This summer is finally starting to pickup a bit!

Hey all!

I am officially a sales rep for Cutco! I am super psyched about puttin on demos for people and finding the products that will best suit them and their family's needs. :]

Anywho! I am back from the annual Florida Chinese Christian Retreat at Lake Yale and am feeling like this summer might be exactly what I need.
This year wasn't the best Lake Yale Retreat and I actually didn't agree with a lot of things that I saw and experienced. This at first was really troubling but after thinking very long and deeply meditating on my discomfort I think I have come to understand myself and my background as a Chinese Christian in America in a much deeper and satisfying way than ever before.

I think also what I have gotten from this year's retreat is the urgency and necessity of integrating my faith into the secular regions of my life but not the other way around. I think I have taken my academics in one sense too seriously and in another not seriously enough. In the first sense, I have put too much emphasis and focus on the Christian Perspective academics so that I now have attempted to fully combine it with my faith which has lead my spiritual life into too strong of an intellectual realm rather than a faith based one. In the second sense, I have not been serious enough with my academics as my calling from God and I seem to have somewhat lost faith in His promises and thus lost the motivation to do my best for God and His glory. I have not been keeping up well with my side of this Covenant and think just maybe this summer is about this.

I think God right now mainly is trying to teach me to love other people at all times and not only when I can force the actions or when I like them. I think he is trying to teach me to see past any perceived faults of my fellow Christians and how to truly love them and myself for what is evidential of God's glory and to deal with the faults in a much better, Christ-like manner.

God has really thrown me for a mental, emotional, and spiritual loop but I now can more confidently trust that it is part of his crazy plan for me.

Thanks for reading this if you did!
Blog to you all again soon!

- JerBear

Mundane...

Hi there!

Life feels sorta mundane at home... I have some stuff to do and responsibilities around the house... I'm looking for jobs and such... hanging out with friends but all the same it's just kinda off.

I've decided on getting a cheap used Inspiron 1545 instead of getting a nice new, high powered laptop... less exciting but more affordable and makes me feel less guilty about my parents paying since it was my fault my laptop broke...

I've been filling my time with random movies I can find online... and sleeping lol
Definitely wish I had my guitar :/... or my mic... or a laptop of my own...

Yup, this blog is pretty much just a time filler... not that I don't care about all 1 of my loyal followers :p.

Anywho... I really want to finally get my laptop situation all figured out so I can start working more with my photography again!...

Till later I guess...

(Running out of languages and feeling a bit lazy)
Bye!

It's so strange...

After a year of basically living here at Calvin... it's legitimately weird for me to go home... I have only been home one time this whole school year since September and that one time was only for 3 weeks. I spent Thanksgiving here... I spent spring break at Covenant and so it wasn't like going home at all... Honestly... my dorm room and building has truly become my home and I will miss it a lot over the summer.

I'm thinking about all this because tomorrow is my last full day before I leave to go back down to Florida and the last day of my Freshman year... It's been pretty crazy... pretty fun... had its ups and downs... it's been an awesome year and I can't wait for next year! I will miss my friends here a lot over the summer... the dorm is like a really really large family (of course some people are a little more distant but there's still a large group of people you get to know pretty well)... which is something that I've never had before. Essentially this is a thank you to everyone who has made this year what it has turned out to be!
So...
Thank you! Arigato! Xie xie! Gracias! Merci! Grazie! Mahalo! Komapsumnida! Siyabonga!
Duizendmaal Dank! (for all you Dutch people lol)

Farewell! Gokigen yo! Yi lu ping an! Buen viaje! Bon voyage! Buon viaggio! Ke Akua pu a hui kaua! Jalda nyeoo sip sio! Ube nohambo oluhle! Goede reis!

- JerBear

P.S.If you're wondering where I find the different language expressions (other than from my noodle)
I use http://omniglot.com/

Tired of the week

Bonjour!

The "Tired" of the week is...

Also... I'm tired of this week lol...
Slept 2 hours in a chair last night! That was fun :p and then took a monster nap from like 4-9!... But I'm still really dazed and kinda groggy I guess... Anywho

haha this is a fun site: http://www.allrandomfacts.com/

The mother flamingo's milk is red.

I feel like I would have been scarred as a flamingo baby...
"Mommy? Why are you bleeding?"
"Shhh... just drink it"
"No! No!" *forced to drink* "Ahh!--... mmmmm... blood"

Mandarin duck couples stop liking each other after their nest is built.

It's like a couple that never fights till they move in together. Glad to see we aren't the only messed up ones.

Ok... well I have to study for a 9 AM final... mmmm

Alrighty then... till next time!
Au revoir!

So... crazy idea for the dorms?

Konnichiwa!

Ok, so Calvin's dorms have small computer labs and in each one of those computer labs there is one printer for the dorm. Now, I don't want to be rude or insulting to Calvin's system... but it sucks! I am down here quite a lot now a days, with my laptop broken and all, and I see people printing things all the time... or not printing. Half of the time the paper is completely gone and so people can't print unless they have a friend who has their own printer paper in their room. Paper can be acquired from the dorm deskie but the desk is closed after 12 on most days. Another issue with printing is the lack of printer toner (ink essentially). This one toner cartridge is i think the second we have had this semester... but with the amount of paper and printing we go through, it should be well on to its third, especially by now. The toner cartridge lacks the ink to print out one single sheet of the standard double-spaced essay/assignment/paper. The toner needs to be shaken after almost every 1 or 2 print queues.

Now for my crazy suggestion... Seeing as we ran out of paper at the desk at one point last week or the week before and seeing as the Dorm Tech is either unavailable or just ignoring us for some reason. I believe the cabinet that is in every computer lab should be stocked with back up toner(one cartridge at a time) and a couple stacks of printer paper. That's reasonable right? Well here is the REALLY crazy part... how about we give a copy of the key to that cabinet to perhaps the desk? or even crazier perhaps create a new volunteer/dorm position of dorm student technician? That way when things start failing and students are getting frustrated by technical issues(over not being able to print out their term papers and other important documents) there will be a tech in the dorm at almost all times to help out with these issues.

In summary... I am tired of having to shake the toner 20 times a day... it's unnecessary and can be avoided/prevented. I'm tired of going up stairs every day or two to supply friends with paper when it's not their fault at all. It's just kinda annoying. That is all.

Ja mata ne!

It is as hot as...... Florida (Originally for 5/12)

(Blogger wasn't working yesterday and so that is why this is being posted right now)
Yeah, didn't go with any obscenity hahaha.


Hola mis amigos,


It is as you may have gathered really hot today. It was kinda warm and breezy yesterday at about maybe low to mid 70s but today is absolutely ridiculous... It actually feels like I'm back in Florida! It's in the low 80s outside right now and there was a crazy Thunderstorm last night meaning it is both really hot and humid outside... exactly what I left Florida for lol.


On another note... I am really hungry... and I really don't want to study or pack... Procrastination is on my mind haha.


On an actual other note... So many sequels coming out this summer(starting next week)! What do you guys think? Pirates 4: On Stranger Tides, Kung Fu Panda 2, The Hangover Part 2, X-Men: First Class, Cars 2, and Transformers(3): Dark of the Moon. Crazy line up this summer in terms of sequels. So to start off:


Pirates 4? Depp is no doubt going to be awesome. Some people say it might be a little too cliche with the Fountain of Youth and Black Beard... but I think not. I the Fountain and Black Beard are so essential to pirates tales and the time of exploration that I think it is the most suitable next adventure for Jack Sparrow. However I think perhaps Pirates should considered wrapping up the franchise with this movie. Or at the very least stop making large scale films for it. Also Penelope Cruz and mermaids? Hot or not? I'd have to say hot... as in I like the idea of having an almost femme fatale like heroine (Penelope Cruz... duh) and the interesting connection between mermaids and the Fountain. Plus, if they can pull off having Davy Jones being a humanoid octopus I think mermaids are acceptable lol. Trailer looks pretty good but it is a trailer. Watch the Trailer here: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809791042/trailer


Kung Fu Panda 2? I don't quite know about this one. Po was pretty epically powerful and awesome at the end of the first movie... It seems best to end it there. The new movie has a new villain that is apparently unstoppable and plans to take over China and destroy Kung Fu using some sort of secret weapon. Plus Po is the freakin Dragon warrior isnt he? Shouldn't he be able to defeat this villain easily? but on the other hand there was a nice little middle short movie and I did enjoy that so who knows... maybe the sequel will work out. The trailer is funny enough; there are bound to be some funny bits in there so at least it will be funny. As funny as the first? maybe not... we'll find out soon enough. Watch the Trailer here: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810090593/trailer.


And finally The Hangover Part 2? I just watched The Hangover a couple nights ago... More funny than I thought it would be haha. I'm honestly not entirely sure what I think about this sequel. I don't really like the idea of using a wedding as the backdrop setting/situation of the story again... but that's not all that important. What is important is that they have a Capuchin(the species of exotic monkey most popularly used in media; e.i, Ross's monkey Marcel in Friends)! And guess who's back for another probably random appearance? Mr. Chow! Our favorite, probably gay Chinese Gang leader! lol Anywho there are tattoos, buzzed heads, lost Dougs again, lost future little brother-in-laws, martial-artists, old thai men... OH yeah and this is all goin down in Bangkok. lol The trailer is hilarious so who knows... perhaps this will be one of those sequels that beat out the originals... we'll just have to wait and see. Watch the Trailer here: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810187722/info.


I'm not going past this on the list only because this post is getting pretty long already(don't want to bore you guys for too long haha), I need to get back to studying and packing and laundry, and it's nearly dinner time and I'm starving! Oh, plus I felt like this was a good stopping point seeing as these are the only three coming out this month.


Alrighty then! Till tomorrow!

Adios!

Why does it seem like I only post late at night/early in the morning?

Oh... cause I do. lol

Ni hao!

I'm finally finished recording and making the "video" for my cover of "With You" by Chris Brown!
That's really all that I wanted to say haha. But in case you are still curious, head over to my YouTube Channel.

As a little bonus... I recently found out that if you use ink pens and some good hairspray you can make some pretty cool fake tattoos (with the aid of a little drawing skills too of course)! This is what being tired in class does to you haha. I stay awake when I doodle, especially when on my skin. Try it sometime if you get really sleepy in class! Anywho... I better get some sleep...

Till probably later today,
Zai Jian!

Another Early Morning Post!

Buon giorno amici miei,

Yes, I realize it's late... rather really really early. But I wanted to let the world know that my Web presence has shifted around slightly. Everything is still very new and so similar changes might take place in the near future but I'm almost 95% sure that I like it as it is set up now.

This here is my new homepage(for everything): http://flavors.me/jerryjieleichen

From there you can reach my personal Wix page which is devoted to a more in depth look at who I am. You will also be able to go to my Wix Portfolio for the newly established Quick-as-Thunder Productions. You can also reach my facebook profile from there as well. This blog feed will also be displayed on the site along with my Youtube feed. If it isn't so at the moment, soon, each and every page will have a way to go back to the Flavors page. (eg. on the two Wix pages the Jerry Chen and home graphic on the homepages both send you back)

Ok, now that all the technical explanations are out of the way I wanted to briefly explain why I chose the name Quick-as-Thunder Productions. You see... My middle name is Chinese for fast/adroit/quick thunder(sometimes closely associated with lightning as well) and so I first thought of Fast-as-Lightning but I thought it would be too cliche and corny sounding so I went through the rest and decided to mirror the phrase from the song but use quick (since it is actually closer to the meaning anyways) and thunder (that being the actual word and all). Thus I ended up with Quick-as-Thunder Productions. I'm hoping that in the end I can live up to the connotative reputation that the name puts forth both in terms of it being a parallel of a meme and thus popular and well-liked but also in terms of it's implications of efficiency (something I find I tend to lack in many areas of my life).

Well... until next time I guess!
Ciao!

My Philosophy of Photography

Hey Ladies and Gents!

I know I just made a post two and a half hours ago... but I was updating my website and thought to add something to my about me. After I finished writing it I suddenly felt as though it would be a great first serious/real post.
So here we go!
(by the way, the link to my website is somewhere on that side of this blog --->)

My Philosophy of Photography:

As you may notice, from skimming through my Portfolio, almost all of my photos are centered around some sort of Dramatic Focus and there alsp aren't many "Smiley or Corny" posed pictures. I use the term pictures instead of photos or photographs because that's just it; many pictures to me are not photographs in the artistic sense. You may also notice that I take many candid shots. To me, Photography is a way to capture a moment (but not just as a simple memory): to capture the beauty of a moment, not just a plain memory or momento, but instead an interpretation of that moment.

Recently a stranger insisted that I let someone else hold my camera and take pictures of me for once, saying that when I look back it would be nice to have pictures of myself. I did not tell  the stranger at the time, but the reason I'd rather not be in pictures is that I rather store my memories in the photographs I take. I relive rather than recall those memories since they are taken and made with my perspective and vision.

I will not refuse taking group shots nor will I prohibit people from smiling, making funny faces, posing, or looking at the camera, but I will take my personal integrity seriously and find the beauty that I see in the moment. I will not just take a picture.

My First POST!

Hey Guys!

Soooo! I just made this blog and finished some preliminary editing and customizing! This is my first legitimate blog post! Cause let's face it... Xanga doesn't quite count when you're a middle-schooler and only use it to try to get some attention to appease the strange mixture of insecurities and arrogant self-absorption that we all tend to face at that point in our lives. Don't even try to deny it! hahaha

Anyways... it is clearly too late for me to be up still... hahaha... not really (those who know my college life would agree)... but I do have a 11:30 class that i do need to eventually get up for. So until tomorrow!