Camping With Mosquitoes

I haven't written these past two days because I went camping with Jacob and his family in Kingston.

As much as I try to like camping, I actually hate it.

Well, sometimes it's nice to get out of the city and the city noise. There's always so much going on in he city, too many people, too much traffic, too much pollution. Sometimes you just want to escape from it to a land far far away from it, like the country side. The country side surrounds you with trees, clean air, sometimes a nice view of the lake, you enjoy the plenty open space, and animals like squirrels, raccoons, birds, fish, etc. It's nice to look at the sky at night and you see a sky full of stars. You feel so far away from the busy city and from annoying people. That's nice.

After a while you realize that you are actually SO far away from everyone else and everything else. I can't imagine living on the countryside and being away from like grocery store, drugstore, restaurants, malls, etc. Imagine you need something and you have to travel so far just to get it. Instead of walking like 10 minutes to the store to buy something like I'm used to. And don't even mention during winter times! I could just imagine it 10 times worse! Roads are full of snow, you have to get up early in the morning to plow the snow when you only get a few hours of actualy sunlight.... Horrible. Although it's not bad in the summer, when it's really nice to see the outdoors.

Camping times remind you of the things you take for granted, like having a washroom with hot water, your own room with everything you need and a kitchen to cook whatever you want. Electricity so you can surf the net and watch tv. During camping, you are lucky if you find one of those porta-potties. You are lucky if you get any water at all. And good luck carrying everything.

I used to go camping in high school, when it was mandatory to go on Expeditions. We would have to carry our own sleeping bags, tents, clothes, food, and everything we need in our rucksacks. On top of that, you have to carry that deep in the forest of Costa Rica going uphill then downhill then uphill again. Get through the yucky mud sometimes. Adding to that, you've got the hot and humid weather that makes you sweat like a pig while you walk so much. Oh, did I mention that you are gonna be stuck in the tent in that heat and humidity as well? Yikes! Beware of the mosquitoes too, because they are everywhere and they WILL eat you alive!

And that is a horrible thing for someone like me who is allergic to mosquito bites. When I get bit, the bite swells up double the size of my foot or my face. It's painful, it's itchy and you just wanna scratch the hell out of it. That of cut your body off. Oh, in case you are curious, here are some ways to relieve a mosquito bite:
1. rubbing dry bar soap on the bite
2. placing bag with ice on top
3. blowing it with a hair dryer (tip courtesy of my dad)
4. applying toothpaste
5. roll deodorant on
6. rubbing alcohol
7. make a paste with baking soda and water
8. rub meat tenderizer and water
9. use calamine lotion
10. apply tiger balm
11. use vick vapor rub
12. apply tea tree oil

The ones that have worked best for me are:
a) using bag of ice on the bite - makes that part of my body numb and I can't feel anything, not even the itch. plus it deals with the swelling.
b) blowing hot air with a hair dryer - i hate it because i feel like it burns my skin, but it works temporarily
c) my allergy cream that makes it feel minty, cool and fresh, so it helps with the itch.

This weekend when I went to camp with Jacob, the weather was as hot and humid as in Costa Rica. Being with someone who is a walking furnace makes the tent sizzling hot inside. Just our luck, there were thunderstorms and rained like there was no tomorrow. You could hear the thunder going around us. The lightning is frightening enough to wake you up. Caught in the thunderstorm with no escape. Just holding each other as if we were dying. lol. I'm just thankful we were not caught in a tornado!

I was also glad that it was at his uncle's house, so we did have access to a porta-potty, sink, and people made a bbq. There were lots of people. I got to meet some people and talk to nice people. In general, I had a good time.

After every camping, going home and taking a nice shower is THE BEST FEELING ever!!

Are you a city person? or a country side person?

Bachelors, Bachelorettes, and Bachelor Pads

I'm not gonna lie. I get excited every Monday to watch the seasons of The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and The Bachelor Pad. I know, don't judge me.

I first got into The Bachelor couple years ago, then I stopped watching it. Then I began watching it again on Season 14 with Jake Pavelka as the bachelor with my housemates. We would gather in front of the TV on Monday's and watch it together as we talk about how much we hate and make fun of some of the contestants. At first I liked Michelle, but then she got crazy. It wasn't her fault though. Gia was my favourite as she is always so sweet and nice. I didn't like Tenley because she was always in your face and always talking about her ex-husband. Then Vienna, I didn't like her either because she is very dramatic. No wonder why Jake an Vienna split shortly after the season finale! They both loved media attention too much and competed against each other to see who gets more media attention.

After that I told myself I was not gonna watch The bachelorette with Ali, because I didn't like her in the Bachelor because she also created unnecesary drama in the house. Maybe producers did it to get more rating. I don't know. But I ended up watching the bachelorette anyway because I watched the first episode and then I just wanted to know what was gonna happen. I actually gained more respect for Ali because when she found out that Justin had a girlfriend back home, she confronted him in the best way possible. She was a strong woman and she wouldn't let a jerk get away with lies. Way to go, girl! I actually liked that she ended up with Roberto. Since their date doing the Lion King dance, it was noticeable they they have a strong chemistry for each other. I also liked how the runner-up, Chris, was okay with Ali's final decision and, it was kinda cheesy, but i liked the final part when Ali told him that she was in love with someone else, he saw a rainbow on the sky, and that's when he knew that his mom was telling him that everything was all right. I am happy they are still together. I wish them happiness in their relationship. Seems like one of the most realistic relationships created on reality TV.

After that was the Bachelor Pad. Don't remember much about it, except that I liked that Natalie and Dave won the quater of a million dollars in the end. Natalie seems like a cool girl and someone I would be friends with. Although that show always seem to focus more on certain people than others, the ones that create drama in the house. For a while I stopped watching it because it was so ridicuous that the house was divided into the popular ones and the underdogs. Certainly the popular ones, the couples, stay strong and they influence on others to win. I hated that, it was like high school. I also remember there were no hot guys there.

Then there was a new season of the bachelor, season 15 with Brad Womack, or how I saw it once on internet: Picky Bastard, Take 2 (since he was on the bachelor before, but didn't propose to any woman). I thought Chantal was great for Brad. She was really in love with him and was able to give it all for him. Unfortunetely, Brad's family- mainly the women- thought that they would have more in common with Emily just because she is a mom already. Personally, I think Emily was too much for Brad. She has lived a married life, has a daughter, and been through a lot. Brad, not so much. He couldn't even pick a girl in the first time. Emily is still also holding on to Ricki. It's a sad story, true, but I think it's the story that makes everyone pitty for her and makes everybody think that she deserves this more than anybody else. I am not saying that she doesn't deserve it, I'm just saying that every woman there deserved it as much as she did. Most women there had no strings attached and were able to give it all for Brad. I just don't think Emily was ready yet.

Unluckily for Ashley, the bachelor didn't turn out well for her. But she got a second shot at the Bachelorette. In my opinion, it was kind of a boring season of the Bachelorette, like not many exciting things happened, except for the Bentley thing. Bentley was the symbol of everything a girl hates in a man. He's a liar, two-faced, and didn't care about her feelings. I can't believe he would say all those things he said on national television. Like, does he ever think that women watch this and any that will encounter him will think he's a jerk?? With such an attitude like this, he will never find a woman. But I guess we all women have met a 'Bentley' at some point in our lives. We just need to get smart and not let this type of guy get away with it. On the other hand, I am really glad she ended up with JP. You can see that everytime JP and Ashley were together, his face glows and he never stops smiling. Genuine smile. He's so sweet and understanding about the Bentely thing - like when he was in Hong Kong, most guys freaked out. But JP, he was understanding and was glad that at least she told him about it and was honest about it. In that season, I really liked William, the one she had a first date. Too bad that the comedy roast roasted him and banished any chance he had in the finale. It happens to all of us, saying the wrong things at the wrong time, which ends up costing us a lot. Too bad for William.

I am currently watching Season 2 of The bachelor pad, and oh my it's intense. It's very dramatic, to say the least. What happens when you put Jake, Vienna, and Vienna's current boyfriend Kasey (from Ali's season - the one who got a tattoo of guarding and protecting her heart-) under one roof? Explosion happens. Jake wanted to make up with Vienna, apologize, and get a closure with her. His actions seem pretty genuine to me. But according to Vienna, that's just an image he wants to portray on TV. He could have talked to her all this time they have been broken up, but no, he had to wait until they were both on the bachelor pad. Media attention again? Of course, Vienna always takes any chance she gets to be over-dramatic on the show, just because Jake was there. And Kasey, well, he's guarding and protecting her heart. But Kasey is very biased. Well, of course, he must be on his gf side, and defend her all the time. But Kasey only has heard Vienna's version of what happened to them. Crazy and annoying couple. Then there is the Blake-Holly-Michael love triangle. I kinda feel related to Holly. She was in love, she got engaged, then call off the engagement because she felt she wasn't ready, wanted to get back with Michael, but he's already too heartbroken, comes to Bachelor pad, finds a cute guy, but ex-fiance is also in the house. Blake seems to be like a Bentely to me in the bachelor pad. He led on to Melissa, making her think that Blake really likes him, but he actually doesn't care for her, and wants to be with Holly, but can't because Michael is always around. Holly feels free as she is in the dating world again. She gets the excitement of flirting with someone for the first time, playing the 'i like you but I don't know if you like me' game, getting to know someone, and simply hanging out with no strings attached. Yeah, that's cool. But you can see that Michael is sooo much into her, and wants to do anything to get her back. Like, you can see his face when you know that that someone wants the other person for the rest of their lives. I feel it too, Michael. Poor guy. I hope they work it out because I would really like them to be together for good.

I know, there's just so much about these shows. Actually, it's just drama and drama. But you know, I lack drama in my life (Not That I'm Complaining!!!) so I need to get some drama from TV. Like I studied in Communications Studies, watching reality TV is exciting and turns us on. We just want more of it and we feed on suspense and drama. There's something that makes you think that drama is real, but at the same time, you know there's no 'real' in reality TV, that most things are scripted and/or planned to get more rating. Of course, you shouldn't judge people solely from watching TV. Oops, that's what I did in this blog. But just so you know, reality TV is made to create opinions from the viewer, and that's what it did to me. However, I also know that reality TV only portrays a small part of reality and that shows are edited, little scripted, and someway planned. The opinions here are only from what i saw on TV, but I know that I must keep certain skepticism when it comes to the people on reality tv and their actions. But they certainly know how to create shows that makes me wanna watch every week.

Success

Sorry, August, you went by too quickly for me.

August was a very busy month for me. For one, I started to volunteer for an environmental non-govermental organization. I have also started a marketing internship online. Then got to spend some time with my lovely. Also, more job interviews.

For that reason I haven't written much. But I want to change that. I feel like I need to improve my writing and that's why I got this blog for start. I will try, from today, to write every day. Or almost every day. I will write about things that impact me during the day, things that made me think, or any sort of things. I have also found an online writing prompt with different topics to write about if I can't think of anything.

Today I had a job interview at a retail store. The first question of the interview was "How do you define success". My first thought was, wow, that's a very good question.

Success is different for everybody, but it all boils down to the same concepts.

Success for me is accomplishing goals you have set for yourself: either personal goals, career, relationships, etc. More importantly how and what you do to achieve those goals. It goes from visualizing your ultimate goals, the process of achieving them, and the accomplishment. Success is knowing that you have created a positive impact on yourself and on others. It is looking back to what you have done and how far you have gone and say, wow! all my efforts have paid off. Success is the feeling of on top of the world, being very happy with life, and the feeling of self-accomplishment. It is always great to know that you have succeeded by your own and with your own knowledge and skills set. But sometimes you have to aknowledge that others have helped you accomplish your goals, or even you helping others accomplishing a goal. That's kind of success too.

When I'm older, I want to see myself successful, in the way that I have everything I wanted in life: money, family, friends, food, house. It's like saying, I have worked so hard in my life to gain all these things I want, and now I have them. Now THAT is success.

Things in my life that I consider myself successful at so far:
1. Graduating from high school with an International Diploma. I worked my ass off for that diploma. I spent sleepless nights just to finish an assignment and checking every little detail to make sure it is high quality. I finished high school knowing that I gave my 110% to get to where I got.
2. Graduating from University. Again, working really really hard to get my $100,000 paper that says that I have graduated. Homeworks, presentations, group presentations, tests, quizes, exams, essays, reserach, readings, and social life. I think I deserved that damn expensive piece of paper!
3. Living on my own for 5 years now. I used to be very dependent on my parents. Since I moved to Canada I've been doing everything myself from laudry, cooking, traveling, washing dishes, cleaning the house, organizing my room, and now, job hunting.

I can't wait where my life is going to take me and the great things I have yet to accomplish.

I think that in 30 years from now, I can (or hope!) look back and say: My Life Is A Success.

How do YOU define "success"?

....and then it was August

Holy Moly! It's August already! Soon summer would end and it will start to get cold again. Guess who's not looking forward to that...me! Seriously, where has time gone? And what have I done all summer long?

It's incredible how fast time goes by, especially when you are too busy to notice it. I was just reading something on StumbleUpon and I came across an article/blog that has impacted me a lot. Almost everything (the ones I remember at least) made me feel sooo old! I'm gonna post some of them here and I will put on some things I remember and compare it to now. If you are curious about where I saw this, click here.

Clarissa is this years old now


The last episode of Teletubbies aired 10 years ago

Macaulay Culkin is 30 years old now


Elijah Wood was 18 when he was a cast of Lord of The Rings. He is 30 now.


Spice girls now


The BackstreetBoys were in their teens when they started the band, and now




JFK would be 92 years old this year


If the Simpsons aged, Bart would be 30 this year

Kurt Cobain has been dead for 17 years


Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey have been divorced for 6 years


The baby on the Nirvana Cover has grown up (the one I found the most shocking)


All 3 Hanson brothers are married and have kids now. And look more like men



There hasn't been any new Goosebumps in 14 years


Harry Potter cast then and now


The kid from Stuart Little (Jonathan Lipnicki) has grown


Steve Urkel then and now


After 10 seasons, the last episode of Friends aired 5 years ago


Genie in a Bottle, Christina Aguilera's first hit was 12 years ago, when she was only 19. Now she's 30


Tupac Shakur has been dead for 15 years


ICQ was still cool


The Titanic movie is 14 years old


There hasn't been a new episode on Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 8 years


Melissa Joan Hart is 35

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."
- Robert Kennedy

I'm sorry July, you don't seem like a very inspiring month for me, especially cuz I'm still struggling to find a job.

I have gone through few interviews, but for some reason I don't hear from them after that. Most of the time I feel confident about the interviews and I wear my best smile and be as polite as I can. Yet, it seems that they probably go to a more qualified candidate.

That's what I hate the most. I feel like I can do things really well. I feel like I am perfectly qualified for a job. I thought I was delightful during interviews. Then what happens? There is ALWAYS someone better than me. Probably more qualified than I am. Are they overqualified? Maybe, these days overqualified people do underqualified jobs. That is why people like me don't get those jobs. I feel like I am always second best. That's is my problem.

Job searching is not the only instance where I feel like second best. Here are some past examples.

In grade 12, in high school. Few people (like about 10) from my generation were chosen to be mentors. Mentors have the role to be a role model to lower high school levels, like grade 6 - 9. They will be like teacher assistants, help kids with their homework, be there for them when they need help or advice. Of course, I wasn't chosen to be a mentor because I was not in the top 10 when it comes to school grades. However, during the year, I have connected with kids in grade 6 and 7. Lots of kids seem to be great friends with me, and I am always for them, I say hello to them everyday, and they come running to talk to me. I felt like a great role model even though it was not my duty to. In the end of the school year, the director of high school told me that he should have chosen me as a mentor in the first place since I was doing the job when I wasn't even supposed to and probably I got more connected to kids than a few mentors did. I was like great, NOW you're telling me this! When school has finished and I'm off to university the next year.

Examle number 2. In grade 8, in my music class, a few students were selected from the choir to record a music CD for the school. The teacher chose about 7. I was not one of them. Almost at the end of school year, our whole music class had to go to church to sing in a choir. My teacher was standing next to me. At the end of mass, my teacher told me that I had a great voice and that she should have chosen me to be part of the CD recording. But it was too late because that was the end of the year and I would transfer to another school the next year.

The same thing I think happened when I worked at a shopping center. When I applied for the customer service job, I didn't hear from them for about 3 weeks. Thought I didn't get the chance. Then they called me saying that they wanted to hire me. When I first started to work there I realize I was like a second batch of people they hired, because some of the people he initially hired were not working as hard and they constantly missed their shifts without notice. Since they hired me, I believe that they are very content of my hard work and dedication in the work place. I believe I was one of their favourites. I was the one they could count on and the most reliable. I can pretty much tell that they wished they had hired me in the first place. Fortunetly for them, it wasn't too late for them to hire me.

And that's how I feel about employers right now. I think they might be hiring the wrong people. Yes, they might seem to have more experience, or more qualifications than me. But there are only a very few people who have the determination, hard work, and care for the job well done like me. It is too bad that employers can't figure that out by looking at me because I am short. Or maybe they don't hire me because I am asian. Or both. Wish employers could hire people being objectively rather than subjectively. But there is nothing I can do about that.

I love self-less acts. It pays to be self-less. There is hope in kids.

Rainbow pride

This past weekend was the Pride week in Toronto. Although I did not attend this year's pride parade, I did three years ago. I wanted to go this year, but plans with my mom staying here, has made me change my plans.


Rocking my rainbow socks at Pride Parade in 2008


I am glad and proud that a country like Canada can celebrate the Pride Parade, celebrate equality, celebrate the love between two people of the same sex. Same-sex marriage, or gay marriage, is something that I totally support, from a straight point of view. From here to the end of this blog post, the opinions are completely formed from my own personal knowledge and from researches I have done. The opinions expressed here do not reflect the opinion of any other person. It is a very extensive and sensitive topic to talk about, so bare with me.

Same-sex marriage is legal in Argentina, Belgium, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and Canada, the 4th nation to legalize same-sex marriage and the first nation in America to do so. Go Canada!! Unfortunately, there are still some counties, even some states in the United States where same-sex marriage is illegal and not recognized, and even worse, in some countries like in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania and Yemen, homosexuality can lead to death penalty.



There are two kinds of people: those who are against same-sex marriage and those who support same-sex marriage. From what I know, the people who are against same-sex marriage are usually more conservative people who argue from a religious point of view. These are some of the common arguments against same-sex marriage:
1. Marriage is a sacred act performed between a man and a woman; legalizing same-sex marriage will ruin the meaning of marriage and it goes against nature (who says that marriage can't be between two men or two women? who defines marriage?)
2. Marriage is for procreation, ensuring that the population growth continues. (having more gay couples doesn't mean less procreation, plus gay people can go for adoptions and give children the home they deserve)
3. Same-sex couples don't provide the adequate environment to raise a children. (what about violent environments in heterosexual relationships? cheating? drug and alcohol abuse?)
4. Same-sex marriage will lead to polygamy, incest, marrying objects, etc. (in extreme cases)
5. Gay marriage will encourage the spread of sexual transmitted diseases like AIDS (there are monogamous gay people, and heterosexual people can spread diseases too)

But I believe that most people who believe in these arguments are close-minded people who are afraid of change in society, afraid of things that are unnatural, or are just uncomfortable with the idea about a man making love to another man, or a woman making love to another woman. But the biggest fear is that same-sex marriage goes against everything that the religion stands for.

I don't understand why would people oppose to same-sex marriage. They probably don't understand why people like me support it anyway.

In my opinion, gay people are just like any of us, common people who pay taxes like we do, eat the same way as we do, go to the same places as we do; they just happen to have a physical and emotional attraction to people of their same sex. People are people, and we all deserve the same rights. The right to fall in love, the right to be with the person we want, the right to celebrate that love. So why deny that right to gay people if we don't want them to deny us any other kind of right???

I used to know this girl. She had a relationship with this man for a few years. Then she decided to get married to him, almost forcing him into marriage, being the controlling person that she is. Although she had confessed that she no longer had feelings for this man, she is still marrying him because he has a very stable and good job that will provide her all the money she needs.

I also happen to know this man. He's very sweet and very kind. Just like most people, he looked to fall in love and marry someone. One day he met this guy and fell madly in love with him. They have been together since and they have been going out for a couple years. They have a great relationship together; always helping each other, being there for each other, and it's almost like they are meant for each other! Greatest couple ever. They want to get married some day, to celebrate this love, however, the laws of the state where they lived prohibited them to do so.

Tell me, from those two stories, who has more the right to get married?

People against gay marriage talk about how gay marriage leads to disaster, broken homes, spread of diseases and polygamy. But what about the rates of divorce, broken homes, cheating, spread of diseases in Straight relationships??

This reminds me about the time,when, somewhere, monogamous gay people were not allowed to donate blood, but polygamous straight people were allowed. How irrational is that?

On June 24th, 2011 the New York senate passed the Marriage Equality Act, legalizing same-sex marriage in one of the most popular states in the United States. Go New York! This meant a great progress for people who support it and they are one step closer to totally legalizing same-sex marriage in the country. That would be a great goal to achieve.