Archive for January 2011

/

1 Skit, 2 Eddies, and 3 Projects in March

Back in high school, my friends and I use to have these journals that we would pass around with each other every week. So one week I would have Ting's journal, and she would have Kirsten's, and Kirsten would have mine, etc. Then we would spend the week writing notes to each other.


For example, I would write, "Dear Ting, today in history class my teacher's breath smelled bad." (This is true, my history teacher's breath would often stink and he would talk really close to you if you sat in front of the class.)

It was cute, and I still have them today. I became obsessed with them and wrote something everyday (kind of like how I blog very often ...), whereas everyone else would write something once a week. I guess it was because of this that I became known as somewhat of a writer, and everyone just assumed I was good at writing because I did it so often.

So today I went to the Church at Sheppard (my dad is gone for two weeks on some trip, more on this later) and sister Shirley approached me. She told me that they are having an event for kids in March, and as she and some other people were writing skits for the kids, my name came up.

She said, "Then your name came up and people said you were good at writing, I was wondering if you wanted to help out with writing the skit?"

I was like, "Ok! I'll also bake cookies!" (A while back in December I employed Amy Tang into helping me bake cookies for the kids for the Church and then made Hannah help me decorate them because sister Jane asked me to bake cookies. So uh, Amy Tang and Hannah you're helping me again this time, lol.)

I really don't know why people think I'm good at writing. I use to think I was good at writing, until I went to U of T and realized how much I sucked. And I don't know why I volunteered to bake cookies without her asking me to. Man ... me and my big mouth. I guess I just assumed she wanted me to bake cookies since apparently everyone thinks I bake because I took a lot of pictures of food. I suppose people assuming I can bake is like them assuming I can write well. (I really cannot bake, one time in the summer I made muffins for this bbq and forgot to add sugar, then while I was making the Domo Kun cookies I added too much salt.)

Anyway, it's nice to know that people can rely on me when they need me. It's also nice to know that people think I am talented when ... I'm just obsessive. (Like I've mentioned before, I have this obsessive need to narrate my life.)

Now that I think about it, there are a lot of things going on in March ...
1) The skit and baking
2) My mini photograph presentation with Tabitha
3) First day of spring
4) All my papers are due in March

Moving on: Matt Gip just recently mentioned this in his blog and it reminded me about something I forgot to blog about: It's really a small world.

The other night during Snowflake Soiree, I met this guy named Eddie (this is another Eddie, he's different from the Eddie who gave me the Bible.) who looked like he was still in high school but is actually in 2nd year at Ryerson for Biology. It turns out, Eddie went to Vaughan Secondary School as well AND lives within walking distance from me, AND we have some mutual friends AND works at the Swiss Chalet beside where I work.

Small world huh?

Basically, the Eddie who gave me the Bible, has a friend named Marcus, who went to Ryerson in his first year and switched out in his second year and is now in the same program as the Eddie who gave me the Bible. Marcus met Eddie who went to Vaughan S.S. at Ryerson and kept in touch. Marcus started coming to LH through the Eddie who gave me the Bible and brought Eddie who went to Vaughan S.S. to the Snowflake Soiree and that's how we met, but it's really strange how Marcus' Eddie lives right beside me and went to the same high school as me. SMALL WORLD.

So in short, Eddie has a Marcus and Marcus has an Eddie.

This is just like how Charlene, Annabelle's coworker, and Ariel have mutual high school friends from China, because you know, China is such a small place (I'm being sarcastic).

Next thing you know, I'll meet someone from my old elementary school from Philippines. That'd be pretty cool actually.

Permalink 6 Comments

/

Snowflake Soiree and Among Other Things

Tonight, we had a dinner event called the Snowflake Soiree, which I would say was successful. I would have to admit that planning it was a bit stressful, but it all worked out in the end! Yesterday night, I was in an extremely bad mood so I wrote this extremely depressing blog post (thankfully I never posted it) because I felt like there were too many things that needed to get done that wasn't getting done.


But I really didn't have anything to worry about (I shouldn't have been worried in the first place) since everything worked out for the best in the end.

I'm really pleased since I got a Bible. Basically, during dinner we had raffle prizes for random people, and Eddie won a Bible and Tim Hortons gift card from the raffle draw. At the end of the night, he said he didn't want the Tim Hortons gift card so I grabbed it from him before Hannah could (sorry Hannah, I was being selfish) and then he said he didn't need the Bible so I grabbed that one from him instead of the gift card (which went to Hannah, so I guess it all worked out for the best? Heh).

Before this, I really didn't own a Bible. I know, this sounds weird to hear. All I had was that small New Testament Bible I got on clubs day from C4C.

The reason I don't own one kind of a long story. Before the Church split, I had one but I got it wet so the pages got stuck together. Then, I kind of stopped going to Church for a while afterwards, so I never bothered to buy a new one. When I started to regularly attend the meetings again, I didn't see the need to buy one for myself because I had that free Bible from clubs day.

Also, Colin (HIHI COLIN) won a Bible as well, so now we have the same Bible. Colin, you better be reading it.

So now that the Snowflake Soiree is done, I can cross that off my list and move on to my next project on my list.

Last point: Often, when we meet someone new, the general thought is, "I wonder what I can get from this person," otherwise we wouldn't bother continuing the friendship. It may be that we can get a good time out of this person, or a favor, or just basic human companionship.

Instead, our thought should be, "I wonder how I can help and contribute to this person's life." So instead of just wanting friendship from this person, we should be a friend to this person, or if we want a favor from this person, contribute a favor to this person, and this way, you will be happy.

This is kind like that saying, "the more you give the better you'll feel," type thing. The Metro has basically been printing out articles on 'happiness' lately, which made me wonder whether people in today's society need to learn to be 'happy.'

If that's the case, I figured I should as well share my on tidbit on 'how to be happy.'

Word of caution: before contributing to someone else's life, make sure that that person will reciprocate and want your contribution in the first place, or else you'll just end up unhappy that you wasted your time and effort on this person. True story.

Permalink Leave a comment

/

Beware: Reading this post will waste exactly 1 minute of your life

Lately, I feel like I know everything about what people are doing, but nothing exciting is happening to me personally. I guess this is what I had been asking for, I had always just wanted to be a bystander observing the funny things people do and listen to the funny things people say. But sometimes, just being a bystander gets a little boring. I don't want to do anything though, because I feel like it's not my turn do do anything.


I think I'm making no sense, but that's ok because I think you guys are used to that by now.

The other day I just realized that my friend, Liz, is 25. I thought she was younger than me since she said she was in 2nd year and she looked younger than I did. She's one of those girls who are extremely fashionable and can get away with winged blue eye liner. She dresses in a very chic modern way that's not flashy but looks put together and always has antique looking rings and necklaces. And to top it off, she has a really impressive nail polish collection.

I don't know why I'm mentioning my girl crush to you guys, I guess it's because it's a mystery to me how she can stay so fashionable all the time. Due to the recent incident with the hydrogen peroxide and because of the weather, I've been donning my glasses, big puffy sweaters and have been tying my hair in an un-excusable bun lately. I am starting to feel very frumpy and unattractive (not that I had much to work with in the first place).

That's it ... I have to start wearing my contact lenses again.
Frumpy Ann = Lazy Ann (your clothes portrays your attitude and mood)
Ok, this is such a useless post, I don't even know why I'm writing this. This is just me talking to myself at midnight.

Permalink Leave a comment

/

How Not to Act Needy in a Relationship

Lately I feel like I've been saying sorry to a lot of people for ignoring them. One of these people being Mona.

Basically, I stopped talking to Mona for a while, which I thought was no big deal because we're just friends, and I really didn't think the world would stop if I suddenly didn't text her for one day. Well this one day turned into a week which turned into a month, and before I knew it, she had turned this entire thing into something much more of a big deal than it's suppose to be.

She told me the other day that she was hurt from the fact that I had ignored her, and that she didn't care for having many friends in the first place because she was content with the one friend she had.

DUDE, I felt so guilty. First of all, I didn't realize I was her only friend, which I guess I should have known because she never mentioned talking to anyone else other than the guys she was dating at the time. And secondly, if I knew that she was so emotionally dependent on me, then I wouldn't have put our friendship on hold so casually.

I guess, for her, the world did kind of stop when I didn't talk to her for that one day (this sounds extremely cheesy). I really don't know where to go from here. I feel like we're in this relationship where I'm the guy and she's the needy girlfriend and no matter how many times I say sorry she just keeps bringing up the problem in this 'relationship' again and again and won't accept my apology.

Then she keeps on making up plans, which actually, now that I think about it, sounds a lot like dates. She said she wanted to meet up next week, so I said ok. Then she realized that she hasn't fully forgiven me, so she cancels our 'date' next week. Then she said she wanted to go to Montreal during reading week to which I say "we'll see" and she goes "I didn't mention it for no reason!" Then decides she's mad at me again.

I'm a girl and I don't even understand her. I can totally sympathize with how guys must feel. It's like, the more she does these kinds of things, the less about her antics and feelings.

I think I'm suppose to learn a lesson from this: How not to act needy in a relationship.

@*#&*(@#H!!!

Ok, I will take deep breaths and go back to reading Hamlet.

Permalink Leave a comment

/

200th Post!

Hey Guys! This is my 200th blog post - whoooo. This is a record for me, I've never had 200 posts in one blog alone before. To celebrate, I'm going to recount the stupid thing I did today:


As you guys all know, I am half blind without my contacts/glasses, which isn't so bad because sometimes I like seeing the world blurry - ignorance is bliss. The other day, I had been wearing my contacts for more than 12 hours and my eyes were getting weary. I decided to take them off but since I didn't have contact lens solution with me, I just let them soak in water.

Today, when I decided to put them on, I grabbed the nearest bottle of solution and rinsed my contact lenses a bit before popping them on. Have you guys ever been in so much pain that you don't know what to do besides wail your arms around, hoping that useless motion would ease the pain? That's what happened. My eyes BURNED. I don't even know how I managed it, but I took the contact lens out and rinsed my eyes with water.

Then, I figured that the reason my contacts hurt so much when I put them on was because of the fact that I had let them soak in water, so I rinsed them again with the solution and popped them on again, only this time when my eyes burned I popped them out right away.

Annabelle works at an optometric clinic, so she's savvy with contact lenses. I asked her what water did to contact lenses, and she said that it didn't do much besides inadequately cleaning it, and asked why my right eye was blood shot. I told her the story and she laughed her head off at me.

Basically, the bottle of contact lens solution that I had been using had HYDROGEN PEROXIDE, some form of bleach and crazy contact lens solution germaphobes use because it cleans your contact lenses better than just regular contact lens solutions. You're suppose to leave your contact lens in the solution for at least six hours before using them again.

Hydrogen peroxide is no joke, my sister and I use to dye our hair with hydrogen peroxide because it bleached your hair a lighter shade. One time we used two bottles and Annabelle's hair turned orange. Knowing this, I became paranoid that I would go blind, but Annabelle assured me that I wouldn't loose sight in my right eye. Grrr, you better be right AB, you better be right ...

I had no choice but to wear glasses to work. By this point, my eye was so red it looked like I had been crying my eye out, I couldn't look anyone in the eye less they question me and I would be forced to recount this unpleasant story to them. Anyway, there's this guy at work who's good looking because he always wears a suit, and unfortunately he JUST HAD to be working today. Dear Lord, whyyy me, he's a manger and I work right beside the office so I kept on running into him and having avoid eye contact. He probably thinks I'm really weird now (which really isn't that far from the truth anyway).

Oh, and this guy is one of those guys who you think is good looking but is impassable. Do you guys know what I mean? It's like, just because I think he's good looking doesn't mean anything can ever happen due to various reasons. For me it's because he smokes a wayyy too much and drinks wayyy too much. The only admirable thing about him is that he works in retail. I highly respect people who work in retail because we are tough, and can handle a higher than normal amount of crap from people.

And speaking of guys who smoke, why is it that I always have bad luck with these type of guys? I always end up thinking guys who smoke as good looking before even finding out they're smokers. (Note: this is different from a crush, thinking someone is good looking does not mean you have a crush on them.)

Moving on:

So my aunt arrived from Vancouver yesterday. She comes once a year for a business conference to Toronto and stays with my Grandparents. We had a big clan gathering tonight, and the theme of tonight was Filipino food with a hint of Vietnamese food and cheesecake. I may have eaten too much once again.

My aunt is my mom's younger sister. She sounds and looks a bit like that girl from Boys Before Flowers, the Korean Drama, and is probably the nicest and most thoughtful person I know of. It's really weird, because her personality and my mom's personalities are complete opposites.

I was in the kitchen eating with her and my great aunt, who is only 40 something and is extremely funny, and we started talking about how my uncle, Joash, who is actually younger than me (the generations in my family is messed up) makes a lot of girls cry. Basically, Joash is ... er ... let's just say that he goes out with a lot of girls, and according to my great aunt, it's because "He's just friendly with everyone."

My great aunt and I were listing his past girlfriends when my aunt turns to me and says "Ann Ann how about your boyfriend?"

I blurt out, "I don't have a boyfriend!" a little too quickly, which registered as a lie to them.

"Ohh, don't lie to us! Everyone knows you have a boyfriend, the news has even reached the Philippines." My great aunt says.

Pause. What? My relatives in Philippines thinks I have a boyfriend?

"I think you're mistaking me for Annabelle." I say in defense.

"No, no, Annabelle is different, we know about her. We're talking about your boyfriend." My great aunt says.

I don't remember how I got out of this topic, I think I just blurted something about Joash's womanizing ways. This is actually kind of funny, I don't know where they got the idea that I even have a boyfriend. I think they might be talking about Leo (Hi Leo!) but I don't even know how they found out about that, unless a little unknown birdy told them.

This could either be an advantage or disadvantage to me:

Advantage: They won't try and set me up with some random fob from Philippines.
Disadvantage: They won't try and set me up with some random fob from Philippines.

This is hard. I've always wanted to marry someone from Philippines because I love Filipino food wayyy too much and this way I can actually understand what they're saying.

I just realized that I've talked wayyy too much about guys in this post. Woops. Maybe it's just because Valentines day is coming up and I've been thinking ways of how to anti-celebrate Valentines day this year. (I contemplated of making paper hearts, then tear them apart and then plaster their broken pieces all over the place as decoration.)

Anyway, happy 200th post for me! (Not whether this is a good thing or not.)

Permalink 2 Comments

/

Of Wisdom, Fire Ants in Peru and Singing Badly

Grr, from time to time my siblings and I would have a text out. I just recieved a text from Aaron, who's literally just downstairs, asking me to take care of the rabbit because apparently I don't care enough. I am very tempted in responding by saying "Well Aaron, I'd like to see you clean the bathroom for once." But I will be the bigger person and just ignore his text. Is it weird that my siblings and I can't confront each other face to face like we used to when we were kids? Maybe it's because they know I can beat them up. (Heh)


- Deep breath, forgetting about my stupid, little brother now ... -

Today was very weird. I woke up really early in the morning to go to work when I heard my mom talking to my sister in her room. I decided to eavesdropped a bit. Lately, Annabelle has been looking for a summer position with a professor, and once she mentioned that her professor might get a grant and take a couple of students with her to Peru and conduct a research on ants (apparently these ants are fierce, they burn holes through trees.) So when I heard Annabelle telling my mom that she got a job, I assumed that it was the summer position in Peru with the ants.

So I went to work, and I was contemplating what the summer would be like without Annabelle the entire time. Naturally, I was extremely envious of her, but also, I knew that I'd miss her very much.

After my shift, Annabelle barged in my room and told me happily that she got a job.

Me: Yeah, I heard you guys this morning. How long is it for?

Annabelle: 15-17 weeks!

Me: WHAT THAT LONG?!? [I paused and thought of a way I could trump her trip to Peru.] That's it, I'm moving out while you're gone.

Annabelle: Why?! I'm only going to work.

Me: Yeah, in for 15-17 weeks! What am I going to do while you're gone?

Annabelle: Gone? I'm not going anywhere ... I got a job!

Me: In Peru.

Annabelle: What? Peru?! I got a job at Sick Kids, where did you get Peru from?

Me: Woops, I just assumed ...

Anyway, that's the end of that. She's not going to Peru, she just got a position at Sick Kids. Man, I jump into conclusions way too quickly.

Also, I've had a good reminder today that God doesn't have a cookie cutter plan for everyone. By this, I mean that he doesn't plan everyone's life the same way, everyone will have different experiences. We shouldn't demand an answer right away, we should ask for wisdom instead. It's like, you shouldn't flip a coin and say "Ok God, if it lands on heads, I will go to Peru in the summer. If it lands on tail, I will go to Germany," since that's borderline superstition. By asking for wisdom from Him, we will learn to make the right decision. An example of this would the Solomon, who received God's wisdom, and look at how he ended up: he was considered the wisest king.

James 1:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

I don't think anyone will be absolutely sure of God's specific individual will, but we should just continue asking for wisdom. This kind of reminds me of the quote:

"My life has a superb cast, but I can't figure out the plot."

I was also 'playing the guitar today' to relax a bit, since for some reason, I find singing and strumming really, really badly to myself relaxing.

- Oh yeah, I'm going to diverge a bit. Yesterday, I admitted that I wish I could sing. Singing is just one of those things that I truly cannot do, and I always wanted to be able to sing so that I could randomly burst into song whenever I want and not be made fun of because then I'd sound awesome. True story. -

Ok, so back to my point. I was 'playing the guitar' and singing really badly when I came across a song in this old song book that I use to sing a lot (complete with actions.) The song is this:

From my spirit, when I'm sensing a supply
Of God's speaking, from a fount that ne'er runs dry,
And within me comes a fresh and sweet supply,
Then I've got to open up and water you.

This just reminded me of what happened yesterday, when I had issues speaking up in a group (admittedly, this blog post is a kind of atonement for yesterday), basically, when you speak up and share about your own experiences, you end up supplying other people, and it's not just of yourself, but it's from God.

So things I need God's wisdom with:
1) Dealing with my brother
2) To deal with what others expect of me at lh.

Permalink Leave a comment

/

Cupcake Pictures

Here are some cupcake pictures. I ate a bunch of them afterwards, they were too good to resist, plus they were freshly baked.

Cupcakes are fantastic, they make everyone happy, even when you're just staring at a picture of it. I know I have a lot of pictures of food but surprisingly enough, my pictures of food gets the fastest amount of views on flickr (the Jewish New Year's Honey Cake gets a lot of views). I think it just wets everyone's appetite.

We also made Cookies and Cream Cheesecake cupcakes for LH today, I didn't eat any but people have told me they were good.

Oh, and I don't know if you guys know this, but you can click on the pictures for a larger view.














The reason I don't mind putting up pictures on my blog and flickr is because only certain people know about it, and I want to share my pictures with those people ... which is why I'm very uncertain about sharing my pictures with a wider audience ... it just seems weird.

Posted in

Permalink Leave a comment

/

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar

Usually, when I take the 105 bus home at night I run into someone I know from high school, most of the time it's either Mamta, Armin or Abdi (in the afternoon it's a different set of people).


Today, Annabelle and I ran into Abdi. He's a really interesting person, his sister, Safia and I were in same African Literature class last year. I'm not completely sure what he's studying at U of T, but there's a good chance that it's Political Science. (Safia is majoring in African studies, how cool is that?!? But I guess it's the same thing as me minoring in East Asian Studies.)

Abdi is extremely intellectual, he's very well informed on what seems like everything, which is really impressive and intimidating at times. You would have never guessed that he'd be so intellectual just by looking at him though, since his usual attire consists of baggy pants and long t-shirts (in the winter it's topped of with a big, intimidating black jacket). This just teaches you not to judge someone by how they look.

So we were on the bus, when Abdi brings up the fact that he recently saw Lion king 1 and 2. I asked why, and he said it was because he's a big fan of Shakespeare and Lion king 1 was based on Hamlet (this is new news to me). I guess I shouldn't have been, but I was very surprised to hear that he was a fan of Shakky.

I asked him what his favourite play was, and he answered, to my disappointment: Hamlet and Macbeth. There's nothing wrong with Hamlet and Macbeth, it's just that they're the type of plays that are very typical to read/watch on stage, I had expected Abdi to impress me by saying "All of the historical plays!" or "Psh, his plays are good, but his sonnets are better."

I then told him that lately, I've been leaning towards Julius Caesar just because Mark Antony was such an interesting character.

To which Abdi replies: "Not really, he's not that interesting."

WHAT. I didn't defend Mark Antony then and there because I didn't have my Shakky anthology handy with me, if I did I would have pulled it out in defense of good rhetoric. Our conversation then drifted away from Shakespeare, which means, I will have to defend Mark Antony here.

Ann's Shakky lesson #2: The Tragedy of Julius Caesar

Basically, before reading this play, the one famous line from it that I knew by heart was "Et tu, Brute?" which means, "And you, Brutus?"

Brutus and Caesar were friends, and when Julius Caesar saw Brutus conspiring against him and was one of his murders, he stopped defending himself. Et tu, Brute? were his last words, which to me just means the ultimate betrayal of friendship.

BUT apparently, if you guys really want to impress your friends, a more famous line in Julius Caesar (I was unaware of this) is, "Beware the ides of March."

It was a soothsayer (fortune teller) who told Caesar to be beware of the ides of March, which is basically the 15th of March, the day that Brutus would betray and help with his murder.

This is how it'll play out:

You: [in a creepy voice] Beware the ides of March!

Friend: Wth?

You: My dear uncultured friend, the ides of March is March 15, the day Julius Caesar was murdered by his senators, which includes his dear, dear friend, Brutus.

Friend: Not this Shakespeare crap again!

You: I'm just trying to bring a little culture into your life, I noticed that you've been reading a lot of Twilight lately.

Friend: That's it, no one insults my Edward. I'm unfriending you on facebook!

You: Et tu, Brute!

Oh right, and the reason I'm such a big fan of Mark Antony is because he thinks really quickly and is impulsive, he knows how to gain support and is not deceitful like Brutus. Plus, Antony is extremely rhetoric, which means he gets the best lines in the play.

This is what Antony says to Caesar's dead body:
O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
that I am meek and gentle with these BUTCHERS.

He says a whole speech to Caesar's dead body, which includes images of mothers smiling when their infants are cut into pieces. Although he's very graphic, he knows the right words to say to get your attention and to get the meaning across.

Ok, this is the last point. If you guys are wondering, the toughest person in Julius Caesar is not Brutus or Antony, but Portia, Brutus' wife. She basically stabbed herself in her thigh to get his attention and dies by swallowing HOT COALS. Painful and insane? Yes.

Sorry this has been a long rant about Shakky. Time to diverge:

I've been thinking a lot about Jesus Awareness Week lately (it starts this Friday on campus) and I've been feeling bad that I'm not making myself involved somehow. After reading Ariel's blog post today (Hi Ariel!) I decided that starting Friday (er, make that Saturday) I will dedicate a week of my 365 pictures to Jesus Awareness Week.

I told Annabelle this, and these are the ideas she gave me to take a picture of:
-Trumpets (Where am I going to find this!)
-A leper (B/c they're so handy to find in the streets of Toronto)
-Sheep (Maybe sheep meat?)
-Water (Doable)
-Linen in a tomb (Cuz this is just in the backyard)
-Blood (Shall I cut myself?)
-Oil (Doable)
-5 fishes and a loaf of bred (Or was it five loafs and one fish? I can never remember)

Obviously, most of her ideas are not possible. What I was basically trying to get at were subtle images that would prompt you to think of Jesus. I'll have to think more about this tomorrow.

Permalink 1 Comment

/

Trivial Pursuit

These are Trivial Pursuit chips.

This is how I took the picture. I took it on the dining table because it's right beside the window, which means I would get the best lighting. That's a bottle of Mang Thomas in the background.

I had to paper clip the pages together.











This picture a day thing is turning out to be a very relaxing hobby, and it really doesn't take that long to do. Actually, it's just making me use my time more productively, i.e. instead of those wasted hours on fb stalking people, I take pictures instead. The last time I've checked the homepage on fb seems forever ago ...

Posted in

Permalink Leave a comment

/

Apples

One time, a complete stranger commented and said that Annabelle and I were like a fruit cut in half because we looked so alike. I decided to take a picture of an apple cut in half, problem was that all the pictures looked awesome to me. I couldn't put them all up on flickr, so I decided to put them up here instead.


I used a lavender coloured paper from that designer paper pad I got from Michael's.

Faded.

I flipped the picture around so that it'd look trippy. Wasn't as successful as I had imagined.


This is the reject birds eye view of the final one I put on flickr.

The last two are untouched:

Man, I have to stop taking pictures of food.

Posted in

Permalink Leave a comment

/

Talking Cure

Freud has this theory called the Talking Cure. The very basic gist of it is that talking about your thoughts, and in a way fictionalizing it, helps atone for the things in your life.


I will put his theory into practice and blog.

I think I have the winter blues, or more specifically, I think I might just have the Monday blues. Monday's are always very long for me, and frankly, it sucks. Let's analyze:

This morning, like every single morning of this semester so far, I told myself to take up at 8. After hitting the snooze button about ten times, I finally got up at 9:30. The fact that I've already failed at something, even before getting out of bed, set the tone for the day.

Because I didn't wake up at 8, several things happened:
1) I wasn't able to take my 365 picture for today
2) I didn't eat anything, and when I don't eat before class my notes look like this:
Freud talked about the talking cure .. and something ... id, ego and ..?? Penis envy.
3) I had to rush out the door because I was late for class

After class and lunch, I had to go to the Eaton Center to exchange this hard cover laptop shell my sister got for me. All you PC lovers might not know this, or you might, but the Apple store has this thing called the "Genius Bar," which is just a fancy name for "check out counter." It's just like how Starbucks has tall, grande and venti. It drives me nuts, I refuse to conform to their lingo. Whenever I go to Starbucks I just say "Gimme a medium yo'." (This is an exaggeration, I don't always add a yo' at the end. Ok, I never add a yo', except in my head.)

So I'm waiting in line with the correct hardcover shell size for my laptop when this girl from the Genius Bar approaches me, I told her I just needed to exchange the sizes, and asked if they had one in purple instead of the red one I was holding.

She then leads me over the shelf where they had the hard cover case and picks a blue one. I asked for purple, but I guess blue is a closer shade to purple than red. I didn't say anything because I didn't see the colour purple with the brand she was holding.

There were several brands, and the one I had wanted to exchange with was a different brand than what she suggested. I didn't say anything to her because 1) I thought she knew what she was doing and 2) before checking out she went over to her manager and double checked.

Anyway, I went to class that night (after running into Hannah at Timmies, completely unplanned and completely random). I told my friend, Emily, about the hard cover case. She and I have the same laptop, so she was a bit apprehensive when I told her I got a hard cover case, since she has been looking for one as well and wasn't able to find one.

So I took the hard cover case out and tried it on for size to show her that she can still easily find one at the Apple store WHEN LO' AND BEHOLD, it's the wrong size.

Thanks, genius' at the Genius Bar.

Now I have to go back and exchange this thing again.

My night class was super boring, I dozed off a couple of times. We're covering "Our Mutual Friend" by Charles Dickens. Apparently, Dickens thought of himself a genius, which I guess he is, but 836 pages of genius is more than I can stand.

On my way home, I missed the 105 bus by one minute. By this time, I was expecting it. I was like, "Today's been pretty crappy already, this is like the perfect cherry on top."

I was in a pretty sour mood when I got home. Matt was looking for his glasses, so we got in an argument about it. (I think I just wanted to argue with someone.)

In retrospect, today wasn't really that bad. Maybe it was just the cold and slush and having to wear socks that put me in an extra crappy mood. (I hate wearing socks.)

Also, today Tabitha bought chestnuts that were roasted with shells. She was mad because no one in their right minds roasts chestnuts with shells. (I'm mentioning this because I asked Tabitha what I should blog about today and she told me the story of how she bought chestnuts that were roasted with shells.)

Hmm, maybe Freud was right about this whole talking cure thing ... I do feel infinitely better now. I think you guys will have to endure more talking cures from me until winter is over.

---Edit ---

Tabi in case I forget to tell you this: Ariel says chestnuts are roasted with shells in Taiwan and probably everywhere in Asia.

Permalink 2 Comments

/

Obsessions

Yesterday, while I was cleaning the floors, I heard Aaron break dancing. His room is the family room (he shares half of it with the rabbit) so he has a lot of space up there to do his thing. I spied on him from the top of the stairs for a bit before ridiculing him.


I only ridiculed him because I felt like it was my duty to do so as his older sister, just like he ridicules me for some of the things I do. I never actually realized until yesterday that he was doing something other than playing video games all day and idolizing Matt's ... huge muscles (not sure what else to call this insanity). I've always known that he was interested in break dancing, because he use to bring home wooden boards to practice on (this was when we had carpet), I just thought this phase died out. And Aaron's actually not that bad, he just needs to practice a lot more.

This just got me thinking of how insanely, and weirdly, passionate my family is. Ok maybe not passionate. It's just that, everyone here has their own thing that they are obsessed over.

Annabelle is obsessed with her studies. She literally locks herself up in her room all weekend long STUDYING. You know how sometimes people 'study,' but actually, they're watching video's on the internet? This girl does not get distracted. Her idea of a distraction is napping for half an hour.

Then Matt is obsessed and passionate about body building. I refuse to look at the pictures he takes of himself on fb, because he flaunts it around the house already, but I've heard quite a bit of people talking about it (mostly guys). I'm actually surprised that he's into body building, because he use to be so scrawny and obsessed with World of Warcraft. He drinks protein shakes twice a day and hits the gym every midnight, usually after he comes home from work.

And my mom is obsessed with baking. Our house is filled of baked goods all the time, we have a shelf filled with cook books. She use to take baking classes in the Philippines and here at George Brown. The kind of things she bakes are fancy, decorative cakes and cupcakes and cookies, and she use to play around with marzipan and fondant all the time. Today, she made this New Year's JEWISH Honey Cake. I don't even know why we have a Jewish cook book. (We have several actually, one is all kosher.)

I'm not sure what I'm obsessed about, I think I just go through phases of obsession, which are all pretty much related to each other, like blogging/reading/Harry Potter/writing/tea drinking/part time doodling. (I'm nearing the end of my sketchbook.) Oh, and mopping the floors, one thing you guys probably don't know is that I'm obsessed with clean floors. THE FLOOR MUST BE CLEAN AT ALL TIMES. It drives me nuts then people walk around the house with their shoes on.

And that is all. My dad's the only one who's not obsessed with anything.
----

Here are some failed pictures:

Snowman hug fail.

Peeled orange. This was too boring. Will redo one day with a more interesting background.

Banana muffin, this picture was too boring.

This picture looks awkward.

This is the Jewish Honey Cake:

And for those interested, this is the recipe:

And this is a picture of a broccoli. This was too weird so I didn't put it up on fb.

Posted in

Permalink Leave a comment

/

Et tu, Brute?

K kids, I told Tabs I wouldn't blog about this but I can't sleep until I get it off my chest.


Today (or rather, yesterday since it's past 12 am) I got a hate comment from a friend who, from time to time, will leave hate comments. I've never said anything to her in return, does that make me too passive and an easy target? The reason I don't say anything to her is because of something that happened in the past, but this time, maybe I should.

I don't mind if I'm the only who will see the hate comment, but since at least two other people saw it this time (stupid fb sent an email to everyone else who commented on the picture) I think I should.

I also knew that I would get unwanted comments with these pictures.

Yesterday, I also had to deal with another friend who I've stopped talking to for a while. I finally had a text out with her (yeah, you read that right, a 'text out.' It's when you confront someone via text because you're too chicken to talk to them in real life) and told her to stop bugging everyone else about the problem she has with me. If it's just between the two of us, then that's fine, but once other people get involved I have to draw the line.

Then I also had that incident with Ting.

Actually, I also had another minor incident with someone else where we stopped keeping in contact and I asked something of her ....

GAHH-

Seriously, what is wrong with me? I'm becoming a serial friend dropper. I thought fb was suppose to help me keep in touch with all these people. (Fail fb fail!)

I don't drop everyone. I think the problem with me is that once a friendship has reached a certain point where it becomes nothing but negative I make the unconscious decision to cease all communication. Never at one point do I ever suddenly say: "Gee, today I think I'll stop being friends with so and so."

Maybe this is another form of running away from my problems? I wonder what Freud would say about this ....

-----Edit-----

You know what I just realized?!?

I'm always fine and dandy when I'm surrounded by a lot of people. Like today, even though it was really long, I was fine since I had people all around me.

It's only when you're alone in your room, blogging at midnight, and reflecting on your thoughts that all these negative thoughts start to surround you. And I'm not the only one this happens to.

Prime example: Brutus, from Julius Caesar. When he was plotting to kill Caesar it was in his room late at night. Before this, he had thought of Caesar as a good friend.

COINCIDENCE!?

Et tu, Brute?

Permalink 7 Comments

/

Learning Curve

Hello, hello world. Today is the first day of this semester, and I really wasn't looking forward to it because I pretty much figured that I failed everything from last semester. I went to class and my professor gave me back my essay, surprisingly, I got a B on it. Although this counts as an Asian fail, I won't look at it like that. I personally believe that U of T marks harder than other schools on purpose. (You guys can disagree if you want.) My sister, who's a borderline genius, got a C in chemistry from last semester.


And if Annabelle got a C, that means everyone probably failed that class. My sister took the PCAT's this past summer and she had a 90 something score, for her to get a C in chemistry must mean that professor hates kids.

So we'll see how I did on my other exam when I go to class tonight. Damn ... not looking forward to it.

Recently I took this picture:

This is another version:

And this is how I took the shot. Ghetto huh? I used my mom's laptop to prop the paper up and then turned on all the lamps in the living room and opened the window so I'd have as much light as possible.

I looked at my other friends pictures on flickr and I don't feel like I'm a very good photographer. I always set my pictures up, but they do it on a whim and know how to play with the camera functions and lighting. I'm pretty amateur compared to them, especially with Mary, my twin at work. She always experiments with filters.

Ok jealous rant over. Hopefully, by the end of this 365 thing I'll have learned something.

Posted in

Permalink Leave a comment

/

Friendship Dropper

Last week, I went to dinner at Pickle Barrel with Kirsten, Keisha, Ting, Annabelle, and Tabitha. I usually don't see Kirsten, Keisha and Ting very often because we don't really make time for each other except once or twice a year (often during the holiday season.) During dinner we decided to go to Sister Shirley's house next week to pay her a visit since we haven't seen her in a while and she took care of us in high school.


So today, Annabelle, Keisha, Ting and I went to visit her at her house. (Kirsten had to go to the library and study.) She made us a lot of food. We spent the afternoon sitting around the basement drinking tea and talking by the fireplace.

At one point, I was texting Tabitha a lot and they asked me who I was texting.

I said: "Tabitha"

Annabelle says "Yeah they're like best friends now."

So you guys ever have those moments where you say something that you absolutely regret and then spend the next few hours agonizing over? I had a moment like that then. I said, "Yeah Tabitha is my new Ting."

WHY DID I SAY THAT!

Ting says, "Thats nice." And then rolls her eyes. "I don't care."

Then I try and cover this up by saying, "Well it's like, you know how in high school you and I were really close ... and now I'm close with Tabitha."

I could tell that Ting really didn't care since she had her own life now, but for me to say that was pretty inconsiderate.

Truth is, it takes two to keep any relationship alive, and I feel like I just let my friendships with Kirsten, Keisha and Ting drop, and now I don't really know how to revive it again.

GAHHHH, I hope Ting doesn't think I'm some crazy friend dropper who jumps from one person to the next depending on who's handy. I mean, now that she's back in Toronto for her co-op term I've been meaning to try and talk to her some more.

Permalink 3 Comments

/

Midnight Baking

Gak ... can't sleep and I have work early tomorrow also.


I have nothing interesting to say because I haven't done anything interesting.
Instead, here are some pictures:
(Been taking tons of photo's lately, I've decided to upload my flickr account and do the 365 at the same time. It's like hitting two birds with one stone, so even though the 365 thing is suppose to be casual everyday stuff, I will sometimes do things that are not so casual.)

Annabelle wanted to make cookies for LH so we started making them. I decided to draw smiles on the eggs so their smile would crack up when you cracked them open.

Three happy, innocent little eggs


Final product:

Jelly filled peanut butter cookies, kind of like peak freams (did I spell that right?)

The picture in the book is a lie. The cookies turned out looking a lot different, maybe it was because I made the holes a bit too big.

After it was baked:
(I don't like this picture, it looks like some cheesy, crappy 90's headshot. I didn't even bother retouching the photo.)

Next we made Easy Rocky Road, and by easy they mean easy.

You just basically dump everything in a mixing bowl and let it freeze over night. Afterwards you cut it up into squares and serve.

And voila, all done. Even though we did a lot of baking and picture taking, I'm surprisingly still very awake. Will be a sleepy zombie at work tomorrow.

Posted in

Permalink Leave a comment

/

A small piece of the puzzle

Sigh.


I just finished talking to Tabitha on the phone, our conversation was exactly 2 hours and 39 minutes long. Afterwards I just thought, "Man, you really can't know anyone for sure."

There are so many different sides and dimensions to a person, that it's impossible to truly know someone for who they are unless you both mutually agree to put everything on the table. I feel like that's how I am with Tabitha, but there are still some things I don't tell her.

Sometimes I just feel like all I ever do is scatter tiny puzzle pieces of myself here and there. Some in my sketch book, some in my diary, some here in my blog, some with the conversations I have with people, some with my stories - and I just want someone to pick up all these pieces of the puzzle and put them all together in a way where each piece would be carefully examined before they try to fit it in with the other piece.

Lately, all I ever want is to be alone. Is that bad? I hate going on facebook to see what people are doing, I don't want to know that their lives are going on without me. I don't even like sleeping anymore because I end up thinking too much. Before I made sure that I would always be with someone everyday of the winter break - now it's just, whatever.

Dear readers, I think I'm broken. There are only ever two reasons why I would have sudden bouts of lethargic-ness: 1) Whenever I'm in a relationship and it has taken a sour turn 2) Whenever my classes are dragging me down.

Neither has happened to me, and I don't know why I suddenly have an urge for someone to put together my puzzle. Maybe it's just time for classes to start again so my mind can start working again - or maybe I'm entering a new phase that I've yet to figure out.

Well, whatever this is, I hope it won't get in the way.

---

Here are some of the out takes of 1.365




Posted in

Permalink 1 Comment

Followers

Archive