i think one of my definite pet peeves has to be when people talk to themselves... i almost get pissed at it... those people can seem so strange... hmm... prayer for me, and other people... i'm saying this cause there seems to be a regular chink kid at the saratoga library who ALWAYS talks to himself, and it gets annoying... he also snorts... probably only to me though cause i'm the only one who cares... *sigh*... flash prayers there... reminds me of allen wu when i was still in high school... that weird guy...

XvSF Magneto is so friggin fun to use; he may not be MVC2 Magneto, but you can still rack up high numbers, sometimes in guarenteed damage; i love this corner combo:
kick throw,c.short(OTG)->c.roundhouseXXhyper grav,c.fierce/\sj.roundhouseXXad.df.forward\/c.fierce/\sj.jab->sj.short->sj.strong->sj.forwardXXad.uf.jab->ad.uf.short->ad.uf.strong->ad.uf.forward->ad.uf.roundhouse

now that combo alone is strong enough to take off about say 40% on cyclops; i'm ballparking, but more or less if you do the combo twice(and it shouldn't be too hard, as after doing the combo you should be able to carry the opponent all the way into the other corner), the opponent has about 20% life left; there's also guarenteed magnetic tempest combos you can do with him, which are hard, but oh so damaging...

here's an ALMOST constant: younger siblings always turn out taller than their older siblings, ASSUMING they're the same sex

i should really go to bed earlier; everytime i go to bed late, i wake up late... what is better than getting up early to praise God in the morning? nothing!

that pain in my wrist will probably give new meaning to the words "worshipping God with all your might"; we shall find out later tonight if i can summon myself to continue doing what i WANT to do...

so the new gamepad i got for my cpu isn't bad; granted, it's 2 buttons short, but at least the directional pad works a HECK of a lot better... the buttons seem better too; it's a HECK of a lot easier trying to hit 2 buttons together at one time... i just need to wait til i get the other pad i have fixed... and then, HELLO, 2-player CPS2 gaming! :D a joystick would still be 100x better, but hey, this is still good...

doesn't it amaze you how many people you can turn off to yourself just by slipping the word "religion" into your dialogue? yet we're willing to immediately believe we somehow came from a derivative of the chimpanzee...

ok bob, i'm in the library as i'm typing this right now... i'm trying to flash prayer right now... (after coming back)i'm still concentrating on the "word" aspect of flash prayers all too often though; but i'll get better at it, and learn to flash pictures in my mind to God faster... i'll ask God about it; heh, funny, praying to God to ask how to pray... give me more tips on what you do when you flash-pray bob... like, as you're reading this at work, flash-pray right now... now come back and tell me what you did, i wanna learn more about this...

it's funny how the modern culture places such an emphasis around just surrounding yourself with as many things as possible; yet i bet all those things are MEANINGLESS; why? cause they're empty; that's why you need so many of them to fill you up; yet they don't fill you up; like trying to fill a holed foam cup with water, you have to keep pouring, and pouring, and pouring... the waterline gets nowhere, while the cup just keeps getting aged and aged... you get nowhere... what does it mean to discipline yourself in simplicity? it's not ascetism, and it's not whoring everything to yourself; it is being grateful for what you've got, but you could care less if you lost those things or not... obeying the 10th commandment can indeed be so friggin hard in modern-day culture... but it is worth every ounce...

ok, i'm gonna go; the library's closing; later...

perhaps the most important things to remember as a collegian are this: don't worry, and WAIT... remember this if you feel you are in grade trouble, or unsure exactly where you can go; i have to remind myself of this... for the 1st, go outside and look at nature; notice how the birds of the air and the various other creatures you see can just hang in there? you think God doesn't watch out for even more important beings? so chill; don't worry. the other... is a matter of patience; in today's high-tech society, a lotta times, we want everything NOW... you have to remember that God sometimes answers yes, sometimes no... and sometimes? it's WAIT... it's almost a sure thing that God has the best plan for everyone who believes in him and follows him... but sometimes you need to wait before he'll tell you... so remember; just hang in there...

philippoussis lost... damn... i can't believe how close he was to winning wimbledon... of course jerm is probably happy since philippoussis > agassi... i admit that downed me a bit too, but i do like philippoussis due to his nasty serve...

lesse... if you're looking for some good nostalgia CPU games, go download Jordan vs. Bird; One on One 2; i'd go dl it HERE: http://www.flashback-aw.net/games.php?GameID=1
i love this game; used to play it all the time; now i have it again :D bird is technically better, as he can shoot 3s in addition to playing D, but hey, it's MJ! is there any other reason? and now, i actually know how to use the "shift" key, so i can actually run across the court; pressing left or right w/o shift resulted in a slow-ass dribble; no wonder me and my bro always looked so funny trying to run past each other when we played :) nothing compared to LIVE 2K3 or Sega's NBA 2k3(Sega Sports' NBA 2K series are prob my favorite sports games), but it's still pretty good fun; basically, no spin moves, fadeaways, sideways fading jumpers and no crossovers, but you can do show and gos, pump fakes, and jab steps, as well as run, or just shuffle, so it's not bad; it's actually kinda fun, though sometimes the controls can seem sluggish...

so, this is the 1st time me and bob have met in the summer for discipline training; not bad... hope it keeps up. the important thing is that i practice what i learn... daily...

what else did i do today:

watched T3: what to say... first of all, it's not revolutionary in its ideas anymore(travelling back in time to alter the future isn't so big anymore), but it was enjoyable, in an action-packed way; seems though they were trying for the more comedic effect this time around; without giving any spoilers away, basically they make the T-800 seem a bit funny by it trying to be serious... also, by introducing a blonde female terminator they weren't trying to start anything revolutionary IMO; just induce more of the horny-laden crowd into the theater...

i borrowing the Matt Brouwer CD, so i'll end up listening to that maybe for 1 week...

uh, that's about it; i think i'll songwrite tonight; also, i bought some misc toys from fry's that i wanna try out; nothing really expensive though, just small stuff...

i'll write more tonight... or talk, what not... etc...

http://www.planetemu.net/php/emulateurs/compteurs/index.php3?id=kawakswin&url=http://www.planetemu.net/emulateurs/multi_arcade/winkawaks146.zip

http://www.planetemu.net/php/emulateurs/emulateurs.php3?cat=cps2

http://www.planetemu.net/php/roms/roms_bis.php3?cat=cps-2#

http://www.planetemu.net/php/roms/roms_bis.php3?cat=cps-2

one of the hardest things i think i would have to do regularly is worship God, only for God; i mean, how? how do you play out your heart, devoted only to God, especially when you're just a lead guitarist in a band or something like that, when you aren't muttering words, just striking strings? well, isn't worship basically praise of something? don't you usually praise something when you stand in awe of it? hence, why i'm starting to believe richard foster on that sense; you worship God when you begin to contemplate his works, which moves you into awe, hence leading you into worship. so that's the mindset i've been trying to get myself into lately right before every single worship session i have, public, or private, time-consuming, or just a break in front of my .mp3 collection in front of my laptop. i try to think of what God's done for me, what he's given me so far, how MUCH i have and how grateful i am for that, and i just sorta try to extend that feeling into whatever songs i play, rock or contemporary, fast or slow. it's not easy, and i'm still working on it, but it's the right way to do it.

i SO wanna be 7 ft now; just seeing how i can extend myself higher than the other guys when we were fooling around trying to dunk on the rim behind the 2 farley houses motivates me there. basically, there's a certain height where i can still 2-hand the rock in, where the other guys couldn't today; that was fun.

i'll just close with some thought; a while ago, one of my friends at MVHS at my christian club was discussing with me about different styles of worship, ie what is suitable, etc... i told him i was ok with whatever people could worship better with, as long as it was from the heart, he replied with this:
"some people do it for the Lord, but some people also don't do it for the Lord" or something like that, and i had to agree.

everyone's back... again... 4th of july weekend's over...

Take Me Away
-Lifehouse

This time all I want is you
There is no one else
Who can take you place
This time you burned me with your eyes
You see past all the lies
You take it all away

I've seen it all and it's never enough
It keeps leaving me needing you

Take me away
Take me away
I've got nothing left to say
Just take me away

I try to make my way to you
But still I feel so lost
I don't know what else I can do

Don't give up on me yet
Don't forget who I am
I know I'm not there yet
But don't let me stay here alone

Far Away
-By the Tree

Well all my thoughts
And this confusion
Brings me down to this conclusion
That I'm a man of conviction
I've wasted time out of window panes
No place to go to recreate
The feelings that I have inside
When I spend time with you

We are never alone
Bringin' down angels today
His promises are true he's always
Closer than we're far away

T-t-t turn it up
I want to feel alright
Like a shining star
On a summer night
Heavy glow of rock and roll
Pumping through your stereo
Makes me want to sing

Jesus you give us a future
The plans God made
Are for hope and of love
Lord you're so good to us

"as a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool returns to its folly"

i remember KJ-52 saying something recently on Air1 about that verse; something about his dog always returning to roll in a buncha fish guts and getting messed up or something; they'd punish him, but he'd just come right back; God is calling you a fool if you keep going back to your sin; you're just gonna smell messed up; i'll quote him when i get the chance to relisten.

left pinky-toe hurts on the cuticle; seems like the free edge feels like it's being pulled up; feels better now though...

to be honest i have no idea if the gels i bought for the ball of my feet actually worked; my right foot didn't hurt, but i never put pressure on it; my left foot was aching though, but the strange thing is that when i took off my sock, the callous looked EXACTLY like before! so maybe it does work... although, you'd think it'd ease the pain...

i need to work on my ability to drive the ball in...

"in the secret" is THAT close to being done; just some editing issues i need to work out... otherwise everything's there...

and on that note;

recently i'm been thinking; once i start making money at an actual job, i will consider buying a lighter electric guitar on this count; i never jump around when i'm playing rhythm guitar on my fender; it's not that the fender's heavy and stuff, but i feel that i'm not emotionally expressing myself fully whenever i'm worshipping(everytime i try with the fender, i usually mess up my playing), and this minor, but accurate representation of how i feel when i'm playing upbeat worship songs would be nice... yet i do it whenever i'm just listening to music w/o a guitar on me, so that's why... and i've been to guitar center and seen how much lighter other electric guitars are; fenders aren't that heavy, but other guitars can be lighter, as the neck isn't made outta wood or something; besides, sometimes i feel that the fender guitar's tuning pegs are slightly loose...

and yes i still want a chorus pedal... phase shifter and 2-line fx pedal will also be nice, but i'd like a chorus pedal...

instead of typing a recap of some of the past days, i'm just gonna post a few thoughts on the fourth of july.

basically, time and time again, humanity has proved that trying to enforce a law, even if it is the GOOD law if you follow a certain religion, results in an antagonistic view towards that religion. the aztecans didn't like it when the spanish ran over them and tried to covert them; neither did the middle easterns like it when we ran over them... but getting back, that's hence the beauty of america, and why it is such a haven for christians more than any other place; you are free to practice whatever religion you choose; this is obviously bad in its own ways, as the law sees all religions as equal, when you're clearly opinionated not to believe so, but it's also good in its own way; besides, jesus saw that when you took religious practices and turned them into laws, they'd bring down people instead of hold them up. chinese people don't get that freedom, and let's not get started on the middle eastern countries whose official religion is "fundamentalist muslim"

that said, happy LATE fourth of july; celebrate your freedom to worship God

(happy EVEN later bday to luigi...)

man... stupid windows media player... stupid kazaa... basically, i wanted to dl "water" to play along to it on my guitar(i LOVE when the rhythm guitarist does XXX000x2, XXX000x2 in distortion in-between to transition from the chorus to the verse, or the verse to the chorus), but i don't have kazaa on my bro's cpu... so i dl it... and it turns out i need windows media player 6.4 or greater to install it(?)... no prob, i try to dl it... but stupid netzero keeps cutting me off everytime i try... it's really weird, and pissing me off... eh, bob, could i just borrow your matt brower CD whenever we finally decide to meet and rebegin Celebration of Discipline?

i actually watched more wimbledon today... since i do somewhat like tennis due to its fast pace... it's still a highclass sport though, so it peeves me how everybody MUST shut up when they're playing... so in between each point the crowd raves for a bit, claps, then... clamours down? anyways, here's what struck me:
grosjean wins over henman in the 4th set... i think he was the better player myself; henman is all net-play, but grosjean hits harder, and has a stronger serve... it pretty much came down to henman charging the net and grosjean staying back...
also, philippoussis won over popp... i love philippoussis... he's a good baseline player, slow sometimes, but man, watching him today, he's got my respect... those black obirigenese genes must be something... his serve is SO good... basically, he was down 15-40 in one round(tennis rounds go love, then 15, then 30, then 40, *advantage if necessary if both players are at 40 and one gets the point* and then game), and so he ACED 4x in a row to win the round... so that was 4 uncontested serves one right after the other... THAT'S amazing IMO... he mustve gotten 33+ aces that match... the other guy got only 12 or something... the other highlight i remember was him DIVING to volley the ball over and win the point...

later guys...

bob, i just saw this link during one of the ads on top of your blog:
Gospel Video Games

haha... funny eh? are we gonna go around converting heathens?

dr scholl's ball-of-foot gels:
$5.49 @target
not too bad; i think i'll get them; at least they look like they'll fit; i think this is what i need; my heel's fine; my ball on my left foot though, is anything BUT fine... there's something beautiful about looking at your callous though when it forms on the ball of your foot; looking at the way your footprints swirl around... touching it and realizing you have no nerves bordering that skin, hence why you can't feel pain there... it's in a way, mezmerizing, to know how God created it like that... on the subject, i have been feeling less pain in the area now, thanks... time to start up bballing again...

i was originally gonna buy an adapter from radio shack that converts my 4 button gamepad to a usb port, but it costs $15.49; consider that with the fact that i saw a 6 button gamepad @fry's for 6.50, and you do the math... i was mainly wanting to get this so that maybe i can get challenged on puzzle fighter more when i bring my laptop around, but i still need to get my other gamepad replaced... i'll go buy it sometime...

btw radio shack isn't a bad place for me to window shop; you see, i'm always kinda thinking of ways to improve my connections from electrical recording equipment to my laptop, so going here always gives me ideas... like a y-adapter, etc... playing rhythm guitar, recording that, then having to record my vocals separately isn't very satisfying, even if it's more accurate than recording the 2 at once; so what i think i'll need is a mic, plus a stand... also, i might want a guitar stand, since putting the guitar back in the case does seem to somewhat mess up the tuning occasionally

1st chron talks about david's life much like the way the US talks about our heroes; it blows them up; no, there's no lies in 1st chron, but you notice how all the bad things about david aren't talked about; half-truths, if you might call them that... although israel did need some inspiration at the time; it was written when the exiles were returning to jerusalem; as i'm reading, i'm just not taking notes unless something really stands out between it and 2nd samuel.

chorus fx pedal, phase shifter fx pedal, maybe one of those pedals which changes the line? eh, my wish list just gets bigger and bigger each day; i admit they're not necessary for happiness(thou shall not covet, remember?), but having them wouldn't hurt, ykno?

T3's out today... THE MACHINES WILL RISE... wait a few days, then maybe ask whether some of the other guys would like to see it w/me... NO, i don't think it'll be THAT good... YES, i am going to see it, just cause it's the terminator, and i've grown up on the terminator *reminisces about the good ol days w/sam*

sometimes, it's so annoying going through the bible; i just finished 2nd kings, and the chronicles don't look any more exciting than the kings; it's more or less just more rehashing+numbers of records, although i know every book in the bible has special purposes; chronicles was meant to inspire those people who came back from exile. i can't wait til i get to daniel... that'll be some fun times... trying to figure out his visions...

i think i'm not even gonna talk about whether or not i can finish "in the secret" tonight anymore; i'll just post when i'm done. basically, yes, it is ALMOST done, but who knows whether i decide to edit it even more to make the sound even better? i still think overall it's been a good job; just need to add a riff, and maybe edit the drums and vocals to make them stand out? it's not chock-full of riffs, but i think when going for the alternative rock sound here, simple isn't a bad idea; i tried adding fillers, but they kinda cloud out the rhythm guitar instead of complement it. you do have to remember that i want it to sound like some alternative rock rehash, which is why i'm trying to put more emphasis on the heavy distorted guitar, the snare drums, uh, etc... maybe i need a bass guitar... just playing w/the low strings of an electric doesn't quite give it the boost i need...

hmm... vitamin D may have more disease-preventive power than we think! according to the recent issue of reader's digest, D may be able to prevent colon cancer, osteoperosis, diabetes, and more; it's still not OFFICIAL i believe, but heck, when they say just 10-20 min, unprotected in the sun per day, that's not much to ask, eh? not to mention milk's fortified w/vitamin D anyways... geez, does this mean all the short, possible pale, asian girls i know are gonna snap their bones in half or something at 40? eh...

i've just realized recently, and i'll write it down now, that david and sam's brotherhood towards each other is looking funnier and funnier each passing day... reminds me of jon and louis, to some extent... and i can't believe how frikkin small sam is! i remember last year, during CTCC's youth group senior night, when we put sam in a luggage bag and zipped it up so only his head showed... and in another incident that day, when sam fell asleep, david picked him up and carried him into the living room... then when i played bball against him and david last friday, all i had to do to block his shot was walk up to him! :D or at least deny him a good chance that he'd make a good shot

i think it'll be some bballing later today, maybe visit radio shack, and work on my songs later this night... i SO wanna make a psalm 23.mp3! that is a good song... i just need to not get caught up playing puzzle fighter and CS-aimbot tonight! :D laterz

i'm gonna have to remind myself to update my list of favorite songs; there's a couple i'm liking lately:
ALL of sanctus real's songs(except for i love you)
your steadfast love? not too sure about the title; did sonicflood write this one? nevertheless, i like this worship song; the chorus is pretty much just "your steadfast love, is better than life" or something like that.
michelle branch- are you happy now
avril lavigne- losing grip
by the tree- far away
sonicflood- cry holy

i liked today's lesson in sunday school; more exploration into daniel; and thankfully, i now have a MUCH clearer picture of the visions that daniel had. the one question i'd really like answered though, is, "does the rapture occur BEFORE the tribulation?" that concerns me, cause in all honesty, i'm quite afraid of what type of final sacrifice God wants from some of his people... how will those persecuted die?

now, apparently, my bro said a while ago, they're essentially the same things as a flanger, but i really would like the chorus and phase-shifter pedals; chorus pedals would be nice for when i don't wanna play in hard distortion, but don't wanna hear any fuzz at ALL... it's good for verses in songs... phase-shifter is just fun... and i'd like to know exactly what it does more... in fact, i'd like to know what some of the other effects pedals do... like what a compressor does, etc.

only mandy and lydia showed up for church... no laura, none of the guys... strange... nobody likes CTCC anymore :( or me...

later, i'll write later.

sat:
giants beat a's, 8-7, 10 inning, bottom. which is amazing, cause they were down 5, then 6 to 0 somewhere in the middle of the game. then bonds starts with a single run homer, followed by a HUGE 5 run to tie the game. go bonds!

my 1st day back as a worship team member... and like the past they were asking me to do riffs again :D i need more practice; the only guitar playing i've been doing are power chords so far.

sometimes, i wonder just how much friends change over the duration of 4 years in college... i bet when we all get together again, there's a good chance we won't have the same closeness we feel right now... but hey, if you're true friends, you'll be friends no matter how far you are separated, right?

some biblical thought i think you guys might be interested in:
i'm currently going through the kings right now, as far as my journey to read the entire bible sometime has been going along. omri and jeroboam II were both considered to be northern israel's strongest kings, although all of the kings did NOT follow God wholeheartedly. interestingly, omri's son turns out to be ahab, the worst king of israel. and jeroboam? lemme backtrack with this:
during the course of ahab's reign God promised elijah that he would set up 3 people to destroy the wicked, baal-worshippers in israel; hazael, the king of aram, jehu, a would-be king of israel, and elisha. so when elijah is taken to heaven, elisha is faced w/the task of anointing jehu as the king of israel, faced with the mission to destroy all of ahab's bloodline to avenge the dead prophets. now, jehu is interesting; he believed in God, but didn't follow him ALL THE WAY; he did though partially. because he carried out what God initially intended(the avenging part), he promised him that his descendants would sit on the throne to the 4th generation.
after Jehu's son's reign, jeroboam II became king. so interestingly, although jeroboam was NOT a pious king, he still hailed from a soldier of God. his son, would be assasinated, ending this family line.
i find that to be interesting, even the Bible says that God used Jeroboam to save the state of Israel. funny, eh? and also note, the 1st jeroboam(the 1st king of northern israel) was one of the worst, probably 2nd to ahab.

prayers would be appreciated for:
my left ball of my foot; there is in fact, a DOUBLE callous on it. i got it from my repeated high hops from playing bball... i consider myself a big man when i play, relative to the people i play against, that's why i've kinda trained myself to go for blocks and rebounds over steals. personally, i don't mind the appearance of callouses, but this one HURTS. underneath the slighly peeled-off callous, i can see the other callous formed.

i'll finish "in the secret" tonight... hit me up if you want it tomorrow.

i think more or less the way i put stuff in for this summer will be a week's recount per 2-3 weekly blogs.

anyways,

wed:
checked out the saratoga library, like i said. funny thing is, after talking to laura online at the library, i got her excited about checking it out. so she tells me she's gonna log off. i end up seeing her in the library about 15 min later :D there's also some funny incident about me reminding her what my home phone # is, but i don't wanna give away my phone number publicly online. ask if you're interested about that conversation though. also, i remember venting my frustrations about how i couldn't song-record properly to her and she was like "no, it's alright" but i said "NO, IT'S NOT!" so she came back with "fine, it's no good" :D
prayer meeting: i think it was long overdue; sam explained why he was who he was, and we in turn shared what we thought of it; it's not the end, but it's a good start to mending a friendship.

thurs:
i take laura to guitar center, heh heh, fun fun. let her listen to my sanctus real CD on the way there. uh, geez, the weather was a bit hot, but in my humble opinion, there's something refreshing about driving down a long stretch with warm wind blowing past you... laura didn't seem to like it though. uh, she didn't find the guitar she wanted there, but it's all good. haha... then we went downstairs to the electric guitar section, and i think laura now doesn't think electric guitars are THAT hard to pick up on now... i remember her saying it felt kinda light. best part going there? when i finally found the 18+ boss effects pedals all wired up in series, and no one's using them :D plugging in and just fooling around was like paradise there :D to be honest i'm more interested in effects pedals than electric guitars now, cause i'm not gonna be buying any new electric guitars anytime soon, and it's not like i have a good enough ear to tell the difference so far. but yea... i should go back sometime soon... i keep forgetting how fun it is just fooling around in guitar center... there's like a million things you can fool around with inside there... i know laura's not done guitar shopping, so i'll have an excuse to go back again...
mahjong when we get back... man, i forgot all my chinese numbers :D basically, i wasn't playing mahjong, it was lydia, heh. but i'm getting it more now. i have played in the past, but it was a vague idea of how to play. and eat some pies, heh heh. then swimming at jon's house. which was kinda neat. eat, and come back. but we didn't cs like we planned(grrr... tim, should've brought your cpu!). instead, i played 1 round of mahjong, while laura played w/my spider solitaire on my cpu(i kept trying to convince her to play w/my puzzle fighter, but she says she sucks at cpu games), but lydia decides to try to play, so that was kinda cool, playing puzzle fighter against lydia for a bit.

friday:
nothing much, really. i just remember working a LOT on my version of "in the secret" for most of the day, mainly cause all the takes that i did were screwed up, like in one area or another. (basically, the guys were supposed to call me so i could go w/the others to bureans to help lydia choose a new bible, but they didn't, so i just let that go and worked on my mp3 all day) and it didn't help that the upstairs area was very hot, so i felt sweaty, even w/o a shirt. it's almost done though, so that's the good part. i still wish the editing were a bit better though; it's hard to explain; basically, i can't get CD quality editing down; it still sounds a bit like it's live, except dumbed down. not at bassy as i would like. and my vocals still don't sound too well. drums COULD use some more work, if i wanted to make the volumes slightly more variated and realistic. none of you guys would be able to tell though. only me, and God. it annoys me though in that sense, cause worship is about YOU+your sacrifice, or your attitude+your gift. think cain and abel; your attitude is only 1/2 the picture. your gift obviously doesn't matter, but your gift CAN be a good indicator of your attitude. that's why. to have me get frustrated with my work and then go "aw screw it" IMO wouldn't please God. then again, there's only so much you can do. but for me, sometimes, i feel like if i just put a BIT more effort in, it would be better; motivating myself to go that extra step though, is hard.
youth group:
all i gotta say is i saw clement and sam BOTH lead worship... BOTH on acoustic guitars... nice job guys... for a first time you guys did great(not like both of them know my sn or anything)... next time i'll bring my guitar and try to help them out.
back @home late @night:
what the heck is jimmie fallon doing hosting late show w/david letterman? weird eh? aw well, well it was nice. one of the guests was the blonde villian for T3, which was nice.

finally:
i'm thinking maybe of at least TRYING to look for a job. i at first wasn't going to this summer, but then, i'm not doing anything anyways. and everyone else has stuff to do during the summer, so i'll be alone soon. at the worst, i won't get a job and will be able to have all the free time in the world. so y'kno... cause i might even gain some job experience if i find the right job. i'll have to think about it soon though.

ykno, just right now i took the time to read some of the other guy's blogs, since my cpu at home is so friggin slow... conclusions for some:(btw i have another blog for today, so you might wanna read that)

alice STILL writes like she's high class and must sound literate...
mandy... still CRAMS a buncha days into 1 blog... that is so bad, i just stopped reading... when i tried scrolling down, the saratoga cpu couldn't keep up :D plz, mandy, if you're reading this, write LESS! or hone up your writing skills! and hang out at church more! i never see you online or around anymore!
joe... haha... funny as ever, i pulled this off his website, which was a quote from a friend of his:
"your xangay...i mean xanga - entry about dating rocks. i do, however, suggest that you rename the Social Aptitude Exam to something else, for example: Aptitude in Social Situations Exam. so when kids take it they can be like, 'yeah, i'm gonna take the A.S.S. Exam tomorrow.' Or 'pray for me that i won't get reamed in the A.S.S. Exam.' Or they can say ' studying for the A.S.S. exam sure is painful.'"

(haha... that reminds me of when jon stewart was talking about how he was getting an anal exam and the doctor said in an accusing voice, "there's nothing in here!" as if jon was making it up... jon was like, "it's like he was expecting me to turn around and go, 'gotcha!'")

some random nba thoughts from various friends of mine:
-i bet duncan + 4 white guys could win a championship
-(after hearing that duncan stopped swimming and picked up bball after hurricane hugo destroyed his swimming pool) haha... he was probably like, "aw man, what am i gonna do now?"

movie thoughts:
-matrix 2: haven't watched it yet; maybe i'll just wait for the dvd now...
-terminator 3: i think it's gonna suck, but like sam, i'm gonna go watch it... you don't even KNOW how much us guys grew up on terminator 2... when i was older i watched the 1st terminator, and was blown away... this time it's actually gonna be in the future(finally!)
-finding nemo: prob wait for the dvd... although the blowfish hecka cracks me up like crazy... when he suddenly inflates, floats away and goes, "oooh! here i go!"
-bruce almighty: wait for dvd

ok, later... geez i don't do anything around here... at least i don't THINK i do...

saturday's bbq was great... lesse... i went back for a total of 4 times? 8 slabs of beef, 1 slab of chicken, 5 slices of watermelon... the watermelon was GGOOOOD... chicken was GGOOOOD, but short on supply... beef was kinda hard, somewhat sweet, but it was still bbq'd meat, so i kept going back...

sunday... laura was around, so me jerm jon and her went to lunch together... jerm ended up finishing her 2nd slice of pizza chicago pizza... went to mike's house later... it's funny, i keep forgetting just how tired laura gets... she dozed off there... later, us guys play bball... what else was memorable... although she wasn't hungry, laura joins us at tung kee, where my curry duck soup splashes in her eye accidently :D all of us go later to marie callender's, where we get a chocolate pie... funny... it looked like tiffany, this girl who used to know me at MVHS(she was the one who dozed off behind me in span 5, and of course later i would doze off too, heh heh, looked kinda funny), was the one working there... she didn't seem to recognize me though, so i didn't say anything... me and my shy ass... maybe i'll say something next time... i just didn't wanna look like a klutz, y'kno? like i didn't know how to start the conversation. watch norm get too pissed at wes for attacking him and breaking the treaty during risk... haha... laura kept trying to tell others to stop hating on each other :D
laura: get rid of that lump in the back of your throat!
norm: what, my adam's apple?
*everyone laughs about it*
laura: i meant those bitter feelings!
(later)
alan: cmon norm just flip the board; it'll make you feel better

mon... bball was all i remember... ouch... my foot callous hurts... specifically the one on my left foot... it's kinda strange, cause i'm left-handed(hence right footed), so you'd assume my right foot would be the one getting the ouches, but i guess my right foot is taking off correctly... i need to work on my offense...

tues... got the dr. schools(ok, i admit i dunno how to spell it) gel insoles... i hope that gets rid of my callous problems... pretty cheap; 9.08-$2 for the coupon, so 7.08 total... nice... uh, yea, whatever, day's still unfolding... i'm typing in the saratoga library, which is now remodeled... it's so huge! not to mention they enable you to use microsoft office here too now! so now you can type and stuff! pretty neat, eh? ok, i think i'll go now and explore the remainder of the library.

i think i'll finish "in the secret" tonight...

amerlin- change the world(hard, but nice-sounding)

nope... not Paul Pierce yet... although today's bball session of mine was a mixed bag... first of all, after i go to MVHS and prep up some, a small azn guy challenges me to a 1-on-1, so i accept, and we get a small game going... but then 4 indian guys and 1 azn guy asks us to play some bball... so we accept... it came out to be 3 on 4, now, my team lost, but here's the impressions:

-i feel kinda sad, cause i think our team had the more o-lang ballers(ie more talent and style), but theirs was kinda "byron", ie they were saying stuff like "o man! we should call him loco, cause he's crazy!" after one of them nailed a shot... which i thought was kinda stupid. so i was thinking, "c'mon man, i accepted to play BBALL, not bAHskitbOl(hispanic way of saying bball)" and i could tell the guy who i was playing 1-on-1 with(he was on my team) was much better; he was doing fake-out moves driving in for layups, it's just that they weren't hitting(but they were really close)... not to mention the other guys were just NOT ballers... basically, they looked rigid... you would agree if you saw too... oh well, gotta hone in on my execution then... at least i got one block, so it wasn't all for naught, but i should work on reading offense better...
-on the other hand, i had a sweet offensive move i pulled off today; here's what happened; i'm sorta in the middle of the key, near the top; one guy is on me, maybe the others are somewhat close by, and i have the ball in my right hand; i crossover in front to my left, and the guy stays with me, then i spin move to the right, guy's still with me, ball's back in my right hand; at this point, i'm thinking, "hey, why not just try one of your hook shots? since you're left-handed, you'll be able to generate energy by rotating clockwise!" so i do that, turn right back clockwise, pull up, and shoot a hook shot; money; the other guys were going "oooh"; so basically the whole sequence that i did looked like this:

in-front crossover-> spin move-> pull-up hook shot-> $$$$

i should try this more often, but i'm thinking it's mainly the speed of my crossover to spin move sequence that sucks, which is why it doesn't fool people; it looks fluid, but it's too slow; i could fool around with timing now, like step left with the crossover REALLY slow, then whirl around with the spin move and drive in. i should also start experimenting with being able to throw spin moves whenever i want. i think i am improving, but it still needs work; also, i should start experimenting with through-the-leg crossovers; try to get those down.

youth group was small... but it was interesting; when i came in, guys vs. girls, they had to build the larger tower with spice drops(candy coated w/granulated sugar) and dried spaghetti; haha... the guys won, but their tower looked SOOO much shaky, and it was funny how they won cause they added a cross at the top for that extra height, heh heh... ah well, youth group doesn't seem the same anymore; i have to admit that; hopefully it'll get better; it never really occurred to me that i should REALLY consider praying for the youth group; it seems a challenge to even stay in such a small group.

my "in the secret, remixed version" project is going along smoothly... i'm actually surprised to see how good my drum loops are! they sound pretty good! everything's crisp on my version of the song so far... i haven't added vocals yet though :) when i'm done with the mp3 i'll write about it HERE, then if you want it you better try to hook up with me later... after i'm done with that project it's back to the other project of mine: creating my own worship song, MY own way that i feel God speaks to me... i also wanna record "psalm 23", i'm surprised i can't find the .mp3 online... no, not those slow-assed .mp3s you find on kazaa... there's this one version i heard before which is fast paced, and starts from about in the middle of the psalm, right at "you prepare a table..." etc...

i'm hoping this summer, to improve myself spiritually, mentally, and physically... i'm hoping not to forget anything when i get back to college, but instead meet my challenges head on... i didn't do that last school year, and i'm hoping not to repeat that mistake this year...

get back to me on the Spiritual Disciplines, bob, i wanna improve my closeness with God... as well as sunday worship...

i gotta start waking up sooner than this... so far it's been midnight: go to bed, get up around 10:40; i wanna improve that to get up at 8:00...

Lord you see every part of me
i'm tired of feeling underground
time to turn this thing around
and all my insecurity
it always gets the best of me
time to turn this thing around
it's time to turn this thing around

you and i will be alright
if there's nothing left to come
cause Lord I know i sing tonight
for an audience of one
...(there's more to the song, but for now, you can chew on that much so far; if you want more, i have the CD)
-Sanctus Real, Audience of One(easily one of my favorite christian rock songs right now, and no, it's not like that slow-and-soft-ass-paced Big Daddy Weave song sharing the same title)

where has our CTCC church's youth/college gone to? did they miss the idea that you don't need to move if you just ask for the resources for help?

ok, gonna ball for a bit, trying to get the "Paul Pierce" feeling into my ballhandling skills, ie spin moves are tight on and frequent, later readers... go green headband! that's where all my power's been flowing from! :D

ok, so since my den cpu was severely effed over, i couldn't post some stuff for a while; also, the saratoga library has been closed until this weekend, so i can't post there either. so i'll just make a few recaps as to what has been going on so far:

friday:
i think God's really shown me how much he wants me to keep living on this earth, and not take me early; he could've taken me three times this day. remember the all-nighter i pulled? it took a toll on me when i was driving back... at least 3 times i remember dozing off behind the wheel, only to thankfully wake up to myself swerving slightly across or something. finally, i had to pull over and just relax for a bit so i wouldn't die on the spot. luckily the saturn didn't suffer ANY damage. so yeah, God DOES want me to keep me alive. this raises a lot of questions, like, is there some symbolism to my three times dozing off and waking up? (3's a pretty important biblical number when you think resurrection-wise; could God be telling me he just redeemed me 3x?) anyways, i'm thankful for the message that God sent me; i will NOT ever take my life for granted ever if i can help it; life's too important to stress over bad grades. oh yeah; spurs won, so that was cool. i liked manu ginobili's behind-the-back-pass; that was tight. the youth went to golfland, so i just decided to tag along. they were almost done, but i enjoyed watching them make blunders and stuff.

sat:
nothing really much; i can't even remember what i did; i just remember waking up so damn friggin late, then going to tsing tao w/my mom for dinner...

sun:
during sunday school, me, jerm, jon, and grace lin met up w/pastor dan at PMT; lotta discussion; see, mike and wes kinda want to get away from CTCC as much as possible; don't get me wrong, they're not taking a turn for the worse, but they wanna find another church; seems they associate their past with our church. of course, we sorta mulled over that. dan brought up a couple pointers though; if you need help, the church is there to give what it can, and that it's actually tied to how closely related your parents are to the church. like for jon, his parents are involved in choir, so he's pretty tight, and incidently, he's the one who thinks we should try to stay at our church longer. my dad served as deacon for four years, then my mom is still pretty tight with the church, so i'm one of those ppl too(bob, i'm trying to start back on chapter nine; comment back or email me back on that one); on the other hand, mike's parents are currently not involved with our church, and wes' parents don't want him going to our church, as well as being pastor somewhere else. see my point?
moving on, after church i didn't bother going to the new church; i was thinking of doing something else; i went south to bureans, and got the sanctus real CD; i think i got a really good deal; i LOVE their music; upbeat, slightly riffed up, alternative rock. it's good. i love it. not to mention, it cost: $12.00?? wow... and i like almost 80% of the tracks on that record.
spurs won the series, so i'm happy. man, duncan had such a HUGE night. 20(or 30?)+ points, 10+ assists, 20+ rebounds(!) 8+ blocks... he really is the MVP. just some short comments of mine on that night. -more or less, nets were up most of the game, but duncan was doing his work. so in order for them to come back, it was necessary for someone else on the spurs to step it up as well. that person was jackson. more or less, then everything snapped into place. -haha... one point which made me get pissed, then crack a laugh later... fast break, spurs' ball... the ball is slightly out of reach of stephen jackson, who's trying to chase it down, but the ref is in his way, so you see the ref trying desperately to outrun jackson to get out of his way, while jackson's rapidly catching up trying to get the ball! it went out, net's ball, but i would've been so pissed if nets won by 2 points...
-btw, i'm totally looking forward to US bball... AI and duncan on the same team would be awesome... the more i think of it, both players are true team players on their respective teams... AI has been lately setting ppl up instead of taking it all in, and duncan has been doing likewise too. both can also score or do their other stuff if it comes down to it. to have 2 team players for the starting lineup would be tight... now contrast that with if shaq was on the US bball team...

mon:
i'm starting up my bible reading again... ugh... i'm in 1st kings... that's gonna be monotonous for a bit... 1st day that i bball in the summer... i look like sonic the hedgehog... blue jersey, dark blue AND1 gym shorts, red I-3 sneakers... more or less, i didn't have that good of some games, but i was doing my part... other than that, i've been trying to get back into the whole guitar song-writing of things.

tues:
got a green sweatband, so that was cool. now if i just have white gym shorts and a green armband, i'll be paul pierce(without the black skin and skills)... now i look like paul pierce+sonic the hedgehog... anyways i'm starting to get my spin move down a bit better, and today i was doing a lot better... while i was boxed out by a 6-3 chinese guy, i was faster than him, and i think had better hops than anyone else who played that day... i was pulling ALL the rebounds down, provided i was TRYING for them(ie when i wasn't in the paint, i wasn't the one getting the rebound). when i switched, THEN i started getting mad mutumbo-esque blocks... heh heh... and no one blocked my shots, although not all of them went in. however, there were some where i pulled a duncan; ie missed the layup right up, jumped up, pulled down my own missed ball, and hook shot it right back in. those were nice. but the best play i did that day was run in after a missed shot of someone else's(sam's maybe?), jump up and pull the rebound while everyone's thinking it's gonna come to them(i was outside, so they didn't think someone would run in and get it), dribble along the baseline right back out, turn and fire a midrange J... money... haha... with improvements like these, everyone should get their own sweatband! :D

wed:
that's today; finally got the cpu moved so i could reconnect to the internet from home. eh, maybe songwriting later; i've really been wanting to redo "in the secret", as well as get a couple other songs down... anyways, i've been on this cpu long enough... i'm logging off.

for better or worse, my freshman days are over... it's too early to tell if my GPA's screwed for life, but i'm already fretting over it... oh well... can't undo the past... i might as well enjoy the summer... btw thanks God; even though the test wasn't perfect, i could tell you were helping me at least partway through it...

priority #1 as of summer will be to hone down my ability to control time; successful, and maybe my sophomore year won't be as bad as i anticipate... then i won't have to pull all-nighters like today...

*in a somewhat tired, slow, but smiling voice*:

"you guys missed the sunrise..."

only 2 more hours til i take my chem final...