2001 ans no ato ~

Well, the 21st century is upon us. We still don't have hoovering vehicles riding on wondrous skyways or computerized everyday appliances . . No space colonies or floating cities.. Perhaps in the next century we will see them..

How did i spent the new year? Well, New Year's Eve is my little cousin Jeffrey's birthday, so my brothers and I went to his birthday party. My oldest brother Tom and I had to do some last minute shopping for the birthday present. We went to places such as Ross, Marshalls, Toy's "R" Us, KB Toy Store, and finally Arden Mall.. At first we were thinking of getting an educational toy, .. but the drastically changed. There wasn't many good educational toys! My oldest brother even wanted to give a singing and dancing lobster as a gift!! (sweat drop rolling down) have we gotten so low??! Then in Arden Mall, we saw a cheap $2 stuffed animal of the creature "Pikachu" from the video game "Pocket Monsters". Since my little cousin loves Pocket Monsters and Digimon things so much, we got it. Then, we came across a toy store called "All Wound Up" that was going out of business. Everything was very cheap! There was a 3-4 feet realistic looking alligator for sale! We decided to get it because my little cousin also likes animals. In Toys "R" Us, we couldn't find anything.. when we were walking out of the store, there were many "Gotcha Gotcha" machines! Actually, I don't know what they are in English (or if they really do have an English name..), but in the video game SHEN MUE, the Japanese call the little machines containing many plastic capsules that has a little toy inside "gotcha gotcha".. . You just insert a coin (25 cents) and turn the knob.. then a toy will come out!
In SHEN MUE, the main character collects those "gotcha gotcha" toys. When looking at the machine, he would say "oh I love these!" , which really sounds so funny. In the Japanese version of the game, he would say "yate miru ka?" or "should i give it a try?" Anyway, some of the translation really sounds wacky like that! :D
I think that SHEN MUE is a very fun game.. the director of SHEN MUE, Yu Suzuki (he is a famous person for developing many classics!), calls SHEN MUE to be "FREE" or Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment.. I find that kind of true, though it is not any virtual reality. In that game, you can basically pretty much look and pick up most obvious items... like in real life, there is a sense of time. The main character Ryo has a curfew to explore around to go back to his house! The sky would get dark in the evening, and sometimes it would rain. Certain stores, such as bars, open only at certain times.. etc.. I find it surprising how my little sister also enjoys playing SHENMUE! I think that kids like exploring new worlds and interacting with the environment (unlike many RPGs, which you can only look.. but, can't touch!).
Anyway, i shouldn't ramble too much on SHENMUE... (sweat drop rolling down) I should write about it in my current games section!! lets see.. so continuing about the New Year.. . We ate dinner at my uncle's house, played a dart game of popping balloons, took pictures, and went home.
On New Years, my brother rented a video from Awesome Video called "THE WIZ". Do you know about it? hehe... i doubt it. It is kind of old.. and it is really a musical!! "THE WIZ" was the first musical i really watched. Why did we wanted to watch it? Well, a very long long time ago, it was shown on the tele.. but we don't remember much about it. All i remember was that the cast was all black people, Michael Jackson stars in it, and there is lots of dancing!!! We were very curious about it because we remember so little (more than 12 years ago!!), so my brother rented it. Odd reason, but oh well.. It took some time to get used to the singing (i am not used to musicals!!), and trying to listen to the lyrics... which really reminds me of Disney cartoons.. no wonder why there are always so much singing in Disney cartoons!!! But overall, i really like "THE WIZ". It is actually a very loose version of "The Wizard of Oz"!! However, i am not too familiar with that story too. There are lots of highly creative symbolism in that film.
Other things i did before my winter break was over was watching my brother play Starcraft expansion and a game of the PSX game SILENT HILL, finally beating Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon using kakkoi Schezo Wegey-chan (now i need to beat it using the other two characters), working a little on my homepage, watching many anime, and drawing (but no completion of any works :( ). Silent Hill is a game in the same vein as Capcom's "Biohazard", but i find it to be much more fascinating in the story and atmosphere. It is really scary!!!

January.23.2001
Today is Lunar New Year's eve. Nothing special probably.. but i am planning to cook some delicious baked chicken that i learned from my brothers!! (thank you, brothers!) Also, if you haven't noticed, I actually updated this homepage (thank you, everyone!). My roommate claims that New Year's eve is a bigger event than New Year itself! I find that hard to believe.. but anyway.. :D I also have to do some catch up on writing e-mails (sorry, everyone!)...
New Year resolutions?? sore wa .. . himitsu ne! mais i will try my best to practise guitar and continue drawing ne! everyone do your best! minna-san no yume wo nouryokuni sagashinasai!

22.March.2001
wai~! finals are over!! owatta! he hehehe!
spring vacation has cometh!! I have no plan!!! its getting too hot!! I just finished another school year. It gets faster and faster each time!!!! Some classes that i took were (as i noticed i haven't written anything new since.. 2 months ago): chemistry 30 Lab, Chemistry 30, and Life Science 3. Now.. the professor for Chem30Lab is Professor A.A. Russell, one of the big wigs in the chem department (IMHO). She is the co-writer of the chem lab book we use, and the brain behind that "Calibration Peer Review" assignment ("CPR" for short, but beware on using it! "I got to do CPR now!" would cause some frowns on your friends' faces!).. Anyway, i had her for chem lab 20L, and i didn't really like it at allllll... so i wasn't too happy to have her as a professor again.. She is very kind as a person, but.. her teaching on the other hand.. .
Sooooooooo~ finals week was as usual horrible, averaging about 3 hours of sleep a day for a short while. My sleeping habits have now changed... I have been sleeping at around 6 AM and waking up at 9 AM, dark eyebags drooping, hair like wires, backpack pushed to the limit (Just imagine the guys in Saint Seiya wearing the "amour containing box" as a backpack!!).. staying at my school's library until 4:30 AM, walking home at night, ... well, its all over for now, but its going to happen again...

6.April.2001
This is the first week of school.. the last quarter then summer vacation... Although I usually don't really talk about politics, lets talk about the current US and foreign country relationship. You know, its all in the headlines these days. -Crash between Chinese jet and American spy plane near China -US sending ~50 Russian diplomats in accusation for spying -US pulling out of environmental gas emmisions contract -US and North Korea peace talks put aside
I spent my spring vacation here in Los Angeles. I didn't feel that paying ~$110 to fly back to Sacramento will be worth it. For the first days, i just stayed in my apartment. ALmost everyday, I woke up in the early afternoon!! I slept so much.. I then took the bus to go to many places such as Chinatown, Japantown, Koreatown..
15.April.2001 sonnetag
My first midterm is coming! AAAAAaaaaa~ from now on, I have a exam almost every week. Well, I went shopping anyway on friday and sunday to buy a new sports shoe. pourquoi? Maintenant, je prend une cour du Gung Fu!! <<-Right now, i am taking a Gung Fu class!!! yes! c'est vrai!!! A Gung Fu class ne!! You see, i am doing another of my experiments on myself. I am observing the relationship of having lots of exercise and studying compared with only studying. For example, perhaps there would be an affect on better concentration on studies or better health. I took my first two classes this week. Classes are on mondays and wednesdays from 4:15 to 6:00 PM.. After going to the first class, i didn't know if i could handle all the exercise!! I was so exhausted!!! The second class was even more exercise!! The gung fu is of the Mantis style... and it is "wushu" and "sanda".. which i am not sure what they are. On the recreational class catalogue, it says that the class will be teaching Shaolin gung fu!! but it isn't so!
So after monday's lesson, my whole body was sore. Especially above the waist. On Tuesday, we practiced lots of kicking... so for the whole week, i've been walking a bit strange. my legs were so sore.. going down the numerous stairs was extremely painful for me!!! Each step down was so hurtful!! (sigh).. even bending down, such as sitting down was difficult!! Going up stairs was much better than going down stairs.. this lasted for almost a week. TOday, i feel so much better, but i can still feel some of its effects... However, tomorrow is the third lesson!! eeekss!! i really wonder if i can handle it ne.. (sweat drop rolling down) I never had to undergo such physical stress since Junior High school, where we all had to take these horrible fitness tests!! I never did such hard exercise since my second year of high school!!
A funny thing is that one of the "intermediate" level students is my TA for life science 3 class last quarter!! It was kind of awkward meeting her again in this class!! :D My gung fu instructor is a Mexican guy named Raul Ramirez. He is the teaching assistant for the real instructor (J. Wang). At the end of the class, we have to clasp our hands togetter and say "xie xie, lao sieur!" (note: this is *my* romanization!!, not pinyin or yale. etc!) Using my pathetic knowledge of mandarin, I deduce that to be "Many thanks, teacher".. or in Cantonese,"doh jie, si fu" .. . "si fu" means "master", which is what most people call their gung fu teacher. "lao sieur" or "loh si" is usually used to call any teacher, for example in school. Anyway, i am not so familiar about the proper ways of addressing people in Chinese too well...
So, because of this class, i had to get some athletic shoes. Yes, i don't have any. Another thing i still need to get is some sweat pants.. I don't really have any loose pants suitable for exercise here.. I only have jeans!! So i went to many shops and shopping centers.. Such as Copeland's sports, Westside Pavillion shopping center, Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade and Shopping Center, Shoe Pavillion on Wilshire.. etc. I bought a pair of boots at Shoe Pavillion on Wilshire and ~11 Street, then i walked to 3rd street. The dark brown boots are made in Portugal and the brand is "LONDON UNDERGROUND". The shoe is about 2 inches thick. So I am kind of taller now... It costed ~$30. For the most part, it is made of leather. Its kind of heavy and thick (the material too, not only the sole). The sports shoe I got was a blue, grey and silver Sketchers. Now, I don't really like the brand Sketchers, but I couldn't find some other shoe that suit my tastes. The shoe that i usually wear is also a Sketchers, but it is a boot, not a sports shoe. I have grown a love/hate relationship with it since i got it about 3 years ago. I am still quite upset how i slipped on the stairs in Tokyo, Japan. It was raining that day, and i guess the shoe doesn't have a good grip.. I slipped and fell on my glutinous maximus (bottom), with my glasses falling off. This was a great shock to my senses, and afterwards, I was walking around aching still dazed from the sudden fall, trying to look normal! See, if the shoe had a good grip on the bottom, this wouldn't have happened!! THe bottom has the designs, but it is smooth!! ugh. . bad design! maybe they improved over these years? It costed $50 (original price is $55) at the Foot Locker. They had a sale of buy one get one 1/2 off. And I found out that didn't apply to only shoes. The salesperson told me to get some socks.. which i do need. I got three pairs of "microbial" free socks that don't leave any odor (which i thought was funny!) for $3.50 (original price is $7). I think my oldest brother needs these socks though!! @_@ (i hope he isn't reading this! shhh!)
OTOH, very good news: the SNK arcade fighting game "Mark of the Wolves" is coming to the Dreamcast! :D :D :D I can't wait to play it! You see, I was quite upset how I found the arcade game to be gone when i came back to UCLA one day. A short while ago, I reached the last boss!!! :D So I was thinking that I will never see the ending or beat the game now it is gone. If you haven't heard, SNK was going bankrupt or something like that.. They even sold the rights for their hit fighting game series (and one of my favourites) King of Fighters!!! Now Brezza Soft of Korea (?) owns it.. and they will produce the 2001 version... I don't really have that great hopes for it.. The series seemed to be going downhill.. I don't know if i am bored with it.. but I still like KoF'95 the best. Well, its very strange to have Koreans now to work on the series.. .. Isn't it a Japanese game? Maybe they can make radical changes now to make it better.. . we shall see... In the arcade now, they have KoF '95, '97, and '98 (well three KoF machines anyway)... and I am currently playing KoF '95 again!! They don't have the move list, so i am just trying to remember the moves again... People probably think its weird to see people playing such an old game.. . THe popular game right now is Sammy's Guilty Gear X.

16.April.2001 montag~

For some reason, my mind has been cloudy since the beginning of this school year. It is a mess of all sorts of things.. My Chemistry 130A class goes so fast. Last quarter, my Chemistry lab TA warned us of the professor. She described him as "lightning hand", he writes things on the board with lightning speed, making all the students frantically take notes and have no chance to absorb the material. I find this completely true. I have no time to understand what professor Jung is talking about, even though he sounds *extremely* interested in his lecture. He is the reaction synthesis guy in the chemistry department i heard.. and this class is what it is about! She also told us to read the book and be prepared for lecture.. study and review your notes in teh weekend... Indeed, doing this would be very useful.. however.. it takes much time.. T
other than chemistry~~ somehow, my brain is also a mess of French and Chinese recently. I haven't a clue why. I have been trying to practice my French again.. by speaking some to one of my roommates (who took some French here before), but both our French are so rusty with no practice in such a long time!! I haven't really used my French since my third year of high school.. . I feel kind of guilty for "abandoning" it, but I would really like to "relearn" the material again.. Some of my high school friends are taking college level french and one of them even went to France! (sigh) Perhaps its an envious feeling as if one has been left behind the dusty road? I still remember how I wasn't able to take fourth year French in my high school since advanced computer science (turbo pascal), and physics conflicted with its schedule. My French teacher (who was my teacher since first year French) wasn't too happy with that. However, she was very glad that I signed up to be her assistant for some lowly French 2 class or something. After one or two days of helping her and helping the students, I dropped out to take the school's newspaper class instead. I could tell she was kind of upset with my decision.. This made me feel very bad, which was probably what she had in mind.. Giving her the paper to sign in order to change classes was hard. She seemed to emit a dark menacing aura of "what~? a newspaper class? why??" that chilled me to the bone. (Sometimes since my first year French, I felt something..her aura perhaps? that was uncomfortable about her.., but she isn't the only teacher that I also felt something about. My science teacher also gave me a similar feeling.. and my friend agreed with me! at least i am not the only one... =_=..) From that point on, my French was left in the dusty road.... submerging into the dark abyss of the mysterious ocean... ..
Well, i better go back to my apartment, eat dinner, work on my chemistry homework, struggle with reaction syntheses.. sleep. I find that after the gung fu class, i feel hungry! TOday, we learned how to land when you fall and the most simplest "throw", which is actually, reaching in and knocking the opponent off balance, causing him to fall down.

the city of angels,
a cold place of illusion..
As i walk through the artifical cave with water trickling to the side,
vehicles flies past me with a silent scream..
leaving a strong ripples in the air that sweeps me off balance..
dirt and debris rise from their long slumber awoken by the disturbance..
I emerge from the cave's shadow and look at the purple sky..
lights flicker along the stars and lonely moon..
artificial stars twinkling..
the green grass sits on the soil,
with its roots still neatly tucked in. .
hiding its a dark secret..
wearing a mask that distorts reality..
manipulating invisible fine threads of marionettes..

27.April.2001 ~donnerstag

i want to save myself
i want to save myself..
~as if in black dream

kyou~ i finally shipped my fate in a fed ex envelope

xx xy xxy ...

3.may.2001 ~donnerstag

i am working on something.
I came out of my physics lab earlier today.. Yesterday, I met someone that I haven't seen for probably one year.. It was strange.. For some reason, I thought "hmm.. I haven't seen her in a long while..." a short while ago.. Its strange, but when i think of someone who haven't seen for a while, that person will pop up again. ..

I think i have been watching too many movies at the theatre this year. THat is, I watched more movies this year than what i usually watch in one whole year! So far I have watched "Quills", "Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger", "Traffic", and last week, I watched "Save the Last Dance". I usually watch at most 1 or 2 movies in the theater.
"Hidden Dragon, Crouching TIger" was a disappointment. I am at awe at how such a film can be nominated for so many awards!! The story? ... not much.. mostly fighting.. and the film seems to skip from one fight to another. As my cousin said, the fight in the courtyard seemed so pointless! How about the characters? Well.. Chow Yun Fat (An actor which i admire for his past films such as "A Better Tomorrow", "God of Gamblers", etc... " seemed so emotionless and doesn't reallly talk.. The character that the actress Zhang Ziyi plays is so annoying that I want to .. do something about it.. She is the main character that "drives" the story. People say "oh she's so cute!!", i turn my back with disgust. The character she plays is so childish, unresponsible, and so self-centered.. Although it is a Chinese movie, it sure doesn't feel like one.. Of course, it has much of its funding from America.. Anyway, I don't really recommend this movie... Not really worth my 6 bucks.
"Quills" is another hard movie to describe. It is more of an art movie, I beleive.. . A problem is that I think that sometimes it is so explicit that I think it should be more than N-17 rating. The movie is very vulgar and is definately not for youngins.. It is about Marquis Le Sade that is in an aslyum and writes "hentai" books. Of course, the emperor of France does not let such obsene books be read in public, so the aslyum's caretaker, a priest, takes aways the Marquis' quills and ink. Unable to express himself, he slowly becomes mad with insanity.. His character disintegrates into madness and first use wine to write on his blankets, then started to use his own blood. At the same time, the priest is in love with a young woman working in the aslyum, but is also unable to express his love because of his strict religion. The woman is also in love with him, but he cannot return the love. When the woman dies, like the Marquis, the priest also begins to lose his sanity due to his repressed thoughts and feelings... THis movie, i believe, is a comment on the definition of obscenity, the need for one to express himself, and the effect of books on the people.
"Traffic" is a story of drug trafficing from Mexico to U.S. The film has a unique documentary style to it that makes it more realistic. After watching this film, I feel frightened by the unseen corruption in this world.. Mexico seems to be a very dangerous place!!! I recommend this film.
"Save the Last Dance" is a rather typical hollywood movie. A girl felt guilty for her mother's death since her mother died in a car accident rushing to her ballet audition and gave up her dream. Short time after, she had to move to her father's rundown place in Chicago, where her life seemed to go downhill. Her new school is 95% african americans. However, she made a few friends and eventually decided that she wanted to try the audition again ..
10.may.2001 ~fretag

I finished my second midterm for chemistry. It wasn't too good.. Right now i am quite tired. I was falling asleep as i was typing these few sentences as everything begins flow together like a whirlpool.. a m i cant'.

13.may.2001 ~day

..... !?!?!@_@|| ?! (sweat drop rolling down) did *I* just write that a few days ago??! I somehow don't remember writing that... hmm.. it was a very accurate description of how i felt though.. the last words don't even make sense!!! anyway, I am quite upset today. I had to wake up early, and now i have a bit of a headache.. however, the manager of my apartment has a very very extremely cute kitten!! when i first saw it, i wanted to give it a big hug and squeeze!! haha!! It is a siamese cat with azure blue eyes.. I think his name is "chi chi", that is what the manager's wife called the cat. oh.. you know why a siamese cat has such unique colouring? It is white except for black on its paws, nose, ears, and tail. The black color is activated by the temperature (i guess it is in the siamese cats' genes!!) The black coloured parts are cooler, so that is why they are black!! :D I learned that in my life science class (genetics)..
16.may.2001 ~mercredi

once again, i see those Korean guys again. You see, i usually go to this place near Powell Library with benches, 6 vending machines (drinks, snacks), microwave.. trees. Its really convienient. Since its near the library, lots of people go there for a snack or a break. When i usually go there to eat a snack (dinner) before studying in the library, I see them there quite often. I don't know if they are the same Korean guys, but anyway.. Once i saw them practising their martial arts. It was so cool looking! They were trying to kick a tall branch on the tree! It was not an ordinary kick.. like a roundhouse kick, but a jump, and a spin.. like... i think in KOF, Blue Mary does it!! Its so great to see it in real life!! ANyway, they usually go there, buy some Nescafe coffee or pepsi, smoke cigarettes, and talk. (all of them do that although i don't know if they are the same guys).
I think that pollution must be worse on days of midterms and finals.. I already see so many people smoking outside the entrance of the library.. (sigh) Also, the ground is so dirty because of spilled coffee and drinks.. Its kind of sad to see people so stressed out because of exams and such and have to smoke or drink coffee. One reason why I do not like cigarettes is how smokers seem to be dependent on them. They seem so weak.. Not that when i pass by a smoking person I think "yuck, there goes another smoker" and hold my breath.. I actually feel sympathy for them and sad. My father is a smoker since he was working in the fertilizer factory in China. He still is smoking although he tried to quit a couple of times.. Such as the time when my little sister was born.. My mom told him not to smoke for the baby's sake...I find that many China people smoke and in visit to Japan, I also found that so many people smoke too... Even the game arcade and pachinko place had the thick scent of cigarette smoke, which reminds me of the casinos in Las Vegas... ..
These days are kind of hot.. On hot days too, I see lots of smoking people, with a dangling cigarette between their lips.. I wonder on these hot summer days..."Isn't it hot already? To even breath in the hot smoke from the burning cigarette".. When I catch my father smoking in the hot summer days, I comment on that.. He just gives me a chuckle, as if he doesn't have a good answer for me... It seems that smoking people doesn't have much control over themselves.. and they have no power...
On the CD Faces Places by Globe (a TK produced band, with the TK himself on keyboards!), there is a song "smoking cigarette",.. if i am not mistaken, the singer sings (in Japanese) "for who do you smoke?".. Of course, there are also people that thinks smoking is tres chic (very cool).. what a pity.. ... On various encounters, i see students, homelessmen, everyday people who come up and ask "do you have a cigarette?".. not to me, but someone else... such as my father. Once, a student saw my father smoking and asked if he would sell him some cigarettes, 25 cents each.. of course, my father agreed (a cheapskate he is :D!) Homeless people do this.. everyday people do this.. although rich or poor, they cannot stop themselves.. I have seen homeless people picking up cigarette butts left on the ground with a little bit left and smoke it still.. Its painful for me to see people to stoop so low just because of needing to smoke... . i wonder, .. if they know they have a problem.. I wonder.. if they want to do something about it.. I wish that someday.. my father would quit smoking for good.. .. .
OTOH, i just wanted to test this out!!! Right now, i am using a laptop computer... The school library has this service that students can check out laptop computers (but can only use them in the library).. It is much heavier than what i thought it would be though... but it is quite neat.. It is a Compaq armada e500, running on Intel pentium !!! (i guess a III?), but i am so behind in the computer industry right now.. i haven't a clue on how advanced it is... It takes some time to boot up however... .. The flat keyboard is something i have to get used to too.. the screen isn't as colourfull though.. luckily, a mouse is included or i would have to use the not so wonderful finger touch pad!!I have to return this computer by 12:50 AM, so i am off back to studying.. GENETICS!! my second midterm is from 5-7 PM tomorrow ne.. . i need to do well on this on now.. my motto for this school year is the Catman's quotation (oh, that is my nickname for mo jok dung, or chairman mao tse dong.. my romanizations are, of course, not good...) it is a poem that is very cool!!! Aaaa.. now, i have gone nuts haven't I?? to say such thing by the Catman to be cool? well, you have to read it ne!! My father taught it to us (as in me and my sister) last year in another summer attempt to teach us Chinese.. But!!! to teach us old Tang Dynasty poems and quotations from famous people are truly interesting (probably not for my little sister), but to use them to learn Chinese!!!!?! you get the idea.. but i think i will type it up and put it in my ever-being-in-construction Chinese History page.. The poems are such an art.. how can you create poems with only 5 or 7 characters per line, and having them rhyme? ok, i really need to go back to the CD-ROM full of tutorials and problems.. a tout a l'heure!!!
17.may.2001 ~donnerstag

its over... It was kind of hard.. but at least i had time to write *some* answer down.. . I feel so evil.. you know, i am supposed to be in my usual physics lab section around this time.. however.. because of this midterm, i attended the 8-11AM one instead.. and i did some evil scheming.. . . my lab report is supposed to be due today...
18.may.2001 ~kin

.. friday friday weekend weekend~ sweeet sleep
My roommate gave a chuckle as I came home the other day, layed on my bed, hugged my pillow and say "oh, i love my bed!!".. how i long for sleep as sweet as honey.. a delicacy during times like these.. .
The musical was rather good... It was about 2 hours long, with a short break in the middle.. I think that with all the singing , it must require lots of stamina and endurance.. Parachute kid is a sad story.. the name comes from how the main character, Yvonne, was sent to US by herself from China to live with her aunt in Bellflower California(where ever that is..).. Her father stayed in China.. so in that sense, she is a parachute kid that fell from the sky.. . of course, i couldn't help but smile to see Kwong-san dancing and singing .. for he was one of the background dancers.. Although it was free, i was obliged to donate $2, since i felt that lots of time and money has been put to put this show together.. hey, i'm a poor college student!! $2 is my lunch money!!
anyway, i got a package with the official statement that i got accepted to the Chinese University of Hong Kong for next year!!! Looking at the official paper makes me feel relieved and warm all over!
OTOH, i found out that my brother Warren in Berkeley is going to.. to what?!?! to graduate?!!?! naa~~nda!?! well, i am going to miss out, but i am so curious on what his plans are after school.. i ask him, and he gives me such a evil laugh that echoes through the telephone.. well congratulations, even though i don't exactly know what day it is.. I never know what he really does in Berkeley anyway.. sly sneaky boy!!!!! anyway, my stomach is growling.. I think i will have a proper meal today. I have been eating sandwiches for dinner for some time now..

27.may.2001 ~day

Last weekend, me and my friend went on a crazy anime and manga related shopping spree. It was really great! We went to Mandarake, Animate, some video rental stores,.. and we ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant. I bought some animation cels, comics, and some shitajiki (pencil boards). My friend also game me 3 issues of Shonen Jump!! I find those "telephone book" type of published serials to be kind of hard to read.. of course, the quality of paper is very cheap.. and the ink and the pages can vary from green to red.. :D After looking over it many times, I got interested in some stories.. I am curious on what happens... Some stories that seem interesting so far are: JoJo Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, Naruto (a ninja story), Hikaru no Go (about playing the Chinese chess like game with black and white stones), Rirumu no Kiss by Kawashita Mizuki, Black Cat by Yabuki Kentarou, and Burai Otoko (i am not sure about the yomigana) BURA-MEN by Umezawa Haruto (the same author as Hareluya B0y! :D).. The manga I got was Tenshi na Konamaiki ("A Cheeky Angel") by the same author as "Kyou kara Ore wa!!". Its really funny, and now I want to get the next volume(s).. but $3.50 for a second hand(but in very good condition) is kind of expensive compared to other comics at $2.

28.may.2001 ~montag

That reminds me of friday. I woke up at around 6:30 AM because of a telephone call from my grandma. She couldn't reach me and claimed that she called dozens of times.. (she doesn't know how to use the voice mail service i guess! :D.. her English is not good.. I assume that when she hears the voice mail message, she thinks, "oh, something is wrong") I was so tired... and listening to her, I could tell by her voice that she hadn't put on her false teeth yet.. so I had this horrid imagination of my grandma without her false teeth, with her hollow lips flapping away.. grotesque!! Its kind of a sore to the eyes in reality anyway.. . (sweat drop rolling down) In the background, I could hear my little sister.. I think she is like a little grumpy monster in the morning because she is always waken up by my grandma..
I made myself some pancakes this morning.. They were kind of hard. A bad thing was that I didn't have any syrup. I rode my bicycle to school to use the computer lab because i thought there would be less people. Its kind of dangerous riding the bicycle to school because I live on top of a hill.. so you have to constantly push the brakes... and the brakes make some funny sound sometimes.. I think I need some W-40 or some oil.. Its really fun to go down the hill although it is kind of dangerous.. However I have to walk my bicycle back up the hill when returning to my apartment. Still, I plan to use my bicycle when i really have to go to school fast.. and that is what counts! :D
I have to study hard again this week. My last midterm for Chemistry is this Friday.. Last time, i didn't do so well. I did average. I got 49.5/100! @_@ (aa..) the average was 49/100. I feel very stupid.. I know i can do better than that!!!!! I have lots of catch up though.. My professor goes over about 15 different mechanisms each lecture.. . .
In last weeks physics lab, we studied properties of light rays through prisms and different lenses (such as bi-concave, bi-convex..). I was somewhat disappointed (surprisingly!) that we skipped over the lab to prove the speed of light! I thought that would be interesting.. ok, well, i better go back to my apartment. I have homework to do, a lab to finish, a midterm to study for.. etc

9.june.2001

I recently found out the horror of html composers. They do crazy things such as create new directories by itself, copy and rename files to its own liking.. etc! I can't beleive it does things like that! It made a huge mess in my files. With all sorts of "junk" html, the files also tend to take maybe 5 times the self-written html files.. . Another thing is that since it writes everything for you, you don't really have a clue what exactly the program is doing to your files. A common problem is how the pictures does not load up. The program does not seem smart enough to change the name of the directory it made , etc.. anyway.. i want to avoid using html composers from now on. ..
I finally bought my airplane ticket this week. It took me about 3 days of rushing back to my apartment and start calling travel agencies!! Such trouble.. .Calling them is so annoying because they put you on hold, tell you that they will call back, etc.. (ugh!) I was on a point of giving up on cheap airplane tickets (i was willing to pay up to $1000), when i called the Chinese travel agency in San Francisco that my pops told me. The day before, the one year open end ticket to Hong Kong with a stop in Tokyo, was $978 on United Airlines. I was calling to see if it was still available. I called and they said they will call me back.. When they did, they found a ticket that fits the description of what i wanted, *and* on the same day that i wanted to leave (on July 17th), and.. it was only $777 total! I almost fell out of my chair when i heard the number. When she said "7" first, i was thinking, "mon dieu! $7000!??!" hahaha!! All other places had tickets for $1200, so imagine the shock! They said that they had some kind of contract with NorthWest airlines.. So after the phone call, I ran out to my balcony, raised both of my arms and said to the heavens,"is this a dream!?" :D :D :D
So, i will be going to Hong Kong on July 17th.. School for the Chinese University of Hong Kong really starts on September 1st, and the orientation is on August 27th, but i, my friend, have some great grand plans for the summer! Since my cousin, the fung leeeeens, is also going back to China this year, she said she is going to go on the "silk road tour" in China!! Hearing this (and that they were going to go see the circular Mongol huts for reals +_+.. ), I knew that i must go too!!!! So, the trip is supposed to start around JUly 20th or so and last 21 days!! :D :D fufufufufu!! it is going to be so exciting to see the ancient ruins, the once flourishing cities, different nationalities in China.. *and!* it will be Betty Fong's first trip to the "Dai lohk", or to the "mainland!" :D :D (and also to Hong Kong too!)
This week is the last week of classes. (10th week).. and we had our last lectures yesterday. I have two finals next week on Wednesday (11:30-2:30PM), and on Thursday (6:30-9:30PM)... This time, i will study earlier, starting this weekend..
We have the last final battle, fellow comrades!!
Lets all raise our arms and prepare for our last fight!!!

10 July.2001 lundi