Hi, everyone! Sorry for the long absence. I will TRY to update every day, like a normal blogger would! Or, it might be weekly, or every other day, depending on my homework load. Speaking of homework, I want to tell you guys about the comedy of errors that was today.
First, I go to my English class with the project I had rushed to finish the night before (I know, procrastination at its finest) only to gather form observing my classmates' projects that I had misunderstood the instructions and had done the project wrong! I got an extension, luckily.
Next, I was in the school library for the hour I serve as an aide, where one of my jobs is putting laminate covers on the dust jackets of new arrivals. I tried to tear of a piece of book tape from the dispenser, and nicked my finger. Sighing, I told my teacher about it, and I got a bandage. I went back to covering books, reached for the book tape, and nicked another finger! ARG!!! Another bandage. Oh well. At least I got to see the new books and check them out before anyone else did :D
In my next class, I was fiddling with my bandages. I looked under them, and it looked like the bleeding had stopped, so I took them off. Little did I know, the next hour, when I was trying to write notes, my grip on the pencil caused the pencil to press against the cuts, which were sore!
I rather enjoyed the error that happened at lunch.I checked in with some friends, and we planned to meet back in the same room we were in to have lunch. Instead of leaving my bag and books there, I took them with me, just out of habit, not realizing until I had already started out.
So, I go through the lunch line, grab some food that you can get without needing a tray, and check out. Only then do I realize... Wait. my hands are full of food. How am I going to pick up my back pack? I juggled things a little bit, and managed to pick up my backpack. As I was walking down the hall, I was careful to walk slowly as to lessen the risk of dropping anything. That's when it happened.
This guy I like saw me struggling, and asked where I was going. I told him, and he offered to at least carry my books!! So, if nothing else, I involuntarily brought my backpack with me to the cafeteria to have an excuse for a cute boy to carry my books and walk with me for a bit :).
Then came the jokes of the day. Well, only one of them was joked about to my face, but I imagine that the other will be too, before long. The first happened in history class. My teacher asked someone to describe horizontal integration. I raised my hand. "It's like," I started "If there was a locally owned tire shop, say, Joe's Tires, and Firestone bought it. It's like that."
My teacher said that it was a good example, since horizontal integration is a big company buying smaller, similar businesses, but my classmates began to laugh. I couldn't imagine what they were laughing at, until my teacher later noticed a girl laughing about something different, and asked her what was so funny. This dude said "I'm still laughing about 'Joe's Tires,' that was just perfect."
I was glad to find out that the girl had been laughing about something else, or I might have melted into a puddle under the table. I was just trying to come up with a generic name for the example! Luckily, the period ended soon, and I headed to French. We were grading a paper, and I wondered what time it was (my teacher covers the clock in our classroom because she thinks it's an insult to count down the minutes until class is over), and reached for my phone. My hand met air when it went into the pocket of my bag where I kept my phone.
I dug around, but still couldn't find my phone. I looked around my seat to see if it had maybe fallen out, but no luck. My teacher let me go look for it. I went to my previous class, then the class I had eaten lunch in (where, when trying to call my phone to see if someone had picked it up, I accidentally called another high school) and the school office, to no avail. The final bell of the day rang, and I resigned myself to looking more tomorrow.
As I was heading back to French Class to get my things, a friend of mine said, "Your phone's in the room."
Apparently, my phone was under the paper we had been grading... This was discovered when it vibrated when I called it. My classmates noticed, "Uh, the table's moving." Embarrassed, I grabbed my things, and left, humorously embarrassed.
I can sort of laugh at these things now, so that's why I can talk about them. I bet I'll barely remember them come a week, or maybe even come tomorrow (wouldn't surprise me, since I have my bi-monthly appointment with my psychiatrist in the morning). And, if you can't laugh at yourself once in a while, who can you laugh at?
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Saturday, June 14, 2014
The Fault in Our Stars
Since my dad had some guy friends over today, my mom and I took the opportunity to have a girls' night. And what better to do on a girls' night, than to watch a chick flick?
My mom and I saw The Fault in Our Stars. It's about this girl with cancer who meets a boy supposedly in remission and falls in love. It was so much fun! It may be anti-girl of me to say, but I did not cry at all. I mean I was sad, or at least tried to be, but no water works came.
Here's my theory on why: the sad climax of the movie is maybe the last five to ten minutes of the movie. The rest of it is the cocky, hilarious guy, who isn't afraid to love a walking time bomb, and a girl who knows she's going to die, but ignores that fact because she's in love. What is not enjoyable about that? I was too happy by the end to be sad.
And another thing: I think this story has been mis-interpreted. It supposedly is supposed to be a chick flick movie to eliminate the illusion that life is like it is in chick flicks, all happy and lovey dovey, and in a way, it succeeds. There is no doubt that you are kidding yourself if you believe that life is a chick flick, and everyone lives happily ever after, walking into the sunset with a sappy song in the background. I have learned that the hard way this year, as some of you may know.
But this movie also tries to go away from that. It focuses on pain sometimes: "Pain demands to be felt." And it does. And, just as Gus pointed out that we get to choose who we let hurt us, we can also choose how we react to pain. We can choose to completely shut down, which I almost thought the heartbroken character would do at the end, and which I have almost chosen, and we can also choose to do something with it, like Hazel's parents.
Instead of staying in their house and staring at walls, if Hazel died, they had decided instead to be counselors to other parents of kids with cancer, to help them through the same pain that they experienced. That seems pretty cool to me, and a lot more productive than dwelling on your loss.
Something else I learned from this movie, and from my experiences this past year, is about pain itself. Sure, most of the time pain is the body's reaction to harm. But, I think of it a little differently now. Pain can also be a form of love, or an indication of it. If you feel pain when someone dies, it means you care about them. It does mean you're sad that someone's gone, but that is only because you are remembering all the happy times you had with them. If you didn't love the person who died, you wouldn't feel anything. It would just be another obituary in the paper that you skip over.
A lot of people suppress pain, to keep themselves from looking weak, or to spare others. I think that is the worst possible thing. While one of those reasons is selfless, the other is selfish, and denying yourself in the process. No one can help you if they don't know you hurt. They might even take your emotionlessness as not caring, and their perception of you could change. Also, pain, emotional or physical, only gets worse when not helped.
It's best to let out pain, and give up your pride. Once you get the pain out, what's left but the joy you had with the person you miss?
I don't think the fault is in our stars. The fault is in us. We deny ourselves and only hurt ourselves more, like this cardinal in the garden outside my shrink's office who never realizes that the bird he keeps attacking is only his reflection, and is only hurting himself. We choose the wrong way to react to pain sometimes.
But, in another way, this movie isn't about pain. It's about what you do with those emotions, and how you choose to let them define you. It's about how you live on through the pain, and still manage to find something to bring you joy, like how Hazel climbed all those steps in Anne Frank's house even though her lungs could barely handle it, and ended up loving what she saw, and getting her first kiss with Gus, and finally allowing herself to love even though she is afraid to hurt those she loves.
Going along with that, I think Gus was really admirable, that he knew he wouldn't live forever, and neither would Hazel, but he didn't let the fear of dying deny him the joy of loving Hazel, and being with her. I think a part of him knew that the joy he had with Hazel would always exceed any pain he would feel if she died. Isn't that the same about most things? You forget the pain, but remember the fun? Like how you scrape your knee falling off your bike. At first, it hurts a lot, and all you can think of is getting a bandage on it. But afterwards, once the pain subsides, at least in my experience, you laugh about how dumb it was that you fell, and how much fun you were having biking before that.
And does scraping your knee keep you from riding your bike ever again? For most people, no. They get back on and are just more careful. Just like I'm sure the main character of this story will love again, once the pain of their loss lessens.
So, that's it: don't hide pain, it's ok! It doesn't last forever, and it's not all you'll remember, so power through it. Never let potential temporary pain keep you from experiences that can bring you eternal joy. And, no matter how much you feel you lose, and that possibly you'll never get out of your slump, remember that you will, if you try.
So that's what I got from this movie. Thanks for reading
My mom and I saw The Fault in Our Stars. It's about this girl with cancer who meets a boy supposedly in remission and falls in love. It was so much fun! It may be anti-girl of me to say, but I did not cry at all. I mean I was sad, or at least tried to be, but no water works came.
Here's my theory on why: the sad climax of the movie is maybe the last five to ten minutes of the movie. The rest of it is the cocky, hilarious guy, who isn't afraid to love a walking time bomb, and a girl who knows she's going to die, but ignores that fact because she's in love. What is not enjoyable about that? I was too happy by the end to be sad.
And another thing: I think this story has been mis-interpreted. It supposedly is supposed to be a chick flick movie to eliminate the illusion that life is like it is in chick flicks, all happy and lovey dovey, and in a way, it succeeds. There is no doubt that you are kidding yourself if you believe that life is a chick flick, and everyone lives happily ever after, walking into the sunset with a sappy song in the background. I have learned that the hard way this year, as some of you may know.
But this movie also tries to go away from that. It focuses on pain sometimes: "Pain demands to be felt." And it does. And, just as Gus pointed out that we get to choose who we let hurt us, we can also choose how we react to pain. We can choose to completely shut down, which I almost thought the heartbroken character would do at the end, and which I have almost chosen, and we can also choose to do something with it, like Hazel's parents.
Instead of staying in their house and staring at walls, if Hazel died, they had decided instead to be counselors to other parents of kids with cancer, to help them through the same pain that they experienced. That seems pretty cool to me, and a lot more productive than dwelling on your loss.
Something else I learned from this movie, and from my experiences this past year, is about pain itself. Sure, most of the time pain is the body's reaction to harm. But, I think of it a little differently now. Pain can also be a form of love, or an indication of it. If you feel pain when someone dies, it means you care about them. It does mean you're sad that someone's gone, but that is only because you are remembering all the happy times you had with them. If you didn't love the person who died, you wouldn't feel anything. It would just be another obituary in the paper that you skip over.
A lot of people suppress pain, to keep themselves from looking weak, or to spare others. I think that is the worst possible thing. While one of those reasons is selfless, the other is selfish, and denying yourself in the process. No one can help you if they don't know you hurt. They might even take your emotionlessness as not caring, and their perception of you could change. Also, pain, emotional or physical, only gets worse when not helped.
It's best to let out pain, and give up your pride. Once you get the pain out, what's left but the joy you had with the person you miss?
I don't think the fault is in our stars. The fault is in us. We deny ourselves and only hurt ourselves more, like this cardinal in the garden outside my shrink's office who never realizes that the bird he keeps attacking is only his reflection, and is only hurting himself. We choose the wrong way to react to pain sometimes.
But, in another way, this movie isn't about pain. It's about what you do with those emotions, and how you choose to let them define you. It's about how you live on through the pain, and still manage to find something to bring you joy, like how Hazel climbed all those steps in Anne Frank's house even though her lungs could barely handle it, and ended up loving what she saw, and getting her first kiss with Gus, and finally allowing herself to love even though she is afraid to hurt those she loves.
Going along with that, I think Gus was really admirable, that he knew he wouldn't live forever, and neither would Hazel, but he didn't let the fear of dying deny him the joy of loving Hazel, and being with her. I think a part of him knew that the joy he had with Hazel would always exceed any pain he would feel if she died. Isn't that the same about most things? You forget the pain, but remember the fun? Like how you scrape your knee falling off your bike. At first, it hurts a lot, and all you can think of is getting a bandage on it. But afterwards, once the pain subsides, at least in my experience, you laugh about how dumb it was that you fell, and how much fun you were having biking before that.
And does scraping your knee keep you from riding your bike ever again? For most people, no. They get back on and are just more careful. Just like I'm sure the main character of this story will love again, once the pain of their loss lessens.
So, that's it: don't hide pain, it's ok! It doesn't last forever, and it's not all you'll remember, so power through it. Never let potential temporary pain keep you from experiences that can bring you eternal joy. And, no matter how much you feel you lose, and that possibly you'll never get out of your slump, remember that you will, if you try.
So that's what I got from this movie. Thanks for reading
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Genesis 9:18-25
During my Bible reading today, I came across the passage referenced in the title of this post. For those of you who don't recognize the reference, here is the story:
After the great flood, Noah and his family leave the ark. Noah grows a vineyard, makes some wine, and gets himself drunk, and naked. His sons find out, and cover him. Then, Noah gets sober, and starts yelling at Ham, father of Canaan, whose name he curses, for "what his youngest son had done to him,"
My first reaction: definitely not a side of the story that is taught in Sunday School. Why was it that the sole man who God spared, and whose family He spared in the great flood, right after he gets back on dry land... does something completely opposite of what a supposed man of God would do.
Can someone explain this to me? And what did Ham do that made Noah curse his own grandson? All I see that Ham did, in this passage at least, was tell his older brothers that their father was drunk and naked. Is there some faux pas from Old Testament times that I am missing here?
Explanations in the comments section would be much appreciated!
After the great flood, Noah and his family leave the ark. Noah grows a vineyard, makes some wine, and gets himself drunk, and naked. His sons find out, and cover him. Then, Noah gets sober, and starts yelling at Ham, father of Canaan, whose name he curses, for "what his youngest son had done to him,"
My first reaction: definitely not a side of the story that is taught in Sunday School. Why was it that the sole man who God spared, and whose family He spared in the great flood, right after he gets back on dry land... does something completely opposite of what a supposed man of God would do.
Can someone explain this to me? And what did Ham do that made Noah curse his own grandson? All I see that Ham did, in this passage at least, was tell his older brothers that their father was drunk and naked. Is there some faux pas from Old Testament times that I am missing here?
Explanations in the comments section would be much appreciated!
Thursday, September 19, 2013
United We Spy
I recently read the last Gallagher Girls book, and you can read my review on AAB. What I want to talk about here is questions that came up for me which weren't addressed in the book. Spoilers!
1. When did Townsend get together with Catherine, and why? He's been hunting the Circle since probably before Zach was born...
2. Why did Catherine hate the Gallagher Girls? Did she get bullied when she went to the school? Or was she just excluded? Did she not feel like she belonged there?
3. Wouldn't Rachel and Catherine have been in the same class at the Gallagher Academy? I wonder if they knew each other and ever talked, if they were.
4. Are Grant and Jonas for Blackthorne's new objective, or its old? Are they members of the Circle? Do they even still go to Blackthorne?
5. How was Zach able to see that what his mother did was evil, when he grew up learning the Circle's proverbs?
6. How/when was Zach able to accept who his father was, and start forging a relationship with him?
7. What will the underclassmen do while the Gallagher Mansion is being rebuilt? Will they hold classes elsewhere, or will they attend public school for the duration of re-construction?
8. Why did they call Amirah "queen" of Caspia when Liz said she was second in line for the throne? Wouldn't that mean that there is someone else who would be king/queen before Amirah could claim her crown?
9. Why was Liz given the tests with the abstract questions to begin with? If they hadn't asked her how she would start World War III, then none of this would have happened! I don't accept that something as big as that would just be a result of the fact that she was not a spy kid.
10. WHO IS CARL? That name might not ring any bells, but it's from the first book, when Anna was in the drugstore in Roseville and was ambushed by Dillon. Freaked out, she blurts that she has a boyfriend, whose name is Carl, and Cammie notes that she didn't look like she was lying. So who was/is Carl, and how did Anna know him?
So that's all. if you can answer any of them, feel free!
1. When did Townsend get together with Catherine, and why? He's been hunting the Circle since probably before Zach was born...
2. Why did Catherine hate the Gallagher Girls? Did she get bullied when she went to the school? Or was she just excluded? Did she not feel like she belonged there?
3. Wouldn't Rachel and Catherine have been in the same class at the Gallagher Academy? I wonder if they knew each other and ever talked, if they were.
4. Are Grant and Jonas for Blackthorne's new objective, or its old? Are they members of the Circle? Do they even still go to Blackthorne?
5. How was Zach able to see that what his mother did was evil, when he grew up learning the Circle's proverbs?
6. How/when was Zach able to accept who his father was, and start forging a relationship with him?
7. What will the underclassmen do while the Gallagher Mansion is being rebuilt? Will they hold classes elsewhere, or will they attend public school for the duration of re-construction?
8. Why did they call Amirah "queen" of Caspia when Liz said she was second in line for the throne? Wouldn't that mean that there is someone else who would be king/queen before Amirah could claim her crown?
9. Why was Liz given the tests with the abstract questions to begin with? If they hadn't asked her how she would start World War III, then none of this would have happened! I don't accept that something as big as that would just be a result of the fact that she was not a spy kid.
10. WHO IS CARL? That name might not ring any bells, but it's from the first book, when Anna was in the drugstore in Roseville and was ambushed by Dillon. Freaked out, she blurts that she has a boyfriend, whose name is Carl, and Cammie notes that she didn't look like she was lying. So who was/is Carl, and how did Anna know him?
So that's all. if you can answer any of them, feel free!
Thursday, April 25, 2013
U-Stream
Hey! I got inspired to get a U-Stream account for my blogs, as well as my YouTube Channel. Would anyone be interested in having a live chat? Unfortunately, I would have to limit it to audio-only for personal reasons. Comment below, and if enough people respond, I'll announce a time later!
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Mane 2/3 Dance Party
I have five close friends at school. We call ourselves the Mane Six, since we're all bronies. Last night, four of us were all over here at my house for a dance party (hence the title. Four out of six equals two thirds). Me, and three friends whom I will refer to as M, S, and B.
B arrived first, bringing some magazines, which we flipped through and laughed over for a while. S came second, bringing more games for the Kinect, Just Dance 3, and Disneyland Adventures. She also brought along her plush Fluttershy <3 M came along last, and we goofed off for a little, gave my dad our pizza order, then started dancing.
We had a sort of championship on Dance Central 3, using the party mode. I don't like most of the new mini games, except maybe Strike a Pose. I think M ended up being the champion... then we played for fun until the pizza arrived. We ate, then hung out in my bedroom for a while.
Before we started dancing again, S tried to get either me or M to keep her Fluttershy plush. She claimed she had brought it intending to give it to one of us, but I couldn't take it from her, no matter how much I love Fluttershy! It's HERS! M agreed, and after we insisted, she relented, and we danced more.
None of us can dance all that well, and some of the moves on Just Dance (which we switched to after a while) are silly, so we laughed probably more than we actually danced. Though, not to brag, I won most of the time ;)
We played Disneyland Adventures for a short time after B left, but not for long, because soon S and M's respective parents came by. Exhausted, I collapsed on my bed and watched Wreck it Ralph
I am so blessed to have epic friends like these, whom I can laugh and have fun with, who are always so kind and supportive. I hope I know them even when I pass through those pearly gates of Heaven :)
B arrived first, bringing some magazines, which we flipped through and laughed over for a while. S came second, bringing more games for the Kinect, Just Dance 3, and Disneyland Adventures. She also brought along her plush Fluttershy <3 M came along last, and we goofed off for a little, gave my dad our pizza order, then started dancing.
We had a sort of championship on Dance Central 3, using the party mode. I don't like most of the new mini games, except maybe Strike a Pose. I think M ended up being the champion... then we played for fun until the pizza arrived. We ate, then hung out in my bedroom for a while.
Before we started dancing again, S tried to get either me or M to keep her Fluttershy plush. She claimed she had brought it intending to give it to one of us, but I couldn't take it from her, no matter how much I love Fluttershy! It's HERS! M agreed, and after we insisted, she relented, and we danced more.
None of us can dance all that well, and some of the moves on Just Dance (which we switched to after a while) are silly, so we laughed probably more than we actually danced. Though, not to brag, I won most of the time ;)
We played Disneyland Adventures for a short time after B left, but not for long, because soon S and M's respective parents came by. Exhausted, I collapsed on my bed and watched Wreck it Ralph
I am so blessed to have epic friends like these, whom I can laugh and have fun with, who are always so kind and supportive. I hope I know them even when I pass through those pearly gates of Heaven :)
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Dance Central 3
The first real video game series I ever really started following is Harmonix's Kinect game series, Dance Central. I got the original for my birthday about...three years ago? I'm not sure. Anyway, I LOVED it, and have been getting the sequels ever since. Well, there's only been two other games, but still!
Anyway, I received Dance Central 3 for Christmas. I had heard that this would be the first game in this series (and the first in general, I think) to actually have a plot. It is featured in it's unique "Story Mode". Dr. Tan, the mysterious villain that has been hinted at since the original but only seen in DC2, is trying again to regulate all dancing under his command by taking down all the "crews" in Dance Central, where dancing is everything to its residents.
The DCI (Dance Central Intelligence) invites you to a "party", and after proving your skills by dancing "Bass Down Low" (which I did, earning five stars the very first time without practicing beforehand, thank you very much) and reveals that they are looking for an agent to go through time and stop Tan, who has set up HQ in the future, since the original agents they sent (the D-Coy crew) have become MIA. You are then sent to the 70's, after being told that the only way to defeat Tan in the future is to learn the popular moves of the past, called Crazes. Each craze consists of four "power moves", which are scattered within the songs of each decade.
However, not every song has a power move. And, (I think Harmonix added this just to annoy people and force them to dance to more songs than necessary) even if you find the power moves, you need to gain enough "star energy" (aka, stars you earn from each song, added up) before you can decode the craze and travel back to the present.
I found this a bit complicated at first, but got into it after a while. I love time travel plots, and dancing, so put together? YES! But, since this is a dance game and not a plot adventure game or anything, there aren't any paradoxes, or really interesting plot points. *spoiler* Well, except maybe the fact that Tan put his own son under the power of his mind control helmets!
I didn't like how the first and last song of every decade was spontaneous, and you had no idea what to expect, so you are almost set up for failure unless you just rock. I like rehearsing well before I actually preform a song!
One thing I LOVED was the 8-Bit animation for the credits. Too cute! Speaking of the credits, it looks as if the Glitteratti is planning mischief. Sequel-inference much?
I have been expecting the announcement for DC4 for a while now, since it is practically inevitable that there is going to be a DC4, but instead a different spin on the series was announced. The next game in the series is going to be called Dance Central: Blackout. The title comes from the fact that, in game, the screen is completely dark, except for occasional move judgments, such as "good". You aren't shown any moves, you have to use your (sold separately >.<) headset and listen for directions. The Harmonix people think that this will help us really connect with the music.
What?!? That sounds hard, and so not fun! How are you supposed to even hear the music, if commands are being said over your headset, and the music is coming from your TV speakers?! I don't think I'll be immediately begging for this, like the other games. I'll watch videos of others playing it first, to see their opinion and the total gameplay experience.
In other words, I will wait for DC4/5 (based on if they consider Blackout DC4 or not). In fact, I have some suggestions for a possible DC4/5:
- Option of changing difficulty level between songs in a playlist (some songs I can perform on Medium or Hard, but others only on Easy)
- Option to use your XBOX Live avatar as your in-game dancer
- Improved voice commands- you know, so you don't ask for one song and the game brings up a completely different song. I don't know if that's so much of a problem with DC's software as much as it is the lower quality of the Kinect microphone, though, so Harmonix might not be able to do anything about that.
- LESS commentary from Boombox! He gets annoying after a while (especially on playlists), and sometimes he suggests something right as you are trying to say a command during Rehearsal, and the XBOX misunderstands you.
- Less songs with sexually suggestive or foul lyrics.
- A fully freestyle mode: I know that they tried to have a freestyle move with "Make Your Move", but that is more of a Simon Says game. Plus, it is only multiplayer (not a lot of people I know enjoy dancing, so I can't put this mode into any use!) Can't there be a mode where you make your own moves through the entire song, in single player?
- Player lines that in-game characters can react to (for example, if I said a yo mamma joke out loud, as if to Taye, then she would understand, and respond with "Oh no.You did not just go there.")
That's about it. I hope some of these are implemented in DC4/5!
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