Michael's Photoblog...

Youth And Ice Cream

]]> Was communion sunday today. Dennis gave the morning message on commitment, and Eugene led the sunday school afterwards on spiritual gifts. After lunch, joe and I went to rite aid next door to buy some snacks for study hall, and he bought a carton of ice cream, which the youth divided and consumed immediately after our return.

Rubber Band Game

]]> For games at youth group today, we played "The Rubber Band Game", where you have to bring a rubber band down from above your lip to around your neck using only your facial and neck muscles. It's pretty difficult, but some people were able to do accomplish it amazingly fast. Rather than a lesson today, we continued testimonies.

The other 5 staff members that didn't share last week shared today, and then we broke into our small groups to discuss and share testimonies.

Lesson By Osmond

]]> On the way back to davis this afternoon, joseph and I stopped by vacaville to give Franko a ride to fellowship. He's living near the Genentech campus with some other employees that came over from Singapore to be trained. Franko led worship with Rob tonight, which was pretty cool. The lesson was on sin and was prepared by Osmond.

Steak For Dinner

]]> One of the things we bought at Costco yesterday was some steak. We've been cooking white meat exclusively these past few weeks, and are a bit inexperienced with doing steak. We salt-and-peppered both sides, threw it into the frying pan, and cooked each side. It turned out pretty well, though it was pretty rare.

Costco Tire Rotation

]]> Skipped my 3pm Dwinelle class today because it was raining and I didn't feel like walking all the way over, and had a meeting with my adviser at 4pm to discuss my research. In the evening, joe had to go to costco to get his tires rotated, and I tagged along. We bought a bunch of stuff to eat and cook with, and had dinner there.

Biz Group Meeting

]]> One of my three classes, web 2.0 entrepreneurship, is only an 8 week course, and the last 2 class sessions are coming up. We're finally getting into groups to discuss business ideas and to prepare a presentation. The idea we have for the class is a website where visitors can watch and rate YouTube videos specifically by keyword.

Dressed warmly and brought an umbrella to campus, only to walk out of soda hall to a nice and sunny day.

Bike To Safeway

]]> Biked to safeway after my web architecture class to buy some more chicken and other random stuff to eat. Joe's friend Justin invited him over for dinner tonight, but I made two quarters anyway so he could try out my experimentation. We then visited the xbox room of soda hall for the first time in two or three weeks. Gears. of. war.

Study Hall Day

]]> Elder Winston gave a message during morning service on unity in the church, and in sunday school pastor gee went over some examples of gospel presentations. Our church is sending out quite a few mission teams this summer to places like mexico, china, and even burma. In the afternoon we had a study hall time with the youth.

"Study hall" ended at 5pm, and joe and I left davis for berkeley at 8:30pm.

Testimony Sharing

]]> Youth group was a little different tonight. Instead of having a bible study, we had half the staff share testimonies, and then we discussed writing testimonies in our small groups. The other half of the staff will be sharing next week, as will the youth in the smalls groups. Played on the worship team again today. God is good.

Acacia Iron Chef

]]> Started raining pretty hard in Berkeley during the day, but calmed down a good amount by the time joe and I left for davis around 5pm. At 7, we went to george and lisa's place to help the tuesday small group cook for the first annual Acacia Iron Chef competition. Each small group had to prepare a multi-course meal with a secret ingredient.

The secret ingredient this year was: banana.

Our group made curry, rice, stew, and flambe... all containing at least a little banana.

We all met at Rob's place, where we invited some older people from church to judge the competition. Each group was assessed on things like taste and presentation.

Some of the dishes were pretty darn fancy.

We ended up coming in a close second. I think wednesday's small group won, but I might be wrong. Was fun.

Saran Wrap Face

]]> We invited billy and derrick over for dinner tonight, and joe cooked up some spaghetti. While cutting up the onions, he used a trick I discovered a couple weeks ago: cover your eyes with saran wrap to keep from crying. We don't have any goggles, and it actually works pretty well. The dinner and convos were pretty fun.

That concludes another episode of barbarian cooking with joe and mike. See you next time!

Project For Class

]]> Spent most of the day working on a project for my web 2.0 entrepreneurship class. It's a 1 unit class, but you can earn an extra unit by building the service or website you propose. We're going to do something that has to do with YouTube videos. The photo is of joseph knocked out on his bed - a common sight after he returns from work.

Wet And Cold Feet

]]> It wasn't raining very hard when I left for my mobile platform CS class around noon, so I lazily decided to wear sandals. What I didn't take into account was that I wouldn't return home until 6pm after my web 2.0 entrepreneurship class. By that time, it had gotten dark, cold, windy, and very rainy. The journey home wasn't fun.

Signs In Dwinelle

]]> Going into my web architecture class today, I noticed some protest signs both outside and inside dwinelle. Not sure if it's the same around campus, but people seem to be protesting budget cuts or something. In the evening I baked some chicken breasts and made some fried rice. I've been experimenting a lot with chicken.

Aquarium Of The Bay

]]> After english service and children's worship, a group of us acacia folk went to san francisco to hang out at the Aquarium of the Bay. Joe C. had some free tickets so the trip materialized during the past week. Those of us who came up from davis had lunch together at a mexican place while waiting for those from the bay area.

Before going through the actual aquarium, we first took the behind-the-scenes tour, which was only an extra $5 but gave us a peek at "secret" areas and a special guided tour. It was pretty cool standing above the tunnels and seeing people walking through below us.

Afterwards we had dinner at a chinese place in a different part of SF, before splitting up. Joe and I drove directly back to berkeley.

Sorry guys. Didn't take any photos of the chinchillas.