Perhaps you'd think that to be true if you're into astronomy, or something similar, yet different: astrology. Perhaps some or even many of you scoff at it, dismissing it as wishful thinking, a bunch of superstitious mumbo-jumbo that inaccurately describes your personality.

My zodiac sign, Leo, didn't suit me so well. When I was a lot younger, maybe it was true; I used to be a lot more outgoing, so much more fearless than I am now. When I was in 6th grade, one of the people running the YMCA afterschool care that I attended said that he thought I was more of a Virgo than a Leo. Always eager to find explanations for things (and usually unimportant ones), I thought, "Well, that's why I was born late, I must've intuitively known that I was not supposed to be born in the time range of a Leo."

I do like these sorts of things; back when I was somewhere from 5-8 years old, I was quite meticulous about filling out a Barbie birthday planner with the birthdays of my friends and stuffed animals (stuffed animals especially, as I had an astonishing amount of them, which have since disappeared somewhere in a room upstairs). The planner also had a small page about what the people born in a certain month are generally like, as well as examples of famous people born in that month. I remember that when you were putting an entry for someone's birthday, you could circle one of two Zodiac signs, since each month will have two different ones in it (July has Cancer and Leo, August has Leo and Virgo, etc.). I never really understood why it mattered at the time, having not paid attention to the traits affiliated with each Zodiac sign.

Then there came a time where I pretty much forgot about the Western Zodiac. I very rarely read horoscopes; the only time when I hear mine is if I'm bored and I see them in my mom's newspaper. But late last year, my mom brought home a book which claims to have descriptions of people born on every day of the year.

I have since become immersed in reading this book when I have free time, and although I suppose I could use it to try and understand my friends better...It could be horribly far from the truth (I know some people who fit their birthday descriptions so well that it frightens me, but I don't think my birthday description was quite on the mark) and I would not want to rely on it to judge people. Rather, I look at the personalities of each day and I use them to help me shape my own OCs - original characters. It comes in handy because all of the birthday personalities have both strengths and weaknesses, and of course, it'd be boring to have characters that have no negative qualities.

Even more recently, I read somewhere (probably Time magazine) that the dates of the Western Zodiac signs are inaccurate, and now there is a "new" Western Zodiac with different dates and a 13th sign. I can't describe it very well, so search the Internet for it; click here for one place that has a little info about it. What it means for me is that I'm now actually a Cancer, not a Leo, which I think is more accurate, so I figure I'll go by that from now on.

Cancer: Sensitive, sometimes indecisive, moody
Leo: Ambitious, self-confident, basically a natural leader

Labels: birthday, book, cancer, change, characters, horoscope, leo, new, OC, original character, people, personality, planner, signs, star sign, stars, virgo, western, zodiac

One of the songs I like is a song called Mad World, sung by Gary Jules. (#37 on my Playlist, if you want to hear it) I first heard this song during my summer classes in 2009. My painting teacher often played music, since it kind of helps the creative process and is just relaxing in general. One of the songs that I heard was Mad World.

Well, as I mentioned in "What Seems Unique is Actually Common", I had to find an example of slant rhyming in a song...I thought through what English songs I knew and remembered Mad World. I looked up the lyrics and discovered that yes, indeed, I could use it.

Then today on announcements a video made by a few students encouraging us to help Haiti started playing. And the song in the background was Mad World!

I've been having lots of instances of deja vu lately. I wonder if this means something is coming or if I simply have a weird knack for having such instances.

Recently I've started to think more about entering contests. There's a part of me that says, "What if I can't do a good job? Is it really worth my time to make an entry if I won't win?" And there's another part of me that says, "You never know until you try." I don't know which one to listen to. I really want to change myself and become more proactive rather than reactive. But I have lazy tendencies and a lack of time management. I'll have to work long and hard to change that.

I've read about things like pumpkin growing contests, such as in the book Squashed, by Joan Bauer. But I've never really seen that around my area. We don't really have carnivals or fairs except for maybe Christmas in the Park (and that's not my town). In fact, I don't know if we even have the Lunar New Year parade anymore...

Ah, yes, it is almost the Chinese New Year. It will become the Year of the Tiger, which is my father's year. I heard this year will be unlucky, at least for Rats such as myself. But I wonder if you can really trust horoscopes. (I've sometimes asked my mom to read the ones from her Chinese newspaper for the Western Zodiac. Actually, they are true more than half the time, at least for me)

One time I was talking with someone and they didn't know about the Moon Festival. I was surprised, considering that China has a huge population and I figure that would make people more aware of it and its traditions (not to mention any other Asian countries that celebrate it). But then again, in most of the USA, there aren't that many Asians. I suppose where I live is kind of an exception. (Though I have read books where it is said there are Asians - of the Orient, not necessarily India - gathering in Seattle...)

I also heard once that there are some Chinese people (perhaps they know my parents, I forget exactly) living in a different part of the USA and some people don't like them all that much. I asked my parents if it was pure and simple racism, but my mom said perhaps some people felt that people from other countries were taking away their jobs. (After all, jobs get outsourced since people elsewhere may be willing to do the same job for less pay)

Ugh! You should work harder, then, and take it as a challenge to yourself. You see, although bigger population means more jobs, jobs cannot grow fast enough to keep up with population (just as the amount of food grown cannot keep up with the population either). So, living in our world means we have lots of amenities and useful devices but it also means we have even more competition for resources. It's the sacrifice you have to make, living in the modern world. But this also means you can fly even higher. (Well, I suppose in older times, since there were different social classes, there was a really huge difference between the poorest and richest, whereas nowadays some economies are designed to be more socialist than capitalist, but...) I believe people should take having to compete as an asset and not a disadvantage.

Labels: asian, carnival, china, chinese new year, competition, contest, deja vu, economy, horoscope, job, mad world, moon festival, outsource, pros and cons, rat, song, summer school, tiger

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