cute kids, cool cars, close call, and a cleaaaaan cookie

i think my blog makes you guys read too much. here, a change of pace. (also no new music. sorry.)

these two kids are isaac and enoch, respectively.

i know them from church, and i went to their house and taught them piano for a while up until i had to go to college.

enoch is the older brother, but i don't remember exactly how old they are. they're ridiculously cute and cool at the same time, and i love hanging out with them.

fun fact!: enoch and isaac have beaten me in checkers every time that we've played. in my defense, i've only played checkers a handful of times as a kid, and haven't touched the game since.

isaac has two swirls!

i have this thing where i point out every nissan 350z that i see. and if i can, i take a picture of it. (which isn't creepy, 'cause they're just cars, not like people or something.)

i saw this sweet black one as i was biking on my way to mr. kevin yuey's house, and stopped to take these two pics, but not for too long, for fear of neighbors being suspicious.

i saw this tricked-out 350z as i was leaving rockaway mall.

i'm particularly proud of these shots that i got here, waiting for the traffic light at 46/beverwyck.

at rutgers. DIG the blue.


rutgers again. orange is pretty legit, too.

check it ouuuuut.

before i came to college, i mowed four lawns regularly, and carried the lawn mower to their houses in our mazda suv, pictured on the left. for these next pictures, even though i had full intention for this to happen, i'm not sure whether to describe it as something that i did or something that happened to me. i'll let you decide.

and last but not least.

SHO NUFF

[those 3 fax]
-when i was younger, i used to think i was clever by pointing my middle finger down at the ground. i don't recall doing it much, though.
-for as long as i can remember, i've slept on my tummy. on the rare occasion, i would sleep on my side. however, it wasn't until college that i actually deliberately slept on my back. still rare, though. it feels so weird.
-my favorite soda is mountain dew: code red. it doesn't have to do with the color red, that's for sure, because that's one of my least favorite colors. but i dunno. i'm a big mountain dew fan in general. all the mountain dews i've had: regular, code red, live wire, pitch black, pitch black ii, voltage, supernova, revolution, baja blast, and halo3 game fuel edition. i have yet to try the two world of warcraft ones. i still have an unopened can of the halo3 game fuel edition on the shelf in my room. :D

pour me a heavy dose of atmosphere

i SAW OWL CITY IN CONCERT, the same venue as the one i saw amber pacific at. IT WAS AWESOME. adam sang and played some electric guitar (two different ones!). there was also a celloist, violinist, drummer, and a female vocalist who also played keyboard and synth. it was AWESOME. oh wait i said that already, lols. they didn't stick around afterwards, unfortunately. i didn't get any merch this time, because the wristband was $10, t-shirts were expensive ($20), and the poster wasn't interesting enough on its own (meaning without autographs).

i'm planning to go see ANBERLIN in concert sunday, october 25th. allentown, pa. 1hr20min drive, daaang. BUT IT WILL BE AWESOME. ANBERLIN = AWESOME.

---

what IS integrity?
what does it mean?
what is it comprised of?

some questions..

is it okay to do something illegal if no one sees?
what if everyone else is doing it, too?
are some laws not as important as other ones?

these days, i think it's tremendously hard to have good integrity.

it's hard in the sense that a lot of things push us to cheat or cut corners or bend the rules, perhaps to get ahead, to make things easier, or because it's an easy source of enjoyment.
it's also hard in the sense that even if we put a ton of effort into trying to maintain our integrity, there are so many little subjective things that an outsider could pick at if trying to pinpoint cracks and faults.

some thoughts..

one thing that comes to mind for me is music piracy. yeah, it's illegal, but it's also widely prevalent. you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who adheres strictly to not downloading music.

now this isn't some self-righteous post about how i purchase [almost] all my music and everyone else downloads everything illegally and i'm so right and i hate piracy and blalhbalhhlab, it's just meant to get your mind crankin'.

even though i like to purchase music and support the artists, i'm conflicted a lot of the time, too.

as one (okay, probably more) of my friends said, "BUY music? that's such a waste of money, since it's so easy to get it from anywhere!" and it's true! why buy music?

i think one of the reasons that people don't feel bad, or as bad, about breaking the law, is when it relates to something that isn't monitored. you know, download a few songs, or a few thousand, no one's gonna know or catch you.

or, they feel like it's okay because it's not something physical. "it's not like i'm stealing the CD from the store!"

or, better yet, it's okay because everyone else is doing it, too, or they're more illegal! "i'm only downloading a few songs that i like since the rest of the songs on the CD are crappy, and other people download so much more than me! i'm GOOD compared to them."

or, some people say, if it's a big corporation, or someone wealthy, it's not as bad to steal from them. "it's okay, kanye's mad ballin', he doesn't need my money and it won't affect him at all if i don't buy his music."

or, that the law is unfair and a rip-off. "CDs are way too expensive, they overcharge for them! $10 for a movie ticket? get real!"

here's a thought: who ever even officially said that music should be cheap, let alone free? is it easy or cheap to write and produce and publish amazing music?

owning music that we can listen to whenever we want is not some right that we have, and i think we've grown to feel like it is.

just because a flatscreen plasma HDTV is expensive and is awesome and you want it, is it okay to steal it?

but this makes the situation most real for me.. even though i've never worked on a movie, or wrote any kind of great music, i know i can't even imagine how much work it takes to put it all together.

put yourself in their shoes.
if you wrote an original song.. if you designed a beautiful piece of art..

would you want someone to steal that from you?

[randoms]
-i will never use 0.7mm lead. i don't know why. i just grew up with 0.5mm and stuck with it. but that's only for lead pencils. as for pens, i will practically never use blue ink. i dunno why i just don't like it. my preferred is black, and i don't have any other colors.
-now that i live in a suite with five other doods, i re-discovered one of my shower hobbies. re-directing water from the showerhead to wash away random strands of hair stuck on the wall, the shower curtain, or anywhere on the bathtub. it's so addicting! and fun! maybe that's my slightly-OCD side of me talking.
-ever since i was younger, one of my dreams was to be trapped in shoprite. with a few friends, of course. i would wanna see how long we would be able to survive, only living off of what we could find in the store. we could last for months! more! YEARS?! hooohoo awesome, i'm laughing just thinking about it. if you steal that idea for a reality show after reading the post above, you have no heart.

too ninja for civics

I GOT T-BONED BY A CAR TODAY ON MY BIKE lols

[prep] [today, monday 9/14]
today, me and matthew took a bike ride together to college ave, 'cause i had to go to the public safety building to pick up my parking permit, and also to the university bookstore so i could pre-order an iclicker.

we biked to the rutgers student center and got on the F bus (bikes too), which brought us to the public safety building where i picked up my parking permit.

from there, the plan was to bike back to the scott hall stop and take the bus, or bike directly back to busch.

[set-up] [1:10pm]
at the intersection of hamilton and college ave, me and matthew were waiting to cross the crosswalk. i waited as i usually do until pedestrians start crossing, in order to ensure that cars would be stopping for at least the pedestrians, and i started my way across. a black civic was stopped nearby and the first in the row of cars, and as i started to cross, he started to accelerate. at that point, i was already square in front of his car, but i was just thinking to myself, "yeah, he'll stop. yeah.. okay, he's not stopping oh crap this is really happening --"

[action]
BAM! since i'm very aware when i ride my bike, i was already watching his car and anticipating the collision, and i was able to jump off my bike like i just messed up landing a bmx trick and proceeded to land square on my feet. TOO NINJA.

[aftermath]
i think both me and the driver took a few seconds to collect ourselves and take in what just happened. he steps out and apologizes and says some other stuff that i didn't take notice of, but then i'm just like whatever, and i pick up my bike and move it over to the sidewalk to check it out. the bike is fine, except that the back wheel is a little crooked where the car's bumper hit it. i had to disengage the rear brakes because they would touch a part of the tire on each revolution. it's okay, i never really used those crappy rear brakes anyway! my bike just got even ghetto-er, and i didn't even think that was possible.

[questions?]
you probably have a lot of questions. lemme give it a shot.
-the driver was male
-he was going straight
-yes, he had a green light
-no, i wasn't on the crosswalk, because his car was already stopped ON the crosswalk before i even attempted to cross it
-pedestrians were crossing despite the "red hand no walk" sign over the crosswalk
-no, i didn't get his info or plates or anything
-yeah, i know, i'll get it in the future from now on no matter the severity of the situation
-a handful of people probably saw, though it wasn't a big scene because a) the collision wasn't that big, and b) i landed on my feet
-he had [quickly] accelerated for about a second and then hit the brakes just a split-second before hitting me
-no, i wasn't scared
-matthew was behind me watching the whole thing and was greatly concerned for my health. what a good friend! not once on the entire bus ride home did he even do so much as crack a smile about the situation.
-my bike still runs well, and you wouldn't even be able to tell there was something wrong with the back wheel

[morals]
snowboard. it gives you a good sense of balance and teaches you how to fall well in impromptu situations.

[modnarrandom]
-maybe two years ago or so, i was at home taking out the trash. i was barefoot and took a step out the front door, and with the first step that landed on the ground outside, i stepped on something squishy. IT WAS A SLUG. i immediately freaked out and limp-ran upstairs to the bathtub to start scrubbing my foot with as much soap as i could. after a few minutes of soaping and scrubbing, i realized that the sole of my foot was squeaky clean, except for the one sliver print of where i stepped on the slug. MAD NASTS. i asked my mom what to do and she said to use baking soda. so i did, and it came off, just like that. moms are so smart.
-once, i stole a contacts case from baldwin pharmacy. i needed one, and it was like a ridiculous $4. not that that was what i used as my rationale, but it was my incentive. i don't remember ever stealing anything else.
-one time, i was in my room (the room which is now the guest room) and staying up late. it was like 4am. i needed to pee, but didn't want to open the door because it was gonna make a lot of noise. so, i stood up on my bed, opened the window, and peed out. the window was facing the back of my house, and i heard the long splatter on the pavement 20 feet or so below.

thank yous to my homies

thanks for reading my blog, doods.

all of you out there. the rare visitors, the occasional visitors, and the visitors that hound my gmail/aim status every day waiting to see when i update again.

i appreciate all of you very much.

(but i love you the most if you're in the last category :P)

---

living in a suite is mad cool. i'm in mccormick low-rise, 304. in through the main mccormick doors, make a left, make a right, and you're in low-rise!

i'm not used to ever having to wait to use the bathroom, since there were always plenty of stalls/showers in the dorm public bathrooms last year. however, our partial solution to this is just to leave the door unlocked while showering so that others can pee if need be. genius, i know.

HANGING POSTERS UP IS GREAT. but i don't have enough room. :[

i'm definitely understanding why once upperclassmen have a suite, they're so much more inclined to spend like all their time in the suite and ask YOU to visit THEM. why? because it's comfortable, easy, and everything you need is in your suite! except for food, which is just a trip to the dining hall.

the thing is, in a suite of six people, if you wanna chill with only a small number of people, like one or two others, you can have that. on the other hand, if you wanna hang out with a larger number of people, like three to five others, you can have that, too! in terms of friendships, the suite is self-sufficient! thus, it's so much easier to simply want to stay in all the time and ask other people to visit. heehee.

i'm not saying i'm stuck in that mentality, though, because i've done my share of visiting other people's dorms. along the same lines, i'm pushing myself each day to step out of my box more and meet people i normally wouldn't talk to, and it's been really cool.

I LOVE WORD GAMES. not exactly games that have to do with knowing vocabulary, because the size of my vocabulary is decent at best, but i'm talking along the lines of manipulating words and such. games like prolific on FB (which if you haven't heard of, i've been told is like boggle), word challenge which also on FB, and speed scrabble!

just yesterday, i played this game called bananagrams with robert, steph, and vincent. it's funny because it's simply speed scrabble. however, the differences are.. there are 144 tiles. and the tiles are square. AWESOME.

this seriously makes me consider getting bananagrams just to have the extra 44 tiles, and the convenience of the square tiles. plus, the tiles are beige and come in a zippered banana peel bag. $14? HMM.

scattergories is also really fun, especially in big group settings. i think playing on teams (of two) is the most fun, because winning is always more fun with a friend.

with the whole meeting new people and having fun hanging out, i definitely plan to stay on campus a lot more these weekends. i really don't have anything to do at home.

!!! i'm also going to see OWL CITY in concert at the school of rock in south hackensack. it's the same place i went to see amber pacific at in may. if anyone is interested in going, lemme know, it's on sep17th, thursday at 7pm. YAY OWL CITY!!!

so here's the part where you help me with my blog. lemme know what you think about it, what you like, what you don't like. anything!

i always try to picture what my blog would look like as if i were a third-party viewer, but that only goes so far.

some sample questions to get you started:
how do you like the music?
do you like that it auto-starts?
what are you interested in reading more about?

[randomizer]
-when i played neopets back in the day, my favorite neopet was the meerca. i'm not sure what about it attracted me so much to picking it, probably its ridiculously long tail or something, but it was my favorite neopet by far, and the only one i kept. i think. i also painted it gold (and paid a lot for it!) for some ridiculous reason that i can't understand now.
-whenever i pee in a urinal, i always mentally judge the quality of the urinal. by quality, i mean how good it is at re-directing and absorbing my pee stream so that it doesn't splash back at me.
-at fisher's landing elementary school in 1st grade in oregon, i rode the bus to school. one day, on the bus ride there, i was sitting with my best friend. i forget his name. as we approached the school, a bully told the bus driver that i was picking my friend's nose. the bus driver believed him over me, and i got in trouble for it. WHAT THE HECK!

ivory

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

that, above, is written on the wrapping of a bar of ivory soap. how cool! that line really makes me think about my life in perspective. lately, i've started to feel myself actually growing up and getting older, and man, it is a scary thing.

i specifically remember one moment at the beginning of my sophomore year of high school. i said to myself, "preston, high school is going to go by really quickly, but it's a good thing you're not at the halfway point, and you're only going to be a sophomore. you could throw away this year and still have enough time to redeem your high school years, but make the best of it now."

i'm not gonna say any of that "it felt like i was young just yesterday!" stuff, because when i think about middle school, all that feels REALLy far back in the past. i like school, because the education provides something to do, something to achieve.

is it bad if that is the "main" purpose of my life now, with everything else such as friends, games, life experiences, as "side" enjoyments? to think that in a few years there won't be anymore school!? scary.

i was talking with chris chu a while ago, and the way he described things to me put things in a scary kind of perspective for me.

a few things i remember:
after college, there won't be time to hang out with friends anymore, and if there is, it'll be limited. because "4/5" people will move to another area to work, and/or they'll get married.
church won't be nearly the same because the english young adults is nothing like college group which is already much different from regular youth group.
without a purpose or "thing to go after" once college is over, what'll i seek out and fill my life with, besides work?

which brings me back to the quote above.

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

i hope i've made the best of enjoying little things in the past. i think, if you take time to look around, you'll see your life filled with lots of little things that you may take for granted. but hey, youth is what it is, and it doesn't last forever.

every sunday school, every sermon, every "routine" worship team set, every applebee's get-together, every sleepover, every settlers game. make the best of it.

preston, college is going to go by really quickly. make the best of it now.

what are your little things that you enjoy now?

[randumz]
-when i was younger, i would go apple picking every year around october. one time, i brought a steak knife with me, and slashed up apples as they hung on the trees as if i were a samurai or something. i had a BLAST.
-DCLA. in DC. in 2006. at the beginning of one of the concerts, i was heading to the bathroom. and before i even got close to the door, guess who i SAW! DAVID CROWDER! a ton of other people were there and crowding him at the entrance to the bathroom, the poor guy. the point is, I GOT TO SHAKE HIS HAND HEHEH.
-one time in middle school, i got a nosebleed. i went to the nurse's office and it kept going for a long while. eventually, the nurse called my dad and he came to get me since my nose wouldn't stop bleeding. i went to see a doctor/private-physician-dood on the spot, and he stuck this solder-like thing up my nostril, and the bleeding stopped. he said my nose would never bleed again. that wasn't true.

are you holding back like the way i do?

sometimes, i wonder how my life would be different if i were in a different grade.

the most immediate alternative i think of would be the grade above me, since i'm really old for my grade and on the borderline to a grade older.

i know every once in a while i thought about it in terms of school friends, but usually it was with my church friends, because they're the ones that have been the most consistent throughout the years since i was waaaay young.

i think about the people i would be friends with, and wonder how that would change me as a person.

would i have different hobbies?

would i be a better student?

would i be more disciplined?

would my spiritual life be better?

would i still be good friends with these people who are in my grade right now?

would i be going to the same college?

ultimately, that's not to say, though, that i don't really like where i am now with the awesome people in my grade. :]

if you have some time [which you do because i have a short entry today], think about it for yourself. it's kind of interesting!

lemme know what you think up. :]

---

i'm watching my sister's dog (daisy) and one of her three cats (MCA). daisy is fun. and this is my first time taking care of MCA, and man, this cat is kind of whacky in the head. it likes climbing on everything, going through every nook and cranny it can find, knocking stuff over, and randomly sprawling out on the ground. but dood, it is so cool and whacky, hahah. i'm having fun. :]

[YOUR FAVORITE RANDOM FACTS ABOUT ME TIME YAY]
-when i was younger, i would always watch my parents move the gear-shifter stick thing in the middle and get really curious about it myself. so, one day, while my mom was driving, i was riding shotgun. when i noticed she wasn't looking, in one quick motion, i pressed the button on the gear-shifter and gave it a pull downwards. looking back, i think i put it directly into park. lols. my mom quickly pulled the car over to the side of the road and scolded me etc etc. yay for curiosity!
-when i was younger, my parents had this blue car. one day, we were waiting at a stoplight, maybe like 5-6 cars back from the light. my mom was driving, and i was sitting in the backseat right behind her. a truck+trailer was on our left, the one that carries like eight cars on it. it was making a left turn, and the rear right end of the trailer slowly and seemingly painstakingly scraped up the left side of our car. my mom was honking furiously but i think the truck driver was too far away to immediately hear. what an experience. heehee.
-once, i cooked ramen on the stove. i boiled clean water that i scooped up from the toilet bowl. it tasted normal. :]

SETTLERS

i love playing settlers. the simple gameplay with multiple underlying layers of depth and strategy played on a randomized game board with different dynamics every game.. golden.

recently, though, i've encountered some settlers controversy with me and my good friend, matthew. we played a lot of settlers together, and it got to the point where we'd be at each other's throats over in-game disputes on "how to play correctly" or "what the right thing to do is" and stuff like that, and we decided that we shouldn't play together. yeah, it was that bad.

ironic, because just a few weeks ago, i was amused by something matthew said:

"i love playing settlers because i get to hate you for those 45 minutes"

this makes me think a bit. what IS it that makes settlers enjoyable? what makes it "ruthless" as many people put it?

there are probably infinitely many different reasons, but here are some of my thoughts..

apparently, there are some unwritten "rules" to settlers.

"i'm sorry, but i have to!"

one of these rules that some people strongly believe in is that you must always do whatever you can in your power to help yourself to win. use the robber whenever you have the chance to, and everything and anything else that can benefit you, you must do.

another of these rules is that you have to target whoever is winning. it's not "right" to target people who aren't winning, because you're upsetting the natural balance of the game. the debate here comes into play when figuring out who is actually winning. some people judge it based only on points, which is accurate, but naive for a few reasons. check it out:

if person A has four settlements, and holds longest road, person A has 6 points.
if person B has five settlements, he/she only have 5 points.
who's winning?
points-wise, person A.
LOGICALLY AND SMARTLY SPEAKING WISE (heehee, i'm not biased at all), person B. why? person B has 5 points worth of settlements/cities, so we can call those 5 "resource-producing" points. person A only has 4 points worth of settlements/cities, so theoretically speaking, person A isn't making as much as person B. by attacking person A who has more points by using the robber and such, person B will be able to continue gathering resources and his rate of production will be much greater than person A because the attention is off of him.

some people also find it important to point out who's winning, or who has the most points, or when someone reaches x amount of points. i don't see this as bad, since some people may slip under the radar and get close to winning, so it's important to "notify" the general public.

here's a big question: is winning itself the only point of settlers?

yeah, i play to win, naturally. it's fun to win! it's a nice sense of accomplishment, especially in an intense four-player game. but, as with many other things, the desire to win can result in a lack of other courtesies that you would normally exhibit as a person outside of the game, such as, oh, BEING NICE.

i don't just mean being nice as in "oh i won't put the robber on anyone!" i mean being nice as in attitude, words spoken, and general play style exhibited. it is just a game.

some people get annoyed at people who take the game too seriously and tell them "it's just a game, stop being so serious!"

it's funny, because then i also see people who take the game seriously provide reasoning for how they play by saying "it's just a game, chill out, i'm nice in real life."

i accept that, and i don't think that people who play meanly in settlers are mean in real life, because i know they aren't. however, i think, whether people notice it or not, the way that people play settlers is also somewhat representative of their own selves.

there's also something to be said about "becoming how you act". yeah, that's the informal way of putting it and i'm not sure how psychology puts it or whatever, but if you play enough mean/selfish games of settlers, there's only so much time that will pass before that play style starts to gradually become accepted (by yourself and others) as traits and characteristics of your own personality as a person.

back to the point, if winning is the only goal of settlers, then technically everyone should go all out and do everything in their power to win, right? meaning being mean in every way possible, being selfish in every trade and expansion and use of development cards, etc.

however, there's the other side of people who realize that if they play the crowd correctly, they can win by being nice. being nice allows you to have a certain veil over you as a player, since less attention is brought to you when you're not putting the robber on other people or stealing cards from other people. and being under the radar is always a key to victory. it's also a good strategy to be nice, because sometimes other people just roll more 7's than you do, at which point, if you got on their bad side, you're screwed!

for me, as well as a few people that i know, i get just about as much (if not more) enjoyment as i would from winning, when i help someone else to win. it's even more exciting when the person i'm helping is the underdog by a big stretch, and together we team up to make a huge comeback to steal the win from the first-place player. kind of a jerk move, but if a team effort results in 3 people working together and winning against 1 person, then the greater good is achieved right?

i remember once in game, me and abel weren't winning, but we pooled our resources together and helped the person in second place to build 5 roads in one turn and steal longest road, and thus the game, away from the point-leader, eric chen. yeah, eric wasn't too happy about that, but the whole enjoyment came from the fact that it was so epic and seemingly unachievable.

sometimes when i build up a partnership with someone else in the game, i end up realizing that i would be just as happy if they won as if i myself won.

i feel like because settlers is "just a game", it provides a cover (or excuse) for the "evil sides" of people's personalities to be free and run rampant. kinda like, it brings out the worst in people. ya know? [not everyone, mind you, so don't get the impression that everyone is suddenly super evil and selfish and mean and ruthless when they play settlers, haha]

what a fun game.

[riii]
-i took karate when i was younger, like in elementary school sometime. i think i generally enjoyed it. i don't think it actually taught me anything useful, though, since i don't remember any of it now.
-i was part of a swimming program at the ymca in 4th grade, and i HATED it. freestyle was the worst. i kept feeling like i was going to drown, hahah. i would occasionally grab onto the floating lane lines to support myself, once or twice while swimming across the pool. i did, however, enjoy the backstroke. it was relaxing, and i didn't feel like i was going to drown. i was just afraid of drifting sideways, and also hitting the concrete on the other end of the pool.
-i played indoor soccer, also at the ymca, when i was in 4th grade. i liked this a LOT. i remember i always played defense, always always always. i was the tallest kid on my team. on the contrary, i remember our goalie was the shortest kid on our team, and many a goal were scored on him since he was so small. noob. i probably saved his butt a billion times. i think i scored like one goal, or maybe two, by kicking it super hard from my end of the field, since the overall field was so small. OH. and one time, i went for a ball at the same time as this kid from the other team, and we collided shins together pretty hard. he cried like crazy because it hurt, and yeah my shin hurt a little too under the shinguard, but the funny part is i specifically remember trying to limp or grab my leg to make it look my shin hurt because i felt bad that he was crying and i wasn't. joke time!: i liked sharks and other marine animals when i was younger, so when we voted for team names, i chose the blue sharks, naturally, since blue was my favorite color. i didn't realize until some time later, since no one told me, that our shirts were purple. no wonder the crowds or parents were always kinda confused when they heard our team name.

burning down neverland

one of those spontaneous and weird ideas you think of and you can't believe you end up following through with.

for those of you who don't know, me and matthew chao are taking the same statics class at rutgers on tuesday and thursday, and we have calc class at the same time monday-thursday, so we get a good amount of hanging out and studying done.

this tuesday that just passed, me and mr. matthew went to good ol' SERC to work on statics homework, due that same day. our statics classroom is in 205, except neither me nor matthew like sitting in the desk/chair things that they have in that classroom. they're uncomfortable, have limited desk space, and don't allow interaction with other people. however, the room right next to it, 206, had the glorious long tables with cushy armrest chairs. we were both fans of these comfy chairs and long tables, which encouraged group work. clearly, this was the better option, and we settled down here.

this is matthew chao, electrical engineer OF THE FUTURE! (ha, look at that geeky shirt.)

while working on statics, as seen above, i had an idea. here is the conversation*.

me: hey matthew, i wish we had these tables and chairs in our statics class.
matthew: yeah.
me: the desks we have are so uncomfortable!
matthew: i guess so.
me: you know.. we should move all these tables and chairs over to our statics room!
matthew: yeah.
me: people would be more comfortable, and it encourages group interaction!
matthew: i guess so.
me: wow, do you think we could do it?!
matthew: yeah.
me: haha that'd be crazy, OKAY LET'S DO IT.
matthew: i guess so.

*i don't remember exactly what matthew said, and i don't want to quote him saying something he didn't, so i took the liberty of just making up stuff.

it was one of those things that i said out loud because it popped into my mind, but i didn't think i would actually go through with. never before has someone taken so excitedly to one of these ideas of mine as matthew did that day, which really got me excited for this endeavour. it quickly went from a funny hypothetical situation to seriously considering and planning out how to go about it, and if we would get caught, and such. we began by making time estimates on how long it would take. matthew said ten minutes. i said thirty minutes. oh, we were so wrong.

to start, we stacked the desk-chairs into piles of 4-5, and carried them over together. we decided we would start by moving the desk-chairs in 205 (our statics classroom with the annoying desks) over to 206.

halfway through the moving, we realized that the number of seats in the two classrooms differed quite a bit. 205 had 58 desk-chairs, but 206 only had 39 seats. uh oh. we stood there. we contemplated it. does our statics class have that many people..? we realized it was too late to back out. ONWARDS.

after we moved all 58 chairs over to 206 and left them there in stacks, we began the task of moving the 20ish tables from 206 to 205. one by one. one by one. man, walking backwards is so annoying, especially in sandals, as we both were.

this was around the halfway point, and all this lifting and moving was actually really tiring. we definitely underestimated this whole ordeal. we underestimated the scope of it, the work required, and how unfun it would actually be moving all those darned chairs and desks. regardless, we had to press on.

after all the tables were moved over, we stacked all the chairs from 206 and carried those over to 205 as well.

fast foward a bit. and.. FINALLY. everything was where it was supposed to be, except the desks and chairs were in stacks. it was the final stretch where we unstacked them and put them in rows or behind tables where they belonged.

the whole thing took an hour+, and after it was over, it was such a relief. high fives were exchanged. grins were worn. hug was given. :]

i only took a few pics, because there wasn't much to see. it was just a lot of annoying labor.

but, was it worth it in the end?

mm. yeah.

going to statics class, everyone looked pleasantly surprised and refreshed at the change in seating, although mr. grad student statics teacher dhaval dadia was none too pleased. i think i heard him say "ridiculous!".

i found out we have 37 people in our statics class, and only 39 seats. look how that worked out! definitely the funniest part of that day was when people trickled in late, and each person stood in the middle of the class and had a bewildered look on his/her face when looking around for a seat to sit in. funnnnnny stuff. AND, since one half of the room has seats in rows of 4, we witnessed these two people that arrived early and sat in the MIDDLE two seats, leaving one seat on each side of the pair. WHO DOES THAT?! we called them the awkward sitters. though matthew just likes to use the term "idiots".

i enjoy statics MORE now, and i wish we thought of the idea sooner, but we're only about halfway through the session, so there's still time to enjoy our work. as we were sitting in class, matthew and i both really wanted to tell other people about who moved the desks, but unfortunately, we both didn't know anyone in the class. doh. it's okay. we understand.

and he came over after class.

and we saw transformers 2. :D

[exciting: when i went into clearview cinema 12, they have that little table in the middle of the lobby area that has the popcorn seasoning stuff, and on the table was a full jumbo bucket of popcorn! it must have been a present! i looked around and waited for about a minute to see if it was anyone's or if anyone came to claim it, but no one did, so i took it. i discreetly dumped it all out in a trash can (what do you think i am, gross!?), and got a refill. and we saw transformers.]

what a good day.

[r!r!r]
-when i drive on the highway, my preferred hand positions on the wheel are 3 and 11. i've only formally discovered this recently because of all the driving i had to do for summer classes at rutgers. it just works.
-i went to the hillsong concert in new york in june, and rode the subway for the first time. i think after seeing how gross the standing poles on the subway are, i became more wary of things in public that have been touched by a lot of people and may be really dirty. for example, now whenever i open a door of any kind at school, i try to push/pull on the handle or door only where i think nobody has touched it before.
-when i was younger, i used to hold my nose with my hand and exhale forcefully, to pop my ears if they were ever feeling weird. however, i occasionally did it really forcefully, and at unnecessary times, as well as unnecessarily extended lengths of time. it was probably because i thought it was interesting that the pressure i felt in my head that popped my ears out, i also felt in my tear ducts, as if they were connected somehow (which i now know, are). and thus the story goes.. not too long after, i had a nosebleed. and blood came out of my tear ducts. the end.

into the velvet sky

[about this song: I LOVE IT. the instant i heard owl city's music, i knew i had to get whatever albums they had out. they remind me of postal service, or as my friend put it, "electronica death cab", which works too. thank you betsy for showing them to me, who thanks jon huang for showing them to her. this entry is not directed at any particular person(s), nor do i have any particular person(s) in mind while writing it.]

here's something i recently thought of that i've been wondering about for a while [but hasn't occurred recently].

when someone shares a band/musical artist to someone else, why is there that certain sense of "ownership" from the person who originally shared it? i remember back as recently as a few years ago, this situation wasn't uncommon, whether witnessing it or personally experiencing it.

person A: yo, check out this band! they're great!
person B: woohoo, thanks dood! -- listens -- AWESOME!
[person B puts the song on their xanga]
xanga post: "HEY I LOVE THIS SONG YEAHH"
person A: YO, i showed you that band, and you didn't even mention me!? i listened to them FIRST! ZOMGZZBBQBQBBQAHHHDFD

i can understand it if person B makes some claim like "i love band xyz!" when they've only heard one song by them, but that's clearly not the case here.

i feel like the reason is that the person A's in today's society think what they listen to defines who they are, or their personality, or something like that. perhaps they feel threatened when a newcomer "claims" that music for themselves. too much emphasis is placed on who originally listened to/discovered the band, as if there was some big importance to the origin.

i know some people who don't listen to certain groups just because they carry with them a name, and a reputation for the "kind of people" who listen to them, or simply because the music is mainstream, and they don't want to seem like they're conforming with everyone else. maybe like clothing brand names?

i say, like what you like, and share [by word of mouth] with others what you like, too. i know there's probably tons more to say about this topic, but i think these are the extent of the conclusions that i've reached. what do you guys think?

i mean, i'm not goin' around saying, "johnny got me into taylor swift, now i love listening to her music!" every time someone mentions taylor swift. of course not! i'm just gonna say "i like taylor swift!" i'm sure johnny doesn't mind that i don't credit him.

the suggestion to listen to something may have come from someone else, but ultimately, how much you enjoy and like the music is completely your own.

[r][r][r][r]
-the only time i ever took a bus was in first grade when i went to fisher's landing elementary school in oregon. it was interesting.
-i got in trouble once on the bus. as we arrived at school, a bully tattled on me and said that i picked my friend's nose. which i didn't. the bus driver didn't believe me. lame.
-on the bus ride home, i would stare directly at the sun. until it turned into a black circle. or until i got to my stop.
-each day when i got off the bus stop, i found a rock on the ground. i kicked it all the way to my front door. i ended up with a big pile of rocks at the front door.

take down this molotov of words

(10:48:01 PM) Matthew Chao: hey
(10:48:07 PM) Matthew Chao: what are you working on
(10:48:14 PM) Preston Chang: trig integrals(10:48:22 PM) Matthew Chao: omg
(10:48:22 PM) Preston Chang: go to 438(10:48:24 PM) Matthew Chao: those make me so hot
(10:48:26 PM) Matthew Chao: ok

this is why matthew is my study buddy. 'cause he'll osculate YOUR curves. (i don't know what that means.)

[r-r-r]
-when i was younger, like in middle school times, i used to wear shirts that were mad sizes larger than i was, like, they had to be at least XL. going into high school, i gradually shifted down to L. i only recently made the change, meaning like two years ago, to M.
-when i was younger, i wanted to be a fighter pilot. specifically, of an F-14. i think this was 95% due to seeing tom cruise be so awesome in top gun. YEAH. TOP GUN.
-when i was younger, i sold david yang a beedrill card for $20 on a friday night at church. when i told my parents, my mom was upset at this, but my dad said it was fine. heehee.
--mini-random fact: to be honest, the random facts are my second favorite part of each blog entry. my favorite part is all of the comments you guys have. :]