This past Friday was our first home football game. GO PANTHERS. Yea, after going to every (almost all) football game for the past two years as a band member, it was really strange going Friday as a student :) Instead of running around on the field for halftime and just goofing off in the stands, confined by a chain link fence, I stood up for about 3 hours screaming and hollering for our school team. Whoohoo. After a very stressful game, it was tied 13-13 so we went into... TRIPLE OVERTIME (!!!) which is amazing because, put simply, our football team is not great :X ... in the end, we came out at the top, 28-26 so not bad! I'm looking forward to more football games :) which is weird, considering I used to HATE football games with a passion... the game itself was kinda boring =/ esp. when you had to go to all of them every year.

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.

Today is August 25th, and I feel like I have been in school for months.

:(

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

I love working out. :)

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: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Things to do: study for APChem * read for APLit * do Trig * practice flute

All you August babies: happy belated birthdays to Joy, Omar, Tiff, and Mike!

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...

Athens Olympics 2004 (yes, I'll talk a little about it like my friend Mark did in his entry :D) started yesterday, and as we speak, the world's most talented athletes are competing for the prized gold medals in the very birthplace of this major sporting event known to the world as the Olympics. If you haven't already, you should tune in to NBC (hehe, maybe just applicable for Americans?) and watch now! For some online coverage, you can visit Yahoo! Sports !

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!

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...)

I'm so tired...

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 ^^

I am so tired...

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.

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I went and volunteered at my house. It was like going back to school a week early because I saw way too many teachers for my liking. Sure, I missed them, but not the classes themselves ;) I worked mostly on bulletin boards - actually, I take a long time, so in two days, I only had three done. Yesterday (Thursday), my friend and I worked on our old chemistry teacher's board. We got creative as we did a fish theme - Finding "NeMo". Who would have thought that Mo *is* an element? :D Although I don't think that compound is possible... anyway. We had a blue background and orange fish with all these chemistry "inside" jokes. Those poor kids won't have a clue on what the board says :D ... yeah, it was great fun doing it with you, Zaheera ^_^

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. ~_~

Hello everyone! I just came back from New Orleans. Although it was nice to get away from it all, I've missed everyone. I blogged a little about it earlier, so I don't feel like typing much :) Just read the previous entry to get a little dose of New Orleans.  Well, one thing I must say: the people's taste in New Orleans is hot and spicy - good ol Cajun, huh?

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 love actually, that would be nice, but high school relationships don't last long/work very well. I guess I'd have to look beyond ;D
  

And that's all, folks.

Greetings from New Orleans! Sorry I haven't blogged or told many people (well, my blogging audience in this case) about me leaving... ^_^' Hope you missed me as much as I missed you guys :)

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

Tired.

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... :)

Today, I decided to designate this as my "music" day :] Well, morning. I picked up the guitar, played/learned some chords (and gaining some new callouses while I'm at it), and actually practiced some flute. I've learned a lot of the basic chords for guitar - D maj, C maj, G maj, A min, D min, E min (my favorite minor chord as of right now) - hopefully, I'll be able to play some songs (from memory) soon!

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:

QUOTES

"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.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! I hope everyone's out to watch the beautiful display of fireworks tonight. :)

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. :)

Hello everyone! New layout *and* new entry. Thanks, Jane - what you said made my...day (well it's not day, it's rather late, but yeah). To everyone: Sorry about my absence - I'm really bad about disappearing from the web every now and then, Now... I feel strangely motivated to actually keep at it (my blog, my xanga, etc). I was looking over old stuff, old magazines, writing in my diary yesterday/today when I realized:

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...

Currently Reading: The Shelters of Stone by Jean M. Auel and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

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.

I fell in love with the sea otter there. :D I bought a stuffed animal at the gift shop, so now I have a piece of the aquarium with me...


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

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.