Since the beginning of this school year, I've taken to studying while playing piano so that I can save time. One of my teachers has said time and time again that students shouldn't multitask, but I feel like playing piano and reading information at the same time helps me to think better. Sometimes I come up with good ideas while I'm practicing piano, so I like to keep my binders propped up on the stand that you're supposed to put the piano sheet music on. Problem is, when I put pencils on there too, they have a tendency to roll off or get knocked off.

The pencils fall into this crevice between the cover for the piano keys and the main structure of the piano. I can never get them out after they've fallen in, so I had no idea for a long time what had become of my pencils. (I assumed that at least they hadn't broken the piano, since it still seems to work fine.) It was only recently, when I happened to drop another pencil in there, that I made a bigger effort to try and get into it. I saw where the pencils had fallen, but I can't reach it because my hand is not small enough anymore (ironic, since my hand is quite small, it hasn't grown for several years, and I had thought I would be able to fit it). And we don't have anything that is both thin, flexible, and hard that we can grab the pencils with and pull them out. I wonder if they'll stay in the piano forever. Perhaps someday someone else will come to own this piano, and they'll open it up and see those pencils inside. Something that was once of not much importance could become artifacts for future generations to find.

But there are more treasures than just objects to be found in the piano. Learning to play piano is frustrating in the beginning, and it can be painful in the end too (if your hands were somehow made unable to play piano in the future). I really think, though, that there's a lot to be said for playing a musical instrument. You will have to practice a lot. You can't give up as soon as you think "I can't do this, I'm just not good at it." I think that it's good to have something to strive for, to work towards perfection. Perfection may not exist, but you can keep improving yourself and get as close to it as possible. And your goal when you're playing an instrument may not be the same as mine or someone else's. What I hope to do is play beautifully, and to show my emotions through the music. I don't know if I've reached that stage or if I ever will. But I'll keep trying. I don't want to let go of the piano. Not the way I did with the flute and cello. I can't play either of them anymore.

I don't think you ought to keep playing an instrument if you really don't enjoy it, though. There is no way to be certain that you won't eventually come to like it, but if you want to quit, go ahead. Even if you come to regret it later, it ought to be your own choice. I remember meeting a girl who said she didn't really like to play piano, but her mom made her do it. Why? Because the mother think her daughter will be embarrassed later when she's the only one amongst her friends who can't play the piano. It's fine to be proud of your musical skills as long as that isn't the reason you're playing... I really don't think you ought to play an instrument for the sake of pride. Play because you enjoy, play because other people enjoy it, play to relieve stress, play because you want to get better at it...But please, don't play just to save yourself embarrassment.

Labels: artifacts, bad habit, choice, enjoy, fall, future, giving up, ideas, learning, lost, motives, multitasking, music, pencil, piano, pride, struggle, studying, treasure

That's a phrase that I saw in the book The Heights, the Depths, and Everything in Between by Sally Nemeth. And I thought it was really very true.

Life can give a person a lot of happiness, but also a lot of pain. If we didn't have the good times to keep us up, the sorrow in our lives would take over. There are still things that I've done in the past that continue to haunt me. If I didn't have good memories that I could recall, I don't know how I could keep from being swallowed.

My mom says that she likes to watch funny dramas so she can have something to laugh about. I find her interest in watching dramas rather amusing. She checked out this book from the library about a guy named Jerry in Australia. (There was a picture of him visiting the Twelve Apostles, which are these rocks in the ocean - unfortunately there are no longer twelve of them - which I had visited myself last summer)

My parents also seem to know about Super Junior. And then my mom said she knew about one of the guys from SS501 and how he was in Boys over Flowers or something like that. My dad, on the other hand, for a short time, kept mentioning someone called Angela Baby.

There really aren't that many differences between teenagers and middle-aged people. Both of them like...
- Asian dramas
- Social networking sites (Facebook, Kaixin, etc.)
- Being selfish

In fact, I wonder if that means that adults are immature or if that teenagers are actually middle-aged in their mindset.

Well, my mom had said that the older you get, the more you recede and become more childlike...Like slot machines, for instance. They have bright, cute pictures (cherries, bananas, diamonds, etc.) and make amusing noises. In a way they are like toys. No, I take that back - they ARE toys. Toys that take your money. XD

I've been watching an anime called Special A the past few days, and it's been pretty good. But it has a lot of similarities to Skip Beat, which I have also watched (and am currently reading the manga of).
Both...
- are in the Hana to Yume magazine
- have clueless heroines
- have heroines who are out to beat someone (Kyoko wants to top Sho, while Hikari wants to defeat Kei)
- have scenes where a character has a very evil aura
And so on. It's always possible to pick out similarities between stories. I guess it's because of the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" idea. After Harry Potter came the Lightning Thief. I haven't read the Olympians but I've heard that both involve half-bloods and such things. So it seems to very common for people to borrow one another's ideas.

Labels: age, cry, drama, happiness, ideas, k-pop, laugh, life, memories, pain, similar, skip beat, special a, teenagers, the heights the depths and everything in between, twelve apostles

For language arts class, I needed to pick a classic to read, so I went to the library in search of a book that could be considered a classic. It is too bad that I read Little Men last trimester, since that would count as a classic. Unfortunately, the library's teen section's books had been moved elsewhere. I was easily able to locate the fiction books, but I couldn't find the classics at first. Finally, after some wandering, I found the classics section and started browsing.

I eventually decided upon The Story of My Life, written by Helen Keller. I really didn't know much about Helen Keller before now, besides that she went blind and deaf from an illness and that she was taught by a woman named Anne Sullivan. Apparently the "breakthrough" for teaching Helen words was when she felt running water on her hand and Anne Sullivan spelled out water into her hand.

One of the things that I found interesting was that Helen Keller once got into trouble for plagiarism. She had written a story which she called "The Frost King". Her friend, Mr. Anagnos, liked the story very much. Apparently someone saw the story Helen had written and remarked that it was very similar to another story called "The Frost Fairies". Helen did not remember having read that story, but apparently she had, to have written something similar. Helen said that Mr. Anagnos then believed that Helen and Ms. Sullivan had deceived him and tried to earn his favor with "The Frost King", and so in the book Helen said she was saddened to have lost his friendship.

Being creative is a pretty difficult challenge in this world. Sometimes people become famous because they were simply lucky enough to be the first to come up with an idea that becomes popular. Skill is of course still a factor in being successful (but not necessarily the biggest part; I am sorry if you are a fan of the Twilight series, but I found it rather bland for the most part) but you may still be able to get readers even if your writing is not the most sophisticated.

Sometimes people will get the same idea as you, and you have to fight to be the first to get it out there. If you are second, you'll be accused of copying them, even if you hadn't meant to. And sometimes you might accidentally write something that has actually already been put out there. Or it could be like with Helen Keller, forgetting that you had actually seen something before, and confused it with your own imagination.

I heard something mentioned on the radio as well. You also have to be careful if you're a musician. Someone on the radio said, "It either has to be completely original, or really, really good." If you have a song with similarities to other songs, you'll get attacked by people. It's pretty challenging to be creative. Keep that in mind if you think, "Oh, this is so overused," or "There's just no creativity anymore." I fear that perhaps all the good ideas are getting used up, like our Earth's resources...That would be a real shame, so I hope it is not so. But who knows?

Labels: accident, books, classic, creativity, first, forget, helen keller, ideas, inspiration, language arts, library, little men, music, originality, plagiarize, race, song, the story of my life, writing

It's really boring washing my hair, and since the TV is at just the right angle, I often watch DVDs at the same time, so it helps to pass the time while I wait for the conditioner to sink into my head and that kind of thing. I was looking for something to watch, and I spotted a Korean movie that my mom had checked out from the library, called "A Millionaire's First Love". (Look, already the name sounds corny... XD)

Well, I started watching it, and I saw the female lead. She looked oddly familiar. I kept watching and I thought, "Hey, I really do think I've seen her somewhere." She looked like the actress in another Korean drama I watched, "One Fine Day". So I looked up the One Fine Day Wikipedia article (I really overuse Wikipedia. Some people say Tvtropes is better, but I still prefer Wikipedia. I mean, Wikipedia is the most accurate encyclopedia in the world because it can get updated much faster than book encyclopedias). And it was the same actress after all!

The weird thing was that in A Millionaire's First Love, the actress, Lee Yeon Hee, played a character who had a heart problem. In One Fine Day, she was also a character with a heart problem. Was that a coincidence or not? o_O;;

And then there was the male lead. The actor, Hyun Bin, was apparently in another movie, My Lovely Sam Soon/My Name is Kim Sam Soon (it goes by two different names), and I had watched that drama as well. And in Sam Soon, Hyun Bin played a rich person. In A Millionaire's First Day, he was a millionaire. Uncanny?

My mother says that's pretty bad because it means that they run out of ideas for dramas and they have to combine ideas and use the same idea in a different way and so on.

On to some other news. I wore my costume to school the other day. The mask was very shiny and all, but it was uncomfortable to wear. It makes your face too warm, and it doesn't fit too well because my nose doesn't stick out enough to hold the mask up properly (Asian genetics are at fault, I guess?). Oh well. I'll just have to tie it around my head more tightly in the future to make sure it won't slip. But it might make me sweat and be uncomfortable.

I don't think I've ever really talked about the cross country team at my school, so I will now. They have some interesting shirts. Everyone has a white t-shirt saying the name of the school, and Cross Country (or X Country! I forget exactly) and there's that year's slogan on the back. I heard that it started out with something like "No Pain, No Gain" and it went on and on, and last year or the year before it was "Pain is a privilege". This year it's the best one yet. "Burn, bleed, and sweat" is the slogan. Since our school has a lot of good runners, usually the other schools' teams are behind us, so they end up reading what's on our shirts. So the folks coming up with slogans try to make it a little rougher every year. And the kids behind our team will be crying, "Waaah! We don't burn, bleed, and sweat! No wonder we're not winning!"

My PE teacher is eviler than he seems to be. I thought he was a mild, soft-spoken, patient sort of person. He's got a dark side. He was telling one of his students that he only will tell you once if he wants you to stop doing something (like misbehaving and not working hard) and after that he simply takes off points rather than saying anything. So your grade will suffer without you even knowing. Sneaky! D: I heard he used to be a math teacher. I wonder if that has any influence or not. I mean, my math teacher is pretty sneaky too, putting things in his tests that I haven't learned for a very long time.

Labels: a millionaire's first love, burn bleed and sweat, creativity, cross country, drama, hyun bin, ideas, korean, lee yeon hee, mask, my lovely sam soon, nose, one fine day, school sports, shirt, teacher

It's a relief to be back home again, actually. Being far away from home can be nice, since it's a way to drag myself away from the computer (ha, ha), but there's really no place like home, is there? Home is where the heart is. Which means home is the rib cage. (Okay, so that was a lame joke from Animal Crossing: Wild World. I spend too much time reading the bulletin board anonymous messages.)

Once, while I was on vacation, I had a dream where I was on the computer and found out Blogger had changed. It looked kind of like Freewebs (they apparently just call it Webs now?) or Photobucket for some reason. And when I tried to find my blog, I couldn't get to it. I'd get an error and it would be like everything had disappeared, all those posts... I was really frustrated and panicky in the dream, but then I accepted the truth and decided I would start fresh with a new blog. So I was going to make a new blog with Wordpress (another site you can use to make blogs, I believe). Then I woke up and realized it was only a dream.

Occasionally, I wonder if I should change the name of my blog. I've had this name, ◆ kaisoumizu, practically ever since I started the blog. I was thinking of something like True Blue or Beyond the Sea (thus explaining that thing at the top of your Internet which says ◆ K A I S O U M I Z U - somewhere beyond the sea, when you visit my blog) but it could already be taken. And anyhow, I'm really used to having this name, and you readers out there probably are too. D: So I suppose this is just another wishy washy time for me, where I will think about doing something but not do it ever, or at least not for a long time.

Seeing as I have a lot to say about my vacation to Australia, anyhow, I'm going to spread it out by talking about some in the future posts this summer. It's not like I really do anything exciting during the summer much anyhow, what with my summer classes being over and me lazing around at home. I figure if I dedicated a whole posts to Australia it would be a very long post. And y'know, my posts are already pretty lengthy on average. XD

I should give you some background information while I'm at it. Here's the places we went to.

San Francisco → Sydney
Immediately after, Sydney → Melbourne
Several days later, Melbourne → Gold Coast
Two days after, Gold Coast → Cairns
Another two days, Cairns → Sydney
And eventually, Sydney → back to San Francisco.

For the entire trip there was my family, my dad's friend and his wife and son, and another of my dad's friends. While we were in Melbourne we caroused around with more people, though... And in Sydney we met some people as well.
Here is kind of a key since I will be mentioning various people in the future posts. It's a bit confusing, so bear with me.

Dad's friend "David" (not his actual Chinese name), his son "Michael", and his wife "Meggie" (not her actual Chinese name)

Dad's other friend "Andrew", his daughter "Whitney" (he has two, but one of them was not with us the whole time), and his wife "Casey" (not sure if I spelled that right, I think so, though)

Dad's third friend "James" (and we briefly saw his wife, "Cindy")

Dad's fourth friend "Harry", his wife "Louis Vuitton bag" (because silly me has forgotten her name, or maybe I never heard it?!), his daughter "Vanessa" (I dunno if it's spelled like that, because there's a story behind it. Will tell later), and his son "Lukey" (we call him that, dunno if it's really Luke)

Dad's fifth friend "Gary"

Mom's friends "Lily" and "Dog Owner" (yet again I dunno his name in English), and their two sons, whose names I forgot, so I call 'em "College Bookworm" and "PSP Final Fantasy Dude", plus the sons' grandparents (because I forget whether it's Lily's or Dog Owner's parents) who I just call, "Old Lady Who Won't Let Dog into House" and "Quiet Old Guy Who Walks the Dog".

Besides that there was my aunt's classmate and her husband, and I don't know their names so they will be called "Guy Whose Face Appears Stressed When He's Not" and "Lady Who Had a Son but Doesn't Really Like Children" (my nicknames get longer and longer!) and their son is who I call "Friendly Megane with Tasty Chewing Gum" (megane being a person wearing glasses).

Phew, there were more people than I expected to write about.

Labels: australia, blog, disappearance, dream, home, ideas, name, nickname, people, post, return, vacation

Well, not really. I mean, I'm not really doing much, just lazing around doing whatever I feel like doing. But the point is that in a busy office, the phone rings a lot. And it sure does around here...I've been called by a dentist's office, my dad, and my piano teacher this afternoon. I wouldn't be surprised if a telemarketer or the library or even my friend who is visiting here calls next...

Recently, Rainbow Ranger (you may have seen her on the Cbox...) came over to my house, and showed me a site called Tetris Friends. It's been so long since I played Tetris that I was enthralled by it. I even tried to introduce my mom to it, because she likes Tetris. The problem is, 1) She doesn't have an account and doesn't want to make one, so her scores won't be saved, and 2) She claims that she is too busy to spend her precious time playing Tetris. I was a little disappointed since she used to want to by the Tetris video game from the Nintendo DS (buying it on your cell phone means you have to pay every month) except that game hasn't been for sale for a long time. In fact, the Tetris video game for the DS is no longer even being made, so it costs more now to get a copy than it did when it was new. Lame.

Oftentimes various things can irk me, and even if I was in a pretty good mood before it can quickly turn my mood sour. For instance, yesterday I was playing Wii Fit, doing an activity called Free Run, which means you can run for 10, 20, or 30 minutes (put the Wii remote in your pocket or hold it so it can sense you "moving) and if you want you can change the channel and watch TV. Normally I watch anime while jogging since it makes the time go by faster and I actually run better with entertainment. However, one time I ran inside to get something and forgot to check Video 3 (I keep my Wii on Video 3, my Gamecube on Video 4, and my DVD player on Video 5...) so I didn't realize it had lost connection. So I ran for 18 minutes without realizing and then I thought I was done with the activity. But upon checking Wii Fit I realized I'd just wasted all that time. I was really mad, but luckily I am working on calming myself down.

From time to time I think about making another website which will work in partnership with my blog, but I'm not really sure. I have no idea what I would put on a personal website. Should I put up graphics? Or stories and art by me? Or should I be writing about news on a site (ex Neopets, just because there's always news there...)? But that all doesn't seem right. Because a lot of sites probably have their own news/announcements section and there are other websites like Deviantart, Photobucket, Image Shack, Tiny Pic, and so on to upload images...And then I end up not doing anything since I'm so indecisive.

At my piano class, my piano teacher now has two pianos in her home, a baby grand and a stand-up piano. The stand-up piano is her own piano, and it's pretty nice...I think it's some European brand and it's pretty shiny, since she only got it a year or two ago. And the baby grand is wooden and old-looking, but it's not hers. One of her students was moving or something and they couldn't move their piano or something like that (not sure, maybe I have the story completely wrong) so now she's moved away some of her furniture to put the piano in. It actually makes really nice sound. I really like opening the top of grand/baby grand pianos, so the sound can really move about. By the way, do baby grand pianos come in different sizes? (Not meaning stand-up, grand, and baby grand, I mean just lengths and things like that) I thought I saw a baby grand piano on an interior design show but I thought it looked smaller than ours. (Maybe it's just my imagination)

Labels: anime, baby grand, busy, connection, decision, free run, games, ideas, multitasking, music, office, phone, piano, size, sound effect, stand-up, tetris, website, wii fit

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