April 30, 2008

HAPPY 17TH BIRTHDAY

christina kim!

what more is there for me to say? I LOVE YOU! and i bet you had tons of fun today :)

-pachia (your best friend)

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Happy birthday to ME! Well this is a day late but I will talk about my bday yesterday. I didn't really do much yesterday for my birthday because it was 1) a weekday 2) no time right now to "celebrate" because i am cramming for aps/sats. so i just had a normal day except i could feel the love from my friends. haha. tiffany made me cute cupcakes. they were yummy. we have CSATs this week (california standardized testing) so tuesday to thursday has been half days and we only have first period and we test in first period. after school (ended like 12:25?), i had ap chem lab from like 12:30-2pm. yeah that was "fun". it was a pretty easy lab tho. and we got to eat nachos!!! then after that, i walked over to michelle's house to study for ap us history. i studied with michelle and maggie and then angelo, hanh and min came over later. we studied like like a couple hours. then later it was just me and maggie and michelle. we decided to camwhore and attempt at vlogging. our vlog was confusing and crazy. it was too much at once. so i dont think we will post it anytime soon haha. then we went to baskin robbins's 31 cents a scoop event. we waited in line for 30 minutes for our ice cream! we saw tons of kids from school and there was a band playing. it was fun. it was good ice cream. it was worth the wait. but yeah then went home.





overall, simple birthday but it was a good one.
i think i am getting to those ages where i dont really care for birthdays anymore actually.
age is just becoming a number. tho yay i can see rated R movies (SOMEONE TAKE TO SEE HAROLD AND KUMAR!!) but being seventeen? nothing special.
birthdays are just an excuse to party.


hope i can have a party after aps and everything.
im planning to just throw pool party/potluck with friends to celebrate end of the year and survival of junior year and goodbye to mysenior friends.
augh i hope my parents can handle 20+ people at our house.

christina.

p.s. i am sad you don't get to see a pic of my whole outfit. i had some cool red tights on. they were pretty damn snazzy.

failure is not in MY DICTIONARY.

Yeah to QUOTE PACHIA:

"why does it feel like whether i fail or succeed, in the next couple of weeks, is going to define the rest of my life?! i hate that. pressure about school just does that too you."

If I can get make and SURVIVE up until MAY 14th, I CAN SUCCEED. Just gotta keep going. Gotta KEEP ROOLLLLING. I cannot lose stride. I cannot give up. I cannot get down with the spring fever and fail to lose control. But it has been happening. But I won't let it happen to me. I was keeping on top of it, but this week... was one of those weeks. I was doing homework up until WEDNESDAY. Downhill from there. But yeah I have been studying AP US History (pats self on back) and I have been trying. But you know, MAY is the worst time of the year. Everyone is tired and drowsy. Everyone is freaking sneezing and red-eyed (in sacramento) because of allergies. Everyone is WAITING for summer to come. Everyone is counting down the days.

SO EVERYONE, lets do it. Lets make it. Lets end the year with a

BANG BANG BANG!!!!

If I can do it, you can do it.

And to quote MELANIE

"I'd rather be upset that I worked hard and didn't get what I wanted than regret that I didn't put all my effort into things when I still had the time. Everything is going to pay off one day and even though we're complaining now, this is all going to be worth it."

It is going to be worth it. After AP testing, sweet days of bliss will follow. After that all my classes will be easy breezy. Anyways, why is it the worst things but the best things happen? So I was trying to convince myself that this month, I WILL BE SOCIAL HERMIT. I will turn on the "nerd" button and study study study, like I should. But last week, I was feeling emo and a loser because I was a social hermit last weekend. But when I try a social hermit, people bring back out and tempt to go out and fill up my social calendar. NO NO NO. Sadly to say, I am totally busy and driving myself crazy. Tomorrow is finally LUAWOW for our Pacific Islander's Club (though I am not a pacific islander). It will be crazy fun and a great time. I hope we give a great performance. Yeah so I have tons of homework and I will be busy ALL SATURDAY. GREAAT.. Then next weekend, SATURDAY is SATs and SENIOR BALL which I was invited to. ACK. THE AGONY. It will be nice to party after taking a five hour test, but I AM FREAKING WORRIED about my attention span next week. Knowing me I will be like PARTY PARTY PARTY from Monday to SATURDAY!!! BUT I CAN't. We have those freaking lame California Standardized testing next week also so we get three half-days (yay) but I still have to stay after school till like 2 to do AP Chemistry and AP US study groups. Great.

Once it hits JUNE, I am going to JUUUUUUMMMP FOR JOY! I hope I inspired you to try and DO BETTER.

christina.

p.s. and my birthday is next wednesday and i dont even have time to celebrate. superduper crazy seventeen. whoot. bake me a cake.

baby, baby, cute, cute babies.

today i turned in my annotated bibliographies for my junior project and i'm so glad that it's over! today was actually supposed to be even more exciting, but my plans got ruined and now i'm just home for the night. i made plans to stay after school and watch the Beauty and the Beast musical, but my parents said they didn't want to make the long drive back to school to pick me up in the middle of the night :( and now i'm not too sure if i can go tomorrow night either, because my parents don't want to drive me anywhere (which don't blame them for... look at the gas prices!)! and on another note, i have to go to my saturday school volunteer-work, which i've already missed for the last two weeks! my mom told me that if i wanted to go to the play then she wasn't going to take me to saturday school, because that would mean she would have to drive back and forth. and i cannot miss another week because next weekend will be SATs, soo... ah. ahh. ahhhhhhhh! i've been so busy with trying to keep up with tests and the annotated bibliography this week that i've forgotten about everything else i need to worry about.

why does it feel like whether i fail or succeed, in the next couple of weeks, is going to define the rest of my life?! i hate that. pressure about school just does that too you.

we had our first dance practice today during lunch, for the performance we're going to do on international day. and i suck at hmong dancing. i need practice more, probably ease up a bit because just feel really uncomfortable, which makes me really stiff from that discomfort :| geez, i really do need to learn how to conquer my fears.


anywhoo. i logged onto myspace today, and my notifications told me that TOM added a new video to his myspace! the title was interesting so i clicked on it, and it's so freaking adorable :) t was such a coincidence too, because i was just singing songs from across the universe right before i logged onto myspace. i want a baby, cute like him, when i have babies in the future. he's soooo cuuuuute! ahh, i love the part where he screeeams, and then starts singing "na, na, na." <3

korean baby singing hey jude


these are my personal favorites from the soundtrack!
(i have a lot...)

-pachia

time is t i c k i n g, time is ticking

Epik High's new fifth album is out! I am super happy about it. I wish I could go and buy a copy but sad to say that I cannot support artists and I have resolved to downloading. But that is okay. I just felt like posting since I haven't posted in like.. awhile? Feels empty if me or Pachia do not update in like a week or so.

Time is ticking for the AP TESTS. I have two weekends before my first test happens. Oh joy. And also I realized how time has GONE BY SO FAST! I was thinking about blogging about it and so I guess I will. My best friend from sixth grade added me on facebook. It was a total shock and surprise. We lost contact after she went back to Hong Kong in seventh grade. I was sad because we got really close, really fast back in sixth grade. I had to transfer late to a new school. It was surprising but Joyce and I became such good friends so quick. I used to go to her house every weekend in the summer and we would swim and listen to the Hilary Duff movie soundtrack because we went to go see it with a couple other friends at my birthday party. I even went to a new middle school, that was very far from my house, just to be with her. I hadn't really thought her until recently. After talking to her on facebook for the last couple days, it opened a whole flood of memories of sixth grade and memories at middle school. When she posted some old pictures of us and friends from sixth grade and seventh grade, I WAS SO SURPRISED at how young we looked. We really did look like little kids and I remember how "grown up" we tried to act. How hilarious it is to think back at it.

THIS WAS ALMOST FIVE YEARS AGO!!!
Look at nerdy me in the glasses.

It makes me smile though. I still think I was the same person from back then, but looking at those pictures now, I see I am not. I have grown a lot. Pretty weird to see me now, seventeen in a week and half (OOOOOOOMMMMMMGGG I AMMM GOONNNA BE OLD) and look at me back then, twelve years. Wow. A big difference. I can't believe how many things have changed in the last five years. I thank Joyce for reminding me of those times and opening all those memories back again. They were good memories. I can't wait to see her again for the first time in five years in September. She is finally coming back for a visit to America. Maybe we will have a little Merryhill/Sutter reunion with our old classmates. That would be a surprise. But I doubt much about any of us has changed. We all look the same but slightly a little older, maybe a little wiser (or stupider), and just a little more happier. I am glad those horrid middle school days are over.

More PostSecrets

christina.

S T R O N G E R, kanyee.

i thought the concert was good. i have nothing else to say, so i guess it wasnt that AMAZING! but i think that was because i barely knew any of anyone's songs! and kanye didnt sing "BITTERSWEET" which is my favorite kanye west song. ahh, i feel lame that i went to the and i dont even really listen to kanye or lupe fiasco or n.e.r.d. or rihanna. but i'm super happy i got to go in the end, and OMG I AM IN DEBT TO MARISSA! yayy. i love her.

deandre took some more pictures, but he hasnt sent them to me yet. these are the pictures from marissa's camera. i didnt bring mines, because i didnt know i was gonna go until i got to school and marissa was like "hey, are you busy tonight, go to the concert!" how funny... the last blog was about kanye's glasses. and now i have some! but they're plastic and fake. and way bigger than the real ones. haha.







i've recently gone through my diary from last year. wow, i'm a freak. i let tommy read it, since its mostly all about him. haha. and my summer. waaaaahhhh! school is tomorrow :( shit, i havent studied for my ap tests or sats. maybe if i close my eyes, they'll all go away... not. goodnight and good luck, people. listen to some kanye tonight. au revoir. by the way, pharrel is super hot.

♥PACHIA!

lately!

i've been really frustrated, lately. i've been getting really ticked off easily, lately. i've been getting easily emotional, lately. i've been entirely out of it, lately. oh my goodness world, i think i'm in an another strange emo phase!

today i did horrible on my debate in literature. i don't want to go into details, because it was just that bad! it was so embarassing and it was all my fault. i swear, there just must be something wrong with class. i mean, i've done pretty well with a lot of my presentations throughout the year in other classes-- but every single presentation i've had to do in that class has just been a failure! really, i wish all we ever had to do in there was just to write essays. then i'd have an A! and i wouldn't have to worry so much anymore.

i totally agree with ck's post below about college... but i know that since everyone's competitive about it, even if at this moment i'm saying to myself its okay to not get into a UC, i know that that's what i'm going to be striving for, and if i dont get in i will simply be crushed. like today. with my debate. the debate was just all bad. so humiliating. i feel like such a failure! i let myself down, and it sucks. it was like a low-blow to maa face. yeah, i'm a little crushed about it. je suis un petit triste. i feel like giving up even more now. i dont know, i'm just "emo" right now and very vulnerable, so please be nice to me for a while.

i can't think of anything that can make me happy. or completely happy. i'm just feeeling very blaaah right now. stupid school. STUPID SCHOOOL!

ahhhhhhsdg. too many problems in the world. i can't even keep up with my own problems! how can i keep up with problems in the world right now. ahhhhhh. i need to get myself togetherrr!

i miss this friend i have in canada named Mayon. haha. that silly guy. i havent been on aim in forever, and therefore i havent talked to him in forever!

i want go shopping. but i have no money. it's okay though, i don't NEED to go shopping. everybody's freaking out about money, and really, i'm okay with everything i've got. clothes have actually kinda drifted out of my mind.

okay i need to make myself a list of important things to do! that i keep forgetting to do. maybe it'll help.

THINGS TO DO BEFORE THE END OF APRIL!

1. Study for AP Physics Test
2. Read the SATs Book
3. DO PRE-CALCULUS HOMEWORK!
4. Finish freaking "ON THE ROAD" so you can truly complete your junior project!
5. Make Robyn a phone case for her Voyager.
6. Plan the Summer trip
7. If you cannot plan the Summer trip, ask someone else to plan it.
8. Call RAINBOWS studio to schedule a family picture this weekend.
9. CALL CK!
10. SLEEP!
11. Be nicer to siblings and parents and family and people!
12. Chill out, pleasee.
13. Do your homework in general.

whoever came up with these glasses? and how did kanye rocking them make them so big? ahh it doesnt matter, because i actually wouldn't mind getting my hands on one of them. that'd make me happy actually! (so nvm, i guess materialism does fix everything!)

^__^ P-A-C-H-I-A!

rants about education, piles of homework, spring allergies, and politics...

Four weeks, it is a countdown to the APs and everyone around me is scrambling. Yeah pretty crazy. So my friend in AP chemistry read this article this weekend and we got onto a rant about the UC and private college system.

Yu has a 4.2 grade-point average and nine Advanced Placement courses on her résumé, along with a healthy lineup of activities including swimming. She applied to five colleges, four in the University of California system: Berkeley, Los Angeles, Davis and her favorite, San Diego. Her fifth application went to a state college, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Three weeks ago, the rejections started coming. In the end, there were five.

I seriously am through with worrying about what I do to make my college app look good. I am just trying to accomplish goals for myself. And you know if stupid UC Berkeley or UC whatever does not take me, I won't die. I can still survive and go to damn community college if I have to because it is about my career, not about the college brand. The only thing that is disappointing is trying to convince my parents about that. But I am tired of this whole working off our asses for a stupid college and has no personal contact with you and only sees you through a piece of paper that you pore your four years into. Since when did going to college and get an education become such a competition. It is ridiculous. Augh. And makes me pissed off when people who get A's in regular classes have higher GPAs than me because I work my ass off to get a fucking B in AP Language and Composition, AND I AM VERY PROUD OF THAT B++!!! for once in my life.

Though I must rant about my ap english teacher assigning us a new writing project (seven different DRAFTS) and piling on the homework when I have a million other things to worry about. SATs in like two/three weeks. GAHHH. And AP Chemistry is like so-so. Bunches of quizzes and tests. And those stupid mandatory California STAR testing is coming up. What a waste of my life.

And spring allergies. I hate them. I hate living in Sacramento during spring season because everyone is sneezing all over the place and hacking up hairballs. And your throat and ears itch like crazy and everyone is all red-eyed like they are high but it is really because the wind has dried out their contacts. So through my first two periods, I am usually conked out by my allergy medicine that makes me drowsy as hell.

And so I have been very oblivious to politics for the last couple weeks. But so what is up with Tibet. Can the Chinese not let go of the Tibetans? I suppose not. I mean before Tibet was just a mountain barrier protector during the times of Chinese imperialism, but those days are over. But with mass industrialization, they are trying to build cities into Tibet and even have tourists in Tibetan region to watch the Tibetans like monkeys. It is really sad. I was reading an article on Global Voices about Chinese bloggers/neitzens slandering this overseas Chinese woman (actually from Hong Kong) and she sided with the Free Tibet side at Duke University in AMERICA. And here is the slander the bloggers replied about her (translated to English):

"Are her parents still in China? Are her parents still even Chinese? If they're still Chinese, tomorrow I'm going to go jump in a manure pit and drown myself."

"If this is for real
I'm going to put the words “race traitor” up on all her relatives' doors
Then her whole family will be called race traitors"

"Notify China Customs, that if they see her, get her right away, and if she still has family, find them, and beat their shameless children to death, so they don't hurt the Chinese people."

Pretty crazy right? A lot of people are probably not aware of this really big issue in China right now. It is pretty hectic. And the effect of it on the Beijing Olympics. The SF Olympic torch running was horrible. There were reports of SABOTAGE by terrorists and everything. They even put a freaking FREE TIBET BANNER ON SF BRIDGE. HOW CRAZY IS THAT. I am surprised that the Tibetan issue is getting more public attention than the Darfur-China. I suppose because of the Chinese nationalists are so quick to fight against the Free Tibetans.


I have such spring fever. Sick of school, sick of friends, sick of family, sick of everyone. Just want to curl in a little ball and sleep forever.

--christina.

pachia's eyes hurt.

i'm super tired and my parents are arguing right now over the income taxes. oh, how the long days of my wonderful life will soon, also, one day be filled with frustrating shoeboxes full of receipts. or atleast that's how i remember it being when i was a younger kid. i dont see shoeboxes anymore, today.

marissa finally sent me those pictures we took on the friday before spring break started! i was excited when i got them today, 1) because i waited forever for them 2)because they were the pictures she took of me with that cute scarf she let me have. well the scarf wasn't actually hers. she borrowed it from the/her p.e./t.a. teacher for her junior project thingy, and i liked it so she said i could just keep it. actually now that i think of it, she said i could borrow it over spring break, and i just realized that i've been forgetting to give it back. i'll bring it back to her tomorrow. *GASP!!* TOMORROW IS A HALF DAY! yaayyy. but still... i hate my pre-calculus class. blaahhh. i want that class to end and summer to start. the only good thing about that class is that i have marissa and robyn to talk to in there. oh well. i like all of my other classes-- yes even physics. i really gotta start crackalackin on that ap test studying for it though. but enough with the ranting.

i was pretending to be a 1950s housewife with the scarf over my head. and lien wanted to join us after she walked past the door and saw us, so she was my husband. i think it worked out pretty well :)

i got inspired to look up 1950s fashion. PRETTY!

- PACHIA a mal à les yeux!

my little secret.

I stumbled upon a new blog (PostSecret) to add to our inspirations list (which you should check out!). I love stumbling on random blogs that are totally rad. This website carries the darkest secrets of some random strangers out there.

"The blog is an ongoing community art project in which ordinary people mail in a personal secret written by hand on one side of a homemade postcard. The cards are then posted anonymously on the blog exactly as received, presented without comment. You can't make this stuff up..."

- TIME Magazine

-----Email Message-----
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2008 8:16 PM
Subject: please let them know i found this

I found this in a copy of The Secret Lives of Men and Women in the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. Thank you. I really needed the reassurance.

They also have one for French. Maybe one day I could send one, one day. But I have never really had such a dark secret.

[>____<] Christina.

just a little motivation

Dear Christina,
Please try and not give up. Please try and study. You will study. You can succeed. You are super duper smart so act like it. Do not go online too much. Only one hour a day. Immediately finish homework when you get home so you will not lazy because YOU ARE LAZY. Think about the future. You will not have to stress about APs if you are well prepared. You can be well prepared. Do not socialize too much with AP study groups. Stick to your goals. Stay focused. Keep your head up. No more lazy days. No more naps. You can do it. Just a month and a half. Do not disappoint yourself. You can do it. You can do it. Go to tutoring even if you do not need it. Talk to the teacher if you need help. Do not slack. Do not falter. Study for SATs. Take is seriously. Look at those scholarships. Do not pressure yourself too much. Do not have an emotional break down again. You know what is coming up. You know you can do it. But you are just afraid. Afraid of disappointment. Afraid of not being able to do it. Afraid of not being able to handle. But you can. Why? Because you are the greatest person in the WORLD. And no one else can say that but you.

Stick to the plan. Stay strong. Or hit yourself in the head.
No more going to bed late. the internet = enemy.

Sincerely,
Christina Kim.

P.S. Thanks Melanie for the idea. And PACHIA should do this too. (haha pachia maybe you should actually do the double post thing like we originally said we would. just go and edit my post and add your letter.)

P.S.S. Addicted to these two songs.






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Dear Pachia,
Stop comparing yourself to other people. Who cares whether they have better grades or better SATs scores or better jeans or better necklaces. It doesnt matter. You know that you're good enough for anything, once you put your heart into it. So you're failing math. Try your best, and you know you'll pass, even if its not with an A or a B, like the grades all of your other friends got in the same class last year, but just concentrate on what is best and you'll be okay. Don't give up, because I've noticed you've been thinking that these past few weeks. But don't worry, I don't worry too much about you doing that, because I know you're not that type of a person. Just don't worry yourself too much, because grades are not what make up the best inside of you (or anyone). But you know you want to get into UC Davis, and you know you want to have a higher education, so you better start buckling down and studying. But do it on your own terms. Don't start comparing yourself again to everyone else. Because everyone is different, and nobody cares more about you than yourself, so do it. Don't rely on others to help you, don't wait for others to start, just do it. You can do it. You've already achieved such wondrous things in life, if you just do this, just try your hardest, try your best, you can achieve what you want. STOP BEING LAZY. STOP DAYDREAMING. STOP WAITING. AND START LIVING. It'll be fun. You'll love it. It might be hard, but in the end it'll be worth it. Everything is meant to be a growing and a learning experience-- you want the best out it, so go for it. Do it for yourself, and do it for those around you. Do it for the world. It needs you out there one day. You need to be out there one day. You need to learn, you need the experience. You need to liiiiiiiiiiiiiive!

" If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."

~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

L O V E,
Pachia Vang

april already? NO MANCHES!

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MY SASSY GIRL!

OMG, i have to post about this before ck does. but anyways, ahhhhhhhhhh! the american version of "MY SASSY GIRL" is going to be a flop! there's wayy too much i have to say about it, but basically, its just not the same-- and not as good. it seems like they've followed the scenes pretty well, but the mood is simply not the same, the characters are totally off, and it just really doesnt seem that interesting to me. i'm only interested in it solely based on the fact, that its based after the original "my sassy girl." ahhhhhh! they need to open the original one in theatre. it'd probably pull in more money at the box office. i really feel like this one is gonna be a flop :( how can they do that to a movie which is totally classic in its country?! boo. i mean really, the movie made me cry buckets and lie in bed for weeks just thinking about it! i highly doubt the american version will do that to anyone :|

okay, i'm going to go on a MY SASSY GIRL craze.... (ahhh, this brings back good, good memories)

-pachia