Update from Taiwan:

Yesterday
food: 1/2 (ate too many times yesterday, but tried to keep it healthy)
fitness: 2/2 (ran up and down stairs for half an hour)
water: 2/2

Today
food: 2/2 (keeping my caloric intake low so far)
fitness: 2/2 (went on a walk/run and did some stairs this morning)
water: 2/2

I have a bit of anxiety because there isn't a scale I can use to weigh myself, which means that I'm left wondering whether I'm gaining weight. It's an awful feeling.

I need a way to continue dieting while on vacation. There's no way for me to log calories, protein, fats, and carbs without knowing what's in food, but I can't allow myself to gain weight on this trip. I'll be gone for a month, which is a long time to negate months and months of effort. This process has taken over a year so far!

I am officially an alumna of the University of California, Los Angeles. What a weekend! The last four years have been tremendously life-changing, not to mention filled to the brim with good times. I emerge from my undergraduate cocoon ready to take on the trials and tribulations of becoming a legal scholar and get on with becoming my own person.

It's an amazing thing when you finally realize that you have finally reached a point at which you can qualify the changes you've made over the past year as truly a lifestyle change. I no longer allow myself to eat to my heart's desire, I exercise what some may consider a high degree of self control, and it's taken me a hell of a long time to train myself to do these things.

I ate too much today. I often wonder how the hell I allowed myself to consume among the most detrimental victuals on the planet without bothering to give a smidgen of a thought as to what the nutrition facts blatantly stated. In the past, I did this guiltlessly, nearly constantly at every meal. It didn't begin to matter until I reached adulthood and my metabolism caught up with my poor eating habits and the the slow halt of my athleticism.

The guilt that I felt today was bittersweet, for it marks a small failure that sprouts from a much larger accomplishment. I will eventually get to a point at which I'm entirely happy with myself, and I've finally learned how to use the tools.

Bill Clinton

Former President Bill Clinton was scheduled to speak at my college commencement this Friday, which was the one thing about graduating that brought me excitement for these past few weeks. While I don't entirely blame the union and believe that the regents deserve the majority of shit for this, I am exceedingly disappointed and pretty outraged. I FUCKING LOVE CLINTON! I have his books, his audiobooks, his autograph...I may as well be a fangirl. What's worse? MY PARENTS FUCKING LOVE CLINTON! They were excited! My mom even said they'd bring the GOOD camera (because her daughter merely graduating isn't enough to warrant breaking out the big guns).

Former President Clinton not speaking at UCLA commencement ceremony

By

Phil Hampton

6/10/2008

Former President Bill Clinton won't be addressing graduates at the UCLA College of Letters and Science commencement ceremony on Friday, June 13, as previously scheduled.

 

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block will deliver keynote remarks to approximately 4,000 graduating seniors and their guests at the event, which is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Pauley Pavilion.

 

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) asked Clinton not to speak at UCLA while its union members are working without a contract and negotiating with the University of California system. The union also asked commencement speakers at other UC campuses to cancel their scheduled appearances. AFSCME represents approximately 20,000 University of California employees, including about 5,400 at UCLA.

Because a contract could not be guaranteed by Friday, Clinton and UCLA agreed that for the university's planning purposes it would be best to select a different keynote speaker.

 

"It's unfortunate that union activities are affecting a UCLA event intended to celebrate student achievement," said Judith L. Smith, dean and vice provost of undergraduate education at the UCLA College of Letters and Science. "While we're disappointed for students and their family members looking forward to hearing a former president speak, we anticipate a joyful mood as we send off graduating seniors with a ceremony filled with colorful traditions."

I think that the only thing that would make this even remotely better is if BobbyDJ showed up at my doorstep looking like this:

BobbyDJ1

.....or this, this would suffice too:

BobbyDJ2

I've decided that my next tattoo will be a hummingbird pollinating a collection of pansies. Here's why:

Pansy

June 13/14: various graduation ceremonies

Pauley Pavillion Commencement

June 14 (evening): flight from LAX to Taipei, Taiwan

Taipei

June 20: flight from Taipei to Hong Kong, then Shanghai

Shanghai

July 5: flight from Shanghai back to Taipei

July 9: flight from Taipei to Seoul

Seoul

I plan on coming back to Los Angeles July 15th or so, and I might go to Japan after I leave Korea. Talk about globetrotting!

August 13: flight from LAX to Iowa City

Iowa City

My mom told me that I'm no longer fun anymore; who knows what that could mean. 

I'm trying to stay calm about Obama and wait until someone announces that this is the real deal but it's hard to contain the excitement.

I love it when people are on their high horse about taking the initiative to do just barely of what's expected of them. Who do you think you are? Oh, my apologies your highness, I hope you didn't your hands dirty. I also greatly enjoy being a catty bitch, so shove it.

Can't wait to graduate. Can't wait to see my beloved Jess in China. Can't wait to start my legal education. There are so many wonderful things that I've set up for myself just beyond the horizon.

I guess I'll start reading some trashy novels to eat up my time. Michael Crichton, here I come.

Every now and then I experience a patch of life that moves extremely quickly for me. Days breeze by like hours and I find myself wondering where the time went and regretting that I didn't make better use of it. The past week has been as such and I chalk it up to a combination of stress about graduating, my parents leaving for China where they may experience aftershocks, and overall fickleness about a variety of things in my life.

UCLA with downtown Los Angeles

Whether I'd admit this to you in person or not, I am terribly frightened to leave Los Angeles. There is a good chance that I may never come back. This was never fully my intention; I had always known that there may be circumstances that would bring me back to the place where I was born, raised, have lived, and will live until this coming August. The fact of the matter is that coming back to Los Angeles relies greatly on whether I decide to transfer at the end of my first year of law school. It also depends on which schools accept me and offer scholarships. These next few months could mean the end of my time in my hometown.

I've been obsessed with Robert Downey Jr. for years. The obsession greatly increased when he joined the cast of Ally McBeal, which I had already been watching because of my obsession with Lucy Liu. His character, Larry Paul, was the perfect man. I think that this, combined with his stunningly good looks, ignited the screaming fangirl in me.

Robert Downey Jr.

His performance in the Charlie Chaplin documentary reinforced how versatile of an actor he is. His performance in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang allowed him to tell, in some part, the world the stories of overcoming his addictions and struggles associated with this. His characters are nearly always witty, sarcastic, intelligent, and off-beat, which leads me to believe that he's either been typecast (fine with me!) or that he's genuinely all of these things. His musical abilities are also fan-fucking-tastic so you should check out his CD, The Futurist, and his songs on the Ally McBeal soundtrack if you're interested. I also saw Iron Man opening night, which has pretty much set my obsession with him flying off the charts. Yes, I'll get to the point.

I've also been obsessed with Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy. I'll admit that I wasn't one of the original followers of the show but since noticing it I have seen and enjoyed nearly every episode, and many of them multiple times. Seth MacFarlane also strikes me as someone who is witty, sarcastic, intelligent, and VERY off-beat, so you can see how I quickly fell for him too. He's also very politically active, in the good way. Last week I saw his show, Freakin' Sweet with Alex Borstein and Janeane Garofalo, in which he sings songs from Family Guy and other comedic pieces with the Familiy Guy orchestra. He wore a three-piece suit, smoked cigarettes, and drank Jack Daniel's throughout the show (Frank Sinatra, anyone?) and looked mighty fine doing it. Did I mention that he has a spectacular singing voice? I'm sure that you're all starting to see the parallelism now.

Seth MacFarlane

There is an episode of Family Guy in its fourth season entitled, "Fat Guy Strangler" in which Peter starts the an association for the advancement for fat people. Robert Downey Jr. guest stars as Lois's traumatized serial killer brother, Peter  Pewterschmidt.

DO YOU REALIZE WHAT THIS MEANS FOR ME? This means that two of the men that I'm most attracted to were in the same room together, recording lines and having a fantastic time doing it. Oh, the fantasies are ENDLESS!

Just thought you'd like to know.