This is My Message to You...

Currently Listening to:

Three Little Birds by Bob Marley

So this week is Optimism Week. Day 4. It started at midnight on Monday.

My friend and I are both in a funk. Whatever comes right after Sophomore Slump and right before Senioritis. It's like Junior Jam, Junioritis, I don't know. But it's such a tiring place to be in. Being a Junior is like being stuck on a Wednesday or Thursday for a whole year. You're this close to being a senior and then graduating but, SYKE. You're not really that close.

How, exactly, am I supposed to survive another year and a half of this? I am totally ready for a change of pace, a change of scenery. College. Ahora. Por favor.

And I know for a fact it's not just me (even though sometimes I like to whine and complain that "you don't understandddddddslkjflsdjflsd", you probably do). I see it happening to all my friends. Some have a harder time handling it than I do, I'm sure. And some don't find it that hard to handle. I'm not hopeless but I'm not exactly skipping around school picking daisies and eating cotton candy.

So my friend R and I decided this week is Optimism Week. We have to speak with optimism this whole week. Obviously, it's hard to completely change your way of thinking but we must appear more optimistic this week, at least on the outside. And you know, that first morning after we made the Optimism Pact, I woke up happier and almost in a happy mood. Weird, I know. And things have been going better for me this week, too. It may be way more fun to be a downer, but sometimes throwing up rainbows and unicorns on everyone kind of makes you feel better yourself. It's like how if you act a certain way for long enough, it stops being acting and starts being second nature. Like if you act confident for long enough, you suddenly are confident.

Anyway, I have three more days of Optimism Week. It's not easy and sometimes I slip (hey, I'm half human! [half robot]) but it's really worth it. Changing your attitude changes your way of thinking and, ultimately, your way of life.

So I challenge YOU [you 5 subscribers ((: ] to have an Optimism Week and see if your quality of life improves, in any way, shape, or form-to any extent. You have nothing to lose. Except friends, if your friends are kind of gothic and scary and don't smile and aren't into the whole "happiness" thing.

But seriously. Just try.

-Haewon

P.S. It's not even ten p.m. and I'm done with homework. What what!

P.P.S. I'm thinking of starting a second blog focused more on the arts. Photography, film, music, fashion. Even though I said from the start this blog would not be a diary, it seems like one. But then again, I don't like the idea of starting another blog for me personally because I feel like I'm scatterbrained and it will all end up being a mixture of random things anyway. Make sense? No? Didn't think so.

P.P.P.S. Go Canadian Women Hockey Team!

Not My Pee...

Currently Watching:

The Olympics¹

About a week ago I woke up Saturday morning, really groggy and in my big fluffy robe. Like every morning, the first thing I did was go to the bathroom to go pee. So I went to the bathroom, sat down, and started peeing. I stood up, pulled up my pants and then felt something weird on the hem of my pants. My senses were just starting to kick in at this point and I look down and, through my groggy lids, see that..my pants are wet at the bottom?...and...I'M STANDING IN A PUDDLE OF PEE.

Hallelujah. Good morning to me. I'm standing in a puddle of pee. This sucks. So I clean my self up and after getting all sanitized I go out of the bathroom to put my pants in the wash and when I saw my mom told her, "Ugh. Mom. The dog must have pissed in the bathroom because I just stepped in a puddle of pee." My mom pokes her head into the bathroom to see. "And I know it wasn't me," I add jokingly. Mom squints at me and says, "Are you sure it wasn't you?"

..."Yes."

"Are you sure it wasn't you? It couldn't have been the dog, he doesn't go in there."

"YES, MOM. I AM SURE THAT I DIDN'T PEE IN A PUDDLE AND THEN STAND IN IT."

Parents just don't understand,

-Haewon

¹: Literally the only reason I watched the Olympics Saturday night was to see J.R. Celski. Um, have you seen him? He was apparently from Washington before he left to train in California (I am not sure I have my facts straight so don't kill me if I am wrong). But trust me, if I had seen a kid like this walking around my town, I would have remembered.

Okay I'm overreacting. Or am I? OOhhhh.

Just Dance, Gonna Be Okay...

Currently Watching/Listening to:

The Ellen Show/Just Dance

I love the Ellen show. I love that she dances at the start of every show¹. And she's so funny that even the most boring person can go on her show and the interview is still hilarious. When I'm on break, the thing I look forward to most is sleeping in until 11 am and then getting up and turning on the t.v. and watching Ellen in my pj's. Haha. I don't know why.

So Kim Kardashian was on her show earlier and I realized that she's actually pretty funny. I don't know if she's always funny or if being around Ellen makes her more so but...she's funny. Uhhh, I used that word like ten times but I don't know a synonym. Hilarious, humorous, comedic? I don't know.

So this is another one of my random posts. They kind of all are actually. But the last Friday before break, we had a club meeting in which we started making these really cool posters [which I will probably talk about some other day]. We were in the supply room until basically everyone, even the teachers, had cleared out from school. The janitor asked us to leave actually. Anyway, there's a lot of paint and butcher paper and it was too tempting to not fool around in there. So I made these...

I've never had the chance to do splatter art. It's bigger than it looks. Haha.
This is a balloon animal...

And a crayon. It's pretty big. I put my foot in there for a size comparison.

Anyway. That's what I did. For fun. I don't think I will hang any of these on my wall. Maybe actually...The Ellen show just ended and the news is on. Drug bust at Redmond High! Cocaine, prescription drugs, meth...tsk tsk.

Oh, and did anyone hear about that girl in the Seattle bus tunnel that got beat up and no one did anything? Bystander apathy...It's not like either of the girls was huge or anything! The whole "observe and report" thing is so weird and kind of useless.

Okay, I'm going to go do 2083294 hours of homework.

-Haewon

P.S. It's so sunny and nice here in Seattle lately! Not exactly warm, low 50s, but still. Compared to the poor East Coast, it's really nice. Compared to normal weather at this time in Seattle, it's so nice.

¹: The title of the post, Just Dance, is dedicated to Ellen!

Whip It, Into Shape...

Currently Listening to:

Whip It by Devo

Whenever I eat Cool Whip or Whip Cream, I think about this song. And sing it. Usually out loud. Doesn't everyone though?

By no means am I a good cook or chef. I can't make real food on my own. However, I'm probably not as bad off as some of my friends are. I know some people whose idea of cooking is making mac 'n cheese out of the box...because you "have to use the stove". Stove=cooking? Since when?

Even though I'm no Julie/Julia, I love being in the kitchen. My dad used to be a pro chef and my mom is actually a really good cook. However, the time I spend in the kitchen isn't to hone a skill. Cooking is actually a very creative process. And I, loving all things creative, love to cook...er...Experiment, I should say.

Yes, I like to spend time in my kitchen, mixing random ingredients, trying new and weird things, making up concoctions. So when I was on stumbleupon and came across microwaveable chocolate-cake-in-a-cup, well, I had to try it of course.

You can find the recipe everywhere online. And you basically just put all the ingredients in a mug and stir and microwave for a few minutes.

Doesn't exactly look appetizing, does it?

Yeah. It's not the greatest tasting thing in the world but if you just want a quick something sweet to eat then you can try this. I put whip cream on mine to try to make it look less ugly. When that didn't work I tried putting some chocolate syrup too.

Err...

It still looks pretty atrocious, doesn't it? It's not that bad. And if you can't bake at all, it's kind of fail proof. Tip: If you try making this, do not overcook it! It will turn out hard, like most things do when they are left in the microwave a little too long. It may look like the "cake" [if we can call it that] is still raw but it's not. It just looks funky like that.

A while back my APES [AP Environmental Science] class had a sort of feast the day before Winter Break. The rules were that every ingredient had to be a producer and therefore everything had to be vegan. It was a primary level only feast! I decided to make Seared Tofu with Orange Glaze. It actually turned out pretty yummy [well to me. I like tofu though so :/ ].

It was pretty tasty¹

This is apparently my food post. I'm still behind about other random inconsequential things I've been doing so expect another blah blah blah blah blah post.

I have to go watch Parks&Rec,and The Office and 30 Rock. Thank thank thank you to everyone who even reads 1% of what I write. Muchas gracias.

-Haewon

¹: The recipe can be found here.

P.S. Not citing my pictures 'cause they're 100% my crappy work.

[Psst! Any nice little comment would be nice. Or you can follow me! I hate to nag but, yes, I will shamelessly self promote. comment comment follow follow. My not-so-subliminal messages.]

The Whole World Can Hear...

Currently Listening to:

Bang the Drum sung by Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams

Aww, cute mascots! ¹

2010 Winter Olympics! Anyone excited? I guess I'm particularly excited because the Olympics are happening three hours away from where I live. Granted, in a different country, but it's still cool. Sadly I'm not going up there. It takes time to cross the border and my parents work. It would have worked out so well though. I have mid-winter vacation all this week.

I fell asleep watching to Opening Ceremony (does it always start that late!?) but I did watch a bit. I thought it was really sweet that Vancouver held the main performance until after the procession of the athletes. It really is all about them on that night. Also, I think I need to brush up on my world geography because I did not know where some of those countries were (sadly). What was that country that's 1/6 the size of Rhode Island or Maine or something? I think it starts with an A...

Okay, and I know I have A.D.D. but...did all the snowy whiteness remind you of Chronicles of Narnia? The White Witch? Just me? Okay.

You know what makes me sad? Sports. Sports make me sad. When someone drops the ball (literally and figuratively) or slips or falls it just makes me really sad. I'm not sure why. And another thing that makes me sad is when the countries are coming in and they have just one athlete. I don't know why it makes me sad. My mom said, "they're probably really proud to be representing their country in front of the whole world". But I would be a little depressed standing there, in the tunnel, waiting to walk out into the procession of the athletes, alone. All alone (besides the person holding the flag and your coach and the other five people who are walking with you).

Bermuda only had one athlete. Except that didn't really make me sad because they wore Bermuda shorts and that was just funny. Some countries have nice outfits actually. Like I thought Great Britain's red berets were cute with their sleek white blazers. I wish I had pictures to show but I didn't really sit at the t.v. with my camera.

I was confused by the American's moose hats. They are cute to wear but kind of awkward at the Olympics. But, hey. Who am I to judge?

By the way, it was cute how Taiwan was called Chinese Taipei. During the last Summer Olympics I was actually in Taiwan as part of a student exchange program and the girl I stayed with just kind of laughed when Taiwan came out as Chinese Taipei during the procession of the athletes and said, "We have a special relationship with China". Haha, yeah. That's for sure.

Golly². Did you see all those dancing people lining the entrance to where the athletes came into the arena? They were all dressed in white and they were DANCING FOR THE WHOLE TIME. I would have just keeled over and died. How did they dance for so long? ...After a while they did start to kind of dance with less enthusiasm. I think that they are the real story here. Maybe they should be competing in the Olympics. If you can dance that long...

-Haewon

P.S. Nelly Furtado is Canadian?

P.P.S. For some reason I'm like two days behind on posts for some reason. I have pictures to put up from Valentine's day (meaning I spent the day alone). Pictures from around Seattle to come.

¹: picture from treehugger.com, thanks! Is Quatchi a Sasquatch?
²: my Grandma said Goll, like golly gee, in the car on our way to go see a ballet at McCaw Hall in Seattle. I'll have to blog about that later!

Please Comment and Follow! It would seriously make my day. But then again they highlight of my day today is going to the orthodontist...Thanks to the, oh I don't know, probably one person who reads this. You're amaaazing!

Plop.

Plop. Plop. Plop plop plop plop.
Happy Valentine's Day.
plopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplop
No, I'm not currently listening to a song.
plopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplop
It's six past midnight.
plopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplop
I can't fall asleep.
plopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplop
But it's finally raining.
plopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplopplop
So hopefully sleep will pull my eyelids down.

I missed the rain.

Goodnight,

Sunday, Seventeen, Sleepless in Seattle

No One's Taken With You Until You're Taken Too...

Currently Listening to:

Taken by Spencer Day

I'm sort of the most/least enthusiastic person you might ever meet. The same applies for Valentine's Day. I refuse to let this post revolve completely around Valentine's Day, but I can't just ignore it, being a blogger and all.

I'm fascinated with Valentine's Day for two reasons.

The first is that it's the saddest day of the year for some people. Well, okay minus Christmas...and Thanksgiving...and Birthdays...well it's one of the saddest days of the year. I mean, a day all about loving someone else and having someone who romantically loves you back? How depressing. And just imagine being in high school. When you're in the age group whose whole happiness apparently revolves around having someone you can hold hands with and sit with at the lunch table and go on group dates with and take to prom...it's sad when you're all alone. No one wants their Facebook status to say "single" on V-day. Of course, there are those people who write "single & lOviNg iTTttt!!!!!!!!" or whatever but that just makes it all the more sad. In my opinion. Maybe you really are happy to be single. But then why did you type up that whole long essay about why you love the single life the day after your boyfriend broke up with you? And why did you tag everyone, including said ex-boyfriend, in your post? You seem happy.
The second reason why Valentine's Day is so interesting to me is that I really love this day. I may be that nerdy freak you make fun of in high school who doesn't date and who occasionally sits in the bathroom alone during lunch (okay, it was only once. Don't judge), but who wouldn't like a day full of pink and red hearts and chocolates and pretty flowers and heart shaped cookies and big stuffed animals? Plus all the sappy romance movies that you can justify watching in your pj's with a big carton of ice cream. It's a nice day, the concept is nice. It's hopeful and makes me feel all around fuzzy and giddy. Baby Cupid shoots you with his love arrow and makes you fall in love and it's a day for fairytales! Taylor Swift understands that!

Speaking of Swift, anyone seeing Valentine's Day [the movie]? I think I might go to see it just because of all the famous people they managed to pack in there. I don't really understand what the movie is about and I'm pretty sure it's a plot-less movie. But the idea of watching a movie where every five seconds you see a mega-celeb on the screen sounds really fun. Plus, we're having a "Gal"entine's Day (Parks and Recreation? Anyone? Anyone?) and need a movie to watch after we go bowling. The day sounds kind of sad but I think it will be fun. Fun and sad. I mean, honestly I'm not the kind of person who cares either way if I'm alone on V-day. After having said what i said above, no one probably believes me. But it's the truth. And I don't care if you believe me or not!

Okay, well, I successfully let Valentine's Day (the day and the movie) take over my post.

Oh wait. Did anyone watch the Olympic Opening Ceremony last night? I fell asleep during the procession of the athletes but I did watch some. I'll blog nonsensically about it later.

From drizzly Seattle,

-Haewon

P.S. Who's gettin' me this?

Thanks Toy's Baby and Kid's for the picture!

Thoughts about Valentine's Day? Leave a comment. Did you see the movie? Tell me how it is!

But Color Makes Her Smile...

Currently Listening to:

Colors by Barcelona

Basically this is just going to be a really quick post. I wanted to show off my tie dye shirt. I figured I'd wear it mostly in the summer because it's a tee, so I went with summer colors.

School is just as stressful as ever. We had to do a Spanish oral on our future jobs and the benefits of being bilingual for our intended career. And, of course, I'm blogging because I want to try to figure out what I want to do. I'm hoping something will spring up out of me writing things down. I did my presentation on wanting to be a director. And I do. I want to be a director.

She makes my heart scream color.

I know by now she should have found me out.

Every sense I have has been exhausted.

But color makes her smile.

-Haewon

Where Are Your Guts to Fly?...

Currently Listening to:

Skyway Avenue by We The Kings

Random fact of the night:

Native American Indians used to name their children after the first thing they
saw as they left their tepees subsequent to the birth. Hence such strange names
as Sitting Bull and Running Water¹.

I told my friend to do this for me in her room and I am "White Ceiling". :/

Well, we lost the basketball game. I wasn't expecting that we would win though, so it's not much of a let down. After the game I met a (very cute) boy-friend of a friend. He was very nice and gentleman like, but he's a grade lower. I guess it doesn't really matter, but it got me thinking: Isn't it weird how age matters so much more when you're younger? Like a Freshman dating a Senior is just plain odd, but a 32 year old dating a 35 year old is normal.

And then I thought about Ashton and Demi. They are 15 years apart and married. It's kind of weird thinking about Ashton Kutcher at 25 dating Demi Moore at 40, but...who am I to judge? If it works, it works.

I mean, that's not to say it's not kind of shocking. It is. But look how well they seem to go together:

Demi and Ashton at premiere of Spread¹

What do you think?

It's weird to me how things change so much when you get older. When I turned 17, I wasn't even excited. Yeah, it's nice to grow up, but I really enjoy being my age because I feel like I have all these high hopes for the future and I'm so optimistic about everything, and I don't want to grow up and to lose that naivety. I don't want to become jaded and I can already feel it happening. I can feel it every day. I used to shoot for the stars but now, sometimes I feel like it'd be wiser to just settle.

But I never want to feel like I needed to settle. I want to always feel like I did my best or will do better. I want to feel like there is room for growth all the time, and I want perseverance to feel worthwhile.

Anyway, I rinsed out my Helping Haiti tie dye shirt. My laundry almost bubbled over because I only put the shirt in the wash and there was too much soap. I am not usually this bad at doing the laundry, but it's late. I'll post a picture of the final product later. It's pretty good. And there is a bit of yellow in it so I'm happy. Oh, and I made dog treats for the humane society today. I think I'll save that for another post though. Lots more to say about that.

We need to care for the animals!

Tiredly yours,

-Haewon

P.S. I love stumbleupon.com and came across this site with all these cool facts. I'm a definite fact lover and if you are too, read some of these cool facts. More random sites are to come (because I know we all need one more reason to have a.d.d. and not do homework and poke around sites on the Internet).

¹: Pulled from the site under the link "cool facts".

²: Picture from Marie Claire UK

Now It's Time to Sing Along...

Currently Listening to:

Everybody Hurts by Various Artists, Helping Haiti

Just a quick update about my day...

The past few weeks my school has been having tons of Haiti drives. Miracle minutes during passing periods to collect change, collection containers in every room, all the clubs' fundraisers are now for the Haiti relief effort, we are making a huge cloth banner with hand prints of all the students who donated.

One really cool and fun idea that someone had was to do a Tie Dye for Haiti fundraiser. A couple of our science teachers hosted it and someone donated all the supplies. It was $10 to come tie dye and $2 extra for a shirt, with all of the proceeds going towards the Haiti relief effort. Tons of students showed up, it was really incredible. Next Friday, we are all going to wear our tie dyed shirts to school in support of Haiti.

It was a really cool and unique idea, and something that a lot of kids want to go to because not only do they get to donate but they get shirt out of it too, one that they know is for a good cause.

I really suggest you do a fundraiser like this, if you haven't already started collecting donations for Haiti.

That being said, I don't think my shirt will turn out very well! I haven't ever tie dyed before, at least not that I can remember.

Sorry about the gleam. Seattle doesn't provide adequate lighting past 2 pm in February.

I wanted to do like a yellow, orange, pink combo but I didn't block off the yellow very well¹. Haha, oh well. Things are better if they aren't perfect; they have more character and are more unique!

Anyway, this was my little post for the day. I'm off to school to play in pep band for a basketball game. I guess I'll be spending more time at school than at home today. Let's see...about 13 hours at school today. Actually, that's about the same as usual.

...

This is kind of random but today my friend said, half seriously and half jokingly, that the climate of a college will be her biggest deciding factor. You know, climate does make a big difference. I know that first-hand from living in Seattle. Weather. Makes. A. Big. Difference.

Rain, rain, rain. It's kind of depressing never seeing the sun in the winter.

But at the same time, I live in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I truly believe that.

View from the front of my house. Mountains and trees. Plus Seattle is a major city.

I keep saying this more and more but...how could I ever leave Seattle? I can't yet imagine it.

-Haewon

¹: I'll let you know how it turns out!

Just Lose It All...

Currently Listening to:

I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas

There are a couple reasons why I'm listening to this song right now.

1) Did you watch the Grammys? The Black Eyed Peas performed. I like BEP in general but I feel like all the songs they put out are kind of the same and I thought their performance was a little blah. It actually made me feel a little awkward, like I was embarrassed for them. My brother said, "They are such a joke," and I tried to defend them. "Don't say that. That's mean." But it was really a half-hearted defense. I have a lot of respect for them¹, don't get me wrong, but I think they were only so-so at the Grammys.

2) I'm also listening to this song because my IB Music teacher was talking about repetition in Classical Sonatas and the example he used to "relate" it to us was the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling". He said, "This song is a great example because it repeats the same thing over and over and over with only slight variations to each section". Hahaha. It's funny when teachers unintentionally make fun of something. At least to me. At least when it's my IB Music teacher...

3) For at least the next five minutes (until 5:30 pm when the sun goes down completely here in dreary Seattle) I have this feeling, like BEP does, that things will be okay if you just make it that way.

"I know that we'll have a ball.

If we get down and go out and just lose it all.

I feel stressed out, I wanna let it go.

Let's go way out, spaced out, and losing all control."

There's a lot of truth to that. I think one of the hardest things, for me, is to just let things roll off my back sometimes. But I know that if we can just learn to let loose, have fun, and not take everything so seriously, we could all have so much more fun.

4) Reason number four. I'm listening to this song because I want to let you know that I totally respect Fergie and the Black Eyed Peas and totally one hundred percent am not trying to disrespect. But did anyone else think that...

Fergie's outfit ²

Looked a little bit like....

A prawn from District 9³?

: /

I need to lose control sometimes. Because losing control once in a while doesn't mean that you'll lose control of your life for good.

-Haewon

¹: They have been nominated for a Grammy like 16 times and have won 6 Grammys. They are amazing...I'm not a hater!

²: Photo of Fergie's outfit from: http://earsucker.com/2010/02/01/photo-fergies-futuristic-grammys-outfit/

³: Photo of prawn from: http://img208.imageshack.us/i/d9prawn.jpg/

Thanks for the photos!

 

[Disagree? Agree? Something to add? Like District 9? Odd movie. COMMENT :D
She says to the dust mites...]