Drowning under piles of work

.Work is my new buddy.

I know, right? You'd think summer would be filled with blissful moments of relaxation and joy, but no, i have to do so much stuff!!

Today was more hectic than usual. I got assigned three stories! Well, they didn't tell me what to write. i had to go do all the research and run it past them and then write them one after another
Although... sometimes i don't even remember what i wrote about. haha.

they send me the test emails near the end of each day so i can fact check and proof read, and i'd come across a feature, and i'd be like, whoaaa this sounds strangely familiar! have i seen this before? am i psychic or something?? and then the light bulb goes off in my head, and i realize i just wrote it an hour ago. haha.

i'm glad to be getting some sort of experience writing about fashion, dining, design, travel, nightlife, etc... but at the same time, it feels weird to be writing about something i've never even heard of or been to. and having other people trust that i've done my research on the place when i myself am just as clueless as they are.

So anyway, back to the drowning under piles of work part, i just realized today that to get credit for the internship, i need to fill out surveys bi-weekly, go to 3 seminars at least, and either keep a blog (yet another one!) or do an informational interview! sigh.

.Bad News.

Today, the boss, juli b herself, called everyone in for a staff meeting.
then she uttered those 5 petrifying words: Who wants a pizza lunch?
I know, seems harmless, right? But you could tell by her tense voice and everyone's wary reactions that something was wrong. So i was like, ooooh, juicy news! Do spill! (obviously since i'm an unpaid intern, what happens to the company doesn't really affect me).

But then she sent me to go get her some sparkling water from the creepy grocery store! sigh. i guess she didn't want me hearing about private and confidential company news. but i still got the gist of it when i came back, and apparently everyone's getting a pay cut and fridays off (i would've rejoiced, but i already get fridays off).
so.... i guess the economy affects everyone. after that, the mood in the office just splattered and went plop.
oh well. at least they still get to keep their jobs, which is more than i can say for other people.

And then after the meeting, everyone was like, um... is the pizza offer still up? need to save money. next thing you know, we'll all be using food stamps. haha.

Anyway, before all that sad stuff, juli was telling us all about how she went home last night and found a homeless woman asleep on her STAIRS with her clothing all spread out and hung on the railing! weirdness. so she called 911 and the woman was gone by this morning.
Apparently, the old woman knocked on her window and asked her maid, "do you mind if i sleep here?"

And of course the maid said, 'NO. what do you think I am, running a homeless shelter? should i just invite you up and offer you a glass of champagne, and while i'm at it, draw a bath for you?'

at least that's what everyone in the office thinks she should have said. in reality, she simply said 'no.' hahahaha.

.More random observations.

I guess everyone who works gets off at 5pm, since when i got off at 7pm, NO ONE was in the bus. it was SO weird. it was just me and like 5 other people, and normally it's like completely packed.
So this cute little ah ma sat next to me and started chatting animatedly with me.
i guess i just naturally attract cute little ah mas. (she wasn't really little, she was big enough that i had to scoot over to the inside seat cuz she couldn't squeeze past me, but... you know what i mean)
Anyway, we became fast friends, and she kept telling me about all the cool, free events that was going on nearby, and encouraged me to go. i was like, wow! what an adorably endearing and hip ah ma! she was incredibly sweet, too, and i thought she was a Christian or something, but then she gave me her card with her Sanskrit name on it -- she was a yoga instructor.

It's kinda fun talking to random strangers. even though supposedly people in NYU aren't very friendly, i've talked to a couple of people in the elevator and here and there, and they're really nice. met one girl who goes to indiana university, and she was the first person here who actually heard of Taylor! yayyy. haha.

.News Guru.

Again, since there's nothing much to do at work sometimes, i read the news. A lot. Like, really, a lot. Until now i have nothing more to read.

Now i know about...
-the 2 Korean journalists who are being detained by North Korea for supposedly intruding into their territory to report on the situation there. North Korea is probably using them to hold the upper hand in diplomatic negotiations with the US.

-Chrysler going bankrupt and taken over/merging with Fiat.

-Swine flu possibly going to level 6 in WHO's pandemic measurement. but that's only measured by quantity and rapidness of spread, not severity.

-The murder of this doctor, George Tiller, who owned an abortion clinic in Kansas and performed all kinds of abortions, even at late stages in pregnancy. Some crazed anti-abortion guy burst into Tiller's church, where he was serving as an usher, and shot him. Now pro-life people wanna buy his clinic and turn it into a baby care center, to rid the world of the atrocities they think he committed.

-They're beginning to find the remains of the planes and the bodies in the Air France crash days ago.

-Some Israeli woman bought a new mattress and accidentally threw out her old one with a $1 million in it, and is now going through landfills to get her $$ back.

-Miss california was fired. but who really cares.

-News and pictures of the Twilight cast are EVERYWHERE. it's getting a little annoying.

-In Texas, a police officer told this 72-year-old grandma to get out of the car. she did, and cursed at him. he threatened to taser her, she said, 'you're gonna taser a 72-year-old woman??!' repeatedly.
And he did. hahahaha. i'm sorry, it was just so funny. she was a feisty little old lady, but she sure did not deserve it! i mean, what did the officer think she was gonna do? beat him with her walking cane? run away? (and by 'run' i mean 'hobble')

Watch the video here:
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/national_world&id=6857531

And much more. i can't believe i read so much. i've never been so knowledgable about the news in my entire life. i guess this is a good thing. now i can carry intellectual conversations with other people :)

Lazing around

.Day of Documentaries.

So i've been watching documentaries by National Geographic on Hulu... it's been really fascinating! since i can't be bothered to read, i guess i'll gain knowledge and expand my worldwide by watching (more) TV! :)
I watched this interesting documentary called 'Inside Mecca,' which chronicles Muslims' pilgrimage to Mecca. And i was completely riveted for an hour. Just listening to all these devout Muslims speak highly of their faith and their 'god,' and seeing how thousands of them came together to worship their 'one god'... just made me feel so in awe. and also rather disheartened that so many people are being deceived.

it made me wonder... do we as Christians even have such strong faith as they do? they hold on to their faith like it's the air they breathe, and sometimes i look around me and see Christians who claim to love God, but don't really live out their faith in their actions and words.
And there was this scene where the people all gathered in tents the day before the big day, and there were tents for people all over the world! (even one for singapore, which... i was totally shocked. didn't think Muslims in singapore were that devout)

I also watched 'Cracking the Da Vinci Code,' but got bored after half an hour. I don't see what the point is. Why bother to get into such heated debates over works by artists like Leonardo da vinci? Was he there when Jesus walked the earth? No. Was he there when Jesus died? No. Was he even a Christian? I don't think so.
So why are we analyzing his works and using them to find out about history??? I DON'T KNOW. makes no sense. just read the Bible, people. or maybe, just have faith.

And then i watched 'Haze' --- it was about this poor freshman guy who died in 2004 of college fraternity hazing activities. omg. what made it so sad was that it was totally preventable. so the freshmen were made to drink tons till they got ridiculously drunk. but his stupid frat 'brothers' just left him on the floor for hours, thinking he'd be ok the next morning. wrong move. but i guess they lived to regret it.

Also spent goodness knows how long trying to edit mom and dad's new online matchmaking stuff... and watched 'Anastasia'!!! my second fav cartoon movie after beauty and the beast. i got curious and wikipedia-ed it, and found out it's based on a true story! on the last royal family of imperial Russia, before the Bolshevik secret police came and murdered them all in 1918. And there was tons of speculation whether the grand duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna survived or not. There was even an impostor, Anna Anderson, who claimed to be the duchess until she died and a DNA test confirmed she wasn't. now why didn't they think of that earlier? I just thought that was really interesting. haha.

then hurried over to Times Square to get a passport photo and find the notary service to certify my passport. so i guess we really are applying for Australian PR after all. it's kinda exciting. i wouldn't mind living in Aust :)

But yeah. i'm feeling better now. thanks for your prayers/concern!

Rainy days

this week's been really rainy and dreary. i'm so sick of rain. even the grass and the plants are drowning.. where's the sun???

Anw. so the swine flu craze is getting worse..blown out of proportion. WHO just raised the alert status to level 5.. one level below pandemic madness. and.. i really don't get what the big deal is. so it's like a normal flu, same symptoms, not many in the US have died.. i think people should stop being so paranoid. but on the other hand, i'm going to New York in like 3 weeks for my internship. NEW YORK, OF ALL PLACES!!!! The state where there have been the MOST confirmed cases of swine flu!!! 20++ last i heard! sigh. so everyone who reads this, please please keep me in prayer as i do my internship (hopefully i still can do it...but who knows what'll happen in 3 weeks), as i'll be commuting to work every day and be surrounded by germ-y people in the subway twice a day. quite worrying.

really hope this virus dies down somehow. even people here in Indiana are getting panicky. just cuz there was a student in the U of Notre Dame who caught the flu.. i don't know. i just hope they find a cure/vaccine for it fast. and i was watching the news in the gym (the only place where i get the news, ironically), and they were talking about a similar pandemic years ago where scientists came up with a vaccine, but only it killed people instead of protecting them. like a million people died or something. craziness!

On to happier things, hannah and i worked our butts off to get done with the Echo early last night, and went to see the midnight PREMIERE of WOLVERINE!!!!
(on a side note, i'm surprised it came out in sgp 2 days before here!)



So it was pretty much adrenaline-rushin', butt-kickin' awesome!!! i don't know why the critics ravaged it, but i LOVED it!! i just love every superhero movie. they're awesome. and wolverine's one of my fav characters! the plot was crazy interesting and the story was so compelling. i was on the edge of my seat the whole time. although there were several cheesy parts..but it's forgiveable.

PLUS, there were all these weird geeks at the premiere. they dressed up as xmen characters like wolverine, cyclops, magneto (even though he's not in the movie), pyro, etc. AND they proceeded to entertain the audience (we got there like an hour before the movie started to get good seats since american cinemas don't give assigned seating!) by mock fighting against each other at the front of the theatre. soooo hilarious in an almost-annoying way.

Anw, only two more weeks of school left, and then finals, and then FREEDOM!

Did you know?

1. Every time you sneeze, some of your brain cells die. Also, it's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
(man, i'm never sneezing again)

2. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump. ahahaha

3. No word in the English language rhymes with 'month'
(huh. how about 'want'? haha)

4. 12 newborns are given to the wrong parents EVERY DAY
(omg. that's kinda scary)

5. Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love that stuff - all except for one flavor - mint oreo
(i love mint oreo!! it's one of my favs :)

6. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying
(now i know what i'll be doing the next time i peel onions. not that i even touch onions that often though)

7. An average person eats about 60,000 pounds of food in their lifetime. That's like 6 elephants.
(gross)

8. More Monopoly money is printed every year than real money throughout the world
(wow. what a waste of trees.)

9. One in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.
(whoaaa. can i be that one in four?)

10. The average person laughs 15 times a day.
(i wonder how many times i laugh. probably more since i laugh at anything and everything. haha)

So i was kinda bored. i looked up interesting facts on google. haha.
other than that, this week's been sleepless, restless and altogether tiresome.
all i can say is, drama drama drama. and i think i might be sick. not flu sick. but serious sick. arrrggghhh. scared.
still bleeding when i exercise. so i looked up causes on the internet. and one cause is like some form of cancer!
am trying not to be worried.

pray.



I won't give up
No, I won't break down
Sooner than it seems life turns around
And i will be strong
Even if it all goes wrong
When i'm standing in the dark i'll still believe
Someone's watching over me

History in the making!!!

So.. is it just me or is it pretty cool that Obama won? even though everyone's been assuring me of his probable win, i was still pretty excited to find out who won for sure last night. it's just... WOW! America's come so far! from slavery to civil rights to the FIRST black president ever... i think it's pretty cool our generation got to witness this. even though i didn't vote, i was still excited to see the results. haha. didn't register to vote because.. i wouldn't know who to vote for anyway. but yay! i'm glad this is over. it was pretty tense. the making fun of sarah palin stuff was funny though.

soooo many pple dressed up as sarah palin for halloween this year. i know of at least 2 pple at taylor who did that. i think the most popular characters this year were - The Joker and Sarah Palin.
seriously.

in other news, i'm thinking of applying for the LA study abroad program. haha. i know i'm fickle-minded like that. cuz i realized the only reason i wanna go to australia is because of hillsong. not for the study program. which is a lame reason. because, as i realized the other day, my dreams keep changing. first i wanted to do something with music, then i thought about going into ministry, then i wanted to be a journalist, then i wanted to do the music/soundtrack for movies/tv shows, and now i wanna..... maybe do something with magazines or movies.

which is why the LA program would be PERFECT for me!! i realize i love doing film production stuff so much more than stupid writing!! but now it's too late to change. but it's ok. writing is good too. it's just that going to LA will give me so much experience in movie production!!!!! get to do some sort of internship in HOLLYWOOD..and my friend's there right now... SHE GOT TO MEET THE CAST OF PRISON BREAK!!!!
not gonna lie, that's a major pull factor right there. plus several alumni of that LA program get to do all sorts of cool stuff now..like write the script for One Tree Hill!!
that is totally what i wanna do with my life.
just hope i get to go. what with arranging all my classes and everything. it'll be an awesome, good networking experience!! then maybe next time after i graduate i can move to LA and WORK THERE!!! totally dream job right there.

TGIB - thank God it's break

last weekend, when we went to Thai Smile for levi's bday, we got into car trouble during our 1/2 hr drive there. the car engine just started overheating and massive amounts of smoke clouded our windscreen. KINDA SCARY!!!

levi's all happy n optimistic about it. we had to stop and check out the engine and put water in some tube. (obviously i don't know anything abt cars. i just stood around n took pics) and this nice biker guy stopped and helped us.

levi and claire at thai smile! awesome thai food! actually pretty authentic! except for their supposed 'curry puffs' which were more like fried little squares with something unidentifiable inside that didn't taste like curry at all.

claire, cartoon n me.

YAYYYY!!!! my break officially started today. at noon. when my last class ended. all my classes for tmr were cancelled! awesomeness :))) so i watched Camp Rock with a bunch of girls just now. sooo cheesy but it was fun.
this week's been really relaxing! although i had a presentation on mon (which i got an A+ for!!!) and 2 tests yesterday (which were pretty easy).

omggg. NEWS OF THE WEEK. first, background info. Taylor has 2 campuses. Upland is the bigger campus, where i am. it's also in the middle of nowhere, and it's more expensive. Fort Wayne is the smaller, cheaper one, with only 500 students, about 1/4 of our size. and it's in the city.

SO. we got breaking news that Taylor Fort Wayne is CLOSING DOWN. yes, no more TUFW. kapoot. just like that. it was such shocking news!! and yet so many TU upland people didn't know or didn't care. but it affected the TUFW people SO badly. how do i know? i have a class at TUFW. why else would i know/care about this?? anw apparently they've been in debts for a while. the Upland campus has been giving them $1million a year. accumulating up to $15million right now. (and now i realize where my expensive tuition fee goes to). so Upland can't afford to keep subsidizing their costs...so they're shutting them down. next year in may. and the students will either come here or transfer somewhere else.

so they got the news on mon. we had class there on tue. naturally, all 4 of us were pretty....nervous. not sure what to expect. cuz we heard the students were pretty mad/upset. well, i would be too, if my school was freaking CLOSING DOWN all of a sudden!!
so yeah. it was a pretty interesting experience. they talked about it in class. some were angry, some upset, some bitter, some super choked up and emotional... yup. feel really bad for them.

AND another really interesting thing that happened in class... so we were sharing our personal testimonies, which we had written. not testimonies in the traditional sense, but just something significant that happened in our lives that God used to teach us/help us grow/draw us closer to Him, etc.
so this guy (one of the more normal guys in the class) comes up, and he's like, this is called my 'untestimony'. and he proceeds to talk about how he's a christian, but he doesn't really believe in God, he hasn't had any significant event with God in his life, basically i don't really think he's a christian. and we were like...uhhh ok. totally don't understand why he would choose to go to Taylor fort wayne, A TEENY CHRISTIAN SCHOOL, if he didn't believe in God n all that. the world is filled with such interesting people.

Also, the sharing testimonies part made me realize there's quite a part of my life i've never actually shared with...anyone. that revelation surprised me. i guess i'm not very open about my past. thought about sharing it on my blog, but perhaps not. it's rather impersonal to write it down here for goodness knows who to read.

anyway. CAN'T WAIT TO 'MAKE LIKE A FOETUS AND HEAD OUT' TO CEDARPOINT, OHIO ON FRI!! it's fall break!! and i'm gonna be at the best theme park in the US!!!!!! for free!!! super excited.
(the 'make like a foetus and head out' quote was courtesy of dereck. i thought it was super funny when he first said it. laughed like mad.)

jumbled thoughts

today in practically every class we talked about the shootings at Virginia Tech and prayed for all those affected by the incident. found out it's a korean guy who was kind of a loner who killed those people. but i guess race doesn't really matter. kinda scary to think that this kinda evil is actually within our capabilities..since we're all fallen..but thank God for His saving grace.

one of my professors scared me. he kept saying..imagine what if this happened at taylor..and someone just bursts into that door (pointed at the door) and starts shooting people.. that made me terrified. i was like seriously freaking out! cuz this IS america! the land of crazy people armed with GUNS. that's the worse part. what is wrong with the government??? why are they allowing guns to be sold to anyone with cash??? that is just wrong. but yeah..i realize this can actually happen anywhere. so i'm prepared. i'll play dead if something like this (i reject that!) ever happens around me.

in Christian Ed class the prof was saying how things like these are evil..but God brings good out of them. but that we still can't understand how good can ever come out it stuff like this. it's times like these that the church needs to act and just show those affected Jesus' love..not shove it down their throats..cuz it doesn't matter how many of them come to know the Lord thru this incident..but care for them and help them thru it so that they know there is a God out there who cares for them.

A guest speaker came to class and he talked about being the youth pastor in this presbyterian church in indiana for 17 yrs. for american standards, that's pretty darned long. don't know why, but pple in full time ministry here (like pastors, etc) do move from church to church pretty often. wonder why. they don't stay at a church long..which is weird to me. and he was saying how 200 is a middle sized church..1000+ is a huge church. and i was thinking of fcbc and how that's prob a humongous church in american terms. haha. actually..taking this class had made me think twice about full-time ministry.

maybe i'm not meant to do that after all. don't think i can see myself in a small little church pastoring over like 100 pple. plus they're all so traditional!! the churches here look like what u'd imagine a catholic church would look like. stained glass and all..seems kinda distant and formal to me. feel more assured in doing journalism i guess.

cuz one of my professors today was totally insulting journalism cuz of the school shootings incident..and how the media gets all over juicy news stories like that..and they're like vultures waiting to pick apart the story. which is pretty true..and heartless. the pple are alrdy so shaken up and the situation's so chaotic..they really don't need busybody newsreporters poking their nose into their business. which is why i wanna go into that industry and hopefully give things a christian perspective and not report news in such a cold and distant way..but actually from a human, compassionate point of view. maybe that's not possible. maybe i'm too idealistic, living in a world that lives off tragic stories like these. but..i can always try.

school shootings and what not

today a school shooting occurred at Virginia Tech. some guy..i think it was an asian..rampaged through the dorms and killed a total of 32 people. i am in shock. i mean, i probably shouldn't be, given that we live in a corrupted world and all, but..i always fail to comprehend how people can do such things. he's probably a normal guy, just like u and me. a guy who goes on with life day by day, doing things that we all do. and then suddenly he turns into this crazy heartless maniac that has no problem killing THIRTY TWO people and then himself?? i wonder what was going on in his mind. what spurred him to action. what his last thoughts were. how he could bring himself to pull the trigger on 32 of his fellow human beings.

did he not feel scared? did he not feel regret? did he not feel guilty? did he even feel anything?? i don't understand how people can do such things. i guess maybe he couldn't live with himself..that's why he killed himself too.

i just wish he knew Jesus. i just wish that he had the chance to experience the wonders of God's love. maybe he did. i don't know. what i do know is that i feel incredibly blessed to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior..because He is the reason that i live.