Refraction

So the long hoped for snow day finally came about–albeit indirectly.

My mantra last night: <(*.*<) (>*.*)> Do the snow dance!

I went to bed at 12:30, set my alarm clock to six, betting that we’d have a snow day. We just HAD to.

I woke up the next morning and thought to myself… “Grr… it’s six… I’ll just stay in bed a few minutes.” Next thing I know, it’s 7:30 and my father is demanding that I wake up. >.O Aw shucks. I turn on the radio to listen to the list of schools which wouldn’t be in session… and since my school isn’t mentiond at all, I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to go school.

We head off on our merry little way and I trudge to math class and well… we have class. All the while I’m keep stealing peeks out the window to see how much snow has acculmulated. “Darn it,” I think, “if this keeps up I’ll never be able to get home! I’ll be trapped here forever!”

Announcements come on and it is announced that we are all dismissed due to the snow, which apparently is storm-caliber. Anyway, I’m not complaining… I got to miss Physics 😀

So what am I doing with my beautiful snow day? Shovelling snow >.O Oh well. Not so bad…

Yeah, and all the IB people out there should really check this quiz out…
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Hello frustration.

I missed World Idol!!! ARGH!!! I missed World Idol!

??;; This year is not getting off to a good start.

And the end of 2003 draws closer by the hour (yes, look, I *can* take the prize for “Obvious Statement for the Day” from Legolas. XP~)

2003 was when the drudgery of IB really kicked in. First term of Year 1 wasn’t bad. Really. I can’t remember any major panic spells. Well… maybe the history seminar. And the first Socrates Cafe we had to do… But other than that… it was good. Life was good. 🙂 Except for that whole stagecrew thing, which stressed me out too much.

And then Group 4 came along and I just snapped. It was just too much >>; With Toronto and everything? Bleh. XP Speaking of which, Toronto *is* a nice city. I missed seeing the sky though xD And the trips were fun. Both of the them. The latter more so than the former, since it was paid for and more or less free.

Summer was good. Relaxing and volunteering at Bard… it was good. Easy to fall into the IB routine once you got the hang of it.

I came into 2003 stressed out and scared and really really really confused. I waltz into 2004 relaxed and a tad apprehensive but a stronger person emotionally. Thank you everyone, for your words (the kind and not-so-kind ones), your wisdom, and your energy ^_^

So what have I learned from 2003?
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This is what happens when you’re bored. You take Language Proficency Tests online.

English: 100% – Advanced

Not surprisingly. I would have been very disappointed if I’d gotten anything less.

French: 78% – Advanced Intermediate

Looks like those French Harry Potter books are paying off ^_^ *crosses fingers for French oral exam*

Japanese: 24% – “just starting out”

Yeah, sounds about right. Although surprisingly I got 50% on the vocab section. xD My grammar stinks though.

Chinese: didn’t take. Most of the questions were in Mandarin (Pinyin, which I can hardly read anyway.)

Merry Christmas, everyone.

No card this year, I haven’t the time to make one 🙂 But know that every single one of you, (yes, even YOU) is special to me and that it’s because of you that I am who I am (and that’s who I yam.)

Yeah, ignore that. I hope you are all spending this time with people who are dear to you and that you are all enjoying this wonderful time. (My attempt at political correctness.)

Ah, scratch that. Merry Christmas, everyone. 😀

Yet another entry focusing on FFX-2 music.

So the game recently came out in North America, and, naturally, there are new versions of “real Emotion” and “1000 no kotoba.” Not sung by Koda Kumi, or Kristine Sa, but Jade. Oui. And now I am here to critique her versions of the songs instead of doing my math portfolio.

“real Emotion” – Jade’s voice really does not go well with this song. The “What can I do for you?” parts are vaguely reminiscent of Kristine Sa’s version, and definitely very, very weak. Her voice is too high for this part; I find it a little too girly. Let’s remember this is supposed to be Yuna singing, and she’s 19, not 14. Too much of a girl band dropout sound here, as opposed to Koda Kumi’s, which, while it still sounds feminine, at least sounds closer to the part. The latter’s voice is also richer and not quite as flat… not to say that Jade can’t sing, just that she didn’t choose her best voice for this song. (I don’t know if it’s just a side-effect of singing the thing in English; Koda Kumi’s version isn’t all that great either. Kristine Sa probably has the best version, excluding the “What can I do for you?” parts.)

“1000 words” – Beautifully done. The FMV’s a little messed up, but well, we aren’t concerened with that, are we? The lyrics have been altered from Koda Kumi’s English version, and the best part is that Jade is easily understandable 🙂 She hits all the right notes. Some of her lines I felt fell a little short of what I had been expecting, but overall, it’s still good. The chorus, as always, is the best part. 😀 Quite moving. Generally, though, Jade lacks the intensity of Koda Kumi.

And….. I spent time transcribing the lyrics. Yay for me! 🙂
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I just realized that the TOK essay is *NOT* due tomorrow. YAY! Still doesn’t excuse the fact I have a pathtic 400 words…. my goal is 700 by tonight!

Er-hem. Just TOO MUCH to do this week; as much as I would have liked to put up a wintry layout, it’s not going to happen until the break. And how long has this TRC layout been around? SIX MONTHS?! Way, way too long. And the narrow columns are starting to bother me, too. Besides, the whole point of me making a separate archives layout was so that I could change the main layout more easily >.O Oh yes, and I owe Sarah a new layout.

Meh TOK! Meh Math! Meh meh meh meh!!

PS: I have also determined that it must be the wish of EVERY SINGLE GIRL IN HONG KONG to mutilate Joey Yung’s “My Pride.” I cannot begin to count the number of times I’ve heard that song sung badly. Unless it’s just the same girl over and over and over….
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I got Lucy! *dances* And for the 99% who didn’t understand that, I got my hands on one of Maaya Sakamoto’s best albums 😀 Now all I need are Nikopachi and Shonen Alice and I will be complete. Thank you.

Also, I got more CORE OF SOUL songs! Yay! This makes me happy 😀 I have tripled my collection from 2 to 6! xD

It’s so much easier to harbour a music obsession when you have an mp3 player 😀

Song of the moment: m-flo loves melody and Ryohei Yamamoto – Miss You

*cough*

And she makes her return several weeks later.

As always, I have excuses (Yay! Excuses! ^_~) But I’ll make sure this is a real entry.

So, during the last weeks of November, not only was I busy catching up on all that work that I’d missed during my Toronto time, I was also in the middle of writing a giant 4000-word essay (You may have heard me refer to it as the EE of DOOOM!) *cough* Well, in any case, it became quite important for me to -ah- finish this essay, so well…. finish it I did. So while everyone was rushing last-minute to finish it, I got a few days of well-deserved rest. 😀 That was fun.

Binding the thing, however, was a completely different matter. We were at Kinko’s at 10 in the morning… and didn’t get out until 12:30. AND we had to come back and pick it up at 8:00 since they were “swamped with orders.” Right. I think they were just bitter that a bunch of high school students strolled in and had absolutely NO idea what they doing. The finished product was fine, with the exception of an omitted word on the first page (!!).

Luckily I didn’t have any group projects which required me to stay for for inordinate amounts of time >.O Stayed up until 1 some night, doing some homework…. but I can’t remember what it was.

But it hasn’t been all work… nononono. Heck, last weekend was hectic enough without work, because of EE binding and a subsequent trip to the university bookstore (which was huge and oh-so-interesting!). Then, on Sunday, we went to a sporting event followed by a trip through Chinatown for as I continue on my search for Japanese CDs. Then we had ice cream. 😀 Blueberry cheesecake flavoured! So good it’s bad. xD

And tomorrow I’m off school and will be heading off somewhere else in pursuit of my Japanese CDs. YAY!

Our Amnesty International club (in conjunction with the UNICEF and Landmines Awareness club) held a human rights day on Wednesday. It’s wasn’t too bad… although, as my colleague commented, “They were just there for the tattoos. They still have no idea what Amnesty really is.”

Oh well. It was still fun. And I got to spray people with a water bottle 😀

OH!! I got first prize (not GRAND prize, mind you) in an essay contest and I have received an mp3 player 😀 Yay! Although it came with the ugliest headphones in the entire world. But it came with batteries, which is a good thing. And it has 64 MB of memory, which isn’t too shabby either. And all for an essay I wrote in about two hours. xD

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to post some more as holidays approach. 😀 Jessica, dahling, I *have* received your email, I just haven’t had a chance to reply to it yet!

This is my to-do list:

* buy thank-you card
* make up Chem lab
* make up Chem quiz on Tuesday
* work out what Le Chatelier’s principle is
* make up Physics test… sometime
* make up Math test… sometime
* write history essay (><;;;)
* learn the subjunctive (-_-;)
* edit, edit, and edit my EE!!!

Right. “Study room.” Riiiight. All I managed to do was finish my resume. Which was handed in on Friday.