This Week is Lacking Sleep

ただいま！난 지금 집에 있어. 我今天回家了.

1. What did you do on Monday? Korean final and then went back to the dorm to finish my essay
1. What did you do on Tuesday? Rewrote 2 paragraphs of my essay and had a pizza party
1. What did you do on Wednesday? Edited my essay with Jason for 10 hours
1. What did you do on Thursday? Studied timeline terms, edited my essay, and took my cluster final
1. What are you going to do today? Flew home

A finals week of a 1st year UCLA student. But really, I wonder if that’s much different than the weeks of other students. Dudee, I’m so tired though I just want to sleep. I haven’t been sleeping much at all this past week and I don’t know why. I’ve become a really light sleeper for some reason, and of course I didn’t alter my habits of sleeping really late either. This drama I’m watching is making me really tired too, I don’t know why. I mean, I know it’s not that interesting and movies make me tired, but usually I don’t get this tired as long as I’m in front of the computer, especially this early into the night.

I don’t know how it feels to be home. The same, I guesss. Nothing all that special, I don’t know. I don’t want to drive around though. I don’t really want to drive at all – how annoying. And it’s annoying because people will expect me to drive 근데 시도, したなくない. I don’t know. I was talking about this to the guy I met on the plane, but I feel like after your first year in college, you really just hang out with the people from before who you actually want to keep in touch with. Right now, everyone is all excited to be back home from college and is trying to organize this and that and get together, and I feel like I’ve skipped that step, or like I just never really had any desire to be in that place. So I’m sitting here watching everyone organizing get togethers and honestly thinking to myself, “Why are these people contacting me? It’s not like we were even really that great friends.” I don’t know. I guess I never really saw the point in making an effort for people who, ultimately, don’t even really matter. Ouch, but whatever.

It feels so lame but all I really want to do is sleep x_x;; 아이구 아이구~ 나 간다. 잘자~~~ お休み～
(Should I concentrate in Korea or Japan? I really don’t know what to do anymore.)

Hypocrites and A Quality Papers

People are very hypocritical. They’ll expect one thing from you but then do the opposite to you. It doesn’t really affect me much in this case but it’s still kind of annoying. Or maybe I just tend to expect too much from people, I don’t know. I think I’ve written about expecting too much from people before, somewhere back in my however many years of history of blogging. Oh well. I can’t believe I actually remember that.

So now I’m just trying to do everything I need to get done before our pizza party tonight, and mainly, before I can actually watch an episode of the drama I want to watch, hah. Mainly it’s just the timeline standing in my way, since I’ve already rewritten 1 1/2 paragraphs of my essay to make it better. I think I just need someone to read it at this point to check if the content’s okay first, before I can go plunging on into the organizational, grammar, sentence structure kind of stuff. I woke up this morning and realized that I really only have today and tomorrow to make it a perfect, A quality paper (which is impossible with my TA anyways) so I better get to it.

Goddamn college is such a slave driver. Will winter break just come already?

Problems with My Essay

I feel like I’ve complained too much to actual people about my essay, so I guess I’ll just complain about all the things wrong with it here.

1) I don’t really get the prompt. I mean, I do, to an extent, but I don’t get how to formulate a thesis that will directly address the prompt, tie everything together, and not sound like a run-on. I also don’t get how to address each specific topic that I am writing about in relation to the prompt. For example, I have to do 2 paragraphs on print media, first in Vietnam and then in whatever the second country is that I’m doing (will be addressed later) but there was no previous print media in Vietnam to begin with. So am I supposed to focus on the fact that there was no print media, and now there is one? Or how the people were affected by the media, and how their cultural norms were affected? Or am I supposed to talk about the actual content of the media, like that it was an incorporation of both the old and new ideas, since ther was a wide array of different newspapers and journals printed at the time?

2) I don’t know which country I should write about. I originally wanted to write about Korea, and so I wrote both my introduction and conclusion addressing Korea along with Vietnam, plus two body paragraphs, but in doing so, I realized that I don’t really have much information on Korea to work with. Because my professor just goes off on tangents during lectures, I did not accumulate much knowledge through them, and neither did Denise, so it wasn’t even just me. The readings as well don’t really address the topics that I wish to talk about either. So the more I think about it, although it will mean having to rewrite about 4 paragraphs, I think that switching Korea with Japan will allow me to have stronger body paragraphs and demonstrate a better knowledge and understanding of the readings because I will be able to incorporate more of them into my essay.

3) This is my major thing that is driving me off the wall insane. I feel like I keep summarizing instead of analyzing. I actually think I did a pretty okay paragraph when I was writing about Vietnam’s cityscape, but after I came back and sat down and tried to do Vietnam’s print media, I felt like I was facing the same problem all over again. I don’t know. But when I go back and try to delete some of it, I just don’t know what to delete, since I feel like a lot of it is not really background information, but actually answering the question. I don’t know. I just don’t get how I’m supposed to analyze it, when they’re basically asking me what happened when aspects of modernization were implemented, and the readings just tell me. I don’t know. I’m so lost it’s driving me insane I hate this

4) I’m already past my limit of 6 pages. Horray for having to cut a ton… AGAIN. I’m hoping though that by switching from Korea to Japan, this will solve part of the problem since it will give me another shot at writing a language paragraph for Japan instead, one in which I won’t just have summary but actual analysis.

Hopefully writing this entry helped me. It kind of makes me want to go back and rework some things in my essay because I think I have a clearer understanding of what I’m supposed to write for my essay, and how I’m supposed to write it, but at the same time, I kind of think I should sleep too, seeing as I have a 9am final tomorrow morning and I plan on waking up at 8am to study for it. I don’t know what to do. Maybe I should stay up till 1 trying to fix my essay and then just call it a night?

Aigoo. Now I have to redo all my outlining/background research for Japan instead of Korea. Why didn’t I just think of this earlier? T_T

Procrastination… Sort of

I’m trying out the new WordPress! It’s looking pretty snazzy so far – I’m excited

1. Do you like the look of your country’s currency (bills and coins)? They’re getting more colorful and cooler, so I guess they’re okay.
2. Regardless of their actual value, do you like bills or coins better? Bills.
3. What is your favorite foreign currency? And why? I’d have to say euros… maybe. I like the coins – they’re think and cool. The bills are colorful and distinguishable, and the coins are different colors and unique too.
4. Do you collect coins or bills? Elaborate. Not really. I have money left over from when I went to China, Japan, and France, but it’s not like I keep them to collect them or anything.
5. Do you think human society could make do completely without money? Explain. Nope. We tried before and obviously failed, so why would it work again? Without money, less people would be able to trade stuff and exchange possessions because in order to get something new, I would have to have something that the other person wanted in exchange. Money, however, is more liquid, and thus makes transactions like these easier, and more frequent.

Aren’t I supposed to be studying for my math final that’s in 12 1/2 hours? Yes. Probably. Am I procrastinating? You bet I am. I even watched My Little Bride with Hiromi today, haha. It was a very nice break though – love that movie. I just didn’t like the thought of having to do math for hours straight again, like I did on Wednesday and sort of on Tuesday. I needed a breather I guess, but now I’m debating whether or not to go to Puzzles later tonight and have an ice cream too. I am soooo tired it’s ridiculuos. And I have too many swipes left over for this week It’s because I cooped myself in my room just to study, and because I was lazy, but that’s more of the unofficial reason, haha.

I have a math final tomorrow morning, Korean final Monday morning, and final paper & in-class GE Cluster final on Thursday. We just got the prompt yesterday, and it sounds pretty much exactly the same as the other two essays we wrote during the quarter. I look forward to it. And now I have to go. Because I need to study, for real now. I’m on chapter 7 though, if that makes my situation any better, meaning that I finished practicing for chapters 8, 9, and 11. I also went over my first midterm, so I’m nearing the end of this baby and I’m going to do amazing. Just watch.

No man. I’m serious this time… I need to be.

Lost Thoughts

Usually I write a Thanksgiving post, but I guess I didn’t really do that this year. I guess it’s because I feel like they always sound the same, and I’m not even really the big of a celebrator of Thanksgiving. This year’s Thanksgiving didn’t even feel like any day out of the ordinary. Maybe I should start doing a year by year kind of thanks, to make it more unique. Like you know how you have new year’s resolutions, well you could have a this year’s thanks too.

I had a lot of things to say though, other stuff. Things that I thought of while writing in my head, as Ms. Satterstrom called it. I guess I do write in my head a lot. Stored somewhere in my mind, there are thousands and thousands of incompleted journal entries that pop in my head at the time and I never really have either the memory, the time, or the desire to actually write them down. Some of them do end up written down, but most don’t. I honestly don’t remember at all, not even the topic, of what I was going to say.

I actually don’t know why I’m blogging either. My first and probably most important final for me is in less than a week, but I haven’t really studied much over the weekend. Instead, I watched episodes 1-14 of this new drama that I found, and plan to watch 15 and 16 today, so I can “focus” and “study hard” this week following up to that damned, dreaded final. I’m not exactly sure how well that plan will pan out. Usually it doesn’t work out that way, especially since I have my essay due Friday, but I guess we’ll see. Wow. I just realized that this is my last week of classes – that’s freaking insane! I can’t believe how quickly time flew by. And I know that I keep saying that and saying that but seriously I can’t believe it, I have no idea where all of my time went this quarter. I always say stuff like “Wow, can you believe it’s already 7th week?” but it hasn’t really hit me until just now that HOLY SHIT after this week we won’t have these classes ever again! Nuts.

I scheduled last night. My schedule is still kind of ugly, despite the fact that I got all the classes that I wanted. I was the 20th person to sign up for my GE discussion that has a capacity of 20 people. I checked my enrollment and it also turns out that someone had dropped the econ discussion that I wanted, so I’m actually enrolled now, and not just on the waitlist That makes me 행복해~ (:

That’s another thing. Since I’ve been obsessed with this new drama and since I’ve been taking Korean classes, I am now thinking in like… konglish. Because half the stuff I’m hearing in Korean anyways, haha. But it’s weird because my Korean isn’t good enough so it doesn’t really work out that well. Oh well. I have to go now. I’m in the hotel room, supposed to be checked out (they keep checking back) and was waiting for my download to finish, and now that it has, I have to go. 안녕!

Friday Five

I am back on Firefox because Chrome began malfunctioning with me. Tabs would randomly stop working/allowing you to browse to websites and it happened so frequently that I just gave up. I also miss my Firefox add-ons, like highlight and such. Chrome does look cool though. But then again, what did you expect, it’s google.

1. Could you live without your phone for 1 week for $500? Use someone else’s phone.
2. Whom do you talk to on the phone the most? I don’t really know anymore. Christine, I guess, but then sometimes not really. And I mean who do I call the most or who do I talk to on the phone the most? I think those would warrant two different answers.
3. Whom do you no longer talk to on the phone but wish you still did? I have no idea. No one in particular that I can think of…
4. If you could get a hold of one celebrity phone number, whose digits would you want? Well even if I had their number, wouldn’t that be an extremely awkward conversation? “Um hi I have your number because I stalk you and I’m your number one fan!” *click*… from their side. I don’t think I would call them, to be honest. So I guess it doesn’t really matter.
5. Do you talk on the phone more or less than you used to? More? Less? Than what? I don’t really know. I think I talk on the phone less, and especially because I see a handful of my friends everyday now so yeah. There’s also the internet, IMing, video chatting, ya know.

I don’t know if I should go to Diwali tonight. I kind of want to but I want to also be able to leave whenever I want to, if I don’t like it or whatever, and I don’t know if you can do that or what. What’s the dealio? I feel like everyone is going away this weekend, so I really will be completely anti-social. But hopefully that means that I’ll be getting some work done. Rissa and I are planning a Full House marathon though!! Excited~ I keep thinking about the 곰 세 마리 song whenever I hear that counter in Korean class, haha. I’m sooo glad that midterms are finally done though (just have to worry about this cluster essay and finals). Quarters go by so quickly it’s ridiculous. If you think about it, 10 weeks isn’t a lot at all. It’s like just a bit over two months. I can’t believe that it’s November already, because it definitely does not seem like it when I look and walk outside. It is currently 88 degrees outside right now, and that’s probably after having cooled down. Tell me that’s not ridiculous.

Anyways. I want some non-dorm food. For some strange reason, my ramen’s looking really good, even though I know in reality it’s not. I should probably save it. But damnnn why have I started getting hungry around 4 now?

P.S. I know it sounds geeky but I’m excited for new new WordPress to come out. I wish they would just release it already!

Scheduling and Whatnot

I’m being demanded to post, but I have no idea what to talk about. I’m pretty on top of things as of late, if I do say so myself. No school tomorrow is nice too. I wanted to go to Six Flags tomorrow since Jake’s floor is going, but I have my math midterm on Wednesday and figured that I should probably make studying for that my priority instead. Lame, I know, but whatever. There will be other chances. I found out early this morning (read: 3am) that I passed out of English Composition 3, which is good, and I have this suspicion that the results from that test have been up there for a while but I just didn’t notice. I’m stupid – it happens, haha. It’s good though. After I took that test, I figured that either one of two things could have happened: I had just written a brilliant essay once again (I’m so humble, I realize) or I had completely bombed that essay and the person who wrote the article they assigned us to analyze and write an essay about was one of the essay readers and would hate me for what I said in my essay. I didn’t even really write on topic, to be honest. I esentially twisted the prompt to make it something that I felt like writing about, not something that the readers had really asked me for. I tend to do that, I realized. I always have to make my essays different, relate them to a bigger picture of something else, take the topic and put it into a completely different context. I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing, but I guess this time at least, it worked.

So yeah. Long story short, I don’t have to take English Composition 3 next quarter and my schedule won’t be all screwed up. Plus, I have a higher guarentee that I’ll get the schedule that I want so it’ll look all nice and pretty. I was thinking about taking four classes next quarter, but nothing really fits with my schedule either. With the lecture times of both my Korean and GE Cluster classes, pretty much no other class is available (other than my 8am Econ 41 class -_-).

아아아~~ 추다. It’s easy to get close fast to people in college. I’m closer to people I’ve known for seven weeks than I am with people I’ve gotten to know over the last four years. It’s kind of nice though. I like that aspect of college. I feel like I should be getting more involved though. Doing more. Joining more. My excuse is that I eventually will, I just need to get my grades up for this quarter… which is kind of true, I know, but a part of me is just damn tired of waiting for myself to get past my excuses and actually start doing stuff. We’ll see how that goes.

Well. I also wrote this entry to procrastinate starting my essay, of which the outline and first two paragraphs are due this Friday. I swear, the work never stops, especially if you take GE Clusters. Thank God I don’t have to take Eng Comp 3 next quarter Maybe I should go work on that essay though… T_T

Disfunctional Title for my Disfunctional State

When did you last…
1. scrounge for change (couch, ashtray, ect) to make a purchase? Shortly before I left home home in MV
2. visit a dentist? Like 2 days before I came to LA, haha
3. make a needed change to your life? Last Friday, though I’m not sure how much is actually changing…
4. decide on a complete menu well in advance of the evening meal? Junior Prom 2008
5. spend part of the day (other than daily hygiene) totally/mostly naked? Never… when I was a baby?

I’m so tired. 5.5 hours of sleep. I neeeeddd moree. Especially if I’m supposed to celebrate the end of midterms (for now) with Jake tonight. I’m so tired though. I failed my math midterm I got a disappointing score on my timeline… *sigh* I don’t even know anymore. It was below the class average… yeah. Way to make me feel amazing. Overall though the last two days have been good. We’re watching Teach Me English in Korean class and it’s starting to get soooo cute omg they’re so cute together Hehe. You know dramas really do help your listening comprehension seriously like I have no problem understanding native Koreans or any Koreans for that matter, as long as I know the vocabularly that they’re speaking. Like speed is never a problem for me, at least not in Korean or Japanese. I am lameee hahaha.

Good bye I’m tired and disfunctional atm.

Midterm Madness

People never lie when they say that quarters go super fast. It’s already week 4 and I have my math midterm tomorrow and sort of had my Korean midterm today (which wasn’t bad at all, except for the extra credit which I know for sure I got wrong) and I have my rough draft of my essay for my cluster due on Friday (which I still need to finish, sadly ) but I realized in math discussion today that maybe I should really be freaking out about this! So I am now and I have been studying basically non-stop except for dinner tonight for my math midterm, which is tomorrow, and I still do not feel a little more reassured and I still am trying to figure out the best way to memorize how to take the derivative of an inverse function (okay… so I know I already learned this stuff, but it takes a while for it all to come back) and am basically in freak out mode right now. Plus I feel like I should read past just the first page of my cluster reading for Thursday so I don’t fall behind and Denise just spent like the past 2 hours reading and I’m not even sure if she’s done with it yet! Normally I would say, Oh okay I’ll just do it tomorrow, but my goal for tomorrow is to finish my rough draft, which would pile on a lot for tomorrow, but I guess that right now I know for sure that my main concern is this damned midterm that I have tomorrow and am currently (sort of, I mean, aside from this entry) studying my ass off for because I decided the night/day before that I should actually start studying! T_T

And can I just add as a sidenote that I hate it when people treat me as though I don’t have any work to do of my own? Because I do.

But yeah, ahhhhhhhh I need to do well on my midterm!!!! T_T Pray for me! T_T 아이구~~응~~~ㅋㅋ

내 습관

I need to stop eating chocolate, stop drinking soda, stop getting ice cream and diddy riese and pizookies, stop actually buying stuff from Bruin Café, stop sleeping so late, stop spending so much time on facebook, stop avoiding Tae Kwon Do, stop playing sudoku, and stop procrastinating. I’m sure that I’m forgetting something in there, but I think I pretty much covered most of the bases there.

So by tonight (I realize that this is already going against my I need to stop sleeping so late rule but oh well) I need to finish at least the Westernization part of my essay, reread the China reading, and finish the China reading that was for today’s lecture.

I need to stop thinking about all that I have to do and just do it, as well. Damn it. But that actually requires work >_<