All goods things must come to an end. I just finished the Durarara anime yesterday, and was briefly at a loss for what to watch next, before remembering that I'd meant to watch Spice and Wolf, so I'm watching that now. I really hope it gets more exciting; I've only seen two episodes, but right now I don't feel that interested in it.

I always get a little disheartened after finishing a good series. I was really excited while I was watching Eureka Seven, Code Geass, and Boys Over Flowers in the first semester, but once I got close to the end of those shows, I always seemed to enter a gloomy period (might just be coincidental, but I like to think that there's cause and effect going on here). Well, I guess I could easily remedy that by watching and reading nothing but "good" anime and manga. But if I were to always spend my time dabbling in the best of the best, wouldn't I become unable to appreciate how good it was? After all, I just read somewhere earlier today that there has to be dark to see the light.

But anyways, I thought Durarara really came into its own in the second half of the anime (I can only speak in these terms because I haven't read the manga...I would like to read more manga in the future, but it's sometimes hard to find a good one that's already finished and doesn't have a ridiculous amount of chapters.) I liked a lot of the characters, and at first I wasn't sure what I thought of Shizuo because he smoked and seemed to become violent for no reason, though I have as of late become quite fond of him. I'm a big fan of Celty ♥

Though I wouldn't really say that Kida is one of my favorite characters in Durarara, I feel like I have the most connection to him. There were, in the past things he did - or didn't do, and he tries and tries and tries to move on, and yet he's still his own prisoner. It's one thing to forgive someone else, but it's another to forgive yourself...For failing to act at an important moment. What would you rather do? Regret what you've done, or regret what you didn't do?

When I get depressed, which is unfortunately pretty often, all the things I messed up in the past come back to me. It's like I keep opening my wounds all over again even after they healed, just like what I always did with the part on the other side of my knee - you know, on the back of your leg, the place where your leg bends? It often got itchy and I couldn't help but scratch it, and sometimes it turned red and pretty nasty. At least the pain kept me from scratching it, but while it was healing it would be itchy again, and so the wounds never really closed (well, until the weather changed, that usually made it less itchy so I'd finally stop scratching it). The body does have important messages to tell the mind, and I'm not just referring to problems dealing with your past, but also to health problems not having to do with the brain... These days I've seen many people coming down with illnesses and having to be hospitalized...I'm not able to discuss anything more than that, but it has been a very misfortunate time indeed.

Labels: anime, appreciation, celty, characters, depression, durarara, fear, good, health, itchy, kida, past, problem, questions, regret, shizuo

Recently I went to my dad's friend's apartment to go swimming. When I arrived, there were young boys running around and voices of people. The apartment had a miniature play structure. It seems to me that an apartment complex is like a little community. Since I don't talk to my neighbors much, it makes me wonder all the time what it's like to live in an apartment. But my mom says you don't want to live on the bottom floor since you can hear the people who live directly above you when they walk around in their apartment.

The apartment pool is not as big as my piano teacher's apartment's pool, nor does it have a shower and a little bathroom next to the pool (besides the bathroom in the gym, which is different) but at least it had a spa and I finally had the chance to go swimming. However, I had a bad feeling about it and kept complaining. It turns out I was right, because it was a windy, slightly cold evening compared to the rest of the nights recently, and also the spa jets weren't working. My dad kept hitting the button but it just wouldn't turn on.

That's when I stepped in. Even if the water was certainly warm enough, my mom wanted the bubbles. So I tried to twist the weird white things in the spa. (I wasn't successful, maybe those things aren't for turning) Then I got up and hit the button. A few minutes later, the spa turned on! The skeptics insist that the spa jets just had a very, very late reaction time, but I would much rather believe that I am a "special chosen one".

Speaking of pools...I've been thinking, and I've decided that if I could have a pool, it'd be like this... The pool would be a huge, huge circle, and in the middle there'd be a metal bar running along a small kind of round platform. (If you wanted to, you could hang on to the bar to rest or climb up over it and stand "in the center of the world") The ceiling would be made of glass so you can see the sky. It would be beautiful with the sun shining through and reflecting on the water. Perhaps the ceiling looks like this...


Too bad there is certainly no room to have a pool like that in my house. And maybe my backyard could contain a small swimming pool, but it would be no where near as big as I want it, and besides bugs would drown in the pool. It brings back some not-so-pleasant memories of the time I went to Saratoga Springs. There were dead bees and flies in the water. *shudders*

So, you may have heard that I am currently part of the Summer Reading Celebration for both San Jose Library and Santa Clara County Library. I saw something unexpected when checking my account for the San Jose Library's summer reading. They'd denied one of the reviews I'd sent in! How rude! I couldn't even edit it to send it in again (Santa Clara lets you edit already sent reviews, I think, but I'm not sure about San Jose). But at least it still counts as a book read.

Last week, I was working on doing some test prep problems that came from a book from the library. I came across some rather...interesting answers to questions. (These were multiple choice questions, so these answers are all incorrect ones)

Q: Why did the Aztecs sacrifice so many people?
A: They loved to watch people die.

Q: According to the code of chivalry, what did knights need to do?
A: Knights chased the servants around the castle.

Q: What happened when King Henry VIII demanded a divorce but the pope refused to let him?
A: The king published a pamphlet called "Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants".

Q: Which of these are Italian city-states?
A: Paris and Genoa. (Paris is in France, of course)

Q: What is the Counter Reformation?
A: People attempted to remodel a counter.

Q: Why were heretics discriminated against?
A: They had long hair.

Labels: anger, answer, apartment, button, ceiling, circle, funny, glass, indoor, jets, outdoor, questions, review, round, spa, summer reading celebration, swimming pool, test prep

My mother has abandoned me again. It's only for two days, but I kept wailing and trying to grab her arm and things like that. She managed to evade me, saying that I should turn on my cell phone and she would call me later. I would've gone to the airport and seen her off but she is with a friend/classmate/other kind of acquaintance. The lady kept smiling strangely at me, and she asked me if I remembered her and things like that. (Probably not. I didn't retain any memories until preschool, and I usually forget who my parents' friends are unless they are people I see frequently) If I had gone with my mom, my mom would've been pretty distracted and I wouldn't be able to talk to her one last time before she flew off to Las Vegas. (She's going there to meet up with some other friends she hasn't seen in a long time.) Also, I would've had to act smiley and nice for the lady-that-I-don't-remember-anymore, because they sometimes saying things like "You've grown so much" or "How old are you" or something. So maybe it was better not to go. But still, it's really quiet here. All you can hear is the sounds of birds outside.

I don't really understand what is up with teachers. They seem very laid-back, particularly the PE teachers and my science teacher. For instance, Mr. Brown, my science teacher, was sitting in his chair with his feet propped up on the counter, answering questions about Human Growth and Development. Since there is a door or something connecting our classroom to the neighboring classroom, another teacher, Mr. Aochi, came over and started talking to Mr. Brown. They said things like, "You want a refresher?" (while holding up a bag of coffee beans) and "Twist my arm" (which I assume means "Yeah, thanks, go on ahead") Then Mr. Aochi tried to describe a flower, and Mr. Brown said, "Oh, you mean gardenia." In the meanwhile the students were talking amongst themselves. I wondered, WHAT IN THE WORLD HAPPENED TO CLASS?! It must be hard to get teachers fired unless they really do something wrong, like handing out permission slips and taking students to 7-11. (A teacher once did that. Mr. Blair, my history teacher, admires that teacher.)

As for the PE teachers, they get paid as much as regular teachers, but they have way less assignments to grade - only tests and projects and possibly notebooks, if they even assign them at all. Oftentimes teachers talk to each other. Mr. Robinson usually talks to Mr. Murray, while Mr. Nakamura usually talks to Mr. Blair (and sometimes the female teachers, Mrs. Jennings and Ms. Rawson). We used to have another teacher (though I am not sure if she gossiped during class as well) called Ms. Hanohano, except she moved away to Arizona or someplace like that.

I heard some strange news. Apparently not only is there a new principal next year, but another PE teacher may be on her way. I am not sure of her name's spelling exactly. Besides the fact she is female I don't know anything about her. I guess it's a good thing to have another PE teacher at the school because otherwise we have practically 40 students to a class (using up ALL the painted white numbers on the ground). Still, I am anxious to know who is this teacher and whether she is nice, or if this is really just a weird rumor.

Labels: chat, confusing, friends, gossip, mom, new, noise, old folks, parents, PE class, phone, pretend, questions, quiet, school, talking, teacher

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

It feels strange being back after I was in another country so long...And I was so tired when I woke up. I did not sleep well due to my "mental problems". (Don't worry, I don't need to go to an asylum. Sorry if you are offended by this statement.) And I was woken up by my dad's alarm clock. He insists on keeping me company because he thinks I'd be too lonely by myself. (It is true, but he snores and moves and tries to take my Bloomingdales teddy bear.)

I ate some eggs in a nest for breakfast. (You know, bread with eggs in it.) I ate one and a half slices. (Which turned out to be too much for me. I almost threw up, so I decided not to eat anymore.) But then we made puffy pancakes in cooking class. It's sort of like pancakes but it is a little eggy-tasting...and true to the name, it is also puffy. Very puffy. And the edges of the puffy-stuff got a bit burnt in the oven.

Cooking Schedule: (I am not sure if this is the exact one, because I didn't memorize it well this time.)
Monday - Puffy Pancakes
Tuesday - Texas BBQ Flatbread
Wednesday - Measurement Test
Thursday - ??? (Muffins? I forget)
Friday - ??? (I forget again)
If you know the rest of the schedule, let me know!

My teachers and fellow classmates can be amusing sometimes...Like in Mr. Blair's history class. So there's a guy called Jeffrey who keeps complaining about how cold it is despite the heater being on in the room. He decides later to go to the bathroom. So we vote unanimously to play a prank on Jeffrey...
1. First, wait until Jeffrey is close to the room.
2. Student yells out, "It's cold in here! Can we close the door?"
3. Mr. Blair locks door just as Jeffrey attempts to get in.
4. Watch him bang on glass until Mr. Blair sends him to get a paper towel from the boys' bathroom.
5. Then Mr. Blair changes his mind and allows Jeffrey to come back in.
This was very distracting seeing as we were supposed to be doing the first round of a geography bee.

Oh, and in Mrs. Jackson's class...Mrs. Jackson started showing off her document camera. It's like a projector but you don't need a transparent paper and it can zoom in and out...And it even shows color, not just black and white. We oohed and aahed at it for a while.

In Mr. Brown's class, a kid called Anush always asks questions. For instance, he said, "Can humans tame wolves?" Mr. Brown replied, "Of course; dogs are tamed wolves." Anush went "Ohhhhh!" as it clicked in his mind.

I was going to talk about mushrooms and building construction but there's not much time for that. So see you next time!

Labels: breakfast, cooking, mischief, questions, school, sleep, time

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