Black Friday

Today feels good.

I had eight hours of peaceful sleep. I shopped with my mom and brother, lost myself in crowds, listened to a saxophonist play Christmas music. I ate the Chinese kueh that my mother spent all morning cooking yesterday. I watched an old, tacky, but nevertheless entertaining Cantonese movie.

I am so lucky, so grateful, and so happy right now. =D

Do you know why I like nighttime? It's the quiet and the darkness. After a day of bright lights and noises and an over-stimulation of all five senses, I like to just curl up beneath my blankets and savor the blankness, the nothingness. My body slowly unclenches itself from a tension that arises just from going about my daily routine.

I read online today that the average preschool toddler watches thirty hours of television weekly. That statistic simply scares the daylights out of me! I wonder how many hours I spend in front of a television or computer screen (I bet knowing the answer would frighten me into spending less time in front of anything electronic).

But in the end, it's all about balance, right? I keep thinking about a peaceful lake and ice-crowned mountains somewhere far away, pure and untouched by man's "technology" (except running water and a functional toilet, which are altogether necessary!). I want to eat bread and ham in a wooden cabin, framed by green shrubs and honey-suckles and serenaded by birds. I want to run through a meadow and take deep breaths without worrying about car exhaust and other chemical pollutants. But this place exists only in my mind for now. =) It's okay-- everyone needs a secret place, if only in their imagination!

Tomorrow is the day of thanks and giving and family. =D

If I were a book, what would it be like? It would be a classic fairy tale, with a princess and a prince and an ivory castle and gardens covered with vines. Cliche and commonplace, perhaps, but I want to read all about the graceful swans swimming in the lake, the fire-breathing dragon that my prince battles, the ballroom dance at the end, beneath a bright canopy of stars.

As the temperature drops with each day, it hurts me to think about the homeless in Berkeley spending each cold night without shelter.

But at least the stars are free, right?

via lovemidori

The pastel colors and the simplicity of it all really speak to my heart.

It's like stepping into a children's book. =)

A secret place, just the wind and the swing and an overlarge sweater.

On Courage

"It is curious... curious that physical courage should be so common in this world, and moral courage so rare." - Mark Twain

My winter project: a quote book with the most inspiring, educational, and beautiful blurbs of wisdom I can find.

And books and artwork and music all day long. =)

Life is good!

Stars and Autumn Leaves

I feel like I can stare forever at fall folliage without ever tiring of those pretty crimson leaves.

And do the heavens draw closer because it's winter? I've been noticing that the stars are ever so much brighter and clearer, painting wonderful constellations against the dark skies. I love it so much that my heart aches.

I never want to live in a city, where the artificial glare and noise of human activity overwhelm the crystalline beauty of nature's own starry lights. =)

Carbon atoms

I am so amazed. Last week in a physics lecture, the professor showed us photographs of carbon atoms (real photos newly taken from the world's most advance microscope). And it was simply mind-boggling to think that such precise order and structure exist on a microscopic level! Makes me wonder sometimes about the sheer genuis behind creation and life, and the invisible bridge between tiny particles and the macroscopic world beyond my glass window.

Also, I had a good family gathering this Saturday with abundant food and lively conversation and an all-around satisfaction of seeing faces from my childhood. =D

Revisiting an old passion

Crisp autumn air, clean and cold. It's the air and the particular fragrance of grocery stores (such as Lucky) that remind me most acutely of my first American experiences. Everything I associated with the US was big and colorful and oh-so-modern, from the Trix cereal commercials to the delicious microwaveable corn-dogs to the large, clean shopping malls. I wondered at the variety and quality of toys advertised on TV. I was amazed by the portion sizes, the fountain-sized sodas, and piles of french fries oozing out hot grease, a sure recipe for heart clogs but yet so tempting at the moment.

Ten years ago, who knew things would work out this way, or where I would be today? I was such a kid, and all I thought about was finding the elusive frog in the garden's pond, reading my Archie comics, writing long and silly epics in my little notebooks. I find so little time to write these days, preferring instead to let my mind go numb as I surf the internet, exhausted after a day's schoolwork and testing. But writing even the simplest things brings me such bliss, you know? It's relaxing. Even now I feel my body grow calmer and my mind settle into a more peaceful state; I realize again why I have always had a passion for words and for capturing experiences onto paper, though it never seems quite as vibrant, or as certain, as the images and feelings tumbling around in my head.

Piggy and bear shaped dimsum buns! They are so adorable that I could never eat them, just hold them lovingly in my hand. I would gladly keep an entire zoo of these animal goodies, and I promise I wouldn't be tempted to eat them, nope nope nope!

Happy Thursday everybody!!