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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With only two weeks of summer remaining, I've decided to make the most of it. My father gave me the A-OK to take walks by myself, as long as I didn't go too far away from home and remembered to bring my garage opener and cell phone with me.

My plans were foiled the first time that I made up my mind to go outside for a stroll. The sun was particularly high in the sky in the early afternoon, so I decided to wait a few hours for it to go down a bit. But then someone rang the doorbell. I figured that I shouldn't leave the house anytime soon just in case whoever it was might see me and try to talk to me. Or even worse, he/she might realize I had left home and would try to break in. (Well, we do have an alarm system, but if there's no one in the vicinity, you could still probably get away with stealing something.)

By the time I figured I could try venturing outdoors, it was already past 5 pm. If I went out now, my parents might return while I was gone. I would have to leave a note for them saying, "I'm fine, don't look for me" or something (but then they might worry and think I was running away from home). So I figured I'd have to give up on my solo walk for that day.

But on Monday, I gave it another try. I had woken up fairly early that day, so I was already rarin' to go when it was 11 am. I decided to walk to the end of the street that I live on, where the cul-de-sac is (I happen to live at the very beginning of the street, although someone who lives further down the street once said she thinks of my house as being the end of the street). There are gaps in the fence which you can go through to cross the train tracks and enter the park that is on the other side of the tracks. (The official entrance to the park is at the end of a different street. I usually go in through the little side entrance.)

As I entered the park, I saw that there were squirrels running away, probably to escape me, the big scary monster. There were also a bunch of rather funny birds. I am quite sure they were quails. (Quails are California's state bird, but I've never really seen them before. At least, not that many of them at once) They began toddling off quickly when they realized I was there. I followed them for a while (which made them walk in their awkward way even faster) until they reached a dead end and instead flew up to escape me. I guess they aren't really used to people. So they only come out at times of day where the people are far away or there aren't many of them.

I was planning to have a bit of time to myself for quiet contemplation. While walking there I had been feeling quite amiable. However, when I was about to settle down on a bench in the park, I noticed a fly on it. It wasn't one of those tiny ones that don't really bother you. It was one of those big fly sort of flies. (Due to my lack of insect knowledge, I can't tell the species.) There are no other benches in the park besides the picnic tables, which I don't want to sit at because they are close to the playground and the parents with their little kids will probably think I'm suspicious. (I mean, I was taking a box out of my bag. What if there had been a bomb in it? Though I can assure you I am not at all interested in terrorism.)

Then, soon after I dismissed the park bench as being undesirable, I heard a baby's crying. I didn't have much reason to be staying in the park any longer anyhow, so then I left for home, but using a different, longer route. Along the way home I saw a cat, which improved my mood considerably (at least, until it left). Nothing ever turns out perfectly, but I had a lovely time walking by myself. Somehow it's different when you're alone. Even if you're with someone else and you're not talking to them, you're still aware of his/her presence. But by yourself, you can let down your guard and relax for a change.

Labels: alone, animals, danger, fly, going home, outside, park, quails, ruined, summer, terrorism, thoughts, time, walk

Two nights ago, I found myself in the world of dreams. This hasn't happened for quite a while. In fact, I can't recall having any dreams since I got out of school.

I was at school and we were going on a field trip. We got onto a bus - but it was no ordinary bus. The interior was more spacious than your ordinary school bus, and the seats, instead of being lined up in two columns, were against the walls. We had chosen where we would sit beforehand by marking places on a chart. I had gotten the direction mixed up and sat at the right edge of a black bench at the back of the bus. I was supposed to sit on the left side, where two friends were. But since the bus was moving and I thought it would be troublesome to ask everyone to scoot over a bit so I could take my rightful place, I decided to remain where I was.

Then I noticed one of my friends was taking a picture of me using a device. I'm not sure how I knew, but I knew it was a camera. It looked very strange, with yellowish-orange and black colors.

Eventually we got off the bus and arrived at a place that seemed to be a recreational center. We all went to a room that looked very much like my language arts classroom. The teacher said to get our sleeping bags ready for later. I realized with a jolt that I had seen "sleeping bag" on the recommended items for the trip, but I had deemed it unnecessary and forgotten about it. I hadn't expected us to actually have naptime on the trip.

Then I left the classroom and began walking around. I recall walking on a grassy hill, and I think there were some fenceposts here and there. I eventually decided to go the bathroom. I saw someone I knew there. When I was exiting the bathroom, I went out the wrong door and found myself facing a swimming pool. There was a banner of some sort put up near it. The girl that I knew came out that way too. I was going to go back into the bathroom and exit through the correct door, but she said, "You can just walk around to the front." So that's what I did.

I don't remember much else of the dream. I think I had woken up from it by then. But I do recall having seen one other person in that dream - probably while I had been walking around the grassy hill. I've seen that person in another dream, too. It's been a long time since I've been able to talk to that person. I wish we could be friends again. Like we used to be.

Labels: bathroom, bus, camera, classroom, door, dream, field trip, friends, past, people, recreational center, school, sleeping bag, summer, swimming pool

Today has been a chilly day. There are clouds in the sky for the first time in a week or so. I can't remember a year when there was such cold weather at this time in June.

Maybe this year is meant to be different. There was rain later in spring than normal. The reservoir is full and beautiful and reflective. But not everything is good about such change. Different weather is bad for some fruits. I heard that cherries were more expensive this year. And my mother worries that our persimmon trees will not yield much when the time comes to harvest their fruits because of the unusual weather.

But this chill, though it is June, makes me wonder if perhaps the summer will end early this year. My dad dismissed the idea, saying something like "The summer really starts with July 4th" which I don't really understand (I mean, only the USA celebrates Independence Day). There was already a warm spell back in May.

I read the book Sisters of the Sword: Journey Through Fire. The main character, Kimi, is driven by her desire for revenge, but she is told that she should not be filled with so much hate, that it will consume her and lead to her defeat. But in the book I am Apache, revenge seems to be embraced, as warriors set out to avenge their loved ones, who were killed by Mexicans in a surprise attack. I've heard the phrase "revenge is sweet", but is it really? If you kill someone, your hands will be sullied by the blood, and you may forever live with the guilt. And it would not bring back the people that you have lost. But perhaps you must kill someone for the sake of the future and of other innocent people - if you don't kill the person, it is not far-fetched to think he or she will go on to take more lives.

I've also been watching an anime; the name is Ef: A Tale of Melodies. It is a disturbing story, but at the same time it also intrigues me. One of the characters said that he wondered why a person would be born in the first place if they would die. He said that there isn't any point in starting fights that you know you will lose.

But I think that because we are alive, there must be something out there for us to accomplish. I don't think life is meaningless just because we know it will come to an end, for some sooner than others. We still think of things that are temporary as important, like youth, passion, friendship, and dreams. It's up to us to make these things permanent. If two friends swear to be BFFs and support each other when times are rough, then the promise is not broken.

As I am now, I am weak. I don't have thick skin, so the words of people pierce me more deeply than any physical injury. But I still want to become strong. I'll fight every day, even if it's an uphill battle, even if I die and am forgotten. I am alive, so I'll do what I can. There are days when I'm lost in a sea of misery. Days when who I am and who people think I am are different; days when what I want to do and what I need to do are unbearably far apart. But I'll fight on. Even if I'll die trying.

Labels: ability, books, death, different, dream, ef a tale of melodies, fruit, I am apache, journey through fire, life, purpose, reservoir, revenge, sisters of the sword, strength, summer, temporary, weather

Well, I mentioned the butterfly effect in my previous post. In a nutshell, it's where one small thing happens, which leads to another thing, and another thing, and another thing, until a really big thing happens.

Shirayuki no Kimi called me a young grasshopper. I was rather offended and retorted, "I'm not young!" (After all, young can be associated with foolish. Like how in French, it's better to be called Madame than Mademoiselle because of such associated meanings)

SnK: Fine, then, old grasshopper.
Me: Dead Grasshopper.
SnK: Decomposing grasshopper.
Me: Hm...Worm food grasshopper.
SnK: Bird poop grasshopper.
Me: Mom's head grasshopper.
It kept going for a little while until it got to "Juppie's photo grasshopper", "Internet grasshopper", and then "famous grasshopper".

I remember that when I was at Yosemite, there was a pretty entertaining riddle that was shared amongst us. It goes like this: There is another world behind a green glass door. But not everything can go through the door. Here's some examples:

Daddies can go through, but fathers can't.
Kittens can go through, but cats can't.
Veggies can go through, but vegetables can't.
Scissors can go through, but shears can't.
Wheels can go through, but tires can't.

If you've already heard this riddle before, I suppose it'd be pretty easy for you to come up with some examples of what can go through and what can't. But see if you can figure it out if you haven't heard this riddle.

I'm pretty bad at riddles otherwise, though. I usually have to have someone tell me the answers. D: Either that, or the riddles really are that difficult. (But then again, if you know the answer to the riddle it must seem pretty obvious.)

Anyhow, though, I have a lot of things I want to do this summer vacation. Since we're going on vacation in July, it's not a good idea to go to summer classes because I might have to miss some of it to go on the trip (and so it wouldn't really be worth the money paid, eh?).
- Do some painting (I never get around to it during the school year :( )
- Practice on the tablet (Haha, I used it to color one drawing, but that is pretty much the extent of what I've done.)
- Drawing by hand (need to learn to do side views. And work on an eye style, as well as hair.)
- Make an OC - Original Character. Already have two but I want to change their looks a bit. And decide on the last name for one of them.
- Take photographs
- Do a 30-day challenge on EA Sports Active (Ugh. My dad bought another video game on a whim. But this one really makes you sweat...Not like Wii Fit.)

Unfortunately, my mom thinks I should get studying for next year, since there'll be SATs to take and whatnot. But maybe I can evade it, somehow or other. ;)

Labels: 30 day, butterfly effect, challenge, dead, drawing, EA Sports Active, grasshopper, green glass door, OC, painting, plans, riddle, summer, summer school, tablet, vacation, video games, yosemite

The mention of Saturday school would normally bring a different sort of image to my mind. Saturday school is sometimes given as a punishment to students. Some teacher will be supervising the students attending on a Saturday and you can do homework or read a book or something like that. I have no idea what it's really like, nor do I have much knowledge of detention, but although it doesn't sound too bad, I think it would be a pain to have to go to school on a weekend, and it'd also be a blemish on your record (supposing that you had committed a offense to have gotten into Saturday class, right?).

Well, this was sort of a voluntary Saturday school. It had been mentioned briefly on the school announcements that there were flyers in the office regarding a language arts workshop. At first I had not been particularly interested, because my language arts teacher attended a workshop for teachers, but the info taught didn't really apply to her teaching because it was a little too basic (better for elementary school than the upper grades, anyhow), and this gave me some distrust in the ability of a workshop to actually be a help to me. But at urging from my mother, I dropped by the school office to look for a flyer, and found that there were none.

My mother took it upon herself to look up the workshop, presumably on the Internet, and so she registered me for the workshop. As I have said, I was rather reluctant, but I think my mom has inherited my grandmother's stubbornness, and there is no point arguing with her. She insisted that it would be a good experience, and I had decided to try new things in my life (I am not much of a risk taker, but I thought I would miss a lot of good things out there if I didn't...) so I ended up being won over.

This morning I was still groggy. Waking up around seven or eight o'clock in the morning is not unusual for me, but since I was sleeping poorly lately (due to me being sick with a cold) I would wake up and then go back to sleep until about nine. I have never been one for sleeping in that much. My brain always seems to think it is a school day so I often wake up around eight or so, since my mind must be unconsciously saying, "AHHHHH!!! We're late for school!!!" and forcibly getting me up. And sometimes I have to use the bathroom in the morning. If it is late enough in the morning I will not be able to fall asleep again. (But I can't just not drink water. I get dehydrated easily and if I don't drink water I will wake up with bad breath and an icky feeling in my throat.) I can't wait until we go on vacation this summer. Once I get home I plan to not adjust back to Pacific Time so that I can do what I did last summer after my vacation. I would wake up in the afternoon, and go to bed at midnight or some other late time. In this way I got more sleep than I could ever have gotten if my body was following Pacific Time. I hope I can do this again this summer. I have a small chance of growing taller if I can get a ton of sleep.

For the workshop, you could choose two out of three classes offered in the morning, and everyone attended the same class in the afternoon. I picked blogging and oral storytelling for my morning classes. The afternoon class featured comedy. I suppose I should not reveal too much of what I had heard or else anyone reading this right now would not have much reason to attend such a workshop.

I will, however, say that the instructor of the blogging class, who is a professional blogger himself, says that it's easier to get the attention of people with a shorter post and having the text in the beginning be related to the title of the post, whereas having a longer post is to the benefit of people who are already readers of your blog.

He also said that there are different kinds of bloggers - people who write for the sake of writing (who just have to write, it is their passion) and people who write to get read (because, let's face it, it's kind of rough if you're writing and no one ever cares. It's like shouting at a wall or something.). But there are also a few who are a mixture of the two, who write both for writing's sake and for people to read it. I guess I would be the mixture type of blogger.

The instructor seemed to be much more supportive of Wordpress as a place to blog as compared to Blogger. He said that as Blogger is part of Google, even if you asked them a question you wouldn't get a response, but if you need to know something about blogging, you can just drive over to San Francisco and ask the Wordpress folks. Although I have thought about making a Wordpress blog, I am not sure if I want to switch over because I have kept this blog for such a long time...It would be such a pain to make a change.

Labels: blog, blogger, brain, classes, dehydration, help, insomnia, language arts, plan, punishment, saturday, school, sleep, summer, time zone, vacation, water, wordpress, workshop, writing

My mother seems to think all the gifts that I pick out are pretty much useless. I missed some of my friends' birthdays, so I figured I should just go get Christmas gifts for them. I went shopping today and picked out a few things. I think the items were somewhat useful but my mom thinks they are impractical, especially because of the cost (though we had coupons, so it wasn't so bad). When we got home, my mother started digging through our old stuff...The main reason for that was my dad's work - they were having a "White Elephant" event. That's where the workers bring in a gift and the gifts are mixed up and handed out to people. Last year my dad brought in a singing bird (not a real bird!). It was a nice thing that we got from my dad's friend's daughters, but we never really used it, so it was better off in someone else's hands.

Anyhow, while my mom was looking through our old stuff she discovered various things we never even touched again, like goodie bags from parties. She deemed it all useless things that money is spent on. I think it's necessary, though, because for one thing, it's good for the economy (especially in these not-so-stable times), and for another thing, it would be really sad if no one got gifts, right? Even if the gifts weren't particularly helpful, or cost too much to be "worth" it, it's still good that people can give gifts to each other. I mean, a gift isn't only something material, it can also make you feel like people do care about you (unless it's a gift that was insulting or showed no thought).

I really am a packrat, though. Sometimes my family tries to clean things - especially the dining table, which gets heaped with newspapers, random scratch paper with math diagrams, food dishes, and the objects that are always there, like the napkin holder. My dad complained about how he wants to throw things out, but I always insist on keeping them, so he ends up having to stash it all elsewhere. Then when we're actually trying to find something we have trouble finding it. But throwing it away seems like a waste to me. It's better we keep our trash out of the Pacific Gyre. (That's a trash heap in the Pacific Ocean, I believe. I heard it was the size of Texas...Talk about scary.) And did you know what I heard once? The two things on Earth that are visible from Outer Space are the Great Wall of China and a garbage dump in New Jersey. Wow.

On to some other news. Today, since I was at a local mall, I stopped by at Coldstone Creamery. It is still, and will remain, my favorite ice cream store. I heard some noise, so I found the source of it...A band from an elementary school was playing Christmas music on a lower level of the mall. I realized that it could even be my elementary school because my band teacher in elementary school was there. I could recognize the music because I had played it myself, several years back. It's so weird not to be playing band anymore. I know I wouldn't be good at a wind instrument because I can't breathe that well (though I don't have asthma), but still. Sure does bring back memories of the old times.

Lately, the weather has been funny. It's quite cold - in fact, my mother said it was ten degrees colder than it usually is (well, at this time of year, in this area, I would assume). It even snowed on the nearby mountains, which was really pretty. It's been either foggy or cloudy these days and so it rains often. The fog makes me confused about the time of day since it covers up the sun. I end up getting up late some mornings because of it (not schooldays, I have to get up as normal then). I also get shocked at how dark it is early in the evening. I suppose I have to get used to it. The winter hasn't even "officially" started yet, I think. So there are still a few more months to go. I figure the summer will also be extreme to balance out the unusually cold winter. Probably it'll be roasting and no one except for those cyclists in matching suits will even try to go outside.

Maybe I should go travel somewhere in the summer, to get away from the extreme weather. What kind of place would have mild weather? I would like to go to Europe - like Barcelona, Spain, or Venice, Italy - and a cruise ship would be preferred, but we still haven't made up our minds. You always need to book these kinds of things way ahead of time so I suppose I have to make a decision so we can go somewhere in the summer. I decided to stay home this winter break, which is rare for me. But I don't want to spend money on traveling anymore because I end up getting airsick, carsick, or seasick from it. XD

Labels: band, christmas, coldstone creamery, elementary school, europe, gift, junk, mall, music, outer space, snow, summer, time, trash, travel, vacation, weather, white elephant, winter

I haven't posted in a while on this blog. I guess I've been busier this school year than I ever expected it to be. I was told eighth grade was a harder year by far but seeing as seventh grade was such a lax year for me, this is really a change. I have to get used to it again or I will lose all semblance of free time except for on weekends.

I'm already beginning to worry because I had some pretty unfortunate luck in science class. I was assigned the very first of the presentation days for my Current Events this trimester. Basically, Current Events is where you pick a newspaper article or something, and then you write about it and give a speech. Except in this case it has to be science related. I have a pretty good idea what article I'm going to use, but seeing as I have only until September 8th to get everything together, it's stressful. Also, I'm not very good at public speaking so I'm afraid my lack of charisma will result in a worse grade. I mean, in the past I have rocked on my feet from nervousness or missed some crucial part of the presentation or something along those lines.

As for the blog title, what I mean is that if you don't touch something for a while, dust collects on it. Like corners of my piano. The little parts at the very left and right sides of your piano keys, well, you never really put your hand there so there's dust on it. I had better make sure mold and dust and such doesn't grow on my blog.

I'd appreciate if you all let me know if the blog's layout is working out right for you. Sometimes the header and background image don't show up so the layout looks all weird and you can't see things like the navigation. And when you view certain pages, since I wrote too much, the scrollbar looks like it's cutting off the text. I'm going to try and fix it if I get the chance. Anyhow, if you can't see the navigation, try highlighting the page with your cursor (the arrow or whatever thing you have on the computer screen that you use to click on things) until you can see the stars. (I will see about changing them to text, maybe it'll be easier to navigate that way as well.)

Today my language arts teacher and class were supposed to sing the birthday song to me and another classmate of mine. Our birthdays are in August (more specifically the 5th) but since we have summer birthdays we have to celebrate during the school year instead. However, we didn't have enough time in class and so I didn't receive my head of the line pass or get sung to. I don't really care about that but I worry that maybe the teacher has trouble managing time or something. (Or perhaps it's just because it's Wednesday, a short day.) It's a good thing I have brunch right after language arts class.

Labels: birthday, busy, current events, dust, eighth grade, language arts, layout, middle school, navigation, problem, public speaking, science, speech, summer, time management

I thought up this title because I've had a lot of dreams and would like to write them down before I forget them. Perhaps I should keep a diary of sorts, except of my dreams, not daily life. (But I won't make this an official dream diary, because I do want to talk about other things here, and I usually don't remember my dreams...Except for recently) Whenever I hear the name Dreamland I feel like it sounds familiar and that's because I used to play an online multiplayer game called Toontown.

I kind of miss playing Toontown. When I was younger, quite a few years back, you could get a free trial, and you could go to the other lands. You can never get very far with a free trial since it's only like 3 or 4 days but at least you could see the other neighborhoods (there are many different places you can go in the game). But then they changed it so you have to subscribe to go to the other lands. I decided to subscribe during the summertimes. I actually got quite far on one of my accounts and I'm proud of it. But I didn't subscribe this year and I feel strange not having played it. (I know I wouldn't have had much to do in the game besides maybe fight the really tough bosses, but just nostalgia, you know?)

Anyhow, on to the dreams, since they are already starting to slip from my mind. I'll go in chronological order (as in, when they happened). They did not happen in the same day, mind you.

- The first one was that I was at a pool. It's not like most swimming pools you'd ever see. It was indoor, except the walls were high and they were held up by columns. The pool was sort of like a lot of rectangles stuck together which made it look like a blocky zigzag, I guess. My mom and I were swimming in it and we were wearing wetsuits and snorkels and things like that. She and I had split up and I had swam deeper in the water to go into what I thought was probably a tunnel somewhere but it was just a dead end pretty soon. So I swam out of it and was going to go to the other side of the pool, but a shark was blocking my way. It swam back and forth in a straight line like those video game enemies you sometimes see. It noticed me and started turning around in a tight circle, watching me. I thought it was going to attack so I began back paddling furiously. The shark was going to lunge as I was pulling myself out of the water. (Luckily the dream ended because probably I would've had my legs stuck in a shark's mouth...Whoa.)

- The second one was quite short and simple. I was taking my vitamins and I was only supposed to take two of each kind but I started eating too many of them, so I overdosed on vitamins. It was freaky. At least I think it was an accident in the dream and I wasn't trying to kill myself.

- The third one was just last night, in fact. I was probably younger than I am now because I was on a trip led by my fifth grade teacher, Mr. Blaker. But the people with me were not necessarily the people who were in my class then. Just some random folks, some from the YMCA daycares, or from middle school, or something. So we were on a field trip to Los Angeles. There was a small bay there and we were on a huge white ship. (I don't know if Los Angeles actually has a bay, but in the dream someone said it was Los Angeles) All us kids got on some swim suits, life jackets, swimming goggles, that sort of thing. We went swimming in the bay. I don't know if the water was cold, but it was very clean and blue. And there were a bunch of white sailboats and fishing boats and stuff docked. You could see some tall buildings but not as much as you would expect from a big city, and the sky was quite clear. Eventually we stopped swimming and went up on the ship for a while, but then we were given the option to swim one more time if we wanted to before leaving Los Angeles. So I went down this ladder (it was quite a short one, I mean, you could jump from level to level if you wanted), and that area of the ship was really crowded what with people running about talking or going down and up the ladders. So I put on my gear again and I was going to go swim but it turned out that the only way down to the water this time was climbing! You had to climb down this tall, squishy sort of blown up thing. It sort of resembled the weird things you sometimes see at car dealers, you know, the long squishy ones that flop in the wind. I climbed down it carefully and I thought I was going to fall off because of my weight, but no, I didn't. Sometimes I had to climb onto a blown up dolphin, and I don't know what that was for... Eventually I got all the way down and swam for a while before going back up. There, a guy (whom I actually recognize as someone who goes to my school currently) showed us his bookmark collection, which had various quotes written on them. He took out a book as well, a small white one which I mistook for The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E. L. Konigsburg but it wasn't. Mr. Blaker took the book from the guy, found a page, and started reading. The story was set in the medieval times. There had been a legend, which I don't remember clearly, but it involved some important holy man who walked up some stairs and his key got tangled around his legs (maybe the key was on a chain or something). A man walked up some stairs and this happened. He had been invited to the home of two people who wanted him to marry their daughter, and he didn't want to get married but he thought he should be polite. Anyhow, the people who invited him gasped upon seeing that the key got tangled around him. I don't remember more since I had woken up by that point. (What a complicated dream! One of my longer ones.)

Labels: bay, bookmark, books, danger, dream, dreamland, field trip, key, legend, los angeles, neighborhood, online, overdose, shark, ship, summer, swim, swimming pool, toontown, vitamins

I don't drink coffee, so I'm not talking about coffee beans. But this reminds me of something from Ouran High School Host Club. The people who go to Ouran Academy are all wealthy, privileged people. Haruhi Fujioka, being a "commoner" and a scholarship student, was to work for the host club to pay back a debt, so she bought instant coffee. The Ouran students had never tried it and said, "Oh my! So it is true that commoners are so busy they can't grind their own beans!" I doubt that everyone is necessarily that busy. Sure, overall most people do have a lot of things on their schedules but if my dad has time to watch movies in the evening then he certainly has time to grind coffee beans. (No offense to my father. But he knows that I think he doesn't do much at work. XD)

Before I start rambling too much all over again, I might as well clarify what I'm talking about. During this summer it was kind of a daze for me, since I was sleeping better and had a lot of free time, so on and so forth. But now I've gone back to school and I have to adjust back to the tediousness of the regular year. And eventually, when I'm working, unless I'm a teacher, I will probably have to get used to it almost forever. It's a rather melancholy thought so I will try not to dwell on it. Already we have homework again, however, and sooner or later I will have to come back "down to Earth".

Today, in fact, was the first day of the 2009 - 2010 school year for me. The first class was history, with, ironically, a teacher called Mr. Brown. This is weird seeing as I have had both Kampps, Browns, and Blairs. (The Kampps are married, the Browns are just...unrelated, and the Blairs are brothers.) It seems like if there's 2+ teachers with the same last name I end up being one of their students.

Overall I think the teachers this year are okay. The impression I got from them...
History - Kind of intimidating, but he is funny. I'm still wary, though, because he said he likes to yell.
Science - I don't mean this to be rude or anything, but she certainly looks old. I wonder if she's about retiring age yet. I know Mr. Brown (last year, not this year) said that the 8th grade teachers are...well...they've got a lot of years under their belts. (Not that they necessarily wear belts.)
Language Arts - She seems pretty cool. I noticed that she is a big fan of the Chargers football team. This reminded me of Mrs. Jackson in the way that Mrs. Jackson is a big fan of the Red Socks baseball team. (She even has a sign that says Red Sox Fan Parking Only on her wall) Anyhow, I have noticed my LA teacher is the most lax when it comes to late work because she accepts it two out of three trimesters whereas the others won't even take it unless there are "unusual and extreme circumstances" (in the words of the science teacher who once had a student with leukemia).
Geometry - I like him even if I did think his voice was just a touch odd at first. He has some sense of humor which is a relief. I heard two of his kids go to my school. Oh yeah, and for some reason the Geometry class is nearly full this year. I wonder why?
PE - This is Mr. Blair. I had him for a trimester last year so I kind of know him already. He always reminds me of Luigi from the Mario video games for some reason. My PE period is 6th period. Strangely, I had 6th period PE for the first trimester all three years of middle school.
French - I can't pronounce her name at all but I'm going to work on it. Though I pale at the thought of learning hundreds, maybe thousands, of French words, I suppose I signed up for it, so I have to deal with it. What was funny was that she bought an hourglass from the Galeries Lafayette in Paris, France, but then it turned out to be "made in China". I bet nowadays almost everything is.

Labels: beans, boredom, busy, coffee, coincidence, daily, everyday, first day, future, grind, high school, impression, instant coffee, luigi, made in china, ouran high school host club, summer, teacher

If you think of the summer as a performance, it starts off feeling exciting. You might have a case of the butterflies from stage fright, or maybe you're brimming with confidence and anticipation, or maybe you're hiding in the corner from dread. But either way, the whole performance is ahead of you yet. And then eventually you get to intermission (or if not that, you get halfway through the performance) and you're beginning to realize, "Oh, already that much of it is done, we'll be through not long from now." And then now it's almost time to take your bows. But when it comes to summer vacation, there is no encore. You will not get summoned back to the stage for another round of applause (except for the Staff Learning Days and stuff, but that's different).

I am afraid that my summer is draining away before my eyes. I have not made preparations for school and have basically procrastinated and poorly managed my time a whole lot this summer. Also, one of my friends who was visiting for the summer will be going on back to Taiwan not too long from now. Even the school schedules have been put up on our grade viewer (whether on accident or on purpose, I have no idea) and those are all definite signs that summer is coming to its end. I would like to ask you all, how were your summers? Did you put on a spectacular show? Or are you glad to have it over with? Or somewhere in between?

Now, I don't want to spend too much time dishing out sappy lines, so instead I would like you to take a look at some photos and drawings and critique them. You can find more of them on my DeviantArt account, link at the side of the posts. Click on them for full view.





Eek, I know my drawings are kind of messed up (like how I'm so lazy that I made the person in the first drawing put her - because it is a girl, but dressed as a boy?! - hands behind her back, and how I imitated Arina Tanemura's style in the second drawing) but oh well. Practice practice practice!

Labels: accomplishments, critique, drawing, encore, end, performance, photography, practice, summer, time, vacation

I often have trouble finding desktop backgrounds I like. I may have complained about this in earlier posts...The screen resolution of my computers makes it hard to find a background. Even my old laptop, which I used to use a few years ago before it got slow and keyboard started deteriorating, doesn't have the 1024x768 resolution that is common of backgrounds, so I could never really find a good one. The background would get stretched out and ugly on the screen, or I'd have to "tile" it. (You may understand what I mean if you have spent time picking backgrounds a lot) This is the link to a site I found which has some nice widescreen, big wallpapers. They are mostly nature backgrounds, though. Click here

There is the possibility I could try to get a summer job. A friend of a friend has her own company, Gal with the Bleu Umbrella, or just Bleu Umbrella Co. The website link is here. Click here It looks pretty cool. Anyhow, there's two jobs you can have, either model or freelancer. Certainly I am not model material (except for that funny time in Mr. Blair's class, when he said "This person will be a model" and picked out MY name XD) so I suppose I will be a freelancer. Apparently, if I apply for the job and get accepted, I'd do things like host stuff for the Bleu Umbrella Co. Anyhow, it's worth a shot trying to get a job; I would like to be able to make some money so I am not always depending on my parents. They work hard and I want them to relax since they are "getting on in their age".

I've just started reading a book called The Prophet of Yonwood, by Jeanne DuPrau (from the books of Ember series, and I have talked about them in a previous post somewhere). On the cover many birds made a strange shape. At first I thought it was a fish, pointing downward, but then I took a look and said, "Wait a minute! That's not a fish tail! That's a nuclear bomb!" Here's links to two pictures so you can see what I mean.
Nuclear bomb (The grey/yellow thing)
The Prophet of Yonwood

My mom cares a lot about getting good deals on things. When she came back from Las Vegas before, she brought me a present, a plush dolphin! I love dolphins. They are my favorite animal. But then I took one look at it and thought right away that I'd seen it before. It had been on sale at Rite Aid for several dollars less than my mom had bought it for. My mom was quite mortified and had a rather strained look on her face. I know I'd want to save money whenever I can, especially if I'm getting the same exact product. But oh well. I like to imagine I am "adopting" stuffed animals and saving them from certain doom. (It's a great exaggeration, though.)

Labels: background, bleu umbrella co, bomb, books, clothes, company, cover, deal, desktop, dolphin, fish, interfacelift, job, money, nuclear, save, screen resolution, summer, the prophet of yonwood

That's actually part of some song lyrics. That's only because I really couldn't think of a title today. While I was at school I had plenty of ideas for what to write in my blog post but once I went home, the ideas just flew right out of my head. I don't know, maybe it's just change of atmosphere or short term memory, like Dory from Finding Nemo, if you've seen that animated movie.

I should talk about something from the post title, so I will. We used to read a book called Weighty Words in language arts class. (We haven't gotten to read it for a very long time, though; only just today did my teacher resume) Each letter of the alphabet has an interesting word. A story is written about it and is not obvious until the end of the story. I find this is a good way to teach people instead of memorizing vocabulary lists, which tends to make the students' minds degenerate. Or something. (My father used to teach, many, many, years ago. It was math, but I think he might still get what I'm saying.)

Much earlier in the year, we read a story about the letter E. An ant used to be famous for his speed. He ran a lot to get food. But later he discovered a more convenient food source, so he got lazy and stopped running around all the time. They called him an ex-speedy ant (like ex-husband, if you have been divorced), which led to the word, expedient. There's even a website called expedia.com, I think. Anyhow, expedient doesn't necessarily mean you are lazy, it just means if you have a harder way and an easy way, you'd take the easy way. So I'd like you all to call me expedient instead of lazy. XD

On to actual news. I have received my school yearbook for this year. They are not cheap, so I hope it is worth it this year. I'm glad the cover looks better. Some people thought the fake stain type things looked disgusting but I would say it's a big improvement from last year. The cover then was just blank white with some words. Not exactly something you want to look at, like the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. Oh yeah, have you heard this rumor? I heard that if you stare at the Mona Lisa long enough, it seems like she blinks, winks, smiles, or looks at you. I heard this effect was achieved by da Vinci himself painting many layers on top of each other with oil paint, causing it to look like the painting can move when it really can't. That's really cool. I wonder if I could try it sometime. Maybe this summer...

...Since this summer I am signing up for summer classes, as always. My mom believes summer must be occupied with something since she doesn't believe in resting on your laurels. Oh, I should explain what that phrase means. In the past, laurels were an honor since you got them for an achievement, Roman senators used to wear crowns of laurels. Someone who is resting on their laurels is satisfied with what they have achieved. Which is kind of true for me, I suppose. I think I've come a long way personally. Nowadays someone who rests on their laurels is considered lazy. (I'd call myself expedient, but it's not suitable for this occasion.)

This year I have signed up for Japanese class and painting studio. I have decided not to take any real academic classes, since I think the purpose of summer vacation is to be what the name is - a vacation from the stress of homework and tests, and social mores of school. (Sometimes I confuse myself.) I really like artsy things, though I have to say I don't like how art teachers are so picky and critique every little thing. But I guess that's their job, so I should zip my mouth closed. Japanese is just a language that I find pretty to say. I would learn something else but they only offer so many languages there... I wanted some of my friends to come too, but they have different circumstances. Some of them are going somewhere (well, I am going to Australia, but one of my friends is going to Taiwan and Europe) and others have family matters (I believe there is resent about the Japanese invasion of Korea in the past century) and yet others don't even take classes during the summer. I have heard it is boring to stay at home during the summer but I seriously want to try it for once! I haven't done that since I was younger, I always was shuffled off to day camps and academic daycares/summer school like a toy nobody wanted.

Labels: ant, art, books, brain, expedient, forgetful, japanese, language arts, laurels, lazy, learn, leonardo da vinci, lyrics, mona lisa, painting, phrase, summer, unwanted, weighty words, yearbook

It's a relatively untested theory, but I have tried it once. I've had a sore throat lately, probably caught from school or some other place. When I was walking home, the mom of one of my friends motioned me over. Due to my bad hearing I didn't understand her at first, but soon I realized she was offering me some gum. I accepted, figuring it couldn't hurt, since school is over and I was outside the fence anyhow (apparently you'll get a "behavior report" and gum-scraping duty every time the teacher catches you). It was minty, and I'm not a big fan of mint, but the taste was refreshing, and it made my throat feel soothed temporarily, kind of like those Fruit Breezers cough drops.

PE in Robinson's has been pretty relaxing for the last two days, actually. I was pretty freaked out on Tuesday since Mr. Robinson was out for the day and the substitute put an X next to my name since I forgot my notebook at home. Then the next day Mr. Robinson looked at the list to check if everyone had their notebooks. I'm afraid he might take off points for this, which is pretty bad, since I'm not that good at PE (especially skills testing). If luck is with me, maybe it'll be okay, after all.

My parents have been planning our summer vacation lately. We're probably going to go to Australia, seeing as my dad used to live over there, and has a good friend whom we refer to as "Pluto" (he has his own minor company called Pluto International). Pluto will act as our tour guide since none of us have been to Australia for a long time (in my case, not at all). I hope he doesn't start patting me on the back. He hits pretty hard, even if he means it as a friendly gesture.

I witnessed a rather unsightly thing in science class. So, today, we were out in the nature center making "molds and casts" out of blue clay and some weird Plaster of Paris (the dust got in my eyes, bleck). You make the clay soft and crush it down so it is kind of flat but still very thick. Then press one of the plastic models (shells, birds, sharks, etc.) into the clay to make an imprint. Mix the plaster and water, and pour it into your "mold". Once it hardens, you should be able to peel back the plaster and have an imitation (I call it that since it might not turn out exact) of the original organism.

Now, during this time, my science teacher was shoveling plants out of the nature center pond, which is getting overgrown with them. As he bent over, a little something could be seen since his pants didn't cover them. (I think you can guess.) It was green with white patterns on it. I'm not sure what it is, probably clovers. Anyhow, I thought it was impolite to look, so I instead shifted my gaze to the paint cans on the ground.

In woodshop, we've been practicing an odd chant to learn all the tools that he sets out on the table. It seems like some people need a lot of help from Mr. M, but some are really fast and accurate, like a guy called Corey Bemis (I hear his nickname is Corelina Jolie, but I wouldn't know since I'm not in any other classes with him, he's in another village). I was pretty disturbed since I thought he wasn't...well...that bright.

Labels: australia, cast, clay, gum, mint, mold, notebook, PE class, plaster, pluto international, sick, slap, summer, vacation, woodshop

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