Memories Awash

I just cleaned my large calendar that is pinned on the wall I face where my computer rests. It's a wet erase board, and though I've owned one for nearly three years, I still learned something new as I cleaned it for the months to come. It may sound obvious, but to me it was rather revolutionary: the more water I use to erase the board, the easier it is to erase.

At first, I simply dabbed a paper towel and wiped vigorously. Maybe it was with a subconscious thriftiness that I attempted to conserve water, or maybe I didn't want the wall to get too messy. I don't know. What I do know now is that calendar cleaning was once a chore, but is now possibly much more easily accomplished with my new-found knowledge.

Is it sad I like to insert a new calendar at the beginning of the week so as to feel like I have maximized my number of days?

Admittedly, it was with fair difficulty that I erased the entirety of the board. Namely, I had to erase things Helen and my brother both said to me. My brother quoted from the Wheel of Time Series, which is typical for the two of us, while Helen wrote something also fairly typical for us.

Helen wrote once on my board, back in what must have been almost a year ago, "God loves you. Sometimes." While this would be construed as many things, it was mostly an inside joke. No, she wasn't saying that even a universally benevolent deity would still find reason not to love me. Nor was she questioning the all-lovingness of God.

While all those may be true facts, God is simply something she likes to call herself. I guess I might have given her the moniker. The origins of the majority of our countless inside jokes have been forgotten even if the jokes themselves are not. Either way, I call Helen God, and she is labeled so in my phone book. It's gotten to the point where I search Facebook for Helen's name and start with the letter "G," only to remember that her name really is, in fact, Helen.

I guess stupidity is the price you pay for good friends. Especially ones like Helen.

Unsettling

I've been playing a lot more Settlers of Catan lately. For the uninitiated, it's a board game I started playing a few years back, introduced to me by my friend Verde and company. My brother happens to be very good at it, and I don't think I'm terrible either.

The object of the game is to garner 10 points, gained by building structures and other things. The main driving force of the game, however, and its main appeal stems from the trading aspect of it. Players can trade resources with one another, which leads to various peculiar situations involving loyalty and kindness, or lack thereof.

I have thus begun a reputation for being devious and manipulative. In real life, just the other day, I was told that I would not convince Danny with "my words." He used quotations in real life too, which I thought was bizarre.

So what do you think? Do I use my words to manipulate too much?

Fresh

So the semester officially starts tomorrow, at 8AM. With Biochemistry. Like the previous semester, I'll be doing things a little differently this time around. Primarily, I plan to shave this week. I'll take a few before and after pictures hopefully so you, my groupies, can see the change.

I also plan on blogging more, hopefully. As most of you can see, the layout of the blog has changed a bit. I don't really like the color scheme with the theme. Personally, I'd prefer a grayer feel to it, but we'll see how it turns out.

In addition, if you frequent the gym, you might be surprised to find me there. I have developed quite the muffin top and plan on bringing it back down. I peaked around 188 pounds over break, and as proud as I was about my new high, I can't but help to think that it is a result of sloth, a vice I need to vanquish.

Alliteration aside, I am also going to be active in AXΣ, my chemistry fraternity. Hopefully I can get a little, but if not, it should still be fun. All this change has little to do with the New Year. As some of you know, I detest New Year's resolutions because I think if you want to change something about yourself, it should be at any moment, not shelved until imaginary forces compel you.

After all, shitmydadsays sums it up perfectly:

"Universe is 14 billion years old. Seems silly to celebrate one year. Be like having a fucking parade every time i take a piss."

Perhaps

Perhaps
we are all poets
a little inside
we feel the undertones
the undercurrent
of a silent river
flowing
silent, but always flowing
and we feel the current
within us
even though we know not
the name of the river

perhaps
we are all musicians
and the songs of the winds
are just echoes
of our souls
and we chime in
we chime in when we run
and we listen for the breeze
like notes

perhaps
we are all artists
creating and making
as we have been made
have been created
and as all things are made
differently
so too are we different
but it is all still art
it's all still art.

Century Gothic

This is my 100th post on this blog. I don't know if that's a lot, or if it's one of those, I don't know, milestones waiting to happen. It's like driving 100,000 miles in your car. It's probably going to happen, but you take note of it anyways.

I wish I had a car, though.

Or maybe it's like reaching a certain age. Like when I turned 20. On that day, I noticed that I felt special, even though I had convinced myself that it was just another day and any uniqueness was simply a matter of perspective, that billions of others saw it as another day. Still, that day was unique to me, even if I publicly denied it.

Like New Year's. We have an arbitrary calendar, with an arbitrary beginning and end. So really, the beginning of the year could have started anytime. I guess we just need that day, a day to remind us that there's still hope for the future, that life isn't some unending and mundane linear progression, that if time can start afresh, so can we.

But look at me, running on with my sentences.

This is my 100th post. I should be writing about something profound! Something U-NEEK!

Or I could just sit here and stare blankly at my computer screen, switching my tab occasionally to Facebook, and continue my AIM conversations.

Or I could talk about what's on my mind. When your love life is this stagnant, sometimes writing about it is the only outlet. I don't know if I want to talk about my love life (or lack thereof) but I do want to talk about the perceptions of my relatives and their love lives, especially those Baby Boomers.

My Aunt Van has three kids, Henry, Bridgette and Christopher. Chris is in third grade so his time will come, but Henry is in his mid 20s (I'm being a bit generous, here) and Bridgette is a senior in high school. Naturally, my mom likes to talk about boys with her, and as anyone with a parent knows, talking to people who are 20 years older about relationships is not only a lost cause, but may incur permanent psychological damage.

Once, we started talking about how strict the family was, how only Vietnamese, Catholic options are allowed into the family. But my aunt wanted to clarify a bit further while still pretending to be opened minded.

My aunt says, "Bridgette, you can date anyone, as long as he's Vietnamese or Vietnamese and Catholic."

"So you're just saying she can date Vietnamese guys?" I ask.

"No," she replies. "Actually, she can date other Asian boys too."

We listened and she continued. "Japanese, okay. Korean...maybe. Indian, okay as long as he's rich. But no Chinese."

What?

"No Chinese, I said!"

Apparently, Vietnamese people are still mad at the Chinese trying to invade them 2000 years ago. My mom and my aunt then got into a big rant about how Chinese people always oppressed Vietnamese people. Talk about a grudge.

Recently, Bridgette visited the West Coast and Andy, aka Leroy (long story) took her on a tour of a few schools. My mom, being the classy matchmaker she is, suggested they get married. Pure tact.

But they were good sports about it...until we had our family reunion. We kept giving Bridgette a hard time about it and I think she was truly annoyed. But when has that ever stopped the ever-endearing Nguyen family?

We got to talking about couple names. Henry and his girlfriend Thu are HenThu, which I thought sounded like "hentai" (Mat: You've ruined their couple name forever Andrew. FOREVER.) and my grandparents' couple name is "Ong Ba." Yeah, we were really creative on that one.

But the best one would have been Leroy and Bridgette.

Ledgette.