0 This is what happened: Summer 2 at 06:00

I am leaving to Europe in about twelve hours. Amsterdam, specifically.

I'm not sure if I'm excited. Am I? Yes, probably. No, I am very excited. Forgive me if I am inarticulate at the moment; I'm pulling an all-nighter before I go, so I can fall asleep on the plane.

Actually, let's talk about ways to correct jet lag. Since I'm going to Amsterdam, I'll use its time difference from the West Coast as illustrations.

It's hard for me to sleep whenever I want to if I'm not tired, so the avenue of going to sleep earlier the day before is out of the question whenever I have temporal differences. Let's say I want to sleep at 11 PM - 2300 in Amsterdam is 1500 here, so I'd have to fall asleep in 3 in the afternoon. It's not much of an option since I've been waking up around noon these summer days. Imagine getting up at 8 in the morning and trying to sleep another 8 hours at 1100. Even if I could fall asleep, I'd wake up after an hour, too rested to continue.

Another option is sleeping whenever and waking up when I want to wake up in Amsterdam. 0800 in Amsterdam is midnight here. That might have been a more intelligent route, to nap during the day and stay awake from midnight onward. But I had too much stuff to do today, nor did I give myself time to nap anyway.

So lastly, the option I opted for is to just stay awake and sleep when I expect I will in Amsterdam, as long as it's during my flight. My flight is at 1630 today - so if I fall asleep once I get on the plane, it will be after midnight in Amsterdam. Whenever I wakeup naturally will hopefully be in the morning hours of Holland. I also hope I will have slept away most of the long hours of a transcontinental flight.

It's almost 6 AM. To think, people on the East Coast are doing productive things by now.

Inexplicably, these days before this trip have been some of the most spiritually and definitely physically trying times this year. I don't know why. Maybe God is going to show me something exciting there... at a marimba festival.

Anyway, no doubt I will post an update sometime when I'm there.

See you on the other side.

0 This is what happened: Summer 1 at 04:39

I want to sleep but I cannot.

I have spent about twelve hours outside so far this week, either exercising or reading a book or playing guitar. Southern California has welcomed me warmly with its monotonous relentless sunshine and I do not resist.

I sit in the sun and attempt to get skin cancer. I can't help it. I have been away in gloomy, overcast, foggy San Francisco for so long that I must enjoy the presence of ultraviolet rays as much as I can.

I am convinced a stair doesn't exist. I have never heard a single step of a set of stairs be called one stair. Singular. It's either, I had trouble getting up those stairs, or I left my backpack on that step. I will attempt to incorporate the word stair into my regular vocabulary. Bringin' it back.

Mm. Look at all dem stair.

A couple as a marker of quantity means two. It doesn't mean several. How many people are in a couple? Two. Otherwise it would be a threesome or some kind of polyamorous relationship.

Pictured: A couple of M&Ms.

Pictured: Not a couple.

I watched the new Karate Kid yesterday. I hadn't seen the original, since I wasn't born when it was released, and the premise of a white kid learning martial arts didn't sound like an appealing enough classic for me to revisit the past. I enjoyed it, especially Jackie Chan's performance, which would have brought me to tears if my friend wasn't already bawling next to me and I felt pressured to 'man up'.

Ignorant of the original, however, I feel I was still sensitive to this modern adaptation's contextual translation with Chinese culture. I felt the film's representation of Chinese culture was respectfully accurate, barring the emphasis on both the violent and mystical side of kung-fu. My favorite part is when Jayden Smith's love interest, Wenwen hua, an innocent-looking violin-toting Chinese girl, kept ending their conversations with "I have to go practice." Man, if I had a nickel...

In this picture: Not practicing.

Now I am going into nerd mode for the following  paragraphs. Also I will discuss a minor spoiler, so if you want to maintain your film integrity, skip on. Highlight to read.

Jayden Smith (I will refer to him by his real-life actor name because I forgot his name in the movie) lures her to skip school the day before her big audition for the Beijing Academy of Music to have fun, saying "too much of a good thing is bad". He actually takes her orange violin case from her, which I suppose the directors thought was a cute gesture - oh, look, he's carrying her instrument for her - but I have never known a string player who took music even half as seriously as she did who would have been fine with me holding their case, and especially without their permission. Maybe you might not understand, but if my marimba were compact enough to fit in a handheld case, I would never let someone else carry it. This was the first oversight of the directors regarding musicians. 

Then, he downright trashes the case. Look at the picture - it's on the ground in the middle of a water attraction, for crying out loud. Why don't you just throw it into a swimming pool, Wenwen Han?

Their impromptu date is cut off by a phone call from Wenwen's dad, saying her audition was moved to today from tomorrow. Alright, first of all, that kind of schedule change will NEVER, ever happen - it would be blatant sabotage to force a musician to perform immediately, a day in advance. Sure, it was a gripping turn of events, but I thought that was just unrealistic.

The scene cuts to her running on stage just as her orchestra accompaniment finishes tuning, and she pulls out her violin and begins playing immediately. I don't think she even had time to tighten her bow, much less tune - and remember, her violin had just taken a Beijing tour in the hands of an ADD teenager, and suffered temperature changes from the humid Chinese summers where it averages human body temperature, overcast, into air-conditioned indoor arcades, and into her parent's car which is no doubt air-conditioned as well. I could not have been the only one who noticed that she didn't tune, and, I admit, I thought that was going to be the plot twist - her rebellious city-wide jaunt left her no time to tune for her life-deciding audition, and she would suddenly realize what a bad influence Jayden Smith was on her life.

I prepared my ears for a clashing dissonance right at her entrance... but no. The overdub of Chopin's Nocturne No. 20 washed over her (lip? bow?)-syncing, and washed away my mental image of her sudden cathartic grimace, widened eyes looking down at the neck of her instrument, realizing her fatal mistake. Nope, she plays at her very peak, even without warming up.

"Pul-leaze. The orchestra tunes to me."

(Pictured: not Wenwen Hua from Karate Kid.)

My only other gripes about the movie mirror that of my friend Chris's, when he complained that they used kids for the movie - twelve-year-olds, or so they say. He feels averse to their age because he doesn't feel comfortable with the notion of "toddlers" kissing or going on dates; I find it troublesome because I can't imagine sixth graders being able to punch very hard. That, and that Jackie Chan doesn't fight more.

All in all, very entertaining and worth the ticket. The sun is coming up soon so I will attempt to sleep, again.

1 This is what happened: The Fall at 20:55

He itches to practice. He cannot. His mother is on the phone. He decides to go for a bike ride.

He goes into the garage. He puts on his gloves, his helmet. He clips on his lights and sets them flashing. He wheels the bike out to the driveway. He kicks off.

He pushes steadily up an incline. He is not yet breathing hard. He contemplates the darkened western sky. He wonders if it's dark enough to need the lights.

He climbs for a mile. He feels his thighs burn. He shifts down yet another gear. He is going more slowly.

He contemplates blog entries he has just read. He contemplates how little he updates his blog. He contemplates writing an entry tonight.

He sees a bike path on the left. He needs to turn left.

He is certain of the turn he needs to make ahead. He doesn't know where this bike path goes.

He keeps going.

He doesn't miss out on opportunities. He turns around.

He sees Girl cyclist before he sees Guy cyclist coming out of the path. He decides to circle around them because they are barely moving. They comply and take the inside turn.

He speeds up to circle around them. He sees the dust and gravel too late.

He turns; he is going too quickly. His wheels begin to slide. He doesn't know what to do.

He brakes. He made it worse.

He is tipped too far over. He falls. His wrist breaks his fall. He feels his glove sanding the floor. He is down. His bike continues without him.

He fumes.

Guy cyclist calls if he is okay. He says nothing. Girl cyclist calls if he is okay. He says he is. Guy cyclist asks if he is sure.

He says he is sure. He says, that is what the gloves are for.

He picks up his bike. He notices the chain has fallen off the chain rings. He flips his bike upside down and puts it back on.

His fingers are dirty. He gets back on the bike. He dirties his white bar tape. His handlebars are knocked off center. He contemplates whether or not he needs his tools to fix it. He holds the wheel and bangs it back into position. He doesn't need his tools.

He sets off again. He sees the bike trail end shortly. He sees the familiar road he was planning to turn on. He wasted his time.

He flies along the flat road. He is passed by other cars. He tastes something salty in the corner of his mouth. He doesn't think about it.

He flies downhill. He lets gravity do the work. He sees a flashing fire truck in front of him. He braces to be assaulted by the horn. He notices there is no sound. He passes it, silent, except for the engine.

He turns up his driveway. He gets off. He wheels his bike into the garage. He takes off his helmet. He takes off his gloves. He turns off the lights.

He turns on the shower. He stretches. He begins composing his blog post in his mind. He doesn't post it.

0 Exhortation to Exploration: Mountains to Sea trail... not quite. at 21:01

After unloading and unpacking everything into my home in Irvine last Wednesday, I lasted about six hours before sheer suburban boredom set in and I needed to go on an adventure. I decided I would attempt to bike to the ocean with Elly.

Here is the Irvine Company's extremely unhelpful map of where the trail is, and where it goes. I actually found this page the next morning, although it wouldn't have helped me at all. 

I didn't start all the way from the Irvine Park, but joined in a mile or so before Newport Beach. After a steep decline down a road, the trail joins the Back Bay Loop and goes along the Upper Back Bay. It's a cozy little inlet with lots of birds and swampy stuff. Unfortunately on this ride, there was a strong headwind, and I was going much slower than I would have liked.





Keep going - Back Bay Drive is on the bottom right corner.


Then, I did something pretty stupid, though it wasn't entirely my fault - I didn't plan a route ahead so I kept following whatever road looked biggest and easiest. I made a right here, instead of going straight to Jamboree, which would have given me a straight shot to the ocean.





So I kept going west, now parallel to Pacific Coast Highway.

I even crossed this stupid bridge. I didn't know I was on the 1. There were a lot of cars going fast and not a real bike lane, so I followed a tip from Andrew, a more experienced biker than I, and rode a few feet inside the right lane to make sure cars wouldn't blow by me.


Then my left pedal and crank arm started feeling really shaky, and I decided to head back, somewhat disappointed that I couldn't go further. I stopped to inspect what was going on - the cap for the bolt had fallen off, and though I had no idea what the problem was at the time, the bolt had come loose. I made it back to Back Bay Dr before I gave up and decided I probably couldn't make it home.

While waiting for Thomas to pick me up, I called up Jack to see if he could diagnose the problem over the phone, since he is so wise in bicycling matters. My conversation went like this:


Me: Hey Jack!
Jack: Hello, Yi!
Me: Jack, I have a question about my bike. My pedal... uh, well, not the pedal itself... but what's the thing it's attached to?
Jack: The crank?
Me: Sure, the crank. Okay, what's the part that attaches the crank to the frame?
Jack: The.... crank bolt?
Me: That sounds good. So there's a thing that goes around the crank bolt that fell off my bike. I don't know what it's called.
Jack: The crank bolt washer?
Me: Okay, sure. So it fell off and my whole left crank is feeling really loose.
Jack: Yeah, it's probably that your crank bolt is loose. You need to go to a bike shop and get it tightened - and get a tune up, too, and they'll make sure everything's tight.
Me: Alright, thanks Jack.
Jack: Okay, be safe. Are you wearing a helmet?
Me: Yes, Jack. Bye!


So ended my adventure. We'll reach the ocean another day, Elly.