Ending 2013

Can't believe it's the end of the year already. I know for sure I created this account before the starting of 2013 but right now, I feel as though it's a one year anniversary for this blog. I didn't really take this blogging seriously until the very beginning of January. Even now, considering the frequency of my entries, I think I still don't take it as seriously as I thought I would but that is okay. I'm still learning how to blog and hope that I will improve this new year. Right now, I like to review back my progress of my 2013.

2013 is (and will always be) one of my life changing years. It is the year I graduated out of college and began my adulthood. It is the year when I started this blog. It is the year I learn about my faults and my strengths. It is definitely a time when I learn I am an individual who can't live under my parents anymore. [Warning: summary of many previous entries ahead]

In the beginning of the year, I thought I would graduate out of college and begin my pharmacy school (or any grad school) application. Not wanting to lose many friends similar to my high school graduation, I tried planning ways to stay in contact with my college friends. I thought everything was planned out beautifully. However, I learned many of my limits. My GPA was not exactly beautiful. As for meeting up with friends, a two-hour drive to meet them was not a very good idea, especially when I am jobless and wish to not spend too much money. I still keep in contact with them via Facebook and texting. Still one can't just wander in life and free load off one's parents. A plan needs to be made. My parents took advantage of my "free time" by taking me to visit my old relatives outside the US. It was an interesting experience to learn about your relatives from an adult's perspective, compared to my previous experience as just a student. Now I returned to my home. I began taking online classes for another license exam. I even started signing up for volunteer hours. And to my luck, my job application was still under reviewing after two weeks (better than having a rejection notice). Through out all that personal drama, I was trying out blogging, forcing myself to think of other stuff besides my current worries. With that said, this is how my 2013 will be ending.

It was a tough year personally. I am pretty sure there are people out there who might think I was useless or I could have done better planning. Honestly, I agree with them. My poor planning has led me to this result and I am still a little upset with it. However, no matter who we are or what troubles we have, we all have to keep moving forward. Why keep crying over spilled milk?  I am thankful that I have parents that are willing to support me even though I am an adult physically and still mentally dependent. They are always slowly teaching me many life lessons. I am thankful I have this blog to force me to think of previous work and remind me to not give up. I am thankful of my friends who supported me even when I changed my career path. I am really a lucky girl.

Is there anything I currently wish for? Well, besides the obvious (getting employed and actually finding a good career), I do wish I can tell the next generation many things.

#1. No matter what we plan for our future, there will always be some failures. That is okay. We learn from them and change accordingly. I believe people become successful not from accomplishing every planned milestone but from adapting one's plan to any situation and obstacle. As we all know, some of the most successful people were college drop-outs.

#2. Understand your priorities. I meant this personally, not priorities thrust upon by seniors (aka parents, teachers, etc.). One always have certain priorities and might need time to learn them. One might think it is a hobby, a certain person, or even a career. How do you know if they really are your priorities? Best way I can think of to answer that is to ask oneself comparison questions. Would you go to a big party with friends or to a family reunion? Would you prefer working longer hours for more money or having more personal time and learning to save? Would you rather work for long hours for only 5 days a week or work for shorter hours for 7 days? Everyone has different priorities, none better than others. Knowing them will help greatly in planning for one's future.

#3. Take a task that ends with learning a new personal skill. (I thank my dad's colleague for this advice) When taking upon a task, it is best to gain a personal skill from it. Whether we like the task or not (ex. an education class when studying to be a doctor, or working in a fast food place when wanting to work in an office), there are always skills to be learned. Some are nice to put on a resume but at the end of the day, those skills are what helps in finishing any jobs.

Okay. I think I said [typed?] enough. That's one long essay to read. Thank you very much if you managed to read all that. Now it is the time to take out a drink (coffee, hot chocolate, beer, wine, soda, etc) and cheers to a new year.

Here is to 2014! Happy New Year!

Holiday #6: No Christmas?

It seems awkward to think of a family who doesn't celebrate Christmas. On the other hand, it shouldn't be awkward since my family don't celebrate other holidays like Easter or July 4th so in a way, I have no right to call anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas awkward. Either way, my family often celebrates Christmas (to a certain extent).  However, due to multiple members' catching the flu, my family had to set out on Christmas this year. No Christmas tree. No decorations. No family dinner. Everyone is too sick to get out of bed. Still, how can one forget Christmas if there are reminders everywhere? Stuck indoors with cough medicine beside, I imagine what I will be missing this Christmas.

As a child, I always look forward to Christmas. There was the long winter break, the festive decorations, the festive music, and, last but not least, the presents. When I was a kid, Christmas time was the only time when I can get anything I want (besides birthdays but that always occurs on either STAR testing days or AP testing days :( ). My parents would spoil me, allowing me to get any one gift within budget. Usually the gifts were toys but soon it transformed into video games (because toys are a hassle to clean up). Those were fun times. As a grew older, Christmas time reminds me more of family gatherings - the awful times when one meets with other relatives and they ask constant questions regarding school grades, boyfriends, and (just recently) employment. Who doesn't love family gatherings? I was not looking forward to such gatherings this year. However, now that I [miraculously] avoided it, I tend to miss it. Without the decorations, music, and events, Christmas end up like... any other boring day.

Christmas is a special event whether it is a day for religious people to celebrate their religion or a time for people to spoil themselves with not rational excuse. It is a holiday to cheer people up. And if one does not celebrate Christmas for reasons mentioned above, at least it is a time for breaking boring daily routines, exhilarating one's life [momentarily], and counting one's earnings for the year. A wonderful holiday even for Mr. Scrooge.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everybody!

Trapped Souls...

Once upon a time, a young gamer graduated out of college and was searching for a job. Being jobless for a very long time, he was getting bored with his life very much. The job market was being harsh and his patience was decreasing along with his self-esteem. Barely anyone wants to hire him, regardless if he was a college graduate. It almost felt like the world did not want him. That his life was meaningless and losing his life will not stop the world from spinning.

One day, a dear friend of his introduced the young gamer to a new game. The dear friend claimed that it was no ordinary game and it will change his life forever. That he will never forget this special piece of artwork. So the gamer decided to try it out. Why not? He thought. There was nothing to lose and his boredom and unemployment were digging into his ego. He might as well detach from reality just for a short moment to relieve some stress. So he downloaded the game and started his small adventure.

On his little adventure, he met a woman by the name Felicia. Although the gamer never met her personally, he felt connected to her due to their roles in the game. However, while playing the game, the gamer realized a terrible truth. Felicia, a mere NPC, was suffering in the game. She was forced to experience her death countless times when many other players play the game. No matter if she loves or dislikes her role, she was forced to follow the game's plan to die countless times in front of the players and forget any memory of her previous deaths.  The young gamer could not accept her fate. He could not accept knowing an innocent soul had to go through such tragedies just because she was "designed" that way. He wanted to set her soul free, giving her free will and allowing her to live with no pain. So, the gamer set on a quest to figure out how to set her free. He tried many options and at some point, even talked to Felicia herself. Felicia was very pleased to know the gamer cares for her and tries to save her life. However, after many tries, the gamer confessed to Felicia that he was failing quite miserably for he could not figure a solution. Felicia appreciated his effort. She told the gamer it was okay and she understood her fate. She was happy enough that the gamer acknowledged her existence. With no other choice, the gamer bid farewell to the damsel in distress and saw her died once more. The gamer left the game alone after that. Although she remained trapped in the game, at least she was pain free.

The gamer returned to his regular life again, searching for employment while finding other things to rid his boredom, but he would never forget Felicia and hope one day another player can set her free.

http://paperdino.com/games/save-the-date/

MIND BLOWN! PEEEUUWWWW!!!!! 

When the hour glass finishes...

At some point in one's life, another person's life finishes. It is an unavoidable event and usually unexpected. For a person as old as I am, I have to say I am very fortunate not to have any one close to me pass away. However, that doesn't mean I am blessed to not have to suffer the loss. As stated, it is unavoidable and so my time of loss will come soon. Still the topic got me thinking. It isn't the first time I thought of this topic (and I don't expect it to be my last). 

The first time I thought of this was when a friend of my sibling suffered cardiac arrest. It was really unexpected for the friend was very healthy not too long before the incident. Many teachers and friends were very shocked. The next few deaths I heard were of suicides of acquaintances. These deaths will always remain a mystery and coming to closure were hard. During those times, I didn't understand. I didn't know how to respond to those news for the people weren't involved in my life.

Recently I had a few distant relatives passed away. I didn't really feel upset but that is caused by my lack of bonding time with those relatives. Besides these relatives, the father of a friend of mine also just recently passed away. So I couldn't help but think: how would I react if someone close to me passes away? Will I cry loudly? Or would I remain quiet? How long will it take for me to recover? These questions can't be answered until I experience the event... On the other hand, do I want these questions answered? It's hard to say. However, in my opinion, it's never too late to be prepared. Now, I'm not saying to go buy a gravestone and coffin right now. That is very depressing. No, I'm talking about having a mind set to help oneself move on when the time comes. So here's what I think will help me for that future.

First, it's necessary to remind oneself that the world continues to spin. Time might feel like it stopped but sadly that is not true. There's no pause button so everyone has to pick him/herself up as soon as possible. A vacation from work might be a good idea but at some point, one needs to return to work. How can we get used to living without the deceased if we are not continuing living our normal life?

Second, it will help a lot to be prepared for paying the burial cost. It is understandable that deaths are unexpected and to think of such topic is almost taboo. However, I would feel totally ashamed if I can't afford to give my loved one a proper burial. So that means I need to leave a small share of savings for such event. Knowing that my loved one can have a decent burial comforts at least maybe 1% of the heart. Sometimes having faith in a religion helps.

Third, never forget the happy moments. Is it weird that we usually think of happy moments when the person is gone and not when he or she is present? There's always a regret. From wishing to say "thank you" to "I'm sorry," there are many things we wish we could do before the person left. Sadly, we don't know the state of our loved ones' hour glasses. Sometimes we think we have all the time in the world and procrastinate in showing our love. This advice might also help in regular life. Always think positively about everyone. It is hard but possible. Once we think of the person in a positive manner, we will compliment and thank them more often automatically. Also each moment with them is another beautiful memory. So when the time comes, there's less regrets and more wishes for a happy afterlife.

I know. They all sound cheesy and how would a girl who barely experienced such loss give such an advice?! Well, I don't know what to say. This is my thoughts, my view when someone I know lost someone. I don't know if these advice will help pick someone back on their feet. However, I think this is just a good reminder. Maybe it doesn't work on others and this will end up being a note to myself to help me get back on my own feet. Either way, may the Lord (or the diety of your religion) bless the deceased and bring them to the afterlife in peace.

Finding Your Past in Your Present

It is redundant. I said it before and I will say it again. Always remember where you came from. It makes us who we are. Well, instead of remembering, I decided to revisit where I came from.

So cloudy!

This is the city where I was raised. Honestly, I didn't go back because I want to relive my memories. I went back [against my will] to visit my relatives. Being a college graduate, my parents thought it would be nice to visit them in case I get a job that doesn't allow much vacation days. Plus I'm growing old and my grandparents are growing old. Better to visit them before it's too late (knock on wood).

The trip was quite interesting. Almost everyday, I was visiting a relative or a family friend. If I'm free, my parents would be forcing me to go shopping, thinking I need to renew my wardrobe. It was really busy. Besides having lots of family reunions, I got to revisit many places from my childhood, from shopping malls to restaurants. However, there is something I didn't expect from my trip. I experienced culture shock... from the city where I grew up! It was very stressful when I experienced culture shock from moving to the United States. Now experiencing it again but from where I came from, I realized how much I grew and adapted to the western culture. Everything is new again. I found out my tiny primary school has moved to a bigger building. My old apartment has finished renovation. There's now a Disneyland there too!... but I didn't get to go there. Taxi drivers are aggressive and MTRs can get seriously packed. I'm learning many new things again.

Many relatives and family friends asked me the same question: "If necessary, will you be able to live here again?" I automatically answered yes. I believe I can adapt to living there again. Sadly, I don't know if I want to. If I live there, I have to give up my coffee and milk tea addiction since coffee and milk tea taste a lot stronger. I also have to give up driving due to horrific traffic. Although I know I can deal with the hustle of a busy city life, I don't think I want to return there for a living... Maybe for vacations only. 

Time is a harsh spirit

I feel like such a failure right now. Making a New Year's resolution about typing an entry every week to keep this blog going and here I am typing almost every other month. It doesn't mean I lost interest in blogging. I just don't know what else to type. Let me explain.

Originally, I wanted this blog to force me to remember the good times in my childhood. The wonderful nostalgic feeling really hits the heart and at that moment, I would think "My life is beautiful." It didn't matter what stressing moment I was in. Every time I think of my childhood, there's a feeling in my chest that just makes me tear up and become thankful for what I am today. Sadly my life is changing at a serious exponential rate. I transformed from a student to an adult in just a few months and the stress is seriously piling up. When I was still in school studying, I always thought "there is time." There was always time in my future. To get a boyfriend or a husband. To start a family. To play video games for many hours. To get into painting again. To travel around the world. I always thought there was time for everything. However, once I actually become an adult, graduating out of school and entering reality, I realized there isn't as much time as I wanted. Forget the video games, traveling, and hobbies. Those activities can be done in any age group. I'm talking about family. I have many wants in my life and quite a few involve my family. I wanted to get my mom the car of her dreams. I wanted to afford a good surround sound system and television for my dad. I wanted to be able to buy anything for my younger sister so my parents can keep their money to spend on themselves. I also wanted to buy gifts for my young cousins to return the love their parents (my uncle and aunt) gave me when I was a child. There are so many things I want to buy and give. Sadly, time is a harsh spirit. I just graduated and barely began my career. I'm still unemployed and the people I love are growing old. There is not much time left. The clock is ticking. Soon my parents' old age will catch up too and they will need medical attention. I will have to care for them. Did I put too much expectations on myself? Was I able to change any of this? Or is this just a cruel inevitable fate?

With this set in mind, I started thinking about my own future. For love, I thought I can get a boyfriend anytime. "Love has no boundaries," I told myself. I still think this is true. However, my retired father brought up a different concern I never really thought about. A boyfriend can come anytime but if I add children in this equation, that's a different story. With the required education level increasing, my future children might be required to graduate with a master's degree. Is that possible? Maybe, but only if I'm young enough. I like my future children to not worry about finance, to focus only on education and social life. Sadly that is hard. People always bring up savings and loans. Of course, the child must also be somewhat smart to begin with. This is not easy. I don't want to be already retired once my children graduate. I want to remain working when they get a chance to begin their careers. I don't want to burden them to taking care of me. So is that possible? I can't be optimistic of my future health. That is mostly unpredictable. There are times I want to tell myself, "you are too young to think of these things." As a recent college graduate, I would love that saying to be true. However, my own clock is ticking too. Preparations for the future need to be made.

So that is why my blog hasn't been updated in quite a while. The theme I gave my blog was memories of childhood but how can I remember my past if I'm too concern with my future now? As an adult, I must remember that there are people in my life that will be depending on me. I have to remember, no matter how many good memories I have, time is moving - whether I'm dead or not. I guess I realized while I love to reminisce, time is still driving me forward and it doesn't care where it is taking me so I have to be the one to make sure I don't crash into anything. 

I discovered the Bullet Journal

Scrapbooks, journals, diaries, home videos, blogs. What do they all have in common? They record events! No matter if they are themed events or daily events, these media help document for memory. However, not everyone can have enough free time to create these things but that doesn't mean he or she don't want to. Just today, I discovered a website that introduced a method that's close to journal-ing. It's quite interesting.

The method is called Bullet Journal. It is like a To-Do list and journal in one. Each entry, the person list out the tasks they need to do and what events occurred in bullet form. It's fast and simple. If the person wants to personalize, he or she can do that at her own time. It's harder to explain in words so I recommend checking out the website.

www.bulletjournal.com/#myModal

Childhood #4: Children on the plane

I always wonder if I was ever one of those annoying children during a flight. When I was young, still living outside of the US, my family and I would always take our vacations in California because that's where my grandparents lived. So every summer vacation, we would take the long flight across the Pacific. As children, the flight is a long boring trip and staying in one's seat for 12+ hours is torture. To cure my boredom, I would usually have a small carry-on bag filled with candy, snacks, pencils, papers, and reading materials. Once the seat belt light is off, my sister and I immediately open our bags and do what ever we like. Most of the time, I would be drawing. Other times, my mom would make sure I read (the homework my parents gave me for every summer). And sometimes, I would grab the magazines in the seat pocket and read it. Thinking about it now, I wonder how I manage to stay so still in my seat (besides going to the bathroom). I would like to say it's due to my parents' discipline but both my parents said I was an obedient girl (that they probably took too much pride on). When my sister and I get bored, we would always talk... a lot. About what? Honestly, I don't know and don't remember. The chat is probably about cartoons or toys or movies. So this train of thought led me to this one question: was I ever an annoying child on the plane? I would love to think just as what my parents told me but knowing myself, I probably got a few adults angry during the long flights. If not the passengers, then probably the flight attendants since I get air sick every time.

As an adult now, flights are quite interesting to me. Many times I would go through magazines to read about different cultures. Occasionally I would try to listen to music in other languages. Sadly my air sickness was never cured and at every plane trip, at least 8 hours were occupied by sleep. I hope everyone else has a better flight experience than I do.

Holiday #5: The Father I Couldn't Repay In A Lifetime

I don't want to sound as though I'm bragging. However, I believe I'm one of the few lucky people to have an awesome father. He has a strong heart and is very considerate. He encourages me during my ups and comforts me during my downs. In a way, I'm a spoiled child because of him. I can never thank him enough for what he has done for me.

Honestly, I didn't grow up with my father. My father works outside of the U.S. while I was studying in junior high, high school, and half my college. Every year, he would work hard to save up vacation days just to visit my mom, sister, and me. It was heartbreaking every time my family sees his leaving. In a long distance relationship, my parents experienced ups and downs - dealing with trusts and doubts. No matter what the obstacle was, my parents pulled through and now we're all living together. Because of this, I have respect towards my father for his endurance.

What makes me love my father? Well there are plenty of small reasons. However, not too long ago, I just graduated from college. It was a tough time for me. While all my friends were submitting applications for their desired grad schools, I was worrying over my student loans and my GPA. Let's be honest. I'm not one bit smart. I'm the most average of the average. I didn't receive any honors nor did I join any sororities or big clubs, so when I went to my graduation ceremony, I was only wearing my gown and the common sash my college was selling. So through out my senior year, I wasn't one bit looking forward to my graduation. My low GPA would not get me anywhere and I was really down knowing I still need to get a job to keep my student loans off my parents' shoulders. Well, just three days before my graduation, my father decided to have a talk with me. I don't know if he noticed I was down or not but the first thing he said to me was "don't worry." My father told me to keep my career options open and I should just try to get a small job. As for the student loans, I should not worry about them. Then he said something I never knew my parents would think about. He said I should just get a small job and enjoy my life a little as an adult. He worries that I'm spending so much time studying, I didn't get time to hang out with friends. In the beginning, I didn't really understand what he meant. In today's culture, it's normal for students to aim for college and beyond (if possible). That's what I thought but he explained how he was with my mom when she was 22. My parents were already working and traveling around the world for fun. Basically they were enjoying their young lives and now my father is worried that I may miss that life. Coming from an Asian father, this means a lot. I grew up thinking I need to satisfy their desires and because my father spoiled me, I feel even more pressured to repay him. Now knowing my father really cares about my happiness and tries to lighten my burden, I couldn't thank any divine spirit enough for my father. I couldn't thank my father enough for his love. He is one of the best gifts in my life and I wouldn't want him in any other way.

Happy Father's Day

Holiday #4: The Woman that gave us life

Whether you have your biological mother, stepmother, foster mother, mother-in-law, god mother or even a mother by spirit, you can never truly hate her. She gave up some of her time to raise you and teach you about life. Not all of us are blessed for having a loving/living mother. Because of this, we should all be thankful for having our mothers and give up a small time to thank her once in a while. True there are times when she scold you. She might even lecture you over things that you find unnecessary or are not responsible over. Either way, her message and lecturing are meant to teach you what is important and what should be done if you were in those situations. She is teaching us how to build character and value. And most of the time, we don't truly appreciate them until they are out of our daily lives. Let's not wait till they are gone for us to appreciate them. Let's keep telling them "I love you" and thank them. So when the day they truly leave our lives, we have no regrets.

~Happy Mother's Day~

Advice #2: Hanging out with people you dislike

No matter how many times you pray or try to be nice, there will always be people in this world that will dislike you or vice versa. It's true and unavoidable. The best solution is, of course, don't hang around them. Why be with people that makes you sad, correct? Well, yes, that solution works most of the time. However, not all of us have that choice. What happens if this person is a friend of your friend? and this person tends to "cling" onto your buddy all the time? Or worse, what happens if you are related to this person? (I'm pretty sure there are some people who dislike their relatives.)

First of all, realize that this person you dislike is also a dynamic person, like you. This person has feelings, memories, and experiences just like you, only different ones. When I say a dynamic person, I meant he or she can change (both positively and negatively). He/she is not static but that doesn't mean he/she won't seem static. However, don't expect that person to change for you. (He/she would have changed in the first place and you wouldn't be in this situation then.) Overall, this person is still a living, breathing human being like you and obviously there are people that might misunderstand and dislike you. If someone dislikes you and you have a reason for your actions, the person you dislike should also be given the right to reason. 

When you finally understand that person has a life with goals (and feelings!), you should realize that he/she has a good and a bad side. Everyone does. (If you can only see this person as an object, I think the person with the problem is you and not him/her.) When we meet someone new, we always ask what are the good traits of that person. "What's his/her favorite music?" "Is he/she clean?" No matter how many questions we ask, we always expect good answers, hoping to create a new friendship. This is the perspective we want when we see the person we dislike. By always assuming you are meeting someone new, you will always ask questions and expect positive answers.

Well, that sounds easy enough but what if we can't forget the bad side of this particular person? In that case, try forcing yourself to name positive traits about that person (other than intelligence and beauty). Back in my high school, every class had to sign a "social contract." I have no idea who came up with the idea but it was a way for teachers to teach students to be respectful. In the contract, one promises when a person feels insulted by one's comment, that one person must give a compliment to the insulted one. And to make it harder, my teacher disregards simple comments like "you are smart," "you are nice," and "you are beautiful." This makes my classmates and me feel pressured into thinking good compliments. This social contract is not a too bad of an idea. It forces oneself to look at a person positively, which is really hard if one already hates that person.

But how does looking at a person positively help with our dislikes for him/her? Actually it reminds us that the person we dislike is not all too bad. He/she is not a punishment sent from the heavens. Our distaste in that person can usually cloud our perception of how the person might really be. Also, knowing that the person is not all too bad, you will likely give more chances to see more positive traits. And for sure, if you see enough positive traits, you might end up liking that person... or at least tolerate his/her presence.

I actually wish many people would think this way instead of sending hates towards each other. However, my method doesn't solve every problem. I myself still have people I dislike, and I avoid them as much as possible. This method just helps my tolerance. Also this method is not a reason to put trust in other people that easily. Trust is a different issue. I just want to help some people so their hang outs will not be a "living hell." So good luck to you all!

Rain, Rain... Go Away... Come Again Another Day

It is finally April. What does it means? April showers, of course! Depending on what type of person you are, you may either enjoy the rain or you fully hate it. Either way, it is the time of year where mother nature takes her course and water her land to bring in new life.

I have a love-hate relationship with rain. In Hong Kong, rain is very common. It rains in the spring. It rains in the summer. It rains in the fall and winter too. It is a full year of rain in Hong Kong (either that or harsh humidity). No matter what season, Hong Kong can bring in rain. In worst cases, a typhoon can come instead of rain. For those of you who never experience such storm, typhoon is like the sky decided to not sprinkle water on you, instead gives you a whole bucket all at once. If the typhoon last long enough, it may even flood in Hong Kong. This is not the reason why I dislike the rain. My main reason is that because it rains so often in Hong Kong, I rarely get to see the sun and clear sky. Also I feel rain is not necessarily counted as clean water. Call me a freak if you like but I feel dirty if I'm wet from the rain.

The rain is not always bad. If it was raining outside and I was indoors, I feel very comfortable and cozy with a cup of hot tea and a movie to watch. Raining weather became relaxing time (with the exception of finishing papers and studies). Also after moving to California, seeing a full rain storm is close to never. So sometimes when I do see rain, I feel both love and hatred for it. I know rain is an uncommon sight now so I still treasure the scenery. Mother nature has a way to toy with my feelings.

Riddle #2

My goodness, I love riddles too much sometimes. Here's another one I heard from someone.

You want to know when 45 minutes had past. There are no clocks, sundials, hourglass,etc. All you have are two ropes and a lighter. The ropes are different in length, type, and burning rate. However, you know that it takes a total of 1 hour to completely burn each rope. Also both ropes don't have consistent thickness so it might take longer for certain parts of the rope to burn (example: it might take 55 minutes to burn one small section but only 5 minutes to burn the rest, leading to 1 hour total.). How do you find out when 45 minutes has passed?

Hint: you don't need to manipulate the rope in anyway. No cutting, folding, tying, or etc required.

By lighting both ends of a rope, regardless of length, material, or thickness, it will take 30 minutes (half the time) to burn the rope. So burn two ends of rope #1 and one end of rope #2 at the same time. Once rope #1 burns out, quickly start burning the other end of rope #2. By now 30 minutes has passed. The remaining portion of rope #2 should take 30 minutes to burn up. By lighting the other end at this point, it should take only half the time to burn the last portion: 15 minutes. Once that rope finish burning, 45 minutes has passed.

Advice #1: getting over sad feelings...

I never thought about giving advice. Initially, I was planning to bring up positive (and maybe a few negative) memories in my blog to help any one to enjoy his or her life... at least make it more tolerable. However, there are times where bringing up memories don't help. Instead it might do the opposite. It might bring up unsolved feelings because whatever happened was never solved to begin with. It was only pushed aside thanks to work or other daily needs. After talking to a few friends, I came to realize that some people don't know how to handle these stressful situations and might need a little help to get the thinking gears working. Because of this, I decided to type up a small advice column this time.

So what are "sad feelings"? Well, to be specific, I'm actually talking about any feelings of stress. This includes frustration, anger, sadness, and even jealousy. Basically, if you are not happy or in any positive emotions, I count that as you are sad. Remember though, feeling depress or stress is not a bad thing. It keeps us cautious and help us learn for our future. A good stressing moment here and there helps us to work hard. However, sometimes we get so caught up with our emotions, we forget to work and move on. Moving on is not hard actually. It is the working part that is hard. If we can't work out the problem, how can we move on?

Now you have identified that you are sad (if you are happy, you may continue to read to teach someone else). Why are you still in the depression gutter? Our sad emotions are usually caused by our lack of knowledge to a solution. In other words, we are usually sad because we don't know what to do to solve our problems. And because we don't know what to do and we constantly think of the problem, we tend to feed our sadness even more. It is a vicious cycle of depression. If you think about it, it is somewhat true. If you know how to solve your problem, you wouldn't be sad to begin with, right? The reason for you to remain sad after finding a solution is because you need encouragement and reinforcement that your solution WILL solve the problem. So you don't know how to solve your problem under your sadness. What do you do? The best advice I can give is: write it out. You first write out how you feel. This helps you identify and accept your current emotion. Then write out what the problem is. Why are you stress? What happen? If possible, write a whole story. Writing involves putting thoughts in a linear form. It forces you to organize your ideas, picking out important events while deleting what you think is unnecessary. Last write out a plan to solve your problem. "Are you serious? You bluntly want me to write out a solution after making write a whole chapter of my depression?" Yes, I'm serious. Writing helps relieve a bit of stress. Now you should be able to think a little more clearly. If you can't think of a solution, do research. Go see a counselor if you have problems with classes. Go find a professional that can teach you a skill that you think you need to solve the problem. Whatever it may be, just try to find a solution.

You got your solution plan. Now you can either get someone to revise it or follow your solution right away. I recommend finding someone to revise your solution. Don't find a close friend who would ALWAYS agree with whatever you say. No, we don't want that. We want smart friends who think from many sides of a story. These friends can sometimes bring up extra problems you might encounter. Sometimes they might offer a different solution you might never thought of. Sometimes you might even argue with them, but you might be convinced that their solution or your own solution is better. Having a friend to revise your problem keeps your mind open. You will understand your problem a little better and you might find alternative solutions in case your first one didn't succeed. Now follow that solution plan you finalized!

The main goal is to stay open minded and writing out the stress. Not all situations are easy to solve and some may not even have a solution. However, writing out the problem can help relieve stress and organize one's thoughts. So start a blog or a journal. Maybe start painting if you prefer another medium. Try figuring out a solution to a problem. If the problem involves a person, try to think of the situation in his or her point of view. Life is unfair but the world is not full of jerks. After this exercise, I'm pretty sure you would be [at least partially] stress free. However, don't take my blog too seriously. If you already have your own method, by all means, keep going! I'm just offering one kind of method. If you think this method is not working for you, find another method or see a counselor, a psychologist, or an adviser. You can't always be happy but that doesn't mean you should stay sad. Good luck to you and stay positive.

Regrets...

Regretting is such a depressing topic. "Did you ever regret something in your life?" I hate this question. I never wanted to ever hear or think about it.The answer to it is very obvious. Everyone regrets something in his or her life time. "I wish I had done this." "I should have done that." "I should have said something." It is a major bother to almost everyone who thinks about it. The idea that one could have change an event for the better can really stress the mind. Once we get the idea, we start comparing our current situation to what could possibly happen. Sometimes we compare them so much, we get depress by them.

A simple example will be my college application. I applied to very few schools because I wasn't too confident in my application and I had no desire to move so far from my home. Because of my desires, I applied to a certain school without knowing how I was going to study for my career. Sadly, by the second year, I realized that another college, where most of my high school friends applied, has a program that would have helped me in my career. I didn't bother to apply to that school because I thought I was not smart enough or wasn't good enough. To this day, I still have one question in my head. "If I applied, would I have been accepted?" It is one hell of a question since I'm not doing as well as I expected in my current college, mostly because I'm studying another major towards the same career. However, different majors have different standards, as we all know. So... "would I have done better if I went to the other college studying in that program instead?" I will never know.

Let's not be so negative. I never like thinking about regrets (who does?) because I don't like seeing them as regrets at all. Through my college life, I learned many things about myself and life in general. True, regret hurts but what is done is done. We should learn from them instead. I learned to actually research about colleges thoroughly before applying. (First generation college student here. Please don't blame me.)  This knowledge I can pass it on to my other family members who will be going to college. We live and we learn. For regrets over crushes, we learn to identify our feelings and take courage in making our final decisions (whether to confess or not). There are many positive experiences from our decisions. Outside of learning, I also am glad I made wonderful friends in college. I learn how to take care of myself and schedule my time wisely. All our decisions and regrets teach us how to deal with our future. So for anyone who is burden by his or her regret, cheer up. I'm pretty sure everything will turn out all right. As long as we all work hard, our future is bright.

Now what about "always remember" our memories? It is true I say that but we should only see them as where we came from. Our past should not pull us back from what we can gain in our future. "We learn from our past. We live in the present. We work for our future." I don't know who said these words but we can learn a lot from it.

Before emails became a trend...

I know what you are thinking. "Emails? Who uses email these days? We IM and text now." Well if you were born in the late 1990s or the early 2000s, you probably don't even understand why people use emails other than signing up for different online accounts. Emails were really convenient since it saves postage payment when sending letters. However, I'm not talking about emails right now. I want to focus on what comes before emails: letters.

This is a funny story for me. I had an email account when I was in elementary school. However, my friends and I would still mail each other instead. We would write out stories, personalize the letter here and there, and make sure our penmanship is readable so the postman can read the address. Sometimes we had Hello Kitty themed papers. Other times we have it plain but decorated by ourselves. So much effort was put into writing each letter, it seems each one received is like a treasure. Just waiting for the mail to see if one is meant for you was an exciting moment.

Postcards and letters are very cute but it means little to a child who sees her friends everyday in school. How does receiving letters end up so emotional? There was a time when my family stayed in the United States for a long period (about 3 months). I was away from my friends in what seems like forever. One day, I received a letter I never expected. It was from my best friend! I left her my address in case she wanted to contact and she actually mailed me a letter. Now picture a eight-year-old girl's receiving a long letter from her best friend whom she didn't meet for a long time. I was filled with so much joy (and probably jumping all over the place) that I wrote a reply letter and convinced my mom to mail it. I don't really remember what was written on that letter. However, to this day, I still remember every emotion I went through when receiving it. It seems worth more than any email (or even text) I had ever gotten in my entire life. Because emails and texts are so common these days, I treasure letters even more. Sadly, it is easier these days to just email than to write a letter.

Holiday #3: Luck for your Valentine

I'll be honest. I have no clue what is a good gift for Valentine's Day. Having no experience with relationships, I never celebrated the holiday. With the American's view on the holiday, it's a pretty useless holiday since a couple should always be celebrating their love every once in a while. However, I do love the Japanese's view on the holiday. It's a time when girls make gifts (mostly chocolate) for the guys to confess their love. After Valentine's Day, there is also another holiday (I believe it's called White Day) where that love can be reciprocated. Now, I'm not sure if this occurs in any other parts of Asia but this is how it works in Japan. It seems very sweet.

Anyways, good gifts are hard to find since anyone can just buy a box of chocolate or a bouquet of flowers. I'm not really into that stuff. If one really wants to show his or her love, I think the best way to present that is through a hand made gift. One of my favorite gifts were 3D paper stars. Just to clarify, I didn't made these for the holiday. It was a birthday present for a friend to give good luck (being college, we need all the luck we can get). However, when I checked the history behind this cute gift, I found out it was a gift meant to be given between couples. It started from an Asian drama TV series (I don't know the specific show) and it was made popular because the girl made many stars to confess her love to a guy. Did she ever get the guy? I don't know. Sorry, but you will have to find that out by yourself. After the series, this trend became really popular. It was said that the number of stars you make represent how much love you have for that person. When I checked out the numbers,... let's just say you really need to love that person to make such crazy numbers of stars. Either way, if it's a for a friend or a lover, this neat little gift is a sweet way to represent your caring for that person. It represent luck (or love) and the time and effort you put in shows how much you care. So if anyone wants a cheap but sweet gift, this is my recommendation. It cost about $3 for the jar depending on the size. As for the stars, I spent about $7 for material which makes over 170 stars (the jar holds 170 and I had a lot extra stars). A very sweet, cute, cheap gift!

Happy Valentine's Day

Childhood #3: Mommy is rich!

So there are many events in my past that I don't remember clearly. It is either I was too young to remember or it became a "unimportant" memory according to my brain. My parents decided to tell me one of those memories because they were somewhat proud of it.

One day, my sister wanted something from a store. It was either a candy or a toy, something that requires payment. However, she was upset because she didn't know how to obtain such money. Now just to be clear, my sister was only around 2 or 3 years old and I was 4 or 5. I proudly stated, "Don't worry. Mommy is rich. She sticks a card in this machine and money comes out." My parents laughed after I said that. They said they were proud for my being observant and creating a correlation. My present self is currently thinking how stupid I was to not know what an ATM machine is. Either way, if someone were to tell me a similar story about his or her own children, I would definitely find that adorable. Children have such wild imaginations.

Childhood #2: School Uniforms

I always love school uniforms. Sometimes I wonder why the public schools in the US never had school uniforms (dress code doesn't count). Usually out of all my friends, I'm one of the few who would support having uniforms. I guess my reasons are bit on the selfish side. With school uniforms, I wouldn't have to figure out what to wear each day. Also it would be easier to schedule laundry days. Oh well, my reasons just leads to my laziness. What can I say?

There are some down sides to having school uniforms. Most likely the girls will have to wear skirts. I remembered back in my elementary school, I used to wear skirts. However, it wasn't convenient during recess. At some point, my parents got me to wear pants to school instead. I remembered how I was the only girl to wear pants for a period of time which did felt really awkward. On the other hand, it was easier to play during recess. Fortunately, the school uniforms changed and soon everyone wears either shorts or (as my parents will call it) trousers. I'm not trying to say uniforms are all that good but it was a nice experience. Plus I look nice. Funny thing is because I used to wear uniforms to school, now I have no sense of fashion. I just don't understand it that easily. Hehehe... I guess uniforms are not as sweet as they're supposed to be.

2013 New Years Resolution

Hello everybody. How is everyone doing? I'm doing okay for now. Many things had happened in the last three weeks leading to irregular entries. I had a huge exam that I can't risk failing and the two crazy holidays kept me booked full.  All that is in the past and became another set of memories to remember. (Isn't that nice?) Anyways, I'm back to having an organized schedule so that means a steady flow of posts. I do apologize if you are a regular to my blog and you had to deal with my unsteady posts. I'll try my best to keep it weekly. With that said, this leads to this week's topic. (Even though I think I'm a week late.)

Oh the topic: New Years Resolution. How we love to make big goals but always end up giving up or lowering the standards halfway through. I especially am one of those people. Sorry to disappoint you if you were hoping I'm different. I used to make a list of goals to accomplish each year. However, due to my laziness, procrastination, and school work, I always ended up accomplishing close to none of my goals. It even came to a point when I don't even bother with it each new year. As much as I love to keep talking about my past, it's time we talk about the future. We remember things from the past to appreciate challenges that comes in our way. That was the whole point right? Now how did I come to this point where I force myself to keep working instead of procrastinating? Simple, I'm graduating soon! I have to prepare to get a job or apply to higher education. It only shows that one can procrastinate so long before life comes back and hit you in the face. (Ouch.) So here are my New Years Resolution of 2013.

1) Be more patient.

    I think being patient is not to be confused with procrastinating. While procrastinating means putting off work (thus delaying progress), patience involve constantly making progress but not expecting fast results. Sometimes I believe it is because we lack patience that we tend to procrastinate. We expect fast results from our work which unfortunately does not happen always. Being patient helps keep us motivated to work. In another situation, patience can also help deal with arguments or obstacles. Staying patient help maintain focus and analyze the situation, allowing us to make a more effective and sufficient solution. Everyone can use patience. One can never be too patient. Overall, I hope to be more patient so I can solve problems while maintaining a steady stress level. 

2) Keeping this blog alive.

    As stupid as it sounds, I want to keep this blog alive. I don't really mind if people don't find this blog interesting or important. However, my goal is to (hopefully) bring up topics that people don't often think about. We all are so focus on our work life that we sometimes easily get depress or feel unmotivated. I hope that my blog will temporarily distract my readers from their stressful life and just cheer them up. (Because we all need relieve stress sometimes.) Who knows? Maybe someone really needs this type of blog.

3) Exercise.

     I can see you laughing. If not out loud, then in your mind. I understand how many people say their goal is to exercise more. Many times we just give up. Sadly, my exercise only consist of walking to lecture every day and that exercise will disappear once I graduate out of college. I don't really know how I manage to maintain my weight (~115 lb) this whole time with just walking but I have to start forcing myself to exercise regularly to keep my fitness. My current motivation is keeping myself healthy and preparing for life outside college. And for those of you who can't find a motivation to keep exercise, here's a video that might help. Reality sucks but what can we do.