conquering the world one oxymoron at a time
Archive for November, 2004
November 27, 2004 at 11:36 pm · Filed under random
Reading over what I wrote yesterday, the whole being thankful for my “bracket” in life sounds pretty arrogant and snobbish, which wasn’t what I intended. I only meant it as a way of expressing where I stand in society … not really a status either, because status implies more snobbishness.
I am thankful for where I am right now. I feel fairly comfortable financially, both in terms of my stipend and what my parents can provide me. I feel lucky to not have to worry about being hungry. Also, I really value my being able to pursue higher education with support from my family, my friends, and my institution. Now there’s a satisfactory definition of all that was encompassed in “bracket” :)
November 26, 2004 at 9:57 pm · Filed under friends, life thoughts
Thanksgiving’s never been a holiday for my family and me, same with Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, just about any holiday. Maybe at one point we celebrated Chinese New Year, back when we were in China, we’d get together over at my grandparents’ house with all the extended family we had to eat together all this wonderful stuff. But for most of my life, namely the portion spent in the U.S., specifically the past 15 years, all of these holidays have been just another day in the neighborhood. So, like just another day at home, my family passed Thanksgiving and the day after rather peacefully, though my dad did assemble our token christmas tree last night. We have one just to be in the holiday spirit; we don’t really celebrate Christmas as a holiday.
But it’s nice to be home and relaxed. Even though I have loads of work hanging over my head, they somehow seem a lot farther removed when I’m at home. Maybe the environment change magically makes work go away. Well, it doesn’t really make it go away; it just makes it stop nagging my brain.
I called Ali for the first time today. I’ve been meaning to do that for a while, to see how she’s doing down in Houston. It was great to talk to her, find out about her new job, and all the Latin men that she’s meeting :) It really made me wish that I had called on her birthday even more. Hopefully, I’ll get to see her over Christmas; she’ll be home in Myrtle Beach for about 2 weeks.
Anyway, though Thanksgiving’s not really celebrated in my family, I still should make a belated list of important things in my live for which I am thankful:
My parents - who, despite their harshness sometimes, love me to no end
Ryan - who really tries so hard to make me happy
Friends - who keep me upbeat, give me advice, and in general accept me for who I am
My “bracket” in society - which allows me to have the things I need, as well as the frivolous things I don’t need, allows me to live up to my full potential (or at least have the potential to do so), and in general makes my live pretty darn good
I really shouldn’t complain too much; my life is pretty good.
November 21, 2004 at 3:11 pm · Filed under the internet
I’ve gotten several questions about the statement of gmail hate in my profile. If you’re reading my profile, you might be reading this as well, so I will explain my adversion to gmail once and for all.
To those who may have been away from the tech savvy world for the past year or so, Gmail is the relatively new email service offered by Google. It was considered the cream of the crop of email services when it was first introduced. The main draw of Gmail was its exclusivity: one cannot simply sign up for a gmail account; one must be INVITED to have a gmail account. This marketing strategy by Gmail was probably the best thing they could have done for it. It is considered cool to have a gmail account. Someone, somewhere thought I was worthy enough to be invited into the inner circle. And thus was the start of the gmail country club.
From this country club rose my hate for gmail. I started seeing it pop up everywhere, but especially in AIM profiles. People I knew whose main email address is a school address (be it virginia.edu, clemson.edu, or mit.edu account) or any other address started listing their gmail accounts as their “contact email.” Now I ask, why do you feel that this is necessary?
It seemed to me that folks were doing it just to make the statement “look! I, too, am important enough for someone, somewhere, to invite me to join the exclusive gmail country club” while the same folks continued to predominantly communicate with their old, less pretentious, public library-level email accounts.
Maybe it’s just my innate aversion to the whole idea of jumping on a bandwagon, the gmail country club bandwagon included. I just wish that people would put contact information in their AIM profiles that are their REAL contacts, the main email account that they use, and not one they want to show off to others. So I suppose in the end, my hate is not for gmail itself, but for the way that users have made a fashion trend statement out of it.
November 10, 2004 at 5:19 pm · Filed under friends
So it’s the first time in a long time when I can just sit back, relax, and enjoy myself. Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day, and we actually get the day off! So no classes. Too bad I have a problem set due on Friday.
Next weekend is quite the weekend for friends visiting. Since it is the weekend right before Thanksgiving break, it is also quite the weekend for work. I guess the professors everywhere like to lay it on thick right before Thanksgiving.
So maybe after next weekend, I’ll have some more pictures to post. And over Thanksgiving, maybe Ryan will be able to get Europe pictures from Breaky, and I’ll have those to post too. I don’t remember my camera to anything … I forgot it to my own birthday dinner thing.
November 1, 2004 at 1:40 am · Filed under grad life/MIT, daily grind
So I played my first MIT intramural game today: basketball. As always, I’m out of shape. I think I should just stop telling people that I used to play basketball in high school. I never was very good even when I was on the team, and I’ve only gotten worse since then. Oh yeah, all except that one time I beat David Chu in one-on-one second year at UVA :) My team lost our first game of the IM season, by one point in double overtime. It was so sad.
After the game, Ryan and I walked to building 56 to turn in my late assignments. On the way, I ran into a stone pillar, one of those waist-high ones placed strategically on sidewalks so that cars can’t drive through. Well, they not only stopped cars; they stopped me. I literally ran straight into it, didn’t even see it at all, banged up my knee pretty good. I can’t bend my left knee now, nor exert any force with my left leg. Beautifully stupid, huh?
So Jerry dressed up as a Mormon for Halloween, you know one of those Mormons who knock on your door and ask if you’d like to have one of their “Book of Mormons.” I thought it was fabulously clever, and he looked the part too! All except apparently a Mormon was slightly offended at a party Friday night. I guess I can understand? I can’t exactly say how I’d feel if I were Mormon … but honestly if somebody dressed up like they were Chinese (slanty, slitty eyes, black hair, whatnot), I don’t think I’d be all that offended. It’s like those white guys who supposedly donned blackface to dress up as Serena and Venus Williams at UVA. I still think that must have been a really funny costume, but maybe that’s why people call me insensitive sometimes.
You know you’re all grown up when you realize Halloween costumes have the ability to offend. You know you’ve gone too far when you analyze every possible Halloween costume for possibilities of offensiveness. Just live life for once and go with it.
