A terribly cliched phrase, but it's true. There has been that kind of weather, last night, and sometime a few weeks earlier. Actually, I was never really afraid of thunder or lightning when I was younger, but this school year, when there was a storm with very loud thunder, I was frightened out of my wits. I don't even know why. It's not like a blackout is really something to be feared. I feel like Haruhi from Ouran High School Host Club. Or Nagi from Nyan Koi.

This morning there wasn't a storm, though it was certainly raining. I was woken up at 5 am, which is really way too early for me, even if I don't sleep well on a daily basis. It is kind of exciting, though, driving along a nearly abandoned highway and seeing the water spurting from the cars. I ought to have taken photos of the street lights or a certain bridge in my town that I am quite fond of. But I guess I was half-asleep and too lazy to bother.

Right now I'm at SFO Airport for the bajillionth time (I never started counting, but it's been many times, that's for sure). We're going to Vancouver first, and then we'll change flights to go to Shanghai. It would've been nice just to stay in Canada. But as my grandparents are aging, it becomes more important to visit them, and unfortunately they aren't going to move close to California. It might be easier if my family, instead, moved somewhere closer to China, like Australia...well, that's still rather far, but it's at least closer than California. And Australia's got some of my dad's friends. So we'd be in good company.

It's been two years since I last went to China, and I wonder how much has changed. I'm still wearing the same jacket and I've brought at least one of the same shirts. I haven't grown taller, either. I think that the things that have changed about me are mostly bad things. When I get angry, I swear in my head a lot more often than I did in middle school, and I find that I say "like" too much when I'm talking. I've seen on Tumblr that people turn into what they said they'd never be, and it's true.

While I still have the opportunity, if anyone is still reading this, allow me to announce my 2nd Tumblr! Yeah, one should be more than enough, but I have now made a division - my original tumblr, Serendipity-solstice, is for photography, quotes, and other such things (though not my own photos, that's still on my DeviantArt). The new one, click here for it, is for artwork, mostly anime-style, and it's named after this blog. Just a little tribute to Blogger for sticking with me all this time. (I mean, it has a lot less errors than Tumblr. I'm thankful for that, at least.)

I have no idea if Tumblr, DeviantArt, or Blogger will work in China, so perhaps this is the last time I write until about New Year's time. So, happy holidays to you all, and may the force be with you.

Labels: change, china, haruhi fujioka, highway, internet, morning, nagi ichinose, nyan koi, ouran high school host club, rain, relatives, same, time, travel, tumblr, weather

This is sort of a follow-up to my previous post, "The Pealing of Bells". Well, just to bring you up to speed, I visited Sather Tower (the Campanile) of UC Berkeley.

While I was up there, I was snapping photos, as is my hobby nowadays. Other people were doing the same thing. A few people asked my dad to take a picture of them. I looked at their camera, and alas! It was a Panasonic Lumix, blue like mine. In fact, the two cameras were exactly the same.

Whenever I hear bells mentioned, I end up thinking of the song Viva la Vida, from Coldplay. Part of the song mentions bells.

In language arts class, part of our homework was to find some song lyrics where slant rhyming is used. (A slant rhyme is when two or more words sound similar but still different, like dark and heart, or me and harmony) I was sitting there thinking of songs that I knew (besides the Japanese ones XD) and I started remembering the lyrics of Viva la Vida. Well, then I noticed the two other people sitting at my table group were also trying to recall lyrics. Upon listening closely, I realized it was from the very same song.

I've been hearing Coldplay music in other places too. It's golf season again, so my dad has been watching golf on TV. In the background, the Coldplay song Clocks was playing (without any voices, though).

A while back, in language arts class, we spent the whole period writing an in-class essay. We had been given the prompt options before. The purpose of this was to practice writing within a time limit and also to practice writing the kind of essay that would score well based on the grading guidelines that are used for writing tests. One of the things you need to do to get a high score is to come up with a unique interpretation of the prompt.

That's a pretty tough thing to do, isn't it? What if you came up with something and you thought it was unique, but fourteen of your classmates also thought that? How would you be able to know whether you had a rare interpretation or not unless you were able to compare yourself to other people?

What really makes someone unique? It is commonly said that everyone is different. At the same time, we are more similar than we think. (In fact, humans have a lot of genes in common with corn, or so I heard... D: ) There are those that seek to make us be the same. And there are those who seek to make us be different. Which is really better? For to be different means we could end up apart from each other. Separated by the things we don't have in common. But to be the same means that you could lose your identity.

There are times that I feel separated from my peers. True, I may spend my day with them, but hearing their problems, sometimes I end up thinking, "Why is that a problem when there is so much else in the world?" or "I've already gone through that years ago." Perhaps that is was led to my belief that I am old. For the older you are, the more experiences you are likely to have gone through, and so you will end up with much wisdom (or in some cases, bitterness at the injustice).

On a side note, I discovered one possible origin of Santa Claus. It appeared in the book Twice Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris.

"Now, the last thing we have to do is find a name for our business. Since it's all Mr. Lucasa's idea, I think it should be named for him. I've been fiddling around making anagrams out of his name. And I think I've come up with something. It just needs a little tinkering."
She put a piece of paper in front of them. Written across the top was STAN LUCASA, and underneath were all the combinations of letters she'd been able to think of, none of which made any sense at all, including:
ASA CALNUTS
SAL NATSUCA
SALSA CATUN
LASSA TUNAC
LUTS SAANAC
At the very bottom of the page was a name with a circle around it. "This is the one I think we should use," Susan said. "I can't explain why - it just seems right. What do you think?"
"Santa Claus," Mr. Lucasa said slowly, trying it out.

Labels: bells, clocks, coldplay, deja vu, different, interpretation, jean ferris, language arts, problem, same, santa claus, sather tower, slant rhyme, songs, twice upon a marigold, unique, viva la vida

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