Visual recap of the last couple days:

Camping at Malibu State Park
Katelyn and her sad puppy pose. Kylie pretending to be a ghost. Daniel Pok. Sleeping under the night sky. The dark picture shows the butt-end of a skunk which was rummaging through our trash late at night. Dickee Cho. Who sleeps with their glasses on??





Dad's birthday
Happy 54th!


Star Party at Seal Beach
Sung jdsn & college group. Only got to watch for half an hour before heavy clouds set in and ruined the party. Saw a couple great "photon cannons" though. Why do girls hold hands? Get a room Sun and Jenny.

It's that time again. Take advantage of this year's Perseid meteor showers, which has been hyped to be the best meteor shower in recent years! Especially you lucky norcal people, take advantage of the Berkeley hills.



They'll be peaking on the nights of August 11th and 12th (tonight and night after), from 2am to dawn. There's no moonlight to get in the way, so one should be able to see close to 100 meteors per hour. Look eastward!

I'm scurred that bugs like these exist in my room:



Caught this sucker as it was crawling on the wall. Anyone seen these before or know what the heck these things are?

As I was taking pictures of this shek, I spotted its brother sprinting across the carpet, probably on a search & rescue mission. Too bad he's the one who needs to be rescued now, hahahah.



Scheduled to die by means of toilet.

I'm starting to tutor this 6th grader, Hyun-Woo, six hours a week. Six hours of tutoring the same kid every week is pretty dang demanding and unnecessary, but his mom was overly insistent. IVY league-bound boys only study during the summer. So we'll be going over six subjects (reading & comp, writing, vocabulary, science, math, history), all of which I'm hoping will be enough to fill up the time.

In the last fifteen minutes today, it was science time. I saw that he just finished lesson 3 from his science workbook, which had to do with cells and mitosis. Turning to the next page I saw the bold-faced words, "testosterone," "estrogen," and "ovaries." Um, heck no boy, we're not gonna be talking about this. We're gonna learn about plants. You can wait till health class in high school.

Happy birthday Roach!

This took me about ten minutes to figure out. Try it and don't think so hard!

Almost couldn't make it to the testing site on time because stupid yahoo maps gave me the wrong directions. "Take 5N, exit Telegraph, make right." Okay, no problem.. Telegraph.. Telegraph.. where are you... should have seen it by now.. call mom to check.. and woe is me, that exit doesn't even exist on the map along the 5 freeway. Luckily I found an alternate route and arrived on time. The test itself really wasn't that bad, but it just took a long time to finish. 65 pages of questions tired me out.

Tonight, DFC went to Living Water's cafe night in Cerritos. This was P.Jerry's old church, where he's known and revered as a great guitar/piano/drums legend. P.Jerry is truly one of the best musicians I've ever met. Our group played a MercyMe song and "Meet Us Here" with a jazz twist. The performances I enjoyed the most were Ed's friend Jason (he was pimpin), and this Michelle Branch-esque girl who performed Sarah McLachlan's "Angel." I was completely mesmerized during that song. She even hit the falsetto parts perfectly. I salute you whoever you are!

Last day of VBS:
the good - popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones, and those big, animal-shaped, air-filled domes where you climb in and jump around.

the bad - when some people come by and steal your unguarded shoes when you're innocently jumping around inside. Also, when some people tell little children that I killed Snoopy.

Taking the CBEST tomorrow morning. I wonder if it's really as easy as some people made it out to be.

Oh, and Silmido is a definite must-see. A group of us went to Sung jdsn's place to watch it after vbs. I had my doubts, but I really consider it as one of the best movies I've seen this year. It's a korean movie (NOT an annoying korean drama. Sorry, no one dies of leukemia or surgically donates his eyeball to his blind lover). It's about a group of S.Korean convicts trained to infiltrate N.Korea, but something goes awry. If you can't audibly process more than 30 korean words a minute like me, there's english subtitles.

I've been at VBS the past couple days. Son-Olympics. Dude, the songs get cheesier and cheesier every year. There's this one song where the intro sounds almost exactly like 50 cent's "In Da Club." And this other song sounds like it was done by N'Sync. But not that the kids care any less.. they shamelessly dance out the motions and sing their hearts out, especially little Cady. She is freakin adorable.

The 5th grade boys presented us with a little skit at the end of the night. I applaud their efforts, but I failed to see the depth and message in their presentation:

Boy #1 walks to a chair and sits down
Boy #1: Ah, I'm so tired! I'm going to put down my red Starburst candy right next to me and go to sleep.
(places red starburst on the ground next to him and pretends to fall asleep)

Three other boys come into the scene. Two of the boys dance around and make faces at sleeping Boy #1, while the third boy picks up the candy. I hear a little boy sitting in the first row shrieking, "TICKLE HIM! TICKLE HIM!" They leave.

Boy #1 wakes up
Says: Hey, someone took my candy!!

Enters Boy #2 and takes Boy #1 aside
Boy #2: It's okay, always remember that Jesus is on your side... and uh... you will always have His grace.

the end.


(awkward applause)

All blog users have an advertisement at the top of their blog page, which is supposedly determined by what you write about in your journal entries. Mine currently advertises Laker game tickets, probably because I wrote about them a lot in the playoffs a couple months ago. But there are some really random ones that I can't figure out:

Nancy's: buy effective goose repellent, or bird control products?

Tommy's: advertisement for goat cheese??

Carolina's: service for bee removal?? Oh wait, that's probably from the time she talked about getting stung by a bee at safeway... hahahahh

Andy's (this one made me laugh out loud): anyone looking to be a waitress??

If you're an astronomy nut like me, there is a cool website you can check that posts something new everyday relating to our universe. Every so often, they show some really neat things. This picture is taken in Iceland in 1991, which shows volcano Hekla erupting at the same time the auroras were visible overhead.




This is another picture of an aurora appearing in Oklahoma. I guess it's possible?



These are really amazing pictures which I hope you enjoyed, but the main reason why I posted them was to see if this program that easily uploads images to blogs worked correctly. So since it did, and if you are a blogger.com user, download Hello (it's free) and post pictures too.

ESPN.com came out with a list of the must-see televised basketball games of the new season. Lakers play Miami on Christmas day.. expect everyone to spend the evening at home and glued to the set. It's going to hurt seeing Shaq in a different jersey.

Hallo there. My two-month hiatus from blogging and aiming felt quite good, and I apologize to the few who continually checked my blog and was greeted by my lame "Wild wild west!" post, which has been up there for the past two months. For those who didnt know, I was referring to the theme of this year's senior reception, not Will Smith's stupid song.

For my sake, I'm gonna try to squeeze out all the main events from my short-term memory that's happened since my last post:
*watched the Lion King musical at the Orpheum in SF with Phil, Carolina and Jane. Better than the movie!
*singing w/ Karen for P.Ting's wedding at the reverberating Palace of Fine Arts
*moving out of 2390 Parker Street, #14
*meeting up with Phil Sung when he came down to visit
*Magic Mtn. with a bunch of Berkeley peeps
*DFC EM intiation @ Huntington
*weekly church softball scrimmages
*a free hair-cut at Vidal Sassoon
*cheap guitar course at UCLA
*jamming with Pastor Jerry (who is incredible by the way)
*listening to a lot of AM radio (640 (talk) & 1190 (sports)) when bearing through traffic
*numerous outings to Costco for their $1.50 hotdog&drink combo
*"ignoring" Pablo's phone calls, hahah
*catching a big, 50-legged insect in my room and accidentally ripping off 25 of them
*Andy's visit to the oldest existing McDonalds and outing to peanut-floored USA Ribs
*adorable Cady (3) preferring me over her daddy
*couple interviews for job-hunt
*visiting New Life church in Cerritos with Cindy and Gee
*bro's 19th bday today. Dad's is on 11th and mom on 21st...always a busy month
*many more things that my short-term memory failed to retrieve


Freak, that took a long time. It's amazing how hard I had to think to produce this list. Anyways, it was good chatting with people again.. I'd really like to change my screen name to something that makes a lot more sense than boy52. What the heck was I thinking back in 8th grade?

The reality of being officially out of college hasn't fully sunk in yet. I sometimes catch myself thinking that it's almost time to go back for the fall semester, but too bad it isn't true. Some of the more obvious changes that have taken place for me are that I now live with my parents (pretty good) and I no longer have to do my own laundry (always good). There's still a lot of adjusting to do, like adjusting back to my "new" church and adjusting to this crappy socal climate.

But it's a comforting thing to know that despite all the change that's going around you, your relationships with some people will not. No matter the passed time or distance. Thanks God for always proving to be the prime example of that.

The birds around here start chirping at 5:30am too.

Blessed be Your name

In the land that is plentiful

Where your streams of abundance flow

Blessed be your name



Blessed be Your name

When I'm found in the desert place

Though I walk through the wilderness

Blessed be Your name



Every blessing you pour out

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in

Still I will say



Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name



Blessed be Your name

When the sun's shining down on me

When the world's 'all as it should be'

Blessed be Your name



Blessed be Your name

On the road marked with suffering

Though there's pain in the offering

Blessed be Your name



Every blessing you pour out

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in

Still I will say



Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name



You give and take away

You give and take away

My heart will choose to say

Lord Blessed be your name

Wild wild west!

Thanks for all who came out to my graduation today. It felt good to graduate with a double major in psychology and... psychology. =) Couldn't have done it without my ol' pal, Ray Chang.

highlights of the past week:
-graduations galore!
-Andy's reception at Pomegranate, where I had to publicly pray for the meal again, and Tim spilled water all over my pants.
-me, Andy and Kwan beating Roach in 3v1 basketball.
-playing hold'em for punishments (eating cups of flour, drinking shots of tabasco, soy sauce). Andy's bullets vs. Frank's Ace-King final showdown.
-Lakers advancing into the conference finals. (will beat the wolves in five)
-Paul & Janet's reception at the marina. People having fun with my kite.
-playing counterstrike for the last time with a Kwan, Billy, and the Burbank guys.
-shooting spit balls at Jahndee's face at Carrows. One getting stuck in a crevice on her face.
-having a silly time playing Mario Party with Basile, Woody, Eric, and Karen.
-the retarded toast that Annette made at King Yen.
-Sushi House with the parents. Happy that they really really liked the Island Roll.
-walking twice today. Hearing a louder response for Ray Chang than Roy Chung.
-a lot more stuff I probably left out because the days have been flying by.

One mo' week till I leave Berkeley for good. Unwillingly.

And they did, 88-76. =D

I procrastinated till 6am in the morning to get crackin on my final paper which was due at noon today. Almost missed the drop-in deadline by a couple minutes. Felt all anxious and queasy in my stomach from all the adrenaline I produced that enabled me to finish. What a way to end the semester, let alone my undergraduate career, eh? Ended on a "good" note.

But now I'm officially done with my studies at Berkeley. finito.

I can't help but feel a little sad.

Says Shaq in postgame interview: "One lucky shot deserves another." And like that, the 17 game home streak at SBC center snapped and the Lakers came up like the champions they are.

Despite collapsing during most of the fourth quarter, despite Shaq and Malone in foul trouble, despite Duncan's miracle shot with Shaq's hand in his face in the last second, a quiet but confident Fisher stepped up and delivered a miracle shot of his own.

Four-tenths of a second was all it took to destroy the celebratory mood at SBC center. Once I saw that ball leave Fisher's hands to swish into the net milliseconds later, my first impulse was to scream my head off, and I did. Then my second impulse was to bear-hug Billy, who was also screaming his head off, as hard as I could. I did and it felt so dang good. I don't remember ever being so happy. You Laker fans know the feeling I'm talking about.

One of THE BEST basketball games I have ever seen in my life. Consider the tremendous circumstances: conference semis, series tied, game five, on the brink of losing it and facing the possibility to come back to San Antonio for game seven should the Lakers win at home. I'm so glad that's off my chest. Fisher, your performance tonight more than makes up for how you played in games 1 and 2. Thank you.

The fight isn't over yet. Could the Lakers close it out at home? Could they win four-in-a-row straight, an over-ambitious hope that was brushed away as foolish and impossible when the Lakers were down 0-2?

We'll find out Saturday. 7:30pm, TNT. GO LAKERS!!!

I just took my last class (music 20a) that I would ever take at Berkeley. Today was the day all the groups gave their final presentations, and me, Andy and Slum (all illogically dressed in hawaiian shirts) presented a rendition of Puffy's "I'll Be Missing You." Slum flowed the words while me and Andy provided the beat off the guitars and backed up the chorus. Slum's lyrics were noteworthy, so I'll immortilize most of it here:

verse
How can I forget the first day of class
So nervous, felt like broken glass
No sight singing skills, I had no flows
Christina Ahn they got to know that
Music aint what it seems to be
So much homework I came to see
Even though its done and nothings left
Through this class I fulfilled my breadth

Professor Ahn can't wait to see
If you'd teach another class for me
Reminisce sometime of sight singing exams
All the mistakes I made, I was like damn
But it was real feelings hard to conceal
Can't imagine all the love I feel
Give anything for more music class
I know you grading this pass no pass

chorus
Every beat we clap, every sight we sing
Every single day, music 20a
I'll be missing you
Thinking of the grade, when you gave an A
What a class to take, music 20a
I'll be missing you

-song ends on ugly yet intriguing minor chord-

True, the workload got really really annoying at times, but I think most people in the class today felt sentimental and appreciative for various reasons. I liked how the class was so supporting with their applauds and woots at the end of each presentation, whether it was good or bad. Prof Ahn played a song for us on the piano, and afterwards, gave her last words and final goodbyes.

And so, the last day of school really felt like the last day of school. Growing up can feel solemn at times.

Cool, blogger got upgraded!

Sumin's day: Sundays are always a treat, and God gave us an extra dose of blessings today. The worship team (especially Sumin) was in complete confusion and discord once we reached the bridge in "I Give Thanks." Sumin almost started a song by himself in the EM service later, hahah.

The Lakers finally stepped up and contained both Parker and Duncan. Three more to go.

I was studying outside earlier this afternoon outside the front entrance to Doe Library, when I was overtaken by the nice weather that knocked me out into a peaceful slumber. When I woke up, I saw that I slobbered on my notes, and the drool soaked through a very substantial nine pages. If I think about it, that's a lot of drool.

Two and 1/2 midterms on Monday (EPS counts as 1/2), music presentation on Tuesday, reflection paper Wednesday, final paper on Friday. Then I can finally call my undergraduate college career quits.

I'm dreading the next eleven hours which will be pure torture. I hope tonight is the last all-nighter (for academic purposes) I need to pull for the rest of the semester.

Last small group dinner at Palace Buffet. It was a great time gorging for a full two-and-a-half hours with these guys. We all gave Joey a hard time because he selfishly piled a plate full of daeji bulgogi from the buffet bar but only ate like 5% of it. We forced him to cook and eat the rest (this was by the time everyone finished eating and was about to burst), and as he was sadly cooking some of the meat, he kept on repeating, "This meat scares me... this meat scares me." So we let him go and had a fun time thinking of ways to hide the extra uncooked meat, in fear of being charged for leaving large amounts of leftover food.

Small group has been one of my surprise blessings this year. I only wish I took more pictures. Audio clips would have been nice too. It truly has been a privilege..

Happy 22nd birthday William Ku!

Two sad things that happened at the annual FiC picnic today: my kite didn't fly, and David Wee tore a tendon in his finger from catching a football.

Unsuccessful flight: There simply wasn't enough wind to pick it up and stabilize it. I stepped in a pile of duck poop from running all around the grass during my attempts to fly the darn thing. Thanks Tim for being my helpful yet confused assistant.

The power of Wee: Did I mention how strong this guy is? He tore a stinkin tendon, yet he said he didn't experience any pain. The top portion of his index finger jutted out like mad, so we all thought that it was a broken finger. Anyways, we went to the emergency room at Alta Bates, which is a complete misnomer because they make you wait for hours. I overheard this one girl in there who said that she's been waiting for three hours but still hasn't seen a doctor. Dave is okay, now equipped with a splint on his finger which he has to wear for six weeks.

I laughed out loud when I read Richard's xanga. Looks like there's something worse than stepping in duck crap, which is sitting in duck crap. Poor poor Tim.

Why does the "t" have to be next to the "y"?

kwanshu: hey rot
kwanshu: roy
kwanshu: hahaha
b o y 52: that sucks
kwanshu: sorry

I hate Tony Parker.

Hope.

It's hard to believe that senior banquet 2004 came and went, just like that. Deep thanks to everyone who put so much heart and hard work into this.. it really showed and seriously blew all of us away. From beginning to end. Pictures to come. =)