Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Shopping Therapy Rocks On
Si In and Marc are in town (their first mainland trip yay!) so I met up with them on Market St. after they wandered Chinatown. I hustled them to the different shops/Westfield and they had a blast! Or I hope they did. Si In was particularly excited about Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, H&M, and Forever 21 (because it is 3 stories). She also managed to find things at Marshall's and Urban Outfitters. Marc got something at North Face before I even met up with them and at B&BW.
I took them to Blondie's for pizza (snack) and we later yelped a good Vietnamese place on Howard St. since pho is a mutual good choice for everyone.
Happy is me who gets a shopping buddy. H&M just had a new collection from Matthew Williamson come out last Thursday so I was way stoked about checking out the new season in general. I found lots of stuff I liked but ended up with 4 that actually looked good. Other than sticking to my normal darks and cools (and the occasional neutral), I added a top that's a splash of this summer's hot sizzling color, a vibrant orange. It's not tacky, I promise. And this is coming from someone who has actively avoided yellow and orange in pretty much anything I own. Divided (H&M) had a really awesome grey/silver skirt that looks edgy (slightly punk) and that's something I've always admired but never had the guts to try so now I'm trying it. I ended up purchasing it and I'm going to figure out an outfit with it! I bought one thing at Urban Outfitters and it's a slouchy shirt that my group in Styling last quarter used for one of the outfits. It has a happy face and says "Oui" on it. Very adorable. Now my mission is belts. I really need an assortment of belts.
I took them to Blondie's for pizza (snack) and we later yelped a good Vietnamese place on Howard St. since pho is a mutual good choice for everyone.
Happy is me who gets a shopping buddy. H&M just had a new collection from Matthew Williamson come out last Thursday so I was way stoked about checking out the new season in general. I found lots of stuff I liked but ended up with 4 that actually looked good. Other than sticking to my normal darks and cools (and the occasional neutral), I added a top that's a splash of this summer's hot sizzling color, a vibrant orange. It's not tacky, I promise. And this is coming from someone who has actively avoided yellow and orange in pretty much anything I own. Divided (H&M) had a really awesome grey/silver skirt that looks edgy (slightly punk) and that's something I've always admired but never had the guts to try so now I'm trying it. I ended up purchasing it and I'm going to figure out an outfit with it! I bought one thing at Urban Outfitters and it's a slouchy shirt that my group in Styling last quarter used for one of the outfits. It has a happy face and says "Oui" on it. Very adorable. Now my mission is belts. I really need an assortment of belts.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Dollhouse Lives On!
Fox network execs have officially renewed the show Dollhouse by the brilliant Joss Whedon as of today, though sources leaked the news last Friday. Dollhouse fans are celebrating like mad mofos.
Joss Whedon on renewal: http://tinyurl.com/pt4jj8
Kevin Reilly of Fox did somewhat jokingly mention that had Dollhouse been canceled, there would've been 110,000,000 angry fan mail awaiting them: http://tinyurl.com/oy8hwm
All in all, I'm very pleased with this turn of events!
Joss Whedon on renewal: http://tinyurl.com/pt4jj8
Kevin Reilly of Fox did somewhat jokingly mention that had Dollhouse been canceled, there would've been 110,000,000 angry fan mail awaiting them: http://tinyurl.com/oy8hwm
All in all, I'm very pleased with this turn of events!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Only You Get the Right
What's that phenomenon where you can rage about your family/friends but as soon as someone else (i.e. outsider) does it, you hurl yourself at them as if they were about to score a touchdown?
It's kind of like a, "I'm the only one that's allowed to call so & so a big dipwit moron!" Almost territorial, isn't it?
And it's mighty hard to shake loose.
It's kind of like a, "I'm the only one that's allowed to call so & so a big dipwit moron!" Almost territorial, isn't it?
And it's mighty hard to shake loose.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Music Resonates
"I’ve got to find a freedom that’s promised me
Freedom from our struggles and our misery
Freedom is all we need
To heal the pain of history
Each day when the sun shines upon my eyes
It fills me with love, makes me feel alive
I’m saving it up for a rainy day
When there’s no light to guide my way
Gotta find a freedom that’s promised me
Freedom from our struggles and our misery
Freedom is all we need
To heal the pain of history"
From Dollhouse season 1, episode 3
Lyrics by Jed Whedon
Video: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/TS5niKuVQUk/
Freedom from our struggles and our misery
Freedom is all we need
To heal the pain of history
Each day when the sun shines upon my eyes
It fills me with love, makes me feel alive
I’m saving it up for a rainy day
When there’s no light to guide my way
Gotta find a freedom that’s promised me
Freedom from our struggles and our misery
Freedom is all we need
To heal the pain of history"
From Dollhouse season 1, episode 3
Lyrics by Jed Whedon
Video: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/TS5niKuVQUk/
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Groceries ARE Gratifying
Sheltered. Or maybe pampered is a better word. Either way, I don't like both of those words but I suppose "pampered" could've been somewhat readily applied to me. The "me" before I left home for the first time at age 19 to delve into a delicious summer in romantic Paris, France. The "me" before bravely stepping forward into a semester in London, England.
I've always been fairly lucky in the way of chores, considering how I was never "forced" to do much, though I assure anyone in doubt that I knew HOW to do them. (And if I didn't, I was in complete confidence that I could quickly learn.) The only things I've really cooked were rice, instant ramen, and eggs. My parents were direly disdainful of my abilities, or lack thereof. They loudly proclaimed that there was no way I'd ever survive on my own. I heartily tuned them out and knew that I was long past time to be on my own and that what I didn't know, I could figure out.
In essence, this fostered also a feeling of enforced dependence. If you weren't about to force me to do something, I'm not going to do them, not once I know they'll be done anyway. Sorry, but that's the truth of the story. Thus, I never knew how it felt to have complete control over what I wanted to eat, and when I would have that set of clothes cleaned or bedsheets laundered.
That first time I got to go to a grocery store by myself and truly was about to buy food for real meals? Vast. Simply vast. It still is. I still feel like going to a grocery store is a fun adventure and not a dried-up chore to be crossed off the list. Ice cream. Salad. Wild Alaskan Cod. Whatever I feel like should be in my diet and on this week's recipe, I put on my list. And I go and get it. And even if it takes lugging heavy bags of canned chowder up a steep hill that I need to stop twice to catch my breath, it is worth every bead of sweat.
Groceries have never been so gratifying.
I've always been fairly lucky in the way of chores, considering how I was never "forced" to do much, though I assure anyone in doubt that I knew HOW to do them. (And if I didn't, I was in complete confidence that I could quickly learn.) The only things I've really cooked were rice, instant ramen, and eggs. My parents were direly disdainful of my abilities, or lack thereof. They loudly proclaimed that there was no way I'd ever survive on my own. I heartily tuned them out and knew that I was long past time to be on my own and that what I didn't know, I could figure out.
In essence, this fostered also a feeling of enforced dependence. If you weren't about to force me to do something, I'm not going to do them, not once I know they'll be done anyway. Sorry, but that's the truth of the story. Thus, I never knew how it felt to have complete control over what I wanted to eat, and when I would have that set of clothes cleaned or bedsheets laundered.
That first time I got to go to a grocery store by myself and truly was about to buy food for real meals? Vast. Simply vast. It still is. I still feel like going to a grocery store is a fun adventure and not a dried-up chore to be crossed off the list. Ice cream. Salad. Wild Alaskan Cod. Whatever I feel like should be in my diet and on this week's recipe, I put on my list. And I go and get it. And even if it takes lugging heavy bags of canned chowder up a steep hill that I need to stop twice to catch my breath, it is worth every bead of sweat.
Groceries have never been so gratifying.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
No Words For It
What do you do with that feeling that sits inside you, yearning to be let out, but so remote that even you can't describe it?
It's inexplicably unexplainable. Perhaps it is my own lack of words and my own lack of coherency that fails me here, but I do know I'm not alone in feeling it. What is it that words cannot describe? It is a mixture of not one, not two, but several emotions wrapped up in a ball of enigma, though perhaps that's a little too poetic for something that seems lazier than the romantic ideal of mystery and discovery.
In any case, where is the invented word for this inexplicable feeling? Is it unattainable? It surely cannot be impossible, for if it is, it should not exist. For there's a theory that language determines (or so largely influences) one's culture, and if there is no word for it, does it really exist? What happens when one is of more than one culture? I, myself, have each foot stepped into American and Chinese cultures...and maybe another limb dipped into Hawaii culture. I can't say I'm fully grounded in any. There have definitely been times when I strive to describe something that fully exists as tangible as anything else in either language, such as a Chinese concept of a body ailment that sounds completely absurd in English or instead maybe the English word for passion that sounds altogether too romantic for my usage. Perhaps the same problem lies here, when I try to describe that feeling that fleetingly flits away from me when my spiritual fingers try to grab at it.
In any case, I suppose I must accept it for now...
It's inexplicably unexplainable. Perhaps it is my own lack of words and my own lack of coherency that fails me here, but I do know I'm not alone in feeling it. What is it that words cannot describe? It is a mixture of not one, not two, but several emotions wrapped up in a ball of enigma, though perhaps that's a little too poetic for something that seems lazier than the romantic ideal of mystery and discovery.
In any case, where is the invented word for this inexplicable feeling? Is it unattainable? It surely cannot be impossible, for if it is, it should not exist. For there's a theory that language determines (or so largely influences) one's culture, and if there is no word for it, does it really exist? What happens when one is of more than one culture? I, myself, have each foot stepped into American and Chinese cultures...and maybe another limb dipped into Hawaii culture. I can't say I'm fully grounded in any. There have definitely been times when I strive to describe something that fully exists as tangible as anything else in either language, such as a Chinese concept of a body ailment that sounds completely absurd in English or instead maybe the English word for passion that sounds altogether too romantic for my usage. Perhaps the same problem lies here, when I try to describe that feeling that fleetingly flits away from me when my spiritual fingers try to grab at it.
In any case, I suppose I must accept it for now...
Monday, May 4, 2009
I Can't Let Go
For a long time, I've been slightly proud of the fact that for the most part, I do accept people the way they are. This is because I believe extremely in respecting everyone's right to make their own choices and/or mistakes. Of course, I am human and thus, biased, so I will toss in my 2 cents (a nickel, even) often enough. And even though there are flaws that I grow to see in people around me, I learn to accept them, because it is part of who they are. A person without flaws would just be a boring person. Honestly, who am I to request people change their ways just to suit me? I am positive I have just as many annoying ticks that bug people. In that way, I'm content to live and let live.
It bothers me, realizing recently, that I can't let go of some people's "quirks"...whether because these very "quirks" fly in the face of my principles or because they crush my values and beliefs into nothingness. Maybe both. I keep asking myself if I will truly ever be able to accept these people as they are because this is their package and I should respect it. But, somehow, I feel that there must be a resolution and a mutual compromise, or I will always be at a standstill. One of us will always have to give in, then feeling resentful for it. The other, even having "won" the principle contest, will feel like s/he's lost something, even if it's that intangible thing. How do two people, at complete opposite spectrums, come to agreement? Is it even possible?
One can hope...
It bothers me, realizing recently, that I can't let go of some people's "quirks"...whether because these very "quirks" fly in the face of my principles or because they crush my values and beliefs into nothingness. Maybe both. I keep asking myself if I will truly ever be able to accept these people as they are because this is their package and I should respect it. But, somehow, I feel that there must be a resolution and a mutual compromise, or I will always be at a standstill. One of us will always have to give in, then feeling resentful for it. The other, even having "won" the principle contest, will feel like s/he's lost something, even if it's that intangible thing. How do two people, at complete opposite spectrums, come to agreement? Is it even possible?
One can hope...
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