Ded Moroz

Ded Moroz, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus. SO COOL!

Thanksgiving at Johnny's

(November 22 of 2012)
My friend Johnny invited me as well as other people to his house in Milwaukee to have Thanksgiving meal. The house was small but very charming, thanks to the decoration and neatness that Johnny's mom put efforts into. His parents cooked turkey stuffing that was so delicious when I mixed and ate it with mashed potatoes. His grandparents also came from Canada to enjoy the meal with us. I felt like I was the happiest person in the world!

Johnny drew a molecule on my name card because he's heard I like chemistry. He didn't even know what molecule it was, which turned out to be phenylmethanol (benzyl alcohol). That was funny; maybe he just didn't know how to draw an insect so he did that instead.

South American Traditional Clothing Styles

I wondered how those countries' traditional clothing differ, too. To a person from the other side of the world like me, they look a lot alike. They're also so colorful to wake your eyes completely up. This picture is helpful.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster

(Touched by His Noodly Appendage)

Probably the most hilarious thing I've seen this week. My evolutionary biology professor told me about it. I wonder why I didn't know about this "religion" earlier.

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster
"The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) is the deity of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster or Pastafarianism, a satirical movement celebrating lighthearted irreligion and opposing the teaching of intelligent design and creationism in public schools."

Website of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

People of this church profess that they believe in a supernatural being that resembles spaghetti and meatballs who is the Creator, and that their belief is as valid as other religions such as Christianity. If intelligent design should be taught in schools, they argue, the theory of the FSM should gain equal time in the classroom along with intelligent design and evolution. They also constantly say "ramen".

Disclaimer: The content of this blog post doesn't represent the beliefs or point-of-view of the blog owner.

亞洲人、兄弟會、和姐妹會一定要這樣嗎？

離我住的地方不到五分鐘腳程有一家便利商店。昨天商店的店員把隔夜過期的小派都送給我，可是我吃不完那麼多，就拿了三個，其他的他就丟掉了，真可惜。因為上次Trader Joe's買的櫻桃派太難吃了，想說另一個牌子的會不會比較有希望，結果很不錯。商店裡一個老美跟我說，小派加冰淇淋用微波爐加熱30秒後很好吃，我還以為我聽錯了。

言歸正傳，這兩天我看著返校購物和搬家的人潮，總覺得為什麼亞洲人(東亞人)出門一定是至少成雙成對，要不然就是一小群或一大群，嘰嘰喳喳說著中文、韓文、或日文。這三天以來大概才看到兩個跟我一樣獨自在街上行走的亞洲人。美國人也會跟朋友走在一起，但獨自走路、購物、或慢跑的還是多；常常走得很近的是一家人，如一對夫婦有時還帶幾個小孩。

我昨天和朋友聚餐時和Lucy提起這個，我說你好像是我見過唯一一個好幾年和一個白人當室友又一天到晚和她在一起的亞洲人，其他的亞洲人似乎都只跟同類黏在一起。Lucy說對呀，我常常獨自走在路上，覺得自己像異類，並表示她覺得亞洲人不願意拓展自己的生活圈不太好。有些人是真的英文不太好，但很多是來了美國多年，英文很好，也是一樣。難怪對中國人的刻板印象就是到那裡都一大群。亞洲人一定要這樣嗎？

我住的那條街其實是學校的兄弟會、姐妹會的集散地；尤其是靠近學校的前半段，街道兩旁的房子上都有希臘字母。我真慶幸我的新家位於那條街的中段(在斜對面還有兩個兄弟會/姐妹會，但過了我家就一個也沒有了)，如果當初選了前段的房子，不但貴，恐怕會不堪其擾。

我實在不想製造刻板印象，但這兩天經過這些地方，覺得那些人看起來滿討人厭的，讓我一點也不想加入兄弟會/姐妹會。他們經常脫光了衣服(男生穿短褲，女生穿無袖上衣和熱褲或比基尼)，一堆人坐在房子前的階梯或陽台喝酒、玩樂、大聲喧嘩，還把大型喇叭搬到戶外放音樂，好像在比那一家比較大聲。怪的是那些人清一色都是白人，沒有亞洲人，我連一個黑人也沒看到。

昨天和Lucy提起這些人，她很好奇兄弟會和姐妹會是做什麼用的，而且聽說那些人喝很多酒。我聽說兄弟會/姐妹會常常是有錢人家的子女，來到學校想要社交、玩樂、並只和自己類似的人整天相處加入的。Lucy說他們常常有嚴格的加入條件，例如說只收金頭髮的人。我常常聽到同學說，他們在高中有不愉快的經驗，因為同學不成熟，太喜歡搞小團體並歧視、欺負別人；直到來上大學，他們真是豁然開朗。我感覺，兄弟會/姐妹會有點像是把高中的那一套搬到大學來 ‧‧‧ 兄弟會和姐妹會一定要這樣嗎？

The Beautiful People of Earth

I've been learning a lot about many issues in the so-called third world countries, such as hunger, lack of access to clean water, and environmental conservation. Before I go to sleep, I often think about those people on other parts of the earth.

Although Peru rated high on the Human Development Index, most people in the country are still poor. We watched a video of Brazilian nut hunters in Peru. I got the people imprinted in my mind - they are beautiful people! They are dark-skinned, have features that aren't like those of white, black, or Asian, and speak with some accent. Some of their traditional clothes are very pretty. They are beautiful because they are not perfect and real. We are not talking about some fictional remote planets and aliens as in Avatar here. Those local people, in Earth's most abundant and scenic place, the tropical rainforests, are harvesting wild Brazilian nuts (a labor-intensive job) and making a living through their own sweat and time.

The Amazon is not paradise. The people struggle for life. Conflicts (between people and between people and the environment) always exist. The local people want ownership over their land, but they don't want to be isolated from the rest of the world. They are not satisfied to be in poverty and long for the materials we enjoy in developed countries, while afraid that their culture would vanish with globalization, and their hometown would be destroyed by foreign companies.

Although complete equality across the globe is impossible, I dream about seeing those beautiful people of Earth empowered and thriving, not as the perfect Avatar in an isolated paradise, but as modern people! They don't necessarily need a first world lifestyle. (That's not feasible for everyone, and we rich people need to lower our consumption factor too.) Just a little more would make them much happier - but I hope to see them able to get what they want - food, clothes, etc. - not receiving the leftovers of rich countries because we pity them! And that they have titles to their land, and can connect with the rest of the world by economics and modern electronics, representing their own culture and be proud, like the Chinese and the Indian today, instead of being assimilated in the storm of globalization.

Is it even possible, that we can't eradicate all the conflicts and problems in the world, but at least make things a bit better and not let the beautiful parts of the world disappear?

YES CHEESE!

Stereotypes are mean but sometimes can be fun.

The environmental studies TA asked, "Do you think stereotypes can really represent who we are ... like we are all eating cheese and brats, drinking beer, and watching Packers in Wisconsin?"

A few other students and I nodded and replied, "Yea."

Growing Sick of Those Pop Songs

Folks are really obsessed with a song called Call Me Maybe lately. When I was on the STLF community service tour, people played it everyday, sometimes a few times a day, on the bus, singing, shouting, and dancing to it. Several people asked me if I liked the song, I was like, huh ...

Today my group in PE class gave our final presentation. It was a success! But when we were doing the exercise, the music both my group and the other group chose to go along with is ... Call Me Maybe. Now it's just too much and it stuck in my head! NOOOOOOOUUUUUU!!

The other song my group chose was Sexy and I Know It. But I mean, those two are such bad songs, and they're so popular! There are a few other currently popular songs that I'm growing sick of, too.

I've been listening to a lot of poppy stuff such as Erasure, Alphaville, Hall & Oates, BT, Scissor Sisters, Aqua, and even Duran Duran sometimes. Pet Shop Boys is pop too. A lot of dance songs today are house or techno. I listen to house and techno too. But why I just can't stand those pop songs that people around me play all the time? AHHHHHHHH! Please, no more Call Me Maybe!

Open將擬人版

在網上逛逛結果看到這個。

http://www.wretch.cc/blog/remiashamill/15634857

為什麼Open將會是那樣啊XDDDDDDDDDDDDD
說實在在大家都想畫日式美型的情況下他還真突出咧！
（屁股下巴win!)

http://www.wretch.cc/blog/remiashamill&category_id=13975770
(雖是惡搞之作，作者還有心路歷程，哈哈)

武俠人名中英對照表？

(from Facebook)

Pfffffffffftt
OMG you must look at this!

Pandora Is An Expert of Cheesy Music

I asked Pandora the online radio to play artists similar to Pet Shop Boys.
It seemed like all of 80's most poppy and cheesy songs were incredibly played within an hour.

Toto - Africa
Erasure - Chains of Love, Sometimes, Blue Savannah
Duran Duran - A View To A Kill
Alphaville - Forever Young
New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
Men At Work - Down Under
Cutting Crew - (I Just) Died In Your Arms
Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me)
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - If You Leave
A-Ha - Take Me On
Depeche Mode - People Are People, Everything Counts
Yaz - Situation
Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now
Peter Schilling - Major Tom (Coming Home)
Dead Or Alive - You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)
The Police - Every Breath You Take

=口=
Pet Shop Boys are not that cheesy!

P. S. I wonder why there was no Rick Astley.

Dog or Dragon?

I talked to Bridgett about The Neverending Story (the novel). She was interested to read the novel because she thought the movie was awesome. I said, Falkor the dragon was so much cooler in the book, but he looked like a dog in the movie. She said, "... it is not a dog? ... OMG my childhood altered!"
Falkor is slender, elegant, noble, and magical. He's actually more like the Chinese concept of dragons than the Western one. Why did that movie make him so ugly? =  =

The fortune cookie is really a genius invention of Chinese Americans. It makes all American people believe that Chinese people really eat it and believe the craps written on the little piece of paper. Many fortune cookies teach you how to speak Chinese words, using pinyin. The last one I got was 乾洗 (dry clean), but the pinyin it gave was "qian xi". What the heck ...