Daddy.

hmm. I never attempted to write about my dad when I'm not angry. So let me try this today. I think my dad is a sane person overall but that's where it ends. It's really hard for me to live with someone like my dad and I don't know how my mom endure through this. But anyways my dad is a guy with no logic and reason and yet thinks he has it. He is stubborn and thinks he's always right. He never apologizes--NEVER. He treats people with different standards and he constantly contradict himself. But if you point that out, and you here means I, then you could be accused of being disrespectful, naive, stupid, etc. He's always right. ALWAYS RIGHT. No matter how right your argument is, he's ALWAYS right. And he constantly calls other people stupid for stupid things. Some one drives to slow, some one does something too slow, some one does NOT do something his way. Everybody's idiot except him. and oh yeah, this is one of those typical conversations, which u can see how he makes no sense whatsoever:

Mom: "hey, you know Mrs. A's daughter is applying to Harvard?"
Dad: "Oh, you mean Jenny? Are you serious? I don't think so. Remember she was so clumsy and dumb last time at our party."
Mom: "are you sure we're talking about the same person? that girl's in the math olympiad and got a 2400 for SAT. She has a really good chance at harvard."
Dad: "Oh, OF COURSE SHE'S GONNA GET INTO HARVARD. It was so obvious. You should have known it long time ago" blah blah blah blah.

there's no way that my dad can be wrong. absolutely no way.

argh.

My mom has this "habit"--She silently does what you're supposed to do, such as washing dishes or carrying laundry upstairs--and then after everything's done, she complains about how lazy you are and how inconsiderate you are to her. And then she self-pities, thinking how self-less, how hardworking, how great she is.

Give me a break?

So today it's my turn to wash dishes. I just finished lunch and I swear to god I planned to wash the dishes. but I decided to drink water first because that's what I always do, drink juice/water after dinner because the rice feels disgusting in my mouth. and I was watching TV while I was drinking water. So what happens is that all of a sudden my mom comes in with a whole tray of tea wares, and just started washing dishes. I mean, wth are you doing? If you want to wash those tea cups right now just tell me. I'll stop drinking water and start washing right away. but anyways I didn't do anything and continued to drink water while she's washing. I mean if you want to wash then wash. Just please don't think that you're doing me a favor or I'm being incredibly lazy.

But I KNEW THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT SHE'S THINKING. (also becuz during that time my brother comes in and asks why she's washing dishes and she said "nobody's washing them so I have to") So I confronted her after she finished washing. I told her "if it's my turn to wash the dishes then LET ME WASH IT. Don't do other people's job silently and then come back and complain that people aren't treating you so nicely. Just like how you always carry the laundry upstairs without asking anyone and then in the end start accusing people of being lazy and inconsiderate" but then she started saying oh "you're waiting too long you have to wash the dishes immediately after lunch and I can't stand people not washing dishes immediately" So I was like WTF, "it's my dishes, I just want to finish my water and then wash the dishes. If you have something urgent to do then just tell me and i'll start washing immediately" and then my mom goes "I'm sick and tired of chasing after you everytime and don't tell me you have to drink water or whatever, WASH THE DISHES IMMEDIATELY, I couldn't handle the fact you're not doing what I TRAINED you to do so I washed it myself. I didn't even say anything, and instead YOU are having problem with ME?"

so I got really mad and said "if you're so OCD about washing dishes immediately then that's your personal problem, don't vent your anger on me. It's your problem that you couldn't stand not washing dishes immediately (despite the fact that I often see dishes unwashed when it's their turn)."

and my mom says, "shut up."

and I shut up.

Today is all about rage.

Ok so I was playing basketball (and volleyball) with my brother in Westview Street Park. All of a sudden this little kid came and took our ball and started playing with it. I know my brother wouldn't do anything to ask that ball back, so I went up, and said "can you please give me my ball back?" and he handed the ball out, but threw it over me and my brother caught it, after which he gave me a really mischievous look, and chanted "loser loser." I thought he was my brother's friend so I did not lose my temper.

But five minutes later, suddenly I got hit by something from my back, and it was pretty hard. I turned around and I realized that it was the same boy. I'm not even gonna go there--I'm not even gonna discuss if it's intentional or accidental. So I went up, and said, again, "can you please give me my ball back?" He ran away and I asked him "are you my brother's friend?" and he shamelessly said "no I'm not, I don't even know him." and I don't remember exactly what he did, but he either kept running away or tried to hit me with my ball. anyways it was at that point when I yelled "IF YOU DO THAT AGAIN!" and then snatched the ball from him and picked up my jacket that somehow was on the floor instead of the bench, and muttered, PISS ME OFF, and went away.

Thirty seconds later this kid's babysitter or mom confronted me, apparently the kid's was complaining, and said "did he bother you? did he hit you?" I didn't respond, and then she said "did you say he has problems?" I said "I don't remember but probably not?" and she said "you know he's only first grade...he's embarrassed now." SO HERE, out of PURE POLITENESS, I said "It's ok it was just an accidental. I shouldn't yell at a first grader..." cutting me off, the women said "yeah you shouldn't, but i'll ask him to apologize." and yeah he did come and apologize after a brief rebellion but

WOW.

OF COURSE I SHOULD HAVE YELLED. Stupid kids doing stupid things DESERVE some yelling. If you don't yell at them today, they are gonna grow up doing the same stupid things. and the fact that he is acting like a freakin' brainless asshole is caused by insufficient yelling!! I was especially fed up with these type of stupid american kids after suffering today's stupid presentation which I will talk about later.

So anyways, after that incident the women was like "kids, now DON'T PASS THIS LINE, PLAY HERE" meaning don't play in the half that I was playing in. Seriously, I bet she thinks that I have anger management problems but DAMN IT WHO CARES. If she or the kid's mom doesn't take proper care of that kid, it's THAT KID who's gonna have lots of problems in the future. RUDE, STUPID FIRST GRADERS DESERVE TO BE YELLED. Americans generally lack manners. Sad.


Ok, so today's presentation. It was about DUI. damn it was painful. not becuz of the gory scenes (though not so gory to me but anyways), but becuz of its pure stupidity. The main idea is basically "wear your seat belt, don't drive under influence, make smart decisions." So I was like WTF? Isn't this common sense? Do you seriously have to be smart to realize that you have to wear your seat belt and not to drive while ur drunk? Is this presentation's audience idiots or something? And later the guest speaker, who said in a very scripted way that "I used to drink everyday, just like all of you," proved me right. And one of the worst parts is the ending of the stimulated w/e movie, when the girl who died becuz she made the "wrong decision" (to go with a drunk driver" started yelling and crying and was like "I SHOULDN'T DIE...I'M YOUNG...GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE."

Seriously? Seriously? SHUT THE FXCK UP, seriously. There is no second chances to live. and If you suffered becuz you made a stupid decision then swallow it and LIVE WITH IT...or DIE WITH IT in her case. GOD i hate when morons first suffer becuz they are morons and then come back and bother other people by complaining about the tragic consequences of their moronic actions. The funny thing is, at one point after showing how the teenagers were partying like crazy, the nurse said "I'm sure you all can picture yourselves in that party scene right?" I yelled "hmmm...NO, NOT REALLY." but apparently no one heard me, and the nurse continued "but I'm sure you CAN'T picture yourself in my scene, in the ER." and quite ironically, "hmm ACTUALLY, I CAN."

China, SAT, and Spanish.

I haven't blogged for awhile and the screen is making me blind so I'm not gonna be typing for long.

So today, what utterly amazed me was the one and only thing--chinese people.

I found this SAT and GRE prep website where ppl are sharing real exams, real essay prompts, and PDFs of prep books probably bought by other people. I mean, the first two are obviously illegal, what I don't really care. What can you do, we are chinese. we share, and we do illegal stuffs--animes, tv shows, songs, movies, w/e. Whatever is there to share we share.

There's something more though. I never knew that there are SAT test centers in hong kong, macao, taiwan, but not ONE in mainland china. The people who want to take SATs and stuff HAVE to travel to hong kong, maocao, or singapore (mainland chinese and taiwanese didn't really do direct traveling until recently, ppl have to go through hong kong). and apparently there's a scarcity of seats available in hong kong. and i read in a thread that it's recommended to take a month or two off from school before the test. WOW. that's a lot of sacrifice and one has to be pretty damned determined to take SAT and come to america. I would assume that for these chinese high school students taking SAT is a once-a-time thing. I don't think they get too many chances since not that many ppl can afford multiple trips to hong kong macao or singapore, plus the test fees (i read it's 4000 yuans, about 500 dollars, not sure how true but wow), plus the money you need to actually attend college there. It's just crazy.

Reading these stuffs make me appreciate my being here even more. Thanks mom, I luv youu.


OK, now moving onto spanish.

So as I was saying before, I'm trying to get in 10 min of spanish listeninig everyday. I've been watching spanish game shows, soaps, news and stuff. So this morning spanish version of sesame street was on TV and DAMN, it's pretty gooooood. And what happened was that, from plaza sesamo, I realized that spanish sound REALLY GOOD when it's sung. I really like those songs about "lavar tus dientes" or "es importante desayunar" that they sing on plaza sesamo, so i went on to google and youtube to find some good latin music. and i found this guy called louis fonsi--nice voice and good-looking. <3

Equality is a naive man's fantasy, a demagogue's propaganda, and a hypocrite's catch-phrase

I HATE ROMANO.
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“A society that puts equality…ahead of freedom,” Milton Friedman once said, “will end up with neither.” In our frenetic pursue of equality, are we losing our sense of its meaning?

Our interim principal has a vision--a noble vision of equality. The first step in achieving this equality seems to be the elimination of the Pre-Calculus BC Honors class because of its inadequate size. How is class size pertinent to equality? Well, it seems that a 30-person regular class and a 15-person AP class is a sign of inequality. Following this logic, varsity volleyball team and honors choir should certainly be eliminated since freshmen volleyball team is double the varsity’s size and honors chorus almost one eighth the size of the general choir. Nonetheless, it is obvious that the elimination of varsity sports teams and honors music classes is not part the Equality Activists' agenda.

How can the elimination of a higher level class because of its size be justified then? Just like the varsity volleyball team and honors chorus, AP and honor classes are selective in nature. It shouldn’t be surprising that there are fewer students in more competitive classes and special education courses. There will never be a honors wind ensemble that is larger than the general band. You will never see a varsity and freshmen team of the same size, because then the varsity team would only impose even stricter standards.

Equality cannot be simply equated with having same number of students in all classes. Equality is about serving everyone’s needs regardless of his or her race, sex, and such. Are the students in the special education program receiving the same attention as those in the regular and AP classes? Are the “young scientists” given as much opportunity as the “young businessmen”?

The Equality Activists proposed another plan coded “Leveling the Playing Field." The school is considering eliminating requirements and standards such as PSAT sores and marking period grades for students who wish to enlist in AP classes. Well, it’s true that people’s invaluable intellectual curiosity should not be smothered just because of one bad day or one bad year, but, again, following the same logic, I, who can’t even run ten meters without panting, should be allowed to join the varsity football team--my most fervent passion.

Well, the answer is obviously no. Even though “equality for all” resonates deeply with our egalitarian heart and democratic soul, we can’t just throw away standards once and for all. Standards are not elitists’ schemes to legitimize their dirty goals. Standards exist because this world is naturally selective. Colleges are selective. Jobs are selective. Heart transplants are selective. A dreamer who craves for utopian equality may well choose to live in a totalitarian government where jobs are assigned, competitions nonexistent, and lives plain and perfect.