.the gpb kids.

What Does Your Name Mean?

Posted by Jules - November 18, 2008 at 11:11:33 pm

I’ve been slacking on improving my chinese, but I’m determined to get back to that. Today, mike showed me that my macbook had a built in ability to type chinese. Woot. I’ll have to show it to my parents. In the mean time, I used my trusty resources to piece together what Mike’s name means. I used it to figure out the cantonese pronunciation as well, since he always pronounces it in mandarin. Cuz I’m biased like that. I’m pretty happy that I finally got around to figuring out how to pronounce his name though… hehe.. now I can use his chinese name when I’m mad. Right? Right?

The characters in parantheses signify verb, adjective and noun forms, respectively. Cantonese pronunciation is bracketed; mandarin pronunciation is not.  So Mike is a vibrating honor filled person? Or maybe he restores honor and glory? Hmmm.. what a bright and shiny name.

The Great Outdoors

Posted by Mike - July 26, 2008 at 09:07:21 pm

Went with the Cho siblings today to Muir Woods and Stinson Beach. The redwoods were as grand as ever, except one which fell recently. It was a big one too. It fell over one of the trails near the entrance so I wonder what they’re going to do with it.

We were pretty touristy and took lots of pictures of the hollowed out redwoods that you can stand in. After the redwoods we traveled north to the Hog Island Oyster Farm where we picked up 50 fresh oysters of various sizes. With seafood in tow we traveled back down to Stinson Beach and spent the rest of the afternoon scarfing down grilled oysters, corn, veggies, potatoes and cheesecake.

After the eats we bore witness to the most people I’ve ever seen on Stinson Beach. But… lame-o me didn’t take a picture of the masses. So this crazy Cho picture will have to suffice.

After all of that we drove back to Oakland, freshened up, and then went out to Mangia Bene out in Martinez for some delicious eats. Now I think it’s time for a nap.

Burgers, Darts, and What Have Yous

Posted by Jules - May 21, 2008 at 11:05:39 am

Yay, I’m back after cave status for awhile. Yesterday, my class finished a written test for our last required class ever. To celebrate, we all headed over to Devin’s apt, had a barbecue, chilled out, and played some Bang! One game took quite awhile, but it was fun. His place is so amazing~ I want a lemon tree!

Afterwards, we all headed out to Albany Bowl, but the wait was 30 min to an hour because of all the league bowlers! We decided to head out to Albatross instead to play darts. I was pretty horrible at first~ the darts didn’t even make it to the board! Though they did make it everywhere else- bouncing back to my feet, sticking in the carpet, the posters underneath the dart board, the wall… BUT I got way better as we played more games. Candice and I kicked butt in the end! We got 3 bulls eyes pretty early on! And consistently hit the high numbers. That was awesome. It probably helped that we were the two completely sober DDs in the group. But hey~ Playing darts also demonstrated yet again how truly nerdy we were. We changed our team names every round on the scorekeeping chalkboards. Matt, Devin and Emily called themselves MeSA (hormone that instigates plant defense, among other things). We (Candice, Josh and I) combated by calling ourselves SABP2, the esterase that cleaves MeSA. They counteracted with MeSA +SA, which we countered with SABP2 + JA (jasmonic acid antagonizes SA plant defense). And so the cycle goes.. We are nerdy… yeah…

So all in all, I spent around 12 hours straight with these guys. And I have to say that I love hanging out with my class~ you couldn’t find a better group of people who get along so well. We’re all so different, but we all mesh really well together. How lucky am I?

On Growing Up

Posted by Mike - March 5, 2008 at 08:03:31 am

Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my direction in life. The last time I seriously thought about my future was probably back in college, so it’s been a while. Back then I was probably only thinking about how to get money so I could keep playing video games. These days my thoughts have shifted to living without money, marriage and children.

In regards to money, is this the right career path for me? I’ve been developing websites for three years now. Is this something I want to do for the rest of my life? If so, what can I do to keep it exciting? I’ll have to figure that out soon I think. The time for changing career paths is going to pass me before I have a chance to peek out of my cubicle.

Jules and I each had a friend announce engagement last week. Are we really getting that old? The only married people I know are in their 30s. Well that’s not strictly true, but still, marriage feels so… old.

In another announcement week, a friend told Jules and I that she’s pregnant. I want to have children one day for sure and I often think about what kind of parent I’d be, but I think it’ll be a while before the time is right. I haven’t even decided on if this career path is right yet!!

Much to think about, and much growing up to do.

Snowboarding

Posted by Jules - January 24, 2008 at 01:01:54 pm

 

So this past weekend, Mike, Kim, Eddie + cousins, and I went to Boreal to go snowboarding. The weather was nice, and I think that this was the best attempt yet for me. Woo woo! Cookie for me! For better snowboarders, Boreal would be boring (short, easier runs), but this was just perfect for me. 

Born to be Wild

Posted by Mike - January 21, 2008 at 03:01:31 pm

My mom was in a mothers’ group when I was young. They would get together and let the kids run wild. Although I don’t wear sandals on my bike these days, I do still have broken peddles.

Today I was home teaching my mom how to scan and email photos. I flipped through a few books of photos that I haven’t seen in years. Made me want to scan a bunch of post them all over the place. Maybe one day I’ll go home and swipe the books. >_>

Yahoo! Year End Party

Posted by Mike - December 11, 2007 at 11:12:49 am

I haven’t written much lately and this isn’t going to be my big comeback post, but I thought I’d put this picture up from the holiday party.

That is all. Hopefully more posting in the near future.

Submission

Posted by Mike - November 18, 2007 at 12:11:43 am

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—
for we are members of his body.
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

– Ephesians 5 (22-33)

My friend was married today and this passage seemed to be an important part of it. The pastor spoke on it for a good 30 minutes. Emphasizing the husband’s role as head of the family and the wife’s as, well, subservient. He pointed out that while the wife has the right to speak her views and make suggestions, the final word would be that of the husband.

I was waiting for Jules to get up and light her bra on fire in protest. But our friend seems happy enough with the arrangement even though they only met in December. But, good luck to them. I hope their marriage is happy and fulfilling.

Friends old and new

Posted by Mike - October 1, 2007 at 11:10:46 am

On Saturday I got to meet up with some old friends. I think I became friends with Dagan in second grade. We lived pretty close to each other and were both in the same Cub Scouts den. We had an interesting relationship in that we had separate groups of friends at school but after school we hung out a lot. At one point we both had paper routes and since we lived so close, we would use CB radios to communicate.

So Dagan and I met for lunch and a drink and caught up a bit. We do that maybe once a year or so. But like he was telling me, it’s good to have someone that you can just jump into conversation with. Doesn’t really matter what point in your life you’re at. You just hop right in, catch up and keep going.

I had a similar experience with Ian, a friend from before I can remember. We haven’t really kept in touch and I hadn’t seen him in around a decade. But he sent me an email last week stating that he was back in the bay area. So I invited him to a party, and we caught up. It’s funny that a lot of his mannerisms haven’t changed at all. Still the same guy. Very comforting. I think we’ll hang out more often now. Once per decade doesn’t really cut it.

This Past Week

Posted by Jules - August 14, 2007 at 02:08:11 pm

The result of my wall painting efforts. Wall 1:

Heading out to see the Hong Kong Children’s Orchestra:

Some highlights for the night:

Funny Item #1:

My old Chinese Choir teacher, Sister Teresa, was at the concert (retired from SF back to Portland last year).

Sister Teresa: How’s your Sai Lo? (at this point her inflection sounded like Child. As in MY child)

Me: Um, beg your pardon??? (My friend Chi also looked at her weirdly, because he heard the same thing)

Sister Teresa: You have a Sai Lo, right?

At this point she uses a slightly different inflection (read: correct), eyes Chi, and then it clicks. She was actually saying Sai Lo. Little Brother. Different Emphasis.

Me: Oh, that’s just a family friend. My brother is older than me.

Funny Item #2:

I was talking to Chi, and was telling him that my grandmother didn’t really get or fully appreciate music (she likens music to sawing and noise; Ngee Ngee Ngaw Ngaw, if you will). And he looked over at my grandmother, sitting at the edge of her seat, staring intently ahead. “See, she appreciates music. Look how interested she is”. And at that point, my grandmother suddenly burst out with, “That guy is REALLY bald on the back of his head!!”. Ah, so that’s what she was looking at. Music, what music?

At a bakery for some bahn mi

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