serious insanity

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Books I Want to Read This Month

I managed to read one book from this list last month, so that's a definite improvement from the past few months, lol. With the start of a new year, let's see if I can do better this year. :)

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour
~~City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare~~
~~City of Glass by Cassandra Clare~~
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
Tiger's Curse by Collen Houck
Insignia by S.J. Kincaid
Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers
The Whole Stupid Way We Are by N. Griffin
Nevermore by James Patterson
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Friday, January 3, 2014

Happy 6th Anniversary Serious Insanity!

I can't believe that I started blogging six years ago. It's insane!

I went back to see my first few posts, and I am horribly embarrassed at my writing style, lol. I definitely didn't care for capitalizing letters and had a penchant for using a combination of internet shorthand and my own slang back then. -__-"

But my old blog posts really did take me down memory lane. I forgot about a lot of things that I wrote about, and it was obvious that I wasn't that great at technology back then. I didn't even know how to embed YouTube videos or know how to rotate pictures. -__-"

That's another thing I forgot about. I used to draw a lot, and apparently, I used to post them on here, too. I haven't drawn anything in my sketchbook since 2012, and I haven't drawn anything in the past year except for a few chibis in my class notes. I kind of want to draw again, see if I can improve and whatnot...

Anyway, here is gif of minions to celebrate this momentous occasion. XD

Woo~ I wonder if I'll make it to a 10 year anniversary... XD

Thursday, January 2, 2014

My New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve was fun. :)

Originally, Shelle and I hadn't made any plans since we weren't even sure if we'd be home, but then Shanice told us that her roommate gave her a bunch of booze before she came back home, so we were going to get drunk and help her finish off all of her alcohol, lol. So that's what we did. :P Although, we didn't finish any of the alcohol...

In the end, we had too much booze, lol. Shelle had bought some alcohol, too, so we could have a variety of drinks and mixers, and we didn't finish those either. In addition, she bought a bottle of champagne that she tried at her friend's house in Florida that she really liked for us to celebrate the new year that we also didn't finish. We had six people over, and even though two didn't drink, we still couldn't finish everything, lol. -__-"

But it was still fun. We ended up playing Ring of Fire twice before going for a walk since Jackie was getting really drunk and because we needed to take Meethu home by 11:30--Emily left a little earlier since she also had a curfew.

And I ended up puking because I ate too much dinner beforehand and drank too much too quickly for my stomach to settle. Luckily, I made it to the toilet and felt better afterwards. I didn't really drink much after that, lol. But now I think I know my limits: I am essentially drunk by the time I puke or feel the need to puke. Then I feel better and really should not drink anymore, lol. I usually take it easy anyway.

After we dropped Meethu off and played with her dog, Sophie, for a while, we came back and talked for a bit before playing the R-rated version of Never Have I Ever since we weren't confessing anything too dirty during Ring of Fire. It was very enlightening, lol. We kept on playing until someone lost and had to choose a truth or dare, which was having to take a bite of this concoction of chips, salsa, hot sauce, and some other things on top of a cupcake that Natalie made, until we were down to two people left.

Then it was 10 minutes until midnight, and we stopped to take out the champagne. Since we couldn't find our plastic wine flutes that Shelle had bought last year, we ended up drinking it in the shot glasses, lol. It was okay; I tasted the alcohol as soon as it touched my tongue, so I didn't really taste much of anything else to see if I liked it, which sucks, because that was my first time trying champagne. I was too lazy to refill my shot glass for another taste, lol. The funny thing was that we were all too preoccupied talking that we didn't even notice when it hit midnight until a couple of minutes afterwards! XD

Also, Shelle told Brian that we would let him have some of the champagne earlier that day when we were shopping for snacks and booze, and he was weirdly adamant on trying some of the champagne ever since he got back from his friend's party a few hours earlier. We told him that he couldn't try it until midnight like the rest of us, and we're still puzzled on why it was such a big deal for him to try it before the new year.

I'm glad that Shelle and I decided not to let him try any of the other alcohol we had because I just knew that he was going to tell his friends, and I did not think that bragging about drinking alcohol as a freshmen in high school was not going to have good consequences, especially in the future, when his friends will also have access to booze. I mean, just look at what happened when we told him that he could try champagne.

Anyway, we sat around the table for another hour just talking and chilling before Deidra and Natalie went home. Shanice and Jackie were spending the night, so we went upstairs to change and then hung out in Shelle's room with her talking until five in the morning. It was kind of ridiculous how much we talked, but I'm really glad that we did, because that was the first time I heard Jackie really open up, and boy did she.

She had a fight with her boyfriend a few hours earlier before coming over, so she had a lot to rant about him and her relationship. She told us how Michael was such a momma's boy and how she didn't want to be in a relationship with him and his mom. And she finally loosened up. Jackie's usually quiet whenever we meet up, so it was great seeing her just saying whatever she wanted and making all of these hilarious jokes. I was laughing so hard at one point that my stomach hurt, lol.

We eventually went back to my room to sleep for a couple hours before getting up around 10. My mom came home around 11 and told us to come downstairs for lunch not long after that, so we made our own spring rolls and ate them. Then we chilled in my room for a another hour until Jackie had to leave.

Shanice and I ended up talking for another hour after that, reminiscing on our high school days and trying to remember how we even became close friends since we knew each other through a mutual friend freshmen year, but didn't really hangout until senior year. But we really didn't get to know each other and become as close as we are now until freshmen year of college and this summer when we were both in town and had time to hangout one-on-one. I just find it funny that we knew each other for so long but didn't really know each other until recently, lol.

But yeah, that's how my New Year's Eve went. It's my first time that I remember doing anything special, so this was really nice. I'm definitely gonna remember it, lol.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

December in Retrospect

I managed to read more books than I have in the past few months, but man, I did not think that I would watch as many movies over the break as I did, lol. It's kind of ridiculous. XD But then again, Shelle and I had somehow made it a habit to watch a movie together every night that she was home...

I read:

Prodigy by Marie Lu
Dawn of the Arcana vol. 4 by Rei Toma
Dawn of the Arcana vol. 5 by Rei Toma
Storm by Brigid Kemmerer
Elemental by Brigid Kemmerer
Spark by Brigid Kemmerer

I reviewed:

Soul Thief by Jana Oliver

I watched:

Lemonade Mouth (2011)
Radio Rebel (2012)
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)
Chronicle (2012)
The Faculty (1998)
Let It Shine (2012)
Dexter Season 1 (2006)
Frozen (2013)
21 Jump Street (2012)
Free! (2013)
Street Dance (2010)
Ender's Game (2013)
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013)
21 & Over (2013)

I will recount how I spent my New Year's Eve tomorrow when I have more time. Right now, my laptop is back to being laggy, and I just can't bring myself to give a damn. :P

Monday, December 30, 2013

i think i need a new laptop...again

For the past few days, my laptop has been super laggy. Like, it would take five minutes just to switch to a new tab, and don't even get me started on how long it took to just scroll down a page! I normally have pretty good patience when easily occupied, but it was ridiculous taking an hour trying to do anything on my laptop.

I don't know what's wrong. I don't think it's because I only have around 40GB of space left on my hard drive, because it's been that low for a while now, so I'm wondering if it's because of something I recently downloaded. Or if it could be because of my antivirus software is going to expire soon and is screwing with my laptop as a result to renew itself.

Or, is it because my laptop is getting old? How long do most laptop's last? My last laptop lasted for only two years, but I now it was short-lived because I kept on dropping it off of my bed in the beginning and eventually ruined part of the pieces that held the laptop together. That, and I downloaded too many things carelessly.

I would like to say that I've treated my current laptop with better care--definitely haven't dropped it off of my bed, that's for sure--so I'm pretty sure that whatever's causing this drastic lag is an internal problem, which is throwing me for a total loop. I don't want to have to delete everything off of my laptop to see if there was a problem internally because I have a shitload of things on my laptop. Like the packrat I am in real life, I am also a digital packrat. :\

I dunno. If this lagging problem doesn't stop itself before school starts (the lag has gotten less yesterday and today), then I'll be forced to do a complete hardware cleanup. D:

But yeah, that's the main reason why I haven't been posting lately. That, and I haven't been doing anything much, lol. My friends and I had another fancy get together on Thursday, but other than that, I haven't been doing much besides reading fanfic, books, and watching movies.

I do have plans for New Year's Eve with my sis and friends, so there's that. :)

Friday, December 27, 2013

Dusty Reads: Divergent (Divergent #1) by Veronica Roth

Dusty Reads is a weekly post featuring a book that has been sitting unread on my home shelf for some time.

Title: Divergent (Divergent #1)
Author: Veronica Roth
Pages: 478
Publication: April 25, 2011
Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books
Summary taken from goodreads:

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, Tris also learns that her secret might help her save the ones she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

I've been putting this trilogy off because of many reasons, lol. For one, even before its publication, I'd heard nothing but praise for this book, so I had a lot of expectations. The fact that DIVERGENT was the first book in a trilogy was another reason why I waited to read it; I didn't want to be stuck with a cliffhanger at the end and have to wait a year to read the sequel and most likely losing interest in the trilogy because of the long wait period in between books. Plus, the page count. Even in my senior year, I didn't have enough time to read such thick books. Now that I'm in college, I really no time to read anything that long unless it pertains to class.

But, I already own all three books in the trilogy, so there goes one of my main reasons for not reading this book yet. :P Plus, the movie's coming out next year, so I think it's time to finally start reading the trilogy. I feel like the movie is going to be like THE HUNGER GAMES, I'd understand the movie more if I had read the book first. I saw the trailer during CATCHING FIRE, and it looked really good, so I'm really excited to read this trilogy.

Winter Break is in a few weeks. Hopefully I'll get around to at least reading DIVERGENT before the break's over. Four weeks should be enough time, right? :P

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

tis the day to celebrate and relax

To those that celebrate...

Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you're having fun and relaxing with your friends and family. :) Christmas has never been that big of a deal in my family, but we still try to hangout and do stuff together besides giving each other presents, lol.