Mega Update: January 2006

That’s it. I am going to write this update. Yes, right now! No more wimping out! (“But Kenneth, I’m soooo sleepy!”) Nope, naptime is over! Update your blog!

Sooo… picking up where another very excellent monster Xanga update left off…

Near the end of October, I did site visits of Santa Clara University and Berkeley’s computer facilities. Now, this is not intended to be a SCU or Berkeley bashing session, but I have to say I found myself really glad and fortunate to be working at (and scurrying back to) Stanford. I had a renewed appreciation for all of the cool toys that we get to play with in the Multimedia Studio on my floor. I was incredulous that other schools do not have any of the basic facilities for undergrads to experiment with multimedia applications, such as Final Cut Pro, iLife, or even Adobe Creative Suite in some cases. “What? You can’t run Photoshop from just any cluster machine? Whoa…” (Or more like “WTF?” Yes, I feel that strongly about Photoshop.)

Kenneth: Do you allow food and drink in the clusters?”
Host: Ha ha! Yeah right.
K: 44-Inch Wide Format Poster Printing?
H: Uh, that would be Kinko’s.
K: Do you offer miniDV camcorders and DVD burners for checkout?
H: Um, does money grow on trees in your neighborhood?

Even Cal State East Bay (Hayward), which has a Multimedia *major* for undergrads, and for which I am applying for a Master’s in Multimedia, doesn’t have this kind of resource floating around for every boy and girl who is a student there. Shocking. All I have to say is, if you’re at Stanford and you’re complaining about the lack of multimedia facilities, you… you… must come from a school that’s AMAZING.

[Okay, I basically have no photos to show you from these three trips, because they all make me kind of sad.]

Oh, I did mention I’m applying for the Master’s in Multimedia in Hayward for Fall 2006, right? http://www.csueastbay.edu/ecat/20042005/g-mm.html In fact, I just turned in a large chunk of my application today (including the part that costs $$). Now I just have to wait for the letters of recommendation to be finished, and also prepare my portfolio, which is the most intimidating part. I’ve never been involved with a creative arts program. What’s supposed to go in the portfolio? My latest idea is to gather my best digital photography, Photoshop-manipulated images, iMovie and Final Cut videos, iDVD productions, Garage Band loops, posters and flyers designed in PPT or Publisher, and website creations, and present them in a 10-minute video delivered on DVD. Yay or nay?

Other quick summaries:

The Baylight San Francisco Life Transformation Group (LTG, or “small group” for the acronym-phobics) has been awesome! I’ve been going nearly every Friday after work since October. When they first invited me (who, little ol’ me?), I wasn’t so sure. When I thought about how that might enable Steph to join me for small group, I was then very sure. However, after she thought about it, she decided she was already committed to her own Berkeley Mosaic Community Group (CG, or “small group” for the folks who aren’t clued in), at least for the rest of this year. Surprisingly, even after the disappointing news, I remained very sure that I wanted to join this group, even if it killed me. So far, apart from a few slight GPS-related mishaps, the Friday post-work commute has been just fine, and I’ve been making great time between Stanford and San Francisco (near USF). Basically, all of the regulars rock: Jason, Marcia, Terry, Gina, Sinclair, Su. You all rock! =] Jason and Marcia are the gracious hosts who let me crash overnight every Friday instead of driving home in the dead of night. Terry’s presence is always a blessing to me personally, and he has never ceased to surprise me ever since the first LTG night when I thought he was the pizza delivery guy who just decided to stay for Bible study (cuz, well, he was!). Gina and Su bake delicious treats for us all the time. And Sinclair is cool just by being Canadian. I know that when the winter rains continue to pour down on those lonely Friday post-work drives, I’ll probably need some major reminders about how great a group God has blessed me with in SF. But for now, I’m lovin’ it!

[Tater tots in a pizza box and Bible study, AT THE SAME TIME?  OMG!!!  And, look, it’s a guest appearance by Steph!  Hi!]

I never thought I was allergic to anything. After going to Debora’s baptism at the Mosaic, and visiting her apartment with a bunch of friends, I discovered I was allergic to cats. Or at least, her cats!! That’ll teach me to rub my eyes! The best part was when all these future optometrists were freaking out over my eye, and they wanted me to flush my eye out using a double shot glass! (“Now, now, you can’t turn to alcohol for all of life’s problems…”) Or maybe the best part was how I still ended up going to the 2-hour lunch party at TGI’s Sushi, and I felt itchy and pretty self-conscious about my freakish eye and the Halloween jokes, and the pastor’s wife took pity on me and gave me some Children’s Benadryl, which then served to make me rather drowsy, but significantly less itchy and self-conscious…

[Wow, Sam looks like he’s really having a good time at this baptism service.]

[Aw, wook, it’s a widdle kiddy kat!]

[Hmm… maybe that wasn’t such a good idea…]

Steph and I can finally say we’ve been dating over a year! (Actually for anyone who’s counting, we just passed 14 months.) Sometimes I think it’s crazy how much of the details of marriage we’ve already talked about, between the two of us, with our friends, with our parents, with my coworkers… ack! What are we going to talk about *after* we get engaged? =P  Engaged people, what do you guys talk about?

[Umm, they’re not ours.]

Okay, this is getting way too long. Fast forward! My Prius got rear-ended soon after its first birthday. I was just driving onto campus, one fine drizzly Tuesday. I had to slow down for this crazy biker who darted across the two-lane street, when suddenly, I heard the screech of tires behind me and, BOOM! The guy behind me needed about an inch more of braking distance. Anyway, it wasn’t that bad. The guy was pretty cooperative, but he did ask to pay cash to keep his insurance record clear. Being a big softie, I agreed to accept $850 for the vampire fang marks his Z3 bit into my Prius. Of course, now that it’s cash we’re talking about, I decided to take the money and not get it repaired for now, in the anticipation that I’m probably going to get a few more dings in the back before the winter is over. Out of the whole experience, I think the thing that miffs me most is that stupid biker not even stopping to act as a witness for us, since he was part of the reason this all happened in the first place.

[I know, I know, some of you are saying you can barely even make out the puncture marks.]

Okay, this is really enough for now. For all those modem users out there, this probably took an hour to load.  Sadly, I didn’t even blog about what I was supposed to blog about, namely, my ten day trip to Hong Kong. Oh well! I’m sure the suspense is killing all two of you who still read this. Until next time!

[Yes, they have Prii/Priuses in Hong Kong.]