Can friendship last a lifetime?

I used to have one best friend when I was back in high school. (Why am I using the past tense 'used'?) We were super close, totally inseparable. We were in the same class for 4 out of 5 years of high school and though we sat together in class, when we got home, we would spend another 2 to 3 hours talking on the phone! I don't know what we talked about but I remember my dad always teasing me wondering how can two people talk so much!!! I remember her staying over in my house and we would lie side by side and talk about our dreams and worries until 6am in the morning. Same thing would happen when I stayed over at her place. I would go over to her house and have dinner with her family and vice versa.

We were best of friends.

But somewhere along the way.. things started to change. I don't know if its just me or its the both of us but I guess we just don't click anymore. There are some friends that you don't see for ages and when you do get in touch, its like nothing has change. You talk occasionally and remember each other's important dates. But we havent talked in ages and.. I don't know..

She recently had a new blog and I was looking through her post and her pictures. She back in Malaysia right now and when I saw pictures of her with our high school friends, I felt really sad looking through it. I was part of it but now..

She also had pictures of her visiting around the world and I'm so happy that she is traveling around the world achieving the dreams that we used to talked about in our never ending phone conversations. But I feel really sad that so many things are happening in her life and not only am I not part of it, I am reading it through a blog to know about it!

I used to think that our friendship would last forever.. That when people talked about growing out of their high school friendship, it would never happen to me. That we would be together forever, attending each other's marriage ceremony, being bridesmaid for each other, having families together and so on.. But..

I know things may not be as bad as it seem or that we are not exactly sworn enemies but I know, things would never be as it used to anymore.

And I feel sad thinking about it...

Burning the Midnight Oil..

I know I shouldn't complain so much and I HAVE been complaining a lot lately but... Argh...!!! Studies are getting harder and harder by the day! Its just the fourth week of the semester and I'm already almost drowning!!! Boohooooo...

I'm 5 classes behind on my readings for my human rights class, which is around 50 pages a class, 2 quizzes on Tuesday which I have no idea what is it about at all, and a 70 page reading on Japan and China culture due Tuesday too. And with a class of 20 people, you can't escape not reading because you wont be joining in the conversation. What would happen, you ask. Well.. the professor will know you did not read the readings and give you a low participation grade at the end of the semester thus affecting your overall grade!

Ok.. I have to stop complaining. I can do this!!! I will SURVIVE!!!! Woooo!!!

I just need to get not one but multiple espresso machines first!

My destructive Best Friend

Oh my goodness.. I know I have bad management and that I am a procrastinator, but I sort of thought I would grow out of it.. since elementary school!!!

Ever since I was in Elementary school, I would leave my homework till the very last minute on Sunday night to complete it. I would go out with my family during the weekends and when they would ask me if I had finish my homework, I will tell them in my straightest voice "YES... Mum!!!", indicating that they were being naging and should know better than to ask their perfect daughter whether she had finish her homework or not. Of course I did my homework, what do you think? And I would proceed to feel all guilty and wondering if I can finish my homework in the 10 minutes that I estimate would take me to complete the homework. But obviously I would take longer than that 10 minutes. Sometimes I would even have to bring my homework to class the next day and copy off someone's book.

And though each week I would tell myself I would do it on Friday afternoon itself, I would never get down to do it. I would tell myself I have plenty of time and that I don't have to worry. But the weird thing is that though I'm having fun, at the back of my mind, I will always have the dreaded feeling that I have homework back home to complete! But no... I just wouldn't change.

It went on till I was in high school. However, now it concerns my exams. I would not study until the day before exam. Every single time when exams are drawing near, students will ask each other whether they have "started" or not, and you can start hearing yes from students two weeks before exams. And that two weeks is already considered late for some students! But for me, I start a day before the exam!!! I just can't bring myself to do it an extra day before. I need the anxiety and drive to push me to study! And I will stay the WHOLE night studying and by the end of the exam, when everyone is out partying, I would be sick in bed because I didn't have enough sleep!!!

I would then realized that studying isn't so bad after all and there are a lot of interesting stuff for me to learn in my books, and that I should start earlier so I can remember more! But Again and again I failed to do so and now.. I'm in college!

I just skipped a class to do a paper for another class!!! I didn't skip the class to sleep, or to have fun. I skipped the class to finish a paper! I had one whole week to do my paper and I did it at 6am the morning it was due! I slept at 11pm last night because I was so tired and vowed to wake up at 4am so I can attend my 830am class. But nope, I woke up at 630am in the end and since I had class at 1030am and the paper was due at 12pm, I was forced to make the decision of skipping my 830am class.

Some of you may think its no big deal, that you skip class everyday and that I'm a nerd for making such a big deal out of nothing. But when all your classes have only maximum 18 people in it and the professor knows you by your name, you tend to make a priority to attend classes!!!

Argh.. procrastination... My biggest most destructive best friend.. and he's still with me now.. As I type this fully knowing I have Spanish and Japanese test tomorrow!

Are u desperate to be slim?

If you had noticed, weight loss advertisements are everywhere!!! Everywhere you go you are bombarded with images of stick thin underage girls and pictures of fat women losing 100 pounds to become the slim sexy women they are now.. Its like the public is telling you that its wrong to be fat!
Its even worst in America when even radio stations have advertisements about the ideal weight. The slogan will always be something like, "Do you want to attract the sexy guy in your office?" or "Do you want to feel good about yourself?". What happen to feeling good no matter how you look? I swear the advertisements out here are so much more out there that if I am a young naive teenage girl, I'll be anorexic!

Do you think weight loss pills work?

Roommate problems!

I am facing so much problems with my roommate recently that it is giving me headache every single day. I really don't know what to do about it. Since I'm from Malaysia, I'm always feeling cold around here even though people say California is never cold. Therefore, I on the heater every single day. But you know what my roommate loves to do? She'll turn off the heater when I'm in the room and when I get up in the morning, I'll freeze to death.

Is it because she's hot? No... She claims to want to save energy!!!!

Argh!!! I have the privilege to have a heater and I want to make full use of it!!!! She can stay outside the dorms and save as much energy as she wants but dont make me freeze to death because of her sudden interest in saving global warming!

Its so frustrating I tell you. She knows I hate the cold but she still does it. What should I do?

Did u know what I wanted to do when I found out she turned off my heater and the room was around 15 degrees Celsius?

I wanted to on the A.C and make it under 0 Celsius! That'll make her feel what is real cold.

But of course I din do it. But I wanted too!!! Boohoo... I'm bad!

I don't wanna get my own heater because then I'll have to spend money to buy one.

Ah.. people keep saying communication communication. But how do u want me to communicate with her?

Ah... Green planet should recruit her! >.<

Fiber Optical Cables

The first time I heard about fiber optic cables was when I was in high school learning about communications in my physics book. I was remember the chapter was something about electronic and the last part of the chapter was something about modern physics and how this thing called fiber optical cables can pass information through it at a super fast speed.

Nowadays most of our data, internet information and stuff are passed through fiber optic cables. Do you know exactly what they are?

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

Though I'm super lonely right now and wish with all my heart that I'm back in Malaysia celebrating the new year, having dinner, eating Malaysian food and most importantly collecting Ang Paus,

I would like to wish all my wonderful imaginary readers, whoever you are, Chinese or not..

Happy Chinese New Year!!!!!!!



Gong XI Fa Cai!!!

You can always email me Ang Paus (with money inside please) if you want. I accept pay pal and cheques! Thank you! ^.^

Away from home..

Oh my goodness.. This is gonna be my first time being away from home during Chinese New Year. I hate this so much. I have barely 10 students in my university who is Chinese and no one in the whole university would know that it IS CNY!!! Imagine!!!

Argh.. In Malaysia, we have a week of holiday for school children and even that we complain that it is not enough. Though most chinese schools would take a longer holiday for the students though they tend to have to pay it back by going to school on Saturdays but over here.. no one gives a damn that it is CNY!!! It is like every other day here.. We still go to class. The world still functions normally. No CNY songs blasting around in malls and markets, no red decorations filling shops everywhere, no CNY songs playing on radios, nothing. No oranges in supermarkets. No banks giving away ang paus to random people.

Nothing.

No CNY spirit at all!!! Argh.. I miss all those.

THough I do not come from a super traditional family where all rules are followed before, during and after the CNY, but I love my culture. I love having the anticipation that the New YEar is coming though we celebrated the New Year a month ago. I love buying new clothes and keeping it until the first day of New Year. I love getting together with my extended family to have dinner the night before CNY even though I was never close to them. I love waking up early, (ok, not that early) and going to my grandmother's house to gather together with the whole family. Though I don't really love sitting around the house doing nothing but I love eating just 'zai' (vegetarian) curry in the morning of the first day of CNY. Though kinda awkward but I love pouring tea for both my parents and getting big ang paus from them. I love going down to Malacca after going to my father's side of the family to visit my mother's sisters. More Ang Paus for me then! I love going around Malacca and finding our favorite food hoping that they are open during the CNY!

I love having the happy feeling all around me during the whole duration of the New Year knowing that we are celebrating CNY at that moment and everything is bright and festive!

Now, I wont have anything to remind me that it is CNY. All I have is me. I have to be festive myself. All alone.

My family will be back in Malaysia without me.

No more traditions with my family because I'm halfway across the world.

Argh...

Though I finally managed to find someone to do something with me on Wednesday night. Johnie, A Singaporean guy will do steamboat for a few of us. Wooo-hoo!!! That is gonna be so fun!!! I'll feel at home again.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone and for those that are able to be with their family, CHERISH IT!!!

Do you do charity work?

Oh my goodness, people think about everything nowadays. Do you know you can actually make a car donation now? All you need to do is donate a car and you will be able to help single mothers, orphans and so on.. And the best part is you get to have tax reduction.

Car Angel is a non-profit company that uses the car that you donate to make videos for kids and teens. Did you know that they have already given away over 2.4 million videos? Check out this video to see what it is all about.

http://youtube.com/user/boatangel


Interested to make someone else life better? This is your chance!

Buying a house

Buying a house can be a really tough thing to do. I noticed, especially in Orange County, property can be really expensive here. The average house over here, which is super small compared to our average double story houses in Malaysia, is around half a million USD per house. They are so small I tell you that you can almost touch the ceiling when you step into the living room!

And I'm considered super short.

But when you wanna live here, you have to live like the Romans do. That's why they have luxury real estate. For those people that are willing to pay high prices to get good houses.

I wonder when will I get to own my own house..