oddball out

4 things that i don't quite understand: 

ONE
i don't know why toy makers make toys to annoy the adults. it's really not for the children's amusement because you know that when that damn elmo is giggling for the millionth time within five minutes in that obnoxious nasal tone, that the person who made it is surely snickering in his office to know that you're almost to your boiling point while he's sitting on his nice leather office chair, eating filet mignon for lunch that's all paid for by you.

TWO
i don't get how they have telephone lines for the hearing impaired. [this is an honest-to-god curiosity of mine--not out of ignorance] i asked my cousin a question regarding that the other day and she said, 'maybe they talk really loud,' which did seem plausible, and then i wondered if they sent text messages if you requested that line...but then i got to thinking, not everyone only uses their cell phones like i do. a lot of people still use landlines which don't have screens for text messages...

THREE
i love sports, and i participate them, but if you ever sit down and think about the concept of sports, i swear, you'll ask yourself why you're that stupid. the concept of sports--any sport--is basically you going after something to fetch it, but it was you who threw it. for example, golf. you hit it, and then you have to go get it, and then hit it again. it's a lame sport, really. nothing is more retarded than going, 'oh look at how far i got it!' --great. now you have to go that far to pick it back up. the only good division i can think of for golf is the driving range. i go to the driving range a lot and my only goal for the 100 something balls i buy is to hit the guy in the plastic cart below. and trust me, i have used this own theory on myself, and i really can't tell you why i still play half the sports i do.

FOUR
i don't get why we, as americans, have to try to sound smart by using foreign languages for certain things when it sounds really funny when it's translated. for example, the term 'eau de toilette' which is a type of perfume. not only is it freakin awkward for americans who don't speak french (or any other foreign language for that matter) to pronounce in our american accent, but literally translated, this perfume means water of the toilet. sounds attractive doesn't it?! you're wearing someone's ass-water for $40 a bottle. congratulations.


** this is my last post before i dive head first into my finals, but this is also the last post before i jet off to FRANCE!!! i will be in france for a week, and be sure that i will let you know how that goes when i come back :]  

fishified

alright, just because people keep asking, im going to share a little story as to why all my things have something to do with the word 'fish.'

once upon a time,

there was this little girl who got 

thrown into the pool at age 3

and was told 'learn to swim!'

so she did. 

since then she's been 

swimming like no one's business. 

she joined her long island high school

swim team and many people have 
commented that she looked like
 a fish when she swam. this girl 
also happened to be a baptized 
christian and we all know that 
the fish has always symbolized 
the christian faith. the -ed 
suffix is usually added to 
nouns and means having;
possessing;and 
affected

by.

the end.

now turn your head to the left!

does that look like a fish?

...swimming downwards?

...with red lips?
if it doesnt, then imagine it does.

lead me home

it's that time of year again!! the sun is out, the flowers are blooming, everyone is in a good mood [and if not, lets just pretend you are]. but no, i'm not saying that it's almost summer, but tis the season to be walking. most of you who know me, know that i grew up in a household of volunteers. having grown up around Kiwanis and Key Club, volunteering has been almost second nature to me. helping others get to a place where they deserve to be, whether it's just to smile for a day through chemo or helping them make a warm home for their children. no amount of money or time can ever buy this joy that comes from knowing that you helped someone along way. i promise, it's all worth it. 

there have been two organizations that are especially close to my heart, and two that i participate in almost every year, whether it be walking or donating. the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer was my very first walk, and i can't begin to tell you how incredibly amazing and what an honor it was to walk amongst a group of women on a passionate mission to make some noise and raise awareness. you could have been walking for a friend, for your mother, for your sister, for your aunt, it didn't matter, everyone's goal was the same--we all walked as one. the second one that i have supported is the March of Dimes . a mother's ultimate wish is to have all her children healthy and grow up to experience what she has experienced, and each child deserves this chance. the MoD makes this happen through research, trying to find cures and to prevent premature births. there is nothing more precious than holding a healthy and happy baby.

testimonies can only show you so much. in order to know what i'm talking about, you need to go try it for yourself. that feeling--it's almost unworthy of words.

March for Babies is coming up first with an April 26th walk in Manhattan. 

the Avon Walk in NY takes place on October 10-11. you can register now. 

going out and making a difference doesn't always have to be participating in big walks like these and it certainly doesn't have to be donating money to organizations. the simplest way to start is always with the people around you. lend a helping hand and you will be rewarded with a smile and perhaps a thank you, but you will realize that that's enough.

*for more information about registering for the Avon Walk, go to their homepage [linked above] and look to the right. pick your city of choice and register! as for the March for Babies walk, click the link provided, and you will see the purple box in the center of the page where you can search for teams or events.*

"You may drink the water, but always remember where the water comes from."

--my G-Ma

i don't normally write on the weekends because the weekends is my family time. but this weekend, i have to make a special exception. 

when i arrived home last night, my dad handed me a pile of letters that were waiting for me from the week and i had gotten several from Rutgers, my university. usually, i just rip them open just for the sake of opening it but this letter was different. this letter was telling me that i had just been selected to receive the Rutgers University Alumni Association Writing Award. This award was selected by the faculty and staff members of my university; and when i found that out, the award didn't matter to me as much as knowing that my professors still thought of me after i had finished taking their class. 

that quote from my grandma has always remained with me because in this simple line, it taught me the world about tradition and loyalty. my grandma has always taught me in her own funny ways, but after each time, i am blown away by this ancient looking woman who embodies all this knowledge just waiting to be discovered by anyone who would take the time to ask. 

this award is as much for my professors and teachers as it is mine. without them pushing me forward and encouraging me to find inspiration within myself, i would not be where i am today with my writing and certainly not the person whom i've become today. being a person is so much more complicated than just walking the earth. a person is raised with the utmost care and love, and carries a piece of everyone else who has ever left footprints in their wake. 

thank you 

pants of glory

so in the far left of my screen, i have my ichat turned on which in turn turns on my gchat, which is at the far right of the screen, because they’re one in the same for my ichat program and then i have my msn messenger opened as well because no one in hong kong uses ichat and then i’ve got skype up and running right next to my ichat and it’s ringing because my dad’s calling me, and then i’ve got oovoo running next to my gchat and my webcam is turned on because i’ve got five other people trying to talk to me on oovoo from canada, hong kong, the states, whatever, and that’s why i can’t stop the incessant ringing of my dad’s phone call on skype who hangs up a million times and then tries to call me again because he thinks that im just not picking up so i send him a written message but then he wants me to learn chinese so he responds in all chinese and i can’t read but maybe fifty words so i go and translate it word by word while ten other im’s are popping up from ichat, gchat, and skype asking me all different kinds of questions and expecting me to respond in two seconds after they send it and then on the far right bottom corner of my screen, an email notification pops up and says that i’ve got 50 unread emails from last night and so i open that and then another notification takes the place of the email notification and says so-and-so’s birthday is today so i head on over to facebook and say ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY!’ before i hear a ding from my itouch telling me that someone just tweeted me a message so i open that and type with one hand on my laptop as i finger-type a response to the tweet i got and simultaneously look up and smile at the people who are now watching me intently as i multitask and try to keep each conversation in mind as they all talk over each other with someone bursting out with a ridiculous laugh somewhere and then i return to my im’s and start a conversation over boobs falling out of t-shirts with one person; how another person’s room smells like weed with another person; and then i gossip with another girl about how some girl we both know needs to learn to take a shower before my cell phone rings freaking me out of my chair and when i look at the screen i see my dad’s face flashing me a smile so i walk away from my computer after writing ‘brb’ on my im’s and i walk towards my dresser as i’m talking to my dad and move to unzip my jeans to slip on my sweats before i realize. SHIT. they’re still watching.

these instant-everything’s are meant to make your life easier to communicate with the world, but i really think it sets me back a couple of paces when something like this happens.  all this anxiety comes from stuff like this; the fact that i said the wrong thing on the wrong im and that my cousin’s mother saw me half naked… on some days, i just like to turn everything off and let the world think that i’ve fallen off the ride for just one moment so i can steal a second to b.r.e.a.t.h.e  

going up!

i have to take an elevator daily in my life and it really surprises me that some people act like they've never ridden an elevator before! just like when you get on a plane, there are silent elevator rules that you have to go by and that you should know of if you live in this world...do us all a favor and adhere to some of them to make our lives all a little better...mmkay? O-K!

• hold the door for people who are rushing towards the elevator. it is not funny when the other person gets to the elevator and it closes right on their face and you're standing there with a dumb look on your face like you had no power in holding the [<||>] button.

• do not take the elevator up one flight of stairs--or even up four flights of stairs. you can do it. that applies for going down too.

• if and when the elevator gets crowded, do not spread your legs apart, puff up your chest, or put your fifty pound backpack to your side, and attempt to take up more space than you really need. i can see that you might be uncomfortable that these total strangers are now in your personal space but please, we're all just trying to get to our destination as fast as we can and we would love it if we didn't have to wait another ten minutes just to be shoved out of the next elevator.

• when an elevator arrives, let the other people who are already on the elevator, get out before you rush in. you are not invisible and people cannot walk through you. 

• don't fart in the elevator when you're alone in there, because oxygen goes into the elevator, but nothing really ever goes out until the doors open, meaning that you might have farted when it was going down from the 20th floor, but the person getting on from the 10th floor will still smell it. like i said before in my other posts, your mother is lying to you--your farts do not smell pretty.

• stays true to sickness as well. no one will blame you if you get sick; it happens. but since elevators seem to get smaller and smaller each century, please don't cough on other people or sneeze a rainstorm on the person next to you. just because we don't have an immediate reaction does not mean that we didn't feel it, but that we're just trying not to be rude and spray ourselves with antibiotics.

• if there is no space in the elevator for you to reach over and push the button for your floor, then say politely "11th floor, please." ten times out of ten, the person closest to the buttons will push it for you if it's not already pushed. do not reach over everybody and go push the button like no one's business. once it's lit, it's not going to make the elevator go faster if you push the button fifty times at once.

• keep your voices down, especially if you're speaking another language. it's a metal box we're all standing in and much to your surprise, it might echo or amplify your voice. despite what you think, people around you are not all that interested in how you broke up with your boyfriend/girlfriend and what you ate for dinner last night and how your doctor told you that everything down there looks nice.

• because its easy to be less than a palm's distance away from someone, it automatically makes it easy to see what the other person is saying through text or via email. don't do that! thats sooo obnoxious when you're being nosy in a place where you really don't have the right to be nosy. thank god most elevators are a 360° mirror nowadays. don't be fishy. we're watching... 

suspense my pensée

[yes, i'm in my journalism class right now--there's only three of us, but she's STILL teaching.]

we're actually watching the news in class because we have nothing better to do since no one showed up because of the rain. i sometimes wish i was that smart and think to skip class when everyone else is thinking about skipping class. but anyway, have you ever watched tv news and just wished they'd get going with giving you the actual news? especially during dinner time?

i mean, you're sitting there at dinner, ready to enjoy your roast beef or pasta or whatever you eat, and then the news comes on:

"next on the news coming up at 5:30 PM, we have found a new virus that may be present in your every day dinner! stay tuned to hear more."

so you do only what's normal and you sit and wait obediently for the following news session and you put down your fork because god knows if the news found something in roast beef or pasta.

"coming up in five minutes, the new virus found in our food. stay tuned to find out how deadly it actually is."

by now, you're probably just freaking out because this is dinner, which means that you've probably ate lunch and breakfast before and you have no idea what it could possibly be. could it be eggs? could it be bread? if milk can do evil things, then so can fruits!

"good evening, in our latest headlines tonight, a local hero is exposed when he rescues a little puppy from the gutter, trapped there since this morning. lets now head on over to jim," 

i hate it when it takes them forever to get to the actual news and by the time they actually get to it, which they happen to place at the very last minute of the half hour news, it's something stupid:

"and lastly what we have discovered may shock you...we have found that a moving virus can be found in your mouth which is then transfer to your food through your fork and back to other people in your family especially if you share! well that's it for tonight! have a good night and we'll see you tomorrow morning."

G-R-E-A-T, like that tells me the world...
this is one of the reasons why i can't be a news journalist.


ps. i made a mistake in terminology on my last post 'ohana.' the 24 "cousins" are my first cousins, and the 10 "first cousins" are my first cousins once removed. *these american terms bug the crap out of me. in chinese we all have separate titles for our male parent's siblings that are female/male, and vice versa*

ohana

a lot of people comment about how large my dad's side of the family is. it's always a shocker when i tell them that i have 11 aunts and uncles, 24 cousins, and 10 first cousins. someone had once even asked me if we were part of the asian mafia--which i still find hilarious till this day.

if you think about it, there are so many things that a big family like ours could do as a whole, like, we could take over all the major professions in the world or have a birthday in every month, etc. [actually, the birthday thing in every month is already kind of true, but that's really out of our control because we can't command when we get a new member...] the one thing that seems most plausible as of now is having all the letters in the alphabet.

my cousins and i were actually counting this out over the weekend [they were on spring break and i was just bored] and found out that the only available "slots" left for us to eat the alphabet are only: F, G, I, O, Q, T, U, X, Y, and Z. the most used letter happens to be A with 8 people and the letter S and K are tied with 7, but only K has no repeats. only the letters C, H, and N have one name to it. we have 3 "jrs." and only 2 families with only 1 child, and a female cousin-in-law who spells the name "joyce" like this: joiz. as for the K names, we have kasie [me], katherine, karen, kaitlin, kayla, kent, and kenny.

you follow me so far? good. it's really not that hard to remember everyone, i swear. we all meet almost every friday so if you stick around long enough, you'll get it.

registration

alright, so i just registered for classes for next semester, and it totally doesn't make sense to me.
i only have two more classes that i need to fulfill for my general requirements and major and i'm done...but I CAN'T GRADUATE YET because i don't have a total of 120 credits!!!

how DUMB is that???

it's not only stupid that they make you stay until you've got 120 credits, but do they really think we're all made out of money? it's also a waste of time to stay in school and take crap courses to fill up credit needs. for goodness sakes, i'm taking guitar classes next semester and a class on how hip hop affects today's culture. it's even sadder that these courses actually exist on a college campus...

friend: why are you taking a fiction writing workshop??

me: thats actually considered a fun course for me...

friend: are you retarded?

but the best thing about registering this time is that it only took me 5 seconds!! the last couple of times, it has literally taken me about half an hour to register for classes because our system would be so backed up. i wonder if people forgot to register [like i did] or if they were actually smart enough to fix it this year?

duck line

come follow me on twitter !!!! 

i dont know where we're going, but do it! 

you know you want to :]

!finished!

i'm finally finished!

what you'll notice that is different -

• at the very top before the post is a new navigation bar. the buttons are self explanatory all you have to do is just click it. 
• at the very right at the top, is a new music player. these are the most current songs that i am listening to; most likely the top five on my itunes (minus any chinese songs). 
• the cbox and twitter have remained, but underneath the twitter is a new counter. i've always had one, but i thought i'd include you readers as to how many people have actually visited my blog as a courtesy. 
• all the way at the bottom left is the archive where you're welcome to go back as far as october of 2007. 
• next to the archive is my picture and the blogroll. blogroll is a list of all the blogs i keep track. they are listed by latest update. 

hope ya'll like it :]

!construction!

construction!!

im in the midst of changing up the blog. so please bare with me. 

sphanks.

to be depressed

ever feel like you're at the wrong place in life? like, you're sitting where you are but you know you don't belong there but someplace else; and you know in your heart where you SHOULD be, but you can't go there, or you don't know how to get there. there are moments when i love what i'm doing and i think i'm working towards what i want. i even have separate goals for this road, but then there are other moments when i doubt that this is clear to me. that this is truly what i want. at these moments, i don't know whether to tell myself i'm just dreaming or if i'm just telling myself to take a different route.

i still wish that life would be a little easier and have someone point me in the right direction and never look back. but at the same time, i know i would never allow that--to let the fun be taken out of life. 

i know the "correct" path that i'm supposed to be on, the one i had picked out myself. but then there is this "off-road" that i'm yearning to try. i had once talked to a professor of mine of my off-road dreams, and she had told me to go give it a try and that my education will always be here for me to return to. if i never go try it, i will always be wondering, what if? she had no judgement of me, and i'm entirely grateful for that. her advice still resonates in me, and i think i've gotten myself nearly convinced, only except society continually revolves around me, telling me i am only wasting my time.

i know i said a whole lot and you probably still don't know what i'm saying, but that's okay. this week has been depressing for me, rendering me completely uninspired to write anything remotely interesting. so i figured, why not complain on my blog? so i did :)

i love writing for people to read. 

i don't doubt that.