Fight Off the Lethargy, Don't Go Quietly (Metric)

I think this Christmas, people were trying to turn me more into a girl. Though, of course, I did ask for those headbands, so maybe I guess I was kind of doing that to myself, but I am slightly horrified and amused at how things turned out. I also seem super prepped now to go shopping at Ala Moana because of gift cards.

Christmas felt.... smaller this year. But it was a great day with family, as we had lunch together on Christmas day (including our Korean neighbor who brought us kimchee and tofu salad =D). My auntie didn't make any pumpkin crunch this year, haha, that's one thing I missed at this past gathering. At some point, Beatles Rock Band and the Wii came out and was set up downstairs in the living room, and we all played together, singing and trying instruments. Jaynie, Mariah and I all ended up battling for scores on instruments though. Quite a rush of entertainment. Also, it's so hard to sing the harmonies!

Since laundry hadn't finished being done or dried since I came back from the dorms, I was severely lacking in appropriate housewear, aka jeans/capris/shorts. Thus I resorted to wearing the dress pictured above under a normal t-shirt. A lazy appearance and a crazy appearance at the same time. I do like the colors of this dress, though. And the fact that it's kind of a giant bow at the top. American Rag <3

Ala Moana gift card, PINK water bottle (I must get into the habit of actually drinking water), Victoria's Secret Berry Kiss perfume

"I Just Want Someone to Share With" - it smelt like cookies.

While I don't have a photo of the lilac, dainty blouse thing I also received, I do have the one above. My sisters are so silly in finding these things. XD

SO MUCH HARDER and so much more detailed.
We are eternally grateful, Ray.

Speaking of Rock Band 3, as far as we are, we are enjoying Metric's Combat Baby, Chicago's 25 or 6 to 4, the Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Part 1, and Rilo Kiley's Portions for Foxes. I still want to play with people no matter what.

IT HAS A BOW. From Grace.

IT CHAINS MY HAIR TO MY HEAD. From Grace.

The card Grace included was so beautiful. I will always love her art!!!

Speaking of presents, I still have to give people theirs. Sigh. While this holiday break is great being with people important to me, I still haven't seen people that I was around so much during senior year and during summer. It leaves me feeling a little empty, realizing that things are always going to be a race against time and things are going to require so much effort to return things to the way they were before. Perhaps I was ill-prepared for this break, but I guess we just have to do what we can, and what emerges tells the truth.

If there's anything monumental that kept slapping me in the face this past semester and still slaps me this break, it's the knowing that relationships with people are hard to keep, even if effort is put in, because people change, and life keeps going, and nothing waits. But that's existence, anyway. So, thank you everyone for all the happiness you bring into my life. I'm sorry for all the trouble and pain I've caused in return.

I will write about yesterday's Ice Palace/Aiea Bowl adventure in time, hehe. I must now eat breakfast.

And we'll all be / Portions for foxes...

No Need for Sleep Powder

Though I have no pictures to illustrate the events of yesterday, I can, of course, write.

After one and half days of cleaning prep (because we totally know that my house is a home for packrats) guests entered my home not long after 10:30 am. Jaynie and I had already been playing Rock Band 2 for a while (and I had been playing by myself for even longer, singing all by my lonesome in the middle of the living room). Becca and Ken and Grace and Corey zoomed in under the guava tree in their tiny red car, bringing along an... amp?, real guitar, and Guitar Hero guitar. Teehee. So we played! Though... I ended up singing. Grace on Bass, Corey on guitar, Ken on drums being soooooooooooo pro.

It was a little while until Sarah and Rubin and Briana all appeared, sipping their drinks from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. I don't remember how everything went down, but throughout the day we went through Rock Band 2, Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Cooking Mama on the Wii, Super Monkey Ball 2 and Mario Kart Double Dash on the GameCube, and even Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Street Fighter, and Super Mario World on the SNES. The Chowder Knishmas special and Pokemon even graced the television set for a while. Real pianos and guitars got tinkered around with, creating beautiful music. Hehe, children with the best toys you can have.

Rubin fell asleep first on my bed, and Sarah ended up sleeping with the bright orange bear on the rocking chair, and Rebecca fell asleep reading on the futon in the middle of upstairs. So silly. (: Chips and dip, donut holes, and other things were snacked on, and lunch included my mother's baked furikake salmon, salad and barbeque chicken wings from Costco, Bagel Bites, and pound cake and pineapple. Oh, and we also had lumpia. =D

Grace and Ken and Corey left around 3, sadly. Everyone else hung around until Briana headed out to the prayer vigil. Sighhhh.

It was a cooler day than the day before, but it was still a little hot. There was silly "Co-Op" smashing of hands in Cooking Mama (when pounding mochi), along with a lot of other frantic waving of hands in attempts to prepare other sorts of virtual food. Singing and... screaming was hardly scarce, and I think in general we were relaxed, which was good. So relaxed that people were falling asleep like THAT, haha. No need for sleep powder. So effective an atmosphere that they could even handle my crazed singing of weird songs, hehe.

After everyone was gone, I ended up playing Beatles Rock Band with my sisters. We completed one more chapter in the story (which we haven't played in such a long time!) and that was it for the night. I was so worn out, I gave up after two rounds of Blokus against Jaynie and ended up falling asleep texting in bed, ahahaha. I woke up two hours later sticky with sweat from the heat of the room, and in a panic because I didn't know where my phone was ('tis what happens when you fall asleep with it!). So I turned on the fan and searched the perimeter of the bed and made a =_= face at some texts and comforted myself and went back to sleep hoping for the room to cool down.

It was a good day. I think I never have problems with falling asleep... Mostly because it's always late and I'm tired. I'm glad for that. Especially since it's winter break... Sleep is necessary! However, it's been the same old poor sleep schedule as usual.

Today I woke up around 9 and eventually headed out around 11 with Briana to go to Yakiniku Camellia II by the Japanese Cultural Center to eat with Renee and Sarah. We had quite an adventure on the roadways there (ending up by Sarah's place, somehow, then heading back onto the freeway and getting off at Bingham towards the round building, haha!), fighting traffic. It was so sunny and hot.

The food was delicious. Kind of getting more used to the idea of having to be one's own judge of food and cooking, haa! I ended up eating a lot of that spicy pork, hehe. We watched Sarah eat her pork belly wrap things. And giggled at Renee's aversion to onions and spicy things. It was nice. I liked their jello. XD

Afterwards we were shocked by the intense rain and went on an adventure to retrieve umbrellas and get inside safely. Oh Hawaii and bipolar weather! Oh Manoa and heavy rain! With indecision we ended up at Toma Karaoke (instead of Bubbies, a shave ice place, or the snow [hair jk] place at McCully) and sang for an hour (yay $15 for 4 people!). I had fun singing the Written in the Stars duet with Briana (: All of us were disturbed by the women and their... appearances in the backgrounds, haha. We left around 3:30pm and had more wonderful road and traffic adventures dropping Sarah and Renee off, and then taking the side roads all the way back home. We listened to Lady Gaga and David Archuleta and finally Wicked, which Briana sang to and was amazing. I would very much like to watch! Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel! Yeah.

We got back around 6:15pm. Ridiculous, painful, sleep-inducing traffic. Sigh.

I opened the package that came in the mail: Rock Band 3 (game). Amazing. Ridiculous. Awesome. Cooooooool. Expensive. Why?! We're forever grateful.

Jaynie, Mariah, and I all practiced Christamas songs for tomorrow's pre-mass "talent show" for church. We had silly times with wrong counting, reading notes in the wrong clef, and missing of sharps and flats. It turned out well, though. Winter Wonderland, here we come, hoping you Have a Merry Little Christmas.

I'm sleepy now but I want to watch episode ten of Kuragehime. Hehe. Tomorrow's Christmas Eve! Excitement! With a sprinkle of sleep powder, I hope you go to sleep soon. To all a good night!

Please Realize That You're Beautiful

Kimi no Kirei ni Kizuite Okure - Sambomaster 

I love this song as the ending theme of Kuragehime.

It's beautiful. It makes me cry.

The ending animation's so cute and calm, too.

I really can't help but love this anime. 

(Thanks to Grace for finding it. And yay Funimation for having it.)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Well, maybe not "look" as much as "feel."

Exams last week Friday ended with an enormous sigh of relief, with Chemistry being my last, major hurdle to get my first semester of college over and done with! I can't say that I feel that I aced the exam (I know I got a few portions of the predicting reaction products portion wrong), but I did feel so much better than I felt after the math exam. What's great is looking at a problem, assessing it as one that will take long to solve, working at it for a while, and having everything suddenly click into clarity as if the whole map was unfurled ahead of you. Maybe that's what I love about Chemistry; I have such a fun time seeing how one thing turns into the next, and how it all makes sense. I'm pretty relieved that I did find solutions for the two synthesis problems for this exam.

Afterwards it was FREEDOM, and so began my adventures with Annie and Megan, before they left on Saturday. I had katsu curry for lunch (oh, that meal is just irresistible to me), and sadly had to use my debit card for the first time to pay because I foolishly forgot my UH ID, with all the meal blocks and points I needed to spend. I eventually went back to campus center with Megan and bought a ton of Naked bottled fruit smoothies, which effectively drained all of my meals left for the week and practically all of the points I had for the semester. We walked back to the dorms to drop off our purchases, and then we headed out again to go to Ala Moana for some Christmas shopping (and some waiting until Annie finished her final exam). When Annie appeared, we unsuccessfully attempted to get her to try on a pink dress at PacSun. Oh well.

For some reason, that reminds me, on Thursday I purchased little green men magnets that have joined the yellow fish and clear star magnets from Waikiki Aquarium upon our dorm room fridge. A bunch of us had been in the bookstore buying gifts. I also had rehearsal that night (after the stocking adventure recorded in an earlier post), which lasted pretty long and had me antsy for studying chemistry, haha.

Anyway. We had dinner in the food court (Annie ineffectively trying to dip skewers of chicken into a plastic cup of peanut sauce), and then walked our way to Ward Theaters where we watched Tangled! I cried once, when the king cried. And slapped Annie a bunch because she was not being serious at that part, haha. She shared her Kahala Nuts (I think it was?) with us. No popcorn at this movie experience, surprisingly. I loved Rapunzel's character, and the chameleon. The songs did not catch me as much... except "Mother Knows Best" is probably the only lyric I remember. Enjoyable, though.

We waited quite a while until the 6 arrived, seeing fireworks go off in the meantime. We got off and went to Walmart, passing by this woman who had a kitten on a leash. ;_; It was so adorable, but also so strange! I mean, kittens outside on leashes?! Preposterous. I also accidentally kept making Annie lose her slippers in mid-step as I kept poking the awesome dinosaurs on the back of her pink jacket, haha. Silly nights.

Annie and Megan got their chocolate souvenirs, plus a bottle of apple cider for our CELEBRATION OF COMPLETION of the fall semester! Yay! They packed more when we got back; I tried to stay awake (finals week really drained me of sleep).

Then it was time. We had our small fractions of Red Bull, and raised our cups of apple cider to the end! Yay!

We had our fun with Blokus, with the slight effects of the Red Bull showing through in time. Suffice to say, it was a good night.

Saturday meant goodbyes, defrosting of refrigerators, and another rehearsal for the Christmas concert. I turned off the refrigerator, emptied it of some contents (including the smoothies purchased on Thursday), and unplugged the refrigerator before I left for rehearsal at 7:45am. I got back and the water from the defrosting had leaked onto the table, and the ice tray underneath the "ice box" in the fridge was filled with water. I guess I should have put a larger towel in there in the first place, rather than just the small kitchen towel. I spent much time cleaning up the mess and drying everything up, finally putting the multitude of Shamwows that my mother had given me to use. After seeing Annie and Megan off, I ended up walking to campus to see if I could pick up my math exam, and to retrieve my second Ochem lab notebook. I successfully achieved the second task, but due to lack of the presence of Professor Csordas, the former wasn't.

I got back and the part under the "ice box" of the freezer was like this:

That entire section of ice had detached itself, making it incredibly handy to clean up. I just put the thing in the sink to melt (rather than have it melt all over the inside of the fridge. Yay, successful defrosting!

Fall commencement was also on Saturday, and this is what all the people looked like from our room:

Before concert time, all the stuff I was planning on bringing home for break got put into the car. However, I only finished closing up the dorm room on Sunday, and had to go back to get my phone charger on that day as well because I am a forgetful child, haha. They gave us dinner before Saturday's concert (spaghetti and salad and a roll and a chocolate dipped gingerbread man cookie), and I spent some time talking with Monica and Renee from Punahou, and met Jamie from Kamehameha. It was nice, and they were nice. I felt relieved. The concert involved a lot of rough areas, but it still went well and felt amazing. I couldn't help but smile at the youth choir's version of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)." Sooooooo adorable. The soloist for Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" was pretty good, too. Very smiley and enthusiastic as well. Encouraging.

Sunday involved sleeping, lunch in the dorm room while my mother slept, reading of Deathnote vol. 1, the finishing of Back to the Future part III, and Christmas concert number two. It was a lot of fun the second time around, though I still didn't really talk to my stand partner and though everyone was tense trying to keep things together. The sudden changing of bows didn't cease from the previous night, however. My mother and father were there was well, which made me smile. We also saw Mufi Hanneman enter, wow.

The rain on Sunday was so relentless that when we were at the dorms, part of the road leading there was flooded, and the area in front of the lobby entrance was a giant pond that blocked part of the walkway. I was amazed at how close it was to the doorway, and was glad that it hadn't been designed so that the doorway would have been in that pond.

Also, R.I.P Zachary Manago. I did not know him well. I did not know his family well. I did not know his friends well. I cannot fathom his death, just the absence of a name and a body. However, this event keeps crossing my mind because it has only been 6 months since grad. It was a hit and run. It is thinking about how his parents must feel which hurts me, or keeps my mind looping around this knowledge. With Christmas coming up, this might lead to "Be thankful for what you have." rather than asking for more and more gifts. But I think it would also lead to, make the most of what you do have. Treasure it. And realize that we exist in fragile bodies and that the world is full of danger that we create.

Today was an amazing shopping adventure with Grace, in part due to the fact that it was over five hours long. We spent time in Starbucks planning our attack and sipping our hot lattes (Peppermint Mocha for Grace, Caramel Brulee for me). Excitement! I bought Christmas gifts and resisted buying items for myself. I spent money with my debit card and sobbed and felt guilty. I walked and spoke strangely and let Grace put things in my head as I was horrified and scared of the mirrors. Teehee.

It was interesting, and I ended up staying at Pearlridge until about 7. Very, very interesting.

I came home and cleaned. Or, more of like, I sorted music on top of the piano, and made things neat in the living room. I also ate my mother's chicken and papaya soup. Yum. Fine on another rainy day.

I have recorded these events in too much detail, but it has been a while. The days to Christmas are filled with urgency and people as my planning and cleaning and practicing are being crammed together due to time constraints.

Thumbs up for making the most out of seven hours at the mall. Well, maybe I could have done better. But it was fun. It also provided exercise, yay!

Goodnight!

LOL. Hacked.

Annie was here! :D

NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP

Never gonna let you down / Never gonna run around and desert youuuuu (Rick Astley)

Customers 1, 2 & 3 make their demands from Ms. Bunny G-spot

If you're going "What did I just read?" and questioning your eyesight, worry not, you read that correctly. Sadly.

The dorms were having this sort of... Christmas-grams, or something. I can't remember what it was called. But you could send things to people if you paid (very much like Valentine's Day things in high school). Customers 1, 2 & 3 (otherwise known as Annie, Claire, and Megan - alphabetized), decided to show their, uh, love for me with this wonderful gift. Ha ha ha. The girl who knocked on the door to deliver them seemed both amused at and judging of me, holding their order paper... -shudder-

"Christmas stocking"

They wanted me to make a blog post, and I guess this is one of those crazier moments of college life, one of those moments where I go cry in the corner out of horror, haha, so it's an important learning situation to document. =____= I don't even know what to do about this. Crazy crazy crazy. But I love my customers (lol). They keep me up late at night... talking, of course. What was running through your brain?

Meanwhile, one more exam to go! Claire left this night to go on her wonderful winter break adventures D; It will be a very quiet and lonely rest of the weekend. -sigh- Oh well. Home soon!!!

OH CHEMISTRY, MY LOVE, trust me, I'm NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP.
Customers, this ain't love. It's just a business transaction. :P

(okay yes perhaps they are bad influences on me haha don't worry I haven't really changed)

Pew Pew

• working earphones
• headband
• not broken Ethernet cable
• Cool is Just a Number
• Gold Motel EP 
• The Resistance
• vinyl --> mp3 converter
• King of Anything (+ strings version) (+ probably Kaleidoscope Heart)
• Moleskine planner
• G2s
• shopping time
• good sources (Qin/Inca info)
• Thought Catalog reading time
• Muse sheet music
• rubber gloves
• periodic table puzzle
• Shoplifting from American Apparel or Richard Yates
• Rock Band 3 + keyboard controller + guitar controller + microphone stand + more microphones
• USB hub
• watch 
• serious back/neck massages 
• Lost Songs 
• Nerf Gun

Growing (&shrinking).

Days Swiftly Come and Go (AAR)

So, next year's semester is set above. All so nicely lined up with a lunch break in the middle, eh? Everything but Symphony Orchestra, down in it's usual, terrible timeslot is shown in the screenshot above. It's going to be so wonderful having Physics every day of my life. I'm looking a this and thinking that I'll probably do my lab reports for both Chem on Physics on Tuesdays... But then again, I should probably break the bad habits and get them done right after or on Friday afternoon, at least. I realized this means I end the week at the same time as I did this semester, except now I'm ending with Spanish instead of torturous Math.

This is 16 credit's worth; maybe I should have tried to take an actual Honors course (not just "A" sections), so I don't have to worry about taking two of the required ones next year to qualify for Sophomore Honors Status. Eh. I hope it'll start going better. And since I do seem to have free time... I guess it's time for me to get engaged. Or rather, more engaged, for the requirement. Get a job? Volunteer on a regular basis? Join an RIO and take classes from the campus Recreational Services? I've got to hold myself to that with the coming new semester. Reach out, grow my limbs, don't let my days slip by in the confines of this room staring at this computer watching anime that gets me nowhere.

Last night I realized how important people are to my well-being (lol). I mean this in the sense, that when I'm alone, I usually tumble into thinking that leads to ridiculously long rants and hours of analyzing people rather than equations and reactions. It was nice talking to Annie and Megan and just learning about them and their pasts, and laughing and ranting on the way people are in general. Though, those were frightening moments when they busted out those pink and yellow poi balls from the swap meet and first started swinging them round and round. It was, though, quite entertaining. Annie kind of beat herself up with the things, though.

The floor pizza party was also last night, from 100% survey completion. Less than half the floor showed up, but it was okay, and 12th floor residents trickled in, along with conversation about classes and grades and still school. So much for relaxation. At least we had food (food being pizza hut pizza, malasadas, and various sodas). Though, I've got to drain my points before the end of the semester and use the meals that I have left for this week. Yay for spending money for the sake of spending it! It all goes to food, though. I will refrain from purchasing junk food.

Goals were set for today last night on the balcony. We will be held accountable this evening by the others when we talk about our days again.

1) I absolutely need to finish my Anthropology FINAL DRAFT for this archaeology paper. After that I'm free from this semester of ANTH foreverrrrrrrr! It was a lot of history. Very rational thinking was involved (drawing knowledge from material culture), and the class was full of nice people. Silly, but very nice. I wouldn't mind being in classes with them again. (:

2) Math studying like crazy. Memorize and finish all the homework problems. And ask for help. Seriously.

That is all. I must set myself to this now, stop typing this nonsense, and turn my mind to the Qin Dynasty and the Inca Empire. Yay for time-travel to the past!

P.S. I cut my fingernails after 3 days of irritation at their length. Yes!!!

Why Must I Spend My Time

Fillin' up my mind / With facts and figures that never add up anyway / They never add up anyway (Fountains of Wayne)

Now, I'm not really complaining about all the studying that college really is, because if I really found this all a waste of my time, I wouldn't be here in college, right? It's been fun. Studying is a pain at times, but hey, even if the numbers don't add up, I'll do what I need to do with them anyway.

Saturday night I opened the door and these "Flunk Napping" Red Bull energy shot things were hanging on everyone's door round the hall. Soooooo strange. I'm not going to drink it. (: Claire can have it. I will avoid energy drinks as best as I can. I mean, I already have coffee, and that makes me jittery enough already. No use drinking something that allegedly doesn't taste so good. I don't need that stuff in my body, nonono.

As you can see, both of my purple turkeys have taken some damage. It's Annie's fault the princess is nearly completely decapitated. Look at her princess hat flying above a missing head. My chem turkey is getting crumbled, and it's missing finger feather is held up by the star magnet from the Waikiki Aquarium bought back on our 9/11 adventure earlier in the semester on the side of our fridge with my "DON'T PANIC" sign. I think it might be a good idea to take them off the door before they face any more damages.

Last night we had a little study get together (after spending money at The Market - need to use up those points before the end of the semester!) which, of course, included at least one round of Blokus to loosen up our brains (well, it's such a battle of the mind still, anyway). I ran through my notecards for Hawaiian studies quite a few times, flipping through powerpoint slides and skimming docs. Worked those dates and facts into my brain! And then, this morning, after a brief terrible bathroom incident that displayed being "out of it", and a breakfast with Annie and Megan involving strange but tasty lemon bar things, I regurgitated those facts into specific blanks on two sheets of paper. I got my tentative grade for the class so far and turned in my extra credit on the movie Hotel Rwanda, gave Kat and Andrew some kettle corn, and was satisfied, coming back here to the dorm room.

I've got my final anthropology paper to edit for Wednesday to do. I should probably do that by the end of tonight, though, seeing as how the books from the state library are due tomorrow. I guess that means library adventure tomorrow! Yay!... Well, not completely yay. But okay. Maybe I can get some studying done there, too. I'd like to practice for the Christmas orchestra I have somehow become a part of... but I'm not too keen on looking at the runs of notes from M. Foumai. Luckily I got myself into the second violins, where I can be proud and confident and not have to worry about practicing as much as I would have to if I were in the firsts. Punahou kids eat a lot of Skittles.

Anyway, back to reading and writing. Numbers and elements, I'm coming for you soon!

Let's Get These Teen Hearts Beating Faster, Faster

Panic! At the Disco

With finals week beginning in a few days, the panic level my system is starting to experience is rising. I've been trying to study to chase those feelings away, but the way I see it, there's just not enough time, and I'll never be ready enough. But, I've got to swallow that negative thinking and press on! Use the ferocity of the blood pumping through my veins to drive me to get things done and be on top of my game!

This next week I think I've got to lay off the junk food; I've done too much nervous snacking already, especially with tonight's Drumstick ice cream. Music has been keeping me calm and sometimes awake (Train, Christmas songs, amongst other things no normal person should sing in public, especially during 24 hour quiet hours), and Hi-Chew has really been keeping my mouth occupied. I should chew gum instead; then it lasts.

I've just got to keep at the grinding stone, sharpening my blade of a mind to a point that I hope it will be at it's best, but not overdone and broken. Best of luck to everyone in this final week of the semester! We've come this far! I'm psyched. Yet panicked. Silly me. (:

I've spent too much sweet time with chemistry and hexagons (and triangles!) today, so I guess it's time to lend some love to NUMBAHS and integrals, which only God can really evaluate. Oh, the silly things the professors have drilled into me. I'm quite amused. Accents are also awesome. I'll speak in one in my dreams.

In case I lost my train of thought, where was it that we last left off? (Let's pick up, pick up).

It's a Rainy Day

But this music without words is making it okay. I made this mistake of going from Pandora to a search for piano music, to the spotting of the word cancer paired with My Chemical Romance, to a couple minutes of pain, and then a yanking of myself back to Pandora to soothe myself with my piano music station. It's such a dreary day outside (after all the rain last night and this morning), and the skies are nothing but grey, with no distinction of clouds at all. While only the left ear of my earphones is working, the effect of this song still echoes throughout my body. Like taking a drug given to relax the body, I'm prepped to absorb chemistry. And then math. Oh, the peace of repetition. I'm keeping this song looping on EndlessYouTube for now.

William Joseph: Once Upon a Love

Today Has Been a Pretty Good Day

Last night I attempted getting a jump start on next week's exams, in the form of making mini flash cards from the two powerpoints for Hawaiian Studies. I also had an entertaining few rounds of Blokus in a Christmas light lit room with Annie and Megan, followed by a little consumption of candy (Jolly Ranchers and chocolate), the singing of Spongebob songs (the FUN song and the Campfire Song Song), and the singing of Christmas songs. It was nice. Crazy (as in, it was a bad idea to open the door to the hallway at all), but nice.

Though I woke up slightly later than usual today... Everything turned out relaxing. I found a bunch of amusing material to read once exams have passed, worked a bit on my peer review (which I finished today when I got back). Left a little late to get to math early, but all was cool, as I somehow became a Pokemon who failed to listen to the commands of the one who captured me.

Math class! My last lecture class of the semester! We did an evaluation for Prof. Csordas. His introductory comments were quite amusing. I'm going to miss his personality, haha. Lots of people drew on their evaluation sheets (green, and for once, not multiple choice like all the other classes), and then we went over what will be on next week's exam. Then we were free, 45 minutes early, hehe. Then Bronson asked "So where do you guys want to eat lunch?" And somehow the four of us (Bronson, Corey, Grace and I) trekked over to Campus Center and down to Taco Bell, in which we somehow ended up eating part of their tacos. There is a finals study group special, that being 10 tacos for $10. They bought two of those and shared with us.... Oh the magnificence of kind people, soft tacos, taco sauce, talk of Rock Band, talk of next semester, talk of mat team/league, and talk of elementary school/high school. Waved hello to Bryson and Vincent, too. We exited through a door that wasn't really an exit, but just a passage to an outdoor eating area. However, we climbed down the hill and went our separate ways.

I got one of my lab books back from Bilger after searching for my TA, and finding him in the elevator, haha. After that I felt free... and pretty much was free. So here I have been at my computer, taking care of things and watching the Gift of Hope Charity Concert online. It was premium night and all four of us grabbed the same entree, hehe. My tummy is relaxed and my left ear, at least, has been filled with calming sounds and kind of bad jokes. It's good to see that SWE and SO are doing fine. It's also great that Mercy Ships is benefiting.

24 hour quiet hours are in effect, and I kind of feel the silence starting to weigh down on everything. That's okay. The pressure will push me to enter super study mode! I wish I could go to craft fair on Saturday, but I don't feel that's going to happen. Best of luck on finals to everyone!

When I Look at the Stars

I see someone else / When I look at the stars / I feel like myself. (Switchfoot)

My camera is far from the best, and the lights of the tower across of hours will never turn off at night, so this here picture of our Christmas lights isn't that great. Our decorations are kind of loud and obnoxious, hehe, in playful competition with Matt's. =D It was quite a task hanging these up, and I discovered that painter's tape won't stick to the window, so we put that roll of clear packing tape I bought to use. It was nice yesterday, just using it as the only light, doing math homework and chatting and all. It created a great ambiance (the word Claire used - my vocabulary in day-to-day life is still severely lacking). It'll definitely brighten up the 24 hour quiet hours, which go into effect tomorrow night.

Today was the last day of MWF classes. It came pretty quickly, meh? I did learn a lot in Hawaiian Studies and Anthropology. Not that what I'm going to learn is necessarily all going to stick, but they did both leave me with different perspectives. Organic Chem.... Still has my mind reeling and going in loops. Repetition. That is what studying has become for me. Lots of repetition. Its why my thoughts pretty much go nowhere, now, and I can't take things in new directions. My mind is stuck going round and round over and over again, breaking and forming epoxide and cyclic bromonium ions without end, hehe.

And can you believe it? Tomorrow is the last day of actual classes for us! Oh, great, my last class of this semester is math. What joy ^^;; The last class I'll actually be in, though, is chemistry. Yay for a Friday exam. Gotta get all the time to study that you can, eh?

Registration this morning was stressful, but in the end, it all went well. I will post up next semester's schedule later. I'm glad the lady in the Spanish Department office that I've talked to on the phone is so nice. I'm sorry to have bothered her again.

I should try taking a running start for these exams. Crossing fingers and aiming for the finish line! Taking some "breaks" along the way, of course, to snack and get fatter, and challenge my mind more with Blokus, or Tetris, and some other things. Which somehow reminds me, I need to return all these library books at some point. That's kind of an issue, hahaha. That large pile is still there, minus my brown-paper-bag-covered textbook.

Half of the Pocky, 1.5 bottles of Calpico, the 4 mini-breads w/cream custard inside, 4 out of 6 of the little bread snack thing that Becca likes, and 3/4 a bar of melon Hi-Chew are gone. Ohohoho. Yay for sweet, pretty, easy-to-share foods from Nijiya. Also, Annie and Megan bought me a package of strawberry/orange/green apple Hi-Chews, too XD. Yay sweetness!

I'll take a while to just stare at the star and breathe.

Stars looking at a planet / Watching entropy and pain / And maybe start to wonder / How the chaos in our lives could  pass as sane...

It's Just the Price I Paid

Destiny is calling me / Open up my eager eyes / 'Cause I'm Mr. Brightside (The Killers)

The things I make to keep myself going. Especially since next week is exam week. Doom.

In my removal of my Converse and refusal to remove socks because of the cold, I ended up wearing my flats out of convenience, in walking around the hall to the bathroom, and back. Looks terrible, right, especially with my distressed jeans,eh?

Nijiya Market purchases

After class today, I walked to Nijiya Market with Becca (after talking with Kat for a while until she had to go to class). We bought lots of random Japanese snacks (as evidenced by the above picture), and then went to Curry House, where I had my lunch (and Becca had melon soda and some of my shirmp cutlet curry XD). Mmmm. Afterwards, we went to Bubbies for a little bit, where Becca got strawberry cheesecake, I got mocha chip, and we both shared some mochi ice cream. Too much food for one day, I think. There was a food tour group that came in while we were there, which was pretty neat, I think. Let's go someday, haha! Then we won't have to drive ourselves around the island!

Concert time in a few hours. Last night's rehearsal ran pretty late, but hopefully that mean's today will go well! We definitely improved from last week, thankfully.

This past weekend:
Saturday: Moanalua High School winter concert:AWESOME. The chorus/concert choir always makes me smile. And SO, you guys are doing well and are amazing. Congrats. Much love. SWE's zombie dance was great, and I kind of teared up when I heard the "I'll Be There" portion of the Michael Jackson medley. Great solos. Mr. Kubota makes me think of Matt Smith, and my chemistry lab TA from this past semester, combined.)
Sunday: Hawaii Youth Symphony winter concert. Everyone sounded amazing. Such a pleasure to listen to. Miss Hawaii emceeing was interesting. The piano soloist was quite charismatic. Twas pretty great sitting in the audience not having to worry about playing, haha. Though, after actually being onstage, it definitely gave me a different perspective.

One more concert for me today! I'm kind of relieved I no longer have to deal with the rush week of all the concerts being pushed together, hehe. Time to worry about exams, though. Here we go...

Much love!

And Don't Forget to Hold Back Your Thoughts and Live Like Robots

'Cause we all know what goes on / Reminisce on the memories 'cause we're gone / We're gone / So gone (Jonas Brothers)

Things are a little stressful and people aren't all in the best of moods or mental states, but I think despite all the sad things and whatnot, I should try to keep strong. Sad things are only beautiful from a distance, but distancing myself isn't going to make them less sad. And I can't really get away from it either, but that's okay. Just like I can't get away from the wind and the constant bouts of drizzle rain, that beat at the windows at night and make the drapes billow and sends whistles through the halls. Yes. Time for miscellany!

 It's the start of December, and I figure I could join in the spirit of things and bring some winter cheer to these last few weeks of school with these earrings that my grandmother gave me. Inexpensive, but quite shiny and fun to wear. Haven't felt this much weight on my ears in a while!

When I went home for Thanksgiving I finally relocated this card to keep the SD card slot on my laptop clean and closed, hehe. It was in such an easy-to-access place, too! =_=;;

As you can see... My habit for overdoing things without thinking ahead got the better of me when I was borrowing things for my paper, hehe. ^^;;

Remember that hand-turkey-making day that I wrote about? I finally took the time to take pictures. Time being just before I started writing this post, haha.

Made from the various scrap papers left after our turkey endeavor. DISCO PARTY TURKEY, yeah, time to get down an funky after Thanksgiving is over, yeah!

Claire's awesome hand turkeys!

My mad chemist turkey lost a fing-I mean, feather. Lab accident. Reaction? "Caffiene!"

Our full door! (So far =D)

On one of the days this past weekend when we got home, we opened the box of Pillsberry Crescent things that we had bought from Costco on sale and used them to not only make normal crescents, but these tiny ham wraps, using the instructions on the box for the little pigs in blankets. Now I know how Grace's mom makes such wonderful food to snack on!

These aren't fully grown, but my mother opened up another package of those wonderful, colorful magic water growing balls. It's pretty amusing just to see them grow, and to swirl them around. Hehe.

We're heading into the week before finals, meaning major study week, aka turn into a robot and constantly feed myself information and to shut out distractions and turn off emotions and desires. If this is the way to success, so be it! Besides, I'd very much rather to problems repetitively than have to write papers and do research. Sigh.

Also, I forgot. I have recently taken to the Hitchhiker's Guide's "DON'T PANIC." It is up on my refrigerator and on my manila folder filled with miscellany. That shall be my chant for the rest of the semester. That and CALM DOWN. Yeah. Forget FOCUS. It is not a matter of focusing problems. It is PANICKING and thus doing things to relieve that panic that occasionally pulls me off track. Here's to not panicking and coming out of everything well. Good luck!

Planning

So today I made a nice paper with my tentative schedule for Spring 2011. Don't worry; by the end there will be only one orange, one green, and one pink sticky note left on it. I've got my first choices and my backup days/times set up, and my preferences all set up. I'm also hoping that I do get into that physics class. Otherwise... I need to find some other class to take. I need to come up with backup classes, haha. I'm looking at English... but writing intensive doesn't sound so nice in addition to my science classes. And who knows what the workload in anthropology will be. ^^;;

Speaking of ANTH, I've got a paper I should be working on. I really need someone to motivate me.

In other news, I watched the 11 episodes of Eden on the East on Funimation recently, after seeing the DVD available in Suncoast. It was interesting. Favorite character? Akira Takizawa, for sure, hehe. XD

I pray you shall continue to be a savior. Also, I found the video for the end theme very captivating. Love the medium. I especially love the portion when the hand comes out to hold the phone. The fact that their shadows are cut outs of them is lovely too. And the "bang bang" at the end.... <3

I've been having the crazy desire to continuously snack recently. I need someone here to stop me... Or to eat all the food in my junk drawer, hehe. On a bright note, strawberry banana yogurt is delicious in the morning!

Today was the last day for actually CHEM272 lab. It took longer than I had hoped it would (mostly we spent too much time waiting when things could have been done to fix it to make it go faster ;_; so silly). It was great, though. Polymers are interesting, especially in just making them. Nylon and polystyrene, man! The thionyl chloride was kind of scary, though. The evolution of sulfur dioxide and HCl gas was kind of troubling too, hehe. Oh well! No more accidentally squirting too much acetone on my hands when cleaning! No more fighting with syringes and trying to get to know equipment that  everyone else probably had chances getting to know in the year before! Oh well. Fume hood are amazing. So was my TA. I wish I could have him for a TA again next semester, despite difficulties in understanding what he was saying. XD

I am free. (: Chem lab was so stressful and frustrating this semester (not to mention LONG), but I think it just emphasized that chemistry is something I really do enjoy. Being methodical and following directions, but finding solutions, and knowing that there is a reason for everything that went wrong or right. I still have problems memorizing things (so much memorizing!), but understanding why things happened was so great. Difficult and demanding, but oh so neat. I admire my TA for his knowledge, hehe.

Anyway, focus focus focus. That is what it always comes to. Qin and the Incas, here I come!

Permanent Jet Lag

Please take me back (please take me back).  (Fall Out Boy)

While I certainly flew nowhere this Thanksgiving weekend (while many other people did to spend time with their families on such a wonderful time of bonding over food and frantic shopping batles), I definitely feel the effects of being home for so long. I don't know why, but with all the time I had today and all the time I have this weekend, I feel utterly drained and just want to sleep. Where did my energy go? I ate mom's delicious pork chop with rice for dinner today (reminder: must wash container!), and some strawberry-banana Yoplait yogurt afterwards for desert, and drank apple juice and water. I just feel severely weighed down and in a haze right now, hehe.

I looked at the rehearsal/concert schedule and the final exam schedule for the upcoming few weeks. Everything is spaced slightly nicely, but at the same time, I could use some more space between math and chemistry things. Not to mention, all the paper writing I have to get to doing. I didn't realize how close all the deadlines are; learning from the first set of tests and big assignments came around, I know how much time I need to do things, and I feel like I could always just use MORE MORE MORE. We'll see how things go.

On a bright note, I practiced violin today, going through all the music for Music at Manoa. Hopefully these last few rehearsals go better; I'm hoping Monday's concert isn't a complete bust. My D string slipped yesterday during choir, so I'm hoping that it's not a sign telling me it's about to break, or sound completely terrible. I don't think I'll change my string this close to a concert. I should have done it weeks ago! That's what I keep telling myself. I need to learn to take proper care of my violin The index finger rest pad thing on my bow is coming apart in a coil of braided string. I do not know what to do about it, short of taping it all in place, which I will NEVER! do. Tape on wood is just not right, you know?

I had a great time this past weekend watching things, seemingly with a lot more foreign accents than I had anticipated. James Bond, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Happy-Go-Lucky, Hetalia. For some reason this all reminds me that I need to change my pair of contacts. I was supposed to through out this pair on the 23rd; Thankfully, being at home means resorting to using glasses most of the time for the sake of convenience. I guess after driving with my contacts in just made me realize how much more comfortable/safe feeling glasses are (except for the fact that my current pair gives the top of my right ear pain). By the way, I can't park, really. I need more practice! And definitely more patience on my part. -sigh- I will try for my license someday, certainly, MOST CERTAINLY, after I learn how to park. And after I am not so panicky and jolty. Yeah.

The only song I've sang this weekend pretty much was 20 Dollar Nose Bleed. I couldn't get it out of my head, and couldn't stop myself from singing it, despite the fact that it talks about benzedrine, which is the racemic mixture of amphetamine (thank you Wikipedia), and thus is related to meth. And for reasons uncertain, I feel like that was kind of bad to sing at home. Oh dear. But I cannot resist singing with Patrick's and Brendon's voices. Too bad both of their bands are pretty much dead, and not the same as they used to be.

Got to get to focusing. I have a large back of library books and a wonderful collection of online journals to aid me in my paper writing. Yay history!

Came back with flags on coffins and said "We won, oh we won."

Oh, the destruction of the Hawaiian kingdom, and oh, the power of the Qin Dynasty.

I think I will have a permanent desire to go back home to the comfort of my own bed and a purring cat, for the bands that made music that I love immensely, to ease the pain and queasiness I feel as I read about the tumultuous pasts and rights and wrongs of different political powers in places worldwide. Please take me back.

Send You My Love on a Wire

So, as of yesterday, I've been listening to the so-called "The Clash at Demonhead"'s version of Metric's song Black Sheep. I like the version made for the movie sung by Brie Larson more than the original, though they're both catchy to me. Now, if Brie Larson sang more songs like that, I would totally buy those songs. I like her voice. And her as Envy Adams in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

I can't help singing the chorus over and over again, and I can't help just looping this. I got so crazy that I found that there is an Envy Adams appreciation tumblr, from which I found this art here on the left, see?

Anyway, I could do for a few telephone calls or text messages or videochats, or IMs. I'll send you my love on a wire. ^^ It's Thanksgiving weekend (or, is about to be) and I'm just in such a good mood, despite the period of fear in chemistry class earlier today going over the correct answers for Monday's exam. At least we probably won't get our scores until next Monday, so we can sort of relax and enjoy the weekend. (:

I took a trip to the library yesterday after class to get books on the Qin Dynasty and the First Emperor so I could start looking at what to write in my upcoming archaeology paper for Anth. I also borrowed Hotel Rwanda (which I have not watched yet) for extra credit for Hawaiian Studies. I ended up borrowing two more movies, Happy-Go-Lucky and The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, despite the fact that I could probably watch the latter of those on Youtube. Sigh. But, with me going home this weekend, I think that it will make for good FAMILY TIME! Yeah! I find it interesting that as long as you have a library card, you can borrow those R-rated movies. I mean, I asked the lady about it, but she said "That's interesting! No one has asked about that before! But it's all up to your parent's discretion!" Anyway. Watching movies and stuffing myself with food is probably what I'll be doing instead of thinking about papers or math homework this weekend, ehehe. Gotta make the $3 paid worth it! And give them to my mother to return so I don't have to make the trip to the library again, ahahaha!

This past weekend I purchased the following item with my mother:

When everyone returns... this will be fun. TRIANGLES ARE AWESOME.

Holiday spirit is kicking in! I, however, am not looking forward to shopping. Or rather, I'm not going shopping, haha. Homework time to make sure that I can enjoy the weekend. (: Adios!

It's Not What it Seems in the Land of Dreams

The past few nights of dreams have been so strange, from force-feeding Grace and Claire leeks (so I didn't have to eat any) in an restaurant accessed in a glass bubble elevator that ended up underwater, to time traveling to the future to hide behind bookshelves from aliens we knew were coming, to hiding in a room by the lounge, locking the door on Annie, hiding in the corner and laughing like a nut, to opening the door and making a huge dent in a white convertible that was apparently Alyssa's and in the lounge. In the building. Hehehe.

Anyway, it's scary how easily I get distracted on the internet, following one thing to another. Take the lyrics in the title, this time. Yesterday I was listening to my iPod and the lyrics were catchy, but I didn't know what song it was and was too lazy to grab it to see the title, so I typed some of the lyrics into Google and found the song, Tiffany Blews. From there I went to the Wiki page on the album, Folie a Deux, because I wanted to see if it listed who made their guest appearance in that song, but then I noticed, in the track listing, that there was that pregap track, Lullabye, which is now linked in the title of this post, hehe. Then I put Endless Youtube to work and searched Lyric Wikia, and listened to it on repeat until I went to sleep.

Last Friday was pretty much a normal Friday, except we ate Panda Express for dinner in support of RAPS (yay orange chicken, mushroom chicken, and beef broccoli, yay for overpriced fake Chinese food!) while my mother and grandmother were at a birthday party. This weekend was full of me lugging around my chemistry textbook and studying, the occasional playing of the piano/violin/guitar & singing on rock band, and the constant petting of the cat and being loud. I listened to the two mix CDs I'd left at home repetitively, entitled SPATULA and PEW PEW, or something of that sort. Comfortable silliness. Prowled Pearlridge for a short while on Saturday, spotting Mr. Seta and eating one of Cookie Corner's chocolate chip cookies before going to mass and playing piano. Went to Windward Mall on Sunday (for Youth Symphony II's mall concert), and spent some time walking around and talking to Stewart, including a brief, nice encounter with Jaycee, and various familiar parents. Shopping alone is lonely, though I could spend forever just staring at things in Gamestop and crawling through bags in Macy's. I did eat crunchy maki sushi for lunch, and shared a Caramel Macchiato shake from Ben & Jerry's with Jaynie after the concert was over.

Frankly, I find it funny that that means I've been to three malls in three days. I am not that big of a shopper, really.

Today was chem exam day. I used my grey purse for once to maximize quick movement from class to class! It  made me feel like I had to stand up straighter, and that I was more exposed. At least it was comfortable.

I walked to Campus Center after class, and was entranced by the "Passage" masters thesis showcase in the Art building gallery they usually have. Stunning. Telephone wires tied to emergency sprinkler valves, linked to beautiful lehua blossom trees, printed with only the flowers being red, and the rest of the tree black. Absolutely beautiful, how they all connected. Then inside, a giant pipe you could look through, to see the ceramic birds hanging from the ceiling. there were quite a few with those, as well as sculpted pipes. The mixture of the manufactured products of today's society with nature. Birds holding screws, sprinkler heads.... I can't get over the prints that were on the wall, hiding the inside along with the pipe. It was as if you stepped in and found the birds trapped, hanging still, but still being alive and having movement. I like how the manmade objects were entangled with nature; the art itself just amazed me and pleased me so much. I could have stood outside and stared forever.

The session of calm, peace, and reflection was then followed by a brief laugh session and gulping of power sized Strawberries Wild from Jamba Juice with "the guys," who are as silly and offensive to each other as ever. Upon return to the dorms, however, I finished season one of xXxHolic and, get this, HAND TURKEYS.

They're awesome. I'll take pictures of them soon. It was a party! Annie, Jessica, Megan (Katharine briefly), and Claire and I! Claire provided the paper, and we brought in the rest of the miscellaneous items required for their assembly. I'll write in more detail about them later, too, hehe!

Suffice to say, it was a nice day for me, and hopefully that chem studying I did gave me enough common sense to override the panic that was occurring in my mind during that exam.

Don't worry your head, just go to sleep. (Fall Out Boy)

R is for Romee, Who Wants an Eclair

This morning, I listened to United States of Eurasia [+Collateral Damage] from Muse's album Resistance while trying to open this loaf of healthy bread my mother gave me:

I had difficulties. I did succeed, and ate a bit of it with Nutella. The bottle I purchased at the beginning of the semester is about 33.3% full, now. Also, I have been trying to decide whether or not I would like to purchase that album. Or any of Muse's albums. I know I would definitely like the sheet music for Neutron Star Collision (despite the fact that it was for a Twilight movie ;_;).

After a nice lunch of pizza that was covered in vegetables (which included artichoke hearts, I believe!), slightly sour oranges, and chocolate chip cookies, and a short encounter with Kathryn and chat with Renee along with that, I absorbed math (Green's theorem) and fought to balance hot and cold with my jacket. I realize that my body is very poorly suited to cool weather (or even just warm Hawaii weather). It must be a result of wearing a jacket and long pants CONSTANTLY throughout middle school and high school. That must change, hehe, or else I will be like those poor bacteria you can kill off with a thermostat because they only survive at a known temperature range.

I went to visit the Edward Gorey exhibit in the Art building after class with Alyssa. I admire that art style, and his use of the alphabet, sequentially in words. I was also pretty stunned by the amount of writing and drawing he had done. Alyssa bought baklava on the way back, and I listened to her talk about writing and storylines. It made me think of how I don't really write in my free time anymore, other than these long blog posts, which 1) aren't even done during "free time", and 2) hardly count as structured or well thought out.

In time Grace joined us. I practiced the Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire medley that we're playing in symphony, particularly the Potter Waltz:

Alyssa ended up sorting out her SweetTarts by color after I had remembered to give her her Halloween candy, and Grace watched some sparkly pink anime with cute animals in it, hehe.

At some point in rehearsal last night, Miyamura said something that sounded like "Too many papayas!" I have no clue what he really said. It was premium night this evening at the cafe and I ate stuffed salmon (actually the third time I had that as my premium dish this semester), along with some pesto pasta, mango, and pudding. There was talk of Disneyland and texting.

There were a few crazy moments after dinner, when we were all full and fighting food comas, where Megan, Annie, and I sat in the hallway by Annie's door and just talked, hit a balloon back and forth (a balloon taken from a chemistry lab...) and conversed, leading to misinterpretation. I had followed the sound of a guitar to find a sick individual in a room with little light. We had experimented with the falling ability of paper down stairwells. There were phone using adventures, a trip to the Market to purchase drinkable items, and further shennanigans in the room (with the appearance of Claire who needed to pack for her weekend adventure). Hi-Chew was thrown, sexual jokes made, and overall drama and liveliness.

I'm having problems with grammar right now, hehe. I guess that means I should return to the predicting of reaction products! Yay for alcohols, esters, and epoxides! Goodnight!

History

 

What do these two photos have to do with each other? What do these two photos have to do with my day? Well, first of all, I didn't spend it looking at chins or eating mochi. They did cross my mind today due to Anthropology; we looked at two case studies: the Qin militaristic state of the Qin Dynasty after China's Unification in 221 B.C., and the Moche state in Northern Peru. In the lecture/speaking/presentation portions, the pronunciations ended up really completely sounding like "chin" and "mochi" hehe. Amusing, to a slight extent. That class is nice, and I actually found learning about the Qin state pretty interesting! I'll probably use that as my base state society for the upcoming paper that is due. What was most overwhelming was reading about the First Emperor's terra cotta warriors. I mean, you hear about it in elementary or middle school, but reading the detailed article about the numbers and seeing the pictures, it kind of hits you how much POWER the people of the past had. It made me think, I wish our society could leave behind some treasure like that for the future to uncover (as in, suddenly you dig and WOW there is a life-sized pottery warrior! Frightening, but purely amazing!), but I think we're probably just going to leave behind tons and tons of information shoved into the tiniest metal chips we can.

We got grade checks in Hawaiian Studies. I'm determined to do AMAZING on the final and the last paper, so my grade will be more satisfying to me, hehe. We've hit the historical overview/modern issues section of the class, so it's slightly more touchy, but it's interesting. It's a bit awkward having Hawaiians in class along with people who are "haole", and discussing the good and bad of the encounters of the past, as with Captain James Cook, making the "haole" the foreigners.

Regardless, I'm learning a lot from my social studies-like classes. Open minds, new perspectives of the world!

Rehearsal tonight from 7 to 9:40pm. Crossing fingers that Miyamura makes it go quickly! Meaning, hopefully some people practiced. I guess that should also apply to me, hehe.

11.16.10

I am in severe lack of an appropriate song lyric for this post, hehe. So you get the good 'ol date.

This morning was filled with a nice visit from Alyssa (studying for Japanese) and Grace (sleeping as ever, teehee). I remembered I bought a breakfast burrito from The Market a while back, and had dutifully stuck it in the freezer portion of the refrigerator to be eaten as a mean on another day. The package had things like "Organic tomatoes and beans inside." I didn't realize that the whole burrito itself would be.... healthy. It had tofu. It's texture was strange, and all I could do while I put a piece that was still too hot for consumption (after microwaving for 1.5 min on each side in a "loosely wrapped" paper towel) in my mouth was blow out, make funny faces, and wiggle/dance. Alyssa had her mental practice with a conversation in Japanese (and partially Spanish).

Math was relatively easy to understand and follow today (not that I exactly remember what it was about right this moment). Also, the proof of the law of conservation of energy was pretty amazing (and Professor Csordas certainly was excited about show it to us). In chem lab we created solid, saturated fat (see previous post) from the MUFAs in olive oil. Pretty gross, but kind of cool, especially since we made our own filtering apparatus with a cotton ball and a pipette. We also ended over an hour early (compared to usual, and the expected end time), which is why I am now in a good mood and am here happily typing away about food that kind of disgusted me, hehe.

I walked back to the dorms and there was a person in green sitting outside of the building. From a distance I passed it off as someone I wouldn't know, someone I'd have to be wary of because they were probably waiting for someone to come by and open the door so they can get it. I was completely wrong, haha! As I got closer, I realized the green person was making a face at me, and recognition struck. Bronson with short hair AND in green is so completely different. He said he was waiting for Corey, who he was to meet at 4:00 pm to go to the gym, and by that time, it was already 4, so Corey was late.

The text sent under request:
"Bronson says that you're late and he's disappointed."
The reply:
"Lol he was late yesterday but okay I'm going down now."

Oh, friendships are so silly to observe. One thing I really have liked about this semester so far is that the people I've gotten to know are so friendly, quirky, and funny. I guess they're probably the people who are still the most like high-schoolers, but I'm not concerned about that; I'm just relieved that they're familiar in that sense. I also think, overall, chemistry lab has been pretty enjoyable to me, despite the fact that my lab partner is not as helpful or enthusiastic or prepared for chemistry as I am. I'm also just grateful that the TA doesn't get mad, even if at times, like today, our pair ends up asking so many questions, or messes up something, and he ends up standing there doing some part of the lab for us for a while (like fixing that filtration thing I wrote about earlier, and heating our solid for a while to get rid of some of the leftover solvent). He always makes silly faces when he smells things, though. Manga character much. With a nice accent and slightly bad (English) handwriting to go with it.

ALSO, what's up with that? No one follows the lab rule that used to be so emphasized in high school: waft vapors towards you to smell. We're sniffing all these esters, and today, our fats, but it's all okay! I mean, maybe it's not. By the way, that fat smelt disgusting. It was cool having it solidify, but it was definitely disgusting at the same time.

I really need to move all the pictures on my memory card somewhere. There is something I saw on my walk to Hawaiian Studies yesterday that I must post because it was AWESOME, hehe.

Now to read Anthropology before I'm off to another wonderful RAPS meeting! Too bad I don't plan on staying for the movie, though. Just too much homework to do. And chem to love and roll around in, hehe!

Stay away from saturated fat! It really looks disgusting!

Imbalanced

It's been a while since I've really had to balance an equation, and this is what we've got for the ochem lab we're doing tomorrow; Balance the equation that turns the top vegetable oil into the bottom vegetable oil (by hydrogenation):

Save me, hehe. Wait, what am I talking about! I love you chemistry!

EDIT: I didn't even balance it myself. I was going crazy, going unsuccessfully into the hundreds (maybe I just have  such a poor concept of this), so I ended up using this. Thank goodness for the internet!

Our Lives Are Made In These Small Hours

These little wonders, these twists and turns of fate.
Time falls away, but these small hours, 
These small hours still remain. (Rob Thomas)

Presenting a few photos from this past month or so without adequate memory SD memory card space and the time/urge to blog thoroughly:

Grace splat. Computer productivity. Blackness in a well-lit room.

Annie shared us some starfruit. First time I've eaten some. Crispier than I imagined.

On occasion, I eat fruity pebbles for breakfast. Something I can't eat with my chopsticks, for once.

I was walking back one day from I'm not so sure where (perhaps it was the day I went to training for Kids Fest; either way, I was coming back from walking from the bus stop, and decided to take the back road to the dorm because it was hot and sunny. I passed by the portable classrooms and saw these chickens, teehee. Running wild. So many of them.

Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino has given me the occasional burst of energy. It definitely tastes good in those late hours. I swear off of cigarettes, drinking, riding motorcycles, committing suicide, intentionally harming myself or another being, greater-than-4-inch high heels, unnecessary makeup, reading manga, and energy drinks. The sillier things in that list, until a later time in my life (meaning, I don't think I can completely live without manga, haha).

Shoved under the door from Annie & Megan: Claire's is orange. They sparkle and glow in the dark!

Dino IV by Alyssa

On Friday Becca came over in between class (after chemistry), and we had stopped by Pizza Hut to get personal pan pizzas. The pizzas from The Market don't compare to the lightness and balance of their pizzas. Becca loves cheese. She says I live in a slice of cream cheese pizza, hehe.

Thursday was Veteran's Day, and I spent it at Ala Moana with Grace, wandering through many, many, MANY stores, resisting purchase of not so necessary items, and just enjoying being able to relax. Whatever money I spent, was spent on food, like the squishy wheat roll cake above. I love Shirokiya, hehe. All the food in there is so tempting, though. I did buy vegetable tempura (they had BROCCOLI, I was so shocked), vegetable croquettes (two of which I saved and ate for breakfast the following morning), and what were essentially Spam musubis. Yum.

I lied. I also bought Sixpence None the Richer's self-titled album for $5 from Book-Off (good condition). The only song I know and really like from that album so far is the well known song Kiss Me. I will work on memorizing the lyrics to that song. I've been doing that a lot recently; I made myself memorize Dashboard Confessional's Hands Down and Vindicated, mostly because I love how varied and full the verses are, and singing the bridges, especially. I still haven't memorized much of My Love is a Stapler. Japanese is just not my language, hehe.

As for other adventures over these past few weeks: "Dirty Minds" board game (the day before Kids Fest, HPH'S Cancer Care conference, Toys & Joys, Collectors Maniacs, Menchies, Ward Warehouse, Ala Moana Post Office (filling boxes, taping them shut, and mailing them was fun and gave me a good feeling). I want to go to Barnes & Nobles Kahala Mall so I can buy Richard Yates by Tao Lin. They have that book. I also want to go to the state library because there are now so many books I want to read, especially the rest of the Hunger Games trilogy. I was pleasantly surprised by that first book. No, Rue! -cries-

Long day.

I really practiced violin for the first time in the long time today after spending a long lunch period after chem with Casey, and the Becca in Campus Center dining hall. I waved at Richmond, Susan, and Bryson. It was good to see people, and just to talk. I ate a chicken patty sandwich with delicious curly fries, drank apple juice (as usual), and ate one of their yummy cookies. Next time I must purchase a brownie. I have a little over $100 left in points on my card. I wonder if they'll carry into next semester, or if I should start blowing points on food to stock up. (: Anyway, violin. Claire was really tired today, so even though I was practicing, she fell asleep, hehe. It felt so good to really play. I didn't touch orchestra music at all. Instead, I played through most of the Suzuki Violin School Book 7, and through part of Book 8. It definitely showed me how rusty I've become. My wrists are no longer very flexible, and I think I need to change some strings.

Monday afternoons are nice. I should use them more effectively, but eh, I will work hard all night! These small wonders fill me with happiness and remind me that everything will be okay in the end as long as I give it all and keep my head focused and don't panic.

Lastly, thank you so much, Grace, for this sticker-laden lovely silliness and ferocious origami dragon. :3