Warning: this may be gossipy in nature, written only because I'll probably never be able to talk about it as freely (or coherently, and remember everything I wanted to include). Read at your own risk.
Autumn is my favorite season, not because of anything it intrinsically is (although the leaves are pretty, and the sky is a perfect shade of far-away). I love autumn above every other season because I hate spring, and autumn is the farthest away from spring. One day I just realized that. Sat up and thought, so this is why. And said a few more philosophical words, perhaps, and left it at that.
At night, I like to imagine things. Really outlandish things. Like getting lost in a jungle and cracking complicated codes (but it’ll probably just be ugly bruteforce) and then swinging swords around to squish evil bunnies. Sometimes there are other people with me. I am not sure what happens to them in the end. By the time my dreams roll around, they are gone, replaced by more people who randomly appear in my dreams. (Last night, I dreamed about being Aaron’s girlfriend while we walked by really small, square-shaped houses. It was weird.)
I love to read comedies, and love to write tragedies. That I may have established prior. I am a huge D. Gray-man fanfiction fan, because they have just the right mix of comedy and tragedy in them with easily manipulated characters that I don’t feel as though I am reading tragedies. Not unless they are labeled as such. But lately I haven’t been reading fictional things (unless you count English assignments). I’ve mostly been reading Liane Bonin’s Project Runway recaps, because I don’t have the time (or the justification, usually) to watch the show. And because it’s fun to read the cynical remarks.
But most importantly, and the reason for all of these confessions: I lied about Bryant.
If I were completely honest, I would say that I didn’t really lie about him, but rather I jumped to conclusions too quickly. There is a part of me that knows there is something there, maybe. But I think it is not entirely, concretely real, and that while I do find his I-can-read-your-mind stares, uh, hypnotic, he is probably (most likely) the rebound guy. I realized it when I found myself stealing glances at Dino during English. Realized that perhaps I had not really gotten over Dino.
It was a bit frustrating, because a part of me was over him (and a part of me never liked him in the first place, but before it was in the minority). I should probably learn from Vincent, though. I mean, he’s found a girlfriend within a week of, well. Okay, not going in-depth with that one.
So I was (and still am) pleasantly surprised that I don’t care (more than normal, that is) about Dino these days. I don’t notice him coming or going anymore (especially not during math team—I only noticed he wasn’t there a couple hours later). He still has wonderful hair, I must admit (perhaps the hairspray killed it, though), but that is all.
And, most wretchedly, someone else is making my heart speed up more than normal (something Bryant hasn’t really done for me, so I guess that’s another sign). I think it’s the hormones or something. Really. At least he’s nicer than Dino (but since we’re comparing to Dino, I’m not sure if that says anything). And he has a really nice smile and a normal laugh (and I think he has nice hair too, although I haven’t tried it yet).
But enough about me. More about the homework I’m supposed to do.
Showing posts with label Vincent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vincent. Show all posts
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Hey, you! Yes, you.
A while ago (back in April) I wrote a post promoting equality amongst my equivalent of Gretchie's "imaginary friends." I had twenty people, because that was the most number of labels I could include, and since it's pointless if I mention someone but doesn't include their label, I just chose twenty people.
Today's lucky people are:
But before all of this, I would like to say that I have started reading the DMV booklet for my permit test, and it's so far going well. I don't know what kind of test they have though, so we'll have to see. And besides, I suck at memorization.
Also... why, why do they use clock hands for steering wheel positions, instead of diagrams? I like my digital clock just as much as the next person, and the only time I use analog clocks are when I'm trying to figure out how much time I have left in a class, and it's become second-nature to me that I don't even know the hours, just the minutes.
Anyway. Let's commence!
Amanda-Amanda's sent out a FB message to me (along with various other people) asking me if I wanted to join her on a NYC trip sometime in the summer. I do, but I have to okay it first with my parents, so I'm holding on responding just for now.
Camel-I don't think I'll ever have another class with Camel. He's being boring and taking Physics B and Calc AB, and somehow I don't think he's going to take AP Lit or any of my other classes. Doesn't sound like him. We don't really talk outside of communicating with Nyx, so I guess we won't really talk ever again.
Dora-Right! Movies, possibly. I still have to get back to her on that as well. So many things happening this summer! I'm glad that summer's finally here. There's definitely less stress right now, which is good, but I think I'm going to be looking forward for school to start, surprisingly.
Gretchen-Can you believe she's behind Irving, of all people, in my tag-list? I can't. Well, I suppose it's because of all the math team things where I mention Irving because he's usually doing something outrageous (but usually less so to some extent) with Mario. Anyway, Gretchen and I need to land in Japan soon. I'm getting a little air-sick right now.
Irving-Mentioned above, and that I probably won't ever see him again, unless I get into Hahvahd (unlikely) or get into MIT (also unlikely) and he happens to bike by because I can't bike by him since I don't know how to bike.
Joss-He still has spiky hair, even though he cut it shorter earlier. I don't know what else to say of him. Not very exciting right now.
Mario-Oh, Mario. What to say of him? I think he's going to have superiority issues next year in math team. To think that he said of Irving's behavior during Moody's, "I think he had trouble realizing who was the real boss. Next year there won't be a question as to who's in charge." No doubt. It's not him.
Matt-Super skinniness aside, he's leaving as well! I somehow cannot process that, even though I could process Irving and Owen and Melissa leaving. I guess it's because he wasn't away on the senior internships, so I haven't really felt him leave. I'm really going to miss him, even if he doesn't talk much.
Melissa-Ambivalent on her leaving. I think things are going to be a lot quieter without her, which is both good and bad. We won't have her cookies anymore as well, so that could be bad.
Micro-I'm trying to communicate to him in sign language, but neither he nor Sonny understands it, so Yuma and I are having a particularly difficult time.
Mogley-Didn't know he was taking Econ next year. Maybe we'll be in the same class again. He had English scheduling problems earlier, and I told him, "Just get AP English," to which he said, "No way, me?" Our English teacher agreed with his sentiment, and not just because of his horrible grammar (I still can't forgive him for writing lists without commas).
Nyx-Has a super early arena time but has no need for it because of her singletons. I'm slightly envious, but then I remember that no matter who I have they're either not bad or they're unavoidable, so I don't care that much either. And I'll probably have physics with Tea (unless it runs out) so it doesn't concern me very, very much.
Owen-Writing about Owen here reminds me of his alpaca. Also my "choose your own adventure" story. Otherwise he doesn't remind me of anything except that I don't know who's going to keep Dino well-oiled in the next year. We might see an increase in system crashes then.
Reese-I'm talking to Reese on Gchat a lot now. He's using Digsby, which is apparently similar to the device that Tea uses except for PCs. I shall have to try that out soon.
Sonny-He's hilarious, even if he doesn't mean it. He also can't understand sign language or exaggerated waving. Also, I found out how freaky he looked while sunbathing with Scott and the like. A row of guys lying down on the ground in the courtyard just looks weird.
Stella-I don't talk to her nearly as much now. I should. In fact, I will talk to her today as soon as I get this Digsby thing working.
Tamir-Why did I even first mention him? Why do I keep on mentioning him? I don't know. Whatever.
Tybalt-From what I've heard from Kathrya lately, he's exceedingly sweet. This disproves my best friend from back before's theory that all guys are jerks. But then again, I knew that a long time ago. Besides, it doesn't disprove the theory that some guys (ambiguity on how many) are jerks.
Vincent-I need to go over to his house more often if it means more Clue time. I'm addicted to the game. It's unhealthy, I think, both physically and emotionally.
Yuma-I never knew he was so good at go, but then again, Yuma is amazing at a lot of things. We definitely need him on our Moody's team next year. Also, Mrs. MacDonald said that she was looking forward to seeing me (and presumably everyone on our team) next year for Moody's. I think that basically guarantees that, if we don't do something stupid and smoke pot in front of the principal or something like that, we're going to be on a team (if not on a team together) next year.
Whew. Now let's see if anything on my "Noteworthy" list looks better now.
Today's lucky people are:
- Amanda
- Camel
- Dora
- Gretchen
- Irving
- Joss
- Mario
- Matt
- Melissa
- Micro
- Mogley
- Nyx
- Owen
- Reese
- Sonny
- Stella
- Tamir
- Tybalt
- Vincent
- Yuma
But before all of this, I would like to say that I have started reading the DMV booklet for my permit test, and it's so far going well. I don't know what kind of test they have though, so we'll have to see. And besides, I suck at memorization.
Also... why, why do they use clock hands for steering wheel positions, instead of diagrams? I like my digital clock just as much as the next person, and the only time I use analog clocks are when I'm trying to figure out how much time I have left in a class, and it's become second-nature to me that I don't even know the hours, just the minutes.
Anyway. Let's commence!
Amanda-Amanda's sent out a FB message to me (along with various other people) asking me if I wanted to join her on a NYC trip sometime in the summer. I do, but I have to okay it first with my parents, so I'm holding on responding just for now.
Camel-I don't think I'll ever have another class with Camel. He's being boring and taking Physics B and Calc AB, and somehow I don't think he's going to take AP Lit or any of my other classes. Doesn't sound like him. We don't really talk outside of communicating with Nyx, so I guess we won't really talk ever again.
Dora-Right! Movies, possibly. I still have to get back to her on that as well. So many things happening this summer! I'm glad that summer's finally here. There's definitely less stress right now, which is good, but I think I'm going to be looking forward for school to start, surprisingly.
Gretchen-Can you believe she's behind Irving, of all people, in my tag-list? I can't. Well, I suppose it's because of all the math team things where I mention Irving because he's usually doing something outrageous (but usually less so to some extent) with Mario. Anyway, Gretchen and I need to land in Japan soon. I'm getting a little air-sick right now.
Irving-Mentioned above, and that I probably won't ever see him again, unless I get into Hahvahd (unlikely) or get into MIT (also unlikely) and he happens to bike by because I can't bike by him since I don't know how to bike.
Joss-He still has spiky hair, even though he cut it shorter earlier. I don't know what else to say of him. Not very exciting right now.
Mario-Oh, Mario. What to say of him? I think he's going to have superiority issues next year in math team. To think that he said of Irving's behavior during Moody's, "I think he had trouble realizing who was the real boss. Next year there won't be a question as to who's in charge." No doubt. It's not him.
Matt-Super skinniness aside, he's leaving as well! I somehow cannot process that, even though I could process Irving and Owen and Melissa leaving. I guess it's because he wasn't away on the senior internships, so I haven't really felt him leave. I'm really going to miss him, even if he doesn't talk much.
Melissa-Ambivalent on her leaving. I think things are going to be a lot quieter without her, which is both good and bad. We won't have her cookies anymore as well, so that could be bad.
Micro-I'm trying to communicate to him in sign language, but neither he nor Sonny understands it, so Yuma and I are having a particularly difficult time.
Mogley-Didn't know he was taking Econ next year. Maybe we'll be in the same class again. He had English scheduling problems earlier, and I told him, "Just get AP English," to which he said, "No way, me?" Our English teacher agreed with his sentiment, and not just because of his horrible grammar (I still can't forgive him for writing lists without commas).
Nyx-Has a super early arena time but has no need for it because of her singletons. I'm slightly envious, but then I remember that no matter who I have they're either not bad or they're unavoidable, so I don't care that much either. And I'll probably have physics with Tea (unless it runs out) so it doesn't concern me very, very much.
Owen-Writing about Owen here reminds me of his alpaca. Also my "choose your own adventure" story. Otherwise he doesn't remind me of anything except that I don't know who's going to keep Dino well-oiled in the next year. We might see an increase in system crashes then.
Reese-I'm talking to Reese on Gchat a lot now. He's using Digsby, which is apparently similar to the device that Tea uses except for PCs. I shall have to try that out soon.
Sonny-He's hilarious, even if he doesn't mean it. He also can't understand sign language or exaggerated waving. Also, I found out how freaky he looked while sunbathing with Scott and the like. A row of guys lying down on the ground in the courtyard just looks weird.
Stella-I don't talk to her nearly as much now. I should. In fact, I will talk to her today as soon as I get this Digsby thing working.
Tamir-Why did I even first mention him? Why do I keep on mentioning him? I don't know. Whatever.
Tybalt-From what I've heard from Kathrya lately, he's exceedingly sweet. This disproves my best friend from back before's theory that all guys are jerks. But then again, I knew that a long time ago. Besides, it doesn't disprove the theory that some guys (ambiguity on how many) are jerks.
Vincent-I need to go over to his house more often if it means more Clue time. I'm addicted to the game. It's unhealthy, I think, both physically and emotionally.
Yuma-I never knew he was so good at go, but then again, Yuma is amazing at a lot of things. We definitely need him on our Moody's team next year. Also, Mrs. MacDonald said that she was looking forward to seeing me (and presumably everyone on our team) next year for Moody's. I think that basically guarantees that, if we don't do something stupid and smoke pot in front of the principal or something like that, we're going to be on a team (if not on a team together) next year.
Whew. Now let's see if anything on my "Noteworthy" list looks better now.
Friday, June 18, 2010
SUMMER IS HERE
If you didn't catch on to my enthusiasm in my intense usage of caps, let me reiterate that.
SUMMER IS FINALLY HERE! NO MORE JUNIOR YEAR! WE ARE SENIORS!
Today was amazingly awesome even though it was the day I had the most finals for (two, as opposed to, uh, one, or, uh, none). I was freaked out yesterday for physics, because I remembered from the midterms that I barely knew centripetal forces and I definitely bombed the waves/optics/weird-stuff test. Luckily, I did pretty well on modern physics, so it can still save me. Somewhat. But the finals were awesome. They were almost ridiculously easy (don't know for sure, because I don't know what I got, although Möhre asked me if I wanted to go check with him), and way better than the midterms for sure. Health was so-so, but it's health, and it's the last class of—OMG LAST GYM CLASS. Ahem. Yeah. So I didn't really care, and I got an A for the final, so despite my non-participation, I'm hoping for maybe an B+/A-, which will placate my parents as well.
But then, then, school was OVER (see my interspersed caps in testament of my excitement). I walked with Zephy and Vincent and Jennifer home (or sort of home, since we dropped by Vincent's house to play Clue first), and then my mom told me to clean up my room for the guests tomorrow. So I spent two hours cleaning, which was not fun, but the good thing was that I had NO HOMEWORK, so cleaning was okay.
Then I went over to Julie's house for her birthday party, and we had lots of fun, but this requires a very long time to explain, and I am now sort of short on time because I have more cleaning to do. So I will just say that we had lots of fun and rolled around in the grass and talked and ate and lit marshmallows on fire. There will be more coming, but after my permit cramming, so I will stop here.
To sum up my post tonight:
SUMMER IS HERE!
SUMMER IS FINALLY HERE! NO MORE JUNIOR YEAR! WE ARE SENIORS!
Today was amazingly awesome even though it was the day I had the most finals for (two, as opposed to, uh, one, or, uh, none). I was freaked out yesterday for physics, because I remembered from the midterms that I barely knew centripetal forces and I definitely bombed the waves/optics/weird-stuff test. Luckily, I did pretty well on modern physics, so it can still save me. Somewhat. But the finals were awesome. They were almost ridiculously easy (don't know for sure, because I don't know what I got, although Möhre asked me if I wanted to go check with him), and way better than the midterms for sure. Health was so-so, but it's health, and it's the last class of—OMG LAST GYM CLASS. Ahem. Yeah. So I didn't really care, and I got an A for the final, so despite my non-participation, I'm hoping for maybe an B+/A-, which will placate my parents as well.
But then, then, school was OVER (see my interspersed caps in testament of my excitement). I walked with Zephy and Vincent and Jennifer home (or sort of home, since we dropped by Vincent's house to play Clue first), and then my mom told me to clean up my room for the guests tomorrow. So I spent two hours cleaning, which was not fun, but the good thing was that I had NO HOMEWORK, so cleaning was okay.
Then I went over to Julie's house for her birthday party, and we had lots of fun, but this requires a very long time to explain, and I am now sort of short on time because I have more cleaning to do. So I will just say that we had lots of fun and rolled around in the grass and talked and ate and lit marshmallows on fire. There will be more coming, but after my permit cramming, so I will stop here.
To sum up my post tonight:
SUMMER IS HERE!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Rhett Says We're On Everest
Eighty-something pages into Gone With the Wind, I've finally met Rhett (officially), and I have to say, he is a bit of a disappointment. He has a weird mustache, and he's over thirty years old, when Scarlett's only sixteen. It was acceptable back then, and in some places, still acceptable today, but I don't attach any romantic inclinations towards men over twice my age with mustaches and appear "cool" (I'm pretty sure this "cool" does not have the connotations it has now) looking.
However, he's got a cool (modern definition) name, and with a name like Rhett, I will forgive his other faults so far. For the time being. Besides, I do want to see how the drunk Tarleton twins will handle Scarlett's new fancy (if she gets over the cousin-marrying fiend first, that is).
On a more personal level, yesterday, Zephy and I started from Base Camp (our school) and hiked up Mt. Everest to arrive at the peak (our homes). Along the way, we scaled numerous icy paths and lumpy rocks, and made a pit stop at one of the camps along the way.
Zephy rang the doorbell (sophisticated technology), and after a while, Vincent opened the door.
So we went in, took a rest, and watched some adorable mountain critters (kittens) play with each other and running away from us. That last part was kind of sad, but at least one of them liked us, so we mostly played with him while dangling the cat toy (a good distance away from us) for the others to play.
I've also not updated for some time, so a brief recap of things that happened before my outlandish hike up the ever-daunting Everest. Wednesday there was a lab in chem, whereupon we played with super-concentrated HCl (6M, which is half the strength of stock HCl) and vaporized magnesium strips (technically, the magnesium was not vaporized, it merely ionized into Mg+2 and the gas given off was hydrogen, but it sure does look like the magnesium was vaporized). The next day, Argon and Reese and I had a discussion about Reese's awful lab skills, mainly pouring chemicals (which he claims is "in the family," as his sister was awful at that as well). We were all glad that Reese did not participate in the lab I had the day before, because, as Mr. Coffee had said, "One drop of this stuff on your hand, you'll feel fine, and then after a while, you'll say, 'owww.' More than one drop, and you're in serious trouble."
On Thursday, my SAT scores also came out! I'd been waiting for them for, uh, pretty much since I got them over with, and I did way better than I thought I would, so I'm happy. No more icky SATs (not even SAT IIs anymore). I also ran the mile run, with more than a minute over the "health" limit, and half a minute more than what I had accomplished last year, but I blame my current non-activity in health class, instead of gym, as the main culprit.
Today (and tomorrow), all the state parks open for free (most of them are free anyway, as I later realized), so my parents and I went upstate to a place with mountains, streams (with fish), and lots of campsites. We watched a few people fishing for a while, then we went nearby to a waterfall. All in all, it was an eventful day. Plus, I found a few more nice songs from a playlist someone else compiled, so I'm going to listen to those while writing my multiple perspective narrative. (Argon had trouble with the "creative" writing part, so I tried to explain with a complex system of where the input from the surroundings spurred personal output, which altered the environment and thus creates more input, and so the cycle goes on. I think this made it more logical than creative, but oh well.)
MID—
Rhett: 0.5
Scarlett: 1
However, he's got a cool (modern definition) name, and with a name like Rhett, I will forgive his other faults so far. For the time being. Besides, I do want to see how the drunk Tarleton twins will handle Scarlett's new fancy (if she gets over the cousin-marrying fiend first, that is).
On a more personal level, yesterday, Zephy and I started from Base Camp (our school) and hiked up Mt. Everest to arrive at the peak (our homes). Along the way, we scaled numerous icy paths and lumpy rocks, and made a pit stop at one of the camps along the way.
Zephy rang the doorbell (sophisticated technology), and after a while, Vincent opened the door.
So we went in, took a rest, and watched some adorable mountain critters (kittens) play with each other and running away from us. That last part was kind of sad, but at least one of them liked us, so we mostly played with him while dangling the cat toy (a good distance away from us) for the others to play.
I've also not updated for some time, so a brief recap of things that happened before my outlandish hike up the ever-daunting Everest. Wednesday there was a lab in chem, whereupon we played with super-concentrated HCl (6M, which is half the strength of stock HCl) and vaporized magnesium strips (technically, the magnesium was not vaporized, it merely ionized into Mg+2 and the gas given off was hydrogen, but it sure does look like the magnesium was vaporized). The next day, Argon and Reese and I had a discussion about Reese's awful lab skills, mainly pouring chemicals (which he claims is "in the family," as his sister was awful at that as well). We were all glad that Reese did not participate in the lab I had the day before, because, as Mr. Coffee had said, "One drop of this stuff on your hand, you'll feel fine, and then after a while, you'll say, 'owww.' More than one drop, and you're in serious trouble."
On Thursday, my SAT scores also came out! I'd been waiting for them for, uh, pretty much since I got them over with, and I did way better than I thought I would, so I'm happy. No more icky SATs (not even SAT IIs anymore). I also ran the mile run, with more than a minute over the "health" limit, and half a minute more than what I had accomplished last year, but I blame my current non-activity in health class, instead of gym, as the main culprit.
Today (and tomorrow), all the state parks open for free (most of them are free anyway, as I later realized), so my parents and I went upstate to a place with mountains, streams (with fish), and lots of campsites. We watched a few people fishing for a while, then we went nearby to a waterfall. All in all, it was an eventful day. Plus, I found a few more nice songs from a playlist someone else compiled, so I'm going to listen to those while writing my multiple perspective narrative. (Argon had trouble with the "creative" writing part, so I tried to explain with a complex system of where the input from the surroundings spurred personal output, which altered the environment and thus creates more input, and so the cycle goes on. I think this made it more logical than creative, but oh well.)
MID—
Rhett: 0.5
Scarlett: 1
Friday, April 16, 2010
Easter Island—Finally!
Imagine this: in the middle of a cool, Chilean night, a silvery plane pierced the sky. Four hundred feet from a peculiarly-shaped bush, a llama stared at the plane, its eyes blank of emotion. It had seen these entities before, but knew not what they meant—those silver birds that were unforgiving in their paths.
Gretchen and I had a wonderful time in the Atacama, but unfortunately, we had to leave for our next destination, Easter Island. We had booked an early morning plane, hoping to arrive on the island and explore its renowned beaches before it got too chilly. At the airport, we were met with quite a pleasant surprise!
I apologize for the weird picture-ness. I got lazy and simply copied/pasted. For future pictures, I will actually redraw the people so they fit the background better. Or I'll just post pictures cause I'm lazy. Also, look, Air Canada!
Tea came! She bore news that Bruney would also be coming along on our next destination (after Santiago)since I still need to draw her as well to—drum-roll as I whip out random.org's random coordinates generator—Japan! Wow. That would be quite a huge leap from Chile. (Any suggestions to not go to Japan will be considered. That was just a random pick.)
Nonetheless, Tea said she would be coming to Easter Island with us! So we changed our boarding passes so we could sit next to each other (in a row, yay!), and excitedly got on the plane. Well, the plane part was boring, so I won't talk much about it. I did manage to fiddle around on my laptop for a while, and I've managed to memorize a few basic UNIX commands thanks to unixkcd. (Who knew "kill" meant transporting a terminator to 1984?)
Anyway. We got off the plane in the afternoon, before sunset. This really nice guy, Mark, from one of the guest houses on the island, came up to us and asked if we needed a place to stay. We said we were looking for a hotel, and he offered to drive us there. Now, before you get all suspicious about why a perfect stranger would offer to give us a ride in his car to some presumably unknown destination, this is apparently the norm among Easter Island guest hotel guides. So we hopped into his car and arrived at our hotel a short while later.
Here's a picture of our beautiful place that we will be staying in:
Mark told us that the food in "downtown" Hanga Roa, the only major town on the island and where we were right now, was pretty good, and that we should try some of it out—of course, after we go to the beach and check out the gorgeous sunset. I was really excited, because I love, love, love sunsets. They're top on my list of things I love, along with shiny things and sparkly erasers (although Jack says that the blood-red sunset in the mountains are the most beautiful things ever, drawn from his experience living in central Minnesota).
So, of course, we had to pay a visit to the Hanga Roa port. Isn't it coincidental that Hanga Roa faces west, perfect for a sunset? Or maybe it faces west just for the sunset? I guess it's just like the chicken and the egg—we'll never know for sure.
After the sunset, which was absolutely magnificent, I declared that I was hungry, and so we decided to find something good to eat. The most famous restaurant on the island had to be Te Moana, but we had to reserve early to get seats, and in my haste and tiredness, I had completely forgotten to do so. La Taverne du Pêcheur is another good restaurant that specializes in seafood, but it's really expensive. Granted, we had an unlimited budgetbecause I say so and I am omnipotent in this trip, so we decided we would go there last, to treat ourselves to some "gourmet" food.
Mark had told us that there were some places around town that sold cheap empanadas, and so we went around town in searching for such a place. Well, we found one, right next to a market, and those empanadas were really delicious! We were going to take a picture of one of us eating an empanada, but decided we would just share a picture of the actual thing instead.
We went back to the hotel early that night, and woke up really early the next morning (at 6:30, which is very early for me unless I had to go to school, which effectively does not exist right now). Next on our agenda: the Moai!
For those who have not been privy to the Easter Island culture, Moai are those stone face-statues scattered around Easter Island that were used to commemorate the deceased. They are placed upon stands called Ahu, and we should not step on the Ahu because that would be disrespectful towards the dead.
Most of the Moai sites around the island are free to visit, so we rented a Jeep and drove around the island along the major road, oohing and ahhing over all of the Moai. We stopped at a few of them, including the most famous Ahu Tongariki and Ahu Akivi. We reached Ahu Tongariki in the morning, and had a brunch of pescado a la parrilla (I'm sure there are accents somewhere, but since I am not familiar with Spanish, I am not sure where—also, this is grilled fish) and bread prepared by the wonderful cooking staff at the hotel.
When we were about to leave, a crowd of other tourists had arrived, preparing to eat lunch at this famed location. Good thing we were early! We (mostly Tea, who is the only one here who can drive right now) drove on in the Jeep, often staring at the ocean and its glimmering prettiness. By the time we got back to Hanga Roa, it was already late afternoon, and we were starving! I found some leftover tortilla de rescoldo in my backpack (back from Atacama), so we munched on some of that with the pebre, a sauce made with coriander, onions, olive oil, garlic, and ground peppers. It was delicious (I should find a synonym for "delicious"), but not nearly satisfying enough. So of course, we went to another restaurant and had some chanfaina (see below), this traditional soup of beef or lamb with a bunch of other things added to it. I wasn't too big on the blood, but I liked the potatoes. I like potatoes a lot.
We went back to the hotel and caught up on some rest and reading about all the things that happened to our friends back at home. I was really sleepy (since I had woken up so early), so I fell asleep first, and I have no idea what Gretchie or Tea did afterwards. But we woke up pretty early the next day, this time to go to Rano Raraku!
Rano Raraku is a crater volcano, but it's famous because most of those Moai—those things we saw the day before?—were carved from this mountain. Of course, there are tons of half-completed Moai lying around. I don't really know why.
It took us most of the day to climb up the volcano and see the crater and the island all around us and then to climb down again. Some girl who was just climbing down from the crater as we were climbing up complimented our ponchos. She was wearing a really pretty chamanto as well. Anyway, here's a picture at the top:
We had some really good ave pimienta (diced chicken meat sandwich with red peppers) for lunch, and we got back down, we had some pastel de choclo, which is similar to a shepherd's pie. You can tell that I am a huge food fan. Chilean food is absolutely mouth-watering, and I can't believe I've been missing out on so many wonderful dishes all my life.
The next day was planned to be a day of relaxation. We woke up reasonably early (at 7:30, an hour later), and went down to Anakena, which is renowned for its white sand beaches. The water was chilly at this hour, so we just sunbathed on the beach and watched some guys surf. One of the guys kept falling into the water, despite the other guys trying to help him.
After a few hours of nice relaxation on the beach, we went over to Motu Nui, where we picked up the snorkeling gear Mark had reserved for us earlier. I had never been snorkeling before, and I was kind of scared at first, but it was really fun once I got used to the whole thing.
Tea caught a lion-fish in her hands by accident, and after she let it go it would not leave her alone. It was so adorable! Which reminds me, we (Gretch and I) still have to ship Owen his alpaca, but I suppose that can wait for a while.
After a whole day around water, what better place to dine for the evening but the famed seafood place, La Taverne du Pêcheur? After all, I had promised we would come back here on our last day, and we would be departing the next day. So we all indulged ourselves with seafood. Tea ordered the ostiones a la parmesena, scallops with melted butter and grilled Parmesan cheese. Gretchie ordered the congrio frito, deep-fried conger eel, and I ordered the machas a la parmesena, similar to Tea's except mine were clams.
Here are the pictures of our dishes, respectively:
.jpg)
Sadly, we had to leave early next morning to go back to Santiago (without even a chance to visit Rano Kau, which supposedly had a beautiful view). Well, it was certainly a fun time in Easter Island, especially with Mark and the hotel crew, and none of us could wait for the next destination!
Santiago, here we come—hasta luego!Or until whenever the next update comes, which could be a very, very long time away.
OOH*:
As I was walking into my US class today, I realized that I forgot to add a "works cited" to the end of my paper. So I told my US teacher I would hand her a new copy during lunch. I had gym/health right before lunch, and so when I walked out of class to go to the library, I saw Vincent, who was walking the opposite way to go to gym.
"Hey," I waved.
"Hi," Vincent said. "Oh, I have to ask you something."
"Okay, what is it?"
"I know you're not going, but, if you were, would you have gone to prom with me?"
Oh, uh. "Yeah, I would."
"Oh, okay."
"Are you going?" I asked him.
"No, it's right before AP week."
"Oh, right."
The two APs he's taking are in the second week, which was the same problem I have with my chem test. I have no idea who planned prom to be on May 8th, but it makes no sense at all. Unless you're not taking any APs, but I have a feeling a decent percentage the grade is taking some sort of AP test (there are so many of them, after all), so it still makes no sense. At all.
But enough of me ranting.
(I have also noticed that Vincent's hugging period is progressively growing. And to think all of this began with Amanda's hugging spree back when he was reluctant to hug people. Ahh. Life's unpredictable like that.)
*For abbreviation clarifications, see earlier posts relating to the round-the-world trip.
P.S.: All names mentioned in the trip that are not Gretchen, Tea, Bruney, or me are made up by me and have no basis in real life or those mentioned in the nickname spreadsheet or I was too lazy to add them in and stuff. Most of them won't be mentioned again, so I just made stuff up.
P.P.S.: Some of the pictures do not correspond with geographical location, most notably the ones that don't show specific geographical identities. Don't be confused if you see a similar picture elsewhere. Also, none of the pictures really belong to me, except those little people at the top. I would cite sources like I did last time, but it's a long and hard process and I'll probably do it later. For now, everything's just from Google Images, and they're even all from the first page with my keywords.
Gretchen and I had a wonderful time in the Atacama, but unfortunately, we had to leave for our next destination, Easter Island. We had booked an early morning plane, hoping to arrive on the island and explore its renowned beaches before it got too chilly. At the airport, we were met with quite a pleasant surprise!
Tea came! She bore news that Bruney would also be coming along on our next destination (after Santiago)
Nonetheless, Tea said she would be coming to Easter Island with us! So we changed our boarding passes so we could sit next to each other (in a row, yay!), and excitedly got on the plane. Well, the plane part was boring, so I won't talk much about it. I did manage to fiddle around on my laptop for a while, and I've managed to memorize a few basic UNIX commands thanks to unixkcd. (Who knew "kill" meant transporting a terminator to 1984?)
Anyway. We got off the plane in the afternoon, before sunset. This really nice guy, Mark, from one of the guest houses on the island, came up to us and asked if we needed a place to stay. We said we were looking for a hotel, and he offered to drive us there. Now, before you get all suspicious about why a perfect stranger would offer to give us a ride in his car to some presumably unknown destination, this is apparently the norm among Easter Island guest hotel guides. So we hopped into his car and arrived at our hotel a short while later.
Here's a picture of our beautiful place that we will be staying in:
Mark told us that the food in "downtown" Hanga Roa, the only major town on the island and where we were right now, was pretty good, and that we should try some of it out—of course, after we go to the beach and check out the gorgeous sunset. I was really excited, because I love, love, love sunsets. They're top on my list of things I love, along with shiny things and sparkly erasers (although Jack says that the blood-red sunset in the mountains are the most beautiful things ever, drawn from his experience living in central Minnesota).
So, of course, we had to pay a visit to the Hanga Roa port. Isn't it coincidental that Hanga Roa faces west, perfect for a sunset? Or maybe it faces west just for the sunset? I guess it's just like the chicken and the egg—we'll never know for sure.
After the sunset, which was absolutely magnificent, I declared that I was hungry, and so we decided to find something good to eat. The most famous restaurant on the island had to be Te Moana, but we had to reserve early to get seats, and in my haste and tiredness, I had completely forgotten to do so. La Taverne du Pêcheur is another good restaurant that specializes in seafood, but it's really expensive. Granted, we had an unlimited budget
Mark had told us that there were some places around town that sold cheap empanadas, and so we went around town in searching for such a place. Well, we found one, right next to a market, and those empanadas were really delicious! We were going to take a picture of one of us eating an empanada, but decided we would just share a picture of the actual thing instead.
We went back to the hotel early that night, and woke up really early the next morning (at 6:30, which is very early for me unless I had to go to school, which effectively does not exist right now). Next on our agenda: the Moai!
For those who have not been privy to the Easter Island culture, Moai are those stone face-statues scattered around Easter Island that were used to commemorate the deceased. They are placed upon stands called Ahu, and we should not step on the Ahu because that would be disrespectful towards the dead.
Most of the Moai sites around the island are free to visit, so we rented a Jeep and drove around the island along the major road, oohing and ahhing over all of the Moai. We stopped at a few of them, including the most famous Ahu Tongariki and Ahu Akivi. We reached Ahu Tongariki in the morning, and had a brunch of pescado a la parrilla (I'm sure there are accents somewhere, but since I am not familiar with Spanish, I am not sure where—also, this is grilled fish) and bread prepared by the wonderful cooking staff at the hotel.
When we were about to leave, a crowd of other tourists had arrived, preparing to eat lunch at this famed location. Good thing we were early! We (mostly Tea, who is the only one here who can drive right now) drove on in the Jeep, often staring at the ocean and its glimmering prettiness. By the time we got back to Hanga Roa, it was already late afternoon, and we were starving! I found some leftover tortilla de rescoldo in my backpack (back from Atacama), so we munched on some of that with the pebre, a sauce made with coriander, onions, olive oil, garlic, and ground peppers. It was delicious (I should find a synonym for "delicious"), but not nearly satisfying enough. So of course, we went to another restaurant and had some chanfaina (see below), this traditional soup of beef or lamb with a bunch of other things added to it. I wasn't too big on the blood, but I liked the potatoes. I like potatoes a lot.
We went back to the hotel and caught up on some rest and reading about all the things that happened to our friends back at home. I was really sleepy (since I had woken up so early), so I fell asleep first, and I have no idea what Gretchie or Tea did afterwards. But we woke up pretty early the next day, this time to go to Rano Raraku!
Rano Raraku is a crater volcano, but it's famous because most of those Moai—those things we saw the day before?—were carved from this mountain. Of course, there are tons of half-completed Moai lying around. I don't really know why.
It took us most of the day to climb up the volcano and see the crater and the island all around us and then to climb down again. Some girl who was just climbing down from the crater as we were climbing up complimented our ponchos. She was wearing a really pretty chamanto as well. Anyway, here's a picture at the top:
We had some really good ave pimienta (diced chicken meat sandwich with red peppers) for lunch, and we got back down, we had some pastel de choclo, which is similar to a shepherd's pie. You can tell that I am a huge food fan. Chilean food is absolutely mouth-watering, and I can't believe I've been missing out on so many wonderful dishes all my life.
The next day was planned to be a day of relaxation. We woke up reasonably early (at 7:30, an hour later), and went down to Anakena, which is renowned for its white sand beaches. The water was chilly at this hour, so we just sunbathed on the beach and watched some guys surf. One of the guys kept falling into the water, despite the other guys trying to help him.
After a few hours of nice relaxation on the beach, we went over to Motu Nui, where we picked up the snorkeling gear Mark had reserved for us earlier. I had never been snorkeling before, and I was kind of scared at first, but it was really fun once I got used to the whole thing.
Tea caught a lion-fish in her hands by accident, and after she let it go it would not leave her alone. It was so adorable! Which reminds me, we (Gretch and I) still have to ship Owen his alpaca, but I suppose that can wait for a while.
After a whole day around water, what better place to dine for the evening but the famed seafood place, La Taverne du Pêcheur? After all, I had promised we would come back here on our last day, and we would be departing the next day. So we all indulged ourselves with seafood. Tea ordered the ostiones a la parmesena, scallops with melted butter and grilled Parmesan cheese. Gretchie ordered the congrio frito, deep-fried conger eel, and I ordered the machas a la parmesena, similar to Tea's except mine were clams.
Here are the pictures of our dishes, respectively:
.jpg)
Sadly, we had to leave early next morning to go back to Santiago (without even a chance to visit Rano Kau, which supposedly had a beautiful view). Well, it was certainly a fun time in Easter Island, especially with Mark and the hotel crew, and none of us could wait for the next destination!
Santiago, here we come—hasta luego!
OOH*:
As I was walking into my US class today, I realized that I forgot to add a "works cited" to the end of my paper. So I told my US teacher I would hand her a new copy during lunch. I had gym/health right before lunch, and so when I walked out of class to go to the library, I saw Vincent, who was walking the opposite way to go to gym.
"Hey," I waved.
"Hi," Vincent said. "Oh, I have to ask you something."
"Okay, what is it?"
"I know you're not going, but, if you were, would you have gone to prom with me?"
Oh, uh. "Yeah, I would."
"Oh, okay."
"Are you going?" I asked him.
"No, it's right before AP week."
"Oh, right."
The two APs he's taking are in the second week, which was the same problem I have with my chem test. I have no idea who planned prom to be on May 8th, but it makes no sense at all. Unless you're not taking any APs, but I have a feeling a decent percentage the grade is taking some sort of AP test (there are so many of them, after all), so it still makes no sense. At all.
But enough of me ranting.
(I have also noticed that Vincent's hugging period is progressively growing. And to think all of this began with Amanda's hugging spree back when he was reluctant to hug people. Ahh. Life's unpredictable like that.)
*For abbreviation clarifications, see earlier posts relating to the round-the-world trip.
P.S.: All names mentioned in the trip that are not Gretchen, Tea, Bruney, or me are made up by me and have no basis in real life or those mentioned in the nickname spreadsheet or I was too lazy to add them in and stuff. Most of them won't be mentioned again, so I just made stuff up.
P.P.S.: Some of the pictures do not correspond with geographical location, most notably the ones that don't show specific geographical identities. Don't be confused if you see a similar picture elsewhere. Also, none of the pictures really belong to me, except those little people at the top. I would cite sources like I did last time, but it's a long and hard process and I'll probably do it later. For now, everything's just from Google Images, and they're even all from the first page with my keywords.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Because We Believe In Equality
This was started yesterday. Anything that mentions "this morning" or "today" means April 1st.
First of all, this post is entirely dedicated to evening out the huge discrepancy in the assignment of labels (or "libellés," as my Blogger page now displays, because I just recently converted it into French as part of an ongoing project to have everything I use be explained in French). Therefore, this page is dedicated to talking about those people who I have mentioned more than once or twice (since those that I only mention once or so I probably won't really talk about anyway, although I might) but have definitely mentioned less than ten times (effectively weeding out those two whom I shall not mention).
So, after scanning my alphabetized label list, these are the people I will blog about today (if this is necessary again, there will be a repeat of this post to some extent) in alphabetical order:
That's it, really. Any more, and Blogger won't let me label them due to the "maximum 20 labels at a time" rule. Anyway. The tidbits about these people that happened since the last time I talked about them, or whenever, really.
Camel: I think he has a jacket complex as well (first thing that popped into my mind, since nothing really interesting happened in chem today—except Mr. Coffee's friend jumping from the roof into a pool thirty feet below or crawling into a crypt and scaring people for fun). In fact, now that I think of it, a lot of the guys I know seem to have a favorite jacket that they will wear allday week long. Camel has this dark blue jacket, which is not particularly ugly (although I may not be the best judge for fashion), but after seeing it for several months in a row (maybe with the occasional AC/DC shirt in between), I may have permanently associated him with his jacket.
(He is also on my bus, and I have seen him wearing that jacket ever since before I even really knew him, so this may be another reason why.)
(Dino, whom I shall not tag because there is no space anymore, and Jack, not tagged for similar reasons, both also have a jacket they almost always wears. Argon has his sleeping-bag-like thing he carries around with him, although with the warmer weather he has now acquired a new, navy colored jacket which is a tad bit too big for him, but he'll probably grow into it. This morning, at gym, we were standing together and he commented on how he might finally be taller than me, as he always had a notion that he was shorter. We later decided it may have been because of the shoes—his heels were significantly taller, as I had been wearing really, really flat shoes.)
(And I thought this was supposed to be about Camel? Anyway. Next.)
Dora: This is also rather unrelated to Dora, but she was sitting at the table and so this story will be filed under her name. This morning, before class started, Dora and Tierra were already seated at a table in the library. I joined them, and Gretchen (who is below, I know, but there will be another story for her) and Kathrya and Tybalt (wow, this story has a lot of people in it) came as well. Kathrya commented on how her friends were more mature, because "they didn't start singing wedding songs."
Later on, Dino walked in to the library (why does everything have to always include him?), and someone said, "He walks strangely." This was met with a chorus of agreements, and Kathrya's remark, "Now where is Ginny?" before realizing that I was standing right next to her.
(I need to stop making Dino appear in this. The whole point of this was so he wouldn't be mentioned as often compared to the others.)
(I also saw Dora in English today, but we watched a movie—"Death of a Salesman"—so we didn't get to talk to each other.)
Gretchen: I don't know why Gretchen's never broken ten labels. This will probably change with the Chile trips (I'm still working on Easter Island—I really am!), but in the meantime, I will insert a link here to her blog. I'm not certain that my blog sees more traffic than hers, but in the minute event it does, we can pool them just like pooling standard deviations in a difference of means test. Except in this case, Gretch's sample size may be larger than mine, so pooled variances may not be the best bet.
Irving: I must say, I haven't seen Irving around today. Strange. Usually, I see him sauntering down the hallway (well, he doesn't really do that, but he does walk differently in a way), going to a class that's in the opposite direction of mine. Perhaps our constant existence on the third floor is a reason why I see him so much. So instead of a personal recount, I will broadcast the (probably by now commonly known) news that he got into Harvard. Wow. Well, I mean, he deserves it and everything, but that's still very, very amazing.
(Yeah. That's about it. No wonder he isn't tagged so much.)
Joss: Let's see. Joss believes that the secret to teleporting is to throw a smoke bomb and then run really, really fast. He also still needs to pay Reese (or do something else, but I'm not sure what) so Reese can teach me grammar, so I can teach him how to draw clothes. Although, if you ask me, I doubt my pictures of clothes are correct all of the time. I just add folds randomly (or in obvious places). I also don't know how well this whole exchange thing will go. Too many unknown variables, I suppose.
Mario: I don't see Mario that much lately, or maybe I still do but I no longer respond to his appearance. Well, anyway, I saw him during lunch today, along with Tea and Bryant and Boris. He seemed rather preoccupied with his SAT vocab book. Which reminds me, I should probably also study my vocab, if I wish to avoid the same fate as Bryant's. Or just cram Latin roots. Those always help.
Melissa: I didn't see Melissa today—away at a college thing or something, I believe. I still need to get a cupcake recipe from her as well. This may also be the shortest one yet, because I have not talked to Melissa in such a long time. She doesn't really go to math team anymore. Maybe that's why.
Mogley: He is weird. One of the weird guys I know (and by far not the weirdest) but definitely weird. He was attempting yet another 6x6 sudoku in English today. I asked him if he ever tried the 9x9 one (because honestly, 6x6 isn't really sudoku; it's like diluted HCl—isn't quite the same as the original), and he said that he had tried one today, but messed up. Compared to Mogley, Matt is a sudoku whiz. (The extraordinary amount of time Matt devotes to sudoku every day may be the reason though. If this keeps up, I'll begin to fail stat.)
(Also, as compensation for his horrible sudoku skills, Mogley said that he was getting better at the Jumble questions. I guess you can't have everything.)
Mrs. James: I walked into calc today just as Mrs. James said, "I really want a Snapple!" I have no idea how this whole Snapple thing started (which also reminds me of the xkcd strip on the tin apple—I'm reading too much xkcd, it's definitely not good for me).
Jay then said, "I have a Snapple in my bag."
"Really?" Mrs. James asked, all excited.
"Nope, April Fools!"
(This went on for several minutes, in which many people in the class took turns saying they had a Snapple in their bag—Scott said he had over 100 of them at home—and then saying, "April Fools!" Mrs. James retaliated by telling Jay, "Oh, I'm going to give you an A+ for the quarter—wait, April Fools!")
Mrs. MacDonald: Is conducting an experiment on the number of texts people send and receive in an average class period. It's due to begin next week, and will last an entire week. Statistically speaking (although I knew before I ever took stat), if texting in class is so prevalent, I (and Matt) will definitely be outliers. My phone doesn't allow text messages. Matt's too preoccupied by his crosswords and sudokus and Jumbles and word finds to care about texting (he also has an iPhone, which may deter texting as he can't physically touch the keys on his phone to know which letters he's typing if he placed the phone in his pocket or something).
Nyx: Said that her phone's autotexting dictionary does not have the word "zombie." This prompted Camel to say, "What if there was a zombie invasion, and only you knew about it? You have to text people, but then you'd have to type 'zombie' out, and by that time the zombie might have already attacked you!" Also, her phone doesn't have "haha" as a word either. (Tybalt should be glad he doesn't have this phone. He would be seriously crippled in his texting abilities.)
(This also reminds me, Scott is now called "Texty-Pants" in our calc class, because he tried to text under the table, and, when caught by Mrs. James, attempted to deny it.)
Owen: Will be receiving his alpaca soon. Alpacas, according to my research yesterday, likes being in groups of two or more, and around six to eight alpacas can live on one acre of land. I hope Owen's backyard is large enough, because he needs to keep at least two alpacas to ensure that his alpaca doesn't die of loneliness, and so he needs at least 1/4 of an acre of land set aside for this special, special friend (and its girlfriend, but the girlfriend would be much more expensive).
Reese: I have yet to see his shiny new laptop. Among other things, but this is the first that pops up. (Camel supposedly made Reese's old laptop crash via remote accessing, so that's why Reese needed a new one.) I've been promised that this new one is every bit as shiny as the last, except perhaps not red anymore and not the one that underwent SSSC's brutal conditions.
Stella: Is probably on another bout of "I-hate-school-ism." I haven't asked yet, but the past few times I've talked with her, she has complained about the, to quote her words, "the stupid people." She is really the opposite of many people I know. I mean, most people, regardless of what they say, at least care a little about their grades and their futures. Stella just doesn't care anymore.
We talked about our futures for some brief moment before, mostly with me asking her what she would do after high school. She didn't want to talk about it, and I agree with that sentiment. I don't know what I want to with my life after high school. I mean, I obviously want to go to a good college, but why? And which one? Whatever college I go to—that's my future path there. If I go to McGill (which is probably very likely at this point), that means I'll most likely be focusing on pre-med. If I go to UBC or, although very unlikely, Penn, I would be going down the path of economics. If I go to Waterloo (yeah right, I'll be crushed by all the crazy Canadian math geeks, since that's the school for math and science oriented people in Canada) or Cornell (again, unlikely, especially with their financial aid situation), it's probably engineering. And then there are the schools we consider mostly for their prestige—Harvard, Yale, and the rest of the Ivies along with a few other schools. Are they really that much better? We (not including me, because the probability of me getting in those places is very, very, extremely, very slim—statistically speaking), as some of the brightest among our peers, do everything we can in order to get into one of these schools, conforming to their ideals of what is a "perfect" student, just so we can bear the honor of having gone to such a school and gain the privilege of acquiring a good-paying job and the respect of others.
(God, maybe I should just go get a job to paint the Golden Gate Bridge like I've always said I should.)
(Well, there are also the good points, like learning new things with teachers who really know what they're talking about—granted I understand them.)
Tamir: I don't know why I have mentioned him so often. Really. We barely talk. Let's see. I saw Tamir in physics today, and he complained about the magnetism unit. Or maybe that was Alec. Then I saw him in English, but he didn't talk because we were watching a movie.
Yeah, boring. Next.
Tea: I also can't believe I have not talked about Tea very often in my blog. I think it's mostly because everything I know about Tea, she pretty much blog about it anyway. Well, I will insert a link here to promote her blog instead, although I'll bet she doesn't need any promotion from me because her faithful followers are much more numerous than mine. Just in case I have a lurker though.
(Also, as a note to Tea: your "about" page doesn't link to an actual about page. Mine doesn't either—all I've managed to set up was the "contact" part. I think I half started an "about me" page and then forgot about it.)
Tybalt: Just a general question out there (to those who know about it)—does Tybalt know of my, uh, hopefully-will-be-affiliation with Dino? (Once again, Dino is EVERYWHERE. I think I'm getting obsessed.) Otherwise, I have not seen him since this morning with Kathrya, and since Kathrya's story has already been told in Dora's place, I won't repeat it again.
(In his place, I will talk about Bryant, who was barely eliminated because he has exactly ten labels. Today, as I handed in my chem test corrections, I saw Bryant's "test corrections," namely his name, the title, and nothing else on it. Later on, he said that receiving a 3/3 on those test corrections actually brought his grade down. Ugh. He kind of makes me jealous sometimes.)
Vincent: I think I've pretty much covered everything about him before. I don't remember if I've seen him today. Maybe I have.
UPDATE: (from Facebook, my constant source of information) Apparently Vincent's family is moving out of state? He's currently asking if he can board at someone's house for nine months. I seriously doubt this will happen (although you never know), but I do hope he can stay. Who else will I be able to discuss plans for travelling to alternate universes via thousands of giant lasers with?
(There is always Dino—ugh, him again!—but I think he would probably even prefer owning his own alpaca over talking about lasers.)
Zephy: We went Easter egg-hunting today! Zephy's a natural at these things, as she found four or five eggs in the library alone, in under ten minutes. I have no idea why there were eggs everywhere (someone in my calc class said she knew who put them there, but wouldn't tell us). Also, this reminds me, I still need to give her back her chocolate egg, because I was carrying it in my plastic egg container since she had too much candy to fit inside hers. I was supposed to give it back, but I completely forgot about it until after we said goodbye when we got off the bus. Huh. I suppose chocolate won't go stale anytime soon.
(Hmm...)
Actually, considering how long this thing is, I probably will not ever do this again. At least not with so many people. I'll just talk about Dino and Argon less. Maybe.
First of all, this post is entirely dedicated to evening out the huge discrepancy in the assignment of labels (or "libellés," as my Blogger page now displays, because I just recently converted it into French as part of an ongoing project to have everything I use be explained in French). Therefore, this page is dedicated to talking about those people who I have mentioned more than once or twice (since those that I only mention once or so I probably won't really talk about anyway, although I might) but have definitely mentioned less than ten times (effectively weeding out those two whom I shall not mention).
So, after scanning my alphabetized label list, these are the people I will blog about today (if this is necessary again, there will be a repeat of this post to some extent) in alphabetical order:
- Camel
- Dora
- Gretchen
- Irving
- Joss
- Mario
- Melissa
- Mogley
- Mrs. James
- Mrs. MacDonald
- Nyx
- Owen
- Reese
- Stella
- Tamir
- Tea
- Tybalt
- Vincent
- Zephy
That's it, really. Any more, and Blogger won't let me label them due to the "maximum 20 labels at a time" rule. Anyway. The tidbits about these people that happened since the last time I talked about them, or whenever, really.
Camel: I think he has a jacket complex as well (first thing that popped into my mind, since nothing really interesting happened in chem today—except Mr. Coffee's friend jumping from the roof into a pool thirty feet below or crawling into a crypt and scaring people for fun). In fact, now that I think of it, a lot of the guys I know seem to have a favorite jacket that they will wear all
(He is also on my bus, and I have seen him wearing that jacket ever since before I even really knew him, so this may be another reason why.)
(Dino, whom I shall not tag because there is no space anymore, and Jack, not tagged for similar reasons, both also have a jacket they almost always wears. Argon has his sleeping-bag-like thing he carries around with him, although with the warmer weather he has now acquired a new, navy colored jacket which is a tad bit too big for him, but he'll probably grow into it. This morning, at gym, we were standing together and he commented on how he might finally be taller than me, as he always had a notion that he was shorter. We later decided it may have been because of the shoes—his heels were significantly taller, as I had been wearing really, really flat shoes.)
(And I thought this was supposed to be about Camel? Anyway. Next.)
Dora: This is also rather unrelated to Dora, but she was sitting at the table and so this story will be filed under her name. This morning, before class started, Dora and Tierra were already seated at a table in the library. I joined them, and Gretchen (who is below, I know, but there will be another story for her) and Kathrya and Tybalt (wow, this story has a lot of people in it) came as well. Kathrya commented on how her friends were more mature, because "they didn't start singing wedding songs."
Later on, Dino walked in to the library (why does everything have to always include him?), and someone said, "He walks strangely." This was met with a chorus of agreements, and Kathrya's remark, "Now where is Ginny?" before realizing that I was standing right next to her.
(I need to stop making Dino appear in this. The whole point of this was so he wouldn't be mentioned as often compared to the others.)
(I also saw Dora in English today, but we watched a movie—"Death of a Salesman"—so we didn't get to talk to each other.)
Gretchen: I don't know why Gretchen's never broken ten labels. This will probably change with the Chile trips (I'm still working on Easter Island—I really am!), but in the meantime, I will insert a link here to her blog. I'm not certain that my blog sees more traffic than hers, but in the minute event it does, we can pool them just like pooling standard deviations in a difference of means test. Except in this case, Gretch's sample size may be larger than mine, so pooled variances may not be the best bet.
Irving: I must say, I haven't seen Irving around today. Strange. Usually, I see him sauntering down the hallway (well, he doesn't really do that, but he does walk differently in a way), going to a class that's in the opposite direction of mine. Perhaps our constant existence on the third floor is a reason why I see him so much. So instead of a personal recount, I will broadcast the (probably by now commonly known) news that he got into Harvard. Wow. Well, I mean, he deserves it and everything, but that's still very, very amazing.
(Yeah. That's about it. No wonder he isn't tagged so much.)
Joss: Let's see. Joss believes that the secret to teleporting is to throw a smoke bomb and then run really, really fast. He also still needs to pay Reese (or do something else, but I'm not sure what) so Reese can teach me grammar, so I can teach him how to draw clothes. Although, if you ask me, I doubt my pictures of clothes are correct all of the time. I just add folds randomly (or in obvious places). I also don't know how well this whole exchange thing will go. Too many unknown variables, I suppose.
Mario: I don't see Mario that much lately, or maybe I still do but I no longer respond to his appearance. Well, anyway, I saw him during lunch today, along with Tea and Bryant and Boris. He seemed rather preoccupied with his SAT vocab book. Which reminds me, I should probably also study my vocab, if I wish to avoid the same fate as Bryant's. Or just cram Latin roots. Those always help.
Melissa: I didn't see Melissa today—away at a college thing or something, I believe. I still need to get a cupcake recipe from her as well. This may also be the shortest one yet, because I have not talked to Melissa in such a long time. She doesn't really go to math team anymore. Maybe that's why.
Mogley: He is weird. One of the weird guys I know (and by far not the weirdest) but definitely weird. He was attempting yet another 6x6 sudoku in English today. I asked him if he ever tried the 9x9 one (because honestly, 6x6 isn't really sudoku; it's like diluted HCl—isn't quite the same as the original), and he said that he had tried one today, but messed up. Compared to Mogley, Matt is a sudoku whiz. (The extraordinary amount of time Matt devotes to sudoku every day may be the reason though. If this keeps up, I'll begin to fail stat.)
(Also, as compensation for his horrible sudoku skills, Mogley said that he was getting better at the Jumble questions. I guess you can't have everything.)
Mrs. James: I walked into calc today just as Mrs. James said, "I really want a Snapple!" I have no idea how this whole Snapple thing started (which also reminds me of the xkcd strip on the tin apple—I'm reading too much xkcd, it's definitely not good for me).
Jay then said, "I have a Snapple in my bag."
"Really?" Mrs. James asked, all excited.
"Nope, April Fools!"
(This went on for several minutes, in which many people in the class took turns saying they had a Snapple in their bag—Scott said he had over 100 of them at home—and then saying, "April Fools!" Mrs. James retaliated by telling Jay, "Oh, I'm going to give you an A+ for the quarter—wait, April Fools!")
Mrs. MacDonald: Is conducting an experiment on the number of texts people send and receive in an average class period. It's due to begin next week, and will last an entire week. Statistically speaking (although I knew before I ever took stat), if texting in class is so prevalent, I (and Matt) will definitely be outliers. My phone doesn't allow text messages. Matt's too preoccupied by his crosswords and sudokus and Jumbles and word finds to care about texting (he also has an iPhone, which may deter texting as he can't physically touch the keys on his phone to know which letters he's typing if he placed the phone in his pocket or something).
Nyx: Said that her phone's autotexting dictionary does not have the word "zombie." This prompted Camel to say, "What if there was a zombie invasion, and only you knew about it? You have to text people, but then you'd have to type 'zombie' out, and by that time the zombie might have already attacked you!" Also, her phone doesn't have "haha" as a word either. (Tybalt should be glad he doesn't have this phone. He would be seriously crippled in his texting abilities.)
(This also reminds me, Scott is now called "Texty-Pants" in our calc class, because he tried to text under the table, and, when caught by Mrs. James, attempted to deny it.)
Owen: Will be receiving his alpaca soon. Alpacas, according to my research yesterday, likes being in groups of two or more, and around six to eight alpacas can live on one acre of land. I hope Owen's backyard is large enough, because he needs to keep at least two alpacas to ensure that his alpaca doesn't die of loneliness, and so he needs at least 1/4 of an acre of land set aside for this special, special friend (and its girlfriend, but the girlfriend would be much more expensive).
Reese: I have yet to see his shiny new laptop. Among other things, but this is the first that pops up. (Camel supposedly made Reese's old laptop crash via remote accessing, so that's why Reese needed a new one.) I've been promised that this new one is every bit as shiny as the last, except perhaps not red anymore and not the one that underwent SSSC's brutal conditions.
Stella: Is probably on another bout of "I-hate-school-ism." I haven't asked yet, but the past few times I've talked with her, she has complained about the, to quote her words, "the stupid people." She is really the opposite of many people I know. I mean, most people, regardless of what they say, at least care a little about their grades and their futures. Stella just doesn't care anymore.
We talked about our futures for some brief moment before, mostly with me asking her what she would do after high school. She didn't want to talk about it, and I agree with that sentiment. I don't know what I want to with my life after high school. I mean, I obviously want to go to a good college, but why? And which one? Whatever college I go to—that's my future path there. If I go to McGill (which is probably very likely at this point), that means I'll most likely be focusing on pre-med. If I go to UBC or, although very unlikely, Penn, I would be going down the path of economics. If I go to Waterloo (yeah right, I'll be crushed by all the crazy Canadian math geeks, since that's the school for math and science oriented people in Canada) or Cornell (again, unlikely, especially with their financial aid situation), it's probably engineering. And then there are the schools we consider mostly for their prestige—Harvard, Yale, and the rest of the Ivies along with a few other schools. Are they really that much better? We (not including me, because the probability of me getting in those places is very, very, extremely, very slim—statistically speaking), as some of the brightest among our peers, do everything we can in order to get into one of these schools, conforming to their ideals of what is a "perfect" student, just so we can bear the honor of having gone to such a school and gain the privilege of acquiring a good-paying job and the respect of others.
(God, maybe I should just go get a job to paint the Golden Gate Bridge like I've always said I should.)
(Well, there are also the good points, like learning new things with teachers who really know what they're talking about—granted I understand them.)
Tamir: I don't know why I have mentioned him so often. Really. We barely talk. Let's see. I saw Tamir in physics today, and he complained about the magnetism unit. Or maybe that was Alec. Then I saw him in English, but he didn't talk because we were watching a movie.
Yeah, boring. Next.
Tea: I also can't believe I have not talked about Tea very often in my blog. I think it's mostly because everything I know about Tea, she pretty much blog about it anyway. Well, I will insert a link here to promote her blog instead, although I'll bet she doesn't need any promotion from me because her faithful followers are much more numerous than mine. Just in case I have a lurker though.
(Also, as a note to Tea: your "about" page doesn't link to an actual about page. Mine doesn't either—all I've managed to set up was the "contact" part. I think I half started an "about me" page and then forgot about it.)
Tybalt: Just a general question out there (to those who know about it)—does Tybalt know of my, uh, hopefully-will-be-affiliation with Dino? (Once again, Dino is EVERYWHERE. I think I'm getting obsessed.) Otherwise, I have not seen him since this morning with Kathrya, and since Kathrya's story has already been told in Dora's place, I won't repeat it again.
(In his place, I will talk about Bryant, who was barely eliminated because he has exactly ten labels. Today, as I handed in my chem test corrections, I saw Bryant's "test corrections," namely his name, the title, and nothing else on it. Later on, he said that receiving a 3/3 on those test corrections actually brought his grade down. Ugh. He kind of makes me jealous sometimes.)
Vincent: I think I've pretty much covered everything about him before. I don't remember if I've seen him today. Maybe I have.
UPDATE: (from Facebook, my constant source of information) Apparently Vincent's family is moving out of state? He's currently asking if he can board at someone's house for nine months. I seriously doubt this will happen (although you never know), but I do hope he can stay. Who else will I be able to discuss plans for travelling to alternate universes via thousands of giant lasers with?
(There is always Dino—ugh, him again!—but I think he would probably even prefer owning his own alpaca over talking about lasers.)
Zephy: We went Easter egg-hunting today! Zephy's a natural at these things, as she found four or five eggs in the library alone, in under ten minutes. I have no idea why there were eggs everywhere (someone in my calc class said she knew who put them there, but wouldn't tell us). Also, this reminds me, I still need to give her back her chocolate egg, because I was carrying it in my plastic egg container since she had too much candy to fit inside hers. I was supposed to give it back, but I completely forgot about it until after we said goodbye when we got off the bus. Huh. I suppose chocolate won't go stale anytime soon.
(Hmm...)
Actually, considering how long this thing is, I probably will not ever do this again. At least not with so many people. I'll just talk about Dino and Argon less. Maybe.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
It Takes Two To Love
Today, for English, we had to bring in an image of what we thought represented success. I (partly inspired by Tea), chose a scene from xkcd, and said that it represented how success meant something different for everyone, regardless of what the "norm" dictated.
Of course, I said it in a way more choppier way, probably because when I usually write things, I jump from one thing to another, so I do not have a clear, cohesive string of consciousness. I wonder what it would be like if I could put my thoughts into a pensieve? I don't know if anyone would be able to successfully navigate my memories.
Anyway, onto more choppy thoughts, I had gym during the lunch period today. Since everyone gets out early for gym (except those stuck in health or swimming or Argon, who changes really fast when he's going to gym but really slow when he's coming out), Nyx and Dora and Tierra were still in the cafeteria by the time I got there.
The three of them giggled when I arrived. When prodded why, Dora said, "Oh, we were just talking about you."
"About what?"
"Prom," Nyx said. "And who you're going to go with."
"It'll be really sweet if you go with Vincent."
I was about to say something along the lines of, no, I'm not so sure about that idea, when Vincent came by and said hi.
"Oooh," Tierra—or someone else, I couldn't quite tell—said. "Vincent, ask Ginny to go with you to prom!"
That was rather, uh, straightforward and to the point. Vincent looked really confused. I didn't blame him.
"Come on, ask her!"
After much persuasion, Vincent finally conceded. "Okay. Will you go to prom with me?"
There was a small cheer at the table, punctuated with Vincent's remark, "So, what is this prom thing?"
That could be quite an issue. The topic slowly dissolved as Vincent had to go and the discussion diverged towards who Dora should go with—with a random remark of "Ginny shouldn't go with Dino" inserted somewhere and Tierra's question of "I don't know this Dino guy. I just know that everyone doesn't like him (this statement is obviously not true)." After the three of them left, Tea came, and we went on discussing this prom "problem" while lamenting (this is one of my favorite words of the week, it seems) that no one will actually ask us out. (Vincent doesn't count. He was confuzzled into agreeing, and I still don't know if he comprehends the extent of what prom means, although I do know that he would hate it.)
So here, as a cheer-us-upper (since the laws of the Internet and Nephria decree that anything is possible), I will confidently proclaim that there will be tons of guys who will ask both of us (and everyone else who belongs to our possibly date-less group) to prom, and they will have to wait in line and hand us résumés and have us closely inspect their possible behavior before we decide who we want to go with. Or, to make life easier, the guys that we want to ask us will do so, and we'll skip the whole "application" part of the process and choose directly.
Anything's possible.
(Except "forcing Dino into the corner on the third floor where there are no tables and making him ask me to prom with various suspicious methods" is not an option, ever. Even in Nephria.)
However, since I accidentally spilled my bag at the end of lunch, I was late to calc. Mrs. James was about to ask me a question (that I most likely would not have known the answer to because I haven't reviewed any of the material yet in lieu of math packets and general procrastination), but Jay saved me by blurting out the answer per usual. As I approached my seat, Dino said, "I don't trust Ginny," and waved to me. Calc itself went by pretty fast, with relatively few "butt-jokes" compared to yesterday. This unit is going pretty well so far, I must say. I'm surprised. (Of course, all of these formulas could pose a huge problem, as I can't remember formulas. It's sad.)
After class, I asked Dino if he was going to take AIME tomorrow. He said no, and Sonny mistook it for ARML.
"Wait," he said. "So you were the only one representing our school and you didn't make it?"
"No," Dino said. "It's something else. And no, I'm not taking it. Don't worry about it."
The last remark comes from me asking if he had gotten his test rescored. I have no idea why he thinks I'm "worrying" about it, but it has been previously proven that he is strange, and therefore I am allowed to be puzzled.
By this time, we had reached my stat classroom, so we said goodbye and he strutted on in his strange hands-holding-the-backpack-straps pose towards what I predicted (correctly) was gym. After stat (because stat was kind of boring and we just got our tests back and fiddled with the calculator), I stood outside the math team classroom as I always do, because it's across the hall from my stat classroom and I usually just wait for the people in the classroom to leave and then go in.
This time, Dino was already there by the time everyone inside had left. He went in first, and took a seat and sat down and did nothing. Really. Nothing at all. After I put my bag down, went outside, waved to Gretchie, and turned back, I saw him barely out the door, looking at us (or Irving down the hall, but I'd like to say that it was us) before scooting back into the classroom.
But that's enough musing for the day. I have to do all the other stuff I have to do (like practice mock questions for AIME and generally doing homework, perhaps), so go over to Gretchie's post for our next several days in Chile! (I am still working on shipping a llama back home. It will happen. One day.)
Of course, I said it in a way more choppier way, probably because when I usually write things, I jump from one thing to another, so I do not have a clear, cohesive string of consciousness. I wonder what it would be like if I could put my thoughts into a pensieve? I don't know if anyone would be able to successfully navigate my memories.
Anyway, onto more choppy thoughts, I had gym during the lunch period today. Since everyone gets out early for gym (except those stuck in health or swimming or Argon, who changes really fast when he's going to gym but really slow when he's coming out), Nyx and Dora and Tierra were still in the cafeteria by the time I got there.
The three of them giggled when I arrived. When prodded why, Dora said, "Oh, we were just talking about you."
"About what?"
"Prom," Nyx said. "And who you're going to go with."
"It'll be really sweet if you go with Vincent."
I was about to say something along the lines of, no, I'm not so sure about that idea, when Vincent came by and said hi.
"Oooh," Tierra—or someone else, I couldn't quite tell—said. "Vincent, ask Ginny to go with you to prom!"
That was rather, uh, straightforward and to the point. Vincent looked really confused. I didn't blame him.
"Come on, ask her!"
After much persuasion, Vincent finally conceded. "Okay. Will you go to prom with me?"
There was a small cheer at the table, punctuated with Vincent's remark, "So, what is this prom thing?"
That could be quite an issue. The topic slowly dissolved as Vincent had to go and the discussion diverged towards who Dora should go with—with a random remark of "Ginny shouldn't go with Dino" inserted somewhere and Tierra's question of "I don't know this Dino guy. I just know that everyone doesn't like him (this statement is obviously not true)." After the three of them left, Tea came, and we went on discussing this prom "problem" while lamenting (this is one of my favorite words of the week, it seems) that no one will actually ask us out. (Vincent doesn't count. He was confuzzled into agreeing, and I still don't know if he comprehends the extent of what prom means, although I do know that he would hate it.)
So here, as a cheer-us-upper (since the laws of the Internet and Nephria decree that anything is possible), I will confidently proclaim that there will be tons of guys who will ask both of us (and everyone else who belongs to our possibly date-less group) to prom, and they will have to wait in line and hand us résumés and have us closely inspect their possible behavior before we decide who we want to go with. Or, to make life easier, the guys that we want to ask us will do so, and we'll skip the whole "application" part of the process and choose directly.
Anything's possible.
(Except "forcing Dino into the corner on the third floor where there are no tables and making him ask me to prom with various suspicious methods" is not an option, ever. Even in Nephria.)
However, since I accidentally spilled my bag at the end of lunch, I was late to calc. Mrs. James was about to ask me a question (that I most likely would not have known the answer to because I haven't reviewed any of the material yet in lieu of math packets and general procrastination), but Jay saved me by blurting out the answer per usual. As I approached my seat, Dino said, "I don't trust Ginny," and waved to me. Calc itself went by pretty fast, with relatively few "butt-jokes" compared to yesterday. This unit is going pretty well so far, I must say. I'm surprised. (Of course, all of these formulas could pose a huge problem, as I can't remember formulas. It's sad.)
After class, I asked Dino if he was going to take AIME tomorrow. He said no, and Sonny mistook it for ARML.
"Wait," he said. "So you were the only one representing our school and you didn't make it?"
"No," Dino said. "It's something else. And no, I'm not taking it. Don't worry about it."
The last remark comes from me asking if he had gotten his test rescored. I have no idea why he thinks I'm "worrying" about it, but it has been previously proven that he is strange, and therefore I am allowed to be puzzled.
By this time, we had reached my stat classroom, so we said goodbye and he strutted on in his strange hands-holding-the-backpack-straps pose towards what I predicted (correctly) was gym. After stat (because stat was kind of boring and we just got our tests back and fiddled with the calculator), I stood outside the math team classroom as I always do, because it's across the hall from my stat classroom and I usually just wait for the people in the classroom to leave and then go in.
This time, Dino was already there by the time everyone inside had left. He went in first, and took a seat and sat down and did nothing. Really. Nothing at all. After I put my bag down, went outside, waved to Gretchie, and turned back, I saw him barely out the door, looking at us (or Irving down the hall, but I'd like to say that it was us) before scooting back into the classroom.
But that's enough musing for the day. I have to do all the other stuff I have to do (like practice mock questions for AIME and generally doing homework, perhaps), so go over to Gretchie's post for our next several days in Chile! (I am still working on shipping a llama back home. It will happen. One day.)
Friday, March 5, 2010
Things Aren't Always What They Seem
So, why does everyone seem to think that I am dating Vincent? (And yes, I am applying the "two people equates everyone" rule here.) I mean, yes, we're together a lot, and perhaps we have an over-propensity for hugging each other, but it's not any more than he hugs Amanda, and unless we have a polygamy relationship going on that I am not aware of, I really don't think I give off "dating" vibes.
Not that I would know what those are.
Anyway, in English class today, our desks were arranged weirdly due to tests, so we chose our own seats. Dora came over, sat in the desk next to mine, and turned to whisper to me,
"Are you and Vincent dating?"
Almost as awkward as when Argon asked me, "Are you in love with me?" Which was a huge miscommunication, probably on my part, as I drew a picture of a caged heart (because I really like to draw hearts and I got tired of drawing them with wings), and gave it to him after class one day.
Bryant was behind us at the time (hopefully a safe distance away). He didn't say anything, and I do hope he did not hear anything. I wasn't particularly articulate at the time.
Regardless, in an attempt to rebuff the whole I'm-dating-Vincent rumors, because they are utterly not true, I told her, "I like someone else anyway."
Okay, perhaps that was the wrong way to end this discussion, as it had an adverse effect.
"Really? Who is it?"
After seeing that I would not tell her straight out (because, really, I never do), she tried at guessing by asking questions.
"Is he in our grade? How tall is he? Is he skinny?"
Not that it matters anyway, sincehe'll probably never like me back well, it just won't matter. I like keeping my secrets at times. Although, keeping them for too long does get quite tiring and troublesome, as I've decided lately.
So I indulged a little. He's in our grade, he's taller than me (as most guys are, it seems, big shock there), and he's not skinny, I don't think. I think that cuts down 85% of the guys at our school.
He is also smart, as Dora figured out. Why this automatically makes Bryant the first choice, I do not know. Okay, okay, I do know. Still.
But he's eliminated in the "he's not skinny" round anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter either.
(I drew a picture of Bryant in physics yesterday, and showed it to Nyx and Camel, and they said that he was still not skinny enough, despite the near stick-like arms I drew on him. But he's on track, not wrestling, so he should fare fine in life.)
Luckily (for me), the bell rang at that time, so I did not have to divulge too much information. I stammered my way through the last question ("what color is his hair?"), and went to get my stat and calc book for Moody's on Sunday. I saw Tea in the hallway, talking with Angela, I think, about something.
"--they really ate it?" Tea was saying.
"Yeah, why? Should they not have?"
After much confusion and lots of explaining from Tea, I finally managed to piece together a coherent sentence. Treeburg actually ate my pudding!
And they actually said it tasted decent. I feel like I should flaunt this in Owen's face, as he was so unsupportive of my pudding. Although, I'm not sure if this will become a "Treeburg has weird tastes" evidence. Because, uh, it was butterscotch. A huge plate full of wobbling, brownish butterscotch pudding.
I wouldn't eat it unless my life depended upon it.
As Tea and I walked out, I saw Vincent again. We talked for a bit, and then as we approached his bus, we hugged again. Now that I think of it, he is a) in our grade, b) taller than me, and c) relatively not skinny, as compared to the likes of Bryant and such. But he's ruled out in the hair color round.
Life's coincidental like that, I suppose. My story of how Dino's apparently attached to fuzzy, grey baby bunnies pales in comparison.
Not that I would know what those are.
Anyway, in English class today, our desks were arranged weirdly due to tests, so we chose our own seats. Dora came over, sat in the desk next to mine, and turned to whisper to me,
"Are you and Vincent dating?"
Almost as awkward as when Argon asked me, "Are you in love with me?" Which was a huge miscommunication, probably on my part, as I drew a picture of a caged heart (because I really like to draw hearts and I got tired of drawing them with wings), and gave it to him after class one day.
Bryant was behind us at the time (hopefully a safe distance away). He didn't say anything, and I do hope he did not hear anything. I wasn't particularly articulate at the time.
Regardless, in an attempt to rebuff the whole I'm-dating-Vincent rumors, because they are utterly not true, I told her, "I like someone else anyway."
Okay, perhaps that was the wrong way to end this discussion, as it had an adverse effect.
"Really? Who is it?"
After seeing that I would not tell her straight out (because, really, I never do), she tried at guessing by asking questions.
"Is he in our grade? How tall is he? Is he skinny?"
Not that it matters anyway, since
So I indulged a little. He's in our grade, he's taller than me (as most guys are, it seems, big shock there), and he's not skinny, I don't think. I think that cuts down 85% of the guys at our school.
He is also smart, as Dora figured out. Why this automatically makes Bryant the first choice, I do not know. Okay, okay, I do know. Still.
But he's eliminated in the "he's not skinny" round anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter either.
(I drew a picture of Bryant in physics yesterday, and showed it to Nyx and Camel, and they said that he was still not skinny enough, despite the near stick-like arms I drew on him. But he's on track, not wrestling, so he should fare fine in life.)
Luckily (for me), the bell rang at that time, so I did not have to divulge too much information. I stammered my way through the last question ("what color is his hair?"), and went to get my stat and calc book for Moody's on Sunday. I saw Tea in the hallway, talking with Angela, I think, about something.
"--they really ate it?" Tea was saying.
"Yeah, why? Should they not have?"
After much confusion and lots of explaining from Tea, I finally managed to piece together a coherent sentence. Treeburg actually ate my pudding!
And they actually said it tasted decent. I feel like I should flaunt this in Owen's face, as he was so unsupportive of my pudding. Although, I'm not sure if this will become a "Treeburg has weird tastes" evidence. Because, uh, it was butterscotch. A huge plate full of wobbling, brownish butterscotch pudding.
I wouldn't eat it unless my life depended upon it.
As Tea and I walked out, I saw Vincent again. We talked for a bit, and then as we approached his bus, we hugged again. Now that I think of it, he is a) in our grade, b) taller than me, and c) relatively not skinny, as compared to the likes of Bryant and such. But he's ruled out in the hair color round.
Life's coincidental like that, I suppose. My story of how Dino's apparently attached to fuzzy, grey baby bunnies pales in comparison.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
So I'm Lazy and I've Got Lots of Work...
Therefore, I find it perfectly logically (acceptable or not is up to you to decide) to replace actual content with copied and pasted things. Such as my half-finished story for a writing contest on this forum thing. It's a story about... romance, and albeit my very limited knowledge into this field, I decided to give it a try.
And also, I asked Dino whether entropy was reversible and if he had any large lasers at his house. His answer to the first question was, "On the planetary scale, of course it's not possible." And his answer to the second question was, "Is this a serious question?" To which I replied, "Yes, it is."
And he said no.
Alas, my grand scheme to go back in time so I would have more time to write my research paper, and, in general, other homework assignments as well, will thus be slightly delayed. Not by much, though. I'm sure Vincent always has a way.
If he can solve cryptic crosswords, then he can do anything.
(Click here for the short story that inspired part of my questions.)
And, there is my story, or, the first part of it, as I have written it.
When I first looked into your eyes, I thought you had the bluest eyes I had ever seen.
And maybe had I done something, there would be no more story to tell.
"Hello," I said, trying to fill in the silence.
I paid no heed to those words at the time, but perhaps that was the turning point of this story. I had my choices laid out in front of me, two separate roads leading down unforeseeable worlds, and I made a decision. Did I make the right choice? I do not know. But I do know that things could have turned out so differently, and so easily.
And also, I asked Dino whether entropy was reversible and if he had any large lasers at his house. His answer to the first question was, "On the planetary scale, of course it's not possible." And his answer to the second question was, "Is this a serious question?" To which I replied, "Yes, it is."
And he said no.
Alas, my grand scheme to go back in time so I would have more time to write my research paper, and, in general, other homework assignments as well, will thus be slightly delayed. Not by much, though. I'm sure Vincent always has a way.
If he can solve cryptic crosswords, then he can do anything.
(Click here for the short story that inspired part of my questions.)
And, there is my story, or, the first part of it, as I have written it.
I love you, maybe.
Dedicated to my favorites: Dray, Allison, Prescott, and *name crossed out due to relevance to reality*
Heaven has always hated me. I am not lying. Every time something good happens, Heaven always takes it away from me. Every time I want to cry, Heaven makes sure only the brightest sunshine falls on my head.
I want to make this perfect for you, because you only get one chance at it, you know? No rewind button. No undo key combo. We all have only this once chance, and I want to make it worthy of you. But Heaven hates me, and I can't call forth the rain I want.
So this will have to do.
Forgive me.
When I first looked into your eyes, I thought you had the bluest eyes I had ever seen.
You were a foreigner. Blue eyes, blond hair, pale skin, all that cliché. The older kids told the younger ones that you were a monster out to get them at night. A vampire. A ghost, perhaps. They said the bluer your eyes, the greater the number of lives you had taken. I remember the first time we met, down by the bus station between Lily Road and North Avenue. I had missed my ride again, the fourth time that week, and my mother refused to pay for a caddy anymore. So I trudged to a stop in front of the orange metal pole that marked the bus station from the street, and waited.
You were already there, your clothes perfectly groomed and so out of place. Your face was so pale it made us look dirty. You smiled at me, out of habit more than out of friendliness. I smiled back, just as uncomfortable with the situation as you were.
I said hello, in an heavily accented English that I was sure you were laughing at on the inside.
You replied in perfect Chinese. "Hello. How are you?"
"I'm fine. How are you?"
The bus came at that moment, and you smiled again, apologetically. We both hurried on the bus, and amidst the crowd, I lost sight of you. But that question had been haunting me ever since I had asked it. How were you that morning? Were you really happy, oblivious to the whispers behind your back?
Had the bus not come that moment, and had you answered, would everything have been different?
I did not see you again until two years later, when we were assigned to the same class at the beginning of high school.
You had changed by then. Your face had a harder edge to it, and your voice deeper. You had a nonchalant aura. But your eyes were still the same blue, if only colder. If I had thought I could drown myself in your eyes before, then now I felt as if I could lock myself in the icy palace you built with your eyes and never want to come out again.
I wanted to say something to you, but you were distracted by a group of boys. They were pointing at you and whispering something in traditional Shanghainese, something even I did not understand, despite living my entire life near Shanghai.
One of the boys spoke in Mandarin. "Wei, you! Sheep-hair! Come over here."
You barely granted them a passing glance before occupying yourself with a silver chain you had. The boy who spoke to you started shouting again.
"Hey, I'm talking to you! Answer me, you bastard!"
I should have gone up to them and told them to leave you alone. I should have reported them to a teacher. I should have said something, anything. In hindsight, I should have done so much.
And maybe had I done something, there would be no more story to tell.
The tutoring thing was more of a fluke than anything else. I had been sitting under the tree in the courtyard, sketching the school, when Ms. Ling walked over and asked me if I was free every Wednesday afternoon.
"I see you here all the time," she explained, "doing nothing at all."
I am doing something. I am drawing. "Of course I'm free. Why? Is there something you need?"
"Well, you see, I have a student who is not quite grasping the curriculum, and I simply don't have the time to help him myself. You're doing fairly well with your grades, so I wanted to ask you a favor."
"You want me to tutor him?"
"Yes, is that possible?"
There were a thousand ways this could go wrong, I wanted to say. A thousand and one. But instead, I said, "What subjects would I be responsible for, and for how long?"
"Chinese, and math. I don't think English is necessary. You will only be helping him with one subject a session, with each session being two hours long. Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, if that works for you? I will tell him about our plans. You two can meet at the school study hall."
"Okay," I said. Had I been more alert, and less upset, perhaps I would have seen the warning signs and bowed out despite my cowardliness.
When I stared into your eyes again, they were still the bluest eyes I had ever seen, but somehow they appeared duller than what I was accustomed to. Was it merely my dreams that catapulted your reality into a form of perfection that was never real? I smiled weakly, the first time I had ever smiled to you since our first encounter, but you did not return the gesture. You saw me in the same way you saw everyone else, defiant, but hopelessly lost.
None of us realized the lost part, however. We just saw your defiance and assumed the rest.
"Hello," I said, trying to fill in the silence.
"Hello. How are you?"
You were polite, too polite. It chilled me more than any harsh words could. I grabbed a chair next to you and sat down. You had your notebook open, on the first page, clean and fresh and so unreal. There was one line of text at the top, scribbled in a flowery font that was evidently not yours.
Be good.
I paid no heed to those words at the time, but perhaps that was the turning point of this story. I had my choices laid out in front of me, two separate roads leading down unforeseeable worlds, and I made a decision. Did I make the right choice? I do not know. But I do know that things could have turned out so differently, and so easily.
