Hahaha

Cnn.com headline: George Michael "smokes joint" during interview

I like that "smokes joint" is in quotes.

I'm cooler than Lindsey

Why? Because I'm gonna tell what I did on my 21st b-day... which kind of lasted over three days. Midnight on Wednesday (Tuesday night), a few friends came by and surprised me with a cake and cheap wine... the weakest they could find, they told me. This was fun, eating cake and drinking late at night, but it was a surprise and i wasn't prepared. After they left, I ended up having to study until 4 am. I'm okay with it now that I've slept all friday afternoon.
Wednesday night me and a group of people that included Eric, Steve, Marijana, Alex and Angela (last two are my roommates) went out to dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Everything Forrest Gump... the drinks and dessert card ads that you find at chili's were on a ping pong paddle and the waitress quizzed us on Forrest Gump trivia. Eric stumped her with a question... jerk. The question: Who plays Forrest Jr.? The food was really good (I got shrimp... of course) and Eric bought me a Peach, Love and Rock n Roll as a drink for me, of which I could only drink half, Eric finished it off. I think he's going to go drinking with me more often just so he can drink the girly drinks that I can't finish.
Okay, so Thursday night we all went out to this 21 adn over bowling place, Lucky Strike. There were seven of us (same list as Wednesday night but minus the roommates and add Shanon, Nikki, and Aneri), and the van cab we called never came. Instead, we found a regular cab whose patron had not showed. We asked the guy if he would fit 7 people, and he said okay and did it off the meter. So we fit SEVEN people in a cab, Eric and me in front and the other 5 somehow fitting in the back. The driver ended up getting so freaked out about getting found by the cops, that he told us he was shaking. So shady factors include: fitting too many people in the cab, doing the job off the meter, AND the displayed license was NOT him. We got to the place alright, and bowled a game. I lost. Like I'm not very good at bowling, but this was bad, even for me. Still had fun, perhaps I'll put up pictures. A friend ordered me a Midori sour, but I got a headache before i could finish it, I have got the be the biggest lightweight. The group bowling next to us used really dirty names to display on the tv scorecard... too inappropriate to say on here. After bowling, we ate at Mel's down the street, and then took a cab home. This driver was not nearly as cool as the one we had there, just a deaf chain smoker. Nicest part was, my friends didn't let me pay for a thing... not even the food I ordered at Mel's (had I known this, I would have gotten my BLT without avocado and without the onion rings). It was very sweet of them, and I understand that it will never happen again.
And that was how my 21st b-day went. Now it's time to order chinese food, watch some tv, and recover before it's study time!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jen!!!
You're finally a real person! You can go out with all your friends to all the awesome LA hot spots and have a drink or two and get smashed (cuz that's what us light weights do)! Next time I see you I owe you a drink ;)

Happy Birthday!

Speaking of 21, Little Richard says...



You're now the envy and the potential boozehound of all of your little Nexus underlings and other underage friends.

Of course, you have always been fabulous to me!

I wich I could dance at 21...

...but I don't want to wear the clothes. I was helping my neighbors dress for their night out clubbing tonight. Tight jeans, cleavage-bearing tops, and too much makeup would make for a very self-concious Jen. Too bad, I was dancing the hell out of the techno beats playing at the Beverly Center yesterday.

On another note, an H&M opened up in Pasadena. I just have one question: WHO'S COMING WITH ME?!?

PADRES!!!
They're going to the playoffs. That's all I have to say.

Last Night

I discovered that Joanna Newsom makes much more sense in person.

It helps that the Boston Museum of Fine Arts courtyard has an otherworldly weeping willow looming in one corner and other looming, luminous trees scaling the surrounding limestone walls, and that they lit the stage from below (as there was no roof) with the pink red purple light common to all indie concerts, because when she came on the stage with lemon and honey in a wine glass and her bangs grown out and hair flowing down behind her onto a similarly flowing dress, she looked like some nymph, druid, mystical creature taking her place behind the harp. It makes so much more sense to see all that and then hear her sing.

In other news, wouldn't you all think I was a lot kooler if I had a keytar?

Two things I learned today

1) How to use a macbook (because I have a brand new one!!)

2) My mom knows more about computers than your mom.

I learn slow. ly.

The anger and frustration that accompanied my meteorish landing in Cambridge have faded, a little, so that they're vaguely stuck like smoke in the air after one of those great Moonlight or La Jolla Cove bonfires that we used to fuel with anything we could find on the beach. And a shot or two of lighter fluid for good measure.

I miss my friends. I succumbed to this great and novel realization in trying to figure out where the rage was coming from. (Ah, introspection, the first step to a great blog entry, eh?) It always was a silly idea to me, to miss people, as I always felt I'd see them again, or could keep in touch by mail, email, and phone, and that distance and time were never any reason to despair. But this summer I was shocked by not really not being able to keep in touch while I was in Taiwan, and then, when my time at home was shrunk down to a day, I was shocked by the how limited the time felt, that I would have only three hours or a few minutes to sit and talk with the greatest people I know, and I was shocked by the pangs of disappointment when I realized there were many people I'd have to go another four months (hopefully not another year) without seeing. I always took it for granted that there'd be more nights at Hot Java or with chalk in the park or for midnight burritos or even for movies at the Highlands or for the concerts at the Che and elsewhere.

There won't be, though. The next great step in the realization is that there may never be. In the future, if I ever have the good luck of seeing these kids again, we won't be kids (at least, some won't), and the rendezvous will be tamed into lunches and coffee dates and drinks after work things in between our real lives, and always they'll be somewhere else--Seattle, New York, the Carolinas, wherever we may roam. People are astonishingly irreplaceable. Emails, blogs, letters, phone calls even-- they're insulting. But I guess it's all I've got. So it's time to sack up, and be quaint, and go write some letters. If nothing else, at least the recipients can ball up the paper and build a fire when it gets cold wherever they are.

Re-entry

I told someone today that I didn't even want to go to ultimate frisbee practice and he said, "Wow, something must really be wrong with you."

And there is. Since freshman fall I have not not wanted to play ultimate or throw if given the chance. But I arrived back at school late Thursday night, and went to practice on Friday and then two days of a tournament for which my poor excuse of a body was not ready by any means. Load jet lag onto general out-of-shapeness onto no longer being a rookie on a undermanned team, and you get a little Asian who's neither speedy nor fierce. I have been back at school for four entire days now (back in the States for five), and I'm still sitting here very uncomfortable with my new surroundings, the old atmosphere of Harvard, the absurdity that is college, and the terrible, big empty sadness that I find to be distinctly American.

I played a lot of ultimate this summer, and yet the tournament was a slap in the face--physically and mentally. Forget the physical part--I can get in shape, start running and lifting and swimming--but it's the mental attack that's astounding. I'd forgotten what it felt like to have the pressure, the strange reminders of the politics of an all-female team, the implicit expectations, the tacit understanding and acknowledgement that everything is a competition to be won, that we ought to be better, that we ought to have INTENSITY, yada yada yada. I played a lot of ultimate this summer, but it was all for love of the game. Playing for hours in rain and muck, or through ungodly humidity and sun, layouts and battle scars and the big guys getting pissed on bad plays or bad D--it was all intense, and some of it was really good playing, but none of it ever left a bitter taste. A bad point was a bad point but it carried no repercussions. Celebrations were never forced for the sake of team morale. It was good disc with no strings attached. There's so much bullshit to be caught up in here.

And it doesn't just apply to Ultimate. It's just the general college (or perhaps Harvard) view of things. Everything for the sake of image or impression, everything for the fear of results and repercussions. It's this general feeling of intensity to the point of unfocused frenzy--it's all very meaningless and I don't know what to do about it. Most likely nothing. Classes will start and maybe I can bury my nose in the books and tune out everything else.

Ewwwwww green and orange? Ew.

OKAY

We're switching to http://halfwhat.blogspot.com.

I hope. So...i'll give you til Friday to change your bookmarks and then we're switching! Get ready! On your mark! Get set!

The end

I hadn't checked in a while, and I figure none of you have either, but in case you're interested, the end of the saga: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/06/27/news/coastal/21_08_506_26_06.txt

My legacy at Torrey Pines: a blown up newspaper that was scorned by Atlanta but more memorably by a one Mr. Will Harvie, a huge fundraiser that lost money, a musically dilapidated version of the Mystery of Edwin Drood and a scandal-ridden, profane Literary Magazine that drew a lawsuit and was really pink.

Well, at Harvard I've already had my hand in letting the music in musical go to rot; hopefully I won't continue the curse by thinking big again, losing the respect of an incredible professor, and getting Harvard sued.

I think I should just focus on playing frisbee from now on.

Taipei

The Chiang Kai Shek Memorial


And just across the plaza, students and other dissenters call for Chen Shui Bien's impeachment and/or resignation. This photo was taken in early July. The impeachment never passed, though these kids vowed to stay at CKS fasting and spreading the word until he was. He wasn't impeached, he hasn't stepped down, but I believe they've gone.


A typhoon was coming. Below on the left is the National Theater, and the tower is the Shinkong Mitsukoshi department store which I believe was the tallest building in Taiwan until Taipei 101 came along.


Penguins along the rails of one of the train stations. I forgot which.


Spotted: POCKY in bag form.


Asian Schoolgirls. I hope this doesn't bring fetishists to our site.


Worn out and split open. You've served me well *sniff*.

A few Photos

I've been completely negligent in travel-posting, but for some reason I haven't felt any particular urge to take photos or otherwise document this experience. I think it's mostly because I'm in denial about being a tourist in the country where I was born. As suddenly as it was announced, so suddenly the Italy trip has been cancelled, so halfwhat readers will have to wait for tales of another European excursion.

Some photos that I took of Green Island and miscellaneous Taiwan hotspots.

Boats at the dock. These looked particularly shady and ready to sink. We hoped they were just for decoration.


A Goat on Green Island


The Green Island Memorial for Political Prisoners. Green Island used to be the KMT's
Alcatraz for locking up those who spoke or acted or thought against the government. This wasn't all that long ago; some of the names of currently prominent politicians, so on the wall of the memorial covered with names of past prisoners, these politicians' names shine from being rubbed over by tourists and admirers.

This was a sign outside the prison. I'm not sure why it says youth lost.


My cousin Steve looking at Goats on Green Island


In addition to goats, there are deer on Green Island. This is a deer having lunch.


After Green Island, we came back to the Eastern part of Taiwan, to "Ci Shang" or "On the Lake/Lakeside." We stayed near what was probably once a very pretty tourist attraction (as evidenced by the impressive photos of it in our hotel), but when we went out in the morning to take a looksee, it was broken down and in sad disrepair. There were uncared for animals, a horse that evidently had not had anything to drink or eat in a long time, his legs were covered in open sores and bleeding, a bunch of bleating goats, and I think there were supposed to be sheep somewhere. This is a statue of a lady whose story I've forgotten.

important decision

Do we want to renew our halfwhat domain, girls?

Where did all my roommates go?

I'm all alone. It's sad. And scary. Especially with my weird imagination. I end up locking myself in my room every night, just to put one more lock between me and the psycho murderer who will most definately break into my apartment. On the plus side, I have watermelon in my fridge. I love watermelon.

Oh yeah, a note to the frat boys across the street. NO, you don't party as hard as you think you do. You go to UCLA, 'nuff said. NO, you can't play bass well, so stop trying to play the bass line from that DFA1979 song, you're driving me nuts.

Me and Eric are going to Greece next summer. There, it's in print, now you can't back out Eric!

Now to eat some of that watermelon...

My boogers itch

I think I'm going to grunt more often to make myself seem tough. And high five. Not like Hankerchick high fives, but like MANLY high fives, followed by chest butts. Like Buff Indian Guy, who walks around with his arms out to the side even though he doesn't need to.

In San Diego for the weekend before summer school starts!!

Sorry for my leave of absence. It's just so hard to sit at a computer for 9 hours and then come home and sit at a computer. It's funny how tired sitting at a computer makes me, but I'm just worn out. The last four days have been especially long and trying. When three of my best girlfriends went off to Spain last semester I thought not being able to talk to someone you really wanted to was the worst thing in the world. Now I realize waiting plus not being able to talk to someone is the worst thing in a world without a doubt. Now add in not knowing what's going on, and that's how I was last night. I've missed out on friends' birthdays and dinners with friends all to just sit and wait, but I can't risk being somewhere where I can't hear my phone and hop in my car at a moments notice. So from now until I don't even know when, that's my life. Speaking of which my phone isn't within arms reach so I really must go.

*think good thoughts for bobby*

My heart feels all warm and fuzzy

I gave Eric the best belated b-day gift ever. Totally makes up for the fact that it's about 3 and a half months late. I gave him a comic book. I gave Joe a comic book for his b-day. Whoever's next, watch out.

Not really, I think it was just a coincidence. Besides, I gave Joe a Calvin and Hobbes book, Eric's present was much more emo than that. Hehehe.... emo....