Hey.  Just hey.  Because the creative juice just isn't giving out anything today.

And now, to keep myself snazzy with current events..
there is a lot going on in the world right now, from the first steps to recovery in New Orleans to Mrs. Spears' new baby boy.
..So who heard about the note to Condoleeza Rice from President George W. Bush, eh?

Every newspaper, every news channel, every talk show, and every major blog (oh, am i cocky) has mentioned it.  I don't have to say much.  Either you've already heard the story (and if not, Google is everyone's friend) and/or the photo speaks for itself.  Oh, yes.  But maybe it's reasonable, really.  I mean, if any of us really needed to pee during a meeting, I'm sure we might've done the same thing!  It's just that this was really funny because it's the President.  I mean, c'moooon.  It's funnnny.  Maybe he's our nation's leader but Reuters (photographer of the note) says it's malicious.  We can entertain ourself with it all we want.

My left elbow has been hurting recently.  It brings back a story that I read when I was younger about an old woman who was paralyzed in both legs and could feel her arms, but couldn't move them.  She said that whenver her right elbow ached, it foretold good fortune, but when the left one ached, disasters occured.  Aw, damn it, I got gypped.

I'm a dork who's become slightly more emotional since I've moved.  (If you thought I appreciated little things before, check this out.)  Well, it just, it really got to me.  I was walking with a really lazy slow walk one day, just dazing out, and suddenly I heard, "Aren't you coming, Christa?"  It was these girls from my English class, and it took me a while, but I realized that they were waiting up for me.  For me.  And so I hurried up, and I cried.  That's right, I cried because these girls waited for me.  What's really odd is that I think that was the fifth time I cried this year already.  Why, yes.  Yes, I do think that everything's a miracle.

This is a thing that's been on my mind a bit recently, but what has been the best day of your life so far?  The "best day" is so different to everyone.  It could be that day when you were five and you looked at the entire city of Chicago from the Sears tower, the day that you survived that disease or that car crash, the day that you spent a fun day at the park with the friend that you love more than you love yourself, the day that a surprise party was thrown for you, the day that you said, "I love you." and they said it back, the day that you finally got that "A", the day that you were married, the day that you learned to tie your shoe, the day that you saw a bird outside your window and realized that there was still beauty in the world.  Do me a favor.  The next time you see your parents, your guardians, whether it be minutes after you read this entry or a few months from now.. give them a big hug.  It'll be really weird for them, but don't care.  Stare at them a little while, and try to remember their face, the curve of their nose and that little scar near their eyebrow, the shape of their cheeks.  That'll be weird too, but don't care about that either.  Because you'll need that image in the future.  You'll need it.

Today's lesson: School rallies are neat.

(this is a longer excerpt than usual, but i like this song and it makes me laugh.  It's from Relient K - Jefferson Airplane's hidden rap track)
ladies and gentlemen.. the worst freestyle rapper.. ever!
oh man, uh.. just give me a second.. um, oh shoot.. just, just give a second.. uh..here we go..
if apples are green and carrots are orange
and then they go and then you go...w-what?  wait, what rhymes with orange? 
oh man, i really am bad. just, just a second--

no man, you're done!

you say i'm boring, but i say hardly
well let's get together and have a pizza party!
PIZZA PARTY!

PEPPERONAY!

Bye for now.

"Did anyone take the time to tell you that you're disgusting?" she told me.
I replied, more concerned with my untied shoelace than I was with her, "No. No, they haven't."
She stuck her nose up, a little like those French cooks that I see often on the telly, "Well, someone should."
"But you don't even know me," I said, still eyeing that shoelace, dangling like bait for a playful kitten.
"Should I?" she almost spat out, me contemplating whether it was sarcasm or if everything she said sounded like that.
"Yes, and you can tell me I'm disgusting afterwards," I looked up from my shoelace to offer a smile.  A polite one, if nothing else, and I ended the scene with a confident:
"Hello."

(because the traditional "hey" or "yo" was starting to bore me. THAT'S REINNOVATION FOR YA!)

Okay, damn it, I broke my streak of, "Going to rehearsals every single day to show my dedication as the stage manager!" today.  I recently bought the first season of House, MD.. and well.. I--I really wanted to watch it, okay?! St-stop looking at me like that! It's a great show! And that Hugh Laurie is a genius actor! (::in radio voice:: House nominated for five emmys including Hugh Laurie nominated for best actor in his role as Dr. Gregory House.  Catch the emmys on CBS on Sunday, September 18th at 8/7c!  neat sidenote-- And The One Campaign commercial is up for "Outstanding Commercial"!) Anyone else that's watched House knows what I'm talking about. C'mon.

Some San Jose-ians have updated their xangas, even if only briefly (some being just Lisa, Linda, and Ashley.  ::cries a little:: oh, and sam. almost forgot she got a new xanga cos' she's groovy).  Thank you.  AND THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT (of the rants that even i find myself tired of every now and then)!  Whoo, three whole comments on my last entry.  I feel like I'm hella special.  Why yes, I know that people reading this probably get like a million eProps per entry, but I DON'T CARE!  I want to you all to know that I acknowledge and I appreciate those comments will all my heart!  ::sniff::  I feel like I'm House and I just won an emmy.

My last few days, the short version:
-became anti-rabbit killing
-became a deviant
-chose the former over the latter mostly cos' of a spiffy dude that should now feel warm and gooey inside like cheese fondue
-found myself wanting to kill my upper body strength, but there isn't any to shoot
-read a b--

Wait, I almost forgot.  I'm anti-short versions.  I rant.  That's why people find me annoying (that and because i'm bad with people and i talk to myself).  I can't believe that slipped my mind.

Recited/characterized a memorized poem in Theatre in front of the class.  We all know that I'm usually the least comfortable when I'm around people that I'm comfortable with (confused? yeah, me too) so now that I'm starting to know my Theatre classmates, nerves struck with this assignment.  On the first read, I forgot half the poem and had to improv on my lines.  Then, yesterday, when I presented "the character version", where you really need to put emotion as if you were on a TV show or the whatnot, my heart was pounding and my hands were shaking.  What did I do?  I yelled.  Yep.  I yelled my poem with tones of emotion in a psychological means to scream my nerves away.  People jumped in their seats and everything.  AND SO WHAT HAPPENED, YOU ASK?!  4/4 rubric across the board and highest grade in my class!  Chyeah.  This is one helluva stage manager.

Club Rush was today and, to humor Pinouchee and to be in a club at all besides Drama Club at least, right when I thought I stepped safely away from the remarkable anime scene and could go on with a sane life w/o the chasing of manga, anime, and Jap-wannabeing, I signed up for and joined the anime club.  That plus the deviant art thing sparked a new joy for drawing that I haven't experienced in a year or so, and that'll be spoofing too now.  Yes.  Spoofing.

Maybe I'll stop now.  This ranting thing is getting to out-of-hand.  Someone might get hurt!  Nooo!

Today's lesson+photo (because i can, dammit): In the real world, emotions not mattering is a complete lie.
                              

From left to right: Chocolate, Ashley, Daniel, Joeve, and Lisa
(to reassure you that no, i've not forgotten about you. don't worry!)

Cos' it's a lie that emotions don't matter
and I miss you guys (& the ones not in this photo, too) ..I really do..

and thank the gods for my new friends to get me through the day.

it takes a second to fall in love, but it takes years to know what love is

Bye for now.

Good evening, ladies and gents!  Throughout tonight's blog entry, I will be your hostess.  Now, I'll be frank; it is immensely boring and I think the writer's a little wacko in the noodle, but really.. if you're reading this, you just might be a fragment of my imagination.  Now please, enjoy the entry.

That was the longest greeting I've ever had.  By the way, who does that?  Who has a routined outline of every blog entry?  Mine's Greeting->Body->Today's Lesson->Song Lyric/Quote->Closing (Bye for now.).  I realize that either no one's got that spiffy little thing going on or they used to but now don't.  OR THEY DON'T WRITE AT ALL.  Don't the San Jose-ians know that this is my only way that I know about your days?!  I'm 120 miles away, I'm not going to just come down there during lunch and play patty-cake anytime soon (btw, wth kind of example is that?).  I don't read the Myspace blogs because blogging there is betrayal, and I am of a wicked thing (because the Shakespeare footnotes say that "of a wicked thing" is a stronger phrase than "naughty".  used in the pre-dirty way, of course) when it comes to picking up the phone to answer or to call.  So please, update and improve on your writing skills, even if that's the only excuse you have, because apparently letting your friend that's moved away far far away isn't good enough!  You all make me angry.

I am a bit pathetic, and I'm on the verge of being okay with that.  I'm actually juggling whether or not I want friends.  I know, it's pathetic.  It's because if I have friends, I got the spiffy stuff you always have with buddies, but on the other hand, if I don't befriend anyone, I'll never have to care.  I can be sad and apathetic and miserable all I want.   It's because I'm not really a friendly person.  Really, I'm not!  I just.. forgot that for the last two years.  But there are cool people that compel me to choose the former over the latter.  Some not so much, and I'm a bad enough person to want them to ditch me.  I'll see how that blows over.  Unless the role of the snotty little antagonist returns beforehand.  Damn that role.

Oh, yeah!  I tried out for MTHS' play, "A Midsummer's Night Dream."  And guess what part I got!  It's the awesome awesome role of -- wait for it, wait for it -- stage manager.  Yeah, I'm not one of the performing, I'm of the crew.  But yeah, it's awesome!  Stage manager's like.. the lead act of the backstage crew.  I'm excited to be one of the underappreciated crew that's actually what's required in order for the entire thing to tick.  And it's an excuse to attend all of the rehearsals and meetings.  I really want to witness how a play is made in the process to create the fantastic end result.  It's.. magical.

New season of House today on FOX!  WHOO!

Today's lesson picture (in attempt to break the monotonous cycle):

No, I don't feel like resizing it for your conveniences and to make my xanga look less insane.  And NO!  That's not from Google!  It's a gigantic Joshua Tree from down south that I took myself.    I would've gotten close to the forests but people kept honking at me and I got scared. 

break the double-edged sword of being lazy and being bored

Bye for now. (now that part of the cycle, we're not breaking)

In remembrance of the anniversary of a past crisis and in salute of a country currently in the midst of another one...

God bless ya', America.

Yo!

I just need to get two things off my chest.. they're super important.
1) I think it's hella funny/crazy/ironic when an opening act outdoes the main act at a concert and fans "convert".
2) I'm a big horror movie wuss (to the point where commercials for horror movies give me nightmares), and although the commercial for "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" is more creepy than scary, I couldn't help but think it was clever and I started giggling during one commercial when the doctor said, "I can't help her." and someone goes, "Why not?" and he says, "There's no injection for the devil."
Yeah, that's it.

HEY!  HEY!  HEY!  HEY!  HEY!  HEY!  HEY!  Did I get your attention yet?  Good.  The Live 8 DVD is coming out soon on Nov. 7, so buy it (I'm SO buying it b/c i couldn't watch it on MTV/VH1 and then I'm buying Live Aid too b/c I haven't yet).  Because it rocks your socks' pet squirrels, that's why (translation: All profits of the DVD go to Africa, kids).  I know you're wearing a ONE band or at least you wished you were because all the (really really really) awesome kids wear ONE bands for the sake of making poverty history.  Therefore, YOU (yes, you) are super all for this cause (oh wait, no, it's not a cause, it's an emergency. REMEMBER THAT!) and you must (or at least you should) buy the Live 8 4-disk DVD.  An article on it's here: http://nme.com/news/113604.htm

And because I just love y'all, here's the DVD's running order if you're actually interested (blog entry continues after the list):

DISC 1
Paul McCartney & U2 – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
U2 – Beautiful Day, Vertigo, One
Coldplay – In My Place, Fix You
Coldplay with Richard Ashcroft – Bittersweet Symphony
Elton John – The Bitch Is Back, Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting
Elton John with Pete Doherty –Children Of The Revolution
Dido & Youssou N’Dour – 7 Seconds
Stereophonics – Bartender And The Thief
REM – Everybody Hurts, Man On The Moon
Ms Dynamite – Dy-Na-Mi-Tee
Keane – Somewhere Only We Know
Black Eyed Peas – Where Is The Love, Let’s Get It Started
Black Eyed Peas with Stephen Marley –Get Up Stand Up
Duran Duran – Wild Boys (Rome)
Bob Geldof – I Don’t Like Mondays
Muse – Time Is Running Out (Paris)
Travis – Sing
Kaiser Chiefs – I Predict A Riot, Everyday I Love You Less And Less
UB40 with Hunterz & The Dohl Blasters – Reasons
UB40 – Red Red Wine
Green Day –American Idiot (Berlin)
Snoop Dogg – Signs, Who Am I (What’s My Name)?
Bon Jovi – Livin’ On A Prayer
Annie Lennox – Why, Sweet Dreams

DISC 2
Destiny’s Child – Survivor, Girl
Razorlight – Somewhere Else, Golden Touch
Bryan Adams – All For Love (Toronto)
Kanye West – Diamonds From Sierra Leone
CBC Ethiopian Famine Film
Madonna – Like A Prayer, Ray Of Light, Music
Will Smith – Getting’ Jiggy Wit It, Switch, The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air
Brian Wilson – Good Vibrations (Berlin)
Snow Patrol – Run
Toby Keith – Stays In Mexico
The Killers – All These Things That I’ve Done
Dave Matthews Band – American Baby
Daniel Powter – Bad Day (Berlin)
Linkin Park – In The End
Linkin Park w/ Jay-Z – Numb
Joss Stone – Super Duper Love, Some Kind Of Wonderful
Jars Of Clay – Show You Love
Scissor Sisters – Laura, Take Your Mama
Alicia Keys – For All We Know
Velvet Revolver – Fall To Pieces
Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar On Me
Jet – Are You Gonna Be My Girl? (Toronto)
Sarah McLachlan & Josh Groban – Angel
Sting – Message In A Bottle, Driven To Tears, Every Breath You Take

DISC 3
Mariah Carey – Make It Happen, Hero
Vusi Mahlasela – When You Come Back (Johannesburg)
Roxy Music – Do The Strand (Berlin)
Maroon 5 – This Love, She Will Be Loved
Neil Young – Four Strong Winds (Toronto)
Pet Shop Boys – Go West (Moscow)
Robbie Williams – We Will Rock You, Let Me Entertain You, Feel, Angels
Keith Urban – Somebody Like You
Placebo – Twenty Years (Paris)
Rob Thomas – Lonely No More
Faithless – We Come 1 (Berlin)
Stevie Wonder – Master Blaster (Jammin’), So What The Fuss/Superstition
Stevie Wonder & Rob Thomas – Higher Ground
Stevie Wonder & Adam Levine (Maroon 5) – Signed Sealed Delivered
The Who – Who Are You?, Won’t Get Fooled Again
Pink Floyd – Speak To Me, Breathe, Money, Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb
Paul McCartney – Get Back, Helter Skelter, The Long And Winding Road
Paul McCartney & George Michael –Drive My Car
Finale – Hey Jude

DISC 4
Edinburgh – The Final Push
Highlights from the Murrayfield concert held on 6 July
McFly – All About You (Tokyo)
Good Charlotte – Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous (Tokyo)
Dreams Come True – Love Love Love (Tokyo)
Bjork – All Is Full Of Love (Tokyo)
The Who - ‘Who Are You?’ film
Travis - ‘Why Does It Always Rain On Me?’ film
Ricky Gervais – Enjoy The Day
Behind The Scenes At Hyde Park
Pink Floyd rehearsal
Additional bonus international performances may be added

And NOW!  Here's the continuation to the blog because I just know you were looking forward to it..

::turns on funky disco music::

And so you're back from outer space!
I just walked in to find you here
with that sad look upon your face!
I should have changed that stupid lock!
I should have made you leave your key!
If I'd had known for just one second
you'd be back to bother me..!

Oh go on now go, walk out the door.
Just turn around now
'Cos you're not welcome anymore.
Were you the one who tried
to break me with goodbyes?
Did you think I'd crumble?
Did you think I'd lay down and die?

Oh no, not I!
I will survive!
Oh, as long as I know how to love
I know I'll stay alive.
I got all my life to live
and I got all my love to give.
and I'll survive... I will survive! Hey hey!

Today's lesson: Go outside and take a deep breath.  It ain't long until you stop having the privilege to do that.

as the music played I saw my life turn around

Bye for now.

Hi.

There's a lot of bitter, touchy subjects out there that people hesitate to talk about, I realize.  Maybe I knew it all along; we all knew.  We're all just waiting for someone else to talk about it and get the finger pointed at them so that we don't have to take the blame. War. Death. Descrimination. Religion. Poverty. Terrorism. I admire the people with the audacity to stand up and say something, anything, while the rest of us feel compelled to shut up and listen.  Some people like to recoil with criticism and insults towards trying to help and speak out for themselves.  Shame.  If anything else, you should be grateful that you even live at the same time as these people.

One that I felt hesitant to talk about was Hurricane Katrina.  It was just going to be the stuff of grieving and hopes for people to donate money at links I'd provide, but everyone already knows that, don't you?  Watch any television station, go to any store, go to any major website.  I don't need to patronize any of you with information you all already know and have probably been spilling your hearts out towards (& i'm very lucky i don't have a big bank account or else i'd be emptying it and throwing it all to Red Cross in tears).  But the situation is serious.  Thousands have died and when I took the time to remember that that's not just a number, but it's people.. children, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, lovers, friends.. I unashamedly cried.  My prayers go out to them.

On a completely different note (because it'd be a really odd moment for me if anyone related this to the above topics), thank God for the Simpsons.

High school for me.. well, it's okay.  Not as great as I hoped, but I'm alive (although admittedly not really living.. you get it, right?), and that's a good start.

Today's lesson: Music packs a punch.  It can change moods, lives.  "I've learned more about life in a three-minute song than I have throughout sixteen years of school."  Preach to the choir.

wake me up when september ends

Bye for now.

Hey.

I'm a tad tired but I have an urge to blog.  I don't wanna talk about school and maybe it's not my place to talk about the world right now.  I can spout about how much I miss San Jose and all my buddies until the cows come home, but I think you all already know that.  So, in some grand gesture of writing at least something, I found a spiffy survey on mindsay.com. Did it twice, once with Relient K and then with U2 because I was bored, I know enough about their respective catalogs.. and because they rock. For the answers that deceptively don't make sense, check out their lyrics and you'll be enlightened.  I know, I'm kind of cheating on that..

1. Pick a band and answer only using the band's song titles:
Relient K

2. How's your life:
Who I Am Hates Who I've Been

3. Describe how you feel about yourself:
More Than Useless

4. Your best piece of advice:
Let It All Out

5. Describe your last relationship:
Down in Flames

6. Describe your current crush:
The One I'm Waiting For

7. Say something to someone you have a crush on:
Getting Into You

8. Say something to an ex:
What Have You Been Doing Lately?

9. Say something to someone you hurt severely:
Trademark

10. Say something to someone who has helped you:
Those Words Are Not Enough

-+-

1. Pick a band and answer only using the band's song titles:
U2

2. How's your life:
Where Did It All Go Wrong

3. Describe how you feel about yourself:
Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World

4. Your best piece of advice:
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own

5. Describe your last relationship:
I Fall Down

6. Describe your current crush:
Sweetest Thing

7. Say something to someone you have a crush on:
All I Want Is You

8. Say something to an ex:
Do You Feel Loved?

9. Say something to someone you hurt severely:
Another Time, Another Place

10. Say something to someone who has helped you:
All Because Of You

Today's lesson: There's something that someone's sacrificing for you and your satisfaction that you don't even know about.

the truth is not the same without the lies he made up

Bye for now.

Hey there.

Okay, first off, DAMN THE MASSES OF WHITE BANDS!  I personally have a ONE band (for ONE.org in the fight to stop poverty in Africa, and in fact, while we're on that note, sign the ONE declaration+letter to President Bush HERE.. because you're really awesome) and if you knew me in the eighth grade, either you know about that big thingy or.. you own one of those bands and it's on your wrist RIGHT NOW.  So anyhoo, a lot of my classmates have white bands, but they're NOT neccesarily the ONE band!  But there's this little ticking bomb in me that whenever I see a white band on someone's wrist, I follow them relentlessly (also during the summer.. imagine the hell my parents went through when i wandered after one of them) until I find out whether it's a ONE band or not just to make the little voice in my head shut up.  And so far, it's always been Nike or a PowerBand or Teens Staying Sober or the whatnot.  I mean, I have nothing against those (except for the powerband.. if you're gon' buy these things, at least buy ones whose profits will go to charity!) but it just always crushes me a little when it's not a ONE band.  T_T

Okay, with that off my chest, school is going .. okay.  I have four friends!  Actually, four friends and this guy named Jimmy that writes the AWESOMEST (is that a word?  no, huh?) songs and I want to be his friend but he's evil!  Evil!  I spent my entire English class trying to curse him with a bad hair day because he spends effort on those spikes, I know it! 

I feel bad because three out of four of my friends aren't their own individual yet in my head; I'm still in that, "OMG, you so remind me of.." kind'a thing.  Danielle (haha.. i find her name ironic) is prol'ly my closest friend there right now, who I met at freshman orientation.  She reminds me of Ashley a lot with the crazed-out hugging-everyone-she-really-knows thing of Genn.. put in the body of a young Kirsten Dunst.  Really.  I'll take a picture of her one day so you can all see.  Richard, a Junior in my Theater class, reminds me of Hector, except he has dreadlocks (sp?) and curses and makes obscene jokes like it was a religion.  Eun-Sung Kim, a very shy immigrant from Korea, is HERSELF!  (yayy) And then there's Phap.  Oh, Phap.  She reminds me a lot of Thao, but she's really.. whoa.  Okay, so after the intimidating first day, I had this negative state of mind (actually, i kind of still have it.. just give it a few weeks) of, "Damn you all, I don't need friends!  I'll do just fine on my own, thank you very much!"  But then afterschool yesterday, I promised I'd wait for her afterschool to go to the Drama Club meeting with her, and when she did come, I was expecting a distant hello and we walk in; that's all.  But then she greeted me with this big hug, and she took me by the arm and we walked in arm-in-arm, her telling me that I'm such a good friend for waiting for her.  I mean, I've done stuff like that before, like with Genn and stuff, but it was really shocking after my decision about companions.  So Phap came, and I was like, "I miss this."  I'll be a-okay.  ..but Jimmy pisses me off.

Ack.  Gonna perform "The Star Spangled Banner" later today in Theater for Ms. Townsend to see how I do in front of an audience (i.e. nerves), and I have these flashbacks of eighth grade Social Studies.  OH YEAH?!  Im'ma do hecka well and I'm going to whup that eighth grade performance in the butt.  Damn right.  Or if I wanna wuss out, I can just recite a poem.. I wanna do a poem I wrote that's called "Culpable" (read it here) but it's a tad.. it talks about a woman mourning over her daughter that was raped and killed at four years old..

Today's lesson: Smile.  It's contagious.

what matters to you does not matter to me

Bye for now.