Stick 'em up

Cliché title aside, the crime on campus is starting to scare me a bit. It's one thing if you're walking alone at 3am on Vermont, but studying in VKC at 11pm is another.

On the subject of crime in schools: I've been reading that some schools are lobbying for students to carry concealed guns on campus. Aside from my first reaction, which was absolute terror because sitting in a classroom full of concealed guns that is not a police seminar personally freaks me out, I was wondering: how many places are considering allowing faculty to conceal-carry, but not all students? (ROTC/auxiliary police/army personnel students excepted, when out of uniform.) That could ensure at least one armed person in the room, although it could also paint a bulls-eye on them for a shooter who knows the regulations.

I'm not fully up to date with the interpretations of the 2nd amendment, so I would appreciate opinions on this, since I'm going to be here for at least another 3 years. USC has been fairly lucky so far...

Dog days of summer

It's getting way too hot. And I say this as someone who comes from a semi-tropical urban island where humidity is usually at 90%. I'm surprised my school back home hasn't flooded yet, as far as I know.

Another reminder that summer is so near...yet so far.

I'm actually looking forward to having 3 months off school, as opposed to the 7 weeks or so that I've been getting since I was a kid. I will however be back in the US in August....spending about a week in Colorado, then back to LA to move in.

Fanfiction still has not been updated; if I don't get around to doing it before going home, I'll probably work on it when I'm back in Hong Kong since I probably won't have much else to do if I don't get the job I'm looking at. Except go out and get drunk legally, which loses its novelty after a while.

What I'm not looking forward to is the end when I have to pack up everything, fight off the dust bunnies when unplugging electronics, make sure nothing's left behind, find some place to store all the boxes before they're picked up, get everything moved out before my last exam, and then move myself out almost right afterwards without getting to say goodbye to everyone for the summer.

Money, money, money

I've been sending off applications to various places on campus in the hope that one of them will be magnanimous enough to hire me next semester for minimum wage and without work-study. That way I can have some cash to spend and something to pad the resume with. For the possible summer job in Hong Kong, I have to write a CV within the next couple of days. Yikes.

Speaking of next semester, I'm really excited to be living in an apartment next year, with someone I know and will actually interact with on a daily basis. (Plus, she's supplying the TV.) I'm also looking forward to having a kitchen and cooking my own food instead of avoiding EVK as much as possible and eating there only when there's no alternative. Mmm...I want to make eggs in a basket for breakfast.

Aaaand...yeah. With a few weeks left until the end of this semester, I'm ready for summer.

Feed a child with a length of steel and wooden beads

I've entered this phase again. I was just doing my laundry, and found that in the past couple of weeks, I've accumulated 5 or 6 t-shirts, most of them free, from taking part in causes or charity events.

Now I want to buy the Fight On for Darfur t-shirt, which is being sold on McCarthy right now. Invisible Children, founded by USC alumni, is selling steel and reed bracelets online to help children in Uganda. And there's hungersite.org, which has heaps of cool jewellery and clothing, where cups of food are donated for everything you buy.

On one hand, I think it's great that a kid somewhere benefits, and I get a nice piece to add to my wardrobe. On the other hand, I'm starting to feel like a bit of a cop-out because I've got bits and pieces from different charities or causes, but I haven't yet devoted actual time and effort to any one of them. Perhaps once I get out of CALPIRG, I'll join Invisible Children or Take Back the Night. I'm also guessing that some of the money made on Hungersite.org has to go to someone's salary; it's just a matter of how much. I'm also financially in peril, so I'll have to cut back on the spending until next semester, especially since I probably won't wear the jewellery very often. I have a lot of it back home, but I only wear a few choice pieces and I don't bother with matching accessories to my outfit since I don't really match my outfits anyway.

I may however give exception to a mobile phone charm, since I lost my old one, and a cheap bracelet that can withstand abuse. If I'm going to wear something, I might as well have contributed to help feed someone with it.

[/cynical idealist]

Sorry, HOW do you pronounce that?

I don't know if this is particularly funny because I'm reading it late at night while procrastinating from an essay, but:

Baby's Named a Bad, Bad Thing

And this is limited to mainly the Western world. I've seen plenty of weird names in Hong Kong myself.

Take 5

So I'm in class right now at 8 in the morning, after a weekend of broken sleep cycles and walking against cancer. Which is still kind of wimpy compared to Strawberry-guy aka Matt and his 24 hour marathon.

Anyway, I'm writing this so I can stay marginally awake, as I don't know enough American history to skip this class altogether. Seip's cool, but so was Lamy, and even then I skipped his classes because I was too tired to pay attention.

1. Driving - In just over a month's time I'm going back home, and one of the first things I'm going to have to do (pretty much the day after I land) is take my written test, which I haven't even begun to study for. At least I'll finally be able to take lessons in a real car and not the useless simulator that they "allowed" me to use last time. The test in Hong Kong is a lot harder though, and my mum won't let me drive for a year so I'll have a clean record when I apply for insurance.

2. Cracked.com - Found this website though Digg, and it's pretty funny, although it's often pretty stupid as well, and some of the articles are made up.

3. Thinkgeek.com - I've been spending way too much money on this website. There's so many t-shirts, hoodies, gadgets, accessories, and caffeine-related products I want. Considering I'm kind of cash-strapped now, I'm going to have to go cold turkey until next semester. I'm still waiting for my recommendation so I can apply for an internship and possible earn some spending money.

4. CALPIRG - Bleh. I'm so out of here once this semester's over. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I'm not getting much out of it. I know that's usually the case with public policy work, but I figured I needed out once I started dreading the weekly meetings and events.

5. Summer - This is going to be the first time where I get more than 2 months of summer. As far as I know, I plan to:
- Go to Japan
- Find a job
- Get together with friends
- Go shopping for cheap clothes
- Learn how to drive
- See if I can still play the clarinet after a year of playing brass
- Deliver that USC pennant to school (I can't imagine why they don't have one already)
- Go to Colorado
Yeah, that last part is going to take up the last month of summer, so I really only have about 2 months to do the rest.

Diary vs. journal, emotions vs. thoughts

When my French teacher asked us whether we'd ever kept a "journal intime" before, I was one of two people who said no.

I wasn't being entirely honest, really. I've kept a journal of the things I did that day, back when I was 10, such as what movie I saw, where did I go for dinner, which friends I hung out with that day, etc. And there was a period of time when I had the little custom decorated with sparkly stickers book complete with a lock and key, but I wrote in it maybe 3 times, and got rid of it years ago.

But I've never really kept a longterm record of my innermost thoughts and feelings. Blogging does not count for me; that's intentionally public, diaries are usually supposed to be for one's eyes only. One thing is because I usually don't have a lot to hide. Second, some things just should not be put down in any form of print. And third, I'm just plain terrified that someone else is going to find my writings and invade my privacy. I know some keep a private diary as a form of catharsis or memory. which is cool, but I try to put my thoughts into writing, and the majority of my feelings into actions instead. I say "majority" because one has to put at least some feeling into their writings or it would be as dried-up as the Sahara.

Do I want anyone in the near future to find out my deepest, darkest secrets, a la Anne Frank? I'll say it now: no thanks. I'm not deliberately being an enigma, it's just the way I am.