(3.6.20)

When I follow you,

The darkness remains untouched

Likewise with the light.

(1.13.20) I’ve gotta admit, it’s fucking weird in retrospect that I’m “used” to seeing palm trees. In California, that’s the norm. Virtually everywhere else, TREES are the norm. Wow.

I find it sad and cool that I get so distracted by seeing trees. Even if they’re dead in the winter, I find it beautiful. Anyways, I finally understand why people do drugs. There’s not much to do in the suburbs! Ha! As much as I enjoyed my time here, I love culture too much. What are you supposed to eat past 11 pm?! Where’s the taco trucks?!!

(1.10.20) Isn’t it fascinating that The Met holds a gala where celebrities roam the art-filled space to act as fluid sculptures, waiting to be captured by a flash?

Since we sped-run New York, we didn’t even get to see all of The Met or else we wouldn’t have time to check out other things. But I will say that I am very proud of one of the pictures I took of her.

Also, look at that exposure! I exposed for the highlights and it came out wonderfully.

(1.10.20) What a day! At night, we were shopping at Glossier and I noticed a neon sign with a woman on it. Holy. Shit. There’s a Naked & Famous store in New York?!

I ran inside with excitement and was met by two gentleman that were happy to show me around the store. The floor was lined with denim and the walls were stacked with denim. I think this is the only store in the entire nation and I’m glad the staff was very knowledgeable about everything.

They were able to turn off the store’s lights to show me the Ghostbusters glow-in-the-dark jeans. Then, they showed us the world’s heaviest denim that stood by itself without a soak. Reminds me of the Jimmy Neutron episode with the pants.

(1.10.20) Well, I fucking did it. I went to the east coast for the first time. It cost me $65 to get a taxi from JFK to Alphabet City, where we’d be staying. While waiting for her, I needed to find a warm place to stay because it was 30 degrees and I’d never felt anything below 50 before.

I went inside 5C Cafe (I’m writing this so I can remember to come back some day) where I was greeted by a man named Ox. He was decked out with a scarab necklace and was very accommodating. I had a few glasses of cider as I listened to a violinist play Elton John classics. It was my first night experience in New York, and I’m glad it was there.

When she finally showed up, we made it to Tomi Jazz to fantasize about Japan.

(Portra 400, first shot from the first roll in NY)

(12.11.19) I love film, if you didn’t already get the picture. This ended up becoming the first photo for my presentation. I loved using this as a concept for the title of my project, Memories Unheard, because the half shot is one of my favorite aspects of film.

(11.25.19) Can you believe I shot half of this project inside of a McDonald’s? They should sponsor me. I’ll take my daily dosage of McMuffins. :) Shot on Tri-X 400.

(11.25.19) I’d first like to thank Christopher for allowing me to meet with him over a period of three weeks to shoot my final project in photojournalism. This was my first experience shooting black & white film and it was nerve-wracking knowing that I either had a final project that would turn out great or receive an F for not coming up with any usable photos. Shot on Tri-X 400.

(11.18.19) I grew up admiring this house on Ocean Blvd. I don’t know what it is about this statue, but it inspires me to get one for my own property. Until then!

Shot on Kodak TMAX 400, developed 11.18.19.

(11.14.19)Right now, I’m working on a photo assignment for my photojournalism class. I decided that it would be shot in black and white film, but I have never done that before (beside the expired film I started with). So while I was in class I decided to order some Kodak TMax and Tri-X film to try it out. I wanted to see how it worked before I would actually begin shooting for my assignment.

This was one of the first shots to come out of the roll and I’m floored! The coolest concept of film is ‘seizing the moment’ and this was it.

(10.21.19) Did you know that Stella likes to name her inanimate objects? Her Hydroflask is named Stavo. Stavo has been her companion for who knows how long and she takes him everywhere.

Same roll of Portra 400, developed 10.30.19.

(10.21.19) I can’t believe this was my first time at the Redondo Pier. Well, I suppose it isn’t that surprising since I haven’t seen much of the world, let alone anything to the west of Long Beach.

I was really hoping that my film camera would be able to capture the starry sun reflecting on the waves, and it didn’t disappoint! Part of the Portra 400, 10.30.19 development.

(10.21.19) My friend Regis wanted to get into cold brew and didn’t realize he needed to grind his coffee. He sent me a photo of some wet coffee beans and was wondering why his coffee wasn’t so dark, so I decided to sell him my hand grinder and upgrade myself to a fancy electric grinder (Baratza Encore).

I was going to buy it off Amazon but I checked the Baratza site to see what local businesses might sell it. Klatch Coffee in Redondo happened to have one left so I decided to drive over there. Stella happened to be free right when I was getting ready to head out so we had a day-long adventure. We got Japanese bbq at the end of the day and hung out at a laundromat with Bo.

(10.2.19) I had a photo assignment to shoot a feature story in my photojournalism class. Anthony and his brother were planning to go to Little Tokyo so I tagged along.

That day I found out what Kyoto cold brew actually was and I think I might pick up a Kyoto brewing device when I move out. It’s a painfully slow drip but it looks very nice. Of course, this was shot on film (portra 400) and it took me two months to get this roll developed! I was excited because it still had shots from Seattle. Developed today (10.30.19).

(8.15.19) A week after my Seattle trip, I had planned to shoot film in San Pedro with Daniel. He was going to study abroad in Korea so this would be my first (and, so far, last) time shooting film with him. It’s really cool to hear that I inspired him to shoot film; he’s documenting his entire experience in Korea via film and I think it’s awesome and inspires me to shoot even more.

Before he left, he gave me two graphic novels about Vietnam and I plan to finish it before he comes back. This photo was part of the same roll that I developed today (10.30.19).

(8.7.19) I’m writing this right now (4.1.20) because I decided to add this photo. As I become better at understanding analog photography, the most difficult thing is to come to terms with over-exposing your shots and trusting the film. As I went back to my older shots, this one stood out to me as a photo I took that was perfectly exposed without much need to decrease or increase the brightness. So, hooray!

(8.7.19) This is a barely-edited Portra 400 shot. I have no idea how the background was eliminated to this degree but I think it’s a very cool picture.

We hiked for 5 miles at the Paradise loop, where Alex watched Esther and I struggle to climb the ascending stairs. Nonetheless, I want to hike more!

(8.4.19) I was trying to figure out how to get low aperture shots in bright conditions with my film camera. On a digital camera, all you have to really do is shoot with a faster shutter speed. On film, you’re very limited.

I ordered an ND (neutral density) filter for my camera to alleviate this issue, and here it is.

I remarked this as my new favorite flower! Thank you, Esther, for buying an enamel pin of this flower for me.

(8.4.19) It was really difficult balancing between taking photos and witnessing everything with my own eyes. The hilly landscape of downtown Seattle made even the most boring shots seem breathtaking to me.

I wasn’t used to looking out into the distance with such clarity; the LA smog ruined me.

(8.4.19) After we got settled at our Airbnb, we decided to head to Kerry Park which is where we found tons of tourists and locals alike flocking toward the railing that bled into the Seattle skyline.

I hadn’t seen anything like it—the way the Space Needle stands firmly and is distinguishable from other buildings is a feat that other architects can only dream about.

I knew then that this would be a trip that I’d remember for the rest of my life.

(8.4.19) After we landed at the airport and retrieved our legendary Hyundai rental, we decided to get lunch. After lunch we drove toward the Airbnb, but we were about an hour early and the owners were still cleaning up the place. I remembered seeing this on the way to the Airbnb so I suggested that we head over here to take photos.

And thus, this is the first (film) photo I took outside of California. And here’s to many more!

(7.31.19) Just after DSM, I knew that I had to show them the entrance to Bodega at The Row. Luckily, this time, I made sure not to accidentally route us to The Row in SoHo.

I really enjoy wandering around places with them. :)

We found this stairway with incredible lighting. I hoped it would out well, and it did.

(7.31.19) I had the pleasure of showing Alex & Esther around Los Angeles again and I knew I had to take them to DSM because I believe it opened just a few months after they came to California last year, so they missed it.

We had a long day (and next two weeks) ahead of us, so we headed over to Blue Bottle for coffee and started the day with a bit of some fashion exploration.

The inside of DSM was a marvel of archival clothing and new pieces from our favorite designer labels like CDG or Undercover. I have no idea whose car this is, but I like to think it belongs to someone who works at DSM.

(7.31.19) I REALLY love Esther’s AMBUSH necklace. It’s a holster for her lighter and I am definitely planning to put it in a fashion zine (whenever I get the chance to make that).

I tried to make Esther look like she was shopping around in DSM. I’m going to have to work on posing my subjects!

(7.12.19) When I first bought my Canon A-1 in Orange, Daniel and I wanted to go to the Anaheim Transportation Center to check out the cool lights at night.

Right about the time we were supposed to exit the freeway, I heard a really loud plane. “That’s not a plane, it’s your car,” said Daniel.

Unfortunately, my car had a bumper part fall off and scraped against the floor which caused us to cancel our plans to go to the transportation center. A few days later we agreed to try going again, after we had some $6 pho in Garden Grove.

(7.8.19) I bought a new film camera because I decided to go to the deeper end of film photography. My weapon of choice is the Canon A-1!

On July 4th at around 11 p.m., I decided to go on Craigslist to search for one. This was the only one in the area and I messaged the seller to meet up the following Sunday at a Starbucks in Orange. I brought Daniel along—when we entered the store, an older man named Ernesto shook my hand. I was internally screaming when I heard the shutter—it was the most crisp sound I’d ever heard. The camera is from around 1978-1984 but it looks brand new.

My favorite thing about the camera is that it came with a 1984 Los Angeles Olympics lens cap! And as of today (7.15.19) I found an Olympics camera strap in mint condition to pair.

(7.5.19) I really like the algorithm that Instagram uses for displaying ads because they’re actually good recommendations. This time, I got an ad for a film called Funan. It’s directed by a Cambodian director named Dennis Do with an animation style similar to anime. I was slightly thrown off by the fact that it was spoken in French and translated to English.

I was really interested because it won NYT’s critic pick and also won an animation award similar to an Oscar win. I didn’t watch the trailer or read the synopsis, and I’m glad because I enjoyed watching it.

I brought a film camera set for Daniel to try out film. After the movie we went to Irvine Spectrum and I passed by a directory sign that showed “APPLE”. I completely forgot it was in Irvine and I knew I had to check it out.

I was floored by how gorgeous the store looks at night. I felt drawn to the store and a bit inspired to take more night shots. I love working for this company.

(6.29.19) After the shibori tie-dye class in Torrance, I had nothing planned for the rest of the day.

I didn’t want to drive back to Long Beach because of rush-hour traffic so I decided to drive around Palos Verdes. I love the winding roads and seeing the architecture of houses from the affluent. I drove around for about an hour or two without any specific direction and found myself at Malaga Hills. I parked by the library and saw a ton of peacocks (it turns out they’re native to P.V…?).

After I took this photo I was driving along the coast and found Torrance County Beach, which is a few miles south of Redondo. I had no idea that existed, either.

(6.25.19) We almost left the temple after checking out the first shrine. But I noticed that along the side of the shrine there was a sign with an arrow that said, “MAIN SHRINE”. When we followed the hallway, my jaw dropped.

There was another shrine! The main shrine was the campus that housed a massive meditation room. I don’t remember how long we spent here but there is also ANOTHER shrine located just behind the main shrine. You’re not allowed to take photos but it was where Josh and I learned how to offer incense to Buddha. At first, we lit the wrong side of the incense stick, but a nice lady taught us the proper way.

(6.25.19) This is the temple that Josh and I were originally going to visit. Since it was actually on the way home, it made sense to visit briefly rather than waiting to go “next time”.

When I drove up the hill and got closer to the temple, I realized that we almost made a massive mistake if we skipped out on visiting. There’s a massive shrine that towers over you as you climb the steps. When you enter, you see large statues of Buddha with eyes that follow as you carefully and quietly wander.

(6.25.19) I had dozens of inquiries from friends asking me WHY I was at a temple, WHAT I am doing at a temple, and WHERE this temple is. It’s simple to answer the where—but why?

I get so irked when people ask me that. Why the hell not? Is there some sort of rule that is restricting me from going to a holy ground? Am I not allowed to appreciate the architecture, artwork and gain some perspective despite not being a Hindu?

Anyway, going to this place was a blessing. When we got inside, I was frozen for what must have been hours, just staring at the walls and ceilings. It felt so much like a dream.

(6.25.19) “We should go hiking” is probably the most common phrase I say during breaks and it almost never happens. This time, Josh and I were planning to go on a hike but then I remembered that I heard about a really cool Buddhist temple somewhere an hour away.

When I looked it up, it didn’t look that impressive—so I went on Google to look for other temples. At midnight, I told Josh to search “BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir” and he was floored by the beauty of it. The Mandir would only be open for 3 hours, so I told him we can set alarms for 7 a.m., get McDonald’s, and head out. It all seemed like a really drawn-out McDonald’s ad.

(6.19.19) It started to drizzle a bit, but we still wanted to hang out around Newport so we made our way down the walking path. It’s crazy to think that people actually live in houses just a few feet away from the sand and ocean; what made me more sad was that I saw empty soda cans and beer thrown on the porches.

Along the path, the floor says “MPH 8 MPH”, with the second MPH facing the other direction. I wondered if they chose 8 as the speed limit so that it could be read from both directions—but if that was the case, then why wasn’t the ‘8’ symmetrical?

(6.19.19) Kyle wanted to hang out, but also said that he was on a killer budget because he spent all his money on PC parts and headphones. I suggested that we should just go to Newport to get some donuts and walk around the pier and the area.

When we pulled up to the parking lot, there was a huge line outside of the bakery so we went for a walk first. After we got donuts, we wanted to check out the “Cantina” store nearby, which was actually Taco Bell with a fancier name. It was already closed so we ordered fries, corndogs, and lemonade from a different shop.

It’s so cool to see how lively the pier was; people were fishing, walking along the sand and hanging out in general. On a Wednesday at midnight, no less!

(6.19.19) We saw a really big and fluffy doggo along the path.

A bright sign illuminated from the corner of Anthony’s eye. He yelled out “Nuts!” and pointed at a store with a sign that illuminated “NUTS”. I had to break the news to him that if he were paying attention earlier while arriving to the area, it was actually “CITY DONUTS” with the rest of the sign covered by a house.

Then we talked about the separation between man and animal for those who spell the word as ‘doughnuts’ or ‘donuts’. We couldn’t conclude which spelling is superior.

(6.16.19) The Hilltop Park was very crowded because of Father’s Day. I’ve been sort of rotating around multiple spots to read my book and I haven’t quite settled on a location yet. I don’t like the idea of walking to the exact same spot every time because that would be boring.

So I spent a few minutes driving around the area hoping to find a spot where nobody was hanging out. Lo and behold, literally a block away from my normal parking spot, I found this area with a few benches and beautiful view of the city.

I don’t go on walks that often so I find it really fun to explore on foot. I hope to find other gems around this area in the future. For now, I’m going to probably start reading around here more often.

(6.7.19) In freshman year, I took a class called Comparative World Literature: Literature and Play where I discovered Haruki Murakami, a famous Japanese author whose writing is very dreamy. I enjoyed reading Wind/Pinball, which is one of his earliest works. It follows the trilogy of a character named The Rat.

I decided to read A Wild Sheep Chase because I wanted to find out what happened to The Rat. I was telling Olivia about how disappointed I was with the book; toward the end, its realism faded away and so did my interest in it.

This photo is related to a blog post on my website, so you can finish the rest of this story on my blog.

(6.4.19) I needed to buy new coffee beans because I was running out. When I arrived to Steelhead I noticed that they had new bags from a brand I hadn’t heard of. I was intrigued because they use waxed seals—an indicator that they care about the smallest of details.

I was really stoked about the waxed seal so I busted out the macro lens for my film camera and took a shot. As of today (6.25.19) I got the roll of film developed and am extremely happy with the result.

(5.28.19) Since we were going to be in LA, I wanted to do something after we had Howlin’. Before we headed out, I looked on Google Maps to see what was in the area and I found the Velveteria Museum, which was an obscure museum that was dedicated to velvet, the fuzzy fabric.

But after we had Howlin’, we were stuffed. It’s been a while since I’d been diagnosed with food coma, but we all felt really unmotivated to do anything. We sat down at the second floor of the plaza, bathing in the sunlight and sitting on a bench until we felt a bit better.

I came up with the idea to head back to Long Beach and watch Detective Pikachu at the Pike because of Ticket Tuesdays. I had my friend Kyle try my Vietnamese coffee while listening to Billie Eilish through my Sennheiser headphones while we waited for the airing time that we selected. He said that I enlightened his taste buds and his ears.

(5.28.19) Ever since Gus’s Fried Chicken opened near my house, we started talking about trying out other top fried chicken places in the LA area. Howlin’ Rays stands firmly above the rest but it was always a mission to drive up to LA, so we put it off until now.

I’ve only vaguely heard things about Howlin’ and didn’t even know that they were located in Chinatown. The GPS throws you in the center of Chinatown with no signs of fried chicken. When you enter the unsuspecting plaza that they’re located in, you see a line that extends across the entire building. The wait times rival with Disneyland’s famed Hyperspace Mountain—we waited 90 minutes, but others can wait twice as long.

We decided to order chicken sandwiches—”sandos”, they called it. We also ordered fries and wings as our stomachs were inundated hunger pangs in anticipation from the line. When it was time to pick up our order, they actually gave me a free order of fries and my friend received free tenders.

We had way too much food.

(5.20.19) There was a stray cat that was meowing all night at my house. I woke up to a constant drone of meowing and saw that my mother was trying to get rid of the cat. I laid out some milk because I felt like the cat was just hungry.

Then I called up my cat rescue expert Stella to help me out—she’s nursed many other kittens before and volunteers at a shelter when she can.

She arrived to my house in what seemed like less than 15 minutes and picked up Margiela (that’s what I named the cat).

She later sent me a photo of Margiela napping on her lap and another photo of Margiela eating cat food, with some crumbs on her face. A happy cat.

Thanks, Stella!

(4.21.19) For Easter this year, I was invited to brunch at a park in LA. I met my friend’s friends and we all got along quite well. We started an iMessage group chat titled, “Drinks?”

I loved the dark blue paint on the walls of this apartment complex, making the entire scene feel so much older than it should be. Plus, the luscious greenery hanging around in the back!

I bought a Haw Flakes pin at a local Japanese shop close by and we had tofu soup for dinner.

(4.18.19) My friend Alex plays the saxophone with a ska band called The Meddlers and we were invited to see them play in LA. It turns out that my ears are really sensitive, and it took an entire week for my ears to recover...I bought ear plugs right after I got home because I do not want to suffer like that again.

I was standing right in the middle of the venue when I took these burst photos, and shortly after a lot of people started bumping into me. I thought they were just drunk, but a mosh pit formed with myself in the center. I quickly made my escape.

I’ve gotta say, they were moshing pretty hard.

(4.16.19) I have a good friend that I met in a PR class last year and we are always searching for places to eat. He invited me to check out a “cowboy museum” and how can I say no that? I fucking love cowboys!

The Gene Autry museum is right across the LA Zoo, and it is such a gem. I spent so much time inside looking and reading everything on the walls.

For dinner, we had plans to get Peruvian food but then we ran into a random restaurant with a really cool dumpling design, and almost abandoned our plans. We played rock, paper and scissors to decide which place to eat at.

(4.4.19) I am still learning how to take film shots, and I completely forgot that blurry shots are TOTALLY a thing with cameras like these.

From my 16 yr-old film, at the Ugo Rondinone exhibit at Marciano Art Foundation.

(4.4.19) A shot of my friend Khedrin during spring break. We were supposed to go to ROW DTLA but my GPS sent us to “The Row” on Melrose instead.

This entire district was very fashion-forward, which worked out in the end for us because we wanted to see the cool shops around, like APC or The Real Real. Speaking of TRR, I got to see a cool Kapital denim jacket and vintage Chanel.

(4.4.19) I was taking photos of Khedrin and Anthony at the Beverly Hills sign, and while I was doing that, at least 5 separate groups of people kept asking me to take their photo for them! I suppose the film camera validated my skills, but we had to leave right after I took their photos so that no one would bother us again.

(4.4.19) We wanted to check out the Murakami exhibit, which is somewhere in Beverly Hills. We made it to the area about an hour before the exhibit closed, but we were starving. We had these amazing chicken kabobs but by the time we finished eating, the exhibit had just closed, so we decided to hang out around Beverly instead while we waited for traffic to subside.

This is also the last shot of film on the roll, which turned out pretty well.

(4.3.19) A friend of mine showed me a local film lab that would develop, scan and print film for me at a reasonable price. The owner is a very nice woman that is usually wearing a Gudetama t-shirt. I showed up to the lab about 15 minutes before she opened so I went to the Korean grocery store next door and purchased a Korean latte. I was intrigued because the label said it used Ethiopian beans.

I took this test shot when I loaded the roll the day before our museum trip. This is my 4-star Dragon Ball shift knob!

(4.2.19) I stole a film camera from my high school journalism classroom, and my teacher found out. He let me keep it, but I forgot about it.

3 years later, I remembered that I had the camera and vowed to learn how to shoot film during spring break. I invited Stella to go to the poppy fields with me because of the #superbloom. We couldn’t find the spots where there were TONS of poppies, but instead we found this abandoned car on the side of the hill, which I think is way cooler.

This was my first-ever shot on film!

(4.1.19) Stephanie and I hung out in Little Tokyo for an event that Intertrend hosted, and she also wanted to do some casual photoshoots with me because I was making my ‘debut’ on her Instagram for the first time.

I joked about going to Skid Row because it was nearby and I remembered that she wrote a blog post about Skid Row. We had a half-serious discussion about homelessness and how we try to help them when we can but there are just times where we cannot do much.

Then, we met a homeless man named David, and I offered to give him an inflatable chair that I received from the event we just came from. His eyes lit up, and he came in for a hug. Stephanie gave up her chair as well after hearing about his wife’s back problems. Before we left, he said “I’ll remember you forever.”

I’ll never forget you either, David. I just wished I was able to take a photo with you.

Oh, I also forgot to write that we were trying to record ourselves pressing down on the marble of the Ramune drink she’s holding in the photo, but her phone slid off the table. I knew I had to get her entire outfit for the shot because she’s wearing Continentals!

(3.26.19) This is the tree that I park in front of everyday on campus.

I park incredibly far from the Liberal Arts campus and I’m late to almost every single class, regardless of the time. I originally started parking here because it was the closest structure to the gym, and I figured that passing by really fit people would motivate me to work out more often. It kind of worked, but hey, things happen. I still thoroughly enjoy the long walk it takes to get to my classes. At this point, I don’t even know how or where to park in other parts of campus.

When I arrive to this parking structure, there’s usually no other cars at the top besides the parking enforcement’s. I like to reverse into my parking spot because it looks cooler. As part of my daily Snapchat streaks, I send out a photo of myself at the top and called it the “roof-top gang”.

(3.22.19) Admittedly, a friend (Don) had the idea of shooting this frame with the reflection of the storefront. My shot came out better, but anyways, this is at ROW DTLA just after we toured GUESS.

We went to this deli (?) located at their food court, where we tried some really molded cheese. It had a powerful spice kind of taste mixed with a bitterness that trailed off the tongue and an aftertaste of nuttiness.

(3.19.19) I met Josh through a mutual friend and we ended up hanging out together more often than we do with that same mutual friend. He’s a nursing major and as of writing (5.24.19) got accepted into CSULB’s nursing program!

He tried to train me at the gym, and I wouldn’t say he failed but I did stop going to the gym. I am going to focus on my health much more this summer!

(3.16.19) The pipes, the pipes are calling. Daniel Caesar performed a small show for CSULB students this year, and it only cost us $10-20 a ticket. I woke up early in the morning and had to buy a ticket not only for myself, but also for Stella because she was in a class at the time. I managed to snag floor tickets for the both of us.

When we were lining up for the concert, we accidentally got into the line for the bleacher seating and thought that we had to wait a while until we got inside, but we made it to the correct line after someone yelled at us.

When we got in, we met up with some AMA board members and we jammed out together. ASI gave everyone these foam glow sticks, and it made the room really colorful. During one moment, I believe Daniel told us to turn the sticks off while he sang one of his songs.

We were standing right next to the speakers, which were poorly mixed. It took my ears about 3 days to recover. Also, I’m sad that he only sang a part of Japanese Denim, which is my favorite song from him. But still a great show!

(3.14.19) This is my teammate’s phone case from when we were working on the Truth campaign. I just thought it was so vivid that I needed to take a photo of it. Plus, that pop socket is fucking awesome.

Everyone from our team was sitting in a row on these orange wooden chairs and we were laughing and sharing stories with each other; it was our lunch break and we needed to de-stress from this hectic 4-day creative bootcamp.

Someone from a ‘rival’ group walked by and approached us. She said, “Aww, that’s cute that you guys are getting along! I, on the other hand, am going for a walk because I need to blow off some steam.” She and everyone else at the bootcamp looked really stressed, to be honest.

I don’t want to call it luck, because that would devalue my team’s credibility and skill. But I’m thankful to have been paired with a team where our synergy was unrivaled. Not too shabby for a group of strangers!

(2.21.19) One of my favorite phrases, popularized by Eric Andre. This was somewhere in DTLB, at some random time. The gang was hanging out for Live After 5, which is a monthly event where you go on a musical scavenger hunt with free rides on the trollies.

It’s fun when you get some tequila running through your blood to keep you warm on this cold night. Our group actually got split up on accident and we spent most of the night trying to regroup, but we were on separate trollies going different routes. At the end of it, we decided to leave them be and do our own thang.

(2.11.19) My mom wanted me to take some photos of her with these yellow flowers, which I believe she received for the Lunar New Year.

There is not much other story to tell about this photo in particular, so I’ll write a bit about my mom—she cares so much for me and I know that my parents are very enduring. I understand that it’s tough for my parents to have crossed the ocean to give my siblings a better life than in Vietnam and all I really want to do is take this opportunity that I have and show her and my father that their ‘investment’ will pay off immeasurably in the future. She’s always called me her little bird and she said she refuses to let me fly away.

I’m the most unorthodox child that she ever bore, but I’m going to make it.

My way.

(2.9.19) I haven’t been to a Lunar New Year’s festival in so long. I used to go almost every year with my family but we stopped going because the tickets got more expensive over the years.

This was my first time going to a Tet festival without my family. Stella is an adrenaline junkie and she dragged me to a few rides. We rode on the swinging Viking ship, and it was cool because nobody else got on the ship. We decided to sit on opposite ends and I kept laughing the whole time because we tried to have a conversation, but we were so far apart that we kept having to raise our voices.

On a different ride, there was this cute little girl with her dad sitting in front of us and she kept turning back to us, smiling, because she was enjoying the ride.

(2.9.19) A small bridge at the Tet Festival. Google just added Night Mode to Pixel phones, and I am impressed at the quality that it outputs. Stella’s iPhone shot paled in comparison.

Disappointingly, the lotus flowers on the water are made of paper. It sure does make me want to travel overseas, though.

(2.9.19) It’s the year of the pig!! I’ve gotta consume more pork belly to celebrate. Is that how you do it?

When we were walking around the festival, we found an entire area that was scattered with photo-ops. One of my favorites, which is not posted here, is of a pull-cart noodle shop.

(2.2.19) After a long day of museum hopping, we went to the Grand Central Market to get some ramen.

(2.2.19) I really love the colors that he brings to the glass frames. He’s the guy that is known for the Seven Magic Mountains.

This is probably my favorite shot from the entire day because of how much of the glass color was preserved! If you look closer, you will see dozens of newspapers plastered on the wall. I tried to read a few of the pages, but the paint covered up so much.

I wonder how many other people noticed the newspaper.

(2.2.19) You’ll never know what is right above your head. In this case…this was above our heads, outside the entrance to the Science Discovery.

We saw so many different exhibits here, but one of my favorites was of this dark room that we accidentally walked into. It was something to do with the human body and there was a terrifyingly large body with some of its organs visible. When I say large, I mean, like a giant. probably 40 feet tall? It was sort of sitting down with its back propped up against the wall.

Creepy stuff!

(2.2.19) “Oh baby, don't feel so down,”

(I just happen to be listening to this exact song from The Strokes as I’m writing this caption).

(1.31.19) One of the best trumpet players in the world right now, playing right in front of me, for free, at UCLA, with the Peace Corps. As I was walking down the aisle of seats, I saw a high school friend who I hadn’t seen since we graduated. He’s a talented musician and his father teaches jazz at the high school.

As I got closer I said, “Will Fucking Stevens,” and shook his hand. He looked at me with a look of surprise and confusion.
“What are you doing here?”
”I’m here to see Sivory play the tuba, you know him?”
”Of course. Good to see you, again, Johnny.”

(1.26.19) I love looking at old audio equipment. This was at NAMM when I volunteered with AMA.

(1.26.19) I love knobs.

(1.26.19) I carefully stuck my phone into the inside of a very expensive grand piano, at NAMM, and I came out with this extraterrestrial shot.

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but for some reason whenever I look at this photo, I feel like I have taken an exact shot like this a few years back. But I have NEVER done it before this! I must be dreaming.

(1.20.19) The AMA board had a little retreat in Santa Barbara right before the semester started. They wanted to bond with me since I was the newest addition to the board and I was really reluctant to join them because I wasn’t close to any of them.

I had never been to SB before and I can’t believe we got an Airbnb so close to the beach! It was literally a 30 second walk away, although the beach itself was actually very dirty. The Airbnb was incredibly cold; it was a beach house with no heater built-in, and we were there during winter; I probably should have brought warmer clothes, but I survived.

Quite a few people were already at the Airbnb before we got there, and bottles were popping. I had never been “iced” before, so it was pretty funny—someone told me that there was a huge cockroach next to my foot, but I didn’t look because I felt like they were lying. They kept trying to get me to look down, but eventually someone just said “JUST LOOK DOWN, JOHNNY” and I was really confused.

They told me to drink the whole bottle, and I did, but I had no idea that was a thing.

I love them so much. Thanks, guys.
Shot by A.V.

(1.16.19) It was a rainy day when Fabian was getting his Subaru’s fenders rolled. He got a new set of tires, but they were slightly too big in the rear and would make loud scraping noises whenever he drove—and all hell broke loose when he drove over a bump. After you got out of the car, you could see all of melted rubber shavings along the side of his car.

We had Porto’s right after and it was great. Having warm potato balls and all that other good stuff from them on a rainy day really hit the spot. We parked across the street at a grocery store because it was extremely busy that day (when are they never?).

BUT…I ordered a coffee from them, and it was comically bad. When I got to the bottom of the drink, there were chunks of coffee grounds that I accidentally drank. How did the grounds slip through the filter?

(1.11.19) I was trying to write some sort of joke about how the door is orange and something something, orange you glad I didn’t say banana?

(1.11.19) is the word. I’ll write a story here about Olivia because we actually hung out at this very pier in Newport about 2 weeks prior to this photo, and forgot to take any photo together for memories.

She is a friend from middle school and her dream was to study in Japan, so she did it! She’s a student in Tokyo studying art and her Japanese is incredibly fluent now. She came to California for the holidays and told me that she was getting me a small present. It was a key-chain with a miniature golden dollar attached to it, with a short letter that wrote:
” ’Suffer now, cry in your money later.’ -you. Well here’s your money.” which is a reference to a Tweet that I wrote a while back.

In return, Olivia said that she “just wanted a donut,” so I took her to Seaside Donuts in Newport, where we caught up and talked about cartels (don’t ask).

I had the pleasure of hanging out with Olivia a second time where we got gelato for about an hour and we talked about coffee. She later bought a WONDERFUL bag of Ethiopian beans from a shop in Ventura, which she shipped to my house.

They tasted fucking amazing. Thank you, Olivia.

(1.11.19) My friend’s brother in law was getting surgery in Newport, and he was driving. He needed to pass the time for a few hours, so I tagged along.

We got some breakfast at a random spot in the area and they had these sugar cubes ready at the table (for your coffee). Of course I ate some because I can’t resist sugar when it’s in cube form like that.

Just don’t put sugar in my coffee!

(1.4.19) I met Kenny at the language offices when I needed to take a placement test for Japanese. He was with a transfer student girl and after she took the test, she changed her mind about Japanese.

Kenny looked really depressed but I told him that he’ll just have to deal with me instead. I met Sascha in the class and he told me he really shouldn’t be in the 102 course because it seemed too hard. I told him the three of us would study together in the library, which we did for the first few weeks. After that, a bunch of other classmates joined our crew and thus I formed the weeb brigade (several others not pictured).

I find it refreshing to be surrounded by people from different backgrounds and yet collectively share an obsessive passion for anime. There were times where I was aware of the eyes that stuck to us. I was afraid of what others would think by being associated with a bunch of people who ousted themselves as nerds. But when I noticed they didn’t care, that’s when I stopped caring, too.

Sascha received no credit for Japanese because he did not pass, so when he goes back to Germany, it’s like he never took the class. And yet, the memories will precede the grades.

(12.1.18) Shokou and I were showing our Japanese exchange friend Soichiro around Hollywood. We happened upon a pop-up by Japan House, and we almost spent our entire 2 hours of free parking here.

This pop-up was about architecture, which showed some inspiration and concepts that would lead to a design. I couldn’t take it seriously after I saw a folded dryer sheet with a sign that explained its texture, or a crumbled piece of biology homework.

Soichiro went to a Hollywood souvenir shop and bought an Oscar trophy with “Best Mom” inscribed on the plaque.

You can read more on my blog.

(12.1.18) Whenever I see this, I picture this guy waiting for a ride from the bus, to get to where he needs to go. Where even is he going?

(11.11.18) I had the pleasure of working at the Artist Compounds at Camp Flog Gnaw. This was the first time that we were working the event with Staff Pro to raise money for AMA. A few people dropped out of volunteering, so it was a tight-knit crew that got the job done.

There were so many celebrities casually walking by me, especially because I was in the front checking for VIP wristbands. I met Kanye, Billie Eilish and Jayden Smith. Tyler was in the area, and my friend was working at the catering section. He told me that Tyler and his crew broke a water pipe somewhere, and skedaddled.

I saw this person walking around with a really cool Total Luxury Spa sweatshirt with Sun Ra on it. I really want that sweatshirt.

(11.4.18) My friend Carlos bought a crazy Levi’s outfit to resell, and I modeled for him.

Fortunately he was able to sell his set and make some good money. Conversely, I had Carlos model for a N(N) Rolling Stones sweater I had which has still not sold to this day (5.26.19).

Shot by C.O.

(10.7.18) For my birthday weekend, my friend Fabian wanted to scale the mountains…but with his Subaru.

When we were driving down the road, we ran into a few other people that were just cruising down the windy roads. Often times on these roads it’s only one single lane, so if you are stuck behind a slow driver, you’re pretty much screwed if you want to enjoy your drive. But luckily we took a turn and found a girl driving a Celica. Somewhere along the path the road widened and Fabian raced down the straightaway.

I had a crazy idea to go back to these mountains to film an internship video, but I never went through with it.

(8.28.18) Taken at The Pike, where Alex, Esther and I spent our last few hours together before they had to head back to LAX. A few days before this, Esther was at the Santa Monica Pier hanging out with her other friends, but she was also drunk and couldn’t remember much from that night.

Alex and I tried to convince her that The Pike was actually the same pier that she was at, but she caught on a few hours later. We still joke about that to this day.

Love you guys!

Shot by Y.C.

(8.22.18) I was taking a typical sneaker photo with my feet dangling from a high elevation. Esther ended up taking a photo of me doing it.

Also, Alex refused to get anywhere near this rock.

(8.22.18) Esther was a trooper because she got her Undercover Reacts and the rest of her outfit soiled from climbing dangerous rocks and getting all sandy from the beach.

It’s cool that she has similar interests in me such as anime, fashion and music!

(8.22.18) I can’t believe the moon was visible! Alex is afraid of heights and he was reluctant to pose for this picture. Taken at Sunken City, very cool shot :)

(8.18.18) A year prior to this photo, I bought some Asics on Grailed from Alex. He lives in Virginia, and we kept in touch. We had our fair share of “hearts” on Snapchat with tons of streaks, and then he told me that he was visiting California for the summer, with his best friend Esther, so we finally met.

Hilariously, Esther was hanging out with her other friends and Alex wanted to eat KBBQ. It turned out that Esther’s friends wanted KBBQ and we ran into each other here. The first thing she did when she met me was offer a shot of soju to me (she was already kind of lit) and then told me that she’d destroy me in Smash with Kirby.

Shot by Y.C.

(8.13.18) I found this incredibly rich neighborhood in Palos Verdes, and I pretty much memorized the route to get to this very set of flowers. Behind, you can see parts of San Pedro and Long Beach.

(7.19.18) I went to the Butterfly Exhibit at the Natural History Museum with Cooper and Alexis (the journalism trio), and we had a blast.

Now that I think about it, I find it odd that I have never been to the NHM before. I love the flower garden, as well. It’s free!

that this was a sunflower. It is not. (7.19.18)

searching for a relax
Pulling from the jazz stacks cause it's Sunday.” (7.19.18)

(7.19.18) I just can’t get over that color.

(1.16.18) This was a very normal shot until I edited it a bit.

(1.16.18) This was the first time that I went to the Korean Friendship Bell. I went with Fabian because he wanted to get (delicious) sandwiches from Busy Bee Market in San Pedro, and he likes to go to the Bell to munch on the sandwiches.

The reds really make this photo seem vintage somehow. Also, bird.

(12.31.17) MY FAVORITE SHOT OF ALL TIME. BEHOLD, MY ONI DENIM JACKET. THIS IS MY ALL-TIME GRAIL JACKET, AND I SPENT MANY DOLLARS FOR IT. JUST LOOK AT THIS MAGNIFICENT PINK THREADING WITH THAT INSANE, HEAVY SLUB. SO NEPPY. SO BEAUTIFUL.

(11.9.17) I took Marine Biology as a class to fulfill my Life Science requirement. Did you know that CSULB has a boat? We went on field trips every week, which was relaxing as hell.

The funny thing is that I actually hate the ocean, or water, because I can’t swim and I despise sand. But this was a random encounter I had with a cool looking bird, and the shot turned out okay.

(11.4.17) I believe I named this bonsai plant, “Hubert”.

I bought this as a housewarming gift for my manager at the time, Gio. I consider him a mentor and a friend.

I remember when I was at the party, I was talking to a few people. “So how do you know Gio?” is what I would ask. “Gio? You mean Ref?”

It turned out that his name has been shortened in so many different ways in his lifetime. His name is Refugio, otherwise known as Ref, Fugi or Gio.

Is Hubert still alive?

(10.31.18) This is Juong Yi. He was a customer of mine at T-Mobile; I remember when he first walked into the store with his detective uniform, and we stayed in touch. A few months later for one of my journalism classes, we had an assignment to write about someone, and I decided to interview him.

We met up at a coffee shop in San Pedro (that is now closed down) and I found out that he was born on the island of Borneo and joined the Marine Corps to learn nursing. I remember he said, “When we were learning how to use needles, we practiced on each other. If someone messed up on me, I would also ‘mess up’ on him as well. We had tons of holes in our arms.”

(10.26.17) Just a shot of a leafy seadragon at the Aquarium of the Pacific.

I was late to meeting up with my marine biology class, so I got a zero on the quiz that they were taking right before we entered the Aquarium.

I finished playing Octodad over the summer that year, and the Aquarium reminded me so much of that crazy game.

(10.26.17) It’s so cool watching these little guys floating around aimlessly.

(10.9.17) I was heading back to my car at the parking structure, and I noticed there was a lot of ash in the air. When I got to the top, the sky was on fire.

(7.30.17) I had just purchased my first pair of Common Projects, and I scraped them a week after I got ‘em. To this day I can’t fucking believe it. But hey, wabi-sabi, my friend.

(7.19.17) I had delicious ramen at Yamadaya, and I had extra toppings because why the hell not?

I believe I went with Andrew to get some of this ramen, where we drove to the Costa Mesa location, right before they opened. I don’t really remember what we were doing besides getting ramen up there, but I took him out a lot to get food back then.

(7.15.17) I miss Fabian’s 1991 Miata. This was the first and last manual car that I ever drove, and it was very fun to coast down the streets with it.

For his birthday, I bought him the Fujiwara Tofu Shop sticker, which I think looked great with that red paint. My mom wanted a photo inside the car.

(4.1.17) This was my first day working at T-Mobile with the pristine store that had just opened. It was under construction when I was interviewing, and they told me that I’d be the first employee here.

Dozens of memories here. I really wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for my district manager at the time believing in me and hiring me for the job. I had no retail or sales experience, but I had tons of passion with smartphones.

(1.21.17) I just got the OG Pixel XL two days before this, and I already took one of my best shots with it here. I can’t believe how much detail was preserved. We went to the Anaheim Packing House, where we had some of those Cheetos chilled with dry ice and some fries from the Kroft.

(12.19.16) My friends and I had a thing where we’d look at Xmas lights and rate them. This was the only "10” that we saw.

I love going here during the December season because of all the creative ways that people like to decorate their house.

(11.18.16) At the top of the Sunnyside Cemetery in Signal Hill, there is this small little park that a bunch of people used to go to at night to drink, socialize or do drugs. There was this tall palm tree there, so I nicknamed the place "Exeggcutor Park.” I went here a few times with my friends to just look at the skyline at night and talk.

As far as I know, this place is now closed, unfortunately.

(10.21.16) I think I’d rather have a rock garden than a floral garden, but opinions change.

(7.30.16) My friends and I were planning to go to the Vans U.S. Open, but we instead decided to keep driving and hung out at Laguna.

(7.1.16) It was senior year of high school when Fabian and I were cruising around the CSULB campus on our bikes. I had no idea at the time whether or not I was going to this school or another school, but I did end up at CSULB.

(3.30.16) We were at the Grand Park in Los Angeles around midnight. Our group was hanging out in Little Tokyo, but some people had to go home early. My group decided to stay, and I had this dumb idea to pull the chairs scattered across the park together to get this shot.

(12.31.15) I was biking around The Pike on New Year’s Eve, and I just kind of stopped taking photos after this shot for a while.

(12.22.15) We were at the Cerritos Sculpture Garden for a photoshoot, and I looked down and saw this leaf full of tons of water beads on it. So cool!

(5.15.15) Carlos and I were ditching classes during AP test season. This was one of the rare shots I’ve taken on an iPhone because my Nexus 6 broke.

(4.4.15) Carlos and I used to hop onto the Metro so many times just to explore Los Angeles. We finally found one of Banksy’s older artwork, and I believe this is under construction to actually build a park. Not sure.

Carlos and I used to get ourselves into really suspicious situations; I remember one night, we were in DTLA and some dude walks up to us and says “Do you guys want to see a dead body?” and we said “we’re good bro,” and noped the fuck out of there.

P.S. you should watch Exit Through the Giftshop, a film by Banksy.

(3.1.15) Sam, Carlos and I were working on our legendary TradarT business project, and they wanted groups to submit photos for the highlight reel. We took this stupid shot, inspired by the NWA album cover.

(1.16.15) I only decided to keep this photo because the shadows are really well-preserved, and I thought that the natural light from the window made the shot look cooler.

(1.10.15) This is the ceiling at the Hollywood metro station!

(1.10.15) Chris, Carlos and I were exploring Hollywood for the first time at night. It ended up raining.

I brought my shitty digital camera that night and as we were walking down Sunset Blvd, a bunch of cops showed up to this tattoo parlor. Before the cops could exit their vehicles, we saw the owner holding a bat or metal stick and beat the shit out of a customer (?).

(12.22.14) Damn, we really went to a lot of random museums during high school.

(12.24.14) Carlos and I were trying to look for Banksy art around Fairfax on a random night in LA. First, we had no idea how their bus system worked, because we kept going around in circles. Then, tons of police swarmed the area because the Trayvon Martin hearing had just finished at this time, and the streets were filled with protesters.

(10.19.14) I grew up going to the Fry’s Electronics store in Fountain Valley, but we went to the Manhattan Beach Fry’s because it was equidistant from where we were. Fabian got a gaming laptop, which he still uses today.

(10.12.14) My middle school teacher called me, asking if I needed any volunteer hours for high school. He wanted me to recruit Fabian, Chris and Carlos to help put Long Beach Marathon flyers on the windshields of cars. Turns out it was illegal to do so in the specific parking lot that we were in.

(10.9.14) This was a popular photosphere that I shot at Poly. I easily could have submitted this to be in the yearbook, but I didn’t feel like it was a good enough shot. Turns out everyone wanted it to be in the book!

(8.29.14) This is my most viewed photo on Google Maps. It’s taken right outside of the Japanese museum at Little Tokyo, and I find it hilarious that Chris and Fabian are essentially immortalized on Google.

(8.29.14) These are much older photos I’ve taken back in high school, when I was really messing around with the editing tools. Here, I learned to color splash.

(8.29.14) At Little Tokyo, on the way to the Buddhist temple, you used to see ‘Hope’ engraved into one of the bricks. I shot this in…2014?

Well, I went here VERY recently (2019) and it’s gone!!

(8.29.14) So, we found this art gallery somewhere in LA, and it was really cool! But it turned out that the entire building had no reception, so I have no location data on the photos I took. I have no idea where this art gallery is, or if it’s even there anymore.

(8.22.14) The OG gang got stuck in an elevator right before I took this photo. Good times!

(8.20.14) Carlos and I were at The Hive Gallery, and this tentacle just spoke to us.

(8.20.14) We were so edgy that we thought it was cool if Carlos pretended to be an angel that felt anguish.

(7.28.14) I remember that LG had a photography contest on Twitter, where you’d hashtag an image for a chance to win their free phone. Well, I didn’t win.

(7.28.14) To be quite honest, it wasn’t until my high school years that I went to downtown Long Beach. Before then, my parents never took me, and my friends never invited me. I was so surprised to see all these crazy things downtown!

(7.28.14) It’s crazy to see the evolution of my photography, but I just wanted to say that I wouldn’t really have gotten into photography if it wasn’t for this panoramic shot I took outside of Proper.

As of now, this mural is gone and has been replaced by a new sneaker mural (which looks much better).

(7.28.14) This shot kind of started it all. Carlos and I joked that this photo is something that would be reblogged on Tumblr, but it got me into the whole photography thing. I had times where I just wasn’t taking photos anymore, and I honestly am not in that many photos either.

But right now, I want that to change. I want to take more photos and write more stories from them.

(2019)