Had a good talk with Ivonne today

and before you tear my head from off my shoulders, I talked to you too, Connie. And some other people I guess. Around noon I went with my little brother to his dad's church (yup, he has a dad who lives quite nearby so I guess this family is just divorced).

Came home and chilled for a while after, when the MSNing took place, as it was raining outside (otherwise we were thinking of going to Shilin). The party Rotary thing was at 6, but it took a while to get going. They made me talk and asked me random questions in Chinese and put me on the spot good, but it was ok. Got some nice presents, incl. a puppet signed by a famous Taiwanese puppeteer. w00t. Afterwards, rode the subway with Ivonne and we talked about stuff.

After an initial discussion of the use of "friend" and related words to describe people (acquaintance is not good to say here), we launched into an interesting discussion. She was all asking about my post-secondary plans & I said I would probably go to Malaspina & live with my 'rents. And she took askance to that indeed, insisting that I should go see the world, go on another exchange, and whatever. But I countered with the importance of friends and the likes. On the whole, she seemed to be winning, point by point & making me want to sell my future short, go into debt & do all sorts of crazy things for the hell of it.

But then I realised my rebuttal: my life is about a legacy. It's not about having a bunch of crazy experiences, drinking and partying, forgetting stuff because you were too drunk and the likes. It's also not about working too hard, studying constantly and the likes. It's about people, my friends, with whom I build relationships, because that is the only afterlife I get, in the memory of people whose lives I've touched--however cheesy and lame that may sound.

I invest in skills for myself partly for enjoyment, but also for the children I might have (if girls up to my stupid standards ever like me)... I mean, I am not going to wait for some little guy (or gal) of mine to be 7 or 8 and a teacher says, "Your child is good at piano, you should look into piano lessons." I want to have the opportunity there, so if aforementioned hypothetical offspring could rule at piano, it's not a game of catchup with people who started 5 or 10 years earlier. It's about opportunities, giving A.H.O. a fighting chance to really r0x0r the s0x0rs at an area of especial interest. And the likes. Somewhere in there, it would also be nice to write a bunch of songs or novels or something, so I have something that can be enjoyed by others busting a move into the public domain after I am gone.

On a lighter note, I once heard somebody mention that they attended "a 'celebration of life ceremony' for someone, because that was what they thought was in accordance with his wishes." Well just in case of unlikely circumstances, let me apprise you of my wishes. A funeral. No Catholic mass religion crap, but no bright colors an stuff either. Or canned music... *fistshake*. And none of that cremation and scattered ashes either. It never works as good as it does in the movies (except possibly "the Big Lebowski") and the thought of people picking through the ashes for chunks of bone with chopsticks is just kind of creepy... nyurg.

That all didn't sound as good as it did in my head, but hopefully it was kind of interesting to some of you; others can scroll down and look at the picture of Santa with the Reindeer! Hooray! I mean, not to demean any of you :p On Tuesday there is some Rotary thing apparently affiliated with the Ministry of Education... also, I am now supposed to attend all my club meetings starting in the New Year. w00t, except for the stupid amount of Taiwanese they use which just doesn't help me at all. Come on. Pick ONE language & I'll learn it good, you only get to play around with bilingual games when one is your native language. So if you, Rotary guys, want to do that, let's play English + Chinese. Fair to all. Or just conduct all business in French with conversation in polite, gramatically correct Japanese. nyar

Anyway, 'nuff said, hope Calligraphy tomorrow is fun. K out [35 minutes]