Rain of Fire

Mood: Happy, a little bit hyper
Event of the Day: Le petit animation pour le film de Ratatouille xD

HOKAY. SO.

After the TIC PM class, Janvi, Sarah, Chungster, Jamie and I followed Tansen and Alex to exchange a few more Ratatouille tickets for the earlier time. And it turns out that we actually weren’t going to eat dinner together, so after a lot of wandering around, we went to Coldstones. The orders took a while, but we got 10% discounts because of our ATDP ID cards xD, so…..

The rest of it involved a large portion of the half price book store thoroughly…briefly-scanned. xD

The movie itself was awesome. I won’t post spoilers for the people who haven’t seen it yet. My favorite part was the mini-movie. How do they come up with these things? >__> lol

Ratatouille had a very nice storyline and great characters. I love the designs! And it was so interesting to compare the finished movie with the paintings and sketches we saw when we went to Pixar yesterday…

…did I not mention that? Well now I did. We went to Pixar yesterday. They have their own pool and a sand-filled volleyball court. Actually, no, they have a lot more than that…xD

Now go see Ratatatatatatattatatatattatatatatattatouille! >:]

Posted by Alina at 9:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today there was an iTA meeting during the ATDP lunch hour, during which several ideas passed through my head…including an all-iTA forum where everyone has admin powers. o-o

So instead, I went down to Pat Brown’s after the meeting to eat lunch while TIC started up…but it turns out that another class reserved TMF that day, and they were supposed to share it with TIC, but they locked the doors and weren’t going to unlock them until 2 pm.

I dunno, someone unlocked the doors for TIC, but the results were:

1) The class was behind schedule, so looking at the original schedule on the forums wasn’t really useful…. 2) The class was facing the doorway.

Thanks to #2, walking in late during the presentations was not an option. But there were some people hanging around outside, so I spent the time until break talking with them.

Somewhere in the conversation I heard the name ‘Susan’…

I looked at her face closely…

….and recognized one of my best friends from the Elementary Division. Susan and I took Fluid Physics during the summer after third grade, and I haven’t seen her in ages. Lloyd was present to hear our ‘OMG!’ squeals of delight.

:] Another warm and fuzzy memory, like a bright yellow post-it in the file-cabinet called life.

Posted by Alina at 7:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Emo is Latin for “I will be.”

EDIT: Never mind, it’s ‘ero.’ That’s not much better though. Japanese for ‘pervert.’ =.=

Posted by Alina at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There’s no other way to show what I’m feeling like.

Mood: Thoughtful, melancholy? I don’t know.
Event of the Day: See Phrontistery for details. If you don’t already know where that is, good for you, because you probably don’t want to know anyways.

ATDP overall has been one of the best things that ever happened to me. If it weren’t for ATDP, I probably wouldn’t be so connected to my cousins. I have so many relatives in California, but for some reason, that’s how things turned out.

I remember in the elementary division. I made so many friends, and even after all this time, I still remember them. Charlotte and Susan from Fluid Physics, Annie from Gee!ology… I still remember the alarm clock my classmate made in Simple Machines. I remember so many things, and they feel so fuzzy and warm in my mind. It’s comforting.

As we grew up and moved apart, the new friends I made in the secondary division only became closer friends as we learned to connect faster. They’re more to me than comforting memories. I miss them so much. Tatia, Amanda, Steven…where did you go?

And it makes me even more sad, that none of my friends can really understand just how much I miss them. How do I tell them the number of times I cried after ATDP ‘05, because I knew I’d probably never see them again? Heck, they probably think I’m weird. I’d think I’m weird.

ATDP ‘06…at first I was devastated when I didn’t recognize anyone from my ‘05 class among my new classmates. I hunted through all the ATDP yearbook pictures I could find, searching for some clue to where they’d gone…

…but that didn’t last long. With internet communications, casual outings, and reminiscent get-togethers, TIC quickly became one of the happiest and longest-lasting events in my life. It was different. Everyone was so happy, to be able to learn something about a resource we all love.

I was happy too, because I wouldn’t have to worry about losing my friends again. They’re all still there. On my MSN, my AIM, or still in Tolman, where I can see them almost every day.

Even so…Today, and on Monday, I found myself with spans of extra time, sitting in the back of the classroom with my Latin homework. My mind wandered…

…and it disturbed me, that even being in the same room as the people I know and care about wasn’t enough to keep me from drifting back…

…where old friends and bittersweet memories keep me locked in the past…

Posted by Alina at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

…and I’m already getting pwned =_=

The thing about language classes is that the oldest kids, who you would expect to have mastered the process of memorization by now, to learn the fastest. Unfortunately that’s not how nature works.

It’s disturbing when you’re 14, your teacher says you’ve been going downhill since 12, and the 11-year old kid behind you is rattling off the vocabulary like a computer on high speed.

TIC was fun though. Kass and Trev really touched up the lectures since last year. I don’t remember anything about strong or em o__o

I may or may not be scarce starting now. For the next six weeks I have to eat, sleep, and dream Latin if I’m going to keep up with this class.

Posted by Alina at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why they named it Discovery Kingdom, I have no idea. It’s so cheesy. MARINE WORLD 4 LIFE! So…this is how we spent the last day of school xD Whoo!

Mood: Content, mellow, tired
Event of the Day: the Marine World rides! Either of the two water rides, or Medusa. Kong was pretty good too, except for the head-banging.

Waiting for the bus :D

It was SO hot today. Zomgs D: Summer gets hotter each year. Okay, so, we left school at about 9, and when we got there they still hadn’t opened the park yet. We didn’t have to wait long though.

OKAY. SO. The first ride we went on was ROAR!. I swear, in some places if you stick your arms up, the framework will amputate them for you. The first drop was really steep - much steeper than I would have expected for a wooden ride.

I…think we may have done something after that but I can’t remember right now. We went on Medusa, the “longest, fastest, highest (I can’t remember what order) roller coaster in North America.” The first drop was hecka scary, but the rest was pretty fun. TopGun still kicks its ass though.

We were going to go on White Water Safari, but we hiked up there only to find that it was closed. So we hiked back down and went on Monsoon Falls instead. It was pretty short, but the fall was almost vertical. I did it free-hand and I was almost standing straight up. Then we ran out onto the bridge to get wet (like we did at Great America), but the spray was hecka weak. Only my feet were mildly moistened.

After a bit of debate, we went to ride Kong, which was more fun than Medusa, but my ears hurt afterwards from all the head-banging. I caught a picture of it when we were waiting in line for Medusa before that.

…and of course we need to do something while we wait in line :D The result of several cups of shaved ice.

After that we went to eat, and Nan called to tell us what White Water Safari had opened. Seeing as we had more time, we ran back up there. We were kinda fidgety in line (or, I was >.>”) because we were cutting the time limit kind of close.

Lies!

It was so awesome. Corwin and I tried to rock the boat, but karma pwned us by putting us right under the waterfall as we passed by. We got completely soaked.

It was only after we’d gotten off, barely in time to get back to the bus on time, that I remembered I’d left my shoes (I was wearing flip-flops for the water rides) under the table when we were eating lunch. Emily ran back with me to see if they were still there. The woman who’d cleaned up our table was mute (and deaf? I don’t know), so she couldn’t tell us if she’d seen them. But the Emily saw them to the side (luckkyyyy) and we ran back in time to catch up with everyone else.

It didn’t really hit me that it was the last day of school until we got back. I cried when I hugged Julie. I’m going to miss her ): She was the first friend I made in middle school, and she’s still one of my best friends. I can’t believe she’s leaving.

I took a bunch of pictures of my friends, but I’m not going to post them. I love them too much to maul them over in photoshop :D

Posted by Alina at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Corwin o.o says:

Ability is of little account without opportunity.

* Napoleon Bonaparte

Slur \ 8D says: that’s cold
Slur \ 8D says: coooooud
Corwin o.o says: o.o
Corwin o.o says: cold then coud?
Slur \ 8D says: yes
Slur \ 8D says: SAY IT
Slur \ 8D says: COOOOOUD
Corwin o.o says: pssh i don’t want your bad grammar to rub off me
Slur \ 8D says: not bad grammar
Slur \ 8D says: phonetic spellibng
Slur \ 8D says: …spelling
Corwin o.o says: D:!
Corwin o.o says: such pure irony
Slur \ 8D says: o.O
Slur \ 8D says: what, and you don’t say spellibng?
Slur \ 8D says: pfffft
Slur \ 8D says: silly corwin

Posted by Alina at 9:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rejoice!

We went to the Student Union building at 12:30 because that’s when Tansen said the orientation started, but what ho! They started at 11:00 and we were only just in time to get our envelopes and meet up with the other peoples from TIC.

We split up after that because a bunch of people had to head for the TA meeting. The rest of us went to buy crepes (mine was filled with fresh apples and brown sugar cinnamon) and get our books. And I was effectively ripped off because my Latin book, which is about two times smaller than my French book, cost over $84. But it is rather colorful.

Then we went to Tolman, and I found out where my classroom was. Koki and I were listening to her iPod while we were waiting for the TA meeting to end, and when they came downstairs they found us both ‘sleeping’ under the potentially hazardous cabinet. Tansen was walking in circles and playing his DS.

We all headed to Laval’s Pizza, and P joined up with us while we were there. And then we all went back to Tolman again for the actual reunion, and there we met up with a bunch of TIC students from previous years. After everyone made their introductions…

what ho…?

A NETHUNT 3???? FOGEYS VS YOUNGSTERS!!! (except for Andrew. Andrew went over to the dark side. =/ Aka Fogeys.)

I…didn’t really help much xD. I spent the whole time trying to answer one of the questions. It was about a 1996 TIC graduate who was currently a ATDP staffer, so I looked up the 1996 roster and spent the whole time trying to ctrl+F each name to see if they matched up with any teachers. My laptop was bleeped whenever it didn’t find anything, so it basically did that for like, half an hour.

Fogeys only won by one point. But that’s okay. WE’LL GET BACK AT THEM ONE DAY. >:!

I finally found a different site that showed one of the people on the roster with an ATDP staffer’s email address, so I showed it to Alex, only to find out that someone had already answered the question. So….xD

Then we all went back to Laval’s, this time with everyone, and P had to leave while we were there. Trev and some of the Fogeys had to leave a little earlier, and Koki was playing Trev’s DS. When he tried to get it back Koki went RAWR >:! So Trev paid Denis a dollar to take it away from her xD

Then the rest of us went down to Shattuck to see a movie. It was, like, a romantic comedy called Knocked Up, but it was R-rated, so the ticket people were like STUDENT IDS PLZ. But we were with Lloyd, so it was all good 8D. Somewhat graphic, but a totally understandable and sweet story.

We headed back to the BART station after the movie was over. Tansen, Dennis and I all took the Richmond train back to the plaza station, and my mom picked me and Tansen up at the exact moment Dennis got picked up o__o. Then my mom and I went to Albertson’s and bought a whole bunch of crap so I could spent my big tube of coins.

So…that was my day xD

Posted by Alina at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mr. Slous’s last concert. Ever. Except for graduation. ): I pity all future generations of band kids who will never have him for their teacher. Every band we had played this time, including all five normal ones and a few extras:

• Jazz I (members of Jazz Band in the 8th Grade Jazz class)
  
• Jazz II (group of people in 7th Grade Jazz that practice Jazz Band songs)
  
• a drumming demonstration
  
• the Saxtastic 4 (Tad, Sam, Andrew, and Timothy playing the soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax, and bari sax)
  
• There was a surprise guest, an old student of Mr. Slous’s who graduated from high school in 2005 named Timmy (lol our bari is Timothy). He was so good on the bari that he was invited to play for an elite team, and he came back to play a solo during the spring concert.

I made a really ghetto origami card that folds out like an accordion. The two covers were wrapped in gold Ferrero Rocher candy wrappers (apparently if you try to superglue them the paint comes off) and each had a black eighth note decoration. One side said, MR.SLOUS on the top and 35 YEARS on the bottom. The other side said 8TH GRADE JAZZ on the top and 06-07 on the bottom. Then we got every person in the 8th Grade Jazz class to sign it, and there were just enough squares for each person to have on to sign in - except that I forgot to count Ren, so Ezra’s square got cut in half.

We decided to give it to Mr. Slous right before 8th Grade Jazz played during the Spring Concert. And it was going to be a surprise. So April bought flowers and hid them in a locker. I told her that I’d been thinking while I was walking to school about giving a speech, so we started to write one, and then Cameron walked in and he helped us. It was really short because I knew the bleachers really hurt and the audience doesn’t like waiting through long speeches. We got permission to take the mike right before 8th Grade Jazz, I gave the speech, and Cameron handed the flowers and the card to Mr. Slous. Joy! :D

The concert was really great, except for a few things. The keyboard kept randomly skipping, so right in the middle of a song it would stop playing for like, two lines and then start back up again. That was annoying. And the gym is really spacey, so most of the band couldn’t hear each other and we got offbeat a few times.

Otherwise it was a very fun concert. :D Happy retirement, Mr. Slous. Even though you’re not quite done yet. Hehe.

Posted by Alina at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Corwin o.o says: i guess
Corwin o.o says: 9th place =/
Corwin o.o says: if i still had my shoes..
Slur \ ROAR says: your spikes?
Corwin o.o says: no, we can’t sue spikes
Slur \ ROAR says: yes you can
Slur \ ROAR says: but their lawyer kicks yo ass
Corwin o.o says: not on rubber o_O
Slur \ ROAR says: …you don’t get it T———T

Corwin o.o says: Alina is a salior!
Slur \ ROAR says: I AM A SAILOR
Slur \ ROAR says: SAILOR MARS
Corwin o.o says: pssh
Corwin o.o says: jupiter has 20x more mass
Slur \ ROAR says: o_o
Slur \ ROAR says: that’s horrible
Corwin o.o says: im not caller her fat -.-
Corwin o.o says: im saying she ahs more gravtitional pull

— says: rofl gravitational pull
— says: YOU HAVE A LOT OF GRAVITATION PULL. OH, DISSED!
Slur \ ROAR says: T———-T
— says: .. gravitationAL
— says: i am retarded
Slur \ ROAR says: 8D karma!
— says: pshh, whatever…
— says: SUN
— says: OHHH BURN
— says: lol.
— says: i think i’m going crazy
— says: :D
Slur \ ROAR says: T———————T

Coming up: Mom’s birthday pictures, summary of computer-explosion experience, music concerts, yearbook party

Posted by Alina at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)