Things I did in 2012

Things I did in 2012 (not in order):

-        Started Tech Theatre

-        Performed in “Addicts Anonymous”

-        Went on my first date

-        Got a boyfriend ^.^

-        Went to prom

-        Turned 16

-        Went back to the USA

-        Saw shows on Broadway

-        Started my junior year of high school

-        Lost my phone

-        Went to Myanmar

-        Went to New Zealand

-        Tried wine

-        Got lost on the MRT (oops)

-        Helped tourists navigate

-        Drank lots of bubble tea

-        Reconfirmed my love of Middle-earth

Things I’m Going to Do/ Want to Do in 2013:

-        Go to London

-        Get into college

-        Dance

-        Learn to act

-        See what happens with modeling

-        Learn to snowboard again

-        Break my habit of procrastination

-        Learn more Chinese

Life is Busy

Here's a list of everything that I've been up to recently, to the best of my recollection:

1. Semester finals. Generally speaking, my grades rounded out to being about where I expected them. Not great, but not an epic fail. I'll take it.

2. Studying for finals. Horrifying nightmare of doom.

3. The Hobbit. Best movie I've seen in a while. Sure, I'm biased as a Lord of the Rings fan, but seriously it's still worth seeing. I saw it twice within two days.

4. Today, the bank ate my ATM card and almost didn't spit it back out. That was not cool at all. The ATM machines here are really fussy.

5. Yesterday, I helped some tourists with operating the MRT machine. I had to return my green ticket for a $1 deposit, and there was a tourist family behind me that looked very confused. I ended up buying them all tickets for about $8, and the man gave me a $10 and told me to keep the difference. Apparently being nice in this day and age can get you $2.

6. The other day on the MRT, I got followed by some guy in a pink shirt and jeans. Turns out, Singapore is like any other city and there are weird guys following female students in uniform. Not cool, dude.

7. Teaching dance. Well, I don't know if I still will be teaching dance, considering a general lack of interest within what few students I have. However, I taught a girl a little candy-cane dance from the Nutcracker, and we had a good time.

8. Packing, which I should be doing now. I'm going to New Zealand for Christmas, otherwise known as Middle-earth. So, in the event I do not come back, assume I either a) fell off a horse and died like Genghis Khan, b) got eaten by Orcs or c) met some elves and successfully begged them to let me stay for a while.

Just kidding. I'm really excited for New Zealand though. Lots of fun things to do there, and it seems like every picture I've seen is beautiful!

I Can Cook

Just a quick update on what I cooked for dinner this evening.
Yes, I'm a teenager.
Yes, I can cook.
No, I didn't set my apartment on fire.


Anyways, today I made home-made noodles. It was based off this recipe (just the noodles) without the green stuff.






Mine looked like this with chicken stock, frozen veggies, and tofu.

Tada! They were quite yummy :)

Anime Festival Asia

Finally, I have something Singapore related to blog about! How terribly exciting.


Yesterday I went to Anime Festival Asia, or AFA. It was at the Singapore Expo out by Changi Airport, which really wasn't a bother at the end of the day. I wore my Baby The Stars Shine Bright JSK, which was fun even though there really weren't a lot of other Lolitas there.

Here's what I saw there:

Cosplayers: Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of Naruto cosplayers. There were also more Vocaloids than I could count- mostly Hatsune Miku and Kagamine Rin. I'm so glad that I never considered being one, considering a lot of the outfits were really good. In addition, there was a Slenderman (on stilts), a Cardcaptor Sakura or two, and a few Pikachu as well. Oh, and there was a China and England cosplayer from Hetalia!

Cafés: There were two cosplay cafés there, the Moe High School Café and the Royal Gakuen something or another Café. Naturally, the Moe cafe was aimed towards males, while the Gakuen was aimed forwards females. Nick and I didn't go into those, but seeing the queues was pretty funny.

Food: There were two little vendors selling food- takoyaki and yaki-soba. The takoyaki was pretty good, though I've had better yaki-soba. It was a yummy breakfast when it wasn't super crowded or anything around 9am. There was also a snack vendor selling various Japanese sweets, snacks and instant noodles. They were pretty expensive, but I finally got my fruit drops.

Art: Various vendors were selling prints of their artwork. I got a large Cardcaptor Sakura print, and various smaller Hetalia ones.

Stuff: Cat ears, bunny ears, bunny hats, cosplay swords, cosplay weapons, legos, figurines, and pretty much anything else you can come up with were all being sold.

Vendors and Such: There were many different stations around that had lots of games, videos, advertisements, and paid cosplayers.


Things I Didn't See:

Concerts, Celebrities (who were apparently doing signings), Angelic Layer Cosplayers

Would I go again?

You betcha! It was really fun to see everything, and Nick had a good time too. Next year though, I'm cosplaying.

I'm Back!

Why hello there.

It's been a while since I last posted on this blog, and I feel quite bad about that. Unfortunately, school and travel has gotten in the way.

Travel?

I just got back from Myanmar yesterday and have been too tired and lazy to deal with all the photos and videos I took. Hopefully I'll have that done sooner rather than later.

So, I know that Myanmar is one of the more controversial countries to travel to. Regardless, it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

Highlights:

Balloons Over Bagan
Inle Lake
The Procession at Inle Lake and the market afterwards
The giant golden temple in Yangon
The food! Pork was super yummy there



More about this all later. I'm sleepy.

Stage One

I was walking into the cafeteria when I realised that I was basically living in what could become  a science fiction world. Not the cool science fiction world with Star Gates or humanoid computers, but the scary science fiction worlds that are supposed to make one reflect on humanity and society.

On the tables in the cafeteria was food, books, and laptops. Beautiful glowing screens, each containing worlds of education, entertainment, and general time-wasters. Though people were talking (and quite loudly at that), there were enough people just sitting side-by-side, lost in their screens, for me to notice.

Now, I can't exactly condemn such behaviour. I'm sure my friends and I have done it before. I mean, I even have a level 60 wizard in Diablo. I know a fair amount about how entrancing computers are, and the endless hours of entertainment they can provide. 

All of this got me thinking, though. It's not just the computers that students carry around every day on their backs. It's the smartphones, the television that no one really watches anymore, the endless streams of information. Western society is transitioning into a place where who you are in real life doesn't really matter. What you post on the internet can become your identity, what you play can become your "other-you" and what you read becomes 100% true. I still haven't forgotten all the hype about KONY 2012. Where did that ever go, internet? 

Thomas Hobbes believed that men without government were unable to use reason, and essentially were wild beasts. The internet is becoming a great example of people in their "natural states". There is some good on the internet, once in a while. There are educational sites, free college courses, news articles. However, the internet is also filled with the trash of society- the haters, the bullies, the really really stupid people. 

Society isn't going to keep developing if this internet trend continues. Instead, we are going to become solitary creatures locked in our own little worlds. When will invisible internet friends truly be enough to satisfy our desire for human interaction? When will artificial intelligence be good enough that we won't need people altogether? When will we no longer crave a genuine smile, touch, or kiss of a loved one?

It sounds crazy now, but if we're not careful, this could be in the near future. 

We're in stage one, people. 

Let's Get Real

I suppose that since I'm an upperclassman now, it makes sense for me to feel more stressed out. But I think part of it is the culture of this school. There's the strangest sense of stealing time away from homework whenever you're doing something else. Right now as I type this, I'm trying to recall what I have left to do tonight. Unfortunately for me, when I'm stressed the first thing that I lose is my memory.

Some people take stress better than others. Some write excellent essays, some can't spell their names. Everyone eventually breaks under constant stress, though. Watching the seniors going through their applications for college is terrifying. I know that's going to be me next year, hovering precariously around breaking point. 

When my parents were teens, life was still stressful. My parents didn't have it easy growing up, and in many ways I have life considerably easier than they do. However, they didn't have expectations weighing heavily on their shoulders. They didn't have to think about how many AP courses they could take, and which ones were easier than others. They worried about their college applications, but they didn't place all their hopes, dreams, ambitions and souls on them. 

Yes, living in the "real world" is difficult. There's lots of hard work there. But as teenagers, it's not healthy for us to work quite as hard. We shouldn't feel guilty when we want to head out to a movie with friends or go for a walk. There are ways to learn outside the classroom that may be more beneficial than sitting and learning about numbers. Teenagers are not adults yet, but we take on the workload and the stress of adults and are expected to still be cheerful. When we're not, adults roll their eyes and hope we grow out of the phase soon. Well, adults don't take stress so well either, so excuse us when we've only gotten 5 hours of sleep and still have work left undone. 

There's got to be a way to change this system. There are a shocking number of students who go to school but manage to learn nothing. Perhaps it's because there are some people who aren't supposed to get great grades and go on to get their PhDs. Maybe it's because not everyone can be brilliant, despite the culture of this school. 

Maybe we should all just stop worrying about our futures, live in the moment, and cherish that we are young. Maybe we should make mistakes, because we'll learn from them in the future. And maybe I should stop writing now, because I still have another 2 hours of homework to do. 

In the meantime, since things won't change, I hope the seniors get into the college of their choice, the juniors get great SAT scores, the sophomores get used to so much homework, and the freshman stop getting lost around campus.

:)

All Cancer is Bad

Okay, I'm going to write something kind of... well... I'm not supposed to say it. It's something unspoken, something that is staring everyone in the face but no one wants to say.

Something came up in school today, and I can't get it out of my head. I was listening to some of my classmates talk about what they would do if they were millionaires who could give away money to any charity. A couple of girls all agreed that they would give millions to breast cancer research. When I joined the conversation and said I would also donate to cancer research, they were shocked that I wouldn't donate explicitly to breast cancer. Yes, I'm female, but does that limit me to only donating to breast cancer? Women can get other truly-female-only cancers too, you know!

Then I started thinking.

Why are we giving so much funding to breast cancer?

Yes, it's a terrible cancer. Yes, lots of people die from it every year.

But it's not the only killer, people. Let's put this in perspective.

We hear about lung cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, and pancreas cancer sometimes (these are apparently the biggest killers/most common). We hear about how smoking causes lung cancer, how old people should get colonoscopies, and read the occasional story (like Steve Jobs)  about pancreatic  cancer (though what Steve Jobs had was different, it still cast a bit of spotlight on pancreatic cancer).

And hey, let's throw aside the whole gender thing with breast cancer and prostate cancer and whatever and think. Lung cancer is killing more people every year than the two of them combined, but it receives significantly less funding. Just a thought. And no, it's not a smoker's disease at the end of the day, considering like 80% of the people who get it have never smoked, or haven't smoked in at least 10 years. But it's totally okay that it gets so much less funding than breast cancer even though it kills more people every year and stuff... yup...

There is pink everything for breast cancer. You can find pink mugs, pink bathroom supplies, pink you-name-it-and-it-exists. All are sending some, or all of their proceeds to breast cancer research. Yes, some of that money just goes to "cancer research", but more money is being poured into breast cancer research than any other type of cancer research.

What ever happened to skin cancer? Ovarian cancer? Blood cancer? Lymphoma? Bone cancer? Brain cancer?

Why don't those get as much funding for research? Ovarian cancer is known as the silent killer, because often times when its detected, it's too late to save the woman's life. Blood cancers are super common, but they don't receive nearly as much funding-per-case as the big five (breast, colon, prostate, pancreas, lung).

I could keep making examples like this, but I think you get the point. I don't think it's fair that everyone is so keen on finding a cure to breast cancer and just leaving thing else in the dust. Even prostate cancer, which can be considered the male equivalent (though men can and do get breast cancer sometimes), gets less funding. I just don't get it.

So going back to my classmate's discussion today, I realised something. Maybe it's really the general hype about breast cancer that makes funding it so popular. Everyone at some point has read an article about someone dying from breast cancer. Several famous people have gotten breast cancer and made their stories very public. It's not that other cancers are inferior to breast cancer, it's that they don't get the attention they need.

I don't want it to seem like I'm putting down breast cancer, or advocates for breast cancer research/treatment here. Because while it may seem that way, I'm really not. I just think that every cancer needs funding. Everyone deserves the chance to fight for their life.

Days Slip Past

It's been a while.

Life has gotten rather hectic lately. I don't sleep as much as I'd like, which is annoying. Ultimately  though things are good. I've had a very cheerful past couple of days (though the evenings haven't been so great). There's no reason for it, but for the most part I've had a lot of energy. I also think I'm addicted to tea, but that's okay.

Things haven't really changed here. Tech has gotten extremely time consuming (stupid stage work), but at the end of the day it's not that bad. I'm meeting new people who are all very interesting. I've got an AP Euro test tomorrow that I'm pretty freaked out about. It's worth a lot of my grade. I just studied for well over two hours, though, so this is my break.

I've still been blogging lately, just not on this blog.

www.gotgaff.blogspot.sg

My boyfriend Nick and I write it together. Well, we alternate. It's fun.

I think I'll start trying to post here again weekly as a minimum.


Sorry this post is short. There really hasn't been a lot going on.

Though on a random note, I've started really reading my horoscope again. I haven't done this since  9th grade and it's entertaining. Sometimes it's more correct than others. While I know it's a load of lies, the weird Murphy's Law thing works. . Being told you're going to have a good day somehow makes it happen!

(According to Nick, it's because you remember only the good things that happened in your day).

Reflections on September 11, 2001

Can anyone believe it's been 11 years since 9/11/01 (or here, we'd write it 11/9/01)? 

In 2001 I was five years old, and a kindergartener. There was no way I comprehended death or disasters. The attacks meant nothing to me because I just didn't understand them. It didn't make sense to me why people were crying or the same grainy video of planes crashing kept replaying. I don't even know if I thought the towers falling or the Pentagon burning was bad. All the tragedy went over my head.  As I got older, I still didn't really understand why people seemed so sad around this time of year. That level of devastation was incomprehensible to me as a child.

I think the eighth anniversary of 9/11 was the first time I really understood it. I would have been in 8th grade, thirteen, and generally old enough to understand the basics of human suffering. I remember watching a video about 9/11 in class, holding the moment of silence after the Pledge of Allegiance extra long. It hit me all of the sudden like a tidal wave hits the shore- overwhelming.

I’m not going to lie and say that I remembered it was 9/11 first thing in the morning today, or that I reflected all day about the terrible things that occurred.  9/11 has forever scarred the hearts of the American people.  We need to learn from that day. We need to apply it practically to ensure the safety of everyone as much as possible. We need to remember those who lost their lives, and honor those who responded on that day.

In the weirdest way possible, I am quite optimistic about humanity in general. I believe we all have the ability to get along with each other as long as we are tolerant.  Shoving one's opinion down another's throat is wrong on many levels to me. I'm not going to pretend I don't hate the extreme individuals that caused 9/11. However, I think it's worth remembering that even now, those individuals are not good examples of the groups they come from.

Regardless, the tragic events on that day forced a country to come together united by grief and anger. Remember that  while united we stand, but when divided we all eventually crumble to the ground. 

200th Post

There have been a lot of things going on lately, and posting has unfortunately not been one of them. Considering school, my annoying finance blog, the other blog I write, and homework, I've been more than preoccupied. Which is sad, considering this initially started off as being a blog on what it's like to live here in Singapore. Now it's a collection of scattered thoughts. 

Something interesting that I'm not certain I like about Singapore anymore (and arcades in general as they convert) is how digital it is. There's something distinctly impersonal about a computer telling me my achievements. For example, I am babysitting tonight. I took the girls to an arcade earlier in the evening, and the whole things was digital. You had to swipe your card to play games (and since when are they like $1 a game?!) and then you don't get any tickets. Instead, you have to go and ask the cashier person how many points you have. There's no joy of finding a lost token on the ground, or watching the ticket-muncher thing count your tickets. It's impersonal and kind of really sad. 

Then again, I remember them converting the arcade in Massachusetts that I used to go to as well. It's sad that the world is becoming so screen based. I fear the day that people lose the desire to be around only computers. That day is coming up too quickly in my opinion. 

I think it's cool that there are kids in like Sweden or somewhere that are learning computer programming from age 6. I think it's cool that the kids I babysit for have school-issued computers and iPads. I think it's really cool that there are online schools, where kids can work at their own pace and stuff. Yet I think it's sad when kids are at home playing educational games instead of running around outside building fantasy worlds. Isn't it that children learn best from playing? Isn't creativity the mother of human progress? 

So, there's my scattered 200th post. 

I shall be honest now and say I don't know how long I'm going to keep running this blog. I know posts will be more infrequent, mostly because I can't find the time to write so much every day. 

Either way... POST 200 WOOHOO!!

The Brightest Rainy Day

I really hope this week doesn't set the precedent for the rest of the year, because if it is then I think I'll throw in the towel now. There's a lot of drama going on, I guess it's typical for the start of the school year. A friend was apparently in trouble emotionally, but judging by her smiles and laughter she seems okay. Now I'm the one ultimately left out in the rain. Throughout all of this I am succeeding in dragging down some of the people I care about the most, all for an uncertain outcome. Even if things work out, there's no way to know its sustainable. I sense things aren't. 

What's kind of funny is that I thought I was being helpful to my friends. However, now she's worried about me, which defeats the point of what I've been trying to do. So go figure. Sometimes, I swear I say white but things turn black.

When I started writing this post, it was raining even though it is sunny. It reflects the way things are right now. Things appear bright, but look closer and it's pouring. 

The good thing about today is that the only class I have left is War, which is really fun. That and after school we are painting sets. So at least the sun will come out at the end of this rainy day. Or it will begin to storm. There's no way to know.

Misty

Today was another one of those weird Singapore days in which you can see the fog and humidity for the whole day. It was a day when your hands stick together, your hair feels damp, and it's strangely hot and cold at the same time. In other words, it's a day that looks pretty but is really kind of icky.

I just took an AP Euro quiz and I'm not feeling good about it. Some of the questions were really easy, but some feel more like curveball questions. How am I supposed to remember what these people look like, or what architectural addition was added during the Renaissance? I'm not good at visual questions.

Today was one of those days in which I feel quite scattered. Things are barely holding themselves together. Just have to gaff everything back together and keep moving.

Didn't really do anything in tech today, which was a good and bad thing. It's fun to just hang out with the techies, but being productive is fun too. I signed up for sound along with like 4 other people, so I don't know how much I'll actually do. I did a fair amount for the musical last year so hopefully I can pretend to be in charge and all that.

I'm Silly

You know, I've lived in Singapore for over a year...

And yet I still don't bother to check the websites of classes I try and attend, which results in me showing up to discover there's no class. Naturally, this happened to me today trying to go to the adult class at Singapore Dance Theatre. They have a show going on this week- no classes. I was all dressed up and ready to go, and arrived early. However, the place was totally silent. The doors were still open so I went up to find a lovely little timetable with "NO CLASS" beside all of today's classes. Then my mother wouldn't pick up her phone... I was walking around in a pastel green dress, tights, and hair in a bun for a while. Got quite a few stares.

Also, I am losing my ability to recognise my mother in public. There was a white woman with blonde hair walking on the opposite side of the street I was standing on, and I thought she was my mother. So, I started trying to get her attention. Not only did I fail, but I realised later that the lady on the street really didn't look like my mother at all except for her hair colour. Oh well.

Upon getting home after having frozen yogurt out, I tried to take a shower. Here in Singapore, I have to turn on my hot water heater for at least 15 minutes before I have enough hot water to do so. Unfortunately for me, that meant I got blasted with cold water. Lovely. So as I sit here typing this, my hair is dripping cold water on me.

It was a professional techie's last day today, and I only saw him briefly. So I am kind of sad about that. Regardless, today was a nice day overall.

I don't feel like putting up a quote. Have a picture of Totoro. Totoro makes me happy.

The Joys of Sophomore Chemistry

Well, I've got a bit of time in between doing small sections of a worksheet I am fairly confident I am doing correctly, so I might as well blog. I've been pretty busy keeping other blogs updated and somehow this one has fallen by the wayside. It's really unfortunate, considering how long this blog has actually been running.

This isn't the first time I have blogged in class, and I always feel a bit bad about it. Yet, the classes in which I blog are generally hopelessly dull or highly simplistic. Sophomore chemistry is really quite simple so far- hopefully it will be interesting.

My school started off this morning with the annual Service Assembly, which wasn't interesting the first time I heard it last year and wasn't interesting this year. Luckily I was standing around with the other techies so I didn't fall asleep. Strangely enough, a bunch of us turned up to school in tech blacks (including me). Considering we weren't working a show, it was simply amusing.

One of the professional techies, Leo, is leaving at the end of the week. He's not a techie by nature- rather, he's an actor. Apparently he's going to get his PhD or something like that. Everyone is quite sad to see Leo go. During "Once on This Island" he gelled (coloured) Nick and my work-light in the booth pink! He's got quite a good sense of humor.

My Finance teacher is out today so overall this day hasn't been and won't be very productive.  I have Chinese today, which is good I guess. I don't practice enough to retain the information very well, which is unfortunate. At least I'm trying.

Tomorrow I have an English presentation, and I'm already really nervous. At this point, I can't even say the author's name!

Six Months in High Heels

As of today, Nick and I have been dating for six months. Which is like 182 days or something crazy like that. But it doesn't really matter how long it's been. We're happy today, we were yesterday, and we will be tomorrow. And that's what matters.


Except that I was brilliant and decided to wear my heels out today. The ones that I put pictures up on this blog a while back. All I can say at this point is ouch. That was kind of stupid. I've now got a fair number of blisters. The thing is, as a dancer I am pretty immune to my feet hurting. So, I don't notice how bad things are until I take off my shoes and go, Well, that will take three weeks to heal.

At least I looked pretty. Or at least, that's what I'd like to believe.


In other news and such today, I did no homework. So now I'm feeling a bit guilty, which I suppose is to be expected. At least I had done more work than I had to before to balance it all out. Tomorrow is a day off (thank goodness) so I can catch up then.

My dad brought home Dulce de Leche. It's delicious. I want to move to South America and eat it every day. But then I'd probably get very chubby.

This was random.


Here, have a song in German that I really like.

Passing Days

It seems like I've been in school for a few weeks or months, at least. Not in the volume of work I'm getting (no papers or tests yet), but in how everything seems to just work this year. I'm not searching for friends or getting lost anymore. It feels like I never left school.

I can't say I feel like a Junior yet. Suppose the pressure about SATs and generally getting good marks just hasn't settled in yet or something. Instead, I'm quite glad I have 2 free blocks this first semester. While it probably makes me more social that I should be, it's also nice to just be able to hang out.


Today in free, my friend Flick was telling us about psychology-type stuff. According to her and her unknown sources, there is no such thing as love at first sight. However, there is lust at first sight. I found that interesting.


Oh well. It's really late and I was just wanted to post something before I went to bed. Tomorrow I'm babysitting for the first time in a while, but it's not really in the evening so I can't do my homework during it. That and I have Chinese class- basically, a very tiring day.

At least I finished my annoying math homework this evening :)

Quote of the Day:

"Curiosity is the lust of the mind" -Thomas Hobbes