block parties...

... a thing of novels, a thing of the past. Funny how I've seen at least two in Berkeley in the past two weeks. What a concept: a gathering of people for no real reason excep that they live near each other.

We spend a lot of time in my ISF 100D class talking about the internet and how it has changed / is changing society. There is a plethora of chat rooms or groups that one can join based on similar interests (even if that is just an interest in hooking up). Many sociologists worry about the loss of real day-to-day interaction. While that may be partially true, it is heartening to see block parties happening in the pleasant summer evenings.

Maybe the world is changing, but the old world isn't gone yet.

from yogurt to paint

Well, it didn't ACTUALLY start with yogurt. It all started when I was practicing Cradle music in CRH and she called and asked "What are you doing RIGHT NOW?"

From CRH to my apartment, from making prop/sound lists to chatting, from cooking real food to eating yummy edibles, from Yogurt Park to CRH, from taking out the flats to cleaning paint supplies, from arguing on the bridge to calling out a last reminder to "be safe."

That's a productive day. She saved us a lot of money by finding paint that's still usable, I saved a couple of paint brushes from total disaster. It took an extreme amount of self-control to not clean up the whole place, but then we would have been there all night. Literally.

So for now, four flats lie on the floor, paint supplies dry on the steps, and piles of messes wait to be organized.

I guess that's what we're doing tomorrow. I love how the first Friday I'm in Berkeley is so eventful. Who says there' s nothing to do in Berkeley?

I get good yogurt, and I get my fix of OCD/general craziness. And I have an awesome friend/coworker/partner-in-crime/fellow conspirator to share it with.

Life is good.

those were the days...

that we didn't get to live.

Driving to Old Navy today, my sister, my mom, and I passed by these kids with a sign: Lemonade 25 cents. This is the stuff we read about in the chapter books of elementary school, that we imagined other people's lives to be. Growing up in Cupertino and Saratoga, I have never seen a lemonade sale. Ever.

I begged my sister to stop, so we parked across the street and walked back to where the kids (four of them) and their parents sat. We asked for three cups of lemonade and proceeded back to the car, sipping our lemonade.

Why don't kids do that more here? Is it because nobody walks? Or is everybody too filthy rich to ever engage in such "childish" endeavors? Do parents simply not have a Sunday morning to spend supervising their children's lemonade stand? Or are we so used to buying the lemonade in bottles that making lemonade seems of another generation?

It's not so much that that was necessarily the best cup of lemonade I've ever had, it's the principle of it. The fact that these kids were out there with their moms selling lemonade with a homemade stand made that lemonade delicious.

I went back after lunch with friends to look for them, but they had already closed shop. I hope they practiced their addition well and felt productive. I hope lots of people stopped by: not so the kids could have made more money, but so they could feel important in the passerby's life.

commercializing dorks

after watching the merchants of cool.

Goodness. So you market the dorks, you market the cool kids; win-win situation for you, lose-lose situation for the kids and their parents.

there are priorities

... and then there are priorities.

So the death toll is at 54 (in regards to the London bombings), and what is the US worried about? The ONE American confirmed killed in London. So where do the other 53 people come from? I highly doubt they are all English, but why doesn't CNN or other major newspapers care which country they call home? I'm glad we care about our own, but to make it a newspaper headline? The first one under US News? It seems a little bit ridiculous. All people are supposed to be created equal, but an American gets his own article? And what happened to headlines being real news? This article was four paragraphs long. I didn't even have to scroll! I can understand succinct journalism, but four paragraphs doesn't seem to justfy being a head-liner. Is his death more tragic because of where he lived? I am sorry, though, for what has happened. Sorry for the men and women who died innocently in the bombings, sorry for their family who will have to live without a loved one, sorry for the attackers, who obviously believed violence could help matters, sorry for their families, who have also lost a loved one.

Choose your words carefully: why WHATEVER can land you a bruised cheek.

Guess my mom was right. (I didn't get into physical fights over it, although I did get into many an argument.)

more money

"Charities love volunteers, but money would be much much better."

Well, yeah. Like you said, money gives them much more flexibility. Which is also easier to abuse. Now, I'm not necessarily saying that the only reason I dislike donating money is because of those minority of cases that we hear in the news about fraud. But I think that I'd like to know how the money is being used, and it gets hard to track with multiple monetary donations. If I donate ten cans of canned goods to a shelter, I know FOR SURE that I helped feed people. But if I give them the equivalent in money (I'm guessing $5-10), I have no clue what they will use it for.

I guess that in itself is a very selfish motive for not donating money. Sometimes, it doesn't seem enough to know that you "made a difference", but you want to know HOW you made a difference. And not only that, I'd like to have the choice in where my money goes.

But don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing everybody who doesn't donate money. There are so many charities out there that I'm always at a loss which one to donate to. My apologies to those who have asked (directly or indirectly) for donations. I'm a dork, and I looked on the website, and consequently never finished filling it out. So if you'll still take donations, please do let me know.

I guess what I was trying to say last time is: 1) I don't understand how some people (myself included) can be so wasteful as far as money is concerned, and 2) I wish I gave more. Regarding the latter, I mean money and/or time. In this day and age, I really don't have an excuse. I look online and see dozens upon dozens of meaningful ways I can be of help. I can do something I LOVE to do, and it still counts as volunteering! And what do I do? I complain about how hard my reading is, or how tired I am.

I hate being tired because I have no good excuse for being so.

However, in all the time that I "waste" online, I have found several things I can volunteer with: San Francisco Theater Festival, among other (theater-y) organizations.

With money vs. volunteering, I noticed I am much more inclined to donate money if I already volunteer with them. Or "donations" in exchange for promotional material. For example, I've always wanted a Saratoga Library bag. It's a donation, I don't really know what they're going to do witth my ten dol lars, but I get a bag, how cool is that? So I'm still very selfish. I'd like to "get something in return", whether it be a bag, a used book, or a tax deduction (okay, not yet, but soon... ). Is that so bad, though? It's less than they would have gotten if I just donated all of the money, but it's more than if the y didn't bribe me.

But let's just say I wish to purchase a book. I can: buy a new book (for a ridiculous amount of money), buy it used online or at a store, or buy it used from the friends of the library. In terms of who will make the best use of my money, the library obviously wins. So maybe instead of saying I spend too much money and I should spend less, the emphasis should be on choosing where one spends their money. Many organizations have second hand shops where donations (of items) are sold to fundraise for their cause (Discovery Store, Goodwill, Butter Paddle, etc.) I would pay less (usually much less) than market value, and the money goes to a good cause.

Maybe I'm overjustifying my frugal-ness, but I do believe changes in shopping habits can be for the better. I get to shop and spend my (hard-earned) money, and I get to donate to great organizations. Now, I just have to find where they all are. ^.^

note: next one won't be about money. I promise.

I Dislike

... waking up late.

It makes me sleepy and tired and irritable for the majority of the day. It also usually results in a nap, which is another activity I hate to indulge in. I probably will end up having trouble sleeping again.

But in compsarison (to a lot of people), life is not bad at all. I go to classes, play piano, work and get paid, and eat my health nut foods. I've been keeping a food journal, and I noticed I either eat a lot or notthing at all. I 'm going to be one of those people who die because I need to finish a plate if there's just a little (i.e., not worth saving for tomorrow) left. On the other hand, I eat a lot of vegetables, yogurt, and fruit. The 4 cups of yogurt I mistakenly bought is being eaten, slowly, but surely.

I accidentallyspilled water. ON MY DESK. Which was a really bad idea. It got on my printer, keyboard, mouse , etc. So far, everything is working okay (::knock on wood::).

Gradually, I find fewer reasons to go home. At the beginning of college, a lot of friends still lived at home, so I wanted to see them before they headed out to college. During major holidays, it's nice to catch up with all of the high school friends. Now that's it's summer and we have three months to visit, it seems like a lot of people fall under tha category of "I want to see them at least once during the summer," because it's not high school anymore, where you can just call everyday or at least every week and say "let's hang out somewhere." After the freedom of college, "hanging out" isn't really an option anymore. People want to go places, usually far away, or do things. usually costing money. This may be because I'm cheap, or maybe I just believe that friendship shouldn't cost anything. I mean there's nothing wrong with spending money to hang out with your friends, but if you think about how much money you spend just to hang out with your friends, it's kind of shocking.

My mom started doing Tzu-Chi a couple of years ago, and coupled with my dad's founding of a company, we became even more frugal than we used to be. Which is a good thing, it's just that I have to remember that not everybody operates this way. My mom used to "charge" us for not doing chores, leaving excessive stuff for her to clean up, etc., and then she used that money and donated it to Tzu-Chi. I'm not particularly a huge fan of them, but I do believe they do good things for the world. My mom could have kept the moeny; I'm sure she could've made a fortune out of my laziness, but she didn't. Since it was money that she didn't "need" and wasn't anticipating on getting, she donated it to a good cause.

But how often do we have activities, or know of causes, that could really use some money? Do you REALLY need to see thaat movie in the theaters? If the point is to hang out with your friends, why not "social read" (the new "thing" to do, in my opinion) in the park? $10 vs. $0. I suppose when you're making money and you don't "need" the money, it may not seem like a big deal. But seeing multiple movies in theaters get expensive! But then again, I am biased; I don't think $5-15 dollars is a lot to see a play/musical at all. And it's definitely different when it's a student production. They need the money much more than AMC does. I mean, I'm sure some people are learning very valuable skills whenworking at AMC, but a student production may not have the proper lights for their stage.

But does that student production REALLY need thosoe lights? I would argue that it's valuable skill worth knowing especially if one ever plans to work professionally with lights. However, there ARE those starving children in ______ (insert any third world, or even industrial, country here).

I guess I have my "point" but I also just have "opinions". My personal choice is not to "waste" money as much as possible, but sometimes that's shot because I like to hang out with my friends. And it's not like I'm on this tall moral pedastal where I never spend money excessively for relatively inexpensive things, nor do I donate thousands of dollars to the world's greatest charities. I knit, and the yarn and knitting needles cost money. I buy books, albeit used, and <$5 each, but that costs money as well. I eat food. I guess that's more justifiable. But I purchase more money's worth than I really need to survive. Am I spoiling myself?

With all the mone I spend unnecessarily, I'm sure I could save a small country, or at least a couple of kids. But I like to know what my money's going toward, and just the organization's name isn't good enough. I never mind supporting arts, theater, music groups. Maybe my next goal will be to find events that donate their money to charity.

I hope I'm not coming off as preachy, it's just that my view of the value of money has gradually changed, and I wanted to work out some of my opinions regarding it.

On a somewhat related note, in my Introduction to Technology, Society, and Culture class, we talked about how the University of California actually has been commercializing as of late, and whether that is for better or for worse. My opinion (which I obviously was too scared to say during class) is that it depends on what you use the money for. If it just goes toward the raising of salaries of the Regents, or the CFO, or its equivalent in the system, while they raise student's tuitions, then no, it's not really a good thing. But if the money is used to keep the cost of education down, and allows more people to attend a four year university, then it may not be such a bad thing.

And consider this. If every school used its surplus money (instead of upgrading everything every year) to help fund ONE school in either a third world country or an impoverished neighborhood in an industrialized one, how many more schools, hence, how many more children, will be educated!

But that's enough of that for right now. I am looking forward to having visitors this weekend! Now, how do I shamelessly ask for a favor?

Last note (on going home): it is good to see the family though. Although since I've gone college, my dad seems happier, my sister's more independent, and my mother cuter. That's not necessarily a cause-and-effect, but at the very least, an interesting, coincidence, no?

Take care, all.

Summer School

... has officially concluded its beginning.

By that, I mean that my second class has started, and summer is now in full-time mode. Previous to this last weekend, I went through two books a day for three days, then one book a day for the next three. Unfortunately, I am still reading the same book I left the house reading (meaning it's been almost three days). It's quite sad that every time I become busy, the pleasure reading gets pushed aside first. Whereas last week, I read to my heart's content, went to class, and played two hours of piano a day, I know seem to have much less time. In between reading "The Great Transformation" by Karl Polanyi, the plays for my theater class (currently on "Cloud 9", where some of the roles are cross-gender cast, and then they SWITCH in between scenes/acts), and writing papers for the first time since, oh, right, never, I seem to have misplaced all the free time I thought I would have. All the little projects I desired to undertake may never take form in reality. At least I got to read this summer.

In other news, I had a rather eventful weekend:

• "social reading" at Cafe Ophelia范苑西餐 (where the waitress laughed at our terrible Chinese)
• farmers market, as usual (my ENTIRE FAMILY went. that's an event in itself. we bought many many bags and boxes of fruits. yum!)
• paddleboating at Vasona park (they tried to pass me off as a twelve year old. luckily, they didn't ask for ID. if you have a raft that you would like to lend us, please do. we would like to go back and lounge on the lake and have a picnic.)
• dinner at my house (chicken fajitas and cesar salad wraps, yum. then cheesecake and ice cream and fondue. it was a very food-filled evening. the company was fun too.)
• vallco with the sister (they're building an AMC theaters downstairs, and a huge, they say, food court. just so you know)
• chilling at tap-x (saw the people i love to see most. saw somebody i haven't seen in awhile, and somebody who didn't think would show. good times.)
  
• hiking at montebello preserve (i can't believe i got up that early for that. i think they said it was six-seven miles. 'twas fun, even though i have not been hiking in awhile. parked illegally, what else is new. although i'm not sure where you're supposed to park, as the real parking lot was closed off, and seems to be closed most of the time.)
• lunch at 歡喜樓 (food was good. thank you thank you for lunch. and gracias to all the siblings who didn't really have a choice in the company we kept.)
• partying it up at a family friend's house (where i watched my sister swim/play in the pool with a five and seven year old, i read some franklin book to the five year old)
• rummy at my house (with some people i haven't seen, and some other people that i just saw that morning, and not for the last time that day)
• social reading at wildwood (which wasn't really social reading as i had to leave soonafter getting there. but we did sit in the grass at wildwood, and that was entertaining)
• dinner at family friend's house (where i, again, ate too much food. but the korean pork w/ mushrooms was incredibly delicious. we also had green tea cake. which was interesting. it didn't really taste like green tea that much, but it wasn't bad.)
• firework watching at fremont older (amazing when people can go places on no notice. "hey, do you want to go firework-watching?" "when" "um. now?" good stuff. well, kind of. the parking lot was full, so we had to walk up to the parking lot. then up some more to hunter's peak. i was afraid of losing my sister up there because of the slow pace she decided to stroll at. but eventually, we did reach hunter's peak. and my apologies that the fireworks weren't that big. but we got to see between ten and twenty firework shows. it was also doubly cool because my family stopped watching fireworks years ago.)

Don't let me say that I do nothing at home. I'm glad I got to see a lot of people. I'm glad I got to see some people a lot. ^.^

In Berkeley, news, my BareStage people are back! So we can now talk more shop, repaint the floor, and plan like crazy for next season.

I admit. My memory fails me more often than I like. I have to figure out what I did by looking at where I spent money. So if you want me to remember hanging out withyou, make sure I write it down. Even for a $0 transaction.

A Day at the Park

... some time in the past.

Remember the "good ole days", but always strive to create even more fabulous days.
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SHOES! (aug-04-'04)

so I can have a pic on my profile