Tuesday, December 22, 2009

it's like going to the moon

you know what?

i'm tired. so here, enjoy the song that i know you've all been waiting for, here are some random facts, and have a great holiday season!

edgar got me crystal pineapple salt and pepper shakers. yessss.

our suite is homo. and eric is a cutieeeeeeeeeeeee.

[songs for christmas! 4 of 4]
so here's the deal, i've picked four songs in anticipation of christmas, and i'm going to have a new one up in each blog entry that i post, the four weeks before christmas. ideally one post a weekend. 3 of the 4 songs are by artists that you know or have at least heard of, but i'm almost certain that you won't have heard any of the songs before. so they'll be foreign but in a familiar kind of way.
this week's song is: the christmas song, by owl city. push play!


aww yeah, the best for last. :]

[randomly stuffingly random stuff]
-i only eat finger foods with my left hand. that means chips, french fries, and the like. i guess it became habit because i do other stuff with my dominant hand, like use the computer mouse and stuff.
-a few winters ago, i buried some soda cans in the snow piles outside my house 'cause i thought it was a fun idea for some reason. i only remembered i put them there when i found them in the spring. yay!
-i eat starburst with the wrapper. :]

Friday, December 11, 2009

gift-giving

[songs for christmas! 3 of 4]
so here's the deal, i've picked four songs in anticipation of christmas, and i'm going to have a new one up in each blog entry that i post, the four weeks before christmas. ideally one post a weekend. 3 of the 4 songs are by artists that you know or have at least heard of, but i'm almost certain that you won't have heard any of the songs before. so they'll be foreign but in a familiar kind of way.
this week's song is: baby please come home, by anberlin & various artists. push play!



oh you know it's getting to the good stuff, 'cause anberlin is AWESOME. the first time i listened to this song, i was totally thrown off 'cause i wasn't expecting a Christmas song. LEGIT.

i was never really big on getting people gifts for Christmas.

i didn't think it was silly or not meaningful or anything, but rather, i preferred to simply get people their individual gifts on their birthdays. it made it more sense to me because for me, i feel like it's more special when i remember that people's birthdays are coming up and i get to plan ahead in thinking about what they like and what to get for them and stuff. and also, that way, it's easier to make sure the quality and time spent on their gift/card isn't compromised because of needing to get gifts/cards for other people, as it tends to be for Christmas.

well, how about writing or making cards?

at one point in high school, as people got me cards and gifts and stuff for Christmas, i felt bad that i didn't get them stuff. i think, the year after that, i made cards for my friends, but i remember it just felt odd to me.. probably because i wasn't used to the whole getting-people-gifts-for-Christmas thing, and some of it felt obligatory to me because i knew i didn't put as much thought into it as i would have if it were the present for their birthday.

i feel like, with Christmas comes a certain expectancy from your friends. the difficult part is, i'm afraid of letting people down (even just slightly) if we've only recently become friends and they expect stuff from me because everyone else(?) does stuff for Christmas.

so what now?

i still don't know what i'm going to do in the way of making cards or giving gifts. AND this is made all the more difficult with finals being the week before Christmas, prime gift-shopping time. garrr.

haha, what i actually ORIGINALLy meant to write about is..

when i go looking for gifts to get people, for their birthdays or Christmas or any occasion, i often run into a dilemma.

i find something that's so cool that would be a great gift for the person, but i end up really wanting it myself. a few choices pop up in my head.

1) i'll get it for them and only them.
2) i'll get it for myself, and find them another gift.
3) i'll get it for myself and for them!

on one or two instances, i remember getting the gift for both of us because i really wanted it as well. it felt.. wrong for some reason.

that's when i realized something about myself.

good gifts for other people are the ones i would want myself to have.

and it means more to me if i don't buy it for myself, too.

hmm, something like that. lols.

on another note, i hope the "stuff i like" posts aren't boring you guys. they actually take me a mad long time to write because even though the descriptions and reasons of why i like stuff should come naturally, there are like a million thoughts in my head at once and it's TOO hard to organize them.

well, have fun in this lovely Christmas season, even amidst finals and all that stuff.

i leave you with this video of AWESOME. i get chills each time i watch it 'cause it's so awesome, no joke. enjoy!



[ru you know that]
-i need both of my shoes to have the same tightness when i wear them. sometimes i end up having to tie and re-tie my shoes for a few minutes to get them just right, especially with my skechers, which aren't as squishy and mold-fitting as my sneaks.
-i hate it when i eat chicken wings or something at a restaurant, and then i have to go pee, because when i go into the bathroom, i wash my hands with soap first, that way my hands aren't dirty and i can actually pee, and then have the dilemma of wondering if i should wash my hands again because they still feel squeaky clean. i usually do wash my hands again though.
-the best way for me to fall asleep is to think about something visual that occupies my mind. most frequently contemplated: snowboarding, badminton, hockey, video games. i'm speculating it works in that when i get lost in the thought of whatever i'm thinking about, it removes other sounds and distractions from around me to help me fall asleep. it's also fun to just think about fun stuff. so there's that.

Monday, December 7, 2009

stuff i like, part 3

[songs for christmas! 2 of 4]
so here's the deal, i've picked four songs in anticipation of christmas, and i'm going to have a new one up in each blog entry that i post, the four weeks before christmas. ideally one post a weekend. 3 of the 4 songs are by artists that you know or have at least heard of, but i'm almost certain that you won't have heard any of the songs before. so they'll be foreign but in a familiar kind of way.
this week's song is: santa baby, by mase, snoop dogg, puff daddy, and various artists. push play!


heehee, this song made me lol when i first heard it.



i like physics.

our high school curriculum has freshman year as biology, sophomore year as chemistry, and junior year as physics. (senior year is whatevs you wanna do.)

i didn't like bio. too much memorization. i didn't find mitosis to be that interesting, and by that interesting, i mean, at all.

i didn't like chemistry. AND I STILL DON'T. BUT I HAD TO TAKE IT AND IT WAS HORRIBLE. the problems aren't too bad, but the EXCEPTIONS are what i hate. there are still a good number of things to memorize and those are just annoying.

when i took physics, it just MADE SENSE. i think, since growing up, i've always had this interest in how the world and nature works, and a lot of it clicked conceptually right away in the classroom. chickens dropping off of cliffs, bullets embedding in blocks of wood going around loop-de-loops, all that MECHANICS stuff.

don't get it mixed up, though, i only like physics mechanics. electricity & magnetism, nuh-uh! even sound and light and thermodynamics and stuff like that is bordering on annoying because i can't really SEE the concepts of what's going on.

why do i like physics? because it gives you a set of formulas that govern how things work, and you use those formulas in creative and mind-stretching ways to figure out the solutions to problems. there's no needing to remember that cadmium randomly has a +2 charge that doesn't fit in with the rest of its group of elements or any nonsense like that.

although, i do admit, chemistry has the coolest equipment. beakers, flasks, thermometers, wooden molecular sets, and the such.



i like badminton.

discounting times i played badminton in the backyard during my younger childhood, my first experience with badminton was the end of high school, senior year. we played in gym, and holy crap, from the instant i picked up the racquet and started whacking around birdies with johnny, it felt like me and badminton were meant to be.

even though i still liked tennis very much, i started liking badminton more and more as i kept playing, either in gym, or in my backyard with james' ghetto net. you should see the two dirt patches worn into my backyard because of our badminton "court".

the main problem with my tennis game was inconsistency. i just was not able to develop groundstrokes that were consistent and good, and it was pretty discouraging, though i still really enjoyed playing tennis for fun. however, with badminton, consistency was never a big problem, which was a huge relief for me, transitioning from my days of tennis.

one big thing i like about badminton is the SPEED.

i don't like running far distances, but on the flip side, i REALLY enjoy sprinting short distances. there was some of that in tennis, but in badminton, it's all about quick starting and stopping to get to and from every spot on the court. there's also the speed required mentally, to quickly analyze all the factors of the situation and know
(some would say "feel") the right shot to hit. to adapt to your opponent and change strategies on the fly. speed.

another big thing about badminton is the DEPTH (of the game).

there are so many different shots to hit, each with their own different opportunity, timing, and pace. one second it's a smash, then it's followed by a cross-court dropshot, and then a counter dropshot, and at the same time, having to incorporate all that with shot disguise, good technique, swift footwork, and mental awareness of the opponent's position, your position, and where the birdie is. AWESOME. depth.

another big thing about badminton is WHACKING-STUFF-WITH-A-RACQUET.

i like it.

haha, no, but really, whacking stuff with a racquet just feels so natural to me, and it's also cool having your "personalized" racquet that you can call your own and put whacky colors of grip tape on, etc.

but maybe.. i like badminton so much because of the great people that have always surrounded me when i've played the sport. :]

['tis time, the three things that thou .. thast thanticipated]
-i can crack my right pinkie whenever i want.
-when i write on a computer, i always, always, put two spaces after a period. it just makes sense to me.
-i like my boba tea to have a boba:tea ratio of 1:1, as viewed from the side of the cup. that means a lot more than is regularly given in a commercial cup of boba tea from i's or noodle gourmet or anywhere, really. i'm used to it because my mom would often make boba tea at home and we would have an insane amount of bobas so i would get to set the proportions myself. goood stuff.