Viewing [ d i v a ]'s profile | Profiles v1

About

Please visit my Minicity

I only get on Gaia when I'm on break from school.
Don't miss me too much while I'm gone~

Get to know me:
Drama Queen.
Music Fiend.
Star Gazer.
Big Dreamer.
Deep Lover.
Pack Rat.
Giver.
Complainer.
Gamer.
Food Lover.
Dancer.
Singer.
College Student.
Pixel Artist.
Hurt.
Broken Before.
Getting Fixed.
Loves You.

What I love:
AVATAR ART!~
music, friends, romance, opera, dance, art,
literacy, sparkles, smiles, love, hearts, purple,
stars, planets, moons, mystery, books, reading, fantasy,
water, sweets, cuteness

What I don't like:
(don't call me names or I'll hate you)
swirl ice cream, coffee, bugs, vegetables,
sharpee smell, homework, plaid, crowded places,
liars, cheaters, abusers, addicts, required reading

Journal

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Crudmuffins

Blah. Ramblings of an idiot.

Multimedia

Comments

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Viewing 10 of 20 comments.

Report | 07/18/2011 10:25 am

Shaolan Lu

Diva, I heard the temperatures are so bad where you are that the roads are buckling! eek Are you okay? Don't go outside if you can avoid it! gonk

Report | 07/17/2011 3:49 pm

Tamari-Blue

stunning avi. smile

Report | 06/24/2011 8:32 am

Strawberrypawpaw

nice avi heart

Report | 06/21/2011 3:14 pm

Shaolan Lu

What's got you going "blargh," Diva?

Report | 06/19/2011 9:12 pm

cocokitty32

Thanks for buying smile

Report | 06/19/2011 3:53 pm

Shaolan Lu

Hey Diva,

Wow, you’re right, you really have been keeping yourself busy. :mrgreen: I’m glad to hear that, too. You seem to have changed so much since we first met all those years ago (can you really believe it’s been that long?) Well, I am certainly glad to hear that we are, at least, closer to each other in time zone – you’re in Central, I’m in Eastern – instead of being 2-3 hours apart like we were back when I was on the other side of the country. :roll: I’m sure it would probably make communicating with you a lot more convenient, now that I do intend to make an effort of getting back in touch and staying in touch.

I always enjoyed chatting with you, and I’ve regretted losing touch with a lot of the other folks I used to know so well on Gaia; I’ve moved my chatting with most of the others to Facebook. I think I probably frequent this site more to keep up my avatar, keep my old quest thread going, rack up gold to donate to people later or buy one or two items for myself with, and otherwise just see how the website is growing and catch up with the story line. Every now and then, I bump other folks’ quests and make a donation or two, or stay around and play Pinball, but for the most part, I barely have time for even that. I’m sorry to hear that Kags dropped out. To be honest, I have not talked to her at all over the last few years either, despite how close we used to be. I think I used to be friends with her on Facebook, ages ago, but she does not even show up on my Facebook friends list, either… I hope she’s doing okay. You’re always welcome to go back to my quest thread if you have the time. I think the link is somewhere in my profile.

I’m sorry to hear that you’re in Tornado Alley – I have heard the reports of a lot of the really terrifying ones that have been smacking us around lately, and now that you’ve mentioned where you are, if we were still getting horrible ones, I’d be fearing for your safety. :gonk: Have you lived in OK all your life, or are you just going there for school? I don’t know where I’m going to be after I get my tail out of Winthrop next May, but Mom tells me that with a degree from a school that’s better known in the East than in the West and with CA’s economy in shambles, I shouldn’t be in a hurry to come back – “a little adventure will be good for you,” was what she said. :sweat: And as for the weather, well, don’t be too envious. We’ve been enduring weeks of 90˚+ temperatures and thunderstorm after thunderstorm after thunderstorm. Worse, I am currently boarding at a big house owned by the campus Methodist ministry, but my room is in the attic. It’s a nice room – except for the fact that the air conditioning’s horrid up here and great everywhere else! :gonk: The thing I miss the most about California (I lived near the infamous Wine Country) after the beautiful forested hills around my home town is the mild and predictable weather! :vein:

(Your “Snowpocalypse 2011” sounds very familiar though. Winthrop also got an abnormal amount of snow this December-January, so our spring semester was also delayed for about a week. We just rounded up the Kendo club and went out to pelt each other with snowballs, have hot cocoa and make s’mores at night.)

I’m sorry to hear about your failed quest to find internships. With the economy this bad and sliding back downwards… well, I don’t know how much it affected the industries that you are looking at, but even folks from my area are finding it next to impossible to even get volunteer positions, much less internships or real jobs. Early last year, when I realized that I wasn’t going to get into any Ph.D. programs, I began applying to as many lab tech jobs as I could find on Craigslist. Out of all those dozens of e-mailed applications, resumes and cover letters, I only got a [i]single[/i] interview opportunity and even then I didn’t get the job. If

Report | 06/19/2011 2:57 pm

Shaolan Lu

Too long seems like an understatement. I feel bad - it's like I'd been neglecting to be on Gaia over the last few months because of my school activities, and even when I have time to be on Gaia, all I'm doing is bumping my quest thread. I really do apologize, I know how much we used to like talking to each other. But hey, congratulations on being about to finish up your degree. Just curious, where are you going and what are you studying?

It's hard to believe, but in less than two years I went from getting my bachelor's of arts in molecular/cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley to shooting for a (non-thesis) master's of science at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. I'm on the other side of the country now, but I'm surprisingly not quite as culture-shocked as I was expecting. I knew the some of the people here were likely going to be more religious and less "in touch" with the rest of the world and other cultures, as I'm in a small town in the middle of South Carolina, but I think I was always more conservative and somewhat "traditional" than the average "wild child" flaming liberal (stereotypical) Berkeley kid, so I fit in here well enough - it's a good school with a small department and there's a lot of peace and quiet to be found.

I've been trying to be a better person, student, and friend than I was as an undergrad, when I'd just lock myself in my room after coming home from school and chat with people on AIM and Facebook or build and paint little figures and do nothing else. I've tried to make more friends and be more involved in other people's lives, help plan events, get people together for parties, suggest day trips, that sort of thing. I also finally became a student-athlete. I joined the Winthrop [i]Kendo[/i] team (Japanese samurai sword fencing. We wear armor similar to samurai armor and smack each other with bamboo swords while yelling a lot. It's been a rebuilding year for the team; with the exception of three members, everybody in the group before mine had moved on to different sports or graduated, so we were pretty much a "new generation" and that's how we bonded. We went to a tournament in March, and earned official ranks (I'm a 5th Kyu, kind of like a yellow or orange belt in [i]Karate[/i]. It's still a beginner's rank, but I haven't done any martial arts in over 13 years so it was pretty exciting.) This is kind of what it looks like:

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4SHWXQBVL4]YouTube: Kendo in High-Speed Camera[/url]

Anyway... that aside, I've been studying pretty hard. I was a mediocre student as an undergrad even though I went to a big, famous school, and I knew that. I also knew that this kept me from landing any jobs or getting into any good programs after I had graduated. I've been lucky to have good teachers who wrote fair exams; I've never had to take a test on a curve, I've never feared any of my exams for the most part, and I've kept up a 4.0 for the last two semesters and I can really say I earned it. (I'm the only 4.0 student in the entire biology graduate department.) But I was also caught up in some very serious drama with my ex-advisor that left me disillusioned, bitter, and even somewhat frightened for a while... that led to an April that was basically a living Hell for me. It's something I don't trust a lot of people with, so I will have to tell you this story in private.

I think I'm in the same situation as you are in right now, though. I've become pretty much convinced that I'm done with school. I probably could still go on if I wanted, even though it's a long shot... but I don't feel like doing a Ph.D. anymore - it has to do with that "department drama" I told you about. But it was also what I'd convinced myself that I was going to do since I was a middle school student... so I'm now in a position where I'm just writing to almost anyone or anything I could think of that could offer me a good job. That's all I want to

Report | 06/19/2011 2:40 pm

Shaolan Lu

Diva! How have you been? I'm sorry I haven't talked to you in a while... goodness knows a lot has happened in the last couple of years. crying How are you liking college?