My apartment rocked (not in a good way)!!!

More than ten years ago one night I was working late into the wee hours in front of my dorm room desk at the U of U. Then came a quick shake of the entire room. I jerked my head around and saw my roommate still sleeping soundly. The next day I asked him if he felt it and of course the answer was "no". Later it was confirmed as a real earthquake of a magnitude of about 3. That was my only experience with earthquakes.

Again tonight I was sitting in front of my desk watching some trashy Hong Kong TV shows. Then came the shakes. I thought it was my body's muscle spasms due to lack of sleep. It was first a kind of small geyser eruption type of movements followed by a couple more seconds of my desk shifting and even the house was rocking. It was short and abrupt but had it lasted longer I would have freaked and run out of the house. I just experienced mock quakes from an earthquake simulator at the Tech Museum in San Jose a few weeks ago with my fam and little did I know I would feel the real thing first hand originated from the San Jose area. It's a magnitude 5.6!!!

No-no teachers, weightwatchers, and money matters...

For some reason, thoughts about my teaching filled my mind this morning (noon, or afternoon to be exact) when I woke up. Students from my "dream classes" out of the many I've taught came to mind: one from my Cantonese class, one my community English class for TESOL practicum, one English grammar class at the ELC, and my current but former team's Chinese class. I already "miss" these students of my former team even though I'm still teaching them. It's a pleasant surprise to see them thrive, especially the ones who everyone including themselves thought were low achievers. The class leader who was so behind on everything before is much more relaxed now and shocked the class today by answering a rather complicated question. I felt like I was prompted to ask him and it was funny to see the other students' jaws drop when he answered it perfectly. I have such a good rapport with these wonderful classes that working with them is more fun than work. And the best compliment I get from these students would be "Time flies!" which means the class is enjoyable. I became very reflective of my teaching these days trying to look at teaching from the students' perspectives. I strive to avoid things I dislike about my own teachers. I've learned from the few great teachers I've had (my thesis chair, my English TA boss, my first Japanese, Spanish, and French teachers, and many of my dance teachers) that they never patronize me or talk in a condescending tone which unfortunately many other of my teachers or current fellow teachers do. I actually looked forward to the classes with teachers I liked. I hate it when teachers or people talk to me like I'm a dumb-dumb. I think that's the first no-no rule for me.
I'm pleased to report that I've lost six pounds over the past month and many might find it surprising that I do have a bit of a weight problem. The thing is that it does not quite show but on my face and the scale only. I used to only pay more attention to what I eat. But to lose weight is more a simple math problem. One needs to lose more than the intake. So my workout and swimming do pay off in spite of my occasional indulgence in soda and chips! And another thing is I sometimes park further from where I need to be on purpose. It's partly because I dislike parallel parking and it is a good excuse for me to walk a bit more. People think I am weird when they ride with me that I park so far away from the perfect parking spot. :)
The last thing or question I want to bring up is why things keep popping up every time I think I can have a little extra money or savings? Like car breakdown or some government documentation fees or insurance down payment and stuff. Just like today I got called by this stupid new insurance company that I thought I saved money on but was told they had to raise the premium because of miscalculations. So I had to call my old insurer to reinstate my policy but it requires a down payment. What a hassle (say the last word fast and you would know what word I REALLY meant to say ;p)! The lesson learned is NEVER jump into any commitment where money is involved!

HP Quote...

Quote of the day: It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. ~Albus Dumbledore

P.S. Yes, I'm finally reading Harry Potter... better late than never!!! ;p

Mighty Mormons Marie and Mitt

I hate to use such a tacky title, but this is really how I feel about these two. They both appear on CNN.com today for different reasons. One took a fall.While the other confused "Obama" with "Osama".I just read a feature story of Romney on Newsweek and I think he is a decent candidate but with a slim chance winning the election. Nevertheless, these two are real so-called "troopers" (referring to Osmond in DWTS). These are the high-profile people who practice their religion with their actions, not with their lips. They even shy away from mentioning their beliefs when it is not necessary. It is not because of shame but actions speak a lot louder than words. I think often times people who profess they belong to such and such religion are actually doing a disservice to whatever or whoever they believe in because their actions do not quite match what they preach. This applies to any religion (or the lack thereof).

Anyways, I saw one of the coolest things in life this past weekend. As a former biology major I always love animals of most kinds, especially the ones in the ocean. Seeing humpback whales (not one, but three!!!), dolphins, otters, sea lions swimming wild and free in the ocean totally made all the dizziness, freeze, starvation, and wait worthwhile and made me appreciate life even more.Not much can be seen here but underneath the waves in the middle actually are three whales swimming. I was too cold and dizzy to take the snapshot at the right moment...I did see something like this though...

Vacation... or not...

For a brief moment a couple nights ago I felt exactly like that salmon that all the effort and planning for my vacation had come to a tragic end. My grandma's passing away totally changed our plans unexpectedly. Fortunately with people's help my family was able to scramble air tickets at the last minute so that my mom can attend the funeral. It means the sudden end of my vacation but well, that's life. My time with fam was short but fun and beautiful. I'm already thinking ahead for the next one!!!

Treasures...

After all the moves and changes at work, I've been very moody these days but I never showed it (I'm professional!:p) that I don't think my students or colleagues could tell. I'm glad my students took the news well nevertheless.

These "treasures" found in YouTube totally helped in lightening things up for me...
I can't believe my eyes as I found this show because I was in the audience at the time and I was in awe... And Anita and Leslie have both "moved on"...

Muppets "live"!!! I'm luvin' it!!!

More, but Not Merrier

The article above pretty much affirmed and elaborated in a nice way what I said and believe about the virtual social network online. Very well put.

Yesterday was pretty much spent in Silicon Valley / San Jose. The Wincestor House was... weird, as advertised. And we accidentally discovered a very hip and upscale shopping area known as Santana Row, which is comparable to Beverly Hills.I took this picture sitting on a really comfy couch in the middle of the road!

And I finally saw wild otters in the ocean today! Not one but three!!!

Thought of the day: If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

Mixed...

This is quite laughable but it does ring true to how I felt for the past week at work. After all the frustrating waiting, negotiating, delaying, discussing, promoting, demoting, gossipping, all the way up to today's eventual moving of my office, all I can say is it's rather disappointing what has happened at work and I really despise bureaucracy and sticking to the norms for no reason. At one point I was so angry to the changes that I wanted to quit and I felt so underappreciated for all the things I have done. This is not the first time things have gone this way in my life. To make things worse, I was really disappoionted that none of the students from the graduating class got to talk to me or even say bye yesterday despite my taking time off to attend their graduation ceremony. I can't really blame anyone as I had to leave early because of class but I thought I could at least talk to a few of them. Oh well, everyone has to move on, I guess. I'm fine now but I hope history won't repeat as I will be sort of leaving another group of students that I even like better starting next week.

I'm not in desperate despair though. I can't be happier hanging out with my family now that I get to eat a lot better, sleep a lot more, and show my family around whenever I get off work. My work schedule these days have been very cooperative and sort of flexible as my boss is very understanding that she allows me to maximize my time spent on my family's visit. I can't wait to travel in 10 days! And I will be watching Dancing with the Stars live!!!