writing on the road

I wonder what it was like when people made mixed CDs for road trips. When they drove from San Jose to Los Angeles their CD which held 80 minutes worth of music would have been played 4 or 5 times over. Or perhaps would each person in a 5-person car bring their own CD to share with their friends? That is kind of a cool concept, just like each person plugs in their ipod, laptop, touch now to share music with friends.

I learned several new things in the car today – the most interesting one being how to sleep in the bi—the middle back seat of a car. Forcefully and quickly jerking on the shoulder strap of the seatbelt (this method works anywhere, except for in the drivers seat, please!) causes it to stay in place, allowing for a place to hold your head as you drift off to sleep. I always put my head on my hands and dozed off, I perfected this in the classroom with a pencil in my right hand, my head in my left, and hair draped over and shading my face. However, classrooms don’t wobble and move around nearly as much as a car does and so I’m definitely giving this new technique a try as long as I don’t fall off the seatbelt strap and end up strangling myself I think it could be a keeper.

At UCSD I spent the day and evening with my friend of a good 7 or so years R, a wiry guy who typifies the small eyed Asian. His boisterousness, though, certainly does not fit the Asian stereotype – particularly online. Last night R, tired of the partying lifestyle after spending the previous weekend in a drunken revelry that is Sun God weekend at UCSD, decided that we could give chat roulette bingo a spin. I have never tried chat roulette before and had only heard about the balls game my friend R played with it, how many partners can you chat with before you see balls again? His highest record was 6. Somehow I did not find this website terribly appealing. But on a Saturday evening I was feeling rather adventurous and daring, particularly after I put on the pair of toy sunglasses I bought earlier.

Our originally planned one game stint turned into a 3 hour one as the website seemed to have a strange attraction to it that I still can’t seem to place my finger on. During that time I was able to confirm or rather reaffirm certain things about humanity. Of course chat roulette is by no means a fair representation of humanity as a whole but take this as you will.

First, men have penises. Yes this has been confirmed by chat roulette either by: the sight of them, the fondling of something under their clothing, or the question “would you like to see my cock?”. If chat roulette were an actual representation of the human population 80% of the earth would be males and 70% of those men would walk around with their wangs hanging out.

Second, children are not innocent. Some of the most disturbing people I found on chat roulette were not penises (they never show their faces, plus they come up too often to be truly disturbing), but children who looked like they were 6 discovering the internet and the rewards of “boobz”. One kid had written boobz please on his screen and kept typing “boobz”. Of course, the children could simply be a decoy for the parent watching from a separate screen. After all, why would the kid want to see breasts, he’s probably still being breast-fed. The parents acting this way wouldn’t surprise me at all. One of the people we rouletted upon was a child and his father standing behind him. At first I couldn’t make out what the father was saying and commented that the kid was adorable, which he was. After we turned on the volume we realized that the father was telling to kid to ask me to “show me your pussy!”. Good god man, your child is 3! Just thinking about it revolts me.

Third, people from outside the US of A are more likely to be less racist and actually hold a conversation. We spoke with people from Paris, Brasil and Chile. Perhaps chat roulette can be a cool place to practice a foreign language.

Four, people hide behind all sorts of things. For me it was sunglasses. I suppose for others it was their children. Still others hid behind, one most boisterous and obnoxious member of their group, masks, the anonymity of a single bodily organ (I am tired of typing this word), signs, black screens, and dark rooms. For a program meant to bring people together it sure has a way of pulling them further into obscuring their identities and thereby pulling people even farther apart.

That’s about it for my adventures in Socal. Succinctly put, it was simple pleasures but a good time. I felt like I hadn’t been able to relax like that without worry for a long while. Now I think I’ve finally gotten into the rhythm of summer.
South Africa in a week!

Socal so far (LA & a night in Irvine)

Whoever came up with the imagery of clouds as innocent fluff balls of magical effervescence surely never rode a plane. My one hour of peaceful sleep from San Francisco to Los Angeles was disrupted by those dastardly beings. Otherwise, it was a smooth flight.

Upon arrival, my friend M, who is so tall and lanky she makes me look stubby and fat, and her friend ML, a first year Law School student at Santa Clara with scraggly long hair and kind eyes (and the same first name as Edgeworth from Ace Attorney!), came to pick me up at the airport. From there began our mini tour of LA.

Venice Beach was the first official stop. The wind was picking up and I felt rather cold in my shirt and shorts but more so I was feeling out of place. This was because I lacked a pair of sunglasses. I kid you not, even the guy rollerblading down the street in a turban with an electric guitar and a goofy smile on his face had a pair of nice shades! Determined to get a pair I found trendy yellow and blue ones that Y deemed "I hope you didn't pay much for those, they look like toys". Oh to be a slave of fashion, and such. They were five dollars, a toy's price.

Next we headed over to the Grove which, for some reason, I thought would be like the Asian Ghetto at Berkeley. Instead it was more like the touristy and glamorous streets of Waikiki in Hawaii, complete with an International Marketplace Place setup and everything. M, MI, and I went to get crepes with nutella, whipped cream, and powdered sugar. All you need for a successful crepe, really.

Our final destination for the night was an all you can eat Korean BBQ. There I ate until I truly felt like the bulgogi going down was coming instantly back up. It was delicious but man, good thing MI was unstoppable. If only my stomach were like M's, as according to MI it can "burn 4,000 calories" in a day. Looking at her I don't doubt it at all.

Once home in M's sweet studio I watched arrested development from episode one until I fell asleep around episode seven or so. It was hilarious. I'll need to find a way to watch it while in South Africa.

I ended up sleeping on my glasses which was painful, but sleeping on a full sized bed instead of a twin was super nice. As was waking up at 11 am (30 minutes ago). Ironically, I haven't seen Irvine campus yet even though I'm technically visiting UC Irvine. Oh well, guess I'll have to meet & greet Kaba Modern another time.

Then we start right back at one

Things that I forgot about home:

What side of the toilet the flush handle is on
Which colored towel is mine
How thoughtful my parents are to put everything I could possibly need within arms reach of my bed
How cold wooden floors are
How willing friends are to go out to hang out

And it's only been a few hours (not including the hours I've been asleep).

I think I'll write a (school) year in review post another time. About to head out for some korean tofu & San Francisco fun. Hooray!

Can I jump on the bandwagon yet?

Everyone's dropping like flies. Dropping into the pit of summertime bliss.

I wish I were done with finals. Fooie.

Vague thoughts

As I sit by myself I imagine all sorts of conspiracy theories. They are exciting yet agitating.

Then I go upstairs and am reminded that the people I am surrounded by are not really that cunningly inventive.

I walk down with a smile, feeling rather contented and reassured.

Funny the things that make my day

Things like:

Saving 20 dollars from the nice VES equipment guy
Chatting with good friends "comfortably"
Chatting with good friends in nothing but a towel
Cashing a 4.5k check
Getting a q-tip ear massage (these are incredible, try them!)
Knowing that I'll be back home in California in a week's time - huzzah!

But then there are always the things that cloud my happiness... like the 20 page paper and the final I have to (start) work(ing) on before I go home. I like to focus on the happy things.

Cheers to an awesome day evening thing

Unfortunately I couldn't come up with anything more fitting. But it had been a really nice afternoon evening. It all started with overcoming my completely rational fear of bikes.

Did I finally learn how to ride one? No. But I mustered up the courage to sit on the back as Y pedaled me along for the ride. The world whizzed by me and all I had to pay for it was a slight cramp that developed in my calves. Honestly it was quite exhilarating and novel. I guess I should fess up now - I love speed. I remember in particular this time that I was jet skiing and the feeling of going fast and being in (semi) control led me to laugh aloud in delight. Now that's something that hasn't happened since my Wacom intuous 3 tablet arrived through my front door and into my grabby 9th grade hands. This instance might just motivate me to learn how to ride a bike - or at least continue to bum rides off of other people.

But the best part was probably when it started to rain. The mixture of wind and rain whipping past my face as we raced downhill just can't be beat. (& cue thunder for cool bg sound effect)

Sopping wet we arrived at an Asian market called Reliable. Asian markets sure know how to reassure me best (perhaps only because they know I'm skeptical in the first place). There we found: sushi salmon, rice, soy sauce, avocados, nori, a sushi roller, mango ginger sake, ikura, and a host of other goodies.

Dinner was home made and delicious! Y made a dish from his childhood and I made my (imagined) childhood (where I was 3 times richer & Japanese... I can imagine R shaking his head here in bemused disappointment - "you just want to be Japanese don't you" - not so, I like being Chinese). We then reminisced on humorous things we did as kids.

When I was in the 4th grade I had these little booklets where you had your friend fill out their personal information on two pages. Things like "name, age, date of birth, favorite music, least favorite music, worst nightmare, favorite hangout spot, favorite people..etc". At that age my friends and I all decided that our "worst nightmare" was rape. Not that any of us understood the concept of sex, but we had heard the word rape and it was very very bad indeed. Thus page after page my friends and I put that down as our worst nightmare.

As for Y, his story can only best be put in his own words, "there was one night I cried myself to sleep listening to Backstreet Boys because I thought I would never find true love."

After confession time we relocated to the roof of Y's apartment. It was a great location for catching planes as Boston Logan was within sight and I easily doubled the amount that I had before that evening. Mm, I love high places, especially at night. Snuggled up in an old blanket lying down alternating between looking at the night sky and the skyline was quite nice - yet at the same time it made me feel old.

I'm not all too certain why but there was a feeling at my core that as I approach 20 that I'm growing considerably older. I guess just thinking about all the night time skylines I've seen over the course of my past 19 years and 355/365 days it just felt like.. a lot. I don't know how to state this more poetically.

Maybe I'll figure this out in the next 20 years to come.