I know, such a dumb word I have chosen to represent H. Continue reading “#AtoZChallenge – H For Headphones”
Tag: blog
#AtoZChallenge – G For Gamer
G was supposed to be for “Grammar” but honestly, I hate for you guys to hear me complain day after day. So G is for “Gamer” instead. Continue reading “#AtoZChallenge – G For Gamer”
#AtoZChallenge – F for Forgotten Streak
As I lie awake in bed last night, I realized something. My blogging streak started last April and since then I haven’t stopped blogging. So I think this is the real anniversary of this blog, not February of 2013 since I blogged for less than a month before quitting. Okay, so I posted a few times between September and April but it doesn’t count. Less than 10 posts a month does not count as consistent in my books. Continue reading “#AtoZChallenge – F for Forgotten Streak”
No Last Words
Daily Prompt: You have the chance to write one last post on your blog before you stop blogging forever. Write it.
I am going to write it.
There are probably only two reasons in this entire universe why I would ever stop blogging. 1. sudden death and 2. I got a job and am busy as hell. Even then, the end of this blog would be sudden. There wouldn’t be one last post even if I was given the chance.
I wouldn’t even know what to say. I guess the only words I can say are…
A big thank you to all you readers out there who had found the things I write so interesting that you’re compelled to follow me. That I have enjoyed writing and honing my writing skills.
I actually told my mom about my blog last night during dinner with her friend’s daughter (the one we helped to move) and before I could finish my sentence, she cut in and said. “Oh, they’re just silly stories.” I mean, seriously? After that, they just went on with their conversation, ignoring me completely.
Oh well, whatever. I am used to feel invisible.
I am now left with her two pet turtles and have no clue how to take care of them. I don’t even know their names! So far, my mom’s mostly been the one to take care of it. She’s the one to promise someone to turtle-sit, not me.
100th Post: First One Lovely Blog Award Nomination
I have saved my 100th for the best. When I started this blog less than a year ago, I had no idea I would reach the 100th post so soon. I thought since this blog is reserved for fiction only, I wouldn’t be able post a lot on it. But here I am, less than one year later and voila, 100th post.
I would like to thank SHRUTIGOPINATH for nominating me for One Lovely Blog Award. It is my first nomination and this blog’s first nomination not only for the One Lovely Blog Award but this is the first award for this specific blog.
So here are the rules: (According to the post on Shrutigopinath’s site)
- Thank the person who has nominated you. Provide a link to his/her blog.
- List the rules and display the award image.
- Include 7 facts about yourself.
- Nominate 15 other bloggers and let them know that they have been nominated. This is a way to introduce others to bloggers that you love.
- Display the award logo and follow the blogger who nominated you.
7 facts about me:
- I like to brew my stories, let it develop in my mind before I write it all down.
- I don’t like inconclusive endings. So I would often wonder what would happen next in my mind but I never write them down for reasons that are beyond my comprehension.
- I believe I lack a sense of humor but then I feel like I am trying too hard to be funny. So pardon my humorless tales. 🙂
- I am slightly caffeine intolerant. I get headache when I drink coffee and even coke. That leaves hot cocoa and sprite.
- I have a desire to move to a country (rural) setting or somewhere there are different color of trees according to the season and no planes flying over my head. However, I still want to stay a stone throw away from civilization (towns, cities but not big cities like Chicago).
- I super duper want to travel to another country or continent. I want to explore other civilizations.
- I try either too hard or not hard enough. I don’t know what’s in between but I am either one extreme or the other. Like with trying to make friends, either I don’t try at all and let them come to me or I’d try super hard to make them like me.
Nominations:
- Thin Spiral Notebook
- alifeindetails
- Optimistic Kid
- I’m a Writer, Yes I Am
- New Teacher Life
- WAKE UP YOUR LUCK
- TAKESHI’S FLIGHT
- Brainstorm.
- Sugar-Coating Since ’91
- Sapient Chronicles
- H.M. Brooks Writes
- teleportingweena
- In a small compass…
- My Hong Kong husband
- I AM YOUR TWILIGHTSTAR (I think your blog is awesome too.) 🙂
Changes are coming which means challenges challenges challenges!!!
In two days, I am back in school and I can’t help but feel like changes is coming my way. First of all, I am back in school, five days a week, each day about 3 hours (that’s not so bad 🙂 ). Continue reading “Changes are coming which means challenges challenges challenges!!!”
Writing by Prompt
One of the things I love about blogging is to be able to free-write. I can write about whatever I want. But this is one of the things I don’t like about blogging because if you get so used to free-write, if it comes down writing based on a prompt, there might be trouble. Continue reading “Writing by Prompt”
Paid off Finally!
Last October, when I dropped below half-time (<6 credits) in school, the loan company immediately needed me to repay my student loan. How dumb is that? At least let me finish school, earn a decent wage before making me repay the loans. Continue reading “Paid off Finally!”
There is no better feeling than knowing all your work is done
The entire week last week, mom has been pushing me. She was like, “I want to get this done this weekend.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy. You can’t rush when it came to updating a website. Continue reading “There is no better feeling than knowing all your work is done”
Competitive or Underpaid?
I have been wondering whether or not I should write this post but now that the question is burning a hole in my mind, how can I not? At least let me rant a bit. Continue reading “Competitive or Underpaid?”
How long does it take…to learn English
When I was teaching English to newcomer students at LCA, a private school I work at for the past two years, I often get this exact question from either my students or some concerned parents who like to waltz in and out of the school as they please.
How long did it take you to speak English so fluently?
Me: About 3 months
Concerned Parent/Student: Wow, tell me your secret. Maybe I can do what you did.
That was usually my queue to tell the brief summary of my experiences during my first year in the U.S. But I never got to tell the whole thing before I was cut off like when someone yells cut in the middle of a scene and walks off the set and never comes back. Anyway, I want to take this chance to finally get all my words down in this one single uninterrupted article.
I came to the U.S. when I was 10, an age when it’s all about curiosity and learning. Moreover, I was prepared. In fact, I’ve been preparing for this trip ever since I was 7 and it did help that when I went to school in China, I was elected the class group leader for the English subject (英语科组长) two years in a row.
When I landed that night at LAX, I was dove head first into a conundrum. My step-dad spoke nothing but English. I didn’t have a choice except learn the language. After a frustratingly difficult first Christmas, I was enrolled into the second semester of 5th grade even though I didn’t even finish the first semester of 4th grade.
Luckily, there was a Newcomer’s program. I was in a classroom 8 hours a day, 5 days a week learning the basics of the English language along with 15 or so other newcomers from other parts of the globe (mainly Mexico).
Each afternoon, after getting home from school, I sat in front of the TV watching non-stop comedy and other shows. I wasn’t even allowed to turn to the Chinese channel. At first, I couldn’t understand a thing. It wasn’t until a couple months later that I finally managed to grasp the jokes and the funniness of the shows.
That first summer, mom got a job at a tutoring center teaching newcomer kids English and dragged me along. By the time summer was over, I was as fluent as I could be after 9 months of constant learning. On the other hand, my Chinese went way down because of the lack of usage. I can still speak fluently but reading and writing, not so much.
Most of the time, all they grasped was that watching TV can learn English and nothing else. I told them though, if you are willing to put in the effort, you can accomplish anything.
I wanted to post yesterday but…
Exhaustion and laziness took over. Ever since my test on Tuesday, I didn’t want to do anything. Even now, I still don’t want to do anything but I can’t do that, can I?
On Friday morning, after waiting ’til the last day, I finally got an agenda for Saturday’s club meeting. Then that night, after spending a half-an-hour late in the night preparing for a last-minute speech, I decided to just wing the speech the next day, speak at the top of my head even though I wrote the speech more than two weeks ago as a “Throwback Thursday” post (hint: it’s the one about braces).
Yesterday morning, I was again shaken out of bed in the wee early hours (6:30 am) in the 
morning by mom for what was the 6th time this week. She was in a hurry off to her monthly training and was having trouble scanning papers onto her computer. So here I am, half asleep, trying to see the blurry error message on the computer while operating the scanner. It just said the printer was low in ink. Why couldn’t she read that for herself?
As soon as that was done, I immediately went back to sleep only to be woken up less than 2 minutes later. This time, she couldn’t find her phone. “Where’s my cell?” She stood over me demanded.
“Um, it’s charging in your room?” I groaned sleepily.
She shuffled out the room and found the phone on her nightstand, charging. “How did you know where it was?” She said where she put it like 10 minutes ago, didn’t she? But I was simply too sleepy to answer.
Anyway, three hours later, I found myself along with two other members of my club trying to get into our meeting spot. I used to work at the school and got my finger printed to access the building. Unfortunately, the security system at the door is all too stubborn. It refused to let me in! I kept pressing my thumb on the thing and it kept flashing red light until my luck changed. It beeped and just like that the doors unlocked and we’re in.
The school corridor felt empty, dark, and cold like I’ve just walked onto a horror movie set. Thank god I wasn’t alone, otherwise I’d be scared. We used the school library for our meeting spot and in the end, only two other people showed. So our meeting was short and quick with me winging my speech in six-minutes-sixteen-seconds and a lot of suggestions were made to improve the meeting. Afterward, I went home, made some of my mom’s famous wontons and went up to my room. But not before mom’s annoying friend called and said she would come over to bring some vegetables to us.
That basically delayed me in taking the quizzes for my summer classes. An hour later, she showed up with two large white bags, one with Chinese bok choy and the other filled with watercress. It barely fit into the fridge but I forced it in. Ah, finally, I can take my exam BUT as I logged onto the website and about to begin, mom comes home and demanded I help her unload the grocery. Now our fridge is basically full to the brim. The cherries are stacked on top of the eggs, the vegetables are on top of the rice, and the pound cakes are squeezed in the middle.
Then it was exam time. I took almost the entire time (1 hour), searching for answers on the web since the book was so lack of everything (details, answers…). Naturally, I got them all right. After that, I just didn’t want to do anything more. I didn’t want to relax either. I don’t know what I want to do exactly. All I know is I don’t want to take anymore exams!!!
But I can’t, can I. I have to take two more today and the midterm tomorrow. Then, I would have to work, complete 5 discussions for my microeconomics class, and write a 4-5 pages essay for both my micro and macroeconomics classes. (Sigh) At this rate, when can I go to the gym? This has to be my busiest summer yet.
I need to get my thoughts on something, don’t I?
Have a wonderful Sunday!
Goals for the remainder of this Summer
Wait, it’s the “remainder of this Summer” already??? 😮
Yes! Yes, it is and before you know it, Fall rolls around and then the Winter. Time flies! I guess that’s the one down side of being so optimistic. Anyway, I’m going to savor what’s left of this summer by getting the most I can out of it.
- First and most important goal, PASS my two summer classes! And I don’t mean just C’s, I want A’s! But I have taken my GMAT exam yesterday, don’t ask, I now have one thing out of the way, I can focus on my remainder tasks which are classes.
- Become committed to exercise again. Even though I haven’t gain a pound over the last two months after I quit exercising because of all the crazy stuff that’s popped up out of the blue, I need to whip myself into shape again for when my aunt gets here. I don’t want to give her any excuses to make fun of me. So I need to go to gym and do some hard-core exercising. Who’s with me?
- Keep up with blogging! You cannot believe how many times I wanted to quit especially in the past week or past month even. That’s probably why my posts have been so shoddy but your likes, follows, comments, and all the traffic kept me going. I need to prove to myself that I AM NOT A QUITTER and do not have commitment issues.
- Keep my anxiety and anger under control. That is not a very good goal, is it? For me, it is. The fact that my emotions have never been so out of control scares me. I mean, often times, I am happy but then I would suddenly find myself getting angry over little things. I need to work on that.
- I don’t know at the moment what else I’d like to achieve over this summer. I can always read a few books but it’s not much compared to these big goals.
In my opinion, this summer have been the least “chilled” and productive summer of my life. So much to do and no time to do it. Just work and study but at least now I have one less thing to study. 🙂
Thanks for reading and see you back here soon!
The one thing that went right…
Happy Monday, how were your weekends?
Sorry it took me so long to post something. I guess I’m just overwhelmed with laziness and frustration. Last weekend started so well with July 4th and all. On Saturday, mom even took me to Costco and I finally purchased a new computer! Then on the way home, at Home Depot, I bought the shelf I’ve said in my post that I needed. I was super excited.
The moment I got home, I immediately went into assembling the shelf. My brain went into high gear and I put together the shelf in no time. I moved the shelf along with my new computer into my room.
Then trouble… Dung Dung Dung!
The internet went down. Well, not down like last time but it became snail-like, even slower than before I switched to cable. The only place in the house that wasn’t slow was anywhere but my room! Can you believe this?
So I’ve been messing and tweaking the modem and router (resetting and moving it around) for the last two days. However, nothing changed. This morning when I could barely get online, I became angry and called up Comcast (the company I signed up internet) and asked what’s going on. No one could answer my question. Instead, the lady reset my modem and I lost her because my phone depended on the internet (no internet, no phone 😦 )
I re-installed everything again and three hours later, everything’s still the same if not slower than before. Pissed, I called Comcast and they insisted I need the change my modem. So I went down there and stood in line for 30 minutes, came back with a brand-new modem. Still, the internet was still so damn slow! WHAT???
The thing that finally went right since I got the shelf was swapping the router 30 minutes. The internet finally became normal-ish again but it just doesn’t feel the same anymore. I don’t know, maybe after two days of irritatingly slow internet and constantly disconnecting, I’m just afraid it might do that again.
Anyway, I won’t write too much today since it’s kind of like my final hours. My GMAT is less than 24 hours. So I have to go panic!!!
Just kidding, I have to do some last minute study though. EEP!!! I’m so excited until it ends tomorrow. 🙂
Double the Holidays, Festivities, and Fireworks!
In the U.S. or probably the world, most people knows that only one holiday exist in July for the U.S., the 4th of July or Independence Day. What most people also didn’t know is that in Utah, there is also Pioneer Day, which is July 24th. It commemorates the settlement of the first Mormon pioneer.
So while everyone else in the U.S. is only allowed fireworks three days before and after the 4th of July, in Utah, it is also allowed three days before and after the 24th of July. My neighbors from two streets over have already been shooting fireworks into the sky two nights ago which makes the view outside my bedroom window spectacular.
So be safe playing with fireworks and have a festive 4th of July.
As I leave you to enjoy the holiday, I want to show you this video that me and mom watched this morning at breakfast.
Throwback Thursday: Cloudy with a chance of Reconciliation and Cash?
You ever hear someone say, “you took the risk and it paid off”? Continue reading “Throwback Thursday: Cloudy with a chance of Reconciliation and Cash?”
Drum roll please, 100th post!!! Need to brag on my accomplishments and bag on my frustrations
Before I say anything else, I would just like to say, this is my 100th post! I know right? It feels like a whirlwind. After two straight months of constant blogging, I’ve reached my second major goal! The first was of course 100 followers.
Well technically, I have been blogging for more than a year but don’t forget the 5-month hiatus not to mention I’ve only managed to publish less than 10 posts a month from September to April. So really, I’ve only been blogging for 2 months. Honestly, I thought it would take me a lot longer than that to post 100 articles.
On another note, I would also like to brag on myself a little bit. Last Saturday, during my club meeting, I was nominated and awarded the coveted “Outstanding Toastmaster Award”!!! Of course, I knew that because one of the Sergeant at Arms spilled the beans during the last meeting in May but still, it’s not always the Club President gives a specific member recognition. It almost feels like my 5th grade award assembly, except without the surprise. Aww, now I’m making myself blush.
Anyway, onto a more serious note. For the past week, I found myself feeling uninspired to write. 😦 Not only blogwise but in general. It’s like my imagination’s shutting down on me. I am even stuck on the 5th re-write of the novel I’ve working for the past year. I don’t know what’s happening.
Maybe it’s the test and my classes burying down on me? Maybe after next Tuesday, when I can finally take a breath, then my imagination and creativity would come back to me? Right now, the best is to hope.
What did the doctor say?!
I DON’T KNOW!!! Continue reading “What did the doctor say?!”
Want to hear something hilarious?
Hi, everyone, since my day is going nowhere right now, I thought I share something hilarious I heard on the way to my doctor appointment yesterday. I laughed so hard when the radio announcer said this on the radio. Continue reading “Want to hear something hilarious?”
Throwback Thursday: First Comes Joy, Then Comes Pain
I am writing all my posts on my tablet today since my room is unbearably hot and I don’t want to lug my computer back and forth. So I’ve moved myself downstairs to the kitchen. Anyway, today’s story is about getting braces. Be warn that after hearing this story, there’s a chance you may NEVER EVER want to get braces or go near an orthodontist ever again. Continue reading “Throwback Thursday: First Comes Joy, Then Comes Pain”
What’s the Point?
Sometimes, I feel like I’m doing all the work in promoting and maintaining my club. “My Club”, that’s how it should be. Continue reading “What’s the Point?”
The Near Impossible Task of Multitasking
In the past two months (mostly), blogging has been a sort of an escapade for me, temporarily escaping work and study to go to another world, the world of blogging, that is. 😀 However, with two weeks away from my GMAT, I realize I need to buckle down and study. Continue reading “The Near Impossible Task of Multitasking”
Sometimes, I wish the internet and I are strangers
I don’t ever remember a case where I needed the internet as bad as I had this past weekend. Sorry, that sentence came out sort of weird. I guess I’m just a bit off my rhythm from not blogging or writing for two days straight. It might also be the fact that I’ve been staring at Chinese characters so much that my English is starting to deteriorate. 😛 Continue reading “Sometimes, I wish the internet and I are strangers”
This is Another Story 