I am just going on and on in my jealous rage, thinking of all the awesome live performances I missed, so just skip down to the post below this one if you want to read something that's actually more than just complaining (more specifically, the J-pop Summit festival (: )

Well, maybe not exactly at this moment - but it is happening August 27 and 28 in Japan. Animelo is a huge annual live concert that has many performers of anime songs. I seriously wish I could just go to Japan right now, but of course I have school. :\

Really want to see Kalafina, May'n, ELISA, Minori Chihara, and Nana Mizuki, who according to Wikipedia (feel free to laugh at me here) are performing at Animelo. Though I really think going last year would've been more epic because Marina (who is the singer of GirlsDeMo, the fictional band in Angel Beats) and Lia were there. They actually sound really good live, unlike some singers, unfortunately (for examples: listen to fripSide's 2010 live of Only My Railgun, and Nomico's live of Bad Apple)

Also, apparently there was something called Anisama in Shanghai (ARRRRGGGH and May'n toured Asia back in May, she stopped by Shanghai that time! If only I could trade places with my retired relatives!!!), and Ali Project, Yoko Ishida, May'n, and even Miku Hatsune (though of course it wasn't really...HER, if you know what I mean) were there.

Then there was Anime Expo back in July...Kalafina was there, and of course there was the "live" Vocaloid concert that I was eager to go to (they ran out of tickets, and my mom's foot is injured, so it wasn't really convenient :\ ). 2010's Anime Expo would've been awesome to attend, too, because May'n and Megumi Nakajima were there.

The final straw has got to be when I saw videos of the Nico Nico Daikaigi on Youtube. There was a concert in Taiwan back in May, and a bunch of the singers from Nico Nico Douga went - Dasoku, Pokota, Nero, Clear, Gero, che:Sakurai... (By the way, you should definitely look up che:Sakurai's Magnet duet. It's amazing how she can sing as...well, I won't spoil it for you :p ) All I can say now is FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF---


- Er, enjoy some gifs of the Bad Apple PV, I guess. I don't want to go to be completely angry. (note: I didn't make these)

Labels: anime expo, animelo, bad apple, concert, japan, japanese, may'n, nico nico daikaigi, nico nico douga, shanghai, singer, singing, taiwan

There are two Chinas, actually, the People's Republic of China (the big country) and the Republic of China (the island of Taiwan), but both countries are Mandarin-speaking and Mandarin-writing.

This poses a problem for me, especially considering the vast population of the big China. Mandarin is becoming more of an important language to know in the world, and I'm already affected, despite that fact that my "world" is still not very big.

On Friday afternoon, while I was at home, the phone started ringing. I decided to pick it up, figuring it might be one of my parents. It was a lady speaking in Mandarin. I was quiet a while, trying to translate it in my head. The lady finally said something in English, something about a clinic, and that made sense to me. Then she spoke in Mandarin asking if ___ (my mom's name) was home, to which I responded she wasn't. The lady seemed slightly worried, saying that my mom had an appointment tomorrow and she wanted to know if it could be rescheduled or something like that. I tried to reply that I would tell my mom, but I couldn't come up with the right words...So after a little pause, I hung up.

This made me realize what a pickle I'm in. I can understand Mandarin to some degree (I know more of the Shanghai dialect than Mandarin because my parents speak that at home), but I am illiterate (the only ones I can easily recognize are 人, 一, 二, 三, 四, 月, 火, 上, 下, 小, 大, 云, and 中). Also, I can only say a few phrases. One of the phrases I know sounds like "Wan Dan La!" (Don't really know how to translate it.) My parents say it is something more commonly said in Taiwan, almost like slang, I guess, and they think I must have picked it up from one of my friends from Taiwan. But that's weird, because usually I speak English with my friends.

Anyways, I will be in a real fix if Mandarin becomes the language of the world. I mean, it's already the #1 spoken language of the world, and the second place language, Spanish, is far behind. I'm kind of worried. I don't think I could easily learn to read Chinese at this age. I did start learning once during a summer, years back, but I've already forgotten. It was more like I was memorizing the lines so I knew what to say; not sure if I actually knew what I was reading. Anyways, it gets harder and harder the older you get to learn a language. So if you want to learn, start early. (I'm jealous of my cousins in France. They have already started learning English and they're not even in middle school yet)

Recently, my middle school had an Electives Night. I didn't attend, though I wanted to (just to get cookies from the cooking classroom! They have great cookies). My mom said, "Why do you want to go? You're going to a different school next year, so it doesn't matter." And so I stayed home.

But some students did go, to help my French teacher out, since she has to "sell" her classes and all. Parents and students tend to wonder, "Should I take French or Spanish?" (I say French, but I'm biased.) Since Spanish is considered to be more useful (because more people speak Spanish, and California is close to Mexico), more students take Spanish. And there is somewhat of a misconception that Spanish is easier than French. (I have no idea about that, but I'm guessing they're about the same once you get used to them. You just have to get more of an accent for speaking French) There is one good argument for French, though, and that's the fact that there is no Spanish Week at my school, only French Week. Haha!

I really wish the schools still offered German. And I'd like to learn Italian (but then again, I hear if you know French or Spanish - or both - it shouldn't be too hard to understand Italian. French, Spanish, and Italian all use the word "Ciao!" for "goodbye"). It'd be nice if my school had Japanese. Then I could learn Japanese 1 in 8th grade and take Japanese 2 in high school. It seems weird that Japanese 2 is an option for freshmen. Only people who learned Japanese outside of school or who already knew Japanese would be able to take it, right? I feel like it's a setback for me and other students since we can't take Japanese in middle school (not even Mandarin, the class got cut, sadly). I'd like to be able to get all 5 levels of a language done.

Then again, it's not horrible if you don't take AP classes, is it? I've heard that AP classes are college level classes. I suppose if you take AP classes and then make yourself busy in college, you can graduate earlier or something. But I don't see why you have to be in such a rush in life. Why not take it at your own pace? (Assuming your pace isn't as slow as mine, since I want to retire and all) I guess this competitive world and market makes people feel they must try their hardest, be the fastest and the best, so they can come out on top.

But if you've got friends like these, who needs anemone? (Get it? It's a joke from Finding Nemo.) I know that doesn't make sense, but I just wanted to say that for once.

Labels: ap classes, china, ciao, college, competiton, difficulty, finding nemo, french week, important, italian, japanese, joke, language, mandarin, mother, phone call, reading, school, spanish, taiwan

Today, something of interest happened. The most interesting thing was that it was practically right under my nose, and I didn't notice at all.

The event in particular occurred around 10:09 am, Pacific Time. It was something caused by the Earth. By the tectonic plates beneath the Earth. The friction between two of them, which happened to be CONVENIENTLY located in California, must have built up again, because the event I am speaking of is an earthquake. Find more information about it here.

I didn't feel the earthquake, so I didn't hear about it until the afternoon, when I called my mother.
Mom: Did you feel the earthquake?
Me: No, when was it?
Mom: Around 10:09.
Me: Hmm...I didn't feel anything.
Mom: Really? But it was pretty close by. We had to evacuate the building.

When my parents came home, I double-checked with my dad. For him it was even worse since his company building is even closer to the earthquake's epicenter. My mother found it surprising that I didn't feel a thing. Someone she knows who lives in the neighboring town felt the earthquake (then again, that town is a bit closer to the epicenter than mine).

I guess we were safe from the earthquakes. Either we were far enough away, or the design of the classrooms is quite sturdy. At the time, I was in one of the "portable" classrooms (although I believe it can be moved around, and it looks kind of boxlike and the ceiling isn't as high nor are the windows as large as a "built into the ground" classroom) and I heard once that portables are more earthquake safe.

But then, if the other students had felt the earthquake, wouldn't they have mentioned it when talking at brunch or lunch? Perhaps it wasn't felt at all? Maybe it's not too bad to live where I do. (Though it is still certainly within the danger zone if an earthquake is in a different place. I mean, I was in an earthquake in late October - the day before Halloween or something close like that - a few years ago, and I definitely felt that one. But it had a slightly higher magnitude) But I still always feel like it's dangerous living in California, since in the movie 2012, the first place to go was California.

Some places are worse off when it comes to natural disasters, though. I keep email correspondence with an old friend of mine who moved to Taiwan years back. She said that not all that long ago they had a huge earthquake, but their building was fine, as buildings are designed to be earthquake-proof, even apartment buildings, which can reach high heights. There are also typhoons in Taiwan. Sounds like a pretty wild place; I guess the Earth's pretty excitable over there. I don't really understand why one of my friends says I should visit Taiwan sometime if it's so dangerous and it's pretty polluted. I don't even know where I would go there, besides Taipei 101, which was the tallest building in the world (is it still?). But if you know someplace cool to visit in Taiwan, let me know.

I've also wondered whether I should visit Korea. What I mean by Korea is South Korea, since I'm not sure whether North Korea is an ideal place to visit. Anyhow, though, I only know of one place in Korea, and that's the capital, Seoul. I'm afraid I'm not as well-versed in the world as I had previously thought.

Luckily, I had some good loot this year from Christmas. XD Although I am Santa, I have elves who give me gifts. One of the things was a world atlas, which is something I wanted (I already had one, but it was a thin one with not much information that I ordered through the "book orders"). If I were retired already, then I could spend more time looking at it...Sigh...

Ah, before I end this post, I wonder if you have noticed the new blog layout, which I put up just yesterday. (If you are new to visiting this blog, then you might not have known). I've made a few changes to the coding, because the original text size was rather small, which bothered me... And the layout is aligned to the right, so if you expand your screen it will still stick to the right of the Internet window. I hope that doesn't trouble you. I thought I'd try a different color this time.

Labels: 2012, atlas, black, blog, building, california, catalog, classroom, earthquake, font size, layout, location, natural disaster, portable, taipei 101, taiwan, typhoon, world

Unfortunately, not my deceased tree, but actually a friend of mine who moved to Taiwan back in fifth grade. Well, recently, I got a call from her and apparently she is coming to the USA for the summer. I thought she was here because she was born in the USA and is therefore a USA citizen (there was a situation like that for my other friend, who lives in China. She has to come back to the USA occasionally because she is supposed to be just "visiting" and so can't stay in China all the time) but apparently Taiwan is very hot in the summer. Also, she's supposed to move back to the USA eventually - at the very least, before college. It's a good thing for her to live in another country since apparently colleges favor so-called foreign students. And anyways it seems most people think that colleges in the USA are better than those in Taiwan or China...Hmm.

Happy two days after the 4th of July! I was surprised that some people in other countries don't seem to know what the importance of the day is, but then again, I guess it's of no relevance to them anyways. Even in my family, though we live in the USA, we don't care too much about this holiday, except for the fact that my parents get a day off from work.

Recently I was very cheered since I got the Ouran manga's first volume from the library, and also Part 2 of the anime, so now I have been spending my time reading and watching. But unfortunately I have already read the volume of the manga and I am impatiently waiting for more to arrive from the library (I've requested it online, it's very useful!). Ah, well. The world doesn't end until 2012, or so I've heard.

I've tried my hand at knitting lately. My mom knows how, because she says when she was young, half the girls knew how to knit. But nowadays the percentage of people who can knit is really small. It's a dying art...Anyhow, I bought a bundle of light blue yarn. My mom already has needles which she brought from Shanghai. They're made out of wood and they kind of remind me of chopsticks that are round, and pointy at both ends. It's kind of hard to get to hang of knitting at first but if you go slow and patient it'll work out, and it'll feel like a miracle when you understand it. I was really pleased once I was able to do it. I'm going to make a scarf since that's supposed to be easier than a sweater, hat, etc.

It seems like there is a lot of bad drivers out there. My parents often complain about less-than-perfect behavior among drivers. We saw drivers tossing their cigarettes out onto the road. How horrible! If you're going to smoke, don't litter while you're at it, that makes it kind of like the phrase "adding insult to injury". And there's those people who run the red lights, meaning that they drive even when the traffic light is showing yellow or red...And also people who just drive without even looking to see if anyone is crossing the street. People are really dreadful when they're driving...

Labels: 2012, apocalypse, behavior, cigarette, citizenship, college, drivers, friends, independence day, knitting, litter, needles, pedestrians, return, scarf, taiwan, traffic lights, yarn

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