The truth behind College Life

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This past weekend my good friend visited me from College.  He is at UCLA, studying world art and culture, or basically blowing through freshmen year pretending to be a dancer.

He did though have some of the best war stories I have ever heard.  Being a Pledge for the Sigma Nu Fraternity.

So this blog is a shout out for my buddy who is experiencing hell on earth being a pledge.

Good luck. We are all rooting for you.

Before he visited I thought that all the crazy fraternity related tasks and events were just myths and only showed up in movies, but boy was I mistaken. After listening to my friend recount his horror experiences I could not help but cringe.

Thankfully now, he is past pledging and has become an active brother of Sigma nu.

What’s Left Of Us…?

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Yesterday, a fascinating idea struck me as I ate breakfast in the cafeteria. As I was looking at the various awards in the display case (that will be handed out the day before GRADUATION), my eyes fell upon one award in particular. It is indeed, in my eyes, the ugliest award: a rock glued onto a metal platform.

 

But it made me think. And I talked to (thebrownguy) about this and I wanted to share this thought with you. I am curious to know what you feel.

What would happen if the world ended now?

If all that was left of us was dust and scraps and rocks attached to metal platforms, what would later civilizations think? Would they see our accomplishments? The progression we have made? The technological breakthroughs, the scientific knowledge, the intellectual beings we came to be?

Or would they see an obvious path to self-destruction? Would they see a failure to come together, an overuse of natural supplies, greed, ignorance, pride? Would they find a fallen people?

I don’ t know. I think it is a little bit of both. Maybe one more than the other.

First off, everything on the internet would be negligible to later civilizations because there will be no electricity or MacBook to bring it to life. Which again, I hold ambivalent opinions on because it nullifies a lot of academia and creativity our society holds. Beautiful bits of knowledge that are held in educational websites, news, recipes, photography, or even blogs such as the OVS Journalism Blog will be gone. However, I would be relieved because of all the negatives the cyber world has brought us. Such as bullying. Or self-image issues. The tabloids. Peer pressures and social standards.

Most of what knowledge we hold will be represented by print. And with the newspaper industry slowly falling apart due to our society’s thirst for instantaneous news reports, what we leave behind in print will be very little. Kindles and Nooks will mean nothing with a dead battery. But with what little we have, I believe we can draw inspiration and perhaps a chance for change.

And our carbon footprint. The huge problem that most people fail to see or don’t care to fix. We cannot come together to solve such a simple problem. And the ramifications of our indulgent lifestyles will be shown in our oceans and the weather. It will be proven in the industrialization and in the air. The later civilizations will see how wasteful we were. Hopefully, these people will also take the initiative to learn from our mistakes and live with a more sustainable, eco-friendly initiative.

However, more importantly, it made me think about what I have done in my life and what I can do to make a change. It made me realize how I could start with myself to make the world a better place, as cliche as that sounds. As for me, I am going to college in mere months and I believe that, with the willpower, I can do something.

Now the question I want to ask is: What will you leave behind?

Raven Gold, Sapphire Green

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Golden and sapphire

The other,

Raven and green

It was never a choice

A simple mistake

So short and so sweet

The memory is mine

Everlasting

But as fate would have us

The cards frowned upon it

A second chance

Was it real?

Or perhaps an illusion

The sensation may fade

The dreams…

They do not

Talking in silence

Waves on the shore

Seeing chance wither and die

Stinging skin

Salty, cold

Starlight beams down

Another comes, I listen

Wondering what you think now

Sand flies

Words pull me

Tugging me closer to shore

So far from me now

Words flow and I nod

Hearing, not hearing

Gold flashes brightly

But green, it shines brighter

Defeated am I?

Victorious?

Not

The season is over

Long, long overdue

But the feeling remains

And I ask, have you too?

Reichenbach.

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It must be so boring!
So dull. So bleak.
To live in a mind
No more than obsolete.

Does it drive you mad?
No madder than me.
To breathe in their air,
But see more than they see?

I thought you were different:
Extraordinary! Unique!
But you’re just like them:
Boring, labeled, not me.

So take a leap of faith
Off a hospital roof!
With you still alive,
They’ll not yet know truth.

You fraud! You fake!
You waste of a genius!
They’ll never understand
While drowning under brilliance.

So jump! Leap!
Wait! Here! I’ll go first.
Because, as falls go,
Reichenbach is worst.

Car Troubles: Run in With the Gardener.

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Lampost

I’m guessing you read disaster and immediately associate the word with an accident. This is exactly what happened and yes it did involve my car and me. By reading this blog you know that I am still alive and I am not in prison, so surely the accident was not that bad. In fact I wouldn’t even call it an accident, maybe just a bump.

Ok now you’re probably wondering what I may have done. No I did not kill anyone, damage anyone or murder a cat. In fact, I just dented a car. Ok, lets be more specific. A truck. Yes my tiny ford fiesta miraculously managed to dent a truck.

So I reversed around the sharp corner of the driveway, guided by the smiling gardener, following his hand signals. My reverse seemed to be going pretty well at this point. Well for me anyway. This is the first time I’d followed hand signals before so I assume that I just followed his lead. Little did I know glimpsing away for one second would mean reversing into his vehicle. Yes I reversed into the gardener’s truck.

Oops.

You heard me right; I reversed in to a truck while the owner was watching. How embarrassing. And the worst part of it is I see him on a regular basis.

Everyone always seems to be watching the minute I do something wrong. And in this case it was the gardener. As he walked over to his car, the smile now wiped off of his face, I sat dreading the moment he would walk towards me from the accident scene, insurance information in hand. Luckily for me he didn’t.

“Only a little scratch” he said, “Don’t worry about it.”

I may have escaped insurance claims, a dent on my car and death, but I did not escape the shame. These sort of situations always happen to me. At least it wasn’t a lamp post.

Guantanamo’s(eternal)Prison

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September 11 2001, a day that will forever live in infamy, rushed in many changes to America. From the controversial signing of the “Patriot Act” to the even more controversial opening of Guantanamo Prison, America is not the place it once was.

The facility was opened on January 11, 2002 with 20 prisoners suspected of terrorism arriving the same day. These prisoners were described by top US officials  as the “worst of the worst.” Our former President George W. Bush even acknowledges terrible treatment at the facility by stating that detainees are NOT protected by the Geneva Conventions.

President Obama had promised that during his term Guantanamo Prison would be closed. It seems he has ignored this issue even signing the Defense Authorization Bill. This bill contains provisions that make it nearly impossible for Guantanamo to be closed.

It seems that the famous prison will remain open indefinitely but it does seem that the inhumane treatment has stopped.

My Fabulous Christmas Vacation!

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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.

The cruel reality of soccer

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Last Wednesday I experienced what three weeks of inactivity can do to a student athlete.  We played the Dunn School in soccer and boy was it a wake up call.  We lost if you were wondering, but it was more of the journey than the destination right.

My journey at least was very educational. For one I learned that after spending three weeks of break mostly most running between sofa and kitchen during commercials, I made a scientific discovery about myself. I cannot go and play a 90 minute game after those three weeks.  In fact I can only play about a ten minute game before my vision narrows, I begin to hyperventilate and beg my coach to take me out.

Now that is obviously not a good thing, but I rallied in the second half and played the entire half, albeit I ran much less.

Although I am an athlete, I do believe that running should be a sin.  In conjunction with that I love to play goalie, and defense.

Fast Food, eww

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Fast food — the word that has become synonymous with American culture. Our ever-increasing demand for quick services in our busy lives led to the rise of these establishment. Once hailed as a valuable resource for families who neither have the time nor money to cook a meal, these “restaurants” have come under attack in recent years.

Studies have shown a direct correlation between childhood obesity and fast food restaurants. In areas with fast food restaurants, childhood obesity increased by 5.2 percent. At the urging of the government and concerned parent groups, fast food restaurants have taken initiatives to introduce “healthy” items on their menus.

From Mcdonalds apple bags to BurgerKings apple fries, you see the same trend happening everywhere. Fast food companies are attempting to shed the negative light they have been portrayed in. Despite all these measures this food is still considered to be bad for you. There has been several experiments to show how terrible this food is for you.

One of the most disturbing of these experiments began last year. A woma\en around this time last year purchased a cheeseburger from Mcdonalds with the sole intention of seeing how long it would take to decompose. One year later, nothing has happened to the hamburger, and it looked exactly the same.

If bacteria won’t eat this food then why should we?

Diet while studying?

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Every night, at around 11PM, I get really hungry. My stomach is craving food. I still manage to focus on my work, but sometimes it churns.

That means I’m burning calories right?

Surprisingly, every hour I study, I burn about 92.4825 calories, which is worth more than a Hershey’s special dark chocolate stick! So maybe I burn about 400 calories every night from studying!

But the thing is, some people can’t focus on their work if they’re too hungry. Your brain needs some sugar. So, it really depends on if you can tolerate hunger and focus on your work while studying!

Here is the equation of how many calories you burn. The calories depend on your gender, weight and age.

1kg of your weight that burns every 1 minute: 0.0295 (kcal)
correction factor =0.95 for woman, 1.00 for men (age range of 20-29)

So, if a woman of 55kg (120pounds) studied for an hour…

55(kg) x 0.0295(kcal) x 60(minutes) x 0.95 = 92.4825 kcal

AWESOME!

So don’t blame yourself for eating while studying.

Now, I’m kind of liking studying…

Just kidding.