roboppy.net

I had previously titled this "Why does it smell like popcorn?" but shortly after stepping out of my room (aka "dungeon of doom and stuff and lack of sunlight and fresh air") after writing the first draft of this entry, I found the scent so powerful, so paralyzing, that I came to the conclusion that popcorn must had been popped at some point during my consciousness. I went to the balcony overlooking the family room where my brother was sitting.

"Did you eat popcorn?"
"Yes."

I know that any regular person would have figured out that the smell of popcorn was indeed coming from the fluffy morsels of starch themselves, but I didn't think we had any popcorn. "Popcorn cannot exist in the Lee household; it cannot be true!" Yes. I don't know what's wrong with me. Anyway, the scent had lingered for about 4 hours, and I felt like I was swimming in a mist consisting of microscopic popcorn molecules and their butter buddies. (shudder)

And now I return you to our regularly schedule program. This program is entitled "If It Smells Like Popcorn, It Is Popcorn, Doofus". It stars me as the doofus in question. And all other characters are played by...me. [Stuff that looks like this has been added as a commentary for you to follow along with. How fun it shall be!]

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I ask the above question only because I really do not know the answer. For the past few hours sitting in my room in front of this laptop (not a good habit...oh well!) I've noticed a popcorn-esque scent in the room. Huh? What the...where is it coming from? I know it's not actually popcorn [apparently, I didn't], but what else smells like popcorn [...popcorn]? It seems to be a mixture of my sweat and paper products and...the computer. [ew]

Anyway, I haven't been going online much lately.

::gasp!:: So what have I been doing?

WELL, I'm glad you asked. Otherwise I'd be talking to myself. (tumbleweed rolls by)

...I've been crocheting like I've never crocheted before. And I'm not just saying that; I've never crocheted before. Well, I did mention crocheting in my last entry, but you know what I mean. That's what I've been doing for the past few days, and I've gotten some pretty good results. Here's a collage of stuff I've been making lately (not all crocheted stuff...bag ideas came from flamingo) and here are photos of me and some stuff I just did the other day (crap, it's Monday already, isn't it?). Strangely enough, I'm starting to vaguely understand how to read crochet patterns...although I'd still need to look at all the abbreviations and junk.

The other day I saw Dirty Pretty Things with Cristen. While waiting before the movie we went around to a couple of stores, one which was called Copabananas. The storefront immediately caught my eye because it had Uglydolls! I've always wanted one,but I guess not to the tune of $30. :| I'm sure it's worth that much though, they're so cute! AND SOFT! And squishy! Anyway, I really enjoyed the movie and it wasn't anything like I thought it would be. Then again, I didn't have many thoughts about it in the first place, but I thought it would be this very dark drama type thing...and it kind of is, but it's happy too. Here's a nice recent synopsis of the movie. I'd recommend seeing it if it's playing anywhere near you.

For an extended period of time my cable connection was actually working pretty well! I mean, one would assume it should work well and not die every two seconds, but that's what I've been dealing with lately. It's still kinda crapping up, but I guess my connection is a lot better from in my room than in the basement. And it's so freakin' fast, I've already uploaded a lot of my pages. I could measure the time to upload my Mum site in minutes instead of DAYS (really, when I uploaded it on my dial up connection it me hoarding the Internet 24/7 while hoping stuff wouldn't crash after being left on for hours).

I could have sworn that I had more things to say... ... ...hm. Oh yeah, I think I will actually start drawing more Poofy comics. I sketched out five of them in the past week just out of boredom in my journal before going to bed. I'm also planning to applique a green t-shirt with felt to look like Bork just because...well, I got a green t-shirt and I have a lot of felt. The best place to get cheapo new t-shirts is a craft shop, I think. I went to Michaels and got a bright kelly green kids small t-shirt for $4. I don't think I could find a shirt like that and that cheap anywhere else even if I wanted to. Then again, it was probably made by slave labor in Mexico or something. (sigh)

This entry was pretty boring. Next time I will try to make things more exciting. Like maybe when it's not past 3 AM...jeez, what's wrong with me?

By the way, there's still a popcorn-esque smell in the air...[and would be until the sun came back up]

[PS: Alright, this is where I shall reply to previous comments. I SHALLL! Uh. Anyway! I use Photoshop and ImageReady to design my websites and then Dreamweaver to make everything into HTML because I don't know how to deal with computer languages, and even with my minimal contact with actual HTML (as opposed to a WYSIWYG editor) sometimes I feel the need to bash my head against a hard surface.

I checked out this software discount site and...yeah, big discounts! Cool! But not enough for me to buy them, although a legitimate copy of Photoshop would be nice. Having pirated software feels a bit iffy, but then shelling out hundreds of dollars for the same program that I already have in a sense seems silly. Oh well, can anyone spare $400?

...I've just realized that an iPod is not much cheaper than that. As to what is more valuable...eh. Well. My iPod has been extremely useful as a way for me to transfers gigs of files from my desktop computer to my laptop very quickly. I haven't actually had much use for it as an mp3 player yet. :P But now that I think of the Adobe program package in comparison to an iPod, it doesn't seem that bad.]

This past Saturday my mum and I decided to watch all the Lord of the Rings stuff we had. I didn't watch everything (which included documentaries and the animated movies) but I did watch most of the extras on the entended version of The Fellowship of the Ring and it was very interesting, although my mum kept saying at certain points, "Should they be telling us how they made the whole movie?" Well I don't see the big deal, you already know it's not realy. Soooo why not find out how they made everyone the right proportions and created the Bolrog and how they applied the prosthetic Hobbit feet? I can't imagine walking around in hairy rubbery slippers that have been glued to my feet. Of course, that's not really the hardest part of being in Lord of the Rings, but ...those feet! Well, I guess the dwarf (who I never knew was actually really tall in real life) really had it bad with all the facial prosthetics...I wouldn't be able to deal with have so much stuff glued to my body.

I'm not really "into" LOTR, but it truly is such a mindblowing movie (although the goofs are taking my fun away, wah!). I know awards aren't everything, but if it doesn't get the Academy award of best movie or best director this year, then I won't understand what happened. There seemed to have been a countless number of people involved with the movie and all the time, effort and thought that had to go into it would make my head explode...so I'm glad Peter Jackson's head did not explode. Exploding heads aren't good. Not that I know from firsthand experience.

So once again I'm too late and end up posting this in the early hours of the next day. Crap, why does that happen so much? I really have to start trying to go to sleep earlier because I'm starting school soon. TOO SOON! ARRRGH! I'm not really freaking out, I'm just...I dunno. Not really dreading it, but just plain scared. WHAT IF I CAN'T FIND THE BATHROOM?! Okay, that won't happen. And speaking of bathrooms...

A few days ago I got my period (this will be related to bathrooms, trust me), which sucks, of course. I didn't think it was gone for good, but still...I thought maybe three or four times a year. I went 5 weeks without it though, which is better than the regular 4 weeks I used to deal with. Of course, it's not too bad; I get no cramps, no clots, no PMS, and a pretty light flow. But it's still a pain in the butt and the one thing that would ever make me want to be a guy. So I was thinking that in college it's going to be somewhat annoying to take a shower while having my period. I don't know about you (figuring that a female is reading this) but when I take a shower during my period I like to have the toilet next to the shower stall...okay, I hope I'm not saying too much here. Anyhoo, I'm quite sure the bathrooms aren't like that in my dorm, and the bathrooms are co-ed, which doesn't bother me that much but I guess it's another annoying thing I have to think about.

Bloop. I have bigger things to worry about than the proximity of the toilet to the shower stall. My brain has gone into "stagnant pool of muck and algae" mode and I have no idea how I'm going to learn anything. And then even if I do manage to learn anything, will I do anything good with it? My brother got a packet from his university about choosing a career since he'll be a senior this year, and everything in it freaked me out. I can't imagine going job hunting or being qualified for anything. I can be sure about one thing; I can bag dem groceries, ya! (Don't ask me why I typed it that way...that's just how it sounded in my head.)

Today I went to Ackerman's Music Center to get my guitar restrung. I literally haven't played it in months because the strings have been funky and the tuning knobs look like they're going to crack off. Anyhoo, Anthony has been talking about ways to get more people to see the site, but I'm not really familliar with submitting websites to search engines and junk like that. I put the website in a buch of music database thingies though. I showed him my Poofy shop and now he's interested in making an online shop, which I think would be a cool idea. ...but then if no one knows the site exists, it's kind of pointless. Oh well, I'm not sure if we'll be setting up the shop-a-ma-jiggy.

Speaking of my Poofy shop, I made an incredible sale today. Keep in mind that I usually make no sales. ...anyway, this one person just ordered something from me and I guess she got her package already. So she made another order today...for two small poofies, one big poofy, and two sets of buttons. Grand total: $44. Yikes! Since she's my only repeat customer and she made such a huge order, my mum said I should give her a coloring book...yeah, why didn't I think of that? So I included a coloring book and a pack of crayons. :D Right now I'm planning to leave all the money I make in my PayPal account in case I want to buy anything online...and then I won't have to wait for an echeck to go through. I ordered a t-shirt from kozy n dan with an echeck (and then the next day I ended up having enough money in my paypal account...doh) and now I'm not sure if I'll get the shirt before I go to college. Poop! Then again, I live so close to home that it doesn't really matter. I intend to use my paypal account next to get something from audiodregs; lullatone is quite nice.

I want to get back into making some kind of crappy music just because I forgot how I did it in the first place. I ...sat in front of my computer and fiddled with my guitar, mainly. I just got my Casio SK-1 and it's GREAT! The synth part is so useful (you can enter the harmonic...thingies) and all the envelopes are really cool. The porntamento thing is awesome! (I'll have to record something for you guys to listen to. I'm going to make the entied POOFYVILLE soundtrack off of this thing.) I'm a little disappointed in that I don't think the microphone on mine works, but I wasn't planning to use it anyway. It can only record 1.4 seconds and I guess that wouldn't be very useful, but I wanted to try it out. Anyway, with the synth thing you can program the keyboard to sound like anything! Kinda. Also, there's an entire recording aspect of the keyboard in that...it...records stuff. I don't see myself having any use for it considering as soon as I turn off the keyboard all my stuff would be lost and I don't intend to leave it on forever. And recording stuff was annoying as hell. Overall....very, very fun instrument/toy for less than $50.

Now I'm going to have a long rant, so...brace yourself. :P Sometime last week my dad said he was trying to book a ticket home from Taiwan so that he could be around to see my brother and I off to college. This is the last thing I want; life is much easier without my dad around. And it's HIS CHOICE to be in Taiwan, so it would be a real big waste of money to come back, not to mention that neither my brother, mum or I want to see him here. It's difficult for me to explain my family's relationship with my dad because I have nothing else to compare it to, but this is how we are. My dad spends most of the time in Taiwan (he retired a few years ago, yet sometimes he still claims he works. He tells some people he's retired and will tell others that he's not. ...I could go on and on.) and comes back to the US sometimes because he feels obligated to, or something. Of course, it's a bunch of crap because if he really wanted to stay here (I think part of the reason he has to stay in Taiwan is because he has to manage the property that his dad owns, and you have to do all that junk in person in Taiwan) as part of a "parental responsibility" then he would.

I told him that there wasn't much reason for him to come back (he hasn't been able to book a ticket because it's all full; he's waiting for something to open up) and that basically, he shouldn't. This is the reply he wrote to me. The way he wrote his e-mail is pretty much how he speaks in real life, except in real life he speaks really slowly (he's condescending, although I don't know if he knows it...probably because in the workplace he has always directed his coworkers) so e-mail is slightly easier to understand:

Does anyone find the wording of the e-mail annoying? It might just annoy me because this is the kind of stuff I've had to listen to my entire life, but it truly is. He makes things extremely wordy without every getting to the point. And he always talks about this "tolerance" thing, as though we are obligated to appreciate each other no matter what just because we're related. The problem is that he doesn't realize he's the one without the open mind or willingness to change. My mum can bear witness to that for being married the past 20-something years. I feel bad for her although at the same time I wonder what she was thinking when she married him. She said that she thought he'd change, but instead he didn't and just ended up more like his parents.

Anyway, I just hope my dad still isn't thinking about coming back because I only have about a week left before I have to go to college and I'd like it to be as stress free as possible. Obviously my dad wasn't planning to come back, and a few months ago he asked me if I'd rather he come for my high school graduation or to see me off to college. I figured if he had to be at one, graduation would be easier to deal with. So he did come to my graduation, and that's all I expected. No more.

I have some last things to mention along with pictures to show you. Today I got my (drumroll) LOST MONSTER and it is sooo cute! And it comes with a little buddy monster! The little mosnter JINGLES! I KID YOU NOT! Maybe I should make a line og "jingling Poofies"...HAHA! Okay, no. Here are some photos of the monsters meeting a Poofy! And here's me with the monsters. I AM A NEW MUM!

Yesterday I made a few things, one thing early in the morning and one thing late at night (either way, the sun wasn't out anymore, hehe). I made a Bork shirt like I've been planning forever yet never actually did. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but I think it took 2 - 3 hours to make. ....which isn't that long, but still, it's not something I'd do a lot. Obviously, a Poofy applique shirt would be really easy. :) Bork is the hardest one, which is why I wanted to do it! The other thing I made, I took a photo of, but I don't want to post it because it's something I made for Diana and I want it to be a surprise! ;) Although now I might be building up suspense for nothing. At least this time I'll get to give it to her in person because the BRMC handbag that I made for her got lost in the mail. :( The only time I ever lost anything in the mail was when I sent stuff to Argentina; I wouldn't expect sending something the next state over would get lost!

Last thing: Poofy.net is the Site of the Day (yesterday) at All Things Kawaii! Yaay! :D And I think that website moderator must have looked at my links page because she added some links to her directory that I had put on my page. That makes me happy! MORE CUTE THINGS FOR EVERYONE BWAHAHAHA! Rate my site while you're at it, okee? :)

--- comment replies! ---

Peaches are good for passing outta my intestines? WEEE! I'm glad cos I've been eating them like some peach monster lately....a peach eating monster, I mean. Not a mutated peach with teeth or something.

Peaches (and plums ) = LUUUUV!

I guess I should put a thingy at /blog saying my page moved. Actually I can just make it redirect to the index page. I SHALL GO DO THAT! Yes. :D

Seeing the blackout from space would have been interesting if it really did just look like half of the continent got wiped out....

...BY MUTATED PEACHES!

When people come into my room and see all the fuyu persimmons I have, they usually think they're tomatoes. It's perfectly understandable, as sometimes I have mistaken tomatoes for persimmons when in the grocery store during the persimmons off-season when I desire persimmons so badly that I become delusional. "Persimmons in August?!...dammit, it's a tomato." Anyway, the other day two guys from my floor saw my persimmons while visiting my roommate (one guy said something along the lines of, "Someone here has a lot of tomatoes") and wondered what they tasted like. My roommate, who's Asian and likes persimmons too (I say Asian because we now joke the lack of persimmon knowledge as a "white person" thing...is it?) and I weren't sure how to describe it, so I cut one up for them to try. One of the guys initially tried to cut the skin off with a fork...mm, yeah, anyway, a sharp knife is much better for cutting than a fork, just so you know. :) So one guy said they tasted kind of like an unripe mango and the other guy said it smelled like sweat. So overall it's like a sweaty, unripe mango. HAHAHA! Great description. I don't know if I agree with it though.

So that's what was on my mind. How sad. Well, there are other things going on in my brain too. First off, I got my period the other day. It's the shortest one I've had since February or March (4 weeks). I think this is a direct result of my INTENSE CHEESE EATING that happened last week. It would definitely make sense; why else would I get my period? I guess this is a sign that cheese is definitely not good, although I'd think that cooked cheese is ever worse, if you want to keep that in mind. And I think it also means I will really not be eating any cooked food or dairy products (maybe cut out the sashimi too) since I can almost immediately see what effect they have on the body. It's kind of scary, but I really think that having your period is a sign of "toxins" in the body. The longest time I went without getting my period this past year was when I was a vegan. I got my period after I may have eaten some raw fish, although it wasn't immediate. I also got it again when I was going through an intestinal clease, which was completely unsurprising. And now I'm not surprised again. But no more cheese. Boohoo. :(

I've been having more thoughts about my raw food diet and thinking...yes, this is definitely what I want to do, but at the same time, especially being in college, it kind of sucks. Hell, I'm shy and have a tendency to be antisocial anyway, but being a raw foodist really supports my staying-in-my-dorm-all-day habit. It's just easier for me to eat in my room than to bring it with me and eat with other people. I have made the effort to eat out with other people sometimes, but I think I'm sick of eating from the salad bar. Fruit is definitely yummier. Also, I can't connect with other people when they talk about what they're eating, or what they want to eat. "Oh yeah, I used to like chocolate." Well, it's not that I don't like chocolate actually, I just wouldn't want to eat it. But it's easier to imply that I don't like it anymore. Can you imagine having to say "I don't eat that anymore," which needs a bit more explanation. Eh. Neh.

I've decided that retaining my health is much more important than just letting it all go and being more social. It's kind of depressing too, especially when everyone goes out to eat late at night and I just wouldn't want to do that...but...mm. Also, there's a Japanese Culture Day coming up and we can help my teacher cook curry and stuff like that. I think I'll help out, but it'll be depressing too because Japanese food used to be my favorite. I mean I can deal with not eating the stuff, but I don't know if I really want to cook it and not eat it. I want to help out my teacher though. Maybe I can do something else.

Last night while I was writing a letter to someone, a bunch of people were in the room talking to my roommate and they were basically planning how much alcohol and what kinds of alcohol they'd want this other girl on the floor to get (she's supplying everyone, I guess?) and it just sounded so...so...stupid. I just don't understand. Maybe I'll never understand. My roommate says it's fun to get drunk, although the next day you "feel like shit," which in my mind doesn't sound worth it. Besides the morning after, it screws up your body. Why don't people realize...oh, nevermind. Despite all the unintelligent things other people do, I'm still stupid compared to most of them, which doesn't make what I do look very worthwhile. Really, my body sucks a crapload; I can't even handle raw cheese. I know all people are different and some people can handle eating really unhealthy things, although I don't know if that's good or bad.

I'm at home right now, but I'm going back to school tomorrow (technically today) to go to my dorm's annual haunted house. I might help out too, depending on what I can actually do. Then again, it's in the basement and it's really, really hot down there. Each floor does a separate room and my floor's room is this black room with mirrors and some scary movie some students made being projected on the mirrors. I haven't a clue how it's going to turn out.

Today I saw Kill Bill with my mum and I gotta say, I really liked it. It's just different from anything else I've seen, which is refreshing, and it's an interesting story. The style of the movie feels really smooth; everything just flows well. I really liked the music too. There's lots of blood and decapitation and stuff like that, but it's rather comical after a while. I'm looking forward to volume 2. I can't imagine anyone else could play Uma Thurman's role; she's really good. I just set this as my wallpaper. :)

My angelgotchi is still alive. Dammit. I don't want to just ignore it so it "dies" but I don't want to take care of it anymore either. After it fully grows up, there isn't much else to look forward to. "Oh, it's hungry! Oh, it pooped! OH BOYYY!" I just like watching them grow.

I got some great zines from crackers and honey on Thursday. Now if only I had an industrial strength sewing machine, I could sew little bookets too...poop!

I saw Elf today and it has made me all warm n fuzzy with Christmas goo.

Okay, not really. I can definitely say that I enjoyed it more than the Matrix (I'll get to that). It was a simple movie, very silly, pretty mushy, but overall good. Will Ferrell was really funny and while he was really annoying, he made the character lovable too. I can't think of anyone else who could play that role very well. Now I want to over-decorate the room with Christmas crap and bring out the joooy and the fuuun and the WEE!

I actually wasn't planning to see the movie today because last night Kathryn (my roommate) told me it would involve waking up at 10:30 AM. That's a tad early for a Saturday morning, but my gallbladder woke me up. Dammit. I hate it when that happens. It becomes a debate of disrupting one's peaceful slumber versus pissing yourself. So out of the top bunk I descended, into the smelly bathroom of doooom.

But all is good, because I got to go to the mall with Kathryn and Alison. Our cab driver was kind of crazy though, so we called a different company to take us home. Less crazy, as in, not turning into the other road to pass a car on the left because it's going a bit too slow for your taste.

I feel kind of wrong for saying this, but I like Old Navy. I've been to Old Navy before, but I've barely ever gotten anything from there. When I go shopping with my mum, we usually don't go there and instead opt for the Gap, Banana Republic, or some equally non-exciting generic place. But Old Navy just seems more fun; for one thing, they have THIS! I'm wearing them right now, in addition to this, which I didn't even know was $5 when I got it, but yikes...that's cheap. Overall I spent $50 on that pajama set, a bag, two long sleeved shirts, and two pj shorts. I wasn't planning to buy anything, so it's kind of awful I ended up with so much stuff. At first I was only going to get the bag because it was $8, but then I made the mistake of looking around the store. At least I realized that I didn't need this or this, although they're both very nice sweaters. Why am I buying all this clothes? Argh. Crap. Well. Now I know what my size is; because I'm so short, I'm not a small adult as much as I am an extra large kid. I can wear size 16 pants (I have a size 14 pair of jeans that fit me last month, but not anymore! Haha! Uh! Oops! Crap!), which I guess is like an overweight kid or something, but I noticed kid's clothes doesn't have much butt room. So the dividing line between being a kid and an adult is your BUTT. That's my not-so-scientific conclusion.

I think I've gained about eight pounds since school started. I know you shouldn't obsess over weight, but that isn't something to scoff at either. Gaining a few pounds from time to time is not a big deal at all, but it's not like I'm carrying eight pounds of extra water weight. So I wonder of course what the eight pounds is, and I realize that I don't really want to know because my intestines might be compacted with the stuff. Hm. Hmmm. Okay, I'll stop talking about my intestines now.

On Friday I saw the Matrix with my mum. I wasn't expecting it to be really good, so it ended up being better than I thought it would be. For the most part. Until the end. WHAT WAS THAT? Not really the outcome of the story as much as how it was portrayed. Actually, I still don't get it and if someone could explain it to me, that'd be cool. I feel like a lot of stuff was left out or not explained well and blah blah blah. It was kind of sad to see this movie be so far off from the first one, which was definitely cool. Oh yeah, some parts of the script made me cringe and at some points I prefered the machines over the humans.

Today I was supposed to do more homework than I actually got done. That happens a lot. I did my reading for anthropology class, not that I really understood it, and I did my Japanese homework due on Tuesday, although a lot of it is probably wrong. Now I ought to study for my Japanese dialogue test because I really screw those things up. Despite that, I plan to apply for a job at the Japanese Concordia Language Village for a summer job. I'd have to fly to Minnesota, but the job pays so I figure that would make up for some of it. Then again, I don't actually think I'd get chosen if I apply, but it can't hurt, and I think my Japanese teachers will write nice recommendations for me. I've never taken any kind of leadership position before and am extremely unqualified to work at a camp, but there's a first time for everything.

On Friday night I went to see a comedy show with a bunch of people on my floor mainly to see the two guys across the hall, Simon and Abel, perform. It was really, really funny for the most part, with some really odd sketches in there. The weirdest one was the last one in which the sketch was an immitation of muppets. I can't really explain it (I do have a video clip though), but Simon was the cookie monster, Abel was "the cook" and everyone was going crazy (the skit was set in a restaurant with everyone sitting at tables). It was great. Abel had a big pot of pasta and was dumping it everywhere. ...okay, this sounds really weird. Another one was really funny that Simon and Abel wrote, which...well, I could explain, but it wouldn't be funny if I talked about it anyway. They're very talented, although since they live across the hall I know that they're really weird. I mean, they're normal too. The weird thing about them is that...they're really docile and can easily seem normal, but then they have these quirks. They're kind of passively weird, if that makes any sense. Simon writes "I AM YOUR CANCER" on the whiteboard as a message to Kathryn a lot. A few days ago, both Simon and Abel wanted food from Kathryn and it was just really funny how Abel asked for it. He came in the room, not looking like he wanted anything in particular, sat down in Kathryn's chair as she was in her bed doing work, and ask if she would know where he could get some chicken flavored noodles. Yes, where oh where could these noodles be? Perhaps on the bookcase a few feet away? Anyway, Kathryn ended up making Simon and Abel noodles. I was amused. It's very amusing living across from those guys.

Even though having someone write "I AM YOUR CANCER" on your whiteboard can be a bit threatening, it's nice to be able to joke about that with someone. I'm not really sure how the joke came about, but you know, making fun of people means you're really comfortable with them. As of now, I don't feel comfortable making fun of anyone. Damn, if only I could call some people poop nut heads and whack em with stuff...oh well, I can dream. HAHA! No.

Tonight Kathryn made apple crisp and I helped peel the apples! I think I would still enjoy cooking/baking, although I wouldn't be able to eat anything. Oh well, it's the process that's enjoyable. Like making origami pretty much has no purpose, but I still do it and kill lots of trees in the process. Maybe I should figure out how to make a good raw pie. I've never tried it because it takes so long and...oh, nevermind.

Geez, why am I still awake?

---comment replies!---

If the fish or cheese did cause my period, then I'm certainly glad I had it, but I wouldn't want to cause it again in the future. :) Maybe that supports the "menstruation is a way to get rid of toxins" theory, which I feel uncomfortable talking about with ...pretty much anyone in real life because no one believes me. But anyway. Ya! I guess I don't like sashimi or cheese enough to bear the periods, or I really hate periods. It's more of the second one...I really, really hate them, and that's even without feeling any pain.

I really like cheese. *sigh*

PERSIMMONS YAA! The best food ever. Mmmm. Check out this page...use persimmons to lure deer! AHH NOO!

The title is not a metaphor. I really have broken out in some sort of a rash. *itch itch* Do I think it's a bad thing? Not really. On top of having my period, I must be getting rid of a lot of junk. I lost a few pounds after getting my period (which I've probably gained back due to eating....um...food...more on that later) and that was mainly water. Last Wednesday I used the Ion Cleanse and I wonder if that's why I developed a rash. I've never had a rash before, even though it's a common effect of detoxification. Until now, that is. I just have a few small red dots on some parts of my skin...I guess for your sake I won't get into any more detail. But anyway! I have no idea how the Ion Cleanse works, but it does do something. When I used it the water turned orange-ish, which means "detoxifying from joints"...I really don't know what that's about. I've never had a problem with my joints. There were also small white particles, which are supposed to be yeast particles...not that makes sense, considering how many carbs I eat. My mum did it too and she had a LOT more white particle junk and the water was a darker orange. Ooh.

So enough of that weird junk. What did I do this weekend? Uh. Um. Man, my brain does NOT work. Need omega-3 oil.

My mum and I were planning to go to NYC on Friday but it was rainy and kind of stinky, so instead we stayed home and went to Treasure Island to get yarn and things. I ended up making a scarf, woo! It's a fun soft scarf and the yarn is all fuzzy so I could make lots of mistakes and they wouldn't show. THAT'S THE BEST KIND OF YARN. I also worked on my ladybug beret and I'm almost done except for two dots and the eyes. I thought my head was a lot bigger, but apparently it's not. It's about 21" in circumference. I forgot that kids have huge heads, it's just the REST of their bodies that is small. So I'm going to have the most rockin' (or stupid) looking hat!

The next day we went to NYC to shop around and see The Triplets of Belleville. It was definitely an interesting and imaginative movie, and now that I've had more time to think about it, I think I liked it. I think. Hm. Well, it was a good movie. I wouldn't recommend it unless you're into...animated movies. And French things. If you like action and...erm, dialogue, do NOT see this movie. It's very, very slow. This isn't necessarily bad...I mean, some people will interpret the slowness as being bad, but it really portrays the feelings of the characters in the movie. I think the guy who did the movie was influenced by miming or something; there isn't much speaking in the movie. There's some singing (by the triplets) and a little bit of dialogue in English and some other dialogue in French. The story is pretty strange, but it's...um...funny. Not in a ha-ha way. There are funny parts though. If you're wondering, I'm very, very bad at writing reviews for anything, whether it's movies or music. I wouldn't recommend that everyone see this movie, just people who might be interested in animated, foreign movies. My overall feeling is that it's been over-hyped in a way and I was probably expecting something different. So it was good, but not the kind of movie that I thought it would be (ie, not so slow and maybe with more dialogue and more plot and...uh...hm).

After seeing the movie my mum and I walked up the East Village, which my mum thought was pretty slow compared to other parts of NYC. Maybe that's why I like it there. It is pretty slow, although if you walk up far enough then the calm and slowness immediately changes to bright lights, lots of cars, and Starbucks. Starbucks is pretty much the sign that you're in tourist-ville, it seems. *sigh* We went to Jubb's Longevity and ate a delicious dinner; I had a wrap and my mum had a casserole. For dessert I had the most DELICIOUS pumpkin pie and my mum had "cheesecake" that didn't taste like regular, heavy cheesecake because it was much lighter and nicer. :) Man, I love pumpkin pie. Who needs a cooked pumpkin pie? Just puree some pumpkin, put in the right spices, make a nutty crust, and mm. I love raw food, although I am indulging way too much. Right now the way I'm eating raw food is a BAD example...DO NOT DO THIS! Then again, if all you ate was that pumpkin pie, that would be so much better than "normal" cooked food fare, like breads and pastas and hamburgers and ice cream, at least in my opinion. It's saddening to think that the things I worry about food-wise are a lot healthier than what most people eat and my idea of an indulgence is a dehydrated raw cookie or pie make of nuts and fruit.

We also went to Live Live and got LOADS of stuff. How long these things will last, I do not know. But not very long. We got a bunch of things from here; they're EXCELLENT! They're so much cheaper if you buy them from the website though. Then again, shipping costs a bit. But anyway, if you could entertain the idea of trying some raw food snacks, the temple balls, brownie, and flax seed crackers are delicious. The essene bread is pretty good too, although it tastes SO much like a cracker, it's scary. Actually, maybe not; It has sprouted wheat in it and I believe that wheat is unhealthy, so it was probably stupid of me to eat. Actually, my mum wanted to try the bread, and I ended up liking it more than she did! ACK! We got lots of other stuff too, like flavored almonds, cookies, and granola. Eek. It's a good thing I don't live in Manhattan, I guess. I've only been there three times now but I feel like I've become a regular customer. The woman who runs the store told my mum (it was her first time there) that I was really sweet and a good customer. :)

We weren't planning to go to St. Marks Bookshop but while we were passing by I saw Quimby the Mouse, which I've wanted for a while, and figured I may as well get it. I also got Neomu, which is a great tax-free way to spend a dollar. :)

So that was my day in NYC, pretty much. Mucho fun, except that today it is Sunday and I am back in school. (sob) Not that school is awful, but I don't want to, you know, do WORK after having a nice relaxing 4-day weekend. I think I have to work on an English essay outline about a poem. I read a bunch of poems for English class last night and barely understood any of them (if at all). Damn...poetry...CRAP! JUST WRITE NORMALLY!

No more finals. NO MORE! I thought this day would never come. After a week of unecessary freaking out and lack of sleep due to aforementioned freaking out, I am home and classwork-free!

So what has been going on this week? Well...I don't really remember. Hm. I think on Tuesday I tried to study for my anthropology test, which was rather pointless because, just my luck, the questions on it were ones I didn't know well. My teacher gave us a list of nine possible essay questions, two of which would be on the final, from which we would pick one. There was one question that completely confused me. In my mind, it didn't seem like a very good question so I figured "Oh, he won't ask this one." Well, it was no surprise then that he DID. I thought it was funny. Chuckle haha. The other question was one I didn't know very well either, but I managed to write an 800-word or so essay. I think I can get a B on it, which is good enough for me. Have low standards and you won't get disappointed.

I felt really awful the morning of the final (Wednesday), probably due to stress and fasting. My digestive system has been craptacular all week, although I think it's better now than last weekend when I was puking somewhat profusely. Lemme tell you kiddies: Puking is not fun. Actually, what's less fun than puking is WAITING to puke, huddled over the porcelain throne staring at the stagnant toilet water as you try to hawk up something but just get dry heaves or nothing at all. The puking itself is pretty bad too, but at least you know you'll feel better afterwards. Hopefully.

So back to what I was saying. Wednesday...oh yeah, that sucked. LIKE A VACUUM. (Why did I say that? Really...why?) The weather was dreary and resembled a level of hell (aka, it was cold and raining, which turned the snow into slushy goop). While I was walking to Blodgett Hall (one of the farthest classrooms from my dorm), I got a terrible ache in my abdomen. Could that be diarrhea? Why yes! Hey, we've all had it: no biggie. This was minutes before 9 AM when I was supposed to take my final though. Crap. I wasn't late for my final (it was self-scheduled) but I felt pretty awful. Thankfully, by the end of writing the essay, I felt better.

After my anthro final I studied for my Japanese final, which was at 5 PM until 7 PM. I think my Japanese final went okay...not that I got an A (that stopped happening early on in the semester, unfortunately), but maybe a B. Do I really have to get As anymore? I mean, I can't even get As anyway, so there isn't music point thinking about getting them.

Thursday I told myself I'd study for my astronomy test. And I did. Somewhat. Maybe. Not very well. In all honestly it wouldn't have mattered if I studied for 24 hours straight because I would have bombed the test anyway. I did a long study session with Liza (during which I drank tea...TEA, OH MY), which is what we usually do before astronomy tests to boost our confidence. I guess it did boost my confidence for the night, although I ended up not being able to sleep at all (I think I got two hours of sleep after attempting to fall asleep from 12-3 AM, getting up and going on the Internet for a while, going back to bed and falling asleep at around 5 AM). I think my inability to fall asleep was due to the excitement of getting to go home, the dreading of the astronomy final, and not eating very much food (however, I DID eat a lot of olive oil with nori).

And then came the test. The test to make me feel like I didn't actually attend any astronomy classes. I answered all the essay questions because my teacher stressed that he wouldbe giving partial credit, which I guess means he KNOWS most of us won't know what the hell we're talking about. I made up lots of stuff that is probably not right, but maybe I can get a tenth of a point for naming a body in the solar system. (sigh) It really was a disaster in my opinion (and Liza's) and I feel bad for my teacher because he has to grade my sucky-ass test. He's a nice guy, I just couldn't learn much.

I came home today (technically yesterday) after the test and thought "YES it's so good to be home!" Until I realized how annoying my dad is. Very, very annoying. So annoying that I want to go back to school. I can't explain it, but for some reason his brain just doesn't work correctly. He asks questions no one can answer, and for ones that mayve can be answered, he asks the wrong people. It's like he has some form of alztheimer's disease, but not really. I can't stand living with him, and I really have no idea why he comes back. For such a cheap person, he sure buys plane tickets to and from Taiwan frequently. Couldn't he save something like $5000 a year if he just stayed in one place? Anyway, I guess there isn't much point talking about how frustrated I get with him because it really doesn't make sense. He'll ask you questions, but not listen to your answers. He'll make up the answers that he wants to hear and forget you said anything.

So to get out of the house I went to see LOTR: The Return of the King with my mum. There were lots of previews, of which the Harry Potter trailer was the most interesting to me. I think that movie is going to be awesome, but those kids already look pretty old. Especially Draco Malfoy...ack! Oh well, it'll still be a cool movie. Anyway! I really liked the movie, but I can understand what I've heard about it not being as good as the second, or people liking the second one more in general. The fighting scenes are really good (Helm's Deep was nothing, apparently) and I like getting to see Frodo and Sam's journey more. There were lots of special effects that felt kind of tired after a while, but they were good effects. The spider was really freaky...jesus, I wonder what it took to shoot those scenes. I guess I'll find out in the SPECIAL EDITION DVD. I was most confused by Denethor's character because the movie doesn't really mention why he's...you know, CRAZY. I had to ask my mum about that after the movie since she listened to the books on tape. I really liked Pippin's role in this movie (here's my new desktop...okay, I think he's really cute). For most of the movie, everything felt hopeless and ...wait, do you guys know the story? I guess I shouldn't be giving anything away. I knew the ending of the book because I asked my mum, but...well, you know everything is happy in the end. Insanely happy. I wanted to cry. Dammit, I hate when movies do that to me (which is probably why I'm not a movie person. I don't like having my emotions stirred up!). Now I'm thinking of finally reading the LOTR. ...by listening to them on tape. Mwahaha.

Damn, I'm tired. Need more sleep.

Today I'm planning to finish up a few Poofies. Last night I sewed a bunch of them while watching the Michel Gondry DVD and the extended version of The Two Towers. I dont usually watch a lot of DVDs, but sitting around and making Poofies can get a little dull. I really liked the Michel Gondry DVD; he's a strange dude. Well...okay, not really. Kind of insecure and worries about being murdered en route to faxing music video ideas to Bjork. The David-Cross-as-a-turd movie was pretty entertaining, although I'd be a little more scared than Michel was if my turd came to life and ran down the street screaming at me. Of course, TTT rules, and while I can see how some of the scenes weren't necessary, other scenes definitely would have been helpful. Did the original version talk about how old Aragorn was? I remember that my mum told me about that. Also, I think the flashback scene with Faramir would have been nice to see before I saw ROTK. I'm not totally through with the second disc yet, but I have all night to make Poofies...

So not much has been going on. Not much goes on in general. I know health-wise I could be much worse (lying in a hospital bed with tubes sticking out of every orifice comes to mind) but I've been feeling pretty crappy lately just from being all...fat. Or bloated. Bloated is probably the word. It makes me think of toads or that fish from Finding Nemo. ...if you can't tell already, my brain is melting. Yes. I loved Finding Nemo...

...okay, back on track. Actually, there was no track to begin with. Is this how I'm spending my last moments in 2003? Crap. Well then, tonight some family friends came over for dinner and it was nice, except they came an hour later than usual which mean I ate an hour later than what was planned, which means ...BLOATIE! Maybe I should change my name to Bloatie.

I was trying to think of the best album of 2003, but I couldn't think of much. I guess I didn't buy that many albums that were released this year. At the top of my list I put On Your Side and Frengers, and then I realized that neither of these albums were released in the US. Do I need to move to the UK? I'll probably never even go there. [sidenote: What is that smell? It's bothering me.]

On Monday I went to Best Buy and Tower Records to look for the re-release of Sea Change on DVD, but I could't find it. :( At Best Buy I bought the Michel Gondry DVD and Make Up the Breakdown. And then...I saw this. Just a few days ago I was saying how I wouldn't see the point of buying any TV show on DVD except for Sailor Moon because I couldn't actually watch it on TV. I had absolutely no idea that there was so much stuff on DVD. And now I'm going to become poor as I try to make $200 appear out of somewhere so I can buy the first two seasons...

Maybe I should talk about just how much of a Sailor Moon freak I was. (Or maybe not, so I will appear more sane...eh, you probably think I'm insane already.) I started to get into Sailor Moon during my visits to Taiwan when I was in elementary school. I really don't know how, but I guess I just liked the way it looked because I sure as hell couldn't understand any of it. I even bought some videos that were in Chinese (I'm guessing...eh, some Asian language) and I bought the entire set of the comics (not the original ones, the ones based on the TV show) that was in Chinese. My mum actually had to order them for me from a local comic book store, and I made my mum read all of them to me (man, how could she stand that?) at various times, or so I assume, unless she could read them all to me during the plane ride between Taiwan and New Jersey. I also have the set of comics for Sailor Moon R, but it's in Japanese...not sure where/when I got that. The peak of my obsession was probably when I was 10 years old in 5th grade...I drew Sailor Moon stuff all the time (badly, although I did a lot of tracing too) and one of my favorite toys was this golden Sailor Moon locket. I think I actually wore it too, which I'm hoping was acceptable when I was 10. I can't believe I don't have it anymore (WHY WOULD I THROW THAT OUT?) but no, I am NOT going to bid on it or buy it now. ...*sob* Maybe if it ever becomes insanely cheap.

Erm, anyway! I guess I didn't buy THAT many toys based on Sailor Moon (never had any of the dolls/action figures at least, but then they didn't look that good. I'm talking about the Japanese toys here; the American dolls were absolutely horrendous. I did buy this wand though...$40?! Maybe $13.) besides some little figures which I recall covering in silly putty-like matter and then having them try to escape from the goo (oh god, I was weird). I remember having a Sailor Mercury keychain that I used as a good luck charm. The only things I have left are lots and lots of trading cards. I don't even remember buying them, at least not the number that I have now (I didn't count, but it's more than 2). I remember that there may have been a card machine near that comic book store in Taiwan, but I don't think I loaded up on them that way. I DO remember that there was a machine at Toys R Us which dispensed the American cards...and those sucked. I was reading them and they're just so stupid! Then again, the Japanese ones might be stupid too, but I can't read them. It doesn't look like trading cards do well on eBay, or else I'd have loads to sell. I don't know how many are in the entire set, but the highest numbers I have are in the 500s. There must be some crazy people out there with the entire set.

I was pretty obsessed with Sailor Moon despite the lack of its presence in the USA (and my not being able to read the comics or watch the show) but then Mixx magazine came out (now Tokyo Pop). I first saw it at Electronics Boutique and I jumped out of my skin. And then I put it back on and bought the magazine. Actually, it was more like one of those huge Japanese manga things with the newspaper-ish pages in different colors than a magazine, but then it later became glossy with less emphasis on comics and more on culture, which made it suck to me because I just wanted to read comics (for a good Asian culture magazine, read Giant Robot). The magazine got me into Parasyte, which is nothing like Sailor Moon, but it's really funny sometimes. It's being made into a movie that seems like it'll never be released.

Of course, the TV show also ended up being dubbed and put on TV. 6:30 AM IS NOT A GOOD TIME TO PUT ON A NEW TV SHOW! Well, those WB folks probably knew that. I actually woke up at 6:30 AM to watch the show. I moved a little TV into my room so I could wake up (half-conscious), soak in the TV rays for half an hour, and go back to sleep (school started at 9 AM). Once I vividly remember not even paying attention tothe TV, but just leaving it on while I half-slept and then turning it off once the show was over. I have to admit, the show isn't even that well done (and the dubbed version is worse than the Japanese one) and the storyline is extremely predictable, yet I was that obsessed with it. During the summer I had tennis lessons in the morning so I'd record the show on video (I had the entire first season recorded, but I must have thrown out the videos). I brought a small TV with me to the airport once because the show was playing while we were waiting to check in our bags. The episode that was playing was the last one of the season and I was really sad because the little TV sucked. (Those mini-TVs never really work, do they?) Then again, it doesn't matter that much because I found out that in the dubbed version the last two episodes were combined which failed to show how ALL THE SAILORS DIE. I'd think that's pretty important, but maybe it's too much for American viewers? Uh. (Most of the stuff that was cut was thought to be too violent or sexual, and I'm having trouble imagining how some of the characters I thought were female were actually male.)

I'm not sure when my obsession died down, but thank god it did. Sometime during high school the Sailor Moon movies were released on video and my mum bought those for me. I watched two of them and they didn't make much sense to me since I didn't watch the episodes. So I have to catch up! NEED DVDS! My brother has bought a lot of TV show DVDs (Futurama, Family Guy, The Simpsons...) and I never have, but I feel like I should try to make some money and use that to buy the DVDs. The only way for me to make money (besides getting a real job...haha) is to sell Poofies, and at some point, Poofy t-shirts (but I won't actually make that much money from the t-shirts considering it'll cost me around $300 to have them made). Eh well, I'll figure it out. It's that important to me.

...man, I need to get a real life. I'd like to believe that I'm doing better than my brother, at least. He's not a bad person or anything, but he seems to spend his time unwisely. He plays games...a lot. Right now he's at a friend's house playing games. He's never had a job and he's not planning to go to graduate school (he's a senior right now) but since he's majoring in economics and minoring in political science, he should be able to find a job.

I still have no freakin' clue as to what I should major in. (sigh)

I can't believe I wrote that much about Sailor Moon. Did you read all that? I wouldn't have.

TIME FOR POOFIES!

I know I have homework. Now that I've had two weeks of spring break to do it, it's the Sunday afternoon before classes and I still haven't touched bio.

Oh well. Today I was too lazy to get real food, so I figured I could fast for a while. But no...I brought dried fruit and nuts from home, so I ate that. I thought "Well, there's no way I'd want to just eat dried stuff all day!" HAHA. I have a 1 lb bag of cashews and I have no idea how much I've eaten so far. Argh! Stupid fake hunger! I'm still in my pjs, of course.

I got back to school last night at around 10:30 PM. My original plan was to leave my house at around 4 PM, but I woke up at 2 PM and didn't want just 2 hours to sulk around the house before going back to school. Need more sulking time! So my mum and I went grocery shopping and we saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I really liked the movie, but I wouldn't be able to bear watching it again because the camera movements were pretty shaky and made me feel like puking. Dancer in the Dark did the same thing to me. Good movies need to have non-shaky camera movements! For my sake! ME! Oh well. :) The movie is about Jim Carrey's character Joel erasing the memories he had of his girlfriend, Clementine, played by Kate Winslet, because she had her memories erased. There's a lot more to it than that (Elijah Wood plays a rather evil character, mwahahaha) but I think that's the gist. I forgot that there was a Beck song in it, but I liked it...and now I want the soundtrack. The music in the movie is really nice. The way the movie was shot is interesting...hooray for Michel Gondry!

I stayed up until 4 AM last night and woke up at about 12:30 today. Sleep is good. That's what Sundays are for. Today I've been trying to figure out what to do for my photos section and I made this up so far. Nothing flashy. Can't deal with that. Can't...design...stuff. Brain dead. Correct grammar non-existent.

I haven't updated this blog in a few days, but I haven't been doing many blog-worthy activities. I met my high school English teacher on Friday night, which was nice. There was a production being put on by the University Program students and I met her after that. She said she has a class of students this year who actually enjoy reading and things like that. She must be really happy. :D I mean, I definitely didn't experience that throughout my high school years. I always felt bad for my teacher for having to put up with so much crap. Actually, the same goes for all my teachers. Honors classes, CP classes, AP classes...99% of the time there was someone who made the class suck more than they already did. The only exception I can think of was my 12th grade psychology class. Everyone in the class was nice to each other and respectful to the teacher. *gasp!* Yes, I know.

Unless you live in Taiwan or are from Taiwan, you probably haven't heard much about the Taiwanese elections that just took place. Or the president and vice president being shot and the controversy behind that. I have no idea who was president when I lived in Taiwan. Actually, I had no idea what the president really did...I can't imagine being that clueless about the government in the US. Then again, most of the world seems to know what's going on in the American political system. Anyhoo, President Chen Shui-bian was re-elected by a very narrow margin which is pissing off a lot of people. I have no idea what the candidates are like, but my mum doesn't like Shui-bian, so I'm guessing he must be pretty bad. Which means my dad probably likes him. Ha ha. He got a picture of President Bush and his wife in the mail for supporting them...like what are we supposed to do with the photo? Eh.

I can't think of anything else to write at the moment, except that I must've eaten a lot of cashews. OH, I just remembered something. On Friday for lunch, my mum and I ate out at a buffet place we haven't been to in more than a year. We used to go there a lot and since they have fruit, we figured it'd be okay. I actually decided to try some cooked veggies. COOKED! GAAAASSSPPUH! I've been rethinking the raw food diet for a while and I figured I may as well try something cooked, as long as it's not deep fried cheese sticks or spaghetti or something. I didn't feel any weird effects from it and since it's already Sunday, I don't think anything bad will happen. So I guess if I had to eat out somewhere, cooked veggies would be okay. They're more filling than salad, at least. If it were up to me though, I'd only have to eat fruit. You can't get all your minerals from fruit though. :(

It was pretty cold last week (considering it's June) and now it's gotten humid and muggy. Lovely. Especially when you live in a house that smells weird. I can't even pinpoint what the smell is, besides "TH smell". That's not really a good thing. A lot of things aren't good, actually. ...nah, I won't get into some stupid depressed mode, although last night I felt like dying and all that fun stuff. If I didn't like my mum I probably wouldn't mind killing myself, but I'd have to really hate my family to do that. And I don't. *phew* Lucky me. Of course, suicide is a bad idea, unless you know absolutely no one and have no contact with the outside world, in which case no one will notice that you're gone.

On that note...hello! Today I ate five bananas, one orange, and one fruit cup. And a lot of honey, but I don't think that does much to me. It's quite yummy. In a week I lost about four pounds, but I think a lot of it (maybe three pounds) was just water. It's all good. In the first week of my cleanse I was already getting rid of weird intestinal crap. [shudders]

I saw Harry Potter on Friday with my mum and my first impression was that I was a little disappointed. I was really excited to see it and I thought it would be better. It wasn't bad by any means, but my expectations were probably too high. I haven't read the book in a while but I feel like the movie left out a lot (of course, it always will but maybe some other stuff could've found it's way into the movie) or changed things. I don't really recall, I'll have to read the book again.

On Saturday I went to an old house a faculty member bought to repair in order to do some house work, ie, deconstruction. One of my housemates, Ryan, came too, which was good because he's actually done the kind of work before. We had to toss a bunch of spackle and wood with nails in em that were ripped out of walls out a window and in garbage bins and roll up this huge ass carpet and lug it down the stairs to bring outside (the faculty member's daughter and her boyfriend were helping too). I got to smash a wall with a hammer to get more spackle off...quite fun. Surprisingly, my arms don't even hurt (my legs are still aching though). Ryan and I also had to take down a drywall ceiling, which was about as pleasant as you could imagine having lots of dust and dirt falling on your head could feel like. We had to toss all that stuff out of a window as well. In another room we did more tossing and it was completely dust filled...by the end of the day, I thought my lungs were coated in dust. We went through a few dust masks and we all got super heavy gloves and protective eyewear. Ryan and I made $80, but I don't think I'd be willing to do it again. I'm glad I got the experience though...so now I will never go into the construction business.

I'm not sure what happened all of last week. Not much? Trying to eat less (which didn't work today cos I had a bunch of bananas in my room) and not doing very well with current website making stuff. I'm just LAZY! ERGH! Still haven't put the new poofy shirts on my site cos my laptop can't connect to the internet right now (I'm using the communal computer each media studies hose gets...it's a nice powerful mac, although I don't know which one).

Today is Even's birthday! There's something to celebrate. Makes my day a little bit happier...but not by much. Not that today was a really BAD day, it just wasn't that exciting. Not that it ever is. What am I expecting, that a fairy will emerge in my room and start singing showtunes? That would be downright frightening.

It's frustrating to not really have anyone to talk to in real life. I know that's not really true, as everyone here is cool and would talk to me if I really wanted to, but I don't want to bother them. Last night a bunch of us were just sitting around and talking (I was half asleep on a comfy futon...not in this house, of course, which is kind of devoid of furniture) and it was kind of depressing because people were talking about things I had no experience with and am not sure if I want any experience with: alcohol, relationships, cooked food...okay, I have experiences with cooked food, but it's been a while you know? I haven't cooked anything myself in one and a half years.

God, something above my eyebrow is itchy. I hate it when that happens. I also started getting signs of my period today, which would be very alarming if I weren't on the cleanse. It has to be this cleanse since it's only been a few weeks since my last period. Arrgh...annoying. It supports the idea of menstruation that I believe in, in that it's a way to get rid of toxins and explains why so many people experience painful cramps and PMS and whatever other crap. THEY'RE FULL OF TOXINS! Get over it. That may not apply to everyone, but I believe it applies to the majority of people. And if you eat crap and have a crappy lifestyle and happen to have very painful periods, then...change something.

I could bitch some more. But it's too personal. Screw me. Lalala. I'm going to be up all night thinking about crap that doesn't matter.

I tried to teach myself some PHP today and it's fairly easy...some of it, at least. I could make a simple form. Check these out:

bad word
favorite fruit

Fun times. PHP reminds me of C++ except that now I'm not in school it doesn't scare me. C++ literally made me cry.

Great. Just great. My friend got Jabba the Hut so I guess it's not actually that bad. I AM CUDDLY AND CUTE, YES! And apparently I'm as harmless as a flee. Figuring these "flee" things have the destructive powers of lint, I am pretty harmless.

I saw Revenge of the Sith on Wednesday night/Thursday morning at Palisades Center with hundreds of other Star Wars crazy people. Not that I'm really crazy, but my brother and his friend were going so...yup. There weren't many people dressed up but you could tell who was really excited.

I really like the first three movies, as in the old movies. You've probably heard loads of people say that. But I still enjoyed the new movies...pretty much. I think. I've heard a lot of people say that the third one is the best, and all I can say is that it's the most different from the first two movies. I think.

I don't think enough. Er. Anyway, so this new movie extrudes evil like a sausage machine that is constantly making sausuages (I've thought of worse analogies, but good lord I came up with FOOD). Evil sausages. I think the evil-ness bothered me, even though the point of the movie is to show Anakin go to the Dark Side. And that he does in a very sad and freaky way. Aw. Well.

I liked Yoda and Obi-Wan the most.

...so that is my insanely un-helpful review of Star Wars. Actually, I'm not done. I hate the unconvincing love scenes and the strange transitions (in my opinion). But it's still worth watching if you're into Star Wars, obviously.

I hate that feeling you get after seeing a movie that makes you want to crawl into a little ball and die. In a hole. Or outside a hole. Doesn't matter really.

...don't worry, I didn't get that feeling. I saw Samaritan Girl this past Wednesday with Carol, an old friend from TAS. First thing: it's always amazing to see old friends from TAS. Even though I may not have seen them in months or years (in Carol's case, it's been about 10 months), things automatically click. As they should. I'm lucky to know people like Carol.

So, the movie. Well. It's not bad; it's just not my kind of movie. I'm not sure who I'd recommend this movie to besides people who love all kinds of movies. Or people who know Korean. It's beautifully shot, has great acting, a bit excessive with the gurgling blood, and portrays a disturbing story. That's my...summary. If you're from South Korea, could you fill me in on how rampant high school prostitution is? Or would I rather not know? The leading actress is the movie is only a few months younger than me, which freaks me out a bit as she's very cute and looks really young (along with the other actress that played her friend that died and is actually older).

Carol and I left the theater feeling very...odd. "What was that about?" "I dunno how I liked that one." Upon reflection, it was better than I initially thought it was (when I felt like I could use a hug). I wouldn't want to watch it again but it had many powerful moments of silence that I haven't seen in any other movie. The numbness from the movie's after-effects wore off as Carol, her friend and I walked around the open streets of midtown Manhattan, slightly humid but not too hot, dodging puddles from the day's rain.

Last night I saw Batman Begins with my mum. How's that a turn of movie genres? ;) I thought the movie was excellent and I can't BELIEVE anyone could think that Star Wars was on par with this movie. It. Wasn't. Star Wars wasn't really awful but...um. Actually, I didn't enjoy it that much and it is so far the only Star Wars movie I've seen just one time. I'm not a Batman fan but since everyone said it was great (and I live in NJ so there isn't much to do), I decided to go see it, thus enduring a nearly 1-hour drive to the Palisades Center in some crap-ass pre-July 4th weekend traffic. Even though it's a superhero movie, Batman is the least superhuman superhero, unless you count that he has billions of dollars at his disposal. Even though the movie is longer than two hours, it didn't drag on at all. The action scenes aren't over-the-top but they keep you glued to your seat. Or maybe that was just me. If you didn't like this movie, I'd rather not know about it.

In other news, I bought three types of semi-fuzzy fabric today. POOFIES ARE A-COMIN!

I'm not much of a movie-goer, yet I've seen a few movies lately. I guess that means there isn't much to do. HA HA. Lovely.

Actually, there is a lot to do. I've spent the past three days going back and forth between NYC and NJ for various reasons (seeing friends, going to my graphic design class, doing work for a teacher) but I finally get to stay home tomorrow! And...visit the orthodontist. Joy.

So, those movies. I saw "Wedding Crashers" last Friday and I thought it was really funny. Not the funniest movie I had ever seen, but it was better than I thought it would be. By "better" I mean it wasn't as crude as I was expecting. It was kind of mushy, but...meh. Can't expect much else from a movie. Vince Vaughn is my new favorite funny actor dude; his facial expressions are priceless.

I also saw The Island, which almost no one has seen, judging from the money (er, lack of) it made. I usually like sci-fi things so I enjoyed the movie, even though it was strange. Incongruous. TOO MUCH CAR-CRASHING ACTION, JESUS. The central point of the movie (which I could say, but that would spoil it...then again, you're probably not going to see the movie) was disturbing, which I liked. ...yeah, I like disturbing things! SUPER! Steve Buscemi was cool, although he wasn't in the movie for very long.

After my graphic design classes I tend to feel like there's no way I could do graphic design. Not well, at least. Concept is the key; just making things pretty is total crap. NEED CONCEPTS! NEED NEW BRAIN! NEED BETTER GRAMMAR! Obviously, graphic design isn't my future but it's fun to dabble in. Or depressing. Can it be both? I have no idea what to do for my next assignment (I'd explain it but...meh, maybe I'll let you in on my FAILUUURE) which is bothering me. Ah. Crap.

Oops, I forgot about this thing.

...but that's okay! Because. My life is pretty boring already.

I was thinking today about how I didn't see any of my old high school friends this summer. Was this an error on my part? I saw some old MIDDLE school friends from Taiwan that I have to say are better friends with me than the ones I went to high school with, even though I've seen them much less over the course of my life. But that doesn't mean my HS friends were worthless or that we didn't have fun doing things together.

So. Is something wrong with me? "God, I'm horrible for not even calling up to see if anyone were alive!" I just found out that one of my old friends is going to Egypt for a year, so there's another year I won't be seeing her. A few of my friends are studying abroad, which is an awesome opportunity (I'm staying here). Then I realized that none of my HS friends contacted me either. I guess the feeling is mutual.

Actually, I lied. I did meet up with one good friend I went to HS with, but we've actually been friends since we were in the womb. Our parents have been friends for ages, so I guess our bond is stronger than...others.

Oh well, that's New Jersey. It's not like all of NJ is devoid of cool people but my best friends live elsewhere, or in other parts of NJ.

I'm not a very good friend, and there isn't much anyone can say to make me think otherwise. I'm not the worst friend (I value...punctuality!) but sometimes I'm too lazy to do things with people or I don't really feel like doing something ooor something else that I can't think of right now.

There are worse things. Hohum.

I saw Broken Flowers with my mum and we were both a bit perplexed by it. "So. ...what was that about?" It was interesting after thinking about it more, but we were still thinking "Huh?" As one of the IMDB members said, the movie stays with you because there's no resolution. Well. Great. NOW I WILL ALWAYS WONDER WHAT WAS GOING ON.

(I'm not one of those "smart" film watchers.)

I came to the conclusion that most people are insane and don't have good lives. Another movie that taught me that is Me and You and Everyone We Know. It's another one of those "huh?" movies, although not to the extent of Broken Flowers (this movie was more interesting to me, although it has a few smaller stories going on at the same time). I also was kinda "eh" about the movie until the "everyone is insane" realization, which in turn made me wonder if I'm insane, and if I'm not, if I'm abnormal for not being insane.

My first impression was that it wasn't very realistic (not that I was looking for it, but for a movie that wasn't necessarily a fantasy, it seemed quite unreal), but then many of the viewers said it was. And now...I question my life. OF LIIIES! Or something. My own life is unreal, although it's in the boring sense. "Robyn, you've never done ___? Or seen ___?" Today, CJ was appalled that I hadn't seen any of the Kirate Kid movies. OH LORDY!

...well, not really appalled. All he did was shout and point and me in horror.

I watched The Corporation the other night and it contributed to the "the world is insane" theme that has been running throughout these movies, although in a different, completely terrifying way. Figuring that the documentary is mostly true, our world seems pretty much...screwed. Unless people do stuff, "stuff" being...I don't know. I'd recommend watching this documentary, even if you don't agree with it, although it's hard to ignore that corporations have more power than they should have and that the environment is going to shit, thus...

NO POINT IN HAVIN' KIIIDS! WEEE!

I don't know when I'm supposed to develope a materal instinct, but I haven't yet.

To ease the depressing movie spell, I may have to fill my head with Miyazaki. I finally watched Nausicaa after letting the DVD sit in my room for a few weeks, and just like every Miyazaki movie, it was excellent. Does anyone else make animated action movies with powerful stories as well as Studio Ghibli? I also rewatched my favorite movie, Laputa. The English dubbing bothers me but it's not that bad, and you can use the Japanese track on the DVD.

WATCH EVERY MIYAZAKI MOVIE! WEE!

...end ramble.