"It's not the end of the world...

just you and me."

-Relient K

WOO! the weather has finally brought about some variety around these parts. Meaning, it's overcast and chilly today! I'm so happy. The fall to winter transition is my favorite time of year, and this weather just gave me a glimpse of the joy that is to come! haha. :)
I made myself a nice and tasty bowl of one of these:

probably the most common flavor out there.
AGH! I'm just so elated that this weather is finally starting to make up its mind and be emotionally stable for one day instead of being freezing in the morning, nice during mid-morning, hot during the day and perfect at night. Plus, my soccer team is doing a "team building" event tonight at a local, and quite difficult for that matter, corn maze. I've done it before...and, uh...let's just put it this way. I entered with four and left with two. JUST KIDDING! haha. but I did enter while the sun was shining, with four's company, and left in the dark night sky with six. care to know where the other two came from? they were working the corn maze. We got so badly lost, they had to send out two people to come find us and lead us out. hahaha! funny story, fun experience. Hopefully this time I'll remember to bring my flashlight and actually use the map they provide. ha.

School just started up again after a week of "fall break," which I wish would last until June 16. I toured five colleges in Southern California and did a couple auditions for the music programs. One school offered me scholarship money, and a spot in their women's and university choirs, and the other offered me less scholarship and a spot in their women's choir. The more generous of the two seems more attractive, financially. However, the director of the second made a good point of saying that the schools with lesser programs offer more money. And the second school is actually my top choice. A private school, but I'll have $11,000 in scholarships automatically with grades and music, etc. PLUS, they have the best program for what I want to major in. And it's really good. really good. :)
So we'll see, but I'm really praying about it. God will work it out. They have a full scholarship available. But my SAT scores were short by FORTY STINKIN' POINTS. So I took them again on Saturday. haha. Hopefully I'll get those forty points so at least I'll qualify to apply for the scholarship. The way it works: people apply. They weed out the people who don't qualify. (I guess they thought it was worth a shot! haha.) Then, everyone who qualifies gets $1,000. Then they narrow it down to 40 people to fly out and interview for the scholarship. All of those people get $5,000 extra (a total of 6k). THEN, they choose five people to receive the full scholarship. And it's obvious what they are awarded with. haha. So as long as I even qualify, that's one thousand dollars more than I would have had! renewable. :)
In the music scene-- I STRONGLY suggest the new Relient K album, "Forget and Not Slow Down."
it is filled with strong melodies, harmonies, catchy tunes, full sound, and just all-around profound lyrics. seriously, I think it's one of their greatest yet. check it out on their myspace or something, if you don't want to buy it. but you probably will want to after you hear all of the songs.


alrighty, that's it I suppose.






peace.

"I don't need a soul...

...I don't need a soul to hold."
-Relient K

Well, it's finally senior year! and at this rate, I won't even have a soul by the time college applications are due. haha. My summer was super fast, short and BUSY. But wonderful. :)
To be honest, this year is going by extremely slow(ly?). I know, I know, by the end of the year, I'll wish it hadn't gone by so fast, right? But I really don't think so...I'm so ready for college. It's ridiculous. I just wish all my friends would go to the same college. haha...
This year, I'm enrolled in :
a-period p.e. (not by choice, I'll explain later.)
AP Calculus
AP Physics
Orchestra Winds/Full Orchestra
Photo
Government
AP Literature

The only reason I am taking a-period physical education, which by the way, is the class BEFORE school. And you know how late I stay up! SUPER late. but only because that's just naturally the way it happens. Anyway, the only reason I'm taking that class is because, going into the summer, I needed three semesters of physical education to get credits for. And THAT is because I chose to take band and Spanish for three years without any open classes to complete the physical education requirement. So over the summer, I enrolled in a yoga class offered by the local community college, worth only one semester of p.e. credit. Therefore, I still need one year of p.e. credits to my name in order to graduate. Luckily, my school was fortunate enough to have sufficient funding for an a-period physical education class to be offered. Anywho, I really hate waking up before I ever thought I was capable of in order to do; what. EXERCISE?! haha. that's a joke. but the most ironic thing is that school physical education is supposed to be a joke. But the teacher is the football coach. so what do we do? FOOTBALL TRAINING. you've got to be kidding me! agh. it's ridiculous, Needless to say, I do feel really good about myself after I start my morning with a decent over-exerting workout. haha...
alrighty, well that's all for now folks! I'll try to keep you updated...if I remember. :)





peace.

And the madness begins...

with SUMMER! it's finally here. and, to be honest, I am more motivated now to do school work than I have been in an extremely vast period of time. it's kind of ironic...I've finished out my junior year. reputed as the "most difficult year of high school," and it's really flown by. but thank HEAVENS, for that! I've checked my grades on the more often evil than helpful "schoolloop" and I have maintained my GPA! WOO! My parentals shall be very pleased. I honestly canNOT believe I'll be a senior next year. It freaks me out just a tid bit. I was always prepared for it, talking about how I couldn't wait for my turn...and now it's here, and I'm not sure what to do with myself. Everyone always told me that it would come faster than I expected it to, but this went by faster than anyone could have ever mentally prepared me for. I have to apply for colleges, scholarships, and anything else humanly possible to make it easiest for my family to get me through the ever-so expensive senior year/transition to college.
I had to watch one of the greatest teachers I've ever had slowly tear down the inspirational decor of her room like a tooth, slowly decaying from the inside out. it hurts on the inside, even though it doesn't look like anything is wrong from its appearance. She really was one of the best. she pushed us all to work hard not for our GPA's, our parents' or families' expectations, or even for her reputation, but for ourselves. one of the few teachers I've met that turned the kid in the back corner with an iPod in their ear, hunched over doodling on their desk, into one of the most attentive, involved, and front row-sitting students. but it's all about motivation. She was so great at making learning fun (as cheesy as it may sound). I looked forward to that class each day and I always knew I could count on a superb lesson, lecture, or just a good ole class discussion full of interesting insight from fellow students that intrigued the minds of all of us who paid attention. She really knew how to stimulate our brains and get us involved with what we were learning and why we were learning it...how to use it. She didn't just teach us stuff because she was getting paid to, or because it was part of the curriculum, or even to pass the AP test. I believe she taught us because she really wanted to share her knowledge with us and she loved seeing the light bulb go off in someone's head. She loved to see us succeed. And that's what made her such a great teacher. Some teachers lose the heart to care, to try...in turn, they lose powerful respect and authority from students that could be helping them; the students become lethargic and begin to fail a class. I'm not blaming the teachers for any student who is flunking. I'm saying that in come cases, it is the teacher's fault that the students don't absorb the information that could possibly expose to them a future career path, or goal in life.
This teacher, however, was not one of the bad apples. She received the best response from students of all areas of life, social status, social class, and even age. If you knew who she was and had her as a teacher, you were lucky. Not only did she prepare me for the AP test, but she did a darn good job making it one of the best courses I've ever taken. Just today, as we were going over some of our final projects, a kid that, to the average adult eye, just looking at him, you wouldn't expect too much greatness or emotion. Nothing but a body roaming around high school because he's got nothing better to do. He'll never make anything of himself (exaggerated.), got up to read his writing piece to the class. He was the last one. As he got up there and read it aloud, everyone knew he wrote his paper about our beloved teacher. And after class, I spoke with him as he said, with tears welling up, "I had to finish it. I was about to start crying." he slowly and as non-chalantly as possible, caught the tears on his fingers before they could leave a moist trail of sadness as a map of his true emotions. A line formed for pictures with the teacher and I asked him if he wanted me to take a picture of him with our teacher. He simply replied, "No, I'm not taking a picture. I just want a hug." As he continued to catch the premature tears from just under his eyes, I rubbed his shoulder and told him to go ahead of me. I could tell he wouldn't last much longer in the same room without breaking down. He gave and received a quick, yet meaningful and sincere hug. Just as sincere each comment on each essay was marked, just as meaningful as each one of her students was to her. I'll never forget the first day of school. I came home and de-briefed my mother on what would be my schedule for the upcoming year.
.
.
.
"Oh...and Ms. ---- was SO. MEAN. She was yelling at the people who came in late! They didn't even know where they were going yet, I mean...come one, it's the first day of school! She was soooo strict and I just KNOW, I'm going to hate that class. I don't know how she could be so rude to people she doesn't even know. I wonder if I can transfer into the other teacher's class..."
.
.
.
And now, I can see that she had to set an authoritative first impression. Without that first day of school, if she had shown us her fun side and her funNY side, we would have had no respect for her and taken advantage of what we knew she could get side-tracked on. But I appreciate what she did...now. Now that it's too late to say thank you and run back into her classroom and wave goodbye one more time. Now that she's going back to grad school; because she's an achiever. Now that she's setting an example for what she knows we're capable of. Now that she's my role model.

It's not that we would have necessarily gone back into your classroom and visited you everyday next year, but there is a certain comfort of familiarity. Knowing you're there and being sure that you could see them if you wanted to. But now that hope is vanishing...
Thank you, Ms. ----. We'll all miss you...terribly.

Alert! Alert! We're all going to die.

that's basically what everyone is freaking out about right now. yeeep, you know what I'm talking about and I haven't even said it yet. it's the infamous SWINE FLU! AH!! Take cover and actually wash your hands instead of leaving them as a tiny germ's playground. Because you know, there are a total of 350 cases worldwide! that's a pandemic if I ever heard one. So you know what that means? Everyone needs to start washing their hands and sneezing into their sleeves, as opposed to the normal into the air. Because, you know, everyone has the Swi--err, I mean H1N1 virus.
Look out! Only elbow-fives from now on...everyone is infected, don't you know?
5.2184338356694357e-8% of the estimated world population (as of July 2008) has been reported to have a confirmed case of the H1N1 virus!!!
that's .000000052184338356694357%, so we'd better freak out now. Don't let your time slip by, people! Take those extra steps out of your regular habit and actually wash your hands as a safety precaution, and remember to always throw away your tissues after you use them! We can't let this tragic pandemic ruin the lives of innocent people.
Don't let another day go by without dreaming of the effects of this menacing virus attacking your family!
Shut down ALL facilities. DO NOT, I repeat, do NOT let nature take its course. We, the humans, are at the top of the food chain, and therefore control all that happens in this world. We REFUSE to let this flu infect our lives; it's not a hiccup in life, this is a massive speed bump.
Don't let your family leave the house! We need to stay protected and remain healthy. Our plan of reverse psychology on the tiny virus has become a growing idea practiced now among the masses. What is this master plan?
Quarantine the healthy people!
Stay indoors. Don't go out. Shut down all pubic facilities.
Don't worry, friend, we'll make it out alive...but most likely, we won't.

I don't use this word very often, but this truly is...EPIC.

So, as many of you know, I am an aspiring musician. And as most of you probably don't know, my favorite band is Relient K. Ao naturally, I have a cover of one of their songs on my youtube page. It's the only cover of that song, and I was hoping they'd see it, but I didn't want to get too excited about it.
I got home to relax after a fairly quick week of school (hallelujah!) and got on youtube. I had 1 new comment! I looked at it, and it was on my cover of their song...the comment simply said:

"well done!

js"

so I'm sitting there thinking, who on earth is "js" and why on earth would they expect me to know who they are?! And then...it HIT ME. JS. Jon Schneck is a member of the band! So I started freaking out and looked at the youtube profile. IT WAS JON SCHNECK, GUITARIST OF MY FAVORITE BAND COMMENTING ON MY VIDEO!!
and on top of that, he's been a member of youtube since May 2006. That's a pretty long time. And within that time frame, he's only watched 962 videos. MINE was one of them!!!
:D
AND he commented on it! OHHH my goodness, it just partially completed my life!
ahhhhh...anyway, I hadn't written a blog in a while; I never really had reason to. But I dare say that is a CONSIDERABLE amount of excitement and highly worthy of a blog post. so there you have it.

also, I'm going to see them in the end of May, so if I happen to meet them (considered highly probable), I plan to tell them who I am! not that they'll necessarily remember, but I'm still doin it!
:D




peace.

"Some people want it all, but I don't..."

"want nothin' at all, if it ain't you baby, if I ain't got you baby..." - Alicia Keys

So how's daylight savings been treating you all? I noticed that in my last blog I said that spring forward would make it brighter in the mornings, but I quickly realized that it was quite the opposite when I woke up the day after we "sprung forward". haha...
Right now I'm watching one of my favorite shows, called, "Brothers & Sisters." I LOOOOVE this show! It's so hilarious. forrrreal. I saw Slumdog Millionaire for the second time tonight. I was a little surprised that it was still in theaters, but I was willing to see it again with my father, who had not seen it yet. It was still really good...a really great movie.
My mother had a jewelry party today and I invited a few of my friends. Some of them showed up and some of them didn't, but it was fun for the most part. There were delightful, delicious, and delovely french vanilla cupcakes and some fairly delectable lemon bars.
I'm really tired, and I need to read "The Things They Carried," written by Tim O'Brien, by Wednesday...heh-heh. That's a 250 page book...my future is looking...grim? eh.
I've been writing some new stuff for my future career and I completely finished one, with two others to add some music to.
Have you ever seen those Fidelity commercials? If not, I'll explain now. People are walking out of an investment company place thing and the broker person says, "alright, just follow the path..." then the customer sees this beautiful bright green line pops up...in this particular commercial, the male customer is walking away from the store when a car store catches his eye. He then steps off of the line and toward the window. Then, the broker lady says, "STAY ON THE LINE!"
hahaha...if only it were that easy. To have a company that could just have you follow a line in order to have success in the future.

Anyway, that was pretty darn pointless. I'm tired now, and I jut want to focus on the show now, so I'll go.




peace out.

"Oh, I stare at the phone..

...he still hasn't called..."
-Taylor Swift

So is it just me, or is the entire United States of America bummed out by the fact that it's daylight savings tonight and we must "spring forward"? GAHH. I'm a teenager. I don't get enough sleep as is, I don't need it to lose an hour of sleep just so it will be bright in the morning! Obviously I'm biased for the "fall back" part of the saying... :P
I can't wait for Spring Break! Wanna know why? Because I have absolutely ZERO planned!!! That's the first time since...7th grade? Maybe before that, I don't know...but a really really long time. :D
So I look forward to sitting home and doing absolutely NOTHING. staying up late for board game tourneys and then musical movie marathons that follow...ahhhh.
One thing I don't like about being so close with my older sister. First of all, there is something you should understand. She's my best friend, and we don't really fight as most would expect sisters to do...
now for the list of complaints:
1. I miss her and all the fun things she gets to do in college!
2. we're friends, but I can't legally participate in some of the activities that she takes part in because I'm too young.
3. her friends turned into some of my friends.
4. it really stinks having older friends because they don't have school everyday at the same time and have WAYYY more flexible schedules.
5. because they all have different schedules, I don't get to see any of them as much as I would prefer. :(

Anyway, I think you get the idea. It just really stinks that I can't ever seem to come up with a convenient time to hang out with that particular friend group because they hang out so late at night into the wee hours of the morning; now I'm allllll for staying up super duper late, I just actually have a school to go to 5 days a week at which I arrive at the same 7:25am every morning. gaaaahhhhhh.
Alright, enough complaining, I'll talk to you later!






peace.

"and the internet...

it still doesn't work..." - Relient K
Sorry it's been so long since an update, but my internet works as it pleases, thus causing me to actually utilize my internet time for the things that actually matter in life rather than dilly-dallying with blogs and whatnot. Nothing really exciting has happened to me lately, except for the first time since EVER I have an A in my AP U.S. History class!! Woop! woop! We'll see how long it last...but as I always say, it's better to be short-lived than not lived at all. haha...basically, once you fail, at least you were succeeding at one point in time. :) which is basically the disclaimer of a lifetime. it seriously covers everything.

So, yea, that's pretty much it. I'm really tired and I'm going to bed, but my mother keeps asking me to update my blog and I decided to take advantage of the ever-so cooperative (and short-lived) internet and write a quick blog just so you know I'm still alive. Because I know a whopping TWO people follow this blog, both of whom were just about ready to order the paramedics over to my house to make sure I'm breathing....it's okay, guys. I'm still here.
:)


until next time!




peace.

"Im' gonna...

start all over..."
-Miley Cyrus

I'm not a big Miley fan, but those were the only lyrics with the idea of a new start I could think of. hahaa...
I'm SO excited because tomorrow is a new start of the second semester of my junior year! I'm used to getting straight A's, but this year, I'm getting four B's and only two A's. Plus, the two A's are in my only non-AP/HP classes. :( So it is my GOAL to try and get at leeeeast half and half. I think I can possibly manage an A in Spanish and Math...but we'll see. The incentive for getting super outstanding grades this semester is...okay. well, every two years (every other year) there is an Ingathering of people who went to this church in the Philippines, and my dad and his family are some of those people. Now. Last time it was in Hawaii. :D This coming summer, it will be in Pennsylvania. If I get good grades (meaning better than this semester), then my aunts will pay my way there!
woohooooo!!!
Also, I'm really excited because my older sister is going to apply to study abroad at Oxford!!! ANd if that happens...that will DEFINITELY require some visiting time. So, I'm pretty sure my mom won't let me go if I ask her now, because we don't even know if she's going yet, but I'm fairly certain I'll end up going. Just because I'm super string-headed and stubborn. If I want something, I'll set my mind to it, and through the fire, hail, and any other extreme natural disaster, I'll get it done. I just won't take no for an answer. So, yea. I would have to say that if she ends up going, I'll be going to visit her. AND that means, layover in NEW YORK (most likely)!!! Any one of my aunts is moving to New York. So that would work out just fine, now don't ya think?
;)
So I guess that's how I end up making things happen. I present a well-thought out proposal to my parents and explain to them how and why it would be beneficial to myself AND them. It's worked out well so far...we'll see how this develops. haha...
And now I've forgotten anything else I was planning on telling "you". (I put you in quotations because I'm not entirely sure I really AM talking to anybody. haha!)



peace.

and a happy new year?

Okay, so it's SUUUPER late into the new year to be writing a blog saying "happy new year!"
woops.
It's approximately 3:58am as I am writing this. awesome. However, it is a three-day weekend. That extra day really makes all the difference. really. It makes me feel so much more relaxed, and it's almost like a mini-vacation. I watched "Made of Honor" with one of my friends tonight and around 11:30, and then another friend came over and we always watch musicals together, so we ended up watching "Beauty and the Beast" at about 1:25am. I found my entertainment in a Swiffer, and I decided that if someone were to put me in a room with just a Swiffer and padded walls, I'd be good to go for at least a week. They are SO fascinating. I ended up detaching the top two segments of the Swiffer and waved it around with authority repeating, "Swiffa Sabaaaa!" ahhhh...the joys of being loopy. Everything is funnier at 3 in the morning.
Next week is finals for me, and I'm only confident in my....let's see...band final? HA. That's not good. I have straight B's (except for band) which is highly unusual for me, but I'm beginning to accept it. However, I only have a B in Chemistry because my teacher loses papers and has me marked down for about six or seven missing assignments, all of which are then marked as F's. So really I have an A in there.
tonight I made half-plans to go to the snow with the two friends that were over tonight, on Monday. (My mother knows nothing of these schemes yet. mwahahahahaaaa.) "Half-plans," meaning we'll give it a shot but it's not really top priority. We really want to and would enjoy it, but won't be completely devastated if our plans fall through.
BUT, this means I have to do all my studying and homework tomorrow, which is really today. And I'm losing time by writing this. So I'm going to leave now. I'll let you know how everything works out, cool?
(of course it's cool, you have no other choice.)




peace.