haven't updated in a while event-wise.

i was finally able to hang out with kuya linden and the bestest elise last wednesday. i met up with linden in chino hills, then we headed out to elise's work in newport beach. she showed us her twilight-ified office. we then headed out for some soooosheee. linden spoiled me by paying for my meal. woot. afterwards, linden and i went to bevmo to find a beer to bring home and try while we watched glee. by the way: linden has hair now... wtf!?


kuya with hair.

then friday was gilbert's little shindig. by the time i got there he was plastered and throwing up in a sink. gilbertfail. he passes out and everyone draws on him. but somehow he wakes up and can enjoy the company for a little bit.. before passing out again. BUT an awesome event happened that night. five generations of kuyas and adings were present. kevin, his kuya mark, mark's kuya froi, froi's kuya which is me, and my kuya linden. lineage.


generations.

saturday was huy's dinner at joe's sushi. i guess i can consider myself a regular there now considering i'm always welcome with hugs from the waitresses and high fives with the main chef.. and free alcohol.. waitress julie was kinda drunk and tried getting me to dance with her. it was really awkward. so she tries to bribe me with alcohol by pouring sake into my mouth and getting it all over my clothes. fun night. but wtf?!

then later saturday night was rj's 21st bday celebration at his place in eagle rock. and of course, by the time we all get there, he's plastered and throwing up in a trashcan. but magically again, he wakes up around 5am and is able to enjoy our company for a little bit! he was able to take pictures with us and now he can actually remember us being there.. we end up leaving a LOT later than i would have desired. should have just driven myself there.


rj and i. not too bad a picture of him considering his.. condition?

checked out bMod's set for the bridge at their little pre-show. gonna go and support them at their competition :D can't be pulling a Scott's Tots on them..

and.. is it sad that my iPhone has kinda replaced my actual digital camera? gah. gonna need to start taking it around more often.

enjoyed my thanksgiving muchos. the four of us spent it at my sister's. and the whole day was simply full of us enjoying each others' company, which is all to rare a thing nowadays. as always, we started out with a huge offering of lunch. which put everyone in a food coma, but i surprisingly didn't nap at all the whole day. we simply put on movie after movie and just chilled. MJ's This is It, Up, Star Trek, Big Bang Theory, The Office, Glee, and New Moon (although no one was paying attention to new moon).


our thanksgiving lunch/dinner


my mom's cakefail. Harry Trankssiviililil... ?

my thank yous
like i tweeted, i am very thankful for what i have. my loving family. which is still broken, but i'm thankful that we're able to suck up all the drama and just BE US every once in a while. my wonderful friends who are with me, supporting me and simply being there for me when i need them, which has happened to be a lot recently. my previous years on barkada and bMod for generously offering me friendships and experiences one can never duplicate (esp. kuya/lilbro/ading): my kuya up north, always encouraging me and making me want to improve (and will be down here this weekend!). my lilbro in sd, who i dearly miss but i'm glad i've been able to call my little brother, in which i will stop at nothing to help him out in any way i can, which might be limited due to distance restrictions heh. my ading from sd, who is thankfully still here but has turned the tables, helping me out in more ways than he probably thinks he has or gives himself credit for - and i can only hope i've done even a fraction in return. and to those who i've come to call best friends, families, brotherhoods, cliques (and trust, i haven't forgotten!) etc. basically everyone who has made a difference in my life, thank you all very much.

ps: and im thankful for the fact that almost all my friends have disneyland passes. woot. son.

black friday
i made it a point to sleep right when i got home so that i'd be able to wake up in the weeeeee hours to get to Target so i could jump on a deal on a 2.5" portable external hard drive. Target had a Western Digital 500GB for only $60. my only other previous experience with the morning of black friday was two years ago at Staples. but that didn't really count because they did it in a way that no one had to rush to get anything, instead they gave out guarantee tickets for certain items. Target this year, on the other hand, just let everyone run in as a free-for-all. i was about the 200th person in line since i got there 30mins before it opened at 5am, so things weren't looking too great for the deal i wanted, but alas, i walked straight to the hard drives. and lo and behold, there was one left. grabbed it, got in line at the electronics registers, bought it, and walked out of Target all under 15 minutes. now i can carry all my important info with me without lugging around the huge brick i have at home and at the same time, keep my laptop free of clutter. woot.


wd elements 500gb

for the rest of the day, i chilled at rooted movement with some beers. then bert, gigz, and i headed over to buffalo wild wings for dinner. and i'm very sad to announce... that bww is no longer serving the limited time Desert Heat dry rub. sadness TO THE FREAKING MAX. ah well. i then headed over to gigz' to play CoD:MW2 spec-ops.. then watch his brother jay play the campaign.

good times with the town meeting. the haven gastropub on monday. then TGIFridays on tuesday followed by a late trip to Disneyland.





waiting for maureen's pictures to pop up so i can steal! ;D

past month has been a cloud of negativity for me. including today. but there's been quite a few positives that have kept me afloat.

every monday, jowena and i have made a mini-tradition to go watch froi and jay at their intramurals games, then head over to buffalo wild wings for grub. i love me some desert heat dry rub wings! and fries with queso sauce! speaking of froi, i feel like i've been able to reconnect with my ading, like back in the olden days of bMod 07-08 -- days of which i miss a bit too much. got myself a new and powerful laptop so i can continue working with graphics (if i have work to do). and while i sadly missed out on all the November birthday bashes due to the sickening flu (which is still plaguing me to this day) i was able to celebrate maureen's birthday with gigz, jamie, bert, and jenise at disneyland today, and she is now an official passholder! add to that, being able to see all the christmas decorations on main street and the castle. watching the christmas parade. riding it's a small world holiday. then watching the awesome holiday fireworks. then experiencing the snowfall on main street. waiting for maureen to upload our group pic kinda in front of the castle sorta. ha.

some pics within the past month(s):

it's a small world holiday decor


sleeping beauty's castle decked out in snow


the ading and i at Ra's awesome happy hour


my awesome halloween costume. which, mind you, cost me NOTHING!


my sister and i messing around with my webcam. fun times.

so far, i've been having a very spur of the moment Halloween weekend. and it has been nothing but great.

thursday: RA sushi for andrew's birthday. cpp to visit bMod and api scary story night. dc house. froi's house. esteban! almost ended the night horribly though. but we lucked out!

yesterday (friday): disneyland with froi, lauren, rodney, angie, greg, and erin. only there for about 4 hours but we did quite a lot. dinner at the Hat afterwards for random funnies. then froi's house. it's 1:56am. we decide to get beer. but we only have 4 minutes to do it. we manage to get everyone out of the house, into the car, drive all the way to the nearest 7-eleven, park and run inside, assembly line six 40's of Mickey's to the counter, throw all our money at the guy, and the transaction goes through with 2:00am printed on our receipt. NOTHING BUT EPIC. we play an intense game of estaban! someone (i forget who) decides it would be a great idea if we all got a pumpkin from outside and carve them for Halloween. worst/best idea ever as carving pumpkins were a first time for all of us, and they were surprisingly disgusting but turned out awesome. carving pumpkins is tiring, but i was not about to drive home after how the previous night almost ended. so i took the next available sleeping area, froi's bed. blahahah. thanks ading.

pictures:

took a ride on Space Mountain's Halloween overlay: Ghost Galaxy the other day while at Disneyland for Katie's birthday. in my opinion, awesome. the mountain itself has a projected overlay and displays an eerie light show every so often: from screaming and lightning to a matrix grid effect to something trying to break out of it. other than the outside queue, the inner queue is about the same except the loading area is a bit darker, and the screen displaying outer space is going through some whacked out error thing.

as for the ride, the beginning is almost pitch black. they turned off all lights right before you start heading up the first incline. once at the second incline you get a good glimpse of the ghost galaxy, fan-named "BOB." the ride continues just as it did before, but with Bob projections grabbing at you and chasing you. very well done. on some of the turns, the projections actually match the speed of the coaster giving the effect of a close high speed chase. the projections were very well done, and I don't feel like it takes away anything from the original ride, if anything, adds more thrill. the only thing I can point out that is negative would be that at some points, the projections are so bright that you can see the wall that it's being projected on, losing the "lost in space" feeling. but other than that, a VERY good overlay. I can definitely see Bob sticking around longer than just the Halloween season, but we'll see what Disney plans to do with it.

my advice for first time riders would be to sit on the left side, anywhere after the 3rd row, to ensure that you get to see all of the projections and effects in full.

I'd like to ride it again cuz I sat in the very front and I feel like I missed some things. I was also in pain because gigz elbowed me in the eye right when the ride started, giving me my first black eye ever in life. an update on the eye to come at a later date.

Post from mobile portal m.livejournal.com

my birthday has come and gone. and despite a very dramatic entrance into the day, it turned out pretty awesome.

started out with lunch at home. then I was off to disneyland to meet up with Kat and Zugey. but before meeting them, I made a quick stop at the ticket booths to redeem my birthday gift card. then used the gift card to add parking to my annual pass. finally met up with Kat and Zugey. explored the Innoventions "House of the Future" for a bit then rode Space Mountain which had almost no wait whatsoever. after watching the two girls eat, we headed to the Rivers of America to sit down and wait for Fantasmic! to start. Froi, Rodney, Kevin, and Lauren joined us wet after riding Splash Mountain. we were lucky to have been one of the first people to finally see Murphy the dragon breathe her fiery breath! it was nothing less than epic.

I had to head back to Chino Hills to make the dinner at my sister's. they presented me with tacos and cake and a new iPhone! got it up and running and fully synced with my laptop in a matter of minutes. woot!

headed over to bMod practice to visit the kiddies and to see how practice was going. chilled in the parking lot for a bit then finally headed home.

the day before my birthday and the day after proved to be quite the dark clouds surrounding my big day, but I didn't let them affect me in the least bit. I got to see Murphy for one, hot to see her breathe fire, my fam got me a technerd device I've wanted, and spent it with some awesome people.

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what is up with my non-updating-ness?

last weekend, july 24-26: a little chunk of bMod headed for a weekend in Vegas. can we say HOT? and HUMID? but all-in-all a very laid back and chill experience. yes, Vegas CAN be relaxing. i felt bad for Mike because he was paying a grip for his friend that came along, so he couldn't get himself much to enjoy the trip. i tried to be the nice guy and surprise-bought him a beer from the bar. totally forgot he doesn't drink beer. fail on me. but i got to conquer the bachelorette hot dog at Serendipity. it was really good, especially with the bacon, nacho cheese, and chili. but i got owned after finishing it. had that full feeling that wouldn't go away. but still a good weekend. and we bumped into christian, jaypeg, d, gerald, and kat while there!


can't really grasp the size of it from this picture, but look for the knife and compare

within the week, i was doing graphical work for JayVee Studios.. and doing a lot of driving to pick up and deliver the graphic prints..

friday night, i randomly decided to meet up with rj, neil p, jasmine, texas, and hannah to go to geronaga's moving out party. it was quite random and very.. yeah. made it fun for what it's worth, but we didn't stay too long.

yesterday, i met up with gigz, his brother jay, his little cousin j-boy, kwaku, and cynthia for some coldstone ice cream. by the way, i like the cotton candy ice cream a lot, but the cotton candy taste only lasts for a little bit then starts to taste like vanilla (which i still like, so win-win). we headed back to gigz' house for a bit, then went to buffalo wild wings for dinner. car ride back to gigz' = wild karaoke session from jay. haha. got back to gigz' and literally chilled in the backyard for a couple hours talking about the most random things. i haven't laughed that much in a while, and what surprises me is that 1. i was with a group of people i don't normally hang out with, 2. no alcohol was needed to have a great night -- just good people and good conversation. "... there's CAKE?!" bahhahah

and hey look -- today, august 2nd, is Friendship Day. happy friendship day to all my friends! and if you're not my friend.. sucks to be you!

blogfail. havent been posting. ah well. the week in quick pics!

so after attending michael jackson's memorial last week, i didn't notice how epic an event it was until i got home and saw all the news coverage and buzz surrounding the incredible event. but considering the epicness of last week, i still had myself quite a week this week.

last saturday, i had much troubles finding my way to vegas for all the festivities. vegasfail. but alas, it was party weekend back at home anyway! started out at neil's residence for his family and friends party. occasion? NOTHING! his family just threw a party to have a party. stocked up on lechon and massive amounts of lumpia. beer pong then ensued. neil and i remained undefeated for the entire duration of the party. we were running low on pong fluids, so kwaku and jay made a quick run. and strolled across the street with a brand new 36-pack as seen in the above picture. as neil's party started to wind down, a handful of us headed out to jasmine's housewarming all the way in riverside. more pong games ensued. as well as dramatics. but all is well as the night ended with bam and thai at denny's. highlight of the night: neil peig finally finding out his drinking limits. ha!


left to right: bert, myself, jay (neil's little but bigger and older looking brother), danny, neil
on wednesday, i met up with bert to then meet up with neil, danny, jay and jenise at disneyland. neil was taking his family and little cousin's out to their first trip to disneyland. bert, jenise, and i tagged along with the grecia's for the duration of our visit. i knew it was going to be hot. so i came in cargo shorts and any white t-shirt i had. turns out all the other guys had that same mindset. we all wore the same thing -- unplanned. since there were 12 of us in the group including neil's family, we split up in half for splash mountain and had an entire boat each. neil started splashing some water into our own boat which started an all-out fend-for-yourself splashing war on our boat. i'm surprised Disneyland didn't stop the ride and tell us to stop reaching out of the boat and grabbing water. we were completely drenched minutes after the ride had barely left the boarding area. we looked as if we jumped into a pool fully clothed. good thing i decided to put my phone and camera in jenise's purse beforehand. bert and i had to leave the festivities early since he was going out with someone later that night. but that person ended up flaking on him and we could've stayed with the fam at Disneyland. ah well.

yesterday. neil and i decided to continue our Disneyland adventures on our way to the bMod beach day. plus, it was Disneyland's 54th birthday and who would want to miss that?? we were only there for a few hours since we parked at the free downtown disney parking. but we were able to ride on Indiana Jones and Space Mountain which both had pretty long lines. Big Thunder Mtn is the only mountain i haven't been on since i got my annual pass. that needs to be on my to-do list for future visits. we attempted this time, but the ride got stuck as we were about to enter the boarding area.

when our parking time limit was almost up, we left and headed to the beach to meet up with the rest of bMod. had some awesome libations to keep us busy as well as hotdogs and good people. randomness all over the place, and a quick bonding game to end the night around the bonfire. good times with the team. headed home and slept quite early.

went on a quick disneyland trip on monday. went with neil and met up with jowena, later met with bert, and even later met up with cesar.

long story short: we met up, tower of terror, toy story mania, mickey's fun wheel, 4th of july fireworks show, pirates, run through the kiddie rides in fantasyland.

by the way, since when did the Whinny the Pooh ride turn into a gigantron E party?



afterwards, met up with cesar andrew pat eric chloe steve and kevin for his birthday gathering at The Lost Bar at the Disneyland Hotel.. just chilled there till about 1:XXam. got home a little after 2am.. and i had to wake up in a couple hours to get to The Staples Center to attend Michael Jackson's Memorial. yes. i was selected to attend :) but that's getting an entry for itself.

guest choreographer BK stopped by bMod's practice last night to teach a workshop. to my delight, he taught his segment from my ultimate favorite set ever, Common Ground's Vegas set. sick piece. had myself a dancegasm. watch their set HERE. and watch it in high quality. if your Internet connection doesn't allow for it... why are on you even on the Internet? weirdo.


alex brittany and myself. jowena got pwn3d by tinkerbell.
finally buckled down and got myself a Disneyland Annual Pass! It's a deluxe so i have blockout dates throughout some of the year.. boo :( but still awesome at the same time. most of the blockout dates are major holidays and most saturdays.. when i probably would just complain about the huge crowds that are there. went with alex brittany and jowena this past Tuesday. even though it was a lot hotter than i'd want it to be, still had a blast in the 3 hours i was there (had to leave early for bMod practice). managed to ride the Matterhorn, then to CA Adventure to ride Mickey's Fun Wheel on the swinging gondola's *finally!* last time i went (which was only about once or twice in the last 10 years), the group i was with was too scared to ride it. toy story mania was closed, sadly. convinced jowena to ride a roller coaster with a loop for the first time ever in her life with CA Screamin. she did it! got herself a well-deserved ice cream afterwards, watched the pixar parade, then jowena and i headed to practice. alex and britt stayed a bit before heading out to visit.

bMod pool party later on today???

i had myself a very full weekend.. let's go backwards..

---

sunday. after lunch, it was a pretty uneventful day until i get a call from jaysarmie with an invite to watch the game at her place along with cesar andrew and shelly. i get there a little late, at the end of first quarter when lakers were losing, but once i sat down and started watching they started picking up with the lead that carried them throughout the rest of the game. it was a good win for the lakers, but i wish it had that edge-of-your-seat suspense like it did at game 4. chips, beer, limoncho, and churros kept us all company for the game. we all headed our separate ways shortly after. right when i get home, my mom's packing stuff in the car get ready to leave for my sister's place in chino hills. perfect timing. i tag along. we get to my sister's and check out her new couch that kobe loves to sleep on. watch happy feet in hd, have some pizza, then head home. a relaxing sunday!

saturday. come to think of it, i think i just bummed it out at home..


friday. my first murder mystery dinner experience! for jean and rommel's birthdays. it was held at the El Cid restaurant in Los Angeles / Silverlake. Rommel, Kyleen, and I were the first ones there out of our group, so we started mingling with the other dinner-goers. the first person we met was Mandy, some girl from Louisiana.. we then got to meet and talk to a bunch of interesting people. this is already when the murder-mystery started as we are meeting with fellow dinner-goers.. but we're not entirely sure if they are really just there for the dinner or if they're actors in the program. but it started getting pretty obvious since some of the people we were meeting were a bit more animated than the average person eating at a dinner. except for "Steve," who was an actor, but acted in a way that was so low-key that he could have been just another person like all of us. but he was extra creepy.. had that serial killer look/attitude and loved disneyland of all things. anyway, the security guard was the first to die, followed by our friend steve, then mandy was poisoned. the experience wasn't as interactive as we'd have liked, but it was still a great show to watch, not to mention hilarious. the magician/host was a crazy comic who learned just about everyone's names (there were almost 100 people there) and made jokes just about anyone in the room.


thursday. i made it a point to hang out with alex tonight. it was his last day at the dorms and was going back home to san diego for the summer. after a bunch of planning mishaps, we finally settled that alex, jowena, and myself would go to wingstop in rancho cucamonga. i know a bunch of bmod was planning to go to level3 that night, but c'mon this is my little brother we're talking about. there was a huge backorder on wings because of the game so we had to sit at a table and wait for 40 minutes before we could order. so we just sat and talked for a bit. i knew alex was supposed to stay for half of the summer for classes and to look for a house to live in for the rest of the year. but with summer quarter cancelled by calpoly, i asked him what his plans were for the fall regarding housing. he then had a very flushed look on his face. that's when it hit me. he wasn't coming back to calpoly. housing and tuition are taking a big hit on the wallet, and with the lower quantity of classes offered for the rest of the year, his parents decided it would be best for alex to finish up school back home in sd. hiding my sadness with the situation, i proceeded to force myself to enjoy the rest of the night. wouldn't want to have alex leave on a sad note. after dinner and about an hour in the parking lot, jowena and alex gave their last goodbyes. i then took alex to cvs to get him his favorite beer, Blue Moon, and get back to the dorms, get our drink on, and help pack the rest of his stuff in his car. we drank, watched daft punk's interstella, and finally packed his car like a tetris puzzle. it was time for him to leave for riverside before he headed back to sd. we bid our last goodbyes.. and i headed home. i've never done well with goodbyes. and this was worse considering it had literally come out of nowhere. was not ready for that goodbye at all. after rk and elise, alex is the third of those i've come to call a 'best friend' move to or back to san diego. gonna miss my lil bro.

---

even with this fairly full weekend, i've been getting this feeling of detachment. like i don't belong. or like i'm slowly drifting away. i think i know what it means..

memorial day weekend = vegas;
memorial day weekend + vegas = traffic;
us = me (@byronface), rk, charmane (@CharmieE), jamie (@jaysarmie), maureen (@maureenrose), cesar (@ceezjr), andrew (@andrew_O) , eric, chloe, steve, aj (@itsAJ);
memorial day weekend + vegas + us = awesome;


saturday
leave diamond bar. TRAFFIC. arrive in Vegas. japenese buffet. FAIL on the wynn's cleaning crew who can't clean rooms in time for check-in making us wait 2 hours to get our room. arrive in room. NAP. bmv cake. DRINK. bump into KIM of CG happy bday! Lavo club. WATER SPLASH. cockblock! grand lux cafe.


sunday
wake up. pool bar. get ready. serendipity attempt. find out firefly will be closed tomorrow. firefly. filet mignon sliders. firefly fries. ham and cheese croquetas. FULL. bball game. DRINK. dance bance! bathroom rules. west wing bar. DRANKKKK. security.


monday
wake up. check out. serendipity attempt and SUCCESS! huge burger. saw long hot dogs. FRRROZEN HOT CHOCOLATE. forum shoppes. head home. 5+ hour traffic. random games and videos.

successful vegas trip!! another one in a month??

and man.. has it really been almost a whole year since my last time in Vegas? that is not acceptable.

dance bance.

fusion x was this past sunday.

bmod had a pretty good performance, but for me.. the event itself wasn't too enjoyable. i dont know.. the whole atmosphere backstage felt like it lost all sense of the dance community, especially in comparison to last year. it's not saying too much since last year was my first fusion experience.. but that experience just felt so much better. the dance teams backstage were mingling like no other. i felt like we were all there just to have fun and dance. but this time, it was lacking in so many ways, but at the same time in such a way that i can't put my finger on what was missing.. i thought it was a personal issue, but after talking to some people about the event as a whole, they agreed that something was missing from fusion this year. but i have to put some recognition on our runner, Angelica. she was so welcoming and friendly and our entire team loved her! one of the best runners we've had at any event!

much love and congrats to COMMON GROUND for placing third!! so proud of them! their set was amazing!!

aside from the weird/awkward/something-missing-but-i-cant-put-my-finger-on-it experience at fusion, the road trip down to san diego as a whole was awesome! after saturday night's practice, we all got our stuff together/ready and finally headed out to SD. our car consisted of: alex (driver), brittany, nick, jay, albert, jowena, karl, and myself. had a blast with my Catchphrase game that took up a good hour of the ride there. finally got to alex's house. once everyone arrived, we got settled and all fell asleep. the entire house was a huge hotel room pretty much. woke up to an awesome breakfast compliments of the manucal parents! loved their hospitality! finally headed out to fusion after a few group pics in front of the house.


in front of the manucal residence

oh yeah, i also got attacked by alex's maltese. :( :( :( sadness major. it sucks because the night we got there, Charlie loved me. would not leave my lap, and kept hopping on me to lay on. then the day after, i try to pet him and he bites the hell out of my hand. and alex is amazed because charlie never bites anyone!! and up to now, three days after, i can still feel a bruise-like pain where i was bit. bah.. alex and i are now even, because when alex visited me while i house-sat my sister's place, he got bit by kobe.. haha.

after fusion, we all headed to rigoberto's which turned out to be a huge fail because everyone and their mom was there and we didn't feel like waiting, ended up going to roberto's to eat, then finally heading back to pomona. alex almost falling asleep multiple times on the road.

a couple more pictures from fusion/ucsd:


alex and i at fusion doing our looking into the distance/sky emo pose


a sign in the UCSD parking structure. check out the dude's legs!! ahhaha

* * *
monday, the first day for what seems like a long time that bmod didn't have practice! alex was bored, so i picked him up and we headed to best buy for some random somewhat-shopping. i bought a cooling pad for my laptop. at first i thought it didn't work very well.. but that was because it was almost 90 degrees in my room.. but under normal laptop usage, i think it might work pretty well. a full-fledged review on the product in a later entry.

anyways, after best buy alex is hungry, so we go to in&out. i get something simple: fries and a milkshake. but he ate the world with a burger and fries.. and a few minutes later another TWO orders of fries. bro's a monster.

we then met up with kat, neil, and paul.. and head out to buffalo wild wings to end the night.

* * *
so can the hot weather stop already?! it's like spring just got skipped and the world went straight into summer! not enjoying it at all. but hope is nigh! today's high is supposed to be 79! which is almost 20 degrees cooler than these past two days. then the rest of the week (and even next week) will be in the lower 70's again.

random.. but as i typed this entry, my Time Warner Cable cut out and reconnected at least three times.. that's unacceptable! good thing i'm ditching this crappy internet service on thursday and replacing it with verizon FIOS. the deal we're getting isn't too much faster than what i have now, but it's still faster nonetheless, as well as cheaper, and hopefully a lot more reliable than TWC. goodbye TWC!!

the world is in an imbalance right now. a lot of bad things are happening to people close to me.. hopefully this bad spell passes soon...

happy easter everyone! if you're religious, then celebrate the rebirth of Christ! if you're not, then celebrate the weirdness of America randomly conjuring up a bunny that somehow lays eggs... ?

i had myself a very great day yesterday! started out waking up a little earlier than i wanted.. but in good reason. my dad's birthday is this coming monday and we decided to have lunch during the weekend. we took advantage of his free burger from red robin. all four of us headed out to my sister's in chino hills, then to red robin. i had myself the whiskey river bbq burger. finished my fries, and was too full to even request a refill on fries. we headed to yogurtland afterward. and to my delight, they had restocked on peanut butter yogurt! so peanut butter/chocolate yogurt + cap'n crunch.

chill back at my sisters' for a little bit.. then off i was to go home home and change, then head out to joe's sushi for jay and jessi's birthdays. joe's always makes for a great time. didn't do all-you-can-eat this time though.. i figured: i usually only eat 2-3 rolls worth when i get all-you-can-eat.. and on the menu, there's a three roll combo of my favorite rolls: california, spicy tuna, and the great crunch roll.. for only 13bucks! compare that to the 22 for all-you-can-eat!


me, rj, texas, anthony, and gino

after joe's and random picture craziness, we all start to head out to jasmine's for the bday bash! chill party, some randoms that were too drunk, some people that were too scary for our taste.. and you cant have a good party without the cops breaking it up..

with the party ended, a bunch of us headed up the hills of walnut and enjoyed each others' company with a view of the city. chilled there and took pictures before finally heading home.


hannah, rj, neil, and myself


texas, kim, and myself

as for Easter today, it's pretty relaxing. jamie came over and the three of us had a hefty lunch. a big slab of ham, bunch of bbq ribs, potatoes, rice, etc.

for those who remember my car getting broken into last month, i never went into detail about what happened to my radio.. it doesn't really work correctly anymore. none of the buttons do anything at all. it still plays CDs, but i cant change the track, or inc/decrease the volume, or switch to aux to listen to an iPod.. so i'm stuck with only listening to CDs the whole way through and blasting really loud.. it's pretty freakin lame.. but at least the new Rascal Flatts album "Unstoppable" was just released, gives me good reason to listen to a CD in its entirety.

today was the first time in a long time where i just literally stayed home for the entire day. i think the only time i went outside was when alex made a quick stop by before he headed down to san diego. i wont lie, it was nice to just bum it out rather than going out (although you know me, i'd much rather go out.. haha). but like always, when im by myself for an entire day, i think a lot. i asked myself why is it that i'm so addicted to being away from my house. and why is it that after practice i tend to stay as late as i possibly can, with no problem waiting for everyone to get their stuff together or having parking lot syndrome. and why i've grown to hate my drives home after practice.

it's because i'm leaving this group i've come to call my family.. and i'm on my way to a place where the sense of family has pretty much gone.. i feel more 'at home' when i'm with them at practice than when i'm actually at 'home.' bah..

anyways, tomorrow i have a full day ahead.. brunch at red robin for my dad's birthday.. then joe's sushi for dinner for jay's birthday.. then to jasmine's house in walnut for a jasmine/jessi/jay birthday bash celebration to end the night.

my mouth hurts. i've been eating sour skittles like nothing. haha.

i house-sat for my sister this weekend while she was at mammoth. got to spend some quality time with kobe, solid snake, and some good friends.

saturday night, alex got back from san diego and rounded some people together for a quick bite for some buffalo wild wings with him and brittany. i got my long awaited mango habanero fix. later, a few met us up: nick, jackie, april, and eric. after eating, i headed back to my sister's and ended the night there.

wake up sunday just in time to make myself a pizza and hash browns. head over to ma's house for a team meeting. off to in&out afterwards. then practice after that. after an early-ended practice, alex, jowena, and kat come with me to my sister's to keep me company, and so that they could study. they all meet kobe, who loved them. but they were allergic and i had to trap him in jamie's room. during a study break, i put on Planet Earth: Ice Worlds for them to be fascinated by. they left around 3am.

monday morning, i just bummed it out with solid snake. defeated Laughing Octopus before i packed up and left.

anyways, gg just finished downloading. woot. new drama tonight!

another bmod birthday has passed. this time: jowena.

check out this awesome cake alex's girlfriend, brittany, made for jowena!!


we had our performance at Pomona High School for the faculty vs seniors basketball halftime show. it was great. i messed up an eensy bit but hopefully you cant tell heh.

afterwards, we headed out to Joe's Sushi for an awesome as always dinner. largest crowd we had there yet! it was pretty damn awesome. all the "all-you-can-eaters" sat at a separate table to make things easier for service. and man did we eat. my favorite rolls there have to be the crunch roll and the peter roll. i'm amazed as to how much flavor a single roll can have. i dont know how peter does it! simply amazing.

being 'regulars' there now, we've earned free appetizers and sake bombs all around every time we visit. looks like this place is going to be the official bmod birthday dinner spot. after a handful of sake bombs with chef peter and julie, things we're getting pretty chaotic. more sushi orders from us = joe's running out of rice!

chilled with jowena and texas after at the crest for a bit after joe's.. headed back home to sleep.

few more pictures from the night:



CLICK HERE! to see the rest of the set.

post scriptum* there are some LOW people out there.. and i dont mean low like jowena's height, i mean low like DIRT low. take off that fake mask and show me your true colors. we are defenders. the swords are drawn. come at me! (that's what she said)

2008 is almost gone!

but it's ending pretty alright..

all four of us (five including kobe) spent christmas eve and christmas day at my sister's new place. christmas in general gets less and less hyped for me every year, but i've noticed our gatherings become more intimate.. if that makes any sense. we started our christmas eve at the pomona house for dinner, then we packed up all our stuff and presents into my sister's truck and headed to her place. after settling there for a bit, we headed out to the st. paul the apostle catholic church, which is a really nice church. when i heard we were going to a church in chino hills, i thought to myself, "hmm, i wonder if this is the church eddie and regina go to.." we got to the church 15 minutes early and it was PACKED. standing room only in the main cathedral. we were directed to a side-set mass in a smaller room, with more available seats. and i saw eddie singing in the choir! but the small room didn't have the grace and awesomeness of the big room, so we decided to stick it through and just stand in the main room. after we settled and found our standing spot, someone taps my shoulder. i turn around and it was nick! yay for seeing some of the bmod fam on christmas day! anyways, my family looked like a-holes because we left right after communion to avoid the crazy traffic that was sure to keep us from leaving any time soon. got back to jamie's and proceeded to eat and open presents. blazer jeans slacks jacket best buy card and tools! after settling down, we all head to sleep. the temporary couch in jamie's living makes for a very uncomfortable slumber area...

on christmas day, we have a quick lunch, and my dad comes back for dinner again. most of this night we just spent inside, and the rockbanding craziness ensued for hours. it was my dad's first time playing it and he was doing pretty well on both guitar and drums. my mom sticks to singing all the time. after a bunch of late night rockbanding and snacking, my mom and i decided to stay there another night. we leave pretty early the next morning, leaving kobe behind at my sister's permanently!! yeah, it's sad that kobe is moving out from the house also.. but since my sister is living by herself, and kobe seemed to be happily enjoying a new setting, it seemed like it was for the better. so my christmas was fine and dandy.. hope yours was just as great or better!

a couple days before christmas, bMod had an awesome performance at avalon's toys for tots drive. but the night ended in blurs since a bunch of us got a little crazy with the drinks.. ahem me vince carissa jackie arvin eric.. no bueno!! but a fun night indeed. CLICK HERE for the performance.

the day after christmas, some members of the team were dying to see one another after our almost 4 days away from each other, so we schedule a dinner at bj's. good times. then some of us head to wal-mart, and then i end my night rushing home, packing, and heading to cesar and andrew's to stay the night before snowboarding! i barely get any sleep, but who cares. we leave the house at 5am. and get to the mountain pretty early. so early that we were one of the first to get a run on the mountain! a very awesome session for me. landing more jumps. i finally carved and conquered down the diamond slope that always scared me to death!! but then i was dumb and tried to carve down an ice double diamond run.. ended bruising my knee. but made up for it with the last run where me rk and andrew literally sped down miracle mile without stopping. quite a rush!!


cesar rk me and andrew (not pictured: shelly and charmane)


but poor shelly fractured her pelvis from a pretty hard fall.. oh no!! get better!!

after snowboarding, the drive home was HORRIFIC. took over 3 hours.. people were just stupid driving down the mountain. how about this for an idea.. if you're going to stop to take your chains off your tires, how about doing it OFF the road? and not in the middle?

anyways, after a nice dinner courtesy of cesar's parents, i headed home for a quick change and shower then to locust lounge for terminal. busy night tonight woot! ended up great and ended blah.. so it canceled out and it was just a night.

anyways, for all the audiophiles out there - chris cornell (lead singer of the bands soundgarden and audioslave) just released a new single collabo with timbaland! the mixture sounds pretty freakin awesome. and upon further research, the solo album he's releasing, Scream, is going to be almost entirely produced by timbo with guests spots justin timberlake and some production from ryan tedder of onerepublic! i really can't wait for this! and i know some of you can't either.. so here is the first couple singles off the album, "Scream f. Timbaland" <-- click!

probably gonna see one more quick update before the year's end... til' then, goodbye!