court * jester

But it's not shiny enough to get a name. ;P

So I decided to stop being a kid, and make one concession for my birthday: allowing my mom to finally buy me a Nintendo DS. Um, yes, because I don't think she appreciated my remark a couple weeks ago that "If you give me the money, it's just going to end up in my bank account for school." With this, I put an end to the unpleasant gift business from Christmas.

After making the purchase, my mom complained that she could have simply bought the thing during December. True, but when we went to the store today, I didn't see any copies of Time Hollow and WEWY, so I guess it's for the better. Hmm, well I could have bought the games during these intervening months, but, uh, my funds were being spent elsewhere. *cough*YesAsia*cough*

Just the same, the DS came at an appropriate time, since I know have a fail-proof cure for summer boredom! Rejoice! However, this is also a bad thing because I go through games much like I go through books... so now I really need a job. Goodness, my poor wallet, how it weeps.

On the subject of writing, omg, I'm so happy to be working on Timeless again. *hugs her novel* I've rewritten the beginning so it now flows more nicely. Although, I am stuck with ironing out the finer details of my heroine's Moirae and how to not turn this isn't a Stockholm Syndrome sort of thing. Oh yes, my heroine has yet to fully decide on her personality, but thankfully it's only at odd moments. Gods, I've missed the creative process! :3

Volunteering. Experience. CV. Job.

There you have it folks. When I told her that I wanted to volunteer for Otakuthon, thereby entailing that I'd stay at Winn's for three days for travel purposes, my mom seemed hardly keen to allow it. However, I explained to her my plight, how frustratingly hard it is to find a job currently. Thus, in the mean time, I would rack up as much volunteer experience as possible. And suddenly, she let me go to the event. I'd say it feels great to be responsible, but there was totally self-interest at play. ^-^;;

Otakuthon's only at the end of July-beginning of August, but today I participated at my town's annual Garage Sale. In charge of the book section, wheeeee~ I actually found a collection of Oscar Wilde's short stories, but other than that, I resisted temptation. I feel rather proud of myself. :D

Unfortunately, Swatch Group had a change in management, and they decided to drop the FIVB Beach Volleyball tournament in Quebec. It was a five day event that required volunteers, but, well, guess that won't be happening anymore, eh? Aww, bummer. *sadface* I attended in 2007 as a spectator (VIP, woot!), had a blast, and was eager to volunteer the next time around. But, I guess with the recession, Swatch dropping the tournament isn't all that surprising.

All this rambling to say I had fun at the garage sale. The weather was fantastic, I've got shiny Wildean literature, and I meet my old and dear friend Jes.

Well, dad's being a monopolising pain. So I'm off to clean that room and write. Ta darlings~

Oh, before I forget. Winn: if I don't get a chance to tell you tomorrow, I wish you the sincerest best for piano! You probably won't like the reminder, but I'm rooting for you from the bottom of my heart! :3

Title rather irrelevant to the post, but hey, I do indeed have a mild headache. D:

My last final -Geo- was today, and the teacher so lied. So much for studying populations and surface areas of realms/regions/countries, a lot of the questions, instead, made reference to climates. Thank gods for visual memory, since I didn't review that topic intensively. In short, knowing that the population of Sub-Sahara Africa is 800 million helped me squat.

Later, Winn, Ness, and I went for dim sum, which was amusing. The one dish they thought I'd love was the one I was least keen about. I still enjoyed it, but chicken feet >>>>> tofu and sugar (lots of it, in my case). Winn gave me too much! So I pwned it off to Ness. :) And I was, like, the only non-Asian at the restaurant. Again. How many times has this happened now? The price of being an egg?

We stayed at Ness' for a bit, discussing the questionable ethics of failing to kill a spider in one blow, prolonging its suffering, because I'm overly sentimental that way. That can be another post, however.

Once Ness left for work, Winn and I went to our little hangout downtown, and, egad, I fail at number seven in Canto. Well, specifically in a song that's chiefly numbers. I can easily speak '77' but the moment you add a tune, I was screwed over. With the second seven, my pronounciation kept going down instead of up. I eventually got it, but honestly brain, hell-o?

And... um, is this where I confess that it took a frickin' hour for me to gather the courage to sing in Canto to Winn? >.>;; (GOMEN!!) It was worse than presenting an oral! Alright, admittedly, that's a poor point of comparison since Social Science has awakened in me a love for speaking and people. Moving along, I plan to take East Asian studies in university, and if I get where I want to be, speaking these languages -Korean, Japanese, Chinese- and speaking them well is going to be in the job description. Thus, it's two very separate things to sing into your hairbrush as a microphone (okay, I don't do that) in your room and to your very fluent Canto-speaking friend.

Give me a moment, this all made sense in my head six hours ago. Despite being a greater optimist these days, I still have this fear of failure thing going for me, and the belief that I must be perfect thanks to parenting. So, in classic Tala fashion, I blew singing in Cantonese way out of proportion. And jeebus, I feel stupid for it.

It amused immensely me that the first thing to wish me happy birthday was my mp3 player. There were fireworks flashing on the screen and everything! Totally did not know it could do that.

Went on my eagerly anticipated book shopping excursion Friday, gosh I am so happy. Books, how I hath misseth thee! *starry eyes* I enjoyed school immensely, but it's great to breathe again, really, it is. Winn and Mon came with as a birthday treat since we all celebrate within days of each other. I felt kind of bad, though, because Winn doesn't share quite the same passion for books, and Mon and I were essentially dragging her about.

She says watching the two of us do our odd shopping rituals was entertaining... I feel guilty, yet at the same time I don't because I enjoyed my time in Chapters. Is that being too selfish?

The outting was cut short because, while Mon and I can ignore our stomachs in the name of literature, the friends she brought along couldn't. Do you have any idea how mentally exhausting it is to go through a huge floor of books in a hour? It was a bit disappointing that we couldn't stay longer, but I finally got my hands on Maggie Stiefvater's Lament. I was beginning to suspect that Chapters was conspiring against me, it was never in stock the previous times I checked. Yes, I could order online, but given the YesAsia favours my sister is already granting me... I think I'll leave it be.

I spent yesterday with Ness and Winn. I don't think my parents were too pleased with me skipping my birthday, but we no longer do anything on special ocassions. Admittedly, it didn't seem like such a step up, at first, to be with friends since at first we didn't have any particular plans. After a while, though, we just decided to hang out at one of the public centres downtown -it has a lounge area- and we spent our time there till dinner. (Chinese cuisine 4TW.)

Winn started teaching Ness and I Cantonese, and I scared her because I apparently have a fantastic accent, and I'm a really quick study. I think I was just as happy as her because there's no better feeling than being told you're good at something you like.

And, uh, I'm sick. Blimey.

Instead of sleeping through my alarm, I simply didn't set the darn thing last night.

I was so confused this morning because on Tuesdays 1) I usually don't feel well-rested, 2) I certainly don't wake on my own, and 3) it's not pleasantly light in my room. I think my brain briefly tried to convince me it was the weekend or something, but I groggily turned to the clock and promptly learned why I felt so damnably comfortable. xD

7:40. To attend any 8:00 class, I need to wake up at 5:30. Um, oops? Mercifully, it was English I missed; we're only doing orals and I presented last week. Just the same, I felt a little embarrassed. What kind of dork forgets to set her alarm clock? *facepalm*

On another note, I'm disappointed. During our next semester, Ness and I wanted to take Chinese lessons at Dawson as an aside. According to our many Asian friends, it's much easier to learn Cantonese, and then Mandarin. Unfortunately, Dawson offters only Mandarin, and the best place that offers Cantonese lessons is too far for me to travel. In which case, Ness will relay me her lessons and Winn, who's fluent in Cantonese, will get me started over the summer.

It'll have to do, but I was really hoping to take actual classes, and I'm not sure how easy it'll be to meet up with Winn during the summer considering we'll both be working. It's really frustrating because I truly adore Asian languages, and I'd like to start learning them formally. That, and this distance/travel problem again brings to light the whole issue of how much freer my life would be if I lived with my aunt.

I'm tired, my muscles ache, so I'm possibly being unnecessarily dramatic, but this is making me feel down.

Okay, so not quite. But with six tests, three orals, a gigantic project, a fifteen-week dossier, four essays, and everything in between squished in 3-4 weeks, I like to consider my semester practically done.

Sure, I have two final exams next Monday and four Thursday *dies* but that's infinitely easier than the circus I just went through. Never thought the day would come, but I'm so happy I only have tests! Anyway, just an all around massive workload, hence the late breaking in of this journal.

Which brings me to the crux of this post: DW-LJ policy. Honestly, I don't know what my plan is. Although, I think I will foreseeably make the move here simply because it's so shiny and clean, and, you know, the administration CARES. Not sure if I'll LJ import, not sure if I'll cross-post, will miss the large community, but seriously, LJ = business nonsense lately.

This journal is currently public. I'm always happy to meet new people, so just drop a comment anywhere if you're friending. : )