I like turtles

Friend: i called my mom today
Friend: and she asid" cant talk, got to go get your brother from the groomers, bye"
Friend: he's spoiled
Yao: .... hair cut?
Friend: yep
Yao: what's a groomer?
Yao: ok
Yao: how old is your brother?
Friend: 3
Friend: a groomer grooms animals
Friend: full body ahircut
Yao: haha
Yao: he's... really hairy for a 3 year old?
Friend: wait
Friend: you know im talking about my dog?
Friend: right?
Yao: >_>
Yao: no?
Friend: oh my god.



Awkward.

Patent Pending

They stole my idea!
bah!

also i'm sick, don't come near me for the next few days.

Drive-by shootings and slasher films with singing

On Thursday I went to East Palo Alto for this new program at Bayshore Christian Ministries, a study hall for high school students with tutors. It was just me, the coordinator Buddy, and two kids who are going to extension school so that they can start going to a regular high school again.

Let's just say I've got to learn. The three of them seemed to speak a different language from me, all of them having grown up in EPA, and to top it off, when Buddy gave me a ride home and the kids were in the back, one of them got a call from a friend saying that someone named Jig had just gotten shot. We passed by the scene of the shooting, where there was broken glass everywhere. The three of them were calling all over the place to find out what Jig's real name was (apparently everyone knew him as Jig or Hooker), and then I was really thankful that Buddy had offered to drive me home.

Anyways, oddly enough, I suppose I should think drive-by shootings are just as sick as serial throat-slittings, since they, too, involve innocent people getting killed and lots of blood everywhere, but drive-by shootings just don't elicit the same reaction as the movie Sweeney Todd, which my sister lured me into watching with her and her PWR class in the Shoreline theater yesterday. Ugh! Music was good, cinematography was good, acting was good... but do we really have to see all the ways that human relationships can go horribly and murderously wrong? Well, I suppose once in a while. It was raining when we drove back, too, and it made me happy that even if everyone's evil at Stanford too, we're more motivated to hide it under career-driven hard work, socialization, and a modest level of sanity.

Shooting Star Without A Scar

Hey check this out!

This is so cool! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U-mvfjyiao

That's such an amazing product. According to the video, the rider can also filter water with the bike in a stationary position. This means it would save natural resources from being burned to boil the water. Great!!!

Okay, I'm done nerding out.

Hey all!

A Happy (belated) New Year to all!
Sorry that I've been so MIA the past quarter, and probably for these next quarters as well. EAST is just soooo far removed that my efforts to make it out to east (haha) campus only succeed once every so often.

I was just about to write a lot of Facebook messages to you all when I remembered this blog... so, here it is:
You have a standing invitation to come over to EAST House for food. (Though, please give me at least a day's notice so that I can sign you up. - I gotta follow the rules, too.) Come eat good food!

All right, hope everyone's quarters are off to a great start!

Hanoi

Trevor's birthday is tomorrow!

I'm in Hanoi right now. My family was one of the first to get off the plane, so when we got to immigration in the airport, a curious thing happened. It was really quiet, and we thought nobody was behind the counters, but suddenly heads started popping up, one by one. The people behind the counters had all been sleeping and were just waking up! In addition, none of them spoke English, and would even yell at us in Vietnamese, while fully aware that we couldn't understand them.

Traffic is even scarier than in Bangkok. The driver who took us from the airport to the hotel kept honking every three seconds, and I thought he was mad, until I realized that everyone else was doing it too - there literally isn't a second without honking here (I'm still hearing it outside our window). I guess since nobody follows traffic laws, they need to hear the sound of honking to know if cars are near them - almost, but not quite, like sonar....

I miss you guys! Helen's right, we should see each other more next quarter. And I'm frustrated that I'm in the same country as Tina but not the same region...

guitar hero and other signs of winter break

I came home at 7 pm and my brother and sister were both playing Guitar Hero III (which we just got a few days ago). Now it's almost 10 pm and they're still playing. Oh boy. I have to admit I played a few songs in there too though ;)

Home is home! We got a new fridge and new sofa so the look of our house is changing as always, but everything else is pretty much the same. I'm looking forward to shopping for a new watch, and putting up Christmas lights, and seeing home friends once they get back to Austin (mostly sometime next week?).

This quarter was decently good. We didn't see each other enough! :( we should hang out more next quarter. Watch movies in the history corner. I apparently am deficient in the movies I've watched in the first 20 years of my life.