The Donkey Story

The Donkey Story

One day, a farmer's donkey fell down into a dry well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly.

Then to everyone's surprise, he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.

Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

-Free your heart from hatred - forgive.
-Free your mind from worries - most never happen.
-Live simply and appreciate what you have.
-Give more, expect less

Now...

Enough of that crap. The donkey later came back and bit the farmer who had tried to bury him. The gash from the bite got infected and the farmer eventually died in agony from septic shock.

The real moral from today's lesson:

-When you do something wrong and try to cover your ass, it always comes back to bite you.

• An e-mail from my mother

Birthday Weekend

Time for a little update. Just took my plant bio test which wasn't bad at all, really. There was just this one essay that I had a really hard time on, but for the most part it was good. Last week was my birthday, as I'm sure Jeff has already made it known, so thanks again for that Hwangsta (or as I used to say back in Newfield, HWANG-GANG!). And thanks to everyone else for all the birthday wishes, appreciate it. So I've got a few complaints from people telling me that I should start posting my birthday on facebook but I'm not sure if I want to do that or not. I'll think about it.

Anyways, back to my birthday shenanigans (Ashley don't give me that face). So Myra threw me this huge surprise party. I mean I knew she was doing something but she wasn't too good at being inconspicuous about certain matters. So I was able to figure some things out. For example, she tells me to go play basketball the night before my birthday so that she can have the room to herself and study :-P But I mean I went along with it even though I was kind of expecting. What I wasn't expecting: Myra invites around 25 people to hide in my hall (not my room, as I had expected) to jump out at me while I'm walking down the hall to my room from basketball. Her and her friends made two cakes, decorated my room, my door, my dresser drawers, my desk, etc. So it was a very good surprise, I enjoyed it a lot. Myra got me this toy that you can play games on and the losers get zapped with a small electric shock. And she got me a bunch of nice polos and a button-down. Ashley got me polos too and a 4X4X4 Rubik's cube. And Arjun got some goooooooooood stuff. If anyone is curious, IM me or something. So I got caked with one of the cakes while the other one was eaten (thank god).

Friday night a bunch of us all just chilled in my room, met Ashley's family, and chilled some more. All day Saturday I hung out with Myra :-) and then we went out together with everyone else, so that was fun. Sunday I wasted time not studying for plant biology until late last night. I slept a little woke up late after skipping three classes and then I took my exam. I just got back from my meeting for Oxford over the summer.

They gave us some more information about Oxford. I cannot begin to explain how excited I am about going abroad over the summer. There seriously seems like a million and one things to do there. The best part is that we get so many days off to do our own things. Hopefully I don't get too distracted and still manage to do my work. We have all these brochures telling about the different things to do there. Some of them include punting down the river, watching live Shakespeare plays, museums, beer tours (?), wine tasting, and a bunch of other stuff. So yeah that's how I've been lately. Until next time I decided to write on this blog who nobody probably reads (lol), later.

Epic Journey

March 27 - 30, 2009:

My friend Nick and I took a drive down back home for the weekend for an upcoming fencing tournament. All in all, it was supposed to be a completely normal weekend, i.e. hanging out with the family for a day or so and then fencing Sunday, March 29th.

And yes, it was normal, at least for Friday night when we got back and pretty much all of Saturday. But allow me to enlighten you on a story, which I will share in third-person. Yes, based on a true story. Warning: Nick uses profanity a lot.

*****

Jeff and Nick had planned on attending the Long Island Division II/III National Qualifiers some time beforehand, thus making their long drive back home from Binghamton University. On a cloudy and drizzling afternoon, the tournament began with 45 entrees for the epee tournament, the fencing weapon category that both fellows focus on. After a somewhat disappointing pool series, where Jeff finished 3-2, resulting in seeding 17th/45 and with Nick finishing 6-0, consequently seeding 1st/45, the direct elimination bouts began momentarily.

The seeding chart matched up with great misfortune. 17th seeded Jeff had a bye and then a bout in the second round. 1st seeded Nick had a bye and also a bout in the second round. However, if both fellows claim victory in their second round bouts, they would have to face off in the third round. In order to qualify, obtaining a position in the top 8 would guarantee qualification for Division II Nationals, however, the best that either fellow could finish - given that one of them will be eliminated by the third round - is ninth.

Jeff proceeded to a quick win over his opponent (score 15-8) in his bout and awaited the outcome of Nick's bout. In a ridiculous upset, 32nd seeded Pablo Lopez beat out Nick with a score of 15-11, thus eliminating Nick before the anticipated third round bout. Upset and utterly ticked off, Nick departed the tournament without another word.

So instead of facing Nick, Jeff had to go against this random fencer who he's never heard of that had just beat the top seeded fencer. Jeff had given word to Nick's parents that he will move on in the tournament on Nick's behalf, thus defeated Lopez 15-12.

With the victory, Jeff moved onto the quarter-finals, which he won with ease again (score 15-7), quickly claiming a seat in the semi-finals. It was then he faced off with 6'6" Vernon O'Garra, who, for some unknown reason, Jeff was unable to beat. So there ended the tournament, as Jeff fell 11-15 to the super-tall black man.

The fencing tournament with the final results: Nick placed 17th/45 and Jeff finished 3rd/45, claiming the bronze. Sadly, Nick's results could not qualify him for Nationals, but Jeff has yet to decide whether or not he wants to spend money on a plane ticket to Houston, Texas during the upcoming summer. With the tournament over, Jeff and Nick were bound for a return trip to Binghamton.

Approximately 7:30 P.M., the real journey began. Also picking up another friend, Jeanette, further off the L.I.E., the straight drive to Binghamton began around 8:30 P.M. However, it became one of the most peculiar nights for any of the three people in their lives.

Literally, it was a dark and stormy night. Winds gusted around 20-30 mph, torrents of rain splashed onto the windshields of vehicles all over the highway, lightning struck vertically and horizontally through and across the sky at rapid pace. To add onto that, there seemed to be a permanent fixature of dense fog at all times.

It was a long car ride, and Jeff decided to take a nap. Nick was fairly quiet since the beginning of the trip, no doubt still mulling over the results of the tournament. Upon waking, the storm had finally ceased, but the aftermath was clear:

Nick: "HOLY SHIT, what the fuck?!"
Jeff: "Oh, God."

Scene: an 18-wheeler truck was lying on its side and across the opposite lanes from us, obviously collapsed from the terrible storm just before. At the center of the truck, however, was a car lodged into the machinery, virtually impaled through the center of the truck. An epic scene.

Muttering a stream of exclamations that were not limited to, "holy shit," "what the fuck," "Jesus Christ," and "are you serious?" Nick proceeded to drive at 80 mph without looking back. Give them another half an hour and another scene represented the aftermath of the storm.

Nick: "WHAT?!"
Jeff: "What the...?"

Scene: half of a pick-up truck was off the road and in a tree, literally sitting vertically on a tree. The driver didn't seem to be in the truck, but blaring lights from policemen and ambulances were bright and clear.

The storm may be over, but that did not mean any problems were gone. Shortly after the wild scenes, other random atrocities appeared, such as leftover tires, a pile of fur and meat that resembled opposum roadkill, etc. On top of all the visual hindrances, in a split second from okay, Nick's front left tire exploded without warning.

Nick (nearly word for word): "FUCK! Holy shit?! What the fuck? Oh, my God, oh, my God! FUCK!"
Jeff: "Wait! It's okay! Your tire just blew out!"

Oh, the tragedy. After a quick examination, it was clear that the front tire blew out from scraping or hitting something on the road, although the culprit remained unknown. Luckily there was no panic... relatively, but the problem was that neither guy knew how to properly reinstall a tire. The good news was, they learned how to do so on the spot. And in a time of peril, cops always seemed to be the first to show up. With a little help from a policeman, a somewhat fairlure of a lift jack, and two textbooks, the broken tire was removed and a new one was in place.

They bid farewell to the kind policeman, the stars were out, the clouds were gone, and things were finally going in the right direction... or so they thought. As soon as the policecar departed and Nick and Jeff got back into the car, another problem seemed to be at hand. Driving a few yards forward, an unnatural, disturbing screeching sound seemed to be coming from the newly installed tire. Great. Suggestions from Nick's father led the travelers to a nearby town called Tobyhannah, Pennsylvania. In search of bright light to stop the car at in order for closer examinations, the trip temporarily stopped at a small military base.

You heard correctly. A military base.

As if stopping at a military base to check out a problematic tire would be a threat to homeland security, not too long after Jeff and Nick got out of the car to resume inspections, another policeman/security guard pulled up and got out... with a gun in hand and aimed.

Nick: "W-w-w-we... t-t-tire, n-need to check t-tire..."
Jeff: "I-I... W-we... uh, b-broken... t-t-tire..."

Fortunately, two idiotic college students staring at a car's tire was not all too threatening and the somewhat anal police officer decided to do his own inspection. It turned out that the screeching noise came from broken chunks of plastic that blew out along with the old tire. The pieces of plastic continued to graze against the new tire, thus creating the horrible screeching noise. The policeman's suggestion was to continue driving, since the tire's rubber can eventually wear out the thin plastic.

So back onto the road they go, after witnessing the sights of flipped trucks, tree-bound trucks, roadkill, exploding tires, going through the troubles of replacing a tire, fretting over uncomfortable grating noises, and then having a gun pointed at them, Jeff and Nick continued their journey back to good ol' Binghamton University.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, except with occasional proclamations that the day was titled "My worst day ever," by Nick. Subsequent happenings included some scraped off plastic striking a car behind the travelers, actually stopping the victimized car dead in its tracks.

Nick: "Oops."

Also, they almost ran over a rabbit. Had they ran over a rabbit, the trip could have possibly ended there and crying would ensue. However, the rabbit survived, there was no crying, and by 12:30 A.M. on March 30th, the journey ended with the safety of our travelers back at Binghamton University. They celebrated by ordering a midnight snack at Denny's and proceeded to crash and hopefully not have nightmares of their somewhat out-of-the-ordinary adventure.

*****

This probably doesn't happen everyday. I don't want it to happen everyday. But here's the summary:

• Came home from Binghamton University with Nick
• Had a normal Saturday with family
• Fencing tournament on Sunday
• Qualified for Summer Nationals at Houston, Texas
• Obtained bronze medal for tourney
• Left home for Binghamton University with Nick
• Endured ridiculous thunderstorm
• Witnessed toppled trucks impaled by hapless sedans
• Witnessed pick-up trucks smashed against a tree off road
• Witnessed giant pile of messy roadkill
• Suffered exploded tire
• Endured pains of replacing said tire
• Worried about unidentifiable noises coming from new tire
• Checked out tire at military base
• Got mistaken for terrorists and were nearly at gunpoint
• Checked out safely from military base
• Had chunk of plastic strike car behind
• Almost ran over a bunny rabbit
• Arrived at Binghamton University
• Had snack at Denny's
• Good night

Top 8 LI Div II/III Nat. Qualifiers @ Mission FC

Birthday Shoutout

Happy 1/5 of a century(th?)'s birthday Rehan Thug Virus S.O.S. Bro Alam!

Affirmative Action

Why am I talking about affirmative action? Actually, let me clarify, I'm talking about affirmative action in the United States. Perhaps it's a familiar term, or maybe the concept is a big question mark to you. I decided to be an idiot and choose the processes and ideas of affirmative action as a persuasive essay topic for my rhetoric class. Let me add to that... I have to read this, meaning, it's going to be a speech.

So what is affirmative action? All in all it's a type of policy that serves to benefit minority groups - and women at one point - improve their chances with higher education opportunities, employment, etc. Now has this concept been a positive impact on American culture or not? That is what I decided to explore.

My stance was fairly neutral until I realized that affirmative action, which its purpose to begin with was to eliminate discrimination and racial profiling, has become discrimination in its own way. Here's what I found while I was digging through the web via multiple Google searches:

By far, African Americans benefit the most from the affirmative action system, especially in higher education opportunities. Not far behind is the Hispanic population. And here's another major population in modern day U.S.A.: Asian Americans. Laugh at this if you want, but the Asian minority group in the United States is in the same boat as middle-class Whites. So what am I saying? Straight to the point, affirmative action has been screwing the middle-class Whites and Asians in the United States, giving way to other minority groups first.

And why is this so? We come back to discrimination in affirmative action itself. Think of stereotypes. I will not mention any, but many are obvious if you compare the races. With equal economic backgrounds, an African American scoring a 1500 out of 1600 on the SAT will have a far better chance in attending the most prestigious schools than an Asian American who scored the same. With affirmative action, if the college-bound student was female, chances of obtaining scholarships for such prestigious schools will also be higher.

Let's use the example to emphasize my point. It's an event called the Affirmative Action Bake Sale. Sounds hilarious? Well, the event is hosted by student groups on college campuses throughout the United States, including many UC campuses like Berkeley and UCLA, Columbia University, Cornell, NYU, Northwestern, UNCC, Rutgers, and others. It's pretty much a student protest, criticizing the faults of affirmative action.

An example of such an event will be the student group selling cupcakes. The pricing per cupcake will be as followed:

• $1.00 for White and Asian males
• $0.75 for White and Asian females
• $0.50 for Black, Hispanic, and Native American males
• $0.25 for Black, Hispanic, and Native American females

The point these students try to get across is not the actual racial profiling, but the way that affirmative action systems ultimately categorize the races. Although these demonstrations tend to end up being reported for blatant racism, I would assume such a reaction would be expected by the student protestors. Sadly, I agree that this may be the case for many educational and employment opportunities across the nation. Of course, it may not apply to everyone, but it's certainly not completely inconspicuous.

When Presidents J.F.K. and then Lyndon B. Johnson first fully carried out the policies, the purpose was to back up the African American population... due to their treacherous civil rights journey through history. Was it supposed to be some form of atonement? Sorry the nation mistreated you for nearly two centuries? Sorry freedom and rights never applied to you until the Emancipation Proclamation? Fourteenth and fifteenth amendments? I don't even think Martin Luther King had that sort of change in mind with his "I Have a Dream" speech. It's ridiculous. What about the Chinese Exclusion Act? The Japanese internment camps during World War II?

We got screwed.

The World Baseball Classic 2009

Great moments to a great game. Crucial double-plays, outstanding defensive performances, late game clutch hits, and of course, superb pitching throughout the entire game, all add up to one ridiculously intense WBC final match between Japan and South Korea.

FINAL
Japan 5
South Korea 3
10 innings

I knew it was going to be a low scoring game when I took note of the starting pitchers for both teams. And I expected the game to be tightly knit until the very end. In the contest's entirety, the prediction held true.

It was only 1-1 in the 7th inning, until Japan broke the tie and went ahead 2-1. The Japanese would add another insurance run in the 8th, but South Korea quickly made that run up and headed into the bottom of the ninth inning down 3-2.

Man, I really thought the game was over when Japan's Yu Darvish took the mound. Instead, the game got really interesting when Darvish actually surrendered the lead by allowing South Korea to tie the game 3-3 at the bottom of the ninth. So... extra innings!

Well, the 10th inning quickly opened up with Japan's rally. How cliched that the legendary Ichiro Suzuki would go forth with the game winning hit: a typical 2-run single to center field.

Darvish continued to pitch the bottom of the 10th, effectively bouncing back from his shaky 9th. The game would end with Japan's victory over South Korea, a close and intense game: 5-3, Japan.

This would give Japan consecutive WBC championship titles. Still, the Koreans played incredibly well, factoring in that their professional baseball league is still quite young, starting in 1982. I have high hopes for the South Korean team. I'm sure in the next classic they will be just as successful.

As for this year's WBC... it should've been more like the Asian Baseball Classic 2009.

Coming Up: WBC Finals

Was I right? Or was I right?

FINAL
United States 4
Japan 9

Final game for the World Baseball Classic 2009:

Japan vs. South Korea. 2006 WBC champions vs. 2008 Beijing Olympic champions.

Yeah, I think I am right. Now, to pick out a winner, that might be a problem. I will let fate decide the outcome.

WBC: South Korea vs. Venezuela

Even though it's only the second inning, the pace of the game seemed to be dictated completely by South Korea.

Already firing off 6 hits, including two home runs, and 7 runs across the board in the first two innings, the Korean offense seems to be doing what they do best.

But with 3 errors behind Carlos Silva in just 2 innings, who knows what can happen as the game goes on.

After two complete innings from both teams, the score sits: S.Korea 7 and Venezuela 0. Had the mercy rule been in effect, the game could potentially end soon. Instead, the rule does not apply for semi-final and final games.

Will update this soon.

*****

11:30 P.M.

5 and a third innings :

South Korea 10
Venezeula 1

Venezeula's errors count went from 2 (second inning) to 5 (fifth inning). At this rate they're due for 9 errors!

*****

12:36 A.M.

FINAL
South Korea 10
Venezuela 2

Well, at least the Venezuelans didn't make the 9 errors I thought they'd make... which would have been hilarious as well as interesting. Still, props that they made it to the semi-finals this time, much better than what they did in the 2006 classic.

Now that South Korea has claimed a spot in the finals, the only event left is the United States-Japan matchup coming up Sunday, 8 P.M. EST. Again, congratulations to the South Korean team.

Let's see if my predictions stand correct. Final round: Japan vs. South Korea.

Chill Weekend

So this past week just sucked. I had this organic exam which was not fun seeing how the majority of the class did shitty as fuck (as well as me). So I really want to take it easy this weekend but I don't know if that's going to be happening a whole lot. But so far today (Friday) wasn't too bad. After classes, I went to pray, get tutored in Spanish, napped, and then went to see some hypnotist. After the hypnotist show, Myra and I went to the movie with a couple of friends and watched "I Love You, Man" instead of Duplicity (boo). But it turned out to be a pretty good movie, so it wasn't too bad. And now after a 20 minute walk in the freezing cold and after eating a whole chicken finger sub, I feel like shit. Too much food, ughhh. Help.... I don't how I'm going to sleep feeling all shitty and stuff. Maybe I'll get Myra to watch a movie with me instead of sleeping :-D lol. Or maybe not, seeing how I have to wake up in the morning to do a lab report that's due tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon. Ehh, let's see what happens.

Little Blurbs

Let us celebrate a joyous occasion.

My laptop, my silly Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv9000 Entertainment PC, once left for dead, has returned to my hands in working condition. Allow me to demonstrate my excitement:


Oh yes, it's alive... figuratively. Apparently the problem was with the motherboard battery. I'm no computer wizard, therefore I had no idea what that meant. Still no idea. With everything done towards the end, matters settled themselves. I relied on Andrew's laptop for the time being (he should be very happy now that he can get his ThinkPad back into his room where it belongs), HP engineers figured out the issue and proceeded with repairs, my warranty happened to be renewed at some point last time I sent my laptop in for repairs and tuning. I experienced a relatively happy ending here.

Now I get to pay constant attention to the WBC. The United States vs. Japan, South Korea vs. Venezuela. Who will come out on top? It's anyone's guess and I like surprises. Again, my money's on Japan or South Korea, the two countries have just been doing exceptionally well. As their records stand, Japan's only defeats in this year's competition came against South Korea and interestingly enough, South Korea's only defeats came from none other than Japan.

And closing out... switching topics:

Becky, I hope you're hanging in there 200 miles northwest. I can only imagine the pressure and stress you're under on a daily basis... But hey, I have a ton of faith in you, I know you'll pull through. Surely you tell yourself this all the time, just keep going, believe in yourself. The tough shit that's hitting you dead on will subside once you come out on top at the end. Hang in there, keep it up. Maybe I'm completely clueless as to what you're going through, but whatever it is, from how I know you, it's clear to me that you can handle it.

another FML

so i dont wanna go into detail but everything is really fucked up right now guys!
just letting you know it seriously is FML mode for the past 2 weeks; everything that could've possibly been thrown at me has slapped me straight and hard across the face. -__-

so yeah where the fuck is sule in all this anyways?

life is mad doodoo period.

NCAA Binghamton vs. Duke

Final

Binghamton 62
Duke 86

Oh, really? Surprise, surprise!

Nice-ness

First off, this is not an epiphany of any sort for me. It is insomnia—when I started this—at its best combined with my lacking of sense of time—when I finished this. Also, I wanted to write something meaningful... to balance out my last, fairly pointless post.

Let's ask ourselves a question:

Generosity: Where is the limit?

This goes by many terms. Considerate. Helpful. Reliable. Giving. Compassionate. Chivalrous. Well-meant. Good-willed. Benevolent. Let's not forget nice.

Who is nice and who is too nice? Where is the fine line that nearly all the nice people cross? Where is this limit? Do a good deed here and there, and everyone—the do-gooder and the beneficiary—is satisfied. Do too many good deeds on a constant basis—necessary or unnecessary—and some people take it for granted, take advantage, or even take offense. How do we know when to stop being generous? In fact, how do we stop at all?

The problem comes down to personality. Observe the people around us in our lives. These people can be family members, the best of friends, lunch mates, co-workers, mere acquaintances, or complete strangers. Who do we know, from just observations, that are genuinely nice? Who are the ones pretending to be nice just to expect favors in return? Who are the ones who cannot possibly care about anything regarding themselves?

Recently, at the dining hall just a couple of minutes walk from where I live, I caught sight of a girl who was holding several notebooks and a textbook in her arms while carrying a tray full of food towards the cash register. I could tell she was struggling to keep her books from slipping through her arms while holding her breath, praying that she does not flip over her entire tray of food in the process of her balancing act. Before anything else happened within the subsequent moments, another girl (to the best of my memory) donned in a light jacket, small handbag slung around her shoulder, who happened to be on her way out of the dining hall decided to stop dead in her tracks to help her peer. From the thirty seconds I spent curiously watching, any connection at all between the two girls seemed imaginary. These two have probably never seen each other in their lives, yet one decided to help without hesitation, while the other one graciously accepted and declared her gratitudes at the end of the episode. Thirty seconds: the girl with the tray pays with her card, the rescue girl leaves her beneficiary's books on a vacant table, I resume picking out my mid-afternoon meal, the rescue girl proceeds towards her slightly delayed exit, and the girl-no-longer-in-need-of-aid sat down to enjoy her unproblematic lunch.

This was true generosity, governed solely by personality. Such acts are appreciated. Why? For some reason, the human brain has been programmed to accept simple favors that were not asked for when subconsciously they wish someone would do them such a favor. Take the above situation, for instance. When I saw the girl struggling with her tray and books, there was no doubt in my mind that she would like someone to assist her, whether or not she was actively wishing for the occurrence.

Conversely, the girl who entered the scene readily helping is far more difficult to understand. Did she help simply because she caught the sight of someone clearly needing help? Is it because she was raised since childhood to be kind and giving to others? Did she only help because she did not want to see splattered food and drinks all over the dining hall floors? My money's on the notion that she helped simply because she wanted to. Gut feeling. Besides, she departed right after donating the half-minute's worth of time, and chances are that the two girls will never meet again... or if they do, not remember the faces or the occasion. Count chivalry out for that scenario. Had it been a male coming to the rescue, the legitimacy of the "nice-ness" could be questioned. We can talk about that later.

Also, we have too nice, on top of the nice nice. At one point—and this happens all the time, pretty much to a good majority of everyday people—we become so giving and so generous, that it becomes smothering. Here's the keyword: smothering. Eventually, the worst outcome is that the beneficiary starts to take the compassion for granted, in addition to taking advantage of Mr. Nice Guy or Ms. Nice Girl. The overly nice get trampled, an unfortunate payment for their generosities. Typically, this happens when emotions such as, infatuation, pity, or loneliness come into effect. When one becomes enamored with another, the yearn to give—and supposedly—make the other "happy," is sometimes hard to hold back. When one feels a great sense of pity to a peer, the need to shelter, or in turn, "smother," the other becomes instinctual. Finally, when one is struck by the pains of loneliness, there is no peculiarity in trying to gain others' attentions by acting inappropriately good-willed and generous, with the subconscious hope of being noticed and attended to.

Now take into consideration the true generosity, governed by one's personality. For the lack of better words, a truly nice person only comes to the aid on occasion... or in other words, "When he/she feels like it." Of course, this is given that the person does not spend the remainder of his or her time scheming against others, inflicting harm, etc. Take these hypothetical situations into mind:

• Scene One: Two friends (combination of genders can be disregarded here, but let's just use two males for simplicity) are studying in the on-campus library. They have been there for quite some time, trying their best to prepare for the upcoming finals. The late hours approach, but they had no plans on returning to their respective dorms to turn in for the night. One of the friends gets up from his chair and pointed out that he wanted some coffee. Without any other thought, he asks if his friend wanted any as well. "Sure," was the response and his friend also stands up. "No, I'll go. Just stay there," the first one added before heading out and down the halls.
  
• Scene Two: Two friends (male-female combination) are enjoying a crisp Spring afternoon somewhere outdoors. Something in the man's head clicked before and, without second thoughts, he can do or will do any of the following for the ensuing hours: refusal to let the woman pay for anything, including food, drinks, transportation, etc., spontaneous treatment of material goods, dished out compliments by the truckload, and/or did constant favors without thinking about whether or not the woman could have done them herself.

Very possible scenarios. Many people have been through one or the other, or even both situations. Many people played the certain roles I've listed or took part in witnessing such situations unfold. Scene One was obviously an example of real generosity, governed by the giver's personality, while Scene Two was an example of illegitimate benevolence, governed by the giver's clouded emotions. Now let's alter the scenes a bit:

• Scene One, v2: The same two friends are studying in the on-campus library, trying their best to prepare for the upcoming finals. The late hours approach, but they had no plans on returning to their respective dorms to turn in for the night. One of the friends gets up from his chair and pointed out that he wanted some coffee. "I'll get it," said the sitting friend, who gets up and heads out. Meanwhile, the first friend remains standing in wonder, with an "Uh, okay?" mentality.
• Scene Two, v2: Two friends (male-female combination) are enjoying a crisp Spring afternoon somewhere outdoors. Both the man and the woman converse like any friends do. They eat at a restaurant and the check arrives by the end of the meal. The man makes a move to pay for the entirety of the check. The woman would not tolerate the act and points out that she would pay for her part of the meal. They compromise. At no point in the day do either person randomly make moves to spoil the other with the purchase of material goods, drowning of meaningless compliments, or performed unnecessary favors for each other.

Compare these scenes with the first pair. The variation of Scene One has one friend performing an unnecessary favor. In comparison, the original Scene One has one friend doing the favor for the sake of convenience (he wanted to get his own coffee, might as well get his friend one if he wanted one?). The variation has one friend getting a coffee for his friend, even though he himself did not want coffee. It's not exactly a big deal, but acts like those go 100% in the "too nice" category. As for Scene Two's variation, the generous bid by the man was governed by both personality and chivalry (again, which I will get to later) and not for the sake of drawing the attention of someone he may be attracted to. In contrast with with the original Scene Two, there were no false acts of giving. Conclusively, there is nice and too nice.

A lot of actions are common sense; whether to give or not to give. Judging whether a person is genuinely nice sometimes falls under common sense, as well. However, this does not necessarily mean that people should be categorized as either inconsiderate or compassionate, genuine or fake. Let's move on to acts of chivalry (the courtesy of men towards women), since generous men and chivalrous men are not the same.

Opening the door for a girl or woman is chivalrous. If she is walking ahead of him and she opens the door herself, reaching forward to hold it open is chivalrous.

When walking, keeping a girl or woman towards the inner half of the sidewalk is chivalrous.

Allowing her to walk beside him under his umbrella on a rainy day is chivalrous.

Offering to pay for mundane things, such as a simple dinner, a taxi ride, or a movie ticket is chivalrous. Paying for absolutely everything they do together is not.

Holding half of her shopping bags is chivalrous. Holding all of them is not.

Carpooling her when both are heading in the same direction is chivalrous. Being her personal escort is not.

...And the list can go on, and on, and on. Being chivalrous is not a necessity. Yet, sometimes the acts become misinterpreted as being overly nice. With feminists prowling around every corner, if a guy happens to inadvertently show off too much chivalry, there's a good possibility that an argument will ensue between the man and woman. Male will say he was just trying to help. Female will say she can do it herself. In most cases, the common saying of "it's the thought that counts," can be tied into chivalry. The whole tradition goes back hundreds of years in history which I will not get into. However, some of the actions that I categorized as not chivalrous are indeed just being overly nice.

Similarly, treating someone on rare occasions is purely generous and not overwhelmingly nice. And here's the fine line: treating someone often on multiple occasions is too generous and too nice. How often do you hear the lines, "My treat," "It's on me," and so forth? Unless it's always my treat and always on me, the balance between giving and too giving is relatively stable.

With all this talk about the good and the bad being nice or too nice, all in all there is nothing extraordinarily wonderful or troublesome of being on one side of the fine line or the other. Hey, some people like the excessively generous and go out of their ways to appreciate the acts. Some people prefer to stick around with the standard nice. As for the nice people, it is their job to make sure they are not being taken for granted or taken advantage of. There is no true reward besides seeing the happy look on the beneficiary's face.

Why the generosity then? It's personality. We do things because we feel like it.

March Madness

Work sucks a lot. I really hate thinking. Why am I still up? Because I have to teach myself how to use MATLAB and program something on it by the afternoon. Maybe I should disconnect from the internet for an hour, but I will not. NCAA tournament starts in about seven hours and I have to make some changes to my bracket(s) before that. It should be exciting; BC's in, but I'd hate to say that their first-round opponent, USC, is pretty tough defensively and I'm not sure if our young guys can stand the pressure. Whatever, they had a good overall season. Friday, March 20, 7:20 EDT WATCH!

Congrats to Bing for making it for the first time, I believe. Against Duke? Hmmmm.... Anyways, I can't wait.

Nostalgia Strikes Once Again

Nostalgia likes striking me at the most inconvenient of times. My ex-roommate Todd decided to point out that a leaked version of Pokémon Platinum was released as a ROM. Supposedly, this game is due for release on U.S. soil on March 22, 2009, but, hey, I will not question how the game was leaked and converted to a ROM. For those who don't know, I own the R4 cartridge for the Nintendo DS, which simply lets me download and play pretty much any DS game I want. Yes, it's 100% illegal, shh.

English box art

Yeah!

Well, there goes several hours out of my day getting sucked back into these pointless, but highly addicting games. I know for a fact that many, many more hours will disappear from my life from now until I grow the brain to realize that I am wasting my time. However, in the meantime, I will enjoy this game.

It's great, but it's bad for me. Chances are that I will not drain 350 hours out of my life like I did with my "legal" copy of Pokémon Diamond, but still, it's a clear cut fact that when you become victimized by nostalgic memories of your elementary school years, sitting at recess playing with good ol' Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow on that Gameboy Pocket or Gameboy Color, trying to get that last Gym Badge, linking cables with other Gameboys, battling and trading with friends and classmates... geez, it's overwhelming.

Hell, I remember getting struck by the same nostalgia during senior year in high school. Rehan and I had our Gameboy Advances equipped with Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire doing the same thing third graders did about a decade ago. Anyone remember Frankie Conway taking the time to buy a new Nintendo DS just so he could get his hands on the newly released Pokémon Diamond and Pearl in 2007? Call us immature, call us childlike, but if you've experienced the rush and adrenaline that we did back in third grade, it's unforgetable.

So here's my Pokémon Platinum locked in my Nintendo DS: newest installation of this cursed franchise that promotes animal violence and false dreams of becoming the mythical Pokémon Master. I love it.

FML

Fraternity Pledging Stuff late into the evening
Business and Society Exam tomorrow
Nutrition Exam tomorrow
(which means no sleep tonite)
Workshop to attend tomorrow
Nutrition Lab due tomorrow
MGA201 Quiz Friday
MGA202 Quiz Friday
(which means little sleep tomorrow)
Work 10-5 Saturday
Fundraiser for Pledging Sunday
MGA201 Interim Exam Monday
(which means no sleep Sunday)

of course on top of all the other shit im going through YES MY LIFE RULES!

Meteor Garden III

I meant to upload this earlier. I guess I can do it now before I forget.

Meteor Garden (流星花園) is a Taiwanese drama that rose to fame in 2001, with its success taking it through a sequel and spin-off versions. It was based on a Japanese manga and television series, both titled Hana Yori Dango (花より男子), translated to "Boys Over Flowers," which in turn has also become a Korean drama of the same name. Everything is feminine, get over it. You can find further information on Wikipedia, just search for Meteor Garden. In fact, I do recommend that you do a little research to get the most out of your viewing experiences.

For this year's TASC Banquet, our e-board decided to film a skit parodying Meteor Garden. In perhaps a cumulative of five hours split over three days, we were able to treat everyone to this Oscar-deserving independent film project... F4 returns.

Audio: Mandarin
Subtitles: English
Cast: Alvin Hao Zhang (Dao Ming Si), Andrew Chu (Hua Ze Lei), Jeff Hwang (Mei Zuo Ling), Kevin Su (Xi Men), May Lee (Shan Cai), Natalie To, Qiting Cen, Valentina Wu (Girls)

Meteor Garden 3: Part I
Featuring occasional Engrish subtitles, poor dubbing, and multiple cuts due to many failed takes.


Meteor Garden 3: Part II
Featuring bad hair, bad singing, more cuts, and more Engrish subtitles.

Points of Consideration

Because I have been highly unproductive for the past couple of days, I am finally a bit worrisome. I think only at this time do I start doing anything meaningful. Talk about last minute... I probably shouldn't waste anymore time playing an emulated Pokémon Yellow on my DS.

To-do list:

• Finish reading Matheson's I Am Legend, which is actually very different from the recent film.
• Come up with a t-shirt design for TASC, although I might rely heavily on Eugene for this.
• Study for a useless music midterm.
• Get off the failboat.
  

Not exactly all that fun or interesting besides the TASC t-shirt design.

I Am Legend is interesting and all, but for some reason, the novel just doesn't have the spark or thrill that the movie provided. Plus, Robert Neville's a drunken white man in the novel. Last time I checked, Will Smith's character was quite the opposite of white... and he wasn't that drunk either. I've yet to encounter Sam, the German shepherd. The menacing "people" of the story are vampiric in nature and not zombified like the ones in the film. As I continue on with the novel, I'm sure I will find many additional differences.

Other than that, note the music player above. Leave whatever songs and/or artists you want to see and maybe I can get to it. And Harit, if you see this, I bet you can show off your HTML skills and fancify everything here.

Tuning in to the WBC

The World Baseball Classic (WBC) has been in session for a little less than two weeks. It's the second historical premiere of the event and so far it has been somewhat more exciting than the inaugural WBC in 2006.

Since game one on March 5th, the Dominican Republic, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, China, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei), Australia, Mexico, Panama, and South Africa have all been eliminated from the tournament. In turn, this left Japan, South Korea, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the United States as the remaining teams striving for the championship.

As of now, the Venezuelans have already guaranteed themselves a spot in the semi-final round with the recent victory over Puerto Rico. This left Puerto Rico with the United States in an all-or-nothing situation. The winner between the two countries advances, while the loser goes home.

Similarly, though not as dire, the winner between the upcoming Japan-South Korea matchup will be guaranteed a spot in the semi-finals. The loser, however, will not yet be eliminated. In a last ditch effort, said losing team will face off against Cuba, with the winner of that contest advancing, and the loser exiting.

I have my money on either Japan or South Korea winning it all. No, it's not because I'm Asian... The Japanese were crowned the international champions at the end of the inaugural WBC. In the 2008 Olympic Games at Beijing, South Korea claimed the gold medal in baseball. Both teams in the 2009 WBC have been performing very well. If you put two and two together, such an outcome is quite feasible.

Then again, no one should ever count Team USA or Cuba out...

FML

2:40 AM
Tired with pain in chest and aching left shoulder
Empty Vanilla Coke can along organic chemistry lab notebooks
Quiz papers on religion ready to be studied later
More organic chemistry
Sleeping gf in back
Water chestnuts = ew
Messed up phone that dies all the time
No sleep tonight
FML

P.S. Shut up ashley :-P

The Return

Well, how long has it been since I've written here? Three-quarters of a year seems like a good estimate.

Originally, I started this daily writing project for the sake of recording what I was up to in Taiwan during the summer of 2008, but apparently I didn't make too much out of the self-assigned task. But now, I officially declare my return to consistent writing, hopefully adding some spark into my own life.

First off, I will summarize the last few months of 2008 (when I pretty much ran off on an indefinite absence) to the best of my memory.

1. From Taiwan, my mother, lil' bro Jeremy, and I made a quick trip to Hong Kong. Too bad Dad was busy collecting college credits to reach another master's degree, along with obtaining a teacher's license. It was the first time I've ever been to Hong Kong and the experience was quite fulfilling.
2. Upon returning from the Asiatic tour, sophomore year in Binghamton was already around the corner. Time seriously flew.
3. Fall 2008 was in session and, not even close to deliberately, I found myself much more involved with college activities. In some sick way, I felt like I was back in high school again. Of course, fencing was still a big part of my life, but I decided to dive deeper into cultural groups, a campus magazine publisher, explore Greek life, look for an on-campus job, and on and on...
4. With the close of the 2008 fall semester, in those three and a half months, many things happened. To list a few, I guess I can mention winning a school Fantasy Baseball league, obtaining first place at a fencing tournament, learned how to fence foil (a bit), rushed for an Asian fraternity and decided it was not for me, caught myself in a failed relationship, broke my camera, decided not to vote because I became politically apathetic, dragged my GPA just a little higher (thought barely noticeable), and overall became a happier person.
5. For the first part of winter break, various episodes took place with my usual crew back home. We mutually decided that I played beer pong too much, along with Becky. Will was probably a secret drunk, Rehan probably never got drunk in his life, and Sule was my opposite and had no beer pong skills. Sule, Will, and I made a pit stop to Hooters and decided to leave without pay when we realized there were no attractive "waitresses" on site, Rehan threw up on my front porch and, in drunken delusions, thought my home was his home, and finally, everyone prepared for the arrival of 2009.
   

I think that's the gist of everything that I missed for the latter part of 2008. Now, second of all, the last couple of months for 2009 requires some summarizing as well... and again to the best of my memory:

1. From a typical double room (roommate included) in the Hinman community, I ran off straight to the apartment community of Susquehanna. Single rooms are amazing. Living became completely different in comparison to the entirety of my freshman year and the first semester of my sophomore year. Four single rooms in a suite, two suites on a floor. All in all, eight people living together, but with plenty of space. There's John, David, Andrew, Eugene, Kevin, Mingchee, Dan, and me. Aside from Andrew and I, everyone there was in their senior year. When I moved in, Andrew was the only person I knew beforehand, so I had to adjust to my new "second" home, while getting to know everyone around me.
   
2. Perhaps I got used being involved on campus and I decided to dive further into the clubs I decided to continually take part in. Those would be the Binghamton Fencing Club, the Taiwanese American Student Coalition (TASC), and the Binghamton Prospect Magazine group (which I have yet to write an article for).
3. Up to this point of writing, I've found a new home, made great new friends, took on an executive board position for TASC, MC'ed along with Andrew for the annual TASC Banquet (I can detail about that in another post), got back into snowboarding, broke my laptop, took on a new job on campus led by John, enjoyed a couple of days highlighted with Becky's visit from Buffalo, took fourth place in a fencing tournament (unfortunately), in addition to breaking two of my epees and my foil (unfortunately again), and am still quite a happy person.

I had quite a lot of fun writing this. I guess it comes with my natural interest with reminiscing about past events. Hopefully I can be more consistent and write on a daily basis.