Why dieting doesn't work in my life, also...

[mugen_edamame]

... why I love some people so much.

This has been the week after the feasting of Raya celebrations. I've been stuffed chock-a-block full of every delicacy known, and unknown, to my country. Since I had an awesomely awful case of bursitis during the fasting month, I've been allowed a few weeks' respite from friggin' physical activity. I did get a new hot water bottle to put on my knee, and in honour of an equally clingy creature, I'm calling her T-Zhou. Gosh, what an imagination.

Oh, and the chemistry exam on Wednesday was depressing. It was further proof that I am bloody incapable of sustained effort. However, with the recent angst-fest involving my uni applications, I'm going to give "continuing endeavour" another shot. Let's see how long that lasts.

I've been asked to an interview to a really prestigious uni, but the lady in charge of these things said it's not really unusual for this particular uni to call as many students as they can for an interview... Not much of a moral booster, but it'll suffice.

Oh yes, back to the title story.

On Monday, my mum picked me up from college with a giant bowl of ice cream. I finished it.
On Tuesday, I bought myself a chocolate-blended drink-thing from a coffeehouse. I finished it.
On Wednesday, my brother found a bit of cash. He bought the family a giant bowl of ice cream. I finished it.
On Thursday, I drank approximately six million cups of Pepsi at a friend's birthday party. I then proceeded to embarrass the boys present by downing a glass of a worrying Pepsi-tabasco mix without flinching.
To-day, I've...

Well, I only ate lunch today, but the day's young still. So the whole "let's stuff her full of stuff" plan may still-

Oh damn. I ate a bar of chocolate a friend gave me.

I told my skinny, slim ballerina friend that one should do as one wishes, because one never knows when one could get run over by a truck.

She insists my personal philosophy has corrupted her mind. I don't think she's wrong. XD

And I'm joining NaNoWriMo for the first time this year! I want to get any and all kinds of writing out of my system in November, so that I can concentrate during my study-break in December. At least, that's the line I'm sticking by.

It involves a LOT of traveling, so I would appreciate very much if you could tell me the things you like about you country, and the things you don't like so much about your country. I'd be honoured to try and insert it into the story. In fact, this month will be very tumultuous as there're a hell of a lot of things for me to do.

Including cursed driving lessons.

Comments

[pandawolf.livejournal.com]

I'll try to write a decent comment tomorrow. I'm ready to the dream land now.

Happy belated Aidil Fitri! I apologize for every mistake I've done to you. Love you.

[pandawolf.livejournal.com]

'I've been stuffed chock-a-block full of every delicacy known, and unknown, to my country.'
Same thing for me. My father said that it would be a waste if I didn't gain weight because I cuddled the delicacies everywhere. Yes, everywhere. Watching tv, reading, laying down, etc etc. You know that 'Mudik' tradition in my country? So, I 'mudik' to my grandparents' home and gone wild there.

I didn't, don't gain weight. At all. Nothing. Not even 1 kg. I'm still thin, or a walking prick. And I agree with your friend XD

What chemistry?

About my country, since we're neighbor, so more or less, you know it. But the thing I greatly dislike here is the political government. I'm not a separatist or supremacist. I'm sick of that empty promises and political situation. And now The Great Depression is back...

[mugen-edamame.livejournal.com]

tell me about the people you like, the restaurants that make you happy, the teachers that annoy you... stuff that comes right from a native than from a neighbour guessing. If you don't mind XD

[pandawolf.livejournal.com]

People: my friends, my family, my nephews, the internet cafe's owner because he often gives me discount when I'm there whenever my PC is boycotting me, and you my dear :)

Restaurant: The one near my house because it's so tasty, the place is clean, they're friendly, it's cheap, halal, and we can 'pay later' whenever we (as in me and my friends) are in the hole-in-the-wallet mode. In other word, indebted ;p

Teacher I Dislike: One of my many chem teachers. She's plain annoying and doesn't really know how to teach properly. Usually I prefer the back chair when I'm in her class. I sleep, or read manga or whatever it is that in my hands, or surfing on the net via my cell phone. That's me, the epitome of the good, quiet, accomplished student. She doesn't teach us much but she expects the highest marks. And most of the time, she blames us if we get the bad marks. Wtf??

In the class, she teaches unrelated and irrelevant things. And kinda that self-pimping type.

[seamusog.livejournal.com]

Pepsi-tabasco mix -- yeah that would ruin a diet XD

And I'm joining NaNoWriMo

Yay! Good luck.

I would appreciate very much if you could tell me the things you like about you country, and the things you don't like so much about your country>/i>

What I like about the U.S.

Freedom and opportunity -- you have a chance if you try hard enough to live a good life, but this is present in a lot of countries to varying degrees. Perhaps I should focus on tangibles.

Ok, second go: What I like about the U.S.

It's big. There are so many places to visit that are so different from each other that if you want to stretch your mind, you don't have to go outside the country. There are flatlands and mountains and deserts and gigantic canyons and lands where it constantly rains, lands covered in snow, lands of sickening humidity, lands of constant dust, coast lands with amazing beaches and islands with volcanos. We have long rivers and lakes as big as seas. And the people are as varied as the lands. You'll get rudeness in New York and friendliness in Indiana. There's the bible-belt philosophy in the South and the anything goes philosophy in Las Vegas. We have both metropolitan open-mindedness and small town loyalty to their upbringing.

What else... We have public libraries and tons of good colleges and universities. We have good roads that are perfect for long drives (and when I say long drives, I mean like over eight hours). There's a plethora of charities and non-profit organizations that put an effort to better our society.

And back to non-tangible: I like that we have the opportunity for dialogue and debate, Americans don't agree amongst themselves about a lot of things so you constantly hear philosophies opposite to yours. Which I think is cool, because it's akin to visiting other countries (really, some people's views make me think they're from another planet).

What I don't like about the U.S.:

We get taxed up the yin yang. We're taxed when we make money, when we spend money, when we hold on to money, when we use particular roads, when we buy property, when we sell property, when we hold on to property, when someone gives us money or property, when we're a little late returning books to the public library (yes, this would be me all the time and yes I view the darn late fees as taxes, 8D), and when we die. Oh and if you come visit, we'll tax you too. And I don't like that bureaucrats constantly lose some part of all that money through mismanagement, and creative accounting.

I'm not going to wax poetic on the ignorance of some Americans because ignorance can be found anywhere in the world. Normally, I just view them as 'entertainment'.

I don't know if that's helpful or not. It's hard to summarize America since it's so large.

[seamusog.livejournal.com]

Sorry it's all in italics, I seem to have misplaced a bracket.

[mugen-edamame.livejournal.com]

Thanks for such a prompt reply! I'm madly excited to start XD

I'll keep the crazy over-taxing in mind. But are there any specific things that are utterly specific to where you live, or your state? It's so that I don't bite off more than I can chew and do a complete circuit of the US of A

Like... the way the restaurant near my house is so used to us, they accept calls from us to order food, and send the waiters to drop the food of to us in the car.

A kind of abuse-of-power drive through. If that made sense.

[mugen-edamame.livejournal.com]

and yeah. If you happen to know anyone from another country, it'd be all kinds of win if you could point them my way *waves*

[seamusog.livejournal.com]

Okay, let's see, I'll try and concentrate on two places: where I grew up and where I live.

Las Vegas, Nevada (where I grew up)

What I love:
- Open 24/7. 2:30 in the morning, can't sleep? You can go shopping, eat at a restaurant, go work out, gamble, go clubbing, get married at a drive through wedding chapel, buy alcohol.
- Sweeping vistas of magnificent mountains (yeah I'm romanticizing dammit, they're not the best looking mountains, they're drab looking, not very tall, I'm sure the Rocky Mountains are more profound). Mountains. Mountains. Everywhere you turn. Las Vegas is basically a bowl, we nickname it The Valley. It's really hard to get lost because you can use the mountains and the casinos to determine where you are.
- The Desert. Especially when it sweeps up those magnificent mountains as if Bob Ross took his brush and swept happy strokes of dirt from the floor of the desert to the sides of the mountains.
But there are many beautiful places outside the city. The Red Rock Canyon which looks like its name - a bunch of BIG RED ROCKS. Okay, you can see the different strata caused by sediments on the side of the canyon. There's a line in a movie called Fools Rush In that sums the place up:
And I know a canyon
where if you sit there long enough...
...nobody finds you.
And you die.
By the way, none of the movies or TV shows portray Las Vegas with any accuracy. This movie, IMO, is the only one that really showed it the way it is.
Even prettier than Red Rock Canyon is the Valley of Fire.I won't describe what it looks like, I think you can probably find pics of it on the net. So I'll describe what it feels like. If you want to do some soul-searching, this is the place to go. Also, the place to go if you want to feel like a teeny tiny speck in this vast universe. When you're there, you can almost be convinced that there are no other people in the world.
- People you work with are family. Seriously. It doesn't matter where they came from. And they come from all over: Schenectady NY, Mexico, California, Philippines, China, Nigeria, Ecuador, Germany, Turkey, Albaquerque NM, Hawaii. When I say family, I mean they support you and bicker with you and you have dramatic schisms with them and they'll be there for your parent's funeral and they'll get you all the stuff you need for a new baby if you get pregnant.
- The skyline is never the same. They're always. Always. Building a new casino.
- The best prime rib in the world for $5.99.
- Tourists are funny. For example, most casinos' nametags include the employees hometown, upon seeing a tag that indicated New York, a lady remarked, "That must be some commute!" and she wasn't kidding.
- Drive 30 minutes out of the city and you hit the Arizona border which is on Hoover Dam. Lake Mead is not a particularly wonderful lake, the beaches are full of pebbles, sharp stones and algae. One thing I do have to point out are the carps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5WwxSIKnwA
- No matter how strange you are, you're never strange. Yes, you can walk around in costume and you won't really feel out of place.
- Best place to people watch. Or 'shop' for fake boobs.
- In the summer, the Utah Shakespeare Festival is only three hours away (okay for us, a three-hour drive is nothing).
- Good deals on hotels (specials can include spa treatments).
- People are strange. We have a higher than normal non-conformists per capita than most other places.
- Legal prostitution within an hour's drive (it's illegal in Las Vegas but legal in the neighbouring county). Not that I use their service or have recommended it to friends, but I suppose it's nice to know it's there... you know, just in case.
- Outlet malls.

[seamusog.livejournal.com]

What I don't like about Las Vegas:
- It's too damn hot in the summer. Like headache-inducing hot, 120 degree Fahrenheit (49 Celsius). The only thing you can do is run from your air conditioned house to your air conditioned car to the air conditioned store, etc. etc. This is probably why I love winter and rain so much.
- Dust. Dust. Everywhere. Dust.
- Californians. They come, they drive terribly, most leave to come back another weekend, some stay. But they're a necessary evil.
- People don't know how to vote. But they do damn well complaining.
- Overburdened school district (the city grows so quickly that newly built schools have reached over their capacity before they even open)

I'll post this for now. Tomorrow, I'll try and write about where I currently live.

[seamusog.livejournal.com]

I forgot another thing I like about Las Vegas. If you are driving and arriving from the north at night. You'll notice that the sky is considerably lighter where Vegas is, but you're surrounded by mountains, so all you see is dark all around you as you drive through twists and turns. Then all of a sudden you round a bend and you're treated to a spectacularly gigantic bowl of sparkling gold. It looks for all the world like a lake of lights.

If you're arriving from the south, in the air, at night. It's a bit of a similar experience. The plain will bank to the left and this blank darkness that you realize is the side of a mountain gives way to the view of a big giant sparkling jewel on the ground. All those lights concentrated in that one area in the midst of all that dark desert.

I feel so nostalgic. I want to go home.

[mugen-edamame.livejournal.com]

wow.

I'm saddled with the slightly distressing mental image of walking across the lake on the carps. Like a tourist-y, feminine moses.

I've got to say, of all the things you've mentioned, it's the descriptions of the places that were the most poignant. I guess because it just comes across so clearly, your feelings for Las Vegas. I can only hope I can do them justice.

And hearing your nostalgia... I want to go home too.

[seamusog.livejournal.com]

Okay here's the stuff for where I live.

Plano, Texas (a suburb north of Dallas)

I'll start with what I don't like
- It's flat! It took my psyche over two years to get used to my vision not being stopped by giant mounds of dirt. I would stand in the third floor of our building and try to will the ground to shoot up and become mountains.
- The town sounds like its name, it's Plain-O. Very Vanilla. Very yuppie. Keeping up with the Joneses attitude. Our town is one of the more affluent in the Metroplex (the Metroplex is the Dallas-Fort Worth area that contains over five million people). Tons of SUVs and expensive cars.
- Lanes are narrow (I'm used to the wide roads in the Southwest).
- Bible belt attitude. I feel very out of place here. People are polite but underneath it, you feel like you are being judged constantly. I like the political incorrectness of Las Vegas where the feelings they show (whether like or dislike) is more genuine.
- Narrowmindedness abound. I'd get strange looks here if I say I'm into anime much less if I say I'm into Boys Love (they wouldn't know what it is in the first place).
- Prejudice is more apparent. And it goes both ways. In Vegas, I'm used to taking lunches with a diverse group of coworkers. Here in Dallas, lunch groups come in monochrome.
- Mosquitos and chiggers. In the springtime and summertime, it's requisite to put on insect repellant if you're going outside. (Chiggers are these tiny insects that cause a lot of itchiness, painful itchiness).
- Traffic is terrible. My daily commute used to take almost an hour. And that wasn't the worst among my coworkers.
- The only thing you can do around here in the middle of the night is go shopping at WalMart. How much fun is that?
- Ignorance of other cultures.
- Texas attitude that is best summed up here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apMyjOAacyA

What I like:
- It's green! Yeah, people who grew up in the desert are very amazed with vegetation.
- There are many lakes and state parks to go camping at. My family likes camping, we're involved in Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.
- It rains here.
- Our town has one of the highest number of restaurants per capita than most cities (even beating Las Vegas). And there are a lot of Indians here so we do have some good Indian restaurants (I love Indian food). And not just Indian, there's a good Greek restaurant, French, Korean, Thai, Ethiopean (it's in the next town).
- Large Oriental grocery stores. There are two Chinese ones and one Korean close by our house. One of the Chinese grocery stores has a Korean and Japanese fast food nearby. Authentic food. And also, Mexican grocery stores on the east side of town.
- We found a good martial arts school specializing in Hsing-I and Bagua (though we've had to stop going to due to finances)
- Very good schools.
- Lots of different birds - blue jays, cardinals, mocking birds. Though some are annoying like the grackles and starlings. There are seasons of bird storms. There are some intersections that would be covered by a blanket of black birds. All the trees, the roofs, the electrical wires.
- Brick houses. It's actually a town regulation that all houses are covered by masonry. Oh and compared to Vegas, they're affordable. Most garages and driveways are in the back as opposed to having it on the front of the house. We have an alleyway in the back to access our driveways.

What I neither like nor dislike:
- Our town is in tornado alley.
- It's hot and humid in the summer.
- Sometimes we get ice storms in the winter. It's not cold enough to get snow here (heck, it's snowed in Las Vegas, but it's even rarer here). What we get is ice (it rains and then it freezes) or hail (we also get hail in Vegas). There have been more than one occassion when my car is covered under a half-inch of ice.
- Churches, plenty of them. There are at least ten within walking distance from my house. All sorts of churches - Methodist, Catholic, Baptist, non-denominational. We have churches the way other cities have 7-Elevens.
- Cows. Picture an large corporate campus (like EDS) and right beside is a large field of grass with cows.

[mugen-edamame.livejournal.com]

oh, a habit that I've always questioned.

do you lock the bathroom door when you shower? Because all the shows I've watched so far seems to point to the negative

[seamusog.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have a habit of not locking the bathroom door. The only time I do is when I have guests or I'm in someone else's house.