time smiles in my hand

i saw this plaque on the sidewalk while walking around san fran. i wonder how many people step over this without noticing what a cool poem they're missing out on...

weili's replacement

i bought 207 something today while shopping around in san fran's chinatown! it's their new pet named squinty >.< now they wont have to pay weili to dress up as a panda and roll around the living room floor acting as their "pet panda"

hope you guys enjoy playing with squinty and all his other friends! i know i sure did. o yah...i took a pic of squinty and his friends just in case they hurt themselves (i.e. broken leg) along the way to texas :x

are we there yet?

the yu family has safely arrived to san fran! the car ride wasnt as long as i was dreading either :). we saw some pretty cool things along the way... a guy brushing his teeth while driving, a truck full of tomatoes THAT DIDNT FLY OUT, a dairy farm with THOUSANDS of cows! (we didnt see this either, we SMELLED it. bleh.), a cute citrus farm's advertisement, and windmills (pictured above).

the only thing that sucked about the ride was this annoying and LOUD buzzing noise that came from the car's loose screw or something. we stopped 4 times in the span of 2 hours to try to fix this darn noise (this also meant we sat in the car with this VERY torturous sound for TWO FREAKING HOURS. argh. it's a miracle i didnt go nuts!). anyways, my dad, the engineer (and my personal hero for the day), FINALLY fixed it (pictured above)! yahoo! but on the even brighter side of things, this fixing helped me enjoy/appreciate the rest of the 5 hour (quiet) trip a lot more. :D.

1/2 family reunion

the chu "family reunion" in L.A. was sweet! i do wish for more time here though :p family is a pretty special thing :)!

the yu family leaves for san fran bright and early tomorrow morning for ANOTHER family reunion, this time on my daddy's side. it's a freaking 8 hour drive to san fran! pray for us! not so much for the obvious request of travelings mercies, but for my own sanity! i can barely stand the drive to austin (2.5 hour car trip)... :\!

happy bday popo!

last night our entire family celebrated my grandma's 78th bday. 78 seems so old in comparison to my mere 20 years of life. it's sad because my grandma is probably in better health and more active than me! she takes such amazing care of my grandpa, cooks the best food i have eaten (which is a lot :x), grows the most beautiful flowers, and is the most street-smart person i know. her energy, love, and care for her family is something i really admire about her. i've known her all my life yet i still think she has many life-lessons and experiences to share with us...

it's the simple things

i really like the "it's the simple things" song heard in the most recent coca-cola commercials. anyone know where i can find it?

to me, it really is the simple things that make life just so sweet. the reason i bring this up is because my 9 year old cousin, allen, was SO excited about sitting up front in the middle seat of my dad's rented american car for his first time. he kept on telling all the family members to look at where he was sitting. i was too nice to tell him the nickname given for this seat location (the b word). haha. but hey...something this simple made a little kid's day :p

my fave question

one of my favorite questions to ask someone is what they did today/how was their day? maybe it's because i like being asked this and like answering this question. i feel like only your good friends know and care about what you were up to on a particular day of your life. kinda like they care enough to ask and listen :)

today we went to the getty museum in california. it was SO pretty and luxurious. i think the weather added to the beauty of the place. we only paid $7 for parking- the rest was completely free of charge. i wonder where they get the funds to fund this place because this place sure is baller-style... i took this pic for lina b/c it reminded me of all the models she makes for architecture. it looks like im eating the darn thing but i'm actually just trying to look excited like how she gets excited about projects ;)

the museum's actually located at the top of a moutain. i'm not sure why but im guessing it's because it makes the place more beautiful with it's scenery. in order to get to the museum building, you have to ride a cable tram to the top of the moutain. it felt like we were traveling to a world of unknowns...which ironically became somewhat true for me.

some cool things i saw there...

one tree? or many?

never in my life have i felt such a strong urge to want to jump into a fountain. not even since i was little.

what i took away...
i just happen to come to the museum when a rare occurence of 15 rembrandt portraits from 15 different locations got brought together for an exhibit. the tour guide said it was a pretty special thing for not only scholars to view these oil paintings at the same time, but also the every-day common person who rarely gets the chance to view such amazing art.

although rembrandt's paintings dont appeal to my taste, i did enjoy the exhibit, learned lots, and found it really interesting. i def left feeling a lot more cultured :). if i somehow got a rembrandt painting, i would hang it in my library because i think his paintings are very calm, deep, and contemplative. the exhibit is called "rembrandt's late religious portraits" and it includes portraits of individuals painted as a certain religious figure. rembrandt painted these during a time in his life where he was going through many hardships of personal loss and financial trouble. one thing that was brought up was the fact that rembrandt continued to paint bold, daring, and strong paintings despite his hardships. this is one of the unsolved mysteries of rembrandt because he could have made money painting what he was once famous for. what i find interesting is that rembrandt continued to paint portraits of apostles, saints, christ, and mary during his times of trouble. it seems as if he somehow found comfort in these religious figures and identified to the suffering they went through for the sake of the gospel.

if i had to choose, rembrandt's self-portrait of the apostle paul was my favorite. it's interesting b/c rembrandt did around 100 self-portraits. maybe he was vain, shrugs, but i like to think it was just convenient for him to look into a mirror rather than ask someone to model for him. anyways, rembrandt painted himself very honestly in a direct yet humbling manner. the audio tour also mentioned this is the only portrait where the person is actually looking at the viewer. it seemed like he was engaging with me. the audio tour does a much better job of analyzing by saying "rembrandt as paul gazes at the viewer, perhaps asserting the artist's spiritual identification with paul's human limitations."