Tomorrow morning I fly down to California to work. I start work once I get there, so I hope tomorrow is a slow day. I will blog more after the work day is done. I am a little nervous about everything. I hope things go well!

I had a nice conversation with a lady at Qwest. All I wanted were some phones that had Bluetooth capability.



Thank you for using Qwest.com. A Sales and Service Consultant will be with you in a moment. Currently, your estimated wait time is 0 minutes and 2 seconds.

Welcome to the Qwest.com live chat service. My name is Laini. May I please

have your name?



you: Jon Keto

Laini: Hello, how may I help you?

you: I was wondering if any of your phones have bluetooth capability, do you have any?

Laini: We have a bluetooth headset that can be purchased.

you: Does that mean you have a phone with Bluetooth?

you: I am looking for a phone that I can share information, more specifically my address book, between my laptop and my phone.

Laini: We do not have that type of phone at this time.

you: Then why do you sell bluetooth headsets?

Laini: I believe the headsets provide compatibility with other systems.

Laini: It also allows the user to be on the headset without having it wired to the wireless phone.

you: Yeah, but then doesn’t the phone need it?

Laini: I am not that familiar with the other aspects of Bluetooth technology. The only thing I am aware of at this time is that certain

headsets are compatible with the Bluetooth wireless headset.

you: Alright. Thanks. I am going to T-Mobile and AT&T now. Have a nice

day!

This evening Eric, Sandra and I went to dinner about 5:00 pm. It was a little early to eat dinner, but we had a place to be. That place was the IMA. The reason we had to be there was to watch my brother play in his basketball game. The winning team was the team who reached 50 points first or whoever was leading after 50 minutes. Sandra was keeping score.

My brother has been practicing with these guys for a couple months now and each Wednesday he plays a game against another team in his league. The competition in the league is not real tough, but everyone likes to play and have fun, so the games are always good.

Tonight my brother played against ’64 Points for Divinity’. The game started at 6:00 pm and that is when we got there. No one really had any time to warm and the other team was short a player, so they picked up a guy from the sideline. Even though he was not an official member of the team no one minded. He seemed like a regular player to everyone on my brother’s team, so they let him join the other squad. I had seen him play before and I knew he could shoot, so I was a little concerned. No one on my brother’s team realized because they were all worried that they did not have sufficient warm up time.

The game starts with the ball in the hands of the opponent. They quickly give it to the man they picked up from the sideline (I will call him ‘the pick up’ from now on). He quickly drained a 3 pointer. No one seemed worried yet. SACG Playaz move the ball down the court and make a 2 pointer. 64 Points for Divinity bring the ball back up the court and pass it to the pick up and he drains another 3. At this point I was a little worried because I did not want to to see my brother lose. Sandra and I cheer and give my brother’s team some support as they score another 2 points.

The score remained pretty close for the next 10 minutes or so, but the opponents never gave up the lead to my brother’s team. When Jason from the SACG Playaz, a critical set up man who makes good passes, subbed out I got a little worried. After the substitution I noticed that their defense was weakened because it was less organized. After a few more minutes of play the opponents were up by 6 points. At this point I knew there was a lot of time left because the score was 21 to 15, 64 Points for Divinity.

64 Points for Divinity kept a steady lead until they reached 30 points. At this point the game started to changed. The pick up was not hitting as many 3′s as before and he even threw up an air ball. I think he started to get anxious and his teammates were not helping much either. They had a lot of open shots and second chance opportunities , but nothing was falling for them. This is when Jason and Eric connected on a Karl Malone and John Stockton level, with my brother as the Mailman himself. These two players led the team on a 18-2 run. My brother would back his opponent down low and post up. Jason would feed him the ball, Eric would receive the ball, turn and shoot. The shot was almost unstoppable. Other SACG Playaz started to heat up with some sweet drives to middle where they would stop and pull up for the short jumper.

Everyone on the other team seemed to get anxious as they saw the game running away from them. The pick up did something predictable and tried to take the game on his own shoulders by shooting a few more 3′s but they did not fall. He made some good feeds to his teammates, but they were unable to capitalize. As time ran out the score was 49-35, SACG Playaz in the lead. What an exciting game! Congratulations to Eric and the rest of his team!

I was reading my friend Tammy’s blog the other day and I came across a post about some conservative Christian groups think that SpongeBob SquarePants is gay and they want to ban his show. Here is an article from CNN explaining the story.

I can not believe that more children’s shows are being attacked again. I feel like some of these groups have way too much time on their hands to be able associate these shows with the promotion of homosexuality. The article says that one reason for this is that gay people like SpongeBob SquarePants. Does this mean we can then say that drinking beer, smoking cigarettes and watching NASCAR promotes domestic abuse because some people who enjoy these things beat their wives? Where is the relation?

If SpongeBob SquarePants and even Teletubbies can be accused of promoting homosexuality than where do we draw the line? It seems like we are becoming a society of extremes, where there can be no middle ground especially when it concerns homosexuality. Will there be a day when they have to change the rules for crossing streets as a kid? Will it no longer be ok to hold your friend’s hand as you cross the street if they are the same sex as you? I can just imagine the organization that distributes these educational videos having to reshoot and edit all their films, so that only little boys and little girls will be shown crossing the street together?

I understand that certain people have their views for different reasons. Religious or not I can respect that, but it seems that some people’s level of intolerance have reached a ridiculous level.

Disclaimer: The domestic abuse generalization is not necessarily true. I just used it to make a point.

I have heard from different sources, like documentaries on the American education system, articles in Sports Illustrated and other places that in most American schools the physical education is going the way of the dodo. I know there are schools and programs actively trying to bring new life into the, often times bland phys ed systems in place at a lot of schools. I mean what kid at 8 years old wants to keep doing sit up and push ups every day.

I am not sure why there are not more exciting and interesting forms of physical education, but I think it related to the fact that physical educators don’t want to have children get hurt. This is a totally valid reason and I support it, but why don’t they want children to get hurt? Are these schools and school districts afraid of getting sued by parents? I think so. I started to think about this in China when my friends from other Universities told me that at least one other college in Beijing had a place for skateboarders to skateboard that was provided by the university. I never saw this ‘magical’ place, but I have also read articles about universities in Shanghai with the same facilities.

I started to wonder why we don’t do that over here. Some universities or schools may have done this already. Actually, I know for a fact there are some high schools in Southern California, which provide such facilities, but this is because their physical education system is geared towards extreme sports. In any case, I feel like most colleges would think there is too much risk involved giving students a place to skateboard.

I fear for the day when there is too much risk involved in going outside of our homes. Too much risk of someone suing another, too much risk of scraping your knee or even too much risk of letting sunlight hit your skin. I don’t recall my parent having these sorts of ‘risks’ in their lifetime and I hope my kids don’t have them either.

I am sort of disheartened here in the America where we should have the right to do what we want for pleasure (to an extent), but at the same time our society is so restricted in certain aspects, that is almost as if we can’t enjoy a lot of activities we want to. When I see China setting up skateboard parks and universities doing the same I just yearn for a day when skateboarding can have that sort of acceptance level. It is not like there is no tolerance for skateboarders here in the states and it has definitely improved since I was younger, but I think most of the acceptance comes from a small portion of the people and it is supported by a small portion of the people as well. Maybe that is part of the appeal though and I shouldn’t ask for more widespread support.

Anyways I have rambled way too long and I don’t think I concluded where I should have, if at all. I think I digressed from physical education to skateboarding rants, but with the number of kids being obese these days the education system should be changed, so it is more appealing for kids to participate in physical education.

When I got back from China I thought I would embrace Seattle’s public transportation system simply because they are far less crowded than the subways or busses in Beijing. For the first couple weeks I didn’t mind taking the bus, but tonight I was reminded why I didn’t like taking the bus before I left Beijing.

The problem with public transportation is that it is public transportation. The public who like to ride the busses in Seattle tend to reek of piss, alcohol and body odor. This funk works it’s way into the seats and all the corners of the bus, so when you ride the bus the smell inevitably infiltrates your noise whether you like it or not.

The worst part about public transportation is the public part. It seems like the public like to drink and ride the bus here in Seattle. The thing about the drunk people on the busses is that they are the people too drunk to get into bars or drunk enough to get kicked out of bars, so they always acts like like idiots. I can’t stand it.

I want to get a car …

Only three weeks after getting back to Seattle I have decided to go to California, San Clemente, to work for a company called Omation. They create animated films. Currently they are creating a movie called ‘The Barnyard‘ for Nickelodeon in association with Paramount Pictures.

They needed a person familiar with web development to help them create tools to optimize their pipeline … that is where I came in. I am really excited about the work and can not wait to start. I am a little nervous about the job though because it seems like the most complicated worked I have have to do. I will let you guys know how it goes.

If you guys think I will be gone for another five or six months then don’t worry. I can fly back here each weekend if I want. That means if there are any parties or get togethers on the weekend then I can definitely make it up here to see you guys.

Last night I went to a surprise dinner party for my two friends Matt and Deana. They both turned 23 last week and decided to go to 13 coins to eat dinner. They didn’t know their friends, other than Anh and Ryo would be there. We got to hide in the back in a little and yell surprise when they came in. After that we had to move to another table since the room we saved was double booked. Dinner was pretty tasty and I would recommend going to 13 coins for dinner if you want to eat some place nice.

Here are some photos taken by Sandra.

I just got back from the wedding of my two friends Andre and Dare. It was a very beautiful wedding. The wedding started at noon and lasted about an hour. I was sitting in the second row near the middle, so I had a good view of the couple as they stood on the stage. It made me happy to see them so happy together. The wedding was held at St. Ignatius Chapel on the campus of Seattle University.

After the ceremony we had the reception in the student center on campus. All the tables were decorated very well. My friends and I spent a little time in the morning putting candles on all the tables and rose petals around the candles, so it was nice to see everything put together for the reception. Everyone ate a good meal and then it was time to eat cake. After we ate it was time to dance. I think this was teh funnest part of the day.

I do not have time to go into detail now, but I have to say it was beautiful day and I wish the two of them the best for years to come.

See the wedding pictures here.

Well it has been a week since I have been back in Seattle. It is nice to be back here, but there is still a large part of me that wants to be back in Beijing. I am not sure if it is because I have only been gone for a week or if it is something more than that. Each time I see my friends online or I get an email I get excited that I can once again get in touch with them. I definitely do not want to lose touch with these friends.

Other than dealing with missing my friends I have been trying to deal with getting reacclimated to this place again. This includes getting used to seeing my friends again. Even though I have had long and strong relationships with a lot of my friends it is still somewhat of a shock to pick up things right where we left off four months ago. All my friends have been nice to me, so it has been pretty easy so far.

School is going alright. I am still playing catch up in a sense. I can not make up some of the tests I missed the first week, but I can definitely get a lot of the reading that I missed done. I am relieved that my classes are finally in English, except for my Chinese reading class. I feel like I am understanding things a lot more now and reading does not seem like such a chore. It is also nice to get back into more of the left brained subjects that I am used to. Learning linear optimization and computer organization and design is all of a sudden a lot more interesting. I hope I can do well in these classes and not succumb to just getting by like I have done in the past.

My next goal is to find another job. I am working for the Asian Languages and Literature department right now, but I think that my project is coming to an end soon. That means I won’t have any source of income soon. I am thinking about finding a job where I can do some Java programming because I am getting a little tired of all this php programming I have been doing lately.

A great event coming up tomorrow is my friend’s wedding. I want to say Congratulations! to Andre. I am really happy for him. I am really glad to see that he and his soon to be wife, Dare, have been together since high school. They stuck it out through college while attending different schools. Albeit, both schools were in Seattle, but there are plenty of couples who can not even make things work even when they go to the same school. I did not expect otherwise from these two though. They are both great people and I hope to see them together for many happy and joyous years to come.

I wonder who is the next couple to get married. Anyone want to make bets?