Happy 09/09/09, everybody.
Reason for post: My sister wanted to borrow my Sharpies today, and found it amusing that I keep them in a prune container. I found this amusing also.
I apologize for the random objects in the background, including but not limited to: laundry, headphones, library books, and piles of papers.
My room is a mess.
I feel like my posts have been getting boring. I don't usually write any interesting insights, and I don't put pictures up, for the most part. And I don't know what to write about today, but I want to post something anyways...
I took some pictures recently (on my phone... I don't have one of those awesome cameras), and I think I'll put them up here.
Just for fun. And I think you'll learn a little bit more about me this way, too :)
I like it okay, I guess.
It's a lot of work though, mostly math and science and WAS.
That's cause I'm taking IB, so duh.
I like IB so far though! I like Accel science a lot, really. When I say that everyone looks at me like I'm crazy >.> I don't think I'll like it for long though.
I think all my classes and teachers are at least pretty okay.
Math is growing on me, actually.
Mobley designated Ricky and I to be the "smart people of the day" today. He always chooses two people, and they have to answer other people's questions about homework and the last lesson. I was pretty freaked at first, but it was not that bad, really.
&& I found out he actually has bright lights in his room!!!
But he dims them when class starts and leaves them that way.
It looks like a cave in there x.x
And I like doing photos in Yearbook :D :D :D
There's so many more staff writers than photographers... isn't that weird?
Gaines is nice, but the editors do EVERYTHING. She didn't even introduce herself the first day.
Hmmm. And the library is pretty cool. We can borrow 5 books now, yeayy. Lucky for me that I finished lunch super early today, so I got to go in without any cranky ladies catching me. I have passes now, heheh :3 And also two library books <3
Uhmm. That's just a bunch of random thoughts I have about Westwood atm, hahah.
I will add another random post sometime later for sure :]
And thank you to all the upperclassmen that take care of me all the time <3
You guys are awesome. You made my first week SO much easier, really! :]
I'm going to get in trouble for posting this late.
I don't even think I can finish unless I make it super short >.>
I feel kinda depressed, dunno why.
It's probably just the having to go back to school, and hearing how IB is hell, and how I'm kind of somewhat in love with an impossible guy I can never have. And the trouble with tomorrow, the last day of holiday.
It's the last day of holiday AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!
I'm so bored out of my mind, it's not even funny. I have no idea what (fun) things I can do tomorrow. And I really wanted to enjoy the last day of holiday too...
I'm kind of pissed. And I'm tired as anything. I should sleep, right? Since school is starting soon and all. But I really don't want to- I'm a "night owl," as they say. Who says? I don't know. I just hate going to sleep early, but then I can't wake up in the morning...
I wish I had studied Japanese more. I'll probably log zero hours once school gets under way. And I'm not even kidding. I'm afraid of having no time to do stuff I want to do.
And Bratteng looks funny- I was browsing teacherweb just now.
I'm not used to having male teachers, least of all an old guy with a white beard... I think most all of the teachers I've had up til now (except PhysEd teachers- Mr. Peterson D:<) have been ladies. Maybe he'll be nice though? But I heard he was perverted >.> And Bray is apparently bipolar. Wow. What great teachers I get to be stuck with for a year.
Good night. I'll study Japanese all day tomorrow. And maybe I'll be in a better mood.
So here's my schedule for '09-'10. And yes, I'm doing IB.
WAS and Alg II TAG on the same day D; Other than that, I'm okay with my schedule.
**I have B LUNCH both days**
ORANGE.
1-Symphony Orchestra
2-Art I
3-Spanish II Enhanced
4-Accel Science I
WHITE.
5-TAG English I
6-Yearbook <3
7-WAS
8-TAG Algebra II >.>
It's hard to believe I'm going back to school on Tuesday. Woaaah. This summer has just gone by so fast!! Anyways... I guess I have a couple of things to write about today :]
Firstly, Ponyo. It was an okayy movie... kind of boring, and it went by really slowly. It's definitely a kid movie. The animation and music was lovely as usual though :3
More recently... two days ago, we got our "schedules" and textbooks, etc. It's not much of a schedule. You just get the order of your classes- no teachers, no room numbers. My mom said that was because some people don't like certain teachers, and they didn't want everyone to switch >.> How sneaky, right?
I'll post my schedule in a separate post later, for archiving purposes...
And Fishbowl was yesterday...
It was pretty boring. Other than the club fair (which was awesome, btw) , we didn't do much. We just kinda hung around and talked. The decorations were gorgeous though... I'm going to add a picture. Lucky you :3 I know I'm really bad about adding pictures xD
It's pretty, isn't it? Agree with me.
And today, I had viola first thing in the morning- had to wake up at 8:30 WHICH IS STILL EARLY FOR ME. I usually wake up at 11:30+ :__________;
I got really discouraged this time though, because my left hand won't obey me!! Hahah, it sounds funny, but it's true. You know how if you move one finger, other fingers move along with it? And it's really hard to NOT move other fingers? I was having issues like that. And my elbow. And my wrist. So yeah, I was pretty tired from trying so hard once I got out of there.
Oh well. A little bit at a time, and I'll get there eventually...
After that we went shopping at Barton Creek~ it's Tax Free weekend, you know?
I haven't been shopping in forever, hahah. I ended up getting a /really/ cute dress for $15 (used to be $50...so it was a steal), and two pairs of skinny jeans <3 Hahah. I'm totally happy with what I bought. :D
And lunch was really good too... some "zhong" that Jason's grandmother made in NY >.> So. Good. Okay so like the whole thing was filled up with the good stuff, not just green beans <3
That's all for nao, think I'll post up my schedule for you guys :] Although it's already on facebook, but whatever.
Hahah, "flumpool" is a funny word, isn't it?
Actually, it's the name of this really great Japanese band. Terri introduced me to them (all the cool asian stuff I know about is probably from her, lol). But yeah, they're pretty good. They sound a bit like a mixture of Ayabie and UVERworld/Aqua Timez mixed together. Hmm. Kind of. But if you like those bands, you'll probably like flumpool :]
So I updated my mp3 with some of their songs and deleted a whole lot of other junk that I don't listen to, oh, say around 40 songs xD
Hmm. Not much else to say. Well, the last tennis group lesson was today. I like tennis a lot ♥ I hope I make it into the team... I need to practice hard :]
And yeah! This is a bit of a spoiler for posts to come, but my phone is coming in a couple of days (maybe tomorrow...!!). It's the phone I wanted :D Except we got it cheap on ebay, so yes. I'm pretty excited, hahah x] The SimCard came today, but not the phone :o
Also, another future post spoiler. I'm going to watch Ponyo with some friends on Saturday. I can't wait for that!! Miyazaki makes the best animation films EVER. Don't argue with me on this. And Disney had better have made the voiceovers amazing, else I'll really get mad D': I really hate watching Japanese films with English dubs. I want to watch Ponyo in Japanese with English subtitles, but that's not possible right nao. Rawwrrr. Oh well, I still can't wait. Haha :D
Jimmy is "bothering" me about finishing anime. Not really xP But I didn't even know he watched anime before a few days ago. Uhmmm... I don't even know if I want to watch anime right now. I will if I have time, I guess.
The To-Finish Watching List
1. Fate/Stay Night
2. Code Geass
3. Prince of Tennis
4. Furuba (did I finish this one? I can't remember...lol)
5. Bloody Monday (this is a J-Drama starring Haruma Miura ♥)
Lol sorry. But Haruma Miura is pretty :]
And I'm getting a haircut tomorrow, at long last. Short hair is annoying when it gets too long D':
Ah okay, it's really late o.o 5 minutes before the compy logs me out xP So I think it's a good place to stop. G`nite.
Obviously, you can tell I'm tired of thinking up titles x]
Today, if this is even slightly possible, was harder than yesterday. That's because Mrs. Williams turned up the metronome and we had to pretty much sightread at tempo ._. So hard. The All-State excerpt is evil. Everything is evil. I pretty much just followed along and jumped in whenever possible, which was anytime there weren't long 16th note runs. Not much of the time at all x]
Gahhh. So hard. Everyone around me was like, "Oh. My. God." The whole time. Except the really pro people, of course xD I'm amazed they can sightread that fast o.o 16th notes at quarter=144? Woaaaaaah. And accidentals everywhere. As Mrs. Williams said, "When I hear you play, I think Tchaikowsky is the devil."
But his music is nice :___________;
I need to practice. Ahhhh. And we have to split the part, since she only made one copy per stand xP I got the first three pages yesterday, and the last 4 today.
Hahah, kind of freaking out. Concert's on October 14... hoping that I'll be able to play decently by then :'D
Julian and Luben came today :] Julian with his Veggie Heaven shirt, camera and big smile. I remember him telling me he played violin a long time ago, maybe the first time I got to meet him. He played a bit today too, but I couldn't really hear him xP Bet he's really good though. I found out Luben was there too when somebody poked me, hard. At first I didn't know it was him xD We didn't get to talk much, since we were rehearsing xP He came by since he had to drop his sister at CVMS for band camp. Anyways, Julian's coming back on Thursday. Yay :]
I finally downloaded a couple of songs I really like to my mp3. I'm listening to "Sunset Glow" by Big Bang right nao. It's such a cute song :3
I guess I kind of wanted to write about this too, so you'll have to bear with TWO posts today ;3
Okay, I'll admit it was kind of awkward when I first walked in because I didn't know most of the people there. And all the people I did know were guys who were older and waaaay taller than me... Then I saw Ashley, who was the only other freshman girl, and it got better after that :] She can actually talk to unfamiliar people... so just by tagging along I got to meet some of the orchestra members. I guess I also felt intimidated because everyone is SO GOOD. Really really good!!!
Mrs. Williams told us the story of how she heard that they won State Honor Orchestra last year. I feel really lucky to be in Symphony this year x] I hope that even if I can't play as well as the other people I can do at least my share. I think I will improve a lot this year, since there are so many talented people around me...
Even after coming home today, I wanted to practice hard :]
The music we played was pretty difficult (at least for me). I'm not so good at sightreading fast passages >.> But I think I did better than normal, because even when I couldn't play the notes I didn't lose my place in the music. Maybe this is a magic orchestra (I think it is)!
We are playing Tchaikowsky's Serenade for Strings, the whole thing. I think it is 14 pages long, but it is very beautiful. There are lots of hard bits everywhere, though, so I'm going to need to practice a whole lot. That and region music. And, I don't even know if I'm going to try out for All-State >.> But thankfully, the Serenade for Strings contains the orchestral excerpt for All-State. I'm afraid I'm not good enough. Maybe I will give it a shot regardless...
Anyways, this whole week is Orchestra camp, from 10-1. It's not nearly as harsh as the band camp :___________; I admire the band members a lot. They are always working so hard...
Ahh, it was amazing. Really.
Thank you to everyone who planned for this retreat, and of course, praise God!!
I learned so many things and got to know God better, especially at the prayer walk.
Edley Lee (heehee) was a great speaker too. I love the stories he told :D
I was also happy to meet new people in my family, and throughout the retreat...
I'm happy that our family won!! Go Pirates!
Hmm... I don't know what else to say.
But this being the first day back, I had a really good quiet time this morning. That made me feel happy about today. Already I can see a difference. I just hope that, with God's help, I'll be able to keep this up. I don't want get bogged down once school starts...
Also, I was kind of shy before, but I think I can talk a little better to people now. Not much though xP I still have trouble talking to unfamiliar people, but it's slightly more comfortable for me now. There's still always the awkward pauses though x]
I hope everyone had a good experience at retreat as well.
Oh, yes.
I got a new viola yesterday xDD It's a 16" dark brown Scott Cao... 11 years old and kind of dented everywhere ;____________: Oh well, it sounded the best and was the cheapest of all :]
I couldn't stop playing it today. It was so much fun, and so much louder than my 15" one. When I play in the bathroom it sounds like I'm in a concert hall :]
I came back from Corpus a couple days ago... it was all sand and beach and sun and... hotel. The hotel was awesome. Free breakfast, cooked to order o.o And free drinks and snacks in the afternoon. And they had good TV channels too xD
The beach was awesomer than the hotel. The sand was like flour, really fine and white. We caught hermit crabs and sea snails and cool beach critters and dug holes and channels and soaked in the water :] I have the worst swimsuit tan now, but at least my shirt tan is gone xD
And then retreat tomorrow. Then Orchestra camp. I feel more prepared with my new viola... and region music is coming along pretty well :]
Yay.
So, I've been thinking lately.
Is it true that people, specifically artists, are undisciplined in everything except their areas of interest? It sure feels like that for me.
This point was first brought up, actually, in one of the handouts at Friday night fellowship. It's been nagging at me ever since.
Seems like when there's something I like to do, like draw, I spend tons and tons of time on it. And when there's stuff I hate doing, like math for instance, I do enough just to get by.
Most of the summer's gone already but it feels like I haven't accomplished much in anything but art.
I feel kind of guilty about that.
But the reason this really jumped out at me is because of the following.
Darren: hey
Ryou: hi
Darren: you know if u just spent time u spent studying instead of drawing u would be insanely smart :D
And I was like, "Really, that is SO TOTALLY TRUE."
And now I feel pretty, uhh, fail?
I don't know, like what should I do?
Obviously, I ought to study more starting now.
But I also learned so many things about art this summer...
I think it's a balance.
Oh, hello again :]
It's been awhile since I've seen you all last~
What have you been up to lately?
As for me, today was more eventful than most.
We went to visit my mother's friend, who lives about an hour's drive away. She's tall, is from Singapore (YAY.), is super pretty, and has a cute dog. But no. Not a small lap dog kind of cute. Her dog looks like a bear/horse thing o.o It's huuuuuge, and it's a Bouvier~ go look it up.
We had a good time. She even gave us Yakult and Crackerjack.
After that we went to the outlet:
They were having a huge book sale, like 70-80% off of everything, so we bought some books :] My sis got "Airman," by Eoin Colfer. Please, if anyone can tell me how to pronounce "Eoin"? I've awlays wondered about that... I read it on the way back, and it was really good, as expected- it was Eoin Colfer, after all.
I bought two Japanese books. In Japanese o.o
One was a kid's book, and the other, a random manga, the sixth installment of a series I've never heard of before ;x, that looked somewhat interesting.
The how-to-draw manga books were terrid (horrid+terrible, a word I keep saying on accident). I hate it when people make how-to-draw books when they can't even draw themselves.
Not that I'm great or anything. But yeah >.>
Thatsall.
Oh wow, it's already July. And it's already July 4th :]
Happy July 4th, everybody.
I think US History is much more interesting than the history of other countries. No offense o.o Anyways, my cousins say that's true~ Apparently they just learn the same things in history every year xP
I feel patriotic, sort of. We had a picnic at church today, and we played "Broken Telephone charades" and water balloon fight :D I didn't get too wet~
I'm trying to convince myself of said.
It's really something... interesting, and inspiring :]
My kids are adorable, but a couple are really clingy~
It's tough to handle 11 kids at once by yourself o.o
I have a helper, though~ Sir Richard xD
Anyways, please pray for me... I hope I can make it through this week alive and well.
Mmkay. I've gotta be fast, `cause my mom is getting mad D;
Anywaaaaays. Sorry I haven't posted in a billion years- yes, Justine, you beat me- but I've been doing lots of, well, stuff.
I had a sleepover with Natalie, and stayed at her house the whole next day xD Uhhh, we played tons of Maplestory and practiced for our little music group in which I am playing the piano... I had to make it up as we went, `cause it was all chords xD
Ahh. I haven't played MS in yearssss.
Although as KKu so eloquently put it, "WHAT?! What are you doing?! You're going to be a freshman next year!"
I know I play "babyish" games, but they're fun, so don't laugh. And on Neo, I mostly hang out with my guild....
Excuses.
What a weird title, but I hope it made you laugh too :)
I feel strangely elated today. I'm playing Neopets as usual >.> I don't feel like doing anything today, not even making graphics. I'm soooooo lazy. That's why I need school to make me work ;x
I'll add more later, maybe.
I've been bad, not posting for like 4 days >.>
That's because Vic was at soccer camp, so I took it as my holiday and decided to revamp & move my old graphics site, Pitch, to a new location :3 Looks like I still haven't come back from holiday yet...
And I've been playing a ton of Neopets, since my beloved guild disbanded. We've been together for at least 1.5 years, serious. We all kinda joined another guild together though. And Jade is trying to steal my Shou D;
I had a VBS workday today after double services and another top secret meeting that involved rapping. Yeah. We painted props for hours and hours at the workday, but it was still fun.
You probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but I don't particularly care ;x I'm kind of annoyed with myself for wasting so much time.
Anyways, please go check out my new site, Voire. It's pretty spiffy, if I might say so myself. Yes, I coded & made everything personally. I realize I have too much time on my hands-- no need to tell me, thankyouverymuch x3 If you have any requests, please let me know (but they do have to be asian, anime, manga, game, or neopets related). I'm not hiring staff, unless you can make really good graphics-- then please contact me with xamps :3 I will consider. Please leave comments here until I set up some kind of commenting system over there.
Note: you do have to click the sign to get into the site T-T;
Good night.
It's my adorable little brother's 9th birthday today :]
He invited a bunch of church friends over for lunch and epic gaming time. Yes, well. We always play lots of DS/computer games whenever people come over >.> Everyone has a good time though- it's not like people get bored/antisocial or whatever.
Bleahhhh. I know that sounds boring.
Anyways... I had tennis today, group lessons from 8-9. They switched off the power for the court lights, since the new courts will be done soon. Which meant that we started playing in the almost-dark towards the end.
No offense to anyone, but it was pretty easy. I pretty much didn't do anything the whole time. I guess when I have lessons, Coach makes me run the whole time, but since there are so many people in group, we just kinda stood around a lot. Everyone said I was like super hyper, bouncing off the walls and everything. I feel kinda jittery, not being able to get in a really good practice. Thankfully I'll be practicing with Jas tomorrow during the hottest part of the day. Heheh.
I'm bouncing up and down in my seat now :]
Sorry. I haven't been blogging, because I've been too tired or too lazy or a combination of both.
I went to watch Up on Saturday. It's a really good movie :D You'd think it'd be really childish with a boring storyline, but it actually turns out quite differently then you'd expect. Yeah. It made me cry once or twice.
The food bank was cool... we sorted through people's random donations. I think the most interesting thing I found was a packet of fake nails. Out of 12, there were only 3 left, and they all had Disney princesses on them. Who has 3 fingers....?!
The piano exam was okay. I think I did kind of badly, but whatever. The judge was British and pretty serious (you couldn't tell what she was thinking at all, so it was a little intimidating). I totally messed up the sightreading, but everything else was decent.
I got to use my tablet!!! I drew some interesting pics. It's pretty amazing :] You can go to my deviantArt to see one of the pics I drew. It's not too good, but I'm still getting used to the tablet. Please go there often and see my updates :)
I woke up at 10 today. I think there's a pattern... but tomorrow I have to wake up at around 7 so I can warm up for the exam, since all three of us will be wanting to use the piano.
My sister's sick today... but she got blogspot yesterday, and her blog's called kangerine :D It's under "Clicks" on the sidebar, so go check it out. She draws really cute things... like cute kangerines.
I'm going to go to the food bank in around 10 minutes for volunteer work with our church. I have no idea what we're going to be doing. More about that later, maybe.
I'm so nervous about the piano exam. I'm probably going first, `cause I want to get it over with as quickly as possible. That's me. At meals, I eat all the yucky things first and then take my time to enjoy the tasty things.
Heheh :) As you can probably tell, I'm tired of thinking up post titles.
I woke up at 11 today, had a big bowl of sweet potato soup, and played piano for a long time. Seems like no matter how hard or how much I practice, I'm not good enough... Sunday's coming up too fast! I wish I had just a week more.
We went to the mall to buy a couple of things- I needed shoes for the exam that were "clunky," since I have a blues piece where shoe tapping is necessary. So, here they are. Thought they were really cute, and they were on sale too :) I photoshopped the background to make it glow blue, `cause I was bored, and I actually have PS on this computer now. Thanks Vic!
Anyways. My mom's goddaughter is here. She's really cute but super talkative. I can't use my tablet while she's here-- she's 5 years old and I don't want anything to break. It's okay though...
You can see through the picture a little bit, because the main wrapper is set to be a little transparent (so everything in it is transparent too). More coding troubles... If you know how to fix this, let me know :)
Warning: This post is a bit scary. Anyways, I got up at 12 PM today, and technically I could've slept longer except my mom woke me up. It was a good thing.
I had a bad dream and so I first woke up at around 8, but then I fell back asleep. In the dream, a whole bunch of asian families went someplace for vacation, but this guy kidnapped us. He was going to cut us apart and replace what he cut off with "super body parts." He was going to cut off my legs and I remember saying, "But then I can't play tennis and badminton," and he said, "You'll be able to run in a month!" And he showed me how high he could jump and how strong he was, because he replaced his whole body from the neck down. The nurse came in with a huge metal tub of boiling water, and said, "Honey, stick your legs in here and pretend it's cold." I woke up screaming right before he started sawing away...
I haven't had such an awful dream in a long time. The last time was maybe in 4th grade, when my mom and brother got buried alive. When I have bad dreams, they are quite disturbing.
On a happier note, I woke up. And I still have my own legs x]
I have a piano lesson in a little bit. I think I'll do alright, but I'm sure nervous about the exam on Sunday. Maybe that's why I've been having bad dreams.
Happy summer vacation! I hope you enjoy your holiday, wherever you're going and whatever you're doing. Fill me in sometime :)
Today was the last day of my middle school life. The end of eighth grade. The End.
I'm kind of sad... I guess I'm mostly going to miss my teachers, 7th grade dears, and the friends in my grade that I won't have classes with next year (idk who those people are yet, but it's inevitable).
We didn't really do much today. We hung out in advisory most of the time, signed yearbooks, took random photos, ate lunch, and played tug-of-war. My advisory came in second for consolation. We lost to Holeman. Hnnn. Well congrats to Malek, who won the whole thing! I have minor injuries: rope burns, and my feet hurt because I had a tennis lesson after school and Coach made me run left and right and up and down nonstop.
I'm going to try out again in August, and I just might get in. Please practice with me sometime :)
Here's what I'm taking next year, in no particular order (yes, I'm doing IB). I know I'm going to die; I don't need to hear that again. :]
1. TAG English I
2. TAG Algebra II
3. Accel Science
4. WAS
5. Spanish II Enhanced
6. Yearbook (photographer)
7. Symphony Orch
8. Art I or Tennis
I gotta go practice piano now, because I have a lesson tomorrow and I have no idea how to do chromatic scales in contrary motion. I get so confused and my fingering just falls apart. At least I'm doing somewhat better on Schubert.
Happy June! Here's a long post to make up for yesterday.
So I didn't make it into tennis, but I made it into the top orchestra, Symphony :) That's super exciting! I hope that I'll improve a lot, since there will be many amazing musicians there. At the same time, I don't feel like I really deserved to get in. It's definitely a lot easier for violas... but violas are amazing, the best, and all that jazz. Heheh. Shan, I didn't let you down, did I now?
My tablet also came in. YEAHHHHHH!!! Only thing is, my mother is holding it hostage until I finish the piano exam, which is, unfortunately, Sunday. lols. It's not her fault at all, though. I agreed too, since I think I should focus on practicing piano (and viola!) for this last stretch. I've been playing the same three songs and scales & arpeggios since January.
Finals today were pretty easy. I was totally stressing out about the Geometry one, but it was actually easier than the review. Spanish wasn't bad either. It was mostly listening and reading, which took up like 50 questions (the actual test was 75). I got all my orchestra buddies to sign my yearbook... I think that was my favorite class for these past three years. I'm kinda sad to leave middle school behind. I'm going to miss all my teachers so bad. Thank you for teaching me... I have learned so many things from your dedication and patience!
I'm listening to Chris and Conrad's version of "Lead Me to the Cross." It's reeeeaaaaaallly good. It's better than the Hillsong version, at least. Brooke Fraser's is pretty good too, though. But not as good. I tried turning the light on in my room with my head, since I was holding my tablet. I ended up hurting myself.
Mom: "You thought you had a steel head?!" lol.
I love my family to death. We were playing speed scrabble just now, and I didn't win, not even once. I kept getting vowels. Anyways, we were playing, right, and suddenly I heard something like this:
Brother: "Hey Dad, errrr, why are you sleeping on my butt?"
Dad: "It's soft. And nice."
You can imagine what happened after that.
I have a funny family. I'll admit it makes for the best entertainment all day, every day.
I had a delicious dinner: udon + kameboko + smoothie. My mom made it all :)
Sorry for the grumpy post. I'm not naming names, so don't ask.
I gotta go practice piano now... I said one time before that scales would take at least 45 minutes? My teacher actually said they'd take 2 hours. Yay. But I don't practice staccato and legato on the same day.
Math finals review too. I've been putting it off for a few days, and now I finally have to finish it up. I have about 15 questions left, so it's not going to be too bad. Although I'd have to say that I don't get vectors at all. I've been nagging my dad to explain it to me, but both of us always "forgets" or says, "Oh yeah. Well, let's do it tomorrow, because [insert excuse here]." I'm not motivated to do things I don't feel like doing, which is something I need to work through :P As for math, we were supposed to do it after dinner, but now he's vacuuming the living room... ^-^;;
Ewww. I just accidentally touched my sister's rubber bands. They were lying out on the table on a kleenex. On a brighter note, I need to fix the comments for this blog. Apparently they're not working.
Ryou just took the "What does your mind look like?" quiz on Facebook and the result is A Waterworld.
"Your mind is like a Waterworld. You live fast and are impatient, when you slow down it's only to discover your next goal. You constantly look for changes and like to take chances. You have big demands for yourself and are very creative. Some people are scared of you, cause you dont smile much. But your closest ones know that you can be the nicest person in this world."
I think it describes me completely. But, don't you think I smile a lot? I guess most of the time I'm pretty serious. I'm a definitely a very determined person; I just keep going, all the time.
I didn't make tennis.
I felt a bit disappointed as a result... not for long though. Somehow I feel more determined than anything. This is even better motivation to work harder and harder this summer. I like challenges, as you can tell. I feel lost without having something to work towards. That's pretty much how I felt today before I decided to try out again >.> So as usual I went in my room and listened to music. "Always & Forever" by Planet Shakers has been encouraging to me lately when I've been feeling overwhelmed by everything.
I've only been playing tennis for 4 months, so people say I did ok considering that. I personally don't feel it's a good excuse... I did horribly compared to how I usually play and that is all there is to it. But after 3 months of training in the summer I may just have a chance at making the team.
I'm so happy for everyone that made it! Good job- you deserve it. Represent our school well! I'm really proud of you, Pooja. You didn't have to worry after all.
My dad is on my facebook account talking to my godpa (his best friend) in Singapore. They're having a good chat about everything from chicken rice to BSF. My dad will surely be convinced to get facebook now! He always forgets or says, "No time, lah..." Which reminds me, whenever I talk to a Singaporean, Singlish works itself into my speech in a jiffy. It feels natural, although it makes me laugh at first.
Oh yeah, I practiced piano for a long time, which is why I am posting (can't stay off for long, anyways). Finals were all good. The ones I took today were pretty easy: L.A. and Science and Yearbook. We filled out a sheet (or three) to submit parts of the book for IOPC and we also got to eat cupcakes in class. Shhh.... :)
This week is really packed full. Thankfully, there's only five more days of school.
I have about 20 more problems on the math review, most of the USH review, and all of the science. We had Full orchestra recording today, and tomorrow in Spanish we have our writing final. Friday brings 3 more finals... and I have tennis tryouts tomorrow. I'm nervous and excited and confused at the same time!
Probably there's a few other things I've forgotten xD
One other thing: I got into Yearbook! My grammar is atrocious here when I'm typing things out fast, but really, I can speak/write English pretty well. I'm doing photography though, which I much prefer to writing. I heard Yearbook will be super busy.
Ashley and I took a ride home from Westwood with Darren. His car broke down in front of my house, so he came in for awhile and played computer games with my brother xD
Anyways, I'm painting a watercolor for the TAG TKAM project right now. I did it pretty quickly... it's not as good as it could be, but I wouldn't say it's bad. I love being able to do art projects for other subjects :) To Kill a Mockingbird is a good book, but it wasn't what I expected it to be. The movie is alright, but it helped me to draw the characters. The painting's of Scout trying on Tom Robinson's shoe, with supporting cast.
Watercolor pencils are the most convenient thing ever! It's nice to have both pencils and paint so you can do both details and base color. I need to buy more paints soon, because I'm out of most of the colors...
Tennis lessons today= muy muy calor. I'm not doing that great cause I didn't get to practice at all this weekend :\ Tryouts are on Thursday for us. Good luck to the boys tomorrow!
One bottle of water is just not enough!!
Anyways, I got over 150 photos of this weekend posted on facebook, so if you're my friend, you can go see. I took the Singlish Proficiency Test there too and I got a 100% the first time... that made me unexpectedly happy!! Here it is, edited for clarity.
1. What does "Gostan" mean?
2. What is the direct translation in Singlish for the sentence, "This book is mine." ?
This book is my one.
This book is your one.
This book anyone one?
3. Today I'm very "sian" but still have lots of work to do. What is "sian?"
4. "Look at this person so kiasu pushing everybody away just to get a seat on the free train." What is the Singlish word in this sentence?
5. "Nearest train Station where ah?" Translate this into proper English.
"Wait, station????"
"Eh, boy. Nearest train station?"
"Where is the nearest train station?"
6. What is "Can lor" in proper English?
Yes.
Yes. I think so.
Yes. Of course.
7. Person K: "What are you doing now ?" Person G: "Some project." Person K: "Must finish it?" Person G: "Ah (ber) then ?!" Explain Ah (ber) then.
A question that implies one does not see the obvious.
A question that implies one should finish it.
A question that implies one should stop talking.
8. "Wah, so ex ah!" Translate into English.
The price is just too low.
The price is normal.
The price is just too high.
9. "Food in Singapore very shiok, man." Rephrase this in proper English.
10. "Pai Seh" is to feel _____________ in the phrase "very paiseh to tell her about that incident..."
11. What is "ya...ya..." in the conversation: Person A "Eh, I got full marks for science." Person B " ya...ya..."
Showing off.
Acting up.
Saying too much.
12. Which is commonly used when we don't understand or when we want them to repeat the question?
Hah?
What?
Say again?
13. "Is there a problem, Sir ?" Translate into the correct Singlish.
Got problem, Mister?
Got problem, ah?
Got problem, meh?
I don't feel very Singaporean since I've been in US for so long, but I'm glad I can at least do this :) Makes me want to go back this summer.
I'm so sick of school, for real.
It's mostly all the reviews we have to do. The math one is pretty long, and I discovered that I've forgotten about half of what we learned, which is not good. I haven't even started on the USH one yet. I don't feel like working on them at all, but I'll have to soon. Bahhhh. (humbug!)
I don't think the L.A. final will be tough at all (our teacher said, "If I had written the final, it would be ten times harder!!" so I'm glad that the other teachers wrote it). It's on-level :]
Science shouldn't be too bad. I'm pretty good at science and at making educated guesses. I could worry a little, but not as much as I do for math or USH, both of which need a pretty fresh memory. Which I can't say I've got-- I have a terrible long-term memory, but a good short-term one, so yes, I can cram succesfully as long as there's not a mountain of stuff to remember.
Honestly, I'd rather be prepared, because I start freaking out otherwise :P
Tennis tryouts this Thursday. I don't really feel prepared for that, but I'm just going to do my best. Art's my back-up so I'm really good either way.
I watched the French Open on TV at the hotel in Houston! Sliding on clay courts!
The soccer team won the Spirit Cup!
They lost 2 games on Saturday, so they had only 2 games scheduled for the next day. Our team calls itself the "Old-Man Team." We never have enough players, so Matt and Jon played too this time. Unfortunately, both of the teams we were supposed to play decided to forfeit, so we won the Spirit Cup without playing at all the second day. Everyone was a bit disappointed and annoyed, but we did something really fun instead. On Sunday, we went to Galveston- the beach.
It was kind of rainy at first, but we were all wet anyways, so it didn't really matter. We dug lots of holes and channels and made a giant sandcastle. We picked up a few fragments of seashells too. The hurricane caused piles of debris everywhere- we saw guardrails half buried in the sand!
It was fun. We did pretty much everything with Andrew and Becky :)
I'm trying to upload pictures to Facebook, but the camera ran out of batteries and the USB thing is too wide to fit into this computer, cause there's this ledge that sticks out and gets in the way D; Pooh. I guess it'll have to wait until tomorrow.
Okay, so we're going to Houston early tomorrow morning, which means... I get to go to the dance :D I've never been to one before, so I don't know what to expect. Emily will be going with me too... which is the best, ever.
I'm pretty excited, because a lot of people are going, so I'll see my friends. I might actually enjoy it :) I'll write more when I come back, so see you later!
Later: at 11:05 PM
It was pretty fun after all :) I danced with my friends. I didn't know any of the songs though... xD The music was loud (all I could hear was the beat, really).
I had a good time. Now I'm feeling super tired and my feet actually hurt, so I'm going to sleep. Gotta wake up early tomorrow.
Sorry this post is kinda bad, but, I'm about to doze off... Hope you had a good time too! Tell me what you liked.
I don't like conjugating verbs in Spanish.
It's not hard in itself, but there's so many different forms and irregular ones to remember that I get all mixed up. If we don't use a conjugation form in the unit, I kinda forget it. S`yea, I'm having a wake-up call on the review x3 Good luck next year.
Japanese conjugation is harder, though... I'd better study a lot this summer! I'm only at 540 kanji, most of which I have since forgotten. Gotta go through those before adding any more.
There's a little fly buzzing around the lamp. That's annoying too :\
To end on a happier note, we're passing out yearbooks tomorrow... at 7:30 in the morning, thanks to the SAT10. Just pray that I don't trip while sleepwalking down the halls, `cause those are some real fine yearbooks we've got. :)
I had a pretty bad day today >.> You know what that means: complaining! Woohoo.
Yea, so... let me tell you all about it.
The SAT10 was the stupidest thing ever. There were 9 timed sections so it took forever (most were around 30 minutes, but they made it something like 26 or 29 minutes instead. Weird :\). Some of them were easy, and some were tough, cause we didn't learn the stuff on there!!!! The social studies section had the most "ihavenoidealet'sjustguess" questions. Math was easy-- addition, subtraction, division and multiplication, but it was pretty boring. Spelling was easy. I mean come on. "Multavitamin?!" Or "gratifyed??" lols. But yeah... it took us past lunch. I was starving and freezing in there. Unfortunately, my stomach has never gotten used to eating lunch at nearly one D;
It was worse than the TAKS. Well, around the same level, because although it was a lot easier, the boring factor was waaaay high. The good thing was that we got to doodle on our scratch sheets whenever we finished a section early. Pooja and Justine wrote a story about me, Josh, and George, the master porcupine...
Next. With what was left our time at school, we played bingo in Spanish. Around 12 rounds of it, but it was alright, even though the same three people kept winning xD We watched "Gone With the Wind" in USH again, and I was soooo wrong yesterday. Scarlett is still as much of a jerk as ever. SPOILER COMING: I can't believe she married Frank Kennedy!!!!!!!! And killed him!!!!!!! He was really nice too! Gahhhh. Scarlett >.>
I had a good chat with Vic on the way home on the bus. It's fun to talk and relax a bit... but then I had to go to piano. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I'm starting to hate piano. It's all because of the stupid exam. I used to enjoy it, and I'm sure I'll start to love it again afterwards, but the exam is evil >.> I have this Schubert piece that I'm having trouble with, but I don't have that much time to practice. It's all a mess again.
I then fell asleep on my teacher's couch x] Connie Lo-see, if you're reading this, I'm not mad at you. I just get frustrated. You're a good teacher :) Thank you!!
Alright. Gots 2 more pages of Spanish review to go. I heard we're getting a 150 question math review soon... hope we get it tomorrow so I can take it to Houston >.> Which is where we're going for Daddy's soccer tournament. Good luck to everyone playing soccer this weekend!
I don't get to go to the dance or to the Wildfire thing D: Which stinks, `cause I've never been to a single dance before (I'd probably not enjoy it anyways xD) and I'd never want to skip out on seeing mah friends. Oh well. Take lots of pictures!! I will too, of the tournament :)
Seriously. Today was one of the best days of this semester.
At school, we didn't have to do much. We had the math test yesterday, so we just did translation tessellations today- super easy, and fun besides. Vic's looked like a mutant seahorse, "one that sings songs and makes everyone happy." Mine was kinda boring looking. It looked like scales. Everyone else suggested boots, speech bubbles, dish, spaceship, and a rabbit with one ear. I think I'll probably do Qoo, that really adorable HK drink char :)
This picture is from http://qoo.jp/. It's a nice drink, and Qoo is cute too!
We are watching "Gone With the Wind" in USH. It's looooong, but pretty good. Scarlett is such a brat in the beginning. As the movie goes on, she gets much better. I think Rhett Butler is kind of ugly. His face is always sweaty >.> Anyways... it's like Jane Eyre, one of my favorite books (thanks, Simone). Jane is a totally different person at the beginning than at the end, just like Scarlett. I didn't know the Civil War was that bad in the South before watching this.
The Orchestra concert went really well. We kinda messed up on the pieces a bit, but it still sounded fine. Thank you to all you band people that helped make our full orch so awesome :D The pieces sounds boring when we practice without you all.
Afterwards, we gave our speeches... mine was a bit short. Raymond's was amazing!!! It was formal, but still funny. He's a good writer. Ashley's was good too! I'm not good at writing speeches or at public speaking xP I need to work on that...
I think Mrs. Frederick liked the gifts, cards/canvas (good idea, Ashley, it was real pretty!), and flowers. She didn't cry much, so I didn't give her the tissue box until the end x3 I enjoyed this concert a lot. But I got all sweaty from running back and forth everywhere.
I got a 115 on my proof notebook, so that was awesome. It's a test grade!! -faints-
Now my average is a 99... which is a lot better than what it was before >.> I hope that I finish out this year well in all my subjects. Tomorrow we have to take the SAT10 test (our scores will be the data for somebody's "experiment") for 5 hours. It's essentially going to be the TAKS with pictures, or so I've heard. They might end up replacing TAKS with this, depending on how we do. I have no idea what they're looking for.
I changed the layout, because I saw it was of the beach and I just couldn't resist. The color scheme and picture put together make me feel really peaceful, and besides, it has an obvious summer theme. Well, if there's any problems with it, let me know!
It really makes me feel happy. I feel like I'm updating a lot, but it's a novelty to have such a nice blog to write my thoughts down :)
Have a good night, everyone. The concert's tomorrow...!
I was playing with the Graffiti app on Facebook just now, and it sure is a lot of fun. The good thing about it is that it allows you to control line thickness and opacity, so it's easier to make something nice. It's hard to draw things with a mouse though; the lines never come out straight or curve the way you want.
That reminds me: I might actually be getting a tablet in a few weeks! That's really exciting. I've wanted one for a long time. I'm hoping I can get a decent one that will work well for graphics and that won't break for, well, quite awhile, even if I accidentally end up doing something to it xD
We also finished our annual door decorating contest at school today. We got our entry up on the door literally one or two minutes before the deadline -_-" It was kind of nervewracking to have to hurry so much! The theme this year was "World Class School," which is probably the lamest theme ever, though not quite as bad as those writing prompts they give you on benchmarks and TAKS. We still managed to get a good entry in. I stayed in during lunch a couple of times with Pooja to finish it (I ate my lunch in my L.A. teacher's room the period before).
The background is black, and there's a big cut-out of Earth in the middle with our school mascot on top. We drew a caricature of the principal, who is sitting on a plane and waving. The plane has a big banner coming out the end of it that says "World Class School" and is flying over the Earth. It's based on the joke we have about British Airways xD Everyone cut out and signed yellow paper stars which are all over the black background. It's actually pretty good! We might have a chance at winning in our grade, although there are a couple of other nice ones too.
I'd like break to start right now. I think I did kind of badly on the math test (and it wasn't even that hard this time), which is what usually happens. I do great on the quizzes and homework, but our teacher makes the test a billion times harder. Apparently it's since we're in TAG and the material in the book just isn't good enough for us and all. Well, I can't complain, since the questions pretty much cover different/harder applications of what we learned. Our Geometry teacher's actually pretty nice, at least to me. She's an okay teacher, but you really can't get much done in a 50 minute class period anyways.
Blah. Better get back to work now. I seriously need to practice my scales and arpeggios, since the exam's coming up in 2 weeks. I have to prepare so many that it takes me over 45 minutes straight to practice them all.
I hate scales. Rrrrrrr.
I played tennis today after school, like I usually do on Mondays. I noticed that I have a shirt tan (it's called a "Farmer's Tan," isn't it?). I also have a sock tan. It's strange to see the skin on all four of your arms and legs change colors suddenly, like the hide of some sort of mutant zebra.
I don't think anyone can tell, because I wear all my shirt sleeves the same length. I can't roll them up. I tried once and couldn't do it, so I don't even bother now. Besides, with me, it'd be a waste of time, since even if they were a millimeter off I'd be forced to start over.
"Oh no! The right side! The left side! The right!"
It's a silly thing to think about, isn't it? I don't really care that much about it at all, but it's just something I noticed today.
The Geometry teacher said that the math final will only cover what we've learned this semester. That's really good, because I have no idea what we learned last chapter, least of all what we learned before Christmas!
About the concert: everything went accordingly after all. Without my realizing it, we collected over $90 (excuse: I wasn't in charge of the money anyways!). Several people wrote up their speeches, and we even decided on a rehearsal time. I guess I didn't need to worry so much. Things'll happen when they happen.
The only thing was, we kinda sorta bought the wrong gifts. Well, since they're pretty generic, it's not like they won't work. There were gifts like soap and other smelly things, and then there was...
balsamic vinegar. Does she like that? It's certainly smelly.
I'm planning to go to bed early tonight, but...
Our concert's on Wednesday, and I'm half-looking forward to it, and half not.
It's the last one of the year, so that means the "surprise" speech and gift for our director. I'm one of the reps, so I'm helping to organize this thing. It is such a mess. Yeapp, I'm actually getting kinda stressed out over it D:
It's annoying when time is running out, you haven't got much of a plan, and people aren't following the tiny bit of a plan that you do have.
Thanks if you've been trying.
After that I won't have to worry about orchestra much at all. The final is never anything hard, especially after having gone through the ABRSM Theory Exam.
I'm also worried about the math test on Tuesday. Geometry is kinda hard sometimes, and kinda easy sometimes. It all depends on what we're learning. Seems like every time my classmates get good grades, I get bad ones, and vice versa. Everything's a mess...!
And then finals... and more projects...
It'll be a very long seventeen days.
Hello. I have no idea what to say. It's the truth.
I used to have an LJ (I still do, technically), but I'm probably not going to use it anymore.
I never used it much anyways. It's a whole lot more confusing than blogspot, although I'd have to admit that it has a lot of really cool stuff. That doesn't make up for accessability, though.
Anyhoo, school's almost out, so maybe I'll actually start blogging regularly. I can't say that my life is particularly interesting, but I'm going to post regardless. Feel free to leave or jump back in whenever.
This blog will probably be updated... whenever I feel like it (which could be a bad thing). And there won't be all that many pics, because I'm too lazy to upload them :] I'll just try to write post more often to make up for that.
