I average 10
high-fives, 5 water bottle passes, and 40 heeheeheehooooooooos in 1 basquetbal gaem.
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Thursday, November 8, 2018
Why I laugh a lot.
I love to smile and laugh.
jk im always mad lol. im mr. serious. always serious never hapi!
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Thoughts on Reddit's chanceme
I'm addicted to reddit.
Reddit is different from other social media applications because of the unique and realistic insight provided by reddit users. Reddit thrives off of logical discussions, which many other social media outlets lack. In a way, reddit is a more mature and intelligent Instagram.
Reddit has a variety of topics, and each topic has it own discussion page referred to as a subreddit. For example, there's a subreddit called /nfl where all people focus on are national football games. One of my favorite subreddits is /woahdude where people talk about things that make them say "Woah dude." Recently, I discovered an important subreddit that would give me critical and forthright college advice: /chanceme.
/chanceme is exactly what it sounds like: "Hey guys. Can you guys look over my resume and tell me the chances I get into ____?". It's a great idea honestly. Because all the people on that subreddit page are students applying to college, there's a sense of solidarity. Most of the time, students are kind and willing to help others. However, there are times when the page can become harsh. Here's an example:
Link:
For those who didn't read the comments, this is what one of the replies said:
This actually isn't the rudest comment I've seen on this subreddit. I like how the person who commented told the person who posted not to lose hope. There is no ill-will involved here. The first sentence of the comment is maybe too honest, but maybe it's necessary to get the point across. But overall, this is a comment that could hurt someone's feelings.
(I recommend you guys scroll through this page to get a better understanding of what happens in /chanceme.)
One thing you'll notice when going through these posts is the extreme sarcasm in some of the comments. Look at this one:
The comments ooze with sarcasm, and I can't help but laugh every time I read them. Posts like these don't have much useful advice pertaining to college, but it puts a much needed smile on your face during the difficult and dire times before college applications are due.
In conclusion, I like /chanceme. Even though I cringe sometimes because of the toxicity of some comments, most comments are beneficial and empathetic. By reading /chanceme, I've come to realize how futile it is to have bitterness towards others and yourself because of academic standing. Some people are going to have better academic scores and better extra-curricular activities, and that's perfectly okay. At the end of the day, if you're happy at wherever college you end up at, then you've succeeded. Of course, going to a prestigious university is amazing, and I want to give major props to those that do. But even if you don't, it's going to be alright. I have to remind myself that not being accepted into my dream college isn't the end of the world. If anything, it's the start of a new adventure.
Thursday, October 11, 2018
I Don't Know What to Major In! Do you?
College essays and chemistry worksheets are eating my up time, and I often forget the reason of all my efforts. I constantly have to remind myself that I'm working hard to pursue my intended major in college and hopefully discover what I want to do for the rest of my life. But how would I know that right now? On college applications, most colleges require us to select a specific area of study. I might have a general idea on what I want to major in, but without experiencing the courses, there's no way I know for certain on what captivates me the most. I'm planning to major in some type of engineering, but the main reason I'm doing so is because I think I'm a STEM person. I'm not even sure if I'm a STEM person.
This fall semester, I got an opportunity to enroll in a variety of University of Illinois courses. Out of these classes, ECON 102 (Introduction to Microeconomics) has stirred in me an unknown passion in economics. To be honest, I registered for the class because I heard it was relatively easy. Friends that have taken the class before urged me to take this "joke" class and get an easy "A". Because I'm a good friend, I immediately signed up.
Turns out, I have the best friends in the world.
In short, the class is actually really easy. An optional final exam, no midterms, and a homework deadline after nearly a month are all signs of an easy class. However, while the class is easy, this is no allusion to the class being useless. ECON 102 is a very important class: it sets the foundation for most of the economics classes in the future. Most importantly, this class is fun. This combination of fun and important made me forget about the difficulty of the class.
My biggest realization after taking half an economics class is that economics doesn't always have to apply to money. Before the class, whenever somebody brought up economics, I had this illogical notion that economics was basically business, and as a result, I wasn't able to understand the difference between the two fields of study. After the first couple weeks of class, I quickly noticed the broad range of topics economics covered.
Because ECON 102 doesn't have a final or any exams, there are other assignments that provide those hundreds of points. Every other week, we have to participate in an online debate. Our instructor poses multiple questions on a website called PackBack, and students have to respond to these questions. One of the first questions posed was something I didn't expect at all: "Should my brother buy a handgun?" What! I was perplexed. How was the decision to buy the gun related to economics? After reading some of the students' responses, I would learn that economics doesn't have to deal with monetary aspects of life.
Here's the main point. I had no idea what economics was and if I liked it before the class! I didn't even know what that major offered! Stay woke. There might be a crazy and unexpected major that interests you that you don't know. And when working on your chemistry worksheets and college essays, be conscious of your true goals.
This fall semester, I got an opportunity to enroll in a variety of University of Illinois courses. Out of these classes, ECON 102 (Introduction to Microeconomics) has stirred in me an unknown passion in economics. To be honest, I registered for the class because I heard it was relatively easy. Friends that have taken the class before urged me to take this "joke" class and get an easy "A". Because I'm a good friend, I immediately signed up.
Turns out, I have the best friends in the world.
In short, the class is actually really easy. An optional final exam, no midterms, and a homework deadline after nearly a month are all signs of an easy class. However, while the class is easy, this is no allusion to the class being useless. ECON 102 is a very important class: it sets the foundation for most of the economics classes in the future. Most importantly, this class is fun. This combination of fun and important made me forget about the difficulty of the class.
My biggest realization after taking half an economics class is that economics doesn't always have to apply to money. Before the class, whenever somebody brought up economics, I had this illogical notion that economics was basically business, and as a result, I wasn't able to understand the difference between the two fields of study. After the first couple weeks of class, I quickly noticed the broad range of topics economics covered.
Because ECON 102 doesn't have a final or any exams, there are other assignments that provide those hundreds of points. Every other week, we have to participate in an online debate. Our instructor poses multiple questions on a website called PackBack, and students have to respond to these questions. One of the first questions posed was something I didn't expect at all: "Should my brother buy a handgun?" What! I was perplexed. How was the decision to buy the gun related to economics? After reading some of the students' responses, I would learn that economics doesn't have to deal with monetary aspects of life.
Here's the main point. I had no idea what economics was and if I liked it before the class! I didn't even know what that major offered! Stay woke. There might be a crazy and unexpected major that interests you that you don't know. And when working on your chemistry worksheets and college essays, be conscious of your true goals.
Thursday, September 27, 2018
What if Matthew Jin was a football quarterback?
These past few weeks, I've been intently watching American football. Because the professional basketball season (NBA) doesn't start until late October, I only have football to fulfill my daily dosage of sports. I've always enjoyed watching football and studying the game. Overall, I'm a football aficionado.
The motion of an exquisite spiraling ball coming out of the quarterback's hands is why I love football. Throwing a regulation size football regularly is already hard, but giving the ball a spiraling motion is nearly impossible for my small hands. At home, I pretend to be Tom Brady with an imaginary football; in front of the TV, I fake the hand off to my invisible running back and scamper deep into the pocket. As Tom Brady throws the football to one of his receivers, I also throw my "football" to one of my "receivers". My dad usually yells at me to stop blocking the screen, but I ignore him because I just threw an amazing spiral football for a 50 yard touchdown. Before I go into my deep slumber at night, I have a tendency to picture myself as a pro-football quarterback. What if I was the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers? I get so stirred up sometimes that I rise up from my reclined position on the bed and start running around throwing footballs.
In reality, no matter how persistent I was, I would never be the quarterback on any talented team. Recently, I've realized that I have many passions in life that don't pertain to academics. The harsh truth that I'll never chase those passions makes me miserable. My uncle's career decision is a prime example of sacrificing a dream. A successful military worker today, my uncle initially wanted to pursue a career in basketball. However, because of his short stature and unstable financial situation, he persuaded himself to find a more stable source of income, which turned out to be an intelligent decision in the end. I love all aspects of football, and being a professional quarterback would be amazing. However, my strengths aren't suited for football and sports in general. Simply put, I'm better at other things.
Looking at my uncle's story and my own, I've come to understand a grim principle in today's world. Because of economic status and different talents, people are forced to give up on their true passions. At the end of the road taken, some find themselves doing things that they are good at rather than the things they truly love to do.
The motion of an exquisite spiraling ball coming out of the quarterback's hands is why I love football. Throwing a regulation size football regularly is already hard, but giving the ball a spiraling motion is nearly impossible for my small hands. At home, I pretend to be Tom Brady with an imaginary football; in front of the TV, I fake the hand off to my invisible running back and scamper deep into the pocket. As Tom Brady throws the football to one of his receivers, I also throw my "football" to one of my "receivers". My dad usually yells at me to stop blocking the screen, but I ignore him because I just threw an amazing spiral football for a 50 yard touchdown. Before I go into my deep slumber at night, I have a tendency to picture myself as a pro-football quarterback. What if I was the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers? I get so stirred up sometimes that I rise up from my reclined position on the bed and start running around throwing footballs.
In reality, no matter how persistent I was, I would never be the quarterback on any talented team. Recently, I've realized that I have many passions in life that don't pertain to academics. The harsh truth that I'll never chase those passions makes me miserable. My uncle's career decision is a prime example of sacrificing a dream. A successful military worker today, my uncle initially wanted to pursue a career in basketball. However, because of his short stature and unstable financial situation, he persuaded himself to find a more stable source of income, which turned out to be an intelligent decision in the end. I love all aspects of football, and being a professional quarterback would be amazing. However, my strengths aren't suited for football and sports in general. Simply put, I'm better at other things.
Looking at my uncle's story and my own, I've come to understand a grim principle in today's world. Because of economic status and different talents, people are forced to give up on their true passions. At the end of the road taken, some find themselves doing things that they are good at rather than the things they truly love to do.
Thursday, September 13, 2018
I'm Super Athletic
Most of you probably clicked on this title because you don't think I'm athletic, and you want to argue against the title in the comments. Well, you win because I'm not athletic. Below are two instances where I felt discouraged by my athleticism.
Touching the rim of a regulation basketball hoop is my dream. As a below-average basketball player with basically no athleticism, I can only reach the net of the hoop. During physical education, other students will notice me jumping below the rim trying to grasp it. Every day I fail, and honestly, there's no point in trying because I'm not even close. Those observing me probably think I am insane and hopeless, but I will not let the judgment of others bother me.
What makes me furious is when some tall student with long arms comes out of nowhere and jumps along with me easily touching the rim. It's almost as if he wants to show how pathetic I looked reaching for something that I wasn't ever going to reach in my life. With a forced smile on my face, I walk away from the basket and become miserable where nobody can see me.
Pull-up testing always makes my heart beat a little faster and my hands sweatier. My record is 2 pull-ups, and I'm so proud of it honestly. I think it was the start of Junior year when I accomplished this amazing feat, and I still bring it up among my friends. My pull-ups show a manlier side of Matthew, which is the reason I even try. However, at the start of this semester, something devastating and heartbreaking happened to me. My arms gave up on me in the middle of a pull-up, and I ended up doing 0 pull-ups. I feel so embarrassed writing about this that I have to take a break.
(Break)
I learned a lot after those 0 pull-ups. The most important thing I learned was to be humble; I didn’t look down on anyone after that event. Some of my friends even mocked me, but I couldn't say anything because I actually did 0 pull-ups. I was pretty mad at them and referred to them as snakes in the grass afterwards. I went into a period of deep self-reflection and remembered that all I did over the summer was eat Jalapeno Ranch potato chips and watch YouTube. Considering I did that, I didn't feel as bad afterwards.
During my years at Uni, I realized that I'm not a physically gifted person. I used to be ashamed of myself for my physical shortcomings. Now, I’m going to ignore all the condescension and work out at my own pace. Soon enough, I will be the one doing 17 pull-ups and grabbing onto rims.
Thursday, August 30, 2018
Things That Make Me Mad
There are a lot of things in life that make me mad! So many things!
(The order of this list is not of any significance)
1. Bag "full" of chips
Half the bag is just air! I always think there are chips filled up to the top, but there isn't. I'm especially furious when I'm hungry because I have to get another bag to satiate my hunger.
2. Vending machine snack gets stuck!
My snack is on the tip of the shelf, but it's not falling... I hit against the glass, but the snack doesn't budge. Discouraged, I put in another $1.25 to hopefully get two snacks and not feel like I wasted my money. The first snack falls, but the second one is the one that gets stuck now. When I finally walk away from the machine, I end up with 5 of the same snack.
3. No more of limited sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings (BWW)
My favorite days of the week are Tuesday and Thursday. Why? On Tuesday, traditional chicken wings at BWW are half the price, and on Thursday, boneless wings are half the price. My usual order consists of 20 wings (traditional or boneless depending on the day).
These are the usual sauces I get, and how much of each I get:
Asian Zing (8)
Honey Barbecue (7)
Teriyaki (5)
But sometimes, there are special sauces that only come out for a limited amount of time. These sauces also have a limited supply; it's first come first serve. Out of those special sauces, the one that keeps me up at night is the Korean Barbecue sauce. This sauce is delicious. I was lucky enough to get a taste this one day because it wasn't busy at the restaurant. Ever since, whenever I ask for this special sauce, they never have it! This is because I always go to BWW after school, and the sauce runs out.
If they had Korean Barbecue, this would be my order of 20 wings:
Korean Barbecue (8)
Asian Zing (7)
Honey Barbecue (5)
Sadly, this order hasn't been made for 3 months :(
4. Spotify Ads
I like to listen to music. Most of the time, I listen to music on Spotify, which is a great app that allows users to stream songs for free. However, every about 2 or 3 songs, there's always an ad. Most of these ads are promoting Spotify Premium, which allows users to listen to songs ad-free and offline. Spotify Premium is amazing, but I'm not paying $10 a month to listen to music. There's about 3 or 4 ads that Spotify recycles to promote Premium, and it's gotten on my nerves a little bit. But as I think about the songs I get to listen to free, I calm down and become thankful.
The other portion of ads is like any other ad you see on television. One day, you might hear a Wendy's ad and another a Toyota ad. In this pool of ads, there's nothing that makes me more infuriated than scary movie trailers. After a tiring day, all I want to do is lie down, put my earbuds in, and chill out to my favorite playlists. While listening, I suddenly hear screaming and the creepy narrator voice in every scary movie trailer; I quickly take my earbuds out and throw them as far as I can. At that moment, I'm irate; all I was doing was trying to relax, and now I had to go to sleep with the lights on.
5. WiFi is one bar only, and you can't use LTE (data)
Hopefully, I'm not the only one that experienced this situation: I'm walking on the street (usually on the U of I Campus), and my phone has one bar of WiFi. A WiFi signal with one bar does absolutely nothing for you. A WiFi with one signal is a hoax: you think there's actually WiFi, but there isn't; you've been deceived by IllinoisNet.
Whenever, this happens, I have to turn my WiFi off, so I can use my data and continue playing Pokemon Go.
6. My morning alarm ringtone
I still have the default Apple alarm ringtone, and I detest the sound it makes. It's 7 am in the morning, and every time I hear that dreadful sound, I wish I could turn it off with my mind. I can barely open my eyes–probably still between the state of dreaming and living. Thinking about it now, I probably wouldn't be as mad if I went to sleep earlier.
Looking back at what I just wrote, I sound spoiled and egotistical.
On a more serious note, my philosophy is that there has to be moments that provoke negative emotions in people. If nothing makes someone mad or sad, how will someone know what makes him or her happy? We must have a mixture of emotions to distinguish what makes us happy.
Always being happy will make you lose a sense of what's supposed to be happy. Yeah, it would be convenient for me to turn my alarm off with my mind, but if I can do things like that, then would I consider anything to make me mad? If everything goes the way I want it to go, then life would be very predictable and bland. What do you think?
What are some things that make you mad? Comment down below (along with what you're supposed to comment)!
(The order of this list is not of any significance)
1. Bag "full" of chips
Half the bag is just air! I always think there are chips filled up to the top, but there isn't. I'm especially furious when I'm hungry because I have to get another bag to satiate my hunger.
2. Vending machine snack gets stuck!
My snack is on the tip of the shelf, but it's not falling... I hit against the glass, but the snack doesn't budge. Discouraged, I put in another $1.25 to hopefully get two snacks and not feel like I wasted my money. The first snack falls, but the second one is the one that gets stuck now. When I finally walk away from the machine, I end up with 5 of the same snack.
3. No more of limited sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings (BWW)
My favorite days of the week are Tuesday and Thursday. Why? On Tuesday, traditional chicken wings at BWW are half the price, and on Thursday, boneless wings are half the price. My usual order consists of 20 wings (traditional or boneless depending on the day).
These are the usual sauces I get, and how much of each I get:
Asian Zing (8)
Honey Barbecue (7)
Teriyaki (5)
But sometimes, there are special sauces that only come out for a limited amount of time. These sauces also have a limited supply; it's first come first serve. Out of those special sauces, the one that keeps me up at night is the Korean Barbecue sauce. This sauce is delicious. I was lucky enough to get a taste this one day because it wasn't busy at the restaurant. Ever since, whenever I ask for this special sauce, they never have it! This is because I always go to BWW after school, and the sauce runs out.
If they had Korean Barbecue, this would be my order of 20 wings:
Korean Barbecue (8)
Asian Zing (7)
Honey Barbecue (5)
Sadly, this order hasn't been made for 3 months :(
4. Spotify Ads
I like to listen to music. Most of the time, I listen to music on Spotify, which is a great app that allows users to stream songs for free. However, every about 2 or 3 songs, there's always an ad. Most of these ads are promoting Spotify Premium, which allows users to listen to songs ad-free and offline. Spotify Premium is amazing, but I'm not paying $10 a month to listen to music. There's about 3 or 4 ads that Spotify recycles to promote Premium, and it's gotten on my nerves a little bit. But as I think about the songs I get to listen to free, I calm down and become thankful.
The other portion of ads is like any other ad you see on television. One day, you might hear a Wendy's ad and another a Toyota ad. In this pool of ads, there's nothing that makes me more infuriated than scary movie trailers. After a tiring day, all I want to do is lie down, put my earbuds in, and chill out to my favorite playlists. While listening, I suddenly hear screaming and the creepy narrator voice in every scary movie trailer; I quickly take my earbuds out and throw them as far as I can. At that moment, I'm irate; all I was doing was trying to relax, and now I had to go to sleep with the lights on.
5. WiFi is one bar only, and you can't use LTE (data)
Hopefully, I'm not the only one that experienced this situation: I'm walking on the street (usually on the U of I Campus), and my phone has one bar of WiFi. A WiFi signal with one bar does absolutely nothing for you. A WiFi with one signal is a hoax: you think there's actually WiFi, but there isn't; you've been deceived by IllinoisNet.
Whenever, this happens, I have to turn my WiFi off, so I can use my data and continue playing Pokemon Go.
6. My morning alarm ringtone
I still have the default Apple alarm ringtone, and I detest the sound it makes. It's 7 am in the morning, and every time I hear that dreadful sound, I wish I could turn it off with my mind. I can barely open my eyes–probably still between the state of dreaming and living. Thinking about it now, I probably wouldn't be as mad if I went to sleep earlier.
Looking back at what I just wrote, I sound spoiled and egotistical.
On a more serious note, my philosophy is that there has to be moments that provoke negative emotions in people. If nothing makes someone mad or sad, how will someone know what makes him or her happy? We must have a mixture of emotions to distinguish what makes us happy.
Always being happy will make you lose a sense of what's supposed to be happy. Yeah, it would be convenient for me to turn my alarm off with my mind, but if I can do things like that, then would I consider anything to make me mad? If everything goes the way I want it to go, then life would be very predictable and bland. What do you think?
What are some things that make you mad? Comment down below (along with what you're supposed to comment)!
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