Randomness

New Year's resolution: stop having new year's resolutions because they're silly and no one follows them after the first month...

I miss home :/ I miss my car, my friends, Thai villa, everything. Sure, I don't miss the fact that everything closes so early in Raleigh but oh well.

Moving onto more interesting topics...like how I now makeout with girls when I'm drunk.

Should I even be admitting this on a blog that "so many people" read (aka my four dedicated friends? ;) )

I think this is a good thing because it shows I'm more comfortable with myself! Ok no, I don't think i'll be experimenting my sexuality by starting a tumultuous hot relationship with some girl...although I know certain parties will be interested in that. No, I have no kissed multilple girls...just one!

That's the update on me. I also need to find a purpose for this blog! There has to be a purpose. My life is NOT interesting enough for this blog to take flight and garner millions of reads. My rants are like everyone else's...pretty lame. The solution to almost all rants is: 1) do something about it and stop whining or 2) it's out. you got it out so now move on to something else that pisses you off.

I will find a purpose and write and develop a new blogging career instead of hoping to slit the wrists of my customer everyday.

Don't blame yourself, blame Hip Hop!

I went to my first hip hop class here in Singapore yesterday. It was almost 2 hours long, fun, tiring, and did I mention fun? I'll write about it later, but a quick recap of hip hop culture is listed below. A lot of us are aware of hip hop, but don't really know the basic history of it. I've listed a few short bullets, but obviously there's way more.

1. "Hip hop is a cultural movement which developed in New York City in the early 1970s primarily among African Americans and Latin Americans[1][2]. Hip hop's four main elements are MCing (often called rapping), DJing, graffiti writing, and breakdancing. Other elements include beatboxing, hip hop fashion, and slang. Since first emerging in the Bronx, the lifestyle of hip hop culture has spread around the world.[3]" - wikipedia


2. "Jamaican born DJ Clive "Kool Herc" Campbell is credited as being highly influential in the pioneering stage of hip hop music[9], in the Bronx, New York, after moving to New York at the age of thirteen. Herc created the blueprint for hip hop music and culture by building upon the Jamaican tradition of toasting, or boasting impromptu poetry and sayings over music, which he witnessed as a youth in Jamaica.[" - wikipedia

The first one gives an idea of where Hip hop comes from and the second one is important because due respect must be given to pioneers!

Hip Hop DANCE came from hip hop culture:

"The dance style primarily associated with hip hop is breaking, which appeared in New York City during the early 1970s and came to be popularly classified as one of the four primary "elements" of hip-hop (along with rapping, DJing, and graffiti). Funk styles, such as popping and locking, evolved separately in California in the 1960-70s, but were also integrated into hip hop when the culture reached the West Coast of the United States." - wikipedia

Obviously, Hip hop dance is varied, and has many different styles, and is open to interpretation from a choreographer's standpoint. Hip hop dancing is really fun, but it's not that easy for me. I have to really work at it to make it look right and even then I know I don't have that natural "swag"

So I went to this class taught by a friend of a friend. It was pretty full with about 25ish dancers. The style of dance was more soul hip hop. There was a lot of choreography. I haven't learned a hip hop routine in a very long time so that definitely slowed my progress. It takes me a lot longer to learn an entire routine because I haven't practiced learning a lot in an hour. So I got some moves, and not others and kind of danced along until the end when they split everyone into groups to perform. This was by far my least favorite part because I SCREWED up and looked like a fool. YAY.

I really like hip hop but DAMN it can be hard. No worries. I shall persevere and get better at it.

My favorite choreographer!

Just Leave it be!

I'm trying to get to the bottom of this because it really bothers me. If you've been in a relationship with anyone for longer than 6 months, someone will ask the INEVITABLE question: When are you two getting married?

The question itself is not that bad. It's the idea behind that seems so one-sided to me. The reason people even ask that question is because of the horriblely skewed thought: you date someone so maybe one day you can marry them.

First of all, humans are not meant to be alone. We need people around us like our families, friends, and significant others. Humans like companionship. So when you're dating someone, you're with them because you enjoy being with that person. It's that simple. It doesn't always have to have an end result. I know women are guilty of the whole "wedding bells in our head" once we date a guy who we feel compatible with. I blame that habit on history, and also the way society puts SO much pressure on dating to MARRY.

I don't want someone to tell me I SHOULD marry my boyfriend because we've been dating for so long or whatever. No one should ever tell someone else to BELIEVE something they don't. I do believe in marriage and yes, dating someone does help you figure if you want to be with that someone or not. But that's not the case for EVERY relationship. I'm not going to date someone and think "hmm is it possible to marry this guy?" from day one. If marriage happens, it happens. If things so sour, I break up, eat a pint of ice cream, and move on with life.

The POINT of dating someone is to make yourself and the other person happy. NOT necessarily marriage!

Not everyone has the desire to live in white picketed fence house, complete with an electric dog fence for Fido in Suburbiaville, US. This isn't the 1950s. Times have changed and so have relationships.

People need to understand that there isn't a right way and wrong way in relationships because it's up to the INDIVIDUALS involved.

Amen

24 Strokes

Turning the big 2-4 tomorrow. Is there anything special about the number 24? Probably not. I still can't rent a car. I'll get a new license picture only NEXT year. lame.

But that's ok, I'll be making up cool things about the number 24. So here goes:

1) if you do 24 shots - you might die.
2) sleeping with 24 people makes you a P.I.M.P (male or female)
3) you're still in your 'early twenties'
4) 24 is the largest number divisible by all numbers less than its square root. it's divisible by 1,2,3,4,6,8,12,24...wow! :)
5) there are 24 hours in a day
6) current jersey number of Kobe Bryant
7) karat number that represents 100% gold. HELL yes
8)The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the Civil Rights-era amendments, abolishing poll tax requirements in federal elections.

YES.

I have no qualms about turning 24 :)

I miss girls part Deux

More than being homesick, I'm still girl sick. I really miss being able to just chat about random stuff with my girl friends. Sure, there's skype right now but 1) my internet at the apt is patchy 2) time difference 3) it's not easy as just picking up the phone and chatting.

It sort of became a tradition, but almost every Friday for about 2 months, I ate dinner with Aarthi and Svetty. We had similar tastes in topics of discussion and had very entertaining / heated discussions over dinner. There was always some random fact to be learned. There were also many embarrassing moments where we ended being the loudest table in the restaurant thanks partially to my raucous laugh. I really came to look forward to these dinners not only because we tried new restaurants (soo many in RALEIGH yeaaa), but were also able to just be ourselves. No topic was considered off-limits. No opinions were taken too seriously, no feelings were hurt. It was simply understood that we had strong ideas, but were intelligent enough to listen and remain open minded.

It felt SO good to talk about things other than WORK, or BOYS. Ok fine, so we talked shit about boys too but that wasn't the main topic of debate.

I had that same rapport with Megha. We talked twice or thrice a week over the phone and even though she was in NYC, it still felt so good to just..talk about things that we cared about like travel, or figuring out life, or plan vacations we'd never take.

I had the rest of my good girl friends to go out with, dance, receive good advice, just be myself with, and just be GIRLS and HAVE FUN! (shoutout: Sheri, Annie, Sammi, Kiwi, Carolina, Phammi)

If I want to talk and have a discussion these days, these are the following topics I have to know:

1) Sports (specifically all teams related to OHIO. cavs, browns, whatever baseball team is in Ohio)
2) Beer
3) Work (we already work long ass hours. WHY talk about work?!)
4) TV shows
5) Movie lines from cheesy GUY movies

They're nice guys. They're fun. We all work well together and have fun together. I'm good friends with some of them now but it's not just the same as being able to just CHILL and talk with girls.

blah.

Acceptance

When I was in high school, I was part of this International Baccalaureate program where we had to take a 'Theory of knowledge' class every week. We discussed various topics in the class, but the core of it was based on questioning knowledge itself.

For example, if you're reading an article that you'd like to use for a fact-based research paper, how do you judge its value? What was the author's intention? He could be either truly objective or opinioninated (ergo you wouldn't use it if the goal is garner facts) This class taught us to really dissect any piece of information you learn / research so we wouldn't simply swallow whatever we hear, but actually THINK about what we're putting in our heads.

That's all fine and dandy, except now I see myself not able to accept things readily that I probably should. Sure, it's good to think about exactly what you want to save your brain space for, but somethings shouldn't be analyzed to the point of rejection.

I need to learn to take things more at face value. Maybe it's over time and I've become jaded (sounds so melodramatic since I haven't been through any REAL hardship compared to so many) but I don't want to live life following the scientific method (Purpose - Hypothesis - Methodology - Results - Discussion) <-- WOW I can't believe I remembered it!

I want to be aware, just not on high alert. The sky is blue, grass is green, and people can be nice without a catch.

What's the difference between a Pitbull and a Hockey mom?

Yes. LIPSTICK. I think I have learned something about myself thanks to red lipstick. I don't think any girl can just wear red lipstick. You have to be comfortable enough and secure with yourself to be like 'Look at me. I'm wearing red!' If you decide to wear the bright color out in public, whether you're trying or not, people DO look at you.

I prefer to be under the radar an not in the limelight. I figured red lipsticks were meant for girls that had that innate confidence and glamor. NOT me. But one fine day, thanks to the nudging of my sister I decided to buy red lipstick. a SERIOUSLY red one. It's a very pretty color and till yesterday it was lying in my makeup bag perfectly intact. I definitely wore it a few times an walked around...

in my own bedroom.

I was too scared to wear out in public because of all the voices inside me telling me I wasn't glamorous enough, or it would draw too much attention, or it wasn't my style and a whole other barrage of excuses.

BUT for the first time yesterday, against all my doubts, I did the very scary thing of WALKING in public with red lipstick on. I tried VERY hard to not be conscious of any stares and just kept my eyes straight ahead. It was a test. I CAN wear a bright color and not care!

I came back home intact. So did the color on my lips.

Point? I'm learning to be more comfortable with myself and take risks that I normally wouldn't. The bigger lesson? Only I can do that for myself. No one else can.

I'd say that's true for everyone.