Sign in the Sky

I don't usually like taking pictures of pictures of sky and landscape because pictures like that are easily found on the internet. But yesterday, as i was walking to hedrick as usual for dinner, I walked past the ally between Terrace and Hedrick and double took back a few steps to stop and look at the sky there.

While I stood and admired the pretty view, I thought of Esther and how she likes to take pictures of the sky and I realized my camera was hanging from my shoulder so I took a picture to show it to her at dinner. (i forgot to lol.) I like this picture because of the contrast between the blue of the sky and the yellow-orangyness of the lights.

At dinner, me, paul, and andy made up a new game called Eye Patch or Monocle, in which you decide if a person would look more fitting in a pirate eye patch or a sophisticated monocle. What do you think I would be?

Be it making up games like that or some other random thing, weird stuff always happens at IV dinners..

michelle, michelle, michelle. if humanity ever comes to an end, I hope some future civilization only finds this picture to represent art from our time period.

Mark study tonight was pretty clever, but I'm not allowed to disclose information about it unless you ask me to.

After mark I got this cool picture of the moon. And it reminded me of a dream I had the other night. I was praying for God to give me a sign regarding dorming in Rieber next year. I've asked for signs many times before, but never have I actually got one. 

Edit: I had originally typed out my entire dream but I feel that it would be a better story to tell in person. So if you're curious about this particular dream, or want to hear about my many other cool nocturnal visions, I would be glad to talk about em with you. 

The Legend of MooRawr

MooRawr is a legendary volleyball at open gym here at UCLA. It was originally brought to open gym by Danny Okazaki after Okazaki I was kicked into one of the ceiling tiles and lost. Contrary to common belief, Okazaki I was not replaced by MooRawr, but instead, it was Okazaki II. 


Originally belonging to Danny Okazaki, it was entrusted to me when he moved back up to Northern California, because we both shared an inequitable love for the ball.

MooRawr's epic reputation comes from the fact that time and time again it has proven to be the best ball to use as a game ball, despite the fact that it has become worn from 2 years worth of thunderous spikes (from shawn, danny, and petr), relentless digs (from ashley, brandon, and tuyay), and savory sets (from jorge, earvin, and a cool kid named chris).

Not only has MooRawr survived many trials on the court, it has also persevered through, not 1, not 2, but 3 near death experiences.

The first time, it was noticed that the legendary ball was missing after a late night open gym session. After a thorough rescue search attempt the ball was deemed stolen/kidnapped. Fortunately, it was later found at the front desk of the Wooden Center, someone had mistakenly checked it back into the front desk thinking that it was their loaner ball, despite the fact that loaner balls are white and MooRawr is blue and red.

The second time MooRawr was lost, it was actually stolen. Despite my efforts on facebook to spread the word that it was lost, it was no where to be found. After many tearful nights, it miraculously appeared at open gym one night-- solidifying its reputation as the MooRawr, the Legendary Volleyball.

Moorawr's third and most recent trial happened last sunday when it was hit into an Air-conditioning vent in the wooden center, and everybody was ready to accept that even legends have endings. But, how could it be called a legendary ball if it could not get past air conditioning vents? Two days after everyone thought it was forever lost in the air circulation system of the John Wooden Center, MooRawr, the Legendary Volleyball is once again ready to be spiked, dug, and set at open gym.



Though each time I bring Moorawr to the og, I expose it to many dangers and risks, I would not even consider protecting it by not bringing it. A legendary hero does not stop once they reach the top. A real legend gets to the top and pushes it higher and higher.

MooRawr and its to be born little brother, PoohRawr (as soon as I can get a big marker and name it).

Aw, poor mommy

I found this email underneath a pile of spam from my EE professors and TA's about midterms and homework and review sessions:

Pooh, 

I have not heard fr. you for a while now :o( , I wonder if you're still alive@.@ ?

Call home please >=D !

- Mommy

I've been so busy with school, volleyball, IV, and just thinking about stuff that i forgot to call her. Sorry mommy!


So now you may be asking, "WHY DID YOU POST THIS? THIS IS NOT A PICTURE!!!11!!!"


For one, I posted this because it does reflect who I am. I'm a mommas boy. And if you want to really get to know me, you'll have to get to know my mom too!


Secondly, there are pictures in this post. See all those smilies? They are not words, therefore they must be pictures. I especially like the last smiley.. the eyebrows reflect its anger, yet it is still smiling.

update: ok fine here's a real picture:

feel the rhythm...

feel the rhyme, get on up. its bobsled time.

cool runnings

awesome movie, its a classic. me, aro, alan, and esther watched it tonight after watching apolo anton ohno and lindsey vonn take bronze medals in their olympic events in vancouver, canada. It was a very appropriate movie to watch since it also took place at an olympics in canada (alberta). i love inspirational movies, they get my heart so pumped up, i just wanna go outside and run and jump right now. but i cant since tomorrow i have to wake up at 7 to get to church on time :p

watching olympics while eating chinese food in kristina's room! so much stuff! i can't sit!

kristina posing with her penguin (forgot its name) and her plant  which we hope to breed with Zinny later.

esther catching a peach gummy

cheering on the jamaican bobsled team!

p.s, thanks jordan for taking us to VOLCANO tea.

love changes everything

ok, this post isnt really about love so dont get your hopes up.

its the title of intervarsity's new series for large group.

yesterday's catalyst was interesting. i forgot the speaker's name, but he was very good. i really liked when he told us the story about how God asked him to trust Him by staying single for his entire life. After some hesitation he decided to trust God and agreed to forget marriage. After this, his life began to pick up again and 6 months later he met his future wife. Immediately i thought of the story of Abraham and Issac in Genesis (which is one of my favorite parts in the bible). I always wondered if I would be able to do what either of them did. 

enough about yesterday, today i went with jordan, esther, and aro to the mens volleyball game vs CSU Northridge. My uncle who taught me how to play volleyball (thank you Chu Kien!) played for Northridge a few years back, so i was excited to watch them play. 

I didn't get any good pictures of UCLA players because they were playing on the otherside of the net. Its really hard to get a picture of the jump serve or a spike at the "pull back" position, but i got one tonight.

however,

I realized tonight that I don't like taking pictures of sporting events anymore. I always take a million of them but I never go back to look at them because the players don't really impact my life at all. 

It's pictures like these that make me smile when I go back to look at them a couple weeks/months/years later. The people in these pictures actually make a difference in my life. 

I thank God for my camera so I can show the world (wide web) the most important things in my life.

Creeper Compilation

y guys sorry for not updating this for 2 days, I had double midterms yesterday so I've been hecka studying. Since midterms are over and I'm relatively free till finals (besides studying for the MCAT), I can finally start working on my goal to be able to dunk before my legs give out, that means bye bye Deneve Late Night after volleyball, and hello bleachers and stairs. I'm gonna try out the rieber stairs because no one uses those now-a-days since rieber is closed.

In other news, I'm still deciding if i can commit to IV leadership next year since extra time is something I rarely had and I don't think i will gain any extra time by becoming a fourth year next year.

Creeper pictures are all the rage these days so heres a small compilation of some my creeper pictures this year. Note that there is a difference between creeper pictures and stalker pictures, the latter will come in a later compilation.

Kristina was following this girl so that she could listen to the girl talk on her cellphone in chinese.

I dunno what part of this picture is creepier.

Steven claims hes not creeping in this picture, but rather, he is a velociraptor. oh that makes it not creepy at all.

Ohana

My family! I love them so much!

Thats my dad, mom, and brother. My mom likes it when people think shes my sister.

People say I look like my mom. What do you think?

My dad says I got my looks from her, and my brain from him.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi

That means "I wish you a happy new year" in vietnamese; its also what you say to get the little red envelopes filled with cash.

Today is Tet, vietnamese new year! Woohoo! My family celebrated it yesterday and I went to parties on both my mom and my dad's side of the family. We have had these parties every year since before I was born. And it wasn't until this year that I realized how much we have all grown. Us grandkids have been replaced by a horde of great grandkids, fellow cousins are getting married, and we rather sit and talk than run around playing games in the backyard (well not all of us :] ).

Guess which one is me!

One of my cousins, Louis Trinh, is now a professional photographer. He has his own studio! Its super cool, and I wish I had the skills to be successful as a photographer (but alas, my skills are more in the area of circuitry and hitting balls over nets). Well the Tet party was at Louis's parents house and he was able to show me his camera collection. It consisted of his first camera (a plastic kodak), a few more advanced dSLRs (d70, d200: all Nikon of course). He even has a top of the line Nikon D3, which he considers "fun" to use, haha. His pride however, lies in his Nikon film cameras (I can't believe i didnt take a picture of all his cameras...)

Well, as some of you may know, I only have one lens for my camera (18-200mm). Louis let me try out one of his fisheye lenses and I think I took about 200 pictures last night with it. The aperture on his lens goes down to f/2.8 (mine only goes to f/3.5) so it takes better pictures in low light (indoors). Here's a few of my favorites, his lens makes my pictures alot better indoors. I'm gonna save up to buy a fixed lens with low aperture :]

I also took some pictures with my lens:

Check out Louis's photography at his website: Tikko Studios!

ugh, we FERNALLY finished.

Haha, i guess it IS possible to make a joke out of the word "fern."

Sooo, me and kristina had to do an LS1 project yesterday. it consisted of going around the Court of Sciences and classifying/documenting various plants. Steven Chan went with us too.. i actually don't know why, but it was fun!

Mmm, a lot of times people think that i act younger than i actually am.. well, when me, steven, and kristina are together, you could say i was the most mature person in the group. Between trying to create awkward moments with random people, trying to scare kristina to get rid of her hiccups, chasing squirrels, jumping on trashcans, and  longboarding, we somehow managed to complete all but one part of the LS1 assignment.

The last part required us to locate two different pteridophyta, which are small plants with sporegeum under their leaves; essentially ferns. First of all, we had no idea what sporegeum were. We blindly walked back and forth in the Court of Sciences turning leaves over to look for sporegeum. It was getting pretty late, and Steven had already left to go home for the weekend. Frustrated and tired, kristina and I picked out the closest looking plant to what we knew a fern looked like and decided we would go home and google some ferns to see if they matched anything we remembered.

Turning back towards the dorms, we walked past Boyer hall on our way out of the court of sciences. But then, in a shady corner, dramatically lit by a small sliver of sunlight piercing through the treetops, we saw it:

Me and kristina rushed up to the bushes--hesitated before stepping off the cemented path, into the wild bushes. We FERNALLY found it, and of course we had to take a picture with it, not just of it. The problem was  we had nowhere to put down my camera to take a timed photo, and someone was too embarrassed to ask one of the passerby researchers to take a picture of us squatting in the bushes. Then kristina had the brilliant idea of tying the camera to a nearby tree branch with my camera strap:

It didn't matter to us that academic scholars and researchers were walking out of the building, staring at two students posing in the bushes with a plant to a camera held in timer mode by a tree. This single moment turned that day from being just a fun day to one that was legendary. Btw, blame the tree for kristina's blownout face.. trees are bad photographers.

Some other cool pics of the day:

Adventure is out there!

p.s, ki-lay-all-day-bay-bay! Woohoo!

Ice Cream Mixer

Hellooooo. Hedrick/La Fe had an ice cream party yesterday since we didn't have catalyst. Like at any other IV gathering, we played alot of games. I'd like to tell you about every game, but that would take forever so lets just let the pictures do the talking:

too many pictures, boohoo, ill put the rest up on fb. 

Hedrick Invades Terrace!

After my midterm today I went back to the hill and got some cafe 1919. The Tacchino is better than the Florentino in my opinion. I went back to my room and took a nap. I woke up to my phone vibrating, it was a text from kristina telling me that they were meeting for dinner at 5:45, it was 5:38. I washed up and changed and ran out the door. On my way out I saw a message on the whiteboard outside my room:

To my surprise, it was from kristina and jordan. I'm always in Hedrick for IV stuff and dinner, but I just realized that no one ever comes to Rieber Terrace. I'm sad that I wasn't awake after they walked all the way there, but I'm really happy they left the message. It has like two inside jokes in one. Woohoo!

After coming back from the gym tonight, I forgot the message was there and when I saw it again, I smiled.

p.s, oops its 1:00AM already?! All the stuff described above happened yesterday then, not today :P

Studying yo!

I have a midterm tomorrow in EE141: Feedback Control of Dynamic Systems. Sounds exciting doesn't it?

Heres my cheat sheet. We are allowed 2 sheets of paper, front and back. I only used 1 side of 1 sheet. I'm bad at making these. I don't get how people can write so much on their sheets.

Also heres my view from my desk window. This is what I see while I'm studying. Leslie and Esther's room is among one of those on the second row of windows, I'm not sure which.. my sense of orientation goes whack inside buildings. Ok, back to studying.. good night guys. boohoo.

p.s, part of what i got from mark study tonight:

sometimes asking, "what would jesus do? (wwjd?)" is a hard question to answer. Based on what we see jesus do in the bible, if we asked what would jesus do, he would probably answer by asking more questions or telling parables.

so sometimes, it might be simpler to ask, "what wouldn't satan do?"

-  words from amanda's mother.
UPDATE: Read the Comments of this blog post!

Ever-environmental

Yesterday, I went to church with Esther and Stephen again. We go to Evergreen, they have good speakers (pastors (now that I've gone twice and have heard two different speakers, I can use the plural form of the word)). Me and Esther went to the college group before service, but they just went to eat breakfast at IHOP. We went with them, but the wait was so long that we ended up coming back for service before the food came out haha. Esther was pretty cool for asking for a ride back, I would have been pretty pissed too because I didn't come to church just to eat breakfast.. besides, all I had was my bruin card and bible and I doubt IHOP takes swipes.

The sermon ended up being a bit short because they had communion that day and also there was a new baby in the church. The message this time was still about the same topic discussed 4 weeks ago during my first time there. It was about how Christians today are just like the Pharisees mentioned in the bible. Its a really scary comparison for me and makes me think a lot.

Connie met up with us at the Church and came back to UCLA with us. Connie looks different without her glasses.

When I got back from Church, I went to play volleyball with the Taiwanese group. We played from 3:30pm to 9:00pm. I did bad at first but after 6 hours of playing, I finally got my wings back near the end. I'm super sore today.. even my lungs feel sore when I breathe. But it feels kinda good. Its painful when I walk but the feeling is a really healthy feeling.

I had lunch with some IV people today too. I like having awkward conversations with Kristina and I'm glad spinach dip made that possible. I'm also glad that, officially, our conversations don't belong to anybody. Woohoo!


p.s, I started watching Community. Thanks Joyce, now I won't be able to study for my midterms this week.
p.p.s, Oh and at lunch, Josiah took like 10 minutes making little cracker and cheese sandwhiches at Covel, and Kristina took like 4 seconds to smash them all while asking "Oooh, do these count as sandwhiches?"

Ribbit Ribbit

Heyo guys. Some of you may know that my mom used to crochet me all these cool animal hats. Here's one that I like to wear with my old volleyball stuff cause one of my high school colors was green:

Besides Pooh, I've been called a few other things throughout my life. In highschool I was nicknamed "Flight" because I don't jump, I fly. haha just kidding. Some girls on the girls vb team called me the "Frog" because I looked like a frog jumping when I did plyometric hurdles for volleyball conditioning-- much less cool than "Flight", but its still pretty cute huh?

Some of the volleyball guys at my highschool and most of the volleyball people here at UCLA call me "Tonthat", which is cool because I'm proud of my last name.

A few Samoans in high school called me  Chris "Been-there-ton-that". That one was fun.

Thommy Lim, one of the guys who taught me how to play volleyball called me "TomCat".

My real vietnamese name is "Thien Phuc" (Pronounced: Tee-ing Foop), which means God Blessed, I think thats pretty neat. One of my uncles and one of my cousins always call me by that name for some reason.

Another interesting thing about my name, in middle school everyone called me Christopher because there was another Chris in our grade. Some people still call me Christopher today; I suspect because they want to be cool and different (I think its cool and different when people call me by my full name too).

That's it for my first name, the last name deserves its own blog post (probably multiple posts).. maybe another time.

So yea, call me whatever you want, I don't mind any of them. If you were wondering, I call myself Pooh in my head :]

Simply Simple

My last post today was about making decisions. And as I have a really hard time making decisions, I have made up 3 rules/goals that I'm gonna try to follow to be a better me.


The Code of Pooh:


(1) Be pure and simple.
(2) No regrets.
(3) Be able to one day dunk at least a volleyball on a regulation basketball hoop.

As promised a picture:

Oh and Woohoo! for 1,000+ views on my blog! Thanks everyone for viewing if not reading and viewing :]

Decisions Decisions

Helloooo. Sorry I missed the blog yesterday, I slacked cause it was raining and I didn't want to have to carry a towel with me to cover my camera, although I should have because the rain drops hitting the reflection of lamps at night had a cool fireworks effect. I wish I took a picture.

Sooo, I have a decision to make. I went to a meeting about becoming an Intervarsity Leader. My immediate thought was that this was the path I had been asking God to provide for me for the past year or so. I thought this must have been the sign because why else would He have put me into Intervaristy after three years of not being in any christian group on campus. I realize now, however, that that conclusion may have been a little impulsive and completely unlike me. Normally, I'm the type to think things over. I love thinking: I think while i brush my teeth in the morning, I think when I play volleyball, I think so much that sometimes I forget to talk when I'm with my friends.

I think I was so desperate to find a path, that I was willing to take any path, or even create my own when I should have been looking for that one path He will provide.

Now after a day and a half of thinking, I'm still left with a decision to join Leadership or not. Unlike thinking, I'm bad at decisions. I've made two pretty big decisions in my life so far, Choosing to go to Poly instead of CAMS for High School and choosing to go to UCLA instead of Berkley or Standford. Both these decisions were made after a whole lot of thinking, but in the end, it wasn't thinking that helped me make these big decisions; It was Prayer.

So thanks to Esther, Kristina, and Joyce for reminding me to not only think about it, but to also pray about it.

Sorry no picture for this long blog, but I'm about to post a short blog again today and that one will have a picture.

Cafe 1919

Bongiorno!

Yesterday was my area's assigned date to try out Cafe 1919, a new dorm restaurant opening up on campus. In this past week I had attempted to avoid all the hype being built up from all these "soft" openings. I still think its kinda stupid to have these little segregated trial hours, but I'll have to admit I was walking a little fast back to the hill after my class ended for lunch. I wanted to beat the crowd back.

As I breached the last stair of the Awkward Steps, I was relieved to see no line at the door. After side stepping and cutting in front of this slow girl looking at a menu, I stepped through the doorway into the old Puzzle's Restaurant. Cafe 1919 took the place of an old residential fast food restaurant called Puzzles.

As I walked through the door, I expected the inside to look like Puzzles. To my surprise, it pleasantly different than the old restaurant. Its kinda like the feeling you get when you see someone who usually wears glasses not wearing glasses. There's something oddly familiar about them, but in fact, they look completely different.

Well anyways, as I approached the counter to make my order, I was half expecting the two cashiers to say "Welcome to Mega-corp" or something like that from the movies because the place looked kinda advanced. I noticed the two cashier's were 2 friendly ladies that used to work at Rendevous. I looked at the other workers there and noticed they were all the best employees from around the residential eateries. I guess they wanted the best people to help open the new restaurant more smoothly.

I ordered a Tacchino Panini and Kettle Chips. Probably the most delightful thing about my first Cafe 1919 experience was the bag that my food came in. It was a cute paper bag with a handle. Carrying the bag with me back to my room, I noticed alot of people looking down at the bag that read "Cafe 1919." I felt kinda cool and special, also maybe a little silly.

After getting my camera and taking about a hundred pictures from various angles of my panini, I ate it.

It was delicious.

Conclusions:
Pros:
- Cafe 1919 looks pretty cool inside.
- The employees are cool, they mutter out random phrases in Italian.
- The panini and chips were delicious
- Cool baggy (probably wasteful)

Cons:
- The panini serving size was too small, its probably less fulfilling than tacos at Rendevous
- Me and Kristina don't like all the hype
- The name Cafe 1919 is too long. SIX whole syllables!!!! In the time it takes to say Ca-fe-nine-teen-nine-teen, you could have said Pooh SIX times!!!! Woohoo!

I'm a Jerk

I want to apologize to Stephen Hop. He loaned me 30 dollars so that I could attend January Jumpstart last month. I had the money to pay him back in my pocket yesterday at Mark Weekly. At break, he was explaining the Left Hand Slap game.

The goal of the game basically is to slap anything someone is holding in their left hand so that it drops to the ground. The rules state that the person taking the slap cannot be mad at the slapper and that  the slap receiver must pick up the dropped item. The game is continually being played. The only restriction is that the item slapped cannot be a valuable (i.e cellphone, camera, bible, chris's heart).

Well, so as stephen was explaining the game I decided that this was a really funny opportunity. I gave rachelle my camera and walked up to stephen from his left side. Then i gave him back the 30 dollars, but as soon as he took it, I slapped it out of his hand.

At the time, I thought the irony of getting him while he was explaining the rules was funny. And I still think its pretty funny. However, what I want to apologize for is slapping the 30 dollars that he loaned to me to go to Jumpstart. I realized that was a really jerky move since that 30 dollars was what allowed me to attend January Jumpstart.

When I first asked Stephen for the loan, he immediately gave it away without any hesitation. And I wholeheartedly want to thank him for that. January Jumpstart really changed the rest of my school year. Furthermore, Stephen Hop and the rest of IV have changed the course of my entire life.

So, Stephen Hop, thanks for the 30 dollars. I wish I had given you back the 30 dollars and given you something else to hold and slap out of your hand :p

p.s, dangit, after getting stephen hop in left hand slap I probably will never be able to hold anything in my left hand ever again.

p.p.s, i'm still debating if i should post the video.
Update: Video: Left Hand Slap

Zinny: Day 9

I think Zinny is going through her first growth spurt today. Shes sprouting all over the place. Its amazing how they grow up so fast; I'll be putting her through college pretty soon :|

Even though Zinny is a plant, she looks really happy on my window sill no? Woohoo.

my two favorite Peeps

Helloooo everyone, happy February!

I just wanted to tell you all that I love my Chicks!

These two  may look sweet and fluffy (well they are), but on the court they are beasts. They are my chicks because one day we all wore colors that resembled the little marshmellow Peep chicks, well that and they are girls!

My chick on the right is Erin. I sometimes call her Erin, The Giant Slayer because she blocks 6'8" guys (Nate) on a regular basis. She's also one of my favorite peppering partners because we have good ball control together. My other chick is Ash who you already know from one of my other blog posts. I had a dream once that she shanked a dig, well I guess it was a nightmare then.

When the three of us are on the same team, its not even fair; we make people cry. Front Row, these chicks ignore the fact that they are playing on a net thats men's regulation height. Back Row, good luck trying to get the ball to touch the ground on our side.

Thinking back, I shudder at the possibility that the three of us never met and became friends. Though each of us brings a different presence at open gym every week, it is the combination that allows us to show our colors (metaphor intended, isn't it artistic?). It's kinda wierd, when Ash and Erin arn't with me at open gym, the world seems to lose some of its color.

So thank you God for my chicks and for adding color to my life. Woohoo :]

p.s, Arrrg, they are so photogenic. I remember Shawn once told them that they both should be models. But I say no cause that would be a waste of their amazing volleyball skills. Or they could be models and still play volleyball with me, thats fine. I'd like to be able to say that I play volleyball with models.