I spend a lot of time on the Internet for two reasons in particular: To look at artwork, and to avoid thinking about important matters (namely, my homework). But, of course, it's only a temporary measure, and soon enough deadlines are bound to come calling. Many evenings I end up scrambling to do my homework, cursing myself for spending so much time on the Internet. (Seriously, though, it's so hard to keep track of time on the Internet. It really feels like no time has passed at all.)

And surprise, surprise! I was wandering around Flickr the other day when I Read more »

Labels: art, audacity, classes, coincidence, dream, flickr, french, friday, gender, internet, photography, procrastination, rebecca black, school, song, teacher

It's a pretty famous musical, and I have a video tape of the film version; I watched when I was very young, but I don't remember what it was about. The only thing I do remember is two of the songs: My Favorite Things and Do-Re-Mi.

I've only got the basic tunes in my head, I don't know the lyrics by heart. But it's easy to find them on the Internet. If you weren't sure which songs I'm referring to, maybe seeing the lyrics would help...

My Favorite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

Do-Re-Mi (this is just part of the song)

Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself
Far, a long, long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow Sew
Tea, a drink with jam and bread

But anyways, I don't intend to be talking about the musical for this entire post. I've been wondering lately about how exactly a person would judge a song. Is it the lyrics or the sound that determines how "good" it is?

In one of my classes, Writing for Publication (it's basically a class preparing you for journalism), we listened to some songs by the singer Adele, because we were practicing writing reviews. The first song we listened to was Crazy For You. Both the song and lyrics are pretty clichéd. I don't mean to single out Adele, since there are many songs and many singers who don't have creative lyrics, but it still irks me if the lyrics are unoriginal.

I suppose that could be part of the reason why I listen to mostly Japanese music. If I don't understand what they're saying, I'm not able to insult the lyrics, so I'll only concentrate on the sound. That doesn't really work anymore, though, since I do understand some words here and there, and eventually I might be able to understand what they're saying...

Maybe sometimes it's best that I don't know. I recently listened to Spice!, which is a song for Len Kagamine (a Vocaloid; don't want to make this post too long, so look it up if you want to know what Vocaloids are). I thought it was a pretty good song, and today I was searching it up on Youtube. I clicked on a video and it said that it was flagged as being inappropriate for some users. It really surprised me. I hadn't noticed anything inappropriate about it.

I did a bit of poking around, looked at the English translation of the lyrics, and saw some other videos of the song, and was pretty creeped out. I don't think I'll ever see Len the same way again (he's promiscuous! Ugh!). And talk about a weird coincidence, because in French class, we just listened to a song about a guy who was cheating on his wife. I had quite enough of songs about polygamy.

Sorry for going on so long, but I just want to mention that there is one thing about Len Kagamine that I'm looking forward to, and that is the Append. I've heard that Len is getting an append (it's like an update/addition to the voice...I'm not good at describing it), called Append Cold. Click here for a sample. (Amazing had 8,000 views already after only one day...) Even though I don't have any Vocaloid software, I do want to hear more of Len's Append.

Anyways, here's a fanart of Len's song, Spice!. (It's not drawn by me. XD)

Labels: adele, append cold, coincidence, crazy for you, do re mi, do-re-mi, japanese, len kagamine, lyrics, music, my favorite things, player, songs, sound, spice, the sound of music, vocaloid, vocaloids

I often hear students exchanging information about the content of a test. I have the bad habit (or is it a good habit?) of eavesdropping on conversations. Many people either don't realize how loud their voices are or they simply don't care.

One student, for instance, said, "It's usually choice C! If you don't know which one, you should pick it." I actually have seen that some tests seem to have a lot of C answers. Wonder if that's a coincidence or if people really have a tendency to make C the answer when they're creating tests.

My science teacher has caught onto it, though, and she told us, "Don't think I haven't heard you guys saying 'Pick C!' " She and my math teacher have been reminding students not to reveal what's on the tests to our friends, which unfortunately I am guilty of having done before (though I'm trying to be more vague about what I say).

Last year I overheard some students talking about what was on a science test. They were really talking about very specific things, too, which was rather unsettling. I couldn't bring myself to report it because I didn't want to be thought of as a tattletale and because I thought that maybe the students would all deny it, and I wouldn't have enough proof or something, so I would look like I was just trying to get them in trouble out of spite.

I always make excuses about everything, because it makes it so much easier to run away if I have some other reason for it. I really should have just tried to put a stop to all that sharing of test information that goes on, but I'm still not courageous enough. There are a lot of things that I realize I should have done, looking back on my past. Lots of things I should have said, or shouldn't have said. I can't change the past. What I'm afraid of is that I'll keep making the same mistakes as time goes on. I don't ever seem to learn. It sets me to thinking about what sort of person I really am. People say that it's what's inside that counts. But what if I'm rotten to the core? I'm fearful of what I'll find.

Labels: academic, coincidence, courage, horrible, information, inside, mistakes, option c, past, repeating, report, school, sharing, students, teachers, test

The book I just read and the book I'm reading now are both similar and different at the same time. I'll start off with the differences.

THE QUEEN'S SOPRANO by Carol Dines
- A girl named Angelica Voglia living in Rome. She has a wonderful singing voice.
- She wants to be able to sing freely, but the pope has forbidden women to sing in public. She has fallen in love with a French artist named Theodon. But her mother dreams of riches and a luxurious life, so she tries to marry her daughter off to a noble.
- In order to escape her fate, she pretends to be going along with her mother's plan but then moves to the palace of Queen Christina, who rules one of the two quarters not dominated by the Pope. She becomes a singer for the Queen.
- The man who was going to marry Angelica was very upset, thinking that Angelica's mother had lied to him. He punished the Voglia family by slicing the cheeks of Angelica's father and cutting off the ear of Angelica's brother. After the incident Angelica's mother wanted nothing to do with Angelica. Eventually she descended into madness.

SISTERS IN SANITY by Gayle Forman
- Brit Hemphill, who lives with her father, stepmother, and baby brother, is sent to a center that is supposed to provide therapy to girls with problems (drug abuse, depression, even being overweight). At the place there is terrible food, cameras to spy on you, and you can't complain to your parents about the camp (in fact, you have to reach a certain "level" before you're even allowed to write letters to anyone).
- Brit starts to suspect that the reason why she was sent away (she doesn't really have any major problems; despite being a musician, she is not into drugs) is that she is similar to her mother and her father fears the same thing that happened to her mother will happen to her. They used to live together as one happy family, but then her mother developed mental problems. She refused treatment. Eventually she ran off and they haven't seen her since.

It's kind of spooky that I unintentionally selected two books on the same day at the library that both have mothers who go insane. Is it some weird talent or is it just a coincidence?

Labels: abuse, books, carol dines, coincidence, family, fate, gayle forman, history, insane, italy, mental, rome, singing, sisters in sanity, the queen's soprano, therapy

Just a little while ago, I mentioned copic markers, right? Well, just yesterday, I went into a store called Memories Live On. I was trying to find a scrapbook because I need one for my French project (we are supposed to make a family tree, and write about our grandparents and direct family, and ourselves too of course). Memories Live On is a scrapbooking store, and also has some art supplies. When I went in, I wandered around, and then I saw the Copic markers! (They are not exactly cheap. Costs four or five dollars just to get one) They are some nice markers that have two different ends. If you take off the cap on one end, you get a chisel tip. If you take off the cap on the other end, you get a fine pointy tip. And the markers are cool since I tried them out and if you color a blob, and then put a different color on top, they sort of mix a little since they're kind of watery.

Anyways, I feel like I have some magnetic pull to me or something. If something is mentioned or shown to me and I remember it, then pretty soon I will see the same thing or something similar. It's kind of freaky, but it's kind of cool, too. (Nowadays I am immersing myself into superstition, heh heh... I count crows whenever I see them, and one of my friends keeps wanting to "read my palms")

Not only that, but I always gravitate towards my number in PE. We all stand on white numbers that were painted on the blacktop so our PE teachers can count how many people are absent easily. I have this tendency to always go to my number, so usually if someone wants to talk to me they'd probably have to move over to me, not the other way around. In fact, I once joked that I was attracted by unseen forces to my number since I almost always head there.

The other day, my father was watching a movie called Nothing But the Truth. It is based off of some real events. The movie is about a journalist who publishes an article, and people are pressuring her to reveal where she got the information, but she won't reveal the source. She even went to jail for it, as it was a very delicate matter (she had discovered the name of a CIA agent, which is supposed to be top-secret, and things like that). Only in the end of the movie did we find out the true source. Skip the next paragraph if you don't want spoilers.

Surprisingly, the reporter's source of information was none other than the daughter of the CIA agent. The reporter was on a bus with her son and his classmates since I think they were going on a field trip. And a girl asked the reporter what she was doing, since the reporter had her laptop. The reporter and the girl talked, and then the girl said that her father was a writer too, but her mother didn't like what her father wrote about...And so the girl kept talking and revealed that her mother worked for the government, and that she was in Venezuela. Let me explain... Someone tried to assassinate the USA president (a made-up one, not one of our presidents) and then not long afterwards the USA bombed Venezuela, since apparently it was thought that Venezuela was responsible for the assassination attempt. But the CIA agent was in Venezuela, and so she had said that it wasn't Venezuela's fault. The little girl revealed enough to pique the reporter's interest. The CIA agent was later killed. That's freaky, since that little girl had actually caused her own mother's death.

I know that it was probably very confusing, so if you are interested, you should probably watch the movie yourself. But do note that it is a pretty serious movie, so if you want a nice happy ending, maybe you shouldn't watch it.

Oh yeah, and my teacher has apparently planned for our class to read the book Nothing But the Truth during the school year. I wonder if it's the same or if it's entirely different.

Labels: coincidence, copic, counting crows, luck, magnetic, markers, memories live on, miracle, movie, nothing but the truth, number, palm reading, PE class, scrapbook, superstition, unseen forces

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

It seems uncanny that they play the music my dad knows and sometimes even likes. In PE class, I have heard Cold Play's music and Abba's music being played through the speakers that can be moved around. (I like them both, I suppose, but Abba was popular before I was even born, so they're not even together anymore) And my science teacher, as he has his own stereo and a guitar, was once imitating Johnny Cash, who was a singer/actor/musician who died in 2003. My dad put on Johnny Cash's music at my house once. I hope this doesn't mean we will be hearing John Denver songs like "Sunshine on my Shoulders", "Take Me Home, Country Roads", and "You Fill Up My Senses", or strange Chinese songs which my dad likes. But maybe some mysterious forces are at work here, and it can't be helped.

In PE, we have tried a variety of odd activities - for instance, scrugby, which is a soccer, rugby, football, basketball, combination or something like that. We've also played bocceball (not sure about the spelling, Mr. Robinson wrote something different on his whiteboard), which is basically bowling but not in a bowling alley. There is a small ball called the pallino which someone throws out. Then several players take turns throwing bigger balls, I think it's called bocce balls (hence the name of the sport/game/whatever you call it). They can only throw underhand so the ball will roll instead of bouncing or something. You try to get your ball as close as possible to the pallino. Other people can knock your ball out of the way or hit the pallino with their bocce ball(s) if they so desire.

Another thing we have done in PE is Quidditch. I just looked up more information on Google and it seems there is really an activity meant for PE teachers to use. If you have read the Harry Potter books you may have an idea of what I mean. Quidditch is basically a nonexistent sport in which two teams of wizards riding brooms face off. There are several balls like the bludgers (you don't want to get hit by them), quaffles (just regular balls you try to score with) and a Golden Snitch (if you can grab it, you get points). The players are Seekers (only one per team, these people concentrate on getting the Golden Snitch), Chasers (just run about trying to score with the Quaffle. I didn't do much), and Beaters (they have bats to hit people and they can throw Bludgers at people. Luckily Mr. Robinson didn't give anyone bats x_x). Anyhow, that's about it. We don't get any brooms, which is a big disappointment to me. I guess such a thing as "flying brooms" will not be invented for some time yet, though.

I had to take two tests in school today (a math test about quadratic equations and stuff like that, and a history test about vocab words). They were both in the beginning of the day, two in a row. My brain almost turned to mush from it, but I think I did well (at least on the history test, because Mr. Blair read out the scores to the people who said they wanted to hear. I got a 50 out of 50, so that's a relief). I'm not so sure on the math test. I tend to make silly mistakes on them, so all I can do is hope for the best. I wonder if I should check my scores online or just wait until the end of this year to see how my final grades are. (Long as they are A's, I am in good shape, I think.)

Lesson of the day! It's a random fact I found. "Apples are more effective at keeping people awake in the morning than caffeine." That's funny. But then again, maybe that's why my mom likes apples. (I think she likes them because they are cute, though, and not because they taste good...)

Labels: apple, bocceball, coincidence, fact, games, grades, harry potter, music, mysterious, PE class, quidditch, random, school, sports, test

I can tell, because the poor little guy had keeled over in front of the local high school. I am not sure how he died, but I have a few guesses... 1) He was run over by a car, but someone picked him up and moved him to the side. This might not be true because picking up a squirrel with your bare hands could result in you catching diseases from it. (Animals may not look sick, but that doesn't mean they don't carry bacteria or viruses) 2) Some mean gangsters from the high school somehow managed to catch the squirrel and torture it. 3) The squirrel was in some way electrocuted while running along the sky highways. (My nickname for electrical lines. Squirrels and birds may be seen using them for travel or rest.) Don't ask me the specifics since I am not an eyewitness, and besides I don't remember anything from fourth grade, the year when we learned about electricity. XD

Recently I have been reading a book called Alanna: The First Adventure. It is the first book in the Song of the Lioness Quartet, written by Tamora Pierce, who tends to write books that are "medieval fantasies" (or so I call them, as they have things like knights and fiefs and pirates, but they also have magic and creatures) I already read a bunch of Tamora Pierce's other books, like her The Immortals Quartet, Circle of Magic Quartet, The Circle Opens Quartet, and Protector of the Small Quartet. Notice she is a big fan of writing quartets. Also, the books tend to have more heroines than heroes, if you ask me. The lead character in three of her series is female. The other two series, three of the four main characters are female. :o I wonder if it is a coincidence or not.

I felt rather foolish in my history class yesterday. My teacher, Mr. Blair, handed us out an 11 point quiz, which I was very surprised by, and began to panic because I had not studied the paper he handed us yesterday well enough to actually take a quiz. I couldn't remember what the names of the popes who fathered children were, nor could I remember if all indulgences were signed by the pope... So I landed myself a beautiful score of 5 out of 11. Mr. Blair said he would offer us a special deal. Since his candy supply was running low (Apparently, the "card club" kept using it up) he said we could buy points to apply to our grade, if we payed him 25 cents per point. So of course, we all bought some except for a few kids who didn't buy any at all (maybe they figured it out, or they just didn't want to spend money). I bought 6 of them, myself, to fix my most recent grade, but some students bought so many...One bought 20, another bought 47, then one bought 48, and a boy actually bought 88 of them.

What happened at the end of the class was that Mr. Blair yelled at us, "You don't owe any money! You're not getting any points for your grade! If you did the quiz, you get 5 points automatically, it won't hurt you! The point of this activity was to show you that you can't buy your salvation. What I did is just like indulgences sold by the Catholic Church." Then all the realization hit me...I'd seriously thought Mr. Blair was really going to let us boost our grades. D: But then again, one of my friends say he might be fired if he was caught doing that, so I suppose not.

My school has a place called the Nature Center. It is kind of like a garden in a way, except it's more like you're in the wild seeing as the paths sometimes have plants blocking the way. Even though one of the ponds is broken and doesn't have any water, I still think it's a pretty cool place. Why, my science teacher even said one of the reasons he works at my school is because of the nature center! There's many trees, so we got to identify conifers, firs, Douglas firs, ginkgo trees, and various oaks. I had no idea what those wormlike, hard things were before. Now I know those are the so-called "male cones". o_O;; Also, Mr. Brown says that due to a mutation, we not only have purple irises (Iris is a flower) but also white ones. Both are quite pretty even if the white ones may look rather plain in comparison. There's a pair of ducks in the nature center right now, and the teachers are hoping that they'll stay and have ducklings here. If I were them, I would find some other place. Schools are filled with rowdy people, and this is no exception. XD

Labels: books, candy, coincidence, death, ducks, electricity, flowers, indulgence, money, nature center, points, quiz, squirrels, tamora pierce, tree

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