Snowbarttt

Day 59 - Different Angles

This school year is definitely going to be different; I really don't know why, but I can just sense it. Different school year, different perspectives. For better or for worse, we'll just see when it all comes down.

Guess what this mystery object is from this angle above.

Day 58 - La Biblioteca

Lately, I've been spending a lot of my time at the library. It's peaceful and quiet--perfect place for studying. Today, I went exploring inside the library and decided to check out some books. They look pretty interesting. I'm probably gonna skim through it only.

This reminded me of the funny Community rap that Abed and Troy did. Old, but really catchy. Check it out.

Day 57 - Here and There

Not even into the first week of the quarter and there's already an assignment. The countdown until winter break starts today. Just ten more weeks to go.

Since I'm too busy and the weather's too cold to surf, I'm just looking through old surf magazines. If only I lived in Hawaii where it's warm all year round and the walk to the beach isn't too far. I hear North Shore gets pretty big waves during the winter, and it's not as cold!

Day 56 - Jujube Jubilee

It’s that time of year again. My aunt called me over to harvest Chinese apples (also known as jujubes) off of her eight trees. It’s a tradition I do every year that is definitely worth it. The thorns, the spiders, and the fear of falling off the ladder are worth every apple.

I managed to pick this branch with nine enormous jujubes. It is seriously three times the size of a regular one. And as you could see from the picture, all nine were that big. I was so excited when I got it—I almost fell. Hahaha. 

I managed to get two grocery bags of them. They should last me a week or two. Chill day.

Day 55 - You and I, Collide

I’ve left my bike at school all summer and today I finally brought it home for some good maintenance. It’s been outside enduring all kinds of crazy weather and unfortunately rusted here and there. My tires needs a good pumping and my derailer needs some aligning done. Oh! My brakes! My brakes need some hardcore tightening!

Funny story. First day of school, I was biking up a hill trying to get to class and this n00bass freshman was walking into my lane. I was going pretty fast trying to gain momentum for the hill and didn’t want to brake, so I didn’t slow down (assuming she would be sensible enough to stop). She didn’t. She kept walking. I braked super hard as she attempted to avoid me but failed miserably. I swerve left, she leans right. I swerve right, she leans left. OMG! I ended up hitting her left shoulder with my right shoulder. Luckily, it wasn’t a full frontal collision. I immediately stopped the bike and asked if she’s OK. She said she’s fine and walked away. FYI. If a biker is coming at you, stand still (and let the biker choose which was to swerve)! Damn…

Funny thing is, no one actually noticed us. Haha.

Day 54 - Seasons

Three years ago, I was sitting in my AP Lit class. Our classroom was the school’s drama room, so it wasn’t the conventional high school setting. We were sitting in a lecture room like atmosphere, which was unique and strange.

Being me, I chose the seat furthest towards the back; the seat with the best view--of everything. Every day, I would just stare outside at these trees while my teacher was talking about his life. I would rarely listen to what he has to say because he’s an egotistic douche, but on the last week of my senior year, he pulled me aside and we had a talk.

He said he noticed that I’ve been staring outside regularly and wasn’t paying attention to his class. He said he let it slide because I was passing the class (just barely). He then asked me what was so intriguing that made me always look out there.

I simply replied, “The trees.”

He paused for a moment and took a long look of what I’ve been staring at for 183 days.

He stroked his little Japanese moustache, and then he started scratching the back of his head and said, “I don’t see it.” 

I explained to him that it’s interesting how the leaves start to sprout in the fall; flowers begin to bloom in the winter, and eventually die off in the spring. As we stood there looking outside from the empty drama room, all he could see is three colorless trees without leaves in the late spring/early summer (which is normally when most plants thrive). On the other hand, what I saw was 183 days of gradual changes. He didn’t--he couldn’t see what I saw. 

He chuckled his little Japanese chuckled and said out of his twenty some years of teaching here, he never noticed it. He then complimented me for my keen observation and wished me good luck on graduating. 

Today’s the first day of fall, take a moment and enjoy your surroundings. 

Click to enjoy the GIF!

Day 53 - Back in Session

For those on quarter system, school has barely started today. And as weird as it may seem, I'm kind of happy school's back. So today, I crashed a class which had three empty seats after everyone enrolled and everyone who wanted to add sat down. After sitting through an hour of boring lecture about philosophy, she said she wouldn't add anyone... I don't know why, but okay... I'll just go with it. I was kinda happy though because I probably could not put up with such great boredom for another ten weeks!

Just got home now, and I took out my old folders from last quarter. Time to use them again. Hello textbooks.

Day 52 - Light Bulb, On

School's starting tomorrow. Farewell summer, we'll meet again after spring quarter. Time to start thinking again. Think, light bulb, think, light bulb. Ha ha haa

Day 51 - Swimmers Swim, Winners Win

I just finished this book today. Well, I was supposed to finish it back in spring quarter of last year, but I only managed to read about three-quarters of it. You know, I had other classes to put ahead of this one, so yeah; this GE class was fun though, really great debates. At the end of the quarter, it came out to be one great paper full of bullshit though! Haha

It sucks, but it's the truth... In American swimming, when people talk about the sport's greatest pain, its most searing agony, they don't talk about a fourth-place finish in the Olympics. They talk about taking third at the Trials.

Day 50 - Cutout

Even though school's about to start, I just opened up a new 1000pc puzzle box. Hopefully, I have time to finish it before I have to get back to school.

Today, I finished the edges and most of the lower half of the puzzle. The next part is going so difficult--it's discouraging. All the pieces look the same, like scraps of cutout papers.

Can't wait to see the finish product. I'll take a picture of it hopefully in three days, if I'm productive....

Day 49 - Best Breakfast

Yesterday was one of the chillest days in a long time. Pretty much, our old high school group all got together and grilled Korean barbeque, talked shit, and chilled like high school days for twelve straight hours. There's always good vibes going around with this group of bros.

And today, I kid you not, I woke up at 3pm. Haha I should sleep while I can because in a couple of days, summer is gone and school is back in session. Cracking a cold coconut for breakfast was great. Too bad summer-mode can't last forever...

Day 48 - Discovery Hubble

After two long months of training at the NASA space lab, today was my last day. It was bittersweet leaving. I wouldn't see all the familiar faces anymore, but at least I wouldn't have to train so hard anymore. Haha. Overall, it was an unforgettable experience and every moment was memorable.

I just hope that I could continue to work with them in the future. They gave me a NASA t-shirt as a token of their appreciation of all the hard work I've done. It's sooo coool!

Discovery Hubble was my code name. Gangster.

Day 47 - Seven Sections

I went to sleep sometime around 4am last night, and at 9am, my uncle called asking me to go with him to my grandpa's house... It's down to the last days of summer, I must sleep more before fall quarter starts.

After a couple hours there, I decided to go cut myself some sugarcane since he has 200-300 too many trees. Time for a quick nap.

Day 46 - Pete Zahhh

Now that my dad and brother are away, my mom's too lazy to make a single meal just for me. So for the next two whole weeks, it's either fast food or spam and eggs :(

Picked up this Pizza Mia! at Pizza Hut on the way home--it's cheap and filling. Ate six pieces tonight, saving the other two for tomorrow. Life of a poor college student. Lol.

Day 45 - Rise from the Ashes

Last week, I ordered a TV off Tigerdirect's eBay channel and it ended up getting here late Monday, 8pm or so. And today, I watched Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen for the n-th time on it, my personal favorite Transformer movie.

After the movie, I whipped out my Power-Up Prime action figure for a quick picture. My flash was placed behind the action figure aiming straight at it, followed by the action figure itself in the middle, and lastly, a sheet of butcher paper was used to cover it. After a couple shots of guessing how much to focus, it finally focused on his his arm, somewhat. I layered it using this picture here.

Day 44 - Airplanes In the Night Sky

I just drove my dad and brother to the airport and damn was it hectic! They got their tickets electronically and managed to get through checkout without any complications. Then we strolled down the airport towards the terminal entrance and got their carry on items scanned. That's was when we said our goodbyes and parted ways. I was so jealous at that point because I will be missing out on so many great adventures.

After that, I headed to the car and drove home in rush hour traffic.... Omg. Good thing it was not hot like last week. 

Here's a shot I took when I got home. You could actually see the stars! Is that a shooting star I see or an airplane?

Here's a shot I WISH I could claim as my own. It's so epic! You gotta be in the perfect moment to capture this. Check out the person's Flickr, he's got a lot of cool pics.

Perfect song for this post. Hahaha.

Day 43 - Meal of Champions

I've been camping out for a Burton CustomX for a while now. But I woke up to an alarm at 10am, checked my email, and this dude I emailed on eBay replied!

After a trip to the ATM and a drive down the Interstate-5, a brand spankin' new Burton Custom X was waiting for me in his truck. Although I was skeptical about the colors, we called Burton Co. right away and they said that there are both white words and colored words versions of the board because that way, it helps Burton recycle their materials. Made sense to me. And before I knew it, the deal was sealed.

Now it's time to search for bindings, boots, and a whole new outfit before snowboarding season starts! Can't wait 'til winter break.

I just got home and decided to cook up some eggs for a late breakfast (I forgot to put rice in before the picture, sorry bloggers). Definitely a meal of champions \m/

Quick edit of the infamous CustomX below: Top, bottom, merged.

Day 42 - Moment of Silence

Ten years ago, I was in the 5th grade. I believe it was late start, so I didn't go to school until 9:30AM. I was at home when the terrorist attacked. My parents heard it on the radio and turned on the TV immediately. I thought it was just another "breaking news" where the police chased the bad guy on the freeway. But this time, it was different. Every channel was broadcasting the World Trade Center up in smokes, people running for their lives, and firefighters coordinating rescues. They kept replaying the scene where the airplane crashed into the WTC.

At that time, I was young; I didn’t know better; I was indifferent with everyday crisis/problems. I thought, “doesn’t this happen in everyday life”? So, I continued to flip through the channels trying to find some cartoons. With no success, I turned back to the news. Moments after, the second WTC was hit. Emotions ran high and I could see the fear in everybody’s faces through the screen.

Then all of a sudden, the first WTC began to collapse. Subsequently, the second followed. All the reporters were speechless—waiting for further instructions from their headquarters about what to say next. At that very moment, the world stood still. Everyone just stopped and stared. The great twin towers of New York were reduced to rubbles.

Ten years ago, I was sitting in the 5th grade. My teacher was trying to explain to us what just happened. I didn’t really understand much, so I just daydreamed. However, towards the end of the day, I slowly began to realize the significance of today’s events.

After 10 years, war in the Middle East is still continuing. The economy is still a shithole. Troops are still stationed over there and money is still being wasted. Not much has been done to stop terrorism or alleviate our debit crisis.

After 10 years, Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were found and killed. Ground Zero had undergone a complete renovation. The new World Trade Centers were erected and memorial sites were constructed.

After 10 years, I entered college and my friend sirxdavid joined the Marines. At first, I thought he was dumb, but then I was glad that he enlisted. After two years of being away from his friends and family, he returned and gave me a Marines guitar pick as a memento that I will always cherish.

Now, pause for a moment of silence for the victims of the 9/11 attack and the troops that faced the casualties of war.

Picture of the new WTC.

More pictures: http://news.yahoo.com/september-11-anniversary/

Day 41 - Commander Mode

I'm a Nikon person, and I've had my SB-600 for quite some time now. But I rarely ever use commander mode. It was about time I started using it more often; I should use my camera and its flash to their full potential.

It was pretty much one of those days today. Wake up, work, go home, etc. The only different thing is that Southern California is about to have another storm haha.

Day 40 - Wallflower

Dandelions are often correlated with weeds--unwanted and unappreciated. Sure, most people see them as an eyesore that destroys a beautiful, cleanly cut lawn. Sure, they could ruin your grass and spread like wild fires. But today, after staring at the lawn for quite some time, especially this patch of dandelions, I realized that they faced much adversity to grow and flourish wherever they are. As a result, the seeds must travel great distances and overcome environmental challenges to establish its roots in unfavorable terrain to survive. Even once they settled in, they are still nothing but a wallflower, different from the rest of the other conformists, and yet the most intriguing.

Day 39 - Roadie

Fresh start today. I woke up at 7am and biked around the area. It ended up being around a 5 mile bike ride. Good thing I finished up before the heat came back. Yet, another scorching hot day in Southern California. Goal before summer ends: bike down the Santa Ana river from Ball/Taft to Newport Beach.

The fixie scene is pretty much dead now. I just ride my road bike now since they're more practical with their varying gears for uphill/downhill usages. Check out the Cinelli x RVCA video below. It's an old clip, but the bikes designs are still tight. Cinelli's always been one of my favorites along with Colnago.

Day 38 - The Guardian

It felt so good to finally be back in the water and in my speedo after so long, especially in today's weather! Getting a workout and a tan! Double whammy! I can't remember the last time I swam in a legit pool and did actual workouts. So  today, I hit up the ARC (Anteater Recreational Center at UCI) with my friend. The water was kept at 80 degrees, a bit too hot in my opinion.

Both of us were way out of shape; after swimming just a 200, we were tired as hell lmao. Luckily, there was a spare water polo ball in the containers at UCI; tossing it around brought back high school memories. We later found some bricks on deck, and BAM! I remembered in The Guardian where they pushed the brick along the bottom of the pool from end to end. We ended up doing that about four times... So tiring...

Check out the trailer for The Guardian! With the IMDB ratings at just a 6.7, it's still on my "All-Time Favorite Movies" list. Let's face it, critics are dumb. Period.

Day 37 - Driving to Heaven

For a Tuesday, Chinatown is was still pretty epic. On the way there, I pulled off to the side of the Interstate-5 North to take some quick pictures. Luckily, at least one picture had a nice car in it. Off to the left of the picture is a Melbourne Red M3. Super sick/fast car. Felt like I was Driving to Heaven, sick song. Chill bra \m/

Day 36 - The Professor's Cube

It was 9th grade when I bought my first 3x3 Rubik's cube. I didn't really know much about it until I saw it in The Pursuit of Happyness (which is a great movie by the way) that motivated me to solve it. About a week or two of watching many YouTube videos and much frustration, I managed to solve it (very slowly though)!

After that, I moved on and left this behind, never to see it again until freshman year of college. That's when I had money to actually spend on toys, so I added the 2x2, 4x4, and 5x5 to my collection. Since then, they act as more of decoration in my room rather than a toy.

Now, I can't seem to remember how to solve them and is way too lazy to learn it all over again.

I did you know that there are "282 870 942 277 741 856 536 180 333 107 150 328 293 127 731 985 672 134 721 536 000 000 000 000 000 (or 282 trevigintillion ) possible permutations" for 5x5 cube? That's crazy!

Day 35 - Flashbacks for the Future

It's Labor Day weekend, and I'm looking online for a cheap LED tv. As I was looking through old pictures from an airshow, it hit me. In two years, I'm gonna graduate and probably going into the long awaited "real world." But I guess it's not that bad of a trade off. Working for Skunk Works in the future would be epic since they're always engineering ridiculously insane planes such as the SR-71, F-117, etc.

Lockheed Martin's SR-71, pictured above, was engineered in 1966 going a bit faster than Mach 3 (2,284 mph). But just a couple weeks ago, Lockheed Martin's newly engineered UAV HTV-2 (Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2) went Mach 20!! That's faster than 15,224 mph!! Just after hitting Mach 20, it crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Even though it sucks that it crashed, we now know that a plane is capable of reaching speeds that high. Check out the pictures of it below.

Day 34 - Mjölnir

I'm not really into comics and never really understood the differences between Marvel and Capcom, and all those other stuff. To me, all of them are the same--heroes in spandex fighting bad guys. Haha.

I watched Thor today and it was neither good or bad in my opinion. For some reason, I was not satisfied at the end of the movie. It feels like it's lacking something, and Thor's accent totally caught me off gaurd. It definitely was not as good as Captain America or Iron Man though. Natalie Portman was really cute in that movie, which made it bearable to watch, although some parts were pretty dumb. All their names in the movie seemed funny too me: Allfather, Odison, Heimdall, Asgardians, and my personal favorite, Jotunheimr. It's pronunciation is too funny!

With the The Avengers coming up, I hope it's not gonna be over hyped and suck ass like.... Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Scarlett Johansson will make it worth watching though. Hahaha!

I went to Wal-Mart today with my mom and saw this--what a coincidence! I had to buy it, just 'cause. Haha. It shoots lighting! So cool!

Day 33 - Study Hard, Play Hard

Finally, the second summer session is over! I stayed up til 5am studying constantly for my final today at 5pm. Better to have a final on Friday than Saturday. Two of my friends doing summer session at UCSD both have their finals on Saturday!! LOL

Now that school is out of the way, I can finally play Gran Turismo 5. Well, I can play peacefully for 2.5 weeks until fall quarter starts. Oh joy. At least most of my friends and I are all halfway done with college. Another two years!

Now, it is time to race in my Formula Red NSX-R!! Farewell bloggers, until tomorrow!

Old, but super sick video. Check it out!

Dumb People Do Really Dumb Things

One of my buddies, filllnguyen, trying to be co0l. Hollow door owned him, check it out lmao!!

LOLLLLLLLLLLL!!! HAHAHAAH

Day 32 - Leaving On A Jet Plane

I'm sitting here with a sore butt watching my brother and dad pack their suitcases, getting ready to go to Netherlands. The tickets are booked and everything else is set. All they need to do is to board the plane and relax for their 10-hour non-stop flight to Amsterdam.  I am so jelly right now!

They're going over there to visit my stepbrothers and attend my cousin's wedding. My stepbrothers are already planning to take them around Europe for a bit—starting from Amsterdam, crossing over to Brussels, and racing into the heart of Paris—maybe a little detour here and there along the way. Sigh…

Meanwhile, I will be home alone, continuing with my NASA training and watching chick flicks until I can’t feel sorry for myself anymore…

If I went, I could have taken some pretty epic shots of the scenery over there. The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the girls at the Red light district, etc. Sigh.

ü Tux

ü    Dress shoes

ü Dress shirts

ü Ties

ü Chauffeur to the airport (me) :(

How ironic... NASA is keep me from leaving on a jet plane.

Day 31 - X-Treme Gulp

Woke up, checked texts, checked emails, etc, all of those usual stuff. Then pops came home and he wanted to go to the library. So, we decided to bike to the library. It was literally, a five-minute bike ride. Super close, sub one mile ride.  On our way back, I remembered this X-Treme Gulp cup that I left on the top shelf a while back. Filled it up for $1 at 7eleven!! I need to start using this thing more.

Day 30 - Cold Blooded

So I got up today and decided to get some home grown lychee off the tree, and bam. I see this dude chillin' on the side. Snapped a couple pics using a 50mm f/1.8. I was planning for quite some time to get a 50mm f/1.4 this summer, but yeah. No hours, no money, no lens. Boo hoo.

And finally, it's starting to cool down after a crazy hot heat wave. Lizards have it so easy; sunbathe during the day, sleep at night. No need to worry about work, school, bills, etc. Lmao. Life of a lizard!

Skip to 0:48 to see it run LOL

Day 29 - Blu

My afternoon nap was cut short due to these three dudes--chillin' on the wall doing their usual bird noises. I looked outside from my window and saw that all three guys had a tag on their left leg, so I got my camera ASAP and was fortunate to snap a couple pictures. Super annoying, but I guess birds will be birds. "If I'm a bird, you're a bird." LOL jk!

Birds have been on my hate-list for quite some time now, but after watching the movie Rio, IMDB rating of 7.1, I'm indifferent. I really wouldn't mind having a blue macaw, or even a scarlet macaw! Pretty good movie in my opinion, definitely a movie worth checking out.

I tried making one of the birds blue like in Rio; it looks somewhat blue, sorta.

Check out the short clips!

Day 28 - Spark Plugs Galore

Just got some new NGK Iridium IX spark plugs for my dad's civic today. I didn't realize that we had that many old spark plugs until now. God, that is a lot!! 

Regular versus inverted colored picture. Looks sorta cool I guess. 

P.S. To anyone who's reading this and using a Honda lawnmower: you can use any NGK spark plug, add a washer (since most spark plugs of lawnmower's threads are much shorter), and it'll run way smoother! Just an fyi btw.

Day 27 - Hot n' Cold

 
Again, it's super hot today, but I'm stuck here thinking about snow. Burton just released their 2012 gear a couple weeks back, and my Transworld 2012 Gear Guide just arrived yesterday. This is probably the thickest/most informative issue throughout the year.

And the best part is, there's a  90% chance of a winter break in Montreal after fall quarter! Hello Bromont!! Hopefully I'll be able to find a decently priced 2011 CustomX by then--with new bindings, boots, and gear. And then there's wax, lift tickets, rental car, gas to get there, etc... Oh man, so much $$$$$$$$$$$...

Humor me. LOL!

Day 26 - Last Train Home

So I'm still in search of a HP TouchPad. San Bernardino was a fail. On the way back from SB, I stopped by this train station. Loco-motive. Crazy motive. If only the touchpad shipments were in one of these cargos...

It's been a hectic/long day. L8 bloggers.

"To every broken heart in here"... without a HP TouchPad, this is for you.

"But there's still tomorrow; forget the sorrrow" ... your HP TouchPad order will go through...

Day 25 - Burning Up

Temperatures haven't reached this high for awhile now. It definitely wasn't good weather to camp out for that notorious HP TouchPad for $99... It was hot and humid, and I was sweaty all over, rushing from store to store, hoping to score on some touchpads with new incoming shipments. Unfortunately, it was all sold out when I got there.

My friends and I are considering hitting up San Bernardino tomorrow because his friends at BestBuy says, the last shipments are coming in there, but is it really worth it? The weather is going to be 90 degrees in the OC, but image desert weather.... it's going to be 100 degrees plus! I don't think I could handle that!

Tomorrow's going to be another hot day too.... Good thing the weekend is near! ThankGoodnessIt'sAlmostFriday!

Day 24 - Memory Lane

School is right around the corner, and it's gonna be my third year. Yay for upper divisions haha. I was cleaning out my room and reorganizing the shelf today and ran across my varsity patches from high school in an old shoebox. God, those times were so chill. I mainly prioritized sports, but I guess you can say it was worth it. Priceless memories.

And, about those varsity bars. I cussed out my water polo coach and got kicked off the swim team for fighting, all during senior year. So I didn't "letter" LOL. It also explains why there are no 2009 patches. Yeap, I was supposed to have three bars total!

Time flies, high school was too funny.