the future

It may seem too early for an eighth grader to start thinking about SAT's, colleges, and such, but i already am.

I know myself, and i know that i can be one of those people who procrastinate until the last minute and stay up until the early morning, trying to finish a project. There's that sick panicky feeling everytime i look at the clock. After every project, I promise myself that i would never do that again, but somehow find myself in the same position a few weeks later.

Therefore, I am going to start really thinking about my GPA, getting involved with school, and looking into some colleges and my plans for the future. I'm hoping that this way, I won't be as stressed as the other seniors, when the time comes.

One easy way that will help in the long run is getting to know my teachers. Teacher recommendations play a big role in applying for those colleges i am thinking about going to. Sometimes a little sucking up will do no harm. In the winter, I will be sending my teachers hand-written cards for Christmas, to let them know that they matter to me.

Another thing colleges look at is leadership experience. That is actually a problem for me, because I have never been involved in any student council of my school. I know that it will really start counting for college applications in high school, so i have already planned out my school involvement: i will be joining inner council for 9th grade, and possibly running for president or vice president for my sophomore year. I could also run for an ASB position in my sophomore or junior year.

As my band teacher says, teamwork and the ability to work well with others impress colleges such as UCLA as well. An easy way to show that I am cooperative is by being in band. Those who are involved in the arts for all four years of high school get major kudos. I plan on joining marching band and staying in it as long as possible. Yesterday, i went to the information jazz band meeting during lunch. I will most likely be joining. It feels great to be doing something good for myself and coming out of my shy shell. Not many of my friends are in band, so I had to sacrifice my lunch time gossip for the meeting.

At my school, there is a club called JAWS, which is a dragonboating team. By joining the club, I have joined for the team. We meet every Saturday morning by the Santa Ana river to practice rowing a dragonboat, which i have never even seen before, nonetheless row. It will be an exciting experience for me, and something athletic i can do, since i have stopped figure skating. Although it makes me a little nervous that I will probably the only one of my friends to join (I forced Jasmine to sign up with me, but she most likely will not be attending any of the meetings), I hope to make new ones [friends] and have fun either way.

New leaked New Moon trailer!

if i hadn't read the book, i would've been horrified and thought this was a horror movie. they didn't explain that bella was screaming in her bed because of nightmares, and not Chinese water torture.

I love Jane (Dakota Fanning) at the end! "This might hurt just a little." HAHAHAHAH!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2xa_JU995s&feature=player_embedded

anyways, 8th grade has been okay so far. it's fun watching the new scrubs look worried all the time. We still claim our lunch area, which is good. i gave a good speech in History class on Friday, and got 100% on our first English vocabulary quiz. I think i did well on my Geometry Honors assessment test.

Planning on going skating for the first time in months today at Lakewood so that i wouldn't run into my coach and be seen doing horribly.

Off to study states and capitals! Quiz next friday.

STAR test results and my outfit ;)

I LOVE THE SKIRT!

ANNDD.. I GOT 600 IN MATH AGAIN!! YEAH!! 3RD TIME IN A ROW!

ANNDD.. I GOT 545 IN READING/ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS! HIGHEST I EVER GOT!!!!

WAHOOO!

but sadly, i just came back from "skating". the parking lot and street was packed. i went in to see how many ppl there were, and the rink was unfortunately, filled with lots of little girls.

sigh. so, i didn't skate. instead, we went to get ancient chinese "bladder" medicine for mama, which was right next to Quickly. andd they had a boba sale! only 99 cents! so i got some delicious milk tea boba... ;)

i'm a chef/ fashion designer! ;)

yesterday, daddy and i went to trader joe's. after taking 3 samples of casadilla from the taste post, we were walking down the bread isle while i stared at the pies and cookies, longing for a taste. soo, i decided to bake a pie! we bought some berries, and went home.

i had never baked a pie before, and had no idea how to make the crust, so i went on google to search for a recipe. i found it too difficult, and that it would test my patience very much. daddy had mentioned that we forgot to buy mama oatmeal, so we went to Stater Brothers. When we found the oats, I noticed that on the back of the oatmeal thing, it had a recipe for apple sauce oatmeal muffins! YUM! i decided to bake muffins instead, since i already made apple sauce.

although they did get burned on the bottom, they taste pretty good. here is a picture of 3/4s of the last one. for some reason, the recipe had said that it would make 12 muffins, but i managed to only make 6.

Today, i decided to make clothing. why? because i always want to, but am often too lazy. although i did successfully complete a shirt, there is still a lot of laziness in it, because i only modified a shirt that i didn't want anymore. it used to be a long sleeve, peach limited too shirt with lace stuff on the bottom and top. now, it's a short sleeved, hand stitched shirt with a square neck and short bottom, since i cut off the lace stuff. and i added 2 very cute buttons ;).

but i did make a mess along the way....

braces

my braces are lime green ;) they're pretty.

i guess i'm kind of like the guinea pig of mama and daddy's orthodontic experiments. i'm using rubber bands that daddy bought in china, to see if they're as good as the ones we buy from the US. apparently, they are as good, and they're a lot cheaper, and now mama has a lot of new and cool colors.

You know how the rubberbands are circular shapes? well, the pack that daddy bought from china includes the normal circle ones, flower shapes, and Mickey Mouse heads! Hee Hee

Dangit. i just realized that now that mama has all these cool colors, i'm going to be taking my braces off in about 2 weeks. D; we should've gone to china last year, so that daddy could've bought the rubberbands, then. that way, i could be showing off pretty colors at school.

but hopefully, mama will stick to her word and take my braces off before school starts.

;)

Meteor shower tonight!

AHHH!

if you haven't seen already, the google page has google words written "meteor sky"-style, announcing that there is going to be a meteor shower tonight! EEEE! it should be visible to the United States around and after midnight tonight, so cross your fingers that you catch a falling star!

National Geographic says that this meteor hits Earth every 130 years. Don't miss it, or you won't be alive to see the next one!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090812-perseids-perseid-meteor-shower.html

best stuff ever

homemade apple and fig sauce. mmm..... jealous?
just the right amount of all natural sour and sweetness.

for all you who are craving it right now, here's the secret recipe:

estimated time: 5 years.

first, plant a sour apple tree in the backyard.

then, plant a sweet fig tree in the front yard.

wait until the trees grow big and have bear so much fruit that you don't know what to do with them, but you don't want to feed the birds and oppossums, and your chickens aren't trained to eat them.

wash the fruit.

cut and mush them into bite-size pieces.

put them in the pot and begin to boil.

add 2 spoons of all natural honey.

accidentally forget about them for unknown time.

when you remember, they should be mushy and done.

there you go! au natural sweet fig and sour apple sauce. add some cinnamon if you want to keep your chinese mom away....

tip: tastes best when you eat it out of the pot. and when you eat half a pot at a time.

yum!