No, I'm not THAT Stupid..

I have homework due tomorrow! I took my textbook to work today so I can read during my break/lunch/whatever. 9 out of 10 times I take any sort of academic material to work, I decide I'm too cool for that and decide to shop instead. Today was one of those days. I bought myself some sandals. ANYWAY

This isn't the most expensive book I've bought this quarter, but it's no pocket-change amount.

...Let me quickly explain why I'm putting off doing homework to scribble nonsense on here.

Searching for my keys after work ended, and feeling awful that one of my coworkers was waiting for me to finish finding my keys so she can drive home, I unloaded the contents of my bag onto the trunk of my car. After quite a bit of air-talking (mouthing, "I'm so sorry", "Ahh, my keys", "EEEEEP."), I found my keys and waved them triumphantly in the air to signal peace and relief.

I grabbed my stuff and rushed to the car, shoving my keys in the ignition, bumpin' Circa Survive as I reversed with one-hand B] and drove down the ramp as if to run away from the zone of workage.

When I came home, and heated up some eggrolls in the microwave (I knowwww, SOO asian. Of all things..) and plopped onto my chair to tackle ze assignment. I was thinking to myself, geeze, I wish I did some amount of reading at work, as I looked over for my book. Maybe I even threw a mini-tantrum in my head.

Well that mini-tantrum turned into a mini-panic attack when I failed to locate my textbook.

...okay I'm tired of all the suspense, and you have better things to do, so I'll cut it shorter than I would like:

My freaking book was gone! Not under my bed, not in my purse, not outside, not in my car.

...Not in my car.

No, No, No, I'm not THAT stupid to have left my book on top of my trunk when I was diggin around for my keys.......?...?

....

.......?

:?

Lazy bum clothes and all, I ran outside to my car, shoved my keys in the ignition, reversed out (with two hands this time), and drove with my highbeams on. I was going to retrace my steps/cartracks and find that freaking book.

As I got closer to the zone of my workingplacearea, I was getting more and more tantrumy. I guess I could buy another book, but it'd be a shame to spend money like that. With that money I could buy... and I was thinking of all the things I could buy with that small-but-still-significant-amount of money.

Meh, I drove up the ramp, scanning every inch of asphalt my tires had touched only 15 minutes before.

And what amazing feeling of relief I experienced sweeping through my brain to my heart then to my watery, eager eyes (justkidding) when I saw a little white dot at the top of the parking lot.

Could it be??

Could it was.

My book about 15 ft away from where my car was previously parked, chillin on the floor.

I think while I was gone my textbook had its own little fun. Next to it was a dirty used condom, sprawled on the floor. Whoo, my book knows how to spit some game. Maybe someone was going to drive back-- highbeams and all-- to come back for the condom? Maybe not. Probably not.

...I hope not.

AHHH.

It was like a mother finding her lost baby. Except it's a mother who probably can live without the baby. She just didn't want to go through the trouble of getting a new baby. It hurts financially.

Anyway, so I came home and decided that this was the most interesting thing that has happened to me all day. In honor of that I thought I'll take one of those reunited pictures of me and my book. You know, for old-times sake. (:

And then I looked at the picture and thought: hey, the girl in the cover kind of looks like me.

If my hair were fluttering in the wind, you'd see the resemblance.

Love, Jeannie

Before I thought it was fine to end an e-mail with a dash followed by my first name. If I want to be fancy and I'm feelin' snazzy, I'd spice it up and add my last name.

It wasn't really until college did I find myself in quite a pickle.

Even in the beginning of the e-mail do I write, Hi Professor so-and-so? Dear Professor so-and-so? But that wasn't that big of a deal. Besides, professors and professionals, when reading my baby-like e-mails have better things to do than analyze how I greeted them. They skip right onto my main point, as they glaze their eyes onto the end of the e-mail.

That last bit I put at the end of most of my e-mails had much thought put into them. One of my philosophy TAs used to write "Cheers" which I thought was pretty cool. Because of his sign-off, I thought he was a foreign student from England or something.

Then a couple of other TAs wrote "cheers"

I've heard things from Best, Regards, Warm Regards, Sincerely (but I've never gotten that one)...etc. How freaking annoying.

During my internship, my supervisor(?) and I made an e-mail thread. I ran out of things to say, and went back to my old style of "-Jeannie"

I think I eventually abandoned a sign-off altogether.

Quasi-instant messaging?

Meh, it doesn't really matter because it probably didn't really matter to him. .....except I don't really know that.

Everything is so virtual now. Maybe I go a little overboard on my haha usage on AIM. But everytime I chuckle, smile or laugh, I throw it in there! Why not? Adds a little character. There are some people I hate texting because they're super bubbly in person but through text, they're all short with me. A response like: "Ok. See you soon."

DOES NOT MAKE ME WANT TO SEE THEM SOON.

....cause it sure seems like they're not excited to "see me soon".

Anyway, I only bring this up because it's quite a pickle I've been stuck in for awhile and I happened to read this.

In Your Dreams

I had such a cool vision for this blog. I was going to write about the fun things I learn in school and be able to write about my thoughts without having to abide by a due date or get worried about citing references. This proved only to be a fantasy. I have not written anything about what I was learning.
Maybe it was because I wasn't learning anything until the last week of class.
Or maybe it was because.


...Just because.

Think 3M only makes post-its and scotch tape?

After I work for my meager wage at my service-sector low-paying job, I will return to some studious reading about 3M, and maybe have something fun to say.

That'd be a change of pace, eh?


I had the scariest nightmare today.
Usually when I have a nightmare, I can decide to "open my eyes" and wake up. With about 3 failed attempts, I finally managed to open my eye back into reality and the comfort of being away from that horrendous scenario. Except I was still dreaming.
I nearly had a heart attack. =( I was itching to wake up and get out of there. The scariest thing was the more I tried to wake up, the more scarier things got-- since I was trying to bolt. My creative imagination was out of control. Not that I remember much of my dream now, I'm glad I'm awake.
...OR AM I STILL DREAMING? just kidding.

So why am I sharing this dead-end story?

Reader's Digest? More like: Writer's Digest.

I plan to master Dreamweaver. Give me 30 days. ...only because the free trial only lasts 30 days.

Looking back on all the classes I took, and all the information I've crammed during finals week, all the papers I've written... I highly doubt I actually have retained most of this information. Which is quite a shame because some of the things I learn are pretty, dare I say, interesting! For instance, I'm taking a communication class: Architecture as Communication. and even though my main reason for signing up for the class was because it reminded me of Ted Mosby (How I Met Your Mother), it's interesting to learn how all these buildings, roads, cities and other human-constructed bits of infrastructure communicate and represent certain motives. Anyway, other than the take home final, we have only one "assignment" in the class. A research-based term paper on any piece of architecture (pretty much anything) explaining how it was made, from what it was made from, why it was made, the influences of its existence, and various other tidbits.

I haven't done my research yet, but I remember a couple of years ago, there was drama about the concert hall because when the sun shined on the building, it would then reflect into the windows of surrounding buildings. Not only did the sunbeams make it way too bright for the unhappy residents, but the slightest sunlight would turn their homes/offices into an oven. The Gehry Partners solved the problem by dulling the shiny stainless steel exterior. There's a cool picture that I'm not going to upload because its like 100002359028350293k big, but in contrast to all the rigid, structured buildings, the Walt Disney Concert Hall looks free and.. pencil shavings-like. Plus, across the street, there's a Starbucks or something that I had gone to, it's the place where I had my first cup of coffee. It was deeeeee.. wait for it.. wait for it.. sssgusting! Disgusting! But maybe now I should return with my new coffee palette. I'm joking.

My favorite nearly annual field trips in high school (for band), was when we'd go over to watch the LA Philharmonic play. (:

Here is the House of World Cultures in Berlin (or Haus der Kulturen der Welt). I haven't looked much into it so.. check it: http://www.hkw.de/en/index.php

I will update my research here and another research I'm doing on poverty and inequality in one of my other classes. (: What better way to spend your bandwidth than reading about my homework assignments? Plus, maybe this will help me actually digest material?

huzzah!

actually written on a different day.

My favorite weather.

Uneven blotches of dead, flat looking clouds that float around a cloudy gray sky. This gloomy weather makes appropriate the double take you do on your umbrella before heading out the door. Scarves do little to protect you from the icy breeze because the wind finds its way through the sleeves of your coat anyway. The best remedy would be a toasty little somethin' somethin' to warm you from the inside. The spiciness that complements the sweetness of a chai tea latte, subtly topped with cinnamon powder, makes for a perfect drink on this uncomfortable day.

But you're too poor to buy a $4.00 drink so you settle for a stick of gum instead.



No longer do I find Gloomsville my favorite weather. I figure, what weather is more complicated? From my twenty years of existence and very limited knowledge, I have come to the conclusion that this "transition period" is when people get most sick. This has nothing to do with why this is my favorite weather.

No matter how expensive or inexpensive your mattress is, the moment right before waking up, your bed feels like one giant snuggie worn by a man made of fluffy pillows (or woman, if you'd rather) wrapping his (or her) arms around you. You don't ever want to let go. But like Rose from Titanic, enough is enough and you gotta let go eventually. You've got places to go and people to see!
Anyway, peeking from the window is the morning greet from the famous sun. The skies are a radiant blue and every building, plant, fence and whatever else is out your window looks like an over exposed photograph. And if you're like me, you'll stare carefully out the window for a good second or two to see if the leaves on the trees are moving. This is crucial information in determining whether or not a jacket will be needed that day.

But doesn't really matter, because during the day of my favorite weather, any form of attire is appropriate. This is what I call, a Cardigan Weather. (You're fine with a cardigan or you're fine without a cardigan. The weather is just that great!)

You get the benefits of a sunny sky along with the constant friendly slaps of a chilly breeze.

ANYTHING GOES!

If you want to come back home to take a nap, as I will do very soon, you can because it's cold enough to snuggle back into your giant fluffy snuggie bed. But if you have errands to run, this cardigan weather provides for you a giant sun to get you in that uppity mood to run errands. It is a common belief that gloomy weather chains you to your bed and indian summers will melt your brains out of your ears. But this cardigan weather takes the best out of each and combines it into a neatly packaged October 23rd. What a great mood I am in =)

And if you're like me, you will have found a $20 bill in your notebook and have enough money to buy yourself a nice toasty Chai tea latte, along with, heck, maybe even three other people. And a pack of gum to boot!

Misconception: as much as I whined about hating small talk in my previous post, it's not THAT bad. Lots of people afterwards that I talked to were like, "Oh yeahhh, you hate small talk. blahblah" A wittle small talk is good, but I'm just sayingggggg, I sometimes prefer sitting quietly alone than have conversations that lead nowhere.

BUT ITS NOT THAT BAD. Apparently I have no way to win this because I dug a hole for myself. This does not mean that I hate when people approach me to talk to me. I hate approaching people when I have nothing to talk about and all we end up doing is having some sort of an empty conversation.

Yeah, I think I phrased that a little better. =)


So I spent a good hour at starbucks trying to figure out how to get my internet to work, and what do I do when I am granted the gift of having the world at my fingertips (literally, with a click from my trackpad)-- I end up on this website trying to convince people that I actually do enjoy getting to know people, and a....alskjdfa. I'm going to stop.



Other than being sick, but not really sick-- having a constant tickle in my throat, I am doing swell. Studying functions as a sleeping pill for me. As soon as I study, I fall asleep.

it's 2:13

When my internet doesn't work, I start to think of all the productive things that I could be doing on the world wide web. Flash forward a couple of minutes when my airport snags the internet wavelengths from the air: I'm on stupid blogger writing a blog entry about how I am not making use of my now-working internet.

College made me realize that I have one pet peeve that I cannot get rid of. The art of small talk. Some people have mastered it, whereas I feel as though I have gotten worse in my attempts than before. When it comes to small talk, I can't help but be... NOT-GENUINE. There is a certain type of small talk that I have come to dislike. It's the i-really-don't-care-but-here-goes kind of conversation. College forces you to have these conversations multiple times a day. The kind of conversation where all you find out about the person is their name, major and year-- and what's the point, because you forget anyways. I've always been a pretty darn sincere person, but man have I reached my limits these past few years. But it's definitely something I've been working on. It's a little hard though, since I tend to just shut down when I realize that the conversation is set to die out in a few more seconds-- I start looking around (almost frantically) in all sorts of directions before I eventually pull out my, "Hey, hold on; I'll be right back"-line.

I hardly ever do return. =)

Then I go and mingle with someone else I don't have to make such meaningless conversation with.

Even at work, I would make conversation with a customer, and eventually I get worn out of trying to act like I really DO care about what they're doing that particular day. (They're at the mall. I think I can guess what most customers are doing) I DO care about my customers, but after about 300 customers, it gets hard to care.

This makes me sound like a total social grinch.

I'm not. I, like many others, find small talk to be painful, and am starting to grow an ever-increasing dislike for this form of interaction. I am aware that it is necessary and inevitable, of course! But man oh man.

Mind you, every now and then I'll meet a particular interesting feller, and I'll crack a joke and they'll crack an even better joke and later, sall gravy.

Awkward moments make for a fun story for you to tell your friends, so it's fun.

On to something more interesting:

...

...

...

...you didn't actually believe me did you?

goodnight!