Monday, September 21, 2009

Plodding Along



Super sore from hiking the Hollywood Sign Trail at Griffith Park yesterday. Got some good pictures, and ultimately the Retreat was a lot of fun. The challenging daytime activities made Korean BBQ afterwards that much more delicious.

Been feeling opinionated lately, so I wrote some Yelp reviews. I haven't written for Yelp in... a really freaking long time. I've since gone to a lot of restaurants that are worth reviewing: the best and the worst, of course.

Looks like I'll be going home this weekend. Wedding to go to this Saturday, and I'll be walking in something similar to Relay for Life on Sunday with my mom, I believe.

Other than that, I'm plodding through school as usual. Two midterms this week and no motivation. Let's see how that turns out.





Saturday, September 19, 2009

Yum, Yay, Fun, Yay



Weekday Things I've Done:
  • Mid-week date at El Cholo. Yum!
  • Successful HapaSC meeting. Yay!
  • Lunch with Dad at Versailles. YumYay!
  • Westwood visiting and Choke watching. Fun!
  • Took my first exam of senior year. Yay!
  • Good conversation and kisses with the boy. FunYay!

Weekend Things To Do:

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Shopping is Stressful



Trying to get this (miniature knock off from China) phone on EBay. I've chosen my seller, I've got my max bid in mind. Now it's all about getting the bid in at the very last second. Timing is key, my friends. Wish me luck!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Days Pass By



It's been another busy weekend. Highlights include an afternoon with my RC, an Invite with a friend, hosting a game watching party for the USC vs Ohio State game, and attending Calligraphy (a Visions and Voices event featuring a play written by HapaSC faculty advisor Dr. Velina Houston). My brain is a little frazzled because I have yet to organize myself for the upcoming week, start and finish readings, homework and quizzes, and create a study guide for my first test of the year (this Wednesday...). Spent a little too much time passively socializing (Zombies, Zombies, more Zombies, and Bang!). It's been fun, although I wish I had more hours in the day to enjoy it all. Here are some pictures to replace words...







Wednesday, September 9, 2009

I Miss Taiwan



My alarm went off around 7:15am. I got up around 7:30am. I was ready and eating Lucky Charms by 7:45am. I had printed power points to take notes on by 7:50am. I could easily have gotten to my 8:00am class by 8:03am.

And yet it is 8:10am and I am still sitting in my room, gazing at my lovely orchids, wide awake, with apparantly no intention of going to class.

Maybe it's because I got a 42.7/43 on this week's homework, thus making me feel overconfident about the material. Maybe it's because I feel like reading on my comfy couch. Maybe it's because, even when I'm energized in the morning, I'm lazy. :(

Saturday, September 5, 2009

The Past 48 Hours




...Have been too busy. HapaSC's First General Meeting went alright. A lot of people showed up, which is good. Hopefully everyone is interested enough to come back. Part of the problem with the meeting was that, halfway through, the temperature of the room we were in seemed to skyrocket. Apparently they're having issues with the A/C in that building. So we moved outside. It wasn't a huge deal, but it came across as being a bit disorganized, I think.

Welcome Mixer was fun on Friday. Again, the heat was an issue. Last year the weather was fantastic, so it was really enjoyable to run around outside taking pictures (for our now annual Picture Scavenger Hunt). This year, my group at least was weighed down so much by the heat we decided not to run. So... we probably won't win :/ That's alright. It was fun anyway, and the Indian food afterwards was tasty.


Then it was DANCEiSM. Ok. So I had been excited to go to DANCEiSM because it's supposed to be a really fun mini-rave. About 1500 people, and much cheaper than say, Hard or EDC. I like various types of electronic music (there's a club in Newport that I like to go to when I'm in the area), and I figured the vibe would be awesome (what with Body Painting, Photobooth, etc). After dancing 3 hours straight, here are my thoughts:

DANCEiSM was a rave, but only in the technical sense of the word. It definitely lacked in rave culture.

DANCEiSM was frequented by shy kids and scene kids. And loser guys. No offense.

DANCEiSM was even smaller than I expected it to be, although the Body Painting was really cool. (Emilie and I definitely got carried away, haha.)

DANCEiSM was fun.

Yup. With all that said, I had a really good time. But that's because Emilie and I are awesome :P We both agreed that while electronic music is fun to dance to occasionally, we don't know how anyone could claim it as their sole music of choice. It's too redundant. If I weren't drunk, I'd probably get annoyed. Don't get me wrong, I like electro. But I prefer Electro Rock. Melodies. Movement. As a music enthusiast, that's what I feel music needs. The DJs at DANCEiSM were spinning great music to dance to whilst intoxicated, but could I listen to their music say, now? No. Not a chance.

Afterwards, we got late night IHOP. I actually prefer late night Denny's (or Mel's), but it still did the job. And then I got to take a hot shower (SO necessary), and then FINALLY I got to sleep.

[ I forgot my camera :/ Photo Credit: Yelp. ]

And then not too long later, my mom showed up for lunch! :) We went to Monterey Park for some tasty, tasty Chinese Food. (It's so worth the drive. I have yet to find very good Chinese Food around here.) Then we swung by a bakery and a market and I got a Mooncake (red bean with egg yolk!), Almond Jello Mix, and some Winter Melon Juice. YUM! I haven't had any since we ran out of the concentrate block we brought back from Taiwan three some years ago. It's SO refreshing. Love it in hot, humid weather (hate the weather, though, haha).

In addition to that, I switched my layout around a bit, I re-watched Howl's Moving Castle (liked it so much more the second time... and did you know that Christian Bale voices Howl? O.o), USC beat San Jose State 56-3, and I've had a few moments to relax. :)

And that's what I've been up to. Wish I could split this into multiple entries. I could, I suppose, but ugh. It's only been two days!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

In Full Swing



Busy day today, but I'm taking a few minutes to sit and drink some vitamin water. It's hot (and grossly humid because of the fires) lately, so it's been far too easy to become dehydrated. Bad bad :(

Anyway, I haven't really talked about my schedule for the semester. So far I like it. It's a nice balance, and surprisingly music empty. Classes are as follows:

BUAD200 - Foundation to Economics
FA212 - Wheel Throwing
MUSC310 - Music Recording
MUSC422 - The Beatles: Their Music & Their Times
MPVA301 - Voice Lesson
PSYC201 - The Science of Happiness
PSYC360 - Abnormal Psychology

It's unit heavy (20), but I have a couple of fluffy classes (Wheel Throwing and Beatles) so it shouldn't be TOO bad. Wheel Throwing is ceramics, by the way. It's SUPER nice to have time in my schedule to do it. My background is handbuilding - I've only worked on the wheel occasionally, back in the day - so manipulating clay on the wheel has been a small challenge. But I think I've got the hang of the basics. I made 9 cylinders last class! (Our current project is to make a sculpture out of 10 cylinders. I made a grand total of 1 the first class, so making 9 last class was a much needed morale booster, haha).

The other classes I like so far, although you can't really tell in the first few weeks. My ECON professor is still engaging, which is great. I've only had one voice lesson so far and it was successful, which was a nice surprise (for both me and my professor). My PSYC classes are fantastic because I love psychology. I had my first PSYC201 discussion/lab today (it's technically a science GE so I think the school requires a separate lab for it), and in it we played a game based off of the "Prisoner's Dilemma." The goal was to interact with classmates by playing a simplified version of Rock, Paper, Scissors to garner points, and the person with the most points at the end would win 2 bonus points in the class (which I THINK equates to 2% of your grade). And... I WON! :D

In other news, HapaSC hosted an Around the World Party on Tuesday and it threw off my schedule for the week. Fell behind and missed a few (hopefully) expendable classes yesterday in an attempt to catch up. First General Meeting today, though! Hope it goes well :)