I.] DECEMBER 2005. It's December 12 and my airconditioner is on full blast. Outside of the car, locals saunter up and down sunset blvd in shorts and tommy bahamas shirts. Summer in December but it also took 1/2 hour to move 3 miles.... Eaglerock/colorado on a friday night what a ghost town, save for the chalet... karen and her sisters made dinner for us at their place tonight- pasta, chicken salad, and homemade apple pie. I miss hot home cooked meals.

II.]

In 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, Congress authorized the most ambitious project that the country had ever contemplated: construction of a transcontinental railroad. The price tag was immense: $136 million, more than twice the federal budget in 1861. The challenge was enormous; 1,800 miles across arid plains and desert and the rugged granite walls of the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains. The Central Pacific lay track eastward from Sacramento, California. Which ever company laid the most track would receive the largest federal subsidy.The Union Pacific's task was easier; two-thirds of its track was laid across plains. The Central Pacific, in contrast, had to carve out a rail bed across the Sierra Nevadas. The first year, it lay 31 miles of track; after two years, it had only put down 50 miles.The Central Pacific also faced an acute labor shortage. In the winter of 1864, the company had only 600 laborers at work, a small fraction of the 5,000 for which it had advertised. And these workers were unreliable: "Some would stay until pay day, get a little money, get drunk and clear out," a superintendent said.

In February, 1865, the Central Pacific decided to try a new labor pool. Charles Crocker, chief of construction persuaded his company to employ Chinese immigrants, arguing that the people who build the Great Wall of China and invented gunpowder could certainly build a railroad. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, civil turmoil and poverty had led many Chinese to emigrate to California, the "Golden Mountain." As early as 1852, there were 25,000 Chinese immigrants in California. Most came from China's southeastern coast. The overwhelming majority were married men who planned to return to China. In California, the immigrants established support networks, based on family ties and place of origin, and found work in agriculture, mines, domestic service, and increasingly in railroad construction.

III.] In December you look back in your rearview mirror. Hastily, I left a place of comfort and family to new angeles where i have no roots, paying bills cooking chicken and brocoli, learning to live with party animals. Sunday night and nate has 6 people over boozing in front of the boob tube, the fireplace of our generation.

2005 yearbook

Act One
- Tsunami torments east asia
- Get a job in campbell and cupertino boring kids with worksheets.
- Darius auditions for apprentice 4.
- Grampa dies
- Josh back in the bay after 15 year hiatus. fun at north beach filmore and mtn charleys- los gatos-saratoga. josh and michael w- shake hands at the burlingame hilton.
- Visit Victor and Christina in northridge; Matt gives chico tours
- Esl kids gives me standing ovation at schmeland. asian kids are the best.

Act Two
- Nearly kill myself skating down a snyvale parking garage.
- Drive by south central job interview a done deal. i leave sj at 7 am for the 1 o'clock interview.
- Brian completes grueling missionary trip in the phillipine ghetto.
- Crash at scott and marias for a week before getting my own place. sleep on the floor for a month- buy a serta mattress in west hollywood.
- La nightlife is a strain on the wallet
- Alfredo and miniature golf in sherman oaks.
- Chris and me, imperial rolls in westminster and v20 long beach.
- i learn to appreciate earplugs in my apartment.

Act Three
- Dates with thai girl in silverlake doesnt last. her rotweiller nearly takes off my ear.
- Missed eisley at the troubadour, got a free t-shirt
- Brush with celebrity: jessica alba on jay leno, paris hilton and hilary duff vamping on the red carpet.
- Gramma dies
- Anthony's costume party in in huntington
- Aunt anne, uncle long, gramma crash at my place.
- Ma and Pa give a warm homecoming