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| Short Post
In the scene of similar-sounding, similar-themed Christian music, this album stands out as a true work of art. In the words of Anna Nicole, David Crowder is "freeeakin' geeeeenius!"
*Edit* OK, so I was exaggerating when I implied that other Christian musicians aren't artists, because there's a lot of other great Christian music that I love. But my opinion is that Crowder's music is set apart from the rest. | | |
| Comic Book Convention
Saturday I went to the San Diego Comic-Con, a huge comic book convention that fills up the Convention Center in downtown San Diego. There are lots of booths and stations for comic book related stuff, video game stuff, star wars stuff, animation stuff, and other randomness. There are also presentations and panels throughout the day. So I used to collect comics when I was in middle to high school, and I got back into it about a year and a half ago, and compared to most of the people at Comic-Con, I'm considered a casual fan and definitely more into mainstream stuff (Batman, Superman, JLA, X-Men). So on Saturday, I was planning to go with my friend Brian and his brother. I knew Brian had to meet up with a friend for lunch, and so when we got there at 10:45ish AM, he decided to drop off his brother (who's very into comics) and myself, and he would meet up with us later. The convention lasts from Wednesday night to Sunday afternoon, and Brian's brother bought a pass for the whole convention, and I had to buy one for just Saturday. So his brother shows me to the line to buy a pass and then leaves me to go to the convention (which is fine, I just met the guy and I know he's into his comics, so I don't expect him to wait with me). I stood in a huge line (I was 2 people behind a really great Anakin Skywalker look-alike) for about 20-30 minutes to get in. Once I get in, there are tons of people walking around a huge exhibit hall with rows of booths and stuff. So instead of taking some time to stand still to figure out what in the world is going on, I decide to keep walking along with all the goths and the costumed people. It was around the time when I walked by the tables of people playing "Magic: The Gathering" that I thought to myself, I am so lost here. I decided to call Jeff, this guy who used to go to my church in SD, and we meet up, to my great relief, and the rest of the day goes smoothly (and I eventually meet up with Brian again). All in all, it was a fun time, but I regret missing out on some things. I missed the presentation on the "Family Guy" straight-to-DVD movie coming out, and in doing so, missed out on my chance to get a free promotional t-shirt. I also missed out on meeting Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) because you needed to get a ticket earlier to see him, but as a consolation, I got to take a picture with his chubbier twin brother Daniel. And I missed the chance to take a picture with the guy in a Stewie-from-"Family Guy"-costume. But other cool stuff that I did was I got to get a picture with Matt Groening (click if you're not sure what he looks like), and I went to a presentation for the Underworld sequel, The Fog, and Ghost Rider movies. Kate Beckinsale was there for the Underworld panel, and Eva Mendes was there for the Ghost Rider panel, as well as other people involved in the movies. Rob Cohen showed up after to talk about Stealth, but I wasn't interested and decided to leave. Anyway, I would definitely consider going again in the future and maybe for multiple days so I could meet more famous people and also take my time and try to get as much cool free stuff as possible (although technically it's not free because admission is really expensive). Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure. I apologize for appearing in a couple of them.
       
The Origin
One thing I had been meaning to post about was on the beginnings of my Xanga site. I mentioned earlier that Lulu was the one who created this page for me. We were thinking of names and I mentioned "temporarily unnamed," so she went with it. Many of you recall where this name is from, and for those who don't, it hearkens back to my Cornell days when I used the ICQ chat client. During my freshman year, I kept coming up with different nicknames and couldn't decide on any of them (one name I remember was "SBD" because I was quiet but thought I was deadly with the ladies, but that will never be true) so I just put "temporarily unnamed" as my nickname. I liked the irony behind making it permanent, so I did. Related to the nickname, there was a time when there was a friendly competition to be at the top of people's ICQ list, so I added little symbols like a "." or something like "-=" in front so that I would be first alphabetically. I guess it's too late now for my Xanga to be "_temporarily_unnamed." Anyway, back to Xanga, I decided to go public with this site when I was playing around with it while planning to set up a blog for my fellowship. I found it kind of fun and the creative juices started flowing until I could not keep it under wraps any longer. So that's the story of how I went public. I still have to write updates on what I've been up to these past few years, but at this rate, I may never put out an update. It's too much work.
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| This is what has been keeping me away from Xanga. Lulu's not too
thrilled about me discovering this game either. By the way, someone should have told me that Xanga is hard work. I
need to learn consistency.
I  Myself
So
Lulu told me that the pictures that I posted in my previous post made
me look narcissistic because in a couple of them I was by myself. The reason I did this was
because my brother made a very good point at the zoo. At the time, my
dad was being Asian and videotaping and photographing every inch of the
zoo, and my brother made the comment that he's probably never going to
watch the video. He also said taking pictures of just animals was
kind of pointless because it's easy to find pictures of animals online,
and taking pictures of people is much more valuable. I thought that made a lot of sense. I could have done this
 ,
but instead I decided to take real pictures and include myself. I also
wanted to point out that the third and second to last pics were
of a hippo and a Komodo dragon, but the Komodo dragon was not
cooperative about looking at the camera. Just so you know, it's not just me in those
pictures. But to spare you all in the future, I'll try to avoid putting up pictures with me in them as much as possible.
I  Dinosaurs
In the same conversation with Lulu about how I'm narcissistic, I also
mentioned how the dragon was cool because it was like a gigantic
lizard, and how I liked big animals, and also how dinosaurs are pretty
sweet. I asked Lulu if she liked dinosaurs, and she made the bold
statement that girls don't like dinosaurs. I thought that was an
inappropriate generalization. Hopefully you female dino-enthusiasts out
there can speak up and make your voice heard. Dino-fanaticism is not
an exclusive privilege reserved for males, but is open to females as well! Anyway, I had
been meaning to write about this for a while, and now that I have, it seems like
old news. I need to think of more up to date things to post about.
Stay tuned for San Diego: Years One-Three.
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| I just wanted to try out Xangazon.
Mega-Entries Rule
I've been busy since I last posted (mostly with checking Xanga for new
comments and subscribers, and playing Tony Hawk's Underground, a.k.a. THUG). My parents
and brother Clarence were in town last weekend to
see me get my M.S. Over the weekend, various people kept asking me
similar questions, and I repeatedly responded with the following few
phrases: "No, I'm not
done. I just decided to celebrate getting my Master's," "I am doing
research in signal processing for wireless sensor networks"
(thinking,"but that means nothing to you"), and "I
estimate/'guesstimate'/am aiming
to finish up in another 3 years" (don't worry, I only say
"guesstimate" facetiously).
Anyway, it was fun to host 4/5 of
my family (including myself) and take them to see the sights in San
Diego. Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure (please click on
them, I worked very hard to make them thumbnail-style).
Mission San Diego (first church in California, I believe)
  
Graduation Day Fun
    
San Diego Zoo (that's hippo-poo......tamus)
v
    
San Diego County Fair (a.k.a. Del Mar Fair)
Wednesday I went with my church fellowship
and some of my friends from school to the San Diego County Fair to see
a Relient K concert. That was
fun, but unfortunately I have no pictures. After the show, I wanted to win
the basketball
game so badly ($2 a shot, one shot in wins a huge stuffed animal). I
talked to the guy running it, who admitted that the rim was a little tighter than normal, to which I
thought, oooh, that just makes it more challenging. I also talked him
into giving me a practice shot (which was pretty off). When I took my
shot, it looked and felt perfect, but it rattled out. I decided I
couldn't shoot any better than that, so I didn't shoot any more.
Carnies.  (Or maybe since it's a fair: Fairies. )
Xanga vs. Modblog: Round 1
I also wanted to post some of my thoughts on Xanga. I'm still a
Xanga
rookie, so Xanga has been something that has been on my mind recently,
and
I'm sure most of you will find this uninteresting. But this is my blog
and I can post whatever I want. First of all, I know it is kind of lame
to be comment-hungry, but I really do appreciate the comments, so
thank you all for welcoming me to the Xanga world (although it would
have been nice if more than one person answered the question I had
posed). Secondly,
I wanted to say to all the Modbloggers (soggychips and jcmiracle7)
that Xanga is here to stay. Modblog may have better features (like
viewable photo galleries and not having to pay to upload images), but
everyone is already on Xanga and the network of people is very well
established. I would say it's analagous to AIM for messaging utilities:
AIM is probably inferior to most other messaging programs (I really
like Yahoo!'s), but just about everyone uses AIM. One thing nice about
Modblog is you don't have to have an
account to leave a comment. So feel free to bombard those guys with
comments about how big bad Xanga will dominate itty-bitty Modblog. Too
bad they don't have those nifty eProps. Now, if only Xanga didn't lose
all our old comments!!! (Oh, and one last comment: I
realized that I love to parenthesize.)
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| Going Public
Eight months after Lulu created this page for me, I have decided to
take the plunge and go public with this Xanga page. I was resistant to
having a blog (as I'm sure many others are/were), but I figure it's a
good way to keep people up to date with what's going on in my life, for
me to record what's going on in my life (so that I don't forget), and
for me to follow people's Xangas without having to browse through
other people's subscriptions. The first step for going public for me is
to join the CECSD blogring, and then to start subscribing to people's
pages. When I have time, I'll try to update people on the last three
years of my life in San Diego (if I can remember anything). Until then,
I'll put this question out (and hope that someone out there responds):
did anyone have a rough transition from being anti-blogging to a
sellout daily blogger?
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