Aiya!

This is me being Asian (again, haha). Last week we learned one of the most amusing - and ubiquitous - Chinese phrases in class: 哎呀 (pinyin = aiya; pronounced like "eye-ya"). It's an interjection used to express wonder, shock, admiration, or complaint. I sometimes use it as the Chinese equivalent of "oops" or "crap." Yes, I do use it sometimes . . . albeit rarely.

Now I leave you with two YouTube vids, both by the Taiwanese group 2moro. Both are really cute (in more ways than one).

The first is called: 少了 which translates to "Less."


The second is called: 朋友出去走走 which sort of translates to "Friend goes out for a walk."


So enjoy (it's cuter if you know what the lyrics say, but whatever).

Cast of Characters

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players," a line from Shakespeare's As You Like It, perhaps the famous line from that play (I don't know, I never read it). Because I don't really feel like writing a "real" post as there's nothing particularly interesting, it might be a good time to elaborate on all the major players in my life right now (or at least the ones I talk about). Also, this helps clarify my system of naming people on the blog and will hopefully make it a bit easier to follow (if it isn't right now). So without further ado, the major cast of characters in my life right now (in no particular order of importance):
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Men
JW-M: Political science and Asian studies double major, senior. He was my roommate freshman year and has remained one of my closest friends ever since. Very intelligent and understanding, also pragmatic and reasonable.

BW-M: Anthropology and linguistics double major, senior. JW-M's best friend and someone I had a pseudo-crush on during my freshman year (he often walked around without his shirt on). While he's also quite intelligent, he's among the more conservative of my friends and often cracks "gay jokes," which I find annoying.

JL-M: Psychology major, senior. He lived down my hall freshman year. I pretty much only see him when we meet up for lunch and when we work out. Being Asian-American like me, he sometimes provides interesting conversations in that respect.

ES-M: Soon-to-be engineering major (what kind exactly, I forget), freshman. He's the Malaysian guy I have a small crush in my Chinese class; regardless, he's cute, being a freshman and all. Our friendship pretty much stands at "study buddies," and is completely platonic. He's a very devout Christian, and has some conservative opinions that he usually keeps to himself.

SP-M: Biology major, senior. He's pre-med and is a friend from my high school who attends the same university I do. We've drifted apart a bit in the last 4 years, but we're still good friends when we're actually able get together. He's finally dating SN-F (see below), as RZ-F's been trying to set them up for over a year.

DvF-M: Math and physics double major, senior. He lived next door to me freshman year and across the hall sophomore year. He's one of my apartment-mates right now. He's alright, though he's also among my more conservative friends. As long as we don't talk about politics and academics, all's good.

AW-M: Music major, German minor, senior. He also lived down my hall freshman year and has been my roommate for the last 2 years. He's great. He's almost never around and is quite oblivious when he is around. His girlfriend has him by the leash so tightly it's kind of scary, and he's so nice and obedient. It's great though as it's almost like having my own room, which I essentially do like 80% of the time.

JR-M: Film major, junior. He doesn't go to my university, but we were next door neighbors for many years and we were really close friends. I would actually consider him one of my "best friends." He's very creative and driven, quite liberal and open, but also really busy so it's hard to get a hold of him nowadays.

CM-M: Computer science engineering major, junior. He's one of JR-M's best friends and a good friend of mine. He attends my university, plays the piano and violin, and is a pretty good composer. He actually composes the film scores for JR-M as well as sometimes plays as one of his actors. He's a really nice guy, and has become quite attractive in recent years (in a strange dorky way). I wish I could "blossom" like that, haha.


Women
SR-F: 2nd year pharmacy student (would be a senior otherwise). She plays the violin and we've been in the same trio since freshman year. She also lived the floor above me back then. She's one of my closest friend and the only person I've "come out" to. She's also very Jewish.

JW-F: AOSS (atmospheric, oceanic, and space sciences) major, senior. She's been SR-F's roommate for the last 2 years. She lived down my hall freshman year and we met in the most interesting way (I'll write about that later, if I haven't already, and I don't think I have). She plays the cello and is my stand partner in 2 orchestras this year. She's also Jewish but considers herself a "bad Jew" as she doesn't stay kosher and is a somewhat vocal atheist. Also very liberal.

RZ-F: Biology major, senior. She's pre-med and also lived down my hall freshman year. She can be quite intense and very "Chinese" at times. I'm kind of surprised that she hasn't gotten into a med school yet (I'm not doing too well on this front, as of this moment). We were almost dating last year, we did so much together and hung out quite a bit. But I stopped it just short before an attraction developed because I wasn't ready and needed to be alone to "figure myself out."

SN-F: Biology major, senior. She's also pre-med (gee, a pattern, go figure) and has been RZ-F's roommate for all 4 years at the university now. She got accepted to Case Western and OSU, which goes without saying since she's an Ohio resident, has a 4.00 GPA, got a 36 MCAT, has done quite a bit of research, volunteered at the university hospital, etc etc. I'm so inadequate compared to her stat-wise for med school. Alas. Oh yeah, and she's now dating SP-M. They're so different yet it somehow works out really well. It's rather adorable.

MW-F: Was a MSE (material science engineering) major, but is now a nun (or a nun-in-training). What?! you might ask. Well, she was one of my friends from high school who attended the same university as me for 3 years. She was the violist in our trio for 3 years. She's a very devout Catholic and quite conservative, but she also tends to keep her opinions to herself and doesn't judge too much. But, she recently decided that she wanted to be a nun after visiting the Vatican. Alas, she's pretty much beyond reach now. I do miss her and her viola.
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So there you have it, the major friends in my life. Some of them I probably won't mention much, others are far more recurrent players. There are also many more people that aren't mentioned here who were probably once more important in my life. But so many of us have drifted apart over the years, and that does make me sad.

Oh well, time for sleep. I've a long 2 weeks ahead of me.

Exhausted

I think my exhaustion from being a chronic insomniac is starting to peak . . . I simply haven't gotten enough sleep lately - 5 to 6.5 hours a night is NOT enough. Here are two major signs:

1. Forgetfulness
So during my Chinese test today, I forgot how to write part of my Chinese name. After freezing up for about 5 seconds, I proceed to write a small part of it wrong, catching myself right after I turned in my exam and left the room. Forgetting like this is kind of like forgetting how to tie your shoes, then proceed to do it slightly differently than you used to. Things like this just don't happen. To get a sense of what the mistake might look like, an analogy would be spelling "field" incorrectly in cursive by dotting the "e" instead of the "i," something stupid like that. Sigh.

2. Irritability/irrationality
So, I was trying to figure out how to type Chinese on my laptop. I thought I had it, but something was weird. So I asked my friend, JW-M to help me. He took my mouse and accidentally hovered over what I was downloading (gay porn, haha) for a split second. I don't think he bothered to read (or realize even) the little bubble that popped up, but I kind of mini-freaked. So I grabbed my mouse back and made a tiny scene, which made me feel stupid afterwards. Oh well. I should really "come out" to him, as he's one of few people I totally trust. He was my roommate freshman year for crying out loud (and a pretty good one at that).

Okay, enough of this. I will sleep now.

---TANGENT---
So, I've noticed in recent weeks that there seems to be a disproportionate number of left-handed people on campus. About 10% of the general population is left-handed, but that percentage appears to be much higher on campus. Being left-handed myself, my eyes kind of gravitate directly to which hand people are using. Now, what does this mean. Are left-handed people smarter? Hmmm . . . Okay, sleep now, I swear.
---END TANGENT---

This Totally Made My Day

And this is also me being Asian . . . and a dork. This happened in the middle of my Chinese class today:

BF-M: ::cell phone goes off, half the class laughs::
ML-F: You dork! Your ring tone's from Bleach*!!
BF-M: How do you know?!
ML-F: Because I'm a dork too.

Bleach* is a really sweet anime (in my opinion). The only other anime I'm watching currently is Naruto Shippuuden.

So yeah, half the class (maybe more) laughed at his ring tone, which was one of the Bleach opening themes. It's "D-tecnolife" by UVERworld. We're so Asian, watching anime and all, haha.

Here's a YouTube clip of the 2nd Bleach opening with D-tecnolife as the theme.


Yup, totally made my day.

Rally!

I'm so sore, particularly in my legs and sides. Why, you might ask? Because I was playing Rally. What's Rally, you might wonder? Well, it's a game that several of my friends and I invented 2 years ago. In a quick summary, Rally is kind of somewhere in between American football (not to be confused with football in the rest of the world, aka soccer) and rugby, only it's non-contact. Here are the rules (to the best of my memory):
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Setup
The field is set up similarly to a football field with 2 end-zones, one on either side. There are no "backs" to the end-zones.

There are 2 teams, preferably with 4+ players on each team. There is, as of yet, no upper limit to how many people there can be on each team so long as there are the same number of players on each team.

Rules of the ball
Rally uses either an American football or a rugby ball, depending on the preference of the players. We (my friends and I) prefer to use a rugby ball.

There are 3 things you can do with the ball: a forward pass (overhand), a free pass (underhand), or keep the ball.
- A forward pass is where the ball is thrown forward overhand, like in football. If a forward pass is incomplete, the ball is automatically turned over to the opposing team where it hits the ground.
- A free pass is where the ball is thrown underhand in any direction. If a free pass is fumbled, the ball is "live" and anyone can pick up the ball and the game continues.

Game progression
Rally begins with either a kickoff or a throw to the opposing team. The opposing team may then do one of two things: pick up/catch the ball and "knee" where the ball stops rolling, or pick up/catch the ball and start running.

When a player knees (or "takes a knee"), he/she gets a "free send." During a free send, the player with the ball cannot be tagged, but he/she can't move from the spot either. He/she must throw the ball to a team member. You can never throw the ball to yourself (because that's just cheap).

If you're tagged (one-handed) by an opponent while you have the ball, you must turn over the ball to that opponent where you were tagged. That opponent then gets a free send. Anyone can call tags: if you're tagged and you know it, you call tag on yourself; if you tag someone and you know it, you call tag on them; if you see someone get tagged, you call tag on them; etc.

Whenever an opponent either intercepts or recovers the ball from a free pass fumble, he/she has the option of kneeing and giving a free send instead of immediately running.

One point is awarded when a team makes a touchdown in the opposing team's end-zone. The losing team must then walk to the other end-zone and await a kick/throw to begin the next round.
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That's pretty much it, it's a fairly simple and straight-forward game. There's a couple situation-specific rules that were made on-the-spot because we had to, and there was something called a "rally" that I can't quite remember what it was. But if memory serves me correctly, a rally is rather difficult to get, so it's awarded 2 points when it is. Incidentally, one of my friends actually has a rule book that he made up for Rally - it's fairly detailed.

Anyway, we played Rally for over 2 hours right before the football game. It was wet, muddy, and lightly raining while we played. There was much slipping, sliding, falling, and fumbling. Compound that with standing for 3 hours at the football game and my legs are essentially shot. And today I almost couldn't get out of bed because my legs were so sore, but it was SO worth it.

I'm nowhere near the most athletic person playing Rally, but I can hold my own. I'm not the fastest, but I'm not the slowest; I'm not the best thrower/catcher, but again I'm not the worst either. I'm "bad" enough that I'm often forgotten about, but good enough that I shouldn't be underestimated (which I often am, an advantage to me). I tend to assume support/assist roles, where I either recover a fumble and pass it to a "better" player or I recover the ball and finish it into the end-zone for a touchdown. In multi-player computer games I also tend to assume such roles, either by augmenting my friend's armies with my own as backup, or by being the healer. I guess it's just part of my nature to support.

So grab 7+ friends and start playing Rally yourself. It's great and easy to learn, and I certainly hope it becomes a college phenomenon long after I graduate. Brought to you by Aek of the Midwest.

Birthday Travels

Okay, here's the post I was going to blog like, half a week ago or something like that. So, I've been spending quite a bit of money on my friends' birthdays thus far this semester. Yes, it's all been fun, but it still hurts to see the numbers in my account go down that quickly (or more readily, the speed at which my wallet empties itself). So, here are the two places we went to.

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RZ-F's birthday
For her birthday we (about 8 of us) decided to go to Canada for a day on a Saturday. We first went to some place in Windsor, Ontario, for dim sum. It's like this "famous" dim sum place, at least amongst Asians in every US state bordering Ontario and probably in Ontario too. I recognized it immediately as my family used to go there sometimes. And yeah, the food was still good, and hopefully it'll always be good.

A little background on "dim sum." Dim sum is (I think) a Southern Chinese thing. It's basically a certain kind of brunch/lunch where you don't order dishes. The waiters wheel around carts with a wide assortment of appetizers on them. You basically just eat appetizer after appetizer. The appetizers are things like sesame balls, egg custard tart, dumplings, and a variety of steamed or baked buns. You can order an actual dish, like pan-fried noodles or something, if you want, but that's not critical to dim sum - the carts and carts of appetizers are.

After dim sum, we went to this place called Pelee Point. It's a really cool nature area near one of the Great Lakes (don't remember which one, Lake Erie I think). There was a marshland that we went to first, there were frogs there! Pelee Point itself is where this part of the beach juts out into the lake. 3 of my friends and I took the "scenic" route through the woods. Then we found the road again, haha. Somehow, the 4 of us made it to the end of Pelee Point before the other group of 4, who wanted to walk along the beach. It was a great view from Pelee Point, as you'll in the next several pics.












After we finished up at Pelee Point, we went to the casino in Windsor. RZ-F wanted to gamble a bit, but most everyone else just wanted to see what there was to drink. I didn't really want to partake in either, but I must admit, some of the drinks did taste really good. I liked this particular drink with blue Curacao, Sprite, and lemon/lime juice. Also, "sex on the beach" is a really good drink too, haha. Towards the end of our time in the casino, I had 2 drunk friends (girls) in arms - one hooked on each - trying to steer them in the right directions. Alas, I'm always the one stuck like this in such situations. I ended up going home in a car with the 2 drunk ones; that would've been interesting when crossing the border if they hadn't both fallen asleep.

SR-F's birthday
So SR-F's wanted to take us (RZ-F, JW-F, and me) up north for the weekend of her birthday. Her family owns a condo just north of Petoskey, MI. Driving all the way up there too several hours, and the weather was nasty - rainy, cold, and dark. That first night was unpleasant.

But the next day (Saturday) was amazing. By mid-morning, the clouds had cleared and the sun had come out. We first went to a corn maze at some farm. That was entertaining for a little while - 4 college students getting stupidly lost in a muddy and puddle-filled corn maze. Then we went even further north to Harbor Springs, which was a nice tourist-y town on Lake Michigan. It was a really nice area and I love walking through Midwest downtown areas. And the fall colors were amazing - another prominent feature of the Midwest.












Later that day, right before sunset, we went to a lighthouse in Petoskey. It was really cool watching the sun set beneath the lake from the lighthouse (it was a small lighthouse). Then came the highlight of the day.












Oh yeah, we went out to eat every meal . . . so that accrued quite a sum. We ate dinner at this local place which was okay, and then went for ice cream afterwards. Oh, how I do love ice cream. Anyway, back to the highlight of the day. Around 1:30am or so, there was supposed to be the Orionid Meteor Shower. Around dinnertime new clouds had rolled in, but by 1am or so, the sky was clear again! So we went out onto the balcony of SR-F's family condo and watched the sky for meteors. Honestly, even if there weren't meteors, there were SO many visible stars because we were in a rural area with very little light pollution. I hadn't seen that many stars and constellations so clearly in years! (I used to be a huge astronomy nut in like elementary/middle school.) They were truly beautiful and I found it touching, for lack of better words. But of course we also saw several meteors go by (at a rate of maybe 1-3 every 5 minutes or so), and that was really really cool. I only regret that my digital camera wasn't good enough to capture anything in such low light. We watched the meteors until almost 3am, but then we really needed to sleep as we were going to head out by 9am in the morning.

I woke up around 8am or so, early enough to see the sun rise. So I took several pictures. I love taking scenic pictures. That pretty sums up that entire trip. SR-F, JW-F, and I had to be back for orchestra rehearsal that afternoon, so we sped along on the highway.
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So I hope everyone enjoys these pics as much as I do. Pictures capture great memories. And now that I've finished drinking my green tea, it's time to take a shower then watch anime or something before going to sleep.

That Bitch!

I'm usually one of two things. I'm either pretty stoic, the quiet person who only speaks up when something needs to be said, something contributed, or something corrected. Or I'm the silly person who says the most random things that sometimes (0ften?) make no sense. In any case, I'm not a short-tempered person nor do I get angry easily. Anger is an emotion I bottle up, but when it's full or when something sets me off, the results won't be pleasant.

Now, this hasn't been the best week. I got back my first exams for 3 classes. I didn't do well on two of them (above average but still a low B, which is like failing by Asian standards). The first exam was just poorly written and points were taken off for nit-picky things, how I hate that (and that class). The second exam was simply because I didn't have enough time to study for it adequately, so that's excusable. But, what happened in my environmental journalism class is unforgivable.

I had worked quite hard on a profile of an "important person whose work impacts the environment or public health." I thought I had done fairly well. Well, I got a B+. I'm irked because I haven't gotten below an A- on any final draft of a paper since like middle school, but that's all beside the point; I can live with that grade. What really ticked me off was the instructor's comments (she's not a professor, and I refuse to call her such).

On a second interim draft I sent, she made some comments and suggestions, things I actually attempted to do within the remaining 2 days or so before the final draft was due. Well, her comments on why I got a B+ was so insulting that it made me furious. My jaw dropped at what I was reading. When I get mad - like really mad - my arms and hands get numb, I get light-headed and lose balance, and I get really hot or cold. I was definitely feeling these "symptoms."

Here's what she wrote at the end of my final draft:

"This is definitely better than your original. It reads better than before. And you do a better job describing the significance of her work. I would still have liked more from other secondary sources who can discuss her as a person, not just her work. Colleagues could even discuss her personal traits. And, more importantly, I had asked you to ask her about her own experiences as an older mother. Did she have pre-term labor? If she didn’t, then obviously, it’s not relevant and you wouldn’t put it in. Also, I was hoping you could interview someone she knows personally, like a friend or family member, including one of her children, especially her daughter. Was she a role model to her? I had mentioned that in the interim draft you sent me. That type of information would make this less one-dimensional and more interesting for readers.

Grade: I would do no more than a B plus, since he didn’t address my earlier comments."

That bitch! Okay, I really did try to address her "earlier comments." I interviewed my person a second time (albeit via email) and asked questions I was totally not comfortable asking, like whether being an older mother gave her difficult pregnancies such as pre-term labor. The answer: nothing was out of the ordinary, everything went normally. How am I supposed to put something in my paper that doesn't exist? And through her I tried to contact her family via email, but they didn't respond. How am I supposed to put something in my paper when I can't get the info? Particularly when I only had about 36 hours to do it. Even if I somehow manage to contact them, I don't have a car and thus have no way of reaching them for a personal face-to-face interview. I actually said this in an email to her, so she knew I was unable to interview the person's family though I tried.

The instructors of this class fail to understand that we are undergrads - that we have other classes, busy schedules, etc. We don't have the time nor means to a lot of the stuff they ask us to. Oh yeah, then there's this . . .

What I wrote:

"LC spent her childhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, a city with huge smog problems that used the heavily-industrialized Ohio River as its water source. “I watched news stories of a river so heavily polluted with combustible hydrocarbons that it caught on fire,” recalls LC."

Her comment:

"I presume she’s referring to Lake Erie in Cleveland, right? That’s a famous story, so you might want to mention that detail."

What?! Did she really just say that?! Clearly, the person I interviewed grew up in Cincinnati, not Cleveland. And it's pretty clear that I said "river" and not "lake," and that this river logically refers to the Ohio River in the previous sentence. I still find it hard to believe she wrote that comment.

I'm totally going to email her back tomorrow when my mind has settled a bit and clarify what I wrote and why, and how I actually did try to follow her comments. I don't expect it to change my grade, but I do expect her to feel some guilt about writing/talking smack about my final draft.

Am I just being anal and really defiant about this? Maybe, but I don't think so. I want justification. I dislike it when I've been unfairly (or stupidly) criticized.

---TANGENT---
So I was browsing the internet, as I'm wont to do (often too much). And on I think Dudetube, I came across a picture of the guy from this site. Now, the golden retriever puppies on that site (since it's a site about puppies) are really quite adorable, but the guy holding them is just so damn hot. It's not fair. I wish I had his body. Sigh.
---END TANGENT---