1 point for trying

~1 point for trying~
Gave up trying
So I'll just let it be
But no, they won't let you
So I'll try again
Try again
I'll get 1 point for trying
But...
Give up your dreams
They're called 'dreams' for a reason
Dreams don't come true, now do they?
And...
Maybe this wasn't meant to be in the first place
I'll go back to 'normal'
I'll go back to normal...
The alternative is an option
The current...is a question

Disciplined

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Music] [Jpn// HY - Confidence Album (recommended by K) / ZARD - Request Best 'Beautiful Memory' Best of Album (recommended by Uko) / Asian Kung Fu Generation - first 3 albums ] [Eng// The Kooks - Konk / KT Tunstall - Eyes to the Telescope / ] [Krn// Also listening to some Korean stuff lately =P But I'm not gonna name it =P]

[Series][Krn Drama: You Are My Destiny]

[Films][Jpn - Shonen Merikensack (ft. Aoi Miyazaki)] [Eng - UP (Pixars 10th animation film)]

[Books] Paul Arden -"Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite"& "It's Not How Good You Are. It's How Good You Want To Be"

These are the media stuff I've been listening/watching/reading lately/at the moment.
If it looks like I'm a busy man, no I'm not. I'm the most lazy kid ever I think. I might write about some of the stuff above later on.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Signs: I've been noticing that there might be people reading this!! Thanks for dropping by! I really appreciate it ;) Guess through the Japan Blog, striveagain.blogspot has gain some publicity. But whatever, my humble life is not that much interesting anyways, but I really want to write things that matters to people. You see, it's not about me really, it's about you. I think by reading blogs you will gain something for yourself. Whatever that is, you decide for yourself. But blogging and blogreading is definately more than just writing a 'personal diary'. Everything is connected in way. Readers are not just merely bystanders who just read and do nothing, they'll react and think for themselves, how things affect them in their personal life.

Apologies for the vagueness, although i've said this many times on my blog, if you don't get it than nevermind it. I've added some communication theories in it (Yay, I've been studying lately! I'm studying communications if you didn't already know.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let's start this off with a memorable photo from my summer trip to Japan!

This was roughly 1.5 months ago @ TOKYO Narita Airport. My lunch before departing back to Holland. HMT wasn't here cause he already ate something. When I orderd this, I thought I would get some potatoes, turns out, it was just chips."-__-

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~New Start 2009/2010~

I've switched school since the start of this schoolyear. After 3 years of VU [Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam] I've decided it was time for something New & Refreshing! 3 Years VU, 2 studies, nothing achieved! So yeah, yell at me or look down on me, whatever.

My new school is the UvA [Universiteit van Amsterdam]! It's closer, saves me alot of travel-time. But that doesn't stop me from being late at school "-__-.

Been into it for a month now, ofcourse you got the usuall colleges and classes. New year, new school also mean new classmates. But I'm not excited, cause it's the same every year. The compilation of people are fairly the same each year. Nothing special. =P

~Disciplined Me?~

One day at school, in a conversation about making homework, my classmate said this:" Well he (meaning me) is Chinese, and you know Chinese are always disciplined." I literally laughed out. Chinese are disciplined? Well not me! This chinese here is far from disciplined (when it comes to waking up in the morning =P)

So are Chinese disciplined? I guess each ethinicity do have some unique traits. Like they say Dutch people are greedy, Surinamese are lazy, Germans are 'punktlich', Americans arrogant, Italians romantic etc. Some might be true in general, but let's talk about the Chinese case.

~Made in China~

Chinese are disciplined? Well I think, Chinese CAN be disciplined. As you can see in this whole economic growth they're going trough, China is slowly getting in the right direction to become one of the big economic blocks in the world. Also another recent example, the Olympics 2008, look at how 'well' they organized it.

This very own 'well organized' Olympic also brings along the other side of China. The bad political organisation. All those people that got their houses brought down, in order to build new olympic facilities. Some got new houses or a amount of money, but still, from what've understand it didn't went that smooth. I'm not against China or anything, but in this same period you also had the 'Baby-milk-powder' -incident. But China didn't reported that cause they didn't wanted to cause bad publicity for China during the olympic games. How wrong is that?

The Baby-milk-powder...it's not an incident. Those Chinese people did that to save money. Thinking it won't harm the babies...How is that disciplined? Same with the case of toxic chemicals in Chinese toys, that occured some time ago. How is that disciplined?

As a summer part-time job, I've work in a 1Euro shop that sells only Chinese stuff some years ago. Most of the stuff you could buy there were quite of good quality for 1 Euro. I don't deny that. But I've seen some stuff...I was really speechless. I'm not gonna write more, since I don't think I'm allowed to say these stuff as a former-employer. But you get the point.

~If people were disciplined, the following stuff won't happen~

Previous week, my adapter, electric plug or whatever you call that thing of my modem was broken. So I called up my internet/tv/radio/telephone provider (which name starts with a U and ends with a C and is 3-letters). To ask them to solve this problem. They promised to send me a new one.

After 2 days it arrived...
Within 5 minutes it was already broken!!!
Reason: Bad design (made in China) The heavy block of like 1 kilo is too heavy for the small plastic plug to hang on. Now I know I won't be able to put in against the wall cause of the weight, so I plugged it in a multi plug case, when I wanted to plug it out...this happened!! (look photo beneath)

They sended me a new one again.
When it arrived, the surrounding case of the block was simply letting loose! It wasn't even hold together, I used a elastic to kept together.

!! 2 times of manufacturing failure !! 1. How can they make these bad products? 2. How can U*C even give these to the customers??!!

~While I'm at it...more bashing!~

Most of the days I'm alone at home, so making my diner is a everyday-hassle. It's not like I can't do it, more like, I don't wanna do it. Too lazy. So once in a while I order food.

You got good food places, you got bad food places...
Watch below...

Ordered at this Chicken food place, it came 2 hours!!! after I ordered it! I have no idea what they were doing. From my house to that place is like 5 min with the car. On top of that they messed up my order! I asked for the normal menu, they gave me the large menu?! This aint the first time, they messed up my order, the previous time too! And look at the hotwings, they are more like Blackwings!!

jeesh, I'm never gonna order here again.


Another day, another food order, another place. This time I went there to pick it up (there are quite some foodplaces around in my neighbourhood, alot!)

Got the Tagliatelly Carbonara...
Taste is okay.
Price: 7 Euro...
I know it's the way it is, but for the same price I can make this same diner for 4 people!
I think I'm gonna save some money, and spend some more time playing chef-cook at home.
Okay last thing, they gave me some bread along with the pasta. But what are these? Only the outer crispy edges of the bread? What about the whole bread? Is this supposed to be like this?

Such a multi-topic post. Communications-theories, School, sociology, politics, economics, culinair talk, bashing.

Well I hope you are satisfied, and if not, the next post I'm gonna show you my room and my clothes and gear!

Anyhow, I love writing for myself (Just it takes so damn long..."-___- I've been writing for quite some time now...)

An nyoung!