Category: journalism

My Fabulous Christmas Vacation!

yrreskrapLeave a comment

There is only one word that can describe my Christmas vacation.

Fabulous.

 

The foggy sensations of nostalgia that I felt for my home and the people I missed melted in those three weeks and its cavities were filled with warmth of family, friendship, love, and Christmas spirit. Only now, nostalgia has resumed its place in my heart, waiting for its release from my next encounter with my loved ones.

My sister had come home for the first time in over a year. I missed her dearly. Just having her presence in the house changes the entire mood and air of everything. We didn’t do anything extraordinary. We just stayed in the house and talked, did some errands, and ate good food around Los Angeles. Nothing over the top but nonetheless special.

Jin Soo Park. My brother from another mother, so to speak. Although I’ve only known him for a few  years, we have grown so close and always seems to connect on a level that makes me believe that we must be siblings. I saw him for the first time in almost a year and we gorged ourselves on Korean BBQ and shaved ice. We even roamed the local mall to find his secret santa gifts. But seeing him again was wonderful and I hope I could see him again before he heads off to a different state.

Last but not least, I got to spend a good amount of time with Kai. In fact, we spent the New Year’s together in New York City (NYE IN NYC)! I met more of his family, joining them on a day-long trip to Disneyland. I couldn’t have been happier anywhere else.

 

Ultimately, I am so grateful for my Christmas vacation. God brought to me the people I cherish the most, my parents, my sister, my brother, and my boyfriend. Altogether, with the Christmas music that dominated the radios, the lights that hung from the roofs of houses, and the red/green sweaters I saw made my Christmas vacation fabulous and precious.

Let The Stress Begin!

r3t5nom1 Comment

As the week comes to an end and the weekend begins I am feeling more and more stressed out. I feel like I’m in a big way psyching my self out way more than is necessary but regardless, it sucks.

I really want to do well on my finals, more than ever before. I want to make my mom proud and my teachers proud but even more so my self proud. I am beyond sick of disappointing my mom and my teachers, I just want them to be happy for me and say good job instead of what I’ve always heard which is “you could do better” or “you need to do better” dissapointed

I want to be able to walk away from a final with a smile on my face and knowing that I did well, it’s horrible to walk away and know that you got a bad grade. F

One day I want to feel what it feels like to get an “A” on a final, and no Spanish class didn’t count.

Lets see if I can make it happen this time.

Hopefully this won’t happen!

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR FINALS EVERYONE!!!!

Drugs and Their Effects

r3t5nom2 Comments

This past weekend I was when I attended an FMX (Freestyle Motocross) demo in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico as a photographer for Monster Energy. I met some great FMX riders and got to talk to them and ask questions about anything I pleased.

Every single one of those athletes came across as great guys who seemed like you could hang out with without effort. But isn’t it sad how sooner or later peoples real colors are revealed.

The following day, which fell on a Sunday, it was my time to leave Cabo and head back to school. When I got on the plane I noticed that one of the riders was on the plane. This guy who’s name I’m going to leave out, is the one rider who I talked to the most and thought was awesome to be around. He was extremely sick, you could tell just by looking at him.

When we were driving to the runway he was throwing up constantly and aggressively, the flight attendant and the pilot made the decision to return the plane to the gate and remove him from the plane because they didn’t feel like he was suited to travel.

I noticed how seriously sick he looked and I made a call to my mom and asked for her to come back to the airport to pick him up and take him to a hospital.

When my mom picked him up I had already taken off, so it was a waiting game for me to find out what was wrong with him. When I got to LAX I got a text message from my mom and it read “Max, he’s a major drug addict and appears to be in withdrawal, probably from heroin. Maybe just prescription drugs, but he has tracks.”

That was not the text message that I was expecting to get but man did it make sense. Things quickly got hectic. He was hospitalized for two days and then he left Cabo. He didn’t pay for anything, his parents and friends refused to help him, and he couldn’t afford it so my mom had to pay for the hospitalization of a guy I thought was a good person and was on the verge of dying at one point on Sunday night. And to this day he has still not thanked my mom for what she did for him.

Did I do the right thing in helping him…?

Super Failure

therightliberalLeave a comment

The Super Committee was bound to fail from the start. But let me say this, it is not all bad that the committee did fail.

Whomever thought that putting 6 Democrats and 6 Republicans together to cut $3 Trillion from the US budget should not be in a position of power. I mean, let’s be honest; conservatives and liberals do not see eye to eye on many issues, but the one above all is how to go about cutting debt.

So from that it may seem as though no one is really to blame except for the system, but sadly, that is incorrect. The Republican party is to blame (I would highly recommend going to that link if you disagree, or agree for that matter) for the Super Committee not working.

With the above statement, I obviously have some defending to do, so here it is. Let me say this: I do not blame the Republicans for the failure because I am a Democrat (although usually I do love to blame them). The blame comes from the cold, hard facts.

Democrats were ready to make compromises on some key issues. They offered to lower the cuts on defense spending as well as put some more programs on the table that could be cut or have funding taken away from. Although they were not completely open (as is to be expected in negotiations) they were open to compromise.

That much could not be said for the Republicans. They refused to even look at a 30% decrease in defense spending, denied any attempt to raise tax figures for the ultra wealthy, and demanded that more programs be axed completely.

Now for the happy side. Luckily for the country, the Budget Control Act that was passed by Congress stipulates that if the “Super” Committee failed to come up with cuts, $1.28 trillion cuts would automatically go in to effect, half of which come from defense spending. Although a small amount compared to our $15 trillion of debt, it is a start, and everything has to start somewhere.

In an ideal world (which is probably just ideal to me) most of the cuts would happen in the defense department. But instead, unemployment payments will start being cut in July in many states and many government-funded programs will struggle for funding.

I think we as a country need to look deep inside ourselves and ask what we need and what we can do without. Do we need trillions upon trillions in defense spending? Or would it be easier to just have fewer enemies? These are stilted and bias questions but ones that we still need to ask ourselves.

FOUR MORE DAYS !!

yrreskrapLeave a comment

OKAY.

I KNOW I SAID I WOULDN’T THINK ABOUT IT UNTIL AFTER I FIND OUT THE RESULTS BUT…

i just cant.

ALKEJFIOSDJFLSEMNFOALDKCM!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY!?
I feel like these four days are killing me.

On December 1st, I will receive two emails from Williams and Amherst, letting me know whether or not I have been accepted. I don’t know what time the emails will come which makes things worse for me! I will be checking every five minutes on that day! Will it come at noon like the last email? If so will it come at noon Eastern Time? Would that make it arrive in my inbox at nine?

I am scared because Williams and Amherst are one of the nations top colleges. Williams is rated #1 in Forbes Best College List and #1 liberal arts schools in U.S. News and World Report Best College List. Amherst is #4 on Forbes and #2 in U.S. News and World.

Williams College is a small school of just over 2,000 students with an acceptance rate of 20 percent. SDLKFJSDLJF. So 20 out of 100 students that apply get in. 80 get a rejection.

Amherst is even worse. It has an acceptance rate of 16. So in this case, 84 would get the boot.

What I am scared the most about is, like I said in my previous blog, whether or not I will hate the isolation. I am scared that I will hate being in the middle of nowhere (being three and a half hours away from Boston) and find myself hating the weather too!

I think too much.

I am both dreading and waiting for Thursday to come.

God, please choose the right school for me.

Women in Politics

therightliberalLeave a comment

Women are playing a larger role in politics than ever before. Their time may soon be coming and now we need them more than ever.

The governing style of women is not that much different from that of a man. But I think there are some key differences.

From what we have seen more recently, women seem to be a bit more level-headed. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein are good examples of this, they have been liked by most Californian’s and have made reasonable choices throughout their time in office.

Hilary Clinton has obviously been the largest female political figure of recent times. Her presidential bid, although coming up short, was a huge step for females in politics.

And we can go back to Geraldine Ferraro who started the upsurge of women in modern-day politics. All of these women have played a large role.

In case you have not noticed, all these women are Democrats. There are a few reasons for this, first probably being my extreme bias towards Democrats. But secondly I think the Democratic cause speaks to the female movement.

Democrats do not as often support the elitist ways of the white male supremacy known as the American Government. Democrats have a tendency to be much more open to minorities as well as change.

And think of all the good change women could bring to politics. Women make up half of our country, should they not have half of the representation?

It brings a whole new perspective that we are missing in our government. Every man will tell you that women think differently, and maybe we need that right now. Our country is not in a good position and we need change.

Change can com from different ideas and ways of thinking and it could be as simple as integrating more women in to our government system.

The Art of Having Fun

r3t5nomLeave a comment


Today I went on a school weekend trip to Los Angeles California to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and it was fantastic. Obviously it didn’t look like the picture above, but man do I love that picture!

I had such a great time walking around and looking at all the different stars on the floor and who they represented. While I was walking and looking at these stars I was also thinking to my self how some of the people represented were chosen.

But I think that my favorite part of this day was the Madame Tussauds wax museum. The sculptures are absolutely unbelievable. They were detailed to perfection. Even the eyes looked real.

To finish my day I went and had a GREAT lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, where I had the best four cheese ravioli I have ever had.

God I love my life!

What did you do this weekend?

Deadmau5!!!

r3t5nomLeave a comment

The concert of the year!

j

They have some great music and are one of my favorite groups to listen to. Deadmau5 introduces piano into their electronic music and by doing so they make the music more appealing to a larger crowd. They also have an awesome logo and character that represents Deadmau5 and that is a mouse head!

I heard some GREAT news a few weeks ago and that was that Deadmau5 is going to be performing at the Santa Barbara Bowl on October 27th at 1122 N. Milpas St!

You can go and buy tickets HERE!

I think that the coolest thing about a Deadmau5 concert is that it’s really interactive and fun to be at, especially if you have good seating. The DJ wears a Mouse head and makes awesome music, what more could you want at a concert haha!

d
WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Do good anyway

thehungryrunnergirl1 Comment

What is kindness? Why are you kind to others? Because you want to be treated the same way? Because you want to be recognized as a nice person? Why can’t people express their love and kindness freely without any complicated emotions?

I think true kindness is not seeking anything in return but wishing others happiness from the bottom of your heart.

“People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, People may accuse you of Selfish, Ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful,
you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be Honest and Frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
”

– Mother Teresa

I felt the strength and warmth from this quote.

I feel like a lot of people seek it in return when they did something good to others. But what if you could give love to anyone without expecting them to give it back? Wouldn’t that be nice?

If you think carefully, don’t you feel happy when you’re doing something for someone regardless of the return? Well, I do. When I make someone smile, it just makes me happy.

SO DO GOOD ANYWAY!

Translation:
“Thought” is not visible to anyone.
”Thoughtfulness” is able to be seen.
“Heart” is not visible to anyone.
”Warm-heartedness” is able to be seen.

The fear of technology

thehungryrunnergirlLeave a comment

Technology can destroy you.

Technology makes life easier. Today, there are even robots that make you coffee and bring it to you. We are living the era of advanced technology. Computer, mobile phone, portable media player… We are addicted to all of them.

But… some people go through bitter experiences.

Please watch this first…

She was listening to her music loudly. People around her also hear the music and get annoyed. It’s not good for her ears. Above all, she does not recognize anything that goes on around her. Then, the worst thing happens.


I want to dedicate this video to my roommate. If you keep listening to music that loud, you are going deaf and possibly this kind of thing could happen.