Kevin Cheng @ Harvest South Bay

12/24/02

Yay, Christmas eve. A day dedicated to hanging out with family and friends.
I'm sorry to say that Adaptation was a little dissapointing. All the funny stuff seemed to have been caught by the trailer and the story was just not up to par with Kaufman's previous efforts--specifically, the wildly twisted Being John Malkovich.

12/21/02

Vacation time is movie time. Tonight, Adaptation. Now, I feel pretty confident about my movie-predicting abilities, AKA: "If it looks stupid on the trailer, it probably is," and Adaptation looks brilliant. Charlie Kaufman [the screenwriter] is smart, incredibly funny, and completely random, it's always a joy to watch his work. Go see Adaptation.

12/18/02

Okay, The Two Towers is an incredible movie. You must go see it. I don't know how to describe it. It is... GRAND. Anyway, go see it, there's walking trees, flying dragons, giant beasts, Orcs, Elves, Hobbits, Rangers, Dwarfs, Wizards, grand armies colliding with each other in battle, and a great story.

12/17/02

It is the night before the release of The Two Towers. Right now, The Fellowship of the Ring is playing on my TV and nothing can take me away from it... except blogging. (Okay, it's very long.) Anyway, tomorrow, The Two Towers. Meanwhile, The Fellowship of the Ring.

Allow me to also mention that Medal of Honor, Allied Assult is a very good game. I'm having a great time being a soldier and am very relieved that I made it off the beach at Normandy. If you have time, give it a go.

12/15/02

It's been a busy couple of days with wrapping post-production of the Danny and Lillian video. (Read: Had to burn it onto a CD) Sounds simple enough, but hard to do without the right software. So after a two-hour trip to the local apple store (thanks to holiday shopping traffic) and a $100 swipe of a credit card-- (shudder) --everything works now.

Oh, and if you didn't know. You can now access this website with www.kevcheng.com

12/13/02

ok, must keep breathing. Been watching The Two Towers trailers nonstop all morning, so pumped for movie. Visit www.lordoftherings.net or www.theonering.net for lots of info and stuff, Apple Quicktime page for trailer.

12/10/02

Seasons greetings video, the almost-Final cut.

Click here.

12/09/02

The Seasons Greetings video is progressing once again. Wilkin, Bobby, Martin, Makoto, Stacey, Mia, and Lily have been added. The deadline is friday. I will post the one more rough cut and a final cut here. Rough cut by tonight. Final cut soon.

12/08/02

What's the number one ingredient of effective studying?

Those of you in college, repeat after me--GOOD MUSIC!

Here's what's playing on my computer.

Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach - I still have that other girl

Mose Allison - You are my sunshine

12/04/02

The Seasons Greetings video for Danny and Lillian (our missionaries to China, for those who are not familiar with my church) is still a work in progress... here's a real rough cut.

11:18 PM
Sorry, if version 1 is slow or choppy, it's because the church server is quite slow.

Okay. Version 2 (full length) is now ONLINE.

Now Off-Line: 1/08/03

You should have Quicktime 6 installed.

12/03/02

Here's the first draft of my new film studio logo. I like the mood the picture portrays. This one is probably not going to be used much. I'm told I should get an illustration done for a logo instead of a stock picture--probably a good idea. I'm going to try to find a designer to do an illustration to just capture the mood. So maybe a designer is reading this... maybe you're itching to work for free! Oh, alright, payment negotiable. Feel free to write me.

Oh yeah, why is it called January Man? The concept for a "January Man" came from my first script. An actor/musician friend wrote a song based on what the main character must have felt after the story ended, the day after, if you like. The main character broke up with this girl and he is looking foward to a new start. A "January Man," if you please. The past is behind him now and he's thinking about the rest of the year that's ahead of him.

I want to do that, I want to start each film project with new enthusiasm, new ideas.

Like a January Man.

12/02/02

[Kevin is currently in full-panic mode as he realizes that he has two finals one week away from today. If you have any valium, prozac, or diarrhea suppressant, please have it sent to Kevin's apartment]

11/27/2002

Am I just bad at video games? Do I have a non-conformist learning curve?

I played Counter Strike tonight at Eric and Mike's place. I sucked, I just plain sucked at it. I don't know why, maybe it's because these characters run slower than I'm used to, maybe I'm used to RUNNING while I'm SHOOTING, maybe I'm just really bad at video games.

But I digress.

What's really on my mind tonight is this: I've noticed that my page here has been getting a lot of hits these days, well, not like 10,000 a day, but enough that I've noticed a growth in traffic...

WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE? I'M AWFULLY CURIOUS! If you read my page regularly, drop me a line and let me know. It's good to know who my audience is. Click on the E-mail link up there, type in a sentence like "Hi, I'm Katie Holmes and I read your site because I find you IRRESISTABLE." or "Hi, I'm Conan O'Brien and I read your site because someday I want you on my show." Just something simple, okay? I look foward to hearing from you. Go. Click. Now.

11/19/02

Somebody out there read my mind. There's this group of Christians who argues that picking what car you drive is a moral choice and that it is wrong to drive something that is excessively polluting and inefficent. (Not to mention dangerous to the other drivers.) Visit http://www.whatwouldjesusdrive.org today!

11/17/02

Congratulations to my friend Stephanie, who, for the first time in her life, has finally watched an episode of the Simpsons and had a good time. It is the beginning of a beautiful, lifelong obsession with the single most important television show... ever.

11/16/02

Yes, yes, a week from today is the third church Scavenger Hunt I'll be hosting, and, as usual, here is the hype.

11/04/02

Votin' day tomorrow, people; go speak you mind. Kevin supports the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship regime with Kevin being the totalitarian dictator. First order of business: Stop those awful Chinese soap operas being shown on the international channel right after lunch. They're horrible!!!

10/22/02

10/21/02

Once someone asked me why I liked Homer Simpson so much. Apparantly she could not believe that anyone would find him likable, because, well, "He's so stupid!" Well, I think Homer is likable not because of what he does, but because of who he is. See, much like Homer Simpson, we all walk around full of pride, thinking we know what we're doing, that we're smart and could make good judgement calls. But the truth of the matter is, none of us really knows what's best for ourselves. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." -Isaiah 55:9

On top of that, all of us are foolishly driven by greed and selfishness at one time or another, just like Homer and his various: "mmm... forbidden doughnut," "mmm... free goo," "mmm... pointy," "mmm... fuzzy," "mmm... sacrilicious," "Mmmm. Sixty-four slices of American Cheese," "Mmmm... unexplained bacon," etc. But here's what's so likable about Homer. He loves his family, he tries hard to do the best thing for them, and when Marge can't stand Homer anymore and finally let him have it, he's (most of the time) humbled and acknowledges that he was wrong. I guess I like Homer because he is a caricature of ourselves, full of obnoxious faults, foolish and proud and yet still redeemable. It reminds me how dependent on God we are for his Grace and also not to take life too seriously. Nothing's permanent here, ya know. "Everything's too damn expensive nowadays. Look at this Bible I just bought. 15 bucks! --and talk about preachy! Everybody's a sinner--except this one guy." -Homer.

10/13/02

Still quite sick, throat hurts like mad, driving me insane. Should've taken advice of Arex and took Zinc and Vitamin C, etc. early. Now pain lasts too long and life sucks... but at least I'm getting lots of sleep.

Forgive me, but I must go off on a rant right now... what's with FOX putting on baseball when the Simpsons are supposed to be on? I mean, I don't mind baseball, but come on, it's the Simpsons!!! Now I gotta sit around until the game is over and then catch the Simpsons and then again at 11pm... too much work! I hope baseball ends soon and we can all just go back to having Simpsons on at 6, 7:30, and 11 as usual.

10/03/02

Haha... I saw this on a webboard for Mac games.

"Being a Mac user is like being a Navy Seal: a small, elite group of people with access to the most sophisticated technology in the world, who everyone calls on to get the really tough jobs done quickly and efficiently."

9/29/02

I wonder how long I can keep updating almost every day, maybe it'll become a habit and before long this webpage will take an hour to load.

Tonight I'm feeling mighty depressed. The world seemed to be shot. Recently I've found out all these things that are happening to my friends that are bad (and also I can't do anything about) and then every day in the news it seems like we're getting closer and closer to another war. Now, all these things might not all turn out to be bad, friends might grow from challenges, their faith strengthened, and a war might remove a plaguing problem we've had for years, but it really doesn't feel like the world is safe and kind anymore.

My bed may still be soft, my food may still come to me warm, but the world outside is changing, and sooner or later, it'll affect things closer to me, closer to all of us.

9/28/02

School started, sucks. School always suck, even when it's good. It just sucks even more when it's bad.

What does NOT suck is that I got my Digital Video Camcorder. It's been a blast videotaping various things. I took it for a spin in my car already (mounted on a tripod) and then onto Martin's car while I'm a passenger. I also shoot people when they come visit my place. Fun.

If any of you have ideas for an ultra-low budget movie, or if you want to act in an ultra-low budget movie, please E-mail me.

I think some of you might find this interesting, these are just my observations, so take it with a fistful of salt...
Have any of you noticed how Star Trek reflects the American society? Back when the original Trek was out, they had the prime directive (Not to mess with any civilization) but Kirk the maverick always go off and mess with other cultures. It seemed to reflect on America's role as the world's policemen back in the 50s and 60s, what with the Korean War, Vietnam, etc. America was always poking around in other people's business.

Then the 80s and 90s hit and we had the Next Generation, where Pickard really followed the prime directive and tried not to mess with other civilizations. I realize that there was the Golf War, but we weren't really there to fight communism and change this country's government, instead, it was kinda just for oil and "justice." This reflects on the post-modernism that consumes America even today. Everyone has their own thing so we shouldn't mess with other people.

Then things get REALLY interesting.

See, on Enterprise, Captain Archer (who looks like Prez. Bush) and his crew fights the "Suliban" (TALIBAN!!!) and they're this race that can make themselves invisible (like terrorists, they hide and sabotage) and they're somehow controlled by an mysterious commander (futureguy) that they couldn't really track down.

How about that? Okay, good night.

9/25/02

Yay! New content! Sorry it took so long, had trouble with DreamWeaver. (Getting it) But the trip to New York was good. (Went deep sea fishing) Visit to DC was great. (Took touristy picture in front of the White House. Never gonna show anyone.) Visit to Maine was good, ate lobsters and shopped for some of my favorite stuff. (Rockport and Reebok shoes, beautiful glass paperweight, etc. fun.)

I worked most of the summer and got paid about $3 grand. Bought a new Mac, (See Mac update) Harman Kardon Soundsticks, Canon Optura 100MC digital camcorder (Waiting for delivery)

School is starting very soon. Dreading.

MAC UPDATE: Dual 867 PowerMac system with 768 megs of DDR RAM. 60 Gig HD. DVD + CDRW. Nvidia Geforce4 MX. OS 10.2.1 The reason why I bought a Digital Video Camcorder (DV Cam) is so that I can take steps towards making my own movies. The PowerMac is ready to take on movie studio duties and I'm ready to give cinematography a try. I think the first film to be made is going to be on a topic I feel very passionate about, it's something that I always have plenty of things to say. Yeah... it's gonna be about my obsession with cars. Check back now and then for the MOVIE UPDATE.

7/30/02

Time passes again! Well, I'm going to New York / DC / Maine at the end of this week, so you will not see an update for a while. But tonight I have a real treat-- the long-promised picture of my guitar. So yeah. There it is... mmmhmm. It took me about 15 minutes to transform one side of my room into a studio, I used literally every light I had in the room (5 in all) and I think it looks reasonably nice. So that's my guitar.

MAC update: I'm counting down to Jaguar, which is launching August 24th, I'm really looking foward to Quartz Extreme and also the springloaded folders. Also, new G4 Powermacs are expected August 13th, so I'm thinking about upgrading to a dual 1.2. That's about it for now. In the mean time, visit your local Apple store for a fun time.

7/14/02

Wow, how time passes.

My guitar did arrive, it's beautiful! Picture to follow soon.

Grandma and some cousins and also my mom came to visit for a few days-- very hectic days filled with opinionated chatty women. We went to Universal Studios and Disneyland for fun, got burned, but was reasonably fun.

My Internship at NeoImagery.com is going well. Making a good wage and also getting plenty of driving time (2 hrs/day.) I have come to really appreciate KLON, Los Angeles's Jazz Station.

6/4/02

So my entire small group went out to eat Brazillian barbecue last night... oh... my... goodness... there was blood on the table. I'm still a little dizzy. Good fellowship and good food, it was a great time.

To experience insane amounts of good meat and lightening of wallet, visit Picanha. In Burbank.

5/25/02

So I finally got Raya Yarbrough's new CD, I'm just starting to listen to it. She will be at Lunaria Bar and Grill on June 7th. Cover charge should be $8. Try to park around the restaurant to avoid the $3.50 valet parking charge.

5/24/02 2:05 AM.

Turned 22 today. Yay. Ok, good night.

5/18/02

Oh. My. Goodness. After learning and playing the guitar for three years, my parents have decided to buy me the guitar of my dreams for my birthday. It is probably the awesomest gift ever. I've been dreaming about it for years now, and I hope to get it soon. Click HERE to find out more about Tacoma guitars. and THIS is what I will be getting, except I will add a Tobacco Sunburst.

5/14/02

I saw "The Godfather" trilogy over the past few months, and, wow, it's such a good trilogy. A whole other kind of "Family" movie, you know. Be sure to check it out when you have time, time being the key word here, the movies are all so long...

5/12/02

Wow, things certainly looks a lot nicer around here this time around. Major layout redesign thanks to Alex Hsu. Visit his cool page at www.alexhsu.com.

5/03/02

Still pretty sick. Missing Friday night fellowship, sitting at home being miserably bored because too tired / lazy / drugged out to study.So I've been watching this Bravo TV show called "Inside the actor's studio" for a while now and they always end each interview with a set of questions from Bernard Pivot, some guy who has some show on French television. I thought I'd give it a go myself.

Wow, "Singing in the rain" is a exceptionally well-made, fun, spectacular movie. Track it down and see it if you haven't. All the singing and dancing will sooner or later get to you and you'll probably want to start wearing a suit and hat everywhere you go just to be cool like Gene Kelly--and if you do get that urge--I'd say do it.

4/15/02

So here's one of the songs ("You're so bad for me") from the Raya Yarbrough CD (Walking at twilight) ... I would like to encourage you to buy it if you like it. 'Cause, you know, she actually MADE AN EFFORT to write and make this song and I think people who are gutsy enough to become an independent musician really deserves our money. (Versus say Cher, Ricky Martin, Britney Spears, Savage Garden, Enrique Iglesias, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, N'Sync, Backstreet boys, Marc Anthony, Jacko and Janet Jackson, All Saints, 5ive, Spice Girls, Robbie Williams, Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Lopez, and my personal favorite anti-artist, Kenny G.)

I'd go on, but then I still want this page to load in under a minute.

Anyway. How would one order such an original piece of art? Well, according to this business card that came with the CD, you can E-mail her at Raya_Yarbrough@hotmail.com to order it. I bought it for $15 and it has 9 songs total. Have fun.

3/13/2002

So I was sitting outside in the Court of Sciences at UCLA yesterday, waiting for class to begin. I was reading a book by Charles Baxter, a short story about this girl being in love with this boy and how both of them were kinda lost and confused right after graduating from college and how they fell in love and how they encouraged each other and managed to get each other a job and some sort of a new life.

And the time came when the previous class ended and the students exited the lecture hall and it was time for me to go in.

But I didn't want to.

I sat there and realized how much time I've been spending indoors, in my room writing programs or doing homework or updating webpages or just playing on the computer or at school in lecture or discussion or in the Student Union running errands or eating.

I spend 30 minutes outside a day, probably.

2/26/2002

Well, lately I've been thinking and praying about a missionary trip to China this summer.
Since this is pretty much the LAST SUMMER I'LL EVER HAVE, it's also my last chance
for getting an internship for some job experience. What to do? What to do!? WHAT TO DO!?

Kevin is responsible for most of the photographs and some of the graphics you see on the website. If you don't like any of it, we're sure he's very sorry.

Also, in case you're interested, Kevin uses a Canon Elan IIe with Sigma 28-80 and 70-300 Zoom Lenses. He also uses Fuji Film exclusively for its great color contrast and depth. 
(Superia 400, 800 and NPS 160.)

E-mail me:

Portfolio

Favorites movies:
Blade Runner
Face/Off
American Beauty Schindler's List
The Indiana Jones Trilogy
Rear Window

Independent Muscians:
Jason Mraz
Carlos Olmeda
Gregory Page
Steve Poltz

Not-so-independent-muscicians:
DC Talk
Karrin Allyson
Stacey Kent
Diana Krall

Photography:
Canon
Sigma
Fuji Film

Computing: