Hello blog, did you forget me?

Fast-forward the clock, and it’s August. As I rapidly approach my final significant milestone as an adolescent (turning 21), I realize I’m quite bad at keeping up with time (as you can see by the date of my last blog post). Every Asian parent I see at home asks “what are you doing after school?” As if it isn’t hard enough to get through school, it’s time to plan life after school. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but I have a general idea that I’m working towards. When junior year ended, my viewpoint on life had become “things will work themselves out”. I think I’ve become less worried with the future (for better or for worse) because I want to concentrate on things I’m doing now. This doesn’t mean I don’t have a plan. I have short-term objectives, and if those don’t work out, then I’ll go to alternate plans. One can only plan so much and so far. Enough about that.

This summer’s Taiwan trip was quite eye-opening as it was the first funeral in Taiwan that I’ve attended. I’m glad I was still considered a “kid” this time. But, reality dictates that unfortunately, these events will only be more frequent in the future, and I will need to be stronger. RIP.

So, these two weeks at home really stirred up memories and feelings from the past, more so than any other time I’ve been home. Perhaps it’s because of the uncertainty of how much more time I’ll be spending here. My room is basically how it was since I left for college. Each object serves as a time capsule, photos, dvds, cds, etc, all preserving a tiny bit of my life and me back then. Hanging out with friends this week threw my mind back to senior year of high school, except it’s now senior year of college. At Chili’s, we used to drink Shirley Temples (virgin obviously), but now, whip out that driver’s license, and alcohol is served. We talked about high school stuff as if they happened yesterday. I for a second actually thought I was 18, driving home at night down that all-too familiar road with the windows down. I wonder if other people have similar experiences when they go back home from college. All I can say is that I have great friends and wonderful memories that I don’t want to forget.

More later, maybe in another six months :P

If you had a time machine...

what day/year would you go back to?

I'd turn time back to elementary school: When boys were just those with cooties. When currency was the rarity of your Pokemon cards. When the only thing we competed over was how high one could swing. When there was recess, not recessions.

More often now, I find that although adulthood is rapidly approaching, I haven't necessarily become mature enough to face its onset. Is it really time to grow up?

Can I be in one of your shorts?

Lol, oh Wong Fu. I'm going to make a real Youtube account this time, so I can start subscribing to people I like.

I don't know what to think of Super Junior's comeback song. On the one hand, it sounds like they're trying to hard. But on the other, it may be catchy.

口是心非

I don't know why I do this. This, as in, say something when I'm thinking something else. Example, if I'm excited about something, I downplay my excitement to a level of indifference. Likewise, if I don't like doing something, I try my best to act somewhat excited and go along (although I have feeling I'm not very good at this). The reasons I've come up with to explain this behavior are quite irrational. I think I'm only alienating people, instead of having them think I'm easy to get along with.

Long time no see

Sorry, it's been a while. It's finally spring break, and with nothing to do, I'm sitting at home blogging (Unfortunately, spring break plans never materialized. At least I'm saving money). So what's happened since 2008 ended? Nothing much really. Been feeling the wrath of the recession. The DP says that OCR recruitment has been down this year. Although I failed OCR, the interview practice was still helpful for when I really need it. I applied to a bunch of non-OCR stuff. Maybe something fruitful will come out of that. My backup plan is staying at Penn to do research, which will hopefully yield a published paper. What else besides job searching? I applied for submatriculation for biotech masters. I guess it doesn't hurt to get some more schooling under my belt, especially if I want to do research. A bachelor's degree won't even get me into the door of a biopharma company.

So that's what's going on my prof/academic side. As for others, I'll blog later about. My stomach is grumbling. Food comes first.

Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009

Like the past few years, I ring in the new year by myself, no parties, no champagne, no countdown in Times Square (although I want to eventually). I do expect to be flooded with texts in about 8 minutes or so. Usually, I don't even bother waiting for 12am. But, this time I'm up at this hour because I've been reading Twilight, only to understand what the teenage hype is about, not because I'm in love with Edward Cullen.

I guess it's a perfect time to reflect on the year 2008. If there's one thing I realized this year, it's that time is passing too quickly. 2010 seemed so elusive when I was in high school, telling people I was in the class of 2010. Now, it's only 365 days + 8 minutes away. Oh dear, I am not ready for adulthood. Was 2008 a fruitful year? I would say yes. Made a few thousand working my first real job. Asian survived a 7 class semester. Spent nearly 8 months (and counting) with a special someone. Pulled off a trip to London with friends. *shrug* not particularly glamorous, but it was fun.

So, in the course of blogging, it has passed 12:00am. I'd like to wish everyone a happy new year. Cheers to 2009.

More pieces of the past

While cleaning up my closet, I found my handy London travel book, which not only includes maps of the city and other useful travel info, but also a few I guess you would call diary entries from the spring break trip. I must say those entries are quite interesting, which means no one can lay eyes on them because they're so poorly written. It's obvious that I wrote them at the spur of the moment. Whatever I was feeling, I wrote it down. So there's happiness, sadness, frustration, etc. My travel book turned into a diary about myself rather than about London. So much for trying to be an intellectual world traveler. Funny.

If you're looking for some new chill music, I'd like to suggest Big City Dreams by Nevershoutnever!. It kinda reminds me of Hey There Delilah.