Tuesday's phone call with Mum revealed fundamental differences in priorities that I found hilarious.
She wants me to seriously reconsider playing rugby because she's worried I may get permanently injured.
I, on the other hand, was more upset about failing my driving test than splitting my head open.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Ahh, the joy of generation gaps.
Showing posts with label driving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label driving. Show all posts
Friday, May 8, 2009
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Helloooo from New York
After a 15 hour plane ride, a 3 hour delay due to air traffic among other things, and a $10 taxi ride that got jacked up to $24 that led to my mum calling the police, I'm back in the US.
On the East Coast, that is. At 4am.
And it seems that I have missed an exciting/terrifying event back on the West Coast. Glad to see everyone's okay though.
In other news, I failed my driving test back in Hong Kong. I had just done my 3-point turn and parallel parking, and was going down a steep narrow road when two trucks sort of loomed up in front of me.
Cue momentary panic, minute swerve and gentle bumping of the curb.
Yeah, that pretty much killed it for me.
I was really nervous though, especially when it turned out that my test was going to be 30 minutes earlier than stated just because everyone else had gone ahead of time.
So I'll most likely retake the test in LA. Not the best location, but I don't have much choice.
On the East Coast, that is. At 4am.
And it seems that I have missed an exciting/terrifying event back on the West Coast. Glad to see everyone's okay though.
In other news, I failed my driving test back in Hong Kong. I had just done my 3-point turn and parallel parking, and was going down a steep narrow road when two trucks sort of loomed up in front of me.
Cue momentary panic, minute swerve and gentle bumping of the curb.
Yeah, that pretty much killed it for me.
I was really nervous though, especially when it turned out that my test was going to be 30 minutes earlier than stated just because everyone else had gone ahead of time.
So I'll most likely retake the test in LA. Not the best location, but I don't have much choice.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Politics, politics
After this week, I'm thoroughly sick of politics. Which makes me kind of glad I'm not majoring in Political Science. (Not that IR is much better, really....)
I'm shadowing a legislator right now, and while it's good to watch the councils and see how things go on, it gets depressing with each subsequent visit. It is also rather boring...I've only managed to stay thoroughly awake for one meeting so far.
It's like:
blahblahblah technical terms blahblah semantics blahblahbalh not doing their job....
All of a sudden, one legislator starts talking about the "tiger with no teeth" and pulls out, yup, a rather large papier mache model of a tiger with no teeth. And brandishes it to make his point.
Today, I went to a meeting on levying plastic bags, and the people there spent FIVE minutes trying to define a "plastic shopping bag". People, it's not that hard. Although when one guy pulled out a plastic folder as an ambiguous example, everyone sitting in the public viewing area dissolved into giggles.
I keep my thoughts written down in a notebook in order to stay awake, and I probably will get into trouble if I post too many of them, but they go along the lines of:
Woo angry politicians. This oughta be fun.
Did he just pull out a theatre prop? (tiger head)
Rah, rah, rah...goddamn semantics.
...And one wonders why these meetings are so long....
Gah! [expletives] It's a [expletive] plastic shopping bag! No, not a plastic folder like the one you're holding up, you [expletive]! Get to the point!
So next week, I'm transferring to the other office, where I might actually be able to do something practical.
---
In other news, I'm learning how to drive. Drive manual, no less. Yes, the streets are no longer safe. (Although I can do a very slow 3 point turn after 2 lessons, haha.)
I'm shadowing a legislator right now, and while it's good to watch the councils and see how things go on, it gets depressing with each subsequent visit. It is also rather boring...I've only managed to stay thoroughly awake for one meeting so far.
It's like:
blahblahblah technical terms blahblah semantics blahblahbalh not doing their job....
All of a sudden, one legislator starts talking about the "tiger with no teeth" and pulls out, yup, a rather large papier mache model of a tiger with no teeth. And brandishes it to make his point.
Today, I went to a meeting on levying plastic bags, and the people there spent FIVE minutes trying to define a "plastic shopping bag". People, it's not that hard. Although when one guy pulled out a plastic folder as an ambiguous example, everyone sitting in the public viewing area dissolved into giggles.
I keep my thoughts written down in a notebook in order to stay awake, and I probably will get into trouble if I post too many of them, but they go along the lines of:
Woo angry politicians. This oughta be fun.
Did he just pull out a theatre prop? (tiger head)
Rah, rah, rah...goddamn semantics.
...And one wonders why these meetings are so long....
Gah! [expletives] It's a [expletive] plastic shopping bag! No, not a plastic folder like the one you're holding up, you [expletive]! Get to the point!
So next week, I'm transferring to the other office, where I might actually be able to do something practical.
---
In other news, I'm learning how to drive. Drive manual, no less. Yes, the streets are no longer safe. (Although I can do a very slow 3 point turn after 2 lessons, haha.)
Monday, April 7, 2008
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.
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.
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