Off to France

So tonight I have to pack. I feel so not prepared. I think it's cuz I have a morning flight instead of an afternoon flight and I went to work today instead of taking it off to prepare. There's something about international flights that make me alot more nervous. I think it's cuz if you forget to pack something, it may impact you much more than if you went on a domestic flight. I always worry I'll forget my passport. I have no idea why cuz I never have.

This year I'm flying American Airlines which I haven't done internationally before. It's pretty much an experiment every time I go since I never go on the same airline. I will say I like how American airlines run things better in general. Last year I flew Air France and I was in line forever waiting to check my baggage. I got there in plenty of time, but still I was running to catch my plane. I noticed the American way works alot better. Go USA! Also Americans have better entertainment on the flights. Air France shows some kooky stuff. The best airline by far which isn't American is Virgin. They only have one location they fly to in Europe though...London.

So my next post will be from the other side of the world. Bye.

Yes, A New Post!

When was the last time I posted? I guess I could find out quick if I checked my own blog. Oh well, I know it's been a while. Anyways, I've encountered a slow work day. It's the first in quite a while (probably since the last post). So I'll hit you with a few things since none of these things by themselves seemed worthy of a singular post (I don't know, maybe they are).

Camp Pendleton

I had to go to Camp Pendleton for work for two days last week. This fulfilling my life long desire to visit a base from each of the major armed forces (not really, I'm being sarcastic, and I'm not counting the National Guard or Coast Guard). A camp if you didn't know is the Marines, a base is the Air Force, and a fort is the Army. What's Navy? I forget. Anyways, it was interesting hanging out with Marines for two days. I watched them do their exercises on the field. That was pretty funny. I would have to say it's just like in the movies. There are two things I've noticed that Marines do alot, swear and spit. Tread carefully when near Marines.

The War with Cats

For those of you that like cats, let me just say you have yet to realize how evil they are. So anyways, at times my car gets dirty. When your car is dirty you notice the activity that occurs around it because dust is removed from your car here and there. It's like a record of everyone and everything that touches your car. So the big swirl of dust missing from the hood of my car with bits of fine hairs left behind could only mean one thing, that a cat has chosen my hood to sleep on. I can't tell you how much this infuriates me. What bothers me most is I haven't even caught it in the act, but have seen the evidence a couple times now.

Being an electrical engineer, I have thought of many ways I could exact revenge on this cat. Electrifying my hood has been my favorite so far. The second is getting a big bucket of water and deluge that cat like it's never been deluged. The problem with getting back at the cat is you have to do it without its reflex of digging its claws into the paint on the car.

Another problem is I don't know if it's happening at work or at home because both locations seem to have quite a lot of strays. I never notice it at work though cuz it's usually dark when I leave. But usually the car is dew covered then so it's probably at home cuz I always notice it when I go to work in the morning.

Why my car? Why not one of the many beater cars in my garage? Because cats are evil that's why. They know which cars to lay on that would cause the owners the most ire. Cat, I will find you. You better get out of town.

Speaking of Cats

Since we have alot of strays around at home, we hear lots of cat fights at night. There must be one every night or at least every other night. It's no shock that cats fight. They can't get along with any other beings on the earth so it's no surprise they can't get along with each other either. Hearing cat's fight is almost as annoying as seeing the evidence of them on my car. What is it with strays? They have really deep groaning type meows. How do the domesticated ones get those high pitched meows? I need to get a squirt gun. As much as I would like cats to eradicate themselves, if they can't do it quietly, I'd rather break it up, haha.

Some of you may think it's mean that I don't like cats that I want to get them wet and such as payback. Let me just say that I had like 10 cats over the years. I used to like cats until they convinced me not to. So if your princess cat has never done a thing wrong and it's not a Burmese, then it's probably cuz you always gave it everything it wanted. Don't give a cat something it wants just one time, and it will never forgive you. Or try introducing a new cat to the old cat, that cat will never forgive you. They will poo on your car with an empty litter box next to it. Cats are evil.

Some pictures from the Fall Festival.

Harrison as Napoleon Dynamite.

Some people think Harrison looks like Napoleon. Now everyone does.

Chane and me playing the David and Goliath game. (We were Goliaths.) It was kinda scary having kids throw balls at us when they couldn't throw very straight. I totally thought I'd get nailed in the head (just like the real Goliath, haha).

Shopping

This is pretty much a word that is not in my vocabulary. Before I met Joyce, I went shopping like once a year I think. I didn't care about sales or anything cuz I only shop once a year so I think I'm far ahead no matter what. Since we've been dating, I've been shopping twice. I think both times I spent over $200. How much did Joyce spend? Zero! Ok, she bought shoes the first time, but after that, zero!

Conclusion: Joyce doesn't need anything. I need everything it seems.

I'm going to need a bigger dresser pretty soon.

Episode III

I got Ep. 3 on DVD. I was mocked by my girlfriend all the way to the store and back. Hey, remember what I said about Asian girls not liking Star Wars? Ok ok, I won't get back into that one.

Reformation Day

I was too busy to make mention of this on Oct. 31, but besides Halloween, Oct. 31 is also Reformation Day. Was it invented to counter the pagan holiday of Halloween? Actually no, the two are just on the same day and have nothing to do with each other. Read about it here.

What Have I Been Doing?

So you faithful readers have probably noticed I don't write as much on this thing. Sad but true. My week usually consists of hang out with Joyce, hang out with Joyce, Joyce hangs out with me, going to the gym, hanging out with Joyce, Bible study, and hanging out with Joyce, oh and work. Work has picked up alot too which means I don't have as much time to blog anymore. I won't give up though. I'll be faithful to provide interesting posts whenever possible. Hopefully that will still be weekly and hopefully you'll find those interesting or at least worth the read.

New York City

Joyce and I went to New York City this past week to see the sights and some of her friends. Joyce is originally from Buffalo so she was far more familiar with the area than I was. I had been there once before for work. I must have walked 30 miles that week. In short form, here's the list of all the things we did:

- A New York taxi ride
- Times Square
- Broadway show, Fiddler on the Roof
- The MET
- Central Park
- Cleopatra's Needle
- New York Public Library
- Greenwich Village
- Tour of Brooklyn
- Brooklyn botanical gardens
- Downtown Brooklyn
- Walked the Brooklyn Bridge
- Ground Zero
- China Town
- Little Italy
- Saw a concert in a small club called The Bitter End
- Went to Redeemer Presbyterian Church on Sunday
- Empire State Building
- The Skyscraper Museum
- The Financial District
- Federal Hall
- Saw the Late Show with David Letterman
- Saw Rupert in the Hello Deli (he's featured many times on the Late Show if you didn't know)
- Tried to get tickets to Late Night with Conan O'Brien, but we were eliminated in the second round for standby tickets
- Rockefeller Center
- Radio City Music Hall
- The UN
- Carnegie Deli
- The Chrysler Building
- The Citigroup Building
- Broadway Show, Phantom of the Opera
- Shopped with Joyce
- NYU and Washington Square Park
- The Flatiron Building
- Broadway Show, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
- Saw Brook Shields as she left the theater where she stars in Chicago

I think that's about it. I may have forgotten something. I have some pictures here.

20 Random Facts

I can't believe I got tagged. I'm not even on Xanga. Ok, thanks Joy for thinking of the non-Xanga-ers.

1. I was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, but my parents are both American, and I'm not adopted. Think about that one.

2. When I got my security clearance, the government didn't have any questions about my 3 trips to Eastern Europe or about me being born in a foreign country, but had numerous questions about my dad. Some of my friends think my dad is a spy. Maybe the government does, too.

3. I tried jumps on my first day of snowboarding. I learned landings two years later.

4. I could have been an extra in that movie Hollywood Homicide, but I got bored waiting around for them to start so I left. It's ok cuz the PA just thought I was one of the extras when really I was just walking by anyways.

5. I've never been in a car accident.

6. At Iron Sharpens Iron, I was determined to have had the worst job ever out of all the men at my church. I cleaned up horse manure for $5/hr when I was in high school.

7. Most kids buy their pets, but when I was a kid, my brother and I caught most of ours.

8. When my dad wasn't home, it was my job to kill the rattlesnakes. I was also slated to "take care of" any animals that got into the house (lizards, scorpions, mice, etc.).

9. None of my immediate family lives in the United States.

10. I once co-wrote and acted in a film that was featured in a UCLA film festival. It was called Squambo: First Blood. I still don't understand how it made it into the film festival.

11. I've written about 60 skits. Less than half of them are on the Skit DVD and some of those on the DVD aren't even mine.

12. In high school, the fastest I ran 3 miles was 15 minutes 45 seconds. The fastest I ran a mile was 4 minutes 33 seconds. The fastest I ran a half mile was 1 minute 58 seconds.

13. I've had my name in the newspaper for running many many times, but it took untangling knots for a bunch of four year olds at a vacation bible school to get my picture in the paper.

14. My first pet was a bird that flew into the sliding glass door of our house. I named him Lucky.

15. I played piano for 7 years. Do I still play? Of course not, 7 years and no more!

16. I've visited the sets of two shows I've never seen: Dawson's Creek and Third Watch. Both times the person giving me the tour assumed I had intimate knowledge of the show and I had to pretend like I knew what they were talking about.

17. I once gave this guy a ride to get some gas who turned out to be a gay pornstar. (I'm about 99% certain.)

18. I had my first driving lesson when I was 12 years old. My second driving lesson occurred when I got my learner's permit. I guess the first lesson didn't go that well. Or maybe my mom had something to say to my dad about the first one.

19. The fastest I drove a car was 140 mph on the autobahn in Germany. I'll never do that again.

20. I hate Souplantation.

I tag Amy and Rommel.

Souplantation

I don't know how, but somehow, the group was convinced to go to Souplantation after church. I have to say that Souplantation is one of the most offensive restaurants to ever exist. They sell soup and salad. These are side orders not meals! It's so wrong. Not only that, but I don't even think their salad is that good. If you're going to specialize in salad, at least make it better or as good as anyone else's. Everything is so bland tasting. Bleh. I think they know their salad is gross cuz as you're in line grabbing gross things for your plate, they have this little plastic case of chicken you can buy for like $1.25. Forget that, it's probably just as bland as their salad. I was given a tip from a guy last time I was there that if you get chicken noodle soup, you get unlimited chicken. This seemed like a good plan except the chicken turned out to be so dry. I don't know how you keep chicken soaked in broth all day and it still manages to stay dry. So basically Souplantation can't even make soups and salads that good which makes them really suck in my opinion cuz that's all they make. Souplantation is high school cafeteria food at best. Oh, and the price. It's like $10 for soup and salad. There is some serious profit margin going on here.

My second peeve (I was going to say "beef", but that didn't make any sense!) with Souplantation is that they are going with the healthy angle successfully convincing many people that by eating there they are eating healthy. It's true, if you know what to eat there, you are eating healthy, but that goes for most restaurants even ones that serve yummy beef. But if you're going to get a salad and then drown it in dressing and then have some fatty soup and a Coke, guess what, you are on the road to Fatty Town, sucka. Souplantation has a healthy fact about almost every item in the salad bar except when you get to the dressing. Most people think they're eating healthy there, but they are probably not. Oh, I forgot to mention, they also have unlimited soft serve ice cream. So if you're on a diet, I think Souplantation has got to be the worst place you could go because they have unlimited supply of stuff that gets you fat like soda and ice cream (and toppings). Think they are a healthy place now?

Souplantation's motto is "Create. Indulge. Enjoy." I find this to be more of a challenge than a motto. Maybe it's more of a dare than a challenge. Anyways, Chane and I came up with an ingenious way to rise to the challenge. Take your unlimited soda and combine it with unlimited soft serve and BAM!...you get unlimited root beer floats at "healthy" Souplantation. Create. Indulge. Enjoy. I did. Suck on that, Souplantation!

Now you know how to get your $10 worth if you're ever roped into going to that place.

San Diego Zoo

Last Saturday I went to the San Diego Zoo with my girlfriend and the Rojases. The monkeys were my favorite (obviously). Click here to see the rest of the pictures.

Soda

I think ever since I started working at a movie theater in my senior year of high school was when I crossed over from soda being a rare treat to a daily beverage. We didn't have it much in our house which was probably a good thing. When it became free on tap for employees, man how could I control myself? Now I got the treat at an unlimited supply. Who knows how much I drank while working there, but sometimes it was enough to get me shaking. Yeah, too much soda.

Then when I moved to the apartments near UCLA, I had soda as part of my necessary grocery list right along with my Mac & Cheese and Hamburger Helper. So after a couple years of that, I realized I probably don't drink enough water cuz I'm always drinking that stuff so I decided only to drink soda when I went out to eat which worked pretty well since I only ate out for lunch when I was a student.

Then I started working and I ate out alot more mainly cuz I hated cooking and now I didn't have to. Anyways, all these years have shown my friends that I can drink alot of soda. I'm like the refill king. I can drink 3, 4, or 5 glasses with a meal. I've heard all the various rumors about soda and there is probably some truth to them. I'm pretty sure it was never very healthy to drink and I drink alot more than most, but I just kept drinking it knowing one day I'd probably curb it.

Well, about 3 and a half weeks ago, I said no more soda. I have not had a soda in 3 and a half weeks. I only drink water or lemonade when I eat out. Here are some things I've noticed since I've given up soda.

1. My appetite has increased. I've been known as a slow eater for quite some time. I can't remember exactly when it started, but I think it happened around my sophomore/junior year in college. How I became a slow eater has always been a mystery. I used to be a very fast eater in high school, but I figured it was cuz I was a cross country runner and I was just burning calories like mad. So since my appetite has increased, so has my speed. Am I a fast eater now? No, I'm definitely not there. But I'm probably on the mid to slower side of normal which is much faster than I used to be. I also get hungry again while before I just ate cuz it was time.

2. I'm more dehydrated now. I used to think that I drank alot because I was a thirsty person, but if I drink water or lemonade, I may only get one refill if even that. Basically soda does have some hydration value especially in those fountain drinks since they are mostly water anyway. So now I don't drink nearly enough liquids. So I'll have to discipline myself to be better at that.

3. I sleep better. I'm not sure if this is related to this or not. I also bought a really nice latex pillow. This could be the reason. I don't know.

4. I save $2 on every meal (unless I buy lemonade). That adds up!

I figure I was probably drinking at least a liter of soda a day. That's probably 1000 empty calories per day. Have I lost alot of weight then? No, not really, cuz I think I eat more now. I probably lost about 5 pounds though. Hmm, maybe that is alot. I don't know. If you're trying to lose weight and soda is in your diet, cut it completely. Diet soda is not for weight loss. It's a scam.

I was also surprised that I didn't really get any headaches. People say you get headaches from being off the caffiene for a bit. I haven't had any. Does that mean I'm not addicted? No, I'm pretty sure I'm addicted to soda. I crave it every time I go to lunch. Will I ever drink soda again? I don't know. It depends if I can ever control the consumption. Could I reduce my intake to one serving every once in a while? Right now, I'm pretty sure I can't so I'm just not going to have any. Maybe in time I'll forget how good it was and I'll just love drinking water. Does this mean I have to give up root beer floats?

Campfire Stories

So what do you do when you're camping and it's too early to sleep, but it's too dark to do anything. Well, if it's me and Harrison we tend to goof off. So a bunch of us started building a big fire. We decided to use all our firewood that was left since it was our last night of camping. So the flames got really big and for some reason I thought it looked like a big cauldron out of Fantasia or something like that. And I said, "Someone should go behind it and pretend like they are conjuring something." And so being one to rise to the challenge, Harrison delivered.



Scary. Ha ha!

That's so awesome, Harrison. Good job!

Yosemite 2005

This weekend I went to Yosemite for some camping and hiking. I'm not a big fan of camping. I like being clean and I like a comfortable bed neither of which I get while I go camping. However, I really enjoy Yosemite's hikes and that's why I make it here on a regular basis. This year I did the Yosemite Falls hike. Although it's a little under 6 miles round trip, it's still pretty strenuous as it's about a 2500 foot climb. I was really feeling it this year for being out of shape. I'm looking forward to going back to the gym after taking the last two months off and starting some cardio workouts. I took some pictures of the hike. Check out my pictures here.

Au revoir famille

Tonight was my last visit with my mom and brother before they leave for their home in Paris. This time I remembered to bring my camera.





You're probably wondering if I took any normal pictures with my family. Yeah, but those aren't funny.

Miss you already.

Star Wars Car

I saw this on my lunch break. From a distance, it looks like a trashy car, but close up it's a geek fanboy's dream. This car is made to look like an X-Wing as close as possible. I was really surprised how much detail went into it.


Check out R2-D2 in the back.




It even has the guns on the sides.




The Rebel Alliance insignia on the hood.




It's got a computer inside (not sure if it's real) and the parking brake is a lightsaber!

I can't help but feel ashamed at how cool I think this car is. It's not a car I would want for myself per say, but I'm glad someone made one. I'm also glad my coworker had a camera. The description would not have been enough. Thanks Brian!

UPDATE: It's an H-Wing fighter, excuse me. I found a website for it here.

So this weekend I had the privilege of emceeing my first wedding. I think having Harrison as a partner made it alot easier since we share the same sense of humor. The evening had some great moments.

There is much comedy in dancing and Tony knew it as he performed all the dance moves from the movie Hitch. "Slow Thriller" is my favorite.

All the centerpieces were romantic comedy DVDs (although I seriously object to The Princess Bride being labeled a romantic comedy). So for fun, Harrison and I did a survey of how many movies the men in the room had seen. I think Harrison came up with the best line "Count on your fingers as the names of the titles are read, if you've seen more than ten, use your wife's or girlfriend's fingers cuz clearly you have one." And then later,

Me: I've seen only 7 I'm proud to say. That's less than half.
Harrison: I've seen 10.
Me: Well, clearly you've been on more dates than I have.

So whenever the glasses were clinked, instead of the couple kissing, we played a game. The game was either name that tune from a romantic comedy or the imitation kissing game. The latter game turned out to be way more popular since it was far more humiliating. As we, uh, randomly selected married couples from the audience to demonstrate a kiss and then Tony and Monica would have to imitate it. Well, the first couple we chose set the bar way high and I think the whole thing kinda backfired on Tony and Monica, ha ha. Anyways, we chose our pastor and his wife as one of the lucky random selections. I knew there was a huge risk in embarrassing my pastor. One main reason is he's basically the emcee every Sunday morning. He has far more opportunities to embarrass me. I counted the cost, and it was still worth it I think. Kim is totally going to get me back though. Too bad we're going through Luke right now at church and not Hebrews.

The wedding video was pretty awesome too. We did a spoof of "24". I was really impressed with the editing. I'd like to put it online, but it might be too big. It always amazes me what people laugh at. Some of the stuff people laughed loudest on, I thought was only chuckle worthy. At this point, anyone who has seen my stuff knows where I contribute. If it involves a dummy falling off from somewhere high or a fake appendage, that's my signature, ha ha.

Anyways, we sat a table where some of the people didn't know us and they asked if we were professionals, ha ha. I was like, "No, they just asked us to do it cuz we goof off alot." They couldn't believe it was our first time either. I think most of the reason why the evening was great though was cuz Tony and Monica pushed for such a wacky wedding reception. I never seen someone work so hard to add so many funny details. Good job guys!

Lately I've been checking out the Rix Mix on the Crossroads website because I enjoy reading Rick Holland's insights on various topics. (Crossroads is the college ministry back at Grace.) Anyways, if you're familiar with the site, at the top they cycle various pictures of Crossroads activities and events. They all look pretty relevant and self explanatory. Until I saw this one that looked strangely out of place...


What does this old man have to do with the college ministry? Why is he glaring at the camera? And why on earth did they put it on the website?

The Busiest Month Ever!

So when nothing is going on, I tend not to blog, and it turns out when I'm extremely busy, I tend not to blog, too. So this has been like the busiest month ever! It started out where I signed up for too many things at church and didn't realize that they all occurred at the same time. So with Iron Sharpens Iron, T3 Basketball (I'm a scorekeeper), and Hermeneutics class that keeps Wednesday thru Friday plenty busy. Oh, but it doesn't stop there...

This weekend I'll be joining Harrison as co-emcees for a wedding. When people at church find out I'm going to be the emcee, they like have this "oh goody!" expression on their face like it's going to be some fantastic show or something. What are you guys expecting?? I think it could be fun, but it also could be very normal. The thing is I never know what will come out of my mouth and usually people love it or hate it. I warned the couple though, are you sure you want me to do this??? Anyways, I have the feeling I'll be the worst emcee ever, but that will only mean no one will ever ask me to do it again, ha ha. Anyways, there's been some planning and preparation involved for that wedding.

Like that wasn't enough, working on the Skit DVD has been a labor of love. I love that people want it, but it's been such a pain finding a seamless way to produce them. I think we're finally getting a handle on it, but it still means I have to make runs to Kinkos to print the box covers and labels. Then we have to order the boxes and buy the blank DVDs. Then I still have to ship a few to those who have been waiting patiently all this time.

Then on top of all that, much to my joy, my mom and my little brother are in town for the first time in 6 years so I got to take them around and let them witness the glory of Torrance. I also took them to church with me which they enjoyed very much. Then I went off with them to Pismo Beach to hang out with them and some extended family.

Is there anything else? Yes! The weekend after this one, I'm going to Yosemite. If I knew I had all this other stuff going on, I'd probably never do the trip cuz I'm getting pretty exhausted from activities at this point.

You probably think I'm complaining. Really, I'm not. I'm just marveling at how busy I've become. Only two months ago, I was bored out of my mind wondering what better things I could be doing with my time. Now I'm kinda missing those days. I can't wait until September!

Last night was the last session of Apples of Gold. It was pretty fun being a kitchen helper the last four weeks although I think I was more entertainment than a kitchen helper. Two of those weeks the cooks told us they were really going to make us work this time but we hardly had to do very much really. I got to cut some things and stir some things. Waiting on the tables probably was the most difficult for me. I'm a pretty sucky waiter. It sure is humbling work. The ladies of our church are very gracious. They thanked me not once but many times for helping this month. They actually thanked me for something I know they could all do alot better than me. And on top of that, I got a nice little gift from them too which I also feel I don't deserve. Anyways, it was a pleasure to serve my Lord in this way.

This coming month will be Iron Sharpens Iron for the men. When I went to Grace, Iron Sharpens Iron meant all the men meet at 6AM on a weekday and study the Bible together. At Lighthouse, Iron Sharpens Iron means meet at 6PM and have a great BBQ and study the Bible together. I would have to say I'm quite won over with the Lighthouse method although in defense of Grace, you really can't have a weekly BBQ for 100 or so people. The ladies often ask if the men need help with Iron Sharpens Iron like the women needed help with Apples of Gold. Sorry ladies, but when it comes to men and a BBQ, there are too many helpers already.

The Skit DVD website is up. Check it out here.

The Skit DVD Available Now!!!

Ok, phew! The Skit DVD is available now. The cost is $10 plus shipping. The package turned out really well. It will blend into your DVD library like you actually bought it from some store. Later today I will have a website up that consolidates all the info about the DVD that I pretty much mentioned here in one place or another. It's definitely worth the $10 in my opinion. If you have any questions, leave a comment or email me. If you want one, email me.

Oh, one more thing...the DVDs are burned not pressed which means they will only work on DVD players that can read the DVD-R format. This is the most common format and I think most DVD players that are at most a couple years old can read them. If not, they will definitely work on any computer capable of reading DVDs.

Skit DVD Update

The Skit DVD has been on my mind quite alot lately. This is mainly because I've been working on it all the time it seems and when I'm not working on it, I'm telling Harrison what to do. Ah, but last night at 2AM we burned our first copy of the Skit DVD...and...we couldn't really try it out on a TV cuz our only DVD player is a PS2 and it doesn't seem to like burned DVDs, ha ha. So we need to test it out on a real DVD player before we start distributing. I'm hoping the text of the titles is large enough. Things look very different from a computer monitor to a TV. TV resolution is really bad and can make text look quite illegible when it's not large enough. I think it will be ok though.

So the final count is 2 DVDs, 29 skits, 4 short films, and 16 easter eggs. The total run time...I have no idea but it's probably like 5 or 6 hours.

I'm still trying to work out the cost. I'm trying to sell the DVDs at cost cuz I'd rather people have the DVD than for me to make small change in profits. Those costs include the software and media we bought to make the DVD as well as the costs to distribute. Printing the DVD cover on a regular printer doesn't look too good so I'm going to Kinkos to see what it would cost to print it on some nice glossy paper. Then there is the cost of the actual blank DVDs. The more you buy the more you save except I don't know how many of these I'll make so I don't think I would buy that many right off. Then there are the labels for these things so you can tell Disc 1 from Disc 2. And finally there is the DVD box that holds all the previously mentioned items. The good part is that if you want, you can just get crappy burned copies of the DVD and put together all the cool stuff yourself since anything you need to print is included on the DVD or you can pay more and I can do it for you. It'll cost about the same either way. The DVD is definitely bootleg friendly though. If you want to buy one and make 20 for your friends, be my guest. It'll save me alot of time. Also if you live in Southern California, I'm not going to ship one to you. I just don't think I can meet the time demands to ship these to everyone so if you can pick it up from me, I would prefer it or we can work out some way of passing it off. I know there are quite a few people that live outside these boundaries that want one too and I can ship it to you, but you'll have to pay the shipping. Anyways, I would like anyone who wants one to have one so you can always email me and we'll work out a way.

Give me another week to figure out how much these will cost!

The Skit DVD

Harrison and I have been working on the Skit DVD quite a bit the last couple weeks. I didn't post about it earlier cuz I figured you all would be thinking I was crying wolf. So I waited until I had something to show you from our labor. Behold!!! The Skit DVD box cover!!!

So that's it more or less. It's not trimmed on the top and bottom to the appropriate dimensions and the yellow lines that mark the edges will be removed. The text might change a little bit. I'm not exactly sure how many skits we have on there, but I'm pretty sure it's more than 25. So if you're familiar with the skits, you'll probably notice that alot of the pictures aren't from skits. That's cuz I don't have alot of good pictures of skits, but trust me that the pictures definitely represent the spirit of the skits. Also every person on the cover has been in a skit at one time or another. Many people are in there more than once although their appearance varies quite a bit from picture to picture for the most part. Also some people should be on there but aren't. Sorry, I didn't have a picture of you and the time on this project was just waning too long. I wish I could be more diverse but I had to work with what pictures I had and I was running out of pictures near the end. I'm just glad I was able to do the whole box.

Anyways, I know it probably looks really crude and unprofessional, but that represents the skits best. We did some hilarious stuff with what little we had to work with and that adds alot to our humor. You may find it hard to believe and even laughable, but this cover art took me like over 30 hours to make. One reason because I did the first version backwards and had to start over, but that made the second version look alot better as I got more ideas as I went along. This totally blows away the time I took 3 hours to make a simple title shot for Signs of the Apocalypse. I saw that movie the Aviator over the weekend. Howard Hughes spent 4 years to make the movie Hell's Angels just right and spent 4 million dollars, the most expensive movie ever made at the time. I would have to say I am borderline OCD when it comes to making this stuff. I just keep getting ideas as I go and everything has to be perfect just like I see it. This is why Signs of the Apocalypse took 6 months to make when it was supposed to take 3 weeks (weekends only). Even after all that, there is alot of stuff I would change in Signs of the Apocalypse now, but I've put it to rest. And so it shall be for the Skit DVD as well. This is the Platinum/Ultimate/Special Edition aka Only Edition.

Anyways, Harrison finished the menus and all the content is on the DVD so we're just testing it now. We should be done in a couple weeks. That includes time to figure out packaging and labeling and most important of all distributing. Anyways, click on the picture to see it bigger. Hopefully you'll be able to read the text.

On Saturday, I went to Lynda's funeral. Although Lynda was not a close a friend of mine, she and I laughed together often. She was one of the most joyful and energetic people I have ever met. Her smile was infectious because you couldn't help but smile being around her.

I remember one time at a college retreat, I was a judge for class skits. Lynda was in the freshman skit and played one of the craziest and silliest monkeys I had ever seen. I still laugh thinking about that time. Another time at winter camp, there were a bunch of people going innertubing. A couple snowboarders made their own jump on the slope. After they were done, I thought it would be really cool to take a sled off it. "Who's joining me?" I challenged the group. Out of the group came little Lynda who was far more corageous than me. We took off on that jump and went our separate ways in the air and tumbled pretty hard, but no injuries, so I said "Again?", and she replied "Yeah!". So again we tried and pretty much the same result except this time Lynda bit her lip pretty bad. She was stunned for only a moment, then spit out the blood, and yelled "Yeah!". She got stitches for that as I recall. That was Lynda. She was hardcore.

Lynda was hardcore in her passion for missions as well. She had been to crazier places than I had been. I remember one trip she went to Mongolia and lived in a tent with villagers on some mountain somewhere. Whenever I hear of missions I will always think of Lynda. Lynda's heart was bigger than she was. The words of her father during the memorial service: "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. How can a man utter this after so great a loss, yet that's what Job said after losing all of his children."

Our lives are on loan from God and one day He will take it back at the time of His choosing. Are you ready to meet the Lord? One day you will. Will He be your judge or your savior? Remember that tomorrow is not promised to you.





Lynda Joy Varner
January 31, 1979 - July 4, 2005

Apples of Gold

Ok finally I have something to write about. So this month our church is doing this thing called Apples of Gold which is like a cooking demonstration/Bible study for the ladies. So you're probably wondering what I had to do with it. They needed helpers for the cook and so they asked me if I wanted to be one. I told them contrary to what they might believe about me being a bachelor and all, I can't cook at all and should never cook for anyone else. They were cool with it still so I was excited to be a part of something that I should be no part of, ha ha.

It was pretty fun. I didn't do much beyond cut stuff and stir stuff, but you know, cooking isn't really more than that anyway. Just kidding. Anyways, did I learn how to cook? No. I only confirmed my theory that cooking is just way impossible a task for me to ever handle. I'll stick to my lasagna, ha ha.

It was kinda weird being at a women's Bible study. Going to Grace for 10 years, the ladies always met behind an iron curtain so we never knew what went on at one of those. So now it was like I was undercover, but I seriously didn't try to hear anything, ha ha.

Oh but the best part, I ate some awesome food. I get to do this 3 more times this month, woohoo!

I finally saw Batman Begins. Wow, what a cool movie. I think I like it the most out of all the Batman movies. There are so many comic book movies now and so many more will be coming out. I think it's because they are the only original stories left cuz every other movie seems to be a remake of some older movie. Although Batman is kind of a remake of itself too, ha ha. So I hope comic book movies don't get so old that they will just make a comic book movie about anything. Cuz comic book stories aren't always that good. Just think of a Batman movie about this plot...



Yes, this is from a real comic. (Hmm...and that's not red.)

Office Memo

Sometimes at work we get these notices from our Facilities department via email like "Lights left on" or "Flat tire". Yesterday I got a memo titled "Car Running!":

There is a gray Honda Accord parked on the West Side of the PARKING LOT with its engine running with the windows up and dog in car.

This isn't really as bad as it sounds. The funny thing is this is my boss' car. He takes his dog to work every day, leaves the dog in the car, and leaves the car running so that the air conditioning will run. Yes, he does this for 8 hours a day. My coworkers have been faithful to let him know how strange that is, but he doesn't care. But I'm also puzzled as to what purpose our Facilities department had in mind when they sent out the memo. Usually if the problem is a flat tire, then they let people know so they can fix it while it's still daylight or lights on because they don't want the person's battery to die. What's the purpose here? Take your dog out of the car and let him run free in the parking lot? Roll your windows down? Turn off your engine? Could someone be so absent minded to accidentally bring their dog to work and then leave the car with the engine running? You got to be seriously late to a meeting for that to happen. Why is "parking lot" in CAPS? Is there any other place to put a car? I should walk by my boss' car today to see if he put a sign up like "I know" or something, ha ha. Strange things happen at my work, but you already knew that.

Feel the Quake Today?

There was an earthquake like 10 minutes ago. Did you feel it? This is the first one I've felt in a while even though California has an earthquake every day somewhere. This was a 5.3 so it was a little bigger than normal and it happened near San Bernadino.

So when there's an earthquake, you're supposed to dive under a doorway or get under a table or something. So what happens at an engineering company when there's a mild earthquake? No one runs for the door or under a table. Instead, everyone runs to a computer to see who can find out the magnitude and epicenter first on the internet. And an office pool started immediately. "Ok, place your bets, and it doesn't count if you overbid." 5.0 was the closest bet. No, I didn't bet, but I was one of the first people online to find the answers. Shameful, I know.

Awww! Yesterday was Flag Day and I missed it!

(I suppose I could change the date on this post...I think I will.)

Happy Flag Day everyone!

Last February I talked about the Resolved Conference. I had mentioned there that there was this funny moment when the speaker played with the band. Well, I'm happy to announce that I found a clip of that online. To set you up for the clip, this is how it went down. CJ Mahaney was going up to speak his last sermon for the weekend, but said he wanted to do something with the band before he started. The band played a cool instrumental to kick off the conference a couple days earlier so he said it was good but not good enough and he wanted to "help" them do it better. CJ has no musical training and doesn't play an instrument so watch as he inspects each band member's playing ability and then tries to play their instrument and then later conduct the band. I don't know what's funnier, watching CJ trying to figure out the stuff or watching the band trying to figure out what CJ wants them to do. Either way, it was a very fun moment. I'm glad it's online to share. The clip is here.

The video may come off a bit odd because it's out of context with the mood lighting and mood music. I've never been to a conference or retreat where they did stuff like that. So if you thought that was weird, you are not alone. I think that was the first time they had access to that kind of equipment. Maybe they just went overboard, ha ha.

Also there are some great flash animations online from the conference as well. Be sure to check those out too: 1 2 3

Chicken head puppet and lobster head puppet. Sorry, I haven't got a picture of the totem pole yet. It looks like the chicken is eating my ear. That's totally a random coincidence, ha ha.

The Dentist

Today I had some "bonding" done for sensitivity. When I last spoke about the dentist, I had said I hadn't been in 7 years. True, I had no cavities, but this sensitivity thing is a bigger deal than I thought. Anyways, much has changed in 7 years. They actually had this headset with goggles where I could hear and watch TV in my own little world while they worked away in my mouth. Anyways, the TV was on Regis and Kelly LIVE which if you know me at all, is probably not my first choice for TV but being that it was a weekday morning, I don't know what else there was to watch. So I left it on and watched it since it wasn't too bad. So here I am sitting in a chair with this huge goggle apparatus on my head and I got the dentist and the assistant with their hands in my mouth while I'm watching Regis and Kelly. I couldn't help but feel ridiculous in this moment. Then The View came on and I said "Enough!" (well, to myself anyway). I ripped those goggles off so fast. Then I told them, I'm done with this, thanks. I'd rather hear my own teeth getting drilled than watch The View. A man can only take so much.

I got 70 hits on Friday (!!!). People either love a controversy or love for me to admit that I'm wrong, ha ha.

Yesterday, my friends John and Helen got married. It was a Chinese banquet style reception so we had chopsticks and tea cups for the place settnig. So while we were waiting for the food, Harrison tells me he can flip over his cup using the chopsticks. But he totally cheated and pushed the cup against stuff with the chopsticks to flip it over. So I said, ok, why don't you pick up that 2 liter bottle with the chopsticks? This is yet another one of those situations where I try to one up Harrison by challenging the ridiculous and he tries to one up me by actually attempting it. Anyways, I was surprised he was actually able to lift the bottle off the table. The next thing I know, the bottle came loose and hits that family style turntable (I forget what it's called) with a loud crash and everyone at the reception went silent and looked right at us. Actually, rather, they all looked at me like I was the one who did it! And no one believed me when I said it wasn't me!

Anyways, since it was a Chinese banquet, that means the heads of all the animals we were eating were on the platter too. So I decided to make a totem pole with a chopstick and the heads of all the animals. Unfortunately they took the duck away before I got the idea, but the table next to us gave me their chicken head so I made a totem pole of 2 chicken heads and a lobster head. I knew I was taking a risk by doing that, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. What do you expect when you serve a head to a white guy? It's probably stunts like these why people didn't believe me about the 2 liter bottle incident.

I Recant

If you read the comments on this site, I made the comment that it was typical Asian girl fashion to not like Star Wars. At best they watch part of Ep. 5 and are pretty much indifferent by what they saw with no desire to see the rest. Jee Suh wasn't about to let me get away with that though and so I challenged her to prove me wrong by finding 10 Asian girls who have seen all six movies and say they like Star Wars with enthusiasm. If she could, then I would recant my belief and apologize. So the evidence is clear, and here is my public apology.

It has been made clear to me that I was wrong in saying all Asian girls do not like Star Wars. While it's possible that some people would actually not like Star Wars, I was wrong to stereotype a demographic of Asian women as being the primary group of Star Wars haters. They are not. So I apologize to all the Asian women Star Wars fans who have taken offense at this comment. I hope you can forgive me. You can thank Jee Suh for being your advocate. And thank you, Jee Suh, for correcting the error in your brother.

Thoughts of Star Wars Episode III

Ok, in talking to lots of people, I gather that many people didn't understand some of the intricate parts of the story. So I debated within myself, how geeky would people think I was for going to great lengths to explain Star Wars. Well, I think it's a great story and I've always been focused on details. Lucas went to such great lengths to spiffing up the original trilogy and fixing the story in the DVD release that it's my firm belief that there are NO plot holes in the Star Wars movies. I think any question can be explained. Whether you agree with me or not is a separate issue, ha ha. Before I get to that though, I had to list some things in the movie that were totally strange to me as to why they left it the way they did. Spoilers ahead, so if you don't want to know, you probably shouldn't read this post. Also if you really don't care about Star Wars (you Asian girls know who you are, ha ha), then you should probably just skip this post cuz you won't care about this either. I hope you guys find it fun and not a waste of your time.

1. That scene where Padme is looking out the balcony and Anakin is raving over how beautiful she is and how so in love he is with her. I don't know if it was the make up or the lighting, but that's got to be the ugliest I've ever seen Natalie Portman in any of the Star Wars movies. Something just didn't look right there.

2. That scene in the bubble opera where Palpatine is telling Anakin about the wise Sith Lord, Palpatine's voice cracks on the word "You" in "You ever heard..." and it sounds so weird. Why didn't they fix that??? It sounds all high pitched and weird.

3. That part where Mace Windu has Palpatine pinned to the wall and is about to kill him and Palpatine says "No, no, no!". Man, that was a bit over the top. It just looked to me like he was impersonating a retarded person or something. Also, right after his transformation, his appearance didn't match well to the Emperor in Ep. 6. And his voice was really low and gutteral in some parts. Too low. He looked better when he put on the hood though. Maybe that's why he looks so different, cuz he always had the hood on in Ep. 6.

Ok, so some people don't understand some things about Episode 3. They automatically call them plot holes or conflicts between the trilogies. I think they're wrong and there is an explanation for everything. The key thing in analyzing a story is that every piece of info is given for a reason otherwise it doesn't make any sense. Also remember that the DVD release of the original trilogy is considered the official version from the Lucas camp.

10 Star Wars Questions Answered

1. First I got to talk about something I think a few people missed and that was in that key conversation between Palpatine and Anakin about Darth Plagius (sp?) who had the power to keep people from dying but could also control midichlorians to create life. So when's the last time you heard about midichlorians? Back in Ep. 1 when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan discovered Anakin had the highest midichlorian count of any being they had ever encountered. His mother said he had no father. She just gave birth to him. It sounded really dumb back then, but now it makes alot more sense since it is clear to me that Darth Plagius had a plan to create the ultimate Sith. He was killed by his apprentice, Palpatine, who knew of the plan, and so that's why he and Darth Maul were on Tatooine in the first place. So they could get Anakin and train him in the dark side. That's why Palpatine had such a great interest in him even back to Ep. 1. It was not because he blew up the Trade Federation ship as a boy. Palpatine knew of his potential before that. Why else would Darth Maul be on Tatooine?

2. People complain about that the part in Ep. 6 where Leia is asked if she remembers her mother and she says "not much, just images really" and "she was very sad". How can this be if the only contact Leia had with her mother was the few moments after her birth? Totally possible. If you notice, Luke is brought to his mother's sight and she names him, and then he is put aside quickly because the other baby is coming. The baby Luke never looks at his mother. When Leia is brought to her mother's sight, Obi-Wan and Padme are having a conversation. She's telling Obi-Wan there is still good in Anakin. During this entire time, the baby Leia is looking at her mother. When Padme dies, the baby starts crying. Clearly the baby is responding cognizantly to her reality. "That's impossible!", you say. True, on planet Earth, but we're in a galaxy far, far away folks. I don't recall planet Earth being a part of the Star Wars universe. Everyone is an alien here folks, even the human looking people. I think Leia's explanation of her mother is a good description of an infant's interpretation of the events.

3. Anakin's turn to the dark side was too quick. Not true. Anakin's path to the dark side was a process that began even before Ep. 2. On the one side you have Obi-Wan and the Jedi Order that is constantly scolding him and holding him back and telling him to control his feelings. On the other side, you have Palpatine who is constantly praising and encouraging him. It's clear that Anakin's greatest weakness was he couldn't control his feelings and he was very fearful both which were evident in Ep. 1 and 2. Yoda told him as a boy that he sensed great fear in him. It was that fear of losing his mother that drove him to go to Tatooine which led to his revenge on the sand people which is an event that Palpatine reminds him of to sear his conscious for killing Dooku. Anakin feared losing Padme and his child as well which is probably why the Jedi Order forbids Jedi to marry. Revenge and fear are both paths to the dark side. There was a lot of tension between him and Mace Windu. Anakin acted rashly and on impulse to save Palpatine because he claimed he had the knowledge to save Padme and he couldn't let Windu kill him. After Windu's death, Anakin was very fearful since he was the instrument in the death of a Jedi master. His fear pushed him over to follow Palpatine because that was his only refuge without the Order. Palpatine also convinced Anakin that the Jedi were closed minded and were evil. Anakin never believed he was wrong. He thought he was on the good guys side. This is made clear when he said to Obi-Wan during his fight "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil." But he killed younglings! Yeah, but in Anakin's mind he probably saw it as necessary for the greater good. The Jedi had to be eliminated because they were evil and young ones grow up.

4. In Ep. 5, Obi-Wan tries to convince Yoda to train Luke by saying he was also older than typical students when he was trained by Yoda. How can this be when Obi-Wan was trained by Qui-Gon? In Ep. 2 we see Yoda training younglings. Younglings don't get a master until they achieve the rank of padawan. Yoda probably trained Obi-Wan before he was a padawan.

5. If Anakin was more powerful, how come he lost to Obi-Wan? Anakin lost because of his overconfidence not because of his skill. If you notice, Obi-Wan is on the defense and retreat for the entire duel.

6. Why didn't Anakin disappear when he died if he could appear as a spirit along with Yoda and Obi-Wan? You do see Luke burn his body, but that doesn't mean he didn't disappear. Vader was more machine than man so for all we know, it could have been just an empty shell that was burned. Also it is possible that he learned the power while in the nether regions of the Force just as Qui-Gon did since Qui-Gon was also burned yet was able to appear to Yoda as a spirit. How did Anakin learn it so much faster than Qui-Gon? Anakin learned everything faster than any other Jedi or Sith cuz he was so awesome in the Force so why would this be any different.

7. About that spirit thing, why at the end of Ep. 6 did Anakin appear as his young appearance and Yoda and Obi-Wan appeared as they looked right before they died? I guess if you're a spirit you can appear however you want to look. I'm sure Anakin didn't want to appear all scarred with missing limbs cuz that would just be really scary. Why didn't Qui-Gon appear too? Well, he didn't know any of those people and if he appeared, it would just confuse everybody.

8. How come Vader never did the lightning bolt thing even though he was a Sith Lord? Probably cuz he didn't have real arms. But he could do the choke thing? You don't need arms to do that. He did kill a guy with the choke power in Ep. 5 when he was just talking to him over the hologram thing. He didn't do anything with his arms there. You have to admit, it just looks cooler when you motion it with your hands but after you've been doing it for years, it kinda gets old and you lose the sensationalism and it just becomes a means to an end.

9. If there can only be two Sith at one time, then why is General Grievous, Count Dooku, and Palpatine all together at the same time? Grievous is not a Sith. He doesn't use the Force. He only uses lightsabers. Anyone can use a lightsaber, but most people use blasters cuz they seem to work better. Even Han Solo used Luke's lightsaber to cut open the tonton (sp?) in Ep. 5. There are always two Sith at one time. Dooku or Darth Tyranus replaced Darth Maul and Anakin replaced Dooku.

10. Don't you have work to do? Isn't there something else better to do than talking about Star Wars all day? Slow day today and this will save me many conversations in the future so actually I'm saving my self time, ha ha.

So I think I tackled everything. If I missed something, I'm sure you're going to let me know.

My Plan for Star Wars Episode III

When Episode I opened, I saw it the Saturday morning 8AM show of opening weekend. I got in line at 6AM. I was shocked to see that people were coming out of the theater while I was waiting in line. 24 hours of showtimes for opening week is insane. It's even more insane that they sell out. Even at this early time, I was still envious of all my friends that saw it Tuesday at midnight or 3:30AM earlier that week. But I had to work so I couldn't do that. That was 6 years ago and I was 24.

When Episode II opened, I was there. I got my ticket to the 3:30AM show on Tuesday night to be one of the first to witness Star Wars. I got in line around midnight and waited a very long time. I took the morning off work the next day so I would be able to survive the following day. As a result, I was pretty annoyed the entire movie. I was really tired by the time the movie started and was pretty grouchy. I was annoyed by everyone in the theater. Half the people were cheering at every stupid thing and the other half were shooshing the first half so it was hard to hear alot of stuff. It really hit me that this was a bad idea when I left the theater and it was light outside. It was clear that I was quite grouchy from the lack of sleep as my roommate was trying to figure out the most obvious parts of the movie and doing his thinking out loud. "I think that kid in the movie with Jango Fett will be Boba Fett." I say, "Gee, you think? He did call him Boba!" Anyways, I shouldn't have been hard on my roommate since he was probably as tired as I was. So there's a little fact about me. When I'm really sleep deprived, I either get really grouchy or slap happy. Anyways, on the ride home from that film, I realized that no movie will ever be good enough to be worth enduring that much punishment. Waiting in line in the wee hours of the morning for hours so that I can sit with a bunch of rowdy people only to go to work grouchy and tired the next day is not my idea of a good time. That was 3 years ago and I was 27.

Which brings me to my plan for Episode III. Now I live in quiet peaceful Torrance away from all the hype and idol worship of Star Wars. I'll wait until Monday after the opening weekend and after work just go to the theater, buy my ticket, and walk in just like any other movie. I'll end up really enjoying the movie because it didn't require any pain to watch it. Now I'm 30. I don't think my progression in how I choose to see these movies has anything to do with age, but more that I've gained wisdom in this time. I still have all the energy. I just don't see why I should spend it doing this. So that is my plan...until Nate asked me yesterday if I wanted to go see it cuz a friend of his was buying tickets for it right at that moment. So I saw it last night and it was awesome!! Ha ha. So you might think I'm a hypocrite, but actually, I only waited in line for a half an hour and it was a 7:30PM show so I still stuck to my principles. Only the day changed. I guess Long Beach is just a laid back place to watch Star Wars. I think there were seats still available in our showing. Anyways, I would love to talk about the movie, but I'll give you guys until Wednesday before I really make my comments about it. Anyways, enjoy the last film guys, it's good Star Wars fun!

This is my brother, Jake. Some girls say he's cute. Other girls say he looks like me. Sadly, not one girl has ever said both.


He is in the Air Force. He has many followers. (Although it may have something to do with him pointing a gun at them.) Anyways, he lives in Germany.


The first thing Jake did when he moved to Germany was buy a house and a car. Now he's really living. But it gets better...


One day at the base there was a freak accident and Jake was engulfed in a mysterious green gas. The gas gave him powers that were very super and very powerful. They were super powers.


And so with his new found abilities, his calling to become a crime fighter could no longer be ignored.


He met other crime fighters during his many crime fighting adventures. And together they formed a powerful force...but that's another story.

The End

Just kidding, li'l brudder. (I know you can make it on your own.)

Car Rally Pics

I was able to get a couple of the car rally pics from a couple weeks ago. I think these were some of the better ones for our team. There were bonus points for the team with the funniest picture, so I went for that in every picture I could hoping to get it.


The goal here was to get a picture of a member of your team in a shopping cart. It was pretty cool to ask the person in line if they were done using it and then just to hop in it and take a picture without really explaining anything.


The goal here was to get a picture of your whole team with plungers on their heads. Some would say I do that pose way too well. It's the first time I ever tried that, I swear! This picture got voted the second funniest overall, so it was all for nothing, doh! The funniest picture was given to my friend, Tony, who had makeup put on by the lady at the counter in the mall. That was pretty funny, but not worth the points if you ask me.

I've had writer's block the last couple weeks. So I'll try to make the posts interesting by putting pictures up. Someone asked to see my pictures of Normandy so since they get to see them, I might as well share them with everyone. These are from my trip to France in winter of 2003. It was really cold (below freezing!) Right this way...

Happy Birthday To Me

Today I turn 30. Ha ha Mom, you have a 30 year old son! Just kidding.

Anyways, you're probably wondering if I feel any older. Well, I've noticed a few things since I've crossed over into my thirties.

1) Your hair falls out.



2) You gain a little weight.



3) Your mind kinda goes and you start getting all paranoid. Your anxiety makes you feel like the walls are closing in on you.



4) Animals no longer respect you.



5) But on the flip side, since you're older, you make more money than the younger guys and to the ladies, that's all that matters.

Car Rally

On Saturday I had my first car rally with people at church which I guess is a kind of scavenger hunt. (Ha ha, I can't say scavenger hunt without thinking "shrimp human game".) So the rules were we had to take pictures of our entire team doing whatever was on the list of things to do. There were different point values depending on the difficulty or level of humiliation of the item. There were things like:

Get a picture with the oldest person
Get a picture on a pony
Get a picture with plungers on your head
Get a picture with a pirate
Get a picture at hole 9 of a miniature golf course
Get a picture doing a human pyramid with at least one stranger

There were also items to bring back, but the trick was you couldn't buy or steal or bribe for anything:

Bring back the oldest penny
Bring back the oldest newspaper
Bring back the biggest rock
Bring back the largest variety of ketchup packets

That was kind of funny because the teams really didn't have time to focus on these things. So the biggest rock brought back was a small rock since only one team did it. The largest variety of ketchup packets was one ketchup packet since only one team did it. The oldest newspaper was that day's newspaper since no one else brought back a newspaper. Ah, but the oldest penny was my team's victory. We found one from 1961. Anyways, we only had two hours to do as many of the things on the list as we could and then we lost points if we were late so you had to be really strategic about it. I don't think we were too strategic, but we got a whole lot of points at Toys R Us thanks to loose interpretation of the things on the list. So at the end our team won, woohoo! And I got a $5 gift certificate to In N Out.

The Dentist

How are any of my posts going to top Japan??? I struggle with making my normal life sound as interesting as the week I just had. Oh well, I press on. Anyways, today was the first time I had been to the dentist in seven years. Why seven years? Well, I had the family dentist until the family moved away then it was tough to make a trip that far to see the dentist. Then I didn't really know of a good dentist in my area. The main reason though was after the most brutal jaw surgery and orthadontics seven years ago, I just didn't want anyone in my mouth for awhile. I just didn't plan for it to be this long of a hiatus. Anyways, after all that, no cavities. So ha ha on all the people that say you must have check ups every six months! Well, now that I have a dentist, I guess I'll see him every six months especially since his office is only down the street from my apartment. I could even walk there if I wanted to. Yay, no cavities!

Back at work today. I ended up never going to the doctor. I felt like I was getting better. So jet lag and being sick are two things you don't want at the same time. They are two opposing forces. Cuz being sick requires sleep but jet lag requires you to get back on your normal schedule by trying to stay awake. So do you sleep when your body needs it or do you try to get back on your normal schedule? I tried sleeping the first sick day and tried staying awake on the second. It seemed to work out ok.

It's weird when you've been away for a little bit. It's like things don't change drastically unless you leave. Like I was only gone a week, but I doubt if I was here the whole week things would have been all that different. I get to work today and half the parking lot is empty. I wonder where everyone is cuz usually I have trouble finding a spot when I get to work. Also it seems like I've been here an hour and no one knows I'm here yet. Hello, I'm here, give me some work to do!

Pics of Japan are up. Just click on the My Pictures link on the right or just click here.

Friday Night

I went over to Hamadera Park which is right near the church. I have to say that Japan owns the U.S. on playground slides. They are really cool. So cool that we went back later that night to ride them, ha ha.

Saturday

On Saturday a couple from the church took us to Himeji Castle which is the best example of a Japanese castle. This is because most of the other castles were destroyed or partially destroyed by war. Many were bombed in WWII. I heard that U.S. took care not to bomb this one though. Some of the other castles have been rebuilt, but then they put elevators in them or something like that so it takes away the authenticity. This castle is also really cool because it stands on a hill so it really does have a commanding presence. The stairways were really steep and must have been made for the shortest people on earth! One staircase I was trying to go down and I had to make sure I didn't bang my chin on the floor there was so little room. It was like I had to limbo just to get down the stairs. I also had to wear these slippers. It didn't take me long to kick those off. It was hard enough trying to keep those on and going down the steep small staircase with a horde of people in front of me and behind.

This was the day of the Cherry Blossom Viewing Festival in Himeji City. Too bad the cherry blossoms came late this year. We did find one tree that had bloomed, but it would have been really cool to have seen hundreds of trees do that. So that was one thing I was hoping to see in Japan that I didn't get to see. But I guess it's some consolation that a whole city's viewing festival got screwed up so I wasn't the only one.

Sunday

On Sunday I woke up with my fever raging worse than any other day. So I wasn't able to go to church. Aaron told me later that the pastor called me out again when they were welcoming the new visitors and he asked Aaron in front of the whole church where I was. Glad I had a good reason, ha ha. By afternoon I was feeling better but still totally freaking out about a long plane ride home in the sickest condition I've ever been in.

Sunday Again

Which brings me to today. Crossing the international dateline lets me live this day all over again. I felt a lot better on the plane so maybe I'm finally on the road to recovery. I'm still going to the doctor tomorrow. I'm definitely not going to work tomorrow. So I don't think I sounded too bad, but the two people next to me on the plane got other seats elsewhere so I had my own row! I still didn't sleep on the flight though. I grabbed like 50 tissues from the church before I left. I used almost all of them on the flight. And talk about sinus pressure when we landed. I'm still waiting for my ears to pop. So I arrived 5 hours before I left Japan. I was only gone 9 days but it feels like I've been gone a month. It's weird how when you're immersed in a foreign culture like that how quickly you forget your normal life is like. I'll put the pictures up soon.

Thursday Night

Umeda Sky Building was pretty neat. It is 173 meters tall which is about 3/4 bigger than Kyoto Tower. There was no garden up there though. Not unless they think concrete and metal is some type of garden. There was a cool garden at the base though that had a backwards waterfall. I guess that would be a waterrise?

Then we went to the Gyoza Museum which is like all these different kinds of gyoza from all over Japan that you can eat in one place. Too bad I was still kinda sick so my appetite wasn't so strong.

Then we went on this ferris wheel that was on the side of a building. It reminded me of the London Eye, but it wasn't as big as that. By this time my fever came back so I was pretty much spent for the evening. It was still a good time though.

Friday

Today I feel much better. I still don't have much of an appetite, but at least I'm not feverish. I don't think there are plans to do anything today which is fine with me. I'm getting pretty toured out at this point. It's fun to do the normal things here too cuz life is so different here. Today we had sushi at this restaurant that had a conveyer belt that ran by all the tables. And you just grab what you want from it as it goes by.

Tomorrow I go to Himeji Castle which is supposed to be the coolest castle in Japan.

Observations

So I really haven't had much time to talk about the things I've observed while being here until now. The Japanese have space heaters everywhere in their homes. They also have rugs that heat up. They even have toilet seats that heat up. Yet they have no central heating or insulation. I see people wearing surgical masks everywhere I go. I've heard different reasons for it. Some say for the humidity, others cuz they are sick. I've resisted to get my own though. Japan also is probably the most fashionably free society I have ever seen. I've some pretty strange clothes and hairstyles yet nobody thinks it's weird at all. I probably could wear a mask and no one would even care, ha ha.

Monday Night

Dinner with the students was really fun. A woman and her sisters invited us over for dinner at their house. Two of their kids were also there. They served us sushi and some other stuff that was pretty good but I have no idea what it was. Nothing too exotic, phew! They asked lots of questions. It was like being interviewed. It always started like "Um, Kevin..." So aside from the questions I was asked in the previous post (yes, every single one was asked again), here are some others:

What is the weather like where you are from?
What is your job?
Do you like sushi?
Do you like wasabi?
What did you have for lunch?
What is your favorite item on this table? You can only pick one.
Do you like Japanese women or American women more?
Where are you from?
Do you know Britney Spears?
Do you know Hilary Duff?

The last three were from the lady's daughter. She showed us her karate skills which was pretty awesome. She was a champion in Osaka. I tried to video it but instead of capturing the cool karate, I recorded my crotch for 30 seconds. Needless to say, I erased it. Doh! Wouldn't you know it they asked me what I had for lunch on the only day I had McDonald's, ha ha.

After dinner we played cards for a bit and then we left.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, we went to Kyoto. We got up at about 6:30am cuz Aaron said I had to witness the rush hour on the metro. It was pretty intense cuz the train was full when I got on, but somehow I ended up on the other side of the train when I got in, ha ha. When we got to Kyoto, we checked out the Clearwater Temple. I forget it's Japanese name. I had never been to a pagan temple before. There were people there all dressed in white who were on their pilgrimage. There were these two rocks at the temple and it is said if you walk from one to the other with your eyes closed, you will find your soul mate. There were a few people doing it. I totally wanted to mess with them and stand at the other rock with my arms wide open. Yeah, but I didn't.

Then we met up with a couple of Aaron's friends in Kyoto and they showed us around the city a bit. First we went to the Golden Shrine which is a shrine completely covered in gold leaf. It looked pretty awesome. It was in this big pond with these little tiny islands. I suspect if you can run across the pond from island to island, you will find your soul mate.

Then we went to Kyoto Castle. We had to take our shoes off to go inside. I kept thinking how screwed I would be if my shoes weren't there when I got back. It's not like they carry my shoe size in Japan. The floor was really cool in the castle cuz it made lots of squeaks which sounded like birds. They called it the nightingale floor or something like that which warned the guards of assassins. Pretty cool, eh?

Then we went to Kyoto Tower which was only like 300 feet high. All the towers in Japan were about that high, but I guess that would be freaky to have anything higher in a country that gets like 1000 earthquakes a year. It still provided some nice views of the city.

Wednesday

On Wednesday I woke up as sick as a dog. I think I got it from the orphanage cuz Aaron's roommate, Jun, got sick too. But I didn't know how bad I was until we had already left for Nara. That's when my fever hit. I was pretty low energy that day on top of being totally worn out from walking the previous day. So in Nara we saw the deer park which had a ton of deer but none of them looked that healthy. Nara also has the biggest Buddha in Japan. It was pretty huge, maybe like 5 stories high. After walking forever and feeling totally sick I didn't want to see much else. Aaron being tired too did not disagree. So I got home like at 5pm and slept until the next morning.

Thursday

I feel better today, but still kinda sick. Hopefully I'll kick this by today. Anyways, most of today has been a rest day. Even if I was well, I doubt I could handle another day of walking. Tonight we are going to the Umeda Sky Building which are these tall twin buildings in Osaka that have a garden on top that connects the two buildings together. Anyways, I'm off.

The flight over went by pretty fast considering how long it was. I only watched two movies, slept a little, and then read my travel guide on Japan. I arrived in Osaka last night around sunset. I have to say that traveling west is much easier on jet lag than traveling east. So always travel west whenever you can, ha ha. Anyways, it's weird to leave on one day and arrive somewhere else the next day. It will be even stranger when I return and live Sunday twice.

Today I got to experience Easter in a Japanese service. I recognized some of the hymns, but the sermon was way over my head. Probably cuz it was in Japanese. At one time during the service, I heard my name and then Aaron said "you have to stand up". I guess it was new visitors, ha ha. It was a little embarrassing.

On Sunday night, there was an Easter party for the English school. We played this game that was kinda like a scavenger hunt. They didn't know what a scavenger was and Aaron said it was kinda like a shrimp. So they called it "shrimp human game", ha ha! I love that. They totally enjoyed the game even though they were all adults. They kept asking me for hints. The best part was when they had to go in the sanctuary and all the lights were off in there. They asked me how to turn on the lights except I didn't know. They knew the clue was in the piano so they were all stumbling in the dark to get there, ha ha. So competitive. I ran and got somebody to turn on the lights.

After the game, I talked with a bunch of the students. It was like getting interviewed. The most popular question so far has been "Is this your first time to Japan?" I was asked that question 3 times in a row in the same group, ha ha. Other questions I've been asked in Japan so far:

When did you arrive in Japan?
When are you leaving Japan?
How long will you be staying?
Do you have a girlfriend?
Are you Christian?
Do you drink?

It was a great time getting to know the students. I'm going to be hanging out with some of them tonight. I wonder if I will be able to finish this post before then. Anyways, it's kinda funny that in almost 48 hours in Japan, I still haven't left the church, but I think I've had an experience that most tourists never get.

This morning, we went to Namba which is like where all the shops and malls and stuff are in Osaka. I was hoping to see some freaky dressed people as I hear that's the area where you'll see them. I didn't see too much freaky stuff though. Too bad. I did see two girls dressed like Little Bo Peep. I wish I got a picture but I was taken so off guard by it. I hear that's not such a random thing to see here. So maybe I'll get another opportunity.

Then later, we went with some people from the church to an orphanage. I had only been inside there for less than a minute before a 13 year old kid jumped on my back. I gathered this was not uncommon when Aaron said "welcome", ha ha. Anyways, it still was a bit of a surprise cuz it came out of nowhere. I'm surprised I was still standing from a blind tackle like that. The rest of the kids were pretty young around 3-4 years old. That's when I became an instant jungle gym. How do you give rides to 15 kids at once? Yet that's what they expect. Anyways, it was lots of fun even though since I know no Japanese I can't really tell them to stop doing whatever. I did learn how to say no which is "iyeh". I used that a bit and it worked! Ha ha.

Ok, now I'm off to hang out with some students. None of them are believers so I hope to show them Christ's likeness.

Xanga Treatment Realized

Got this email from Friendster today:

Hi Kevin,
Since our featured blogs are supposed to promote Friendster Blogs, it wouldn’t make sense to feature a blog that links to another blog. But thank you for your response and interest and for using Friendster!

Heh heh.

Ready To Go

So I leave in a few minutes for Japan. Yesterday I was running a bunch of last minute errands. On looking for a travel guide for Japan, I noticed the travel book for Antartica was about the same size. Either they are really holding out on me on what I can experience in Japan OR Antartica is a way more interesting place than I thought. Or maybe they just have to meet some page quota on travel books by law. Perhaps the culture of penguins is extremely rich in detail. Anyways, I'm off!

I was watching American Idol last night and you know how they do cuts to the crowd and show the posters people are holding. Ok, but did anyone see the poster someone was holding after Carrie's performance? It said YOU + ME = US. Seems normal, right? Under the YOU is a picture of Carrie. Under the ME is a picture of this guy. Ha ha, but under the US is a photoshop combo of the two pictures. It basically looks the guy with her hair. So random and unexpected, ha ha! Now I bet you wish you had Tivo.

Last night I had the weirdest dream. Normally I don't share my dreams cuz man, they are just too weird. But this one I must share mainly because it was interesting and it had a logical flow somewhat. Anyways, I was back in high school and I had a laptop. And my laptop got this virus that had a countdown. And once it counted down to zero it made your computer explode, but it wouldn't just blow up the computer, it would like blow up everything around it too. So I found this virus on my laptop and based on the countdown, I calculated that it would happen while I was at school. Now onto the plot holes of my dream...how does software turn a computer into a bomb? After finding the virus, why didn't I erase it? Instead of worrying about getting blown up, why was I worried more about my computer getting destroyed and having to buy a new one? I woke up before the countdown was even close to zero, but my first waking thought was "wow, that was a really cool virus". Perhaps I am more of an engineer at heart than I thought (at least subconsciously).

Anyways, this weekend will be a little busy for me. I got to do my taxes and prep for my trip to Japan. This is my last weekend before I leave. I'm leaving this Friday, woohoo! It still hasn't hit me that I'm taking this trip. I also need to buy some new luggage cuz my old bag is not going to make another international trip, not without alot of duct tape anyway.

Friendster, you get the Xanga treatment. Suck on that!

Actually I'm glad that they didn't feature my writing cuz judging by who they featured so far, they are only interested in people who whine and complain or insult other people. Yay for not picking me!

Many of you have asked about the Skit DVD. Be assured it will happen, but we had some setbacks with a crashed hard drive so we don't have the software anymore that we were using to make the menus. We do have a workaround solution, but it will just require more time. At this time, the DVD is about 80% done.

So our retreat video did well, I think. It's hard to gauge laughter in a group of 30 people. I'm so used to measuring success in a group of about 200. So you're probably wondering what is in a "not fellowship" video. We had just a montage of surreal clips with the main purpose of shock. I could list everything we did here, but it really doesn't sound as funny written down. It's got my usual signatures like a fake appendage, wedgies, weird dancing, etc (the typical fellowship stuff, ha ha). It won't be on the DVD. It was good, but I mean it wasn't THAT good.

It was really hot in Big Bear. It's been awhile since I went snowboarding without a jacket. I was still hot even like that. I tried jumps again for the first time in two years. Two years ago I hit a side jump kinda off and did a nice drop and landed on my chest. I'm pretty sure I cracked my ribs cuz they hurt for about 3 months after that. Anyways, not fun to drag yourself off the run while other snowboarders whisk by you. You just hope you get to the side before you get creamed, ha ha. Anyways, with all that in mind I tried jumps again, ha ha. I'm getting much better at these. At least I'm doing better than I ever thought I would. I'm not so much as jumping high, but far. When you hit jumps you want to hit the descending side and not the table top part. If you hit the top, the landing is hard, but if you hit the descending side it's pretty smooth, but you're going alot faster. But I got alot better with my speed so I can totally hit them faster. You just got to get over that fear of heading for the lip knowing you'll be in the air. It actually kind of reminds me of when I learned to pole vault in my freshman year of high school. You got to run with this stick as fast as you can and jam it in that hole and let it just lift you up in the air and you just hope you land on that pad. There were a couple times where I didn't, ha ha. Anyways, fun weekend, good fellowship.

Normally I don't pay much attention to my spam, but the title for this one was "Super Human Powers". Super human powers? Not even a pill, but from software??? Now this is just getting silly. You can click on the picture to see it larger.



I feel dumb analyzing something that is obviously so retarded, but I must highlight a few things. "The powerful subliminal mind technology they tried to ban!" Who is trying to ban it? The government? Apple? (Since it doesn't run on a Mac.) I'm very impressed they took the time to develop the software for Windows 95 and NT. They are serious about getting this out there. No PC user has an excuse. "Blast through limitations with ZERO effort." That's quite a broad guarantee. Not only will I overcome my limitations, I will "blast" through them. What does that mean? "Achieve your goals...be who you want to be!" What, like a super villain that can control people with my mind? "Increase your mental powers and abilities." Does this mean I must have some kind of mental powers to begin with? If only I knew more!!!

Comics

Comics are pretty popular these days. It seems like there is a comic book movie coming out every couple of months. Most of them I hadn't even heard of until they came out as movies like Constantine or Elektra or Hellboy. But this link I'm about to share with you, I guarantee none of you ever conceived as real comics. I assure you these are real and that's why they're so funny. Why can't they make movies out of these comics?

These are some of my favorites: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

I wish I could put all my favorites, but there are just too many. You'll have to check the whole site yourself. Superman is such a jerk. It's amazing they ever created any villains at all with Lois, Jimmy, Batman, Robin, and Superman all trying to kill each other all the time. I guess if you have a comic running for about 70 years, you go through dry spells here and there. Remember, these were real comics. The captions have not been changed from the original.