Eat Your Vegetables.

location: Clement St, Inner Richmond District.

The Palace.

My brother and his friend came to town today to drop off my car and so I took them to Palace of Fine Arts because I assumed that it'd be lit up. I brought a tripod with me so I was able to get this shot. I like shooting at night. :)

Light The Way.

I was just messing around with the long exposure on my camera and I caught this from my balcony.

Waiting To Go Home.

I was waiting for the 38BX to go home from work when I caught this angle.

This is why I like working in downtown San Francisco. The skyline in the Financial District is not as suffocatingly dominating as ones seen in metropolises, and yet it still is distinctively urban. San Francisco is just the right size for the Financial District to feel like you're in a metropolis and yet you still can quickly access neighborhoods as unique as the Haight, the Mission, and the Richmond, which makes the city incredibly diverse and versatile. Today was one of those days where I was able to take a small step back and realize how much God has blessed me in allowing me to live in a place like this.

I hope that you're able to find little breaks in the busyness of life to really reflect and be thankful of the blessings. :)

Assessing The Damage.

We were walking to Michelle's apartment to get breakfast when we saw this car that got owned by a tree during this weekend's rainstorms. Crazy.

A Night At Lower Haight.

Here are some photos from Michelle & Gina's housewarming party. The rest can be found on my flickr and facebook sites. Enjoy!

24/7 Memorial Day BBQ.

Since none of us had to work today, our small group met up in Alex's apartment by the ballpark for a huge barbeque. 1/2 lbs burgers, 6 oz steaks, hot dogs, and NINE gallons of homemade sweet tea by yours truly and Steve Chen made this a memorable 9 hour BBQ. Good times.


Jen Han, also known as "NOOOOO!!" (To my NC peeps, she's Judy Pham's best friend. Small world, huh?)

More photos can be found here.

Tea: How a Pro Does It!

While making the nine gallons of sweet tea for tomorrow's barbeque, Ben "The Stonecutter" Chen decided to whip up some cinnamon-lemon tea for all of us. Since I've been coughing for the past week, it really hit the spot. Ben, one of the owners of The Public (a local restaurant), went into the kitchen and was making this concoction in a skillet! I've never seen tea made like this before, so I had to take a picture.

Rona's Birthday

Today was Rona's birthday and we celebrated in grand style at Ben Chen's loft in Potrero Hill. A whole bunch of us got together for dinner, and we got to just chill and spend some time catching up with each other. (Rona is the girl with the "I [heart] Mom" shirt)

I was initially taking a picture of just the ladies, when the fellas all decided to act a fool in the background. :)

More pictures of the night can be found here.

A Night With Chung.

Tonight, Chung (one of the brothers from our small group) performed at a local coffeeshop during open mic. He was by far the most talented and polished performer, and it was great to see him in his element, performing his own songs in front of a crowd that consisted of mostly friends.

Nights like this really make me realize how uniquely talented and gifted God blesses each and every one of us and of how talented the members of my own small group are. Among us we have musicians, designers, animators, dancers, poets, and comedians. I'm guessing it's this uniqueness that allows us to have such good times and memories when we're all together.

Good job tonight, Chung.

Barracuda Sushi.

Tonight, Chung, Andrew, Kwang Ho, Sarah, and I went to Barracuda Sushi in Burlingame for dinner. Among five of us, we ordered more rolls than could fit in this single frame. The picture can speak for itself on how good the food was. I'd love to go back just to see Chung order the "Oh! Wasabi!" roll again! haha...

My 23rd Birthday.

Wow. What I intended to be a pretty low-key birthday turned out to be random yet enjoyable. It started off with me getting to my desk to find the white board decorated by my cubemate Annie.

I didn't really want to make a huge deal at work, because I didn't think it was groundbreaking news, but the day continued with coworkers and friends stopping by and calling to send their birthday greetings, which was really thoughtful of everyone.

At lunch, a group of Googlers from 24/7 and my coworkers in my department headed to main campus for some good grub and good company in what turned out to be a gorgeous day.

As the day progressed, Julie- a friend from 3:18 (a different small group at GrX)- found out that I hadn't made any plans for the day and invited me out to the driving range to chill with her coworkers. I was hesitant in going because it would have only been the second time at a range, and I was a bit hesitant on going because I knew I'd embarrass myself.

However, much to my amusement and surprise, I was actually able to consistently make contact and send the ball flying. I guess the whole getting older thing has improved upon my skills in old-people sports like golf! We wound up staying at the range for about an hour and a half, and then we headed off to the next event of the day.


After grabbing a quick bite to eat with Henry and Jules, we headed over to Daly City to meet up with the rest of their small groups for their weekly bowling get-together. While waiting for the lanes to open up, we went across the lot to Tapioca Express, where I was treated to a peach smoothie boba.

It wasn't until I was almost halfway done with the smoothie that I realized it had milk in it. For those of you who don't know, I belong in the community of those who are lactose intolerant. However, luckily, there were no problems to be faced tonight :)

Finally, after waiting for about an hour for our lanes to open up, we headed across the parking lot to the alley to get our bowl on! However, it did not turn out to be the casual, leisurely bowling that I've grown accustomed to.

I learned a couple of very important lessons today: 3:18 small group members are pretty hardcore about their bowling. I haven't seen so many 100+ players in one game ever, and it was kind of amusing to see how into it some people got- i.e. they'd beat themselves up for not clearing each frame. Yeah, for me? I was just glad if I didn't gutterball!

And the second lesson of the day?: Whenever it's your birthday, prepare to be embarrassed. Just when I thought I was in the clear, Julie pulls out this hideous purple boa and a birthday hat, forcing me to put it on to the amusement of others.

Regardless, what was expected to be a pretty low-key birthday turned out to be very eventful after all.

Thanks so much to everyone who called, emailed, im-ed, Facebooked, and whatnot to wish my a happy birthday. As lonely as it gets in this city sometimes, I felt really loved today.

Practice Shots.

A coworker let me borrow his 50mm f/1.4 lens so on the way to the airport, I decided to mess
around and take a couple of shots. I love this lens and am probably going to get the f/1.6 soon. I'm excited.

Thanks to Jane for pulling through and giving me a ride to the Oakland Airport. That was crucial.

A Night at The Public.

We had our weekly Creative Arts Ministry (CAM) meeting at Ben's restaurant The Public in SOMA. I love coming here, because the atmosphere is chill and the food that Ben prepares for us is great.

A Night On the Town.

Tonight, we headed to SOMA (South of Market) to celebrate Grace and Timmy's birthdays. I snapped the first shot from the car as we were looking for parking, and although it came out a bit pixelated, I like the b/w-effect.

This is Timmy. He knows Jen Lin from back in NC...Small world. Happy birthday, bro!

Urban Art.

While walking home from work today, I was walking through one of the side streets that led to my apartment, and I noticed for the first time how the side of this building was tagged up. While graffiti is considered vandalism, I appreciate "good" graffiti art because it's just one of those elements of a city that give it more character. The only problem is that there's too many bad tag artists out there.

This wall wasn't that great, but at the same time, the bright colors caught my attention.

A Hospital Visit.

Toadie had her appendix removed today, so we paid her a visit at the hospital this evening. We were all relieved to know that that surgery was a success and that she would be discharged tomorrow morning. We knew that she was fine because even in her drugged up state, her dry humor kept us all laughing. Get well soon, Toadie!

Church Wildlife.

Someone at church dressed up in this panda suit for Fall Launch. I don't think anyone understood the reason why he decided to do this, but at the same time, with the scratching heads and questioning faces at the mall, I found it to be hilariously random.

"Alpha- Find Me Five Teenagers With Attitude!"

While driving down the US-101 today, Jeff and I noticed the communications tower found near Twin Peaks peeking through a thick layer of clouds surrounding the city. With the clouds masking the surrounding area, the tower reminded me of the big zords in the Power Rangers, or something random like that.

Promoted to Construction Work.

At one of our team building activities, we received construction helmets (to coincide with the theme of the conference). I gathered three of my coworkers (Steven, Helen, and Taj) for this shot. So random.