NOT MUCH TIME LEFT B4 THE INEVITABLE....
now that i think about it. Only a wkend left b4 the fall sem starts... along w/ the pain and hurting... oh mann. Still trying to make the most of the time left w/ my roomie vic. Well, today was Calapalooza, an annual thingy that Cal puts on for the incoming freshmen, similar to a club rush. Its pretty much a real big club rush. The only reason y i wanted to go this time was to c the CalWushu guys do their stuff. It was their demo last yr at Calapalooza that got me hooked into wushu. So, naturally i wanna c my buddies perform and all. Nothing like a good exhibition of artistry, athleticism, precision, extreme coordination... and the list goes on. Yea, so i get vic to go watch the wushu demo over near Memorial Glade. I got to c many familiar faces, along w/ a lotta familiar forms. Plus there were some faces i havent seen yet, and they were pretty awesome too. All in all, this was the stuff that made me join and become entralled w/ martial art once again. But, there was something at home waiting for us, that happened to arrive earlier that morning...
Sleep on the floor wasnt that bad... but doin that for 5 days straight wasnt too good either. So, when vic and i came back to the pad, there it was, sittin in the bedroom. Encased in 2 boxes, one elongated, one rectangular, it was jus mocking us... After putting off assembling the thing for 30 min, then an hr, we decided that we should finally assemble the thing. Rippin apart the boxes, there was a pretty pleasant surprise. The end pieces of the beds came fully pre-assembled. All we had to do is put together the frames, and put the beds one atop the other. Simple stuff... but we were in for a bit of a haul. We had to hold in place the end pieces along w/ the boards that connected them together, align the pre-drilled holes, and screw them in place. The pre-drilled holes werent very drilled... we had to kinda finish the job. Another problem came w/ the way the things connected. There were these rods that slid into the boards, holdin the screws in place. That gave us problems cause the holes apparently didnt line up right sometimes... and then when we tried to power the trouble-maker screws in the bed frame... they wouldnt budge. Any more force and we woulda cracked the wood. Whacked up. So, that was annoying, and we found out soon enough that the order the screws went into place made a difference. If we put in the bottom screw first, then the metal rods within the boards would be held in place. No fuss, no muss. Learning from the experience, we assemble the 2nd bed frame, and place it on top of the bottom one. Attach the ladder, and there u have it, bunk bed goodness. Now to put on the Sultan Manskenn (??) mattressses. (I wanna learn swedish jus to find out what those names mean at IKEA). Total time of assembly: a good 3 hrs. I think i still have some sawdust in my pants... doh. However, lying down in the new bed, i feel contented. It feels pretty nice... well, time to enjoy what i have left of free time now... take care yall. More to come soon.
THE BERKELEY SAGA CONTINUES...
well, its not so much a saga... but its been awhile since i updated, so this will be a pretty long post. Yea, so finally my days of jus lounging about, having no job or schoolwork to do, hanging out w/ buddies of mine, at their homes, cyberworld/gamers x (a little more than i should have), at the batting cages, at camelot, goin to six flags and raging waters, watching mad amounts of anime (well, at least for me)... had to come to an end, well most of it, hehe. Yea, fall sem was around the corner, and i had to get a headstart, since i didnt have much back at the ol' apt. So, heres the little recap of the days in berk up till now....
The arrival on Friday mornin was a little unorthodox, but it wasnt too bad. Had to drop off me sis at her ol' friends house in Irvine, since she would gripe about bein in berk the whole entire trip... her friend grown so much since the last time i saw her... man, reminds me of a tree... Yea, so we dropped her off, and took off on the 5... at 10 PM. Pretty weird, but my dad is hardcore like that. So, arriving in berk about at 4 in the mornin, i call mark so that he wont be surprised to c some1 that early. Turns out that he went to bed jus 5 min b4 i called... celebratin the last day of summer sessions, hehe. Yea, so in that state of limbo were sleep is dawning, but the body still manages to move, i gathered up all my stuff in the apt. After a light nap for the whole family, we go over to Ikea to get the furniture I need. The best buy for a desk turned out to be the same exact desk that Mark got... a white little number that was pretty cool. Had to get bunk beds, since there wasnt that much room in the apt, but i had to negotiate that w/ Vic, so i decided to wait. So, onward to Office Max to get a chair. Found a pretty good leather one that was 50 bucks off. Not too shabby. It looks kinda like the one Mark has back at the apt too... if this trend continues, we might have a hardcore pc bang goin in our room, heheh. So, all the stuff needed assembling and such, so that took a good while. Slowly, our room started to fill up. After some lunch, we headed on over to Costco for some necessities and supplies. I didnt get much tho... i couldnt think about it at the time. In retrospect, i should have stocked up. Everytime my mom asked me "Do u need anything" repeatedly... i didnt kno what to get. And as i look now, theres quite a bit i need... Well, every1 needs some downtime to refresh the mind and body, so my mom and dad took a slight nap b4 heading back on the road. And then Don was supposed to come that very night too...
So, technically it was the next morning (midnight or so) when Don calls up Mark. Turns out he missed the last Richmond BART train heading towards Berk. Doh. Luckily Don catches a cab to the BART station. Pretty close to our pad, so Mark picks him up, and theres Don in the flesh. POW POW POW. So, what to do next. Naturally, 2 comps hooked up and cs on each.... self explanitory. Theres was lotsa cs action for a good while, maybe up until 4 in the morning. Time for sleep. Waking up a while later, a good while later, Mark and Don go to a mansion type house in Fremont. Listening to them talk about it, i wondered how that kinda place can exist up here in nor cal... theres pretty much no room up here, so crowded and tight... Well, anyway, they had to pick up some parts for a comp that Mark volunteered to build. Pretty sweet pieces of hardware that he brought back... that aluminum case was pretty light, w/ the neon light the icin on the cake... but a little pricey for my taste. Well, his parents took him out for most of the afternoon, leavin me and Don to fend for ourselves, lunch-wise. Afterwards.... a little more cs action, as always. Mark came back that night, and it was time to assemble the tower. I dunno where to start w/ the whole business, so pretty much i saw attach the mobo, snap in the RAM and such... and so on. My knowledge of piecing together a comp has slightly improved, hehe. Putting it together wasnt bad... making it work was a different matter. First it seemed like the connector to the mobo to the cd drives didnt work. Then, it didnt detect a hard drive... and yea, thats how it went for a good 2 hrs. Main thing after that was gettin xp to work. After a bit of tweaking, Mark managed to get everything necessary on the thing... and by this time, it was 5 in the morning. We fell asleep at around 6.... oh man... hope this isnt a trend.
Sunday, time to switch places. Mark gets ready to drive back down to socal after gettin all his books together for the next sem. After a little cs action and excel saga. (side note: excel saga is one of the most random things ive ever seen, anime or otherwise. Its still funny tho... hehe, and the theme is catchy... but still very random). Vic then arrives fresh from socal at around 4. We gather his things and set them down back at our pad. Settling him in a little bit, we head on over for some dinner at a place Mark mentioned the day b4. He wasnt kidding about the place. I never knew that kinda place existed in berk. For the 1st time up in Berk, i was genuinely, happily full after a meal, and thats quite the compliment. It was this chinese place, almost reminded me of home. Yea, so waiting for awhile (more than i would have liked, but the place was real crowded for its size), the dishes came out one after another. Good stuff indeed. And then something weird happened. I looked up into the window, and there was Dwight, a good guy i knew back in SCKY. After he recognized me, he came in and said that he was goin to berk this year. Oh yea, always great to have another calbear, w00t. Yea, and the kicker was that he lived on Dwight too. HAHAH... Dwight living on Dwight Way.... HAHA..... anyway, that was pretty interesting. Yea, so coming back, pretty much same story. Don and i got in some more cs action, while Vic went hardcore on MoH and War3. Yeap, same ol', same ol', but still good. Estimated time of sleep? 3 in the morning. Oh man, its happening...
And it takes us to today... time to get Vic settled in more. Another Ikea run w/ Vic, his dad and lil' sis, and me taggin along. So, i pushed the same desk that Mark and i got... it would be cool to have uniform desks... hehe. It was the best deal after all. But, it was pretty much outta stock, so we'll get that sometime later. Vic ended up gettin a dresser drawer and the bunk bed frame w/ 2 mattresses. The bed's coming in around thurs, so more sleepin on the floor. Tsall good, at least its somewhat warm, hehe. Then, off to Office Max to get Vic a snazzy chair. And it was pretty snazzy, almost the same as mine and Mark's... we're goin to create a bonafide pc bang!!! hehe. After helpin us a bit to assemble the chair, Vic's dad had to leave to San Jose, so we were left to finish off the dresser. No problem, its cake, w/ some time required to bake, hehe. Jus the two of in the apt now... ehh. Jon calls me up afterwards and i decide to visit the ol' guys from 1c39. Dinner at Bongo Burger was pretty good too. Yea, so Peter and Chris r roomin together. Jo is living in the Gaia (small.... sooo small, but cable and t3.... ehh). Jon got a good sized room not too far from the ol' suite. Every1 seems to be doin pretty well, nothing's changed pretty much. Good stuff. Heading on back w/ Vic, i find myself here, and i think i might have written a little too much...
Well, if u had the patience to read this much, ill finish up w/ a reflection. The summer past b4 my eyes w/ incredible speed, i wasnt even aware that it was over until i got here. But, i treasure every moment of it. I realize a little more each day that i will have less and less opportunities to have pretty much no worries at all. To do absolutely nothing, jus watch anime and hang out and such. This upcoming fall sem will be hard and trying, most of my time devoted to studies, and wushu, hehe. But, in that little isolated snag in time called summer, i got to enjoy lifes little, and in some cases most valuable, moments. I couldnt imagine a place w/o my friends by side, my family always there for me. This summer was awesome, and i thank every1 for making it so enjoyable and memorable. U kno who ur, hehe. Oh well... god help me this sem. Ill need all the help i can get... *sigh*.
Well, take care yall. More to come soon...
