The Zoo and the New York City Experience

It's not the skyscrapers or high-profile stores that make up New York City. It's the people. New York City is a giant zoo and all the people within are creatures on display. Buildings don't make a city. The people do in the same sense that animals are the heart of a zoo, not the cages.

It was my first night back in New York City. After 5-6 hours on the bus from Syracuse, I had to take the subway back home. This is when you know you're a New Yorker. When you're at the turnstile ready to swipe and you hear something in the far distance that puts your brain on high alert. The approaching sounds of a train. Judging by how far you estimate the sound to be coming from, you can pinpoint which train is coming. And luckily for me, it was the downtown E train. The one I needed to take. I made a dash for the train with a middle aged man in a suit frantically making a run for it behind me. Without knowing, both of us ended up on the handicap ramp which spirals towards the platform ten times. Imagine running down a ramp that's shaped like a square maze. Both of us are making sharp turns at every corner and running down the straight path until the next corner. I reach the door first and held it open for him. We slumped down onto the seats, look at each other, and let loose a sigh of relief and chuckle at our run. As soon as the train started moving and our laughters subsided, we both instantly took a whiff of the air. A putrid smell swirled around our noses. It could be the man at the other end of the car. It could have been someone who already got off. But both of us sheltered our noses within our arms. Welcome to New York City.

There's also your fair share of bus drivers. You have the ones who see you running down the street trying to catch the bus and graciously stop and hold the door open for you. You have the ones who curse out the man who came out of his car and accused the bus driver of bumping him in the back. You have the ones who let you on for free when they come late. You have the ones who don't care whatsoever and blame their tardiness on traffic.

There are also the people who delight themselves to your misfortunes. An elderly man sat next to me on the bus today. We both got on at the first stop. Seeing as I had a long trip ahead of me, I nodded off and took my usual nap on the bus. The bus starts to come to a halt as I'm about to wake up. The elderly man is still on the bus and tells me, "This is the last stop" with a grin on his face. Cool. I live two blocks away from the last stop. I tell him, "I know" and his grin quickly fades away and he turns his attention back to whatever he was doing.

Don't get me wrong. Like bus drivers, you have your wide variety. Not everyone is out to see you suffer. There was this time in high school when I fell asleep on the train (I sleep a lot on public transportation) to school. I went to school in the Bronx. To many people, you'd find that to be weird. The only Asian to be heading alone to the Bronx. As I was snoozing, a man across from me tapped me on the leg as we reached the end of Manhattan. He asked me if I missed my stop. I said no and went back to sleep. He tapped me again as we reached the first stop in the Bronx. He asked if I missed my stop again. I said no and went back to sleep. This happened two more times until I figured it out and told him I go to school in the Bronx. At least he was looking out for me.

I could go on about the people you encounter in New York City. But there's too many people. Can you fit a description of every animal you find in a zoo in one blog post?

Sleep and Chocolate Cakes

You know what's the worst? Ok, maybe not the "worst" thing possible, but it's still pretty bad. Sleep paralysis. That thing when you're dreaming but you're eyes are wide open surveying your room. Your body can't move. You see and hear things. Utterly creepy.

This has happened to me twice in my life. Both times in college.

The first time, I thought I was going to die. I never experienced it before nor have I ever heard of it. It was just another night during my freshman year. Hopped into bed and fell asleep like a baby. In the middle of night, my eyes opened. I remember I was facing the wall, which was all I could see. My body felt numb and cold. I tried to move but I couldn't. That's when my body started going into panic attack. You know how your leg feels when you lean or sleep on it too long? Yeah, that's what my entire body started to feel like. I kept praying to God to not let me die just yet. I had so much more in life I wanted to go through. Who wants to spend their entire life in school? I would go into more vivid details, but that's as much as I can remember.

The second time just happened two days ago. It felt like I just got into bed, but apparently I was already asleep for two hours. My body felt like a constant current of electricity was flowing through. I tried to move, but once again could not. I saw this chocolate cake. Yes, a chocolate cake. Then this paper plate would appear right next to it and scrape off the side of the cake. Every time it did that, it sounded like nails scratching a blackboard. The sound would get louder and louder. Then it would stop for 5 seconds. The plate would start scraping again and the torture began once more. Every time the sound was at it's highest pitch, my lungs would feel like it stopped working. I remember trying to gasp for air. I looked over at the curtain in my room and saw the silhouette of an old lady hunched over. After a few rounds of the scraping and staring at the old lady, I finally wrenched my arm off my body and I could move again. I sat up in cold sweat, but knew this time I wasn't going to die.

What did I learn from my most recent sleep paralysis attack? Don't go to sleep hungry.

Fun and Maturity

I should be sleeping, but my eyes won't close. Perhaps a drawback from napping earlier. Hopefully by the time I finish this post, I'll be tired enough to knock out until my 9:30 AM class.

I think I'll grow up to be the fun dad/uncle. I love kids. Well, not so much once their age hits a double digit number. Wow, I sound like a pedophile don't I? I've worked as a teacher's assistance for half of the summers I spent in high school. Both times, the kids voted me their favorite TA.

But a friend told me he thinks I'll grow up to be more serious. I shudder thinking about being the stern adult. I've always told myself that I'd never be like that. But, only time will tell how I'll progress. I adamantly wish to believe that I will remain the carefree guy racing friends to the train station after school. But, deep inside...I know I've changed.

I don't waltz around trying to put a smile on everyone's face anymore. I don't crack jokes left and right anymore. I don't do stupid things just so everyone can look back at it and laugh as much anymore.

When did I start to become such a bore? I looked through my old blog and stumbled upon a quote I came up with a while back.

I'm stupid. I'm immature. I'm reckless. But that's what makes me keep trying to be a better person.

In the process of becoming a better person, I resolved to shed my immaturity. I can see I've achieved some levels of maturity since I made this quote in my senior year of high school. I remember I was tired of being seen as the clown. I was tired of being a stupid little kid.

I was gonna make a list of pet peeves and tie it into what I was saying, but it didn't flow well. Pet peeve list will be on the list of things to blog about.

Chivalry and Independent Women

Let me say this now. Chivalry is not dead.

It's not that all guys are forgetting to be prince charming. Sure you may have your pick of guys who do not hold the door open for the ladies or pull their chairs out for them. But trust me when I say this. Guys are normally all for being chivalrous to girls, especially if that guy has an interest in you.

Chivalry didn't die. It's being stuffed in a bag and being tossed aside as old-school. Girls these days don't want to be a liability. They want equal treatment. Again, I can't say all girls. I know so many girls who would hop at the first chance to pay for their own bill. If a guy is willing to pay for your bill, why shoot him down? This is why girls think chivalry is dying. You girl will not give us that chance. My sister once asked me whether she should split the bill or let the guy pay when she went on her first date with her first boyfriend. That kind of mentality is what's putting chivalry in the backseat.

Let the guy treat you to the first dinner. Let him pay for your movie ticket. As you two progress through your relationship, you can work out who pays for that date. But the guys want to be that manly man. Don't laugh at our pride and pay your half of the bill. If we insist, just be grateful and enjoy yourself.

Dream Line and Clay Weekends

On behalf of the chocolates and flowers being passed around today, here's a video from my favorite WongFuProduction's series, The One Days: HK.

This was the first weekend I spent actually engaging myself in work. I know. I sound like a lazy college student. Well, I am. In the year and a half I have been at Syracuse, I have never spent a weekend doing homework. Most times, I spend the Sunday night/Monday morning doing last minute work/procrastination. This was a first for me. I spent the entire afternoon until around 7 PM on both Saturday and Sunday cooped up in a classroom for my ceramics class. That's about ten hours of my weekend not napping.

My entire Saturday consisted of making these two pots. I finished the smaller one (about 7 inches tall) that day and added about 4 inches to the larger one).

The large one in the background turned out to be a massive failure. I had no idea what I was doing. Glad to say, however, that I learned from the mistakes in the big one to make the smaller one a lot better.

I spent Sunday afternoon right after church rushing through the last two of my 6 inch coil pots. I narrowly finished it in time before I had to go attend to other plans at 8.

I really like this one. You can obviously see where I got lazy. The top is inspired by a spile. That and it took like a minute to make. It tacked on two inches that would have taken much more time to add on using clay coils.

Inspired by The Giving Tree. I was too pressed for time to add leaves, so I guess this is when the tree had nothing left to give to the boy.

Relationships and the Internet Age

It took an article written by Ashton Kutcher to make me realize it. Well, I guess I've always known it, but it's never been brought to my attention like it has now.

Romance is dying. Ok, let's not jump to extremes now. Not dying, but changing.

I've been raised in a society thinking that asking girls out online or over the phone is cowardly. It's been implanted into my mind that any other way besides face-to-face in real time is unacceptable. We live in the age of Facebook and Twitter now. All means of communications basically run through them.

She said yes.

This goes against everything that society has drilled into my brain. The comments following the picture were all in favor of this calling it "adorable" and "beautiful". I'm sitting here thinking "Does this actually work?"

Do you realize how easy a guy's life would be if all hardships in starting a relationship worked all the time through the internet? All those hours, days, maybe even weeks thinking of how to ask a girl out would vanish. All those lines we run through our heads the moments leading up to the actual asking out of vanish. All those heart-beating seconds that seem like an eternity waiting for the girl's response as you awkwardly look at her vanish. Instead, you type a few clever lines and sit in your seat as your stare at your computer screen in anxiety.

Flirting has now been replaced by e-flirting. Include that happy face at the end of a text. Play the right words in the right order. E-flirting makes the world take notice. Anyone can see on their news feed those playful, cute remarks two people exchange. But flirting in real life cannot truly be replaced. The whole world isn't there to take notice. It's more intimate. Those awkward glances at each other. Only the two people involved truly take note of it. Sure there could be a few people around who notices the behavior, but it's not flaunted on one's news feed for all to see.

I refuse to believe in these relationships forming over the internet. There's no real hard work put into it the way doing it face-to-face takes. Of course, I'm no expert in relationships. But I suppose I can put in my two cents.

Haha and Internet Talk

"Haha" has become the new "lol".

There's always those times you just use the term "lol" to fill in space in an online conversation. They don't mean anything. It used to mean "laugh out loud", but now it's just there like a punctuation mark. Actually, scratch that. Punctuation marks serve a purpose. Well, now that I think of it, "lol" can be used to lighten the mood of a message.

"Sorry I ate the last Hot Pocket in the fridge lol"

The sentence can function properly and deliver the same message without the "lol'. I know it's not only me who thinks this way. I had talks about this with a few people. Here's how my instant messaging lingo works:

"haha" is when something makes me smile.

"LOL" is when something makes me chuckle.

"HAHA!" is when something makes me laugh.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" is when something makes me gasp for air.

"lol" is when I have nothing else to say.

But, now I've been seeing "haha" in sentences when it should be "lol" in that context.

"Sorry I just ate the last Hot Pocket in the fridge haha."

I know I'm overreacting, but I actually use "haha" when something is amusing. Not to fill in space. That has been "lol"'s designated role.

I promise to post up something better next time. I wouldn't call this a good post, but just something I wanted to express on my blog.