Lie To Me.

I love that they poke fun at politicians and celebrities.

For example:
She stopped using contractions and she started referring to her as "that woman".
As in... "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky"?

BRILLIANT.
A mix of CSI and Medium (both are based on real life people), this Fox series has very quickly found a spot at the top of my favorites list.
Tune in Wednesdays at 9pm.

Pocketful of Stars.

I'm a loser. Here's a really, really quick update of what I've been doing for the past hour and a half:


Orisinal: Pocketful of Stars

DSLR.

It's a shame that Circuit City's bankrupt and they have to resort to liquidation sales. And it sucks for the thousands of employees that are going to be jobless at the end of it.

But it doesn't completely suck for consumers like me :) The cute little starter DSLR I've been eyeing for a while is down $100 from it's original price. I'm trying to push it as far as I can until March & hoping the price will fall even further.

Bahaha.

Casey.

Caseface: n. the BEST first best friend a girl could ever ask for.

I don't remember how old we were. We might've been 12 or 13, I can't quite remember. That's a shame because if asked what defined him, I'd choose this memory.

I was having, seemingly, the worst day of my adolescent life. Around 4pm, he called and instructed me to open the front door in 5 seconds. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. And there he was with the cutest smile on his face, his arms extended to me and a cupcake sitting in the palms of his hands. I will never forget that.

I dreamt about him this morning and woke up in tears. You know those dreams that feel like they've been happening all night? Yeah, one of those. Actually, it wasn't even about him. It was about his mom. I can't remember much, but I just remember talking to her about him.

I remember one New Years Eve when we kept each other up talking over the phone just so we'd be the first ones we talked to in the new year.
I remember in 4th grade when he was having a conversation with a few of our friends and I SO desperately wanted to know what they were talking about. But all he kept saying was "Nah, it's nothing" and I kept pushing it until he yelled out "I LIKE YOU, OKAY?!" loud enough for the whole room to stop whatever they were doing. I remember turning around in my seat, my face burning up.
I remember him telling me that he'd kiss me for 15 seconds when I turned 15 haha.
I remember when he'd sing the Fruits Basket theme for me.
Last I saw him, he dropped off Napoleon Dynamite when I was at the hospital, only to pick it up a few days later. That's my last good memory of him.

I wonder where he is right now. Last I heard, he had left home and moved out to Colorado for God knows what reason. That was over a year ago though. I don't know, I just hope he's okay. I don't even know what caused our falling out. It might've been when he moved out to Simi Valley during our freshman year. A phone call a day turned into once a week into once a month until I couldn't even remember what his voice sounded like. It's been about 6 years since I've had a proper conversation with him and I want him so much to still be a part of my life.

I know I shouldn't though. Over the years, I've tried getting in touch with him -- all to no avail. He never once reciprocated my attempts and I resented him for that. As sad as it seems, I'm still not giving up on this friendship. I know that if our friendship's still meant to be, we'll find our way back to each other. We've just gotta.

BTBAM.

It's crazy how determined I am to learn this song.
0:19 down.

Where's Fluffy?

Click:
[Copyright laws prevented me from posting the whole song.]

I didn't bother to get the textbook for my Java class and considering the fact that I have a midterm this afternoon, I'm pretty much screwed. Thus, prompting a book/movie review for Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and killing more of my precious time :]

I finally got around to watching it last night. I had high expectations because I loved the book dearly but in my opinion, the movie fell short. While I enjoyed the soundtrack, especially Nick and Norah's Theme by Mark Mothersbaugh (Rugrats, ftw!), I didn't like the switch ups. I know it's unrealistic for a movie version to be exactly like the book, but c'mon. David Levithan and Rachel Cohn were geniuses and the movie producers should've tried a bit harder to portray the characters of Nick and Norah the way the authors did.

Differences:
In the book, Nick asks Norah to be his girlfriend to make his ex girlfriend jealous.
In the movie, Norah's the one that asks him to be her boyfriend to prove a point.
In the book, they make their way to a hotel in NY and are caught by an old couple and the woman winks at Norah.
In the movie, they went to Norah's dad's studio. And what the heck was up with the tape recorder?!

There are so many more differences, but like I said, it's unrealistic for a movie to be 100% true to the book.

One praise I have for the movie though, is the fact that they didn't leave out the Beatles' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" part. That was the one part in the book that I absolutely loved. I mean, they could've conveyed it better, but I guess I'll take it.

‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand.’ First single. Fucking brilliant. Perhaps the most fucking brilliant song ever written. Because they nailed it. That’s what everyone wants. Not 24-7 hot wet sex. Not a marriage that lasts a hundred years. Not a Porsche or a blow job or a million-dollar crib. No. They wanna hold your hand. They have a feeling that they can’t hide.

Although I prefer the book, overall, I enjoyed the movie. It was cute and had a way of tugging on the heartstrings. At least it did for me :)

And now, I know I'm gonna have to re-read it once I'm finished with Paper Towns (which I'm loving so far, by the way!)

Starbursts & Paper Towns.

I prefer pink and orange over yellow and red.
& I finally got Paper Towns today. I'm excited to start!

seeing him today caught me off guard.
i freaked and unintentionally walked the wrong way to class.
go me.

Cupcakes.

The set of 12 mini cupcakes, each decorated to look like an iPhone application, is created by Nick and Danielle Bilton who won The Cupcake Decorating Championship at last night’s Ignite NYC II.

Nom nom nom.

The Brotherhood, 2.0.

I'm a goober.

Yesterday, I went to the library in search of John Green's Paper Towns. When I'm by my lonesome, I normally listen to music and yesterday wasn't any different. So I'm browsing and walking through the different sections, completely unaware of everything but my music when I notice that everyone's staring at me. In my head, I'm thinking, "What? It's totally normal to be listening to music" and I continued on my merry way. Every copy of Paper Towns was already checked out, which was a bummer, and I eventually settled with Looking for Alaska. I checked it out and walked outside. I proceeded to check the time on my cell phone when I noticed 2 missed calls. Two missed calls and my phone was on the loudest setting possible. How embarrassing! That's why everyone was staring at me. Siiiiiigh, I fail at life.

What surprised me most was that every copy of Paper Towns was already checked out. Hmm, I didn't realize they had such a Nerdfighter following in Glendale. But I guess I'm just underestimating the awesomeness that is Hank and John Green. :)

Anyway, that's my dee-dee-dee moment of the week.

Legend.

E. dedicated this to me yesterday. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the guy.

Chiptune.

Why haven't I heard of this before?! I mean, I've obviously heard the music, but I had NO idea people actually used their Gameboys like this!

Ha. I'm tempted to try it, but knowing me, I'll end up breaking the poor thing.

Anyway, plans failed yesterday. The only thing that worked out was Bible study, which ended at 2:30am because we got caught up in a riveting game of Clue. And Taboo. Then Clue again. It was intense!

Oh, and I'm starting to feel suffocated by this JP character. Text, text, text. Call. Voicemail. Text. Even when I don't. FREAKING. respond.

:|

Sigh.

I should get out of the mindset that my classes are going to be easy A's. Java programming is a lot harder than I thought it would be =/ It's funny though because I've been using my Xanga to write Java notes during lecture. Of course, I put those posts on private, but it's kind of amusing to see all this mumbo jumbo when I sign in.

Anyway, tgif! Oh, and I think I've found my favorite blogger (thus far).
I've seen his posts on Fight Club.

Chuck Palahniuk is my favorite author.

Harry Potter.

I hate Twilight; Harry Potter, ftw!

Awesome photography.

It's inspiring.

Crazy cool music.

I love getting introduced to new music.

Vimeo.

Vimeo does NOT need explaining.

♥.
Plans for the day:

• play catchup with Gossip Girl, The City & Grey's Anatomy.
• hopefully go for an early morning run on Adams Hill & surrounding areas.
• a play date with the ones from the previous post.
• a youth night Bible study to end a (God-willing) perfect day.

SCRATCH THAT.
Favorite blogger: Tropicostation. I probably live like 5 minutes from this guy because he said he lives ridiculously close to Albertsons, Vons and Ranch Market. Yay, I sound like a creeper. I don't mean to! I'm just excited to read some stuff about Glendale. Ha.

Lastly, I can't believe I found this cover of Sigur Rós' "Hoppipolla" by We Are Scientists. The original song is a lot more instrumental, making it intense & epiccccccc, but I'm pretty pleased with this.

Good night, moon.

Unexpected.

Clicky:

I'm learning to go with the flow. Wherever life takes me, I'm sure to follow. That is living life to the fullest, I think. It's where the best and most unexpected adventures lie. And if you know me, I am definitely one for random adventures.

On Tuesday, as I was sitting across Christina at Barnes & Noble chitchatting about life, I noticed this guy just blatantly staring over at us. I didn't think much of it and soon after, he left with his friends. We left a few minutes after them. Hours passed and we randomly ran into them inside the Galleria and he introduced himself to me. Randomly. (and quite awkwardly, might I add).

Him: /extends hand for a handshake.
Him: Hey, uh... I'm JP.
Me: JP?! Holy ---- I KNOW YOU! You tried coming in between my friend and his girlfriend about 3 years ago! >:[
/dot dot dot.

Everything came back in an instant. I remembered how much I HATED this guy. Every time I ran into him, I'd curse at him. That was 3 years ago though. He's definitely changed, and for the better. He told me that he's signing up for the Navy and he pretty much has life figured out. In that 5 minute conversation, I went through about a million feelings:

[giggles like a schoolgirl. he's cute. this is an awkward conversation. omg, i remember him. i hate him. why's he still talking to me? i wanna get out of here. christina! dammit, why'd she walk away? rescue me, please. ohmygosh the Navy? wow, i'm proud of this guy. he's got life figured out. a complete turnaround from all the negative things i've heard about him from the past. hmm.]

That turned into lunch at In-N-Out with him, his friends and Christina. Cue me going to class from 6-9pm. JP, his best friend Stefan and our mutual friend Hiline picked me up from class and we headed over to Jewel City to shoot some pool. Besides figuring out how damn small Glendale actually is (we had an insane amount of mutual friends), I learned a lot about those three.

Let's start with Stefan. He got mad at me when I accidentally called him Steven and when I spelled his name with a "phe" in lieu of an "fa". (Stephen vs. Stefan). Anyway! He made me realize what a VERY sheltered life I live. He comes from a sheltered background himself -- being adopted into a family with two parents with PhDs (one graduated from Harvard) and being enrolled in military school all his life. *Insert weird chain of events here* and his stepmom proceeded to kick him out of the house. Since then (it's been about a year or so), he's been living on his own. As a direct result from his pent up feelings of anger, he became friends with a few... questionable groups of people. He has experienced some pretty crazy things because of them. As of right now, his life's in danger and it's not going to go away anytime soon. He's had a few close friends pass away because of the things they're involved in. Sorry for being vague, but I'd rather not get into detail. This conversation with him completely changed the way I thought about life because I HONESTLY thought stuff like this only happened in movies. I guess I'm just naïve. Despite all the harsh realities he has to face, he's always smiling and goes on as if nothing's wrong. He's down-to-earth, hilarious and very welcoming. And due to his impeccable taste in fashion, this Taiwanese boy has quickly become my quote, unquote gay best friend. Ha.

Moving onto JP. Can I start out by saying that I'm blown away by everything he can and wants to do? The boy speaks 5 languages FLUENTLY: English, Tagalog, Spanish, Japanese and Thai. There's more, but either he's learning or only knows a few key phrases. He's a Muay Thai fighter, wants to fly planes for the Navy/become a Navy Seal, is an amazing artist, (pretty cute & built :D), runs at least 5 miles a day, does Kendo and a bunch of other martial arts, etc. He's a bit awkward at times, but that's so petty in comparison to everything else. His past is pretty crazy also seeing as how he comes from a broken family. His mother would constantly do drugs and bring home random men that would beat her relentlessly. JP would stick up for his mom by getting in fights with these men. One night, she kicked him out of the house -- she chose her abusive then-boyfriend over her own flesh and blood. That was this past September. Since then, he's been living on his own also.

Which brings us to the lovely Hiline. Her family's pretty privileged. They live in a 5 bedroom house in the hills and they've been kind enough to house Stefan and JP, along with a few others who come from broken homes. See. Now, this is the kind of thing that gives me hope in humanity. I think it's amazing how Hiline's mom would take them in as if they were her own kids and give them a nice place to stay, a roof over their heads and hot meals to keep them going. I don't think I've seen such humility before. It's really awesome to see.

This brings me to how tight-knit their friendship is -- Stefan, JP, the other guys in the house and a few others. They hold themselves accountable for each other and help one another grow into better people. Wow, the things they've done for each other are nothing short of amazing. Stefan mentioned being a sacrificial lamb -- always making sure everyone else is in a happy state of mind, even if it means not being happy himself. I don't know. Maybe I just don't get out enough. Maybe I'm just not exposed to this kind of friendship, but I was speechless throughout our entire conversation.

I spent all day today (Wednesday) with them once again. Tons of laughs, more storytelling and getting to know one another, and definitely making memories to last a lifetime. I talked to Stefan and said, "I have NO clue what I'm getting myself into with you guys." He told me that if I was patient enough to stick around, I'd have friends that would always have my back.

Haha, re-reading this post makes the whole situation sound really shady. But I assure you, they're genuine. It's something that can't be explained through paper or a stupid blog. I guess you have to experience it for yourself. Hear their stories. Feel how comfortable you feel after a mere half hour with them. See their commitment towards each other before you judge me and my actions in wanting to hang out with a bunch of "strangers".

♥ We had a late dinner at Izakaya Honda Ya in Little Tokyo around 10 pm tonight. Before drinking our final cups of green tea, Stefan made a toast: "Here's to new beginnings and better endings". I've been hearing that phrase thrown around a lot recently -- new beginnings. Heck, here's to awesome new friends and starting the year with a bang.

Again, I commend you if you read all of this. Andrew. Haha :)

The Ditty Bops.

Why can't I fall in love with you? It must be because of the seasons. ♥

09, day one recap.

I rang in the new year with the family and spent all afternoon with a few crazy buds from high school. While it's been difficult trying to keep our friendship alive, our efforts haven't gone to waste. Every minute spent together is fun-filled. I'd hate to jinx it and I know it's unrealistic to believe in "forever", but I truly hope this friendship is one that'll last. I want these people to be in my freakin' wedding for goodness sakes! Years and years from now, of course :].

2008's taken me for a pretty wild ride:

• 4.0 GPA for both spring semester and summer session.
• Ingledue, Skorka, Calixto, Gill, Yim.
  
• Losing AND gaining friendships.
• Finding Word International, Los Angeles.
• Shows, shows, and more shows makes for a very broke teen.
  
• Adventures with those oh so crazy bandies.

The list goes on and on... Time flies and I feel overwhelmed thinking about all that's happened in 2008: the highs and the lows, the joy and the pain, the successes and the failures. But I'll take it all as a learning experience and move on. It doesn't really help to dwell on the past.

Some resolutions for 09:
1. Grow spiritually in my walk with God.
2. Read and write more. I have a list of books I want to read. No excuses, I know I have to build up my vocabulary.
3. Procrastinate less. Sigh, I say this every single year. =/
4. Make more of an effort to keep in touch with old friends.
5. Lose weight. Again, I say this with every passing year, but I mean it this time around. I've gained so much weight since college started, it's not even funny. This goes hand in hand with eating right & raising my self-esteem.
6. Improve on guitar and bass. Practice makes perfect!

New Years Eve 07.

No, that's not a typo. I mean when I say 2007.

Play while reading:

My dearest Enna Bleu,

I couldn't think of a way to top a record player. I sat and sat just wondering how to materialize a friendship. It's amazing how much harder it becomes the closer we get. Can you imagine next year? I don't even wanna think about it. So how did I figure out what to get you? I thought about when I was in elementary school and the "best friend" necklaces we had. Most of the time they were 2 halves of a heart -- a broken heart. I never believed that a best friend completes your "heart", but they rather leave a permanent imprint. I found the switch -- the lightbulb went off. I had to leave my imprint on your heart...

Betty Lou.

---------------------------------------------------

I found this letter this morning when I was going through my room. Initially, I wanted to dispose of it without reading it, but something made me change my mind. Jessica gave this to me exactly one year ago when we exchanged our late Christmas presents. Come to think of it, I always seem to exchange presents with friends on New Years (or NY Eve) haha.

It was the perfect day. It was snowing up in Angeles Crest, we dined at our favorite restaurant in Newcombs and we were in the presence of wonderful friends. We exchanged presents in the ever-so-freezing parking lot. Upon handing over this card, she proceeded to give me a box in a box in a box -- something she knew I absolutely LOVED. The teensiest one happened to be the little blue box. You know.

I squealed pretty much like any other girl would. Inside was the sweetest heart pendant with a smaller heart and an engraving of her favorite lyric from Against Me! -- "no one is lonely in a dream." It meant the world to me. Not because of its monetary value, but because of the sentiments behind it. It symbolized our friendship to the tee. The little heart was for my heart surgery when I was 15 years old. We pretty much met because of it. We had numerous friends in common, but oddly, we never met. We ended up connecting because of my Xanga entries from the hospital during the whole ordeal -- that was the start of our friendship. And obviously, the Against Me! lyric was because of our shared love of such an awesome band (I began to like them because of her). So, that gift was pretty damn special.

A mere six months later and our friendship practically disappeared into thin air. It was mutual, but that didn't make the hurt any less painful. Normally, I deal with pain and disappointment by completely cutting everything connected to that person/event/etc from my life. And this was no exception. Deleted numbers, myspaces, facebooks. Stashed things into boxes. (I, apparently, don't have the heart to throw memorable things away.) And I ingrained bad memories of her in my mind so that I'd somehow make myself believe that it wasn't a loss to me.

I guess that was why this letter meant a lot to me when I re-read it for the first time this morning.

I realized that our best friendship was pretty awesome. We had our share of tears and angry moments -- just like any other friendship would. But we had some crazy cool memories. She introduced me to some awesome music. (That's something I hold dear to me -- if you introduce me to something new & I end up loving it, no matter what it is.) We had an immense amount of inside jokes that would make anyone in our presence cringe because of how awkward it'd make them feel. We'd talk for hours on end about anything and everything. We planned random trips for the future. We joked about being crazy old ladies in wheelchairs, chasing each other in the retirement home... even as far as planning an actual B&E at DCI Championships in said wheelchairs ;] Gotta love Dane Cook.

I miss the laughs we used to share but things change. Situations change. People change. It's cliche, but change is the only constant. I don't regret letting that friendship go at all. After all, you lose some, you gain some, right? While I definitely wouldn't pursue a friendship again, I have no negative feelings towards her at all. I sincerely wish her the very best in life. I hope that one day, she'll find true happiness with whatever she sets out to do, which won't be a problem for her at all -- she's smart and motivated and goes after what she wants.

Well, it's been nice reminiscing. And hahaha, I commend you if you actually read all of this.

We frequented Starbucks quite often.

We're our own brat kat pack - M, P, J & S.