I have made a determination and I want to share that determination since I believe that it is the sort of thing that will radically change my life and undoubtedly all of yours. Today, I declare that I am giving up and refusing disempowering beliefs, practices and people. I choose to spend most of my life thinking about the positive side of things and the negative things I will address only in an effort to find a solution. I choose to live my life with vim and vigor, the pursuit of my dreams driving my life. I will become what I imagine myself becoming: no exceptions.

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When I was young, I got a sticker from my dentist. I thought it was cute, and with no more thought than a tattoo gained in a drunken frenzy, I slapped it on my dresser. A couple of years later, I tried to pull it off, but when I ripped it off it left this fuzzy residue and a ton of stickiness. It was uglier than the sticker was. I think this situation happens to a lot of us. You can pull those stickers off completely and without sticky residue. This is how:

1.) Get a firm grip on a good corner: This is a very important step. Most of the time you get four tries, it is very important to remember that you have other corners. If you have a good nail, work you nail under the corner. If you have just clipped you nails, pick at it, only bringing up a small bit of it at a time. If it ever starts to rip (regardless of your method), try to work the skin of you thumb from the sticky side underneath the divided portion.

2.) Work Slowly: Even if it looks like its going well, rushing it is probably the surest way to ruin a sticker and you object. Its just like a band-aid, except instead of trying to reduce the pain, we are trying to keep from pulling out the hairs.

3.) Don't use products: Now, hopefully the steps above will get your sticker off, but if they don't, changes are you still want to get the residue off. There are a lot of products on the market to get rid of sticky residue. Don't use them! All you end up with is getting more junk on whatever your trying to get the residue off of. If you are working with a book, use water on glossy paperbacks and hardbacks. If you have a book with a textured surface, rub your fingers over the sticky area. The leftover pieces of sticker will roll up and attach to you fingers. If you are doing something larger or stickier, then you might want to consider WD-40. Do not put this on anything that you cannot wash with soap and water.

4.) A clean and partial sticker: If you rip off a sticker and the entire picture comes off, but not the sticking backing, you might think that the war is over. It isn't. The same principle applies to this 1-ply sticker as it did when it had the sticker on it. Do try again, using steps one and two. Pay very close attention to step two as the thinner sticker will be more likely to break up into pieces. Go very slowly and make sure that all sides are pulling up. If they aren't, run your finger or a metal nail file underneath it to losen up the edges.

And THAT is how you get a sticker off! So, the next time you want to pull of a sticker, remember, get a hold of it, make sure to go SLOW, and don't panic if it doesn't turn out the right way the first time.

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On Oprah the other day they were doing a show on people who were working on selling things for really really cheap so that they would be available to everyone, and the lady of Sex in the City was on there and saying that we don't pay attention to important things... I have a very hard time not thinking about important things. Like Britany Spears for instance. I look at her and I think, "Oh no, not again, why can't they leave her alone" and then I start thinking about the overarching ramifications of a society that is terminally obsessed with one another's personal lives to a degree that it really isn't healthy. How this is the unintended consequence of the information age and now that information is so readily available that the trivia becomes amassed in greater and greater numbers and that the paparazzi invasion of life is necessarily more extensive since, more than ever before, there is a demand for that kind of gossip and that maybe there really isn't any way to stop something like that, but, if there isn't a way to stop it then how can a person in the spotlight ever hope to cope with that kind of attention?

Is it the future of our nation that all people in important or public relations positions will have to be under the constant strain of cameramen and waspish newspeople? We have this new sense of nobility, this new "red scare" where anyone who doesn't want to answer a question is suddenly somebody who has something to hide! What if I get into a position where I don't want to answer a question like: "What do you think about Gay Marriage" (a question, by the way, that will only end in tears... even if you agree with the person you are talking with) and they say, "Why don't you want to answer that question? Do you hate Gays?" and I'm like "W-what? No! That's a stupid question, that's all! I thought you were interviewing me about my book" and then there will be this awful picture on YouTube of me that looks like I'm a deer caught in headlights and they'll say something like, "The question that you won't get Jinyu to answer" and I'll be like *expletative* why do they care?!!?

Then you think, "I wonder how frequently people communicated and expressed their opinions before the information age? Have people been communicating less on a personal basis, not because their actual communication has gone down, but the amount of things that they actually want to say are really just split between what they say on the computer and what they tell people in real life?" I mean, you go up to someone and you are like, "Hey what did you do over Winter Break" and then they tell you and you are about to tell them what YOU did over Winter Break and they wave it away saying, "Oh, I read it all on your blog". You say, "..." I mean, these sorts of things cut the amount of times that you can retell the same boring stories by six-fold! Our communication is easier and faster, thus leading to more awkward silences than ever before! That makes me feel a little better because that means there is a reason for actually having all these awkward silences outside of the fact that I am a conversational retard and then I remember: none of my friends actually know where my blog is! .... Jinyu=LAME! Which... could all be shallow, but then again, if that's STILL shallow, then what manner of depth are these other people thinking at? AHHH!!!!

In conclusion, I'm going back to school soon and that should be fun. I do have a lot to pack still, though, since I bought, like, a billionty books (one really neat one on spelling by-the-by) and I brought down all of my clothes (again) to wash... thusly, I will have to bring them all back up! I should have some cool stories though, like, I sprained my ankle for the first time in my life! W007! Nothing like an injury story to spark conversation, is what I say. Also, I made some new gloves, which, I hope, will spark some conversation as well! If worse comes to worse... I suppose I could just monologue at them ^_^.

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I love lines. You know, the ones that most people wait in? I guess lines, for me, are sort of like snow delays or snow days. They are singular moments in time when your not supposed to be anywhere, where you're not going to be late, when you can just stand there or sit there or lie there and look around at all the people and think to yourself: "Wow, isn't life swell?" I mean what an opportunity to slow the daily grind to a halt. It's an excuse to "smell the roses" and excuse to stare at the magazines on the magazine rack and look at the new flavors of gum and realize that you still don't need any of them. I think some people count on lines. Have you ever slid your way into a comfortable line, thinking about the day and what you would like to do, slowing down in front of the little displays and picking up a book when somebody waves there hand in that withering way and calls, "Hey! I can help someone down here!" And for some reason, though you realize that they should be helping you out and that should be a good thing you think: "dang it, and I was just starting to enjoy myself".

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I finished Candide today. Incidentally, my shift key is breaking, so I am trying to learn how to left shift. So if I miss some capitals, that is why. I am not sure if I liked Candide or not.

Pros: it was pretty funny (in a sort of ludicrous way)
the characters certainly had an adventure

Cons: it seemed to have a decidedly awful outlook on the world, seeking all the while to undermine the 'Best of possible worlds' philosophy.

Now, permitting that very few people's lives are so magnificently god-awful as they were depicted in the book,I find myself thinking: could these people's lives have been good if they put a different spin on them. Admittedly, the characters went through an awful lot of hardship: rape, the death of loved ones, torture, false accusation, manipulation, loss of funds, personal death and recovery from the condition, however, there are a lot of things that did go well for them. Particularily Candide. Candide, getting a rocky start, actually did not have much damage to his own person at the end of the novel. He got the woman of his dreams (albeit a little uglier than he remembered her), he saw the city of gold, brought out 100 sheep laden with more gold than he could ever use and after losing all the sheep and all their riches, still had an unimaginable amount of wealth which was squandered in the attempt to find his love. None of the people he loved stayed dead and he saved them from destruction numerous times. All in all, he really didn't do half bad. I think, that great difficulty can only come in light of great sucesses. Candide could not have lost such great wealth if he had never, at one time, possessed it. Candide could not have been fooled out of anything if he had not originally had something. His love could not have lost her beauty had she first not had it. So, while I would not argue that this is "the best of all possible worlds", I would argue that we wouldn't really recognize it if we had it and this is the best possible world that WE have to deal with. The fact that it is our only possible world doesn't make it any less so.

What do you think? What is your opinion on theory that this is the 'best of all possible worlds'? Disagree or agree? Why do you agree or disagree? If you feel like you need to write a blog on it, be sure to link it in your comment. I'd love to hear your opinions.

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I didn't do a whole lot today... not really. What I did today was tend my soul with the warm release of insisting on doing nothing. There are those days (when you have plenty of time to do it all later... at least metaphorically speaking) when you feel the sudden urge to just sit around and enjoy life.

I woke up around 10. I went and took a shower, came back, shopped online (got some.. clothes and cds and stuff ^_^) and then I lay on my bed and stared at my florescent lightbulbs until I got those neon shapes that imprint themselves on your sockets so that whatever you look at, you have this big pink block. I thought to myself, "Hey, you should probably get up now" and then I stared and stared. Finally, I threw on some clothes and opened up the blinds. I flopped back on the bed.

After a little bit more pursuasion and the insistence that, "Yes, you will have a lot more energy when you actually eat", I rolled out of the door and got some food. I ate rasin bran... it was good. So! Then I got back to my room, sit on my bed and read blood sucking fiends for another hour. That protestant work ethic which should have hit me hours ago, started to nag me, so I thought, "I should really get something done today." So I wrote a list and a note to my friend to see if she wanted to go to the knitting store.

I was just about to gather my things to finish my project when she knocked! I, as is my habit, asked "who is it!". It's a cursory thing, mostly to see if I actually heard someone and for them to know that I am, indeed in there. I opened the door and my friend told me that she really ought not buy anything at the knitting store, but after talking, I clarified that I would appreciate the company and we were off. We drove... because I'm lazy. I went there in search of a scarf pattern, but after contemplating it for... oh three seconds, I changed my mind and decided, "You know what? I'm really in need of mitten." As a result, I found myself looking through scores and scores of knitting books with mittens, until I finally found one, produced by the same people who did my knitted gifts book, that fit the bill exactly. It was a 30 dollar book *death!* but it was just the fun thing that I was looking for for christmas so I decided, "What the heck, you only live once!"

I bought the book... two skeins of wool and silk yarn (soooooft) and a set of size 5 double pointed needles. I am still looking for size 7s, however, I do have size 8s that could do in a pinch (If I knitted tight). I figured out there was another knitting store in town. The lady seemed to be in the Miracle on 34th street spirit and referred me to it. I may check it out some time. In the meantime, though, I'm going home soon and I think I'm going to buy the kneedles there. It should be a fun christmas present to wrap... and reopen. So yeah,that set me a little over budget for myself personal christmas shopping, but heck, I call it a knitting investment. All of you foo's are getting socks, hats, and mittens this next year! Pray that it's gonna be cold!

Yarn... oh how I could rapsodize about the beautiful cascades of fibers, whirling together to make one single strand, one strand woven into many stiches all creating one glove and how.... but I won't.

After that I got home and I decided that I was going to REALLY get started. I got all my art supplies, trekked across the frozen desert to the art building. Burst IN through the door and declared!

"Oh shoot." I paused, "I'm late! No wait... I'm early. I'm early, I can still help you out!"

Wow, BRILLIANT me! I completely forgot that I had volunteered to help out with the graphic design studio. She said that it they had everything set up, but I was welcome to sit around, so I did. I pulled out my pack of cards and put holes in all of them (something I needed to do...) and then I talked with the people who had shown up to help. One of the students was making a sign at the end of the halway. It said, "Graphic Design, Down Stairs" with an arrow. "Down Stairs" I thought, but I didn't want to be unpleasant, "Downstairs" I corrected in my head. After he left, though, I decided to be viciously unpleasant and asked for an opinon. They agreed that downstairs was more correct but "down stairs" was probably acceptable. We decided that it didn't matter until he came racing downstairs declaring, "I spelled downstairs wrong!" We had a good laugh. I think he wished we had told him. Maybe next time I'll mention it.

Well, I met a very pleasant girl from Graphic Design II. She volunteers at the Art Museum as an Art Teacher. She's great with kids. We decided to go around and visit all the studios together since, after all, it was studio night and none of us had exactly eaten yet. We did a massive loop, picking up crackers and carrots and carrot cake and Jumbelia (sp?) (OMG so good). I learned about who some of the people where that I saw walking around the department: namely the printmaking and sculpture professors. I also saw some cool pieces! Like there were these ink drawings from drawing II that I loooved. I so wanted to draw like them. There was one picture that I remembered specifically of this couple standing by the railroad tracks locked in an empassion kiss.... I'm a hopeless romantic. So yeah, it was a lot of fun. I lost my friend somewhere around the UP gallery. I decided to wait for her.

I decided then that this was the day to do something new, something exciting, something thrilling! I... tried coffee for the first time. Hadn't really ever had it, not that I can recall. I just always thought that it was gross for some inexplicable reason. So I poured myself a little and had a taste... coffee is terrible. Of course some of the people around seemed to think that coffee was not the best, but still. It was this indonesian jamacian blend or something and... it tasted like tea... but with dirt in it. I was sorely disappointed. Also, though it smelled wonderful from far away, when you smelled it close up, it smell like something burnt! Well, that's one vice I'm never picking up. It did taste a little better with sugar, but frankly, so does tea and tea tastes good on its own. So yes, no more coffee.

That bring us to now. As it is the last day of Nano and I have 5,000 words before my projected 75k goal, I better be off to do some serious writing. Tommorow, Dec. 1st and not during nano, will be the day that I celebrate my victory with my online friends and... get back to my real life. Sneaks up on you, doesn't it?

Well until next time: I had a lovely day.

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