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| [friendship park] in junior high, i came here once on a saturday to practice freethrows. several years later, at a basketball camp, i ended up winning a free throw contest (ten of ten) and was given a james worthy poster. it was one of the highlights of my laughable basketball career. |
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| a place where a runaway kid could sleep, according to eddie lee's brother. (a cerritos elementary classmate, eddie lee moved to diamond bar after fourth grade.)
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| a quiet day. |
 former site of video world (i guess they went out of business). i remember we rented a few super nintendo games and didn't bother returning them when we moved out of town. unknowingly, we damaged my father's credit. to this day, without a direct way to make amends, i still regret my actions. |
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except for a taco bell (not pictured), this strip mall (off of artesia and carmenita) has become mostly koreanized. |
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| cerritos park east: greenery. |
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| carnaby street. |
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| onion rings and fried zucchini. |
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| on this court, david lin beat me one-on-one (high school). with all due respect, it was one of the most humiliating events of my life. |
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| korean fobs playing around. |
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| kids shoot. after asking permission, tank-top man said he didn't mind being in the photos. didn't bother getting any of the others' permission, though. |
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2004 library of the year (reader's digest).
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| cerritos high school: my freshman year, i remember going to a rally once and chanting '96, '96. when i looked at the people around me and noticed nobody else was saying anything, i felt foolish and sat down. it was the only rally i went to. john park was sitting next to me and he didn't seem very enthusiastic about the whole affair. i wondered what was the point of being there if we weren't going to cheer. |
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| more remodeling. |
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| 1980 to 1993. |
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| the jagged concrete on the left, i scrapped knee on it. still have the scar. |
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| fifth grade vs. sixth grade('89) i remember fifth putting up a hell of a fight, playing with a rubber dodge ball. |
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| 183rd street: the walk home from cerritos elementary. launched a model rocket a few times in the grass field to right. |
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| 7-eleven: another site of numerous, probably-could've-done-something-more-productive ken vs. blanka matches. |
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| in junior high ('91) along with my brother, stole a few hot dogs here. repaid the owner in '08. (it was still the same owner after all those years.) |
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| a criminal's viewpoint: after stealing the dogs, we ran across the street and ate them. we bought slurpees but left them in the store. we told ourselves it was a fair trade off. |
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| the serious hoopers come out at night. |
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| all the trees sucking up carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen must make the city's air relatively clean. |
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| in high school, one time, i remember a crew of black players came out, dunking and playing real well. i was in awe of them. |
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| in the early '90s, on july 4, there was a slam dunk contest. i remember a guy did a 360. later on, i saw him at video world, playing that e. honda vs. chun li game. |
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| c.p.e. |
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| baseball field. |
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| we played two-hand touch football on this field. i remember one time i was determined to catch the ball, so i ran hard, cut across the middle and caught a pass (from albert im: all-time quarterback) in mid-air. mike bell: defender. other players: neal ghandi; david lin; scott kawamoto. |
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| the memorial. mario caruzo, marine helicopter pilot, lost his life in afghanistan in 2010. his name is etched on the marine corps block. there was a ceremony for him on memorial day in may '11. a few of his childhood friends spoke. it was an emotional time. |
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| this kid tried to duck as i took this photo. he had good manners. |
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| i wonder if [a power greater than ourselves] would bless america when, by mistake (but without much regard), we've dropped bombs on iraqi civilians. |
