Archive for April, 2008
Being Honest With The Parents
Author: Ams
I was just going through a stack of papers and sorting them into my keep and recycle piles when I found the Rainbow centre edition of Blueprint Magazine I had picked up a while ago. I had skimmed through the articles before but I didn’t really remember much. I came across one article called “A Closet Tantrum” where the author wrote about how his decision to come out was selfish. He ended off by stating that “the truth may hurt now, but with any luck, they’ll (his parents) come to realize that honesty was in fact the best policy.” It made me think about my own honesty with my parents. From what I can remember about my childhood and teenage years, I have been quite honest with my parents. Sometimes, I’ve been a little too honest but I attribute that to my bluntness and avoidance of sugar coating things (something that I unfortunately don’t do enough these days). I continued this into my university years and didn’t really avoid telling my parents (read: my mom) about the things I would do. I always thought that this was because I sincerely believed that honesty was the best policy.
Recently I’ve been thinking about my honesty with my mother who relays the information to my father and typically calms him down after he freaks out over my decisions. I always thought that my honesty with them was due to my insistence on being an honest person. Well lately I have found myself purposely keeping things from them. Why? Because I know they would not approve and I’m tired of justifying myself to them. When Jack and I first started dating I told my mother right away even though I knew they wouldn’t approve. They insisted that I should focus on my studies and avoid relationships since they were time consuming (which I can completely understand when I look back now). However I told them anyway and I stuck with my decision. Of course, I wouldn’t have been able to do this if my parents weren’t open-minded enough (unlike many other Indian parents that I know) to let their daughter attend a university away from home, and allow her to date despite their personal beliefs against it. I always pointed to this situation as proof of my honesty with my parents. So what is up with my life now?
read comments (0)License To Kill
Author: Ams
Who said only James Bond has a license to kill?
1. 4 RCMP officers taser and suffocate Robert Dziekanski to death
2. NYPD detectives aquitted on kiliing Sean Bell after firing 50 rounds of bullets
Does having a badge give you the right to murder civilians? Who is the real terrorist? Who is the real bully? Who should civilans really be afraid of? The supposed “bad guys” or the fiscade of the “good guys”?
Anxiety Attack vs. Asthma Attack
Author: Ams
Which would prefer to have, assuming you had to choose one: asthma attack or anxiety attack? That is the decision I have been having to make in the past couple of months. For some reason my asthma medication triggers anxiety attacks for me. It only started happening this term, and previously my heartrate wouldn’t even increase with the use of my puffer. An increased heart rate is a symptom of asthma puffer medication, and it’s supposed to be harmless. Well…it’s not. My increased heart rate makes my body start to shake and I become really anxious. It’s like having to perform on stage and getting butterflies…only multiply that by 100 times the anxiety. So basically I have to choose between not being able to breath from an asthma attack or not being able to function with an anxiety attack.
I went to the health clinic on campus to talk to a doctor about it and I had to wait 20 minutes to see a nurse. She asked me a bunch of questions about my diet, my medication and my stress level. She basically concluded that I just need to “take it easy”…whatever that means. I usually suffer from shortness of breath from walking to campus and I used my puffer to breathe more easily. I admit that some of the attacks were provoked by my elevated stress level, but many times they weren’t. I wasn’t stressed or anxious at all for the latter times. And not everytime I use my puffer I get an anxiety attack or have an increased heart rate. I don’t smoke or do drugs, I don’t drink coffee (yes, I got through 5 years of post-secondary education without drinking any coffee), I rarely drink tea (and it’s usually watered down greentea), and I don’t drink energy drinks. So I have no idea what is triggering them. Anyway, I don’t know why they need to swipe my healthcard and get paid $40 for them to just tell me to take it easy. At least now it’s on my medical record. I hope it’s nothing more serious…but I have no idea what it could be.
Official Complaint to Chameleon Hair Studio
Author: Ams
So I actually did something about my experience with CHAMELEON HAIR STUDIO AND SPA and I e-mailed the manager. It is my first letter of complaint ever, and I’m proud of it. I do hope that they take my seriously and don’t just brush me off. It would be unfortunate for others to experience the same disrespect, unprofessionalism and ethnocentricism that I endured. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just ignore me though. Here is the letter I sent them.
Roommate Woes
Author: Ams
Ok, so this is my third rant post in a row. I swear my life isn’t this miserable. I just get more enthusiastic to post when I’m angry. =P
My roommates are stupid. Really, really stupid. If you haven’t been following my previous posts about them then I’ll sum them up in a few sentences. I didn’t want to talk about them in great detail before, but I really need to know that I’m not crazy and they really are as stupid as I think they are.
Roommate #1: A 21 year old first-year university student who has never lived away from home and has been completely sheltered from the world. She didn’t realize that she was attending a different university than she thought she was until I corrected her three times (there are two universities in our city and they are down the street from each other). She also willingly believed that we get spagetti from spagetti trees after a professor showed a fake documentary on spagetti trees to get students to question what they are being taught. Clearly she missed the point. Did I mention she’s sheltered? Oh yes, and when the person living above us was having bed-banging sex she asked me what the sound was and why people keep jumping upstairs. Yes, she really is 21 years old. She also does not understand the importance of proper hygiene because 1) she keeps her toothbrush sitting in a puddle of water on the counter, 2) she tries to reuse one-time-use mop heads to clean the floor (with water, not with any bleach product) and 3) she has the tendency to let things rot for over a week and not notice despite the OBVIOUS smell. She also likes to make comments about “all” Chinese people, such as how they smell and how there aren’t any differences between them and Japanese people. Yes, she really said that and didn’t even show any remorse when I told her that her statement was offensive and far from the truth. So yes, that is roommate number one.