11/12/04
Life is better when you can share it with someone.
11/3/04
Vegas, baby, Vegas.
Packing my kit tonight. Leaving
early in the morning for a "photo assignment."
Hopefully I'll be able to resist the temptation to gamble.
11/2/04
It's tempting to do tell you to vote for ME on this day...
But I won't, cause, you know,
voting is important! ... this time.
Go forth, vote, before the crazy people take over. Or, at
least, when we're enslaved by taxes and fighting terrorists
on our front porches we could still say "Don't blame
me! I didn't vote for this!"
10/29/04
Happy birthday, whereever you are. This one is for you.
"Hello,
Goodbye" She walks with these quiet steps
there's a playfulness in her smile
I stare at her through the mirrors
I can't help myself
I wonder who I look like
in her eyes
and I wonder if she sees
herself reflected in mine
So long Good bye
Forget her by the morning light
she'll never miss my face
so go on smile and say goodnight
Hello good bye
it's the same thing every night
but then
someday she might be whisked away
so go on, smile and savor today
Hello tonight
she's glowing in my eyes (so bright)
I want to make her stay
so maybe I'll ask her for her name
I know I'll only miss her
when she goes away
so forgive me if I don't
have the courage today
Someone else is standing there
from where she used to smile
My courage is here now
but she's not around
So long Good bye
I will miss your smile, your laugh, your eyes
tonight you might be far away
but that doesn't mean I won't come back some other day
10/28/04
What do You want out of me? What do You want me to learn?
Is it that I'm not faithful
enough? That I'm sinful, selfish, full of pride, got my priorities
in all the wrong places? I know that.
I know that I don't deserve any of Your blessings and yet
I lament and complain to You that I deserve more. Some days
I hate You and some days I hate myself. You constantly indulge
me and yet I 'm filled to the brim with anger and bitterness.
So help me God. In the mean time, please keep that rain around.
10/27/04
When Econ Nerds look at the Election: Game
theory
10/22/04
FOB song #2, Revision #6
Tired, not gonna write much,
except it's so much more relaxing shooting yourself without
your head in the video. No more "How do I look?"
I get some perks with this job,
working at this subtitle company. This is by far the greatest
perk ever. Today I sat down and "worked" on The
Incredibles. Which actually means I saw about 90% of the movie
and the Chinese translation for it. It was mindblowingly entertaining,
I had so much fun watching it, it's definitely the most entertaining
movie I've seen in a LONG time, so come Nov. 5th, go, watch,
and be happy.
10/18/04
New first cousin once removed
For those of you (like me) who
has no real idea what a "first cousin once removed"
is, it's my cousin's son. Born Thursday, Oct 14th, 2004. He's
so cute, so tiny. Babies are tiny miracles and children are
truly gifts from God.
I asked for rain last week,
(See Oct 9th entry) and tonight, it rained. I love that smell,
that feel of moisture in the air. Thanks, God.
10/14/04
El nerdo
Quick, in 30 seconds or less,
tell me what the word "Eureka" means and how it
came about. Go ahead, think it through and then read the next
paragraph.
I am such a nerd. Today my co-worker
asked me how to translate "Eureka," which means
"I've found it." That was easy enough, considering
people were looking for stuff in this episode of Smallville
that he was translating.
But what was scary is this: I knew that "Eureka"
was a Greek word meaning "I've found it" and that
it was made famous by Archimedes upon discovering the method
of calculating / comparing object densities and then he decided
to go jogging naked yelling our word of the day through the
streets... and I knoew this FROM MEMORY... Yes, I am a nerd.
Some of you, please tell me
you also know this so I won't feel like such a dork.
10/11/04
Video blog: Creativity while living a full working life
I have this nagging fear. That
ten, fifteen year from now I will be a successful, dedicated
businessman so caught up in my work, of making money and having
success that my life will be taken over with boring, pointless
work and I will lose all of my hobbies, dreams, and creativity.
I mean, think about it, you work 8 to 10 hours a day (depending
on your commute) and then you come home, eat dinner, do some
chores, wash up, and you got what, 3, 4 hours before you have
to go to sleep? (At least, that's my working life right now.)
And what do most people do with those 3, 4 hours? They sit
in front of the TV and waste that time "relaxing."
I'm gonna fight tooth and nail
not to become like that. I've stopped watching TV and have
made a conscious decision to try to do something constructive
and creative with my evenings, whether it be writing in this
here blog, writing stories and screenplays, or, what we have
here tonight, a little bit of music.
So please bear with me, as I
present my current work in progress: FOB
SONG #2 Also known as "Kevin #6 revision 3"
(MPEG 4 streaming media. Quicktime 6 required)
This video camera thing is so
much fun!
10/10/04
Some things that irks me on the way to work, Part 1:
Believe in what? That there's some train that'll take you
to the north pole? That we should believe in the "Spirit
of Christmas"? Look, Tom and Ron, telling us to believe
just doesn't do much, alright? Especially when you're not
sure what you're believing in or unwilling to acknowledge
that the HOLIDAY that made up the HOLDAY SEASON is CHRISTMAS,
where some innocent dude was born and then died for us and
all the consequences of the aforementioned event. Quit feeding
me all this fake fluff when what people need is good solid
spiritual food.
Rant over.
On another note, I had fun hanging out with the church people
tonight, I could get usd to this sort of weekend life. More
reflections on life later, but for now, sleep.
10/09/04
I want rain.
10/02/04
What would you pick?
Radeon 9800 Pro
For giant leap forward in gaming, video and photo editing,
Quartz Extreme, and dual screen functonality.
... and I blame it all on DreamWork's "Shark Tale"
and its corresponsing 1200 subtitles.
However, Iif you're in Taiwan and could catch a screening
of Shark Tale in Digital Projection, you'd be happy to know
that the subtitles on the bottom has been read dozens of times
by yours truly and meticulously polished and toiled over for
the last week.
Oh, and if you buy the Taiwanese localization of "I,
Robot," you can see some of my translation work in a
few of its 110+ featurettes. My favorite is the one where
Will Smith pretends to slap Bridget Moynahan.
Lastly, you can look forward
to the extended edition of The Return of the King. It's coming
in at over four hours and includes 4 separate commentaries,
each over 4,000 subtitles worth.
9/15/04
Movies
I've been waiting for ages for
these movies from the master directors of Chinese cinema.
I managed to stumble across
Kung Fu Hustle yesterday at work. One of the perks of the
job. It was halarious.
9/11/04
We will stand taller than before.
9/9/04
The Mish Asks:
"Do you ever write
happy songs?"
At first in my mind I said,
"If I was happy, I'd write happy songs."
Naturally, if I was happy and wanted the world to know, I'd
write happy songs.
And then I thought "No,
I'd end up writing sad songs anyway." or "Maybe
I won't write songs when I'm happy at all."
Happiness demands no creative
outlet, there's no need for therapy for the blissful.
Or maybe it's just this image
of adult life that I've had when I was younger, instilled
in me from watching TV. A life that's colorful but ultimately
lonely. I'd be some sort of young professional, working some
job in the big city, I'd come home and sit down with a cup
of coffee, wine, whatver product placement we went for in
this episode... and look out at the big city from my cheap
but beautiful apartment. And then this sad song would come
on as I gaze out to the city, we fade to lonely girl (the
one I'm destined to be with) sitting on HER balcony, cut to
happy couples walking in the streets below, cut to both me
and girl hucking a loogie down to the street below, yada yada,
fade out.
So you see, these sad songs have a purpose. They're film
music. For uh, the film that is my life.
As indulging and self-glorifying
it seems, yes, sometimes I do see my life as a movie. It's
a comedy on most evenings, a tradgedy sometimes, drama on
occasion, and historic epic when I'm participating in some
event. (Like speaking at youth group, that's about as epic
as my life gets.)
Okay, so maybe it's time to
write a happy song, maybe it's time to write a worship song,
but before I get around to it, Mish, I'd appreciate it if
you just listened and commented on the song, and maybe hum
it to yourself sometimes on the drive to work.
8/27/04
One thing about working and just trying to support myself
is that...
I'm always thinking about money,
all day I'm plotting, thinking, budgeting. I found myself
tallying up my spending at the end of each day and doing massive
amounts of mental calculations, projections, forecasting,
budgeting... and I hate it, I don't want to live a life where
I'm just obsessed with making money and making ends meet.
Life is not about mortgages, payments on cars, buying and
wanting to buy more stuff. It's about the friends you have,
the relationship with your family, your relationship with
God, creative projects that you can pour yourself into. Hobbies
and talents that you use to serve others and serve God.
I need a better paying and more
satisfying job.
8/18/04
Riding in the car with the Bob
Me: "I wish I was one of
those people who knew since they were, like, 5, that they
wanted to do something, be somebody."
The Bob: "As long as you
do a good job at whatever you're doing, you're fine."
Me: "... Yeah, okay, I'm
fine."
Now I just gotta find somebody
to pay me rediculous amounts of money to do things well.
8/12/04
There's a certain point when you're in a relationship where
you suddenly realize that this person who seemed so perfect
in your eyes just days and hours before...
...all of a sudden seems so
angry, touchy, neurotic, stubborn, and selfish...
And then the real process of
loving this person begins.
8/11/04
Werke II
Take a little stroll around
my work and you can see all kinds of projects people have
been working on on their screens. Stuff like Spiderman2, Friends,
the Simpsons, Seinfield, Batman animated (not beyond), Return
of the king: EE, Before Sunset, Sopranos Season 2, etc. Lots
of cool stuff, lots of people working in all kinds of languages.
My boss smokes. She goes outside
of the building now and then to smoke a cigarette. It has
this awful smell, you can always tell when she's around because
you get this little bit of stink wafting about her. Oy. Girls,
please, don't smoke.
Otherwise my boss is really
nice, it feels like she's an aunt or something. She tells
me to take breaks, asks me if I can handle the workload before
sending more stuff for me to do, she's always patient when
I have questions (80,000 times a day) we have nice little
chats when things are slow... and the coworkers on my team
are all very nice too, everyone smiles, says hello in their
cute ways, and end meetings with funny old school Chinese
bows and stuff... work is pretty cool.
On a completely random note,
I realized I have a bit of obsession with frames and mattings.
I constantly want to frame pikctures and spend like, rediculous
amounts of money on framing.
8/05/04
Work
So I started work officially
yesterday and it was really cool, my supervisor is really
smart and seems nice so far, she even kind of looks like Maggie
Chung. (Yes, she looks like she's pushing 35 or 40 but we
have no idea how old she really is cause asian women are vampire-like
in the longevity of their youthful looks.)
I went in at about 11:30 and
did some HR stuff, (turning in tax forms, signed Non-Disclosure-Agreements,
etc.) and then proceeded to look over an episode of The West
Wing as practice. As a Subtitle Quality Controller, I check
and correct translation mistakes, punctuation and formatting
and also timing of Mandarin subtitles.
So basically I veg in front
of the computer all day watching TV with Chinese subtitles.
God bless America.
7/31/04
Why is it all dim in here? It's like I'm missing a light bulb
or something...
7/27/04
for those couple of hours when
I'm alone
I find the shadow of death creeping upon me
for I feel so worn out and faded and plain unmotivated
that if I curl up in the corner and close my eyes
I could fade into nothing just by lack of will
and in these very moments
I realize
that all the rest of the time
when I thought I had leaned on You
I wasn't but on my own understanding
and shame surrounds me like cold water
deep beyond the reach of my feet
on occasion I find my hand
barely rising above the surface
Lord I'm so sorry
even when we're not on speaking terms
I thought I was walking next to You
Lord I'm so sorry
I know You were always there
even though I've wandered off
Lord I'm so sorry
Please Lord meet me here
I am ready to return to You
Though someday I may very well leave again
Lord I'm so sorry
Please Lord meet me here
Lord I'm so sorry
For I left and left you there
Lord I'm so sorry
but chances are I'll do it again.
7/24/04
I had the greatest entry ever in my head...
but it's like 2 am already somehow
and I'm SO TIRED... so forget it. I'm just not gonna write
it. (At least, for tonight.)
... gonna get some sleep.
7/17/04
One more.
7/17/04
I like it, even though no one else does.
This here picture is one of
my favorites that I took in New York, but for some reason
no one seems to like it. Well, boo-hoo, I'm posting it here
anyway and no one can stop me. Except the model, who didn't
sign waivers of any sort and so shall remain anonymous.
7/9/04
Found in translation
Praise the Lord! Well, there
it was, my first post-college job. I will be an on-call mandarin
subtitle proofreader. Check out my soon-to-be employer,
SDI media.
"It's not like she was
just the next one I was stuck on
Falling this hard ain't just for fun you know
I'd be frantic and defenseless whenever she'd glance my way
Never knew I'd build the courage up to pray
I surrender, I surrender
Maybe she'll walk with a better man
Or hit me like a boomerang
Either way, I surrender
Guess I can go on and on about the coolest girl I've met
But I'll have missed the point entirely, making room for more
regret
So take it as the second verse being the same as the first
I'm just waiting till the part where I can say*
Unwrap the fingers of this tight little fist
I'm letting go for the One who never lets me go
Cause I surrender, I surrender
If anything she'll be my friend
Unless she hits like a boomerang
Even still, I surrender."
6/28/04
VENGENCE IS MINE!!! (Said the Lord, not the Kev.)
So I went to Chipotle today
and got a burrito for dinner. I was sitting there eating it
with some very nice hot sauces when this giant fly came by
and landed on my burrito.
A fly carries with it massive
amounts of bacteria, in case you didn't know. So the best
thing to do then to save my burrito is to amputate the part
where the fly landed and try my best to forget it and just
eat the rest of the burrito.
But lo and behold, when I returned
from getting the knife I saw the offending fly sitting pretty
on the window in front of my seat, almost GLOATING over the
fact that he had ruined a nice bite of my dinner.
Oh, the fire of vengence burned
in my heart. So I grabbed a napkin and SMACKED the fly into
the window glass and it fell to the ground, leaving a nasty
little juicy spot behind.
I gotta admit, killing a fly
never felt so good!!!
but... alright, I admit it,
I feel kind of bad. All the fly did was land on my food, you
know...
I'm sorry, fly.
-- Nonetheless, let that be
a lesson to the rest of the insect kingdom.
Songs take on more emotional
depth when you write it for specific people. I don't write
it to say anything to anyone, really, it's just therapy for
myself. I wrote most of this late in the evening of Valentine's
Day, left it to sit for a while, and then finished it just
a few weeks ago. A couple of late night recording sessions
and here we are. Mad props to Chris, Carsten, and Katie for
putting up with and indulging me with their time and talent.
It's still rough but I don't know if I'll spend any more time
refining a song this sad... anyway, find some earphones, you
probably don't wanna share this with too many people.
Guitar and Vocals- Kevin Cheng
2nd Guitar, keys: Chris Maruyama
Violin: Katie Hsu
So long, my friend
I will always remember
the streets that we walked through
they were beautiful because of you.
5/28/04
Another record.
Mad, MAD PROPS to the Mish.
Who went to Mongolian Barbecue with me, the EFong, and the
Mike. She floored all of us by going to the chef with 3, YES,
THREE bowls of meat, vegetables, and noodles.
And then she ate it all.
MAD PROPS, MISH. I never believed
it fully before when other people said it, but now I agree:
You ARE quite a woman.
Here's to good eatin'.
5/27/04
The Record.
Well, I've kept it for as long
as I can, longer than I have ever expected. Ever since I started
driving at the age of 17 I've been waiting for this "judgement"
day, and , for the past seven years I've held in pride a perfect
driving record. Until today, of course.
One of those bloody traffic
cameras caught me making a left turn too late and sent me
a ticket for "failing to stop at a red light." Well,
I say that light was yellow, but then these godawful digital
pictures says otherwise. I say they doctered it in photoshop!
Poorly!
Grr!!! (Shaking fist in air.)
5/23/04
I'm ok, I'm ok.
5/19/04
Exhaustion
It hasn't been a particularly
harsh week, but I'm physically and mentally exhausted, I feel.
I'm not a good care giver and
neither am I selfless enough to be willing to take care of
people for days on end. Neither am I motivated to look for
a job. How depressing, I'm sick and tired of everything.
Lord help me, I'm wearing thin.
5/17/04
Lyrics waiting for a melody
It's been a tough couple of
weeks and it's been hard to learn the lesson God had for me,
which, I think is this:
Sometimes, even though you want
some things, and these things looks great, and.. you think
it's God's plan for you to have these things. But sometimes,
these things are just not meant for you. And God will shut
that door for you. And it's up to you to have the faith to
trust in God to bring something else along that's better for
you. So... if that job is not for me, fine, God has something
better for me.
... or I don't know what.
5/12/04
Wanted, Jazz Buddy
-- To go see Raya
Yarbrough or Karrin
Allison live at Catalina
Bar and Grill next monday, May 17th until Sunday the 23rd.
Cover is $7 and $25, respectively, probably also a 2 drink
minimum. Contact me for more details.
5/7/04
This dream has lived for too long
and I have drank from the nonexistant well
far too much for my own good.
So I stand once again on God's amazing grace.
"... and it's okay if you have go away
just remember the telephone works both ways
but if I never ever hear it ring
if nothing else I'll think the bells inside
have finally found you someone else and that's okay
cause I'll remember everything you sang
you
and I both loved what you and I spoke of
and others just read of and if you could see now
well I'm already finally out of words."
5/5/04
It's been kind of a rough day... rough... day... yeah.
4/30/04
Editing
You know, I was editing this
video... and I realized that by the fact, the simple action
that I'm editing this video of events, of our lives, I am
actually saying, in a way, that our lives are boring. That
we have to edit it, cut it down, put it back together, use
a bunch of technique and thousands of dollars worth of equipment
and software just to make it more interesting. But I say that
our lives are NOT boring, that every moment we live we somehow
make it worth the time. Even if it's dead time on a video,
there are things that run through our minds, reflections,
thoughts on life that makes that time worthwhile, that some
subtle things caught on tape that trigger something in our
heads. Does that make sense? It's late... what am I saying...
Crap, I can't remember if I
took my vitamins this morning... probably because I didn't
take it and so can't remember if I did... or did I? crap.
4/20/04
Diploma
At last I went back to school
and picked up my diploma. I never thought a piece of paper
would make me so happy, but when the lady came back from the
filing cabnets to hand me the diploma I smiled and was genuinely
pleased. I was secretly scared that it would end up like the
following:
Kevin: "Yeah, I'd like
to pick up my diploma."
Lady: "Sure, and I'd love
to give it to you except you didn't graduate, you're missing
one class. Come back to school for another quarter."
Had to remind myself that photo
shop is two words instead of one. This is how much I use Adobe
Photoshop. You can just talk back in the last entry.
4/9/04
Video from the road.
Got half a day free today so
I went out to Manhattan with my cousin Sarah, took some pictures
and shot some video.
4/2/04
Stories from the road.
I spent the day helping out
at my uncle's one-hour photo shop. Today this old lady came
in with a great picture of herself when she was 18. She wanted
to enlarge it so that she can pass it out to her children.
She was quite beautiful when she was young and I felt very
good when we delivered to her the enlargements, with our usual
"You're so beautiful" sort of remarks.
Then she asked me quietly
if we could take her old wedding picture, digitally erase
her first husband, and have her second husband digitally placed
with her instead. I couldn't help but laugh a bit. Yes, it
could be done, I told her. It might take a while or some money,
but we could probably do it.
If only replacing a husband
in real life was as easy as a couple hours with a scanner
and photoshop...
What's extra funny about this
is that it seemed like to me she wanted to replace a bad memory
with a good one, kind of what Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless
Mind was talking about... funny little things from the life
of the Kev.
God has always shown me incredible
grace and I know He will be with me today.
Psalm 23:5-6
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my
life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."
I think I will go to New York
in a day or two.
3/26/04
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Love is never quite what you'd expect, and neither is this
movie. I think growing up in a media-filled world we're given
unrealistic expectations for "falling in love" and
we sometimes wake up to a reality of dissapointments and thought
we lost our perfect love when in reality this perfect love
never existed.
1 Corinthians 13: 4-7
"Love is patient, love
is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres."
So, in the movie we see the
shy Joel and the impulsive Clem tear each other apart. At
first they struggle to put up with one another but then eventually
it drives them nuts. In the beginning I thought, well, these
people are misfits, the vast majority of us don't go crazy
like this and would probably fare better in our relationships
than these two. But then, in the same way, I found that these
people are lovable. Clem has a liveliness that's addicting
and Joel... well, Joel is "nice."
Anyway, these inequities they
have, it's all real. I think I've had the impulses to react
to things the way they do, full of selfishness, pride, anger,
and an unforgiving nature. These people are pretty real. There's
not much difference between me and Joel or Clem... except
I learned to try to be be loving and forgiving and humble,
etc, etc, because I have faith in God. So naturally I wondered...
if Joel and Clementine became Christians and strived for these
qualities, could they work it all out and end up living happily
together? All relationships need some work, right? How good
am I at working at my relationships with people? Things to
chew on... in the mean time, I've ordered "Being John
Malkovich" on DVD.
3/16/04
Adventures in jogging.
A couple days ago I decided
that being skinny IS good. So I went out jogging in the evening
around dinner time. One of my friends told me that there's
a fairly good, if a bit hilly, route around my neighborhood
that's probably a good couple of miles. So off I went in my
basketball shorts, my cheapo indiglo "jogging" watch
and a set of door keys. The plan was to hit Western and head
up PV until I hit a big street to take me west back to Narbonne
so I can head back the hill back home. Expected length: 2
miles.
So I started in the residential
zone around my neighborhood and made the approxmately 1 mile
jog to Western. Everything looked very charming in the neighborhood,
with families eating dinner and watching TV in their livingrooms,
etc. I turned on Western to head up the hill and hit Palos
Verdes Drive North and turned once again. At this point things
looked okay, the road was wide with lots of traffic and street
lights. But once I jogged about a half mile down Palos Verdes
Drive North, things started to look a bit alarming. The street
lights dissapeared, there were homeless men sitting in the
dark roadside bushes, and things got a lot more "rural,"
it seems. I saw lights up ahead and could kind of make out
what seemed to be a red traffic signal (that turned out to
be a good mile down the road) and decided to keep going. The
plan, as I figured, was to walk carefully on the crumbling
sidewalk when there were no cars passing by, and to run as
fast as I can when cars came by and illuminated the road with
their headlights. After what seemed like a good half hour
of running and walking in the dark, I arrived at the light.
Alarmingly, it wasn't Narbonne.
The sign at the intersection
said "Palos Verdes drive." "Well, bloody hell,"
I thought to myself, "How can Palos Verdes Drive intersect
Palos Verdes Drive? It's the same road!" And, looking
down the road, I can see that there was 3 problems: 1. No
sidewalk. 2. No lights. 3. No way to know if this road will
get me back down the hill.
At this point I shook my fist
in the air and regretted not bringing the following: 1. a
cell phone ("Hi, I need a Taxi?"). 2. A flashlight
(To illuminate the nonexistant sidewalk that I'd be running
on.) 3. Some form of ID (So if I do get mowned down by a speeding
PV driver they'd know who to call to claim my cold dead body
from the morgue.)
I made my bed and I have to
sleep in it. So I took it off-road and started running in
the 1-foot wide space between the actual road and the grass
that constituted the shoulder of the road.
A bit down the road was a country
club and a small parking lot, I quickly made my way in the
driveway to see if I could verify that the road I'm running
on lead back to PCH. A valet (Who looked a bit like Morgan
Freeman) told me that, yes, indeed, this dark road with no
sidewalk nor street lights is the way back home. I didn't
know if I was supposed to be glad.
So I kept going and it was getting
pitch black, pushing 8pm on a narrow two-lane country road
down the hill. At one point I decided to put my watch to use
and pressed the indiglo button to signal the cars coming after
me so I won't get run over. I can see the news headline now,
"Large, moronic asian hobo ran over by filthy-rich PV
dweller. Last words: 'I'll get you, Morgan Freeman!'"
As I frantically ran down the
hill trying not to get hit by speeding cars I realized what
was really important to me. I mean, I own all this STUFF and
if I died, who'll get them? I spent so much money on them,
they should be given to people who could really use it. Stuff
like my car (Bob), my Dual Processor PowerMac G4 (Matt or
Martin), my DV camera (Caitlin), Guitar (Tak or Chris), iBook
(Mary), and most importantly, my DVD collection. (Buried with
my skid-mark ridden body.) So I promised myself, as I ran
frantically down the hill, close to exhaustion and certain
madness, that I would never, ever go jogging alone in the
dark up and down PV again. Obesity or not, I'm not giving
away all my stuff.
As soon as that thought entered
and left my head (replaced by "What should I get for
dinner?") the road curved and streetlights appeared,
along with apartment buildings and a sidewalk. Overjoyed,
I scrambled onto the sidewalk and proclaimed loudly my unwaivering
faith in Morgan Freeman to the trash bins lining the side
of the road.
I made it home approxmately
50 minutes after I left. To celebrate this joyous occasion
and to make it worth my while, I went off to Chipotle and
got myself a big burrito and ate it. Later, for this blog
entry, I drove my car along the route I took to figure out
the length of my adventure, and am glad to report that it
was over three and a half miles.
Here's to the athelete within,
and, of course, Mr. Morgan Freeman.
3/10/04
Sense and Sensibility
Thanks to Joanna I managed to
get my hands on a VHS (I know! So 80s!) copy of Ang Lee's
Sense and Sensibility. That's right, a Taiwan-born director
directed an adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. And the result?
Well, since I AM posting a review on Sense and Sensibility,
there should be no doubt of my manhood, and so I shall begin
to use words like "sensitive," "effortless,"
"subtle," "intelligent" and "humorous"
with careless abandon that could only come with a unshakable
sense of confidence on my own manhood. So here goes:
Mr. Lee's sensitivities and
thoughtfulness has consistently brought him critical acclaim
as a modern director of fine films, although it is also likely
that he is regarded by the mainstream American public as more
of an arthouse director. He consistently delivers carefully
crafted films that gave credit to the audience for appreciating
the subtle undertones and the fine acting of his actors instead
of big budget special effects and action. (Although he has
ventured into these areas with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
and the more recent Hulk.)
I consider Sense and Sensibility
one of, if not THE best of his films, next to The
Wedding Banquet (Hilarious and also somewhat serious)
and the Ice
Storm (Powerful and actually uncomfortable to watch, it
was so convincing.) Here in Sense and Sensibility Mr. Lee
effortlessly presented the story Jane Austen first told in
1811. he had one brilliant ally, Emma
Thompson, who wrote a charming and elegant adaptation
of Austen's novel that consistently and comfortably lead the
audience to discover the unfolding plot without neglecting
to develop the great emsemble of interesting characters. Ms.
Thompson won both the Oscar and the Golden Globes for best
adapted screenplay for her work here. The script is filled
with intelligence, humor, and a quickness of pace that should
be a relief for those who detests "slow English novel
movies."
The film was also very strong
in several other aspects, one of which is the cinematography,
which I will not spend too much time talking about. (It's
great.) Another is the acting. This film has a great emsemble
cast but one person I must mention in particular is Alan Rickman.
His role as Colonel Brandon, an honorable man who suffered
over previously lost love and who has this unrequited love
for Marianne has given him excellent oppertunites to shine.
Alan Rickman turned in an excellent performance and really
steals the movie from the rest of the male cast.
Anyway, enough of my wordy review.
Just run over to the library and check it out. Oh, speaking
of which, I gotta return this VHS...
3/8/04
Matilda: "Is life always
this hard, or is it just when you're a kid?"
Leon: "... always like this." -The Professional.
"I can't be sure that
this state of mind, is not of my own design
I wish there was an over the counter test, for loneliness.
For loneliness like this.
Something's missing
And I don't know how to fix it
Something's missing
And I don't know what it is
No I don't know what it is
Something's different
And i don't know what it is
No I don't know what it is"
-Something's Missing, John Mayer.
3/1/04
Scrubs
Alright, so I've been living
without a TV for a while, and... since I only watch the Hitler
(AKA History) Channel, I haven't missed it that much. But
what does one do when one is bored and without a cable or
satellite connection? One utilizes one's broadband Internet
connection and downloads massive amounts of TV shows. (2.5
seasons, 10 gigs.) Well, no, just one. Scrubs
is, in my opinion the funniest show on network TV since Fox's
Family
guy. It's like ER but with the randomness and hilarity
of Family guy. So... I guess this is a plug for Scrubs. (Probably
more for Family guy, but since it's been cancelled, I'll plug
Scrubs.) Anyway, catch it if you haven't. Tuesday nights at
9:30, NBC.
2/20/04
Providence
I read Genesis
24 the other day and found out a bit about how Abraham
got Issac a wife. I then read Matthew
Henry's commentary on it and learned about God's providence.
I don't think I should impose upon my readers what exactly
I got out of it, but I want to encourage you to read Genesis
24 and Henry's commentary on it. But here's a short quote
that should give you a good gist of it.
Henry:
"First, It is the comfort,
as well as the belief, of a good man, that God's providence
extends itself to the smallest occurrences and admirably serves
its own purposes by them. Our times are in God's hand; not
only events themselves, but the times of them. Secondly,
It is our wisdom, in all our affairs, to follow Providence,
and folly to force it. Thirdly, It is very desirable,
and that which we may lawfully pray for, while in the general
we set God's will before us as our rule, that he will, by
hints of providence, direct us in the way of our duty, and
give us indications what his mind it. Thus he guides his people
with his eye (Ps. 32:8), and leads them in a plain path, Ps.
27:11."
2/20/04
Spiffier site coming
Yup. New stuff coming soon.
Just gotta get everything ready so we can have a smooth transition
to the new interface. Sorry for the last of updates in the
mean time. I can only do so much between maintaining the website
and trying to take over the world. you know.
2/14/04
(Anti) Valentine's Day
Eraine
has some funny stuff on her site. So I'm gonna steal from
her. THANKS, ERAINE!
Be
my Anti-Valentine: Hiliarious cards you can send in your
bitterness or general belligerence.
But I'm not all about hate and
bitterness, it's Valentine's day! Go out and love someone.
John 13:34 "A new command
I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you
must love one another."
Get loving.
2/3/04
Wanted: Jazz Buddy
Kevin is currently seeking one
or two Jazz Buddies to go catch Stacey Kent in concert at
the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood from Feb 10th to the 21st,
any night except thursday and friday nights. Casual appreciation
for jazz music required, transportation provided. Departure
time is 5:30 PM, expect to return at 10 pm. E-mail Kevin if
interested.
It's not often that I advertise
someone's site on here, in fact, this is probably the first
time. Anyway, my friend Melkey started a blog and I want to
encourage her by advertising for her and maybe redirecting
a few of my 4 Kevillion daily hits to her site. So go check
out www.Melkey.com.
1/28/04
San Diego!
Off to SD I go tomorrow--oops--today,
it's mighty late. Booked a rental car and a hotel and will
be lugging my iBook with me. See y'all in a couple of days.
1/26/04
Thinking...
Waiting on an angel
One to carry me home
Hope you come see me soon
Cause I don’t wanna go alone
I don’t wanna go alone
Now angel, won’t you come by me
Angel, hear my plea
Take my hand
Lift me up
So I can fly with thee
So that I can fly with thee
And I’m waiting on an angel
And I know it won’t be long
To find myself a resting place
In my angels arms
My angel’s arms
So be kind to a stranger
Cause you’ll never know
It just might be an angel
Ohh knocking at your door
Knocking at your door
And I’m waiting on an angel
And I know it won’t be long
To find myself a resting place
In my angels arms
In my angels arms
Waiting on an angel
One to carry me home
Hope you come see me soon
Cause I don’t wanna go alone
I don’t wanna go alone
Don’t wanna go
I don’t wanna go alone
I've been thinking about going
on a "girl fast."
What's a "girl fast?"
you ask? No, it's not "Get Kevin a girl, pronto,"
sort of girl fast, it's the "Kevin is shutting down the
radar and will concentrate on other things," sort of
girl fast. Fasting, meaning taking a break, thus forcing my
mind away from thinking about relationships and issues with
girls in general. No, it doesn't mean I won't speak to a girl
asking me for directions on the street, but I certainly would
not tell her more than how to get to where she needs to go.
Like, say, she's attractive or "here's my number,"
that sort of thing. Not that I do that anyway.
So what IS this girl fast thing
supposed to do? It's not like the ladies are 'all up ons'
on the Kev anyway. But lately I feel like I've been spending
too much time thinking about having relationships, thinking
about a certain person, and just wasting my mental capacity
on these things instead of putting my mind at work on other,
more important things. Things such as the new youth ministry
at church, my job search, or my daily walk with God. So a
girl fast will probably be good. It'll put my mind back to
work on more important things. I think it's also a good statement
of faith, that whoever I'm supposed to meet will be brought
back around by God when the fast is over and when I'm good
and ready.
It's still a daunting task,
though, six months of not thinking about these things... wonder
if I'll be seriously tempted during this time... anyway, I'm
still considering it... your comments would be welcomed at
this moment.
1/24/04
Marriage
I ran into an old friend I haven't
seen in a few years and found out that she's married. Wow,
she's my age, and she's married. And while I'm reflecting
upon this I talked to Ron who then had me thinking about just
how temporary this whole marriage thing is. No, he wasn't
just waiting to fire his wife, but he knew his own life expectancy
and reminded me that life, like marriage, is only temporary.
And thus I've been thinking
about marriage a little bit lately. Not for myself, mind you,
that's years and years away, but really about how temporary
marriage is. Now, I know that for all of us marriage is probably
just about the biggest commitment, EVER. All the other commitments
we have in life are like the 1 year required for DSL installation,
2 years for a cell phone plan, maybe a 10 year one if you
buy a Japanese car and drive it till it dies. So in this respect,
marriage is one huge gigantic commitment, it's good (or bad)
until you die.
But what's the hardest thing
for me to grasp is that when you get to heaven, supposedly
your wife or husband will once again be just another brother
or sister in Christ, and the intimate relationship you've
once had with him or her will not resume. Of course, one would
remember that this other person was their wife or husband,
but the commitment you once made to each other expires at
death and God will be the single most dominant being in your
life. I haven't really looked this up, so if I made an error
please correct me.
It's weird to think about life
in heaven and how different it is. It's weird to know that
the person you made the biggest commitment to is not your
husband or wife, but God, and that one day your marriage will
expire and your husband or wife will return to being a brother
or sister, a fellow child of God. It really puts priority
back into your life, I guess, seek God first before you seek
your mate.
Monster.com is my best friend
these days. Well, actually, it's more of a love / hate thing.
I spend so much time with it that I've grown to appreciate
it, but it doesn't mean I like their sucky search engine nor
the pain of looking for a job. But the most troubling thing
is that, well, with my major, I should be looking at a certain
range of jobs, but the more jobs I look at in these fields,
the more I get bored by it. So occasionally I'd type in stuff
like "Chinese translator" or "Final Cut Pro
editor" into the search engine and see what alternatives
I'd get. Chinese translator didn't really pan out yesterday,
it was either the Naval reserves or jobs on the east coast.
But Final Cut Pro yielded something
that's so very tempting just because I would get to play with
Final Cut Pro, aftereffects, and DVD Studio Pro all day, and
it's like a two mile drive from my house. I was so excited...
but it all came to a screeching halt in a split second. What's
the catch? They pay $10 an hour. At 40 hours a week I wouldn't
break $20,000 / year before taxes. Now, I'm not out to really
make $50,000 a year in my first job, but my previous budgeting
estimates would indicate that I would need at least $30,000
a year to make ends meet and be able to save a little bit
of money. BYE BYE, DREAM JOB.
I spent yesterday tailoring
my resume to a Wells Fargo Finance position, and late last
night I found something I'd totally be good for at an economic
consulting company, doing statistical analysis. I guess Econ,
Computing, Stat AP, Econometrics, and that Stata class paid
off for me last night. The search continues today, but maybe
I'll take a little break to go shopping. Need. Pants. Must.
Have. Sweater.
Praise be to our Lord, DSL is
up and running at el casa de Rothenberg two days earlier than
scheduled. It's actually been lots of fun to set up a home
network between two Macs and two PCs. (Look, just plug everything
into the router and if it ain't broke, don't fix it, alright?)
So I guess now that internet
is up I could start looking for a job. I really didn't want
to go out and buy a newspaper and start circling, (Hmm, 22
year-old Swedish Model... circle... 1994 BMW M5, White, low
miles, great condition, $1200 just for the Kev, circle circle...
)
Alright, alright, I keep this
website up for times like these, so here goes:
I am a UCLA Graduate with a BS degree in Economics and Specialization
in computing. The keyword to understanding the usefulness
of Kevin is "VERSATILITY," Not only am I versed
in my economic theory, but also statistics, computer science,
creative writing, and visual arts. YOU CAN HIRE ME TO DO ALL
KINDS OF CRAZY STUFF!
Okay, that was my rediculously
pathetic sales pitch. I'm not really in the "Professional
Job-Seeker" mode yet. But, really, if your company is
hiring and you like what you see here, give me a holler.
Resume to come.
12/27/03
Ahh, home again...
It's great to be back in Torrance,
I've been going shopping like crazy these days. No internet,
though! So bear with me as I work for updates.
;
12/20/03
The Big Update:
1. Mac update
Yup, new stuff is coming to
my Mac. Thanks to my patrons and also to those who contributed
to "Project Legit," I could now afford to get a
couple of upgrades to my main workstation.
1. DVD-R: (Pioneer DVR-106)
So I can burn projects onto DVDs. (i.e. Appreciation: Special
Edition)
2. New Hard Drive: 80 gig Maxtor
internal IDE drive for cheap, for storage of future projects.
3. RAM? One can't ever have
enough RAM, will have to see how much money is left, maybe
another stick of 512MB PC2100 DDR would be good, push the
total to a nice 1280 megs.
2. The missing 70
I am glad to report that on
Wednesday night I jogged two miles. I'm quite happy, think
I'll reward myself with a new pair of New Balance running
shoes, since the ones I wear have been getting too big for
me. (That's right, my feet are skinnier now, too.) They're
also a bit worn now, been with me to New York, Maine, Taiwan
and back for the last 5 months.
Alright, the vast majority of
you have NOT seen me in about 3, 4 months. The changes that
have taken place should be something fun for all of us. Yup.
I'm down close to 70 pounds from my heaviest weight, which
was in June. Here's a fun little chart I made with Excel.
You can see that in the beginning, my running did pay off
quite a bit, I lost about 15 pounds just from running and
eating a bit less. On Sept. 6th the drugs kicked in and, coupled
with a massively reduced diet and steaily increasing exercise,
the weight dropped quicker until a few weeks ago, where it
slowed down to about a couple pounds a week. Hopefully the
holiday season will not force the weight to go back up. I
hope to hit 220 pounds in a month or two, and see if I could
get it down further just so I can see if things could get
even better. (In terms of fitness and general appearance.)
In any case, I think I'll have
fun seeing everyone again.
12/15/03
The Return of the Kevings
Well, it's been a long vacation,
and an interesting and fun-filled one at that. I guess vacation
started for me on August 1st, when I took my last final at
UCLA. I then spent three weeks in New York, one week in LA,
and then three months so far in Taiwan. It'll be one more
week until I return to LA again. I sure miss my friends and
church, my guitar and car, orderly traffic and current movies,
but somehow I also found reasons to want to stay in Taiwan.
There's definitely some things here that I have fallen in
love with, the inexpensive food, the culture, the great scenary
and people. I've made new friends and learned to appreciate
my old ones even more. I brushed up on my Chinese and gained
a better understanding of where Taiwan stands in the long
history of the Chinese culture. I have captured beautiful
scenary on Fuji's amazing emulsions. I ate a giant corn dog
on the southwest corner of the Chiang Kai Shek memorial for
under a buck. I've seen God's grace extended to me from one
side of the world to the other. It's time to go home.
I look forward to coming back because I know where I'm going
is where God wants me. I know this because even when I'm all
the way across the world I am constantly being blessed with
things beyond my imagination. New challenges await me back
home, with new people to get to know, new ministries to devote
time to, a new role to play in the ultimate collector's edition
superbit director's extended cut of Kevin's life. I will not
fear, because God will be with me.
