This was the Oh Sh*t moment of the weekend:
May 28, 2006, 1:44:28 AM
As you can see, there is no hamster in the hamster ball. Oh Sh*t. Twenty-two hours later, said hamster was discovered in Brian's room. A brief battle of wits between man and rodent, and man won.
I BLAME THE BALL THE BALL LID JUST CAME OFF askdja;kj2pd2k92jdpokjaw;ldkadl;k.
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thendxcrd: HI ERIN
CUTEEP2e: HI JON!
thendxcrd: so
thendxcrd: um
thendxcrd: haha
CUTEEP2e: um WHAT
thendxcrd: when you asked me earlier if the mouse was a live, and i said yes....i was only assuming...BECAUSE HE ESCAPED FROM HIS BALL LAST NIGHT...BUT I JUST FOUND HIM AND HES OK IN HIS CAGE NOW SORRY HAHAHAHA....
thendxcrd: ....
CUTEEP2e: OMNSOUIDFHG
CUTEEP2e: JON!
CUTEEP2e: HE ESCAPED FROM HIS BALL LAST NIGHT??!?!??!!
thendxcrd: BUT I FOUND HIM
thendxcrd: SO HES ALIVE
thendxcrd: ALL IS OKAY
CUTEEP2e: HE COULD HAVEBEEN SMUSHED!!!!!
thendxcrd: NOW WE CAN LAUGH AT IT.
CUTEEP2e: BY BRIANS' BIG TOE
thendxcrd: IT WAS IN BRIANS ROOM
CUTEEP2e: OMGILSJK:FJGIAGOD
thendxcrd: but hes ok
CUTEEP2e: THAT'S LIKE FINDING HIM IN A NUCLEAR>>>SOMETHING...HE COULD HAVE DIED
thendxcrd: so...haha you can laugh
thendxcrd: I KNOW IM SORRY
CUTEEP2e: HOW DID HE ESCAPEF ROM HIS BALLL??
thendxcrd: BUT HES NOT DEAD HES ALIVE!
CUTEEP2e: AND THEN YOU JUST GAVE UP UNTIL HE TURNED UP
thendxcrd: i actually dont know.
CUTEEP2e: WHAT IF HE DIED
thendxcrd: NO IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR 24 HOURS
CUTEEP2e: IT WOULD AHVE BEEN ON YOUR CONSCIENCE
thendxcrd: I WOULD HAVE BOUGHT YOU A SECOND ONE...and maybe have told you...
thendxcrd: ...
Nicho is visiting and staying with Brian and I here in Champaign. They reminisced about old times, and then remembered this very funny story that they never told me.
Nick has a small lake in his backyard and sometimes we'd go out on his paddleboat. One time when they were about sixteen, they had two other kids on the boat with them, paddleboated them to an island in the lake, and left them there. At this point, Brian was crying with laughter telling me the story. And then he noted that the kids, who were about ten years old, were crying with tears yelling at them to come back, while Nick and Brian were crying with laughter paddling away.
Brian and Nick are obviously nice people, and they did it because these ten year olds kept throwing rocks at them on the boat. So they somehow tricked them to go on a paddleboat ride and somehow tricked them to get off the boat onto the island, hahaha.
Brian: "He was completely helpless and stranded hahahahah!"
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Wikipedia fun:
"There is also another legend that the surname Li is actually a branch from the Lee surname due to a rebellion. There is evidence of a once great war, located in the outlying Lee villages. Weapons and armour can be found lying scattered across the fertile rice fields. Upon these items is the emblem of 'Lee' and 'Li'. The local villagers say that according to folklore, the Li were inevitably crushed by the superior skills and numbers of the Lee."
Lee (and Li, Lai, Le, etc) is also the most common surname in the world. Wheeeee.
Barring any major turn of events, I will be in Taiwan starting June 25th. The return date however, is subject to change. It will be at least till say, July 7th, but I'm thinking July 15th instead, based on the arrivals of Anna and Erin.
Tell me when you're going to be there if you have not already. I am fairly certain these people will be there when I'm there.
Alice
Joyce
Erin
Anna
Linte
Tiffany S
May
Kayleen
Go buy a ticket Roger. And then let's bring our guitars and play in the MRT for spare change (oh how I love the MRT).
For those keeping score at home, the above photo was take by Anna Wu, Copyright May 2006.
Congratulations to Christina Shay and Jeffrey Tang, 05/20/06!
The TAF representation
A thousand words.
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(for the last picture, it's kinda like that Pearl Jam song "Janie's got a gun..." but replace Janie with Anna and gun with good eye for nice photos.)
Northwest Airlines isn't very good apparently. Margaret's flight got cancelled (two bad trips in a row for her on NWA), and mine is delayed 30-some minutes.
But, they have uiuc.net wireless at the airport. This is sweet.
LOOK ITS JUSTIN!!!
jayelchew: is it weird that im midly attracted to my apparent "twin"
thendxcrd: no
thendxcrd: i mean
thendxcrd: you are pretty
I bought The Cutting Edge today for seven dollars. It's a great movie. Toepick! It's a form of nostalgia for me, reminding me of my weekend nights watching it with my sister growing up (it was her favorite movie).
Tina called me a bit ago, telling me that somehow, one of Albert's steak knives got into her carry-on luggage. Airport security found it and went through her stuff, leading to her missing her flight. But she managed to take the next flight at no extra cost, so feel free to laugh.
- I am amused by the above. Maybe I should actually phase out this whole Jonizzle deal, since you know, I'm old. I think potential employers down the road might be thrown off by the "jonizzle@gmail.com" address, unless I'm in entertainment, which is possible.
- I didn't go to graduation today. I didn't walk. I wasn't awake. I didn't really care. I hope I dont regret it though.
People think its funny or odd that I didn't go (Tiffany, I didn't trip because I didn't go). But I've been wondering why I don't seem to care. Personally, as far as I can tell, it goes back to college being about the people. While I am happy and fortunate to have gotten a degree and an education, it doesn't seem like a big deal (because I've always expected to graduate?). My dad wasn't coming (I told him not to since he's in Taiwan) and I told my mom and sister not to (because it would be a long day, tiring, they might have had to work, and long periods of time with Mom usually end up in fights), and some very beloved Illinois friends were already gone (boo). So if many of my loved ones aren't here to share in it plus the fact that I do not seem to care, then whatever. It's just a simple ceremony. I'm already thinking about bigger things down the road?
- I added some new links, got rid of some. Sorry Justin. hopefully you xanga subscribe koalawayne?
Free fonts! I LIKE FREE FONTS!
I finished college today at 2:08pm. That's cool. I don't care much for most of my classes here at college.
But the people.
Makes it bittersweet.
Let me preface this post by pointing out that in exactly 3 months at
this time, I will most likely be home in the second floor lounge of
Oakwood Hall at Manchester College in North Manchester, Indiana
surrounded by a wonderful staff of Junior High counselors while we
discuss the events of the first Sunday of TAF 2006 and laugh loopy
laughs about whatever it is we laugh about at 3am. In honor of my
recognition of this future event, I give you all a gift.
But before I go on, let me preface this paragraph by saying that I felt
like an idiot when I realized what I could do. I was sitting in the
library writing a paper for finals when I had this epiphany. And yes,
this idea came about while I was trying to be studious (aka
daydreaming). Go figure. Why did it take me so long to realize this
though! Sillyness! And then I left the library to come home just to do
this.
So yes, I signed up for YouTube so I could fulfill my idea. Before I
move on, I want to preface that while trying to sign up to do this, I
discovered the identification names "jonizzle", "taf", and "wuhawuha"
were all taken. Kidding I am not.
But I eventually settled on a name and uploaded the video for viewing
pleasure. Let me preface the viewing of this video by noting that it is
not of the highest quality, because the white balance is off, the
camera is slightly tilted, and Stage Right is cut off for the most
part. But thank you Elliot for this.
Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, the TAF 2005 Junior High Swing Choir, "Wuha":
To the young men and women of JH, please send this out to all the other
JHers and make sure that everyone gets to see it. Post it on your
xanga's or myspace's or whatever the new internet thing is these days.
And be proud of this! You all came together and learned all these moves
in only a total of seven or eight hours to make one of the best swing
choirs EVER. I am so thrilled everytime I watch this.
Hopefully I will get to see all of you this summer. To those who I know aren't
coming, Eddie, Eric, Matt and everyone else who I don't know about, you
ma boys...and girls. Come back when you can. Don't forget about us.
And to everyone else, LOOK AT MA BABIES DANCIN'!!!
I'm at Grainger working on my paper. I wrote a paragraph really fast, so I feel that this merits a blog. Two things:
1)
I was on the Quad walking to my first final, and I noticed a big white tent and the blue and white Isreali flags, with music playing and people dancing all around. It looked like a big party outside and a good time, yay for cultural/ethnic pride, ya know? And then I kept walking, and then I turned my head away from the Israel tent, and I saw these big black signs, with people standing around them milling about. I read the signs and they said, "FREE PALESTINE. ANTI-ISRAEL = ANTI-TERRORISM."
And I though, uh-oh, this is kind of awkward. I don't have a real opinion on the Middle East Peace issues, but this was...weird. And it felt very microcosmic. I found it interesting that the Isreali side looked happy and joyful and white was their dominant, "clean", color, while the Palestinian side had crude spraypainted signs. I think this analogy works, because Israel is seen as having more money and being richer, while the Palestinians who were evicted are living relatively poorly. Big white tent vs. small crude signs. But that's just what I saw.
I guess it is of note that the two groups couldn't really make peace here on this campus, in the United States of America. I'm sure there is a reason why they both chose today to gather on the Quad (too bad I dont know why), but I guess, it just looked very divisive.
2)
I was making a sandwich before I came to Grainger, and Real World was on. I heard one of the guys talking to this other guy, and the dialogue went something like this,
Dude 1: Dude, you gotta do something different with this girl, you're like the dad.
Dude 2: Oh no man, I'm the dad!
Dude 1: Yea, you're the dad. Girls want the dad to teach them about life, not go out with them.
Dude 2: This sucks!
And then I realized, I'm the dad. Actually I said it more like, "HEY I'M THE DAD!" And Brian said, "Yea, you are, that's not good."
I was making the sandwich for Jamie too. Who I had called earlier about coming to Grainger. And when she picked up the phone, she said, "Hi Dad." And she sounded tired so I asked her if she wanted a sandwich (cuz food wakes people up? That's why I eat a lot at TAF). I AM SUCH A DAD PUAHAHAHAHAHA.
ok time to change to find a girlfriend.
Ha.
...
1) I watched a movie called Casa de los Babys for one of my classes. It's about transnational adoptions. It's pretty good. In the film six caucasian women are waiting in a Latin American country to adopt a child to take back to the US. The film touches on lots of political issues involved, including this being a form of First World countries taking from Third World countries. It is the continuation of cultural imperialism, where a commodity (which is unfortunately babies in this case) are being taken away from the poor and given to the rich. My teacher pointed out that Russian babies are also popular for adoption now. So basically, I can adopt a Russian kid.
So I'm going to raise a white kid some day. It'll be out of love of course, but it would also be an interesting portrayal of racial dynamics.
2) I watched Field of Dreams while doing homework tonight. I love this movie. I think it's the man version of a chick flick. Baseball. Fathers and sons. Tradition. Nostalgia. Rites of passage. It makes me want to cry. It is quite magical. It's a dream.
I have a vivid memory of being 12 years old, playing catch with my dad in our front yard, the sun setting, the nighttime chill setting in. And still just tossing the ball back and forth. Back and forth.
Mmm. I wish I wish.