Who's a Ho?

New Blog, New Life

2010-08-10T13:46:00.003-04:00

I just started a weight-loss blog which embarrassingly will chronicle my attempts to finally get fit (and smaaaaall!) Check it out if you feel so inclined!

http://honeyishrunkthegretchen.com

<3,
Gretch

The Final Countdown

2009-05-04T18:01:00.003-04:00

Yes, that's right, the day of reckoning is fast approaching. And by that, of course, I do mean the day of my college graduation.

It's kind of weird to think that by this time next week I will no longer be an undergrad. I'll no longer have that to claim as an excuse for why I'm so A) poor, B) naive, or C) inappropriate, haha. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not like one of your average sorority sisters who is so devastated at the thought of graduating that the very word brings tears to my eyes. I've been ready for this for a while, and with a job lined up to start in July, I'm in a much better place than most of my fellow soon-to-be-ex-students. But the nature of this time of year does bring a certain kind of contemplation to my mind, and even I am not as heartless as to say that I'm not going to miss this place. After all, JMU has been my home for the past four years, my place of residence for ages 17 through 21 (and those are some pretty crucial years, I'm told) and I am sorry to be going. Sort of.

It helps to know that I've already got a place to fit in back in Northern Virginia. Most of my friends graduated long ago, and I'm finally going to be joining the ranks of those so well established in the "real world." However, I would be amiss to say that I'm jumping into this with no fears or trepidation, as I'm pretty sure the fact that I'm around constantly, rather than being a monthy (or bi-monthly... or tri-monthly...) treat when I go up to visit, I'm just going to be an establishment. It just makes me curious as to exactly how long it'll be 'til they all get sick of me, ahaha.

Yes, it is just a little bit sad to be concluding this stage of my life. From what I've been hearing lately, I should say goodbye to any concept of time, since the years all just start to run together from this point on (depressing, no?) I don't have that mentality at all, but I'm sure in a year or so I'll be just as jaded as the rest of you. In the meantime, however, I'm looking forward to the next stage. Being a grown up (whatever that means), having money (this is probably the thing I'm most excited about), being near my friends (wait, I mean, *this* is what I'm most excited about, obviously), even having-gasp!- responsibilities. It's a pretty exciting time, despite what people may be saying that is to the contrary.

Here I go. :)

Youtube Fun

2009-03-26T19:46:00.004-04:00

Just me messing around, a little somethin' somethin' to encourage JBar on his road to Youtube stardom.

Spring Breakout

2009-03-08T10:10:00.005-04:00

Greetings and salutations from sunny St. Maarten! I flew in yesterday afternoon, after an amazing 2.5 hours of sleep the night before (worth it, but still) and got to sit next to a couple of chatty Pi Phis from Dickinson on the plane ride there (horrendously entertaining due to one of them's phobia of flying and pre-flight consumption of two vodka tonics... yes, we boarded the plane at 7:50 AM.)

What you see looking out the door of my sister's apartment.

The weather here is windy but wonderful, although I left at a time when weather in Falls Church is coming around, too, so that's a bit of a bummer. I wish I had been able to leave the snow and sleet behind, it would have given me even more bragging rights. So far I haven't done much but get a whole lot of sleep and play a little rockband with the sib, but hey, I've got all week. Oops, time to go, actually. It's beach time! Think positive thoughts for me so that I don't get burnt.

Final Fantasy XIII Trailer

2009-02-18T02:49:00.006-05:00

So I was going to write a posting on this earlier, like when Ben first sent me the IGN link to the newly released trailer and I subsequently watched it twelve times in a row backtobacktobacktoback but then I became very angry over the fact that the game isn't actually being released until April 2010, if then, and I decided I had to hold on off on the posting for whatever reason. Anyway, here it is now, for all the plethora of people who read this, and especially for all those of you who actually care about anything Final Fantasy related. But, hey, I hadn't posted in a while and I'm all hyped up and I can't sleep and, you know what, this is happening.

So, it's in HD, but because I have absolutely no idea how to reformat the way this blog is set up, part of it is cut off. But, obviously, that doesn't matter, since nobody other than myself is actually going to be watching this anyway. Carry on..

Superbowl Sunday

2009-02-02T01:37:00.006-05:00

Amanda and my creation in celebration of Superbowl XLIII. Sorry, Cardinals. It was a pretty excellent game, though, if I may say so myself. And that's coming from someone who actually had to take a second to realize what "TD" was an acronym for during the game, so I feel like it counts for even more.

What an excellent weekend.

Dilemma Dilemma

2009-01-22T19:18:00.004-05:00

UPDATE:: I am writing this to you from my very own new Macbook. Mmmm.

So as my graduation looms ahead on the proverbial horizon, I find myself searching with growing desperation to fulfill the promise my father made to me oh-so-many years ago when I first embarked on this journey. "Graduate college," he said to me, "and I will buy you a new computer."

Okay, so maybe it wasn't quite so dramatic, and it definitely isn't something that I've thought about every day since, but since I am graduating soon, I really am getting kind of ancy for a new 'puter. Being constantly chained to my desk can be kind of tiresome, and I like the idea of having the mobility of a laptop to bring with me wherever. That way I can do my writing in fabulous and trendy places where I won't actually get any work done but I'll look cool, right?

Anyway, my current dilemma is between whether or not to spend my computer budget (or, rather, my dad's allotted computer budget) on a hyper-portable netbook (I'm looking at the Dell Inspiron Mini 9), made for easy transportation, and then get a docking station with a large monitor and some sweet accessories, or if I should get a nice pretty fancy macbook instead. I mean, I'm not going to lie, the idea of having a mac is pretty tempting, and I know that since 80% of my friends are mac converts this would probably be the course of action they suggest, but I'm still torn. I just don't know. But what I do know is that I want my new computer very soon, very very soon indeed, because as all who know me know about me, I am not an especially patient person.

Anyway, so ends my diatribe on what is currently on my mind. You're all very, very welcome.

Regret-free Guarantee?

2009-01-15T00:55:00.000-05:00

So I'm fully aware that I'm several months late on the pickup here, but I just find this concept so hilarious and awesome that I'm going to post on it anyway. You guys will simply have to deal with it (or not, depending on how you're feeling right now.)

So Google, with all of its amazingosity and genius ideas, has come up with this little app that can be installed for Gmail called "Mail Goggles." Essentially, the idea behind the application is to prevent many a regretted late-night emails sent out when the user is probably more than a little intoxicated. You can set it so that the application is only in effect during certain hours on the weekends, when one's judgment is less likely to be unaffected, and it makes you solve math problems under a time limit before you can send your email, just to make sure you're cognitively aware of exactly what you're sending. I find this both hilarious, and incredibly practical for anyone who is prone to some drunken emailing.

I do need to point out, however, that this would probably be much more useful if there were some way to reconstitute this idea as an application for texting, instead. Being addicted to my phone and my unlimited texting plan, I am the first to admit that my affinity for the text message has increased exponentially as of late. I fear that eventually will come a time (again) when I send a terribly misguided text unwittingly and unwantedly, only to wake up in the morning with a headache and an impending feeling of dread. Google, come up with a plan to prevent that particular regret, and I'm sold. Or rather, I guess I should be addressing this to Apple, since I have a fabulous iPhone and all of you should be jealous. Just needed to work that in somehow.

First (Last) Day Back

2009-01-12T11:14:00.000-05:00

Well, it's official. I am once again a college student. Although, things feel different this time around. Maybe it's because every other time I've come back to school and really not wanted to, graduation still seemed so distant that it wasn't really realistic to pine away for it. And now that I'm in my final semester... well, it doesn't get much realer than this. I'm so excited for graduation, and the chance to go out and try to live my life, and when I say I'm excited, I mean I'm terrified. I want to get a job, I want to be successful, I want to start a real life. And who knows exactly how all that's going to happen? Luckily, I've still got a couple months at least to try to figure things out. And, if all else fails, looks like I'm going to be awesomely bumming around Northern Virginia for a while post-grad! Hahaha.

First class today (and only class today) is at 3:35. Not too shabby for working myself back into the world of academia, if I do say so myself (don't hate.) It's a two-and-a-half hour long class though, so here's to vending machines that carry poptarts in Harrison Hall cause it's going to be a long haul. Hope I don't f*ck up my final semester and actually do get to walk at graduation... hope I don't f*ck up a lot of things, actually...

Anyway, if anyone has some good leads on jobs por mois, lay 'em on me. If not, y'all should be so proud that I've actually made like, more than one post on this thing since I wrote that post about posting more (haha.) Let's see how long it lasts.

What I Get to Order at a Bar

2009-01-04T17:12:00.000-05:00

I cannot wait to be 21.

I Am Not A Finisher

2009-01-02T13:19:00.000-05:00

I am a starter, for sure. An instigator of things. I am full to the brim of lovely and creative ideas that would wow and impress a fair few people, I'm sure. I can't tell you how many stories I've begun to write, how many songs I've gotten to the beginning of the second verse of. When my family moved from Taiwan to Canada the summer before my senior year of high school, I unearthed like seven different journals and diaries, all used for various thought-recording and whatnot--all unfinished. Like, not even didn't-make-it-all-the-way-to-the-end-unfinished. Like, I-wrote-six-entries-before-I-gave-up-cause-I'm-lazy-unfinished. Kind of like this blog. I was really excited about this one, too, for all two posts I ended up writing.

So I'm trying to turn over a new leaf, if you will. I've already started to do the same in other creative endeavors of mine, and here's my attempt at this one, too. Nobody reads this anyway, and nobody really cares what I have to say (something that I am absolutely fine with, btdubs), so this is just me, trying to pick up something where I left off, and maybe not leave it completely and totally unfinished this time. Well, I mean, it'll probably end up the same way, but--eh. New year, new attempt.

If this ends up being my only post for all of 2009, you can yell at me later. :)

Hapa, Hapa, Joy, Joy.

2008-03-27T11:10:00.000-04:00

I wait longingly for the day when, upon meeting someone new, I will not have the opposite party stare at my face questioningly for several awkward moments before uttering some semblance of the question, "What are you?" As the third child of my Chinese mother and my Caucasian father, my ethnicity is constantly in question by the public eye. People act as though they cannot truly get to know who I am if they don't first decipher the origin of my heritage.

Most Whasian (white + asian = whasian, duh) kids find themselves often in a state of uncertainty as to what categories in which we belong. Our appearances span the gamut from almost fully Asian looking to almost fully White, with just a smidgen of something exotic thrown in the mix. So, our hair might be long and shiny, or our eyes might have a hint of widescreen going on, but it's 14:9, not 16:9, and if you didn't explicitly know the nature of our origin, you would have no idea. So people stare at you for a while and expect you to come right out with an explanation about why you look just a little bit unfamiliar, always answering, "Ohhhh, I thought there was something..."

It's difficult for all people of mixed ethnicities to find themselves in a world where cultural identity plays such a huge role. Society has come a long way since Angel Island, but stereotypes still exist in spades, and we halfies are no exception. "Whasian Pride" doesn't help cut down on the stereotypes that exist for Asian people in general, because with such a longing to belong to the group as a whole, we play up our "Asianness" more than we might realize a lot of the time. My go-to "excuse" for why I do a lot of things, as well as the reason why I might do them tends to be, "Well, I'm Asian." I play video games: I'm Asian, but I'm bad at math: I'm not really Asian. Think of this what you will, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only Hapa out there playing up one of their traits or another for various reasons. And it's because we aren't always quite sure of what we're "allowed" to do with our identities that these kind of excuses crop up.

There is hope for us all, yet, though. Blurring the lines between Asian and Caucasian opens yourself up to being able to connect with a wider demographic of people. The mixed-features of Eurasians no longer carry the stigma of Vietnam G.I.s and Asian prostitutes like they once did, but are being considered the face of global progress. Channel V, East Asia's equivalent of MTV, has veejays who are almost exclusively mixed, and Asian modeling agencies are actively fishing in Europe and the U.S. for Whasian models to bring back and propel into stardom. Whasian actors and actresses are no longer pigeonholed in roles where they play stereotypical Asian people (or worse, when White actors are cast in Asian roles), but are becoming leading players in the celebrity world. Keanu Reeves, Kristin Kreuk, Maggie Q, and many more talented individuals have been shining as of the last few years.

I know that my racial identity is by no means the only thing that defines me. I am many things that are in no way affected by my ethnicity: funny, smart, sensitive, and the like. Even knowing this, though, it is so difficult not to always equate those qualities that I see in myself to my Asianness or my Americanness, or what have you. So for the meantime, I suppose I just have to continue to dissuade myself from labeling myself as a "banana" or an "egg", and what it would to be either one. I'm Whasian, and that's the end of that.

Down the Rabbit Hole

2008-03-26T19:54:00.000-04:00

As much as I enjoy thinking that I am light years ahead of the masses in terms of, well, general enlightenment, I just cannot stop myself from following their example. So here we are, a blog full of nothing but my useless, but hilarious, opinions on things that nobody should actually care about (but, of course, we all do.)

I honestly must have known this day would come eventually, but I was living in a state of obligatory denial. After all, "bloggers" are pretentious and useless and far too opinionated, right? Well, after a lot of careful soul-searching (ha!) I came to the conclusion that I generally am pretentious, useless, and opinionated. I just never had the correct outlet for expressing my oh-so-incredibly-deep thoughts.

I don't expect much, if anything at all, to come of this, but at the very least I'm sure it will be better than bottling in all my rage (I have a lot of rage) and taking it on my (9) housemates. We aren't prostitutes, we're just in college. I'm sure all of that will come out later, though.

Wherever this little endeavor into the "blogosphere" ends up taking me, I remain ardently devoted to the idea that at the very, very least, it should be an entertaining ride. So let's hope that inspiration strikes me very soon, because I guarantee that if something makes enough of an impression on me to get me writing about it, it's probably worth your while.