In My Mailbox (3)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. 

A majority of the books all came at once yesterday. I was doing a little happy dance every time I opened another box :3

Plain Kate by Erin Bow

Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta 
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
Crusade by Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguie

Angel by James Patterson
Legend vol. 3 & 4 by Kara & Woo SooJung
Hissing vol. 5 & 6 by Kang EunYoung
Right Behind You by Gail Giles

X-Men Misfits by Raina Telgemeier & Dave Roman

Brilliant by Rachel Vail *ARC
Sellout by Ebony Joy Wilkins *ARC
Life, After by Sarah Darer Littman *ARC

Roses See Red by Cecil Castellucci *ARC
Plain Kate by Erin Bow  *ARC
The Unidentified by Rae Mariz  *ARC
Wildwing by Emily Whitman *ARC
The Hero by Ron Woods
Joplin's Ghost by Tananararive Due
Standing Against the Wind by Traci Jones
Snow Falling in Spring by Moying Li
Promises to the Dead by Mary Downing Hahn
The Patron Saint of Butterflies by Cecilia Galante
Part of Me by Kimberly Willis Holt
Revolution is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine
Suite Scarlett by Mareen Johnson
Free? by Amnesty International
A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass

Money Hungry by Sharon G. Flake
The Last Best Days of Summer by Valerie Hobbs
The Stolen by Celia Thomson
Always Looking Up by Michael J. Fox

Happy Halloween!
 

books, tornado drills, itouch improvise, stuff...

Last night, I finished reading this very awesome [and crazily short] book. I left a review of it on goodreads that pretty much sums up everything I had to say.

Originally, I was planning on writing a whole post dedicated to the difference in Japanese YA and American YA that always astounds me, but after writing that review, I realized that I'm not ready to write something as philosophical as that just yet. Every time I tried to express what I wanted to say in the post about it, words abandoned me and I couldn't figure out how to put it down as words in the end. So maybe another time, when I read another really translated book.

Can't wait for the next book to come out in January!

My goodreads review [which is also the longest review I've written so far :P]:

Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime by Mizuki Nomura

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Japanese translated YA novels are so much different compared to American YA novels; the thought process and insights are completely different and distinctive. Because of that, I'm usually blown away whenever I read a translated Japanese novel just because the style and tone is so unusual that it's a refreshing change from what I normally read.

Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime completely floored me. Maybe it's because the last few books that I've read were contemporaries or other fluffy comedies, reading this book with it's dark tones and absorbing mystery completely caught me off guard. In the beginning, I had thought that the book would be a simple lighthearted fantasy when I bought it online, so I didn't really have any expectations when I started the book; I was just looking for a short, interesting read.

I am happy to say that I got my wish! The book was very absorbing and short enough that there wasn't any extras to bore me in between main events because everything was important to the plot, the characters were unique and complex in their own ways, the ending was good, and I'm happy to find out that this is a series, because there was no way that the book could end just like that with all of these little changes with the characters going on throughout the novel!

Also, what immediately sucked me in the book and had me hooked ever since was in the beginning right before the prologue. It's goes like this:

"Mine has been a life of shame.

I'm like the one black sheep born into a pure white flock. Unable to enjoy the things my peers enjoyed, unable to grieve the things they grieved, unable to eat the things they ate--being born an ignoble black sheep, I didn't understand the things my friends found pleasant, such as love, kindness, and sympathy. I simply dusted my dark wool in white powder and pretended I was a white sheep, too.

I'm still wearing my mask, still acting in this farce."

View all my reviews

It has been rainy and damp all week! I did not like it; I hate the sticky feeling you always get from damp weather. 

On Monday, there was even a tornado warning after school when everyone was getting ready to get on their bus to go home. They made everyone go inside and sit in the halls until the signal went off again staying that we were clear and good to finally go home. Even though we only waited for 15 minutes, it was still too long - I was ready to go home. Then, it took forever for my bus to come since it was one of the buses on the last rounds, so that was another 15-20 minutes of my life wasted outside in that awful weather. 

I hope all of the rain and thunderclouds and sticky dampness goes away by Halloween. I'm taking my little cousins Trick-or-Treating [hopefully with Krista, I need to call her!], so I don't the weather to already put me in a bad mood. It just sucks that Halloween's on a Sunday cuz that means that I can't stay up late and goof off since we'll all have school tomorrow.

I want to see weather like this, lol.

Picture taken from Jae's twitter.

He's so RANDOM, lol. 

School is so dangerous! Lol, today, we had to stay in our first period class for 3 classes cuz apparently, two teachers saw some object outside that was made of PVC pipes [basically a bomb], so the school had to alert the authorities and do all of this stuff while everyone was to remain in their classrooms.

My first period was AP Lang, so we ended up having the class split into two groups and debating on some of the topics that were part of our homework like: is cheating in sports unsolvable and do the rich care about the poor? In the end, everyone just wanted to argue, so they did that while everyone else talked about other random stuff or watched the arguments. It was pretty entertaining.

After Ms. Freeman, the principal, made an announcement and told us why we were in our classes for so long, which is a first since we usually were left in the dark about stuff like this, I had lunch and found out what the "bomb" really was. It was this guy's friend's project. They were playing with it earlier, throwing it around and stuff, and they just left it lying there outside where some teachers saw it. Lol, FAIL. :P

So yeah, I got out of doing busy work in 2nd period and I missed my AP Bio test which makes me happy and sad at the same time since I've already studied for it and wanted to get it over with, but at the same time, I didn't want to take the test in the first test since I was so tired [slept at 11 and woke up at 4 this morning]. Now, I have to take it on Monday...at least I'm assuming so. :P

On the bright side, the humid weather is finally gone! There are hardly any clouds in the sky and it finally feels like fall again :3

Yesterday, I came across this video that just further proved the awesomeness iTouch's are. I really want one now! These guys are awesome :3 Very creative.

I had planned on getting an iTouch for my birthday [which is next week!] as a gift to myself, but I've been spending so much money on books and stuff on ebay that maybe I should hold off on the spending for a while. Maybe get it for myself on Christmas instead?

Dood! Earlier this week, I found out that JYJ was featured in a magazine IN THE US. They were featured in "Release of the Week" by Billboard Magazine and they were even on the front cover! I immediately pre-ordered the copy when I saw it, and it's a good thing that I did because they're already sold out! 

You will not believe how much spazzing I did when I found out about all of this. XD

However, I really wish that a miracle will happen so that the five of them will go back to being DBSK again.

lol, this pic reminds me of The Beatles :P

And that's all for now folks!

pointy.star

In My Mailbox (2)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

Here's this week's spoils :D

Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Bleach vol. 1-22 by Tite Kubo

Nodame Cantabile vol. 1-6 by Tomoko Ninomiya

Duck Prince vol. 1-3 by Ai Morinaga

Reborn! vol. 1 & 2 by Akira Amano

Outriders by Kathryn Mackel

Trackers by Kathryn Mackel

So much to read, so little time...^^"

homecoming week~

this was an interesting week!

it was homecoming, so everyone was dressed up all week. on monday was college football day - not that interesting; everyone just wore jerseys of the teams they supported. 

tuesday was nerd day. i think alot of people confused it with tacky day cuz nerds do not wear different colored socks and crazy layers :P

wednesday was character day. this was the most hilarious day of the week. i saw spiderman, batman, power rangers, a gorilla, two bananas, mario and luigi, darth vader spongebob, male cheerleaders, and a whole lot of other crazy costumes.

thursday was decade day. the majority of the people dressed up as hippies or people in the 80's; quite colorful. :D my friend dressed up as a CIA agent during Kennedy's assassination.

at night, we had a giant bonfire in the soccer field where the powderpuff game happened. i couldn't go cuz i had to babysit, but i heard that it was really entertaining when the male cheerleaders performed.

friday was hunting for spirit day, which basically was camo/spirit day. mr. richardson said that he'd give us extra credit if we dressed up on that day, so everyone did cuz everyone has low grades in his class.

we had a pep rally during 7th period. it was pretty entertaining. the best part was when the male cheerleaders came out wearing the real cheerleader's outfits, skirts and all, and did their routine. one guy had his spandex shorts, or whatever they're called, jacked way high up; it was a disturbing sight. especially when i recognized who he was since he sits behind me in US history every day. XD

lol, they looked something like this dood, but the shirt covered their whole body and was in the school colors :P

and today, we had the homecoming game and the dance afterword. i couldn't go to either cuz i had to babysit. still am right now :P

on the bright side, every day when i came home, i'd find at least one package with my name on it. XD i bought and won alot of stuff on ebay the past week (i almost spent my whole week's paycheck buying stuff ;__;), and they finally came, so i have alot more books and dvds now to keep me busy. and there's still more on the way :3

i'll show you the spoils tomorrow when i do my IMM. i have to use the old camera again cuz shelle still has my camera. that woman needs to get her own camera! i'm tired of having her always taking it when i need it! >:(

well, ricky and henry's parents came home. that means that i can go home :D

ttyl.

pointy.star

In My Mailbox (1)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

 

I have found the old family camera! Luckily, it still takes some pretty decent pics :P

So here is my first IMM :D

Zombies vs. Unicorns by Holly Black, Justine Larbalestier, Garth Nix, Diana Peterfreund,
Libba Bray, Scott Westerfeld, etc.

Firelight by Sophie Jordan

World War Z by Max Brooks

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks (present for my friend)

Magical JxR vol. 1 by Lee Sun-Young

Magical JxR vol. 2 by Lee Sun-Young

Lol, I've got a lot of zombie books this week.

woot! :D

just finished all of my epically long homework! :D all i hafta do now is study for my AP bio test a bit more.

so yeah, this week was pretty quick, school-wise anyway since i only had 3 days of it :3

not much happened. apparently, shelle and haley ran into each other at the fair on wednesday and she gave haley my number, so we text each other now. i don't text with jeffy that much anymore :(

oh yeah, on thursday, haley texted me asking for some guy phone numbers cuz she wanted to meet new people, particularly guys i'm assuming, lol. in the end, i gave her jeffy's number cuz he's cool, and i think that he once asked me to set him up with someone...? not sure, but i think it was from a text.

i know that i've said this many times before, but it's true and i have to keep on reminding myself of my problem or else i'll never stop it: i am a book shopaholic.

i can't stop buying books! i spent $125 on books on ebay this past week buying a whole bunch of manga. and then, i just spent $44 online buying 6 more books and manga. D:

it's not like i'm wasting all of my money on full-priced books, they're all on sale and/or SO CHEAP that i have to buy them cuz i'm saving so much money in the end. ^__^ like the manga i bought on ebay, i bought 35 manga for only $125, which is really cheap since most manga cost around $10 a volume.

it's not like i regret buying all of these books [okay, so maybe i do a little... >_>], it's just that i start despairing when i think of trying to find time to read all of them. my TBR pile is big enough as it is! adding 41 more books to the pile is ALOT, even excluding the fact that manga are much quicker to read than novels. and it's not like i have any free time as it is, what with school and babysitting taking over the majority of my life :P

anyway, i've been on goodreads lately and finally finished organizing all of the books that i've read [the ones that i remember, anyway :P] and own, so if you want to check out all of the books that i've finished reading, am reading now, am going to read, didn't finish reading, and own, check out my profile here.

i've been debating on whether i should start doing In My Mailbox that's hosted by The Story Siren, which basically is a weekly post of all of the books that you've got in the past week, since i bought so many books recently, and thought that it'd be fun to see how many books come in the next few weeks.

however, since this blog is just about my life in general, and not a book blog [altho for a while, i did focus on books :P], i'm not so sure if i should? ...well, i just finished reading exactly what IMM is about, and it has convinced me to join! :D lol, it says that i don't have to participate every week, so i'll just do it every week that i have a bunch of books come in. or whenever i remember to do it.

unfortunately, i can't do it for this past week since shelle took my camera for her savannah trip this weekend. maybe i'll post my first IMM up if i can find our old family camera, where ever it is, lol. now that i've decided to join, i want to do it now! :D

dood! JYJ's AMERICAN ALBUM CAME OUT!! i listened to it yesterday! they're engrish is pretty good, lol. it's just not the same without yunho and changminnie, tho... :(

but the album pics are...WHOA.

...the picture uploader isn't working again! argh! i can't put any pics up again! 

i'll try to upload the pics later, then. 

later~

pointy.star

funnel cake is...

<3

lol, i never realized how much i missed eating funnel cake until i had some at the fair yesterday. it's the best fried pastry ever :3

the fair was pretty fun yesterday. altho none of my friends came, i had fun hanging out with shelle and her friends. the rides were AWESOME. i totally love the Zipper. it's so awesome, i can't even explain it :P and curly fries with cheese and ketchup is also great.

but i hated the fact that we had to bring brian along cuz no one else could take care of him [which is a total lie; he could have spent the day over at our cousins' house like usual] since both of our parents weren't going to be home either. i mean, i have to spend 6 days a week babysitting him and four other kids; i don't want to look after him ON MY ONLY DAY OFF. >:( fuckin pissed me off.

plus, he's at the naive age of being duped by "great deals!" at the fair, so it was really annoying having to always make sure that he wasn't being sucked in by all of the rip-off games at the fair even tho he has no money.

but yeah, i ran into evan and joseph at the fair later on at night. they looked older than i remembered, but then again, everyone's growing up, lol. and joe is so freakin tall that it's insane. 

then i found out from evan that he's going to korea for an audition for JYP cuz he was invited after they saw some videos of evan singing online. that is INSANE. i can't believe it. if he makes it and becomes a trainee for JYP, then that'll mean that i'll actually know a kpop celeb in the future! that thought alone is crazy itself O_O

my feet were killing me by the time we got home. we walked for so long [went in around 2 and left around 7:30] and so much, man. i was surprised to wake up and not feel any aches at all, lol. 

krista's coming over tomorrow. she's actually coming over early in the morning which is shocking since she usually never wakes up until noon when she can, but since i'm so special and so we can have more time together, she's coming over around 9:30-10 in the morning. 

lol, i've already came up with an idea for her christmas present. it's gonna be epic. the theme is zombies. she's gonna flip. :D

lol, heechul's gangtsa engrish is hilarious. but it's so him. his personality is awesomely unique XD

that's all for now. laters~

pointy.star

actually fnished a project pretty early

for once, I've actually finished a project pretty early. well, it's not completely finished since the video still has to be edited, but still. we finished filming everything in a couple of hours today and the project isn't even due till the 21st!

in latin, we have this food project where we have to make a cook book made with 5 recipes using a different latin word for each recipe or we can make a 5 minute video using 5 words in latin; both projects can be in groups of up to 3. so, jeffy, emily, and i decided to make a video cuz it sounded funner and because we already had the equipment :D

since emily was busy every other weekend before the due date, we had to film everything today cuz it was the only time that she wasn't busy. it was pretty funny. we had to do so many retakes and stuff cuz we kept on forgetting on saying the latin words instead of the english ones, and we film over the time limit because of all of the random, petty conversations in between cooking.

and since jeffy has legit video editing software stuff, he's going to edit the video so that our stuff will be under the time limit and add all of these amazing random stuff in it.

lol, one problem that we faced early on when we were figuring out what to do was that the tomato sauce that jeffy had brought was overdue from 2009. so jeffy and i were wondering if we should go get some at publix or not while we were waiting for emily to come [we decided to film at my house since both know where i live and since, apparently, i have the cleanest kitchen].

when she finally came and we told her the problem, she said that the sauce would be fine since it's canned and canned food lasts forever. and then we realized that we didn't even have to eat the pizza so it didn't even really matter. :P

so yeah, our cooking show is called "Eatin' Time" with me and jeffy as the hosts and emily as a special guest all the way from italy. we even had a brief commercial break while waiting for the pizza to cook, lol. it was just jeffy doing a random Kit-Kat cf.

i just found out that we don't have a fall break this year >:( apparently this 4 day weekend is it instead of the whole week off we had in the previous years. what the heck? not fairrrrr~ especially since the Perry Fair is only this week and next week.

i might go to the fair tomorrow, but i can't find anyone to go with me. :( jeffy might, but he has to wait for his rents to go home first to ask, and then he's not that much into fairs in the first place. i told him that he had to tell me if he could go before tomorrow, so i'll find out in a couple of hours.

and i sent shanice a text a couple of hours ago, but she hasn't replied back. i remembered that she said that she couldn't go to the fair since no one had asked her to go with them. not sure now -__-"

one bright side that i just found out, i can upload pictures on here again! yay!

also, kimi no todoke is having a second season next year! i can't wait to see it! they are just so cute! XD

so i just found out that shelle has pierced her ear again. this time, she got an industrial which is basically a bar that goes at the top parts of your ears. never expected her to do that O_O

my birfday's in a couple of weeks! can't wait to finally be old enough to watch R-rated movies, lol.

i love SHINee's comeback! they're so cute! and the song is so cute! lol, my fangirlingness is pretty obvious :P watch their Hello mv!

i hate how i still have to babysit when i have breaks cuz that means that the kids are also on break and that no one's around to take care of them. i only get one day to myself and even then, i usually can't enjoy it because i usually have to study or do homework for the majority of the day.

krista's coming over on tuesday! can't wait to catch up and stuff for a bit since we haven't seen each other in ages. unfortunately, she can't stay the night since both have school the next day :(

anyway, my eyes hurt from staring at the screen for so long. i'll see ya later :P

pointy.star

argh...yay!...ugh!...lazy :P

i think i'm seriously going to fail my AP lang class. on thursday and friday, we had to do this in class essay on one of the four topics that he gave us using at least 2 quotes from 1984 for each body paragraph, and i didn't even get to finish writing my second paragraph on the final copy!

i'm so freaking angry. i'm mad at myself for thinking that i could copy everything in the last 7 minutes of class, and i'm mad at my teacher for giving us this impossibly hard essay to do with so little time. writing tasks cost 65% of our grades, too. my essay won't even give me a 50; i'm so gonna fail this class ;-;

argh! i get mad and sad and depressed every time i think about it! >:(

on a light note, i think that i actually did pretty good on my AP bio test yesterday. i didn't know only a couple of the questions on the test, and i think i did pretty well on the FRQ's :3

on tuesday, jeffrey and i found out that we live in the neighborhoods right across the street from each other. and we both live near the same entrances to our neighborhood, so it was like we were made to hang out easily :D 

lol, we hung out for a bit outside in my neighborhood after i got off of work cuz we had to celebrate :D of course, i had to be extra careful whenever we walked around my house cuz i only told mommy that i was going outside to check something out for a project :P there is no way she would ever let me go outside at 8 at night just to hang out with a boy :P

so yeah, i finally have a friend who lives pretty near me! it's sad that i don't really know anyone in my neighborhood that i can consider as a friend to hang out with, but whatever. i have jeffy now :P

JYJ is releasing their international album on the 12th!!! i so can't wait!

stupid image thingy still isn't working! i can't post any pics! :(

this past wednesday was avatar megan's birthday. shelle had told me earlier last weekend that megan was going through this depression/emo state lately ever since she had a car accident (i know! i was so shocked when she first sent me the text! luckily, she didn't get hurt at all, just her dad's car did), saying that she has no friends except for us and stuff. i was not expecting anything like that at all.

but when i called her to wish her a happy birthday, she basically told me everything that she had told shelle, so i guess it's really true then. shelle and i are going up there tomorrow to celebrate her birthday with her and cheer her up. and most likely give her lots of advice and encouragement and try to make her get out of her shell. 

i really don't understand why she's like this, tho. if she doesn't have any friends [and i'm assuming that she wants friends], then why can't she get over her fear and do something about it? i mean, she has to branch out and talk to people. she needs to develop social skills cuz she'll need them later on when she gets a job and stuff.

i am really thirsty now...prolly should get up and get something to drink...yeah, i should do that...if only my laziness wasn't so bad, lol :P

i guess that's if for now. 

ttyl :P

pointy.star