Mar Talk
Life's getting pretty busy. At least for this week. After Saturday, I'm hibernating through all of Sunday.
Mess Load of hw due Friday. I'll be hopping on that after this Mar Talk .. maybe also sleeping before midnight for once too!
So in the mornings, I take a bus from the Tustin Station over to UCI nowadays. Mostly because this bus driver is so nice that if he sees me biking, he'll pull over and offer me a ride.
It's a nice realization that it really doesn't take all that much effort to be nice to folks. Just a bit of outside awareness of what's going on.
Of course this led to an in depth thinking moment about comparing this side of the OC with LA. It's just so much nicer than LA as well as Santa Ana, which is barely six miles away from that spot. Why such a culture shift? I can't simply fault things with the different things I see there.
In Irvine, drivers will give you space, bus drivers will pull over for you, other cyclists will say 'Hi' when you pass by them, the air smells clean, the roads are clean, and there's a very nice infrastructure set up for traffic. But in Santa Ana, the drivers will be angry at you for being on the road, bus drivers will rush to pull ahead of you and stop right in front of you, the other cyclists bike in the wrong direction down the sidewalk, the air smells like garbage and exhaust, the roads are covered with trash, and the infrastructure is nearly nonexistent at some points and minimal at others.
It's such a ridiculous contrast. Is it gentrification? Is it really a good thing?
Then I thought about how things are mostly in Spanish in Santa Ana, and mostly in English in Irvine. To be honest, I feel that everyone in America as a resident, should be able to speak and understand basic English. It is not an abandonment of culture nearly as much as it is a better means of mass communication and understanding. If I lived in Germany, I had better learned German. Yet there's always massive outcry about any sort of "Mandatory" anything. I mean, my parents had to learn English, and they both did. I don't see why other people don't.
I feel a bit like a jerk for making such a declaration, but I honestly can't see the reasoning behind why they shouldn't have to learn English. It feels like it's legitimately one of those I'm-too-lazy kind of moments, but calling yourself lazy is uncool, so all sorts of new excuses have to show up. Things like not having enough time for it don't seem too justified to me either. With all of the resources at our disposal nowadays, it seems like one can just go to the take one of the many classes offered for free, or borrow some materials from the library, use the free stuff from the internet (from a library computer even), if just for ten minutes a day. That would vastly improve communication between very large groups of people.
Yet it doesn't happen.
ah well..
So yesterday, I was practicing some key elements of my yoyoing routine while waiting for my mom at the NoHo branch library. Originally, I was thinking of helping Dylan with the band room clean up, but since school policies are usually a bitch to deal with, I opted not to mess with those rules. Thus, I just hung out by the library.
I figured out this nice way to transition between combos, but I'm still working on it.
Eventually, this lady comes out from the library and asks if I'd be willing to teach a teen group about yoyoing. Of course I'd be glad to! I've been missing the random volunteer work, so it seemed plenty of fun. She gradually explained about submitting all of these forms and whatnot to the city for some form of payment, but that really didn't matter to me all that much. So I said I'd simply volunteer.
Thus, we're in the planning stages of an event of sorts now.
Afterward, I thought about how much I want a job right now .. especially one that could fit in with my awkwardly busy school schedule. .. that and how I just passed up money. Regardless of how well I've handled my financial aid, I'm still out $3000 in loans this year.. any money to help fill that gap would be nice. Being in debt is not a very pleasant feeling to me. My mom and bro have always taught me to avoid being in debt. Be it financially or morally.
But I know libraries are especially strapped for cash right now. Hopefully, I can keep myself as an amicable and well liked person enough to network my way into an actual job.
I also figured that I'd be best off trying to see where this money is coming from, and then if I deem it from a source that can afford to pay me, I'll take it.
... Japanese midterm this Friday.. and composition essay due Monday.
for today .. hmm what happened today..
for one thing .. mom's soap opera just made the voice controls on my computer open google earth -.-
Today wasn't particularly eventful. Class was amusing. Nothing notable at the library today.
There was that little kid on the train who asked questions at like a mile a minute though. I like that kind of inquisitive energy, and what was even better was how his mother actually answered everything he asked! Attentive parenting - that's what leads to good parenting, not buying the kid stuff or throwing parties. For what seemed to be a two and a half year old boy, he had pretty good grammar skills and a decent grasp on the world around him. All in all, very adorable kid. Especially his strange fascination with Harry Potter .. where I think every book after the first one is a fair bit dark for someone that young.
I'm debating between getting sleep now, making lunch, or homework. I'm leaning towards sleep. I'm approaching dead tired and the dark circles growing under my eyes are a bit unsettling. I feel a bit young for those..
Zot!
-Mar Out
Mess Load of hw due Friday. I'll be hopping on that after this Mar Talk .. maybe also sleeping before midnight for once too!
So in the mornings, I take a bus from the Tustin Station over to UCI nowadays. Mostly because this bus driver is so nice that if he sees me biking, he'll pull over and offer me a ride.
It's a nice realization that it really doesn't take all that much effort to be nice to folks. Just a bit of outside awareness of what's going on.
Of course this led to an in depth thinking moment about comparing this side of the OC with LA. It's just so much nicer than LA as well as Santa Ana, which is barely six miles away from that spot. Why such a culture shift? I can't simply fault things with the different things I see there.
In Irvine, drivers will give you space, bus drivers will pull over for you, other cyclists will say 'Hi' when you pass by them, the air smells clean, the roads are clean, and there's a very nice infrastructure set up for traffic. But in Santa Ana, the drivers will be angry at you for being on the road, bus drivers will rush to pull ahead of you and stop right in front of you, the other cyclists bike in the wrong direction down the sidewalk, the air smells like garbage and exhaust, the roads are covered with trash, and the infrastructure is nearly nonexistent at some points and minimal at others.
It's such a ridiculous contrast. Is it gentrification? Is it really a good thing?
Then I thought about how things are mostly in Spanish in Santa Ana, and mostly in English in Irvine. To be honest, I feel that everyone in America as a resident, should be able to speak and understand basic English. It is not an abandonment of culture nearly as much as it is a better means of mass communication and understanding. If I lived in Germany, I had better learned German. Yet there's always massive outcry about any sort of "Mandatory" anything. I mean, my parents had to learn English, and they both did. I don't see why other people don't.
I feel a bit like a jerk for making such a declaration, but I honestly can't see the reasoning behind why they shouldn't have to learn English. It feels like it's legitimately one of those I'm-too-lazy kind of moments, but calling yourself lazy is uncool, so all sorts of new excuses have to show up. Things like not having enough time for it don't seem too justified to me either. With all of the resources at our disposal nowadays, it seems like one can just go to the take one of the many classes offered for free, or borrow some materials from the library, use the free stuff from the internet (from a library computer even), if just for ten minutes a day. That would vastly improve communication between very large groups of people.
Yet it doesn't happen.
ah well..
So yesterday, I was practicing some key elements of my yoyoing routine while waiting for my mom at the NoHo branch library. Originally, I was thinking of helping Dylan with the band room clean up, but since school policies are usually a bitch to deal with, I opted not to mess with those rules. Thus, I just hung out by the library.
I figured out this nice way to transition between combos, but I'm still working on it.
Eventually, this lady comes out from the library and asks if I'd be willing to teach a teen group about yoyoing. Of course I'd be glad to! I've been missing the random volunteer work, so it seemed plenty of fun. She gradually explained about submitting all of these forms and whatnot to the city for some form of payment, but that really didn't matter to me all that much. So I said I'd simply volunteer.
Thus, we're in the planning stages of an event of sorts now.
Afterward, I thought about how much I want a job right now .. especially one that could fit in with my awkwardly busy school schedule. .. that and how I just passed up money. Regardless of how well I've handled my financial aid, I'm still out $3000 in loans this year.. any money to help fill that gap would be nice. Being in debt is not a very pleasant feeling to me. My mom and bro have always taught me to avoid being in debt. Be it financially or morally.
But I know libraries are especially strapped for cash right now. Hopefully, I can keep myself as an amicable and well liked person enough to network my way into an actual job.
I also figured that I'd be best off trying to see where this money is coming from, and then if I deem it from a source that can afford to pay me, I'll take it.
... Japanese midterm this Friday.. and composition essay due Monday.
for today .. hmm what happened today..
for one thing .. mom's soap opera just made the voice controls on my computer open google earth -.-
Today wasn't particularly eventful. Class was amusing. Nothing notable at the library today.
There was that little kid on the train who asked questions at like a mile a minute though. I like that kind of inquisitive energy, and what was even better was how his mother actually answered everything he asked! Attentive parenting - that's what leads to good parenting, not buying the kid stuff or throwing parties. For what seemed to be a two and a half year old boy, he had pretty good grammar skills and a decent grasp on the world around him. All in all, very adorable kid. Especially his strange fascination with Harry Potter .. where I think every book after the first one is a fair bit dark for someone that young.
I'm debating between getting sleep now, making lunch, or homework. I'm leaning towards sleep. I'm approaching dead tired and the dark circles growing under my eyes are a bit unsettling. I feel a bit young for those..
Zot!
-Mar Out