It's been an awfully long time again. And I'm afraid that's how it's gonna be until I get my computer up and running again (highly unlikely) or get a new one (much more likely).

Just a few days left... yessirree bob. Freaking out? No. Does it feel real? No again. It's a strange thing... this preparing to get married business. I don't know how many people have asked me if I'm excited. I really want to say that I do. And I think in some cases I said that I am (but that was because I didn't want to get into the whole long schpeel that I'm about to get into).

The honest answer is, I'm not really excited... yet. It just doesn't feel real yet. It's almost like I'm helping plan this event for someone else. And every now and then, I'll see something in print saying "Alinna and Hideyo" and I'm like, "Wow, that Hideyo guy sure is lucky." It just doesn't register.

I'm told that it's normal. I'm told that it's normal especially for guys. I'm told that guys usually don't realize what's really happening until the day before. Whether the realization is a calm, peaceful one or a panicked freak out, seems to be up in the air. Here's to calm and peaceful realizations! I think I'll drink to that. On a related note, we bought a few more cases of beer. Four cases of Newcastle. Congratulations Ben.

To-Do Checklist:
To-dos on list: 13
Completed to-dos: 170
Days to go: 4

Don't know if anybody is reading this right now, but...

Tomorrow, Friday November 25 at 3PM, Alinna would appreciate it very much if you could help us move in to our NEW PLACE!

667 Kodiak Ct. #3
Sunnyvale, CA

If you can come and help, call either one of us. Food will be provided afterwards. Thanks in advance for those who help us!

Madness!

I think my computer has officially died. Time of death, Sunday October 30th, 4:30PM. Just won't let me boot up windows. Not exactly sure what happened. And so, I'm afraid I will have to resort to being online through the Fuller Computer Lab.

Plea for help: I will be participating in a fantasy basketball draft this Sunday. Unfortunately, because Fuller's holy school, it shuts down on Sundays... including its library that houses the computer lab. Can anybody out there help me?

Funny story.

So Alinna came down this weekend. We had a bunch of wedding planning stuff we had to get done. At the time though we were in the living room of my place... watching TV I think. I don't quite remember. Anyway, I had enough TV and wanted to get back to my bedroom which had all our wedding planning stuff so that we could get back to work. Here's the jist of the conversation:

Hideyo: Well, it's back to the batcave!
Alinna: OK!
H: So what would that make you? Catwoman?
A: Umm... I dunno.
H: But wait, you don't like cats!
A: In that case call me dogwoman!
H: Uhh... wouldn't the term "dogwoman" mean something else?

To-Do Checklist:
To-dos on list: 58
Completed to-dos: 125
Days to go: 54

A Not So Faint Image of My Windows Desktop

A not so faint image of my windows desktop

Monitor issues

So my laptop monitor is officially dead. Caput. It only projects a very faint image of what it used to show... my windows wallpaper of the Golden Gate Bridge from Fort Point.

Thanks to Alinna's mom, however, I have a replacement monitor... hence why I'm able to make this post. My typing skills are not nearly this stellar.

To answer the question some of you are probably asking, I've had this computer for 4 years. I suppose it's about time for the monitor to crap out.

Note: This is Hideyo's reaction to the situation after discovering that the newly received monitor works with his computer. He was a tad bit more frazzled when he first found out (Read: Tearing out his hair that has been growing for the last 7 weeks without a haircut).

Oh and Gina, it only took me 20 minutes to get to the Rose Bowl. Not bad.

To-Do Checklist:
To-dos on list: 83
Completed to-dos: 100
Days to go: 68

Alas alas

Yes, I went to the Cal UCLA game on Saturday. A heartbroken fan I am. But you can look at most Cal grad blogs to see all the things I would probably say.

Instead, I will post about how I got to the Rose Bowl to watch the game. I took public transit. That's right. I took the bus... in LA. I rode Metro. When I met up with some people at the Rose Bowl, they asked me, "How'd you get here?"

I responded, "By bus."

I can't tell you how puzzled each person looked when I told them that I took the bus. I might as well have been transported to the Rose Bowl by alien spacecraft. It just doesn't happen out here. Everyone drives. Everyone.

Reminds me of the time when my freshman year roommate asked me what a "Spare the air day" was. When I explained it to him (he's from SoCal), he looked at me with the most incredulous look.

Surprise surprise. I'm a democrat. Though not as strongly as some may think.

You are a Social Liberal (61% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (26% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

We Got a Present!

Attention everybody. Alinna and I got our first wedding present from our registry. We suspect that it was Amy. Thanks Amy. Watch out folks! They're going like hotcakes! Act now!

Day one of school

Ahh... back to school. Day of long lines at the bookstore. Day of packed lecture rooms (they don't qualify as "halls" unless they house at least 100 people... and seminary classrooms don't). Day of friendly people. Day of "nice to meet you." Day of handshakes. Day of catching up with people. Day of things new. Day of the familiar.

Lots of new people around. In a school this size, if you don't recognize somebody, chances are they're either first year students or transfers. Gone are the days when my name is a number. Oh, Berkeley! I knew you by name. Why couldn't you learn mine? Instead I was an 8 digit number. At times I felt like a convict. And yes, I still remember my number. I don't think I'll ever forget.

I've been tagged.

Music Tag

The Rules:
List five songs that you are currently loving. It doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the songs in your blog/xanga. Then tag five other friends to see what they're listening to.

My songs of the moment:
1. Golddigger - Kanye West
2. I'm Ready - Tevin Campbell
3. You're All I Need - Method Man
4. Kimi Wo Sagashiteta - Chemistry
5. Disco Inferno - Bee Gees

And I tag:
hotmonkies
fuzzylogick
stevelee
gee unit
ryan

And yet another list... I'm feeling pretty VH-1

To-Do Checklist:
To-dos on list: 94
Completed to-dos: 89

And they're out!  Please RSVP in a timely manner.  Thanks a lot guys!

The return

I'll be going back to SoCal either this Monday (12th) or Tuesday (13th). Real soon.

The first day of school: September 26th. It's time to get your nerd on.

To-Do Checklist:
To-dos on list: 111
Completed to-dos: 72

My first picture from Photobucket.  Our date at Fort Point!

Name mishaps

My name has been mispronounced since the time I started going to school. It's pronounced HEE-DE-YO. Of course it looks like Hideyo. So what do I get?

Hide-yo. As in "Hide, the aliens are out to get us!"

Video. Yes, it has happened in the past. And not jokingly either. I'm not for rent at Blockbuster.

hi-DEE-yo. And so, I have two greetings in my name. Or something that sounds like the dwarves' work song. Hi, yo! Hi, yo! It's off to work we go!

But recently... err, at my last job, I got two new ones. Really interesting ones.

Fidel. Yes. As in Castro. I now resemble a cigar smoking dictator who lives forever. Cigar smoking I'd be willing to do. Dictatorship... well, I suppose it depends on the day. Live forever? Getting eternal life with my God! Woo hoo!

Cuidado. The thing that cracks me up about this one is that the guy who called me cuidado wasn't a Spanish speaker. And from the limited Spanish training I got from the West Contra Costa Unified School District, I know that it means something like "attention" or "caution." Ahh, if only he called me "Peligro," then I'd be known as "danger!" Watch out for the piso mojado folks.

To-Do Checklist:
To-dos on list: 124
Completed to-dos: 59

Mystery public bathroom goods... the way things work

Recently, I've been intrigued by two particular products I've seen in public bathrooms... two particular bathrooms actually. In some of the Fuller bathrooms, there are these special urinals. They're no-flush urinals. Weird huh? And I don't mean urinals that haven't been flushed since who-knows-when... because lotsa people don't flush after doing their business at the urinal. You know who you are! Nasty, especially for the next guy. Anyway, Fuller has these no-flush urinals that seriously don't have a flush knob. And next to the urinal on the wall is a placard that designates it as a "no-flush" urinal. I've noticed that when I do my business at this particular urinal, some dark colored (I'm color-blind, what do you expect?) liquid comes out of the drain. I guess it's supposed to sanitize it or keep it from smelling because it does its job. One time I was so curious to find out how it works that I was about to lift the plastic cover that is found over the urinal drain... but then sensibility came and I remembered, "That's gross, people pee on that!"

So the other bathroom product... I worked in a warehouse this summer and in it there's this "soap" called Borax. It's amazing stuff. It cleans your hands quicker than any soap I've ever used. Wet your hands a little, put on a little Borax, rub your hands, add a little more water, rub your hands again, wash, and magically all the dirt on your hands... *poof* gone. I dunno though. Any cleaning product called Borax can't possibly be good for you. Sure enough, upon closer inspection of the box of Borax it says that it's only to be used for hands. I don't know if that's because Borax is potentially hazardous or because it'd hurt to rub the sand-like substance anywhere else on your body. Again... how does this stuff work?

Yes, I know I've taken a bit of a haiatus from the wedding updates at the end of the entries... but that's simply because we haven't gotten things "done" since the beginning of August. We're doing things... they're just not completed. Tux rentals, invitations, guest list, honeymoon travel plans, housing, rehearsal dinner sites, the list could go on forever. But to maintain consistency... err re-establish consistency...

To-Do Checklist:
To-dos on list: 124
Completed to-dos: 59

108 Bottles of Beer on the Wall... 108 Bottles of Beer...

Quick run down... Bass Beer will be served at our wedding in addition to red and white wine and soft drinks.

The story:

Though Alinna may be ardently trying to learn the Japanese language, I may turning Chinese. Originally, we were planning to serve beer, wine, and soft drinks at our wedding. We picked out our wines after parousing multiple Beverages & More stores. While doing so, I was reminded that BevMo does kegs of beer as well. After looking down the selection of beers available in keg form, I had decided that I would like Boddington's Beer to be served. The 12 gallon keg would cost $129.99 not including the service charges and deposits for their keg, tap, and tub. It was looking to be a good deal. But then...

On my last trip to the South Bay I got a bad case of the munchies. I stopped at the local RiteAid to see if they had any snacky goodies like Hot Buffalo Wing flavored Snyder's pretzels. Alas, the pretzels were not to be found but at the front of the store was a fairly large display for Bass Beer. Actually to say that it was a display gives it too much hype. It was more like a make-shift pyramid of 12-pack boxes of Bass. Upon closer inspection, I found that they were on sale. A normal 12 pack costs $13.99. But RiteAid was having a sale and was selling them for $8.99. And on top of that, there were sticker coupons stuck to each 12-pack for $3 off making the final price at $5.99.

Somewhat quietly I exclaimed, "$5.99 for a 12-pack? That's like 50 cents a bottle. It's cheaper than water!" So naturally, I bought 9 12-packs. Hence the 108 bottles of beer on the living room wall. I feel like a frat boy. It's great.

Just got back from camp... yeah, still trying to figure it out. Had a good time speaking. Got a taste of what it might look like to do ministry with Alinna and that went well. Wondering if I might be better suited to speak to an older audience. Hmm...

I was checking out the wedding website and realized that I didn't give out the password to post on the guestbook. Props to Steve for figuring it out somehow... probably looked at Alinna blog.

Password: zebras

The checklist remains the same as last time because I was gone all last week at camp. Time to get crackin' once again.

As you may have seen, we have a website now for our wedding. It's still in the works... of course, I don't think there'll ever be a time when it is done. Well, until the wedding's done.

It's really been great being home this summer. And as an added bonus, my arms which had the most horrible eczema this last year, are finally starting to clear up. I think I may be allergic to Los Angeles. This is problematic.

Turned in my first assignment for the Free Methodist polity class and got an "A". Who knew that "John Wesley" would get you an "A"? Be rest assured this is all a bit of hyperbole. A bit.

And of course, to keep up with the recent trend... the progress of the wedding planning.

To-Do Checklist:
To-dos on list: 128
Completed to-dos: 56

Our website. Oh yeah.

Updates

Wedding planning's been going well. At least I think so. We're still moving at warp 9. Let's get down to the recent nitty gritty top 3.

1) We're basically assured of our ceremony location. Waiting for the senior pastor there to give us the ok. He's away right now so we play the waiting game. When we asked about the possibility of using the place on our day, we were told that everything checked out and that we just needed to send in the appropriate paperwork.

2) We're getting the help. Wedding coordinator, officiant, photographer, bridesmaids, groomsmen, travel agent, are either booked or chosen! Sorry guys, if I didn't call you yet about being a groomsman, chances are you're not gonna be one. Have no fear! There are still openings at the gift table or clean up crew.

3) Presents. We're now officially registered at Macy's and Williams-Sonoma. We're not done yet, but you can see what we've chosen so far on their respective websites.


Ordination stuff. I'm having a hard time seeing how knowing the answer to the question, "Who are some prominent members of the "Holy Club?" helps me become a more effective minister but I'm chugging along with the polity class. Maybe the class will pick up as time goes on. Meanwhile I'm having flashbacks to Februarys in the Richmond Unified School District. Well, except that the answer to "Who was the greatest man who ever lived?" is no longer Martin Luther King. In this polity class, the greatest man is Jesus, but a very close second is John Wesley. It seems like the answer to any question is John Wesley. If there was a question asking who invented the railroad in my polity assignments, I just might be tempted to write down "John Wesley." And while John Wesley certainly contributed a great deal, I find it hard to believe that he was as great as these polity books make him out to be.

To-Do Checklist:
To-dos on list: 136
Completed to-dos: 48

Sorry haven't posted a whole lot. I just checked my blog and realized that the month of June does not exist in my blogging world. I've been a little busy. How?

1) I'm engaged. If the last entry doesn't make sense to you... I asked Alinna to marry me and she said yes. June was non-existant in my blogging world in part because I was busy making preparations and scheming ways to propose. Shout outs to all who played along and fed me ideas. I didn't use any of them, but I had fun hearing how romantic my fellow man can be.

1b) Wedding prep has begun. And I think our team is moving along quite quickly. Honestly, I don't know why I still have my A.W. Tozer homepage when I start my internet browser. It really should be The Knot considering how often I'm on that page. The to-do-checklist on it has us moving at warp 9.

2) I'm back home. Moved from the land of Alhambra to the kingdom of the Sobrante. I'm in El Sobrante for the summer with the exception of the time that I'm spending with friends and Alinna of course. Disappointment of the summer so far? Haven't gotten around to taking bartending classes yet. The plan was to do it this summer. I suppose I could still do it.

3) Taking a class on Free Methodist History and Polity. It's part of the ordination business. Not too difficult at all. I just wish that it were more like a Berkeley MCB class with a discussion section and a lab section. Wouldn't it be cool to have a lab practical pertaining to baptisms?

4) Working part time. 30 hours a week doing manual labor at a tile store in Berkeley. Helps pay the rent I'm still paying out in Alhambra and as added incentive, I get to work on developing my moobs. Watch out! Before long I won't be able to make my elbows touch! Maybe I should work on more realistic goals...

To-Do-Checklist:
To-dos on List: 150
Completed To-dos: 34

Cut-tsies. I asked.

An addendum to Ryan's post dated May 26, 2005 regarding not liking LA sports teams and LA sportscasters. He talked about baseball. And now I will proceed with basketball.

My three points of grievance:
1) Laker sportscasters. At the beginning of the year, there was all this talk about the Kobe Bryant/Shaq split and guessing as to whether the Lakers would be able to go far in the playoffs without Shaq. How far will they go in the playoffs? Will they be able to win a championship? Blah blah blah. Another case of sportscasters not knowing what they're talking about.

2) Laker fans. Or rather, as they now like to called, Shaq fans. Apparently, all those Laker fans from years previous were never really Laker fans at all. If you ask most former Laker fans how they feel about the Lakers they'll just say something along the lines of "Well, I'm really a Shaq fan. I never really liked Kobe. And well, you know with everything that happened with Kobe..." Blah blah blah. Just a few years prior when the Lakers won the whole thing, the Laker fans were extolling the wonderful virtues of Kobe's game and how much potential he has to become the next coming of Michael Jordan. And of course it's purely coincidental that the Heat, Shaq's new employer is in the conference championship. And what are the Shaq fans doing? Well, cheering the Heat on of course.

3) The Laker flags. During the years of glory, there were these stupid little car flags that would clip onto a car window. These things were everywhere. Flapping here and there. Creating possible blind spots. And just flat out annoying to this Warrior fan who hasn't seeing anything resembling "glory years" since the Run TMC years. And even then, they didn't make it deep into the playoffs. Lack of defense probably had something to do with it. Now? I don't think I've seen a single flag flying in my entire time here in LA. The bandwagon is looking mighty lonely right now.

The Disabled List

My Fuller fantasy baseball team, after a few very good weeks, is starting to fall apart. The injury bug somehow has hit my team in full force. 5 guys officially on the Yahoo! disabled list: Scott Rolen, Francisco Rodriguez, Mike Hampton, Brandon Lyon, and Kerry Wood. 1 guy who is not yet registered as being disabled according to Yahoo!: Odalis Perez. And two guys who are listed as day to day: Derek Jeter and Chipper Jones. That's 8 out of my 21 roster spots.

Oh yeah, and I'm a tad disabled right now. I think I might have caught a cold when I came up to NorCal for Andy's bachelor's party. Got pelted with paintballs, put down a lot of cash, and caught a cold. I feel like the kid who gets beaten up for his lunch money. Congratulations Andy.

Jesus complex

Here's one guy who literally has a Jesus complex. He may be the first guy I've heard of whose "respect and love for Jesus Christ" made him change his name to Jesus Christ. Nevermind the fact that Jesus' last name wasn't Christ, but "of Nazareth" or possibly "son of Mary" or "son of Joseph." Of course, the use of his title "Christ" does have a certain ring to it when combined with his first name. Jesus Christ sounds so much smoother than Jesus D'Nazareth, Jesus Maryson, or Jesus Josephson. Actually, that last one, Jesus Josephson sounds like it could be the name for a competitor on the World's Strongest Man competition. I can hear it now. "On the leader board is Olaf Olafsson, followed by Oleg Olegsson, and in third is Jesus Josephson."

The off-season

I realize that I've left the BCS rankings up at the same week for months on end now. Truth be told, I haven't been reading people's blogs. I'm a horrible horrible blog ranker. I suppose I could further extrapolate and say that I'm a horrible horrible friend as well. I guess I don't care enough about other people's lives. Well except for Cal and Danny because I find their blogs informative, witty, and fun to read... and Alinna, well, do I really need to explain myself here?

The regular season
Baseball season is back and so is fantasy baseball. I'm currently fielding two teams and once again, I'm finding that I feel like I'm rooting for everybody. The great thing about having only one fantasy team is that you know who to root for. You don't own that many players and so, very rarely is there a situation where there is a conflict of interest. Do you want the strikeout for your pitcher? Or do you want the home run for your batter? Usually you settle for some scenario that's a win-win but incredibly unlikely. Example: Have the batter before your man get on base on an error so that your man can hit a double, get an RBI, but not have it charged to your pitcher's ERA. I love baseball.

The playoffs
I haven't been following the basketball playoffs as closely as I would like. But last night's Bulls-Wizards game was awesome. What was even more awesome was watching the highlights of it on SportsCenter while tipping back on some $7-for-an-18-pack-cheaper-than-water San Lucas with Ben. Gotta love El Salvador. As an aside, it's quite refreshing to drive around town without seeing every other car with a stupid Lakers flag flapping around. Guess most of the "die-hard Laker fans" just aren't as die-hard when they don't make it into the playoffs. Welcome to Warrior-land.

CBEST

I just got an email from the CBEST people with the subject header "Your CBEST unofficial scores." To get you all up to date, I took the CBEST back in early April so that I have the option of subbing from time to time for money. I didn't bother studying for the test because I had heard from multiple people including my mom that it's ridiculously easy. So much for high standards for our educators. As she put it, "The CBEST was way easier than than the TOEFL."

And now they've sent me my unofficial scores... whatever that means. Actually, that's not completely true. About a week ago, the CBEST people sent me an email by the same heading. In the earlier email, they sent me my scores for my "Reading section" and "Math section" and promptly told me that "A total CBEST score of 123 is required for passing status." I quickly scroll back up to see my scores for reading and math and add them up only to find that I scored 121. After a few minutes of self-pity and telling myself that I was stupid not only for underestimating the difficulty of the test but also for failing a test that was widely touted as being "ridiculously easy," I decided that I was going to take the secret of my failing the CBEST to my grave.

That is, until I got my second "Your CBEST unofficial scores" email. Apparently, I had forgotten that there are three sections to the test. Reading, math, and writing. The second email had my writing score as well. Have no fear, I didn't score a 1 on my writing section. Yes, my friends, I have conquered the CBEST. Against insurmountable odds, I passed. Now I'm only stupid for forgetting that there was a writing section. As my team will attest, my short term memory is horrendous.

Brawny

Has anybody else noticed that the Brawny paper towel brand has changed its icon? I remember the commercials on TV they used to have where they'd focus in on their Brawny man as it got superimposed on the plastic wrapping of the paper towel. There he was, a big, burly, white guy with a full beard, big ol' axe, and a checkered lumberjack shirt. If ever there was a man who's " brawny" it would be him. Nobody would question his masculinity.

But sometime, I don't know when, Brawny changed their dude. He's not so brawny anymore. Go check for yourself. To start, he's clean shaven. He's still white, but he's got good looking black hair. He's not wearing the lumberjack plaid anymore either. It's crazy. It's as if Brawny's about to make a name change to Metro. Although, I'm not too sure about paper towel sales if they were to make the switch-a-roo. I mean how useful can Metro be?

The pop up blocker

There've been a number of pop up blocker applications available for free recently. For a while now, I've been using PanicWare's Pop Up Stopper and I've been happy with it. It blocked all pop ups including those I didn't want it to block, but that was fine. All I had to do was push down the control button when I wanted to see a poll on CNN or ESPN or wanted to buy something on Amazon.

But then after hearing all the buzz about the Google toolbar with its pop up blocker feature, I decided that I wanted to be cool too and join the bandwagon. So I downloaded the google toolbar. All of a sudden, pop ups came well... popping up. Warnings, online casinos, viagra, etc.. You'd figure that hey, two pop up blockers equals double the protection from pop ups. But no. Apparently, two pop up blockers equal no protection from pop ups. So I tried to get rid of the google toolbar and go back to the original set up. No luck. The google toolbar has forever corrupted my computer's pop up blocking capabilities. I was unfaithful to my pop up blocker and now I'm having to deal with the repercussions of my poor decisions. Suddenly, this blog post is starting to sound like a public service announcement addressing the issue of STDs. *Fade to black, keyboard background music* The more you know...

The end of an era

Gone are my days as a 4.0 student. I just checked my grades online for the winter quarter. And although I didn't maintain my perfect record for two straight terms, it was never really my goal at the beginning. I recognize that it may sound like I'm trying to justify the outcome now that I know how it's turned out.

Some historical context is required here... like good exegesis!

When I went to my academic counselor's office to sign up for my classes for the winter quarter, my counselor looked at the classes I wanted to take and said very plainly, "You're going to die." No words of encouragement, no talking about alternatives, just "you're going to die." Why? Because I wanted to sign up for 5 classes (which I ended up doing). I wasn't aiming to get straight As again with 5 classes. I just knew that if I was planning on coming home for the summer and wanted to stay on pace to graduate in 3 years, I had to take 5 classes in either the winter or spring quarter. I guess my counselor's not prophetic because I'm still alive!

As an additional note, I am yet to rejoin the "Cs earn degrees" club in seminary!

Tagging

On the road back down to Southern California just yesterday, we stopped at a stop for some gas. After I fill up, I decide that it might be a good idea to go to the bathroom. So I walk into a stall and do the customary toilet seat inspection. "Are there any stains? Are there any drops of liquid... etc.?" What do I see? Tagging. Somebody grafitti-ed the toilet seat. You know, the kind that requires a knife. The tagger doesn't use spray paint as his weapon of choice but instead carves out the tag on the toilet seat with a knife.

Who ever thought that it'd be a good idea to tag on a toilet seat? On a wall or a sign I can understand. You're marking your territory like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant. You put it out in a public spot so all can see. But a toilet seat?! People sit on those things with their bare butts. Your tagging name gets defamed by another man's gluts... repeatedly... in a public bathroom... oyy. I just don't understand.

Surpised

I'm home now for the week. It's good to be home.

I just read the cover story for this week's Newsweek magazine. It is one of the best pieces of Christian apologetics I've read in a while. Surprise! On Newsweek. It's written well, in a story telling format, and it is clear that the author did his research. It's a bit long on the webpage version... 6 pages or so, but well worth the reading. Enjoy!

Done!

Currently working on: Church growth paper

The Day o' Accomplishment

Yesterday was my day o' accomplishment. Started off by taking my New Testament: Acts-Revelation final exam. Came home to watch ESPN's pre tournament coverage of NCAA basketball. Then proceeded to finish off my exegesis paper on the parable of the shrewd steward. I'm finding that I really don't like doing these exegesis papers. It's not because I don't like going through the process of writing it (ambivalent). Neither is it because I don't like exegeting scripture (I do). It's simply because I get convicted at the end to practice what I preach, err write. Blast this Holy Spirit! My last paper, 1 Timothy 5:23, prevented me from buying some Diddy Riese cookies. Now, after Luke 16:1-9, I'm compelled to give generously to the poor. Am I allowed to shake my fist at the Holy Spirit?

Anyway... after finishing the paper I watched a little bit of the opening round of the NCAA tournament. Two classes finished. NCAA basketball watched. If only I had a bracket to fill out... that would have made yesterday a super day o' accomplishment.

One class remains on my path to Spring Break. One paper remains standing. The 20 page church growth paper. I really should have started this monster a while ago. Verdict: Very doable.

Currently working on: Getting ready to go to church.

Ben Tao's over. He cooked for me. All throughout the labor, he would squeal "I'm cooking!" just in case I didn't know. Almost took advantage of some Mormons on Huntington offering to wash people's cars. Saw them (white with starched white shirts and dark ties... kinda wondered how they'd wash my car with that kind of dress) on the way to get some food with fairly large cardboard signs saying "Free Car Wash". After we ate our burritos, we drove by the temple with both of our cars only to see that the Mormons disappeared and Huntington once again returned to the careful racial equilibrium consisting of Asians and Latinos. A missed opportunity.

Registered for the CBEST. Why? To substitute teach next year. Like Pokemon, I'm trying to catch all the certifications I can. So far, I'll be a substitute teaching, bartending, clergyman. Had dreams of flying airplanes too, but I don't know if that'd be a good idea with the bartending. Any other ideas?

Currently working on: Exegetical paper on Luke 16:1-9 (The Parable of the Shrewd Steward)

The pooping lady

Taking a break for a few minutes to write about the pooping lady. There's a lady who lives in the apartment complex next door. Everyday, she comes by, taking a walk with her little dog. Perfectly normal. Well, except while normal people might walk their dog around the block with a leash, the pooping lady walks her dog to our lawn and back without a leash. Actually, I think I'd be mistaken to say that she takes her dog for a walk. She takes her dog out to poop. Her name's the pooping lady. What would you expect?

Does she bring a plastic baggy with her? Of course not. She takes her dog out, walks it out to our lawn which is like 20 feet away, the dog poops, and they go back inside to the apartment complex. This happens everyday. One time I was out on the front porch with Alinna, working on a paper, and the pooping lady comes by. As usual, she comes out with her dog, walks it to our lawn right in front of us, looks at us, and looks back at her dog. Nothing. The dog does its business on the lawn, the pooping lady looks back at us with a look that said something like "What? I'm old. What are you going to do about it?", and they walk back to the apartment.

Currently working on: Wasting time/procrastinating/emailing (the fateful trio)

In-between classes, should be working on one of my papers, probably the evangelism final project, but what can I say? I'm not. I'll do it later. Maybe after I get home from school. Work on it for a good 2 hours or so. At the current pace of that paper, that'd be equivalent to about 2 1/2-3 pages bringing the total to 5 pages. It's a maximum 10 page paper. I doubt it'll go that long.

Just a little out of sorts today. Could be just the wear and tear of the quarter coming to an end. More probably a combination of a whole lot of things. A bit heavy of heart, just praying for refreshment in the midst of it all.

The Home Stretch

That's the title of one of my stickies on my computer right now. It's a list of the assignments I have left until the end of the quarter. Yessir, next week is the last week of instruction which is then followed by finals week. After going out to Santa Monica to drop of some CDs and eat some Diddy Riese, I stopped by at a Coffee Bean and finished off one of the items from the home stretch: A hermeneutical paper on 1 Timothy 5:23. That leaves a 7 page evangelism paper due this Friday, New Testament final exam next Tuesday, 7 page exegesis paper on the Parable of the Shrewd Manager next Wednesday, 15 page church growth paper next Friday, and a 3 page "I feel" paper that same Friday.

Status: Still managable.

Some good news:

I just got an email today from a scholarship fellowship I applied to. I made it as a finalist. What does this mean? I'm going to North Carolina for the weekend of the 15th of April to be interviewed and considered for a nice scholarship for up to the next three years.

Side note: I'm planning on graduating in the next two but it's nice to know that there's the option for the third year!

Random thoughts...

When watching the post-Oscar night coverage, Ben and I both noticed that Clint Eastwood's got a whole lot of botox going on. A LOT. I definitely have more wrinkles on my face than Mr. Eastwood. But then, I don't have the turkey gobble thing on my neck like he does... at least not yet. I'll take the trade off.

Related... I've finding my chin again. For a while, my chin was disappearing. My face was getting rounder. It was especially noticeable in photographs... by my "fat face camera" as Alinna likes to call it. It's a fat face camera because it makes people look like they have fat faces. In my case, it didn't make it look like I had a fat face. I had a fat face. But my chin is coming back.

And I learned today from my often purportedly heretical school that the rapture isn't Biblical. After looking at the evidence, I may have to agree. Does this then make me heretical? I don't think so. And no, my school is not heretical either. But no rapture... makes ya think doesn't it?

Have no fear, I am still alive.

After a very hiatus, I'm back. The month of February just didn't exist in my blogging world. Ahh, if only it were that simple in the real world. It's been rough. Just haven't had the energy to post anything up on my webspace. Why? Just a crazy school schedule. I don't think it'd be advisable for me to take 5 classes in a quarter again. I'm just constantly reading some book for some class. Don't really have time to digest all the information I'm imbibing. Tip back, open up the throat, and just let the liquid learning flow down.

This week's the second to last week of the official quarter. Then there's next week, the last week, and the following week after that... finals week. In this span of time, I'm expected to write 5 papers totalling 45 pages and take a single final exam. Very managable... at least I think so, pending that I don't suddenly freak out from the pressures and rigors of higher education.

Yes, mama, I'm eating fruit. Actually, I don't know if she reads this thing. Regardless, I picked up a half flat of tangerines at Ralphs for cheap... if anybody else wants to know. I have no idea why anybody except my mom would want to know that kind of information, but, tough, it's my webspace.

I'll be back soon.

How does dust get under the cell phone screen?

I don't quite understand it. There's that space between the outer screen and the inner screen and there's absolutely no doubt about it... dust will find its way in there in time. Where is the crack in the cell phone that lets in all that dust? I have no idea. It's just one of those mysteries in life, like where did the pair to this sock go? and how come my suitcase doesn't close when it did when I got here? and how do boogers form? It's a strange strange world out there.

The radio stations out here in LA are great! Just tonight, I heard Tevin Campbell on the radio for the first time since high school. Not surprisingly, I still remember the words to "Can We Talk." So, if any of you SoCal drivers out there saw an Asian kid trying to scream out the leftovers of a pre-pubescent 13 year old voice, yeah, that'd be me.

Books. Lots of books.

Finally finished the first of the bunch. And now, it's off to writing a book reflection which I think is a fancy schmancy word for book report. I don't think I've written a book report since 5th grade. This all fine because the pile of unread books on the floor of my room still looks formidable.

Grades for the Fall quarter just got posted on Fuller's webpage for current students. I am a nerd. Yes, that's right. After a 7 year hiatus, I am once again a 4.0 student. Considering my course load this quarter, I'll probably remain as a 4,0 student for exactly 10 weeks. Where are those honors and AP courses to help boost the GPA?

Oh, and Alinna's coming in remembrance of MLK Jr. and our black heritage.

Back in LA. Got in yesterday. Started classes today. Let the grind begin.

17 units spread over 5 classes. Maybe I'll drop a class? I don't know. Classes seem interesting so far. Intriguing.

Familiar faces all around in class. Lots of smiles. Conversations about the 3 week break, fantasy basketball, last quarter's final exam, Cal's football woes, Texas' football glee. Reassuring.

Books. Lots of them. Lots of money spent. Big long lines to get to the register. Exhausting.

Welcome back.