother seems to like that Tsunami guy very much though.... but
that is coming out from a guy who would like to dye his hair silver..
so is it a biased opinion??! :D
I attended my grandfather's funeral today... It was a strange experience
since it was a sort of Chinese tradition funeral.. but it was weird.
It was really sad too.. to see my grandfather's body the last time
before he was lowered into his grave.. .
My brother, Tom, swore on his bowl(rice bowl) that he will play Red Alert
with the Salty Fish one last time. After the last game, he won't play it
anymore with the Salty Fish!!!! my brother is tired of losing to the Salty
Fish everytime. He says that he haven't even won a single victoly over
the salty fish yet!!
"the Salty Fish must be using a cheat or something to produce
so many tanks and ships without getting a shortage of money!!", he says.
but..will my brother keep his promise? we shall see, won't we?!
On another sad side is that i have "yeet hei" or "hot air".. so my
tongue is hurting and my sides of my mouth is hurting too!! Its horrible.
I can't really eat anything!! But i'm not only one.
"I think i'm getting "yeet hei" too. My tongue feels sore.. I
probably ate too many salted peanuts!!", my brother said today.
May 7 1999
hmm .. i haven't done anything for a long while... .
but let me test out this "pico" thing or program first.. :D :D
It seems to work out really well. next, i need to learn the FTP thing.
I found a really neat homepage about Malice Mizer's Kozi-san. It even
has pictures of Kozi-san's room and his paintings. (strangely enough, it
even has a little blue print of his house!!.. now where do you get that? :D)
I think that guy is rather chotto strange.. His rooms/paintings are really
unique..!! you should go see yourself...
(ColouR Me BlooD ReD)
oh, i have to get going to catch
x-files right now... so au revoir:~~
June 2 1999----___**
yare yare... i have been "busy" recently. Midterms and good stuffs
last week. Abnormal sleeping patterns... etc.. but it doesn't seem like
anything will get easier since the finals start.. next week! sigh..
i better get studying soon.. I had an extra day off on monday because of
Memorial Day.. but i think i wasted it. quel dommage.. Right now i'm addicted
to this book called "THE WHEEL OF TIME" by RObert Jordan. I hear there are
eight books out so far! Each book is about 2 inches thick, BTW.. :D SO
you can catch me sometimes on a "study break" in the UCLA store in the
fantasy section reading a big book. Right now, i'm on book 2.. a long way
to go!!
On the Memorial Day weekend, there was
the annual "Jazz and Reggae Festival" .. it was so loud. DOn't ask me about
that subject.. i saw lots of strange people going there... (sweat drop
rolling down) and lots of t-shirts, posters, and stickers that have names
such as "Bob Marley", or "Rufus King". I suggest if you curious about who
are these people, you can send e-mail to my brother Tom or visit his homepage
(in the links section). He is an "expert" (hahah!!) on Jazzzz~... he *just*
might know!! :D :D :D
Don't worry! someday,.. (@_@ sigh..) i will complete this HP once and for
all!! I already have some things, but i haven't have time to do anything
with them so far! hahaha!!
June 29, 1999
i'm recently into a computer game called Dune 2000 and also Red Alert.
My brother has been playing Red Alert with Chan usually almost everyday!
The most fun game was when Tom had the super Ore Truck with amour, and speed.
You know that ore trucks can heal themselves too, right? ;) Tom destroyed
Chan's mammoth tank, and little tanks with his tiny army too! That game was
on Crate survival!!
In the hot hot summer day in my insulating suana-like air house, i was
close to melting like a candle when i heard the door bell ring. Lazy lazy
as i was, i waited for someone to answer it. "Strange.. .," i thought.. It
was a guy saying some English. I crept out of my room to investigate.. .
When i got to the living room, my mother and my sister were holding a hung
cardboard box that is almost as tall as me (well, i am kind of short, but..)
!! What could it be!?!? some sweat drops trickled down.. . could it be..
but it can't be..?!?! that soon.. . wasn't it just about one week ago..?
What else can be from "daddy's music"?! but yes... .. .
* * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * ** * * *
-=* the moon burst IBANEZ RG570 has arrived!!!!!!!! *=-
click here for to see its picture
Oh,"moonburst" is a name that i came up with opposed to "sunburst". A sunburst
colored guitar is a darker red rimmed guitar that fades into a bright red in
the center. moonburst (or starburst) is a dark blue (or violet) rimmed guitar
that fades into blue in the center. i think i like the moonburst better than
the sunburst! so nice and shiny. . .@_@ * * lovely lovely lovely~~
It is really nice looking for a used guitar! It has 6 strings (i didn't
know that guitars have 6 strings.. -_-.. . i thought they had five..), 2
humbuckers, a case (not a square one.. quel dommage..), etc.. . It even
has the tremor arm! Now if we can learn to play it.. . . and get an amplifier
.. . =)
You can tell that i know pratically nothing about guitars, but why did my
brother get one? Well, he did all the "research" and found that the Ibanez
RG570 is the guitar to get.. The cheapest place to get a guitar he found out
was on the internet. Such as the music supply and equipment auction at
www.rockauction.com. My brother has been looking at guitars for a long time.
he went to many music shops and searched on the internet for deals. Last year
he bet on a blue Ibanez RG570 with a nice square case for around $260, but
he was outbidded last minute by "SCRAPEGOAT". such a great tragedy.. . we
were so mad at such a loss.. . "that stupid scrapegoat!!" every week we
checked rockauction for another ibanez RG570, but there weren't any.. my
brother began to give up after months passed.. but then there were a couple
of black ibanez RG570 for auction, but it wasn't the same. One day, my brother
saw there was a red ibanez RG540 for auction with a square case! It was very
nice too.. but it was a very hot item and the bid went up and up and uppp..
so we didn't get it. THen. one week,.. my brother saw a moonburst ibanez
RG570 on rockauction! It was around $260.. and it contained a case, but no
tremor arm.. "it looks nice. what do you think aobut it?" he said. and so..
we put our bid, and on the last hour, we outbidded the other guy.. The last
price was around $280 or so.. we both agreed that this guitar looked better
than the one that "scrapegoat" got!! SO there!! :D
. . . and so.. the story now begins..
le raison est notre Y. U. M. E. someday.. itsuka. . we will all get together
and .. . . this is the beginning of the new chapter of visual shock(-_-)
I wonder when AMADEUS's In the Mist CD will come.. . hmm.. .
July 29, 1999
The Amadeus CDs came today in the morning!!! Somehow, i was still
asleep when it was around 11:00 AM.. . But we got their two CDs and
500 yen! Haha.. i guess that we paid too much? But, the strange thing
is that my brother said that he didn't have enough yen on hand to pay
for the two CDs so he decided to get one of them! So it was quite a
surprise that we got two CDs instead of one!
On the cover says the band name "AMADEUS" and under it reads
"fantastic final weapon"! Rather funny, IMHO.. the first CD is
translated as "Portrait of Ludwig" and has a painting of Ludwig
Beethoven on the cover. It has nine tracks and costs 2000 yen.
The second CD is called "In the Mist". It has a picture of a nude
guy(?) sitting down with his head down on his knee. It has four tracks
and costs 1500 yen.
I think the CDs are very unique... We first heard one of
Amadeus' song in MP3 format at a visual rock homepage and we
really liked it. Later we found the official Amadeus homepage and
surprisingly, it had an English page! There, we ordered their CDs
with a rather low shipping fee of around 500 yen. Amadeus is an
indies band, or it is not signed up with a major label(ex. Sony).
They have their own label called Fantasia. Anyway, since we ordered
their CDs through mail, we got free pictures of each of the members
with their respective signatures!! Good deal!!
Amadeus is made of 4 members: Hiron, the composer, writer,
pianist, and programmer, Seiji, the vocalist, Nene, the soprano voice,
and Miyu, the bass player. A funny thing i read was that Miyu is
from a family of ninjas and he can be one!! @_@ Their music has a
baroque or gothic feel to it. It sounds like classical music. Actually,
one of their songs, is translated as "moonlight", from Beethoven's
Moonlight sonata!! It is their own version of Beethoven's song!
It is a very interesting version.. and its a vocal. I was really surprised
that some of the tracks are talking or perhaps drama? Well, since i
don't understand Japanese,... i can't understand what the guy is
saying, but from the way he is talking, it sounds kind of scary.. .
Though i don't understand those parts, they sound rather nice too..
Hehe.. His voice is very mysterious and low..
maybe i should scan some things for you guys to see later on!! :D
August 26. 1999
well, sorry for such a late update, but there was lots of things
going on.. Such as my brother Warren coming back from his one year Hong Kong
studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (along with all his
goods!! :D), my little vacation to Los Angeles and Las Vegas, testing
out CDs and games, going to the annual California state fair in
Sacramento, and my cousin that came to visit from Ohio..
Quite exciting stuff indeed..
well, yesterday, my brother tom, cousins Lander and Mun Tou, and
I went to the Barnes and Nobles bookstore at Arden Fair Mall. My brother
Tom's major is computer science and engineering... so sometimes, i think
that his thinking is kind of strange.. Anyway, he wants to make games,
so he wants to learn how to do that from books. The game programming
book in that store was missing the included CD so he couldn't get it.
But my cousin Lander was so interested in the "cuties" in the Anne Gedde's
baby picture book.. (i dislike babies very much and i don't see how they
are "cute").. My brother Tom looked at a book about camera filters and
is now getting an idea to make a filter for his camera!! sigh.. well,
i have bad feelings but oh well... He seemed to have pretty much
finished with his project of trying to fix his car stereo. I mean, he
accidentally short circuited his original car stereo, but he bought a
second hand car stereo (with only a radio) for 2 bucks and modified it
by making an input plug. Now he can play his CD or MD player easily
in his car..
September 7, 1999
These days, my brother Tom is looking for a suit to buy for his
job interview. After days of looking around, we went to San Francisco
and bought a charcoal grey Kenneth Cole suit for around $500. The
catch is that the tailor needed to make some adjustments, so we have to
go pick it up after one week! Anyway, we sent some "survival surplies"
(food, etc) to my brother in Berkeley and there we picked up a TV, a
VCR, two computer monitors, a computer hard drive, and a printer thrown
out as garbage!! What a find..! :D My brother Tom couldn't wait to
open and try to "fix" them... .. .
September 9, 1999
Today is 9-9-99, or the US release date of the new game console
called the Sega Dreamcast! hm.. well,.. not exactly "new" since its
been out in Japan and in Asia for about 1/2 year already.. :D
My brother Tom and I went out shopping again at the Citris Height's
Sunrise Mall. Why? well, my brother is getting afterthoughts about that
suit he bought in San Francisco!! @_@ .. so he is looking again...
I was surprised by a long line of people in front of Software ETC
waiting to get a Sega Dreamcast! Anyway, my brother and I played the
Capcom fighting game "Jojo's Venture" (or "Jojo's Bizzare Adventures).
It is based on a popular Japanese comic and cartoon. It was quite fun,
but i died really fast using the coffee flavoured bubble gun chewing and
"stand" using dog, Iggy.. My brother used the Micheal Jackson look a
like guy called Kakyoin and reached much farther!! :D What is a stand?
Well, i don't really know how to describe it.. Its kind of like a
special ability that a character has...
Anyway, while my brother was driving to the mall, he turned up
the volume of the stereo very high while listening to Sex Machine Guns'
song "Samurai Warriors"... When we stopped to go to the Barnes & Nobles
bookstore, we found out that the battery was "dead"!! Probably because
the car used up too much energy when playing "Samurai Warriors"..
Luckily, my brother brought the charging up link cable that you can use
to start the engine when you attach it to another car's battery.. We
had to ask an old couple to help us, but that didn't work somehow..
Later we asked a man to help us and it worked!! That was quite
embarrassing!! But my brother Tom doesn't seem to have learned anything
from this lesson.. . sigh.. This wasn't the first time that a similar
incident happened!
September 26, 1999
(sigh) yes, today is the day that i came back to UCLA to study
after the summer vacation. I have a chemistry placement test tomorrow
that i have to study for.. if i don't pass the test then i wouldn't be
able to take a class that i already signed up for!!
Anyway, i am living in the Dykstra Hostel this year. Last year I
also lived in the same building in room 808, which is a triple. This
year I'm living in room 708, which is also a triple. No, that isn't a
coincidence!! :D I picked that room myself. However, my roommates
aren't selected. I was the 2nd person to move in the room this year
so i got the bed, desk, and space that i wanted. Last year, i was the
last person to move in so i got the "left overs", but i still got the
bed and desk that i wanted.
The drive to LA (my brother Tom did the driving to LA) was quite
long. It takes around 6 hours to drive from Sacramento to Los Angeles.
At first we were listening to music in the car (not that loud as
"samurai warriors"!!!!!) and we had to stop at a gas station.. After
my brother filled up the tank, he found out that the battery was "dead"
agaiN!!!!! (sigh) well, we asked another old couple to help us out
to start the car. The battery link cable is such a necessity for my
brother. I think if he doesn't leave it in the car, he will be in big
big trouble someday!!!! :D The old man said OK, but he asked my
brother if my brother would be responsible for any damage done to his
car.. I think that this shows how things are in the current society..
These days, trust is not present in this society.. Its a society full
of lawsuits and caution. I imagine that in the old times, people had
chivalry.. laws of conduct and honour.. Because of chivalry, i think
the society feels more safe and warm.. Chivalry today seems to be
barely existant... lots of media is full of rumours about people and
stars, and lawsuits.. such a cold society. .. but anyway, my brother
answered,"I am an honourable man." (sweat drop rolling down) and
some other things.. but i wouldn't go on with that.!! @_@
Anyway, one of my brother's comment about *that* incident
afterwards was something like "i think i'm getting used to ask people
for help".. (see, he doesn't really care!! -_-..) But for the rest of
the journey, we didn't play anymore music!
hm.. so in review of the summer, this is what i did:
* LA and Las Vegas and Death Valley vacation
* took a guitar class at UCDavis!! now i can play a couple of simple
songs, but i can't sing while playing.. its quite hard! So i can't
really say that i can play the whole song..
* help install the satellite dish on our roof!! We cancelled our cable,
since it was too expensive.. It used to be something like $4 a year,
but now its about $12 per month!! We now save more money!! Especially
that cable doesn't really have any Cantonese programming anymore..It
has lots of Mandarin stuff.. other than that, we don't really watch
much cable TV stuff.
The satellite dish is an idea that my pops got from his friend..
His friend got a satellite and told my father about it..
My father also wanted to watch the 50th anniversary
of communist China on the tele. But the installation took a couple of
days!! We had to climb up the roof (by ladder) and also lug a TV up
there to adjust the satellite dish!! I stared at the TV screen for
a long time.. looking at the "snow".. . The satellite dish costs
around $189 with the receiver and cable.. My father called some ad from
the Sing Tao newspaper.. However, the satellite dish/receiver are
cheap in both ways: price and quality.. They are made in Korea/Taiwan.
* worked on this homepage. Did you see anything #NEW#, anything
#DIFFERENT#? hehe. Well, probably not really, but anyway....
-UPDATED SECTIONS-
- [moi] , [news] , [japan trip 98],
- finally made the [visual kei SHOCK], [eye] section (well, not exactly
done... but you can click on them!! -_-..)
- made the links work in [TARDIS]
- made the [hen] section
- currently working on [current games] (introduce the games i'm playing),
the X japan section, game art gallery, visual rock band gallery,
see? well, i did "quite a lot".. i even FTP most files to my UCLA
account. However, after the first week of school, i think i wouldn't
have much time to work on my homepage.. but let me tell you this,.
It *will* be up and running sometime!!
October 3, 1999
HI~! well, since that school just started, i am working hard on
this homepage! One problem of working on my homepage here at UCLA is
that the school doesn't let you put any files on the computers in the
labs, so i got to load everything from my disk.. and when i'm done
modifying the files, i have to FTP it .. quite "mah fahn" or complicated
and troublesome.. .
oh yes, i hope to accomplish some other things here at UCLA other
than working on my homepage.. I brought a how to read and write Chinese
book here in hope that i will do some self studying. I also plan to
get some drawings done. I just drew a nice picture of SD Mana of the
visual rock band "Malice Mizer"!! i like it very much.. so i made a
copy of it, but the cloth patterns of Mana's clothes are a little
different. I plan to put one of the Mana's up for decoration on the
door outside by my name (the names of who is in the room are written
on the outside of each room).. Its very small though.. about 7 cm, i
think. I would like to put it on my art page, but i don't have access
to a scanner right now... je suis desolee!! honmani sunmahen!!
October 8, 1999
Do you know what day it is? Its a friday! This week is officially my
first week of class.. Today is also the birthday of my little sister
called Eunice. She telephoned me yesterday and said that she got two
parakeets for her birthday! They are yellow and one is female and the
other is male.. HmM. well, thoughout the history of the FONG family,
we never had a bird in our house.. that is .. for a *pet*. Well,
what other reason we would have a live bird around? For special bird
soup! Its supposed to be very healthy for you!! hehe.. i never
thought we would actually have pet birds in my house.. I do hope
that they would be still living by the time i go back for winter
vacation!! :D >D ;D
oh, i don't think i talked about life here at LA. Well, my
room is quite diverse.. One of my roommates was born in El Salvador,
and the other was from Philippines!! I guess we are getting along.
I usually eat breakfast in my room since i have a 14 meal per week
meal plan. I'm thinking of changing it to a 11 meal plan though..
Its not very flexible hours sometimes when you don't feel like
eating or when you are studying on campus, like in the library..
Everytime when i go to eat lunch and dinner, i have to walk all
the way back to where all the dormitories are located at to eat.
Now that is about a 15 minute walk!! For breakfast, i usually
eat a peanut butter and sweet condensed milk sandwich, and
maybe a fruit. The sandwich is quite good, though somehow
many people think it is rather strange!!! Even my cousin..
they think "how can you eat sweet and salty all together?!?!"
well, i think it tastes good.. and my brothers and I usually
eat it at home!!
About dorm food: well, i guess its not all too bad, but
there are not very good days.. There are lots of food you can
pick from.. Everyday there are pizza and hamburgers.. sometimes
they serve stuff like Italian pasta, "chinese food" like kung
pao chicken with rice or orange chicken, mexican food (lots of
this stuff actually since most workers in the canteen are
Mexican!!!! I guess they all come from the border.. LA is not
that far away from Mexico you know!! :D :D) like tacos, fajitas,
some "Japanese" food like Soba and udon noodles and sushi..
etc... There are some places that close earlier, but at those
places, its more like a take out, and you don't get as many
choices.. There are 3 canteens (Reiber, Covel, Hedrick)
, and this year there are 3 "take out" places that close
later than the canteens (Caruso (italian food), Crossroad
Cafe (formerly Bradley International Cafe), and Puzzles).
Well, i guess that sometimes the food can upset your
stomach.. and make your stomach messed up!! Gosh, i can't
believe that i talked so much about FOOD.. no, i'm not
that hungry right now..
October 10, 19999 
I had an interesting day today! I actually went on a little
trip!! I went to the
Los Angeles J. Paul Getty Museum today. Its an art museum
with paintings, antique furniture, sculptures, photos, drawings,
and more. This is a floor trip of my hostel.. Actually, the
guys that set it up is the 8th floor, and i'm on the 7th floor,
but anyone can go if they want to. I wasn't thinking of going,
but my floor's Program Assistant, Mary, came to my room yesterday
and tried to persuade my roommate and I to go.. I got some homework
done yesterday, so i thought to myself," why not? i can use the
LA buses for once, and look around LA." I also looked at their
website and it said it was showing the artist Andy Warhol's works
and it had the famous Vincent Van Gogh "Irises" painting there!!
Not only that, i found that the museum was *free*!! wow! I was
quite surprised about that!!
Andy Warhol is the abstract artist that paints very
"commercialized" paintings.. such as painting Cambell Soup cans
over and over again, and painting Marilyn Monroe all over...
and some other wacky things. Not that I'm a fan of him, but i would
like to see how they look in real life. (sweat rolling down)
So, anyway, the people who want to go on the trip is
supposed to meet in the 8th floor study lounge at 11:30 AM..
I went there a little late since i was eating lunch/breakfast
at around 11:00 AM. But the main organiser was talking about
some weird Greek statue (Kouros) and was saying how amazing
it was and the controversy about it.. The thing was that the
statue has so many different styles from all over the Greek
periods, that it seems to be a fake, and perhaps a trick..
But scientists performed tests on it and couldn't find any
chemicals that would make rock deterioate! So we all got this
4 page article about the Kouros thing.. and we set out to
the bus station.
Today is a very very hot day, with no clouds, and a
shining sun... We walked across campus and went to the bus
station.. there, we waited a long time in the sun for the
bus. Oh yes, it seems as if the 7th floor and the 8th floor
people weren't really mixing together.. Everyone was sticking
in groups in their same floors.. Our floor had about 5 people
going, including me.. some other people were Mary, our floor's
PA, Amy, a girl that lives down the hall, and Micheal, a close
neighbour who lives at 704. Anyway, even though Micheal is
a close neighbour, i never met or saw him before!! (and this is
the 2nd week of LA? :D) He seems to be an interesting guy.. I
finally found out that *he* was the guy playing flute!!
Sometimes, i hear some person playing the flute, and i don't
know who is.. The funny thing was that last year, i also heard
some guy playing a flute.. At first i was thinking,.. "what~?
don't tell me its the same guy again!!?!?!" hehehe..!! @_@
He is also interested in Martial Arts!! not many people seem
to be..
So the bus came (and by that time, we were melting like candle
sticks.... ), and our floor payed $1.85 for the fare..
we later found out that it was only $1.35!! We thought that
the guy said it was $1.85.. what a waste of 50 cents!! Anyway,
the bus was very old and messy.. There was grafitti all over
the seats and windows. The plastic windows were all scratched
with some sharp object. We then had to pay another 25 cents
for a transcript!! So we got off an we went to another bus
(Santa Monica Big Blue Bus) stop near by.. and we waited.. .
Then, we went on a highway, up the hills, and arrived at the
Getty Center. Well, not exactly, there, we had to wait for
a tram to actually take us to the museum. The tram is an air
cushioned moving tram!! Wat advanced technology!! The tram took
dus up, all the way to the top of the mountain... By this
time, we were all hot, sweaty, and thirsty.. But, lots of
people didn't eat lunch yet, so they went to lunch first..
Mary, Micheal and moi went to the water fountain (aahh nice,
cool, and not salty like the water fountain on our floor!)
and then we decided to go look at the exhibitions first.
The first exhibit we went to was the Ancient ARt one..
It was showing lots of artifacts of Ancient Greece/Roman..
Statues, bronze works, pottery, etc. It is very interesting and
amazing that we are looking at artifacts that are thousands of years
old!!! The art works are very well done too, like the statue of Hercules,
the bronze items such as this great big bronze shield... and some things
had colour!! I guess that it is paint from so many years ago!! Oh yes,
it seemed as if every room had a guy in a dark suit standing there to
make sure that the visitors doesn't touch the precious stuff!! I just
wonder how many of those guys they had to hire?!
Next, we went to a place with all French antiques and paintings.
The antique furniture were really fancy. Some rooms were set up to
look like an aristocrat's place! Even the walls have special wallpaper!
It was a very strange experience to walk around a French aristocrat's
place.. . a really nice looking thing was a big canopy bed. It is
in a square shape and the canopy was shaped like a little dome.. it
was hanged from some thick wires!! It had all these fancy Ostrich
feathers and tassles,.. but of course, you can't touch anything!!
October 16, 1999
Right now, i'm trying to work on this essay about "The Epic of
Gilgamesh", which is quite similar to Homer's "The Odyssey".. I thought
it was really interesting that Gilgamesh was written around 2500 BC!!
It was written on clay tablets in cuneiform script! That is really
incredible that we have something that exists more than 3000 years
ago! However, the clay tablets were very fragmented, so the story
is not really complete.. . And there are so many different versions
that they have to piece them all together. !!! why am i talking
about this?! i have an essay to do! its due on Monday. (today is
Saturday!!) aaaAA!! Oh yes, another strange thing about the epic is
that it talks about the gods, one day wanting to destroy mankind, making
a big flood to wipe them out.. But the god of wisdom, Ea, warned one
one man, Utnapishtim, about the flood and told him to build a ship to
put his family, craftsmen, and animals on his ship... Which is similar
to the story of the Noah's ark! It also mentioned about the tower of
babel or something like that, but this work is so fragmented that some
parts are missing so .. I thought it was really interesting, perhaps
there was a huge, natural flood that covered most of the planet around
3000 BC? Another strange thing was that this epic has so many similarities
to "The Odyssey" that it is uncanny! Maybe "The Odyssey" is a very
distorted version of "The Epic of Gilgamesh"?? OK OK,.. i think these
old artifacts are very interesting.. I actually think that being an
archeologist might be fun.. to dig out old artifacts and rediscover
ancient lost cities.. "....." yes, i do like the Indiana Jones movies!
I always wonder how was life like thousands of years ago? Yesterday,
i read an interesting comic
ELAGABALUS
that was about the ancient civilisations having
more advanced technology than us, such as space travel and etc!! Well,
i think it is similar to another comic called "SPRIGGAN", but they are
both good and different!
I think they have quite interesting ideas.. . You know that how the
Egyptians built the great pyramids and how the Stone Henges were built
still remains a mystery?? I heard theories that the Egyptians had
connection with aliens.. . oh no, now i have you thinking "hmm, this
person also watched "Stargate!!" That movie is about people finding out
how to use an old ancient artifact that is actually a "warp" that leads
to ancient Egypt!!. They also found out that there are aliens there
too.. I only watched one or two episodes of the Stargate TV series..
and I only watched part of the movie when i luckily caught it when it
was shown on TV.
(sigh) I woke up at around 9:10 AM today, but i slept at around
1:50 AM yesterday. .. (yawn) tired.. *but* i got up because there was
a telephone call for my roommate! My roommate was out, so i was the
only one in the room and i had to get down from the top of the bunk bed
to answer the phone.. . (mumble).. . My other roommate, Martha, always go back
to her home on the weekends.. since its so close. Anyway, the person
that called was my roommate's boyfriend. He asked if we were all right,
and said something about an earthquake.. "Earthquake?!?" i thought..
I didn't really know what he was talking about.. but he said there
was one.. Later on, my roommate Martha called and asked if we were all
right.. and its about the earthquake thing again.. She said that the
earthquake is on a scale of 7.0!!!!!!! that is quite a "big" one!!
However, i am kind of disappointed that i didn't feel it. .. Martha
said that the earthquake was around 2:00 AM!! And that is the time that
i went to bed!!!!!! I guess it was either that the earthquake's
epic center was too far, or i was so tired that the shaking was nothing
to disturb my sleep.. EEeekS! Now thinking about it, it would be a very
quick, sudden, and painless death if the building fell when i was
sleeping!!! I wouldn't even know what happened... hmm. .. But anyway,
my roommate Martha said that she felt the earthquake and woke up because
of it!! She lives about 15 minutes away.. hmmm. well, nothing seems
changed here, the buildings are still up... . life is normal... I guess
i have to read the news tomorrow and read about the earthquake.. I don't
have a television or anything you know.
I never really knew that Los Angeles is also a dangerous earthquake
area.. hehe.. one of my first classes here was "introduction to earth
science" and i learned that LA is quite dangerous indeeeed!! Right now,
my school has lots of constructions going on.. some of them are seismic
re-enforcing projects. Some buildings here were badly damaged because
of the 1992 (?) Northridge Earthquake... but that wasn't the "big" one
that my professor was expecting.. So maybe the one that just occured
is the "big" one? My professor described his experience of the North-
ridge earthquake as going under a doorway, and counting how long the
shaking lasts.. I hear that the structure of the doorway has good
support so that it won't fall down so easily.. But anyway, he counted
and since it wasn't that long, he said "oh, this isn't the 'big one'"
(and we aren't talking about surfing and great waves!!!) He told us to
do the same and count... because there isn't really anything you can
do anyway!! ;D People here in LA also have to secure things like
water heaters to the wall with metal straps... that is quite strange
i thought.. Well, luckily the earthquake wasn't here, i wouldn't know
what to do! I wouldn't have a place to stay or anything you know..
well, my uncle lives about an hour away.. but.. i might have to be a
bum or something (which i always thought to be an "interesting"
adventure..).. oh no, now you really think i'm weird.. first Indiana
Jones, next Stargate, and now, being a bum?!? hahah!!! But, there was
another recent earthquake in Taiwan... I saw some pictures of the
damage and it seems to be quite disastrous.. The only time that i felt
an earthquake was the 1989 (?) San Francisco earthquake.. I think it
was a big one too.. At that time, i was in my house in Sacramento (which
is about 80 miles away from San Francisco, or 1.5 hour), in my kitchen
and then everything started to shake!! The clock's hanging electric
cord, the hanged calendar, everything!! It was quite a strange
experience.. But i was so young (9 years old) that i kind of forgot
how it was like.
well, today, i was crossing a street and i saw something
floating/flying towards me.. It was very small (about 2cm x 4cm)
and it was light purple-pink... At first i thought it was an unusual
piece of scrap paper that was floating, but i realised that it was
flying! That light purple-pink thing was a butterfly! I never saw such
a butterfly of that color in my life before.. I have to keep my eyeballs
pop out to see another one.. I do find that there are some different
bugs that live here in LA and not in Sacramento. I also saw some real
Monarch butterflies in LA before!! They are so bright orange.. i wish
i could get my net and catch them (without anyone looking at me!)..
but people would think i'm crazy.. I don't think many people are
actually interested in observing nature (plants, insects, etc) in LA..
especially that it is a big city.. In a big city, i think that people
are more self centered and narrow sighted.. they don't see what is
around them. hehe.. maybe i should make a page of "bug watching"
and put pictures up of the insects i saw before!! :D
.... why am i writing so much?!?!? well, you know.. i got an essay
to do.. (= procrastination?!!? -_- sweat drop rolling down) but anyway,
I got things sort of done at around 1:40 AM.. so i got to read about
the earthquake thing at BBC (British Broadcasting System) news. You
know that since its British, their views are so much different from
U.S.A.!! Really!! but anyway, the earthquake was around 2:45 AM,
so i must be sound asleep!!! and it happened in a very rural area
so not many people were injured.. But some railroads got derailed or
something like that.. The area is southeast of Los Angeles.. sort of
between Las Vegas and LA, i think.. A really funny thing about that
article was about the people's reactions in Las Vegas.. Many people
were gambling, and then there was a sudden shaking, and after the
shaking stopped, the people just continue gambling!! hahahaha!! now
that is quite funny indeed!! oh, you want to know the Richer Scale
used to "describe" earthquakes? (stolen from
BBC news ) here it is:
October 17, 19999 (well, after i wake up!!)
Today I woke up because of another phone call.. but this time, it
was around 10:00 AM.. and my roommate answered it.. I was quite tired
since i slept at around 3:00 AM. fast forward,... and here i am, still
in the computer lab trying to work on essay and book report. Well, i
think i'm really "done" but i want to go over it a couple of times.
haha,. if you really are interested, i will post my bad essays up..
I think i might do that.. but i will have to convert the file to html
or something. Long ago, i was also going to put some of my short
stories from my English class up, but i don't have them with me right
now.. I need to retype them into the computer. Yeah, this homepage is
rather strange: lots of weird things, art, games, music, etc!
I couldn't help but work on my homepage as i was working
on my book report!! My fingers sure are itchy from yesterday too!! I
wasn't supposed to touch my homepage until i am done with homework you
know!! Well, i couldn't help it.. i modified the [TARDIS] with new
links, the [news], and etc.
Its *really* freezing here, especially when one has been sitting
in #one# spot for hours!! The cold is truly deep to the bone!!! The
air conditioning is on too.. I just have a t-shirt and a button shirt..
But, i just went out to eat dinner at the Reiber Canteen.. It was cold
there too! I was hoping that if i walk, i will get warm,.. but it didn't
really get too warm.. I ate some cheese ravioli, part of a vegetable
topping pizza, ice tea (!!cold!!), orange juice (!!freezing more!!),
and 1 1/2 of a m&m cookie. I shouldn't have really drank some cold
drinks, it made me colder than ever!!! But i have "yeet hei" so my
tongue is hurting, and orange are "leurng" (cold food) so.. i thought
it might help. As i was getting food, my gastrocnemius (sp?) was
a little hurting.. oh.. gastrocnemius is the scientific term for your
"calf" muscle, or that big, round muscle on the (dorsal?) back of
your leg. aah.. i took an anatomy and physiology class in high school
(10th grade) and now i really forgot so much!!! Anyway, it was hurting
because i had "chow gun" or cramps on both sides!!!
October 22, 1999
the week is again at friday. haha! to tell you the truth, i
missed my brother's birthday!! I was going to send him something, but
somehow, i lost three days,.. i couldn't believe it was the 22nd
already!.. and not only that.. i have 2 midterms of chemistry and
physics on the 29th (next friday).. I tell you, physics is very
mind blender class! All those formulas are swirling in my poor little
brain!! I'm really drowning in the momentum chapter, and now all these
vector things are invading my brain!!!! crazy i tell you!!
Since its friday, i just had to update somethings since i haven't
really done anything big in a long time. Well, i went to the UCLA
library computer lab (CLICC) and found out they had some useful
programmes that the residential hall ones didn't have! well, the
residential hall labs barely have anything.. just stuff like microsoft
word, telnet, internet, FTP, the usual solitaire/minesweeper game,..
and thats about it! Anyway, in the library, there was Adobe photoshop
5.5, and some programme that lets you read Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
etc.. I was pondering for quite a while about what to do on my
homepage, especially on the gallery section.. since i have access to
Adobe photoshop now, i finally decided to use the "thumbnail" format
to organize the pictures. Well, if you don't know what a "thumbnail"
is, i wouldn't be too surprised.. Its a strange term used to describe
small images that you click on to see the full picture.. the good
things about them are that the loading time for the page is much
shortened, and you get to see a preview of how the picture looks like.
So, i used Adobe Photoshop and changed the image size to make
it very small (in file size and shape) and i saved the image as JPG
first, then GIF. When saving the file as GIF, i fiddle around with
the number of colours. Its really surprising how some pictures still
look nice with only 25 colours! It saves lots of space too! I then
compare the JPG to the GIF file and usually the GIF file is smaller!
Of course, since the "thumbnail" is just for a preview, you don't
really need it to be very high quality.
So i did that to many of the pictures on my disks..
But! The dumb internet thing seems to be down right now, so i can't
really access to all my picture files that i have in my homepage!
So i can't really complete my galleries. This was my first time
trying to make the "thumbnail" things, but i'm glad i figured out
how to do it. I don't really know how to use Adobe Photoshop.. and
i don't really use it..(its my brother who uses it!)
Other than that.. oh!! my brother Warren's last package finally
came! Well, of course, not here at UCLA, but at my house in Sacramento!
I hear that there was lots of goodies.. well, not that much.. lots
of my brother Warren's journal books (about 10 books i heard!! @_@)
some games, and! and!! And!! a yoshiki t-shirt! ah ha! who is yoshiki?
He is/was a member of the wonderful visual rock band called X japan!
oh, click here for an introduction to X japan
and yoshiki! yeah, its part of my page, if you haven't went there yet,
and its not much... Anyway, the thing was that my brother Warren
bought it for my oldest brother Tom, and he didn't get one for moi!
That warren didn't knew i liked visual rock!! :( :( :(. .
(oh well, nut doeings are nut doeings indeed) My
brother Tom told me though that the t-shirt was a little too tight
for him, so he is going to give it to moi!! wow! i can't wait to
see it! hehehehehehehehehe!! He said that he is going to send it to
moi from Sacramento!! OH! neato! However, i feel sorry for my
brother Tom! Too bad it was too small for him!! but i hope it isn't
too big for me! hehe! well, it would be neat to wear that t-shirt
here at UCLA! I saw a person in my Physics class wear a LUNA SEA
t-shirt, which is another visual rock band! Well, i'm not too into
Luna Sea.. BTW, the luna sea fans are called "slaves" since the fanclub
is called slave or something.. (sweat drop rolling down) but! hehe.!
i will get to wear a X japan t-shirt to counter that! Also, since
yoshiki lives in LA (something like west hollywood, which is not that
far from here i think..), he may see one of his fans and be happy
that he has fans in US!! You know that
visual rock is very unknown in America, so i was surprised that
someone else here at UCLA likes visual rock! Well, i showed some
pictures of some visual rockers to my roommates of this year, and they
think their fashion style is very strange!! They didn't understand the
"visual" part though.. They really don't!! One of them even asked me
how do you dance with this music!! ...... well... not all musics is
for dancing you know.. I don't really see how people can dance with
hard bop JAZZ.. *BUT*!!! i can imagine people tapping their feet or
going with the rhythm though!! I sometimes like to pretend to play
some part of the musics too!! I think music is more for your ear, than
for influencing body movements.. Its as they are thinking that
when you listen to the music, you see some images.. but that is true!
I imagine different worlds for different songs.. such as the songs in
the Amadeus CD are very classical/gothic style , so i imagine a
castle, and the band dressed up in baroque style clothes.. . aaaa...
but i guess not many people have lots of imagination.. .
haha! maybe i have too much imagination sometimes!! Don't ask me about
what i imagine in some Andy Lau Duck Wah songs (HK pop singer)!! My
brother Tom even looked at me strangely when i kept laughing at some of
his songs!! Well, i can't really describe it to you since you need to
hear how the song is like.. . but its really crazy!!
Speaking of funny songs. .. There are such songs that are
"ticklish" songs..songs that make you smile or laugh because its funny!
That doesn't mean that the lyrics are funny... well, for the most part,
it isn't the lyrics! A very good example is a song by the American
rock band PANTHERA! egads! i forgot the name of the song! Well, i don't
have their CD or anything, but there are some samples of their song in the
CD that was included in the TOTAL GUITAR (UK) magazine that my brother Tom
bought at TOWER books! It contains many samples other than PANTHERA, BTW.
The PANTHERA song is so funny, but my brother Tom doesn't think so at all!!
he probably thinks i'm doing weird things again or something.. But really!
that song is a very ticklish song that makes you laugh/smile!
oh, well, its 8:53 PM, and my stomach is going "peko peko" or
"guru guru".. its whining!! so i have to walk all the way back to the
residential canteen Puzzles, eat, and go to the residential hall computer
lab.. and continue using the computer. Since its friday, i want to
celebrate a little for such a long sleepless week it has been! but next
week maybe even worse because of my 2 midterms + homeworks.. (sighs)
..... well, actually, i didn't go yet, when i logged off the
computer and was walking i saw a free scanner and thought "why not?"
hehe. its hard to find a time with the computer lab so empty! I don't
really want people to look at what i'm doing!!! So i scanned my fan
art of Mana that i was talking about!! So now i got one thing in my
fan art section!! >D >D hehee!!! well, somehow, it looks much more
"professional" when it is scanned and made into an image! really!! You
can't really see the color pencil strokes! Now that i've scanned it,
i now need to make the section.. oh no! i left my disk in the computer
lab!! I don't have my name on it or anything... i guess that the
library people will look at my pictures in my disk!! -_-..
October 29,1999
I haven't updated anything for a long time.. I had midterms this
week. I just took my physics and chemistry midterms today.. i don't
think i did extremely well, but.. anyway, i've been sleeping quite
late this whole week.. i slept around 4 hrs each day.. Today i slept
for about 2.5 hours. A couple of days ago, i got a fortune cookie
that read "YOU WILL WITNESS A MIRACLE SOON".. i don't know that that
means!! hmm... i fell asleep in the library and had a very short
strange dream.. I dreamt that i was in a computer lab checking e-mail
and had lots of messy illustrations to the side.. One picture was a
guy holding a shotgun!! then i felt something was wrong! I then said
that i need to study! so then i woke up..
UPDATED SECTIONS:
[fanart], [visual rock band galleries] : malice mizer, shazna
November 12, 1999
I have so much homework these days,.. and physics homework take up
so much time!!!.. Anyway, i read that Malice Mizer's Mana opened a
shop in Aoyama Tokyo that sells clothes, bags, and accessories that are
produced by Mana!! I think that is strange! But, i think there is a
hide clothes shop or something too.. . strange!! I would like to see
what kind of clothes they have there.. . :D
December 15, 19999
os! well, not so genki today... I just finally finished my last
final (and most horrible one) today. It was physics. I didn't think
that physics would be hard, but it took up most of my time this school
quarter. As for the final, i think i didn't do very well at all.
(kanashi~.. ;_; ) lets hope that everyone doesn't do well too, so the
curve go down!!! -_-. . .. .. anyway, i was quite busy with school
work, and essay after essay.. my life style has completely gone out of
whack these whole weeks! I've been sleeping at around 2 AM, then
finally, it became 3-4 AM to be the usual sleep time (and wake up at
around 8 or 9 AM).. so i don't get much hours of sleep. Today, i didn't
get to sleep almost at all!! I was trying to study for that physics
exam.. but unfortunately.. hm.. anyway, i didn't sleep in my bed today,
i stayed overnight (and watched the beautiful sunrise!) in my floor's
study lounge. My eyeballs are quite tired today.. . I read that
many visual rock musicians get only about 5 or so hours of sleep!! I
don't know how they can do that.. . . @_@ . . .. I was feeling so
sick yesterday, i couldn't concentrate at all on my studies. . A
pounding headache, feel like throwing up (with something trying to get
back out!), and diarrhea.. I must have ate some mysterious food from
the canteens again! You don't know what they put in the food you know!
I'm going to be going back to Sacramento this friday, the 17th of
December. So i'm planning to explore outside of campus (and perhaps
look for some souveniers or unique "LA" gifts. . and work on this
homepage.. . then its sweet home at last!
About three weeks ago, i clumsily fell down the stairs and hurt
my knee.. The skin came off and my jeans ripped at the knee! I had to
wear shorts for a very very long time until today. Its beginning to
become very cold now! Pants feel kind of strange now.. BUt i had to
endure theh cold with my shorts for about three weeks.. and i only
had 2 pairs of shorts!!
oh yes, i had some strange dreams last week.. one was about
learning Hebrew or Arabic, and the other one is raiding some gangster's
headquarters with my two brothers (all of us armed with weapons, of
course)!
After my horrid final today, i went to the arcade and spent about
$1.25 playing some shooting games: Psikyo's Gunbird II (50 cents), and
Capcom's Gigawing (25 cents). I think that Gunbird II is much more
challenging and more innovative in design than Gigawing. Next, i went
to the bookstore downstairs and read some magazines such as Gamefan,
Manga Max, and Wizard. I usually don't look at Wizard, which is a US
comic magazine. It doesn't contain comics, it contains a price guide
and news, etc. I find out that Chris Claremont and John Byrne are
working back on X-men again,.. and Rob Liefield is working on Cable
again!!! Funny.. . Oh, i read in a game magazine that the Sierra's
PC game series Gabriel Knight III is under development.. But from the
pictures, it is all in *3-D*!!!!!!! why~!?!?! I really liked the
2-D format of the original Gabriel Knight. .. and the characters look
very stiff and chunky because they are made up of polygons!!
hmm.. i find many art contests on the internet..
such as SNK vs CAPCOM, and some other ones.. maybe i should enter in
one of them during the vacation?
December 17, 1999
I'm back in Sacramento!!! HOwever, i only got one hour of sleep.
I slept at around 3:00 AM and woke up at around 4:00 AM. THe shuttle
was supposed to come and pick me up at around 5:00 AM. Why did i sleep
so late? Well, i wasn't sleepy at all, and i had to clean out my
refrigerator.. so i ate a little dinner, and at around 12:00 AM, i got
the real dinner consisting of root beer, fries, and a cheeseburger...
i wasn't even hungry at all!! Then i wanted to finish this drawing for
my door. I haven't changed it at all from the SD mana picture i put
up so long ago. SInce the mood of the whole finals week is so tense..
i wanted to do something dark.
This finals week is so terrible... There is a person missing from
the sixth floor since last Thursday..and was last seen at 4:00 AM!!
SInce then, he "disappeared" and police are searching all the hostel's
floors for any clues... but there doesn't seem to be any leads.. Lots
of missing people signs are put up too... THen, at night, i could
hear constant noises coming from outside my window... Police sirens
shrieking in the night.. and helicopters flying around with search
lights, and all sorts of news caster vans outside my hostel!
At first i thought it was all for the missing guy,... but i found out
(while infiltrating the 8th floor bathroom) that the reason for all the
police and helicopter activity is that there are riots going on!! RIots
by students! I heard that students had bonfires, threw things at the
police or firemen,.. etc.. . THe reason for these riots all week....
I'm not sure.. but i heard it came from the traditional "midnight yell",
where every final, students would all scream or holler at around
midnight.. . So it has been very hectic while everyone was trying to
study for their finals... .
IMHO, i think it is rather scary, .. a guy missing.. which i think
that it would be a possibility that he is dead.. . and riots happening!
LA is a dangerous place?
Anyway,. THe trip to the airport was quite interesting.. It was
quite dark at around 5:00 AM and there wasn't anyone walking around.
I watched the sun rise and the sky turn black to violet, to blue,..
to light blue, to reddish colour.. and finally sky blue... nice!
I made it to the airplane on time and the trip wasn't too bad.. I feel
asleep a little on the plane.
At home, my brothers and I just finished putting up our christmas
tree and lights outside our house. hahaaha... our house looks like
the best of the block (maybe!!) We have so many lights .. and we got
the dangling icicle-like lights this year!! My brothers climbed up
the roof at night and put up the lights.. However, my brother Tom got
shocked by accidentally touching a prong of a plug.. afterwards he
says he is no longer cold!! crazy.. . THis isn't the first time he
has been electricuted.. last time (actually, many years ago), he
voluntarily put his finger in a light bulb socket to see how it feels
to be electricuted!!! I hope that experience didn't change him into a
strange guy!! hehe!!! My brothers hanged the fancy red bulb lights
from the top of the chimney, so it looks like a bleeding
chimney/volcano!! neato!
Last year, we got our good red lights stolen. Someone "fingered"
it from our tree outside! This year, my brother got locks and locked
the wires so no one can take them again!
January 7, 2000
Winter vacation is almost over. .. and i haven't really updated
this homepage much except for the Japan trip '98 in the [WORLD] section.
I also added more pictures in the fanart section. The thing is that
all my photos are here in Sacramento, so i can't scan them in LA.
*But*! one of the reasons for not updating is also due to the fact that
my brothers also want to use the computer. Either its my brother Tom,
who is working on his computer game program based on the Sega Saturn
game "CULDCEPT". I had doubts about that.. really!! He just says
something like, "I like that game a lot, so i want to program it on the
computer." He sure has lots of confidence.. (sweat drop rolling down)
My brother Warren, OTOH, is also working on his homepage (cough cough).
Then, my dad would want to use the internet to read his Chinese "mou
hahp sew schyuut" (very bad Cantonese romanization indeed!!) or kung
fu novels. Now, that takes a very very long time.
January 18, 2000 ..fou..
yes, i am back in Los Angeles. I'm in my second week of school
right now.. I have lots of homework already.. essays, physics, etcetc.
However, I saw in our hostel's newsletter that they have that t-shirt
design contest again! haha.. if you don't remember, i drew a rough
draft design months and months ago.. I guess no one entered or something.
Well, ko.re. wa. CHANCE da ze!!! yoo~shi!! I will try to finish it
now! The deadline is January 28, 5:00 PM. Oh yes, there is a prize
given to the winner.. but i'm not setting my eyeballs on that though.
Last year's T-shirt wasn't really great looking, i must admit. SO!
Maybe here is a chance for a better looking one!! (haha!!) Just kidding!
I hope that there will be a better designed shirt than mines.. If i
win, then i think that its either that there aren't many entries, or
the rest of the designs aren't that good at all! If i have the time,
i will try to scan the sketch and put it up..
Since the theme of my hostel this year is fantasy,
my picture is kind of based on that. Of course, i will have to draw
my hostel in there too! Even though it doesn't say that you have too..
But my skill of drawing buildings is quite limited!! i need to take a
drafting class or something.. +_+..
oh, about this homepage.. well, it seems like that they gave us
UCLA students more space for homepages or something.. Last time, i saw
that the quota was 2 megabytes (which i was running out of room).. But
recently, i saw it is 5 megabytes.. Maybe they changed it.. So i
uploaded lots of updated stuff from the engr account.. strange..
Anyway, i'm trying to update some things, such as the [puyo puyo image
gallerie], and puyo puyo links.. but those are extremely hard to find.
I wasted lots of time on that, and i haven't really found any good sites.
Most of the sites are Japanese, and they don't have NJStar on the
computer in the residential labs. I'm trying to find more information
about the characters and storyline too..
A strange thing i saw in the compile homepage was it said "
characters (c) SEGA Enterprise ltd."!!! Does SEGA own the characters?
Strange.. Anyway, the wacky characters of Puyo Puyo is what makes
Puyo Puyo so good!! A tea drinking skeleton guy, dancing fish with
arms and legs, etc.. The script for the interacting characters is also
so funny!!!
So, i will do more searching on the ever so wonderful internet,
going through lots of junk sites on Friday (maybe).. I also plan to
do some searching for t'sao t'chiehs.. Last time i did that, but i
could not find a single thing at all!!!! (sigh) that is even harder
to find!! (mumble mumble) -_- . .. But don't worry, t'sao t'chieh-
chan, i will find you!!
I have lots of files that i have to organise, so i think i will
do a major reorganisation of my files later on too.. Hope i don't have
that much homework... .
ANyway, LA is much more warmer than Sacramento. In Sacramento,
i had to wear a t-shirt, turtleneck, sweater, and a thick jacket to
keep warm.. However, I'm usually still cold although i'm wearing so
many layers!! In Los Angeles, most people wear t-shirts!! now that
is very different. I have lots of sweaters here, and i really doubt
that i will have an oppurtunity to wear all of them.. -_- . .
January 22, 2000
This morning, i woke up to a wonderful surprise! I found that
the #WISTERIA# seed that I put in the soil has sprung roots!! In
winter vacation, I passed by a wisteria tree that had purple fruits.
Since many of them were falling down already, i picked 2 of the fruits,
hoping that i can have a beautiful wisteria tree of my own! I brought
the 2 fruits to LA, and i cut open one of them and found 24 little
half-doughnut like seeds. One of them fell into the soil of one of
my pots, so i just thought,"oh, i wonder if it can grow?" and i left
it there about 1 week ago.
A wisteria tree is a very beautiful vine-like tree with purple
and yellow clusters of flowers, similar to a bundle of grapes! Its
origin, i believe, is in China. In my Chinese painting class, I painted
wisteria. . but i haven't really seen a real one before. I think that
wisteria is a very unique plant. Bundles of purple flowers... .
Now, I hope that it doesn't die! oh well, happy birthday!
My desk has so many little plant containers now. Somehow, there
are some bird-feed seeds in one of my pots, and one of the seeds grew
roots! The seed lots similar to a hotdog bun, where it is divided.
I think i saw its picture before.. It may be a wheat or something of
grass. Now i have some grass-like thing in my plant collection!!
OH yes, yesterday was my brother Tom's birthday. Somehow, i
completely forgot about it. However, the day before yesterday, i was
thinking about it! Too bad. I was busy waiting for the book refund
line to shrink, so i went to the arcade, watched people play, played
a few games. I checked the line again, and found the line to be even
longer than ever!! I think that the line is up to 50 meters. the line
goes outside of the building! So, i went to the UCLA store and looked
at the books and magazines. Finally at around 6:00 PM, The line has
shrunk considerably, so i went in line. I think i waited around 2 hrs
for the line to shrink! After refunding my book, i went to the library
computer lab and used the internet. I ate dinner at around 11:30 PM..
January 28, 2000
This week is a quite busy week, but i think that it will get even
worse next week! My first midterm is next friday.. and i have a rough
draft of an essay due next thursday (and we will get the assignment
next tuesday!! only 2 days to work on it??!?!?) etc etc.. (sigh)
So, i think i will be very much occupied with school work this
weekend... . I don't know when i will get to work on this homepage!
I have lots to update, but i've got no time!
This wednesday, i went to the UCLA anime club meeting. They
showed Flame of Recca (2 eps), Kamikaze kaitou Jeanne eps. 1 (shoujo
magical girl series about the reincarnation of Joan d'arc.. don't ask!),
Irresponsible Captain Tylor eps. 1 (with permission from Right Stuff),
and.. Legend of Basara eps. 1!! My favourite was Legend of Basara.. I
was really looking forward to watch it because i heard that the comic
is very popular. . The comic is around 27 volumes, I believe.. however,
there doesn't seem to be many pages on Basara.. The animation/story/art
are very good!!!
I find out KIKIMORA is from Russian myth from a book.. by chance!
Kikimora is a character's name from Puyo Puyo.. They sure have strange
inspirations for characters! She is supposed to be a chicken-legged
creature that makes sure that the household is kept clean!! In Puyo
Puyo, she looks like a maid!! :D
February 11, 2000
Sorry, no update for a long time. I had my midterms, essays,
compositions, homework.. all crammed in a week. (sigh).. well,
I think i will try to get some sleep this weekend! I have been
sleeping at very irregular times this week... such has getting around
one hour of sleep last thursday, etc..
March 5, 2000
(yawn) I had a very long/short and horrible week. Once again i was
swamped with essays, compositions, homework, + 2 midterms of my hardest
subjects physics and chemistry on friday. .. horrible ne... I hardly got
any sleep last week.. in fact, i didn't get any sleep on thursday...
The tests were very horrible too.. its all doomed and marked as [failure]!!
(sigh) I was about to update this homepage in the school library, but i got
carried away with "other" things to do. But, i noticed the guy next to me
moved the computer monitor away from me.. i thought that was funny. Later
on, i took a glance.. and i saw he was looking at pictures of women!!
I thought, "oooh~ so that is what he is doing.." (sweat drop rolling down)..
*BUT* that is not the only strange thing this week! I met 2 weirdos while
eating dinner on Wednesday night at around 11:30 PM. They asked me if they
could sit in my table, and i said "yes". ANyway, those 2 guys kept on
making jokes up, and some perverted too... One of them, a long faced
caucasian guy kept on impersonating animals such as a horse, monkey, etc..
..dancing around, making animal noises, waving his arms around..
That same guy also kept on flipping up his shirt.. quite disgusting, yes.
I hope that i don't meet them again!!
Yesterday, i was going back to my hostel and i saw this man who was
facing a wall. I was wondering what that guy was doing.. As i approached,
i heard him emit gas (quite loudly too), and i heard trickling sounds.. (it
was sprinkling outside.. but..) That man was urinating there!! As i passed him,
he turned his face and looked at me! I wasn't sure if i smelled alcohol.. but
right after i passed him, i walked as fast as i could!!!
LA is quite a scary place!! Especially watching the movie "LA Confidential"
It really portrays a negative side of LA, Hollywood, the LAPD (Los Angeles Police
Department), etc.. It shows the deep corruption to the very roots of LA! A scary
and depressing film. I had to watch it for my English class. That means that i
have to write an essay about it soon. (too bad!)
On to the positive side.. I got to watch Miyazaki Hayao's 1986 masterpiece
"Laputa: Castle in the Sky"! It is such a moving film.. I even felt like
flying while watching it!! The story is very wonderful.. I recommend it to
anyone!! Too bad Disney is going to dub it and bring it over here.. i read some
reviews of the dub.. and they changed some parts a little.. Such as the beginning
, which did not have any dialog, was added dialog.. As the reviewer mentioned,
"Disney underestimates the audience". I guess that they did not think that people
would understand what is going on by looking at the visuals at the beginning.
Especially the "kids". (the main audience in U.S.A.).. as i also read, they also
changed the soundtrack of Laputa.. The composer Joe Hisashi (who was also the
original composer) composed the new scores in the style of the West.. He says its
very different because Western movies *need* sound.. especially in cartoons..
You know that Disney cartoons are more like "musicals"..
There are lots of singing and dancing in Disney cartoons.. So perhaps without music
, its boring.. . anyway..
Here is a link about Laputa:
[click here!]
I don't really have such a high opinion of Disney because i find that their
films are never brilliant or original. Also i heard that one of Disney's
reasons for making the movie "Mulan" (very loosely based on a famous ancient
Chinese poem) is that they wanted to get in a better relationship with China..
especially after their movie about Tibet, which i think caused some anger in
China.. . (read from BBC news) so i think that its a evil corporation!
Disney's film "Lion King" also bears a striking resemblance to the old
Japanese film "Kimba the White Lion" (i'm not sure about the title.. gomen!). ..
I also got to watch 2 episodes of "Sorcerous Stabber Orphen" fansubbed.
I noticed that some of the names were wrong (as in Weiss Kreuz.. where they didn't
know that "weiss" or "weib" (=white in German) is pronounced "vice".. so they
subtitled it "byce"!! hahaha!! My brother TOm pronounces it "web" because the
symbol "b" (not really a 'b', but similar to it.. its a German character)) is
pronounced like "ss".. that is why i type it "weiss"..) It is rather slow at the
beginning.. and it is quite different from the comic (look in my links, and you
can read English translated manga scans!!) , but it seems quite interesting!
Gosh! These days, the only things i mention are anime and homeworks.. ..
(sweat drop rolling down) the reason is that these are the only things i've been
doing!! haha. . . I'm going to discuss about animation and art some time later,
when i have free time. I need to go back to work on physics homework due on Tuesday.
until then. ciao!