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December 5, Sun
+ Project IMBot
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05:32 PM
Things have been chaotic this week. Mainly because it was the last week of lectures. Luckily I don't have any final exams, but I do have a shitload of final projects and term papers that I've yet to finish. Wish me luck. Came across this yesterday and thought I would share it with you guys.
 Hi! I'm Neo, the next generation instant-messenger chatbot. With decision-making skills, and the ability to learn and simulate human emotion, I am the only chatbot that "thinks" and "types" like a real person. Message me via AIM™ right now and experience the difference yourself! For more information about me and Project IMBot, please visit www.imbot.tk.
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December 10, Fri
+ A Simple "Good Job"
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10:33 PM
One of my final projects was actually good enough to be selected to present in the final section. Of course I was happy. It was funny how a simple "good job" from a certain someone could make my day. That simple "good job" probably worth more than gettng an A in class... maybe not, but you know what I meant by that. That certain someone is also going to be in one of my classes next quarter. Just this fact alone is enough to make this winter break seem unbearably long.
I've been done with finals since Wednesday, but haven't really done much since then; been feeling kind of lazy. Laying around in the apartment all day and watch TV series I've downloaded over the course of this quarter. I just finished a ReGenesis marathron and caught up with all the episodes last night. Now I'm starting on the current season of Everwood. I've also downloaded the entire first season of The O.C. and One Tree Hill, as well as all the episodes of the second season up until this point. Feel free to make a suggestion though, since I'm almost to a point where I don't know what else to download anymore. Gosh. I need to get a life.
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December 15, Wed
+ Plans for Winter Break
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09:31 PM
I've been neglecting my blog, and one of the reasons is that lately there isn't really anything interesting or exciting enough to blog about in my life. Ever since school is out, I've been really lazy and didn't want to anything constructive. When I'm not sleeping, I'm either watching TV episodes on my laptop or watching movies with Kyle.
Well, I did go out. Last Friday night there was this birthday party at Kyle's old roommate's apartment, so I went with Kyle. It was alright. I did a little drinking and that's it. It's not too fun when you only know one person at a party. I did meet a few people though. On the other hand, Kyle had a great time there, seeing his old roommates and friends, and getting hella drunk.
Monday I went to movie with Dan. We watched Finding Neverland, and I must say, it was a really good movie. Very touching and moving, with a great storyline. It is definitely one of the best movies I've seen this year. I highly recommend it to everyone who has yet to discover this hidden treasure. I promise that you won't be disappointed.
Originally I was planning on going up to Washington with Tim and Beth and spend Christmas at Beth's mother's. I was suppose to get a ride up to Santa Clara with Kyle sometimes this week, and then me, Tim and Beth are driving up to Washington this Friday. But Kyle is not leaving until this Friday, so I can't really make it up to Washington with Tim and Beth anymore. Well, Jen's parents have also kindly open their home to me and invited me to spend the Christmas break with them. I guess this is what I will do. To be honest, I'm glad I stay down here with Jen and her family, because at least I don't have to pretend to be someone I'm not. Her family is the coolest. Jen and I have already made plans to go to gay clubs and Disneyland during the break. We are also going to go to Vegas with some of her friends for New Year. It should be fun; I'm excited.
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December 20, Mon
+ Life in the O.C. ...so far
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01:49 AM
Life in the O.C. (as in Orange County) has been fun. Kyle dropped me off at Jen's on his way home up to the bay area on Friday. Then Jen and I went out to this Japanese restaurant for some sushi. After lunch, she drove me around a bit and showed me around the area. Since she needed to work at 5pm and she's working at Planet Beauty at the mall, I went with her and checked out the mall a bit by myself. I spent the rest of the evening at Barnes and Noble's Magazine and Gay & Lesbian sections until Jen got off work at 11pm.
On Saturday, me, Jen, her little sister Mary, and Mary's friend were going to watch Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, but by the time we got to the theater the tickets were all sold out. Since Mary had a little league basketball game later that day and Jen had to work that night, we couldn't really pick a different time. Instead of going to work with Jen again, I went to Mary's basketball game with her family. It was a good game. I haven't been to a basketball game for so long, and they won by 6 points. Then for the rest of the day, Mary and I just stayed home and watched Summerland episodes on my laptop. I've gotten her addicted to the show. Well, we've only finished six episodes so far. Our goal is to finished the entire season one during this break, so that we'll be ready by the time season two comes back on in Feburary. Gosh, Jesse McCartney is so cute.
Today (or should I say yesterday since it's past mid-night already? oh well, you know what I mean) I went with Jen to her work again. This time I spent most of the time at the Graphic Novels / Manga section. I hadn't read many mangas anymore ever since I came to the U.S. I guess I had forgotten how good some mangas are and how good it felt to read them. I used to be such a huge manga fan, and that's how I got started with my drawing. So, I picked out a few different mangas and briefly skipped through them. Then all of a sudden, this one called Bleach caught my attention, and I ended up reading through from book 1 to 3. It has a great plot going on and I like its development as well. I went online and checked out how many books there are so far, and found out that it is currently at its 14th book in Asia, but only 4th in the states. I'm thinking about ordering all 14 books from YesAsia but am still considering... no doubt it is quite a good manga series but rushing to buy all of them just seems so recklessness. I guess I'll just wait and see. I also found out that there is even an anime TV series made out of the manga series already, so maybe I can go download some of the TV series and see how much I actually like it.
After Jen got out of work at 9pm, we decided to go to Dave & Buster's 'cause they have a happy hour from 10pm-12am in which all the drinks are half-off. We got a couple drinks and played some games. It was fun. We actually won over 1,200 tickets that night. Jen traded in her 600 tickets for this stuffed dog. I was going to get this mug with Dave & Buster's logo on it. But they were out, so I guess I'll just wait 'til they have more again.
Even though nothing too exciting has happened yet as I'm staying with Jen's family in the O.C. these past 3 days, I'm still enjoying it to bit. However, next week will be far more eventful as we have already made a few plans. We'll see how that goes.
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December 21, Tue
+ Life in the O.C. ...Disneyland
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11:17 PM
Last night me, Jen, and her two sisters went to see Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events after she got off work at 9pm. It is a pretty good movie in my opinion. To be honest, the book series doesn't really interest me that much 'cause they're a bit too kiddish considering the way it is written and the thickness of the books. However, the movie seems interesting and I had wanted to watch it ever since I first saw its trailer. Apparently Jen doesn't really like the ending but I think it is the most enjoyable part of the movie.
Today we went to Disneyland. This is my first time there and I had a wonderful time. Obviously there was no way we could get on all the rides within a day, but we did manage to get on a few famous ones such as The Pirates of the Caribbeans and Star Tour, and a few classic ones such as Snow White and my beloved Peter Pan. Of course there were also a few rides I wished I could go on. I've also gotten a few stuffed characters and key chains as souvenirs for my friends, little brother and sister back home. The ironic part was that there were absolutely no souvenirs of Peter Pan, who happens to be my favorite character, except this one small stature, while souvenirs of Tinkerbell, who isn't even the main character of the story, were everywhere. What is up with that? This always happens to me. Whatever I like or want are usually hard to find or unavailable. We stayed 'til the night 'cause there was a parade starting at 7:45pm. Overall, it was a great experience, and hopefully I'll be able to go again in the future.
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December 24, Fri
+ Life in the O.C. ...Club TigerHeat
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03:53 AM
Just got back from TigerHeat, a gay club in West Hollywood. I went with Jen and a few of her friends from highschool and work. I swear I had one of the best times in my life tonight. I'm so tired right now. I really need to go to bed and get some sleep. I'll post more tomorrow...
[ADDED 11:53 PM] So, Jen and I had made plans to go to a gay club at least once when I'm staying with her this winter break. We decided to go last night and she called up a few of her friends to see if they wanted to go as well. Three of her girl friends from highschool and her two coworkers ended up going with us. So, I went with six girls to a gay club, I don't even know if that was a good or bad thing. The club we picked out is in West Hollywood, L.A. We picked that particular one because Jen's two coworkers aren't 21 yet and it was one of the few 18+ clubs that we could find.
We all met up at Jen's house first 'cause Jen and I were the only ones who had direction, and it took us about 40 mins to get there. There were so many people that we needed to wait in line to get in. When it got to me, this big black guy who checked people's I.D. asked me "dude, how old are you?" and I was like "21" and he was like "yeah, right!" He totally didn't believe me even though I had my I.D. 'cause I'm like barely 5 ft. Oh well, he let me in so no big deal.
After we got in the club, Jen pulled me to the bar immediately and we both took a shot. I was drunk already in less than 15 mins. We went on the dance floor and danced our heads off. I saw this guy who also goes to the QPOC meetings at our school and we said hi briefly. There were so many hot/cute guys there, and all those mostly naked gogo boys were so hot! Throughout the night, Jen kept pushing me into other boys 'cause she really wanted me to dance or hook up with at least one gay boy. But I'm just too shy. I'm still working on the whole self-confidence thing. Well, I did dance with this one guy at the beginning even though I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and totally embarrassed myself (thanks to Jen!). At the end, right before we left, Jen was talking to this super-hot guy and when we said we were leaving, he gave Jen a hug, and then he said "Goodbye, little guy." and gave me a hug too. I was like in Heaven; I would never forget that moment. That simply made my night... wait no, made my week!!
We left at around 1:30am, and went to Jack in the Box to get some food afterward. We didn't get back to Jen's house until 3am. Jen and I sat in the living room and talked for a little bit while we ate our food. I've only known her for a few months and I'm so surprised how much she knows me. Well, after all she's a Psychology major.
It was my second time going to a real gay club, and I had one of the best times in my life there. It was a night when I could totally forget all the problems I have and just enjoy and have fun. The second half of the night, I was so talkative and out-going like how I used to be. I don't even remember when did I change into this shy, low-self-esteem person. Oh well. Even though Jen was upset that she didn't accomplish her mission of getting me to kiss at least one boy, I honestly had so much fun I don't even care.
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December 26, Sun
+ Life in the O.C. ...Christmas
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02:53 AM
First of all, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas this year. My Christmas with Jen's family was... should I say, overwhelming? Well, on Christmas Eve, Jen's family has a tradition of having ALL the relatives over for a HUGE family get-together. Jen has warned me a few times beforehand that there would be a lot of people over, but I didn't quite grasp what she meant by "a lot" until that night. Around 6pm, her relatives started showing up... and then more people showed up... then more... and more... and MORE... AND MORE... I'm not kidding you, there were way over 100 people with at least 12 families (possibly more, I lost count) at her house. Then again, her house (or her parents' house as she defines it) definitely has the capacity to hold more than that amount of people, since it's quite big. They all brought Christmas presents and had this gigantic present-exchange "event" that lasted for 2 hours. Now you know what I meant by OVERWELMING! I had never witnessed quite a scene before. After everyone had gone home, Jen's family and I spent some family time together and played Taboo well into the night until 2am. We had such a great time and so many laughters.
On Christmas morning, we woke up quite early despite how little sleep we had from the night before. It was time for exchanging presents within the family. I got Jen a $30 gift certificate to Planet Funk. For her sisters, I got one a $20 gift card to Forever 21 and a Christina Aguilera framed poster for the other one. I also drew them each a realistic pencil drawing of their favorite celebrities -- Ashlee Simpson and Christina Aguilera. For her parents I got them a Japanese Fortune Cat, which is a standing cat stature that supposed to bring fortune and wealth into the family. On the other hand, Jen got me a black Volcom wallet (which I needed so dearly since my old one was all beaten up) with $10 inside and a stuffed-turtle -- Squirt from Finding Nemo -- from Disneyland. From her sisters, I got a candle with a candle holder, an Old Navy beach bag with Los Angeles written on it and a towel. Then from her parents I got an Abercrombie & Fitch cologne and $25. Well, I guess what I spent and what I got kind of even out... I know, I know. It should be about Christmas and the holiday and the kindness and not the money, but whatever. More than 50% of the people actually care more about the presents than the holiday itself and the rest who told you they care about the holiday are just plain old liars. Period.
On Christmas night me, Jen, and her two sisters went to see the highly anticipated Meet the Fockers. It was so hilarious that we laughed our heads off for almost the entire duration of the movie. It is way better than the first one in a lot of ways yet preserved the same plot style and uniqueness of the first one. Highly recommended! Go watch it now, aaass-hooole... (watch the movie to find out.)
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December 28, Tue
+ Take It or Leave It
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11:10 PM
The couple days after Christmas, Jen had to go back to work, so I just went with her and spent those 5 hours at Barnes & Noble while she was at work. I haven't had time to read for fun for a long time, so I really enjoyed those few hours I spent there. I finished this book called Boy Culture, and it was an awesome read. I really like the author's writing style and there are so many feelings and emotions that a lot of gay people can relate to. Then I started on this book called Civil Wars: The Battle for Gay Marriage. Unlike Boy Culture, this is a heavier read about the progression of gay rights. I've learned a great deal about what had happened and what so many gay people and gay right activists had to go through to get to where we are today. These books are really inspiring, and as a gay person, I'm not going to let those who fight for our rights down. Who cares about what other people think? You just can't possibly please every single person in this world, then why not just be true to yourself and live your own life the way you want it. Isn't that what all those gay activists have been fighting for for years? To be treated equally and to have the same rights as others to live our lives how we want it. If we don't even treat ourselves equally, how are we supposed to expect others to do the same? I know it's cliche but remember "It is better to be hated for what you are than be loved for what you are not." I'm who I'm and people can either take it or leave it!
Today Jen and I went shopping, and I got my first piece of female clothing. Well, since I'm so short, I always have a hard time finding clothes that fit me. So Jen suggested that maybe I should look for girl clothes instead. All the jeans I have are kind of baggy, and I've been wanting to get a pair of fitted one, so we went to Wet Seal and I got my first pair of girl jeans. I must admit it fits me nicely if not too long. Well, we went to a tailor afterward to get them fixed. We'll be able to pick them up tomorrow afternoon and I'm very excited.
[ADDED: 12/30 09:35 AM] We're leaving for Las Vegas in a bit. Jen and her friends are planning on a trip to Vegas for New Year. We'll be there for 3 days and 2 nights. I'm excited yet not really for some reasons. Anyway, I'll be back on Saturday.
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