[reserved for 100th post :p]

i forgot about this. in fact i wasn't even expecting it. it's already been 100 posts since i started this blog, and maybe it's already been a year. i'll reflect more later. i have school right now ;)

Time flies by so fast. It's so hard to realize that it's already been 100 posts, no a YEAR since I made this small little blog back in 8th grade. I remember I would just post up little random babblings of my life, nothing special. I look back at the past year in thought, "Oh yeah, I remember this." With so many things going on in our lives, it's always important to look back at your life and relive your life's plot up to the current moment. Blogging has taught me a lot of things. What you write goes on the internet, which means anyone can read it. I wasn't really expecting someone in Japan or the Philippines, or even somewhere in Europe to read my blog. My friends both old and new, I won't forget, and I'm really forgetful, thanks to this blog. But of course with the friends I've had/have, you can't really forget them. Still can't believe it's been a year. 365 days. 52 weeks. 12 months. A YEAR. I contemplate the last year with a smile. A lot of good things happened. And I'll be glad to say that I will be able to report more happy moments in my life. But I also want you to feel sadness from this blog, as any should, to keep it real. My grandma passed away last week, but I still see her in dreams. She does well. Some of my friends left my school, which is tragic, but I see them again every once in a while. No matter how sad it gets, there's always a silver lining to find somewhere in the midst of the depression. Nothing can really sadden me for an extended period of time.

As a gift from me to you, I'll give you text files of my blog from my early middle school days, when I used to use Gaia Online. It's on private, but I'll make them available soon. My old Gaia blog is now available for those who want to read it. The posts are from late 7th grade to early 8th grade I think. Read it here.

Happy 101th Post! now a reading journal...

Well, Happy 100th post! Too bad it's a reading journal. Oh, well. I'll make it up somehow. So the book I'm reading right now is The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket. The sixth book in A Series of Unfortunate Events. One of the pieces of the reading that I enjoyed was:

"Waiting rooms, as I'm sure you know, are small rooms with plenty of chairs fo waiting, as well as odd, dull magazines to read and some vapid paintings-the word "vapid" here means "usually containing horses in a field or puppies in a basket"-while you endure the boredom that doctors and dentists inflict on their patients before bringing them in to poke them and prod them and do all the miserable things that such people are paid to do." More...Now this of course has nothing to do with what was going on other than the fact that the Baudelaire siblings wanted a waiting room to sit in so that they wouldn't have to endure waiting through the blazing heat for their tongs to finished heating up to white-hot. Well my question is this. What if there was a painting of a beach? Or the chairs were all armchairs with cup holders? And the magazines are all new, and exciting? Would it be some sort of alternate universe for a waiting room? Well, whatever. I like Snicket's little random rants in the middle of the reading, just to explain something with a faulty explanation. I think that it influences my writing style a bit, because when I write, it ends up being a tangent like this.

Reading Journal Again

What I read out of this whole weekend, was what we were assigned. It counts though, right? So what I read was The Peek-a-Boo World, from Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman. I was too lazy to write out the whole title. So in this chapter, Postman talks about the history of media, from the invention of the telegraph to the TV, how it make everything all random and such. One quote for this theory would be, "The abundant flow of information had very little or nothing to do with those to whom it was addressed; that is, with any social or intellectual context in which their lives are embedded." This is how it is now, actually. The conflict in Gaza, has little to do with us. (If I offended anyone, I didn't mean it.) But sometimes it does. Like President Obama and the bailout plan. One thing i like about this author is his writing style. He asks, "You may get a sense of what this means by asking yourself another series of questions...I shall take the liberty of answering for you: You plan to do nothing about them." The author is witty, and when you feel like you're drifting off to sleep, he unexpectedly says something witty. He mentions how photographs gives us even more random facts about life and that gave birth to crosswords, radio quiz shows, and TV game shows. He calls the "electric conversation" a "peek-a-boo world" where we don't have to do anything, and yet we're entertained. Radio, film, TV, the works. One of my favorite quotes from this text was, "As some psychiatrist said once put it, we all build castles in the air. The problems come when we try to live in them." Which reminds me of this one Studio Ghibli movie, Laputa: Catsle in Sky, no durr. I wonder if the author had any castles in the sky when he was younger. Was part of the castle to make this book? I don't recommend it only because it drones on, but for how long I don't know. In fact, I may be wrong about it. But, I thought this chapter was okay.

Passerby. Another ranting poem.

First day, new faces
Fresh start, strangers
Weird, interesting places
A passing thought, for a passing peer
Who is this person?

Midday, time to eat
Sat with new friends
Then I saw you with yours
Wanting to meet you.

Everyday, I would see you
Wondering who you were.
After a month or two
I finally got your attention

"Hey, I have that same shirt!"
You looked at me, I looked at you
I stared, but I didn't speak
Too shy to relay my thoughts

College trip, that one day.
There were spots on one bus,
but I said it was full
Just so I could be on the same one with you.
Then of course my friends were on that one too.

Before we drove on, chatting with my friends.
I stared at you. And you stared back.
I didn't realize it, but I came to my senses.
I turned away, face red on the inside.
Flustered, embarrassed.

I kept sneaking looks at you,
All during the whole trip.
Wondered if you had any interest in me
As much as I had in you.

Then the time of midday.
When I got the chance to talk to you.
A simple sentence, a joke.
You smiled but kept silent.
It felt like half an hour,
when you finally walked up and left.

Did I bore you?
Do I look too geeky?
What did I do?

The day went on
With a tour of the campus
I stayed with my friends,
While you stayed with yours

I started walking fast, an instinct I had
And then I heard your voice
I kept my head down, staring at my shoes
You were talking with someone,
I couldn't help but smile at how funny you were.

I walked on, trying to act natural.
The tour ended, we walked back to the bus.
I talked with my friends, had fun.
The real fun was the trip back home.

Truth or dare for a few hours.
Even the teachers were enjoying it.
You were dared something outrageous
And you refused, another funny moment.
I learned your name, and kept it in my heart.

Now, months later
I still think of you, and so does my friend.
I'm fighting for you.

「ホントにキミがスキなんだ」
「やっぱりキミがスキなんだ」
「神様」
「勇気のカケラはどこにあるの？」

本当だよ

ついに土曜日！やった～！

I did plan on having this post in Japanese, but I was too lazy to look up all the things I didn't know about, so it would make sense. Well it's finally Saturday, after a not-so-long, not-so-short week. Yesterday, I signed up for 2 elctives instead of an elective and sport or two sports. I feel fat... Anyways, I wanted to do both Music and Creative Expressions, which is like art, but they were on the same day. There wasn't anything interesting for our other choice-class day. I chose Games, games, games, where you just play card or board games all period. Not much but I might switch to Robotics since a couple of my friends are there. Nothing really major happened this week. Turns out two of my friends are like me. x) Actually, when I was telling one of my friends, and she told me, another one overheard and started talking about it to my other friend and was being dumb about it. Uhm, I guess I've been going on AIM more than ever now, but not a lot of people are on. And I've been checking my Myspace more and more. It's odd, I used to not be like this. I guess people change.

imogenheap is love

「Media」は何ですか？

Media. It means so many things! Like "McDonalds" or "Imogen Heap" or "Harry Potter" or even "Chowder." Media is advertisements to articles, books to magazines, you get the idea. To me, media is something we process, something that influences us. It tells us what to eat, what to do, what not to do. If the news say we can't eat chips anymore because they lie and say it'll kill us (which eventually they will, if you only eat that for the rest of your life) then we won't eat chips anymore. Media is bigger than us, even if it is just a picture or sound. As humans, we tend to think and reason with ourselves, using media as evidence to fight for one thing or the other thing that we want to do. It manipulates us. What we wear is media, what we eat is media, what we live in is media. All of it. Pictures after the jump.

Stupid filters

Now that my POLs are done, I can finally kick back and relax; do whatever I want, right? Not completely true. The only option, since our Director wants us to look productive, we can only go on computers as of now, instead of play cards or board games. And since my computer use consists of watching videos and listening to music, and maybe even the occasional blog reading, I can't do ANYTHING! I want to sock the guy in the stomach that came up with the Internet filter. GAWD, there's nothing to do. I was going to read AppleMilk1988's Japanese blog, but I'm not sure of the exact URL. "To Google, and away!" said by my friend Anja. Well when I search up "applemilk", it's blocked. WTF?! What's so wrong about it? Do these people have like nasty minds or something? So now I can't read it. These filters are too strict! I am sick and tired of coming to school and using the internet only to have the dreaded gray and red screen come up and stop whatever I was doing. It's annoying! /annoyedrant

Lets start again

You might've noticed that the last two posts aren't really my style. A poem and some other thing that I can't remember; some New Year's celebration. So lemme tell you whats going on in my life so far: I'm 14 now, which means I'm the same age as some of my classmates, for now at least. I was watching Eagle Eye when the new year came. We watched the ball go down of course, but it kinda felt odd watching it, the ball being in New York and all, being 3 hours ahead of us. And I'm guessing the West Coast is probably the last people to celebrate New Years, but I'm not sure. But hey, I'm alive aren't I.

Anyways, school started again. POLs were stress factors. They're just a presentation in front of a few people and my teachers about how we "grew" in the habits of the Heart and Mind. I passed, yay! Other people didn't though, for dumb reasons like not sounding like themselves or not having enough evidence. So yeah, that's past.

The reason behind my poem last time, was because my friends transferring to a different high school. His mom's pissed because our school doesn't have proper P.E. which is like total bull. He's a great guy, even if he is a little on the dark side. The story kind of tells our story. Just yesterday, we went to watch Bedtime Stories, and stayed at the mall for like 5 hours. We played Egyptian Ratscrew in the manga section of Borders. The cards are from Hot Topic and have Domo on them, awesome! He keeps saying he's going to leave, but he's at school the next day. So now he tells us that he's going at the end of the semester, which is next Wednesday. Sigh.

I don't think I have anything else to talk about now. But I did find a new, well new to me, webcomic. http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.html. Go to the first strip by mashing at the left arrow until it stops. All for now.

Gone. A ranting poem.

We started out silent
Never speaking to each other
Having only our iPods to listen to

Then he left us alone.
20 minutes. Then it happened.
We became friends, just like that.

Another person to have random babbling with
Another person to have inside jokes with
Another person to have a laugh with

Weeks passed then months.
We seemed to get closer and closer
My views changed

A new person, you became
I wanted to be with you
But I had others

Now you're gone
A gaping hole in my body
It's your fault

You left us
I don't hate you
I hate that you left us

Feelings cloud my mind
I like you
That way or in that way?

But I can't
You aren't like that
But I kind of am

We were so close
It seemed like it
But were we really just friends?

Who's going to ride the car with us 2?
Who's going to fill the void that you created?
Who's going to be you?

Now you're gone
One less smile in our trio
An empty seat

"I feel a weakness coming on"
"I don't want to feel like this
So it's all your fault."

But I don't blame you.

Journal post of readingness of the weekend.

For my reading journal this weekend, I chose to read a short story retold by Eric Carle called the Wild Swans, originally by Hans Christian Anderson. I like this story in particular because it has those basic fantasy elements, but Carle tells it in a way that isn't too fictional, and it shows off his writing style. The story goes like this......There was a king with a queen with 11 sons and a daughter, which is kind of disturbing, once you think about it. They were very happy, but the queen died. So he remarried a year later. But that queen was a witch who wanted the king for herself. I don't know but it sounds like she didn't get enough love and/or attention when she was young, and now she's acting like a spoiled brat. When the king was away, hunting with his friends, the queen turned the sons into swans and told them never to return. The daughter, Elisa, became depressed. So then her father sent her off to another country, so she can learn about them and get over her depression. But the evil supposedly attention-deprived witch of a queen told the man driving the carriage to dump her in the forest and leave her there. Which was what he did. Naturally, she started crying. But then, she must've been a good girl or something, nature came to her aid.

After gobbling up an apple and a nut and finding a cave to sleep in, and a river, she stayed there for years. One night, in her dreams, a fairy told her to follow the river downstream. She went and waited till sundown. Then you'll never guess what happened. 11 swans came and turned into the same 11 brothers that she lost that one day. They were very happy, and they decided to take Elisa to the main land again. They made a net and put her in, and flew out to sea. It turns out that they only stay as swans when the sun is up, and it takes 2 days for them to reach the mainland. Shouldn't their wings be stronger? I mean it has been several years since she was dropped off at the forest. But a swan can only fly so far. They reach a rock then stay the night. Then they go again. They reach the mainland and stay in a cave where the brothers have been staying. Again, the fairy appeared. She told her to make shirts out of nettles for her brothers, so that they can become whole again. But she couldn't tell anyone about it or the deal will break. Kind of reminds me of Howl's Moving Castle, a movie by Studio Ghibli. A young girl was turned into an old woman by a witch, but she couldn't say anything since there was a spell on her. It hurt, but she persevered. (Oh geez, the habits are really catching up with me...)

Unfortunately for her, she was taken, or rather kidnapped, from the cave by a hunter/prince. She still made the shirts but she still didn't tell anyone. She runs out of nettles and goes to the graveyard, a place with monsters, to get more, but she is followed by the prince and minister. They think she's a witch just because she's going to a mysterious place and gathering nettles, which backs up my "People are stupid" theory. She has a trial and all they say is "You are a witch, you die now." (Another point for my theory) She can't say anything still so she goes to jail to await her fate. She completes 10 of the shirts and another one with out sleeves. Then she goes to the stake. But before she is burned, she throws her brothers their shirts. The youngest one takes the sleeveless shirt, which makes him still have his wings. She confesses about the evil queen and her brothers. The people believe her and the wood from the stake pile became a rosebush. She and her brothers go into the castle.

I like this version of the story, half because I like the art that Eric Carle does, half because I like the way I told it. Another half for the story itself. It's wierd how people are programmed to judge people based on their actions and even color! I really want a shirt that says "My opinion? People are stupid. Have a nice day (:"