Resolve

My resolutions for 2010:
1. To work and study harder
2. To get my work done without procrastinating
3. To help out more around the house
4. To speak for myself more in public
5. personal
6. personal
7. personal
8. To become better at time-management
9. To continue working on my writing
10. To work hard wherever my future may lie...

Yeah, I'm a little skeptical at being able to achieve all of those in a single year, but since I've never actually made a list of resolutions, it's a start. 2010, why not aim for 10 goals? I had thought over how I wanted to make my final post for the year, but somehow this is all I could come up with. Creative writing, a poem, a song of thanks, reflections, all just don't fit as well as these few words. Happy new year everyone.

Kiseki ~by GReeeeN

ashita, kyou yori mo suki ni nareru afureru omoi ga tomaranai
ima mo konna ni suki de iru no ni kotoba ni dekinai

kimi no kureta hibi ga tsumikasanari sugisatta hibi futari aruita “kiseki”
bokura no deai ga moshi guuzen naraba? unmei naraba?
kimi ni meguri aeta sore tte “kiseki”

futari yorisotte aruite towa no ai wo katachi ni shite
itsumademo kimi no yoko de waratte itakute
ARIGATOU ya Ah aishiteru ja mada tarinai kedo
semete iwasete “shiawase desu” to

itsumo kimi no migi no te no hira wo tada boku no hidari no te no hira ga
sotto tsutsundeku soredake de tada ai wo kanjiteita

hibi no naka de chiisana shiawase mitsuke kasane yukkuri aruita “kiseki”
bokura no deai wa ookina sekai de chiisana dekigoto
meguri aeta sore tte “kiseki”

umaku ikanai hi datte futari de ireba hare da tte!
tsuyogari ya sabishisa mo wasurerareru kara
boku wa kimi de nara boku de ireru kara!
dakara itsumo soba ni ite yo “itoshii kimi e”

futari FUZAke atta kaerimichi sore mo taisetsu na bokura no hibi
“omoi yo todoke!!!” to tsutaeta toki ni hajimete miseta hyoujou no kimi
sukoshi ma ga aite kimi ga unazuite bokura no kokoro mitasareteku ai de
bokura mada tabi no tochuu de mata korekara saki mo
nan juu nen tsudzuite ikeru you na mirai e

tatoeba hora ashita wo miushinai sou ni bokura natta to shitemo. . .

futari yorisotte aruite towa no ai wo katachi ni shite
itsumademo kimi no yoko de waratte itakute
ARIGATOU ya Ah aishiteru ja mada tarinai kedo
semete iwasete “shiawase desu” to

umaku ikanai hi datte futari de ireba hare da tte!
yorokobi ya kanashimi mo subete wake aeru
kimi ga iru kara ikite ikeru kara!
dakara itsumo soba ni ite yo “itoshii kimi e” saigo no ichibyou made

ashita, kyou yori egao ni nareru kimi ga iru dake de sou omoeru kara
nan juu nen nan byaku nen nan zen nen toki wo koeyou kimi wo aishiteru

Tale in the Moonlight- Autumn Moon 3.5

The boy continued to stare at the place where the girl had vanished from in wonder. Who was that mysterious girl just now?

An image of her remained firmly implanted in his mind. Her china doll-like face seemed to glow in the moonlight, casting off an almost other-worldly presence. Just as he'd wondered if she was really human, he'd noticed the tear streaks left on her cheeks. He couldn't imagine why such a beautiful girl would be crying at this hour of the night.

He shifted his gaze back to the flowers growing along the wall, his flowers. The days were getting shorter and the temperature was quickly dropping. He would probably need to bring something to cover and preserve their vines over the winter.

But wait, am I even allowed to be here? He asked himself, running his fingers gently across one of the flowers. I never thought that people lived in this building.

Anyways, he said to himself, looks like there's nothing more to be done tonight. I should probably get back before Granny realizes that I snuck out. It seems impossible... but I wonder if I would be able to meet that girl again another time. It would be nice to have a chat with someone up here.

And with that, he walk towards the terrace railings and hoisted himself over to the other side. Being careful not to slip over the edge and fall what seemed like five stories down, he moved along the ledge to the place where the roof sloped elegantly downwards.

The early autumn breeze brushed playfully around the building, rustling the leaves in its path and sending them soaring for the sky. Now at only one story above the ground level he encountered yet another railing (a slightly redundant one in his opinion). Placing one hand on the rail he nimbly vaulted over the edge, accompanied by the fiery gradient of the leaves as they fluttered to the ground.

Tale in the Moonlight- Rose of the Moon 5

The rest of Mei's morning proceeded without any abnormalities. Her lessons in math, history and etiquette passed by without a hitch. She had found that if she kept quiet and asked no questions she would be able to research her own answers in her household's massive library later in her four hours of study time. Her instructors praised her for being a genius, understanding all of their complex material simply by listening to them. Mei was pleased that she was able to complete her homework in less than half of her allotted study time, leaving the rest of the period open for further research and preparations for future classes.

As she sat through her "natural world" lesson, she found herself wondering for the billionth time why she wasn't allowed to simply venture outside on her own to learn things first-hand. In this lesson, various travelers from around the world arrived at her home to retell the tales of their journeys into the most amazing parts of the world. This lesson interested Mei, seeing as she had never had any of these experiences for herself, but due to her presenters' poor style of presentation, much of the excitement from their tales was lost in monotonous droning and endless slideshows. She gazed blankly at the screen in front of her, feeling as though the very essence of her life was being drawn from her as she sat there.

A sudden familiar image came on the screen causing Mei to sit bolt upright in her seat, her attention focused ahead of her. If she wasn't mistaken, that image definitely looked like...

Seeing her sudden reaction the presenter smiled. "Ah, so this one caught your attention didn't it? This is picture is of a rare and beautiful flower that was hard for me to come across. The species isn't common because, it is a hybrid, a mutation of the musk rose if you will, it is also extremely hard to grow. There are very few conditions in which they will grow, but the botanist at the place I was visiting made sure he took good care of all the conditions to raise just this single one. I've heard that it shimmers brightly in the moonlight casting off a magical glow which makes all the extra effort worthwhile."

Unable to hold her silence as she had in the rest of her other lessons, Mei had to ask: "So what is it called?"

Startled by her sudden enthusiasm, the presenter regarded Mei curiously. "It's called the Autumn Moonlight Rose. Isn't that a beautiful name? It's a rightly named flower too, since, unlike most flowers, it only blooms for the first two weeks of autumn. It was such a treat for me..." But Mei's thoughts had already turn inwards and she didn't bother to pay attention to the rest of his explanation.

The Autumn Moonlight Rose. So that was what it was called. But wait, extremely hard to grow? An expert botanist only managed to grow one? Mei was sure that she had seen at least a dozen last night on the rooftop. The picture and descriptions had matched it perfectly. It had to be.

"Wow! Would you look at the time. Looks like the lesson is over for today." Her instructor concluded abruptly, "I will be here for the rest of the week, but after that, I'm off to Tibet. A new presenter is set to see you next week. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know Ms. Yamauchi." Mei thanked her instructor as usual and proceeded to the dining hall for lunch, still thinking of the rose.

As she sat enjoying her lunch, she decided that she would have to find a way to sneak out and have a look at the roses once more before they wilted. She wondered if she could sneak out for a few minutes right after eating. Encouraged, she decided to finish her meal as quickly as possible.

However her plans were not meant to be. As she was finishing up one of the maids hurried into the room looking slightly flustered. "M-ms. Yamauchi, you have been summoned by your father, Lord Yamauchi, for a meeting as soon as possible. Your afternoon lessons have been canceled for today."

Mei frowned. Canceled? That has never happened before. And what about a meeting with her father? As long as she could remember, he has done everything in his power to avoid meeting with her. When was the last time she had met him? Two years ago? Maybe three? Whatever it was that awaited her that afternoon, she knew it wouldn't be a casual conversation...

Project: Part 2 (re-done)

"Oh my goodness! What's wrong?!" Yuko gasped as she ran towards the keeled over figure. As she drew closer she recognized the boy as Tsukino Toshio, one of the popular guys in her class. "Tsukino-kun, what's happened? What's wrong? Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked concernedly, crouching next to the trembling boy.

She waited for a moment, but Toshio said nothing. He simply continued to gasp for air. It was as if each breath he took was causing him more pain. Yuko took a moment to quickly examine the boy. She noticed that his brow was already dreanched in sweat and his eyelids were clamped firmly together. Worriedly she noted that Toshio seemed to be fighting to remain conscious and breathing. He also had his right hand gripped so tightly to his shirt above his heart that his knuckles were turning white. Could teenagers her age really be having heart attacks? She wondered.

"I'm worried about you Tsukino-kun," Yuko announced, wondering if he could even hear her in his state, "You stay right here, I'll go see if there are any janitors still around to unlock the infirmary." With that she made to stand up and turn around.

A cold hand suddenly grabbed hers with a steely grip, pulling her back. Taken by surprise at this unexpected motion Yuko toppled back to the ground beside Toshio. "N-no... you... can't." He panted fiercely, staring at her intently through half-closed eyelids.

"Why ever not?" She retorted.

"This.. is nothing. I-it will be over soon."

"B-but-"

"PLEASE!" He barked, his violet eyes flashed menacingly for a moment before another wave of pain hit him.

Yuko said nothing but stared at him for another moment at a loss for what to say or do next, but she didn't need to worry long. Just as he said, after several more moments of silence, his breathing slowly evened out and his body finally stopped trembling. Obviously relieved, Toshio allowed his muscles to relax and released his clenched fist. "See...?" He panted as he regained strength, "I told you it would end quickly."

"Yes, but what was that?" Yuko continued to peer anxiously at him.

"Nothing." He answered flatly, tilting his head away from her quickly.

"How could that possibly be nothing?" She demanded. "I thought you were going to pass out for awhile there. There's no way you can pass that off as nothing Tsukino Toshio-kun."

"I just said, it's nothing. It happens sometimes. I don't pass out from it though."

"What?! You mean that happens on a regular basis? How long has it been happening for? Do you think it can be related to stress? Is it something like a heart-attack?" Yuko interrogated, drawing out a thousand questions as she launched into reporter mode.

"Oh no, I'm not answering any of that miss president-of-the-newspaper-team. I don't want any of this as headline news in the next release. Thanks for your concern, but it's really nothing." He countered defensively.

Yuko hesitated for a moment, stunned at the sudden cold response from him. She had thought that he was always one of those very friendly and open students who would share their problems with you at any time, especially when it drew attention from others. "What does the school newspaper have to do with any of this? I came over to try to help you and then worried for your sake just because of who I am. It never even occurred to me to write an article about it. Do you really mistrust me that much?"

"It's not that, it's just..." Toshio trailed off noticing that, instead of being offended by his rude comment as he had expected, Yuko's ruby-red eyes only seemed to reflect hurt. "Aw c'mon! Don't look at me like that... It isn't that I don't trust you, it's just because it's dange-... something I can't say."

"Dangerous? That's what you were about to say isn't it? You can't tell me because something is dangerous? Now I want to know even more. Tell me!" She demanded.

"No." He stated firmly, getting to his feet surprisingly quickly. "It really is something I just can't say. Sorry you had to see that. See you tomorrow." And with that he quickly turned his back and departed, leaving Yuko wallowing in mystery...

Concrete Angel Aurore

Concrete Angel- Martina McBride

She walks to school with a lunch she packed
Nobody knows what she's holding back;
Wearing the same dress she wore yesterday,
She hides the bruises with the linen and lace;
oh

The teacher wonders but she doesn't ask,
It's hard to see the pain behind the mask;
Bearing the burdon of a secret storm,
Sometimes she wishes she was never born;

Through the wind and the rain,
She stands hard as a stone in a world that she can't rise above;
But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place where she's loved.

Concrete Angel

Somebody cries in the middle of the night,
The neighbors hear but they turn out the lights;
A fragile soul caught in the hands of fate,
When morning comes it will be too late.

Through the wind and the rain,
She stands hard as a stone in a world that she can't rise above;
But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place where she's loved.

Concrete Angel

A statue stands in a shaded place,
An angel girl with an upturned face;
Her name is written on a polished rock,
A broken heart that the world forgot.

Through the wind and the rain,
She stands hard as a stone in a world that she can't rise above;
But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place where she's loved.

Concrete Angel

To me, this song has always been a very sad yet beautiful song. I know that it's so sad, but it really is the reality that thousands of children around the world probably face each day.

Today I found a French movie called Aurore which tells the true story of the child Aurore Gagnon who was always beaten by her father and stepmother to the point of death. To me, her tale really has the essence of this song incorporated.

Just thought I'd share a thought for all of the abused children out there... my words are probably meaningless, but it's the thought that counts.

Tale in the Moonlight- Distant Moon 4

Mei awoke early the next morning to the sound of the servant bringing in the breakfast trolley. "Good morning Ms. Yamauchi. Which type of tea would you like this morning?" He asked in a bored tone, almost as if he found it ridiculous to be asking her so politely.

"The same as usual" Mei responded, rising to a sitting position to watch as the grim-faced old man in front of her began to make her tea.

"And to eat? We have the usual assortment."

"Toast for today. Two slices. Butter on one, strawberry jam on the next." Kanna replied automatically. She felt like an emotionless robot programmed to say what she did. She sighed inwardly to herself but said nothing more to the man in front of her, knowing that if she had outwardly sighed her father would be notified and a doctor would appear for a check-up by lunchtime.

As she munched absently on a slice of toast she found herself gazing out of the window beside her. In the early morning sky only a tiny sliver of the moon remained visible. Mei found herself wishing she was back outside in the cool night air, frolicking amongst the flowers. She decided that she would sneak back up to the terrace on another night. After all, it was the only place where she could think and spend time by herself in this building.

As if right on cue, her nanny bustled into the room. "What's this Ms. Yamauchi? Sight-seeing? Look at you! You haven't even finished your breakfast yet. I've come to tell you that your math professor has arrived. Hurry up and get changed!" She rebuked, hurriedly cleaning up the trolley the breakfast servant had left behind while motioning to the ladies-in-waiting to start getting her changed. We will be waiting for you in the study room. See that you are not more than ten minutes late!"

With that she turned on her heels and departed, leaving Mei to remember her manners and not call after her: "It's easy for you to say! You don't have to sight-see out a window because you can actually go outside yourself."

Time travel

Going through though my school yearbook from last year to see what grade 12s have written... unfortunately I don't really see the 'fond memories' that yearbooks are supposed to bring. I just see grammatical failures. However, there was one fairly interesting write-up that I DID find interesting.

10 years from now, I will read this and be amused.
20 years from now I will read this and wish I had written something more meaningful.
30 years from now, time travel will be all the rage and this will say something completely different...

the rest is kind of funny but random so I won't include it here. This, I have to say with a laugh, isn't all that impossible even now. It may not even have been 10 days later, but at least there are ways to change things that have been published nowadays.

My point? None really, I'm just kind of cheating here. I discovered the button on this blog that allows me to change the time of my post a couple of weeks ago. I just felt like "time travelling" here to get that second chance. Yep, pretty pointless.

Happy Boxing Day anyways =3

(Note: this post was actually written at the same time, just on the 27th xD)

Season's Greetings

Well, it's a little late considering that I waited until after 11pm to say this, but... Merry Christmas~!

I had a pretty average Christmas myself. No snow where I live, but that's okay. It sounds corny, but honestly, the most important part of Christmas to me is the fact that it's the one time each year that my family comes together to celebrate.

No doubt I've said it before, but I am always so grateful for the loving and supportive family that I was born into. It isn't uncommon to hear stories of people my age who do stupid things, purely because they were raised in a bad environment. Although sometimes I feel like my life is just a little too sheltered, growing up I've come to realize that it isn't really a bad thing. My parents, especially my mom, are always here for me when I need them and they always go that extra mile just to make sure I'm happy. Even though I'm not nearly as helpful as I should be around the house and I rarely notice things about other people to try to be as sensitive as my mom is, it's incredible how she (they) still put up with me and sacrifice themselves regardless. Though I doubt they would ever find this blog, I wish I could tell them how much of this I have really recognized. The one thing about our family is that we don't express these thoughts in words but rather, in our actions. That's why it's so unfortunate that my actions rarely tend to show the extent of my love for them.

Another piece of my thoughts in words I suppose. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Project: Part 1 (re-done)

I was getting REALLY fed up with not being able to come up with anything for this storyline. I actually planned how things would happen pretty far into the future, but every time I try to start it I end up failing. I reached the conclusion that it is because of how I started this series. Instead of taking the direct approach as I've had planned for awhile, I tried beating around the bush a bit. It isn't working. So here's the more direct way so that I can get straight to the point and then get on with it. Forgive me if the timing of their meeting now seems absolutely so perfect etc. >_>

"Well, if all things are settled I will take my leave." Yuko said in a businesslike tone, gathering up the papers she had strewn carelessly on her desk. She packed up her advanced issue of the school newspaper carefully, glancing at all the red marks she had made on the paper. The editors must have been careless this time, she thought, I'll have to mention to them about these typos that I found.

"Yes, we should have things covered after this. Thank you for your time and dedication Hayashi-san! I'm sorry we had to keep you longer than the other members..." The student council president answered gratefully as she also began to pack up.

"It's no problem kaichou!" Yuko replied, straining to keep up her cheerful tone. "I know that it couldn't be helped. I'm one of the few people that could provide you with all of the information on those documents. Still, it's getting pretty late. See you next week!" Without a moment's hesitation Yuko finished gathering her books and strode out the open classroom door, gently closing it behind her. She paused to breathe a sigh of relief, before heading down the long school hallway ahead of her.

The clock at the end of the hallway read 6:30 pm. The council meeting had taken far longer than she had expected. Wearily she turned her thoughts towards the long night of editing ahead of her. The next issue of the school newspaper was set to be released in three days and, as the editor-in-chief, Yuko was worried that they would never be ready on time.

Emerging from her thoughts, she slowly noticed the figure of another person further down the passage. This struck her as slightly odd since students at her school were expected to have left the building by 6 pm each day. The student council which held their meetings after school from time to time were one of the few exceptions, but even they were discouraged from staying too late.

Thinking that this suspicious figure could be the source of her next big scoop, Yuko decided to call out to the person to question their objectives. "Hey, you over there! What are you doing here so late?" She called, increasing her pace towards the person. Immediately the figure stiffened and turned. For a moment, cold violet eyes glared fiercely at her as she recoiled in surprise. She blinked, only to find that the menacing look had disappeared from his face, replaced with a look of surprised pain. Without warning he lurched forward and collapsed to the ground breathing heavily...

Distinguishment

Discrimination. It's not innate, it's learned. Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we do this to mankind? By distinguishing sides, discriminating, ranking and excluding others we are destroying the natural peace and equality that each person should be entitled to!

Today was a day like all others for me, but just this one tiny detail tarnished my precious memory of the happiness I had today. Sure, it didn't destroy nor completely erase it, but when I think back to today, along with the fun that I'll remember I had, I will have to remember also the discrimination that society brings into my family.

Today was a rare occasion where I was able to reconnect with my cousins, both younger and older, by hanging out with them. My older cousin Nicola and her fiance Wayne invited Nicola's brother Jason, our younger cousins Alex and Emily, and my brother Nick and myself out to spend the day together.

Since there were seven of us we had to drive two cars. My older cousins picked up my younger cousins first, then they came over to our house. By then, they were already strapped in to the seats, so I figured that my brother and I would just ride in the emptier car with just Wayne while Alex, Emily, Jason and Nicola sat in the first car.

Even though I knew these seating plans weren't to be, I continued to hope that things would not happen as I foresaw them.

As it turns out, I wasn't so lucky. After seating myself in Wayne's car my younger cousin Alex came to join us. Seeing him there, I knew what was coming. "They want me to switch with you." Alex told me. I just sighed and walked over to the next car, knowing that our switch probably wasn't the only one that would be happening. On my way out I passed Jason who, likewise, was also being forced into switching cars. Why?

The new car seating: Nicola, Emily, and myself. Wayne, Jason, Alex, and Nick. Guess who came up with this miraculous plan? I didn't ask need to ask to figure out that it was because of Emily. Haven't noticed my point? One car, two car, girl car, boy car.

Seriously, who in society comes up with this discriminatory ********? Emily, being an average 7-year-old was simply doing what she had probably learned from all of her other friends in class. When dividing into teams, always divide guys vs. girls, no matter how big an advantage one side may have. We went to play bowling and, again, split to two tables. How do we split? SAME THING.

Of course, Emily isn't the only child affected by this social norm of gender-based segregation. In the Sunday School that I teach at, my students are also like this. It doesn't matter that their ages range from grades 4 - 7. Whenever an activity involving teams comes up, girls vs. boys. Do they care that the guy to girl ratio is two to three? NO! I specifically ask the boys in the class: "You're going to be outnumbered, doesn't that bother you?" But no, even the boys fully endorse this disadvantaged split. From a teacher's point of view, I don't encourage this type of discrimination. When we do group projects I split the teams so that each team has at least one boy and one girl. Has it helped? NO! The girls work together as do the boys. If the boy is alone, he still doesn't work with the girls, choosing rather to sit and observe than to work as a team as they should. Does this bother his female teammates? NO! They prefer to ignore him rather than to include him.

ARGH! It isn't fair. Life isn't fair. Even so, why are WE the ones responsible for making life this unfair? Why are we doing this to the children of the future? Where does all this ludicrous "boys are from Mars and girls are from Venus" nonsense all spout from? Who is the person poisoning such young minds to think in this way?

Wordpress

Yep, the matter of me moving blogs still has not been entirely resolved, but for the time being I do have a blog there that I will be using regardless of the decision. Here's the link:

http://wingstothefuture.wordpress.com/

I spent the day formatting things and trying to figure out how all of the features worked in that blog. Added a crappy banner and made an icon for myself. Annoyingly enough though, for some reason I can't change my icon from the current pink Noumi icon that I have to the blue one that I made to match the header. Hopefully it's just lagging majorly and will be resolved by itself soon enough.

Oh, I forgot to mention. The point of that blog is that it'll be the main blog that I show to people. It won't contain all of my usual random posts even when I have nothing to say, just the bare, writing essentials. Meaning only the writing that I actually want to be critiqued. I added in my reviews there too for some reason, but I don't really know why.

That being said, if you're reading this current blog I don't see a point of you visiting there since I write all my entries here and then post the good ones (or, for a lack of words, the 'better' ones) there. Oh well, I figured it was better to just advertise that blog here anyways. Feel free to check it out (or not). That blog actually has a hit counter xD

To Move or Not to Move...

... that is the question. As you may or may not have noticed, I added a new poll to the side of my page. A part of me wishes to continue blogging here on blogspot while the other part wishes to move my entire blog to wordpress. As it is now, with the help of a friend's computer, I managed to duplicate this blog onto my wordpress account ('coincidentally' one with the same name) but I sort of feel like it's a waste of this blog. Each blog has something different to offer so I'm having a tough time deciding.

Today's blog was supposed to be super long because I had so much to say, but due to the fact that it's already past midnight and I'm getting sleepy, looks like it'll have to wait. Vote in my poll and I'll be back later today~!

Tale in the Moonlight- Chastised Moon 3

"Ms. Yamauchi, where have you been for the past 20 minutes?" Asked her nanny impatiently, "Do you know how hard everyone in this household has looked to find you? I never expected that you would need to be accompanied on a simple trip to the bathroom. When you didn't return, we were so worried. The servant who went to check on you looked like he was about to faint from worry! I was just about to call the master of the household to tell him that you went missing. Furthermore..."

The girl let the stout, middle-aged woman in front of her continue to lecture her about her manners in silence. Her dark brown eyes were hard and cold under her deeply furrowed brow. She could tell just from the look on the woman's face that no one in her household had actually been truly 'worried' about her. In reality, it was more like they were worried for themselves. The servants, maids, kitchen aids and even the tutors were all living in this household because they were paid so generously by her father to do so. She knew that not one of them held even an ounce of love for her. In their eyes, as long as she did what she was told and cooperated with them, she was simply the key to the vault.

"Ms. Yamauchi... Ms. Yamauchi... MEI!" At the sound of her name, Mei gave a little jump.

"Y-yes?" She stammered.

"Are you listening to me at all today? Goodness. And where are your manners? You are an extremely blessed young woman to be born into such a wonderful and prosperous family. You have world-class tutors who have given you lessons beyond what most children your age have learned. How can you possibly sit there with that vacant expression on your face and simply answer 'y-yes' to someone you should be paying attention to?" The nurse scolded.

Mei inwardly rolled her eyes before preparing to gove her proper response. "I'm terribly sorry ma'am. Maybe it is because it has already grown so late. Perhaps I am lacking sleep now. I was on my way to the bathroom but found myself lost in my thoughts on the way back. When I looked up I realized I had lost my way as well." Mei answered carefully, trying to be as polite as possible while bobbing a quick curtsy.

"Oh alright, I suppose it really has gotten late enough. Off to bed with you. It would be troublesome if your lack of sleep caused you to do poorly in your studies tomorrow." Her nanny replied grumpily as she turned away muttering to herself, "Getting lost in the house you were born and raised in... humph...".

When she had gone Mei heaved a huge sigh before collapsing carelessly onto her bed (if her nanny had seen she would have been chastised yet again for her rude behavior). She had narrowly avoided being caught on her rooftop excursion this time, but what would happen next time?

As her vision became blurry and her mind started to wander one image continued to linger, his face etched in her mind like liquid gold carved in deep ebony bark. Who was that mysterious boy who had climbed up onto her rooftop? He wasn't wearing the uniform of the household servants, so why was he there? Why had his voice sounded so concerned when he was approaching her?

All of her unanswered questions continued to nest in her mind, but they soon faded as the darkness enveloped her body and mind. From the corner of her eye, a tiny crystal droplet the size of a diamond began to form, growing larger and larger. Slowly, it trickled down across the girl's pale cheek before plummeting off of the tip and into the depths below...

Back

Well... it's been like... two days. I would give some sort of explanation as to why I wasn't able to post earlier, only... I have none. Anyways, another junk post for today. Winter vacation officially starts tomorrow~ two weeks away from school, but not quite away from work T~T More creative writing will hopefully come in the next few days though.

Winter Wish

Christmas is almost here~ so in order to celebrate this coming event, here's one of my favorite winter songs ^^ It's by Yonekura Chihiro sung for the Anime "Love Hina" which I haven't actually seen. I don't know how I ended up with this song, but I really love it. If only I could sing properly, I would have performed it at our cultural festival. Without further ado, here it is ^^

chiisana shiawase o daiji ni atatameteta
nee, omou to mune no oku konna ni itaku naru no
anata no me anata no koe subete itoshikute...

konayuki ga hoho ni maiori namida ni kawatta
itsu made mo soba ni ite kono te o hanasanai de
fuyu no sora kirameku hoshi wa futari o tsutsunda
shiroi kata shiroi iki anata to kanjiteru WINTER WISH

yorisoi aruita umizoi no yuuenchi
nee, kanransha ni notte hikari no machi miyou yo
tooku naru umi to awai kiss ga setsunakute...
hajimari wa konayuki no IVU chiisana SUTORI

dare yori mo aishiteru kono te o hanasanai de
arukidasu futari no mirai naranda ashiato
nukumori mo yasashisa mo anata to dakishimeru WINTER WISH

konayuki ga hoho ni maiori namida ni kawatta
itsu made mo soba ni ite kono te o hanasanai de
fuyu no sora kirameku hoshi wa futari o tsutsunda
shiroi kata shiroi iki anata to kanjiteru WINTER WISH

Goal in sight

What a long day... at last the Maid Cafe / Bunkasai has come to an end... two days left...

Mountains and Valleys

"Mountains and valleys. Right now you are in the bottom of the valley and your problems swell big around you. But soon, you will be at the top of a mountain again. After you have lived many mountains and valleys, we will be together." (Abuelita from Esperanza Rising)

Kanna knew that there were many high and low points in life. It was natural to think that some days she would be at higher points on a mountain than others. Some days, she would be at the bottom of a seemingly endless chasm. However little did she think that, in just one day, she could go through so many mountains and valleys!

She had definitely started the day in the deepest and darkest of valleys. How else could she describe working from 12am to 2am starting a project that was due later that morning? At 2 Kanna had collapsed sleepily onto her bed, leaving her only half-finished assignment cloaked in worry and distress, only to awaken two hours later to begin anew. Indeed, at 4am the amount of work that she still had to do seemed endless. Nonetheless Kanna trudged on.

After what seemed like hours of grueling work tackling seemingly incomprehensible questions Kanna found that she was nearing the end of her project! She looked up at the clock and-- what? It couldn't be! How had she gotten so far in a mere hour? Greatly relieved by this, Kanna worked diligently for another hour before returning to the shores of sleep. She knew that her project wasn't perfect, nor was it actually 100% complete, but the end was not far away.

7:30 Oh no. The peace of Kanna's world was shattered once again. After handing her near-complete work to her father, Kanna soon learned that her work was far from perfect. With less than an hour until the start of school, how would she ever be able to finish it? Sadly, Kanna knew the task was impossible. She finished at exactly 8:30, causing her to be half an hour late to her first block.

Although her first block was a disaster with her late appearance, her relief at finally handing in the fruits of her labor soon washed away the bad memory. Kanna was finally free to relax!

But wait-- not quite. The following day would be the Japanese cultural festival which she had been preparing for for the past few weeks. A heap of work still remained untouched before she could rest easily. Kanna was unable to do anything as her lunch hour of relaxation was thrown into a state of panic and running through the hallways trying to accomplish several tasks at once. Not only that, but her free period after lunch also disappeared as she had to attend to several other matters for the festival. She arrived back at school just in the nick of time to dash off to her final class for the day: chemistry.

As she turned the corner leading to the door of her classroom, Kanna spotted several unfamiliar figures standing at the doorway. She quickly realized that they were former graduates who had come to answer questions from her class. Unfortunately, they happened to be barring the doorway so Kanna was forced to stand awkwardly outside as they talked. When they left she dashed into class, but was not able to escape being noticed, especially since many of her classmates still had their eyes trained on the doorway. Embarrassed enough by her late appearance, Kanna then struggled through loads of incomprehensible chemistry information before discovering that she had forgotten to hand in her homework from the previous class. Luckily, her teacher had not minded since they were only taking notes this class. Still, even after being pardoned for both previous issues, Kanna was faced with another misfortunate event: her cellphone, which was always kept turned off, had been turned on in the previous block when she was away from school. Not only that, but the ringer was on max. Normally she didn't receive calls from anyone, especially since the phone was a new phone. But, as luck would have it, today some person decided to call. Kanna bit her lip to avoid crying. To make matters worse, her teacher chose that moment to remind them that today was report card day.

this is WAY too long. I'm only half done all these mountains and valleys >_> I give up. Here's the rest.

~I thought I'd fail on my report card this year because I knew for a fact that I was HONESTLY doing badly in several courses (Chemistry, Math, French, and Geography).
~It turns out I got a B in Chem, C+ in Math, B in French, and even an A in Geo. I NEVER saw them coming. As if that wasn't a pleasant enough surprise, I made honor roll to cap it off~!
~This pleasure quickly dissipated as I struggled after school to go over the final preparations for a Japanese presentation for the festival tomorrow
~By the end of it, luckily we somehow managed to get the gist of things
~I still had a mountain of work to accomplish including writing out many plans, buying new equipment, cooking the food to sell at our cafe, etc.
~Somehow I managed to finish everything
~The problem of my Ikebana station persisted
~My hotmail decided to malfunction on EVERY computer in the house (but my brother's worked)
~Somehow I realized that things were okay. I gave up on a few of the extra tasks I would have tried to accomplish, but it seems okay.
~Looks like tomorrow will be a long day, but at least I feel confident about it.

Stars of Winter

Kanna trudged her way home after a long day of hard work. Although she was tired and sleep-deprived already, she knew that tonight would be even longer than the night before. The burden of the final projects she had looming in the 5 days before winter break would keep her busy for hours on end. Even so, as she walked the long path from the bus stop to her home, she was unable to resist marveling at the miracle of winter.

The snowflakes fell light and daintily all around her, covering the ground with a giant white tissue. With each streetlamp she passed, she noticed the light refract off of thousands of tiny snowflakes at her feet, making parts of the snow glitter and gleam. She felt almost as if she was walking on the shining stars in the night sky!

Review: Kiss/Hug

Wohoo... to avoid posting yet another really pointless post I decided to review a manga that I read a little while ago (probably a month ago). As the title of this post suggests, it's called Kiss/Hug. It's a oneshot of about 13 chapters. Shoujo.

Surprisingly or not, I rated this manga a 10/10... one of very few. The storyline is technically very stereotypical. An ordinary girl attending high school and hoping to find a boyfriend suddenly meets a total bishie stranger in a "random" encounter. Somehow they end up getting to know each other and (as it is in most cases) they get closer together than regular acquaintances would due to some sort of circumstance (in this case the guy moves in with the girl). As is common, this manga also deals with social status. The guy, Ryuu, is the heir to some business or another and his getting together with a random person is against his family's wishes. As expected though, he still persists in being her suitor, even though she doesn't understand why. If you've read Hana ni Arashi, the storyline is almost EXACTLY the same. The same goes for Haou Airen (minus the rapes).

Yep, this is probably one of the most stereotypical shoujo storylines I've seen... yet I still managed to rate it a 10. Here's my justification: while the storyline is REALLY overdone, there are some original points to it. What I like the most about this series is that it doesn't actually overdramatize the world. Girl meets guy, they fall in love, their love faces trials. However, while tiny misunderstandings do occur, they aren't overly dramatic that cause major cases of insecurity and the possibility of breaking up. It also isn't soooo ironic that they have an argument about something that remains unresolved but that could have been resolved if they had only reworded their sentences properly. In this manga problems occur, problems persist, problems are confronted, problems are DEALT WITH. That way I didn't have to sit through 20 chapters of thoughts where one character wonders "does he REALLY love me?"

In this way I was overcome with relief that the characters actually had common sense. That pretty much accounts for 9/10 of my points. The other 1 point came from the drawing style. Not overly shoujo (in my opinion anyways) so I like it.

Yeah~ I'd better keep this short since I'm procrastinating on too many things at the moment. So there you have it.

Song of the Heart

Another uneventful day for me it seems... as usual a very unproductive one... this'll spell out my doom tomorrow. For today's entry there are so many things I wanted to write about... the pictures I managed to take today (but won't be able to upload anyways), the volunteer work that I did (but there isn't much to talk about), and even my consideration of moving blogs (I checked out one at wordpress... but I can't decide which is better... different features etc.) but instead, I think I'll post the lyrics to a song that's been stuck in my head all day. Ironically, it's actually one of my French songs that I found for the journals of doom. It's called J'aimerais tellement by Jena Lee.

J'aimerais Tellement

Ce n’est qu’une larme, juste un reste du passé
Dont je m’éloigne, mais qui ne cesse de me hanter
Ce n’est qu’une lame, qui entaille mes pensées
Je retrouve mon âme, ton regard me donne envie d’avancer.
Hey ho
Laisse-moi l’oublier
Laisse-moi l’effacer
Pour mieux tout te donner

J’aimerais tellement te dire ce que veut mon cœur
Mais je n’ai plus les mots
J’aimerais tellement te dire que je n’ai plus peur
Mais ces mots sonnent faux
Je dois tout recommencer une nouvelle fois
Baby pardonne moi si je fais un faux pas
Tu sais j’aimerais tellement te dire ce que veut mon cœur
Mais je n’ai plus les mots.

J’ai peur de cette flamme qui avant toi m’a brulé
Tes yeux me désarment je n’ose plus les affronter
Mes rêves se fanent, seul le temps pourra m’aider
Mais quand tu t’éloignes, j’ai finalement envie de te voir rester

Hey ho
Tu sais me parler
Tu sais m’écouter
Baby please let me
Laisse-moi juste me retrouver

J’aimerais tellement te dire ce que veut mon cœur
Mais je n’ai plus les mots
J’aimerais tellement te dire que je n’ai plus peur
Mais ces mots sonnent faux
Je dois tout recommencer une nouvelle fois
Baby pardonne moi si je fais un faux pas
Tu sais j’aimerais tellement te dire ce que veut mon cœur
Mais je n’ai plus les mots.

J’aimerais tellement donner autant que toi
Je trouverais les mots que tu attends pour moi
Je te demande, je te demande juste du temps.

J’aimerais tellement te dire ce que veut mon cœur
Mais je n’ai pas les mots
J’aimerais tellement te dire que je n’ai plus peur
Mais ces mots sonnent faux
Je dois tout recommencer une nouvelle fois
Baby pardonne moi si je fais un faux pas
Tu sais j’aimerais tellement te dire ce que veut mon cœur
Et je retrouverais les mots

J’aimerais tellement te dire ce que veut mon cœur
Mais je n’ai plus les mots
J’aimerais tellement te dire que je n’ai plus peur
Mais ces mots sonnent faux
Je dois tout recommencer une nouvelle fois
Baby pardonne moi si je fais un faux pas
Tu sais j’aimerais tellement te dire ce que veut mon cœur
Mais je n’ai plus les mots.

Tale in the Moonlight- Unfamiliar Moon 2

Are you tired of the stupidly-large images in my posts for the past few days? Me too. Let's attempt to bring back some proper writing now... a continuation of that other story I started on a whim a few days ago.
- - - - -

The sliver of the moon continued to shine brightly directly above the two figures, illuminating them in its pale sheen.

"Who are you?" The boy repeated, again in English, lowering himself to crouch neatly on the balcony railing. There he paused, still waiting for her response. When it was clear that no answer would be found, he descended. Swiftly, without letting his curious gaze stray from her face, he took a giant leap from the top of the railings, the back of his jet-black shirt flapping carelessly behind him, almost like a set of wings, and landed gracefully a few meters from where she was standing. "Those are my flowers" he bluntly pointed out, clear blue eyes gleaming, as he quickly closed the distance between them with two long strides.

As he approached her the girl drew back instantly, taking a step away from the flowers and also retreating farther into the shadows beside the entrance door. One of her arms hovered protectively near her chest. A mixture of fear, confusion, and wonder glimmered in her eyes.

"Woah there!" Startled by her sudden defensive position the boy came to a halt. Realizing that his presence was making her uncomfortable, he slowly raised his arms to indicate that he had nothing to harm her with. Keeping his distance, he averted his eyes from her intense gaze, looking downwards to the ground in front of her.

The first thing he noticed was that the girl was bare-footed, her long slender legs seemed to shiver slightly, either from the cool temperature surrounding them or from unease. She wore a flowing cream nightgown, sleeveless, with tiny ruffles along the shoulder straps. The bottom edge of her dress, which reached just above her knees, was also lined with the ruffles. Shifting his gaze upwards more his eyes fell on her light brown hair which cascaded smoothly over both shoulders in delicate little waves and wrapped itself gently around her porcelain-like face. Her gentle lavender eyes complemented her tiny pointed nose and thin, elegant mouth. He noticed the remains of two tiny sparkling streaks that were accented by the lighting and then realized that the girl had been crying not long before. Bathed in the moonlight her slightly pale complexion shone, making her look like an angel who had descended from heaven.

Aware that he had gawked at her for some time, once again his eyes found their way back to the place where hers still remained. "I'm sorry for my abrupt entrance there." He apologized as he regained his composure, "It's just that I've taken care of the plants on the roof here for some time in secret. This is the first time I've seen anyone come from inside this house. The lights are usually off so I thought no one lived here. Forgive me for intruding, but are you okay? Err... you do understand English right?" He asked timidly, once again searching her face for signs of a response.

He wondered if she was injured somewhere and stepped forward, concerned, searching her body for any signs of damage. However, as he approached her for the second time, she likewise retreated, flitting swiftly through the rooftop door...

Tickets

Wow... finally I get to post the tickets I made at midnight this morning. Again, more stuff to add on that I've made for our maid cafe at our school. I really think we're putting too much effort into this thing but... oh well~

Firmly Standing

... got carried away with making tickets for my bunkasai... AGAIN. I can't believe this is the second day in a row... oh dear. Well, tomorrow I will make sure to remember ahead of time. As for now, my apologies (though I don't know how many people actually read this and/or care)

Today I had a bunch of pictures to post. But alas, none of them work on this computer. Hopefully I'll get things fixed soon.

Edit: After moving to my family computer I was finally able to upload the images I wanted~ (I honestly don't know why these images are SOOOO huge! Geez... I wish I could re-size them.)

After a long day of school-related torture, I managed to relax a bit and try something I haven't done often before with my friends. We made gingerbread houses~ (out of graham crackers xD) Although, in reality, I was the only one who actually made a house out of the materials (though Marick did make one at first... somehow it turned out... different) it was still lots of fun. We used suuper hard icing so luckily it was able to stay standing for quite a long time.

Edit: It's been 3 days already but the house is still standing (sans roof because I ate it) in my kitchen!

A present for Lucy

Darn... I blinked and suddenly it's after midnight again. I swear I still had half an hour before the deadline... x_x anyways. Today was an average day... very busy for the bunkasai... I got my H1N1 vaccine (which initially hurt much less than I had anticipated ^-^)

Anyways, this is like the FIRST thing I've photoshopped in weeks. A coupon voucher for a friend of mine. I saved it in a .jpeg file because I don't really feel like killing my internet before I'm able to post this post.

Looming Darkness

Although Kanna was never entirely sure what to answer when asked: "what is your most favorite thing in the world?", she knew the opposite: "what is your most hated thing in the world?". Even as she thought of them she shuddered with distaste. Tomorrow, once again, she would have to come face to face with a feared and hated opponent: the needle.

Laugh as you may, she just didn't know how to deal with them. She cringed at the thought of her last encounter with one: the blood test. It had been her first blood test ever. Although it felt less painful than a regular vaccine, at the end Kanna knew that it had been far worse. The room spun and her vision became blurred. She had been terrified to be so helpless and uncoordinated since something like that had never happened before.

The time before that, and before that and possibly even before that, Kanna had vague recollections of crying or being on the verge of tears come vaccination time. Would tomorrow be any different? The darkness surrounding tomorrow seemed endless. As she stood at the borderline preparing herself she tried to gather her courage. Tomorrow. Tomorrow she would face the darkness and produce a light of her own.

(I don't know... I'm out of ideas of something to write. Here's more crap for anyone with lots of free time I suppose. I was more proud of yesterday's entry than this one [for obvious reasons].)

Tale in the Moonlight- Bittersweet Moon 1

The sun sank slowly over the distant horizon, bringing with it the warm, vibrant colors. The wide, amber-colored sky slowly began to lose its sparkle as bright orange turned to red, purple, gray and, at last, black. In this darkness, the crescent moon crawled slowly into the velvet sky, its dull and sad sheen slowly getting stronger as it ascended higher and higher into the night sky. One by one the stars emerged, gaining confidence and twinkling harmoniously like little diamonds in the darkness.

Somewhere far away, a figure emerged with the break of twilight. Elegantly, delicately, she wove her way up the winding staircase of the building, going through multiple spirals of the long staircase until she approached the barrier. Her round, violet eyes gazed at the dark ebony double doors looming in front of her. Slowly but surely she reached out towards them, grasping one of the smooth iron knobs in the palm of her warm, slender fingers.

The lock clicked. The door creaked ever so slightly, letting a tiny sliver of light enter the dark, dread-filled passage from which she had just come. She pushed gently on the tall door, noticing touch of the wood at her fingertips. She felt her breath catch at the back of her throat, the hairs on the back of her neck prickled with anticipation. With a final resounding thud the large doors parted completely, revealing a spacious marble terrace bathed in the moonlight.

She hesitated for a moment, remaining stooped nervously in the shadows. Gathering her composure she absently stepped forward, advancing into the light of the half-moon. Now she walked to the tip of the terrace to lean on the polished white railings. The her ginger-brown hair cascaded in gentle curls down her shoulders, the tips coming to a rest on the ledge. A shiver ran along her spine as the late summer breeze washed over her, caressing her pale tear-streaked cheeks.

Along with the wind came a scent unfamiliar to her as she turned towards the eastern walls. Along the perimeter of the wall tall vines dangled charmingly, interspersed with a type of flower she had never seen before. Drawing nearer to that wall she found the buds of about a dozen dainty flowers soaking up the moonlight. Each honey-gold center was surrounded by fifteen to twenty round, white petals that formed three or four layers around the middle. The rings, like the wings of an angel, glowed mysteriously in the serene atmosphere. Carefully, trying not to disturb the perfect proportions of the vines around the flower, she reached out to touch one of the glowing white petals. The fuzzy, velvety feel of the petal on her fingertip surprised her. She had guessed, based on her visual observation, that the petal would feel more waxy and hard rather than fuzzy.

"Who are you?"

An unfamiliar voice with a strong English accent cut through the silent atmosphere like a knife through butter. Her head swiveled sharply to find the source of the sound. She turned in time to see a figure climbing over the side of the railings, tousled silver-blond hair illuminated in the light. Little did she know that the key to her fate had just appeared...

Review: Watashi ni xx Shinasai

Well, it's been awhile since I've done a review on anything. This time it's on another manga by Ema Tooyama. Although I haven't really done a review on her other series, those that know me know that I'm obsessed with it. It's called Koko ni Iru Yo.

This series started out really interesting... well... started out isn't really the way I want to phrase it but... although there are only 5 chapters translated in English, from the 5 chapters it's quite intriguing. It's about a girl with a cold stare named Yukina. In fact, she's called the snow woman and other nicknames similar to it by her classmates because of her stare. Unbeknownst to her classmates, she is actually the legendary cell-phone writer with the alias "Yupina" (yeah... cell-phone novel... this is the first time I've ever heard of one). She bases her stories on her classmates, which is possibly one of the reasons her classmates feel they can relate so closely to characters in the story. Yukina bases characters on all of her classmates, except one: Kitami Shigure, the student council representative who is popular with everyone else. She feels that his smile is too fake and cannot understand why people like him so much. In fact, she bluntly tells him so after observing him reject a girl's confession in the hallway. After this Shigure is called away by the teacher so he leaves, dropping his student handbook in the process. Yukina picks up the book only to discover that it is evidence of Shigure's hidden side: he's a playboy who treats people like objects to be won in an elusive game. She decides that, using this notebook to blackmail him, she will make him be her 'pretend lover' in order to collect more romantic material for her novel. The story goes on from there...

Overall I think that this manga is pretty good. I love Ema Tooyama's drawing style in general, and since this series is her latest one and is still being published, her graphics are even better than in Koko ni Iru Yo. It irks me a little to see that she apparently has no creativity with male characters though (even though her female leads are so unique and awesome). I mean, looking at Kitami I can totally see Hinata from Koko ni Iru Yo. Not to mention Amamiya from Pixie Pop. She only has two other series(es?) besides those by the way. The fact that the main characters from both KNIY and PP both end up with that same guy despite their love triangles leads me to the predictable conclusion that Yukina will pick Kitami over Akira (I mean, Akira's even her cousin... as if that's not an intended turn off.) I don't really mind that, but it's just too predicable. Not to mention in chapters 6-8 it's going down an oddly generic shoujo series path... (I got impatient and I read the chapters raw. It amazed me how I actually understood what was going on.)

I think that's enough of a rant for today. I have a pile of homework that I managed to somehow evade by browsing youtube for the past 2 hours... darn... I'm gonna be screwed tomorrow again.

End of the Day

Seriously... that was one of the longest days of my life. Two hours of sleep at night, buf for some reason no matter how hard I tried to sleep in the class/on the bus/in the car I never could fall asleep.

Well, that essay was messed up. I had some points that I was proud of, but then some other points that I know I'm going to get pwned for. Oh well, at least it's over.

I just spent the last hour or so learning how to copy the rubick's cube formula. It's very long and I don't understand what I'm doing half the time, but at least I can see a completed cube for once =D (by myself without a formula, I can only manage to solve 2/3)

What else... I feel that there was a bunch of things that I had to say today, but my lack of sleep is starting to catch up to me. Creative writing will have to wait until tomorrow I suppose since nothing good can come of my sleep-deprived state.

Random discovery of the day: With the amount of long presentations I've had to give, BSing a 20 minute presentation with absolutely no script or plan ahead of time doesn't seem so hard anymore x_x Probably the only thing I will get out of graduating from IB is the skills to spout total BS whenever it is needed.

Endless Circles

Agh! Ever since about 1am this morning my head has been totally messed up as I try to figure out what I want to say for my latest essay. "To what extent is truth different in mathematics, the arts, and ethics." (I put the title here half-wondering if any other IB student googling the topic will arrive at my blog xD Unlikely though since this is draft 4...)

My thoughts on this topic:
~To be able to even start examining this topic, you have to define "truth". How would one go about doing that? Aristotle says: "To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true". Even so, he does not specify who decides what "is" or "is not", so how can you know the answer? If I say it's a knowledgeable person in that field of study, what is knowledgeable? I've been going around and around in circles for topics to even explain myself before actually looking at the actual question! If my mind could have an exploding sound, it would be going here right about now.
~What is ethics? Ethics is a system for morality. It is NOT morality itself. How do I go about explaining truth in ethics? Why am I choosing this topic? I have no answer to the former question. To the latter: because I'm stupid.
~What is mathematics? I can tell you what mathematics is not, but that doesn't necessarily tell me what it is. Who can I possibly source to tell us what "mathematics" is??
~Art is about the only one of the three areas of knowledge that I'm NOT totally confused over.

On top of all of that, I still have my French journal which I will probably never end up finishing, as well as my Japanese presentation for tomorrow which I will also not be finishing. I'm doubtful about my improvisation, but it looks like I really WILL have to do that tomorrow x_x

Someone save me....

December

Can you believe we're already in to December? I certainly can't. Probably because it looks like even with 16 days left until the end of school the wave of tests, essays, and projects has not lessened.

I think I totally failed term 1. And now I'm about to fail term 2 by procrastinating about everything. Forgive me for yet another practically blank post. Luckily, by now it seems that I have less of an audience for whatever reason. Maybe over winter break I will be able to actually focus on doing what I intended to do with this blog: writing stuff for people to critique.

Project: Part 2

Ding-dong ding-dong, dong-ding ding-dong.

"Araa, look at the time. It looks like class is dismissed for today," the Japanese teacher announced at last, "Kiritsu. Rei"

"Sayounara." The class chimed in unison as students scrambled hastily to the door, eager to start their weekend. Yuko took her time slowly as she gathered her materials that were sprawled messily over her desk, lurching forward to grab a stack of books that were perched precariously over the edge right before they toppled. Today's class had been a very productive one. Yuko had managed to finish two new articles for the school newspaper while paying attention to the class lecture. In addition, she had also managed to create the next rotation for classroom duties.

"Sensei, here is the timetable you requested," she called as she approached their homeroom teacher.

"Ah, Hayashi. I know you were busy with other deadlines. Thank you for taking the time to finish this for me as well."

"No problem. Now I have a meeting to attend so I'll be going now." Yuko replied apologetically as she turned and sprinted in the opposite direction.

- - - - - - -
Didn't feel like writing anything past there. I realize that this section sounds really weeabooish with all those small and random Japanese words in there, but it was (sort of) on purpose to establish a bit of a context... I didn't bother giving the teachers names or mentioning what topic they were studying in particular because, well it's boring and useless information.