[200 4 ]
-sotsugyou no ato de=====================
6.Mars.2004 -tou-:
[yume] ...ka
I haven't been updating this part of my homepage for some time
now.. . actually, many times did i say to myself that i should
type an entry, but i delayed and delayed until it is no longer part
of my memory among midterms, finals, studying, going to libraries,
playing Phantasy Star Online, watching movies.. etc.
Recently, I've come back to UCLA as a jobless recently graduated
bum and after doing 3 hour shifts of volunteer work for a professor,
I've gotten a bit bored. I realized that I still needed to update
this homepage or it will be deleted soon after graduation! (sigh)
After my undergraduate years at UCLA, I never got rid of the old OLD
bad habit: procrastination. So here I am.. once again picking up
this homepage and dusting it off the shelf (or web!).
Today was actually a terrible morning. It started at around 7:50
AM, when I woke up needing to go to the toilet. Soon after climbing
into my bed, the telephone rang. I fumbled out to the living room
and answered the telephone. "Hello, this is David at the call centre
..." I hung up. My roommate of the other room was already preparing
breakfast in the kitchen. I said good morning and went back to my
bed. I couldn't fall asleep.... later, I awoke to some constant
hammering noise. It seemed to be coming from the kitchen, but it
sometimes sounded as if it was moving closer and further. I thought
it was my roommate in the kitchen pounding away at something.. but
that can't be possible! The hammering sound was probably some guy
fixing the roof.. So the sound persisted for about 30 minutes.. The
telephone rang again.. Afraid it would be another advertisement, I
didn't answer it. Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore so I reluctantly
got up at around 9:40AM. I was brushing my teeth when the telephone
rang again. I couldn't answer the phone so i let it rang. When I
was washing my face, the telephone rang again.
My Indonesian roommate at this point also couldn't stand
the noise and also got up to pick up the telephone. It was my grandma!
She asked the same old questions about "have you found a job yet"
blah blah blah.. . then I talked to my sister .. then my grandma was
yelling that my sister was talking to long on the phone. So I talked
with my grandma again.. She then asked the same old questions about
"have you found a job yet", and "Are all your roommates studying or
are some working?" Questions that I heard and answered at least 5
times!!
After hanging up, it was almost time to go to the International
Student Mailing list Chinatown trip! The day before, my Indonesian
roommate invited to go with her as a guest to Chinatown for a tour
and "all you can eat dim sum" for $12. We are supposed to meet at the
De Neve Turnaround (It should be "Dykstra Turnaround"!!) at 11AM.
We didn't breakfast and arrived there early.. at around 10:45AM. No one
was there except for the bus. We waited around until we officially
left at 11:45!! We waited for about an hour!!!! Turnss out that the
trip is actually organised by the Chinese Student Association (CSA)..
and those officers seemed to arrive late!! How dare they waste our
time and make it start at "Chinese Time"!? Well, most of the people
that went on the trip aren't international students at all. There were
quite a few half Chinese/Caucasian people who went. Some were in the
"HAPA" club for these kind of people! I never heard of such thing!!!
The CSA members split everyone into small groups with one of their
members as a leader. Our group included 2 girls that were half Chinese,
1 guy from Spain, 1 ABC guy from San Francisco, and 2 people from
Argentina. The group leader was, coincidentially, my roommate's
student in the Physics 4AL lab she is a TA for! That guy seemed so
surprised having his TA in the group that he announced to everyone that
my roommate is his physics TA! hahah!
So we rode this old beaten up orange school bus and started our
way to Downtown LA. Since it was kind of late, there was the usual LA
Traffic Jam. If only we left earlier and on time..!!
My roommate fell asleep in the bus as usual. We arrived at the Union
Station near Olvera St, which has a Mexican night market. There was
some sort of Native American dance with huge feather headdresses..
We went to the Chinese American Museum(425 North Los Angeles St,
www.camla.org) although we were so starving.. we should have ate
breakfast! The museum had exhibits about the first Chinese immigrants
to America and had some art exhibits. It turns out that the original
Chinatown was destroyed to make room for the Union Station. The
building that the museum is in is the last remaining original building.
We then went back to the bus to go to lunch! I was quite starving at
this point.. We went to "Golden Dragon Seafood Restaurant"... At the
entrance is a sign saying that each dish of dim sum is $1.50. ..
I had a bad feeling.. Usually when my family of 6 people go out to
eat dim sum in Sacramento, the total price is around $30!! So when
my roommate said that it was unlimited dim sum for $12, I thought it
was very very expensive! Perhaps it is some famous place so it would
be so pricey. I also thought it would be like a buffet.. ..
Nope.. that is all wrong!! We didn't even get to select what we
wanted to eat. The group leader did all the picking for us! We just
sat there and ate. We ate BBQ pork buns (too sweet), Pork and
vegetable buns, Ha Gao (Shrimp dumplings), Shui Mai, turnip cakes,
assorted meat balls, pork spareribs, shrimp cheurng fun (I didn't get
to taste it!), and fried gyoza(outside layer is too tough).
Then we had some beef fried rice that was so moist and wet..
(One girl said that it is very tasty! .. . uh..it wasn't that good)
Hong Kong style fried crisp noodle with squid on top (the
noodles look "ayashii" as if it was artificially yellow and it wasn't
even crisp at all!).. Chinese Broccoli/mustard (Gai Lan) with Oyster
Sauce that was kind of weird tasting... the oyster sauce was more
sweet than usual. Then for dessert we had taro and coconut jello.
Our group leader then said that we should go now, but one of the
Argentina persons said that she wanted to try some of the orange "flan"
...she was talking about mango pudding! haha. The best tasting food
was probably the taro and coconut jello.. the rest of the food was
among one of the worst dim sum I've ever ate.. and for me to actually
taste it as bad should mean a lot.. My tastebuds aren't usually that
"refined" and I can eat most things finding nothing wrong with the
food while other people complain how bad it was..
After dinner, we walked around the area. Our group leader actually
try to explain Chinese culture and even gave us tips on bargaining in
those Chinese shops. For example, his technique is if an item is $20,
he would put $15 in his pocket and give $5 to his friend. When he pays
for it, he finds that he only has $15 in his pocket.. so he asks if he
can get it for $15.. if he can't then he will ask his friend to "borrow"
$5.. sneaky, isn't it?! Some of the girls couldn't resist and bought
those little explosive throwing toys, 6 boxes for $1. My roommate
seemed amazed by them.. it appears that she never saw them before!
(sweat drop rolling down) We also went to a Chinese Herb/Medicine place
and the other international students seemed interested in all the
strange things and smell in there. There was also a street similar to
"Ladies' Street" in Hong Kong.. stands full of cheap China goods.
We walked to the "Twin Golden Dragon Tower", which is basically
a structure of two golden dragons that goes over the broad street.
We just took pictures of them. Next, it seemed that our leader got
lost. We walked around and our leader had to ask some guys for directions!
:D We then went to the Tien Hau Temple. It had Chinese and Vietnamnese
on the signs. The Temple was quite small, but I never really entered
a temple in America before. The front had a large tripod with many
sticks of incense. You walk in and there is a large table of many
offerings: oranges, fruits, oil, etc.. There are also the divination
sticks (don't know what to call them), and two blocks of wood in a
mango-like shape and color. Our leader wasn't too familiar with going
to the temple. He is from LA, but can speak mandarin. So he couldn't
really explain and answer everyone's questions. He did explain those
mango blocks are for praying and answering your questions. You bow
to the gods with it for 3 times and drop the blocks. The answer to your
prayer depends on how the blocks land: right side up, upside down, or
the extremely rare case, on the side. He said that in Taiwan, there
was an incident where it fell on the side and did not fall down! The
monks put a glass barrier around where it dropped and now its part of
the exhibition! haha.. Our leader didn't know too much about the
divination sticks, where you pray and shake the container full of sticks
until one stick falls out. Every stick has a different number. You
look at the number of the fallen stick and go to where the fortunes are
put. Your fortune is the one with the same number as your stick.
Well, the ABC guy in our group was interested in doing it and asked
our group leader how much did it cost. He didn't know so the ABC guy
asked the temple lady there. She wasn't a nun or anything and was
wearing ordinary clothes with some other guy. "How much is this?",
asked the ABC guy as he held up the container of divination sticks.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HOW MUCH?", roared the temple lady. Boy, did she
sound very offended!! She probably thought that he was asking how much
was the divination sticks, not how much did it cost to get your fortune!
One of the girls in our group had her mom come along and she explained
to us that you usually put some little donation in the box.. Feeling
unwelcome, most of us, including the group leader, went outside.
We were talking outside until the Spain guy and some others came outside.
He tried to get his fortune.. but no one told him how to do it.. he
said that he just took a stick out, and asked the temple lady what was
his fortune. The temple lady said that she couldn't tell him his
fortune! How stupid! Well, she must be quite mad..!
After this, we went into the Chinese Confucious School. A
Taiwanese and American flag was up on the building. Inside, the
classrooms were very tiny. People asked about the meaning of the lion
statue in the auditorium, but the group leader didn't really know.
We went into a classroom and the group leader gave in introduction to
Chinese language. Actually, he asked the girl's mom if she knew how to
write the character "turtle" in Chinese, but she didn't know so he went
to ask the school personnel!! Turns out that he doesn't know how to
write Chinese! He later came back and wrote how the picture of a turtle
evolved into the Chinese character.
After the school visit, we didn't have much time left! Our last
stop was the "Sun Yat Sen Memorial". I thought it was going to be a
museum or exhibition, but nope.. . it was that statue we passed by when
riding on the bus!! It was in the shopping area street.. and I was a
bit surprised how there was much more people walking around compared
with last time I went there. My roommate bought a mobile phone strap
for $1. I wanted to get some Chinese watercolor rice paper, but I
didn't see any for sale.. and we didn't have time. We looked at the
very grotesque multicoloured wishing fountain there. What a sore to
the eyes!! People were throwing coins there trying to get it in the
tiny cans. Our group leader came and said, "You see that "wisdom"
sign there with its tiny can? Well, "true wisdom" is that you don't
throw money in!" haha..
We took a quick look at Sun Yat Sen's statue and read the plague.
It was about 4:10 already! However, everyone was gathered around a
martial arts show by some school. There was one black guy that was
doing "drunken kung-fu".. The soundtrack was techno style.. yuck.
Most of the students' performance was kind of bad.. . They don't seem
very balanced.. as if they can't stand up straight. And, their arm
motions seemed very orchestrated, as if they were robots.. there doesn't
seem to be any meaning in their motions, as if they were just doing
things mechanically!
At 4:20PM, we boarded the old school bus. We were all exhausted
and hot. Our group leader said to my roommate,"When I go home, I'll
take a nap and start working on the lab report!" My roommate fell
asleep on the bus. . the ride was quite long and we arrived back at
UCLA around 5PM. We took a whole group photo in front of the school
bus and said our good byes... . Back at our apartment, my roommate
and I drank a cold glass of non-concentrate orange juice.. We then
discussed how bad the food was and how we were "ripped off" of our
$12. My roommate said that she wasn't even full and wanted to eat more
dim sum!
16.March.2004 -ugetsu-:
tan jyo bi-
According to [shin madou monogatari], today is Schezo Wegey's
birthday! He's a character from the game Puyo Puyo and Madou
Monogatari. If you don't know those games, click
[here] for my brief introductions to some of the games!
Me: "um, so Schezo, how old are you? I heard you are about
180 years old.. is that true?"
Schezo: ".... urusei na, omae wa!!"
Me: "..don't tell me that you used your "Draw" series type of magic to
absorb other people's life!"
Schezo: "mataku, 'Areiaado Special'!!!"
Me: "'batankyuu~'" {falls down}
Anyway, I just finished my 3 hour shift looking at blood smear slides
through the microscope.. .
21.Mars.2004 -yut- :
to mexico, japan, wasteland
I've been wanting to go to downtown LA so i can buy some rice paper
to practice chinese watercolour painting on.. that plan has been
delayed for many weeks already. About 5 months ago, i remember seeing
the discount Japanese grocery market "Marukai" having the paper for
only $1! SO i wanted to go there.
I started to leave my apartment at around 1:50PM and missed the
red Metro Rapid bus on Wilshire. The next bus came around 10 min., at
around 2:10PM.. The bus passed through the rich Beverly HIlls area
and Rodeo Drive.. .through a Korean neighbourhood, then it started to
become a Mexican Neighbourhood! I decided at last minute to go to
the central library before it closes at 5PM. The street I got off
was Broadway. Boy, I felt like I arrived in Mexico!! There were so
many people in the streets with the afternoon shining brightly over
head. Many shops where open. many of these were in spanish and
many sold cheap cheap clothing. Some stores sold all items $4.99!
There were also many people selling things in the street. Homemade
desserts, foods, and cool drinks!! crazy!! i wanted to try some, but
i'm afraid how clean it is! :D :D There were also Mexicans selling
fake DVDs on the streets.. hmm.. they seem to already have the new
movie "Passion of the Jesus Christ"!! There were also some "fishy"
dealings too. At one corner of a block, i saw many people (some
caucasians too!!) carefully getting out money to pay a Mexican guy
with two duffel bags full of what I assume to be cigarrete boxes!!
Hmm.. black market for cigarettes.. is it to escape the cigarette tax?
@_@||
The streets were dirty with litter
and i could see policemen patrolling the streets on bicycles.
There was this little shopping place through a building.. similar to
a flea market.. it had so many china goods and latin music blasting
away! I walked to 5th and Grand St., where the Central is located..
Along the way, I see a few Hollywood movie studio trucks to film
movies.. There were also some policemen on motorcycle guarding the
way and road blocks.. . It seems like they are always filming
something in downtown LA.. .. .
The library is very big and it even has escalators going up!
Because it was around 3:30PM, i didn't have much time.. I went to
the Teen's section on the second floor to borrow some graphic novels.
THey didn't have too much but I borrowed "How to Draw Anime & Game
Characters Vol. 3 : Bring Daily Actions to Life", "Ragnarok" vol 8 by
Myung-Jin Lee, and volumes 8-10 of "Storm Riders"(Fung Wun) by Ma
Wing-sing.. I dared not borrow much because i still had lots of
walking to do.. .
After the library, I walked to Japan Town. Japantown is located
around 3rd/2nd street and Alameda. Next time, i got to remind myself
not to walk straight on 3rd street. There is a little area full of
homeless people just sitting around, sleeping around on the side
walks. I walk past their tents or make-shift boxes, hoping that i
wouldn't disturb them.. . I then saw a few Buddhist temples.. and
for a sure sign of being in Japantown, I saw a "rice boy" car driving
by. It wasn't that fancy.. it was dark blue and had a little fin..
but it had that Initial D "Fujiwara(?) Tofu Store" sticker on the side!
(sweat drop rolling down =_=||)
The 3rd St and Alameda Bamboo Plaza shopping center was very disappointing.
Asahiya Bookstore is no more!
It is closed!! So there aren't really any other good stores in that
place... except for Mitsuwa Supermarket. There, i got a 3 pack
Hiroshima ocha furikake for $1. I then walked down to 2nd street.
2nd street and Onizuka/SanPedro St contains "Weller Court", which
has the Marukai market and a little further is Kinokuniya Book Store.
I went to Marukai and went immediately to the stationary section.
Alas! There are no calligraphy paper.. . I was disappointed..
I also needed a new rice bowl because I accidentally dropped mines some
months ago. They had many dishes for only 98 cents!! Many of them
were flat though.. I had no use for those.. . There didn't seem to be
many sales so I only got some nori (sea weed) $1.49, Kinder Surprise
egg (chocolate egg with a surprise toy inside) $1, and lemon candy ($1).
After that, I went to Kinokuniya Book Store. It is much smaller
than the San Francisco one. As usual, I like to look at the
stationary section.. I wanted to check how much is the rice paper there.
I found the section.. and it was quite expensive.. 100 sheets for $4.50!
and some even more expensive. I decided that I need to go to Chinatown
now to buy the paper... I also got the idea to buy a gift for my
roommate.. I decided to get a small album for postcards and maybe a
pencil board (shitajiki). The albums were expensive! I decided to just
get the cheapest one for $3.80. I looked around the magazines and it
once again didn't have the fashion magazine "Kera". I went to the
anime/manga section and looked at some of the artbooks that weren't
shrinkwrapped. I looked at some of SNK art books.. . There were many
art that I haven't seen before.. I found that they have a large
"shitajiki" pencil board section put into unorganised folders. Most
of them were $3.50 (250 yen it reads, what a rip off!). They had many
Love Hinas, Saiyuki, and others. There was CLAMP's latest series, but
it was the most expensive! ~$6.. . crazy!
None caught my eyeballs except for one: Ragnarok Loki (Mythical
Detective Loki). That one was well designed, but it was a little
more expensive at $3.80. Well, my roommate isn't an anime fan, so i
decided to look for a plain pencil board (no picture).. but there
weren't any.. there was only a few cute ones with animals and Nyanko
cats in sushi.. HOWEVER, these are $4.10!! Even more expensive than
the anime ones!! I decided to just get the Ragnarok Loki shikijiki and
later decide whether its a good idea to give it to my roommate or not.
As i lined up at the cashier, I noticed that they had a "sale" section
up next to the cash register. They had some Doraemon key chains (the
mom or the nerd guy) $1, CardCaptor Sakura trading card pack of 30 for
$3.. I then noticed that the CardCaptor Sakura Official trading card
binder was only $5! Its a large binder with CLAMP art on the front.
The listed price was 2600 yen!! what a steal! I then saw that they had
Gio Gio's Bizarre Adventures figures for $3 (original tag price is $10)!
I'm not a very big fan of GioGio (5th series of JoJo).. probably due
to the fact that I couldn't really understand it and the stands were
getting more and more extremely weird! But still, its Jojo! So i
got the figure of GioGio. Then I suddenly realized that perhaps i
should buy a pack of CCS cards to at least put some in that binder..
I got one pack of part III.. I spent around $20! Haven't spent that
much money on "useless" goods for a very long time..
By the time I got out of Kinokuniya, the sky was already dark!
I felt like Cinderella who ran out of the ball before midnight before
the spell loses its magic! I needed to go back to the bus safely!
Alas, the streets were dark and dim, stores were closed, and many
homeless people were wandering around, sleeping, or just squatting
down. There was a bum that only was wearing a long shirt (no pants).
Then I saw a very very long line of people to a small fenced parking
lot with many beds out in the open. The place was called the "Midnight
Mission". The sidewalk where I was walking had many bums wrapped up
in a blanket or sleeping bag. I tried my best to walk by without
disturbing them. I scared myself with my crazy imagination: I was
afraid that some of the sleeping bums would suddenly grab my leg as I
walk by!! I dreamed of some nightmare like that in an abandoned
hospital many years ago. ...
No matter how fast I walked or where I went, the streets had the
persistent stench of urine. I carefully tried not to walk on the
wet drips from the edges of the wall. Finally, i reached Los Angeles
St.. I safely reached the bus station on Los Angeles and 5th street..
I waited in the stop.. and there were many people walking around in
that area.. Some kids were also wandering in the dark streets. Some
people, who knows what they are doing, were just standing around in
the sidewalk. The bus stop also smelled of urine. I waited about
5 minutes until the bus came. At this point I was very exhausted.
My left eye had sporadic unvoluntary twitching all day long.
The bus ride was quite long... and I arrived back to my apartment
safe and tired from the journey.. .
Does anyone knows why one's eye have unvoluntary twitching?
Two of my roommates told me that it is a bad sign
6.April.2004 -ka-:
lazy!
yes, I am. I am lazy. It is so much work to turn on the
computer, wait for it to load up Windows 98, open notepad, and
type this file using the keyboard. Sometimes, I think its better
for me to actually get a real blank book and write a journal instead.
I would probably update THAT more frequently.
However, writing this and putting it up on the internet is what keeps
me connected with everyone else. "Everyone else", I must admit,
mostly refers to my family. You see, I don't really use the telephone
often because it costs money to call long distance. Actually, many of
these long entries I just write, copy and paste them as email. Or,
sometimes, I write long detailed emails and copy the text and paste
them here. Or, I just update this log and then tell my brothers to
read what I did one weekend.
This log is also for me. A small record of a duration of my life.
Of course, I can't type in all the details.. especially during the
school quarter, or it will be very mudane: "homework, again! exams
again! neeed sleeep~" These few years, I do admit that the entries were
getting more infrequent and perhaps more like a report on a trip.
I tend to update the log when I done something unusual.
Well, although there aren't too many people who reads my log, I
found it quite amusing AND a bit comical how my little sister seems to
adore my homepage and all its senseless babblings or ramblings and is
able to recite things I wrote.. . During winter vacation, she kept on
asking me when I would update my homepage!
Coincidentially, I've recently read two works,
both having a narrator writing in his journal. The first
one is Bram Stoker's "Dracula", a tale beautifully told through journals
from various characters. The second is Alan Moore's "Watchmen", a
graphic novel. The main character "Rorshach" keeps a detailed journal
that may bring light to the deep conspiracy relating to the end of the
world or the end of wars to the world. Reading these two works gave me
new inspiration to continue writing my own journal.
So what else is *NEW*, you may ask. Nothing really. I'm still
unemployed. I just finished viewing through the long list of marmot
blood smear slides. Yesterday, I got sick of the dirty floor in the
kitchen, so I took some dirty paper towels that some person left out
to pick up all the garbage and wipe the kitchen floor. Seriously, I
wouldn't want to step in the kitchen floor without my sandals! I then
carefully wiped the kitchen table and all four placemats clean.
Actually, just recently, my Indonesian roommate and I came up with a
new system to assign tasks for everyone. Ever since I came back from
Sacramento, I've been vacuuming the floor every week. "Every week?",
you may wonder. However, it seems that this year, it is *necessary* to
vacuum every week. At the end of one week, the carpet has many food
particles all over in the living room. In the previous year when I
lived in the other room, we didn't really have such "messy" problems.
In fact, we probably vacuumed at most once a month.. because everyone
was too busy/lazy. Well, it seems that some of the roommates this year
aren't so careful to keep things clean. Some of them tend to eat their
meals sitting on the floor. The black coloured rug in front of the TV
is always noticeably dirty with specks of garbage and food tid-bits.
Its kind of annoying and frustrating how right after the day you
vacuum the floor, new garbage already appears on the carpet.
Anyway, after wiping the table clean in the morning, I went to the
computer lab, came back at around 8 PM, and found the table to be
sticky and dirty!! (sigh) well, I was looking at newspaper ads when
the newspaper stuck to the table.. . so it was so disappointing that
my efforts were once again a waste. My efforts last even less than
a day! =_=..
This week is also the beginning of Spring quarter. Last week
was spring vacation. I didn't really do too much. I got extremely
sick on Monday, but was having this terrible headache for about 3
days in a row already. On Monday, I had a pulsing headache, felt
like vomiting, had diarrhea, felt chills and fever, and felt
physically weak. I ate nothing but plain congee (rice porridge)
for two days. My roommate gave me a tylenol cold medicine. I
don't have any medicine except for some Chinese ones! That day
was also an unusually hot day. The weather was probably at least
90 degrees F! I ended up not going to lab that day, but went
for the rest of the week.
This week was also a cereal sale at Pavillions. $1 each for
10 oz. cheerios, trix, or kix! so cheap! Actually, one of my
roommates, the ABC one, is a cereal fanatic. She eats it for
snacks and meals! Her favourite is the brand Kashi, which can
be found in organic food stores. So we made quite a few trips to
Pavillions. I didn't know that it was somewhat close and in
walkable distance from my apartment! Well, to get the savings, you
need a card, so I had to sign up for a Pavillions card. "Darned
cards!", my bloody dark thoughts.. However, at the cashier, I
said to him "Too many cards these days".. to which he replied, "You
can use it for Vons, Safeways, or if you're in Chicago, Dominic's."
I said in disbelief, "I have a Vons card already!" He replied, "You
can use that here too." I then said, "There doesn't seem to be
many Safeways around here." The cashier replied, "Most of the Safeways
around here closed down in the '70s". hmm. what an interesting
conversation with the cashier. At least I learned that Safeway=
Vons=Pavillions. I already have a Safeway card too! But I didn't
bring it with me because there aren't any around here. My brother
told me that my grandma has it. He says that sometimes when my
grandma goes to safeway, the cashier would call her "Ms. Fong" or
"Betty"!!! AGH! I guess my grandma took it from my desk! I already
know that she looks in it... its a mess everytime I get back.. :D
I also went to Border's books and Barnes and Nobles. Barnes
and Nobles is in the Westside Pavillion shopping centre on Westwood
Bvld. It takes around 45 minutes to walk there. I was kind of
disappointed that it didn't have the latest volume of Ragnarok
(vol.10).. While standing and reading magazines, I was approached
by some Japanese guy with a clipboard. It was one of those
donations for poor kids in third world countries things. Well, it
was so strange because there was so many awkward pauses. That guy
didn't really speak much and his English wasn't too great.
I was left standing there looking at the papers in silence. Not
knowing what to do, as it seemed like he was waiting for me to make
a move, I took out my wallet and gave him one dollar. "Oh, Thank
you!", he said.. and he moved on to some other victim.. . How dare
the solicit people for money in a book store!!! ughhh.
I left to return back to my apartment around 8PM..
and it was already dark. One block away from Barnes and Nobles,
and in front of the Restaurant Juniors (where many old people dine!),
someone was saying loudly,"hey,.. hey,. HEY" Because I already
encountered that donation guy in Barnes and Nobles, I wasn't too
happy to talk with other strangers. I ignored him, pretended not
to hear him and walked faster! However, he kept on saying "hey"
until I couldn't resist but stop and take a look behind me.
It was a middle aged caucasian with white hair and beard. He was
wearing a baseball cap.
GUY: "Are you Japanese?"
ME: "no."
GUY: "Are you Korean?"
ME: "no."
GUY: "Are you Chinese?"
ME: "yes."
GUY: "There aren't many Asians around here. I'm from East LA,
where there are lots of Koreans. You go to college?"
ME: "Yeah, UCLA."
GUY: "Good!" (gives me a thumbs up) Take care!
ME: "You too!" (continues walking quickly)
Oh, what a weird conversation, don't you think? Things like these
tend to happen to me.. :D
7.April.2004: -sui-
sa~
OK, this file is getting too big again for my computer. Can't
you believe it? its only around 25 KB or so, but already, my
computer says that it has inefficient memory to type any more
characters!! So i have to type this in the school, or i have
to make a new file!! That is the reason why there are so many files!
I also didn't really write too many entries. ..
I'll just give an update about recently. Art-wise, I have lots of
sketches I was working on. I drew some PSO art (Phantasy Star Online),
sketches of Schezo, and most recently, trying to draw some KOF art
(King Of Fighters). Haven't done any KOF art for a very very long time.
Haven't played KOF or any fighting game for a very long time either.
I guess the KOF fanatic spirit left me some years ago. Every year there
is a new KOF game.. since 1994!! Its now 2004, and I've lost track of
it all. There isn't much new between the games.. especially graphic
wise. They seem to reuse the same animation and graphics for most of
the characters.
My brain is still around the 1995 era! :D However, I was
trying to draw KOF because I have my first Guestbook entry! Boy, was I
so excited!! Its from the webmaster of the KOF HP "House of Shingo", a
homepage that I used to check periodically some years ago! :D :D
Well, I wasn't expecting any guestbook entry.. and i kept telling my
brothers or sister to write something down.. but, wow! and its a bit
embarrassing how Shingo isn't one of my favourite characters.. I
thought of him like an annoying sidekick!
For the first time, I brought my watercolours with me.. but I
haven't touched them in years.. . I guess I'd better do some practicing
first.. Don't know if i know how to paint with them anymore!
11.avril.2003:
EAST-er(n)
Today is easter. its usually nothing special.. I haven't really
celebrated it or anything since painting eggs in my childhood. Well,
i guess the closest thing is buying chocolate Cadbury eggs during my
stay in Hong Kong! :D :D (Cadbury is an English company.. i don't
really see them for sale here in US) One of my roomates is Christian
so I learned a few things: The sunday before easter is "Palm SUnday",
where people greeted Jesus with palm leaves. (actually, this my
INdonesian roommate told me) The friday before easter is "good friday",
the day that Jesus died. Yes, its a bit strange to call it "good friday".
Easter is the day that Jesus comes back to life.
I thought that was kind of interesting.. So anyway, that roommate
asked me if i was interested in going to church on easter, where a few
people are going to be baptised. She said that some people only go to
church on easter. haha.. I'm not christian. I'm an atheist. I don't
believe in any gods. HOwever, I was quite curious on how people are
baptised. THinking of the large churches in movies.. I thought i would
just "sneak" in without anyone knowing.. :) :) Also, I needed to
return a library book.. and it would take a while to walk there.. So I
decided to go and check it out.
The church is on Santa Monica blvd and is near here. it is part of
the "Berkland" church organization. It was founded between Berkeley
and Oakland, so its called that name. Many "asians" especially Koreans
go to that church. Well, I was kind of disappointed to see that the
building is quite very new and not very big.. it was made of brick.
the material of many UCLA buildings. I was hoping it would be made of
large stone blocks with glass stained windows. i guess I am thinking of
some large cathedral! :D too many movies :D..
The moment I stepped in the church, i knew my imagination would be
so different. Little kids greeted us at the door handing out painted
eggs. I got a blue coloured one. They also handed out today's schedule
and handed me a clipboard and pen to fill out my information..
such as name, email, telephone number, address..
etc.. ugh! I really felt weird at this point. "How did they know that
it was my first time in this church?!?" I wondered. In the main room,
everybody was standing up, clapping, and singing. The front "stage"
had live musicians performing (drums, keyboard, guitar). It also had
this projection screen with all the lyrics being displayed! So advanced
technology! Well, I never heard of these songs before.. they seem to
be modern Christian songs. So everyone seemed to be singing and
knowing the song... I just tried to follow the clapping.. clapping until
my palms were red and hurting. In the program, these singing sessions
are called "praise".
AFter the singing and clapping, we finally sat down. The guy then
made announcements.. including introducing new visitors to the church!
hazukashi-- kedo.. so they called out names and the person had to
stand up. They introduced me as my roommate's roommate. :D I stood up,
nodded a little and sat back down as everyone clapped for me.. =_=||
My first plan of anonymousity has utterly failed. Now everyone knows
me~! embarrassing. ..
The schedule is as follows: praise, welcome & announcements, praise,
prayer, tithes & offering, special music, testimony, message, hymn of
commitment, closing prayer. It felt so weird once again during the
prayers. I just lowered my head like everyone and "pretended" to do
so.. because if i don't do so, my head out be the only one popping up.
I just copied my roommate... if she is done, then i look back up again!
The testimony, and message were quite long lectures. It was funny
because the Pastor referred to a section in the bible.. There is a bible
in front of me... i got it out and was lost.. didn't know where to
start! So i just looked at my roommate's bible. Also, what was kind of
amusing was that almost everyone had their own notebook out to take
notes!! I've never heard of such things before. THe Pastor was talking
about the ressurection of christ... and blah blah.. i was getting very
sleepy at this point.. the words began to swirl like a whirlpool, luring
me to sleep.. but I mustn't! I couldn't really understand too much of
the lecture.. probably partially due to my overcoming sleepiness. I
tried to force myself awake (reminding me of some lectures at UCLA!),
for everyone seemed so attentif.. and so serious taking notes and such..
After the closing prayer, finally came the baptism! Well, first of
all, the process begins with the people giving a personal testimony of
what happened and why they decided to get baptised. There was only
3 people getting baptised.. and many of their stories were sad.. and
finally they turned to Christianity..and so now they feel ready to
accept Jesus. During these testimonies, I heard faint "amens" and
nodding from the people surrounding me.
Next, the Pastor is in this little altar up stairs but
with a window that you can see through. The person then seems to be
walking into a large pool of water, recites some phrase, pray, and then
the Pastor gently drops that person, immersing him completely in the
water!! So he was completely wet! I didn't expect this.. my Indonesian
roommate who went to Catholic school said they just touch you with the
holy water on the forehead.. So i was shocked and awed watching this
spectacle.. .
After baptism was photo taking.. and then eating!! I was very
hungry, but my tiredness taken over so that I wasn't that tired and
had a bit of a headache. We went to a separate building.. it was a
large gymnasium type of building.. similar to the cafeterias in
elementary schools. First everyone stands around the perimeter of
the room.. and the guy said that new visitors can eat first.. and
he personally came up to me and asked how did i like the service today
and told me to start eating.. (sweat drops rolling down) THey had
good food. Some korean cold noodles, breaded shrimp, and korean spicy
cucumbers. yum! They also had fruit juice. and because its easter
today, they had ice cream sundaes with all sorts of toppings!!
I had some vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry icecream with strawberries,
m&m's, nuts, caramel, whipping cream.. . yummy~! I love ice cream..
didn't eat it in a very long time.. i have a sweet tooth!
So after that, we went home, stopping at the library bookdrop.
THe bookdrop was so full that the book wouldn't drop in. i had to reach
in and fit the book in the bookdrop. I guess that everyone is rushing
to return their books since libraries are closed on easter... .
So that was basically my first church trip other than the 2 summers
of vacation bible school in my childhood. My family aren't christians,
but since my 2nd brother's friend is going to the vacation bible school
in the summer, they thought it was good as something for all three of
us to do other than staying home! funny, ne? well, i felt so misplaced
there sometimes.. such as when they are praying.. I also read parts of
the bible and had to memorize some lines. I read it as if it was a
story.
This church trip was completely different from what i imagined.
My other "christian" experience was going to some event in Royce Hall
at UCLA. That was in my freshman year when I didn't know anyone (and
it seems nothing really changed now! I still don't know too many people!)
Some girls just came up to me and told me to go there.. so i was just
thinking of going there.. just give it a try.. perhaps i can jsut meet
some people. Well, I felt so out of place there. I was very impressed
by Royce Hall.. the inside was very fancy and beautiful.. I sat in a
seat that is surrounded by black (african american) ladies.. they were
so enthusiastic throughout the whole event! singing and clapping, and
yelling out "Amen!!" just like in movies!! I just lip synched to the
songs.. and we even had to hold hands with the people next to you.. .
The people in the front was saying how they now got xxxx members in
Hong Kong.. and everywhere surrounding me are large shouts "A--men!!"
and "yeah!".. hahah.. So much different from the Korean church! :D
16.April.2003 -fretag-:
crossroad
Last weekend, out of the blue in the night, my cousin Fung Leeeens
called. For what reason? She said that all of the sudden she felt
very sick and nauseous! That is so strange.. how can one all of the
sudden get so sick?! She has stomach ache, feels like vomiting,..
headache.. so everybody watch out for these sudden sickness!
I haven't been doing too many things this week. the week just
flew by. I attended a summer job and internship fair at UCLA> it was
not that useful.. the only company that was interested in ws Amgen, a
biotech company. The rest were mostly entertainment (Fox, Universal..)
and financial companies.
These days, although i don't have anything to do, I feel so tired
in the morning. I think my tiredness is related to my dreaming. Ever
since coming back to LA, I've been having dreams every single day.
Most of them are pertaining to everyday life.. and seem so realistic
that I sometimes have to pause and ponder whether the event occured or
not. Really, some are so mundane that when i describe it to my
roommates, they seem so .. well, shocked by the briefness. They
seem to be fragments of everyday life.. and I am getting to drown in
these illusionary fragments of dreams.. dreams and reality begin to
converge into a new dimension.. . <--Perhaps I'm getting insane?!
Well, just to give you examples of these disturbing(?) dream fragments
.. .:
1) I am washing dishes at the kitchen sink, and see an ant crawling
there. I crush it with my finger. -end-
2) I see an ant and crush it with my finger. I realise that it seems
like de ja vu. -end-
3) At Ralphs, my roommate and I were lining up at the cashier when
she remembered that she needed to buy tomatoes. She was going to
go and get some, but I said that I have tomatoes that she can use.
She doesn't accept my offer, runs off, and comes back with a bag
of tomatoes. -end- (this really happened the day before, but in that
case, my roommate really took up my offer!)
4) I was sleeping and woke up. I sat upright on my bed and noticed
that my Vietnamnese roommate had two calenders on her wall next to
her bed. -end- (I woke up and noticed that there was only one
calender therel!)
I also have some regular dreams too.. I'll write about them
some other time. Anyway, life is so.. uneventful lately. Waking up
tired at around 10AM.. making breakfast (hotcakes! yummm!), cooking
lunch... reading books (Fast Food Nation, some graphic novels..),
sketching, internet (email, neopets<--poison, news).. cook dinner...
sigh.. I also go online and search for jobs.. . but slow process.
my internet connection at home is 28.8kp, so its better for me to
go to school's computer lab.. heheh, i can still log in although i
graduated in fall 2003! :D :D :D
20.April.2004:
AAGH! wana-
Trapped again! I had to go to the Santa monica library to return
some videos.. . so after dropping them off, I walked to the shopping
center and on the promenade (shop with many shops and performers).
Actually, I am shopping for shoes. All my roommates seem to be very
amused by my holey shoes. (The holes are so big that my feet can
feel the wind on windy days!) Strangely enough, the holes are at the
front sides of both shoes. What a strange place! I find that the
Santa Monica Place shopping centre doesn't seem to have many
interesting shops. Actually, all shopping centres seem to have the
same identical shops.. Anyway, on the promenade, I got two free lip
balm (mint flavour)!! yeah! I was almost done with mines and I was
actually going to buy a new stick! But now I don't have to! :D :D
so happily, i walked down the street with a lazy smile..
BUT then.. .
A guy approached me with a small laminated card with eight questions.
Questions such as "how are humans created?", "How to make the world
a better place?", "What is true happiness?" etc.. questions that
don't really have a set answer. He asked me, in Japanese accented
English, which question appeals to me the most.. then "nihonjin
desu ka?" Well, I immediately knew what this was. For I have ran
into this "trap" maybe 3 years ago. It is the "Principle Study
Center". [Principle Study Center: 1334 3rd Street Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401 (pink building)]
About 3 years ago, I had the same experience of going up to
the "study center".. However, I kind of forgot what it was about..
because of my lovely skills of attracting different cults
(some examples: Scientology, IRH (aka Kagaku-no-kafuku), soka gakkai)
I decided to just play along and see what its about again. Besides,
I thought in my head, that same recruiter guy probably isn't there
any more! So I went with that guy to the study center.. . it seemed
almost the same as last time. We entered and went into the
discussion room with many tables and desks. We sat down and he
had some folders of "lectures" and basically read them out to me..
then we got to a touchy issue. Creation of human kind. I said
that I don't believe in creation; humans evolved through the long
process of luck, evolution and natural selection. At this point,
that guy didn't exactly know what to say! He said he needs to go
talk to his superior. (sweat drops rolling down) After coming back,
he said that his superior suggested that I go watch the video..
Apparently, his English isn't that good to explain everything to me!
He led me to the video room. ... the moment i stepped in the room,
everything came back to me. 3 years ago, i was bored to death
watching the video!! Here, i instantly regretted my decision to come
up... ;_; .. The room had 4 desks. Each desk has a TV and VCR and
are divided by a narrow piece of dividers.. Two Japanese(?) guys were
there each using headphones and watching videos.. Their videos had
Japanese guys lecturing. My host then asked me if I wanted tea..
knowing it will be a looong while, i accepted the offer (It may be
dangerous to accept drinks from strangers, but since last time i
didn't get poisoned or anything, I assume its OK! but, don't
follow my dangerous acts/stunts, kiddies!) He popped in the video
(volume 1!) and went out. My video showed an AMerican and a
chalkboard. So just imagine a college lecture.. Sigh..
So The Principle study has two major concepts:
1] everything has duality. just like ying and yang.. everything
has a "sung song"(=ss, non-physical character) and "hyung song" (=hs,
physical body). Just like man and woman.. every human has a "mind"
and "body". To achieve being the "perfect individual", one must be
in complete harmony with both mind and body. The "give and take"
rule applies here. This harmonious relationship within a person
also applies to your family. Think of a triangular relationship
between the mother, father, and child. They must be in a harmonious
state to become a good family. Taking a step even further, you must
apply this relationship to god... then the lecturer babbles more
about this relationship to god.. such as "a creation usually reflects
the creator", so knowing yourself will make you better understand
god. And then he goes on saying that you need to know the "heart
of god" which is in lecture 3 (hearing "lecture 3" made me really
worry how long is the tape!! =_=||)
Finally, the tape was over. I thought I would never see that
day to come!! It automatically rewinded so I took that tape outside.
and it was awkward standing around not knowing what to do.. Actually,
at this moment, I was thinking,"OK!!!! here is my chance to FLEE
from this horrid place!!" but I was afraid to just do that..
Soon, the guy came out from the office door. YES. THE GUY I MET
DURING MY FIRST TIME THERE. (sweat drops rolling down) Panic stuck me
as I desparately prayed to the gods that he wouldn't recognise me!!
"Oh ye gods, please don't recognise me! You never seen me before!!
You are mistaken! I haven't met you before!!"
HOWEVER, he said something like,"Oh, so you FINALLY came back, eh?
how are you doing? So what made you come back?"
(inside my head went "AAAAaaaaHHHHH-----! WHY!?!Of all these years
and all these people... why does he recognise me?!?!?" =_=|| )
That guy's name is "Taka" if i remember correctly.. .
I didn't even know how to answer him.. and i probably gave
some quick vague answer... So we went back to the conference room
where another couple were discussing.. . and sat down in that same
table from a few years ago. Taking a piece of paper, he started to
go over the video's material.. not wanting to hear the SAME lecture,
i recited some of the things in the video to his surprise that I
absorbed the information. blah blah.. he asked me what are my goals,
my family members.. and what is happiness (not knowing how to answer
such a question, i responded it being "a state of being content")..
then he talked about GOD.. how my relationship with my family should
be applied to god. I responded by saying that I don't believe in god.
He said that to become the "Perfect Individual", you must have
complete harmony between mind and body.. and the mind contains
spiritual and intelligence aspects. I need to learn more about the
spiritual aspect (AKA god) to become the Perfect Individual. blah blah
...
SO, reaching this point made me remember more of what happened
last time. We were stuck in the SAME subject and SAME point.. both
sides clashing but not resolving... how CAN it be resolved?! He
said that I need to come there for teh next lecture to learn more..
The time was around 19:30 now.. and I still needed to go return some
books to the library, which closed at 21:00hrs. He tried to keep
me there to keep on discussing. I gave him many clues during the
lecture by constantly looking at my watch (haha,i hope that it was
good acting! :D).. and he seemed to be nowhere in sight to stop
talking.. . So I finally said that I really needed to leave now
because teh library is going to close soon.. he still try to talk
some more.. until I gave up and used my ultimate finishing move:
stand up! I stood up and he seemed to panic so he said "how about
next time? When are you free? You have lots of free time now
so you should come.. how about friday?" Ahh, 'twas a hard battle.
We both were standing like that for some minutes.. So I used my
second attack: Walk Towards the EXIT! So he followed me to the
exit and kept on trying to convince me to come back for teh next
lecture.. "No thanks..," I said. He asked me,"Why not?" (sweat drops
rolling down) @_@|| not knowing how to answer this question, and
he asked again.. I had to say the almighty TRUTH.. "um.. to tell
the truth," I nervously said in embarrassment while scratching my
head, "I'm not very interested in it.." This answer must have
caught his tongue!!!! :P :P :P heheh.. well, he asked for it,
so what can i say?!?!? He did try to get me to sign up for the
next lesson, so I said "sorry.." to him and reached for the exit
door knob.. He then accompanied me to the elevator.. while waiting
for the elevator, I saw the first recruiter guy with a caucasian
female coming up the stairs.. "oh its you again! how was it?", the
guy asked me.. "um its ok, but i need to go to the library now," I
said uncomfortably.. Finally the elevator came... and the guy
accompanied me until I reached the front of the building.. while
trying to get me to come another day or when I feel like it..
We shook hands and said our goodbyes and walked as fast as i could
to get out of his view.. I didn't even dared to turn and look back!!
I walked until at least 2 blocks away when i was sure that he can't
see me.. . Then it was Barnes and Noble Bookstore.. I couldn't
resist and went inside to read some magazines.. but i c ouldn't
really concentrate.. thinking what if he comes and see me through
the large glass wall/windows!! So soon after, i went to the
library and it was quite dark.. . then I took the bus and
went home.. falling asleep on the bus.. ..
28.avril.2004 -mercredi-:
paper
My cousin gave me the deadline for adding one more page to my
aunt's paper on friday night. Wednesday night. So I spent most
of today in front of the computer.. distracted by going on the internet.
Its kind of funny when you use a chatting programme. I'm using Trillian
because I have an icq and msn account.. sometimes I see a person i know
that just logged on. I feel kind of weird to immediately chat because
what happens if that person is busy? Well, as I was thinking of "oh!
xx is online! Maybe she is busy.. i'll just ignore her and if she wants
to talk to me, she can go ahead..", that person suddenly logged off.
Leaving me alone. There are many meanings.. such as maybe that person
just wanted to check if anyone is online.. or that person logged on to
see me and say "oh no! I don't want to talk to her" and put on the
"invisible mode" .. Kind of sad..
Thats why i like icq better because of allowing offline messages.
Its hard to converse with people when you don't know what they are
doing and what their intention was..
The weather went to the extreme this monday and tuesday. Living
on the 3rd floor has its disadvantages! The living room was like a
boiling sauna.. and i had to stay there because of my desk and
computer.. I had to think cool to make it more tolerable.. i'd guess
that temperatures went up to at least 95 F there... reminds me of
summer in Sacramento.. @_@ I slept at around 2 AM for both days..
too hot to sleep.
29.avril.2004 -thursday-:
cleaning time
the mess surrounding and on my desk once again spilled out to the
suburbs. the kitchen sink has food particles stuck on its sides. the
kitchen floor has litter and sticky spots all over. the kitchen table
is coated with many spills. the floor is sprinkled with food particles.
a film of dust coats my desk. dried rice is scattered around the four
rice cookers at the counter. someone's nail clippings is poking out
from the carpet. the stove range is covered with drips of oil and drips.
although it is not my week to do clean up, mou gaman dekinai zo..
kitanaisugiru jyanai ka? took me quite a few hours.. . ugh, so boring
update. once again, its about cleaning up.
30.avril.2003:
grub(meshi) discussion
kino, watashi wa bbq sauce to garlic salt baked chicken wo
tsukurimashita.. totemo oishikatta yo.. demo, kyou.. dare ka watashi
no ningyou to poteto (chicken wa daijyoubu desu!) wo tabeta sou mitai...
nanka hen jyanai ka? ningyou wa chicken yori oishikatta noni~!
toriaizu~ I finally openned the can of Princella(c) Cut Sweet
Potatoes : cut yams in light syrup (1lb, 13oz; 822g) that I got at Long's
Drugs for 99 cents a while back. The moment i opened the can, i had a
bad feeling. THe sweet syrup smell didn't smell so appetizing.. So i just
boiled it in a pot for a little while.. and yuck! The yams all had that
seemingly artificial syrup taste. There doesn't seem to be anymore of
the natural flavour left. NOw i'm left with lots of leftovers.. and
i feel a little sick just thinking of eating them again.. Usually i
like yams.. such as the ones my grandmother and aunt makes.. they are
either baked or boiled.. but this one... buy at your own risk!!
: