Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! So I actually did wake up in time for the men's Australian Open final this morning...I didn't get to watch it but I listened to a live broadcast online...would've been sweet to be there...Well Federer won. But I'll now be on the lookout for Baghdatis whenever he shows up on my ESPN scoreboard. Unfortunately the clay court season is terribly long. No Opens until May. I have plenty to look forward to, sports-wise. Super Bowl, Olympics, March Madness, NBA playoffs...
Spent a bunch of money today. Eugene and I went to eat Japanese food at Godaiko. When we were figuring out what sushi to order, I accidentally nixed the tuna and kept the eel. Whoops, we were supposed to get some fish. Oh well. The food was alright. Then we went shopping and I got a bunch of snack food. Wheat Thins are awesome! Tonight was the dorms' Chinese New Year dinner. They had surprisingly good fish for a dormitory. Everything else sucked, though. Well I did conveniently forget to go to Steve and Barry's to get Michigan T-shirts. It's so warm here...Chinese New Year actually means spring...or I could have jinxed February. Damn.
I played some Grandia II today. Damnit there is still one more dungeon left. I'll have to finish it next weekend then. It's cutting close to Tales of Legendia, though. Talking about RPGs, a bunch of Xenosaga scans were up on RPGamer. Junior was wearing short shorts! It was really disturbing...hopefully it's a costume that I can optionally acquire because I sure wouldn't want to watch him fight in skimpy clothes. At least wear slacks underneath them or something!
Well my roommate and her boyfriend had a fight (again, but this time I was present). I hope it doesn't turn ugly this time because I'm friends with both her and her boyfriend. She sounded really offended by something he said... She's also stressed out about the orgo. test Tuesday even though she's studied so much and feels much more confident about the coursepack. Still haven't finished the coursepack...just too lazy. I think I'll play more Grandia II instead.

Week 4

Week 4...yeah, I'm still alive. Still have a lot of work to do this weekend...two tests and an essay next week. Well tonight I'll be putting that off...I'll be watching the Australian Open!
Well I got half of my wishes from last week. Mauresmo is going against Henin-Hardenne and Federer is going against Baghdatis. I really want to see Baghdatis play, just so I can see just how good he really is.
Band was a bit better this week. I actually have solos! Carrie, the girl who owns an English horn, was here on Thursday. Our director is weird and wants the English horn to be sitting in the second row. He has all the first part clarinets, flutes, and all the bassoons and oboes in the front row. The first 3 horns are right behind the oboes, along with the second flutes, second and third clarinets, and the bass clarinet. The rest of the setup is the same as most other bands. I still don't talk much to Amanda, but I talk a bit with Carrie. It's so lonely sitting on the end of a row...
Everyone is stressing about orgo. around here. I think I'll manage. I do the coursepack and try to memorize those IR and NMR chart values (which is such a waste in my opinion). Physics is a cinch right now, and Classic Civ. is even easier. It's just a bunch of work that I have to do...SSG sucks. I HATE homework.
THE GREATEST NEWS EVER! Just kidding...Suikoden V is coming out in March. I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!! Now I really need to beat Grandia II.
Thank you Jackie for the Thrice songs. "Music Box" is my favorite.

Week 3

3rd week of January already...wow time goes by really fast.
Nothing interesting happened this week. It was a pretty terrible week. Lab was pretty bad and I got assigned a ton of homework for orgo. I didn't even take a day off this weekend. The funny thing is that the best things that happened to me last week were that band practice was canceled and the volunteering thing I signed up for was also canceled. I needed at least 4 of those 8 hours that I gained. Or else I might have died...
Well I did do something this weekend. I went to see an Irish dance show. It was pretty good for being student-run and having dancers of all proficiencies. They used "Time's Scar" from Chrono Cross! That was interesting. They also put Nobuo Uematsu as the composer, which pissed me off of course. Mitsuda is like the celtic RPG music king. Uematsu isn't even close.
I have horrible luck when it comes to tennis. All the people that I root for keep losing. The biggest stories were obviously the elimination of Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt, Mary Pierce, and the Williams sisters. Federer almost got eliminated yesterday. I think he'll be fine now that he survived Tommy Haas. For the final I hope for Federer vs. Nalbandian like the Master's Cup. On the women's side I want Davenport vs. Mauresmo.
I figured this entry isn't interesting enough so I've decided to tell you all a secret (which will not be a secret anymore). There's this guy I like, though I'm not sure how much, in my Physics discussion. He's also in band, and plays the French horn. Hey, maybe this is my first crush since high school. Anyway, he's also an engineer. The only attractive guys I've met so far are all engineers. Really, guys in the Honors program aren't hot. Maybe I should transfer into engineering...not. Who's trying to avoid Calc. IV like the plague? Yep, that's me.

Week 2

Week 2...yeah, I'm being unoriginal again. Well a bunch of things happened.
1) I survived 25 hours of class this week. It's almost as much time as going to high school with more work. The worst day of the week is Thursday, which is 7 hours long. Wednesday is almost as bad, with 6 hours of class, but the blocks are 9 to 1 and 7 to 9, so it's only 2 blocks of time. Monday and Tuesday are 5 hours each, with Tuesday having the infamous 4 hour orgo. lab. I think I'm trying to kill myself. Or maybe I'm looking ahead to next fall when I'll be taking 2 chem. labs at the same time or more. Yeah...
2) I made it into University band. It was a complete surprise, because I thought my audition was horrible. I was neither accurate nor steady. There are two other oboists in it, though. Carrie, who was first chair last year, and Amanda, who was there a year ago. There are English horn parts, so I guess it justifies my selection. Anyway, the parts SUCK! All the songs have nothing for oboe. We play either long notes, easy and repetitive rhythms, or rest. Maybe the director doesn't think we have fingers. It sucks when my strength is technique and I don't even get to exercise it. Maybe Tchaikovsky will be different... Actually I think most composers think oboes aren't good for anything but solos, long notes, and looking pretty. Perhaps the only people to appreciate the fact that oboe players can play runs and strange rhythms are Hindemith, Shostakovich, Granger, and Nelson. I loved Rocky Point!
3) Figure skating! Evan Lysacek is so hot! I watched him, Johnny Weir and Michael Weiss skate as well as half of the women nationals. Sasha Cohen just killed everyone. Michelle, Andy and I cursed Emily Hughes and she thankfully didn't beat Kimmie Meisner. That was one awful fall. Hopefully Michelle Kwan makes the team. She's my favorite skater.
4) Australian Open starts tonight! Enough said. Here are the people I want to win: Roddick and Davenport. Will it happen? Probably not. Federer is still awesome and the women's side is competitive. Unfortunately Nadal isn't there. He's such a character. Other people who I want to do well (besides Roddick and Davenport): Federer (wait he doesn't need any wishes), Ginepri (because of his Under Armor shirts), Blake (just because), Monfils (my favorite of the teenage prodigies), Murray, Henman (I love how he plays), Pierce (she's just so risky), Mauresmo (because of how she plays), and Kuznestova (the only Russian I like for some reason). Yeah I care a bunch more about the guys. On the women's side, all the new talent are like Sharapova. Though I don't hate Sharapova or anything, I just wish there were more risk-takers (I would love people who went up to the net). Everything now is about power, and I rather see trickery. That's why I love Federer even though he is dominating everyone.

Week 1

Wow. One week has gone by pretty fast. Here's what happened:
1) I went back to college. Classes started on Thursday. Thursday was a long day...5 hours of class and a meeting for Campus band. The 3 hour seminar actually went by pretty fast. I don't know if I'll stay in it...I hate Heart of Darkness. But it isn't that much work. I haven't had Classic Civ. this semester, so I don't know how much work I'll get this semester. Physics unfortunately will be more work than Calc., so even if I drop the seminar I'll be getting more work. Anyway, I met another oboe player...she was in my Classic Civ. discussion last semester. Well hopefully I place well. I still don't know what piece I'm going to audition on.
2) I watched all of Juuni Kokki. I started it on Tuesday. I have watched so much anime these past two nights. Let's see...I went from episode 11 to 29 on Friday night and episode 30 to 45 yesterday. Yeah, I was obsessed. It was so good though. Much better than Magic Knights Rayearth or some of the other shoujo anime. Now I have Azumanga Daioh! When I get really bored or decide to procrastinate some more...
3) Magna Carta's battle system sucks. It's horrible. Only one person can fight at a time. But now I have Grandia to finish up and Dragonquest VIII! I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, I have no life. Maybe in a week or so I might go back to normal.

How did a year go by so fast?

It begins...my blog. I decided that I rather blog than change my AIM profile every other day. Now I get to rant to any length I want, keep them up so you can read them if you want, and remember what I ranted about before so I don't rant about it twice. That doesn't mean that I'll ever run out of things to rant about. Mwahahahahahaha...

So 2005 in a long rant. Seven parts? I told you it was long...
First it was the year I turned 18. My roommate was nice enough to buy me a Mrs. Fields' cookie cake and get a card for me for my birthday. It was the first of many birthday celebrations in our hall (2nd Fred rocks!). Well, I can finally smoke legally (but I'd never do it...it's disgusting), vote (but I haven't registered yet), and sign my life away.
Second it was the year I graduated from high school and went to college. Regrets? Yeah. Wish I didn't care so much about high school. College is so much better! Well if I had done more volunteering and activities and such in high school (or written a better essay), I might have gotten a scholarship from Emory and I might have gone there. But it was not meant to be...but I really like Michigan. Yeah...more than I thought I would. Cheap and free concerts are sweet!
Third there was the band trip. Gatlinburg sucked. Sorry. But I really liked the songs we played, especially the Alfred Reed piece. I played in a college band 1st semester and it was a lot of fun, but I was pissed that I was placed 4th chair. Unless I really bombed my audition, I should be 1st or 2nd. Or maybe I'm overestimating my abilities, but I can do more vibrato then the 1st chair, I'm better at tuning, I have better technique, and I can sight-read almost everything we play. Oh well. If next semester I'm stuck second chair or lower on the regular bands, I'm quitting. I rather spend those 2 hours of the week practicing by myself.
Fourth there was the trip to Taiwan. It was fun. So much has changed in 9 years...seeing all these relatives that I didn't recognize at all...and whom I don't even know how they are related to me...it was interesting. We did see a lot of musuems...I love air conditioning. A typhoon came the last few days of the trip...wow...so much rain.
Fifth it was the year I ballooned to 132 lbs. but lost so much weight that I was 115. Until winter break, that is. I gained 3 lbs. over break! Well the weight I lost was probably fat (and not as much muscle mass as my brother likes to say to make fun of me) because I fit into smaller jeans now. I know...it's crazy. My roommate thinks I'm a super health nut because I like to eat yogurt and fruit and I don't eat dessert in the cafeteria. I love yogurt, and cafeteria food sucks. Dessert is for special occasions...thus the weight gain. Talking about splurging...
Sixth it was the year I spent so much money. Yeah. Going to college was one of the reasons. But I bought a bunch of clothes, CDs, a computer, reed-making stuff, yarn...yeah yarn...
Seventh it was the year I really started knitting again. I made a few scarves, gloves, lots of socks, and now I'm working on a shirt. It's called "Tubey" and it's here: http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter05/PATTtubey.html I know...pretty ambitious. As always I have too much yarn and too much desire to knit. It does make studying go by faster.

Okay, I keep running off on tangents. But I can't think of anything else for 2005. But look how long that entry was. I wonder how many people are still reading this...