a stitch in time

sing, muse, of the passion of the pistol

2009-10-14T04:33:13Z

SO THIS YEAR I AM PRESIDENT OF THE ANIME CLUB, somehow. On Friday we are showing Host Club (a rare shoujo occasion, indeed!), but I'm kind of scared that the people who don't know that Haruhi has two (fictional) X chromosomes will leave in the middle of the first episode. Well, if they weren't scared off by the bloodbath that was Devil May Cry, I think they can stand this gayfest.

And another rare occasion: I have art to share! We read Oedipus in English (which was AMAZING, by the way, and if any of you haven't read it yet, do!), and we had a free choice project. Of course, I went and drew a comic. I haven't done any sort of graphic novelization in years, and the reason will probably become evident when you view my efforts. Regardless!

I made the artistic decision to put them in vaguely Regency-era clothes, mostly because I felt like it, and I was reading the Temeraire series at the time.

Well, all the markers started running out of ink.

And then I decided I liked the outlines better than the colors.

I never color in only one direction. This is only partially why I am so bad at life. Also, there is a blood splatter by his elbow. THAT WAS NOT AN ACCIDENT, PEOPLE DO ACTUALLY BLEED OUT OF THEIR ELBOWS WHEN THEY TAKE THEIR EYES OUT. I WOULD KNOW. I WAS AN AP BIOLOGY STUDENT. OKAY.

Okay, so, I totally cannot draw anything below the neck. Usually I just attach arms and legs to torsos in hopes that they will come together in something that looks vaguely human.

Oh, and, now I feel like CGing, but my aunt and uncle have decided that their 4-year-old daughter is quite artistically gifted, and thus have elected to borrow my tablet so that she may test it out before they buy her one of her very own, even though they contribute nothing to my grandparents' mortgage! Priorities: I'm glad my family has them.

Sophomores and Juniors have PSAT day tomorrow, and I get to stay at home and be antisocial (a favorite activity of mine). I was previously asked to give them a pep talk/advice during a how-to-ace-the-PSAT Saturday session, but I told my teacher that all I did was stay up late the night before, refuse to study, and blow through the test as quickly as possible. I did not end up attending the Saturday session.

HEY GUYS HEY!

2009-06-28T04:17:58Z

WELL, I got out of school at the end of May, but I'd been away from home until Tuesday! So sorry that I haven't been doing any significant amount of commenting. Because I'm sure everybody missed my exciting online presence. Stay tuned for a TL;DR and probably really boring entry about my life!

I was supposed to be on an immersion/mission trip from the 1st to the 10th, but incidentally, a third of the group took sick and we had to cut it short. Apparently, I got both food poisoning and dehydration! So I threw up a lot and went home. But before this delightful turn of events, we were in San Francisco, volunteering at St. Anthony's, a soup kitchen and rehabilitation center among other things. We also went to Salinas and Monterey, where we worked at Dorothy's Place (another soup kitchen and homeless shelter), visited a migrant farm worker camp, and gleaned lettuce for donation. That was the day I got violently sick. There was a pretty odd dichotomy going on during the trip too, because the first half of the day would be an emphasis on living humbly and such, and then during the afternoon and evening, we'd go to like, the MOMA and the Academy of Science and eat copious amounts of snacks. We even saw Spamalot in the Tenderloin! It was probably the highlight of the week. Although I did get to stay overnight in the hospital for the first time in my life, which was also equally exciting.

Then my family and I went to Hawaii! We stayed on Oahu and the Big Island, Hilo side. I pretty much got sunburned everywhere except my arms, which are somehow still the darkest part of my body. HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK I don't know. We stayed at this house in Hilo, which was super questionable and kind of creepy, but it had a nice lagoon in the back where I became further sunburned.

I spent a lot of the trip reading because I am a huge geek. But I think I've designated summers as my personal fantasy novel binges. Among other things, I've started A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, which is absolutely fantastic (in multiple ways??) so far, and the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik, which is also promising, seeing as it's about DRAGONS AND THE ROYAL NAVY. I've also conveniently forgotten about required reading for the time being, although it doesn't look bad, especially because none of it is the Grapes of Wrath.

I also am working this summer as an intern, 5 days a week from 9 to 5, at the Discovery Girls magazine office. I feel so professional. But honestly, they're paying me to read mail and email, which is very, very relaxing and I have absolutely no complaints. It's great! One girl even wrote in expressing her concern that she was "half-werewolf or something, because I think I'm imprinting on all these people!" Also, every single girl from 8-12 apparently wants to hang out with Selena Gomez/Demi Lovato/Taylor Swift and "go shopping, and then sing a song together!"

In other news, I am currently in the process of making 50 baby blankets for the opening of my aunt's pediatric practice in Fresno. She, on the other hand, is currently driving her family up the wall with this business venture. I've found that Queen is good working music xD

I AM A PERMITTED DRIVER, FINALLY.

Since my vision has somehow deteriorated rapidly, I just went with my mommy to order my glasses today. My frames look like this except they're purple-reddish.

Also over vacation I have revived my interest in manga, much to the dismay of my already-questionable social acceptability. I've been reading 07-Ghost, which is superbly cheesetastic and also really gay. I think there is a total of one female character, who is of a different species. I started Fairy Cube too, which, for being written by Kaori Yuki, has a surprisingly odd lack of homoeroticism and incest so far.

And I'm feeling rather proud of myself for finally developing some sort of musical taste. I never listened to music or was involved in pop culture in any way until around last year. I've been listening to Franz Ferdinand compulsively for a couple of weeks now, and I think that Alex Kapranos is really oddly attractive. Even though, as Emma says, "he's my mom's age." And speaking of people about her mom's age, I am in love with Paul Bettany's insane film roles. What a delightful man.

Now back to reading about DRAGONS ON BOATS and making blankets. Thanks for making it through this stupidity!

OMGGG

2009-02-06T08:47:50Z

MOCK TRIAL! DEFENSE WON!!! WE'RE TWO FOR TWO!

the funny thing about this was that we went against a team that we had scrimmaged against a few weeks prior. They seemed a lot better when we scrimmaged against them than they did in court.

the sad thing about this is that next week we have to go against a team that, I think, won the district championship.

slow death

2009-01-09T06:43:08Z

hello friends!

I haven't really written much at all lately, probably because jr year is slowly but consistently devouring my life. So I'm sorry that I haven't commented at all :( I'm sure I wasn't exactly missed or anything but I'll def try to keep up better.

But I have a request for any of you who have had/are having a higher education--I'm searching colleges, of course. Finding statistics for American universities is all fine and dandy, but I really want to look into stats for schools in Canada and the UK. I would really like to avoid applying somewhere that is ridiculously out of my intellectual league. Can anybody help me?

Thanks in advance!

I probably won't make it through the year but I'm doing my best xD

I will probably go back to reviewing for my APUSH FRQ now, which most likely means I'll be reading about nautical escapades. My friends and I found the cutest bookstore in downtown Palo Alto. It had a bunch of old volumes of fairytales & Arthurian legend, nicely illustrated and everything. I should like to live there.

election day!

2008-11-05T04:41:28Z

Apparently Obama has as good as won, but I can't celebrate until I know if Prop 8 passed or not!! :(

wahoo!

2008-09-10T03:16:49Z

Guys I made it onto the mock trial team!
Haha. I'm going to be a witness and learn the attorney stuff for next year :) (Look at my appropriate Novak icon!)

Uhhh otherwise nothing is happening in my life other than doing hw 24/7. Or reading comic scans.

Also this is kind of creepy but the girl who I've been sort of crushing on since freshman year is in two of my classes this year and she is actually my friend now ♥

arting

2008-08-24T07:03:23Z

I read Young Avengers at Borders yesterday!

So without further ado, I present
I don't have any image-editing software on this computer yet xD

I liked the wings on his headband on his old costume because his head always looked like it was going to detach itself and take flight.

umm I never draw full bodies? And I can't draw muscular people sooo ._____.

This is not that exciting, but I thought I'd update.

Also I'm sixteen now.

(It's been like, 12 days)

WISDOM TEETH!

2008-08-09T06:42:04Z

I got them out at 7:30 in the morning. I was sedated, but I kind of wish I could see what was happening. Even though it'd probably make me throw up, causing the need to pick chunks from out of my stitches. TMI? And uhh they didn't give me Vicodin, hahaha.

also for some reason pretty much the ENTIRE left side of my face was numb. They numbed my eyelid. It was an odd sensation, and not very graceful either.

AND I FINISHED THE GRAPES OF WRATH. Tomorrow I will finish Death of a Salesman, even though I meant to do that today, but ended up sleeping instead.

EXCITEMENT!

2008-08-03T21:23:49Z

I AM POSTING THIS FROM MY BITCHING NEW LAPTOP.

this high will crash once I start working for the $300 I owe my parents.

BUT OMG.

sucks at virtual human interaction!

2008-08-01T02:02:27Z

I promisseee to be more active, my god. I really do enjoy reading your journals, but I think the sheer lack of activity I've been doing all summer has incinerated the "comment" function in my brain. But I do have a new layout: eosyn eosyn eosyn

I want to write a story, or draw a manga. I was always a decent writer and a mediocre artist, but I am a shit-awful storyteller. It probably has something to do with the fact that I never had any emotional investment in my stories, much like I have little emotional investment in life xD

I'm a bit detached and I wonder if it'll be a problem, but to be perfectly honest I like it. I've never been over-stressed or extremely emotional, but I'm not good at making close friends. I will probably never get married and own fifteen cats instead.

Umm in other news, my relatives and I talked a lot about homosexuality this summer and my parents will probably not disown me and definitely not execute me if I brought home a girlfriend. Although my mom is still pushing the pregnancy vs. adoption thing, but I don't think there's anything that I'd like less than spewing a bawling baby into the world THROUGH MY VAGINA :( Sorry uterus, but I'd rather you didn't exist.

In other other news, I finished the Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling. The first three books were amazing, but I thought the fourth one read a lot like fanfiction--albeit very well written, extremely fulfilling fanfiction--with its comparably large amount of MANSEX and comparably small amount of political intrigue. I'm still on a gay epic fantasy high, but it's slowly being crushed by my obligation to read Grapes of Wrath and other various, shorter, seemingly less-painful schoolbooks.

Also, two weeks ago I BABYSAT for the second time ever, I don't even know why because I really, really dislike children. I'm going to do it again tomorrow :(( Luckily I'm earning good cash. I didn't even entertain the notion that the lady would want me to babysit again seeing as I wasn't exactly stellar last time...but meh. I think to prevent further job inquiries I'll have to accidentally injure one of her children or make them ridiculously obese or something.

old ancient decrepit

2008-06-29T08:14:13Z

umm I have been neglecting this journal, which I always do, but I've also been neglecting my fl. I just did a major overhaul of communities and such though so I'll get back into the flow of things.

so what have I been doing this summer?
Most notably I am reclaiming my mother tongue. I can now say "I live in the USA" or "I am Vietnamese" or "I want some fermented fish juice" in Vietnamese, I mean, how exciting is that. I am also living at my cousins' house for 4/7s of the week because the classes are at a college that is five minutes away from their house, and half an hour away from mine.

I'm also reading some cool books. I finished The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice, The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (last in a trilogy!), and Havemercy by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett, all of which are highly recommended. Right now I'm reading a book about tiny Tim called Mr. Timothy :D Obviously I haven't started on my summer reading yet. I want to check out the Nightrunner series too.

Lastly I have been squandering money on movies and make-up, but I'm (hopefully!) not going to go out or go shopping until after JULY 18TH, WHEN THE DARK KNIGHT COMES OUT, WHICH I'M GOING TO SEE AT 12 AM. FUCK. YES.

oh, and Law and Order: SVU is the COOLEST SHOW ON TV. I think they show it every fucking day Monday-Thursday from 12 PM to 9 PM. And this is why I never do anything when I'm at my cousins' house.

VICTORY

2008-05-16T00:40:35Z

HELL YEAH. I'm done with my one, singular AP test! With the exception of one essay, it was a lot easier than I expected it to be, so I'm crossing my fingers for a 5. I'll be happy with a 4 or even a 3 though xD Since I'm effectively done with WHAP forEVER, the only thing I need to do this weekend is write my entire world authors essay.

Also apparently gay marriage has become legal in California thanks to our good old governator. Hooray!

All in all, today was a good day.

I've been going through the process of overhauling my drawing style bc I realized I am completely sick of how it screams ANIME!! Over the summer I will steel my ego and put it up for concrit :D

a million ways to be cruel

2008-05-10T06:48:22Z

oh gaaaaaaad this week is going to be crazy. Next week is going to be crazy...the week after that is going to be CRAZY. But then it's going to be SUMMER. WE GET OUT OF SCHOOL BEFORE JUNE!
Anyway this weekend I will:
♦ finish Inheritance of Loss. This book is sooo slow. We could've read a lot of good books this year--I mean it's world-fucking-literature, and yet somehow he manages to pick the dullest things.
♦ finish my World History AP review book
♦ finish The Picture of Dorian Gray

Next weekend I'm going to write my essay on Dorian Gray and make my powerpoint on Oscar Wilde. I think I am going to have the most AWKWARD presentation in class...

On Monday we had a review session for WHAP on the Bronze Age and Greece and Persia and I actually knew things. I think a lot of the people there thought I was really smart, when I actually just know a bunch of pretty basic stuff about Alexander...my friend told me that if she heard me squeal during the AP exam, she'd know that there was a question on Alexander. So I told her that he's my HISTORICAL BOYFRIEND, despite having 3 wives and being Greek-gay. She claimed Augustus as hers.

My mom told me I could cut and dye my hair after my dance recital. I'm going to get a pixie cut, I think. I wanted to color my bangs red, but it'd probably bring out the redness of my face. Maybe a dark burgundy? Suggestions?

So we've been looking around at local funeral homes to see if I could do some volunteering/grunt work over the summer. I'm keeping my fingers crossed cus I'd really like to see how things work. I think if I do end up volunteering I'm going to buy myself some of the American Gods Mr. Jacquel perfume oil from BPAL. I mean of course it's just an excuse to indulge in consumerism, but how appropriate, right?

And when almejahh comes home we should have a photoshoot in my cool back yard OKAY?

EDIT;; lol wtf why is my life so mundane...but I guess I wouldn't rather have it any other way.

did we imagine half of this?

2008-04-08T00:54:36Z

three reasons why today is amazing:
1. The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss
2. Lord of the Two Lands by Judith Tarr
3. A Beautiful Lie, 30 Seconds to Mars

That, and I ditched badminton

I have so many books to read and so little free time--which will all be dedicated to studying for WHAP! Oh well, history is, at least, more exciting than chem or trig :P

augh

2008-03-30T06:24:31Z

just a rant but...I am so done with history.
I went to a review session today for the ap exam and for some reason it really tired me out :| And my teacher gave us 29 free response questions to finish (along with reading, vocab, and multiple choice)...OVER VACATION. Not that I don't love her but I am pretty tired of this.
Somehow I don't find contemporary history that interesting. Like my mom says, I am fascinated with dead people.
buuttt I have to do 5 chapters in my review book per week if I want to not fail the exam.

I can't believe I'm going back to school on Monday :| :| :|

on a more upbeat note, I think I'm going to junior prom! Even though I'm a sophomore...and my date is a senior. Why do I have no friends in my grade...
I also think I'm developing a dangerous make-up obsession.

I'm going to read about Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin and NOT answer questions about Japan, Woodrow Wilson, or Soviet Russia.

also...I have accomplished nothing for fanime. fuuuck.

I hope I don't pass out and die in the shower like Dean.

snooooooooot

2008-03-22T02:44:19Z

omg spring go die. You are my least favorite season and I don't care about your beautiful flower blossoms and newborn baby animals. I would love to be able to breath through my nose and see with my eyeballs, thank you very much.

Tomorrow's a busyyy day. I have to help at an anime convention at some high school. My fellow officer tells me that the school's anime club was being ridiculed bc...you know, they're an anime club. Apparently, anime clubs don't ONLY lay around eating and watching tv shows! Oh, no, anime clubs ALSO organize horrible conventions that they coerce others into donating money toward. Anyway, we have to make a skit to fill masquerade time bc they rented a place for 3 hours, a time slot of which they will definitely not have enough skits to fill. I have no idea if that sentence was grammatically correct. I should probably start throwing together some semblance of costume right now.

Then I'm going to a par-tay ♥ ♥

I am thinking of going into classical studies. I wanted to be a mortician, but my parents shot that idea down faster than...the mafia...shoots...its rivals? Sorry, no wit today (or ever).

to the pirates' cave!

2008-03-14T04:34:02Z

I had a conversation with the guys a couple of days ago that left me wondering what the evolutionary advantage of boobs is. Would someone enlighten me?

In English we are doing a unit on Chinese and Japanese poetry. I really enjoy poetry units because they take no effort, and I get to pretend to be Confucius!
I'm taking advantage of this opportunity to insert gay into as many of the poems as I can to make up for our not reading A Separate Peace. My English teacher definitely hasn't picked up on it yet, so I may have to get a bit less subtle.
Today in English we went outside and had a concert on the grass. It was fun and I HATE ENGLISH BECAUSE WE NEVER LEARN. On the bright side, my friend Shubha, who has a crush on Obama, convinced our teacher to dedicate a song to said presidential candidate.

UUHH so my mom made me join the badminton team because I am pretty much a LUMP OF FATTY FLESH. I have ridiculously NO REFLEXES OR COORDINATION. AHHH. This is why I can't have nice things! When people throw the birdie to me I catch it probably...1/10 times.

I also know little to nothing about revolutions in Latin American so I am pretty much boned for my essay tomorrow.

I convinced myself on February 29th not to buy anything (besides like food and necessities) for myself for a month. I didn't realize that it so neatly coincided with Lent, even though I probably should've cus I go to a Catholic school.

I'm up for 5 AP classes Junior year...Oddly excited about French I though :D

AY DOCTOR.

2008-03-12T04:50:13Z

My Spanish book's website has CANCIONES DE HIP HOP! These are the best ~~worst best worst best~~ worst things I have ever listened to, and you should too ;D I'm quite partial to chapter 5's.

Also, fuck you, daylight savings. In the words of my brother (ever eloquent), "I was thinking that I wanted to shoot whoever made daylight savings, but then I realized that it was Benjamin Franklin."

I'm gonna go back to history homework now--I don't enjoy modern history at all :| Classical Greece and Rome, the Napoleonic wars, and the Industrial Revolution...After that there's not much I'm looking forward to xD

this reminds me of a puzzle!

2008-03-01T07:17:01Z

For shame, Professor Layton! I have homework to do and a real gentleman would not occupy a lady in such a frivolous manner. But you and Luke are too cute :|

I told my mom I wouldn't buy anything (except food) for a month, but I reallly want all the Phoenix Wright games...and a ds lite. I've been stealing my brother's ds to play curious village, but I guess he doesn't really use it that much because he'd rather play starcraft or team fortress 2 or whatever. Buuut at the end of March I'm going to splurge ♥

Uhhh. In other news, I finally watched Brokeback Mountain, so I've finally seen a movie with Heath Ledger in it. I can't say I was a fan of Jack's moustache. It ruined about fifty serious scenes.

I'm currently reading Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian and The Song of Roland. I think I only read epic poetry because then I'm entitled to go around saying "epic" in an actually acceptable context.

And right now I would really like to read some Batman comics.

This is my life in a nutshell for the past couple of weeks, and probably the next few weeks too.

...

2008-01-15T03:09:31Z

the Vietnamese are infuriating.

tl;dr version: the general Vietnamese populace of the San Jose area thinks that our first Vietnamese member of the city council, Madison Nguyen, has betrayed them for naming a commercial strip "Saigon Business District" instead of "Little Saigon."

Um? I don't think I'm missing anything important, but that pretty much sounds really, really dumb.

In other news, I'm watching Horatio Hornblower and it is pretty much amazing so far.

wish i could make her pull herself up off the floor

2008-01-05T04:38:59Z

WOW APPARENTLY THIS IS THE WORST STORM CALIFORNIA HAS HAD IN A COUPLE OF YEARS! The junior locker area got a serious little lake, haha. Over ankle-deep? Logan got paid a dollar to get some guy's books for him xD At around 12:30 the power went out, so we ALMOST got out of school early, but it came back on fifteen minutes later :/

So Johnny is school champion of the gay game, which I guess is like mercy except instead of pain it's a competition of inappropriate touchings? I think he lost a couple of times to Moose though. I wonder if this is how boys express their manliness these days--or maybe it's because they have no such manliness to begin with, which is very true in the case of Johnny anyway. It's an awfully odd thing to be proud of either way.
I mean imo it's a step up from grunting and trying to assert their level of testosterone.
I think it's weird that girls are pretty liberal in terms of being affectionate with other chicks or judging the aesthetic qualities of other females, but boys HAVE to avoid it like its AIDS or something bc that would AUTOMATICALLY make them queer. DISCUSS?

All I want to do lately is draw and watch movies. Why isn't school out for the summer yet?

NOOOOOOOOOOO.

2008-01-03T05:49:31Z

I'M GOING BACK TO SCHOOL! TOMORROW! IN NINE HOURS!!

ALSO I WANT TO TAKE UP FENCING. DOES ANYBODY KNOW HOW TO FENCE?

movieeeeeeeieieie!

2008-01-02T22:56:03Z

I read The Other Boleyn Girl recently (on almejahh's recommendation)--the book, despite all historical inaccuracies (by which I mean the whole book) was pretty much the shit. So you can imagine I was extremely excited to find out that the movie is coming out in February!

Uhh it actually looks kind of awful judging by the trailer, but Scarlett Johanssen is hot so it's worth my 10 bucks :L And we get like, a second of George being man-handled too. He's hands down my favorite character despite (or maybe because of) the fact that he's homosexual and/or incestuous.

In other news, one of my brother's friends finally went through puberty.

In other other news, my dad and I watched LOTR:ROTK last night--or this morning, since it's like 3 hours long. I particularly like how Legolas got to kill the elephant because he had no lines. And how Gimli got all the comic relief lines because otherwise he was kind of useless. But my favorite part in the entire movie (besides the part where the steward of Gondor throws his flaming body off a cliff) was when Pippin and Merry reunite after Pippin goes to Minas Tirith and Merry's like dead on the ground.
Merry: Are you going to leave me?
Pippin: No, I'm going to look after you.
AWWWWWWWWW. I melted.

Obligatory New Year Entry

2008-01-01T20:29:09Z

These were my resolutions for 2007:
~~♥ Take more pictures~~
♥ Write more letters
~~♥ Sew~~ albeit not as much as I would've liked to...
~~♥ Expand artistically~~ again, not as much as I would've liked xD

And my resolutions for 2008, in general:
♥ Take even more pictures
♥ Sew
♥ Expand artistically
♥ Eat less
Specifically:
♥ Buy hot heels--except my mom wouldn't let me because she thinks I'm going to trip and die, which is probably true anyway
♥ Watch Hornblower

Good luck, self! Actually, one of my resolutions was going to be "give a shit about something, for once" but then I realized that I'd never actually, you know, give a shit about anything. Which is how I prefer it anyway--it's particularly helpful in evading stress.

I'm glad to inform you guys that I spent New Year's at my demon baby cousins' house watching House, MD.

I like this time of year bc it's about the time where I start telling myself to CG things for convention season, except that it never happens. Particularly this year, bc I have no idea what's hip and young in the area of manga. HAHA.

Happy Holidays, etc etc

2007-12-25T21:21:46Z

(if this is absolutely destroying anybody's flist, I'll put it under a cut)

Merry Christmas All! I hope you all got expensive cars and other things, like maybe the loving warmth of the holidays. I pulled this out of my ass at 1 in the morning for your enjoyment :> They're prep-school boys bc god knows I have an unhealthy obsession with boarding schools and all that jazz.