As It Is
Well, life has been going well. Besides from these current scorchers today and yesterday, everything is pleasant. Though I am disturbed by the fact that when I turn on the radio, the only things I hear are reports of 4th of July celebrations gone wrong. Apparently, some neighbor got mad about noisy fireworks, went over to his neighbor's house, and slaughtered the 3 people celebrating. Guess the heat got to him or something... Man, it's really sad... Those people thought they were just getting together for a celebration, not knowing it's going to be the last moments of their lives... It's kinda like the feeling I get when I look at old photos, like the yellowing or black and white kind, of people. I wonder what they were thinking when the picture was taken and as you realize the age of the photo, you wonder how and when they died. It's even more pronounced if you look at the photo of a group of people when they were like college students and you know that they went off to war. Did they know their ultimate fates...? Of course not. But there's something sad, inevitable, yet almost Romantic about people smiling in a picture not knowing they are marching to their deaths... ...Maybe this is the feeling people got when they watched the movie Titanic. We all know the boat sinks, yet we are still glued to the story.
Well, enough depressing stuff. Current things involve my summer job interning/volunteering at the Asian Liver Cancer Center at Stanford. It's interesting. Much more tolerable and fun as a whole than my stay at my dad's restaurant. Though that was informative and now I know how to handle knives and thus improving my cooking skills. Everyone at the Liver Center is quite nice and energetic. We had a retreat, so we all know each other somewhat. The office is hidden deep within the bowels of the hospital. Their mailbox is hidden even deeper. That doesn't make sense to me. I only learned the location of the mailbox today and it took quite a bit of walking.
Well, the main reason for writing today, besides from mentioning things about this summer so I don't forget a year from now, is somewhat related to Stanford. Specifically, my mom sending me and picking me up to Stanford Medical Center. Even more specifically, an accident during the picking up phase. Precisely, turning left, rubbing the tire against the divider by accident, and leading to a sticky situation of a flat tire. It was immediately apparent that something was out of the ordinary, given an ominous grinding noise and a vibration that jarred the ears and almost made my eardrums hurt. Well, my mom was apparently ignorant of our plight, though she later claimed that she decided to withhold the information from me to keep me from getting worried. Of course, the irony is that she was the one who stated that she realized that I seem to keep my cool in stressful situations, like a previous car accident, a sprained ankle, me nearly fainting, me nearly drowning. So we continue driving, despite my recommendations to stop the car somewhere and check it out, for it sounds like something is dragging on the road. Then this guy in this gray car drives next to us and points down and eventually, we roll the window and he tells us we have a flat tire, which completely unnerves my mom. We stop and don't move. And I say, we need to keep driving and find help. She responds by screaming that I don't understand how delicate the situation is-the car could flip. Sure, it could, but not at 5-15 miles per hour that we were going. My mom was completely paralyzed and I just randomly tossed suggestions at her, all of which she shut down. So, in the end, I just say, "Fine, I'll go look for a gas station." I get out and start walking. Apparently, this convinces my mom to start driving. So, as I'm back in the car, I suggest using the map to find a gas station. Unfortunately, Lexus navigation is more complicated that say Honda's, so we get nowhere, even after my mom hands me the manual. So my mom calls my dad, who's in Cupertino working, requesting him come save us. So I flip over the manual, and I see an emergency index, one of which is what to do with a flat tire, so I read that while my dad berates my mom for never learning, as anyone who knows my dad does with anyone who is ignorant. I read the instructions and offer to try, but my mom rejects that it's too dangerous, in which to I reply that "It's better than doing nothing and waiting for someone to come save us." In the end we compromised, I kinda sat around and waited, but my mom let me get the spare tire, jack, and other emergency things from the trunk and place them outside on the curb. So while my mom is guiding my dad to our destination with her cell phone, I kinda lean against a light post and see someone getting off the bus stop right behind us. This Hispanic dude eyes us curiously and then offers us his assistance. I call my mom over and our response is "We'd appreciate it." And I take the opportunity to learn how to replace a flat tire, since books can only go so far. The guy had quite a few tattoos on his arms, but he was a decent fellow. I usually associate tattoos with gang members, but if he was a gang member, he was awfully nice for one. And last time I checked, gang members don't verbally walk me through what they are doing, talk about the Transformers movie, or share the fact that his brother shares the same trouble strategy as my mom, sit around and wait for help to arrive. So, in short, my dad arrived just as the guy finished. And all ended well. He got $20 bucks for helping due to my generous mom, despite the protests of my dad. He had actually offered to do it for free, but kindness begets kindness, I suppose. And then we all got back onto our cars and drove off. Except for that fact that I accidentally kinda shoved the trunk cover into my dad's eyes. Oops. So after he recovered, then we drove off. I feel sorry for my dad. He drives here all for nothing and gets something shoved into his eye. What a life. I apologized of course, though my mom said later that my dad didn't here me. Double oops. So that made for an interesting day. I just noticed the irony: my mom's sit put, twiddle thumbs, await rescue plan actually worked: the Hispanic dude showed up. But that's probably due to the fact that I got the spare tire out on the curb so he knew we needed help. I guess we both get credit.
Oh, and AP test scores arrived today. I pwned them. I'm not quite sure how I got a 5 for AP Calc AB given the fact I only knew how to do one free response, a second one minimally and was completely lost for the other 4. Like sure, I gave them my best shot, but I seriously had no idea what I was doing. I was just trying to get reasonable numbers out. I thought I totally failed. Weird thing, I got higher on something I thought I was clueless on than something I actually knew what I was doing, like AP US History, which was a 4. I guess this makes up for something bad, either for the tires today or my below my anticipated SAT scores for math, which was taken around the same time period. Fairly good, interesting day. I did wish for something random, little random, not huge random to happen everyday a while back. Maybe I got what I wanted... Sure, it was a sucky moment, but I learned stuff from it. I like these moments, but maybe having one everyday is a bit much... How about once a week then?
Well, enough depressing stuff. Current things involve my summer job interning/volunteering at the Asian Liver Cancer Center at Stanford. It's interesting. Much more tolerable and fun as a whole than my stay at my dad's restaurant. Though that was informative and now I know how to handle knives and thus improving my cooking skills. Everyone at the Liver Center is quite nice and energetic. We had a retreat, so we all know each other somewhat. The office is hidden deep within the bowels of the hospital. Their mailbox is hidden even deeper. That doesn't make sense to me. I only learned the location of the mailbox today and it took quite a bit of walking.
Well, the main reason for writing today, besides from mentioning things about this summer so I don't forget a year from now, is somewhat related to Stanford. Specifically, my mom sending me and picking me up to Stanford Medical Center. Even more specifically, an accident during the picking up phase. Precisely, turning left, rubbing the tire against the divider by accident, and leading to a sticky situation of a flat tire. It was immediately apparent that something was out of the ordinary, given an ominous grinding noise and a vibration that jarred the ears and almost made my eardrums hurt. Well, my mom was apparently ignorant of our plight, though she later claimed that she decided to withhold the information from me to keep me from getting worried. Of course, the irony is that she was the one who stated that she realized that I seem to keep my cool in stressful situations, like a previous car accident, a sprained ankle, me nearly fainting, me nearly drowning. So we continue driving, despite my recommendations to stop the car somewhere and check it out, for it sounds like something is dragging on the road. Then this guy in this gray car drives next to us and points down and eventually, we roll the window and he tells us we have a flat tire, which completely unnerves my mom. We stop and don't move. And I say, we need to keep driving and find help. She responds by screaming that I don't understand how delicate the situation is-the car could flip. Sure, it could, but not at 5-15 miles per hour that we were going. My mom was completely paralyzed and I just randomly tossed suggestions at her, all of which she shut down. So, in the end, I just say, "Fine, I'll go look for a gas station." I get out and start walking. Apparently, this convinces my mom to start driving. So, as I'm back in the car, I suggest using the map to find a gas station. Unfortunately, Lexus navigation is more complicated that say Honda's, so we get nowhere, even after my mom hands me the manual. So my mom calls my dad, who's in Cupertino working, requesting him come save us. So I flip over the manual, and I see an emergency index, one of which is what to do with a flat tire, so I read that while my dad berates my mom for never learning, as anyone who knows my dad does with anyone who is ignorant. I read the instructions and offer to try, but my mom rejects that it's too dangerous, in which to I reply that "It's better than doing nothing and waiting for someone to come save us." In the end we compromised, I kinda sat around and waited, but my mom let me get the spare tire, jack, and other emergency things from the trunk and place them outside on the curb. So while my mom is guiding my dad to our destination with her cell phone, I kinda lean against a light post and see someone getting off the bus stop right behind us. This Hispanic dude eyes us curiously and then offers us his assistance. I call my mom over and our response is "We'd appreciate it." And I take the opportunity to learn how to replace a flat tire, since books can only go so far. The guy had quite a few tattoos on his arms, but he was a decent fellow. I usually associate tattoos with gang members, but if he was a gang member, he was awfully nice for one. And last time I checked, gang members don't verbally walk me through what they are doing, talk about the Transformers movie, or share the fact that his brother shares the same trouble strategy as my mom, sit around and wait for help to arrive. So, in short, my dad arrived just as the guy finished. And all ended well. He got $20 bucks for helping due to my generous mom, despite the protests of my dad. He had actually offered to do it for free, but kindness begets kindness, I suppose. And then we all got back onto our cars and drove off. Except for that fact that I accidentally kinda shoved the trunk cover into my dad's eyes. Oops. So after he recovered, then we drove off. I feel sorry for my dad. He drives here all for nothing and gets something shoved into his eye. What a life. I apologized of course, though my mom said later that my dad didn't here me. Double oops. So that made for an interesting day. I just noticed the irony: my mom's sit put, twiddle thumbs, await rescue plan actually worked: the Hispanic dude showed up. But that's probably due to the fact that I got the spare tire out on the curb so he knew we needed help. I guess we both get credit.
Oh, and AP test scores arrived today. I pwned them. I'm not quite sure how I got a 5 for AP Calc AB given the fact I only knew how to do one free response, a second one minimally and was completely lost for the other 4. Like sure, I gave them my best shot, but I seriously had no idea what I was doing. I was just trying to get reasonable numbers out. I thought I totally failed. Weird thing, I got higher on something I thought I was clueless on than something I actually knew what I was doing, like AP US History, which was a 4. I guess this makes up for something bad, either for the tires today or my below my anticipated SAT scores for math, which was taken around the same time period. Fairly good, interesting day. I did wish for something random, little random, not huge random to happen everyday a while back. Maybe I got what I wanted... Sure, it was a sucky moment, but I learned stuff from it. I like these moments, but maybe having one everyday is a bit much... How about once a week then?