dirty hypocrite

Today's home game against Andrew Hill (we won, 10-5) would have been really fun if it hadn't been for one thing. Two, actually. Two of the assistant coaches (well, I'm only sure that one of them is the assistant coach, the other might have been his friend or something) from Silver Creek came to our game today.

I was watching Jessica's and Michelle's game when I noticed two guys wearing red standing a couple of yards from me. I thought, hmm.. these guys look kind of familiar. Where have I seen them before?

Then I was like, OH MY GOD, SILVER CREEK. The guy who must have a stick up his butt because he's so anal about rules is here. We can't kick them out even if we wanted to (and yes, we wanted to) because after all, the game is a public event. Spectators can come in and watch if they want. But they did more than spectate...details later. Apparently Silver Creek had a game with Indy today and lost 5-10 (hah), so the assistant coaches must have decided to come over to Piedmont and spy on spectate our game with Andrew Hill.

I suspect that the mean assistant coach (Red Jacket) looks down on me and Alex (me, especially) because we're in college, almost fresh out of high school. Dude, it's not like we can help our ages; would he rather have Alan here? Oh, actually, he probably would prefer Alan.. considering they're so much alike. 1) condescending w/ younger people 2) anal about rules 3) no respect for the other team 4) bad sportsmanship.

Want examples?

I was watching Camille and Mariah when Alex calls me over. Andrew Hill had called for a service judge for the mix#1 game, so he asks me to do it. I'm kind of unwilling because I've never done service judge before, but...okay, who else would do it, you know? As I get a chair and clipboard from Alex, Red Jacket comes over and asks me if I "know the rules for service." Um, I'm pretty sure I do know the rules, dude. Well, apparently I don't, because as I sit down in the chair and ready the clipboard (I've seen the Indy coach doing service judge for one of my games before, so I think I know what to do), I see Mary and Trung looking expectantly at me. I tell them to tuck in their shirts, forgetting that they've probably never had a service judge before. Okay, then Red Jacket comes over and tells me exasperatedly, "You've got to explain the rules to them." He, the assistant coach for Silver Creek, strides onto the court and proceeds to tell them to tuck in their shirts, faults, etc., while I stare at him in disbelief.

I might be overreacting, but I think he completely stepped out of line. He's allowed to be in the gym because it's a public event and spectators are allowed, but I don't think spectators can take it upon themselves to go onto the courts and did what Red Jacket just did. I'm actually shocked that Red Jacket would overlook this, seeing as he's so anal about rules and guidelines (he was the one who tapped his watch and yelled at me+aaron when we apparently went over the 90-second coaching session between the first set and the second of Chris's and Angela's game at Silver Creek). It would have been much more respectful (and much better sportsmanship) of him to have given me a short explanation of what I was to tell them, and then let me explain to them, instead of completely undermining me, since I'm the assistant coach for the HOME team. I mean, I know that the Silver Creek coach (Red Jacket is the assistant) is the chair for the whole MHAL league, but I really don't think Red Jacket should feel privileged enough to take things into his own hands.

This guy needs a good swift kick in the ...

[did I say anything? *whistles*]

After the game, I brought the chair and clipboard back to Sarah and we sat there and complained at length about the two Silver Creek assistants there. Right before Samuel and Aaron went to third set, we saw their two Andrew Hill opponents getting water a couple of yards from our table. Red Jacket strode over to them and began giving them advice in their game against Samuel and Aaron ("You should hit to blahblahblah"... I heard him, so you can't say that he was merely cheering them on).

Hey man, I didn't know spectators could give advice to players, even if they happen to be an assistant coach for another school. I didn't know coaches could give advice to players who are not even on the team for which they coach, even if the said coach happens to be connected to the chair of the entire badminton league. Watching Red Jacket conferring with the Andrew Hill coach... I felt like they both wanted to bring the Piedmont team down. I'm not going to make any claims that can possibly be used against me. This is just the feeling I took from this scene.

Cool! Hey, does that mean I can come to Silver Creek's home games now and help coach the players of the away team? not that I'd want to... just saying, as obviously Red Jacket would say it's okay. It might not be against the rules, but that is extremely bad sportsmanship. Red Jacket was completely belittling to me and Alex and the fact that he took advantage of the loopholes in the rules (which he inflicts upon others, yet bends for his own benefit) shows that he has extremely poor sportsmanship. I hope he understands this, though I really don't expect him to.

p.s. The fact that he graduated from Andrew Hill and helps coach them from time to time does give him incentive to help out the Andrew Hill players... but he forgoes his own careful administration of the rules. Only the coaches and captains from each team can coach their players. Note: FROM EACH TEAM. Red Jacket is neither the coach/captain from Andrew Hill nor Piedmont. He is the official assistant coach for Silver Creek. I would think that he would remember this rule because he's so anal about having only coaches/captains, not players, coach in other games.

plastic beer cups

Plastic beer cups are so incredibly tacky.

Now that my friends and I are in college, I'm seeing more and more of them attend parties where there's beer and alcohol and red beer cups. It's so trashy. I mean, I'll be on Facebook and they'll have uploaded party pictures of them or something, and there're a whole line of beer cups all behind them and cans of beer strewn around, or stacked up. Are these really the people I knew in high school? The ones that I gossiped with in high school about people drinking and doing drugs and getting suspended/expelled... and now they're doing the same thing, minus the getting expelled part? It's like, Oh, I'm in college and now I must go along with my college buddies and start drinking. I mean, no offense meant, but I find that so incredibly lame and juvenile. I know people who don't WANT to drink at first, but their friends "are all doing it" so they feel that they must, in order not to look like they're "nerds" or "wusses."

LAME.

Grow a freaking set and be firm on what you want and what you don't. It's your own body; it's your own mind. Be proud of them and don't let other people undermine you just because they want you to get wasted too, or do other stupid things.

Okay, yes, I'll admit it. I'm a prude. I can't tolerate (underage) drinking, smoking, drugs, premarriage sex, extreme profanity, etc. I don't care. Call me whatever you want; this is my stance. I find it ridiculous how people my age will succumb to marijuana and drinking parties just because their friends do.

Whenever I hear that one of my friends was drinking, or I see a drunken picture of them at a classic plasticredbeercups party, I can't help but feel a twinge of disrespect for them, like a "WHAT in the world are you thinking? Are you the same person I used to know, or just following the crowd?"

In elementary school, everybody was taught to be "Drug/alcohol/whatever free, that's me!" I remember when my second grade (or third? or fourth? I forgot) class was scheduled to do a clean-up of the playground area, Carole and I found a cigarette butt in the tanbark. We ran to our teacher and pointed it out, because we thought it was a crazy-dangerous thing- someone was smoking on the playground! Then there were all those times we tied red ribbons to the fence to symbolize that we were drug-free. Crazy how much of a contrast our mindsets were, compared to now, isn't it?

/rant

pictures from march

^ out to lunch with ricky two weeks ago at chili's... his plate

^ mine. pasta as usual. lol. yummy bread

^ my dirty art area... lol. notice my old asignments strewn on the floor

^ AH! my new printer! granted it's the old printer, but this is mine now :D

^ beautiful printer!

^ my left arm. shot for herpes/hpv :(

^ my other arm. shots for meningoccal and some other thing :(

skipped class :(

heh heh heh. after Color Theory, I went to the student union today and read the required passage for Creative Writing. I reread that and then read another passage, which was pretty interesting. We were going to be quizzed on the required passage, so I wanted to be able to remember it.

..but I accidentally fell asleep at 11:30. At 11:40, I woke up and checked the time, and decided to sleep just ten more minutes so I could make it in time for class at noon.

BUT...

I woke up feeling kind of weird, and checked the time. IT WAS 12:30 T____T and I'd surely missed the quiz. ddaaaaanngggit!!! so I gave up and went back to sleep. heh. My armchair thing was sooo comfortable. The arms are on the same level as the back of the seat, so it's so easy to just tuck your head into the inner corner of the back of the seat and fall asleep. I woke up again at 1, then 1:30, then 2:30. Finally I got up .. hehehehehhehehe.

dangit. I don't want a bad grade in English :(

the deteriorating team

People are dropping out of badminton like crazy. When I got to the practice, I was unpleasantly surprised by the small amount of people in the gym. Okay, there are a few people who have excused absences... but the team is seriously teeny. This is not good. The people who have quit are SENIORS, and high-lvled varsity players. What are they thinking... tsk tsk tsk. They can't take a few running practices? This is making me mad thinking about it. There are people who would give anything to be on the team, yet they got cut. Everyone who got on the team took up a spot on the 40-person team, pushing out someone else who might have wanted that spot. Now those seniors are just throwing away their positions, after being with the team for their past three years in high school. They're also letting down their teammates. The seniors who quit played in varsity doubles positions... the people who are affected most are their own partners. Thus, everyone has to be switched around and moved up.

I mean, I would understand if badminton were making their grades slip... but their reason for leaving is because they think they run too much in practice. Oh come on. This is the preseason and we're making people get in shape. They ran a whole month for TRYOUTS alone, and they quit now. What a waste. Oh well...it's their decision.

anyway.

Today I trained the mixed girls.. there were only three of them, so it was rather easy. I went through serving, dropping, killing, driving, etc. with them. It was really kind of fun. The only thingis that I wish I had more time with them-- I had to rush through everything, and I noticed that they needed more practice with the hitting, yet we had to move on with the new drill things. Hopefully next week we will be able to work with the doubles. I have a couple of drills in mind for the doubles people. The first game is coming up pretty quickly...

on the other hand. I love that it's still bright at 6pm :) love it.

7 pounds.

So this whole week I've only attended five classes. I went to classes on Monday and Tuesday, but both days I went straight home and slept the whole day+night+morning. hehehe.

Well...unbeknownst to me, I embarked on a weeklong crash diet while i had flu+pharyngitis (why do I always have throat infections...?). A half bowl of rice porridge and a few slices of fruit a day... man, I went on the mother of crash diets :D As a result...

I lost 7 pounds O___O!!!!

7!!!!

seven!!!!

sept!!!

siete!!!!!

hehehehee. :D I can't say that I'm very proud, because technically I didn't force myself to eat less. That bit of food I stomached everyday this past week was the maximum I could eat, because otherwise I'd start feeling nauseous. Plus, I was lying around in bed much of the week, so part of that 7 pounds must also be muscle weight. Dang.

Well, I must have also lost a bit of fat as well, because I can comfortably fit into my old jeans now :D That makes me happiest.

I must say, being skinnier made me change my tastes. I mean, today I had the usual milk tea at Quickly, but the medium size was a little bit too much for me (I used to order a large and go through it pretty fast). Plus, the drink was SO. FREAKING. SWEET. I nearly gagged on the amount of sugar ... which is definitely a first. Plus, I can't go through the Quickly's fried chicken without feeling nauseous from all the oil they saturate the chicken in. Another thing is that my meal portion size has significantly decreased. Like, at dinner I would partake of my usual portion size of rice+food+etc., but I'd discover that I can't finish it all like I used to. Yay for smaller stomach sizes :D

Of course, losing 7 pounds in a week is NOT recommended. This is a very dangerous and unhealthy way to lose weight--by embarking on the mother of crash diets--so I totally would not recommend for anyone else to do the same. Oh yes, and DISCLAIMER for anyone who might jump on my back: I am perfectly happy with my weight now and I'm not going to try to lower it any more. In fact, I'm going to try to gain it back--not with fat, but with muscle. :P

Thank you illness, for this unexpected gift.

It's 6:30 and I just hauled myself out of bed. This is the latest I've ever gotten up...ever. haha. Well, I tried getting myself out at 4:30 and 6... but I felt so nauseous that I just ran back to bed and lay there, and immediately felt much better. I still feel a little nauseous now, but as long as I don't move my head a lot, it's not too bad.

So after applying an icepack to my forehead and decreasing the amount of blankets on me, my mom stuck a thermometer in my mouth. Turns out I had a 104 fever, but she thinks that if she hadn't put on the icepack and whatnot, it would have been 105 or something. I hope my brain didn't get cooked too badly...lol.

I'm just worried about being able to finish my homework in time for tomorrow. My mom's off to Walgreen's to pick up a photo I need for a color assignment. and thanks to daylight savings time, a whole hour is lost.

the flu

So yesterday night I couldn't stop shivering and going to the bathroom. lol. I drank a whole thermos of jasmine tea and a bottle of water. Then when I went to bed, I felt like someone had stuck my head into an oven. I removed my scarf, which helped a little. I kept having some recurring dream about stairways and waking up periodically, which really got annoying.

ASPIRIN IS MY SAVIOR.

I took two aspirins at 11am, which didn't seem to alleviate the symptoms at all. I had to wipe my face with a cold+wet Hello Kitty washcloth. Then at noon, I was miraculously healed. Ah! Lovely! I love aspirin.

Today I went to Tommy Hilfiger to pick up my last paycheck. I thought it was $30, but turns out it was $160. lol. Awesome. When I went there, it was supposed to be crowded because it's Saturday... but there were only like three people in there besides Marvie and Thuy. Geez. Well, I was suddenly reminded of the time when Jessica Luc and I were standing by the cash registers (it was during the holiday season and near the end of the night, so it was decently busy). We were hugging about something...lol..I can't remember why. Well, unbeknownst to us, we were standing in front of the security cameras. Suddenly Lawrence's (assistant manager) voice crackled over our walkie talkies, saying "Jessica and Jessica, stop hugging!" lol. it was so sad.

playing with my camera

^ i grated off some skin from washing the dishes...

^lol. this is from flipping open the hairdryer and catching my skin between the joints

^ so pretty, yet these flowers are so short-lived

^ crows hanging out on our roof..

^ these look like dragonflies.

^ what are these called?

^ yeah..i cheated and used photoshop

^lol... sean's power rangers lunch bag

^ view from the 5th floor of the library

^ gross brassy hair

^ i dyed it over -_- now no more brass.

a cold, rainy week

I've been having an absolutely horrible week and it's only Tuesday. I can only hope that the rest of the week will perk up, but it's just hope.

It is really hard trying to please everyone. I just can't do it, even though I want to. It gets pretty darn stressful, especially when one of them is a very influential person...yes, my mom. When she gets angry, she likes to make derogative assumptions and comparisons. The more they sting, the better. Soon they get into unforgivable territory--the insults that really stick, the ones that really hamper your self-esteem and personal wellbeing. I keep a passive, neutral expression on my face. She only wants a reaction, but she's not going to get it. It's just that this week, I've been receiving a constant barrage of negativity, not only from my mom.

He and I are having problems, but I don't know if we both have the strength to overcome them.

I can't please everyone.

I like to immerse myself in the beauty of soft piano music. Music doesn't hurt. I would like to fix our old, sagging piano so I can actually play something nice. I am currently working on a beautiful song by Yiruma, which is called River Flows in You. I thought it would be hard but it's very flowing and repetitive, so I'm getting it down.

Today I got a hot tapioca milk tea from Quickly. The guy spent a while trying to put on the cap, and then came over and told me to be careful because the cap was falling off. I picked up the cup and the lid popped off. Oh well...they must be out of the right size of lids for a large cup. I told the guy it was okay, and left. On the way to the bus, my bag slipped from my shoulders, jolting my hand that was clutching the cup. The lid flew off and hot liquid spewed over my fingers. I refused to lose my milk tea, however, and quickly laid down my umbrella and burning cup onto the ground. I transferred the milk tea to my thermos. Lovely. The burned fingers were worth saving my delicious milk tea, and the pearls were yummy as always.

It's been a very trying week, but I've got some pictures from last week to share.

...nvm. blogger uploader isn't working.

Well, my sociology class is always a bit of a laugh...especially last Thursday's session and today's. Last Thursday the prof didn't show up at all, and today we were gathered in the classroom for today's session. The class is supposed to start at 12:00pm. At 12:15, another professor rushes in and announces to us all that our professor is stuck in traffic 10 miles up on 680, and requests another 15 minutes (we are supposed to wait a max.of 15 minutes for a prof who has a doctoral degree) to get here. He mutters something about putting on some cartoons for us, and exits the room. About two minutes later, the TA strolls in and says that the prof "just woke up and wants to tell you guys that he's not coming." We were all like...what????? lol. craziness.