Monday, September 13, 2004
Anyway, I've had a crazy weekend... maybe I'll blog about it later, not in the mood right now. Why? My brain is quite fried from this APLIT essay I've been doing these past two days. I = perfectionist, but I know Mrs. H will shoot down my dreams... and like, stomp on them. Hello F's??? :) I've been working about 10 hours (rivaling Joy, uh oh) on this stupid essay, and it better be worth all my efforts, too. Due Wednesday.
Hey, I've got a new layout image, but I need to learn how to code well (see prev. entry? Or so) ... and do something snazzy with it. I don't know. All this stuff takes time... gargh! I just need to dedicate a "HTML/PHOTOSHOP" month for me...
Okay. Take time to stop and appreciate your friends and who they are. You may think you don't have people who care about you ... but oooh, there are plenty that love you for who you are and are concerned about. I think I've finally learned how to appreciate that fact lately... love to all of my friends. I'll probably write another long entry that nobody reads about this topic later... but not now. My back hurts...
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
These past couple of days, it has been pouring like there's no tomorrow. Where I live, Hurricane Frances was not in its direct path, but it still dumped lots of rain here. I guess my dry grass is happy now =) It's scary just to imagine winds at 90mph... over here, all the swaying trees and debris at 20mph is bad enough! I hope the people in Florida are recuperating...
My U.S. History teacher is so Republican... either that, or very patriotic, although everyone says, "Yeah, he's Republican. If nothing else." It must be something about serving in marine corps... he has great pride for this country. I told my friend, "Hey, if Bush wins in November, he [my teacher] should hold a party..." She was all aghast and replied, "...I don't want Bush to win!"
Haha, I'm reading Newsweek now. There's an article that states that there's a lot of women that are "skinny and tall" (I guess past 6 feet) so they could never find clothes that fit right. That's funny, a "tall market is heating up" with stores such as Jungle Babies, Chicks with Attitudes... Sad (?) to say that I did not get the Amazonian genes from my family, nope. But it's ironic how the tallest guy (or if I'm wrong, one of the tallest guys) in basketball is... Chinese! I'm only 5'3.5", 5'4"...
Blah, at this rate I won't finish the new layout until late September. That's usually how it is... ^_^' I need like, an insta-layout designer program... :D
[pasted from my Xanga]
On MTV's True Life: I am in an interracial relationship... there are three couples featured: a Caucasian guy and an African-American girl, a Caucasian guy and African-American guy, and a Hispanic guy and a Caucasian girl. Out of all them, I think the happiest is the first one... their families are both accepting of the other and they're both really cute :D ... The guy just asked the girl to marry her, aww! I wonder how I would fare if I were faced with a decision like that--well, interracial relationships. My parents are more for Asian (definitely Chinese...) guys, and I think I would be, too (especially in, say, marriage), but when you're in "love," does it really matter?
I know, I know, I think way ahead of my time :P when I should be focusing right here, right now... but in the event that I do find someone that's not Chinese/Asian... I wonder how that would fare? I've talked about this with someone, how it would be "weird" for the children - I used to think it was hard being Chinese yet not so Chinese in America, but I can only imagine having both sides in my blood. Also, there's just some feeling to keep your family blood consistent/pure, like most Chinese/Asian people like for it to be. Family pride? Not sure. Well, I'll just let my life run its course and see where it takes me in ten years.
Sunday, September 05, 2004
Anyway, I came back from NF's party... was really cute and fun. I gorged on Chinese food (not really) and I finally discovered the magic of cream puffs. Mmm... we girls watched The Prince and Me starring Julia Stiles. Blah, the movie was EXTREMELY predictable... I think there are SO MANY movies out there that go like this: some prince doesn't want to be a prince anymore, goes over to America, falls in love, the girl finds out he's a prince, she gets mad, but eventually things work out okay. A "cute" chick flick movie--but I could so tell when they were going to makeout or almost "do-it" everytime in the movie, so yes, once again, predictable. I'm not sure if the critics liked it... probably not. Too cliched? The guy wasn't half bad though, although I've seen better. I proclaimed I wanted to marry a Danish guy when I grew up, but I think I was kidding...
I actually bought clothes this weekend. Lots of sales going on because of Labor Day which by the way, I should wish you all a good one. :) Goody's, there's RACKS full of "Buy 1 Get 1" which is really rare, although I still think $30 for two items of clothing is expensive :P ... I bought a pink/white somewhat long skirt and an American flag shirt @ Stein Mart... earlier, I bought a blue polo (looks like a tennis top) at Rich's, so yeaaa... that's more clothes that I buy in a year lol :)
Jogging = great. I've been making use of my treadmill lately, hehehe... jogging for even 10 minutes is very tolling though, especially when you don't do it often. I need to build my endurance XD ...
Why do I have Mandy Moore's song "Crush" in my head?!?!?! >:O "I got a crush on yoooou..." I hate it when songs are stuck on repeat in my head, especially songs like that. Is it trying to tell me something?
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
I have a vocabulary test tomorrow. Just looking at these soporific word lists make me tired already! Well, at least I am being a sedulous student studying all night for this, plus looking over some debate evidence and writing a book review on The Last of the Mohicans on amazon. *insert big grin* I have a propensity to multitask, although sometimes it proves to be counterproductive... hopefully today is not the case. Gah. Sometimes, I feel like school is my fetter - it chains me to it 24/7, never ceasing to let me go. How am I supposed to get through my last years in high school, four more years in college, and graduate school (possibly? definitely?) Why do we spend 1/2 or 1/3 of our lives in school? Blah... -_- How bizarre.
In case you didn't catch on, I got so bored I started incorporating my list of vocab in that passage above. I guess it's a good way to remember words if you know what you're doing...
Oh, yes, does anyone have any King Arthur books they would like to recommend? I am reading I am Morgan Le Fay by Nancy Springer now because Jane T. said it was good (thanks Jane, although you won't read this...) hehe. I'm such a bibliophile...
Okay, off to try to understand what the heck is the situation going on in Afghanistan (no, not really, but I mean... debate files) ... ^_^ TOURNAMENT SEPTEMBER 11TH AND I'M (Joy?) SO NOT PREPARED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Currently listening to: Standing Still by Jewel
Sunday, August 29, 2004
Argh, I hate hormones. Especially the ones that cause you to get all jumpy and jittery inside whenever you think of someone... I don't see twenty-something-year-olds swooning over guys at work... or do they? Well, after reading Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella (author of Confessions of a Shopoholic, I don't know anymore... by the way, a cute book :) Isn't chick lit fun?
All right, off to do some (home)work.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
:(
It's not even September yet. What am I going to do those months in between? ... Oh yes, I know already. Study, study, study, study, study... sigh. Mi vida no es interesante.
You know, my friend and I in USHistory always talk about historically lovey-dovey romance movies/novels (you'll see, below), and although that doesn't seem like me...I can't help but like them, too.
I need to make a new layout, but everytime I sit myself down in front of the computer for Photoshop, I take hours to 1) think of the layout b) find the picture(s) c) actually touch Photoshop for the first time and d) do the HTML of it... so maybe I need to set aside one Saturday morning to do this. :D ... I suck.
In USHistory, Mr. B let us watch The Last of the Mohicans because we were "studying" the French and Indian War. I quote that because we don't really do much in his class :X ... but anyway, he's a swell guy for letting us watch movies like that. I've never seen it before until (day before) yesterday, but it's such a good movie! Why do I always miss the good movies and always catch the bad ones ?!?!?!?!?! >:O Half of the movies I watch are utter crap... anyway. The ending is one of the most bittersweet endings ever, and I was about to cry - that, and the beauty of the music never fails to move me. Go John Williams ^_^
Sigh, must depart to complete my studies of Trigonometry (really Adv. Alg) and re-read one of the most boring introductions ever in the history of literature, "The Custom House" from The Scarlet Letter ... -_-
Currently Reading: A Separate Peace by John Knowles, The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
Saturday, August 21, 2004
Every other day or two, I'll pick up the jump rope and jump away. It's really nice cardio - much better than the treadmill XD ... Plus, I'll do a little strength training... especially for the legs. I'm worried they'll be too muscular though, especially my calfs o_O Anyway, I feel happier now (endorphins?), I feel toned, I feel less stressed, and I don't feel guilty for eating those two cookies earlier XD ... Now, off to go conquer the world. :)
I went to the mall today. It's sad how it's so ghetto now... -_- I bought a pair of shorts for $6 though :D gotta love bargains!
Argh, I've started my "read a million books everyday" frenzy again. These days, if I don't have anything to do, I read... yes, it's a nice break from video games, no? ;) Anyway. Recommend any good books? So far, I've read...
-Hanna's Daughters by Marianne Fredrikkson #
-The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald #
-Indio by Sherry Garland #
-Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly
# = recommended
I try to write book reviews on amazon... my goal is try to get into the top ____ (be it 1000, 500, 10...) but I'd have to write a lot of reviews to get there--way over 1000 (even 5000?) with TONS of helpful votes. Maybe I'll get there when I'm... 20 -_-
Sorry so short - my weekends usually aren't overly interesting. ;) more later...
Currently reading:
Things to do: study for APChem * read for APLit * do Trig * practice flute
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Oww, I cut my finger this morning... =\
Anyway, yeah, it's been two weeks since we got into school... wow, two weeks fly by fast, considering those last two weeks were probably my worst weeks ever... ^_^' I still don't feel like a junior, heck, someone thought I was a freshman... sigh, I am already wishing for Christmas, am I not a horrible person?!?! :(
One thing that's different in eleventh grade is the work load! Duh... in tenth grade, you do absolutely nothing ... these past two weeks, I daresay I've done more work than I have in a month in tenth grade. Whoowhee, fun, right? At least I have my "slack classes" near the end of the day. Spanish = Zzz... The class I am in right now kills any interest I have in learning the language... -_-
In other news, I got a haircut to around my shoulders, and last night I braided two little braids... to my amazement, in the morning when I took them out, my hair was poofalicious! Just wanted to experiment around a little :) I got some thoughts about it (did you get a haircut?) so maybe I'll do it again. Sigh, I hate my hair. It lacks pizazz. Flair. Class. Ardour (haha that sounds like a lover's term... am I even using this word right? Zeal?) ... ^_^
My new nickname is dictionary.com ... lol, thanks guys (I should say girls)... :P
I want to write about something remotely interesting, but nothing interesting happens in my life...
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Today, I watched some women's volleyball - China vs. USA - Talk about intense! I was wondering which team to root for because I am, after all, both Chinese and American. All of the girls are very good, which is obvious because they've gotten this far. I think the money for this event is on China, though, and they did win against the USA. Sorry, Americans... the sets' points were pretty darn close, though.
I also watched some swimming (WHOA talk about endurance) and some men's gymnastics. Every year in school, our local cheerleaders strut their stuff at pep rallies and games, and however talented and awesome they may be, I do not wish to view what's up that skirt... With the men's gymnastics in the Olympics, it was a relief not to be seeing some underwear. I watched mostly the Romanian team and some Greeks... (European guys aren't bad looking at all :X) wow, gymnastics isn't easy! It takes a lot of upper body strength to do all the things gymnasts do, and the men's upper body muscles were cah-ray-zee O_O The judges, of course, are really nitpicky about scoring, and with China and the USA, the scores will definitely be close...to this and all the other events, may the best team/person win!
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Your Element is Night. You're a loner who is very
creative but never show your work to anyone.
You may smile a little but sadness or
loneliness surround you and other can feel it
when they're near you. You have a dark or
unusual beauty that makes you mysterious and
you probably have a lot of secrets that you've
never told anyone. Your beauty is intriging
and unorthidox but the real thing that makes
you special is your eyes. Something in them
makes them like Diamonds in the Rough.
What's Your Element(girls)? (PICTURES)
brought to you by Quizilla
Whoa, I'm blogging more frequently than I usually do... ;) But yeah, the statements above describe me pretty accurately. I'm really more of a solitary person who would rather be studying (yes, I know, I am the very image of a nerd) than an outgoing chatting on the phone party girl... I find it funny that my star sign, Sagittarius, is notably "solitary" and "independent," for the most part. What do you think? And if you took this quiz too, what did you get? :)
Short blog, must be off to sleep and dream of _______ ... (sweet pastries? that special someone? scary driving experiences? my dog? a 60 on a test? walking on a tightrope? playing in a band? an unsolved murder? who knows...)
Sunday, August 08, 2004
You'll be hearing that from me a lot as the year goes by. :)
All right, for APlit, we have a test on Friday (yes, those Unit tests) over 150 literary terms and an extra 40 historical terms... no matching either. How are you supposed to study for this?! *cries* ... well, I will put forth more effort for that later because tomorrow, I have two tests on two novels - The Scarlet Letter and The Sun Also Rises ... man, we took a test on The Crucible on the second day of school, and although it was scantron (multiple choice), it was still hard because it asked a lot of questions about the minutest details and/or had very very very similar answers. Argh... I would always eliminate all of my answers except two and of course get the wrong one out of the two. My luck is horrible.
This weekend, I took a four hour nap on Friday :D Woke up at 10pm, bwahahaha... man, I need to start sleeping early :( Saturday, I went out with my family to eat, went to Shivani's to study APChem (hahahah I can imitate Mrs. _____ now, well, not really...I'm not brown enough), but we decided that it's probably just conversions and what not... Some more people came over later, and we chilled. Ah yes, good times - cherish them.
If you haven't seen this already: http://www.jibjab.com for all you Bush/Kerry fans/haters and for all you high school kids, http://www.highschoolhub.org :) I had fun learning some SAT vocab, like you see in my cam picture... the first time I did it, it showed me all these random A words I've never heard before and I miraculously got them all. ^^' gotta love vocab...
Ok bye ^^
Thursday, August 05, 2004
School started on Tuesday, and it's already Thursday. Actually, we really haven't had *that* much work, just some worksheets/review work/tests... yeah. Maybe I need to stop sleeping so late because I am always staying up contemplating the unanswerable mysteries of life in my pathetic excuse of a journal.
And yeah, I practiced flute. I have discovered that in order for me to succeed at anything, I'll have to practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice ... you get the point. I haven't really touched my flute all summer, so I'm a little rusty, and my playing isn't exactly top notch. A little practice will cure that, but I wish I was to the point where I don't have to practice in order to be good. SAME with MATH because once I don't do it for a long, long time (IE: summer), I forget it all... such is my life...
Thank God they are getting rid of Quantitative Comparisons on the SAT. I took a practice SAT test on sparknotes.com (good ol' sparknotes) and it says I'll score a ... 1360 ! That was without checking ANY answer (didn't feel like it) and not using the whole ___ minutes allotted. Well, the score is okay, but definitely not good, especially to my/Asian standards and the (prestigious) schools that I want to go to.... I really need to start reviewing math because I cannot do math at all - see it goes like this, I learn the stuff and I forget it a week later yes that's just how bad I am at math... I HATE MATH and you really start to wonder because I'm Asian :P My verbal I did okay - 720 Let's shoot for that 800... -_-
...Let's see if I remember any Spanish (lack of accents): Mi nombre en la clase de espanol es Esperanza. Yo preferi Daniella pero no estuvo en la lista. Hahah wow, I need to brush up on Spanish (and Chinese) as well.
I'd blog more, but I'm so tired... those @*(@$ bags are appearing under my eyes once again, although luckily I'm not the color of this white napkin here, so it's not *THAT* noticeable.
Friday, July 30, 2004
I picked up my Cracking the AP US History Exam book this morning and started flipping through. Funny, because I'm not taking the AP class itself -_- I probably should, shouldn't I? I'm probably capable of it. The thing is, a lot of people have said to me, "DON'T TAKE IT!!!!" and the fact that I am not -that- big of a history fan (especially United States history - omg) contributes to it... well, you can take the AP exam without taking the course, although it'll be pretty hard, and Mohan offered to study it (extensively?) with me, maybe. He's so smart. Anyway, we'll see... I didn't sign up for the class because I signed up for AP Lit and AP Chemistry, but the really good (and hard?) AP Chemistry teacher retired, so with the other teacher, supposedly the class itself is really easy now (a joke?). =\ Ahhh... whatever, I hate schedule changes, and I'm not sure if guidance likes me, so maybe I'll just leave it. @$)!@$@*% ... What do you think?
I watched Bad Santa yesterday. Yeah, I guess we were in a Christmas-y mood yesterday - just looking at the snow and all the Christmas decorations made me sigh. December is my favorite month of the year :P Anyway, it was a pretty bad movie in my opinion, and in the next couple of lines, I will tell you why. Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) cussed in 9 out of 10 sentences (so it seems) with f***, s***, a**, and the like. No wonder they rated it R! A couple of lines is okay, but 90% of your lines with those word(s) in it can get pretty darn aggravating =T I'm not a fan of lines like, "You f****** loser why don't you just take your f****** self somewhere else ... oh, s*** why don't you just kiss my f****** a***" EVERY OTHER LINE.
I found the plot rather lacking - I guess it traces the transformation of "Bad Santa" to "Good Santa" but I still didn't think very highly of him at the end. This drunk, sex-loving guy named Willie plays Santa every year in different locations with his short elf pal. Willie cracks safes at the malls he plays Santas in and steals tons of money with the help of his elf pal. Then they move on to other locations, and a year later, they do it again. One year, he meets this rather rotund kid named Thurman Merman who views everything, including "Santa," with such an innocent, angelic air. "Let me make you some sandwiches..." Because the police are out for him, Willie ends up staying at Thurman's house, where the kid reveals to him what he wants for Christmas and his views on Santa. The kid Thurman is rather cute in an odd way, with his chubby face and his blank looks. Willie is slowly and somewhat softened by Thurman's kind demeanor as the movie progresses, and the one act he does at the end somewhat ameliorates the term "Bad Santa" that he has on himself.
Bernie Mac is in this movie, and I really do not like Bernie Mac. His appearance annoys me, the way he is always like O_O I didn't like the way he delivered his lines, and the fact that he did such a bad job in Charlie's Angels 2 does not help =X ... Anyway, in this movie, he plays this guy who is trying to find evidence that could get Willie and elf fired, and eventually he finds out what Willie and his elf pal are up to in their safe-cracking schemes.
I don't think I'd watch this movie again. ~_~
Monday, July 26, 2004
20 Questions to a Better Personality thanks, Emily !
Wackiness: 38/100
Rationality: 32/100
Constructiveness: 50/100
Leadership: 38/100
You are an SEDF--Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting.Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well--even those you have known a long time--because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable.You are not to be messed with. You may explode.
Somewhat accurate, if not very.
Anyway, school starts on August 3rd for us - that's way, way too early. It's still summer, technically! -_- We have tax-free days coming soon - you know, for school supplies and clothes. You know, unless you're buying TONS of stuff and/or expensive stuff (ie: computers), you really don't save that much... but try telling that to the frenzied crowd at Wal-Mart. Yeah. It's scary, I tell you.
And because everyone seems to be doing it (okay fine, I saw it on Jane's blog ;D) , I'll compose a "School Year Resolutions" type thing, although knowing me, I won't follow 99% of them ;) Here goes nothing, and someone ought to make sure I'm keeping track during the course of the year...
- Make new friends.
- But keep the old.
- Stop being so emo(tional)
- Study harder (stop it with the video games).
- Do well in debate (like, actually know what the heck I'm doing).
- Score well on the PSAT (cough, yeah right, no scholarship for me).
- Practice flute more than I do now (...I will NEVER make All-State at the rate I'm going)
- Be neater with my stuff.
- Exercise on a regular basis.
- Stop eating so much junk food (well, more like "empty carbs").
- DRIVE a lot more.
Fall in loveactually, that would be nice, but high school relationships don't last long/work very well. I guess I'd have to look beyond ;D
Friday, July 23, 2004
This place is really nice. I finally got to visit the fabled Bourbon Street - and it wasn't exactly my type of street, if you know what I mean. :( :/ There was a strip bar every block or so (yes, just exactly what I wanted! Naked ladies...), and bars are a plenty here. I don't drink/smoke (and I don't plan to) so it was a little uncomfortable. There's loud music everywhere - NOISE POLLUTION! ~_~' This kind of setting takes time to get used to - even when I'm in college, I don't think I'll be like one of these people... ^_^'
Anyway, we've done tons of shopping here - outlet malls are the best!!! I bought a cheap visor here for 49 cents ROFL that's too great. Old Navy Outlet = great. I've also bought some articles of clothing... until yesterday, I didn't spend over $10 on clothes XD Gah, we're so cheap. ;)
Eat more... PRALINES :D They're a delicious delicacy dessert here :D It's pecans covered in sugar (looks like caramel, tastes like... cookie dough? o_O) It's hard to explain, except it's like, 99.9% sugar XD Boy, I'm gonna get fat... because I also found out about beignets or French doughnuts... it's dough fried and covered in powdered sugar. Tastes like Chinese fried doughnuts, actually. :D Man, I'm gonna get fat -_-
Well, I'm on this pay-per-minute computer at this place, so I better go. I'll be back soon (Sunday XD) ... I miss you all! :p
Monday, July 12, 2004
I've been feeling really tired lately. Not just "Ooh I need a nap and I'll be fine" tired.
More like drained.
It may be due to the lack of sleep - but I've been waking up at 11am (or so) everyday, so that's more than enough. Actually, more than enough sleep can make you drowsy, so it could be that; getting too much sleep. It's hard getting 8-9 hours of sleep everyday @_@ How do your sleeping habits fare? Good? Average? Great? Bad?
I watched Anchorman with some friends. I thought it would be downright hilarious because the funny Will Ferrell is in it as the starring role (Anchorman Ron Burgundy), but no... if it weren't for the "retarded guy" Brick, I would have a much lower opinion of this movie. Anchorman is about the news team on Channel 4 News, San Diego, California. Back then, women were not very appreciated in the news business, especially as anchor(wo)men, so the four people on the team are quite content with their positions. These four are Bryan Fantana (some Spanish dude), Brick _____ (the HILARIOUS retarded guy who does the weather), Champ _______ (some cowboy whose sexual preferences are a little questionable), and of course, the lead anchor Ron Burgundy (who will read ANY, and ANY line on the teleprompter). Things are just spiffy, Channel 4 News has been bumped to #1 on the ratings list when a new lady comes in - the beautiful journalist, Veronica Corningstone, whose life dream was to become an anchor(wo)man. She and Ron Burgundy hit it off after a few pathetic attempts by Burgundy, but one day, Burgundy is not available to get to the studio in time, and it is Corningstone who delivers the evening news (usually done by Burgundy). He gets super PO'ed, and he is even more furious when he learns that she is to become his co-anchor. After a mishap with the teleprompter (remember, Burgundy reads any and any line on a teleprompter!), he is fired, and Corningstone becomes the lead anchor.
The rest of the movie goes downhill from there because if you watch the latter half, there seems to be no point. The news team barely copes with the absence of their beloved anchorman while Burgundy is wasting his life away in bars and at home. The events leading up to the ending were really stupid, just like 90% of this movie... However, I must say this again; Brick is the guy who makes this movie one you can't help but watch. His comments are absolutely random and hilarious, his expressions priceless. Also, some Old School kids are here - Vince Vaughn as the anchorman of a news station who is rated #2, Luke Wilson as #3 (I think) - but their roles were very minor, which disappointed me. All in all, this movie was really, for lack of better word, stupid, but to some, somewhat-highly entertaining. Watch it with some friends who don't mind a laugh albeit the sheer stupidity of this movie.
I bought two shirts for $7 ($2.99 and $3.99) total at Ross the other day. WOW, they have cheap stuff. O_O Some of it namebrand, too. Their regular prices are lower than some stores' sale prices, so their sale prices are unbelievably cheap. Gotta love good deals, right?
The other day as well, we went to two car dealerships, and I test drove two cars, w00t. Hyundai Sonata and Saturn Ion. The first dealership (Hyundai), the salesman was incredibly RUDE. He was nice in the beginning, but towards the end, he kept on nagging for us to buy a car, and my dad kept on insisting we weren't here to buy a car TODAY, we'll consider it after we look around some more, we'll get back to you, blahblah. The guy kept on forcing my dad to sign here, sign here, sign here, and my dad finally told him "NO, WE ARE NOT BUYING A CAR." The guy was still begging to the end, and he almost wouldn't give us our keys to OUR car back. "Uh, can I have my keys back?" "Sure!..." *five minutes later* "Sir, where are my keys?" "Oh, umm... right!" #*(%&(@*@##$$ Car salesmen sure are obnoxious. If they want to sell cars, they have to be considerate and polite to their potential customers, not rude and forceful. Maybe he was desperate. @_@
We went to a Saturn dealership later. I test drove another car, and I liked it. The Saturn Ion is pretty nice - it's small, it drives smoothly, and it looks appealing. THEN AGAIN I don't know anything about cars (watch me be the person who gets the short end of the stick in life), and THEN AGAIN, I tend to be attached to the first (or one of the first) choices I have, so help me out here. ^_^ Plus, the price isn't bad - one of the cheaper ones. I think $13,000, or $11,000... anyway. On a side note, berry red is a gorgeous color :p I usually go for blue blue blue blue, but this shade of color caught my eye, and I was like, "...WHOA!"
ARGH x 100 I was planning on doing some studying today, especially SAT junk and whatnot. Guess what I'm doing right now: not studying, exactly! School starts August 3rd (so soon), and I need to get back in school mode soon. My brain has melted in the intense summer heat, and I need to salvage what I can. I think I'm going to reread some of the APLIT summer reading stuff to refresh my memory. I finished most of them in June, which feels like ages ago.
Okay, I'm going to take a nap and see if it'll alleviate my drowsiness. Zzz... :)
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
I like guitar because by itself, you can be a band :D ... well, you can play multiple notes at the same time, unlike most instruments like the flute, clarinet, saxophone, etc. I mean, try playing Michelle Branch or other guitar music on a flute - it doesn't really work. And vice versa - there's the LOTR theme for guitar, but it's single string, so it's not that great. :D Anyway, I do like the blend of the notes that instruments like the guitar and piano can make.
Speaking of piano, I really want to learn piano (I never took lessons), and I can play basic stuff, but I don't really have the patience to learn to coordinate my left and right hands -and- learn how to read bass clef with efficiency... ^_^' Maybe one day. Maybe next summer. Who knows...
Anyway, I spent my late morning/afternoon cutting out stuff from magazines (again) and ornating my journal pages with them. Fun... I really like quotations, so I posted a lot in my pages. Here are some of my favorite ones:
"If you love something, don't set it free"
"I'm not going to shut up. I have earned the right to have an opinion." -Reese Witherspoon
"I've learned that you can make a mistake, and the world doesn't end." -Lisa Kudrow
"I don't care if going to college ruins my career. I'd rather be smart than a movie star." -Natalie Portman (Harvard :D she graduated though, right?)
"It's distancing when people say they don't have problems. Life is about messing up and getting on your feet again." - Debra Messing
I watched The Butterfly Effect yesterday... Every suspense/scary movie I see leaves me with a funny feeling as the credits are rolling. Deep thoughts, deep thoughts. Well, let me tell you, I'm still not very fond of Ashton Kutcher as an actor (after seeing parts of Just Married, I was like "...What?!") - you can't really take him seriously, and I don't think he's *that* goodlooking of a guy - but he was okay in this movie. Not A-List material, but decent. He plays a guy named Evan who has all this traumatic events happen to him in his childhood, but the thing is, he blacks out before he actually witnesses those traumatic events firsthand. He visits doctors, and it is suggested that he keeps journals. Evan grows up and attends college, majoring in psychology. One day he's reading over his old journals, and he transports back to when he had written the entry. He realizes he can change the past (funny how he's in the past but he has the brain of his 20-something year old self...) and he does so in order to save from horrible fates his dear childhood friend Kayleigh, her psychotic killer brother Tommy, and his mentally ill friend Lenny. Everytime he goes back to change the past, out comes a new future with new past memories... but each one he is left unsatisfied, so he goes back in time again and again... so when does it end? Anyway, I won't give away spoilers, but the ending is pretty... eh, powerfully strange. You should be left with this weird, unsettling feeling that lingers long after the VHS/DVD is back in its case.
Sunday, July 04, 2004
Okay, let me begin by saying: I LOVE SALES. After hearing about awesome prom dress sales at Dillards (is it Dillards or Dilliards? ~_~...) from Joy yesterday (who is too "old" for words :P), we decided to go to the mall and see what was there. Well, we weren't disappointed. They had a couple of racks with dresses $20-$30 (original prices are, what, over $100), so Tiff (my sister) and I went crazy! I must have tried on about 10 dresses! I love trying on dresses and looking elegant - unfortunately, this is not the age where balls and social dances are the thing (I'm such the romantic), so we can only wear them during prom. =\ I found a really pretty glittery aquamarine one, and although it reminded me of a mermaid, I liked it a lot. Unfortunately, the zipper was broken beyond repair, so I sadly put it back on the rack. I also tried on this white dress that blended into silver... really, um, interesting ^_^' "Unique" is the word.
My mom picked out this dark purple one, and it fit nicely (although the chest area still had room... surprisingly -_-) - My sisters and mom were like, Oooo... so elegant! I guess I don't strive for "pretty" (usually characterized by bright, vibrant colors - think princess!) anymore, just "elegant" (can be charactized by darker colors that add a flair). Which is fine. :) To me, "pretty" reminds me of pastel colors, in particular pink, and it's for the young, dainty beautiful girls. "Elegant" sounds more... mature, and I've been told I act older than I really am (unless I'm ROFLing with my friends - then I act like I'm 13 :D). Anyway, the dress has purple glitter flowers on the front. The veil-like material on the front splits into two, and the dress is a little flowy (but not dragging). I like it. $30, not bad. Now I'm good to go for the rest of my high school career - two years left, dang... where did the time go?
We went to Sam's today. It's like Walmart, only everything is in bulk... wow. Talk about food heaven. *amused*
King Arthur is coming out July 7th. It looks pretty good. I'm a pretty big King Arthur fan, and I'm anxious to see the big screen's rendition of the classic. The cast looks impressive. The guy who plays King Arthur (who is it? Too lazy to look it up...) looks like a King Arthur. I always imagined King Arthur as the guy with decent rugged good looks, but quiet, shy. Demure? On the other hand, I always imagined Lancelot as dashing (which accounts for Guenevere's attraction to him...) and audacious. Guenevere is, of course, Guenevere, but I didn't know she does archery and whatnot... :D Maybe I need to read the real accounts of King Arthur (Mallory, anyone?) one time. Kiera Knightley is a pretty good actress (even though The Pirates of the Carribean IS an overrated movie if you ask me), so I think she'll be wonderful.
I finally finished Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy today. Fans of this book, I'm sorry, but I'm about to begin a long tirade: About halfway through the book, every page was very painful for me to read. I kept on marking page 754 (the last official page) with my bookmark and was glad to see the pages between the page and me dwindle, ever so slowly. The plot? Beautiful Anna Karenina is married, has a son, enjoys a nice status being the wife of a Russian official named Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin, but she's rather bored by her husband (she doesn't love him at all, in fact, there are times when she hates him). One day, she meets Count Alexey Vronsky, who is, of course, dashing and handsome, so she falls in love with him and becomes his lover. Sound familiar? I didn't see why it was called "one of the world's greatest love stories in world literature." Maybe I just don't understand great classics. Maybe Tolstoy's style of writing isn't getting to me. Whatever the case may be, I didn't think there wasn't much love in the story (once again, I am a romantic, so this may have an impact), and Anna and Vronsky aren't even the main characters in the novel. There's an excessive amount of characters, most of them not even that important to the story (SO MANY RELATIVES!), and I often got many of them confused. In the end, I just gave up trying to discern who's who (if you're expecting a master list of characters in Anna Karenina from me, think again). Way too much dialogue, a lot of it was really dull and boring to me. Sure, most of the characers reacted to Anna and Vronsky's relationship, which is important, but in other scenes, they talked about the most senseless topics. I was not amused nor entertained. The ending, however, should hit most readers powerfully, provided that they get there (if I didn't push myself, I would have never made it =\). I did feel a sense of closure, though. Sigh, poor Anna...
I understand that romance may not be the #1 theme in the novel - mostly the ideals and values of the Russian society at the time, and so on and so forth - but you could have warned me about it when the description said "one of the world's greatest love stories in world literature" ...
Set along her story is the tale of Konstantin Levin, a Russian man whose values are very much Leo Tolstoy's own values. I found his side of the story refreshing (he finds loves and is happy while Anna finds... love and isn't quite so happy afterall), and his struggle to win the love of his life was well written. However, after he finally wins Kitty's heart, there are still many more chapters of their life, which I found a little...long and dull, as well. They got married, they lived happily in the countryside, yay, so why are there 500+ more pages to go? ...
Sorry, I'm aware this -is- a great classic, and if I read it and actually absorb its values, maybe I will appreciate this more. It's just that the plot was buried beneath a lot of unnecessary pages, and that has distorted my view of this novel.
...Whew!
I'm reading The Odyssey by Homer. I never read the whole book, and there's a first time for everything. There should be more people like Odysseus and Telemachus in this world. :)
Thursday, July 01, 2004
HOLY CRAP. DANI. IT'S ALREADY JULY. SUMMER'S ALMOST OVER. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? NOT MUCH. WE HAVE ONE MONTH BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS. GET MOVING.
...I better get myself up and moving. Like what I haven't been doing up until now. *grins* Me and my lazy self. I don't know, I guess it was like an ephiphanic moment. The moment when the lightbulb turns on after years of inactivity... oh I don't know. But it feels nice. :)
For instance, I actually marked on my calendar to EXERCISE on a regular basis. I took out my trusty ol' MAY 2004 SHAPE magazine and put it on the table for full view. See, today, I wrote "START" on my calendar :D Usually, I'm just like *blah*... I suffer from poor eating habits, I never do anything, and when I do, I usually overdo (overexert myself) it so I don't want to do it the second time around. NOW I plan to exercise with a day or two in between (get your rest, you know) ... and watch what I eat more carefully. :D Okay, once again, I will say this... I'm not fat, I'm not overweight, I just want to watch my weight/fat percentage and maintain it or, as I would like, to go down a little. So yeah. I hate it when my friends say what an idiot I am for working out... "YOU DON'T NEED TO!" =\ Yeah, I do. So does everyone else. For good health. :)
These past couple of days have been interesting. The day before Brian was supposed to leave for good ol' NY, he unexpectedly drops by with Omar, who claimed he was looking for his tuner/capo. Riiiiiiight. ;) Clever ruse! Anyway, he didn't find it, and Brian ended up going to football and coming back around 11pm to play some Megaman (while Tiff and I watched)... although the games were originally for NES, they now imported it for Gamecube - all 8 of them or whatever, and let's say, it's hard. o_O Whoever was smart enough to put B as the jump button really needs to be smacked. :D Anyway, quite an interesting meeting, and it was storming pretty badly. He left around 12am or so, silly boy. :)
Today, I watched Spiderman 2 with the Chinese crew - Jane, Omar, Robert, Tiffany - and three other people (Nathan, Alissa, Mike S) ... you know how most sequels are usually downright horrible? (ahem, Shanghai Knights...) This one surprised me. Very much. The plot is pretty much the same - some scientist gets into a freak accident and turns into some crazy terrorizing monster... yeah yeah. That part was expected. The other part, Peter Parker's soul-searching, was quite interesting... I like movies like that, so it touched me. He struggles with his love for MJ, and you can see it in his eyes, his face... :( Well, yeah, some emotional parts, I actually had tears welling in my eyes at one point. Beautiful. And there were some funny parts - more than the first one. :D
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER Spiderman's webs cease to work, so one night while he's flying around, he lands on a rooftop... and he can't get back down, so he has to take the elevator while he's still in his Spiderman suit, ROFL! This guy walks in the elevator at the same time, and they show the two of them together. Dootidoo... SO FUNNY.
"Nice Spiderman suit."
"Thanks."
"Where did you get it?"
"I made it myself."
"...Looks uncomfortable."
"Yeah, it gets kinda itchy...it rides up the crotch area."
(THANKS OMAR :D "the kissing part!")
Okay, well, yeah, it's late, and I should go...
Monday, June 21, 2004
Hi, sorry for not posting ^_^ I was out of town most of last week. Also, look for a new layout soon because currently, I'm thinking *really* hard to conjure one up, but that might take awhile. Also, I'll try to update some of my pages because I realized I haven't touched some of these in a year. Oops... :D
Last week, I visited Charleston and Savannah. We were expecting beach weather, but instead, everyday was rainy and/or cloudy. =\ We did, however, made it to a beach in Charleston with the sun somewhat out, but it wasn's screaming SUMMER! if you know what I mean. I jogged around in the sand though - that burns more calories, yea! ...
Charleston is rich in history, and that's a yay for history buffs like my dad (Civil War). We visited some Civil War forts/cannons and whatnot. In addition to that, Charleston is also rich in nature because the South Carolina Aquarium is located there. :D If you like marine biology, this is for you... besides aquatic exhibits, they also had a little of everything else, too - like the mountains, the swamps - so every nature lover should pay that (and any other aquarium?) a visit.

Lots of shopping to be done in Charleston. There was this one street where there were name-brand stores galore! The Sak 5th Avenue was one of them, although that is way above my league... Lucky (not just for its perfume!), Gap, and more. Unfortunately, I'm one of the girls that _must_ buy things on sale, and I mean > 60% off or something, so I didn't really buy much on this trip except $9 jeans and a black shirt. Yes, I am cheap. And I'm lovin' it (does McDonalds have a TM on that? ...).
Savannah is this quaint city in GA next to the Savannah River. Very enjoyable and enriched in its Southern heritage. In Savannah, we stopped by its downtown, and I loved it! It was actually ALIVE (unlike others...) and there were little shops everywhere! It didn't exactly scream TOURIST TRAP so that was good ;P Coffee shops and internet cafes were abundant, and we stopped by an internet cafe for lunch. Mmm, enjoying fresh salad while on the computer while overlooking the streets of downtown Savannah. Not bad. The river also had some big yachts - even one that was a floating casino!!! How nice :D
That was pretty much my week.
Yesterday was Father's Day =) We rented The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and watched it in the evening. Yes, I never saw it. Anyway, may I say disappointment? I was expecting so much for it ever since the phenomenal The Two Towers but I was left saying, "I don't think I'll watch this movie again..." for ROTK. One, it was just too long. I wouldn't mind if there were good parts in it, but there wasn't much to be seen except for the same thing over and over again (battles galore) or really really drawn out parts. Two, they cut out a lot of stuff from the book if I remember correctly. (well, I was most upset about the Eowyn/Faramir Houses of Healing scene cut --they showed the two together in the VERY end --) Three, they didn't focus on some characters enough, IE: Aragorn, the king himself... we didn't see much of him in this film, well, not enough to make a lasting impression. And where was Legolas half the time? ;( ... Four, maybe it IS Frodo's character in the book (I really need to read the books again), but half the time I wanted to punch Frodo off the cliffs. -_- Well, for this movie, great battle scenes, but they were a bit too lengthy when they were the same thing over and over and over again. Anyway, I could go on, but I'm not a movie reviewer, and a lot of people have already seen this. :D
