「土」Merry Christmas!

It's that time of year again. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!!

I like that my family is all around for Christmas, but I haven't been feeling the holiday cheer for a couple years now. Maybe I'll get back into it next year.

My dog surprisingly got a lot of presents this year, but he ruined a couple of them before the day was even through! This poor little gummy bear didn't stand a chance.

I got some nice boots from my mom, as well as a pretty cool leather jacket. I don't really know why I like studs so much, but I'm so happy I finally have something with them!

I met up with some friends finally today, and it was really good to see them. We ate entirely too much though. I honestly don't think I've eaten that much in a long time. My friend and I split 3 dishes between the two of us, and on hindsight that was a bad idea... but so yummy...

Huge dinner followed by huge snow ice. I couldn't even eat that much of it. Lychee flavored ice with pineapple on top with mochi. (and two blueberries. what??)

I'm super glad I got to see them this break.

「月」Productivity

Haven't seen many friends since coming home, but I have been pretty productive on a whole. I finished two scarves, worked a lot on a blanket, and read a couple books.
I just finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Honestly, I didn't want to like it. I tried to not like it, but by the middle of the book, I was interested. The style of writing in the beginning put me off, but then it became quite interesting.
And that makes 45 books this year. I can prob finish one or two more before the new years though. We'll see.
I have to send my laptop in to lenovo to get the camera fixed. Hopefully everything will be good after that.

「月」Final

I finished reading 1984 the other day. It was really interesting in the first and second parts, but the third part just was really weird. Surreal and strange. I couldn't really tell if things were actually happening at first. Strange thing to think about a book, considering that none of it actually happens.

I finished my finals today. It's been a stressful few days/week. Gotta finish packing up for tomorrow. I have to leave super early. I'm glad to be going home, but sad to be leaving school. We'll see. I need to recuperate for next semester!

「月」Study days

I've been really stressed out these days with the end of semester here and my first finals in college starting next week. I'm not too worried about my finals actually, especially since we're done with classes, there's a lot of time to study. What worries me are the papers. I've turned in a few, and I have 2 more due today. Just got to get them done.
Sometimes my friends are TOO good at helping me procrastinate. But I'm grateful for their company.

I like this song. Sometimes the free Starbucks songs are pretty good.
Today would be a very nice day to curl up in bed with some coffee and a movie, but alas, I brought this upon myself.
Time to write.

「水」River Run North

Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make Thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.

1984 — George Orwell (46)

The end of semester is pretty stressful. Too much bullshit everywhere. Maybe next semester i shouldn't work so many hours.
 
Lots to do, not enough coffee. I hope it'll warm up for these next two weeks, but that's wishful thinking.
Monsters Calling Home changed their name to Run River North. Not liking the change at the moment, but I guess I'll get used to it.

「月」Creedish

The waitress brings the chicken stir-fry and my lemon meringue pie and fills our coffee cups. Then she smiles and goes off to die.

These flowers will be rotten in a couple hours. Birds will crap on them. The smoke here will make them stink, and tomorrow a bulldozer will probably run over them, but for right now they are so beautiful. 

Survivor — Chuck Palahniuk

Finished my 40th book for the year. I like this book, but Palahniuk is a weird guy.
I can't decide if I should start on the next book or just let it sink in for a day or two. If only I had someone to talk to about these books.

I get the urge to listen to Nirvana lately. Maybe I should actually buy the album since I'll prob like it anyway.
In other news, my job is boring and I don't want to have actual conversations with my boss.

「日」There and Back Again

Went home, saw friends. Back at school. It's relaxing to be here.

How this feels is just like ten years ago, when I rode with the police downtown. And once again, I am weak. And minute by minute I'm moving away from salvation and into the future.

Survivor — Chuck Palahniuk

I'm on round 2 of read all of Chuck Palahniuk's books. I'm very confused so far in this book, but it's starting to come together. I'm not sure if the version I have is missing parts, or if this book just doesn't have chapters. I feel like these books would be more enjoyable if I had the physical books.
I brought quite a few books back to school with me, and I hope I can make time to actually read them soon. A Clockwork Orange, Kafka on the Shore, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I might end up taking all of these books back home with me in 3 weeks.

 

「水」Personality Test

You are an autonomous striver with hidden strength

Your responses indicate a desire to overcome a persistent feeling of emptiness or dissatisfaction. You believe life should have more to offer, and fear you have somehow not achieved everything you deserve.Your desire for legitimate respect and success has led to increasing anxiety. Consequently, you no longer exhibit some of the friendliness and openness for which you were once known.Similarly, you fear being overly influenced by others. You are often fiercely independent, which sometimes leads to being resistant to the opinions of friends and relatives — even to the point of denying what you fear may actually be true.This behavior stems from your wish to be regarded as an authority. It leads you to react strongly when you suspect you might be wrong. At times you feel that too much is being asked of you, and that you are not properly recognized for your efforts. This situation — be it fueled by others’ jealousy or negligence — adds to the stress in your life.Luckily, your determination is unyielding. Unlike others facing similar adversity, you forge ahead despite the challenges. Through strength of will or simple endurance, you are unique in your ability to withstand the troubles of a complicated life.

Somehow accurate.
Apparently there were other parts to the personality test, but I didn't finish it.
Being home is nice and relaxing. I feel the urge to create something.

「火」Culture

So much culture these days. I got together with some friends this weekend and we watched Fight Club. It's interesting to watch a movie right after you read the book. Some parts were so similar, but others were a little different and it threw me off.

I finished Dance Dance Dance today, but I'm still in the post book daze. I'm not quite sure what I think about it yet, but I'm confused what happened haha.
I finally get to visit home for Thanksgiving this week :) I'm so excited to see my sisters again. and my puppy <3 Bad thing though is that I need to pick a new book to read for the trip now.

「木」Stealing Honey

It wasn't that I stubbornly resisted information, I simply had no desire to know anything. Even so, I knew things were happening. The world didn't stop. I could feel it in my skin, even sitting alone in my apartment. Though little did it compel me to show interest. It was like a silent breath of air, breezing past me. 

— Dance Dance Dance Haruki Murakami, 8.

Crazy citation there.
Stole a bunch of honey and tea from the dining hall. Day 2 of quite sick. It'd be nice to be home right now. It's my puppy's first birthday. Also the birthday of two of my friends.
I've been listening to a lot of new music from my sister. I like her musical taste.

 picture courtesy of my sister.

「水」Blog Identity Crisis

So I was going to make a new blog. Actually, I made a new blog, but then I realized that it doesn't matter and I can blog however I want. So here's my blog. 

Nothing on the internet is original it seems. I reblogged this on my tumblr, and went back as much as I could in the sourcing. Ended up at pinterest and back at tumblr, then finally to Design Elements Blog, but I couldn't find it on the blog, and I doubt it was originally from there.
Fight Club is an interesting read. I'd rather read all day than study.

[木] Picture dump

I’ve been so lazy about updating my blog. I have lots of pictures though, so I’m jut gonna post some of those.

I love the instant coffee in the dining hall. 3+ expressos a day.

my bed looks so nice when I make it!!

There was a random cow at school one day so I took his picture.

I went bowling with the Japanese club, Nikkei and after we ate some korean tofu soup at 10pm! crazy late dinner. But so good.

I think I go to volcano too often. Gotta love that pmt

Mom sent me sapporo ichiban ramen. <3

Got a new iphone case. It’s an ice cream sandwich!Huge display at LA Live for the League of Legends Championship this weekend!Met dumbfoundead!! Terrible picture, but super exciting!

Nikkei friends!!Strangely yummy shave ice complete with ice cream, mochi, and azuki. All green tea flavor! First Korean BBQ in KTown! I actually went to the same restaurant before with my parents when I visited USC for the first time.

Well that’s been the past 2 weeks with lots of gaps in between.

Today I have two midterms, Computer Science and Statistics. I’m not too worried, but it’ll be a tiring day. This afternoon my parents are coming down for the weekend! Super excited!

「月」A little sick

It’s regrettable, but I’m a little sick. I caught a cold. sickness travels really easily in the close proximity of dorm living. I have a stuffy nose and sometimes a cough, but overall I just feel gross. I’ve been drinking lots of vitamin supplements, so hopefully I’ll be able to get over this quickly.

The worst thing though is that I’m going crazy in my classes. My biggest lecture was so cold today I was fidgeting everywhere. As soon as class ended I got a sweatshirt from my room, ate too much for lunch and had a terrible nap until I wasn’t cold anymore. At least I’m feeling better than that now. I ate a cinnamon roll. It was yummy, but would have been better if I was patient and heated it up in the microwave in my room.

In other news, today was some event for Arnold Schwarzenegger. They set up huge tents on the lawn outside my window on Sunday morning, which made it quite hard to sleep. Then today they had a big reception and party. My friend told me that she walked past the ex governor but she didn’t take a picture!

My roommate’s family sent her a package and in it they included a little USC bear for me. I’m really happy and I think it was so sweet of them to think of me.

I’m definitely going to try to go to bed early today and beat this cold!

「土」Beat the Bears!

Lots of stuff has been happening these days, but I’ll just post about last saturday for now.
I joined the Nikkei club which is the Japanese American club on campus. I’m super excited to get to know everyone. I went to the pizza social party and it was pretty fun. I was the only freshman there at the beginning, so everyone was super nice to me. I’ve only met the eboard members so far, and very few of the other freshmen, but I hope we’ll become better friends.
The party was on Friday night. Then on Saturday was the USC vs Berkley football game. I went with the Nikkei club again. It was a little awkward, but I want to keep hanging out with the club until we are super friends. haha

It was ridiculously hot at the game. I felt like I was getting heat stroke before the game even started! The band is always fun to watch, and this time they had an awesome dance break in their performance of Usher’s “Scream”.

They covered us with a banner at the beginning of the game. I don’t know what it said, but it provided some much appreciated shade.

and we won the game 27 to 9! yayy!! The school is a total mess after the tailgating and it’s a little sad. They always put beer cans on  the statue in the middle of the fountain though, and I think it’s funny. drink up yoho!

I stayed up late “Celebrating” with my friends, but actually we just ate some ramen at midnight and chilled. First time eating top ramen beef flavor. yummy but not as good as sapporo brand.

My friend had Shin Ramyun. I like my color pencil ohashi.

「日」Vamps

I’m trying out using Windows Live Writer to write my blog post for the first time. If this works, then it’ll be so much more convenient to write my blog posts!

My Batman posters came in the mail this week and I’m so happy! I put two of them up so far, but I need to collect some more materials before I can stick the other ones on the walls.

It was someone on my floor’s birthday this week, so her mother came and decorated her door, and also gave us all cupcakes! The frosting was so bright pink that it stained everything. The couches and the carpet in the lounge area now have pink smears on them.

Right now I’m studying in the library and writing my essay which is about the Twilight movie.

I had sleepovers with my friend Ani twice this weekend. The circumstances weren’t that great, but I’m really glad that we were able to get closer.

I also decided to get back into the crocheting habit. I planned out two different color patterns for the same blanket, and I think I’ve decided which one to make, but I definitely won’t have enough yarn for the whole thing, so I’ll have to find a yarn or fabric store here in LA. I could also order some online, but I hate to waste money on shipping. Since I haven’t decided how to join the squares yet. I won’t show my pattern. However, it’s based on this blanket that I think is wonderful.

I was just playing around with granny squares today. I really miss crocheting. It’s very relaxing. But I have to have some self control! I need to finish my homework before I can let loose and crochet to my heart’s content! Even if I finish my homework, though, I still have plenty of studying to do!

Well, we’ll see how this posting from writer works!

「火」Cousins

I've been really bad about updating my blog. ridiculously bad. Here's a picture dump

There was a random guy in the dining hall one day that was wearing a yukata.

The resident stray cat, nicknamed EVKitty. (The dining hall where it hangs out is called EVK)

Late night instagramming of the fountain and the traveler statue!

Went to the cafe by my dorm, LiteraTea, for a meeting with my teacher about my essay. We ended up talking for half an hour and took over another student's meeting time. oops!

Most expensive lunch ever! But the Pad Thai was yummy.

Korean BBQ place on Hollywood Blvd. Ay-Do-No. very hip place. I didn't get a regular sized business card, though and I'm pretty sad about that.

My cousins took me to the restaurant. It was really good to see them. Hopefully we'll meet again soon.

Side dishes

Starting to cook the meat!

Cream puffs for dessert!

Fried oreos and cream puffs. My cousins knew the owner of the restaurant, so he was really nice to us and came to talk to us at the restaurant. He even personally made our desserts!

They had an infinity bar that you look into. It just keeps going! Finally a good opportunity to use the Kelvin filter on Instagram!