Today’s prompt asks: A hundred years from now, a major museum is running an exhibition on life and culture as it was during our current historical period. You’re asked to write an introduction for the show’s brochure. What will it say? Continue reading “The Museum of New Ages” →
I feel like a kid answering this prompt. You get to design your own planet: tell us all about your planet — the weather, the seasons, the inhabitants. Go.
My planet would be similar to Earth except it wouldn’t have any of the danger like earthquakes, drought, tsunami, etc. It would have California weather, perfect everyday and no sudden shift in temperature. There would be rain, definitely. I will not have drought on my planet. Rain would ensure harvest each year.
There would also be snow up at the higher elevations so there would be variety instead of sunshine all the time. 
So I have mountains, plains, cities, what am I missing? Of course, water! There got to be lakes, rivers, and reservoirs, not to mention oceans and beaches. If I design a planet, I might as well go all the way. There would be pristine beaches with water like the Caribbean except it’s calm. Like I said, the weather danger of Earth does not exist on this marvelous planet.
Last by not least, the inhabitants. Hmm, that’s an interesting question. No gangs! I grew up in a horrible neighborhood in the suburbs of Los Angeles where thieves, vandals, and other horrible people ran around freely damaging other people’s properties. Sure, there can be bullies but I will not have those people ruin this beautiful planet I’ve designed.
The prompt for Day 5 of Writing 101 have us write about an encounter when we stumble upon a letter. Please note that this is completely fiction. Continue reading “Writing 101: Be Brief” →
For the many that do not know, Jackson Hole is a small town in Wyoming not far from Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park. It is quite a beautiful place to go during the summer, just take a drive through Yellowstone and take its south exit to Grand Teton and Jackson Hole. Continue reading “#AtoZChallenge – J For Jackson Hole” →
When the assignment said to write about loss, I seriously couldn’t think of a thing. I was going to go full fiction but something came to me at the last second. I hope this is not too sad. Thanks for reading. Continue reading “Writing 101: Serially Lost” →
Daily Prompt: Tell us about a time when everything actually turned out exactly as you’d hoped. Continue reading “Everything I’ve Ever Wanted” →
Apparently, I’m not the only one who got a new job. My cousin, the one that used to live here, decided to hold off college and got a job selling Boba in China. I learn that from eavesdropping mom’s conversation with my aunt. My mom was disappointed and angry when she got the news. She started screaming at her sister which I don’t get at all. It’s not her fault or her decision. If he doesn’t want to go to college, isn’t that a good thing? It means he’s not coming back to the U.S. anytime soon, right?
Since then, every time she’d called home, though I don’t know why, she had suggested my aunt put my cousin in some sort of apprenticeship. “He needs to learn something.” My mom said. “Life isn’t just about math and science.” Sometimes, I feel like she treats everyone like illiterate sh**. Just because people chooses to not go to college doesn’t mean they’re stupid. Some people who chooses to go might be the stupid one. Take me, for example. My entire family didn’t go to college and they turned out just fine. My cousin from my father’s side is a manager of a business right out of high school. Of course, it didn’t help that he inherited the business from his dad but my point is a lot of people don’t go to college and they turn out just fine.
Anyway, so far, she’d suggested him to be a plumber, electrician, and cellphone repair. 
That last one was the most recent due to the fact my new job is in a cellphone repair shop. I didn’t even know those things existed until now and apparently, it does not exist in China. I wonder what people do if they accidentally drop their phone on the floor and break the glass. Do they just throw it away?
Did I mention she didn’t sound happy when I told her I got a new job?
That had been turned around last Friday when she suddenly was interested to know everything about my new job like what does the business do or how much is labor per hour.
The motive? Oh she always has a motive alright…
…and I figured it out in a jiffy. She wants to take over as usual. This time is different though. She doesn’t really wanted to take over my job, well she does but really, she wants to take over the cellphone repair guy’s job. She thought taking apart an iPhone is easy and that it’s no-brainer to fix a phone. She thought earning $70 an hour fixing a phone is easy. She wanted me to ask my boss to let her be the protegee of the cellphone repair guy.
Ha ha, very funny. I’m not going to do that. Nice try, though. The last thing I need is to have my mother breathing down my neck again. However, if I could learn a trade, I would learn cellphone repair. It looks profitable but I’ll have to learn it secretly maybe from the cellphone repair guy. He seems nice enough. 😉
The past two weeks have been just insane. I feel like all the blog posts have been rushed and I haven’t had the time to really buckle down and do some writing that’s really worth reading. So I can understand why my site traffic is taking a plunge; yes, I’m crazy about that. 😉
I got up early this morning even though I went to bed super late last night. I guess I’m just excited because first of all, it’s Friday and secondly, I have work, a good way to earn some cold hard cash.
I’m mostly excited because all this craziness is coming to pass. I can finally sit down, breathe, and catch up all that’s happened in the blogging world and not worry about to have to run around as I’ve done this week.
So in my post on Sunday, I mentioned I skipped my daily ritual (Daily Prompt) two days in a row. Well, I have only done it once this week. How ’bout that? First, the prompt are not really inspiring me to write anything, except yesterday which I intend to write in just a moment, and the weather wasn’t not exactly cooperating.
This was a picture I took on Tuesday and it was already passed 9 am when I snapped it. It’s been like that the entire week.
It rained and snowed on Wednesday not to mention the temperature went from 60’s and 70’s to 30’s and 40’s. I didn’t want to wear my warm down jacket since it’d just been cleaned. I had to settle with my regular thick coat which didn’t do much good against the cold.
Another thing that made my week insane was in my post Sunday, I told you the fantastic news that my instructor had cancelled class on Tuesday. Well, that came with consequences because I spent until midnight on Wednesday night doing all the homework and filling in the notes for Thursday’s class. I was so tired I didn’t even want to get up yesterday but I did anyway with the hope of just getting the day over with. That was difficult. Nothing was cooperating especially the traffic. It took me 45 minutes instead of my usual 20 minutes commute to get home. Thank god I don’t have to go anywhere except work today.
So here is to a wonderful day. 🙂
I know, such a dumb word I have chosen to represent H. Continue reading “#AtoZChallenge – H For Headphones” →
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” →
Day two of Writing 101 is asking us to tell about a place we would go if we can zoom through space. Continue reading “Writing 101: A Room with a View” →
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” →
Daily Prompt: You get some incredibly, amazingly, wonderfully fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?
What is the fantastic news?
I feel so out of touch doing these daily prompts after not doing them for just a few short days. Anyway, my reaction depends on the news.
Last night, I did get some great news. My instructor had cancelled lecture for today. So I only have one class today. Yay! I was super relieved because so much studying in the last couple of days, I need a break. It looks like I will get one this week.
I peeked at the schedules for all my classes and it looks like my last assignment for my cost accounting class is due tomorrow and then that’s it except for the book report. My other two classes look like it’s winding down as well. That is wonderful for me.
Oh right, what was the first thing I did upon hearing the news? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
I spent the night alone curling under two blankets watching TV. It’s freezing in the living room.
My mom’s off to training once again and she won’t be back until this afternoon. So last night was sort of my night off. After finding out this beautiful spring weather was going to turn on me, I went back to my blog and wrote a flash fiction along with reading a few posts to get my head in the groove again before heading off to bed.
I just cannot believe it’s going to get cold again and snow. I thought this warm weather’s going to last but apparently, winter is going to swoop in again.
Thanks to my mother, I just got home from a crappy exam and oh look, the light on the answering machine is blinking. I pressed play and guess what, it’s mom calling home to check on me. Continue reading “#AtoZChallenge – E for Excessive Control” →
This is my first time taking Writing 101 and the first task is to free-write for 20 minutes. Okay, I can do that. Continue reading “Writing 101: Unlock the Mind” →
All day today, I’ve been thinking of how I missed doing the prompt two days in a row. I blame my stubborn self for that because until I finish my homework, I cannot think about anything else. Well, just now, I completed one of my homework assignments. I still have to study for the two exams I have to take tomorrow but apparently I cannot do that.
One of the major downside of being in the same program as my mother is being in the same class together. I’ve been spoiling her for the majority of the semester, doing her homework all because I fell for her excuses over and over. Oh, I’m so busy. Oh I paid for your this and that. Oh I’m old. I helped you, didn’t I?
(Sigh) I told myself over and over, stop falling for them but every time she uses those excuses, it just makes me feel guilty and hence, rendering me speechless. I guess that’s what mothers do, send their children on a guilt trip to make them do their bidding.
This morning, I gave her a quick overview of the assignment and told her to do it on her own. I am not even sure if she was fully listening when I explained it to her or was she thinking about money again. I even told her, “if you don’t understand, watch the instructor’s video.”
Her answer was, “It will be quicker if you did it first.”
Of course it will be because then all she had to do would be to copy it. So here’s what I wrote for my mental note. Can I stick to it? We’ll see.
This weekend’s going to be hectic once again. It doesn’t matter that it’s Easter, exams and homework wait for no one. Continue reading “#AtoZChallenge – D for Deadlines” →
Two days ago (A), I failed to mention my excitement. I wrote I was absolutely excited. I actually meant today. Continue reading “#AtoZChallenge – C for Celebration” →
Today’s prompt is a tricky one, so I’m going to have to think about it. Meanwhile, I’m going to answer yesterday’s: How do you communicate differently online than in person, if at all? How do you communicate emotion and intent in a purely written medium? Continue reading “Smoother in Words” →
I peeked at my fridge this morning for a little breakfast, it’s practically empty except for the overwhelming amount of vegetables my mom bought on Saturday before coming home to hassle me to write her paper on Argentina for her. Essentially, I am out of breakfast. Continue reading “#AtoZChallenge – B for Breakfast” →
Absolutely, what? You ask. I can think of a lot of adjective that can follow that word like annoyed, poofed, tired, exhausted, excited, psyched… Continue reading “#AtoZChallenge – A for Absolutely” →
I hate it and dread it every year. Will someone pull a prank on me? Will someone prank me so hard that my chest pound and I have to watch my back the entire freaking day? Will I get hurt? I might be able to stand pain but I hate to get hurt. Continue reading “So Not a Fan” →
I suppose everybody has a tagline, a short phrase or slogan that describe who we are, what we do (occupationally) or just something that sums up what we are individually, kind of like a brand or logo. I used to have no tagline of my own but I acquired one two days ago. Okay, I’ll tell you about it now.
About two months ago, after seeing and listening to people raving and booing about twitter, I finally opened a twitter account. I didn’t start using it until two days ago, as a curious little experiment and as a way to ditch my Facebook “friends” who basically ruined the term social media for me.
After joining Facebook for eight, nine years (wow has it really been that long?), no one liked the pictures I posted or read the things I’ve written. The only time my “friends” talked or, in this case, messaged me was on my birthday. Each time, we just go back and forth twice maybe three times.
They’ll say, “Oh, I missed you. Are you coming back to Cali anytime soon?” Um, I’m in school. Do I look like I have the time to travel? They’ll replied, “Oh, well I missed you,” and that’s the end of the conversation.
Anyway, I wanted to start fresh, I don’t want the situation over at Facebook ruin social media for me, too late. So I turned to the other source for social media, twitter. I didn’t know, I still don’t know how to use twitter, how to read tweets, and so on. The short-hand notations and the hash-tags are driving me nuts.
Anyway, I finally went on after two months and posted my first ever tweet, possibly to let the world know I’ve finally registered for an account.
After so many years of watching and listening to everyone talk about twitter this twitter that, I’m finally on.
— Yinglan Zheng (@yinglanzheng) March 29, 2015
I wasn’t expecting anyone to read that or even follow me but just for the heck of it and because everything on twitter is about shortness, I posted a few more.
I am very rusty at this social media thing. Bear with me.
— Yinglan Zheng (@yinglanzheng) March 29, 2015
I completely set up my profile and even connected this blog to the account and set up the widget in my sidebar. You see that below? That’s my tagline. It said to write a bio but come on, in that tiny space?
I am a blogger, a writer, an engineer, and a will-be accountant.
Well, that basically describes what I do.
Then something unexpected happened. Monday morning, I woke up and checked my stats on WP, 5 followers for twitter. I could feel my eyes bulge as I did a double-take. For some of you out there, it’s not a lot. To me, it’s a lot just like it’s a lot for me to have over 700 subscribers on this blog.
Just now, I checked again, 28 followers and all of them are associated with writing. Most of them authors and writing club. You can tell, I’m still very surprised myself.
This is Another Story