Another Year in Pictures What happened to all those random pictures I took since my last photo page? Well, here they are. From Summer 2005 through Winter 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

Fran stretching in class.

 

 

 

Alison stretching in class.
Unfortunately, her times at wushu were shortlived.
I correct myself, fortunately for her.

 

 

 

Alison testing for her green belt.

 

 

 

This is the first picture I took with the new Nikon camera I bought
to use in China.

 

 

 

Frequenting the Stop & Shop between Thursday classes was a
tradition until the beginners class was taken away.

 

 

 

Miso has a habit of acting cute. Enishi won't have it.

 

 

 

Marco showing the video he captured from the May tournament.

 

 

 

Scott showing off his new bow. I was still trying to figure out my
new camera.

 

 

 

Rich with his high tech bow at the indoor archery range.

 

 

 

Marco trying out archery for the first time.

 

 

 

One summer day there was a storm which shut off power in the area,
so we had to have class outside. It made me nostalgic of the good
ole' days at wushu when we used to always have outdoor classes.

 

 

 

Phil doing his thing at Pho Boston.

 

 

 

July 4th fireworks at MCC, no one really wanted to go and I ended
up going with Jiayin and Mary.

 

 

 

China happened.

 

A couple days after returning from China, the US team trials were
being held in South Windsor of all places. Jiayin and Tiffany were
competing and I came to support them. Hey! It's J'mmy and Thong!

 

 

 

With old familiar faces of days of wushu past, it felt like I was transported
back to 2001.

 

 

 

Jiayin with that guy Brandon Sugiyama who runs the popular wushu site,
jiayo.com.

 

 

 

Awww

 

 

 

Nathan was on break for most of summer and fall and he actually
returned to wushu for a few months.

 

 

 

The Maury's hosted a pigroast for people to share some memories
from the trip.

 

 

 

Nathan knows what this is all about. "I'll have some juice."
chomp. chomp. chomp.

 

 

 

6 flags with Rich and way too many Asian people.

 

 

 

Nathan brought over his dangerous electronic devices so we could do
some creative photography.

 

 

 

Ka-BOOM!!! Here's what a piece of aluminum foil vaporizing looks like.

 

 

 

Fall 2005, return to work. Wow... the freshmen are a whole decade
younger than me.

 

 

 

You taste delicious.

 

 

 

Nate and I came across the scary abondoned building on route 74.
Whether it's bravery or stupidity, he breaks in so I could get this shot.

 

 

 

Fran sent an open invitation to watch his band play in Rhode Island.
That's his brother Julio playing bass guitar to the right.

 

 

 

Fran, Nate, and I share cigars and stories on the beach.

 

 

 

Julio and Fran late in the night. Fran really wanted to go to Foxwoods
with us on the way back, but he had to drive his bro home.

 

 

 

The book.

 

 

 

Henan with her silly amature camera. Marco was going crazy over
the catnip.

 

 

 

I hadn't been to a Red Sox game in two years so i bought a couple
tickets and invited Marco.

 

 

 

Sox lost to the Angels, and my car was towed and it cost
$120 and 2 hours to get it back. WAY TO GO BOSTON!!!

 

 

Scotty stringing his guitar on one of his "shh, don't tell people from
wushu I'm in town" visits.

 

 

 

Stretching before the dragonboat demo. Pretty uninspired I must say.
This whole event isn't the same without Herbi.

 

 

 

Visitors from wushu past.

 

 

 

Hector and Jim doing the double double hammer form.

 

 

 

My mom. She actually hung out with us after the show, A group of
us opted not to go eat with the team but went to Pho Boston instead.

 

 

 

Some street.

 

 

 

Bill and his family at the wushu center halloween party.

 

 

 

The other Bill and Niki.

 

 

 

Delicious.

 

 

 

Delicious.

 

 

 

Not so delicious.

 

 

 

Rich, Henan, and I went down to New Haven to hang
with Molly on the most glorious Autumn day ever.

 

 

 

Molly had Henan in a headlock so she couldn't escape getting her
picture taken.

 

 

 

Fuck birds.

 

 

Pretty view from that little cliff he hiked up.

 

 

 

Pizza... mmm

 

 

 

Master Hu summoned his students down to Union Pond Park to take
pictures for the school.

 

 

 

Hector and Wonchi

 

 

 

Me with my medals from last year's tournaments.

 

 

 

Because of the long summer we had, the autumn colors
lasted longer and were more beautiful than in recent years.

 

 

 

Kids from my neighborhood raking leaves.

 

 

 

Pretty

 

 

 

On the last mild day before winter, Nathan, Dustin, and I look a walk
through the land reserve in South Windsor.

 

 

 

The whole scenery evoked images of Salad Fingers.

 

 

 

I reconnected with Amy, an old friend from high school. We were
both heavily involved in art back then, and not much has changed.
She invited me to bring my work at a monthly show they had at Sully's.

 

 

 

I brought a painted I did for Peter Strong of his daughters. It's been
4 months since that last painting... oops.

 

 

 

A tree in my neighborhood on a winter day.

 

 

 

I don't think so.

 

 

 

I was taking photos of my work for my online art portfolio I finally got
around to doing. Marco was nosy as always getting in front of the camera.

 

 

 

A very loose watercolor I painted in college.

 

 

 

This winter, Miso got very sick with a urinary track
infection and stayed at the veterinary hospital for 2 weeks.
When he returned home, miso was relegated to the
bathroom for a week... poor thing.

 

 

 

awww

 

 

 

Hanging out at Mohegan Sun Casino with my family, Fran, Nate, and
Rich who was taking the shot. Fran was getting his butt kicked playing
blackjack. My mom had never been to the casino and played a roll of
quarters in the slot machine. She was getting so excited winning like, 50¢.

 

 

 

pleeeese...

 

 

 

For my sisters' Christmas presents, I decided on build-
a-bears. I'd never been a big fan of build-a-bears, until
I found that they had cats.

 

 

 

My sister finally able to take leave and spend a Christmas at home.

 

 

 

Marco looking festive under the tree. Fortunately, the bow I had around
his neck all week didn't strangle him. Roorrwwwoww!

 

 

 

The "blizzard" of '06. But the way our winter went this year, we'd have
a snowstorm followed by 50 degree weather. Memories of snow didn't
last too long.

 

 

 

Could it be? Rich actually doing a winter activity?

 

 

 

This was the winter I vowed to take up skating. It wasn't
bad at all for my first time. (well, I went once a long time
ago, but that hardly counts because I spent about 2
minutes on my feet total.)

 

 

 

For Chinese New Year, we had 4 performances in a span of 2 weeks.
Master Hu is coaching Rich for the lion dance.

 

 

 

Phil and Kevin playing pool at Fairfield University where we had a demo.

 

 

 

Taiji sword demo.

 

 

 

Bill tossing Francesco like a rag doll in saturday sanshou class.

 

 

 

I went skating a couple times with Seth who taught
me a few useful tricks like turning around and stopping.

 

 

 

Marco, the heroic conqueror of the couch.

 

 

 

Me and Alex Konarski looking like a couple bums at the New Year party.

 

 

 

Grant hanging out with us at the party.

 

 

 

During February break, I had my heart set on getting
some painting done, but I got lazy as usual. What I did
accomplish was setting up my camera and some lights
to make an impromptu portrait studio in my basement.
Then I had fun being the ham I am.

 

 

 

That behind me is a 50" x 50" canvas which will become
my masterpiece once I get off my lazy ass.

 

 

 

Rich with a puppy he found in his garage.

 

 

 

Jiayin saying get the "hell out of here" at Express where she currently
works. Where's the manager?!!

 

 

 

Nathan at his lab at Northeastern. For his senior project, he's developing
some device that uses lasers to measure blood and oxygen levels.

 

 

 

Dang brothers at ski sundown for some night-time snowboarding.

 

 

 

Could it be? Rich doing another winter sport? Just from this first
impression of snowboarding, he went out and bought himself the
fanciest snowboard and gear.

 

 

 

I gave up on snowboarding and switched to skis after spending
and hour on my ass; which doesn't make any sense because
last year, I and was managing the beginner hill without falling.
Once I switched over though, Peter and I tried the black diamond
a couple times... wooooiiieee!!!

 

 

 

I HATE MY SKIN!!!

 

 

 

Nate and I shot some reference photos for an official
portrait I'm painting for him.

 

 

 

Seth and his freind Megan on St. Patrick's day. I was designated driver.
oh yeah... fun.

 

 

 

I went to an event at the new Connecticut Convention Center for the
first time. It was a latin festival. I'm not latin, but the free food beckoned me.

 

 

 

Rich with a reggae artist from Jamaica. She performed
and I admit she was actually very talented.

 

 

 

Rich and I headed up to Mt. Stratton in Vermont to watch the US Open
Snowboarding Championships. I never really put into perspective how
steep the halfpipe was until I saw it in person.

 

 

 

The best thing about the event were all the sponsor displays at the base.
Everywhere we turned, we got free stuff. I won a free Xbox game for
no reason, and Rich won a pair of really nice sneakers.

 

 

 

Rich all wintered out. To view the event, we had to walk all the way up
the hill because we didn't buy lift tickets. It was about a one hour hike.
As we were sliding back down, Rich was regretting not bringing his
brand new snowboard up the hill. It would've been a funny site watching
him struggle down while professionals whizzed by.

 

 

 

The competitors fell SO MUCH! I couldn't believe it. I forget how much
these programs are edited for TV, but as they were doing their amazing
jumps, about 2 in 3 must have fallen on their tricks.

 

 

 

Then we drove through Jamaica.