The post is way too long, so I have split into two parts. :p The more interesting stuff will be in Part 2.

I hardly wrote anything in my blog during the summer, nor did I really use my brain much, except for imagining what kind of schemes the people/creatures/organizations around me have been putting into action. Certainly not the most useful way to use my time and energy, but it sure is fun coming up with conspiracies. I'll start out with the scariest and most true one...

Someone is Trying to Hack Into my Email
I haven't been using my Gmail lately, and for a good reason...After I came back from a short trip, I tried to log into my Google account, but I was told that my account had been temporarily closed due to suspicious activity. I had to have the Google automated service call my phone so I could get a verification number which would allow me to reclaim my account. I found out that somehow, a spam email had been sent to pretty much all of my contacts without me knowing about it. (Luckily, it seems that the emails probably didn't get through to the recipients.) I don't know how this could've happened. Is there some sort of virus? Or maybe someone really does want to ruin my life, one part at a time?

The rest of them are pretty much coincidences. In other words, mostly nonsense. :p

Surprise Parties and Birthdays-that-are-all-around-the-same-time are the "In" Thing
Everyone seems to be throwing them these days. One of my friends said she just threw a surprise party for her friend; actually, though, it's mostly the middle-aged folks who seem to love surprise parties. In just one week, two of my mom's friends threw surprise birthday parties. My mom even asked me if we should do that for my dad. :\

Oh, and it turns out many of the Vocaloids have birthdays (or anniversaries of their releases, whatever you'd rather call it) around the same time of year. Lily just had one a few days ago, today is Miku's birthday, and tomorrow is VY1's birthday! Is this just a lucky time of year for companies of Vocaloids or something?

Not to mention one of my friends just presented me with a birthday gift, so I guess people have really gotten into the birthday spirit...

Doctors Are Out to Get Me
I have the feeling that my doctor may not be as mellow as he has previously seemed to be. For one thing, he charges me lots of different things - my mother says we have to pay for the visit to his clinic, the shots I've been receiving, and some third thing that I'm not sure about. (Our insurance is supposed to pay for most of the costs, but apparently it hasn't come through yet.) Then there's the fact that the doctor now leaves the door to his clinic open. I thought it was because he wanted the germs of his patients to spread all over the place so that more people would get sick and would have to come to see him - and ka-ching goes the money...But actually, my mom insists that the doctor just wants to avoid turning on the air conditioning.

I think dentists are pretty evil too, though, or at least orthodontists are. My dentist/orthodontist (he does both) tried to convince me to get braces every time I went to see him. I asked him if I would suffer any health problems if I didn't get braces, but he said I wouldn't; however, getting the braces is supposed to make me look better. Ha! I said no thanks. (He still says that I might regret it someday, though, and that it's not going to be fun to get braces when I'm an adult. But I don't plan on doing so. Maybe my teeth are imperfect, but hey, I can bite just fine with them.)

Kpop's Hidden Motives
My friend bashiri came over during the summer and showed me a Music Mondays Youtube video, a show created by the couple Simon and Martina which expresses opinions on k-pop songs. I watched their episode for the song "Hot Summer" by f(x). They mentioned a street sign that said Flaxton Street. Since I'm not all that familiar with k-pop, I can't confirm this, but apparently this Flaxton Street makes an appearance in several other k-pop music videos. Besides that, the Music Mondays hosts pointed out that everyone in the "Hot Summer" music video is Korean, so apparently, people in Korea are able to dance in the blazing hot summer while wearing leather clothing and don't even break a sweat. Even the song lyrics and title are supposed to be really catchy, I guess, because after first hearing the song, whenever anyone mention the words "hot" and "summer", I immediately wanted to start singing, "Hot summer, ah hot hot summer."

Labels: air conditioning, birthday, braces, conspiracy, dentist, doctor, email, f(x), hot summer, kpop, money, party, surprise, theory, vocaloids

I often feel that I am in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some may dispute it, and remind me that I live in the Silicon Valley, the epicenter of the electronic world, not to mention that my neighborhood is one renowned for its school district (and according to my father, who has been to Taiwan, even the people there know that our town is home to excellent schools) and my town is the headquarters of a very famous company. But for me, those are not the things that make a place the place to be.

Only a half-hour's drive away is the city by the bay, the place that Tony Bennett, according to his song's lyrics, left his heart: San Francisco.
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Labels: beach, california, city, confusion, de young, islands, lost, memories, museum, ocean, pier 39, places, san francisco, seashells, silicon valley, surprise, travel, treasure island, tulips

There's this song that goes something like "I left my heart in San Francisco" (which I guess I can understand, because I think San Francisco is a nice city, despite apparently having a history of being notorious place). And I thought it was suitable considering what I was thinking about earlier.

The common belief is that being homesick will make a vacation miserable for a person. But I don't think that's necessarily the case. It's true, during the first one or two days of Yosemite, I was trying hard not to burst into desperate sobs, because I was unaccustomed to the rush of Yosemite, the horrible-smelling bathtubs, the thin walls of the tent (meaning that you could hear any loud noise being made elsewhere), and the lack of sympathy from much of the other people (judging from their excited attitudes, since I try to avoid pouring out my heart and soul to people I do not know well).

As is the unusual case here, after a few days, I realized that I would be going home soon, and with this thought in my mind, I acquired a much more positive attitude toward the Yosemite trip. Isn't it funny how wanting to go home can become your motivation? I kind of figured that if I had fun the time would pass faster and I could go home and sleep in my nice old bed and get to take a warm shower (the showers were so cold, it was warmer when you weren't showering than when you were showering...). And in this way I was able to enjoy the trip after all, despite being very paranoid for much of the time. I was very fearful during the hiking when we had to clamber up rocks (how precarious! One false move and you would fall all the way to the valley floor) and also when exploring caves (you could slip and break your bones or bang your head on the ceiling! Or you would at least end up with really dirty pants and gloves). But at the same time feeling the adrenaline rush was a good thing since it made me feel adventurous. For much of my life I had been craving something exciting. This is very contradictory considering that I'm a person that likes normality and regular comforting rhythms in their life.

Just the other night, I closed my eyes. I began to imagine that I was back in Yosemite again. I could imagine the covers on my bed turning into the top of the sleeping bag, and the quiet of the room turning into the annoying dripping and banging of the heater... For some reason this gave me a kind of comfort while also making me feel very nostalgic. I wonder if perhaps the reason why I keep waking up really early, like 7:00 am, when I don't need to get up until 7:45, is that my mind thinks, "Oh no! I am so late for the breakfast at Yosemite!" but that's not the case at all.

My parents said that maybe some other time, like in 2011, we could go to Yosemite again. I'd like to go back to Yosemite, but I feel like if I went back there, I wouldn't want to leave. I'd like my days to pass in a national park, the way some people spend a lot of time in Yellowstone, watching the wolves with their binoculars. I'd like to be somewhere where I can see the stars as clear as day and where the trees make the air delightfully fresh. And as dear as home is to me, that place is not here.

Labels: adrenaline, adventure, breakfast, danger, excitement, homesick, late, memories, morning, national park, nostalgia, shower, sleeping bag, song, sounds, surprise, trip, yellowstone, yosemite

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My school's principal is going to become the principal of some elementary school I've never heard of next year. I feel very strange since back in elementary school, our principal also moved to another job in the school district, so then we had to have a new principal. The new principal was not well-liked since she made us wait at the lunch tables to be dismissed. It was pretty annoying, and also, she didn't really solve the problem with trash we have at our elementary school. (Trash isn't everywhere, but there is quite a lot of plastic wrappers and bent forks and stuff like that. Same thing at my current school) Anyhow, I was sort of relieved when I moved to middle school but pretty intimidated too. I had the misconception that several hundred kids where in one big room, with the teacher at the front talking, and she/he had to have a microphone otherwise we couldn't hear. So boy was I surprised to see we had regular classrooms. ^-^;;

Anyhow, back to the principal. In my first class my teacher said there was going to be an important announcement. I thought he meant my other teacher getting married, but nope, turned out the principal was saying that after 7 years of being at Kennedy, he would be moving out. So he played rock paper scissors with everyone and he picked scissors, so I beat him with rock (so did many other kids). Then the principal said how all the Kennedy students rock. How corny. (Note that I usually say cheesy or cliched but I wanted to say something different for once.) Still, I do feel kind of sad. He wasn't a mean principal or anything. Even though where I sit at lunch, we usually block the aisle and when he comes by he tells us to move to the sides, I've never seen him throw a fit.

Right now I am eating a bagel. I used to eat them a lot when I was young, either with regular cream cheese or strawberry cream cheese (I don't know for sure but probably the flavor was artificial). This bagel is oddly sour but still tasty. My school sells them too; however, I usually don't trust the school food. Nowadays at the place I get lunch, they have small pretzels (no, not the crunchy kind that is like chips). I tried them but they taste disgusting unless you dip it in sauce or eat it with seaweed. (Someday I will patent my new invention, seaweed pretzels!)

I feel like playing Dance Dance Revolution nowadays. I only have the Mario Mix kind at my house, which is not that good since all the songs are, well, Mario game songs. Still, playing DDR is fun. I just have trouble stepping back. (You know, the arrow that points downward.) If you don't know what DDR are is, here's a quick rundown. It's a game that is basically stepping on parts of a mat to the beat of music. When a moving arrow is overlapping exactly with the nonmoving arrows near the top of the screen, you step on the mat. (There are arrows on the mat, too, to help you out.) Hard to explain so you should just try it yourself in an arcade or at someone's house.

My parents' companies are major cheapskates now that the economy is tough and less people are buying their products (Broadcom, my mom's workplace, had a major customer before, but that company has shut down, so people at Broadcom are worried). But I don't think the situation is really bad since at Broadcom, when they finish a project, sometimes they go play lawn bowling. I've only played a simulation on the Internet so someday I might want to move to San Francisco and go to the Golden Gate Park to try it. (There's a wikipedia article about lawn bowling, so go ahead and search it up.) Also, I heard one of Apple's products will use Broadcom chips, and you know how popular all that iTouch, iPod, blah blah blah stuff is. And I even heard that the Wii Remote uses a Broadcom chip.

Anyhow, though, the reason why I say they are cheapos is because they no longer provide water bottles. They used to always have those but now they only have soda! So you have to get water from a fountain or something. This is annoying since I like being able to carry around water bottles, not one of those weird plastic cups. They should encourage people to drink water, not sugar and caffeine (my definition of soda). Otherwise the workers will get all hyper and not be able to concentrate. I heard if someone gets distracted at work it could take them maybe 15 minutes to get back on task completely.

Still, though, my dad thinks my mom's company is the best company in the world (I bet he's the only one who thinks so! Broadcom is so unknown most people have never heard of it, whereas a lot of people in my area know what Cisco is). I mean, right now, my mom came in with a slice of cheesecake. Apparently someone had some leftovers. I guess that's why she works here and not some other job.

Labels: bagel, broadcom, cafeteria, career, cisco systems, DDR, disposition, food, lawn bowling, principal, rock paper scissors, school, seaweed pretzels, surprise, video games, water bottles

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