Two Decades Back

As lame as things were back then, there's always a bit of some nostalgia from the '90s. Fashion and technology, yup, all of its culture.

Remember how they dressed back then?

"Honey, do these make my butt look big?"

Yes, they do.

I can't forget those retro sunglasses! Then...

...the environment-unfriendly gas hungry cars... (My dad used to own one!) and locally, the patrol cars. Whatever happened to them? Probably scrapped and sold.



And finally, their technology.

Burger King, too.



Go, go, Power Rangers! HAHA.

Make the Asian the yellow one, the African American the black one, and the redhead (or so it seems) the red one. Let the cute one be pink, and for every other color let there be a white guy. Funny how I never noticed this as a kid. :D

(Obviously, none of these pictures are mine and they belong to their respective owners. I would actually bother to go out and take them myself if they still existed. SJPD patrol car photo used with permission, from Ack Ook.)

Itsies & Bitsies

Quite a bit has been going on in the last few days of school, now in its single digits. I've been trying to cram all the things a high school student could possibly ever do before I begin a new adult life.

Tuesday, May 11th: I made a companionship with a drunk guy at a bar. With eyes glued on the TV, I was drawn to the Vancouver Canucks vs the Chicago Blackhacks hockey game when a voice from the right called out, "You from Chicahhgo?" (Notice the Chicago accent) How random was that? I tell him no and he begins chattering away his game remarks, and needless to say, we got along pretty well. We were both rooting for Chicago and wanted to see them play against the SJ sharks soon. For that moment, I got to taste the moment of how men bond with a mix of beer and sports. (LOL)


Okay, I lied, it wasn't really a full on bar, but I was really at SmokeEaters, trying out their deal of the chicken wing deal of the day. There were no seats left except the stools on the bar of the store so I sat there. So stop making me feel bad, I had no where else to sit on a crowded discount day. So the food, yes it was FANTASTIC; I'm HOOKED. I came back on Thursday for their weekly tender deal and sent my stomach and taste buds to heaven. Omnomnom. Burp.

And since I brought my camera that day, I decided to stroll around downtown and snap snap. It's my playground in America.

Looks like Las Vegas. But this was just between 2nd and 3rd streets at San Fernando.

Night lights of the historic district.

On Wednesday, May 19th, my friend Derek and I conspired to cut school and have fun. Gosh, I don't know, it's my first time. :B Okay, well it was for a reason, and that was to see the Amgen Tour of California for the last time in the Bay Area. Took lots of pretty pictures, or cool ones, I thought.

Picture of me and Derek.

So after we took this picture, a man asked me to do the same with his much more expensive camera. He said, "Don't drop it, or I'll smack you." Oh, you Americans. (He was obviously joking.)

Jons Voigt, the famous professional German cyclist.

YES, my picture of Lance Armstrong! It was definitely hard shot with people's hands and heads in the way.

Start gun fired at 11 AM.

Picture with San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. Man, this guy's cool.

Picture with Chuck Reed wasn't easy either. After shouting at the Mayor asking for a picture and he agreed, I had to jump a crowd control fence past stage security and was yelled at. Whatever, I didn't care, neither did the mayor. Well, mostly because the guard's English was masked by an thick accent making it unintelligible. So we snapped in right front of the guard to get him out of the picture (not the yellow guy on the right). Shut up, jeez.

So that's that.

And now here I am. 7 school days left, ready to go.
I am thankful for another mom from halfway across the world who wakes up at 4 AM to reply to my emails. A mom who, with just keyboard strokes and nothing more than ordered characters, still manages to be able to send her uplifting emotions by intangible means. Like magically sending smiles.

I am grateful for everything this year and much, much, more grateful for those who have taken their time to care and to love. Friends and family. I love them all, with all my heart.

Graduation's going to be a bitch for me.

Copyright Infringement Claim (Mine!)

Okay.

So apparently, some idiot is using one of my images and releasing it under his name under an "all rights reserved" license. What this means is that you reserve all rights to a specific content, and it's something you do when it is your creation, your work, and that in order to use, print, distribute--whatever--you must ask the holder of this license before you do so.

It's a picture I made about 4 years ago in commemoration of the September 11 attacks, which was this image:
It was one of the works created when I was beginning to get acquainted with Photoshop. So what am I going to do? File a copyright infringement claim, of course. Clearly my watermark is stamped on the bottom left of the digitally photomanipulated work (see enlarged size), and of course, I'm a bit angry with the fact that he uploaded it under the "all rights reserved" copyright. I would have been fine if he credited and linked me--well, maybe--but releasing saying it's yours? No way in hell.

If I took your homework and and wrote my name on it and turned it in, how would you feel? (LOL)

So here's my claim that I sent to Yahoo!, which runs the popular online photo sharing site, Flickr.

Good morning,

Thank you for your assistance. Below is an updated notice with the
requirements needed to further process this claim.
----------

This notice serves as legitimate claim that I, under penalty of the perjury in the State of California and the United States of America, believe my work was violated here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/coffin911/2172917610/) by the user Coffin911 who took the original image from deviantArt (http://atsuke.deviantart.com/art/September-11-2001-Memorial-38843552) under my online name and reuploaded it under an "All Rights Reserved" license, and therefore is unauthorized to do so without my permission that was never given.

A valid address and telephone number where I may be contacted is as follows:
***** *****
San Jose, CA 95***
(***) ***-****

Here is a link to my deviantArt page: http://atsuke.deviantart.com/, holding the *exact* image that is **timestamped August 29, 2006** found in the gallery that might assist you in your investigation. The image itself also contains a copyright watermark on the lower left corner. Furthermore, a journal entry has been submitted on that deviantArt userpage regarding this matter to prove that I am the legitimate person of that account.

I have good faith belief that the use of the unauthorized, copyrighted material just described on Flickr is in violation of the original copyright held by me, and of copyright laws of the United States. This request is for Yahoo! to disable or take down the unauthorized image on Flickr as I intend it to be viewable only on deviantArt at this time.

I would also like to ask that, should Yahoo! contact me through phone, to call only after the hours of 15:00 from Monday to Friday. Please leave a voicemail if I do not pick up, and I will guarantee that your message will be heard and called back. I however prefer the method of email as it is convenient.

Thank you for your cooperation!
[electronic signature]

(The above signature will, for this specific email message, serve as a valid electronic signature equal to that of a handwritten signature. I certify that I am the person making this claim and that all information in this notice is accurate under penalty of perjury.)

We'll see how it goes over the next few days. :|

B**ch.


Update (19:11): I won the case. :) They finally disabled the image. [see here] Below is their response.

Hello,

Thank you for reporting this incident to Yahoo!. We have taken the
appropriate action.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Regards,

Copyright/IP Agent, Yahoo! Inc.

Harharhar.

I Don't Want Freedom Yet

One more month!

Time is slipping through my fingers and I'm not even noticing it. I guess the more accurate representation of how much time is remaining should be 4 weeks left. Summer has been knocking on my door but I'm afraid of opening it; I have so many things to do in so little time, yet, I have reasons to be and not to be lazy.

Honestly, I could care less of whatever assignments handed to me between now and June, but my personal standards continue to push me on from the past twelve years of school. I could work, but it would leave me with little time to spend the remaining days of my high school year. I could study intensely, but that would leave me with no time to communicate with my host family. I could relax, but my grades will threaten my acceptance to college. There are too many things in my hand to balance all at once, within one month, but I'm definitely trying.

I have two choices: Produce time or produce productivity. The choice is obvious, but I'm in for some hell. But, but, I don't want to go through hell! B-b-b-----Goddamnit! I need to focus.

No butts buts.

:|

International Gateway

I woke up at 6:45 AM on a Saturday morning to head off to San Francisco. Yes, a Saturday. What's more was that I woke up feeling full of energy and wasn't grumbling of how drowsy I am, so I got up without a problem. Great! Shower and it's time to dash off in the quiet weekend morning. I'm excited about the zip line over the plaza, and knowing that I'm way ahead of schedule of the attraction opening at 10 AM, I'm sure to get the wristbands to reserve my spot, right? Wrong.


I make my way there and I'm told that I'm out of luck, as some people had started forming the line at 3 AM, and they were only giving out 500 wristbands per day. According on some blog, getting there by 9:30 will guarantee you a spot, but with this as the last weekend, EVERYONE wants to go. So now what? I'm NOT going home, since I just got here. Well, it's San Francisco and thank goodness there are other things to do. Heck, I even finished my Physiology homework while overlooking Union Square.

And so by foot, with my heavy gear, determination, sweat and blood (just kidding), I am able to present you my urban journey. Even though I had to endure the hilly terrain of the city, walking about the height of 20 floors up.

TransAmerica Building

Yay!

California Street trolley cars

This man basically had the same view I had while I was doing my homework, heh.

At first I thought these were stray dogs. Turns out they belong to the couple.

Alcatraz Island

Coit Tower

Sansome Street

And there you have it. My legs hurt. Speaking of which...

This man was sprinting like a cartoon character across the road in front of oncoming cars (I'm serious!), amusing his group of five friends. That black luxury there zoomed by his side. I found it funny (though find it a highly stupid act), and his posture just makes me laugh.


Only in America.

Spring Break

"We should show life neither as it is or as it ought to be, but only as we see it in our dreams."

Count Leo Tolstoy

Productively sluggish best describes the last 8 days away from school.

What a strange break, it was. I had two choices: treat it like summer vacation or to treat it as a couple days off from school. Though reality was the latter, my choice was somewhat in between, or both I could even say. Mentally, the break seemed like it lasted on and on but the things I completed in a short amount of time would typically be found in a longer break. Here are some of those things:

• Cycling to Morgan Hill, California and back.
  56.4 miles
  
  Yes, I've done it again--biking far distances but with Derek. My middle name should be Jimmy "Crazy" Ly. Works well, too, because my last name makes it an adverb! This trip was special in that it was a city to city trip, from the San Jose (Milpitas, really, for my case), with nothing in between. Just rural the rural plains and ranches of California for miles, grasslands, trees, and whatnot.
  
  Picturesque outskirts of San Jose, highway 101 lies in the background.
  
  
  Our trail cutting through the untouched parts of nature, with Derek in for a shot.
  
  Picture of me in the middle of nowhere.
  
  Here and there, we passed by some few ranches that I never knew existed.
  
  
  And our destination! Morgan Hill, thumbtacked in purple on the map way above this post.
  
  The way back, racing the sun to San Jose city limits. Unfortunately, it beat us by almost half an hour.
  
  
• Downtown Job Hunting
  I went down and dropped off at two locations my resume, which I also completed within this break period. Notice the picture contrasts greatly with what I did the day before. The quote starting this post was found on a whiteboard as I was seeking applications in an office on my hunt.
  
  
• Outdoor Photography in the Rain
  First time. :)
  
  
• Completing Homework
  With Abby, Kimbo and Amy. The math gang, as I like to call it.
  
  
• Submitted a Statement of Intention to Register (SIR), Created a UCLA E-mail
  And rejected all others. UC Davis' was the most painful, because I loved the campus.
  
  I guess UC Irvine really wanted me in. ;) It had, one of the worst websites to navigate around, taking me 20 minutes just to find the SIR. I ended up googling it to find the form, and a friend even called me to ask where I had found it. Anyway, I now have a [USERNAME]@ucla.edu email address that I love.
  
  
  
• Finished a Pushed-Back Scholarship
  I've procrastinated a bit too much. Glad it's over with.

And that's it. Quite a bit for a week.

Photo courtesy of Justin Beck

And that was supposed to be me on the 10th of April, but plans were canceled because I had no ride nor energy to haul my butt on the subway that early. I'm hoping next week would change that.