[20] [21] Two-fer (MAASU and Kelly)

Friday, March 30
Today was the first day of MAASU (Midwest Asian American Student Union). It's a big annual conference that was hosted in UIUC this year. During this conference is a "myriad of workshops and events that include Asian American identity development, activism, leadership opportunities, and being an ally to marginalized communities." One of those workshops being led by my friend, Kelly.

However, the workshops start on Saturday. On Friday, I volunteered for the MAASU Variety Show (singing, dancing, spoken word, WuShu, etc.), then ate with Kelly, Wing, and Kathy. 

Saturday, March 31
WORKSHOP! Woke up super late, so I only had time to attend Kelly's workshop and then A DANCE WORKSHOP!!

Hung out with Kathy, Wing, and Kelly again afterwards. Canopy Club afterset. Had a nice talk with Kelly until 6am. Breakfast with another friend Andrea at 930am. Slept at 11am.



P.S. I'm getting fairly lazy with these posts.

P.P.S. I made good food on Friday for lunch!!

Bok choy, lop yook (Chinese pork thing), and chicken

[19] Peter the Elephant

I saw this in class and I got all ..

[18] Scrambling

It hit midnight, and I started scrambling to see if anything interesting happened today. Then it hit me!

.
.
.
.
.

Nope. Nothing. Bye!

[17] UIUC Bike Project

I went with my friend Audrey to the Bike Co Op today to get her bike fixed. Earlier, I wanted to help her raise her handlebars, so she's not hunched over as much while biking--I was NOT a help. When loosening the headset, I loosened it too much so the wedge bolt dropped into the steerer. If this happens, I can't tighten it back . I didn't know this until we brought it to the Bike Co Op.

Why I really liked the Bike Co Op

• it smells like bike grease
• it's like bike Heaven....bike parts, bike tools, and complete bikes everywhere!
• the workers teach you how to fix your own bike... SO EDUCATIONAL!
• one can volunteer there and they teach you a lot. DIBS!
  

During summer, I may want to volunteer there for a week or so to gain knowledge, build experience, and get a membership.

[16] Ideas of March

I started this blog in 2010, but it didn't seem until this school year where I got a lot more into blogging.  So, in lieu of this blogging revival effort, I want to participate in Ideas of March.

Rather generically, I will follow the guidelines.

Why I love blogs?
When I first started reading blogs, it was for knowledge's sake. Via these blogs, I was able to just casually read up on subjects and hobbies I enjoy. Recently, I began really enjoying blogs of friends. There's a lot to learn about someone from their posts: likes, dislikes, hobbies, interests, goals, writing style, etc etc. You see a friend go through phases of life as they grow and change as a person (change ≠ bad)... as you may see with mine. And especially with friends that I don't get to see very often, reading their blog updates (or them reading mine) keeps us connected.

Finally, I enjoy blogging as a way of keeping my family and friends updated. Occasionally, I enjoy doing a post (like this one) that's not just a narrative of my day. It doesn't update you much about what I'm doing on campus, but it's an update of a little of what's on my mind. It's a nice change of pace. And I like giving mini shout-outs to my friends through here. Or inserting little inside jokes. Or posting pictures that I think my friends or family would enjoy. Many probably don't read it or see it, but it gives me a personal sense of satisfaction....

...much like the satisfaction of fake-eating this stranger while webcam-special-effects stars float by.

Blech! Stranger-flavored!

[15] Big Wolf Back on Campus

Big Wolf back on campus...although I'm not big wolf. BUT I am back.

Winfield = Huge Tiger

We're back on campus!

Nothing interesting happened. I'm sleepy. I watched a lot of How I Met Your Mother.

The end.

P.S It's almost Hannah's birthday.

The end.
 P.P.S "Big Wolf" is a reference to a really old show in early 2000s.

[14] Jerry's Birthday

Happy 14th birthday to my little cousin, Jerry! It was a lot of fun watching Hunger Games with some of the family. I had high expectations for the actors, but I think the actors were very good. It was a great cast! Good movie.

Jerry and I had a push-up contest, where we alternated doing push-ups with each round doing one more than the last one. (ex. Jerry - 3 push ups, Me - 4 push ups, Jerry - 5 push ups, etc). All-in-all, we both rounded up 100+ push ups. I'm very impressed with this young'n.

"GRRR!" /flex muscles

The rest of the men.

And just like every other year, birthday boy gets caked. SUCKER! Hehehe...

Got him!

And just cause it's a lot of fun, Ryan gets caked too!

Got him too!!

And then I slip away like a snake....

Thanks, Becky for all these pictures!

That's Becky. She thinks this picture is gross. Hehehe.

[13] Fin. Peacock. Bike. Tree.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz .............so sleeepy. Anyways, I gotta do this before I sleep.

• I finally FINished Hunger Games. Time of Completion: Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 3:54am. It was a great book, and I can't wait to see the movie tomorrow with my little cousins. As I told Hannah, I'm so ready to judge the actors. "Not romantic enough!" "Not badass enough!" We'll see though... I'll try my besst to keep an open mind.
  
• Peacock. That's what Kim calls Vivian/Twiniffer. She came down from Schaumburg to visit, so Urbana peeps and I had a blast in downtown and stuff! We were such tourists, but it was a lot of fun being a tourist. Vince lit a cigarette for a statue then when we came back to it, someone took it. Haha. A hobo probably smoked it.
  
• Bike - today was a really long day of biking. I loved it though. I don't know how many miles I racked up today, but "regular biking" + "placeindowntown-to-placeindowntown biking" + biking-the-wrong-way-and-returning-the-right-way biking" + "just-cruising biking"  = a lot of miles. My legs are supedee tired.
  
• Picked up Tree today. It was so fun hanging out at night and chit-chatting. I don't know why I don't get to see this girl enough and we neighbors. Besides being too sleepy and delusional, this was a lot of fun. It was refreshing. 

GOING TO SLEEP NOW!

[12] lkmaklmvklmlkamklhungergames

Uh...  I don't know what to type about today. The only thing that's on my mind is the Hunger Games.

I didn't have time to read Hunger Games yesterday (or so I thought) but luckily, I couldn't sleep cause it was SOOO HOTT last night so I read while I cooled off.

I got to Chapter 23, page 303, and stopped.

I neeeeeed to finish today but first....

• finish work
• shower

COUNTDOWN = 2 days!!

2....

[11] Frickin 'Ficken'

When I wake up..... I'm willing to take my chances.... Okay, sorry. Those were lyrics to a song. I just couldn't help myself. Thumbs up if you know that song. Let me start again.

When I wake up, I usually don't remember my dreams or nightmares. I'm not even sure if I have nightmares. I want to say with 90% confidence that nightmares are a very rare occurrence; yesterday night was an exception.

I had a dream of a ficken or a chish.
 /in the voice of  Pokédex.
"Ficken, also known as chish, is a very terrifying creature. It has a bloated fish's body with the protruding head of a chicken. Ficken invades the dreams of men waking them up in a sweaty, flailing frenzy."

 Imagine a chicken's small head, which I will NOT post a picture of, with this fish's body:

I don't know if there was any plot. Alls I know is that, there was this scary thing, and I was terrified...even after waking, the image of the ficken engrained in my mind made me very uneasy.

Moving away from the topic of that darned dream, let's talk about Hunger Games. Well..so far today, I haven't had time to read it. But hopefully, I can resume tomorrow or late at night.

COUNTDOWN = 3 DAYS!

3....

[10] Opart Thai - Gaeng Keow Waan

I finally satisfied my Thai food craving. And who better to satisfy it with than Jeff.

Hahaha...he looks confused.

Urbana-Champaign ain't got nuttin' on Opart Thai, son!!



And.....
HUNGER GAMES UPDATE:

• page 246
• COUNTDOWN = 4 days (I GOT THISSS!!)

[9] Page 103! Woot!! Woot!!

Sorry Jerry for putting my mouth on your book. It had to be done.

 "Once you start reading, you won't be able to stop", "You're gonna get hooked", "It's such a good book!" people told me. I was a little skeptical that I could get attached to a book....but the book pretty much proved to me that it's the bomb. I started reading at 8:30pm while walking to a nearby Dominick's/Starbucks, and I couldn't put it down. I'm 103 pages in!! But I'm stopping now. I think it's a good place to leave off.

I have no doubts that I'll finish it in time.

Countdown until I have to finish the book = 5 days!

~~~~

My phone conversation with my friend before writing this post:

Me: "I'll talk to you later. I gotta write something."
Friend: "Why you gotta write about me, man? Why you gotta write about how I'm handsome and cute. I'm so handsome and cute, man!"

HAHAHA! Well....off I go. I finna go biking now.

[8] Saturday -- Hunger Games Reading Day

Just kidding. I was getting ready to start though---but listening to music and singing along was so much more appealing.

Countdown until I have to finish the book = 6 Days!

Maybe tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow.

[7] Goodbye Urbana ... Hello Beautiful City Of Chicago

Leaving Urbana is always bittersweet. Since coming back to campus from Chicago in early February, I was missing home a lot. When friends and family came down to Urbana for the Fashion Show in early March, I was missing home a lot again too. Now that I'm finally going home, I know I will be missing my beautiful friends in Urbana a lot.

I'll see these guys again soon.
"Enjoi your spring breaks!"

But in the meantime...

I'm home. Let's play. 

Sincerely,

Sgt. Squirrel.

[6] Ne-Yo "I Don't Care" & Spring Break

Did I do a blog post about dance clinics yet?

Oh yEah!! I did. I wanted to choreograph a dance for a dance clinic. /cough cough. Sppeeaaaking of dance clinics, today's was the first one for AAA! It was led by my friends Dan ("meow" <---inside joke to myself-ish) and Norman (aka Normie...or is it Normy?).

At first, I didn't know what to expect because I found out it was a Ne-Yo song. Blech! I'm sorry, but I am not fond of Ne-Yo. Howevuh...this dance clinic was so much fun. It was a really good one to start off the rest. I'm really proud of 'em both for choreo such a fun piece. It was also really nice to see all us AAA people together again...dancing together.

On another really happy note, tomorrow I'm going back home to Chicago! Yay! I get to see my beautiful family and friends  and Joe back at home!!


Okay. Bye.

[5] Sensory Deprivation - Sight

Last semester, there was one day where people were walking around blindfolded, guided by a partner. I never found out if it was an event, but it was really interesting. I've been wanting to that since, but never got the chance... UNTIL TODAY!

In Jazz Dance, we did the same thing! It was really interesting! At first, it's really nerve-wracking because wherever you go and no matter how much your partner reassures you, your brain tells you that there's a big wall you're going to walk into--or some sort of ledge you're going to trip over and hurt yourself. With a little more time, you warm up to the experience and that's when it REALLY starts getting fun. You stop sweating nervously and start noticing so much more from your other senses. Who knew deprivation of one sense can enhance the others (audition, touch, smell, taste even, and PROPRIOCEPTION). I only did it for ten minutes, but those ten minutes were really amazing!

Try it out! It's lots of fun to do with a friend.

[4] Freaky Fast! Freaky Fast!!

You know how Jimmy John's slogan is "subs so fast you'll freak" and then their commercials are all said super fast and super freakily?

Well... I got Jimmy John's today and I freaked! I ordered a roast beef sub (#2) and my sandwich was done before I put my wallet back into my backpack. :O!!!!!! HOW!? I put EVERYTHING ON IT!!!! How did they put everything on so fast!!

[3] Goal : Choreograph 3 Dances

I've been listening to a few songs on repeat a lot today:
[inappropriate song]
[inappropriate song]
"Left Hand Suzuki" by Gorillaz
and "First Day Of My Life" by Bright Eyes.

Somehow, this combination of songs makes me really want to try choreographing a dance. I always say I'm really bad at choreographing a dance because I can't remember any of my own moves, but that doesn't mean I can't try!

Firstly, I want to choreograph a dance for AAA (Asian American Association) Dance Clinics. These are just little workshops after the big AAA show that anyone can lead. And I figured "I should do one!", so I've been working on one that's going to be really fun. Hopefully, I follow through with this.

Next, I just want to do one by myself. Maybe a dance that's more sharp, less fun, more ... intense? That's not the right word. I don't know the right word. Anyways........

Finally, my friends Wing and Kathy and I decided to do a choreo together. Basically, we'll just be playing our dance memory game (one player comes up with a 4-count dance sequence and the subsequent players performs that 4-count and adds his/her own 4-count....and so on and so forth). It started with Wing teaching me a tecktonik sequence, and this brilliant idea just bloomed into existance.

~~

That's all I got. Enjoy the songs that I linked :3   I'm sorry I can't link the first two songs due to inappropriate content.

[2] I Drank Pop

Uh...nothing really happened today. I ate, napped, did work, watched How I Met Your Mother (SOOO FUNNY!!), and....I drank pop. Purposefully.

It was good.

[1] Twiniffer and I's Birthday Party

Here's an idea : a blog post for everyday of the year. [1] - [365]. This idea was inspired by my friend, Hannah. "Thanks, Hannah!" LEH' GO!

What's a better Day One topic than Twiniffer and I's birthday party? Reintroducing my friend, Vivian (aka Twiniffer). Our first twin quality is our birthdays--July 30th. When we first met, we found out that we have the same birthday. As we became closer friends, we found out that was only the stepping stone to where the similarities start. We have a very similar loud, talkative, goofy personality. We like many of the same shows such as Grey's Anatomy and Avatar: The Last Airbender. And I can't even count the times where we had the exact reaction or word-for-word response to something. Once, we said the exact same thing THREEE times in a row. COINCIDENCE! Trust me, maybe describing it in words,  it's not that crazy, but it's a big deal. Blew my mind right out of the solar system.

Okay...that's Vivian....AND DON'T YOU FORGET HER! It always takes a long time to introduce her--too much to say. By the way, there's a lot more, but that's already a really long paragraph. Just knowing the basic twinformation (hehe...like "information") is good enough.

Anyways, so...we decided to throw a birthday party on 3/10. Why?
[10-3 = 7 = ] +  [10*3 = 30] = 7/30 = JULY 30TH! Cool, huh??

It was such an awesome party! We spent a lot of time planning it out.
First, we chose a song for each of our guests. Our guests danced in one at a time...and we danced with them too, of course! Thanks to Vivian for helping me make the playlist, and sorry to Vivian for changing it. :P

Then, we just played games, ate food, and hung out and stuff for the rest of the night.

Thanks to Jeff for this awesome, awesome, awesome cake!
Coconut Cream Cake with Pecans!
It' was so delicious!!

The end.

HAHA! I'm not going to go through all the details in between 'cause it would take too long. But, know this, it was an unforgettable night and IT WAS SOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!!!!


Quotes
"Who are you? What are you doing to me?! /falls over"
"Get that camera away from me!"
"It's a hand?!"
"Autobots! Roll out!"
"You ditched Hannah Hwang for the white Hannah!" "NOOOO!!!!!!"
"E is for Egg!"
"Moo! Meow! Moo! Meow!"

AAA Fashion Show 2012

What a great show! I couldn't be happier with everything - the show, the weekend, the whole experience.

Since last semester, all of us models in the show have been practicing every week. This semester, we started bi-weekly practices. When it came down to a month before the show, I spent more time practicing than school or work and etc. On the Thursday and Friday before the show, I had a total of 5 hours of sleep.

It was all worth it! I loved performing for the friends and family that came down from Chicago, friends who are in Urbana and came for support, and friends I had the privilege of sharing this experience with.

I can't wait 'till next year.

And ..... herecomesafloodofpicturesfromtheshow. Some are good and some at bad, but oh well.

I'm in the front center-right with the beanie, all black, and red suspenders hanging off.
(Nightlife Dance Scene)

Body roll, body roll.
(Nightlife Dance Scene)

I'm in the blue thermal in the center second row looking down.
(Formal Dance Scene - Waltz)

Me = Second guy on right...my vest-twin, Tony, is in front of me.
(Formal Dance Scene - Swing)

Spinning the girls. "Weeeeeeeee"
(Formal Dance Scene - Swing)

Red dress shirt with the top hat. I messed up a lot for this dance :Þ
(Formal Dance Scene - Tango)

My lovely partner, Diane, and I.
(Formal Dance Scene - Tango)

EVERYBODY FROM FORMAL SCENE! SAY CHEEESE!!

I'm wearing a red dress shirt again...but this time I'm wearing a newsboy cap and teal colored shoes.
(Business Casual Dance Scene - "So You Can Cry" by Ne-Yo)

Whoosh! .. like Superman
(Business Casual Dance Scene - "Super Bass"by Nicki Minaj)

This is where we "kiss-kiss" to the audience.
(Business Casual Dance Scene - "Kiss Kiss" by Kim Hyun Joong)

This is my sweetie, Hannah.  We fall in love.
(Business Casual Dance Scene)

Hannah and I  ♥ ♥ 
(Business Casual Dance Scene - "Girl on TV" by LFO)

S
W
A
G

BUSINESS CASUAL DANCE SCENE 2012 - YOWZA!

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Ahh....so happy.