No pain, no gain.  Getting a couple bruises here and there just to make it to the end, but gotta keep pushing.  Failure is not an option, but success means something different to everyone.

Don’t know if I want to continue the friendship.  Yes, we do have some nice conversations, but that’s only when everyone else is there.  But when I text you, I’d be lucky to get a response back.  When you text me, it’s only if I can provide you with something.  I’ll give you what you want, but it doesn’t make any sense.  At all.

To my teen and childhood years:

You have been good to me.  I can only look ahead now and regard myself as being the same person, yet at the same time, someone who is different in the eyes of society.  I leave behind not an empty suitcase, but a box filled with pictures of good times and of bad, of what life was like before, and of the adventures I was lucky enough to experience.    This box will be kept close; I may delegate it to the attic, where I may, decades from now, stumble upon it and relive the moments that had captured my attention for my first 20 years.  Forever forgotten, it will not become.  But I must now look forward and explore the vast world of opportunity; what experiences does it have in store for me?  I welcome the future with curiosity and excitement.

To the years of my past, I thank you for everything.  I assure you, we will meet again.  In what situation, I know not, but let me repeat once more: we will meet again.  Until then…

Forever yours,

Joseph Be-Yuan Li

I’ve gotten kinda chunky the past year-and-a-half so imma start fitting more reps in and start cardio sometime after Easter.  Going for 7-8% bodyfat (I’m assuming I’m ~12% right now) so 130 lbs sounds good.  Hopefully Lent will put me a little above that weight and cardio will do the rest.

What do you do about people who don’t text back when you text them?  And I don’t mean people who just forget; I’m talking about those who look at their phone when they receive a text and think, “Oh, it’s him again.  I don’t think I’ll need to respond.” or “Hey, this seems to be a mass text, there will be alot of people going so I don’t want to waste my time responding back.”  There is another point, but it seems that my thoughts on Tumblr aren’t being contained to just those who follow me.

Another situation: what about those who don’t contact you unless you contact them first?  To both types of people, it really does get annoying if time after time there is a deliberate separation or lack of initiative from another party.  I’m really trying to be inclusive of all my friends, but there comes a point where your actions speak louder than your words.

*I’m quite forgetful so I’m just making this post to keep me in check*

I will do the following for Lent:

1) Give up drinking soda (I drink soda quite a bit so this might be a tad bit hard)

2) No red meat (I think i’ll go insane by Easter time)

3) Eating only 1 full meal a day (this will be the hardest since I usually don’t eat breakfast)

4) Pray the rosary everyday (I realized I don’t pray as often as my dad wants me to so I’m putting extra effort in on this one)

In the past, I usually gave up only small things, like candy (even though I don’t eat much candy) so this year, I’m going to make up some of those dedications.  I hope this will help me become a better and healthier person.  And as a byproduct of this, I hope I lose a couple pounds.

The symphony was on break and I was talking to the concertmaster.  The head conductor of the UCLA choir program came up to me and told me he wanted to talk to me.  I became quite frightened until he assured me that it was good news.  After finishing my talk with the concertmaster, I went over to the conductor.  Holding up the music score, he pointed to a part in the music we had just played and declared, “That part: you played it so well.  You were playing it as if you were the best musician in the world.”  This compliment from such a figure was quite a shock to me.  I thanked him for his compliment and instantly thought, “Well, I gotta improve every other part of the music too.”  But that definitely made my night.  Now I can go study for my ochem midterm with an uplifted spirit!