My mother has it. It's because she dyes her hair. She is not pleased with the grey hairs that keep showing up, so she dyes them once in a while. I have told her not to dye it anymore. I think it would be beautiful if her hair became completely silver and if she grew it out long, like my science teacher (well, not that my science teacher is beautiful, no offense intended to her...But who knows how she looked in her youth?).

Hair dye reminds me of the Studio Ghibli movie, Howl's Moving Castle, one of my all-time favorite movies of time. You know, I'd like to say that even if a movie is animated, it doesn't mean it's not worth watching. (I liked the movie Up, too, and Finding Nemo as well. All those movies have some hidden messages in them, be sure to pay attention to that too)

There's a scene where Howl, a magician who lives in a big, mechanical, moving structure powered a by a demon (the demon's name is Calcifer, and he appears to be a fire), was taking a bath when his hair changed colors. It was because Sophie, a main character of the movie (she was a girl, but a witch cast a spell on her that made her become an old lady) was cleaning the bathroom and probably mixed up the chemicals. Howl's hair turned red, which devastated him, as he had previously had a nice blond shade of hair. He started to moan about how life wasn't worth living if he wasn't beautiful. Then Sophie got upset and said, "I've never been beautiful!" and stormed out. Later on, Howl's hair darkened to black.

I often wonder during the film if Sophie has low self esteem or something. She always seems to think she is ugly even though she isn't. SPOILER! Skip to the next paragraph if you don't want it to be spoiled for those of you who haven't watched the movie. But there is one scene where Howl tells Sophie her hair looks like starlight, which I think is a very nice simile. Sophie seemed to appreciate the compliment, unlike a different time. There was one scene where Howl gave Sophie a gift, beautiful meadows and water. It was a place where he had spent his childhood. Sophie was pleased at first, but soon became saddened, saying she thought this meant Howl was going to leave. She said she wanted to help him, even though she was only good at cleaning. Howl tried to tell her that she was beautiful, but she didn't accept it. She just said, "The good thing about being old is that you don't have anything to lose." But I wonder if that is really true.

Well, anyhow, though many of the Studio Ghibli films are quite nice, I still like Howl's Moving Castle the best. It was based off a book, but I haven't read the book. I actually checked out the book from the library once. However, since I always read books (and eat food, too) in the order of least favorite to most favorite, I didn't get around to it, and unfortunately had to return it. Perhaps I should request it from the library. (But I would like to get one of the newer copies that has the Howl's Moving Castle movie picture on it...)

So I've been wondering, has anyone read the Howl's Moving Castle book? If so, is it similar to the movie? Or is it a lot different? If the book is really good, I would like to read it. (Usually I either read the book/manga for something or watch the movie/anime for it, and occasionally both. But I'd rather spend my time reading books/manga that don't have movies, and watch movies that don't have books or anime)

It amazes me that I haven't really talked much about Howl's Moving Castle before in my blog. Perhaps it was because I watched it in the theaters, back in fourth grade or so, and it became far from my memory because I was distracted by other things. I'm glad I found it again, though. I never get tired of watching good movies and anime. Do you have a movie or show that you love so much you don't get bored of it?

Labels: animated film, anime, beauty, books, boredom, calcifer, cleaning, colors, grey, hair dye, hayao miyazaki, howl, howl's moving castle, movie, old, sophie, studio ghibli, teacher

Seems to me like the fire department doesn't have enough to do, at least in San Jose. I saw a fire station there because I was visiting my mom's office. There were Christmas decorations up - some snowmen (fake, of course, because we don't have snow here), wreaths, and such assortment of things. I guess being a fireman is sort of like being a soldier. You're either bored or scared all the time. (You'll be waiting to be deployed, and then once you're going to have to fight it's very dangerous) I heard that firemen end up spending time playing cards and things like that, until a fire happens and they have to slide down the fireman pole. I wonder if it's true?

I think that people at my dad's work also have too much time on their hands. We went into a building that I haven't been to before, which has a cafeteria, because my dad was going to show us the new Cisco Systems jackets that just came in. I was pretty stunned by the cafeteria since it was bigger, or at least seemed bigger than my mom's workplace's cafeteria. Anyhow, apparently Cisco has a small company store in the building which sells all sorts of weird things, like pens, gifts for a baby shower, birthday cards, and even stationery (it wasn't exciting, though, so I decided not to buy any). I was not impressed by the Cisco jackets (the sleeves were kind of long for me, which is typical, and I wasn't interested in being free advertising for Cisco. Sorry, Cisco Systems. XD) and so eventually we didn't buy anything else at the store either.

Apparently at Cisco, at least in the relative area where my dad works, there is a cat club. The Cisco Cat Club takes care of stray cats by feeding them and also giving them to prospective cat owners (my dad's friend's cat was obtained in this manner, actually). Around Christmas to New Year's, Cisco will be having a forced shutdown - in other words, they make the employees use up their vacation time, and so nobody goes to work. The Cat Club was concerned about what would happen to the cats, since no one will be there to make sure they have enough to eat, so they actually set up a schedule where people actually drive to the company to feed the cats. I thought that was really extreme - here you have the chance to take a break since Cisco is making you use your vacation days and you're still going to work anyways, because the cats need to be fed.

I think my mom's group has been demoted. At her company, people are put into groups, and these groups work on different products for the company. Well, my mother and her group were on the second level of the company's building, but now they've been moved downstairs. I told my mom that she was demoted, and she sort of denied it but sort of didn't, so I'm kind of confused. Now she is in a spot near a door. It's convenient for getting in and out of the building, but it's annoying because you can hear it every time someone opens the door.

I noticed that someone had put a sign on the door saying "No Smoking within 20 Feet of the Door". It has been windy today, and people were concerned that the smokers' cigarette smoke would be blown inside when the door was opened. After eating lunch, my mom and I returned to my mom's building and saw a smoker, quite close to the door. Ugh...Maybe they need a much, MUCH bigger sign. Or a punishment. Sometimes people think rules are meant to be broken. (I heard this saying that some teenager said, "When teenagers see fences, they climb them," regarding a fence that had been erected around something to keep people out)

I just saw something really awful on television. There was a well-known song about Santa Claus playing, except in an unusual-sounding fashion. Then there was a deformed, monster-like Santa Claus on top of a roof. He smashed the chimney and climbed down the chimney. Upon seeing the cookies put out for him, he gobbled them up, even smashing the plate... Then some green dudes (elves?) with black sunglasses starting shooting at him. He fell over and a strange doctor sort of guy came over and gave Santa a shot with a syringe. Santa shrank a bit and turned into the normal Santa. It made me very angry seeing people ruining my image like this. Santa is by no means evil and violent and thus you should not shoot at Santa.

Labels: army, boredom, cat, Christmas decorations, cisco systems, club, company, demotion, door, fence, firemen, free time, holidays, jacket, santa claus, smoking, soldiers, store, teenagers

I don't drink coffee, so I'm not talking about coffee beans. But this reminds me of something from Ouran High School Host Club. The people who go to Ouran Academy are all wealthy, privileged people. Haruhi Fujioka, being a "commoner" and a scholarship student, was to work for the host club to pay back a debt, so she bought instant coffee. The Ouran students had never tried it and said, "Oh my! So it is true that commoners are so busy they can't grind their own beans!" I doubt that everyone is necessarily that busy. Sure, overall most people do have a lot of things on their schedules but if my dad has time to watch movies in the evening then he certainly has time to grind coffee beans. (No offense to my father. But he knows that I think he doesn't do much at work. XD)

Before I start rambling too much all over again, I might as well clarify what I'm talking about. During this summer it was kind of a daze for me, since I was sleeping better and had a lot of free time, so on and so forth. But now I've gone back to school and I have to adjust back to the tediousness of the regular year. And eventually, when I'm working, unless I'm a teacher, I will probably have to get used to it almost forever. It's a rather melancholy thought so I will try not to dwell on it. Already we have homework again, however, and sooner or later I will have to come back "down to Earth".

Today, in fact, was the first day of the 2009 - 2010 school year for me. The first class was history, with, ironically, a teacher called Mr. Brown. This is weird seeing as I have had both Kampps, Browns, and Blairs. (The Kampps are married, the Browns are just...unrelated, and the Blairs are brothers.) It seems like if there's 2+ teachers with the same last name I end up being one of their students.

Overall I think the teachers this year are okay. The impression I got from them...
History - Kind of intimidating, but he is funny. I'm still wary, though, because he said he likes to yell.
Science - I don't mean this to be rude or anything, but she certainly looks old. I wonder if she's about retiring age yet. I know Mr. Brown (last year, not this year) said that the 8th grade teachers are...well...they've got a lot of years under their belts. (Not that they necessarily wear belts.)
Language Arts - She seems pretty cool. I noticed that she is a big fan of the Chargers football team. This reminded me of Mrs. Jackson in the way that Mrs. Jackson is a big fan of the Red Socks baseball team. (She even has a sign that says Red Sox Fan Parking Only on her wall) Anyhow, I have noticed my LA teacher is the most lax when it comes to late work because she accepts it two out of three trimesters whereas the others won't even take it unless there are "unusual and extreme circumstances" (in the words of the science teacher who once had a student with leukemia).
Geometry - I like him even if I did think his voice was just a touch odd at first. He has some sense of humor which is a relief. I heard two of his kids go to my school. Oh yeah, and for some reason the Geometry class is nearly full this year. I wonder why?
PE - This is Mr. Blair. I had him for a trimester last year so I kind of know him already. He always reminds me of Luigi from the Mario video games for some reason. My PE period is 6th period. Strangely, I had 6th period PE for the first trimester all three years of middle school.
French - I can't pronounce her name at all but I'm going to work on it. Though I pale at the thought of learning hundreds, maybe thousands, of French words, I suppose I signed up for it, so I have to deal with it. What was funny was that she bought an hourglass from the Galeries Lafayette in Paris, France, but then it turned out to be "made in China". I bet nowadays almost everything is.

Labels: beans, boredom, busy, coffee, coincidence, daily, everyday, first day, future, grind, high school, impression, instant coffee, luigi, made in china, ouran high school host club, summer, teacher

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

Today, in PE, we had a 20-minute run, which basically means we job for 20 minutes straight. It's tougher than it looks. Somehow, though, I lived. I thought it hadn't been too hard after all, until I tried walking down the stairs. Not good, because my legs shook a little when I attempted to walk. They're still painful now. I think they'll be better in the morning, though.

I've started reading the adult books at the Calabazas Library (I haven't looked at the adult section in the Cupertino Library yet, though) but they aren't as good as I expected. I mean, mainly the book I'm reading is just about a lady whose fiancee's daughter disappeared, and so far it's mainly the main character thinking about her past and looking for the kid. So nothing exciting is really happening yet. Not what I expected. -_-;;

Labels: 20, adult, books, boredom, calabazas, legs, long distance, minutes, running, shaking, the year of fog

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