MELLRY CLISTMASU!
LOL I'm Japanese. (Man. I wish I was. Then maybe it'd be easier to get a Wii. xD)
Anyway, just an update to tell you all that, yes indeed, I am still alive and kickin'!
I've been in San Diego and Las Vegas for pretty much all of last week, and when I wasn't on the road, I was usually...reading. Yes, I still do that thing. Where you crack open a book, settle down on a couch somewhere, and read. Voluntarily. Ahaha.
So far this break, I've read:
Cart and Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones
Drowned Ammet by Diana Wynne Jones
The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Vol. I by Diana Wynne Jones (yes, I've been on a kiddy-fantasy kick. So what. Anyway, this is really two books in one. That's right, I'm just that good. :D)
1984 by George Orwell (Verrry good book! Even better, I daresay, than "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. It was unavoidable, drawing comparisons between the two, but in the end, despite their similarities, the two authors really took different paths with their critiques on totalitarianism. I preferred Orwell's more clinical method, but both books were satisfyingly depressing in the end. I really like reading about dystopias, I've found. :D)
The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo (Now I understand about being a desert woman, Tiffany Man! x) Anyway, this was a very inspirational book about achieving one's Personal Legend. It's a book that bears rereading whenever we feel disheartened or alone.)
Now I'm starting on The Geographer's Library by Jon Fasman. The blurb compared this book (favorably, I must say) to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, but I find no similarities. Fasman's novel is full of whimsical, brainy prose which evokes ideas from human history and lore. Brown's is an overhyped, amateurish paperback. I mean, look at Demons & Angels. The man plagiarizes from himself for goodness' sake!
....er, right. Dan Brown. Makes me kinda mad. Ahahaha. Anyway. Enjoying Fasman so far.
I'd hoped to get through Chabon's Amazing Adventures of Kevaliar and Clay this break, but I don't think it's quite possible. Instead of waking up excited and full of yuletide joy today, I woke up, thought about college apps, rewriting my EE, my World Lit, and my History IA, and designing the set for the spring play, and tried as hard as I could to fall back asleep.
I wasn't entirely successful, I must say.
Anyway, after a week of running away from work, I've finally been able to sit down at the computer and start on my college apps again. It really isn't so bad, if I can just grit my teeth and force myself to do it; after all, college essays are practically like journal entries: little personal essays that are actually enjoyable to write.
Um...I think this was supposed to be a post wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, so I'll just shut up and do that:
Merry Christmas, one and all!
My annual year-in-review post should come sometime around New Year's, hopefully. I can't wait to see my family then.
ETA: ZOMG. Just reading other people's xangas about what they've done this Winter Break makes me feel like a hideous, repulsive, non-showering YETI of a recluse who refuses to answer the phone properly/spend time with friends/PUT DOWN THE DAMN BOOK AND GET OUT OF THE HOUSE.
-___________-"
Oh well.
;D
ETAA: Okay, just for the sake of being random...
My vacation (if that shopping-filled extravaganza can be called a vacation) resparked the ... whatsit. "GLOW" of creativity in me.
I really want to get into photography...lomography, and hand-tinting photos, and developing in a darkroom and everything. Seriously. Or maybe it's just me really yearning for that fisheye camera I saw at Urban Outfitters. (Best. Store. Ever. Besides. Bookstores. :D)
I want to crochet amigurumi so badly! >< I want to go to Taiwan and find some Asian DIY kits and make the cutest, most useless things ever!
I want to paint. I really want to try my oil paints out. I bought them in the summer, but have been too afraid to commit anything to canvas.
Most of all, I want to get back into writing. Not writing like EE-writing, or mechanical research-paper-writing, or even personal-college-statement writing.
Writing for the fun of it.
Writing because I have something to say and I want people to listen up.
Writing because I love thinking and dreaming and coaxing words onto a page.
Sometimes I wish so badly I could have been born in a different era. An era where writing consisted of an ink pen biting into a page. Instead, the fastest way to solidify my thoughts are through the tapping of a keyboard. Where is the romance, I ask, how can one write of daring adventures and epic battles and glorious triumphs while facing a glaring white screen?
If anytime of the year is ripe for wishes, Christmastime must be it.
Is it too much to wish for a little more romance in our lives? And by romance, I don't mean love - at least, not in the sense of ... the birds and the bees, and whatnot. By romance, I mean handwritten letters and helping thy neighbor and feeling alive. Not this electronic zap of messages and information. Not this era, where people create whole lives in this vastly impersonal virtual space.
I don't know. I'm a major hypocrite for writing this on an internet blog, aren't I? But I can't help feeling like this.
Maybe it's just nostalgia working it's Christmas magic on me.
At any rate, I hope it's not too much to make a wish for the new year.
To a year of friendships, and personal connections, and the sound of someone's laughter, the feel of another being's presence.
To a year of warming one's toes under a blanket and hearing the wind outside, and the drop of leaves, and the glow of utter contentment in one's chest when one is safe and sheltered.
To a year of stopping every once in a while to realize the beauty of the crisp blue sky, to a year of smelling roses.
To a year where people won't be afraid to dream, or to reach for the stars and the moon, and more.
To a year of new experiences, of realizing that new things aren't strange. They're wondrous.
Anyway, just an update to tell you all that, yes indeed, I am still alive and kickin'!
I've been in San Diego and Las Vegas for pretty much all of last week, and when I wasn't on the road, I was usually...reading. Yes, I still do that thing. Where you crack open a book, settle down on a couch somewhere, and read. Voluntarily. Ahaha.
So far this break, I've read:
Cart and Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones
Drowned Ammet by Diana Wynne Jones
The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Vol. I by Diana Wynne Jones (yes, I've been on a kiddy-fantasy kick. So what. Anyway, this is really two books in one. That's right, I'm just that good. :D)
1984 by George Orwell (Verrry good book! Even better, I daresay, than "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. It was unavoidable, drawing comparisons between the two, but in the end, despite their similarities, the two authors really took different paths with their critiques on totalitarianism. I preferred Orwell's more clinical method, but both books were satisfyingly depressing in the end. I really like reading about dystopias, I've found. :D)
The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo (Now I understand about being a desert woman, Tiffany Man! x) Anyway, this was a very inspirational book about achieving one's Personal Legend. It's a book that bears rereading whenever we feel disheartened or alone.)
Now I'm starting on The Geographer's Library by Jon Fasman. The blurb compared this book (favorably, I must say) to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, but I find no similarities. Fasman's novel is full of whimsical, brainy prose which evokes ideas from human history and lore. Brown's is an overhyped, amateurish paperback. I mean, look at Demons & Angels. The man plagiarizes from himself for goodness' sake!
....er, right. Dan Brown. Makes me kinda mad. Ahahaha. Anyway. Enjoying Fasman so far.
I'd hoped to get through Chabon's Amazing Adventures of Kevaliar and Clay this break, but I don't think it's quite possible. Instead of waking up excited and full of yuletide joy today, I woke up, thought about college apps, rewriting my EE, my World Lit, and my History IA, and designing the set for the spring play, and tried as hard as I could to fall back asleep.
I wasn't entirely successful, I must say.
Anyway, after a week of running away from work, I've finally been able to sit down at the computer and start on my college apps again. It really isn't so bad, if I can just grit my teeth and force myself to do it; after all, college essays are practically like journal entries: little personal essays that are actually enjoyable to write.
Um...I think this was supposed to be a post wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, so I'll just shut up and do that:
Merry Christmas, one and all!
My annual year-in-review post should come sometime around New Year's, hopefully. I can't wait to see my family then.
ETA: ZOMG. Just reading other people's xangas about what they've done this Winter Break makes me feel like a hideous, repulsive, non-showering YETI of a recluse who refuses to answer the phone properly/spend time with friends/PUT DOWN THE DAMN BOOK AND GET OUT OF THE HOUSE.
-___________-"
Oh well.
;D
ETAA: Okay, just for the sake of being random...
My vacation (if that shopping-filled extravaganza can be called a vacation) resparked the ... whatsit. "GLOW" of creativity in me.
I really want to get into photography...lomography, and hand-tinting photos, and developing in a darkroom and everything. Seriously. Or maybe it's just me really yearning for that fisheye camera I saw at Urban Outfitters. (Best. Store. Ever. Besides. Bookstores. :D)
I want to crochet amigurumi so badly! >< I want to go to Taiwan and find some Asian DIY kits and make the cutest, most useless things ever!
I want to paint. I really want to try my oil paints out. I bought them in the summer, but have been too afraid to commit anything to canvas.
Most of all, I want to get back into writing. Not writing like EE-writing, or mechanical research-paper-writing, or even personal-college-statement writing.
Writing for the fun of it.
Writing because I have something to say and I want people to listen up.
Writing because I love thinking and dreaming and coaxing words onto a page.
Sometimes I wish so badly I could have been born in a different era. An era where writing consisted of an ink pen biting into a page. Instead, the fastest way to solidify my thoughts are through the tapping of a keyboard. Where is the romance, I ask, how can one write of daring adventures and epic battles and glorious triumphs while facing a glaring white screen?
If anytime of the year is ripe for wishes, Christmastime must be it.
Is it too much to wish for a little more romance in our lives? And by romance, I don't mean love - at least, not in the sense of ... the birds and the bees, and whatnot. By romance, I mean handwritten letters and helping thy neighbor and feeling alive. Not this electronic zap of messages and information. Not this era, where people create whole lives in this vastly impersonal virtual space.
I don't know. I'm a major hypocrite for writing this on an internet blog, aren't I? But I can't help feeling like this.
Maybe it's just nostalgia working it's Christmas magic on me.
At any rate, I hope it's not too much to make a wish for the new year.
To a year of friendships, and personal connections, and the sound of someone's laughter, the feel of another being's presence.
To a year of warming one's toes under a blanket and hearing the wind outside, and the drop of leaves, and the glow of utter contentment in one's chest when one is safe and sheltered.
To a year of stopping every once in a while to realize the beauty of the crisp blue sky, to a year of smelling roses.
To a year where people won't be afraid to dream, or to reach for the stars and the moon, and more.
To a year of new experiences, of realizing that new things aren't strange. They're wondrous.