Egh.

currently. watching spongebob
listening to. boulevard of broken dreams - green day
reading. kiki strike: the empress' tomb - kirsten miller

So I just decided, I don't like this layout as much as I initially did. The way I aligned the images seems really strange now, and it honestly just looks like I slapped the extra images on without thought (<-- that isn't entirely untrue, actually). I've been looking through a shitload of graphic sites lately, and what I've seen is just a reminder that just because I discovered some cool new editing program, doesn't mean that I'm set as a "good" designer by any means, whatever the hell anyone's perception of "good" is. I've got a LOT to practice and experiment with, so I'm going to make myself a nice little layout to have for a couple of weeks and then experiment until I'm confident enough to make a non-sucky layout. If I can become un-lazy enough, I shpuld have it up before I leave for camp this weekend.

Baaii now.

GOING TO CAMP! Write me (:

currently. blech
listening to. champagne supernova - oasis

So. Yeah. I am leaving for camp this Saturday/Sunday with my friend Jeena. I'll be back by the 12th (Jeena's staying an extra week), but that's a week of no Internet (damn), no cellphone reception (damn), and no contact with electronic devices since the only outlet in the entire camp is in the bathroom, and I need a computer to charge my mp3 player anyway (damn). The mail calls are on Mondays, so the camp suggests to write and mail everything the Friday before I get to the camp so the letters can get there by Monday's mail call. I know of no other mail calls during the week, so if you're going to write, write and mail to the camp by Friday so I can get it by Monday and you (might) get a letter back from me by Thursday/Friday. Anyway, here's the address:

mynamehere:D
Camp Sloane YMCA
124 Indian Mountain Road
Lakeville, CT 06039

Well, if you write, don't tell me about it. I'll still be here this Friday and I'd rather wait to read everything. And. Stuff. Muh. So yeah. Write me :)~

I find it convenient to not be in the midst of civilization next week, which is Top 12 week of this season's So You Think You Can Dance. I mean, convenient seeing that Matt doesn't get eliminated while I'm gone. ._.; I'm really hoping he's strong enough to make Top 10 (and subsequently, THE TOUR!!UNUS!11ONE), since it's pretty inevitable that he and Kourtni will land in the Bottom 3 for the coming weeks. /rant

In other news, I joined Jenny's iContest at her graphics site, Synesthesia. 8D; I doubt I'd make it past the first round against whoever else has already submitted to the contest (seeing as 2937820 other people out there are better, more experienced designers), but I just did it to challenge myself and participated for fun.

Hopefully they're good enough to get me somewhere. I could use one or two of the prizes. xD;

Oh, and sorry for the next-to-none updates over the past...uh, almost three weeks now. I've taken to typing out journal entries and copying them down to my actual journal later. This way, it's a lot easier and faster for me to write stuff, plus it also saves everyone the need to keep scrolling down to get to the comments section or having tired eyes from trying to read my hugeass entries. Haaah. Maybe it's better I don't update that often so I don't end up murdering anyone. Hee.  

[edit]

CRISTY! Do you think you could get the star paper for me then mail it to me while I'm at camp? Then I'll send the money back to you once I'm there. 8D Feel free to say no, I just thought of this. lol

Maybe it'd be better to not exist.

currently. kjhgfdsfuygihlhgkvjchfxkeysmashkeysmash
listening to [on repeat]. hide and seek - imogen heap
piano. let it be - the beatles

Hide and Seek seriously is a good song to listen to when wanting to calm down.

New layout. The information is at the bottom module; I don't feel like typing out an entire entry talking about a layout. I have an obsession with rollover links, though. I've had some variation of them on my fourth and sixth layouts, and now I've got them again. It's always so tempting to make rollover links, and I've always ended up caving. They're so pretty, too. And I liked how the ones for this layout turned out; they were a happy accident. :D

I can't wait for this heat to turn down, whenever the hell that happens. I'm in a shirt and shorts right now, in an air-conditioned room, and I still feel like I'm burning. Mother Nature really hasn't been cooperating the past few days.  

[edit]

...I hadn't realized I hadn't listened to David Cook in the past two days until The World I Know turned up on shuffle mode on my player a couple of hours ago, on the J train. I think that's evidence that I'm moving pretty quickly onto Matt from So You Think You Can Dance right now...I'm a bad fangirl. XD

Kino >>>>>>>> Carnival.

currently. about to tear my freaking science take-home quiz apart
listening to [shuffle]. merry happy - kate nash

Happy day. Mostly. :]

Science, nothing special. English, nothing special (well, Roundy said that we were all expected to remain at campus until 2:50, but whatever, pfsht). The 20-minute break afterwards ("lunch"), I played Heart Attack with B and Ali -- and won! -- then ERS with some other people. I need to work on my reflexes more. I got on adequately, but I'd like to get to a level where I just cream everyone. lol

Latin, we got back our NLE results (after almost 3 months, jeez). I got a 38, yay! :D Then in C/T, we got in some final rehearsing time for our play, which we didn't get much out of because Edward was once again being an uncooperative asshat. And then he tried going "gangsta" near the end of the period with his lines -- which yes, was a major disconnect. Pft.

Starting off a chain of happy events was getting back my probability test in Math, with a score of 89/90 (I clinched 7 points from extra credit problems). Then in Global, Joffe explained how he was grading the term papers with his rubric, which was very, very precise, and thus made me really nervous. By the time he finished explaining, I'd pretty much resigned myself to a grade translating to a B+, only to find I'd gotten a freaking 94 (A)! He said my first 2 pages were a bit slow and my thesis didn't do my paper justice (which is interesting, because it's usually the other way around), but that the last couple of pages were "stellar". Although I love how he didn't take off anything for my conclusion, because both my peer editors told me my conclusion was just a summary of my paper without an answer to the "so what?" question whatsoever and in all my laziness, I'd pretty much just left it as it is -- and yet he didn't comment on it. I don't remember him emphasizing the importance of a "so what?" answer in the process of the paper, though, and it certainly wasn't in the rubric, so I guess that's why he didn't say anything. Oh well. I'm not complaining. xD

Okay, Carnival. I got 12 tickets, gave in 4 for pizza and 2 more for a snowcone at the beginning. After that I just lingered around, and right before my shift for the Desk booth at 12:15 started, I saw Cristy. :D And finally paid her back that $1 for the star paper, lol.

Highlights of serving my shift for the booth at Desk:
• Desk members always get free copies of the magazine, but we only had a limited run of 50 copies at the moment, so most people outside of the club had to sign up for a waiting list and us members will end up getting our copies later. Someday. Probably tomorrow since we have a meeting then.
• I basically harrassed Angel into buying a copy of the magazine. XD Well, actually, he came to the booth expressing his interest to buy a copy (Roundy had already threatened our entire English class into buying a copy from when we'd had class beforehand) and looking a little timid about it, but I kept telling him, "Buy it! BUUUY IIITT!!" and he succumbed. Heh.
• Soooo, it turns out that one of the other members of Desk, Amrita (a seven), used to go to my old school and used to have the same teacher I had in my one year at MS 210. Which is creepy. And even more creepy is, Amrita told me that Mrs. Filadelfo (who we both had as our teacher when we attended) had apparently shown off my work (an art thing I'd submitted for a calendar contest thing and managed to win, for instance) and kept telling the class that I'd been her "best student". Which I of course found flattering, but I thought she'd been overrating me a little because I'd always thought of one of my best friends, Stephanie Diu, as a better all-around student than myself and Edward...is Edward. Yeah. I'll have to ask Amrita tomorrow if Mrs. F ever talked about Edward and how he tended to make everyone scratch their heads when explaining math-related concepts.
• People hate Mr. Towber. About 5 sevens came by during my shift expressing an interest to draw on Mr. Towber. And I think the Mr. T pictures turned out the most hilarious and unrecognizable; it was amusing to see them all.
• I gave in 2 tickets to draw on our picture of Mr. Roundy! I drew a dead bunny face over his face for the older, senior advisors in Desk. It worked; Merrill loved it. I wonder what Mr. Roundy will say to me if he sees it, since I wrote "DEAD ROUNDY BUNNY" on it and he tends to recognize my handwriting immediately. XD
• I wandered off from my shift a few times (the sevens were working overtime, so I wasn't leaving the booth alone) and saw Mr. Joffe juggling. And he was ACTUALLY juggling. That was awesome.

I served a bit overtime, leaving the booth to the sevens (well, hell, they were dedicated) at about 12:55 or so. Then Beiatrix, Gracie and I spent about 15 minutes trying to look for Gracie's iPod (she'd lost it while trying to learn how to juggle). No luck. >___<; We ended up getting on the 6 train at about 1:15 or so with Emily. At 51st-Lex, the V train took a while to come so B just randomly started taking pictures and we got in some weird ones with us forming a square with our feet, doing awkward turtles, being Charlie's Angels, and other such crazy crap (I have some of the coolest motion pictures where my body looks like it's disappearing XD). Then Beiatrix got this shot of Emily and me on the V train; Emily's face is freaking HILARIOUS. :P

Kinoooo! <3 I first went to check out the latest magazines; Yamada is still as pretty hot as ever, while Keito needs to desperately cut his hair. And JE seems to pushing a new Junior generation out into the limelight (with 10 of them having advanced as Seniors a while back), since I saw a bunch of kids whom I'd never seen before. The problem with this new "generation" is, they're ugly. Pfsht. </superficial>

Gracie and I saw these Domo-kun caps by the clothes section and tried them on. B's got a picture, but I'm paranoid so I won't post anything. We look like complete dorks, though. lawl

Downstairs to the basement with Emmy, we looked at the notebooks and school supplies and stuff. So overpriced. But sooooo pretty. D: Sigh. I'll need a job if I want to be able to afford all this stuff. The folders are so CUTE, but just the normal 2-pocket ones are about $3 apiece, not including tax. Grr.

Upstairs to the second floor, in the café! B and Emmy shared a slice of banana-something cake and then bought tea (which was served so nicely, in this clear pitcher and everything); I shared a slice of chocolate cherry tart (or something) with Gracie. The slice was $4.50, but damn, it was worth it. That slice of cake was one of the best freaking things I've tasted in years. Soooo. Gooood. <3 Then after we finished off the cake, I was contemplating buying onigiri; Gracie eventually talked me into it, so I bought salmon onigiri for $1.50 ($1.63 with tax). I almost pulled the poor onigiri apart in half just trying to get the wrapper off, lol. But anyway, it was good. Hooray for my first onigiri!! (Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted the pictures Gracie had gotten of me eating it. Darn. x_x)

Then I went downstairs again to look for something to buy, because I felt weird leaving the store without having bought something I could use. I ended up buying this little journal for $5; considering that my other 3 journals were between $7-9 and aren't too much bigger than the one I got from Kino, I'm not complaining. Besides, I like journals. Although I have still yet to physically write in my first one. I still haven't since late April. (.___.);

So overall, a long but very, very fun day (thank you to the PTA for not marking down Carnival as a half-day; my mom might've called me out otherwise)! Probably the most fun day of this school year for me~ Yaay.

...and now, to finish off that stupid take-home quiz. *steeaam*

Hide and seek.

currently. staring down blankly at my latin textbook
listening to [on repeat]. hide and seek - imogen heap
annoyed over. the damn great expectations FLE due thursday =.=;

There was recently an interview with David Cook about his "playlist"; basically, songs that really grabbed him while growing up. At the end, he added that he listened to Imogen Heap's Hide and Seek [click] as a means of calming down. I gasped really loudly when I heard him say that, because I love that song and think it's absolutely gorgeous. I had to rewind to make sure I was hearing properly; it really blew my mind to be hearing someone like David Cook listening to someone like Imogen Heap. Then again, it shows how wide his musical taste is, and I absolutely love that in the midst of everything else he listens to (apparently including Mariah Carey), there sits a beautiful song like Hide and Seek. And just when I thought I couldn't love him any more, he gives me another reason to. Aoaiw;oai

So anyway, I went to the Barnes & Noble on Austin Street today and saw Vicky there. :D She ended up stalking me the rest of my time there with some Asian magazine in her hand, occasionally sticking pretty pics of Bi (Rain) in my face. lol

On a more serious note, when I was looking for books in the Teen section, there was this girl around my age who was continuously pulling out those books along the lines of Gossip Girl and stuff. About half an hour later when I saw her again, she had something like 8 of those books in her hand, and it made me almost sick -- um, girl, is that ALL you read? Well, admittedly, I do read some of those books too, but just on occasion -- in fact, all I really read from said "genre" is The Clique series (and I'll be the first to confess that I find those books absolutely hilarious) and Sarah Dessen's books, the latter not being mindless at all and actually having some substance. I don't know if it's because I was raised to read a lot of literary fiction or if it's because I'm in a school like Hunter, but it saddens me to see anyone reading nothing but those kinds of books. There are more insightful things to read, people. Open your eyes, turn your head, and walk into the literary fiction section. You might find something good there.

Speaking of that, when I was randomly pulling books off the shelf in the Teen section, a lot of the stuff was all the same crap. And it seems many authors these days don't have the capacity to write better, more imaginative blurbs. Stop telling me that this and that will "change [insert character name]'s life forever"/"change life as he/she knew it". It's on the next book, and the one next to that. Jeez.

In addition, a lot of what I read (read the blurbs of) seemed to follow the same damn few formulas. A shitload of the books I saw in the Teen section seemed to abide by one of these storylines:

1. Girl has trouble in life. Girl meets mysterious boy. Boy somehow ends up alone with girl and girl spills all in life. Girl and boy fall in love and live happily ever after in the realm of all that is yellow and sunshine-y.
2. Girl is geeky/average/inconspicuous and has a massive crush on hottest boy in school. Does something to get notice of boy. Boy notices her, slowly begins to like girl. Girl and boy fall in love and live happily ever after in the realm of all that is yellow and sunshine-y.
3. Some world on the edge of the universe in danger. Farmboy/schoolgirl/whateverthehell is apparently the next hero of said world according to some old prophecy. Along the way, farmboy/schoolgirl meets hot girl/hot boy (respectively) who assists them with their quest. Farmboy and hot girl/schoolgirl and hot boy save world. Farmboy and hot girl/schoolgirl and hot boy fall in love and live happily ever after in the realm of all that is yellow and sunshine-y.

I'm not exaggerrating, it really was like that. You'd think authors would be a bit more creative with their plotlines these days, my gosh. On that note, I ended up wandering into the literary fiction section and eventually buying Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (which I had seen in the Barnes & Noble at 86th and had started reading already) and Memoirs of a Geisha, translated by Arthur Golden. I've been meaning to get both books for a while now, so to be able to get my hands on my own copies is a treat. After I finish off the final two books in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, I'll start on those.

...aww, damn. I forgot to buy Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. DAMMIT. D|

*cough* Anyway, my family then ate at Johnny Rockets afterwards. Can I say freaking overpriced food ($8 for a fucking grilled chicken sandwich, $4 for not-that-many fries with melted cheese on top, what the hell!!) that wasn't even that good? -_- I am never eating there again. That place is not worth my money.

Off to do something more productive than staring down at my Latin textbook now, okay. Byebye.