The story goes that Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden up until Eden was convinced by a snake to eat an apple from a tree. She wasn't supposed to, so she and Adam were thrown out of the Garden of Eden. (Well, I'm no expert, so if you really want to learn more about the "first humans", ask someone else.) But it looks like such a thing could happen for robots too.

I've heard that artificial skin that can actually feel is being developed. That's all well and good, but then I was watching the Colbert Report on TV, which is something rare, considering that my dad has not watched either the Colbert Report or the Daily Show for a long time, and because I myself hardly ever watch TV, at least the channels (I do watch anime on DVDs, but that's about it). He was saying that if robots could have skin, then that would mean they could be naked, which would then me they could feel shame, like humans do.

There are some stories out there about things that aren't human but which are similar to humans or want to become humans. For instance, there's Chobits, in which there are Persocoms, which are designed to be like humans but aren't human. And then there's Eureka Seven, which I just finished last week (good anime, by the way, although 50 episodes is a bit longer than I prefer, but it was worth it). Skip to the next paragraph if you haven't watched it and don't want to see a spoiler. Eureka, one of the main characters, isn't human; she's actually a Coralian, made by the Scub Coral, an intelligent life form which is not human.

I wonder if we're ever going to make something that is so close to being human that we can't really tell it apart from a human. Anything is possible. I wonder if that would actually happen in my lifetime. Or if it would happen many years from now. Or maybe never, after all.

Anyhow, when I was watching TV, I was pretty bored. I don't really understand how people can watch a lot of TV. It seems too passive. I hate sitting there doing nothing and then getting annoyed by the commercial breaks. I mean, even at school, I have to keep my hands busy. I often do homework in class, which I don't advise that you do, because sometimes the teacher will actually teach something and then you'll miss something important.

But anyways, TV was such a bore. Maybe I'm not watching the more interesting channels; I kind of left it up to my dad. The only channel that I like a lot is HGTV, mostly because of the interior design shows.

I watched some Friends, and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (which apparently I'm not, since I don't know which Great Lake bordered three specific states. But then I'm not sure if knowledge of facts is necessarily the right way to judge someone's intelligence. People use the word "smart" pretty loosely.) and Don't Forget the Lyrics. When it comes to game shows, I'd prefer to watch Deal or No Deal, but my dad says it might not even be airing anymore. If anyone knows whether it's still going, please let me know.

I have, however, started watching the Korean drama Boys Over Flowers. I don't usually watch dramas, because they tend to be long and cliched (it's quite common to see a rich person fall in love with a poor person in dramas :\ ). But since I recently finished Code Geass and Eureka Seven, I had nothing to watch, so I figured I might as well give Boys Over Flowers a try.

I'm on the second episode now. It's been pretty entertaining actually. I didn't expect much. (The person who said that if you expect nothing, you'll never be disappointed, is quite wise. I tend to keep my expectations low so that I'll only have pleasant surprises...Unless something is really terrible.) That curly-haired guy is such a jerk, but I guess that's what makes it funny. Especially when the protagonist goes and kicks him in the face. I'd like to do something like that. (But then, instead of being cool, it would land me in trouble. C'est la vie...)

Labels: adam, artificial, boys over flowers, chobits, colbert report, drama, entertainment, eureka seven, eve, garden of eden, human, korean, lifespan, original sin, shame, skin, television, time, TV

Today a childhood friend of mine came over to my house. She has been living in Shanghai ever since she moved away many years ago. I haven't seen her for a few years. She's in California now because she's attending a creative writing summer camp (I believe it lasts for three weeks) at Stanford.

I'm afraid I'm not very good with people. Although my zodiac sign, Leo, says I'm supposed to be extroverted, strong-willed, ambitious, and a born leader, I don't think those things are true...Maybe I used to be more like that, but I've been changed by my experiences. (Or I happen to be unlike most Leos.) A person once said I was more like a Virgo. Virgos are shy, meticulous, intelligent, analytical...as well as being perfectionists and worrywarts. Maybe I was born at the wrong time. (But I was actually born a little bit late, so maybe I'm meant to be a Leo with a Virgo's personality?)

I'm not a very good host, and I couldn't really say much. There were things I wanted to ask, but I couldn't really express myself because I thought the questions would be too blunt and rather strange... And I couldn't really say what kind of things I do when I'm at home during the summer because it might take a lot of explaining. Nor was I able to properly tell her how video and computer games that I was playing worked. (I guess it's partially because I don't know what to say exactly and partially that I've usually figured out how to do things on my own or by reading instruction manuals, so I'm not so familiar with giving people verbal instructions...)

She did say that the Korean boys at her school were quite fond of Starcraft, and it occurred to me that some member of the Korean boy band SS501 had become a Starcraft programmer or something of that sort.

Anyhow, though, that's not really important. I'm sorry, I got sidetracked again. (I apologize for my disorganized posts recently. My thoughts are a bit...muddled.) To me, living in Shanghai is a foreign concept, even if I've visited the city several times. Through listening I've noted various differences between the city where I reside, in California, and Shanghai, China.

- SH: Hot and humid in the summer
CA: Hot, but apparently not as hot as SH (both my friend who lives in Shanghai and my friend who lives in Taiwan say that here is cold, comparatively. I was horrified. XD)
- SH: Friend gets on the bus at 6:45 am and rides it for an hour to get to school
CA: I leave for school at 8:00 am, about an 8 minute ride
- SH: A polluted city with weak sunlight
CA: Bright sunlight (but in my town, you can't see the stars that well at night. Yosemite, on the other hand, is just splendid for stargazing.)
- SH: No wildlife, except in zoos.
CA: Birds (mostly pigeons, crows, and seagulls) and squirrels. (Stanford University, as I just discovered today, has so many squirrels in this one area. It was amazing.)
- SH: 8 classes at the school my friend attends (which is an "international" school that teaches by USA curriculum.) 4 classes in one day, then the other 4 the next day. (It's a good idea. You would have 2 days to do your homework so you can manage your time. And if you have trouble with it you have one day to ask your teacher for help.)
CA: 6 or 7 classes, daily. (It's predictable, but I want to try the 8 class system.)
- SH: Many students use Skype.
CA: Kids are more likely to chat through Gmail.

I wonder if I would come to like Shanghai if I went there. Maybe I could have a dog, like my friend does, if I lived in Shanghai. But I have very little grasp of Chinese (at least as a written language - I can speak Shanghainese somewhat better than Mandarin, so maybe that's okay) and I like my big backyard and getting to use the Internet freely (in China, you can't access Facebook, Youtube, or Blogspot, as well as other thinsg). Perhaps trying out the lifestyle is the only way to see.

Labels: atmosphere, california, china, comparison, friends, inability, instructions, internet, korean, language, leo, lifestyle, school, shanghai, squirrels, stanford, starcraft, temperature, virgo, zodiac

I often come across two very similar things in succession. I was reading the Skip Beat! manga and Ren Tsuruga, one of the main characters, ate breakfast twice. And then when I was watching a Korean drama, Dal Ja's Spring, the main character ate dinner three times.

Although nothing terrible happened to Ren, Dal Ja got constipation and had to be taken to the hospital. I was disgusted but I also thought Dal Ja was stupid to have done so. She could've just said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I've already eaten" but of course she had to eat since she had been invited (and to a nice restaurant, too). Or at least she could have said no when she was going to eat dinner the third time. (But I guess us humans are still feeble-minded and often make the wrong decisions. Then again, maybe something bad would happen whatever choice we made.)

Today was a friend's birthday, so I walked over to her house. Avatar was playing on the TV. I was excited to finally get a chance to watch it (and without have to get my own copy of the DVD) because there was a lot of uproar over it when it came out. (Too bad watching it on the TV means that it isn't in 3D, but oh well. 3D would probably make me dizzy or it would be too realistic and give me a heart attack. It still looks nice even if it isn't in 3D). I was surprised about how tall the Na'vi were and also that they had tails. From what I had seen, they had seemed very humanoid, so I hadn't expected that.

I had another encounter with James Cameron (the director) because soon afterwards I saw an imitation of Titanic (which happens to be one of his films too). I can't remember whether I've watched Titanic or not, but I think I probably haven't. And now that I think of it, I still want to watch Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. I still haven't gotten around to it...I wonder if the DVD is out. In that case, I can get it from the library.

Lately I haven't had much appetite. It's probably because I stay inside most of the time (since it's hot and sunny without any clouds, most of the time, outside) and because I'm not really able to go far from the house. I had been hoping that I would be able to go on walks by myself for the purpose of taking photos, but that hasn't happened, seeing as my mom says, "Wait until we get home, then you can go with your dad." But it's kind of weird. Sometimes I can feel so lonely, but there are many times now that I just want some peace and quiet. I wonder if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I'm becoming so solitary.

Labels: 3D, alone, appetite, avatar, birthday, choice, constipation, dal ja's spring, drama, eating, food, indoor, korean, movie, multiple, photography, ponyo, skip beat, solitude, walk

I thought of this while I was reading a book called The Outsiders for school. The book is about the 60's, and it takes place in Oklahoma, I think, or somewhere around there. The main character is a boy named Ponyboy, who is part of a gang made up his two brothers and his friends. Well, I'd never really read this kind of book before, so I wasn't sure if I'd like it, but it turned out to be better than I expected. Ponyboy and his brothers are fond of chocolate, and Ponyboy's brother said that if there was a such thing as a chocolate cigarettes, Ponyboy would've had one made. (By the way, Ponyboy is an avid smoker. One time he went to the countryside and a man told him, "You shouldn't be smoking." Ponyboy looked around for a No Smoking sign and didn't seen one. "Why not?" asked the confuzzled Ponyboy. "Well, uh...You're too young," said the man. Ponyboy was surprised - Ponyboy is only 14, by the way.)

Whenever I see people with lollipops in their mouths, I think that they're smoking at first. I saw a book full of pictures of flashy outfits people in Japan were wearing. (There were some things that looked fairly normal, but some of the outfits were pretty strange.) I saw lollipops in their mouths and assumed they were cigarettes at first but it turned out that they were lollipops...Whew.

I remember when I was young I used to just stick a carrot in my mouth and pretend I was smoking since I never want to try it for real. It's way too easy to get addicted to smoking so it's just better not to ever do it. Good people get ruined by smoking.

I overheard two of my classmates talking. One of them said, "A man walks into a bar." (He's telling a joke.) So the other guy said, "So?" And the one telling the joke said, exasperated, "Don't you get it? You're so slow!" Basically, in this joke, a man doesn't walk into the kind of bar where you drink alcohol. He walks into an actual bar. Now that would hurt. (I only understood the joke because I had heard someone else tell it before)

Anyways, back to The Outsiders...There was something in the book that I found interesting. Ponyboy, as he narrates the story, mentioned that he liked Two-Bit's mom because she was humorous, but not lazy like Two-Bit. (Two-Bit is a joking guy who likes school for some weird reason and is in Ponyboy's gang) Then Ponyboy said Two-Bit's mother let Two-Bit get away with murder. Ponyboy was making Two-Bit's mother sound like a good person, so this was a bit of a shock. That's a very interesting parent there.

I've been wondering about something for a pretty long time now. One time I was at school, because I heard there was free ice cream (but the line was too long. Just earlier there had been a dance so many students were at the school). A woman asked me, "Are you J?" (J stands for the name of the person, I didn't want to reveal her name) I said, "No," and moved on. I bet that person didn't know how J looked or something - I mean, I don't wear glasses. Anyhow, J is of Korean decent. And people sometimes think either that I look Korean or my dad does. (Then again, maybe it's because some people aren't good at telling, people occasionally ask me if I'm Japanese) Plus, both my mom and dad's last names are Korean last names. It's sort of uncanny. I keep wondering if I could be Korean instead of Chinese but all my relatives live in China. Then again, Koreans once came from China. I mean, even the language has some similarities, and names for nobility used to be taken from Chinese. I'm always been curious about where I really come from. (Well, Africa originally, it can be traced back there, even if people insist they aren't from there, like my dad said the aboriginals in Australia said they were from Australia, not Africa, even when DNA tests were taken) I wonder if there is a way to find out. It would probably take a long time trying to trace it all the way back. I mean, for one thing, China has a huge population, so would there even be any documents? And it would be written in Chinese (Mandarin) so I wouldn't be able to read it...

Labels: africa, bar, chinese, chocolate, cigarette, heritage, joke, korean, lollipop, name, parents, ponyboy, smoking, the outsiders, two-bit

It's really boring washing my hair, and since the TV is at just the right angle, I often watch DVDs at the same time, so it helps to pass the time while I wait for the conditioner to sink into my head and that kind of thing. I was looking for something to watch, and I spotted a Korean movie that my mom had checked out from the library, called "A Millionaire's First Love". (Look, already the name sounds corny... XD)

Well, I started watching it, and I saw the female lead. She looked oddly familiar. I kept watching and I thought, "Hey, I really do think I've seen her somewhere." She looked like the actress in another Korean drama I watched, "One Fine Day". So I looked up the One Fine Day Wikipedia article (I really overuse Wikipedia. Some people say Tvtropes is better, but I still prefer Wikipedia. I mean, Wikipedia is the most accurate encyclopedia in the world because it can get updated much faster than book encyclopedias). And it was the same actress after all!

The weird thing was that in A Millionaire's First Love, the actress, Lee Yeon Hee, played a character who had a heart problem. In One Fine Day, she was also a character with a heart problem. Was that a coincidence or not? o_O;;

And then there was the male lead. The actor, Hyun Bin, was apparently in another movie, My Lovely Sam Soon/My Name is Kim Sam Soon (it goes by two different names), and I had watched that drama as well. And in Sam Soon, Hyun Bin played a rich person. In A Millionaire's First Day, he was a millionaire. Uncanny?

My mother says that's pretty bad because it means that they run out of ideas for dramas and they have to combine ideas and use the same idea in a different way and so on.

On to some other news. I wore my costume to school the other day. The mask was very shiny and all, but it was uncomfortable to wear. It makes your face too warm, and it doesn't fit too well because my nose doesn't stick out enough to hold the mask up properly (Asian genetics are at fault, I guess?). Oh well. I'll just have to tie it around my head more tightly in the future to make sure it won't slip. But it might make me sweat and be uncomfortable.

I don't think I've ever really talked about the cross country team at my school, so I will now. They have some interesting shirts. Everyone has a white t-shirt saying the name of the school, and Cross Country (or X Country! I forget exactly) and there's that year's slogan on the back. I heard that it started out with something like "No Pain, No Gain" and it went on and on, and last year or the year before it was "Pain is a privilege". This year it's the best one yet. "Burn, bleed, and sweat" is the slogan. Since our school has a lot of good runners, usually the other schools' teams are behind us, so they end up reading what's on our shirts. So the folks coming up with slogans try to make it a little rougher every year. And the kids behind our team will be crying, "Waaah! We don't burn, bleed, and sweat! No wonder we're not winning!"

My PE teacher is eviler than he seems to be. I thought he was a mild, soft-spoken, patient sort of person. He's got a dark side. He was telling one of his students that he only will tell you once if he wants you to stop doing something (like misbehaving and not working hard) and after that he simply takes off points rather than saying anything. So your grade will suffer without you even knowing. Sneaky! D: I heard he used to be a math teacher. I wonder if that has any influence or not. I mean, my math teacher is pretty sneaky too, putting things in his tests that I haven't learned for a very long time.

Labels: a millionaire's first love, burn bleed and sweat, creativity, cross country, drama, hyun bin, ideas, korean, lee yeon hee, mask, my lovely sam soon, nose, one fine day, school sports, shirt, teacher

I see that people are as selfish as ever. They all want ice cream because it's free. I know this since I showed up around 5:30 pm yesterday at the school, because I heard there would be free ice cream. However, many students were already there because they'd gone to the Cougar Fest (the Kennedy kids stay after school to do activites like pony hopping, rock climbing, bungee jumping, hoop shooting, and other things. I heard there were even Wii games. Probably just Wii Sports, though, and you get that for free when you buy a Wii). I paled looking at the long line of students, and my dad and I made a hasty getaway. We ate some cookies and cream ice cream at home instead.

I wish the Nature Center had been unlocked. I would like to show my dad sometime since he likes gardening. He wanted me to put his name and "A husband, a father, and a gardener" on his gravestone. So I thought it'd be cool to give him a tour of our school's nature center, which is a garden of sorts that is sometimes used for scientific studies, especially in seventh grade (our classroom has a back door leading to the Nature Center). There's all sorts of nice and not-so-nice things like two ponds (one is broken and man-made. The other is...thriving. One time we had a pair of ducks land in the Nature Center. They might want to mate there), many plants (ginkgos are my favorite trees since their fan-shaped leaves are kind of pretty), and benches (sometimes we have fern plants there, or "plaster of Paris" to use to make molds of fossils o_O;; ). It's better than a stuffy classroom all day, anyhow.

I have been watching drama, a Korean one called One Fine Day. My mom checked it out from the library so I took a look at it. It started off in the city of Sydney so of cuorse I had to watch it, because I watch things that have my name in it (like Finding Nemo, a cool animated movie about a clownfish). Dramas are strange. There's lots of yelling, cheesy background music, etc. I'm too used to anime, which makes Korean seem foreign to me. But I think my mom and I know some words in Korean now.

Ching-jang-neh-yo (that's how you pronounce it, not how it's spelled XD) is boss or team manager?
Abuji - Father
Amani ("Ama" for short?) - Mother
Neh (how do you spell that) - Yes
Deh - Either "no" or "pardon?" depending?
Oppa - Brother (I was confused about this at first. A character is called Gun but his sister calls him Oppa)

I have changed the layout of the blog. It is now Koda Kumi themed. I found it on Blogskins.com which has some pretty cool skins. You have to hunt for them sometimes, though. I have trouble getting my playlist's HTML code to work here, so I have put a link to my playlist in the click away section, and instead put an Imeem song 30 second preview thing instead.

Labels: blog, blogskins, cougar fest, drama, ducks, finding nemo, gardening, ginkgo, ice cream, koda kumi, korean, language, nature center, one fine day, playlist, pond, school, sydney, theme

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