Reconnections

I reconnected with an old friend today.

If you know me, you probably know that I haven't exactly been the best about keeping in touch with all my high school friends. It's kind of unfortunate, but it's kind of just the way life works. There are certain people that I really care about staying friends with though. And it makes me sad to think that some of them have been slipping through my fingers. Not that it's not partially my fault, as I don't always make the effort to reach out.

This makes me reflect on my time at Rice. I worry that I'm not making the most of my time, and that five years from now, I won't have the friends or memories to give me comfort on a lonely night. The feeling of nostalgia is much sweeter when you have someone to share it with.

Being off campus this year has been especially taxing on the amount of interaction I've had with my friends. It's just not the same when everyone doesn't live, sleep, eat, function in the same building.

I'm not exactly sure which college friends I'll still be close to in five years, but I hope the important relationships will stand true. I hope that there'll still be people that I care about, and who care about me.

In short, reconnecting felt really good. I guess that's what the holidays are all about.


Happy Thanksgiving.

Darwin Day Mystery Resolved!

So Michael solved the mystery of the Darwin book: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/god-and-country/2009/10/30/how-creationist-origin-distorts-darwin.html

That's disappointing. And unsettling. And now I feel conned and swindled. Although, I do feel better that I have the book than if someone else were to have the book. Someone who would read the introduction and be easily influenced, that is.

Really though, I have to question the effectiveness of this campaign. I mean, seriously, how many people feel the need to read On the Origin of the Species (my roommate aside), even if it is free? It's not exactly leisure reading material.

I guess the the people they're trying to reach are the scientists who firmly believe in evolution. Because those are the people who might actually be interested in reading the book. And Ray Comfort hopes that his introduction will magically sway their opinions.

I suppose that might work.. I did consider reading the introduction - it seemed innocent enough at first glance. I still might read it just for shits and giggles. But that might just make me angry. And you don't want to know what happens when I'm angry...

Just kidding. About being the Hulk, not about anything else.

Man, I'm not sure what to do with this book now. The article mentioned book burning, which sounds appealing. But... I don't believe in burning books. A little too Qin Shihuang for me. But I feel embarrassed having it on my shelf. And it takes up space. And and... I just feel it's a waste of paper. And ink. And time, and money, and resources. It's more of a waste than I am - and that's saying something. ;)


And... WTF AM I DOING BLOGGING WHEN I HAVE A PROJECT THAT IS EFFECTIVELY DUE IN LESS THAN SIX AND A HALF HOURS?

Apparently, I only feel the need to blog when I really need to be doing other things.

Just another way of procrastinating, I guess. I must really hate myself, haha.


More to blog about later: People discovering their true passions in college (cheesy, I know. Don't have the time right now to make it sound cool.)

Darwin Day

Darwin Day is February 12...

So why did someone tell me "Happy Darwin Day" and hand me a copy of On the Origin of the Species in West Lot today??

Maybe he missed the memo.

Leonid Afremov

Today, through wasting far too much time on Facebook, I discovered the paintings of Leonid Afremov.












































I love the colors. And the impressionistic element. Everything, together. I just can't get over it.




















































Of course, his style, and even subject matter, tends to be very consistent, which also makes his pieces somewhat repetitive. Nonetheless, an amazing artist. Not that it's for me to judge, of course. Check out his gallery for yourself. Let me know what you think.

I've never been much of a religious person, and often I feel both skeptical and uncomfortable around those who are so heavily steeped in their religion. But seeing how much strength and comfort their faith provides them really puts things in a different perspective.

Once in a while, I read my friend's blog, which mainly details the trials that life has put on her faith and the process of finding her way back to God. Maybe it's just because of her eloquence, but I am amazed at how much her faith can do for her. It really makes me have much more of an appreciation and respect for others and their faith. If most conservative Christians approached their faith in this manner, perhaps the rest of the society (let's just call them the skeptics) wouldn't feel the urge to scoff and roll their eyes... or run in the opposite direction. Then again, maybe this is how they approach their faith - I'm just not in the right avenues to witness the expression. Another thing to think about... Those who do approach their faith in the right way - the healing, nonabrasive, giving way - aren't really the ones who are usually captured by the media. Probably contributes to society's cynicism.

Just something to think about.

---

Okay... back to studing for my econ test... :/

Archuleta, Vonnegut, and Too Much Television

I've been hearing "Crush" by David Archuleta a lot on the radio lately, so I decided to look at some Youtube vids of his days on American Idol. He's so adorable! I was surprised to see how young he was. I would've never been able to tell from his voice. Or maybe it's just that it seems that there are more famous female singers who are young than famous male singers who are young... Other than, you know, the Jonas Brothers. But the Jonas Brothers sound young. Because all they sing is teeny-bopper stuff. That, and well, they can't really sing, can they? Except Nick Jonas...

Anyway, here's a video:





Is it me or does he look really young? I don't remember boys looking that young in high school, but then again, I guess I was young back then too. Anyway, that's probably mostly why I think he's adorable. That, and I love his voice. He's so good. Good job, Idol.

***

So I read about 5 pages of Jane Eyre. And then I got distracted by Vonnegut and started reading Mother Night. Good stuff so far.

I was looking at New York Times's best seller list the other day, and I noticed how so many of them are being adapted into movies. The Time Traveler's Wife, My Sister's Keeper, Julie and Julia... Does Julie and Julia even have a plot line? I thought it was just someone blogging about cooking. But then again, not everything needs to have a plot to be interesting.

After seeing the trailer for The Time Traveler's Wife, I really want to read it. My Sister's Keeper makes me curious about Jodi Picoult's writing. Julie and Julia doesn't pique my interests so much.

***

I've also started watching So You Think You Can Dance again. Here's a dance that was done to Jordin Sparks's "Battlefield," another song I've been listening to a lot today.



Another show I just started watching is Hell's Kitchen. This is probably the first cooking show that I've actually enjoyed watching. It's so intense!

Ennui

I seem to be suffering from a bout of ennui, or so I think. Although, to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I completely understand all the nuances of the meaning of the word.

Anyway, that led me to Wikipedia, which led me to Sylvia Plath's poem of the same title:

SYLVIA PLATH

Ennui

Tea leaves thwart those who court catastrophe,
designing futures where nothing will occur:
cross the gypsy’s palm and yawning she
will still predict no perils left to conquer.
Jeopardy is jejune now: naïve knight
finds ogres out-of-date and dragons unheard
of, while blasé princesses indict
tilts at terror as downright absurd.

The beast in Jamesian grove will never jump,
compelling hero’s dull career to crisis;
and when insouciant angels play God’s trump,
while bored arena crowds for once look eager,
hoping toward havoc, neither pleas nor prizes
shall coax from doom’s blank door lady or tiger.

I think I rather like this poem. Like all good poems, this one probably has layers upon layers of hidden meaning that I have yet to understand, but I'll look into that later.

Speaking of Sylvia Plath, did you know she stuck her head in an oven? I think I knew that at some point, but had forgotten. It almost sounds comical until you realize how terrible it is that that's actually how her life ended. Never a good sign when you're so depressed you want to stick your head in the oven.

I think I'm going to start reading Jane Eyre, which I bought several months ago. I have this really bad habit of not reading the books that I actually own. I think it's because I figure that, since I own them, I'll have plenty of time to read them in the future. No rush, no deadline... leads to major procrastination.

Thoughts on Mechanical Engineering

So I'm now wondering whether I should have been a MechE major instead.

O_o

That thought has never crossed my mind before. I don't know why it is now. It's just that the stuff they do seems really cool and relevant and applicable to the real world. Mechanical engineers solve real problems. And they can actually get jobs.

This is something I wish I'd considered freshman year instead of my fling with pre-med.

I'm not sure why I was so bio-oriented. Well, I do know. I wanted to be able to do something medically relevant. To save lives and all that jazz. So why am I having doubts now? Maybe I'm just jaded from the knowledge that there's not much to do with bioengineering except research and med school. Plus, we don't even have ABET accreditation yet. Oy.

So after my experience with research, I'm pretty sure that that's not what I want to do with my life. And I know I don't really want to be a doctor. And I'm not interested in law school. So I'm considering business, and dealing with the business side of the biotech and healthcare industries.

The sad thing is, even if I do succeed in that, I'm really going to miss all quantitative analysis and problem solving we do as engineers. Not that businessmen don't problem solve. But it's a very different kind of problem solving. Very different. You know what I mean?

I think I really just want to be an engineer. But I had to pick the one engineering major where that isn't really possible.

Oy, oh well. Maybe I'll go read some of the BioE senior design projects and hope that revives my interest and enthusiasm in BioE.

Wang Leehom on CNN

CNN's Talk Asia did a piece on Wang Leehom earlier this year. Oh, how I adore him. ;) Can't say I'm too fond of his new "rock" stuff, but he's amazing nonetheless. Enjoy.


(BTdubs, double click on the video to maximize. And if the it doesn't automatically transfer you to the next video at the end, here's the link.)

There's one thing I disagree with him on though. I think he does do a lot of "fluffy pop." Like all those love songs? Not that I'm judging him for it. The admirable thing, though, is that fluffy pop is not the only kind of music he's capable of producing. Quite a versatile guy, if you ask me.

One thing to do, three words for you

I really like this song. It makes me happy. And I love the video. And I love that it's so well done and so popular in spite of (or because of) its low budget simplicity. Kudos to you, Plain White T's.

Breaking Windows

I like to think that whenever a door closes, a window opens.

Of course, there's the fear that you can't really get the window open. It's stuck or jammed or something. Meanwhile, the fire edges closer and closer, greedily consuming all those highly inflammable hopes and dreams of yours, and you feel the hairs on the back of your neck begin to singe, and suddenly even breathing is hard...

Whatever, I'll break open the window. Throw rocks at it - that's my motto. (Okay, so it's actually a phrase I stole from Dave, but I feel that I say it enough to call it my motto.)

Okay, so I may have been a little melodramatic there. But hey, that was fun.

So that's what I'm going to do: I'm going to break the window... while watching out for shards of glass and sharp edges. I should also firesafe my hopes and dreams.

That should be my new motto: Throw rocks at windows, beware of broken glass, and firesafe your flammable goods.

--

10 points to you if you can guess what this post is really about. Heck, it'll be a good reminder. I probably won't even remember in a year.

Goodbye Stowers

Today, I quit my job at Stowers.

I have to say, it felt good. Best thing about this job since I started on Monday.

Love Story meets Viva La Vida

Hey, check out this guy:



Pretty cool, huh? Check out his website: http://www.jonschmidt.com

His stuff sounds pretty cool. Granted, I haven't really listened a lot of his songs yet, but I like what I've heard! I liked his arrangement of "Can't Help Falling in Love." Of course, that song has a special place in my heart because of Lilo and Stitch and A*Teens.

Anyway, enjoy.

Places to go in China

Whoo, my first post!!

Ok, I probably don't have any readers right now. But once I do... most of you know that I really want to go to China... as well as the rest of the world. Well, at the rate things are going, that's probably never going to happen *nervous chuckle*. Well, no, I'm going to make it happen eventually. So I thought I'd start by planning a list of all the places I want to visit in China. This way, I'll have a plan, so my next trip won't be so disappointing like my last.

Here goes:

• Xi'an. This probably due to Jing's influence and the fact that she's there right now. Anyway, I want to see the terra cotta soldiers. It's something I should see.
  
• Suzhou and Hangzhou. It's supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in China. You know what they say - 上有天堂，下有苏杭. I am going to this place that's supposedly heaven on earth.
• Beijing. Ok, so I've been here before, but it's been so long, and so much has happened (e.g. the Olympics). Besides, it's been 15 years since I last went. I think I should pay the Great Wall another visit.
• Shanghai. Another metropolis well worth revisiting. Besides, my mother's side of the family lives here, so I kind of have to go due to familial obligations. This should be fun though. It's like New York... only in China. And maybe this time I'll actually hang out with my cousins/aunts/uncles/grandparents, and things will be less awkward. I feel like I've become less awkward of a person over the past few years, right?
• Hefei, Anhui. Again, family. Ditto on hoping for fun with family and minimal awkwardness. Plus, the cabs here are super cheap (well, five years ago they were - can't really say I know if they are now), so it's a good city to just hang out in.
• Hong Kong. (Maybe?) You know, this is the only Chinese city I can think of which has a romanization that is written as two words rather than one. Why is that? Anyway, this is another touristy spot I'm succumbing to, I guess. But it's a prime place for seeing concerts - yeah!

Okay, that's my list for now. But there will be more, I assure you of that. Any suggestions? Maybe Taiwan? Maybe some places in Western China. It'd be neat to see the cultures of the ethnic minorities. Ooh, maybe Inner Mongolia.

I also really want to just live in China for a period. I need to find something to do in China first though. What a conundrum.

Ooh, if I do live in China, I want to learn to play the erhu. Apparently, one of my friends learned while she was in China and she said it's not that difficult if you have a violin background. Score! Of course, my violin background kind of sucks, but whatever.

So yes, while everyone else's blog is about the times they spend abroad, mine is about the times I spend thinking about going abroad. Sorry about the letdown. I will write about other things, and try to make this blog more interesting. Like my "25 Things" list. If I ever get around to finishing it, it'll come up on here. Whooo.

Out.