Last updated on 5/19/05

Just discovered this; I didn't remember a thing about putting it there. But anyway, this is a little gift from me to those 02ANers who are *nostalgic.

Our Album

Back to School

First day of school. I got me covered up with beanie, gloves, sweater, jacket, coat. We've just been through an ice storm, so going outside is like stepping into a freezer. I got numb.

I was excited at first, but then I looked around in my class and felt something missing. Some of my friends weren't there; they got kicked off the program because they failed the class last semester. The program started with 48 students; now we have about 30 left after 2 semesters. Bitter. It is so easy to get used to somebody and then, boom, they're not there anymore. I feel sorry for them, too. All that time and efforts were wasted for nothing.

First day is always the day of orientation. About 5 or 10 minutes into that, my professor announced: "Don't expect to make an A in this course or it's going to be a long, hard, miserable semester. I'm happy if you can just make a 75 and pass it." It's long, hard, and miserable anyway, regardless of the grade. Maybe she was just being honest, but the way she said that seems to be so brutal, so discouraging. I try not to let that affect me. I try not to let any negative external forces affect me, for the sake of my own inner peace.

I'm still excited about going back to school, though. Anything fresh is good.

News

Vietnamese online gamers have to limit their playtime to 5 hrs/day if they want to play Vietnamese games. Or they can just switch to foreign servers with foreign games and play for as long as they want.
Why? Too much game-playing will impair the youngsters' minds??

The Power of "If"

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!


Rudyard Kipling
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Heard about this poem a lot of times lately, but didn't read it until now. Just want to share it with you all. I was turned off a little when I got to the last sentence, but it's ok, I will read it as, "And - which is more - you'll be a Lady, my daughter!"

Telex

Hôm nau d9ang tập đánh tiếng viẹt kiểu telex, đánh kiểu vni chậm quá. Chat với nguoiư ta mà nguoiưta nói bye xong rôíi mà mình vẫn còn ngối mò mẫm vối cái bàn phím laptop nhỏ xíu. D9ến khi nguoiư ta log off rốii ma mình vẫn chưa đánh xong câu Hẹn gặp lại thì thật là đáng tiếc. Trong thờii đại "kinh tế thị truơng" như hiện nay, ko thể nào chậm chạp như vaayj d9uơc. Cũng ko thể nào đánh nhiều lỗi chính tả như thế này đuợc. Màhình như nãy giờ đánh hoài chữ nguoiư ma2 không đuơc. Hehe, ko xài phím bạckscape, cho nó tới đâu thì tới. D9ánhlại chữ nguoiư, ko, phải như vầy mới đúng, nguời, cũng ko, người, bây giờ thì đúng rồi.

Người nhiều lúc cũng thất thường, ko biết chính xác mình muốn cái gì, chỉ trong một trạng thái lơ lơ lửng lửng...vui, buồn, thất vọng, hy vọng, chán, hứng thú, sợ, dũng cảm, yếu, mạnh...nhuu la một cái vòng tròn lẩn quẩn.

Đúng là nô lệ của thói quen, chỉ cần trệch đi một chút là thấy có vấnđề rồi...chắc quay lại đánh bằng vni quá...hoac chi don gian la ko danh dau...sự thay đổi làm người ta chóng mặt...

"The Pursuit of Happiness"

On the spur of the moment, a friend asked me to go to Ft Worth with him to eat Vietnamese food. So I said yes, thinking he may just say it to appease my hungry heart. But, out of the blue, yesterday afternoon, he told me we were going to Ft Worth right then I just had enough time to print a quick direction to the place, and voila, there we went.

He's about my granddad's age, and he's been so good to me, so basically I looked to him as a father figure (He said he would give me away at my wedding, but more to that later, he talked as if I were getting marred next week ). Well, he thought he knew Ft Worth like the back of his hand, so he didn't really look at the direction I had. As a result of that, he drove in circle for two hours. Finally, I suggested we stopping at a nail shop to ask for direction, as I thought I may find some Vietnamese there. I was right. With a new direction from a good-hearted lady in the nail shop, we managed to get there, but that place is closed on Sunday. That was my luck . So we stopped to another nail shop to ask, and we got directed to Haltom city. We stopped at the third nail shop for direction again in Haltom, and finally we made it there, a little restaurant called Phở 95 in a huge Vietnamese shopping center. Three hours of driving around, without maps, and we made it. Yay!

When we entered the restaurant, everybody just turned their heads and looked at us. I looked tiny standing next to him, a 6 ft tall guy who was all dressed up with his oversized leather jacket, a traditional cowboy hat, and a well-polished pair of black boots. He actually looked like my bodyguard.

We had a good time there. Unsurprisingly, I enjoyed my steamy bowel of "phở" tremendously. My friend enjoyed his plate of "cơm tấm thịt nướng" also; he said he would take his wife there to eat later.

Later in the day, I watched the ball dropped in New York's Times Square; it was a spectacular show. At midnight, I meant to find my dog and give her a big New Year hug (everybody else was sleeping), but I was preoccupied with something else and totally forgot about it until this morning. Is it a bad sign to forget to do something on the first day of the year?

Anyway, that's what I did on the last day of 2006. I'm thrilled with everything so far; my "pursuit of happiness" journey for this year has just started.