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.