just got back home from late dinner at in n out. guess whom i bumped into there? my former schoolmate, judy h., who was a first grader when i graduated from st. joseph's in st. louis. the reason i remember her name well is because she and i flew together a couple of times during school break as to act a 'big' brother for her because she cried a lot when she had to leave home to go back to our boarding school as a young kid. i was impressed that she even remembered the scenario. how did i bump into her... well, as i was just sitting down waiting for my order to arrive, i noticed that she was waiting in the line getting ready to order and she had her trusty sidekick with her... also, saw her hearing aid, too. when i saw the conversation between judy and the clerk, i just knew immediately she was deaf because judy had to repeat her orders a few times to get the message across... that's one of obvious signs you know that a person is deaf... so, i then asked her if she was deaf, and she was somewhat little surprised... and she even thought i was hearing considering that i don't normally wear hearing aids. we caught up little about our general life and etc. and exchanged our contact info so we could get acquainted sometimes soon as she said herself that she barely knows anyone here in bay area who is deaf... now, i have to contact her former classmate, lynn, as she and judy used to hang out often while at st. joseph's. guess it'll be a nice mini reunion for all of us...
a few days ago, at my new flat in san francisco, i was cleaning up some of my deceased grandparents and uncle's stuff in the basement, i found a large bag of vintage photos taken by my grandparents. i went through many of them and i didn't realize that my grandfather was an avid outdoorman like my dad and i are... when i showed the pictures to my dad last night, he raved a lot about his dad and how popular he was when it comes to hiking. he would usually hike with many young people from his company when he was in 40/50s. also, there was a vintage picture that had two kids with an adult and i couldn't even recognize who the kids were until my dad said one of them was actually him. after a long stare at the picture, i have come to conclusion that it was actually him! i couldn't believe it and he looked so completely different from what he is now. the picture was taken like 50 years ago! the kid next to him was actually my uncle who now lives in toronto. my parents' scanner is broken, so i really can't scan this picture and show to the world of my dad's childhood days...
a friend of mine, tate tullier, has his photography site revamped by me. check it out:
hope you like the site. he says he plans to change his images occasionally to keep his site fresh...
i can't believe that i actually played this game before when i was an innocent kid... who knew that video game engineers could be so dirty...
also, check out the other games, too. i wonder what do people get benefit from this kind of games? perverts who get aroused in searching for porn elements in the video games?
yesterday, all day, i was babysitting my godson, ethan, and his brother, tyler, 3 years old and 1 year old, respectively. luckily, their grandmother stopped by at their home and stayed with us for about half day thus eliminating my duties. i don't think i could handle those two boys simultaneously. i don't think i'm that ready to get into a domestic life!
last friday, i went to check out my original home in san francisco. i couldn't believe that this place looked exactly the same when i moved out as a 5 year old kid. the bathroom is so tacky filled with the 1970s groovy yellow tiles and the kitchen countertop is topped with the white vinyl with gold metallic speckles everywhere. time to remodel! i'm going to have the wall between kitchen and dining room removed so susie and i could get some deaf-friendly environment. i'm thinking of going vintage in the bathroom since our apartment's building looks european. so much to do this summer that i find myself lagging in writing blogs as well as catching up others' blogs.
just got home late last night from san diego...
comic con... one word: wow!
i have never expected comic con to be that vast... i was told that 100,000 had attended comic con this year! insane!
anyway, i got to meet many nice people, as well as artists, too. got to meet gary baseman, tim biskup, futura, so going on... i think i've gotten about 15 sketches from the artists already in my sketchbook! now, it'd be interesting to collect ALL kinds of sketches in my sketchbook from every artist i meet.
there were some neato costumes donned by craze fans such as she-ra's costume (i have to admit that she looked very attractive... lots of flesh being shown out) also, i was somewhat amused to see a few booths held by soft porn stars. they were just selling their pictures and dvds.
also, i had bumped onto one ol' friend from chicago. i had NEVER expected to see any friends surface up at comic con though i had expected to bump into a few deafies which had happened occasionally.
today, i just sold at least $350 worth of my old hard rock cafe hurricane glasses. so, i want to thank to some friends who got me the glasses...i just had to get rid of my old junks at my folks' place. now, i'll have to figure out what to do with sport cards as their values have deteriorated due to a new technology of grading...
ok, enough of ramblings.. i guess i just have too many things in my head... off to bed now!
to make it brief, i'm in SD for annual comic-con for business trip. man, comic-con is facking huge one! i heard that 84,000 peepos had attended comic con last year. i've been on my feet for the past two days and my feet are really killing me already yet i have two more days to kill... ugh but at least i got to meet many new cool people for future business stuff...
more details to come soon...
my dad just got himself a spankin' new imac g5 17" today. while he's still a semi-computer illiterate, he's now retired and he just wanted to play often with photo manipulation and editting movies on computer. i recommended him to get imac because i know that my dad likes to learn often through trial and error process. he already has one wish for all personal computers. he said he wishes that ALL newspaper websites do not require 'scrolling down' the pages. he just wants to 'click' anywhere on the page WITHOUT using the scrollbar much like looking at old-fashioned newspaper... now, that's a great functional idea if you ask me... also, i think today was a big day for father-son quality time. other than teaching my dad how to use imac, we did a huge yardwork all day today, especially in cutting down many branches from our 'tree bushes'. anyway, it's totally opposite of what i'm doing here compared to new york. i am already looking forward to move to the city real soon in two weeks, even though i still will continue to help my parents with anything they need. they are STILL very active as far as i am concerned (especially my dad)... so i can't imagine that i'd be writing some interesting blogs if i lived here with my folks that long... i'll probably be rambling often from my head and sh*t like that...
danny way, one of legendary skateboarders, has just jumped over great wall of china (about 45 feet wide) recently just a few hours ago... check this photo!
whoa!!!
i heard that one dude had died from doing this same stunt a few years ago but with a mountain bike. i wonder which one is far more dangerous... landing your bike or board on the ramp? anyway, gotta give mr. way a big pat...
my parents and i had a nice dim sum lunch with my grandfriends (friends of my grandparents) today. while i do not remember them, they remembered me well as they last saw me when i was merely a young toddler. they showered me with nice presents: 2 sweaters from j. crew and a nice country pink polo dress shirt. heck, the old couple is over 90 years old, and pretty active. the old guy is 94 years old and still drives as i just saw him drive away from the restaurant in his 1985 volvo sedan with his wife. he even joked that his car is much older than him! also, he had a good grip when i shaked his hand. you can't help but appreciate their good standing health. my dad even had to 'fight' off the lunch bill with the ol' stubborn lady but he managed to win paying the lunch. in chinese culture, it's usually the elders paying the tab, but my dad can be quite persistent stubborn ever. sometimes it's little sad when you see some senior citizens not being active as them.
last night i went to a friend's place in dublin for a lil' small gathering... but it turns out that there were about 7 kids going insane under one roof. while i was just conversing with new/old friends, you can't help but get distracted by zigzag running kids. those coda/deaf kids wild movements do replace the visual stimulation of new york culture. they have definitely awoken my lethargic body. again, earlier tonight, i went to a friend's place for indy bbq outie, and there were another different 8 coda/deaf kids! of course, i enjoyed being a big kid with them. we all went to stanford university campus to watch a pre-indy fireworks show. while it lasted only about 10 minutes with unspectatular fireworks show, the bop-bopping show has definitely calmed the kids down... it's funny how that these parents have had the repetitions of asking me on future plans of being a father. while i'm definitely not ready to be a father anytime soon, i do enjoy being with those adorable kids. they are such in innocent crude state of mind that you can't help but admire their learning development. of course, it took some time to get accustomed to those parents talk about their experiences with kids as opposed to singles/couples talk about their personal lives/general stuff.
ok, enough of rambling here. definitely i will not hang out with young KIDS tomorrow. i know that i'll be chilling out with non-parental peepos for our ID4 celebration soon today.
happy 229th birthday, usa. still a kiddy tenderfoot on this ancient, fragile earth.
2 minutes ago:
need to tidy up... i feel like i'm a teenager again...
yesterday, i spent a good 6 hours at san francisco airport trying to get into flights to either london or paris as i decided to make a spontaneous trip to reims for a deaf art festival. i was hoping that i could meet new connections with european deaf artists for ooqboo. but unfortunately, all the flights were completely overbooked and with myself being on a standby ticket, there was no way for me to get into these flights. also i just realized that many people were going to france this week to watch tour de france which will supposedly be lance armstrong's final ultimate cycle race. now, i have to figure out what to do this weekend... i didn't realize how much difficult it is to plan for this weekend... ;-)
well, my apologies for neglecting my blogs here... i will try to keep my blog fresh as california has been keeping myself mellow lately and there is not much of visual stimulation here! i have not missed new york yet as ooqboo.com is keeping me myself as well as many 'house' errands here. you can't help but help your parents with many house chores here. i'm still amazed that my mom still does many tiring housecleaning around this house by herself (she is over 70).
ok, enough of my rambling.
oh yeah, one more thing, happy *pop* *cackling* *boom* weekend!