i was doing some research about what it means to be part of the nisei, or japanese second generation. i had a disagreement with a team member about whether i was first or second generation japanese. i believed that i was second, but he claimed because i was the first to be born here in the states that i am actually first generation.

well, it turns out that the japanese call me second generation. so nisei it is. that doesn’t really make me feel any different, but hey, it’s all in the name. it’s sad to say that my japanese skills have really deteriorated over time. i think that i can just barely have a meaningful conversation with my mom about how hungry i am. kind of sad.

wow, it’s been a long weekend for me. i took my birthday holiday off on my birthday and the company has a holiday on the 25th so the four day weekend gave me plenty of time to relax. i’d like to say that i lived up every moment of the weekend and filled it with exciting adventures, but that isn’t quite the case.

i spent thursday running errands. friday was spent in the city taking pictures. saturday was spent sleeping for the most part with much tv watching inbetween naps. i also rediscovered the joys of my webcam and chatting with people via the webcam. i had a very entertaining webchat. it’s an interesting medium, you have to exaggerate your actions to convey certain feelings. i fear that i’m pretty stoic so i’m not as entertaining of a webchatter as my friend. eventually i found myself too tired of sleep and so i ran a few errands and then went out to dinner with a friend.

dinner was good, it’s always nice to catch up with my friend, though our meetings are far and few between. i really do need to remedy that and i’m trying to make a bigger effort to keep in touch with friends. as more of us drift off and do our own separate things, when we do get the chance to meet up, it’s good fun. it was dinner and coffee afterwards. we had a little bit of trouble trying to find a pearl tea place (they all seemed to be closed!) but finally settled on a coffee house where we waxed philosophy and traded witty banter while sipping on tea and coffee. it was a fun evening.

i think i spent a good chunk of sunday programming. i know, one would think that when you have a vacation from work, you wouldn’t be doing work-like things, but recently i have had a bit of an obsession with trying to figure out how i want to deal with my website. every time i feel like the geek in me is starting to slip away, i manage to throw myself back in it. but, if anyone cares, i’ve finally figured out how i want to deal with the presentation layer of my site. =P

i then went and played volleyball with val on sunday. that was fun, though there weren’t too many people who came to play at the open gym, it was fun to play some volleyball. both my sunday and monday night leagues are off this week, so i needed to get some volleyball in. i think that i really need to work on my serves and start getting a more fierce serve in. not sure how to do that, but it’s something on my to do list.

later that evening i hung out at joycup, this pearl tea place in santa clara. it was pretty good, i might become a regular there.

so i think 19 or so of us went to celebrate my birthday tonight. it was pretty amazing. at one point in the night, i was looking down at the table to see all of the people who had gathered to come and help me celebrate.

i am truly blessed to have such good friends so close to my heart.

i don’t really have any issues with turning 29. i know it might sound like it, but i really don’t. age doesn’t bother me so much and i’m not really in much of a rush to get anywhere anymore anyway.

i look at my life now and i think about how much it has changed since i first got out of college and started working and started being on my own. back then i hardly ever went out, i hardly ever exercised and i never really met anyone new. looking around at the table tonight, there have been some people who i couldn’t have known for more than a year or two, but i regard them amongst my closest of friends. and then i look at other people who i’ve known since high school and i still keep them close to my heart.

i never used to play volleyball. i never really embraced photography, and i would never have thought that i would be charging people money to take pictures. i never would have imagined that i would meet so many people from so many different walks of life. some friends come and some friends go, that’s the nature of life. life is an ever evolving process and every year i look back and can’t help but think that each year has been getting better than the one before.

sure, things aren’t completely figured out yet, but it has been a long time since i thought that i’ve needed to have had everything figured out.

i think that i usually don’t like my birthday because i haven’t really associated my birthdays with happy times and so i’ve grown a complex over the years. but really, today was actually quite a good day. sure, i ended up running errands, but i also spent it with the people that i care about and any day i can do that is a good day.

happy birthday to me! it’s another year of turning 21 again. man, how do i keep up with it all?

i haven’t really been doing anything glamourous for my birthday yet. i ran a bunch of errands and then was able to meet up for lunch with ivy (and jen). thanks for lunch, ivy! we tried out this japanese place called azuma in cupertino that i have been meaning to try out for a while. the portions were smaller than expected, but it ended up to be filling anyway.

i got an oil change after lunch and now i’m a little sleepy so i’m going to watch a little tv and rest before i head out again to run a few more errands.

it’s the last few hours of my twenty-eighthood and it’s time to purge all of the dead weight in my life and start anew.

i’m trying to start this year on a positive note. i’m trying to look for the good in people. i’m trying to make this a good year. but digging up all of these memories has sort of gotten me down a little.

i think it may be time to seek comfort in a little pearl tea or perhaps a chantico. i’m not sure yet, but i do need to find something to cheer me up.

dear stephanie,

that was one of the rudest things ever done to me. perhaps you should think a little and take other people into consideration before you go and impulsively make rash decisions.

it’s disappointing to see that some things just never change. what’s sadder still is that i keep hoping that they would. i should have known better and i’m done blaming myself or setting myself up for this false hope that i’ve held for you.

see ya,
mike.

dear george,

we’ve known each for some time, but it seems that we’ve never really gotten close. i don’t know if that’s because you build up all these walls around you, if i have the walls around me, or if it’s because it just wasn’t meant to be. but there are times when i know that i have been passively aggressive to you because i’m annoyed or disagree with some of your beliefs and attitudes about life.

it was actually a friend of mine who i haven’t had the chance to talk to much who said something to me that reminded me of you. she told me to “think positive.” and i think it’s time that i start to do that with you. i don’t think that there is anything inherently wrong, but i do think it’s time for an attitude adjustment on my part. so i’m going to try and think positive and see where it takes us.

it’s a whole new world, bud.
mike.

dear leslie,

it’s been a rollercoaster of emotion the last few weeks. sometimes it’s hard to even remember where i was, what i was thinking, or why i’m doing it. i miss you. i do. i wish that we could go back to some happy place where everything was fine, but we have long since crossed that bridge.

each day seemed to be getting better than the day before, but there was the occassional stumbling block. seeing that you’ve removed me from your friendster friends, the scattered emails from you, and a few voicemails have thrown me a few times, but for the most part it’s been a steady journey to a better place.

last night’s unexpected shipment suprised me, and when i had realized what had happened, i rushed out into the rain looking for you. i searched around the corner, in the lot, and around the way, but you had already disappeared. maybe my courage was short in its existence, but the heart that i’ve been trying to grow cold over these last few weeks melted, if not for a little while.

the road to recovery feels long and unending, but i do see an end. i just wanted to say that though my actions may seem contrary, i still do think of you fondly and thank you.

mike.

dear jezebel,

i know that we haven’t been on the best of terms lately and our friendship seems to be predicated on all of these conditions. i guess i’ve been holding on to something that wasn’t really there anymore. i guess i really shouldn’t be surprised at what our friendship has come down to. i guess i really shouldn’t be disappointed because all of the signs have been there, i just choose not to see them.

i should have seen it coming. i should have known that things would have ended up like this. and i really shouldn’t be bothered by it. i really shouldn’t. but i still am. call it a character flaw, call it what you will, it doesn’t change things. oh well.

i guess i write you this letter as a farewell of sorts.

disenchantingly yours,
mike.

my roommate is making plans for my birthday dinner. she asked me what i thought about menu choices. when we got to the dessert portion of the menu, we had a choice between one or two desserts.

practically speaking, i answered, “well, we can probably do with just one dessert. i mean, we’re going to have cake too, so we probably don’t need to get two desserts…not that i’m assuming that i’m going to have a cake at my birthday dinner or anything, but you know, most people do, and so if i were to have a birthday cake, one might imagine that two desserts is not really necessary…but hey, you know, whatever.”