Essentially, with AAB recruitment, Music 187r, WHRB, IMUSE, my research job at the Radcliffe Institute, and having a social life, I no longer have a life. I’d also liike to start exercising again, especially cycling, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen either. I’ve taken on far too many responsibilities, and I’d like to start attending more office hours with professors; I plan on Wednesday 2-3 for Phil 156 and Thursday 2-4 for Slavic 148, and hopefully 2 sessions for Expos and 2 more for Phil 131, meaning that today and tomorrow I’m going to write a good deal for my essays, while also trying to practice a decent amount of piano for Music 187r and do some research work for Radcliffe…and trying to sleep because I’m somewhat sick. Oh well. Now I have to run around doing errands.

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The world’s most addicting website. It hosts several thousand flash games, many of them of low quality, but it’s not like people actually play them: they don’t have badges. The reason Kongregate is particularly popular is that it not only provides flash games, but gives good games badges and achievements. For these games, accomplishing certain goals within games, e.g. 1000 kills, 5000 points, etc., will earn you badges stored on your account. Each badge is like a Boy Scout equivalent, with a little drawing and sentence description. Additionally, earning badges is accompanied with gaining points, which also helps you gain Kongregate levels. For example, I am level 9 on Kongregate, while many people have levels in the twenties.

The benefit of having a higher level? Well, certain games or beta testing of games is only available to those with a high enough level, say 35. Also, it lends you credibility in the comment sections of games, adds street cred in general (although only among gamer circles - higher levels generally denote a lack of a social life), and will, most importantly, help you become an administrator on Kongregate.

In addition to badges and leveling up, there are also multiple chat rooms. Thus, Kongregate becomes a fully functioning social network, in which friends will talk, and can keep track of others’ accomplishments. This website takes the inherent solitude of playing computer games and completely obliterates it; simply having the presence of other people in the same gaming community reverses the isolation, and for this reason Kongregate is relatively popular.

A good business model.

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The past few weeks have been tediously boring, and consisted of my sitting at home struggling to work on internship applications, practice piano, and work out/cut down on my weight. I’ve been volunteering half-workdays at the City of Santa Clarita, Community Services, but that’s not that exciting…although the one time I taught chess to some elementary school kids, it was much more fulfilling. Hopefully during the next two weeks I can get in some more of that.

In the meantime, I’ve been working through Fated to Love You, a Taiwanese drama, in a sorry attempt to improve my Chinese. I also saw Avatar in 3-D; this movie is definitely overrated, given its predictable storyline and Pocohontas-like qualities. Was it worth the fourteen dollars? Probably not, but oh well.

On a final note, I am planning to conduct more research for my job…I actually haven’t really done much at all.

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At two hours, this was a moderately long movie, although it was engaging enough as to not prompt any feelings of weariness or boredom. Having not read the Sherlock Holmes series for several years now, the details of the case are vague to me, but the movie does accurately portray the characters and general feel of the literature, even though the use of the marriage between Watson and Mary was exaggerated, and thus the tension between Watson and Holmes as well.

The use of special effects was decent, with the Thames and industrial London being portrayed accurately, at least to my limited knowledge, i.e. there was Big Ben. However I think the general bustle of the city was conveyed, as well as its vast size. There were the regular witty lines, the contrasting personalities of Holmes and Watson, and good acting. I don’t think that this film will be extremely successful, as its viewership will be somewhat limited to the people who actually read the series; little kids and high school teenagers  will most likely turn this movie down for cheap thrillers or romantic comedies.

Of course, as it is Hollywood, the mystery was left incomplete, with at least one more direct sequel with the professor, and then probably another to resolve the conflict between Holmes and his lover. Trilogies always work well.

On the whole, 7.8/10

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I’m home once again, after four months in the chilly and now snowy Boston. It feels nice, a feeling of being comfortable and cleanliness that was definitely missing at college. I have my orchids on my desk again, all the familiar objects in my house unmoved, and finally a comfortable bed again. And oh, 70 degree weather.

On the other hand, disappointing grades put something of a damper on the holiday spirit, but there’s nothing to be done about it, except trying harder and developing better study habits for the next semester, which I promise to myself to receive all A/A-…which is hard I suppose, given the school. Sigh. Where’s the grade inflation?!

First semester at college definitely changed my perspective on life in several ways, mainly that I see success (whatever that meant) as less important than being happy and fulfilled in life. Life is too short to be filled with unnecessary stress over the unimportant, or to care about those things that can only lead to resentment or bitterness. Of course, I’m going to continue to strive for the best grades possible, and for a top law school, but perhaps with less expectation of becoming the greatest person of all time. Generally my sense of self-worth has been deflated to a certain extent, although I won’t deny that I can probably come off as arrogant at times (even though I think it’s just self-confidence…); this I attribute to the massive number of people smarter than me at school. Sigh.

So has college so far been life-changing? Well, it’s changed me, undoubtedly, but I like to think that I’m essentially the same person. Shrug.

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It’s 5 AM Thursday morning, and I’m preparing to go to bed after another long night of inefficiently studying for my 2 finals this Saturday. This entire week, there have officially been no classes, as the Harvard admins have decided to grant their students a week to study for finals. Basically, this week has been rather blah as a whole, trying to study as much as possible at the expense of sleep while trying to balance out two finals on the same day.

It’s not so much stress as acceptance of the inevitably of some not-so-great grades. Having read the same content repeatedly numbs the mind, but then when I’m not doing work, I feel rather guilty about wasting my time. That’s definitely something about Harvard; when one isn’t studying, even if meanwhile engaged in legitimate extracurricular activities, it seems that time is wasted, and that one should rush back and study study study.

Oh well. It’s taken me three occasions to write this short blog post, which should portray the fragmented nature of my life here, trying to take naps, do random extracurriculars, and study… Oh well.

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So it is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and I’m on a near-deserted campus. Less than half my seminar is present, and my classes were conspicuously empty. This, combined with the rainy, gloomy weather and the failure of Annenberg to provide adequately satisfying sustenance, has begun to make me slightly sad. It’s just slightly weird, not being with family for a weekend that for so long been filled with blood members , but perhaps this is a singular representation of homesickness.

Anyway, I’m sure that my feelings of loneliness will soon be dissipated by Friday, when I depart for two days of reuniting with high school friends at Yale and New York. First some TASP friends, and then some of my best friends stretching back to middle school; that should prove very fun, especially seeing  how they have changed, or not.

This, however, makes me particularly excited to return home for winter break, which is a month long…possibly leading to extreme ennui, considering all I have to do is pick out classes and apply to a summer study abroad program. Oh well.

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I’m about 2/3 of the way through half of my first semester here at Harvard, and to sum up my experience, I’m in class right now as I write this blog; so many of these students actually pay attention, but even more seem to not.

Classes are not too difficult, but what is challenging is not getting distracted by everything that goes on around here…mainly Facebook, gchat, etc. in addition to all the extracurricular activities that one would like to participate in.

Also money flows out so quickly, and Boston is not exactly the cheapest place to shop or eat in.

I’m questioning my major and whether it will allow me to garner the grades necessary for law school, but mainly I’m questioning my ability to concentrate and dedicate myself to studies. Hopefully that will change, but at least now I’m receiving A’s in all but one of my classes. So glad I’m not going p-set or math/science classes in general.

In other news,  I was initiated into WHRB under Record Hospital; all the time I put in seems to have paid off…and now I’m joining IMUSE and hopefully a Radcliffe partnership for music.

One of these days I’m going to spend a bit of time and actually post up a decent entry, although that probably won’t be until winter break.

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I’ve been at Harvard now for a little over a month, and so have decided to write a bit about what life is like here.

First, it’s 2 AM, Tuesday morning and I still have an essay to write, a poem to write, and about 150 pages to read. And a presentation to prepare.

But besides the workload, I’d say that Harvard is not bad. Annenberg, the freshman cafeteria, is acceptable, although their hours are not; dinner ends at 7:15, which is ridiculous considering many people begin dinner at that time, or even later. And because nights are usually spent studying into the wee hours of the morning, students often eat again due to the early dinner, which simply results in an accumulation of calories.

I’m also involved in a few extracurricular activities, such as cycling, Harvard radio, and hopefully CSA, if I get the associate finance position. They take up time but I assume it’s worth it.

Parties? Well everything here is activity/group-oriented, so you need to be in that group or know somebody in that group in order to get in. Which can sometimes lead to difficulties.

I should probably go read now.

Also if you have time, take a look at www.harvardfml.com . It’s worth it.

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So this shall be the last communique from Shanghai, China, for the summer of 2009. With just a week before Harvard begins, I’m rather looking forward to college and all the associated pre-class activities that need to be completed, such as determining which classes to be taken, what graduation requirements are, and filling out freshman seminar applications. But before that, I now attempt to document a broad summary of my escapades abroad and draw some overarching conclusions about life.

The first few days, and more precisely the first few weeks, I felt rather desolate, stranded in this odd place that was culturally disparate and physically different to the sunny Southern California I had become so accustomed to in the first 18 years of my life. This feeling of absolute seclusion was partially the fact that I had far too much free time on my hands, combined with the fact that the students and I still had a very formal relationship; this was also my fault, because I tried to maintain an absolutely professional student-teacher relationship, which prevented any form of possible social interaction outside the classroom.

However, in July I began working more hours, thus leaving me less free time to reflect upon the negatives of living in China. This simultaneously resulted in a greater amount of social interaction with my coworkers as well, who, although were an average of 5 years older than me, were very cool people to talk and hang out with. The coworker bond seems to have evolved from a few factors, such as sharing the same students and stories and opinions about them. At the same time, I developed the habit of watching various fake DVDs to occupy my time – I’ve now built a decent collection of classics and current movies and left them in China.

And now, for my students and friends, the most important part of my experience in Shanghai. The TASPers who came and visited me, I love you both. As for my students, I shall collectively call them the Triad, for session 2, and the Three Musketeers for session 3; the Three Musketeers form the Fab Four when combined with another school friend. Although I shall refrain from mentioning specific names in this blog, you all should know who you are. Basically, these students of mine enlivened my experiences of Shanghai, and again allowed me to appreciate the basic beauty of human beings. Living in China to a large degree isolated me from the vicissitudes of politics and society in America, and this ignorance in fact led to my paying greater attention to individual people. Of course, I’d especially like to point out one particular person, who truly made my summer worth it (but black iced coffee is still better). For any of the aforementioned students reading this, I promise to keep in contact with you, even given the time difference.

Of course, there were the weird social interactions I had built out of routine, most especially with two workers at Yoshinoya, a Japanese teriyaki place, and Mister Donut. I frequented Yoshinoya nightly for a while, and Mister Donut in the morning, to the extent that those two workers would basically order for me. That is a bit strange, but for some reason I feel as if I had developed some type of bond with them.

So all in all, considering the friends I’ve made and the experience I’ve gained, I would call my summer excursion to China a success; coming here is unequivocally one of the better decisions I’ve made in my life.

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