Rain of Fire

My father had a heart attack…it seems that it was a pretty bad one…more later.

Posted by Siu-Yuan at 7:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

…is due in a week. =.= Geocities in particularly hard to use because of that stupid Yahoo sidebar. I’m predicting a lot of positioning problems. And I think most of what I have left to do is just the actual content. I don’t really have that many ideas for the layout. I’m much less motivated than I was when I made AstRaid Online. And uh, this time around I can’t really drag Connie into helping me, because she has her own iSearch final to do. ;P

Oh, right, the images. Those…might take a while.

Posted by Alina at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BEFORE: 42 inches (3.5 feet, unbraided)
CUT: 21 inches (1’9”, measured when braided)

Donated to Locks of Love.

As of 12:32 pm, I now have short hair. I guess I’m satisfied with my new haircut. I never knew my hair was so poofy. It’s a little shorter than it was in the ‘after’ picture because I was a bit picky on layering the sides. It feels so strange. My bowl of hairbands is going to be dormant for a while. Every time I reach back I’m surprised to not feel a curtain of hair behind me. It’s always been there. I’ve become so used to it.

I wonder what its going to be like without long hair. I couldn’t imagine myself without it. Every time I met someone new, the first thing they would notice was the length of my hair. I was proud of it. Frankly I’m not too crazy about my other features. My hair was my trademark.

But now that its gone, what are people going to see first - if anything at all?

I love my hair. But there are people out there who deserve it more than I do. Take care of it. Please.

Posted by Alina at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I’m wondering if I’m biting off more than I can chew, piano-wise. One Bach prelude turned into a set (prelude and fugue, buy one, get one free!), one Beethoven sonata movement turned into three movements, so that’s basically the whole thing. Admittedly the second movement is just over one page. >.> The Brahms is going fine, but now, let’s mix in one Rachmaninoff piece and one Chopin waltz. I really really want to play a certain (Rachmaninoff) prelude…but I figured my teacher wouldn’t let me, so…I didn’t ask. And my piece to fill the Contemporary category is ATONAL. It’s called Witch (Villa-Lobos), and the collection it belongs to it supposed to be a set of dolls, or something. But believe me, I can’t think of a piece that sounds LESS like a toy. Annnnnd…the etude category is unchanged. Yay.Holding off on the concerto, most likely, since I have no interest in performing with an orchestra. I don’t have the talent anyway. :P Determined that I’m definitely NOT a performing type.

Posted by Siu-Yuan at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I am now the proud owner of…a stethoscope? O_o”
So, my mom ordered a new one, but it turns out the tubing is too short for her. Apparently it is my new “toy.” ::shrug:: Benicia Winterguard Show this Friday! I’m working at the food stand and not parking lot duty, thank goodness.

My Photobucket…it’s gone. ;~;

Posted by Siu-Yuan at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yep. I am now 14 years old. And Presidential Fitness Testing is in two weeks. T_____T

Okayokayokay, the party! I spent the whole week before it cleaning my room. So now everything is semi-dust-free and one side of the room is more colorful than the other. Everybody came, which made me really happy. Tansen told me my piano lessons were at 4:30, but they were actually at 4:45, so I got home at 5:30 and that's exactly when my party was supposed to start. Connie and Katie were actually at my house before me and I got there like, a few seconds after Jackie. We played a LOT OF -

• Air hockey. Table downstairs. :)
• DDR
• Guitar Hero
• Beat up Chris with a lightbulb-shaped stress ball

Anyways. We packed ourselves and our sleeping bags into the living room. We pretty much spent, like, 3 or 4 hours playing Truth or Truth (it's kind of hard to do dares when no one can think of anything), Would You Rather, and MatchMakers. Man, I could totally post the results of MatchMakers on here as blackmail. Bwahah. :3

So. Yea. We went to sleep at 5:30. And woke up at 9. :) Me anyways. I actually went to sleep more around 6 because I was wandering around the house for a while.

Woke up, playing more Guitar Hero (which I apparently rock the world at, even though I've never played before. This is what I get for hanging around people with too much rhythm like Tad and Sam.) Man, so many people left stuff here;

• Julie - sunglasses
• Emily - iPod and sweater
• Dorothy - make-up box and bag
• Katie - SO. MANY. COINS.
• Somebody also left a black and yellow bag.

Highlights of the party:

• I got to see Karli again! She was my roommate during the NYSLC conference. I MISSED YOU KARLI. -hug-
• The presents! You guys got me exactly what I wanted and MORE that I didn't think of! ^____^ ::hug:: Thank you so much! (Now all I need to do is make my dad get me a tablet. Heheh.)
• All the PEOPLE. This year's party of 10 people was much louder than last year's 5. :)
• The food! Thankoo Mommy! ::hug::

Posted by Alina at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just before the talent show at the conference, our group wrote letters that the Faculty Advisors would mail to us a few months after we all left. I'd been wondering where mine was. I just got it in the mail today...so many things I've forgotten and just remembered. And yep, a lot of em were about me n' you, Karli. I miss you so much. I can't wait to see you again tomorrow.

Thank you, Keko. Thank you, Joy. I wish those 3 and a half days could have gone on. I wouldn't have minded if they'd become months. Years.

Love for you, Mississippi Group. I miss you all too. I've got other plans, but I hope you guys go to that conference in DC this summer.

NYLSC. National Youth Leaders State Conference, December 14-17, 2006. The last page turned. Another chapter in our lives.

Posted by Alina at 9:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just realized that every fanfiction I write, topic disregarded, includes several things -

1. A cast of main characters that entirely lacks human flaws
2. A pair of identical twins
3. A blonde and a black-hair
4. Someone who borders on the fine line between aloof and emo

I'm probably forgetting something. But okay.

Posted by Alina at 9:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

That idiot. You'd think his ego couldn't possibly get any bigger, but no, apparently, it just keeps on going and GOING. =.=" ::slams into a wall::

Ok, maybe I should explain. ::deep breath::

I walked out of French class with Audrey, and who should we see, playing his effing sax ON THE OUTSIDE STAGE IN FRONT OF FRIGGIN' EVERYBODY? HIM. ::RAWR::

So maybe this doesn't seem like a bad thing to you. But believe me...he doesn't need any more feelings of self-importance than he has already. My friends were all laughing at him, but I just couldn't laugh. His arrogance just isn't funny anymore, it's sickening.

After walking right past him on the way to the band room, I think I was shouting something unintelligible, and poor Kerri was walking by me trying to get me to calm down, "Find your happy place!" "I CAN'T FIND MY FRIGGIN' HAPPY PLACE."

The sectional we had at lunch helped a little bit, but afterwards, he walked in to where we were eating lunch. Thank goodness he didn't talk to me. Maybe he's finally catching on that I don't want to talk to him anymore.

And to think, this all started when he insulted one of my friends. One flick of a finger can topple a mile of dominoes. And it hurts to lose a friend. Badly.

Posted by Siu-Yuan at 9:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Instead of going to class, the Leadership team went to FORT MILEY! I woke up like it was a band day, remembered it wasn't and dozed off for another 10 minutes before getting out of bed. My clothes were fugly and mismatched because I had to wear stuff I didn't really care about getting dirty. Somehow I envisioned low-hanging nets ("ropes courses") that you had to pass under by crawling in mud. I watch too many army movies.

I tried to sleep during the drive to San Francisco, but it was really loud and I ended up closing my eyes for an hour. Some of my friends were playing MatchMakers in the back of the bus.

It was sort of drizzling, and it was really really cold, but I guess that can only be expected, because we had a great view of the beach. Fort Miley (or the part of it that we visited) was in a big pine forest. One of our guides, Glenn (or however you spell his name, we didn't ask), and some other guides whose names I've forgotten had us do some pretty cool activities.

Icebreakers? What do you call these?

YEAH.
We high-fived as many of our classmates as we could.

TAG
We got in groups of 4. One person was IT, and the other three people joined hands. The person who was IT picked one of their teammates and tried to tag them. The other two people had to try and get in that person's way without letting go of each other's hands.

GLENN'S BOAT
When Glen said "Captain's coming!", everyone saluted. When he said "lighthouse!" we had to find a partner, form a lighthouse, and spin around in a circle and bleep. When he said "man overboard!" we had to get in groups of 3, join hands around one person in the middle, and pretend we were a boat. When he said "row for shore! (or something like that)" 4 people had to get in a line and pretend to row. When he said "grub time!" 5 people had to stand in a circle and say grubgrubgrubgrubgrubgrubgrubgrubgrubgrubgrub while pretending to eat. If one group had too few or too many people they had to stand off to one side and 'walk the plank' while singing "Row, row, row your boat..."

THE TRUST GAME
One person fell backwards into a partner. The faller had to tangle their arms together so they wouldn't panic and smack their spotter, and the spotter had to put their strong foot behind them and catch the faller. I dropped my partner.

FAR AS YOU CAN (I'm just making some of these names up)
Two people stood facing each other and fell in, met at the palms, and pushed back out. Each time we did so successfully (not falling over) we each took a step back.

ROPE RUN
Basically we all ran through a turning rope without tripping and falling flat on our faces. Later one in the game Glenn came up with a rule (for example, nobody could run through the rope alone) and we had to follow that rule and all make it through. We played a game where he came up with a rule and we had to find out what it was. He only told us when we'd broken it. April found it - we all had to get through with 8 turns of the rope.

TRUST GAME - 2
We all formed a line, put our hands on the shoulders of the person in front of us, and walked blind to the actual ropes courses.

ROPES COURSES (they split the Leadership team into 2 groups - each of us did a different activity)

#1 - There were two metal ropes, each about a cm thick, nailed into trees about a foot off the ground. They were connected at one end and gradually split apart. The goal was to start at the joined end with a parter and walk along the rope, using only the rope and our partners for balance. It was pretty had, because the two people had to communicate and switch hand positions, lean in to keep each other's balance, etc. The rest of the people in our groups had to 'spot' for them (catch them in case they fell, which everyone did). The first time I went with Chow Yu. We didn't get very far because our balance was way off. The second time I went with April, and we got the farthest out of all our groupmates.

#2 This time there was only 1 metal rope, but there were two normal ropes (like sailing ropes, also about a cm thick) attached to the trees waaay above our heads, one on each end, so that they hung down. Two people had to walk sideways along the metal rope, holding the hanging sailing rope for balance. In the middle the two people had to switch ropes and get past each other, then they would walk to the tree that the sailing rope was attached to.

AFTER LUNCH

...it was a freaking playground :D. There were 5 activities. This time, all of them were like, 15 or 20 feet above our heads. They involved the same metal wires we'd used for the activites before lunch, with harnesses (like rock climbing) to replace the spotters.

1) There was one metal rope that we walked across while holding on to two others acted as handrails. It was kind of scary because a lot of people were either scared of heights or scared of the wobbling rope. It was about 15 feet long.

2) There was one metal rope that you walked along, and sailing ropes hung down over it at regular intervals. You edged along the metal rope while hanging on to a sailing rope. When you reached the next one you had to grab it and drop the other one.

3) To do this one you first had to cross either the first or second one. This was just like the Flying Squirrel I did in fifth grade on that field trip to Alliance Redwoods, except the Flying Squirrel was twice as high, three times as long, and you were flying over a sunny, grassy field instead of through pine trees in freezing cold air. And you were required to jump off the platform from a sitting position instead of jumping, which I had originally planned to do. And this time it was much less enjoyable because the harness hurt.

4) This one was just like the one a foot off the ground, with one metal wire and two sailing ropes. Except this time it was waaay up in the air.

5) You had to wear a full-body harness for this one. This was was called "The Perch". There was this tree trunk about 8 inches thick or something like that. You climbed up a ladder, and then there were a bunch of rings bolted into the trunk. At the top there was a flat disk that you could stand on, but the problem was that it SPUN. The goal was to get on top of it and jump into thin air, aiming to hit either a blue tubey thing

[OMG 8:48 pm - EARTHQUAKE: 5 seconds long or so. The stuff on my shelf was shaking.]

which was about 5 feet away, or a rubber chicken, which was about 8 feet away. A couple people hit the blue thing. 1 person tried for the chicken.

Anyways, this entry's getting a little long, and I have homework, so I guess I'll do a reflections entry tomorrow if there's nothing else to post. :D

Posted by Alina at 7:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)