ive been thinking about you lately

I had a great weekend. I think it is going to be one of the very last for a couple weeks because I need to stop avoiding the big things in my life like my SENIOR PROJECT and cramming for aps. I don't really care for aps as much but SENIOR PROJECT!!?!?!? I need that to graduate :(. Well this weekend I went out with Maggie and Michelle (my M&M's) and we went to old sac/downtown on Saturday. First we went to a sac soompi meet and that was very interesting. But we had a great time in old Sacramento. We just took a lot of pictures because we loved the old buildings and it was a nice day (despite it WAS FREEZING and I was wearing thin clothing). Too bad we got ripped off because we ordered hot dogs and the guy gave us polish sausage instead which was 2 dollars more. WTF!!! Oh well. We also went to 2nd Saturday. I like the free stuff. We got free Chipotle from a boutique which I just found out was actually Pachia's aunt's new boutique. Small world.

I love the mural by the downtown mall.

Michelle looks like a witch.

We are on a train. Looks like a ship huh.

We found this cool area where it was a bunch of crumbing pillars.

On Sunday, I volunteered for the Shamrock Marathon (also called Running for Rhett) with my Key Club. Our job was to direct traffic away from the runners and to show the runners where to go. Me and Kim had the harder job of directing cars. Some people are so impatient but obviously I was trying to make sure no one was getting run over! But after awhile Licia, my brother and Nemo came to where me and Kim were and we started cheering for the runners. In our area, it was like a two way street, runners would pass by and then the trail would leave them around and back past us to up the hill. So halfway through the race my brother made up a chant,

KEEP GOING,
DONT STOP!
WHOOT WHOOT (clap clap)

So we were yelling probably for two and half hours maybe even three hours straight to cheer for everyone. We could not stop because if we stopped, it seemed like we didn't like them so everytime people pass we would have to chant it. A lot of people really liked us and said thank you and said we were the best cheerleaders on the block. We tried to wait until the verrrrryyyy last stragglers. It was very fun. But my voice was out afterwards.

Well in the beginning, we were at Raley Field then we got the maps from the directors and pretty much we had to walk to our spot which was very confusing but thank goodness downtown streets are based on numbers and the alphabet. So it was like a ten minute walk. But on the way, Kim and I found the coolest thing ever:


They had a couple of these in the neighborhood. And we were sitting on a rock. I think it is so cute. Why don't they have encouraging signs here in our suburbia? Always dream big.

News on college acceptances. I am very lucky and glad for all my acceptances so far. I am just happy to know that it doesnt take a perfect person to make it into a UC and that essays do count! I really think my personal statements pulled me through in a couple of my schools. So far it has been UC Davis, UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz. UC LA comes out on Wednesday. But I am satisfied with what I have now.

I like this new David Choi song.

And to make you laugh.

--christina.

bittersweet; you're gonna have the best of me.

i got Nemo and Momo only last weekend, and I was so extremely excited and happy, but there's already something wrong!! they seem to be either 1)shedding, or 2)developing some sort of fungus on their skin :( nevertheless, i was supposed to be working on my senior project today, but instead spent most of it just researching and trying to figure out what to doooo! i went to go buy some sulfa dip, in hopes that it will cure whatever it is they're dealing with, but i dont even know if that'll work. i'm so worried, i don't want them to dieee. its supposedly normal for baby turtles to shed and or develop fungus(!?!?!?!), but if left untreated it'll get worse. so i'm trying to do the best i can. and im too worried to concentrate on my senior project paper which is due in three days. and which i have yet to start :| but really, i just dont want Nemo and Momo to die. it'll simply add on to the unfortunate week that i have been having. my mom and dad are both losing their jobs, i didn't get into uc davis, and now my turtles are dying. i'm probably overreacting, but i think thats okay given the state that i am in right now.

on the bright side. although i felt extremely lame that i did not get into uc davis, i found out today that i did get into uc santa cruz (AND OMG SANTA CRUZ LOOKS SOOOO AMAZING -- i've never actually been there, but it does look amazing). and though i did feel extremeley lame all week that almost everyone else got into davis except for me, i felt so much better when my friend in ap lit told me that "it's just so shocking because you're pachia. we all know you're smart!" i've always that this girl was smart and i've always thought that she thought i was stupid. but after she said that it made me feel a lot better.

and this week also isn't horribly horrible, because i did pretty good on my interview for the apsea scholarship :) i was freaking out all week about what to wear to it, but in the end, i found something nice to wear. i went to the thrift store and bought a 75cents skirt and i borrowed my mom's little black blazer, and wore it with my black semipumps and tights. they told me i looked nice, but it wasnt that big of a deal, and so i guess in the end i worried a bunch about nothing.

sadly, however, i did miss the soompi meet. but i still got to go out and i spent the night with marisca, margaret, and jessica at second saturday. it was surprising but i bumped into my distant aunts, who own a cute little boutique down on J street now. check out Ragdoll Vintage, if you're ever down in midtown a la city of trees. i thought their prices were going to be extremely expensive, like the rest of the boutiques in midtown, but they're actually quite decent. and i thought it was interesting that the boutique they own now, is that one boutique that i took a picture in with a bunch of people on second saturday last year :) i'm pretty sure melanie will remember. i don't have the picture but i remember that i found it on google once off of tran's flickr...



and i know i always make fun of twilight... but i watched the movie this weekend and i totally adoreee edward cullen. he is such the sexyyyy beast. and although i still can't stand the novel, i can see why everyone loves it. i still don't like kristin stewart though. i think they should've chose someone else (her acting is eww). i did think she was cute in Into The Wild though.



i also watched confession of a shopaholics this weekend, and though i've heard mixed reviews, and it was more than just a little bit different from the book, i actually liked it. it was good. it wasnt bad. it just wasnt the same as the book. jjjozzeeefene hates it though.

♥PACHIA
wish me luck :|

happy ending.

I've had an up and down week but ended with a happy note. Is it just me or are the weeks going by fast? One is because it is like COUNTDOWN until graduation. and COUNTDOWN UNTIL my senior project is due. I really need to be cracking on that (AGGHHH). My life is somewhat of a mess. But as long as my senior project is done, I WILL BE FINE. I will be DANDY.

I wanted to post up the pictures I took of my sisters trying some stop action for me. Some turned out pretty cool.






I am glad I have so many bodies laying around to photograph. I chose the first and the last to turn in my assignment. My teacher loved the freeness of the first photograph and I love the last one because the expression on both the faces. Especially Sophie's expression. My sister tried to jump up with Sophie in her arms. Her hair flipping also adds a nice slow mo touch.

And of course, Kim Bum is so cute.


Today, in photo this girl acapella group from Brigham Young University came to sing to advertise the show they were doing tonight at our school. They were AMAZING!! They are called Noteworthy. They sang Happy Ending by Mika for our class. I wish I had my camera so I could record them. They are really great. And one of the girls can BEATBOX like crazy. Here are some videos of them.

Oh and I got into UC DAVIS!

--christina.

dont sweat it.

It is November 1 and you know that means PANIC MOOOODE (whiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrllll the sirens) because 29 days before the deadline of UC/csu APPS!!! But don't sweat it, we can make it.

So my Halloween turned out to be a LOT more fun that I thought it was going to be. So I had to work on Halloween night (sad sad) so I made no plans with friends to spend Halloween and everyone was kind of off doing their own thing. The night before, my friend and I realized we wanted to dress up for school. So we spent half the night researching on what we could be with the clothes we already had. She lost inspiration but I found some. I decided to be a modern day SNOW WHITE. I got some great inspiration from a site that I cannot remember and it is on my sister's browser but I made an outfit somewhat like this.

I wore a yellow skirt I had (same shade as one above), a blue top (same shade as above) with this peter pan collar, a red sash (made with this long red thin scarf i had) around my waist, red tights (because it was cold!) and a red headband. Surprisingly, a lot of people got it. Too bad I do not have a picture of it (Chrissa took some for yearbook though) but this one random girl even came up to me and was like "Miss? (...why do i feel old when she called me that..) Are you Snow White?" and I replied "yes!". Nice moment. Sadly Halloween was a little desolate this year. It was raining and cold. I took my little sister trick or treating for an hour before I went to work at 8pm. We didn't get as much candy and skipped around a lot, but she was satisfied enough. Then I went to work and me and Hanh were very bored since it wasn't busy at all. But luckily our lovely friends came to visit us because they also had nothing to do. So I said, HEY IT IS OUR LAST HALLOWEEN TOGETHER, we HAVE TO TAKE A PICTURE!! And we did, and they should all thank me for this lovely memory even though I look like CRAP in my work clothes and our Red Berry hats always make us look stupid.

The Red Berry circle of Frozen Yogurt Love.



I love silly pictures the best.

We closed early around 10 pm and decided a spontaneous trip to In & Out because of course the coolest kids always go to In&Out. We squished in a booth and ate our animal fries and burgers and enjoyed our youth. And afterwards, Michelle, Lissah, and I danced around to Matt blasting Jonas Brothers' Burning Up while Desiree recorded us. Then Kingston and Michelle started dancing in front of all the cars in the drive thru line and then I realized it was time to go hommmmme so we stop acting like obnoxious teenagers. But it was a lot of fun. Simple joys like that should never be taken for granted.

For my senior paper (on my senior project) I have decided to do a paper that is opposite of my project (theme revolves around happy, stress-free week). It questions why does the current youth stress so much (I think the youth is starting to stress more and more and at a younger age) and does it result it more aggression and violence in society? I checked out a couple teen stress and angst books and also a self-help book called Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for Teens. I do not really believe in self-help books because I think people who write them are pompous asses who have more effed lives than normal people but don't even realize it but this one is okay.

I am using it as a somewhat Bible for my daily stresses and I have been preaching random quotes from it to my friends when we stress out but they just yell at me to shut up. See what I mean teen stress = ANGST AND VIOLENCE!!

So here are a couple tips for stress:

1. Don't THROW UP ON FRIENDS - You wouldn't throw up on friends when you are sick (because that is sick) so don't get mad at them when you are having a mood swing because mood swings are temporary but your actions and words from those swings are permanent.
2. Convince yourself that one teen makes a difference - I STRONGLY believe in this one and I always try to encourage people about this philosophy. "You make a difference every time you're thoughtful, helpful, cooperative, generous, compasionate, or kind. "
3. Avoid the words " I know " when someone is talking - I do this all the time when I am talking to my mom and she gets really mad so I should this. "When you automatically respond to someone by saying 'I know' what you're really saing is, 'I'm not listening to you'.".
4. Get out of the EMERGENCY LANE! - I have a lot friends who do this and it rubs off of me too. So we just all panic and run around like chickens with our heads cut off over little things. "In a nutshell, living life in the emergency lane measn you treat virtually everying as an emergency! Every decision seems critical, every mistake is looked at as monumental...You're usually in a hurry, anxious to get somewhere other than where you are...when everything is a really big deal to you, it's almost impossible to have any fun!"
5. DROP THE DRAMA - The biggest lesson a teenage can overcome, dropping the drama, especially if it is yours. I am the type to get over things in like a day, but a lot of people I know can moan about things for weeks. GET OVER IT!!! "And while it can be realy tempting to blow these types of things out of proportion, it's ultimately better for your SANITY, your friendships, and your happiness to learn to let them go."
   

This book solves all the stresses I am going through (except family... I haven't read that far into the book).

I hoped I'ved helped your life a little if you actually READ those tips. :] I hope I can keep these things in mind as I go on with my life.

---ck.

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.