This past Monday was my first day back at school. It wouldn't have been much of a concern normally, but this time I was moving up to high school for the first time. I really had no idea what to expect. I knew it would be more tiring, considering that more is expected of a student as they age (and also seeing that I have 7 classes, not 6, this year), but I certainly had not expected it to be THAT bad.

I didn't really take any summer classes this year, nor was I particularly diligent about my studies at home. I did do some work in my geometry textbook, took an SAT practice test, and looked over some vocab cards, but I pretty much didn't touch algebra at all over the summer, and I quickly came to regret it. I couldn't remember much of the operations that had come so easily to me before. I was really frustrated and also angry at myself. I really shouldn't have assumed that I would still remember something that I learned a year or two ago. I thought it was like being able to swim, or ride a bike, that you wouldn't forget it quickly. Boy, was I wrong.

I expected that I would have less free time than before, but that I would at least be able to go on a few websites for a while. Maybe about twenty minutes a day for that. But I found that if I spent time doing things besides homework, I might not finish my homework until past 9 pm, and sometimes even later. I have to focus on my homework without the distractions of the computer or it simply won't get done. The teachers often assign a lot of homework but only give one day to finish it. There hasn't been all that much teaching going on, either. I know that I am expected to become independent eventually and that leaving more work for us to do on our own is a step on the way to that, but I miss having clearer instructions from the teachers and actually getting a reasonable time period to finish homework.

I wonder if perhaps I am the only one, or one of few, who is struggling with it. I guess I'm not used to efficiency (or maybe I never had enough time management skills to begin with) after a summer of relaxation and slacking off. It wasn't until the weekend that I found I had the chance to resume my normal activities on the Internet. And even then I feel uneasy while I am taking such breaks because I feel like I ought to be studying or getting ahead on homework (which I really don't feel like doing). I figure I'll probably get used to it, but I still feel disheartened thinking about the time I still have left in high school. There are still four years to go, and I've already become a hermit who rarely socializes but instead spends lunch, brunch, any free moments in class, and the whole evening doing homework. I'm hoping that either the workload will be lessened or that I'll develop speed as the year goes on (though the former doesn't seem likely, so I suppose I have to hope that I'll learn to manage my time).

Labels: algebra, break, clarity, first day, forget, high school, homework, lazy, socialization, struggle, summer, time management

It's a book by Katherine Paterson, which I read a long time ago, sometime back in elementary school. I don't think I fully understood what I was reading. But I doubt I'll be rereading the book to get another look at it (there are so many good books in the world out there that I haven't read, and I'd like to get to those first).

Well, I am not a fan of Jacob Black from Twilight (or, more specifically, the actor for him in the movies, Taylor Lautner) but I ended up with him on April Fool's Day. On DeviantArt, every user's avatar was replaced with a joke avatar. The possibilities were Edward Cullen, Jacob Black, Team Seeker, or Lady Gaga...It was so hard to tell who was who. It goes to show how I rely on pictures to recognize things. It's hard for me to remember so many names.

This week is my spring break. I'll be staying home for the break. Seeing as I had a trip to the Grand Canyon/Las Vegas in February, and a Yosemite trip in March, I think I've had enough of the excitement of traveling. (And it is costly, so I was hoping to save up more money for my retirement by not spending it on travel costs now.) Also, I do have some homework which I need to work on. I'm rather reluctant to do research for an upcoming project because this is supposed to be my time off, but I guess it can't be helped. Work must be done, and someone's gotta do it.

Unfortunately, I had the misfortune of catching a cold, presumably from a student at my school (due to frequent changes in weather, some students have fallen ill). I really hate having to spend my time off sick. Still, it's better than being sick during the school days, since then you either have to miss school and make it up, or you have to go to school and be miserable all day long. Indeed, my history teacher has gotten sick several times this school year and he was always having to spit in the trash can. (Not pleasant to watch. But he said it was either that or he "literally stopped breathing". Actually, I think a few students didn't think it was such a bad idea.)

I was meaning to write more, but it seems like all of a sudden my ideas have dried up, like an old well. I only hope that if I keep typing, my ideas will return to me, and this will not be a waste of your time. (Time is money, and time is what we want most but use worst. So of course you must understand its value.)

Recently, I finished watching an anime called R.O.D. the TV. The ROD part stands for Read or Die (sounds rather disturbing at first, and it is related to the storyline, but it's not horror). I had been reluctant to watch it at first, it being a fairly old anime from 2003-2004. However, I started watching it one time when my mom's friends were over (they had two children) and found it to be more enjoyable than I expected. Sometimes I don't think an anime will be good, but I decide to give it a chance and watch it, and then it turns out to be better than I expected. So you should always try something out before you dismiss it completely since you could later regret not doing it.

Just to give you a bit of an idea, R.O.D. the TV is about three sisters who are paper masters that can control paper. The sisters are supposed to be "bodyguards" for an author, and end up involved in the plans of Mr. Joker and many others, who are trying to revive a great man named Mr. Gentlemen. When I was younger (and I still do this sometimes) I'd often imagine myself with some kind of special power. It's too bad that it never does happen in real life that way. What we think of as magical is often Mother Nature at work. But at the same time we can never let go of any fanciful dreams. (Just look at all the science fiction and fantasy books that are published to this day. In fact, fantasy is a pretty popular genre of books.)

Labels: anime, april fool's day, book, break, deviantart, expectations, fantasy, homework, jacob black, read or die, rod the tv, sick, spit, surprise, teacher, time, travel, trip, twilight, value

Due to an astronomy lab we've been doing in my science class, I go outside at night to look at the moon and record the phase and location. In the beginning, the skies were clear, and it was easy to see the moon. But then clouds moved in and I couldn't see it for a while. When the sky cleared up again, I still couldn't find the moon. It was a strange experience. The stars were still there, but the moon was nowhere to be seen. I thought perhaps it was blocked by a building or a tree, but no matter where I walked I couldn't see it.

In the morning, though, I saw the moon. It's just so strange, seeing it up there in that vast expanse of blue sky, instead of in the mist of a black blanket dotted with stars, the way it is at nighttime. I was rather annoyed at the moon, because I am only supposed to record when I see it at a certain time (the teacher wants us to try to view the moon at the same time each night that we go out). It showed up in the morning but refused to come out at nighttime.

In class today, one of my fellow students told the teacher that she had gone out at night and was also unable to see the moon. My teacher then got the attention of the class to explain this phenomenon.

My teacher said, "I have told the moon to go away for a while. Us science teachers are very powerful, so I have made it disappear. Look carefully every night and eventually I might let it come back out again." Another one of my classmates remarked, "I looked in the morning and I saw the moon." My teacher's reply was, "Ah! You cheated! Well, the moon is naughty and it tries to come out before it's supposed to."

So there you have it. A highly scientific explanation for why the moon is not visible sometimes, even without any clouds covering it. (If you want to know the real reason, you had better look it up since I only have a theory about it and it would be unwise to take that as fact.)

I was just looking at a picture of an exploding alarm clock on a magazine cover (Discover magazine March 2010 issue, if you want to know) and I was reminded of what of my "experiences" at Yosemite. It was difficult to get to sleep on the first night. Some kids had not gone to bed and were making a racket outside, or were giggling in their cabins. The heater in our cabin kept making some sort of rattling and banging noises. I kept sweating from the heater since I wasn't used to having it that warm. And then there were the two alarm clocks I had brought. They kept on ticking...My clock at home ticks too, but I never really noticed it. At Yosemite it seemed they were quite loud. One of my cabinmates said she wasn't used to it since she has a digital clock, which doesn't tick. After the first night, though, we become more accustomed to the loud nights and were able to get to sleep more easily. (And anyways, we were tired out from the strenuous daily hikes, or something.)

I have been rather concerned about my ability to remember to do my homework recently, especially the French homework. I forgot to do my French homework and remembered it during the night once, so I got up earlier in the morning to do it. And then today I was supposed to bring sunglasses because we were discussing summer/seaside activities in French class, but I forgot to bring those as well. (Then again, I'm not exactly sure where the sunglasses are, I will have to find them. I don't like to wear sunglasses. Although I like the cool way that they look, they always seem to slip down my face or otherwise get in my way. And I don't like how everything seems so dark or is tinted a weird color.) I wonder if my memory is getting bad or if I'm getting too careless. Both options are rather unpleasant.

Labels: astronomy, careless, clock, digital, distraction, forgetful, french, homework, magazine, magic, moon, powers, science, sky, sleep, sounds, teacher, ticking, trip, yosemite

Just today, I was doing my vocabulary homework for language arts. We all have workbooks which we purchase at the beginning of the year. Each week, sometimes every other week or every third week, etc. (depending on what the teacher has in mind, sometimes we do vocabulary from stories we read instead) we'll complete some homework about the words and then take a simple test to prove we know them. I sort of did this in sixth grade. If I recall correctly, the cover was an interesting picture (artist's name I've forgotten, unfortunately) of birds and fish in black and white. Slowly the birds turn into fish. It's fascinating.

Yikes, I'm getting sidetracked (but that's just me, I suppose). Well, I was reading some paragraphs for the Reading Comprehension section of the workbook, and it said in the last paragraph this: "Of course, there are plenty of people who spend their lives focused on infantile, selfish concerns. Fortunately, for all of us, there are also remarkable people who find their pleasure in helping others." I am going to take this is a a personal insult. What if the author of the vocab book is referring to me? Eh?! I thought textbooks were supposed to be objective, not subjective, but I guess since vocabulary books aren't like history textbooks (history books really, really shouldn't be biased, as one side could have a totally different opinion from the other).

Well, I'm having second thoughts about the braces again, and stuff like that. My mom said I can decide not to if I want, but... For one thing, the orthodontists all seem eager for money or something. I sympathize with them - I'd like to be able to spend more time with my family and retire, too. But you know, being a doctor is more than fixing people's teeth (which, by the way, doesn't always work; I saw pictures of Before and After of a boy who had braces, and the thing that I found funny was that his previously normal-looking cheeks had become puffed out, like he had gained some weight, so maybe having braces can have some...unforseen side effects. No offense to that guy intended), I think it's also tending to people's minds, making them feel at ease and happy to be at the office, instead of being afraid (ever seen a children's story about a child who was scared of the dentist? But I did hear there are a few, rare people who actually enjoy having braces). Hehe, that was something deep. Write it down so you won't forget.

One of my friends has also become one of the Scissorhands bunch lately. I was eating lunch and she made scissor motions with her hands. First my math teacher, now her...Looks like something's catching on.

I have noticed that I behave a bit unusually at times. For instance, I eat the foods I don't like first and the foods I like last. (Some other people do that too nowadays) My parents find that annoying, just like they find it annoying that I can't use things I haven't learned yet in my proofs. (In my math class, once you learn a proof or something, then you can use it in problems, but my dad thinks you should be able to use anything as long as you know that it is CORRECT, regardless if you learned it from the teacher or somewhere else)

Also, I get really annoyed by water bottles that are steamed up. Sometimes, on hot days, my plastic water bottles get steamed up. (Sorry, plastic water bottles are really bad for the environment, I know, but they're more convenient...) Whenever I see it, I have to dump the water bottle upside down - cap on so the water won't get out - so that way the steam gets cleared up.

By the way, this is really random, but I think I might've lost one of my erasers. I've been carrying around this eraser for a while now, since sometime last school year, actually. I found it on the ground in the computer lab and there was a name written on it. It said "Ria". I met someone called Ria before so I've been looking for her so I can ask if it's hers, but I haven't seen her since maybe sixth grade, which is a loooooong time ago. I thought she would still be in the school, but seriously, I have not seen her. Maybe she's moved and it's too late now to return the eraser...

Labels: biase, braces, dentist, eraser, favorite, fear, homework, illusion, money, objective, opinion, order, ria, scissorhands, selfish, steam, subjective, vocabulary, water bottles, weight

In French class, we asked what nationality the teacher was. She said that according to a student, "She was a vampire who grew fangs and sucked blood at nighttime". And ironically, the teacher grew up in Romania. Romania is the country where the famed Vlad the Impaler once resided (the guy who impaled people and decorated roadsides with them? Yup, that's the one. Sort of reminds me of how they used to put executed people's heads on the London Bridge). And Vlad was the inspiration for the stories of "Dracula".

Then we have my science teacher. We have an activity called Current Events, where the students present a newspaper or magazine article related to science (in my class we can't use the Internet since apparently that would make it too easy, or the source might have false information, or something like that). A few students present each week on Monday, or Tuesday if we weren't in school on Monday. Well, whenever the presentations are over, the teacher reads off the names of students presenting on the next week. Twice, she said "On the menu..." which made me think that she planned to eat the students, like Hansel and Gretel. And this week she said "victims". I don't mean to be offensive, but sometimes she does look sort of like a witch since she is old and has long, silver hair. I think she ought to dress up as a witch for Halloween.

I was trying to do my language arts homework, writing a memoir, today. We were using Google Docs to write our essays. I was able to use it in class, but now that I'm at home I seem unable to find the page where I logged into it. I don't want to use my Gmail for the Google Docs since the saved file is on a different account...Apparently, we logged into a specific CUSD place on Google Docs, but I can't work on the homework if I can't even get to it. I am just going to have to ask the teacher tomorrow, since it's not due yet.

A while back, I found some of my old drawings, I think I talked about it and how I used to be trying to make a calendar, hmm? I decided to assess my art style by comparing the two of them. It's a good idea to keep your old writing or drawing so you can look at it again in the future. Mostly I tend to laugh at it or smile at the fond memories they bring up. I tried to keep this images alike, but I did make a few changes for convenience. (Haha, the foot in the earlier one - which was draw around May 2007 - is weird)

Labels: art, comparison, current events, dracula, drawing, fairy tale, google docs, halloween, homework, memories, menu, problem, romania, vampire, victim, vlad the impaler, witch

I just realized that I had made a mistake in the previous blog post, " ' Tis the Season to be Jolly ". Though I'd submitted the Monday cooking recipe as Baguette Costrini, it is actually Mozzarella Costrini. Pardon the error. (Did anyone notice on their own?)

Today I got distracted from my math homework and ended up browsing a few of the online catalogs of local libraries. What I found funny was that some manga books which were copyrighted back around 2001 were only just bought, in 2009. I guess the library isn't reliable when it comes to buying books as they come out. Maybe because it's cheaper to buy a book once it's old?

Then I took a look at my hold requests. I requested a lot of books online. Two of them are ready - one is Full Moon o Sagashite (a manga by Arina Tanemura) - and the other is Inkdeath, a book in the "Ink" serious written by Cornelia Funke. It turns out I requested that back in December 2008, and it is only just ready, even though there are probably many copies of the book. Whew.

I was afraid we were going to run the mile today in PE class, but it turns out it was postponed because the track is still muddy. We are instead running tomorrow. I don't know whether to be relieved or freaked out. I guess it is a mixture of the two.

I'd heard strange rumors from other people in Village I about the video we are watching in science class. Someone said that all of a sudden, in the video, a girl wearing a swim suit runs out of nowhere onto the screen. I kept my eyes open for that, since I wanted to know if it was true, but seeing as our class is behind on watching the video, we didn't see that part.

Which then reminds me, it seems like we always watch old-timey videos in class. I think we have a DVD player but don't use it all that much. Mr. Blair's videos, well, you can tell they're old since the image is just slightly fuzzy and it seems awfully cheesy. I prefer Discovery/History/National Geographic Channel documentaries since they have good imagery. And then Mr. Brown's videos also look like that, except for a few which seem slightly more modern. I guess this means they have been teaching for quite a while.

Mr. Blair has a collection of Olmec heads. Apparently he used to make his kids make a miniature one as a project. He opened his whiteboard/cabinet thing and showed us. One of them is green and is sitting on a fake toilet (I don't really understand it, but whatever) and another one is white and made out of soap. Mr. Blair thinks we ought to bury it in our backyards, and when we move out of Cupertino, one of two scenarios may happen.
1) Wake up in the morning and suddenly remember Olmec head. Drive all the way back to Cupertino, to the old house, and sneak into the backyard to dig it up.
2) New resident of house wants to do some landscaping and digs up the Olmec head. Thinks it is a rare artifact when it is actually just a kid's abandoned homework.

By the way, here is a picture of an Olmec head. (It is not the same as the Moai Statues of Easter Island) They are believed to be portraits of Mayan rulers. They can be over 8 feet tall and weigh 10 tons. If you haven't learned about the Mayans yet in 7th grade, if you have the same textbook, you may eventually read about it.

Labels: books, catalog, error, full moon o sagashite, homework, inkdeath, library, olmec head, PE class, videos

...Or so I thought. I was busy typing up my factoring story for homework, and then I thought my eyes were flashing or something! So I looked at the lights,and one of the lightbulbs flickered and then went out. But now it's back to normal. I wonder if it was my imagination or it really did almost run out of energy a second ago.

As I am feeling very unhappy (because I am presenting my speech for my Japan project tomorrow) I don't feel that much like doing homework. So instead I figured I'd put in another blog post, and listen to my own playlist in the meantime. I just figured out that I had two of the same song (Anata ga Ita Mori, the ending theme of Fate/Stay Night anime) so I deleted one of them. Wow, I have too many songs - a total of 26 now. And that's just weird since 26 was my classroom back in fifth grade.

Here's the cooking schedule. It's pretty plain this week, much to my disappointment. But then again, next week will be winter break, and after that barely any of the trimester is left. I can't believe I'll be moving onto woodshop soon. (One of my friends is going to make me a clock, except she said she would make an easy one, to save herself effort)
Monday - Nachos Supreme (we made dip out of beef, spices, beans, cheese, etc.)
Tuesday - Chocolate Hearts (not hard to do. Just melt chocolate and pour it into molds. Then leave it in the fridge for a while)
Wednesday - Dairy Cow DVD (something like that)
Thursday - Dary Cow thing again.
Friday - Some exercise notebook or practice? (Dunno what that is but it sounds boring)

So you see, though cooking is really nice since you can look forward to it when you wake up, and it's free food, sometimes you have a dull time because we have to watch a bunch of cheesy videos and fill out worksheets.

But at least we watched something interesting recently. It's called the Meatrix and it's pretty funny. Here's the link.

Meatrix

Meatrix 2

Meatrix 2 1/2 (ignore Korean subtitles)

Labels: blog, cooking, elective, factoring, homework, japan, lightbulb, meatrix, music, speech, videos

Y'know. Just a twisted version of "Be careful what you wish for". Anyhow, did anyone hear about the peanut butter? Yes? No? Well, if you didn't, I heard recently that a lot of peanut butter was recalled because it was discovered to have salmonella bacteria on it. The old sal is supposed to be living on chickens. That's why you need to be careful about cooking your chicken carefully.

Anyhoo, back to the point. I saw on TV a kid (who looked like he might eat too much sweets. No offense to the poor guy) and he got infected. He said he was "very sick...I wanted to die." It's not a good sign when young'uns start saying that sort of stuff. (Usually you hear that from depressed teenagers)

Today we are trying out some new cooking. We have this portable cooker. We cook soup on it, then we dip meat into the soup (the oven/cooker thing still on) and eat it once that is cooked. It's pretty cool. We tried it in Japan (and they even gave us vanilla ice cream bars afterward. Too bad my dad keeps eating up our popsicles). I was surprised to find my parents had such a thing stowed here.

I was trying to concentrate on my factoring story (called the cheesy name, The Factor of the Opera) and I made some progress; I added some pictures. Still, it is a hassle doing the project. I want to give up already but I can't since I'm not finished. D: Maybe I should bribe someone to do it for me (then again, I wouldn't be able to ensure the quality). For instance, one of my friends wanted to color my cover, but knowing she is not particularly skilled at art, I refused. She got very offended by that. (Sometimes I doubt whether to call her my friend. But then, it would hurt her feelings to say I didn't like her as much as she liked me.)

My mom's been watching a lot of dramas lately. Ever since we watched Boys Over Flowers: The Movie (aka Hana Yori Dango) on an airplane, she got interested in seeing what the main story was about. So she tried watching the Korean version, Boys Before Flowers (but that series isn't finished yet) so then she's watching Meteor Garden (Taiwanese version?).

By the way, does anyone here like to do puzzles? You know, with a lot of little pieces and you put it together to make a picture? I have one at home that I can't feel motivated to do, so come over here and help me please. D:

Labels: bacteria, cliched, cooking, danger, drama, homework, ice cream, peanut butter, picky, puzzle, salmonella

At my house, we kind of have a problem. There's no way to use the home phones. Both of them (One is yellow with a cord, the other is a cordless, oldish kind) don't allow me to call anyone. It's kind of scary. (Luckily, we still have our cell phones, and all the electricity and Internet is functioning properly) My parents say some people will be coming over on Saturday to see if they can fix the problem. If it's a problem with the wires outside it's free, but if we did something wrong with what's inside, the bill's on us.

I forgot to post the cooking schedule earlier and I couldn't find the time to post...Sorry folks. I was busy working on my factoring story. It is coming along okay since I type some during school, too. The problem is, I have no pictures in the whole story except for the cover (Must find some or draw some) and I haven't gotten past the climax yet. (We have to do all the parts of the "plot line" - exposition, rising action, turning point, climax, falling action, and resolution)

Anyhow, back to the cooking. On Wednesday we were talking about factory farming. It's like a small space is used to raise many, many animals. It's a terrible life since the animals will be separated from their families practically from birth and will be fed antibiotics. Bleck! (Cows have dead, mashed up cows in their food. It's disgusting, since cows are vegetarians. Oh, and pigs have their snouts bashed in before being killed since the pain will keep them from struggling.) So we were encouraged to choose small family farms or organic farms since they are at least better than factory farms. (Even if it's says "Cage-free" on the boxes of chicken eggs, that just means there is no cage. That's all)

Thursday was roll-up sandwiches. Each little kitchen received a big tortilla. Some of the tortillas had mold on them and Mrs. Fromm had to give us a new one. Then we mixed cream cheese and ranch dressing to make a kind of spread. It not only adds flavor but will help the sandwich stay in the rolled position later on. We dropped the toppings (ham and turkey, cheese, leaves, and tomatoes) and rolled the sandwich up tightly. Then we cut it up into pieces. It was really cute. So cute that someone in my history class saw it and wanted the recipe.

Friday, today, we did two-tone smoothies. Unfortunately, when Mrs. Fromm went shopping, she couldn't find any mangos. So she had to use mango juice. That's different since it changes the way the smoothie turns out, and mangos work better since you also make a strawberry smoothie which goes on top/bottom of the mango smoothie. (I would show you a picture of the finished product but I am having trouble finding one.) So our smoothies kind of got mixed together, but oh well. The taste, not the looks, is what matters, right? (Not always. But that's a different story.)

The weather has taken a turn for the worse. It was raining on and off all day. When school ended it was really starting to pour. Luckily my dad made it home from work early and managed to pick me up. I am getting sick of basketball in PE because not only are we learning a strange new style of chucking the ball, whenever I dribble, muddy water gets all over my hands.

At the top to the left is the "icon" of the day. Ho-hum. I hope whoever owns them doesn't mind.

Labels: animals, basketball, cooking, factory farm, homework, icon, phone, roll up sandwich, story, torture, two tone smoothie, weather

One of my friends, who I shall refer to as Miyu-chan right now, told me that some people on a website didn't think too highly of me. This is due to me sending a lot of friends requests to people and not necessarily talking to them. (Though it's not easy to communicate with more than two thousand people, if you catch my drift.) Miyu-chan said some people do like me, though. I wish everyone would. It doesn't feel good to have people frowning on you, even if it is just the Internet, after all.

Here's the cooking schedule. At least, some of it. I don't remember Thursday and Friday.
Monday- Prepare Pie (You can choose lemon meringue or pumpkin. Pumpkin is simpler to make and I like it better)
Tuesday- Finish Pie
Wednesday- Sustainable Farming (Whatever that is. It could be a worksheet or a video)

On to some...weird happenings. As I was walking home, I observed several things. One being that the people living in a house have changed their window decoration. They always hang a picture of some sort in the window. For a long time they had a picture of colorful flowers. I like that one better than the new one, which is a snowman and some blue stuff.

Also, I hurt a tree. I saw the pretty white blossoms and buds and decided it would make a good addition to the ikebana arrangement I'll be doing for homework. But afterwards I felt bad because the tree might be upset and the branch will eventually die anyhow. Still, I could just say "It's for a worthy cause", even though I only half believe it.

I hope my history teacher doesn't lose his teaching credential. I heard that doing a certain activity makes it a possibility. We did the said activity today in class. It was supposed to teach us about population density. We started off with Australia. It's not a densely populated place and people usually live on the coastline. (Sydney the city is on the east side.) So Mr. Blair said you could go do nude sunbathing or whatever in Australia, and you might never get seen. (Yeah, disturbing example, but that's our class.) Then we went on to the United States. AV, who was the one Mr. Blair asked if he would nude sunbathe, settled down in the Arizona region, since he is cheering for the Cardinals. Mr. Blair said he couldn't do his sunbathing there since old ladies would come with their binoculars. (Apparently old people get arthritis and move to warm places like Arizona. So people laughed at poor AV since a lot of elderly folks live there.)

Oh yes, before I end this post...Japan was very densely populated. Mr. Blair tried to teach us this by putting one desk in the middle of the room. Then he wanted us to fit as many people as possible on the desk. (Standing on the desk or the legs. You can't have your feet touch the floor) That was dangerous since we did pretty well until a bunch of kids fell off the desk and one of them hurt her leg. We got a max of 14 people onto a desk. I heard the next class managed 16 or 17. We've been beat there.

Labels: art, cooking, flowers, friends, homework, internet, population, reputation, teacher, tree, walk, window

When I went to blogger this morning I noticed it said I had 100 posts now. That's quite the milestone. It took longer than I thought because I don't post everyday anymore, but I'm glad to have gotten there anyhow. Though some people always say "Quality, not quantity" I'll try my best to achieve both.

Anyhow, I think I've already hit rock bottom. Maybe things can get better from now on. I stapled the map page from my history test in the front instead of the back, so I lost 5 points off my test, which otherwise would've been perfect. Also, I missed a bonus run in PE (if you run/jog the whole time, you can get credit for it or something) because I still hadn't recovered completely. Oh well. My foot should be better by the time we run our next mile. I hope I won't be too tired by then. (It seems like I have bad luck with both of the "Blairs" at the moment.)

Well, at least we watched an interesting Youtube video in class. Two criminals ran away from the court. They were handcuffed together and got peppersprayed so they couldn't see all that well. They weren't so bright, and ran on the opposite sides of a lamppost, causing them to crash together and get caught by the police again. Apparently a year has been added to their sentence. (I don't know what the original offense was, so please find out yourself.)

My neck is really itchy. That's strange since usually that only happens in the summer, because it is hot and dry. But I guess it happens in the winter because it's cold and dry. It makes it worse that I'm wearing a sweater, which my mom wanted me to try. I always wear jackets or no outerwear at all. (Of course I wear clothes. But that doesn't really count as outerwear.) It's lavender with white stripes. It's a pretty color but I already saw someone walking to school who had a similar sweater and I don't want to have an identity crisis.

I've been wondering about what to do for my Japan project. The subject is ikebana, otherwise known as flower-arranging. I am trying to decide what kind of ikebana I should do. Should I do an upright kind in a tall thin vase? (I have a vase like that except it's a Chinese vase and I would have to remove the bamboo already growing in there.) Or should I do a dog food dish for the vase? Or even this thing that looks like a very flat lampshade? Hmm.

This morning a lot of memories about when I was young came flooding back. When I was little, I wanted to play piano so I could play the song Fur Elise. Not a good goal since I soon reached that and became bored of piano. I would get upset if I couldn't play good, and cry and bang on the piano, or try to rip up my books. (This is why my belongings are so shabby.) Nowadays I realize I need to be more patient. I guess that means I'm maturing mentally.

Labels: 100, bad news, blog, childhood, homework, japan, neck, piano, running away, sweater, vase, youtube

PE was a real misery today. First we had to run, which is the usual, but I needed to go to the bathroom (Except I couldn't, since the teacher might think I'm making an excuse to get out of PE) so it got harder and harder to run. And then we had a choice between watching a movie in the boys' locker room (I decided not to. We'd seen the movie already - it was one about how sports and science are related or something - and the boys' locker room smells funny. At least to me). I chose basketball, which turned out to be not so nice...The basketball didn't bounce well when it hit puddles, and every time I dribbled, mud splattered onto my legs. If I try to shoot baskets, I usually have to stand in a puddle, which is very unpleasant. My shoes didn't stand up well to the water and I ended up with soaked socks.

At the very least, cooking was delicious today. We finally finished making the streusel coffee cake. (Streusel meaning crumb, I think). We made some mulled apple cider to go with it (Apple juice with some cloves and cinnamon, simmered in a pot). Sounds delicious, but unlike the cake, it wasn't. It was slightly bitter and had a strange aftertaste. I would rather have plain apple juice, personally.

I keep putting off getting a new layout for the blog. I really want to have a change since it's fun to customize things. (At least for me. On video games or websites I like being able to change stuff as I see fit.) Maybe I'll do it this weekend if I have time. I'm not sure if I will. I need to do my last cooking project, plus start research for my Japan project, and maybe do a little brainstorming for my factoring story.

Science class was a bit different than usual. We were watching "The Eyes of Nye" which is apparently similar to Bill Nye the Science Guy, except the old Bill Nye is meant for elementary school kids, and The Eyes of Nye is meant for high school kids? (Nothing for us "in-betweener" middle schoolers, I guess.) It was sort of funny, but sort of disgusting and confusing and sad sometimes. Like for the sad kind: The mating call of crickets also attracts a kind of fly. The fly latches onto the cricket and burrows into its body. Flies grow inside the cricket until they burst out and the cricket dies. What a sad life...But sickening too, if you get eaten from your insides out. Bleck.

Labels: basketball, beverages, bill nye, blog, choice, cooking, custom, dessert, exercise, homework, insects, layout, life, movie, mud, panic, school, socks, weather, weekend

Nowadays I've been dreaming a lot and mostly I forget it all in the morning but I do remember last night's dream involved me speaking Japanese to people. Sometimes it's real people, in Japan, and sometimes it's fictional characters. It's really strange. I wonder if I've been listening to people in anime speak Japanese too much if it's started to invade my mind.

At least I'm still speaking English to the people around me. That's a comfort. I would be in quite a pickle because most of the people near me don't know Japanese and go "Whaa? What in the world?" Though I would like to learn to effectively speak and read Japanese someday. (But I guess it would be more useful to learn Chinese because there are more people in the world who know Chinese, and Chinese is similar to Japanese anyhow)

I need to spend more time reading books and less time on the computer nowadays, I suppose. I mean, I have three stacks of books to read (They aren't very tall stacks but still stacks nevertheless) and maybe not much time to read them. But it's easier just watching anime because I can multitask and do stuff on the Internet at the same time.

I have piano class at 11:15 today, so I figure I should try to wrap up this post and do something else on the computer while I have the chance. Then in the afternoon I can try to relax. (Or work on my factoring project. Sigh...It's still there even if I try to pretend it's not there.)

I know my posts on the weekend are pretty drab, unless I went somewhere. Sorry about that. It's just I don't see a lot of people or do much interesting on weekends. (Except for yesterday I went to see two new Japanese places that opened. One was a store selling a variety of cheap/useful things. The other was a supermarket that was a little on the expensive side, even though it sells the same products as a different supermarket.)

Labels: anime, books, dream, english, homework, japan, language, piano, shopping

Nowadays I've been pegging a bunch of different labels onto my posts...So much that they won't fit in the bar you type them into, and you would have to highlight from left to right if you wanted to see how many there were. Or just click your mouse there and keep hitting the left arrow on your keyboard. (If I'm confusing you, just forget it. XD)

Today has been a pretty boring day so far. I woke up, delirious, around 8 am. I was woken up by a need to go to the bathroom which is a sad way to wake up since you won't be able to get back to sleep if it's late enough in the morning. I just read National Geographic Magazine for a while before dragging myself out of bed. I decided to make french toast so I could finish one of my cooking projects. (It's a big hassle having to do homework for my elective. Luckily I only need one more HCP and I'll be done with them for the rest of my life...Unless I join Advanced Applied Arts next year.) It tastes rather eggy instead of sweet, but it's good if you put syrup and sugar on it. (If you use syrup, or even honey, it will be messy, so watch out.) I really hate getting my mouth and hands sticky. It feels like it's hard to clean.

Afterwards I played Animal Crossing on my Gamecube. I just play for some time every week instead of every day on the Gamecube since I really don't have enough leisure time for it otherwise. Lately I've been playing my newest person, Radcliff, like crazy, and since I made him in December I've already fully expanded my house (except for the basement). If you have both games you will notice it is considerably easier to pay off your debt on the Gamecube...Or maybe it feels that way because I have two memory cards and can make money by visiting both. (And I play the DS version every day so I guess it makes me feel like it takes a long time.)

Then we hopped in the car and headed to Saratoga. Sometimes I insist on going there so we can see the farmer's market. I tried some samples of salmon spread and it was pretty yummy. (But my dad says food always tastes better when it's a free sample.) I also bought some apple cider. I usually get my apple cider from a stand called Rainbow Orchards. And I get my strawberries from whatever random places there are. We always sample the strawberries first to see if they're sweet, then look at the price. If it's reasonable and the strawberries were tasty, then we buy it. And of course, since there are cage free brown eggs, we get those. They're cheaper at the farmer's market than at Whole Foods anyhow.

So right now my dad is probably napping and I can't practice piano. I figure I'll go do some Wii Fit to pass the time. I should exercise anyhow, since it's the weekend and I don't have PE. D: I suggest you all do the same, as you are reading this.

Labels: blog, cooking, egg, exercise, farmers market, food, fruit, homework, label, moaning, nap, sleep, video games, waking up

Today in cooking, we made cinnamon crisps. I didn't know for sure what they were until today. I finally found out that it was a kind of cookie. It was addicting and delicious but it was filled with unhealthy things such as: sugar, of course...salt, molasses (a byproduct of sugar), and butter, which is quite fatty but tasty.

Sorry, folks, if you were disappointed about my lack of post yesterday. I couldn't think of much to say and didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to a post, so I decided I would skip it yesterday. It's pretty hard to maintain posts every day sometimes, especially since I have some big projects coming up in school (A presentation and research on Japan, and a story about factoring...). They sound pretty tedious to me but I guess I will have to do them. At least I won't have to do it again. (But I will have other projects in the future, which isn't encouraging.)

I saw Haibao on TV. (If you read my bonus/special about him, you'll know, but just in case...He's a blue cartoony guy who is the mascot of the Shanghai world expo in 2010). It wasn't a statue or merchandise this time. There was a person wearing a suit, kind of like you might see someone dressed up as Dora the Explorer at one of the nearby amusement parks. I feel sorry for the poor guy who had to be in the suit.

I'm still having my "health problems" (It's a female thing, don't think too hard about it) but I hope it goes away soon. I don't feel hungry anymore and I can't tell the difference between digestion problems and the pains from my...extra organs. But I'm getting kind of used to the wet feeling nowadays but that doesn't keep it from being a bother.

Oh yeah, I am supposed to go to my friend Mars's house on Monday. It turns out her sister invited a bunch of friends...And we all have to go see a movie. Something about a hotel for dogs. I am okay with a movie but I really prefer to chill at someone's house, or take a walk. D: But I can't do anything about it because I can't be left at someone else's house. So I have to go if I don't want the meeting to be canceled. This is a dilemma.

Labels: blog, cooking, costume, female, friends, haibao, health, homework, movie, shanghai

Usually I only do kitchen-related work at school in cooking class... And this is my first time cutting fruit, basically. XD My mom bought some fruit, so we were able to make a smoothie. I cut the strawberries, a banana, and an apple to put in the smoothie. (I only cut one of the two apples we used because I'm not good and cutting and peeling apples.) At first I was freaked out while cutting the strawberries because there was red stuff on my hands. But then I realized it was just strawberry goo.

I basically wasted away this whole Saturday. In the morning I was really tired so I tried to sleep in and kind of succeeded. I got up at 10 am. By then my dad and his friend were gone...Probably for tourism purposes, seeing as the friend probably hasn't been to California much before. My mom says they must've gone to Stanford University and San Francisco...Typical.

After a while, I practiced piano, ate breakfast, and did my usual money-making business on my newest Animal Crossing (Gamecube) account. And then it was practically lunchtime. And soon after, my mom left for the library, shopping, and acupuncture. I was highly disapproving since I think acupuncture is like torture. (I just don't like seeing people have needles stuck in them.)

I played the Sims 2 in the meantime. I really shouldn't have. It was just a waste of time. XD Maybe I ought to have spent that time making a new avatar for myself...But too late now.

I saw something kind of disturbing today. I was planning to do one of my Home Cooking Projects this weekend, since you are required to have a total of six of them by the end of the trimester. So I wanted to do cinnamon rolls as one of my projects. I was looking for yeast at my house, and I found a small packet with yeast in it.

I checked the expiration date...It was December in 1999! Prehistoric thing! I was freaked out and my mom asked if we could use that but I said no way since it's so old.

Apparently, my mom used to have a breadmaker, but she gave it to one of my dad's friends, whose wife loves cooking. So apparently my mom hasn't used yeast ever since she came to California. That must've been before I was born. o_O

Labels: cooking, day, expire, food, fruit, homework, tour, video games

Okay, so this afternoon, my mom picks me up in her car, because her group at her company was celebrating the completion of a project. My mom decided to work from home (she has a computer at home that she uses for work purposes) since the place they went to is closer to our house than her office. She and her colleagues were playing a game where you throw, I mean, "Bowl", a ball. You try to get your ball near another, white ball. You have an opponent who tries to get their ball nearer to the white ball than you. (Your opponent can knock your ball aside, if they wish to.) Anyhow, my mom says she was a fair hand at it, but she also says it's based on luck. (My dad says my mom's company must have money and time to waste if they are playing games.)

Anyhow, I get home and try to ask my mom questions, but she gets mad and tells me she has to work. So I go do my homework. I'm kind of bored of doing math, so I decided to take out my portable DVD player and watch some anime. Unfortunately, my grandma, and later my mom, come to lecture me about it. My mom thinks that's why I blanked out on my math quiz recently. (I don't think so, because this is the first time in a very long time that I was multitasking on homework. But she doesn't believe me, since she thinks I'm making excuses all the time.) So in the evening, she decides I don't understand my math well enough, and I end up spending an hour or more working on problems that make my head hurt. (I wanted to do them on Tuesday, but I don't have a choice in the matter, so I have to take it in stride. Apparently, crying, or debating, makes no difference at all.)

Still, I am death sentenced to doing this, and I guess even if I have free time, it will soon be swallowed up by doing math problems each evening. So I am sorry if I do not get in blog posts much nowadays. D:

Oh, by the way, it was supposed to be Teacher's Appreciation Week this week, so the PTA (My dad is on it now) donated cookies to the teachers. My dad is pleased because they say his cookies are good, even though he has no knowledge of baking and just stuck frozen cookie batter into the oven... And even if the teachers got some good cookies, apparently no students have given any gifts for TAW yet. So I feel weird giving a gift unless other kids do it, since I hate to be "noticed".

Something bad was going on recently with the 7th graders in our village. Apparently, some kids were writing in a "burn book", which was a book filled with hateful, nasty comments about other people. (I hear the people targeted in the burn book were perfectly good, nice people. That's just...so wrong.) I didn't even hear about this until my teachers told me. My language arts teacher was especially disappointed in us. She told us it was ruining our reputation as a village, and how she thought we were really nice kids up until now. One of the people sitting near me knew about this "burn book" and the people involved in it. I was surprised to hear the names of a few people I knew. (And, I hope I wasn't written about in that book!)

Labels: child cruelty, games, homework, school

Why do people count seconds like that? Is it supposed to take a whole second to say that? Because if someone has pronunciation problems or is a slow talker, they would count slower, but if someone talks so fast their words get jumbled together, they would be unfairly counting seconds. (Like if you're timing something, or playing hide and seek, or whatever.) But maybe it's not very important seeing as some people have watches they can use to time things, and I'm fussing over nothing. (Or it could save all our lives, and I would be saying "I told you so" for decades.)

My dad is always watching television...In the evenings, sometimes he watches the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. (I don't know if you know those shows. I think they are popular with people who are not my age.) They tend to say rude things on those shows, like on the Colbert Report, Colbert was saying "Yet another of NASA's animal torture projects" after reporting that "a spider escaped from its cage when NASA was trying to see if a spider could make a web in 0 gravity". I asked my dad if the people who are talked about in these shows are offended. My dad nodded, then shook his head. Now I'm really confused. XD

I've had a lot of indigestion lately. Either I'm eating too fast (Which would cause gas in your stomach, according to my mom. Not always a reliable source...) or I just have a weak stomach, or something else is going on. Well, I have no idea, so I'm just trying to ignore it, or wait for a brilliant idea to hit me. :o

One of my friends asked me to do her math homework yesterday. I asked her why. She said, "I'm lazy, and you're smart." I just replied, "That's not a very good excuse." Though I usually wouldn't admit it, a lot of people think I'm smart (either they know me, and they know that, and they like to bother me about it; or they don't know me, and are just guessing), and it really gets on my nerves. It almost makes me want to pretend I'm 'unintelligent', just so I shall have some peace about it.

Labels: blah, food, homework, television

I'm feeling surprisingly calm this morning. I finished practicing piano, and there's not much else I need to do except take notes for research. (I completely forgot about the essay we'll be writing soon...It's a good thing I still have today to work on it. Vacation is often distracting for me.) I feel like my vacation was too short and too long at the same time. But I'd better stop thinking, and do something mindless. (It'll make my head hurt.)

I must be really bored if I was reading Breaking Dawn. This one was kind of creepy at times. I'm glad I'm more than halfway through with it...I don't think I could stand to read another Twilight series book. (I don't know about you, but I find it dull.) And I still need to read Brisingr (which looks even bigger than Breaking Dawn!) since it just arrived from the library. I have a lot of books to read, so I'd better stop checking out more for a while, until I've decimated the pile a bit.

Anyway, I'll talk a bit more about my trip to Las Vegas. I saw an advertisement for something at the Luxor hotel on top of the taxis. Apparently it was related to the human body. My dad thought it was the same thing as an exhibit the Tech Museum back home once had, and he got really creeped out, saying "Why would anyone want to see that?" I wanted an excuse to go to Luxor, anyhow, since I haven't been there much, but my mom doesn't like it, apparently. (I do, because of the cool pyramid shape. But it seems like it wastes a lot of energy, what with the beacon of light at the top of it.) Oh well, maybe NEXT TIME. D:

Now I want to say something a bit about the title of my blog. It says Kaisoumizu, of course, then it says "where the sky meets the earth". Unfortunately I didn't come up with that part myself. I saw it on a desktop background somewhere. Ha, ha. (I hope it's not copyrighted or something like that.)

Labels: blog, books, homework, vacation

It's time to celebrate! I have no homework, not even math homework. (The only problem with that is that we don't have math homework due to the test...And I'm pretty sure I bombed the test. But it's okay to get moved back to grade-level math, I guess, but I would feel bad for not surviving two years in advanced.)

Eventually I need to find a way to promote my blog. And maybe even make my own website. The only problem is, I don't know what I would do with a website. I already have places to display my artwork and all that. I could maybe write a story or something, but I can always upload that to DeviantArt anyways. Argh! It makes me frustrated.

Yesterday I found I had an "official warning" on Nutrinopets. This was a big disgrace for me and also made me quite upset. This time the offense was reviving a dead topic (posting in a topic that has not been posted in recently) but I don't know which post it was that made me break the rules...I have sent a mail to the head moderator to ask, so all I can do now is sit back and wait.

On to a lighter note, tomorrow is one of my friends' birthdays. (Her name has the same first three letters as another one of my friends. Yikes.) My schedule is free for that, except I am running out of books to read and I need to find some time to go to the public library. D:

Labels: bad news, blog, homework, library

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