It's Valentine's Day!
Or Single Awareness Day as some of my friends like to call it!

Although I am single, I am in a good mood today. ♪
Of course I want a boyfriend.
But it doesn't matter that I don't have one right now.
Many of my single friends feel bitter, but.
Ladies, it's not a big deal! ^^

I don't usually do anything for Valentine's Day, but this year I've prepared little cards with paper roses. I love my friends!

Happy Lunar New Year everyone!

My sister and I went to Chinatown on Saturday night to check out the festivities. It rained a just like last year! I am glad the rain stopped quickly because having an umbrella open in the crowd is very inconvenient. I went out because I wanted to see my friend perform (sorry, all pictures of her came out bad!) She does traditional Chinese dancing (something that I quit doing long ago). I enjoyed watching lion dance, especially when the guys balance on the long poles~ very impressive! ^_^ I've always fantasized about doing this myself, haha! Alas, I have never seen a girl do it yet. Perhaps a boy's body is better built for this sort of thing.

On Sunday, I helped my mom make jai:



During these past two days, I must have eaten over seven bowls of jai already! XD

I received lai see from my parents this morning. I think I will use this money to buy my prom dress. :)

Coconut Carrot Cake!

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! :)

I ended up spending the entire day making a birthday cake for my grandma. Buying the ingredients used up quite a bit of money. (;_;)

But I've never made a cake cake before, complete with frosting, all by myself. It took me five hours to finish (not including how I spent all morning shopping for ingredients)! (^_^)

I was applying frosting when my mom mentioned that grandma was diabetic. (-__-) She is so mean for not telling me beforehand! What is cake without sugar?! (>_<) Well, I have to remind myself that this is the same lady who told me to add grapes and pork into my brownies...

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.)

3-Day Weekend

Many thanks to everyone who had previously commented on my camp post. The next part should be coming soon. ^^ The 3-day weekend has passed and it's back to school. *falls over* The last half of 2006 was really stressful, but I am very happy to say that I've been slowly learning to relax more now. =) Hopefully that won't grow into something more such as laziness. =) On Friday, I rushed with some assignments because I wanted the weekend to be free. When my sister came home that night, she had a lovely surprise for me. The long-awaited package from my Secret Santa finally arrived after about two months! The secret was revealed right away on the outside envelope: My Secret Santa was Jini. ^o^~


She managed to make me smile and laugh before even opening the envelope to see what was inside. Written on the front was the small message, "Mailman, please handle with care please! (2 pleases!)" There was another message scribbled on the back as well, "Dear Mr./Mrs. Mailman, handle with care!"


I will never again burn myself in the kitchen! And I'll always have a tiny little Totoro watching over me while I work on complicated math problems... My sister made one good point about the gift, though. She asked me why the package needed to be "handled with care" when the contents were soft items - my present was a pair of oven mitts and a really adorable handmade Totoro plushie. I don't know why either, but who cares? XP Jini is so cute. I was really touched by her gift, but I'm not surprised because she is always so thoughtful. I think Jini may be one of the nicest people I'll ever know. Thank you so much, Jini!!! Much love goes to you!

On Saturday, I visited the eye doctor first thing in the morning to fix my glasses. I spent the rest of the day with my friends in Chinatown which was celebrating Chinese New Year. =3 After watching the parade, I went home for dinner and was out again at 8:22PM, this time with my sister. We had fun watching the lion/dragon dance performances. Many of the performers were boys I knew from school. They really surprised me that night. I've never seen those looks on their faces before in school and I've especially never seen them work so hard before. The atmosphere was completely different from when we were in school. After that night, I gained new respect for them. I think watching their performance may be more special than any other I've seen before since I actually knew the performers. =) It is too bad that I have no pictures of the performance since they were all taken on my sister's cell phone camera. We headed home at 10:42PM when the celebration was officially over.

Sunday was New Year's Day. I greeted mom and greeted grandma over the phone. We ate from new fancy bowls decorated with drawings of dragons. I ate two bowls of rice and jai to please my mom. For lai see, I received $10 and a gorgeous lucky charm from her. It was made from jade and was in the shape of my zodiac sign, the sheep. My dad was not home all day and I did not receive anything from him. This was the first time he missed eating New Year’s breakfast with us and he offered no explanation why he wasn’t there. This year I didn't receive much money at all, but I'm happy. I guess it is true that money isn't everything. A while after breakfast, I received a call from Sara. It was her lunar year birthday today so we were going to have a party at 2:00PM. From then on, I spent the day baking her present, Russian Tea Cakes. Unfortunately, I didn't think they came out too good. T__T;

On Monday, I spent the morning watching a Jackie Chan movie dealing with babies. It was quite entertaining. Overall, my break was good and I used this opportunity to finish up on all the manga that I’ve been planning to read for days now. I finished Whistle! volume 14, W Juliet volumes 12 and 13 (OMG, 14 will be the last volume!), and Eternal Sabbath volume 2. I just finished Moon Child volume 2 today in school. I am really starting to love Eternal Sabbath. The series is so intriguing. I also very much love W Juliet and I have a good feeling that the series would end well since it seems like the author worked hard on planning it. I can’t wait for the finale! This series always makes me squeal. X)

I didn't really want to go back to school, but who can help it? We are making some small progress in World History with our upcoming play. Ms. Nakamura has divided the class into five groups with four persons in each group. My group includes Juri, Rachel, Kenneth, and myself. Each group were to come up with a tragedy and triumph in history with Women in History being the play's main topic. The class really couldn't come up with an idea on what to do for the play so the teacher decided for us. Her decision was very reasonable. She said she chose this after she realized there were 16 girls in the class and only 4 boys. Because we have a shortage on boys, we might as well do a play that focuses on mostly women. =) Unlike many others who may follow and act out the script from a book, we are to write the play ourselves. Right now, I am doing some research for our part. It will be a lot of hard work, but fun to write a play! =)

I have my schedule packed again this week because the Japan Wizard is fast approaching...in fact, it is this week Saturday. *screams* What shall I do?! Only my best. Yosh, がnばります!


What a funny job. I wonder how much they get paid...?

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007!!!

I cannot believe it is New Year already! Although Hawaii is the slowest, time still flew by quickly for me! XD I watched Nodame Canatabile around 7:30pm, then thought about my New Year resolutions. I think they are basically the same every year, which is to improve myself and be a better person. I also want to get a job and have my first working experience. As corny as it sounds, I want to be stronger, healthier, and happier! It would be awesome if I could live like Nodame and the rest of the S Orchestra gang. XD Hopefully this year will be more enjoyable than the last.

It also seems to have become some sort of tradition between my siblings and I to play Scrabble every Omisoka (New Year's Eve night). I guess it is because we need to do something to pass the time while we wait for the hand to strike twelve. I played with my brother and won with a total of 364 points. He had 238 points. Tee-hee.

When the fireworks started, our whole family (excluding my dad) rushed out to the balcony. I was there, holding my sometimes-broken camera, snapping away. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Although it stopped working in the middle of the show, I managed to capture a few good pictures. You can view the photos in the new gallery I put up.
I also finished making Musical Chair's new layout on New Year's Eve. Can anyone guess what it features? Nodame Cantabile of course. *falls over*

Hmm...soba. *_*

Christmas Day

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Let me recall the days that had passed since winter break started. When school finally let out on the 20th, I bought some last minute Christmas presents and hurried home to bake a lemon cream dessert for the Christmas party tomorrow. I stayed up all night wrapping presents with the help of my sister. I had to carry three bags the next day and it was so heavy that I needed to stop every few minutes to rub my sore red fingers.

The party was a bit chaotic. We exchanged presents first. There was a lot of fuss with the ingredients to make gingerbread cookies, but we did it and it was a success. Everyone was crowded around the living room watching the Final Fantasy VIII movie while I traveled back and forth between the kitchen and the living room. We had pasta and fried rice for lunch, my cake for dessert, and many junk food. I was really happy and relieved to hear that my cake tasted good and that many people enjoyed it. I was worried that something would go wrong and that it would taste horrible like the time I tried to make cheesecake for my sister's birthday. I hear empty compliments about my baking from my mom all the time, but this is the first time people actually showed they meant it by eating the cake. And it was the first time the cake was finished so fast~ and not by me! I spent the next two days out with my brother and my sister shopping. I tried to force myself to work on some Chemistry homework, but it was really boring so I couldn't bring myself to write more than two pages. I finally got to watch dramas again though! Currently, I am watching Cheap Love and Nodame Cantabile.

For some reason, today wasn't very Christmas-y for me. My sister is sick with a bad cold and that cold was passed on to my little brother. All my mom could do was yell and yell and yell. This caused my dad to get angry and he would start to yell back. My sister and I would shut the door to block out the noise, but they always get even angrier when we do that. Although most people wake up really early to because they are eager to open their presents, I woke up late with a slight headache. I ate a bowl of Chinese porridge with chicken and "figaro" cookies for breakfast. After breakfast, I carefully opened all of my presents. I'm a good girl so I opened all of my presents on Christmas day. The homemade chocolate I received doesn't count (I ate that on Christmas Eve). Afterward, I made a simple lunch with my brother and my sister and watched the Death Note movie.

I was really excited because I waited very long to watch this. Overall, I think the movie was not bad. However, Fujiwara Tatsuya looked too baby-faced to play the role of Kira. He is defintely a pretty boy, though, and looks like a cross between Elijah Wood and Teppei Koike. The one thing I really didn't like was how the character Kira differed from the one in the book. The Kira in the manga was most definitely smarter and no matter how how many criminals he killed, he still had a strong sense of justice. Remember, Kira's goal was to create a "perfect world with no criminals". (The following sentence is a spoiler to the ending of the movie so please highlight the text if you are not afraid to view.) The Kira in the manga would never create a situation in which his "girlfriend", Shiori, would be killed. I think he would be smart enough to figure out a different plan to avoid unnecessary killings because Shiori was not a criminal. He only killed others [that were against him] because their deaths were absolutely necessary for him to continue to exist. L also looked very young and Sayu a little too old, but all of the other characters matched well with the manga (especially Matsuda-san!) I was a bit disappointed to discover the movie ending when the story was just getting started (like NANA), but I guess it couldn't be helped since movies are not made to be a million hours long. I heard the sequel wasn't as good as the first, but I would expect it to be better since there should be more action.

After watching the movie, I spent the rest of the day studying for the Japan Wizard. This is similar to the Japan Bowl, but is a statewide competition instead of nationwide.

"The Japan Bowl is modeled on a quiz show format and aims to make the study of Japanese challenging and enjoyable. Teams of students are asked questions regarding Japanese culture, grammar, kanji, katakana, kotowaza, and onomatopoeic expressions."

Tonight was very upsetting for me because that bogus Beijing doctor visited our place again. Refer to this previous post. This time, she had to torture my sister with her weird concoctions and other things. I think she has to drink that medicine that gave me stomach cramps as well. Another sad thing is that my mother is wasting so much money on that useless lady.

Winter break has just begun for me and now I realize how short it is. I still have a lot of work to do. I should have to use my time wisely...

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Updates on Inspiration
I spent about two hours revamping some of the pages in the artwork section. You might not notice a difference, but I changed many things that were bothering me. I found many embarassing errors in my coding and also deleted some of my stupid comments. As promised, I also added a new drawing. I'm sorry it took so long for me to put it up. I was planning to color it, but I changed my mind now.
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Because I will be participating in the Japan Wizard, I think I'd like to start ending each blog post with a random fact about Japan. This will start today and end sometime in the month of February. Who knows? This might help me remember better and visitors get to learn something new.

Yukari hates fish anyway.