목요일 아침: this morn, the beautiful kaela hwang n' i both woke up a li'l earlier, which is great. kaela went off to her final, but me? i rushed w/ sooni's walk in order to get a good hr in @ the sunnyvale skate park b4 werk. i still wanted to get to werk early cos 2nite i'll be teaching taekwondo, so i've gotta leave @ a decent hr. i wondered what to weawr 2day, considering i'd go skating b4 werk. quickly, i threw on some blue jeans, a grey t.shirt n' then a black button up over the grey t.shirt. i figured, i could shed the button up n' put on a jacket while skating n' then trade back 4 werk. (btw, my skate shoes r grey.) neway, when i took sooni 4 her walk, i had to pick a hat to put on, since i always wear a hat when i take sooni 4 her walks since i wanna protekt myself from the sun's evil rays. i 1st grabbed my blue cal engineering hat but realised it clashed w/ my clothes. i then grabbed my white applied materials hat, but it didn't match either. i finally settled on my black amd opteron 64 n' departed w/ sooni 4 our walk. i'd realised this b4 but was well reminded 'gain this morning that, "shoot, i sure have a nerdy selektion'f hats!" just think: cal engineering, applied materials, amd opteron 64... man, i'm the quintessential silicon valley nerd!!! well, when i skate, i wear some hawaiian surfware co. or sumpthin' hat that i bought 4 ¢heap in kona last oktober. pretty soon tho', i'll wear a helmet. yah, this past sat, while waiting to pick up kaela from her seminar to go to lunch @ the milpitas pasta pomodoro, i went to sports basement w/ sooni n' bought myself a pro.tec classic (basic) skateboarding helmet 4 ¢heap. 'twas $25 - 10%n cos'f my 24 hour fitness membership. not bad! also, on sat evening, when i went to help my mom babysit nolan n' mason w/ sooni, i picked up my ol' rector skateboarding knee pads. dude, i also happily saw that my ol' skateboard decks r still in the garage. u know, they're worth a lot'f $$$ now! collektors'll buy my ol' skateboard decks 4 a good pri¢e! i saw i have my original team hosoi christian hosoi pro model. kewl! christian hosoi's a hero'f mine, u know? his becoming a pastor n' all... cing that ol' deck inspired me to bid on a christian hosoi vintage hammerhead skates patch on ebay. the guy set the buy it now pri¢e as $45 or sumpthin'! crazy, huh? however, i was the only bidder, so i picked it up r $9.99 + $2.99 s& h. where'll i stick it? *shrug* i considered sticking the black patch on my amd opteron 64 hat over the amd opteron 64 logo; but... *sigh* that'd be sad. that hat's nerdy, n' i shouldn't force it to be nething else. i dunno. maybe i'll sew it onto a hoodie or sumpthin'.
this morn, i went to the sunnyvale skate park. when i got there, there were just these 2 chicano guys that i've cn there b4. always, 1 guy skates (n' skates decently well), while the other just watches. *shrug* well, not 2 long after i arrived, they left. then, i was alone 4 a while, just skatin' the bowls. then, this 1 old skool skater dude came. (uh, i feel kind'f awkward @ this pt in writing cos i pted out the 2 guys earlier were chicano. must i pt out that this guy n' his friend clint r caucasian guys?) neway, the ol' skool skater dude, who pulled up in a construktion company truck, pulled me aside n' gave me some pointers. he sed when i turn @ the coping, i tend to throw my rear shoulder back. then, my board goes forward, but my body gets left behind, and i end up stepping off my board. true. he sed i should think 'bout leading w/ my front elbow. hrm... so i started trying that. oh yah, he also encouraged me to take the banks @ more'f an angle, i think. yah, u know what? i know 'xaktly where my tendency to throw my rear shoulder back @ the top'f the banks comes from! it's from snowboarding!!! in snowboarding, i can do that, n' my board'll slide into a nice carve or whate'er, u know? (more likely a slide on ice in the more probable case'f riding in the 0.5pipe...) hrm... it's funny tho'... in snowboarding, i ride 0.5pipe better front side; but in skateboarding i ride 0.5pipe better backside. why is that?!
well, 2day i had 1 near miss n' 1 fall. 1st, i 1nce caught a li'l air, coming out'f the bowl n' my board did kind'f a backside disaster n' my body flew back into the board, but i was able to run it out on my feet. later, in the popular shallow bowl, upong reentry from a backside grind (i guess), i let my board slip out from under me n' i fell on my back. that was the worst fall i've had yet in the skate park. i banged my left elbow. i wondered if it was bleeding. i skated out the shock n' even rode the bowl 1 more time just to stay loose. later, i rode over to the curb that borders the bowl area'f the park n' sat down n' took off my hurley pullover. yah, i'd acquired an abrasion on my left elbow, not a bad 1 or nething, just a li'l 1. in the past, i'd gotten some bad road rash from falling while street skating. luckily, the skate park surface is nice n' smooth. however, the sheer impakt'f the fall managed to pull my skin apart a li'l, i guess. well, i have a helmet now. i have knee pads. i have dakine wrist guards from snowboarding. i don't typically weawr those while snowboarding... they don't fit 2 well inside my mittens, i guess. i'll try to start to wear those while skating. i've just gotta buy some elbow pads. what size? *shrug* hrm...i don't think sports basement sells elbow pads, do they? across from the skate park, there's fishbanks skate shop, which i've yet to patronise. i've never entered it. i've been to copeland's boardshop of course inside copeland sports in valley fair. i've gone there to look @ snowboarding stuff but've shyed 'way from the skateobarding stuff cos i usually feel like such a yuppie wheh i $hop @ valley fair n' don't feel i fit in w/ the teenagers that hang out in the skateboarding sektion. i guess that's why i also avoid pacific sunwear n' hot topic, even tho' i admire their boardsports inspired, youthful couture/fashion. when i was a kid, i used to be able to buy some skateboarding supplies @ pacific sunwear (pacsun). well, where should i go to buy some elbow pads. also, if i get all padded up, then i should probably wear shorts n' short sleeves to skate, huh? *shrug* my knees n' elbows'll get all sweatty.
dude... all this talk 'bout skateboarding... u prob'ly think i'm so immature. i can't emphasize 'nuff: when i go to the sunnyvale skate park ('least @ the hrs that i go), i'm often the youngest guy in the park! skateboarding's the new golf! 'least in the silicon valley... keep in mind: san josé has a long history'f skateboarding culture!
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so where should i buy some elbow pads? online? (like from ccs?) then 'gain, i ought to try'em on b4 i buy'em. *sigh* :-/ dude, this wk, i've got so much dj stuff to attend to; i prob'ly shouldn't spend 2 much time on skateboarding! dj stuff n' taekwondo; i've gotta focus on those 2 things.
local restaurants w/ outdoor dining ('ccording to opentable.com): 19 market (vietnamese), habana cuba, left bank santana row, mccormick & schmick's (seafud), paragon, spiedo, thea mediterranean cuisine, yankee pier santana row, birk's (santa clara), junnoon (indian in palo alto), quattro @ the 4 seasons hotel (italian in palo alto), cascal (latin tapas in mtn view), crimson ("american" in los gatos), forbes mill steakhouse (los gatos), manresa (français en los gatos [les chats]), fontana's italian (cupertino)...
[later] 오후: so i drove out to cupertino this afternoon to have lunch w/ kaela n' (her classmate friend) rachel @ this relatively new restaurant called hc dumpling house, which replaced the place that was called "stone house" (i believe). we had 1 order'f the hc special juicy dumplings, 1 order'f the shrimp n' chives dumplings, and 1 order'f "french beans w/ chili sauce. the fud was pretty good. i s'ppose we ordered just 'nuff; not 2 li'l, not 2 much. i get pretty bored when kaela's w/ a chiropraktic skool friend n' just talks non.stop chiropraktics. well, after lunch, i hurred back to the office.
yesterday or the nite b4 (i 4get), i pur¢hased (oh yah, tues nite) on connect.com an album: smallville, volume 2: metropolis mix. u c, i needed to pick up this 1 particular track lifehouse "you and me" 4 the wedding i'm djing on sun. it was only available on 2 albums, both'f which required a full album pur¢ha$e: now that's what i call music 21 (or was it 20? i 4get.) n' this 1 smallville, volume 2: metropolis mix. dude, i don't believe i've ever watched a single, full episode'f smallville, but i like this soundtrack. it does contain the popular, somewhat recent depeche mode track "precious." yah, of course i already had that. yah, that was the prob w/ both'f these albums: 4 each, i already have some'f the tracks. however, i figured i'd try sumpthin' diff n' buy the smallville cd. yah, i like the musik. it's a li'l alternative n' cms decently hip. it has a cover version'f chris isaak's "wicked game" by the kind'f hard rock / heavy metalish band h.i.m., which is somehow related to the skateboarding world via bam margera'f mtv j@ck@$$ fame. yah, i've sed in the past that pro skaters like bam margera... i don't consider them as good'f an influence on the skateboarding community as fellas like christian hosoi, rodney mullen, ray barbee, lance mountain... neway, i aktually like this h.i.m. track. i'm sure fans'f this kind'f musik consider this particular track to be a sellout mainstreamification'f the band. whate'er.
[later] so 2nite, our u.s. taekwondo akademy friend matt's s'pposed to eat an in.n.out 10×10 w/ us as a witness to this challenge. heh, the idea's so fun... to watch a skinny, young guy wolf down an incredibly insane amt'f fud in a short amt'f time. kewl! it's sumpthin' fun that makes me feel youthful.
*sigh* how come i have so much more guts to do crazy stuff on a snowboard than a skateboard? i have so much more confidence on a snowboard than on a skateboard. hrm, i wonder how i'd fare w/ some kind'f skateboard w/ bindings in the park. :-? sometimes i c kids catch nice air out'f the bowls n' do nice grabs like stalefishes n' fresh fishes etc., n' i think 'bout how, yah, i could that on a snowboard... just not so far on a skateboard.
[later] a few days 'go, i did this free trial membership to emusic.com. i downloaded 25 free mp3 tracks. i thought i could just sign up 'gain w/ a new e.mail, so i didn't really think 2 much 'bout my track selektion. it turns out that they link accts to credit cards, so i can't sign up 'gain just by using a diff e.mail, but i guess it's ok. i'll just continue to use connect.com instead. neway, 1 track that i dled was a live recording'f ray charles's "america, the beautiful." i 'membered that a yr 'go or so, i heard an npr piece, an editorialish piece, where the speaker pleaded that ray charles's version'f "america, the beautiful" is the most patriotik song in this country. the speaker was very good, so i was a bit moved by his/her wurds. (i 4get if it was a man or woman.) well, heck; the 4th'f july's comin' up soon. 4jx2006...
* geekiness n' nerdiness r 2 diff things, so heaven knows that i've got issues w/ some'f the semantiks in this journal entry. geekiness.ne.nerdiness ... geekiness n' nerdiness r 2 very diff things.