So today

I've been sick for about two days now and I'm hating it. I'm so bored at home and Radar (my dog) is so annoying when he barks at people pass. Today was different though, my friend Nathan called me up and told me he wanted to go bike riding. Naturally I said yes since I didn't go out for a whole day. In the middle of White Collar (an amazing new tv show) Nathan arrived. I went to dress and it took us forever to get ready. Our other friend also named Nathan came over and that got me into working faster to get our bikes out. As we got outside we got a call from David saying that he couldn't pump his tire. Kind of annoyed we waited in front of my house trying to tell him across the phone how to use the pump correctly. Eventually we (the two Nathans and me) just went to the gas station and filled up our tires with fresh air.
We decided to meet up at the Bay Farm bridge (about half way from our houses). Going some park that I'm drawing a blank on I'm pretty sure we saw a group of people play Quiditch ( Harry Potter) and i felt a sharp pang of jealousy. As
As we approached the bridge Nathan Tieu's chain went off and it took us several attempts to fix, since we are such bike geniuses(/sarcasm).
David finally met up with us at the end of the bridge along with Brandon Ng and Sean who we just greeted and went along our own ways. We decided to bike along the bike path that goes around Bay Farm. Being sick i was dieing from dehydration and was complaining until we found a water fountain that had enough pressure to not disgust me. I learned how to ride with no hands at an adequate speed and distance.
I will continue next week I'm about to die TT_TT and hi Hali (counts as me talking) about you. (sorry for minimal word count and probably multiple mistakes)

Shadows -argh so hard to write about-

Shadows are pretty neat. Scientifically shadows are just an area of space that a light source cant reach. Thinking like this nigh time is like a blanket of a shadow, but then that makes no sense because the moon+stars make a pretty good light. Hmm maybe at night its possible for a shadow within a shadow? Just rambling on now =(
When I was little i always thought of my shadow as my personal friend/stalker (to me same thing). It seemed to always follow me, and i would play games with my shadow like trying to run away from it or trying to trick it. Unfortunately my shadow is super smarter then I am so yea.
At another point in my life i used to think it was the opposite me who lived on the inside of the Earth. That i was probably his shadow if the world was inside out pretty crazy idea but i think it would make an awesome novel. Although it would be pretty bland if everything was a shade of black. More recently I have been looking into multiple dimensions and how very possible it is that multiple realities could be happening in a area of space we cannot perceive, which makes me think back to the days of my alternate me (shadow) and our many adventures.
A lot of cultures and people think of shadows as evil beings. Which in a sense shows what they think of themselves if a shadow is a part of you. I can think of a few reasons as to why some people might think of this. The thought of a dark being following your every step in the day and suddenly disappearing at night is a pretty scary thought. People with more open minds or even simple ones often love there buddy who seems to never leave them alone.
Hali I'mm sorry ill write about you next week, The Office is on so shhhh

Close Friends Part 1

I usually hang out with the same 3 people at lunch. I'm fine with it because i love these people very much and would never get tired of being with them. I know that i can always trust David (Bruce Lee), Nathan tieu, and Nathan Truong. We have been hanging out and close since 4th grade and we are all still very close. All we did during recess in elementary school was play different variations of tag. We loved to run and be active and race and all that jazz.
I met David first. We sat next to each other in Mr Weinreb's class. Our first great bonding moment was when i offered him some Nerds to eat. We started messing around like "aah don’t eat me I’m a Nerd” and stuff like that. Basically a play on words with what the candy was called, Nerds. After that we began to sit and talk to each other more and even play at recess. I believe it’s meeting David that I love running and sprinting so much. (Thanks David :D ) Playing tag and survival tag at recess is how I met Nathan Tieu and Nathan Truong. At first i was kinda wary, i was scared of making new friends and how they would think of me. 9/11 was still fresh in people's thoughts and I'm Muslim so yeah.. Turns out they were very accepting and we had a bunch of fun. The Nathans and I never got all that close until middle school though and our elementary friendship was strictly recess which i thought was fine. Back in the day we weren't really into music as we are now but more into exploring and roller-blading. I loved exploring Alameda it used to be so huge and filled with wonders unlike today's boring old Alameda. (The Friendship story continued next week!)
P.S. I love how so many other people are into Muse I love them also~
(lack-luster blog post =( )

Kayak

Back in the day when I was shorter and much younger I was enrolled in a boat camp. And yes you guessed it my favorite part of boat camp was to kayak. It was fascinating to me as a kid. The way you sliced through the water silently and fast, not to mention the simplicity it was to make it move. It was love at first sight. Of course I jumped into a red (favorite color) kayak and frantically tried to learn how to paddle. At first it was weird since there were a whole bunch of kids in a small area desperately trying to move from point a to point b. Eventually we all got through our basics and were able to ride free in Lake Merit (Oakland). At first my friends and I were all about racing and who go the furthest with the minimum amount of pushes. We basically loved the smooth parts of the water.
A couple weeks of this and I eventually got a little bored of the same routine. I noticed, as the wind picked up the waves grew a lot wider and deeper. Curious as to what would happen if I paddled into the newly formed wave I rushed over before it could die out. I plunged down in a short burst but bobbed right up in a fast motion. Surprised I was a tad stunned but it was surprisingly very fun. I loved windy days from then on, I thought that this was the true joy of kayaking. Oh, how I was so naive I then noticed how when a speed boat goes by MULTIPLE deep waves come racing towards you. Seeing this i tried my hardest to go towards it. It was scary and fun I rocked so violently that I could have sworn I was going to capsize. I didn't and it has been a very fond memory, lasting even until now vividly.
Now i hope to go Sea kayaking I would like to ride those huge waves i see. I'm a tad scared of going in fast rafting waters though. Too many rocks for my liking =( . My goal i do have sort of planed out with my mom though is to kayak all the way around Alameda. I think it would be fun and an awesome experience to do.

Tatum Paragraph

Though this group of children, almost all of whom were White, did not live near a large Native American population and probably had had little if any personal interaction with American Indians, they all had internalized an image of what Indians were like. How did they know? Cartoon images, in particular the Disney movie Peter Pan, were cited by the children as their number-one source of information. At the age of three, these children already had a set of stereotypes in place. Though I would not describe three-year-olds as prejudiced, the stereotypes to which they have been exposed become the foundation for the adult prejudices so many of us have.

The first thing I annotated was the thing about "smog breathers" I think it would be kind of cool to be called a smog breather. It's like my lungs are so pro that they can thrive from the toxic smog that I breathe in. I also commented on hmm maybe some smokers might find this offensive. I then circled bombarded and defined it, since it’s used in an unusual way. I made a little not that said bombarded = relentless exposure in that context. In the later of the paragraph i wrote about how a lot of my friend’s parents seem to be very uhmm stereotypical especially in the car or when speaking other langues.

Build On part 1?

So I have recently joined Build On, as you probably know. For me it wasn't just about the community service hours, although it was a huge bonus. I decided to join because I have a ton of free time on my hands, and i don't want to just spend my time idley on the computer or TV. I decided to get off my ass and give back to my community. Turns out it not even boring but uber (computer talk for super/very) fun!
Last Saturday a group of friends and I went to the Alameda County Food Bank. We got there earlier then we should have so we just spent some time climbing and jumping over stuff (as you might remember David is very into parkour and I am sorta also). When it finally began we were greeted by a bunch of kids from a different school and instantly made a couple new friends. Angela gathered us up and another lady who's name i forget starts to brief us on our jobs and how what we do helps out other people in need. As we disperse we slowly get separated into different groups to do the tasks.
David, Nathan, Nathan, Sean, a girl who's name i don't remember but is in our school, and I were all working together at a plum station. At first the task seemed so tedious, but i soon started having fun throwing the bad plums into the garbage box. I then challenged myself to best my other throws and out-flash myself in the way i throw them. Unfortunately i was the first of the group to throw a plum and miss. =( After filling up countless bags of plums the bottom of our box was finally coming into sight! Unfortunately we had to go take a break before we could clear our whole box.
The Break room was so crowded and i only had a drink, so this is all i will be mentioning about the break.
As we got back to work we got switched to a new station, the potato station. The potatoes were much more fun in my opinion. They filled the bags faster and I didn't have to look for any bad ones since they were all good. We went through the potatoes incredibly fast while having a fun time doing it. Lifting each bag of potatoes individual became yet another contest between our group, I am happy to say i could lift the bag by myself (barely).
Overall i had an awesome experience working with Build On and cant wait to do it again~
Japanese word of the day is Onegai which translates to: Please!