Parfaits

So, I tried making parfaits for the first time today. They turned out okay...I guess.

But on the upside, the mint and raspberries are homegrown (picked by yours truly today).

Cosplay!

Wow, it's been a while...so much for posting once a week.

So, school is out and I passed all my classes! Banzai!

Anyway, I'm getting back into martial arts now and I'm also going to be making some cosplay stuff; I'm really interested now and I'm starting with these:
This is the military uniform of Riza Hawkeye from Fullmetal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師 Hagane no Renkenjitsushi). She's the only girl in the group; I absolutely love her!




Okay, this is Temari, from Naruto. This is her "second outfit", as it is commonly known.



This is Rukia Kuchiki! I actually had my hair cut like hers; this is her school uniform, but she usually wears her Soul Reaper one:


I like both of them, so I'm making both (I'm just weird like that, I guess).


This is Road Kamelot from D. Gray-Man. My best friend Emily wants to cosplay as Road, so I'll be making this one.

Well, that's really all that's going on. I'm off to movie night with my friend Tayla (bad day=LotR in her book).

Ja ne!

Monday

That's all that needs to be said to inspire fatigue and animosity.

Take this Monday, for instance:

2:15 AM: I wake up, and my arms are going numb. Being diabetic, I take this as a bad sign and test my blood. It's 33. Which, for those of you who don't know, is very, very, low and is pretty dang dangerous. So, with my arms numb and tingly, I go downstairs to scarf down a bagel and a bowl of Frosted Flakes. I go back to bed.

6:30 AM: First day back in school, oh joy. And, because life just had to have its fun, the heater and the water heater were both busted. So I wasn't even able to use my 'but my bed is warm' excuse to go back to sleep, even under 5 layers. I make the bus (for once).

9:05 AM: After just learning I had a massive Creative Writing assignment due, my physics teacher walks in and says 'testing time in 30 minutes'. I begin contemplating homicide, and possibly arson (not particularly in that order).

2:35 PM: I come home with the intent to sit down with a warm blanket, a mug of mint tea, and Mario Kart Wii, when I discover that a bunch of guys from the heating company had taken over the family room. No Wii. Oh well, I'll go for the tea. They'd turned off the gas (no gas=no stove= no kettle=NO TEA).

5:10 PM: They're still here. And I still don't have my tea.

Story of My Life

This is a pretty good summary of my life. I say something sucks (One Piece, Naruto, Fanfiction), and then life screws me for it when it ends up being good. Oh well. I least I can comfort myself in the fact that Twilight and the Jonas Brothers do, indeed, suck. (Even though I write those T. fanfics. Ha! Stupid hypocritical attitude).

The Lazy Author

I find it ironic that I consider myself a writer, but I never seem to write anymore. I don't blog, I don't update fanfic, and I don't work on my books. I don't even do my Creative Writing assignments. But, as of NOW, I am going to write A LOT. 1-2 fanfics updates a week, one blog post a week (even though nobody reads it), and 3 pages of novel-writing. Especially now that I'm on Christmas break. I'M LAZY! Bad llama!

So, here's this week's entry: in a week, I burned myself, I was a zombie violinist, I laughed in freakish enjoyment as my school put on a pagan/witch dance performance at the Christmas Assembly (to Hunter, by Bjork, the greatest song they could have chosen for their performance), and I was this close to getting in an all-out debate with my history teacher over Naval warfare in the American Civil War (The Moniter was an ironclad, not a submarine. And whadya mean you can't remember if it beat the Merrimac or not?! You call yourself a history teacher. Pah! I scoff at you).

And that's me for this week.

SO EXCITED!!!

I am so excited! In just five days, the second Bleach movie comes out (Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion)! I've only seen the Japanese version, so I'm very excited to see the dub.

On another note, I finally put in a job application as a custodian; it's not glamarous, but it pays (good thing I don't mind getting dirty).

Video Madness

I've started doing videos lately. Unfortunately, when I upload them they either disappear or the audio is disabled. So I'm just gonna upload them here. Here are the two I've done:

In the Family of Noah

This is a slideshow I did for the anime/manga D. Gray-Man by Katsura Hoshino. Just some stuff about the Noah (incidentally, the bad guys). The girl in the striped socks with the spiky hair is Road, the tall guy who always seems to be smoking and/or wearing a top hat is Tyki, the big dumb-looking guy is Skin, the tall skinny girl with the bob is Lulubell (don't really like her), and the twins (my favorites) are Jasdero and David/Debitto (Dero is the one with the blond hair and the anglerfish lure on his head, Debi is the one with the dark hair and the furry jacket).

Best of FMA 1

Another slideshow, this one of Fullmetal Alchemist, anime/manga by Hiromu Arakawa. One of the absolute best series ever. The blond guy with the gold eyes and 'antenna' on his head (the one who flips like a ninja at the short jokes) is Edward Elric, the main character. The suit of armor/the blond kid with the silver eyes is Alphonse, Ed's younger brother. The military guy with the black hair and the pyro obsession is Colonel Roy Mustang, the guy with the really long spiky black hair and the skirt is Envy...and a few others.

Holy CRAP!!!

I was at Barnes & Noble the other night for a Script Frenzy write-it, but nobody showed up. Low and behold, guess who did show up?

I am the kind of sad, obsessive fan-girl who remembers an author's voice from three years ago, yet I could hardly believe my eyes and ears when I saw and heard the BRANDON SANDERSON talking to a group of people in our lowly B & N. Talk about a sucker-punch!

So I just read manga and sort of peeked between bookshelves for a glimpse every once in while until Mom and I were ready to go, by which time he was packing up and signing the last of his books.

My mom "prompted" me to go and talk to him (it involved a bit of pushing), and I ended up getting a signed, personalized copy of Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians (remember my review about that one?) and a pep talk about writing (he found out that I was a writer), as well as giving me a business card for his writing podcast. He stayed extra just to sign my book and talk to moi. I was the last person. I just about fainted (not to mention grinning my head off).

Pinch me.

San Fran Part 1

Hello all. Well, as you obviously know, I've returned from San Francisco (wish I was still there) and it was FABULOUS. So, I've included quite a few of the photos I took there (and some summaries). The photos are pretty good, if I say so myself, seeing as though the majority were taking from inside a moving tour bus.

4:30 AM: Arrive at school, get ready to board buses. This includes a whole lot of Mrs. W blowing her stupid whistle and designated areas for baggage, carry-on, instruments, and people. Then there's a boarding order, starting with the basses and cellos, and ending with the violins and the trumpets. Yes, they even loaded the flutes and the violas before us violins! (the shame!)

5 AM: leave campus. Tired, grumpy, disgruntled, pretty excited, and very hyper, despite the tired-and-early factor. After a "rousing" speech from the bus driver regarding the toilets on the bus ('It's like a bank. You get back [in smell] what you put in plus interest.' Needless to say, the bus toilets remained unused throughout the trip). We pretty much lived off of iPods and chocolate bars for the first few hours of the trip. I fell asleep somewhere around 6:30 or so, and woke up around 8:45,

when we were out on the salt flats. Rousing, yes. We stopped a few minutes later, and then onward to Nevada, armed only with the grisly remains of sack breakfasts and Nacho Libre. Exciting, no? When we got there, we met T, our new bus driver. T is a riot. He's a big Samoan guy who tells jokes every time he starts up the bus. Well, he drove us through the wilderness of Nevada (I hope you sense the sarcasm there) and to many a fast-food stop. Meanwhile, we in Bus 2 (the 'Bigfoot Bus'), we watched Back to the Future (thankfully only the first one; I don't

think I could have taken all them) and Madagascar 2. Of course, by then I wasn't paying much attention to the movie, since fast food and bus travel through Nevada tend to make the contents of your stomach have a sudden desire for an encore. Thankfully they didn't.

I took a nap around 4:30/5-ish, and didn't wake up until we were in California (ah, the blessed warmth!), around 6:20-ish. We
drove through Sacremento and Vallejo and through to San Francisco.

We arrived at the hotel (Embassy Suites; SOOO nice) around 7 or 7:30. We had a few minutes to get everything in our rooms (girls on the fourth floor, boys on the fifth) before pre-dinner rehearsal. The band practiced first, in one of the smaller ballrooms in the hotel. We waited by the door while they did; then we met Joe, our native tour guide (so to speak). I'm slightly chagrined to admit that at first I took him for a strange homeless man who just happened to be telling us that the pizza would arrive in less than fifteen minutes. What can I say; my brain doesn't really function when I've been up for that long (I hadn't even slept the night before). So after pizza, we had sectionals for orchestra practice while the band went up to bed (lucky bastards). Rehearsal was somewhat difficult due to the fact that the sectionals were all in one room and we had no music stands, but we got through rehearsal until 9, when Mr. D (orchestra teacher) let us go for the night.

9 PM: Up to bed. Five girls in one room and one shower. It was interesting to watch everybody else argue over shower times. Smartly, I stayed on my bed (Ha! I got my own) and watched Law and Order and a bit of Burn Notice (one of the first things T.--see second picture at the top--did was check the TV to make sure in had USA. Smart; very smart.

10 PM: Lights out. We went to be quickly and quietly; a nice change from diabetes camp, where the stupid girls never went to bed. It was like pulling saber-teeth to get those girls to shut up. Thankfully, orchestra girls are much better; or maybe we were just too tired.

And that is part one of the orchestra trip. All photos are mine except the two of the hotel; these ones are nicer than the ones I'll post later. You'll see why, trust me.

True Callings

Who needs a college degree?

My Favorite Shtuff

You know, I was musing a second ago about the things I like best about writing (both in general and on FF.net)
1. Caffeine: Did you know that NaNoWriMo has an "Abusing Caffeinated Beverages" Merit Badge? Even if hot chocolate doesn't really count as a caffeinated beverage, I think I still get the award. After all, when I'm writing I drink about 4 mugs a day. Well, I guess I'm safe from heart disease,
2. Pandora: I would die without Pandora Radio. Non-stop good music is one of the things that keeps the cogs turning and the plot bunnies semi-sedated. Music is good, folks.
3. Avatars: I don't know about you, but I LOVE avatars (and not the weird Japanese cartoon kid, either. The fun little 2x2 pics on the 'net). If I didn't have an FF profile, a NaNo/SF profile, etc, I couldn't have profile pics like this:
Or this:
Or maybe...(evil laugh):

See what I mean? Life would so pointless without these guys!

Right, um...moving on.

4. HIGH-SPEED INTERNET. Let me make this clear: writing would be hell without high-speed. Seriously. No, we don't just use Word (CLIPPY MUST DIE!!!), we use the internet. A lot. I mean, what if you need to look up what 32 degrees F would be in Celsius? Or how many inches of snow there are in the lower portions of the Brasov region of the Carpathians? Or long long it takes to fly from Brasov to Thessaloniki, Greece? (And yes, I had to look all of these up in November).
5. REVIEWS: for those of you who don't write fanfic, you're missing out big time. Reviews are awesome!!! I mean, everybody writes you and tells you how funny your writing is (or fluffy, or dramatic, or angsty, or full of whump). What could possibly be better?!

There you have it. My Top 5 Favorites of Writing.

So I have spoken, so I shall be (Because I Said So).

New Layout

So, how do you guys like the new layout? I thought that it was getting a little old. Plus, I'm heading to San Francisco on Thursday (at 4:30 IN THE FREAKING MORNING...UGH), so I thought I'd get used to seeing the ocean again. To most of your relief, I'm sure, I decided to stick with English and turn off the Hindi Translator, that makes every word I write Hindi. (Cool, yes, but it makes editing a pain in the butt.)

Also: April 1st: SCRIPT FRENZY! Yes, that's right. Another branch of NaNoWriMo. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND DOING IT, FOLKS! It's going to be a blast.

Well, that's all for now.

Ciao.

(Hey, that rhymes.)

Testing, Testing...1, 2, 3...

Okay, let's face it.

Testing sucks.

Especially math testing.

Today, for instance. The UBSCT test: Math Portion. You know, I will be the first to admit (openly, mind you) that I am a worse mathematician than my younger brother is a mime (translates to "terrible"). But the questions on the UBSCT test? Those were so easy they were insulting. I'm all for easy math, but when they make me stay after school and wait outside in the cold for half an hour for the bus just so I can take math on a fifth grade level?

Nuh-uh.

My patience snaps there.

So consider my patience snapped.