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Thirdly, I thought it was the word flow problem. And it is said that one should do “morning ranting” to help the word flow. I did try it for one or two weeks, but then it became boring. The mindless rambling didn’t go anywhere and it felt like I was … Continue reading My Self Sabotaging Mind (Flash Fiction Continued) →

Flash Fiction #180 I’ve always had this feeling that anything I write doesn’t come out as I would like it to come out. I don’t know why I feel this way, but I do. I can’t even articulate why this is the case. What is the problem? What is the … Continue reading My Self Sabotaging Mind (Flash Fiction) →

Flash Fiction #179 It is said that there are two kinds of Asian restaurants in America—one kind caters to Americans and the other caters to Asian immigrants. The food choices, the food presentation, the management, the waiters or waitresses, and the price can be slightly different or significantly different, depending … Continue reading The Managing Style (Flash Fiction) →

I can’t believe I am so devious. I am definitely not. Well, I never consciously want to be devious, but probably my subconscious sabotages me in ways that I am not aware of. Anyway, all these thoughts come from the fact that I encountered an attachment test. Usually I don’t … Continue reading The Attachment Theory →

The price of ginseng has stayed flat, not affected at all by the current inflation. How strange. Just when I think everything is up and up, ginseng comes out and displays its steady price exactly like before, as if to mock my misconception. The autumn and the coming winter are … Continue reading My Mother & Ginseng →

I am satisfied and disappointed at the same time, satisfied with the passages of descriptions that are subdued and suggestive exactly to my liking, but disappointed with them due to the same reason. I actually go back to reread some of the lines, “I had believed that my simple presence … Continue reading Satisfaction & Disappointment →

I was very agitated, so much so that I couldn’t get my mind off it even if I knew I should be doing something else. I had no reason to be so agitated since it was not something that concerned me. Something happened to somebody else and I was just … Continue reading My Trigger In Full Display →

I am listening to a book about writing and it talks about character archetypes, like lovers, outlaws, sages, heroes, anti-heroes etc. And the author claims that archetypes are very different from stereotypes, although the explanation is kind of very convincing at the time, but afterwards, I think I still feel … Continue reading Archetype vs. Prototype vs. Stereotype →

Sometimes I can imagine myself attending my parents’ wedding and shouting at them, “please don’t. Don’t do that. Please do not create a hell for yourselves and for others.” And they heed my warning and believe me and part their ways, happily staying friends ever after, happily living their separate … Continue reading A Great Love Story Unwritten And Unread →

I went to the grocery store last weekend and picked up a book from a three layered table display with books all piled on each layer, deliberately disorganized. I don’t want to mention the book’s name or the author’s name since I don’t like to say negative things about a … Continue reading The Underlying Messages Are So Different →

I am feeling a little uncomfortable with myself when I think of this, but I can’t get rid of this feeling. I met Dodo last weekend again in the store and she talked about her kids. How intelligent is her son and how sweet is her daughter. She ranted, holding … Continue reading A Game Of Confidence →

Have you ever found that you are busy for an entire day, but in the end, around the midnight, you realize that you have achieved nothing. Busy for the sake of being busy. Rushing here and there just for the purpose of satisfying an inner demon of self torture or … Continue reading Saturday’s Busy Void →

I just zoomed with a girl who didn’t like her Asian looks. Actually she didn’t explicitly say it, but I understood that she felt her looks made it hard for her to fit in, made her stand out in a negative way. She tried not to attract attention to herself … Continue reading The Impulse To Say Something →

Another Sunday comes and goes, and I’ve done nothing except running to the stores, making a batch of soy milk, rising three cups of dough with a yeast packet, read the first half of a book that complains about modern love but disguised as a love story, bought three audible … Continue reading When I Have Nothing To Write For Today →

This is the 3rd part of the story. The previous parts are here: 1st, 2nd. Now looking back, I think she was trying to make connections with me through stories of her family. Talking about her family made her feel she was being intimate with me. I should reciprocate with … Continue reading My First Relationship Heartache (Part 3) →

(This is the 2nd part of the story. The 1st part is here.)  As if she was deliberately trying to annoy me, she talked about her family all the time. I was not so much jealous of her good fortune as I was terribly bored since I had no family … Continue reading My First Relationship Heartache (Part 2) →

Flash Fiction #178 Many years ago, I attended a boarding high school hundreds of miles away from home. My parents didn’t want me to go, but I insisted on it. The school was well known for its bad food, worn out dorms, rigid rules, and indifferent teachers. It would have … Continue reading My First Relationship Heartache (Flash Fiction Part 1) →

I feel that every day I am wallowing in writing mistakes and can’t crawl out of it. Is this another trap? This feeling is punctuated by the thoughts that I am criticizing myself too much. The problem is that my brain seems to have a mind of its own. It … Continue reading It Is A Mind Battle →

Flash Fiction #177 I was living in a house, named International House, on a semi rural and semi urban campus in Pennsylvania , which only accepted one or two people from the same country. So we ended up having a mixture of people from Asia, Africa, South America, Eastern Europe. … Continue reading Explaining Cultural Differences (Flash Fiction) →

The first time I felt that there might be something wrong with my father was when I was eight-years-old, or probably nine-years-old, standing right outside of the three-story apartment building where we lived. The snowstorm of the night before was gone, bringing a brilliant morning of sunshine and cloudless sky. … Continue reading The Beginning Of My Story →