Thursday, December 31, 2009

Wow, procrastination

Well, here I am on New Year's Eve writing a post about Christmas.

I really need to quit doing that.

My Christmas was really great this year. It hardly felt like Christmas until the 24th and 25th. It was really weird, but almost all the family was visiting, so that was awesome.

At around 5:30 on Christmas Eve, me, my parents and my brothers headed off to church for the children's Christmas mass. I love the children's mass because it's shorter and more lively. It's always very loud because of all the screaming children. I love it.

After church, we headed over to my grandmother's house to hang out. I hung out in the living room with my brothers and cousins watching Christmas specials on DVD. It was all good. Except that my godmother brough the hellspawn (her daughter) with her. For the record, I do not like the hellspawn. I mentioned her in one of the first posts I ever made on this blog. She hasn't improved at all since then. If anything, she's gotten worse.

So, she was there. But I mostly ignored her, that may sound mean, but it's really better if I do that. Four of my cousins were there, and they were pretty entertaining. The youngest one, who's about three I think, bounced around the room and kept spilling chips everywhere. Her sister wandered around with a singing Frosty the Snowman doll-thing. And they both loved my camera, as most of the kids I know do. My two other cousins, 8 and 12 (about), talked about books and ipods.

After the party was over, me and my immediate family went back to my house to open presents. I got episode DVDs, the Dirty Minds board game (entertainment for get togethers), sweaters, a calender, and a pair of clothespin chopsticks. The chopsticks look like a clothespin with a very long end. I guess it's for beginners (like myself). I haven't had a chance to use them yet since no one has bought any noodles yet (that's the only thing I eat with chopsticks so far).

Christmas Day dinner was at Nanny's house, and supper was at my other grandparents' house. Santa visited my other grandparents' house for the my three youngest cousins, that was cute. I was teased about not having a boyfriend, everyone joked around, and a good time was had by all.

Nothing has really happened since then. I'm on Christmas break from college until the 5th and I've been using my free time to watch movies and endless hours of TV. It's very relaxing not to have to worry about school and assignments. I like it.

Another thing I've been up to is putting more effort into learning Japanese. I haven't played the My Japanese Coach game in a while, I have to get on that. Before I start playing the game again, I have to learn the hiragana and katakana alphabets. I didn't bother to learn them while I was playing the game and that's just made everything more difficult. I'm pretty good with the hiragana, but the katakana is another story altogether.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Not dead, for reals

Hi, still alive.

My first semester of college is almost over, tomorrow is the last day. Then it's two weeks of Christmas break! Love it! Two weeks without having to worry about waking up early and completing assignments. Great!

Soooooooooooo, my first semester actually wasn't too bad. The workload was... big, but I got through it. I only have two assignments left to do and then I'm done until January. Go me!

In other news, Christmas is coming! My house has been decorated since last month, and family is expected to come down later this week, and we probably won't be visiting the city at all! Yay! And it's my baby cousin's first Christmas, so that's always fun. Last Christmas there was no kids down, but this year almost everybody's coming down! On both sides! Should be great.

Joined an Anti-Twilight forum. Having a good time so far. I'm learning stuff about Twilight and so far I seem to be justified in my reasons about disliking the series. Learned about all the crazy fans too. Watch several videos on youtube featuring teenagers (mostly young girls) saying how awesome Twilight is, how hot Edward or Jacob is, or that anyone who doesn't like Twilight should go die.

Lovely. Buncha weirdos.

Monday, November 30, 2009

And it still sucks

Just watched a review for the Dragonball Evolution movie (I'm still pissed about it), so I thought I'd take this opportunity to point out what was wrong with it (I'm bored). I only watched the movie once, a couple of months ago, so I don't remember everything that happened, or in what order they happened in.

Let's get started! (rubs hands together)

-They didn't even make it past the intro without screwing it up. I grew up with Dragonball Z, so I don't know much about Dragonball (I saw a few episodes and read the manga, once) so that part about the eclipse and the Earth almost being destroyed may or may not have been true, I'm thinking no.

For one thing, King Piccolo was created when Kami forced all the evil out of his body so that he could become Earth's guardian. And I don't remember what Piccolo did to get trapped in that jar-thing-whatever-it's-called. Whatever.

Eclipse aside, the intro also mentioned that Oozaru was Piccolo's disciple. I know that that's not true. Oozaru, for those who don't know, is the form Saiyans take when they gaze at the full moon. The big monkey thing (Gohan did it, several times. That's why Piccolo destroyed the moon in DBZ.). As far as I know, Piccolo had never had contact with the Saiyans, ever.

I can't remember anything from the intro after that.

-Why is Grandpa Gohan still alive? In both the DB manga and anime, he's dead. We never see him because he died before the series started (Goku turned Oozaru and accidentally stepped on him). If they were gonna put Gohan in the movie, I suppose they could start it before he died, to explain what happened to him. Of course, they didn't do that. In the movie, Gohan is killed by Piccolo (FAIL).

-How old is Goku in this movie? 17/18. When the DB series began (even after Gohan was dead) Goku was 12 and looked like he was 5.

-Goku attends high school. What. The. Fuck.

-Come to think of it, they practically killed Goku's character in this movie. First off, we notice that Goku's more interested in girls than in fighting. Throughout the whole DB/DBZ series, Goku was always more interested in fighting, it's in his blood. He loved his family, but he loved the fight more. Also, anyone who's seen the original DB series knows that when we first meet Goku, he can't tell the difference between males and females without checking the crotch area, and he didn't know what a wife was until he was about 20 or so.

-Puar, Oolong, Krillen, Ubaba, The Ox King, and many others are missing from this movie.

-Master Roshi does not live on an island. He is not bald and not wearing sunglasses or a turtle shell. That and the city we find him in looks nothing like West City.

-Bulma's capsule bike is more like a Transformer.

-What the hell did they do to Yamcha? In the series, he's a desert bandit who knows a fair bit about martial arts, and he's deathly afraid of women. In the movie he looks like a doped up surfer dude, who seems to have no problem whatsoever with Bulma.

-Mai does not look like herself. In the movie she's working for Piccolo, when she's really supposed to be working for Pilaf. Pilaf and the dog are missing from this movie.

-I don't like Chichi in this movie.

-What did they do to the Kamehameha? Master Roshi teaches Goku to use it by getting him to light candles with it. In the series, Roshi didn't teach it to Goku, he told him about it and Goku did it on his own. Also, the first time Goku did the Kamehameha, he knocked over a car.

-You can't use the Kamehameha to restore someone's life force thing, whatever. Like in the movie when Goku got shot (...) and almost died. There's a way to transfer energy, but not with the Kamehameha (remember Goku and Krillen near the end of the Saiyan Saga in DBZ).

-Goku and Chichi making out. It's pretty easy to assume that Goku did not know the meaning of making out until sometime during the time lapse between DB and DBZ.

-They ruined Shenron, completely. He doesn't talk in the movie (or maybe he does, I don't really remember), also since when was he yellow and stumpy. That was not Shenron, I don't care what they call him.

-This is just nitpicking, but aren't the Dragonballs bigger than how they were in the movie.

-The lava scene with Piccolo's blood spawn. What the fuck was that all about.

Anyway, that's all I can remember now. I refuse to go back and watch that movie again. Ever. Hated it. There should be a law about live action adaptations for anime.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Determin'd

Hokay, I am officially attempting to build up a manga collection. I have no idea why I'm only starting it now, but whatever.

So far, I only have a few titles (A Perfect Day for Love Letters, Absolute Boyfriend, Fruits Basket, Godchild, Hana Kimi, InuYasha, Kingdom Hearts 2, Pokémon Adventure, Wallflower and Your & My Secret). I have a list of the manga series I want for my collection. I'm off to a good start.

Of course, there're some problems.



First off, I'm broke. I have no job and the money I have saved up is to pay for my college fees. But, by saving up my lunch money change I can find a way around that.

Second problem is that there is almost no way for me to actually get manga. The closest bookstore just closed down for good, not that they had an extensive selection (they probably had about 4 or 5 titles, I only recognized one). The closest used bookstore doesn't have any manga in stock, and the closest bookstore I can get to now is an hour and a half car ride away. And if I want to get lesser known titles I have to drive THREE hours away.

Grah!

Of course, there's the option of ordering online, but my mother doesn't like that and I can't just keep on bugging my aunt to order stuff for me.

Sometimes I hate living in the middle of nowhere on the media map.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

I Love College

Today's lunch was fun.

I have no idea what was going on, some kind of stress relief day, or something. There was music playing and stuff was going on at every table. The table I was sitting at had a puzzle on it. But we noticed that the next table over had Play-Doh, which was being used to make stress balls.

I went over to make a stress ball and brought it back to my table. Then everyone saw it and was playing with it and I did it wrong so it became deformed. It ended up looking like a butt. I was sent over to the other table for more balloons and Play-Doh and we made some more stress balls at the table. Then we ran out of Play-Doh and turned our attention to the box at the other table.

The box was full of foam-ish pellets. Me and one of my friends read the box (which was mostly in German) and found out that the pellets stuck together with water. So I grabbed an empty Play-Doh case and went to get water. Then me and my friend made some stuff with the pellets. She made a flower and a sun and I made a tree.

Then we went to class where some people were passing around dick-shaped candies.

... this place is very interesting.

Monday, November 2, 2009

3 Things

1) 200th POST! WHOO

2) There are three bathroom stalls in the bathroom I usually go in at school. The middle stall is the only one where the lock doesn't work backwards. I only noticed this today when I went to unlock the door. Then I checked the lock on another stall to make sure I wasn't losing my mind.

3) Have you ever gotten back a homework assignment, like an essay, and reread it and then think that it sounds too smart to have been written by you? Yeah, I just did that now.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Needles Suck

So, I went to get my H1N1 vaccination today.

Hated it.

They had clinics set up all week giving out free vaccinations, there was one today in my town. It started at ten o'clock but my mom decided to bring me and my brothers early because she heard that the lines could get extremely long.

We got there at like nine o'clock, and the line was loooooong. Some people had even been there since six! It was insane!

I only got my needle at like 4:30, or something like that. Most of the day was spent waiting in line and the rest of the day was spent waiting inside the church. It sucked.

So I got my needle, barely felt it. I ran across the room towards my brother and then I got really dizzy and fell. I almost passed out. First time that that's ever happened to me. It was weird.

Anyway that sucked, and now my knee hurts.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Just came to tell you I'm not dead

-There was supposed to be a strike at my school where the teachers would walk out and we would get a vacation. We've been hearing about it for weeks now and last week they finally set a date. The strike was supposed to start today. Instead, my Psych professor tells us yesterday morning that the strike is off. Boo, no vacation for me. At least it doesn't break the schedule, and we get a free breakfast on Tuesday because of it.

-My laptop is still not back. I am still pissed, but I am making due with my desktop and my external hard drive. As soon as I get my laptop back I will start restoring files and continue working on my vampire story (of which production was halted because I'd rather work directly from my laptop, because I suck like that), right now though I'm working on my Detective Conan episode watching. I vowed that I was gonna watch every single anime episode.

-I somehow got it into my head that it would be a good idea to download songs from movies I like to watch. So far it's going good, except when Limewire's being a bitch and doesn't want to work. I got a lot of new songs now, which is good.

-Eddie Izzard, ftw. I found a torrent with a lot of his routines. Quality entertainment.

-The 13 Detective Conan movie (The Raven Chaser) came out on the 17th. It took me all day to download it and I ended up staying up until almost 2AM watching it. But it was sooooo worth it. It was an epic movie. I only have one question: Where in the name of saggy pants did Gin get a machine-gun helicopter?! That's honestly the first time I've ever seen them with one. For an organization that works in secrecy, they're not being very secretive here. I'm pretty sure they're quite noticeable opening fire on Toutou Tower while the police and God only knows how many civilians. And they didn't even know who they were shooting at, the nuts.

-Apparently my school has a video game club. They have my attention. The first meeting is on Thursday. All I need to do now is find someone to drag along with me so I don't look like a total goober standing there by myself looking awkward.

-This actually came out a few weeks ago, but, our bishop (well he's really an ex-bishop now) is a pedophile. He was arrested on the charges of possessing child pornography. ...oh yes, religious people are fun. *insert eye roll here* This guy was at my confirmation! I think I may have actually mentioned that! I took a picture with him! Ew... I got rid of that picture, let me tell you. And he's being fined like 15 million dollars, or something. They said in the newspaper, or maybe it was the radio, that the parishioners are expected to help pay.

Uh, no.

The bishop is the one who committed a felony, not us. Let him pay the fine himself. Even my mother said that they won't be getting any money from us. I wholeheartedly agree. I have no problem donating money to a good cause. This is a lost cause. No dice, Pedopriest.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

GRAR!

GAH!

I am angry, as you can maybe tell. My laptop crashed. After a few months of routine freezing, the stupid thing just ups and quits. It would not start.

Dad took it to Future Shop where we found out that the hard drive was shot. We also found out that they can't get my stuff back.

Yeah.

So I lost everything, basically. I even lost stuff I've been saving up for years because one of my flashdrives went wonky and I moved all my stuff to my laptop to keep it from being deleted.

That didn't turn out so well.

All my stuff is on the hard drive, but no one can get to it. So it's basically gone now. Yipee.

All I have left is whatever I backed up in July the last time we had to send the stupid thing in.

I bought an external hard drive with the purpose of putting stuff on it, but I just never got around to it. I hate it when I do that.

So I lost my SIMS pictures, again, my finished picture/art things, all the picnik pictures I did, a bunch of stories, various organizing things, some videos, and various other things that I found important.

My parents don't care that I lost all this stuff because all they're concerned about is the schoolwork that I had on there. I don't care about the schoolwork. I was finished with most of it and the rest I could get back. Most of the other stuff was irreplaceable.

I am pissed, and I have no one to complain to.

Monday, September 21, 2009

And on VHS too

I was bored and feeling Harry Potter deprived after I finished listening to the audio books, so I turned to the movies.

I watched the fifth movie, because that's the movie I watched the less, then I watched the third movie. Then I watched the first movie.

Oh. My. God.

The actors looked so YOUNG! They were so adorable! OHMAHGOD!!

My favourite was the boy who pays Seamus Finnigan. Close seconds are Neville and Ron.

I totally couldn't get over how young they looked. I hadn't seen that movie in years and since then I watched mostly the later movies because I have 3, 4 and 5 on DVD.

The main thing is thatI had forgotten how adorable the characters were. I looked around every crowd scene and tried to recognize everybody. I think the first two movies were Emma Watson's best Hermione roles, and Ron, Seamus and Neville were just too cute.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

I'm not dead, just so's you know

I started college... last week. It has been a whole new experience. First, the bus. Strangers everywhere. Not the same bus driver and not the same passengers. Not even the same kind of bus. That threw me for a loop. But, it's not that bad. Except for lately, they switched the bus drivers and the new guy seems kind of... ehm. But other than that, I have no complaints.

The school itself completely surprised me. On the first day there, I participated in an 'Amazing Race' of sorts and proceeded to run around the building with everybody. High school this ain't.

Also, I am among the youngest in my class. There are actual adults in there, like really. That was weird. But a cool thing is that there's like three levels of seats (I call them bleacher seats) and I sit on the top level. That entertains me. Another thing that entertains me is that I don't have to ask to go to the bathroom.

I know, the simplest things.

Anyway, you can leave the room whenever you want, although it's not recommended that you skip classes. But I left the class without having to even look at the teacher. That was certainly different.

It was really weird to look around at all the unfamiliar people in the room with me and think of them as 'my class'. Where was my best friend? Where was the class clown? Where was one of the friendliest guys I have ever known? Where were all the familiar faces? Where was MY class.

As it turns out, my class had been replaced with these new people that occupied the seats in front of me (I sit in the back). I've found that it's not such a bad trade off. At least I'll be able to make new friends. I still miss my class though.

I was filling out information on a subject divider and on the line for School, I almost put the name of my high school before remembering where I was. I wonder when I'll stop referring to my high school as my class and my school and start calling them my old class and my old school.

No time soon, I fear. I really do miss my class.

And totally off topic, if anyone gets the chance to watch the movie Dear Zachary, do it. Though I suggest that you prepare yourself mentally for it because what's in it will probably have you feeling very worn out after. Personally, I was angered and saddened all at once and now have a very low opinion of the justice system and authority in general.

But other than that, it's a good movie and the ending was very touching.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Different

My brothers started school today. This is the first time since the end of second grade that me and my brothers won't be in school together.

My school starts on the eighth. It's gonna be really weird for me to go into school without the familiar classmates I've gone with since kindergarten.

I'm taking a public transit to college and that's gonna be a totally different bus scene with total strangers. That's going to be really weird.

I can't believe that it's already time for another school year to start. It doesn't seem that long ago that I started my grade 12 year and been excited for graduation.

There's only gonna be 3 other people from my school going to my college and only one of them will be in my class with me.

My schooling life has been officially turned upsidown.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Epic! And How!

I found the most amazingest thing ever yesterday!!

A Very Potter Musical.

I normally hate musicals, but this one is just beyonf funny. I literay rolled around laughing it's that good.

If you haven't seen it yet, I suggest you go on youtube.com to watch it. You will not regret it.

In other news, someone called work today from Scotland.

Scotland!

That's like, almost on the other side of the word from where I live (I'm only assuming this because I have no idea where Scotland is). Anyway I thought it was the awesomest thing ever! I've never spoken to someone from Scotland before. More epicness.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Bullets! Epic Fail!

-No need to remind me that I'm lazy, I am well aware of that. :D

-Since my last post, I got my laptop fixed. We had to send it back to Future Shop, where they concluded that there was a program conflict before formatting everything and sending it back for me to reload everything. Luckily for me, I had already backed up everything, just to make the notice that kept popping up go away. Fucking back up notice...

-I'm still at my job at the cultural center. It's a very good job. I get to sit around playing on my laptop waiting for the phone to ring, or I go in the boutique or work on the paperwork for it. And a few times last month I was in the garage in the back painting signs. I got to watch Conan and Escaflowne while I did it so I had fun.

-Two of my cousins from America came down for about a week or two, can't remember. That was fun. We had a movie night just about every night and we all went out to eat once. There was me, my brothers, my cousins and our friend, and then we were joined by this little twit that keeps stalking my brothers.

-Speaking of this twit, I am becoming increasingly annoyed with him and his stupid parents. I long to just punt him right out of the yard, but he's 11 and I'm 18, so I'd probably get arrested for child abuse or something like that.

-Speaking of 18, I had my birthday last month. I was at work and my boss had hidden me in the back so I wasn't at the front desk. Then I went out front to ask a question and saw a lot of my family crowded around the front desk. And then I went out to the restaurant to find my three grandparents, my parents, my brothers, my cousins and the people I work with all seated at a large table. Surprise birthday party, I almost died. So we all ate and talked and generally goofed off. Then, one of the restaurant people showed up with a cake and the whole restaurant joined in to sing happy birthday to me. That was beyond epic.

-And then I got an DQ ice cream cake/pizza/pie dealie thing when I got home.

-Then my cousins left, and that sucks. There was a chance that they might be able to come back down, but so far they haven't turned up.

-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince hit theatres down here on July 15, we went to see it last Monday. It takes about an hour and a half to get to the theatre from where we live. So we left about an hour and 45 minutes earlier than the movie (which was playing at 3:00). We were going fine for a while, then we hit the eternal road construction. I call it eternal because there seems to always be road construction when we go up that way. So we were stuck for about 20 minutes in a lineup of cars, waiting to be let through. It was slow going because we were following a long lineup of cars. Me and one of my brothers were counting down the minutes and we figured that we had a slight chance of making it if we didn't fuck around.

Then we hit more road construction. That's when I started making the death threats. We contemplated just waiting for the next showing (which was at 6:25) and I refused to hang around in the malls or whatever for over 3 hours. So we begged Dad to step on it so we could make the 3:00 showing.

We reached the theatre about 10 minutes after three o'clock. We waited in line for about 5 minutes, ran through the ticket checker booth thing, whirled through the bathroom and dove into our theatre seats to realize that we had missed about 5 minutes of the movie.

Whatever, we were there and we weren't moving. The movie ran a little over two hours and was... eh... yeah. The book was way better, even though Harry was even more of a stalker and I found that very annoying but, whatever. Also, the part where the identity of the Half-Blood Prince was revealed was insanely anticlimactic. And it didn't say why buddy called himself HBP, it was ridiculous.

But I still can't wait for the last two movies to come out (they're doing the last book in two parts, thank God).

-So, after realizing that I had no idea what went on in the beginning of the sixth book, I decided that rereading it would be a good idea. Only problem was, I didn't want to reread it (the book it fucking huge). And then I didn't want to reread it without rereading the other books, which I always thought were better than the movies, and I don't own the fourth book so that could pose a problem. So I did the next best thing.

I download all seven Harry Potter audio books from the Internet and have been listening to them instead of rereading them. It's basically the same thing, except I don't have to read. Because I rarely just sit and read anymore, which sucks, but that's life.

-While listening to the audio books (I'm in the middle of the fourth one now), I realized that I had forgotten nearly everything that wasn't covered in the movies. I really enjoyed listening to the random scenes that weren't 'good enough' to make it into the movies. Quiddich at the Weasley's, the description of the campsite at the Quiddich World Cup, the tiny walking Krum figurine, the Weasleys getting stuck in the Dursley's fireplace, Snape freaking right the fuck out after Sirius escapes, and other little things like that. I'm now very glad that I decided to listen to the audio books.

-Speaking of little details, I was at the end of the third book, in the last chapter, where the Dursley's are picking Harry up from King's Cross station and Harry lets it slip that he has a murdering godfather who likes to check up on him from time to time. I giggled for 10 minutes straight after that. My brothers thought that I had lost it.

-During the chapter in the fourth book when Harry, Ron and Hermione are at the Quiddich World Cup, when the trio goes to the pump for water, they have to line up to wait their turn and overhear a conversation between two wizards about a pair of muggle pants. I remembered, the first time I had read the book, hearing that exact same conversation in a flash cartoon on the Internet. I searched for it and quickly found it. Then I listened to it, remembered it from years before, and promptly fell over laughing. (
here it is)

-My family reunion is coming up this weekend. As I have never attended one of these before, and my dad's family is just made of awesome, I am beyond excited. It also coincides with the annual festival, so this should be fun indeed.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Interesting

[From yesterday]

Thing one: I got my hair cut!

Finally!

It's so short that it doesn't even touch my shoulders. It also looks better with my hats than my long hair did. Go me!

Thing two: I got a summer job!

The cultural center on the island has a student grant, or something, and someone called me to see if I wanted an interview.

I went for the interview yesterday at 9:00am (dies) and they called me yesterday afternoon to tell me I was hired.

Today is my first day.

I had to wake up at 7:00am! In July! My summer vacation! (dies again)

(I don't know what time this is gonna be posted, but I'm writing this on paper at 9:49am.)(In July.)(My summer vacation.)(oi.)

My job here is to work reception and the arts and crafts boutique.

Yeah, somehow I got a job answering phones and greeting people.

... if nothing else, this should be interesting.

[From today]

Day two at the desk. Whoo. Just finished my lunch hour 15 minutes ago.

I have come to the conclusion that this job isn't so bad (even though I have to answer phones and greet people and have almost no free time). I kind of like hanging out at the desk.

I'm there by myself for one thing, and it also reminds me of school. All French and structured schedules and all that. So it's nice.

It's still hard to believe that I actually got a job. It gives me something to do besides being on the computer at home all day, even though there's a computer here for me to play with.

Also, my laptop seems to have a problem. I don't know why, but when I turn it on and log in, it'll run fine for a random amount of time, then everything will just stop working and then it'll freeze up.

I have absolutely no idea what that is all about, but it's rather annoying.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

DONE!!!

WHOO!! Graduated! I'm free!!!

...ahem...

So, I finally graduated from high school. When September rolls around, I will be a college student. Go me.

The practise for the mass was on Tuesday. Not really much to say about that. It was a practise of the mass. Whoever had stuff to do went up and did them and everyone did the walking in and sitting down and all that fun stuff.

Wednesday morning was the practise for the grand march. I don't know why we only had a practise the day before, but we're lucky it wasn't complicated and we picked it up pretty quick. Most of us showed up, some of us with our escorts.

We ran through the march a few times. For the first few times, we all lined up side-by-side in a line that stretched outside (there's a door outside at the back of the stage). Me and a few others were stuck outside, and every time we made it inside they started the drill over. So then we switched it out that the girls were on one side of the stage and the boys were on the other and then we would come out one couple at a time, meet in the middle, walk through the castle/arch/thing we had going on, stand for pictures and walk off the stage.

We ran through that a couple of times before calling it a day and going home.

Wednesday night was the mass. It was boring, the end. After the mass was the picture circus. A bunch of people with cameras were taking our pictures left and right. That was immensely annoying. After we escaped from that, I went home.

Thursday was graduation day. The Day of No Relaxation... Or Peace.

Thursday afternoon my aunt came over and did my hair. Everything was curled and piled up on my head and bobby-pinned in place. Needless to say, it hurt, and it was heavy.

5:00 was the supper. The room was packed tight with circular tables. The meal was a turkey dinner with cherry cheesecake for dessert. They played a slide show of pictures of the graduating class growing up. That was cute. It took a while to serve everyone and we ended up running late (no surprise there).

Sometime after 6:00 was the actual graduation. After the supper was over we hurried over to the school to put on our robes. Then we lined up in order and headed over to the AV room, where the ceremony was being held. The AV room is built kind of like a theatre with two sets of stairs. So, one at a time, we each walked down a stairway and onto the stage. We ended up sitting in a semi-circle on the stage in alphabetical order.

There were speeches and awards and all that. Then our former principal came up and talked about each of us, she had taught us all many times before and had fond memories of each of us. Then more speeches. One of my friends went up and said something about each of the teachers. Then the diplomas were given out, another speech, then we all threw our hats in the air (and have them fall back on us). Another photo circus ensued.

At 9:00 I showed up at the building where the prom was being held. I arrived second, my escort showed up seconds before I did. Then my best friend's escort showed up after I changed into my dress. The three of us hung outside by the back of the stage to wait for everyone else to show up. Eventually and slowly, everyone showed up and we all hung out backstage to wait to be called out for the grand march.

Then I suddenly felt nauseous, so that ruined part of the night. Each couple was called out one at a time, I was last in line. After the grand march was the dance with the parents, then a dance with the escorts. After that, everyone started leaving. I was planning on going to a party, but I was sick so I just went home.

And I've been sick ever since. Fun.

Well, that was my graduation. I still can't believe that we're finally done. It's gonna be sad in September when I start college and realize that me and my high school class will never be all together ever again. We've all been together since kindergarten and it's hard imagining school without them at this point.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Oh Hell

This is gonna be one hell of a busy week.

Graduation week (dun dun dun DUN!!)

Tomorrow is mass practice, Wednesday is the mass and Thursday is the graduation and prom. It's going to be extremely busy this week, and I hate busy.

Yesterday was my grad party. According to my mother, there were 70-something people that came. Wow.

And my cousin from America came down for the weekend! Yay!

And then she left last night! Not yay!

This weekend was busy though. There was always something cooking on the stove for the party and there was a bunch of people wandering around.

For the party we had lots of food and live music and a few people got up and danced. But everyone mostly just sat around and talked. I had a good time.

And I got to hang out with my cousin!! We played Uno a lot... even during the party... with waterproof cards! Yeah, how cool are we?

Anyway, this week is gonna be busy. I hate busy. Bleh.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

WHOO!!

It's over!!!!!!!

I had my one and only final exam today! School is over! I'm finally done with high school! No more French! YESSS!

This is a happy and exciting time in my life. It is also a sad time. The events in the coming week will probably be the last times where we are all gonna be together hanging out.

I've been together with these kids for the last 13 years, and that's all gonna end next week on the 25th. Graduation.

We're not kids anymore. I don't know when, but we all grew up. We're adults now. We may not all be ready to enter the real world, but we don't have a choice now. We're there.

Come September, we won't be treated like kids anymore. And we won't all be together anymore. Some will, most won't. We'll be separated into different schools or workplaces. We'll meet new people, make new friends and start new lives.

I hope that I'll be able to keep in touch with most of these people. We've had to put up with each other for 13 years, it isn't right that we sever all ties with each other now.

On the 25th, we'll kiss our childhood goodbye and start moving ahead with our futures... and hopefully we won't screw anything up along the way.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Theme Week

This week was theme week at school.

Monday was opposite sex day (which I miss for an orthodontist appointment, grr). Base on all the pictures I saw, I can say that a lot of people participated, with great enthusiasm. Boys wore dresses and skirts, and girls wore baggy jeans with boxer shorts sticking out.

Tuesday was holiday day, or something, where everybody had to dress up as a holiday. Barely anyone participated for that. One of my friends did wear a Christmas tree ornament for an earring for a little bit.

Wednesday was toga day, so there was a bunch of people wandering around wrapped up in sheets. My sheet was blue with sheep on it.

Yesterday was TV day, where everybody had to dress up like a TV character. I borrowed my dad's suit and went as Alan Shore from Boston Legal, of course, only like two other people knew who that was. There was a group that had dressed up as the cast of One Tree Hill and some others who were the cast of Friends (minus Chandler). A few others were people from Grey's Anatomy and there was one as Baby Lyssa from Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Today was 70s, 80s and 90s day. I'm not at school right now so I have no idea what's going on there now.

Instead of going to school and participating, like I wanted to, I was dragged to the community college to try to get out of taking a computer class next year. Predictably, I aced the tests we had to do and was the first one done.

So I will not be taking a computer class next year.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Nice and Sunny... and Cold

It was sunny and warm out this morning so Mom made me go outside to work on a tan I really need (seriously, I am ghost-pale). I wasn't even outside for a half-hour and I managed to get four bug bites. I don't know how I do it sometimes. I even got one on my toe! Who the hell gets a bite on their toe?!

Anyway...

I was talking to my mom about how I didn't like some of her friends (like the one who feels it necessary to scold me like a five-year-old child when I curse, even though his little twit probably curses more than me and looks and acts like a five-year-old). We eventually got on the topic of people writing me off because I watch anime.

I know that no one's said it to my face in a while, but it still annoys the fuck out of me. I think it's only certain people that do it, but they used to bring it up randomly and ask me how I can watch stuff like that. I never know what to answer them because I don't even get why they're asking. The best thing I can come up with is that I watch anime for the same reason that you watch the shows you watch: because I enjoy it.

I suppose it could be because the only anime most of these people know of is Pokémon, Digimon, Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon, and maybe InuYasha. Now, all those anime series (except InuYasha) is directed at children. The people who criticize me for watching anime all watched these shows when they were children, so I can see that they would view them as childish. What they don't know, however, is that there are other anime series that are directed to people of our age and older. I own a manga of Godchild, I should bring it to school and show it to them, see what they think.

Another topic me and Mom got to talking about was my standing on the school yearbook committee, and the meeting we had on Thursday. All I can say about that meeting is that it was beyond frustrating.

The thing about my school is that it goes from Pre-K to grade 12. I don't know whose bright idea it was, but someone decided to make the yearbook committee in charge of only the high school section and someone else would do the elementary section. Personally, I always thought it was a bad idea but, whatever, it's out of my hands.

Another thing is that the president of the committee once attended the other high school in the area and she's using that school's yearbook as an idea of what our yearbook should look like. What she doesn't understand, I don't think, is that the other school is a high school only, our school is a preschool, elementary school and high school all in one. We can't do the same things that they did.

Having considered this, I mentioned, in an earlier meeting (probably the first or second one) that we should get together with whoever was in charge of the elementary section. That idea was quickly shot down by one of the two higher ups without any consideration or thought. This was the last time I put any input into the meetings.

On Thursday, we finally got together with the people who were doing the elementary section. And an argument broke out over the organization of the pages. Apparently, we didn't accord enough pages to the elementary kids (for the record, I was not against this observation). What followed was the president and the vice-president argued with the elementary representatives while the rest of the yearbook committee (including me) watched in silence.

And then someone mentioned that we should've had a meeting with them earlier. That's when I banged my head down on the table.

And then another argument broke out between me and the vice-president, or the president, or both, can't really remember. Anyway, I had made a remark that was unjustified (but not totally, I had had a point somewhere) and I got yelled at for not voicing my opinion more often.

Well fuck me! And excuse me for not wasting my time and breath by saying things that would neither be considered or fully heard. And at the end of the meeting, I got yelled at. I know I had it coming, because my remark was either uncalled for or didn't come out right, but I wasn't as in the wrong as they thought I was and it still made me angry.

I'm still angry about it even now. I am about thisclose to dropping out of the committee. I almost dropped out when I found out who was going to be president. But I stayed because, and I admitted this reluctantly, I thought that she was a person who could get things done. But, as I found out on Thursday, she could only get things done if they were her ideas or if they were done her way.

And today, I decided something. I'm not known for being assertive or loud, but I was once told, during my Pathfinder days, that I was the only one brave enough to stand up to the leader. I realise now that, if I'm gonna keep my sanity during this project, I'm gonna have to bring that bravery out again and stand up to these people. And I'm gonna start doing it, very loudly.

They don't need to use my ideas, and they don't have to like them, but we're a committee and I expect my ideas and opinions to be heard and considered. I demand to be heard, and I'm gonna be heard, even if I have to scream and curse, and if that's what it's gonna take, then so be it.

I will be heard.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

TGIF... Yesterday

I can't believe that it's only been six days since I first heard the news of the loss of Mme Jolene. It seems like a lot longer. Or maybe it's supposed to feel like that, I'm still new at this grief thing.

Today was the funeral. It was beautiful, especially at the end when almost everyone in the church started singing I Will Remember You. (Also, this was the first time that I actually understood that song.) It really wasn't what I expected a funeral to be like. I didn't really know what to expect though, this was the first funeral I've ever been to and I haven't seen very many on TV so... I'm starting to think it was a ploy to get me to willingly attend a mass, but, whatever.

I didn't cry today like I did Thursday. Strange. My eyes watered and my nose ran, but I didn't sob like the other day. Different atmosphere I guess. I really teared up at the sight of other people crying, and when Mme Jolene's mother started wailing. It was quite heartbreaking.

But at least the week is nearly over. I know that Mme is still gonna be dead next week, but it just seems like it'll be better next week. Or maybe I'm just weird like that.

I'm still gonna miss Mme, and so is everyone else upstairs. We will always love her and we'll never forget her.

RIP Mme Jolene.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

I have a soul, who knew?

This whole week has just been so weird. Sometimes I forget that Mme Jolene is gone for good, and then I get reminded and I think of her boys and I just feel so sad.

Today, we had a memorial\funeral\Celebration of Life\thing. My dear God was that ever sad.

I actually cried. At first it was just my eyes tearing up, then my nose was running, then my throat burned, then everything all at once, and then finally I sobbed.

When I first heard that Mme had died (Sunday), I didn't think that I was gonna be able to cry. I just proved myself wrong.

It was a beautiful ceremony-thing though. We had someone playing the piano the whole time and there were a few speeches and every class from grade 4 up made some sort of gift to give to the family (who were all there).

The last gift was the name plaque from Mme's classroom door. Then her mother started bawling, along with half the students in the room, me included (although I wasn't really bawling by that point).

Then a student who was really close to Mme sang a song he wrote, cue more crying.

The classes all left one by one. Most of the students crossed by the front of the stage and went to hug Mme's mother. Then one of my [male] friends burst out crying, very loudly. Something I've never seen him do before. And then another one of my friends, who I had never seen cry before, was crying and the look on his face was just so sad. That's when I started bawling.

I cried because Mme was gone and she wasn't coming back, I cried for her two boys because they'd never get to know their mother like we did, and I cried for everyone else, because of what we lost.

I hope to God that, after the funeral on Saturday, me and my friends will never have to cry like that for a while.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Gone, but Never to Be Forgotten

Our school has just suffered a painful blow. Sometime yesterday, we lost one of our best teachers to a battle with cancer.

Mme. Jolene was an awesome teacher. Along with doing the normal teacher duties, she really connected with her students. We talked to her and she talked back. She listened to us when we had something to say and she wasn't afraid to tell us what was on her mind. She treated us like equals, and we respected and loved her greatly, we still do.

Only the kids from grade 6 and up really knew her, and some classes were hit harder than others. This year's grade 9s were really close to her. During lunch, they would hang around and play guitar and sing, and she would join them. This stopped when she left school for treatment. But today, some of us gathered together to play just for her. And we all felt that she was there with us, watching and singing along. It was our own special tribute to her.

The grade 9s really took it hard. They were her homeroom class a few years ago and they've been supporting her ever since she was first diagnosed a few years ago. They really, really love her. I walked onto the bus this morning and it was eerily silent down back. Even the normally loud ones were quiet (except for the kids up front). There was a lot of crying over the course of the day.

This is the first time that I've ever really experienced grief. And fuck does it hurt. This was a dark morning, despite the shining sun. I never thought that something like this would happen to our school. I've never seen anything like this. A lot of us still can't really believe that she's really gone. It really hurts... especially for the ninth graders. Also in their class, is a boy who has cancer. It's a really dark time for them.

And worst of all, Mme. Jolene left behind two adorable little boys. The oldest is in preschool and is one of the sweetest little boys I know. I can't describe how horrible it is that they were both separated from their mother this soon, and that they won't get a chance to really know this wonderful woman.

There aren't very many people out there like Mme. Jolene, and we were nothing but lucky to have known her and we are all devastated to have lost her so soon.

I know that there'll be a LOT of luminaries for her at the relay.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

GRAHRHAH!!

Well, I finally got my laptop. We ended up cancelling the order from Dell and getting a Toshiba from Future Shop. And it's very nice. It's shiny.

Anyway, everything on it works fine, except for the Internet.

For some reason, it won't connect to the wireless Internet here. And that is a major pain in the ass. We called Aliant and they're thinking that there's something wrong with the drivers on the computer so we're going to have to send it in to get it looked at.

And we just got it too. I know all my electronics have this bad habit of malfunctioning but come on!

... day two...

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

I Has Got News!1!

-My laptop has been delayed... again!! It was supposed to come in tomorrow, but we got a call and apparently, they're still missing some parts so they can't put everything together yet. According to my dad, the delivery date has been pushed to June 11. There's talk about cancelling the order and going for something else.

-I (finally) got a prom date (!). He's in grade 9, but I consider him a good friend so, why not? Since I was being too much of a baby to just go and ask him, he just called and asked me. I'm still not sure why. And I keep thinking that's it's not really happening because it's like it's too good to be true. That and he hasn't mentioned anything since.

-I went to the preschool for the first time in roughly two weeks. The reason for my absence is that I was sick and coughing for a week, and then for the next week I just enjoyed hanging out with people (it's not something I do often, so I cherish the times it actually happens). Then one of the kids asked me when I was coming back, so I returned today. I'm gonna go on a more regular basis now. But not tomorrow because that's before lunch.

-Lately, I find myself talking and interacting more with different people. This isn't something I'm very used to doing (I'm pretty shy, and I think I might have some subconscious psychological damage/problems/something), but I really like it. This is pretty big for someone who's alone most of the time (intentional or not).

-Today, I went to a information session thing that they were having at the college I'm going to next year. We got an explanation of my program (Human Services) and an overview of the courses we will be taking. There were two teachers there (who I think I'm gonna like) and they talked about how we needed a computer in order to survive this course. And then me and my mom got a tour of the building (which I find huge compared to my current school).

-My college has a helicopter pad! How cool is that?

-I have never read the Twilight series and I never will. I think it's stupid. (I was surprised to learn that the author was married and in her 30s. I was picturing someone in her late teens/early 20s who wrote all this when she was in high school. At least then she'd have an excuse.) I don't know a lot about the whole thing, but if anyone asks, I'm on Team Jacob, but that's really only because I think that Edward's an asshole.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

I Can't Feel My Brain

Still in school, hanging out on one of the computers in the library... one with a crappy keyboard, go figure. This has been an interesting day fer sher.

First, I'm still getting over a sore throat that I've had nearly all last week. For a few days there, I couldn't really talk. It sucked. And I still feel like crap.

I was supposed to be getting my laptop today, but apparently the delivery date has been moved to the 21st because the laptop I'm getting is a newer model and will take longer to put together, or something. So that sucks, and I was so excited too.

But a good thing is that I finally got someone to write me a recomendation letter for a scholarship application. Finally. Now I can start working on the essay and stuff. Of course, I still need to get ahold of my most recent official transcript and the secretary here is incompetent enough that I probably won't get it until I damn near beg for it. Oh well.

It is now the last class of the day. I've had free class all afternoon and now I am really bored. There isn't really a whole lot to do around here when you're not in class.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Jax: Weekend Edition

A whole weekend with the doll. Oy...

It went a whole lot better than the first two days. By this point, I could tell the differences between his cries and I got faster at dealing with his needs. I also got pretty good at predicting when he would cry and how much time I had between them.

Also... 7 O'CLOCK IN THE DAMN MORNING!!!!!

It's not that I'm not a morning person, but, seriously. 7 in the morning on a weekend is harsh. Especially when I don't sleep very well during the week and sleep in til like, 11 o'clock on the weekends. I needs my weekend sleep dammit.

At least after I fed and changed him, I got to sleep for an extra couple of hours. Go me.

For the most part, he just sat in his car seat on the computer desk, staring at the monitor. Fun and enlightening. I is a great mother.

Anyway, I passed him in and learned that I got 100% on it. No complaints from this end.