I just updated my WordPress app for BB, so I will take this opportunity to post pictures from the bbq trip.

First stop on our trip was the original Salt Lick about an hour outside of Austin in Driftwood, TX. Naturally the air was a’buzz with burnt orange and live music played by a young man from Dallas. Jenn, Eli, Tin, and I were super hungry from the long drive and long wait, so we readily agreed to order all-you-can-eat meat platters all around. And good thing we did, ’cause the first round was so-so, but the second was deeee-lish. Fatty brisket, tender ribs charred to perfection, endless potato salad, and surprisingly good pickles made for a very happy and comatose bunch. We got 2.2 rounds in before we threw in the napkin and called it a night.

Actually we squeezed in a theater trip to watch the movie, 9, but it wasn’t so great so we’ll just overlook that.

BBQ outting #1 was a success. Winner? The ribs.

The next morning we woke up nice and early to catch Snow’s BBQ, voted #1 in Texas Monthly. They open Saturday’s only and close once the food runs out, which usually happens at around noon. Like every other place we visited, it was out in the boonies but the sweet smell of BBQ was still powerful enough to draw a crowd. Tin generously overloaded our plate with a few pieces of that, half a pound of this, and a bit of that over there to taste. The verdict? Every bit as tasty as I expected. Although Tin claims it was drier than usual. I think if it weren’t for the previous night’s gluttony, it wouldv’e been even tastier. Sorry Miss Snow, you’ll be first next time.

BBQ outting #2 – silver. Will return for the gold. Winner? The brisket. Mmmm good.

A flat tire on the way back to civilization caused us to loaf around the BMW dealership for a little while. We caught a free movie in the theater room, and by the time J.Lo was abt to plan her last wedding, we were back on the road and well enough recovered to hit up our next food outting: Juan in a Million.

Mexican food hold no interest for me and I didn’t eat, so I won’t bother to say much here. Only it must be good and cheap ’cause it was jam packed with students. After an order of extra bacon on top of their breakfast burritos, and Jen, Eli, and Tin happily asserted that Juan’s was worth every excessive bite.

A little walk around the outlet malls helped put all that food at peace. A few pounds and a few dollars lighter, we headed back home to Dallas. The trip was full of good conversation and trip down memory lane as we popped in my iPod and played my Nostalgia playlist. Nothing like singing Spice Girls, 98 Degrees, Eagle Eye Cherry, DJ Liquid, and Mariah Carey with old friends to get the good times rolling. We carried on in this manner all the way home and were only interupted by a pit stop to the Czech Stop to sample their amazing kollaches.

Austin food trip – success!

Few things boost your motivation like a glimpse of what your future could be. This weekend I, and three of my fellow POPS (Pre-Optometry Professional Society) members, went to the University of Houston for their annual Spring Conference. (Picture: From the left, it’s me, Long Do, Chris Brown, Ruchi Jadeja.) Although as far as everyone else was concerned, we were just Chris Brown & Co.

It was basically a meet and greet for all the POPS students where they let us tour the school and brainwash us into thinking they are the best optometry school in the nation.

Brainwashing Tactics Include:

1. Feeding you all-you-can-eat, tasty, italian food so that all your brain processes focus on your stomach.
2. Giving out awards for our banner and stroking our ego (see pic below).
3. Hosting an after party with alcohol*
4. Getting the admissions coordinator to give the same message and propaganda he always gives. (repetition is key!)
5. More tasty food followed by 3 hours of biased professors praising the school
6. Just when you’re about to recover from the effects of the good food, they stuff you with even more food.
7. Followed by a guy talking about financial aid in a way that makes you forget all your worries about taking $150,000 worth of loans just to attend.
8. A question and answer panel with students who are being very “real.” However panel was 90% first years who are not yet jaded and quite possibly still brainwashed.
9. Give you a personal guided tour by one who has a really cute accent and the other who is tall and really cool. In which case you stop caring that they’re just first years and you want more than ever to be in their place.

*We successfully dodged this attack

All in all, a very successful tactic. All joking aside, UHCO really is a great school and I would be immensly proud to graduate from there. Although, no amount of brainwashing could make me forget that the trip really brought the four of us closer. Literally and figuratively (we were all crammed into Chris’ Camero and shared a room). Afterall, since our career goals are the same, who knows if perhaps one day we will practice together. Or even better, we can all get accepted at UHCO together. Work hard guys!

Regrets: Went to Houston, and I didn’t get to see (my) Long. Then again, I was prepared for that, but all the same. =(

Lesson Learned: A good turn deserves another. What goes around comes around. Don’t be shaddy about paying up for parking. You never know when your good deed might cause the officer who clocked you going 78-in-a- 65-when-you-were- really-going-90-just-prior-because-your -radar-detector-saw-him-just-in-time will let you off with just a warning. Prayer works wonders as well!

あけましておめでとう! Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Happy New Years! Whatever!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable new years. I think this is the first new years in quite awhile that I’ve spent away from a computer, seeing as lan parties are so popular this time of year. This year I found myself out in an area with no service, no anime, and surrounded by Okies. Like most of my fellow VBC-ers, I spent my New Year weekend at Crossroads, a camp run by Vietnamese college students from Oklahoma and Texas, held at PineCove.

It was pretty small (some 50 odd people), but a fun and pretty cool way to start the new year. Hopefully everyone didn’t just walk away with dodgeball bruises, New Years candy, and screennames, but found themselves closer to knowing God and the things that really matter.

So no event post is complete without a few pictures. Some taken by me, nicer ones by David.

(clicky-click for bigger pic!)

Everyone from Garland who went minus Lisa and Timmy, plus Levi and Noah.

The dining hall and a pretty sunset.

A game of pickle ball turning violent.

Noah’s spectacular miss.

Man rapist in Houston? I think Timmy should be a little more worried about some suspicious people a littler closer to home…

Tony and Dennis having a Titanic moment. Although Tony looks a bit sick.

Man ripping (half) a phonebook in two to stall for time in the talent show.

Me and Reb enjoying the New Years party favors.

Me, Reb, and Kim: Michael Mai’s… *holds up pinky? O ho ho ho ho!

And that’s really all the pics I’ve got. Most I got from David who will most likely be posting some more better pictures on his site later.

Memorable Crossroads Moments and Quotes:
- Ping pong ball hitting me square in the face.
- Two hours in the game room.
- Duy “walkin it out” at the New Years party
- “It’s not my paaants!” -Man
- Playing Guitar Hero projected onto the cabin ceiling (yeah!)
- “T-O-B-Y T-O-B-Y That’s who I am! T-O-B-Y”
- “FINISH HIM.” -Dennis
- “Oh yes, less buttons = more strength.” -Andrew
- “Yo God, man you gotta help me God. A playa can’t live like this!”
- Mini-games and scavenger hunt
- Taking pictures on the pier.

linh.thehong.com New Years Resolution: More updates? Yes? Maybe?

That’s right. You heard me.

Check out the rest of Mikey‘s graduation pics at thehong.com’s gallery. Congrats Mikey! Now that Mikey’s finished school and working full time, I look like a bigger bum than ever. (someone’s gotta do it!) Omedetou onii-san!

Last saturday Kim’s cousin, Be, got married and I got a chance to go. It was pretty neat seeing as I’ve never actually got to participate in any asian weddings before. Luckily I only had to carry in some grapes hehe. I thought I’d post up some pics. Some turned out better than others. I was too lazy to do thumbnails so you’ll have to bear with it.

The happy bride, groom, and company. This pic was taken at the bride’s house in Garland. It was super hot that day so no one wanted to be outside much. The groom lived all the way in Arlington so that was a fun drive. Although I swear we took the longest route possible to get there. The limo carrying the wedding party was extreemly slow on the inner roads.

Deanna, Be, and Kim!

Me and Dee.

Deanna, Kim’s brother, and Kim looking at something…

Here’s our little crew at the reception: (frm L-R) Kim, Vy, Deanna, Tina, and Me. Some people stole our tables while we were passing out the party favors and so we ended up getting booted to some table in the back corner. The reception consisted of the usual loud asian music, creepy old guys, and funny dancing. I’m sure you can imagine it.

My future roommates! Minus 1. We were running a bit late, but Vy still managed to do all our hairs within half an hour. Mad props Vy. She gave me a fun little Marilyn Monroe style that I liked very much.

Vy really liked it too.

Kim and Vy being silly. That cop seemed weirded out. Can’t blame him.

Kim and Be, in her party dress. ow ow! And Vy’s finger. x.X

And that was our night. A few little setbacks here and there, but overall, a fun night. Congrats to Be and her husband!

This past Saturday I got a nice little belated birthday treat from Tin and Mikey. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, so I was quite excited. They took me out to a drive in movie theater called Galaxy Drive-In Theater. It’s about an hour and a half south on 45 which most people will be able to see if they drive towards Houston at night.

I must say, the drive-in experience was quite a fun and unique experience. Being that it was our first time for all of us, we (or rather, Tin) carefully consulted the site to make sure we were properly prepared. The site advised that we come early because the weekends were quite busy, so we ended up showing up about an hour and a half early. The place is kinda in the boonies and there were only a few cars around, so we had our doubts as to how “busy” they could possibly get, but sure enough, by the time 7:00 came rolling around, the place was packed. Luckily we a got a good spot early. That picture above is my view from inside the car.

The way this theater worked was that there were 4 screens, each showing 2 movies each night (double feature for $6! woohoo!). The sound was sent through FM transmitter and you just had to tune into the corresponding station to hear your movie. Or you can do it the traditional style with the little speaker box you hang on your window. They had a little place where you could buy food for a fairly decent price. With two movies and an intermission, you’re bound to get hungry. We happily chowed down on nachos, burgers, hotdogs, popcorn and candy as we watched Hoodwinked and Fun With Dick and Jane. Both were fun and cute movies.

It’s worth going just for the experience, for us young ‘uns who weren’t around when they were cool. The previews and intermission screens they showed seem like genuine screens from the fifties. There were the usual screens tempting the audience into buying food from the snack bars, screens reminding people to throw away their trash properly, and much to our surprise and delight, there was also a screen encouraging people to practice their right to freedom of religion by taking their family to church Sundays. Very cool indeed. There was also a short little documentary type preview that talked of drive-ins as if they were an endangered species. Which was amusing. Although I suppose they are in some ways. Which is a shame because I think I rather like the drive-ins better than movie theaters. Allow me to compare:

Sound Quality: The sound quality is as good as you car speakers are so that can be a good/bad thing, but at least you you have total control over volume and all that. (Also, since you can see other screens from your spot, you can turn you station to those movies and listen in. hehe!)

Picture Quality: You’d think since it was outdoors, you would notice a big difference, but I hardly noticed any difference at all. If anything would bother me, it would be the dirt on the car windshield that would bother me.

Privacy: I think we all enjoyed being able to talk, eat, blow our nose, and answer the phone without worrying about bothering anyone but eachother. It’s also nice to know that everyone else may do the same without bothering you. Pretty much like you’re at home, but not.

Comfort: I don’t know about you, but I find car seats much more comfortable than movie theater seats. There was also the added plus that I could prop my legs up and recline if I wanted to. You also don’t have to put up with that nasty movie theater smell of dirty seats, old popcorn, and stinky people. I think that will always be a plus. If the car gets too stuffy, you can always crack a window or walk out and stretch your legs and never miss a minute of the movie. Heck, you can prolly even pee outside and not miss the movie either, but I don’t think people would appreciate that…

“Thanks for being with us this evening. We hope that in some small way we have been able to add to your pleasure, comfort, and relaxation.”

The only reason why I wouldn’t go to a drive-in instead of a theater, is because it’s closer, and there are more movies. And maybe bad weather. I apologize for the post being so long, but it was a cool and new experience for me and I just had to elaborate.