clap your hands

Just a quickie post to say this journal has been abandoned but won't be deleted. I like to think of it as a record of part of high school life and my first year of college that I'll be able to look back on in 20 years and laugh! But yeah, feel free to de-friend this lj :)
Anyhoo, I have always felt conflicted having a "double life" (real life, art/online life) and I'm trying to finally reconcile the two. Find peace with just being me. AKA the purpose of chupachup and the purpose of this journal will be combined in this new one!

New >>>> xinester :) :) :) See you there!

Email has been the source of so much amusement for me these days! Let me share some I've gotten with you today.

So I've been tutoring English to ESL students with the Linguistics department, and part of the requirement there is that you have to attend at least three English workshops, which is basically reviewing grammar and whatnot.

The lady in charge sent all the tutors this email. I've bolded all the important stuff:
So far, we've offered four workshops for the tutors. You are required to attend three. Has everyone met this requirement?
If not, could you let me know what times would be convenient to attend a final workshop (I think we're looking after the Thanksgiving break), and what topics would interest you?


Here's my very short (and what I thought was clear) response back:
I can't remember if I've gone to three yet, do you have a record of how
many we've attended? It would be great if you could let me know, thanks!
-Christine

This is her response... and again I've bolded the points of interest:
I'm not in front of my paperwork right now, Cynthia, but three workshops have been held so far: the ones I led--first issues in tutoring and setting the upcoming agenda of workshops; looking over a couple of student papers and discussing how to approach them, and the one Ms. Cross did on verb tense.
Do these sound familiar? Let me know which ones you attended.
Thanks--Stacia




UHM..................

Okay, so, I was looking for a place to buy cheap, decent white dress/uniform shirts to modify when I remembered that I used to wear a uniform when I was in elementary and middle school. While googling for the source of these uniforms, I was led to this Wikipedia entry on my old school:

Along with many other private schools, Challenger School requires all students from kindergarten up to wear uniforms. All students wear burgundy sweaters and white Oxford shirts, with boys having the option of wearing white polo shirts. Kindergarten through fourth grade girls must wear plaid skirts with straps and boys must wear navy pants. From fifth grade on, girls wear plaid skirts and boys wear gray pants(which, many say are useful because of waterproof properties). Both boys and girls have the option to wear neck ties. Boys will also have the choice of wearing a white, dark red, or blue shirt. Girls can wear berets.

For girls, the uniforms have recently changed. Scholarwear is the new company for uniforms for Challenger School since the 2006-2007 year. Scholarwear is owned and operated by Challenger itself and has replaced the previous company, Dennis. Instead of wearing green plaid skirts and jumpers, now girls are wearing burgundy and gray skirts and jumpers. Also, for boys and girls, blouses now have the Challenger logo, and sweaters are a dark shade of purple.

Girls also have more choices to wear. On Mondays-Wednesdays, girls must wear their skirt/jumpers. On Thursdays and Fridays, girls MAY wear a polo shirt and navy girls pants/shorts.

Haha, okay firstly, since when did we ever have the option of ties?! This is the first I've heard. I would have worn them if I knew. And lol, berets, I actually remember some people wearing them when I was in elementary.

Here is a visual of what the old uniforms that I wore looked like:


Elementary school jumper (left), middle school skirt (right)
came in this green plaid:


Both worn with white blouses, white/navy socks, and red cardigans/sweater vests/pullovers.

( The new uniforms for 2007 onwards: )

I heard that the new uniforms came about because they wanted to appear more like Oxford?... The British style uniforms? They're really cool (I'd be freaking out if I were still at Challenger since the new duds reminds me of the Harry Potter movie uniforms so much), it's just sad that I'll never see my old uniform again. Oh, youth.



Also,
SHIT. I've become a slave to chick flicks. Particularly, to Jane Austen, but yeah, to chick flicks in general. Over the course of the past four weeks, I've watched Bridget Jones's Diary three times (6 hours), its sequel Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason three times (6 hours), BBC production of Jane Eyre featuring Timothy Dalton, one of the guys who played the early James Bonds OOMPH hottie (5 hours), Notting Hill (1.. hour, I couldn't make it through the whole movie, NiceGuy!Hugh Grant was throwing me off after all that bad boy smex from the Bridget Jones stuff), Sleepless in Seattle (2 hours), Jerry Maguire for a third time in my life (2 hours), Keira Knightley's Pride and Prejudice (2 hours) once again for the nth time, and the BBC Colin Firth miniseries of Pride and Prejudice (5 hours STRAIGHT) just last night (oh man, the Firthiness is almost too much to handle). The saddest part is that I haven't had enough. As Depeche Mode would say, I just can't get enough.
I went on Amazon to find the novel for Pride and Prejudice to read (haha, funny that I've inhaled all of these adaptations but have never actually read it), and found that WOAH there are actually a ton of published "fanfiction" sequels/prequels/parallels written for it. Yes, that is the technical term that Amazon uses to describe them. There are a bunch of different ones, like Darcy's Diary or the Darcy: Gentlemen series, both of which chronicle the events of P+P through Darcy's POV. And then there's the Mr. Darcy's Daughters series, which are the love trials and tribulations of the Darcys' children :) They all look so interesting, AUGH I think I'm going to end up spending a small fortune on this homage crap because I NEED MORE. Lol, I think I'm getting too into this. Step away from the Jane Austen, slowly now...

I think the moral of this sad little story is that I am severe need of a boyfriend. Any takers? jk I wouldn't take any of you
jk I love you, yes i would
jk I actually just want one person who seems to haunt my dreams like a mystical pokémon fairy
WHY CAN'T I HAVE HIM
oh that's right, because he's a complete dickhead, almost forgot there

I have a shitload of journal stubs that I haven't finished or posted, but I just HAD to make a post about this one.

Okay, so on Friday, I went over to Gottchalks, which is like a small scale, cheap Macy's, to buy green tights for Ali's Peter Pan costume and white tights for my White Rabbit costume for a party. It must have been a combination of the fact that I was by myself and that I was wearing a short skirt, but while I'm wandering around in the store, this older guy approaches me. Older guy meaning probably in his 30s or 40s. Looked either Flip or Mexican.

Guy: Excuse me?
Me: Hmm? *turns around*
Guy: I couldn't help but notice you from over there, and I wanted to tell you I really like how you look.
Me: I, er, uhm
Guy: We could maybe spend some time together?
Me: Err, I don't think so, sorry, haha!
Guy: Just a little bit of time...
Me: Err, sorry, I, er, I'm a little young. Sorry. *looking around... backing away*
Guy: My name is ___, here's my business card *hands it over*
Me: Oh... er... *looking at it. It says: house repair service*
Guy: I work for this company, it's really big... if you ever need help, just call. Or if you just want to spend some time with me, you can call...
Me: Oh er, I, er, don't think I'll be needing this. I'm just here to buy some stuff. I'm going to leave now. To... the cashier.
Guy: Actually, I work here too. Yes, I work here too.
Me: Er. No. No thank you.
Guy: I really like you, do you have any time? Like right now?
Me: I, er, no. No. No. No.
Guy: We can just be friends. Just spend some time together...
Me: I... ER, UM, BYE. *walking really quickly to the cashier*

After I was in clear sight of other people, the guy completely disappeared. I basically ran home afer that. Anyhoo, I'm almost forgot about what happened the next day, until I was cleaning my purse and I found the card again. Thinking it would be amusing, I gave the card to my suitemate Andrea, who says, "HEY, I'M GOING TO CRANK CALL THIS GUY, OKAY?"

Heh, this would be so much more awesome to tell in person (since Andrea's occasional Southern twang and the dude's Mexican accent make it funnier), but you'll just have to deal with this text version. It's pretty funny no matter how you spin it anyway.

A: Hi, is this Hooay-vay?
Guy: Who? This is Hoo-Vee.
A: WHATEVER, this is the girl from Gottchalks.
Guy: Gott?....
A: You know, the girl you thought looked nice.
Guy: OOhHhH yeeEEah, I remember. How are you?
A: I'm good, thanks. How are you?
Guy: Yes, I'm very good. I can't believe you called back!
A: Well, you see, I have a problem. You see, I need you to fill my hole. .... in my wall.
Guy: Oh yeah, I can do that.
A: Oh you can, can you? Can you do it well?
Guy: Oh yes, I can. I can fix your wall.
A: Oh yeah, I need you to fill up my hole really well.
[... more]
Guy: So when should I come over? When would be a good time? Monday?
A: *hangs up*

She couldn't hold back from laughing so she hung up, but then we got some new inspiration and she called back.

A: Hi, this is the girl from Gottchalks.
Guy: Oh, I was so worried you hung up.
A: Oh no, of course not!
Guy: I am just so surprised that such a beautiful girl is calling me... I am so blessed.
A: Well, god loves you.
Guy: Yes, He does. I'm so blessed.
A: Anyways, so about my wall... do you think you can fix it?
Guy: Yes, I can fix it.
A: Can you fill the hole?
Guy: Yes, I can fix it.
A: But can you fill the hole?
Guy: Yes, I can fill your hole.
A: It's a pretty big hole. I really hope you can. Fill it, that is.
Guy: Yes.
[... more]
A: I'm really excited. Very excited. Aren't you excited?
Guy: Yes. I'm very excited too. I can't wait to see you, I mean, your wall. So how will I find you tomorrow, Monday? Where do you live?
A: *hangs up*

LOL.

Oh, and also, my internet has been cut off from my laptop, again. And now I have to go talk to the school judicial committee advisor before it can be turned back on. Because I've been bringing viruses into the school network system with my virus-riddled computer. Again. hA...hahHAHAhaHAHAHAHHA

Hmm! So I'm thinking I want to learn a second instrument besides piano. I've been researching, and this is what I was thinking... I bolded the ones that I'm really considering learning.

( instruments! )

UH so uh yeah life. Quarter one is finally over, thank god. All my grades have finally been released! I canNOT get over that I got a solid A (95.3) on my chem final. Wow. Threw me off guard when I saw the grade, I totally cried. I'm also kinda shocked about the fact I got an A in my stats class. I feel like some kind of error was made, but I'm not going to question it. I accurately calculated that my grade in the class should be about a B, but... I guess maybe the curve was really generous? ... because... yeah, that's... a really crazy curve. Haha, and last but not least, there's my sociology 1 class. A solid B, whichhhhhh I pretty much expected. I basically skipped every single lecture, did all the papers (including the term paper) the mornings of/nights before they were due, and taught myself the whole quarter's worth of material a day before the final exam. ... yup. Story of my academic life.

And life in lifey generally life? Really good. Haha, so I've basically told this story to everyone in person already so I can finally feel safe to blog about it (I'm trying this new thing where I refrain from blogging about interesting/funny things until I've caught up with people in person. That way, I actually have things to talk about as opposed to getting cut off with a "oh yeah, I read it in your blog already!"). Sooooooooo a few weeks ago, me and my friends on the floor group-watched porn. Yes. That is correct. Gwen was turning 19, so to celebrate we mixed margaritas and chilled. We got onto the topic on how when you turn 18 you're supposed to buy "porn, cigarettes, and scratchers," when Gwen confessed she had never even seen porn before. Wow, bad move, Gwen. Tim gets really excited and is like WHATNOWAY and RUNS to his bathroom, comes back with 5 porno magazines and flips them in her face. I don't really want to think about what those books have been through. Vaguely, it worries me that he leaves them in the bathroom. Does that mean all the guys in their suite... jerk off to the same stuff? Isn't that weird? So anyways, Derek helps out with the defiling of Gwen and brings out his laptop and is like, YEAH I'VE GOT THE GOOD STUFF GANGBANGIN SHIT YEAHHH and puts all of his porn videos on a loop. Like... as in once one video finishes, it goes straight to the next one. Oh god. So much dick. Too many dicks. That poor girl. Oh god, the thrusting. The gyration. THE DICKS.
Anyways, even though it was... kinda bad, the porn had its moments. Two highlights of the night were 1) when the video loop landed on some dickgirl hentai (hilarity ensues) and 2) when one of the missing suitemates returned home with some visiting friends from his high school and was met with a big surprise. Ahhh...hahahha!

I'll make a huge picture post next time of various college life activity. But since I never blogged about Thanksgiving break, some pictures!


:) At the park near my house!




From what I remember, Thursday was Turkey day with family and my bro's really hot friend, Friday was lunch with Amy and then Challenger reunion on the field where we played two-touch football, Saturday was something??? I forget what I did Saturday afternoon, but Saturday night I picked up Andrea and her Canadian-Tibet-trip friend from the train station. We ate at Pasta Pomodoro's with my family on Santana Row, walked around, went to my house yay! We watched Walk the Line that night, though Andrea fell asleep. Her friend left in the morning, but Andrea stayed until late afternoon when my uncle/aunt/little cousin Vivian came. We played Disney Princess monopoly with Vivian until Amy came by :) :) :) and she drove us for some Fantasia PMT <3. After we dropped Andrea off at her train stop, I hung out with Amy all day ♥ it was raining, so we went to Golfland to use their arcade for what else? Puzzle Fighter. I had dinner with her family at a nice Chinese restaurant. All in all, a really good break.

Haha, wow, it really has been a long time since I blogged. Anyways, so fast forward to the present--... I.. I bought a betta fish with my suitemate on a whim about a month ago. Probably less than that actually. Since we couldn't leave it at school for 2 weeks, I had to take it home over break since she had to fly home and I was going home by car and well... it died. It died this morning, so I think I can reasonably conclude that I suck as a parent. Anyways, betta fish are known to be very colorful, and mine was no exception. It was really bright, iridescent blue, with magenta-red fins, so I was really frightened this morning when I woke up, peered into the bowl, and saw a dead WHITE fish with red fins, lying on the marbles at the bottom of the bowl. :( I think it was dying before I took him home, but I still feel terrible. I think our troubles started when we changed the water... you're only supposed to change half of its bowl at a time, apparently, because betta fish are really sensitive to water quality and require some amount of bacteria in the water to help it function. I stupidly thought that a full bowl of clean water was better than half, so I cleaned and changed it all. Damn it! I also think we fed it too much. DOUBLE DAMN IT.


/edit
ps. OH SHIT. This Wednesday, the DECEMBERISTS will be interviewed by STEPHEN COLBERT. *wipes a tear* The most wonderful time of the year, indeed!

Anyhow, so I've been browsing Wikipedia director and actor profiles and found that I need to do some serious movie-watching.

Movies I'd like to watch again:
Fight Club
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (... hopefully, I'll get past the first hour this time)
Donnie Darko
Spirited Away ( I didn't like this movie the first time I saw it. Maybe if I see it again, I'll get it)
Laputa
Mimi wo Subasa
Closer
Little Women ( I didn't realize at the time, of course, but CHRISTIAN BALE plays Laurie!!! )
Fargo

Movies I want to rent:
Bent
The Machinist
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Walk the Line DONE
Raising Arizona
The Big Lebowski
Miller's Crossing
Blood Simple
The Man Who Wasn't There
American Psycho
Barton Fink
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
My Own Private Idaho
Seven Years in Tibet

Movies I need to watch in theatres:
The Prestige done. excellent movie.
The Departed
Borat aaaand done.

Movies to look forward to:
Sweeney Todd ( a musical adaption, featuring Johnny Depp, directed by Tim Burton )
The Dark Knight ( sequel to Batman Begins with HEATH LEDGER AS THE JOKER OH FUCK )
Tales from Earthsea ( Hayao Miyazaki's son's first directed movie, representing Studio Ghibli )

Also, I've started to revamp my website. I took down all the fanart and put up my portfolio. I guess I kinda wanted to have a website that I could show eeeeeverybody and not feel shy about. I'll be making fanart subpages in the meantime...

college is awesome
is what i say

haha, the first line is how i really feel and the second line is my impression of jason. JASON YOU ARE LIKE A FRESH WARM PAIR OF SOCKS!!!!

Seriously, I totally can't remember everything I've done so far, I've like... DONE SO MUCH. WTF. How can only a week have gone by? ??! I feel like I've been here forever. I LOVE COLLEGE. So here's my take on my first week in a flow of consciousness-type entry:

moved in cute guys pool party walked around frat row got egged by upperclassmen did laundry for the first time went to health seminars went to floor meeting brought a huge tv thug drama went downtown dinner with suitemates frat row part II beautiful phone calls with jason and amy and more beer pong foosball tournaments ipods floormates brother got lip pierced took me downtown free posters bought cds internet problems live bands free stuff resource fair sold my manga made lots of moolah been biking got lost books delicious food crazy missed concert asian people crazy indian people meeting harker people all around daniel sufjan stevens constant visitation fell off a bike embarrassing teaching piano super nice next door neighbors james sucky suitemates a girl OD'd got arrested and was expelled fun mornings with sarah fell asleep during stats (sounds familiar) classes gonna drop one broke my bike got wasted the buzz made bracelets free churros won tickets out with james and allie met a crazy nympho girl snuck back to the room woke up with a hangover dumped all my smelly clothes in the wash WENT HOME FOR THE WEEKENDDDDD.

And now that I'm home, I've been smothered with parental love went to a wedding relaxxxxxxxxxed and caught up with jasmine and GENERALLY FEELING AWESOME. And I'm going back to that tomorrow morning and I can't wait.

SO HOW'S LIFE BEEN WITH YOU GUYS IN A JUMBLY INCOHERENT SUMMARY? :)

Awww, the facebook guy wrote an apology letter to everyone regarding the mini feed. Aww. Haha, people making a gajillion mini-feed-hate-groups. Doesn't that make you feel ashamed of yourselves.

Begin collection of livejournal stubs from the past 2 weeks. Ha..haha.

( blah blah blah no one cares )

DUDE COLLEGE OMG Lynette is already gone ahh!! I hope everything is okay in New York! :) Just attract all those friends with your natural charm, rah! Christine left for Boston last2 weeks ago (really, I need to blog more often. These stubs are too old). Heh, GOOD NEWS THOUGH. I GOT THE TIE OMFG. IT'S GORGEOUS THANK YOU!!! And last but definitely not least, Jason leaves this WEDNESDAY MORNING AHHH!!!left last wednesday! Don't leave!!! Al..ready gone. Jason... everyone, I will miss you so much, you don't even know :) Hope college is treating you all right, and DON'T PARTY TOO HARDY.
your future > party
/edit
and Mariah leaves today wtf. I wasn't aware. I HATE YOU.

I still have 2 weeks until school starts... sigh. There's really nothing to do when no one's around to do it with. It's like, my summer's not actually summer, but I'm not actually in school yet.... like some cruel, twisted Limbo for public school-goers. Damn you, UC! Damn you!!! I met my roommates online though. They... seem okay. My roommate seems kinda off (of all the people from Facebook friends, she knew Gavin; and even then, they had never actually met before; they randomly became "really close" friends via facebook??? .... questionable), but I sincerely hope we give each other better impressions when we actually meet. I can't believe I'm having drama over a fridge, haha.

( In other news! I had my last day of work last week Friday. )

Hmm. Is it wrong for me to really want to buy the new Justin Timberlake CD? And his first one?
Speaking of CDs, I finally found the CDs I bought a month ago. I put them somewhere the day I bought them and had only listened to them once, which was on the way home from the store in the car. Camera Obscura's Underachievers Please Try Harder, aka Belle & Sebastian wannabe in a good way, and Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin, aka best album of its year. Recently, I bought a best of Stevie Wonder (haha, I couldn't help it.) and the Walkmen's first CD. Usually, I find myself with an ok or bad cd 1/2 of the time, but home run with all of them! I especially recommend the Walkmen cd.

Here's a fun meme to finish the post.

( Find your cereal name! )

I'm "Puffy Oatmeal Smush". Mmmmm... compretery appetizing.

My parents are always arguing whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Anyhoo.

Monterey trip!! Ten of us (me, Jason, Amy, Lynette, Cindy, Ayumi, her cousin Mai, Marina, Simon, and Jon) drove up to Monterey for a mini trip of sorts last week. We hung out on the beach, ate at a cool British pub, and spent the night at an inn. We had waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more booze than was actually needed for 10 people. So it was like a case of Smirnoff Ice, Hpnotiq, Grey Goose, Stoly, Hurricane, Malibu (mango). Wow. Haha, my heart nearly came out of my throat when my parents called. It was 10pm, most of us drunk, when I got a very concerned and distressed call from my dad: "Where are you?! Why aren't you home?!" My heart was pounding so hard, I thought I was going to get caught ahhh. As much as I like drinking and all, if I had a choice (I mean, there's always a choice but... is it really a choice? fuck peer pressure!) I wouldn't drink until it was legal but oh well. What else did we do? Oh, haha, as I'm looking at these pictures I am reminded that there was this little opening on all the floors that looked down into the breakfast arena. I jokingly commented and thought inside my head every time we passed that it would be a really great idea to just jump in and hang out in the breakfast area. I didn't think someone would actually do it! JON YOU'RE SO STUPID LOL. Totally caught, dude. We also played lots of fun hand games (Yo check it out yo lOL) and I learned how to play King's Cup and Ace-3-9; King's Cup has lots of variations and takes a while to pick up, but Ace-3-9 is pretty self explanatory--slap on every Ace, 3, or 9 and the last one has to drink. Yup. Yup. I drank too much that night, so I basically passed out in the 12th hour.

So, work! I'm glad it's going to end soon, my fingers are starting to ache from it. I don't know why, it's only recently that my fingers are feeling weak. Not a good sign that it actually hurts when I type on the computer. I can't really find any good points of this job except the obvious--money money mooooneey! I have so much of it, I don't know what to do with myself! I feel like it would be a waste if I bought Copics with these now, so I guess those will have to wait. I'll just save up this money... for... something. The future. Or... something. Oh wait, I know! I need it to print the Harry Potter fanzines. Okay... saved.

Man, I feel so lonely lately. People are going off to college (Lynette! Jason! Michael!), no one goes online, I think I'm already losing touch with people blah blah blah. Right after I type this, I'm going to go do Driver's Ed online lol.

Josh... ;__; How do I get the money to you for the tablet??? T__T and Christine, TIES TIES TIES HEEHEEHEEE I'M SO EXCITED!!! You got Ravenclaw, right? :D Who bought the 3rd tie? 9__9

(slightly dated; originally written august 2nd)

UGH GOD! I love this beautiful thing called summer. So much free time to just... be. Anyhow, I recently watched this independent movie called "Brick." I don't think the DVD has come out yet, but I watched it with my bro on his computer. It's really cool, I recommend it; it's essentially a noir movie that takes place with urban high school kids. Pretty awesome. Also, does anyone else watch The Venture Brothers (Adult Swim)? I'm seriously in love with this show, the animation, character designs and voice actors are just MMM! and it doesn't hurt that the scripts are just too hilarious for their own good.

The Monarch: (cross-examining Hank) So. Hank. It is Hank, isn't it?
Hank: Yes sir.
Monarch: Well, Hank. What's it like to be a... (turning to face the jury and shouting) liar! Huh? Do you like being a liar, with pants constantly on fire?
Tiny Attorney: Objection, your honor. Leading!
Monarch: I'll rephrase it. Hank, are you a liar?
Hank: No sir, I don't think so.
Monarch: Yes, you are!
Dean: You're the liar!
Monarch: May I remind you that I am rubber and you are glue and whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you?

I wish I went to Comic Con in San Diego!!! I would have KILLED to have attended the Adult Swim booth arljksdlkjfjlksad!! LOOK!! Isn't this cosplay AMAZING?!?!?

http://community.livejournal.com/venturebrothers/137025.html#cutid1

SHIT!! I want to cosplay someone totally badass like that!! Why can't I be Dr. Girlfriend--oh wait, you have long hair and Dr. Girlfriend has short hair. This is my constant dilemma, sigh! Anyways, dude, it is also uncomparably awesome that the creator has a frikkin' livejournal. Reading about the fears, the hopes, the process, the excitement is really inspiring. Plus I like being able to take a backstage look at the brilliance that is Venture. I want to buy the season one boxset, but... OH MY GOD !! Revelation haha, I just figured out what I want to get my brother for his birthday! (edit: It took me so long to finish writing this post that this is kinda out of date. My brother's birthday has already passed by the time I've posted this and I in fact did buy the boxset for my bro, along with a Bittersweet CD.) Woo! Oh, by the way, my father's birthday was a while back. I made him one of my renowned fruit tarts~ it was delicious!



Haha but I guess nobody cars about Venture or birthdays, but on the note of cons, here's my Anime Expo/LA report. My first convention (other than dentist conventions my parents have taken me to uhhgh :shudder:) ever !!!

( ze con )

whoooooo. that post was long. Cookies for whoever actually read the entire boring thing.