Monochrome Singularity

I finished it sooner than expected. :)

Click!

I am currently drawing a picture of a deer's body with Bill's head on it. THAT'S RIGHT. I was listening to Dogs Unleashed the other night and somehow... I don't know. I've got a Billdeer in the works.

Another thing: if you have a minute or two, please fill out this quick survey! It's for my Marketing class and it's 10 questions, all multiple choice. Shouldn't take long. My group and I are scheduled to give a presentation to the rest of the class in about a week, so we're scrambling to get some good ole primary data through a survey. Yeah, fun stuff.

So, again, please click here to complete the survey.

Thank you very much!

What a great day of racing! I'll use this entry to discuss what I thought were highlights of the day.



First and foremost is Zenyatta winning the Classic! I told myself before the race that I wouldn't be cheering for anyone in particular-- a part of me wanted Zenyatta to win, a part of me didn't because it would threaten Rachel Alexandra's chances for Horse of the Year-- but at the end of the race I found myself screaming "Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!!!" as Zenyatta blew by the other horses and neared the wire. Hahaha. I guess there's no going against greatness.

This makes Zenyatta the first female racehorse to win the Breeders' Cup Classic in the 26 or so years it's been run. It also means that she remains undefeated, extending her winning streak to 14 wins in as many starts. It was her first race against males, and perhaps the last of her racing career. Hearing the roar of the crowd at the end of the race, and even afterward, so many Zenyatta fans applauding their favorite racemare... it was good. I can only imagine how much fun it would have been to be there in person.

If you have just a few minutes, watch the race!



( More Breeders' Cup highlights )

I did not sleep well last night. First of all, although I went to bed feeling tired and, I thought, fully ready to sleep, I had a hard time actually getting to that stage where I was, well, asleep. It didn't help that Remi was bored and decided it would be fun to jump onto my bed and onto me over and over again all throughout the morning. I mean, sometimes I thought it was kind of sweet-- like when she'd settle down atop my chest and go to sleep there for a while-- but mostly it was just annoying.

Then at one point I must have drifted off for a little bit, because I woke up, sort of like coming out of a very light sleep, and all was fine... until I began to feel afraid. I didn't know why, but I was frightened, and the longer I waited and wondered the worse the feeling grew. I pulled my blankets up higher against my face, trying to hide from something I didn't see. My heart raced in my chest from the inexplicable feeling that something was coming for me...

( The dream )

:/

Happy Halloween!



Even The Endless Forest (it's a multiplayer online game) has been given a Halloween makeover-- for one, it's nighttime in the forest. Then there are tombstones, giant mushrooms, and candy corn colored candles scattered about, and the water in the pond is RED. It was kind of spooky, seeing that. Lastly, when you go near the shrine area this creepy music begins to play. That's where most of the other players were gathered.

Yeah, so here are some screenshots: ( behind the cut )

Let's do this bullet points thing again.

• Totally bombed my Japanese oral exam today. I've NEVER before done so badly on one of these as I did this afternoon. I knew I wasn't prepared for it, but I figured I'd do alright, at least... Yeah, no. The part that got me was the debate portion. I was supposed to state my opinion on which I thought was better: as an exchange student in Japan, speaking nothing but Japanese or speaking a little bit of English. I chose to defend speaking some English and said so, but then I completely blanked.

• Second Accounting exam of the semester is tomorrow night! Tonight and tomorrow afternoon I am going to have to cram for it. That's not to say I haven't studied at all up to this point... because I have, it's just that there is so much more I need to do to be ready for the test. I have to do well on this one! I did so badly on the last test. And this is my major! Wish me luck.

• Early this morning I received a phone call from a company who I had sent my resume & cover letter to more than a month ago, looking for an internship. It had been so long and I hadn't heard from anyone, not even the woman I e-mailed directly, that I had simply given up hope. Needless to say, the call was completely unexpected; I was in shock for a moment. So, in addition to the Accounting test I have tomorrow evening, I've also got a phone interview with the company tomorrow morning (why did it have to be Thursday, whyyyy)! Time to go catch up on a little company research, then.

And a picture of Remi resting on the couch:

Alright, that's it, it's been almost two weeks since I last posted something so here's a quick update:

• Today I finished a sudoku puzzle for the first time! やった！
• Tomorrow morning I will probably have to get out of bed early to go to campus and film bits of the Austin Go Club tournament. It's for a project in my Japanese class... But but but. I don't want to get up early on a Saturday. :(
• For my Marketing project, my group and I are researching PETA. See, I really don't like PETA nor do I approve of the way they operate; some of their actions and beliefs are way too extreme for my tastes. In fact, when the idea was brought up to use PETA for the project, I was the one who had the most negative reaction: "No, we are not doing PETA. I don't like PETA." And yet, now I see that I'm probably the person in my group having the most fun with it. Researching PETA is like watching a train wreck: hard to stomach at times, yet fascinating.

...I swear there was more, but I seem to have forgotten it all. Guess that's it!

I'm so confused, yet happy. Did Photobucket suddenly decide to give back storage space to their free users? I know that not long ago they cut back on free storage so severely that my 39% storage I had used became 89%, and for a while now I've been at 98-99%. Wondered what I was going to do when I ran out of storage. But I got on just now and it says 59%. 500 MB. Did they give me 200 MB? Why?? I hope this is for real!

Anyway, this entry is more for Mom than anyone else, since she wanted pictures, but anyone is welcome to view it! I'm just going to be posting lots of pictures of the racehorse Rachel Alexandra. She is officially done racing for the year, but her owner has announced his plans to bring her back to the track in 2010. I'm glad Jess Jackson's not rushing her off to the breeding shed, as would be done with most horses having completed so successful a campaign as Rachel's; it will be quite a treat to see this champion filly race for another year.

( Pictures behind the cut )

That's all, folks!

A family portrait drawn for my Japanese conversation class! I still have the one I drew back in early 2008 for 2nd semester Japanese (it's taped onto my desktop PC), but it's been a while and I thought it might be interesting to make another one and compare the two. The 2008 version can be seen here.

I noticed, looking at the two pictures side-by-side, how in the 2008 picture there is all kinds of space-- distance-- between the members of my family. That picture I drew when I had been away from home at the University for only about a semester. The drawing really shows how, at that time, I didn't feel much of a connection to my family. See how we are only loosely connected by our arms/hands.

Now look at the 2009 picture. Notice how we are all standing very close together in the drawing, and there is plenty of overlap between my brothers, my mother, my dad and I. Our hands are not on each other as they were in the 2008 picture; it is simply not necessary. I also arranged it so that my brothers were standing next to the parent they are most like-- my mother-- and I made sure to place myself next to my father.

I have now been here at UT for a little over four semesters (two years). That's not to say that I haven't returned home in that time; I go home every spring, summer, and winter break. But it's like the extended time away from the family has given me a greater appreciation for them all. And in some regards, I do feel closer to them, my dad especially. He and I are talking more now than ever before, I think. My brothers and I don't actually speak to each other any more (or any less, really) than we have in the past, but I think my attitude toward them has become better. We may not talk much, and though we have little in common in terms of interests, I'm coming to realize that I do care for them deeply as family. Then of course, there's Mom, who I have been close to for a long time. She's my best friend.

And look, the pets even made it into the picture this time! &hearts

I got the (seasonal) flu shot today. I can barely remember the last time I had a shot of any kind (except for dental purposes), so there was a very small part of me that wondered how it felt and if it hurt at all. Well, it didn't. I could feel the needle going in, but it would have been more painful if someone had pinched me, lol.

However, I did catch a cold over the weekend... And though it's pretty minor right now I asked the nurse if it was alright to get the shot with my immune system already compromised. She took my symptoms, asked if I had a temperature (no), and said it was fine.

So! Hopefully there will be no flu knocking me out of classes this season. Though I really wish these sniffles would go away. >:(

Remi has taken to scratching the carpet in my bedroom lately, doing it every chance she gets. It's been driving me crazy! And she's impossible to discipline. Her being so tolerant of things (the birthday hat, for example) is nice and all, but that she is just as tolerant toward punishment is not. If I yell at her, or throw something at her, or shove her aside-- whatever!-- she just rolls over and lies there on the floor for a moment... then goes right back to the bad behavior she was exhibiting before. Same with the carpet scratching/pulling; I think she has actually pulled my carpet up in places.

So I ran over to Petco earlier, bought a pack of those little "Soft Paws" rubber claw covers, and glued 'em on her. It's been a while since I've used them since I was hoping she would learn to use strictly her scratching posts (also, $20-25 a pack? No thanks!), but she just can't seem to resist tearing at the carpet. Argh!

And while on the topic of Remi, here is a cat macro made with a photo of Remi and a caption supplied by one of my Facebook friends:

Guess what today was?

Remi's 1st birthday!



( Behind the cut, pictures of Remi wearing a ridiculous birthday hat )

I've started listening to Humanoid in English, and so far I sort of like it. It's definitely a different side of Tokio Hotel we're seeing through this album. But surely I'm not the only who is a little disappointed when listening to Human Connect to Human because Bill sings "boy meets girl, know what to do..." and "girl meets girl" but leaves out "boy meets boy."

:/

Anyway, have some graffiti wall scribbles from Facebook (drawn for myself and others):



Oh yeah! One more thing: is that Bill singing in the beginning of Pain of Love? Because omg. o_o My first thought was that they brought someone else in for those vocals, but... yeah. This one is definitely my favorite so far.

There are so many things I want to write about, but I don't want to cram it all into one entry. >_< That, and I like to space my entries out a bit (usually no more than one a day). So I'll cover a couple of things in this one, I guess.

First, I had the oral portion of my Japanese exam today. Didn't go nearly as well as I'd envisioned it would, entirely due to the fact that instead of having a freely flowing conversation with my teacher like I'd hoped for, I was required to respond to her questions with answers that were provided for me on pieces of colored paper. I had my own answers prepared beforehand, and I had looked forward to using them... but because of that I wasn't able to. :(

Still, it was made better by my teacher telling me afterward that my pronunciation was very good. She said I didn't sound "like an American speaking Japanese," lol. I'm always happy to hear that. All of my past teachers, since I began taking formal classes two years ago, have complimented me on my pronunciation. *preens*

The other thing I wanted to write about is... well, it's a little strange. Yesterday I was flipping through the Daily Texan, student newspaper for the University of Texas at Austin, and on one of the back pages I saw an ad for Converse sneakers at Academy Sports. The weird thing about it is-- now I absolutely could be wrong about this-- but the guy in the picture looks like a friend of mine! Someone I was close to back in high school. He's been stationed in Japan for some time now as part of the Marine Corps, and we haven't talked in ages... Yet I can't shake the feeling that this picture looks exactly like him a couple, or a few, years ago. I can't see the guy's face, so... I dunno. It's really been bugging me.

( Pictures of the ad behind the cut )

I've been having a hard time staying awake in my classes this week, so I've taken to drawing all over the pockets of my spiral notebook during class to keep myself entertained.

( Read more... )

I am feeling really melancholic right now. I hate to say that the weather has anything to do with it, but it can't be ignored; it rained here nonstop throughout the night and into the afternoon, during which time I was running umbrella-less back and forth to classes and climbing onto overcrowded campus buses with slippery, wet floors and way, way too many students aboard.

Also, I had a dream over the weekend that just screamed NOSTALGIA at me. In it, I was shopping at some arts and hobby store when the store manager offered me a job there; but I was unsure about accepting the offer because I was, at that time, already seeking employment with a few other companies, and I needed time to make the best decision. I talked to my dad about it, and he began asking me all these questions I didn't know how to answer like "What are your career goals?" and "What do you want in life?"

Then, still in the dream, I saw a video recording of something-- don't remember what-- and after seeing the images and hearing the music the feeling of nostalgia, of sheer longing it inspired in me was so powerful it left me in tears, just sobbing my heart out for something I had and had lost, or could not return to. I remember being aware, within the dream, that I had never cried so hard in my life... and here I didn't even know what I was crying about! But I was not embarrassed, was oddly unashamed of the display of emotion. It was cathartic.

Of course, I later woke up with not a tear in my eye, no sign of any crying whatsoever.

Next in the dream I visited my old elementary school, Dove Elementary. I walked the perimeter of the building, and in doing so came across a little girl in the 1st or 2nd grade. She invited me into her classroom, and there I watched the teachers give their young students all these fun, artsy little projects to finish with supplies like Elmer's glue, popsicle sticks, Crayola markers and colored construction paper. I pointed out to the little girl that when I was her age I had done a lot of similar craft projects, myself. Then we went outside to see the playground area, and I noted all the things about it that had changed over the years. As I looked out over the school soccer field, I pointed at a big, aged tree off on its own, and I told the little girl about how when I was a student there I would spend many of my days during recess sitting alone on the roots of that tree, just because. (I do actually wonder if that tree is still there.)

Sigh!

Okay! This is something I've been wanting to post for a while now, and I finally have the motivation to do it because of rainbowcolored7's voice post featuring her cat, Donna. Let me present to you the various vocalizations of Remi the cat... (who will, by the way, be having her first birthday in little more than a week!)



Direct link, in case the embedded video is not showing up.

Please ignore my annoying baby talk voice; it hurts even my ears to hear it...

There are two boys asleep under my bed.

That's right, under the bed. How did this happen? Well, for one, my brother neglected to tell me that he'd be bringing FIVE friends with him on his little weekend excursion to Austin. Five big, tall, college-aged boys who stumbled in drunk at 4 in the morning to crash on my living room floor. Then two of those boys realized there wasn't enough room for them on the rug, decided they didn't much like sleeping on the wood floor, and together they crawled into my bedroom and under my bed where they are now sound asleep, side-by-side on the carpet.

I think what I've written may come off as sounding irritated, but I'm really not. Just a little 'WTF? Boys under my bed.'

The funny thing is, they are probably going to wake up, see bed springs above them, and have no clue where they are.

So... Accounting homework. I'm looking for information on the recognition and disclosure of gain/loss contingencies in the financial statements of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (where my Dad works, sort of. He actually works at one of their subsidiaries, Occidental Chemical).

...Yeah.

This morning, while waiting for my first class of the day to start, I saw twins-- college students, boys. They looked exactly alike: same hair color/cut, same bright yellow polo shirts, same blue jeans, same worn brown boots, same backpacks. It was... interesting.

Updating for the sake of updating, bleh.

Look at what came in the mail today...

( :D )

So... I ate at Taco Bell on Thursday afternoon. And for my tacos I picked up a couple of those little packets of Taco Bell "Border Sauce" that come in mild, hot, and "fire". Those of you who have seen these, have you ever paid any attention to the little sayings written on the fronts of the packets? They're so weird, I really don't see their purpose. What are the marketers at Taco Bell trying to achieve with them? Are they meant to be funny? Because most of them aren't. It baffles me. Anyway, one of mine said "This space for rent. Inquire within." The other one said...



"Help! I can't tell where I am. It's dark and I can hear laughing." (Sorry about the corner that was torn off, I did end up using it, after all...)

So, I read that and thought, 'Is that supposed to be funny? It sounds pretty frightening to me.' And then I got this crazy idea in my head to draw my interpretation of the words on the packet, and um... yeah. I did.

( Behind the cut! )