Last but not least - comics about working retail

Hello, my fellow minions,

Today is the last day of class! YAY! But to end my retail/work blog entries I magically stumbled upon this awesome and funny blog (which I will link below) about working retail. So working retail means working with customers and the public, and working with the public means a lot of demanding, crabby and umm sometimes, rather interesting customers, or in this case, characters. This site: OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS turned crazy, funny customer quotes into some epic cartoons.

You must check it out. One of the awesome-est things I've ever seen.

Hmm, I doodle out stuff like this too.... maybe...just maybe......

Anyhow,

Happy holidays and take care!

Crazy Christmas Hours

Hi my little Asian dumplings,

It's December already! Oh boy, time going by like zip zip! So I just found out that I am working a fairly crazy shift at my lovely retail job...(mmmhmm, major sarcasm) 3:30 p.m. to midnight. I don't think my supervisor knows, but I'm usually asleep at midnight. Anyhow, but because it's a job and my parents are very big about jobs/work/money etc. It's okay for me to stay out "so late" to "work" but it's not okay if I am hanging out with my girl friends until midnight. Can I not get a little bit of freedom here?

Sigh...I guess not. So sad.

My Christmas List

From the looks of it right now, it appears as my blog entries will be about Christmas-y type things from now until winter holidays anyway.

So as many people are scurrying around in the city today because of the Black Friday sales (I'm jealous). I am at home trying to catch up on my endless list of homework assignments and things I need to do.

Things to do:
1) Homework - only need to do about...ah about 13 things (no biggie) with 10 school days left.
2) Get 10 hours of sleep - work Saturday and Sunday full time hours, not to mention to do laundry and clean the house and prepare dinner.
3) Meet up with high school friends - they have been asking when I will ever meet up with them since first year CreComm
4) Start designing my Christmas cards
5) Start my Christmas shopping list - and figure out what my parents need/want. They're kind of hard to shop for.
6) Actually go out and find the Christmas items
7) Actually start making my Christmas cards
8) Wrap the Christmas gifts
9) Figure out what kind of Christmas goodies I want to bake
10) Organizing the Christmas party.

Until I have these all completed. THEN will I be able to set my mind at ease. :)

Retail during the Christmas season

Hello folks,

So as you all may have noticed - the stores, the streets, the shopping malls are much busier this time of year. It's because it's rounding up to to 'that' time of year again. Yes. That time of year. Christmas.

This is my favourite time of the year. I get to see my extended family members. I get to see my little cousins (and they get to see me)

The thing about working in retail is you have to deal with needy customers, cheery customers and especially, my favourite - the crabby customers.

I swore to myself that this month I will not get mad, nor will I get frustrated this Christmas season. I was doing so good this month on trying to keep a happy cheerful mood until this weekend. I blew it. I wasn't angry at the customer. But it was the affect of her treating me with disrespect that put me in a bad mood. The affect of her disrespect toward me, resulted in me coming home and starting an angry/annoyed attitude 'wave'. The little things that wouldn't bug me, I would get worked up about. Which that, would result in very angry Asian parents. Lesson learned. Work issues, stay at work. Home issues, stay at home. And school issues, stay at school.

I think people should really try to keep their moods in good spirits because isn't that what Christmas is about? When did Christmas become a shopping war with people trying to get 'the' or 'theee' Christmas present? What ever happened to just family time?

Re: Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior

On my Facebook feed, my cousin (who is a mom) posted this article Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior by Amy Chua a while back and I decided to give it a read. It wasn't surprising to me as I grew up with a lot of the rules and upbringings of the typical Chinese household. But, I was lucky enough that my parents were also adaptive of the Western culture.

As I was growing up, a lot of my friends associated me with being the stereotypical Chinese, which is partly true. Like the article states, I wasn't allowed to sleep over at a friends house, my parents didn't really like me being a part of school plays, and they always expected me and my sister to get As in school.

However, that didn't always happen. I didn't play the piano, I didn't play the violin. I wasn't a math whiz, but I was relatively good at sports. So would that be veering away from the typical Chinese upbringing? (Especially the math part) Maybe a little bit. It was strange for my parents, they said and I quote/translated "How could you have a such a big head and no brain?" or a saying that they always say "Big head, no brain, big head grows grass." Yes, that sounds harsh, but to my parents, those words shouldn't affect my self-esteem. As the article states "Western parents are concerned about their children's psyches. Chinese parents aren't. They assume strength, not fragility, and as a result they behave very differently."

My parents didn't seem to understand that as a kid growing up, those kinds of words did affect my self-esteem (I had a period in my life where I was major depressed because of it). But when I cried, they would tell me to stop crying because it was a sign of weakness. As a kid growing up in Western culture, how do you stop yourself from crying and understand that? While seeing other kids parents being nice?

But as I grew older, I started to see that my Chinese upbringing wasn't so bad. I still have a lot of strict so-called-rules that I follow (not exactly by the book though), in respect toward my parents. But I am also thankful that my parents are adaptive to Western culture and not too too strict like Amy Chua.

There's a format for rants?

Allo ladies and gents,

I was looking for an interesting read on the Internet, I usually like to read about people ranting about the silliest things but in spite of all that, I found a format for good rants. It seems to me that ranting is a lot like comedy writing. So here it is:

What Makes a Good Rant?
A rant is usually done with wit and humor, at the same time expressing a position, a stance, or just something that you think is important. A good rant has the following components:

1. Clear structure

Intro – Establish the topic of the rant.
Middle – Provides a challenging statement which makes the listener/viewer think….The “AHA!” moment.
End – Wrap up with a statement that leaves the listener/viewer with an understanding of the topic, i.e. a summary with a catch. The catch should include content but could also be a facial expression/movement.

2. A topic that is current

Topic should not be threatening, include profanity or malign an individual or organizations’ reputation.

3. Utilizes facial expressions

4. Good intonation

5. Clear and concise message

Also remember, a rant can be as individualistic as the person ranting!


Re-posted from: Rant Like Rick Mercer

The whole Tumblr thing

Allo ladies and gents,

Just a short post, do you ever have one of those times where you wish you could say something to someone, but don't know how to phrase it? Well, I have those all the time.

The thing I love about Tumblr is that you get to re-blog and re-blog, like re-tweeting. But with pictures (picture books! elementary school! yay!) that show up instead of a link and you don't have a limit of being confined by Twitter's 140 characters.

I usually re-blog posts on Tumblr because I find many many photos and passages that connect with me on every level. It's basically like a collection of photos or quotes that make me smile. To me, Tumblr is like an art gallery, you admire the work that is out there and take note of the ones that stand out.

Tumblr is my way of finding words, when I am a lost for words.

Check out my Tumblr: Tomorrow Will Be Worse, Smile Today. - www.whats3rname.tumblr.com

Things to read

I love reading comics, I am a big comic reader nerd. There are a few sites I would like to share with you that are pretty cute and hilarious.

One of my favourites is of course, MoonSticks.org. I may have mentioned this site more than once on my blog but I love the cute Sailor Moon cartoons so much! I just wish the artist would update some more.

Next is SavageChickens.com this type of drawing is more quick and simple. It's drawn on Post-it notes.

Thirdly, we have Pon and Zi, cute little characters drawn by Jeff Thomas.

Anyhow take a look at the comics and happy browsing!

School Project Pack Rat

Hello folks,

Assignment cover page

I was going through the boxes in my basement (again) and I stumbled upon many junior high through high school projects, school notes, drawings, doodles etc. But the one thing that stood out to me most was this memorial assignment we had to do in Grade 9 Language Arts class (2005). I don't recall what exactly the purpose of this assignment was but as the name suggests: A memorial.

The assignment required us to write from the heart and script a memorial as well as design a monument to place on top of Kimberly Hill.

Okay, so I go through my collections of school projects once every year just to see what I can throw out. But every time I go through it, I discover a little something about myself that I have forgotten. When I found my memorial assignment, a big flash of memories came rushing back to me.

My memorial

Start memory: During my last year of high school (2009) I went through a lot of decisions about which post-secondary institution I wanted to attend and which programs to take. For some odd reason, I never remembered what I wanted to do because I had influences *cough cough* (my parents) who told me to do something in the medical field. I struggled with my decisions. But I applied at the University of Winnipeg.

My monument, made out of jade and obsidian

But when high school ended, I decided to basement clean and digging through my school projects...  picked up my memorial assignment. Upon discovering this assignment and reading what I wrote about myself when I was 14, I realized what I was applying for at the U of W wasn't what I wanted to do,but rather, what my parents would like me to do. So I didn't go ahead with it. I wanted to do what I wanted to do in Grade 9, which of course, reverted back to the creative arts and entertainment.

End memory.

So it was this memorial assignment that kept me on track of what I wanted to do. It kept me from getting influenced by other people. In a way, this memorial assignment is like letter from a younger and purer me to the current me. This assignment just keeps on reminding me to do what I wanted. Maybe I'm just weird that I can't keep my decisions grounded but when you have people like your parents who are hard to please, its often difficult to keep a clear head.

When I win the lottery

If I were to win the lottery, the first thing I would do is: buy this, this this and this.  No wait, I lied. I would put half in savings and the rest I will treat my lovely family members and friends to gifts.

Photo from Google images: http://www.cars-on-line.com/51565.html

$ 80,000

Anyhow, if I could be the one in however-many-gazillion chance to win Friday's jackpot Lotto Max of 50 million.

I would get a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. 

This vehicle is a beauty. My friend showed this pictures of this car to me and I fell in love with it. Too bad I don't have the money to get it though (maybe once I'm out of school and financially stable). But depending on the model and the quality, this vehicle can range in prices from $20,000 to $80,000. There was three Kijiji ads in Winnipeg the last time I checked.

Hmm, maybe I should start a Camaro fund.

"How to" Demo Idea - Oral Presentation

In yesterday's Oral Presentation class, we were assigned to write an outline for a "How to" demonstration. The first thought that came to my mind was "Oh! this is easy, I'll just do how to draw a stick person." Then I thought up something ingenious.

How to be Asian - exclusive information for non-Asians.  Or something like How to Speak Real Chinese (not that ching ching chong crap).

But then I thought it might not be appropriate for class and I wasn't sure if my instructor would like it, but she did say "bring your personality into your speech."

I also realized that I've been writing/talking a lot about being Asian in Comedy Writing class. I didn't want to do everything on about being Asian because most of my comedy writing revolves around me being Asian and my Asian family. And I think I've just written the word 'Asian' about 20 times now (maybe not that much).

Anyhow, I think I might go ahead with that idea because I think it'll be funny. Maybe I should coincide this act with my comedy writing. Hmm, or maybe I'll do something like how to be a couch potato. Ah! what to do, I don't know. Oh well, I'll think of something.

Kids being kids

Taking Winnipeg Transit home isn't always a bad thing, you get to observe your surroundings and get to know a lot of regulars on the bus, not intimately, but you know, just that they're there. My bus passes a lot of schools (as I'm sure many do) but two schools that I went to - junior high and high school. But every time the bus passes the schools, I get a flash back of memories, usually good, and some not so great.

So I'm sitting at the back of the bus - being quiet and minding my own business, until I see a swarm of high school students getting on the bus and they were the loud, chatty type. They piped down when they found their seats then silence.

Next stop: The junior high students, and they're even louder than the high school students. So I'm watching these kids, walk to the back of the bus then back to the front of the bus, back to the back and back to the front,to and fro and to and fro. And they're just giggling away.

The sound of the junior high students laughter and chatter immediately reminded of my junior high school field trips to the Manitoba of Man and Nature, or to Oak Hammock Marsh. When I finally realized, it's nice to see kids just being kids, not caring about the world and just being silly.

But heck, they were annoying to listen to. In that tiny moment I was so happy that I wasn't a kid anymore. But even then, I don't think I was so annoying.

My favourite things: Coupons, free stuff and food

As an everyday student on a budget, whenever I want to buy something for myself I always ask. "Do I really need it?" Which the answer is always no. But when I do want to buy something, I love to look for sales and discounts.

So I've never watched the TV show Extreme Couponing before but it's amazingly crazy how people can save so much money. And I thought I was a crazy coupon freak, no siree, not compared to some people. But during my spare time I like to surf the Internet for coupons and free stuff coupons.

Such as this one: Get a free Kashi bar - I love Kashi stuff, it's good for you and it tastes good!
and this one (for all you guys out there) free sample of Axe metal, just 'like' them on Facebook, and click on the Babe Bracket tab.

The tip is to create a separate email address for coupons and free stuff because they're most likely going to tell you to sign up for their mailing list.

Anyhow, happy couponing.

Stepping back through time

One thing's for sure is that I love my family, no matter how overbearing my parents can be sometimes, no matter how of many times my sister annoys me. I love them. I was watching TV one time and the commercial for ancestry.com came up. This sparked an interest in me. I wanted to know the reason for my grandfather's death. My dad never told me how he died. My sister and I just thought it was of old age. Boy, was I told different.

When I was 14, my mom told me to do the laundry and I shot back "Why don't you do it?" my mom got really upset, maybe even angry. She asked. "How dare you talk back like that?"

What was told me that day came as a shock to me and my sister. My mom explained the difficulties of my grandfather adjusting to life in the Western culture. In Chinese culture, you could say that the oldest amongst the family was the one who had the "power". So if you had an older brother, well you better listen to him. But apparently in my grandfather's eyes, his grandchildren were not listening to him and weren't doing "proper" Chinese etiquette. It seems as so my grandfather didn't understand or didn't like the fact that his grandchildren were Canadianized.

During the summer I was curious, I decided to go to The Archives of Manitoba building located in downtown and typed in my grandfather's name in the Winnipeg Free Press archives search. There I found my grandfather's obituary. It didn't provide me the information I really wanted to know but it was still something.

However, it's amazing what you can find about people you hardly know and suddenly emerge with massive amounts of information. Although I think it's also sort of creepy in a way, but intriguing at the same time to find information about your family.

Back to school blogging - and constant interruptions

So I have started college once again, the summer went by so quickly. I had an okay summer, I mostly worked in retail and caught up with some of my high school friends. I also had/having a double dose of my parents too.

As I'm trying to type this blog entry, I have probably been interrupted by my mom's yelling (her usual, "Come eat this, drink that," about fives times. (my parents are on holidays right now) I haven't gotten even one minute of silence to organize my thoughts for this blog entry.

Note to self: Do all homework/blog entries at school. (where I can get silence and a peace of mind)

But anyhow, from my obvervations, it's definitely been quite a roller coaster ride over the summer for a few of my friends. One is changing their career and moving into a different field, one is starting college again, one is moving away to an entirely different continent. It amazes me how time flies, as a little kid I always wished I as older. Now as an adult, I wish I was still a kid. It's funny how I watched everyone grow around me, my parents are older, my little cousins are older. It's weird when I think of it because I still remember my cousins when they were babies.

It's been almost eight years since then.

I can tell this school year is going to go by just as quick.
Who knows what's going to happen during my last year. But whatever it may be. I'm ready for it.

Editing your day - 10 things

Take 10 seconds (or a little more) in your day to do these 10 things. It's amazing how a little bit of kindness can brighten up someones day. Or even just changing what you do for the day can make a big difference.

Here's my list:

1) Be kind to others and give out happiness; it comes back to you like a boomerang
2) Smile at a stranger and say hi
3) Offer help to someone
4) For the ladies, wear 10 seconds less of makeup, or don't wear make up at all
5) For the guys, tell someone how you feel
6) Tell your family you love them
7) Speak out
8) If you speak too much, be quiet for a bit
9) Work harder
10) Let go of the past

There are things in the past that I've done that probably wouldn't qualify as one of my proudest moments, one of them is not "being smart at math" and almost failing Pre-Cal math in Grade 12. While everybody else in my family are math whiz's, I wasn't. Being smart isn’t the only thing that will get you far though. It's a combination of things, like how you are as a person. How you live as a person determines whether you are successful or not. How do you measure success? What is success? I think success is subjective, you can be successful in happiness. Whatever the case may be, whatever makes you happy. That is all that matters.

Editing money: Student edition

Funny. But, it's a no-go for me.

With school almost winding down, my plans for the summer is to cut down on my spending and work like a mad man. (so I can earn back all the money I had spent this year on school)

But with personal finance, as with so many areas of life, we have a tendency to jump from extremes. Usually, an excess of spending or strictly anti-spending on things (at least, that what I find myself doing)

Recently I reviewed the totals of my debit/credit transactions and I found that I spent a lot on little treats this year. Things like clothes, food, dining out with friends, and just buying for the sake that it's on sale. Often, I find spending money is accompanied by a credit card, and of course, stress.

This year has been a lot of hair pulling, worrying and running after buses. I can see why my spending spiked up during the course of the year. Shopping just seems to be the therapy for me. I use to deny little treats for myself, like chocolate bars. The thought that goes through my head is: "I want it, but I don't really need it."

I found that by doing this, I actually spent more on something else later on. What I learned: Don't deny yourself a little treat once in a while when you really want it, because you really deserve it. So how do you choose what to buy and what not to buy?

At the same time, I call myself frugal. It's all about making sure I get the most (pardon my cliche) bang for my buck. (Or wait, I'll change it to kaboom for my buck then) But, it’s about cutting back on things that don't add anything to my life. I also find it's good to set reasonable limits on what I spend on certain things a month. I personally spend more on dining out as I love food. But I hardly spend anything on entertainment. So where I spend in a certain area I cut back in other areas.

After all, what do you most enjoy?

Editing: Line art

There's a time and place to clean things up, and as an artist, editing and cleaning your line art is the most tedious and time consuming process (in my opinion anyway). For artists who haven't invested in a tablet yet, like myself and still need to do the 'draw and scan' you'd know what I'm talking about.

But it's amazing what editing can do, you can turn a drawing like the one on your left, to the one on your right.

As an artist however, sometimes it doesn't matter how much time you've spent on the piece. Sometimes, it just doesn't seem quite finished yet, even if it does to others. The thing about creating and designing, you start to get an emotional attachment with that piece. In a way it could be a good thing and a bad thing. If you get too attached to the piece, you start to be closed minded toward other ideas and opinions. But all in all, the decision to make changes to your work is in your hands.

What do you care about?

As I get older (turning 20 tomorrow) I find I care less about objects and "stuff". The objects I do care about are usually visually beautiful, exceptionally functional (like my iPod) or have sentimental value. 

As I type this, I see a cardboard box filled with mine and my sister's old art and school work and know that what fills the box - the content's end is nearby. My parents have been urging me to get rid of the "stuff" taking up space in our basement. But somehow those pieces of paper give me happiness, even if they are not every day items I go through or use. The tattered yellow notebooks of drawings remind me of my childhood and it's something that I cannot replace.

What are things or objects in your life that you care about? or what are things you don't care so much about?

A little list I found on HELLO my name is BLOG. It reminded me of the infamous question: "Why are you telling this to me now?" and "Why do I care?" or don't care in this case.


1. PEOPLE DON’T CARE … how good you are.
They care how good you’re going to help them become.

2. PEOPLE DON’T CARE … what you’ve done.
They care what you’ve learned, and how those lessons can help them.

3. PEOPLE DON’T CARE … what you can’t do.
They care what you CAN do.

4. PEOPLE DON’T CARE … what they hear you say.
They care what they SEE you DO.

5. PEOPLE DON’T CARE … what you do for a living.
They care what you’re passionate about.

6. PEOPLE DON’T CARE … if you’re having a bad day.
They care how you’re going to help them have a better day.

7. PEOPLE DON’T CARE … about price.
They care about value, convenience and risk.

8. PEOPLE DON’T CARE … about your company.
They care about the problems your company can solve.

9. PEOPLE DON’T CARE … about being apologized to.
They care about answers, solutions and resolutions.

Editing to be green

Back in high school I was enrolled in a course called Citizenship in Action 30S. I think it was probably the most valuable course in high school in my opinion. It taught me about the issues the world faced and what we could do to maintain a sustainable life for future generations and how to reduce our carbon foot print.

We learned about fair trade products, and issues affecting Canada. I guess, I could say because of this course, I became a little activist. I wrote letters with Amnesty International, signed petitions, and stuck my nose in almost everyone's lifestyle and picked on them to try to change their way to better living. (Trust me, I converted a lot of my friend's families who didn't use a recycling bin to use one)

As many people will know, one of the simplest things to do is to unplug appliances that aren't in use. Decreasing your electricity usage can be a major way to decrease your impact on the environment.

Since almost everything is about going green these days, you've probably heard the term "energy vampire". If you haven't, an energy vampire is an appliance that uses electricity even if it's turned off, as long as it's plugged in.

This is an easy problem to solve, simply unplug things when you're not using them. Or, if you don't even want to go to that much effort, use power bars for everything. But be careful of over plugging appliances (that's a big fire hazard) That's what I do anyway, I just turn off the power bar and viola! It's that easy peasy. You could have a setup where you plug in your TV, DVD player, VCR player (if you still have one) or video game consoles. That's what my dad does. Although, I still find myself unplugging my dad's entertainment system.

Another obvious place to cut down on electricity is your computer or laptop. The one thing you can do is turn it off at night. And when you do leave it on, change your computer settings to put it to sleep, rather than using a screensaver.

There are many ways to decrease your carbon foot print, there's only so much one person can do, but if more people do these simple little things we can all create a wave. We can all create a movement.

I stumbled upon this site called My Plastic-fee Life: Show Us Your Plastic. It's a site where people tally up their plastic waste and review how they can reduce their accumulation of plastic. In the next few days, try to keep track how much plastic and recyclable items you use. It's amazing how much plastic we use everyday from bottled water to chocolate bar wrappers. What changes can we do to help with the environment?

Editing: The Digital Art

Bura's Adoption Agency - Dragonball Z Gaming Screen Sprites

I like to play around with graphics, create banners, and design digital work. As a kid, I would watch my sister draw, and get envious because I couldn't draw the way she did. In fact, I still do. I think it'll always be a sibling rivalry thing. But as a kid,  I would always draw, everyday, everywhere, trying just to be as good as my sister. Eventually, leading me to take an interesting in the arts. When I first encountered the Internet in 2000, my sister and I would see so many beautiful digital paintings created by really young people. We encountered websites like deviantART - a wonderful place to see various art pieces, including photography, designs, patterns, and poetry too.

We started getting into computer art, and photo editing and sometimes little animations. We also created many websites too...which unfortunately got shut down because of GeoCities closed in 2009, no more free web hosting. The golden age of web hosting was gone.

But my sister would be the artist and the HTML (hyper text markup language) and CSS (cascading style sheets) writer.  I would help with the little things, editing, making thumbnails, putting galleries and fixing broken links. I think about how much time and effort we put into editing to make the website the way we liked it to be.

We were more self taught, than trained if anything. We started off as kids and eventually grew out of it. It was a fun little project we would work during the summer holidays. In the end, the satisfaction of knowing we created something, and getting Internet surfer's to compliment you on your work was really gratifying.

Below I've included links to some of our *erm* websites. I am a little embarrassed by them but hey, we were kids after all. Plus, it shows the progress we made with HTML editing and CSS.

*Warning: I suggest if you don't like Sailor Moon or Dragonball Z don't click on them.

First site, my sister and I ever made (2002):
Katlynstar's Silver Moon Millennium - This site we used a template, and smushed everything together (N'sync? with a Sailor Moon? Now that's a wtf) we had no clue what we were doing. This site had no focus whatsoever. I was 10 years old when I started this and my sister was 14.

This site soon evolved to this:
Neo Queen Serenity's Palace -  This was our main site, all about Sailor Moon. Our most prized piece of work we did. It received a lot of hits and many Sailor Moon fans (Moonies) loved our content. It has more ads now than how I remember it though. This is only the archival site though so our layout doesn't quite look the way it's suppose to.

We also made this site:
Bura's Adoption Agency - I'd probably say it's the one that's most put together, design-wise. But it's a Dragonball Z sprite site. We screen captured the little characters when we played Legacy of Goku, and Legacy of Goku II on Game Boy Advance on the computer.

Saiyan Princess - 
This site was a site dedicated to girls of DBZ. Probably one of my favorite layouts.

Anyway, that was a recollection of memories, not to mention, it did give me a few laughs. I think if I were to start up site building again, I could do a lot better job of it now than back then. But a lot of editing goes on in web site building. For me, HTML and CSS start looking like math equations if I work on it for too long, then I just want to leave it alone and have a snack.

Editing: A relationship, a person even

As an outsider looking into the window of my parents' relationship, one can say their relationship needs to be edited. Is it the way my ma talks? (more like screams) or the how my pa doesn't let anyone explain their actions? How do we know how to edit or 'fix' a person? What does it mean to fix someone anyway?

I was talking to a co-worker once. He told me if I was looking for a boyfriend (which I wasn't) to find a boy who needs fixing, then fix him up. Of course, I asked "What do you mean?" my co-worker responded "His appearance."

Is that all it is? I think not. It's a lot deeper than that.

I think as a person, we are who we are. We can change the person's surface but we can't change the person. However, we can change the perception of how we choose to see a person. For instance, my ma is annoying, loud, over bearing, extremely nosy, etc. But if I disregard all that and realize that she is just a really over protective mother. It's not so frustrating anymore because you know why. In order to understand other people, you have to understand yourself first.

So really, we are making edits to ourselves. To be better people. To grow. To understand.

Maybe next time in an argument with my ma, instead of getting frustrated or yelling, I should say "You need to edit your way of thinking. I'm not how you think I am."

How I see it, people are like drafts of beautiful work. People are not perfect, people make mistakes and they just make edits to themselves along the way. Isn't that how we learn? We are constantly editing ourselves to become better people.

The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz

I was taken back into the 1930s last Tuesday in The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz, play production by Armin Wiebe.  The story begins with Obrum (Tom Keenan) bringing home a broken piano instead of a washing machine for his wife, Susch (Tracy Penner). Other characters include: Beethoven Blatz (Eric Nyland) who Obrum brings home to fix the broken piano and Teen (Daria Puttaert) a lesbian friend of Susch's.

A good read about love

This was a story my friend sent to me, I thought it was very inspiring as I can relate to this with my parent's marriage...nothing of the sort happened but I wish my parents would stop arguing every day over the littlest things. There's just so much more to life than the little things.

Marriage...A Must Read - By Stephanie Hamilton Brown

When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I’ve got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.

Suddenly I didn’t know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly.

She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?

I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn’t talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn’t love her anymore. I just pitied her!

With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company.

She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.

The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn’t have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane.

When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.

In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn’t want anything from me, but needed a month’s notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month’s time and she didn’t want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.

This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day.

She requested that every day for the month’s duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.

I told Jane about my wife’s divorce conditions. . She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.

My wife and I hadn’t had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mommy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don’t tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside
the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.

On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn’t looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.

On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me.

On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn’t tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.

She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.

Suddenly it hit me… she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.

Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it’s time to carry mom out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.

But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn’t noticed that our life lacked intimacy.

I drove to office…. jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind…I walked upstairs. Jane opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Jane, I do not want the divorce anymore.

She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Jane, I said, I won’t divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn’t value the details of our lives, not because we didn’t love each other anymore. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart.

Jane seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away.

At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, I’ll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.

That evening I arrived home, flowers in my hands, a smile on my face, I run up stairs, only to find my wife in the bed - dead.
My wife had been fighting CANCER for months and I was so busy with Jane to even notice. She knew that she would die soon and she wanted to save me from the whatever negative reaction from our son, in case we push thru with the divorce.— At least, in the eyes of our son—- I’m a loving husband….

The small details of your lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves. So find time to be your spouse’s friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!

If you don’t share this, nothing will happen to you.

If you do, you just might save a marriage.
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

A CHRIST-CENTERED MARRIAGE IS A MARRIAGE THAT IS SURE TO LAST A LIFETIME.

So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. Matthew 19:6.

It's not so bad...here have a candy apple.

Looking at cute candy apples...makes. me. feel. calm.

In times of despair when you feel like ripping your hair out, what do you do to cope? I know some friends who, after a stressful week hide in a corner and eat ice cream while watching reruns on TV. But with all the fun things that come with CreComm (all the assignments, all the tight deadlines, and all the things us CreCommers got to do in our life) how do you cope? What do you do when you're overloaded with work?

For me, I "attempt" to get my work done first before anything else (often failing... although it worked really well for me in high school...if that counts for anything!) BUT! after a good hectic week of school,plus work. I like to give myself a little reward (such as a McDonald cheeseburger or something) or pamper myself by the ways of shopping. In many ways shopping is like therapy. There's something satisfying about buying an item and just having it.

What I bought/spent money on this month so far:

1) My DSLR camera (PRICY MUCH? But it was on sale from the original price)
2) The full seasons of Sailor Moon (Yet another pricy purchase, but my mom decided to throw out my old video tapes I recorded off YTV as a kid...so I needed to replace them.)
3) New contact lenses (They're coloured too)
4) New socks (Someone keeps stealing my socks, maybe my dryer eats them)
5) A little black dress (it's not like I needed it. But it was on SALE...Asians just don't pass up on sales)
6) Tim Hortons Ice Capp (I hardly ever go to Timmys but when I do...I get dangerous)
7) Signed up for dance classes for the summer (I know how to dance, but I want to improve my dance skills)

Anyway, this has been the most I've ever spent in what...two weeks? What's with all the spending? I need to save! Poor student here spending...hmm interesting. I wonder how that's going to turn out.

Words to My Sister

My Bucket List - 50 Things To Do

4. Go on a ghost tour
5. Stay out late and watch the stars all night
6. Be in a movie, whether as an extra or as the star
7. Watch the sun rise and set in the same day
8. Take the tour of Disney World’s underground tunnel system
9. Camp at the bottom of the Grand Canyon
10. Have a credit on IMDB.com (like my cousin Stan)
11. Be in a talk show audience (Oprah? ooh wait...)
12. Adopt a pet from a shelter or rescue group.
13. Inner tube down a river
14. Make an oil painting (It's coming, it's coming!)
15. Confront at least one of your big fears
16. At least attempt to tackle every dream and goal you’ve ever had.
17. Take one day to just watch the clouds and take one night just to watch the stars.
18. Travel for a full year. (Oh my!)
19. Vacation on a house boat
20. Live without email, IM, or cell phone for a week
21. Be on a TV news program for something positive
22. Stomp grapes at a vineyard
23. Create an invention
24. Learn how to drive a tractor
25. Send a message in a bottle
26. See the pyramids in Egypt
27. Learn to juggle
28. See a solar eclipse
29. Visit the rain forest
30. Create a family tree
31. Find more about my ancestry
32. Walk the Great Wall of China
33. Visit the Taj Mahal
34. Visit Dubai
35. Sing and perform in public.
36. Fly a helicopter
37. Ride a roller coaster
38. Start a social movement
39. Go vegetarian for a month
40. Learn martial arts
41. Win a draw
42. Plant a tree and watch it grow
43. Scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef
44. Be on the same stage as Green Day, and play guitar for one of their songs
45. Meet Billie Joe and Adrienne Armstrong
46. Dive to see the Titanic in a submarine
47. Take an African safari
48. Spend a summer in Paris
49. Own a store/business
50. Own a little house on the prairie

10 Reasons I Get Up in the Morning

I'm sure the rest of the CreCommers can agree to this but it's been very hard to get up in the morning these past couple weeks. You just want to stay in bed and cuddle and sleep in. But with CreComm you must get up and go, take it one day at a time. My friend Isha has been saying "un jour à la fois" meaning one day at at a time (French), for the past couple days and I figured....what is it that keeps me going from day to day?

Well, here are the 10 reasons why I get up in the morning:
1) CreComm - must...get...through...this...month...home...stretch.
2) Friends - I'm always looking for laughs. My friends crack me up.
3) Summer -  Get through today and soon it will be summer. I can't wait until late nights under starry skies looking for Jupiter with a telescope.
4) Food - I'm always looking forward to eat. Hmm what's for breakfast? lunch? dinner? yummy yummy foody in my tummy.
5) There is much to learn - one of my best friends passed away when he was Grade 9. We always said to each other "there's much to learn my friend much to learn."
6) To be silly and make other people laugh.
7) Music - always discovering new music, I wouldn't be able to function without it.
8) People - observing how people act toward certain situations
9) There is always someone in a worse position than you are. Be grateful of where you are today.
10) Going back to sleep again. :)

"Love is like a piece of art work, even the smallest bit can be so beautiful." (HBW)

Relationships, first impressions and judgments and people's opinions.

In art work, there is no such thing as a set standard. You can be graded, you can be judged but as long as you feel the art work is of value to you, it is one of a kind, just like love.

It is the flaws that make a person beautiful in your heart. It is when their beauty, colours and reflects on to you, which makes happiness because when you see someone you love smile and happy, it'll create a ripple effect.

Art is subjective, the art work has been coloured by the artist with character and emotion. It usually has a basis in reality, but reflects the perspective through the views of one's reality. It cannot be verified using concrete facts. Like, love only when they understand the story behind the person can they understand how beautiful the person really is.

Band #6: Fresh Styles

Winnipeg band Fresh Styles!

From right: Adam, Bryce, Kirk This pic is taken at Red River College Princess Street Campus. How can you tell?

This band consist of only two guys! Their music is a little different than what I listen to (hip hop isn't really my thing, dance is though) I don't know the band members personally, but my sister went to school with Adam and I'm friends with the brother of Kirk. Anyhow...give 'em a listen on their Facebook Page :) They've got good beats.



Members:
Kirk (Fresh)
Adam (Styles)
Bryce Kaminsky - Producer

CreComm Math Made Easy!

So I was reading the "English Corner" of a Chinese newspaper and I stumbled upon this little article. I find this is indisputable mathematical logic and it also made me realize math is so much easier if it was done this way.  

The article goes:
This comes from two math teachers with a combine total of 70 years experience.
This is a strictly mathematical viewpoint....it goes like this:

What Makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?

Social Media and Sailor Moon

As a kid, the only two anime cartoons that I watched were Sailor Moon, and Dragonball Z.

I stumbled upon this epic Sailor Moon comic drawn by Chibi Jennifer on Moonsticks.org. It shows how the final Japanese episodes of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars would be like if the Sailor Scouts had Twitter. It's too good. Plus, I think the drawings are super epically adorable  <3

The Relationship To The World

I Know I'm Asian When...

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the year of the Rabbit.


So last night, my mom's cousins came over for a get together and I thought it would be an interesting blog post to make a "You know you're Asian when..." list.








 You know you're Asian when:

-Your folks never speak UNDER 10 decibels at family gatherings.
-Your friends automatically assume you’re good at math.
-You received little red envelopes containing money on special occasions. (like Chinese New Year!)
-Your parents are never satisfied with your grades
-You don’t own any real Tupperware, only used margarine tubs, takeout containers, and jam jars.
-Your parents house is always cold.(it's cold in my house)
-Your parents grow vegetables in a garden. (it's the crops, don't mess with my pa's crops)
-Your parents enjoy comparing you to their friend’s kids. (they still do)
-Your first generation relatives have a statue of an obese, bald-headed man surrounded by children.
-Your parents or relatives have goldfish swimming in an aquarium.
-Your parents buy you clothes and shoes many sizes too big so you can "grow" into them and wear them for years to come. (my mom's theory, then I starting buying my own clothes)
-You call all your parents friends "auntie or uncle". (still do that)
-Your parents never kissed you…your parents never kissed each other.(It'd be odd if I did)
-Your friends try to impress you with pathetic imitation languages, like the ever so popular "ching chong woo bok chi"…etc. (I was teased too many times in elementary for that)
-You hated that black herb medicine that your parents forced you to drink when you were sick. (they still force me, luckily, I haven't been sick for a while)
-You keep fresh garlic and ginger in the kitchen at all times.
-You were told by your friends you all look alike. (many many times)

I also found a funny video on family gatherings, and yep, I do believe this Youtuber has got it bang on. (maybe a little exaggerated but nonetheless, funny)


Hope you enjoy the video!

Authors in Their Own Write - Interview with Gwed Smid

Haha! I'm happy to say that Gwen Smid was interviewed by the Canadian Authors Association. Yay yay! Hip hip hoorraay!

In this interview Gwen explains her most recent book Mary's Atlas - Mary Meets Ontario
The interview was conducted by Jo-Ann Tremblay. If you got 14 minutes and  23 seconds, please give her podcast a listen! and if you haven't checked out her website please do so at the Mary's Atlas Blog.



Also, if you haven't read my interview with Gwen. Here's a link to my older entry.

The Winnipeg cold!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011:

With this morning's chilly weather. I was the lucky one to have my bus stall on the way to school. So, there I was sitting on the bus looking out the window when I glanced over to the front of the bus and I saw smoke coming out of the engine. Uh oh...that's a no no. 

Read more comics at : http://xkcd.com/

Instantly, I tensed up. I have a fear of things exploding. For some odd reason, I think it'll explode when things go wrong (anything dealing with engines anyway). I had a little panic attack, and it didn't help when the bus driver tried to restart the engine. EXPLODE! was what was repeating over and over in my head.

Passengers on the bus were shaking their heads as they all started to get up to exit the bus, some frantically even. Many passengers bolted off the bus to try for a successful attempt on flagging down another bus before they were engulfed by the cold wind.

Luckily for me (or not?) I was 15 minutes away from the college and had to walk in the -39 weather. At least I had all my winter gear in place to keep me semi-warm. But I felt bad for abandoning the really nice bus driver.

Funny enough, a couple days later (today) my bus stalled again. I didn't panic this time. Everything was okay.

Speaking of being afraid of things. Here is my list of phobias:

Atomosophobia- Fear of atomic explosions
Autodysomophobia- Fear of one that has a vile odor
Automysophobia- Fear of being dirty
Bogyphobia- Fear of bogeys or the bogeyman
Entomophobia- Fear of insects.
Herpetophobia- Fear of reptiles or creepy, crawly thing

and some random phobias that I found (are they for real?)
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia- Fear of the number 666. (how would you even pronounce that phobia?)
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia- Fear of long words. (Well, this isn't ironic at all)

Anyway, toodles y'all and remember to stay warm!
and avoid the Brrrrr ger King cold.


 

Band #5: The Paps

One of my friends introduced this band to me a couple years ago. At first, I wasn't interested in listening to an all-girl band play music, perhaps because I never heard any 'good' female voices out there. But The Paps really opened my eyes to some wonderful talented music. Their tunes are like the Go-Go's crossed over with Blondie.

The band was first formed in 2002 by the Dunlop sisters and bassist Axelsson, when all three girls were in Grade 7. (talk about talent) The band is from Gimi, Manitoba and consists of Terra Stevenson, fraternal twin sisters Jodi Dunlop and Jordan Dunlop and Fiona Axelsson.

Members:
Vocals - Terra Stevenson
Jodi Dunlop - Drums
Jordan Dunlop - Guitars
Fiona Axelsson-  Bass

Although, I haven't seen any recent activity on their Facebook page, they still have their music on their Myspace page. (yay!)

But I'm really diggin' these two tunes at the moment:





Listen to more of their music on their Myspace

Hello Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everybody had a wonderful holiday season. ^_^

But short and quick, as you can see the new layout is up! What do you think?

I got the blog template from http://www.blogbulk.com/