Sun in the sky, you know how I feel
Breeze driftin' on by, you know how I feel
It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good
Right, so I think that I've gotten myself into a relatively happy patch right now. Which probably explains the lack of updates; I blog when I have something to share or if I have worries that I only want to broadcast to a select readership.
The first thing that I want to mention is that I really do love the Scandinavia and the World comics. I found them on deviantArt and I have spent far too many hours going through them all. What I love is how they're actually fairly educational, but also funny in how they poke fun at different country's stereotypes and images. I was up until 3AM last night learning about this little island called Hans Island that Canada and Denmark fight over. And really, it is probably the tamest fight in the history of fights. Canada and Denmark take turns re-erecting their flags on this tiny island and, hell, sometimes even leave a bottle of whiskey there for the other country.
So yes, I basically stayed up until 3AM to read up on some history. If that doesn't make me the epitome of "geek", I don't know what does.
Also, I miss writing so I'm warning you that a long, rambly, verbose blog entry lies ahead full of details of my life...
The year is winding down and it's been a full week since my last blog post! Sadly, the urge to procrastinate during the school year is what drives me to blog, otherwise I feel as though I have far more important things to do. Anywho, I'll try to recap the last week that I spent off Blogger.
The 24th of course was Christmas Eve. The afternoon was spent at a surprise going away party for an old high school friend. By the by, did anyone get the fancy dancy "professional camera" photos from that party? I'm curious as to how failtastic they ended up being. From this party, I went straight to my grandmother's place for Christmas dinner. Although I had eaten some at the going away party, I managed to scarf down some more food -- about 2 platefuls. Yes, I'm a fatty.
That being said, I love seeing my cousins and hanging out with them. And even though we don't exchange presents anymore, it's fun just watching TV and playing video games together. Or rather, watching one cousin play video games. x) Watching someone play sadistically hard video games is just as entertaining as playing them myself so that was win.
The next morning was Christmas Day and sadly I ended up waking up the latest in my family. Yup, my parents, who had been up late the previous night stuffing stockings and wrapping things, got up before I did. On the bright side, I got my Christmas wish for more sleep? Anyway, I'll skip the details of the things I got for Christmas since it wasn't a lot, but it made me happy regardless. I will say that my parents got me this as a sort of reminder of our trip to London (and if you squint real hard, you can see my name, too). Supposedly it's for my own place when I eventually move out. :)
I spent the afternoon playing video games with my brother (Donkey Kong Country Returns is ridiculously hard!) and we brought dinner over to the care home my grandma (other side of family) is staying in. Dinner was good: roasted chicken, ham, scalloped potatoes, roasted potatoes, some takeout food, and stuffing! I still find it mildly amusing that my grandma was glad that we didn't bring rice. "They try to give me that stuff every day here. I never eat it." Is hatred of rice genetic?
I don't think that I was hungry for that entire 48-hour period of Christmas, to be honest. The leftovers from Christmas Day have lasted us this entire week. I fear that it will carry over into next week as well. Gah!
Boxing Day was rather uneventful, though I did pick up a new pair of rainboots downtown. The 27th was my Guitar Hero/LOTR/Wii party, which was nice. Maybe there was too much focus on LOTR (I had no idea that other people liked it, too -- or rather, other people found Orlando Bloom & Viggo Mortensen attractive), but we did eventually get around to Guitar Hero with just 3 of us on drums, vocals, and guitar. We played for pretty much a solid 4 hours. To be honest, it didn't feel that long, but the numbers on the clock don't lie. @_____@ I probably had too much fruit punch, which resulted in this tweet:
BrokenMosaic:
Best part of this morning? Either the duet of "Misery Business" - Paramore or the random dancing of "Walking On Sunshine" w/ @DelusionElle.
I'm still not sure what to make of it. Damn Paramore and their catchy tunes.
Oh and I also got a haircut, though there isn't much difference except for the fact that to get my hair to look decent, I have to tie it up, which is very annoying given the bout of cold we're experiencing. Tying my hair up results in poofy hair afterwards so it's all looking rather lose-lose at the moment.
The next day was a day off from socialization, and was instead a day of... IKEA. Waking up bright and early on the 28th, I accompanied my dad and brother to IKEA to pick up some Billy bookcases that were on sale ($29 as opposed to the regular $69). After indulging in a cheap IKEAn breakfast, and buying some kolsyrad pärondryck (that's "sparkling pear drink" to you), we went home and I bought my CPSC textbooks off a girl who was actually in my lab last year, but ended up taking 2nd year courses in the summer. Funny thing is that I didn't know it was the girl from my lab until I met up with her and we were like "Heeeeeeeeey youuuuuu". Lovely. Anyhow, those books are taken care of and my wallet is a good $200 lighter. T______T I then hurtled my way across town to sell my Calc textbook for a measly $50. Maybe I should've asked for more. Oh well. Good thing I'm not in Commerce.
That brings me to today. Today me and my friends finally completed our Secret Santa exchange and I am very happy with my present. :) I definitely will be making good use of all that pencil lead in my music theory course next semester, and the report covers will undoubtedly come in handy for my next term paper. Haha, my days of only dark-coloured hoodies are over. xP
The rest of today I spent on this website listening to clips (I just listened to the complete playlist on YouTube. Twice.) of classical music found in pop culture. I love finally having a name & composer to put to a tune. I fully intend on putting some of those songs on my iPod now that I know what they are.
It seems only fitting that I plug some classical music now.
"If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it."
I think I may play my flute tomorrow.
Sorry for the long post! If you made it this far, you deserve a cookie. Unfortunately I ate them all, so a cat picture will have to suffice.
Today I wrote my last final exam of the 2010 winter term 1! Overall it was an okay exam, though we started half an hour late (leave it to a music prof to not have the keys to the exam room and to forget the exams in his office). 75% of the exam was analysis which is kind of mehhhhh, but oh well. On all of my analysis assignments I got at least satisfactory marks so I am fairly confident that I passed this final. Sadly, last night I couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about how happy I'd be after my exam. So I ended up getting around 4 hours of sleep. Yay for seriously hindered mental capabilities at 8:30AM!
My eyes have been hurting all day, but I've felt awake since my 7AM wake-up, so I spent the day playing video games, watching hockey, and jumping with joy around the house. It feels so good to be free, though I think that I need to start organizing my time for the next two weeks or else I'll just end up frittering it away and then regretting everything I did/didn't do.
I just realized that Christmas is just a week away! And that means that I am horribly behind in terms of gift-buying. Lucky me, I finish exams just as the Christmas rush is in full swing. On the upside, I don't have too many gifts to buy this season.
I also just realized that this month has been considerably warmer than last. And it doesn't look like we'll be having a white Christmas, which is a shame, though after experiencing snow at UBC I am not too crushed. Snow is a pain. Rain I can deal with. In fact, I drive better during rainfall than normal cloudy weather.
Right now it's 1AM, SNL just ended and I'm watching "Almost Live!" which is a show from 1990 that is actually somewhat like SNL with the little skits. And they have Bill Nye on! Man, I miss watching his show.
Alright, tomorrow will be a day for organizing my school notes (which are currently strewn all over my room) and hopefully for starting my Christmas shopping.
Warning: Long, rambletastic account of my day lies ahead! Turn back nao! You have been warned! D:<
I am in higher spirits now than I have been in months. Today was my Math 221 final. I admit that last night I still felt a long way from understanding any of the material, but when I woke up this morning and started working on another practice final, it became less labourious trying to decipher the ridiculously jargony language of linear algebra. Sleep really does do wonders when it comes to neurons connecting and yaddi yaddi yadda. Alright. I got a ride to the bus stop today so I asked to be dropped off up at 41st. It worked out well since I only waited about 3 minutes for the bus, and a few stops later a horde of elementary school kids got on for a field trip. Lucky me, I had gotten a seat before those brats swarmed on. On the bus ride to school, I actually cracked open my study guide (which came with my falling-apart textbook). I even had one of those "ah-ha!" moments where things just clicked. So that was nice.
When I got to school, it was raining a bit and I dropped by the music building to pick up an assignment. I wasn't expecting a very high mark since it was done half-arsed and half-distractedly when I was studying for CPSC, but I actually got a B+! :O That was definitely a pleasant surprise! From there, I headed to the SUB where my friend was studying like mad. Sadly, the questions she wanted to ask me how to do were the same ones I was going to ask her about. We spent around 2 hours in the SUB freaking out and trying last-minute "tricks" to do some practice questions. During this time, this guy was wandering around our part of the SUB offering to do a thermal healing thingy for some class of his. It was something Japanese that started with an R. And that's all I remember about it. Partly because I was hoping against all hope that letting this guy try his magic tricks would help me pass (I was feeling desperate at this point), I agreed to let him try this weird heating stuff out. ...Let's just say that I tried very very hard not to laugh while he waved his arms over my hands (in a cupping gesture). Weirdly enough, I did feel the sensation of heat. o___o I'm not sure if I kept the slip of paper he gave me (with information on the off-campus class and stuffs), but if I find it I am going to google that stuff so I can find out what sorts of magic tricks are behind it.
... Actually, after wracking my brain for a good 30 seconds, I remembered what it's called: reiki. Ta-da! Now I'm too lackadaisical and tired to find out the tricks behind that.
Maybe half an hour passed and we were feeling the "one-hour-until-the-exam" panic, when suddenly this guy comes up to me and my friend and asked if we were working on practice exams. "Uh, we're trying," I stated emphatically, offering a smile. I would recount more dialogue, but I can't remember it, to be honest. I'm guessing that he overheard me being loud and obnoxiously pissed at Math (he was across the aisle, a few tables away) and he decided to ask us if we knew how to do a certain question. After telling him that what he was stuck on was not a topic being covered in our exam, he offered to let us use his answer key. Which was nice because without the answer key, we were just bouncing answers off each other. We went through it with him, puzzling over the true/false questions (which were without explanations). And through small talk I found out that he was in my Math 221 class. Observation fail. @_____@
The exam drew near and so we headed out to our respective exam rooms. Since the exams were section/class-specific, me and that random dude went to the same room and sat next to each other. The actual test itself was ... alright. Of the 8 questions, I only felt very stumped concerning the first and last questions. Unfortunately each question is only worth 5 marks so that makes it very easy to lose marks. D: Hopefully I do alright and pass!
After the exam, me and that random dude said bye, finally introduced ourselves to each other and went our separate directions. Admittedly, I don't remember his name, though I think it started with an R and he is East Indian. He's also a Chem/Stats major so chances are fairly slim that I'll be seeing him again.
All in all, I am ridiculously happy that this exam is over. The only one left is my music theory exam and I'm not very worried about it. It's an elective course, I've done a lot of this stuff before, and I'm already doing quite well in the course.
Tomorrow I intend on taking a break for studying to visit one or two high school teachers. Of course I'm going to visit my old French teacher (whichever one is in that day), and perhaps my band teacher if he's around.
Alright, it's 10:30PM and my mind is totally trashed. Just going to learn some Italian and German terms and then go to sleep. :)
... And no, it's not the reiki stuff that's put me in such a good mood!
As my brother calls them.
Technically I should be working on my music theory assignment due Wednesday (why, Dr. Bob, whyyyyyyy?), but I will do something else music-related and blog about the concert I went to last night.
In short: It was spectacular.
In long: ... Well, check under the cut.
Short entry today since my day was rather nondescript and all I did was procrastinate. =_____=
And I know that the Olympic hype is over now, but I finally got my hands on a Miga plush. :)
I bet you can't guess the price. :)
But damn, I want the mittens that little guy's wearing. They'd probably give me +10 cute points and a whole whopping +25 patriotic points.
My dad also got one of those trippy light up Coke bottles downtown a month or so ago so HELL YEAH, TAKE THAT COKE PAVILION AND YOUR RIDICULOUSLY LONG LINE and ONLY AT NIGHT-ness. I'm afraid that if I turn it on now, I'll just stare aimlessly at it for hours and watch the colours flash across my field of vision and go on a most rainbowtastic non-drug drug trip. Miga seems the much safer Olympic-friendly choice to have around.
Now, time to work on my paper until my eyes bleed or fall out of my head.
Night night~
Or rather...
Najt najt~
:3
Yesssssssssssss. IT WORKSSSS!! :D
It's so freaking trippy 'cause it's an Android phone. :O
So all it took was an unlock code and SHAZAM yay it works! :D
Yay yay yay!
Okay just need a case now. :)
EDIT: OTHER JOYNESS INCLUDES THIS... 49 Metrotown/UBC
Addition of 60-foot articulated buses on some peak period weekday trips. Larger buses will address some of the capacity issues on this route which serves UBC and Langara College.
YESYESYESYESYES.
So I have some video spam that I'm not expecting anyone to watch, but it's kind of here for my own reference, really.
JUST ONE. JUST ONE MOAR DAY OF WORK, though I have a weekend off before that. THAT IS GOING TO BE ONE FREAKING HELLISH SHIFT, I CAN TELL YOU THAT RIIIIIIIIIGHT NOW.
Sometimes I think that I should just quit, but then where else am I going to get work pretty much only for the summer with little to no strings attached for the other 8-10 months of the year?
Yeah, nowhere, that's where.
I'm starting to miss Europe. And you know who to blame for that? Fobs.
I honestly find European accents that much more endearing than the Fob one. Yeah, I'm a hater, and yeah, HATERS GONNA HATE. If I could do a co-op exchange thing to Europe, I really wouldn't mind it. Maybe not London because of the craziness of the Tube and dirtiness and TOO MANY PEOPLE, but maybe like Finland or something since Nokia IS Finnish and all we do is write programs and design apps and stuffs like that in Computer Science, anyway.
But yeah, this song is my latest obsession. I think that the chorus' silliness somehow eclipsed the awesomeness and epicness of Kamelot's new album (though I'm still listening to Poetry for the Poisoned nonstop on my iPod). And I am just in the mood for silliness.
OH BABY LET ME STAAAAAAY YOUR ALLEY CAAAAAAAAAAAAT. <3
And this is Kamelot's newest video. A little strange, but darrrrrrk. And it's overly grandiose and blah blah blah, but that's okay. I like over the top. xD So if lead singers getting into character with black lipstick and long fake nails creeps you out, DO NOT WATCH.
If my stalker still reads this, I *do* recommend that she at least give these two songs a listen (or two) since they contain MALE VOCALS. And the singer in the first video is kind of a cutie. :3
LAWL no, not really a leak of faith.
BUT IT LEAKED. THE NEW KAMELOT ALBUM LEAKED.
And I know no one cares, but I must do this as this is most definitely part of my duty as a Kamelot fangirl. If you ever doubt that, then you are obviously not looking in the right place (you may have to go back a page or two as I DO HAVE A LIFE OUTSIDE OF THAT PLACE. Kinda).
Okay. So. Duty first:
Artist: Kamelot Album: Poetry For The Poisoned Year: 2010 Country: USA Genre: Melodic Power Metal Bitrate: 320 kbps Size: 123.5 Mb
Track listing:
The Great Pandmonium
If Tomorrow Came
Dear Editor
The Zodiac
Hunter's Season
House On A Hill
Necropolis
My Train of Thoughts
Seal of Woven Years
Poetry for the Poisoned, Pt. I: Incubus
Poetry for the Poisoned, Pt. II: So Long
Poetry for the Poisoned, Pt. III: All Is Over
Poetry for the Poisoned, Pt. IV: Dissection
Once Upon A Time
Download:HERE, HERE, or HERE.
Okay and now I'm just going to ramble a bit about it because this has been the highlight of my day plus all the lulziness that happens here. Lulziness will be recapped at the end of this post. BUT RAMBLES FIRST. The first thing I have to say about Poetry for the Poisoned is that it is a GROWER. My first listen resulted in me liking tracks 1, 5, 10, and 11. But I gave the album another listen and holy shit I love it. I may not totally love every song, but I have to say that the choruses are really catchy in most of them and the guitarwork is incredible. Another part of my fangirldom is the fact that I must spread the gospel word of Kamelot to everyone. So here are my basic basic recommendations, though I still think the entire album's worth a listen *is biased*:
Hunter's Season: I LOVED THIS SONG WHEN I FIRST HEARD THE 10 SECOND SAMPLES. <333333 Of all of the songs on this album, I think that this one owns my heart, first and foremost. It is really sad (it was written about the guitarist's mom passing away ;___;) but overall the song is mid-to-uptempo and they use those quick 16th or 32nd (too tired to figure it all out) double kick drums that I love. And THAT GUITAR SOLO. HOLY YES.
The Zodiac: It's creepy (Dear Editor is the intro, but it's not necessary if you're not into overly dramatic and creepy backstory) and the vocals are aggressive. The band uses a guest vocalist and he really only adds to the creepiness of the story of the Zodiac Killer. Srsly. Look up the Zodiac Killer on Wikipedia. Kamelot does their research well.
The Great Pandemonium: To me, this song is a combination of March of Mephisto and Rule the World. Rumour has it that it's related to Paradise Lost and the whole Pandemonium bit which we never reached in Lit, but that work fascinates me still, regardless. There are some harsh vocals from a guest vocalist so if you're not into that sort of thing, then I suggest not listening to this right away, though the duality at the end is just AWESOME.
Poetry for the Poisoned, Pt. I: Incubus: The riff in this song has just been stuck in my head since I first heard the sample of it. It's the beginning of a 4-part epic song about vampires. No, they don't sparkle. And in fact, Kamelot wanted to do a concept album on vampires, but they said that they didn't want to cash in on the Twitlight hype, so they just kept the concept confined to these 4 tracks. The only bit about this part of PftP that I'm kind of mehhhhhh about is the little spoken word definition of an incubus towards the end. But this transitions SO WELL into...
Poetry for the Poisoned, Pt. II: So Long: THIS SONG. HOLY. ARGH. SO BEAUTIFUL. It features another guest vocalist who pops in their songs from time to time and her part is a nice contrast (even if her voice is a teensy shrieky when she hits those really high notes). This is currently on repeat one right now. I just. I can't even. I have to post bits of the lyrics: "A minute more 'til the light of day is here/Lay down/I know you must be nearly there/A bloody kiss and the vision of a dream/For the last of your days in the sun/In the white light I am calm yet peculiarly cold/Silent slumber and wide awake/Love have mercy on my soouuuuuulllll/SO LOOOOOOOOONG, YOUR SORROW BE GONE."
And if I find these songs up on YouTube I WILL DEFINITELY POST LINKS. I'm just too tired now. And I can't stay up 'til 3am like I did yesterday. Stupid online friends in stupid time zones. LULZINESS ONLINE:
"I ONLY CALL YOU A N00B BECAUSE I ~*CARE*~"
---
"No. An album must be approved or discarded on first listen. This is the age of the Internet, we shouldn't have to wait to enjoy things anymore. And where is my flying car?!"
"Mr. Weasley stole my flying car (THAT PUPPY-KILLING BASTARD) and let his good for nothing son fly it into a goddamn tree with that messy-haired Potter brat."
"That sounds awful. Is the car still Rowling at least?"
---
"Dammit, stop copying me! I said bai to her in that way first! >:O"
"im in ur hed, copyin ur baiiis 8D"
"I wish I was in ur hed instead. Then I could be all like "all your bais, are belong to meh >:D", but alas, noooooo. :("
"ALL UR BAIS, BAIS, BAIS, ALL UR BAIS -- R BELONG 2 ME!"
---
"No, in approximately three and a half hours (plus a few minutes) you will be a September n00b instead. :D In fact, you will be even more of a n00b then since you won't even have EXPERIENCED any September 2010 by then, UNLIKE ME."
---
"OF COURSE! If you take the word "incubus" and you switch the first two letters, remove the s, change the n to an l, and then just turn cu into za and bu into rd, you have "lizard"! IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW."
New trailer for Deathly Hallows is out now.
The one I found on YouTube won't let me embed, so I'm just going to link it. Watch it here.
Exciiiiiiiiiiiiting!
I missed the MTV Movie Awards yesterday (which people are calling the 'Twilight' Awards since that series freaking took over the show D:) but 'Harry Potter preview' was trending on Twitter and people posted links so here we go:
Btw, Tom Felton won best villain so cheers to one little bit of magic Twilight hasn't taken from us!
