Sunday, September 25, 2011

Paring Pears

Meh. I procrastinated for the past four weeks and now I have to write my history paper. It isn't even really that hard, I am just not feeling it right now. Let's talk about something else. 


Doctor Freaking Who. Oh. My. God. 


"Closing Time." Freaking freak freak pants. It was an interesting episode on its own. It was different. I think it really featured Matt Smith and what he can do. It was amazing. PETRICHOR!!!!! AH:LKSAJFL:GKJSDG:LKNESLKFEJWLKGFJ:ASL = things I can't even. 


Right now, we have grapes roasting in the oven. That's exciting, right? I'll let you know how it goes.


I'm sorry but I'm gonna be lame this week. 


Jen and I have plans for the somewhat near future, more on that to come later. I am gonna go cry in a corner and stuff. 


Books Read: 18 (....Don't Judge Me) 
Why Today Was Awesome: Freedom
Something I Learned: I don't want to write this paper. 
Song Stuck in My Head: "C'mon" by Panic! at the Disco (Kind of my new favorite song.) 

I Wanna Be Scared of How Strongly I Feel For You

Hi there! I had a pretty good week compared to last week's Dementor fiasco. Maybe not as sweet as I wanted it to be, but definitely sweeter than the last time. 


I broke a record on Thursday night--I slept at 4:15am and woke up 35 minutes later at 4:50am. *sigh* I ignored all of my other homework in order to do two things and two things only: 1) my bio lab report, and 2) the SAO "Meet the Prefects" board.


1) My bio lab report
I should not have procrastinated. And yet I did. *sigh* Anyway, I wasn't freaking out that much about it. Bio lab reports are always easier to write than English papers since they're so straightforward. There's always a right and wrong answer, none of the abstract and ambiguous things in English that require me to think critically (which is great and all, but can't be done very well when there's only 4-5 hours to do it). I've decided to time myself when writing my bio lab reports throughout the year (of course, I have to pause the stopwatch whenever I get up and take breaks and stuff). The first time I had to write one this year, I was doing it in another time-crunch because I had had a busy weekend that first time. I completed that Osmosis lab report in 5 hours, 21 minutes and 27 seconds. This most recent bio lab report on Enzymes, however, took me 3 hours, 12 minutes, and 27 seconds. I'm feeling math-y right now (I'm about to do my Calculus homework after this post), so I think I will plot out the relationship between the time I take to write each lab report and the final grade that I receive on each one in a graph. Not today, though, let's wait until the end of the first quarter to see if there is a relationship or not. That's something to watch out for. Yay.


Oh and here's what my laptop looked like before I dove in that fated Thursday night:




Lovin' the post-it detail? Yeah, me too.


2) The SAO's "Meet the Prefects" board
I was in charge of putting up the Senior Prefects' mini bios and pictures on the SAO bulletin board so that everyone in the school can "meet" all 22 of us senior prefects all week, next week. I sent out questions to the Pres and took their pictures and I had everything ready on Wednesday. The only thing I had to do was put everything together. But, of course, I procrastinated. *sigh* (SOMETHING MUST BE DONE ABOUT THIS PROBLEM!) Anyway, this task required some photo editing and lots and lots of heavy, mindless, and repetitive formatting for the most part. Nevertheless, I got it done. And I'm quite proud of the work we put up there. Does it exceed expectations? I think so. Thanks to all the Prefects for being so awesome, of course, and to everyone who helped me out: Win for joining my therapeutic cutting of the miniscule musical notes, Stratty for keeping us company and focused throughout that ordeal, Ging and Jas for being the Tape Masters, Boy-Alex for being the Tape Monster and Official Bio Carrier, Britt and Girl-Alex for lending us their nimble fingers in The Great Stapling of the Board's Title. And, of course, Kendall, for finding and installing the font I insisted on using for the title, creating and printing out the first board title, giving up his free period to cut out the mini bios, masterfully stapling everything that needed stapling LIKE A BAMFing STAPLING BOSS (despite the fact that the stapler we used wasn't PaperPro--I felt like we were cheating on someone we both loved!), and, as always, for telling me to "CALM THE FRICKIN' HELL DOWN" when I freaked out about paper measurements, crooked staplers, folding paper edges the right way, and different sizes of rectangles, and when things were too much for my over-stressed and sleep-deprived brain. Thank you, Kerms.


So, it was also Midquarter week, so I now have a better idea of where I stand in all of my classes. I definitely think I can do better--I want to do better. SO MUCH BETTER. The stress is definitely here and here to stay, but I think I'm dealing. Which means that the next four weeks are gonna be BOOM-BOOM-BOOM WEEKS--focus, work, no distractions! Let's get 'er done, guys, and let's get 'er done right


Today....
I really loved...singing the song "We Remember" at Church. It's my favorite church song.
I smiled...because my mom and Shayne went to see The Lion King in 3D today after church. The Lion King was Shayne's first ever movie as an infant, and my mom remembered being amazed at the fact that little Shayne understood what was going on in the movie. How did she know that her baby daughter could understand the movie? Shayne started crying when Simba was trying to wake up his dead father, Mufasa. *tear* Anyway, it seemed fitting that now that she's a college girl, the two of them watch it together. 
Lyrics playing at this very moment as I type this portion of the blog: 
"My heart is waiting for your love, my hand is waiting for your touch..."
(B-E-A-U-Tiful by Megan Nicole)
Hours of sleep last night: 8 (On Friday night, the night after my sleepless all-nighter, I slept at 7:30pm and woke up at 9:50am on Saturday morning--ALL YOU PANDAS OF THE WORLD GOT NOTHING ON ME. Pandas only average 4-6 hours of sleep, I believe, and I did for FOURTEEN GLORIOUS HOURS! The average sloth sleeps 15-18 hours a day. SLOTHS OF THE WORLD, I BOW DOWN TO YOU.)
Hugs: 3
Risks taken: 5 (nothing new)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Me Gustaría Darte el Mar

If it makes anyone feel better, I had a decent week! 


Today on the other hand... This weekend, I had to write four papers. Four. Papers. I must have had freaking easy classes in years past because I've written more in the past four weeks than I did all last year. Although I did manage to finish all of it. Well, almost all of it. I finished everything but half of my Bio lab report, so pretty decent I guess. That's all I did today though. I literally sat at my desk the whole time, working/procrastinating. I did play some fun flash games though. 


Yesterday, I watched Doctor Who and freaking oh my freaking god. a;lksdgj;laksgj. That's all that can be said. 


It's 9 'o clock and I still have stuff that I want to do, so I think that I'm gonna be lame and cut it off short. Have fun in whatever it is life spits at you. 


Awkward Moments: *Sigh* I'm not gonna be able to keep track of this one....
Books Read: 18
Why Today Was Awesome: Today wasn't particularly awesome, but I guess I would have to say flash games in general.  
Something I Learned: Ahhh boring Kendall is boring.  
Song Stuck in My Head: "Me Gustas Tú" by Iskander 

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Turning a Week's Worth of Sap into Sweet Maple Syrup

Before: TREE SAP
I have family in Montreal, Canada. We took a trip there a couple of Christmases ago. It was a great trip; we had lots of fun with family and snow--one of the best Christmases I've had so far. Anyway, they have a lot of maple trees there, and we brought home some dried maple leaves (I know!) with us. But I was a bit disappointed when we didn't get to see how maple syrup was made. Years before we went on the trip, I had seen a home video of my cousins, aunts and uncles at some maple-syrup-making place, looking at the spigots that brought forth the sticky sap from the maple trees' trunks. And that's about as close as I ever got to witnessing the transformation of icky tree sap into the glorious maple syrup you pour over your hot pancakes for Sunday brunch.


Why am I talking about this? Well, let me rewind: This past week was a pretty bad week. Actually, that's an understatement. I'm sure I'm not the only who one thinks this: this whole week, despite the fact that it was Extended Schedule week, SUCKED. It was TERRIBLE. We had lots of happiness-sucking dementors floating around with no way to Expecto Patronum ourselves out, my classes aren't looking up, and there seems to be more drama every day (Oh the drama...). As a result, I became a huge sapper.


Kendall and I learned something very important back in our Leadership Class days and we've tried to implement this in our lives ever since. That something is called Zapping. Zapping is the action of always having a positive attitude and bringing high energy to those around you. If you are a Zapper, people always want to be around you because of your super awesome vibes. But what's the opposite of Zapping? The answer is Sapping. A Sapper has a terrible attitude and a negative perspective about most things. If you are a Sapper, you always bring others down and are, basically, a suckish person.


After: MAPLE SYRUP
So this past week not only sucked, but it also sapped pretty hard. And the negative energy just infected everyone, maybe mostly me. And misery loves company, so I'm sure (and so sorry!) that I also sapped the energy out of the others around me. 


So, this weekend, I resolve to make maple syrup. NO MORE SAPPING. NO MORE NEGATIVE ENERGY. NO MORE BAD JUJU. I was set on making Senior Year my best year at 'Iolani yet, and it's still early, we've got lots of time and opportunities to make it so. So it's time to transform the icky sticky tree sap into smooth and sweet maple syrup. Next week, I'm sure, will be sweet.


Today......
I really loved...Doctor Who!!!
I smiled...because of my Mom's math-nerdiness. She couldn't sleep last night because of some math problems. So she stayed up until she solved them all....ohhh, Mom, I love you.
Lyrics playing at this very moment as I type this portion of the blog:
"...forever will be. Run, baby, run. Don't ever look back. They'll tear us apart if you give them the chance..."
(Check Yes Juliet by We the Kings)
Hours of sleep last night: I fell asleep watching a movie that I now think wasn't worth it at all...anyway, I slept for a total of 9 hours. Those were glorious 9 hours.
Hugs: 5 (Daddy came home today!)
Risks taken: 5 (A total of 2 just this week! The first ended with a huge blah, and Kendall expressed his appreciation for the second one, so that was better than the first...)


P.S. Why did this week suck so much? Check out my short post over at Dance...

Sunday, September 11, 2011

It Doesn't Matter Anymore If You Think About It

Brace yourself, man, 'cause I'm about to tackle you and hug you like there's no tomorrow. I missed this. THIS. As in, blogging, and you reading my blogs. (Well, maybe not much because I actually posted something short a couple of days ago over at DWM,WY? but still.)


I have developed a new habit. Whether it's good or bad, I'm not sure yet. You guys know that Friday nights are my sleep-early nights and then I spend about half of Saturday and all of Sunday doing homework. Well, um, like Kendall, I've been a pro at crastinating for the past two weekends. I still go to sleep early on Friday nights but now my Saturday nights are spent on Facebook, Blogger, Tumblr, YouTube, 1000 Awesome Things, Wikipedia, Google (Web, Images, and Translate), Yahoo! Mail, school email, Pottermore, various lyrics websites, and the list just goes on and on until I finally turn in at almost 2 in the morning. And then I start homework on Sunday afternoon. Which is precisely what I did this weekend. It hasn't hurt me...yet. But I'm scared because I just know that this will bite me in the butt eventually...


I think human beings have an innate tendency to procrastinate...we're a NATION of PROCRASTIs. Get it? Our country is a PROCRASTI NATION. High fives all around, no?
And, look, Life's giving me more opportunities to be a patriotic citizen because THIS WEEK IS EXTENDED SCHEDULE WEEK. I have periods 4 and 6 free, so on Wednesday I will have 4, Meeting Period, Lunch, and 6 all free. That's a total of 235 minutes or 3.917 hours of no class. What to do, what to do...


Moving on to another topic, I've found myself lost in the lyrics again and it's still just as amazing as I thought it always was a couple of years ago. I mean I have "But ever since I met you girl you've made my life such hell...", "Sixteen names on my list but none of them could ever get me hot like this...", "These are things I feel but don't wanna say in case you feel that way...", "What could possibly go wrong when you're president of the Breakfast Club and you're not hesitant to fall in love?" all in the same playlist. And each and every one leaves a mark. I'll never get tired of this.


Today....
I really loved...PB&J sandwiches.
I smiled because...of Josh's On the Spot Songs.
Lyrics playing at this very moment as I type this portion of the blog:
"When I made up my mind, and my heart along with that, to live not for myself but yet for God, somebody said, 'Do you know what you're getting yourself into?'" 
(Getting Into You by Relient K)
Hours of sleep last night: 8.5
Hugs: 2
Risks Taken: 3 (Oh yeahh, I should have written about the last two risks...)


Now or Never?

¿Cómo estás? ¿Bien? Bien. 


It's been like, almost two freaking weeks since I last saw you! I missed you.... Not really. Kind of. 


So in that blank void of nothingness that has been my September so far, some things that I did include: going to the awesome Prefect Sleepover with Jen, finishing The Lost Hero, watching the new X-Men movie, reading a small child's picture book, holding the hands of small children (so freaking small), and much much more. 


This weekend, to be more exact, I worked on our AP Bio project with Jen and company, decided to get sick, and procrastinated all day, preventing myself from doing my Shakespeare essay. I recently ordered something online and I am really excited to show you guys, but I won't be able to until next week, so get excited. 


My life hasn't been too exciting though, just the normal-ness of school and homework and such.  I'm really trying to enjoy it as much as I can. With all this college stuff going on recently, talking to my counselor about it, going to college presentations, it's really starting to freak me out. I find myself thinking about it more and more. I mean, I am excited for college and what's next in the future, but even the smallest of changes can freak me out, and this is the biggest change we will go through at this point. I am really anxious about what's to come and there is no way of stopping it, so the only thing that we can do is enjoy what we have left and try to make the most out of what we have. We have to go beyond what we normally do, push our limits and boundaries, and instead of backing out and going back down the ladder, make that one final jump off the diving board before it's time to leave the pool. 


And as one of my new favorite YouTubers says, 
Later days.


Awkward Moments: 0 (Starting righhhhtttt NOW!)
Books Read: 18
Why Today Was Awesome: Chocolate Chip Pancakes 
Something I Learned: I have been procrastinating too much. 
Song Stuck in My Head: "Next to You" Luke, Alex, and Tiffany 

Thursday, September 1, 2011

WHAT A WAY TO END BEDAugust 2011

FRIG.


I can't believe I'm ending BEDA like this.....with a 30-minute late blog post. You have no idea how DISAPPOINTED with myself I am right now!!!! To make matters worse, Kendall congratulated me on doing 100% of BEDA this month on his last post..... 


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There should be no excuses, so I won't waste time telling you any....


My thoughts on this year's BEDA? I think we did fine. It was definitely challenging to do BEDA for two blogs, but I think it was well worth it. I came up with some really good writing, if I do say so myself, in the past month just because I knew I had to write. It was really fun--having to scramble for interesting topics and embellish our boring lives so as not to make any of you fall asleep while reading our posts. Looking forward to April!


For now, though, we are going back to Blogging Every Week Throughout the Year (or BEWTY for short), which will definitely be less stressful. Our problem, however, is that when we're forced to write every day during BEDA, we often have nothing important or exciting to share but during BEWTY, we just can't wait to write our once a week blog posts! We are weird.


School is still school--getting a bit more stressful? I'm sure you can tell because it's 12:37 and I'm still up. I had just finished an English essay when I realized that I hadn't BEDAed it up on the very last day of BEDA. Again, I am disappointed. I should administer the Seven Cuts of Shame before I sleep.


Anyway, I think some "thanks" are in order....
-To those of you who are relatively new, welcome and thank you for not dismissing our blog so quickly! We hope that you stay for more awesomeness and craziness! Tell your friends about us!
-To those of you who have been with us for quite a while, thank you for your continued support! Although we cannot fathom how you can possibly find us so interesting, we hope you stay with us. If you do, you can have a cookie...and we promise to try harder to keep you entertained!
-And, finally, to those of you who consider yourselves weird and professional creepers, well, what can we say? Gras. Keep on creepin'...creep, creep, creep.


OH WAIT! Let's not forget a very important person in all of our lives (yes, all of OUR lives): Kendall, without whom this blog would not exist. He has actually done BEDA successfully THREE TIMES--no tardies, no absences--so he's pretty much a pro BEDA-er. 
Gras, Kerms, gras.


Today......
I really loved...eating a boiled egg as part of my lunch.
I smiled because...of that graduated cylinder and the thermometer.
Lyrics playing at this very moment as I type this portion of the blog:
Nada....
Hours of sleep last night: 4.5
Hugs: 4
*Risks taken: 1


*ongoing tally