Long week in review . . .

Well, its been a week since i last updated, so i guess i should catch up. Last weekend was christmas shopping with the family. It was just a little crowded at the usual shopping places, but it was fun. We also saw die another day, which i thought was a great movie.

Monday i saw two towers again with Liz. That was fun. I figured that although it was lord of the rings, on a monday there wouldnt be much of a line. I was pretty off. But it was ok cuz i still got good seats thanks to my habit of getting places nice and early. It took Liz a while to get there from her place because the roads were crammed with more late christmas shoppers. But the movie was good the 2nd time, and i saw Emily Tueller there!

Chirstmas eve and Christmas were about the same as the past few Imus holidays, which basically meant hanging out, relaxing, and eating lots of food. I got a ps2!! Probably the best christmas present i've gotten since turning 15. Madden is quite honestly awesome, and nighfire is pretty cool too.

Yesterday me, vic, jen, eric, and edith got together and drove around looking at christmas lights. There were some really good decorations. Lots of use of disney characters; i think mickey was the one we saw the most. Afterwards, we headed over to coldstone cuz jen wanted ice cream, where we standed outside for about 15 minutes before deciding to go in when we discovered that they had just closed. So we picked up ice cream at albertsons instead. We stopped by some other places looking for spoons, until we decided to go through the wendy's drive through and ask the guy there for some. I thought it was pretty funny. It was so funny, that we drove over to jack in the box and went through the drive through and asked for 5 ketchup packs. Then we went to the drive through at carl's jr and asked for cup lids. Heh heh. Allright, it was funnier then it sounds, ok??

Ok, i'm going to go play ps2 now.

Today was quite busy. It started out waking up nice and early to the sound of rain falling outside my window. Then me, derek, vic and jen drove down to mission valley to get in line for lord of the rings. Jon, eric and raymond met us there shortly after. The movie was awesome, but of course we knew that before seeing it, right? Afterwards we paid a visit to that one place we call mt carmel, and were able to pay a visit to mrs hepler. Most of the other teachers were gone, either to westview or just home for the day, so there wasnt much else. It was strange, it seriously felt like i had only be gone for just a week or two, and if i woke up tomorrow and u told me that we were still attending high school i probably would believe u. Same goes for seeing everyone again. I havent seen derek jen, eric or raymond for a good 3 or 4 months, but it felt like we were still up to the same tricks we've always been up to. How interesting.

So The Two Towers. What's there to say? Great visuals, great acting, great battle scenes, great storyline. If i had to find something to complain about it would have to be the fact that a few of the good characters got pretty diminished roles in this one (namely the females and the wizards). Mike's Grade: A

Another movie i saw recently was ice age. Pretty decent movie with some good laughs, but its not anything great. I didnt particular fall in love with any of the characters. John Leguizamo can get a little annoying after awhile, and ray romano just wasnt all that interesting. The duo really fall short of anything woody and buzz or even mike and sully did. After toy story, bugs life, and monsters, i'm pretty wary about any non-pixar computer animated movie, but still, a decent movie if u need something to watch over the weekend. Mike's Grade: B-

Well, winter break officially started a couple weeks ago, so now i'm back to having tons of free time on my hands. So, if anyone ever wants to do something, give me a call.

Me, Jon, Vic, and Lang drove over to North County Fair yesterday. A couple of stores have changed since i was last there, which was back in september with jon when i got my current sunglasses. The christmas decorations were nice though. Oh, me and vic had another of our famous nickel bets. This time it was whether or not we would see anyone from mchs at the mall, vic betting we would and me betting we wouldnt. I won. Although i kinda expected seeing someone, especially during christmas time.

So what have i been up to recently. Bowling with jon and mall with the others have been the notable exceptions to staying home doing various stuff that i've been meaning to get to. I even cleared out my dresser that was covered with junk from the last year! I'm quite proud of myself.

I watched K-19 the other day. Pretty good movie, if you like submarine movies. Not a lot of action though, but still pretty good. If u want action u can watch u-571 since USA has been showing it every day.

As far as lord of the rings, i'm pretty much free anytime forever. So give me a call when plans start to get formed.

"What a bright time its the right time
To rock the night away
Jingle bell time is a swell time
To go gliding in a one horse sleigh"

I woke up late this morning and was late for my literature final. Gasp! Okay, so i was only a minute and a half late, but still, i think that qualifies as a near-crisis. I even set the alarm clock last night and went to sleep early so that exact thing wouldnt happen. I even distinctly remember waking up to the alarm and pressing the snooze button! Oh well. I got the final finished way ahead of time so no harm done.

Called up Jon and we headed over to miramar for some 50 cent pool and 2 dollar-something bowling. Pool was fun as always, but i needed practice. I think all the games were won or lost by default. Bleh. Bowling actually went pretty well, considering how horrible i am at it. I think i made 2 or 3 strikes. Yay for me! My lucky ball was a green 11 pounder, so ill always have to remember that.

Afterwards, we were kinda bored so we called up chang for ideas, but he was busy doing chores. I gave Jon jen's dorm number so we called her up too, but she was working on an essay so couldnt talk much. Apparently, she has her finals after winter break. Thats definitely no fun. What good is a vacation if you have to keep finals in the back of your mind?? I called up vic too, but it seems he's still in the dorms. So we drove down to best buy and looked around there instead. Then we went over to barnes and noble, where me and jon read through Relationships for Dummies. Very insightful.

Wow, I cant believe christmas is in less than 2 weeks. Geez, where did all the time go. I havent really gotten into the christmas mode yet, other than the lights my dad put up the other day. Last christmas feels like it was just yesterday. Well, no it doesnt, now that i think about. I actually cant remember what happened last christmas. Huh. I'm not sure i even got any presents. Well, this is gonna bug me for a while.

"Thats the Jingle Bell Rock"

Calc and Chem midterms are out of the way, thank goodness. Both were about what i expected, so i think i did pretty decent.

Jon came home today!! Coolness. Now we can go do fun things again just like way back when last summer. Hopefully starting with bowling and pool, assuming i have enough money for that.

I talkted with eupheme online for the first time in a long time, so that was cool. MCHS doesnt have vacation till after next week, just like last year. Wow, i remember those 3 weeks taking forever to get through, and then being rewarded with lord of the rings on that last friday. That was fun.

Sara suggested getting together to discuss tale of two cities. Just like old times. Sounds like good fun to me!! Who's up for it!?

Allright, well, i think ill go to sleep pretty soon so that i will be able to keep my eyes open while driving to my 8am final tomorrow morning. Later kids.

I havent really figured out whether I'm still feeling leftover effects of senioritis from 6 months ago or if I've always been this unmotivated. It has been so hard lately to get myself to study, which is not a good thing seeing as how finals are just around the corner. I'm pretty sure there used to be a time when i could get myself to study for more than 15 minutes straight without taking a break.

Raymond, I've found that "Not much" has worked as a pretty good reply to "What's Up" for me, and its usually true too. By the way, your writing is always very interesting, you have an inner knack at putting together words in a way that is . . . well, interesting (a talent that i am obviously lacking at the moment). So if you put all your thoughts down into words forever, i wouldnt mind if i never got to hear you speak again (ok, that didnt come out right either, but u get the idea ;)

Chargers: 8-5

Random Stuff:

My writing teacher cancelled our final presentations and brought us donuts and orange juice instead. How cool. Guess she wasnt that bad afterall.

Anyone know why theres a korean bbq almost everyday on library walk?

Ack, finals. Finals arent fun. Thankfully with writing out of the way i'm down to 3 finals, each on a different day. Also, in literature, which im taking pass or fail, we got an outline that pretty much gives everything thats on the test. So that should be allright. Chem will be important. The situation is that i've done excellent on 2 of the 3 midterms, and not so good on the third. Luckily, our professor drops the lowest grade, so ill be fine as long as the final goes well. Calc will be tough, so i dont really want to think about it yet.

Great picture of me on your website Chang, that could be you for all i know. Just call me the mysterious Shadowman.

Sorry Eric. Youll get that playstation back soon :P Maybe ill get a ps2 for christmas. Hey, we need to have a madden tournament sometime during winter break. You think youre ready for a rematch Big D??

Just out of curiousity, why is Berkeley called Cal? Wouldnt it be simpler to call it Berk?

Vic, your writing teacher is pretty freaky. I remember reading about this guy who got all obsessed with one of his coworkers and then did all sorts of freaky stuff like stealing her clothes and calling her a million times at night. Hmm, anyway . . .

End of the Quarter: 9 days

Chargers: 30
Broncos: 27

Hello again. I hope everyone had an enjoyable couple of days off. For those interested, Vegas was about the same as usual. Thanksgiving dinner somewhere other than at home was kinda cool. We ate at the Mirage buffet, and after waiting in line for a good hour and a half we stuffed ourselves with turkey, prime rib, mashed potatoes, stuffing, apple cider, pies, cookies, fruits, jello, and lots more. Yum. I played lots of fun arcade games as usual, not really any new games out. I also suck at slots, if thats possible. I think i won once the whole trip, earning a total of one dollar. Hmm. I also got to see rain in vegas for the first time in a long time, so that was cool.

We ended up staying in two different rooms, due to my mom requesting another one because she didnt like the view. Over the past few years my family has learned not to settle in too much when getting to a hotel room, since 9 out of 10 times my mom will end up moving us to another room because the floor isnt high enough, there isnt a nice view, its too far from the elevators, etc.

Well, here we are at week 10, with four days of finals coming up next week. Then its a very welcome three week break for a merry christmas, and this time finally get to see you out of towners again.

Chargers: 8-4, first place

Well, i'm off to vegas for the next few days so u wont see any new posts here till i get back. Feel free to give my cell a call if you are so inclined and we can chat, as long as i'm not too busy playing . . . arcade games that is. Enjoy thanksgiving and dont study for finals yet!!

"Viva Las Vegas!"

Calc midterm yesterday went allright. Negative reactions from the people around me which means only one thing: friendly curve!! Hee hee, jk, i do care about your grades too. (curve! curve! curve!) If i did well, i'll have reestablished my confidence at getting good grades, which i must admit has been weakening a bit recently.

Chargers: lost 3 of their last 4 games, yet are still in first place. The only thing is that so are the broncos and the raiders. 3 out of 4 teams tied for first place. Phew. Needless to say the next two weeks will be very important.

Chang just made a website, which is surprising since i didnt think he would be the type to take time off from studying to do it. ;) Check it out here. (I've had problems linking in my blogs, so if it doesnt work the url is www.geocities.com/stephensyc)

One more day of easybreezy classes then its off to relax and be my normally wild and crazy self.

Status: essays written, midterms taken, ready to party in vegas (in a family oriented way of course).

"All of my life
Where have you been
I wonder if I'll ever see you again"

Mike Update: I will be gone all of thanksgiving vacation. My family decided (without my knowledge of course) to make another trip to our home away from home at Las Vegas. I believe that makes 3 trips this year. We'll be having thanksgiving dinner at some casino buffet, and i think this marks the first time we've spent thanksgiving in vegas, although i could be wrong. Anyway, it kinda makes me sad cuz i was looking forward to hanging out with all the out of towners who were coming back for the holiday, but i guess we'll have to wait till christmas. Or, if youre home soon enough call me wednesday night and maybe we can do stuff then.

Raymond, what is it with you and terrorizing little animals?

Calc mid term in 5 hours. Time to go study!!

Chargers: 7-4

"And if that day comes
I know we could win
I wonder if I'll ever see you again"

The popular topic around here lately seems to be winter quarter. Thanks to the miracle of webreg, i was able to sign up for my classes in a little less than an hour. I didnt get half of the classes i originally wanted, but overall i pretty much like my schedule. I have tuesday off, start late and end early on fridays, and have a good chuck of freetime between classes on monday and wednesday for lunch. The only thing that might be a bit annoying is that fact that i have one class on thursday, a math discussion, and its at 6:00 in the evening.

Countdown to Thanksgiving: 6 days! Which also means 4 day weekend. Thank goodness for that. I'll be studying for calc midterm this weekend. Cant afford to screw this one up.

Chargers at Miami. If we win on sunday, ill be in a really good mood going into the calc midterm on monday. So lets hope we win.

Did i mention how hot and sunny its been lately? The rate we're going we'll be spending christmas at the beach.

Random updates in and around the world of Mike . . .

Chang got contacts! How interesting. I stood there watching him try to get them into his eyes for a good 25 minutes. But hey, he got them in, so u gotta admire the determination.

Ole Chuck in love?? Whouda thought that, huh?

Two essays and a midterm next week. Fun fun fun. Thank goodness vacation is coming up. Okay, so its a 2-day semi break, but hey, ill take what i can get.

Its been so hot around here lately. Geez, and its almost december. The suns been burning so bright that my sunglasses tan is starting to come back again.

Speaking of sunglasses, i left them in my pants pocket during laundry. Oops. One of the lens popped out, but using my acute skills of craftsmanship, i was able to repair the damage. Actually, i pretty much just forced the lens back in until they seemed stuck enough. Hopefully it doesnt go flying out sometime while im wearing them.

Incredibly, i saw the geisel library at night for the first time a couple days ago. It looks even cooler in the dark with all its lights on.

Love triangles are never fun. Dont worry though, yours truly certainly isnt part of one.

Hey, for u out of towners coming back home for thanksgiving, make sure to give me a call so we can go do something fun.

So i get to work revising my essay for warren writing. My teacher emailed the class this checklist we're supposed to follow, after we had already written our rough drafts. So i'm looking at this checklist thinking i'm going to have to rewrite 75% of my essay, when i get back my rough draft from outside her office. She wrote "very, very good" despite the fact that i didnt do half of the things she stated on her checklist. So now im slightly confused and annoyed at the class, but oh well cuz its pass or fail.

Chargers: 7-3

"Here comes the night
Here come the memories
Lost in your arms
Down in the foreign fields"

So what's new in the life of Mike? Not much I'm afraid, as you have probably already guessed judging from the blandness of my last couple of posts. College is going ok. I dont have a whole lot of work and i find myself not working on much for large amounts of time. Chang said it was because i'm good at time management. I think its because i've just gotten lazy, or never quite recovered from senioritis.

As for the social life, i havent really made any new or great friends. I've made a couple acquantances in a couple of classes, so its cool to have someone to talk to everynow and then. Chang and Raza are pretty much my lunch buddies, along with various members of chang's suite. Me and vic havent hung out as much as id thought we would. Liz is the only person i've hung out with outside of school so far, which hasnt even been that much. Ah well. I'm sure ill meet lots of cool people in the future.

I think it would be cool to move into an apartment sometime in the new future. Anyone willing to be a roommate?

It has come to my attention that next quarter will be the last math course i need to take. No more math after that. Never. Ever. How interesting. Math has been a part of school for as long as i remember, but soon ill be all done with it. Wowza. I sound like such a nerd, but its gonna be a little weird when that happens.

Anyone hear of magic mountains' new coaster opening next spring? Its called Scream! And i'm not just excited, it actually has an exclamation mark. Scream!

Hey, Thanksgiving is in 2 weeks. How cool. Everyone's coming back to sunny san diego! Lets go do something fun.

"Not so long ago
Seems like eternity
Those sweet afternoons
Still capture me"

"I long for the warmth of days gone by
When you were mine
But now those days are memories in time"

Back in action . . .

Well, after a 3 day weekend up in catalina island, i arrived back home last night with a massive head ache that put me to sleep quite quickly. When i woke up i was still feeling the effects of it and was still pretty tired. Thankfully writing let out after about 20 minutes, which allowed me to get back home and catch up on more sleep (i'm spoiled, i know).

As for catalina island, it was quite pleasant. The boat ride there was kinda nice, it was the first time i was on a boat for while. The town of avalon was cool too, mostly shops and restaurants but still fun. It felt like being in smallville. We went on this bus tour that went around part of the town and drove up this hill and got a really cool view of the town and ocean. There was this really awkwardly shaped fat guy that we kept running into too. How interesting. Breakfast lunch and dinner there wer basically burgers, fish, french fries, and just about anything else fried. Yummy.

"A zesty partner can help you in your efforts to get ahead" -my fortune from a fortune cookie i got at a chinese buffet we ate at.

Its come to my attention that i waste lots of perfectly usable time doing absolutely nothing at all. I really dont know how i do it, but i have so much time to get work done but end up squandering the majority of it. Its really weird thinking back to junior year of high school when i used to work at least 6 hours straight everyday. Wowza.

"Life's empty without you by my side
My heart belongs to you
No matter what I try"

Well, today it is raining. I think this is the first time i've walked around campus in the rain. I like rain. It has something of a refreshing, cleansing feel to it. Walking through the rain alone is good for reflecting and thinking and stuff, but its always nice to have someone with you in the rain.

This week has been filled with warren writing work for our final essay. We are considerably ahead of all the other classes (mostly because out teacher doesnt follow the syllabus too closely) so it would be cool if we finished things early and didnt have class the last week or so.

This weekend me and the family are going up to catalina island. I've never been there and i'm not sure whats so exciting about it, but hopefully itll be interesting.

Jon comes home this weekend. Yay! Hopefully we can hang out before i leave.

Oh, and another thing. I checked my stattracker thing cuz i like to know how hugely popular my blog is, and it turns out someone found my site through a google search. Incredible. And if that isnt weird enough, the word searched was apparently "funny horse names". !?!?! If one of u are responsible or can explain this to me, please do.

"That time of year thou may'st in me behold"

My blog looks crowded on my computer. Ill try to move things around sometime, but being the advanced web master that i am itll take a bit for me to figure out all the html stuff.

This weekend i got charged for a parking permit i dont have, didnt get to hang out with any friends, lost money playing poker, ate some less than quality food, and the chargers lost. The bright side? Well, i got a new chair.

Chargers: 6-2

Hey check this out! I added this really cool tag board to replace the comments i used to have. Now everyone can tell me how great Mike's Cloud is!

"Please come now I think I'm falling
I'm holding on to all I think is safe
It seems I found the road to nowhere
And I'm trying to escape
I yelled back when I heard thunder
But I'm down to one last breath"

Happy Halloween. Wow, I can't believe October is over already.

Had lunch with raza at ocean view today. Good food for a pretty decent price, plus a view of the ocean. I missed the pumpkin drop at muir though. Oh well.

Now here's something a little out of the ordinary. I was over at liz's place for a bit, when she made me pick out clothes for her to wear so she could impress this guy she likes. Geez. I'm the guy who practically wears the same 5 outfits every week in the same order every week. (Well, not anymore, since i've pointed it out). And i dont think ive ever looked through a closet of tank tops before either. Anyway . . .

"I'm looking down not that it's over
Reflecting on all of my mistakes
I thought I found the road to somewhere
Somewhere in His grace
I cried out Heaven save me
But I'm down to one last breath"

Gosh, why can't we all be happy. Seems like everyone is having love problems nowadays. Thats never fun. They say the time it takes you to get over someone is the same as the amount of time you were together. Is that true? Hmm. The worst part is listening to someone and not being able to do anything to help. I can't even help myself for that matter. *sigh*

I posted my bio on my other site if u havent already noticed. Very important stuff.

Okay, time to go eat the candy before the kids start to show up.

"Sad eyes follow me
But I still believe there's something left for me"

A description of yours truly, according to a psych quiz provided by vic. The weird part is that its actually decently accurate (some of it) . . .

"you are a cheerful, optimistic person. emotionally grounded
and outwardly friendly, there isn't a soul that wouldn't trade
places with you

but there is a dark side

as the sky opens up and unleashes its fury, so does your
temper. luckily, it is tempered with a kind, loving, nurturing soul.

your love ranges from the passion of beethoven to the
intricate beauty of mozart.

your relationship is based on an enduring trust and classical
balance that helps your rise to the highest level of
understanding and passion.

revealing a disciplined personality where multiple friends and
family are of utmost importance to your psyche.

you are one who strives to display affection without syrupy
sentiment manifesting emotion in a cool, detached manner."

"My normal hesitation is gone
And I really gravitate to your will
Are you here to fetch me out
Cause I've never had this taste in my mouth"

Lets see. This weekend I drove over to Liz's place cuz she wanted to play badminton. We stopped by utc to eat, and she tried on some kid sized clothes. Very interesting. Then we went over to the muir gym where some guys were fencing, but we couldnt get any nets so we just played on the tennis court. Fun fun fun. Then we went back to her place and watched half of lion king, which is still a great movie.

I added a bio page to my other web site. It isnt anything special, but it gave me something to do and hopefully itll be at least kinda interesting. What i really need is a scanner so i can put in all my cool pictures. Maybe over the three day weekend thats coming up i can use someones. That way people might actually have a reason to visit my site.

Raza has a dorm now. How cool. It has a really nice layout with a big lounge and an AWESOME view of the ocean. Pretty good stuff.

Wow, October is coming to a close pretty soon. Its kinda weird to think that the quarter is almost half over. Where does all the time go.

"In every cloud, in every tree- filling the air at night . . ."

"The stands in your eyes that color them wonderful
Stop me and steal my breath
Emeralds from mountains thrust towards the sky
Never revealing their depth"

I'm working on a bio page to add to my other site. It doesnt serve much of a purpose other than to give me something to add. So look for that sometime this weekend.

Extra points for jocelyn. Wow, i really didnt think anyone would get that. Nicely done. Now you have to tell me how you knew that (too much sparknotes?). Good old Dorian Grey.

Thank goodness the weekend is almost here. Essays are written and mid terms are taken. Lets do something fun.

The week is halfway through, which means half of my stuff is out of the way. Essays are done, and now its time for two mid terms. Calc is in a matter of hours, so i should probably be studying for that instead of posting here. Oh well.

I changed my little description on the top left cuz the old one was starting to annoy me. This one isnt all that great either so ill probably change it sometime too.

I havent updated my other site in a long while, so look for something new in the near or not so near future. (If nothing changes this weekend, its probably not going to change for a long while)

"It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also." (extra points if you know where this came from!)

"Charger fans and Raider fans actually have a lot in common. Charger fans like to ride waves, Raider fans like crime waves"

San Diego Chargers: 27
Oakland Raiders: 21

Theres nothing better than the Chargers beating the raiders in oakland in front of all their criminally insane fans.

Chargers: 6-1 >>> First place

"If you show up to the raiders stadium looking like youre from this planet, theyll know youre rooting for the other team"

Its friday morning, and once again i come to you live from the wonderful geisel library at ucsd.

This weekend is packed with fun and exciting stuff. First of all theres a lit essay i have to write, and if i havent stressed it enough its worth 25% of my grade. Youre probably wondering why i took literature in english in the first place, and i'd answer u but i dont think i will. Anyway, the prompt i chose is something funky like "anaylyze the hypothetical interpretation of canterbury tales as a dramatic work expressing the actual characters". ??? What i would give for good old ap english when all we had to do was talk about diction and not have to worry about oydna reading it. Bleh. And i have to worry about mr. russell crowe correcting it too. He hasnt given us anything about what he wants in the essay, except to say "NO opinions!". Okiedokie then.

Oh, and theres also 2 midterms coming up. Chem isnt till friday, so ive got all of thursday night / friday afternoon to study for it. Plus chem is easy. Calc is a bit more important, cuz its my first one. We have to go out and buy these blue books to take the test in. As if we dont spend enough money for school supplies.

K, off to class i go.

"The course of true love never did run smooth"

". . . so through disciplined and well-founded research, I found on the wall of a bathroom in muir . . ." -my literature prof. yes, the one who tried to rap canterbury tales.

Phew. Finally finished my four page essay for warren writing. Thank goodness. I've got plenty more where that came from to look forward to. Next week i've got the final draft of that essay due, a midterm in calc, another test in chem, and a 5 page essay worth 25% of my lit grade. And the chargers are playing the raiders.

“Though they are of monstrous shape, yet note, Their manners are more gentle, kind, than any of our human generation you shall find”

San Diego Chargers: 35
Kansas City Chiefs : 34

Chargers: 5-1 . . . The Chargers are in first place.

"Its not that I can't live without you
Its just that I don't even want to try
Every night I dream about you
Ever since the day we said goodbye
If I wasn't such a fool
Right now I'd be holding you
There's nothing that I wouldn't do
Baby if I only knew"

So here i am sitting in the geisel library with my first chem mid term in a few hours. But instead of studying, i think i'll update my blog. I'm not being irresponsible or lazy, i'm just thinking of all you people that look to Mike's Thought Cloud for entertainment and meaning (all 1 of you).

Yesterday writing was the usual. Which means i'd rather not talk about it cuz doing so would only make me annoyed at the fact that i am required to take it. Afterwards, met up with raza and he drove us down over to la jolla square to eat at chipoltes (spelling?). They make their burritos fast. Then went home to waste more time doing various things, knowing that i had the rest of the day to study. So at about 5:45 i finally sit down and start going through my practice chem test when liz calls me up and tells me that a friend of hers is taking her to some restaurant to meet a bunch of other freshman peeps. After a quick "discussion" with my mom, i drove down over, with liz telling me to "hurry! hurry!" over the phone. I finally get there so we head on down to the restaurant which was called el coyote or something like that, and everyone else is pretty much done eating. So me, liz, and her friend elaine eat by ourselves. The food was pretty good, it was almost exactly like rodrigos. Yay! It turns out elaine goes to the same church as chris cheng, which was cool. After, me and liz headed back to her apartment where i hung out for a bit and was reminded about how allergic i am to cats. Gah! Why cant everone just have dogs?? So after flipping through her yearbook and looking at her stash of nsync stuff, i felt like i had a cold so i headed on home to finish the practice test and get some sleep. Phew.

Now i have about 40 minutes before litereature, which theoretically is more than enough time to review the entire chapter. But instead i think ill type more stuff.

"The words to say
The road to take
To find a way back to your heart
What can I do
To get to you
And find a way back to your heart"

People are interesting. Some are complicated, some are easy to understand, but each has his or her own story.

"Hakuna Matata
What a wonderful phrase
Hakuna Matata
Aint no passing craze"

Nothing like singing lion king songs on aim to cheer us up.

"It means no worries
For the rest of your days
Its our problem free philosophy
Hakuna Matata"

"Happy Birthday" is the most often song sung in the world.

"Hello my friend we meet again
Its been a while where should we begin
Feels like forever
Within my heart are memories
Of perfect love that you gave to me"

My streak of hearing Underneath It All on the radio driving to and from school has ended at 10 days.

Okay, so my math section leader is a horrible teacher. Dont get me wrong, he seems like a nice enough guy, he's just terrible and teaching stuff. Ugh. Then i get to warren writing, where i find out that we were supposed to have 15 copies of our paper for the rest of the class. So me and half of everyone else head on to whatever that photocopying place is called and make a bunch of copies, then we took our time heading back. After class, i had to hang around a bit waiting for her to finish editing them. Guh.

Yesterday my 70 something year old lit professor tried to rap to canterbury tales. *Shudders*. Points for effort though.

"I can't remember the last time that we kissed goodbye
All our I love you's were just not enough to survive
Something your eyes never told me
But its only now too plain to see"

Got up bright and early this morning as always. Lit was the usual, although i'm starting to wonder about this essay thats gonna be due in about 2 weeks. He hasnt said anything about it, so i have no idea what i should be preparing for. Our grade in lit is basically essay 1, essay 2, attendance, and final. Oh well. Had lunch with chang and raza as usual, then me and raza hung out at changs dorm. I was doing some canterbury tales stuff on the internet and started downloading songs so that i wouldnt have to keep listening to the mchs orchestra. I started going crazy with the downloading cuz i was so amazed at the idea of downloading a song in less than a minute. Wowza. Then off the calc and chem which were the usual.

"I've been thinkin and here's what I've come to conclude
Sometimes the distance is more than two people can use
But how could I have known girl
It was time and that space you would need
Darling tonight I could hold you and you would know"

After that, called up liz and hung out at her apartment for a bit. Apartments are cool. I want one. She introduced me to her cats which made me sneeze a bunch. We also played some old school video games like the wild college kids that we are. I had to leave after a bit cuz she had a singing audition to go to, my mom called, and the cats were killing me. Fun fun fun.

Number of days in a row that i have heard Underneath It All on the radio either driving to or from ucsd: 10

Chargers: 4-1 They gotta lose sometime, right? Damn broncos.

"There's a light in your eyes that I used to see
And a place in your heart where I used to be
Was I wrong to assume that you were waiting for me
There's a light in your eyes
Did you leave that light burning for me?"

So lets see. This morning did the whole laundry and vacuuming deal, plus wrote some stuff for Warren Writing. Fun stuff. Then mom and dad took me and sis to eat at this japanese buffet, which was ok. Hey Jon! I had tiramisu, except thats not how u spell it! Haha. Yummy. Then played some pool with dad in miramar where some marines were having a unit party so we had to play on the last table in the back. I won all 4 games against my dad! Yay for me. That is a true accomplishment. As you can see, my powers are far beyond yours.

Number of days in a row that i have heard Underneath It All on the radio driving to and from ucsd: 9

5 things that make my day:
1. Getting a call from a friend
2. Reading something i can apply to my life
3. Spending time with someone cool
4. Meeting a new friend
5. Seeing the Chargers win

"Are you lonesome tonight?
Do you miss me tonight?
Are you sorry we drifted apart?
Does your memo restrain
To a bright summer day
When I kissed you
And called you sweetheart?"

Oh, i finally talked with Liz again after a week and a half. So that was cool. She vented about some stuff which lead to the comment about what good friends dogs and cats make and me venting about some stuff too. Phew.

This question came up: Which is worse, saying something and wishing you hadn't, or saying nothing and wishing you had? Personally, i have made the 2nd mistake way too often during my many adventrues. Hmm, i wish i still had that comment thingie. Oh well.

My mom always warned me about the dangers of drinking. All the physical as well as mental problems that result from it. She always kept a tight watch on me, making sure that i never did. Then college started. And all the freedoms that came with it. All around me I saw it. In the dorms, walking to class, everywhere. I couldn't help my temptations, and i took a drink. Then I took another, and another, everyday since college started. I admit i felt a pang of guilt with each drink, but I couldnt help myself. With each drink the powers of addiction grew stronger, my taste for it became more insatiable. Then I realized what i had done. I had let my mom down, but more importantly i had let myself down. I was poisoning my mind, destroying my body. It was then that I made a pact with myself to be stronger. So from now on I will resist the temptations that face me everyday. I will not succumb to my desires for a taste, even a sip. Yes, I will be strong, I will succeed. Time to cut back on soda.

Would did you think i was talking about???

Ok, my ucsd email account seems to be peachy now, so feel free to write to it instead of my old prodigy one, since it takes like 2 hours to access it. I get like 10 emails a day on my ucsd one, all of which are about internships and the like. So send me something interesting to read!!

pimus@ucsd.edu

"There's treasure everywhere!"

"There's times when i want something more
Someone more like me
There's times when this dress rehearsal
Seems incomplete"

My streak of hearing Underneath it All on the radio every drive to and from school continues.

So it turns out warren writing isnt so horrible a class afterall. The teacher isnt nearly as mean or strict as she tried to trick us into thinking. And there are actually some pretty cool people in that class too. The reading still sucks though. We had to read this one article that went on for almost 30 pages to basically say that "Mexico is wonderful, americans are ignorant, and the united states is messing up mexico's economy". Of course, the main point of the article was that globalization of developing countries is bad. Oh, and in case i havent told this story before, ms. seniors (the teacher) took the first 5 or so minutes of the first class to tell us that lateness was totally unacceptable in her class, then promptly showed up late the next class. How funny.

So i'm watching the yankees play, and a totally strange and uncanny thing occurs to me. I dont hate the yankees anymore!! Incredible. Not that i root for them or anything, but i'm not like "What the heck?? Damn, i cant stand that guy. Stop cheating!!". But dont worry, i still hate the dodgers. Nothing will cleanse my soul of that. Same goes for the raiders.

"Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success, flat stretches of boring routine, and valleys of frustration and failure." - Calvin, as in Calvin and Hobbes. Hey, so what if i get my philosophy out of a comic strip?

1/3 of my college life is driving and walking.

I wish i had more enlightening things to share, but i dont. Sorry, its thursday. Check back over the weekend.

"But you see the colors in me
Like no one else
And behind your dark glasses
You're something else"

This morning was my section (or discussion class) for literature. The section leader was pretty cool, he kinda reminded me of russell crowe. Hmm. He kinda had a tendency to lower his voice to a whisper while saying something important. I kinda do that sometimes too, which explains why people often are saying "what?" when i talk. Then off to the lit lecture which went okay. Afterwards got a free union tribune for the 3rd day in a row (theyre handing out free samples all week) and had lunch with chang and one of his suitemates. Chang, being the cool guy that he is, let me hang out in his dorm while he went off to class. I took that time to read this one article for writing. It was horribly long, and even more horribly boring. Bah!! Just so everyone knows, warren writing is a required class, otherwise there would be no chance in the world that i would be taking it. So i spent 2 hours bludging through it and deciding on its "main claim" and the "grounds" that it uses. Then off to calc, and right after to chem.

Way back when, i always thought that ucsd would be a school filled with nerds. Not that theres anything wrong with nerds, cuz i'm one too. Some of the best people i know are nerds. But it turns out ucsd is very much diverse. There are so many non nerds here that it almost feels like being back in high school again, except that everyone is supposedly smarter.

It turns out the shuttle that goes to the east parking lot where i park actually goes past it, to a parking lot a bit further down. And the walk from there to where i park is almost farther than just walking straight there. That explains why lot 702, which is farther from university center than lot 701, is more filled than 701.

"Life is unfair . . . but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor?"

"We're coming your way
We're gonna dazzle you with our play
The time has come
You know we're shooting for number one
The thunderbolts and lightning
Will light up the sky"

Chargers: 4-0

It rained on the drive to ucsd this morning. Well, more like a drizzle. But still, worth noting.

Lit was interesting yet again. The professor chuckled at all of his own jokes yet again. Afterwards, had lunch with chang and raza over in the muir cafe, sierra something or other. It was pretty good, but expensive. Then me and raza played a few games of pool, all of which were very close (2 games ended with just the 8 ball, the third had one left). Phew. Hmm, me and raza checked out the library again but not too much going on. There were a bunch of sales set up along library walk. I got another free union tribune and another page of coupons. Calc was interesting. The professor is cool enough, kinda goofy though. Chem went okay. Then the drive home. Ugh. Black Mountain was closed so basically all of mira mesa and miramar were backed up. It took me like an hour to get from mira mesa high to baja fresh. Well, not an hour, but close. My mom called my cell like every five minutes asking where i was, and eventually we met up at some oriental market for dinner while we waited out the traffic. An hour later, the traffic was the same, so we took 15 and got it over with.

I hear Underneath it All on the radio every drive to school, and every drive home. Seriously. Its a good song though!!

Whoever said that UCSD has no pretty girls was horribly mistaken.

There's a shuttle that goes from the parking lot i park in to university center, yet i've walked it every time. Hmm.

Worth noting again. Chargers: 4-0

SAN-DI-E-GO . . . .SUPER CHARGERS!

Okay, so lets see . . . classes started last week. So far, one of my classes seems boring, one seems interesting, one seems okay, and one got cancelled. Literature appears to be the most interesting of my classes. The professor is pretty cool too. He's a friendly old guy who can speak old english and chuckles a lot. Calc got cancelled, so we'll have to wait on that one. Chem was eh, although the professor seems okay so that was good. Hmm, theres other stuff i could talk about but its not all that interesting so ill go do something else instead now.

Chargers: 4-0. New England? Superbowl Champions? Undefeated? The Chargers don't give a flying fruitcake!!!!!!!!!

Got to UCSD bright and early.

Today classes started. The only class i had was warren writing, which was anything but fun fun fun. It was pretty boring as a matter of fact. We had to write an essay analyzing an argument for or against the US-Mexico border. ??? What the heck? Who cares about the US-Mexico border? Well, sorry if u do, but i certainly dont. First work i have done in college and it was a bs'ing job. Ugh. Great way to start things out!

Dinner with Chang over in revelle plaza, where water costs 10 cents. Bah. Then hung out in his dorm for a bit and visted clics, and we checked out another one of the poster sales that is going on. After, had to go pick up a reader for writing which wasted $10 of my limited cash fund. They dont even keep them on the campus. I had to drive over to this little photocopying place which wasnt so far cuz i was driving, but would be a major annoyance to those without cars. Thank goodness for mr. van. Oh well.

Got to UCSD bright and early to prepare for the annual unolympics. Warren came in the defending champions and holders of the shoe. The competitions were fun and mostly interesting, but sadly we came in 2nd to revelle. Darn. Stupid revelle. Of course, i'm currently hanging out in a revelle dorm so i shouldnt talk too much smack about them.

Tomorrow classes start. Yay. I only have one class, warren writing, which will undoubtedly be fun fun fun.

"Warren! Warren! Warren!"

College is fun fun fun.

Got to UCSD around noon then drove around to just about every parking lot that wasnt a mile away before i finally found a spot above muir college. Phew. Then headed on over to get my ID card where i made 2 new friends, Liz and Anna. We got bus stickers on our ID cards and Liz bought some textbooks for pretty good prices. Anna showed us a few shortcuts around the place. There were barbeques and free food all over the place. We found a little place selling posters, and Liz got one with a pair of cheetahs. She likes cats a lot. Me and Liz went over to York for the bio major orientation which was educational and interesting. I ran into justin there too. Liz left for a doctors appointment or something so me and justin went over to hang out at changs dorm across the way. His roommate gave us milk and cookies, and they were watching spiderman down the hall. Then me and chang walked over to the parking office to get him his bus sticker and to get a bunch of flyers about the shuttles. We visited the bookstore for a bit then went to go get the shuttle. After it didnt show up, we decided to walk back and paid a visit to clickz to see all the computes. Unfortunately it wouldnt let me log on, so i had to change my password again and hopefully it will work again later. Then more hanging out at chang's dorm where i find myself now.

My parents replaced my cell phone with a slick new one. It is noticably smaller and looks a lot cooler. Plus its got cooler games. Yay for cell phones!

I've got my parking permit, bus sticker, ID card, new cell phone, new sunglasses, new shoes, good classes, cool friends with cool dorms, a kingsize bed, and i hung out with a girl. What's missing in life?

"So lately, I've been wonderin
Who will be there to take my place
When I'm gone, you'll need love
To light the shadows on your face
If a great wave should fall
It would fall upon us all
And between the sand and stone
Could you make it on your own"

Spent forever trying to get my ucsd email account to work. They are amazingly bitchy about what u set as your password. "Not enough characters, not complex enough, must contain upper and lower case letters, must contain punctuation . . " Ugh. So i finally get it to work and then it takes forever to load anything. Bah!

Talked to John Wang today. Called him up and i was like "Hey, so how was high school". We were best buds way back in the day around 8th grade, then never saw each other again over the next 4 years. Too bad, cuz he was a good friend. It was good to catch up a bit with an old friend during a time when good friends arent as numerous as they once were. He's currently up in stanford, which is no surprise considering the genious that he is. With all the smack i gave him about his big head and nike hat, he deserves it. What a great guy.

Tomorrow is back to ucsd for a bio orientation, maybe an academic advising thingie, possibly the warren dance, and lots more crashing at everyone elses dorms.

"I know now, just quite how
My life and love might still go on
In your heart and your mind
I'll stay with your for all of time"

Yay, today was fun and interesting. Drove over to friendly ucsd to get textbooks, which was about as fun as picking up textbooks can be. At least it was quick and easy. Then headed over to warren dorms which were a lot further than i remember, and hung out with vic in his cool but empty suite. Then headed on over to chang's dorm on the other side of the huge campus in revelle. His room is noticably bigger than the warren rooms, but he has no air conditioning! He does, however, have a fridge, microwave, and roommate with a tv and ps2. Wowza. Then headed back over to warren to hang out in justin's dorm and vic's again. I was kinda tired by then so i drove on home and fell asleep.

I dont have a student id card yet. Blast. Ill have to pick one up sometime.

Chargers: 3-0

So overall things are looking fairly decent. Its definitely a good thing to know a bunch of people already. I can always hang out at someones dorm and take part in the whole "dorm experience" plus get to know a bunch more people. Then i can come home and sleep and eat. Yay.

Boy i feel tired.

Tomorrow i go pick up textbooks. More importantly, i get to drop by and see my old school chums in their new dorms. Yay for that. It'll be good fun.

Today was boring and uneventful.

So it turns out that will no longer has 8:00 am classes and actually starts later than i do. Same goes for casey. So, the whole carpool deal could possibly return. Stay tuned.

Looking at maps and stuffing them into the van. Never know when i'll be driving through downtown or up to LA. Oh, and thank goodness that dad drives to ucsd every freakn day. Thanks to him, i've got 2 shortcuts to and back, and a parking lot where other students arent allowed to park. The force is strong in my family.

Lots of welcome week activities happening next week. Nothing incredibly interesting. I'll likely go check out the bio majors orientation, but i'm not sure if anything else. It seems there is a welcome week dance tomorrow night and a warren welcome dance tuesday night. How interesting. But not likely.

I don't give a flying fruitcake!

Well. My last post had kind of a not so pleasant tone to it. And because this is the Thought Cloud of the ever cheerful, hopeful, and optimistic Mike, i would like to take this moment to lighten up the mood a bit.

3 guys are hopelessly stranded on an island. After many years of painful existance, one of them finds a magic lamp hidden in a pond that he had never searched before. Calling the others, he eagerly rubs the lamp and the 3 of them are greeted by a great genie. "Unfortunately, because there are 3 of you here, I can only grant 1 wish to each of you" the genie tells them. The first guy quickly wishes to be brought home with his friends and family. He disappears in an instant. The 2nd guy thinks a bit more, then wishes for a grand ship filled with food and riches to appear and carry him home. It is done and he rides away from the island on his ship. The third guy thinks a little, but cant quite decide what he wants. He has no family, and cares not for riches. A little annoyed, the genie asks what it is he wants more than anything else at that moment. "Well," he responds hesitantly, "I'm kinda lonely. I wish those other guys were back here."

Ba dum psssh.

One perk of staying home is that i can still sing myself to sleep late at night, singing anything from backstreet boys to unwritten law. Thank goodness for that.

"Don't worry, everything will work out in the end. I promise."

"I've been searching deep down in my soul
Words that I'm hearing
are starting to get old
It feels like I'm starting all over again"

Guh. Not in the peachiest of moods right now. Dont ask me why cuz i wont tell u. I kinda feel like bitchin about something but i dont think i will. Oh well.

This weekend is move in weekend, which for me means picking up text books. Hopefully meeting new people too and seeing all the old chums in their new homes. Itll be hectic, but itll definitely be more eventful and interesting than most of this summer has been.

I must admit i kinda feel left out of the whole moving into dorms deal. Living at home and commuting has its bright points but its very easy right now to focus on everything i'm missing out on. Sigh. Thank goodness i've got good friends with dorms already, so hopefully i can still share a bit in the dorm experience. Hopefully i meet good people early that'll be good friends too. I can sure use them right about now.

5 songs that mean something to me this summer (dont ask why):
1. Elton John - Your Song
2. Michelle Branch - All You Wanted
3. Lifehouse - Hanging By A Moment
4. Blessed Union of Souls - Light In Your Eyes
5. Chris De Burgh - Lady In Red

Things will start getting interesting soon. Phew. I've certainly waited long enough.

7 days until college begins. Wowza. I really dont know what to think. A few weeks ago I was so eager to start, but now i feel kinda indifferent. Although I'm definitely glad for the chance to begin a new life all over again. New people, new friends, new environments, and new challenges await. Here we go.

Getting books this weekend is gonna be hectic.

Dont forget about my guestbook at Mike's Cloud.

Its a weird feeling when friends that you have relied on and turned to for comfort go away. It leaves you feeling lost and confused. Sigh.

Added a guestbook and a cool new title banner to Mike's Cloud (my other site). Go check it out and sign my guestbook (Link is on the side).

Went to go do some recycling and spend some time with the grumpy fat guy. Fun fun fun. Also drove over to UCSD to get my neato parking permit. Its an "occasional" use one thats only good for 10 days. The funny thing is that I'm the one who marks off what days i use it, so theoretically i could just never mark off days and use it forever. Heh heh. Good thing dad works across the street, cuz parking is probably gonna be a beach. Not the good kind either. Good thing dad worked in the navy too, cuz driving through the marine base is a sneaky shortcut around a good chunk of miramar road during traffic. Thank goodness for that.

"When I am dreaming
I don't know if I'm truly asleep
or if I'm awake.
When I get up
I don't know if I'm truly awake
or if I'm still dreaming"

Mowing the lawn and raking leaves. Talk about making the most of the last week of summer vacation :P

I had a really wild series of dreams last night / this morning. They contained a lot of the random stuff that has been on my mind lately, which of course is quite random. Phew. Dreams always mess with my mind. A good example of this is when there is something i'm dreading coming up in a few days, and then i have a dream about getting it over with and then feel good that its done. Then i wake up and feel good before i realize that it was only a dream and i havent faced it yet. Ugh. Amidst all the chaos, there was a brief part of my dream that was one of those moments that even after i realized i was dreaming, i didnt bother waking up cuz it was so good. I need more of those dreams. Sigh.

Through experimentation, I've discovered that thinking about something pleasant right before going to sleep rarely results in having a sweet dream of that thought. Dreams are random. No! No! Freud has no place here!

"'Cuz I'm dreaming of you tonight
Till tomorrow, I'll be holding you tight
And there's nowhere in the world I'd rather be
Then here in my room, dreaming about
you and me"

Whup, sorry jocelyn. Nothings wrong with yellow yoshis (although that last part is a little interesting), orange yoshis are the ones i meant to warn everyone against.

Oh, i got rid of the comment thingie since all it ever says anymore is "commenting unavailable". Give me a comment if u want me to add a new one (ha ha!!).

Chargers: 2-0. How 'bout them texans?

Updated my other web page a bit. Still not quite happy with the title thingie though, so expect it to go through a few more changes. I did, however, fix the august reflection for all those people that have been asking me for it. I also added a few nifty looking animations throughout. Go check it out sometime.

Last full week of summer before the dawn of college. Well, better go make the most of it.

"Making my way downtown
Walking fast, faces pass
And I'm homebound
Staring blankly ahead
Just making my way, making my way
Through the crowd"

Adding to the list of goodbyes that has been this summer, Jon leaves sunny san diego for calpoly slo. Adios viejo! Remember to come save me every now and then, and enjoy yourself in the women's engineering club.

The highlight of my mundane saturday was watching a scrambled pay per view fight of de la hoya vs. vargas. Nicely done by the golden boy.

Next week begins the final week without school. Here we go. I cant believe how long this summer has been. Thinking back 3 months ago to graduation day, it seems so far away. Almost as if it were part of another lifetime. Of course, that isnt too far from the truth. Sep. 26th begins a whole new life, complete with all new people, joys, sorrows, and experiences.

"And i need you
And i miss you
And now i wonder
If i could fall into the sky
Do you think time would pass me by?"

It's Friday the 13th. How spooky. Blah hah hah hah.

"It's close to midnight
Something evil's lurking from the dark
Under the moonlight
You see a sight that almost stops your heart"

Vic is a black yoshi. I dont know which is more disturbing . . . that vic is a black yoshi, or that the yoshi survey could be so accurate (with everyone). Jk, black yoshi isnt so bad. Watch out for yellow yoshis, those are evil.

My oven requires pliars and a knife to operate it. Seriously. Ugh. Stupid frozen pizza that will form the basis of my nurishment when i finally move out someday.

Life feels so empty. What do i have to live for anymore besides monday night raw and thursday night smackdown? Sigh. U know things are really starting to go wrong when you start looking forward to school. School will solve all my problems! And probably create whole new ones at the same time. Oh well. UCSD should start earlier and end sooner. Next week is the last full week without school, then, off i go. Phew. Do i feel ready? As ready as i can be. Am i anxious to get there? I certainly have nothing making me want to hang back. Are things going to work out? Can't say. I didn't think senior year of high school was going to be any fun, and look what happened.

Yay, busy weekend about to start. Lets go do something fun.

Your man Mike is a--

Yes, I am a blue yoshi.

Jon hates my computer. Me too!

It just kinda came into my mind that there are a lot of people i will never see again. Obviously, this is a good thing in a few cases, but it makes me kinda sad to think that there are those people that i never bothered to notice in class everyday for 4 years, and now i will never get to see him or her again. Sigh. How sad. Thank goodness for AIM.

Chicago is classic.

ESPN did a thing of the top ten athletes that revolutionized his sport. How interesting. Jackie Robinson was #1.

"I didn't know that it was so cold
And you needed someone
to show you the way
So I took your hand and we figured out
That when the tide comes
I'd take you away"

Driving range yesterday! Fun fun fun. Started out missing the ball completely, but got the hang of it later and hit some decent balls. Then i kinda lost the hang of it and seemed to actually get worse toward the end. Oh well. The last ball I hit was really good, so i ended on a good note.

The horn on jon's van doesnt work. I guess i should be happy that at least my van has a working horn (I have never honked my horn at anyone, by the way, but i have been honked at). We got a couple ads left on his windshield too. Jon wanted to get rid of them, and being the environmentally concerned guy that he is, decided not to litter but instead stick them on someone elses car. Shrug.

Dilemma is the calmest i have ever heard nelly rap. I didnt even know it was him till recently. Good song.

At in n out the guy there kept calling everyone "boss". When he served the guy ahead of me i thought he was actually the guys boss. Then i get up there and he goes "Want onions with that? You got it boss".

Helped dad carry a bunch of heavy old stuff to be taken away by some guys collecting old heavy stuff that nobody wants. I had no idea how much junk we have outside and around the house. Old broken microwave, old broken washer, old broken matress . . . How interesting.

"I'm sinking slowly
So hurry hold me
Your hand is all I have to keep me
hanging on
Please can you tell me
So I can finally see
Where you go when you're gone"

College: just on the horizon (2 weeks). Almost time to start life: chapter . . . something, havent been keeping count. Oh well.

"Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Cheering for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
No religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Cheering all the world

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you join us
And the world will be as one."

God Bless America.

"His accent serenades me and presses at the door
Broken promise to be around for my mind war
And my accomplishment's interrogating me
Today's become tomorrow before i wanted it to be"

Del Mar race track yesterday to bet on horse races. Yee-haw. Fun fun fun. During the last race, a jockey fell off his horse, and the horse ended up crashing through a fence as people tried to catch him. How interesting.

Jon is a green yoshi.

Funny horse names:
Color Me Matt C
Takeonefortheteam
Ima Mile High Guy
Shuffling Kid
Dee Double Ya Dan
Hasta Lavista Baby
Fabulous World
Martinblestme
Terpsichore

"But in this humble place I'm feeling like red wine
And I hope to get better with some time"

Lets do something fun.

How 'bout them texans!?

"Desparate for changing
Starving for truth
I'm closer to where I started
I'm chasing after you."

So we went out for another exciting round of shopping, and my mom wanted to watch the sampras-agassi u.s. open finals match, so we tape it. When we get home my mom sits down and watchs the tape. I, being the impatient guy that i am, simply turn on sportcenter to see who won. When i mention it to my sister, my mom says "Tell me and i kill you" (literally). So my dad comes home from work a little while later, walks in, sees the match on tv, and says out loud "Hey, sampras won!".

"There's nothing else to lose
There's nothing else to find
There's nothing in the world
That can change my mind."

Chargers: 1-0

Today added another goodbye to the long list of goodbyes that has been this summer. Good luck at harvard jen!

I like rain. Today's rain brought with it an interesting mix of feelings and memories. Hmmmm.

Very well, as requested, the countdown to college will no longer appear here. The last thing i want to do is ruin someone's summer.

"I sat on the roof
kicked off the moss.
Well a few of the verses
they got me quite cross."

I will, however, say that for me this summer has been one of the biggest let downs in past years. It has had its bright points (six flags, boomers . . . um . . .) but in comparision to what it was expected to be at graduation, it has come up pathetically short of expectations. Again, for those people that i have done fun things with, those have been exceptions to the rule and i thank u for sharing fun times with me. In truth, this summer hasnt really been all that bad compared to past summers. No summer assignments (THANK GOD) and not starting till late september are notable pluses. Its just that this summer was supposed to be an exceptional one, and it turned out to be mediocre at best. It peaked at the first week, then went down hill from there before leveling off a bit later. Sigh. Ok, enough bitching from me.

Mike's Advice: Dont go into things with high expectations. Instead, expect and be prepared for disappointments, successes, and surprises. (easier said than done)

"So excuse me forgetting
But these things i do
You see I've fogetten if they're green
Or they're blue."

Ahhhh . . . nice, cool fresh air. Thank goodness for that. I like this weather. It is much better than the hot and dry past couple of days. Look at all the little high schoolers. Hmm. How interesting. Brings back many memories. Many many memories.

"I found the coupons i had saved for us. We never got to use them, so i threw them away."

You would think that having a sn that contains my name in it would make it easy for people to guess who i am, but this is not the case. Im'ing people and having them guess who u are is lots of fun! I think the person who guessed the fastest was kristina. Wendy said something like "I would think that this is mike imus, except he's not usually so cryptic and mysterious". I'm not crptic and mysterious! Am i? Hmmmm.

"All things fall into place
My heart it feels so safe
You are my melody
That's where you take me."

I tried to figure out the difference between biochem/cell bio and molecular bio majors. I figured that molecular biology sounded cooler than biochemistry and cell biology, and figured that it would require less chem classes, but i was mistaken. The 2 majors have almost exactly the same lower division classes. The upper division requirements differ in that molecular requires 4 or 5 courses that biochem doesnt, but biochem requires 4 or 5 bio electives, so i would probably end up taking those same classes anyway. Bah.

"With you I get so high
Lost in the crystal sky
You are this melody
That's where you take me."

Ha! It just occurred to me that because school starts on a thursday, i would be attending my thursday classes. Which happens to be one class! Blah hah hah hah. It also happens to be the latest i start (11:00) so my first day should be relatively relaxing, with lots of time to invade everyone's dorms.

21 days until college starts.

22 days until college starts.

It is hot. Well, better put on my sun glasses.

I posted my Reflection on August on my other web site. Well, i tried to at least. There's a problem with my formatting or something or other. Anyway, ill try and fix it sometime for all u people that are so eager to read it.

My van has a radio / CD player. Excellent.

Okay, here's an interesting situation. Turns out my dad works at the VA hospital, which happens to be practically on top of the ucsd campus (it's closer to half of my classes than the warren dorms are). So, theoretically theres a chance that i would drive my dad to work when i commute to school. The advantage to this? I would be able to park in the VA parking lot, which is a heckuva lot easier to get into and much more conveniently located than the parking lots on the outskirts of the campus that i would probably otherwise be parking at. Interesting. Yes, that would mean i would be driving with my parent to school again, but the fact that I am the one driving would eliminate the whole nightmare of waiting for a parent to pick u up (although now its kinda the other way around). ugh

Quotable Mike: No matter how different your surroundings, how far away familiar people go, some things u can just never change. (And its almost always the things that u want to change).

Barbeque today! Yum yum yum.

Found out that Chang has his roommate and dorm info already. He lives in Argo hall, which happens to be right across york hall, where i have chem classes. I will make sure to drop in on him sometime(s).

Apparently, casey and probably will are also playing the commuter game this year. So, we may end up carpooling together, seeing as how 3 or more carpoolers get special reserved carpool parking spots, which would make parking a heck of a lot easier.

Jon has a blag (no, not blog, blag) on his web site. Check it out sometime. Jon's a funny guy. I will miss him. Although i'm sure ucsd will be filled with funny people.

Quotable Mike: The greatest source of pain and suffering is other people. The greatest source of joy and happiness is other people.

Don't ignore the talking tree. It knows what its talking about.

24 days till the first day of school.

"You'd think that people would have had enough
of silly love songs"

More wanderings around ucsd today. Fun fun fun.

"I look around me and I see it isn't so."

"Yesterday
All my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they're here to stay
Oh I believe, in Yesterday"

Well, not really. My troubles seemed far away a lot longer ago than yesterday, and i dont think they'll be here to stay.

Yesterday i paid a visit to the friendly campus of ucsd in an attempt to locate all my classes. Finding the buildings was quite successful, they are not as far apart form each other as the map led me to believe. I also got a new ucsd key chain to replace my mchs key chaing. Yay for key chains. I ran into the famous talking tree again. Heh heh heh. I was telling my sister about it looking around for it when all of a sudden it was right in front of me. How spooky. The tree still cracks me up.

So then it was lunch at PF Changs and walking around utc for a bit. Then i went with vic and jen to jocelyn's grandparents' big house in la jolla for a barbeque. That was fun. We also took a quick trip up to mt soledad and down to the beach. There was a wedding on the beach and me and jen were able to watch it. They had the wedding kinda late, i think they were aiming for sunset but the sky was too cloudy so u couldnt really see it. Oh well. It was fun anyway.

Got new sunglasses today. Yes, i know my old ones have been with me for a long time, and we have had many good memories together, but i think i sat on them or something cuz it got kinda bent. So i got new ones, and they are pretty cool.

Yesterday when we were about to leave boomers, jon opened the door to his car and hit himself with it in the chest.

I couldnt go to sleep last night for some reason. I think i just had a bunch of stuff on my mind and was too busy thinking. Of course, i would put that stuff here where it belongs, but i cant really remember much of it. Oh well. Probably not very interesting anyway.

I said a few days ago that i would do another random reflection on the month of august, but i find myself in the wrong mood. Hmm. Maybe ill do one later tonight, or tomorrow, or on sunday.

The story of my life can be chronicled around family trips to las vegas.

Today me and jon went to boomers! Fun fun fun, and no sarcasm for once. Hmm, where to start. Somehow we missed the big sign that said BOOMERS which marked the entrance to the parking lot, so we ended up parking near the back of it and walking all the way around a fence. We started the day off with the free arcade. Blah hah hah hah. My skills which have been so finely honed at las vegas arcades were put to good use as me and jon beat a whole bunch of fun games that cost a dollar each normally. After, we went on the ferris wheel which rotates freely and feels as if its gonna break under your weight. Jon kept leaning forward. Gah. Then mini golf! Lots of fun, and lots of funny shots by jon and me (more by jon). A couple of holes in one too. Jon says we cheated a lot, so i guess we did. Oh, there was this one shot where jon missed completely, and his ball bounced around and somehow landed in this mine cart that was facing the opposite direction. Kinda hard to explain, but really funny if youre there. Then we also did lazer tag and go karts, which were pretty fun too. We eventually went back to mini golf twice more, and to the arcade of course. We ended the day playing none other than the world reknown dance dance revolution. Hahaha. Good thing nobody i know was there. I think the fact that i am actually asian was the only thing that prevented me from making a total fool of myself. Thank goodness i didnt fall out of my shoes or anything. Phew. Yes, boomers was just the thing to get my mind of complicated stuff and put me in a good mood. Thank goodness for that. Then we ate at 99 ranch and had boba.

Hmm, so while we were doing mini golf the topic of girls came up. Apparently, Jon has several girls that like him (yes, several). There is also at least one girl he likes, but he's reluctant to pursue it cuz he's leaving for college in a few short weeks. How sad. As noted in a previous post, timing is everything in life. He also mentioned how a number of girls (i promised to keep the exact number secret) confessed that they had crushs on him, right before he leaves san diego. Again, timing is everything. Sigh.

Mike's Advice: Go with the flow, but make sure not to wait too long to act. Otherwise, time will run out before you realize it.

Sigh. Why is there always too much time to do stuff u dont want to, and not enough time to enjoy what is precious?

Go check out my new and improved web site. Its got some cool new stuff. Really!

Hmm, lets see. I chatted with eupheme a little. She told me about all the incredible and massive changes that have taken place at mt carmel since my departure. Apparently the freshman have been doomed with the homeroom system. Gah. How horrible. Because of this new system, they have an extended lunch, but have also gone back to 5 minute passing periods. In my opinion, 5 minute passing periods were 2 minutes shorter than i would have liked. Thank goodness for 7 minute passing periods. Hmm, anyway.

Quotable Mike: Things change. But not as much as people change.

Jon has a girl who has a huge crush on him. Interestingly enough, he happens to like a totally different girl, who was nice enough to show him her bedroom. Seriously! :P How exciting. Nice going Jon. I always knew u were a player at heart.

"Raindrops keep falling on my head
But that doesnt mean my eyes will soon be turning red
Crying's not for me"

August is almost over. I am thinking about doing a reflection on the month of august (these reflections are very spiritually relaxing for me!) by the end of the week. So stay tuned.

Boomers tomorrow!

"The blues they send to meet me won't defeat me
It won't be long till happiness walks up to greet me."

So today we went to go get a radio / CD player installed in my van. Unfortunately, we found out that doing so would cost about twice as much as we thought it would, something about reinstalling the entire sound system blah blah blah. Yes, it would seem that i am destined to drive reubens to college everyday. Bah! Well, all i can say is that i will be getting the greatest car ever invented afterwards. I can also say that if mom expects me to drive around without a radio again, then we will be having words. Many words. Words gradually increasing in volume. Sigh.

Changing the oil of a car isnt much more fun than it sounds.

Quotable Mike: If things didnt change, then we would never be able to grow, learn, or improve ourselves.
Quotable Mike: On the other hand, if things didnt change things would never get worse.

Hmm, so today was mostly errands and other boring stuff with the family. Nothing interesting.

i was looking at my schedule for ucsd, and realized how far away some of my classes are. Normally this wouldnt be a problem, except that i have chem and calc right after each other 3 days a week, with 10 minutes to get from one to the other. I'll hopefully make a trip to ucsd sometime soon to find where all my classes are, and see if i can walk between chem and calc in 10 minutes.

The comment thing isnt working. I have no idea why. Hopefully it will be back up and running before too long.

Hmm, this is by far my shortest entry in my blog's short history. Oh well, as the great yoda once said "Size matters not".

Anyway . . .

I saw lilo and stitch today. It was a good movie. Definitely one of the best disney films in a while, with some genuine laughs in it. I'm still debating whether or not it was better than tarzan, which was the best disney film since the lion king.

Brock Lesnar is the new undisputed wwe champion, confirming the prediction i made yesterday. Blah hah hah. As you can see, my powers are much stronger than yours.

Well, i flipped through my yearbook last night, bringing back feelings of longing and remembrance. So, seeing as tomorrow is mt carmel's first day of school, i have decided to do another emotional reflection on the changes of life. Here goes.

I remember myself a year ago, about to begin my senior year of high school. I remember feeling trapped, being stuck in high school for one year more than i wanted. I remember saying "everything i wanted to do or have happen in high school happened my junior year. What more could happen in another year?". As school started way back in august, graduation felt so far away. Right over the horizon, but just out of reach. As the semester went on, i found that there were indeed many things i had not experienced the year before, great people i had yet to meet, and new ideas i hadnt yet learned. But still, i wanted nothing more than to graduate and move on to bigger and better things. Then something else happened. Through a mixture of fate and luck, i met someone who suddenly made everything worth it. All the things i had gone through in high school, all the sacrifices and successes, the failures and accomplishments, all were worth bringing emily into my life. Suddenly the stresses and problems of school were no longer the burdens that they once were. I had found the one person in the world who could make me wish high school could go on longer than it did. When graduation finally came, i was filled with a mixture of feelings. Happiness that the time to move on had finally come, and sadness at the fact that the many comforts i had grown attached to were about to be taken away. As summer began i tried to forget the inevitable future and concentrate on happiness, but time cannot be stopped by even the strongest optimism. When me and emily parted ways, i thought back to the happy times in high school. I didnt think about the insane homework assignments or crucial finals, but rather the bright points. I remembered being able to see all my friends on one day at one place, knowing that we would see each other again the next day, and not having to know that our time together was slowly fading away. I remembered being able to see emily everyday, being able to just reach out and hold her hand whenever i wanted to. I realized that high school had ended before i wanted it to. It had been a long year, but by the time i had found someone who made it worthwile, graduation had come. The only thing i can do now is cherish those memories. Cherish them, but not dwell on them, and rather look forward to the future and concentrate on the new direction life is taking. So, my advice to anyone about to begin another year of high school; dont spend too much time thinking about when the end will come, instead concentrate on making sure u experience everything u can in high school while u are there. You wont have that chance forever.

No more wuss debate! Me and vic have ended it. Phew. But the debate did demonstrate the awesome power of the comments feature. I must vow never to use this power for evil.

Tonight, Jon and George premiered their new movie. I didnt make it cuz i got to have fun vacuuming and doing 2 weeks worth of laundry, so after i was too lazy to go out at all. I'm sure ill get to see it soon though.

I chatted with kristina a little on aim today. She is the first person who has gone off to college that i have communicated with. Get online people! Bah!!

Today was boring. Ugh. This is the first time in a long time that i have actually been looking forward to the start of school.

I would like to take this moment to clear up 2 issues involving last night's drive on the dirt on hilltop park. First of all, it has been brought to my attention that jen stated the fact that u can drive onto the dirt, and i responded by saying that people went there for the 4th of july. Apparently, there is a big difference between that and what i said on my last update. So i hope u feel better now. The other thing involved my warnings to jen not to drive onto the dirt, which has resulted in me being referred to as a wuss. Normally, i will admit when i am being a wuss about something, but that was not the case last night. I warned jen not to drive onto the dirt because i wanted to avoid screwing up jen's car, or even worse, having some cop tell us that we were past hours and then call our parents, which would undoubtedly result in my being grounded for life. Of course, my warnings went unheeded (as did vic's advice) and jen ended up scratching the bottom of her car, not to mention almost running over a bunny. So there. I expect vic to be making comments on this moments after it is posted :P

Tomorrow, Brock Lesnar faces The Rock for the Undisputed Championship. Using my acute knowledge of world wrestling entertainment, i predict that Brock will win through interference or some other form of cheating. Check back tomorrow to find out the results.

Irony of the day: When me and em first started going out, Michelle Branch's latest single was "All You Wanted". About 1 and a half weeks ago, when emily left for houston, Michelle Branch's newly released single was "Goodbye to You". Sigh.

"Wise man say, Only Fools Rush In"

Today i went over to vics to play video games for a little. Then we all went to go watch xxx, which i liked a lot. Of course, i like mindless action films so of course i would have been satisfied. It was pretty much everything i expected; lots of explosions and lots of action. My kind of movie :P. Then we ate at rodrigos, just like old times, and played some pool after. So later, jen is driving us home when she gets the sudden and random urge to drive up to hilltop. For some strange reason i made the comment that people drive on the dirt area on the edge of the hill sometimes. Keep in mind that jen was driving at the time i said that. I dont know what i was thinking. Sigh. So of course jen drives up onto the dirt area, directly against my warnings. We avoided the really bad stones and holes, but jen kinda scraped the bottom of her car going over the sidewalk back onto the street. There was a loud noise and all of a sudden the glove compartment explodes in front of me. Sigh. So then we start going "i told u", "no u didnt", when a bunny runs across the street right in front of jen, who slams on the breaks, causing the glove compartment to explode in front of me again. Sigh. Thankfully, the rest of the ride home was relatively uneventful.

Mike's Advice: Trust your friends. For example, if a good friend were to say "dont drive onto the dirt", u shouldnt drive onto the dirt. It will be good for the friendship (and your car). Heh heh.

Jon's driving makes me dizzy. Always. I think its cuz he drives stick, which is always kinda rough. There was one time when he drove 4 of us over to fashion valley to see a movie. After, he said he was hungry but the rest of us wanted to keep walking around, so he wandered off alone. Later, we just happened to be walking near the parking lot, where we saw jon about to drive away, leaving us stranded in fashion valley. Thank goodness we stopped him in time.

I am listening to my celebrity cd. It is a great cd.

"I've been sitting here
Can't get you off my mind
I'm trying my best to be a man and be strong
I drove myself insane wishing i could touch your face
But the truth remains, you're
Gone"

Anyway . . .

I made a webpage today! Blah hah hah hah!! The force is strong with me. My site may seem simple, but i am still quite proud of it. There is much more work to be done on it, right now all it really has are 2 pictures and a link to this site. So expect much more in the coming days. There is a link to my site on the left side of this page under Cool Links.

So last night me, vic, and jen went over to jocelyn's place for a nice round of pool. Me and vic were partners, and were quite literally smoking. I believe we won all the games (except for one, in which we scratched on the break minutes after jen said that scratching on the break didnt count as a loss :P). Me and vic made some pretty incredible shots. How cool. Then we went to blockbuster to "quickly" get a movie. Of course, it took us about an hour to choose one. What else is new. We skipped over the sweetest thing, where the heart is, and home alone 2, and finally settled with the royal tenenbaums which has neither cameron diaz, natalie portman, nor the hilarious humor of men getting hit on the head with bricks. Oh well. We didnt watch it cuz we played video games first, then i decided to leave before my mom called me. This caused jen to leave as well, then vic. Whups.

Today, jon went back to magic mountain. He could be screaming expletives at this very moment.

Will told me about some philipino guys he was playing basketball with. They were pretty unfriendly guys who kept fouling him, and when he was about to kick this one guys butt he ran away. Reminds me of second semester p.e. sophmore year. Ugh. All those jerks i had to play basketball with. How horrible.

I miss u emily.

When we were at blockbuster, there was a moment when we were just standing around trying to figure out what to get, when jen casually reachs for some random movie. The title of the movie? The Wild Child. Go figure. How funny.

I was looking at raymond's website yesterday, it is pro. He has a page with his friends on it. Good thing im there. The picture of me is really funny though. The caption for the picture says "Yes, this is the best picture i have of him". I have no idea what i'm doing in it. Its almost as if raymond was sneaking up behind me, then i turned my head and looked to the side right when he took it. Hmm. Looks as if it were taken during set up for his haunted house. How interesting.

So last night, jen goes "Ooo! the moon!". So we go outside to look at the moon. How . . . uh, exciting. Apparently, there is a face in the moon. In my opinion, there is a face in the moon because u make yourself see a face in the moon. Kinda like seeing shapes in the clouds. They are there because u see them using your mind, if that makes sense. Hmm.

Quotable Mike: Much of what we see in life is there because we want to see it. Seeing these things gives us comfort and contentment. This does not always mean that we are disillusioned or blind to the truth, only that we choose how we want certain things to appear to us. If we want to see something as positive, we will think of it as positive. I call this optimism.

By the way, i cant really explain the purpose of these "Quotable Mikes". Theyre just there for me to let out my deep and profound introspective nature. Ha ha ha. Plus, it increases the chances of a president quoting me during his or her acceptance speech.

Nothing interesting has happened so far today.

HTML is quite interesting, and kinda fun. Reminds me of c++ back in freshman year when i made that pro tic tac toe program. I've been playing around with HTML and made a simple web page that i am actually quite proud of. Maybe i'll put it on angelfire or something sometime.

I said that me, vic, jen, and derek have funny chat room conversations, but me, vic, jen, and mel have weird chat room conversations. On occasion it bordered on gross, but hilarious nontheless.

The best comic since calvin and hobbes is zits. If u havent heard about it, its about a high school teenager. Thats why i can relate to it. Its really funny too. By the way, calvin and hobbes is seriously the greatest comic strip ever. The greatest. Everyone should read calvin and hobbes.

Raymond left for fullerton today. I didnt get to say bye. How sad. The last time we saw each other was the day we went to go watch signs and play pool. That was a fun day. Hmm. Hopefully we see each other around thanksgiving. I think sara left today too. She's going to ohio to attend franciscan university. Whats in ohio? Oh well. Sara is cool. So is her dad.

Jon goes back to six flags tomorrow. X will be open. We went almost 3 weeks ago. Wow, thats a long time ago. What a fun day. I have a great picture of me and jon on riddlers revenge. Jon is like "AUUUGHHHH!!!" and im like "i'm thinking of something funny instead of screaming and looking at the sky instead of looking down". I dunno what i was doing. I remember screaming rather loudly though. Jon, hopefully u put that picture on your site sometime.

Quotable Mike: Life is like a rollercoaster. It has its ups and downs, the fun parts are over too quickly, and its almost never what u expect it to be.

I added comments to Mike's Thought Cloud. Now u can tell me what u think about my random thoughts. Yay for randomness.

Anyway . . .

First of all, i had the weirdest dream last night / this morning. i think my mind has already tried to block out most of it, so i can only remember a little. But from what i remember, it was pretty much that me and all my good buddies were visiting some far away city and staying at a really big house, like jons. Then we did all sorts of odd stuff, like walking around this theme park and breaking into some guys house (sound familiar guys? dont answer that). We did a lot of other strange stuff, but i shall elect not to post it here, since my mom could possibly be reading this. And emily was in it too. Hmm. I'm still trying to figure out what the meaning of her presence is.

Washing reubens does not help me figure out what my purpose in life is.

Okay, so yesterday i watched jon eat 6 jack in the box tacos and a burger. Then, we picked up jen and headed over to derek's place, where vic showed up promptly. We drove around aimlessly trying to figure out what to do when we somehow ended up in front of the locked gate to poway lake. So we just sat there in the dark while i mentioned the possibility of gangs, cops, or guys running around with knives showing up. So vic puts the car in neutral and we try to turn around but get stuck. So me and jon get out and start pushing the car down the sloped hill. The car starts rolling down the hill at like 30 mph (maybe not, but thats what it felt like) and im like "Jon! stop pushing it!!". Then me and jon had to jump back into the car as it was moving. So i can now say that i have jumped into a car while it was in motion. How fun. Later we drove over to jon's mansion in RB, where chang also lives. We walked over to his house to see if he was there, but all we could see was the silhoutte of what was probably a book shelf. It was eerily quiet on that street. How spooky. Then vic, who was trying to see into the house and seriously looked as if he was trying to break in, noticed some woman on the other side of the street who was staring at him. So of course we all high tailed it out and went home. We all said bye to derek, who drives up to berkely today. How sad. Oh well, we will see each other again soon.

So today marks one week since me and emily said goodbye to each other. It seriously feels like so much longer ago. It feels like such a thing of the past when the two of us were able to just cuddle up next to each other, not worry about anything and just enjoy each others company while we watched something cheesy on TV. Wow. So how do i feel? Quite well actually. The truth is, i had about a month of time to prepare for the inevitable before the inevitable happened. So i have had much time to let go and move on. I still miss her, but not in the way i did while we were still together. Back then it was kinda like "when can i hold u again? i cant breathe without u . . ." etc. Now its more like "i miss what we had, but i am ready to move on". I have accepted the fact that emily is no longer the direct center of my life. I hope she has too. I havent spoken to her since a week ago, but she is a strong girl so i know she's doing fine. Sigh.

Here's a cool picture of us from the senior yearbook signing party. I have one of my almost trademark "why are u taking a picture of me?" looks. Thanks to chuck for taking it. http://words.mg2.org/userimages/shoutbox/poot/album/6-07-02/mike-emily.jpg

Quotable Mike: Never forget those special people who have given u happiness, because they have helped create a part of who u are.

Okay, so derek and jen get all excited about this bike ride through the canyon we planned for today. Derek was really looking forward to it, and of course jen wants to do everything, and i'm like "hmm, are u sure about this?". Well, jen finally showed up so we took our bikes over to a flat street to test them out. I do okay, considering i havent biked since like 5th grade. But then jen gets on and its too high for her. How funny. So we take the bikes back to dereks place and discuss whether or not we want to rent a bike for jen, but instead we give up and play mancala. Then jon calls and says he can do stuff later, so me and jen exit and let derek do some packing. Jon called and said he'd be ready to do stuff about 25 minutes ago from this posting. No word back yet.

So i saw the video for no doubt's latest single, "Underneath it all". I love the song, but the video is kinda weird, and downright freaky in some parts. Oh well. Thats a no doubt video for u.

A great classic movie is speed, starring keanu reeves and sandra bullock. i just got the special edition dvd. It is an awesome movie, and practically 3 movies in one. Their are 3 climaxes in the last half hour of the movie. And keanu reeves is really jumping from a jaguar to a bus at 50 mph. Coolness.

Speaking of speed, just about all my friends drive fast. The notable exception to this rule is raymond, who always drives below the speed limit. But everyone else likes to drive fast. I will elaborate: Derek drives fast on occasion. He often hits 40+ in a residential. He also once drove almost 100 on the freeway. Yikes. Jen: likes speed. Just her personality i guess. Always wanting excitement. I will not tell u how many stop signs we have almost driven straight through if it were not for me. Vic drives fast cuz he is a car guy. What do u expect, he's asian. Dont believe him when he tries to convince u otherwise. As for me, i consider myself a pretty mild driver. I usually drive only about 5-10 miles above the limit. I guess its cuz im a mild kinda guy. Yay for mildness. I see myself as a very go with the flow type person. Of course, sometimes the flow goes at 90 mph on the freeway.

Mike's advice: Go with the flow. That does not mean let life pass u by. Rather, dont fight what u cant change, and dont waste time worrying about whats not exactly the way u would like it. Focus on whats going well, and enjoy what u can when u can. Improve things, but be content with what u have and dont concentrate on what u dont have.