Gobble Gobble Poll
And the results are in. 1st place awards are shared with Kim and Lee's advice. A special thanks to Kim for: "I never thought you liked me." And we are very close so it just brings me so much joy that being myself does not always portray a desperate hound spewing love to any female that walks and talks.
Anyway Kim's words made the most sense to me. I already know what to do next. All I wanted to know was what I really felt about the situation. I've watched enough people come and go to know how the ritual takes place. I was just confused about my own feelings because I wouldn't want to act on a whim.
Lee told me, "Why do you concentrate on mistake?" Damm, she's good.
That's all for now.
Mistaken Accent
I often find myself getting into heated debates with Ying-Ying. They can be of various things but the underlying root is almost always caused by semantics and/or vocabulary. I find it exhilarating because she can express herself in powerful thought-provoking, clear and concise ways. Every once in awhile I am compelled to eat crow and change my mind. There are two notable words that have become especially important. I am unable to impune her arguments and yet still powerfully charged against them.
The word accent. I say there is such a thing as a Hong Kong Cantonese accent and a Canton accent and a Vietnamese accent and Malaysian accent. She says there can't be an accent on a language where it comes from. So if Cantonese comes from Canton, that is how it supposed to be spoken. Anyone who deviates from that set parameter is speaking an accent of Cantonese. I say an accent is a slight deviation of the language where it is still possible for cross communication when you don't speak that accent. So it is irrelevant to geography or time. So there is an English accent, Australian, Irish, etc accents. By her definition, I guess there is no such thing as an English Accent. Yet, I can't fault her logic because it is true. It makes sense that the originators of the language are speaking it as it supposed to be and everyone else is speaking a slang. But then a language is not a stable entity, it is in constant motion and pronunciations change with time. We don't pronounce the H in Herb. But following that logic then you can say whatever you want and say it's English. On and on like that. In the end, as I understand it, it comes down to how humans deal with it. I literally take accent to mean variation in tone or pitch. She takes it as how we have to categorize what is correct and what is different.
There were two platonic friends: female and male that went on a trip together alone. He decided to put the moves on her during the vacation by jumping into her bed. She said no and, luckily, he stopped. Afterwards, she was very distraught that she trusted him enough to go on a friendly vacation with him and he totally betrayed that trust by misreading her intentions. Who's fault was it that this happened? If you can't find the guy totally at fault for the predicament you're probably a male chauvinist. Who made the mistake? They BOTH did. He should not have tried anything. And she should not have gone on vacation with him. What? It's his fault and her mistake? Fault has already been established. It's a mistake that she went on a vacation with him. If she hadn't gone on vacation, the whole thing wouldn't have happened. No one forced her to go on vacation, she willing chose to go, so it was a mistake. Her mistake. To say that the girl was just being herself and did nothing wrong is like saying she's ignorant. She made the mistake to be his friend. She made the mistake to trust him. She made the mistake to go on vacation with him.
How could it be her mistake and his fault? It boils down to how you use the word mistake. If you choose to marry mistake and fault together, then fine she didn't make a mistake. But I choose to use mistake, in this circumstance, as "an error or fault resulting from deficient knowledge." I do agree however that there is a strong connotation of mistake as accepting fault. It's hard to see how a mistake can be made without fault. It's a terrible circumstance. There's really no way she could have prevented the incident and there's no way to stop it from happening again with another guy besides holing herself up. But to claim bliss that she made no mistake is just passing the buck. President Bush does it all the time and no democrat lets him off.
It's really bad to say that she should have known better that this could happen. But it's equally bad to say she didn't make mistakes. Mistakes were made obviously. But to claim the guy made all of them is equivalent to saying she asked for this to happen. Besides, if you can't take responsibility for your actions you'll never learn from your mistakes. But that's another story.
Subtle Hints
It was a Monday night. Mounds of studying stared at me burning into me like a laser. But I brushed it aside because life wasn't going to be benched tonight. I may have to pay closer attention to subtle hints later on but for now I will relish in satisfaction. It started on a conspicuous night last month. Marie ims me with a website to check out:
Molly Malone's Irish Pub. Before I could ask her what about it, she had logged off. It looked like a nice website. Didn't seem like some place I'd go. I wonder if she designed the site? One moon later (doesn't that sound cool or stupid, whatever?) the website popped into my head while I was iming her. So I asked. She told me they had open-mic on Mondays and her friend said they sometimes read poetry there. Her bait finally got a bite. So I asked, "Do you wanna go?"
So last night she comes over to pick me up. Oh, very few things says sexy more than when a woman drives. While I reeled in from that I realized she was ON FREAKING TIME! Holy smokes! Actually, she called me out 5 minutes before 7PM. My God, this is just heavenly.
When we got to the bar, it turned out to be pretty much as I expected. It was a small cramped place and everyone had a guitar. No one was gonna be reading anything. The songs were good, most were karaoke blah. Still, live entertainment gets my juices buzzed. Or maybe it was the alcohol. Anyway, the volume was subdued somewhat and the hazy over-trebled distortion that inhabit many a dark nightclub or bar was absent. Thus, conversation abounded without too much shouting and I found my companion wholly addicting.
Whoever said opposites attract must be inhaling too much weed. Let's count the ways.
1. Fondness for traveling - she hasn't been out of the country but she's been all over the US from NY to Phoenix and everywhere in between.
2. Romantic comedies - she wants to go see Pride and Prejudice
3. Born in January 1979
4. Strong sense of independence - She lives in LA by herself, left home after college and never looked back.
5. Writes poetry :)
6. Has a history with Toyota Corollas
7. Had her side mirror knocked off by another car last year
8. Owns a Dell Inspiron laptop 20gb HD
9. Food is not important, eat when hungry
10. Addicted to soda. Coke
Well, I'm stretching for a couple of them but it does seem odd the similarities that crop up. And how attractive is number 9? I've gone out with too many people who just has to go to this restaurant or "no way, I'm not going to that one". Too many people are food critics. Marie and I suffer from just the one vice, that is a coke which luckily is available just about everywhere. Unlike the grande espresso latte, the 7-eleven beef jerky, or those little cute "blank" that they only have at "blank."
The following conversation occured well after number 2 was established.
She baits.
"So what movies are you going to see when you go home for Thanksgiving?"
I start to bite.
"I'd like to see Harry Potter and Pride and Prejudice."
She baits harder.
"Oh I want to see P&P too."
I swim away.
"But I probably won't because there probably won't be anyone to go with. My friends probably saw it opening night already and no one seems interested in Harry Potter."
She frowns.
"You could go with some of your family, you told me......"
Don't know whats wrong with me. Not only do I have no game, but I'm running away from the it?
...to be continued
The New Ipod Micro
Harry Potter
Need to find out how to absentee vote
CSULA sucks
Helped Mandy put in car stereo
Going to listen to poetry with Marie
Research had a down and then an up
Depressingly behind in school work
Looking forward to Thanksgiving
Another Chinese meetup today was very fun
Finally someone there is worse in Mandarin than me
Clearest view of Mars until 2018
Nam's extremely informative phone call
Hope Ying-Ying likes her new computer
ie (I don't need to do anything to it.)
Kenna seems to be an expert on the computer now
My hair is brown
.500 record in fantasy football
Hoping for a winning season
From here to terror
I stayed up too late last night
I still walk around cracks on the sidewalk
I like to stare at the sky when I am happy
When people look at me, I like to bob my head
left and right so they think I'm crazy
I try to smile even when I am not happy
because I think if I fake it enough
Something good will happen
So far, it's up in the air
But people smile back at me
As you can see, 24 years of misery
and hiding my teeth has resulted in
a smile to scare away children
Anyone willing to give me lessons?
Tomorrow I want to go buy something expensive
My ipod mini's battery life is pathetic
It must be leaking because
2 hour's total use over 4 days is pretty bad
I wonder if my cousin likes the name I found for her: Kenna
It means "knowledge"
Her name is Khenh and I just thought
Assimilation goes more smoothly with a Western name
It seems weird to name a 17 year-old
She's practically an adult
Currently listening to ±çÀR¯ø - L.I.E
Seems odd to use those initials for a song title when L.I.E
stands for Love is Everything
The Osama opening sequence to Family Guy was incredibly funny
This is how I prefer to look at the world
Hopefully, be able to laugh and try to take things lightly.
Does that mean I'm downplaying the harsh reality
Of modern global terrorism...?
Probably
But as my photo illustrates
I'd rather bob my head and make fake awkward smiles
Than watch animation of Osama in a blender
Because us and them doesn't equal good and evil
Last week, Saddam's lawyer was killed in a driveby
They can't even allow their own law and justice
to try someone who violated them in the first place
I look forward to doing nothing all the time.
Another hump day
You know I've been watching too much TV when I make two posts in a row about TV. Tonight's episode of Lost was a little more intense than the usual cliffhanger endings. They killed off Shannon. Well, she got shot and they're not gonna elaborate if the skillful doctor will be able to revive her or not. They're gonna go on another story arc next week and I suspect it will be a 4 to 6 parter leading all the way to the season finale where they will leave her condition up in the air until next season. So now, they've killed off the good looking guy and the good looking girl. I guess they don't really need them anymore to attract viewers since the story is pulling the show. The rich brother and sister are the now dead. Guess they couldn't rough it out on the island. I'm guessing the actress doesn't really care, she's already done one movie: The Fog. So I'm sure her beauty and fame from the show will continue to carry her career.
"If someone tries to kill you, you try to kill them right back." Captain Reynolds said to Mrs. Reynolds.
Women of Firefly
"Take my love take my land.
Take me where I cannot stand.
I don't care, I'm still free.
You can't take the sky from me.
Take me out to the black.
Tell them I ain't coming back.
Burn the land n' boil the sea.
You can't take the sky from me.
Have no place I can be since I found serenity.
You can't take the sky from me..."
-intro to Firefly-
I've watched 5 episodes of Firefly now and the mysteries within is beginning to plague me and laugh at my dial-up.
1. What are Reavers?
2. Why so much Chinese in the show untranslated? I can get about half of it but bad pronunciation renders the rest gibberish.
3. What happened to River?
4. New one, what is with Shepard's high status among the Alliance?
5. Companions.
6. Jayne's loyalty.
7. Kaylee and Inara's relation.
8. Malcolm and Inara's odd relationship.
And if my suspicion is correct, all is revealed in the movie. This is just like a Chinese serial except it's done in high quality.
Phantasy Phootball
I think I brought a valiant effort against the formidable Khamton last week. Alas, he prevailed but it wasn't a landslide as is most opponents who face him. This week, So forgets to update his lineup and has three byes in his matchup. And he's still likely to defeat me unless Deion Branch can muster something up come Monday night. But I doubt he can overcome the 4 TD onslaught that is LT. Last week: Good try. This week: Embarassing. Even my friend who hasn't updated all season is beating me.
All or Nuthin'
As with most things in my life, things either come all at once or not at all. Life is usually pretty dull around here. Weekends are normally spent sitting in my room for 4 days straight. My weekends start on Thursday. This particular weekend, I had been looking forward to a quiet ritual of studying (sic) and self flatulence. But fate brings it all together.
Mandy calls me up on Thursday for dinner. A rare treat since I haven't seen her on a regular basis ever since our summer heat hiking hiatus. Even though weather is now permitting, we just haven't been able to get back on a routine.
I attend my usual Friday morning double research meeting and Physics Club.
Later in the afternoon, Michael invites me to a private viewing of Pride and Prejudice at the library. While some may question the sexuality of two grown men enveloped in the world of Jane Austen's masterpiece. I say eh. One of my fantasies, however femininely whimsical is to live in the much simpler Victorian times when everything was prim and proper. Clothes were tight fitting, men were chivalrous, and women curtsied. Keira Knightly is too good looking to play Lizzie.
My Uncle comes down to LA to further his marketing ventures and he takes me out Friday night to introduce me to the Southern CA branch of representatives. The people are of whom I will be forced to get to know as I help him build his empire.
Early Saturday morning included a surprise visit by Ying-Ying and her gal pals. I was too tired to properly greet them as they arrived. I holed them up in my bedroom and made haste to the living room sofa. Hoping for a late day brunch as redemption, I bid them goodnight. Time was on no one's side, however, as they drowned themselves in LA traffic. Soiled garments accidentally left in my room are the only remnants of the trio having been here.
Later that morning, I attended the first marketing meeting. Highlights included an incredibly beautiful girl. She didn't have on extravagant make-up or wear sexy clothes. She just had the simple beauty of clean smooth lines and a down-to-earth smile. I was saddened by her absence in my particular meeting room. One of the techniques presented was to ask people what their dreams, frustrations, and fears were. From that you can give them a response, "Well, this is an opportunity to..." I quietly thought to myself, if someone asked me what my fear was, I would say. "My greatest fear is dying alone." I chuckled to myself thinking how anyone could possibly give a positive response to that.
Saturday evening was the Griffith Star Party. The star (pardon the pun) of the show was Mars' clearest and closest approach to our geographic location. It was a magnificent sight and contributed greatly to my budding astronomical aspirations. The wealth of knowledge I still require is vast.
And I now find myself immersed in Sunday morning, having gotten no studying done. Time for a 24-hour run.
Waiting for inspiration
I don't like iTunes.
Inital-D is not a very good movie.
I'm getting $2500 for my research up to May.
I hate Calstate LA and am contemplating transfering back home.
Very behind on homework
I like family.
Home cooking improving very steadily.
I can actually cook for someone now and not be ashamed of the product.
I wish I could sleep more.
