Dear God,

Thank You Lord, for providing us with overflowing water, for creating the chilly weather, for helping me reducing the air-con expenses, and for giving me some time to shut my brain up and take some rest.. Surely, You will help me to remember all these amino acids completely and pass tomorrow's quiz successfully, won't You? ;) My hands, feet and brain are freezing and I barely can think of anything. And I am sleepy.


I'm stucked in my room, feeling cold.. and getting devastated.

I need brain defragmentation.

Greyish day + Heavy, non-stop rain + Coldness + Nice blanket + Thick jacket + Amino acids quiz + Lessons + Broken hot water dispenser = Wet laundry + Unpleasant mind + Malfunctioning brain + Dizzy head + Lack of concentration + No coffee + Continous sleepy feeling.

I.Want.You!!

It's really good to have them BACK in my life!

cr: google

Loved them! I read them through my school days, both in English and Indonesian (they were translated), and enjoyed the stories. They had successfully given me readings outside mangas and comic books. And much to my delightment, school library finally was useful to me! I think it was also the time when I first ship some pairings/couples too =P However I stopped reading at a few first books of SVH, for the reason that I couldn't find the rest of the books everywhere (I can't say that I read all of SVK and SVT and The Unicorn Club etc.) and also SVU and the other spin-offs.. They were filmed, too, but I think it happened in late 80's/early 90's when I was not even born yet =(

Now they make me really grateful that I don't grow up in Twilight era or become a hard-core Gleek. Anyway, both Sweet Valley and Glee have one thing in common: lack of continuity. LOL.

So as soon as I heard that a new sub-series, set 10 years after the last event of the last book (which I can't really remember what), will be published some time this year, I put it in my wishlist.

After reading the excerpt of the 1st chapter that is published online, I felt somehow disappointed. That girl was really out of character! She changed a lot in 10 years.. But well, what you see is not necessarily what you get, so I am really looking forward to have the book in my hands and start reading again. YAY!

Are they truly superior?

A friend posted this for his friends to (hopefully) read, and as I gaped I couldn't resist to comment.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read


I won't judge any education or parenting ways because each of them has positive and negative sides on its own. I am just concerned about the effect they have on the childrens, especially after reading the comments. Research discussions, self-experiences, hate, suicides of family, to name a few, put me in awe.

I won't say, neither, that I did not face all those things the mother claimed as superior. Being a Chinese-descent, I did experience what the writer self-claimed as the best way to raise children. In elementary school, I was scolded when I didn't bring good marks with me. Yes. But I think this happened to every children, especially when their parents thought that they really could! I was trained for maths as a fundamental lesson each kid needs to have, but now I don't end up as a math student (even though my current study is quite close to it, well, science/engineering fields are interconnected to one another). I was kind of "forced" to play either violin or piano and the members of their respective family, but well, it seemed that I didn't acquire any talents on them. I ended up doing something else which are equally useful and fun for me. I was never forbidden from school plays; my parents continously pushed me to on-stage performances and social engagements, it was just me who was being all anti-social and introverts that I preferred doing all backstage acts and organizing committee involvement and stuffs.. And ya, I am still an introvert. I prefer to take photos, organize events, publicize, design props, backdrops and decorations or write reviews rather than be on-stage in a sold-out performance in an auditorium. It is just a matter of self-satisfaction to me when I feel I can use all my energy and talents to them. And who said that people who stayed in backstage can't socialize? They may as well gained a big big social network! I was angered by a middle-school IQ/EQ test results who claimed so, and some people who just generalize. On sleepovers, well I don't remember having those memories, but maybe it also dealt with the fact that I am the only children of my parents..

Back to the main topic, my parents never tried to change me to someone I don't. I had never forced to stay awake all nights to catch up on my studies by them (so, by someone/anything else? LOL. I admit that I am perfectionist, and clearly ambitious at times ;)). They gave me inputs and choices, but in the end I would be the one who had the responsiblity to find out what I really want to do, and they have been supportive about that.

School plays, music instruments outside piano or violin and sports are achievements on their own. Maths, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, art and literature are good in their own way. Which parents wouldn't be proud of their children if they achieved something that make them felt whole, proud and, if I may give an interpretation to the article, famous? Award-winning movie stars or filmmakers, highly-acclaimed writers, high-class musicians, managers, photographers, scientists, designers, lawyers, doctors? None of them is worse than the other. I believe every parents would, and they wouldn't be willing to bear sadness when they saw their children reaching lives that made them unhappy even though they gained all the wealth and fame, or eventually hate them for turning them to somebody they aren't.. Afterall, they are people who have minds and feelings, not robots.

I agree that parents are responsible for the kids they are raising, but what is better than having children being thankful and proud to have their parents in their life?

The Periodic Table of Pokemon

cr: tumblr

OMG! LOL LOL LOL LOL

I hope Chris' win is a good sign for what will happen tonight

Heee, Chris Colfer's win was unpredicted, but great. Congrats to him!

Same age, and he got the Golden Globes =D (so did you manage to taste the champagne, Chris? lol)

His anti-bullying speech was a win too! And so were Dianna Agron's excited reaction, Naya and HeMo's proud looks and.... Lea Michele's shocked, exaggerated about-to-cry-cant-breathe face.

Congrats too for Natalie Portman, Bound to You, Glee and Jane Lynch.

And I just know that The Social Network is better than Black Swan as a picture.


update: awwww Chris! thanks for sharing the luck! *hugs*

An Amazing Little Lamb

Oh my. A blogger, director, photographer (she has 6 cameras! she got to use her high school's dark room! she was her high school yearbook's photographer so she must be reeeeally good!), actress, beautiful girl and, don't mean to talk about race actually, another Jewish I feel blessed to know.

The memories of days of careful shooting (compared to digital photography nowadays where you can select the good pictures later on and use softwares to enhance them..) and developing films using those chemicals and silver papers and that special trimming flow back. Love them!

What more can I say? She.is.just.simply.awesome.

Or an example of perfection.
Whatever.

Admirable. Yes, it is more because of her love-to-media-things appeal. LOL.


Dianna Agron. How I wish I can be more like you. Think I should be nicer and calmer as she is to counterbalance the Rachel Berry 'side effect' (to be exact: Rachel's side that I probably naturally have more yea I'm a Rachel Berry by nature as I've said.. sigh.) on me? Yea.

(I don't need to be an actress or singer to be more like both of them though.. Being a budding chemist is already as hard as it takes to be a good actress and/or singer)

---

Dianna Agron Spills About Her On-Screen And Off-Screen Interest Besides Alex Pettyfer: Photography!

from: http://littlelambfans.livejournal.com/

Dianna Agron and Alex Pettyfer are obviously in a photography darkroom in this new 'I Am Number Four' pic, but it's no coincidence. In the book, Dianna's character Sarah is a photography buff. And when we visited the movie's set in Pittsburgh over the summer, we discovered it's also one of Dianna's passions in real life (how's that for perfect casting?). Allow us to 'shed some light' on Sarah's and Dianna's love for photography.

"Similar to Sarah I kind of picked up the camera in high school because I was a photographer for the yearbook and I loved it then," she said.

When Dianna was in real-life high school, back in the early 2000's, she worked in her school's dark room too. She told us that they only worked with film though; there was no high-tech digital stuff like today's photographers are lucky enough to have. Because of high developing prices back then and the fact that digital cameras were only used by people who could afford them (it was almost 10 years ago), Dianna had to make wise photographer decisions.

"With digitals now there's not really a concern for costs or anything like that," she explained. "My mom was like, 'Okay you can have this film but you have to processs it and do whatever' -- you had to be very selective about things."

So what about her photography skills now? "My love for it has grown, I have six cameras now and I'm always looking for another new toy."

In fact, Dianna's love for photography helped inspire her to take the part in 'I Am Number Four.'

"I read the script and was like "oh that's fun" because I'll be able to actually take photos during the experience, and I have been. They've used some of them in my room and in the dark room (scenes), it is just a little added fun bonus."

You can actually check out Dianna's real life photography not only in the film but also on her personal blog where she posts a lot of her work too.

Are you into photography like Sarah/Dianna? Will you go check out 'I Am Number Four' and peep Dianna's work when it comes out in theaters on February 18th?

referral

After checking my google reader after a long, long time I have not logged in to it (FYI I use google reader to subscribe to blogs that I read) I saw that this blog is a relatively top referring sites to some of my friends' blogs.

Ahem.
Wondering if reading by google reader adds to it or people use the right-hand side bar links for others' blogs?
I think I rarely click on the links and open the websites unless I am redirected there by any chance..
Hmm.

Doctoral degrees?

A good article for those who is considering to do PhD, is considering not to do PhD, is doing PhD, is not doing PhD, or is considering to pursue a degree in science. Well, science students are the most susceptible group for doing this kind of thing. Yayayaya include me. I'm in the first category above. grades grades grades... please save it from free-fall for another time

http://www.economist.com/node/17723223?fsrc=scn/tw/te/mr/academic

Stressed out.

Just had another menstrual cramp this morning (for the nth time during the past semester). Heard lots of the cause of it, and heard some scary, true evidences of my friends' about some overgrowing tissues, angiogenesis, surgeries and blahblahblah.

My mom just gave a short comment:

mom: it's influenced by stress..
me: so last semester was far moooooreeee stressful than the previous ones?

So heterocyclic (to be exact: 7 examinable modules) is much more stressful than thermodynamics (to be exact: entrepreneurship-art of acad writing-thermodynamics combo)?

Then someone's story on free-falling of GPA regardless of number of AUs taken must be true.

Hope I still have a good, safe one. A must-add to my wishlist.