Engineer-in-Training

pusheen: PRIZE PACK INCLUDES: 1. Your choice of any...

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:12:23 -0800

PRIZE PACK INCLUDES:

1. Your choice of any one available Pusheen jewelry.

2. Your choice of any one available Pusheen t-shirt.

3. A brand new 3” Pusheen iron on patch.

HOW TO ENTER:

like and/or reblog this post (both count as entries).

RULES:

- Anyone can enter! These items can be shipped world wide.

- Don’t reblog more than once.

One lucky winner will be randomly chosen on Saturday the 28th!

Domo-kun felt case and magnets!

Sun, 24 Oct 2010 17:16:10 -0700

Yay just finished the Domo-dun felt iPod case:

And here’s the magnets I made with Elisha yeterday:

Hehe I wanna make more stuff. :D

Pokemon Cross-Stitch! And felt too.

Sun, 10 Oct 2010 22:34:00 -0700

I finished these awhile back, but didn’t have a chance to iron them until tonight:

Since cross-stitch takes so long to do, my next project would probably be around Christmas-time, when I actually have enough time.

Last Friday, on my way out of Davis Hall, I found a really cute Android felt cell phone/mp3 player case on the ground:

After looking at the craftsmanship, I felt really inspired to make stuff out of felt! I want to make something like this, except with a Domo-kun theme (the felt colors I do have at the moment would be perfect for this character). After doing a Google search for felt patterns and appliqués, I actually saw that this very case was selling on Etsy for $18. After reverse-engineering this case (hah), I’ll put it up on the lost+found section of Craigslist. Maybe the owner will happen to see the posting. I’m sure they’d want it back.

Concert Etiquette

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 20:54:41 -0700

Heh I haven’t posted in a while. I guess the urge comes when I have to do other things. Anyways, tomorrow night my favorite band EVAR is playing at the Greek Theater—- ARCADE FIRE!!! I am soooo excited. It is going to be AWESOME.

Having been to about 15 concerts (I lost count), I feel like I’ve been to enough concerts to know how it is and how it should be. This list of concert etiquette is mostly inspired by this girl in front of me at the Vampire Weekend concert who acted like a complete douche and crazed groupie. The list has no specific order; I’ll write it as the rules come to me.

FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE—- those who are at the front should deserve to be in front, meaning that they were first in line. Those coming later should not expect to barge their way through the throng of people in front of them and ruin said throng’s view that they waited in line so long for. Plus, those who do come early come because they want to avoid the douche-y girl type of person hogging the front. That is why I’ll be at the Greek early tomorrow in line.
DON’T COMPLAIN ABOUT HOW CRAMPED IT IS AT THE FRONT—- it’s just the way it is. Many people wanting to get as close as possible=high human packing density. If you can’t handle the front, get out.
IF YOU HAVE LONG/POUFY HAIR, TIE IT BACK— I’m partially guilty of not following this, but I try not to whip my hair around as to get it in the person in back of me’s face. It’s incredibly inconsiderate and gross to have someone’s hair in your face.
STOP SMOKING—- no one wants your second-hand pot smoke and no one wants to be around you when you’re high.
DON’T MAKE OUT DURING THE CONCERT—- it’s awkward and distracting to others and takes away from the immersive (I think I just made up that word) experience of the concert.
DON’T WEAR ITCHY OR FUZZY CLOTHING— it’s going to be hot during the concert, and it sucks to be the one whose sweaty sweater is being rubbed against.
DON’T PULL YOUR FRIENDS UP CLOSER—- I believe this is a corollary to the first rule. It’s not fair to other concertgoers. The only exception is if you are saving them a spot IN LINE BEFORE SAID CONCERT.
TALL PEOPLE, DON’T MOVE AROUND SO MUCH— your head is in the way.
DO SING ALONG— that’s what the concert experience is all about: interacting with the band.
HAVE FUN!— you paid a ton of money to see your favorite band. Have fun, enjoy the opening band(s). Try not to think of them as another hour you have to wait before seeing your band play.

Ten is a nice round number, so I’ll stop there. Another thing, if crazy, screaming high school girls aren’t your thing, think twice before considering going to concerts where the band’s fanbase might contain such characters. I learned my lesson. I’m sticking to bands with a more mature sound (ie ARCADE FIRE YEAHHHHH).

Home Sweet Home

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:50:08 -0700

Yay I’m back to the Bay Area, home of the freshest fog and lovely cold. The plane ride back was okay; I didn’t get any headaches on either of the descents (into Phoenix, where I had a layover, and SF). Approaching the Bay Area, the lights blanketing the land were so pretty. I believe we passed the LA area on the way there because the land below looked like it was on fire or something, from all the lights.

I’m almost done unpacking. For a couple days I’ve been busy running errands with my mom all day so my room was looking like a disaster zone/pre-hoarder-esque nightmare. Now it’s starting to look neat again. We basically hit the ground running when I got home. None of this sitting around and catching up stuff. It was like I never left at all.

Packing was a little stressful last Friday and Saturday. I had to cram about 2.5 boxes worth of stuff into 2 boxes. I came to Austin with 4, since my mom flew with me, but I was able to send some stuff back with a friend who was going back to the Bay Area for a few days. It was a good thing I did that. Even though I had less stuff, I had to stuff those remaining boxes within an inch of their lives and it took a roll of tape to secure them shut. The boxes themselves didn’t close properly so you could see some of my stuff through the crack haha. I was glad they didn’t explode during transit.

Thursday night, I framed the cross-stitch projects I made for my friends and my mom and I wrapped them in brown paper and yarn, ala “The Sound of Music“‘s ‘My Favorite Things’— (‘Brown paper packages tied up with string… these are a few of my favorite things’):

Friday night before Bible Study, I had dinner with all the sisters and staff to celebrate my friends Tina and Rosa’s birthday as well as a farewell for me. I gave my presents to Tina and Rosa, who absolutely loved them:

We had dinner at this sushi place in a small shopping center next to campus and the food was pretty good. I had the Longhorn Roll, which is crab meat, avacado, and cream cheese wrapped in seaweed and rice and deep fried. Mmmm… deep fried. Hehe.

I’m going to miss all the friends I made in Austin. I had a great time hanging out with them:

When I got back home, I gave my mom her present. Here it is all finished and framed:

Haha my mom was so funny when she saw it. She was fake crying and all like, “Greg, why don’t you give me things like this?” And a strange mental picture of my brother doing cross-stitch popped up in my mind. Heh.

Internship: Done!

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:26:55 -0700

Whew I’m glad I’m done with my presentation, turned in my final paper, and completed the internship! I was so nervous for my presentation, but I received two complements (one from another intern, and the other from a grad student) saying that I had the best presentation, I wasn’t reading off the slides, good visuals, and confident manner. I was surprised because I’m TERRIBLE at public speaking. It gives me so much anxiety if I have to make a speech or a presentation. But I’m glad I did really well. I think I improved a lot since the first presentation I had to give this summer, which was TERRIBLE. The second one was better, but I still had to look at my slides for what to say, and this time I didn’t have anything written on the slides, just icons that represented each point I had to make. Yay for constant improvement! And yay for being done with the internship! I can put this on my resume now haha.

Ok enough self-congratulatory crap. Here’s a pic of me and the interns:

And here is the “diploma” I got for finishing the internship haha. They even included the little accent mark above the ‘e’ in my name:

Pretty legit, huh? Yesterday, I went to a meeting with the other interns about grad school, and some of the other grad students and the professor in charge of my internship program were trying to sell the school to get us to come here for grad school. I like how they’re a good program and very well-endowed, but it’s really too far away from home and the weather’s terrible. One plus side is that my church has a branch here and that I really enjoyed attending this summer. I’ll apply, but I don’t expect to come here.

Now to pack, clean, and do a list of other stuff before I hop on a plane for San Francisco. O Bay Area, how I have missed thee and thy heavenly weather! (I won’t be complaining about the weather too much now that I’ve experienced the Texas heat!)

Funday

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:07:55 -0700

Still on a cross-stitch frenzy. Here’s an update on my progress:

I’m done with Totoro for Rosa.

I started on Pooh yesterday for Tina and now I’m coloring him in. I’m pretty sure I’ll be done with everything by Friday (their birthdays). I’ll be needing to go get some frames to display them.

Last weekend I had a lot of fun hanging out with friends. After Bible Study on Friday, the group went to the gym to play volleyball (I watched; I’m staunchly opposed to playing volleyball) and afterwards we went to get some fro-yo (mmm mango-flavored fro-yo). I slept over at Rosa and Tina’s place.

The next morning, I woke up early (there’s a lot of light in their apartment) and went with Tina to Zilker Botanical Gardens for her class project to observe dragonfly reactions. We didn’t see any, but we got eaten by mosquitoes in the process. :((( Nonetheless, the park is very pretty:

It has a nice Japanese-garden feel to it.

Afterwards, we went back to the apartment and waited for everybody else to wake up and get ready to start the day.

The night before, my friends wanted to show me around Austin since it was my last weekend in Texas. Tina drafted a full-day schedule of places and restaurants to visit. Funny how the only thing to do here is eat, which is completely fine with me.

We first went to Mellow Mushrooms on Guadalupe, across the street from campus for pizza. Mmm pizza… Their decor is pretty eclectic, which exemplifies their “Keep Austin Weird” slogan:

Next we walked up the street to Torchy’s Tacos to grab some tacos and queso. The place was packed, but we received our food fairly quickly.

We then retreated back to the apartment to wait for Cindy to come over, since she’s crashing at Tina and Rosa’s since she’s in between leases. We then drove over to Whole Foods downtown. This Whole Foods is special, since Whole Foods HQ is located in Austin. We walked around the store and ate free samples and got some yummy chai gelato. Ooo soo good.

Next we went to South Congress, which has a stretch of interesting stores and food trailers along its length. They have a really big costume shop where they even sell mascot costumes like Pikachu or Hello Kitty.

Afterwards, we came back to the apartment for naptime.

Dinner was at Asia Cafe. The food was really good. It was interesting how the place looked like a normal Chinese restaurant, but it’s self-service.

We then stopped by Randall’s (owned by Safeway) and got flowers for Lillian, one of our church leaders, since she wasn’t feeling well. We stopped by her place to hang out for about an hour, then we went to Mozart’s, a cafe along the lake. We ordered a strawberry tres leche, which was really good.

Here’s a picture of us at the lake:

From left: Mamie, Jennifer, Rosa, Tina, Me, and Cindy.

By then it was around midnight and we were really tired, so we didn’t end up walking around campus and taking pictures.

Overall, it was a really fun, busy Taste of Austin tour. It was really nice of my friends to take me out this last weekend in Texas.

Cross-stitch Bonanza!

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:47:34 -0700

I think that’s the first time I used the word “bonanza”.

Yesterday I finished my 15-page HSR paper! To celebrate, I took the day off today to continue my cross-stitch adventure. A few days ago I had dinner with some friends at Rosa and Tina’s and afterwards we went to Hobby Lobby to get crafting stuff. I bought some Aida cloth, a hoop, and some embroidery floss to make something for my mom:

I still need to iron it and find a frame or something to display it. I’m going to give it to my mom when I get home next week.

I went to Joann today to get more embroidery thread and I started another project to give to my friend Rosa for her birthday in one week. She loves Totoro, so I decided to cross-stitch one for her:

I’m going to do another cross-stitch project for Tina, since it’s also her birthday (Rosa and Tina are twin sisters). Hopefully I can finish in time for their birthdays.

No more flashcards

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 19:33:19 -0700

Yay I’m done with taking the GRE! I did ok; I got a 780 in math and 670 in verbal. I don’t know about the essay yet. I’m really glad that the essay prompts weren’t so difficult to write about. But I’m most happy about not having to memorize vocabulary anymore.

Taking the bus on weekends is pretty rough. I had to wait an hour and a half to catch the right buses to go home. I passed the time by going to Toy Joy, the local toy store. That place is probably the most interesting store close to campus. It would definitely fit in at Berkeley because of the local/eclectic feel. They have all kinds of toys, ranging from magic tricks to pirate stuff to Sanrio/Japanese merch. It’s pretty weird/ironic that the stores that college students don’t actually need (ie toy stores, mattress stores, military surplus shop) are the ones close to campus and places like bookstores and cafes are few and far between. Silly Austin.

2 more weeks!

Wednesday

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:34:55 -0700

Woohoo 2.5 more weeks until I go home! I can’t wait to wear pants again hehe. I plan to give my family 10-minute hugs (to make up for lost time) when I get back. :)

The GRE is coming up fast; I’m taking it this Saturday. I’m so bad; I haven’t done practice tests in several weeks and haven’t even studied the essay portion. I don’t have any drive to study for the test, aside from studying vocabulary on the bus rides to and from work. I’m only taking this test once, so I guess I should study and get it right the first time. I need a kick in the pants hehe.

Current progress on HSR paper: 8.2 pages out of 15. I hate how it has to be single-spaced, or else I would have been done by now doing it double. Good thing for pictures. If worse comes to worse I’ll just sprinkle some more pictures and graphs and add more spaces between them and subsequent paragraphs. And if worst comes to worst, I’ll just turn in what I have. I’ll still get paid, but it’ll be iffy on whether I can get a letter of rec from my supervisor. I’ll just do the 15. I need the letter of rec for grad school. Hopefully she counts as faculty. So far I’m on track with my one page per day quota to reach 15 by the time the program is done.

Houston, We (Don't) Have a Problem

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 08:00:20 -0700

Heh I haven’t made a post in about a week. I finally have a little bit more motivation to work on my HSR paper (it’s due in 3 weeks) so I’ve been at work for longer hours more willingly. Last week I had my second presentation, and I did okay. I presented to my supervisor the day before and she was really impressed with my work. I was like, “REALLLLLYY???”, only in my head though. I was glad she liked what I was doing because I was scared that she would think I wasn’t doing enough (since I feel that way; I’m pretty lazy at work and half the time I’m chatting with Elisha). That was the first time I felt good about my work. I guess I just needed some encouragement.

Thursday after work my friend Mamie picked me up and we went to Rosa and Tina’s apartment. Mamie didn’t sleep at all the night before so she ended up sleeping in Tina’s bed while Rosa and Tina hung out with me. We went to Urban Outfitters to look at things (ironic because I’ve never been to the Berkeley one) and then we went to Momoko’s for some boba. Momoko’s is like a hidden gem in the UT Austin area. In addition to boba, they sell really cute Sanrio and Domo stuff. They also have a whole bunch of stuffed Totoros. Too bad it’s so expensive. The weather is so crazy here. One minute it’s clear and sunny, the next a little sprinkling, and the next a torrential rain. On the way back to their apartment, we got caught in the storm and got soaking wet.

Friday was the Houston On-the-Road Bible Study! I went to work early, worked on my essay for a couple hours, then hopped on the bus to grab some lunch before we had to go. I went to Burger Tex and got their famous bulgogi (Korean beef slices with yummy spices and seasonings) burger and fries. The burger was delicious and the fries had this special batter that made it extra crunchy and moist at the same time. I recommend this place and I’m sorry to see there isn’t one at Berkeley.

The ride to Houston was about 3 hours. We arrived at around 4 pm. When we got there, we did set-up and then went to dinner. Dinner was at this Chinese place called “Star Ice & Teriyaki.” Pretty random name. The food was cheap and delicious, though. In my opinion that is the best combination. Next we had Bible study, played some games, and went to sleep. I had major trouble falling asleep due to the humidity even inside the hotel room. Houston is super humid; way more humid than Austin or Dallas.

The next day, we went to see the Battleship Texas and the San Jacinto monument. The monument is the largest obelisk in the world. It’s 15 feet higher than the Washington Monument. They achieved that by putting a star on top, just like you would with a Christmas tree, heh. We walked around the museum inside and also went to the observation deck at the top. Next we went to NASA. The visitor center was like a combination of Chuck-E-Cheese and NASA. There were all these different rides and games that little kids could play. We waited an hour for the NASA tour (reminiscent of Disneyland), got to see the different NASA buildings, Mission Control, and a Saturn V rocket. You could definitely see the design and thought put into each component of the rocket. Afterwards we went to a church where Linda and Jenny’s parents prepared dinner for us! It was really good and we were so thankful for working all day to make dinner for us, since our group is pretty big (about 50). We then went home and I got back around 12:30.

OMGWTFBBQ

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:33:17 -0700

Mmmm…BBQ. After being in Texas over 7 weeks, I have finally tried real Texas BBQ. After the last session of Worldview Camp, we went to Rudy’s for lunch. Barbecue to Californians is a misnomer. What barbecue really is is meat that’s been slow cooked over an indirect heat source at a lower temperature. What us Californians think is barbecue is merely grilled food, which is cooked relatively quicker, with the heat source directly under it, and at a higher temperature. The food was good, but I think it needed some rice haha. Rice is essential to balance out the stronger flavor of the meat and as a palate-cleanser. We didn’t eat off plates; instead we ate off of wax paper, so clean-up was pretty simple. The restaurant had this really cool hand-washing thing where you stick your hands in and small jets of water would wash your hands and arms. Very nice. I wish I had one of these in my bathroom.

Thursday night, Friday night, and today Gracepoint Austin had its first Worldview Camp. It was pretty interesting and Daniel Kim from the Berkeley church visited to lead the discussions. We learned about different worldviews and how they evolved over time, the flaws with naturalism, how fine-tuning of the universe implies some sort of creator, and answers to some simple questions in apologetics. All in all, I enjoyed learning about what was covered and I wish it could have been longer to cover other topics. Last night we went bowling after worldview and played until pretty late. It was really fun, and I came home with my throat irritated because of all the yelling and cheering. I’m really bad at bowling, but I managed one strike during the second game! I was pretty consistent this time around and almost always hit some pins on every frame.

Lost in Austen

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:12:00 -0700

I stole the title from a BBC miniseries about this girl who stumbles into the world of Pride and Prejudice. The miniseries was critically acclaimed, but I found it hard to watch out of vicarious embarrassment stemming from all the main character’s antics and meddling in the Bennet’s, Darcy’s, and Bingley’s lives. But the series somewhat echoed my sentiments about wishing to be in a world where life is simpler, the people more genteel and polite, and speech more eloquent and prettier-sounding. At the end of the school year, I decided to purchase the entire Jane Austen library from Barnes and Noble and brought the books with me to Austin. So far I’ve read Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. Currently I’m about a third of the way through Mansfield Park. I’ve noticed in this book the main character, Fanny, isn’t mentioned as much in the story as the main characters are in the other two books I’ve read, which is probably attributed to her meekness and diffidence (see what I did there? GRE WORD ALERT), relative to her spoiled cousins. I can relate to her since my nature is reserved and quiet. I prefer to be by myself and find it taxing to be in the company of large groups of people. My hobbies are activities that one can do by herself (ie crocheting, reading, violin), as opposed to sports, which usually requires others to play with. I enjoy hanging out with one or two other people over groups of 5 or more. My idea of fun isn’t going to an amusement park or partying (actually I feel most awkward in the partying scenario, due to my pledge to stay sober, and my dislike for the music and dancing to it, usually), but rather just walking around the city with one or two other friends, window shopping, watching a movie, baking or eating at a restaurant.

But I digress. Hopefully I can finish the rest of Jane Austen’s novels by the end of the summer. I haven’t read Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion yet. I’ve watched movie adaptations of all the books and found that one of my favorite genres is the period drama. I like the costumes and set pieces and the way things were years ago (save the lack of hygiene, indoor plumbing, and the dependence women placed on men), especially the way they speak. So eloquent, without the abundance of “like” spoken every other word now. I’m guilty of this, but I blame my living in California.

Monday

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:23:00 -0700

Ugh Mondays do indeed suck. I hate being at work trying to write this High-Speed Rail paper. I am definitely not going to do policy-based, wordful work related to this topic. I’d probably like to do something more technical, like designing the actual line. So far I have two pages of the essay, only because I included two pictures that show the proposed rail lines. I really haven’t written that much; partly because my toe is killing me. You heard right—- my toe. Yesterday after the convalescent home visit we were outside the building waiting and I felt this sharp needle prick on my toe. I looked down and saw this black fly thing on top of my toe. I instinctively rubbed the top of my foot on the concrete and smashed the damned thing, but not before the evil-fiend-from-hell bit me. Now my toe is all swollen and hurts. I can’t stop thinking about it. I absolutely hate how there are mosquitoes and other flying, biting things in this state. Texas is ok; the people are nice and the state seems richer than California (one word—-oil) but I am going to be soooooo HAPPY when I get to go home. I miss my family, the wonderful, fresh, cold Bay Area weather, and the abundance of yummy Asian food served at places that don’t bear lame, sounds-like-a-white-guy-came-up-with-it names like “Kung Fu Buffet” (true restaurant here; I saw the restaurant in a TV commercial). I also rue the fact that with my burgeoning interest in crafting, my friend Elisha is over a thousand miles away and probably too far to have a crafting party with me. (Note “burgeoning” is a GRE vocabulary word!)

Excuse my bitterness; I think it’s the bug bite-induced swollen toe and imminent doom from having to give a couple oral presentations next week talking. Just thinking about presenting makes me feel very anxious and as if I have a cloud hovering over me. I know I’m not being graded and that the presentations aren’t even that long, but that just isolates my reason for the anxiety—- it’s purely the actions of being singled out in front of a group of people and having to talk about a topic I apparently know something about. And the shame and guilt that come after giving a presentation when you know you haven’t done very well—- it lasts for days, unless blotted out with something else to occupy one’s thoughts. I’m going to try to think further into the future, look forward to going home, and not fixate on the presentations. Unfortunately, this conflicts with my beliefs about slowing time in one’s mind during the summer to extend it’s apparent length as much as possible. When I go back home, I have approximately 10 days before the start of my senior year of college. I shudder to think about it. I’m going to have to go through the crucible of college apps once again after a 4-year respite. Only now it’s for grad school. I don’t know whether that makes a difference, only now I have to think about which professor I can rustle up a letter of rec from, and really take a hard look at what I want to do with my professional life. The difference really is summed up in the fact that when one is applying to undergraduate schools, they only have to think about what they’ve done in the past that warrants an acceptance to their school of choice, rather than having to think about both one’s past and future in applying to grad school. I find transportation an interesting and varied field of study and like how it combines different disciplines ranging from kinematics to physiology to public policy. But still, do I want to do this for a living? I still don’t know. I’m going to have to pray hard about this.

Well, this blog post reveals that it’s not my inability to type for a long time that keeps me from writing this paper, it’s the paper itself. I wish I could submit a piece of paper to my supervisor that answers the question, “Why High-Speed Rail in Texas?” with a response of “because it’s awesome, duh”, and be done with the whole matter.

Here are my finished projects so far. This is a screenshot from...

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:04:08 -0700

Here are my finished projects so far. This is a screenshot from my Ravelry page. I noticed that only registered users can see other users, so I can’t just post the link to my profile. I’ll be posting pictures of my finished crafts once I actually finish them.

GRE

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:33:47 -0700

Today, I spent most of the day making vocabulary flash cards to prepare for the GRE, which is in exactly 3 weeks. I’m halfway through the alphabet and already I have a thick stack of words I’ve never heard of that I need to learn. I plan to bring the flash cards with me everywhere from now until test time and memorize as much as I can. After taking the third practice test, I’ve found that my scores are pretty much the same, and a significant portion of my mistakes are vocabulary-related. It’s so ridiculous that we’re being tested on words nobody uses anymore. Looking at it from a larger scope, I think it’s stupid that we have to take this test. Good thing engineering schools don’t really care so much about GRE scores. I wouldn’t want to invest all that much into getting a great score with respect to time and money.

Current investment in studying:

2 weeks worth of studying ~1 hour/day
$1 for the test prep book (amazing what you can buy at the dollar store)
$2.37 for index cards to write up the flash cards

I haven’t done the essay portion yet, and I’m wondering how good a score I should be aiming for. I hate to write essays, so I’m loathe to do them for practice.

Finally Arcade Fire has a new album out August 3!!!! I am so...

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:03:00 -0700

Finally Arcade Fire has a new album out August 3!!!! I am so excited. They’ve released 4 songs from the album, and my favorite one is “The Suburbs”, which is the title of the album. They’re going on tour again, and I hope they add more dates to include the Bay Area. I’m just hoping it’s at the Greek Theater in Berkeley or somewhere in San Francisco. Just don’t do it at the Shoreline please. I’d think they’d do it at the Fox Theater in Oakland; that place is really nice. I think if they were to play more than one night, I just might buy tix for all those nights. They play the best shows and really have a lot of energy and stage presence. I saw them at my first concert and about 15 concerts later, they’re still my favorite.

First Post in a Very Long Time

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:51:00 -0700

Thursday, April 12, 2007: The last blog post I made on my now-defunct Xanga page.

I’m not usually the one to journal, but as I read though my old posts, I learned that blogging is a good way to create a window to the past and see how I was several years ago.

Friday, July 9, 2010: 3 years, 2 months, and 20-something days later— my first post on this new, shiny blog. My purpose in writing this blog is not to attract readers or gain fame on the internet, but rather document my life in words and pictures, if need be.

Right now I am in the middle of a transportation research internship with the University of Texas at Austin. I research high-speed rail, or research high-speed rail benefits to write a paper, to be more exact. Work is boring and monotonous. Probably at least 50% of my time at work is spent not doing work. I don’t enjoy working on the computer for hours at a time, as much as I enjoy spending time on the internet. I don’t look forward to going to work, and I countdown the hours until I can go home. I was expecting an internship where I’d be working with people on more stimulating, hands-on assignments.

Not that I am ungrateful or anything. I do not regret coming to Texas at all. This opportunity is truly a conglomerate of blessings from God. First of all, I got an internship in a bad economy. It’s a paid internship, which is relatively rare. Next, it’s an internship relevant to my interests in engineering. I think high-speed rail is awesome and hope to see HSR installed and operating in California within my lifetime. Regarding housing, a significant expense, I found it in the most randomest of ways. My mom and I (yes, my mom insisted she come with me to make sure I was settled in ok, which I am truly grateful) were looking for housing outside this cafe on the north side of campus when this elderly lady drives by, asking for directions. We reply that we don’t know, we’re not from here. My mom gathers the balls to ask her if she could give us a ride to Riverside, a neighborhood 10 minutes south of campus by car, to see an apartment we found on Craigslist. The lady replies that we don’t need to look for an apartment because I could stay with her! She lives alone in a 4-bedroom house a 15 min drive (~50 min by Express Bus, which takes me straight to the UT campus) away from campus in a quiet, suburban area. I basically live there rent-free, which is more than what I could have imagined. She has a cat, which is really cute and cuddly, and a record player, which has really big speakers that flood the room with sound. Awesome. I get my own fully-furnished room and a bathroom next to it. I was worried about internet at first, but there’s an unsecured network next door, so I can catch the stray signal from the living room and kitchen.

Next, my church has a church plant here. About two years ago, Gracepoint Berkeley sent off a team of people to start a church here at UT Austin. One of the people who went was Sarah, my small group leader that year. Because of my internship, I was able to meet up with her and meet the growing church. The church is still relatively small (~50 in the summer, compared to hundreds at Berkeley), but it’s definitely a welcome familiarity. Last semester, I rarely came to church events because of my being busy with school and the negative feelings that sprung from seeing my peers all growing spiritually without me, with those two reasons building on each other. I feel that coming to Austin really revived me spiritually by sort-of starting fresh in a new church without it really being new to me and reducing the distractions usually surrounding me at home and during the school year. I prefer the smaller group at Austin, than the large one at Berkeley. At Berkeley there were just too many people and I’d be meeting new people every time; I became overwhelmed with the sheer size of the group despite the church’s efforts to subdivide the group into several fellowships and again to smaller homegroups. The Austin group reminds me of the early church, where everyone tended to each other’s needs and came together as a tightly-knitted group, sharing whatever they had. It’s just so perfect that my internship happens to be where a church plant got started. I made my friends through Gracepoint Austin and I’ve gone on a couple trips with the group since I’ve gotten here.

This whole experience is a testament to God’s grace and generosity. He has truly provided for my every need, right down to the wireless internet.