Wednesday, May 12, 2004

IRIS CHANG DEBATE

What is with all the hostility towards this author? I bought her books. I was interested in reading about a topic that frankly, I had heard so little about before. My father is a very old man. I consider him a human history book. He's been around for over three quarters of a century and his knowledge of the experiences in the past seventy six years astonishes me. He talked to me about Nanking. He had two older brothers and one niece living there at the time of the "rape" of this town. He was around for the World War where Hitler came to power. He travelled around the world, to Africa, Egypt, Asia, Europe, the list goes on. Because of the language barrier between my father and myself, I found it incredibly hard to speak to him in the past. Now that I'm older I try harder to learn more of the dialect in which I can communicate with him. As he spoke with me over this weekend in fluent chinese mixed with broken English and as I tried to respond in English with broken Chinese, I found that he knew a great deal of the tragedy that occurred in Nanking. I found that my father is against war and refused to go to war for a cause he did not believe in. He told me that even if the country was justified, he would not fight a war. I am amazed at his knowledge about the past. Iris Chang, although she did not live at the time of Nanking, searched for knowledge about a topic or a time in history that could have otherwise been lost. Possibly not lost completely, but fading. A mistake such as Nanking, a regrettable occurance such as that should not be forgotten. Posted by WaiSau Sit on 5/12/04; 3:58:48 PM from the dept. Discuss

FINALLY MY BLOG WORKS!

I have been trying to get my blog going for so long. I've been adding people's pages on to the side bar as shortcut links, but after I put the first 7 names up, the rest would not show up. So, I stopped. I'm not sure what to do. Posted by WaiSau Sit on 5/12/04; 3:51:31 PM from the dept. Discuss

COLLEGE and LIFE

I was reading through some of the blogs, such as Jane's, Kaitie's, Simon's, etc... I found that many of you talked about college admissions and GPA's and SAT's. Well, I guess I consider myself lucky to have experienced good luck with colleges. It's funny because just today, I questioned how deserving I was for my acceptances into the colleges of my choice. In high school, I only applied to Cal, UCSD, Davis and Cal Poly SLO. I didn't want to even bother with UCLA because I never thought I would want to live there with all the smog. I didn't even want to apply to Berkeley, but my bf at the time was a student there and it felt natural to want to be with him. So when I got my acceptances to all four universities. I was naturally, very happy. However, I was in a bind. My GPA for which I applied was above a 3.9 and I was full of advanced placement and honors courses. I had a decision to make. My  bf and I just split up, and I was on bad terms with my family. I wanted to get away and so I sent in my SIR to UCSD. Around that time, I had a new bf and a new lease on life. I was going to get away and start new. Boy, was I wrong. My father who is now 76 years old (and going strong) became very ill. I had to come home because none of the five siblings I had would. I started my two year journey through De Anza. Now, it's time to leave. I applied to UCLA, UCSD, UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and SCU. I was accepted to all of the schools of my choice. I had a 4.0, which since last quarter has been in jeopardy and a great amount of work experience in my field. Now, I am in a bind once more. I was working too many hours and I was too cocky about my Calculus class and if that class lowers my GPA, my admissions to Berkeley may be in jeopardy. Why not go to another school? Because I won't know if Berkeley will cancel admissions until end of July. By then it would be too late to decide on another school. How could I be so stupid? I quit my job recently. Both of them for that matter. I am no longer working at the bank and I am no longer teaching Kickboxing classes. I have no income! Oh well. Everyone always tells me, "you have the rest of your life to work. enjoy your college years!" I decided to take that advice. i don't have financial support from my family. I survive on my earnings, scholarships, and other forms of monetary support, but I don't depend on my family. I think quitting makes being independent a little harder to do... Posted by WaiSau Sit on 5/12/04; 3:47:42 PM from the dept. Discuss

SOMETHING FUNNY ABOUT MONEY

MONEY...   It can buy you a House, but not a Home  It can buy you a Bed, but not Sleep  It can buy you a Clock, but not Time  It can buy you a Book, but not Knowledge  It can buy you a Position, but not Respect  It can buy you Medicine, but not Health  It can buy you Blood, but not Life  It can buy you Sex, but not Love   So you see, money isn't everything. It often causes pain and suffering. I tell you this because I'm your friend, and as your friend I want to take away your pain and suffering... So send me all of your money, and I will suffer for you. CASH ONLY PLEASE Posted by WaiSau Sit on 5/12/04; 3:47:04 PM from the dept. Discuss

PROFESSIONAL GOALS

I anticipate that there will be changes in the upcoming future. However, I believe I need to set goals for myself in order to have something to work towards. Currently I am a 2nd year De Anza College student. Many of my professional goals have to do with my education. I recently received my acceptance to the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley. I am working towards earning a B.S. at the University and by then my professional goals reach a fork in the road. The first choice would be to go to law school. I would like to attend a private school for law. If I do become a lawyer, I would like to eventually become a judge. The other road that can possibly be taken is to work at a major financial institution as an Investment Banker. I would work to become head of the financial department if I decide to work in the field of accounting. What will determine where I go? I am not sure. A few of the factors I am considering now is how I will afford law school. When I graduate, I plan on working and if my job satisfies me, I may decide to work rather than continue law school. Haas School of Business is known for having corporations recruit from Haas specfically. If, for whatever reason that does not work out for me, I can always continue my studies. Posted by WaiSau Sit on 5/12/04; 3:46:34 PM from the dept. Discuss

DECISIONS

In high school, I found out I was accepted to UCSD and Cal... I had to make a decision and I chose UCSD. Family problems and my father are what brought me back. De Anza was my second chance. I decided on a new major: Business. I decided on a new set of schools: Cal, UCLA, Stanford, and UCSD. I decided on being a 4.0 student. I decided that I would get scholarships and funding to support myself through college as I did previously at UCSD. Now? I have to make the biggest decision of all. Where to go? Today I got my acceptance letter from the very last school I was waiting for... Cal. I didn't care too much for Cal, but the overly competitve business school is what I wanted to earn admittance into... and now I have. My ex boyfriend was standing there with me as the page loaded. We found out he didn't get into UCLA or Cal... and so my joy was somewhat suppressed. I have to make a decision. If i go to Cal... my tuition is paid for as well as part of my rent for housing, but UCLA and UCSD are fully funded via scholarships. Where to go? What to do? Posted by WaiSau Sit on 5/12/04; 3:46:04 PM from the dept. Discuss

EVERYDAY LINGO ASSIGNMENT

*This is actually a cut and paste from my usual online journal site* Thursday, July 10, 2003 I'm excited about the future, but hardly able to stand the present... Momentarily, I'm in this hole of a house- don't get me wrong: I'm grateful- for everything, but I don't know what else I can really do. I guess over the years, this family has been both giving and selfish- some more than others. Certain persons decided that their life not be impeded by others and that they need not worry about the welfare of others as long as they were given everything they required. I dislike the reality that my family is not a loving one who do things together. In fact, it's rare to ever catch us all in the house @ once. This has been a chaotic house this past week- made it really hard to study for that econ midterm with all the bitching and the "we need to 'talk'" conversations- although I do admit that is NOT the reason as to why I did not study; I simply chose not to. I didn't think it was possible, but the last thing I remember is the screaming and yelling before I left... and the first thing I heard when I came home today was screaming, yelling and tears of frustration. Part of me wants to say "everyone! just leave! abandon everything you know and start a new life away from here and it'll all be okay" but i know it won't be. But that's what they want... to start a life, anew and away... I'm tired of all this yelling & screaming... Tired of all their noise... Make it go away... But with that goes a sense of security... I'm looking at my family with a sympathetic heart through angry eyes. I see each and every one of them as a person to be angry with right now- for one reason or another. I didn't before this week. I was fine; I've accepted certain things in my life and I figured they would have also, but no- some run, others hide, and the rest keep it all held deep down inside. It's a pathetic picture, really- truly a sad story. I ask them to remember the good... to search their memories, but they refuse. Part of me wants to say "well, fuck 'em then!" but I don't want to be an orphaned teen who has nowhere to go when the holiday comes... where everything is broken into itty bitty pieces and you can't find enough glue to put it back together... I guess that's exactly what we need right now... glue. Posted by WaiSau Sit on 5/12/04; 3:45:22 PM from the dept. Discuss

EXPRESSIVE PAPER 1

Powerful Journeys The Odyssey is a poem by Homer who expresses a beautiful tale of a great fighter, Odysseus. Odysseus endures a twenty-year adventure away from home. His goal is to reach his home of Ithaca where his wife, Penelope and his son, Telemachus await. The heroic poetry in each of the twenty-four books has a narrative verse. This verse expresses a metaphor for life. His tale can be told from each of our voices with different names, people, locations, and experiences. Odysseus journeys through the seas and faces the wraths of the Gods while enjoying the favorable help of others in his quest to reach Ithaca. His journey is very much similar to that of our own. Different people, places, and things are encountered, but the general story is one that each of us follow through our own lives. As Odysseus strived to reach Ithaca, each of us persevere to reach our own Ithaca. My father’s Ithaca was his business. He came to this country and wanted to start his business. He began a small self-run company and things appeared to be looking up, but when the economy took a downward turn, so did his business. Comparatively when Odysseus was kept on the island with the sirens in an idle state, my father endured a three-year period, in which he made close to zero profit. He ran into many obstacles, just as Odysseus had in his twenty years away from Ithaca. Although my father could not turn to the Gods for pity and help, he could turn to a few business partners who helped pull him through hard times. In a lifetime, goals are abundant and the challenges we face in reaching those goals are ten fold. How we get through each of these bumps in the road is likely to be a determinant in whether we will reach our goals. My father, although I have seen his eyes discouraged by defeat from time to time, changed his pessimistic feeling about his business and made a change. Odysseus was trapped with his men in the Cyclops’s cave, but found a way out rather than giving in to defeat. I have encountered my own Cyclops. My family life has been in pieces since the death of my mother. I was nine-years old experiencing my own personal hell. I lacked the courage to run, but even more I lacked a place to run. I fell into a spiraling world of sinful deeds, where just like my dad when his business was stale, I accomplished nothing for myself. I decided to make a change for myself. I had wept as Odysseus had and after long sorrowful thoughts, I changed for the better and began to achieve essential goals in order to escape my family life. In May of 2002, I was accepted to University of California, Berkeley and University of California, San Diego. I sent in my Statement of Intent to Register to both universities. Now that I finally had a place to run to, I had to decide how far to run. I decided on UCSD because it was hundreds of miles further and I believed a happier place for me. I was glad to be gone when I finally found my apartment off the coasts of La Jolla. When I received the call to return home because my elderly father became ill, I felt that my reaching Ithaca had simply been an illusion. I trick played on me by Poseidon or another obstacle set by Athena to test my strength. Now that May 2004 is just around the corner, I feel that the Gods want me to spend not just the two years I have already wasted, but another twenty years just Odysseus did. I am finding other obstacles standing my way now, keeping me from leaving this island I seem to be trapped on and reaching my Ithaca. Where I would find my Penelope and my peace. And now, as I frantically search for a solution, I remember a quote that was told to me when I was younger. "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to always tell the difference." I have always tried to change the things around me, but I have realized that the change needs to happen in myself first. Over the years, I have found that I can change almost anything; I just needed the courage to do so. As my father had courage to continue his business and rise above the economy and as Odysseus had the courage to continue his journey home throughout the twenty years he was away from Ithaca, I will have to find my courage to reach my Ithaca. Towards the end of The Odyssey, Telemachus and Odysseus with the help of two others slaughter almost one hundred men in battle. They seemed to have accomplished the impossible, but they did successfully slaughter all the suitors. I will slaughter my one hundred men when I reach my Ithaca this summer. I will be leaving my family and escaping the Cyclops’s cave, just as my father escaped bankruptcy over thirty years ago. Posted by WaiSau Sit on 5/12/04; 3:44:51 PM from the dept. Discuss

CHABON QUOTE

"She let her hand fall, dismayed at having offended him." (Chabon 240) This quote stood out to me because I was just discussing the other day with my family about body language. How something can be conveyed about a person's mood or perspective on something simply by observing their body language. When I read this sentence, an image came to mind. It's interesting how sometimes images can tell us more than words. Posted by WaiSau Sit on 5/12/04; 3:44:03 PM from the dept. Discuss