Recap: Surprise II

In honor of the new school year I'm retreating back into my old black & scifi/fantasy theme again. Yep, still not tired of using all black and all white as layout background yet...black and white are such CLASSICAL colors, you know...
Though, of course, that's because they're the first and the easiest pigments to make....(i.e. charcoal & grinded up bones...).

The abuse of the term 'tradition' and 'classic'. I should include something about that in a story.

Lucy, I've removed you from the member list from the BEA blog, so I can go and wreck havoc with it and then I'll send out invitations again. I figured since I'm posting the BEA stuff over here right now, the original blog (hey, the url name is pretty good) could be used to organize the travel-around-the-world thing. It makes posting and organizing easier and everyone can do it without knowing html, which is convenient. Plus blogger has gotten itself picture-upload options, which is awfully nice of them. (More like desperate to out-do the competition, but hey.)
Which reminds me...I've been meaning to post these two banners that I've made for fun for a while:


Ahh the layou frenzy...it comes from the realization that if I don't do it now, I probably won't find time to do it for a while so hence...

How shocked were you when you saw this page today?

Non Sequitor: Indecisiveness

Sorry about that burst of weirdness, Lucy. Here's a special feel-good entry, just for you...so you can sooth your ruffled psyche?
_____________________________________

All of us have wished for things before, and most of us are familiar with the feeling of finally receiving your wish, only to find out that that wish is no longer what you desired. Some call it ambition (i.e. forever-trying-to-achieve-new-goal definition), some call it greed (i.e. never-satisfied-with-anything definition), most call it by both of the names depending on the circumstances because yes, the two are the one and the same. Or, at least, they share the same origin. They both come from us, our wants, our desires, our mind.

Our wants are constantly changing because we are constantly changing. Wasteful? Perhaps it is, but all changes will result in some form of waste (see the Law of Thermodynamics: entropy). Bsides, we are nothing without the changes. To change is the essence of life. (Trust me, if something isn't changing in you constantly you will not be, at least by all kinds of technical definition, alive).

Indecisive? Change your mind too often?
Call yourself 'lively'.
_________________________________________
Just don't use this argument with me, I know where all the logic loopholes are.

Recap: Muggle-Love

This is my response to the 6th HP book, after reading it (courtesy of Kate).

I feel the book would've read better if you didn't read the previous five books (though, of course, that is a very rare scenario) and I find that I like the book better if I over-analyzed it and supposed that the author did EVERYTHING on purpose. My favorite chapter is the last chapter, or more specifically, the last bit...

Harry looked at him, startled; the idea that anything as normal as a wedding could still exist seemed incredible and yet wonderful.

"Yeah, we shouldnt' miss that," he said finally.

His hand closed authomatically around the fake Horcrux, but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead for himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come, whether in a month, in a year, or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.

J. K. Rowling's writing skills are definitely getting better, though, as she is getting her character...shall we say...more depth? Her book is much more psychological and her style reads quite differently from, say, the first three books. I'm not saying it's better or worse, just commenting on that. She did a remarkable job of keeping the story's detail straight, unlike Frank Baum of OZ who abandoned the munchkins (sp?) by what? The third story? Bits of detail logic (as in supplementing the plot) seems a bit awry and overall the central plot and setting seems a bit worn around the edges, but that could be the fact that the book is well on its way to becoming a classic (at least among childr--er--people who are children at heart. Hem.). The pacing of the book is a bit odd at times but after my lessons in classic literature I will never take chronological linear time progression for granted ever again, and therefore I have nothing to complain about.

Also I noticed that all her characters seem to be gravitating toward the considered "norm" for muggles. As in all the characters are becoming decidedly more human. As in people are finally doing things such as showing impatience, weaknesses, fear, or doing things such as pleading, crying, or falling in love (or having a crush). I wonder if the frantic pairings are a result of Rowling becoming alarmed at the number of slash fan-fiction out there. Overall, I'd like to think that all this, out-of-characterish humanization is Rowling's attempt to show again that, despite of all their magical powers, they're really very human and not so different from you or me. And I'd like to think she did it on purpose, too.

Good read. Not brilliant, but strong enough to live up to its five older siblings.

Whoa I managed to give a book review without giving out much of spoilers. Think I should apply for a job writing book reviews for newspapers? lol

Recap: San Francisco

Sorry about the no-post yesterday.

Anyway...

Yesterday was Kate's birthday, as you all probably know (or most of the people who read this, anyway), and I went to San Francisco with her and her mother. San Francisco is a right big o' city that looks beautiful at night from a distance because of the number of light it possesses. It also possesses a lot of interesting colored houses. Like bright green with purple and teal. Or just bright purple. Or bright and pastel pink. I haven't been to San Francisco much and I generally missed a lot of things and so yesterday had a lot of "firsts" for me (thought it did for Kate too, unless I'm mistaken).

We went to the exhibit, which turned out to be "The Universe Within" thing that Ms. Janson ranted about last year. She'd be so proud of us. I stayed just outside of my near-sighted vision range so all the details are blurred and the things looked more fake, even so I think I'll retreat back into my vegetarian style for a bit longer. The skin-on-a-cloth-hanger thing bothers me no end.
What also bothered me was the presence of plastic plants in the exhibit. They're very, very plastic. And since the people are by technical definition 'plastic' too, I was bothered by the plastic plants and the plastic people.
...
We saw some very interesting things. I went inside a cathedral (sp?) for the first time (Grace Cathedral). It was very imposing but had orchids in a state of health that Crowley would've been proud of. It also had this maze-thing (word: labyrinth? Or was that something else) laid on the stones outside, which I tried to walk and liked very much. In a store we saw action figures of all sorts of ...historically interesting people. Such as Benjamin Franklin, Moses, Jesus (okay, action figure, yes, freaky), and Edgar Allan Poe. When I saw Mr. Poe I exclaimed "Good grief!" without thinking, much to the amusement of Kate. So yes, there's an action figure of Edgar Allan Poe in a toy store, with removeable books.
Good grief indeed.
... ...
Waited outside briefly while entering a restaurant. Kate whistled and while discussing whistling and the memories it brought up, she whistled the "STar-spangled Banner". Afterwards when she tried to whistle "Happy Birthday", on the third line, at the highnote, she trailed off into the "Star-spangled Banner" because the notes were so similar. After a momentary recovery period (straight-face being a necessary requirement for the art of whistling), she tried to sing it...and lapsed into patriotism (patriosm? what?) again. Much to my amusement. We folded the straw wrapper into a paper star because we were bored while waiting for food, and Kate developed the game of hockey with two toothpicks and the paper star, which was soon damaged (it has suffered much). So I folded another thing out of the chopstick wrapper and it, along with teh toothpicks were given to me to keep after dinner. So far the 'equipment' have escaped the notice of my parents, saving me from having to explain why I carried home two toothpicks and a folded-up chopstick wrapper.

Pictures? Of course. I took two of Kate opening her present for you, Lucy, but the lighting was awful and the pictures were pretty bad, but I'll mail them to you anyway. Some of the shots'll be online in my album later.

And Kate? Work on your three-point arguments. lol

Recap: In Summary...

New phone, new number. Phone's Nokia's (with its characteristic lack of good ring-tones, I might add) and the service provider's Cingular. New number: 806-2583. Will leave cellphone on all the time and see what happens. Fun with batteries, probably.

Decided that I've gotten better at drawing metal objects--plus one for me. I like shiny things and now I can draw them. Sort of. Provided I won't have to deal with too many colors.

Lucy's orientation sounded about normal. The so-called "orientation" for new students at UCD is called "summer advising" which, if you have a declared major, they assign you to a specific period of time and you have to go to school then and stay overnight. Since I couldn't go (being, obviously, out of the country), they sent me the time for it anyway and gave me the password so I can go online and pick my classes myself. That was fun, if you happen to like picking out classes from a catalog of 50-ish pages and plotting them out to see if their time conflicted. I got very good with Excel, as in new level of usage skills. And, having the fateful sense of timing like I do, I was sick that morning so basically I sat in front of the laptop with a fever and got very frustrated because the chemistry and math classes I picked (along with the alternatives) were all taken.
It made me almost appreciate change mill. Almost.

Therefore, to Lucy and all my fellow class of '09 students who are struggling with the system--cheers and buenas suertes!

Meanwhile, Susan continues with her organization and wonders if she should pack a bottle of sleeping pills for college, as well.

Ranting: Sensing Reality

After a vigorous online discussion with someone who hasn't a clue who the heck he was talking to, I realized that it has been a while since I typed one of my "rants" and I now have a fairly good topic to go off of. (Hypothesizing that I'm getting pickier about my writing as I go along, but I may be wrong.)

As you may gather from the title, the entry has something to do with reality. More specifically, I'm going to consider the concept of reality. For instance, what is reality? What is real? What is not real? Is there anything between the two? And how can we tell?

And as usual, my post will bring up more questions than answers. So sorry.

The usual definition for 'reality' would be what we can sense, I suppose. What we see/hear/touch/smell etc. But, my problem with this definition is that, as we all know, the human senses can be deceived. I have a particular problem with the statement "eyes do not lie", especially given what I know about optical illusions. However, elaborating as to be more specific, I should say that I define 'seeing' as the brain's interpretation of the signal that is gathered by the lense, i.e. the eye, in the process called 'recognition.' I am not dealing with 'association', or, what the brain interprets and connects with the signals once it has been understood. I define 'seeing' as looking at a tree and being able to think "oh, a tree," not as something the eyes does. I am of the opinion that eyes can't see without the brain. Therefore, for someone who defines 'seeing' as gathering of signals, it would be a hard case to argue since we're on different, though parallel, threads.
And for someone who defines 'seeing' as what the eyes does (as in the case with the person I was talking to) then I suppose yes, the eyes would see.

Sorry, went off topic. I noticed.

Back to the original topic: if reality is defined as what we sense, and if know for a fact (this is usually where the arguments come in) that the human sense can be deceived, what is it, then, that allows us to call something real? Deception, as I understand it, is generally not associated with reality. Reality is generally associated with the idea of 'facts' and 'truth'. Then how can we 'sense' (marks for open definition) reality qua truth through deceiving receptors?

Alright, that was a bit far a bit fast. The receptors are not what's deceiving us, I conceed, it's the brain that interprets the signal that does the deceiving. Better?

But you can't exactly 'sense' anything if you can't recognize the signals you're receiving. So, back to the idea: how can we 'sense' truth/reality when sensing relies on the brain, which is always partial in the case of humans (don't have much experience with other species, sorry), and therefore biases, and therefore judgemental on all that we receive and recognizes it in ways that may not be fundamentally correct?
Allow me an open definition or two. Or my entry will be definitions alone. A pageful of them.

Thus, once again, my entire entry boils down to the idea of perceptions. Truth, I am concluding, once again, is a highly arbitrary thing, depending on each's perspective. Reality is what you sense, and I defy the idea of there being one reality for all of us.

The so-called reality that we live in is merely a perspective that we have agreed on by general consensus. And we can't even get the final points compromised yet, which is why there're lots of people all of the world trying to injure lots of more people all over the world.

On a completely unrelated and highly opinionated note: ranting DOES feel good when you get it all down.

Recap: Happy Schooling

School starts to-day for all the tino students. Best wishes in the new school year!

I have been searching for a bag that I once remembered owning, a plastic knapsack where you put your shower things and so on, and couldn't find it. That leaves me to wonder about the mysteries of my own household. It's almost a daily occurrence now that my mother digs something up out of I-don't-know-where (a place existent only in the geography of my exasperatedly-amused mind) and tells me that I should take it with me to the dorms. Usually I would've never seen that thing before, and would have no memory of how, where, or why my parents would think of buying that thing when it did. It's an equally frequent occurrence that I realize I would need something for college, remember owning it/buying it at such-and-such time, and then not be able to find it. It then remains with me to lay it out with mother who will then find it in mysterious locations. Considering that my house isn't exactly a three-tiered castle, it's a wonder how many places things can be hid.

Treasure hunts. In my own house. What fun.

Debugging appears successful thus far. No new bites reported.

On a very happy side-note, I found that the mp3 player my aunt and grandma (paternal) gave me (what you get for guilty relatives that you haven't seen/talked to in four years) came with a built-in radio. That's one more use for me. So far I've been using it as a recorder (functions much better than my old analog one, if you guys remember that) and a USB disk. Well...using a mp3 as storage device seems a lot more logical if you've only two mp3 files on your computer, trust me. So, now-radio! No guilt anymore, Kate, right?

Have also been looking at laptops, since I need one for college and our family one's...a bit...out of date in terms of hardware. Here's a note for all people who wants a notebook computer who already has a college in mind--check the college website for the computer recommendations! I was just looking at the UCD thing and I haven't a clue why the heck they need some of the things they do. For instance...why would you need BOTH an ethernet card and a wireless card? Most of us'd manage just fine with one. Then they recommend XP pro instead of XP home for a reason that is still yet unknow to me because the explanation page was "down due to maintenance." The processor and memory I can understand but...
Strange, strange college recommendations. Getting a state-of-the-art deal for school? I kept wanting to re-check if there's a special under-grad page that I'm missing.

[edit 21:09]
This is official: cell phone will be absolutely offline tomorrow. As in it's at the dealer's. Don't know what'll happen if you call.

Recap: Rightwards Left

I learned how to navigate and drive at the same time. Go me.
Actually, father's suppose to be navigating, but he made several mistakes in the very confident way that didn't invite future confidence in me. In the end I just ignored him and turned where I think we should be going, and since we ended up where we wanted to be, I was spared the second half of the lecture. (The first part having been delivered whilst I was driving.) So--that was the start of my day.

Having debugged my computer, today I proceeded to debug my room. I'm not quite sure how well it worked, but expects to find out by tomorrow. Parents picked a cellphone contract...same phone, different number. My phone will be all weird next week, don't know which number I'll end up getting yet, but I'll post it as soon as I'm 100% sure. Some other random stuff was going on around here, but none worth mentioning.

Recap: Phones...phones

By the time I take my road test I will have all the routes to all the nearby grocery stores firmly imprinted in my mind. That is all I need to say about this morning, and up to this point, the first half of my afternoon.

My old cellphone contract expires next week and my parents are looking around and deciding between one of three/four options. I'm not sure exactly what'll happen but, until further notice, assume that my phone won't be working any day after the 22nd. My old cellphone still has those black and white displays...like...whoa.
Sorry, the reaction of the sales-people is getting to me.

Other than that...I printed out some photos from my camera today at Costco while father was refueling the car after I shamefully wasted the gasoline at his command. They look nice. Er. Maybe nice isn't quite the word we should use when applied to LUNATICS. They look highly memorable, I should say. For instance, I printed the Darth Vader picture, remember that one? And then there's the one where everyone's being wacko at Lucy's birthday.
Yep, Memorable...complete with a silly grin.

Fixed computer yesterday. 18 worm/virus/bugs found.

[edit 17:56]
Mother posted this question to me that I think you guys would be able to answer better: what happens to the pictures that you take with a camera phone?

Recap: holy stars

I don't check my school email everyday. I should. My roommate just called me. I hope this posts.

Recap: Blast

Far, far too much trouble making a blog post today. This is my 15th or 16th try. Too wore out to vent spleen.

Recap: Chocolates

Thank you, Kate, for the the book!

Kate and I went to Valleyfair today...with the proposed purpose of buying cloth and the actual act of wandering around...mall and Santana Row. I spent about ten minutes in the teen cloth section before I turned to Kate and said "Okay, let's go."
KATE was telling me to relax, that was how I knew I am not destined to be a great shopper. I think I have something against the people who work in malls. Or it may be the simply fact that I find them creepy and overly friendly (sure they're trying to sell you things but really...I prefer to remain unnoticed.)

Ah yes, speaking of salesmen (and women) we went in this soap/perfume/lotion shoppe (you know the type) so Kate can see if she can pick something out for her grandmother, and this girl handed us two samples of lip gloss to try. On a what looked like a mini-spatula. Considering the way we're dressed (Kate in her usual brilliance of gray and black, and me in an over-sized sweater and cargo-pants), that girl must've been very, very desperate. Even Kate wasn't intimidating enough to avoid the breath-refreshening lip gloss.
Sorry, Kate, but I found that hilarious still.

Watched CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY...Mr. Wonka wasn't that bad. He was freaky, yes, in the sense that you feel like his brain is permanently on a different (and possibly crooked) track than everyone else. However, there was nothing freakier than the little working people that he hired that danced around to modern sound-effects, moves, and costumes. Hugely disturbing. I laughed through most of it. I like the implied bit about the power of the imagination though, and the plot is good.

Geekiness of the day: sat in the back of a book store and read an atlas. Still planning to do lots of traveling one day, oh yes. Will start making a list of places I want to go and plan to get a decent job...if only so I can earn enough to go traveling. Wales also sounds interesting.

Recap: Had It Pleased Heaven

Willow is interesting.

Having decided that I should get more driving practice, my parents have assigned me to the role of chauffer (is that how you spell it?) and so it seems like a lot of my weekends are going to be wasted away staring at lanes. To console myself I spent most of my post-driving hours yesterday reading, and finished THREE COMRADES, which, upon reflection, is not a good book to use to console oneself with, unless one is the sort who can be snapped out of trouble by the thought of someone else's trouble. Which isn't me. It just seems to leave me lower than before. Otherwise the book was rather surprising since it seemed as much a love story as it is everything else we'd previously associate with Remarque, but it's good. Very good.

Had absolutely no luck of whatsoever looking for the movie script for "12 Angry Men." I want to keep a copy to read, you see....

Funny thing with hep B vaccine. I got my shots in 89-90, did a blood analysis in June (some of you might remember my rant about that), and it told me I don't have the necessary antibodies and need to complete my vaccination.

My reaction when I saw the paper: ... ... ....

So! I called and inquired about this and the nurse informed me that in a few rare cases the person can receive the vaccination and not develope the needed antibodies and therefore needs to renew the vaccine. Except she doesn't know if I'll need to take all three shots over again or being jabbed once would be enough this time. Needless to say which option I'd prefer.

I feel so special. In that ironic sense where feeling special is a high-pitched whining sound in the back corners of your mind. Ah well, such is life. Am reading THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD now and found it very interesting indeed.

Recap: Meeting the Catalogue

As predicted, I was dragged out to practice driving early this morning. After some reflection, I've concluded that driving is not an act to be attempted unless the driver is fully awake. Or at least, should not be an act to be attempted.
Hey, at least I didn't ran into or over anything.

Forgot to mention...the chances of chances...that I met Xixi Cheng while leaving Beijing. She was standing right next to me on the shuttle we took to board the airplane, and recognized me before I recognized her. I think distance and the sense of departing highschool graduate has made the heart grow fonder, so to speak, because she spoke to me more on the shuttle than, I think, in the entire year that we've been together...considering the fact that she's in my econ and English classes, that's saying something!

Went to library with Kate in the afternoon (see, Lucy, you should've stayed...but I forgive you.... Joking, joking). Checked out some books and started reading them while in the car even though I knew it's bad for my eyes because I'd been soooo book deprived the past few weeks. Book deprivation should not occur during summer vacation, when time is not a limiting resource. It just shouldn't. We (Kate and I) went down to the basement and up to the eighth floor, discussed the possible purposes of artificial grass stuck upside-down on the ceiling (okay, what do YOU think they're for?)and, after much consideration, decided to avoid getting reacquainted with the library catalogue (see? This is a computer, this is a keyboard, and this is a catalogue. YOu can use it to look up books...) on the plead that the computer might explode from our sarcasm if we had. Gotten re-acquainted, I mean.

Went home and discovered that mother have been attempting to help me pack...which means I'm going to take out everything she packed and repack it using the system of organization that I'e already employed and make a list of all the stuff she added.

Stuff. Why're there always so much stuff?

Recap: Kitten's Whiskers?

Pictures from yesterday (there're only 4) have been uploaded to my yahoo account.

Not much going on today. Mostly stay at home, look up some stuff, send some emails, write a little, etc. Imagine that my parents will be dragging me out to practice driving tomorrow as soon as everyone can be properly awake (however soon that may be).

On a completely unrelated note-- wouldn't it be interesting if all the stories in the world originated at one beginning?

[edit 15:00]
For some reason I find myself thinking about the little spice shops in farmer's market in China and missing that. The market is a bit of a mess, but the shop always spelled so good... .

Ranting: Steps Ahead

Humans have the most amazing tenacity when it comes to holding on to things. It's astonishing. I wonder why they have the term "pack-rats" when they should have the term "pack-humans" instead. Or is that because humans naturally come in packs? Oh wait, rats can do that too.
THE SECRET OF NIMH flashback.
This is a very interesting start to a rant, no?

What I'm refering to exists along the same lines as the feeling of guilt, as in, it seems to be a purely human invention. When animals have to move forwards in life, they just do, and don't think that much about it. Then again, we're not animals, are we? Think again. We can be technical or figurative and either way the argument doesn't have much of a leg to stand on.

Why do we like holding on to things so much, be it someone, somewhere, something, be it objects (animate and inanimate) or be it memories?

Because we'll feel sad. Why do we feel sad? Because we'll miss something. Well, why do we miss things?

Part of it, I think, is fear. Fear that once we leave something, we may never see that 'something' the way it is again. Fear that things won't remain the same, fear that things will be leaving this world, and that we can't do anything about it. Fear of change because we're leaving something behind and we don't know what's ahead. Good, sound logic points out to us that things will change, that things come and things go and nothing is truly forever because even ourselves change, so how we observe things change. This is what we're afraid of, its justified in a way, but need it to be so strongly associated with missing things? Because even if we stay exactly were we are, things will still change. As long as time moves forward, things will change, leaving things behind seems to not make that much of a difference except, perhaps, make us more aware of the change than we would be, had we been here to observe it everyday.

Analysis part one: finished.

Another reason is our attachment to things. This is very, very regular since a lot of animals show signs of attachment to what they're familiar with. But this is where technology comes from. It's quite wonderful how we can now take most of our attachments along with us...there're many many ways to preserve things in memory and many many ways to keep the attachment we once had. Keeping in touch is never easier. It's never exactly the same, of course, but what is? Not quite the same but it can come pretty close.

Part two: finished.

A lot of what we feel depends on each person's character and persoanl history and therefore trying to dissect this might be a wee bit difficult, seeing how there's almost an endless variety of people, each with their own tale to tell. However, story or not, personality or not, each of us have something that we earn for. Most of us, I think it's safe to say, have yet to achieve that something (especially since our 'something' is constantly refreshed, and changing). Here's the logic. You want something, you don't have it yet, therefore it's definitely not in your past, even if you can turn back time. You don't have it at the moment, or I shouldn't think you do because, if you are reading this, you're probably sitting in front of a computer doing computer things. Therefore, if you want to get what you want, you're suppose to look to the future, which is exactly opposite of the 'holding-on-to-everything' mode. Conflict? Oh yes. Decisions? There's one. My opinion? Persuit of happiness people, march ahead, even if you don't have a map.
I hear there're road signs along the way.
I also hear that long-distance phone calls are getting very, very convenient.

Chill. Breathe in. Breathe out. Repeat.
What you want is in front of you. Fear is normal, but what was behind you is not as far back as you think it is.

Breathe. Breathe.
Duct tape, anyone?

Recap: ...zzZz?

For some reason woke up at one last night..er...this morning, and couldn't go back to sleep again. As a result am suffering from one massive headache but...cest la vie, so goes another day.

Going into endless rounds of re-organization already as I try to figure out exactly how much other research and more packing I'll need to do. (Gee I own a lot of...stuff....) Otherwise am so bad at adjusting to the time difference that I'm heartily ashamed of myself. Must look up more school stuff and do some chores.

Now...if only I can stop myself from yawning....

More posts later. Maybe.

Recap: Movie Day

Had another movie day at Anna's today. Thank you Anna, for everything!

We had food. Lots of food, and for a while people were experimenting with sprite and cranberry juice (there's a scientist in all of us...just waiting for the right moment). Anna made me watch the Spongebob movie. After much reflection, I've came to the conclusion that I have a tolerance for stupid movies and I have a tolerance for illogical ones, but when the two gets together I do my uttermost to avoid the result (I mean, please, fire underwater? Showers? A sponge that more intelligent than a starfish?) and so I guess that's the limit of my tolerance. Ah well.

Lusine was there to make up for Kate's absence by inserting a few violent comments (or so she claimed) and making fun of Anna's skills with a knife when she was cutting the cake. Affirmed, also, that Christine runs on Energizer batteries. I forgot to ask if it's size AA or just A (somehow...nevermind).

Afterwards watched PHANTOM (sp?) OF THE OPERA and of course, we completely dissected the movie and analyzed what was better left alone. (I.e, decided that the phantom is a obsessive psychopath, labled Christine as schizophrenic, and settled for an area of 1/3 as the size of the scar to face ratio on the phantom, and wondered why he went blonde at the end.) Christine (friend) was awfully hard on Christine (movie). This may be due to the fact that Christine (movie) was her namesake and a very air-headed namesake at that. Joking, of course, but she (movie girl) DOES need to get more options for her facial expression. You'd think she got a botox injection or something just watching her.

Oh and Lusine, do let me know when you're leaving. Please?

Recap: Simple Things

Beijing during the summer is very foggy and warm. The locals call it the 'sauna weather'and, after living in it, I have to agree. Most of the time the sky is gray because of all the steam that rises when the sun comes out. Even so, the UV radiation is no joke-- I'm a lot browner and I've the patterns of my 'Greek sandals' burnt onto the back of my feet. Some of the people carry parasols.

Let's see...ah yes, one of the things that have made me somewhat depressed was the rate of change over there. Everything is being remodeled for the Olympics I know but, as I've remarked already to Christine, sometimes there're so many tourists and so much English in all the labeling that if it weren't for the famous historical landmark I can see right outside I'd think I'm in America. It's that bad. A lot of things are changed and a lot of memories I have of places are wiped out so that I feel like there's less and less that I recognize each time I return.

For instance, my old elementary school (division in the universitiy of aero&astro) had moved into the old middle school building and the old middle school has moved into the old university building and that part of the university has moved into the new building which looked like something out of a sci-fi novel. The old elementary school building was demolished and something else's being built there right now. One of my favorite parks from back then opened a water park, the old water park area was dry and filled with the stuff from the playground area, all jumbled up, and the old playground area was turned into a golf course!

Grief, and not very good grief at that.

Did I mention also that the other favorite park had its old stone and glass wall torn down (it was so pretty!) and replaced with a white-washed fence for no apparent reason? Or the fact that the building that my grandparents (m) had been living in since before I was born is going to get torn down and they're going to get reassigned somewhere else? The roads are changing so fast along with the bus routes that even the locals have problems keeping up with it and let me tell you, it can get to be quite a mess.

Ye Gods, I don't know what the city will look like in another year. My mother had 9 months between when she was there and a lot of the things were new to HER.

On a slightly happier note, I'll launch off onto a little discourse about the place where I spent most of my time while I was there: my maternal grandparent's house.

i.e.: I was living in the 302th division of the PLA military hospital, which also happens to be the division for contagious diseases. My grandparents live in the veterans (my grandfather) and staff apartments area. There's the little things each day that remind you that it's the military, such as the wake up call by the electric trumpet at 6:30 AM on weekdays, go to work call at 8:00, lunch break call at 12:30, return to work at 2:30, and return home call a 6PM. And the fact that there're soldiers doing their morning drills in the morning and two guards contantly standing guard duty in front of the main entrance, and having to show your entrance pass every time you go in. Once I saw a staff coming out of the main hospital building while I was wandering around in hospital scrubs and pushing a surgery cart (empty) and I was sharply reminded that oh yes, I was living in a hospital.

Fun things.
End of the second long entry. Still present? Mentally all there? Good.

Recap: Another Aeroplane

So, I am awake and it's currently 9: 30 at night in Beijing, which means I have about two hours before I get groggy again. Ready for a long entry? Here it comes:

Let's see, first of all I'm going to say that I feel much better already, though I don't believe recovering from jet-lag will be that easy for me this time. The Wednesday before my flight (last Wed) I caught something and my temperature spiked up to over 40C and I got a mild case of something-or-the-other-itis (respiratory, as usual) and I was sick all the way till Friday. Didn't sleep too well Saturday night, and there was a hurricane making landfall in southern China at that point that would affect Shanghai and Beijing, so our flight was delayed at Beijing, then at Shanghai for quite a while, if nothing else but because the flights from the previous day have to take off first when the weather lets up a break before we can. Priorities, you see. Took 5 minute cat-naps for an hour and was awake for all the rest of the flight--which reminds me to say--getting airplane rides while your nose is stuffed is hell to your ears, I had ear aches during the entire de-acceleration. But, back to the 'original story', I didn't get too much rest so yesterday, when we got home at 6 in the evening, my brain was "frying and sputtering in my head."

Didn't do much in the time I was in Beijing, but there are a lot of memories I'd like to share, especially since with the rate and way the things are happening over there, that's all they'll be soon--memories. I have to make a note of my grandmother (maternal)'s outdated air conditioner, which sounded EXACTLY like Darth Vader (with occasional wheezing only) when you turn it on, so that when I woke up to it on my first night there I had a very surreal moment. Also, the same grandma's 4'o clock (a flower), which blooms once at six AM and once at six PM, which therefore makes me wonder if the person who named it 4'o clock had taken into account time difference. Flowers with a jet-lag? I think not.

Both of my grandmas seemed quite obsessed about feeding me though, on retrospect, I think feeding people is a universal grandma thing. My grandma (paternal) also seem to have a thing for plastic plants. There's a pot of plastic angel-wings on top of her fridge which bothers me a lot. I don't know why either. Grandma (p)'s place also uses this weird herbal toothpaste which is called bamboo something (forgot), which tasted like...like...jasmine tea with sugar, salt, and peppermint mixed in. Yes I used it. Yes it was strange. I tried not to taste it too much, but it was difficult. Didn't know they make SALTY toothpaste, honestly. Saw all of my aunts and uncles and nearly all of my cousins. My time there feels like there is at least one person talking to me at any point in time when I'm awake and not in the bathroom or shower (sometimes even when I'm trying to sleep!). The attention-thing is very trying especially since I was playing the part of the cheerful, talkative granddaughter (managed to fool everyone for three weeks, psychologically drained, but very proud of myself). Way too much attention. WAY too much. The first I wanted to do when I got home was to lock myself in my room and stay there for 24 hours, but since today is Monday and both of my parents have to work (no breaks for jet-lag, isn't that awful?), I pretty much have my wish.

First dose of rants after a long break. How does it feel?
You didn't have to read it all, you know. (But of course, most of you who have the url to this place probably did.)

Annoucement: Hello

am back. how has everyone been?

absolutely exhausted right now, please don't call today or tomorrow as will be sleeping, unpacking, sleeping, cleaning, sleeping, catching up with mail, sleeping and therefore will not answer phone. will go online when able to, though probably not till tuesday.

must sleep now. sorry, long post all of next week, but not today.