Listening to: Primavera - Ludovico Einaudi Feeling: Content
Wow, first post of 2014. Rather late, but oddly enough, it's been pretty busy so I haven't made myself sit down and do a post. School's the same as usual. 3 classes, so it's pretty good, but there is a lot more reading than I expected, which I do notes for, so it's a little hard to keep up sometimes. But hopefully, I can get that all done this week.
I'm still volunteering with Rec sports and I quite enjoy the social aspect that it adds to my dull university life. Everyone's really nice and getting to watch all the sports is quite fun. I'm not particularly athletic with my short and weak build, but I appreciate sports all the same. I don't get much time in between classes to do anything, but I don't mind much since it means I get a lot of hours for volunteering.
But anyway, now that I'm on break from school for a week, might as well make a list of things I want to get done before it ends.
Read ch 4 and 5 for criminology
Catch up and do notes for the past 4 readings for physiology
Do notes on chapters 5 and 6; read 7 and 8 for microbiology
That's the not-fun stuff, but the rest of the year will be great. Lots of great books and movies to look out for this year. And another list, because I like lists:
The Fault in Our Stars (June 6)
Divergent (March 21)
Hunger Games: Mockingjay pt. 1 (November 21)
The Maze Runner (September 19)
X-Men: Days of Future Past (May 23)
Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas (Sept 2)
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo (June 17)
Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead (July 29)
Oblivion by Kelly Creagh (August 26)
Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong (April 8)
Just looking at the dates, everything seems so far away.... but summer 2014 looks amazing.
Listening to: Beautiful Monster - Neyo Feeling: Content Well, I'm three weeks into my break and sadly with only one more week to go before school starts up again. I'm a little excited for the start of semester (like I usually feel) before going through my "what the heck was I thinking?" a few weeks in. But for now, I'll enjoy my break for a little while longer.
Not a lot of stuff have happened in the past three weeks, but it's been enjoyable. I finally got to see The Book Thief Movie starring Sophie Nelisse and Geoffrey Rush with my high school friend, LW. It was quite a good movie-book adaptation, but as always, there were a few things that they changed and a few things I wished they had included. But in general, I thought it was fairly well done. I also made Adventure Time crafts for my friend since she's a big fan of the show. I think it took about 6 hours for the two of them as it was my first time making cube-shaped crafts, but it was a fun experience and I thought they turned out pretty good.
Jake and Finn
I also got together with university friends, MF, KL and LL for a Thieving Santa get together and I ended up with a game of Dungeons and Dragons. It took us about 4 hours to finish creating our characters and haven't started the actual game, but it was a unique experience. I hope we get to play the game sometime. The event ended up being a sleepover and as always, those are always the best. What would have been better was if I hadn't been coughing a lung out. Glad to say that I'm doing a lot better now.
Christmas is usually a quiet time of the year for my family as we treat it like any normal day, but on Boxing Day, I did get quite a few things... mainly movies, but I'm quite happy with my purchases. I also got new sneakers! I had a hard time deciding between really cool high tops and cute sneakers, but eventually just went with the sneakers for a change of pace.
So what else have I been doing for the whole break? Mainly watching some sort of entertainment every day. For the past week, it was usually movies. Finally saw Inception, even though it's been sitting in my closet for months. It was actually really good and I wish I saw it sooner. This Means War, Now You See Me (again), Atonement and Life of Pi (again) are some of the other ones I've seen. At the moment, I've just been watching Heirs, the popular k-drama from this year, and hoping to finish it soon. Although it's not too different from the other chaebol dramas I've seen, I still like it because it stars Park Shin Hye and Lee Minho. Totally love Kim Won and Yoon Chan Young even though they're supporting characters... they're just so dynamic. :)
There's not much more to add and I'm pretty satisfied that I'm getting quite a lot of my Winter Break list done. A little disappointed that I won't be able to reach my reading goal by the end of this year (currently at 60/70 books), but hope to do better next year.
Listening to: First Snow and First Kiss - Yoseob (B2ST) & Dalmation Feeling: Sick but happy Not quite sneezing but I didn't have an emoticon for coughing out a lung for the past few days. It was pretty terrible during exams, but man, I'm glad that nightmare is over. Three exams in three straight days is exhausting! But now, onto the fun stuff!
It's been a long time since I last posted anything, so a brief catch up on some cool stuff:
I got a tablet on Black Friday! It's a Microsoft Surface RT and although I haven't had much of a chance to play around with it, I love it already. Originally priced at $399, I was able to get it as an early Christmas present from my parents for $250. Comes with a keyboard and it is so light at 1.5 lbs. Much better than hulling my heavy-ass laptop (and charger) with me all the way to school. So now I have this and I definitely plan to personalize it during the break.
(My new baby!)
So my plans for winter break? Well, the list isn't conclusive, but here they are:
Read 15 books by the end of the year (I am SO far behind!)
Write Amnesia Ch 11 and Ch 12
Watch The Book Thief with high school friend, LW (lots of stuff have come up and after many anticipations and attempts, we still haven't seen it!)
Listening to: In My Remains - Linkin Park Feeling: Tired
Oh man, it's been so long since the last post. Lots of stuff has happened between then and now, but school's been keeping me busy and much to my chagrin, there hasn't been a lot of time for my hobbies. Even fanfiction updates has become more like a monthly thing rather than a bi-weekly thing. But even so, I do enjoy the moments between chaos.
With it finally being November, there's quite a few things that I'm looking forward to:
The Book Thief Movie: I have been obsessing over this story for the past month until now. I finally got myself a copy (of the original cover, not those movie-tie-in covers...bleh) of the book and refreshed my memories of the beautiful story that it contained. Even though it was a re-read, it was a really enjoyable book that brought me to tears at all the right moments. I loved it enough to force strongly recommend my high school friend, LW, to read it and then watch the movie when it was released. To my pleasure, she also really loved it too.
So, what's left?
Waiting for the movie. Checking out the deets via imdb, I was given false hope that the movie would be released on November 8, but when the time came, I then checked the local theatres and they revealed that the movie was to be released on the 15th. And now's the 15th but there aren't any showtimes. The reason? Probably that the movie is released on the 15th in specific locations. So.. that means another week until it's released in my location. Sigh... one more week wouldn't kill me, but I really do hope that it will be good to make up for my disappointment. John Williams did an outstanding job on the soundtrack and the trailers look astonishing, so I'm sure it will be amazing.
The Fiery Heart: Only 4 more days until it's released! Though as an university student, I'm placing my order online to save a bit and as a result, will have to wait a few days before grabbing the glorious book. But knowing that the story will be in both Adrian's and Sydney's POV will make it worth it. Not to mention that "disappointment" doesn't exist in Richelle's world.
Only a few more weeks until winter break. Gotta hold out until then. After all those term projects, assignments, papers and exams, I will get one glorious month of doing a solid nothing. So I leave this post with a cheerful sight that I saw one day in a park that reminded me that perseverance can exist in the most unlikeliest of places:
Not even a month into fall semester and it's sad to say that I am sick. I blame it on outdoor soccer volunteering, where the weather can't seem to make up its mind on whether or not it should rain or be sunny. Be cold or be warm. But mostly, I blame myself for being under dressed. And so, I've suffered from sniffles and have coughed out half a lung for the past two weeks.
But on the bright side, a few things have happened since my last post. One, I am now certified in First Aid and CPR! I've been wanting the certification for a while since I need it to volunteer at the physiotherapy clinic at school, so now I can! Things are pretty busy this semester, so I'll most likely send in my application for next semester.
I also went out with my university buddies, KL, MF and LL for wings and gelato. The wings were awesome and made even better with the deal they had for sundays, which was about 47 cents per wing. The gelato place we went to for dessert was pretty sweet too. I haven't been to a lot of dessert places, but this was was quite impressive with the range of cakes, treats and gelato flavours. I even got a Bailey's flavoured gelato. I asked the server if there was any alcohol in it or if it was just flavouring, but he said that there was a bit, but not enough to make someone drunk. I quite like the taste of Bailey's, so I chose that one since it's not too common. One thing I should have asked was if they also sold it to minors but oh well.
I can't wait for October and November to start since there's so many awesome things to look forward to.
Here's some stuff for October off the top of my head:
Vampire Diaries season 5
Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles
Just One Year by Gayle Forman
Kuroko no Baske season 2
Huh. That's weird... I'm sure there was a lot more to look forward to. Anyway, and for November:
The FREAKING Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead
The Book Thief Movie
Catching Fire Movie
Thor 2 Movie
Wow. Brain fart. I swear there's more, but apparently, my brain has stopped functioning. I'm really really looking forward to The Book Thief movie adaption because I thoroughly enjoyed the book. And the trailer looks really well done.
I really do hope they keep Death as the narrator.
And I just saw this: Nevermore #3: Oblivion (IT HAS A TITLE AND COVER!)
Not quite sure why it's so grey scale rather than the black & pink theme, but oh well. It's VAREN NETHERS! Sadly, it's not to be released until August 26, 2014. That's so far away. But I've waited patiently for the second one to be released (2 years ago), so only another year to go!
Listening to: No Other - Super Junior Feeling: Okay
Well, it's been a week since school started up again for Fall 2013 semester. As always, it's always rather hectic this time of the year because not only are there a lot of new first year students, but also with everything else going on during this first week, which includes FROSH, week of welcome, orientation etc. That and not knowing if you'll get off the waitlist and be successfully enrolled in classes. So I definitely prefer the second week over the first.
Though before I go on about more school stuff, I wanted to post a little about a high school friend's birthday party (SB). It was a fun event of getting together for the last time this summer, especially with one friend headed off to study in France. With the pizza delivery, it was pretty awesome of them to write a Happy Birthday salutation on all three boxes of pizza as well as draw a cake and balloons. We mainly chatted the whole time with some Monopoly thrown in there. It was pretty amusing to see how that went since I managed to get the two properties that no one ever wants (the dark purple ones closest to the GO space). Well, I owned one and traded money with a friend for the other and was able to build hotels on both properties. And it was a pretty good investment since I did make quite a lot of money from that. The game didn't really end with someone being bankrupt but rather that we were bored of playing and retired for the night.
Last week, or two weeks ago, I guess. I posted about my hamster, Peachy, passing. But I have had a new Russian Dwarf hamster named Mochi for about a week and a bit now. Since she's little more than a baby, she's super active and loves climbing on the bars (not to mention she's really good at it... to the point she can use them like monkey bars). Mochi has managed to squeeze through her cage more than once, but luckily we managed to capture her again before she disappears to who knows where. But that means that her cage is pretty much boarded up like a prison to prevent future escapes. Mochi also likes to bite, but I've had this issue with my previous three hamsters, so I'm hoping that she'll come around sooner rather than later.
So anyway, school's been super busy and I'm generally drained each day. It kinda sucks that my classes start at 10:30AM and end at 5:50PM on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I'm waitlisted for a class on Tuesdays that ends at 7:30PM, but by the looks of it, I probably won't get in. I'm not super disappointed since I have quite a bit on my plate so maybe not getting in would be a good thing. Judging by what I've said so far, Thursdays would seem to be my one free weekday, but unfortunately, my student committee has chosen that day for weekly meetings so I still go up then. I've recently just completed my REC sports assistant training yesterday, so I'll be volunteering starting next week for about 4 hours each week with intramural sports. I'm quite excited about that since I got to meet a lot of cool people, meet new people and get to watch basketball and soccer too.
I won't have a whole lot of time for homework during school time, but I hope to manage my time well and succeed. :)
Listening to: Never Close Your Eyes - Adam Lambert Feeling: Heart broken It's been two years since Peachy has lived in my house and I'm heart broken to say that she has died on Sunday morning. I've been too sad to make a goodbye post until now, but I wanted to make a memorabilia for my dear Russian Dwarf Hamster.
She died of a condition called "wet tail" where it is an infection caused by bacteria and too much diarrhea. It was really heart breaking to see her suffer through the day. Her eyes barely opened and you could see her in pain because of the way she was hunched over and how she sat on top of her sand bath because her lower abdomen was hurting. Just before her symptoms showed, she was so lively last Friday night, running happily on the sofa while my mom and I fed her seeds and rice that it was unseen that she would pass away a full day later.
But instead of remembering her as my beloved hamster who died of wet tail, I want to remember how great of a hamster she was. Out of the ones that I have had over the years, Peachy was my favourite.
She was always a little cheeky hamster, always begging for more food, despite the large quantities I gave her everyday. When Peachy noticed that we were near her cage, she would chew on her bars quite energetically until we played with her or gave her extra food. Peachy would gladly hop onto my hand to be carried out of her cage and whenever I attempt to put her back in, she would sit on my hand, refusing to get down. In addition to that, if she wanted more food, she would playfully nip/lick my hand gently, demanding more.
Peachy quite hated her temporary cardboard box house, a place where I would put her when I was cleaning out her cage. She would attempt to scale the walls only to miserably fail. She loved her running wheels and carried her nesting material with her everywhere. Peachy didn't really like fruits that much and would only eat a few small pieces to please you, but refused more than two or three small pieces. However, she was quite fond of blueberries and would hurry home with them, should you change your mind. She never quite got the hang of her slanted bridge which connected the ground floor to the upper level, as she would run down it or run too close to the edge and fall off. But it was always entertaining to see her try and scamper up the sides of the bridge instead of going to the bottom of it to climb up.
Peachy wasn't the most intelligent of hamsters that I had had, but she had brought much love into the family. My parents weren't too keen on having a hamster in the house, but Peachy won them over. My mom loved feeding her rice and petting her. She would squeal whenever Peachy licked her hand, asking for more. My dad would call her out every now and then and would happily feed her seeds and peanuts, which she loved.
Peachy was a sweet tempered hamster and although I am terribly sad that she's no longer with us, I'm happy that she's no longer suffering. I hope she had had a happy life in my family and we'll always think of her. Rest in Peace, Peachy.
Listening to: Outlaws of Love - Adam Lambert Feeling: Bored
Well, finals are over... well, I only had one, so I guess final. It was a lot better than I had thought and considering my preparation time, it was pretty good. Now that that's out of the way, what next?
Celebrated finishing summer semester with finishing up season 2 of The Big Bang Theory. I love how short each episode is, which makes me feel that I'm accomplishing more than I actually am. Also watched and finished Secret Garden (korean drama). Borrowed it at the public library and it was actually really good. I had always heard a lot of good things about it and was curious, so when I saw that it was available to be borrowed, I took it without a second thought. It's a romantic comedy-fantasy with a poor stunt woman and a stoic department store CEO. Seems like the typical k-drama nowadays (especially the iconic rich son with his iconic evil mother-that-need-a-dose-of-chill-pills) but made different with a body switch. So think of it more of a Boys Over Flowers and Freaky Friday. But anyway, really enjoyed it. Loved Hyun Bin and Philip Lee because of it. They were my two favourite male actors in there.
So, what do I have in store for the rest of the summer? Not much, sadly. Did my interview for a local gym yesterday, but I don't know if that'll lead to anything. Still volunteering at the hospital with the cardiac rehab weekly. I have the occasional Cancer Society soccer game fundraiser. But other than that, my summer is pretty free. So I guess, hanging out with friends, hanging out with family, curling up with a good book, watching movies etc.
Listening to: Runnin - Adam Lambert Feeling: Normal
It's been a few weeks since my last post, but not much has changed. I'm still working on my online class by doing hand written notes for each chapter. I'm a little behind in writing (since I'm reading chapter 11, but only on chapter 9 for written notes), but hopefully I can catch up before the semester ends. Oh man, only a few weeks left and it's kinda scary considering how it feels as though my semester ends a lot sooner than usual. But not really if you consider it in term of weeks. So only 2 more weeks and then finals on August 7! Gotta start prepping asap.
Volunteering has been going fine. Had my first shift at the hospital and for my position as a cardiac rehab assistant, I find that it's quite similar to working in a gym since I just keep track of blood pressures, heart rate etc. and wiping down machines after the patients are finished. A guy I know from my student association at school works there too, so it's nice to see him outside of school. I've been doing some random bits of volunteering here and there and they're mainly just to fill up my time and maybe get me some references for future projects. At the moment, I'm doing this mystery volunteer thing which is kinda like mystery shopping, but acting as a spy and seeing how organizations recruit volunteers. Like how to apply, how long it takes for them to get back to me etc. The other one is with a Cancer society and I basically sell tickets at official soccer games, which is always fun. I've only done it twice and I'm signed up for a shift next week, but I enjoy it and plan to continue for the reason of the team's season.
Met up with high school friend, LW, last week and had lunch together locally. It was great seeing her as I haven't really seen/talked to her since winter break, so it was awesome just catching up and reminiscing the old times.
Going to meet up with some uni friends tomorrow for a culture festival, which I always enjoy attending, so I'm looking forward to that. :)
Listening to: All I Need - Within Temptation Feeling: Lazy
It's a little sad to say that, after a month since my return from my trip to Malaysia, I don't think I'll ever get the last week of what I did up on my blog so I decided that I should just skip it and continue on.
Summer's in full swing for me, though I'm still working on my one online class. It's been going quite well and I'm pleased to say that I did fairly good on my midterm despite seriously studying for two days prior to the exam. But I will definitely start sooner for the final. I have also gotten accepted for my volunteer shift at the hospital as a cardiac rehab program assistant and I'm definitely looking forward to that. It's only four hours a week, but it will be great!
The rest of summer has been pretty lazy and I don't really feel like doing much other than sitting at the computer desk and doing random stuff like writing fanfiction (which is going rather well) and playing Torchlight (an RPG). I did have a gym month membership which is required for my exercise class and for a while, I went to the gym regularly. Though recently, I sadly admit that I've been slacking off and that I have to get back into it.
On the bright side, there's a new family member. His name is Albert:
