monkey nonsense

so as part of my 1001 day project, i wanted to read more. i remember after graduating a couple of years ago, i discovered the public library. i seriously hadn’t been to a library for like… 10 years! i remember trying to find books to read only to find myself in the kids/teen section reading books i read in elementary school because those were the only ones of interest. (ok ok… there was also pledged, great book! oh yeah! and paris hilton’s “biography”… i can’t believe i put myself on a waiting list to get that book. actually, i can’t believe my old roommate did too! that means our address was on the list twice!!) so i wanted to become more literate, hence #36 – Join a book club or read at least one book a month. so i didn’t end up joining a book club… too much work. and i haven’t been reading a book a month. but i have been reading!!

on the suggestion of geoffrey the giraffe pimp masta g funk, i got a couple of bill bryson books. he’s a travel writer. i never really knew there was such a thing but apparently there is. i’m a stranger here myself: notes on returning to america after 20 years away isn’t a travel book. it’s a random collection of observations bryson has on america. having lived in england for a long time before coming back to the states, he compares british and american cultures. he picks up on every day quirks about america and its citizens… that seem completely random. he has a pretty funny sense of humor. some times it comes off a bit much (like when chandler got annoyingly oversarcastic on friends), but i think overall, i found the book amusing. one of my favorites is when he talks about cupholders he mentions slurpees in that one!

hoping to read his a walk in the woods next. i heard that’s his best book.

got any book recommendations? i’m always looking for things to read!

update: sweeeeeet! i found a k-fed birthday sharer!!! cong is born the same day as k-fed!! now i’m only short jayden james. anyone born on 9/12?? let me know

in nerdy CS class that i slept through, i vaguely remember the teacher lecturing on probability. and one of the examples they always used was… if you were in a room with X number of people, the chances that someone in the room shares the same birthday is ___ because something or rather about pigeons and you shouldn’t feed them because if you give a pigeon a piece of bread, all the other pigeons will attack you since you’re a source of food and then you’ll get mauled and end up pigeon-holed or something or rather. in any case…

i didn’t really believe whatever that professor was lecturing about. the skeptic in me thought that you would need 367 (leap year) people in a room to ensure that at least 2 people shared a birthday. (isn’t that the pigeon principle? not enough holes for the pigeons to live by themselves?? you can tell how well i paid attention in class…) so how could the professor, with such confidence, say that that could be true in a room of maybe 100 students?!

but then, i met all these people born on the same day as someone else. for example, mariam and sean preston spears! rosella and britney spears! (hrm… i wonder if i could find someone with the same birthday as k-fed… yo, he’s born in march!). in fact, i met 2 people on my freshmen floor born the same day and then i met another person born the same day as my big, giant oaf friend from chinese school…. AND she was a big, giant oaf herself!! so when march rolls around every year, i get reminded of this pigeon feeding hole principle thingamajig from that class…

so happy birthday…

kevin… (not the federline one) quite possibly the only guy i know born in march…
ann, the original big giant oaf and CB4
changer banger, the original CB
cong
k-fed
cindy (my parents refer to you as li-ming cindy)
olivia
sarah
jennifer ahn
chubacca
psycho

hanson’s making a comeback!!!

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2007/03/on_the_scene_ha.html

word on the street is that little zac hanson’s voice has finally lowered and he’s singing lead on one of the songs…

sometimes i feel like a pushover. i’ve noticed that often times, i do end up doing whatever someone suggests i do. i’m not a real pushover… it’s just when i can’t make up my mind and i really don’t have a preference, i’ll likely do whatever the other person suggests.

so then i staunchly refuse to do something. usually it’s something minor because if it were something major and i agree with the advice someone’s given me, i’ll follow it. i don’t purposely refuse to do something for the sake of disagreeing… not for the big stuff at least maybe for the little stuff…

which gets me accused of being stubborn. i admit i’m stubborn at times, but usually for minor, trivia things. like the name of the store bed, bath, and beyond… it’s bed, bath, and beyond. you can’t drop the and beyond because then you limit the enormity of the store. saying that it only sells bed and bath stuff is selling it short! i digress.

is it possible to be both stubborn and a pushover? those 2 seem to go counter of each other. someone who’s stubborn will stand up for what they believe in, the exact opposite of a pushover. i think i’m a pushover when it comes to taking action. i can’t make up my mind so if i have to make a decision, i’ll tend to seek advice from others and trust whichever choice they make. i think i can be stubborn when it comes to beliefs and more abstract things. i’m not sure if that’s the right combination… is it better to stand by what you believe, but be easily swayed in what you do (being stubborn in thought but a pushover in action)? or to act decisively but be more swayed in what you believe (being stubborn in action but a pushover in thought)?

i think acting decisively indicates that your beliefs are not necessarily easily swayed. for example, suppose the person is stubborn and wants to go eat steak and only steak. they’ve already decided meat is the best thing in the world (hence the want to eat steak) so perhaps there’s really no such thing as being stubborn in action but a pushover in thought… maybe someone who seems this way is just open minded enough to appear like a pushover (i.e. listening to the benefits of an all-vegetable diet, considering it, seemingly understanding it and accepting it) but still sticking to their decision to eat steak. they’re not really a pushover i guess.

i think i have it all backwards. i would be the one who internally believes steak is the best food in the world, but after having a conversation with a vegetarian, order a salad that they suggest (ok ok, that’s probably a really bad example… but i do eat salads!) i think this is bad because i’m not really acting in line with my thoughts. but it’s not as if anyone would be able to tell… i don’t give any indication of what i’m thinking. stupid!

and in conclusion… bed, bath, and beyond!!

i took 2 days off of work this week. i have a four day weekend. what am i going to do with this time?

nothing.

whenever i take vacation days, i don’t end up doing anything! ALWAYS happens. nothing i ever plan ever ends up happening. planned trips don’t end up happening because of scheduling or ticket fare. heck, even trips where i’ve PURCHASED an airplane ticket end up being cancelled and rescheduled. granted, i’m not a great planner and i like to have flexibility in schedule, but now that i’m working and vacation days are so precious and activities more expensive (i.e. flying somewhere further rather than just driving a la college road trip), it kind of sucks.

i could’ve cancelled my vacation days i suppose… but what would be the point? so i could save up my vacation days until the end of the year and take off then to bum around?!

well, off to bed for me!

edit: haha, i tried one last attempt to plan a vacation. of course it was very last minute. like “hey, what are you doing tonight? tomorrow? this weekend?!” too bad my attempt at 41. Go on a long road trip (more than a day’s drive, a la Crossroads) to some place failed. back to bed for me… maybe after my nap, i’ll venture out to the grocery store.  now there’s a trip!