A Useless Degree and Post-work-non-sleep Trauma Disorder

This is really what my work station looks like. It's a lot messier, but I left out a bit of the... other stuff that no one probably wants to see.
So my days of studying haven't ended. Because of the stupid no-use degree I've gotten from WSU is, well, of no use to me right now, I was told that maybe I should get certified for something else instead. Another degree, another two years of studying. I think I'm destined to be forever be trapped in a prison of text books, lecture notes, and pop-up quizzes.

Basically everywhere I've looked to find a job that says that they "only require a bachelor's degree in biology, chemistry, forensic science, or any related physical sciences" are all lying. I have no experience in the field and thus I'm an immediate foul out. No one wants me.

Stupid catch twenty-two. Without experience no one will hire me, but if no one hires me, where am I actually supposed to be getting this so called experience. I'm already not bothering to apply for jobs that include the words "Must have at least x years experience in the field/lab/ect..." and stuff similar to that. Cause I already know I'm not going to get those.

But I wish people wouldn't waste my time with those only a bachelor's degree necessary advertisements. It's a big disappointment when I'm not hired and I know exactly why.

But anyway, I guess for now it all comes down to, I'm not really that interested in finding a job that has nothing to do with what I've studied and so I'm being stubborn. That and I'm not really "allowed" to leave Wichita right now for my own personal reasons. And so instead of doing that, I will pursue yet another degree which may or may not ensure that I will at least find a suitable job and remain in Wichita for the rest of my life, toiling away like a little slave girl because all I have are three brothers in a family completely dominated by the male species.

No, I'm not bitter. Not bitter at all.

Nothing hurts my pride more than hearing the words "because you're a girl." If anyone other than my father says that to me in the future, I swear I'll rip him a new one. And here I am assuming that only a guy will say something like that to me when some of the females are equally guilty of associating "things that cannot be done" with "because you're a girl."

Yeah... I'm a girl. I'm a stubborn girl as well. Don't tell me I can't do something for that stupid reason. At least tell me it's because I'm stupid or because I don't have the skill or because I'm short or some other lame, non-related reason. I'd probably take it a little bit better than, "because you're a girl."

But I digress.

The busy workdays have just begun at the Hilton Hotel and in banquets, we are all suffering from post-KIOGA activity trauma. I believe the very morning after the whole full day event, having gotten only three hours of sleep within my forty-eight plus hours of work, I ended up with a sore throat. The next day it became a cold and constant coughing. It remains up to today and has returned to being an annoying little dry cough that will sneak its way up my throat and out of my mouth when I least want it to. I think I'm beign haunted or something. I really should have slept all week instead of agreeing to go into work more hours.

But money makes the world go round. No matter that I don't make enough of it to be significant.

This has become a big part of my diet in the past two days. It could probably take over for breakfast and lunch. And yes, that is a box of pocky right next to it. Doesn't help me feel better, but looking at it gives me hope of some kind. Well, not really, but I can still hope.
So anyway, Medical Technology seems to be my new calling code. I've learned that by the end of the coursework, they will give me an opportunity to work as an extern in labs around Wichita. The biggest obstacle right now is actually finishing up my application and turning it in.

I'm kind of stuck on the three references I need in order to apply as well as a "why do you want to be a medical technologist?" short paragraph essay. Now do I tell them that I don't really want to be a medical technologist and that I just need a way to get my foot in a lab? Or do I make up some extravagant story about how I want to better mankind? Do people even really do that? Want to better mankind and help people and thus choose to become a doctor, medical technologist, nurse, ect...?

Or maybe I should just use my practical reason. I want to be able to work in a lab and learn more about medicine through this route and thus survive my life because without a good job, I've no money and thus I can't pay the bills. Please accept me so that I may approach my first step of entering into the lab environment and find a good job. Thank you very much.

Yeah... that's a winning reason right there.

Before I can even get into the degree program I need to finish up this class first. Medical Immunology. It sounds fun and interesting really.

If anyone wants this book in the future, please let me know. I may never use it again and it cost me a third of my last paycheck. I really need a new job.

In final news, my grandmother is finally moving out of her dump of a neighborhood home and into one half an hour away from us on the other side of town in the area I like to call "rich person ville." I'm a west sider-- has it ever amazed anyone just how divided by directions Wichitans are? I don't like the east side, but I'm not prejudice. Call me a hypocrite cause that's probably what I am. At least grandma doesn't have to lock up every door and window with extra security every night before she sleeps. And my uncle now lives closer to his workplaces.

Post, post end note, today I lost a part of my glasses and so I have to revert to using an older pair. Not that I care, my backup pair is the same perscription and a nice style too. But this just means I have to get my newer, more fashionable pair fixed. What a drag. I don't even really want to leave home right now. I'm so tired.

Extraordinary Moonlight

I had this sudden need to watch a new TVB drama again after about a year and a half (maybe) and the first one that I chose was the very hyped, very grand production of Heart of Greed's offshoot, a somewhat of a sequel called Moonlight Resonance.

In recent Hong Kong television news, we've been seeing a lot of "Let's use the same cast in this fabulous production and try to recreate the same feel with a different storyline" type of ideas. They did it with War of the In-laws, they did it with Square Pegs, and they redid it over and over again with the War and Beauty cast. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then it would be a good idea to take a gander over at spcnet tv for a full TVB experience on various series.

But anyway, for a step back into the TVB world is something very rare for me to do. After all, I grew up watching television a la TVB and to tell the truth, I've never strayed away from it. TVB has always been my life because I grew up with them. But for the past year, maybe year and a half, I've been ignoring TVB and found myself immersed in anime other things. I tried to watch series from TVB a couple months ago.

The Seventh Day was going to be a series I looked forward to and would watch until the very end. I like the actors, I like the story idea, and the whole production of the series, though short and kind of tacky, was very beautiful. But I watched the first two episodes and then quit. I haven't touched it since.

A month or two ago I started to watch Forensic Heroes II. I thought, even if I'm not interested in the people or the storyline, I'm at least interested in the things they do. After all, Forensic Science is my forte and I thought I'd get a kick out of watching people try to do this stuff in the fictional world. Ten episodes later, I stopped bothering with it and dropped it completely.

You know, there was probably a reason why I gave up on the CSI franchise as well. No matter how real these people try to make it, they always extravagandize the whole profession to death. It's kind of tiresome to keep thinking to yourself, "You can't do that on a crime scene, it'll ruin the evidence. Where's my trace evidence collector? Where's my sticky tape? Why isn't that stupid hair secured? Quit stepping on the evidence!!"

And everyone else around me decides to start pitching a fit because I won't shut up about it. And so, yea... I'm not really allowed to watch anything to do with forensic science or crime scene investigation anymore. My bad.

But anyway, this post isn't about those two series, but it's been long enough I think I won't be able to talk about my "Moonlight Resonance" experience thus far in full. So let's just cut straight to the chase:

Moonlight Resonance is supposedly the "sequel" to Heart of Greed. Now Heart of Greed was ranked as Hong Kong and TVB's number one series of the year in 2007. Even though the production period was rather blah and little news and media coverage bothered with them, the series hit it off extremely well and unexpectedly became one of the best classic series TVB has ever produced since, maybe War and Beauty in the year 2004. Not too long, but when it comes to entertainment, everything has to be good everyday, or you're forgotten immediately.

TVB's new definition of a sequel, however, could be the traditional kind of sequel, or it could be the new "use the exact same cast members for a similar yet completely different experience in a whole new story" type of deal. The cast of Moonlight are majorly from Heart of Greed, and as a twist, our two favorites from Heart of Greed have taken center stage this time.

Moonlight, like Heart of Greed, is a drama of family, money, and power. In Heart, we had brothers and wives fighting over the family fortune of which was superior in the abolone industry. Four kids living peacefully with each other until the dastardly second wife and blood-related uncle from mother's side of the family decide that they want in on some of the estate selfishly. The family is torn apart and lawsuits ensue. Amidst all of this, the head of the family and his wife are the only two who seem to understand family unity and want to do what they can to keep the family together and at peace. Struggles ensue, deaths occur, and we are left with very tear-jerking moments when nothing seems to go right at all. Surrounding this whole family feud of a debacle, two sets of budding romances take their tolls to add onto the turmoil that is Heart of Greed.

I never got far with Heart of Greed. I never even got into the heart of the feud-- no pun intended. I gave up on watching it after I cried for the second time and couldn't stand it anymore. I also didn't really like the idea of the two romances I had already heard about time and time again. And I especially didn't really want to see all the fighting and the injustices. And most importantly, I DID not want to see the infamous, much talked about death scene of Raymond Lam's wonderfully portrayed character Alfred. I like this guy, he pulls off Alfred's asshole tendencies beautifully. But I didn't want to see him die, because that was his redeeming point and I knew I'd be crying buckets.

And I'm not a normally teary-eyed person who cries if something awful happens. Heart of Greed is indeed an accomplished tear jerker.

Moonlight doesn't stray far from its predecessor. With the notion that Moonlight is supposed to be the happier, more justifying version of Heart of Greed, I conflicted myself about giving it a watch. But I don't like family dramas. I hate it when I'm forced into tears from a mere fictional storytelling because the actors are just so good at presenting all their emotions. I don't like fighting. I watch romantic comedies. I watch adventures where fighting involves fun acrobatics and killing monsters and demons.

What finally drew me to consider watching Moonlight, however, was actually quite superficial: Raymond Lam. I found the subtheme he sings for the series. I listened to it. And then I checked out some first thoughts and impressions from Hong Kong's viewers and their praise. And then I thought about the much better role Ray has been given. And then on a whim, I watched the first episode.

I was amazed. After one, I couldn't stop and kept right on watching through. There's so much beauty to this so called "sequel" to Heart of Greed. Moonlight gives off a feel similar to nostalgia. We keep getting glimpses of very heart-warming scenes of our lovely family from the past. We get a lot of reminiscing. We get a lot of family values thrown at us. And most importantly, character interaction is wonderful. Ray does excellently as the elder brother of the second part of the broken family. Tavia Yeung is wonderful as the adopted daughter who can't seem to figure out her own place in the family. Even Fala Chen portrays her mute youngest sister role adorably.

I've yet to grasp the rest of the family members, but I can sincerely tell that Lee Si Kei is yet again at the utmost best as the mother who just wants to preach family values and keep her children together. Moses Chan's character is creepy, smooth, and hilarious at the same time. Linda Chung hasn't really struck me as anything extraodinary yet, but this is because I didnt' get to see all of her emotional break downs in the predecessor. This is Michelle Yim's second villain role that I am aware of and she is, as usual, excellent with her portrayal. Although she could lose the hair.

I think the main plot of the series has yet to reach its central arc. I look forward to it and I also look forward to how this series will end off. As a hopeless romantic, I also look forward to how the two sets of romances will play off. Our newest TVB golden couple Raymond Lam and Linda Chung are both going to be paired up together as Ah Ho and Ah Chau, but along comes Bosco Wong in his suave and debonair doctor role to sweep Ah Chau off her feet. A nice little triangle ensues, and to boot, Ah Chau and Ah Ho are actualy supposed to be step-siblings! O.o!!

On the other side, adopted daughter Tavia Yeung and eldest son Moses Chan are supposed to be yet another pair a la Ah Yeut and Ah Ka until Auntie Sa's rambunctious daughter Ka Mei comes into the picture.

Looks like we've got quite a bit of romantic, yet socially incestual fun to come. But as long as our favorite characters are paired together, the fans won't really care, right. I'm looking forward to see how these people end up resolving these romantic conflicts as well as bypassing all those social barriers that will be in their way. Ah Yeut and Ah Ka have been siblings since they were little-- how are people going to respond if they suddenly find themselves romantically attached to each other? And as for Ah Ho and Ah Chau, they grew up together as best friends, and then Ah Chau's mother steals the position of wife, thus turning the two into step-siblings of which they never wanted in the first place. Throughout the entire series, they are continuously struggling to overcome this social barrier which they don't even view as in existence. Everyone else around them, however, find it necessary to constantly remind them that they are indeed step-siblings, even if they were separated after custody was given to the parents, and even if they grew up as best friends instead of siblings.

Currently at episode 15, I'm looking forward to seeing more and more of this.

And so maybe I might end up preparing a blog just for TVB... but I really doubt I'll do that.

So Totally Blah...

So here I am, surfing the internet through blogs that I check out irregularly -- while also trying to study and imitate brush up on good blogging skills for my alternate universe fan blog -- when I realize that something is utterly annoying me. And it still is. I realize that I have absolutely no idea why my computer (and thus my work station/get away from people in the house haven) is sitting in my brother's room. And thus I am not away from people and have to share my "get away from people haven" with my brother.

I'm a little irritated.

It would be nice if I could waste away my time in the privacy of my own room for my own purposes. (Do you have any idea how much anime and other I could have watched by now if I were in my own room?) And mostly, it is quite hard for me to concentrate on other things when the little brother decides that he wants to blast, quite loudly, on his laptop the makings of a good movie that I want to watch, but cannot, because that would require getting up and walking over to "his area" and seating myself on an unconfortable two foot table to watch the movie on his laptop.

So instead of sharing the wealth a la watching the movie on a television, expertly placed within his room so that all can see, he watches his movies on his laptop, where only he can see and the audio sucks anyway. This is either (A) because he doesn't want to get up off of his already lazy ass to stick the DVD into the X-box, or (B) just to spite me. As much as I'd like to believe that the first option were true (which it is 100%) I'm also sure that the second choice comes as a bonus.

The second most irritating part of having my computer conveniently placed in his room makes for staying up way late into the late-late non-existently-late hours of the wee night to surf the internet/surf forums/watch anime/ready random crap very hard to do. Out of some unfounded respect or common courtesy to the little punk, I try to leave his room when he goes to sleep so that I don't bother him. That, and he tends to toss and turn in his bed and I opt not to tell him to quit it as it is quite annoying -- and because this is his room after all.

And what is keeping me from moving everything out of his room and back upstairs into the privacy of my own. The computer that I am currently making use of was bought by His Little Highness. And I don't think that I'll be able to make up some good excuse for wanting to switch back to the old one I've been using, or to take away his money from him. I feel wretched for even using something that he paid good money for, but in the long run, I think I didn't really have much of a choice.

The boy kind of just went out, bought it, then installed it in the spot where I currently sit (though I don't know why I never moved), and claims that now he can watch movies from this high-tech computer while four-boxing on his computer, second computer, and laptop a la MMORPG of EverCrack 2.

So I feel kind of stuck.

At least until I can find some way out of this mess. Like for instance, maybe one day sneaking my lovely comp up to my own room and then laying down a thousand dollars for the sneaky twit so that I can go about my own life in private... I no longer join him in the good ol' EverCrack 2 pilgrimages and thus should not feel obligated to remain where I am.

And yet... somehow, I'm still here.

It makes me wonder about myself.

Quiz Time!

You are "Sleeping"

What Japanese Smiley Are You?

Heh, I'm sleeping... This is so like me.

In Other News

Through Me chapter 19 has been posted now. This is just a tad bit of little news as the ending of this chapter made me want to see into the future to find out what would be happening next.

Have I mentioned that I really, really love this story. Maeven gives just the right amount of comedy, romance, and drama to make you want to keep reading and re-reading it. I absolutely adore the two main characters Adel and Tristan and wish I could have a nice visual of them. In my mind, I can only half-ass an absolutely hunky, good-looking, and charming young high school boy as the great Tristan Harland. But I can't do much else about the image.

Everytime Maeven updates another chapter it makes me want to go back to all of my unfinished writing and do something about them.

In fact, I have one newest creation which may or may not be completed soon because it'll be my very first long-short story that I care to write at all. It'll be a cheesy romance for the young teenage girls, but it'll be a first... hopefully. Cause I've really only written the first part and I need to quickly figure out how to go about the second half.

*sigh*

I feel like I'm about to strangle myself. I'm so pathetic.

A New Addition to the Abyss... Pt. 3 (final)

As it is August 1, 2008, I would like to officially announce the launching of my newest blogging career (which may or may last long):

anicabyss - animanga zone

For those of you who care, this is the place where I will officially post all opinions, news, and discussions of all things anime. For those who don't care, don't worry about it.

As of today, all posts that have to do with anything anicabyss will stop appearing on Abstract Abyss and be contained within the new zone.

This concludes the very short, very limited follow-up of anicabyss and if all goes smooth-sailing from now on, then all shall be great and I won't complain too much about my real life in Abstract Abyss.

Please feel free to comment on my half-baked, long-winded postings. Contructive criticism is always welcome.

Thanks in advance for your time and your suggestions.