people and things

Mark Salling is from Texas. And, unexpectedly, really into ornithology.

C was right: They do make 'em hotter in Texas. Tall, buff, and ridiculously appealing, or so goes the pattern of TV actors (whose shows I hate) I've crushed on.

In other news, I baked lemon bars last night and I am quite happy with them: they are tart and sweet and buttery. Never substitute margarine for butter when you bake; it's not worth the sacrifice of taste! In any case, if I'm stress baking sweets, we can assume I no longer have "healthy eating" as one of my top concerns.

Next up is raspberry thumbprint cookies, which require even more butter, and those amazing Pillsbury cookies that are seasonally-themed with little pictures on them. They are the plainest things, but they are unbelievably tasty. And easy. I am gaining weight just thinking about them, honestly. This is why I need to live around friends: so I can foist off baked goods on them and not eat everything on my own.

My plan for the night is to do something fun: catch up on last week's episode of Hawaii Five-0, read this Discworld book while plotting to acquire the newest (Snuff, out in 4 days!), or, you know, eat some lemon bars and look at pictures of Mark Salling being hot (all of them) while bemoaning to myself how much I really hate his show (a lot).

just keep your head above

You gotta swim
Swim for your life
Swim for the music that saves you
When you're not so sure you'll survive
You gotta swim
And swim when it hurts
The whole world is watching
You haven't come this far to fall off the earth

The currents will pull you
Away from your love
Just keep your head above

I found a tidal wave begging to tear down the dawn
Memories like bullets they fired at me from a gun
A crack in the armor
I swim for brighter days
Despite the absense of sun
Choking on salt water
I'm not giving in
I swim

You've gotta swim
Through nights that wont end
Swim for your families
Your lovers
Your sisters and brothers
And friends
You've gotta swim
Through wars without cause
Swim for the lost politicians
Who don't see their greed as a flaw

The currents will pull us
Away from our love
Just keep your head above

I found a tidal wave begging to tear down the dawn
Memories like bullets they fired at me from a gun
A crack in the armor
I swim for brighter days
Despite of the absense of sun
Choking on salt water
I'm not giving in
I'm not giving in
I swim

You gotta swim
Swim in the dark
There's no shame in drifting
Feel the tide shifting
And wait for the spark
You've gotta swim
Don't let yourself sink
Just find the horizon
I promise you it's not as far as you think

The currents will drag us
Away from our love
Just keep your head above
Just keep your head above
Swim
Just keep your head above
Swim, swim
Just keep your head above
Swim

I need to get back to my list-making

I've been trying to work on my midterm papers on and off this weekend, but truth be told it is more off than on as I keep getting distracted. Mind, the distractions are often good and fun, which is why it is so easy to, well, get distracted in the first place.

Yesterday, Residence 3 had a banner-painting competition! Each cluster sent representatives to paint a banner for the theme "My Cluster". I went with my cluster leader XY because, hey, why not? It's a chance to get to know people better, be a little creative in a way law school typically does not allow for, and there was free lunch!

XY and I ended up with this banner, with each pair of flip flops depicting the flag of a nation represented in our cluster. Including the Singaporean flag in the corner on the wall, we had seven countries covered.





And in the end, it turns out we won one of the three grand prizes, for Most Appropriate Theme! Go us. :) That was a lot of fun and then I bonded with XY some more a little later over shared music interests. Oh Singapore, you are good to me in a way I can't really expect in the U.S. I would be happy to move here, live here, work here-- Which means I should really be trying harder with my work, shouldn't I? Make a good impression, reach out to the right people, and start laying a foundation for my future.

I will get on that; but first, back to my papers, with this song on loop.

Oh Cho Kyuhyun, can you sing forever please?

can you feel the change in your bones?

And if your plane fell out of the skies
Who would you call with your last goodbye?
Should be so careful who we left out of our lives
And when we long for absolution, there will be no one on the line


Let's try again. Breaking it down to its simplest form: don't put life on hold to have an existential crisis about what you want. Figure it out while living your life as it is before you.

We only got 86,400 seconds in a day
To turn it all around or to throw it all away
We gotta tell 'em that we love 'em while we got the chance to say
Gotta live like we're dying


I've never been a music person. But, suddenly, it's like I'm listening again - and the words matter. (The words have always mattered though; I just wasn't paying attention.)

also look up Acoustic Cafe's Last Carnival

A combination of these two soothe away the school-induced stress headache:

http://www.rainymood.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PMSIkPKzz4

I really have nothing else to say for now; my exhaustion has wiped out any creative vestiges left to blog with. All that remains is a state of semi-panic, semi-hatred for the last two weeks of school I have to - somehow - get through. And then onto exams which, at this point, seem like a relief.

let the cycles propel you into a new form of blogging

My life goes in cycles:

I do a period of withdrawing from people and abstaining from chatting, maintaining only email communications (as if they're some level above chats, holier? more individual?), before winding up with a night like tonight where I'm juggling six or seven conversations at once. This time, three mediums: Pidgin, Skype, and Livestream. It's nice to hear people's voices and see their faces sometimes - this is the reality brought to you, the personality that is more than just text and smiley faces.

But I have turned smiley faces into an art form. Do not question my ability to communicate by emoticons alone - especially now that L's linked me to full breadth of the onionhead gifs. They excite me when so little else in life does. How can you not love their exaggerated emotions? I may be overcompensating for my current lack of strong emotional feeling, but let's not throw sticks at that beehive for now. (Am I mixing metaphors? Or just creating my own?)

So recently (by which I mean starting two days ago, but that's recent, right?) I've started listening to Yiruma. I only have his first album right now but it's been on repeat for a while. There's a part of me that longs to pretend I have a soul, what with this whole delving into instrumentals (I am also in love with Acoustic Caf&eaccute;'s Long Long Ago and Last Carnival) and poetry. Neruda, I am going to memorize Soneto VI. So far I've gotten only "En los bosques, perdido..." My Spanish may be a tad rusty. It's like saying my emotional health may be a tad shaky.

Another cycle:

Weeks go without emails in Chinese and today I get two, both of which require me to break out my elite Chinese-typing skills. Thank god for pinyin-input programs like Sogou - what would I do without you? My reading skills are pronouncedly better than my actual writing skills now thanks to the joys of technology. Never let it be said technology does nothing for us!

So I've responded to one and the second will be summarily dealt with tomorrow.

(OT: Why do we accept "dealt" over "dealed" and "slept" over "sleeped" but not "dreamt" over "dreamed" and "leapt" over "leaped"? Freaking American English, why did you need to take an already inconsistent and irregular language and fuck it up some more?)

One last cycle:

Writing. But it always comes to me in cycles. Periods of writing too much and complaining about being tired of it followed by periods of being unable to write and complaining about needing it. Complaining is always a part of the cycle; an integral part, even.

Also, I have rediscovered the Joys of Skype now that my webcam and mic are both in working order. Let's have it! I will make some real time emoticons at you.

if i was ever yours, i never knew

Funny story: little things hurt my feelings. Weird how that happens. The end. Great story, right?

Moving on: there are two types of people who top my list of personal pet peeves. The average person may not be annoyed by them, by these two groups get my collective hate.

1. radio show hosts
2. music snobs

Not going to go into a detailed rant, but let me sum up the first by saying, "Seriously, why are they allowed to talk?" and to sum up the second by saying, "Please go die in a fire." Except not. Just. Listen to what you like and let everyone else listen to what they like because, guess what, music tastes are personal preferences and that is all okay.

Two songs recently have been looping on my iTunes: (1) 김희철 - 초별 and (2) 조규현 - 7년간의 사랑.

I guess I've always been kind of a ballad girl, if it's the right kind of ballad. Usually I say this only about Chinese ballads because those are the easiest for me to learn to sing along to but, hey, I can totally understand the titles of these Korean ballads. It's a start.

Making an effort to send out mail. Time to hie myself to the post office an acquire some stamps.

니가 좋은 이유 (Why I like you)

Even though break's ending, I'm an a good mood. Gotta take what joys you can, when you can.

I bought a camera too! So that is exciting and will be the one bright spot of next week. At least I have a new soundtrack to my life as I return to slave away at law school.

Speaking of music, I drove around a lot this break, and listened to the radio, which I never do (but I didn't have any of my music here). I finally sort of know what's popular, if the frequency of plays of certain songs are any indication. Frankly, I'm tired of Pink's Sober and Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You now. I'll stick with my kpop, thanks. Though I do enjoy Britney's Circus~ Now this is the kind of dance music they should've played at the club. STL disappoints. Let's go out again, and party right.

I had deep thoughts on music tastes and possibly a rant on overbearing, contemptuous people who think their tastes > yours, but...it's overdone. No need for repetition.