the mess that was hungerland

So basically my experience and thoughts all written down here very dramatically.

I went to bed on Wednesday night:
- having done no studying of my color whatsoever
- not having read The Hunger Games like Matt told me to
- with generally a feeling of foreboding

I did my physics homework and went to bed. Yup. Woke up early to get ready, put on my brown shirt, and dragged my feet out the door. This was too early in the morning to get up. I don't wanna do this. I'm gonna die. I haven't studied. I just wanted to get it over with. I wanted ice cream. Oh yeah I forgot to eat breakfast. Oh well. I'll live. Not. Since the point of this game was to kill and get killed, after all.

Then I got there and stood in the windy parking lot and readied myself for the blood and tears that would follow within the half hour. Put my candy bucket on, surveyed the weapons, the enemies, the friends.

Then we started at it was all chaos, chaos. I was paranoid as heck and hungry (I remember asking to eat a marshmallow and Tim said no :c), so I just ran around without aim and idled around when I could. I watched people die, answered questions, saw people answer questions... was really hungry...

It was actually quite exhilarating, running away from food items being flung at us. I felt a guilt, though--all the others on my team voted clean, and I voted messy. But they all in some way were pelted by said food items, while I escaped squeaky clean. Oops.

And the anxiety I felt when we were asked a question and what happened? Tim, JV, and Matt all look at me. The pressure was suffocating! Look at the one who hadn't read the book or studied the night before. At least we got one question right with out the book though. Yeah...

To be honest, I was pretty proud of our team. An hour or whatever in and all but our team had lost at least 2 members. We retained all of our members, until both JV and I were slain at the same time, woe is me, woe.

My dead body was dragged off of the playing field (by fellow zombies Susan and Janelle), and then I went and retrieved my history book, only to return to the gruesome sight of Matt being murdered by none other than my good friend Mariah. The horror!

At this point, Tim had all of our previous ammo so he was like stockpiled. We were so proud. We had this.

Until Queen Frostine arrived on the scene, and the remaining humans were restricted to only stepping on squares of their team color. Tim was shot right in the side by a round of miracle whip. :( Whether or not it was fair or not, we may never know. Too many things were seen, heard, and said.

In that same round that Tim died, the game ended.

We had made it far.

But not far enough.

We trudged our way (a bit bitterly) to the ice cream table and received our reward for our valiant actions, dreading that we had to take the history final after all.

Boo.

Hiss.

I will not lie, I believe the circumstances of the game made everybody a bit bitter at the end. Glares were given, tempers flared, and arguments were had.

~*~*~*~*

Gosh typing like that is so hard man how do people do it.

Also the ice cream that day made me feel sorta sick idk why maybe my stomach just didn't want to cooperate.

So yeah. Time to go look at that history final that's been rotting in my backpack for a couple days....

a post from janell

My sister is so fabulous. I wish I was as cool as her.


P.S I love cats....

Blogger what is this...?

I log in to make a new post about idk yet and BLOGGER HAS CHANGED ITS LAYOUT.
This is foreign to me.
I don't take change very well.
At least it's pretty, but it's so weeeeird.

I guess this post will be about what I think of Blogger's new user interface.

Upon opening the 'posts' page (or at least that's what I think it is...), I came face-to-face with a familar layout.

The format looks just like the format of the new Google Mail. (Lol oops I accidentally wrote Google Male there. What is going on.) I guess this is what happens since Google owns Blogger?

I think it's a bit plain but the simplicity is nice. Then again, I am used to Gmail since it's my email provider of choice, so navigating this might be easier for someone like me compared to someone who normally uses maybe Yahoo Mail or something? :'D

The homepage is excruciatingly simple.

There isn't as much... clutter as before? I don't want to call it clutter since most of the features on the old homepage were pretty necessary, but this one is waaaaay cleaner. I can't say whether I like it better or not. It's alright. It is pretty sleek but...

Lacking so much color. Nooooo. Be colorful. Please. I don't like it so boring-like! But then again, I guess when you choose specific colors, you can't really please everybody.

The posting page itself is probably what I like the best about it?

Now this I like, yeah. Clean and simple, so you can concentrate on what you're writing/thinking/typing instead of having any sort of distractions. Then again, it also looks more like a microsoft word doc, which may give one the implication of writing some sort of essay, which in turn may hinder the creative free write-whatever-you-want thought process. Not me, though, since I am used to writing blog posts... anywhere. (I used to write them in Notepad when I didn't have internet, to write my thoughts down and save them for later publishing.)

in short:


homepage
aesthetics: 5/10
functionality: 7/10

I'm the type of person who doesn't like useless links on webpages, so the fact that Blogger reduced it to everything except what most need (post, reading, settings), is nice.

overview (posts, settings, stats, etc.)
aesthetics: 7/10
functionality: 9/10

Again, I'm used to this sort of layout since I'm a gmail user, so navigating is not hard at all for me lol. Even so, I think access to everything is pretty awesomely easy.

posting page
aesthetics: 8/10
functionality: 10/10

Simple and cleaaaaaaaan is the way that you're making me feeeeel tonight, it's hard to let go--
[ no but seriously if you get the reference under the strike through, hit me up so I can geek with you. ]

conclusion: 
Pretty good update, blogger. While normally I hate interface updates (HI YOUTUBE), this one is pretty decent. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. But I don't dislike it.

Also I would like it more if there was more color, but I guess not.

P.S.
If you don't like the new interface, there's currently the option to change back to the old one:

Korra!

Legend of Korra is amazing.
For those who don't know, it's a somewhat continuation of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
For those who don't know what that is, then nevermind. Don't read this. You likely won't understand it. D;


A water tribe girl named Korra is the new avatar!
And etc. Not gonna bother summarizing because if you're still reading this you should know what I'm talking about!


I say somewhat continuation because it's not the lives of our original gang. It's 70 years later, like 2 generations after. Aang's son Tenzin already has kiddies of his own! Jinora (eldest), Ikki (second girl), and Meelo (son). Jinora's my favorite of the three. I like mellow characters. ~ Though Meelo is a hoot.

From left to right: Jinora, Ikki, Meelo (the... kid biting his dad's head), Tenzin, Pama

The hour episode thing premiered this morning~! I've already seen it online though, since the creators put it up. But I watched it again because I wanted it ~HD~. It was as great as it was the first time, though I think I was gonna cry when *SPOILERS* Korra finally mastered ~being the leaf~ during the probending match. XD;

Amon and his henchies scare me, but they're supposed to. They are the bad guys after all. Though, I sense a more serious stuff with them. Like in ATLA, the bad guys were the firenation, and they weren't all that scary. They were just intimidating and fierce and such. But in LOK, the anti-bending guys seem......... really seriously scary. o__o; Hopefully younger viewers won't be scared. Derp. I might be. HRGH.

MAKO AND BOLIIIIN are great. I love them already. Amazing bending bros. Mako is my favorite because again, mellow characters, but Bolin is such a cutie!

Bolin, she can totally see/hear you, you know. Whispering ain't gonna change a thing.

MAKO APPRECIATION

Why am I always so drawn to firebenders when fire terrifies me?!

I am really hoping for some history on what happened with our original gang, though. I love them all too much to be forever wondering.

MORE SPOILERS --
Katara obviously married Aang and they had 3 kids. Eldest (Kya) is a waterbender, youngest is an airbender (Tenzin). The middle child (Bumi) apparently is a nonbender, but I always thought he was a waterbender too. So far, Tenzin is the only one of Aang/Katara's children to have shown up in the series. He is quite a prominent character too as he has to be Korra's airbending master.

Sokka is gone, as Katara says in episode 1. :( Sads everywhere. Katara also says "many" of her friends are gone, not all, which gives some hope that we may see others from the first series.

Suki was Sokka's lady. I wonder if they had a bunch of kids. Seems like the type of couple that would. XD For some reason, I have this feeling if anyone else is alive, it'll be Suki? I don't know why. It's just my feeling lol.

The great and mighty Toph has a confirmed daughter, Lin Bei Fong, who is head of the police force in Republic City. There is a statue of Toph there. Whether or not Toph is gone as well is unknown. (But seriously, she was the YOUNGEST. It makes the most sense for her to be alive!)

Also my sister thinks Lin Bei Fong also looks like Jet, so we're like lol THAT'S WEIRD. But if I recall, Jet died in the Earth book I think. So no possible father for Lin yet. It's not like Katara would let Jet near Toph anyway. XD

Azula's fate is unknown?? Was she imprisoned or what. I don't remember.

Zuko was firelord obvs, with Mai as his lady. Whether they had kids or not is still unknown. Mai seems sorta like the type who wouldn't want kids.

Ty Lee joined the Kyoshi Warriors in the Earth Kingdom... I want to know what happened to her the most, since she is/was my favorite character from ATLA! ;3; Especially in new Korra clips, some of the anti-benders are shown using Ty Lee's chi-blocking-bending-disabling style. Except of course, Ty Lee did it better & faster. She could disable bending in like 1 hit, and these anti-benders look like they're taking a couple hits to do it.

We'll see.

ALSO I AM. TOTALLY BUMMED KORRA EPISODES COME OUT ON SATURDAY MORNINGS, MAN.

THAT'S WHEN I GO TO CHURCH MOST DAYS.

LIFE'S NOT FAIR. :(

I have a headache now aghghhhh goodbye---------

P.S. For anyone interested, you can see a bunch of clips and extras here: http://korranation.tumblr.com/

the japanese and their oddfangled snacks

oh wait wait I thought of another thing to write about.
so as all of you /should/ know, being in Mrs. Musick's class, the Japanese class is selling Japanese snacks to raise money. Right, right.

To some of you, the current snacks may be weird, and to others, that stuff may be completely normal.
I mean, Ramune. A neat bottle sealed by a glass marble. People seem to be disappointed when they find out you can't take the marble out, though. (Unless you break it!) But I like seeing people amazed by what the marble does and stuff.

Pocky. Mrs. Musick says chocolate-covered pretzels sticks, but I just call them biscuits because they're not salty. (Which is good, because I don't like salt + chocolate. I don't even like pretzels.) Not too odd looking since they do look like chocolate pretzels, they just look oddly skinny compared to those. And if you happen to let it melt, you have to eat it in a huge blob. I am speaking from experience.

Safe to say, those two snacks are on the normal side of the Japanese snack spectrum!
There are weirder things out there in Nihon.

Let's show you what you're missing out on, hm?
In no particular weirdness order.
First up!!

Green tea chocolate sticks. To most Westerners, any sort of snack that has tea in it is already odd. In the Asian world, green tea anything is kind of super common. I've never tasted this, but I have tasted other green tea products (ice cream!). Mostly it just tastes like green tea. I don't like green tea myself unless there's a bunch of sugar, so I normally describe the taste as usually "plant". I wonder if the chocolate would change anything, though?

Next!
Pancake-flavored Kit Kat bars.

For some reason unknown to me, Kit Kat has become weirdly popular in Japan. They have all sorts of weird flavors. America, we have like, 2, I think? White chocolate and milk chocolate. Japan has things varying from Green tea (told you they make green tea everything in Asia), cheesecake, and Sakura/cherry blossoms (yes, flower-flavored kit kat).  I would want to try them all, but the more limited/rare flavors are expensive.

つぎ！(next!)

Tomato Chocolate. I don't even. Apparently Meiji is trying to get children to like the flavors of vegetables. Good luck with that!

つぎいいいい (nextttttttttttttt)

Yeah, what it looks like. Rose-flavored gum. The Japanese make several flower-flavored things...

P.S. My sister bought some Sakura bubblegum at the airport in Japan. It tastes exactly how it's labeled. Like flowers! XD Weird experience, but I didn't hate it. Seems like a flavor that could get addicting after a while. Weh, I want some now.

I think I will end it here. But I'll leave you with a list of other Japanese treats I've heard of but am too lazy to find pictures of:

1. Any kind of seafood? Name it, and they'll likely have an ice cream flavor of it. I've seen Sardine ice cream, octopus and squid ice cream... yeah. Kinda. Blegh.
2. Soy sauce flavored pretzels. Sounds salty.
3. Sakura green tea. Wow, that's like super Japanese.
4. Chocolate ramen. But isn't really ramen. false advertising! shame, I would have wanted to try it, too.

Oh look, a list of different kit kat flavors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_kat#Varieties
Check out how many are from Japan, woah. Aloe vera? Bubblegum? There are Calpis and Ramune too, lol. (Calpis is another Japanese drink.)

hikikomori

Welp.
I'm behind on my blogging, I think. Bad self. I thought this would never happen!
But I am the queen of laziness compared to pretty much everyone I know, so...
Like, I'm totally capable of doing whatever I want if I put my mind to it.
But since I know that, I'm just like 'ehhh i'll do it later then'.

However, being both a procrastinator and a perfectionist kind of shoots me in the foot.

ANYWAY.
I have a headache. It's a dull sort of pain, not like someone is stabbing me in the temple with a pencil, more like some random combination of tired achey...ness?

It is tolerable now though, because I closed my window and turned my computer brightness all the way down. I think the light gives me headaches. Bright sunlight gives me headache, and being in the sun makes me tired and sleepy and prone to long nosebleeds. And I don't even know why!

I used to be an outdoorsy kid when I was younger. Loved rollerblading and riding my bike and playing football with my daddy.

But I am 18 now, my rollerblades have gathered dust in the garage (and are probably too small for me now anyway), my bike has been sold, I can't catch a normal-sized football, and my daddy lives in California. I hate going outside and being outside tires me much easier. I know, I know. I'm one of those kids of our generation that don't get enough exercise, I know. But thankfully my metabolism is nice enough to me that I don't ever have to diet or watch what I eat or anything.

I run on the treadmill sometimes. I would play our Wii Fit, but our Wii is broken. I could play Dance Dance Revolution (which is my choice of exercise, used to be able to play for hours), but my dance pad is broken too.

And so now I'm a weak, pale, 18 year old Asian girl who sits at home studying and techology-ing. (But I'm good at techologying! My typing speed is 79WPM at the moment. That's almost double the average. Haha!)

I guess my metabolism is against me in a way, though. It takes a lot for me to gain weight. Like a lot. @__@ And I lose weight very very easily boooo, so I can't exactly exercise too much because I'll lose weight. Then also less weight = less energy (I learned that in health!). I will give you an idea of how hard/easy it is:

1. I finally reached 100lbs in I believe 10th grade. I was 16. 16 years to gain 100lbs. That's about 6.25 pounds a year.
2. Come 6 months after my 16th birthday, we go on a trip to the Philippines.
3. I hate Filipino food. Refused to eat most of it.
4. Stay in the Philippines for 3 weeks. Didn't do anything but lounge around and be lazy and shop (as you are supposed to do on vacation!)
5. Come back and I have lost 7 pounds. More than a year's worth of weight, gone in 3 weeks. 8( DO NOT WANT.
6. I am 18 and have still not gained that weight back. Weighed myself at Costco (they have cool scales, yo), and am currently about 98.9lbs.

This is the story I tell every time someone tells me to exercise. :'D

*disclaimer: for anyone who might happen to think that this kind a metabolism is a good thing:
It's not. I'm like 25lbs under the healthy weight for my height. I have to take silly vitamins. I pass out easier than most if I don't have enough nutrients, especially sugar (thanks hypoglycemia, you're such a doll). I get dizzy if I put too much stress on myself, physically or mentally (that my just be my anxiety, though). Also it is SO HARD to find clothes that will properly fit. Especially pants! ; A ; They're either too short or too loose, boooo. This height/weight ratio I have here isn't so great. It kinda sucks! But I am thankful to God that I don't have to limit the amount of sugar I eat.

And my headache is much better, yeah!
See I feel better when it's dark. My sister keeps claiming I'm a vampire, or that I'm Edward Cullen. I'm not! I don't sparkle! I just have eyes that are hypersensitive to light and the sun makes me sooooooooo sleepy.

In conclusion, I am cat.

By the way: "hikikomori" = 'shut in' or 'stay-at-home' in Japanese.

A Mulan appreciation post.

I don't know why, but today I felt like writing a post about fictional characters that I love or have influenced me in one way or another.

Originally I was going to write this post about several fictional characters, but I wrote too much about Mulan so I just turned it into a Mulan appreciation post. :'P

Hopefully this won't be terribly dull. I'll add pictures to make it pretty lol.

Meow. Miao. Nyan.

( those are cat sounds in English, Chinese, & Japanese. )

I think it's time you all met my pride and joy(s?). c:
The only things I cannot stay mad at for more than 10 minutes, two out of the three only things I love and spoil unconditionally.
My cats! :D

I love them so much. >w<
All my life I have preferred cats over dogs. But my mom was always "blah blah blah vet bills are expensive" so we never had one, until last year. /o/ My stepdad likes animals too haaah. So we ended up buying a cat one day. It was kind of like "oh there's this cat at Pet Smart that's super friendly wanna go see him?" and we ended up taking him home. It was great. His name is Morris.

This is him on his first day with us. He was a year and a half here.

Maybe half a year later we got our second cat, from Petco. She's a sweetie. /o/
Also yes, they're a boy and a girl, but they're fixed (to the dismay of both my sister and I, who wanted kittens...).

This is Madison. Or Maddie. I think I'm the only one who still calls her Madison.

And now a diagram I have drawn to better show you their personalities:

Madison has big big pretty green eyes. She does whatever she wants, and often gives us this "I am too good for this" look. Towards Morris she is pretty cold and has little patience, but with us she can be very sweet. /o/  She spends a lot of her time sleeping or staring out the window. Lazy girl. She also attacks Morris a lot and scares him. But he usually turns it around and she goes running. Sort of like the concept of her taking a bite of more than she can chew.

Morris is... a character. He doesn't afraid of anything except the doorbell and strangers. He whines a lot, and he gets really jealous of Madison for some reason. He cleans himself for like... ever (compared to Madison, at least), and then goes on to clean her. She hates it though, so she either ignores him or attacks him.
Morris also has bad (?) eyesight? Probably not actually, but we blame it on his eyesight. Sometimes he'll miscalculate a distance he has to jump and misses. Then when we give him treats he takes forever to sniff it out even if it's right in front of his face. He has better balance than Madison, though.

Generally, Morris is whiny picky pushover mama's boy. While Madison is more a do-what-I-want girl with an overly sweet side at times. She friendly to anyone who isn't Morris. Speaking in Japanese anime tropes, she is a tsundere.

Okay I'm done lol.

Now, Morris, at about 2 and a half years, and Madison, about 1 and half years, have both gotten... pudgy.

In which you guys find out how truly boring I am.

The Monday after my birthday, my family and I were at The Cheesecake Factory. After my pasta arrived, I tucked one side of my hair behind my ear to eat, then held the other side away with my free hand, instead of tucking it behind my ear as well. I thought, "huh, this is a weird habit I have. I bet no one else does this."

Remember the character sketches Mrs. Musick had us do for the Musick game?
Yeah, I was reminded of that.
So here I have decided to do one on myself.


Basics
Given name: Nicole Kay Vasquez
Current age: 18
Date of Birth: December 2nd, 1993
Physical given: Human female
Mental identification: Cat
Result: Lazy girl who likes to sleep and meow.

13 Things
1. Physical description

~ Most notable feature is long black (dark brown in bright light) hair, measuring approx. 2 ft 3.5 in from scalp to end. (No you sillies I didn't hold up a ruler to my head, I pulled out a strand of hair and measured that. Pfft.) Bangs and longer pieces of hair frame the face.
~ Tan skin, somewhat. Sort of. More so than a Caucasian of course, but actually quite paler than the norm for Filipino descendants. Paleness due to not going outside enough.
~ Asian eyes. Dark brown, mostly looks black in pictures. Short eyelashes.
~ Unusually tall for her race. Almost 5'7".
~ Scarily skinny. :c Result of a tall father and thin mother.
~ Braces and glasses
~ Often mistaken for Chinese or Japanese, when in reality, is Filipino-Spanish. (Philippines + Spain.) Small amount of Chinese blood may have been the cause of that, though.
~ Doesn't look her age apparently.
~ Generally average looking.

2. Mannerisms
- Enjoys staying inside her room.
- Enjoys staying inside in general.
- Doesn't really like going out unless necessary. So, she doesn't like going out just for the sake of getting outside. Finds it pointless.
- Quiet and very shy around strangers (especially those her age)
- Polite, mostly
- Over-apologetic
- Generally lazy
- Slightly OCD about certain things
- Somewhat bipolar around certain people
- Stubborn
- Obsessed with cute things, cats, and Asian stuff.
- Bad with money; compulsive spender
- Gets jealous too easily, but is very good at hiding it
- ....very good at hiding feelings in general
- Often spaces out/absent minded/easily distracted
- Clumsy.
- Cannot housework. Bad at cleaning, cooking, sewing. Anything housewife-y in general.
- Also would rather starve than cook herself a meal not involving the microwave.
- Too paranoid than should actually be
- Awkward.
- Has such a presence that makes her often forgotten. Even if she's sitting right there. (Just go ask Staci and Mary and David about this one if you don't believe it. |D)
- Finds small talk pointless...?

3. Clothing
~ At home, wears whatever the heck she wants. Sundresses in winter, 3 jackets in summer, whatever. Often called a hobo by mother.
~ Only makes an effort to look decent to people she needs to impress.
~ Which means sometimes she goes to walmart in a bright yellow t-shirt and red sweatpants, so sue me, there's no one there I need to impress.
~ Actually loves cute clothing very much, just is too broke to buy some.
~ Tries to look her best anyways when going to school.
~ Also likes to cosplay.

4. Social status
- Average high school student? Gets an allowance and cell phone and all the perks. Doesn't have a job, though.

5. Financial status
- Lives off of parents' moneys. Occasionally draws for extra money.

6. Habits
- Doodles on about every written school assignment ever
- bites on lips ..... sometimes until they bleed
- bites nails
- stalks the mailman
- lotion after every shower or paranoia about bad skin
- actually doesn't wash her face completely. uses just a face wipe lolol /lazy
- Types, draws, or plays the piano if feeling frustrated. Ends up typing/drawing/playing angry/sad things.

7. Idiosyncrasies
- Chews on tongue automatically; doesn't even know she's doing it when she is
- Refuses to tuck her hair behind both of her ears.  it's a comfort thing
- Refuses to show all of her forehead, also a comfort thing

8. Fears [this is going to be a long list...]
- All insects
- falling/edges/heights
- house being broken into (even though we have an alarm system...)
- cats getting hurt/prematurely dying
- thunder.
- 18-wheelers (those idiot drivers drive WAY TOO FAST. okay. I knew a lady in church who was rear ended by an 18 wheeler going too fast. lost her 3 kids and her boyfriend. 18 wheelers are the main reason I don't want to learn how to drive. I also get uncomfortable if we're next to one and I'm not even the driver, I have to close my eyes and pretend it's not there or distract myself.)
- accidentally not taking care of myself and getting sent to the hospital
- passing out (hypoglycemia ain't nice.)
- having an asthma attack and not being near a hospital
- failing life
- Boys. (Staci and Mariah will know this.)

9. Quirks
- sometimes speaks in Japanese to confuse people. (Esp. mother. Used to be sister too, but she understands now LOL)
- likes to roleplay. like literary roleplay. where you write it out.
- Doesn't like watching TV unless it's cartoons (Spongebob!) or Wipeout. Everything else is booooring.
- Doesn't like watching any kind of movie unless it's animaton.
- Doesn't like a majority of movies in general. (Action is waaay too loud for me, comedy I usually find unfunny, and unless you want me to pee my pants, then horror and suspense are no-nos too.)
- Doesn't listen to music in English. So there's a warning before you go through my iPod. I find American music generally repetitive, meaning-wise. Sure one may have a catchy beat but most of them all sing about the same darn things. Also so much swearing nowadays geez.
- But yeah. I don't like swear words.
- *the exception to American music is Disney/animated too.
- So basically the only thing I listen to is children's music.
- Oh but I like classical and Asian instrumental music. And music from musicals.
- Also anime OSTs/Japanese/Chinese/Korean music. So basically if it's not American mainstream = I'll try it.
- Obviously I am culturally deprived. Not really. I don't understand what America is going a majority of the time. So I don't pay attention to it.
- This also means I don't pay attention to politics, so don't bother talking to me about it, as I will ignore you. :)
- I have the slight suspicion I'm a super-taster? I.E. my taste buds are more sensitive than yours. Because I hate overspiced/oversalted food. Or mixed food. I don't like lettuce, carrots, and cucumbers in a salad, but will gladly eat them separately. Also I don't like my food touching.
- Also I have social anxiety. Google it.
- And get anxiety attacks in general. Google those too.
- I plan to move out of America and to either Japan or British Columbia, Canada.

10. Figures of speech
- Tends to use a lot of technology lingo in spoken conversations. "lol", "idk", "w/e", "omg", etc.
- Sometimes will accidentally Japanese-ify a word or just throw in a whole Japanese phrase without thinking. It's my thought process orz.
- Says "Aiya" too much without thinking. (Mandarin for "oh dear" to a more... serious extent. Actually it means dammit.)

11. Political leanings
- I do not pay attention to politics, nor do I ever think I will. Booooring.

12. Religious beliefs
- Seventh-day Adventist! Basically I go to church on Saturday, believe in the Trinity, and believe Jesus will come to earth a second time.

Also I don't eat pork, shrimp, crab, or lobster. :D

13. Passions
- Playing the pianoooooo. Will sometimes play so long have to go ice fingers BUT IT'S WORTH IT.
- Drawing. But no realism. Boring. Why draw something I already have to see every day. Give me cute things and anime/manga.
- Singing. To myself. Somewhat. :U I used to post stuff on Youtube but ehhh lazy. P.S. I only sing in Japanese and/or only sing Disney songs pfff.
- CATS. I love. My cats. I love any cats. Haters to the left.
- Asian culture? I'm currently taking both Japanese and Chinese lol, and will major in Asian Studies in college.
- Japaneseeee in general. I translate stuff on the internet on the side...

14. Likes
- Cats
- Anime/manga/cosplay
- Being inside
- Asia/Asian things!
- Cute stuff.
- Quiet.
- Japanese, Chinese, Italian food. American food if it's not LOADED WITH GREASE AND PORK agh.
- Old school Disney movies. New Disney Channel is going to the pits.
- Animated movies. Puss and Boots, Spirited Away, etc.
- Pasta.
- Video gaaaames. Pokemon, Mario, Dynasty & Samurai Warriors, Soul Calibur, Dance Dance Revolution.

15. Dislikes
- Dogs (:c I think they're smelly and too hyper.)
- Camping/fishing/whatever. Outdoorsy whatever.
- Loud noises/places/people
- Large crowds
- Filipino food, Filipino parties.
- Swearing and inappropriate language/jokes.
- LOUD OBNOXIOUS MUSIC W/ BASS CRANKED UP TO MAX. If you want to irritate me fast, this is the way to go. >:c If it's a party I won't hesitate to call the cops for public disturbance.
- Violent (w/ blood) games, though. No COD or war games for me. :'D

WELL THERE YA GO.

Standardized testing musings (and tips :P)

Alrighty. So I will take some time (or maybe a lot of time, idk, I always write too much) to ramble on about standardized testing. If you don't know what standardized testing is, then:

Um, where have you been your whole academic life?

You know what it is. Long hours of sitting there and doing nothing but filling in bubbles for things you should have already learned in normal classes. I.e. taking a test you've been studying for but didn't know you were studying for. Writing in your full name, first in little squares (one box per letter!) and then filling in the correct bubbles underneath, along with birthday, grade, ethnicity, gender, and all sorts of other official stuff.

Ring a bell?

If not, this entry may or may not be of help to you, depending on whether you plan to take the tests or not. Either way. :V I'm gonna write about them. What a boring life I live. Writing blog entries on tests, ha. (Well, it was either this or chem homework. It's too early for me to think about balancing chemical equations, so here I am.)

Most of you I guess are probablyyyy high school juniors or sophomores. So you should already know what I'm talking about when I mention the ACT, SAT, or SAT II tests. Mmhmm, fun. I'm a senior myself, so I'm pretty much done with the testing process. While it is against SAT/ACT rules to talk about the test itself to anybody (even other takers of the same test), I will muse a bit on my experiences taking them and maybe you can learn from those yourself! c:

Warning, this is going to be long, I can already tell. OTL
Nobody has to read any of this, but if you do, you can skip sections to what you're interested in. The PSAT, the ACT, the SAT. Or just the tips at the end.

either way, my brain is exhausted.

Here I am writing my blog entry because I don't want to do other schoolwork at the moment. Ehe...
Welp, I got through my ACT, and it's... eh.
The english and essay sections were so easy...
Except for the reading, it was easier than the math & sciences, but but not as easy as the essay and english stuffs.
Science would have been okay, but they used so many science-y terms, it took forever to read/understand...
Math just. XD Oh man. I skipped anything that involved sin/cos/tan & functions. I just can't math. D: What kind of Asian am I.

Tomorrow's Thursday. :V Usually my have-fun day since I like most of my classes on that day but for some reason I feel oddly nervous! Why. I don't even have that much homework.

The harvest party thing is on Friday, but I'm not going, lol.
I'm going to stay home as usual on my computer...
I really don't feel like writing much right now... I'm hungry and have a headache.

Time for random writing.

The email I use for this blog is lovelost.elegy@gmail.com ha, based on this song.
I just like all the songs by this composer. They're catchy. ヾ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ
I know how to sing this song, but I'm normally to scared to really sing it out since I am afraid of being loud.
But the fast part in the middle is really really fun to singgg~ And it's in my range, hooray!
Also yes I know it's a bit of a depressing song...? All of the composers songs are like this though. But I like looking at how to interpret this kind of thing. Maybe that's why I like his songs so much. Catchy tune + open to interpretation. I don't know how to interpret this one myself, though.

The girl and the boy somehow separate then the boy falls into some kind of state she has to save him from? Who knows. @A@

Weh. I want to learn an English version too, because some of the English versions out there are pretty bomb. |D Maybe I will post some singing on here sooner or later.

TIME FOR another spam of doodles I do while in Modern lit/during lunch/during math/during Japanese, yes? It hath been too long. I planned to post them every week but I kept getting lazy. XD

Musings on future happenings?

Well I owe my blog a post for last week actually, but I'll write this week's after my silly ACT test! That's on Sunday. I am only slightly deathly afraid! I mean, that one test isn't going to determine my future. I just know it'll help a lot if I do well. So I'm a bit er...

Scatterbrained these last two weeks. Awful. @A@
But!
Hopefully I will do well on it. No. I will do well on it, and I'll cry of happiness then go and thank my best friend for paying for my study book by drawing her pictures until my right hand falls off.

Then go back to studying for the normal SAT. Ugh. How will I do it.......
Mariah (or was it Mrs. Schneider?) asked me how I'm doing it all. Taking like 11 classes, I mean. I don't really know. I just am...? I am dying under it all, though. But it's all for the good of things, right?

Hmm... I'm sort of sad I only got to stay at Homelink so long. Only a year and a half-ish. And I'm going to college out of state (well at least I hope so, my top colleges are both in Massachusetts so we'll see), I wouldn't be able to visit often either.... probably just... fly back to bring Yuka & crew to Anime Central. -shrugs- Depends on the schedule! But I'll miss everyone. ; ~ ;

Speaking of Anime Central...
Why is the date this year so wonky? Why you do this coordinators. It's from April 27-29 I believe, which is yes, a weekend, but not a weekend where I'm already on summer vacation. Which worries me.

Then guess what else?!

Prom is on April 26.

And I'm required to go to prom, says my mom. And I kinda do wanna go so I can get my hanfu. A hanfu is a traditional Chinese garb worn typically by noble females in China during the Han Dynasty. Hence HANfu. It's a beautiful garment and I have wanted one forever but they're expensive, so I figured, hey, girls spend a bunch on their prom dresses right? So could I be a bit different and spend about the same amount on a lovely piece of clothing I would use more than just once?

Because yes, I think my mom would let me go to prom in a hanfu. Well, when I asked, she sort of maybe-nodded. Yuka said I would stand out but it's just one night right? And my hanfuuuu! Want so badly. Although Mariah said, and I quote, I would "look hot". 8| What. Definitely not what I was going for, but thanks nevertheless. What I want is elegance and oriental-ity I guess. `w` Use my looking of Chinese to my advantage! Then maybe once prom is done I will take the outfit and do pretty photoshoots in it when I have confidence. Yes.

( this is the hanfu I showed Mariah. XD I would get one that didn't really drag on the floor, though )

I seem to have gotten off subject...

But if prom is April 26 then that means we have to probably miss the Friday con day. Not so bad, but still my sads, I don't like missing any con days.... But ah well. Saturday is where it's at anyways. My sister doesn't know who to go as, but I'm probably gonna still choose Taiwan & maybe one other character. Perhaps Hikari from Pokemon if my sister wants to go as Touko that badly. :3c

( Hikari is the one under Spring, Touko the one under Autumn ~ )

And there's my 20 minutes!

Hooray~

Time to sleep or something...

a post in which I only say positive things about myself...?

Ahh... before when I was having a self-worth depression phase again (i.e. just a day or time when I suddenly feel like I'm nothing special & that I am alone and should just give up, happens few times every month orz) I told my sister I would make a list of things I like about myself and things I'm good at, but never got around to that...

So here I am. :B
I should have done this months ago but ehh...
Also, I always feel like I should explain myself to not sound so.. conceited?
I'm not, I really am not. I don't think highly of myself. I think quite lowly of myself. （´・ω・｀）So the following list is a sort of really embarrassing to write out... -sigh-

I dunno, to me, all my skills in various things are just average. They're just me-level. They are a level which I am not satisfied with. But I have others saying "you're good at x stop doubting yourself!!"

Uh, here I go then.
Warning: There are things here some probably won't understand as they are internet-y and geeky. I'm sorry.
Under a cut because it's wordy and long because. But there are pictures? XD

This is probably going to sound very abnormal to all of you.

(Warning this post is very long and flashback-like. If you want to skip to just how my day was, scroll downnnn)

Before I begin, let me explain.
I have a... somewhat bad case of social anxiety. ;w;
What's that, you ask?
Um... to put it in a nutshell, social situations make me uncomfortable or overly nervous.
That's the main reason I chose to homeschool when I entered high school. Teenagers terrify me, and I am one.
Am I weird yet? :D

When I visited my local high school in 11th grade to take the PSAT, I shook. Like shaking, like when one is cold. I was scared of all the people. ;u;
When I visited that same high school to take the SAT, I shook less, but actually felt awful because I got lost like a stupid person and ended up entering the test room last, which meant like everyone looked up and watched me come in and sit down. It made me uncomfortable. Plus also being around so many people my age. (From 6th-8th grade, I went to a small one-room school, and was always the oldest, so...)

But even if I have social anxiety...
I get lonely very, very easily. It's the whole reason I took up tutoring kids from my old school in my 10th & 11th grades. I felt lonely at home. But then my mom got remarried and we moved. So I was lonely again! D:

Wow, this is sounding like a very depressing story haha, it'll get better, I swear!

So I looked up homeschooling resources online, and eventually somehow found a link to Homelink. And holy-moly, when I read about it, did it sound awesome.

Going to class once a week to be taught by a real teacher! Score.
No running or yelling in the hallways! Yay! (I'm a quiet person, er, loud noises both irritate and scare me.)
No hugging between boys and girls? I'm safe! Yay. No contact with scary boys!
Doesn't sound like a big program, probably aren't a lot of kids, yeah!

... lol then I signed up. And went to visit.

KIDS RUNNING UP AND DOWN THE STAIRS.
BOYS AND GIRLS INTERMINGLING EVERYWHERE.
NOISE, NOISE, NOISE.
LIKE 250 TEENAGERS.
ASDJFLSKJALSKDJFSF.

Man, when Mrs. Mullins brought us down to the cafeteria hall thing, I was terrified. Then she called Yuka & Kalli over to say hi and I was like "n-no no no it's okay it's fine I don't have to talk to anyone I'm just here to see please don't make me say hi oh god" and I was hiding behind my mom lol, who told me to shush.

I mean seriously I looked awful my hair was a mess and everything. :( I didn't know I'd actually see people...!

Then on my first day I sat by myself. I didn't wanna intrude on other peoples' tables with my lowly presence.
Then they all came over to me >:C And I inwardly freaked out. Like, jeepers, WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING HERE DO YOU REALIZE YOU ARE SITTING WITH A SOCIAL UN-BUTTERFLY. A SOCIAL CATERPILLAR. A SOCIAL UM... is larvae before caterpillar?

But I clicked with Yuka & Kalli since they liked anime and the like. c: Uwuwuwu.
And became intimidated by Keaton. :( TOO FRIENDLY AND FORWARD AND QUESTIONS LEKRJELARKG like the "so what do you honestly think of us" one
But it's ok.
Because today I realized I'm happy coming to school every Tuesday & Thursday.

Today!

Today I asked someone if their calculator was new instead of just assuming it (which I normally do because I'm too scared I'll talk and they won't hear me and I'll feel like ignored and just alerkjge;g)
Today, I stated the question I needed help on, instead of being scared of looking stupid. >:U And got the question right in the first place. Way to go self.
Today, I smiled at someone I didn't know~
Today, when Janelle said hi to me, I happily said hello back! :D I actually surprised myself then, I thought "uh woah that came out happier than I intended"
Today, I touched Kellin's poodle hair. :I Not sure if this is positive but oh well.
Today, I asked Stetson what classes he was in instead of just guessing and wondering forever. He also told me my shirt was nice.
Today, I told Yuka something really embarrassing about myself and she didn't judge me and we laughed about it and laughed some more.
Today, Yuka showed me weird things in her magazine that made me choke on my food because they were so ridiculously funny and just alkrgje;rgk
Today, someone told me I had nice pants on. Sparkly. xD
Today, I asked Keaton for a hug. |･ω･｀) Fun fact: I love hugs. Fun fact #2: I have a slight phobia of males due to some bad experiences I had when I moved here. So yay, progress! >:V

;3; Homelink makes me happy.
I'm not so shy anymore. (ﾟ▽ ﾟ)
I'm not so scared anymore.

It feels like an accomplishment.~

If you read all of that, srsly come here so I can give you a virtual hug. c: -hugs-

As for rl hugs we will have to see about those lol. >.<;

that one post about shiny calculators and doodles in pen

So I finally got off my lazy bottom and followed everyone else~ Yay. 25 blogs total. (`ヘ`；) Though, Tyler isn't a Modern lit student so just 24 I guess maybe. And added everyone to the sidebar. It's long, but oh well~ It's in order of whoever updated most recently. I hope I got all the URLs right. That would be embarrassing if I got one wrong or forgot one or ended up accidentally adding a stranger...

; - ; To be honest, I'm scared about the commenting on people's entries part. Just a little.
What if I say something offensive or stupid... D:
I can't go and hide on the internet. I'll have to see you all in real life at one point or another. （´・ω・｀）

Also lol I feel like my URL is childish compared to everyone else's... probably 'cause of the fairy part. But oh well! I'm a childish person. I'm okay with that. It's kinda amusing. Like, the look people give me when I tell them I'm a senior? Priceless. :'D

Ehhh, my blog stats are informing me I have visitors from Canada and Russia. What? Why?
Hello to you guys too, I guess! Sorry I don't know French or Russian though. I tried both, French was fun but Japanese & Mandarin were more fun. First lesson of Russian, I took one look at the characters and one listen to the word, and exited the program lol whoops.

哎呀．．．

My graphing calculator arrived in the mail today~ ヾ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ I think it's shiny. And huge. My goodness, I didn't know calculators could be so big. Czech it out, yeah?

Please excuse the embarrassing photo quality, I'm too lazy to get my real camera out so I used my phone. `w`

Now I can finally do math without so many issues. =A= Been using iPhone calculator and that's been such fail.

Oh!

We're going to Columbia this weeeeekend which wouldn't be so bad, but it's camping. I don't like camping. (Even though we have an RV, OTL. I'm sorry. I still don't like it.) I don't like going outside... My idea of fun is staying inside and drawing or playing the piano (but my mom sold off our old piano and didn't buy a new one, so I'm just... -sigh-)

The only good point about going to Columbia is that they have good bubble tea!! ~ Ah yes. I wonder how many cups I'll buy when we go. I miss bubble tea. Being from California (helloooo, Asians and Mexicans everywhere), I remember when I used to have a couple cups a week. So getting bubble tea at all out here is a blessing. ♪(ﾉ´∀｀*)ﾉ Especially if it's good (because yes, I have tasted bubble tea out here that wasn't... that great). I could drink the stuff everyday if I was able. Drink it like other people drink coffee or soda. XD Ah, but it'd be expensive.

Unless I was in Hong Kong or Asia. Milk tea and stuff is really cheap there. And really good. (oﾟ▽ﾟ)o Well, at least it was when I was in Hong Kong. The milk tea I bought from the airport in Japan was good & cheap too though, so I have high hopes. ヾ(＾ー＾)ﾉ

Yesterday, I was doodling in modern lit class (should I admit that here or will it get me in trouble...) on my notes, and ah, I think my drawing turned out pretty nicely for a pen doodle.

Normally pens are my enemy in writing, so I should suck at drawing with them... But there are occasional days when I'm okay with them, I guess. Just... smudging everywhere. My hand was all inky afterwards too because I'm not careful where I put my hand.

But yeah. ;3; It's cute enough for me I think.

Hum.
Both my kitties are sleeping on my bed. It's cute, and I don't feel lonely, but it's a bit crowded. xD And I have a double bed too. But there are books and laundry everywhere, so the added kitties make it...

Well, I'm sitting in a corner of the bed, lol. My legs hurt from being folded up and stuff. I want to go play. But nooo. I'm busy studying for the ACT. ; - ; I will kill all those tests then play all I want, yes. Play and play and have fun .... doing college applications. OTL Nooo. But after... February or March! Then I can play. Not a lot, but a bit more than now...~

Aaaannnd I think I will go get a snack.

Nutella and graham crackers again! In the past few weeks I have introduced some individuals to the delicious treat that is Nutella. I feel accomplished. And sort of like a dork now that I've written that here. Oh well! Share the love of hazelnut chocolate spread, はいはい～

Byebye~ (o*･ω･)ﾉ

... welp.

Mrs. Musick sent all the urls so far out for everyone who's made a blog in Modern lit...
and I feel like I wrote way much, looking at everyone else's posts. ;w; Bluuh. This is what blogging for 5 years gets me. XD

But yep.
But man, how am I gonna add everyone to my sidebar... (that's what I was planning to do but errr it'll stretch like a lot...)

Ah well!
/goes to do it anyways
/ .... later because I'm lazy right now I wanna draw instead
For newcomers:

你好, こんにちは、＆　よろしくおねがいします～

( Hello, hello, & please treat me favorably~ ヾ(＾ー ＾)ﾉ)

Hehehe, it's weird using gifs off of tumblr.

Hi, hello, こんにちは, 你好, salutations~

... okayyyy, I know what you're thinking. (if you're one of my classmates, that is. Or Mrs. Musick. if not, nevermind.)
The blog wasn't supposed to be made until Monday, and my first post wasn't supposed to be until Tuesday.
But I was really really excited, actually. (ﾟ▽ ﾟ) I love blogging. I have like four or five blogs at the moment. (Before you ask, no, you can't see them. They all vary in levels of personal and dorky.) And in the last five years I've had about... um, six or seven (that I currently don't use anymore). I don't know, I just find it way easier than making a normal physical journal? Since before, everytime I tried to keep a diary diary, my family would always find it and read it, thanks. Plus I know HTML/CSS, so prettying up a website is way easier than prettying up a physical book! ┐('ω`；)┌ Plus I can type way faster than I can write (but then again, that's common in this day and age, I think?), so my thoughts go on the page a lot smoother and stuff.

So, um! First post is supposed to be about writing.

Am I a non-writer, a diarist, a writer, or an artist?

At first, I thought a diarist, but after some thought, I realized I like people reading what I've written (as long as it's recent. If it's old, STAY AWAY). Be it a personal journal or whatever. So maybe a writer. It really depends. When I used to write fanfiction, I loved it when people read and commented on my stuff. ...Except for my friends. Or more like, if you were someone I knew, I definitely didn't want you to read it.  I found it embarrassing.（´・ω・｀）Which is why I always wrote fanfiction under an alias... I still do sometimes l-lolorz.

Whereas when I wrote personal blog entries and stuff, I'd rather have my friends read it. And then I do roleplay (like written roleplay), I do like when people people tell me they like to read it. (ﾉ´∀｀*)ﾉ Which is why I'm wondering why I got so paranoid when people I knew read my fanfic. =A=; They're like... similar. Except in roleplay you're controlling the thoughts/actions of one character and in fanfic you control the thoughts/actions of all the characters. Maybe that's why. I'm scared my friends will think I write their characters wrong. Bluuuuh. :'D /sensitiveroleplayerproblems.

tldr; I'm a writer. Lol.

But I do love writing in general. I'm not the greatest at it, but I don't think I'm awful either. I just make silly mistakes a lot. >w> I know what I'm doing, really! I just forget all the time sometimes. Painting a picture with words is more interesting than doing it with paint. I love people who can write well. *u*

Um, next question was how do I feel about blogging, but I answered that up top already. ^w^ ~
I think I will try to write about positive things about my day. =3=9 Even if my day sucked. Because I need more positive things. Yep.

And now I go back to doing other boring subjects.