ah, you know when you do something bad or make a mistake like breaking a cup or screwing up an order, etc. i'm talking about the moment RIGHT after you do it and no one in the world knows about it except you. and 2 choices come to your mind as you freeze and go "what did i just do??!" try to cover it up like it's alright OR you confess to the person. but this thought happens super fast you don't even know you're consciously thinking about it. then ANOTHER moment comes up: where you muster up strength to tell, in which the longer you wait, the more you hesitate, and the more likely you won't tell because you fear the consequences and their reaction.

but this all depends on what you did and how important it was.

not exactly sure what my point here was.

money!

got sidetracked from studying. started taping keyboard to try to memorize how to type russian.
then ended up looking up symbols...

Currently used currency, but there's way more:

฿ (Thai baht) Br (Belarusian ruble) Bs (Venezuelan bolivar, Bolivian boliviano) ₵ (Ghanaian cedi) ¢ (cent) ₡ (El Salvador, Costa Rican Colon) B/. (Panamanian balboa) ден. (Macedonian denar) ₫ (Vietnamese dong) € (euro) ƒ (Netherlands Antillean guilder/florin) Ft (Hungarian forint) ₲ (Paraguayan guarani) Kč (Czech koruna) ₭ (Lao kip) Kn (Croatian kuna) kr (Danish, Norwegian krone, Swedish, Icelandic krona, Estonian kroon) L (Honduran lempira) Ls (Latvian lats) £ / ₤ (pound, lira) ₥ (mill) ₦ (Nigerian naira) ₱ (Philippine peso) P (Botswana pula) R (South African rand) RM (Malaysian ringgit) RSD/РСД (Serbian dinar) Rp (Indonesian rupiah) (Indian rupee) ₨ (rupee) ریال(Iranian rial) р./ руб. (Russian ruble) S/. (Peruvian Nuevo sol) ৳ (Bangladeshi taka) R$ (Brazilian real) $ (dollar, peso) T̅ (Kazakhstani tenge) ₮ (Mongolian togrog) ₩ (Korean won) ¥ (Japanese yen) zł (Polish zloty) ₴ (Ukranian hryvnia) Q (Guatemalen quetzal) ₪ (Israeli shekel) TL (Turkish lira)

once upon a time currency,

₳ (Argentine austral) ₢ (Brazilian cruzeiro) (Portuguese cifrao) ₰ (German pfennig) DM (Deutsche mark) ₯ (Greek drachma) ₠ (European Currency Unit) ₣ (France franc) Kčs (Czechoslovak koruna) Lm (Maltese lira) ℳ (German gold mark) ₧ (Spanish peseta) I/. (Peruvian inti) ℛℳ (German reichsmark) Sk (Slovak koruna)

places i've lived.

i realized that I've lived in a few different types of places now.

1. city (Taipei, Tokyo)

2. suburbs (Fremont)

3. countryside (Tsukuba)

4. by the beach (La Jolla)

Maybe in the future I'll be living in the mountains or in rural places or in a small town.

It's always weird for me when I wonder how life is; how each decision we make changes our future one by one; and there would be entirely different sets of people in our lives depending on where we go, what clubs we join, what classes we take etc.

how just one single event can be insignificant or very important to us. but the thing is that we will never know until it hits us.

There are people who cannot really live anywhere because they don't like crowded smelly areas, or places with nothing to do. For me right now, I feel like I can adjust to anywhere and any type of place. The countryside and city are both awesome and ugh in their own ways.

Everything just depends, you know.

my desk! :]

to cook

what i'm gonna cook/eat this coming year!

牛肉麵

lamb & ginger

tomato & egg

dukboki, korean sticky rice!

kim chi!

porridge

broccoli

grilled cheese sando

FRUIT :P

avocado/guacamole

naan

hummus

more spread

pickles & meat

cereal & milk?

TOFU

bok choy

foccocia & CHEESE & jalapenos

...

what else?

anything i can find and want to try at markets

weird how habits from home follow you everywhere, and i find myself cooking things from childhood instead of trying new food.

trees

change of plans.

this is gonna be good even if it's not

i just know it!

why didn't i think of this before?

haha, i'm excited.

let's see if i see it through.

give me a year or two.

you have no idea what i'm talking about

but one day you will know and SEE!

trees are love.

i like willow trees, palm trees, redwood trees, taiwan rong shu, . . .

not good with tree naming

Animal Dreams, again.

fast reading on my part, but skipped most of the descriptive pages.

hmmm most of these quotes are about insecurity, etc. mostly cause the main character is very insecure.

pg. 205

Life must be so easy when you have dreams.

pg. 206

How do you just charge ahead, always doing the right thing, even if you have to do it alone with people staring?

pg. 207

If I kept trying to be what everybody wanted, I'd soon be insipid enough to fit in everywhere.

pg. 209

That's how it is: some people are content to wait till you ask, while others jump right in with the whole story. It must have to do with discomfort.

pg. 237

But Loyd didn't make those judgments. I could have told Loyd I'd lived on Neptune, and he'd say, "Uh-huh? What was it like, was it cold?"

pg. 238

You can't know somebody, I thought, till you've followed him home.

pg. 243

It's one thing to carry your life wherever you go. Another thing to always go looking for it somewhere else.

pg. 204

He'll sit for five hours in the back of a pickup truck waiting for you, just because he trusts you to come back.

need a new book, or a drama to watch now.

Animal Dreams

re-reading this book. one of my favorites, can really relate to this! by Barbara Kingsolver

my fav. quotes:

pg.9

Pay attention to your dreams: when you go on a trip, in your dreams you will still be home. Then after you've come home you'll dream of where you were. It's a kind of jet lag of consciousness.

pg. 8

I don't look like who I am.

pg. 49

Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth but not its twin.

pg. 53

...the kind of handsome you could see coming down the road like bad news

pg. 63

I'd learned since high school that in an emergency shyness can be disguised with a completely fake bravado.

pg. 68

What we are talking about, basically, is self-diagnosed insanity and that gets complicated.

pg. 69

There are all the small things you love and despise about a parent: the disappointed eyes, the mannerisms, the sound of the voice as much as the meaning of the words, that add up to that singular thing--the way you are both going to respond, whether you like it or not.

pg. 74

Doc Homer never argued, he just didn't participate in conversation that didn't please him.

pg. 77

Codi, I hope you'll take this the right way, but I don't see how you can live in a place and have it feel like nobody lives here.

pg. 83

You never know where you're going to end up in this world, do you? I asked.

pg. 87

They affected our lives, the two of us differently. Hallie just gave up trying for image, while I went the route of caring too much.

pg. 91

The strangest thing is that where pain seemed to have anesthetized me, it gave Hallie extra nerve endings. This haunts me. What we suffered in our lives we went through together, but somehow we came out different doors, on different ground levels.

pg. 92

The things that aggravate me most in the world are the things men do without even knowing it.

pg.92

Sometimes when you look into an animal's eyes you see nothing, no sign of connection, just the flat stare of a wild creature. But Jack's eyes spoke worlds. I liked him.

pg. 136

If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life.

pg. 143

He sees how deeply it would hurt her if she understood what he knows: that his observations have stolen the secrets she chose not to tell.

pg. 174

Why is it that only girls stand on the sides of their feet? As if they're afraid to plant themselves?

pg. 188

"Oh, shit, you guys can all just go to hell." I laughed, since the other choice was to cry.

pg. 152

Your modus operandi is the way you work, I said. It's what you leave behind when you split the scene of a crime.

...and that's as far as I read. more quotes from the rest of the book later. :]

friends are :D :] :} :P

wonderings

the earth can be so breath-takingly beautiful
a good camera just makes all the difference at times
wish i can remember every single sunset and sunrise i’ve seen
why wearing a skirt automatically makes better days
why act differently with different kinds of people
why draw a line to keep from losing slight control
why have periods of different obsessions and never stick one through
why lists help organize moods so well
why some people just never click
children are cute, innocent, and so easily mold-able
why bring others down just cause you’re having a bad day
why let the weather affect your mood?
after a year of fluctuations, how am i the same weight this time last year but look and feel different
finally realized, people sweat when swimming right?

just how influential everything around you is. . .
amazing.

taiwan

another phase ending.
another story written.
another experience forever treasured.
that's life; and onto a new voyage! [insert pirate ship music]
>> last year back at SD living off campus. haha. definitely excited!

gonna miss this island, but it's not like i'll never return. :{D

now, On with the list of loves:

the usual and obvious: FOOD
BOBA
hot pot
japanese restaurants EEL BENTO
viet sandwich
red bean dorayaki stuff
rice balls!
all the taro
various organs
bread bread The Bread
gua bao
pudding!
niuroumian :D
cong zhua bin

how I get student discounts!
how I'm in a double but haven't seen my roommate in 3 weeks
how being on the first floor allows me to eavesdrop quite easily (but hate the lack of sunlight and crappy view)
how everyone hang dries their clothing (even on rainy days)
how clothes dry overnight
how cheap doing laundry is
how i'm not really involved in campus/club activities

trips, hangouts with friends
KTV lalala
lunch on the dorm rooftop
walking to places, getting semi-lost
speaking chinese, listening to taiwanese
buying beer anytime to drink
cheap gym prices/ swimming!
sitting in lobby to save electricity
having my mom around to take me places
not having to go through exchange rates
shopping for useless but cute, cheap stuff
skipping class
paintball
river rafting, river tracing
seeing ETHAN YUAN filming commercial in 7-11 by our dorms
buying fruit at night market stands
buying T-shirts, printed ones.
king's cup
scoooooters, penghu
the tiny square parks in between buildings
first time tasting durian and not hating it
seeing all the sakura and azaleas bloom
watching leaves on trees gradually grow
that people wear masks when they have a cough
...

songs

PDA -- John Legend
一直很安靜 -- 阿桑
otegami -- SID
stay -- safetysuit
城裡的月光 -- 許美靜
electric feel -- MGMT
我是誰, 我是誰, 我是誰 -- Magic Power
小情歌 -- 蘇打綠
遇見 -- 孫燕姿
雨天 -- 孫燕姿
下雨天 -- Lara
GLEE
明知道 -- 許美靜

etc., etc.
umm, any songs to recommend me? :D :]