Christmas collab with Adorkable Darling

Hello everybody!
I hope you are having an awesome Christmas and are enjoying your holidays. This is the first collab post on my blog and Adorkable Darling from 'the wonderful (yet ordinary) life of me!' helped me with this. If you haven't checked he blog out, do so! Its wonderful! For this collab, I asked her a bunch of Christmas related questions. Here are her answers:


1) What to you is the best part about Christmas?
The best part is being with my whole family on Christmas eve. Everyone exchanges gifts , and I make music with my brother. We play a gift exchange game and let me say it can get pretty crazy. I'm from a Mexican-american family , so of course there is a lot of FOOD (another one of the best parts);Pozole , tacos , rice , tamales , and of course something sweet after dinner. It's always a good time.

2) Your favorite Christmas related activity and why you love doing it.
I love singing ( and playing on my piano) Christmas songs. I love making music in general but Christmas music is just so much more joyful.

3) Did you believe in Santa as a kid? If yes, how and when did you realize that he wasn't real?
Yes I did believe in Santa as a kid. I even thought that I had heard him on the roof one year, haha. I found out he wasn't real when I was 13. I was in Choir class and my class mates were talking about how they found out that Santa isn't real. I was a little in denial first but then I saw a video in history class that talked about when the classic image for Santa was created. Of course I didn't really tell my parents that I knew but they probably figured it out as i got older.

4) Your dream Christmas tree.
My dream tree would be decorated with blue and silver ornaments. I would have little white flowers scattered on the tree skirt and topped with a glittery angel. Also little white lights would look great hung on it.

She asked me a bunch of questions and here is what I replied to her. Do check it out!!

Do leave a comment with your answers for these questions! I'd love to read them!

Merry Christmas again!

Until next time,

Bye! :D

Update

Hello everybody,
If you have visited my blog before, you might notice some changes here! If this is the first time you've come here, hello and welcome! :D
Here's a list of changes and updates:
1) 
2) I've organized all my posts into categories - Thoughts, my journey and Fun stuff (you can see those tabs above)
3) I've added a Follow by email option. So you just need to enter your email id and you'll get an email every time I post something new. (Don't worry, it wont be too many emails)
4) I've enabled RSS feeds. So you can subscribe to them
If you're in a mood, click on "Join this site". That's the best way to follow this blog. Also enter your email id in the follow by email section. If you did that,

You're awesome!!
If you didn't, that's fine, I won't hate you. (But do! :P)
I have a whole bunch of interesting posts coming up! So stay tuned!
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Don't be ashamed to cry

Hello everybody,
I hope you're having a great day. It may look like I've chosen a very depressing topic to blog about today; but its not a depressing post! This is something that I've always wanted to write about.
I am a person who cries a lot. For that, I've been made fun of/ insulted innumerable times before. Crying, like laughter is something that is very hard to control. There are two main types of crying: 1) When things are not in one's control, people burst out in anger or cry 2) Out of sadness.
 If someone shouts at someone in anger, they are considered to be "strong" and instead, if someone cries out of frustration or not being able to control a situation, it is considered to be a "weak" reaction. Its not. It is just a different way of expression one's emotions. A lot of crying happens out of frustration rather than out of sadness. Just because you cry, it doesn't mean you fail at life or are incapable of handling a situation. It only means, at that point, you need sometime to think and figure out a way to handle the situation. When people burst out in anger, they don't have much self control on what they're saying and they may end up creating further problems because of something that they said without thinking. But these people don't care much about this. And that's fine too! It is just the kind of people they are. And then there are people who think about what may happen if they shout at someone in that state of mind and choose to remain silent and get their emotions out by crying. It isn't that they are weaker. Bottling up emotions only results in you becoming generally more depressed. If you feel like crying, cry! (If you want to scream, do! As long as you don't hurt someone else too much). Get your emotions out. You need to address the fact that something is bothering you. When you do that you may feel like crying. Do! You can't keep crying forever! Once you are done, you will be in a better frame of mind. You will be able to find a way to get over whatever is making you cry. You will address the issue that is making you feel any less happier than you should be. If you never acknowledge the fact that something is making you sad, you'll never find a way to solve the problem. You'll just learn to live with it. Why live with any kind of sadness when you can find a way to better it? Every problem has a solution! At least, there is a workaround for every problem. The most important part is to first acknowledge that you are unhappy about something. If it makes you feel like crying, don't hesitate to! It is a natural way of expressing feelings. Humans cry, dogs cry, dolphins cry! Its ok. Don't let anyone else tell you when it is ok to or not ok to cry. Don't feel the need to hide your emotions just to look like a strong adult. What people might think about you is not worth bottling up your feelings. And crying does not make you a weaker person!

I have struggled a lot in the past trying to control my tears. Not everyone reacts the same way to situations. I cry sometimes for getting a lower score than expected. I know it is a trivial issue not "worth" crying about. But that's just the way my brain decided to react! I didn't feel like crying at all when I left home (and country) for an indefinitely long period of time!. I am very attached to my family and I felt sad to be leaving them. But I did not feel like crying! The brain is a weird organ and you don't always know how it works. There is no "better" or "right" way to react to a situation, Crying is never a "weak" or "laughable" way to react to a situation. So don't hesitate. Let it go!
Until next time,
Bye! :D

Fame

Hello everybody,
Today I decided to write about my obsession about celebrities. I don't know if its only me or if it is a common thing, whenever I discover a new celebrity, I first like some work of theirs, then stalk them, get obsessed for a week/month, get jealous, compare my life with theirs, try to find an explanation as to why I'm not as successful as they are and feel depressed about life. At this point, I usually find something I think I'm slightly good at as compared to the general public, work at it like someone possessed for a week/month, feel better and stop pursuing the activity.
Currently, I'm at the 'compare my life with theirs' phase. I know what's coming up next and I'm not too happy about it.
Why am I obsessed about being famous? I want to know what it feels like to have thousands of re-tweets and tens of thousands of people favoriting your tweet each time you tweet. Waking up to a thousand new subscribers on YouTube, hundreds of comments saying 'You're the BESTTT', 'I LOVEE YOU' 'Amazing work' etc. But after a point, does it start to feel meaningless? But still, getting such encouragement from thousands of people for the work you do must feel pretty amazing. I too work. The only return I get from it is a salary. I'm sure there isn't a soul who admires the code I write or is jealous of me because I built a super awesome app (I didnt... hypothetically speaking). Celebrities get to do what they love the most, get paid more than well, AND get the adoration of millions! How lucky are they!? I agree, superstars lose all their privacy, need to be careful about every action of theirs, don't exactly get to do what they love, have other people directing every move of theirs' etc. I agree that their lives have quite a bit of problems. But its not the super stars that I'm envious about. Its the moderately popular people that I'm really envious about. They have enough popularity to have a million followers on social media; but at the same time, they can lead normal lives without being surrounded by paparazzi the minute they step out of their house. (I'm referring to YouTubers, new singers, comedians etc here). Do all those comments by millions of "fans" have any significance? Does anyone actually care about someone who does not even know that they exist?
Are they really more lucky than me? Would I really be happier if I was a semi-popular person? Is it possible that I may one day become popular? (Considering the fact that I have no special talent that could qualify me to become popular, this most probably is never going to happen. This is a different kind of popular that I'm talking about. Not the Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs kind; but the Superwoman, Zoella kind.)
This post is such a mixed up random set of thoughts. I'm in a really confused state of mind. Maybe its because of my reduced interaction with friends off late (all thanks to exams :( ). Earlier, I used to have long conversations with my best friend on this topic and that would help me get over the why-is-my-life-so-miserable phase a little faster. Now I need to resort to my blog to do this.
If anyone actually got to this point, CONGRATULATIONS! You really are a patient person. If this post made any sense at all to you, let me know!
I have my finals in less  than a week and I'm rambling about fame. :/
Until next time,
Bye!:D

Too much of anti-racism?

Hello everybody,

I hope you are having a great day! I just came across this video today and wanted to share it here.

I had heard a lot about how in America it is very important to use specific words to describe people of a particular race and how one could get into major trouble if someone used an incorrect term to refer to them. 

I do completely agree that being rude to a person just because he/she belongs to a particular race or is from a particular country is unacceptable. However, being over sensitive about it just shows how insecure one is about one's own origin. People from different countries have a different upbringing. It is fascinating to know about things from other countries/cultures. If there is a constant fear of offending someone, we will never be able to get to know about other cultures. 

Each culture is beautiful in its own way and one must be proud of one's own origin. I remember, when I was in 12th grade, I had a friend who belonged to a different religion than me. I had tons of questions I wanted to ask her. The popular belief about that religion is that people are very strict followers and take offense easily. So, I used to think ten times in my mind before I asked her a question. Slowly as I got to know her better, I realized, she was quite open minded and nothing like what the media portrayed them to be. I'm sure a lot of other friends just avoided conversation with her just to ensure that they never offended her in anyway. 

By being oversensitive, we are just preventing spread of knowledge and increasing the barriers. I know, people will ask a lot of questions based on stereotypes that are shown in the media. But this is the opportunity to show that there is more to your culture! 

These are my personal opinions. Do let me know your opinions on the matter in the comments below!

Until next time,

Bye! :D

Bitten off more than I can chew?

Hello everybody,
It has been so long since I last published a post here. Grad school is super hectic and I've been living from deadline to deadline. Its ok to live on a tight schedule for a short duration... when you see an end in sight; but off late I don't see an end to this! I just finished picking courses for my next semester and I've again chosen really hard courses. One of them was a course I had to finish, that is a heavy course and wanted to finish it off. However, I've also chosen a PhD level elective class. We have a lottery system for choosing classes and I got a really late number. I had very few options and thought this seemed interesting. Now I'm having serious doubts about my decision. This semester, I chose fairly moderate load classes and I've been working really hard keeping up. I have no idea how I'll manage next sem. On top of all of this, next semester, I'll have to seriously start interviewing and applying for internships in Summer 16. So till the end of next sem, I think I'll have this crazy hectic schedule. It feels like the sem has just about started and its already time for finals!
I've had quite a few ideas for posts but have put them away for lack of time. I thought I'd take a few minutes off to post at least this.
A friend has taken three heavy load courses this time and is managing fine! I hope I'll be able to manage next semester without a huge negative impact on my GPA.
Among other things, quite a few of my friends are going back home in December. I know that it doesn't make sense for me to go back now, as my parents would probably be visiting in June 16. However, when I see them all excited I feel really sad. It'll be at least a year before I get to see little Tee. By then, he may have forgotten me! I can't bear to think of that situation. I hope some miracle happens and they find a super easy way to transport pets overseas. (Or that he'll start responding to me over the phone or when we skype)
Will resume studying for my test now :/.

Until next time,
Bye! :D

What if I was born as a boy?

Hello everybody,
I hope you're having/had a great day today! Stephanie Mayer recently announced that she will be releasing a new book titled Life and Death which will be a re-imagined version of twilight but with gender roles swapped. That should be interesting! I also watched a video of a girl putting on make up to look like a boy. She looked funny... but I could imagine her as a guy. This got me thinking... what would I have been like if I was born as a boy?! Crazy! I know, but here are a few things that I think would be different.

Looks
I look a lot like a girl (that sounds really weird); I mean, some females have slightly masculine faces and some feminine, I think my face is slightly feminine. Also, since I rarely wear any makeup or get my eyebrows plucked, it wasn't too hard to imagine how I would look. There are so many hairstyle apps available. Some months back I had tried one of these apps, and it had a few boy hairstyles too. With that on, I thought I could have passed off as a boy!! It was really weird; but funny!
I'm quite short; so if I was a boy (I hopefully would have been slightly taller than I am now), I would most probably be teased/bullied for being too short.

Even Emma Watson (who I think has the most feminine face) looks like a boy sometimes! :P

Source

Personality
This is really hard to imagine. I would like to think that my personality is based on who I am and not based on who I am expected to be; but I'm sure my environment, society etc has played a huge role in creating my personality. Also the fact that I have no brothers makes it harder for me to think what a guy would like and not like had he grown up in the same environment that I did. But trying to think about things that are really me and not qualities that I've developed because of the society, here's what I think I would be like:
I hate conflicts and try to avoid them whenever possible. I love things that can be explained logically and try to find a logical/scientific explanation for everything. I hate any form of sports and have no interest at all in watching any game. However, I do enjoy playing video games and am pretty good at a few. I love technology and hate it when I'm in a conversation where someone else knows more than me about some technology. I am quite modest and rarely show off. I hear guys usually brag about every little achievement. So, I think I would show off my skills/abilities a little more if I was a boy. I don't talk a lot and I think that would be something that wouldn't have changed. I am quite emotional with regard to some issues and people, but I don't always give into my feelings and take irrational decisions.
Overall, I think would be a soft spoken, sensitive, law abiding person with a few good friends. (That line could describe me even now! Maybe girls and guys are not too different after all.. but then again, I don't think such guys exist! :P)

Interests
I am a big fan of Disney; I watch a lot of teenage drama kinda shows. I don't think I would be into those if was a boy. Disney maybe; I have a friend (who is a boy) who loves all things Disney as much as I do! I like teenage drama shows because usually the main character is a girl (whom I can relate to); I can't think of any shows with a guy as the main character;  so I don't know what I'd like TV/movies wise. The most popular genre among guys is action; so, maybe I would like such movies. But, there is noting in those movies that an ordinary person can relate to! I don't know... maybe there is something relatable. The shows that I watch also don't have people like me in it... but I still enjoy watching them, Maybe its a guy thing and maybe I'd have understood it if I were a guy.
As I mentioned above, I love technology, gadgets etc and I think I would be even more interested in them as a guy.
I enjoy writing, but I rarely find guys interested in stuff like this. Yes there are a lot of male authors; but that's different. I don't think I would have had a blog if I was a boy. Maybe I would've just played video games in my free time.

Career path
This one is pretty easy. I'm 99% sure I'd still be pursuing the same career path. Being an 'IT guy' is slightly more common than being an 'IT girl'. So, I think career wise I would be in the very same place that I am in now.

Friends
I don't like talking to strangers, but I make friends easily. Although that sounds contradictory, its not! If I need to ask someone a question, a favour etc, I feel very uncomfortable. However, I don't have a problem introducing myself and befriending someone of my age who goes to my same school/college. So, I have a lot of people I know/ am "friends" with; but I have very few close/true friends. And most of my friends are girls. Even in the larger group of "friends" very few are guys. So swapping the case, I would have a large group of guys that I am friends with, a small group of very close friends and a few girls that I know fairly well.

Ah! Finally, I've reached the end of this very weird post. It was really hard and amusing trying to imagine myself as a guy. I don't think I (the girl me) like this... would be very impressed with me (the guy me). I'm glad I wasn't born as a boy! Anyway, have you ever imagined yourself as a boy/girl? Would you like yourself (your gender swapped self)? Do let me know in the comments!
Until next time,
Bye! :D