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Journal Entry #8

I know this might sound corny, but when I bought the new
Saved by the Bell Seasons 3&4 DVD, I felt like a kid again. All
of a sudden, I'm starting to like the 90's (just the early 90's)
because the people in the early 90's wore these cool-looking
clothes with their sunglasses. They ride their motorcycles with
their black leather jackets listening to Whitesnake's "Here I Go
Again." I don't know about the Vanilla Ice hairstyle, but thank
heaven it's over. All the girls in the early 90's started to have
"smaller" hair-dos, and all the boys wore adidas tennis shoes.

All of my creative ideas come from the 80's and 90's because
I just love their music, movies, styles, and attitude. The 80's and
90's vibes are so cool, but nowadays, a lot of TV producers, music
companies, brand name fashions (Tommy Hilfiger, Filas, just to
name a few), and other related stuff are just plain average.
For example, the Terminator 3 movie (2003), is
not as good as both Terminator 1 and Terminator 2, because the
T3 movie is not original; It's average just like those music videos
nowadays. Most music videos on MTV look the same, and Britney
Spears wonder why she never won "Best Music Video."

However, I have to give "cheers" to the new movie "13
Going On 30" because Jennifer Garner knows how to be
"original." For example she made the DJ play "good music,"
not some cheap un-original techno music because the actress
knows how to "listen" to "good music." (The DJ played "Thriller"
by Michael Jackson and that album itself sold over 45 million
copies world-wide. Michael Jackson was a genius until
he turned white and "play" with little boys.) Anyway, the movie
takes you back to the 80's, and I guarantee you, you will have flashbacks.

April 21, 2004

My grandfather had just passed away on Sunday, and
his death somehow pushes me to become a better man.
Lately my family have been getting good luck since my
grandfather passed away: My mom got a big fat tax return
check back from the government; This Monday I got three
tests back from my teacher and they were all A's; My Intro
to Computer Graphics in Fine Arts' teacher Christine
likes my Narrative Project; And I went to my first rock
concert to see TRAPT, Finger Eleven, and other opening acts
yesterday.

As I get older, I realize how time passes by too fast,
and that if I want to stand out in my career, I gotta bust
my a** to get what I want. I used to be a very, very
nice guy until some people started to push me around,
think they know everything, and think that they are
smarter than me when my GPA is 3.6 and their GPA is
NO WHERE NEAR my range. I got an internship over
the summer, and they are working at McDonalds. My
grandfather sure is smiling down upon me, and he is
making sure that I'm making better decisions to succeed
in life in order to take care of my
family here in America and in Vietnam.

My painting got stolen from my painting class,
and my teacher told me that I should think of it
as a complement because of all the paintings in
that classroom, they stole mine. Those criminals
also broke into this girl's locker and stole all her
expensive paint supplies, stole 3 pairs of shoes f
rom this women's artwork, and of course, those same
robbers stole Tim's painting who is also in my Intro to
Computer Graphics in Fine Arts. Mrs. Cheryl Hayes'
Digital Camera also got stolen a couple of weeks ago.
At least UNO is sending me a check to make up for
the materials that I spent on my stolen painting.

I realize that you can be creative in your cooking technique.
For example, my cousin cooks a pot of vietnamese beef stew
with coca cola instead of the "required" ingredients to give it
more flavor. My mom use coconut juice to make vietnamese soup.
When it comes to being "obsess" with making the best vietnamese
beef, it's my uncle (you might be familiar with my uncle's pot of meat
story on my eilab website). For me, I make scramble eggs with
vietnamese sausage.

I'm very picky when it comes to buying "certain" clothes because
If I'm going to buy a dress-shirt and it cost over $100.00, then those
retailers must be crazy. Even though it looks good, I would
rather wait for it to go on sale (like always because those retailers want
to get rid of the old inventory and make room for new ones). Creative
in style is one thing, but wearing expensive clothes with no money is
a problem.

My mom and I are very creative when it comes to dancing.
We would pop in an eighties CD and just go nuts!!! No wonder
people tell me I dance like an 80's music artist. My mom
is "ghetto" when it comes to hip-hop music because she puts on
her afro wig and she just go nuts also. That's my mom!!!

Whenever I study for a test like Biology, I never study
the biology formulas as it is; I always use mnemonic
devices to study any type of biology formulas. Studying
these types of subjects require creativity
because if you study a long formula like Oxidation of
Glucose, you will forget some parts of the formula the
next day no matter what. I always help my little brother
study his Chemistry formulas through my
mnemonic devices and he makes nothing but A's on
all of his tests.

When I tutor my students in Developmental Math 0106,
Most of them can't solve the problems correctly because they
don't know which formulas to use. That's when I give them
my mnemonic devices and all of a sudden, my students know which
formulas to use because I made it interesting for them to
remember. Hopefully they all will pass this math class this sememster
with a P(Developmental grading system).

Creativity can also be used in Photoshop. For example, If you
took a picture in the dark with a digital camera, you could manipulate
the dark picture any way you want it by adjusting the contrast,
brightness, or any other tools use in Photoshop. A lot of my friends
love what I did to my cyborg image, and they couldn't believe I
did it all in Photoshop. I have to thank Christina Catsifas for giving
us this type of assignment to expand our creativity through computer
technology.

Journal Entry #4

I enjoy writing PoP songs because it is something that
I am very talented at. It's not just any Pop song, but an 80's
type of song. I gathered up my photos from the past, which is from
the 80's, CD covers from the 80's, posters from the 80's, toys and
movies from the 80's, and so on, and I just get inspiration from
these type of objects to write actually "GOOD" PoP 80's songs.
I wrote so far 20 songs that sounds half-80's, half-Europop, my
style and arrangement of the melodies of the song, and
un-tempo like Janet Jackson. Writing songs really inspires me
to be creative because you can manipulate how you want your
songs to sound like.

I'm also a hip-hop dancer and I love to improvise my own
type of dance moves, like a choreographer. I could use these
talents towards my marketing and advertising career through
hypermedia and just show the world what this one person
could do with these talents. I guess I'm inspired by Paula Abdul,
Janet Jackson, and, um, Michael Jackson(no offensive Damita Jo).

I was thinking I want to be an entertainer because I
can tell silly jokes, dance, sing, compose music, produced my
music, managing money myself, and make a website
about myself, maybe for Virgin Records America in California
because I have an entertainment lawyer waiting for me
to graduate from UNO to get a head start career as a Pop
entertainer/singer. Of course, some people will say it
would take a miracle to get that far in that type of career,
but what those people don't know is that if you stand out,
be unique, know exactly what you want and what other
people want, than you got it made for yourself. Also a little
persuasive method like getting your parents to buy you
a new car after you graduate from college.
and digital media.

Journal Entry #3

Everyday, I feel like I'm getting stronger mentally
and physically because I guess I know that after this
sememster, I'm doing my internship over the summer
that would lead to my future career which is advertising
and marketing through Digital Media. I know that I have
a lot of responsibities like the classes that I'm taking this
sememster, my future job, and my family. Everyday I start
to look back into my past of the things I have done,
accomplished, and failed,and I just know that I have to
move on to bigger and better things in life, because
trust me, time nowadays is passing by too fast.

I know it is kind of silly to think about death too
early, but in a way, it can change the way you think
about life: is the career that I'm going for is right for
me, should I marry soon and have lots of kids, will I
take my mother to Las Vegas and let her play an
innocent game of blackjack? When interviewing for
a job like Images Inc., you want to make sure that you
stand out, what you got is special to them, and how
can you help the business make profits from consumers.
Make sure that people will remember you for who you are
and what special talent you have to show to the world.

Right now, I am definitely enjoying Intro to Digital
Media because it helps me take a step further to success
in my creativity and hopefully my future career. I don't
like to use the word job because my college advisor
told me it means "Just Over Broke," and I don't want
to be broke in life. As always, I listen to 80's music for
inspiration in my studying and in my creativity.

Journal Entry #2

Everyday when I wake up, I surround myself with things that
matter the most to me: pictures of my family and cousins,
music that reminds me of my past, childhood toys, and my
room itself. My room have posters of the 80's like Lita Ford,
Full House, Saved by the Bell, and all that good stuff. I just
love the oldies because I grew up with it and the nowadays
television shows and music is good but not as good as
the 80's because you just can't beat the classics.

Whenever I see my mom working by herself, I feel
sorry for her because I want her to enjoy life. I think
of the times I have spent with my mom and those were
good of times: My mom wearing a ninja turtles'
costume, eating pepperoni pizza at roadrunner's
pizza, and just shopping at department stores
because she loves clothes and jewerly. Luckily, I
have an internship over the summer with this
company that will guarantee me a future that I
can share with my mom; we could go to Las Vegas
and gamble, or we could fly back to Vietnam and visit
our familes there.

Reading fictional books like Goosebumps or the
Haunted House (yes, very childish-like books)
inspires me to be more creative with my career.
I could take a song that I wrote and just take it
to a whole new level. My mom said to me that I
have a gift in composing music. Some music
artists nowadays just don't know how to take a
regular Top 100 song and just take it to next level
that could actually hit #1 on the Billboard charts(I
know the secrets to how to make a #47 hit into a
#1 hit just like that, but I won't give it away). My
mind can only be creative if it relates to the past
like for example the 80's and 90's; not just for the
music and style, but for the good times that just
keep rolling by.