Chronicles of a Young College Boy

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Hello ppl...Back in Milwaukee now!...and yep i watched Disney's musical Beauty and The Beast and its AWESOME!!...for some reason after watching beauty and the Beast, the producers of Phantom of the opera should fire their prop designer ....bcos as much as im a fan of the phantom musical..i definitely cannot deny the fact tht the props and the presentation of beauty and the beast is tons better than phantom...but don get me wrong...phantom is a classic...both musicals grasped me in different ways...phantom definitely the music and just how classic it is..(it is only the longest running musical in history)...but it also bores me with the set and props since i think the props can be improved tremendously..whereas beauty and the beast they definitely captured me with the way they present the musical...so freakin colorful and imaginative...for example...can u imagine they use glass beer mugs to create music and dance?...but the music ..other than the original tracks from the cartoon...is not as good as i hoped it would be....so yea theres a give and take...=)

And of coz i hav a new dorm room from now till next may...and am i so glad to hav this particular dorm room....as u can see above in the pict...its sooo big...thts just my side of the room...my roommate has his bed up in a loft...thts wad i did on the first day but after slping so high up for one night...i figured i might prefer it to be more down-to-earth...hahahaha....cos i don want to fall 2m from the ground when i wake up early in the morning....anyway if u guys been in my room b4 back in spore...this dorm room is twice as big....not counting the toilet....so yea...picture tht...and my roommate is quite a blast...he provides everything...he actually brought a flat screen tv and stereos...hehe im going to hav a lot of fun watching the new season of smallville and nba games...but yea...anyway if u guys see clearly i hav some things from spore...see the class photos above the laptop?...and j...if u see clearly u can see ur superman creation up there as good as new..=)...hahaha...and the card tht u guys made for me on my D-day is there too!!...hehe kind of a relic from spore...now wad i need is just posters...bcos if u look at my roommate's side of the room...his walls r full of car and plane posters....mine is very white compared to his....but well i love this dorm room compared to last smst...=)

A grp of my roommate's and my friends just left from the room for a movie...yea well we do hav a flat screen tv in our room..hahaha..anyway..theres still tht bit of barrier i've been wanting for it to disappear...well for one thing i definitely stand out bcos im like the only asian there...as much as i wanna talk...it still feels like theres tht bit of barrier..(but don get me wrong..they r very nice ppl)...its still the same pressure im feeling of not wanting to b labelled as an anti-social...and as i hav promised myself a few weeks ago..one of my goals this smst is to make more american friends...tht can b quite a challenge bcos their lifestyle is just quite different from mine...come on ppl...u guys know urself tht i stay home quite a lot...even in spore i don go out for shopping or 'kai kai' (did i spell tht right?)....so u can imagine the ppl here who drinks in pubs and drive arnd the country..going fishing...my roommate alone sails and races...how cool is tht...heh...and i actually planned to study tonight...on a saturday night b4 school even starts....i noe how it sounds...but i did come back ealier to milwaukee to read ahead...but i better get into a bit of social gathering by watching movie with them...bcos as much as i wanna get good grades...i don want to be a nerd either... probably one of the first times in my life i actually got 'peer-pressured'....my choices are either study and appear like a total retard...or join them for the movie...so yea figure tht out (well its a good movie at least)...oh well...but my other goal this smst is to get a perfect gpa of 4....considering the mediocre grades tht i received last smst, i hav to make this smst good...wish me luck on tht one....

well i don feel all tht wisdomic this week....i hav some topics to talk on actually..so i will save it for next week..=)...hey for those of u who r having hols now...Have Fun!!..and uh for those who r having exams..heh...hav fun too...

DanieL counted snowflakes at 10:24 PM

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Wondering wads behind the closed curtain?... Phantom of the Opera!!...heh i watched the musical on wednesday and even though it didnt really measure up to my expectations....its still pretty cool to finally catch the musical i hav been dreaming of watching since i watched the movie itself...well the movie version is definitely more colorful...but the musical on theatre is definitely a classic...a beautiful lead actress...a powerful-voiced lead actor... the drama...the gothic feeling...its just all so nice...the impact is not as impressive as the movie ones though...yea well also bcos its just the voice of the performers live without editing wadsoever...whereas the movie version the impact of the music seemed so powerful bcos of the sound editting and intergration probably...so yea...Phantom of the Opera!!! Now i cant wait for my next musical...Beauty and the Beast...tht one is going to be so cool man...but i want to do my best not to hav such a high expectation when i watch it..as i did in phantom...which leads to a bit of a disappointment...heh...
And then i went to one of the most beautiful and biggest parks in the world...Central Park!...tht place is big man...seriously..they hav a zoo in the park itself..can u imagine a zoo in bishan park?..hahahaha....but yea..as u can see for urself in the pict...the park is really beautiful...i got 2 more picts...they r all uploaded in my friendster account if u guys wanna see...=)...
come to think of it...i hav actually been to quite a few movie sets this summer...like the central park and columbia university....central park played host to one of the scenes in movies like home alone...mr deeds....whereas there are scenes in movies like spiderman 1 and 2 and hitch tht are played in columbia university....pretty cool huh?...its like when i watch the movies i go "Hey i was there!"..haha...

"Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he should be, and he will become what he could be." ...this quote kinda dispel my doubts abt the parents' role in the children's development into a good person..u see..i have always wondered...ppl say "Accept the people around you as who they are."....but then wad if he or she has a personality of a jackass?....of coz a parent shld put the child back in the right direction when he or she is not going the desirable direction...but wad makes the process successful is the delivery of the message...like the type of punishment the child shld receive...if u ask me the child shld receive a punishment thts quick...tht was wad i learnt in psychology too....a punishment is most effective when it is quickly and firmly delivered...all children need boundaries...we also need people to push us from time to time...so as to expand our comfort boundary...=)

DanieL counted snowflakes at 8:49 PM

Saturday, August 12, 2006

hey ppl wads up...been quite an eventful week this one...both good and bad events...kinda sucks bcos i don really want my summer to end this way...even though i hav abt 2 musicals coming up...somehow everytime i think of some of the bad events tht happened this past week...i feel tht it may just overshadow the 2 musicals....

well...first thing is definitely the fact tht suddenly i felt nostalgic....its probably from the fact tht the only friend i had during this past one and haf month is my roommate...for some reason these past few days i keep thinking of my friends back in spore and milwaukee (yea i made a couple of good friends there already)....worse of all is spore la...everytime i think of them it just really make my heart feel heavy....yea well nostalgic duh....i miss everything...family..friends...environment...the ease i feel when im arnd them...my beloved cousins back in indo....i already bought the ticket back home anyway...but still the memories just keep coming and coming and coming.....feel pretty miserable everytime tht happens...like go into a trance for a while...then the effects hit full blow....i really cant wait till the day of my arrival back in spore...
but u see...heres the catch for me...when i come back...there r ppl who will definitely b wanting to know how my grades r....such as my parents and their friends....the pressure sometimes can b so unbearable tht i feel like running away to the safe haven of my friends and cousins....where they accept me for who i am...no matter how i did in school....i know if my parents read this they will probably say.."hey i accept u for who u r no matter ur grades!"....well...heres my theory,"We are not what we think, we are not what we say, we are not what we feel. We are what we do."....and wads reality is tht i can feel the pressure so much so tht u don even need to say it to let me know...sometimes u say somethings tht u don even understand...and for some reason u probbaly think u r right bcos i don hav anything to say...well i don hav anything to say bcos it really does kinda hurt...u said everyone goes thru this exp and everyone lives wif the nostalgia and everyone can live thru it...everyone shld get a gpa of 3.8 and above in their first semester and if tht someone doesnt...hes not good enuff....well...for those of u reading this u probably can conclude easily enough tht im not doing well in my schoolwork right....yea u r right..i didnt do well for my second summer course...i havent got my final grade yet...but still theres tht gut feeling...haiz...

sometimes don u tink the most powerful prisons in our lives are the ones tht we created for ourself?...for some reason i find it so hard to tell someone tht i hav troubles ..so much so tht i wonder y am i so afraid to open up...sometimes ppl can ask me if anything is wrong...and even if there is...i sometimes don even say...it voilates my principles of letting ppl help of coz..since i myself hav always told ppl tht its best to talk abt it..makes me look like a hypocrite....but for me tht very 'prison' i created for myself is tht almost automatic-defense mechanism i developed...which also y i always looked for techniques and self-mastery ways to forget and 'distort' the events tht haunt me...but i don think anything can replace the power of human love...as in the caring gestures tht can b received...this is probably y i love smallville so much too...just seeing somebody with all the smarts and money like lex doesnt mean he will turn out a good guy...while clark...relatively poor and not as smart as lex...turns out to b superman...i always did my best to put my faith tht everytime i did not get good grades i tell myself good grades arent everything....but well...ppl can pretty much break this faith easily by comparisons....

DanieL counted snowflakes at 10:15 PM

Saturday, August 05, 2006

hey ppl....one more week left for summer classes!!....then time to look forward to 2 musicals!!..hehe...i cant believe im actually going to watch both phantom of the opera and beauty and the beast...although this past week has been kinda boring...the thing tht kept me sort of happy is the fact tht i hav these 2 extraordinary musicals to watch in the most brilliant musical industry in the world...broadway....=)...this is probably gonna define my whole summer holiday....heh....
wa here in ny its scorching man the temperatures....it went up to abt 36plus degrees celsius the last week...when i come back from class and walking in the sun i can almost feel my skin peeling off....lucky my dorm room is air-conditioned....so kinda bcame lazy and stayed in almost 24/7....=P....

I think the saying of "The world is like a mirror to us" can be a very useful line to think about whenever a person is faced with a problem....lets face it...if we don like the world...do we expect the world to like us back?...sometimes we don even realise tht wad we r doing is wrong...or the more even ridiculous one....we act one way but expect the reflection (people arnd us) to appear in another...its the same thing like we frown in front of the mirro but expect to see a person smiling back...sounds ridiculous?...or even familiar?...well i noe it happened to me quite a few times...one example is definitely the first few weeks when i was in the US adapting...i was wad ppl can describe as antisocial....i however always disagreed with them...it takes one guy who said it kinda jokingly but straight to my face..."Daniel,...u r so antisocial..."....although he said it in not tht wanna-fight tone...the message hit me hard...when i had the opportunity to be alone after tht...i asked started to think of all the social events i actually go to...and i can count them wif one hand....and wads worse is tht the first few entries in the blog i mentioned a few times the ppl here is not as easy to get along as the people back in spore...haha...however much i wanna give myself excuse tht i don fit in wif the people...it doesnt help much since there r asians who actually went for social gathering too....so i kinda wanna make a commitment in the coming semester tht whenever the opportunity of social gathering arises...i will go...BUT hav to consider the crowd first of coz....heh...so..."For things to change, you must change first."....=)...quoted from AKLTG...again..haha

a few days ago i saw a video recording of the time when i was leaving spore...as in going into the departure gate..it was taken by my friend max...for those of u who went to see me off u can remember him as the one in spects...he took the video recording of me saying my goodbyes...hugs...and going into the departure gates...when i watched it...for some reason i felt it was a lifetime ago....bcos i felt tht i hav grown so much from this experience..so so much...one thing i definitely learnt from this experience is tht family and friends are our world...without them...even if u r in the same place...it wont feel the same...i kinda learnt tht when i was spending most of my waking hours in the library 'trying' to run away from the pressure having to make friends and seeing ppl in social grps...well the most sucky thing definitely being alone is tht during meals i see everyone...and i mean everyone...having a grp....and me there just sitting like a complete antisocial...not to mention i also kinda stand out bcos im an asian...but then things change...i started to join the tkd association...i started to know my asian friends better and started to spend more time wif them...
then of course there was the job experience...heh..my first job!!....i remembered the first time when i come in for my first day and again 'trying' to figure out how to call my supervisor thru the walkie talkie without sounding stupid..bcos the thing abt walkie talkie is tht when i say something into them..everyone who has a walkie talkie in tht building can hear them....heh so i radioed..and realised my supervisor to help me arnd for tht day is in her office...next to the room where i get the walkie talkie...wahahaha...i was like -_-ll...so much for telecommunication....annnnnddd i also remember the very entertaining time when i get to vacuum a hall size of 4 average school halls ALONE....so i was like...dammnnnnnn.....after i finished vacuuming...i can feel my hands still vibrating from the vibrations of the vacuume cleaner...hahaha....

And then i also learnt the fact tht the people here cares....i noe it may sound stupid..but i was invited to my friend's parent's friend house to stay there for a week...i was like...hmm...wont they mind?...but they welcomed me wif open arms...bcos of the fact tht i was unfortunately brought up with the knowledge of give and take....this situation was a surprise to me...they would not mind at all letting u stay in their house...i was quite touched by the experience...=)....
heh then there was also definitely the time when my name appeared on the university newspaper...it reads, "Yellow belt Daniel Widjaja competed in all 3 events and came in first in forms and board-breaking and second in sparring." wahaha..cool huh?...i cant wait to go for the trainings again when the fall smst starts..been like 3 months since i went for any training...

haiz...8 months...can u believe it....5 more months and im coming back to spore..=)...cannot cannot cannot wait for the moment when i enter the plane back to singapore....

DanieL counted snowflakes at 9:45 PM