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| Journal |
Journal for December 2002.
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| 12.31.02 9:54 PM (Tuesday) My year in review |
This morning I slept for about two hours before finishing up college apps and sending them off. I actually made pictures of my senior pix for two of my apps, and I have a lot left over to give to people who want them too. It was crazy, I made copies of my apps at Viet-Wah amidst all the Asian shoppers. I kinda wanted to make copies at the library, because there wouldn't be crazy shoppers everywhere, but they're expensive over there. And my mom wouldn't even go near Kinko's because it's too much of an inconvenience.
Yeah. Overall, this year has been crazy. So much has changed around me, but I consider myself to have changed minimumally. Every day of this year seems like one long continuation of each other.
At the beginning of the year I became practically recluse because of Final Fantasy X. I think that's what led to... crap. This crap has been with me all year.
Spring Break was really depressing this year. End of the schoolyear had no closure whatsoever.
Summer was exciting, however. It was good to be out everyday and doing something.
The first half of this school year has been somewhat tough. GHS has been easy for me, and it seems like time's just flying by because there really isn't too much hard work for school. But Central has just killed me. And I'm starting evening classes soon.
If I had to describe how I've changed at all this year, I would say I just became a little more independent.
There are a few things I want to accomplish for the new year. I want to maintain a 4.0. I can still accomplish that by getting a 90% on my Econ final Thursday (sigh...) I dunno if I have it in me. But if I manage that feat, I have a feeling it will be smooth sailing from there. My other goal is to be more active in the community... which I'll hopefully have time to do because college apps are over :) Above all, however, I want to solidify existing friendships, rebuild friendships that have drifted, and keep new friends. I wish all my friends were closer friends with each other. At any rate, there's one friendship that absolutely needs to be repaired within the next year... hopefully really soon.
Here's looking forward to an exciting, memorable, enjoyable year! ^_^ |
| 12.31.02 8:51 AM (Tuesday) Winter Break hell |
It's official. My winter break sucks. I stayed up all night two nights ago doing college essays, which really sucked. It meant being hella tired yesterday.
Manilyn picked me up at Chinatown around 10. We got to Yi's house really early and we just chilled there... both being really really tired. And eveyone else came. Fun times, the usual... played games, ate pizza, yeah. Around 1:15 we left for Oak Tree to see LOTR Two Towers. And we all rode the bus there because Yi didn't think there was parking o_O But yeah. The movie was really really long, but probably the best movie I've seen so far this year (in its epicness anyway.) It was during the movie that I began to feel really lightheaded, and dazed. I had to stare away at the screen so many times during the battle scenes because my mind couldn't process all the action. It got even worse after the movie; when you're that tired, everything just feels surreal. The flashing lights outside of Oak Tree did *not* help.
After the movie I went with the guys to try to go rent games, but Albertson's wouldn't let us b/c of ID problems (Boo!) Oh well. I had to leave.. for the other thing I planned today... and so Manilyn gave me a ride Downtown.
Bus tunnel to Chinatown. I didn't really have access to a phone all day, so I was a little worried people would have questions and I couldn't be contacted. I tried calling Alex G. to give him the details but his number was busy, so I called Andrea to call him. It was at this time I bought DAI's new CD.
Around 7 I headed over to Pacific Rim Center. Ppo started coming; soon everyone was there but Alex and Eugene. But they eventually came.
David was also at Pacfic Rim Center... strange coincidence. I wanted to talk to him but I didn't know what to say. He walked right past me, and I was going to say something, but to just think about everything that happened... I felt kinda sad and just looked away. Anyways. New Kowloon for dinner, a little expensive but I didn't like the variety of dishes. But good nonetheless.
Afterwards we all carpooled for karaoke, SBK2. It was as usual: fun. Jen and Anna had to leave like an hour into it though. But yeah... lots of intense singing action. We left after two hours, and it was good cuz everyone got rides. Aaron drove me home.
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| 12.28.02 3:46 AM (Saturday) Still trying... |
| Personal statements and essays really suck. I'm getting absolutely no where. |
| 12.26.02 8:30 PM (Thursday Trying to finish the college apps |
The only things I have left are the financial aid portions and the personal statements/essays. Harvard and Columbia want one essay, and so I'm working on those first (I'm trying to recycle the Stanford one but it's just... not working. I never realized how much my Stanford one sucked.) Yale wants two, I'll use the aforementioned essay plus another one. UPenn wants two as well, and Princeton wants like four short ones. This kinda sucks...
After I'm done w/ college apps, I have to study to retake Macroecon Final, go to UW to send transcripts, plan IZ party/karaoke next week, design new layout for this site, clean room, then after all that I have to get started on all my HW for school. |
| 12.25.02 10:23 PM (Wednesday) Can these scores be real? O_O_O_O_O_O |
Minasan, Merry Christmas! ^^ My X-mas this year was pretty uneventful, but I digress. So instead of paying $13 from collegeboard.com to get my SAT II scores, I instead decided to snoop around my online apps, because I know colleges get them earlier than they're sent out to the test takers. Now I logged into my UC app... and I found out my scores from December:
Chemistry - 750
Math IIC - 770
Writing - 790
Holy shit! Everything improved unlike I thought it would. I can't believe I did so well in Chemistry... it was so hard... I'd like to think it was that $17 SAT II book I bought the night before. And the math... I skipped so many! And Writing... I hope it was my essay. (The essay I wrote was based on personal experience, because anything I try to write on literature or history just turns out to be sucky. Plus you can BS personal experience.) I am happy I didn't bother to retake Bio-E (I'm still proud of my Bio-E score from November), or take World History... because Math is what I decided to take, completely on a whim, and it improved! So yeah.
But then I started thinking, maybe this is some kind of cruel joke o_O Better not be. At any rate, it was a nice high. On another note, my SAT I scores really suck too o_O So hopefully this will even it out.
At the very *least*, I hope this means automatic admission from Berkeley, assuming they're still doing that... thing... my combined score would be a 7720. |
| 12.23.02 6:29 PM (Monday) Central, hanging out |
| Today I went to Central to get back some stuff. I did surprisingly well on my final - 144/150. But they didn't have my Econ final, so... blah. Afterwards I met Eric in Chinatown to hang out. We met up at the Pit. Usually it's him that's late and me that's early, but today it was me that was late (40 min.) because Downtown traffic was hell. We went for pho and yeah.. we rarely do anything anymore, so it was all good. |
| 12.22.02 10:24 PM (Sunday) Fa la la la la, la la la la |
Just came back from Luk's party. I was so tired! I got there around 2:00, and it was just me, Luk, Long, and Yi. So we played video games. Then people started coming. The first thing we did was divide into two teams and play some group games. Then we had some free time, so people either played DBZ on the PS2 or card games. After that we had a dance floor type thing... lol... funny. After that, we decided to karaoke. It was funny because there was interference; I still have the mental image of everyone trying to sing "Deck the Halls" with the interference and everyone being like... completely off, time-wise. Fun stuff. Everything kinda fizzled after that, and we all went home.
As a whole, though, I was hella tired. The whole four hours of sleep thing wasn't so bad but I have a really bad cold. I should rest, I know, but at the same time I don't want to sit around the house all day, alone. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. |
| 12.22.02 11:22 AM (Sunday) All-night party fun! |
So yesterday... and today...
I woke up a little late, got ready, and I can't remember what else went on. Around 3 my sister and I were about to leave, but we found someone had broken into the car and smashed the window, which really sucked because we didn't know what to do. We ended up cleaning it up, but still...
Picked up Anna, Thyra, and Nancy at Gossip then headed for Bellevue Double Tree Inn. Roger was already there, and yeah... we headed into our room, but it was too small, so we got a new room which was still small but had two beds. So we settled for that.
Ppo started coming; Jenny, Tony, Linh, Robert, a bunch of other peeps I didn't know... and we played Cranium. It was actually pretty fun. Soon everyone else got there, and we decided to have the White Elephant portion of the party.
It was crappy though, because I picked first. I got Jenny's M&M's car, which was neat. My present was a picture frame of me (haha)... but I have a feeling the girl who got it didn't really like it... oh well! After that we played the Dirty Minds game that was someone's present, which was kinda funny but was really slow.
After that I think it was straight chillin'. Ppo had to go, and everyone left except for six people: me, Anna, Thyra, Gabino, Derrick, Nancy. Around 11:30 Nancy, Derrick and I wanted to go get food so we wandered around the streets of our hotel and ended up wandering around for an hour or so until we found the only place open, Safeway o_O O_o And the food was hella overpriced. I got lame sushi and lame Iced Tea, which cost $6, and ate it when we got back at the hotel. It was nasty though.
Got back, played a horrible game of Scrabble which made me realize how much I hate life, then Gabino and Thyra fell asleep. So the four of us still up got into the most deep discussion about the mysteries of the world... first we talked about war, then ghosts, then the supernatural, then Anna was talking about how she can see auras which really intrigued me. We talked for like two or three hours before falling asleep. Straight chillin!
When we woke up we were all dead tired. We cleaned up, watched a little of Harry Potter, then Gabino's Dad drove us all home. It was, overall, fun times though.
Next: Luk's party. |
| 12.20.02 8:45 PM (Friday) And the last two days. |
Today is kinda bittersweet. But let me start with yesterday.
So yesterday nothing too exciting happened, except skipping Cultural Relations and going to Boraccini's. When I got home it was present-crunch time, so I wrapped/burned CD's/printed out college recs etc. etc. Stayed up all night.
Today I handed out my presents. Unlike last year, not very many people were in the holiday spirit this year. In addition, I didn't see a lot of people. Which is okay. But yeah...
Classes were only 25 minutes today. We had a Chem group test which was kinda easy (and we aced it!), skipped Cultural Relations to go to Boraccini's (again), fire drill during math (wasn't really a drill), then shortened 20 minute periods afterwards. During lunch I went to Quizno's with Aaron and Gabino in Downtown, and came back kinda late for the Winter Sports Assembly, which really really sucked this year because absolutely no one was there.
Well sure. Afterschool I found out my grade in Econ... a 3.2! This means my 4.0 grade is ruined, I won't be valedictorian, etc. I wasn't too shocked when I found out because I knew it all along; but I was always hopeful. So it didn't really surprise me, and I wasn't feeling too bad when I saw it. But it's a few hours later, I feel a little worse. I think it'll catch up to me later. At any rate, I'm going to bug the professor like crazy over break to try to raise it to a 3.5.
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| 12.19.02 2:58 AM (Thursday) And Wednesday |
Okay so... what happened today. Got to school, regular TA work, Chemistry blah, Cultural Relations was a little interesting in that we went to Alex's forum on racism and... hmm. Better not go tomorrow. Math blah, Physics blah (another one of those rotating lab things that I never understand), lunch was last Key Club of '02/semi-party, Lit blah, but Annual we had a party! I gave Ms. Kinsey the Afro-Ken I got her which was really nice and in return got a crappy present from someone (wasn't there a minimum value?!?!?!) Gabino got a crappy present too and he spent like $15 on his.
So afterschool Jeffo gave me his CD burner, and I headed to Kjell's with Alex to pick up the PA system to bring home. Uhh it really doesn't connect to my computer in any way, so it was kind of a futile attempt. But I guess it's fine.
After that I went to Uwaji to get some more presents. I've finished shopping for all the girls on my list. Now just need to find presents for all the guys, whom I doubt will even get me anything good (oh well.) I also got Ayu's new CD "RAINBOW" ^^ It kinda sucks though.
I burned my first CD today, a present for Alex G. Yeah too bad Avex's copy protection doesn't work. Well actually, that's a good thing. They better not switch it up or else. But the CD is really good, and I spent a bunch of time muddling over what songs I should put on there. |
| 12.18.02 1:06 AM (Wednesday) First two days of the week before break |
Yeah a lot of fun going on. Yesterday we had an assembly, the Japanese orchestra/band came and did a show for us, which was pretty cool. Nothing too much, except when I got home I really needed to work on my Stanford app, so I worked on it from 3-11 PM, and submitted it. I was a little worried because Embark said that the time submitted was 1:56 AM EST, but Stanford was on the West Coast, so I was worried that it wouldn't be considered on time. Luckily they e-mailed me this morning saying they received it. First choice... I really hope I get in.
Today was more of the same, except it was the start of Cultural Relations, which sucked. During lunch I went around the school with Sharmila taking pictures and getting quotes for our Cliques spread.
And in the evening I went to Southcenter with Gabino to search for presents... pretty productive! I'm back on the present hunt tomorrow.
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| 12.15.02 8:06 PM (Sunday) Jpop holiday CD wishlist |
Shena Ringo - Shouso Strip
hyde - ROENTGEN
19 - Haru best
Mika Nakashima - TRUE
MISIA - Kiss in the Sky (special edition)
Ayumi Hamasaki - RAINBOW (12/18)
Kiroro - four leaves clover (12/18)
DAI - TRUE SONG (12/26)
CHEMISTRY - second to none (01/08)
Ken Hirai - LIFE is (01/22)
BoA - second album (01/29)
Shena Ringo - Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana (02/23)
Namie Amuro - fifth album
I know I'm like three years old in getting Shena Ringo's old album, I was actually going to get it a long time ago but just forgot about it all this time. So yeah. Lots of neat j-pop releases coming up soon.
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| 12.14.02 11:12 PM (Saturday) Downtown fun |
Today was chock full of fun. I couldn't get a hold of Eugene til this morning so we didn't make plans until then, but I found out he had a tutoring session from 1-1:45; we were supposed to go see the new Star Trek movie at 1:45. At any rate, I went to Pacific Place, and saw it alone, and if Eugene could get there in time he would meet me inside the theatre. But he didn't, oh well.
The new Star Trek movie was horrible... like it just had a bunch of loose ends and it wasn't anything special. A lot of action; okay, but the action wasn't really creative and there really wasn't anything new established in the film. It didn't really have the Enterprise-y feel to it. I mean if I weren't a fan of Star Trek I would've hated the film even more... the film does a bad job developing the crew to those who aren't fans of the series. I'm not sure if it had the same production people as the TV show, but like it just doesn't compare with the quality that every episode of the TV show had. At any rate, I hope the film does well so one more can be made, and I hope Trek fans can see a much better Star Trek film in the future. Because this movie did not do the series nor its fans any justice!
So after I exited the theatre I met up with Eugene, and we headed down to Gameworks for a game of DDR, around the various Downtown stores. I actually needed to go holiday shopping for friends but I didn't really have any idea what I needed to buy. So then we headed down to the Carousel to volunteer.
It wasn't as cold as last year, but it was raining really badly. I mainly helped count people to see how many could fit on the carousel, and collected money and distributed tickets. Like last year. It's too bad it's the last time I'll ever be able to volunteer there, though. But it was fun. At 8 I left to go to Chinatown, where I bought some food, and went home.
Now I have to worry about getting everyone good presents... as well as finishing Stanford app by tomorrow.
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| 12.13.02 3:05 AM (Friday) Study sessions |
So today went somewhat smoothly. In AP Chem we spent the entire period going over the HW, and doing this strange balloon thing for the hybridization orbitals o_O Physics we had a lecture the entire period, which got a little... boring. During lunch I found out Sharmila called in and said she was sick and that I shouldn't be mad at her, but for some reason, I am. She's not doing anything on this spread whatsoever. A total of three people came to my forum! Alright. Sixth period was spent doing revisions on Senior Mugs.
Afterschool I went to the library to help Megsie in Stats, and Khaliun in Calc. But Khaliun wasn't there... anyhow, I felt pretty helpful. After that, I took the bus Downtown and met up with Mike and Anna at Starbucks. Jenny and Roger soon came. And we all studied... Physics! It was really funny though. Because we weren't studying half the time. And it was more of like Jenny and I just trying the problem and being like "I don't get this" and having Mike explain it to us. Haha.
Anna soon left, and then we all left after that. We stopped by Gameworks for one DDR game, and I played for the first time in forever. I was so tired! Yeah... then we went to Chinatown before parting ways.
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| 12.11.02 11:45 PM (Wednesday) Really long band practice |
I almost wasn't going to go to band practice today, because I didn't really think it would be beneficial for me to be there. But I went, and we ended up buying a PA system from American Music. I think it was a good deal, around $217. But it's supposed to be out of my pocket... Alex just lent me the money. Yeah I'll pay him back... sometime.
It works really nicely, too bad I didn't take it home to fidget with it. But there's no point in taking it home really.
Yeah band practice was kinda long, after two hours or so we basically didn't really do anything productive, as it usually goes. When I got home I had to make so many calls and talk to so many people about tomorrow. (Three things... cliques forum during lunch, afterschool tutor session, and Physics study.) I also bought food for the forum, so it'll be snazzy in that sense... I have to start HW soon too. Just AP Chem work, but I have to work on getting my teacher recs ready for Ms. Brierley. Actually I should figure out how our forum tomorrow is going to work o_O So that too.
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| 12.10.02 7:25 PM (Tuesday) End of Winter Quarter |
So many things have gone on in the past two days... let me recap.
Yesterday... I was pretty much falling asleep the entire day. Actually now that I think of it yesterday wasn't really eventful... but during Annual I found out our bulletin message never got printed cuz of the bulletin typing lady, grr. Also, I'm going to Winter Ball with JUNG TAE! Haha. No we're actually going with dates (if I can find someone... hopefully...) but we'll probably be tending to Annual duties all night long. This includes, taking pictures for the most part, but I wonder if we'll have to get quotes too. Hmm.
Today was more eventful in that we got our progress reports. AP Chem - A. Calc BC - A. Physics - Not only am I getting an A, Dr. P wrote down "One of my top two students." Ironic; the only reason I have such a high grade is because I actually do all the work. Also ironic is the fact that I never ever cheat on his tests... In addition, I'm definitely not the person that has the greatest grasp on all these Physics concepts. Plus, I'm too quiet in class! I wonder who the person is in my period that has the highest grade. Hmm. AP Lit - A. Annual - A.
I was also studying Macroecon the entire day because of my final. I skipped TA-ing in the morning and hung out with Dave and Andrea in Accounting and just studied even though I ended up talking for most of the period... during Lit I studied since it was mostly grades... and I tried studying during Annual but had to work on our spread.
Directly afterschool was sucky cuz it was raining and I had to go to Central. But I saw a whole bunch of people from GHS on the way there, kinda strange O_O I think they all sought me out to wish me luck.
So I got to Central and took my final. So hard! I was completely worried but it's just good that it's over. I really don't understand anything, but I still think I deserve an A (for effort.) Yah I know that's not the way it should be, but it should be that way... for me. I've stressed out and spent so much time on the course that I think I truly deserve at least a 3.5... we'll see.
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| 12.9.02 1:57 AM (Monday) Sunday night screwedness |
It's that time again! I was supposed to be really productive this weekend, but wasn't. It's not my fault though... I've been sick all weekend, and am still kinda feeling crappy.
Well the only two things I have left to do tonight are my AP LA essay and Econ studying.
Also, two more weeks until Winter Break! Let the countdown begin.
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| 12.7.02 6:43 PM (Saturday) The next year with Domo-kun |
In the morning I took the SAT II's, the last standardized test I'll hopefully ever have to take (well, except for AP's.) I can't say I did better on the Writing, or on the Math IIC. I'm not really sure how I did on the Chem too. The proctor was just... hmm. It took us an hour or so to get inside the test room, then an hour more for us to start o_O
I actually bought an SAT II Chem book last night, and studied it the entire night. I hope it was worth the $17 I blew on it... hopefully I'll get at least a 650+.
Afterwards I met Mike in Downtown and we studied Physics at Starbucks. He didn't really inform Jenny, so... it was actually pretty useful though. The more time I spend on it the better off I think I am.
We went around Downtown looking for stuff, and eventually parted ways. I went to Chinatown to pick up my Domo-kun calendar that just arrived. The pictures are really funny! I should've ordered at least one more and given it away as a present.. oh well. (On a side note, I think I've found inspiration for my next layout...)
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| 12.5.02 2:50 AM (Thursday) Tired |
Yesterday was really busy. It was a short day, so that was kinda nice, but afterschool I immediately went to Central to take my final for Psych. Actually I went to Angel's first, to study, for some reason I've developed a taste aversion to Thai food or something because the Phad Thai was just flat out nasty.. But yeah. I got back to Central, and took the final; it was okay. The test was actually easier than the midterm. But of course I only had 90 minutes, so I'm not sure if I was as thorough.
I just woke up from a much-needed slumber period (once I got home I immediately went to bed.) I'm not sure how the hell I'll cram half a quarter's worth of Econ into my brain, so I'm going to try calling DL later to see if I can take the test later.. like next week. Hopefully I can, even though the website says the last to take it is today.
Now that I think about it there's so much crap going on within the next few days... major burnout. It's getting real hard for me to juggle everything and do it well too. Math test, Lit Paper, Stanford apps, SAT II's, Econ final. Soo.. yeah.
Well, time for dinner.
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| 12.3.02 1:10 AM (Monday) Yet another busy day |
Let's see what went on today. I was really tired and all that stuff so I was falling asleep in most of my classes. At lunch I actually went out for the first time in months, anticipating a lockdown, but the lockdown didn't happen during lunch! I was kinda annoyed. Oh well. It was also the first time I've actually been to a Subway since... can't even remember when o_O
The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly, except the lockdown *during* 5th, instead of during lunch. They weren't even thorough in their search...
During Annual I feel quite behind with the new spread. Also, I "asked" Ms. Kinsey for a rec afterschool and she was more than glad to "write" one up for me (thanks a lot..!) But it was for the Mt. Baker scholarship.
So I got home, quickly did all my Macroecon HW, then headed down to the Columbia station Post Office to mail the Mt. Baker scholarship. Not sure if I'll get it... I'm dubious if $50,000 income qualifies, but I am in a single-parent household, with another sister in college. But it's definitely worth trying.
I'll be so happy when this week is over... gotta study for Psych and Macroecon finals on Weds. and Thurs., respectively.
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| 12.2.02 1:41 AM (Monday) December, again |
It's hard to believe that a month has passed since November first started. Time is flying by me fast again, and it'll slow down once Winter Break starts (hopefully.) Furthermore, it's hard to believe one year has passed since last December. But I digress..
Here's what I still have left to do on my to-do list:
-Finish Stanford app (eh I'll postpone this til the December 15th deadline...)
-Macroecon HW
-AP Lit HW
-Annual art/finish up criteria sheet
Which is why I'm pulling yet another all-nighter.. Still, I've been pretty productive this weekend as a whole. I've even slacked off a little, too, so I guess that's why everything isn't done yet...
I'm really naive for thinking the world is a just place. Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands.
I was also reading my entries from this past summer. Life was so much easier because, in a nutshell, I was around the people I wanted to be around, if that makes any sense. I think I'm yearning for next year, when I go to college hopefully not at the UW.
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