Home for the Holidays

Hello, it's definitely been a while since I've written here and on xanga. Since I'm home and sick with nothing to do, it seems appropriate to indulge in a blogfest. WHOOOOOHOOO.

Every time I'm home in the Bay on holiday I become bored with home. Don't get me wrong, I love being around family and old friends, but I can't help feeling rather useless and unproductive. My life revolves around finding things to DO - hence the constant reading and other self-imposed work. My mother tells me that I'm turning into my dad, a workaholic. Fantastic. I've always found my dad to be more than a little masochistic because he sleeps littles, works a great deal, and disapproves of idleness to the point where he believes that sleeping in past 9am is a waste of a good chunk of the day. Sadly, I agree with him.

This break I've had the pleasure to go hiking in the woods at UC Santa Cruz, seeing SD friends around the Bay, just general hanging out with some old friends, and skiing in Tahoe with family friends. It's been a pretty good break so far. The downside is that I am still sick . . more-so in fact than I was when I came back home from school. Technically I've been sick on and off for the past two months, which just means I need to take better care of myself at school.


This past fall quarter has been tough. 21 units = stressed beyond belief more often than not. Of course, in a typical me-fashion I simply shrugged off my friends' warnings that I was pushing too hard to do everything and the resultant stress debilitated my immune system. And of course, next quarter I'm determined to do the same thing all over again ... and start tutoring for Humanities.

I'm actually incredibly excited for next quarter. I'm absolutely resolute about doing even better academically than I did this quarter. Gotta keep the good ol' GPA up and whatnot like a good Chinese American kid should.
Plus, I'm already starting to feel bored without classes to go to and papers to write. Le sigh.

Oh and I'm addicted to chocolate pretzels, which do nothing for my coughing.

This time though, I think I'm bored simply because I'm still sick and hacking my lungs out and therefore quarantined in my house without opportunities to go out and see the people I haven't seen or talked to in ages. (I struggle to even talk at this point.) Hopefully I'll be able to leave the house soon, since I'm only at home for another week before I head back to school. I suppose we'll see.

Happy Holidays

Summer Reading List

I started thinking about my summer reading list today and I became quite excited because I love reading. I love reading far more than I love writing, which I don't really - I just sort of do it and like it a little more than occasionally.

So here are the books that (hopefully) will occupy my interest during my three or so months of summer:
1. Harry Potter # 7 - I've been waiting for this one secretly since the 6th book. I love a nice good tale I can just lay in bed with. Harry Potter books require so little thinking that I find them to be among the most relaxing.
2. The Confessions of Max Tivoli - recommended by my boyfriend. He suggests books rarely, but the one other one he suggested "Ordinary People" was an extraordinary book. I trust his judgment.
3. The Golden Compass - The last time I read the book was in 7th grade, and I want to re-read it before the movie comes out. I'm really very excited.
4. The Kitchen God's Wife - Another book I've encountered before, but I failed to finish this one. I first started reading it when I was in grade school or something because my mom had it lying around and I always liked to poke around at books. Unfortunately, this book was far too daunting and I lost interest (comprehension never settled in) after a few pages. My apologies to Amy Tan.
5. The Best Little Girl In the World - This is a story about eating disorders. Very dark, and may hit a bit close to home if I choose to read it during a "i-feel-like-a-blimp-sort-of-fat" period of time - namely during pms. I hope it's beautiful and sad and honest.
6. The Other Boleyn Girl - There's a movie coming out based on this book that stars Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman. Phillipa Gregory is supposed to be good.
7. Song of Roland (La Chanson de Roland) - This is supposed to be the oldest French literary work. Like other ancient works like Beowulf and Njal's Saga, this is an epic about the hero Roland. I love Medieval Europe.
8. Euripides' works - I love ancient Greece more than I love Medieval Europe. Euripides was quite the playwrite in his day.
9. Find whatever I can on Cicero, who is said to be the most influential writer in all of Rome. He may prove to be quite boring to me, but I think I will be satisfied if I can just be exposed to his supposed genius.
10. A Thousand Splendid Suns - This is written by the same guy that wrote The Kite Runner. That book made me cry. I have high hopes for this one, which is about 2 women.
11. The Assault on Reason - Al Gore came to UCSD on Monday and I went to go see his presentation "An Inconvenient Truth". He was amazing. I will read his book. It's far more interesting than Bush will ever be able to come up with.
12. The Tipping Point - I've always wanted to change the world someone in some small way (for the better, not for worse). Perhaps this book will tell me how. The same guy wrote Blink, which is a fantastic book, I highly recommend it.
13. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier - At first I thought that this book's cover was just too sad to make me want to pick up the book itself and read it, but I've changed my mind. Our world is a sad place, but there's beauty in being able to confess that sadness.
14. The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town - I love John Grisham. I love John Grisham's fiction. This is his first attempt at nonfiction. I want to read it! period.
15. Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment - Religions intrigue me. Siddhartha was a great book and perhaps this will be great too, in a different way of course.
16. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - this is Nayson's favorite book and I remembered that I wanted to read it. The author wrote this book by blinking because only his eyes work after some accident that paralyzed him.

I think that's all for now. Gosh I want to be able to just curl up with some books at home in Cupertino with a nice hot coffee. [=

while i was in cupertino i kept on referring to the apartment in san diego as home. my mom and sister were present for most of these references, and it definitely didn't make them very happy. butttt now i am back at my home away from home and i'm so blissfully happy.
there was a lot of drama stuff at home that i really could've done without. im glad to be back in a place where i can care very little and potentially piss off people i will never see again, save a few passes walking around campus. i don't miss high school drama at all.
i read ahead for next quarter's humanities class while i was on break, which most of my friends and family reprimanded me for. i just like reading, especially books i haven't touched before. (though some books are not worth opening at all). but not being around school makes reading seem more leisurely. njal's saga reminds me a lot of beowulf.
next quarter i get to read ralph ellison's invisible man and toni morrison's beloved again for my literature class. i'm pretty excited. my first lower div class that's actually for my major! w00t! i think i'm ready to dig around in between words for a plethora of symbolism.
lets just hope that physics and calculus don't eat me alive. last quarter's grades were sort of meh and thankfully i won't have to shut down my facebook to punish myself or anything. BUT if my grades slip this quarter . . . then yea, it just might happen.
YAY I HEART REVELLE [=

i have a new obsession with lily allen, this british singer. she's kind of off-kilter and kind of wild. i think she's absolutely brilliant because her lyrics are so blunt it makes me smile, even when the words are sad. i'm going to post lyrics because that's the cool thing to do when i'm obsessed with her songs.


You're just doing your own thing and some one comes out the blue,
They're like,
"Alright"
He's saying,
"Yeah can I take your digits?"
And you're like, "no not in a million years, you're nasty
please leave me alone."
-knock 'em out


At first when I see you cry,
yeah it makes me smile, yeah it makes my smile
At worst I feel bad for a while,
but then I just smile I go ahead and smile
-smile


she makes me wish i had an interesting accent. i wonder if i lived in new zealand with my cousins long enough i would pick up an new zealander accent. that would be hella cool.

after a few days of terrible mood swings, i think i'm starting to mellow out. but then again that could be the soy dream and nutella that i just had for breakfast talking.