I'm not sure if almost being attacked by a goose counts as bad luck. It does look like, however, that it's a part of a series of unfortunate events, because I hear that bad things come in threes.

For one, our garage is having issues again. Whenever I try to get the door to come down, it stops partway and then tries to go back up again. I have to keep clicking the button on my garage door opening device until it finally manages to get all the way down. ...And even then, the garage door still tries to go back up. I'm thinking that the Rin/Len Kagamine song called "Remote Control" should have its lyrics rewritten to complain about my struggles with the garage door. I've even taken to going out through the front door (gasp! I pretty much never use the front door unless guests are over) just to avoid dealing with it. I'm worried that someday the garage will try to open on its own while I'm not around, and someone will come in and steal my bike. (This has happened before. My dad had his bike stolen many years ago, only it wasn't from the garage)

As for the other bad thing, it happened to my mother. We've always had issues with chairs and the legs of the beds in our house. Many times I've gotten up at night to use the bathroom and ended up stubbing my toe against a chair leg. It's happened so much that I suggested getting a bed with special legs so that you won't kick it (I saw an ad for it in a magazine), though as usual my parents weren't paying attention. Well, now my mother was walking to the bathroom at night and her toes hit a chair leg really hard. She didn't think it was a problem that night, but the next morning it hurt a lot and she couldn't walk properly. Turns out that she's fractured a bone (or bones) in her pinky toe. It'll take six weeks or so for her to recover.

What a bummer. Just the previous night we were thinking about going swimming sometime soon. Looks like I'll be swimming solo. There's practically no chance that my dad would ever agree to go swimming. When we were in Hawaii a couple years back, my mom and I were drifting out in the ocean...My dad, on the other hand, paced back and forth on the beach, an angry expression on his face. Barely got his feet wet and had only a sunburn to show for it.

But I guess it'd still be nice to go to the beach sometime. I'd like to go swimming in the ocean again. It's really salty and makes the undersides of my arms sting, but it's still...both relaxing and strenuous at the same time. A vacation-y sort of exercise.

I suppose in the end I can't enjoy it as completely as I used to be able to. At this age there's too much to worry about. I have to study to take my SATs, and these days it seems colleges expect you to get really serious about some extracurricular, and spend your summers on a job or internship or volunteering or something...It takes the fun out of the things I enjoy, being told by college prep people that I have to go make money or enter competitions with my hobbies. I never should've written Stanford and Harvard down as colleges I want to go to, because it's not true...Sure I'd like to go there, but that's not my goal.

Then I end up wondering why I'm so afraid to aim high. Maybe it's fear of failure; that has always worried me. Maybe I'm trying not to do whatever everyone else is doing again. I know it's silly of me to do - just because something is popular doesn't make it bad. But I feel like I can't just go along with the flow without thinking it through first. I think that I'll lose what makes me unique if I follow what other people are doing. Sometimes I don't want to be like other people and sometimes I do. I don't really know who I want to be anymore.

Labels: bike, broken, college, family, garage, garage door, goose, individual, injury, problems, remote control, SAT, song, stress, summer, swimming, theft, toe

Is there such a phobia? Because I probably had it, not long ago.

A week from now, on Monday, I will officially make the move from middle school to high school. It's a change that I have been feeling uncertain about. It seems like the clock will really be ticking once I enter high school. My mother is now pressuring me to take classes and study for the SATs and attend seminars. And now I'm being urged to...

- Talk to my teachers (which is a bit hard for me, since I'm not that outgoing as of the past few years and I feel like it's really shallow to befriend your teachers just to get a good recommendation letter for college)

- Make a "professional" email (I don't want to have to check three different emails. I already hardly check one of them - and besides, I figure I'll get spam mail if my real name is in the email's name. And I would really be angry if people were judging me by my email. I know, in this world, first impressions can mean everything, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.)

- Attend extra classes outside of school (my mother insists that a lot of other people are taking them and I have to in order to keep up. But I don't like the idea of that either, because it feels like I'm using money in order to get ahead in school. Just because other people are doing it doesn't mean it's right. Well, I suppose I may be the only one who has such warped and illogical morals.)

- Stop wasting time on the Internet (that's something I intend to work on myself. For instance, I am planning to quit Crunchyroll. Maybe not completely. I might come back once in a while, but I will probably stop visiting on a regular basis. I've already started to think of my "farewell" message. It's painful for me to leave something behind, but not as much as I would have thought a few months ago. It's time to move on. I no longer want to be chained to it.)

And I don't really know what to expect of life in high school. Back when school was still in session, all of us 8th graders went over to the high school campus (it's pretty much across the street, so it's nearby) and listened to some people talk about various parts of the school. They encouraged us to join clubs and participate in leadership activities and whatnot. Near the beginning of the session, the students said, "Well, I bet you think from what your siblings and friends have told you that it's all about studying." Then they paused, and added, "Well, it is sort of like that..."

I certainly hope not. In this country, what with some of the best universities being located here (Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, MIT, UC Berkeley, UC LA, Brown, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Pomona, Northwestern...), the competition gets too fierce. If you ask me, it's like in middle school they're preparing you for high school, and then in high school they're preparing you for college, and then in college you're being prepared for...Your job? The rest of your life? I'm not really sure. (As for when you've got yourself a steady job, I think you're just waiting for retirement. XD) I have heard that some of my fellow students have been taking classes during the summer, such as Geometry, so that perhaps they can move up a level in math and will not have to take Geometry in high school. (I don't see the need to rush. Why not take it easy? You should be able to take Calculus by your senior year if you just go the grade level route.)

Well, I'm sure there's a lot more to high school than just studying for tests all the time. (It's not like I study as much as I should anyways, since I often think to myself, "Eh, I'll probably end up studying something that isn't on the test. I'll be wasting my time.") But I have no idea what everything else is like either. I've looked at the school lunch menu and read the policy, but what does that really tell me about the people there? How can I know what I've read in novels really reflects the high school I'll be attending? Will it be similar to middle school or a whole different universe? I guess the only thing that can be done is to experience it for myself. I am no longer afraid, or at least less so than before. But I'm not completely looking forward to it, either.

Labels: change, classes, college, crunchyroll, email, expectations, fear, first impression, future, high school, internet, judge, life, moral, preparation, quit, SAT, studying, teacher, uncertain

This past Sunday, I changed the time of my piano class, because my mother wanted me to come with her to attend a seminar being held locally. The seminar was about getting into one of those great Ivy League colleges, which is what most of the seminars I have heard of seem to be about. I was not impressed by similar seminars I had attended in the past (though my experience in this is certainly not vast; I have only been to a few "How to get into college!" seminars) and so I was very reluctant to go...I thought it would be a hassle to have to change the time of my piano lesson. I don't like to have my piano class later in the day because I think that my teacher in general feels more benevolent in the morning. (But my dad argued that she should be talkative in the evening because she would get lonely in the nighttime. Hmm, personally, I think by the end of the day she would be tired of teaching and would not be in the mood for side conversation.)

The lesson was changed to the evening, 7:45 pm. At the end of the class, I exited my teacher's apartment and noticed that there were some bugs trying to get close to the light next to her door. It seems that insects, particularly moths, are always eager to get as close as possible to any light source, even if they end up burning up in the process.

I feel that everyone is, in the end, attracted to light. Some of us may be nocturnal, but that dose not mean that we live without light, for even at nighttime, there is a little light, whether it be from the moon and stars or from something we have created here on this Earth. And as damaging as the light may be, particularly the sunlight, which can destroy our eyes and skin, we still need it. It's kind of a strange relationship.

I remember during my Yosemite trip in March that the nighttime had frightened me. The flashlights of the students kept blinding me and sometimes it was quite difficult to identify figures in the dark. I felt keenly aware of the dangers of tumbling into a ditch or tripping on a tree branch and spraining my ankle, for in the daylight it was quite easy to see this things, but in the darkness everything had an ominous aura to it that had not been present during the daylight hours. One time I woke up during the night because I drank too much water earlier and unfortunately needed to use the bathroom, and looking outside, I saw that there was not a soul to be seen, the lights appearing rather eerie as they shined upon the ground. It was peaceful, but in a way it was also scary, reminding me of a ghost town.

I wonder what it would be like to be nocturnal. Those beings who are surrounded by so much darkness see a very different world. Our world of daylight is bright, filled with color and vibrancy, in some ways comforting and in other ways overwhelming. But without the sun lighting your surroundings, colors fade, and your world seems to be in greyscale. You notice shapes and movement more than you do the fine details. It is harder to rely on your eyes when their capabilities seem to have been simplified. Every sound seems that much louder to your ears, even if you are not listening intently on purpose. You feel your way around to try and diminish the dangers.

Being unable to see the great spectrum of colors seen in light, I wonder if perhaps it is a harsh existence. Color makes things alive, beautiful...And you develop your preferences for colors, perhaps preferring the bold, passionate red, or the more soothing blues and greens, or perhaps you like the neon versions of colors. Or perhaps you like black, that one color said to complement every other. At the same time, without the light and color, you focus on other things, what you hear and touch and feel within yourself. With all these visual distractions during the daytime, I wonder if perhaps it is us being of the daytime that are missing out.

Labels: change, class, college, colors, danger, darkness, ghost town, light, night, piano, preference, seminar, senses, sight, sound, time, touch, trip, variety, yosemite

There are two Chinas, actually, the People's Republic of China (the big country) and the Republic of China (the island of Taiwan), but both countries are Mandarin-speaking and Mandarin-writing.

This poses a problem for me, especially considering the vast population of the big China. Mandarin is becoming more of an important language to know in the world, and I'm already affected, despite that fact that my "world" is still not very big.

On Friday afternoon, while I was at home, the phone started ringing. I decided to pick it up, figuring it might be one of my parents. It was a lady speaking in Mandarin. I was quiet a while, trying to translate it in my head. The lady finally said something in English, something about a clinic, and that made sense to me. Then she spoke in Mandarin asking if ___ (my mom's name) was home, to which I responded she wasn't. The lady seemed slightly worried, saying that my mom had an appointment tomorrow and she wanted to know if it could be rescheduled or something like that. I tried to reply that I would tell my mom, but I couldn't come up with the right words...So after a little pause, I hung up.

This made me realize what a pickle I'm in. I can understand Mandarin to some degree (I know more of the Shanghai dialect than Mandarin because my parents speak that at home), but I am illiterate (the only ones I can easily recognize are 人, 一, 二, 三, 四, 月, 火, 上, 下, 小, 大, 云, and 中). Also, I can only say a few phrases. One of the phrases I know sounds like "Wan Dan La!" (Don't really know how to translate it.) My parents say it is something more commonly said in Taiwan, almost like slang, I guess, and they think I must have picked it up from one of my friends from Taiwan. But that's weird, because usually I speak English with my friends.

Anyways, I will be in a real fix if Mandarin becomes the language of the world. I mean, it's already the #1 spoken language of the world, and the second place language, Spanish, is far behind. I'm kind of worried. I don't think I could easily learn to read Chinese at this age. I did start learning once during a summer, years back, but I've already forgotten. It was more like I was memorizing the lines so I knew what to say; not sure if I actually knew what I was reading. Anyways, it gets harder and harder the older you get to learn a language. So if you want to learn, start early. (I'm jealous of my cousins in France. They have already started learning English and they're not even in middle school yet)

Recently, my middle school had an Electives Night. I didn't attend, though I wanted to (just to get cookies from the cooking classroom! They have great cookies). My mom said, "Why do you want to go? You're going to a different school next year, so it doesn't matter." And so I stayed home.

But some students did go, to help my French teacher out, since she has to "sell" her classes and all. Parents and students tend to wonder, "Should I take French or Spanish?" (I say French, but I'm biased.) Since Spanish is considered to be more useful (because more people speak Spanish, and California is close to Mexico), more students take Spanish. And there is somewhat of a misconception that Spanish is easier than French. (I have no idea about that, but I'm guessing they're about the same once you get used to them. You just have to get more of an accent for speaking French) There is one good argument for French, though, and that's the fact that there is no Spanish Week at my school, only French Week. Haha!

I really wish the schools still offered German. And I'd like to learn Italian (but then again, I hear if you know French or Spanish - or both - it shouldn't be too hard to understand Italian. French, Spanish, and Italian all use the word "Ciao!" for "goodbye"). It'd be nice if my school had Japanese. Then I could learn Japanese 1 in 8th grade and take Japanese 2 in high school. It seems weird that Japanese 2 is an option for freshmen. Only people who learned Japanese outside of school or who already knew Japanese would be able to take it, right? I feel like it's a setback for me and other students since we can't take Japanese in middle school (not even Mandarin, the class got cut, sadly). I'd like to be able to get all 5 levels of a language done.

Then again, it's not horrible if you don't take AP classes, is it? I've heard that AP classes are college level classes. I suppose if you take AP classes and then make yourself busy in college, you can graduate earlier or something. But I don't see why you have to be in such a rush in life. Why not take it at your own pace? (Assuming your pace isn't as slow as mine, since I want to retire and all) I guess this competitive world and market makes people feel they must try their hardest, be the fastest and the best, so they can come out on top.

But if you've got friends like these, who needs anemone? (Get it? It's a joke from Finding Nemo.) I know that doesn't make sense, but I just wanted to say that for once.

Labels: ap classes, china, ciao, college, competiton, difficulty, finding nemo, french week, important, italian, japanese, joke, language, mandarin, mother, phone call, reading, school, spanish, taiwan

This is a phrase that I learned from orchestra, which I used to take back in 6th grade. I think it was on a wall hanging that my teacher had.

Music didn't used to be a big part of my life. Sure, I'd always heard classical music and the sort of music my dad listened to (John Denver, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie, and so on). And I started taking piano around the age 5 or 6. But at first it wasn't a big deal for me. It grew in importance only after time passed.

We would take music just maybe once or twice a week in elementary school. Mostly we sang, but occasionally we got to play the drums or xylophones, and I always loved that. I thought it was fun - it was something I didn't get to do often, unlike piano, which I had to practice everyday, and I was frustrated by playing piano. I had already accomplished my original reason for starting, which was playing the song Fur Elise (it's really not that hard a song, but it's pretty famous). I was not too good at controlling my temper (and I'm still having trouble in that regard...) so sometimes I would get violent and try to punch the piano or scratch it. Usually resulted in me getting hurt. One time I got mad at Bach (sorry, Bach, but I can't say I'm the biggest fan of your music) and tore part of my book. Not a good idea. Now I can't really put it back together.

I wasn't really a prominent singer either. I suppose I wasn't the worst (no matter what you think, there are always people better than you and always people worse than you, simply because we're all different, and anyways, how good your life is also depends on how you perceive it) but I wasn't the best, either. I mean, I couldn't hit certain pitches and I just really hate it when I'm trying to sing something and it sounds off tune and messed up. I suppose maybe if I practiced very seriously I could improve it, but I'm a lazy person, and anyways I wasn't really considering a career as a singer.

But in seventh grade, I started to listen to music. If you've watched anime, you've probably noticed that there are opening and ending songs, and there's also insert music you might hear during episodes. After a while I started a playlist, and that's when my exploration of music really accelerated. I didn't even listen to English songs much before, but then I started listening to music in Japanese, and even a little in English and Korean. (No French yet, I'm afraid, but maybe someday I'll try it out)

I didn't used to enjoy playing the piano so much, but now I do. I feel like it's a way to unwind at the end of the day by hearing something nice that you yourself worked hard to create (by practicing all these years). And it's a good way to relieve stress, at least for me. I think music is how people who can't necessarily put their thoughts into words express themselves.

I feel guilty because I used to be so mean to my piano. I was often frustrated by not being able to get a certain part right or not being able to play loudly enough (my hands were small - and they still are - and I didn't have much muscle strength). It seems funny now, because I hear the younger students of my piano teacher have trouble making a loud sound on one of her pianos, but I thought it was fairly easy. I suppose they'll be able to handle it when they're older.

My piano has always been there for me, ever since I first obtained it so many years ago. It's always been sitting in the same spot, patiently waiting for me to play it. If I were to tell my problems to it, there is no risk of the piano telling anyone else or being repulsed by what I say. (Though it might look a bit funny, if I were talking to an inanimate object. There are psychologists near my house, after all.) That does make me concerned, though; if I go to college and I can't live at home since it's far away, what can I do about the piano? Should I have it moved? (But if I lived in an apartment or dorm, it'd probably take up too much space.) Or do I have to give up playing the piano? The latter choice seems painful. (I don't want to have to buy a stand-up piano just for when I'm away from home, however, so I don't see what I can do about it.)

Not long ago, I read a bout called A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban. It's not a difficult book to understand, but I thought it was pretty nice. What piqued my interest was that the main character plays the organ. I've never played the organ and have always thought of it as an antiquated instrument seeing as I've only really seen it in old churches and other historical, touristy buildings. Apparently, the organ needs to be turned on and various rhythm styles (this leads me to think it is actually kind of like a keyboard...). I've never met anyone who has played the organ, so I'm really curious about it.

Labels: a crooked kind of perfect, anger management, anime, bach, best friend, book, challenge, college, expression, fur elise, instrument, moving, music, organ, piano, school, self, singing, strength, stress

No, I have not suddenly skipped multiple grades and gotten myself accepted to a college. But one of the French words for middle school is collège, so you see, I am in college if you interpret it that way.

I've heard several mentions of college recently. The first one was in debate club, which I went to as usual on Wednesday. It's kind of a regular activity of mine now. I still don't really say anything, but I listen to other people's opinions. This week it didn't go that well. People didn't seem particularly interested in any topic, so the topic kept changing. At first it as whether health care should be free for everyone, and then folks starting talking about alcohol and how it's more socially acceptable than smoking even though alcohol is still bad for your health. Someone brought up the point that smoking affects the people around you, but if you're drunk it's not going to damage someone else's liver (at least, I hope not). I think it's because people think alcohol is good for your health, at least, people say red wine has benefits. But I still don't approve of wine. When I ask my dad what it's like, he says it's like grape juice except with alcohol, but then, couldn't you just drink grape juice? (And I hear that liquor has a bitter taste. I don't understand why you would want it.)

Then my old teacher, whose classroom the debate club is held in, noticed a girl. She is a regular to the debate club, and that day, she happened to be wearing a college sweatshirt. (I believe it was a UC Berkeley shirt, but I can't be sure) The teacher asked her, "What are you doing wearing a Berkeley sweatshirt? Look at her, the girl who has been saying she's going to go to Harvard." Apparently it was a sibling's sweatshirt. "So you're supporting a sibling? Clearly an inferior sibling..." (Berkeley isn't a bad college, but I suppose Harvard is still considered harder to get into) "I've gotta get a picture of this." The teacher whipped out his cell phone and was trying to take a picture of the girl wearing a Berkeley sweatshirt, but she kept hiding it. My teacher called for back-up, which happened to be one of my friends. She ran over and kind of half-tackled the girl, and the teacher managed to snap a picture. "Not very good, but I think you can tell it was her," he remarked.

Later that week, my history teacher (let's refer to him as JB, it's tiresome having to say "my teacher" every time) told us about his college times. He said that there were three floors on his dorm building. The first floor was filled with guys and the second and third floor were filled with girls (which was pretty nice for a freshman, so he said). JB says that when you go to college, you fill out a form with who you want to be with as a roommate. Either you can name a specific name (if you have someone in mind already) or you can describe what kind of person you're looking for or what kind of person you DON'T want. JB was pretty much fine with anything but he did say he wanted a non-smoker. But most of the people in his dorm building are smokers, so he ended up with a guy called Doros from the island of Cyprus who is 24 years old because he had to serve in the Greek military.

There are a variety of people in JB's dorm, but he says they all kind of got along, despite their differences. He had a friend by the name Sid (or is it Syd? I have no idea, but I'm guessing). One day Sid asked him for a favor. He wouldn't tell JB what it was, but he told JB to take a nap, and then be awake at a certain time. So JB did as he was told and took a nap. Then Sid barged in and said, "Are you ready? ...Could you put on some nice clothes, like slacks and dress shoes?" JB replied, "No, I don't have anything like that." Sid sighed. "Fine, that'll do." Sid had gathered a total of 12 people for this favor. Sid knew someone who was a valet, and his friend had called him, saying that they needed 12 more valets for a party at the W hotel in Los Angeles because some valets had just canceled. So the college students went to Los Angeles to be valets for the night.

Out of a total of 40 or so valets, only 6 of them, including JB, knew how to drive stick shift. JB had been arguing with the others earlier over whether the tips should be split evenly or if everyone should keep their own tips. Now JB's decision to keep his own tips was coming in handy. He had more opportunities to make money since 34 people could drive with automatic only. The first car that came up was taken by him. It was a Jaguar (I forget what kind exactly), which had been JB's dream car. He said that he didn't have pictures of girls in his room - he had pictures of cars like that Jaguar. The old gentleman who owned the car said to JB, "If you crash this car, I'll kill you." JB responded, "Oh, don't worry, if I crash this car, I'll kill myself." Unfortunately, the story ended there because the bell rang.

Labels: alcohol, berkeley, car, college, cyprus, debate club, driving, french, harvard, jaguar, middle school, party, siblings, smoking, stick shift, sweatshirt, teacher, tips, valet, w hotel

Sometimes I feel like that, and other times I feel like quite the opposite. There are times that I have the feeling of being on top of the world, like I can overcome anything, and that life is easy. But there are times as well where I feel as if there is so much out there and I am just one person, too insignificant to matter.

I mentioned in a previous post (unfortunately, I can't remember which one it was, so unless you're really bored, don't bother searching for it) that I live in a place where many people are fairly affluent. One time, my language arts teacher (who says she is poor, but I suppose it can't be so bad she must live off of freebies) asked how many of us think about the price of things when we buy them. I didn't mind when I was younger, but over time I started to care about it, and nowadays I don't really buy much for myself (except for a Galileo thermometer, but that's a different story). A lot of people said they just asked their parents to buy something and didn't really worry about how much it cost. I had heard that my town prides itself on having an average income that is quite high, or something along those lines. (Note: That doesn't mean everyone owns a private jet or a beach house in a foreign country, though)

I started to wonder, "Would us kids be able to survive out in the real world?" Well, my parents' friend's son was a student at both UC Berkeley and Harvard, and he said, "The experience you get at the schools is different. At UC Berkeley you're more left to your own devices, but at Harvard you'll be helped along." Basically, even the different colleges may encourage a different level of independence. I have been wondering whether people living a sheltered, privileged life will really be okay when they get out there into the rest of the world. (Well, unless they always live in the same place, or move to a similar place) I mean, there are 6.8 billion people in the world and counting, so there will definitely be a lot of competition - for example, people will fight for jobs, as jobs are not created fast enough to make up for the growing population and the bad economy.

And really, the world is filled with hardships. I don't think everyone can be so lucky to never experience them. Some of my troubles are physical, like when I catch a cold, or sprain my ankle, but most of them are mental. I've always wondered what it would be like if I had a different life. Like if I had siblings...Being an only child, I don't really learn to share or to take care of someone else. In fact, I don't really do chores besides putting my clothes away when they have been washed.

Today, I visited a bridge in my town. It's not a bridge over water, it's simply a bridge over a highway. I think it looks very nice at nighttime, though I didn't visit it at night. I walked there with my dad in the afternoon. There were several people on the bridge. No cars are allowed on it - only people on foot and people on bicycles. The bridge is practically on the border of my town and a neighboring town, so if you cross the bridge, you'll be in a different city. But you'll be in the same school district. There is a high school right next to the other end of the bridge. I would like to be able to go that high school. (The high school I will probably be going to is a very highly ranked one in academic terms, though, and the high school next to the bridge is...not so much) It would be so charming, living next to the bridge and walking across it to go to school. Quite picturesque. Some people would be bothered by the highway noise, but I don't think it would be too much of a problem for me (as long as there aren't too many police chases and ambulances at nighttime).

I wonder what I ought to do. Should I accept my fate, because destiny cannot be altered? Or should I fight against it, fight to change it, and make a life for myself? Is it better to be the blade of grass, which bends but doesn't break, or like bamboo, which prefers to break than bend? Is it better to go with the flow or to make ripples in the water? I wonder about that.

Oh, before I end this post, I would like to explain why I was thinking of fish in the beginning of the post. It was because of something I saw in the December edition of Reader's Digest. There was a complaint someone made to a travel agent. The person said, "No one told us there were fish in the ocean. The children were startled." Wow. I guess there are many different people.

Labels: bamboo, berkeley, bridge, change, college, competition, destiny, feelings, fish, grass, harvard, high school, money, only child, readers digest, spending, survival

Lately my teachers have changed their tune (no, I don't mean that they have a theme song) - in other words, they've started talking about the importance of making yourself appear different from other people.

Both my history and math teachers told us that just doing the same thing everyone is doing will not get the colleges interested in us. My history teacher described 85% of the high school I'll probably be going to as "Brown eyes, brown or black hair, between 5'3" and 5'8", 4.0 GPA, not doing any sports - oh, and playing an instrument" (in other words, a lot of Asians D: ) and he said that the colleges don't care if you are identical to everyone else. You'd have to display your uniqueness or they wouldn't want to have you in their school. And my math teacher said that colleges want people who will do great things after they go to college, because then the colleges will become famous. (So I think probably in your application essay, you ought to tell the colleges what you are planning to do in your life, not just what you've already done)

In fact, even my language arts teacher seemed to be aware of this "Don't be like everyone else" movement, because of the quote of the day she picked. The quote was, "The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is." This quote was said by Charles M. Schwab, apparently. Well, I'm pretty sure the teachers must be in cahoots. I mean, I've sometimes seen all three seventh grade math teachers in the same room together, doing who knows what (planning the math? The 7th grade math teachers all teach at the same rate, and give the exact same homework).

Well, anyway, I've been studying the holiday spirit lately since it is almost Christmastime. It seems to me that people start setting up their decorations after Thanksgiving, sometimes even earlier. I saw that the classrooms of my history teacher and language arts teacher from last year are already starting to be decorated by Christmas lights. However, some people have rather...strange holiday spirit. My history teacher is a prime example.

Some students (certainly not all) give their teachers presents before winter break starts, as I don't know if we have an official week or day for giving teachers gifts. It's supposedly a way of showing appreciation, or it's out of "obligation", or maybe people think they can bribe the teachers into giving them good grades... But my history teacher says he doesn't want anything. He says that whatever he wants is not something that us students could give him anyway. So he'd rather have us work hard in his class or show him our "charming smiles". He told us to tell that to our parents, even if they don't believe us - and then he said we should say, "So you think my smile isn't charming?!" and the parents will say, "No, no, that's not what I meant at all, dear."

It's the thought that counts, but he said that it doesn't show thought at all if you give him a Starbucks giftcard because he doesn't usually drink coffee (he does eat the breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks, though). I think that my math teacher last year also didn't want Starbucks coffee, but it was a completely different reason - she had some kind of problem with caffeine, maybe an allergy (dunno how to describe it), and she couldn't eat chocolate, otherwise she'd get a migraine headache.

I still have to think about what I should get for the other teachers, though. I think it might be nice to give them something, but I'm not exactly sure what I should buy. Getting them a Target giftcard would be way too typical. But I don't want to get them something that they don't like. And it would be too obvious just to ask them...

Labels: asian, caffeine, charles schwab, charming smiles, chocolate, christmas, christmas lights, coffee, college, different, gift, giftcard, plotting, quote, starbucks, teacher, unique

It seems to me that time makes all the difference sometimes in the mood of a person. A prime example is my history teacher. Last trimester, I had him for the first period of the day, but now I have him for second period. It's only about an hour difference, but it matters quite a bit. In first period, he tended to be more bad-tempered, though occasionally he did seem in a good mood. In second period he is more talkative and generally more pleasant to be around. Well, they say teenagers' brains don't truly wake up until around 9 or 10 am. Maybe it applies to adults too.

I was pretty annoyed at the homework I received recently. For two of the questions, we are directed to look at page 222 in the textbook. We are studying the Constitution, but page 222 talks about Mormons. (I tried checking the section of the textbook that is about the Constitution. There's not much info) I guess it's referring to the old textbook. It annoys me that we have to use this thinner, lamer textbook. But there's not much can we do. (I heard that California uses a different science textbook than the rest of the USA, and my teacher last year said the national textbook was awesome, and I am upset by this)

I am displeased with the education system in the USA. It is true that some of the best colleges in the world are here. I mean, one of my friends moved to China many, many years ago, and her sister got into Harvard. Clearly, they'd rather come to the USA for college than stay in China. D:

So, to rectify this problem (I am practicing using my vocab words this week, that's why I used such a strange word), I have decided I am going to attempt to move to another country. Preferably, one in Europe, because there are generally higher life expectancys, average incomes, and living conditions overall over there. I have also considered Japan because the Japanese live the longest on average despite the fact that there are smokers (French live pretty long too, though). A woman could live to be 86 on average whereas in the USA, women on average only live to be 80. I tell you, you can do many things in 6 years of your life! So I could be saving myself if I moved. The problem is that the USA does make a hefty sum of money. Liechtenstein, Qatar, and Luxembourg have a much higher GDP, though. (I've been to Luxembourg, personally, I thought it was nice, but there are apparently many pessimistic people there, though Japan seems to have many pessimists according to the Wii Everybody Votes poll)

I was thinking of perhaps San Marino. People speak Italian there, which means I might have trouble getting along at first, but at least French and Italian have some similarities. (One time I was reading a description of some brushes, but it was in another language. I tried to use Google Translate "French to English" - didn't work. Tried "Spanish to English" and didn't work either. I was confused, so I did "Detect language to English" so it would do the work for me. Turns out it was Italian...)

The money is not too bad and the HDI is fairly high. The USA's HDI is .950, I believe. Norway has the highest...And Australia is second highest! Maybe I should move to Australia! They have cool accents there, and they speak English, and besides they make a good sum of money. Also, there are lots of beaches because most people live along the coast anyway - probably too dry and desolate in the middle of the continent - and I love the beach. I want to live near there. The sound helps me go to sleep quickly. That's why I fell asleep quickly the time I slept near the ocean in Japan, even though I was on a futon on the tatami mat. (My mom couldn't fall asleep as fast, apparently she expected it to be painful, or she had back pain or whatever)

I also slept well in Australia despite the dramatic time change. That's surprising. When I went to China the second most recent time (the most recent time I went to China was last winter), I got sick from lack of sleep. I fell asleep during the day and woke up at night. But I wasn't supposed to sleep during the day, so my grandma woke me up on purpose by using an annoying talking stuffed animal. You know, the kind where you press the belly and it talks... -_-;;

Labels: australia, college, education, europe, gdp, hdi, italian, language, lifespan, misinformed, mood, ocean, san marino, sleep, time, time zone

My mother has revealed her uncanny knack for making things. (Well, she was always better with her hands than I was, but never mind that) Why, just today, she was helping me out with a project about buoyancy we're doing in school.

The project is a partner project. I have a partner who I work with in science class. The point of the project was to build a boat which weighs less than 15 pennies and for the boat to float for 10 seconds in water with a load of 60 pennies, 2 quarters, 3 dimes, and a nickel. You can't get a premade boat or use a boat-building kit, and the boat needs to be small enough so it won't hit the sides of Lake Hembry. (Lake Hembry is not an actual landmark, it's a big tub filled with water. It got polluted by the coins)

My partner and I worked on it on Monday and Tuesday. Our first stage of the boat, which was simply a box made of aluminum foil with toothpicks in the corners and yellow masking tape to make the walls higher, worked fine, and was able to hold the load quite well when we performed a test run. However, some problems did occur later on. For one thing, my partner had some ideas, like added another structure made out of carton and putting it in the boat (which I denied him, because it would add to the mass without really adding to the volume, thus making the boat more likely to sink). We ended up putting paper on top of the foil, and putting another layer of foil on. Then we added another layer of tape. It still floated, but now it was leaking, which is very dangerous. And so I brought it home, planning to patch the leaks (I tried to do that with Scotch transparent tape, but the transparent tape soaked up too much water).

And so here came my mother to the rescue. She said we should simply build a new, better boat, so we did. We got some aluminum foil and recreated the boxlike shape. (I know a box isn't necessarily as good, because that means it has more mass and less volume than just an almost completely horizontal boat, but we have to make sure water doesn't flow over the sides and into the boat) We put plastic wrap on the inside of the box so that even if there were holes in the aluminum foil, the water would not leak into the part of the boat where we put the coins. And then my mom suggested we line the base of the inside of the boat with four straws so the walls would stay straight. And now we are just waiting for my dad to bring masking tape since he probably can find that at his office (he insists he is much more valuable to the company than masking tape, so no one minds if he takes supplies as long as he's not abusing them).

My mom is much more resourceful than my partner and I combined. I feel the need to bow down to her. I never really thought my parents had great knowledge of science despite the fact that they have Master's Degrees (my mother in Physics, my father in Electrical Engineering). So I guess it's like a wake-up call for me. You can never judge a book by its cover; you can't underestimate people, either.

Let me give you an example...There's a book called The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson. (I can't recall whether I've talked about it, so please tell me if I already have) I had been seeing this book in the library quite a few times. (This was some time ago, when the Calabazas branch of the San Jose library was not yet planning to close) I always debated whether to check it out. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it or not. Finally I did check it out, and it turned out to be one of my favorite books. This isn't a risk, but it reminds me of what my math teacher has been talking about...

He said that some students have parents who are successful in their fields. And if the parents would be asked by their fellow workers "What can I do to get ahead?" (regarding work) the people would say, "Do what everyone else is doing" or something like that. And they want their kids to do that too. "Get all A's. "Take as many AP classes as possible." And my teacher said that colleges are not going to be interested in you if you do the same as everyone else. True, having good grades is definitely helpful. But you need to make yourself look different. The colleges are interested in people who have dreams and plans for the future, who are going to do great things (to make the colleges famous! XD). So my teacher said, "Why do all of you not want to take a job at Starbucks? Go join the Peace Corps? You have to take risks sometimes in life." And I heard someone say (not to the teacher, "I only care about getting rich." So my previous post, about the selfish people, is proven... People really are selfish after all.

Labels: aluminum foil, boat, buoyancy, college, different, eva ibbotson, knowledge, lake hembry, leak, library, master's degree, physics, problem, risk, science, selfish, success, the star of kazan

Unfortunately, not my deceased tree, but actually a friend of mine who moved to Taiwan back in fifth grade. Well, recently, I got a call from her and apparently she is coming to the USA for the summer. I thought she was here because she was born in the USA and is therefore a USA citizen (there was a situation like that for my other friend, who lives in China. She has to come back to the USA occasionally because she is supposed to be just "visiting" and so can't stay in China all the time) but apparently Taiwan is very hot in the summer. Also, she's supposed to move back to the USA eventually - at the very least, before college. It's a good thing for her to live in another country since apparently colleges favor so-called foreign students. And anyways it seems most people think that colleges in the USA are better than those in Taiwan or China...Hmm.

Happy two days after the 4th of July! I was surprised that some people in other countries don't seem to know what the importance of the day is, but then again, I guess it's of no relevance to them anyways. Even in my family, though we live in the USA, we don't care too much about this holiday, except for the fact that my parents get a day off from work.

Recently I was very cheered since I got the Ouran manga's first volume from the library, and also Part 2 of the anime, so now I have been spending my time reading and watching. But unfortunately I have already read the volume of the manga and I am impatiently waiting for more to arrive from the library (I've requested it online, it's very useful!). Ah, well. The world doesn't end until 2012, or so I've heard.

I've tried my hand at knitting lately. My mom knows how, because she says when she was young, half the girls knew how to knit. But nowadays the percentage of people who can knit is really small. It's a dying art...Anyhow, I bought a bundle of light blue yarn. My mom already has needles which she brought from Shanghai. They're made out of wood and they kind of remind me of chopsticks that are round, and pointy at both ends. It's kind of hard to get to hang of knitting at first but if you go slow and patient it'll work out, and it'll feel like a miracle when you understand it. I was really pleased once I was able to do it. I'm going to make a scarf since that's supposed to be easier than a sweater, hat, etc.

It seems like there is a lot of bad drivers out there. My parents often complain about less-than-perfect behavior among drivers. We saw drivers tossing their cigarettes out onto the road. How horrible! If you're going to smoke, don't litter while you're at it, that makes it kind of like the phrase "adding insult to injury". And there's those people who run the red lights, meaning that they drive even when the traffic light is showing yellow or red...And also people who just drive without even looking to see if anyone is crossing the street. People are really dreadful when they're driving...

Labels: 2012, apocalypse, behavior, cigarette, citizenship, college, drivers, friends, independence day, knitting, litter, needles, pedestrians, return, scarf, taiwan, traffic lights, yarn

That's what I felt like - something being cooked for breakfast. I mean, the weather where I live is just crazy. Before it was okay. It was warm, but that was normal seeing as it IS spring. But then today it was really, really hot. Even Sunday had higher temperatures than normal. Though we did PE indoors, I still worked up quite a sweat and didn't completely dry off until about the end of lunch. Walking home made me feel horrid all over again so I had to take a shower and change to shorts. (I usually don't wear shorts but I should buy more, so I'll have something to wear on hot days besides long black, brown, blue, and tan colored pants.)

Sunday was pretty eventful for me. Piano class went as normal, except I was really drowsy from lack of sleep over the spring break, and the teacher started bragging about me. This always makes me uncomfortable because it feels like I have more and more expectations to live up to. Just recently my mom has mentioned a few more Harvard/Stanford/UCLA/UC Berkeley/NYU/etc. type people. For some reason a lot of her friends' children who are old enough to have gone to college go to Ivy League schools and other bragging-rights places. I am very intimidated by it since only "smart" people even try to apply and yet only a small percentage get in. If I do insist I will be going to Stanford I may just be bluffing to try and convince myself. (Note I may have said something similar in a previous blog post, or even in person to friends. Not sure if I did.)

Oh yeah, we had some roses from my piano teacher one time. She had a lot of bouquets left over from the piano recital (reminder: That was back on March 28) so she insisted we take one of them home, as she was running out of vases. So we brought back some red roses. My mom thinks the bouquet we bought for my piano teacher was prettier. I still like the roses (they're already dead, so too bad) even if there are flowers I prefer. Say for instance - lilies, daffodils, tulips, morning glories, and so on. (By the way, since my dad always claims to be a gardener, he has bought a honeysuckle plant. It has orange, small, tropical-looking flowers. I heard it is edible somehow?)

Back to the real news I was going to talk about. My mom made me go with her to her acupuncture clinic. I was scared to death, as I expected I would be poked with needles and forced to drink ginseng medicines. Luckily it was only an "examination" of sorts to see how my bones and such were doing. I was very ticklish, so having my shoulders poked and my arm swung around and around really made me squirm. I have an assorted array of problems, such as a curved spine, stiff shoulders (from typing and playing piano XD After all, playing piano requires similar motions. My parents have the problem too since they are computer engineers), and ONE LEG IS LONGER THAN THE OTHER!!! AAAAAH!!! Actually, not really. It's just one hip is higher so the left leg is a little shorter. This makes my back tight to compensate. My mom suggests that I kick out my left leg to make it longer. I wonder if it really works. -_-;; She has the leg-length problem too. Must be genetic.

Also, my mother mentioned that one of my dad's best friends is looking for a cat. Originally he said he would wait until he bought a house, but he has changed his mind and wants a cat now. (He looked at an animal shelter, though he didn't find the breed he wanted.) I felt both happy and unhappy at this announcement.

Happy - Because if I wanted I could go to my dad's friend's house to play with the cat. (I don't know cats that well so it would be a good opportunity to see if I am fit to get a cat)

Unhappy - Because I myself won't get to have a dog or cat until I have a job and have graduated from college. My mom doesn't like animals (she won't admit it, but I can tell since she is scared of big dogs...) and so gets mad whenever I mention it to her.

It wouldn't be so big a deal, except I am an only child. Lack of siblings and pets, and always being taken care of by my grandmother or a day care center, made me lonely inside (I may have friends and people to talk to, but when I am by myself it hurts a lot. Over time I got used to being a loner so then I had trouble talking to people again, but I'm adjusting back a little). Even my mom made such a comment. Recently some of my dad's friends came over to our house, and gossiped while eating dinner. The only two "children" - one is a boy in high school, and the other is a younger boy who is in elementary school - were both only children. Neither talked much. The older boy was polite and just watched basketball, but the younger one was a little angsty. I noticed how his face was scrunched up in irritation and how he made snide, biting comments. He eventually went off to play his DS. (Haha, that reminds me of myself.)

Labels: acupuncture, bouquet, cat, college, confidence, doctor, gardening, health, heat, lonely, only child, PE class, people, piano, temperature

I know, that may sound like an imitation of Dr. Seuss. But it was catchy, so I thought I'd use it for my post title today. I've been going to my mom's office during the spring break. When we were driving to a restaurant for lunch (Romano's Macaroni Grill), we passed by a rather ugly-looking field of grass. In the field were many sheep! They didn't have so much hair so that they looked fluffy but you could still tell they were sheep. I was pretty surprised, but my mom says that companies use sheep to eat up the grass so the ground will be more even and easier to traverse.

So, I was walking to the staircase with my mom at her office, since we leaving, and there some of my mom's fellow workers were chatting. (I don't know whether they were talking about work or just having fun.) They thought I looked like my mom's sister! This is odd because I don't have that much resemblance to my mom and also because I don't want to look like I'm someone old enough to be working. (Though we have a similar height and all, we aren't that much alike besides that.) So I was a bit offended by that. -_-;;

I look more like my dad anyhow, so a lot of people say that. I wonder what I would like if I were a boy instead? I think I would look like basically a younger version of my father. But my mom thinks if I were male, I would look like a male version of her. So who knows? I can't just change my gender, or I'd be like Michael Jackson. *shudder*

Right now my dad has become my art slave. (No, I don't mean the kind of art slave on the Internet where you pay someone to do any graphics/drawing/coding requests you have) Since I am very busy with my children's story, I draw the pictures and color small things, and he colors the big things. That way he doesn't get lazy and I have time to relax once in a while. (I am very tired from stress, lack of sleep, and carsickness. I still get carsick on long rides. Too bad we can't move to those nice apartments next to the orange grove which is close to my parents' offices. They want me to go to a good school, so I can't move there.)

Recently I finished reading Chicks with Sticks: KnitWit. It's the third book in a trilogy about some girls who become friends because of their knitting. It's too high-school centered, what with all that gushy stuff, so it doesn't count as one of my favorite books, but it wasn't too bad either. It does teach you about different colleges (at least the third book does). I hadn't known that they have a fair for you to see what kind of community service you can do, or that there was even a college called Bryn Mawr.

I was reading a manga called Dream Saga just recently. I used to go to Borders and just read the manga while I was there, but I don't visit Borders that often, so it was hard. I saw it in the library and so snatched it up quickly. Right now I am starting on the fifth and final volume. I hardly remember the characters anymore since I haven't read it for so long, but I'm starting to get it again.

Apparently the author likes to talk about what music she's listening to. In a lot of manga books, there are side columns or bottom sections here and there with things such as character profiles, splash page info (splash pages are those pages at the beginning of a "chapter" which are big and detailed), and answers to readers' questions. So I started investigating the music the author was listening to, just to buff up my huge playlist even more.

Labels: apartment, art slave, books, college, comparison, dream saga, family, macaroni grill, manga, music, office, picture book, playlist, questions, sheep

One of the sites which I visit, Nutrinopets, seems to have a problem. Whenever I go there it says there is a problem with the database. I've gone away and come back, refreshed the page, etc. But all in vain. I guess I will wait until tomorrow to try again. Or maybe my IP address was banned? (Because someone was kicked off the website recently. If they got IP banned, if my IP is similar, I could've accidentally been banned? I have no idea at all.)

Anyhow...Today was a gloomy day. I woke up early in the morning (I don't know what time) and tried to get to sleep, but my thoughts and headache kept me awake, until at last I dragged myself out of bed around 9 am. I'm still tired even now.

At least I had a good lunch. We went to the Maru Ichi Ramen in Mountain View. I, as usual, ordered shoyu ramen, whereas my dad and mom ordered kuro ramen. (Kuro meaning black, so the soup is a color that leans towards black) And then I got some vanilla ice cream in a little paper cup, since my parents ordered the kids meal. (Which is fine, I guess, seeing as the ramen is still the same, just a smaller portion.) There was a room where a guy who worked there was supervising a machine which was churning out the noodle stuff. (It didn't look like noodles. Just a big sheet of...like dough?)

Later on my mom insisted on bringing me to a seminar. It was one of those that is meant to help you get into an Ivy League college. (I've been to two of these before, and they were kind of boring.) The guy who was talking is the Founder/CEO of something called the Ivy Review. (Is that what the suspicious building I saw in Cupertino was? It had an Ivy Review banner on it, but I thought it was just an advertisement.) Sometimes he spoke in Korean because some of the audience didn't know English.

Mr. Hull often asked people to raise their hands. For instance, he'd ask if you were in such-and-such grade, or if you took Algebra in 7th grade and Geometry in 8th grade, and so on. And he would tell some disturbing things. (Like he said it matters whether you sound optimistic or pessimistic in your application. If you sound too pessimistic they believe you are a "risk kid", one who might pour gasoline on themselves and light it up, or start a school shooting, if they get depressed by poor grades. I laughed, but he said to take him seriously, because it does happen.)

And he also said not to procrastinate on your personal statement (I'm not quite sure what that is. Is that the essay for your college app?). He said to start when you're a freshman, not four days away from the deadline. For instance, he was skiing over the vacation, and he got called by a frantic mother who said her son was having trouble with his personal statement. So Mr. Hull had to stop his vacation and try and improve the kid's college app. Mr. Hull says that kid had good grades, SAT score, # A-G lineup, and so forth (If you don't understand what I'm talking about...It's confusing) but he could've ruined it all by not starting his personal statement earlier.

By the way, you're supposed to write something compelling in your personal statement. Except nothing particularly extraordinary ever happened in my life...yet.

Labels: bad news, college, danger, error, lecture, lunch, personal statement, ramen, sleep

Tuesdays are normally busy for me, but it was even weirder today. Since it's apparently Anti-Bully week at my school, we had an assembly today about truth. It was basically just two people came to the school and played a video on three really big screens. But the volume was so loud, and a lot of people were screaming or singing along with the music whenever the video had popular songs playing, so I practically went deaf. I was half-asleep for the whole assembly but perked up upon hearing about a girl who was good at basketball who might get the chance to go to Stanford. But there were people who sent her hate mail and made her feel horrible and she started to lose her motivation. That made me very sad and angry at the same time, because I don't think anyone should have their dreams crushed by jealous folks, you know?

It's evening now and I've taken a shower, eaten dinner, finished the last swim session for a while... So it's pretty slow right now and I'm typing this while my dad plays some CD. He always listens to music or the TV. It seems like my dad always needs to hear something.

Labels: assembly, bully, college, music

This morning, I found that my mom wanted me to eat some Halloween cookies from her office for breakfast. They tasted kind of weird. I practiced piano for a while afterward, and then went on the computer, but I was booted off because we had to go to the library and return the books that were due. I took a bunch of books, although I wasn't really that interested in some of them. When you're running out of books to read, you gotta take what's at least fairly decent.

Then I came home, ate a sandwich, and soon afterward was whisked off to Stanford University by my dad. The campus is big and rather confusing. I probably would have gotten lost without the map and a bit of common sense. My classes were Sleep and Athletic Performance Improvement from 1-2 pm, and Jewelry Making from 2-4 pm.

The first class was mainly focused on sleep - sleep debt, sleep disorders, dreams, the like. At first, we had some technical problems because the instructor was trying to find some way to make the screen for the projector come down.

On the other hand, the second class was rather hassling for me because I arrived a little bit late and there wasn't much room in the classroom. There was not much glue and scissors to go around so we had to share and wait for people to pass them around. Anyhow, I did manage to string together some beads but it doesn't look that great...

Labels: books, classes, college, cookie, halloween, jewelry, jewelry making, library, projector, sleep, sleep and athletic performance improvement, splash, stanford

Today was a pretty unimportant day. It passed in a flash and before I knew it somehow I had walked myself home and called my mom. I tried turning on the speaker on my cell phone and playing piano for her since it must be really boring stuck in an office cubicle all day. Unfortunately, some of her co-workers came in and she hung up, but I didn't notice because I was busy making a big racket on the piano...

I spent too long attempting to replace the furniture in one of the houses in the Sims 2, so I didn't have enough time to spend on the computer doing other things like posting in the Nutrinopets forums and replying to all my comments on Crunchyroll...I guess from now on I need to manage my time better. Then I saw my mom was looking at Google maps so I went and clicked on the images on it and looked at the national parks.

Anyhow, tomorrow I have a busy day because Stanford is having some sort of day where they are letting you take classes (for a price!). I am going to take two afternoon classes so I have to the library in the morning and I won't get any free time until the evening rolls around. But at least I get to visit my favorite college again!

Labels: cell phone, college, crunchyroll, furniture, google maps, music, nutrinopets, piano, sims 2, speakers, splash, stanford, time, time management

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