LANTURNNNZZ

^ dinner :] 12 dollars well spent! very fun and nice dinner ^^~ free side dishes which included egg as well. that made me very happy. Idk where laina is in the photo I think she kinda disappeared behind sunny/steph's head. so many people lmao we took up like 1/4 of the restaurant :D

wellp the full recount is pretty much on yujie's page already, except the last bit because we got split up since our group is so massive. what happened down my end was that I wanted to get an animal hat so I dragged will and various other ppl to the stall, and they ran out of panda hats apparently, so I got a sheep one :3 then we went back to the fountain area and found that everyone else had gone to get stuff til everyone else got back to the same area except for yujie's little group who disappeared, and we took some group photos, jono came for like 2 secs and then disappeared again, and then everyone kinda dispersed once again...

they saw jason's chinese opera mask and decided to go back into the warzone so we followed, which is when we ran into alan/jun again and we found cleo/hillie and we stood around while ppl were getting their chinese opera masks, just talking. then jimin and laina were complaining that it was too hot and too many ppl so we decided to leave~~ it was so dark! So, we made our way back to the little courtyard outside sky karaoke and met james there, and he took us to esquires coffee where we just sat down and talked for about 20 mins... felt so good to sit down haha :] after that we just went home after a long day @_@

hummm well yesterday was the most fun i've had in a long time~ I guess it's true that it's not as much about the place than it is about the people you're with. I've heard that lantern festival is boring, but I honestly had a lot of fun with the people I went with. So, thanks to all my friends who make my life just that much less miserable =P

sheepy hat -3- attractive facials I know. o and jamie chencake and tony kept mocking me about my lisp ): braces are so annoying...

I WILL. I MUST.

I AM NOT ON FACEBOOK

I AM NOT PROCRASTINATING

I AM GOING TO GO AND TAKE A SHOWER

AND THEN DO MY HOMEWORK

I AM NOT LAZY. I AM NOT LAZY. I AM NOT LAZY. I AM NOT LAZY. I AM NOT LAZY. I LOVE DOING WORK. I LOVE DOING WORK. I LOVE DOING WORK. I LOVE DOING WORK. FRENCH AND CALCULUS IS BETTER THAN THE INTERNETS. I WILL FOCUS AND ACHIEVE EXCELLENCE THIS YEAR.

I LOVE SCHOOL I LOVE SCHOOL I LOVE SCHOOL I LOVE SCHOOL AND I LOVE BEING BUSY AND BEING HARDWORKING

I AM NOT LAZY

everything is subjective

It seems like a lot, if not all of the things in our world come by through our own perception. The way something looks, smells, feels, sounds... it's all perception. In fact, we have no way of knowing whether the colour 'red' we see is the same 'red' that any other person sees, just that that shade, regardless of how it looks to anyone, is known as 'red' to everyone... for all I know, your red could look like my blue, and all the natural colours I know may look completely unnatural to anyone else. It's a strange thought, but not implausible...

Likewise, everyone's opinions seem to differ on an emotional level, not just what we perceive from the physical world. Lately, I've found that the impression given off by any one person can differ A LOT depending on who I talk to... same person can warrant "yea they're pretty cool", "they're a gay cunt", "omg I love them they're so funny" and "I dunno, they're alright I guess" it made me realise that often it's impossible to get to know someone vicariously; one has to go and meet them personally and form his own impression of the individual in question. There's so much shit going around about people nowadays, I feel like no matter how much people go behind others' backs and tell me about all the stuff they've done and warn me about them, I'm still going to have to find out for myself in the end, making everything I've heard a waste of effort...

Personally I really think that if I listened to everything that people have told me about other people I would have lost hope in humanity by now. But it's true that there are always 2 sides to every story. Regardless of whether or not 1 side is exaggerated or not, every yin has a yang; no matter how dark something seems, there is always at least a little light in there as well. I feel like the role we played in a particular situation can influence our perception of said situation. We may choose to ignore the darkness, or be oblivious to the light.

I know it seems like I'm trying too hard to be objective, and the way I'm saying this is gonna make it hard to get anyone on my side, since I'm not actually on a side. But the thing is, I do form opinions about others as well... Sometimes good, sometimes bad. I recognise that sometimes I don't look at the full story, or try to kid myself into thinking one way about someone because it's just easier or more beneficial for me. That's just the way the world and humans are.

...I guess what I'm trying to say is that before you make any assumptions about other people, it's important to find out for yourself and not just take what others say for fact, because more often than not it's been tainted by their perception... Idk I guess this entry is a little redundant because it's something we all know already, just sometimes don't really put into practice... I just found it very relevant to my life atm.

Hope everyone's doing okay at school :] only 6 more weeks of school til easter holidays guys. hang in there!

"Nothing's beautiful from every point of view"

~ Horace, Roman Poet, 65BC-8BC

to live is to be mortal...

I just got told that my grandpa passed away at lunchtime today

...

It came down on me like a rock. The thing is, I wasn't even that close to him, but the realisation of how fragile a human's life is really hit home. We're going to the hospital to see him later... I can already imagine seeing him and bursting into tears. You think of how he's not in the same world as us anymore, how he never even gets to see anything that happens from now on. You think of all the times you spent together, however brief, and how that other person who was living, breathing, talking to you at that time is no longer alive. It's a warped and twisted feeling...

I think the last few months I've hardly even talked to him. All I've really done is help him put his pills into bottles, change the time on his microwave and clock when there was a blackout, pour him tea... Although I knew that he was unhealthy, I honestly thought that he would last a few more years at least... is death really that sudden? I still don't even know what he had. I don't know anything about his illness, only his diabetes. I have no idea what kind of medical procedures he's been through, even though he's been living in the same house as me for the past 10 years. Even though it's like a stranger who was living in my house passed away, the fact that I know he was my maternal grandfather makes me guilty about not being more interested in his life. I guess that's just one of the things death does to you...

I can't even begin to imagine how my mum feels right now. I'm scared... to know the brevity of a human life, and to know how fast time passes, and how suddenly this came about, I'm scared. I guess I really am afraid of death. Having never come across it before in my life, and having someone in my immediate family just... disappear... it's a real eye opener. I guess the whole concept of death is so much more real to me now...

I can't help but think how life has its ups and downs. It's such a pity that when you're on a down it feels absolute shit and you just want it to be over, but you know the worse is yet to come.

In the end, I guess it's true that good and bad are ultimately in a balance. On a fine summer's day like this, something like this could happen... I guess the rain around 12.30 today wasn't so meaningless after all.

Our time certainly is finite.

new layout etc etc etc

yup new layout. let me know what you think :] this one was fun to edit.

will do a real update tomorrow (i'm gonna edit this one, so don't look out for a new post). gonna go sleep now zzz

EDIT: LOL I'm sorry, I totally forgot to update yesterday and just remembered. I just did 30 push ups (not at once tho lmao) :D my back and abs are sore... i'm weak xx

mm, today's entry will be about foods that winnie likes :] I guess I'll list some of the foods which I think taste good NO MATTER HOW THEY'RE COOKED. (or at least, most of the ways in which they're cooked). So, without further ado... let's find out my culinary interests :]

5) Garlic. I think garlic is like the universal flavouring... it seems to go well with anything @_@ (ofc excepting cake and the like). I lovee the taste of garlic, especially with vegetables :] But there's also in chilli & garlic sauce with noodles, garlic & ginger dipping for chicken, etc.. garlic is so versatile. Not only the above, but it can also be used to ward off vampires. Actually other things similar to garlic that I also like are onions, spring onion, and chives. Yeah, any of the above are good flavour boosters. I like to eat spring onion while I'm cutting it as well...

4) Coffee. Yes... apparently I'm a caffeine addict TT. Seriously, whenever I get home, I get myself a mug of hot coffee and eat it with biscuits. I like the kind of bitter but sweet taste. Cappuccino I guess is the best. Mochachino is good as well, but sometimes a bit sweet for me haha... Still haven't tried very many types of coffee, but I know long/short blacks are wayyy too bitter for me lol. Actually every time I go to newmarket now and my bus is late I like to go to Michel's patisserie and get an ice coffee. It's a pity that mcdonald's doesn't do ice coffees in nz ): I got hooked when I went to america. Apart from that, I think it tastes really good... My 2nd favourite type of ice cream has become cappuccino D: I'm a coffee addict. Coffee can also taste good if you sprinkle it over ice cream, like with milo :] That said... coffee cakes *___* and the smell of coffee is just like heaven hahaha.

3) Chicken. Do I really have to say anything more? bbq chicken, marinated chicken, roast chicken, fried chicken, nuggets, chicken soup, chicken pie, chicken flavoured shapes... it's ALL GOOD. chicken is so damn tasty. my parents used to say that I was a cannibal because I'm born in the year of the chicken and love eating it lol. EVERYONE TASTES LIKE CHICKEN, AND WITH GOOD REASON.

2) TOFU. :] I love tofu! Actually last time at Karl's birthday party at karaoke everyone ordered like chicken kidneys, chicken wings, beef, fried squid and stuff and I ordered tofu :D everyone thought I was vegetarian at first and I had to explain that I just really like tofu... >>; I think tofu tastes good no matter how you make it. I really like spicy fried tofu with like chilli and spring onion etc, mapo tofu, and that really nice tofu pudding you get at chinese restaurants (豆腐花) and it's like with sweet ginger sauce... sooo nice :] tofu is amazing!! and not just for vegetarians haha

1) EGGGGG. Egg is the most versatile ingredient. You can eat it by itself (scrambled, steamed, hardboiled, poached, softboiled, fried, omelette, protein shakes etc etc etc), use it for more complicated recipes (cakes, french toast, quiche, pancakes, egg tarts, egg SOUPS lol) and it's delicious!!! I really love that cantonese dish where you just put a raw egg over the whole thing and mix it in with the rice. builds strong muscles too (yea i need it to be buff)... not even only chicken eggs either, duck eggs are salted and go really well with congee. whenever my mum gets salted duck eggs I don't drink milk for like a whole week and have congee for breakfast instead hahaha if that's some indication of how much I love eggs XD also fish eggs; caviar is popular with higher class people right? me and my brother always fight for the eggs of the fish when we have it lol it's like the best part of the fish. I feel sorry for people who are allergic to eggs @_@ and I could never turn vegan, I love milk and eggs too much hahaha. -consumer of animal produce-

well yeah... I think I'm hungry or something right now ==; (o really winnie, what gave you that idea?)

string cheese

Humans' lives are a lot like strands of string. They run parallel to one another along a long surface, representing time.

Ceaselessly, these strings touch or become close together, symbolic of a person passing others along the road, or people coexisting within the same neighbourhood. Most of the time, we don't pay much mind to these types of people since they're more or less strangers to us.

Very often however, two strings may become entwined for a second, representing the people we contact but never quite get to know, for example the librarian who checks out our books for us, or the starbucks worker who provides us with our green tea frappuccino.

Less often, but still fairly commonly, strings become loosely entwined for a long period of time; these would be our acquaintances, friends we don't know well, teachers, employers... but more often than not, eventually the strings will set off in separate directions after a while together.

Closer friends are like knotted strings... like a pair of earphones left in one's pocket, close friends have spent a lot of time together and know each other very well because they have had the time to better understand each other. But also, like the pair of earphones, these types of knots can eventually be undone.

The strongest types of friendships are the ones that last through life... the 'true' friends. Like the force required to tie a dead knot between strings, effort is required to create these types of friendships as well. We have to put care into preserving the friendships worth keeping, maybe reinforce the shoelace several times to ensure that it won't come undone, in order to have friends for life.

Strangers in one's life are natural; they are all around us...

Brief contact with others is necessary in our lives as well, even if we never get to know the other person and, likewise, acquaintances are kept often even if we have only met the other person once.

People naturally become closer if they spend a lot of time together...

BUT

true friendships require effort from both sides. there is no such thing as a 'natural' friendship that lasts through life. only with care and love for other people can one keep these true friends; the moment someone loses interest, the friendship is gone as well... true friends these days are very rare. just ask anyone you know if they are still close to their 'best friend' from their elementary school days. their high school school days, even their college days. I predict that the answer will more likely be no than yes. that's why it's important to remember that if you value a friendship, it's important to value the person as well! :] let's all care for our friends the way that we would like to be cared for, for the rest of our lives.

140

^ look at my SAT vocab! :] I love how a book looks when you fill up every line with writing. makes me feel so accomplished.

anyway, these last few days have been pretty relaxing/tiring (oxymoron? well maybe...). Yesterday, our hot water cylinder blew up and got leaks in it and flooded our entire garage, so I had to like sweep out the water manually using a broom for like an hour before the hot water cylinder guy came = =; so stupid.. and so today we had no hot water in our house, cuz it's a public holiday and the plumber's gonna come tomorrow instead... so ofc I couldn't take a shower. I ended up having to go and use the badminton showers. So weird, like shampooing your hair and stuff in a public toilet hahahahah.. @.@ well hopefully it'll be fixed by tomorrow.

last night's tennis match was pretty cool. it was pretty obvious who was gonna win tho =P tbh I only really wanted fed to win so djokovic would become no 2 lol :] djokovic ftw. but, I was so tired yesterday cuz I went to play badminton before that I fell asleep during the third set.... I woke up around 1am and went to bed. I was still sleeping at 10.15 this morning when my dad so rudely woke me up.

today I drove by myself for the first time!* :D okay it was only like half a kilometre to mum's office. but I still felt accomplished. people giving me weird looks when I was trying to park though. I had to back out and go back in like 5 times =.= I think I suck at parking.

*no I haven't got my restricted yet but SHHHH...

tomorrow is ji's birthday gatheringggg~~ hopefully will be a lot of fun before school starts ^^ this summer's certainly been eventful...