The Last in the First

Listening to: Monster by Lady Gaga

This weekend has both been extremely eventful and extremely laid back. It started with me going to my last class, a lecture in business statistics, with my backpack, purse, and dirty laundry. Oh yes, I was THAT kid. So I sat in back and waited the hour and twenty minutes before I bolted out of the building and towards the train station. There, I waited for a good half hour in 20 degree weather with winds whipping past me. Once I got on the train, I was golden. A nice older woman sat next to me and while I could have started up a conversation my silly inability to relate to people on the fly got in the way. So I took a phone call and listened to the Very Potter Musical instead. When I arrived, my dad was waiting in the car for me. After a short stop at a store, we were on our way for another hour drive. Our evening was quiet, we watched my dad play some video games and just hung out.

The next morning was my first non-family funeral. Although I did not know the woman that well, or even know her family that well for that matter, I cried so hard during the service. I'm not sure why. It could be because her situation and how close her family's situation was to my current one. Another possible explanation might be that when I'm around people, their moods affect me and with such sadness in the air, I couldn't help but cry. In any case, I'm praying for her family.

Later that day we went to go find my sister some winter boots, a little late, and we ended up getting me a sweater as well. It's beautiful and green, sort of knit and it reminds me of the Korean Drama Winter Sonata for some reason. Probably because of it's hand-made look and the soft sort of color that the yarn is. As we headed home, we stopped at a road-side barbeque to get some pork, ribs, and chicken to bring home for dinner for ourselves and my mother. Despite being made in extremely cold weather and on the side of the road, it was EXTREMELY good. Top notch stuff, really. The people were really nice as well, which was very refreshing. If it were me on the side of the road selling meat, I'm sure I wouldn't be so nice.

After dinner, my family and I watched Julie and Julia for the first time. Superb. Amazing. Beautiful. Inspiring. The movie itself was amazing, and I love how it's a sort of chick flick, but it doesn't prescribe to the normal layout of most chick flicks. Of course, this movie also heightened my love for Meryl Streep. She is so pretty and amazing and just a wonderful actress. When I watch her in interviews she's so modest at well. Anyway, other than my fangirling, the rest of the night was grand.

Today, I got up, went to church, and then played mario. So much fun. It's good to just spend time with my family, especially after stressing out at school for the past two weeks. Then I made some chocolate chip cookies and we watched The Hangover. What a hilarious movie. I especially loved the SPECIAL features.

Then I, like the consumer I am, watched the grammies, switching back and forth between that and Criminal Minds. Oh gosh, I LOVED Lady Gaga and Elton John's performance. What an amazing way to begin the show. Beyonce was amazing as well, but I kind of wish Alanis Morissette would have joined in when Beyonce started to sing her song. Pink was daring, beautiful, and a great performer as always. Oh and Green Day! I absolutely loved their performance with the cast of American Idiot. Listening to the differences between them and classically trained performers was amazing, as well as everything else that happened on that stage with them. Another act I loved was The Black Eyed Peas. They are such amazing performers, when they're up there on stage they just take charge of everything. Don't even get me started on the whole Taylor Swift thing. She seems like an alright person, at least her public persona is alright, but she did not deserve to win in the end.

Tomorrow, bright and early I head out to the wonderful world of University. Beautiful. I'll be coming back again this coming weekend, but I'm still not looking forward to getting up so early. Before my mother went to sleep, she was talking about how she wanted to get me lessons for guitar and piano lessons for my sister in the summer. Now THAT would be something interesting. All my attempts to play both instruments thus far have ended in only knowing about three chords for a week and then forgetting everything. Chordophones are not my thing.

Have A Splendiferous Day And Hug Somebody!

HEART

Zan

In Lieu of recent events, you will get two quotes on this fine morning

::Two Quotes To Leave You By::

"Revenge is a dish best served cold" Old Klingon proverb

And

"Finally watching Taylor live. Wow. You weren't kidding. Stevie Nicks amazing. Beyonce. Pink amazing. This girl is sweet. Cute. Crap Singer" Buckhollywood

I Want Your Love, And I Want Your Revenge

Listening to: Friend by the WonderGirls

So recently, as in yesterday, I've decided to start keeping a dream diary. Not here, of course, but in a paper journal thing I made in an art class once. Dreams are way too revealing to post them up here. Well, at least I think they are. :P So that's been going well. I think I'll go back in and draw a few pictures so I'll remember what everything looked like and certain parts that I can't describe with words. It's times like this that I wish I were a better artist, but what I have will just have to make due. Speaking about art, I've been working on this one picture and I think it's really cool. I only finished like two parts so far though, and I'm not sure what to do. Maybe a dream will inspire me to finish it??

This week I've been to the gym every weekday so far, and I'm going tomorrow as well. I can already feel myself become accustomed to working out a lot because the first time was annoying, but now it feels kind of refreshing to work out. On the stationary bike at least. The elliptical is a WHOLE other story. I did that for the first time in a while yesterday, and it kicked my butt. I think that might have to end up being a "once a week" sort of workout thing. Other than that, it's fun. I only worked out alone once this week, which is good and bad. Having company through a workout is fun, but I'm not very good at talking and improving myself at the same time. It's also easier to push myself when it's just me and the music. Whatever, I'll learn how to multi task in this one day. :D

School itself isn't too bad right now. I have a quiz tomorrow in accounting, so I'm doing the online homework for that right now. It's okay, it's accounting and I'm getting used to it's own little language. Korean is a good class, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to put in all the effort for it. Well, I have until monday to decide what to do. Tomorrow it's my friend's birthday so we're going out for dinner. I hope we're not all gross for it after the gym, lol. It should be an interesting experience. :D

Have a beautiful day and hug somebody!
Zan

::A Quote To Leave You By::
"Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils" Louis Hector Berlioz

First Week

Listening to: Hey Soul Sister by Train

So the first week of classes is over, and although it wasn't even a full week it was very interesting. I've started my resolution about working out, and it's going well so far. Wednesday I cycled over 11 miles on the stationary bike, and today I did 10. I was working out with a friend today, so for the first 15 minutes we just did an easy pace, and I did like 8 miles in the last 15 minutes. The bike machine I was on today was horrible. First of all, the seat was way too high for me, so it ended up being a very uncomfortable time. On top of that, the machine I chose wasn't properly balanced on the ground, so as I would try to go faster it would rock right to left, almost as if it were going to fall down. Moral of the story? Check the equipment before you start working out or you'll be sore where you're not supposed to be sore. That being said, I'll probably work out again tomorrow even though I don't like washing my hair two days in a row.

Classes themselves were pretty good. I have a lot of good teachers this semester, so it should be better than last semester. Supposedly I have homework for half of them, but I can't find it in the syllabi or on Blackboard so I'll just hang back on that for now. I do have to read an article for my Korean Pop Culture class though, and I need to read an entire book for Mosaics and do two exercises for it as well, but that'll be simple enough. Hopefully I'll have a good majority of that done tonight, although I have a weird craving to draw, so I may just read the Korean article and then do all the Mosaic assignments tomorrow. I also want to upload some notes into my computer using OneNote so that I can take notes on my laptop in class. If you don't know about OneNote, you should definitely look into it. It's this really cool note-taking system made by Microsoft. It came with my computer so I'm not sure which vista/windows 7 set up it comes with, but if you take class notes on the computer you should definitely look into it. Everything is fluid and very easy to move around. It's great too because I can take my own notes and then just take diagrams and stuff from power points or online stuff and put it into the document. :D

Yesterday, Thursday, my friends and I went out for a girl's night and when we got to olive garden I found out that it was a late birthday celebration. They gave me a card and paid for my food, which was way too nice of them. I seriously didn't think anything like that was going to happen, so it was a pretty interesting surprise. This is just another reason I love my friends. :D

Oh, if you're wondering how reading "The Lovely Bones" to my mother went, it was pretty good. It only took a couple of days, well evenings really, but we got through. Both my sister and my mother really liked the books and we're looking into getting the book that Alice Sebold wrote after it. They're not related, but we enjoy her twisted stories.

Have a fantastic day and hug somebody!

Zan

::A Quote To Leave You By::

"Do or do not. There is no 'try'." Jedi Master Yoda

Anxious as Always

This time last year I was anxious and worried, both wanting to go back to school and hating the idea of it. It seems history truly does repeat himself. Yesterday (the twelfth), was the one year mark from when my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. My father surprised her with an ice cream cake when he got home from work. My mother, being my mother, cried for a short while and then we ate dinner, played some video games, and then ate the cake. It was all very nice. My mother's cancer has been responding well, but small cell cancer is incurable with current technology. She will never be "cured" or cancer-free. All we can do is reduce the cancer cells in her body and prolong her life. And pray of course. :)

This isn't the only reason I find myself anxious though. I have bills due soon, rent in a few weeks, and books to buy. One of my books is over 200 dollars, another is over 100. Oh expensive semester, how I loathe you! Still, despite all the obvious future debt and leaving my mother, I can't wait to see my friends again, and even to start classes. This coming semester I'm taking an asian studies class based around korean popular culture. This will surely be a stress reliever. :D

That being said, my sister and I are currently reading "The Lovely Bones" aloud to my mother. The chemo has left her eyes all wonky, and she wants to read it because of the movie. My sister has never read it either. This will prove to be an interesting experience.

Have a magnificent day and hug somebody!

<3 Zan

::A Quote To Leave You By::

“How to commit the perfect murder was an old game in heaven. I always chose the icicle: theweapon melts away.” The Lovely Bones

Oh Glorious Day!

Listening to: Up Original Soundtrack

Today was quite a day. It begun early at 8 AM ((Can you tell I'm in vacation mode?? Haha)) when I woke up, quickly shaved and put on a bathing suit, shorts, and a shirt. It sounds perfectly normal for a Floridian vacation, but let me tell you what's not normal about it. The 30 degree weather that has decided to float around central Florida for the entire week that I'm staying down here. Now why was I putting on a bathing suit when it's as cold as it is up in lovely Pennsylvania? A scuba diving lesson. Beautiful. So the lesson was not actually that bad, except the beginning of the lesson when we were freezing. It was fun, the instructor, my sister, and the two others attending the lesson played with some torpedo thing underwater. Oh, and the two others who were in the lesson? Irish boys. Unfortunately, they were both ten. Better luck next time. :D

So after the lesson, the group went into the nearby hot tub for a short while and then my sister and I hopped over to the locker room where we dried off and found a sauna. Oh how I wish I had a sauna at home. It's lovely and warm, and smoke comes out when you pour water on the rocks! Perhaps one day... Anywho, then we went back to our room, got changed and set off to Disney.

We didn't get to MGM until the afternoon, so unfortunately my sister could not participate in the American Idol game/show/attraction. We did get to go on the Tower and the Rockin' Roller coaster, and they were fun, even if I did get a little lightheaded afterwards. Then we met Prince Caspian and went through a short show and then the best part of the day happened. I met the wonderful characters of UP. Russell, Carl, and Dug were so wonderful and friendly, they even liked my Lord of the Rings fleece! The way my parents describe it to me makes me think that the Disney workers must have thought that I was "special" because I was all alone ((My sister hasn't seen the movie yet and didn't understand how amazing it is so she let me wait all alone and my mother and father had gone to see Mickey before I got in line.)), and I was extremely excited. I believe I hopped around and clapped a bit. I did get hugs from all of them though, which makes me smile. After my dad had finished taking photos, the PhotoPass man took photos as well so it makes me think that I may end up on some brochure. Oh Disney/Pixar, don't you understand how amazing your work is?

After that, my family just had dinner and went back to the room. Supposedly tomorrow we're going back to the Magic Kingdom for our last Disney day this vacation. That should be interesting, and I hope I'll be able to find a Dug plushie. Or even a Carl plushie. Carl is so adorable!

In other news, my resolution for my Youtube already is looking up! Today I was emailed to be a part of a collaboration video. Although he only needs a few seconds of footage from me, it'll be motivating. I've only participated in one collaboration video before, and that was with corkZILLA for a David Choi video called "Pick It". We were certainly the most amazing nose pickers that ever lived. :D This new collab will certainly be an inspiration for me to start up my videos.

Have a glorious day and hug someone!

<3

Zan

A Quote to Leave You by::

"Hey, I know a joke! A squirrel walks up to a tree and says, "I forgot to store acorns for the winter and now I am dead." Ha! It is funny, because the squirrel is dead!" ~ Dug, Up, Disney

It's a New Year

I obviously have not been keeping up with my blog posts, or much of anything else here on the interwebs other than my insane addiction to my youtube subscriptions. Considering the amount of time I actually spend on the internet, I find this to be troubling indication of my laziness and forgetfulness. To deal with this, and many other problems, I will make my New Year's resolutions here and keep up with them. Hopefully this will hold me somewhat accountable for my actions, and inactions.

1. Post here, at the very least, once a week. I want to write more often, and I used to write all the time, so this would be a good place to do that.
2. Try in my classes. I can very easily come up with B's to Mid-A's in college without doing much of anything. I need to apply myself and strive for good grades this year so I can get good internships and establish better habits.
3. Post more videos on Youtube. This is something that I've been wanting to do for a long time. I want to reach people to share experience, knowledge, and whatever else I can.
4. Lose weight. I am so out of shape, and although I haven't gained weight recently, I really can't stand looking at photos or in the mirror anymore. This resolution, though, I won't really begin until I get back to school where I have a free gym at my disposal and no meal plan. Healthy, small meals, here I come!
5. Don't do anything stupid to my hair. Although I've always been rather conservative in my hair, this past year, at least from the beginning of my freshman fall until now, I've really changed my hair a lot. At one point, I'm sure I was even addicted to cutting my bangs, it got to a point where I would trim them once a day. This being said, I'm going to grow my hair long again. I've had my turn at short hair, and it's just not my thing. I'll grow my bangs out too, at least until I decide what to do about them.

So I think basically the theme of this upcoming year for me is going to be to discipline myself. Although I think I'm very disciplined when it comes to certain matters, I need to have these things laid out and have a schedule or I'll slide by in life like I have for the past year. I need to experience life. I'll update you guys on my resolutions as often as I can without being repetitive and annoying. Once again Happy New Year, and I hope your resolutions are going well.

<3
Zanbato