Here's to a New School Year...

I'm guessing most people viewing this blog are past their school bus & school supply list days, but hope you still get a kick out of this...

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Elaine Wu <laineywu172@gmail.com>	8/28/12
to Liliane

hi mei,

sorry, i'm not 100% sure what my school id was but i think it might have been something like 666457488.

hope you had a good first day! i expect a full report whenever you get the chance - (although if you are able to, i would rather you be socializing with friends ^.~)

talk to you soon hopefully!
<3your jiejie

Liliane Wu <liliwooo1717@gmail.com>	8/29/12
to me

oh, i got the id from home... but i can't use it since you weren't enrolled last year

so i have to bother my bio teacher/psych teacher to find it for me. but i'm afraid we're using it for bio today (in an hour...) ah well 

i had a pretty good first day, very hectic though. and i got lost a lot (but it's all okay now cuz i know my way!!! ). but i like my bio and psych professors, english is okay, and i might be dropping out of love songs because it's different than what i hoped for. and it might make my schedule a little better.

i already have so much homework!!! gahhhhhhhh

well, i think it seems like a lot because the professors give us the whole syllabus at once, so it seems like i have to finish it all very soon...

and i still have to buy my bio lab manual, which i wish i knew earlier. all the people i contacted already sold theirs, and the bookstore sells is for $28! ripoffffff

i've pretty much seen most of the people i met at orientation somewhere on campus, and i saw a couple people i knew from school/CYSO! i saw two people from CYSO, one who graduated a year before me (although she's only working at UIC, not a student) and the other was my stand partner (although I didn't really like him...)

i'm starting to like the campus more, and i'm getting very used to living in the apartment!

tell me about thailand!!!!

have to go now, but talk to you later 

wuv wuv,

mei mei 

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Dearest Moo - It's been 9 months since I last saw you and I've missed you every single day...

 

Bubbies Make Me Happy

Hello from Lolo

If memory serves me correctly, the term "bubbies" first came about when I decided to raise two parakeets simultaneously instead of just one. Lolo was the male half of that parakeet couple, Chiquita being his female companion. (If our gender-identifying methods were correct, Lolo was also the only boy parakeet we ever had.)

The Wu Family parakeet history unfortunately has not had much luck in terms of longevity. Sadly, I believe the longest we were able to keep a bird was around 2 years - (some flew away, others met a more untimely fate) - but I hope those little bubbies all know somewhere in their bird consciousness how very much they were loved. Granted, Liliane often felt that instead of "loving", I was actually smothering/harassing the poor little birdies. (But love and smother/harass are arguably two sides of the same coin, right?)

(Another one of Liliane's favorite Youtube vids)

Proud Generation Harry Potter-ers O.O

I think it's fair to say that both Liliane and I can be described as unabashed nerds. It's been interesting to witness over the past decade or so, how nerdiness and nerd culture has been increasingly embraced by the mainstream. (I remember being shocked to learn from my sister how nerds had somehow become the "cool kids in school" during her years at Naperville Central.)

If one were to define the past few generations from a nerd's perspective, you can certainly argue that there was a distinctive Lord of the Rings Generation and a Star Wars/Star Trek Generation. I firmly believe that Liliane and I both belong the Harry Potter Generation and seeing as today is Harry Potter's birthday (as well as the night of a blue moon), I thought it would be appropriate to spread some Harry Potter love and share some Liliane facts in regards to "the Boy who Lived..."

If I were to bet, I'd say Liliane's favorite HP character has to be Hedwig.

Although Pigwidgeon would certainly be a worthy challenger...

Or any of the pets really...

But don't worry Hedwig, you'll always have a special place in our hearts!

Reportedly Liliane's favorite book out of the series...

...And Liliane's least favorite of the series.
(She didn't like how angsty/teenager-y Harry got and she absolutely detested Umbridge.)

Neither of us were particularly keen on the movie versions of the books - (they simply can't compare!) - but we did go see several of them in the theaters as a family.

I introduced Liliane to Pottermore while we were out eating at TGI Friday's with our mom.
Liliane's chosen Pottermore username is SnidgetMugwump10580

We were both sorted into Ravenclaw. (Our mom is in Hufflepuff.)

Pottermore matches you with a wand based on a personality quiz. Liliane ended up with a 14 1/2 inch, hard ash wand with a phoenix feather core. Of course, one must always take personality quizzes with a healthy spoonful of salt, but in this instance I feel like the "wand match" my sister got isn't terribly unreasonable...

(As described on Pottermore...)

Ash - The ash wand cleaves to its one true master and ought not to be passed on or gifted from the original owner, because it will lose power and skill. The tendency is extreme if the core is of unicorn. Old superstitions regarding wands rarely bear close examination, but I find that the old rhyme regarding rowan, chestnut, ash and hazel wands (rowan gossips, chestnut drones, ash is stubborn, hazel moans) contains a small nugget of truth. Those witches and wizards best suited to ash wands are not, in my experience, lightly swayed from their beliefs or purposes. However, the brash or over-confident witch or wizard, who often insists on trying wands of this prestigious wood, will be disappointed by its effects. The ideal owner may be stubborn, and will certainly be courageous, but never crass or arrogant.

Phoenix - This is the rarest core type. Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike.

Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent and detached in the world. These wands are the hardest to tame and to personalize, and their allegiznce is usually hard won.

Well, I think I've nerded out enough for one post. I will always be grateful to the Harry Potter series for the role its played in my life as well as the memories its created for me and Liliane.

For reasons that perhaps are obvious, perhaps require some explaining, this particular quote from Book 7 has taken on a whole new meaning for me and has helped bring some measure of comfort to me. Thank you, J.K. Rowling.

In Pursuit of Happiness... (Part 2)

The Science of Happiness - An Experiment in Gratitude

written by Liliane

Where Words Fail, Music Speaks...

Secret Music
by Siegfried Sassoon

I keep such music in my brain 
No din this side of death can quell; 
Glory exulting over pain, 
And beauty, garlanded in hell. 

My dreaming spirit will not heed
The roar of guns that would destroy 
My life that on the gloom can read 
Proud-surging melodies of joy. 

To the world’s end I went, and found 
Death in his carnival of glare;
But in my torment I was crowned, 
And music dawned above despair.

Music: An Ode

Algernon Charles Swinburne

(Now there's a name...)

WAS it light that spake from the darkness, 

or music that shone from the word,

When the night was enkindled with sound 

of the sun or the first-born bird?

Souls enthralled and entrammelled in bondage 

of seasons that fall and rise,

Bound fast round with the fetters of flesh, 

and blinded with light that dies,

Lived not surely till music spake, 

and the spirit of life was heard.

Music, sister of sunrise, and herald of life to be,

Smiled as dawn on the spirit of man, 

and the thrall was free.

Slave of nature and serf of time, 

the bondman of life and death,

Dumb with passionless patience that breathed 

but forlorn and reluctant breath,

Heard, beheld, and his soul made answer, 

and communed aloud with the sea.

Morning spake, and he heard:

and the passionate silent noon

Kept for him not silence: 

and soft from the mounting moon

Fell the sound of her splendour, 

heard as dawn's in the breathless night,

Not of men but of birds whose note 

bade man's soul quicken and leap to light:

And the song of it spake, and the light and the darkness 

of earth were as chords in tune. 

To Music: A Song

by Robert Herrick

Music, thou Queen of Heaven, Care-charming-spell,

That strik'st a stillness into hell:

Thou that tam'st Tygers, and fierce storms (that rise)

With thy soul-melting Lullabies:

Fall down, down, down, from those thy chiming spheres,

To charm our souls, as thou enchant'st our ears.

The Strange Music

by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Other loves may sink and settle, other loves may loose and slack,
But I wander like a minstrel with a harp upon my back,
Though the harp be on my bosom, though I finger and I fret,
Still, my hope is all before me, for I cannot play it yet.

In your strings is hid a music that no hand hath e'er let fall.
In your soul is sealed a pleasure that you have not known at all;
Pleasure subtle as your spirit, strange and slender as your frame,
Fiercer than the pain that folds you, softer than your sorrow's name.

Not as mine, my soul's anointed, not as mine the rude and light
Easy mirth of many faces, swaggering pride of song and flight,
Something stranger, something sweeter, something waiting you afar,
Secret as your stricken senses, magic as your sorrows are.

 But on this, God's harp supernal, stretched but to be stricken once,
Hoary time is a beginner, Life a bungler, Death a dunce.
But I will not fear to match them - no by God, I will not fear,
I will learn you, I will play you and the stars stand still to hear.

On Music

by Thomas Moore

When through life unblest we rove,

Losing all that made life dear, 

Should some notes we used to love, 

In days of boyhood, meet our ear,

Oh! how welcome breathes the strain!

Wakening thoughts that long have slept,

Kindling former smiles again

In faded eyes that long have wept. 

Like the gale, that sighs along

Beds of oriental flowers,

Is the grateful breath of song,

That once was heard in happier hours.

Fill'd with balm the gale sighs on,

Though the flowers have sunk in death;

So, when pleasure's dream is gone,

Its memory lives in Music's breath.

Music, oh, how faint, how weak,

Language fades before thy spell!

Why should Feeling ever speak,

When thou canst breath her soul so well? 

Friendship's balmy words may feign,

Love's are even more false than they;

Oh! 'tis only music's strain

Can sweetly soothe, and not betray.

What Music Means to Me
by Elaine Wu

They say where words fail, music speaks. 

(So what exactly are wrong notes trying to say...?)

In music I find a sheltered world, 

A sacred world -- An eternal world.  

A place I can imagine where we can still meet,

A place where I can (maybe) be at peace.

They say where words fail, music speaks.

It conveys the soul-deep messages words make clumsy and awkward,

It creates bridges where once there were barriers.

So is it okay for me to believe that music even has the power

To break the barriers that separate us from one another?

That the notes I play have the ability to transcend,

To rise, to float, to drift all the way up to heaven?

I may never find out the answer,

But that doesn't mean I will ever stop trying.

To continue to tell you through my music,

How much I love you and miss you, dearest sister.

(Sorry for all the wrong notes...)

(I never got to tell you this in person, but you did an amazing job on your solo. I'm so incredibly proud of you. May you continue to create beautiful music...)

Sorry for being M.I.A...

Hello again and my sincerest thanks to everyone who have been faithful to this blog and continuing to check up on it every once in awhile. Naturally, I feel quite guilty for my lack of consistency and will try really hard to avoid having such long lapses in between posts in the future - (or at least give some sort of heads up for when I might be needing to take a break from blogging...)

My Melody Line Stickers that I gave to Liliane for her 20th birthday which she seemed to enjoy using. Several of them are quite appropriate for expressing how I feel... see if you can guess which ones...

Happy Birthday Daddy

祝我們生命中最重要的男人生日快樂！