more LA County Fair pics

tablescape contest!

more Venice Beach photos

don't even need a title

It IS that hot!

meteor shower

I heard the news that there will be the Perseid meteor shower tonight. I stepped outside my apartment a little after 11 pm, when the meteor shower was supposed to peak. Of course I saw nothing but a few stars. I'm not gonna see anything with all the bright lights around my apartment. I guess I was just being naive lol.

I woke up this morning feeling cold, really really cold. I was all curling in my blanket thinking how it could be this cold in a summer morning. I fell asleep and woke up again at around 8. It was just SO COLD. I decided to get up and see if it would be any warmer in the living room. As soon as I opened the bedroom door, I heard the AC blowing. Good Grief I forgot to turn it off. It was blowing all night and look how much electricity I had wasted! And I was so stupid that I didn't even realized the AC was on the first time I woke up.

I punished myself not to use AC today. It was 102F outside lol.

called AAA today

Since that 'tire incident' last month, I decided to apply for the AAA membership. I was glad that everytime I had a car trouble, it happened either in (or close to) my apartment complex or in the school parking lot. I know I won't always be that lucky.

This afternoon I was gonna drive to the gym, and I found my car wouldn't start. I immediately knew what happened. It all started two days ago. I was driving home from Ralphs and felt there's chewing gum on my shoe. Both my brake and accelerator got that piece. It was around 9:30 so I had to turn the light on to clean it. Then...I forgot to turn it off! I didn't go out the next two nights so I didn't realize it was on the whole time. The battery just went dead.

I tried to call my neighbor J for help but apparently he wasn't home. So I called AAA. Their service was FAST! It was only after about 15 minutes and I was still watching the Sharapova match when the guy came. They must've had repair people on the road all the time so they could come right away.

I have to say I was still lucky this time. At least I was waiting in my apartment, which was way cooler.

Leave

My neighbor got a new doormat. It hurts to finally know his true feelings...

Paycheck

I watched a movie called Paycheck last weekend on TV. Ben Affleck plays a so-called 'reverse engineer' who looks into the latest technologies and finds out how it works. He then invents something that's even better. When the job is done, all memory in this working period is erased. One day his childhood friend and billionaire Jimmy offers him a job he can't resist. It takes 3 years and the pay is a huge. When he gets his paycheck, he learns that he actually gave up all the money (90 million dollars) in exchange of 20 items that seemed worthless. He must use these items to reconstruct his memory, cuz someone is trying to take his life.

A typical John Woo (吳宇森) movie to me. There are several scenes with 2 people pointing guns at each other, and his trade-mark white dove flying in slow motion. Can I just say stupid? That was just so old.

However, something struck me a little bit. In the movie, Rachel (Thurman) asked Michael (Affleck) if he believes in second chances. (He doesn't, but somehow it's what saves his life.) Do I believe in second chances? Have I been given second chances in our life? Should people be given second chances?

Everyone's got his own answer, I think.

Do cucumbers go bad?

I bought two cucumbers the other day. I made shrimp and cucumber salad with one and forgot about the other. Today I went through my stuff in the fridge and saw it, so it was about uh, maybe a week old. However there's some sticky stuff on the surface, which was kinda gross. Well I usually peel and seed the cucumber so it didn't really seem to matter. I just wondered what that sticky stuff was since cucumbers are usually waxed on the surface. Yuck~

late afternoon in the parking lot

Lot 13 at 7 pm. 91 degrees F. Hot.

I must've been really bored.

tire-some

I had my tire repaired this morning.

Monday evening, when I was driving out of the parking lot, a lady yelled out loud, "Your tire is really low." I stopped my car, and told her, "Yes, I noticed. Thank you." Actually I didn't know it was my tire. I only noticed the rattling sound from the side of my car.

I then decided to go to Sears Auto Center to get the tire fixed before it actually went flat (or it would be the 4th time in my life to have a flat tire lol). I drove very slowly; pulled over several times to let other cars pass. It took me about half an hour for this 10-minute drive. When I finally got to Sears, the front girl told me, "We're closing. We only do body parts now. Sorry."

It felt like the sky crushed me. I must have been really devastated. I drove all the way here and now you wanted me to go back? I don't even know if my tire could go through this again. I came up with this idea that maybe I could inflate the tire and hopefully the tire would stay good long enough before I had it fixed. I then drove to the gas station and tried to get the air machine going. I had to call M to make sure how to use the machine correctly. I've seen people use it but to be honest, I wasn't sure I could do it right. Luckily, it worked! My tire just looked like normal! I could finally drive home without worries.

So I went back to Sears this morning, had my tire repaired, and also did the alignment (which I should've done a long time ago). I'm a happy man again!