Too many pictures to upload and sort through! Here are two: One beautiful. The other, well...

 

Top view of Vernazza, one of the small seaside towns of Cinque Terre.



The Beastie Boys said it best: Check Your Head! Scooter helmet found in a shop nearby Ponte Vecchio in Florence.

I made it to Milan safe and sound along with all my luggage.

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for my travel buddy, Josh. He had to purchase some extra clothes while his baggage is rerouted to Florence from France.

Other than a minor case of the jetlag, I am doing fine and had a wonderful first day in Milan. Will try to add details when I can. Ciao!

Pictures at an Exhibition Update: 3 shots from the May 12 Revlon 5K Run/Walk, also known as tuxedosamdawg's endurance session!

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My Mother's Day weekend was a mix of the friends, the family and the funny.

Friends: As mentioned above, Samwise paid up on his losing bet and completed the 5K, wearing my Bruin football jersey as punishment for not training. I will try to get video footage of it up on YouTube ASAP!

Family: After the run, I went back to Diamond Bar to spend valuable time with Mom and the sister for an early Mother's Day lunch. At Mom's request, we had some Filipino fare (i.e chicken adobo, mechado) and such. At the restaurant, we all were amused by the huge lechon that was on one of the adjacent tables! Looks like someone had a big reason to celebrate! And I should have taken a photo!

Funny: Our Mom-edysportz show on Sunday evening was definitely da bomb! Even though I didn't play that evening, I did participate as Mr. Voice (announcer/scorekeeper) and had a great time working with my talented Sunday Team castmates. It was wonderful to see all the mothers and children leave with smiles, knowing that we ended their special day on a good note!

Arrivederci!
While I am counting down the last hours of my work week, I am somewhat saddened that I will be missing some important events while I am on vacation, like...

1. Our church's spring retreat
   


2. Class of 2007 Graduation BANG!-quet
   


3. The season finale of 24. Kidding! It's been a subpar day Jack. The cliffhanger better be worthwhile!
   

Plus, a couple of my new friends will be moving away (to Oregon and Kansas) at the end of the month as well, so I had to say my good-byes early. But, I believe that the world is small, and I am bound to run into them some day.

I will do my best to report in from Bella Italia (with stories and pictures) for you loyal xanga readers. I can't guarantee anything, but all I can say is, I am REALLY looking forward to my future adventure. So until next time, "Ciao miei amici!"

 

Pictures at an Exhibition Update: 5 shots from my San Francisco trip (Sept./Oct. 2006). I never got around to blogging about it.

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When you live in Los Angeles, you will eventually know someone who is trying to make it in "the industry". (And no, don't count me among them, since I act solely for recreation. Quit snickering! ). In my short time of learning and performing improv, I've come to have a greater understanding and respect for those "someones", since I have formed relationships with them. Listening to their audition woes, celebrating their triumphs, feeling their dreams. It's a rough life, but their passions and talents are admirable.

So recently, I attended my first cold reading on Tuesday evening for a Comedysportz teammate's spouse. She wanted an informal cast reading of her horror comedy script, and it was held at our performing theatre. As an "audience member", it certainly was interesting to visualize the movie in my head; difficult to do without a (bilingual) script to read! The actors for the most part did a great job on the spot, given half of them were veteran improvisers. The most valuable experience I had was the feedback exchange between all of us after the reading. We were supportive, yet fair in our constructive criticism of the script. And I think we all left with the hopes of seeing this picture get made, because even though that films of the horror genre are "played out" right now, this one could offer a unique perspective if the director stays true to the her vision.

After the reading, I went into the adjacent ballroom to catch the tail end of the junior class' final performance. It wasn't that long ago that I was in their shoes.

There's one part of an entertainer's lifestyle that I definitely cannot hang with. Late night fraternizing on weekdays! Some of the junior class and visiting Sunday teammates were heading out after the show for late night eats! I'm all for bonding, but not at the expense of being a zombie at work the next morning!

Must See TV: If you do not have an aversion to subtitles, there is an amazing Japanese cooking program that is on locally, Saturday nights 8pm on the Asian language cable station KSCI (Channel 18 for LA folk) called "Shin Docchi no Ryori Sho" (The New Docchi Cooking Show). You can find a good summary of the program from this LA Times article. Catch it while you can, since these episodes will end in June!

I (Can't) Believe TV: I never thought I would see the day where the Golden State Warriors would advance further in the playoffs than the Lakers. It must be because they have two Bruin starters on their team, right?

Freeze Frame: Instead of using this blog area to write captions for certain photos, I thought I would try the xanga Photo Module (The "Pictures at an Exhibition" section on the right) to mix things up a bit. Plus, I think that after 3+ years of having this online journal, a little change would be nice too. So every once in a while, when you see new photos pop up there, click on them and you may read some weird captions. Or maybe not. This one picture alone just cracks me up every time I look at it. To add a caption would definitely lose the funny!

Our church just recently started a mentorship program for some of our Sunday school kids. And yes, as scary as it may sound, I was asked to help out! Kidding aside, if you have been a regular reader of this domain, you probably know that I have a longstanding bond with the senior pastor's eldest son, John. And so it was no surprise that when Esther (the pastor's wife) called me about the program, she requested pairing me up with him.

Thanks to a fellow mentor, Toni, I have a couple pictures from Sunday's field trip to the Festival of Books. It's a good thing, since I was unexpectedly taking care of 3 boys with varying ages and interests, so I didn't have the opportunity to snap shots (2 of the other kids' mentors were absent). The first pic is of all the children, mentors, and (S)Marty the shaggy dog.

The second one is of myself, John, and his younger brother James in a spontaneous, "Red Rover" moment against Smarty!

I think this mentorship thing will do me a lot of good. I hope to be more of a role model to John and James rather than just the uncle who gives Lego Star Wars II hints to them. It is too ambitious to ask if they want to do some triathlon training with me?

"Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal." - Lionel Trilling

So with that in mind, my apologies in advance to bluebuddy.

Sat: Ran (hilly!) 5K race to heal the bay, channeled Will Champion for 2 hours, digested some cold tofu, relayed 1 hour with Mr. I to support cancer research.

Sun: Attended church in Los Angeles, chatted briefly with a visiting sunkissedbruin, attended Jonathan + Christine's wedding and reception in Laguna Beach. No younglings, I did not see any kids from that show.

Pix to come.

Yes everyone, I am just as bad of a sampler and name-dropper as Diddy. Bad Boy for Life baby!

You take the good. You take the bad. You take them both and there you have...

Dodgers Baseball, Opening Day!

Good: Taking a vacation day (No, I didn't "call in sick") to enjoy the game.

Bad: Work called me on the cell in the bottom of the 2nd inning, for an "allegedly" urgent issue.

Good: Dodger tickets are still one of the best sporting event deals in Los Angeles. $8 for a good seat!

Bad: I had to pay $$$ for my ducat on Stubhub. Sigh. The things fans do for support.

Good: The Navy SEAL parachute team (picture taken by my bud, Kevin), and the F-16 fly-by.

Bad: I missed getting a shot of the F-16s since they were so fast and quiet.

Good: The Super Dodger Dog with all the fixings. Not to sound like a homer, but is there any baseball stadium chow that is better than the classic Dodger Dog?

Bad: The rookie concessions attendees still need some spring training. I had to correct one lady twice on giving my change.

Good: The weather was great, and I got in some good sun time (with sunscreen, of course).

Bad: I left with the gnarliest "watch tan".

Good: Our starting pitcher, Jason Schmidt hit a home run! Awesome!

Bad: He was the only Dodger who hit one in a difficult 6-3 defeat. Plus, he left early due to leg cramps.

Very Good: There's nothing like celebrating the new baseball season, enjoying the Boys in Blue, consuming a Dodger dog, and taking in the entire spectacle that is Opening Day. I'm fortunate that I can take time out of my busy life and revel in a great American pastime.

Very Bad: The new parking plan was absolutely ridiculous and caused a lot of problems. Not only was there a 50% price hike to $15, there was a lot of idle time getting in/out of the stadium (2.5 hours to exit!). The newly hired parking ushers (Yeah! OK!) were lackluster in guiding cars to parking spots in an orderly manner. And unfortunately, some Dodger fans were not-so-friendly, yelling expletives in front of children. After the game, a group of them decided to throw down in the parking lot over a flat tire dispute, only to be broken up by Dodger security and the LAPD.

Yep. For better or for worse, this is Dodger baseball! I can't wait until the Giants come into town!

Well, it certainly wasn't a dirty little secret, but UCLA junior forward Arron Afflalo will forego his senior year and declare for the NBA Draft.

Move along.

Preview of the next episode - Opening Day Blues: After a two year absence, Yamada-san returns to Opening Day at Dodger Stadium to find that not all is as good as it seems.

Things have finally slowed down (somewhat) so I can blog again. What to say? A lot!

1. Changes: Well, after some late nights and definite loss of sanity, our company's e-commerce website is finally up and running. There is still a lot to be done, but I am happy that nearly 10 months of production was not in vain. Our customers seem to be pleased with the results.

There's still more going on in the work front. Because of a decision by the Board of Directors last month, I am no longer working for the Marketing department, since they wanted to have all programmers under the IT division. My previous boss was not too happy about the change, and at first, neither was I. I was worried that I would no longer have any creative duties and be a straight-up programmer. But, I was reassured that I will still be involved in some creative aspects. It's just that my technical skills are going to be more helpful when our company does a big software upgrade. 

My lateral job shift came with some benefits. I should be receiving a souped up work laptop, which means I will no longer have to drive down to Torrance if I have to work over the weekend. And I am trying to negotiate a day per week for telecommuting; something that all my friends seem to have that I do not!

2. Born to Run: With the e-commerce project completed, I could (at last) get back to my Thursday night running club. Well, something funny happened this past week. I won ANOTHER raffle for a FREE pair of Nike shoes!

Perhaps it was good that I received another pair, since I will be needing it for a lot of future training. I've got several fun runs in the next two months. I am happy that my next two 5K's will be helping the Heal the Bay organization. I will also be running an early morning leg for our church's Relay for Life team. But the race that I am most looking forward to is the Revlon Run on May 12, since my Trojan friend, Sam-wise will have pay up on his losing bet and finish the 5K!

In some sad running news, I found out from my old LA Marathon contacts that veteran runner Ernie Van Leeuwen passed away last Friday. He may have not realized it, but the then 92 year old athlete served as a big inspiration to me, as I remembered crossing paths with him every Saturday morning during my training runs. In a strange twist of fate, my first LA marathon in 2006 was Ernie's last, as he was recovering from a stroke this year and was unable to run. 

3. Act a Fool: Our Comedysportz Sunday team did not perform this past weekend because of the April Fool's Day holiday (J/K, our theatre space was rented out to some "bigwigs"). So instead, I dropped some hip-hop flow, and took an improv workshop on rap. Our teacher Cory definitely had the skills to the pay the bills, and gave us some great advice on freestyling effectively.

Of course, the best way to learn new skills is through direct application. We had an opportunity to do so later on that evening at a Burbank bar called Sardo's, which was having a karaoke night. However, only someone outside our party chose a rap ditty, and it was the popular call-and-response number, "Hip Hop Hooray" from Naughty by Nature. Unfortunately, I did not reprise my infamous "Oops!...I Did It Again" number, as I was tired and had to leave early because of work. SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT! My next performance is on Tax Day, April 15.

4. Here It Goes Again: I hosted a UCLA Final Four party last year which ended with a frustrating loss to a better Florida team. When I saw our beloved Bruins scored their ticket to Atlanta on Sat. after a great wedding (chemi and honyock), I was hoping that this year's party would be different. But, obviously that was not the case. Though it was great seeing everybody stop by to watch the game together, since I didn't have company over for a long time. Who knows? Perhaps next year, we can actually win it all, now that those annoying junior Gators have jumped ship to the NBA!

5. The Sweet Escape: Well, it's time again for another getaway in May! I'm really looking forward to my next big vacation trip...to Bella Italia! 17 days of la dolce vita, sightseeing, culture, and of course, tasty cuisine!

Game within a Game: Each of the numbered "headers" are actually song titles. Can you name the artists? Hint: They are in chronological order, and I doubt most of my (born in the 80's) readers will get the first two without resorting to Google.