On My Own

In my head I keep thinking that I'm "moving out on my own" this year even though I pretty much have been living "on my own" for the past four years. I guess I mean that I'm going to be fully independent, cutting the last apron string that ties me to my parents.

The one thing I'm looking forward to most is getting my own place. Setting up house. Just thinking about me gets me excited. I can't wait to go to Ikea or Wal-Mart and get dishes and plates that match! Woo-hoo! Or buying a full set of quality pots and pans that won't burn...easily. Or getting a wok and steamers, and really cool spatulas. There's also blenders, bread-makers, and etc...Ok, now I just sound...nerdy and materialistic.

I've been planning out an imaginary apartment in my head. Today I designed an arts studio in my head also known as the other half of the living room or maybe even the full thing assuming I get a one BR apartment. I'd like a really modern one with a really wide table with a glass top with my laptop and Wacom tablet (I pronounce it "Whack 'em"). One that gives lots of elbow room for large sprawling sketches.

That said I probably wouldn't invest in all that much with the potential of a STINT still looming in the future or be able to buy all that stuff at once, but man is it ever fun to dream.

But burn proof pots and pans....those are a must.

Reversal

May 2006:
I had just finished my third year of university, and was still a student. It was my first time out in the wild wild west of Canada in the beautiful city of Calgary. The second week of national project was almost done. I had just been hired by Home Depot to be a paint mixer for $10 an hour.

Beth had just graduated from the University of Guelph with a BA Honours. She was no longer a student, but a newly commissioned staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ. MET had just finished, and she was just stopping over in Calgary for a few short hours with other fellow new staffers from Guelph and other places.

We met up at Calgary's airport while they were on their layover and caught up on who was placed where.

May 2007:
This time Beth is in Calgary, also as a Rocky Mountain project participant, but with the slight difference that she is staff. She'll be the one driving in to the airport and the one with the nice bed to sleep in for the night.

I'll be the one flying into Calgary for a layover. Freshly done my fourth and last year I'll no longer be a student either. Coming from MET, I'll be a newly commissioned staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ.

But again God-willing we'll meet up at Calgary's airport to pass the time during our layover to catch up on who's placed where.

It's so weird how things change and don't change in a year. It's really cool actually. It just blows my mind the stuff that God can orchestrate, and the sense of humour that He has.

Deals

I love bargains. It must be the chinese in me. Why pay full price for something when you can get it for a lower price?

Some of my favourite deals:
1) Getting an authentic $90 (excluding tax) Paul Frank watch for $15 BRAND NEW
2) Campus Crew pants for $10 for two years now, but not consecutively
3) Paying $7 for a brand new skirt that was about $30-40

Then today I paid ONE loonie for an orchid. They usually go for about $40+ per plant. There was a clincher on the this one though. The bloom broke off, but it's still alive. The trick now is to make it bloom again.

MPD Resolutions

Resolved to be always joyous throughout this process, maintaining a cheerful, a grateful, and a faithful attitude.

Resolved to always persevere, praying harder, and working harder especially when the going gets tough.

Resolved to live free of the fear of men.

Resolved to live and work diligently.

Resolved to love everyone that I meet.

Resolved to keep my eyes on Jesus.

Resolved to enjoy this season of life...

through God's grace.


I am excited to begin this journey and discover what God has in store. It's such an exciting time of life. W0000000000~

Warning: Failure is Imminent

Last night when I returned home, the title of this blog was a part of a message that alerted me to the fact that my hard drive was about to sputter and die. No kidding! The guy was taking 45 minutes to boot every day in the past week. The humor of it just hit me this morning; the message aptly described my dread as I was desperately cramming for two "quizzes".

New Addiction: Photo-Imaging

My newest addiction of choice: Picasa 2. It offers a user-friendly photo-imaging system for free. It's nowhere as extensive as Adobe Photoshop, but for something that costs $0 you're definitely getting a lot of BANG for your buck.

Today I spent a few hours "doctoring" the 100 or so pictures that I took at College Royal last night. Pictures that once would have been designated for the recycling bin were salvaged. The lighting was horrible as can be expected from a formal. Framing was really hard since people were dancing, and my little Nikon had only so much power, BUT with Picasa, quite a few of the rejects were turned into my favourites.

For example this picture of Rachel D. and Silas walking down Old Quebec Mall. The lighting was so poor that in the original, which I don't have anymore, you could barely see the outline of Rachel and Silas. I added some light, turned it into a black and white with a bit of focal colour and voila, one of my favourite shots. I really like the contrast between the colours themselves as well. That definitely wasn't planned on my part.

The Black and White focal colour feature is definitely my favourite feature from Picasa. I love the splash of colour amidst a black and white photo. The contrast is gorgeous. You get the best of both worlds. Lydia posted a picture like this on her website, but it was a feature on her camera. I really loved that picture of the green standing out amidst the graytone. I thought I had to save up for a Canon to get it. It is a bit different than Picasa's feature because I think Canon just filters out certain colours; in this case it seems to be the green in Lydia's room. I could be wrong. But Picasa is just as good, and it's free!

I used the B&W with focal colour again in this shot of Tom. For this picture I cropped it a bit so that the eye would move from Tom to the light in the upper left hand corner and back. It also gives an impression that the light is shining on Tom, basking him in living colour. Since it was a really classy yet modern pose, I again did the whole B&W with the focal colour. The pastel blue, pink, and green really made the picture stand out. This was a mediocre picture in the beginning in terms of framing and lighting, but now in terms of composition this has got to be one of my favourites.


Another pauper turned prince picture was this self-shot picture of Sarah, Katie, and me. Again the lighting was horrible, well actually cruel. It had no mercy on our skin. The glare was really bad. The framing was typical of a self-shot; boring, because my arm movements were limited, but hey, I had to capture memories some how... Katie had a killer outfit on. One of my favourites of the entire night. I wanted to focus on that, so with the handy dandy B&W focal color tool I was able to bring out the red accent of Katie's outfit.


Of the 100-ish pictures there was only one photo that I didn't "doctor". It was a winner the first time around. A rarity at College Royal. Presenting Alex Wong. For one thing, Alex was willing to hold that pose while my camera was charging so there was no blurr. I used flash, which usually kills a picture, but it was surprisingly nice to Alex. I think the boy just has good skin.

Of course after all that shameless promotion for photo re-imaging, there needs to be a little caveat. I don't think photo-imaging is a replacement for good photography skills. I blame it all on the lighting of course. ;)

And if you were wondering if I doctored my profile picture. The answer is a resounding yes! My skin is not naturally that nice.

One of the Best Things in the World...

One of the best things in the world has got to be the relief felt upon finishing a paper. There's nothing like the joy in your heart as the last page eases out of the printer, the bounce in your step as you go to hand it in, the weight off of your shoulders. Definitely one of the best feelings in the world, but of course you have to go through at least a week of agonizing stress to reach that point.

Friday was the day that I finished my very last paper of my undergrad. Hip hip hurray, and an extra huzzah! The sun was streaming down on me, as I thoroughly savoured that moment. It seemed like everything in the world was ok.

Just When You Think You Know a Person...

...you find out that you don't.

Silas tagged me for "5 Things People Don't Know About Me" chain. the deal is that you list five things people don't usually know about you and tag 3 other people to continue the chain. Well hopefully my list of five things will boggle your mind. That's my underlying agenda.

1. Throughout all of high school, most of my preparation for post-secondary education was for art school. I was planning on going into animation or design. Business was my second choice, but I chickened out at the last minute because a college education was not as "prestigious" as a university education in my head. No pressure from mom. And I was scared of being a starving artist on the street because I had confidence issues. Sometimes I question this decision, but I have no doubt that God brought me to the University of Guelph for a reason. Now I don't think I would really care if I had a prestigious education or not--probably due to the fact that I'll get my pricey piece of paper in three months, so I think I would go to art school. Perhaps art still will be in my future someday.

2. In high school I tried out for the Miss Chinese Toronto beauty pageant, and when I was rejected, I was REALLY REALLY upset. In fact I threw a hissy fit. Literally. Sometimes it still hits a sore spot.

3. Sweet "girly" girls usually irritate me before I get to know them well because they remind me of what I am not, sweet and "girly". I know there are issues here. But who doesn't have them?

4. I have a barely visible, but still visible nonetheless scar on my right cheek [of the face not of the rear] from a dog bite that I got when I was in grade 3.

5. My worst fear is that someday I'll walk away from my faith not because I don't think it's true anymore but because of exogenous reasons such as temptation, hardship, torture, etc...

I tag Low on the Go, The Fish, and Kijirs

Mid-Night Poetry

Awakened in the night,
By a wee bit of stage fright,
I sit here bathed in computer's light,
Stomach grumbling and rumbling for a bite.

In early morn wake ups I do not delight,
For at midday heavy eyelids I must fight,
By drinking, nay, chugging caffiene with all my might,
Stomach churning and twisting from butterflies' flight.

Oh what a night, what a night.
(c) 2007 Shelly Chen

Woke up @ 4:30am this morning, and couldn't go back to sleep. Major presentation today. Although the butterflies are most likely the result of the mug of green tea downed at 9:30 last night. A bit of the jitters are probably for the presentation. On a brighter note, it seems the creative juices seem to flow better at 4:30 in the morning.

I.S.A.D.

In honour of the Hallmark holiday most popularly known as Valentine's Day, but a.k.a. International Singles Awareness Day, I give you:
DTR: Defining the Relationship; The Conversation We All Dread.



My favourite is "God has a wonderful plan for my life...and you're not part of it." XD!
ENJOY! and a Happy Valentine's Day to all.
v^_^v

Roses are...black?

Baccara. Baccara roses. Black roses.

Technically they're not black. Dommage. I actually thought that they were genetically modified to turn black, but they're just an intense deep shade of burgundy. Nevertheless the 2 feet Baccara, Pierre, in my room is simply regal. It's absolutely breathtaking. I can go on and on...

Driving to church yesterday I noticed the quaint flower shop near the Salvation Army church advertise these black beauties and I knew I just had to get one. One cool thing about growing up is that I can finally achieve some childhood dreams o' mine. This being one of them. I took a zillion pictures of Pierre, because sadly he's not going to last, and Guelph doesn't come by Baccaras easily. Nor can I justify filling my vase with one weekly.

Not Again

So you're standing there listen to her talking....it's more like ranting. She's rehashing the same thing over and over again. The exact same topic, but said in slightly different ways. Yet not different enough to be interesting. "Come on I get the point. Really I do." She's run over the subject till it's dead and six feet under. You want to get out of the conversation to talk to someone else, but how do you do it in a polite manner? You shift your eyes. You nod, but oh that just got her going on another mini rant. How long is this going to last? It seems like the minutes are dragging....

Ok friends, I know for a fact that I have put you through this. If you've known me for an extended period of time, i.e. more than a day I have put you through this. Thank you for your grace, patience, and friendship, and for listening! :) I really appreciate it, and I'll try not to dwell on things too much.

For the Record

Hey Me in the Future,

For the record in the last semester of university at the age of 21, I was into, in no particular order or any semblance of organization.

1. watching HOUSE with Chelsea
2. the colour green, preferably a shade of lime with some turquoise thrown in
3. puzzling over sudokus in class
4. eyeing things at different angles to see if it would make a good photograph
5. plain black tea with milk and lots of sugar
6. the song of WC '06 "Mighty to Save"
7. laughing uncontrollaby at "farq-u-harson"
8. indian food

Tagged!

Katie V has made my day, I've been tagged.
So...here we go!

The Rules of Tagging
-grab the nearest book to me,
-turn to page 123,
-read 4 lines down
-record the next 3 lines
-tag 3 people

"...ordination of the apostles Jesus' first concern was with the multitudes while afterward the emphasis shifted to the disciples, and especially to the Twelve (Henry Latham, op.cit., pp.188-269. Whether such a deci..."

p.123 The Master Plan of Evangelism By Robert Coleman

To give context the book is a wee book, not even an inch thick so the excerpt is actually from the footnotes. Not the actual text. My DG's reading it this semester.

I tag: Lydia of the Low, Zoe, Lady of Klintberg, and Dan the Man Richardsen

Application for Graduation

Signed, sealed, and....waiting for it to be delivered. I have applied to graduate.

Shelly Chen
Bachelor of Arts, Honours.
Major International Development
Emphasis Economic and Business Development
Minor Economics

No turning back now. It's terrifying. Graduation is like this oncoming massive locomotive that seems to be rushing towards me. I've worked to get here for the past 16 years of my life. Now that the end is looming, it's like, "So this is it?"

I know I'm on staff and all, but that's the real world. A part of me wants to stay on being a student just so I can stay in the nest.

Grad school anyone?

Staying Put

It's settled. I'm staying here in Canada for this coming year. STINT is a no-go, at least for this year. I'm a bit disappointed, but not really. Both options had its perks and challenges. There's a part of me that's a bit relieved that I won't have to support-raise my entire salary within two-three months of graduation and then jet off to another continent. Although I'm still praying that I'll be on campus by next September.

No need to sell off the furniture. No need to pack and move everything back to New York. No need to miss out on experiencing the "firsts" of staff with my friends.

One more year to train and prepare. One more year to enjoy the freedoms, the comforts, and the beauty of Canada. One more year to improve my language skills. One more year to get to go to Summit and WC. OH AND THE POSSIBILITY OF GOING ON PROJECT AS STAFF.

Hey so overall I think I'm actually pretty pumped about staying here.

Asian Parents...

are complex, funny beings. I think I'm finally starting to figure them out.

A Thousand Words

You know what they say about pictures; one is worth a thousand words. Inspired by the photos that Beth posted on her blog, I took up my camera again, and returned to my asian roots this week. It's really helping me to beat the winter blahs by seeing the beauty in the everyday. This world is full of signs of God's grace. Seeing as how my blog has been lacking in words, perhaps my pictures will make up for it.

May I introduce signs of grace my new photoblog. For now it'll be old pictures because I've lost my USB adapter for my camera. There is a sinking feeling that it might be somewhere in Austria, but once I get another cable, I'll be able to upload some pictures that I've been taking recently.

I'm excited to see how far I can push my little Nikon. Silas' advice about using what one has really challenged me. That's not to say I don't want bigger and better toys though. :D Mhmmm...Digi SLRs.

Vindicated

"Starbucks runs into a forbidding PR attack."

When I was at the Forbidden City, I was really peeved at the Starbucks that was housed there. Now I am as much of an aficionado of Starbuck's as any other coffee lover, but to see a Starbuck's in the Forbidden city was such an insult. So much so that I tried (unsuccessfully) to boycott it. Despite my lack of self-control I was still annoyed at the multinational corporation because you don't see Starbucks at other cultural sites. i.e. The Louvre or The Pyramids.

So when I read the the almost full page article on how Starbucks is getting bad PR, I felt vindicated. The article is in the National Post, and expresses much of my sentiments exactly.

"All I want is for Starbucks to move out of the Forbidden City peacefully; quietly. And we'll continue enjoying Starbucks elsewhere in the city." Amen brother!

Tray-Bogganing

Tonight after our volleyball game, my girls and I hiked it to this huge hill in Guelph to go tray-bogganing. That is to slide down hills on food trays, and slide down we did. The key apparently is to keep your feet in the air.