Through the Eyes of a Six Year-Old

Source: planetware.com

Hi!  Last night, I happened to be looking through some Instagram photos, and one of them was of the Eiffel Tower.  My six year-old sister was looking over my shoulder (of course).  

She looked at me with super wide eyes and exclaimed, "Is that the Frightful Tower in Texas, Paris?!"

Despite the fact that she was super off in both name and place, I was pretty impressed.  What six year-old knows about Paris, Texas?  

Well, I just wanted to share that because it really put a smile on my face.  

Never Eat (C)old McDonald's

No, it was not the smartest choice on my account, but I was quite hungry.  I made a huge mistake of eating two cold-ish (and not to mention 5 day old) McChickens yesterday.  Now I've spent the whole day feeling queasy and very nauseous.  

Anyway, lesson learned.  Never eat cold/old McDonald's.  Ever.  

My Half Year in 600 Words

Hi everyone!  Wow.  It's truly been half a year since I wrote my last post.  I don't know how I should feel about this or how I'm going to get around this rut except to keep on writing. 

Now that the school year is finally, finally over, I thought that I'd have more free time on my hands.  Evidently, this has not been the case because school for me ended in the beginning of June.  It's now almost July and I still haven't conjured up any posts since then.  Anyhow, I shall now go on to update anyone who's interested in knowing what in the world I've been doing for the past half year.  Here it goes!

January
This may not count for January, but I did attend the onething '13 conference that I enjoyed immensely.  The fact that Jesus Culture and Matt Redman were leading worship made all of us get up earlier in the morning to queue for seats closer to the front.  On our last day, we managed to get quite close to the stage (the section behind the esteemed white wristbanders).  And it also happened that Laura Hackett was having a meet and greet during the conference.  Unfortunately, I completely forgot about it and didn't get to meet her.  :(  Maybe next time!

February
What did go on during this month?  Not much that I really remember, except for slaving away at school and trying desperately to stay positive about my grades.  Oh, and also getting ready for the badminton season! Good deal, good deal.  

March
This was possibly one of the best months of 2014 so far!  I got to go to Disney World for a whole week with my high school marching band.  We traveled there by coach bus and had quite a wild time visiting all the parks (EPCOT, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios).  My favorite rides were Space Mountain and that really cool roller coaster that I can't remember the name of that goes backwards in the Animal Kingdom.  I also really enjoyed visiting the World Showcase in EPCOT.  At first, my friends and I didn't realize that the showcase was super big and full of food and stores from different countries, so we just went in to try to find ice cream.  Little did we know that we'd spend the whole afternoon there trying to figure out if the employees of the showcase were actually from the country they were showcasing.  I also fangirled majorly when I saw an Anna and Elsa meet and greet in the Norway area, but I didn't have time to stand in line to meet them.  One thing I wish I'd done: save my money on my dining card so that I could buy all the awesome food in the showcase.

April
This month was spent mainly in competing with my badminton team.  I also tried very hard to study for the ACT that came up in the middle of the month, but you must know that I'm very bad at multitasking even in such a big scale. Whether I'm trying to juggle school and sports at the same time or even just talking on the phone and doing homework, I'll kind of fail at one of the things I'm doing.  

May
My birthday month!  And AP testing! And music auditions! And studying for finals!  I really don't know how I got through May.  I might've broken down a couple of times, to be honest.  

June
And then the end of the school year came by so fast that I can't even remember how it exactly happened.  All I know is that I made the drumline again (thank God), I passed my finals, I played music in our school's graduation, and that I'm now going to be a senior.  When they said that high school would be the fastest four years of my life, they weren't kidding in the least.  Now, I'm in school again (SUMMER school) learning how to drive and how the economy works and affects me.  Yay.  Yesterday was my last orchestra concert of this year's 13-14 season that took place in this amazing concert hall.  The acoustics were absolutely astounding and I'm planning on going back to be in the audience this next time around.  

So that concludes my half year.  Check out my music and book archives because I have updated them for y'all.  I'll be back soon.  

Winter Break Blogmas Day 3: Monday, Still the Worst Day of the Week

Hello and welcome to Blogmas Day 3!!  If you haven't yet, catch up with me on Winter Break Blogmas Days 1 and 2 right HERE. 

Surprise, surprise I woke up at 10:30 AM fully intending to get up and get ready for a Speech Team party at 1 PM.  Of course, you know me.  That didn't happen at all and I slept until 12 PM.  

When I finally got up, I blasted music from Spotify (WHICH IS FINALLY FREE ON MOBILE AHHHH!!) wrapped my white elephant gift, and just wandered around the house until it was time to go.  I also brought along tissues and a boatload of cough drops cause I was still sniffling, sneezing, and hacking all over people.  

Turns out, I didn't use a majority of my supplies cause I got a huge headache and sat at the party for about 20 minutes until I finally just called it quits and headed home.  Ha, you should have seen me.  I looked like the most pathetic, antisocial person sitting there alone and looking miserable.  Hope I didn't ruin anyone's party experience with my awesome "modeling for the sick" pose.  I also hope that someone got my white elephant gift!  It was a jar of Nutella and headphones (the headphones were NOT in the jar).  :)

For the rest of the day, I kind of lounged around the house and tried to get rid of my headache by taking a nap.  Candy Crush and YouTubers also took turns entertaining me during the afternoon.  Here's my favorite video from today's batch of uploads.  Connor Franta and his siblings are too funny...  I love how his sister laughs the loudest out of all of them, but they still all look the same when they're laughing!

Sorry today's Blogmas is so bad!  I really didn't do much, but I promise that tomorrow will be better.  Joy to the world cause my whole extended family from my dad's side is coming over for Christmas Eve dinner!  And we're gonna watch Frozen!  So there will be a detail-filled review of that coming very soon...

Song of the Day: "More Than Ashes" by Tim Reimherr

FWP: The Daily Struggles of Being a Percussionist

Hello!  Today I'm here to complain about my life has a percussionist (this is definitely a first world problem).  For those of you who don't know, I am a percussionist (the people that stand in the back of the band during a concert and hit drums and xylophones and have classy triangle solos, yeah I'm one of them) in band class at school.  Our band program requires everyone involved in band to be in marching band, so I'm also on the school drumline.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love music and love playing it, but sometimes things and people get on my nerves.   

*If you are a percussionist from my school, don't read on.  Please.*

Here come my grievances in no particular order:
 
1) Wearing a harness under my marching band uniform!  When I have a harness on inside my uniform, I can hardly pick anything up off the floor because it doesn't allow me to bend over.  I'm also one of the shorter, smaller people on the drumline, so I look like some kind of mutated gorilla.  

2) When my mallets click while I'm playing.  I play four mallet solos on the marimba (a larger, prettier xylophone), which is one of my favorite parts of being a percussionist.  However, I absolutely hate it when my mallets start sliding cause my hands are sweaty and the two mallets in each of my hands start to click.  My instructor yelled at me the other day about it too.  >.<

3) The percussion section is SUPER competitive.  This is only my opinion, but I feel like every time auditions for chair placements or drumline roll around, everyone is practicing like mad.  All the other instrument sections are so chill, but percussion auditions fry my brain and music ability every time.  By the time auditions are over, I'm a total wreck.  

4) Parades!  Being on the drumline means that we have to play the ENTIRE time during a parade to keep the rest of the band marching in time.  I feel really bad for complaining cause the tenor people have way heavier drums, but by the end of our annual Septemberfest parade, I'm always about to collapse when I take off my snare.  

5) Buying all sorts of mallets/sticks/beaters/brushes/any other watchmacallits.  I don't do this personally because most of the above are provided by my school.  But I have seen some people with HUGE stickbags (what do you have in there, a child?) with all sorts of mallets and stuff that must have cost a fortune.  

6) Waiting for a very long time during tacet movements.  Some people may think that we're lucky to not play for a particular movement, but I always am bored to the point of tears.  Well, maybe not tears, but you get the point.  It's a good opportunity to do homework, but really, who wants to do homework?

7) We need to stand.  The whole time.  Enough Said.

8) My left ear is going deaf soon.  Sometimes I forget my earplugs when we rehearse for marching band.  I stand on the right most side of the drumline, so I always get an earful of whatever it is we're playing.  And I always get it loudly.  

9) I'm short!  I don't know if it's like this for every other drumline/percussion section out there, but everyone is about a foot taller than me.  Really.  

10) Percussion is a male-dominated instrumental section.  I'm not very good with dealing with a lot of testosterone for a very long time cause I only have sisters.  Here is a little of what's going on in my mind: Oh my... Did he really just do that?  Did he really just say that??  Can they go somewhere else to do that?  Why did he just fart and laugh about it???  Why is he not shutting up?  Can someone just give me a hammer?!  I need to knock someone out before I go crazy.  You know what?  I'm just gonna leave.  

11) When I can't find the right triangle beater. When I can't find the right auxiliary instrument.  When I can't find the right ANYTHING.  

12) When people don't clean up after themselves.  I'm definitely guilty of this self-convicted crime, but I try to remember...  I really do try...

13)  I have the same marimba solo piece as someone else.  For this one, I'm just going to blame my percussion instructor who teaches the other percussionists at school too.  I really hate it when I'm given the same piece as someone else.  I feel like there's no originality in anything I play because someone else already played it!  Someone brought up a question the other day: "Are there only 5 solo pieces around here?  Cuz that's all I hear you guys play."  Good question, my friend, good question. 

Well, this concludes my rant about being a percussionist.  I'd like to stress that even though I'm complaining massively (Mom says I've always been really good at complaining), I still love being in percussion.  Annndd... if you're a percussionist from school who read this anyway, don't take this too seriously.  This is solely for my entertainment.  I think.

Thanks for reading!

I WANT ONE

Source:www.tumblr.com

Source:riverviewobserver.net

I WANT ONE. 

Late Night Rambles

Hi all!  Unfortunately, the school year has started once again.  AP US History, AP English, math, marching band, and a few other sports have pretty much taken over my life.

However, I'm really glad that my youth group has started a one year Bible study together. We all read the assigned chapters everyday and check in on a google doc spreadsheet when we're done.  So far, I've tried really hard to keep it up and I intend to finish the whole Bible by the time I start school again next year.  This has really helped me and kept me accountable of all my quiet times and my relationship with God (it's also brought up some weird questions such as "Why was polygamy allowed in the Old Testament?" and "God was still able to forgive HIM after he did THAT?!").  Last year, I didn't do my quiet times or even read the Bible as much as I should have.  Now, I make sure to do it everyday to go along the the Bible passages.  If you'd like to get started on reading the Bible in a year, the plan is called Eat This Book: One Year Bible with Daily Psalms.  Join me so we can slug through the genealogies together, haha.  

Wow!  I had no idea that I would go off on doing my quiet times everyday, but I just did.  As you probably can tell, I didn't really have a "topic" to blog about today.  (This will probably be the most random post you'll ever read from me.  Ever.)

If you haven't already, please go and check out the Disney Dudez video on my previous blog post.  The video is the most hilariously awesome thing that I've watched, simply because of the boy band, IM5, and the fact that it has the boys playing their own princesses.  My favorite part is the second solo by the guy with the dyed blonde hair in the... red (?) pants. Cinderella's boyfriend.  I just love the funky tune and how he sings it.  Heart.  Melting.

I hear that they might be doing another collab type thing with the director of the video, Todrick Hall (the janitor that does these awesome random appearances during the video).  I'm definitely gonna keep an eye out for that.  
 

And while we're talking about IM5, let me just mention their new song, Superman.  It was co-written by Dalton (heart melting blondie) and Will (heart melting Asian).  The first time I heard it, I wasn't sure who wrote it, but it turned out to be two of the guys in the band!  I was super impressed because...

a) boybands usually don't write their own songs and 

b) IM5 sounded really good when they sang it live (usually songs are auto tuned to the max, ugh).  

So here is the video if you'd like to take a listen...

 

Last thing: I RECEIVED MY NAIL POLISHES FROM SEPHORA!  Yay!  They are all very gorgeous in their own ways, though I wish that I'd opted for a couple of other colors instead.  In case you missed the Pre-Haul post, I'll link it right here...  I'll try to do a post soon about the polishes, but I can't really promise anything, seeing that I haven't blogged since school started.

Hopefully I'll be back soon with legit stuff to blog about instead of random videos (even though they are awesome) from YouTube.  :) 

I'm a Survivor

I'm finally back home after... 35 days in the lovely, sunny land of California!  I have to say, it was one of the best vacations I've ever had.  And part of it wasn't even vacation!  I had so much fun meeting up with old friends, meeting new friends, working in a company, and being on my own in a state for a while.  While I had fun, I also learned a lot of (maybe useless, maybe not) stuff.  Here's one of my beloved lists.  My comments will be in italics...

Some lessons I learned during my trip:

1. Don't buy food at the OC (Orange County) Fair!  Okay, so maybe you should buy food, but remember to ALWAYS CHECK THE SIZE OF THE PORTION OF FOOD YOU BUY.  I ordered a $9.75 gyro to share with my friend, thinking that it was going to be huge.  But I almost passed out when I saw how TINY the gyro was.  It was only slightly larger than my hand (my hand is pretty average sized)!  If you're going to buy something expensive, buy something you can't usually buy anywhere else.  For example: chocolate-covered bacon, a giant turkey leg, nutella-bacon pizza, fried pickles wrapped in bacon, fried ice cream, a fried twinkie, etc.  Just make sure you share with others and don't inflict heart attacks upon yourself. 

2. Hold onto your keys, and REMEMBER WHERE YOU PUT THEM!  Haha, funny story.  This happened on the same day that my friend and I were going to the OC Fair.  My friend locked the house door, but in the car I realized that I forgot my phone in the house.  We started looking for the key to the house, but we couldn't find it at all!  I was so confused at how the key could have gotten lost, because all we did was walk from the door to the car.  After about 10 minutes of frantic searching and praying, my friend asked me, "I know you don't have the key or anything, but do you want to check your purse?"  I complied to her request and was shocked to find the keys right on top of all my stuff in my purse!  We both were even more confused, because my friend had never handed the keys to me, at least neither of us remembered that happening.  I'm back home now, and we still don't really know how the keys got into my purse. 

3.  Beauty is silence.  My god-sister and I agreed that this was the most classy way to say "shut up".  :)

4. Cockroaches don't go down easily.  If you don't know already, I hate all kinds of bugs, especially cockroaches and spiders.  The house that I was staying at had this lone cockroach that really liked to terrorized me and my friends who were also staying with me.  We tried to drop a telephone book on it, but it only flipped onto its back, flipped back over, and then ran away under a book case.  Ugh. 

5. Family Feud is for the win!  I played this gamed on Facebook nonstop with my friend before she left for Taiwan.  The more heads, the better score you'll get. 

6. Flying by yourself is pretty intimidating, but extremely easy after you do it once.  My parents and sisters already left California because they had stuff to do at home.  They kindly let me stay by myself for 10 more days, but initially refused because I was super scared of flying by myself.  But finally I agreed to face my fear because I was currently having too much fun in California.  My friend came in with me to help me check-in, so I was completely fine.  Really, all you need to do is know how to read English and signs to survive the airport. 

7. Sometimes, angels and god-sisters don't really come through for you and you get hugged anyway.  I won't explain this one cause it's way too embarrassing, but if you know what I'm talking about, :)!

8. Counting is extremely important!  And handling a tape gun without four hands is challenging.  I had my first-ever real job while I was in California, and what I did mostly consisted of counting products and boxing them up.  According to my god-sister and my dad, it was a very good experience because I learned how to count, cushion boxes, and learn how a company (albeit a small one) works.  In my opinion, it was a good experience because I had loads of fun hanging out with some of my favorite people/spiritual big sisters ever.  And that tape gun thing is harder to manage than it looks!  When you're making a box you kind of need to hold the box and put your hand... okay I won't explain the mechanics of this cause you're already falling asleep.  The point is, you really need four hands to manage a lone tape gun.  Sad, I know. 

9. Eating at In N' Out Burger ten times in the span of one month is okay if there are no In N' Out restaurants within driving distance at home.  I seriously don't even know how many times I had In N' Out, but I know now that I will never be able to go back to McDonald's and Burger King.  Animal style fries, I shall miss you and think of you often. 

And that concludes my list.  I really am a survivor of random things. 

Like I already said, this trip was so extremely fun and I already miss the state and the people there.  Many thanks to everyone who hung out with me and took me out to places.  We will all agree that the real fun started after my parents went back right?  :)  A big THANK YOU and I LOVE YOU to my aunt and uncle who had my family over for a few days and took us all over San Diego.  

I'll miss you all SOOOOO MUCH and I'll try to come back soon.  If not, then we'll shall meet at Onething '13, yes?  It's kind of a midpoint between us... 

Thanks for reading!

TWEET tweet TWEET...

I have finally entered the land of Twitter!  I made my very own Twitter account a few days ago after admiring the website from afar for a couple of years.  If you'd like to follow me, just search me up, @chrispytai.  

To be honest, I probably won't really be tweeting much at all.  The main reason I got it was to keep up with the people around me, get good offers from my favorite restaurants, and also follow musicians/YouTube channel people that I like.  So if you decide to follow me, don't expect too much!

Ever since I was young, my parents have always been very strict about anything involving screens/accounts.  I remember distinctly that I was one of the rare few that did not have a Facebook in middle school.  My parents believed that I wasn't mature enough to handle my Internet time along with my homework.  Also, they are big sticklers to the rules.  The websites doesn't permit anyone under 13 to make an account, so of course, the twelve year old me was not allowed to have a Facebook.  

No amount of cajoling, begging, or crying would move them to allow me to get a Facebook till freshman year was pretty much over.  And they only started to consider letting me get an account after I'd made an agreement that I'd get an A on my biology final.  Thank God I studied and got that A!  

This time, however, I didn't really need to get good grades to get a Twitter account.  The trust of my parents built up over time, and I'm glad for that.  Now, I'm finally caught up in the social networking land, haha.   

Thanks for reading!

My Summer in a Nutshell

Summer has finally officially started for me!  In the past years, I've usually slept the morning (and maybe early afternoon) away while my mom yelled at me to get a move on from downstairs.  However, I really feel like I'll be having fun and doing productive things during summertime, for once.

Some reasons why this summer won't be a drag...

1) No summer school this year!  My parents and I failed to sign up in time, so all the classes were filled.  This was kind of a blessing in disguise because of number 2...

2) Family friends from Southern California informed us that they're going on an extended vacation and would like my family to house-sit!  So I'm gonna be in SoCal for almost a full month.  Heehee.  I'm so glad I didn't sign up for summer school.  

3) As a "summer project", I decided that I'm going to knit hats and other items and sell them and donate the money.  I mean, if I'm going to be sitting on my butt the whole time, listening to Narnia (another story for another time), I might as well be helping some people out in the world.  My goal is to earn at least $100 for this summer and donate it to a charity of some sort (or donate the hats and knit stuff).  It'll probably be World Vision because I already sponsor a young girl from the program.  I think that this will be really fun because a few of my friends have already decided to help me out with this!  They're a lot smarter than me though, since they've decided to make friendship bracelets instead of sweltering in the heat with yarn and needles.  Oh well.  All I can say is that my hat turned out beautifully, and someone will enjoy wearing a nice purple beanie, complete with a pom-pom, this winter.  :)

4) I have yet to find out if this will make my summer fun, but it will definitely be productive.  My mom and I have decided to go running every morning to stay fit!  I'm not too excited by this because: one, I am not a morning person.  Two, I'm not a fan of running nowhere (don't even get me started on treadmills).  Three, I'm not a runner.  I don't think more should be said here...

5) I might join the tennis team at school next year!  I have no idea if this is a GOOD idea, but a bunch of my friends that play tennis really want me to go for the team.  I think it'll be a no-cut sport next year, so it won't be so bad when I try out.  But the truth is, I am pretty terrible at tennis and don't even know how the scoring goes.  People expect me to be good because I play badminton.  But really, the two sports are nothing alike.  Anyway, a friend of mine has kindly offered to give me a crash course on how to play tennis this summer.  If I fail... well, no tennis for me in the fall!

6) An ever-present ingredient of a fun summer: books!  I've been reading like crazy, making up for all the good books that I missed during the stressful school year.  There will definitely more book reviews, possibly two or three a week! 
 
So there you go, my summer all summed up in 6 points.  Man, lists are definitely the way to go.  

By the way, if I know you personally, and if you'd like to help out with the "summer project", please let me know!

Thanks for reading!

Contemplating Humility...

Hi!  I guess you might have noticed that I haven't been blogging very much lately.  This is partially due to the fact that teachers are starting to get this little voice in their head saying, "Go on, just pile up the homework.  It's alright.  They have time to do it ALL."  Ugh.  The other part is my AP European History test that is coming up on May 15!  I'm so scared that you wouldn't even believe me if...  well, if anything.  I really have nothing to say about this AP test, except that I will try my hardest not to get a two.  Again.  Like last year.  In AP World History.  

Anyway, I had to write a speech (and deliver it tomorrow, ooh la la) for English class about a character trait that I think that all people should possess.  My speech is about humility.  

For our past speeches (we give one every quarter), I can't say that I worked as hard as I did on the other ones than I did with this particular one.  I don't know why, maybe it's because I actually felt like it was an important topic.  

Well, here it is if you'd like to see what I'll be stuttering over tomorrow in front of about 25 peers and my teacher.  

Intro:  Funny story!  Some people had been asking what topic I’d be doing for this speech.  To each person, I replied with the word, humility.  I received blank stares and a couple of people even ventured to ask, “Um… isn’t humility the action of humiliating others?”  I proceeded to crack up in their faces.  While humility is not the ability to humiliate others, it is the action of humbling oneself, not being selfish, and not always being in the spotlight.  I believe that humility is a very important character trait for people to possess in order to live a fulfilling life of influencing others.   

A:  As you can see from my little anecdote, humility is often confused to be the action of humiliating people.  According to the thesaurus, humility is also said to be a synonym of meekness, lowliness, and submission. However, I don’t agree with these synonyms.  Meekness is being shy, lowliness is keeping a person in lower ranks, and submission is to give in to someone else’s power.  When I think of a person with humility, I don’t think of a shy person that submits to everything that other people dictate.  Instead, I think of a person who is kind, not overly prideful, and selfless.  These three words represent a person that doesn’t always do things for himself and his own welfare.  They also describe someone who is content with what they have and who is not a show-off. 

B:  One person I admire that possesses a great amount of humility is probably a person that you all know of, but don’t know by name.  If you all remember, one of the suspects of the Boston marathon bombing hid out in a civilian’s boat.  This caused a bunch of uproar about a bombing suspect on the loose.  The civilian, David Henneberry discovered the now injured suspect in the boat, and he quickly called the police.  The suspect was taken away, as was the boat for additional clues.  Some boat companies immediately offered Henneberry a new boat, and many people called him a hero for discovering the bombing suspect.  Instead of thinking only about himself, Henneberry showed humility by not accepting a new boat.  He suggested donating the money for a new boat to the people who were actually hurt by the bomb.  This action was definitely not weak, lowly, or submitting.  It was a confident and humble choice made by a person who was not thinking of just himself or being prideful.

C:  So how do we incorporate humility into our lives?  Well, that’s a good question, because I’m trying to work on humility myself.  One way to humble ourselves is to stop judging other people.  That comes by realizing that most people we judge are people we don’t even know on a personal level.  What gives us the right to act like a know-it-all about strangers?  Another way to incorporate humility into our lives is to recognize the gifts and talents of other people as well as ourselves.  While there may be people in this room who are smarter, faster, and more artsy than you, I can guarantee that there is at least one thing that we, as individuals, excel at more than anyone else here.  Humility helps us appreciate our individual gifts and talents, as well as those of the people around us. 

Conclusion: C.S. Lewis once said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”  Kind.  Selfless.  Not prideful.  Humble.  Confident.  Those are the real words that I would use to define humility on dictionary.com. 

I hope you... enjoyed this speech?  took it to heart?  thought about how much humility you have?  I don't know, haha.  But I did mean every single word I said in that speech.  

Okay!  So I might not be back until after May 15 since I have to cram some history into my head.  Thanks for reading!

HOW ANIMALS EAT THEIR FOOD!

Good evening people, I was feeling kind of down in the dumps after splitting and losing my singles match during badminton.  Then I thought of this crazily funny video called "How Animals Eat Their Food" by MisterEpicMann on YouTube.  I discovered it a couple nights ago and I've been watching it nonstop since.  Take a look and I guarantee that you'll be laughing your head off (LOVE the sippy cups)!  Give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it!

Preachers' Daughters... Good or Bad?

Hi everyone!  I meant to blog about this topic for today a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't have the time.  But now Spring Break is here and I have ample time!  Wooohooooo!  *I personified Spring Break because it deserves personification.  It is the 2nd most amazing concepts that schools have come up with...  2nd to Winter Break which is 2 weeks long!*

Okay, so one day I was on SparkNotes (yes, I do use SparkNotes, but only if I didn't understand what I was reading) and reading their amazing stuff.  At the bottom of the screen, a little bar popped up with the advertisement for a new show called "Preachers' Daughters".  Interested, I clicked on it and it brought me to a description of the show.  Basically, it's a new reality show that premiered on March 12.  This show films a period of time following around girls who are the daughters of preachers.  

impawards.com

The girls who star in this show are all described as girls who are being filmed while going through the most turbulent stage of their lives.  Two of the daughters are 18-ish, and they complain that people are always expecting them to be perfect just because they are children of pastors, the leaders of the church.  They complain that they want to be "normal girls" like everyone else.  One daughter is already pregnant out of wedlock, and she has come back out of "the life of sin" and has "strong religious connections with her family", according to the Wikipedia page.  

First of all, I have to say that I was interested because I myself am a PK (Pastor/Preachers's Kid).  I know what it's like to be looked at differently because my dad is a pastor.  Sometimes, people act a different way around me because they are afraid that I'll tattle on them when they're being "inappropriate".  And other times, people tattle on me because they thought that I was doing something "inappropriate".  And still other times, they don't tell me things because they think that I'll be "tainted".  For example, for the longest time, I had no idea whatsoever what grinding was until high school.  I heard my friends talking about it once and asked them what it was, but they wouldn't tell me.  They wanted me to maintain my innocent, angel-like reputation as a PK.  Well, now I know what grinding is.  Great.  Whoopdeedoo.  It epically changed my life (not really, I'm just being sarcastic if you can't tell).  The point is, I can relate to these girls. 

But then I read more and got less and less excited about the show.  The show basically shows the girls (mainly the two younger ones) going around and dating, doing drugs, partying, and all that other stuff.  Meanwhile, their parents sit at home and pray for their daughters to stop being like normal teens.   They also try to watch and monitor every aspect of their daughters' lives.  

According to theblaze.com...

"As for Pastor Mark Perry, he says the family’s motivation for appearing on the show isn’t to gain fame. Instead, he hopes they can help people see the difficulties preachers face in raising their families.

“We didn’t say yes to the show because we wanted to be on TV. We said yes because we wanted to tell our story,” he said in an interview with the San Luis Obispo Tribune. “We’ll be able to show our weaknesses and hopefully our strengths.” "

I understand this totally.  But I just have this nagging feeling about the show that I can't really describe.  I know that PKs have tons of pressure because there are people trying to be like them and watch them and all that.  Some PKs just break down and become rebels.  They feel that becoming rebels will prove something to their community around them.  I haven't really gone through this, and don't worry.  Not all PKs become or stay rebels.  It really just depends on your personality and how you think about things.

However, I don't really like how this only shows the negative view of a pastor's family (despite the fact that daughter no. 3 is back with the church again).  This show just depicts the stereotypical negative view of the pastor's family.  It makes people think that all PKs are rebels and pastors don't know how to raise their children the "right way".  And it's not true.  Not at all.  I've met many pastors' children, and I've seen the good and the bad.  There are PKs who follow their parents' footsteps, and there are PKs who don't.  And like I said, it really depends on the personality and values of the PK.  I also don't like how the show reveals promiscuous stuff about the other siblings in the families.  It's such a reality show thing, isn't it?

I guess the real way to find out if this show is a good idea is to pray about it.  To pray about what is happening to God's church and why we are advertising it on TV.  To pray for the future generation that will lead the church.  To pray for our pastors for guidance from God, not only for the congregation, but first and foremost, their families.  

Here's the link to a description of the show.  If you'd like, you can tell me what you think about this new show in the comments.  Or you can email me.  I'll try to sort out my feelings about it in the meantime.  :)  Thanks for reading!

The Good Things of Life

Hello everyone!  Sorry I haven't posted in while.  It's been very hectic, and I don't think that I'll be able to write my post on my new nail polish design this weekend like I planned.  :(

However, good things have been happening around here too!  

1)  A few days ago, my gym shoes started falling apart, so my lovely mother offered to take me to Target (I know, I know, Target is a horrible place for gym shoes) because I was so desperate.  The gym shoes there were quite disappointing (a given), expensive (also a given), not very professional, and ugly (I don't know anyone that really likes neon colors ALL over their shoes.  Neon shoelaces are okay, just not everywhere else).  I was so disappointed, but needed shoes so badly that I settled down on one not-so-ugly-looking pair.  My mom could tell that I really didn't like them, so she suggested Nordstrom Rack.  By then, it was already 8 pm and we were on a tight schedule.  We quickly went to the nearby Nordstrom Rack, which had TONS of more options that were so much better.  I chose the least expensive pair (still about $50) and was kind of feeling guilty about it.  My mom told me that it was okay since my feet weren't growing anymore.  However, I was still feeling very selfish, so I almost put them back.  Up at the cash register, I was almost about to tell the lady I didn't want them until she rang them up and said they were ten dollars.  Oh my goodness.  Ten dollars.  The lady and I thought that it was a mistake, but it wasn't!  I walked out of Nordstrom Rack holding the $10 gym shoes, thanking God, and having a mini celebration with my mom.  

2)  Though I didn't win my doubles match, I won my singles match in the first badminton meet!  What a great way to start off the season.  :)

3)  As a fund-raiser for the badminton team, all girls are required to sell at least 50 small bags of Warheads candy, each for a dollar.  In the past, my sales were quite pitiful because I was a very bad salesperson.  I'm still a very bad salesperson, but I was able to sell 26 bags of candy in three days' time!  Wooot!  *This is all thanks to my very generous classmates.  Or maybe thanks to their generous appetites for candy.  Why people like sour candy is a mystery to me.  Chocolate for the win!!*

4)  My dad came home from a business trip!  He was gone for a really long time, and the house just didn't feel the same without him.  He also brought back great presents.  :D

5)  I had a great girl talk with one of my best friends today at church.  She just cracks me up every time.  Thank God for best friends!

6)  An awesome video of Libera's new song, "The Moon Represents My Heart" (a much loved Chinese song), came out a few days ago.  The most exciting thing is that it's in Mandarin Chinese!  How awesome is that?  It's not a full video, but it hints at a new music video that may be coming out soon.  For those of those lucky enough to go to the Libera concerts in late March and early April in Taiwan, Libera might sing this song!  Check it out right here. 

Okay, well this is the end of the good things that have happened to me this week.  I feel like writing this post is a great reminder of how good God is to us when we don't even realize it! 

Fashionably Late

The snow day that I was praying and wishing for finally came today!  A bit late, if you ask me.  But hey, I'll take it!  

At school yesterday, the school was all abuzz with the exciting news that we'd finally have a snow day.  Some of us were really optimistic, and others were quite pessimistic about it, saying that our school district NEVER issued snow days.  I have to confess that I didn't learn my lesson from last week and was hoping (really really praying this time) for a snow day.

I woke up this morning to discover that our driveway was hardly even dusted with the white snow.  Dejected, I fell back into bed and accidentally fell asleep again.  Five minutes before my bus arrived, I woke up again and started freaking out because I was going to miss the bus!  Then, ever the heroine, my mom swept into my room and told me that because of severe weather (that was yet to come), school was canceled for the day.  HALLELUJAH.  You do not know how happy I was.  

Reasons that today was a great day for a snow day:

1)  I had a seminar to do in my AP European History class, but my teacher said that we didn't have to do it if there was a snow day today!  Woohoo...

2)  I slept in without that guilty feeling that I was missing all that school and would have to make up the work later.  

3)  I got a chance to start my English assignment (due Thursday) that I was definitely NOT going to touch till Wednesday night.

4)  No badminton practice!  The conditioning is so bad now.

5)  My youngest sister and I built a mini snowman outside.  Then I shoveled part of the driveway which was not much fun.

6)  The fact that my mom almost had to drive me to school would have sent her over the edge.  

7)  I got to finish a book called Victoria Rebels by Carolyn Meyer.  It's not something I'd read everyday, but it was pretty interesting all the same.  Who knew being a queen/princess of England could be so tiring? 

I hope you all had a wonderful day, snow or no snow.  Here's a picture of the wonderfully, fashionably late snow day!

Mission Accomplished.

During the last few days, I've been anxiously sweating over tryouts for the badminton team at school.  The coach told us returning players that we had to make it into either the JV or varsity teams, or we'd be cut.  That really set me off into a small anxiety attack.

Monday afternoon, tryouts for returning players:  
3:45- I'm freaking out with my friends as we hold our badminton rackets.  
3:50- We start warm-ups with 6 laps around the indoor track, which isn't all too bad.
4:00- Lunges.  All the way across the gym and back.  With the coaches watching CLOSELY.  
4:10- High knees.  These warm-ups are starting to kill me.  Especially my thighs, cause I haven't done anything like this since last season.
4:15- We get partners and start practicing our shots, like drops, clears, smashes, etc.  
4:45- Games to seven points!  I get beaten way too much and my self esteem drops quickly...
5:45- Suicides.  Multiple sets that kill everyone (ooh, a pun!).  "Finish strong!" says the coach.  Yeah right...
5:55- Numbers.  This is when we go on to the courts, one girl on each side.  We designate spots on the court, each with their own number.  The coach calls out a number, about 15 for each set, and we run to that numbered spot on the court and swing at an imaginary birdie.  We have to use the right footwork, too.  By this time I am breathing so hard and I feel like my heart is about to burst.  Out of shape much?  I think so.
6:05- Coach announces that all the JV and varsity from last year made the team!  The rest of us need to come back and tryout again with the newbies.  All cause the coach doesn't know us well enough to make cuts.  
6:10- All the girls that need to come back and try out again complain loudly as we change in the girls locker room.  

Wednesday afternoon, tryouts for returning and new players:
3:45- My friends and I are grouped together and complaining about how sore we are from the tryouts two days ago.  *I am still so sore right now, I can't even walk around without groaning.  All cause I forgot to stretch.  >.<*
4:00- Coach has us running 8 laps this time...  My friend and I are some of the only ones that did all 8.  All those newbies cheated, for sure.  
4:15- Lunges and high knees.  Very, very painful because of all that soreness.
4:25- Everyone gets onto courts with partners and practice shots!
4:30- Coach calls the returning players over and says this, "This gym is way too crowded and I can't even see any of the newbies.  You're all in."  HAHAHAHAHA.  And I was worried.  PFFFFTT.  

As you can see, it's been quite eventful these past few days and I feel like my legs are on fire every time I go up and down the stairs (I might have been the cause for all those traffic jams in the hallways at school).  But I'm am so happy that I made the team again this year!  

One last thing before I cram some homework...  There will be a post on a new nail design soon!  Keep an eye out!

Snow Day...?

I just looked up the weather forecast and it says that there is a VERY LIKELY chance that there will be a snow day tomorrow!!  

Some things I might do if there IS a snow day tomorrow...
~READ.  :)
~Make some hot chocolate oatmeal.  Sounds disgusting, but it's delicious.  
~Start a knitting project?  I don't know what I want to make since it's been so long since I've picked up my knitting needles.
~Cook something with my mom.  I never, ever really get to cook with her cause I'm so busy with school and stuff.  It'll be a nice bonding moment, haha.  This actually depends on whether my mom will let me near the food.  I might just eat it before it's cooked.  :D
~Do homework.  Not likely, cause I'll convince myself that I have the whole weekend (which I really don't).  
~Shovel the snow!  It's fun when I do it with my sisters and my dad.  
~Sleeeeeeeeep. 

Some things that I will do if there ISN'T a snow day tomorrow...
~Wake up early for school.
~Slave through a synchronized swimming presentation for PE!  Lies.  I'm not excited at all.
~Watch a boring art video in history.
~Learn math.  Ugh!  Who even needs that stuff?  No offense to anyone that likes math out there.  It's just hard for me to do math and enjoy it.
~Go to Extreme Trampolines with my church's youthgroup!  I LOVE THAT PLACE.  

I'm trying not to get too excited about it just in case we don't have a snow day.  And it's not really working.  All I can do is hope and pray...

Please, God!  I'm begging You!

Blogs I Follow

Hello!  You may have noticed that my blog has morphed drastically since the last post.  First of all, the whole background/theme is more plain, with a gray-ish color scheme.  I don't really know why I changed it; I guess I wanted a blog that was easier on the eyes?  I really don't know, haha.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to figure out how to give it all a light blue tint soon though.  

Secondly, I've got some new gadgets in the right-hand column.  You can now follow my posts by email just by entering your email into the little box.  At the very bottom, there's a list of the blogs that I follow.  And here's a little rundown on what they are about...

-BEAUTIFUL STRANGERS*, Dear Libera, and Mini Angels are all blogs about the Libera boys choir.  Whenever there's new info for Libera fans, you can expect these three blogs to keep you on your toes.  

-Booyahitsriya is a blog made by a close friend of mine.  Her blog features fashion, make-up tips, and of course the ever popular music of the month.  

-hello...mero is also a blog by one of my friends.  I don't really know how to describe it though, since it covers anything that crosses her mind.  She's currently studying in Singapore (lucky duck!  I've always wanted to be a transfer student of sorts) and she updates readers on her latest experiences.   

-MY MILK TOOF (the cutest blog EVER): I've already done a post on this, so check out the link here.

-The Christian Pupil (my cool Christian blogger friend :)): same for this blog, check out the link right here. 

Please, please, please check out these amazing blogs!  Meanwhile, I'll go finish my post about the new nail design...

Finals Week O.O

FINALS WEEK.  In other words I am totally sleep deprived, studying (more like cramming) my butt off for stuff I should have started reviewing a month ago, having study parties with friends (in which we don't study much at all), being very jealous of the kids that had their finals before winter break (it forces them to study, you know?), and... lacking on blog posts.  

Yes, yes.  I know that I still need to tell you all about my onething experience.  And yes, I do have a new nail art/manicurish thing to share, but I do need to have priorities.  So I'm very sorry if you don't hear from me until sometime next week.  But don't worry, I have a four day weekend to waste after finals.  HUZZAH.  Wishing the best of luck the unlucky students that also have not taken their finals yet!! 

First Post of 2013!... Plus Some Other Stuff

Woohoo everyone!  We made it to the year of 2013!  I'm so glad and thankful that I started this blog.  And I also appreciate you faithful followers that read all of my posts, whether you found it boring or not. 

Source: dryicons.com

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas; I certainly did.  My family has a tradition of getting together with all our extended family and just having a huge party just like that.  We eat, talk, play Just Dance 2 (every year without fail), watch movies, and pray for the new year to come.  Unfortunately, I'm about four and a half years older than all of my cousins, so I had to entertain myself with an assortment of kiddie toys.  But how can I complain?  My cousins are the cutest, the food was awesome, and the gifts I received were awesomer!  Please excuse my grammar.

As for the new year, I was privileged to be able to travel to Kansas City, MO with one of my best friends.  We attended the onething conference hosted by IHOPKC (Dec. 28- Jan. 1), which was one of the most uplifting experiences of my life.  It was just something about being in the Kansas City Convention Center with about 25,000 other people in a darkened room with spotlights, and singing and worshiping your heart out about how much you love Jesus (That was definitely a run-on sentence, but it's the only way I can describe it).  And it's just so amazing to be able to celebrate the new year by praising God in the middle of the night.  Or rather the morning, since it was 12 am.  I promise I'll be posting more about the conference when I'm finished with my homework that I should've done last week (seriously, it should be considered a crime to give out homework over winter break!). 

One last thing before I go, I've updated all of the pages: playlists, my music archive, and my book archive.  Be sure to check them out for my favorites from the last few months!  

Thanks for reading, and I hope you had a very wonderful Christmas, an amazing New Year, a Happy Hanukkah, a great winter break, and any other holiday you celebrate!