-president obama
You know what I realized.. I deeply admire greatness: great people, great things. Just the idea is very empowering and admirable: the drive, passion, and will to carry out and do what you feel deepest in your heart. Ok, I know Hitler can fall under this category, but it's what you do with it. Greatness in being able to move people and give them hope to do good things, greatness in being able to talk to a class of students and hold them captive with your words and stories. I admire Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Victor Hugo- reading about these people really inspire me. Also: LITERATURE TEACHERS! All the ones I had in high school- Flanagan, Jones, Bertenshaw, Thompson- allllll great at making me admire the power of literature, the written word, the magical storyteller. In addition, I especially admire those in the ARTS- music, design, film. I'm amazeddd by what people can do and I'm really jealous of all that talent ! -__- Musicians, graphic designers are sometimes more impressive to me than... a lawyer? You know? No offense intended.
I think I just realized now what I want my new year's resolution to be. And I'm not late, either, for it is the Lunar New Year today (chuc mung nam moi). I want to do greater things this year, not just for myself (in school, in being a person), but for others too (my family, friends, community). I think I realized the other day, after spending, what, $160 more on shopping, that I do have a lot of nice things and that I don't really need more. I should focus more on giving back.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
2008
the year's almost over. i figured i'd get a head start.
January
Though I may have missed the actual moment, I rang in 2008 momentously - looking at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France with Erica. In my seventeen days abroad I also traveled to Barcelona and London. I miss Montmartre, nutella crepes for 2 euros, row-boating, the on-going quest for churros, Zara, the ease of le metro, seeing Gaudi's art all over, Danilo and his love for wine, Versailles, the beautiful palms of barca, and much much more.
March
Took part in a road trip for the first time in my life. Went through four states in about nine hours: Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas.
May
I made a robot costume out of cardboard boxes and painted that shit silver (atmosphere reference here) to get invited on the main stage by OK Go along with ASO (what!). Pretty epic, only would have been more epic if it was, like, the Spice Girls.
August
After a carefully and articulately written application, I got accepted to volunteer at Lollapalooza, granting me free admission to all three days of the festival. All I wanted to do was see the band I've been listening to since 12 - Rage Against The Machine - and I did and they were amazing, of course.
In the wee hours on the 6th, I happened to be awake when a fire broke out in a stretch of stores along Argyle. I ran out with my D40 and a half an hour later, I emailed my photos to the Chicago Tribune and, what do you know, my photo was up and credited for the 24 or so hours that the story was featured. Northwestern's paper also called to use my photo, and I'm pretty sure I was inadvertently interviewed about the fire, too.
September
I took a leave of absence from Target and started working at the Multicultural Affairs Office under Yoonshin.
October
For the first time in probably a decade, I celebrated Halloween through a number of events and activities. I traveled to a pumpkin patch/farm and went through a corn maze, I carved a pumpkin for the first time (my Jack the Skeleton rendition won 3rd prize in a contest), went to a Haunted House for the first time, and dressed up (sorrrta) and went (sorta) to a party (sorta). All in all, I decided that Halloween's fun. Here's to more.
November
I participated in the first democratic election of my life! I voted for President-Elect Barack Obama. :]
December
I just want to note that from Monday 12/8 going into Tuesday 12/9, I pulled the first all-nighter of my life to complete my final presentation for my science class. Oh boy I wanted to kill myself by 9pm on Tuesday and yup I knocked out at 10.
I house/cat-sat for Dr. Bae while she went overseas to Korea from the 16th to the 31st. I was on the 16th floor of her Michigan Ave. condo and had a lot of time to think.
January
Though I may have missed the actual moment, I rang in 2008 momentously - looking at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France with Erica. In my seventeen days abroad I also traveled to Barcelona and London. I miss Montmartre, nutella crepes for 2 euros, row-boating, the on-going quest for churros, Zara, the ease of le metro, seeing Gaudi's art all over, Danilo and his love for wine, Versailles, the beautiful palms of barca, and much much more.
March
Took part in a road trip for the first time in my life. Went through four states in about nine hours: Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas.
May
I made a robot costume out of cardboard boxes and painted that shit silver (atmosphere reference here) to get invited on the main stage by OK Go along with ASO (what!). Pretty epic, only would have been more epic if it was, like, the Spice Girls.
August
After a carefully and articulately written application, I got accepted to volunteer at Lollapalooza, granting me free admission to all three days of the festival. All I wanted to do was see the band I've been listening to since 12 - Rage Against The Machine - and I did and they were amazing, of course.
In the wee hours on the 6th, I happened to be awake when a fire broke out in a stretch of stores along Argyle. I ran out with my D40 and a half an hour later, I emailed my photos to the Chicago Tribune and, what do you know, my photo was up and credited for the 24 or so hours that the story was featured. Northwestern's paper also called to use my photo, and I'm pretty sure I was inadvertently interviewed about the fire, too.
September
I took a leave of absence from Target and started working at the Multicultural Affairs Office under Yoonshin.
October
For the first time in probably a decade, I celebrated Halloween through a number of events and activities. I traveled to a pumpkin patch/farm and went through a corn maze, I carved a pumpkin for the first time (my Jack the Skeleton rendition won 3rd prize in a contest), went to a Haunted House for the first time, and dressed up (sorrrta) and went (sorta) to a party (sorta). All in all, I decided that Halloween's fun. Here's to more.
November
I participated in the first democratic election of my life! I voted for President-Elect Barack Obama. :]
December
I just want to note that from Monday 12/8 going into Tuesday 12/9, I pulled the first all-nighter of my life to complete my final presentation for my science class. Oh boy I wanted to kill myself by 9pm on Tuesday and yup I knocked out at 10.
I house/cat-sat for Dr. Bae while she went overseas to Korea from the 16th to the 31st. I was on the 16th floor of her Michigan Ave. condo and had a lot of time to think.
Friday, November 7, 2008
mewithoutyou
after years with a crown on my head, i've grown overfed, unconcerned and comfortably numb.
kept busy indulging in the pleasures of the wealthy
(someone make me afraid of what i’ve become!)
at the first sign of possible sorrow, i turned my heels and ran.
(oh i’ll never learn)
my life is a cup of sugar i’ve borrowed before time began and forgot to return.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
practiquer le francais
for the first time in a long while, i'm brushing up/practicing my french. i don't know, i don't have something better to do at 11pm on this saturday night (cus i'm a hermit), so i pulled out my french book that i haven't used in a year (since we didn't use a book for french 3).
french is hard and there is certainly a lot to learn, so it's quite daunting, but i'm always thinking about it ideally. i just want to be able to put it to use at the columbia cannes program or studying abroad, at least, and not put to waste the three semesters i spent on french.
with a better understanding and grasp on french pronunciation, i can read/say things very well in my head, but sometimes when it comes out it's just accompanied by a terrible accent. but at least i'm cognizant of it. i'm glad, at least, that for the languages i've studied so far (spanish and french) i've been able to adapt my ears, mind, and subsequently my mouth, to how the language is supposed to sound - so it helps sometimes.
anyway just wanted to say that my sore throat will probably bring my studies to an end for the night. it won't let me practice speaking and reading much more. although tonight for some reason i got some kind of thirst for knowledge, so that's why i picked up my french book, but now since i can't do that anymore, i feel like i should go ahead and try to finish the brothers karamazov already. i started that two years and dropped it for a long time. -.- however, i want to finish it. maybe i'm just in the slow part of the story. hell, i finished kafka on the shore in a miraculous (for me) few days. i remember i had one day where i had no work and didn't hang out with anyone and i literally read all day. it was a 450+ page book but it shows how engrossed i was in the story. i keep planning to get the windup bird chronicle from the library. i need to read more. and i need to see more. there are lots of films i want to see. CIFF showed me that i do have time to dedicate to watching films that often. well, maybe those weeks were slow. idk. maybe i'll get netflix. maybe i'll wait til winter break. i'm not sure. i think i'll go read but it's 11:50 already. i'll sleep soon then...
french is hard and there is certainly a lot to learn, so it's quite daunting, but i'm always thinking about it ideally. i just want to be able to put it to use at the columbia cannes program or studying abroad, at least, and not put to waste the three semesters i spent on french.
with a better understanding and grasp on french pronunciation, i can read/say things very well in my head, but sometimes when it comes out it's just accompanied by a terrible accent. but at least i'm cognizant of it. i'm glad, at least, that for the languages i've studied so far (spanish and french) i've been able to adapt my ears, mind, and subsequently my mouth, to how the language is supposed to sound - so it helps sometimes.
anyway just wanted to say that my sore throat will probably bring my studies to an end for the night. it won't let me practice speaking and reading much more. although tonight for some reason i got some kind of thirst for knowledge, so that's why i picked up my french book, but now since i can't do that anymore, i feel like i should go ahead and try to finish the brothers karamazov already. i started that two years and dropped it for a long time. -.- however, i want to finish it. maybe i'm just in the slow part of the story. hell, i finished kafka on the shore in a miraculous (for me) few days. i remember i had one day where i had no work and didn't hang out with anyone and i literally read all day. it was a 450+ page book but it shows how engrossed i was in the story. i keep planning to get the windup bird chronicle from the library. i need to read more. and i need to see more. there are lots of films i want to see. CIFF showed me that i do have time to dedicate to watching films that often. well, maybe those weeks were slow. idk. maybe i'll get netflix. maybe i'll wait til winter break. i'm not sure. i think i'll go read but it's 11:50 already. i'll sleep soon then...
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