6 posts tagged “life”

I have preregistered for next semester's classes!

1. General Chemistry
2. Gen. Chem. Lab
3. Eng. 120 Literary Analysis
4. Intro o French II
5. Topics in Am. Music: Rock Music
6. Rock Climbing

I'm so excited! Especially for #5. I can't wait for that moment when everyone will be talking about how much writing or calculating or reading they have to do, and then I say: "I need to listen to 20 songs for tomorrow!" Of course, as it's Grinnell, I'll probably be writing papers and papers on the music as well. After all, the class is actually a study of American culture through music, where we'll be touchig on jazz, rock, hip-hop, and rap culture.

I just realized there are exactly 4 weeks until classes end and we enter exam week. And then it's be 3 weeks of winter break in Colorado for me, where I'm going to learn how ski and not die crashing into a tree.

02 Let It Happen

1 comment

Haha, just look at Achmed's expression. Jeff Dunham's a pretty good ventriloquist.

In 1920, after marrying and publishing This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: "Riding in a taxi one afternoon between very tall buildings under a mauve and rosy sky, I began to bawl because I had everything I wanted and I knew I would never be happy again."

Wow. The first time after I read this sentence, I really felt like laughing. But come to think of it, it's actually quite a sad thought. Thankfully, I don't think like that. Everytime I've been exceedingly happy, I try to embrace the joy and time as much as possible.

I prefer James Bond creator Ian Fleming's view: "Never say 'no to adventures. Always say 'yes' otherwise you'll lead a very dull life."

A person's attitude really is important. It affects your performance and mood and those around you.

As for me, I've always been a known optimist in school. I'm the one who, as they say, finds the silver lining in the stormy clouds.

Anyway, I was browing through the internet and I came upon this video advertisement from 1994 about an internet product. Just look at those early websites! Watching it, I couldn't help appreciate the search tools we have today from Yahoo to Google. I wonder how people back then searched for info. Man! I'm so happy technology has improved so much. Not only do we not have to fear the telephone bills for surfing 24/7 (at least for me). The webpages sure look prettier than those of 1994. And internet speed! I remember in 1998 how I waited for half an hour for Disney's Mulan movie trailer to load. Now, I don't even wait to watch trailer. The pages just load almost instantly.

I bought tickets for my brother and I to watch next week's Harry Potter movie! I wonder if there will be as much of a craze as previous years. I must say I was never really into the Harry Potter movies, especially back in the day when the Lord of the Rings movies were coming out - I mean that trilogy was truly a MASTERPIECE. I guess I'm excited because nothing eventful has been happening in my summer vacation so far. Not that I'm not enjoying it.

I find that having the luxury of sleeping whenever I'm drowsy and for as little or as much as I wish; and having the freedom to become a recluse/hermit and just stay at home surrounded by all the books I've bought and been planning to read for the past year; and having the internet as one of the main windows towards the outside world as rather peaceful and enjoyable. Of course, my body seriously itches to get OUT at least once a week, such as today. The weather was a killer though - my mood immediately plunged as I was hit by 35 degrees celcius plus heat waves. The most terrible thing about the weather here in Taiwan is that you actually feel pressed and suffocated by the solid-like heat, because of the high humidity on this tropical island.

Anyway, enough said. I took a photograph (because my scanner broke), of my ticket and the accompanying sticker they gave. Taiwanese movie tickets are so different from the sort of stubs I recall from South Africa and Australia (maybe they are different now?). As for Taiwan, they're just printed on fax paper...

Harry Potter Ticket

HP Sticker

1. The illusion that personal gain is made up of crushing others.
2. The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected.
3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it.
4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences.
5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind, and not acquiring the habit of reading and study.
6. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

- Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106 B.C. - 43 B.C.)

Many of my links will go to Wikipedia. I realize that there have been many criticisms, especially from academia regarding its reliability. However, I frequently use Wikipedia as my starting point in research, as it provides information in an organized and easy-to-read summary of several sources. And then afterwards, if I want to investigate further upon a topic I go for the more reliable primary and secondary sources.

As for the 6 Mistakes of Man listed out by the Roman statesman Cicero, they are actually quite obvious in all parts of life, and yet people consistently have these problems. And arising from these mistakes, come all the problems we have in society.