Baking

Went on a total baking frenzy yesterday! First I made a bunch of cookies for my family, and then I thought it would be nice to make some cookies for Bigs and his friends because they're having a party tomorrow so I made an absolute TON for them. Altogether I spent about seven hours in total baking, which was tiring but fun! The funny thing is I don't even really like cookies, I just enjoy making them! I especially like stirring everything together, which is a little weird I suppose. Tomorrow I'm going to be too busy beautifying myself before the prom to do anything, and then Wednesday's the prom so I'll be busy then too, and then I'll be exhausted on Thursday because I'll be tired after the afterparty! I know I have to make something for Zac's dinner party, so actually I'd better get back to baking again!

Even more...

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=191
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=206
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=216
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=223
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=226

The first one is total sacrilege against Inuyasha. He is sacred. Everything else is hilarious! I really like the last one, too. It's so silly it would be romantic!

Comics

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=88
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=107
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=114
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=118
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=125
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=126
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=146
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=154
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=260
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=261
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=169
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=176
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=182

I just found this site and I love it! Even though it is proof that I play waaaaay to many videogames...

Prom

I'm really looking forward to it! I've got my dress, my shoes and my hairclip (only a pound!), so my outfit is finally complete. Currently we don't have a ride, but I still think it would be really, really fun to bunk anyway. What's really annoying me is sorting out the afterparty. People don't seem to understand how difficult it is to arrange things! For one, not everyone has RSVPed, despite me continuously nagging them. Secondly, almost no one has arranged how they are getting here, which is even more annoying! I don't mind too much if a few people I hadn't expected turn up, but I do definitely mind if a lot of people who has said they would come don't turn up because they haven't arranged how to get here! I sent a group email to EVERYONE I invited telling them to tell me how they are getting here, which is about 30ish people, and so far ONLY ONE PERSON has replied! It's really getting on my nerves! I spent a lot of my OWN money on the food and spent a lot of time organising it; you'd really think people would have the decency to tell you whether they are coming or not after being nagged, reminded and scolded about a billion times! ARGH! Well, anyway, I'm really looking forward to the prom and the afterparty, it's just the organising for everything is a little bit stressful.

Tourists!

Yesterday I went into town for Jasmine's Birthday party, which was rather fun. We all met up at the Lucky Star buffet and ate and chatted, and then I went into city centre with Zac, Sim and Brier. Oh, it was so much fun! We were so silly; first we split up because I needed to get a hairclip for the prom, so I went with Brier, and Zac wanted to try on a suit so he went with Sim. Then we all met up in Costa and chatted for a while, before we decided to try out being tourists! So we wandered around for ages taking lots of photos and videos, and we even got some free Red Bull which made me and Sim a little hyper. Then Zac had to leave, so me, Brier and Sim went to the Jesus Green little kids park and played there, which was really fun- we let our inner children out! Got loads of brilliant photos and videos- my favourite one is me, Sim and Brier holding hands and skipping down the Backs! Though Zac wasn't too happy about that...

Cantonese

I've decided to try to start learning Cantonese again before I go to see my grandparents. I decided to listen to my 'Lonely Planet' CD, and I'm glad to say that it's all coming back! I'll just write out a conversation of what I've learned:

jo tao fu yun!
jo tao, ngaw hoi ee bong lei ma?
lei sic mm sic gong ying man?
sieu sieu
hoa. ngaw yau ma fan. ngaw dong sut low. ngaw sheur yieu BP yun ze low.
maan maan! hoa, lei chee hi lee do.
dojei!
um sai hat hey.

Well, it's not very good I suppose. Anyway, I was watching Devil Beside You last night; it's so funny! The best scene:

Ahmon: "let's go make some sticky rice"
Qi Yue: "sticky rice?"
*run together to art room where his friends are*
Ahmon: "now, go make us some sticky rice!"
Qi Yue: "you jerk! I thought you meant the OTHER sticky rice!"

You won't get this if you don't know the slang, but if you do, watch Devil Beside You and it's hilarious!

Flying...

...was AMAZING! Only word for it, really.

Grr!

I have developed a really, really extreme fear of toilets now, which is really inconvenient. Every time I think of them I feel physically ill. I have to brush my teeth outside the door now, which is really annoying, and every time I go in all I can think is GERMS! GERMS! GERMS! I've gotten really OCD about washing my hands now, and I don't even like opening the door handle anymore. I have to stop thinking about it, now, because I'm starting to feel really queasy. Ugh...

D of E

ARGH I AM SO ANNOYED MY POST HAS DELETED ITSELF TWICE NOW!!!

Anyway, rant over. Just finished D of E practice and am feeling quite pleased with myself as I am not too tired. Our group walked about 15km at the least less than the other groups, which shows as comparatively we are not too tired. However, I am now really, really dreading the Peak District which will be a lot harder as we have to walk 48km uphill compared to the 34km we walked flat this time, and I have also developed a severe phobia of campground toilets; so much so it makes me feel teary and nauseous every time I think of them. So I'll stop thinking about them for now. I have big, black bruises on my collarbones which is annoying and painful, especially since the prom is in a week exactly and my dress is halter necked, and I have invisible bruises on my hips. The Good News: I exercised a hell of a lot, and I didn't get eaten alive by mosquitoes. Yep, not one bite! So that makes me feel a little happier. Also, I am going flying with my boyfriend tomorrow, which I am really excited about. But that's off topic. Anyway, in conclusion:

-First day was pretty good, we set a good pace and I walked the entire way with the Dans which I am quite proud of, especially since I am smaller, thinner and am a girl. Unfortunately me doing this annoyed Brier and Kasia, which I understand and feel quite bad about now, but at the time I was too tired to care and was feeling rather cool for being able to walk at the same pace as two well seasoned campers for an ENTIRE DAY! Yeah, baby! Got into the campsite quite early and tried to set up the tent, which failed the first time as it was inside out which was rather annoying. Then I made dinner, which was really, REALLY annoying because I used about a billion tablets and the water didn't STILL didn't boil for about an hour. However, in the end it was quite tasty. After dinner my boyfriend called me, which was really quite sweet and made me feel quite cheerful for the rest of the evening. Then I went off into the Dans's tent and we played Black Jack until about ten at night, which was fun and for some reason I got really, really addicted to Black Jack and have cravings to play it which I will in two weeks at the Peak District. After that I left their tent and went to say hi to Andy's group, and I helped them make their curry by stirring the pot. I really love stirring things, which is really odd of me I know. Come to think of it, that may be why I like baking things so much- I don't really enjoy eating the cake, but I do really enjoy stirring everything together and eating the cake mix. Yum. Well, anyway, after that I went to sleep which was horrible because I was cold and sad.

-Second day was alright until the end. I kept up the same pace with the Dans, but by the end I was quite tired. I was really angry with Kaisa and Brier at the beginning when we got to the campstite because they refused to set up the tent and kept on changing their mind about where they wanted to pitch, so in the end I had to set it up myself which was surprisingly fun. After that I started texting Bigs, but then one of the teacher's caught me and yelled at me and said I was a 'Mommy's girl' and I stupidly retorted, 'I'm not texting my mom!' before I realized how dumb I looked. I hate Rita. Everyone else thinks she's really nice, but she's not. She's evil and ingratiating and sickly sweet. Grrr. Anyway, I texted him later anyway, except it was really difficult to because the connection was crap so I got frustated. He texted me a really sweet message though, which made me happy and encouraged me when I felt tired for the rest of the trip. Then I ate my dinner, which was tasty again except it took really, really long to boil and I used up 18 out of 24 tablets and it still took about an hour. Then it went really, really bad as suddenly I became really, really ill which was not only an awful experience but was also inconvenient. Blergh. After that me and Brier sat outside and rated all the boys' backs in the campground, which I think freaked the Dans out a little. Dan C had the best back in the campsite, but we didn't tell him that. So I holed up in my tent with Brier, which was quite fun as we chatted and chatted for absolutely ages except I didn't get to play Black Jack which made me a little sad. Kasia came in a little later, but then- which was really annoying- said she had to go to the bathroom, took her sleeping bag and left. Brier had also needed to go to the bathroom, so she went soon afterward, but for some reason Kasia wasn't there. So Brier came back to the tent, and we waited for about 30m minutes- and it was about 12 by then- before we got out of our tent even though we were tired, cold, damp and it was extremely inconvenient to search for Kasia. Brier at the time was quite hysterical, and she was doing this combo of laughing and crying at the same time, and she refused to go near the toilets to look because she was frightened. So, we went to Jasmine's tent and quietly asked, even though we knew they would be annoyed as it was MIDNIGHT if she wasn't there, if Kasia was there and lo and behold she was! So we were really, really, really, really angry at her afterward. About an hour and a half later, I woke up after being dead asleep and was ill again, which completely sucked and made me feel really, really crap. So then I went to asleep and was all blargh until the next morning.

-Third day was a lot better, except Dan1 really annoyed me because he was worried I wasn't going to be able to do the real D of E because it would be too hard. I was really, REALLY annoyed about that even though I knew I was being irrational and irritable, because really I had been really good for the entire trip and had walked with the Dans for the last TWO DAYS waaay ahead of Brier and Kasia, even though they walked really fast. So yeah, I had been quite proud of myself for keeping up with the Dans even though I'm the smallest person in the group and they had walked at a really fast pace! But anyway, apart from that the third day was pretty good; I walked with Brier for most of it and we didn't have very many breaks so we were early going home! As soon as I got home I had a shower and then a bath, so now I'm uber clean, and then I ate a huge plate of lo mai fan which was yummy good! Now I'm tired and am going to go play videogames. Yay!

D of E tomorrow

Ugh, I'm going to be exhausted afterward! I've got three days of walking ahead of me, but it's nothing compared to the real expedition! My pack is unfortunately quite heavy, and I haven't even added the tent. I'm bringing oatmeal, some nuts and dried fruit, and pot noodles for dinner which should be alright. I'm going to miss my bed and good food, definitely! Now I'm feeling rather sad about it...

Hollywood Golden Age

Finally I met someone who shares my taste in movies! It seems today that no new actors or actresses can compare to actors and actresses like Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, Audrey Hepbrun and Elizabeth Taylor. My favourite movies are:

-Streetcar named Desire
-Gone with the Wind
-Breakfast at Tiffanys
-Belle de Jour
-Love in the Afternoon
-Sunset Boulevard
-Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
-Wait Until Dark
-Sabrina
-Philidelphia Story
-A Place in the Sun
-Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

And lots more! I'm really looking forward to visiting my grandparents because they have a really good collection of old movies at the library there. I've seen nearly all the Audrey Hepburn movies, and I want to see some with Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe in, especially Cleopatra. I also really like Catherine Deneuve, especially after Belle de Jour, and I'm hoping they'll have Repulsion as well. I've been wanting to see Whatever Happened to Baby Jane too, which I know they have, so I'm really excited! My favourite genre of movies is probably horror, which I would class Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and Repulsion in because they're about mental diseases. I also like romances, like Breakfast at Tiffanys or Love in the Afternoon. Best combo is horror and romance, but at all the sleepovers I go to I'm the only one who likes to do this...:(

Paul Graham

http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html

It's a good article.

China

Recently China's had a huge amount of bad luck, which is really quite ironic considering this year is supposed to be its luckiest, with the Olympics, growing economy and number eight and all. First the winter storms, then the incident with Tibet, then the earthquake and now the flooding! It makes me feel sick to think of all the earthquake victims in Sichuan. Leehom talked about helping the victims in his birthday video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1s5xBJOoLs
Compared to Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina, China was really very adept. China's response to the earthquake was positive for three main reasons: it dampened the criticism they were receiving about Tibet, it showed the world that China was becoming less restricted (especially compared to the Gang of Four's glaringly different actions in 1976 in the Tangshan earthquake), and it showed that they were able to effectively handle disasters and that they cared about the public. Wen Jiabao's actions were in particular very touching. I just hope that nothing worse happens to China before the Olympics.

Duke of Edinburugh

Finally, our group has sorted it out and we are actually going next Monday! I'm actually getting quite excited about it now, although it'll be hard work the memories will be fun. :D

Just wondering...

Hmm...last night I was thinking...your receptors react to stimuli, which travel along your sensory neurons, which transmit the information to the CNS, which then sends the response via motor neurons to the effectors which are either muscles/glands. I was wondering, the more sensitive an area is, does that mean there are more receptors, or is it just that the receptors are just trained to be more sensitive? Just wondering...

:S

Every time I go on here, I've been meaning to post about something really important, but when I log on I just forget. Anyway, I've been feeling ill for the last few days, but I think that's just a result of eating too much, which is disgusting. So now I just feel bloated and ill and I want to sleep all the time, and I have a slight cold which really, really is quite awful. Recently I just tend to float through the day doing things that are absolutely meaningless and time wasting until I go to sleep. I was going to meet up with some friends tomorrow, but can't because I haven't revised all week, which is terrible because I need to get an A* on my science exams. Just feeling terribly unmotivated; probably because I know I should be revising but I put it off by doing things like going on wikicrawls and drawing little stick people and their communities all over my revision guides. Right! Some stuff to get off my mind...I'm really annoyed about the D of E because our group has organised NOTHING which means I have to go in tomorrow and sort it out, even though I don't know anything about camping. Another thing...I had such a hard time beating the Water Temple in Zelda, which was really, really annoying and I think raised my blood pressure enormously. For one, Dark Link is a complete bum to beat, and I had to leave a bunch of times to fill up my magic and try again which irritated the hell out of me. Also, in the hallway before Morphea, I couldn't get past those moving blades, which also annoyed me. Thirdly, I am almost completely inactive which is really, really irritating me because I feel like I should do something, but am not because I think I should be revising. Fourthly, I am organising an afterprom party, but no one is responding at all!!! And also a bunch of other things which I don't really want to write about and also can't explain. I suppose it's making me feel better that I'm writing this, even though nobody's going to read this. I need to go exercise after this post, but it's really not doing anything at all. What I should do is start eating healthier...I'll post what I ate today:

porridge + fruit
1/2 slice of bread + some cubes of ham and cheese
1 grapefruit
1 bowl cereal
1 tortilla wrap+lettuce+potatoes+sausage (yum)
handful of bombay mix

and I walked my dog twice, and am going to exercise later. Right! From tomorrow I've got to remotivate myself, because I've been so completely lazy and let myself fall into this routine. Anyway, I'm going to stop pointless ranting now and exercise and go to sleep because I am so ridiculously exhausted :(

Just thinking...

I really like these poems:

The Raven; Edgar Allan Poe (too long to paste here, look at the link):

http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html

Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire

Si le viol, le poison, le poignard, l'incendie,
N'ont pas encore brodé de leurs plaisants dessins
Le canevas banal de nos piteux destins,
C'est que notre âme, hélas! n'est pas assez hardie.

C'est l'Ennui! —l'œil chargé d'un pleur involontaire,
Il rêve d'échafauds en fumant son houka.
Tu le connais, lecteur, ce monstre délicat,
—Hypocrite lecteur,—mon semblable,—mon frère!

If rape and poison, dagger and burning,
Have still not embroidered their pleasant designs
On the banal canvas of our pitiable destinies,
It's because our souls, alas, are not bold enough!

It's Ennui! — his eye brimming with spontaneous tear
He dreams of the gallows in the haze of his hookah.
You know him, reader, this delicate monster,
Hypocritical reader, my likeness, my brother!

Quite morbid, I know, but I'm in a weird mood :)

A Thousand Splendid Suns

...is a really great book. It's by the same guy who wrote 'the Kite Runner.' It's superbly written, very touching and very sad. Recently I've been quite interested in Middle Eastern culture, and have just read a bunch of articles about Saudi Arabia in the NY times and have also reread Sultana. What I think is really fascinating is how two completely opposite societies can live on the same planet! In the West, promiscuity is rampant and many teens have almost complete freedom; they drink, do drugs, have sex, etc without much, if any negative repurcussions. However, in the East, teens have what we would consider to be no freedom; in Sultana, one of her friends who had been meeting guys was discovered and drowned in her pool. Really, I think both societies are too much. Just in England, you walk down the street and see absolutely tons of young single mothers with their broods, smoking on the corners! I think an equilibrium between the two would be nice- freedom, but also seeing the consquences for your actions.

Stereotypical

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/education/10asians.html

Lol, it would be great if that stereotype was forgotten! Then my parents would be happy with my getting all As instead of telling me to try harder or bring shame on my family! :P

Yves Saint Laurent

...is dead. I can't believe it! He made such a big difference in fashion. It was so impressive that he was able to continue Christian Dior's empire, and I really love his trapeze look. I've always liked his clothes, especially Claudia Schiffer's wedding dress! (see here http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/06/02/fashion/0602-LAURENT_11.html) It's really a shame he's dead, but at least he knows he made an important contribution to women's fashion.

Researching old Hollywood stars...

...and I found out about this thing they used to do called 'yellowface' and 'blackface.' It is so incredibly racist! What it means is white actors would put on lots and lots of make-up and play Black or Asian people, because at that time there were no famous Non-White actors or actresses who could be famous. The most famous Asian actress during that period was Anna May Wong, but even she was only allowed to play stereotypical 'dragon' or 'butterfly' roles. Even Breakfast at Tiffanys had Michael Rooney playing Mr. Yunioshi was racist, and that was made during the 1960s! Honestly, Breakfast at Tiffanys would be the perfect movie if it didn't have that incredibly racist stereotype in it...