Interests:writing, reading, piano, photography, horseback riding, travel, drawing Expertise:sleeping, eating, laziness (i can eat and sleep more than the normal human being). Occupation:freelance editor
a) this might seem irrational to some, but i was sooo embarassed when i told my piano teacher yesterday what music i listen to. so here in england, i take piano lessons from a professor of piano performance here at my university - he teaches privately on the side. it's surprisingly cheap (everything is america is more expensive, contrary to popular belief) - it's £30/hr, which is $60/hr or $45/hr depending on exchange rate, which is a great price considering he graduated from one of the best music schools in london and is a piano performance professor. - i paid $60/hr for a ucla TA to teach me back home - she was a great performer but a shite teacher. anyways, so he's this old little man that looks like a hobbit - it's so hilarious to me - especially since he's round and has the fattest chunkiest fingers i've ever seen!! - seriously, his fingers look like tree trunks - but it's so bizarre, and nothing short of miraculous, how nimbly and quickly he can move those fat stubby fingers. so he's making me take these common british music exams - so i have to learn some basic theory and all that shit - i'm at the highest performance level, though - so he goes into this rant about how he listens to this "high-brow" (yes, that was his exact word) radio station and how academic they are about music, blah blah blah, and how i should listen to it too 'cause they might ask me what i think of sonatas or arabesques etc. during the exam. ( crap. i'm so screwed.) then he asks me what music i currently listen to now. errr..... "umm... just... pop music...". "oh! which ones?". erm.... britney spears... and i also like linkin park and eminem.... uhhh.... so instead of saying that embarassing truth, i fudged, going, "oh, just whatever's on the radio." he was like, "oh. i'm surprised, 'cause you have a very interesting way of playing." why do music people always say that? what does "an interesting way of playing" even mean??? anyways, i was so embarassed. i can't say much about sonata forms, but i can sure tell you what i think about britney's latest hits!! - AWESOME!! leave her alone! i need to find a classical radio station.
b) one of my housemates, hussein, is from libya. for those isolated americans who don't know (and i sure as hell didn't when i first came over here - being abroad makes you realize how isolated the states is from everywhere!) - libya's in northern africa next to egypt - and it's only a 3hr flight from london. anyways, so libya housemate is an awesome fun friendly guy who is an amazing cook! - he cooks libyan food all the time - and it looks and smells AMAZING!! he gives me some sometimes, and it's so good! - so he always talks about what it's like in libya and it sounds so cool - he thinks england's very "third world", and no, libya's not just a pile of sticks like what most americans imagine africa to be. - libya sounds really wealthy - he says they get so much money from oil that they don't care about tourism. nevertheless, he thinks i should definitely go visit it 'cause there're all these ancient roman ruins there, there's lots of adventure desert stuff to do 'cause most of it's the sahara, and of course exotic food. so i was sold and leapt onto the internet looking to book a libyan tour group. found out - it's impossible for americans to get into libya 'cause - they hate us. he told me how reagan bombed them back in the day and how his mom is still traumatized 'cause the windows in their house shattered during the reagan bombings, and him and all his siblings were all really young. - apparently, when reagan died, the libyans were all cheering. so since his friend works at the libyan embassy, he asked if he could get a visa for me, but the friend said it's impossible for americans - he's gonna ask around some more, but i'm thinking - okay. if he goes through all this trouble to get me a visa into libya, then i'll be obliged to go, but when i go, what if i... get beheaded??? it's not like i know any arabic, and i'm thinking they'll probably not like me when i do the age old, "DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH???"
one of my other housemates is from ethiopia, which is close to egypt as well. - no, he is not stick thin. *sigh* anyways, he seems really friendly, but his english isn't that good, so i can't really communicate with him. i think it's funny, though - he has this t-shirt with an american flag on it and obama's picture. LOL! america is all over the world, but americans know nothing about the rest of the world - it's so weird. it's cool meeting people from everywhere, though - you start to realize that people are all basically the same.
c) i've started selling my photography online as stock. cafepress.com gives me some good pocket money, and since i'm an amateur stock photographer, i'm starting at the small stock agencies, called microstock, and making pennies. but hopefully, i'll eventually graduate to a real stock agency and be able to pull in some good money on the side. by joining random photography groups, going to random photography events, and randomly emailing photographers, i've managed to establish some contacts, and i have to say - photographers are some of the nicest most amazing people you'll ever meet. yes, i hate people in general, but i do like individuals. since i couldn't make it to this one photographer's talk, i emailed him asking for tips - turns out, he teaches photography at ucla and sells stock at some of the most prestigious agencies - like getty. his photography is amazing!! - http://www.asa100.com/ - i especially liked how he hiked up to the hollywood sign and took an awesome close-up photo of it with a police helicoptor yelling down at him, threatening to arrest him. COOL!! - i wanna hike up there now!! - you can get some seriously good shots of the sign up there. anyways, so he's a really funny awesome guy - and turns out, he used to teach an online stock photography course, so he just emails me his online lessons now - a free photography course!! yippee!! - i'm learning lots, and i LUV working on all this photography stuff - luv it!!
d) so last term, in the fall, i'd booked a day tour of these english cottages - unfortunately, the stupid train system here just wasn't functioning for the day, so i wound up missing my tour - which PISSED ME OFF!!! the train company wound up refunding me the cost of my train ticket, but not for the tour - so i kept emailing them threatening litigation - after going back and forth back and forth for six months now, i finally WON!!! and they reimbursed me for all my losses. i actually wound up making an extra £2, just from rounding the costs and things to the nearest ten. !! ha! bitches!! i DID it!!! ah, victory is sweet.
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You Live an Exciting Life
You are anything but a bore. You make sure that life is full of excitement. You have an adventurous spirit, and you don't like to sit still for too long.
If you feel like doing something, you don't think about it. You just do it. There's no way you could ever live a boring life. There's too much to do and not enough time.
Rese3282: oo here's an assistant editor thing,but for gift books... rockmanx9: u kno wat u can do Rese3282: ugh! who wants to work for gift books... rockmanx9: go teach english in japan rockmanx9: teaching english in asian countries rockmanx9: earns BIG bucks rockmanx9: really a lot of money Rese3282: i dunno japanese... Rese3282: that'll bother me rockmanx9: u dont need to rockmanx9: or even taiwan or something rockmanx9: omg.. the money is great Rese3282: i kno someone who did that - but he said they're racist - you have to be white Rese3282: so it doesn't matter i have a phd in english - not white Rese3282: i hate asians rockmanx9: hhahahah
i hate people. i especially hate asians. i'm admittedly not a "real" asian. contrary to what a lot of asian americans who are obsessed about their ethnicity believe, no we are not real asians. real asians are people who were born and raised in asia. not - in america. if you were born and raised in america, then that makes you - american. if you were born and raised in asia, then you're - asian. not that complicated. yes, shock of all shocks - you're american, even though your ancestors came from another country - like every other american that's ever existed!! NO!! not all white americans are of british colonial heritage, related to the founding fathers. that's another reason why i hate asians - lots of asian americans are obsessively self-conscious about their ethnicity, take a whole shite-load of self-pitying asian american studies - and know absolutely nothing about other ethnicities, to the point where they don't even talk to people of other ethnicities. how xenophobic and ignorant are you. contrary to popular belief, being white doesn't make you a "real" american (and why, if you're asian american, would you even support this idea, and i know many who do, since you're just irrationally marginalizing yourself?). and no, being a white american doesn't automatically mean you have ancestors dating back to the colonial times, or that you're "original" american with no ancestors from other countries and have no "heritage" (i know whites who take pride in their irish, italian, german, scottish, native american - yes, lots have native american blood in them - roots). - it's amazing how many asian americans believe this. and they do because - they don't know anything about other ethnicities. back in the day, when the irish were coming over, they had an even harder time facing discrimination and adjusting to their new home - but now, lots of americans are part irish. - same for lots of other ethnicities throughout american history. that's how america is. if you're descended from an immigrant, then you're a real american.
fine. so i'm not a real asian. but from what i've observed of real asian culture, i don't like it. asians are boring. asian culture is so dry and practical - everything's done for some measley practical purpose to the point where life is sucked dry of any meaning - practical to the point where it's impractical. you get married and have kids so you won't die alone, not for love. you get a job that makes lots of money, not a job you enjoy. you marry someone who likes you more, so you won't get hurt. you marry someone with lots of money, so you can buy lots of stuff. what's the point of doing anything unless it serves some immediate practical purpose? because if you marry someone you don't really like, you can become unhappy. if you get a job you hate, then you're spending your one and only life doing that shit job. but, asians don't seem to consider basic human feelings. asians are like machines with no emotions. it also seems to me to be the most timid, dull, and xenophobic culture - don't travel. don't explore. don't do new things. don't meet new people. - it's dangerous and it'll waste time and money. instead, build a big wall around ourselves. if you don't take risks, you never discover anything new and you just stay in the same place forever. besides, new and different things are exciting - but, asians are boring. so i guess if you're asian, you'd best get on with your mundane standard money jobs and your marriage with that person you're trying to force yourself to like. enjoy your money, count your cash, try not to kill your spouse. but don't expect me to jump on board your bandwagon.
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so here in england, i take piano lessons from a professor of piano performance here at my university - he teaches privately on the side. it's surprisingly cheap (everything is america is more expensive, contrary to popular belief) - it's £30/hr, which is $60/hr or $45/hr depending on exchange rate, which is a great price considering he graduated from one of the best music schools in london and is a piano performance professor. - i paid $60/hr for a ucla TA to teach me back home - she was a great performer but a shite teacher. anyways, so he's this old little man that looks like a hobbit - it's so hilarious to me - especially since he's round and has the fattest chunkiest fingers i've ever seen!! 
- seriously, his fingers look like tree trunks - but it's so bizarre, and nothing short of miraculous, how nimbly and quickly he can move those fat stubby fingers. so he's making me take these common british music exams - so i have to learn some basic theory and all that shit - i'm at the highest performance level, though 
- so he goes into this rant about how he listens to this "high-brow" (yes, that was his exact word) radio station and how academic they are about music, blah blah blah, and how i should listen to it too 'cause they might ask me what i think of sonatas or arabesques etc. during the exam. (
why do music people always say that? what does "an interesting way of playing" even mean??? anyways, i was so embarassed. i can't say much about sonata forms, but i can sure tell you what i think about britney's latest hits!! - 
the train company wound up refunding me the cost of my train ticket, but not for the tour - so i kept emailing them threatening litigation - after going back and forth back and forth for six months now, i finally WON!!! and they reimbursed me for all my losses. i actually wound up making an extra £2, just from rounding the costs and things to the nearest ten. 