yao ming
Houston's Great Wall of China just fractured his knee.


the grinch stole Christmas =(

someone send me back into the matrix..

even fara's reading!
Dear Fara,

I hope you are having a wonderful day. Today (yesterday) I decided that it is time to revive my blog. When I told Xiao this, he immediately discouraged me by reminding me that you only read Grace's blog. So I was wondering if I could interest you this Christmas break in some light daily reading. I have committed to 40 posts in 40 days, somewhat in response to the guilt in my heart for leaving my blog unattended for such an extended period of time. Please consider this offer. You will be my biggest sponsor. I promise to make the posts at least somewhat entertaining and educational and thought-provoking. And maybe some spiritual stuff if you're into that. I would be so proud of myself.

www.mokalus.blogspot.com

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

mok


Fara's reply:
all right, i'll read your blog too...since you asked so nicely...but don;'t expect me to comment! i don't even comment on grace's...

Hi Fara!


(btw, that spells FARA)

the gmat
standardized tests used to be my thing.

the gmat itself wasn't tough -- the toughest part was just getting there.

got home yesterday pretty late due to "yay for friends" celebrations, so I decided it was probably time to check what time I had to take the test this morning.

the confirmation email said 8am. I looked at my cell phone. it read 3am. spectacular.

I had originally planned to do a few activities yesterday night, most notably a practice test and a shower, but why do today what you can leave for 7am in the morning, right? is that how the saying goes?

so I power-nap for 4 hours, jump in the shower for a quick run-through, and check my email again to discover the location of this testing center. then I notice that there's this little note that says I should arrive half an hour before the test is supposed to begin. I looked at my cell phone. it read 7:30. spectacular.

I google-map the directions. the time estimate of the drive says 23 minutes, 7 minutes to spare! spectacular.

so i get in the car, with my laptop buckled into the passenger seat, and speed off -- 1/2 the time with my eyes on the road, 1/2 the time looking at the directions, and 1/2 the time doing some practice problems off the screen. I'm pretty sure those percentages add up. 30 minutes later, I'm there! spectacular.

oh, and the gmat itself wasn't tough -- the toughest part was just getting there.

and here's the standard picture to fulfill my quota.

2nd half comeback

After falling behind to a seemingly insurmountable 6-0 cavity deficit in the 1st half, Jonathan Mok rose to the occasion in the clutch, shutting out The Dentists with superb brushing skills and a magnificent array of flossing playcalling. However, the BCS was not so kind, as he will not be playing in the championship come spring break. Instead, Jonathan will be playing in the Holiday Bowl against The Oral Surgeons. The key to this game will be whether or not he can protect his star players, the wisdom teeth, against his numbing opponent. The outcome doesn't look so good, but Mr. Mok is praying for a miracle.

so no cavities this time compared to 6 my previous visit, but once again, my dentist reminded me for the umpteenth time that i need to get my wisdom teeth removed. she sounded a bit annoyed, so i tried to use my amnesia act, but most likely to no avail. the more i go to the dentist, the more i wonder what their deal is.

is there a worse feeling or sound than that of the dentist scratching your teeth like captain hook? i don't understand this at all. with all the tools they have in there, you would think you were in aisle 14 at home depot. if you ask me, they're going just a tad overboard trying to prove that you haven't been brushing 12 times a day. if you really need to use a metal hook to scratch every angle of the tooth in order to say "HA! HERE'S SOME PLAQUE!", most likely the patient is doing a decent job of cleaning them pearly whites.

after all the metalwork, the dentist then proceeds to brush your teeth with some motorized spinning thing and then floss your teeth for you like there's no tomorrow. what is that?? i mean, i can understand you doing this for small children who are still learning the do's and don't of dental hygiene, but come on, dawg. i don't think i need you to brush and floss for me, thank you very much. and i certainly hope you don't think i'm gonna tip you for this.

so i guess the most puzzling question is this -- being in a teeth-cleaning facility and all, where art thou toothbrushes? oh, right. they give them to you as party favors on your way running out the door.

is it just me, or is this process entirely whack? for one, how about this novel idea: use the TOOTHBRUSHES for teeth-cleaning and give away the KNIVES/HOOKS/METAL STUFF as party favors. yeah?

or how about this. everybody hates going to the dentist, so how about an incentive program. you go to your appointment and get checked for cavities first and foremost. if you pass the test with flying colors, then you're outta there like stromile swift and houston. if you have any cavities at all, then you will be punished by having your teeth cleaned. fair enough?

so who wants me as their dentist?

pay it forward
so went to ball today at church, played a few games, then played like a dallas maverick out there going 0-7 with 2 turnovers and decided to call it quits for the day. get in my car and put the pedal to the metal to the jack-in-the-box drive-thru. sitting in the drivethru, salivating at all the scrumptious overpriced items on the menu, when all of a sudden, i hear a huge screech. then another. and another.

okay honest moment. i was a tiny bit scared. so first thing i did was lock my car door. but then the screeching stopped. whew.

then it starts again. SCREECH! SCREECH! SCREECH!

i quickly pull up to the mic and order some food, but on my way to the pickup window, i see where all the fuss is coming from.




if you can't tell from the cell phone pics, it's a truck that is stuck halfway between the jack-in-the-box drive-thru lane and the adjacent denny's parking lot. it had been raining, and the back tires were caught in some mud. now first thing that comes to my mind is, how the heck did this happen, and how long has he been here. it smelt like burnt rubber.

so i roll down my passenger side window and ask him if i can help at all. he says yeah, sure. so i say okay, and speed off to get my food and go home. jk, but maybe that's what he thought i was doing, cuz i went to get my food first.

so i get my food, pop outta my car, and for the first time in a while i lock up my car because, well, i don't want my dos tacos getting stolen.

i'm walking up to the guy, and even though i was really curious, i didn't want to ask him how he managed to get stuck like this. probably embarrassed enough already. so he tells me to try pushing while he backs up. i'm like, are you kidding me, that's your best idea? but i go along with his little plan, and i push it off the curb without him even pushing the gas!

alright who am i kidding. i don't think i made any difference at all. it had been raining, so the concrete was slippery as crap. so i don't think i was doing anything other than wearing out the bottom of my shoes (OH what a perfect plug for crocs. you know, if i was wearing my crocs, it wouldn't have been slippery AT ALL).

good thing i actually have some experience with this sort of problem. what you need to do is get a piece of wood or something like that and just stuff it down right by the tire so it can have some friction to get outta the hole. but of course, we're not in the wild, so there wasn't a random piece of plywood lying around. darn.

after a few more futile tries, a couple denny's workers step out for a smoke or something and spot us. they come over with their truck offering to help. they immediately started laughing and asked how this happened. the guy was kinda annoyed and told them that he was in the drive-thru line, but it was taking so long. he couldn't wait a couple minutes longer, so he tried to take a shortcut across the lawn to freedom.

ironic, huh? sounds like something deborah would do (jk) (not really). tries to save a couple minutes, and ends up losing half an hour. i did my best not to laugh, but instead busted out with my cell phone to take the pictures above. i hope he didn't mind me doing that. he looked over a couple times while i was trying to get a good shot, but i pretended like i was on the phone. i don't think he bought it.

anyhow, with the other people's help, we successfully got him outta the rut and on with his life. and therein is my good deed of the year, as well as my 2nd post in 2 days. book it!

(do i get treasures in heaven for this? Jesus, you're keeping track, right?)

it is time
the semester has come to an end, and what a semester it has been. but even as unbearable as finals week was, i still got the feeling that Fall 2006 was much too short. SO, on that note, this session of mokalus.blogspot.com is titled "it is time."


it is time for me to blog more. you know, old school style. i thought very hard about making the trecherous switch to xanga. in my mind, i was gonna take that world by storm, cape and all. but then again, xanga's pretty much dead, and i don't feel like working no miracles right now. still a blogger 4 lyfe. so my apologies to you if you have been coming to this site every day and twice on sundays since september 29, just praying for an update. my bad to all 2 of you. for the few of you who have been pleading for a comment system on here, i'm sorry but i haven't worked that out yet. if you are really burning to leave a comment, try facebook. but apparently that is dying as well. ha, my mom leaving me comment on my wall? wouldn't that be something.

it is time to treat next semester as my last. yeah, i know i still have a full year left, but i feel like this past semester went by so quickly because i allowed it to. so what's my plan of attack? not sure specifically yet, but somehow i feel like having to go to work in austin instead of going to class will help my cause. i'm also gonna make sure i'm more methodical with remembering things that happen, probably through a facebook photo album/scrapbook thing with pictures jacked from people, most likely paparazzo amanda moon.

it is time to find out what i can do with my life. sounds like such a daunting task, i guess maybe because it is. thing is, what i've realized this past semester is that i have a lot of specialized knowledge in subjects that don't really have any practical use in everyday, 9-5 life. i can talk/debate/argue for hours about sports of any kind, except maybe anything of the frozen variety, but what good will that do me? sometimes, no, actually all the time, i feel like i could maybe find some niche in the sports business to plug myself into and really, truly enjoy it for the rest of my life. but then again, i could also see myself doing alot of other things. this whole future thing is tough.

okay i feel like i'm just rambling, so i'll bring this post to an end. future posts will have more of a central theme fosho. maybe i'll do it nba playoffs tnt style.

40 posts in 40 nights?