It's Crunch Time

As I expected, I did not do any homework over the break, lol. I was really hoping that I would be wrong, but I was unfortunately right. And since I lost all motivation to do any homework before the break since our internet went out, I have to do all of my homework today, which sucks because I have to do errands as well.

I actually could have at least started doing some of my homework last night after I got home from Atlanta, but I was really lazy and in a daze. Is it just me, or does this happen to many people, but after I come home from a break, I always feel lethargic and in a daze. So yeah, I spent the longest time online shopping for Christmas presents and watching YouTube videos instead.

And instead of starting on my homework this morning, I continued watching this anime called "The Irregular at Magic High School" that I started watching over the summer. It was still ongoing when school started, so I kind of forgot about it, but it was recently added onto Netflix, so I started rewatching it over the break since I forgot what happened. I'm halfway done, so I won't be wasting so much time watching it before finals start (hopefully).

I'm blogging right now because I'm rationalizing my procrastination, lol. My mom's making lunch, so we're going to eat soon, and we're going out to do errands after that, so I don't think I'll get around to doing any homework until four or five. 

Ironically, that's usually the time I start doing homework on Sundays anyway, so I don't feel that bad for procrastinating. However, I have a shitload of homework to do, so I really should be maximizing all of the free time that I have so that I don't have to stay up late for the next few nights. :\

an accurate description of this weekend, lol

But yeah, it's the week before finals, which means that everything's due this week, so I really should have been at the top of my game instead of procrastinating last minute. Let's see if I can survive the next two weeks. :P

On a different topic, my Thanksgiving Break was really enjoyable. Since we were taking my car to Atlanta, I had to drive since David isn't on our insurance, so that was my second time driving to Atlanta. We ran into some traffic, which was expected, and my phone's GPS froze at one of the more crucial moments, but we managed to navigate correctly while it finally started working again, so it wasn't that bad. 

We drove to Shelle's workplace since we had to pick up her keys to get into their apartment and got a tour of her office. Since she got off work in two hours, we just walked around to get lunch and hung around there so that she could just drive us home. 

We went to Kyle's  Jeet Kune Do practice that night, which was really cool. The instructor was really fast! We were joking around that we should pay attention so we could use those moves during Black Friday, lol.

That night, my phone started acting up. I had left it charging for a few hours since it was almost dead, but when I checked on it later, it said that it hadn't charged it at all. No matter how much I wiggled my charging cord, it wouldn't work, so I decided to restart it. It restarted, but got stuck at this one point in the beginning part of starting up. No matter how many times I restarted it, it would always get stuck on that one part. David told me that I should let it die and try it again the next day, so I did that. 

It still didn't work. :( Kyle tried to fix it since he works in IT and is really good at fixing electronics, but even he couldn't fix it. He said that all of the people who posted about this problem online also had to get a new phone. So yeah, I haven't had a phone for five days, lol. I'm going to Verizon with my mom later today to activate her old phone to use until our contract ends in May. It's not a smart phone, but I don't really care anymore, lol. It has a touch screen, but it also slides to the side so that I have a keyboard as well, which reminds me of my old phone. 

Anyway, the next day (the day Kyle tried to fix my crappy phone), we chilled around the house while Kyle went to work for half of the day before going shopping since Shelle and Kyle had to get ingredients to make their dishes for Thanksgiving the next day. We first went to Walmart, but since they didn't have a mixer that Shelle needed, we went to Target and got it there. 

We ended up going to Best Buy as well since Kyle had a $10 reward gift card. When we got there, there was already a line for Black Friday! There were two or three tents already set up at the side of the front of the store, which was crazy. 

Kyle and Shelle were looking at smart TVs for my dad since he said that he wanted a 65" one. They found one that they thought my dad would like, so they agreed to go back and buy it later that night since they couldn't fit the TV in Shelle's car with all five of us. Brian also ended up buying an Xbox One that night since his old Xbox 360 was acting up. 

So we got back home and put our stuff away before Shelle and Kyle went back to Best Buy. Kyle came back five minutes after they left to take Brian with them so that David and I could have some alone time, lol. 

See what had happen was... David and I did it for the first time on Saturday night, and we'd been kind of frisky since we got up to Kyle and Shelle's place since we got to sleep together in their game room while Brian slept on an air mattress in the living room. I was telling Shelle how I kind of wished that we'd wait to do it at another time since the both of us have been really wanting to do it again since but haven't had the time or opportunity to do it since. And I'd already told Shelle and Kyle that we weren't going to do it at their place since that was disrespectful.

But yeah, Shelle called me on Brian's phone that night while Kyle came back to pick up Brian to tell me that they were giving us some alone time so that we could do it while they were gone. Unfortunately, they didn't have any condoms left, so they told us that there was a Rite-Aid nearby that we could go to really quickly if we wanted to do it. 

We both knew that we wouldn't be able to do it in the time that they were gone since Shelle said we'd have around 30 minutes, but we decided to go get some condoms anyway to use in the future. And here's the funny part: since we forgot where the Rite-Aid was, we used David's GPS, and it told us that the closest one was 15 minutes away. So we went to that one even though we were sure that there was a closer one.

There was. We passed it on the way back to their apartment. -__-" Freakin GPS. We wasted half an hour, lol. Then, Shelle called again when we got back to ask us if we wanted slushies from Sonic and to see if we were busy. I told her about our adventure and she laughed, lol. But yeah, we had some time before they came back, so we just messed around for a little bit.

They came back, and we had a late dinner. Since it was late, and we were pretty tired, Shelle decided to bake her pound cake in the morning. Since Kyle's dad invited all of us to his house for Thanksgiving, Kyle was making a salad and Shelle a pound cake. David was her helper that morning, and I was Kyle's, lol.

We ended up leaving a little late since cooking took longer than expected and because Brian woke up sick. He woke up with a fever and kept on throwing up all morning. We weren't sure if he would even be able to go out, but he felt a little better by the time we left. He didn't eat much food and was drowsy because of the medicine, but he was fine until the very end when we were about to leave. That was when he puked. 

Since we had all stuffed ourselves silly for lunch and had plans to go Black Friday shopping that night, we took a nap when we got back to their place. We napped for a couple of hours before leaving to go to the Mall of Georgia at nine. It was just Kyle, David, and me going since Shelle stayed behind with the sick Brian.

It was pretty fun shopping. There was a lot of people there, but we found some good deals so I got a lot of Christmas presents for my friends that night. And I think I spent around $100, which wasn't bad at all considering they were all mostly gifts.

The next day was a chill day. We played Mario Cart of their Wii U and watched Kyle and David play Injustice while snacking and eating leftovers and watching Netflix for the rest of the night. 

The next day was Saturday, which was when we were going home. We ate at Tin Lizzy's since it was a mexican fusion place that Shelle told me about, which was really good before packing up and relaxing for a bit. Then we hit the road. 

So yeah, that was my break. It was relaxing and fun. Now I have to get out of vacation mode and actually start working on my everything since it's all due this week. Now is the time for stress and anxiety, lol. 

Book Review: From What I Remember... by Stacy Kramer & Valerie Thomas

Title: From What I Remember...
Authors: Stacy Kramer & Valerie Thomas
Pages: 462
Publication: May 15, 2012
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Summary taken from goodreads:

KYLIE: Mexico? What a nightmare! I should be putting the finishing touches on my valedictorian speech. Graduation is TODAY! Wait! Is this a wedding band on my finger?? 

MAX: It started with Kylie's laptop and a truck full of stolen electronics and it ended in Ensenada. It was hot, the way she broke us out like some chick in an action movie. But now we're stranded here, with less than twenty-four hours before graduation. 

WILL: Saving Kylie Flores from herself is kind of a full-time occupation. Luckily, I, Will Bixby, was born for the job. And when I found out she was stuck in Mexico with dreamy Max Langston, sure, I agreed to bring their passports across the border but there's no reason to rush back home right away. This party is just getting started. 

LILY: This cannot be happening. It's like some cruel joke. Or a bad dream. I close my eyes and when I reopen them, they're still there. Max and Kylie Flores, freak of the century. In bed together. If Kylie thinks I'm giving him up without a fight, she's dead wrong.

3.5 STARS - I LIKED IT

MY REVIEW:

While the book had a few drawbacks, I really did enjoy it, especially towards the end.

What initially drew me to the book was its plot. It was definitely similar to the movie, THE HANGOVER, in the fact that crazy things happen to the characters that leave them stranded in another country, and it had its funny moments. However, whereas THE HANGOVER takes its situation to the extreme--past the point of being even remotely realistic--FROM WHAT I REMEMBER... is a lot more believable in its execution (although still not totally believable).

And I liked the characters. They were real, they had their own problems, and they definitely weren't perfect. Seeing their character growth was really.

However, I had a problem with the romance. It went way too fast. They basically got to know each other over the span of 24 hours, and they already know that they're gone for each other? Yeah, Kylie and Max are thrown into some crazy situations where they reveal their true selves to each other, but to already start thinking about being in love and soulmates (although that was only briefly mentioned and I don't think meant seriously) is a real stretch.

Also, the writing is a little awkward at times. There were times when the dialogue near the first third of the book seemed really stilted. It was hard to believe that high schoolers talked like that. And, I thought that the the introspective thoughts toward the first half were also somewhat stilted as they explained something, which was bordering on telling, not showing.

However, once you got halfway through the book, when they finally wake up in Mexico, the pace picks up, and it's all wonderful suspenseful anticipation until the end, which was only somewhat predictable. Even then, it was nice to see how it all played out. 

So yeah, not a bad book, especially if you like movies like THE HANGOVER. :)

Day 5 and I'm Dying

The internet at home has been down since last Wednesday, and Brian and I are dying, lol.

All of my homework requires using the internet, but none of them are due until this Tuesday or after Thanksgiving Break, so I've just been procrastinating and not doing any of it. -__-" I really should have started doing my homework on Monday or Tuesday when I actually had free time. Instead, I put if off thinking that I could do it later in the week. Yeah, that was a great idea...

I've also been neglecting my homework because I've been spending too much time with David. He's been over for the past few days, which has made not having any internet not as bad as it could have been, lol. That, and I've been on the internet at school as well.

Anyway, I've been at Bare Bulb for the past four and a half hours today procrastinating and doing my finance homework, so I feel somewhat accomplished, lol.

I'll update on the situation later when I have the chance. Windstream said that they could send someone over on Monday to check up on our internet, so hopefully we'll have it back by then.

Also, my Thanksgiving Break starts on Tuesday after my last class ends, so things will be busy. Dr. Codone was nice enough to cancel class, so I'll be done by noon, and since we're spending Thanksgiving with Shelle and Kyle, I'm going to pick up Brian after class, go to David's house, and let him drive us up there so that we can make it on time to one of Kyle's classes later that night. All-in-all, it's going to be a busy break even though I have a lot of homework to do. D:

So yeah, I'll get back to you eventually, lol.

Cover Lover 41

Haven't done one of these in a while, lol.

This week isn't as busy as the last few weeks have been, which is pretty surprising. Still, I really shouldn't be procrastinating or else I will have to spend all of my free time during Thanksgiving break doing all of my homework last minute. D:

A few hours ago, Dr. Vo threw for us a thank you dinner for helping out with the Mviet dinner last week, which was really fun. I got to eat a lot of yummy food and play games and hang out with some good friends, lol.

Have some more poetry

I don't know, I keep on finding awesome poetry online randomly, lol.

Homecoming, Birthday, MViet Dinner, & Other Things

I've been super busy these past few weeks because of clubs, classes, and family. So busy that I barely got on the computer to do anything other than homework or watch YouTube videos for a break. -__-"

First off, most of October was busy preparing for Homecoming since my club participated in the skit competition. Since we're a break dance club, we obviously danced in the majority of our skit. This year's homecoming theme was superheros, so we came danced to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" to be zombies in the beginning before Thor came in to save Alec and Shena, our two college kids. Then we had an Iron Man dance before we krumped for the Hulk's dance. Since I suck at dancing, I only had to learn "Thriller" and the krumping dance. XD

Our practices were every Wednesday and Friday night, but we practiced almost every day the week of Homecoming, so that took up a lot of my time. It was pretty draining because the practices were always at eight at night, so I'd have to be on campus for more than 12 hours. On Fridays, it wasn't so bad because I had time to visit David and eat dinner for a couple of hours before practice.

But yeah, Homecoming was really fun. We had learned the dances by the week of Homecoming, but we weren't dancing in synch, so we spent a lot of time working on that a few days before the skit competition. It was fun. Even though we made a few mistakes and had a technical problem (one part of the audio track didn't play), the audience didn't really notice our mistakes and cheered for us a lot. (We ended up winning the non-Greek organization skit, but that was only because we were the only non-Greek group to compete this year, lol.)

The week after Homecoming was my birthday, and in between all of that was so many meetings for MViet in preparation for the dinner this week. I didn't really have much planned for my birthday since it was on a Tuesday, but it was a nice surprise to receive a bouquet of oriental lilies (lol, he didn't even look at the name of the flowers when he picked them out) and cake from Marc in class.

Then, David surprised me by bringing me a cupcake with dinosaur candles and a bunch of little things. He gave me an infinity scarf inside a cute box that had a whale card attached to the top, some Dum-Dums (inside joke), and a honeybadger don't care birthday card. He also asked me if I was free from 5-7 since we were going to have dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, lol. It was pretty fun since some of my friends from MTB were there along with Steph and Stefan.

Then, the next day, some family from California came down to visit for a week. They came down to learn more about the chicken farming business from my dad since Michael was interested in it. Who knows if they'll be moving to Georgia anytime soon, though.

Even though they were here for a week, I barely saw them since I kept on coming home late every day because of club and group meetings. That, and they were usually gone on a trip with my parents, lol. But it was still entertaining talking to Leanne and Michael since they had a lot of stories and advice to tell us. Lol, apparently Leanne was intrigued about how David and I got together when Shelle was telling them about it since Leanne and Michael kept on claiming that they were old and weren't hip anymore about how people get together. Lol, Leanne wanted to know to prepare for what to do when her son, Ryan, eventually got a girlfriend. XD

Then the MViet dinner finally happened on Wednesday. For the past few years, the dinners had been buffet style where people just went to the tables of food to get whatever they wanted. This year, we decided to try to have a dim sum style dinner where waiters would come to the tables and serve customers food, which ended up being a lot more complicated than we expected.

First was getting enough serving carts and deciding on the menu and how to serve people. We ended up ordering four carts online and getting some members to assemble them after a meeting last week, and the menu kept on changing some food choices until the this week. One of the biggest problems we thought of was how to serve people since we had twelve round tables for customers to sit at and five carts, but we eventually figured it out by having teams of four people take over three tables in a row so that they could make sure that the servers kept track of the customers that they were in charge of.

And not many people wanted to be servers, which was the job position that we needed the most people to sign up for, so getting enough people was a challenge in the beginning. In the end, we got enough people to do it, and that was including David, Daniel (who Shena had forced/persuaded him to help us), and Kim, who eventually had second-thoughts about helping last minute, lol.

Overall, the dinner turned out pretty well. It was definitely busy, and because I hadn't really had lunch that day, it was extra tiring, lol. Loc, our president, still hasn't told us how much money we made, but I think it was pretty successful. I mean, we had almost full tables right until the last 30 minutes.

Cleaning up took a long time to do. The dinner ended at seven, but we, the people helping out with the event, started eating around 6:45 and cleaned up afterwards. Even though we ate pretty early, we still didn't totally finish cleaning up until around 9:30, which was when I had a group meeting with my debate team for Chinese Media. So yeah, it was a really long day, lol.

Jay, my Chinese Media professor, decided to split the class into groups and British Parliamentary debate each other on different topics regarding China for the rest of the semester instead of making us write two more papers, and my team was one of the teams debating the next day. That's why we decided to meet up the night before the debate to make sure that we were all on the same page and knew what to do the next day.

That meeting lasted until 10:30 since Shawn was 25 minutes late, so I didn't get home until 11, and I was so tired that I had called David while I drove home so that I wouldn't fall asleep while driving. Plus, even though we were both servers at the dinner and spent the majority of the day around each other, we barely saw each other once the event started, so it was weird seeing each other but not being able to talk or touch much throughout the whole day since we were so busy. I think that's why I really liked talking to him on the way home that night since we didn't have much chance to do so otherwise.

But yeah, I got home around 11 and took off my makeup and changed clothes while still on the phone with David until 11:30, when we hung up and I passed out from exhaustion around midnight since I was too tired to shower before going to bed. And the fun didn't end there.

Since I have Chinese Media at nine in the morning, and we have to dress up nicely for our debates, I had to wake up early to shower, put on makeup, and decide what to wear. To do that all in time to leave the house by 8:30, I had to wake up around 6:30, so I set my alarm that early. Yeah, when it went off six hours later, I turned it off and went back to sleep because I figured sleep was more important than a shower, so I slept til seven. Then I got up and did everything like planned, lol.

We ended up winning the debate, which was really surprising since our whole team thought that we did pretty crappy compared to Madison's team. But Jay said that it was a really close debate, and that our side brought more information to the table compared to the other team and that Josh's speech was the highlight of the debate, lol. It was funny since Josh had already pre-written his speech during the meeting the night before, and it was really sophisticated and good. So that was pretty cool.

The only thing was that sucked about that day was the fact that I was dead tired the whole day after the debate. I felt like I couldn't do anything because I was just too tired. I didn't even finish my homework for my other classes that, but luckily, they weren't hard assignments; just reading some chapters and finishing some roughs.

Yeah, I felt super unmotivated to do Assignment 5 that day, which was really bad because we were supposed to have them peer reviewed by the end of that day since it was due the next day. Instead, Raymond visited me for an hour before his class started, so we chilled until six. Then he went to class, and I went to go visit David since he was already home. I spent way too much time cuddling with him instead of doing homework...

On another note, as of earlier today, Dr. Vo, the adviser of our club, said that he wanted to throw a party for us next Tuesday to say thank you for all of the help, which is pretty cool. Loc also told us a few days ago that he wanted to treat us, the officers, to dinner some time next week, so we agreed to go to Olive Gardens next Friday, so that's also a bonus. I don't even have to work next Friday, so I can make it. :L

Oh yeah, basketball season's started up again last Friday, so I'll be busy working at concessions again. I worked at the women's game last week, which was also why I didn't really get to see my family from Cali that much that day. -__-" There's a men's basketball game today that I'm also working at, so I'll be busy for the majority of the day.

Tomorrow is Brian's birthday, and since he's turning 16, we're throwing a birthday party for him, so Saturday is going to be busy. David said that he'd come, so I'm not really sure how it's going to be for him to meet so many family friends. Awkward for sure, lol. I mean, I still haven't had to meet so many of his family yet either.

Then, I'm not sure if I'll go to temple on Sunday since I'm not sure how much homework I have to do. Regardless, I haven't been to temple for two weeks now, and I'm totally behind on Tai Chi training. :/

But yeah, lots of things happened recently that I never got a chance to blog about. Hopefully I didn't forget anything. But yeah, the semester's almost over, so I've been swamped with all of my classes demanding my attention, and I really don't want to do anything productive. For example, instead of reading the manuscript Marc and I are going to tech edit so that we can talk about what to do tomorrow after class, I've been blogging instead. :P

But yeah, I'll try to blog more frequently. This post is way too long, lol.

I'm alive!

I've just been super busy to blog anything lately. Hopefully I'll be able to post a summary of what's been going on in my life on Sunday or Monday night. Hopefully. XD

Books I Want to Read This Month

I am just not do so well on the whole reading actual novels thing ever since school started. I have a few days off for Thanksgiving Break, so many I'll be able to read something then.

1. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
2. The Young World by Chris Weitz
3. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
4. Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
5. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
6. Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry
7. Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher
8. The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter
9. Pawn by Aimee Carter
10. The Geography of Me and You by Jennifer E. Smith
11. Insignia by S.J. Kincaid
12. Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers
13. Nevermore by James Patterson
14. Divergent by Veronica Roth
15. Insurgent by Veronica Roth

October in Retrospect

I basically just read a lot of manga in my free time this month, lol. I probably should have studied or done homework half of those times... -__-"

I read:

• Kiss of the Rose Princess vol. 1 by Aya Shouoto
• Kiss of the Rose Princess vol. 2 by Aya Shouoto
• Kiss of the Rose Princess vol. 3 by Aya Shouoto
• Kiss of the Rose Princess vol. 4 by Aya Shouoto
• Kiss of the Rose Princess vol. 5 by Aya Shouoto
• Kiss of the Rose Princess vol. 6 by Aya Shouoto
• Kiss of the Rose Princess vol. 7 by Aya Shouoto
• Kiss of the Rose Princess vol. 8 by Aya Shouoto
• Kiss of the Rose Princess vol. 9 by Aya Shouoto
• Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun vol. 13 by Robico
• Maid-sama! vol. 5 by Hiro Fujiwara
• Maid-sama! vol. 6 by Hiro Fujiwara
• Maid-sama! vol. 7 by Hiro Fujiwara
• Maid-sama! vol. 8 by Hiro Fujiwara
• Maid-sama! vol. 9 by Hiro Fujiwara
• Maid-sama! vol. 10 by Hiro Fujiwara
• Maid-sama! vol. 11 by Hiro Fujiwara
• Maid-sama! vol. 12 by Hiro Fujiwara
• Maid-sama! vol. 13 by Hiro Fujiwara
• Maid-sama! vol. 14 by Hiro Fujiwara
• Maid-sama! vol. 15 by Hiro Fujiwara

I reviewed:

• The 100 by Kass Morgan

I watched:

• The Maze Runner (2014)
• You're Next (2011)
• Bo Burnham: what. (2013)
• From Vegas to Macau (2014)
• Black Hawk Down (2001)
• Insidious (2010)