Collection

Published on by Yinglan5 Comments

Daily Prompt: Dig through your couch cushions, your purse, or the floor of your car and look at the year printed on the first coin you find. What were you doing that year?

Okay, that will be a problem for me because first of all, my mom and I, we don’t put or hide coin anywhere and we certainly don’t keep coins in our pockets. We keep them in our wallet where they belong but even then I don’t have a lot of coins. I keep mostly bus tokens in my wallet, though I don’t know why, I have a pass that will allow me to ride whatever I want for free.

So therefore, I’m going to show you these…

DSCF9698

I am almost finish collecting the third set, just need Mississippi. I began collecting state quarters in I think 2003 (it seems like every interesting thing happen that year). I have no clue what got me interested, maybe I just like collecting money. :p

When we were still living in California, my mom and I used to go to the recycling center all the time, to sell plastic bottles and soda cans. Then we would tell the guy to give us quarters which he happily gave us, chunks of quarters at a time.

Once we arrive home, I’d go excitedly to the dining table to find if there was any quarters that I did not have already. The unwanted quarter would be for my mom to do laundry.

At first, it was easy because well, I’m new and I haven’t collected up to the current year yet. After a while, it got tough but I didn’t give up. The most frustrating period of this collection was when we were living in Texas when my step-dad would secretly take my state quarters to buy alcohol and cigarettes while I was asleep. See, that’s why I wanted to lock my door.

I stopped for a while because what’s the point if I collect one and you take one? I began again when I moved to Utah but in the last few years, I’ve slowed down a lot since both my mom and I don’t really use cash anymore unless it’s an emergency and we no longer need quarters to do laundry. So now I’ve fallen quite behind on my national parks and monuments collection and I need to catch up.

Well, I have to head to school. I actually got up early again this morning. I thought this problematic prompt  was interesting and knew I could squeeze a few minutes of my time before school to write this.

This takes me back…

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My step-dad was always big on music. I think me learning the piano was probably the proudest moment of his life. Continue reading “This takes me back…” →

A Great Day

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What a great day today! That was my first thought when I woke up this morning. Today is one of those rare days when I got up early which was at 6:15 am.

The moment my eyes opened, I knew I was alone, that my mom had already gone to work and there was no one else in this big empty house. I can do whatever I want. Isn’t that great? Unfortunately, I have homework and work. Ugh, why do these things have to ruin everything? Good thing I don’t have worry about beating everyone to lunch and I might not even have to eat. That’ll really save me a lot of time as I learned last night.

I was so stuffed from the lunch buffet yesterday that I couldn’t eat anything during dinner. So no dinner for me last night and this morning, I just satisfied myself on a cup of Hot Cocoa with Chia Seed and Flaxseed. Plenty healthy.

I am incredibly obsessed with this idea in my head for a novel right now. So that’s probably why my appearance had dwindled here as I’m spending a majority of my free time catching up on my shows and developing this idea on wattpad.

Anyway, I have to get to work on my paper for school. It is so beautiful here this morning. It is as if spring had decided to come early. I just hope the dark clouds will stay away and won’t drop some measly rain in the middle of the day again.

Secretive

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Ah, finally, some peace and quiet. Continue reading “Secretive” →

One of those days…

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I guess I should be proud of myself today. I have just finish a 7-hour workday. I am still not finished with my work, still have a long way to go.

I woke up this morning feeling extremely weird from a series of obscure dreams that I can only dimly recall. I looked at the prompt and the only thing I can describe it is blank. I absolutely cannot recall the last time someone told me they were proud of me.

Actually, I think my mom said it once a few days ago but I can’t remember why. Anyway, I guess I am just having one of those days when I am awake but my brain isn’t. I mean, I’m even having a hard time translating articles.

I think I might just need some inspiration. Or perhaps I just been non-stop thinking about that in two days, my aunt and cousin will go back to China and I will no longer have to cook my lunch before they get home and best of all, no more rice for dinner. Six months, 100 lb of rice, that’s enough.

Now if you’d excuse me, I’d like to look at some breathtaking photographs on pinterest.  Here’s a phenomenal one. 🙂

An observer in Colorado stands framed by a partial solar eclipse in a picture taken last week and submitted to National Geographic's My Shot ...
(Partical Eclipse) pinterest.com

 

Excel: Not For Dummies

Published on by Yinglan3 Comments

I don’t claim to know more about Excel than most people. In fact, there are a lot of formulas in that program that I still have no idea how to use and Excel still frustrates me so very much even after so many years of using it.

Yeah, I am not this guy

Last night, I spent two hours helping my mom with her homework or our homework since we are both in the same class but I’ve already finished mine a week ago and she’s just getting started. It is an assignment to create a template for the Statement of Cash Flows using the data from Income Statement and Balance Sheet.

Anyway, her typing was so darn slow and erroneous. It’s like she’s dragging a ton of bricks with her hands while typing. And the way she punches the numbers, it’s like she’s trying to murder the darn thing.

On the other hand, I am never good at explaining things to people. I am always good at hands-on, do it for them or let them follow me while I perform the task myself.

A few times during the night, I asked her. “Maybe I should give you mine and you can study it.” She refused, claiming she will not learn anything if I just gave it to her.

I know she’s right and it’s completely unethical of me. It can even be classified as cheating but I just don’t think I can sit there any longer watching her type the formulas one by one instead of placing the cursor at the bottom right corner of the cell and dragging the formula down. I taught her how to do that but she seems to forget everything once she begins typing again.

At the end of two hours, we are at near completion. We completed the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and the Other Detail for Statement of Cash Flows. Now all we need is the Statement of Cash Flows which we are set to complete on Monday night. I bet I’ll have some real fun teaching her to use the “if” formula in excel, huh?

Yuck, No Thanks

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About four years ago, I applied for an internship with the city. I remember reading the job description and about a third of a way down, there was a bullet that said the interns are responsible to do routine visit to the sewer pipeline. My skin just started prickling at the words “routing visit”.

I didn’t get the internship probably because of my nervousness and my lack of interviewing skills. Honestly though, the interviewing lady that never smiles will making me anxious. I felt good at the end of the interview but I guess it just wasn’t my destiny to work for the city. I’d tried again two years later, still no luck.

My friend got the internship though but they let her go after a semester. Man, I should’ve asked her, “did you get to look at the sewer?” But it never came up in our conversations.

Anyway, I wouldn’t say I would object if anyone ever needs me to go visit the sewer but I will sure take a lot of precaution (full hazmat suit and everything) because I will never let any skin of mine will ever touch sewage water. But if I have any say in this, no thanks, you can explore the sewage yourself.

Breaking the Rules

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I know there are many people who grew up in a household with an established set of rules, probably written on a piece of construction paper on the wall. Continue reading “Breaking the Rules” →

Forgotten

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May I say I feel a little forgotten and angry at the moment? Continue reading “Forgotten” →

An offer I badly want to refuse

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In the fall of 2013, my former-boss, Mr. Li came to town. He, his wife, son, and brother-in-law didn’t know a single word in English. They were to enroll at the school I was employing at the time and since my mom and I were the only ones at the school that spoke Chinese and English, we had to helped them to get their son enrolled.

After that, they came to us for everything and I mean everything. We helped them set up and install everything in their rental home from utilities to phone to TV to internet. They even called us once to ask how to eat a pie. They spent a great deal of time over at our place too. Chatting and just about interrupted every aspect of our daily life.

Then he offered me a job. $15 an hour, just interpretation and running, even reimburse for gas in case of travel. At the sound of it, yeah, it sure sounded great but it was an offer I wanted to refuse, horribly. I knew it would be incredibly demanding and with school and work, I don’t have time for other demands. So I refused.

But my mom went on and on about how Mr. Li was handing money to me and how I was so stupid not to take the job and then she called China and made me talk to both of my aunts who too lectured me on my stupidity. It was a never ending battle and it was one I cannot win. I mean three against one, how can I? I had to surrender and take the job.

So I was working two jobs while completing my last few classes at the University. It was ridiculous. During my work time at the school, Mrs. Li would randomly stroll into my classroom and demand I take her shopping. I mean didn’t she see me working?

After school, I was a tutor for another student and my mom was to provide additional help to Mr. Li’s son but eventually that turned into my job too.

That period, September 2013 to March 2014, was most likely the hardest time of my life. I worked three, sometimes four jobs while squeezing time in between to catch up on my homework. I was barely home except for sleeping. It was a wonder how I passed my classes.

These many hands would’ve been so helpful at the time

The thing is, when I first met Mr. Li, I kind of knew he wasn’t the kind of person I want to associated with. I guess I just have the ability of reading people, to know whether they can be trusted and whether it will be good to be associated with them.

Of course, Mr. Li is trustworthy. Unfortunately, he’s not association-worthy and as usual, my mom ignored my suggestion and as usual, I was completely right.

Because Mr. Li came here on a business visa, he had to gather enough employees to keep his visa. So he dragged my mom down too, made her his employee and handed her a couple of paychecks. Now, it’s tax time and she is in trouble. Because of the extra income from Mr. Li, she now has more taxes to pay. I do too because of Mr. Li’s unethical practices. He claims he’s helping me but in fact he’s hurting me.

And our W-2s still hadn’t arrive and Mr. Li is nowhere to be found. So is it too late to rub it in her face and say I told you so?

Better Together

Published on by Yinglan5 Comments

Daily Prompt: If you had to choose between being able to write a blog (but not read others’) and being able to read others’ blogs (but not write your own), which would you pick? Why?

It’s either or? What?!!! What about both?

If don’t read other’s blogs, where else do I find inspiration? I would probably run out of things to write extremely quickly. On the other hand, if I can only read other’s blogs, I would be compelled to write my own because of all the little ideas that will start to pop in my head.

With this many ideas, the bulbs will probably flicker on and off all the time. I might even go crazy.

In fact, that’s why I wanted to write my own blogs in the first place. I bought a kindle with the hotel points my mom had saved up from her trips and began reading. I can’t remember how many books I’ve read before those tiny speck of ideas fill up my head and almost caused me to burst.

But if that’s how you want to play it, I’d say I would choose to read other’s blogs. So what if I can’t write my own blog, I will just write something else, on Word, maybe. It isn’t necessary that I have to write a blog, I just write it to gain attention, to have an audience. I will be either way. I can still read other blogs to gather inspiration. Who knows, I might even write a book. Either way, I don’t think it’s even possible to choose between reading and writing. Those two things are just…

Blogging 201: Set Three Goals

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I think I should probably say, “Happy 2-year Anniversary!” to this little growing blog of mine. Yup, it was on February 3, 2013 I wrote my first post on here. I think I’ve mentioned this before. Continue reading “Blogging 201: Set Three Goals” →

The Existence of this Colorful World

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Daily Prompt: You have three hundred words to justify the existence of your favorite person, place, or thing. Failure to convince will result in it vanishing without a trace. Go!

Okay, so last week, I finally finished reading “The Giver” by Lois Lowry. It took me almost three weeks of starting and stopping reading but I finished it. I must admit though, it wasn’t as exciting as the movie but the lesson was well taught. It is about the main character discovering that living in a world of sameness isn’t all that great.

I have to admit, I do see the ups and downs of living in this kind of world where everything is assigned even homes, spouses, and children and everyone is guaranteed a full stomach, clothed, and warm bed.

The downs? No colors and feelings. They simply don’t exist because everyone in the world of sameness was genetically modified to not have those things. Some people for some reason have them though.

I wrote a post I believe last May. When I was writing it, I was sort of complaining about not finding a pretty dress to wear for my Graduation because the colors of my clothes just aren’t really suiting me. So I went on a rant and said I wished our world was lack of color. For one thing, no color means I’ll have an easier time when shopping for clothes. At least I wouldn’t be so torn between choosing from so many different colors.

Anyway, after reading this book, I have come to realize that living in a world of sameness sucks. I mean how can you tell people apart when they are all the same. Sure they don’t look alike but still, no colors, no feelings? I would rather live in a world with colors and feelings. Even with a little struggle, it’s worth it.

After all, difference is good. It’s beautiful.

The Wedding Bells Part 2 (Flash Fiction Chain #6)

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Flash fiction chain #6

I am once again super excited to participate in this Flash Fiction Chain hosted by Jithin of PhoTrablogger. The following parts are inspired by the above image. Continue reading “The Wedding Bells Part 2 (Flash Fiction Chain #6)” →

Teacher’s Pets

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I used to be a teacher’s pet with my group of so-call friends back in 6th and 7th grade. Almost everyday at lunch, we’d go chat with our teacher like friends. Then after school, we’d go again to help clean the boards and tidy up the classroom. But then we sort of went our separate ways during 8th grade. Continue reading “Teacher’s Pets” →

Optimism Backfired

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Daily Prompt: Tell us how your week went by putting together a playlist of  five songs that represent it.

Five songs? I can’t possibly put together a playlist that represented how my week went. One reason being I do not know a song that truly describes everyday of my week. The other is that I feel terribly embarrassed when it comes to sharing the books I am reading, the baby-oopsshows I watch, and the music I like. I’m afraid that if people know I still watch Disney Channel and listen to Disney Kids music (oops), they would laugh at me. Unfortunately, I’ve been watching the mouse network and listening to its music since I’ve arrived in America and I am not going to stop anytime soon.

Anyway, my week had been a total roller coaster, I think. I can’t remember most of it. I remember yesterday though and boy, was I pissed! My mom was urging me to finish the case briefs (which I’ve been doing all week) on the one hand while whining about her job order on the other. I mean how can I possibly concentrate with someone constant shouting and barging in and out my room?

Early yesterday morning, she went to the school to take the first exam for her class. She didn’t come back until around 2 hours later and the second she stepped through the door, she immediately started complaining about the air force dentist extracting two of her molars.

“I didn’t know you were going to the dentist.” I said to her.

“No!” She answered exasperatedly. It turned out her status had been downgrade the day before.  She’s in military, you see. Apparently when you’re downgraded, it meant your job was in trouble.

So in order for her to keep her job, she had to get two of her molars extracted at the last second. Ouch!

She told me her molars were rotten, that it was blacker than a plum when they pulled it. Her words, not mine.

The entire afternoon, she was complaining about her toothache. I got to the point that I was so darn frustrated at the sound of her and anyone’s voice. I just want to scream.

Then last night, we attended our last instructor-led training for VITA before I’m set to volunteer next week or maybe even the week after. This morning, we finally got certified to file people’s taxes! I’m so excited!

Oh, I think the biggest thing this week would be today, I have decided to drop my Business Law class. I just cannot handle it. There are just too much homework and with work and volunteering, it’s too overwhelming for me. Also, the teacher is kind of ridiculous. It takes him like a month to answer a single email. And I don’t even think he grade any of my homework!

Yesterday, I got my grade back for my last assignment, he gave me a 50! He said it’s because my assignment had 55% similar when it fact it’s only 16% similar. He looked at my first submission instead of my third. So last night, while I was sleeping restlessly, tossing around thinking of the pile of work I have to do today and I decided. I cannot do it any longer. This simply cannot go on any longer. It’s not really like me but I am giving up.

Two weeks ago, my mom had already asked me to drop and get a full refund but I was too darn optimistic that the class will only get better. Now, I can only get 80% of my money back. Oh well, it’s better than nothing. Ugh, sometimes, I really hate my optimistic spirit.

Oh, and since this prompt is about sharing music, I thought I’d this old favorite of mine. Actually, it’s not that old, I just haven’t listen to it for a long while. Embarrassingly, I have to say it’s teen music, Disney, and kind of hip pop but it’s a positive track unlike most of the music nowadays.

I thought to relive a little of my old simple life, back when I still lived in an apartment and something isn’t constantly needing fixing.  As for school, maybe after I dropped my Business Law class, it will free up my time just a little. Then my other classes won’t feel so neglected anymore. I will just have to try again in the fall. I guess just keep moving forward.

Don’t Let it Burn

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Daily Prompt: Your home is on fire. Grab five items (assume all people and animals are safe). What did you grab?

First of all, if my home is really on fire, my mom has better not be home but does it really matter? She will kill me either way. But I would really prefer if she’s not here during the fire though. She doesn’t handle these kind of situations well.

Second of all, really? Just five items?

This prompt is terrible for sentimental people like me. I hate to lose anything. Five items all not that much anyway. I mean, two laptops with chargers, an external hard drive, my tablet and charger, and my iPod, that’s five. I won’t even have room for clothes and it is quite difficult to find clothes that actually fit me these days. Also, what about that huuuge container of pictures? They are irreplaceable.

Hmm, gotta think of something.

Ah, I know. What if I have one of rollie containers things like cooler with wheels except it’s just a large container box? Then I would just throw in all the things I treasure most at the last second and wheel out with that big box of pictures, my clothes, my pillow, and my blanket. I can say, I can’t live any of those thing, let’s just say.

Publish or Unpublish?

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Okay, you know I’m not the kind of person to invent anything. In fact, I can’t even invent a cool character name or a cool setting for my stories. So for this I am not going to invent a word off the top of my head. Instead, I am going to tell a story about work that really annoys me (at times). Continue reading “Publish or Unpublish?” →

A Scene in my head

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Brooke! Claire’s voice rang through Brooke’s head like the echo of a gong. She jumped and frantically looked around, searching the place the voice was coming from. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain. It was like someone had pierced a thousand needle through her skull. She blinked, stumbling to the nearest object and held on.

“Brooke? What’s the matter?” James had raced to Brooke’s side followed by Rose and Sofia.

She shook her head. “Claire” was the only word she could manage.

James grabbed her arm and led her out into the dimly lit hallway. The girls followed behind. She leaned against a column. “What is it? What’s wrong with Claire?” James asked anxiously.

“Where is she?” Rose followed.

Brooke’s head felt heavy like a ton of bricks. She stumbled forward feeling unbalanced. Was whatever was happening to Claire affecting her too?

Brooke! Claire’s piercing scream sounded again.

“Find her.” James demanded in the same tone he had used when they were trying to find Claire in Zander’s maze of hallways.

“I know, I’m trying.” She replied, frustrated.

“Well, try harder.” His grip tightened and Brooke let out a whimper.

“Don’t push her. Can you see? She’s enough pain.” Rose pulled James’s arm away.

Blinded by the pain, Brooke fell forward. She felt her head hit the ground but her eyes remained open, frozen. She was blinded by the light before her. It was too much.

She used to be able to withstand pain, she remembered, no matter how tremendous and torturous. She remembered the pain she went through during those weeks when she was strapped down on Zander’s lab table, she survived that, didn’t she? That kind of pain was the kind that make people wish they could just die at that very moment.

But this? She realized. This was a pain far greater than anything she had ever endured and it’s too much. Whatever this is, please stop, she willed but it seemed only to intensify. No more no more, she begged.

Then another thought dawned on her. Is this what happens before death? The Great Slumber? The Sleep we shall never wake from?

This was written as part of the challenge “Write now…Yes Right Now” hosted by Photrablogger. The handwritten part, not the story obviously. Actually, the story was handwritten too but it’s been edited so many times that I don’t think anyone can read it.

Therefore I decided to write the title of this post in both English and Chinese (my native language) instead. I haven’t practiced my characters for a long long time, can’t remember the last time I’ve done it at least. Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this short excerpt from something I’ve been working on. 

Please Come, Thursday

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May I just say, I am absolutely positively not looking forward to tomorrow. In fact, I wish it would just fly by quickly and Thursday would come. I’d rather go to school than do what I have to do tomorrow. Not only it would take the entire day and it disgusts me a lot. It makes me shiver just talking about it. It’s got that “Ick” factor.

This would be my second year doing it though I don’t know why. My doctor finally called me back last Friday after making me wait anxiously for two days. He said my lab results looked okay except my hormones were a little high. No surprise there. He then told me I have to do a 24-hr urine test.

I was like “What?” Again? “You just told me everything was fine.”

He replied saying he needed to make sure my Calcium wasn’t out of whack. Didn’t it show in the lab results? I saw it. But he kept sticking to his reason, prevention of my hypocalcimia returning.

Anyway, just now on my way home, I stopped by the hospital to pick up my kit. I was a regular customer at the lab and the lab technician took my word that I needed to do this test. She didn’t even look at my lab order to make sure before disappearing to the back to gather the kit. She returned almost 5 minutes later with one of those large white personal belongings bags. Still, I had to make sure I didn’t hear wrong, hopefully, I did and don’t have to do this icky test. Unfortunately, that was what my doctor ordered. I peeked at my lab order and my doctor wrote specifically at the bottom, “24-hr urine test.” UGH! There were a lot of check marks on there also so I have a faint sensation he is doing so much more than just check my Calcium.

So now, the kit sits in my bathroom which I have already told my aunt she has to use the bathroom downstairs tomorrow while I spend the entire day at home doing this yucky test. But I don’t think my aunt has a clue of how the test will be conducted. She’s 4’11”, 80 pounds, and never been the doctor a day in her life. No, she has no clue of how anything works. How lucky is that?!

Happy and Accomplished

Published on by Yinglan2 Comments

I feel like I’ve finally accomplished something today. I have completed my assignment that’s due tomorrow after another round of Beat the System. Hopefully, my instructor will settle for a 3% similarities. It’s a different instructor than Business Law.

I’ve also completed the homework that’s due on Wednesday. Finally! Now if I can just finish yet this week’s Business Law homework, I’d be the happiest girl on Earth.

I won’t say much. I began scribbling down an idea that’s been stuck inside me for a few weeks now. I feel like it’s going to burst. I’ve finally finished the character list yet again for the novel I’ve been trying to write for about two years now. This will be my fourth possibly fifth rewrite as well as change of characters. Like most writers say, the first novel is always the hardest. I agree with them completely.

Before I go though, I like to share this photograph I’ve found on pinterest.

“En ese momento me di cuenta de que el anochecer es sólo una ilusión, porque el sol sigue estando presente, ya sea por encima o por debajo de la línea del horizonte. Y estos significa que el día y la noche están unidos como muy pocas cosas lo están; no pueden estar el uno sin el otro, pero tampoco pueden existir a la vez.” Nicholas Sparks.
Song of the Setting Sun Print by Phil Koch Credit: Pinterest

 

The Great Loosening

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Home…Soil…Rain…

It reminds me of Fall 2009, just about two months after we moved into our current home. To be honest, I still can’t see why my mom had purchased this house. Of all the houses we looked at, she just had to pick this one.

We spent almost two weeks after moving in painting and cleaning the walls. It was so full of fingerprints and grease that it’s disgusting just to talk about it. We also cleaned every nooks and corners of this house except underneath the range; we didn’t clean that until we replaced the range in 2011. You have no idea what sort of weird objects we found. Currently, the only place remained  uncleaned is the deck outside and I don’t ever want to touch that.

There are a lot of garbage underneath that deck. It used to be the previous family’s go to trash can when they did take-out every single night.

Anyway, back to Fall 2009. In our backyard, we have this huge plot of soil.

This wasn’t always like this. Back we moved in, this lied an above ground swimming pool. After the previous owner removed the pool, we were left with this awkward polygon shape plot of soil. My mom thought we’d turn it into a garden except the surface at the time resembled this:

Credit: ritavaags.blogspot.com

The summer was dry that year, I remember. We didn’t get a lot of rain and every commercial on TV was screaming at us, conserve, don’t water your lawn.

In September or October, we finally got a decent storm and when the storm finally ended, I decided to take a shovel, go out into the backyard and start loosening up the soil. The day was wet and damp but the air felt fresh and breathable for the first time in a while. I set my shovel on the soil and effortlessly lifted it. The top layer resembled mud but the soil was drying up quickly, I had to work fast.

Finally, I managed to get the top soil loosened and then I began digging into the next layer and the next and the next. Of course, my mom came out and helped but after a short time, she gave up and went back into the house, leaving me out there to continue digging.

By the time I completed and went back into the house, it was about 4 or 5 hours later. My whole body ached but when I looked out at the plot of land, I couldn’t help to admire the result of my hard work. It no longer looked like a desert, it looked like a garden.

That year, we planted three plum trees (two on this plot of land and one in the front yard) and two blueberry bushes. The tree in the front yard survived but the two in the back along with the blueberry bushes died. We didn’t know why at first but we found out later that too much Chlorine had seeped from the pool water. The soil was toxic to plants.

We had spent the past five years or so neutralizing the soil with topsoil and cow manure. It’s worked so far but the trees and plants are still struggling, I can tell. You can tell too. The apple tree has been there for five years, yet it’s hardly grown. Not enough nutrients in the soil.

We planted cherry trees for the third time two years ago but it died after a few months. So last year, we decided on Asian Pear Trees and it barely survived the year.

The entire yard was covered in frost.  I had to be very careful this morning when I stepped out to marvel at the beautiful blue sky. Not for long though, spring is coming real soon and we’ll have to start planting again.

I wonder what my mom has in mind this year. I know snow peas are a definite yes. I know she’s already given up on corn. We probably won’t have blackberries this year, well maybe. As you can see in the above picture, my aunt’s went overboard with the trimming. I still can’t believe she did that. Hopefully this garden will flourish this year.

Have to get back to my assignment, so ciao for now. 🙂

BEAT THE SYSTEM

Published on by Yinglan5 Comments

I spent almost the entire day today doing my case briefs for my business law class. Not an ideal way to spend a Sunday. By the time I can finally exhale a breath, I was at the point when I start swearing.

Oh, it’s not the case briefs that’s frustrating me, in fact, they have become a little easier for me.  It’s the originality reports.

I was woken up at 7 am this morning, isn’t that nice, after I finally went to bed at 11:30 pm last night. It turned out my mom needed help because the last case brief was done by me. So she had no clue how to do it.

I went to sleep after that and didn’t open my eyes again until 8:30. I went downstairs and ate something before returning upstairs to work on my own case briefs. It only took me until noon to complete both of them. I was so happy and relieved after I submitted it because I thought I had finally completed my homework and can finally relax and do some blogging.

Unfortunately, right after lunch, I went online and checked the originality report on my assignment. HOLY FREAKING COW!!!

55% similar and I wrote all of it!

The next 4 hours were spent trying to change just about every word on my assignment. I twist each word when I can while trying to retain the meaning of the sentence, intend to do anything to BEAT the damn SYSTEM.

It is ridiculous! We’re doing a case brief, for god sake! The titles have to be the same. After all, the decision of the case didn’t come out yesterday and I am not the first one to do case brief on this specific case. The names of the cases cannot be original. It can NEVER be original.

I think the need to use this program is stupid but at the same time, it wouldn’t have so many similarities if my mom hadn’t turned in the exact same case just last week. Apparently neither of us read the instructions and we were just supposed to submit one of three cases. Well my mom submitted all three. If she had just ignored me and read the instructions, this wouldn’t had happened. Sometimes I hate her for whining that she doesn’t have enough time to double-check.

Anyway, I basically had to rewrite my case briefs, going over every sentence that was caught in the originality report. It was such a pain to search for fitting synonyms and rewrite each sentence. Eventually, after two more tries, I finally did it. I went from 55% to 49% to 16%. I am happy with 16% since 10% came from my mom’s paper which I co-wrote.

I enjoy writing and I enjoy puzzles but sitting in this seat all day doing this? Trying to satisfy the originality report? It’s not my kind of enjoyment especially when I never even been to these websites that the system is “accusing” me of copying my materials from.

I mean, the case name is Griswold v. Connecticut, it will be this name forever, you simply can’t count 10% against me for using the same title. There is no such thing as originality when doing case briefs for landmark supreme court cases!

Oh and by the way, does this satisfy today’s prompt? I think it does.

Daily Prompt: Enough is Enough