Relay for a Life Changed

"It's not the faces of the people that matter, but that these people faced their challenge of standing up to fight against cancer."


Relay for Life is always a great opportunity as we honor those who have lost their struggle against cancer and those who continue to fight. Each year, the relay provides me with motivation to try and push my limits as my ability to deal with the fatigue and pain of running my laps equals at least a portion of the fatigue and pain that cancer patients must endure on a daily basis.

This year, I ran 40 laps ~ 10 miles.

This event allows me to honor the memory of my late MUN advisor Richard Neville as well. Without Mr. Neville, I do not know if I would have done MUN in college and thus, if I would have been a teacher at this point. Each time I go to a conference, teach the MUN class, or do anything related to MUN, I think of him and try to ask myself, what would Richard Neville do. Of course, as a freshman, I was fearful of him, however, when I got to know him, I began to realize, just how much he cared even if he didn't show it. Later on in his career as he neared the end of his life, he began to show how much he cared much more and it was such an inspiration to see him fighting and with us until his last days. I do regret that I did not see him before his passing, however, I do hold the picture I have with him close to my heart as it reminds me of what I hope to accomplish as a teacher. I also think that is why I continue to strive to push students to do their best in MUN, because I want to make sure that the program continues to model the type of program Mr. Neville would have liked.

I still remember when he came into our class and said, "I went to the City of Hope and they told me that I had no hope." It was one of the saddest moments I could remember in my high school career, yet, I think at that moment, my path to where I currently am at was created.

Kenshin Rocks!

Enough Said! :)

One Crazy Adventure

I just returned from Chicago and it only has been about 24 hours since I left Los Angeles.

After our CIF Dinner at Olive Garden, I headed over to LAX to catch my flight to O'hare. It felt quite strange to only be bringing such a small amount of luggage and also to be dressed in my suit already, however, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Once on the plan I knocked out, ignoring my temporary partner in crime that had joined me in the seat next to me. Upon arrival, I grabbed what little luggage I had and headed off to the Blue Line to Belmont. When I arrived, I googlemapped Johnny's address and it said the walk would be about an hour. It was still only a little after six, so I decided to start walking. After walking through a few areas that may not have been the best, I took the Belmont bus down for a mile until I got near my final destination, finally arriving at Johnny's. The street was a pretty nice street lined with a different type of housing look set next to the brown line that connects to Chicago's famous "Loop."

Jenn let me into the place and I decided to sleep on a chair since I did not want to freak out Johnny when he woke up by sleeping on the second couch across from where he was. Unfortunately, when Johnny's roommate woke up, I think I scared him, as he walked over to Johnny to ask him who I was :) ... I was awake at the time, but just pretended to sleep to make things less awkward.

We took a taxi over to the graduation ceremony and it was quite a nice graduation. The Northwestern Law students wore their purple gowns and showed such enthusiasm throughout the ceremony! Afterwards, it tooks us awhile, but we finally found Shannon and it was so exciting to see her! I've know her since her freshman year in high school and in a blink of an eye, she is graduating from Law School!

After giving her the lei, her hugs, and taking a load of photographs, we headed in the line for the taxi, which was extremely long! We waiting for a bit and Shannon actually drove back before we got to the front of the line. Thus, instead of going to the reception, Johnny and I had to get dropped off at the blue line. It would have been nice to spend a bit more time with Shannon before I left, but I guess, she'll be back to Cerritos soon!

On the way back, Johnny and I got to talk as we killed time on the ride home. When finally arriving at the airport, we realized we had to jet to our gates, barely making the flight, as it boarded right when I arrived at the gate! Pweh!

On my way home, I made a quick stop to wish a happy birthday to a friend and then headed home to enjoy a nice meal from Del Taco, unhealthy, but great because it was my second meal in 30 hours :)

Exhausting? Yes. Worth it? Definitely!

Shannon, congratulations! I wrote almost everything I wanted to say in the letter, however, I know there will be more that I realize that I forgot to write. I am so proud of you!

Gallery: http://wutanabe5.smugmug.com/gallery/8224199_m7H7J
(I had my settings set to the wrong settings so the pictures did not come out as well as I hoped. Sorry!)

Shared Path Ahead

I walked by this sign the other day and was thinking, can people really share a common space while respecting others?

I would hope that people could do such a thing, however, I am reminded each day of how people do not respect the feelings of others and keep them in consideration when they take action.

At the movies the other day, a couple was talking for at least an hour of a movie I was watching. Quite annoying! Then, as usual, a car pulls out of their stall despite the fact that you are half way out of your own stall already. There are so many examples of when people are so inconsiderate and fail to think of others. However, what about all those who have shared this path?

I get so frustrated at those who fail to share the path, that I miss my opportunities to thank those who have take the opportunity to share the road on which we travel. They've taken me and everyone else into consideration and allowed this experience to be shared. It's incredible and I want to thank each person who has sacrificed in order to allow others to have a similar experience as they have had.

Let's all make the extra effort and share our own paths, so that we may influence those around you to do the same.

:)

Social Darwinism

I guess this weekend was a social darwinism type week, or shall I say, survival of the fittest.

I don't understand how I scheduled so many things together, but I am relieved to be sitting here right now done with that week. Although my week ahead is pretty loaded as well, it will not compare to how busy this week was.

Since the scavenger hunt, we had our league finals where our teams collected a good load of medals and placed no lower than third in an unofficial running score. Two athletes advanced to CIF from the distances, Jessica Sunio and Thien-Nam To. Most others did what they could to try and qualify and I commend them on their efforts. We also had a good number of medalists this year, which also means I'll be broke after our distance champions dinner.

Kathia Avila - GFS 1600 (2nd)
Rachel Flores - GFS 3200 (1st)
Douglas Kim - BFS 800, 4x400 (2nd, 1st)
Audrey Lee - GFS 800, 1600, 3200, 4x400 (3rd)
Athalia Magana - GFS 1600, 3200 (1st, 2nd)
Jessica Sunio - GV 800, 1600 (2nd, 3rd)
Thien-Nam To - BV 800, 3200 (2nd, 3rd)

This weekend we had our UCI MUN Conference. It was sad to see how many problems there were during the conference and the lack of professionalism at some points which I stressed while running the conference. However, a lot of committees did run pretty well, mainly those who I was familiar with because I know they know what is expected of them. [It was nice to see some of the older faces.] Our school did fairly well in awards, however, the team was able to win the delegation award due to their excellent research, a point not emphasized as much in MUN in delegation points, which is a flaw of the system. In any case, we won the large school delegation and also won three gavels - Alwin Firmansyah, Wendy Tang and Rachelle Wong!

Great job delegates!

Today was mother's day. In order to celebrate after coming home, we went to my cousins house for a dinner and then after, went to the movies (I'll talk about that experience tomorrow). It was quite fun. In any case, I want to take this time to thank all the wonderful mothers out in the world, as you truly are the reason that human kind keeps surviving. Mother's are the caring creatures that nuture the future generations and assure that we do not lead ourselves into complete and utter destruction. They are the heart and soul their children and are the individual who give up so much to ensure that their children grow up with all that they need. To my mother and yours, we salute you!

By the way, my shirts says, "Touch My Monkey."

The Search for Our Storybook Ending

Team 300: Wilson Luong (Captain), Connie Chien, Traci Watanabe, and Jason Watanabe

Tonight was the Disneyland Scavenger Hunt and despite the fact that I have to wake up in 3.5 hours to a LONG day tomorrow, it was definitely worth the time we spent.

I am super sore from the experience though!

First, we checked in and got our wristbands and packets. Over dinner, my breadbowl chilli, fries and strawberry/wildberry smoothie, we tried to figure out the first clue, with no avail.

After doing so-so on the trivia questions we began the exhaustive search through the park, power walking for two hours through the park. We actually did well on the clues and I think we nailed at least the first six that we did and probably one more after that. On three we either guessed or ran out of time. During the entire scavenger hunt, you are tied together, thus, it makes it even hard because I was getting pulled through the park the entire night.


In any case, we did pretty well and ended up having a great time although I did fall asleep on the ride back. A perfect end to our storybook scavenger hunt :) Although we did not have a Cinderalla ending and come from behind as the underdogs, we still did better than we hoped, which is all I ask.

Now it's time to continued to search for my storybook ending ... tomorrow, league finals at La Mirada :)

On the Bridge

I'm currently on the bridge of a long week, nearly at the middle point of what has been such a hectic week ...

The Suburban League Prelims was a pretty good success, as many of our athletes performed to the level we had hoped. I have to look back to see the times of qualifiers for past league finals, as with a faster league, it was great to see the number of qualifiers that we had. [The following might be foreign language to some of you.]

1600 GFS - 6:03, 6:08, 6:09, 6:11 (1st - 4th Seeds at Finals)

1600 BFS - [PRs - (-7), (-8), (-9)]

1600 GV - 5:37, 5:43, 5:44 [PRs - (Tie), (-3), (-8)]

1600 BV - 4:52, 4:54 [PRs - (-1), (Tie)]

400 GFS - Auto Advance

400 BFS - [PRs - (-1)]

800 GFS - 2:42, 2:50, 2:52

800 BFS - 2:13 [PRs - (-2)]

800 GV - 2:32, 2:36, 2:38 [PRs - (Tie)]

800 BV - 2:06

Two of our events went to finals. We were able to take three medals and six of eight PRs in the 3200m.

3200 GFS - 12:48, 12: 53, 13:29, 14:07 [PRs - (-7), (-9), (-7), (-45)]

3200 BFS - [PRs - (-36), (-27)]

We have our league finals on Thursday at La Mirada at 4pm.

Tonight, I am going to Disneyland to participate in the scavenger hunt in the park from 7p - 1a. It will be quite the adventure despite the fact that we will not win :) Probably because when we were studying (Pocahantas), I fell asleep :P

This weekend, along with Mother's Day on Sunday, I got a full weekend of MUN at my alma mater, UC Irvine. I hope the conference turns out well.

I guess this week will be my full work week and then next week will be my full me week ;)

Until next time ... 

I'll see you on the other side of the bridge.

the other side of the bridge

is closer than it seems

as you seem to be distracted

by how the river below gleams

keep your focus forward

knowing you'll reach the end so soon

to where the grass is much greener

and where a field of flowers bloom

so don't give up while crossing

i'll be right here for you

to be you greatest supporter

no matter what it is you do

jason

5/6/09, 8:18am

FAMEous Strawberries

I said I would be posting a picture from Fame, the Cerritos High School play, so here it is!

It was a great production and a round of applause to the cast, crew and directors!

Gallery: http://wutanabe5.smugmug.com/gallery/8090779_NY8Fc

Today, I went on a strawberry farm tour. At first, I was hesitant and wasn't sure if I wanted to go on it, but I am glad that I ended up going on this tour. We got to sample FRESH produce right out of the field, washed in buckets including snap peas, green beans, lettuce, green onions, carrots and cilantro! We also got to pick our own basket of strawberries! It was such a berry good experience :)

Gallery: http://wutanabe5.smugmug.com/gallery/8095447_CSD24

On a sad note, my main computer got the black screen of death. I've tried three quick fixes so far unsuccessfully. I am hoping that one of these ends up working. I don't want to reformat, but my options are shrinking. *crosses fingers* At least most of my files are on externals.

Help anyone??

Beast of a Tool

This beast of a camera, the Canon 5D Mark II is my new baby :) ... haha ... it takes incredible quality picture and normally does not need a flash. Even more impressive, it can shoot HD quality video and take stills at the same time, despite the fact that it pauses the video when it shoots. 

Sure, you do not have very many controls over the HD video component and it sucks a lot of memory, however, I have used this camera the last few days and have already noticed the difference between the XSi and this one :) It will be a great addition to my arsenal of SLR cameras and also an addition to my camcorder arsenal as well.

The camera's L-series lens helps a lot :) ... another downside is that is has no built in flash but with the quality of camera that it is, the flash is not always necessary if you adjust the settings correctly. However, I do have a canon flash to accompany it. 

If you ever need pictures done, let me know, that's what I'm doing this summer to keep myself afloat financially over the summer. Big or small shoots, I'm there if you need to hire someone.

My first lengthy shoot with the camera was with our school musical Fame. Because I have had problems with my main computer, I do not have access to the pictures right now, however, when I get my other computer back on track, I will be sure to link those to my blog!

Today was a pretty busy day as I had to go to multiple stores to run errands, come back, and prepare for our BBQ/Ice Bath and then head straight to Fame for the play. I made my infamous kimchee burgers, most of which, I have yet to cook. Guess I will be having a few good meals soon. Also, I made some pasta, which ended up tasting a bit weird, but it was still good eats'.

In any case, exhausted as I am, I am prepared to wake up tomorrow and head out to the many endeavors I have to complete before the weekend is complete!

Wish me luck :)

Our Final League Dual Meet

Yesterday was our final league dual meet against John Glenn.

It was great to finish out the regular season and head into Suburban League Finals. We will race our league championship races next week and today we will be doing our seedings for the race.

In any case, the John Glenn meet was a great way to end the seasons, as all four levels did a great job in winning the league meet and we even found our way to some PRs on their track with our biggest PR coming in the girls frosh-soph race with a girl who, at the beginning of the season, seemed to be struggling a lot at practices. Thus, it was nice to see her find a big PR at the end of the season! 

Also, it was finally confirmed that our boys varsity team is the three time defending champions.

We now look towards next week where we begin our championships meets. 

Until next time ...