From July 26 to August 20, I probably won't be blogging much. Why?
I have a National JCL (Latin) Convention in Texas (I'll try not to die from heat :D) and I'm going to Europe (mostly Switzerland, to be exact), to visit my brother, who is working at CERN.
I'll keep you all updated as much as possible.
See you soon!
Don't have too much fun without me :)
No, just kidding. Have the time of your lives if you wish :D
welcome to dewdrops, loves. it's been a while, but as usual... sit back, relax, and enjoy -- preferably with some tea...
Monday, July 20, 2015
Saturday, July 18, 2015
international
While I was looking at the stats for dewdrops, I saw that I had some views from Australia, Germany, Canada, the UK, and my country (of course), USA.
(Yes, I'm American. But sometimes, I still like using... what do you call it? British spelling? I don't know, sometimes I force myself to change.)
I practically cried.
Although it might have been a cursory glance, I'm still just so happy that this blog and my thoughts have gone across the world without me even leaving. There are endless possibilities! Who knows where it will go?
As someone who travels, I love the fact that this blog is traveling on its own, and my thoughts are, too. Of course, I can't experience some things that I can by physically traveling, but it's possible that I experience things that I can't experience through going there.
Help me travel with my blog, and interact as much as you can! Post constructive criticism, and any other comment or question :)
It's really late here, and I should probably go sleep. Gute nacht!
:D I say that to my chicken every time I put her in her coop for the night, along with buenas noches (Spanish), bonus nocte (I take Latin), wan an (晚安)(Mandarin), buona notte (Italian), and good night ('tis English). Those are the only ones I usually remember to say... so help me and tell me all the good nights you know in the comments!
(Yes, I'm American. But sometimes, I still like using... what do you call it? British spelling? I don't know, sometimes I force myself to change.)
I practically cried.
Although it might have been a cursory glance, I'm still just so happy that this blog and my thoughts have gone across the world without me even leaving. There are endless possibilities! Who knows where it will go?
As someone who travels, I love the fact that this blog is traveling on its own, and my thoughts are, too. Of course, I can't experience some things that I can by physically traveling, but it's possible that I experience things that I can't experience through going there.
Help me travel with my blog, and interact as much as you can! Post constructive criticism, and any other comment or question :)
It's really late here, and I should probably go sleep. Gute nacht!
:D I say that to my chicken every time I put her in her coop for the night, along with buenas noches (Spanish), bonus nocte (I take Latin), wan an (晚安)(Mandarin), buona notte (Italian), and good night ('tis English). Those are the only ones I usually remember to say... so help me and tell me all the good nights you know in the comments!
thoughts and rants #2: boredom and leisure
I feel like I'm drowning in work :)
Even though it's the middle of summer, I have essays to write, instruments to practice, Chinese to review, blah.
But... BUT... that's alright! When I'm able to take a break, I truly appreciate it. There are times when people feel bored. I'm a person, so naturally, I feel bored sometimes. No one likes being bored.
However, I think that all of us should appreciate having the time to have nothing to do. When I am bored, I complain about having nothing to do. When I have something to do, I complain about having too much work and no leisure time. It's like society today. The space of perfection between too much and too little is barely as wide as a hair. It's practically impossible to be perfect. The time in which people are bored is actually leisure time. People complain about having no break, but that's just a mindset.
Boredom is a kingdom in which you rule like the Queen of Saigon. You have no power, and you rule over nothing. Boredom is black and white. No, not even black and white. Every color has its own beauty. It's truly nothing. Boredom is a sinkhole where every emotion is smothered and swallowed up to create a mess of sludge where the bird of your soul is trapped. It's only when you change the mindset, switch to another key, can you open the vile cage of hardened filth. Think of this empty slot of time as free time, leisure time.
Leisure is when someone unwinds, reflects, and imagines each possible path thinkable that is ahead of them. Without this precious time, work can trip you up and send you falling down an endless spiral, stumbling before you see what is ahead and realise that you have repeated a mistake that has been made too many times. Maybe you don't want to think about the past or the future. Think about now, or contemplate something. Anything that goes into your mind. That's the beauty of it all. Leisure time is like a room with an infinite number of open doors. You can walk through any of them, wherever you choose to go, yet you can always find your way back to the main atrium. However, each time you return from an exploration, the atrium is filled with one more treasure gained from the journey.
So, which path will you take? You have a full set of keys, but which one will you choose to use?
Even though it's the middle of summer, I have essays to write, instruments to practice, Chinese to review, blah.
But... BUT... that's alright! When I'm able to take a break, I truly appreciate it. There are times when people feel bored. I'm a person, so naturally, I feel bored sometimes. No one likes being bored.
However, I think that all of us should appreciate having the time to have nothing to do. When I am bored, I complain about having nothing to do. When I have something to do, I complain about having too much work and no leisure time. It's like society today. The space of perfection between too much and too little is barely as wide as a hair. It's practically impossible to be perfect. The time in which people are bored is actually leisure time. People complain about having no break, but that's just a mindset.
Boredom is a kingdom in which you rule like the Queen of Saigon. You have no power, and you rule over nothing. Boredom is black and white. No, not even black and white. Every color has its own beauty. It's truly nothing. Boredom is a sinkhole where every emotion is smothered and swallowed up to create a mess of sludge where the bird of your soul is trapped. It's only when you change the mindset, switch to another key, can you open the vile cage of hardened filth. Think of this empty slot of time as free time, leisure time.
Leisure is when someone unwinds, reflects, and imagines each possible path thinkable that is ahead of them. Without this precious time, work can trip you up and send you falling down an endless spiral, stumbling before you see what is ahead and realise that you have repeated a mistake that has been made too many times. Maybe you don't want to think about the past or the future. Think about now, or contemplate something. Anything that goes into your mind. That's the beauty of it all. Leisure time is like a room with an infinite number of open doors. You can walk through any of them, wherever you choose to go, yet you can always find your way back to the main atrium. However, each time you return from an exploration, the atrium is filled with one more treasure gained from the journey.
So, which path will you take? You have a full set of keys, but which one will you choose to use?
Friday, July 17, 2015
diving
** after days of CLOSING THE TAB ON MYSELF and COMPUTER CRASHING and OTHER CATASTROPHES and SUMMER STUFF, this is finally up!!!
Hey peeps! As probably all of you who follow me regularly have noticed, I've been MIA these past weeks (YEARS)... I don't want to give any excuses, but I'll explain :) does that make sense? So for two weeks, I've been at this ballet camp that is pretty much the whole day and then I have piano, violin, etc. etc. afterwards. And the weekends, well... there's a reason why I created this post!
Through these past two weekends, I was completing my PADI Open Water Diver course... a fancy (fancier) name for a beginner recreational scuba diver.
On the Friday of the first weekend, we had a class. Yep, a classroom class in which we reviewed the manual that we had to read. I tell you, even though it seemed pretty short, it was torture to read through :) especially since I had to cram it all in. On Saturday, we had a morning of class and then headed to the pool for our first dive! Yeah, even though it was in a pool, it was quite enjoyable just to swim around and breathe underwater... without a limit to your depth as with a snorkel. Then on Sunday, we finished the skills in the warm, filtered water. Quite mundane, if I were just to read about it like you, but in truth, it was really quite worth the HUGE weight of the gear.
The second weekend, however, was something that I could have never mentally prepared for. Sure, it may seem small compared to other activities, but I thought that it would be as easy as the previous closed water course. I had to wake up at 5 in the morning. Luckily, I didn't have to do the driving (I can't anyway :D). After eating just a hard boiled egg and drinking some milk, I prepared my gear and wriggled down to the shore, thus beginning the shore dive. There are two types of dives--boat dives and shore dives. Shore dives are harder... Instead of jumping in, one must crawl or walk painfully in until the blessed waves soften the pain of gravity :D The skills that seemed so easy in closed water were hardened by the freezing temperature and my mind seemed as if it were fogged up by the low visibility. When I ended the first dive of the day, I saw stars... kind of... The hood was choking me (a little), and I felt extremely uncomfortable in my wetsuit. Not to mention that I was also dehydrated and nauseous. By the second dive, I felt like I couldn't breathe or move. Luckily, the dive was short, as we only needed to repeat two more skills on that day. My buddy and I were called up early as a few others continued their little tour of Breakwater Pipeline, Monterey.
Sunday was much easier, with only two more skills to do. We had another little tour through the kelp, and we found little decorator crabs, sea hairs, warty sea cucumbers, and much more. After that first quick dive, we planned a dive ourselves with our buddy. We planned to go along the wall to see whatever was there. Guess what? I kinda got lost on that dive :) Anyway, I wasn't planning on seeing some of the creatures we saw down there so close to humans. We saw an ocean sunfish and a tiny octopus. We also saw sea stars (yay! they had a big die-out earlier) and nudibranchs. There was also an array of other flounders, crabs, etc. etc. At the end of the day, I was tired, but happy this time.
Try diving yourself! It's a gorgeous experience :)
Hey peeps! As probably all of you who follow me regularly have noticed, I've been MIA these past weeks (YEARS)... I don't want to give any excuses, but I'll explain :) does that make sense? So for two weeks, I've been at this ballet camp that is pretty much the whole day and then I have piano, violin, etc. etc. afterwards. And the weekends, well... there's a reason why I created this post!
Through these past two weekends, I was completing my PADI Open Water Diver course... a fancy (fancier) name for a beginner recreational scuba diver.
On the Friday of the first weekend, we had a class. Yep, a classroom class in which we reviewed the manual that we had to read. I tell you, even though it seemed pretty short, it was torture to read through :) especially since I had to cram it all in. On Saturday, we had a morning of class and then headed to the pool for our first dive! Yeah, even though it was in a pool, it was quite enjoyable just to swim around and breathe underwater... without a limit to your depth as with a snorkel. Then on Sunday, we finished the skills in the warm, filtered water. Quite mundane, if I were just to read about it like you, but in truth, it was really quite worth the HUGE weight of the gear.
The second weekend, however, was something that I could have never mentally prepared for. Sure, it may seem small compared to other activities, but I thought that it would be as easy as the previous closed water course. I had to wake up at 5 in the morning. Luckily, I didn't have to do the driving (I can't anyway :D). After eating just a hard boiled egg and drinking some milk, I prepared my gear and wriggled down to the shore, thus beginning the shore dive. There are two types of dives--boat dives and shore dives. Shore dives are harder... Instead of jumping in, one must crawl or walk painfully in until the blessed waves soften the pain of gravity :D The skills that seemed so easy in closed water were hardened by the freezing temperature and my mind seemed as if it were fogged up by the low visibility. When I ended the first dive of the day, I saw stars... kind of... The hood was choking me (a little), and I felt extremely uncomfortable in my wetsuit. Not to mention that I was also dehydrated and nauseous. By the second dive, I felt like I couldn't breathe or move. Luckily, the dive was short, as we only needed to repeat two more skills on that day. My buddy and I were called up early as a few others continued their little tour of Breakwater Pipeline, Monterey.
Sunday was much easier, with only two more skills to do. We had another little tour through the kelp, and we found little decorator crabs, sea hairs, warty sea cucumbers, and much more. After that first quick dive, we planned a dive ourselves with our buddy. We planned to go along the wall to see whatever was there. Guess what? I kinda got lost on that dive :) Anyway, I wasn't planning on seeing some of the creatures we saw down there so close to humans. We saw an ocean sunfish and a tiny octopus. We also saw sea stars (yay! they had a big die-out earlier) and nudibranchs. There was also an array of other flounders, crabs, etc. etc. At the end of the day, I was tired, but happy this time.
Try diving yourself! It's a gorgeous experience :)