I likes owls...but I don't want to be one.

Today is a very sad day for me and the rest of America. Our economy is already bad and it is only going to get worse from here on. We'll just have to bear with it.

Although getting a day off from school should have been happy news (and I guess it was?) nothing much happened. I didn't get to hang out with my friends and I didn't even start on my calculus homework (writing this blog post is further procrastination on my part! LOL.)

The only time I went out was to eat lunch with my mom and my aunt. I rarely hang out with my family so it felt a little...strange. I didn't know what to say and I couldn't communicate very well since they spoke their own village dialect. I really like my aunt (who flew from China last year to marry my good-for-nothing uncle.) Although I couldn't communicate with her very well, I can tell that she is a genuinely good person. I also like how she smiles a lot. I wish smiling came naturally to me. :)



We ate at Golden River Restaurant, a Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown. The food was good! I actually liked it better than the pho made by other Vietnamese restaurants. At $6 a bowl, the price isn't bad either.

I woke up late so I spent the rest of the day...studying for accounting class and finishing up homework I was supposed to turn in last class (GASP!) I don't remember ever turning in late homework. I was a good girl.

I used to really love school. Now I find each passing day a drag. I don't like school for preventing me from doing the things I really want to do. I'm always tired. I'm becoming a nocturnal animal because I feel more hyper at night! (I've been sleeping later too! ;o;) I hope this is just a small phase I'm going through and that it'll go away soon. >< I know that I can't afford to slack off now...at such an important time in my life...!

Halloween

I usually don’t do anything special on Halloween, so it is funny that I actually dressed up this year! Compared to what others wore, you could barely call it dressing up...but the character I cosplayed didn’t require too much. ^^ I was Kiki, from Hayao Miyazaki’s film, “Kiki’s Delivery Service.” I wore red shoes, a plain black dress, and a red bow tie in my hair. I also sewed Jiji because the character would not be complete without her cat. ^^



Many people complained that I should have brought a broomstick with me, but I had my hands full that day (esp. in the morning!) carrying two bags of food for the Japanese Club Halloween Party, a huge yearbook camera, and my school bag.

Finishing Jiji was a close one! I didn’t have much time to work on him; plus, I ran out of black felt! (My good friend Wai Chu came to the rescue when she gave me what she had since there was no time to visit the craft store.) It was the first time I sewed anything (much less a plushie!) on the sewing machine. The experience was fun and I’d like to do it again! ^_^

The Japanese Club Halloween Party turnout was good. It could have been better (I’m sad that many people couldn’t make it) but I’m glad it wasn’t a total flop. After all, I stayed up 'til 1:00am to finish making chocolate cake! We bought a pinata for the event, and it was a major success because we got a lot of laughter. Everyone was having fun and enjoying themselves~


Here's a picture of Joyce trying to hit the pinata (and missed!) It's okay though, because I was worse. I didn't make any hit at all. :)

After the party, I went trick-or-treating at Ala Moana with some friends. A couple of people called us “old,” but that’s okay because this is the last year I’m going to do it (while I’m still 17 and not 18!)


I'm going to end this post with this picture because...I love my yearbook class! Everyone dressed up! (Except maybe the teacher, who claimed protested that he DID dress up...as himself.)

Fall Break!

This was the busiest "break" of my life (busier than when I was actually in school!) I barely slept. I didn't have time to blog! To make up for it, this is going to be a long post. :)

Saturday, Oct 4
I spent this night watching my first and last Homecoming game. I never cared for football, which is why I never attended any games before, but I'm required to take pictures for yearbook... and it is my senior year. I heard that our football team isn't that great, but I didn't think we were that bad. But we were. We lost horribly. The score was 0 - 30. It wasn't fun shooting pictures for hours straight. The camera I used was specially lent to us by the graphic arts teacher. It was supposed to be the best one, but it was defective. Every time I click to take a new picture, a message would appear saying, "Err 99." We didn't know what "Err 99" was so we couldn't fix it. When I did manage to snag some shots, they were all blurry. I remember my face getting sticky from the humid weather (it rained every so often). During half-time practice, I carried the senior class homecoming banner across the field. We ended up 2nd place, with the freshmen winning 1st. I wasn't upset, until I heard that the freshmen had "outside" help. Since they cheated, I don't consider them real winners.

Sunday, Oct 5
I spent the morning making an eeyore plushie for Wai Chu and the rest of the day at Joyce's place, making Wai Chu's two birthday cakes. The cake batter is green tea flavored, but the two cakes have different frosting. One cake had azuki beans incorporated into the whipped cream, and the other was green tea cream cheese frosting. I love the azuki bean one the most! *o*



Monday, Oct 6
The cakes were finished just before Wai Chu's birthday party:



It was a shabu shabu party held at her boyfriend's place.



There were two pots.

Regular:


And spicy:


We threw in tofu, lettuce, cabbage, dried bamboo, meatballs, taro balls, cuttlefish balls, cuttlefish dumpling, noodles, and beef. :)

Tuesday, Oct 7
I finished eeyore this morning! :) It was very challenging to finish the plushie~ I almost thought I couldn't do it. I was very happy with Wai Chu's reaction when I gave it to her. ^o^ She's crazy about eeyore and has about twenty of them on her bed. This one will be special, though, since I embroidered her name on his body:



I was about to cry because I did the embroidering freehand and I thought it was ugly, but it was the best I could do without fancy tracing paper and other equipment needed for proper embroidery. We went shopping that afternoon (first time in ages!) I spent a lot of money. -_- I splurged and bought myself a Paul Frank t-shirt at Nordstrom. It didn't feature the monkey, but it was really cute!

We also stopped by Shirokiya afterward and both bought the new Calpico Aloe Vera drink. It's now my new favorite. *o* I love the way aloe vera tastes~! I remember having aloe vera yogurt during my trip to Japan earlier this year, and it was heaven! We ate at the noodle shop, "mikazuki" and both ordered miso udon:



I've eaten shoyu ramen and kitsune udon at "mikazuki" before, but I wanted to try something new. Of course, I ordered udon because I've been craving udon ever since I saw the movie, "Udon," which was all about udon. Udon is my favorite noodle. <333 The soup turned out to be a bit spicy and not what I expected. I finished the whole thing though (yay!) because I'm Chinese and can never ever waste food.

We spent the rest of the day raiding Barnes & Noble's craft and art section before going home. There are so many new books that I wanted to buy! *o* I checked the library catalog when I got home, but the library doesn't have them (at least not yet!)

Wednesday, Oct 8
I worked the entire day at the library since I took the previous two days off. But it was far from boring! There were more owl sightings and this time, inside the library itself!



Here it is, cleaning itself while I filmed him or her. :) Some people really couldn't believe that there was an owl in the library. They accused the librarian of lying when she showed them a photograph, claiming that it was a painting.

My favorite animals are lions, elephants, and owls. I've seen the first two at the zoo, and an owl at a field trip when I was seven years old. It was sleeping then, so I didn't get a good look. Other than that, I didn't know there were owls flying around in Hawaii. o_o;



This one is a Hawaiian short-eared owl called a pueo. At first, it hung around the area between the state capitol and Iolani Palace. The first time I saw it was when it was up in a tree by the library. There were green parakeets squawking furiously at it, but the owl ignored them. According to a co-worker, it had stayed in that position since 12pm (it was still there when I came out at 5pm!) And did I mention that it is the cutest thing ever? Even though I saw it poop (at least not on me)? It is very tiny and a little puffy. Several librarians expressed their concerns that it might be sick, but I hope that's not true. >< One claimed they saw a rodent in its mouth one day. We all wanted the owl to eat the rats for us (they come out at night and wrecked havoc in the workrooms) but my co-worker pointed out that it may not be good if the owl captured a rat that had been poisoned.

The owl flew on the ground once and I was very close to petting it. I couldn't do it because I was too shy and afraid to scare it away. We participated in a little staring game before it flew away. I added a shot of the owl in the 'fauna' gallery. ;D

Thursday, Oct 9
I had a doctor's appointment at 10:30 am. I finally get to wear contact lenses again! The rest of the day was spent in yearbook class, sorting and deleting the pictures we took during the homecoming game. I had around 200 shots, and none of them were good. BUT ONE GREAT THING DID HAPPEN! I SPOTTED YOO CHUN PARK (Micky of popular Korean boyband, Dong Bang Shin Ki) in his high school yearbook! I knew he went to Chantilly High School in Virginia (I remembered because my other website goes by the same name). When I saw a yearbook from Chantilly High School lying on the bottom shelf, I silently prayed that he would be in it. I looked him up in the index and sure enough, he was on page 309! XD He was a ninth grader then and his hair was still ugly. XP

Friday, Oct 10
I worked half day. The owl was still at the library! :) I met up with Jenni after work and she took me to Nijiya Market and Yogurtland!



I had no idea what to get, so I ended up getting green tea and taro yogurt, with a little pineapple yogurt on top. The toppings were awesome! *o* What other place would let you combine azuki beans with granola? It tastes weird together, but whatever. I love them both! I also had some cookie dough balls and cocoa puffs (I chose these randomly because I didn't know what they were until I tasted them) and mochi balls. My favorite toppings are the azuki beans (heavenly!) The pineapple-flavored yogurt tastes stronger than the green tea and taro. I tried a bit of Jenni's mango yogurt and concluded that the fruit-flavored yogurt tasted better. Next time, I'd like to get cheesecake yogurt mixed with another flavor (I haven't decided what yet). There's even peanut butter yogurt! I'd like to try that as well, simply out of curiosity. ;D Of course, no matter what I get, I'll put azuki beans on top because they're the best.

After Yogurtland, I stopped by Roosevelt for this year's last football game. I was forced to use the same camera so the pictures didn't come out any better. The varsity game was better (20 - 36) but we still lost!



Our football team may suck, but our band sure doesn't! :) I didn't know they did what S Orchestra does in Nodame Cantabile! I got very excited seeing it~ hehe.


Saturday, Oct 11
I came home after 11 that night so I had to drag myself out of bed early at 7 to get ready for a movie at 9. My sister gave me tickets to see a Chinese film called, "The Prince of Himalayas." It was a part of the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival held here every fall. I love watching foreign films! They're very different from the American movies I'm used to seeing and they widen my perspective of the world. "The Prince if Himalayas" is supposed to be a Tibetan adaption of Shakespeare's Hamlet. I'm not familiar with Hamlet, but I'm assuming it's a tragedy because everyone dies in the end. The Tibetan language is very interesting~ it sounds like a combination of Mandarin and Korean. The hero of the movie is played by Purba Rgyal, a new Tibetan actor. This is his very first movie. HE LOOKS VERY MUCH LIKE KIMURA TAKUYA!


Sunday & Monday, Oct 12 & 13
Calculus homework.

Rambling as usual

I've been too lazy to blog nowadays...and it's already the end of September! I feel like it should still be the beginning of September. First quarter ends in a few days. This means that there are three quarters left in the school year until I friggin graduate! ;o; I don't know if I'm ready for it.

The thought of moving away from home for college is so scary. I've looked at colleges in Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York. Since I'm a city girl at heart, I think I'd feel better in an urban setting. Schools in big cities are pricier, though. -_-;;; Before I move away, I need my own cellphone and laptop.

Therefore...I finally got a cellphone two weeks ago! It's the Venus by LG and it's pink! Coincidentally, my iPod is pink too. I swear that it is all a coincidence~ I don't favor pink over any other color. But it is nice! :)



I'm still getting used to talking on a cellphone. Verizon is supposed to have the best reception, but the voice on the other end still sounds a little scratchy somehow. =/ I can also connect my cellphone to the computer, but I don't know how to transfer my pictures to the computer! Nor do I understand how to transfer music! Gahh! I spotted an OWL by the library a few weeks ago and I took a picture of it on my cellphone. The image isn't the best quality since the camera is only 2.0 megapixels, but it's better than nothing. I can't post the picture up here until I figure out how it can be transferred. If anyone can help me figure out how to transfer stuff from my cellphone to the computer, I'd really appreciate it! Please and thank youuu!

Remember the kabocha plant I bought at the Okinawan festival a while back? It bloomed!



I was expecting a tiny pumpkin, not flowers. But it's still a nice surprise! A second flower bloomed the very next morning:



When I get back to school tomorrow, things will get really busy since it's HOMECOMING WEEK! I've never been to a single homecoming game (shame on me!) since I was never interested in football, but it's my last year so I'm going. There are quite a few events so hopefully I can take some pictures and blog about it afterward. :) Until then~ I'm signing off!

P.S. Yesi found out that the "mysterious fruit" in the previous post was called, "noni!" Thank you Yesi, you're so smart! ^o^ <3

Zucchini cake that doesn't taste like zucchini, a growing cactus, and a mystery fruit!

It's another three day weekend for me! Yay! But I'm stupid so I'm still going to school on Monday (to help out with the senior class homecoming banner). =X I also heard from a friend that it will also be a potluck so I decided to make some chocolate zucchini cake!



I have wanted to try making zucchini cake for a long time, but I never got the opportunity to do so until now. I haven't tried it yet but my sister liked it so yay! ^_^ I gave a mini slice to my dad and he complained that he couldn't taste the zucchini at all. (Um, dad, that was the whole point. Why would you want cake to taste like a vegetable? Ew.) I'm going to try carrot cake next! Tee-hee.

Today was not the typical Sunday... Not only does my body shut down at the end of the week, my brain doesn't seem to function very well either. But I actually went out in the morning to study for the SATs with my friends at McDonalds. We only did the essay and two sections before my friend got tired. We quit and went up to another friend's place to finish our British literature homework. We're reading Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" right now and not enjoying it. ^^;

Oh, and this may seem really random, but I bought a cactus for a $1 during last year's Okinawan festival.



It was a really cute little thing. I'll be honest and admit that I almost forgot about the cactus for a while...until a year later, I looked out the balcony and noticed that my cactus plant was gone and replaced by one that is twice as tall and in a pot that was twice as big. I asked my mom, "Is that mine? O_O" And she said it was. I couldn't believe it! (The difference isn't obvious in the pictures though, because the bigger pot is in proportion with the bigger plant.)



My sister and my brother also bought a cactus each, but I think they both died. I was really surprised to see my cactus so genki. *^^*

Some more randomness:



This is a picture I took at the Queen Kapiolani Garden in Waikiki before school started. I've never seen such a fruit before and none of my friends knew what it was either. Some fell off the tree and the impact of the landing revealed the lavendar flesh inside the fruit. My sister said it might be breadfruit, so I looked it up:



It looks a little similar, but it is not quite the same. Breadfruit isn't purple inside either. =/ Does anyone have any idea what the mystery fruit is?

My ears go POP!

Weee~ I had a pretty busy three-day weekend! My ears kept popping today! Is it because I'm still sick? I wish I didn't have school tomorrow! XP

On Saturday, I spent the day volunteering at the annual Okinawan Festival at Kapiolani Park. I got dizzy from the work, but I met a lot of really adorable kids. <333 I always look forward to shopping around the booths after the shift is over~ this year, I bought so many things!


Ramune drinks! Left to right: Peach (new!) and orange


You CANNOT imagine how long I've been eyeing this. I ate two on Sunday and they did not disappoint. Yummy things, these are. ^^


Yes, I did buy a venus flytrap! Although people's eyes pop open when I tell them I bought a carnivorous plant (some people didn't even know it existed), it's really tiny. I wonder if they will really eat the mosquitoes and bugs that come flying into our apartment. D<


Kabocha! Since kabochas are smaller than American pumpkins, I thought they'd be easier to grow on our balcony but I'm still not sure how big kabochas are exactly...hehe. ^^; This was only $1.00 so why not?

Sunday went by slowly...I tried to spend the day finishing my homework, but I only got a few math problems done. What got in the way was the novel, "The Crimson Thread" by Suzanne Weyn. It's a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin and I couldn't stop reading it. Later in the afternoon, I got a call from a friend to attend a birthday party so I ended up not doing any homework that night. XP

It was really fun though~ her apartment is really tiny and cute. Although there was no television, we all managed to keep ourselves occupied by talking and laughing. We ate Chinese food and ended with strawberry ice cream cake from Cold Stone.



After eating, we took pictures, played card games, and made a lot of noise. xD I was worried that the neighbors would complain, but the birthday girl assured me that we could laugh until it was 10:00pm. After 10, it was difficult for us to shut up so we eventually went home around 10:30pm.

On Sunday, I studied calculus with a bunch of classmates the whole day. It was actually my first time studying with other people. I thought I wouldn't be able to concentrate, but I did get fifty problems done (even though there was a lot of chatting going on). I think I rather like studying with everyone~ it made doing the work more fun. ^o^

Celebrating the Olympics

To celebrate the start of the Olympics 2008, a big screen was set in the middle of North King Street at Chinatown. My friend and I decided to check out the stands and galleries first since there was still light out and it was difficult to see the screen. We headed over to the Louis Pohl art gallery and received two bookmarks each. People were scribbling in the back of the bookmarks and we quickly realized that we were supposed to write our wishes on them and then tie them to a tree.



I thought this was funny because the Japanese practiced a similar process in the Shinto religion, but its only the bad luck things that get tied to the tree. ^^; We also received free bubbles, which my friend had fun blowing. I tried my best to catch a picture of the bubbles, but it was really difficult!



The lady that gave us the bubbles told everyone to blow the bubbles at 8:08pm for good luck! Ah~ the obsession with the number eight. It is almost getting a little ridiculous. At the galleries, people were passing around these little cards that said, "Your pass to free stuff!" If we visited at least 8 places, we can get something. My friend won a tiny rhinoceros toy figure while I received an art print from the Pacific Traditions Gallery.



There was a group playing folk music outside and a little girl dancing furiously to their songs with her teddy bear. It was really cute! :)



We also spotted this beautiful furry black dog among the crowd. *o*



It was finally dark and we got to watch the parade. My friend was very eager to see Alexandre Pato, a genius Brazilian soccer player that apparently scored six goals in one game. xD I don't know the name of many athletes except for Michael Phelps and Shawn Johnson. Lame, I know. ><; It was my first time sitting down in the middle of the street~ I don't know when I'd ever get that chance again. Hehe. Shortly after we settled down, it soon started to rain and the screen collapsed! How's that for good luck? My friend and I left the rain to eat dinner at Pho My Lan. After dinner, I continued watching the Olympics opening ceremony at home. This is the first time I've actually watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics and the first year I even cared about the event. I think I was too young to appreciate the Olympics before~ this year I'm quite psyched about it. Watching the lighting of the torch was so exciting! It is so like the Chinese to go all out. They're making it very difficult for London to show off in 2012...

End of Summer Vacation

I took a ten minute break at work the other day to draw (the drawings are up in traditional illustrations). When I came home, I felt like tracing them using the pens I bought in Japan. As expected, they worked really well, even though they only cost me about 50 cents each! I love Japan. <3



I also wanted to color the two pieces, even though I had no clue what colors to use. After a moment of thought, I decided to go with the flow, be spontaneous, and use any color that comes to mind. After all, the drawings themselves were done this way (I had no idea what I was doing). I chose the colors at random, hoping that they will turn out great in the end. I am still unsure what I think of the final result. I titled the first drawing 'Aki' because I wanted the color of her hair to represent the fall season. It came out brighter than I intended, so I should have used more green and brown instead of red and purple. XP I had fun doing the hair, which inspired me to do a second drawing. This time, I wanted the girl to look more cutsey and with curly short hair.

Today is also the last day of my summer vacation! Throughout summer, I worked, went to class, hung out with friends, did some baking (most recently mango cheesecake!), some cooking (oyako donburi!), went out shopping (bought a pink nano iPod!), took pictures of pretty plants (at Queen Kapiolani Garden), watched dramas (Pride and Tokyo Love Story) at night, read plenty of manga (Monster!), one novel (Love Over Scotland), tried new food (ravioli!), and got contact lenses...

Speaking of contact lenses, I'm really ecstatic that I finally get to try them out! However, I'm having a hard time putting them on because of my small eyes. When the assistant came to put them on, he struggled so much that it made me feel really bad. He made me think that it was impossible to fit contact lenses in~ but when the doctor came in, she popped them in like nothing. The assistant that came in afterward to train me was also able to get them in. She reassured me and told me that my eyes aren't small at all~ I only need more practice. I hope I learn how to get them on soon!

Overall, I guess it was a pretty good summer, minus the humid weather, bug bites, and my infected left ring finger. -_-;;; I still don't feel like a senior yet, but I look forward to my new classes, especially yearbook! :)

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their summer vacation while it lasts!

A Bug Story

Not many people know this, but it takes a brave person to work at the library. One constantly has to deal with all kinds of insects and even rats! A few weeks ago, a rather large centipede gave one of the workers quite a scare and the janitor killed it. I came across a few bugs myself, including this certain silver bug which I've never seen before coming to work at the library. My supervisor says that it likes paper, so it is not a surprise to see it often hidden among the books. We had an ant problem a while back, but that was resolved when the maintenance staff applied a type of poison that would kill it.

Today, we had a little episode with an enormous cockroach at the work room. It was a very ugly creature with long antennas. Nobody wanted to be the one to kill it...but we had to get rid of it. I was able to kill it by spraying it, putting a paper towel over it, and stomping it with my left foot. My supervisor insisted on the paper towel and I was reluctant to have cockroach guts on the sole of my pink Ralph Lauren sneakers. :)

Later that day, a dead moth flew right out when I pulled out a mis-shelved book...

Type A?!

Having gone over intelligence, emotions, motivation, and human development in psych, we are now going over personality. There still isn't a single definition for the word, "personality" since it refers to something abstract...but there are many theories on the subject. One theory in particular grabbed my attention and it was not even proposed by a psychologist! Ray Rosenman was a cardiologist who incidentally noticed certain traits in his patients. When the professor described the different types of personalities Rosenman discovered, I nearly shrank in my seat because it felt like he was talking about me!

People classified as Type A are those who are always in a hurry and never have the time to do anything. They hate having to wait for anything, they hate lines, and they hate vacation. They are multi-taskers and are very competitive people. They cannot do something for the sake of doing something - Type A's are very competitive. They're workaholics! These people also tend to eat fast and walk fast... Type B people, on the other hand, are more relaxed.

If I weren't Asian, my eyes probably would have popped out! It's amazing (and really horrible!) how incredibly accurate this description is of me. As much as I'd like to deny it, there is no question about it. I am Type A! *sobs*

I've always known there is something wrong with this personality of mine. I've never felt as if I truly belonged in this world because I'm always out of sync with everyone else. I can't bring myself to...relax. The scary thing about the description of Type A people is that almost everything is true about me, except that I don't hate vacation...but maybe I did last year, when I was bored out of my mind. ;_;

But it is true that I am always rushing, rushing, rushing. The prof mentioned how his older sister was a Type A person. She was always stressed out, so he told her to come down to Hawaii for a vacation. "I'll teach you how to relax," he said.

She came here from Colorado and asked him, "Okay, so tell me about this relax thing. How do you do it?!"

Hitting balls have always helped him relax so he told her to a golf course. He was having a good time, swinging away. When he turned around to look at how she was doing, he discovered that she had already finished hitting the entire batch. She thought the goal was to hit as much balls as possible in the shortest amount of time.

After returning to Colorado, she called him up and said, "You know, what? You're right about this relax thing. I've got a golf appointment at 3 and then I'm going fishing at 5..." And the list goes on.

The point is that she even scheduled her "relaxation" time. She was back to herself.

After hearing all of this, I was starting to wonder if there was any hope for Type A people...a cure, perhaps? It is obvious that we are no fun to be around. The prof suggested that we make everything extra slow for Type A people, such as getting them an extra slow car, etc. But I can just imagine how irritating that would be! DX

Maybe I should feel better to know that it wasn't just me. Type A people act like this because...well, that's just how they are. They cannot help themselves. I have an excuse now; there is actually a reason why I am this way. But it's funny to realize that there are actually other people like this that exist out there! O_O Frightening, isn't it?

Now the prof said that all of this [characteristics of Type A behavior] was fine, as long as this one thing added toward the list: hostility. That's when you're more likely of getting a heart attack.

Oh, boy. ^^;
I'm not hostile!
But I shouldn't cheer. ~_~

The heat is killing me...

The heat is killing me...



...and when it is combined with the moisture in the air, why, that spells complete disaster. It really puts a damper on my mood. >_<

I had my yearly check up with the eye doctor this morning~ there was a lot of waiting...and waiting...and waiting. I have always dreaded going to the eye doctor because my eyes would simply get worse each year and my mom would yell and yell...it was all very unpleasant. Today was the first time I went without her (she has always insisted on coming with me) and also the day I got a prescription for contact lenses. I have despised wearing glasses all of my life, not simply for aesthetic reasons (glasses are considered "trendy" nowadays which is stupid because I would dump my glasses the minute I get clear vision) but because they're inconvenient and uncomfortable. I hate how heavy they are and I hate how it constantly slides down my nose. Lately, I've been also having these annoying dizzy spells. My vision is blurry, even though I am wearing my glasses. This makes it very hard for me to study.

I went grocery shopping with my sister right after the appointment, buying ground beef to make spaghetti for lunch and some cream cheese so that I could make some cheesecake in the future. ^.~ The rest of the day was spent helping my friend out at her family's bubble tea drink shop in Waikiki. She also sells fruit smoothies, fruit bowls, Vietnamese coffee, and shave ice.

I had my very first bubble tea drink! There were many different flavors available, including coconut, papaya, lychee, green tea, peach, mango, cappuccino, coffee, mocha, chocolate, honeydew, taro, strawberry, but I had the original milk tea. I also had two sips of Vietnamese coffee. Vietnamese coffee has a nice and strong flavor and I rather like it, even though I've only had five sips of coffee in my life. This is not because I hate coffee...it is simply because I could not be bothered to spend so much money just for a drink. But I oh, I do *love* the smell of coffee! ~_~

Another thing I've been loving lately are carrots. I don't know why, but I'm really starting to like carrots! And that means cooked carrots of course! None of that raw-food nonsense. I can't eat salads...munching on raw greens make me feel like a rabbit. I'm not a rabbit.

I'm also finally reading a novel again! :) For a while, I've taken a liking to non-fiction, but I'm eager to get back to fiction. Right now, I'm reading "Love Over Scotland" by Alexander McCall Smith. I simply adore McCall Smith's books! I have "Shelter" by Susan Palwick next on my list...I've never read any of her books but the prologue grabbed my attention.

I also feel a very faint sense of happiness today. It is not overpowering, but it is there. I am usually unhappy, and this may be due to the negativity at home (with the constant yelling)... There isn't necessarily anything to be angry or yell about...oddly, it almost seems like a sort of habit. It simply wouldn't BE mom if she WASN'T yelling. (Not that this fact makes the situation any less horrid!) People outside of this family do not have to deal with this, so they would not understand, but it is strange to feel happiness for something that other people take for granted.

Half of Summer Break GONE

I can't believe an entire month past since my last post. o__o; I thought I would have more time over the summer, but my schedule is more full than when we had school. My schedule for the past two weeks went like this:

8:30am-12:30pm SAT prep class
2:00pm-4:00pm Work
5:00pm-6:45pm Psychology 101 class

I usually come home exhausted. The only difference is that I don't have homework every night so I can watch Japanese dramas and make wallpapers. XP I finished Security Police and Pride...and I want to watch Tokyo Love Story next! :) Sometimes old-school dramas are the best~ better than the current ones playing.

Today was actually the last day of my SAT prep class (yay!) but I'm probably going to fill up that time with more work. ^^; I gave myself a day off from work today to start on my term paper...but so far that hasn't happened. ><; Where did my self-discipline go???

Overall, the SAT prep class didn't do much for me except give me more practice. I already knew all of the strategies from reading the books. I don't think my scores improved at all. It is more or less the same and still within the same range. *sigh* On the other hand, I really enjoy my psychology class. Professor Wood is good at talking so it is easy to listen to his lectures.

Summer To-Do List
SAT prep classes
Psychology class (Still in progress...)
Study for psychology exam
Term paper (compilation of 10 articles)
Draw pictures
Sew a top
Relearn crochet
Cook and bake
Take my senior portrait
Read a book

I added some new pictures in photography. I realize that the pictures reveal a tiny glimpse of my life (and Hawaii)! I hope people enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoy taking the pictures. :)

I'm Back!

I am so sorry.

お久しぶり皆さん!
It has been a long time everyone!
With all of the school engineering projects in February, my trip to Japan in March, and exams in April-May, I have been swamped with non-stop work. However, I did not forget about "Inspiration," now called, "yukari studio," and I have been waiting a long time for the opportunity to revive it! Since today is Memorial Day, that chance has finally come! ^__^

I'm actually not too happy about the layout, even though I was very determined to make it better than anything else I've done in the past. {-_-}

The revamping took two days since I wanted to redo the content of every page. Many of my very old drawings have been removed (look how clean the page is!) I might re-scan some drawings that I am still fond of, but most of them were done when I was in middle school. I think this summer would be a good time to start drawing again and add some new illustrations. There is still a few things that need to be added to the digital section, but I'll get to that later. The photography section was very difficult to organize, but I managed to get that done. Pictures are separated by subject, and you might spot some new-old pictures that you haven't seen before. ^^ Of course, there will be much more pictures coming soon, since I love taking pictures!

As you may have also noticed, I have "goodies" listed in the navigation, but there is no link up yet. That is something new that I am working on for the visitors~ please look forward to it!

End of Winter Break

Again, I haven't blogged in a while. I don't blog much, do I? o_o;

School starts tomorrow...I don't think I'm ready to go back. But that doesn't matter. I still have to go. -_-

Back in December (previous post), I created a goal list. Here's what I've completed:
1) Complete all homework assignments.
2) Work on school projects. (Nope.)
3) Study for the SAT. (Kind of? Not enough time.)
4) Revamp the entire Love-Train network. (Half finished.)
5) Bake yogurt cake.
6) Learn how to use the sewing machine.
7) Draw. (I drew so little that it doesn't count.)
8) Brush up on my Japanese! (Tried to.)

I regret fooling around during the break...I could have gotten some serous studying done. I did manage to make a new layout for the Love-Train.net domain and for Chantilly. There are three more layouts to go. A full revamp of this site should be on the way...I'm only worried about whether I have time since school is starting tomorrow. I am also considering changing the name of this site because I found another art site named, "Inspiration." -_- What do you guys think? Any suggestions?

Today was an "okay" day. Not much happened. I read Lovely Complex volume 3, made mochi, and sewed an owl. See? Not much.

Tonight I plan to play with some clay (finally!) and watch another episode of Galileo. ^.~