Tuesday, July 28, 2009

HEY KIDS



Why is it that I'm the only person that still likes clowns?
Sure, It ruined clowns for most people, but if I were to follow that logic, hills should have been ruined by The Hills Have Eyes, and dusty deserted roads with rusty cars following you should have been ruined by Jeepers Creepers. Oh wait. Yes, deserted roads with aggressively driven rusty cars were always "creepy" weren't they?

Anyways, I just don't see what is so horrible about clowns. I mean, when you disregard It, and maybe John Wayne Gacy, clowns aren't evil in the least. What's one clowny serial killer amongst all the others? Clowns are just so happy! On the outside of course, on the inside they could secretly hate life, but that isn't exclusive to clowns.

Enough with this pansying about the scariness of clowns, people! Suck it up, and start hiring clowns for your birthdays. After all, I want there to be a market for when I join clown college...

Friday, July 24, 2009

I'm not sorry until you're sorry

I find it hard to apologize when I think someone else should first. Which happens around 99% of the time an apology is really needed.

Why? Because I'm stubborn about stupid things.

Case one: In the streets of Venice, my father is blathering on about something that I have to change that I don't care for. So, instead of talking it out like a reasonable family (see the problem here? Reasonable) I stop walking and refuse to move until my demands are met. The father, equally stubborn, keeps on walking, making a showdown of stubbornness. minutes tick by as they stroll out of sight, and I begin making plans to walk back alone. Eventually, I win. My demands are met, and neither my father nor I are sorry. Mostly because he wasn't sorry first.

Case two: Yesterday, my father demanded I get a job. Of course, I had been thinking the same thing as of late, but if he was going to demand something, and then ramble on about how I do nothing all day, I would do the opposite. This eventually degrades into how he never says anything nice (it's true. 91% average? "Pretty good") or listens to me and etc etc. Concludes in "Maybe I just won't talk to you ever again." Followed by spending the rest of the night pointedly ignoring the questions he's asking.

"But Shiying, why are all these stories about your dad?"

Because I don't fight with anyone else. Most of the friends I've had can agree that they have never had a significant conflict with me. I don't fight much with my mom; I do fight with my brother, but that's usually of the "Stop spitting on me!" variety. Only my dad is as stubborn as me, and having two people with conflicting ideas but, both convinced they are right, together ends exactly as you think it would, no?

Moral of the story? I'm not sure, but I bet it has something to do with stubbornness and all that jazz.


Sunday, July 19, 2009

About that list...

A certain item has been nagging me for the last 9 months. Namely, that list I drew up of things I had wanted to do by graduation.
It started out as a list of things I've always wanted to do, but found excuses to not to. When it was first written, I was excited to get started, go forth, seize the day, and all that jazz. Mental images of me carpe dieming at TIFF and bungee jumping were still fresh in my mind as I tried to plan the first items to be completed. But as I planned, I still found myself making excuses.
"Oh that will get me arrested."
"That will never work!"
"...Why is this even on the list?!"
"It's too cold/hot/windy/breezy/sunny for that..."
"I bet the squirrels will eat all the balloons, and choke and die.."
At a fantastic 6 months later, I tried to appease the nagging feeling by completing one item. I planted a tree, with SAVE no less. Interestingly, while planting the tree, I did not feel like I was accomplishing a life goal. Or, more accurately, if it was indeed my life goal, it would imply that I make some shitty life goals.

The more I thought about the list, the less excited I was to complete it. Bungee jumping seemed less and less exciting and more and more suicidal, as it seemed that I misjudged the heights I would be falling. Of course, some of the items on the list still seemed to be an exciting prospect, but they were easy targets anyway. Drive in movie? 15 minutes away, really.

I suppose I've just lost interest in my endeavour. I've changed, but my list has remained static. Everything changes all the time, and I suppose who I am now is not quite the same as who I was 9 months ago in an English class, bored out of my skull trying to discuss short stories. Part of the reason I wrote the list was so that I could go out and be more exciting. Well, I've done a lot of exciting things since, none of which happen to be on this list.

But, all of this rambling is just to soften the blow when I say "I am not going to force myself to complete this list." or in other words, I'm not following any lists. I'm going to go seize what I want, with no timeline whatsoever. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm going to avoid doing anything on the list, I'm just not trying to smoosh it all into the next year.

TL;DR I've changed, I'm not doing my list anymore

also: New theme! To suit the summer, though I guess I'm a little behind for that.
also: MOTHER, if you are reading my blog. Please stop. It's weird.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Me Love You Long Time.

It's way too long to describe everything I did in the last 12 days. So, I'll give some highlights! Unfortunately, I took less and less pictures as I was having more fun.

Beijing: The Great Wall.

There's really nothing quite like walking on the great wall and seeing all the mountains and hills. It was smoggy, but still gorgeous. The walk itself was actually insane. One section was on a 60 degree angle at least with stairs that went up one foot a step. But getting to the top was amazing because you could see everything. Thinking about being the builders who had to build the wall was just crazy, we had enough trouble just getting there, let alone building stuff.
I may have been complaining the whole way up and back, but it was a really great experience. Would do it again. Probably with the same amount of complaints.

Xi'an: The market

Sure, there's lots of history and stuff in Xi'an. But too much history at one time gets boring. The market though, is a real sight to see. People were everywhere! There were lots of souvenir stands, but there were also lots of stands selling the local food. Local food being food I used to eat as a small child that is. There were people selling traditional candy, and "small eats" (bad, bad literal translation). It's a shame we couldn't eat the food (concerns about explosive diarrhea and all that)

Shanghai: Partying

I'm not going to lie, Shanghai was good and all that, but the thing that sticks out most is going out. Armed with a fist full of bills, flanked by some friends and accompanied by Ben the professional partier, we went out to see the famous bar street. I can't say I remember everything that happened, but the stories I heard the next morning are absolutely hilarious. Apparently, upon returning from the club, I sat in a bath tub for a while, refusing to get out. After being dragged out, I thought it'd be a good idea to change, which explained why I was in a robe, naked. I also tried to escape (?!) a few times so Alex tried to tie me to the bed (?!?!) and then covered me in coathangers so I would wake her up when I moved. Waking up was one of the most confusing experiences I've ever had, and then I saw the adorable note Alex left.
"Gravol (for pukey) - with tablets of Gravol. Advil (for ouchie) - with some advil. Mints (for smelly)- with some mints"

Hong Kong- Shopping, the world's longest outdoor escalator, and more partying

The shopping in Hong Kong is a little less cheap, but really cool none the less. We walked down to "The Ladies Market" where I bought an awesome hat, and a really awesome pair of shoes and a dress and some shorts. It was made slightly more fun by the rain from an impending typhoon though. We'd dart from tent to tent as the rain stopped and started.

The world's longest outdoor escalator went straight through some of Hong Kong's coolest hang outs. There were art galleries filled with old and contemporary art, and little vintage stores, dress shops, bars and clubs and resturaunts and some apartments too. If I ever moved to Hong Kong, I'd try to move there. The elevator itself was pretty cool too, and took you from the bottom of a mountain straight to the peak.

Partying down in SoHo was definitely the most fun I've ever had. Hanging around the outside of a 7-11 we met some really funny guys living in Hong Kong who we talked with for a while. Later, we found the rest of our group, who found one of the guys that offered me a flyer walking down to SoHo earlier. Him and his friends helped us get into a club (me for free :D) where it was PACKED. We spent the rest of the night dancing away and had so much fun. Unfortunately, we had to fly the next morning, so we decided to leave at 2 am.

So, I had a lot of fun in China, and I definitely want to go back sometime. And if I ever get an offer to move out into Hong Kong, it will totally go into consideration.

Oh! and I forgot to mention that my lack of blogging was not because I didn't have interenet, but rather, blogger is blocked in China