hakuna matata

I really should be concentrating on studying for Int'l Econ (final on Mon 8:30am augh) but somehow the SEALNet meeting this morning keeps popping into my head. About how I've (as usual) gotten myself into something I have no idea how I'm going to deliver. Actually I sort of remember saying that at some point.. oh right that was about recruiting.

Anyway, I find it so interesting that KB (one of our professional mentors) is so invested in SEALNet and she's really all out to push us. I mean JH does say that sometimes.. His favorite phrase is like "I challenge you to..." I bet he got it from KB. And we finally have like set roles for each of us in Project Vietnam, which I think is great cos now at least there's something tangible (or defined, anyway) to work towards.

And the way the professionals 'dissect' and summarize our aims is so interesting. Sounds rather like work lingo or something.. And it was so amazing how KB got us to talk about our view of the 1. mission of PV 2. our stake in it 3. how we're going to interact. While we were talking she whipped out a marker and drew this really cool map on the whiteboard (those are really useful things) and organized it/used black lines to show us who we'd be talking to (mainly) and stuff.

Actually I don't even know why I think it's cool.. Stepping back it could be seen as a rather artificial way of distilling things. But I think it worked for me.

So what I've gotten myself into is like planning the service leadership curriculum for the entire SEALNet (okay I'm quite sure I'll have a team, but the initial impression was that she was going to hold me accountable for it and KB is quite scary haha). cos I was asking, isn't that the SEALNet-wide curriculum that everyone uses, and KB said (actually I forgot what exactly she said). But later Tu was like, but there ISN'T a documented curriculum at the moment, we've to start doing that. and KB was like "oh yes, I forgot to add: there IS no SEALNet, YOU are SEALNet." and I was like okay!!! well done...

Alright at least I've gotten that out of my system. I realized the way I punctuate kind of depends on my mood. Now it's like a semi-formal thing or something.

At this point I feel like SEALNet is going to have a huge impact on my life. Leading a project and all. And I wish my frat would have that kind of impact, but somehow I don't know if I can see that happening..

Actually this whole business with professional mentors sounds vaguely like CCAs in school where we had teachers-in-charge. And uni stuff is so different cos it's all student-run. I guess sometimes it's really nice to have people around who know more than you. And in that sense I guess that's what former-committee members (in the case of S@S) and older-bros (in the frat) are for. Which I've kind of just realized. A little late there.. oh well.

i was going to post something just now in the afternoon but then i forgot wat it was cos blogger wasn't working at that time -_-

anyway

here're some favourite quotes:

Jackie: We should really cook one day. It’ll be you and me…
Clar: (in the most adorable voice ever <- this description by jackie) And our little frying pan.


As Clar lies in bed,
Jackie: If I go to the toilet, will you be awake when I get back?
Clar: No. I will be a pufferfish.
-pause-
Clar: I think I want to be a monster.
(I started describing Celia in Monsters Inc. - with the hair-monsters and etc)
Jackie: I haven’t watched Monsters Inc.
Clar: Then I’m just describing nonsense.
Jackie: Yah…

Jackie: Hopefully when I come back you won’t be a pufferfish.
Clar: I’ll puff up and pop and then no more Clar. You’ll just have shreds. I guess that’ll be enough.


(on the night when I was getting pissed off with coding NameSurfer, I think)
Me “My aim in life is to annoy everyone”
Jackie “That’s a really stupid aim”
Me, exasperated, “Do I sound like I was being serious you silly pig?”
Jackie “No, but I felt like I should tell you it was stupid anyway”


After an extended campaign to get Jackie to send me the photos of our night out at California Café (which included me calling her so she could locate her phone in the sea of stuff that is her bed), she finds her phone and sends me the photos. Then.
Jackie, peering down at her phone screen, “Who called?”
Me “me”
Jackie “oh yah”
[this is such a classic serene-type of thing to do..]


Me, reading Ch 13 of my Econometrics txtbk, “I can’t take it anymore!”
Jackie laughs. “Oh no.. what happened?”
Me “This stupid chapter is so long!”
Jackie “Those damn chapters! Always so long…”

okay this is really a deluge of posts but yay feeling better. bible study was good. although we had like 4 pple.. aaron's hilarious. he was making all sorts of amusing remarks about the parables we were looking at.. 'cumulative investment' - the man who found hidden treasure and then sold all he had to buy the field.. and oh, lots of things. and about how christians are described as 'mustard seeds', 'yeast', 'wheat', 'fish', 'salt'. karen "we're a tasty bunch!" aaron "we could make a meal out of all that!"

i have had enough of people for the moment. well, until like 7:15 when bible study starts cos chi alpha pple are fine. haha. anyway.. yeah. this whole email thing, plus the 2-hour SEALNet meeting I just had = more than enough.

two days later you send me an email telling me the real reason you came here, and that involves a relationship issue with someone i know pretty well. while i am really glad you decided to be frank, what do you want me to do? or say? or think? i'm not sure that was such a good idea, cos now all the possibilities start chasing themselves inside my mind and i don't know what to think of you anymore. like, telling me afterwards and not giving me the entire picture is just going to confuse me more. and i haven't even the foggiest idea why it disturbed me so much. at least i think that's it for the moment, and hopefully we can all move on.

SEALNet meeting involved a length discussion on our working styles and what we've been doing/not doing. I always dislike these things cos they're very draining. I guess cos it indirectly targets our weaknesses and it's very tiring to discuss such things. I suppose it's just easier to remain in denial and push everything aside instead of really grappling with it. Something which I need to do with a lot of areas of my life, but can't find the energy to.

Anyway, so after these two things, I'm just like.. okay. I can talk to my roommate, and that's it. I don't want to have to sit around at the dining table and try and socialize with people I don't feel like talking to..

I still have so much work to do... Where does the time go?
It was nice meeting Philbert by chance at Olives, even though my mind was still rather preoccupied with the email-thing.

so i really do think i spent yesterday effectively doing nothing. well, no work at all. got up at 7:30 to go to church (and daylight savings began! ridiculously soon.. i didn't even know until i saw the sign at the restaurant/bar thing at kirkwood. somehow i think that happened last year too, saw it at some shop at yosemite during spring break. heh)

i thought the sermon wasn't very helpful cos they were encouraging members to give and talked about budget and stuff and i was (most unfortunately) falling asleep. the actual sermon was like maybe 10 minutes long. bah. oh well.. came back and got straight back into bed. jon called an hour later to ask about lunch, but i was rather reluctant to get out of bed so oh well. too bad. it wasn't that great a nap i guess, i kept waking up at random times and wondering if i should get up. esp at 12:30, cos i realized brunch was over.. then i was like heck, i'd rather sleep and i need to stop eating so much anyway.

spent like 1.5hrs updating my accounts (still can't figure out where some of my money went -_-) and then cleaned up my snowboarding boots. then jackie wanted to cook so we did. and honestly, soup is one of the most boring things you can cook. i guess it's the same as boiling water, kind of. just got to wait for it to heat up while stirring. haha.

okay don't feel like chronicling the rest of my uneventful day so i shall talk about saturday! yayyy. i don't even know why i'm so crazy about snowboarding. like if you really think about it.. boarding/skiing is just going down a snowy slope multiple times. okay i guess that's an oversimplification and the same logic would apply to everything else (e.g. basketball/blading/watever). it's the joy one derives from it!

anyway i realized the drive to kirkwood/tahoe is really long. >.< i guess having a tour bus and being able to watch DVDs makes it pass faster. (as for dorm trip). also while we were coming back i found myself staring at the other cars on the freeway wondering where they were coming from - had they been up to napa on a 2-3hr drive? were they visiting from somewhere? went to sacramento for the weekend and were now going home? it's just such a weird concept to do road trips. and especially those across-state-trips.. that's just crazy.

kirkwood has really huge slopes. i mean huge as in width-wise.. very nice and wide! i preferred the snow on the backside, only got there after lunch (and it was such a pain to get there! man. probably took us like 40mins to get over there).

i realized this whole snowboarding thing has a lot to do with overcoming psychological barriers (quote barney). like i KNOW i can toe but part of me is very afraid of trying cos the probability of me falling when toeing is higher than when i'm heeling. but when i do try and succeed then it's like YEAHHH owned the slopes! haha. also about gaining momentum while carving.. if i start and carve a couple of times then it's just easier to continue. also like pearline said.. at first, scared of green slopes, then blue.. then black! haha my aim is to be able to jump by the time i graduate

and my triumph of the saturday was answering my phone while boarding:p granted it wasn't that such a steep slope (if not i wouldn't have thought about answering my phone). so anyway i was going down an okay blue slope, and then suddenly my phone started vibrating in my jacket sleeve (yay for sleeve pockets) and i was like oh crap i bet that's sicheng asking where we are.. (we ended up splitting into 2 pairs) was trying to decide if i should answer it and then i was like heck, i'm sure i can do this! so while carving i was unzipping my sleeve pocket and taking out my phone.

it was so funny cos i was quite sure sicheng could hear my board carving the snow cos it was SO loud, but apparently later he said he could hear the wind and was wondering if i was boarding while talking. and whether i was going to fall cos i was doing that. but i didn't! haha! anyway i felt such a sense of achievement:D funkkyyy stuff! :p :) whee~