Hang Out Place

I see Shaun, sunglasses on, even in the shade of our bench, indifferently listening to his iPod while flipping through a magazine. I see all of the people all sitting in a row, straining forwards or backwards in order to see and talk to each other. I see the frantic person pressing buttons on his calculator in a last ditch effort to make a decent attempt at his math homework before math class starts in 10 minutes. I see the huge array of bags, books and water bottles carelessly strewn across the floor of the bench, piled on top of each other and being kicked around. I see two people sitting on the floor, with their backs leaning up against a pillar, smiling in intimate conversation. I hear the loud cacophony of voices around me, the words jumbling over each other in an effort to be heard over the others. I hear the laughs and shrieks mingling amid the background noise of the wind blowing through the palm trees. I see the people watching, judging, talking about the people who pass by the bench. I see the people draped on each other in hugs, sitting on each other, leaning on each other in order to make room for one more person on the already crowded bench.

Taking a step back...
I see the same people in a close mass, interacting with each other...but the sound is gone. Mouths are moving with no voices coming out. The meaning of each gesticulation, each body movement takes on a whole new meaning when not attached to the timbre of a voice. There is a whole new side to everything.

Dalai Lama Trip Expectations

Something Mr. Canfield said that stuck with me was what his expectations for this trip (the trip to see the Dalai Lama) were. "I have no expectations. I am an empty bowl, waiting to be filled." Many people agreed with the idea of going on this trip and not having any pre-conceived notions to cloud our experience. However, I think it is hard to approach anything without any preconceived notions. Since the day we are born, we are exposed to all sorts of different stimuli which influence and shape the way we think. Over the years, sixteen to be exact, those beliefs become engrained in your, and are hard to escape. This is a concept the Dalai Lama talks about in his book, "The Art of Happiness". He says that we cannot go from a negative state of mind to a positive one straightaway. First, you have to achieve calmness in your mind. That way, you can learn how not to react to powerful emotions by getting angry or upset. Once you mind is cam, like a blank, neutral slate, it is easy to build good virtues onto it, thus achieving a positive mind set. I tried to go to the trip with a neutral state of mind, but as we will later see, I had pre-judged the outcome of this trip without even knowing it.

Horoscopes

I'm not the superstitious type, but even I have to admit that sometime, this is more than just a coincidence. I started out reading horoscopes just for kicks, to see what "horrors" my day would bring, or what "good fortune" I had to look forward to. And when I first started reading them, they were pretty funny. General and broad, they were vague enough to touch some aspect of my day, but none of them had the real ring of truth to them. Before, I always used to read the horoscopes in the Honolulu Advertiser, E Section "Island Life", 2nd page, right next to the "Ask Annie" column, and above the Sudoku puzzle. But I recently discovered the Horoscopes sect ion on my Yahoo! mail homepage. The first time I checked the new and improved online version, clicking on the Sagittarius button, I didn't think much of it: just another random "prediction" filled with generalizations that could apply to anyone, and in fact had to apply to 1/12 of the people out there reading this. However, I would find myself passing my mouse over the horoscope tab, letting the full message expand, and glancing over the words for a second or two before continuing with my mouse on its path to preview my email. But over time, that second or two turned into a minute or two while my mind roamed over the day's events. And invariably, I would usually find one or two happenings in my day that could possibly be related to the horoscope. But one, while a little freaked out over what my prediction said, I took a step back and looked at the way predictions really work. If you truly believe in horoscopes, you will always find some part of your day that can relate the horoscope, because you can twist the way you interpret situations to make them follow what you horoscope said what happen. Additionally, if you believe in horoscopes, and read them in the morning, they may influence any decisions you make later in the day, therefore making a self-fulfilling prophecy, leading you to believe that your horoscope actually came true. And if you don't believe in horoscopes, no matter how much you day might accidentally coincide with your horoscope, your mind will refuse to believe that any "predictions" came true.
My horoscope for today says, "New information may cause you to redefine your values -- and your behavior." And if I was superstitious, I would say that is talking about my recent revelations about horoscopes, causing me no longer to believe in them.

April Fool's Day...Gotcha!

I had almost forgotten the significance of today until I was on the phone with my friend, and he started telling me the weirdest story. He was out in Longs, buying pencils, and decided to buy a diet Coke. That is, until the person behind the register asked for some ID. Since when did buying a diet Coke require an ID?! The sales clerk even called over her manager, and kept repeating that they couldn't sell my friend a diet Coke without any ID. My friend got more and more confused and frustrated until finally, the sales clerk yelled, "April Fool's Day...Gotcha!", and everybody in the store burst out laughing. By that time, my friend was extremely pissed off, and left the store in a huff after buying his stuff.

While I love April Fool's Day, especially the French counterpart, Poisson d'Avril, where children hang paper fishes on people's backs - this brings back fond memories of my French class and I visiting our previous French teachers and mobbing them with paper fish - sometimes, people can take hoaxes a little too far. I was looking at an article about famous April Fool's Day Hoaxes, and the one of the top hoaxes recorded in the Museum of Hoaxes is one done by the BBC news show Panorama. In 1957, they showed announced that Swiss farmers had experienced a bumper crop of spaghetti, thanks to the mild winter, and the elimination of the dreaded "spaghetti weevil". This was accompanied by footage of Swiss farmers pulling strands of spaghetti out of trees. Huge numbers of people were taken in by this, and called the BBC news stations, trying to find out how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. BBC diplomatically replied to this questions by saying they should place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce, and to hope for the best. I personally enjoy a really good hoax, as long as the hoax doesn't hurt anyone, either physically, or by making fun of them.

Reading April Fool's Day hoaxes made me curious about the origin of April Fool's Day. I did some research and found out that ancient cultures used to celebrate New Year's on or around April 1st. After Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calender which replaced the Julian calender, New Years was supposed to be celebrated on January 1st. However, many people continued to celebrate on April 1st, and so people made fun of them, and sent them on fool's quests, or trying to trick them into believing falsehoods. This practice spread around the world, thus starting April Fool's Day. I think it's really interesting to look into the background of such a famous day, since most people know about the day, but don't really think or know about the background of this day.

Getting into College

So college decision came out last week (at least most of them by email did), and as a junior about to enter the college admissions process (oh, if I could count the amount of times I've heard that phrase in the last week alone), it's scary as well as exciting to watch this week of joy as well as tears for the seniors. The scary part really, is discovering how arbitrary the college admissions process is. Plenty of seniors I know who are intelligent, talented, and well-rounded didn't make it in to their top colleges. It's sad to see people who deserve this so much not be able to reach their goals. It's also scary to think that if some people like that, who come off pretty near perfect on paper, are getting rejected or wait-listed on Ivy League colleges, then what hope is there for the rest of us? That's not to say this week was completely depressing, a number of very deserving seniors got into their first choice colleges, or many other excellent schools.
It's just interesting to see how this has affected everyone. One of my friends in particular has spent his entire four years of high school trying to achieve his goal of getting into a certain college. Now that he has been accepted, while he is very happy that his four years of hard work has finally paid off, he has to reevaluate his life, and reorganize the rest of his lives. It's just amazing to think that his entire high school life was consumed with that one goal, and now that it has been achieved, he feels kind of disoriented. While it is disappointing to see some amazing people not get into their first choice of colleges, I still believe that they will be successes, no matter what university they attend. Not to endorse the whole "you have to find the right college to match you" stuff the college counselors are spouting and that everyone thinks is bs, but I think smart, motivated people will do great wherever they go, because of their personalities. Sure, being at that Ivy League school might have given them an edge later on in life, but the fact is, if a person is dedicated and diligent, they will find a way to succeed in their life, no matter what.

How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life

I recently finished reading a book called, "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life". Never heard of it? Not surprising, since the book was pulled out of stores when the author was sued for plagiarism. Not for plagiarizing actual paragraphs, but for using similar concepts and phrasing as the Megan McCarthy, the author of "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings".
This seems ridiculous to me. In a world filled with millions upon millions of published books, let alone unfinished manuscripts and novels, it is inevitable that you will come upon someone who has had the same idea as you. Magazines and various newspaper have accused Kaavya Viswanathan of copying passages from authors like Meg McCafferty, Tanuja Desai Hidier, Salman Rushdie, and Meg Cabot. I'm sure that tons of books out there have ideas in their books that are similar to ones in other previously published books. So why did everyone make such a big deal about this particular author and this particular book? Some people think it is because of Kaavya Viswanathan's success. Her book was headed towards the New York Time's Bestseller List. Dreamworks had bought the movie rights. Little, Brown and Company had signed a 2-book deal with her for an advance sum of what was reported to be at least $500,000. As a 17-year old (at the time) Harvard student, that is quite a success. And success inspires jealousy.
As an Indian American myself, and as a fan of books written from the viewpoint of American-born Indians with Indian born parents, I would have liked to believe that Kaavya Viswanathan was innocent. However, I had read the Megan McCafferty books before, and had also loved them. I was ultimately convinced by the articles The Harvard Crimson had published, citing many passages that were disappointingly similar to Megan McCafferty's works. Here is an example

McCafferty's book	Viswanathan's novel
page 7: "Bridget is my age and lives across the street. For the first twelve years of my life, these qualifications were all I needed in a best friend. But that was before Bridget's braces came off and her boyfriend Burke got on, before Hope and I met in our seventh grade Honors classes."	page 14: "Priscilla was my age and lived two blocks away. For the first fifteen years of my life, those were the only qualifications I needed in a best friend. We had bonded over our mutual fascination with the abacus in a playgroup for gifted kids. But that was before freshman year, when Priscilla's glasses came off, and the first in a long string of boyfriends got on."

It's really to sad to think that Kaavya Viswanathan's entire career was ruined, because of a stupid mistake, that is, if it was intentional. She claims that she loved Megan McCafferty's books when she younger, and "didn't realize how much she must have internalized her words". But plagiarized or not, I still enjoyed reading the book. While her second book deal was canceled, I hope that she can overcome the stigma she has gained and continue her writing career.

Junior Function

I guess it is a little late to be writing about Junior Function, since was almost 3 weeks ago, but since we just got our pictures, I think it's okay. I had written a journal entry before Function about how if you have high expectations for something, chances are, the event will be a let down to what you are expecting. I was extremely excited for Function, but after listening to the words of my friend, who was reminiscing about previous parties and dances, and how the ones she always expected to be really fun turned out boring, and the ones she thought would be a drag turned out to be exciting. That kind of worried me, because I didn't want Function to turn out like that. I had this little debate in my head about what do to. One side of me was like, "Just start to think that Function won't be fun, and then it will turn out unexpectedly fun, and you'll be all set." The other side of me then said, "But what if you jinx it by thinking that, and then it really turns out to not be fun? And besides, that won't really work, since you would only be thinking Function would suck so that it wouldn't suck; you don't really believe that." At that point, I was beginning to confuse even myself, and I decided to just stop obsessing, and see how the night turned out.
And everything turned out all right. It was the most exciting thing ever, like I had hoped it would be, but I had a lot of fun, and enjoyed the evening. I guess this was kind of lesson in positive thinking and superstition and all that. If you just expect something to just be "magical", nothing is going to happen. If you want to have a fun time, you have to go out and make your own fun. And all the superstition, and trying to not be excited about it so it wouldn't be letdown really was just a way to try to psych myself out. I've learned that while I shouldn't put a lot of expectations on one thing, being excited about it doesn't hurt. I'm trying to do the same thing for prom this year. While I am very excited, I think part of the excitement is due to the fact that it is something new, and I don't know what it is going to be like. I'm keeping my expectations real: I won't know most of the people there, since I'm a junior, but I do have quite a few senior friends who I can hang out with and have a good time. I guess we'll just wait and see how it turns out!