Sunday, 15 November 2009

Tuesday, 03 November 2009

Thursday, 29 October 2009

  • The title is entry. Because it's hard to always think of witty titles.

    Yeah, so this whole TA shindig, it's hard. I think I may have thought of a decent lesson plan, but it may be a flop as well. My students don't know it, but they're unknowingly a batch of guinea pigs.

    Let's see how this goes on Friday.

    PS There's a lot of crap I want to blog about especially after reading other crap on the Internet...but will get to that later. I'll let it all simmer in my mind for a bit. Then I'll come up with a feminist-oriented, Fantasy Basketball-obsessive, globalization-theorizing entry. Throw in some rants about incorrect grammar/self-involved people/Halloween-as-a-holiday. Hm. It might have to be a few entries.

    Why are all the Xanga emoticons so cheesy? Come on, XANGA, it's not 1999 anymore. More no-no's like this and I really will move my blog elsewhere. I mean it. Even if I've only remotely thought about it.

Sunday, 25 October 2009

Thursday, 22 October 2009

  • John Lennon Entry

    So after all the estimates were made on my car and the other person's, it seems like I will have about a $3,700 bill to pay this month. Plus rent. So $4,000. Guess these are the moments when the shit hits the fan right?

    My problems seem trivial when compared to other people who have to battle bigger, scarier things in life. I came across this girl's website while wasting time on Facebook today. It's what I do best. Kill productivity, I mean. Anyway, she is a fellow Bruin like me. We're probably alike in many ways. Her story is heart wrenching. And I hope it isn't cut short.

    http://www.helpingjanet.com/

    So after I browsed the website, I signed up on the Bone Marrow registry. Maybe every day, people should ask themselves one consistent question: what good deed have you done today? I'm not trying to exude Mother Teresa, but I think society in developed countries have reached a point where FML status is like, I lost an earring. I ate too much. I hate boys. My football team lost.
    I'm guilty of this too. Then sometimes, I have moments where I step back and think, Really? Am I really complaining about this right now? It all seems so freaking idiotic, even hilarious, when we think about how other people live their lives in less fortunate places and circumstances.

    LA. It really is a microcosm of contradictions. We're so diverse, yet people living within ethnic enclaves can choose to conduct their entire lives without ever stepping foot outside their neighborhoods. In one mega-city, you can have people living off Food Stamps and dumpsters, and have a "neighbor", 15 minutes away, feasting on steak and lobster. Bus riders ride alongside owners of Range Rovers, Benz's, and BMW's. One of the things I enjoyed doing back then was watching the landscape on Sunset change as it went east. I would catch the bus at UCLA, pass the sprawling mansions of Beverly Hills, enter West Hollywood, capital of flamboyancy, hit Echo Park, continue into Chinatown, and then get off at Downtown LA. It was fun, but it was also a lesson for me, teaching me about this city I grew up in, but had no idea about what it truly was until I started college. Oh, LA. How I have a love-hate relationship with you.

    The bubble. I loooove to talk about the bubble. It's such an interesting concept, because it's not tangible, yet can be so powerful. How permeable is yours? For some, it's become completely impenetrable. When I used to volunteer at food service shelters in LA with APO, we would concentrate on handing out dinner rolls and slopping mashed potatoes on people's trays. After the work was over, we'd pull off our hairnets, roll off our gloves, drive home in our cars to UCLA, well-nested in the neighborhood known as Westwood and Brentwood, continue complaining about the various little things in our lives, and not give a second thought to the people we had just serviced. Meanwhile, many of them were probably setting up a place to sleep on Skid Row that night. Another example. Since my car is in the shop now, I, for the first time in a long while, took the bus home. I was dropped off at the intersection of Venice and Crenshaw. Do you know what that intersection looks like? Venice and Crenshaw, exactly like its surrounding neighborhood, is ghetto. It is a district in Los Angeles that is NOT Brentwood or Bel-Air. It has real people, many of them living in less than optimal conditions, who are probably not going to be able to overome these conditions and hence will include their children, the next generation and generations to come, in this perpetual cycle of living in the ghetto.

    I guess people would do well to be reflective, introspective, and widen the lens in which they view life. If your lens is narrow, you're missing a whole lot. And then there goes opportunities to make a difference not just in your own life because of enriching experiences you otherwise might have had, but also the opportunity to be charitable.

    I've been blogging a lot lately. A little bit too much. It's not like I have more time on my hands...


Tuesday, 20 October 2009

Monday, 19 October 2009

  • 2009 是我的剋星

    Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

    Why have I been screwed time and time again since I've gotten back from Taiwan!? HONESTLY, since September there has not been one peaceful, mediocre week. Not even boring. Can I have a boring week? I would like nothing more than a simple, uneventful, flat, BORING week.

    I changed lanes into someone today in Westwood. My poor car is fatally damaged on one side and I have to pay for the other guys' damages. kfdgjkfdhgjklsdfkdhg I knew reckless driving would get me into trouble sooner or later. Why...didn't...I...check...my...blind...spot? Why why why Now the door won't close properly and the wind comes in through the top because there's a gap due to the door being dented in at the bottom which sits like a scarlet letter on my car. A brand of an incompetent driver.

    Ok, I'm just going to try to look on the bright side of this nasty situation. At least me and my passenger are ok. At least the other guy was cool and calm about it. At least I didn't get into an accident with a BMW, or a Mercedes, or a Lexus, or an Audi. At least it wasn't the driver's side door. Things could have been way worse.

    Oh yeah, due to all this crap that's been happening I've lost my appetite many a number of times. Maybe I'll thank my lucky stars if the end of freaking 2009 has caused me to lose weight.

    jfdkghjkhskjdskhfdjghjehfkjdshfklsdkljjkdfhgjkfhgjkhjlkf;fghjk

Saturday, 17 October 2009

  • He's Just Not That Into You

    ***Spoiler alert for He's Just Not That Into You***

    Wow. I was supposed to sleep at 12 30 tonight. It is now...3 02. I actually stay up just as late staying in as I do going out. At least it was for a good reason. I just finished watching He's Just Not Into You (with a pretty awesome cast) and this movie, I must say, is great because it's not like a lot of other typical ooey-gooey romantic comedies out there. Granted, that's nice every once in a while, but this one actually has some lessons that are pretty darn near to reality. And that, I must say, is quite admirable for a romantic comedy.

    Gigi--She, like many other girls, obsess about waiting for a call from guys she's dated and are really into. Like reality, many guys never call back, because simply,
    They're
    just
    not
    interested.

    It's a harsh fact, but it's a fact of truth. We, as girls (I can't speak much for guys because I don't have a penis), pine and pine over guys that quite frankly, are probably never going to call us back/ask us out/talk to us again. Meanwhile, we and our girlfriends, continually comfort ourselves by making excuses like, he must be busy...or he's intimidated by you...or he probably lost your number. Oh, that one's a classic. This movie was a revelation. If a guy doesn't call you back, most likely he's just not that into you. Simple reason.

    We try to avoid this truth because it's hurtful. Who likes being rejected? It's such a blow to our self-esteem. We wonder where we went wrong, how we possibly weren't attractive/charming enough to keep people coming back for more? But, this also sheds light on another fact. Sometimes there's just no spark. There's various couples in the movie, but their stories all play out differently. Neil and Beth have been together for 7 (that's a long time!) years without being married, but they're truly in love and probably have a more committed and true relationship than a lot of married couples. I understand where Beth's insecurity coming from. I mean, women have a legitimate reason to worry about the fact that they're aging, yet haven't gotten married. A woman's worth devalues as she gets older. Men, in the meantime, acquire more material, financial, and personal assets that make them more valuable as they age. Men are wine, women are cheese. The older a wine gets, the more rich-bodied and priceless it becomes. You leave cheese out for a long enough time, and it just gets moldy.

    The movie also points out a very applicable fact that characterizes society nowadays--who says you have to be married in order to be happy? If women could overcome the insecurity of needing marriage, maybe relationships would tend to work out for the better. I've never been married (and don't plan to be anytime soon), but it seems though marriage adds a lot of unnecessary pressure to what seemed like perfectly functioning relationship. Janine and Ben were college sweethearts who got married after she gave him an ultimatum, but it seems like Ben is living in shackles, chained to the dungeon that is wedded life. It says something when he so easily gave in to the physical temptation of a hot, sultry woman who probably fulfilled all his fantasies that long ago, had been forgotten when he married Janine.

    Maybe marriage functions on a case-by-case basis. Sure, there's a lot of divorce among unhappy couples nowadays, but maybe marriage works out best when couples go on living their lives together like nothing's changed except for the fact that there is now a ring on their finger and a certificate from the bureaucracy officializing their commitment to one another. Marriage. It's the formality on what already is. That's how it ought to be. And yes, this excludes shotgun weddings.

    I would say if I ended up like one of the women in the movie, my best wish would be to have a fate like Beth's. I only teared up in the scene when Neil asks her to marry him. I mean, this guy who in his entire life swore by the principle of not believing in marriage, is willing to break his personal rule and make her his exception because that's how much he loves her. It's beautiful.

    For the people in the movie where things didn't work out, there's a trend. The fact of the matter is, relationships are like an implicit agreement. To successfully "sign" and carry out the agreement, both parties have to be on the same page. You can't have a relationship with only one willing party. It seems tautological and maybe a bit obvious, but then why do we see so many love triangles and one-sided relationships around us? Why are there girls who keep going back to the same guy even after it's clear that all he wants is a booty call? Why are there guys who will do so much for girls even after it's clear that she's using him for nothing more than a ride somewhere, a favor that needs to be fulfilled, a craving that needs to be satisfied, and so on? These are the unexplainables...but are they really? It's hard to see when you're involved with the person you really really like, but overly devoting yourself while the other person sits back apathetically is a red flag! Get out of this unhealthy, lopsided relationship.

    It's not a cynical movie, harsh as it may be. The truth can be hard to hear sometimes. But it's needed. I mean, just like real life, there is hope. There is that somebody out there who will tickle your fancy, shower you with care and love and wonderful things, and just simply make you happy. But it will only come (and last) if it's reciprocated. So, I guess the moral of the story is, love will come to those who are hopefuls. Hope is a rarer asset to have nowadays in light of failed relationships, falling-outs, bad dates, broken hearts, and mean-spirited intentions, but precisely because of these evils, hope becomes precious. And for those who have this precious gift, it will attract precious things in return.

    The one thing I couldn't figure out is why Janine found cigarettes in Ben's belongings even after the movie made it clear he wasn't smoking. I figure that out, and this movie tops my list of favorite romantic comedies. Hopefully getting this out of my system means I can sleep now. Panda eyes @_@

    Currently
    He's Just Not That Into You
    By Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin Connolly
    see related

Wednesday, 14 October 2009

Tuesday, 13 October 2009

  • F* You Vegas!

     I now am blessed with sickness. Besides having to clear my throat of thick phlegm every 2 minutes, people think I'm being rude whenever a throat clearing session ensues. Either that or they think I'm coughing my lungs out. Maybe I have acute bronchitis. It definitely feels like it. My tonsils are probably swollen right now. -__-
    I'm sorry everyone! The saddest thing was that my professor kept backing away from me when I was talking to him until he was 10 feet across the room. Then he told me to go home.

    Ultimate fail. Yes, I am talking to you, immune system. How could you let me down in the course of 2 months? This is unprecedented.

    Ok, nap time. Maybe like my stomach flu last time, I'll have made a miraculous recovery by the time dinner rolls around. I WANT YOU STEAK! Rargh.

    Currently
    Hook Me Up
    By The Veronicas
    Untouched
    see related