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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
The Trader's LiveJournal:
| Tuesday, July 2nd, 2002 | |
| 10:39 pm | What I did today... Slept in late, went to the swimming pool out on Bay Farm, swam most of the afternoon by myself, lounged on the poolside while finishing "The Rum Diary" by Hunter S. Thompson, and nearly dozed off under the sun. Pretty fucking uneventful. Where is another Nepal trip when I need one??? I miss that whole thrill of being caught in the middle of a civil war within the shadows of the Himalayas while getting involved with a pretty indigenous girl and not a care in the world. All that seems so surreal now. I did stop by to see my college advisor around noon today and we started making official plans for my EAP trip to India, so at least that's something to look forward to. My only two problems are, I need to take a Hindu foreign language class (which isn't offered at UCSC) as a prerequisite for the trip, and this means I'll be gone during most of the accounting recruitment process that'll take place during my junior year. I could probably hold off the recruiting thing until my senior year, but that's too risky career-wise since my peers will probably snatch up the good jobs by then. Thieving bastards! But I must go there before I graduate college, no matter what. I must... And I took the first real step today. Yay! Must watch Simpsons now. |
| 1:58 pm | Ethan's a loser Ethan wrote: "aww...jason accept it you are the "sort guy" but don't let it get you down little one.... i'm sure when you gorw you'll do great things...sorry low blow." ...You dumbass. That's not the kind of shit I wanna hear right before I start off my day. You're the one who needs growing up here, kid. |
| Monday, July 1st, 2002 | |
| 10:20 pm | Life after Naya... Hmm... Uhh... Boink. *scratches head* Dippin' Dots, dirty thoughts. Yea... Moving on again. For the third time in less than seven months. It was a hot day today. Naturally, the first things to pop into my head were those aforementioned dirty thoughts. But the second thought was, "Hey! Lets go swimming!" I rounded up the usual guys, but none of us could get ahold of Lorenz, who went awol on us today. Swimming's supposed to be fun no matter how many people you're with, but it felt empty with just the three of us. We needed a 4th man. It was time to call up Mr. Tub O' Fun from our arsenal of friends: Fat Sam. The guys named him Fat Sam because he reminded them of a very young Notorious BIG, fleshy waist and darker than hell. Lorenz even called him a goddamn oil spill when he saw him floating in a swimming pool the other day. He was that flaccid. We spent most of the afternoon at a private swimming pool out on Bay Farm Island (where I've been almost every day of the summer lounging like a Santa Cruz beach bum) playing various water games such as frisbee polo (water polo mixed with frisbee), Marco Polo, lets-breathe-underwater-the-longest-unti "So just because I have a cold sore doesn't mean I went down on a woman," I said. Still not feeling satisfied with my defense, I went an unnecessary step further. "why would you assume a woman anyway?" And that's when I heard a little voice in my head going, "Noooooooo!" But it was too late. All the guys stared at me for a moment and then scrambled out of the jacuzzi in a mad frenzy. Talk about a foot in the mouth. No, not that appendage. Fat Sam is a one talkative bastard. After we left Bay Farm Island, he even managed to engage in a conversation with a driver in another car that lasted half the way across town! It was a considerable challenge trying to stay at the same pace as the other driver while keeping the conversation going at over thirty miles per hour, trading dialogues across the lane divider. When we pulled into the parking lot at South Shore, he hollered at some girls. It was a terrible sight to see. This massive guy all scrunched up in the tiny back seat of my truck who could barely turn sideway to lean out the window all the while jabbering away like a maniac at a disturbed public. "You filthy bastard!" I yelled. "You're the reason why they invented auto-lock tinted windows!" We had dinner at Applebee's, and nothing beats eating barbequed ribs and root beer on a warm summer evening with your best friends after another good swim. But Fat Sam continued to jabber away about the most inane stuff, and commented loudly about the Giants-Rockies game on the television hanging above the bar. "9-to-5?! Good God, those Giants are gonna bite this one!" he muttered. "Shut up, goddamit. The score says six, not nine," I corrected. He went up to the TV set, and had to lean over some other costumers' table to get a closer look at the score. "Yea, you're right. See? It's the chlorine in the water. It's fucking up my eyes! Jesus!" Sam came over to me and started to poke his left eyeball with his finger to emphasize his point. And that was the exact moment when I was done eating. "Hey, check out that fine piece of meat at 11 O'clock," Sam whispered to me. It took me a while to realize that he meant directional angles using a clock's time. I looked directly ahead and a little to the left, where 11 O'clock's supposed to be, and saw only Brandon munching away at his meal like a hungry hungry hippo. "You mean Brandon right here? I didn't know you were like that." "What?!" Sam became all flustered. "No! I said 11 O'clock! Behind me to the right!" "That's 5 O'clock, you chunky bastard," I corrected again. "No! See, that girl sitting at the round table at 11 O'clock?!" he was whispering so loud his voice was beginning to croak. I checked to make sure. "Yea. No, that's definitely 5 O'clock. I'm sure of it," I said. He became all frustrated and stood up to point an outstretched thick finger directly at the girl he was trying to single out, who was definitely sitting at 5 O'clock. But half the people in the restaurant, including the girl who was shocked to see a huge guy with a napkin still hanging from his belt pointing directly at her, saw all the commotions Sam was making, so we knew we had to get the hell out of there. Afterward, I dropped off everyone and called it a night. Definitely another good summer day. And that Fat Sam, as annoying as he might be, he's quite a character. |
| Sunday, June 30th, 2002 | |
| 1:17 am | And another one is gone... So I was with Naya for the last time at her going-away party tonight, and it was a bit fun. I'm going to another party tomorrow and she'll be there for a short while, but it'll be so brief that it wouldn't even matter. The fact is, she's gone. Just like that. Poof. The most touching part was when she gave me a personal letter she wrote for me right after our last "date". She's 21 but she seemed like a little schoolgirl passing on a note to me. Aye, and the things she wrote... Conflicted feelings. Just how I'm a good listener, great to be with, accomplished so much despite my problems yet I remain unfazed and modest about who I am, how I'm going to be successful, and "lots of love." That's all great and flattering, but for the first time I felt like I wanted a little more from her. Very conflicting. Was I supposed to feel this way? I was reminded of missed opportunities. I felt like I should've held her hands in the restaurants, cuddled with her during our long and pleasant couch conversations, kissed her more often. Maybe I actually wanted her. The most emotionally-wrenching part of the letter was when she remarked that I have a good head on my shoulders, only because Rina used the exact same phrase the last day we were together at the beach during that one warm Santa Cruz evening not so long ago. Very painful reminder. With Rina there was a dream of tandem success but that will never be realized now. With Naya, there won't be any of those amusingly wonderful mind-stimulating conversations lasting until the early mornings. Now they're both gone. When will I ever get things right? I feel that even when my education starts bearing its fruits and the world receives what it desperately needs in these troubled times, an honest corporate accountant, I still won't be to figure out what I truly want in life. I don't know who I want. I just hope that someone can show me a path to pick. But for the memories Naya gave me, thanks. Current Mood:  sad |
| 12:03 am | The Rum Diary A passage from this great book I'm reading: He drank incessantly, and by the time it got dark he was steaming drunk and shouting. He would pace around the porch or the living room, snarling and denouncing the "cowards and the back-dusters in Washington" for not sending the Marines into Cuba. "I'll go!" he would shout. "Goddamn right I'll go! Somebody has to stomp them bastards and it might as well be me!" Often he wore his pistol belt and his holster - he had to leave his gun on the military base - and from time to time he would slap leather and bark at some imaginary foe outside the door. It was embarrassing to see him go for his gun, because he seemed to think it was really there, riding large and loose on his flabby hip, "just like it was on Iwo Jima." And he would sit down with us for God knows how long, carrying on at the top of his lungs about some international disaster that could easily have been averted "if they'd just let the goddamn Marines do their job, instead of keeping us penned up like dogs." For my money, he should not only have been penned up like a dog, but shot like a mad one. Hunter S. Thompson is brilliant. |
| Friday, June 28th, 2002 | |
| 2:21 am | I Pledge Allegiance... "I pledge allegiance / To paper-chasers / To hustlers who be steady pulling capers..." -Nate Dogg- Unless if you've been living under a rock the past 40 hours you probably have heard about the whole "Pledge Of Allegiance" thing being ruled unconstitutional by the 9th district court. Why? Because it includes the phrase "under God" in it. So every time you were reciting the pledge in elementary school, you were pledging yourself to your country and the Almighty Himself. And remember the seperation of church and state clause in the US Constitution? Should be simple enough to put two and two together and realize that it is unconstitutional, yea? But the entire house of senate said the ruling was flat-out wrong. Even the prez himself said so! Not that his opinions ever really mattered... (And you can bet that he'll come up with a way to tie this in with that "war on terrorism" thing by the end of this week). And congressmen are threatening to blackball the two judges (a 2-1 ruling) who ruled in favor of banning the pledge and already slandering their good names. As a self-proclaimed Atheist-Buddhist, I think those judges did the right thing, although I'm surprised it took this long for someone to come forward about this church-state ignorance. And lets not even forget that this isn't even the original pledge! When the pledge was written around the turn of the 20th century, it had all of the words except "of the United States Of America" and "under God." The first phrase was added to make sure immigrants were pledging to their new country, not their homeland. The second phrase ("under God") was added in 1954 during the Eisenhower adminstration and the Cold War to distinguish the American pledge from the godless communists' pledges since they were similar in wording. You see where I'm getting at here? "Under God" was appended to the pledge for the sole purpose of alienating communists, as well as millions of those who do not believe in a single deity. And you'd think that when the Cold War ended they would drop the "under God" thing, right? Wrong. In 1989, they passed a law to make the pledge mandatory in all schools, further coercing students of all denominations to pledge their loyalty to a single god. So it's a clear-cut violation of the Constitution, and studying Business Law right now, I've learned the phrase "Legal Positivism", which means all laws, especially the ones that involve the Constituion, must be obeyed, even if they're wrong, in order to avoid anarchy within our society. That's why the US Constitution is the strongest and the oldest in the world, it's always upheld and protected even when something is wrong (must I remind you the right-to-bear-arms amendment and the millions of kids that have died of handgun incidents?). Clearly, the ban is the correct thing to do for the right reason (should not alienate citizens of non-christian denomination) and for the "wrong" reason ("Legal Positivism" and protecting the Constitution at all costs). However, almost all of our senators and congressmen are middle-age white conservative Christians, so I have a feeling that the right thing will be undone within the next few weeks. Come to think of it, the pledge doesn't necessarily have to be banned, just drop the "under God" part from it. Is that so hard??? I mean, they changed the pledge back in 1954 so obviously they can do it once more, but this time putting it back in its original form. But those Christian lawmakers probably won't have it! Then again, maybe the pledge itself might not be a good idea at all. You're pledging yourself to your country, and that's patriotism, and as we've learned the last few months, blind patriotism can be ignorance. "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious." -Oscar Wilde- In that case, I'd rather place consciousness above patriotism. Goddamit, now I gotta figure out what to buy for Naya for her going-away party this weekend. Any ideas?? |
| Thursday, June 27th, 2002 | |
| 3:28 am | "Bourne Identity" Is The Shit! Not as great as "The Sum Of All Fears", though. Goes to prove that Tom Clancy can beat Robert Ludlum's ass any day. Definitely the best night I've had so far this summer. But I'm gonna miss that crazy girl... 16 months! Holy shit. |
| Wednesday, June 26th, 2002 | |
| 2:59 am | A Day In The Life Of The La Cabana Pool Boy... Another great summer day for me: -Woke up at 11 (Nothing beats sleeping in late!) -Played "Flight Simulator 2002" for three hours (Nothing beats flying through the lush green valley of Kathmandu in a Blue Angel or landing on top of the Bank Of America building in San Francisco with a helicopter!) -Called over a few friends and had a barbeque in the backyard (Nothing beats eating drumsticks, hotdogs, and burgers fresh off the grill!) -Went swimming with a couple of the guys at Bay Farm for several hours (Nothing beats... Swimming? Yea, that'll do.) -Randy, Mike D., and Tony came over and we all watched "Not Another Teen Movie" in the garage (Nothing beats... Blah I'm tired of coming up with new "nothing beats" craps.) -Played poker/cards with the guys until 2 in the morning. Yea, that was the perfect summer day right there. Although I should be working on writing my book/"long story" these days. So far I've gotten the outline of the story done, but seems a little thin. I need to either revise it or add some more meat to it. And Mike (Lopez from high school, not D.) said he'll be flying with my fam to Vancouver next month. Yay... I guess he is like a brother to us by now, so goddamit why not. And almost got into a major accident on the way home tonight. After 11PM (or midnight?) the Webster/Lincoln intersection by my house reverts to flashing red lights (as if it were to be treated as 4-way stop signs) and I reached the intersection first. I stopped completely but I didn't proceed right away. I guess I acted a little slow to step on the gas pedal immediately, but whatever luck intervened prevented me from being totaled by a speeding truck that ran the flashing red light a mere second later. I was shocked! And extremely lucky. No doubt the driver side of my truck would've been completely collapsed in by now and who knows what would've been of me and Andrew. I thought about pulling my old "prom night" trick on the asshole by chasing him down and flashing my high beam to blind him so that he'll be pressured to speed away. If this had happened, I would've followed him for only a block and a half and then pull a complete stop, right before the gas station. That way, he'll still be speeding and run the other flashing red light at the next intersection, and by the time he sees the police car hidden in a dark alley at the gas station it'll be too late... I knew about the speed trap because I drove by that gas station half an hour earlier. But there'll be another time. I'm just thankful for another day. |
| Tuesday, June 25th, 2002 | |
| 5:05 pm | The Lyrical Brilliance Of Biggie Smalls We just sitting here trying to win Trying not to sin High off weed and lots of gin So much smoke need oxygen Steadily counting them Benjamins Nigga you should too If you knew What this game Will do to you Been in this shit Since ninety-two Look at all the bullshit I've been through So-called beef with You know who Done a few female stars or two Not to be fucked with Better duck quick Me and my dogs love to buck shit Fuck the luck shit Strictly aim No aspirations To quit the game Spit your game Talk your shit Grab your gat Call your click Squeeze your clip, hit the right one Pass that weed, I got to light one All them niggas, I got to fight one All them hoes, I got ta like one Our situation, is a tight one Whatcha gonna do, fight or run? -The Notorious BIG, "Notorious Thugs"- I think you gotta listen to the song for the verbal prose to really appreciate the talent of that verse. |
| 11:46 am | La Mia Cosa Eric brought up a conversation I had forgotten about that was sorta interesting. For every group you're in everyone should be able to associate you with something. Like when Jamie saw the "Petco" news on TV and the pending lawsuit, she thought "Oh, Marie!" just cuz that's "her thing." This sounds sorta like Italian mafia syndicate stuff, "our thing." Or better known to the world as "La Cosa Nostra." So, "my thing" would be... I guess people associate me with accounting/business stuff, since I always talk about those a lot. Or the guy with the big yellow truck. Like the other night at the JIB drive-thru we were sitting inside the truck and someone in the car behind us honked and we realized it was Isaac from the old high school, so I said "How'd he know it was us in here??" "Well, it IS your yellow truck that you always drive!" True enough. In my other group in the ol' neighborhood I'm probably the "college guy", since I'm the only one out of the group that's going to a 4-year school. I think within my circle at college I was the Himalayan guy, someone who was obsessed with the prayer flags and the incense and the Tibetan pillows in his dorm room. I was also the hip-hop guy, since mostly everyone else listened to alternative and trance. Eh. The short guy?! I resent that! I'm also the guy-who's-been-keeping-in-shape-every-da |
| Monday, June 24th, 2002 | |
| 11:25 pm | "Nerd!" The Thug: Sure, just ignore me. tiki: sorry tiki: i was on the phone with natalie when you dinged The Thug: Ah. tiki: and she gets upset if i type while talkin to her The Thug: And I get upset when I get neglected! The Thug: So how come Natalie gets priority??? tiki: cuz ive known her longer! tiki: you know tiki: its that last one in is the first to go rule tiki: :-P The Thug: Aww. The Thug: LIFO sucks, use FIFO! tiki: uh what? The Thug: You said Last In First Out. LIFO. tiki: ohh The Thug: But I prefer First In First Out. FIFO Method! tiki: first in first out The Thug: Haha, an accounting joke. Er... tiki: ah tiki: nerd Hooya! Naya finally called me last night after giving me a one-week silent treatment (long story, but involves a surprise incident during her 21st birthday) and we caught up on things, which was cool, and then she asked if I wanted to do something Wednesday night. "Yes, yes dammit! God hell, of course!" Nah, I was more modest than that. "Umm, sure... I guess I'll be free. Dinner and movie as usual?" So now I have something to look forward to for this week besides golfing, swimming, working out, and chilling with the boys every night (Oh the horrors of summer vacation! Ha ha.). I think this'll be our 8th "date" thus far, which is sorta impressive considering... it's ME! (I'll have to thank Eric for that low self-esteem thing right there.) But it gotta be special, since it'll be the last time we'll be by ourselves before she takes off for the Himalayas next week. We're also going to a party this weekend with some other people, but after that she's gone... Gawdammit. Business law class is the bomb! ( Read on...(nerdy BUT interesting) )Everyone should take this class! |
| Sunday, June 23rd, 2002 | |
| 2:22 am | For the record... I was NOT on anything tonight! Just same ol' Jason acting all crazy because it's summer and he has nothing serious to do... "All play and no work makes Jason go... Something something??" "Crazy?" "Don't mind if I do!" *makes weird blabbing noise* Classic Simpsons joke for those who totally missed that. |
| 2:17 am | There, you happy?!  I SORTA understand the "rich" part since I'm living comfortable and was pampered as a kid a lot and got all that "he's got the whole world in his hands" crap coming up, but where does the BITCH part come in?! This is the WORST test Spark ever came up with! Well, maybe the second worst. The death test made me sad... and where was the fun in THAT?! Hmph. |
| Friday, June 21st, 2002 | |
| 2:04 am | "You're a WHAT major?!?" Looking back on the past year I realized that I've dealt with a lot of shocking/surprising events. There was the Mishi/Monica drama (a hard lesson about the cruel indifference of good people versus doing the right thing as a friend), the prom night accident (a very satisfying experience of vigilante justice in the form of a speeding yellow truck), the yearbook drama (constantly being second-guessed by peers and almost taken to court by a religious club!), the house bombing incident during vacation (going to a country at the peak of its civil war is a vacation?!), Brookeanne's marriage (she was my prom date only a year ago!), and hearing that my Spanish teacher had her breasts enlarged and is planning to host the "Wild on E!" cable show (I thought she knew I was kidding when I said her boobs were too small!)... but nothing shocks me more than realizing that I'm gonna become an accountant. I swear, how did THAT happen?! I was supposed to become a graphic designer working for some hi-tech company, and that was the plan only 18 months ago. But somewhere along the way, between the last visit to Ex'pression Center For New Media and meeting Jamie's friend Jenny at UC Santa Cruz, that plan got altered - drastically. I was good at the graphic designing stuff so I knew I could do it, but the plan was to attend college for a couple of years for the "real world experience" first and then transfer to Ex'pression, and what college could you possibly get a better experience than Santa Cruz?? #3 Quality-of-life school, after all. And I turned down UCI for this school, mind you. The first class I ever took was microecon, and realized they have a top-notch economics department there. Then I met Jenny, who told me about her accounting class and how dope ol' Bob is. So why not, I thought. I gave up my film and digital media major and attended the first accounting class and the rest is history... When I told my dad I've decided to major in accounting instead, he laughed. He thought I was way too liberal and artistic to do something serious and sombersome like accounting and I partially agreed, and then there was my attention problem. As some of you probably know, I have some form of ADD which is why my mind wanders all the time, especially during lectures. But I compensate for this by studying - a LOT. I studied a lot, let me tell you that. When I got 120 out of 125 on the final exam, and then 99 out of 100 on the next midterm to show it wasn't a fluke, the family started to take me seriously about this accounting gig. Which brings to tonight. I ate out at Yoshi's japanese restaurant in Jack London Square earlier this evening (it's great! almost as good as Shogun's in Santa Cruz or the Pink Godzilla in Capitola) with a friend who's an accountant in the private sector (as oppose to being a certified public accountant, CPA). Before, she was doing online trading but ever since the market became volatile she jumped back into the accounting gig and is making some serious money - $100,000 a year! A San Jose State grad making 6 digits! Unbelievable. And she was telling me how much she enjoys her job and she's constantly a happy loveable person. That's a big relief for me, really. I've always thought that accountants are a stressed out somber bunch that don't have time for fun, but she's proved me wrong. The profession is an increasingly changing one, no longer are they the bean-counters of the old wearing a green visor and tapping away on a calculator in some small dark room until the wee hours of the morning. Nowadays, they carry guns! Well, the ones in the FBI do. And they get to carry those really cool leather briefcases! And going to business meetings and travel and they let the computers do all the counting. I'm just rambling now... But after tonight, I definitely feel like I'm on the right path with this accounting thing. Maybe it's not so shocking now... |
| Wednesday, June 19th, 2002 | |
| 9:01 pm | Being away from college isn't TOO bad now... Whee, eventful day. Woke up early in the morning (10AM is early to me!) to work out at the college gym for a while. I sure do miss the gym down at UCSC tho, where it's sitting on top of a hill and the second floor with all the aerobic machines surrounded almostly completely by windows so you can stare out at the rolling green hills of Santa Cruz, and beyond them, the blue Pacific Ocean itself. And I miss working out with the boys from the dorms, they are some of the coolest motherfuckers alive. Although I have my own gym in the garage, equipped with just about everything (even a punching bag!) except a treadmill, I still prefer going to 24 Hour Fitness in Oakland but better yet the gym at the community college since it's just a walking distance away. It's really shabby looking (like how community colleges usually are), but looking beyond the aesthetic facade of the school's weight room it's still top notch since it gets the job done very well. I always start off with the treadmill or some sort of aerobic machine to loosen up the muscles, then the lat pull. After that, the military butterfly press, then different variations with the dumbbells. Then bench press. My favorite's the arm curl with a bar bell while standing up, first doing bottom half curl, then upper half curl, then a full curl (from waist to chest). This is the one Chucky taught me, but it can only be done with a special barbell with all the weird curves in it. It totally works your arms. Then went to Burger King to eat a Double Whopper. Don't think this defeats the purpose of working out! It actually helps add to your bulk without even getting fat at all. Another great workout. Then had Business Law class in the afternoon at school. My teacher's a very interesting smart guy. I swear, he belongs at Oberlin or something because he reminded me of Robin Williams' character in "Good Will Hunting." And he teaches from experience, not from the book, which is a whole lot better than some of the lecturers I've had down at UCSC. Damn UCs! I'm only taking this class for fun, since I'm already a whole quarter ahead on credits. "For fun" I said... Weird is me. Gotta keep my mind sharp during summer break, that's all. Then went swimming at my Grandma's place on Bay Farm Island. I love that place! My grandfolks live in a secluded gated community and their house is right next to a really nice lagoon where I go rowing once in a while. And they have this private swimming pool and a jacuzzi, so I can just drive down and borrow their key to swim any time I want this summer. Nifty, yea?? The guys have been begging me to take them swimming for a while, so I suppose we're going this Friday to get soaked! Damn how I love summer already. If you guys wanna go swimming just let me know and we can do it on a same-day basis, since I plan to swim at least a few times a week. I feel like Martin on "The Simpsons", after he bought a pool to compete with Lisa's swimming pool: "Now I'll be the queen of summertime!" *pool construction worker stares at him* And got a slurpee to end the day. Can't top off a nice summer day without a slurpee, yea? Now I'm just waiting for the guys to come over so we can go out tonight. I should probably do a "thinking" journal entry next time... |
| Tuesday, June 18th, 2002 | |
| 1:15 am | I'm a sucker for surveys... I dunno why I do these. Probably either to help pass the time or to kinda learn new things about myself. But here goes. ( Ridiculously long survey... ) |
| Sunday, June 16th, 2002 | |
| 11:21 pm | Meet The Parents... Eventful father's day. Invited Naya herself over for dinner with the family. The older Diana from UC Davis (the one I didn't get to meet last week) also came down to join us. Since my bro and I bought my dad a really nice propane BBQ grill for father's day, we had swish kabobs and ribs for dinner. Delicious! My dad didn't like Naya too much at first since he suspected that we slept together couple of months ago and though she's *one of those girls*, but after a while Naya broke the tension and was cracking my parents up with her amusing stories. They adore her like a daughter now, of course. And even helped my mother with the dishes! She's just great with people. Then we had beer and chocolate-coated cherries while watching "Shrek." Great movie! I never get tired of it. "And in the morning, I'm making waffles!" And since it'll be her birthday at midnight (the big 21!)she wanted to go clubbing at an over-21 club, so I couldn't tag along, although my bro took her instead. Aggh! I bet they're having a really good time in SF now. Not fair that I'm still 19... But just 15 months left... |
| Saturday, June 15th, 2002 | |
| 8:53 pm | Andrew finally graduated high school yesterday, and to celebrate we were supposed to go to Applebee's - except that I couldn't drive for a while. Funny what you could get in trouble for these days. Get your car wrecked during a high-speed chase and you can still drive the next day, but run over someone's foot just by pulling out in a parking lot then you're gonna have problems. So we decided to order out pizza. With pineapple toppings, no less. And since my parents were away for the weekend, we decided to call up a few more people. Brandon was talking to someone on his cell phone, "Yea he moved back from Santa Cruz. And he's gonna be here for the whole summer!" Sure enough, people came. And so it had begun. "Ain't no question I'm gonna fuck with this, I do it just for the funk of it." -George Clinton- Not exactly the words of a wise man, but a man nevertheless. Even to this day, P-Funk still rules, and traces of it could be found within other musical artists from different genres, such as Nate Dogg, whose lyric Randy was belting out unmercifully without heed last night. "You got meeeee singing in the mooornin', and yooooou bring meeeee breakfast in my bed, and when it hurts yoooou rub my head..." I was quite disturbed by this scene of a drunk Randy attempting to croon "Never Leave Me Alone" with a beer in one hand as a microphone and another hand trying to maintain some sense of balance within the confines of my garage, which has become the ultimate lounging pad these days. An hour before midnight "Jim" showed up with his wonderful bag of "Scooby Snacks" and not too long afterward everything stopped making sense and what was once down became up. "Don't put the pizza in the fridge to heat it up, that won't work!" Tony Chung yelled out of the crowd. "I tried that already!" Needless to say, we were really wasted. By two in the morning the laughters at the party started to fade away like the waves at Capitola beach during dusk, and already I was flooded with memories of all the good times I had at college this year. Meeting my roommate for the first time was interesting to say the least, but the goodbye was hilarious. Before I left for good, I turned to my roommate and said, "Since your girlfriend already moved out and I won't be here anymore, I left something under your pillow that should keep you entertained for tonight." And sure enough, after I left, Jason checked his bed to discover an old issue of the Victoria's Secret catalog and a bottle of lotion. I thought that was rather symbolic, some sort of visual synopsis to describe everything that happened between us roommates this year. Not in that way, of course. As soon as we started college, Jason was already coming to me for advice about a girl he met. In retrospect, I'm not sure if I gave him any helpful ones. "Jason, as your roommate I advise you to talk to this girl as soon as possible!" I said. "He who hesitates, masturbates!" And that's where the idea for the lotion gift came in. He eventually landed the girl, of course. Me? I met a few girls. A few special bunch abroad as well as at college. There was Basuda, the beautiful village girl I met in Nepal during my winter vacation whose ring I still wear every day as a reminder of what we shared. There was also Jamie, (hi Jamie!) who sat behind me in Spanish class in high school and for a whole year we never said a word to each other! And so it wasn't until college when I finally got the opportunity to have her as one of my best friends. You rock! Then there was Renee from next door at college, who often called herself the "short Mexican girl," a title that utterly fails to describe the wonderful person she really is and what she means to me. Then there was Rina. I first met her at a cafe three months ago, when she was failing her accounting class and I was failing calculus. Right from "hello," we spent nearly every day afterward studying and talking together right up to finals week. In the end, she passed her class because of me, and I passed my class because of her. And in the end, we spent her last evening at UC Santa Cruz sitting on the sands of Capitola, watching the waves wash away from the beach... And that brought me back to the laughters in the garage. This was here, this was now. I realized I have the whole summer to make something out of myself, to start moving the pieces around strategically to get my future in motion. I knew I had to do something. Mike Dinh and others were nearly passed out on the couch so I woke them up, and shoved everyone out along with the incriminating evidence that might indicate an all-out party took place. It's a new chapter in our lives now, time to get moving... |
| 1:54 am | When you have the house to yourself... That Randy G. is hilarious! Great party. Kimmy, tell us about your graduation! |
| Thursday, June 13th, 2002 | |
| 11:53 pm | A Day In Davis... There's nothing quite like going 90 miles per hour on highway 80 on the way to Sacramento with all the truck windows down during a hot day and 2Pac's "California Love" in the CD player playing at full blast. I was definitely enjoying myself on the fourth day of summer break, just blazing through the barren Californian countryside with a can of Coke in one hand and the other hand skillfully manning the steering wheel... Until I saw the sign that said "Yolo County." There was no question about it - I was in enemy territory. I tried to ride low in the driver seat once I got off the highway, but it's hard to be discreet when you're driving a bright yellow oversized truck that has "Santa Cruz" bumper stickers all over it and people could hear your music from several blocks down the road. I was definitely in for it. The people of Davis have never been very kind to me in the past, and a rejection letter from UC Davis last year and a middle finger from an angry driver the very minute I crossed the Davis city limit could not have made that fact any clearer. But I didn't care. I was a rogue Banana Slug and I was bringing the fury of hell and mayhem with me. Look out, world. Here comes trouble. A lot of people already moved out of UC Davis for the summer, so only Monica and both Dianas were still there. After helping the younger Diana move out (basically just sat on her bed and yelled instructions), I met up with Monica to go to the English Department to run around and wreak havoc there for a while. We threw each other against the walls and doors like a pair of angry retards through the hallway corridors, and swiped nameplates. One nameplate we found on a door was especially amusing so we took it as our trip-to-the-Davis-English-Department souvenir and moved on. A certain Maryjane Osbourne won't be so pleased tomorrow morning, I can tell you that. I couldn't figure out where the other Diana lived so we went to downtown to catch "Star Wars 2." When Lorenz said "The Sum Of All Fears" was much better than "Attack Of The Clones," I was definitely skeptical. But after seeing George Lucas' latest work, Lorenz was right... it did NOT live up to my expectations! Now don't get me wrong, Yoda's fight scene was easily worth the admission price, (and the scene with Yoda standing on a hovercraft surrounded by clone soldiers coming down to save the embattled Jedis was especially dramatic), but there was no real climax! None! No classic all-out aerial battle like in the first four Star Wars, just a scuffle on the ground between the Jedis (Samuel L. Jackson kicked some serious ass by the way) and the army in a coliseum as if it were an oversized "Gladiator" scene and a brief lightsaber battle between Yoda himself and Count Dooku that was never really concluded. (Ohh and Natalie Portman doing a drive-by on a chariot like a G'd up thug was great!) I thought I was watching the build-up of the movie's plot, when it was actually the "climax" itself! Did I miss something here?? "The Sum Of All Fears" is easily the better movie, and I still haven't seen "Spider-Man" yet. And I wanna see "Lilo And Fitch"! I guess I'm just a sucker for Disney movies. Then we ate at the Kathmandu Restaurant in downtown Davis, which specializes in Nepalese food. Really delicious. We both had chicken curry and that was good, although my mom definitely makes the best around. She spoils me, yes. Afterward we walked down the streets of Davis acting like a pair of drunks, cussing and tripping over each other to terrorize the locals. "I must pee on this street lamp! I must! I must!" Fun times. If only more of my lady friends were like Monica. After getting some tapioca drinks at this *really* asian coffee shop (a dozen TV sets tuned to an all-Japanese music channel on full volume and not ONE non-asian customer besides me!), I dropped her off at the dorm and set off for home. On my way through Davis, I honked and cursed at several drivers for not paying attention to the road. I felt like a Nazi, but it had to be done. And then I got into an argument with a gas station attendant somewhere in Richmond for not letting me use the bathroom, even after paying for gas. Rotten scoundrel! I did my best Milton Waddams impersonation (from "Office Space.") "If they take my stapler, then I-I-I-I'll set this building on fire," and left. He was bewildered by this antic. I wonder if that dirty foreigner even understood me at all. Got home just in time to watch The Simpsons (The classic "Jebus" episode!), but UPN screwed me over by running commercials throughout so they did not show the last 10 minutes of the episode and went straight to the ending credit. Very strange. Those dirty sheep fuckers! Bah. |
