29

To anon (even though I do know who you are): Yes, you're right. Now, thinking back, I just completely lost it that day. I was pretty reactive during most of it. I became proactive only after he *told* me to calm down and talk to him calmly. That made me more angry because his tone was just so absolutely condescending, but then I shut up. Or, rather, attempted to, because I yelled at him a bit more afterwards.

I did and do have some respect for that person, just maybe not a lot.



Today, I didn't surf the web, or watch tv, or get distracted by other stuff, but I really didn't do much. I woke up late today, and after I finished eating breakfast it was already 3:00. Then, I started packing, but I was quite tired, so I was extremely unproductive. Pretty soon, though, I went to sleep, and woke up 9 something, took a shower, ate dinner, and by then it was 10:45. Only then did I really get into the midst of packing. Nevertheless, I was quite unproductive, and kept dazing off. I guess I'm still tired.

28

I remember back when I was very young, it was one of my goals to take an advanced driver training course.

I've been watching Top Gear. Richard Hammond seemed like an eager little boy just given his favourite game for Christmas.

I still want that drivers course, though I will NOT being racing around a track at any time in my life.

27

Today is the absolutely last day I can procrastinate.

Tomorrow I have a LOT to do.

26

I love this quote:
"You must make sure you have enough funds to pay your tuition fee and to live."
-London School of Economics

Pretty accurate, don't you think?

On another note, my throat is now sore from yelling at a certain someone.

There are certain 'types' of respect I have for certain people
1. criminals that want world-denomination (you know what I mean) or just evil people
2. sociopaths (well, maybe not completely), abusers in general (eg. child abusers, wifebeaters, etc).
3. ordinary people.

Obviously, there are much more to it than just these 3 categories, but I'm going to go straight to the point.

The person I was yelling at was in category 3, but in that category, I have almost no respect left for that person.

25

One of these days I should write a blog of respect, and what I'm doing about it.
Perhaps also synergy, and how synergy would make us all feel better by expressing our feelings and doing something about it.

I really should start synergizing a bit more.

By the way, I am aware that I do have tons of weaknesses particularly when it comes to procrastination, forgetfulnes, and using logic (yes, I know) when it comes to life in general (especially household tasks).

On a lighter note, Lily Allen's Littlest Things is pretty nice.

24

I didn't manage to do a single speck of homework, or to practice the piano today.

Hopefully tomorrow will be different.

Though, I really need to be a lot more strict with myself. Maybe I should start making timetables one day ahead, so then I'll have to follow it from the moment I wake up.

I probably won't do that today though, I need to go to sleep now.

22/23

Again, didn't manage to do a blog yesterday!!!!

Blog 22
Went to the MACC luncheon today.
I felt really really short.
I was SHOULDER HEIGHT of LN, and chin height of AJ, DJ, LM, and AM. And that was only of the people there.
My brother told me that historically our growth spurt stunts at grade 9 (term 1, actually).
That is not good.

Anyways, going back to MACC certainly brought back many memories, but they were mostly of MC's mannerisms.
Words like 'touch base', 'congregate', etc. were words that she commonly used.
On the topic of vocabulary, my vocabulary certainly 'decreased' DRASTICALLY after grade 7. I'm very serious, my vocabulary today is NOTHING compared to what I had in grade 7. I heard FC mention the word 'insipid', and I did not know what it meant. I promise you, if I spent two more years in that MACC environment, I would have known exactly what she was trying to say.
I guess you gradually turn into what the people around you are like. Or at least get influenced by them.
But then again, there are many things I've learnt in MY from my peers that I would never ever have learnt back in MACC.
Too bad table manners isn't part of the curriculum.
I still remember once when MC almost yelled at me for leaving my elbows on the table at a luncheon of some sort.

Well, at the very least, when she tells us to be quiet, we really be quiet, and extremely quickly by high school standard. I guess it has something to do with the high level of respect we have for her that is nurtured over several years of being in her class for several hours every day. Even the grads shut up pretty quickly.

Blog 23
I think my piano teacher wants to carve me up and give me us an offering to the gods of music.
Okay, maybe not.
But honestly, I'm really really bad with practicing.
So, for this winter vacation, my top priority is piano, with science fair a distant second. (Even though it should be my first priority).
And I will plan to practice 2 hours of piano every single day.

20/21

I didn't do blog 20 yesterday, because I slept for 12 hours instead of the 1 hour powernap that I planned... Is it okay to do an extra blog to make up for it today?

Blog 20
I'm very happy now that I can sleep regularly again!!! I haven't had too much trouble with power naps, though I haven't had all that fun trying to sleep yesterday.

I finally got the ULTRA BLUE (don't ask me why, it is capitalized!!!) album from Utada Hikaru on the iTunes on this computer.
So far, it has only 5 plays, so quite a bit far from the top 2 albums (there are 5 in total). Actually, its last.

1. Corinne Bailey Rae-Corinne Bailey Rae (honestly, this album is chock-full of potential singles)
Plays: 100 Tracks: 11
2. Maroon 5-It Won't Be Soon Before Long Plays: 95 Tracks: 11

I guess I might as well do the top 10 tracks today...
AI-Don't Stop
Rihanna-SOS
Corinne Bailey Rae-Trouble Sleeping
Esthero-In Tha Mood (I actually think that she's a better song writer than Utada Hikaru, anyways, this is the best song I've listened to for the past week or so)
Jamie Cullum-Get Your Way
Chantal Kreviazuk-Wonderful
The Last Goodnight-Pictures Of You
Maroon 5-Can't Stop
Maroon 5-Must Get Out
Alicia Keys-Karma (her new single, 'No One', to me sounds pretty bad. I think its because of her belting , though I'm not sure if that's the proper term or not)

Blog 21
I finally caught up on the weeks of Hikaru Utada news that I hadn't followed.
Apparently her record company released 'Automatic' as a free download on Chaku-uta for 4 days.
Argh.
It got 400,000 downloads.
Argh.
Anyways, I wouldn't have been able to download it, because Chaku-uta is an NTTDoCoMo mobile song downloading service, and I don't have a NTTDoCoMo phone.
By the way, she still gets her royalties, and her record company and managing office pays for the rest of the fees.
Whatever, EMI's rich enough, and her dad manages her, so its okay. I'm sure Utada can spare some money for her dad.

By the way, she has a new single, 'Heart Station/Stay Gold' to be released on February 20, 2008, if my memory doesn't fail me. I heard a preview of Stay Gold, its 1:30 minutes long and can be found on YouTube.
IT. IS. AWESOME.
Honestly.
I heard it once, and I thought immediately that this was the best song I've ever heard from Utada Hikaru.
I just hope that the rest of song lives up to the promised that this preview brings.
Honestly, please please just go to YouTube and search Utada Hikaru Stay Gold and listen to the preview. It really is an awesome song. (By the way, I'm too lazy to upload it or whatever to blogger).

She also has a new album soon after the release of HS/SG. It would mean that it would be a full 4 new singles since her last album (as in not including singles off her last album)
Boku wa Kuma
Flavor of Life (Utada HIkaru's biggest single EVER, 8.3 million downloads, Japan's number one single EVER, although not the number one Japanese language single ever-its a song called 'Sukiyaki' which hit Billboard number 1-, and possibly the worlds best selling digital single ever-either more than 5 million or more than 7 million-)ring tones and digital songs
(anyways, there is no official digital download chart for the world
-Daniel Powter's Bad Day sold 1.7 m digital song downloads in USA
-Akon's Smak That sold 2.1m ringtones in USA
-Recording Industry of Japan registeres a previous song which sold 4 m in Japan as the worlds best selling digital single
Beautiful World/Kiss & Cry
Heart Station/Stay Gold

By the way, most fans recognize 'Deep River' and 'Ultra Blue' as her best albums, with the former having a very small advantage.
I agree so too, they both have awesome songs, but Deep River has better singles.
But anyways, I haven't listened to all of her albums yet.

Anyways, Utada Hikaru now has the distinction of having the best selling album and best selling single in Japan of all time!
Well, actually, no.
Because of chart rules for Oricon, digital downloads are not accounted for in actual song counts, so Utada Hikaru sold only 650,000 copies of Flavor of Life, which is wayyyyy down the list. Its the number 2 song of 2007, though.
That is so outdated...

Actually, nevermind, I'm adding the video...

19

Whoops, I forgot the paraphrase and the blog topic again.

Parablog: It's not always easy to get something right.

Willing Suspension of Disbelief

Although we do have to suspend disbelief, sometimes I find myself picking out parts of the piece of work that would never happen in reality. In those cases, I always need to remind myself that this is just a book/game/etc., and not a documentary.

WSD is essential to enjoying a fictional piece of work, otherwise we would spend our energy picking out 'lies' rather than focusing on the entertaining aspects of the piece of work. WSD is found in pretty much all media, and is not limited to things which are intended to entertain, for example, advertisements.

18

For the last week, I haven't been able to sleep well, and in many cases not able to sleep at all. It's insomnia, except it appears to be related to hunger.

When I don't seem to eat enough, it seems that I can't sleep, and I don't feel as sleepy either.

The worst thing, though, is that I can't seem to tell if I'm hungry or not. For some reason, I seem to have lost my ability to 'sense' hunger (though I can sometimes).

And, I don't ever seem to be able to eat enough.



Today, for example, I knew I was dead tired, I slept for about 5-6 hours the night before, and not more than 7 hours (except on Staturday, which I finally was able to sleep at 3 and woke up at 1:30) the nights before. I tried to take a power nap, but for some reason, I didn't feel sleepy anymore, and there was this very vague sense of 'emptiness' in my stomach. Even though I ate something right before.

Its not fun.

17

Pretty late now, must go to sleep now.

I hate it when you can't sleep when you haven't eaten enough, and when you don't know if you've eaten enough or not.

15/16

I wasn't able to complete my blog yesterday, because of some connections problem again. It was okay earlier, but then later on in the day when I was going to do my blog, it didn't work.

Blog 15
Report cards were issued today, and I'm pretty happy with my marks.
I was several percentages away from an A in Math, and if I did get an A, I would have had straight A's. Oh well. To be honest though, I'm not a straight-A student, so I think this is pretty good for me.
However, I heard that many other schools have principal's list at 7 A's and 1 B, while we have it at 8 A's. Hmph. I guess if we did it that way, there would be too many people in our school getting principal's lists, cause we're so much smarter than the other schools, right?
Okay, I didn't really mean it.


Blog 16
It turns out that I accidentally skipped my piano lesson today.
I thought she said that I didn't have any lesson today, but it turned out that we had.
That's a really big deal, and I totally should have checked again with her.
Ugh.

14

Instead of procrastinating by surfing the internet, I'm now developing a tv addiction.
In the last two days, I've had my first doses of Grey's Anatomy, Will & Grace, America's Next Top Model, and have began watching other tv shows such as the Simpsons after a long break.

Parablog:
Competition can be great (and harmful at the same time).

13

The Calgary trip is now cancelled.

I feel relieved, for some reason.

12

Need to sleep now.
Only managed to do one hour of homework today...

11

Yeah whatever, I'm too lazy to do the chart thing.
Well, not really, its just I can't get around to doing it.
Which in other words means I'm procrastinating.
Procrastinating in turns means that I'm too lazy.

Whatever.

10

By the way, about the theory exam yesterday
I was at the Peace Mennonite Church (I forgot the name, though).
While waiting for my brother to arrive, I was reading their youth group's calender and newsletter. It was quite frank, to the point, and humourous.

9

I did my theory exam today.
I think I did well.
But everyone does well, Grade 2 Rudiments is one of the easiest theory exams ever. Every single person I know got above 95%.

For some reason, my brother talked me into playing Resident Evil/Biohazard 4. I am absolutely not that type of person. My eldest brother absolutely loves it, though, and has beaten every single Resident Evil game.
I did play some of Biohazard Zero and the re-release of Biohazard for GameCube while in Japan several years ago, because those were the only games that we had (it was my eldest brother's). I only got through about one chapter or so, and then gave up. Needless to say, I am not good at those games.

8

Paraphrase:
Even though you may be an evil and deceitful person, if you are talented enough, the world will listen to you.

That is quite depressing.

By the way, The Last Goodnight is an awesome band. Sounds a little bit similar to the music of Maroon 5, though.

7

I forgot the paraphrase again.
Paraphrase: Mary Anning was probably one of the best untrained fossil excavaters ever. Another person named Mantell, who was an excellent paleontologist, was probably the first person to 'discover' (well, more like publish) the dinosaur, except that somebody else sort of told him to slow down and not publish yet but did so himself anyways.

I should go now.

6

The debate fundraiser is now up in the air. I don't even know if I'm going to go tomorrow.
CS and VD want to stop, at the very least temporarily.
I don't blame them. Its not always that great getting up at 6:00 in the morning and then going to school, waiting for other people to come, set up, and then discovering that all you've earnt is less than $20.

Anyways, I have a lot of homework to do today, even though I had nothing after school.

By the way, there was a Grade 8 girl at square dancing yesterday who looked very much like Angela Aki.

In every group of people, there are always some that tend to be less 'social' (not necessarily reclusive). They might be seen as less fun, or other things like that. I don't know why, but I get the sense of innocence from them, meaning that they tend to think better of other people and not so aware of the stuff that's been circulating around (not that I'm claiming to know everything, I really really really don't. People just don't tell me, and I'm perfectly fine with that). Then again, maybe they're just storing it up inside and not telling everyone else. However, I do have to say that I've met some people like that who are just absolute jerks (however, only 1, though).

I am getting the impression that I'm one of those people.
I think a great deal of my blogs are filled with negative comments of other people. That is really not a good thing. Those blogs tend to be boring.

Anyways, I'm being pretty rude sometimes to CS. People tell me I'm too serious, and sometimes I get a bit passionate when I see people doing rude things, even though they're all in fun. Sigh.

This is probably a bit late, but David Bowie (!) portrayed Nikola Tesla in the prestige.

5

I got the science marks back.
Didn't do too well, 80/100. I didn't think I really wanted to know, but I did anyways.
Barely scraped past an A.
In Japanese, I did pretty well, getting 95%. Although, all the high-achievers got better me, something more like 97%. Oh well, its an A, and I don't really care about much.
For some reason, I got 92% in PE. My best ever mark. In French, I have a 93% or something like that, so its okay. In math, our teacher bumped me up 2 percent for participation, so I got 83.6%. However, I didn't improve at all on the retest, and that was mostly because I didn't do the corrections at hand. Although, I did have two questions which I would have gotten right, had I checked my work. For one of those two, I filled in the wrong blank... but whatever, I wouldn't have gotten A anyways. JC was super, getting somethign like 98.4%. Wow.
Apparently, to get into IB HL math, its really hard, and you would have to go directly to grade 11E math next year, and take math at summer school. That's not an option for me, but oh well, its okay.

Today I was talking with my mum, and the topic of the debate trip to Calgary was raised. Apparently I could go after all, and it just depended on whether I wanted to go or not.
I've been telling everyone that I couldn't go if I couldn't get subsidized. Well, that changes things now.
Though, to be honest, I don't really want to go that much. I think I have a good idea of how I'm doing in debate, with tournament rankings to back me up, and those results are really not that good.

4b Paraphrase

Paraphrase:
This time, we're looking at fossils. First off, William Smith was trying to figure out how to seperate rocks by their ages. He realized that he needed some form of reference, and the answer lay within fossils. As we learnt in science, with different levels of rocks, there are different fossils of species. Smith later on published a map, which became one of the most important publications of geology. However, he didn't care about why they were there.
Nevertheless, as we bring God in the equation, there are many questions that are left to be answered. Why did God kill off so many species, and were those ones killed but not other ones?
Later on, there were many other dinosaur bone discoveries, but none were really investigated.
Nonetheless, in England, Mary Anning found another fossil, and started gathering fossils and selling them, becoming the origin of the tongue twister 'she sells seashells on the seashore'.

Blog:
I just remembered about the science test we had today.
I'm glad that I didn't think much about the test afterwards, otherwise I would have been very depressed the entire day. I didn't even manage to start on the last page, so 6 marks are gone right there. I don't even want to think about how many marks I lost/can get, or even if I'm going to get an A or not.
MP did say something that I should keep in mind though. She said something along the lines of how one test is so insignificant in our long paths in school. It'd really help to keep that in mind.
After remember this, I practiced piano. Not so much because I wanted to practice, but because I was not happy about the sciente test.

4

With the debate fundraising, we're okay on the hot chocolate, but not really anywhere near close to break-even yet on the raffles.
Actually, there is other stuff with raffles that we haven't worked out yet. But to you buyers, there is no problem, it does not affect you in anyway. It just affects us.

3

I better go to sleep now, because I have to be at school early tomorrow.

I've been thinking about an overall plan for the day, which is sort of a successor to the daily timetable I did last year and sort of gave up on/too lazy to continue.

(I'm being EXTREMELY generous with the times, nobody takes this long to do these things)
4:00 arrive at home
4:45 start eating
5:15 finish eating
5:30 start piano
7:00 finish piano/theory
7:45 start eating
8:30 finish eating
9:00 start homework
10:00 finish homework
10:30 go to sleep

Hm... There really isn't much time, is there?

1/2

Blog 1/2 (They're mixed together)

Its snowing....
and its finally getting cold. Not that I want it to, but its just an observation.
This morning, I was late for Chinese school by about 20 minutes. Nobody cared.
Yesterday, I came home at 4:20, because MP offered to drive me back at four, so I stayed around after recycling. After I came home, ate a little bit (couple of those Danish cookies) did some other pertinent things, and slept at around 7:00, planning to wake up at 8:00 to work on my two theory practice exams due tomorrow and study for the test and also the theory exam. Woke up at 8:00 next day. (That's why I wasn't able to do a blog yesterday.) Quickly looked over and studied for Chinese a bit, then went down and ate. After everything, it was 9:20. Then, by the time I got to the bus stop, it was around 9:30, and I thought I missed the bus, so I just walked to school. While walking, I saw the bus pass right next to me. Hmph.

By the time I walked to piano, it was really cold. I was much better prepared now, though, and dressed appropriately.
It's during these times that I'm glad we have ground heating, double windows (or whatever they're called), and that our car has all-season tires and ABS. Its also these times that I'm somewhat disappointed that our car has unoperable airbags (don't ask), two wheel drive with a not-very-good differential (well, at the least its front wheel-drive), no traction controls of any kind (well, if you don't count ABS, and ABS isn't really a 'traction control' device), and no snow tires.

I'm not sure if I've talked about this before, but I remember very clearly there being no student testimonials for Middle Years Program. I wondered why before, but wasn't concerned up to the point of not applying for it. Now, I think I have a pretty good idea of why there isn't a student up there. If I was up there, I think I'd be able to convince everybody not to apply for MY, and probably Britannia Venture. Although there are quite a bit of good points, but the fact that its not a district-wide program eliminates most of the people who would benefit from them.

EDIT: Changed the blog counts, forgot it was term 2.