토요일 오후 200 (sat, 200p): i'm @ 6398 camden ave, werking as a real estate agent... sort'f... i'm hosting an open house. it's my mom's listing, n' the beautiful kaela hwang's @ betty's bridal shower ("toby n' betty" betty). their wedding's next month; crazy, huh? it must be hektic 4 them, but i didn't get a chance to really talk to toby on thurs when he called. this wknd's his bachelor party in las vegas, but i told the guys i can't go. *sigh* already, u know i'm not a big fan'f las vegas 4 several reasons. i know i should've made an exception 4 my good, longtime friend toby in celebration'f his getting married, but *sigh* i mean... it just didn't cm right 4 me to go, u know? i dunno. after all, i figured i could use the $$$ to buy them a better present instead, u know? u know i didn't really have a bachelor party. i mean... u know how the nite went: we had a co.ed wedding shower, n' then the guys n' gurls split up. nelson took me over to his friend's house party, an 1980s them party. i had a good time, but it wasn't really a "bachelor" party, u know? n' i'm totally fine w/ that. i know some ppl'd say a man's not s'pposed to talk 'bout what happened @ his bachelor party, but u know... 4 the most part, i try not to do things that i wouldn't talk 'bout to the publik... not that i'm a sinless man or nething like that! far from it! there's a diff btwn recognising that u'r a sinner n' rejoicing in the fakt that u'r a sinner. :-/ neway, i dunno what the guys r doing in vegas rt now, but like... i mean, on an unrelated note; me, i've never done those bachelor party things, namely gone to a strip club. never. as a stoopid freshman in my foothill dorm @ berkeley my area hired a stripper to come n' strip 4 our very pious, devout christian ra (ra = r.a. = residential assistant = the dude or dudette that busts u 4 doing bad things in ur dorm). it was really silly. some woman came n' stripped down to lingerie, while sort'f dancing to u2's mysterious ways, which is really interesing since 1990s berkeley christians considered that song a very spiritual song. neway!!! the whole nudity, sex, n' sin thing sure is overpublicised! really, not every1 biggest temptation 4 sin is a naked human body, etc. there r many other sins in this world besides sexual lust, u know? appreciation of the human form (or function) doesn't necessarily equate to sexual lust, u know? just think: there're so many wonderful pieces'f art that depikt the female, naked body, u know? r they durty pieces'f trashy pornography? no, they're not. in fakt, 1 must differentiate btwn erotica n' pornography, u know? *shrug* ha! the cynic scoffs sooo hard here: "yah, guys sure dl a lot'f computer erotica!" yah, yah, scoff all u want; i don't give a cr@p. *sigh* we've gotta really re.examine human nature n' furthermore human sinful nature n' stop just assuming everything u c on nbc is true.
neway, i'm here @ this open house. if only u had a time machine, u ought to travel back in time after reading this n' come visit me. time n' space, u know? space.time continuum... fly me to da moon. it's a durn hot day here in the almaden valley. i'm here, right 'cross the st from my elementary skool alma mater: simonds elementary skool. rt now, i have no guests. perhaps that's cos it's such a durn hot day here in the almaden valley. do u know almaden valley? it's 1'f the snobbiest neighbourhoods'f san josé, 1 could say. certain areas'f it r really ritzy. it's not necessarily the snobbiest or richest neighbourhood in the silicon valley or the bay area. it's not necessarily the most elitist or "white." i grew up here in the almaden valley, n' things've changed. in general, i'll definitely say w/o doubt that it's a better neighbourhood than it was when i was growing up. definitely, we've got even more mansions here now than we did back in my day. me, i grew up in a modest 2.story, middle.class home. ... :-o ough! i just witnessed a horny mourning dove akting like a horny pigeon, chasing a female mourning dove cross the fence. in ne case, where was i? oh yah, the almaden valley... yah, i grew up here, playing youth soccer: almaden valley youth soccer league or whatever... our colours, back then were green n' yellow. heaven knows what they r now. *sigh* while growing up here, were there ne fast fud joints? well, when we 1st got here when i was in kindgergarten, there was a taco villa @ the via valiente plaza off of almaden expwy near rajkovich. (i 4get how to spell that streeth, but it's pronounced "ray ko vitch" n' looks like some kind'f indian or eastern european name, i guess...) uh, did rajkovich exist back then? i 4get. it was a li'l more'f a modest neighbourhood when my family moved in, n' then the wealth'f silicon valley just sort'f poured in, u know? silly valley... more mansions popped up on the hillsides. it's a valley. here, in the real almaden valley, we don't have those (whadya call'em?) big box (?) stores. the via valiente strip mall has a pw supermarket n' now a longs drugs. it has a round table pizza that, a long time 'go, used to be pizza world or sumpthin' like that... *shrug* i don't think i ever really visited pizza world, altho' my mom, after finishing some computer programming nite skool class had a party there w/ her class, i think. i did, however very frequently patronise round table pizza. i was a very fat kid n' could pretty easily finish 0.5 a large king arthur's supreme pizza by myself in 1 sitting. maybe it wasn't that easy, but i could've done it. w/ the thick crust, i would've failed, but w/ the thin crust i would've been such a success n' was! ...if u call that success. i apologise 4 the train'f thought style'f writing, but i gotta mention here that all i ate 2day so far was a bowl'f "red berry" special k 4 breakfast n' a cup'f lowfat strawberry cheesecake yogurt 4 lunch. 
now, i return u to ur regular programming. the almaden valley... yah, it's a quaint place. however... i personally think it's very misdefined. the geographical definition'f the boundaries'f almaden valley or else the almaden valley were diff than what ppl commonly use 2day. back in our day, when we sed "almaden valley" or "almaden," we were referring to the region bounded by:
new paragraph... the almaden valley was 1nce orchards, as was the rest'f silly valley. almaden valley, i s'ppose, was 1nce sort'f known 4 its quicksilver (mercury) mines. the 49er gold rush prospektors needed mercury to extrakt gold from *shrug* other stuff. i've hiked in the quicksilver park hills many, many times as a kid. i was a cub scout, u know. i hiked there w/ cub scouts, w/ my family, w/ my good childhood friend, n' w/ church (i think). back in the 1980s in the park, u would find either good, nature.lovin' hikers or else pot.smokin' stoners (trying to smoke pot w/o gettin' caught), u know? those were the original ozzy.heads, 1s that would never have imagined that ozzy osbourne would have his own tv show w/ his wife n' kids. me, i totally don't condone the use'f marijuana. however, i don't need to talk 'bout that now. instead, i'm s'pposed to write more 'bout almaden valley. *sigh* well... *shrug* i grew up 'mongst pretty elitist n' sheltered kids. i say that only in retrospekt. as a stoopid, fat kid; i obviously accepted all that as the norm. u can understand, can'tchu? if not, that's 2 bad 4 u. kids 'round me really worried 'bout wearing the right brand.named clothes, u know? designer this, designer that. however, no! we weren't quite beverly hills kids. we didn't really know hi fashion. we didn't really know all that gucci, prada, fendi, escada stuff or nuthin'. don't think that i'm saying that we were 90210 n' all, no! we weren't. we were just @ that level'f snobbiness that required every1 to shop @ macys, u know? it could've been worse. santana row didn't yet exist. instead, it was just that (pardon my ukranian) $#!++y li'l town n' country village mall. ha! someday, some wise@$$'ll refer to "that $#!++y li'l santana row"!!! ha ha, "rotflmao," as some ppl say. (other ppl say, "rotflmaoymfbamf," just imagine that @$$ isn't the only wurd there that might be considered obscene. heh heh. me? i really don't swear much.)
as i've got off.topik 'gain (i think), i request to start a new paragraph. is this a long entry? i'm typing on my targus stowaway keyboard connekted to my handspring visor edge. b4 i get further off topik... almaden valley! well, as gordon n' i discussed on our way to dodge ridge w/ kaela back this past winter, the almaden valley had less asians when we were younger. however, 1 must realise that the asian population in the alamden valley peaked. 4 a while, it went up; then it dropped, i believe. or 'least "the delta" or 'the rate of change" decreased. engrs use that term "delta" a li'l or 'lot. when i was in hi skool @ leland hi skool, the asian population, 'specially the asian immigrant population really shot up. asian immigrants were mostly from taiwan, i'm sure. the next biggest group'f immigrants? i dunno; i think they'd prob'ly be south asians (indians), right? yah, mainland chinese or hkers (hk = hong kong, of course) n' koreans were definitely up there 2. (however, i never really knew if these mandarin speakers were direkt from the mainland or else immigrants via taiwan or what, u know? it's a really fuzzy area in definition.) 4 a short time 'round my graduation, a 99 ranch supermarket existed near but not in the almaden valley. it was off blossom hill. i believe that x.street's snell, but my memory sometimes stinks. as i grew up, my dad'd really try to get me to 'member street names, saying that someday i'd hafta drive n'd need to know the names'f streets. obviously, i was somewhat reluktant but the knowledge sort'f seeped in here n' there but not 100%. that 99 ranch had a fatal flaw, w/o ne doubt in ne1's mind: the 99 ranch developers failed to buy out the entire mall n' convert it into an asian mall. that was such a fatal flaw, but i'm sure the developers weren't to blame as i'm sure they tried. that 99 ranch had to close up shop not 2 long into my college yrs. that event really defined the end'f the asian influx into almaden valley. that event proclaimed way up hi on a mtn top that cupertino, el camino (sunnyvale / santa clara), n' saratoga had ultimately triumphed as the top east.asian bizness/commerce areas. [just a tad bit later, after helping some guests] let's not be 2 stoopid tho' but rather keep in mind that ppl don't necessarily all wanna live right by the shops that they patronise or operate. el camino real rt by our house in santa clara is filled w/ korean n' indian biznesses, but the houses in my neighbourhood r mostly filled w/ white ppl, i think. still, just think: can u possibly argue that cupertino is not a city w/ lots'f asians? of course, cupertino's most famous to the world as apple 'puters' headquarters. does apple employ lots'f asians? *shrug* do i know ne asians that werk @ apple? do i know ne ppl that werk @ apple? when i was in hi skool, 1 mormon family @ my skool, their dad werked @ apple.
2day, to drop kaela off @ betty's bridal shower n' later pick her up so that she could let me into the open house n' then take my car back to the bridal shower, i drove thru cupertino n' the area'f san josé that borders saratoga n' thus is often mistaken 4 saratoga. it is filled w/ asian biznesses. u c real asian biznesses such as asian cafés, not those fake chinese restaurants that really cater to the so.called amerikan palate. u know? u jive? u c signs in chinese, 1s that really say stuff, not just jibberish icons that spell out some senseless poetic mumbo jumbo that discribes some restaurant as li'l dragon house or little hong kong or flower gold lake this or that... chinese characters sure look nice n' catch ppl's attention even when they don't say nething. some 2nd generation asian.ams like to poke fun @ the asians back in the muthland, saying that they're so easily impressed by english wurds on a t.shirt. in fakt, ca$hiers in korea always sed my signature was so "멋있어요" ("muhsissuhyo") or "멋있다" ("muhtittda") depending on how 4mal they wanted to speak. they were just impressed @ how fast i could write roman letters, u know? well, shoot! i wish i could have a kewl korean signature like 장나라 아니면 짱나라 "jjang" nara, right? yah, i can sign my name in korean as beno hwang or else hwang myuhngrok, but it never looks that kewl. uh... was i not speaking 'bout the almaden valley? no, i switched over to discussing asian demographics in the silly valley. ok.
well, 1'f the set'f guests that came was a asian mutha w/ her 10 or 11 yr old son. she sed she had 'nother son in leland hi skool. personally, i was a li'l surprised cos i thought she looked a li'l young to have a kid in hi skool, middle skool, ok, but not so much hi skool... but we all know that as we mature ppl look younger to us, right? neway, i mentioned that i grew up in the almaden valley n' went to skool right 'cross the st, etc. her son had just finished simonds elementary skool, n' she sed she had lived in the almaden valley since the late 1970s. that means, she'd lived there b4 i did, so i s'ppose she could tell u better 'bout its history. however, i'm the 1 writing here, n' i sure talk 2 much, in general (if u know me), so u'r stuck w/ my rendition whether u like it or not! in ne case, i'm off the almaden valley topik 4 now n' on to asian demographics in the silly valley. well, what's there to say? there r lots'f asians in the silly valley. taiwanese n' mandarin speakers basikally own cupertino n' the area near saratoga, n' koreans n' indians own el camino real in sunnyvale n' saratoga. those r just obvious fakts. now what 'bout the east side? i really haven't spoke much 'bout the east side. i guess, i'm just a west side kind'f guy like yoo seungjoon, that b@d@$$ mofo! ok, let's move on to discuss east san jo n' milpitas etc.
when u go 2wards the east hills, the demographics do change, n' u can't deny that. i think 2wards the east, that area used to be pretty chicano.dominated. during the 1980s thru 1990s n' then much furthermore in during the glorious dot com days, i guess the east side turned into a jumbo li'l saigon. definitely, the *shrug* southeast asians really took over the east side. u want a good vietnamese sandwich or else authentic pho? well, shoot! u should've joined bally total fitness w/ kaela n' me n' we could've hit up some really good vietnamese joints 2gether, don'tcha know? altho' i grew up in san jo, i don't know 'nuff 'bout vietnamese culture to discuss those cafés w/ the scantily, skimpily dressed waitresses w/ the silikone breasts. i've never been to 1 but used to hear lots 'bout them when we 1st moved back to san jo.
so east san jo is very vietnamese n' southeast asian. as u move along up north along 680 or 880, u'll go thru some north san jo areas b4 getting to milpitas. asian demographics? yes. i believe it's still pretty vietnamese out there. *shrug* then u get to milpitas, n' u get the 99 ranch mall on barber lane. on some weekend day, prob'ly over 0.5 a decade 'go, my mom n' i visited that barber lane strip mall; n' my mom commented that it was so crowded n' humidly cloudy that it felt just like taiwan. *sigh* yah, i can imagine. i mean... now i can [do] more than imagine, as i've visited taiwan 2ice since then. barber lane's 99 ranch mall gets very crowded. u can get great taiwanese n' chinese fud there, but i haven't hit up that spot all that much lately. 4 1 thing, it is extremely crowded n' the parking search... well, if i were to say it rivals trying to find a student parking spot @ san josé state university's garage on a weekday morning in fall, i'd be sooo lying cos that's reallybad. rather, hrm... on a bad day @ barber lane, it's almost like trying to find a shaded parking spot @ valley fair on a spring or summer day. u, of course, know that the parking space hunt @ valley fair is worst during the christmas season cos u'r a smart person since u'r reading the beno journal n' all, u einstein, u! i imagine there r 'lot'f taiwanese n' chinese professionals living in milpitas. uh, it doesn't take much'f an imagination 4 that; it's aktually very obvious. ok, well, if u travel more north up 880 u'll hit this trio of cities: fremont, union city, n' newark. some ppl think that fremont, union city, n' newark constitute the "tri.cities" else or the "tri.city," which is mentioned in the name'f tri.city sporting goods, which i believe is the best place to buy snowbarding equipment. me, i always thought the tri.cities were fremont, pleasanton, n' dublin; after all tri.city sporting goods used to have a store in dublin, i believe. *shrug* some who really knows what he/she's talkin' 'bout (unlike me) can give u a real answer. neway, when u get to fremont, i believe the demogrphics do shift. 1st off, fremont has lots'f indians n' south asians. if u want to challenge my statement, feel free; but i'm pretty certain. the fremont - newark - union city area also has lots'f pinoy/pinay. u know 'bout manila taekwondo, right? rn't they in union city? or... hrm... what was the place that chals/charles/chulho went to 4 taekwondo as a kid? oh, was it manila taekwondo? maybe. if u want a real answer instead'f my stoopid answer, maybe u can ask him. there r other pinoy taekwondo skools in that area, i'm pretty sure. union landing has a jollibee's. i've yet to go to a jollibee's, but i know they have some kind'f hamburger w/ a fried egg in it. union landing's always crowded w/ lots'f youngsters... lots'f hi skoolers or else community college kids, i guess. 'nother area'f the bay area that cms to have 'lots'f pinoy/pinay is the south san francisco / daly city area. some ppl call daly city "dc" (d.c.). only recently did it dawn upon me that san mateo can be translated as "saint matthew." 4 that, some ppl'd call me really dense.
ok, earlier this wk, i knew i'd be sitting in this open house writing my journal entry; but i'd that i'd be doing a recap'f the wk's event instead'f trying to lekture'n asian.am demographiks in the bay area. after all, i'm hardly qualified to do that! however, u prob'ly have less ammunition to argue 'gainst my belief in what events took place in my life this past wk, right? *shrug* i dunno; i s'ppose if i claimed to have won a free throw contest 'gainst some nba all.star this past wk, u'd argue that i was lying. well, no, i didn't; n' i never sed that i did. what else did i not do this wk? get 'nuff exercise. i'm ultimately unhappy 'bout that. i really should've gotten more exercise this past wk. i was s'pposed to go to the gym on mon but played tennis on the longest day'f the yr outside @ the nearby hi skool w/ kaela n' sooni on the side instead. u know what? that's totally fine w/ me. that was totally appropriate. i'm glad i played tennis on this past mon nite instead'f going to the gym. however, why didn't i visit the gym on wed nite? oh yah, i went to uh... what did i do? well, i guess i stayed @ werk.com late n' then took sooni w/ kaela to petco. yah, that's what we did. sooni needs to be fed, u know? on tues nite, u know, we went to dinner w/ my dad, sue, my profs, n' my dad's asme buddies. we know that. after that, we went to rivermark safeway to do a slightly abridged version'f our wkly safeway@rivermark shopping trip. as u should know or might not, we got groceries @ costco on sun afternoon, didn't we? yes, we did. i also wanted to hit up hangook market or galleria market, but we didn't. instead, i washed my car, mowed the lawns, etc. those r important things, u know. u really do know. also, on sun, i believe, we tried to buy toby n' betty's wedding present. we failed, if i 'member correktly, but ended up getting it on thurs nite, right? right. thurs nite was my big male.pms nite. the hi.lite'f that nite, i s'ppose was eating 곱장_순두부@명동순두부.com gobjang soondubu @ myuhngdong soondubu, but my stuffed sinuses prevented me from really enjoying the dinner to the max. u know, it's now possible to have non roman characters in domain names, right? u can have hangeul domain names, but i'm pretty sure 비노믹스.com'd be only visited by me. :-( rt? oh! how sad, right now, i have 2 howling, li'l doggies in the garage behind my chair in this open house's eating area (connekted to the kitchen). i heard that the doggies r a daschund n' a mop doggy, but i... [a li'l later] i was gonna say "i have yet to c them," but the owner's son just came in n' went to the garage n' i caught an infinitesimally short glimpse'f the mopdog. neway, the doggies were both howling. i think they were howling cos they could smell or hear the son approaching the house. ha, i'm not saying that the dude smelled bad; it's just that doggies, as u'f course know, have good senses'f smell or else a good sense'f smell.
ok, so back to my recap'f the wk: no, i didn't get 'nuff exercise this wk. on thurs, b4 going to the mall w/ kaela to pick up the wedding present, i went to the university to discuss my paper or projekt report w/ my dept's chairman. he clarified what i need to do to make sure i graduate in may 2004. as u know, it's now june, but the dept can ensure a retroaktive graduation date 4 me as long as i revise my paper to fit their strikt format. it's all formatting stuff. the profs n' the dept r fine w/ my paper's content; it's just formatting. now i just saw that horny mourning dove 'gain. 'lright, what else happened this wk? hrm... well, as i sed, we finished watching chuhngookuy gyeidan (stairway to heaven). those'f u stuck in the 1970s w/ ur musik r likely curious whether the show used the ol' led zep tune or not. well, if u'r a real zep fan, uh... i guess i should apologise cos they did use the led zepelin tune... a totally muzak, elevator muzik version.
[later] 849p: speaking'f "stairway to heaven," the benocritic ought to pt out that this entry is full'f 1 particular thing (not a 4.letter wurd): i keep talkin' 'bout sins n' stuff like that n' either pting out that i don't do them or else trying to justify whatever questionable behaviour or opinions i have, u know? the astute benocritic knows this n' *shrug* sez "worst... entry... ever!" or sumpthin' to that effekt. *shrug*
well, kaela picked me up in my car from the open house. i was really hungry. we picked up all the open house signs i had set out in the hot sun. we drove home. i ate some ribs that kaela brought from the texas.themed bridal shower. we gave the bones to sooni. oh yah, b4 i realised that kaela had ribs, i ate a microwaved soy hot dog. we dilly.dallied n' planned to take sooni 4 a bath @ pet fud express. we dilly.dallied 2 much; by the time we got there, they'd closed their self.service pet wash 4 the nite. i think the manager could tell i was really disappointed, so he gave us a coupon 4 a free pet wash! :-) even tho' i like petco cos'f our dukkyung hookup, i gotta say that pet fud express surely is a really conscientious, customer.oriented store, u know? the 1st ever pet fud express was founded on mlk jr. way in berkeley not 2 far from where kaela n' i used to live! :-)
we walked sooni 'round the strip mall n' tried to get in contact w/ ken n' grace cos we were hoping to do dinner w/ them or sumpthin'. well, i reached ken, but they were having dinner w/ ken's parents. we took sooni w/ us to 옛날 짜장 yeitnal jjajang. earlier 2day, i noticed that they'd set up a backyard.style dining table on the paved area btwn their bldg n' the parking lot. i wondered if they'd let us sit out there n' eat. yup, they sure did! we loved it! it was awesome. the manager woman came out n' sed "오, 멍멍, 안녕!" ("oh, muhng muhng, annyuhng!" n' kaela n' i got a kick out'f that since we love the wurd muhng muhng so much as u know.
