geeks

*in case you should ever tire of the game rock / paper / scissors (which i kno i never will! just ask reep!) you can now go learn this version of the game. now instead of just the three, you get 15 different hand gesture things. and if you're really bored, you can also learn the 25 version. and no, i won't be learning them, so don't pull a 'nuke' on me the next time we play. *steve jobs very upset over the pirates of the carribean movie and proclaims that pirates will "burn in hell". strong words coming from a man named steve. ...wat? *and, lol, kno the products you're selling before you sell them, foo. *and when you have the time, cause this next link is quite time consuming, go read "the grand list of console rpg cliches". even i found most of them funny. but then, i have a stupid sense of humor so who knows?

leak!

kirsten dunst: "We have really great people though as the villains in this film, Thomas Haden Church and Topher Grace -- Venom and Sandman... maybe I wasn't supposed to say that."

watta smart girl

alas!

china, if you must kno, was incredible. but i'm not here to talk about china, no. i'm here to talk about my plant. last year i bought two succulents (like mini cacti). they lived well. then i brought them to vdc (where i'm not living). the tall one (let's call her nicole) prospered. the short one (let's call him tom) did not. i seperated them and put tom in the sun, fearing that he wasn't getting enough light. this did not work. i gave him more water. that did not work either. i feared for tom's health. he was very unstable. nothing i did seemed to work. he seemed determined to go under. i went to china. and when i came back i discovered that, alas, tom had died. i have since brought nicole over to my desk and have banished tom to the corner.

in somewhat related news, ashton and demi have gotten married.

greeks

seven wise men of greece.

their mottoes were as follows:

"Know thyself."--Solon.  
"Consider the end."--Chilo.  
"Know thy opportunity."--Pittacus.  
"Most men are bad."--Bias  
"Nothing is impossible to industry."--Periander(Epimenides)  
"Avoid excesses."--Cleobulus  
"Suretyship is the precursor of ruin."--Thales.

last thoughts

did i ever tell you that overseas aol.com is shite? well, it is. most of the time something is wrong wit it: either you can't open the thing, the million of graphics won't load (and therefore you can't use the links associated wit them), things load but you simply can't read your mail, you can't write mail altho you can read it, things take so long it's simply not worth waiting, and the list goes on...

in other news: it is my last full day in shanghai. it's mind boggling how quickly seven weeks have passed, altho the beginning of it all seems rather long ago. china thus far has treated me incredibly well. so well, in fact, that i'm not wanting to go home. well... i'm not sure if it's just like that... i was so desperate to leave and things here have been utterly fantastic... i don't think that even for a moment did i wish i was back home again. even now as i'm sitting here online wasting my last few hours in china i'm not looking forward to going home. people in my volunteer group said that i was so lucky to be staying the extra three weeks. people on my tour said that i was lucky to have the extra few days afterwards and the month beforehand. my tour guide said that it is as if i belong here in china. everyone said that it seemed as tho i didn't want to go home. ...they have no idea how right they were. i've traveled quite a bit before. and i'm a pretty good traveler. i don't form strict ideas about the places i go to. i have vague ideas but i am quick to let them go. i am not terribly ethnocentric and can adapt pretty well to the local culture. i don't get jetlag or any of the usual traveler's illnesses. all in all i'm a pretty laid back sort of traveler, which is i think why i 1) love to travel and 2) really like most of the places i go to. (off the top of my head right now i can't think of a single place i didn't like, ever) but never have i ever had such a strong attachment to a place i've visited. and no it isn't just because i've lived here. i've lived in taiwain and while i like it there i don't love it. china however, is now on my list of place to live for a few years. and it's so incredibly large here wit an unfathomable amount of things to see that my wanderlust will never be a problem. altho really, i don't think it ever has been? i'm easily pleased and a deeper look at a familiar place is really good enough. ...i feel a bit like a traitor. yes, i miss the people back home. but most of them, much as i like them, i could live witout. besides wit modern technology you can always be in touch wit the ones you've left back home.

speaking of. i've never really wanted to have an 'afterlife' of any kind. but this trip has changed me. taking pictures, writing notes, absorbing tastes, smells, experiences really, makes me want certain things to last forever. but you can't capture everything in a 4x6. you can't really save anything, ever. much less to say forever. a time or two here i have felt infinite. and it has been my awakening from such that makes me want to die right then in the hope that 'heaven' will be, not a preservation, but an extension of that feeling.   i kno you're just reading these stale words and getting nothing of wat i'm trying to say. hopefully you're trying to relate. i dare not think that you actually understand. but as i'm writing them... just the sheer memory of 'divine' supremeness is breathtaking.

   dare i breathe out?

interference

"I don't really wanna email you anymore since I havent talked to you in so long.." - reep

well... i guess you really can't have everything now can you?

...will my heart ever feel less heavy?

'your heart is a river that flows from your chest' 'your brain is the dam' 'and i am the fish who can't reach the cord.' / 'oh, instincts are misleading' 'you shouldn't think what you're feeling' 'they don't tell you what you know you should want.' / '...i'm sneaking glances.' 'looking for the patterns in static' 'they start to make sense the longer i'm at it.'

tour itinerary

teaching finished last week. it was quite an experience. also, i've got a vcd of the talent show we and the kids put on. i've not seen it myself but i'm sure it's damn good. :) this last week a few of us teachers went on a short vacation to chengdu (it was awesome). and tonight is my last night in xian. for those of you who wish to kno my tour group itinerary here's the link. it starts this sunday: sept 5th. btw? the hotels listed on the right are all wrong. ...i don't remember which ones i'm actually staying in but they are all, save one, 5 star hotels. hehe. after my tour finishes i do a couple days in shanghai by myself and will be coming back to la on the 20th. the flight will take like -3hours or something. lol. anyway... the last few weeks have been f*ckin incredible and here's to hoping that it will only get better altho i can't imagine how. :)