..and a Happy New Year!
Ah.. merry belated Christmas! New Year's in coming at full speed.. only three more days left of 2004! Boy o boy.. can you believe the year is already over? I was going to do a summary of my year, but I'm not that interesting, so there isn't much to say!! OH yes, last thing about New Year's: for my new year's resolution, I was thinking of putting "stop procrastinating" on my list, then I stumble upon this quote, which is the perfect reason why I shouldn't: "The Procrastinator's Creed: 1. I believe that if anything is worth doing, it would have been done already. 2. I shall never move quickly, except to avoid more work or find excuses...." - unknown (LOL!!)
Anyways, these last few days have been pretty boring. Didn't really go anywhere except around the city.. ie. mall/movie. There aren't that many interesting boxing day sales in F'ton.. *sigh*. I was going to go to Bangor, but this storm hit the atlantic (actually, it was a blizzard in some parts) so that was a no-go *sniff, sniff.. disappointed* Anyhow.. watched Oceans 12 and it was ..umm.. interesting? I found that they just had too much on the go and tried to twist everything a lot. Was sort of ??? during some sections.. and come'on man, even if that guy can do yoga, there's no way that he can avoid those randomly set lasers.. bleh. The acting was good, but Ocean 11 was definitely better. It was a let down when they all got arrested.. the craftiness and ingenuity that I expected wasn't there... I wanted to come out of that movie and be like.. "that's genius!!".
Besides going to the theatre, I've been watching lots of movies at home too. heheh.. I watched this Michael Douglas movie "don't say anything" (or something like that..). Actually, I THOUGHT the movie was Gangs of New York but I got fooled. Anyways, the movie wasn't bad. I also watched Raising Helen which was OK, Mona Lisa Smile which was great, and am now watching a Chinese Series called War and Beauty (金枝欲孽).
BTW, my monitor is going to die soon, so if anyone out there knows of some great deal.. let me know :D
Ok, less of my boring life. The recent big world event: the earthquake and tidal wave near Sumatra. Apparantly Canadians have donated around $200,000 as of yesterday, but I think we should do better. I made a donation to the Canadian Red Cross, but there are various organizations that are looking for monetary donations to help with the relief effort. The links:
Red Cross
Unicef
World Vision
I think you can make an online donation at any of these websites with a mastercard or visa card. Count it as your goodwill for the new year's, and remember that those people really need help!!
The devestation is just so heart wrenching, here we are sitting in warm homes and enjoying the holidays and those people are all fighting to survive even though they are all trying to deal with their grief. Help them by donating! (The news says that they don't want actually objects because it's hard to get them over there.)
A change of tone to end off this entry. Happy New Years to Everyone! May this New Year keep you and your loved ones happy, healthy and safe. Bless and help those in the midst of the fight for their lives.
-JY
Silence of the Snow
What a busy weekend (again). I took Friday off..hehehe... I went for breakfast with my piano teacher at Cora's for the first time.. wow..I'm impressed - it's cute! Anyway, I was really stuffed after that breakfast and luckily she had some errands to run, so we had to walk around downtown.
Let me see.. I put up my tree on Friday evening and went to the library. Boy.. it was like a gold mine on Friday.. I just kept seeing interesting books and kept picking up more and more.. ahhh!! heheh.. I figure the best way to spend xmas day is by reading and sleeping..
Anyways, on with my weekend. Saturday was.. umm.. hmm.. oh ya, I woke up with a headache but baked cookies anyway. In the evening I went to a potluck for youth group.. everytime I'm around them, I feel SO OLD. The kids that are in youth group now are the kids that we used to take care of during summer camp.. now they are all in high school *sob* .. its really really rather strange.
Sunday was a busy day. I woke up and taught piano, did some tidying up, went to a meeting, went to a drum practice for dragon dance and then went to have steamboat with some friends in the evening. Plum tuckered out.
Schedule seems really packed from now until after Xmas too. Oh boy. I'm really looking forward to not having to get up early in the morning because I'm TIRED! I know I'm usually sleepy, but I'm just really tired lately. I think I've mentioned this before.. sorry for being redundent :P
Oh ya.. my title. Have you ever noticed how silent it is during/right after it's peacefully snowing? It's like absolute silence outside.. and it's SO NICE! The pink sky, the softly falling snowflakes and the peace and silence is wonderful! Anyways, how much more about this can I talk about.. haha..
Thinking of going skiing later this week. hehehe I know someone (somepeople) in the tropics must be sooo green with envy.. I think the snow on the hills should be pretty good since it's been snowing so much this past week. Ahhh it's exciting!! But I need ENERGY!!
You know, yesterday during steamboat, they had this random playlist going on my friend's pc, and had somehow selected some CNY (Chinese New Year) songs onto the list. It made me feel really weird (??). At first, it reminded me of the happy times during CNY with those big banquets we have with CCANB and OCSA. With CCANB, everyone knew everyone, and so it was an exciting and fun time for all. We were all decked out in our good clothes and had lots of friends around etc.. With OCSA, there was the energy of organizing the banquet and the excitement of when guests were coming in. I think I'm not doing a very good job explaining.. but my mind is sort of like jelly at the moment :P Anyways, I was feeling that.. and then also feeling sort of sad because I don't get to be around my relatives during the holidays (xmas included). I really miss them.. maybe it was because I was flipping through photo albums the other day .. it almost brought tears to my eyes because so much has happened in the past 4 years....
Alright.. thats all.. I better do something cuz apparantly I have to deal with student grades soon.
JY
Teachers Lead the Leaders of Tomorrow
Hehehe, I thought this one up while I was trying to fall asleep last night. It's very queer, I'm so tired but I still can't sleep.. ARRGGGH!!!!!
Anyways, if you think about it, teaching is a very important, n'est pas? I would myself, categorize it as one of the most important fields in the world today. Ok, it definitely comes after those in the medical profession, but I mean, teachers influence and shape (as corney as this sounds, it's true) students. Think about it, on average, most of us (us being myself and friends) have been in school for how many years? We start around 5-6 (maybe younger, if you want to count nursery/preschool :P) and go until we are in our mid 20's. People, that's around 20 years of school!!!!! Gah. Gah. GAH!!
On with the topic. Personally, a few teachers have influenced me a lot. My piano teacher of course, a grade one teacher who taught my brother, a grade four teacher that taught my brother (ok, he seems to always get the great ones..but both of those teachers loved me because we were at the same school and I'd always help my brother or something to that extent.), my physics teachers from grade 10 and 11 (the Williams' who I still see cuz they live on the corner of my street!!!), the Crawfords (I think that's their last name, I can't remember, but I had Mrs. Crawford for grade 10 math, and Mr. Crawford for grade 11 math..grade 12 math teacher was a nightmare who couldn't teach, but had the very strong ability of writing a run on sentence that would be longer than this paragraph!!!), and Mme Vautour from grade 7 science who would talk super fast and write superfast so that it was impossible to fall asleep in her class. I remember some other teachers with fondness, but maybe they just didn't have the pizzaazz or the energy and sincerity that these teachers had. Anyways, whats my point? During the earlier years, teachers influenced me morally. The whole no smoking, no drugs, world peace, be nice to others, respect, etc.. went straight to my head and a lot of those values I still carry around today. In the later years (ehhh you know what I mean!!), they influenced me to do better and to try hard. They are also people that you could talk to about your problems and get advice from.
Oh yes, speaking of teachers who advise well, I remember in grade 9, my math teacher retired half way through the year. Anyways, we had a substitute for about a month, and then our new teacher was hired. Low and behold, when I found out who it was, my face went white. Why? Because, the new math teacher was my after school leader from when I was in elementary school and he was in high school!!! It was sooo weird, cuz we were sooooo bad and mean to him back then. hehehe.. Anyways, the first day he walked into class, he winked at me. Everyone turned around and stared and was like.. what the? It's rather funny now that I think about it, because those girls thought he was hot, and there were a lot of snots (people who give airs and think they are better than others) in my class. Anyways, I was always sort of bored in that class, don't really remember what I did during that class, but I think I sort of got the special treatment. I remember talking to Peter (err Mr. Tomilson.. haha) during lunch time. Ah, I wonder where he is now, it'd be nice to talk to him again. It's all still a very strange strange thing, but it was a comfort having him as one of my teachers. That year was an extremely hard year for me..anyway, we won't get into that, its a rather complex subject.
Back to my topic. HEHEHE, I keep going off on a tangent :P Alright. So, teachers have the power to influence their students. Students in turn, ARE the power of tommorrow. As much as adults don't want to admit it, eventually they are going to retire and have to turn the reigns over to their younger generations. SO, why does our education system in Canada suck so bad!?!?! OK, it's not 100% bad, but judging from my experience, there are LOTS of problems. Drawing on the subject of my last post, the whole human rights and freedom of expression thing has taken away from the discipline children can have. I say that because I believe one of the things that would help a lot would be uniforms. Why? Because, uniforms will cut down on the whole "I'm rich and you aren't/I'm wearing branded and cool clothing and you aren't") attitude that students have. Do you know how much TIME and ATTENTION they use up on that crap during class time? It's unbelievable, especially in junior high (maybe highschool too, but I was rather isolated with the enriched courses where students weren't so materialistic). Uniforms might not completely eliminate the problem, but I think it would at the very least control it. The most common argument against uniforms is that it eliminates student's freedom to express themselves through the clothing they wear. B-S! They can express themselves through art, music, and writing. Afterall, those are subjects taught at school, oui? It's not as if they have to wear their uniforms after school or on weekends either. Geesh.
This blog is rather messy and disorganized, but if I really wanted to rant and rave about the quality of education and the social mess our school system is in, I could probably go on and on, and most of you probably wouldn't want to read my blog anymore :P hehe..
Last paragraph about education.. promise! After saying all of the above, why do I want to be a teacher? Well, I admit that sometimes I wonder if I could handle teaching day in and day out. It's a demanding profession, there's no slacking, no time for headaches, not feeling well, or sleepiness. BUT, I LOVE IT. I love the feeling I get when my students are doing well, and when I get feedback about how they students love me. (sorry, that sounds rather conceited) My mom told me that a teacher from Taiwan, who came over to Chinese summer camps across Canada, told her that she needed to "pei yang" (encourage) me to become a teacher because I would be a great teacher. I was really surprised when I heard it because I didn't think I did anything special with those kids, but hey, I get that feedback a lot. (more conceitedness).. well, maybe its my calling in life, to teach and to influence kids? It's the one thing I feel confident in, that I know how to teach. On the other hand, my confidence is sort of swaying these days when I hear about some really heavy duty type problems at our preschool, like.. how would I deal with situations like that? Then again, I see some of these education students and wonder.. why the heck they don't know these things (such as, if you have a student that is exceling in all the materials you give them, give them something that will challenge them!!).... to me, it's just common sense??! I don't know.. it scares me when I see how some of those students are.. I can't believe that they are going to be teaching children.. *sigh*..maybe thats one of the reasons our education system suck.
Ok, no more of that. I've been pretty good about updating these days eh?? hehehe.. today is our office "party" .. as much as you can "party" with 5 people. We drew names for a gift swap, and I think I can pretty much guess who has who. Hahaha!!
I still haven't gotten my Xmas tree up yet.. hehe my good ol artificial tree. HEY, it's better for the environment..and probably saves money in the long term! Cutting down trees to bring inside.. tisk tisk.. trees give us oxygen.. gee.. what happened to green peace? Why aren't they picketing Christmas tree cutting? :P
Last night I think the environmental deamon haunted my dreams. I think I've been sort of bad by not recyling each piece of paper that I could be. I put some in the garbage out of pure laziness (recyling box is too far away compared to garbage can) *blush* Anyways, my dream was that I had thrown out this tiny card of paper, but somehow it resurfaced about 6 months later and it hadn't deterioriated at all. I felt guilt during my dream, and since I was starting to clean my room last night, I dreamt that I put every single piece of paper into the recycling box. I guess my conscience is bothering me. DO YOU RECYCLE?! DO IT before the environmental monster comes and haunts YOU!
TATA!
JY
Winter Wonderland
It snowed all day yesterday, the really pack-y stuff and with big snowflakes. By 4:30pm, the city had slowed down because everyone was paranoid. It took me 30 minutes to go pick up my mom (which usually takes around 10 mins). Anyways, that evening, it was GORGEOUS. It was like one of those scenes you see in the movies where everything is covered in snow, the world is peaceful, the sky is pink and it's just sooooooooooooooo beautiful and relaxing! It would have been nice to just sit out there and enjoy.. or go for a walk. PLUS, the Christmas lights in front of everyone's house made the scenery even more enjoyable. AH, I wish it always looked that way.. but I guess it's got to be ugly sometimes in order for us to enjoy the beauty of things, right?
It's feeling more and more like Xmas. Last year I barely noticed that Xmas had arrived, but I guess I have more "free" time on my hands this year. Ya, free time my a** :P I've still a ton of things I want to get done, but I haven't dared stray too far from the website. It's around 80% completed, but I'm worried we won't have everything in top shape for their opening. Oh well, it's partially their own faults too.
I just heard that Scott Peterson got convicted for murdering his pregnant wife. I was wondering, how come some of these stories make the headlines and some of them don't? I know that people magazine has published quite a few articles about him, and I think the story has even made the cover before...but why this one and not the others? Sometimes you really wonder what this world has come to, why people do these things.. is it in human nature to kill other humans? Or are these people just out of their minds?
Another thing that was on the news yesterday was that Canada is trying to bring those in poverty and included in the Human Rights Act. They say that people who are poor often get subjected to non equality treatments. I know that the human rights act has made Canada the country it is, in that there is no tolerance for racial or sexual discrimination. Actually, this whole topic reminds me of a conversation I was having with a friend a few months ago. We were talking about racism and the world today. Do we think that racism has increased, decreased or stayed the same? I voted that it got better for a period, then it's starting to increase again. I think it was last year, but you started to hear these small stories about political figures making racial slurs in their public speeches or how a country somewhere in Europe was starting up to anti-Jewish again (or maybe it was another race..). I guess it's sort of a vicious cycle. I mean, in school, we are always told to be fair, no stereotyping, treat people equally, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, etc. But then, look at the politics of the world today. We also tell our children "war is bad", but how can they believe us when we have a war going on? Society has changed, and perhaps when our current politicians were growing up, the equality thing wasn't stressed as much as it is now, but gees, it makes it hard for those kids!!
Alright, signing off! CIAO!!
Deprived of Sleep
Hehehe.. didn't write on Friday.. sorry :P So life has been busy.. yes, even though exams are over, I have other things to do :P
We had our piano recital on Saturday, a 2 hour recital .. ahhh.. ah hem. Anyways, my students all played pretty well. Some better than others, but everyone did well in general. I have one more piano lesson with each of them (except for two, cuz we had their last lesson last night) before this term ends. Aww... some of them gave me gifts, it's so sweet!
I had to give out report cards at Chinese school. It takes time and thought. I mean, if a kid never does his homework, what are you going to say to the parents? Your child doesn't do his homework? I suppose you could say that, but I was trying to be more tactful. Ain't an easy task when the kid doesn't pay attention and doesn't do his homework!! Well, honestly, I think every single one of them has improved. We were playing a flash card game yesterday by forming two lines (boys against girls since there are 3 each!) and seeing which person could say the word first. hehehe.. as usual, the girls beat the boys. (I guess this is when it starts.. I mean, yg girls always seem to win all competitions, right?? heheeheh just teasing, Jeff :P) OK, back to what I was saying. They all managed to get at least one or two words right. Surprisingly, they really enjoy working with flash cards. I usually let them work in pairs so that they are helping each other learn.. I guess it's a sign that I should make some more for them to work on! (It's soooo time consuming though). I'm also working on a game where they have to match the characters and pin yin (Chinese pronunciation) with a picture.. I guess it's a bit of a childish game, but hey, it's better than making them sit there and memorize, right?! I was also thinking of making a memory game.. match the character with the pin yin or maybe match the pin yin with the picture. Hmm... Christmas projects!
What else have I been busy with besides piano and Chinese School? Been stressing over the website we are working on because they would like to have it completed for their December 16th project launch (a new business centre or something). It's really time consuming because the graphics they gave us to work with suck (literally look like pictures that people did in the 80's or something), missing lots of logos & graphics & pictures, and their information is all over the place.. it's like piecing together a puzzle. To make matters worse, some of their projects have the same name, I think it's because they are the same design.. I feel googled-eyed!!! Anyways, it's starting to come together now because we've been struggling with those problems for a few months now. The lady that's suppose to be helping us, isn't very helpful.. how she ever became a project manager is beyond my comprehension. Gneh, guess that's business for you, just got to suck it up and deal with it!
People are really getting into the Christmas cheer these days. I am starting to feel it. Maybe it's because my students (Chinese and piano!!) have given me gifts, and we recieved a Poinsetta (Christmas plant) from our neighbour. Hmm.. we haven't even put our outdoor lights up yet.. I feel sooooo guilty because everyone in the neighbourhood has had them up for at least a week now *blush*
Well, I don't seem to have anything to do here at work at the moment, so I'll just keep writing. Hehehe.. sorry if I'm just rambling, but I'm bored, ok!?
I took the car in for a err .. err.. appointment?? hehehe.. I never know what to say to those mechanics because I'm such a car dunce. Anyways, the light's near the err... shift? gears? the place where you change from Drive to Neutral to Reverse!?!?!? is burnt out. The change oil sign came up on the dash about 2.5 weeks ago and then went out, then the shifty thingy's light burnt out. ALSO, when we go over 100km/hr on the highway, the whole car starts to vibrate. I'll be glad when that burnt light isn't burnt out anymore.. it's really hard to drive at night.. I'm so paranoid I'm going to back up into someone because I'm never 100% sure I'm in the right gear (unless I turn on the light)!!
Speaking of cars and driving, Fredericton drivers are maniacs. There's lots of road rage around this city. I swear, I've had people pull out in front of me at the last moment and I have come SO close to hitting them. Actually, at one of our dangerous intersections (Regent & Kingscollege) last week, I was going straight and the car across from me was going to turn up the hill. This girl, decided she was goign to go when I was already 70% across the street. I was literally 0.5M away from hitting her. To make matters worse, there was a car coming down the hill and one coming up the hill and here I was in the middle of the intersection. I made her go first (since I couldn't really go anywhere since she was IN MY WAY) and then the car coming down the hill just kept going.. ahhhh.. there's a truck heading up the hill towards me!! HELP!! Anyways.. I was really lucky that night.. if that truck was going any faster, I'd probably have been......let's not go there. *shiver* The whole point is, these things happen so often. I'm not sure why people are becoming more reckless and driving faster (I've had cars PASS me on busy streets even though I'm going 50km/hr)... all I know is that it's freaking dangerous driving around here!!
This is probably going to look like a very long blog, but it really isnt' that long because it's been put into a narrow table.. hheeh.. oh well. Have fun reading, if you have the patience (Yes, it's a challange!!) As Colin from the Amazing Game says "GAME ON!!" hahahahahahah.. (ya, that's not really applicable to this situation, but I just felt like saying it.. it's fun!!)
Homefree!!!!
Finally!!! I'M DONE!! :D :D :D Funny how finishing exams can make your mood change completely eh? WELL! What to do first? haha.. I've gotta teach tonight, so too bad.. can't really get into anything. I think I'll do some cardio after teaching and then watch a movie or something.
hmm.. I would really like to get some new books to read. I just finished two books. The first one is The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. It's about a farmer and his life before the Opium War. It's not really about historic events, but more of a portrayal of what life was like back then. It's definitely won't become a favorite read, but the story was interesting. If you are looking for something action-packed, it's definitely not the book you are looking for. If you're interested in culture, then it's a good book. Pearl S. Buck is a caucasian who spent her childhood in China, but there's been debate at how accurate her depictions are because of course, her perspective isn't the "Chinese perspective". Anyways, she won the Pulitzer prize so obviously something is good about her writing.
The second book I read was the Jade Peony by Wayson Choy. The book is set in Vancouver's Chinatown around the time of WW2. It was a three parter, one for each child in the family. I thought the stories were interesting and a very good depiction of a typical chinese/canadian attitude. Comparing it to Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club, it's definitely more accurate and NOT as exaggerated. Amy Tan's novel is suppose to be a really well known novel, but I didn't think it was that great??
Anyhow, there's a sequel to the Jade Peony which I want to read.. but its rather expensive.. :P I'm looking for some good books .. any recommendations?
HAHAH we had our first "storm" of the season. We had a mix of freezing rain and snow last night and school got cancelled *rolls eyes*. The roads aren't even that bad.. what a hoot for those kids. School seems pretty deserted now but it's nice to get some peace and quiet at work, although I'm feeling rather bored. I really should go do those finances thats on my "to do" list.. but frankly, trying to find mysterious paper trails really sucks. Their paperwork is such a huge mess from 2 years ago.. took me ages just to get the stuff organized.. geeshh.. ahhh when will it ever end!!!! haha
Thats all for now.. ciao
JY
Yadda, yadda, yadda
AHHHH TOMORROW IS MY EXAM!!! FREAKING OUT. Well, not really :P..hheheh.. actually, I'm a bit worried that the crazy profs will come out with a crazy exam even though the sample exams from last year looks reasonable.. who knows.. one of the profs teaching this course is known to be a bit of a nut.. heard he got his questions from Oxford University.. uhhhh.. ya..
After tomorrow, I'm going to be FREE ..FINALLY!!! No course hanging over my head!! yuppi!! It'll be so nice to just work and teach.. no assignments, midterms and finals to worry about! :D :D :D I've got plans to do some cleaning, throwing out, crafts, baking, reading, watching my tons of movies and tv series, SLEEPING, etc.. Oh life will be beautiful!! hahah
Speaking of movies.. I have a couple of them on my "to watch" list. Such as: Bridget Jones Diary II, Polar Express, and to come: Ocean 12!! I'm excited about that one. I hope I have some time to watch Ocean 11 (My brother gave me the DVD for my birthday two years ago) so I can actually remember what the story was about.. haha.. I only remember that it was a good movie. :P
Watched the Incredibles a few weeks ago.. darn it was good!! If you haven't watched it. GO WATCH IT!!! You'll love it.. even if you don't like cartoons. Witty, funny and action packed. Can't wait for the next movie ..(they ended on a cliff hanger). Also watched National Treasure which was OK.. wounld't say it was better than the Incredibles but it was interesting. Apparantly it's on it's 3rd week of being No. 1 in theatres.. kind of surprised. Maybe its because of the Nicholas Cage factor? Who knows.
Alright.. I think I'd better stop here.. going to go home and crash before I start studying. Exhausted. I had big black bags under my eyes last night.. I dont think I've ever had black bags like THAT before..looked like I was punched or something. I mean, I've been this tired (actually, more tired) that this before, but maybe its because I can't seem to get a proper night's sleep these last few weeks........ ??!?
Pray for me .. I need all the luck and praying I can get for my exam.
JY
