The post is way too long, so I have split into two parts. :p The more interesting stuff will be in Part 2.

I hardly wrote anything in my blog during the summer, nor did I really use my brain much, except for imagining what kind of schemes the people/creatures/organizations around me have been putting into action. Certainly not the most useful way to use my time and energy, but it sure is fun coming up with conspiracies. I'll start out with the scariest and most true one...

Someone is Trying to Hack Into my Email
I haven't been using my Gmail lately, and for a good reason...After I came back from a short trip, I tried to log into my Google account, but I was told that my account had been temporarily closed due to suspicious activity. I had to have the Google automated service call my phone so I could get a verification number which would allow me to reclaim my account. I found out that somehow, a spam email had been sent to pretty much all of my contacts without me knowing about it. (Luckily, it seems that the emails probably didn't get through to the recipients.) I don't know how this could've happened. Is there some sort of virus? Or maybe someone really does want to ruin my life, one part at a time?

The rest of them are pretty much coincidences. In other words, mostly nonsense. :p

Surprise Parties and Birthdays-that-are-all-around-the-same-time are the "In" Thing
Everyone seems to be throwing them these days. One of my friends said she just threw a surprise party for her friend; actually, though, it's mostly the middle-aged folks who seem to love surprise parties. In just one week, two of my mom's friends threw surprise birthday parties. My mom even asked me if we should do that for my dad. :\

Oh, and it turns out many of the Vocaloids have birthdays (or anniversaries of their releases, whatever you'd rather call it) around the same time of year. Lily just had one a few days ago, today is Miku's birthday, and tomorrow is VY1's birthday! Is this just a lucky time of year for companies of Vocaloids or something?

Not to mention one of my friends just presented me with a birthday gift, so I guess people have really gotten into the birthday spirit...

Doctors Are Out to Get Me
I have the feeling that my doctor may not be as mellow as he has previously seemed to be. For one thing, he charges me lots of different things - my mother says we have to pay for the visit to his clinic, the shots I've been receiving, and some third thing that I'm not sure about. (Our insurance is supposed to pay for most of the costs, but apparently it hasn't come through yet.) Then there's the fact that the doctor now leaves the door to his clinic open. I thought it was because he wanted the germs of his patients to spread all over the place so that more people would get sick and would have to come to see him - and ka-ching goes the money...But actually, my mom insists that the doctor just wants to avoid turning on the air conditioning.

I think dentists are pretty evil too, though, or at least orthodontists are. My dentist/orthodontist (he does both) tried to convince me to get braces every time I went to see him. I asked him if I would suffer any health problems if I didn't get braces, but he said I wouldn't; however, getting the braces is supposed to make me look better. Ha! I said no thanks. (He still says that I might regret it someday, though, and that it's not going to be fun to get braces when I'm an adult. But I don't plan on doing so. Maybe my teeth are imperfect, but hey, I can bite just fine with them.)

Kpop's Hidden Motives
My friend bashiri came over during the summer and showed me a Music Mondays Youtube video, a show created by the couple Simon and Martina which expresses opinions on k-pop songs. I watched their episode for the song "Hot Summer" by f(x). They mentioned a street sign that said Flaxton Street. Since I'm not all that familiar with k-pop, I can't confirm this, but apparently this Flaxton Street makes an appearance in several other k-pop music videos. Besides that, the Music Mondays hosts pointed out that everyone in the "Hot Summer" music video is Korean, so apparently, people in Korea are able to dance in the blazing hot summer while wearing leather clothing and don't even break a sweat. Even the song lyrics and title are supposed to be really catchy, I guess, because after first hearing the song, whenever anyone mention the words "hot" and "summer", I immediately wanted to start singing, "Hot summer, ah hot hot summer."

Labels: air conditioning, birthday, braces, conspiracy, dentist, doctor, email, f(x), hot summer, kpop, money, party, surprise, theory, vocaloids

I'll start off by wishing Gakupo a happy 3rd birthday! For those who haven't heard of him, Gakupo (or Gackpoid, as he is otherwise called) is a Vocaloid from Internet Co. His voice was provided by the singer Gackt. Gakupo doesn't get anywhere near the amount of attention that Miku does, which is a mighty shame. Doesn't seem like that's going to change anytime soon, though. D:


Image by もち＠マイピクｵﾅｼｬｽ on Pixiv

Anyways, to the topic I've been meaning to write about. These days I've gotten into jpop/jrock again... It's mostly because I've been watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (which is the 2009 FMA anime; unlike the 2003 one, it follows the manga's plotline, I believe). I was reluctant to watch it because it was long (64 episodes drives me insane if the anime isn't really good) and because I wasn't sure whether I'd like it, but nowadays I'm finding that I do enjoy shounen anime (a little unexpected considering that I only read shoujo manga). Then again, I am a big fan of the Ao no Exorcist anime, and now I've discovered that FMA:B may soon become one of my favorite animes too. I actually watched sixteen episodes of FMA:B without stopping at one point, which for me is really rare behavior. Now I understand why the FMA animes got such high ratings on MyAnimeList.

Anyhow, though, I do like some of the music in this anime - more specifically, the first and second endings.

"Uso" by the band SID:



"Let it All Out" by Miho Fukuhara:



I started seeking out some of the other Japanese bands and singers I like, and managed to find my favorite version of the song "Hemisphere", which is the opening to the anime RahXephon (which I've never actually watched, but if you have, let me know what you think of it). I used to have MAKI's version on my playlist, but it got removed by whoever put it up, so I don't have it anymore.

"Hemisphere" by MAKI:



The more famous version, "Hemisphere" by Maaya Sakamoto (I like this one too, but I'm more used to hearing the MAKI one because I heard it first)



I've also gotten really into Yuki Kajiura's projects lately. Yuki Kajiura is a composer who is in charge of the singing groups FictionJunction and Kalafina. (FictionJunction did the song "Parallel Hearts" for Pandora Hearts, if that rings a bell. And Kalafina sang songs for Kuroshitsuji, Kara no Kyoukai, and Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica)

"Magia" by Kalafina:



This came out more than a month ago and I kept forgetting to mention it, but I saw some artist called Nem's Garden had released an album called Moratorium on the Oricon charts one time (Generasia's wiki has the Oricon rankings on it). I decided to look it up on Youtube and discovered that Nem's Garden is actually comprised of many of the singers on Nico Nico Douga, such as Dasoku, Clear, Nero, Miichan, Amu, Gero, Faneru, Jack, and Asamaru. Here's a video that includes a preview of each song. You can probably find most of the full versions of the songs on Youtube.



And just a few days ago, Clear sang another song.



Nowadays, though, my favorite NND singer has got to be Hanatan. (I'm still a big fan of Valshe, of course, and Nero as well, but Hanatan is just amazing.) Back in June she released an album. Here's a PV of a song she sang.

"Bamboo Leaf Boat" by Hanatan:



That isn't my favorite song of hers, though. I love her cover of Imitation, which is originally one of Miku Hatsune's songs:



And also her cover of Aitai, which is originally a GUMI song:



I gotta say, no matter how much I like Vocaloids, they can't compare to real voices. This is the original version of Aitai by GUMI. It's not bad, but I definitely prefer Hanatan's cover.



She has sung other songs, like "Palette", "Cendrillon", and "Romeo and Cinderella", which you can find on Youtube.

Labels: birthday, cover, fma, fullmetal alchemist, fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood, gackpoid, gakupo, hanatan, japanese, music, nico nico douga, vocaloid, yuki kajiura

Perhaps you'd think that to be true if you're into astronomy, or something similar, yet different: astrology. Perhaps some or even many of you scoff at it, dismissing it as wishful thinking, a bunch of superstitious mumbo-jumbo that inaccurately describes your personality.

My zodiac sign, Leo, didn't suit me so well. When I was a lot younger, maybe it was true; I used to be a lot more outgoing, so much more fearless than I am now. When I was in 6th grade, one of the people running the YMCA afterschool care that I attended said that he thought I was more of a Virgo than a Leo. Always eager to find explanations for things (and usually unimportant ones), I thought, "Well, that's why I was born late, I must've intuitively known that I was not supposed to be born in the time range of a Leo."

I do like these sorts of things; back when I was somewhere from 5-8 years old, I was quite meticulous about filling out a Barbie birthday planner with the birthdays of my friends and stuffed animals (stuffed animals especially, as I had an astonishing amount of them, which have since disappeared somewhere in a room upstairs). The planner also had a small page about what the people born in a certain month are generally like, as well as examples of famous people born in that month. I remember that when you were putting an entry for someone's birthday, you could circle one of two Zodiac signs, since each month will have two different ones in it (July has Cancer and Leo, August has Leo and Virgo, etc.). I never really understood why it mattered at the time, having not paid attention to the traits affiliated with each Zodiac sign.

Then there came a time where I pretty much forgot about the Western Zodiac. I very rarely read horoscopes; the only time when I hear mine is if I'm bored and I see them in my mom's newspaper. But late last year, my mom brought home a book which claims to have descriptions of people born on every day of the year.

I have since become immersed in reading this book when I have free time, and although I suppose I could use it to try and understand my friends better...It could be horribly far from the truth (I know some people who fit their birthday descriptions so well that it frightens me, but I don't think my birthday description was quite on the mark) and I would not want to rely on it to judge people. Rather, I look at the personalities of each day and I use them to help me shape my own OCs - original characters. It comes in handy because all of the birthday personalities have both strengths and weaknesses, and of course, it'd be boring to have characters that have no negative qualities.

Even more recently, I read somewhere (probably Time magazine) that the dates of the Western Zodiac signs are inaccurate, and now there is a "new" Western Zodiac with different dates and a 13th sign. I can't describe it very well, so search the Internet for it; click here for one place that has a little info about it. What it means for me is that I'm now actually a Cancer, not a Leo, which I think is more accurate, so I figure I'll go by that from now on.

Cancer: Sensitive, sometimes indecisive, moody
Leo: Ambitious, self-confident, basically a natural leader

Labels: birthday, book, cancer, change, characters, horoscope, leo, new, OC, original character, people, personality, planner, signs, star sign, stars, virgo, western, zodiac

I often come across two very similar things in succession. I was reading the Skip Beat! manga and Ren Tsuruga, one of the main characters, ate breakfast twice. And then when I was watching a Korean drama, Dal Ja's Spring, the main character ate dinner three times.

Although nothing terrible happened to Ren, Dal Ja got constipation and had to be taken to the hospital. I was disgusted but I also thought Dal Ja was stupid to have done so. She could've just said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I've already eaten" but of course she had to eat since she had been invited (and to a nice restaurant, too). Or at least she could have said no when she was going to eat dinner the third time. (But I guess us humans are still feeble-minded and often make the wrong decisions. Then again, maybe something bad would happen whatever choice we made.)

Today was a friend's birthday, so I walked over to her house. Avatar was playing on the TV. I was excited to finally get a chance to watch it (and without have to get my own copy of the DVD) because there was a lot of uproar over it when it came out. (Too bad watching it on the TV means that it isn't in 3D, but oh well. 3D would probably make me dizzy or it would be too realistic and give me a heart attack. It still looks nice even if it isn't in 3D). I was surprised about how tall the Na'vi were and also that they had tails. From what I had seen, they had seemed very humanoid, so I hadn't expected that.

I had another encounter with James Cameron (the director) because soon afterwards I saw an imitation of Titanic (which happens to be one of his films too). I can't remember whether I've watched Titanic or not, but I think I probably haven't. And now that I think of it, I still want to watch Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. I still haven't gotten around to it...I wonder if the DVD is out. In that case, I can get it from the library.

Lately I haven't had much appetite. It's probably because I stay inside most of the time (since it's hot and sunny without any clouds, most of the time, outside) and because I'm not really able to go far from the house. I had been hoping that I would be able to go on walks by myself for the purpose of taking photos, but that hasn't happened, seeing as my mom says, "Wait until we get home, then you can go with your dad." But it's kind of weird. Sometimes I can feel so lonely, but there are many times now that I just want some peace and quiet. I wonder if it's a good thing or a bad thing that I'm becoming so solitary.

Labels: 3D, alone, appetite, avatar, birthday, choice, constipation, dal ja's spring, drama, eating, food, indoor, korean, movie, multiple, photography, ponyo, skip beat, solitude, walk

Today's post was inspired by a movie I saw my father watching on the weekend. Naturally, as I am distracted by the things around me, I end up watching some of the movies he watches as well. The movie he was watching was a Japanese movie called Premonition. It's a freaky sort of story about a man and his family. The man was outside of his car and saw a newspaper that said his daughter would die in a car accident because of a jammed seat belt. His wife got out of the car to ask him for help freeing the seat belt. Then a truck came and hit the car, killing their daughter. Some time passed after the event, and the man had more premonitions. Eventually he has the opportunity to change the fate of his daughter. Someone MUST die in the accident. He could let his daughter die, or his wife die, or everyone could die, or he himself could die.

I'm not a fan of horror and things like that, but this movie was quite interesting. It really does show you that there are things in life you do have control over. There are many crossroads that you will reach over the course of your life and you must make the decision which path to take. Sometimes no path is perfect, but you can always try to do what's right, even if you don't necessarily succeed. And sometimes the path is a sad one. For instance, you might fall into a swamp of alligators and be killed, but then other people could step on your body and use it as a human bridge to get safely away from the alligators. (I know that's a gruesome example, but I had to think of something) Sometimes the right choice could be something that harms you, sometimes the right choice harms other people, and sometimes there is really no right choice.

Sometimes, other people and beings are in control instead of you. After watching the movie, I heard a story being read on the radio. It was about Adam and Eve, and the time when they were still in the Garden of Eden. Adam was shown to be a very stupid individual. One time he showed Eve some giraffe feces he found, and he was quite excited over it. Eve was pretty disgusted by it. On the radio, the reader said, "Adam had the IQ of a coconut husk." Eve complained to God, but he stayed silent, so she had to put up with him.

There was a snake who lived in the Garden, and he was watching Eve. He thought if they met, there would instantly be sparks flying between them and they would get along quite well. Actually, Eve saw the Snake and thought he was one of the most repulsive animals she had ever seen. But, as she didn't run away, then the Snake started to talk to her. Eve was very interested in the Tree of Knowledge, which was the only tree that she and Adam were not allowed to eat from. So the Snake gradually persuaded her to eat some, saying things like, "It's not a paradise at all if there's a way you can get kicked out" and "Just a little nibble wouldn't hurt" and "God wants you to have knowledge because then he won't be lonely anymore". Finally, Eve did eat some fruit, and then all the problems started...She realized that she was naked, which she had never really minded before (that was when my dad and I stopped listening, because we thought it would be pretty inappropriate to hear about).

Well, what I meant to show with talking about that was that someone else could be directing what you do, even if you don't realize it.

Speaking of not knowing what is happening to you, we were talking about that in French class. The conversation started because one of the students had his birthday presents stolen from his party. That is really rotten, because it must've been a so-called "friend" who stole his gifts. The teacher says that he ought to lock up his presents right away from now on. You can never be too careful.

Anyhow, the teacher was almost robbed once. She was on an escalator or something, and there were two people standing on either side of her, talking over her head. She was pretty annoyed but couldn't move. Then one of them started trying to steal her bag or the stuff in it. She didn't feel a thing...Luckily, her husband was behind and noticed, and shouted at the pickpocket, who then made his getaway. And there was also a tourist who had his credit cards stolen from his pockets and didn't feel anything either. (It was the front pockets, so that's something) Looks like thieves have some crazy skills nowadays.

Labels: adam, birthday, control, death, decision, escalator, eve, garden of eden, god, life, movie, premonition, presents, radio, robbery, skills, snake, tree of knowledge

As of late, we've been studying the Constitution in my history class. In one of the articles, I saw the phrase "yeahs and nays". I thought it kind of reminded me of the neighs of horses. I mean, the people at the time were kind of like horses anyhow. They even wore wigs which sometimes have "ponytails" on them.

Nowadays, instead of yeah and nays, it would be thumbs up or thumbs down, or just raising your hand to vote for something (while everyone's heads are down on their desks so they can't see who's voting what), wouldn't it? It might be fun, though, to be asked an opinion, and then to have everyone say either "Yeah" or "Nay" all at once. I suppose it would be considered a waste of valuable class time, though.

Speaking of which, I caught sight of something which I wasn't supposed to have seen. It's not something inappropriate or anything, so don't worry about that. I forgot to print out my homework for language arts class, but I had my USB drive, so I asked my teacher if I could print it out with her laptop. While I was preparing to do that, I noticed she had a Skype window. She was chatting with my history teacher. At first I thought, "Oooh! Busted!" but then I realized it was probably work-related since there was some mention of a meeting. Besides, I'd be in trouble if the teacher realized I was snooping, hehe. So I guess that rumor about my history teacher spending time chatting with his girlfriend (who is a teacher as well, in a different school, wouldn't they both be fired then?!) is not true, it's just my language arts teacher.

For a long time I was meaning to post a drawing that I made, except I kept on forgetting about it, so now I'm only posting it practically a month after I drew it. XD (If you've been actively checking up on my DeviantArt you may have seen it earlier) This is a drawing, or, two drawings, of the character Haruhi Suzumiya. I am currently working on a piece of Hatsune Miku (using GIMP to digitally make lineart and color it in). I will post the original sketch and the finished version up when I'm done.

Just the other day it was my mom's birthday, so we went out to eat at a buffet called Tatami. It's in a mall, and it used to be called Todai, but apparently it was sold. D: My mom got her food free since it's her birthday. (You have to be accompanied by two "paying adults", though. But I count as an adult now, so it's fine. Too bad there's no more kid discounts. I have to wait until people believe I'm old so I can get the senior discounts on things like museum membership) I am a plain sort of person, so I just like to eat kappamaki (cucumber sushi) and Philadelphia rolls (basically, sushi with salmon and cream cheese in it).

Ah, but what I really liked was the cookies they have there. When I used to visit Todai, I always ate those cookies. The light-colored ones are the best. I thought they were supposed to be sugar cookies, but I'm not sure. My parents say the smell of milk is strong, so maybe they're just "milk cookies". I would like to be able to buy them, but I have never found them. (They're not Nilla wafers, anyhow) My mother thinks that they could be a personal recipe of the restaurant that was passed on when the owner sold Todai and it got changed to Tatami.

The restaurant has a chocolate fountain and a vanilla fountain now, you know, those miniature ones you can plug in. It's pretty cool. The kids were fond of it, of course. I tried dipping the milk cookies, bananas, and big marshmallows into it. What was funny was a sign that says, "Please do not dip your ice cream into the chocolate fountain". It must mean someone actually tried to put their ice cream cone in there. I wonder how they reacted when they were trying to hold the cone and there was chocolate sliding down it.

I have been thinking that although the town I live in has a hefty population, it's still not all that exciting, because of something we were talking about in French class... My teacher said, "We don't really have a downtown here, do we?" And another student replied, "The library!" If the library is our downtown, then we can't say much for ourselves, can we? XD All over the USA, though, not many people go to the library regularly, it seems. It's kind of saddening. My parents say more people go to the library in my town because they're frugal and don't want to buy books. (Rather, they waste their money on brand name things and cars. -_-;; )

Labels: birthday, buffet, chocolate fountain, constitution, cookie, downtown, drawing, gimp, haruhi suzumiya, ice cream, library, skype, spending money, sushi, tatami, teacher, todai, yeahs and nays

Yet again this is a book title, and yet again I haven't read the book... (By the way, it's by Garth Nix, and my mom's friend's daughter was reading it the last time we went to their house, which was...not that recent) I think I may have found the answer to what I was wondering about in my previous post, "◆ something wicked this way comes". I found another clue yesterday, which was a dead worm on the ground, when I was walking home. I think I sort of understand what it could mean. I have two guesses...

1. If birds, then worms. If worms, then soil. If soil, then nutrients. I am trying to put it in conditional form. But maybes that's a little confusing, so I'll just say this; I saw dead birds, and birds eat worms (at least some birds do). And worms live in the soil, recycling the nutrients. So it must be related to nutrition. Maybe I or someone in my family has a health problem to do with nutrition.

2. Remember the eight crows, a symbol of heaven? I think someone is going to die or has died and will be buried in the soil, and recycled by the worms. And it means that person is going to heaven (which I have no idea about as I am an atheist but this post is not meant to be about religion anyhow). I am hoping that whoever died is not someone who I hold dear.

Then again, all this could be something invented by my imagination. I am the sort of person who sometimes hallucinates so perhaps my lack of sleep is getting to me. (I am waking up early, either due to stress, or the heat, or some other reason) Or perhaps it's just because I have trouble paying attention in class after a while and end up distracting myself since I no longer read books in class. (This proves to be a problem since I take forever to finish books if I don't read them in school. But if I read them in school, I'll get ratted out and the teachers will have steamed broccoli.)

Recently it was the birthday of one of my friends, so I brought her two balloons. I wrote on one of them. It was very nerve-wracking for me since I am freaked out by anything that makes a noise when exploding. I was afraid of fireworks when I was younger and when people pop the air in their plastic bags, that scares me as well. My dad says the balloons have good enough quality not too pop, but who knows...I did an activity last year in school where my two partners and I drew the continents, oceans, etc. on the balloon (I wrote about it, and how it lived for a month before popping, in posts a few months ago). Some people popped their balloons because they applied too much pressure. Poor balloons.

Labels: balloon, birthday, books, conditional form, death, fear, geometry, heaven, imagination, loud, nutrients, nutrition, popped, school, small world, soil, the keys to the kingdom, worm

I haven't posted in a while on this blog. I guess I've been busier this school year than I ever expected it to be. I was told eighth grade was a harder year by far but seeing as seventh grade was such a lax year for me, this is really a change. I have to get used to it again or I will lose all semblance of free time except for on weekends.

I'm already beginning to worry because I had some pretty unfortunate luck in science class. I was assigned the very first of the presentation days for my Current Events this trimester. Basically, Current Events is where you pick a newspaper article or something, and then you write about it and give a speech. Except in this case it has to be science related. I have a pretty good idea what article I'm going to use, but seeing as I have only until September 8th to get everything together, it's stressful. Also, I'm not very good at public speaking so I'm afraid my lack of charisma will result in a worse grade. I mean, in the past I have rocked on my feet from nervousness or missed some crucial part of the presentation or something along those lines.

As for the blog title, what I mean is that if you don't touch something for a while, dust collects on it. Like corners of my piano. The little parts at the very left and right sides of your piano keys, well, you never really put your hand there so there's dust on it. I had better make sure mold and dust and such doesn't grow on my blog.

I'd appreciate if you all let me know if the blog's layout is working out right for you. Sometimes the header and background image don't show up so the layout looks all weird and you can't see things like the navigation. And when you view certain pages, since I wrote too much, the scrollbar looks like it's cutting off the text. I'm going to try and fix it if I get the chance. Anyhow, if you can't see the navigation, try highlighting the page with your cursor (the arrow or whatever thing you have on the computer screen that you use to click on things) until you can see the stars. (I will see about changing them to text, maybe it'll be easier to navigate that way as well.)

Today my language arts teacher and class were supposed to sing the birthday song to me and another classmate of mine. Our birthdays are in August (more specifically the 5th) but since we have summer birthdays we have to celebrate during the school year instead. However, we didn't have enough time in class and so I didn't receive my head of the line pass or get sung to. I don't really care about that but I worry that maybe the teacher has trouble managing time or something. (Or perhaps it's just because it's Wednesday, a short day.) It's a good thing I have brunch right after language arts class.

Labels: birthday, busy, current events, dust, eighth grade, language arts, layout, middle school, navigation, problem, public speaking, science, speech, summer, time management

I think it's something the old President George W. Bush said, but I may have mistakenly attributed to him. Anyhow, I heard that he said this on his 60th birthday when he was still in office. If more people thought like that, you wouldn't be hearing a lot of them complaining about their grey hairs and back pain and how their kids are growing up too quickly or how they want to retire but they need to make more money... Blah blah blah. If only we could all be a little more positive and think, sure, this means another year of my life, and that's tiresome, but there are good things and memories to be made every year along with the bad things. Sometimes you might not realize right away, but you could be having the time of your life.

The reason why I started off my post like this is because my age just changed yesterday. Yep, it was my birthday. More specifically, the 13th one. I hope that age really is just a number since I don't want this to be an unlucky year for me. Judging from my school schedule, which I was able to see from Pinnacle Internet Viewer (thanks Shirayuki no Kimi or I wouldn't have known), it seems they plan to put me in village K. I don't really know the 8th grade teachers, so I'm kind of nervous. I've been looking on a site where you can rate teachers, and it seems my French teacher and science teacher are the ones that the students like the least...I hope it won't be a rough year, then. At least you have a chance of changing PE teachers. My intended PE periods are 6th, 3rd, and 3rd. I like 3rd period PE, so that's good to hear. But it seems like I always get 6th period PE sometime in the year. (Oh, well. I'm glad I don't have 5th period PE. Then I wouldn't even have time to digest my lunch)

Today my mom actually did Wii Fit. In fact, a lot of it. I'm sure it was at least more than half an hour. It's been so long since she did Wii Fit, she seems to have forgotten how to do some of the exercises (like Advanced Step, which is in a way a different kind of DDR) but I hope she'll make a habit out of exercising so she can build some muscle. No offense intended to her, but she's not much of an athlete. She could use it. My dad has not used Wii Fit ever since we came home from vacation a few days ago. It's hard for us to get back into the groove after being away for a while.

For this week my mom has been taking time off work and staying at home, so she can pretend she's still in Australia and get some more relaxation time before she must go back to work and get bombarded by unanswered emails and projects and things like that. It's nice to have someone around so you won't feel too lonesome. (Maybe it's just me who gets lonely. I'd actually gotten used to it in sixth grade, after a good friend of mine moved away in fifth, I think, but eventually I started wanting to socialize again.) During school it isn't so much of a matter but when you're by yourself, or/and something bad happens, you feel like this.

Labels: age, birthday, classes, corner of woe, exercise, feelings, george w. bush, lonely, luck, number, president, schedule, tamaki, teacher, thirteen, time, wii fit

I know, libraries aren't like radios or something like that. But I was kind of suspicious. This year I joined the Summer Reading Celebration for two libraries, the Santa Clara County Library and the San Jose Library. I just wanted prizes and a chance to suggest books to people (because apparently you have to write a review if you signed up for the teen one). I don't remember whether I did it last year; maybe not, since I don't remember doing it. So I was surprised to see that it's online nowadays and not on a weird map in which you color in pawprints or something like that. I wonder if I should've put 8th grade or 7th grade. Not like it really matters, but I'm confusing since in the summer you are kind of in-between. Also, Mr. Robinson says when you start the school year you are still the previous grade, like if you start 8th grade he says, "You're still a 7th grader for a few weeks, until you kind of grow into it." Oh, and Mr. Robinson doesn't like 8th graders since he thinks they are more cocky, because they rule the school pretty much. (Not that all 8th graders are all like that. But I suppose the ones he knows are.)

Oops, I shouldn't stray too far off topic. What I realized was that both libraries I signed up for had pretty much the same system. The login information you need to give was very similar and the review system is, too. You write a review, rate the boo, and put the book title and author's name. Then you can read other reviews by other people and say Yes or No depending on whether you thought their review was helpful. It's just that at one of the libraries you can add a book to your reading list or something...So I suppose the libraries use pretty much the same system. I wonder if they knew that or if they copied each other by accident. (I mean, sometimes I see the exact same books with the exact same reviews written on both, so I guess I'm not the only one who participates in both summer reading celebrations. Except I write slightly different reviews for each library.)

Anyways. Summer is pretty slow for me so far. All I've really been doing is going on the computer to make graphics and post in forums, or I've been playing Wii Fit or practicing piano, or trying to remember things I have forgotten (like buying someone a birthday present! I was going to get her a book she wanted! I just reminded myself to go look up the price and where to get it). I haven't been sleeping much this summer. I just feel kind of restless and tired. But at least I have been able to find old stuffed animals I thought I lost. Like this red and black snake stuffed animal. He's too fake-looking to be freaky. (Too bad, then I could've startled my dad. I don't think he likes reptiles particularly much.)

Just a reminder to everyone! Father's Day is this weekend. Have you gotten presents for your father? A card at least? If you think your dad deserves a little something, you'd better get moving. Time is ticking. And TIME IS MONEY! (I'm only partially kidding.)

Labels: birthday, books, boredom, family, father's day, gift, growing, library, online, plushie, review, snake, summer reading celebration

I ended up missing my entry yesterday due to my attending Mars's birthday party. Now her age is the "unlucky number". Since my parents are working and it's hard for them to come home that early, Mars's mom picked me up and took me to her house. Then after a while, we went to the movie theater, which was the party's meeting place. No one showed up at first, so Mars's sister and Mars herself tossed a stuffed dog (Mars's sister bought it from the elementary school flea market) back and forth. We also rode up and down in the elevator at Mars's request. Unfortunately, a weird security guard guy was wandering around, so we quit. Eventually the guests arrived and we watched a movie, Bolt.

Bolt is sort of a cheesy movie, kind of like most kids animated movies, but it was funny nevertheless. Especially the hamster guy, Rhino. He acts like a crazy fan but he's actually pretty wise. o_O While watching the movie, the other party guests were saying it was like a Korean drama, because a cat was yelling at Bolt and Bolt went away unhappily. The cool part was when the "traveling party" reached Las Vegas. It was real pictures, not just animation. So we got to see the Bellagio fountains! (You will probably understand better if you have been following my blog for a while and have watched the movie Bolt.)

I've been watching the anime Koihime Musou, which is a relatively new anime, actually centered in China. It is funny at times, but it seems kind of sick too. D: So I am kind of concerned.

Today there was an assembly where a conversational biologist visited the school, along with a peregrine falcon. Our village has to go, so I ended up skipping third period and a bit of fourth. I am afraid I have to make up the long run we were supposed to be having today. I really don't want to have to do extra running after the winter break, but it can't be helped if I do need to.

It was raining earlier, but it cleared up in the afternoon. Surprisingly, my dad was there to pick me up after school. He was a bit offended by my shock at seeing him there. It is much faster to go home by car, though, so I shouldn't complain.

The good news is, winter break starts after this, so no homework for quite a while. But the bad news is that this means I will go to Japan and then China... I don't like visiting China due to the pollution, time difference, and rude people. (I apologize if you disagree.) Japan is cool, but a lot of people want souvenirs from me now. No way am I going to go there just to stuff my suitcase full of gifts for others. D: Sorry to disappoint people expecting souvenirs.

Labels: anime, birthday, blog, movie, vacation, weather, worry

My house and my schedule both seem kind of devoid today. Since Gran is gone now, there is no one around...Even if I play music, it seems kind of quiet around here. I really can't make much noise when I'm alone, y'know. And this afternoon I barely had any homework, so I ended up doing my piano theory homework. I have to be pretty bored to remember that.

Last night I got freaked out because my eyes were open at nighttime and the room started flashing for a bit. I thought something was wrong with our lights (but that didn't seem right). Then I heard some thunder, so I put two and two together...Well, it's a good thing it didn't storm today. My parents insisted that if the weather got bad, I have to call them on my cell phone and wait for them to drive here. It'll be way late by the time that happens. (Well, not too late, but still.)

There were two rainbows outside the school. The ends of the rainbows seemed to be in the direction of the nearby high school... I wonder why. There doesn't seem to be anything there except for some people wearing ugly purple PE clothes. I don't understand why they're called the Matadors. I thought Matadors wore black outfits and had red flags.

Since I'm leaving on vacation on Monday, I don't have much time to read all the books I checked out from the library. I have a bunch of them to read! Enough to keep me occupied for a few weeks or more. But I only have this week to read them before I have to leave, so I'm in a rush. I guess I have to return most of them. :( Unless they're due after we come back, of course.

Anyhow, one of my M friends invited me to her birthday. (Her b-day is December 19, which is Friday, but she's having the party on Thursday?!) This is inconvenient for me because I am usually busy on weekdays, but I don't want to let her down, so I guess I'm going anyhow. :p But she didn't tell me what she wants for her birthday... Guess I have to go for a "safe but lame" gift.

Here's our cooking schedule for this week.
Monday - Prep. Cinnamon Rolls
Tuesday - Bake Cinnamon Rolls
Wednesday - Prep. Cookies
Thursday - Bake Cookies
Friday - Peppermint Bark

Sounds tasty, dessert all week, yes? I don't know what peppermint bark is, but it sounds similar to those sugary logs (you know, logs from trees) so I think it's dessert. And I think the cookies are chocolate chip or sugar cookies...Either one. It's going to be a yummy time. :o

That reminds me, we changed kitchens in class today. I would've stayed at Kitchen 3 but my group members pretty much split up. So I joined Kitchen 1, but turns out they have an ant problem there and plus the arrangement of the stuff is different...So I kept getting confused.

Labels: birthday, books, cooking, moaning, school, weather

Since I have two friends with names starting with M, I have decided to call her "MN". The other M friend will now be "MC".

Anyhow, today was MN's birthday. She was complaining a bit because she is 13 now. Not only is it supposedly an unlucky number, but also this means she is getting old. Not always something you look forward to. I'm just glad my age is a number I like very much. By the way, my two favorite numbers are 12 and 18. They happen to be my class numbers. (What I mean is, in 2nd grade I was #12, then in 3rd grade I was #18, then #12 again, and finally #18 again.)

I went MN's house at 10 am and stayed until 4 pm. It was just A (MN's friend) and me at her party, a very small party indeed. But still good fun. MN showed us around the house and then we played Rock Band on her Xbox 360. I like playing drums but it makes my leg very tired from standing up and having to press the pedal-thing. I am very bad at singing. I didn't get to try the guitar, but I want to if I ever get the chance to play Rock Band again. Anyhow, we also looked at MN's photo albums. A tried to tell MN's three brothers apart. MN says she hates the strawberry cappuchinos from Starbucks because that drink was in one of the photos.

I am currently watching the anime Ouran High School Host Club. (It always takes a long time to type that name...) I already finished watching my most recent anime, H20: Footprints in the Sand. (As expected from me, this anime included both the ocean and the sky, which are two of my favorite things to have in an anime)

Labels: anime, birthday, tour, video games

I drank my whole water bottle before the end of my classes in school. Maybe I have to bring two from now on. But it seems like a big hassle since my backpack only has one "pocket" for a water bottle. I suppose I'll have to change to having a regular (not a roller) backpack since my other backpack does have the two pockets I need. Either that, or I can put one water bottle in my backpack (maybe the PE clothes section? There's more room there) and that way I can just take it out when I get thirsty.

It's my grandpa's birthday around now, so my grandma was trying to send an e-card to him. Unfortunately, the website was in Chinese and I couldn't understand a word (I have no knowledge of written Chinese) so I had to ask my grandma about stuff. I figured out the gist of what to do, but that website had a weird system of selecting contacts (you had to click on the person you wanted to send it to from a list of contacts, which I assume my grandma added to the list beforehand) and I couldn't find my grandpa's email on it. I am very frustrated and it would be much easier just to send an e-card in English. I know plenty of places to get birthday e-cards. Even Neopets has them, seriously.

My parents brought home a turkey dinner for my meal tonight. I wonder what made them think of buying that since Thanksgiving doesn't come for more than a week. I guess it's because we'll probably be out of town, at Las Vegas, so we won't have the chance to eat a turkey dinner then. (It feels like I hardly celebrate holidays nowadays. I'm going to be dragged off to China for Christmas, and probably New Year's as well.) Just warning anyone who reads this in advance that I won't be around during vacations, probably. Except for summer, and that's a long way off.

Labels: beverages, birthday, travel

Today was a pretty relaxing day. I woke up too early, an hour earlier than I needed to, so I was pretty grumpy in the morning, but I cheered up after a while. Classes weren't that interesting but they passed by quickly, and I didn't get much homework - just math! - so I'm pleased. And I passed my push-up test in PE. Not only that, but today is my dad's birthday! He's so old now, and it shows. ...Nah, I'm just kidding. It's my mom who needs the help. *shifty eyes*

Anyhow, basically, this afternoon I read books, finished my math homework, watched some anime, washed my hair. And right now I'm just chilling out on the computer. I'm as content as a dog having its ears scratched, so to speak. I just hope tomorrow will be nice, too.

Labels: anime, birthday, morning, school

Top ↑