Colored Ink
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miss something? check the archives about me name: n/aaliases: kit, kits, kit kat, the smart girl, foxay, an chin age: 19 location: oakland, ca hobbies: anime, manga, reading, writing, doodling, video games, french horn likes: all of the above, being lazy, mushrooms, cheese, animals, laughing loudly in public dislikes: nuts, stinging/biting insects, religious fanatics, violence, olives contact: coloredink@mailcity add .com wishlist playstation 2car a good night's sleep money stress-free life trigun long colt keychain cowboy bebop dvd box set ipod world peace realistic wishlist dayworld by philip jos?farmerkabuki by david mack lucifer by mike carey infernal affairs ii long-term obsessions anime/mangayaoi/shounenai writing music animals life and living current obsession(s) infernal affairsfullmetal alchemist currently reading rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead by tom stoppardcurrently watching hana yori dango (20)utena (23) gto tv (39) witch hunter robin (18) naruto (58) get backers (27) rose of versailles (19) matantei loki ragnarok (15) scrapped princess (14) peacemaker kurogane (15) fullmetal alchemist (28) sailormoon live action (25) |
Tuesday, May 25, 2004 [link] 07:15 p.m. listening to: big honkin' playlist Ugh. Tired. I've only been going to work for two days and I'm already tired. Most of it's just from sitting in the same place for hours at a time; I'm redesigning the company's homepage, so I just get to sit and code as opposed to running around doing faxes and making copies and talking to customers, like everyone else does. But on the up side, I know some CSS now. I plan on teaching myself some JavaScript soon. It's beyond me right now. But I'm mostly tired because when I get home, there's all this stuff I have to do. Most of my close relatives--heck, pretty much all of my close relatives are off in Malaysia right now, so I'm left with this huge house all to myself. I'm not even moved in yet, mainly because I didn't have any dressers in my room until yesterday. Now I get to have the happy task of putting everything away (gosh, I hope everything fits). But I also have to maintain the kitchen, remember to take out the garbage, water the garden every day, feed the fish, check the mail--pretty much all the things that come with being a grown-up. It's nice to know I have so much to look forward to in life. I miss the Bay. I barely spent any time at home during the winter, since I went overseas, so it's like I've been away nearly an entire year instead of just three months. There are new restaurants everywhere (an Applebee's!), the local theatre has apparently been closed down and then reopened in my absence, and I'm living in a new location. But I miss the Bay's weather. I miss the healthy restaurants. I miss the public transit. I'd go take a walk or something, but I'm very tired and it's going to be dark in about forty-five minutes. And I still need to do the dishes, cook tomorrow's lunch, and unpack my things. Sigh. Saturday, May 22, 2004 [link] 01:29 a.m. listening to: nothing I just read all of the archives of Queen of Wands and now I'm slightly depressed. I probably shouldn't have been listening to Alanis Morissette at the time. And now I'm going to take some painkillers and go to bed. Wednesday, May 19, 2004 [link] 06:34 p.m. listening to: "You're Not Here" - Silent Hill 3 So, my wisdom teeth are out. The extraction was relatively painless and problem-free (and fast! my poor cousin barely had time to get a haircut). I got some very cheap prescription painkillers thanks to (said same) cousin who used to work in a pharmacy. Nnngaaahh I'm hungry. I made spaghetti because I promised my niece (second cousin? cousin once removed?) I would, but I can't eat any of it. Cry. Wednesday, May 19, 2004 [link] 12:51 a.m. listening to: "Gates of Dawn" - Secret Garden Got my computer and everything set up. Having some computer problems now, caused by I don't know what. Windows XP is singularly useless for diagnosing problems yourself. I'm hoping it'll fix itself somehow, because I don't know what to do. It's not crippling (so far), just really fucking annoying. I might put the call out on my LJ tomorrow if restarting a few times doesn't heal it. I'm too tired to deal effectively with it right now. I'm getting my wisdom teeth out tomorrow. I hope everything goes okay. Tuesday, May 18, 2004 [link] 01:27 p.m. listening to: nothing For those who missed it, I'm home. Been home since Sunday night. Won't have regular Internet access until tomorrow, though, because tonight my father returns to China for good and then I get the cable modem all to myself. My own computer's not set up yet. Hey, my dad has a scanner! Hmmm, what am I going to do with my father's computer? I think I want the motherboard. . . and the CPU. . . Anyway, I start work either later this week or early next week, depending on when I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled and when I get all my errands done etc. Then I'll be working maybe eight or nine hours a day (except Saturdays, when I think I get a partial day off, and Sundays I don't work at all), so I won't be online much then, either. And now, off to the dentist I go. Wednesday, May 12, 2004 [link] 03:41 p.m. listening to: "P.S. You Rock My World" - The Eels Well, I'm unplugging my computer now. I won't be computerified again until May 16th at the earliest, May 17th at the latest. See you all then. Stay out of trouble. Tuesday, May 11, 2004 [link] 09:08 p.m. listening to: big honkin' playlist Things I need to do tonight: - - - finish packing - Things I need to do tomorrow morning/afternoon: - find/buy a padlock - chuck my crap inside the storage container - - - - - Whew. Tuesday, May 11, 2004 [link] 02:59 p.m. listening to: big honkin' playlist Some people were not slapped enough as children. Sunday, May 9, 2004 [link] 01:05 a.m. listening to: "Prayer of St. Francis" - Sarah McLachlan Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O divine master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. Saturday, May 8, 2004 [link] 01:14 a.m. listening to: nothing I have this nagging feeling that I have some very nasty bugs on my machine that my virus scanner's just not picking up. I mean, system restore's just plain crippled. This doesn't bother me because I don't use system restore anyway, but it bothers me in that it means something's wrong and I don't know how to fix it. I can't access System Volume Information at all. AVG tells me there's nothing wrong with it when I scan it, but. . . but. . . but. . . aaaaaarrrgh. I kind of want to take it into a shop or something to get it looked at, but that costs money. Not only that, but what would I say? "The computer's functional in every way, shape, and form, I'm just paranoid, so, uh, humor me. Here, have some money." H'okey-dokey, you're the customer! Friday, May 7, 2004 [link] 03:58 a.m. listening to: "Spark" - Tori Amos Contrary to popular belief, I am not a grammar nazi. **waits for the gasps of shock to fade** No, seriously, I'm not. I mean, I believe in basically correct grammar. That is to say, sentences that have, you know, syntax that's not painful. And mostly correct spelling. I have higher standards for myself than the rest of the general population, mainly because I know my own capabilities, but I try not to inflict these standards on people unless they ask me to (ie: they ask me to proof an essay or article). That's why I'll eat my own typos, but I won't bug other people about their spelling (unless I, like, don't know what the word is). Although I seem to have gotten other people in the habit of kicking and bashing their typos as well. Otherwise, though, I mean, I believe that if you know the basic rules of grammar, you can bend them. In plausible ways that should make sense to the general population. Unless you're James Joyce of William Faulkner, in which case you need to die. Or be beaten repeatedly with a dictionary. But seriously, if I were a real grammar nazi, I'd score better than I do on those online quizzes. But I really don't care about grammar half as much as I probably should. I mean, I don't even support Project English Language! Oh my God! What kind of English major am I? But what I do care about is whether or not it's comprehensible, and a lot of grammar errors make something incomprehensible or at least very hard to understand. And also, you get graded on grammar when you're in school, and that's important. /sarcasm But I am, really, all about communication. It's why I write. To communicate my ideas, my thoughts, my immense craving for pancakes. It's one of the few ways in which I can communicate, seeing as how I'm this emotionally stunted person who usually can't express herself at all in real life. Daniel in my English class used to piss me off because he used big words for the sake of big words, claiming that they added "clarity." No they didn't, you fuck, they just made your papers completely unintelligible to 99% of the population, including our teacher. That does not illustrate your intelligence or your ability to write, that just means you're a pretentious bastard. . . . man, I miss Daniel. One of the things that angered me the most about the slew of immigrants back home was how few of them honestly attempted to learn English. Yeah, make fun of my Chinese all you want, but I don't live in China. If I for some reason decided to move to China and live there permanently, I'd sure as hell learn Chinese. So that I could, you know, function. And know how to ask for things like a pair of scissors. If you're going to live and work in the United States, learn English. But no, these people installed Chinese Windows on their computers, worked in Chinese restaurants, made friends with other Chinese-speaking people, and couldn't ask you where the bathroom was after living in the US for five years. These people have it tough. Learning a new language is no easy task, and it can be scary and intimidating being in a new country where you can't understand what anyone is saying. But, you know, at least pretend you're trying. Humor me. Install Windows in English. Read a page out of a book every day. Try to speak English for at least half an hour a day or something. Read the backs of cereal boxes. Buy children's books. I was able to teach myself a fairly good amount of Japanese this way. I'm by no means conversational (unless the conversation consists of things like "I'm going to kill you" "Thank you!"), but I'm not completely helpless, either. I'm just mostly helpless. Native speakers of English, as far as I can tell, have very little excuse for not being able to put together a sentence. There are fully functional adults in our society who can barely read. This astounds me a little, not because they can't read, but because I don't know how they got out of our education system without knowing how to read (I mean, some of them went to college!). On the other hand, I guess that doesn't surprise me at all. But if you can speak in complex sentences, if you read a fair amount, there's no reason to wRiT LiK dIs all the time or not know how to indent a paragraph. I mean, I make mistakes. All the time. I leave words out, I confuse homonyms, I have problems with subject-verb agreement, I screw up verb tenses. It doesn't help that our current education system doesn't seem to want to teach kids grammar, especially as you get into higher grade levels (basically, if you don't know what a verb is by fourth grade, you're screwed). And that people are somehow able to get through twelve plus years of education and still not be able to read. We're human, we make mistakes and quite often don't know what we're doing, that's what proofreading's for. That's what beta reading is for. But, you know, take it easy on your beta readers. They have to put up with a lot. That said, beta readers? Please don't take fifteen years reading something. Things change. Things become obsolete. Papers have due dates. I understand that you (we) have lives, so it's fine if you take a week or two, but I consider forty days and forty nights to be stretching it a little. Wednesday, May 5, 2004 [link] 06:18 p.m. listening to: "Knives Out" - Radiohead I'm unique among some of my friends in that I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in a relationship. This didn't really become a unique feature until I entered college. When I was in high school, my circle consisted mainly of AP kids who were much more focused on academics and getting into college than forming intimate interpersonal relationships. I'm not sure how much this says about our mental health in general, but yeah. As you probably know, I attend a women's college. This means a relatively high percentage of lesbians, and a lot of boy-crazy straight girls. I suddenly felt very much in the minority as everyone discussed their ex-boyfriends/ex-girlfriends and checked out hot people and talked about sex and aaarrrgh. Kudos to those who are or have been in long-lasting, fulfilling relationships. To me, it seems like. . . baggage. Being tied to someone, having to be concerned about their welfare as well as your own. . . my life is busy enough without that. I have trouble taking care of an onion (yes, I have a pet onion. . . don't ask). And, I don't know. It seems so troublesome. On a completely different note, I was completely unproductive this afternoon and spent all my time reading disturbing manga. Boy howdy, was it disturbing. I'm not sure why I did that. Sunday, May 2, 2004 [link] 03:27 p.m. listening to: "Once You Had Gold" - Enya Drowning in work. Those of you to whom I owe email, I will get to it eventually, I promise (though probably not until after May 7th). I think it's safe for me to make a to-do list now without crying. - write term paper - proofread Traditional China paper and email to professor - read Coming On Strong by, uh, tomorrow - put together poetry chapbook I'm going to have to fit eating and sleeping in there somewhere. |
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