1. I’ve built a loyal following of nicknames since my birth.. ranging from Flat Stanley, Stan the Man, Stanley the Manley, to Stan Stan, Stanbo, Stanford, Stanisha, Stanlizzle, Slutanley, and Danny (due to my grandmother’s inability to pronounce my name correctly).

2. I never realized that Yelnats is Stanley spelled backwards until someone told me in sophomore year of high school, 6 years after the movie, Holes, came out.

3. Whenever I speak to someone on AIM, and that person says something that I have no idea how to respond to, I’ll type “lololol,” just like that. And then I’ll awkwardly see how the conversation progresses from there.

4. I like everything to be aesthetically appealing, and I’m also OCD about placement and organization. The door has to be opened to a certain extent before I sleep. The bills I shove into my wallet have to be neatly stacked against each other, with no folds. My cell phone always has to be slipped into my left pocket, never my right.. etc.

5. I am always wearing a ring on either my right ring finger or my left middle finger, the one that has a leaf (it actually kind of looks like weed) arrangement. It was a present from my grandmother before she passed away and I’m always paranoid of losing it.

6. The first real job I ever had was at a children’s museum and it completely turned my life around. i had the most amazing co-workers and boss, and it was one of the best experiences of my life thus far. I’m always afraid that my work environment elsewhere will never meet that standard.

7. I used to be terribly obese, to the point where I was tested for high cholesterol and a high risk for diabetes. In junior year, I finally had the courage to join the volleyball team and dropped 30-40 pounds within a year. Now, I feel confident about myself and the way I’m living my life. That decision also turned my life around.

8. All the best friends I have now, I used to look at negatively. Now, they’re the people I can’t live without.

9. Admittedly, I’m a huge city snob, being born and raised in San Francisco my entire life. I absolutely hate the suburbs, the valley, or any type of rural area. The slow life is not for me; I prefer a fast-paced life, no matter how stressful or wildly obnoxious it can be.

10. I’m a strong liberal. Not a big fan of conservatives, but again, I respect people’s opinions and their right to express them freely. My views on almost all controversial topics range from moderate to liberal.

11. One of my dreams is to own an all-white range rover, blast obnoxious music, and drive it at 120 miles through the Golden Gate Bridge when there are no cars around.

12. I have a cardigan fetish and am terribly upset that barely anyone wears them down in SoCal, where I go to school. Terribly, terribly upset.

13. I despise large, commercial chain restaurants such as Chipotle, Reb Loster, Sizzlers, etc. and I don’t eat fast food anymore. I love small businesses, local cafes and eateries, and authentic food. Trying out new places to eat around the city will always be one of my greatest hobbies.

14. Volleyball is no doubt my all-time favorite sport. Watching it, playing it, hearing about it. I don’t get nearly excited about other sports as I do this one.

15. I can’t be around immature people. Unnecessary and superfluous sex references, touching, swearing, all kill me inside.

16. My favorite people to be around are ones that evoke positive energy and won’t let personal issues or frustrations impact others negatively. I hate having my day ruined by being with someone who is not in a good mood, and makes a huge deal about it. If you don’t let every little thing faze you, and you’re good at brushing things off, I like you.

17. I get sick of everything easily. I have to constantly switch my laptop wallpaper, move around my phone’s widgets, add and delete music, move my rings around from finger to finger, try new restaurants, and tackle new obstacles. I even get sick of my best friends sometimes, but who doesn’t.

18. In 6th grade, a violin string snapped on me during a lesson and gave me a violent cut right above my right eye, that is how the scar came to be. It used to be conspicuous but now you can barely see it.

19. The person that holds the record for making me laugh the hardest is my best/childhood friend, Ariel Jao. And she still does. We’re UCLA buddies now!

20. In the future, I want to end up with someone that is chill, mellow, and laid-back, to balance out my high-maintenance, OCD self.

21. I find it hilarious when everybody comes to me for relationship advice when I, myself, have never been in a relationship. Everything I spill out is either something from One Tree Hill or Grey’s Anatomy. A lot of people will be disappointed by this one, but it’s the troof!

22. I have a ghetto black girl side to me. You won’t see it until your presence reaches a specific comfort level with me.

23. I will definitely judge you the first time we meet, it’s a form of keeping my guard up. Everyone does it, don’t lie. First-impressions are long-lasting with me, but I’m very open about people proving me wrong. From negative to positive, and even vice versa.

24. I strongly believe that the seat you pick on the first day of a physics class is inversely proportional to the number of genuine friendships you will make. Only some people will get this one.

25. My life’s paradox: I hate carrying cash because I’m more inclined to spend it but I always end up going to dessert places that only accept cash. I’m still working on this one. But come on, it’s all about the swipe nowadays.

26. Sometimes I wish my parents switched families because my maternal grandfather is a hotel tycoon in Taiwan. If I carried my mom’s surname, Chen, I’d be an heir to a big big big chunk of money.

27. I love layering my clothes, so I prefer moderately cold weather. Ironically, I attend school in Southern California but surprisingly it can get cold down there too. I cherish those days to bust out the goods!

28. I can name more high-end, upscale brands than anyone I know, except probably Laura.

29. My kind of humor is the awkward, sarcastic, and witty type. Horseplay too, but only in movies. My guilty pleasure is jokes about black people, but I’m nowhere near racist. Don’t crack a penis joke with me, just don’t.

30. I am proud of the life I live.

NEH-VER. In the context of being completely sane and disorder free, I think that’s the most pathetic way to escape from your frustrations. There’s always a way out, trust in yourself, confide in others, do what ever you can to live the life you want to live.

This one is tricky. It’s frustrating to accept that religion is often times a center of conflict and even war. But on the other hand, it can give people a sense of hope, security, and most importantly, community. I never judge people based on their religion, but rather how they approach people with their beliefs. (Never shove your beliefs down someone’s throat). Personally, I’m extremely respectful of others’ opinions, views, or thoughts on anything, but I expect the same respect in return.

In quoting Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

The escalator lifted me up from the bowels of Powell station and there she stood, at peace and undisturbed. It took me less than a second to recognize her face; she looked the same as before in the most literal sense. My reaction to this unpremeditated encounter was a simple: “Hi.” And she responded with a casual wave of the hand and a genuine yet forced smile. I didn’t know whether to approach her with a candid hug, or whether to keep walking. She looked away, and so I continued to my expected rendezvous.

It’s been almost a year since I’d seen her, almost 3 years since I’d talked to her. We used to have almost every class together, spend all of lunch ranting on about our school’s incompetent geometry teachers, talk on the phone till 3 in the morning, mock the actions of those we despised, and even work together.

But at that simple moment in time, I barely knew her. Nothing about her life, her secrets, her hardships, her joys, or her passions. She was just another person I would run into on a day-to-day basis. All the time we spent together, dispelled and forgotten. The impact, gone.

Learn to appreciate the friends you have now, and cherish every moment you have together. The sad reality: any one of them could end up casually waving to you from across the station, with little sincerity and affection, like staring at a blank canvas of emotions. One day, it can happen. Time heals everything, but it severs just as strongly.

My views are pretty simple:

Drugs: I’m pretty liberal when it comes to drugs. I support the legalization of marijuana as a medicinal drug but indifferent about its recreational use. I would never recommend going farther than that, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, LSD, opium, “magic mushrooms,” for example. I’d stay as far away as possible from crystal meth. I’m personally straight edge when it comes to drugs.

Alcohol: Everything in moderation. One to two drinks a day can actually offer health benefits. Just be smart with alcohol.

I feel like a health ed teacher, this is a stupid question. Everyone knows this stuff.

[Seven Days In Sunny June by Jamiroquai]

A personal favorite of mine. I remember discovering this song playing in the background of David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada, the scene where Christian Thompson meets Andrea Sachs at the bar and actively flirts with her. Jamiroquai was part of the British jazz funk era, which was popular in the early 1990s. I respect this song for its retro beats and combination of several instrumental elements. His other songs, Virtual Insanity and Space Cowboy, are also very good.

This question is rather vague, but I’ll try. Considering that I’m 18 now, I think that by the time I’m 28 I want to have completed graduate school and found a satisfying job that will both pay well and offer a suitable work environment with people that are driven and passionate about what they do. As of now, I’m still puzzled as to what I plan to pursue in the future, but I hope by then I’ll already be pushing to break into the industry that I decide to work in. Ideally, in 10 years, I would like to have done some extensive travelling, which has always been a dream of mine. Western Europe, Southeast Asia, and Australia are all high on my list. As for my love life and “starting a family,” I can’t say. We’ll let time tell.

[Kiss from A Millionaire’s First Love OST]

I promise, not every song that I post will be foreign. But for this one, you wouldn’t even know unless I told you because there is no singing. This song is from the Korean movie “A Millionaire’s First Love,” about a boy that experienced a tragic accident as a child and eventually shut out all the memories of that part of his life, forgetting that during that time he fell in love with a girl that he ends up meeting again. I personally didn’t like the film very much, but the background music made it bearable. It showcases gentle piano-playing in the beginning with violin/viola playing to follow up, and some light harmonizing/humming.

I’m not in a relationship at the moment, so as the challenge suggests, I will discuss my single life. Actually, this challenged is framed quite strangely, because it implies that living a single life is some special state of mind, where being in a relationship is the norm. But I completely disagree. I personally think that if someone struggled with living a single life, he/she has dependency or separation issues. I don’t think there is any problem with being single, because you learn to rely and trust in yourself. You develop a strong sense of independence that could otherwise be sidetracked by the comfortable idea of always running to your significant other. As for me, a single life is never a scary situation. I don’t go out trying to pursue a loved one solely because “oh crap, I’m single.” If you refer to my earlier post, I think those relationships are superficially constructed. I like to let things happen naturally. All I’m focused on right now is pursuing my dreams, and if I find someone along the way, then that’s a bonus.

heckyeahtumblrchallenges:

Day 01 - Your current relationship, if single discuss how single life is.

Day 02 - Where you’d like to be in 10 years.

Day 03 - Your views on drugs and alcohol.

Day 04 - Your views on religion.

Day 05 - A time you thought about ending your own life.

Day 06 - Write 30 interesting facts about yourself.

Day 07 - Your zodiac sign and if you think it fits your personality.

Day 08 - A moment you felt the most satisfied with your life.

Day 09 - How you hope your future will be like.

Day 10 - Discuss your first love and first kiss.

Day 11 - Put your ipod on shuffle and write 10 songs that pop up.

Day 12 - Bullet your whole day.

Day 13 - Somewhere you’d like to move or visit.

Day 14 - Your earliest memory.

Day 15 - Your favourite tumblrs.

Day 16 - Your views on mainstream music.

Day 17 - Your highs and lows of this past year.

Day 18 - Your beliefs.

Day 19 - Disrespecting your parents.

Day 20 - How important you think education is.

Day 21 - One of your favorite shows.

Day 22 - How have you changed in the past 2 years?

Day 23 - Give pictures of 5 guys who are famous who you find attractive.

Day 24 - Your favorite movie and what it’s about.

Day 25 - Someone who fascinates you and why.

Day 26 - What kind of person attracts you.

Day 27 - A problem that you have had.

Day 28 - Something that you miss.

Day 29 - Goals for the next 30 days.

Day 30 - Your highs and lows of this month.

It exhausts me to constantly think of new topics to write about so I’ll give this a try. If I actually keep up, or end up enjoying this, I might even post a 30 day controversial challenge. That would make things interesting.. I’m a little scared myself.