Our Backpacking Trips

i attended a neighborhood watch meeting yesterday at my neighbor’s house down the street. so as of last night… there is a neighborhood watch group on my street! yay! it turns out 4 of my neighbors has been burglarized and they’ve had it with the hoodrats. there was even a sheriff present at the meeting giving us a crash course on forming a neighborhood watch group. i’m assuming due to the bad economic conditions theft rates has risen especially in the heights. according to the sheriff, the heights is a really really safe neighborhood but recently car and house break ins has risen over the past 6 months or so. to be honest… there is really nothing good to steal at my house. the newest addition is the washer and i dont think that can be easily hauled out. any other “valuables” i guess would be my computers and game systems but all that is located in my room. if you been to my room, you’d know its like a battle ground. you’d need a map to navigate and a quality compass wouldnt hurt. it basically looks like a world war III battle ground. if anyone even remotely tries to get in from my window… i hope they dont seriously injure themselves in the process, it would suck if some guy tries to break into my room but i end up having to call the ambulance for them. what would suck even more is if some guy breaks into my house, looks around and cant find anything to jack and ends up feeling sorry for us then drops a $20 on the dining room table with a note that reads: “man, you guys are ghetto-er than me, here is a $20 please use it as how you see fit – mr burglar guy”

yesterday afternoon the 3 of us (me, my brother and dad) were all hanging out in the back room of the house chillin’. then we started talking about some of the silly/stupid things we did when we were a kid. i laughed until there were tears in my eyes. it was that funny. i dont know if i shared these stories with you guys or not but its something def worth laughing about.

everything happened in 1st grade. when i first moved to the united states from taiwan. i didnt know a word of english and i was a huge fob. i remember 3 events very distinctly:

1) “My Very First Assignment” – it was the first day of school, each of us little kids had our GIANT name tags taped to the top left hand corner of our desks. the teacher passed out our very first in class assignemnt. she said something to the class – something i didnt understand because i didnt know english – then every one started writing. so… i did the first thing that came to my mind… i copied the whatever the girl next to me wrote. so i wrote “Alic…” then the teacher came over and said “no no” – she pointed to my name tag, then pointed to the paper where i attempted to write “Alicia”. okay i got it, so i wrote some one elses name on my paper. *FOB Strike One*

2) “The Spelling Test” - we have weekly spelling tests. on weds, mrs. hurfurt (my first grade teacher) gives us a “pre test”, but if we get 100% on weds we dont have to take the final test on friday. since it was our VERY FIRST spelling test she let us “cheat” on the weds test… like have us practice what its like to take an actual test. so we could look at our cheat sheet for the weds test. the 3 words that we had were: can, man, run. on friday, for the final test, we had the same words… BUT NO CHEATING this time. but of course i didnt know know. so i… “cheated”. of course i got caught and mrs. hurfurt made me put away my cheat sheet. i didnt study because i didnt know i had to, so of course i got an F on that test. i felt so bad. so i went home with those 3 words and took it up to my dad. told him about the spelling tests that we’ve been having. he helped me study those 3 words (can, man, run) all weekend. he tested me forward and backwards. for a kid who doesnt know a word of english… this was very difficult. i studied even monday through weds morning. then came the “pre test” on weds. before the teacher read out the words, i immediately wrote down “can, man, run”… all spelled correctly on my paper. i was so proud of myself, for sure i got 100% on the pretest and i didnt have to take the final test on friday. then i got my test back on thrusday… i got another F, the teacher pulled me aside and explained to me why. it turns out “can, man, run” were LAST week’s words. this week we got a new set of words. *FOB Strike Two*

3) “Going To the Bathroom” - its not easy being “the new kid” and not knowing a single word of english makes it even harder. so… i had to pee one day and all by myself i found the freggin bathroom to release my bladder. yay! i returned to the same bathroom quite a few times through out the week to take my daily piss until one day… i ran into a little boy in the bathroom. um, yea… i was just as shocked as he was. my first thought was “oh my… americans ‘hao sui bian’ boys and girls go to the same bathroom?”, it turns out… i was in the wrong bathroom. he pointed down the hall where another restroom was located, oh okay… i get it now. this explains the mystery of the urinals on the wall. *FOB Strike Three*

oh by the way… happy earth day!! i planted 2 trees yesterday!! =)

so you’ve heard, my washer has been on the outs for quite a while. my laundry hasnt been really done for like about 4 months. i have clothes on my bedroom floor piled up to my waist. i’ve been wearing the same skinny jeans for 1 1/2 months straight. so like about a week ago my dad busted the washer for good, the did the last load. the washer completely died after he was done, the damn thing wouldnt even hold the water. when i’m trying to fill it up in the beginning, it would just leak out from the bottom, flooding my garage. so the next me and my dad went to home depot, i picked the most expensive and fancy looking washer i could find and said “i want that one”. it was a 4.0 front load, high efficiency, energy saver, digital washer. we put in the order right away but it was out of stock and wouldnt be delivered until a week later. so finally, the damn thing delivered yesterday!!

my brother came home from work and helped us set up the huge thing. my dad did the first load. the timer on the panel said 1 hr 12 mins. so the 3 of us watched the washer run for about 45 mins. we were acting like we’ve never seen a washing machine before and we’re so facinated by the spinning motion. it was basically entertainment. weird and pathetic, but it was damn funny. my brother even took a picture of all the excitement.

wow my hair is getting really long…

before professors become tenured at Carnegie Mellon, they sign a contract that forces them to give a “last lecture”. this “last lecture” is very hypothetical, ie. what if you die tomorrow, what would your last lecture be to your students?… you know hypothetical. so this professor named Randy Pausch is a professor at Carnegie Mellon who has pancreatic cancer with 12 tumors inside of his body. the doctors cannot operate on him. Pausch has a few more months to live before he dies. He is 37 with a wife and 3 kids. so his “last lecture” is LITERALLY THE LAST LECTURE. i highly recommend that you guys take 1 hr 20 mins out of your day to watch the CMU version of the video (and 10 mins to watch the oprah version of it – there are additional info). it has to do with life… how to achieve your dreams. how to look at things in a different prespective, when you think something has gone to shit, look at it in a different way… it wont seem that bad. i mean seriously… do you want to live your one life miserably? heck, i know i dont. i absolutely love his useage of “the brick wall” because i’ve hit so many of those and i still keep ramming my head into it…

 
oprah version

the actual CMU version.

okay so this is my last qtr EVER at cow cal poly. i should be enjoying it and not hating it. every morning going to school is like pulling teeth. i wake up just in time to make it to class. with enough buffer time for me to drag my feet as i walk from the parking lot to the classroom. it shouldnt be like this!!! this is my last qtr, i should be enjoying it. taking a last sniff of my 8 – minus 3- year college education here. after all, i am taking all GE classes. before this qtr started, i thought it was gonna be a piece of cake. taking all these mickey mouse classes… but i have absolutely NO INTEREST at all in these subjects, so my attention span is nonexistent. time slows to a crawl in class and i’m pretty much miserable. i dont care about dance, i dont care about california geography, and i dont care about oceanography. dont get me wrong, i love marine life and whatever goes on in the oceans… but THAT IS NOT WHAT WE ARE LEARNING IN OCEANOGRAPHY!! we’re learning about plate tectonics and continental drift and some other bs that i totally dont give a shit about. i thought these classes were gonna be FUN. but everything being taught is so basic that they cant get into all the fun and interesting stuff yet. its all “foundation” information… information that bores me to tears.

enough complaining though. i think i will start paying attention in class and leave my starcraft cd at home. i might as well enjoy learning about all this stuff i will never ever use once i walk out the door in june BUT i should make the best of it. after all… it is my last qtr.

i found you a girlfriend. *wink*

oh.. and please keep both hands on the keyboard.

“…everywhere like such as.” – is not a complete sentence.

side note: the “asian countries” dont need your help hon.

LOLz

well… i paid a visit to the pomona animal shelter after class today. there were SO MANY homeless dogs, cats, and one goat. the dogs are so unhappy, seeing them depressed makes me depressed. i wish i can take ALL OF THEM home with me. at least i wasnt the only person looking to adopt, there were other families too. i think a yellow lab was successfully adopted today… good for him!!! i took some pictures with my camera phone… because i couldnt help it. as miserable as the dogs look…. they’re still adorable as heck! when they see me, their eyes light up and their tails wag, and i’m just going around saying “hai” to everyone.

this little guy is like 4 weeks old

i really really really liked this guy. he’s about the size of kala and bailey. he’s not a “toy”. he’s got really messy hair and he’s really in need of a home.

MUGEN!!! a 5 month old rottweiler. he reminds me of my mugen

*sigh*

how silly of that little dog. he SAT ON TOP OF ANOTHER DOG for the longest time.

when i still had mugen… i could tell he’s a happy one. kala and bailey are happy ones. you can tell by the look in their eyes. but these dogs…. these homeless dogs… *sigh* they’re so sad.

i made an impulse buy yesterday. i mean normally this wouldnt have been an impulsive buy if i wasnt borke i had a job but i seriously couldnt pass up this deal. i bought my very own backpacking tent! even though our crew doesnt lack on the tents or anything but i’ve been wanting my very own dome forever. so this is what i got: the north face tephra 22

its 4 lbs and 11 oz. thats pretty light!! its for 2 ppl and i’m loving the 2 pole design. on top of everything its free standing. i got it off of steepandcheap - one deal at a time, until it sells out. i got it for $75 bucks… plus $10 for shipping because SAC never offers free shipping. which is still a pretty good deal in my opinion. now i have my very own tent!!

i still havent found the footprint for this tent yet. the model i purchased is 2007′s model, from information that i’ve gathered on other websites i’ve learned that the new footprint (2008 model) for the tephra doesnt fit the old model (2007′s, my model) due to a redesign. i cant find the 2007 tephra footprint anywhere!!! augh. so this is a problem… HALP!