I spent the last two days organizing the clutter in my room and I’m only 1/4 done with the task. Tomorrow will be another day set aside for organizing and decluttering. I don’t think I’m much of a pack rat but how come I still end up with piles of stuff. Paper clutter is the worst – I have print-outs of all sorts going back to don’t know when.

I have set aside the last day of each month as my recycling/decluttering day. I do separate out paper and cardboard “trash” for recycling but because I don’t take them out, the movable clutter remains in the apartment. So starting this year, on my recycling day, I’ll take out all the recyclable stuff and place them into their respective recycling bins.

I have also set a forbidden zone in my room: Absolutely no paper, books, magazines or catalogs on the floor. From my experience, once a paper pile develops, it stays there till the next new year resolution day. And because a paper pile can only go so high, another new one will spawn within a short time. So no more paper pile on the floor this year!

While I was back in Malaysia, I was inspired by the greening the environment section in the local newspaper. Somebody said that he will shower only once a week to conserve water!! Ever since I came back, I have been using my own shopping bags when I go grocery shopping. That has drastically reduced the monstrous mountain of plastic bags in the closet.

And lastly, when I think I need to get more stuff, I should sing this line from U2′s Beautiful Day:
What you don’t have you don’t need it now!

As I talked to people who are staying with roommates, I discovered that roommate issues are all too common. What I dislike about roommate issues is that I hate the way I am when I deal with household injustice (at least injustice from my point of view). I hate that I become calculative and picky. I am so determined not to be taken advantage of but at the same time I know I am called to serve others, and I struggle to do just that in my own apartment…sigh. 

Through my discussions with friends and roommate horror stories that I’ve heard, here is how people have dealt with a roommate who does not take out the trash (or who does not contribute a fair share of trash out-taking): 

1. Have an uncomfortable talk about the trash issue and how the current situation stinks and that the “I will take the trash out when I feel like it” attitude is not good enough. And finally splitting the trash chore to one person taking out the trash on Monday-Thursday and the other person on Friday-Sunday. 
2. Buy another trash can and label the respective trash can with the owner’s name. And each person will take out his/her own respective trash. 
3. Instead of taking the trash out, place the trash in front of the never-take-out-trash person’s room (Shocking? But true!) 

All these conflicts over something so seemingly insignificant and yet it has the power to bring out the worst in a person.  

For some unknown reasons, I’ve dropped out of everyone’s must-invite-over-for-thanksgiving radar, so I planned a cook-something-nice-and-eat-alone thanksgiving meal. But that was not to be. Geraldine, my Cameroonian pal, gave me a call the day before Thanksgiving and I invited her over to share my Thanksgiving meal with me.

My original menu was Jabchae (Korean stirfried noodle with loads of vegetables) and baked belacan chicken. But cooking for people from different cultures can be rather tricky. I learned my lesson the first time I invited some African friends over for a meal. For that special meal, I made clear chicken soup with carrots, potatoes and onions, stirfried broccoli and carrots, and curry chicken. They spurned my chicken soup but liked my curry chicken and found the broccoli “interesting”. After some thought, I decided to stick with the Jabchae and belacan chicken (if she was white, I would steer clear of the belacan). I added the stir-fried collard greens, crossing my fingers that Geraldine would be ok with it. The meal turned out great, we had a good time chatting over ridiculous roommate issues, haunting past issues, and American cultural issues.

Turkey inflation:
1. For the past many years, the residential office had held a Thanksgiving turkey lottery and gave out 5 frozen turkeys each year. No turkey lottery this year.
2. For the past many years, a local church had held a big thanksgiving dinner for the international students. No big thanksgiving dinner this year.
3. For the past few years, my church had held a donate-a-frozen-turkey-to-a-local-family event. No free frozen turkeys to local families this year.

Are these signs of what’s to come?
I guess I won’t be out doing any Black Friday shopping this year then.

October 2006, I volunteered for World Vision and got to see Third Day and David Crowder Band for free. Today, I received an email from World Vision asking for volunteers for Casting Crowns with Leeland‘s concert at Lehigh on November 9. I get to see them for free…yay!

I seldom buy books from local bookstores, preferring to buy cheaper new or used books from online stores. Actually, I rarely buy books, I prefer to borrow from the library or do an inter-library loan. But last Saturday, I decided to go to the local christian bookstore to get a copy of The Apologetics Study Bible. I checked online and it cost $26.40 from Amazon.com. I was about to get it from Amazon but the free super saver shipping takes around 2 weeks. I realize how Americanized I’ve become when I cannot wait 2 weeks to get something…I want it now, I want it in an instant! The same book cost $39.90 at the bookstore and with their 60th anniversary sale (20% discount) and a 6% sales tax, I paid $33.90 for the book. I contributed $7.50 to the local christian bookstore economy! I can see how difficult it must be for them to compete with Amazon, Walmart etc, but I definitely won’t do this often, I prefer to contribute to my pocket economy.

The soybeans have turned yellow. Pretty soon all of it will be harvested leaving a barren land for another long cold winter. How depressing….

10am to 3pm

The average age of a homeless person in the United States is 9 years old!

The college of education had its first Day of Service last Friday. The day started with an information session and a simulation activity to expose the attendees to the issue of homelessness in the area. After a free lunch, the attendees separated and went to 3 different non-profit organizations and performed some community service. My group went to the Neighborhood Center and painted a stairwell.

I expected many students/staff/faculty members would turn up for this event, but only about 15 people came…that was rather disappointing for a college of over 600 students.

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4-5:30pm

People in Mainland China do not call each other by only the first name, they will say both the last (surname) and first names. Using only the first name is too personal and culturally unacceptable. Only close family members can do that. Friends? Nope.

That’s what my chinese/mandarin exchange class teacher told me. I never knew this cultural taboo, since in Malaysia, people go by first name basis all the time.

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7-9:30pm

The bible study group met again after a long summer break. This time we are doing Beth Moore’s The Patriachs. The introduction session talked about how names are very important to people and how many people are trying to make their names known and acknowledged. This is so true in the academia world. Professors want/need to publish many articles/books to maintain their status as top people in their field. Assistant professors want/need to publish many articles and books in order to be tenured. Doctoral students want/need to be first author in several articles, and co-authors in as many articles/books as possible to boost their CV in order to get a good job. Some people are shrewd and cunning in getting their name in an article. Some people’s work are stolen from under their noses, and someone else gets the glory. So much strife just to see one’s name in print.

Two months ago, I wondered what were those plants planted beside the cross-country trail. Well, it’s confirmed, they are soybean. The other day while I was out on my run, I stopped, looked around, stretched out my hand and plucked a single soybean pod

When it first became obvious that those plants were soybean, I had this thought of fresh green soybean (edamame) from the fields. But after waiting several weeks, the soybean pods were still rather small. This particular soybean pod is only half the size of edamame, I guess no fresh edamame then. These soybeans will probably end up becoming animal feed, like last year’s corn.

I was thinking of getting myself a nice not-my-birthday cake at Vegan Treats, but at $6.50 per piece they are quite pricey, so I got some nonvegan treats at the local grocery store instead. Whoopi pies = whipped cream sandwiched between two vanilla cakes. They are pretty good.

This morning was bad. I was awaken at 8am by apartment-mate’s loud animated phone conversation…uhhhh!!! And then the building’s fire alarm went off at around 8:20am and I really had to get out of bed and leave the building…. AHHHH!! We were finally allowed back into the building sometime after 9am. There wasn’t any fire or smoke, no idea what happened to trigger that alarm.

For the past 2 days, the library was packed. Lots of students at the computers and study desks.

It’s just the beginning of the semester, why is everyone studying so hard?

My hypothesis is that the new kids haven’t formed their social networks yet, so in order to not look lost and alone, they bury themselves in books. Or I might be wrong, these kids could be at Lehigh to study really hard.