My senior retreat memories at Bodega Bay:

*so many cows and sheep
*socking Slum and hearing about his "toothpick" story
*the wonderful wonderful jacuzzi time with eight other half-naked guys
*Julie, Andy, Jane and Esther drinking the chlorinated jacuzzi water for punishment
*the view
*watching people golf in our huge backyard and seeing one guy hit a ball onto someone's roof
*accidental potty mouths
*small group time with Esther, Kristy, Grace, Paul, and Danch
*an open Pastor Ryan
*kayaking at the beach/swamp
*no one coming to help me after I fell in the water
*watching Billy fall into the ocean after making a hard turn in his kayak
*indecent sand creations
*Billy proposing a punishment and then ending up doing the punishment on his knees
*chased by Heugene
*a horrified Karen after tapping p.eug's butt
*six or seven people spying on an innocent Andy go poo-poo
*watching Andy go ballistic on Roach, then ballistic on Paul
*praising with Kwan and Andy
*BBQ time with Paul and Danch
*stupid Paul pulling my seat away from me
*campfire time.. watching a sand bug jump into the fire
*crashing waves in the darkness
*"I see Jesus in you all when you laugh and smile"
*one starry night
*Cassiopeia
*P.eug's simple profound messages
*five tiny shells
*picture time: "why don't you press the trigger and everything will be okay"

something important I learned: no matter how much we know, we need reminders more than new lessons.

the senior class of 2004 (well, most of us)


Two more months.

And off to senior retreat we go!

Went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory with Frank. We had a good talk about a lot of different stuff. Thanks for treating, Frank.

Afterwards, me, Kwan, Paul and Frank played some cards. It was so boring.

However, the mighty Lakers pounded the Sacramento Queens, 115-91. At one point, they were up by 30 points. This is the first time this season in which both teams had their superstars back from illnesses/injuries (with the exception of Bobby Jackson) to play against each other. And what a satisfying beating it was.

Recap of last couple days..

fluke friday:
Went snowboarding at Boreal with a buncha people: Andy, Kristy, Karen, Elise, Dennis, Danny, Edwin, Justin. On the way there, I got my second speeding ticket in six months. Before the first run on the slopes, I lost a contact. Received an extreme sunburn. Later in the day, Andy saw me narrowly miss a tree by an inch, but I wasn't so lucky later when my freak snowboard did a 180 and jacked up my right knee in the process. I was able to limp/hop around, but by the time we got home that night, the pain exponentially got worse and I had to be on crutches the next couple days. I found out that I sprained my MCL (medial collateral ligament), which is the same injury as Karl Malone's! What an honor.

Billy came over that night to pick up some books from my apartment, but as he was leaving, he stuck his butt out at me, tapped it, and mocked, "Come get me, Roymund! Cmon Roymund, you can't run after me, huh Roymund??" Buttface.

super saturday:
Super to be back in Downey.

slammin sunday:
Visited Pacific Crossroads Church in Santa Monica with Mejeld, Slum, Karen, Gower, Sylvia, and Chris. I had to say that I really enjoyed every aspect of it.. the praise, the incredible sermon, the cool catch phrases. Afterwards, Mejeld treated all of us out to sushi. During the meal, we somehow got onto the topic of "how many eggs do women carry," during which Karen piped up and proudly announced, "I think I have two million." Me, Slum, and Mejeld had a great time calling her an "egg factory."

Had a fun time at The Grove afterwards. And another always-satisfying visit to the 99-cent store. Mama flew to Korea later that night. I hope my bro and dad will be able to survive for the next two weeks. I foresee a lot of empty Pizza Hut boxes.

mellow monday:
Driving back up to Berkeley later tonight to go back to work. I need to reenergize myself with soondubu, fast. Hello lunch.

Great POTCH everyone! Time to unleash spring break.

I received this email in my inbox yesterday:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FROM THE DESK OF DR.AHMED KABO.

Attn: Sir,

My name is Dr. Ahmed Kabo, The Manager, Credit and Foreign Bills of (ECO-INTERNATIONAL BANK LAGOS, NIGERIA) I am writing in respect of a foreign customer of my bank with account number 14-255-2004/ASTB/123-99 who perished in an auto-crash with the whole passengers aboard.

Since the demise of this our customer, I personally has watched with kind interest to see the next of kin of this man, but all has proved abortive as no one has come to claim his funds of US$14.M (Fourteen Million United States Dollar), which has been with my branch for a very long time.

On this note, I decided to seek for whom his or her name shall be used as the next of kin as no one has come up to be the next of kin.

And the banking ethics here does not allow such money to stay more than four years, because money will be recalled to the bank treasury as unclaimed after this period.

In view of this, I got your contact through my seach in internet, after realizing that your name and country is similar to the deceased.

I will give you 25% of the total funds.

Upon the receipt of your response, I will send you by fax or e-mail the application, bank's fax number and the next step to take.

I will not fail to bring to your notice that this business is hitch free and that you should not entertain any fear as all modalities for fund transfer can be finalized within five banking days, after you apply to the bank as a relation to the deceased.

When you receive this letter, kindly send me an e-mail signifying your interest including your most confidential telephone/fax numbers for quick communication.

Respectfully submitted,

Dr.Ahmed Kabo.

THE MANAGER, CREDIT AND FOREIGN BILLS ECO-INTERNATIONAL BANK LAGOS, NIGERIA)

===============================================================

Interesting, so my name and country is most similar to the guy who died? Out of the millions of other Koreans out there? And what happens to the other 75% of the money? Ooh, I just can't wait to send you my most confidential telephone/fax numbers for quick communication.

Hahah, give me a break. They have to put more thought into these.

Somethings wrong: parents went to their first ever Laker game before I did. =(

Eric Yoo came to praise practice today because he flew in this past week from Columbia for spring break. It was great seeing him, but it wasn't so great seeing his mutilated finger which he got from dropping a thirty-five pound dumbbell on it at the gym.

After praise practice, a bunch of us went to L&L Barbeque (I think it's Hawaiian) to eat, and my eyes almost popped out when I saw "Grilled Spam" on the menu. I read somewhere that Hawaiians eat the most spam than anyone else. Anyways, it was dang good.

Team Shekkifaces had a miraculous victory over team Savage tonight. Everyone played really well and had good hits, but the MVP award goes to Carroll Chiou. Man, softball is seriously the one thing I look forward to every week.

We went to eat at Nation's afterwards. Then me, Andy ("I'm only gonna play for one hour"), Billy, Karen ("I'm only gonna play for ten minutes and that's it"), Kwan, Carroll, and Kristy came back to my place to play hold'em for punishments. Onions, garlic, tapatio, and balsamic vinegar. The night lasted over four hours. It was fun playing with new people like Karen, Kristy and Carroll. Carroll was the MVP for softball, but he definitely didn't get MVP for playing poker. He was the only one who lost all three games and suffered greatly.

I finally beat William Ku. It was hilarious watching him squirm and gag after eating the garlic, because for those who know him, this guy rarely ever shows emotion/pain from doing punishments. That's one reason why he's Mr. Rugged. But tonight, he was Mr. Squirm-Face. I will cherish that in my <3.

weekend highlights and lowlights - Part 2

Sunday lowlights:
*Jane Kim and a couple other people have been hounding me to cut my hair. I haven't cut it since December due to an extreme case of laziness, but now I'm at a point where I'm curious as to how long it'll grow. I can curl it behind my ears! So fascinating!
*Telebears lost. =(

Sunday highlights:
*Fog on the way to church.
*Oh the wonderful cross, bids me to come and die.
*Playing with Baby.
***Studying for our EPS midterm with Kwan, Carolina, and Jahndee.

Jahndee is a genius when it comes to academics. She rocked the SAT and got Kwan an A after editing his paper. But this is also the same Jahndee who didn't know that the Pacific Ocean touched both California and Asia. While we took a break from studying, we had some fun by quizzing her on random facts.

quiz #1:
Me: So Jahndee, how many continents are there in the world?
Grass: (perplexed look) Um.. North America. South America.. Antarctica.. Africa.. that white blob at the top of the world, does that count?
Kwan: Uhhh, that's the North Pole!
Grass: OH.. um let's see.. Europe? and... RUSSIA?? Does Russia count? Okay, Russia? (sad face)
Us: HUH?!

quiz #2:
Us: How many stripes are there on the U.S. flag?
Grass: Hold on.. there's fifty stars right? Or is it fifty-two..? Okay, so there are fifty stars.. so that means there are... twenty stripes? Wait.. fifty? A HUNDRED??
Us: HUH?!


Thanks for the laughs Jahndee Ghandee. They should make day calendars composed of the weird things you say everyday.


as for the midterm, i think i'm too smart for EPS... i rocked on the midterm and i have to buy them all steaks now.

weekend highlights and lowlights - Part 1

highlight: After praise practice on Saturday morning, I drove to the Berkeley Marina and flew my kite that I received for my birthday. The weather couldn't have been any more perfect for the occassion.. sunny, light winds, a couple poofy clouds in the sky. It took a while to set it up, because it's one of those trick kites that you can flip and turn while it's in the air by gently tugging at the strings that are attached to it. After I finished setting it up, I was wondering how to get it in the air without the help of another person. A kind elderly man saw my need and came over to help throw the kite in the air.

We tried again and again for ten minutes, but the kite just couldn't catch the wind and fly up into the sky. I thanked him for his help, soon asked another guy who was also flying a kite to help me launch mine. He checked mine out, made some few adjustments, then taught me how to launch it. Three attempts and five minutes later, I found myself with my back to the sparkling bay, feelin the warm rays of the sun and breeze on my face, victoriously flying my kite which was happily dancing in the sky. Then it fell straight down into a bush.

What a great afternoon. I played with the kite until sunset. There's a special satisfaction you get from flying a kite while watching the sun set behind the Golden Gate right in front of you.

Hahah, what a day.

There was a sub in Music 20a today because our regular teacher couldn't make it. This made me, Andy and Slum a little happy and relieved that our self-confidence wasn't going to be butchered down as usual. But our substitute was just as brutal. She wasn't very satisfied after we finished some rhythm exercises, so she told the whole class to "slow down for the people who are having trouble" and intentionally looked at me, Andy and Slum. In another poor class exercise not too long afterwards, she looked in our direction again and meanly said, "Why is it always that corner?"

Andy generously offered to take me out to dinner tonight for my birthday. Immediately after he picked me up, we argued for almost a full hour in his car because I wanted to go to Baja Fresh while he "wanted" Koryo Sushi. Anyways, we ended up going to Koryo because he put on his puppy dog face that no girl on this earth can resist and and kept repeating, "You're making me sad.. you're making me so sad." It turned out that the sushi rolls were good, but I had one of the most liberating conversations since I could last remember. Thanks a lot man.

Co-ed softball game. Shekkifaces 7, Opponent 8. It was a close game, and I think everyone had a lot more fun than last week. We all went out to eat at In-N-Out afterwards, and I had a good/funny talk with Billy on the way there. It was such a clear night.

Me, Kwan, Billy, Paul, Heuge, and Andy played some cards afterwards, and the losers had to eat cloves of garlic. Paul had three, Heuge had two, Andy had one. We're running out of interesting punishments to give.

Now it's 5am. In the 7th week of school of my last semester, senior year.


It's all gravy. Live it up.

Week 2: Telebears 26, Free Agents 5.

Time to write a paper that's due tomorrow. Sigh. What a crummy way to end the fun-filled weekend.

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday a very special one. =)
22 is better than 21.

Happy leap year!

Watched the Passion of the Christ tonight.

I'm reminded that it was we who crucified Christ. But the more important truth is that it was He chose to lay down His life for us.

Thunder and lightning!!

Nothing beats driving on a wet and windy night.

Week 1: Telebears 16, Opponent 1

Went to the batting cages with Kevin, Dave, Jacob and Kwan. We all hit the softballs pretty well in the 50-mph cage, so I felt motivated enough to go to the 60-mph cage.. on "baseball" mode. The difference between "softball" and "baseball" modes is that the machine pitches the softballs with a high lob while baseballs are thrown straight. I wasn't expecting the baseball to go that fast, so on the first pitch, Kwan saw me almost fall over. I was 2/20.

Anyways, I have a new-found respect for baseball players. And in celebration of the new IM softball season which starts tomorrow (or for those who like to swing at things), here is a treat. Score to beat: 323.5

What a fun small group night. DaveWee, DaveKim, Kevin, Joey, Jacob, Bryant, Danny, me. Had dinner at Baja Fresh, watched Miracle at the theaters, and rounded off the night with a four-hour game of Monopoly. Jacob won with cash/assets amounting to a ridiculous $15,000. People really do land on Park Place and Boardwalk.

We also played Duck Hunt and Mario Bros. on DaveWee's Nintendo.. the OG Nintendo. Hahah, that brought back so many fond memories. Shooting the ducks from a distance of five feet is really challenging. Solution: move up close to the TV.

I'm so tired. Auf wiedersehen.

he looks like a flower but he stings like a bee!

I was minding my own business during my social psychology discussion section last week when I looked up to see someone walk in late. Lo and behold, who else did I see but the internationally famous William Hung, in the flesh!

I was sitting in the back and since there was a open seat next to me, he waddled over with his large, trademark yellow backpack and sat down next to me. Since he missed the first ten minutes of class, he took out his notebook, and asked if he could copy my notes. I felt weird because of the fact that a celebrity was copying my notes. The last time I encountered someone famous was Ben Stein at my 10th grade Science Olympiad meet, where he came to see his son or nephew compete. He signed his autograph on my paper with such disgust and annoyance that I got offended and later threw it away.

Well, let's try again. Near the end of class, I asked him, "You're William Hung right? Hey man, autograph my notebook for me." He nodded his head and signed my notebook:





Success.

But dangit, I caught myself humming the Ricky Martin song throughout the rest of the day...

I found out that he's supposed to perform tonight at the men's volleyball game too, along with a "special surprise." Access Hollywood is going to run a special segment of that performance during tomorrow's episode. Looks like his fifteen minutes of fame is lasting longer than it should. Wow.

I had a lot of weird dreams last night. In one of them, someone threw my guitar facedown into the ocean and said, "Yea, you didn't know that they're waterproof?" Then he took it out of the water and realized that it wasn't waterproof. I woke up feeling very shocked and unsettled.

I blame these dreams for the fifteen cups of water I had to drink the night before. Long story.

What a horribly officiated game. Stanfurd won against the Bears yesterday, with the help of one bad call after another. It really sucked how Powe got a quick two and sat out for most of the game from then on. The fans went crazy near the end of the first half when Midgley picked two great steals, throwing up the second one to Kately who dunked it hard. We had the lead by halftime, but we just collapsed in the second half. More bad calls and unnecessary turnovers.

I'm sad that this was my last Cal vs. Stanfurd basketball game.. Cal vs. Stanfurd anything. I'm also sad that I'll miss the upcoming seasons and not be able to see Powe, Ubaka, Kately, and McGuire play even better basketball together (which they will for sure). For those who will be around next year, make sure you get football tickets. We got a great recruiting class and we're ranked baby. Big Game is at home too.

But I'm happy that I saw Jason Kidd who was in attendance to retire his jersey. I can't wait to see him and the others play in the All-Star game today.

So many memories in music 20a already. Last week, we met one-on-one with our music teacher to go over certain exercises we've learned so far. Andy sadly told me that after his meeting, the teacher was surprised that he sang at a really high pitch, commenting, "Oh, you are a tenor for sure."

Well, one of the stressful aspects about the class is that the teacher randomly calls out people to sing solo. After we sung a couple exercises in solfege, she picked on Andy to sing one by himself. For some reason, Andy started singing at a significantly lower pitch than usual.

Teacher: Andrew, can you sing this one please?
Andy: (really low) "Do.. do.. do re mi..."
Teacher: Andrew, what happened? You had a very high voice!
Andy: *speechless*
Teacher: (insistent expression.. looks around class for support) But you DO!

Me and Slum busted out laughing after the "high voice" remark. I tried to muffle myself by biting my thumb really hard, which didn't work at all. No one else in the class was laughing though, probably because they were shocked at her statement. Andy tried to finish the exercise, but the teacher interrupted and moved onto someone else. It was really hard to concentrate for the remainder of the class.

I wonder if the teacher knew that the three of us were friends. If she didn't, she probably thinks that me and Slum are the biggest jerks in the world.

(If you're a health nut, stop reading now.)

Spending too much money on food?? Buy Banquet frozen meals at Safeway for $1 EACH!!. They have many different varieties, such as:

*Spaghetti and Meatballs
*Meat Loaf Dinner, with Tomato Sauce, Mashed Potatoes and Carrots
*Salisbury Steak Dinner, with Gravy, Mashed Potatoes and Corn
*Sliced Beef Meal, with Gravy, Mashed Potatoes and Peas
*Turkey & Gravy with Dressing Meal, with Mashed Potatoes and Corn
*Veal Parmigiana Meal with Tomato Sauce, Mashed Potatoes and Peas
*Fried Chicken Meal, with Mashed Potatoes and Corn in Seasoned Sauce


As you can see, all these meals are well-balanced in food groups. Notice all the vegetables, ooh. I bought eight boxes last weekend and I'm already going to have to get some more soon.

I just checked the nutritional facts on one of the boxes and it has 51% sodium (1210mg). Is that a lot? Well, I'm not revealing which meal it is.


dinner bargain runner-ups:
*a whole Tombstone pizza for $2.50/each
*Cup-O-Noodles for 25 cents/each