This is so strange... I'm calling the DMVS right now to schedule an appointment for my driver's license ^_^ They put you on hold for 972349 minutes with MUSIC on the line. Cute, I want that for my phoneline. Anyway, I'm still holding... holding... ack. I hope I prove worthy enough for a license -_- Wish me luck. :D

I'll make a new layout soon. Any ideas? :) I wanted summer, but that's what everyone seems to do, nowadays... Hm. I had an idea in mind, but my ideas usually take a turn (for better or worse?) so we'll see.

Wow, I've been obsessed with FIRE EMBLEM for the longest time now. Ahaha, thanks, Brian. We're such addicts/dorks! Whenever I have a moment, I whip out my GBA SP and play. I love this light feature - you can play in the dark/dim areas, all right. :D Anyway, in this game, you are a tactician in the arts of war. You guide all these people into action... it's like a giant chess game! Um, somewhat. :D (I've never played Chess, so I wouldn't know) ... the storyline is conveyed rather beautifully, and even though it can be long, there's never a dull moment. Two things that adds a little twist to the game: if units die, they never come back, AND weapons are not unlimited in this game, meaning you DO have to replace them when they "break" =/ all about realism, eh?

I'm reading The Sound and the Fury right now, by William Faulkner... *groans* it's for APLIT summer reading. ;( I have to keep a journal for it. Anyway, the first chapter is narrated by this severely retarded man who has no sense of time, so it's really hard to follow along. "Read it with great patience." Yeah, my patience was wearing thin earlier... gah. I have other books to read, but those shouldn't be too bad... The Scarlet Letter (read it already ^^), The Crucible (same... I didn't get it), The Sun Also Rises... shouldn't be too bad, right? :)

The day before, I watched "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" w/Omar and Tiffany at our house. It was a cute, typical chick flick romantic comedies... it was enjoyable. ;D They were both using each other for their causes... ack! They made a cute couple, though. Blondies. :D I like Matthew McConaughey (sp?) =) Also, Kate Hudson looked so pretty in the movie. Gah. ^_^ KRULL, THE WARRIOR KING!

I'm still holding... it's been 10 minutes...ack, my neck.

Debate. Ah. Gotta love the loads of trees we kill each year...

Sorry, short post. I'm alive... debate workshop this week. :) I'll try to do work this time... as I did today. I unwittingly was sent to do some research, along with Joy. :) Hopefully I found stuff, but as I look once again at my measly stack of papers, I'm thinking I did this wrong. ;)

Hope everyone's having a good summer.

Pray for Ms. Chase -- I've heard she got into a car accident yesterday, and I don't know what her whereabouts are ... :( I hope she is all right. She apparently never made it to school, and she didn't show today...

***
I have one more exam left tomorrow --Spanish I-- and after that, I'm through with sophomore year. A little unsettling... soon, we'll be chartering new "seas" as we start off the last half of our high school career with junior year.

Oh boy, maybe I've been playing SKIES OF ARCADIA for way too long. I've been addicted to the game (the Gamecube version) lately because I love RPGs and once I start, I never stop... :) I am amazed at the storyline--it's pretty good--the characters are well-rounded and funny, choices are to be made, the graphics are notable (in my humble opinion), the music's not bad, and there are funny sound bites. For me, that's video game bliss :] One fault I do find of it: the frequent "minor" battles (ugh...they get repetitive and they can take awhile) but other than that, I'm hooked. ^_^

Side note: Why are most "anime" guys drawn so beautifully? I've met few guys in the real world that look like that... so feminine yet so hot :)

Maybe I do need to cut back on carbs. You guys might think I'm crazy, but I'm still not totally happy with myself (maybe it's a girl thing) ... No, I wouldn't resort to the Atkins -- it's torture!! I heart bread -- but I seriously need to limit my carbs because it seems like that's all I eat. I never have food in the house (fruits, meat?) so I usually resort to bread or tv dinners or pasta, the like... not good! :( Carbs aren't BAD, they just have more calories, and more/excess calores = fat ... the last thing I need...

[personal entry ahead so feel free to skip some parts if you're like "...what?"]

Each year in May, as the school year wraps up (last day of school is on Friday; Tuesday for the lucky seniors), I often have this question:

"What have I been doing for the past 10 months?"

Seriously, the year always goes by in the blink of an eye, yet one week, one day, or even one hour feels like months and months at a time. Time is relative, but I still cannot fathom that simple fact. We have 180 days to live out yet another school year, and hopefully each year something great is accomplished, yet I often cannot recall but a fraction of those 180 days. This is probably one of the reasons why I keep a journal: to remind me what in the world I've been up to as a silly, sentimental, emotionally unstable, weird 16-year-old living her life.

2003-2004...

Academically, I've been doing really well (apparently I was bumped up to number 2 by rank but that's probably changed by now), and the classes weren't too bad with the exception of Honors Chemistry (I have a 96/97 but man, there were some hard tests). This will be my last slack year before Junior year next year... ack. :)

Band was fun, too -- piccolo for marching band (Stars and Stripes!), playing 1st part in class, listening to out of tune flutes back there, but of course some high points and some low points -- I got 2nd at District because my flute was broken, and I was angry because the girl who got 1st wasn't that great; once again I screwed up my All-State audition that I got down close to perfect the weeks before, and I played it like I was sightreading it -- but don't worry about it, I complain too much. Festival -- All I's, so that was really pleasing. I picked up tenor saxophone and hopefully I'll be able to stick with it.

Debate was a memorable experience with the meeting of so many awesome people and the fun times Joy and I had with evidence and whatnot. We kicked butt most of the time at tournaments -- Westminster 2nd, Brookwood, semi-finals or something, but we left; JV at Carrollton...HARD but we managed to get to Octos? :D -- I got to room with Jane and Amanda, and Joy and I ran around the hotels at 2am... I met Kevin (who became my sponsor for NHS inductino? ;D), learned about the twisted Michel Foucault, and had fun hyperventilating in rounds. Well, I'll stop writing because you probably have no idea what i'm talking about :) Next year: VARSITY ... we'll get our butts kicked (well, okay, Joy will be okay with it probably:P but I'll be like "uh...")

PROM -- Yun and I went to LHS prom; we had an enjoyable time. =) I blogged about it earlier, so no need to repeat myself.

MISC. -- I participated in Toastmasters and I even got to be President to speak at the dinner -- hopefully, I won't tremor and stutter that much for public speaking and debate. I'll be co-treasurer for Beta Club next year... some more stuff, but I can't recall it...

I grew closer to God this year -- attended a Bible study during Lent, played flute for a church this year during Lent, but in the process I listened to the pastor's messages, and they were pretty awe-inspiring. I even gave up baked goods for Lent :D I read the Bible a lot more, I prayed a lot more, I pray a lot for my friends and loved ones. I finished the Left Behind series (yeah!). A lot to do in my spiritual walk, a lot of unanswered questsions (that I will try to find this summer or this year) but I'm progressing...

I got to know a lot of people this year via strange circumstances (some of them) -- Sohaib at math tournament (that's funny...); Yun in someone's chatroom (finally I see him in the library) ... see what I mean? :] This year, I developed or strengthened close friendships, but I also grew extremely distant this year. I'm not surprised if people hate me. Do I find comfort in solitude? Yes, I do. Maybe this year is my off-year to "take a break" from it all. Last year, I hung out with groups all the time -- but I never got that much time to myself...

It'll change...

There's a lot more I would love to blog about, both good, bad, and inbetween, but a lot of the stuff only my journal (or my crazy mind) would hear... Okay, yes, 2003-2004 wasn't bad, but I feel a little empty, unsatisfied, and no closure despite all my happiness. Antithetical, right? ~_~

And so ends my harangue.

Mood: Content. :)

If anyone still wants to see prom pictures from 5/01/04, click HERE, hosted on Yahoo... ^_^ Some of you asked to see them, and here's the link.

Today, I've had the BEST DAY EVER IN MY HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE CAREER... well, not really, but it came pretty close. Any days where Dani's in tears because of laughter is a good day. First period, we didn't do anything, so we sat around Spanish class and signed some yearbooks. ^_^ Second period, our teacher had testing, so we hung out in someone's room -- got more of my friends (and fellow acquaintances) to sign my yearbook...

Third period *my high point of the day*, I had a BLAST laughing my head off to the verge of crying :) My friend, Melissa, wore a shirt that said PUNKY MONKEY and my teacher was babbling about something... he then randomly calls out "PUNKY MONKEY!!!!" And of course, everyone is thinking "...what the..." :) while I was over here dying... Jennifer noticed, and she couldn't help but laugh. And of course, he was also "on a roll" with his lesson plans and he kept on saying..."DON'T TURN ME OFF! DON'T TURN ME OFF!" ... in addition to, "SHE NEVER TURNS ME OFF" ... wow, innuendo. :) Heh, of course we were all snickering.

Anyway, when the bell rang at 2:50, we were out of there. I was walking with Padma, and she said, "Oh hey, that kid in the grey shirt used to be in band..." I thought it was some random guy, then I looked and realized it was this guy I met at the Chinese picnic a week or two ago...

Me: "JAAAAAAAAASSSSSOOOOONNNNNN!!!!!!"

I thought I would never see him again (unplanned like at school, anyway) ... I was really jubilant :D He was all surprised, too. :) I talked a little with him, yeah, I walked into the Beta Club meeting like ":DDDDDDD" with my friend Dina saying, "...You look different!" Hahah. I'm such a dork. Loser. Nerd. Geek. Yeah, that is I. ;D

In the afternoon, Dina, Ning-Fei, and I were looking through old school yearbooks, and we were pointing out guys (well, I was, to show Ning/Dina whom I was talking about) ... and COACH HILL (this macho coach at our school...but funny!) walked out of the room behind us saying, "Who are you girls looking for? I heard you girls talking about GUYS..." We were rolling on the floor laughing!

SCHOOL IS OUT NEXT WEEK! I AM MUY EXCITED! :D

Well, off to a concert.

Ah, I gotta blog about my awesome weekend: PROM was the biggie :-D [edit] CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES [/edit]

Saturday morning, I actually didn't take the time to go get well-deserved beauty sleep or go and primp myself all pretty. No way, I went to the Chinese picnic... I love Chinese picnics, so I decided to go, DESPITE the fact it was pretty grey all day and a little rainy :/ None of the girls went except for Jennifer (love you, girl!! dancing, oh yeah...) and some of the guys went, too. :D I met this white guy named Jason who goes to GATECH (ROFL his family actually joined the CHINESE Association... that's so great... that's so great), he was really really nice (sigh, college boys... :D) ... James came back to visit. Anyway, did some volleyball (ow, hurt my fingers), a lot of chilling... I left feeling sad I had to leave so early for prom :( I don't need that much time to get ready, I'm very low-maintenance ;D

I got home, showered, dressed, put on a little makeup... took an hour at most, not sure. The boys (my date was Yun) came around 5pm or so in the small limo :) pictures, flowers... we were off to Tbonz (whose bright idea was it to eat dinner at a steakhouse? :P) with a big group. I met Lindsay's cool date, Kevin G... Evans boys, whoo. We talked, laughed, took pictures (gah! I HATE LOOKING AT MYSELF IN PICTURES :/) ... I ATE CHICKEN (muahahaha, Brian, can't stop me now)

We went off to ... no, not prom just yet, but RIVERWALK. See, we live next to a river, so the setting's really pretty. :D Took pictures there... I'm surprised the mosquitoes didn't come and get me. We arrived to prom around 8:30pm. Stepping out of the limo, w00t w00t... First people I saw were Kevin (ah! I love him! :D what a sweet guy!) and Austin ...

We got caricatures done :) CLICK TO SEE rofl, I look Caucasian ^_^ ... it was cute. To make an already long story short, we danced a lot, I took pictures, ran around, hung out... yeah lots of fun. I was too tired to go to Blake's house, so I guess I missed out. Darn. :( Well, a big THANK YOU to my date, Yun, for taking me this year. :D And Johnny for driving me back...

Hope everyone had fun this year. :D Woot, all four years of high school for me (even if I can't find anyone next year or the year after that, I'll still go) ... that'll be fun.

Well, it's late.

I took a nap, and I woke up at 10pm. I feel a little refreshed. Oh, did I tell you I have this strange twitching under my right eye? I guess it started happening recently. Maybe all this stress/fatigue IS taking a toll on my health. I looked at webmd.com (a great site...) and it said it was probably linked to stress and/or fatigue, which I have been suffering through for the past... um, year. (not that bad, more like I inflict it upon myself... +_+) Stress sucks.

I'm wearing my glasses right now. w00t. Contacts are great, but it can hinder ya. Swimming (open eyes, AH?!), sleeping (unless you have those wear-all-day-and-night ones), long hours (drying up! unless you have those no-dry-up ones) ... Ah well, it's all a matter of preference. Plus, I like smart guys, and some guys look very nice in glasses. :D I [heart] Nerds... well. Not the pimplefaced :B "durrr" ones.

Chocolate soymilk is good... I had some today. Mmm. Bi-Lo brand (hey, most of the times storebrand is > national brand) ... Well, if I ever decide to turn away from milk (no! never!) I'll have soymilk to turn to... :D

Shape magazine is great. I love their health articles and especially their workout pages. I'm a workout addict, so you can imagine it being a treasure hoard for me. :D Trying to get in shape (toning), especially for prom... I guess it's working. You can be the judge of that (or not...^_^) I don't like looking bulky. I have curves, and I'm not overweight, but sometimes I look in the mirror and think, "Wow... I'm stumpy." I want to change that. :D

Okay, yeah, sorry this post is really random. And for those whom I usually visit every now and then, I apologize for not coming lately. :( I wish I had time to read everyone's blog everyday, that would be great. I've been sailing (somewhat) rough waters lately. Hopefully, I have things ironed out now. These last couple of months have been over my head. *whoosh* ^_^

Estoy muy cansada ahora ... pardon my horrible Spanish :D but yeah, I haven't had much of a chance to rest these days, mostly because of my choice :/ my unwise choices, but yeah... I need to stop sleeping so late :D

I just got back from Honors Night... top 5% of the sophomore class, all right. :D My mom remarked that she's noticed the same people in my grade all these years from elementary school! Isn't that cute... yeah, Woody, Sarah C, all those people, I've been with since first grade or so... Wow. :) When we went up there for our certificates, I started laughing and making weird faces because I noticed the girl next to me had MY certificate, and I had MADDIE'S certificate... it was great. I talked a little bit with a lot of people, you know, just visiting. :)

Ahh! Yun asked me to prom! :D He's this cute small (and I mean small) Korean kid ... I have to get another dress Friday or Saturday because MY SISTER got asked to prom, too! Maybe we're just a prom family, who knows. Going to proms freshmen years... that's just funny, both of us. I hope the planning goes okay, because I'm leaving it up to him...

We're reading Fahrenheit 451 right now. For some reason, this book doesn't touch me like other books have in the past, like for example, A Separate Peace by John Knowles. I remember writing so much stuff about it, and I knew it inside out, and I could readily discuss it. With F451, I'm just like *lalalala* ... maybe it's because it's nearing the end of the year and I simply am too tired to think of anything right now. Ahh! Lots of good essay topics in 451 ...

Yo voy a estudiar para un examen. No me gusta examens. Hasta luego.

Hey guys! Well, maybe Blogger will motivate me to blog more, as opposed to once per week. I was manually blogger earlier, but I always forgot to get on my FTP :) It was a hassle because my computer doesn't cooperate with me. Actually, b2 (and I assume wordpress) is really good, but I'm not a big PHP fan (maybe one day I will move fluently with PHP, but until then...) :)

Anyway, yesterday I went over to Dina's house and worked on the dolls for the Spanish project. Can you figure out how many hours we've invested in the two dolls!? I don't even know myself >_<; We worked from 4:15pm to 11:20pm. Yeah I know, talk about late. :) Well, we had breaks/dinner in between, but I don't like taking as many breaks as most people do. I'm a machine! ... not really. But I guess I am used to pushing myself to the limit... Anyway, today, I went back to her house around 11:30am and worked on it some more. I helped her a little with math stuff (who likes math? not us...) ... we finally finished our dolls (bride and groom) ... Dina and I, we're a great team :D (I hope you're okay though :( !!!!!!!!!! DINKLEBURG... )

All this prom talk is making me queasy. As the deadline (May 1st is the day) is looming closer and closer, talks of people asking who and what's going on are all over the place. Well, I went last year as a freshman, (thanks, Mike, for taking me! ^_^) so I guess I should be immune to it. Prom is a bit overrated, however :/ It's fun, an expensive event to have fun with your friends in beautiful outfits, but it's not all the fantasy I thought it would be when I was younger. For those going, I wish you loads of fun and happiness. :D (and empty wallets . . .?)

I write in my Xanga more than I do here... I'm such a dork =_= If you have a Xanga, feel free to leave me your username xD Mine's somewhat reserved/private, that's why I don't really advertise it. It's nice writing knowing that it's a reserved place, IE: my real journals. Wow, if someone ever found out and read about them, I would think I'd die of embarassment. ;D

Well, I have work to do. Or maybe I'm just being the overachiever I am. Do you know how long it's been since I've had a really good time with friends? Gah. I'm so lonely, shut in my house with my Bible, my SAT books/CD, my novels, my webpage... all I ever do is write, write, write. I need to get out and reconnect with my friends. :D