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Monday, September 26, 2011

Not to be a nerd or anything...

I decided to compile all the different ways I have been a nerd/geek/loser in the past...

I'm a ghost! And I'm delicious!
1) Baking nerd.
I love baking, and baking loves me. I create tasty treats from time to time, such as the ghostie cake I made for the Halloween Shabbat I celebrated with my loves last year. I believe it was funfetti cake with white frosting and chocolate chips for the eyes and mouth. I really wish I could quit school and open a bakery, because that would be amazing.  I haven't had much time or convenience to bake as of late, but I did make some apple pie bites for my friend Graham. They turned out pretty good, especially since I melted caramel into/onto them at the end. I have to keep in supplied in baked goods for teaching my photoshop and camera things, so I'll let you know what else I come up with!


Oh Platform 9 3/4, why won't you open for me?

2) Harry Potter nerd.
There are no words for how much I love Harry Potter. My parents gave me the first three books for Christmas when I was ten years old or so, and since then I've been hooked. I've been to midnight premieres for the past three movies, and the midnight book releases for the last two books and the Costco opening for the fourth book. I re-read the series again every summer. I didn't have time to dress up as a character (Cho Chang, probably) for any of the premieres but I do have a few HP paraphernalia, and spin-offs including 'Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them.' I have been diligently waiting for my Pottermore email, but I'm not so anxious anymore since the site will be open to the public soon anyways. I want to be magical =(

So true.

Oh, Asian Man.
How to be a Perfect Asian Kid
(from the first generation perspective)
1. Score a perfect 1600 on the SAT.
2. Play the violin or piano on the level of a concert performer.
3. Apply to and be accepted by 27 colleges.
4. Go to an Ivy League university and win enough scholarship money to pay for it.
5. Have four hobbies: studying, studying, violin/piano, and studying.
6. Love classical music and detest talking on the telephone.
7. Become a Westinghouse, Presidential and eventually a Rhodes Scholar.
8. Aspire to be a brain surgeon.
9. Marry an Asian-American doctor and have perfect, successful children (grandkids for ah-ma and ah-ba!).
10. Love to hear stories about your parents' childhood...especially the one about walking 20 miles to school without shoes.

Wow.

So, since the last time I've posted, I've seriously had no time to write out my blogs, edit and post. This is ridiculous. Since when has school been so hard? WOMP WOMP.

Not to be a nerd, but I've always been really good at school. Whether it was knowing when to work the system, or when to put my nose to the grinder (is that the right metaphor?), I've always been on top of my game and could succeed with ease. This semester, however, is barely four weeks old and is already kicking my butt. I don't know if it's because we have a new teacher, because I have major senioritis, because I work two part-time jobs on the side, because I'm taking five 400-level classes OR because of all those reasons, but something is seriously throwing my off my stride.

The Journalism department at my school hired a new teacher, Mr. Pablo C., to teach Multimedia Journalism from now on, I'm assuming. He's very educated and experienced, which is great, but also has extremely high expectations of us. I don't think anyone told him how shoddy our department has been in the past three years that I've attended the college. Either way, the majority of the students in my Multimedia Journalism workshop have not had experience with many of the programs and equipment we are supposed to be using for this class, and he doesn't necessarily teach us much about them either. This is a serious problem considering we are to turn in a story (writing/audio/photo/etc.) every Sunday, in a different format each time. We've also never really had this kind of rigorous schedule to abide by. In a way, this is really whipping us into shape as journalists, which is fantastic, but I don't particularly want to be a fully-fledged journalist when I graduate.

On the first day of class, Pablo goes through the roster and asks us to answer the general questions: where are you from? what are you studying? what experience do you have with the programs/equipment/industry? etc. However, he also asked 'Do you want to be a journalist?' to everyone in the class after they finished their spiel...except for me. I don't know if he just forgot, or if it seemed apparent in my spiel that I wanted to be a journalist? I feel that he expects a great deal from me, especially since I have a better mastery of the various programs that most of my classmates.

"Hi, I'm Sabina Cao. I'm a Journalism major with minors in Sociology and Marketing. I'm from Seattle. I have experience working with Adobe Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Garage Band, iMovie, Soundslides Pro, and a few more I can't think of. I know how to use the GY-100s, DSLR and point-and-shoot cameras, zoom recorders and a few others. I did an internship at a bi-lingual community newspaper in London, while I was there"


I'm kind of a badass, I know. I don't really want to be a journalist. I think my ideal job right now would be a travel photographer for a magazine. Or something with fashion. But definitely not the regular journalist job. Pablo seemed more interested in the fact that I worked at a Spanish-English newspaper, and the fact that I could conversationally speak Spanish (he's Argentinian). And no journalist question. I wonder what I could do to make him think I don't want that life, so that he won't expect as awesome things from me. My audio slide shows are well done, and I think have impressed him so far, which is good. It's not like I can't do this work. I just don't want to haha!


Besides the bane of my existence, aka that class, school hasn't been so bad. I just need to get back into it. And maybe not work so much so I actually have time to study and do homework. But I need to pay for things...like food...and rent...and pretty things...and books. I haven't read anything for fun in a while, and that seriously saddens me. The second day I was back in Ithaca, I began job hunting in Collegetown.

I could have gone back to my old job at Aeropostale, working as a sales associate, but it was too far away and the pay wasn't enough, so I looked for a waitress position that would allow me to get tips. At one point, I was employed at four places: Institutional Advancement Services @ I.C., Aeropostale (I'm with them on-call if they seriously need help - I felt so bad not going back), Hai Hong Chinese Restaurant and Mehak Indian Cuisine. Crazy, right? So I dropped Hai Hong because - and this is the hilarious part - my parents didn't want me working at a Chinese restaurant! I'm completely serious. They were worried that the restaurant was going to gyp me on my pay and whatnot. And my mom was overly-concerned that they would have me doing more than what my job description calls for. I was really puzzled over this - why would my parents not trust in our own people? I guess I've heard enough stories about Chinese people though, that I understand where they are coming from. It doesn't really matter anymore, I guess, since I already quit Hai Hong. Now my parents want me to quit Mehak and just focus on having a nice last semester, which is sweet, and I'm doing just that, but I've also picked up working as the coat check person at Level B. This will give me more time in the evenings to conduct interviews and do my work, so that's good. And I can only be schedule 2 to 3 times a week!

...Why do I do this to myself? Sigh.

I think I'll leave my personal life stuff for another post...
Ta-ta for now!
And ta-tas forever. ;P

I couldn't help myself but post this. I will forever be writing my column!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Dear Grandma,

My paternal grandmother is fairly upset with me. Since my sister just had her wedding this past weekend, all my family decides to pour into Seattle to celebrate. I love my family, don't get me wrong, and it has been years since I've seen the majority of them, but there are good reasons why I moved somewhere they aren't.

Anyways, as my out-of-town relatives are leaving my parents' home. I go to give everyone a hug. My grandma was out by the van already, so I go out to say goodbye. As I raise my arms for a hug, her eyes follow the hand I'm holding my keys in and backs away, asking what that [my keys] was in my hand and questioning what I was doing in general. In my surprise, I forget how to say "I wanted to hug you" in Cantonese, but my aunt comes to my rescue behind me and grandma and I awkwardly hug.

I walk away to my car, and my mom comes over asking if I'd heard what my grandma said. Roughly translated:

"You don't talk to me for three days and now you want to hug? Isn't it a bit late?"

.....

But of course, this was not when my mom or I was supposed to be within hearing distance.