80s Fun

last night, we marked the end of a long and busy two-week orientation with an 80s party. the international kids were pretty confused at the concept (some dressed as the beach boys), but i had a fun time boozin' with this crowd.

which reminds me...this japanese guy is teaching me japanese phrases with the trade that i teach him "better" english. i have thus far taught him very useful words such as yo, dude, man, boozer, smashed, slammed, and tossed. he takes his lessons seriously...he writes this stuff down!

Leadership-Schmeadership

i am exhausted. the first week of my two-week orientation is a 2-unit class called leadership foundations. we have done various activities with our groups, such as ropes' courses, design project simulations, and even improv lessons. i'm all good with these activities, except the lame debriefing after each session, "what have you learned from this activity?" i keep thinking they're just testing my patience. breathe...breathe...1...2...3.

right now, with only one beer in me, i am writing my "leadership map" (a 3-page paper) . this is why i am a good leader, this is why i am a bad leader, this is what i want to work on, and this is how i'm going to do it. good thing i've had this blog to keep my bs writing skills in check.

Fight Fight Fight

i went to my first ucla football game as a student yesterday and had a fantastic time. i saw two undergrads throw up around me and the bruins whooped the #21 ranked oklahoma sooners 41-24. i learned all the ucla cheers, including some impromtu chants created on-the-spot for the sooner fans by the clever student section: "[clap, clap, clap-clap-clap] oooover-raaaated..."

but you know, no cheer will ever compared to the mit fight song: "...cosine, secant, tangent, sine, 3.14159..."

Johnny Roberts

while driving, i was listening to the confirmation hearing for the chief justice candidate john roberts today on npr. i guess it's understandable, but it was the weirdest thing. senator would question him on his opinion of controversial issues, clearly knowing that he wouldn't answer, and then...surprise, he wouldn't answer. i was thinking how great i would be as a senator on that committee.

"judge roberts, i know you can't really answer this, but the american public really needs to know. who would win on a full-on wrestling match? martha vs. the donald? dr. phil vs. geraldo? billary vs. madonna?"

"yeah, that's what i thought. tsk, tsk. i don't know if i can vote for you, man."

TV Pleasures

the new season of ellen has begun and my lover tivo has done a great job of recording her show. at the beginning of each show, ellen has been pulling audience members up to the stage to dance with her, and i'm quite impressed at the dancing abilities of these older folks. i must say, they are unbelievably nimble. i'm jealous.

another great thing this season is that ellen has been moved to 4 pm so i can tivo the ruler of the free world, oprah, as well now. it's only been a week and i think i've already gone through a box of tissues. dang, she's good.

oh, and i just watched the season finale of tommy lee goes to college. i think i'm the reason that reality shows are still running strong on tv. i apologize to all of you on behalf of my kind.

More Back To School Fun

over the weekend, i attended a "pre-orientation" trip with 15 other incoming students. we went to anapaca island (one of the channel islands) to bond, camp, and kayak. the word ka-yak seemed perfect for the occasion because one camper became pretty seasick and tossed her cookies on the dock. surprisingly, i actually had a great time despite the fact there was no alcohol on the trip. anyhoo, official orientation begins next week and it seems like people are already forming cliques as the "ny crowd" or the "sf crowd" or whatever. i'm not sure if i'm up for this "anderson high school" experience just yet.

on a parallel note, i found one of my mom's t-shirts (from MADD) which says:
front - "did you know..."
back - "...that most glendale high school students have never been drunk before?"

i told my mom that's false advertisement.

Back To School

i went to anderson for the first time today since i decided to be a student there. i forgot how big and pretty the ucla campus was...and that i am a "grad student." it sounds so old! well, at least i now have a "bruin card" for student discounts at movies.

speaking of schools, i went to my mom's classroom (mama yi = high school math teacher) on saturday to help her setup for her new students. she asked me to put up a poster of her classroom rules and here's number 2 and 3:

2) please put away your cd and mp3 players.
3) please turn off your cell phones.

kids these days. i remember when i had to walk barefoot in the snow over the hill to school with only a pager.

Retirement at Age 26

it cost me $67.49 today to fill up my tank on the cheapest grade. my unemployment cannot support such costs of living. therefore, i announce my retirement from driving as of tomorrow. we shall have a retirement party on saturday night and booze up like partying grandmas on the boost mobile commercials. though, someone, please be nice and volunteer to pick me up. thanks.