Refraction

This is a final Greymatter test post. See ya!

Hopefully, most fans of Japanese music have heard that Hikaru Utada will be releasing a North American album sometime in October, under the name UTADA.

And being the weird rabid filesharing people that we are… Her first radio single, “Easy Breezy,” was somehow leaked onto the Internet, and since then, things like “Devil Inside” and “Exodus Mix” have been available.

I’m not very fond of “Easy Breezy.” Whenever I hear it, I think of Cover Girl cosmetics. (I guess that means they’ve done a pretty good job with their advertising.) As far as I’m concerned, it’s a below average song that still manages to be annoyingly catchy. I’m not sure it’s such a great choice for her first radio single, either. Cheesy lyrics. O_o; And the microphone business at the end makes no sense.

On the other hand, “Devil Inside” has received more favourable reviews. I’m ambivalent about it, myself; it’s a good dance track, and it’s certainly better than “Easy Breezy.” It seems to me that it’s lacking something, though…

What I know is, this isn’t Hikki from Japan. I’ll still be buying the album, of course 😛
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Sometimes it really helps to read things aloud. Case in point: Harry Potter. I didn’t notice the Diagon Alley / diagonally pun until last summer. Grimmauld Place didn’t strike me as odd until I read a snippet of the Harry Potter Lexicon. “Ah. Grim old place. That makes sense.” The latest in the line of these horrendously late epiphanies? Knockturn Alley / nocturnally. And for a person who’s as fond of puns as I think I am… it’s not a good thing.

This makes me wonder what other puns I’ve been missing… Ah, all the more reason to reread a few of the books, I guess.

I’ve been slip-sliding on our previously-carpeted-but-now-hardwood living room floor. It’s a definite change after 16 years of the same carpet. That being said, the new floor is nice 😀 I don’t know if it’s purely psychological, but the room seems cooler without the carpet. Our bedrooms have been newly carpeted. I don’t care much for it now, but I’m sure I’ll be much more grateful in the winter.

Over the years, we’ve managed to accumulate more and more furniture, meaning our house has become more and more cramped (I look at old photos and wonder where all the space went.) This week, we got rid of our ratty old sofa and armchair, and also an ancient TV. As a result, there’s a lot more room, and… well… I like it. It’s only temporary, though; on Wednesday we’ll be getting more furniture and it’ll soon fill up again. *sigh*

And for my next summer adventure….

I present you with…

\CLEANING!\

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, while I could have been climbing mountains today, I chose instead to clean, sort, and re-organize. The contents of bookshelf one have been crammed into one and a half boxes. Tomorrow, I shall be tackling my desk. And my room. I think I might as well give up now.

Cleaning is one of those things that I dread but want to continue once I get started. I think it’s because a lot of the time, I hide things from myself (or other people), and then later, I forget I ever owned them in the first place. So in a way, it’s like a treasure hunt (I *do* find money sometimes.) Besides, there’s something quite satisfying about throwing out close to two years of French work, which was the only subject whose notes I felt comfortable throwing out. I even kept TOK stuff. I don’t know why; but they’re interesting to re-read once in a while.

Besides, I have way too much junk. My mother is even worse than I am; about two weeks ago I thre out a jar of cheap plastic barrettes I’d worn maybe five times, and she saw it and salvaged it.

“Mom, I’m never going to wear those again.”
“So? Garage sale!”

The garage sale has become her excuse for keeping anything. That same day, I threw out a broken alarm clock. Key word: **broken**. There is no way that that alarm clock could wake anyone up on time. It’s now sitting on a windowsill.

Speaking of cleaning, I also pruned my links list. So if it led to a 404 error, *poof*. I apologize if I removed anyone’s link by accident; comment and you will be added once again.

Summer’s here. I’m not very fond of summer, because it’s too hot, and I get horrible tan lines. (As a matter of fact, I think these are the worst tan lines I’ve had for years. *stares at arm and shudders* I need better sunscreen, and I need to apply it more often.) But how do I know that summer is REALLY here?

After work, we head to a friend’s house and play video games. For three hours. And not just any video games! Certified practically-over-the-hill-but-not-quite N64 games! There is something slightly demented about smashing into boxes to get shells and shooting them at your friend’s car in order to pop a balloon. There is something equally demented about a Russian soldier, a Russian sergeant, and some bald guy trying to slap each other to death, and actually succeeding.

Yeah, we were having way too much fun. >_>

I got my first paycheque from the stadium today. A whole $31.37. HOO BOY! I have to say that the job itself isn’t too bad, though. I usually end up wrapping burgers, but I don’t mind, since the guy who works the grill is cool. Although everyone there seems pretty nice. XD

I think I need to go find another job >_>

Recommencement of Operations Woodstock and Peppermint acknowledged. Recommend rolling back Operation Snoopy. Efficency of Operation Pigpen currently limited–committee report to come in soon?

Knowing that this morning is the one of reckoning with the IBO’s servers, I decided to go to bed at 11:30 pm last night. Scribbling in my journal took longer than expected, however, and I hit the hay at 12:30 am, with the goal of waking up at 5:45 or so to check my results. Since I have the weirdest sleeping patterns in a 5-block radius, I woke up at 3:30, again at 4:45, and again at 5:15. Then I promptly overslept until about 7:15.

So I suppose this is when I wave goodbye to the IBO. Thank you for all the stress. Thank you for the cheap bistro that was English. Thank you for the Etincelle magazine in French. Thank you for all the random tangential discussions in History. Thank you for the riot that Mathematics HL was, balanced by the lethargy of Mathemtical Methods SL. Thank you for Physics class, where we were attracted to everyone in the room. Thank you for Chemistry, where Mercedes stars reigned supreme. Thank you for the even more random discussions in TOK.

I’ll get slaughtered for this… but these last few years were great. xD

Oh yeah, you were all wondering about results, weren’t you?
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I am still alive. High school is over. Wow. Just… wow. I can’t believe it.

Okay, here’s my to-do list, as related to my online life:

1) Make layout for {{link http://www.andromaeda.net/ Andie-san}}.
2) Move TCG fanlisting.
3) Make layouts for two offline friends.
4) Make emoticon dictionary.
5) Work on Synthesize.

Oh, and…. I have one {{link http://gmail.com/ GMail}} invitation available. If you want it, comment and leave your current email. First come, first served. I don’t care if I know you or not.

Because I am incredibly bored and not tired at all, here are some fun fun stats on last night:

Number of bobby pins used to hold up my hair: 34
Number of bobby pins that were still in my hair after I thought I’d taken all of them out: 2
Number of times I got annoyed with the slip: 2
Number of times I could have taken a picture of cake girl but didn’t: 2
Number of times I thought I’d lost my ticket: 3
Number of pictures taken on my aunt’s digital camera: 24
Number of pictures I should have taken: 50
Number of pictures in the camera wars: 2. I think I deleted the others.
Consecutive number of hours I was awake: 22.5. That hot chocolate really put me to sleep.
Number of hours of sleep: 5
Highest number of hours of continuous sleep: 2
Number of times I woke up in the night: 3
Number of tissues I have used since last night (I’ve got a cold ??;;): about 7.

Theoretical probability of my father answering the phone: 1/3
Actual probability of my father answering the phone: 1/100
Probability of my mother acquiescing to a request to stay out late: 1/100
Probability of my father acquiescing to a request to stay out late: 3/4
Therefore, it follows:
Probability of my father answering the phone and acquiescing to a request to stay out late: 3/400

And now for actual prose. I’ve been reading pulp fantasy novels (no thinking required, just a good appreciation of puns) lately, so if it’s banal or trite, I apologize.
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The grad dinner/dance is tomorrow night, which SHOULD be the thing I’m worried about, but I’ve got this stupid History timeline hanging over my head instead! Not to mention 50 multiple-choice Chem questions. Ohhhh joy.

Oh, yes, and I discovered that I should really, really, really not be a hairdresser. Not when my solution to everything is “more bobby pins!” And when I give my friends really weird hairstyles that fall out five minutes after I’m done. ??;; Granted, they only took about 20 minutes to make and didn’t have any styling products, but still. Oh, not to mention I still don’t know what I’m doing with my hair. Joy. ??;;

Yes, this has been yet another pointless post.