a time in history :
quebec visit |
highschool grad |
university life |
victoria now and then
aug 16 '04 : 1826 [pacific] : the day we meet again friends strangers
while out doing some grocery shopping and such, i happened to see several old collegues from high school. some of them were old acquaintances, but today we're mere strangers. i saw people at both hillside mall and fairway's market. last march my old roommate bumped into me; in may when i was flying back home from toronto, my drama teacher in grade twelve was in the same plane, as well as the time when i came across a friend at eaton's centre downtown victoria; and last week i saw a friend who also goes to utoronto at a chinese restaurant. just what are the chances of bumping into people you know in public? i get nervous when i unexpectedly see someone i know in public. for one i don't know whether i ought to go greet him/her. and if i do, what then? as mostly an introvert, i find it hard to have face to face conversations with someone i have never seen or haven't talked to for a long time. and frankly, "what are you doing here?" is the worst line ever, if not the most lame. what do you think i am doing at a clothing store heh? selling babies, clearly! what else could i be possibly doing? i imagine the people whom i bumped into are almost as speechless as i am. anyway. three days since the olympics began last friday. great opening ceremony, and art history did teach me something; well, at least the ancient greek art class i took did. and china is currently leading in the number of gold medals. of course though, once track and field starts, the americans are going to climb up with the golds.
aug 11 '04 : 2302 [pacific] : good hair (interlude) rich mahogany heh, not quite
it was my third time dying my hair. first time was in grade twelve when i had gold hightlights that was so popular among the asian teens [thought it looked more appalling than appealing on me] second time was last year when i dyed my hair dark brown, which turned out quite nice. today i dyed my hair mahogany, though there's only a subtle hint of reddish brown in my hair and you won't be able to tell immediately. it's just for fun really, i don't think i'll ever dye my hair in a color so different from my own natural
color; wouldn't look good on me anyway.
olympics just two days away! w00t! and there's supposed to be a meteror shower of some sort in the east. by meteror shower i think it just means more shooting stars appearing in the sky tonight, and for the last two minutes i have been watching, i have successfully spotted one shooting star. apparently there will be fifty of them shooting across the sky each hour. fifty wishes in one hour is a bit too much isn't it?
aug 08 '04 : 0032 [pacific] : suddenly sunday new perspective
there is a party in town and i was not invited.
oh well.
so by what standards do you use to consider whether a person is a friend or not? i think mine are fairly simple and straight-forward. for one, i do not consider someone a friend if i only know their names and have seen them on several occasions. so by that standard most of my friend's boy/girlfriends are not my friends. then i don't usually strike up conversations with someone i don't know very well. alright. how do you suppose i get to know them? i don't. trouble is, i have been away from home for some time, and during these times there have been some changes and i haven't been part of any of them. as seemingly welcoming and warm-hearted my friends are, and as much as i try to fit in, i don't belong. there was a time in earlier months when i feel down and bitter about the situation [what's the word to describe someone who pities him/herself and think it's mostly other's fault for his/her problems to happen? that word would describe me] nowadays i have sort of learned to cope with the situation; the fact that i shouldn't dwell in past experiences and so naively think everything will always be the same, and the fact that i have little to no influence in the group now. funny thing i don't exactly remember how i made all the friends i know today; my apathetic and more reclusive personality definitely stands out from the crowd. i do have some redeeming qualities, perhaps? anyway, i don't feel i need a personality shift and become a happy energetic easy-going [easy-going as seeing everyone as a friend] person; no point forcing myself to act in ways to suit their group atmosphere now is there? just remember, seeing less of a friend, talking less with a friend, and or depending less on a friend doesn't mean it's the end to the friendship. like fireworks, the beautiful flares do not stay. it just needs time, eventually a new one will shoot up, and the moment is relived.
how i miss seeing fireworks.
aug 04 '04 : 1532 [pacific] : curtain call maybe i ought to become a car technician instead
american cars are no good, or maybe it's just my '97 pontiac grand am. in a recent tune-up, my family was told that the alternator is dying and needs to be replaced, and some other random crap like anti-freeze is leaking into the gas tank and it will kill the engine sooner or later. in the end we had to pay around two thousand dollars for the parts changed and repaired. cars die, yes, but it has only been seven years since we first got this car. and throughout the past seven years we've spent over five or six thousand dollars for repairment and such. i'd understand maybe if we were using it for constant strenuous long road trips, but that's clearly not the case. what bugs me most is that everytime after we got the car fixed, three or four days later we'd have to bring it back for some other problems; something always goes wrong after inspection. after i took the car in for a tune-up last thursday, i had to bring the car back today because the car has failed to start and needed to be jump-started on several occasions since i had it back. i was told today that my battery is no longer charging and needs to be replaced. humm. frankly, money is not really a problem. i mean, if something in the car needs to be fixed, sure, we'll pay the cost for it to be fixed; safety is priority. but please check for every single problem when i have the car come in for an inspection, and not tell me after
three to four days i got the car back that some parts are failing and new ones are needed. it really wastes our time; like that time when i was getting my "new" driver's licence and the front left turn signal apparently wasn't functioning at all [i had to re-schedule the test for later, after i had the car fixed] the technicians probably did something weird to the car; or perhaps changed my original parts with some old ones just so they can make more money. you might say that i'm paranoid, but it has happen on several occasions in the past. coincidence? you decide it for yourself. so next time when my family decides to buy a new car, we're definitely going to buy a japanese car. my aunt has a honda civic and for the past nine years she only had to change the battery and some miscellaneous
parts and the total sum she spent on her car doesn't even equal to one third of what we've spent for our car. american cars, never again.
aug 02 '04 : 1716 [pacific] : unity ... ... ...
just when i was about to begin to write something i felt strongly about since yesterday, i lost focus and decided that it would probably take too long and that i would end up erasing it all [which has happened many times before] so. meh. let's be boring and write about my life and what has happened recently.
well my dad has returned in hong kong and continued working. he is aging, something i noticed more these past few times i have seen him. nothing ever dampens his spirit though; he's still joyous and playful as always. he could definitely use a long vacation though; a vacation where he doesn't have to think about marking exams, dealing with students, and weird university politics. anyway, he's gone. my parents' friend has moved to victoria, and the past few weeks we've been helping her and her family settling down and such. they are definitely the lucky ones. thinking back to the days when my family immigrated to canada, we had virtually no contacts except for my aunt's son who was studying here. i sometimes wonder how my mom had survived those days [note: my mom came here on her own with me and my three brothers; my dad continued to work in hong kong] with no friends or family and not knowing any english? amazing, to say the least. anyway, i have enjoyed my past nine years in canada, hopefully they will soon get used to the relaxed and peaceful environment of victoria soon.
olympics begins in about ten days, nice background to commemorate the event eh?
