BRYAN LUNG HAS CHALLENGED ME TO A BLOGGING MARATHON!

And, off we go! ;o) Oy, I've missed that boy. (He's been gone for a week to be a counselor a Christian conference.) But now he's home, and up to mishief again, no doubt. ;)

My family left yesterday to drive down to *LA* to...buy a car! I decided not to go because I have already spent 33% of my winter break in LA and I don't want to go back. =P So I had a nice quiet night at home alone last night, reading (of my own accord - imagine that!) and watching TV. I came across one of those educational channels airing a performance of some symphony. I can't remember what exactly they played (some Mozart, some Brahms) but they were really amazing (as all professional orchestras tend to be). Boy, I am really going to miss orchestra. :( Thinking about it makes me sad. Sigh. I am such an orchestra girl at heart. I wish there was some way I could stick it out this next quarter, because we're going to be performing with the Chamber Chorale in the Memorial Church - very similar to last year's concert, which was my favorite performance of the entire year - and now I'll have to miss it. :o( We're playing Barber and Mozart, too! Sigh. :( Playing with an orchestra in MemChu is so incredible!...the acoustics are amazing, and I love orchestral music that accompanies a chorus. It's just all so grand!! Which reminds me:: the CVHS performance of Mozart's Requiem was very impressive. I miss Castro Valley orchestra, too. (It, also, reminded me of the SSO performance with USingers and Chamber Chorale last March.) I'll talk about the Requiem more when I get around to posting about Tmony tour (since it was during the middle of that week). Yes, yes, I know, I'm working on writing about tour ... there's just so much!! One of these days, I'll have time to write/think/reflect/steal from Bryan's journal entries. ;) (Heehee! But he has to post them first.)

This morning, Trisha came over to cook breakfast (pancakes - yum!) and watch Bridget Jones's Diary. And while we cooked and ate, we caught up on each other's lives. I'm glad I got to see her before she leaves for Davis again...we hadn't hung out since the end of summer. Anyway, the movie was very interesting... goodness, there was a lot of foul language! And not very edifying behavior from the characters either... but it was an interesting movie.

Wow. I can't believe the year 2001 is going to end in a matter of hours! It's been quite a year. And...I think this is where I end this blog. I'm running out of motivation to spill the contents of my brain. Bryan Lung, if you are still blogging, you win. :)

In other more general news, I'm still not quite recovered from post-tour trauma. Okay, so not quite trauma...it's just a yucky cold. But it's hanging around, unfortunately. =P I've managed to shake off the stuffy nose, but I still have an ugly cough and my normal voice isn't back yet. :( Poop. I have been able to sleep in a lot, though, which is SO nice! Last quarter really took its toll on me. Hopefully things will be more manageable next quarter - but unfortunately it will be at the expense of my instrumental happiness. :( I've decided to take next quarter off from the SSO. This will be the first time I'll have gone more than 4 weeks without playing in an orchestra since the 6th grade. (I've always participated in Jenny Lin over the summers.) Pretty amazing, huh? I fear orchestra withdrawal. :( But it really is necessary for my sanity. Sigh...Spring Quarter is going to be nuts.

[There was more to this blog, but my web browser closed itself somehow and I lost it all!!! :( Above is the only paragraph I was able to regenerate. URGH!]

Christmas Eve, 12/24:: Went to Auntie Rosita's house for dinner, because my mom's (and Uncle Benny's) older sister is here visiting from Hong Kong. It was her first Christmas in the States, so I think she rather enjoyed the amusement of opening gifts. That was fun; I hadn't really seen my cousins Perry and Elliott for awhile. They're getting so big!! Perry is a sophomore now!! I remember being an Outdoor School counselor during his week when he was a 6th grader! Wow, that means my first cabin of girls are sophomores now, too. It's sad that I haven't been able to keep in touch with the girls from that year. :( Wow, that seems so long ago and so recent at the same time. Which is a rather common phenomenon once you get to college, really.

Christmas Day, 12/25:: Went to Auntie Sally's house for dinner, instead of having the usual Christmas dinner at my house, because my dad wasn't really up to putting up a Christmas tree and decorating the house like we usually do (he still has rather low hemoglobin levels and so is taking things easy for the time being). I made the mashed potatoes, of course! :) Other than the younger cousins, Amanda and Ashley, my other cousins weren't there this year. :( Which was a bummer, but I had fun with the girls. Ashley was soooo hyper when we first arrived!! Ai ya! She was *literally* SHRIEKING around the house. It was rather unnerving after awhile so I'm glad she calmed down. ;) Dinner was delicious, as always. Afterward, we watched the videotape of the Testimony Christmas show, and *then* we opened presents!! Presents were fun. I got a shirt and a necklace from my cousins, the annual beef jerky from my grandparents ;), and a CD player from my parents (because I'm always borrowing my brother's!). Then I had some good girl hang-out time with Amanda, who is now ten years old (double-digits!). She's a really great kid. :o) When we got home, my family and I made a fire in the fireplace and then played this game called "Think Alike." Many laughs, much fun. :)

Wednesday, 12/26:: Had lunch with Meggy! We went to this mini-CPK place at Stoneridge Mall, and then did some shopping there - as expected, it was an absolute madhouse. Meg had some exchanges to make, and we just kinda wandered around. We used the time when we were waiting in the endless lines to catch up with each other. I'm glad I was able to spend time with her before she left. I think she left for San Diego this morning. :( So early! But I guess she was getting bored up here in CV. I'm sad though because I may not get to see her until next Christmas. :(

Thursday, 12/27:: We surprised Wendy and Amy (Huang) for their birthdays!!! ("we" being me and their friends from school - mainly CVHS seniors.) Amy's birthday was on the 26th, and Wendy's on the 28th. It was really funny because they wanted to run away and hide because they'd just woken up. We managed to get some pictures, though. :) It totally reminded me of roll-outs at Stanford, hehehe. Anyway, we hung out at Amy's house for a little bit afterward, dispersed to get ready for the rest of the day and eat lunch, and then re-met at the movie theater to watch Monsters, Inc. Ooohh that movie is SO CUTE!!!! It's so funny!!! It was really amusing sitting next to Chris Park, too, because he was basically giggling throughout the whole thing. Very amusing. ;) After the movie, the group dispersed again, until the pajama party that Wendy and Amy were throwing at Wendy's house that night. I was there until about 1am... had a lot of fun that night. We had a yummy potluck dinner and played LOTS of games afterward. Taboo, Monopoly, chess, Concentration, Jenga, charades, Mah Jong, Arch Rival, Uno, you name it! Not all at once, mind you - but it was fun to participate and observe the others all the same. And, oy, I think I'd forgotten what it's like to hang around high schoolers. ;) Not that it's bad!! But definitely different, as any of my fellow college-people can attest to.

Friday, 12/28:: Went to the mall again, to return something and browse around the bookstore some. Overall a fairly uneventful day. Originally, the Bay Area Tmony girls had planned on having a movie night//sleepover at Megan's house, but we weren't able to reach Kristen, and then Connie had something come up. So hopefully it'll work out for us to reschedule for next Wednesday. I'm looking forward to it. :)

Saturday, 12/29:: Woke up late again, as typical of this week. :) Ahhh, sleep is so nice!!! Kinda bummed around the house all afternoon (also nice!!) until I met Anupa, Stan, Kristin, and Joey for a movie. We went to see Lord of the Rings at this really cool old-style theater in Oakland. The movie was really good!! But, AIYA, these people really know how to make things GROSS-LOOKING!!!! =P VERY SCARY! =P I hope I don't have nightmares tonight. :( After the movie, we grabbed some food and hung out in Anupa's basement for awhile (just like old times...sort of). It was good to see everyone again. A little weird, too, but maybe I'll talk about that later. Right now, I think I'm tired of writing. Goodbye until next time!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!! :o)

"The world will try to tell you
That might is more than right
That beauty's on the outside
And being good's a losing fight
But remember what I've told you
Because the world will make you choose
Hold to Jesus -
He's holding on to you

Hold on to Jesus
Cling to His love
Rest deep in His mercy
Whenever things get rough
Don't lose sight of His goodness
And don't ever doubt this truth
That when you hold on to Jesus
He's holding on to you

Hear me dear Jesus
Rock this little one to sleep
Keep her close when she's scared
And give her grace when she is weak
I know she'll stumble
But I know she'll make it through
If you hold to her just like
You said You'd do
Hold her Jesus -
And she'll hold on tight to You."

- Erin O'Donnell, "Hold On To Jesus"

I AM HOME!!! Finally! Got home last night, in time to join my family for dinner. :) (Story about the drive up from LA will be told later.)

But I am sick. Cough cough. :( I actually started getting sick right as we left for tour, and it kept getting progressively worse. Singing so much for an entire week aggravated it, I'm sure. A lot of us lost our voices or at least got scratchy/sore throats by the end of the week. I guess that happens when you're basically with 15 people 24-7. So, Tmony tour was an awesome experience, but blog entries about it will have to come later...because there is SO MUCH to write about! I may end up plagiarizing some of it from the infamous Bryan Lung. But that can only happen after he posts his blogs. ;)

In other news...God was merciful in the grades department~!!! Let's just say that they were much much MUCH better than they could have turned out to be, and definitely better than I expected at all. Tina has not yet gotten her first C! I am sooo relieved!!! I don't have to sing that song yet... "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me!" Haha. Tina is very happy. :) :) :)

I got to go home today!!!! I met my parents at this car shop in Milpitas (which is where we always take our cars since it's owned and run by my dad's friend) and we went out for a yummy dim-sum lunch with my dad's friend. It's so fun when my dad's old friends are around. They make fun of each other. It's funny. ;) Then, while we were waiting for my car to be fixed (they decided to replace the starter), we went to the Great Mall since it was really close to the car shop. Spent a couple hours there. I got new shoes! This is good because, as tonight's rainy weather demonstrated once again, my current pair of white canvas shoes is worn enough at the soles to let water in to wet my heels. Goodness, it was REALLY pouring on the drive back to school!! It was scary to be driving. But I am, of course, here all safe and sound. Right, so after shopping and after picking up my now-reliably-working car, my parents and I went home to have dinner with my cool li'l bro. :) Mmmmm it was SO good to eat my mommy's homecooked Chinese food! (I didn't get to have any over Thanksgiving break because of my dad being in the hospital and my mom being busy with the business trade show.) Yummy yummy. I also did my laundry and watched the videotape of our Tmony Christmas Show. Comments may appear later--but not now. ;) Ooh and I had pumpkin pie! We had pumpkin pie at home. I like pumpkin pie. Yummm. :) Hehehehe and then my dad tried to do a new magic trick for me but he kept messing up at *every* possible point he could possibly mess up and my mom started laughing at him, HYSTERICALLY, which got the rest of us hysterical, and the four of us almost fell out of chairs at the dinner table we were laughing so hard, hehehehe. I didn't want to leave. :( But that's okay, I'm really glad I got to spend today with my family. I feel like a million times better than I did 24 hours ago. I think I needed that before leaving on Tmony tour. Speaking of which, so I got back to campus around 10:30 for an informal meeting with a handful of Tmony folk, to sing through some of the other music we'll be haphazardly putting together for tour caroling material. That was actually a lot of fun. I was the only alto present, haha. =P We totally stayed on pitch, song after song, even though we hadn't warmed up and were sitting down while singing ... go figure, huh? =P We also had some good prayer time before we started singing, talking to God about finals week and about preparing for tour--that was really awesome too. I feel like God is really going to grow us as a group during this next week we'll be spending together. I guess I'm also feeling more ready to handle it after having some "recharge" time at home. Oh yeah and guess what?? I'll be flying back up to northern Cali during the middle of the week to see Mr. Luedders conduct the Mozart's Requiem with the CVHS Orchestra and Choirs (with special guest soloists) on Wed. Dec. 19, 7:30pm, at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. I highly recommend that you come if you'll be around!! I totally can't miss this concert...it's been Jack's dream to conduct the Requiem, and this is sort of his "farewell//signoff" since he's retiring in June. Yeah, I can't believe it! It'll be good for him, though. I'll talk about that later since I can just see myself falling into the Black Hole of Digression.... Right, so tomorrow will mostly be spent packing and running last-minute errands and getting ready to leave with Tmony to drive down to SoCal. We'll be spending the majority of tour in the LA area, around Rancho Palos Verdes (where Steve, Justin, and Chi-En are from). I actually don't know many details about our itinerary, so I'll just write about it all after we get back (riiight...we'll see if that happens). I should be back in Castro Valley on Saturday, Dec. 22. I can't wait to be home!! :)

I'm off to take my car to the shop, meet my parents for lunch and shopping, and go home for the evening. I wish I could stay there...
Be back at 10:15 for a Tmony meeting.

Strike number three.
Meet the girl who shouldn't be here.

Physics sucked too. Though not any hugely more than the midterms did. Whoopee. Let the 12-hour bio-studying-marathon begin.

I got way more sleep last night than I would have liked.

Yeah, E25 sucked. Way harder than the practice exam. Ughhghhh. Now I have 20 hours to know physics inside and out. Riiight. Well, physics party with Chris, coming right up.

Aiya. This is my two-minute study break of the day. I am SO DEAD for my finals. :( The coming week shall go as follows:
Mon, 3:30-6:30pm - E25
Tue, 3:30-6:30pm - Physics 51
Wed, 8:30-11:30am - Bio 41
They are all going to hurt. A lot. :(

It's been a long few days. Tmony recorded Worlds Apart on Friday, which went really well and actually finished on time!! And Bryan did an incredible job with the solo -- Yay for Bryan! :) But, then of course something had to prevent me from getting back to campus in a timely manner. My car wouldn't start!! =P Had to call AAA and have someone come try and fix it. Apparently there's a loose wire in the starter solenoid, and the guy managed to get it back in place so my car could start that night, but there's no guarantee it'll work the next time I try to drive it. So, I'm just not gonna drive my car (which isn't really my car...my brother's got the Volvo now since he got his license, and I have the Taurus stationwagon) until my dad can have it looked at while I'm gone on Tmony tour.

Then, Tmony recorded O Holy Night yesterday. Goodness. It took 10 hours altogether, because we did it separately by voice part. And since it's the song I'm directing, I was basically standing the entire time. =P It was a good session though, and I'm pleased with the result. Everyone worked really hard and was really awesome staying positive and not complaining... thanks guys, I really appreciate it. I know it sucked to take up so much pre-finals studying time. Trust me, I know. :( Anyway though, we even managed to get the soloist recorded, and I must say, Kari never ceases to amaze me. She has such a pretty voice!! :)

I was able to have some non-Tmony related fun this weekend, at least. Bryan and I hung out and talked for awhile Friday night after recording, and talked about a whole bunch of stuff, while creating the click track for O Holy, and then cooking ramen in the kitchenette and talking over food. I love spending time with Bry ... we are SO alike in so many ways, it's sort of scary. As he once said, I'm like his "female counterpart". Platonically, of course. It's so awesome to have such a close relationship with someone without any of those stupid romantic complications ever coming in. That's how it's always been with Bry, and it's really really cool. :)

Okay. It's been over two minutes. Since it looks like I may never get around to updating all the stuff that I haven't had time to write about in the past month and a half, I'll just copy-and-paste my running list of unblogged stuff. (There also exists a similar list of stuff that happened over the summer. That might appear at some point.) Here ya go, and if you're curious about any one thing, IM or email me or something. After finals. =P

10/31: SSO Halloween Concert
11/13: Big Sing
11/17: Noozles!!, Big Game, Tmony tenor recording, meteor shower!!
11/20: tango in social dance, bad SSO rehearsal
11/21: hanging out with Steve/Wenfei
11/22: Thanksgiving dinner, piano-doodling with Steve
11/23: Anna/Deb's party
11/24: brunch with Meg/Anupa, dinner with Shai/Anupa/Stan, hangout with Wendy
11/25: Thanksgiving service at EBAC
11/26: running Tmony rehearsal
11/27: Wendy's card, Wenfei's e-card
11/28: USingers concert
11/29: SSO dress reh, Tmony dress reh
11/30: Tmony Show!, Ben Poon in UCB's For Christ's Sake
12/01: SSO Concert!, Twain Semi-Formal, FiCS sophomore class activity

Classes are over for the quarter. Woohoo!
If only Monday weren't approaching so rapidly... :(
Went to an E25 review session on Wednesday, which wasn't so helpful, and then a Bio review session last night, which was somewhat more helpful. The Physics review session will be on Sunday. There's so much material that I don't know well enough yet!! GAH!
Leaving in an hour to go to the recording studio with Tmony again. We're taking a different approach this time, so hopefully it won't take so darned long! I don't have the time or energy to have another experience like the last two times we went. And we're recording again tomorrow too. Sigh.
Wish us luck, and please pray for us. Be back by dinner, hopefully. *crossed fingers*

HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY, WOOTAE!!

Just had an incredible conversation with a high school friend that I haven't spoken to in, like, years. Wow. God sure has cool ways of energizing me!! :) :)
[ Hi Andrew! ]

GO TMONY SOPHOMORES!

(L to R: me, Bryan, Kari, Eric)

I want to be five again. Friendships were simple, boys had cooties, my mom was happy, my dad was happy, my family was healthy, school was easy, sleep was in abundance, I could play the piano, I had Bunny, I had my blankie, I was smart enough to skip kindergarten, I knew Chinese better than English, life was simple, ignorance was bliss.

"People should be sequestered until they are no longer socially toxic." - Emily Dawson

I'm swearing off boys for the rest of my life. Really.

"I don't think you notice
When you see my face
I guess you're waiting
To spin me around again

Wheels I guess are turning
Somewhere inside my head
I know that this is
Deeper than you get

But you're coming back again
You don't mean to waste my time
But you're coming back so

...Don't ask me
What I need
I'm just fine
Here finding me.
Me."

- Vertical Horizon, "Finding Me"

Insanity Week has come and gone. Hence the complete lack of any posts since last weekend. But, ooh, guess what comes next? That's right--Dead Week. Definition: The week makes you dead. =P

Lots has been going on. Lots on my mind. Still no time to write about it. But, for those of you wondering, both the Testimony show and the SSO concert went really well. I am pleased. One of these days, a really long convoluted ranty post is going to show up. But not any time in the near future. =P

for yesterday:

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY, WENFEI! YAY ALTOS! :)

for today:

HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY, STEVE!

Church was good this morning. I need some more time with God today.

no time. physics sucks. crazy crazy week. but must say:

HAPPY 19th BIRTHDAY, DAVID HSU!!

You are ONLY older than me by THREE MONTHS!! REMEMBER THAT! ;) ya still my big bro though. our "agreement"...in 15 minutes, yah? ;)

also must say:

testimony a cappella presents...
'TWAS THE MONTH BEFORE CHRISTMAS
TONIGHT, friday * 9:00pm * Manzanita Dining Hall
FREE ADMISSION & FREE FOOD!!
COME COME COME! :o)

Ai ya... my brother is taking his drivers license test tomorrow! Eek!

DADDY'S HOME!!!!!
and HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY, TIM!!!

(a.k.a. super little punk) ;)

Someone's turning 16 tomorrow... ;o)

Just got back from visiting my daddy in the hospital. He's doing much better, but his hemoglobin levels are still really low, so it's still uncertain whether he'll be discharged tonight. Blood test due for 5:00pm, so we'll see. He's in good spirits, though, so that's really good. Thank you all for your concern and prayers. Now my dad will just have to take it easy and recover. (Plans for a trip to Hong Kong with my grandparents, obviously, got cancelled.) And, as always (I sound like Bry here), there's more to update later, but I'm going to spend my precious moments at home doing something other than blogging. ;) Soon, soon. ;) Take care, and please have safe trips back to school.

Reliving old camp songs.
Laughing about old teachers.
Searching 'Where's Waldo?' books.
Revisiting inside jokes.
Seeing the friends who grew up with you.
...
Simple pleasures. :)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!

God bless your time at home with your families.

Please pray for my dad, who is in the hospital with an ulcer right now. My family didn't call me when it happened last night!! =/ Things are under control now, but I'm pretty shaken...

*long sigh*
I just turned in my physics problem set. Thank God now I have a few breather days (in the form of Thankgiving break) coming up. I am still physically and emotionally drained from a lot of things. I'll be sure to cherish this weekend because once I get back, the insanity is going to start up again immediately. =P Two concerts (Testimony and SSO) at the end of the week (Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, respectively--please come!!)...so I am going to be super busy with rehearsals like every day of the week. SUPER busy. =P

I had a lot of happy stuff to post about, but I'm lacking the inspiration right now. I guess I'm in one of my down swings. Check back later.

Oh my goodness. That was one of the coolest things I have ever done. But you will have to wait to hear about it, because it's WAY late (agh! black hole!) and I have church in the morning. Wow. Today was a great day. God is awesome. :o)

My roommate brought me back some ice cream! (Well, a milkshake!) Thank you, Janet! :)

Just got back from Big Praise! For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a joint praise & worship session for Stanford and Berkeley students following the Big Game. (A lot of things are called "Big ___" during this week, like Big Sing, which I will write about in a later post.) So...Wow. I totally needed that. After spending so much time in recording studios the past two days, it was good just to sing my heart out to God and not worry about blending or not blending or pitch or tone or *anything*. It was so uplifting. I still have a lot of yucky things I'm facing, but I feel much more equipped to face them now. Not that I didn't know in my head that I could face them, but you know what I mean. Big Praise was definitely a much-needed time of spiritual rejuvenation. Thank You, God. :o)

Lots more to tell about the day, but that'll come later (hopefully).

BTW:

STANFORD 35, CAL 28

wahoo! gooo cardinal!!

GO STANFORD!!!!

CAL IS GOING DOWN!!!!! ;)

One Big Game, comin' right up!

By the end of the afternoon, Stanford will have won the Axe for the 8th year in a row!! Aww yeah! ;)

Whoo boy. Believe it or not...Testimony spent over *8* hours in the recording studio today. And I was pretty much standing up for most of that time. So not only has it been a long week, but it's been a particularly long day. I'm not really sure how to describe how I'm feeling right now. Exhausted would be part of it. Dazed would be another. Overall unsettled would also be accurate.

After falling asleep off and on all of last night, I managed to finish my E25 term paper in time to go to bio lecture this morning. It was definitely a relief to turn the paper in, but then I had to rush to get back in time to pick up my Big Game ticket and leave for the recording studio with Testimony at 1:00. However, as long and grueling as today's recording session was, it was a blessing to have such a wonderful group of hardworking people to do it with. I know every single person in Testimony is putting forth their entire selves for this project, and I feel very honored to be able to sing with them for God's glory. Anyhow, needless to say, I missed the Gaieties performance tonight (but I hear it wasn't as good as last year's, anyway). Instead, the nine of us (me, Steve, Gavan, Megan, Eric, Jason, Justin, Jeff, and Chi-En) who didn't leave with the first car went out for a late, late dinner at "The Garret." Fun fun times...at the end, we had a great time reminiscing about TV shows we used to watch and toys we used to play with as little kids. I FINALLY found someone who recognizes my description of this one TV show about a stuffed koala bear that comes alive when his owner is out of the room and climbs out the window onto the eucalyptus tree outside and has lots of adventures! STEVE knew what I talking about!!!!!! AHHH! SO EXCITING!!! :) :)

Okay, so I realize it sounds like I actually have energy right now, but I don't really. So I'm sleeping now, to start recuperating from this past week and to get ready for a crazy day tomorrow. That's right, it's...BIG GAME! We are going to kick some Cal butt. GO STANFORD!!! No offense to my many Cal friends out there. ;)

[PS: This post is going to look like I wrote it a couple hours after I actually did. Stanford network is having problems tonight, and I couldn't post it earlier.]

"Wheels I guess are turning
Somewhere inside my head
I know that this is
Deeper than you get"
- Vertical Horizon, "Finding Me"

There's a crazy mess going on in my head right now, but I can't really talk about it to anyone.
*sigh*

Oh...to make matters even worse, the physics midterms have been graded. Don't ask. I'm not telling anyone. Yes, it was that bad.

I HAVE JUST BEEN INFORMED THAT THE PHYSICS PS ISN'T DUE TILL MONDAY.
Now I can semi-breath.

Well, I just took my second midterm of the day. Physics sucked, too. But at least it doesn't win the title of "Worst Exam I Have Ever Taken." That one still goes to the second midterm I took in Chem35 last spring.

Now, an E25 paper and physics problem set due Friday...I really want this week to end, can you tell?

Ughhghhghhghh.

The bio midterm sucked. I can't do this.

Realization: the eight-legged Tmony monster consists of a quartet of the four section leaders (SATB). Weird, huh? ;)

Tuesday:
...E25 problem set due
...7:15-9:45pm - SSO rehearsal
Wednesday:
...1:00-2:30pm - Biology midterm
...7:00-8:30pm - Physics midterm
Thursday:
...7:15-9:45pm - SSO rehearsal
...9:45-11:00pm - Tmony rehearsal
Friday:
...E25 paper due
...Physics problem set due (but hopefully they'll have mercy)
...Tmony recording session

:(

Help me remember:
"Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." - Hebrews 12:1-2

It's raining. It's cold. It's midterms/term paper week. It's November 12. Blah.

Went to PBC (Peninsula Bible Church) for church today with Steve, and I brought Myriah (who's here for the weekend visiting Chris) with me. I really like their college group service! Not that I don't still like The River a lot, but PBC kind of has everything that I find lacking in The River. It's just very different--The River is one really large adult service, held in the gymnasium of the Sunnyvale Community Center, and so you don't really get to know people very well. The teaching and worship is really great, but I don't really find fellowship there at all. PBC this morning definitely felt more personal, because you actually talk and pray with the other people around you...and it was nice to feel like I was in the right age group. A lot of Stanford students go to The River too, but since it's so big, you're not really around everyone that much. I'm very glad I visited PBC today. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but turned out very well because we heard the testimony story of a family with a disabled child...who turns out to be living in Sacramento right now! That's where Myriah lives, and Davis is right near there, so it was really great that they met. God works in cool ways. :)

Goodness gracious. Recording took sooo long!! Testimony just spent over 6 hours at the recording studio recording "My Jesus, I Love Thee," and we still only recorded the soprano, alto, bass, and solo parts (no tenors yet). Very very long session--2 hours over originally planned. The technician was really great, though, and our hard work *totally* paid off. What we have so far, IMHO, sounds absolutely fabulous!!! Hopefully future sessions won't take quite so long...=P...and it should help now that we kind of know the procedure of things. Also, after today, I definitely feel closer to the girls in my section. We had some good times of prayer today. I am so thankful that God has blessed me by bringing the three of them into my life. Anyway, I'm off to get some studying and work done. I decided not to go home for dinner tonight. I don't have the energy or the time to spare right now, given that in the upcoming week I have 2 midterms and a paper to write. God is good, though. Thank You, Lord, for a productive day of hard work and for Your faithfulness to those who cry out to You.

Thank you, Bryan.

My away message from tonight:
"i'm at the sophomore formal with steve. and kari & bryan. that makes us the tinastevekaribryan, the eight-legged tmony monster. beware! :-P"

tee hee. ;) I definitely had fun tonight with our lovely Tmony group of four (coincidentally making up a quartet). Heh, oh the memories of high school dances... ;) Anyway, it was nice to get away from things for a few hours. Thank you for being my escort, Steven Ngai. :o)

Unfortunately, I came back to find yet another phone message waiting for me and, thus, a subsequent phone call... *sigh*

*sigh*

Yeah, I'm still going to the Sophomore Formal. It'll be nice to get off campus and actually go do something. I doubt it'll get my mind off things, but at least it'll be a step in the right direction.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28

Last night was another long, late night. My family and I need your prayers, still. Please pray that God would be sovereign in our family and that He would show us His guiding hand. Thank you all for being there for me.

Polka = Hurt!
I got tripped over and stepped on AGAIN during the first 10 minutes of social dance class this morning! :( Now I have a bruise on my right calf. :(

I'm listening to my "Favorites" playlist from last year. Current song: "If I Am," by Nine Days. Boy, can we say nostalgia? It amazes me time after time how music can have such power over me. This totally puts me back in Rinconada 202, with my Emily Dawson sitting in her butt-cushioned chair behind me: she, having just gotten out of the shower, is now settling down in The Chair to do her history reading for the night; I am sitting at my desk, most likely talking to people online, working on a problem set. The room smells like Em's hair gel--the smell that it took me forever to figure out reminds me of these beads my cousins would bring me from Hong Kong as a gift when they visited. Oop...song change: "We Danced Anyway" by Deana Carter. Now Eric and I have just returned from a meal in Wilbur Dining West, and we're relating our day's experiences in various classes, and there is a very tangible connection in the air between us as we sing along to a number of favorite songs we share. Next: "Adam's Song" by Blink 182. How this just speaks Chris Wallis. That boy never failed to make me smile with his randomness. I miss having you upstairs from me. I miss your 3am visits just to sit in The Chair and hang out, and me needing you to repeat everything three times because your voice is so low that when you whisper (Emily is asleep, after all) it's impossible for me to hear you. Now I'm behind--Another change: "I Will Remember You" by Sarah McLachlan, and "The Promise" by Tracy Chapman. I am sad--I miss when high school seemed like it was yesterday; I miss the security of knowing you have a group of girlfriends there for you no matter what, even if three of them are in three different corners of Northern California and the fourth is in San Diego. The second song opens floodgates of emotions from exactly this time last year. Heartache. Letting go of the most important part of the last three years of my life. Don't want to go there...good, the song is ending. Finally, back to a different flavor: "Change Your Mind" by Sister Hazel. Emily is dancing around in her PJ's, tampon in hand (in lieu of a microphone), grabbing my arms and trying to make me dance with her. She's trying to cheer me up--and succeeds, as always. Oh, how our room had an atmosphere that I cannot describe. The feeling of feeling like you must be the luckiest person to have gotten put in the same room as your roommate, because she is now one of your closest friends and holds a special place in your heart. Emily, I miss having you within hugging distance.

----------
That was written in real-time. Just my playlist from last year, set on "random." I don't think I've ever done anything like that before . . . absolutely no stopping. No editing. Wow.

Talk about emotional tug-of-war. How different my life would be without music . . .

Truly a gift from God.

Kari just taught me how to put color on my webpage! Yay! Thanks Kari! :)
Now my quote page (and associated pages) are blue. Like everything else in my room. (If you've ever been in my room, you'll know I'm not kidding.) And this page is blue too! Wow! ;)

Boo to The Stanford Fund. {insert angry face here}

The correct spelling of shoddish is actually "schottische." Thanks Kari.

"What is faith? ...What the Bible calls faith involves having sufficient reason to put weight down on something as real and true. Real faith is never blind. A person with faith asks the sufficient questions and gets the sufficient answers, but then still must believe some things which remain a mystery. Faith--real, life-giving, and hope-sustaining faith--is a sure belief and deep conviction that something really is true and real, even though you can't see it with your eyes, or measure or prove it with scientific methods. So there is always something mysterious about faith, and that's why it requires trust.
. . . For many, faith means believing something, and then 'strong faith' means really believing it a lot. But Biblical faith involves not merely believing something is true, but also living according to that belief. It's about putting your weight down on what you believe. When your belief gets acted out in real life through obedience, that is what the Bible calls faith. Belief + Obedience = Faith."
- Pastor Keith Zafren, The River Church Community, 11/4/01

The Ragtime Ball was sooo much fun! Well, parts of it weren't fun, like being really cold half the time and getting stepped on more than expected (not by my partners--by neighboring couples!) and having my left calf still be sore from some unknown cause earlier in the week, but overall I had a wonderful wonderful time tonight. I went vintage clothing shopping with Kari and her friend Kristin after brunch today, but I wasn't able to find anything (such is the usual fate of my shopping excursions). Kari, however, found a really awesome red dress that looks absolutely *fabulous* on her!! :) Luckily, Jenny who lives down the hall from me saved the day--she lent me this really cool blue wrap-around-ish dress that makes a v-neck neckline. It was very fitted and flowy material and a lot of fun to wear for dancing. :) During the hour preceding the start of the dance, there was a free Charleston class, which Kari, Kristin, Eric, & I went to (after Eric had to run back to Twain for me because I forgot my ticket...I'm such a dork...sorry Eric, and thank you!!) ... but I was having trouble retaining enough coordination for all the moves. Perhaps it's just because I'm not good at it yet, but I don't really like the Charleston. Anyway, after I started moving enough to keep semi-warm, things started to be a lot more fun. ;) Interspersed throughout the night there were performances by four different Stanford dance groups, all of which were totally amazing. As during Jammix last week, my dancing consisted mainly of swing and cross-step waltz, but by the end of the night Eric and I semi-figured out the shoddish (sp?) and rotary waltz by trial-and-error. That was fun. :) Well, dancing with Eric in general is fun, but waltzing with him is especially fun. Definitely one of the highlights of the night. :o) Jeff was also there!! He looked way cool in his red suspenders and black hat! I swing-danced with Jeff quite a bit too--he's such an animated dancer, you can't help but bounce around too! Unfortunately the night ended on somewhat of a sour note: as we were taking some photos after the dance ended, someone dropped my camera on the floor and I'm not sure if my film was exposed or not. :( But all in all, I had a great night, and I'm feeling pretty good despite the workload I've got ahead of me tomorrow. I ought to get to bed now 'cause I have church in the morning. More to come later--specifically, the story of the SSO Halloween Concert. ;) Stay tuned!

Look! I made links!!
<-----

(Dang, that arrow isn't going to be as cool anymore once I make another post. Phoo.)

I can't believe it's November.

It is good for me
To lay it down at Your feet.
It is good for me, to lay the good and bad
In Your hands, my God.
It's good for me to lay it down at Your feet.
It is good for me.

You are the constant one when
My life is overwhelmed.
And You stay the same when all around is changing.
And, oh, how good it is, yeah,
Just to know the life You give.
And my song shall ever be
That my God is faithful.
And when the shadow of sorrow comes
I will fall on the only one I know
Is the rock that won't be shaken.

- Watermark, "Good For Me"

My brain is fried, so I'm going to enter the mindless/pointless mode. Can someone teach me the html code to make the background color of my Stanford webpage something other than white?

I am so tired. I slept for 9 hours--straight through physics lecture this morning--and I'm still exhausted. I'm also still not done with the physics problem set. Good thing I have an extension. Gah. Crazy week. I need to stop having these.

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea.... The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress." - Psalm 46:1, 2, 11

"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." - Isaiah 41:10

Total utter exhaustion. And desperation. Father, I need You.

The SSO retreat was so much fun! But we rehearsed sooo much. Over the course of a day and a half, we rehearsed for a total of 11 HOURS - goodness! It was very productive rehearsing, though. I think our Halloween Concert is going to be a blast! :) PLEASE COME!! :)

We had some free time before dinner on Saturday at the retreat, so I led a small group of people wandering aimlessly through the forest... haha, just kidding! I did lead them on a short walk, though, past the upper village (if you've been an ENH counselor before you'll know what I mean) and down to the little creek where we skipped rocks for awhile. I still suck at skipping rocks, despite my brother's and Matt's attempts to teach me. Anyway, it was so nice to be out in nature again. I really miss being an Outdoor School counselor. This year perhaps I'll go back during Spring Break...

It was also nice to have Daylight Savings Time end the night we were there. An extra hour of sleep! Yay! I actually slept for almost 10 hours - can you believe it? I totally needed it, too, because during rehearsals on Saturday, I was like falling asleep while playing... =P I'm kidding, but only sort of! During the long rests, I was definitely nodding off and I kept missing entrances. So bad. :( I took a brief nap after dinner (as in, I fell asleep with my head down on one of the tables), and later that night we had a campfire up at the amphitheatre and roasted marshmallows and had some good hang-out time. Unfortunately, people started telling a whole slew of really bad sex jokes, so at that point I decided to leave. Jim and I had some good sharing & prayer time, though, which was really nice outside in the wilderness.

The next day we ended rehearsal a little earlier than planned (because everyone was so exhausted!) so we played Mafia while we were waiting for the bus to arrive. Tee hee. That game is so much fun. And no Bryan, I was not Mafia at all during those rounds. =P

Okay. Long night ahead of me...we've got dress rehearsal for the Halloween concert (complete with skit practices...hee hee hee), and then the violins and viola sections have to meet to be given our Stanford Fund letter writing assignments. Oh poo...

Nappy time.

The orchestra members are supposed to dress up for the Halloween concert. Any costume ideas/suggestions?

Just got back from a wonderful evening. :) Had dinner with Tmony people and ... LITON! Yup, he's back at Stanford to visit for the weekend. Even though we didn't get to know each other until the end of the year last year, it's still really good to see him. Then after dinner, I wrote a whole BUNCH of checks for the Twain account, because after an ordeal straightening things out with the old Twain treasurer, we FINALLY have checks now. Then, I went to Jammix with Eric, Kari, Liton, Megan, and Gavan. :) :) (Jammix is a big social dance event that happens roughly once a month.) That was lots of fun - my first experience at like a real dance! So far I only know swing and cross-step waltz significantly well from Social Dance I, but Kari and Liton (re-)taught me basic salsa and cha-cha. I'm really looking forward to learning more dances in Social Dance. :) Anyway, so I had a great time tonight. I even danced some swing with Kari. ;) And Eric and I bumped into a lot of people during the waltzes. Ha. ;) Just kidding - we actually held up pretty well, I think.

Anyway, now I get to pack before I head off to bed. I'll be gone all weekend at a retreat with the Stanford Symphony Orchestra. And, you're not gonna believe this - guess where it is??? CAMP LOMA MAR!! Yep, the same place as Outdoor School! Isn't that weird?? There's probably gonna be major mental discord for me, because to me, Camp Loma Mar = lots of little 6th-graders running around. Instead, I'll be there with 70 SSO members. More mature? ...we'll see. ;)

We're going to be doing SO MUCH rehearsing at the retreat. The plan is to spend all of Saturday rehearsing the Mahler Symphony No. 5, which we're performing on Dec. 1, and then spend all of Sunday rehearsing the 8 or 9 pieces we've barely even looked at yet that we're performing at the HALLOWEEN concert in 5 days!! Eeek! It should be really fun, though ... our concert program includes: Korsakow's Flight of the Bumblebee, Stravinsky's Firebird, Copland's Rodeo, Khachaturian's Sabre Dance, and quite a few more. I can't believe we're preparing an entire concert's worth of music in less than a week. Anyway, YOU SHOULD COME TO THE CONCERT!!! There'll be a costume contest, and the winner gets to conduct our finale!! Isn't that cool??? ;) So, since I know you ALL want to how you can be present at this absolutely must-see event, here are the details:

Stanford Symphony Orchestra presents...

HALLOWEEN CONCERT

Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 8:00pm
Dinkelspiel Auditorium
$8 General / $4 Student

COME! :o)

Anyway, so I'll be gone from Saturday morning until Sunday evening, at which point I'll return for a 3-hour Tmony rehearsal. By 9:30 on Sunday, I am going to be all rehearsed out. =P I'll have my cell phone with me if you need to reach me and want to try calling it, but since we'll be out in the wilderness I doubt I'll be getting any good reception.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

LITON IS HERE!! ON CAMPUS!! YAY!! :)

Wow. I am so glad the week is over. That was a really yucky physics problem set. I am sooo tired.

Updates: Last Saturday, Testimony performed in our first gig - we sang "My Jesus, I Love Thee" in a wedding in San Francisco. The wedding was joining two Testimony alumni - how cute is that??! :) It was a very touching ceremony, and the performance went well, so it was all good. We had fun playing around in the back chapel room, singing random hymns and making stuff up and just having general musical hilarity. Then most of us stayed in the city to have dinner. All in all it was a great day. :)

Oh yeah - so by Saturday, my stomachache was all gone!! (Good thing, seeing as we walked around a lot.) I still don't know exactly what it was, but it's gone so oh well. That was really an unpleasant experience during midterms week.

Hm. So I already mentioned how we surprised Chris for his birthday. What I haven't mentioned is that there was ANOTHER surprise the actual night of his birthday ... hehehehe! :) :) DAVID and MEG drove up from UCSD!!!!! David is one of Chris's best friends from high school, who happens to be one of Meg's best friends at UCSD, who happens to be one of my best friends from high school. How WEIRD is that!!! We all realized the connections during winter quarter last year. Anyway, David spontaneously decided that morning to drive ALL THE WAY up here, and to my delight he brought Meggy with him!!!! It was sooo funny watching Chris's reaction. We put a pillowcase over David's head and brought him to the door. Chris really flipped out. HEEHEE! And then, their other friend from high school, Adrian (who goes to UCSC and was already planning to come visit), arrived, and there was great merriment that night. Don't worry Chris, we won't mention the near-fatal wounds... ;)

Hee hee ... on the way up from San Diego, Meg called my room and proceeded to leave a really cryptic message: "Hi Tina, uh, this is Meg. The, um... person I'm with... lost the, um... an important piece of paper. So please call me back, because I need to... ask you for, um... some advice. Okay, bye." Translation: David lost the directions. The cryptic-ness was in case Chris happened to be in my room with me, which was entirely possible. Smart Meggy. It was funny. ;)

HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY, CHRIS WALLIS!!!!

hee hee hee. A group of us from "old" Rinc just went and surprised Chris with cake and presents for his birthday!! I even got the raspberry cake right and everything!! YEA for surprises!!!! =D sooo much fun :o)

[ps: and look! I know how to make font bigger *and* make it bold now!! wee!]

Steve is such a punk! ;)

Feeling better today! Stupid Cowell's phone lines were busy ALL DAY ... I was on hold for 15 minutes both times I called, and I finally gave up. I barely notice any pain when I'm sitting, and walking is much more bearable now. YAY! Thank you all for your concern and prayers. :)

Classes today were alright. It was interesting riding my bike in a skirt. (I'm still scared to wear pants. =P) Then after lunch, I gave Bryan a ride to the Stanford Shopping Center so he could chop off his Asian-fro ... ;) ... hehehe. And during the interim, I went grocery shopping at Safeway. Yay for Safeway!

GUESS WHAT!??! I JUST TAUGHT MYSELF HOW TO MAKE MY WEBPAGE ON MY STANFORD WEBSPACE!!!!! Steve showed me a how-to document, and I just sat down for an hour today and figured out how to do it!!!! Of course, it's as simple as heck, but I don't care!!! I did it!!!! WEEEE! Go see it!! http://www.stanford.edu/~piglette

:) :) :)

Report: WBC count is high. Have to go to Cowell again tomorrow. :(

Well, Tina has not been a happy camper lately. Tuesday afternoon, I woke up from my nap with a yucky stomachache ... and it STILL hasn't gone away!! I went to Cowell Student Health yesterday at 5:30 (right before my 7:00 bio midterm), and they couldn't quite figure out what it was but said it might be gastritis. (That's such an ugly word.) Anyway, while I was there, they gave me this "concoction" with lidocaine and an antacid in it. It didn't really do much, except make my tongue numb for about 5 minutes. So then I went off to my Bio midterm, which was hard but not too terrible, and then back to Stern to hear the St. Lawrence String Quartet (who was absolutely amazing), and then back to Twain for our weekly house meeting. I hung out with Bryan upstairs for awhile, and we reveled in the glory of that which is soundtrack music. ;) ;) But when I returned to my room after midnight, I found a rather unpleasant surprise. I was breaking out in hives ALL over my thighs!! Yechhhch. That was rather distressing. My suspicion was that I was having an allergic reaction to something in the medicine that Cowell gave me. So I took some Benadryl, put on some anti-itch cream, and went to bed hoping it would be gone when I woke up. Which it mostly was ... except that this morning, when I changed into a pair of pants, I started breaking out again!! This time, not just on my thighs, but all over my knees and calves too. Not to mention that my stomach was still hurting pretty badly. (I skipped Social Dance class this morning.) So I called in to Cowell to make another appt., and the nurse said it was probably because the pants were making my legs warm and causing friction and aggravating the allergic reaction. Anyway, so I went to Cowell again at 1:45 today (missing my E25 lecture...sigh), and saw a different doctor, who told me to start taking my allergy medication (Zyrtec) again, gave me a prescription for Zantac, and ordered some blood tests for me. She's supposed to call me back this evening with the results. Sighhh... :( In the meantime, it still hurts to walk or do anything that jars my abdomen. Although, today the pain is less intense when I'm sitting down, at least. Blah - I want this to go away!! And, it seems that I'm allergic to lidocaine. Boo to lidocaine!! =P

Tummy hurts. :( Still! :(

Yesterday I had lunch with EMILY!! We sat and chatted out on the grass near Tresidder, and it was a beautiful day, and that was the happy part of my day. :)
Then I had a physics midterm. Poop. =P It was pretty yucky. I'm really realizing how much a difference your high school background makes in college. At least, when you only have two weeks to absorb the material before your first midterm, it makes a difference. Just gotta keep truckin'...
I was going to go to part of the Biology review session for half an hour before my Physics midterm, but I got there and found out that the TA's were only doing a Q-and-A session - they didn't have any problems prepared for us. So, since it was hot and stuffy and crowded beyond belief in the room, I decided to go out to The Oval and have some quiet time before my exam. That was really nice. But then the exam itself was yech, so the rest of the night I was feeling pretty yech. Didn't have time to dwell on it though, because I still have a lot ahead of me this week. Last night I had to finish my E25 problem set due today (and the stupid sequencing website kept giving me errors ALL NIGHT), and then there's still the Biology midterm tomorrow night.

I think my daddy's coming home today! I think - I haven't talked to him since last week, and the flight plans were still tentative when I asked my mom over the weekend. Please pray that he'll have a safe flight home.

So I'm finally done with classes for the day. I am so tired. Maybe I should nap. But I have a lot of studying to do, and there's SSO rehearsal tonight. At least the first half is sectionals. Sectionals are fun. Oh, guess what, CV people? THEO is Principle 2nd this year!! So it feels all natural again to be in a section with him leading it. ;) AND we're using bowings from a professional symphony, so there's no longer the problem of him having schizophrenic bowings!! Haha. ;)

Oh yeah and you know what else is weird?? Get this: the guy who lives in Theo's old room and the girl who lives in my old room ... are both in Testimony this year!! Yup, Justin and Connie! Isn't that a strange coincidence?? And since they keep the phone numbers the same for the rooms, I'll never have problems remembering Justin's and Connie's phone numbers. ;) And the other day I was in Justin's room doing physics, and when I first walked in it was pretty trippy because I'm used to envisioning the room differently! But I'm getting used to it. :)

I think I finally straightened out things this morning with the Stanford Federal Credit Union, trying to update the Twain House account. There was an existing account from last year, so it was a hassle to get things switched over, but things are fairly in place now.

Quote from my E25 professor today: "The daughters and granddaughters get bolder and bolder and bolder. That's what cancer is in a nutshell."
LOL - use your imagination. ;)

Wow. This "Beautiful" song by Joydrop is appearing everywhere I look. It was quoted in Meg's profile last week, it was sung by the Harmonics (one of the Stanford a cappella groups) show today (which I wasn't there for but Eric says they sang it), and Debora just quoted it in her blog. Has this been a sudden recent hit? Now, perhaps one of these days I will actually hear it! =P

By the way, thanks to Debora and Bryan for linking to me in their blogs. I would do the same, except that I don't know how. So, I am going to be really boring. Go visit their blogs :) which are located at:
Debora - http://twylite.blogspot.com
Bryan - http://bryguy.blogspot.com
Chances are, you only know one of these two people (Debora if you're from CV, Bryan if you're at Stanford). Hmm, incidentally, these are also the same two people who inspired me to start my own weblog, if you read wayyy back to my very first post. Hi Debs and Bry! :)

Guess what??! Emmy called me today!! And we're going to have lunch together tomorrow! I'm so excited!! I miss being her roommate. :( It sucks living halfway across campus from each other. I LOVE YOU EM!!

"Pairing of fragments derived from the same starting DNA molecules, termed reannealing, will also occur, however, present day cloning vectors have in-built systems to overcome this." <--- You'd think that a Molecular Biology & Biotechnology TEXTBOOK would be proofread for run-on sentences!! Ooh! How annoying!!

Good news: Jim just informed me that the E25 problem set is due Tuesday, not Monday. I did not know this because after the crazy crazy Wednesday I had last week, I got back from 11-o'clock Bio on Thursday and totally crashed - slept through lunch *and* E25 at 1:15. Wow, I really hope not all my Wednesdays are like that. It shouldn't be, now that Tmony rehearsals have been moved to Thursday nights.

The listening party Friday night was lots of fun. So much great music out there! :) I went home yesterday for the afternoon/evening. It was good to see my mommy and brother. I surprised my brother, tee hee. :) Unfortunately, I was so tired that I ended up sleeping half the time I was home, but it was good to be home anyway. And my aunt, uncle, and family friend came over to play Mah Jong with my mom, so it was fun to watch them for awhile. I got back to campus around 9:45pm, at which point Eric and I headed over to meet Kari and Megan at Swing Dance on the Quad (which is being put on for Homecoming this weekend). Bryan decided not to come - party pooper! ;) Jeff and Steve were there too, and it was so much fun! Dancing is great. :) We also had fun making fun of the band for changing tempos all the time, but they're actually really good. It's just hard to swing dance to slow music! Anyway, that was a fun way to end the night. I have a lot of work ahead of me today, though. Got to finish the E25 problem set and prepare for my Physics midterm, both of which are happening tomorrow. I'm scared! :( Because of Tmony rehearsal tonight, I have to miss the physics review session. And then since I'm taking the physics midterm tomorrow night, I'll be missing the biology review session for the biology midterm on Wednesday. How sucky! :(
Well, I'm off to church now. Church is good.

This is for one of my best friends:

"Hold on to Jesus
Cling to His love
Rest deep in His mercy
Whenever things get rough
Don't lose sight of His goodness
And don't ever doubt this truth
That when you hold on to Jesus
He's holding on to you

Hear me dear Jesus
Rock this little one to sleep
Keep her close when she's scared
And give her grace when she is weak
I know she'll stumble
But I know she'll make it through
If you hold to her just like
You said You'd do
Hold her Jesus -
And she'll hold on tight to You."

- Erin O'Donnell, "Hold On To Jesus"

(well...you know what it should be, but if I change it...well, yeah.)

Wow. That was a pretty yucky physics problem set. We had a big fat physics party in Varun's room last night, and then today in my room. (Sound familar, Theo Wootae & David? =P) At least it's all turned in now.
Thank God it's Friday. No kidding.
Unfortunately, I still have a ton to do this weekend. Our first E25 problem set is due Monday; Physics (early session) midterm is Monday night; and Biology midterm is Wednesday night. Classes started two and a half weeks ago and we're already doing midterms!! Goodness.

I might go home tomorrow. I miss my family. My daddy's in Hong Kong, though, at least until mid-next week. He's not sure when he's coming back because he wants to wait and see if anything drastic happens in response to the Afghanistan attacks. Sigh. :( My mom is so cute, I was talking to her the other night and she was all excited about making curtains for my and my brother's rooms that match our bedding. Oh, and...my brother deserves a BIG FATTY CONGRATULATIONS on all the funds raised by the CVHS American Red Cross Club!! Over the last three weeks, they've been collecting donations and selling American Pride pins, all the proceeds of which go to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. They collected $314.14!!!! How AWESOME is that! GO TIM (+ associated ARC people)!! That's my brother!! =D You guys rock. :o)

Tonight we're having a "listening party" for Testimony, where we all bring ideas for potential new songs to sing this coming year. And then we all listen to the songs other people brought. Hence, the "listening party." I know, profound, huh. ;) Before that, I'm going to visit a large group meeting of Fellowship in Christ at Stanford. I'm still sort of trying to decide what fellowship I want to stay committed to during my next three years here at Stanford. The two main options for me are IVCF (InterVarsity Christian Fellowship) and FiCS. The other two, Cornerstone and Campus Crusade for Christ, meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays respectively, which are direct conflicts with orchestra rehearsals. Anyway, we'll see where God leads me. I'm looking forward to tonight. :)

Well, it's been a looooong day. I had physics & chemistry & biology lectures before noon, a being-locked-out-of-my-room adventure, biology & physics sections after lunch, a Testimony alto sectional, a fun dinner with fellow Tmony discussing underwear (haha), InterVarsity Christian Fellowship meeting, Testimony full group rehearsal, a brief hiatus for the Twain house meeting during which I was elected dorm treasurer (yay!), and then bike ride race against Bryan back to Braun Music Building for the rest of Tmony rehearsal. WHEW!!

Perhaps I will expand on some of that later. Now: Physics 51 problem set calls. =P

Here's the lyrics to the song ZOEgirl performed tonight that reminds me of last year. If you can't figure out why, then, boy, you must be really behind in my life. =P "Heartache," as one of the performers said, is a really accurate word to describe it. Anyway, this is a great song:

ZOEgirl - "Give Me One Reason"

"Give me one reason to live without Him
Give me one reason to walk away
I know you don't understand this feeling
How can I show
That He is the reason I have to let you go

I've tried so hard to change your mind
I always thought that you'd understand the reasons why
Why I don't want to do the things that I used to do
Now that my heart and soul belongs to God and God alone

Still every night's a fight to make it through
I can't deny I'm still in love with you
But how can you expect me to
Walk with Him and give myself to you

Boy, I still long for your embrace
But what I've found in God, oh, it could never be replaced
Still I pray for the chance,
As you slip through my hands, you'll come around
But your heart's so far away from the words I'm trying to say

Wish I could hold you both and still be true
But there's only one thing left for me to do
Baby, I love you
But I can't stay with you unless you love Him too

I've found a path that I've gotta take
No turning back, back to the old ways
Got a chance to take
Sacrifice to make
Whatever it takes I won't turn away

Give me one reason to live without Him
Give me one reason to walk away
I know you don't understand this feeling
How can I show
That He is the reason I have to let you go."

The Avalon concert was absolutely INCREDIBLE!! Oh my. I'm still beaming!! First off, Joy Williams and ZOEgirl opened the show, both of whom were great themselves. Joy's last song was "I Believe In You," a very popular one on KLOVE this summer. I knew two of the five ZOEgirl songs, but they were all really REALLY good. And, let me tell you, they had spectacular choreography. Very sharp and synchronized moves!! And then, their second to last song, called "Give Me One Reason," really hit me hard. I can totally relate to what the song is about -- in fact, it's exactly what I was going through exactly one year ago. I'll quote the lyrics in a later post, when I find them somewhere.

Anyway ... Avalon was SO GOOD!! They are easily my favorite music artists right now. The songs they performed tonight included all of my favorites from their new album (Oxygen): Undeniably You, Wonder Why, The Best Thing, Come and Fill My Heart, I Don't Want To Go, The Glory, Make It Last Forever, and, of course, Oxygen (which really isn't the best number on the CD). They also performed some classic numbers from older albums, like Picture Perfect, Knocking On Heaven's Door, and Adonai. And guess what they sang for the encore?? That's right -- "Testify to Love"!!!! Hee hee hee, and how appropriate that both Eric and Gavan were at the concert with me! ((Oh yeah. Stanford people who came with me: Eric, Bryan, Megan, Gavan, and Jim. CV people who were also there: Wendy, JoEllen, Chris Park, Amy Huang, Jenny Woo, and Akemi.)) The music tonight was such a blessing, as were all of the testimonies and messages given by the artists. Gosh, I really love all of that music!! Especially Avalon!! AHH! :) :) :)

It was super cool that the concert was in Castro Valley, too! At Neighborhood Church, in fact, where the Jenny Lin Summer Youth Concert is held every summer. Wow. That was a really great concert. Unfortunately, I was not able to get their autographs. :( For two reasons: 1) I forgot to bring my copy of the Oxygen album with me (as opposed to most everyone else who bought one at the concert). 2) Old Tmony people had to get back to campus to sing for a (supposed) birthday party...but that ended up falling through, so it turns out we *could* have stayed. Phooey. :( But oh well, the rest of the night was great enough to make up for it. :)

So: Joy Williams, ZOEgirl, and Avalon. What mature, admirable Christ-followers, using their musical gifts to glorify God. That was an absolutely amazing concert. Wow. Wow! :) :) :)

From All-Campus Praise last night:
"Heaven forbid / That I refuse the pain and miss the grace / That you have for me in this place... / Heaven forbid / That my life be lived for passing things / And lives I touch remain the same... // Heaven forbid / That I miss the truth / Heaven forbid / That I waste my youth / Do not permit the enemy / To have the victory / Over me / Heaven forbid // Heaven forbid / That I be a study of showmanship / And not become your workmanship... / Heaven forbid / That I carelessly sow convenient seeds / And convince myself you're using me... / When I begin to wander away / I beg you, Lord, compel me to stay."

Highlight:: *Heaven forbid that I be a study of showmanship, and not become Your workmanship.*

Amen.

Please join me in prayer.
" 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.'
He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
Come, O house of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the Lord."
- Isaiah 2:3-5

It occurs to me that most of you don't know the names of all the Tmony people I'll be referring to this year. So, Testimony A Cappella 2001-02 consists of the following wonderful individuals:

Sopranos:
Kari Doyle (soph)
Megan Donahue (jr)
Connie Chan (fr)
Kristen Del Rio (fr)

Altos:
Katherine Vu (fr)
Chi-En Chien (fr)
Wenfei Xie (fr)
Tina Wong (soph) <--- This is me. ;)

Tenors:
Steven Ngai (jr) a.k.a. The Director
Gavan Kwan (grad)
Jeff Russell (fr)

Basses:
Eric Lowe (soph) *
Bryan Lung (soph) *
Justin Kao (fr)
Jason Sierra (fr)

* = my boys! (2 of 3) ;) (missing only my Chris Wallis. Chris, wanna join Testimony? ;) Hehehehehe.)

I just had the most wonderful two days!! Last night (Friday), Testimony A Cappella had our overnight retreat at a nearby church in Palo Alto, where we had use of their youth fellowship/recreation room. It was great fun to play foosball and air hockey, but I stayed away from the ping pong table. ;) I also had absolutely no interest in the let's-blow-up-a-lot-of-stuff game, but that's no surprise. After Bryan joined us after his fellowship meeting ended around 9pm, we had some praise and worship time. Two of the freshmen, Jeff and Chi-En, can play the guitar, so that was really awesome. Then, Kari had the idea of having everyone sing what they auditioned with, including the old members. It was a lot of fun to hear people sing by themselves. I think my personal favorite was the self-duet of "A Whole New World." :) :) I'm serious! :) While I myself was singing, I stumbled on the lyrics like 4 times even though it's a praise song that I normally know inside out, but oh well, I just suck like that. =P We never got around to playing Taboo, which would have been a blast I'm sure, but we just didn't have enough time to do everything. We spent the rest of the night playing "Fishbowl," which is a get-to-know-you game where each person comes up with a question or two to put in the "fishbowl" (in this case, a blue cup), and you pick out a question and go around the circle having everyone answer the question. There some really funny light-hearted questions ("What animal does the person sitting on your left look the most like?" ... I was deemed mouse-looking, in case you were wondering) as well as some good serious ones that let us really get to know everyone else in the group a lot better. God really blessed our time together last night, and I know He brought the group of 15 of us together for a reason. I'm feeling great about Testimony. :) :)

Well, while we were busy being blessed by each other's presence, we also managed to stay up too late. ;) (Oh, but it was worth it!) Bryan and I were planning on going on the infamous (Stanford tradition) San Francisco scavenger hunt with our dorm, Twain, but we overslept by one full hour until 7:52am ... 22 minutes after we were supposed to be back at Stanford and leaving for the Caltrain station! Needless to say, we missed the Twain posse. We decided we'd still go up to SF and walk around on our own, on the off-chance we'd run into our scavenger hunt groups somewhere, and if not, we'd just have our own fun until meeting with the rest of Twain at Venture Frogs for dinner. We went on a "Twain-people scavenger hunt," if you will. ;) Unfortunately, we even missed the 10:30am train we were shooting for, due to parking problems, so we didn't leave Palo Alto until 11:30. We arrived in SF shortly after 12:30, and proceeded to walk northward toward Pier 39. Along the way, we ran into a team of current Rinconada residents--including Michelle (my friend from SUMaC 1999)!! That was so random! But very cool :) We pointed them in the right direction towards Fisherman's Wharf. ;) Then, Bryan and I walked through Chinatown and laughed at all the smelly dried seafood and various other weird foods you only find in Chinese streetside stands. We stopped at a small noodle-/soup-type restaurant and had a very authentic yummy Chinese lunch. :) :) It was so funny because the waiter there spoke both Cantonese and Mandarin, so Bryan and I each spoke to the waiter in our respective dialects. The waiter kept switching languages to talk to us two. And then Bryan and I would talk to each other in English. Hehehehe, great fun. ;) Bryan, being the Bottomless Pit Number Two that he is, ordered a second dish after he finished his first, which made for a very long lunch stop. But it's all good because we were able to have a great conversation about all sorts of things. Which wasn't just limited to lunchtime, seeing as we spent the whole day walking around San Francisco together, but there's nothing like sharing a meal with someone who also shares your culture. Oh, the quirks that only a fellow Chinese-American can appreciate . . . ;) After lunch, we walked all the way up to Pier 39, where we briefly ran into my roommate's scavenger hunt team. And Bryan and I had fun in the magnet store for awhile. Hee hee hee. Magnets, magnets, everywhere! We also saw many other Stanford groups walking around consulting their lists, which was amusing. Then, we walked ALL the way back down to the restaurant to meet up with the rest of the Twainites for dinner. And then we walked ALL the way back to the Caltrain station (with a quick stop at Old Navy to add something non-blue to Bryan's wardrobe). Actually, correction: after stopping at Old Navy, we JOGGED all the way back to the Caltrain station. This was interesting because I was not wearing the appropriate shoes for such an activity. Can we say: "Slap-slap-slap-slap!" (sound of Tina's canvas shoes on the pavement). And then: "pant-pant-pant-pant" (sound of Tina getting tired trying to keep up with Bryan). Anyway, we were on foot going EVERYWHERE today! Boy we're gonna be sore tomorrow. But we did it! Go us!! :)

Alright. 'Tis time to sleep right now. More to come later.
Let's end with some interesting quotes from the Tmony retreat:

"Get ready for HERD-TO-HERD combat????" - Kari
"I have no legs!! I have no legs!!" - Tina
"But you express your happiness *vertically*!" - Tina to Eric
"I think Bryan Lung is the most attractive member of Testimony." - Kari ... "OW!" - Bryan
"But that's ANTI-CLOCKWISE!" - Jeff
"Bryan, we can both fit in that sleeping bag, can't we? Especially now that you've taken your pants off." - Kari

(hahahaha)

HAPPY 19th BIRTHDAY MEGGY!!!!!!!! :) :) :)
*i love you!* :o)

(I wish I knew how to make font bigger on this thing!! hmph!)

*oooooooooohhhhhhh*
Orchestra is sooooooooo cool this year!!!!!!! Our winds & brass are incredible AND we have FOURTEEN CELLOS! (celli, yeah yeah, that never sounds right. =P) Can you believe that?!??!!
We just read through the entire Mahler Symphony No. 5!
When we get this down--and I know we will--it is going to be SO AWESOME!!!!!

teehehehehe and guess what else
We're playing our traditional Halloween concert on Halloween night!!
You gotta come--Stanford tradition!!!
EVERYONE dresses up--including US! And the winner of the costume contest gets to conduct the SSO for our last piece!!!!! hehehehehehehe. ;)
COME COME COME! Okay so I know that's like a month away so I'll do my shameless plugs later. ;)

I AM SO PSYCHED!! See what orchestra does to me??? (Most of you already know this.) :) :) :)

We just had our first official Testimony meeting of the year. =D We didn't actually get around to singing, but it was a wonderful time of fellowship and getting to know the new freshmen. (I'm the only new non-freshman member.) We played an icebreaker game and one round of Mafia--hehehehehe. I TOTALLY sniffed out Bryan and Eric, who were 2 of the 4 Mafia!! Sorry boys, I know you two too well. That's what you get for being my boys. ;o) Hehehe that was SO GOOD! I don't care if I was beat out at the end--that was so worth it! hahahahaha. Okay, enough of that. We went over our mission and purpose as a group, talked about expectations for the upcoming year, and tried really hard to figure out times for rehearsal that all 15 of us could make it to. That was tough but I think we came to a mediocre solution for the quarter. (If you ever want to see a random pattern of line segments, go see Steve . . .) I'm so excited about being in Testimony!! :) :) :)

"Wandering the dark
Lost in the confusion
I thought I was losing my mind for sure
I searched with all my heart
Looking for direction
Something to believe in
And there You were
And You were reaching down to me
You were everything I needed
I'm so glad You found me, Lord

I smile when I think about
The way You've turned my life around
I smile when I think about
The happiness in You I've found
I'm so amazed at what Your love has done
And when I think the best is yet to come
I smile!"

- Russ Lee, "I Smile"

This was in one of my friend's profiles:

"I asked God to send me his friends...He sent you.
I asked God to take away my pain. God said, No. It is not for me to take away, but for you to give it up.
I asked God to make my blemishes disappear. God said, No. Your spirit is whole, your body is only temporary.
I asked God to grant me patience. God said, No. Patience is a by-product of tribulations; it isn't granted, it is earned.
I asked God to give me happiness. God said, No. I give you blessings. Happiness is up to you.
I asked God to spare me pain. God said, No. Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me.
I asked God to make my spirit grow. God said, No. You must grow on your own, but I will prune you to make you fruitful.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. God said, No. I will give you life so that you may enjoy all things.
I asked God to help me LOVE others as much as He loves me. God said...Ahh..., finally! You have the idea."

:o)

Fall Quarter 2001:
MWF 9:00-9:50 - Physics 51: Light and Heat
MWF 10:00-10:50 - Chemistry 131: Organic Polyfunctional Compounds (auditing this one)
MTWThF 11:00-11:50 - Biology 41: Genetics, Biochemistry, & Molecular Biology (YAYAYAYAY!!! hehe)
TTh 8:45-9:50 - Social Dances of North America I (hee hee fun!)
TTh 1:15-2:30 - Engineering 25: Introduction to Biotechnology

NO MORE ENGLISH FOR TINA!!!!!!! EVER!! weeeeeeeeee ;)

I DISLIKE STUFFY NOSES AND WEIRD PRESSURE-Y EARS AND IRRITATED THROATS.

Can I have normal functionality back now? Pretty please?
My voice would be nice too.

blah =P

AVALON is coming to CASTRO VALLEY!!! :) :) :)
*also with ZOEgirl and Joy Williams!*
Monday, October 8, 2001, 7:00PM @ Neighborhood Church

A group of my Stanford friends (Testimony + SSO) are coming back with me to go to the concert!! And Wendy is going too!! Anyone else want to join us?? The tickets are $21, available at Western Christian Bookstore in Hayward (or via my mommy, if you tell me early enough).

I'm sooooo excited!!!!!!!! :)

From one of my favorite songs in their latest album:
"It's unbelievable all the things that You do
It's unexplainable how Your love pulls me through
I can't question the one thing I've found to be true
It's undeniably You."

Did I already say that I'm sooooo excited???!!! :) :) :)

Okay, so it's been 4 months since I really blogged. Might as well start again today... :)

Way, way, WAY too much has happened for me to catch up. So, instead, I am going to skip it all completely, unless I have to refer to it in a future blog. If you're a close friend of mine, you probably already know about most of the stuff that happened at the end of last year and during the summer. I might make a brief list for the rest of you ... maybe. ;) If I don't get around to it, well, as one of my boys would put it: "Sucks for you. =P " Hee hee. ;)

So. Guess what. I have news! Two pieces of news, in fact. Here we go:

1) I made it into Testimony A Cappella!!!!! :) :) :) I can't believe it! It hasn't quite sunk in yet. Auditions were nerve-wracking. But, they're over, and now I'm one of the four altos. Yes, after all these years being an instrumental musician, I'm going to try my hand (err...my voice) at this singing thing. :) I'm excited!! They rolled out us new members at 7:30-ish this morning. Oy... :)

2) I moved up 3 stands in the Stanford Symphony Orchestra!!!!! :) :) :) Despite only a decent audition in comparison to how my piece went while I was practicing in my room (don't you hate how that happens?!), I am now no longer last stand of SSO. :) :) :) WEEE! I am SO excited!!

Okay. That is all for this entry. Have to ease into it, you know. ;) Let's see how long I actually keep doing this. This should be interesting. Well, so long for now. :)

okay, so my original weblog site was refusing to work properly so i had to cancel my account and restart another one. so i am cutting & pasting all my old posts below. i KNOW i haven't posted in forever. so much has happened since...[checking last post date]...may 27. even before then, since i kept saying i'd post later. ah well, i may or may not get around to writing about it. we'll see. IM me if you really want to know what's going on in my life. :)


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[5/27/2001 1:21:44 PM | Tina Wong]
KRISTIN & ANUPA ARE COMING TO VISIT ME & SPEND THE NIGHT TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D


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[5/26/2001 2:59:30 PM | Tina Wong]
ooh! the blogger site is working again!! yes, i know i could've still posted while the server was down, but i guess i had less incentive to do that. now i have the problem of backlogged stuffage that's happened. oh well. i can't write much right now because... I AM HOME RIGHT NOW!! =D i came home yesterday to see the cvhs concerto concert. the soloists were amazing, of course!!! they included: carol & christi on the bach double violin concerto; justina on the stamitz viola concerto; ben on the glazounov saxophone concerto; marian on the mendelssohn piano concerto (hehe, david's piece!! she was AMAZING); everett on the beethoven piano concerto; teresa on this super-cool piece called "butterfly lovers" that has this neat-o story attached to it; and anthony (closing piece, of course) on the tchaikovsky violin concerto...WOW. he's been amazing his whole life, but that was sooo good. wow. anyway, it was wonderful wonderful wonderful to see everyone again!! it was SO weird not being up on stage though. first time in 5 years i was in the audience. anyhow, i'll tell you all about the afterwards hanging-out & such later. time to get ready for the jenny lin friendship court dedication at 4pm. then, i'm off to san francisco to meet up with adam & kevin & sharon & i'll finally get to meet adam's friend kim from home (pennsylvania)!!! woohoo! this is if i can get my act together & figure out how to get over there. thank goodness for BART. BART is one of the coolest things ever. okay, ta ta for now.


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[5/23/2001 4:42:57 PM | Tina Wong]
chris bleached his hair! he looks soo good blonde! if you know him, barrage him with a campaign to keep it blonde & not dye it blue!!!


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[5/22/2001 12:51:58 PM | Tina Wong]
bah. i'm not good at this blogging thing. i always say, "i should post about such-and-such" but then, "i don't have time to write a good post" and then it all piles up and there's more to write about and even less time to write about it. oh well. so you'll get rather sporadic snapshots of my life.

let's see. i shall make a list of the news of late (in no particular order, mind you):
1. i talked to anupa yesterday, finally!! i really miss you, girlie! can't wait to see you & k on sunday :o)
2. after many many many ups & downs with my academic programming, this is the final verdict (praying my petition to add/drop goes through): i am dropping chem 35. i am adding music 19 (cv people, yes, this is a ridiculous class for me (intro to music theory, ha ha ha) but hey it keeps me above 12 units to stay full-time enrolled and it even fulfills GER 3a: humanities & social sciences. if you know me, you know that's a MAJOR selling point right there!!). i am taking chem 35 this summer at stanford and it doesn't make me ineligible for sophomore college!!! i am so excited about this seminar; i got accepted into my first choice class, taught by an important professor in the school of engineering! now, i would like things to FREEZE right where they are right now. if one more thing goes wrong with this again, i am going to cry.
3. i like kimmie's theory on boys: "boys suck eventually. all boys do, it's only a matter of time." (uh, i can't remember exactly how you said it, please correct/remind me!)
4. RINC-A-DELT WAS AWESOME!! soo much fun! everything worked out as planned (go brannon!!) and there was a pretty good turnout. we had lots of free food (hot dogs, pizza, popcorn, sno cones, fresh choice salad, sodas) and games (pedastal jousting, sumo wrestling, & bungee run!!) and SPRINKLERS! weeeee that was fun. i got to work the sno cone machine! la la la. such a beautiful sunny day outside. i had an ice war with chris. i got some down the back of his shirt, tee hee. but then he threw some down the front of my swimsuit top. that was...cold. but then i threw some more at him so it's all good. bryan is also a punk. he drenched me with the sprinkler by picking it up and pointing it at me. wait, chris did that too. see how kim's theory on boys is working out...?
5. should i consider lab assistant/internship jobs out here in the south bay & fight the dumbarton bridge commute traffic?
6. MEGGY IS THE NEWS EDITOR OF UCSD'S NEWPAPER NEXT YEAR!!!!!! ISN'T SHE COOL?? CONGRATS AGAIN MEGGY!!!!!
7. our room's chair has apparently become jessica's guest bed. her guests always sleep in our chair. we now have an owen in the room. when we don't have an owen, we have a billy in our room. billy is weird: he keeps asking me to count to ten in mandarin. i don't speak mandarin really at all, but i can say some stuff, including counting to ten. he's like obsessed with it. bryan, beware, i may send him your way... :)
8. i have an ihum paper due this thursday. i also have a math midterm this thursday. not so much fun...
9. CONCERTO CONCERT IS THIS FRIDAY!! i get to go home to castro valley to see it!!! i'm so excited to see marian & carol & christi & teresa & ben & everyone else do their solo pieces! but i will be sad that i'm not on stage with them anymore :*( i miss cv orchestra!
10. watched jurassic park on saturday night, at eric's suggestion. i am in love with john williams!! okay, not really, but he is like the coolest man ever to grace the music profession! the jurassic park soundtrack is SO GOOD. i am in love with his music, at the very least. ahh. music makes me happy. :o)
11. i hate organic chemistry.
12. i wish we were on the semester system. quarters suck. a lot.
13. i am really bummed that i am going to miss the Testimony Christian A Cappella spring show this friday. :*( i would never forgive myself for missing the concerto concert, though. eric, bryan, & kari, i'm sorry. :*(
14. hmm. how about a plug? i am officially plugging the testimony spring show. stanfordites, GO! it will be on friday, may 25, 9:00pm in the manzanita dining hall.
15. this is getting to be a very long list.
16. i am going to math class soon. my math professor sucks. if you are a stanford student, never ever take a class from professor daniel bump. yes, his last name is bump. here's something more amusing: he looks like chewbacca (from star wars), and his voice sounds like kermit the frog. i am dead serious.


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[5/19/2001 12:59:15 AM | Tina Wong]
wow. a lot of stuff has happened since i last posted here. let's see. billy is not attacking my head anymore. that's good. it's also good that he's not attacking me with paintballs anymore. that was interesting--he broke a paintball in his hands and proceeded to grab me by the arms and smear bright pink paint all over me (this was on tuesday). and it's also good that he and chris aren't wreaking havok together. (hence my AIM profile message: "BILLY CHAE AND CHRISTOPHER DAVID WALLIS, you are NOT going to buy mice to get Rinc to bet on them for a race, and you are DEFINITELY NOT going to wrap me in bubble wrap and roll me down The Dish!!!!!!!!") chris is my friend who lives on the third floor in my dorm. (GO RINC!!! (rinc is short for rinconada, the COOLEST DORM EVER!! ah...branner sucks!! hehe.)) so, actually...billy is gone now. :( i miss him. for those of you who don't know billy, he's not actually a stanford student--he's a friend of a friend of mine in my dorm who's from wash.d.c., and he was crashing in our room while here visiting her (her being jessica). more specifically, he was crashing in The Chair, which is the La-Z-boy recliner my roommate's uncle donated to our room. billy is quite a character. and an amazing person. he's in SF now with his sister who's in town. after that, he's going to drive to chicago to join a monastery.

what else. took my chem midterm. it was horrid. i did horribly. dealing with the aftermath now. too complicated to post about it. maybe later when it's over.

the boat dance was last night! it was great! :) it was rather cold up top and rather hot & stuffy down on the dance floor level, but other than that, it was good. the bay is soo pretty at night! and the golden gate bridge...ahh. :) theo went! he doesn't live in a wilbur all-frosh dorm (which was who the boat dance was organized by), but he went with one of my friends from fellowship who lives in the dorm next door. i went with my friend eric. :) (for those of you who haven't heard it yet, ask me to tell you the cute origami boat story!) i was very excited about the boat part of it because i missed both cvhs junior prom & the sober grad night. get this: we had to sail across the bay to somewhere near fisherman's wharf (we left from alameda--how WEIRD is that?!!?) to pick up the DJ & his equipment!! soo funny. i was very amused. anyway, we spent a lot of time up on the deck, because it was nice out & also one of my friends was fighting off seasickness.

OH MY GOSH!!! BILLY JUST WALKED IN THE DOOR!!!!!! GOODNESS, he disappears and reappears like a little elf! yahhhhh ... gotta deal with the nomadic space monkey. more later.


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[5/17/2001 2:41:50 PM | Tina Wong]
BILLY IS ATTACKING MY HEAD!!


[5/17/2001 5:51:16 AM | Tina Wong]
congratulations!
today is your day.
you're off to Great Places!
you're off and away!

you have brains in your head.
you have feet in your shoes.
you can steer yourself
any direction you choose.

...
oh, the places you'll go!

you won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.
you'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
wherever you fly, you'll be best of the best.
wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

except when you don't.
because, sometimes, you won't.

i'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

you can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
and your gang will fly on.
you'll be left in a Lurch.

you'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
and the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

and when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

...
all alone!
whether you like it or not,
alone will something
you'll be quite a lot.

and when you're alone, there's a very good chance
you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
there are some, down the road, between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.

but on you will go
though the weather be foul.
on you will go
though your enemies prowl.
on you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl.
onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

on and on you will hike.
and i know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

you'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
you'll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
so be sure when you step.
step with care and great tact
as remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
and never mix up your right foot with your left.

- dr. seuss


[5/17/2001 5:32:55 AM | Tina Wong]
why am i up? billy's cell phone rang. and rang and rang. now i'm not nearly as sleepy as i was when chris was talking to other people on my screenname (yes, beware, he's made some sort of a habit of that in the last two days). tonight was quite exhausting. the ochem midterm was every bit as horrible as i expected, but i really don't want to talk about it. i'll receive the blow soon enough when we get our exams back friday morning. so, got back from the midterm, received aim messages from four separate people wishing me good luck & calling me "hon"...that was uncanny. ah, yes, went to the hug workshop. like my previous post said, that was...interesting...heh. at least i got some good laughs out of it. we learned all about "sharing packets" (still not quite clear on what "packets" are) and a good dozen kinds of hugs. i think i get a certificate. that should be amusing; i will recite what exactly it says when dan gets them photocopied.

in other news, i got a very pleasant surprise earlier this evening! apparently while i was away at dinner, kari came by and left me a care package in my room with an encouraging card. she is such a sweetheart. the care package included "oh, the places you'll go!" by dr. seuss. chris read it out loud to me tonight (right before i proceeded to conk out). very touching, and so true. i'll post a portion of it soon.

after house meeting, i worked on our ihum presentation with corynne and audrey that we're doing tomorrow on The Taming of The Shrew. ughhghhhg...brought back unpleasant memories of adv. soph. english with mrs. puppione. not that i don't like the book; it's actually my favorite thing we've read all year in ihum. it's just...mrs. p...ugh. that woman scarred me for life. honestly. (i hope she never reads this.) for those of my cv buds who were in the class with me, you know what i mean. for those of you who weren't, ask me if you're interested in what probably caused all of my anti-fuzziness. anyway, the three of us watched "ten things i hate about you" because, well, duh, it's based on taming of the shrew. that movie is great! there are some awesome scenes in there. we're going to show clips of it during section tomorrow, and compare different gender roles/values of shakespeare's time & now. our theme is "gender and genre," after all. oh yes - all you non-stanfordites are probably wondering what ihum is. ihum is short for "intro to the humanities" which is a course (offering a number of themes) that everyone has to take all three quarters of their freshman year. it's pretty miserable for me, because as you know, i hate english. yuck yuck yuck. (eric is weird. he likes ihum.) anyway, i just keep telling myself that it's almost over. but now at least you know what i mean when my away message says "IHUM IS EVIL." (yes, eric, it is.)


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[5/16/2001 10:07:52 PM | Tina Wong]
we just had a hug workshop in the rinc lounge. that was . . . interesting . . . :)


[5/16/2001 9:06:32 PM | Tina Wong]
i think that this ochem midterm managed to top the last ochem midterm for the worst exam i have ever taken. WHY CAN'T I GET THIS STUPID MATERIAL!!!!


[5/16/2001 6:27:40 PM | Tina Wong]
kari . . . thank you.


[5/16/2001 6:24:43 PM | Tina Wong]
"Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
- Hebrews 12:1-2

i'm trying. so hard.


[5/16/2001 4:29:57 PM | Tina Wong]
my ihum TF wants to meet about our group's discussion faciliation tomorrow. as if i have half an hour to spare. well, off i go to meet her at 4:45. smile!

the only thing stopping me from withdrawing from chem35 at this point is that i am the recipient of a scholarship that requires full-time enrollment, and if i drop now i'll only have 11 units.

watch me make my freshman year an utter failure. very thoroughly, i'm sure.


[5/16/2001 4:22:46 PM | Tina Wong]
i biked over to turn in my only-half-finished math problem set, but there was a note on my prof's door saying office hours were canceled and he's accepting hw until 1:15pm tomorrow.

i think that shall be the only positive event of my day.


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[5/15/2001 12:56:18 PM | Tina Wong]
random thoughts about this blogger thing:

1. "tiny but powerful" is what it says on the piglet mug that wendy got me for graduation. i am not feeling very powerful right now, but it was the best title i could come up with because i used to have that in my profile and therefore that makes it tina-esque.
2. BLUE! the top part is BLUE! BLUE IS GOOD! (if you have seen my dorm room, you know entirely where else this sentiment is manifested.)
3. i am not a cs student. if i were maybe i could change the appearance of certain things on here but i can't, so basically this is sort of a text only tina-brain-spillage. i wish i at least knew how to indent stuff ... oh well. matt always said i could teach myself to program really easily. perhaps i will try over the summer.
4. um ... that's it.


[5/15/2001 12:38:31 PM | Tina Wong]
okay. i have decided that i will try this blogger thing for real. be warned, however, i will most likely be very random and very confusing to those of you who haven't been keeping in touch with me lately (and probably even for those of you who have, which i'm sure is painfully obvious). by the way i am also very random with my capitalization. Sometimes I capitalize and sometimes i do not. hmm. want to hear me complain about my week? yes, i'm sure you do. here is what's going on in the oh-so-fun life of tina:

tuesday:
chem35 midterm review, 8pm <---- i am SO going to bomb this tomorrow.
orchestra rehearsal, 7:15-9:45 which i am skipping

wednesday:
math52 problem set due, 4pm
ihum video showing of "kiss me petruchio", 6pm <---- memories of adv. soph. english ... mrs. puppione, mrs. poopy, whatever ... :: GAG :: SHUDDER ::
chem35 MIDTERM, 7pm, worth a frightening 40% of my grade, yes, i'm serious.

thursday:
ihum presentation on The Taming of The Shrew, 3:15pm

at least after all that comes the fun part of my week!:

thursday:
wilbur all-frosh Boat Dance! 9pm-12am (around the sf bay! this will be cool since i missed cvhs junior prom AND sober grad night ... :( )

friday:
frosh fiesta, 5:15-8pm - free mexican food on wilbur field!
Big Dance ... kari is in the process of trying to convince me to go ... i think i will be too tired ...

saturday:
RINC-A-DELT, wilbur field, 1-5pm - EVERYONE COME!!! lots of games and free food!!!

sunday:
first baptism class at The River, 1-3pm

okay. i have realized that probably the majority of you only really understand what half of all that stuff is that i just told you about. elaborations/explanations will come later (esp. for my cv pals) when i am taking another study break to maintain my sanity.

time for more ochem. i really hate ochem.

p.s. to my girlies - yes, i will write another group email soon, too. i miss you all. *stars*xoxo*


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[5/14/2001 10:54:59 PM | Tina Wong]
Hmm. This test trial of blogger was inspired by my friend Bryan. Well, more accurately, the inspiration occurred because my friend Debora also uses blogger, and when more than one person uses something then that usually signals some stamp of validity to me. I dunno, I'm weird. Anyway, this may or may not continue to exist. I'm just trying it.

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