My Lego Universe

The first toy I ever owned as far back as I can remember were Legos. All the pieces then were mainly square or rectangle blocks in red, blue, yellow and white. I grew up playing Legos with my childhood friend Goff. I recall recreating aircraft carriers and battle scenes from our favorite movie, Midway. Then after 1977, we really had to use our imagination to make X-Wings and Tie Fighters as Star Wars hit the screen. Man, how I loved Star Wars and Legos!

Fast forward 35 years and I still love Star Wars and I still love my Legos. Maybe even more so because now I have the ability to buy any set I want, plus I share that love with my children. With so many to choose from every year, I really have to practice restraint whenever I'm shopping at Amazon. A typical Amazon shopping trip will go like this: First I'll place a $15-20 item in the cart, then I'll add a $40 Lego set to qualify for free shipping. Totally justifiable right?

I did not start collecting Legos until about six years ago when my boys started developing a deep interest in them. Since then, I've spent several hundred dollars every year buying Legos. Some we give away for gifts, some we buy used, and some are hidden away that no one will uncover until I'm dead. Make no mistake, these are my Legos. But don't feel sorry for my kids, they still get plenty with their birthdays and Christmas gifts, and certain sets I open just to get the minifigures. Together, it adds up to quite a bit. We have more Legos than anyone I know. The only problem that keeps coming up is where to display them.

After researching some ideas online, I purchased a 16x20 shadow box from Michael's on sale for $15. Using black foam core, I assembled a shelf for my minifigures. I glued in some 2x12 baseplates and voilà—instant storage display for my most prized characters. Inside the case they'll never get dusty, never taken apart, and never molested by curious, filthy fingers. I value my Legos.

Believe me, I could easily fill the entire case with minifigures, but my boys were already complaining that I confiscated way too many characters. Oh boohoo, Qui-gon Jinn me a river! So being the gracious and merciful father that I am, I limited myself to just 60 minifigures. To fill the extra space on top, I created a grid for the mini-ships from the Advent Calendars. And below I created a snow scene to display the holiday and Hoth characters. All in all, only 95 elements are represented.

You may question how I can spend so much on Legos. It's just a toy! Well, all normal guys have some sort of hobby, some sort of collection. Just like women, guys spend money on things they personally value, regardless of what others think. I see it this way: I don't buy new cars, I don't go to games or concerts, I don't ski, I don't do Starbucks or Quickly, I don't buy fashion sunglasses or shoes, I don't buy video games or Blurays, and I don't have monthly cable or cell phone bills. If you think about your monthly budget for those items, it comes out to a lot of money, and a lot of Legos! Plus, you know I'll never pay full prices.

In this noisy day and age of video games, social media and ADHD, Lego is a quiet welcome alternative that not only spurs creativity, but also encourages problem-solving skills. You can play both on your own and with a friend. But to me, the absolute number one best thing about playing with Legos: Lego-time is time with my kids.

Time flies, and I'm already dreading that day when I'll have to pack all the Legos away. It will be a sad moment for me. Hopefully when they have kids of their own, they'll look back at this time and cherish the things we built together. I hope they'll realize how lucky they were having an awesome, nutty Lego-fanatic dad such as me. And if I'm still alive to play with my grandchildren, maybe, just maybe, I'll unearth those extra-special sets I've been saving...

We'll see.

Betty & Patrick

Last Saturday I was among the privileged to witness the marriage of Betty and Patrick. They were married at the same church we married at 14 years ago. It brought back many memories, including the fact that I met my wife at that very same church playing volleyball. If I just look among my circle of friends, I can easily identify seven other couples that either met or started dating during their volleyball days. Yep, volleyball is like a bar hangout for single Christians. My favorite pick up line was, "Would you like to bump with me?"

Anyway, back to Betty.

I've known Betty since high school. In 1986 I helped her negotiate a great deal on her first new car at the SF Autocenter – a Mazda 323 just like the one I had myself. Ever since then, I've NEVER stepped foot inside a car salesman's office again! (Thank you Craigslist!) And considering Betty's been a subscriber to my blog from the very start, I can honestly say that even after 24 years, I'm still helping her save money! Hey, what are friends for??

For those of you fortunate enough to know Betty as long as I have, you'll agree that this wedding was a bit sweeter and happier than your typical wedding. I for one, am overjoyed for her and I look forward to knowing Patrick better (I hear he's a Mac user so I already like him).

This is the first wedding I've attended since my Scott Robert training. As much as I wanted to go nuts with the D300s, I resisted. With all the other photographers firing away, I didn't want to add to the constant annoyance of rapid-fire shutter clicks everywhere during the ceremony. Plus, I think it's rude to get out of your seat to shoot if you weren't asked prior to do so. But let's say if my child was up there with the wedding party, well then I may not be able to control myself… (Mmmkay, C & B?)

So with Betty's permission, I would like to share these memories with you. Congratulations Betty and Patrick!

The pastor (and all the non-asian people) were from Ohio.

Does Hung seem a little TOO happy in this pic?

Steve asked me, "Where do you find all those great deals??"
The money I help them save will put their daughters through college.

I haven't seen Rita and Elaine in over 15 years. Both are married. They sorta still recognize me.

Well fed and rested.They brought their kids so they had plenty of leftover food on their table.

Kandace is happy because she drank four bowls of sharkfin soup.

Jerry tried to sneak off to the bathroom so he wouldn't have to speak.
Unfortunately he came back too soon and still got stuck with the microphone.

A little blurry – exactly how I remember Anna. It's been 30 years since I last teased, um saw her.
She refused to believe it's really me. I had to assure her I'm the real deal!

Mitch Mullany, RIP

Last week a high school friend alerted me that Mitch Mullany died on May 25. According to the papers, he died of a diabetic-related stroke. He was 39.

I grew up with Mitch starting from 1st grade. He lived across the street from Goff. I lived six houses up. There was also a 4th kid, Orlando that lived on the next street. The four of us were inseparable.

Back in those days, there was no such thing as play dates. You just play with your friends everyday after school and all weekend. As neighborhood kids, we biked, skateboarded, played baseball, football, whatever... all in the middle of the street. When it's dinner time, our parents would just scream from the porch.

Mitch lived in the biggest house on our street. They had a huge rumpus room with a pool table. It was so big and spacious, we skateboarded inside. Their garage was huge also, complete with an indoor basketball court. And his bedroom was the size of our family room. It was an awesome house and I still remember it as vividly as yesterday.

Hard to believe, that as 10 year-old boys we used to take bus to the Coliseum (Malibu Grand Prix), walk to Montclair, and sneak into Grand Lake Theater late at night where Mitch's brother used to work. Now imagine your kids doing this today in your town. We did this in Oakland! Not only did we deliver papers, but also went through the neighborhood offering to wash cars for $5. We definitely experienced a lot during our unsupervised childhood.

As you can see in this photo taken in 1980, Mitch even attended Crusaders and YTF for about three years (Hmm, where was I or Goff?). I'm sure many of the long-time CIBCers remember him because, well, he wasn't Chinese!

Mitch was one-of-a-kind. He was very funny at an early age. We would insult one another and I could never match up to his wits. Whatever I said about his mother, he would come back harder about my mom, my daddy and my greasy granny! I was humbled in more occasions than I would admit.

In junior high, we walked to school together every day until the 9th grade when he moved away. But even before that, our choices in friends were already pulling us apart, not to mention he is a year younger so we didn't share any classes. By the time we attended high school, we still greeted one another in passing, but we weren't really friends anymore.

A decade later, I heard Mitch was making the comedy circuit and was on Jay Leno. He was on the Wayan Brother's show and then he starred in his own sitcom, Nick Freno. Chrissy and I watched the first season and thought it was pretty good. I really had high hopes for Mitch. But the show got canceled after the second season.

Funny (or creepy) thing is, about maybe a week before he died, I tried to Google him just to see what he was up to. I found his website and viewed some of his photos. I was curious to see what he was doing now. I had not heard about him since All American Girl in 2003. And then the news came...

It's always shocking and sad when your friends past. It makes you realize that you're probably closer to your grave than you'd like to think. Even though we haven't spoken since 1985, I still felt connected to him in a remote way. I was his fan. And I wanted him to succeed where so many others have failed. Remember, I worked in Hollywood for 5 years and knew many "aspiring" actors that never got past commercials or music videos. So for him to get his own show, that's quite an achievement.

Even if he were still alive today, I doubt if we would reconnect. But it's still sad knowing he's really gone. Fortunately for me, my best memories of him were during our adolescence, when it was just our little group of four friends. Those were the best times. No video games, no internet, no worldly influences, just in-your-face, genuine rude and crude fun.

That was Mitch at his purest. And that's how I'll remember him. Hopefully we'll meet again in heaven.

Links:
Obituary
YouTube Videos

CIBC Mother's Day

Yeah I know, Mother's Day was almost two weeks ago, but with my time off with Lasik, I'm just behind on everything. I can't believe it's already been a year since last Mother's Day when the kids sang.



Thanks to Wayland (again) for the fine videography. Unfortunately from where we both sat, they plopped the huge microphone right in front of Cameron's face (although you do see him in the first four seconds). And what's up with Alec always looking down? You'd think since he's among the smartest kids up there, surely he should have the song memorized... Hmm, could it be that he was secretly playing his DS? :o


Flashback
Look what I dug up from the last time two Fong's were up on stage... The year was 1975. In this picture, Chris and I are both 8 years old, just like Vanessa and Dustin in the photo above. Scary huh?

Other kids in the photo: Goff, Greg Y., Greg M., Baldwin, Richard, Tina, and I forget the rest.

The price of gas

As you're all painfully aware, the price of gas has been going up every single day for the last 4 weeks. I know because every Thursday I buy gas at this obscure Sunol Super Gas Station off the Andrade exit at the foot of the Sunol grade on 680. It was $3.07, then $3.24, then $3.35 and yesterday $3.45 for regular unleaded.

I noticed that they also sell racing fuel. Funny, I've never seen any Ferrari's or "race" cars pumping there... Price is $5.84 for 100 octane and $5.91 for 110. What's seven more cents? Might as well go for the best. I wonder what kind of performance boost this would give my minivan or my lawnmower? Yeah, so sad. Those years of living dangerously are long gone. Like many of you guys out there, I would have loved to load my rice-rocket with this back in the 80's.


I still remember in 1986 when Goff, Will, Jim, Pat and I raced through Redwood Road from Oakland to Castro Valley in our shiny new cars late Friday night. Redwood Road is a 10-mile winding single lane mountain road with zero street lights. You would think they filmed Halloween or Friday the 13th on that road. It's that creepy! With lots of tree cover, most of it is pitch black.

Friday nights we had SFC. So after an evening of worshiping the Lord, we decided to see how close we can actually get to meet the Almighty! We loaded our cars with thrill-seeking groupies and off to the races we went. I had a future pastor's wife in my car. Goff had TWO girls (what a greedy guy!), and I forgot who was in the other cars. We flew through the single-lane road at double the speed limit. Crossing over the yellow line to pass each other around blind curves... I was really testing the traction of my 13" rims!

Woohoo, what a ride!! Way better than Malibu Grand Prix! That is, until we hit a mud slick runoff from the side of the mountain. Two of us lost control and spun a couple hundred feet, leading to one of us smashing into the side of the hill. (Karen told me recently that she witnessed my car being on only two wheels – Cool!) I can happily say that my passenger was able to fulfill her destiny and is living a fruitful life today. Thanks to this near-death incident, she is living each day with purpose!

In the other car though, one of the passengers sustained a concussion that I believe she has still kept from her family. In the days following the accident she was at home puking. Her parents probably thought she had the stomach flu or some eating disorder... If they only knew... Anyway, I saw her during the holidays and I can't tell if there were any lingering effects. Since then she stopped hanging out with risky people (the driver did eventually become a pastor himself). She played it safe and married a dentist instead.

Those were the days! Living on the edge with someone else's life in your hands. Oh the thrill... the recklessness... the testosterone... In hindsight, maybe NOT having 110 octane fuel available was a good thing. I think that night, we already got all the performance we could handle. Hmm, now after reliving that night, I probably won't let my boys drive until they're 21.

Everyone loves a joyride

There was a bit of excitement today at work. Can you believe some kids actually stole one of our 40-ft. buses for a joyride? No one has a clue as to how it happened. They're not even sure which bus yard it came from! But come tomorrow, they'll be looking for someone to blame. For sure the fecal matter will be hitting the spinning blades big time! Be sure to ask Sam about it when you see him this weekend. But don't mention my blog, he doesn't know about it. Shhh.
Click here for the full story in the Mercury News.

This incident brings back memories from 1973 when I, Jimmy and a few other family friends were playing on a tractor on Beaumont Ave. in Oakland. The road was being repaved and the tractor was left parked on top of the hill (on the corner of Park Blvd.). As curious boys, the five of us climbed aboard and started playing with the knobs and switches. Someone released the brakes (not me) and the next thing you know, the tractor started rolling down the hill. We all jumped off and I remember being afraid of not being able to clear the moving treads. So there we stood watching helplessly as the tractor headed for the parked cars below.

Crash! as it hits the first car, a Dodge Colt. Then crash again as it pushes the Dodge into a beige Mercedes. Then a third crash as it pushed the two cars into a Corona. And the final crash as all three cars smashed up against some big American sedan. By then the tractor was all the way down to E38th Street. All the neighbors came out and the police arrived. One by one, each of us had to submit to a police report. Man oh man, I was freaked out of my mind!

A couple weeks later we were getting sued by the car owners and I was interviewed by an attorney. In the end, the construction company accepted all blame and I was able to resume life as a 6 year-old. Somehow I can't imagine girls ever getting into this kind of trouble... To this day that experience is ingrained into my soul with images that are as clear as yesterday. It's true, some things you just never forget.

Now THAT's what you call a joyride!