Htam::Diary.Theme(tacit)

This Sunday, I picked up Sam and Diana for ACF.  I then translated, recorded, and collected.  Due to doing both recording and collection, by the time I was eating lunch, it was almost time for the service meeting already.  I talked to a few people who were still standing around, but otherwise it was a very boring day, especially given how many out-of-town people were here.  Steve and Tammy took the kids back early, since Diana wasn't feeling well.

I locked up mostly, and then went to Caltech to see possibly the last TACIT production during my current stage (!) of life—grad school.  Zachary is in Rashomon, a play about perception.  Four people involved in a crime told the story in four mutually contradictory ways, each admitting to the murder.  It is quite smart, interesting, well-done, and thought-provoking.  It was also great to see Pauline Ku in the audience, with whom I had gone to both Columbus, Ohio and Rochester, Minnesota for NCTTA Nationals, where I coached the Caltech Women's Table Tennis team.  We chatted for a while, and then I left.  Today is the first time I realized I have actually been to Minnesota, albeit briefly.

Afterwards, I went to fill up my car and also get an automated car wash.  I talked to dad while doing so.  Then I went to 99 Ranch Market in Arcadia, since I didn't find what I wanted in the Gardena one yesterday.  I also had dinner at Bun Bun Tea House for the first time, by recommendation of Cara, whom I met through TACIT (how appropriate!).  I quite enjoyed the food—it was Taiwanese-style western-style breakfast-type food.  I also stopped by the Arcadia Westfield mall, but Eddie Bauer is no longer there.  I got home about 3.5 hours after Rashomon ended, talking to dad for close to 2 hours.

This Saturday, I picked up Jacky for Bible study.  Originally Hannah was also going to come, but she wasn't feeling well.  Afterwards, I left Jacky with Steve and Tammy.  I went to have lunch at the Taiwanese Train Box store, did some shopping at 99 Ranch Market, and then went to Caltech.  I attended what is perhaps my last EXPLiCIT performance.  This time they put on the musical Little Shop of Horrors.  I'm definitely not fond of it, but as usual, I went to support my friends.  This one was directed by my friend Miranda Stewart, with whom I've acted twice.  The music was nice and the harmonies were executed quite well.  So that part was enjoyable.  It was also great to see Doug Smith and Steve Collins (of Mars Rover fame) again, both of whom I've acted with in the past.  In the evening, I stopped by USC, had dinner with John Shen and chatted for about two hours, and then came home.

This Sunday, I picked up Diana, Hannah, and her two friends Estelle and Josh.  Hannah drove crazily and made me very dizzy.  I think she was not focused on driving because of her friends.  She is usually a much better driver.  I sat outside for a bit, felt better, and then joined the breaking of bread meeting.  Then I taught the HSG.

In the afternoon, I went to Armory Center for the Arts to see the Caltech TACIT performance of Mate.  Steve Collins was acting and Dave Seal was tech.

This Saturday, I went to Bible study as usual, however, by myself, since Hannah couldn't make it.  I lead the meeting again, which makes 4 out of the 6 chapters due to a variety of reasons.  It doesn't take much, and it is good for me anyway, so I'm not complaining.  After the meeting, I went to the Taiwanese lunch box place that Tammy told me about.  It was closed for a while but it had re-opened.  It was really yummy and reminds me of home.  The reason I didn't join people for lunch because I was going to Caltech to see a TACIT performance.  I have not missed a single show since I acted with TACIT.  Today the play was The Rover.  It was a strange play, and I definitely went back mostly to support theatre arts at Caltech.  Then I came home and watched Definitely, Maybe that Stephanie lent me yesterday.  I definitely enjoyed it a lop, maybe.

This Sunday, I picked up the kids as usual and went to church, translated for breaking of bread, and did offering.  Afterwards, we had singing fellowship—Lydia was back so we were able to have an alto section.  Hopefully this will continue even when she is not here.

In the afternoon, I took Grace back to Caltech, and then went and attended TACIT production of The Memorandum.  It was funny at times, and I really liked one of the character/actor, but overall, I miss Shakespeare.

This Saturday, I woke up too late for Bible study.  Oops.  Oh well, with this week gone, I will be gone for a total of 8 weekends in a row.  Whenever Chris comes back, he gets in late Friday night and leave early Sunday morning, and Saturday is family time so I don't want to intrude.  However, this time Lydia Shen is here, so I figured it is already intruded, so I asked them if I could come.  Chris told me to join them for lunch.  When I got there, the seven of us hopped into a van and drove to Alhambra for lunch.  Haha.  By the time we got back, I sat down for a little bit but then basically had to start driving to Pasadena again.  Jess asked me why I would spend half a day in the car.  Steph answered for me and said, "The way he sees it is that he got to talk to Chris, so he doesn't mind going to Alhambra and back."  Haha, she knows me quite well.  It was really nice to catch up with him—we were so busy at WCCC that we didn't talk much.

In the evening, I had dinner with Brandon Hensley, and then went to Caltech.  I parked at Avery (outside this time), talked to Sam Elder about his combinatorics research for a while, and then went to see the EXPLiCIT production of Meatamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman, directed by Miranda.  It was a very fun production—they had a large pool of water and they had to go in and out of it.  I sat behind Cara and Todd, and talked to them for a good ten to fifteen minutes before the show started.  I saw Dave and Zach in the play, and talked to Miranda briefly after.  Yay for old TACIT friends.

This Saturday, I woke up at 6 again!  This is not surprising since I went to sleep at 9 PM.  Anyway, I then had breakfast at Har Lam Kee (like last Saturday) with Steve and Tammy, Alex, Jonah, and Fang.  Bible study on Job 3 was splendid.  Then I had a quick lunch and went to Caltech.  I saw the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum produced by EXPLiCIT.  It was directed by Miranda Stewart (!) and stars Doug, Dave, and Pauline Ku.  It was fun.  I sat in the audience next to Cara and Todd, with Zachary right behind us.  It's nice to see other TACIT people.  Afterwards I walked around Avery and talked to a few of my old friends.  Then I had dinner at "Lollicup" restaurant that Caleb Ng introduced me to (which now bears a new name but uses the same menu and has the same dÃ�©cor).  It was an interesting and different day.

This Sunday, I went to church and did audio again, since Ernest is still away this weekend (I found out yesterday).  Hopefully it worked out a bit better today.  I tried to turn it up as much as possible without creating the echo ringing.  It was really loud.

After church, I went to Caltech to see the TACIT performance of The Three Musketeers.  I know six people in the play—and I got to say hi to five of them afterwards.  Most of these were actors that I met when performing with TACIT.  I've also returned to see all seven of the shows since I graduated.  This was a quite funny and enjoyable production.  Besides the actors I know, I especially like the performance of Gary Olsen as Cardinal Richelieu.  Claire (the grad student working with Wales when I was an undergrad at Tech) sat next to me today and we talked a bit about research.  She's doing representations of the symmetric group (surprise, surprise), which is what I read about last term—plus this stuff has some bearings on tilings—so it was a good chat.

After the play, I dropped by the gym to see the table tennis club.  It's a sad state they are in now.  Michael Woods and I did a much better job running it I think.  But oh well.  I did not play, since it was fairly late after the play already, so I just watched a little and then came home.

This Sunday I woke up at 6.  This is a wonderful way to utilise the end of Daylight Saving Time.  I did some work in the morning before going to church.  After church, I went to Caltech as I had to pick up a combinatorics book that I bought a while ago from a friend.  I also talked to a few people that I have not talked to for quite some time.  It's good to catch up with them.  This is the last year this makes sense.  The first year I graduated I went back quite a bit, since I know a whole lot of people a year below me.  Then when they graduated, the people I know dramatically reduced by a huge factor, and I went back less frequently.  Afterwards, I also attended the TACIT production of Big Love by Chuck Mee, which is adapted from one of the oldest surviving Western plays.  It was good to see Miranda and Steve again—but most of the TACIT gang I acted with are gone.

This Saturday, I went by myself to Bible study, got there late due to traffic, but only to find Steven, Ernest, and Rebecca there.  We started singing nevertheless, and then people started trickling in.  We went to Pho for lunch, and this may be the first time I had lunch with Tabitha!

Afterwards, I went to Caltech and saw the EXPLiCIT musical production of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.  It was quite funny and enjoyable.  It was also good to see some friends.  I had dinner with Caleb Ng at the Green Street Restaurant.  It was a good experience.

[Photo: My sister got a new friend, the Linux mascot Tux.]

This Sunday, I played Set with Barmore in the morning, and then I went to church with Alex.  Today was sharing meeting, and I appreciated many of the sharing today.  I prayed a lot about sharing, but I was not given any specific word to share.  Afterwards, we had our second WCCC planning meeting.  Then I walked to RadioShack to buy something, only to get a call from Alex that he needs to get things from my car.  Apparently everyone is leaving.  I came back, and most people had left.  I stayed in the church building by myself for a while, and then locked up.  I got a haircut, and then went to Caltech to play table tennis.  Afterwards, I had a quick dinner and then went to 99 Ranch to buy some non-perishables.  Then back to Caltech, talking to a few people in Avery, and then going to see TACIT's production of Pasadena Babalon.  It was really weird, and I don't think I like it.  Oh well, it was good to see 8 people I knew from my past involvement with TACIT, and talk to 6 of them afterwards.  Now I got home really late, so I am not going to do much with Barmore.

This Sunday, we had another high school group planning meeting during lunch.  And then we had a short singing session.  Afterwards, I rushed off to Caltech, to attend the TACIT production of Rossum's Universal Robots.  It was not a very interesting play, in my opinion, but the afternoon was still enjoyable.  Many of the people I know well did not return to this production.  I only knew Dave and Miranda Stewart, and neither of them have big parts in this play, so that was slightly disappointing.  This play by Karel Capek is most noted for coining the word robot.  Besides that, I don't think it was a particularly intriguing work.  Then I went back and chatted with Christina Lee and Debbie Tseng for a little while, and then re-joined church people for dinner at Sam Woo.  After dinner, I grabbed Alex and we went back to the church building to check.  I usually lock up on Saturday and Sundays now, and whenever I don't, I worry the person who locked up was not thorough.  Today good thing we went back, so many doors were unlocked, including the main meeting hall doors being left wide open!  So after locking up, we drove to Steve and Tammy's place.  While waiting for them to get back, we talked and sang some songs.  Jonah came, and we played bridge while Tammy did some work on the songbook.  I played with Alex today, and we did pretty well.  I often tried to be dummy, so I could go talk to Tammy about the songbook.

This Sunday, after church, we had several meetings going on.  Concurrently starting were the service meetings for the high school group and the college group.  I was in the high school group meeting, as I am a teacher for that class.  I was considering attending the college group meeting, but I realized I have stopped attending that group after I graduated from Caltech, but at the same time a bit too young to start serving that group.  Since I care a lot about the high school group right now, I feel it is fine if I do not join the ministry of the college group at this time.  After the high school group meeting, there was a young sisters meeting.  Most people were either in that meeting or still in the college group service meeting.  As such, I decided I had an hour to kill, hence I volunteered to return the lunch trays, and also to take Jonah and Jennifer's mother home.  Upon arrival, Jennifer also returned (from her friend's graduation).  So we talked for a little bit, and then I went and returned the trays and filled up gas.  After these errands, I went to Caltech gym.

By this time, people have finished the meetings and had come for basketball at Caltech.  I sat on the side reading Bible for a bit, until Han Hsuan Lin showed up with my paddle (complete with new rubber!).  It feels quite good to be playing with functional rubber again.

Then at night, I grabbed a quick dinner from Jack-in-the-Box (I had not been there in a while now; this is my favourite fastfood joint, if there is such a thing), and then went to see TACIT's production Life of Galileo.  The cast members consist largely of adults (who come back year after year, hence I knew from my two years of involvement with TACIT) and undergrads (many of whom I know just from the fact that I went to Caltech, and everyone knows everyone).  I actually was not very thrilled by the play itself (I prefer Shakespeare), but it was quite enjoyable because of my connection with the cast and the company (though TACIT is under new management now).  In any case, I am glad I caught them on their closing night.  This time the performance was outdoors; perhaps they wanted consistent lighting and therefore did not have matinees.  I usually sleep early, but today the event ended unavoidedly late.  No matter, this is good practice for Tomorrow.  But instead of crashing on the way home, I decided to crash at Hou-En and June's place.  I pretty much settled in, took a shower, and then went to sleep.

This Sunday, I picked up Steve and Tammy (in addition to Alex) for church.  Steve and Tammy left their car at church yesterday to carpool with me to Priscilla's and back to LA.  During the message, I taught the high school group for my first time.  Today the topic was finding God's peace.  I had quite real experiences about this so I was happy to be able to talk to them about this.

After church, I went to buy a hands-free device from 99 Cents store, which I visited so often during Ditch Day prep.  The device does not work with my phone.  Oh well, I tried, and it was only a dollar anyways.  Then I went to Tom Mannion's place, where Caleb Ng is house sitting.  I talked to him for a while, and then walked over to Ramo to watch the TACIT production Rocket Girl.  Out of the cast of 17, I know 12 of them, having been on stage with 11 of them.  This was one of the main reasons I went back to support the production—past involvement.  John Sadowski flew back from Harvard to see the play as well!  It's Cleomines and Dion reunited.  After the play, I talked to some of the cast members for a while, and then went back to Mannion's.  I had dinner with Caleb, and then headed home.

While driving, I realized a warning light came on.  So I drove over to Hou-En's place, and read the owner's manual.  It is the tire pressure warning light.  I called June to see if Hou-En is back, but he is not.  She happened to be at Joanna and Sara's place, and Chris was there too, who told him I should be able to drive home without problem, so I did.  On the way back, I really needed to use the restroom, so I took a random exit and drove random search patterns until I found a gas station.  Then it took me a while to find my way back to the freeway.  Today it took me probably an hour to get home.  Oh well.  Things like this sometimes happen.

[Photo: Some of the cast, Caltech president, the playwright, and the playwright's father.]

This Friday, it rained!  It has not rained for quite some time, and definitely not during prefrosh weekend for the past few years.  It was quite surprising.  I walked to class instead.  After working on Ma109 some more, I decided I want to give up, and not worry about it anymore, since we can drop two sets.  I therefore spend some time writing up my Ch3a lab report, which is due Monday.

At night, TACIT is repeating part of the trial scene from The Winter's Tale last term.  The performing and creative arts people put on a concert for the prefroshies where many groups performed on stage.  TACIT was somewhere in the middle of the performance.  Therefore we went early and rehearsed the scene once (only once!) and then ran the line several times.  It was interesting remembering the old things we did.  Also, since we do not have costumes that we borrowed, we wore all black attire.  Since I do not have them, I borrowed David Barmore's clothes.

Afterwards, I went to LCF Bible study (late) because I just got done from performing.  After LCF, I walked briefly through Ruddock greens, and then came back home.

This Saturday afternoon is the closing matinee for Shakespeare The Winter's Tale with TACIT this year.  My roommates David Barmore and John Shen came to see the play.  I also saw Lisa Keppel and Dan Pragel, both of them were in As You Like It last year.  I messed up one word in one of my speeches, but it was nothing very major.  All in all, the performance was quite good, and the whole experience enjoyable.  Now I can finally rest and catch up with my homework.  (There were 74 people.)

This Friday, we had 87 people in the audience.  This is the biggest we had so far.  Hou-En and June Han came to see my play.  I have not seen them in a long time due to involvement with TACIT.  Jon Gardner came as well.  Also, to my surprise, Professor Wilson (my advisor and SURF mentor) came to see the play, and also stayed after to talk to me.  I got a picture with him.  I did very well this night.  I do not recall any thing I did wrong.  It is the most enjoyable performance yet.

This Thursday, we had our last pickup rehearsal.  We were filmed today.  The rehearsal was pretty bad in general.  Many people are messing up.  This might be the sum of being over confident (thus worse than last pickup rehearsal) and lack of incentive (audience).  I did a fine job, in my opinion.

This Sunday, we had our last Sunday performance.  I was extra careful and not miss my entrance.  So I got ready extra early and started cubing right next to the stage, so I can actually wait for the music cue to stand up.  However, I forgot my head band!  Alas, in 5.1 and 5.2, I was without a head band.  I got it back on for the final scene 5.3 and the curtain call.  Well, probably no one noticed it without me mentioning it.

My auxiliary laptop ideal broke.  There are inconsistencies in the root file system.  To run fsck I need to have the root file system mounted, but fsck warns
Hence I am afraid to do so.  First a broken bike, now a broken laptop!  This laptop I use for my server, recording TV shows, and using AIM.  Good thing it is not my primary laptop, but I still want it to be fixed soon.

This Saturday, we had our last Saturday evening performance.  Next Saturday will be a closing matinee.  Tonight, I was falling asleep in room 25, which is a bit farther from the immediate backstage.  I needed to go on stage for 5.1, and I suddenly realized that when I heard the opening music for it.  I rushed as fast as I could to my entrance, good thing they had some difficulties with the set change so it lasted a bit longer.  I was able to enter on time.  However, I could not remember my line.  I have a few lines string together in a big speech, but I just could not remember the second line.  I kept on repeating the first line to myself, I know I would have to say it in less than a minute.  My heart was pounding loudly.  I started saying the first line, and finally the second line followed it out nicely.  I think no one suspected I had so much trouble recalling it at all.  So on the surface, I did fine tonight.  I saw Jen Hawley ushering again.  She told me 40 people came to watch our performance tonight.  I heard the Caltech president and his wife came as well.  On another note, after performance when I was riding my bike home, it broke.

This Friday, I worked on Ma109 homework for most of the day.  At night, I went to TACIT performance.  For me, it went much smoothly, compared to last time.  I am more composed and more sure of my lines and blocking.  Today our first act was three minutes shorter than last timing that I know of.  We are tightening our cues pretty well.  According to Jen Hawley, who was ushering, 34 people came.

This Thursday, we have a pick-up rehearsal so we will recall what we are supposed to do tomorrow.  The pick-up is uninteresting because we do not have the excitement of the audience, nor the novelty of the act, nor the urgency of the final dress rehearsal.  Many cues were missed, entrances delayed, and mistakes acted.  Hopefully our performance tomorrow will be of much better quality.  On the other hand, we had pictures taken today.  I feel like the photographer stopped taking pictures every time I come on stage.  I wonder if he have me at all.  We'll see when the results come out perhaps next week.

This Sunday, TACIT's performance is free for students.  There were more people of course, but it was not as many as last year's free performance.  I am surprised at how people do not exploit opportunities to see free plays.  I wonder who came.  I cannot really make out the audience without glasses.  In 4.4 where I wear a mask to the party, I tried to wear glasses underneath, so I can sort of see, but it is still really hard to see under the mask.  Today I messed up for the first time.  There was one word I could not say, but it is still a minor mistake, hopefully I will do better next week.  Now I get three days of rest.  (39 people.)

According to Abraham Buditama, he, Sunny Chun, and Mary Dorman were there.

This Saturday, there were more people who came to the play than yesterday.  I was extremely tired and sleepy backstage beforehand, and could not concentrate in doing work.  I thought it was going to be a bad performance for me.  However, when I went on stage, I got excited, and when I came back out, I was able to focus, and hence I read many chapters of the Bible backstage.  The performance went better than yesterday, I think.  (33 people came.)

This Friday is the opening night for TACIT's Shakespeare play The Winter's Tale.  It went reasonably well.  Before house opened, we were frantically practicing a few more things a straightening things out.  During the show, Time's sleeves were finally finished a few minutes before we needed to use it.  I need to take Time's sleeves off, so I practiced it many times all throughout intermission.  It was quite hectic, but we pulled it off.  There were not many people who came, but of course since I cannot wear glasses on stage, I cannot tell too well.  Also, John McCuish who plays the Officer of the court was hospitalized, so Mark Adler and James Karnesky took his parts last minute.  They did a fine job given so short of a notice.  I saw Jen Hawley ushering.  (According to Mr. Basu, there were 20 people in the audience.)

This Thursday, we had our last rehearsal, and the only full run-through of the show.  I had no trouble with my part, and it went smoothly enough.  Some parts need some more practice, but I think we will be okay tomorrow.

This Wednesday, we were planning to run the entire show.  However, since we did not do many scenes of Act II yesterday, we did them today.  It still took us a long time, and there are still changes being made.  I wonder if we will be ready Friday.

This Tuesday, we are supposed to be doing Act II, so we can do the whole thing tomorrow, make final edits, and then run it again Thursday without making more changes.  However, since the director is feeling ill, we only did parts of Act II.  In my opinion, the parts of Act II that we did not do were done many times already, but it is still frightening to think that we might not be ready for opening night on Friday.

On the other hand, I went to math option tea today at the MOSH's place.  A few professors were there, and surprisingly many undergrads.  It was mainly a free dinner for me, but it was also quite nice to talk to fellow math majors.

This Monday, we went through Act I (of 2) again with the director here.  She has been sick the past two days so Gavin took charge.  Today James and I also tried out the bear-suit, we will be bears that chase people around.  (Oops, spoilers!)  I also tried out my costume, and decided it would be possible to rush down the audience stairs with my costume, though I need to be careful not to trip.  Today call time was 6:30pm (the same for the rest of the week) and we lasted until past 11pm.  This was the first time this year that I could not make CCF Large Group.

This Sunday, after church, I went to the last random TACIT rehearsal before we enter the final dress week.  Starting tomorrow, we have a set schedule that is logical and will (hopefully) prepare us for the opening night on Friday.  Today, at the end, we were moving wood, and I got a splinter stuck in my hand.  Hopefully my body is designed well enough to automatically handle this insertion.  I have been working on Ma117b that is due Thursday for a few days now.  I am almost done.  Then I can start working on the set due Friday, and perhaps even sets due next week?

This Friday, the Ma109b lecture was unintelligible—probably no one understood him.  I ate lunch from 11 to 12 and then went back to campus for Noon Sing.  However, Matt Wroten, who is replacing Kevin Chen today, did not show up.  Stephen Wilke and I were the only two who showed up, and we decided to leave after half an hour.  In the afternoon, I finished my Ma109b midterm.  Then I went to Frosh prayer, where Dan Chao, John Liu, Po-Ling Loh, Jamie Jackson, and Abraham Buditama showed up.  This is many people, really nice.  At night I had TACIT rehearsal, so I did not go to LCF Bible study.  Tonight, I had no lines, I was first a ninja, then I was a dancing festival person with a mask on.

This Thursday, it is a few days before the final dress rehearsal week, yet I have just been added to a new scene that I have never seen (ha!) before.  In fact, at least four of us have not been in this scene, but are just added today.  It was easy enough for me since I am Dion, who always do things together with Cleomenes, and John Sadowski (Cleomenes) has been in this scene before (I probably was simply absent in a previous rehearsal), I just follow him around.  I also worked some more on Ma109b midterm.  I spent half an hour and finished the next CS11 lab today.  I thought it was going to be more involved and take longer, I am disappointed.

This Sunday, after coming back slightly early from church, I went to a mandatory TACIT meeting where Dr. Leonard Pronko come to give us a lecture on Japanese theatre and also some demonstration and instruction.  He is quite an interesting person.  We practiced walking and bowing on stage, also some dancing too.  Afterwards, I went and played some table tennis.  I think I am going to sleep early today.

This Saturday is the first TACIT work call this year.  I woke up early in the morning and made it to Ramo Auditorium around 9am.  The seven and a half hours of manual labor consisted of helping Zachary make braces for the doors, that I later learned will be used to carry Roman blinds; and helping other people actually making the three Roman blinds.  Around lunch time we all had pizza.  This was a long day, but someone had to do this.  At night, I went to Bible study at church.  I am need of rest so I sleep early today.

This Thursday, TACIT is now off-book.  That means, we do not use scripts on stage, and we are supposed to have memorized our part.  It is incredible to see the dramatic (ha!) improvement in our performance once we have our lines memorized and our hands free.  I rehearsed the scene where I have my majority of lines in.  It went pretty well.

Ma109b, as compared to Ma117b, is not going as well.  Even though people think it is easy, I find it difficult, especially compared to the "insanely-hard" Ma117b, which is now quite doable and indeed enjoyable.  Good thing is I have a bit more than a day to do Ma109b, and that will have to do (ha!).  Now I sleep and hope my mind untangle all the mess of information on geometry that I have taken in.

This Sunday, as I was still sick, I did not go to church.  Instead, I read a lot of Bible today.  I also went to the TACIT rehearsal in the afternoon.  We blocked Act 5 scene 3.  This might be the last blocking we are doing.  If that is the case, then I (should) know how many scenes I am in.  It it still early today, but since I am tired, I shall regenerate.  I have been sleeping a lot more due to my sickness, since I need to wake up early tomorrow, it makes sense for me to sleep now.

This Saturday, I went to 99 Ranch with my old roommate Scott Hsieh.  Bing Huo and Po-Ling Loh came along as well.  The ride there was filled with interesting conversation, reminiscent of the dinner we had on 8/11 right before Bing left Caltech.  Somehow, the four of us had a good time.

In the afternoon, I went to TACIT rehearsal for the Shakespeare play The Winter's Tale.  I am assigned today a line that contains the word "proof."  I am very excited.

At night, I went to church Bible study as usual.  Tonight is Caltech's Interhovse party.  I did not go, of course.  However, after I came back from church, David Barmore came back to the room to change shoes, he stayed for a while and described all the interesting things that is going on at Interhovse.

This Saturday, in the morning I played some KRAI with David Barmore, then we watched some DS9 together (for the first time in a long while).  I had TACIT rehearsal in the afternoon.  We blocked Act 3 scenes 1 and 2, both of which I am a part of.  It was quite interesting to finally experience this for the first time (last year, when I joined, everyone already knew what they were doing, I just tagged along one of the lords and followed him everywhere).  Then I sang some more KRAI with my other roommate, John Shen.  After Bible study at church tonight, I sang more KRAI with Barmore.  I think I sang for a long time today (possibly four hours), and got 12 diamonds, 11 of which were done on the first try.

This Saturday, I went to more TACIT auditions.  It starts getting tedious reading the same scenes over and over again.  I wonder when we will start having fun with rehearsing—I hope it will be fun.  At night we had Bible study at church.  This is the wrap-up meeting for the book of Acts.  Next week we are studying the book of John.

This Saturday morning James and Ray from ABSK came to our room to have fellowship with my roommates.  I ate a brunch with them, and then I went to TACIT auditions.  This year the Shakespeare play is The Winter's Tale.  We cold read the play with a lot of different arrangements of actors and parts.  It went from 1:30pm to 5pm.  That was quite a long time.

This Wednesday I went with some of the Caltech TACIT As You Like It cast to see the Pasadena Playhouse performance of AS U LYK IT: A California Concoction, an adaptation of Shakespeare's As You Like It.  The actors are very good, and the setting was interesting and funny at first.  However, it's weirdness grows like e^t, and the second act became somewhat unbearable.  They managed to turn a Shakespeare play into a gay-straight declaration of sorts.

This Sunday, I went to Avery and got a ride from John Sadowski to the Hungtington Library.  We will perform the play there at 13:00.  We got there at 11:00 and started setting up.  By noon, we were set with the stage and are rehearsing the three scene changes we have, which I happen to be in all three.  The performance went reasonably smoothly, it was lots of fun.  For the "Which is he that killed the deer [. . .] The horns the horns the lusty horns" scene which I get carried off the stage wearing the deer's horn and singing, we entered through the back of the audience.  It was a last minute decision by the actors, and afterwards the director told me she liked it.  Yay.  Afterwards, I was not able to attend the cast party due to sets I needed to finish.  Overall, this month of intense TACIT involvement was very well worth it.  I will probably audition for an actualy speaking role next year.

This Saturday, we had a matinee performance at 14:00.  There was actually a big crowd for a matinee, I was pleasantly surprised.  After the performance, we stayed behind and cleaned up the entire area.  The Caltech-Occidental Orchestra shall perform here in Ramo Auditorium tomorrow.  We removed the canvas, re-hung the curtains, removed the lights, shipped props, cleaned up backstage, re-hung other lights, and painted the stage.  When I got back home, I was thoroughly exhausted.  Tomorrow I need to wake up early to make a 11:00 call time.  Whoa.

This Friday, we have our last As You Like It evening performance.  I have very much mastered all aspects of the little role I play in.  However, due to the fact that I missed an entrance yesterday, I am much more careful today, and as a result, was not able to read as much.  I am reading Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra when I am back stage.  I need to write a paper on it for next Wednesday, and I have not even finished reading it.

This Thursday, we have a special pickup rehearsal.  Today we will be videotaped.  Hopefully I will obtain a copy soon and will then be able to watch the portions of the play that I have never been able see.  Today, Nicholas Fette and I actually made a late entrance at the very last scene.  In the confusion, I also forgot my hat.  Oh well, it is probably not very noticable.

This Sunday, I attended the church of my roommates, Matthew Chan and Scott Hsieh.  After getting back earlier than I would have if I had gone to my own church, I ate lunch and went to perform.  Today Scott came to watch the play.  He took a few pictures of me, I might post them at some point in time.

This Saturday, we had our fifth performance, and the last nightime Saturday performance.  Next Saturday we will have a matinee.  Today at the very last scene, a (possibly) drunk person came in and sat at the very front.  He had a hysterical laughter at almost everything.  This was very peculiar.

This Friday, there was around 60 people?  I think I recognized Amanda and Daniel Rowlands (Nicholas Fette's roommate) in the audience.  I think the audience is pretty lively today, making it more interesting.  By now, I no longer need to rush back to look at my notes about what to do next, so it makes the whole process more enjoyable.  I also spend some time reading.  I like to read.

This Thursday, we had a pickup rehearsal.  What's a pickup rehearsal?  It's simply we go through the entire play as close to performance as we can.  However, due to the lack of audience, of course we are less enthusiastic.  Also, due to the fact that many actors have not practiced their lines, the thing tend to drag and go longer than a performance.

This Sunday, we have our third performance at 14:00 instead of at 20:00.  We thought we might have a meager audience, but it turns out that letting Caltech students come for free was a huge success.  The central section was almost full!  There must have been more than a hundred people.  The students provided a lot of laughter at everything, it was very encouraging.  A lot of people from ACF also came to see the play.  They must have decided to come see me wear tights after church today.  I don't remember how many people came, probably around ten (10).  Too bad I was not able to get a picture with them in costume, for I changed out of it right after the performance.

This Saturday we had our second performance of TACIT play As You Like It.  The audience is approximately the same size.  We are also getting better at the play.  For me, especially, the number of full run-throughs increased by a third.  By the end of the performances, it would have quadrupled.  Even though we have more audiences, there was probably less students, thus there was much less laughter.

This Friday, we have our opening night.  I was a bit anxious for our first performance.  I wondered how many people will show up.  My first entrance is a scene change, carrying carpets off stage and moving a bench.  I was able to get a quick glance.  I think I saw Tim Dong in the audience.  The next scene I get to carry a banner and stand on stage, thus I get a better view.  There are thirty (30) or so people in the audience.  Besides Tim, David Hai Lin, John Shen, and Benjamin Yang were there as well.  It was quite exciting.

This Thursday we had our dress rehearsal.  We open tomorrow!  We were in costumes the previous nights as well, but today we cannot stop, unless in emergencies.  This will be as close to the real performance as we can.  We still have not rehearsed our curtain calls, but we did hear the music thereof.  Today we actually went to really late, past midnight.

This Wednesday we have a rehearsal to go through the entire play.  We expected this to be the longest rehearsal, as we will be attempting both acts.  This will also be longer than performances because we can stop and re-do scenes today, but obviously not during performance.  For certain scenes, this is my second time being in them.  I also decided to try on my contacts.  I have been wearing them for as long as I can bear to get use to them again.  It is still difficult for me.

This Tuesday, we finally got to do Act I.  I am in a handful of scenes.  I will also be doing three scene changes.  I think I am receiving more tasks than I envisioned.

On a different note, I finally caught Wilson and discussed with him my SURF topic.  I have been reading math journals and have selected six (6) of them as potential topics.  After half an hour of discussion, we have decided that I need to look for posed open problems in the articles I have chosen, and then reconvene on Thursday.  I have more work to do now.

I have also been neglecting school work due to TACIT.  Look at my physics set that is due tomorrow that I am starting today!

This Monday we rehearsed the entire Act II (after intermission).  I am only in two scenes of Act II (being lifted and finale).  I think I have more things in the first Act, but I have not seen them.  This is getting scarrier as the deadline approaches.

This Sunday, I went to church instead of TACIT work call.  Now that I know the meaning of work call, I felt more comfortable requesting time off.  We had rehearsals in the afternoon, which I did attend.  There are still 2/3 of the scenes I will be in that I have not seen at all.  In the following four days before our first performance on Friday, we obviously have lots of work to do.

This Saturday, we had work call at 9am.  I did not know the meaning of work call (hey this is my first time in theatre).  I thought we are going to be rehearsing, but it turns out we are working (thus work call) on the set.  It was interesting to see how much effort is needed, nevertheless.  I was really, really tired, and fell asleep shortly we were let out in the afternoon.  I missed Bible study because I did not set an alarm (I just fell asleep).

This Friday, I went to the first TACIT rehearsal.  I have decided to join the Shakespeare play As You Like It in the TACIT (Theatre Arts at CIT) production.  This will be my first time participating in a theatre performance.  How exciting.  My Shakespeare class En114a is co-taught by La Belle and Shirley, who is the director for TACIT.  Today, I got lifted up in the air.  This might become my part, or it may fall to John Sadowski, who was not here today.  In general, it was quite fun.