Why I Don't Shop on Amazon

I watched this video called Amazon Employees React to Amazon Employees on South Park. And it got me thinking. The stigma behind how Amazon treats their employees really hit me. I don't know why or for what reason, but I felt like I had to say something.

I've never worked at Amazon so this might not be the point of view as expected, but I'll just share my part.

One of the main reasons I don't shop on Amazon is because you can find the same thing on other sites like eBay for so much cheaper! I also hear story upon story of how a worker got fired for something really petty, like taking too long to input something. Or how that one worker had to pee in a cup because she had to reach her quota for the day. Don't get me wrong, they have literally EVERYTHING, but at what cost?

So why is the same product on eBay cheaper than it is on Amazon? Simple. Fees. eBay has a different fee schedule than on Amazon. Sellers can list their own shit on eBay for little to nothing, whereas on Amazon, there's both things from regular people like you and I, and also from Amazon itself, which adds onto the overall cost of the item. A $20 water bottle on Amazon could easily go for as little as $5 on eBay. Yes, really. Unlike Amazon, you can literally list ANYTHING on eBay. Well, there are some exceptions, but you get the idea. New, used, broken, list it on eBay and make a few extra bucks!

I'm not just saying eBay is the only alternative when it comes to online shopping. It's a good example of what other options are out there.

Also, membership. What is this, Costco? Even then, you get things in bulk and for cheaper (per unit)! Don't get me wrong, I tried the free-trial membership, and it was cool and all for the 30-days it lasted. It was nice getting my stuff a few days after I bought the item. But is it really NECESSARY? The whole point of online shopping is a economically planned out decision.

Think of it this way. You get to spend the day relaxing at home, doing whatever you want, shopping ONLINE instead of driving to a crowded store, finding parking, and then frantically looking through aisles for that one item you wanted, and then waiting in line to get that item THE SAME DAY. You probably just wasted half a day doing that. Minus the unnecessary window shopping for things you wanted.

Instead, you buy the same item online in the comfort of your own home, on your favourite couch, watching some Netflix and then wait a few days for that item to come. Simple.

So why do I have to pay for membership if the trade-off is just waiting a few extra days to get the item instead of getting it the same day? See, it just doesn't make sense to me. The whole idea of online shopping is expecting things to come a little later than tomorrow. So why pay for that luxury of getting things two days after you order it? It's like the buzz about Apple. Why pay for a $1000 "luxury" phone if you can get the same thing with similar if not better features for half the price?

This dives into the deeper question of the bigger the corporation, the shittier you get treated. Take Disney, for example. We all know of their infamous minimum wage, and how it just recently got pushed to $15 an hour. And how long their hours are with very minimal benefits and horrible standards. We've all heard those Disney horror stories.

So there you have it. Why I don't shop on Amazon. You could find things somewhere else. It's the 21st fucking century. Everything's online nowadays. You just gotta know where to look.

Mid-College Crisis

This weekend, was like every other weekend. I went home, and I thought I was going to have lunch with my sister, but she had to cancel because she had other plans. No biggie. 

So I was just doing my homework, like every other weekend. Creative writing. It was a piece of cake. Sociology. Harder but doable.

And then I got to my econ homework. I had a test on Tuesday, since we have a test every two weeks for that class. So...we pretty much have four tests and a cumulative finals. 

I would normally approach it with just reading the book and such, but it was different this time. Halfway reading through my economics book I thought, "What am I doing with my life?" All my life, I've sort of been pressured into doing everything. My dad pressuring me to do well in school (which wasn't a bad thing), him wanting me to study accounting (I later switched to marketing because I hated accounting and it bored the heck out of me), him wanting me to graduate college and get a job.

It got me thinking, DO I REALLY ENJOY MY MAJOR? I wanted to come in as an English or creative writing major, but I wanted to play it safe and stick to business, but when I couldn't get into the business school because of my low GPA, I switched to economics. After three years of taking economics classes, which I didn't particularly enjoy, but I toughed through it anyways, it made me realise, what the heck am I doing with my life?

Sooooo, long story short, I decided that I might as well finish off my degree in economics marketing, and just see where it takes me. My plan was that I  get a degree, see if I get a job I like, and if none of that works out, apply to Cal Poly Pomona in hotel management or nursing, and go from there. 

MORAL OF THE STORY: Pick the right major before going to a 4-year university.

Do all Asians look the same?

This has happened to me a lot over the course of my life and I thought I should discuss this.

DO ALL ASIANS LOOK THE SAME TO A NON-ASIAN PERSON?

I swear, I've gotten called so many names of my Asian classmates. I'll share two stories.

The first one happened to me in high school. By my CHINESE teacher, which was weird. There was this one girl, Shannon, who sat in front of me, and me, Jenny. Keep in mind, we're both Chinese. I would always get called Shannon all the time, and she would get called Jenny. And this is also in a room that is 90% Asian. I mean, we didn't look alike AT ALL. I had glasses and she didn't. I mean, we were kinda the same height, and she had glasses that she wore sometimes.

The next one happened to me also in high school. By my biology teacher. Me and my friend both had to retake the first semester of biology because of this teacher who was infamous at my high school for being boring and hard. We used the sit in the back of the classroom, and always next to each other, and we were both Asian (I think she was Vietnamese or something?) So the teacher (I wasn't sure if she was Middle Eastern or what; I don't wanna assume things) used to mix up our names a lot, which wasn't a big deal, since we'd always be sitting next to each other.

The last one actually happened today. My TA for my creative writing class (check out Edgar Gomez) asked the class if anyone had brought a hard copy of our assignments, and I was the only one who raised my hand, and he ended up calling me Tiffany (this other girl in my class who was Korean - I think - and we sat next to each other on the first day), and I had to awkwardly correct him, but he was cool about it.  And I look NOTHING like this girl - Tiffany had brown hair, no glasses, and was a bit shorter than I was. Although we sort of had similar length hair.

All of this got me thinking...do All Asians really look that similar to non-Asians or do they just associate Asians as one broad category and tend to call us names that are given to other Asians because we are of the same group? Does it have to do with our facial structure?

My Roommate

This post is dedicated to my awesome roommate, who unfortunately got suspended from college. Sorry, Cindy.

My roommate is awesome. She's very nice to people and gets along with everyone very well. Unfortunately, she didn't do so well the first few quarters of college because she hung out with the wrong group of people. Don't get me wrong, she's really smart but made some poor decisions.

She became my roommate at random.  I applied for Summer Bridge because I wanted to go onto English 1A, but I didn't want to because I was already taking two classes at college, in the summer. I know right, TORTURE!!! Anyways, so apparently they already had my room ready and all, because Summer Bridge was like almost every day, and I live in LA and it's like a 2-hour drive to college.  Anyways, so she spent Summer Bridge without a roommate. :( Sorry Cindy! But fortunately, she made friends, and had a roommate because her friend, who lives 40 minutes away stayed with her and stuff.

So then fall quarter started, and it turns out, we're really similar in our interests and stuff! It was really awesome having her as a roommate, but unfortunately she was only my roommate for about two quarters, because she got kicked out of UCR because of her low GPA. She made really bad decisions and hung out with the wrong people. But we all do that at one point.

I actually still keep in touch with her, and she's doing pretty well. She goes to a community college and works part-time at Coffee Bean. She even gave us free coffee! She's really cool! I just wish she hadn't made those bad decisions :( She could've been my roommate for longer :O And I wouldn't have to go through that much trouble later on D:

Letter of Truth

Dear ex-roommate,
You know who you are. I'm not writing this to apologise, so don't get your hopes up. I didn't move out of that stupid apartment because of you. I moved out because your actions were getting on my nerves. And that you assumed that I'd be okay with everything you did because I was your roommate? And because I never said anything? Well guess what, you were wrong. By you bringing your boyfriend over every day, you think it's cute? And you think it's alright that he sleeps over every single day? Oh look, my boyfriend makes me do all this stuff for him, and I clean up after him because he manipulates me to do all this stuff, and I'm doing this because I love him. Yeah, right. He was a fricking douchebag. Never cleaned up after himself, never really was considerate of others, never really acted like a real friend. I don't even know how you can put up with him. I hope one day, you will realise that he is a real jerk and you two break up. I would feel sorry for you but I just don't anymore. Okay, I bring my boyfriend over sometimes, and he sleeps over, but at least I asked. So next time he does something, at least be considerate of others. We had to clean up after his messes. His vomit, his trash, his blown-up pizza in my microwave. And not only that, you were also inconsiderate. I guess you got that from him, huh? You never even asked whose dish rack that was, and just assuming it was there forever, you just used it, and forced me to use the dishwasher. Also, you have a fricking full size bed in the room. Do you know how annoying that is? It's like you're taking up 3/4 of the room, and I can't even complain. Not only that, it's like you have no privacy. Do you know how many times I was basically forced to use the living room because he was sleepin in the bedroom. "I could just sleep on the couch," That's not the problem. The problem is that he just crashes here for like months without feeling any guilt. That's not logical at all. He doesn't even act like a decent human being. Telling the RD was the first step of my plan. I have much more to come. So watch out.

I Saw Ryan Out One Morning Playin'

So there was this one guy I had this HUGE crush on in high school, and he now goes to the same college as I do.  Let's call him Ryan.  So I saw him quite a few times during the years I've been at college.  So he's in a fraternity called Phi Kappa Sigma. Or at least I think that's what it's called. I looked it up lol. And so he was rushing for his fraternity. Aka recruiting freshmen and new members to his frat. Not really haha. They just sit there and do nothing for a few hours.  I swear, there's like three columns of sororities and fraternities rushing, and they're either on their phones or talking to each other. Anyways, so I was walking by his frat, and he saw me and gave me this weird look.  Like that look when you haven't seen someone in a long time and you forgot their name but they look familiar look. Either that or a really confused look. Cuz I was with my boyfriend at the time, but he doesn't know Ryan. well he knows who Ryan is, but not what he looks like.  Anyways, while after we passed each other, I got this weird feeling in me.  Like I still have feelings for him, and I'm pretty sure he knows who I am anyways. Well he may have known that I liked him back in high school, but he knows who I am.  He commented on my birthday post to him.  Yes, I still know his birthday.

So...

Since I've been talking about boys a lot, I've actually started dating one. I won't say was his name is, but he's literally the sweetest thing.  Let's call him Sean.  So Sean and I met on the day of the college placement exam.  Well, sorta.  I added him on Facebook because I thought he was cool and pretty chill.  And then he just started talking to me ;)
So then, after we met, we started talking to each other like literally EVERY DAY. And on Skype too, for no real apparent reason.  Maybe it's cuz he wanted to add me on Skype?  Haha, I have no idea.  Well, maybe it was that day that I found three of my Skypes (yes, I forgot that I made three lol) and I posted that I had three Skypes on Facebook and he told me to add him. LOL.  So then we just started talking every day on Skype after that.  And he would always be the one to start the conversation, not me, cuz I'm shy like that.
So then fast forward about a few weeks, he wanted to hang out with me, you know, just as friends.  I guess I wanted to too, but I never really got around to it.  He was the one who suggested the idea first...I think. \
So then we hung out, and we were having so much fun that we didn't even notice that we hung out for like FIVE HOURS!!
Fast forward about a month, I went to China with my dad (my mom had work :( ), but I would still talk to him like in the middle of the day, and I felt so bad because it would be like 11 or 12 at night where he was.  I had a lot of fun just like casually talking to him, telling him about my day and stuff.  But it was hard trying to find Wi-Fi hotspots, since I didn't have texting, and I lost my phone about halfway through the trip by dropping it into a river. But yeah it was pretty fun.
And when I got to college, we met and hung out for a couple of days, just as friends, and I met his roommates, and they seemed pretty chill, but not now haha. I'll tell you about that later. He would always go into my room because he had a triple and 90% of the time, his roommates would be in the room, and I had a double and my roommate wouldn't be there 90% of the time.  So one day, after this party thing we had at my college, he and I just went into my room because he apparently has an obsession with the amount of space he has in my room lol. And we were dead tired, so we were just messing around in my bed, when he randomly asked me to be his girlfriend and I said yes.
And everything went on from there. I'm still dating Sean and two days ago, it was our 7-month. :)