Archive for the 'Life' Category
October 19 2008: First Generation Migrant
Filed under Asian-ness & Life with 9 Comments
You have to understand one key thing about me: I’m not very good at sitting still and doing nothing at all. Granted, I’m very good at doing nothing at all when it comes to university assignments and studying, but I substitute this nothingness with a whole lot of somethingness in other forms. I go to work and earn money, I buy and sell on eBay for money, I organise my parents schedule for their money, I clean and iron clothes, I drop off and pick up my brother from school, I read voraciously, I (albeit rarely) exercise, I see my friends and the fella, I research travel destinations and mortgage plans at different banks, etc.
In other words, I never just sit and watch television, I never just take a walk in the park, I never just do nothing at all. Even when I’m watching House M.D. (<3), I’m always doing something else at the same time, like folding laundry. I even have to admit, sometimes when I’m having sex, I wonder about how much I would be earning if I was to start charging for my services. Two birds with one stone. Never let a minute go past wasted. Action, not reaction. Yadda yadda.
I’ve been mentioning this to a few people recently, but this type of behaviour really frames me as a stereotypical example of your typical first-generation Asian migrant in Australia (though with second-generation characteristics as I straddle the divide between the two). I came to this country with nothing, but by god, I’m going to make something of myself. I’m going to be frugal, I’m going to save all my money, and I’m going to work, work, work, so that I can buy into a wealthy white-bread neighborhood and taint it with my yellow skin.
Either that or I’ll give into my lazy, debt-ridden, instant gratification, Gen-Y destiny.
October 18 2008: A Complaint And A Question
Filed under Life with 14 Comments
Question: What do you get when you cross a 21st birthday party, four hours of sleep, an essay due Monday, and three full working days?
Answer: A hangover, not much sleep, not much to show for the essay, and utter fatigue.
I hate this time of year. People should stop getting older, there should be more hours in the day, essays should be banned as assessments, and we should all be given free money so we don’t have to work. If I ran for politics on these points, I’d win by a landslide. It certainly makes more sense than trying to win an election on the platform of fighting for (faux) plumbers with $250,000 a year when the average household earns much less than half that amount.
Early night for me tonight I think. Just as soon as I get through my email and feedreader backlog, as soon as I take a shower, and as soon as I get a few paragraphs down for the essay. Then I’ll sleep.
On a side note, I’ve noticed that hits tend to drop on Fridays and Saturdays. Is this because people have that thing they call ‘a life’ on weekends, and don’t have time to go online?
October 17 2008: Petty Dislike no. 1
Filed under Life with 20 Comments
Petty Dislike no.1: When They Don’t Put Enough Cookies In Cookies’n'Cream Ice cream
I would have imagined that the placement of the word “cookies” in the title (e.g. before the word “cream”) would ensure that the ratio of cookies to cream would err on the side of 60/40, or 70/30, or even 80/20. A ratio of 55/45 of cookies to cream should be the bare minimum. Any ratio that results in the cream getting more mouth time than the cookies will undoubtedly result in clearly inferior cookies’n'cream ice cream.
This same concept can be applied to anything relating to gastronomy. Sweet and sour pork should be more sweet than sour. Mint chocolate chip ice cream should have more mint than chocolate chip. Raspberry-flavoured lemonade should have more raspberry than lemonade. And my perennial favourite: tequila sunrises should have more tequila than ’sunrise’. A mere dash of tequila is insufficient, for a truly exceptional drink, there should be more tequila than orange juice.
Bulla, let that be a lesson to you. Your ice cream won’t be receiving my hard-earned dollars until I receive a refund for the inferior cookies’n'cream experience.