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