Chillin'

I'll admit it: I've pretty much been just hanging out for the past 3 weeks (including being sick though) and I have enjoyed every moment of it. I've been relaxing, hanging out with friends, meeting new people, started up new projects and even have a cute professor in one of my classes. Life's being very kind to me this quarter! But now I have midterms coming in next week so it's time to buckle down and get back in the groove that consists of school and work.

A lot of people have been asking the same questions:
1. Are you graduating this year?
2. What are your plans post-graduation?

First, yes, Plan A is to graduate in June. Plan B is to...stay longer.

Second, my plans for post-graduation are as follows (roughly, of course):

Plan A
* Spend the summer at home with my family, especially my Amah who's visiting from Malaysia. Who knows how much longer I'll be able to see them all together.
* Travel back to Asia and visit friends!
* While I'm at home, look for a job in L.A. that I'll either really enjoy or earn a substantial amount of money for.
* IF I'm able to find a job, IF I like it enough to stick around, IF I settle into it after a few months and IF I'm able to find good roommates, I'll move to L.A.
* I'll be working in L.A.

Plan B
* Spend the summer at home.
* Go to Asia and travel around.
* Go abroad to work.

SO, keep my fingers crossed for Plan B. =D

Until then, I'm going to have fun with whatever time I have left as an official college student. Carpe Diem, no matter how foolish it may be.

Beautiful Big Bear

Ashley Wong's 21st Birthday - On Broadway

Nataly's 21st Birthday - On Broadway

Okay, it's time for me to take off my new heels (1 of 4 pairs I just bought...omgsh I know) and go to bed. Fluffy pillows, here I come!

Zzzz*
Kristen

It's a Boy!

My eldest cousin announced that he's having a baby boy! The first of us cousins to get married and the first to have a baby, it's pretty amazing and exciting.

Things seem to be moving a lot faster these days. I know I always think that, but one of my girlfriends from high school is getting married in September and one of my best friends from Kindygarden came back from India engaged. Talk about surprising! I never thought that I would be so excited, but I am, and I can't wait to see THAT wedding! I know it's going to be beautiful and exciting, only because it's so different than what I'm used to expecting. Also, I'd LOVE to visit India...I've never had a really good excuse until now and I'm willing to wait 4 years to do it!

In the mean time, I'm excited for Gina's wedding...it's my first real wedding I'm going to be attending and it'll be one of my good friends from high school where we will have so many mutual friends attending! I could seriously cry just thinking about it. Before you know it, WE will be the ones throwing each other baby showers and having children. It's kind of freaking me out, though I'm not sure if I'm more scared of such things actually happening for me or the possibility of it never happening in the first place.

Which is scarier?

Plagiarism is not flattery

I was in the midst of scrambled, homeworking panic last night when I was interrupted with this email:

"WOW...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jCeFfCCY4sQ

I guess we're just too awesome. They all wanna be like us.
Too bad ours is like 9823472934 times better"

Apparently, Michigan State University's Alpha Kappa Psi liked our rush video a lot. So much that they blatantly copied our video down to details I never intended to notice. From the song, theme, stop motion, (badly) cutout photos, boxers, books, backpack, shoes, MAN these people should have just asked us to edit our version to fit their chapter.

Here's our original video:

...and here's the copycat's:

Now, I know imitation is the highest form of flattery, but plagiarism is not. I would have appreciated if they just credited the idea to us because...well, they plagiarized! They even disabled comments on YouTube, otherwise I was going to put a link to the real deal. The only thing that kept me sane and laughing was that their copy was badly done! Sorry, "brothers" or not, it's a terrible mimic.

[EDIT] Yay, they added credit to UCSD!

Another was found:

They took our exact speech!

Happy, Healthy Lifestyle?

Lately, I've been trying this thing about taking care of myself and "making myself happy" instead of "trying to make everyone happy" because it seems I can't do everything (lies!). I'm not going to lie and say I'm a saint in wanting to make everyone happy, but I definitely can't seem to make myself happy and I don't know why. And I can't make anyone else happy unless I'm happy myself, right? So the pursuit of happiness in selfish terms should allow me to spread my joy unselfishly, right? I hope so, because it's kind of tricky in defining what actually makes me happy. Am I doing it because I think it SHOULD make me happy, or does it just make me feel justified? Justified just isn't as satisfying as happy. It's like I'm craving something, but is it hunger? Thirst? And if I'm thirsty, do I want water, milk, juice, what kind of juice? Or maybe I need to regurgitate instead because I consumed too much of something that upsets my lifestyle. It's like alcohol, where you think that you need to consume copious amounts of it to have fun and be happy, when really it just tastes terrible and gives you a nasty hangover...you just gotta yak it up or avoid it in excess or altogether.

So which is it? What am I craving and what variation do I want? Did I drink too much poison and need to yak it all up? ...have I been living in one long hangover?

The Big News Part 2

Yay, I've been given the "OK" to spread the news:

DAANISH IS ENGAGED!

Congratulations! I've known this kid since kindergarden where I stuffed a mean note into his cubby and got a time-out. <3 I can't wait, I'm SO determined to save up and see him married in India! =D

Oh my gosh, that means that 2 of my close friends have become engaged within the past 6 months and 2 others are pretty close to being engaged...4 of them all together! And I will be attending my first wedding of my first engaged friend this September! O.o I feel old! Time is flying by and we're apparently growing up. I'm not ready, guys, slow down!

All I can keep saying is OMG

I can't say exactly what I'm freaking out over for reasons that everyone would understand, but I'm freaking out BEYOND belief right now! I can't tell anyone why I'm so excited, but I have to do something besides stand around and scream in happiness and excitement (hence this entry??)! I'm freaking out! And I mean that in the best way possible, in that I'm happy, excited, shocked, a tad bit jealous, but just so extremely happy and excited really. My word bank is pretty limited at the moment since my senses are on overload right now. I just didn't see it coming! I'm so excited, I can't wait! I JUST CANNOT WAIT and it's not even about me LOL. Once it's announced, I'll explain my euphoric freakout!

OH. MY. GAWD! I LOVE IT! This has to be one of the best moments of 2008 already!

Nationality vs. Ethnicity

I don't know about you, but I have pet peeves...and while I don't like to have petpeeves because they can be trivial sources of irritation, there is a particular one that happens time and time again. This one in particular, is whenever someone asks me,

"What's your nationality?"

The conversation usually goes as follows:

Stranger: Excuse me, what's your nationality?
Me: I'm American.
Stranger: No no, where are you FROM?
Me: ...California.
Stranger: Nooo, I mean, like your parents!
Me: My dad was born in Los Angeles...
Stranger: But aren't you from like, Japan?

It drives me a little nuts. I have no problem with either question, and I'm not even as bothered if people can't tell the differences between Asians or whatever, it's just that they use "nationality" as a suitable substitute for "ethnicity" and it's not the same thing! I'm not saying that I know every vocab word in the English language, but I feel like being American and all, nationality and ethnicity should be in our common word bank.

Am I alone on this?

Happy New Year!

So I didn't really think about it until my mom said it, but 2007 is over! I can't believe that I've let this year slip by so fast. I feel like I haven't gotten as much of what I wanted done this year. I don't really like doing New Year's Resolutions, but here's a few things I want to keep in mind regardless:

Take better care of myself
...sleep better, eat better, exercise.
Find job/internships I enjoy
Find time to read leisure books
Draw, paint, do my arts and crafts, ceramics (hopefully?)
Practice Photoshop/Illustrator with a tablet
Take a photography class
Travel
Cook more
Graduate
Go out with friends
Figure out the difference in alcohols
...and learn out how to order drinks with confidence.
Clean out my wardrobe
...and start dressing better, lol.
Grow out my nails...no more ripping them off!
Keep a consistent journal

My main one would be to take better care of myself and be a truly happy and grateful person. I read that mental stress and such can often take on physical manifestations in their "symptoms" and ailiaments and that truly worries me because I often have too much on my mind to sleep and/or focus well on a consistent basis. So that's my main overall goal which my other goals are supplementary to that. And there's always more, but at least they're written down so that I don't forget. Hope you all had fun and stayed safe!