Today was Japan Day, and I attended to huge festival. So many people... Dx Can't forget the cosplayers, too.
First of all, the food was impossible to reach. They gave away free tea, and that had no line to it, so I got tea 8D But the food (which was free too) was harder: lines extended far, and I managed to hop onto the shortest line: for dumplings. And oh my goodness, those dumplings were good.
The line for sushi was the longest. Sorta figured that would be so. ._.
Anywho, other stuff. Pretty much all the activities had lines to them. Yo-yo fishing had a fast-moving line, so I hopped on and managed to fish out a yo-yo balloon thing. However, my hook got messed up so it took me a while to actually get one.
Origami was a fail. After waiting a bit, the guy I got didn't even know how to do the origami thing properly (it was a small leaping frog), and then we were rectangular index cards. In the end the frogs wouldn't jump. ;_;
I also got to try on a genuine kimono/yukata, despite the impossibly long wait. It was tied pretty tight around me, and the lady commented that I was pretty skinny and had to add a card of cardboard underneath the sash. It was a beautiful outfit, but so restrictive in movement. I definitely don't want to get into a combat situation while wearing one of these.
Then I checked out the toys tent, and there was a game to get a ball into a cup. It was handheld, so the ball was attached by string to a thing with three different places to get it into (looks like a hammer). I got the ball three times into one of the cups. I'm not sure what this toy is called, though.
And finally I donated some money to planting cherry trees in the park and got a t-shirt~
During the event there was a lot going on at the stage. Samurai fighting, shinobi dancing, children dancing, taiko drumming, people singing, etc. The fighting was pretty awesome, I have to say.
Overall, a nice event, but a lot of patience is needed to get through it. Also, sorry about lack of photography. xP
Yesterday was the ceremony that announced the winners of the children's book scholarship content I entered with my friend (too lazy to dig up the entry on it). We didn't win, but one entry from my school won second place.
The winning entry was a cute story, but the art wasn't very good. Still cute. I own the book, signed by the authors, cuz they gave them away free at the ceremony.
The New York Stock Exchange, where this took place, is the fanciest place in the world inside. Seriously. And, finally a lace that can afford to give us genuine plates and cups instead of disposable ones for the food! (the refreshments they served were delicious - and RASPBERRY TEA 8D)
After all that jazz my dad and I went down to the piers and chilled there, got ice cream, took pictures, etc. Twas nice.
But now, it's just me and Tom Baker Doctor Who episodes. B)
As usual, I'm not writing long reviews of the movie. But it was pretty cool. The beginning had me in, then towards the middle it got slightly confusing, and near the end there was so much gunfire I was like "aaaah enough of this!". And I could not make out any of the Russian in the movie, so it's either that the actors have terrible dialects or I'm just terrible at picking the stuff out.
So today I chilling at the riverside park, and it was rather fun, but I won't bore you with details. I found a broken fishing pole that I used for various adventures in the park, though.
On the way home, however, I'm passing by an apartment building when half a loaf of bread falls from above and onto my head. I look up, no one's visible. I'm just like "Whoa. Bread."
So today I wore my outfit to look like Ronnie James Dio.
With the exception of my gender, most everything turned out well. I had on a puffy white blouse, a dark blue vest, and black pants, plus a extra sword necklace and crazy ring. My hair, when let down, is naturally similar to Dio's, only with more hair. And I taped a pic of Dio's logo to my chest.
The only people who knew who I was were two teachers. One called me Ronnie all day long and sang Holy Diver. xP
Today at school, the Foreign Language department held the annual International Food Fair. Being a freshman, twas my first time there, and it's pretty cool. Students bring in food from various nations, the main focus being on foods from the countries that the school teaches languages of - Japan, Italy, France, and Spain (or anything Spanish in general). They were open during lunch periods, and the last two periods of the day, the French and Italian classes 'cleaned' up the leftovers by eating them up.
During my lunch period, I went down and there so many people you could hardly navigate. Dx I also had my art project with me, and I used the cardboard backing for it as a tray for my plates of food. And my bag was heavy, too. But, I got some Japanese and Italian food, and a French dessert, and ate with some friends. I saved an onigiri to eat in science class. Onigiri is pretty awesome <3
Since my Italian class was the last period of the day, we went down to 'clean up', but the French class before us ate everything that was left over. ;_; However, my Italian teacher (he's alive, btw) let us leave early. =D
Otherwise life is good, but I need to think of what to make for Brickfair in terms of MOCs. Time to build is slowly running low! D:
So did you know that with four chords you can play many of everyone's favorite pop songs on the keyboard? =O
The Axis of Awesome did so at some show (look up the video), and I was like "whoa." The four chords, credit to Dudebot here, are E Major, B Major, C# Minor, and A Major. Of course, I don't understand much about music in such a manner, but it's still pretty awesome.
Speaking of music, I've been getting into Vocaloid lately. I want to make fanart for some of the songs, like Len and Rin's "Prisoner" and "Paper Plane." But I feel I should get some form of art markers first, like Prismacolor or Copic (Copic is more expensive, I believe), and then master them for these pieces. Maybe I can do so in the summer?
And more music stuff! Random, nonsense lyrics of the day:
I'm a magician, Spencer,
A furious magician!
Are you proud of your country?
Are you proud of your country?
I bet you are, you pretty little boy,
Sitting up there in your high chair,
Demanding more applesauce.
You've already got enough applesauce, Spencer!
There's plenty of applesauce on your plate.
I went to that used bookstore again, and checked out what they had. I got two volumes of Gon (volumes 2 and 6) and a volume of something I don't know. I don't know it because it's in Japanese, so I can't read the title. If anyone knows Japanese and would like to read the title for me, just ask and I can scan in the cover.
Aaanyways I feel artistically mehh. I have a project in art where I have to illustrate a thing from a combination of sentence starters and nouns from the chalkboard. I chose "Daughter of Atomic Particles" (though it should really be subatomic particles). I started the drawing, but I have some problems with anatomy I have to fix. And perspective on this will be a pain. My friend also requested a bookmark from me. I have also been long working on a fanart for Alice Human Sacrifice (Vocaloid song) but I can't find free and alone time to work on it. One reason why I can't wait until school and testing is over. =D
Durarara!! is an awesome show. Just amazing. <3 Leader knows how crazy it is.
@Blade - one of the characters actually has something similar to Novia's anger, where he gets supa-strong. =P
And, I have worn my Torchic hat all week to school, and I've gotten used to it now. Might not match my outfit all the time, but it's still awesome.
Today I went to the Sakura Matsuri at a botanical garden in my area. Sadly, the cherry blossoms were not in bloom - in fact they had withered, in a way. But that didn't spoil the fun. =D
At the main stage where the not-in-bloom trees were, when I arrived at the beginning, there was a rehearsal of a martial arts dance going on. The drums were very loud, and the person with the flute played next to a microphone, so the sound was sometime deafening. Some pics - 1 2 3
Elsewhere in the botanical garden, these women were dancing (to no music). It was very mysterious.
The botanical garden also features a Japanese pond and garden. There's huge coi in this pond! =O Some highlights are: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 There was also a Tea Ceremony rehearsal going on just to the side of the pond.
After the garden, My dad, granny, and I got some bento lunches. 1 2 3 They were delicious. <3
In the visitor's center, there were some examples of Ikebana flower arrangements. They were very beautiful. My personal favorites were: 1 2 3
Finally, we went over to the J-Lounge: an area of J-pop culture, such as manga, anime, music, etc. After checking out the tents, getting a ton of fliers, and staring at Gundam kits, a show began.
The show was Uncle Yo, an anime stand-up comedian. He was brilliant. He sang an FPS version of Caramelldansen, James Cameron's Avatar became a Blizzard joke, Lelouch Lamperouge sang a song only to be interrupted by Light Yamagi, they both got owned by a cupcake, cupcake went Super Saiyan, he commented on some recent events that suggest a battle between Earth and the Moon, he criticized Hetalia, and he finished off by singing the Sailor Moon song with Mario Bueno.
After that fun, Mario Bueno sang various anime openings. One from Durarara!!, one from Code Geass, one from RomeoxJuliet, one from Dragonball Z, and one from Gundam Seed. It was awesome.
Can't forget the cosplayers. Characters from Naruto were the most common thing I saw people dressed as. There was a random dude in all white who wandered around the whole park making clever comments on the surroundings. After Mario Bueno's singing, there was a Iron Cosplay competition (kind of like Iron Chef - you get 20 minutes to dig through fabrics with your team and create a costume), but I didn't stick around for the end.
I also bought a Torchic hat. In fact, I'll wear it to Brickfair. It should help you guys find me. B)
Today after school was fun. I went with some friends to the Apple Store near my school, but it was closed until 5:00 PM for a little tidying up. The reason was because there was a long line outside the store of people waiting to buy the iPad. But the staff outside said that if you're not buying an iPad, you'll be let into the store at 5 anyways.
So we chill until 5, which wasn't for less than an hour. We got there just as it opened. Funny thing is, for like the first twenty people on that line that stepped in, the employees clapped. When we walked in there, with all that clapping, it felt like we were royalty. ._.
I checked out the iPad, it's actually really neat. I wouldn't mind owning one. In fact, I logged onto BZP with it, and BZP looked beautiful as ever. <3
Then my friends went crazy with Photo Booth on one of the computers, and I was forced into it. woohoo~
And I've been doing so many things in the last hour or two that I can't think straight. I've had the "Add Entry" tab open for at least an hour to write this entry. Aaaaah.
My Italian teacher got into an accident and broke his leg, now he's not coming in for at most two weeks. Apparently, now my class is going to have a substitute (who is very awesome) who will mostly give us assignments from the textbook that my Italian teacher told him to assign. While it's cool, I miss my Italian teacher.
Got my report card, and I have three 99's. Kinda scary.
And starting today until around May 12, I can sign up for next year's classes. Math class with probably be Algebra II/Trig. English is no big deal for signing up. In the sciences, I should be automatically programmed into Chemistry. Global history continues on for another year. Foreign language, I can choose to continue taking Italian, or not take a language at all. I'm continuing Italian, though. =D
As for the arts, I'll be automatically put into the next studio class (sophomore year it's Basic Graphic Design and then Oil/Acrylic). But then there's another thing! I can take Ceramics in the fall and Printmaking in the spring, or Printmaking in the fall and Ceramics in the spring. I've decided to go for Ceramics in the spring, because the spring semester is longer and Ceramics is more fun. Also you can get injured in Printmaking, so that's not cool.
Oh and today there was this epic picture of a T-Rex head replacing the head of some businessman in the newspaper, with his hands in a kind of T-Rex-ish pose. I cut it out and kept it. B)
The other week I had found a picture of a very excited Joe Biden, too.
But yeah, two nights ago I had an interesting dream. It was set in the real world, and everything looked like it does here, but the people were changed. There were three main groups of people: Zombie people, people totally under a trance, and people whose personalities have been flipped.
The zombie people just moped around, although one guy who looked like a farmer chased me and tried to kill me. I lost him the first time, and the second time I gave him a really weak punch and he just fell over and didn't respond. Weakling.
The tranced people were under some sort of spell, walking around ignorant of their surroundings. Most commonly, they would be walking up and down staircases. Be it spiral stairs, normal stairs, or just two steps, they constantly walked up and down them. I do not know of the significance of this.
The third group was the strangest to me. Many of the people I knew suddenly had personalities opposite of what I knew them as. To watch them interact was pretty interesting.
So remember that children's story writing contest I entered? In today's weekly student bulletin at school, there was a section that mentioned myself and another girl that got in. Everyone was like "yay" until we realized that my friend who illustrated my story and the partner of the girl I just mentioned were both not included in the bulletin. But my English teacher called the office, and hopefully they'll fix it in the online version. =D
My friend in science class also somehow obtained Russia's (Hetalia) character CD from Japan, and let me borrow it for the weekend, mostly for the instrumentals. It's pretty cool, and has inspired me to draw a bookmark. As if I don't have enough to draw already (thanks for the pressure, Blade =P).
And my dad is magical. He has this tape that is the same color as a normal, boring brown package. So since he has a package he needs to send, he found some random big box from a blender or something, and just wrapped it up in this tape. It looks just like a normal package, it's crazy.
Also guys why is four-chambered heart more advantageous than a three-chambered heart? Cuz I have no idea D:
So my mom was just asking me what coat (light coat, that is) I'll wear tomorrow. I was like "Oh the same one as today" and then I stopped when I remembered I noticed black streaks on the arm of the coat earlier. So I told my mom of the streaks, and then said I would wear my red coat.
My mom inspects my red coat, and turns out the arms have paint splattered here and there (artists ahoy). So that was no good for now.
Finally I settled for one of my jean/denim coats. Although then my mom pulled out like ten other sweaters and coats and asked if they were better options, but I kept saying that the jean coat was fine. xP
But yeah, apparently I have lots of dirty coats. Kind of sucks.
I saw it in 3D today. I loved it a lot, surprisingly. <3
I also tried peach bubble tea today, and it was really good. Only, the guy put so many fruit chunks that every time I took a sip from the straw, I'd get more solid fruit than drink. xP
First I am disappointed that no one got the reference in the previous entry. You all need to go and read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
Aaaaanyways
I think I did well on most of my midterms. In gym, we didn't do anything for half the time (woo relaxing) and for the other half we played a soccer game. He said we deserved to relax, with all the tests pressuring us.
My English teacher graded our midterm right away because it was so short - I got a 99.
And for all you Brickfair people - my dad finally signed me up to it, and the check was sent today. So I'm officially going. ^^
Midterms this week, started tomorrow and ending Thursday. ;_;
My midterm schedule is: Tuesday: Art, art, lunch, global history
Wednesday: Gym (;___, science, geometry
Thursday: English, Italian
The only cool parts about this week are rapping in lunch to study for Global midterm, and possibly finally going to the Tim Burton exhibit at the art museum (since it's ending soon).
So I was walking home, and from some apartment building across the street I hear a beautiful classical music tune. As I listen and walk by, white petals from a few of the trees on the curb just flew into the air thanks to the wind. I just froze and stared at the scene until the wind died down (though the music continued on). It was pretty awesome. <3
Another whoa moment was dissecting a fetal pig earlier. But I won't go into that. >__>
So the past few days, there was very summer-like weather in my area. We even broke a record in temperature. O:
And today, the temperature crept back down to normal, along with a bit of rain in the morning and some light wind.
However, during the warm days, not many people went to the ice-cream trucks for, well, ice cream. And today, after school, on this chilly day, I saw half of the people I know with ice cream, and some in the process of buying it. So I bought some myself.
My dad had gotten me a dry-erase board a while ago, and it's pretty useful. I got all my vacation homework done thanks to organizing what I had to get done on it (nuuu school tomorrow).
My granny also got me three colors of dry-erase markers: black, blue, and red.
The best part of the board is drawing on it. Most of what I draw on the board comes out bad (though I drew some awesome cyborg chick with my brother), and it's hard to erase, but it's fun. I drew Hamel from Violinist of Hameln on it the other day.
This is Vocal from the Violinist of Hameln manga. Made on 9" by 12" Bristol paper and with Micron and calligraphy pens.
First thing - on stuff I noticed in the picture that could have been improved: Some of the black parts meld into other parts and make them hard to differentiate. The characters on the ball seem placed a bit unevenly and mess up the inside circle. And his hands might be too small?
Second - Let me tell you about Violinist of Hameln. About 140 chapters of stuff, written/drawn in the 1990's, and it can be fun. The only issue that stood out is occasional confusion with setting. While they're in a fantasy world, the characters sometimes mention locations in Europe and Asia and composers from real life (since they place music often), there are some technological aspects such as when Hamel's violin gets "upgraded", and once or twice there was a Gundam Mobile Suit stuck in there. Another thing is that they break the fourth wall a bunch of times, but I'm not sure if that's good or bad.
Otherwise I really, really enjoyed it.
But the anime was terrible.
