My Star Trek backstory: I was a Star Wars kid. My brothers and I watched my dad’s VHS tapes of the original trilogy many, many times. My parents watched both Star Wars and Star Trek, although Mum favored the latter. She thought it was more creative than Star Wars, it could do so much more, explore different ideas. I think she saw the original run on television. Both parents watched The Next Generation and Voyager, and Daddy watched Enterprise. I watched TNG as a kid, saw some episodes of Voyager, and I’ve seen a couple episodes of the original series. Haven’t seen any of the movies. Except for the newest one, of course. Yes, this was my first Star Trek movie. *grin*

So back to the movie. Figuring out who the characters were was fun; since I’ve only seen an episode here and there I only really knew Kirk, Spock, and the doctor. But from popular culture I’ve picked up Scotty, Uhura, and Sulu, and I learned about Chekov from Futurama. *grins* I didn’t figure out who the other guy driving the Enterprise was until I heard him pronounce Vs as Ws. XD

I’m not sure that I like knowing who some of the actors are though. While seeing Zoe Saldana was a delightful surprise, I see her more as Zoe Saldana, not Uhura, which kind of ruins things… It doesn’t help that I haven’t really seen Uhura in the tv show, so it’s more Zoe playing a part for me, not Zoe playing this character that I should know.

Another big surprise was Simon Pegg! I didn’t recognize him until his second camera shot, and even then I wasn’t sure until Mum whispered to me, “Hot Fuzz,” and that she was sure it was him. I’ve never seen Scotty in the show … or at least I’ve seen him portrayed in Simpsons and Futurama more often than in Star Trek which probably isn’t a good thing, heh. But I really liked the character. I really liked Simon Pegg. XD I never did see that movie where he was playing that running character.

Watching John Cho was fun, but I kept remembering him in his Harold (& Kumar) role, and yeeeah that sort of really ruined the role for me. murrr. But again, I haven’t seen much of Sulu in the show so I was watching him playing a character, not playing someone I should know.

During the course of the movie I realized, hey, Star Trek was really cool, it had an Asian character in it! Sort of like Whoopi Goldberg’s story about loving Star Trek and seeing a black woman on tv. Because I remember early in the movie there was another Asian character, who I think got blown up, but regardless he was there, being Asian.

Normally I hate being so ethnocentric, I mean why should it matter what ethnicity or color someone is, right? We should all be colorblind. But I’ve been thinking about Asians in the media more and more, starting from the time when I heard about Avatar characters in the live-action movie being cast as white people. (Or at least all the good guys.) Um, nice way to whitewash a story which is so very influenced by Asian cultures.

I’d read Derek Kirk Kim’s blog entry about Avatar and his story about how he and his brother loved acting, but never tried to make it in Hollywood because they didn’t want to get stuck with stereotypical roles. Then when I linked it online, someone told me her husband quit acting for the same reason.

While I didn’t care at the time about the lack of representation of Asians in the media (I don’t need to see “myself” on the screen because … well I just don’t, I’m secure enough to not need it), I realized oh, it’s not just about me, there are Asians out there who would like acting jobs but can’t get them because … they’ve got Asian faces. Hollywood (rightly?) thinks that most of America can’t connect to an Asian face, they need to see a white (or sometimes black) face to really empathize with the character.

(Mum is of the opinion that Hollywood isn’t really as liberal as it seems, because everyone is white. There are some black actors, a handful of Asians, very few of any other ethnicity. No one is willing to use non-white actors, lest they put off everyone else in the industry. But I digress.)

This week I saw a new episode of Without a Trace that had Chinese people in it! When I saw the previews I was intrigued, it’s not often there are Asians on tv. (I still remember that episode of Cold Case that was about the Japanese internment camps, which I will not comment about here.) I stepped in about 20 minutes into the episode, and I was really happy to see Asians speaking English with American accents, like most Asians that I know! But the more I watched the episode, the more it was about a Chinatown scandal and about being ethnically Chinese.

So … wow. Chinese people only go missing when it has to do with being from China, huh? Or in the case of the other episode, Japanese people only go missing when it involves the internment camps.

I asked Mum, why are Asians in the media always portrayed as being ethnically Asian, not as Americans with Asian faces? She said it’s because Hollywood just doesn’t get it, they don’t know what Asian Americans are really like, they can only think in terms of country of origin.

I guess not only do Asians not make it as actors, they don’t make it as writers either?

I put forth all of that in order to, in a roundabout way, explain why I really love Star Trek and how it’s so cool because it had an Asian character in it! Now I feel like watching the original Star Trek series just so I can know those characters. I will just have to grit my teeth and bear it whenever Shatner’s on screen…

edit@10pm, August 9, 2009: I found an entry someone wrote on Livejournal about the character Uhura on Star Trek that I really enjoyed reading and thought I’d link it here.

Random comments…

Not sure about the boy character. Maybe he served as a person for Coraline to talk to in the movie.

The 3D aspect was tiring my eyes after a while. It didn’t help that either A) my ears are crooked or B) my eyes are crooked, so I couldn’t quite see the screen clearly without holding up one side of the 3D glasses. (Also, the 3D glasses took an instant dislike to my eyeglasses and kept trying to put distance between them.)

But I still think it was worth the $5 seeing the movie in 3D. :D Mum and I went to see it in the new, fancy, higher-priced theater which charges about $3 more, and then there was a $2 charge for use of the 3D glasses.

I really liked the 3D-ness of the movie. It was definitely subtle, but pulled you into the movie. But because my eyes are funky somehow, it hurt to look at anything too “close” to me. (The closer something is to the audience, the more blurry it is, and the more I have to cross my eyes to focus on it…it’s weird. I was also never any good at those Magic Eye 3D picture books, either.)

Going into the theater I saw these preschool-aged kids, and I sort of worried for them. But I shouldn’t have. Kids these days are so jaded, nothing can faze them. Either that or they were just covering their eyes during the movie, which I couldn’t see.

Dude! That movie was so creepy! I was seriously feeling anxious about Coraline and even myself! And I don’t normally get scared in movies unless it’s in my face—you know, people or things jumping out of the dark, some maniac running toward the viewers with a bloody hacksaw…

The Other Miss Forcible? (Or was it the Other Miss Spink?) Hi-larious. She got a lot of laughs in the theater.

The Other Mother’s real form … creepy. And they didn’t come up with it until near the end of production?! Totally worth it. I would hate to ever meet her face to face.

The Other Father and all the other people in the Other Mother’s world … oh my gosh, I felt for them, really I did.

I loved the movie. :D Even if it didn’t look the way I pictured it in my head (Dave McKean wins with me, hands down). It’s just a different take or interpretation of the story. Definitely buying when it comes out on DVD. Which reminds me, I still have to buy Stardust. O_o

There was a narrator who set up most of the scenes and gave context to the short lines that passed between the actors. The movie jumped around a lot between scenes.

I thought it was the weirdest thing (in the beginning) that Munch kept looking at the camera (or viewer). Freaky! But it was really the only way that I was drawn into the movie.

The way everything else was set up, I felt very disconnected from everything and from the characters, and that the characters were disconnected from each other.

But then it was very successful in expressing Munch’s state of mind, his madness, the childhood events that shaped him.

What really sucked was that I was struggling to stay awake during the movie (no fault of the film; it was just one of my sleepy days). A lot of the lines went through my head without imparting any bit of information, and I ended up sleeping for about ten or fifteen minutes, halfway through the second part. Argh!

But hey, if the film got that much through to me in that state, imagine how much better it is when you’re fully awake! hah! And luckily, the movie is on DVD! The question now is, do I want to add it to my library or just watch it a second time? (The guy who played Munch sure was cute though…)

I almost forgot to watch it, even though I’d been planning to watch it since commercials aired in March. Luckily C had to go work in his studio so I made dinner late and caught the movie ten minutes in.

(Spoiler, sort of.) One thing I wonder about, plot-wise, is if Ithaca is 25 and the girl is somewhere in her teens (I assume 15+ but I’m not a good judge of age), then how the heck is that workable? Calliope (the girl) would go through all that training, then in ten years her rule is up, and they need to find the next girl? What? Ithaca was found at 5 … correct? So she had her powers for 20 years. Maybe what’s-his-face (sorry can’t remember his name … William?) was supposed to be searching for those 20 years for the next girl? Or at least 15 or whatever years, however old Calliope is. But then he’s only in his 20s himself, so he would have begun searching at 10? What was that whole thing about seekers being old? (End of spoiler.)

I don’t know, I shouldn’t bother with the little things, it was only a tv movie. *grin*

The big thing I do want to complain about is a comment made by the character William. Remember, I didn’t see the first ten minutes of the movie the first time around, so I watched the rerun at 10 o’clock.

The reporter friend guy gets the invitation to Ithaca’s dinner thing in the mail and his wife says he and William should go, since she’s so very pregnant and can’t fit into any sort of nice evening gown. Then William says (paraphrasing), “Sure, like two guys going to a ball isn’t gay.” What?!

The comment itself isn’t what’s bugging me, it wasn’t that bad (right? I’m not underreacting, am I?). But I do hate that this is a movie airing on ABC Family, so probably kids as young as … 8? could be watching it. I don’t care that William used the word “gay” when kids are watching, but I can’t stand that he used it in that joking, derogatory manner.

Maybe I’m overreacting about this and gays have become so much a part of the norm we can joke about them now…? But it still creates this idea for kids that it’s okay to say things like that! They might say it around other kids, who might or might not be gay, and those kids will feel … however they feel. Marginalized?

:x Sorry, my brain’s shutting down now … this is why I suck at blogging. Argh.

Closing statement … stupid Disney is still furthering a world where gays are seen as bad and can be shot or tortured. Am I going too far there? Oh yeah.

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First time I read the book, Stardust didn’t thrill me that much. One of my lesser-liked books of Neil’s. (Apparently, according to my 2005 book list, I read it about two and a half years ago.)

The movie on the other hand, I loved dearly and can’t wait to get the DVD and watch it again. It was so much fun, so magical.

I thought to myself, if I liked the movie so much, why didn’t I care for the book? Which is why I decided to read Stardust again. My conclusion: it must be Neil’s writing style. While reading it I would feel sort of ho hum and wonder what book I was going to read next. But when I would imagine parts of the book as the movie

[edit, January 3, 2009:] … What the heck? What happened to the rest of this entry? Did I not write it? Did WordPress or my server lose it? I probably wanted to say that the story … came alive. But I don’t remember what else I was going to say.

Am sort of regretting now that I didn’t start a movie list for this year. My thoughts, ‘what movies would I see this year?’ and ‘should I really put as much emphasis on movies that I do on books?’ Mreh.

I normally don’t watch war movies. Partly because they’re loud with all the explosions, but also because I don’t like to see what’s inside the human body when it’s cut up, and how the cut up person reacts to seeing what’s inside him. I’ve seen portions of Band of Brothers, not all of it, and parts of Saving Private Ryan (yes, I still have yet to see that movie). I guess I just don’t like seeing the results of a bunch of grunts (men?) with influence going at it. I’m too sensitive.

But anyway! I thought Flags of Our Fathers was good. I liked it. What else can I say? My knowledge of last century’s events suck. I don’t know anything about World War I, not much about World War II (outside of the concentration and internment camps), and don’t know much of anything of U.S. presidencies. Mum says it’s likely because I was homeschooled … but that she doesn’t know much about the World Wars either…. It’s only because of my dad the history nut that I know what I do know of recent history. But he gets annoyed when I ask too many questions, like I must be really ignorant or something. >.>

Anyway! So yeah, I had absolutely no clue that the picture taken was of the second flag, and that the first flag was taken down because of some stupid military person who wanted it as a souvenir. *twitch* That’s all I have to say about the plot.

I had no idea Doc was played played by Ryan Phillippe. O_o He just looked like some young kid to me. (Then again, I had trouble at the beginning keeping all the characters straight.) I finally figured it out around the time I saw Robert Patrick (X-Files!) and Jason Gray-Stanford (Disher! XD). Melanie Lynskey (Rose in Two and a Half Men) was also in the movie. Woo!

Also, Friday after Gypsy Mum had me watch The World of Henry Orient again, just to see if I’d like it this time, and yeah I did. Nice movie. Wasn’t much interested by the Henry Orient part. But ya gotta love Angela Lansbury. (I like The Harvey Girls, she plays someone completely different from Mrs. Potts. XD)

Mum told me that Gypsy Rose Lee came to the filming of the movie and cried when she saw Natalie Wood on stage, because she had the walk down perfect.

In other news, N bought Aly & AJ’s album Insomniatic. (From Wal-Mart. Hulk smash!!) Wheee! It’s a great album. :D Whenever I listen to Potential Breakup Song today I get weepy. It’s just … so good. *wipes away tear*

One thing that is confusing me though, is that I keep picturing Shevraeth as another male character with long pale hair, who wears a cape… If you thought Lucius Malfoy, you either spend too much time in the Harry Potter realm or you’ve read Court Duel and think the same way I do.

I don’t remember the way I pictured Lucius in the books (movie media overload, boo), but if you take his movie portrayal, make him thinner, a bit younger, and not as … sneery, then you’ve got my image of Shevraeth.

The part where I’m getting confused is, I don’t like Lucius (I’m a good girl; I hates on the bad guys), but I definitely like Shevraeth. So I have this image in my head with an association that I don’t think of favorably … yet I like the character!

It’s sort of like in The Shop Around the Corner, which I saw Saturday (woo free OnDemand TCM movies). The lady admits to being confused in the beginning because she had mixed identities or something in her head. asdjkl; need to rewatch the movie to know what she said… [edit: "psychologically mixed up" is what she said]

Anyway. I’m almost done with the book. Chapter nineteen of part two. It’s such a fun story! But I don’t want it to end. :( Do I read and continue the fun, or not read and still have a bit of story left to live in? *laugh* Right, like I could do anything else.

After I’m done with this book I can go back to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I’m about two-thirds done in that one. It’s a great book, it’s just not as fun as Crown Duel. I wonder, are there adult fantasy books with strong heroines that are as fun?

Saturday (yesterday) was the surprise 25th anniversary for my aunt and uncle, at my uncle’s mom’s house. It wasn’t much of a surprise … they walked in and we were all sitting around talking. XD Everyone (on my maternal side of the family) was there. W88 didn’t come though.

Um. I dunno, I don’t really have much to say about it. Talked to my SLO aunt, talked to my cousin and her husband, talked to … Noelle and SM00 of course. I guess that’s about it. We played a bit on Noelle’s MacBook. hehe.

Mum made tamagoyaki for the lunch. First time, essentially, that I’ve had it. I know I had it before, but I just thought it was egg, nothing special about it. I don’t know who made it. Either Bachan made it, or it was bought. I know there’s a world of difference there, but I honestly can’t remember. This time, I see how it’s a little better than just egg, but I don’t consider it anything special. o_o Blasphemy! XP I dunno. I’m too American? Eggs come by the dozen here? *laugh*

Saturday night I finished my other art project, the color harmonies. I like the effect. I used, for the most part, just magenta and greens. I’m disappointed though that some colors weren’t mixed right (grrr at me). For the triadic, the magenta-purple is too dark and doesn’t match the other colors; the split-complementary has the magenta too dark, too close to the blue-green instead of being between the blue-green and yellow-green; same goes for the monologous: the middle color is too dark, too close to the dark color instead of being between the dark and light color.

The analogous is the only one I’m completely (almost, I’m not perfect, there are some stray mushty brush strokes) happy with, and I didn’t have to mix those colors at all because their values were already equidistant from each other.

But, oh well, I get another B in an art class because I’m just not meant to be in art. (Well, I’m not sure I’m getting a grade, but that’s a whole other story I don’t want to go into. Ugh.)

Oh, before I finished my art project I went with Mum to the mall because I needed a new watch. The one I have seems to drain the watch quickly. I got a new battery last winter and already it blinks out and fades away, and I’ve probably used the alarm only once or twice. Plus the wristband is cracking again so I figure, fix two problems at once.

We also went to look at Payless Shoes, Forever 21, Borders Express, and Hallmark. Forever 21: Mum’s comment sums it up for me. “It reminds me of the 70s.” Not that that’s a bad thing at all, I’m just not a 70s-style sort of person. Yes, I like the clothes, I think they look nice, different, not blah, but will I wear them? Heck no. Now I’m all sad. Anchor Blue closed at Westside Pavilion, and Forever 21 is going in a style direction that I don’t care to follow. Where am I supposed to find clothes???

At Borders Express I saw Nana volume 5 (in plastic wrap o.o!!) but I didn’t have a coupon and I’d already spent $20 on a watch and didn’t want to spend money that is coming dearly at the moment, so I skipped it.

Hallmark still has the giant Snoopy plush. XD I want! It’s $20 even, and ish big and not wearing any accessories (except a collar) or hugging Woodstock, so it looks like an extremely huggable Snoopy, like my Mr. Snoops. Snoops makes me sad, he’s all squished out flat and not very stuff-y and dirty, his fur’s not soft and new. But again, I didn’t want to spend money.

So what do I do today? I went with Mum and N to CompUSA’s clearance sale and spent $56. (How can they be closing?? Noooo, Best Buy and Circuit City suck in the computer department!! CompUSA was my saving grace! And Fry’s drives me up the wall, it seems so dirty or unkempt or something.) I bought a mousepad with a frog on it ($7), a Tetris game for Windows/Mac ($15), DVD-Rs ($15), and an 80 pack of slim jewel cases ($17). Yes I am insane what the heck am I going to do with 80 of them I don’t think I’ve ever needed to use even 10 of them in my entire life so far.

I’d even told myself to not buy anything with my credit card this month, because the past few months I’ve had $50+ bills every single time. So somehow my debit card is exempt from my spending ban? Grrr. I guess I’ll just have to work extra long hours this summer. (Since my cousin says the guy is swamped with work, I guess I definitely have a job with him again. *crosses fingers and knocks on wood* I haven’t even really bought clothes in a year! Where’d all my money go? *cough Borders and its ebil membership cough*

N wanted a mouse and numeric keypad for the laptop he’s buying in a little while, but ended up buying a controller for the racing game he’s getting, since CompUSA didn’t have what he liked. XD Mum bought a mouse for the old computer (so N doesn’t have to buy a mouse anymore; he’ll just take the one from his current computer) and a 100 gig external harddrive. :O I’m a spoiled brat. I was looking at them because lately I’ve wanted to backup my laptop AND my desktop, and if my desktop serves as my laptop’s backup, where is my desktop’s backup? Plus, it’s really annoying being on my laptop and having certain files I want that are on my desktop. I hate to fire up the desktop just to get a few files. So now files will be central on the external harddrive and I can move stuff off my laptop!

At 2ish we had Chinese take-out for Grandma’s and Uncle R’s birthdays. I forget their birthdays already. >_> One is the 20th and the other is the 18th? I dunno. We tried a new Chinese place, Panda Coin Kitchen. It’s all right. It’s good, I like it. I just like Canton Kitchen better.

Mum and I watched Devil Wears Prada tonight. Good movie. Not great. Kind of average. Meryl Streep was great. I kept wanting to smack all the fashion people in the movie though. They’re just clothes omigosh!! I always do that … feel that way. I buy the high fashion magazines because of who’s on it (Natalie Portman, Ellen DeGeneres) and get angry because of all the fuss and emphasis on something so material and not really important.

But I’ve been typing for over 40 minutes and should really get to bed. So I’m done.

December 27th, Wednesday, took my car in for 30,000 mile maintenance. The service area’s computers were out, and we (Daddy and I) waited an hour then found out the computers were back on but they didn’t tell us. -.- Um, I think Mum C and I went to Westside Pavilion so C could return a shirt he got for Christmas that he already had, and to look for calendars. Weren’t any there, so then Daddy C and I went to Fox Hills to look for calendars. I got my guinea pig calendar, wahoo! :D

My car didn’t get worked on until 2 in the afternoon, and so my car wasn’t ready until the next day. Argh. I woke up at nine to see if the car was ready but they didn’t call so I called them, then got put on hold for about 5 minutes before I was disconnected. (It’s a very busy place with not so good channels of communication open with the customers.) So then Daddy C and I went in the van to pick up Noelle W88 and SM00 for the weekend.

We stopped by Grandma and Grandpa’s on the way to pick up bills, and Daddy left the key in the car so C could listen to the radio (what we did at the bank), but this time C decided to go in too, and locked the door so the keys were locked in the car. :o Grandpa had to drive Daddy to Mum’s work to get the other key. So we left our house at 10 only to actually get on our way to Ventura County at 11. Blah.

On the way back from picking them up we went to Amoeba. Heh, a minivan on Sunset … pretty scary stuff. But I guess Daddy enjoyed driving. XD; We got home about 3ish, I don’t remember. Oh yeah, we drove home from Amoeba on La Cienega (I think?). It was interesting to see parts of L.A. I don’t normally see. ehehe.

So that was Thursday. Friday we (everyone, Mum Daddy C Noelle W88 SM00 me) went to Mitsuwa in Torrance. Well first we went to Daddy’s work to pick up a bonus something or other but his boss wasn’t there. Then we went to some Japanese weapons place but it was closed. After that we went to Mitsuwa. Mmm, good udon. *grin* Everyone else (except Daddy, he didn’t get anything) had ramen.

Went to the bookstore. I bought the Paradise Kiss manga series in some special large(r) format. I don’t know what it is, I can’t read the Japanese on it, but I do know it’s an inch or so larger on the sides. Then we went to Fry’s, but Mum Daddy and I stayed in the car. They had the Wii but you had to buy 5 games with it. o.O Odd.

Hm, I don’t remember if it was Thursday or Friday night, but we went to Barnes & Noble so W88 could return a Japanese book that he didn’t think was any good. Oh yeah, it turns out my car was ready at 10 on Thursday. They must have called right after we stepped out the door. ;.; We went to pick it up at 3 but their computers were down again so we couldn’t pay with credit card. ARGH. So we left then came back at 5 to pick up my car.

C rented Talladega Nights from Blockbuster, we watched that Thursday/Friday night, I don’t remember. We thought it was really funny. ^_^;; Daddy and I (and N, some) watched practically all the extras. I really liked it. But this movie had less, er, guest roles? (drivers from NASCAR) than Cars did. :/ I thought that was kinda boring. But I guess they didn’t really fit into the story.

Friday morning I had a dentist appointment. I drove there all by myself! It’s the first time in 4 or so years that I could actually remember the way there. >.> (I think it’s because Mum always takes into account the traffic, so we always went different ways to get there.)

Saturday Noelle W88 SM00 and I went to Westside Pavilion. I thought there was a Hollister there that SM00 could go to, but it turns out it’s opening next spring. D’oh. Oh well. SM00 and I went to BCBG and Victoria’s Secret and I also checked out this store called “Image” that looked kinda interesting but it’s outta my price range and actually it’s not as nice as the display window.

Erm, I don’t remember, one day we watched Shimotsuma Monogatari (English title: Kamikaze Girls) and Dark Water. Was it Saturday? And we watched Talladega Nights on Friday? It was weird, ’cause after watching Dark Water, that night SM00 went into the hallway and she came out saying water was dripping from the smoke alarm. O.o! The girl was coming to haunt us! But it turned out that the toilet upstairs flooded, and leaked downstairs. ehehe That night the boys and I played Texas Hold’em. Then SM00 joined us to play the boardgame Payday. (1994 edition. Apparently, the old version didn’t have the lottery. o.o But that part is so fun! XD)

Sunday we went to their house to make mochi. (Gee, I can’t say “pound mochi” can I?) We had In N Out for dinner. (Why do I mention that? I have no idea. Maybe it’s just my recent aversion to eating burgers, after having eaten a handful of Big Macs last quarter. meep)

Monday, New Year’s, that was fun. I actually got to see the whole Rose Parade for once. o.o I think last year I was too nervous about school to sit down and watch television. And all the years before, we always went to a relative’s house to celebrate and not much tv watching got done. I guess I missed out on the Stephanie Edwards and Bob Eubanks era. :( I remember her, but I never really watched so I don’t know how she did the parade. We had shrimp and oysters for dinner. Well, oysters only for Mum and Daddy (and Jichan?) and N tried one. (I mention that because we didn’t have the traditional udon dinner. haha)

Tuesday Mum didn’t go in to work ’cause she wanted a vacation and the doctors weren’t in anyway and she didn’t have to do payroll. Daddy, C and I went to Borders. Daddy used his gift card that we gave him for Christmas, and I returned the Nana manga that had the security device with the dried up glue that was pulling out the paper (I wonder what they did with it, hopefully not restock it) and got a $20 journal for only $1.73 with the return and my holiday savings. woohoo! Then I went with Daddy to Barnes and Noble. Why? I dunno. Just felt like going out, maybe I felt like looking at their journals and date books.

Wednesday Mum and I went to Target, Petsmart, the bank, Angel Maid Bakery (it was closed from the 1st to the 8th o.o), Home Depot, Cora’s, then the mall. At the mall we went to Forever 21, Expression, another store that I don’t remember the name of, the gift store in the corner (they had practically everything 50% off, and there was less stock on the shelves o.o I hope it’s not closing), Hallmark, and Sally’s Fabrics.

Thursday I watched a lot of Monk season 3. C and I had to take down all the Christmas decorations. I also helped to take down the tree. It didn’t hurt my hands as much this year. heh, I must be getting smarter. *laugh*

Friday, I don’t remember. o.O Saturday all the relatives got together at Noelle’s house for New Year’s. We left our house at 9 like we planned (shocking; maybe everyone was hungry, haha) and got to Noelle’s house around 10. Had good ozoni. XD C bought Wario Ware, so we played that. I made wonton with Daddy helping. Then the boys played NASCAR I don’t remember which one, for the Gamecube. Then we had dinner. Yummm. Tempura shrimp, sushi (anago, mackerel, traditional kind, football stuff, and California), cabbage salad (I just realized I forgot to get some of that o.o), teriyaki meat, barbequed ribs, wonton, deviled eggs, almond chicken, I don’t remember what else. I’ve got some leftovers sitting in the fridge for dinner sometime this week. XD

Sunday morning I woke up at 8 (I have no idea why) and packed up most of my stuff before 9. After breakfast pretty much all I did was watch tv. ._. Had Cattre sleeping on me. Took a bath. Drove up to school. C drove up to the outlet mall from home. I was still falling asleep a half hour before we got to SLO, and I only drove 2 hours. Hrm. Unpacked stuff. Was too tired to get groceries, so we had some fish filets that’re in the freezer. Tonight we’re going to McDonald’s ($1 Big Macs on Mondays, although I think I’ll get a salad instead even though it’s five times the price and I don’t really like the salad that much [Jack in the Box is much better with the Asian salad], it’s practically the only veggies I eat up here).

I really don’t like my schedule this quarter. Nothing today until 2 (I hope I find parking >_>) then my last class ends at 7:30. Tuesdays it’s practically nonstop (or there isn’t enough time during breaks really to come back to the apartment and return to school without making me feel stressed that I’m cutting it close) from 8 to 5:30; Thursday is similar, from 9 to 5:30. Wednesday is from 8 to 11, 2 (hope I find parking again >_<) to 4, then 6 to 7:30. ARGH.

I dunno, I feel kinda like it’s back to doing nothing. I don’t know how to explain it. I’m just doing the same thing over and over and over again and it’s really boring and kind of aggravating and I guess I just don’t see where I’m going by doing this. I have to buy groceries, I have to go to class, I have to do the art projects, I have to get dinners for C and me, I have to take showers in that disgusting shower, I have to use the toilet every day, I have to wake up every morning, I have to eat breakfast, I have to not feel like gagging while I eat breakfast, I have to pay bills, I have to do lots of stuff, I dunno, I just don’t like it.

I know I found working last summer kinda boring and repetitive and humdrum and really tiring, and the traffic was bad, but at least I didn’t have to make my own dinners? I had a set routine. I have a routine here, but it’s not the same. Classes are at different times every day, and I don’t really like grocery shopping or making dinner or having to remember to pay things in order to not get kicked out or lose services on top of remembering my class schedule and when things are due and when the next tests are and how much food we have left and when to register for classes next quarter. I dunno. I’m complaining. I’ll be quiet now.

(All this typed up in an hour and 10 minutes. Just two more hours until I go to campus and attempt to find parking. -_- I don’t think I’d mind walking to campus for this class, but it’s art, so I have lots of supplies to take with me, which I don’t want to carry. I wish C had his license so he could at least drop me off before and pick me up after this class. But nooo, he doesn’t. Gargh. I’m hungry. What do we have to eat?)

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