Florida, Day 1

12/26/09

I was dragged out of bed at 9AM (as is obvious, I am not a morning person) today to drive to some place called "Coopertown." A huge white sign adorned the parking lot, with big bold letters that read "COOPERTOWN: Population, 00008." I estimate that 5 out of those 8 "citizens" are domestic alligators... We had only one purpose (but later 2) for coming to such a small town, and that was to take an airboat tour. If you've never taken an airboat tour, I would suggest bringing a pair of earplugs. The airboat gets its name from the HUGE fan/motor that is attached to the back of the boat- when running, it rotates and creates an enormous, deafening sound. Luckily, the boat's operator provided everyone with cotton balls to stuff our ears with. During the 30-some minute tour, I spotted quite a few Great Blue Herons, Egyptian Ibises, Painted Turtles, and alligators (I don't recall the specific name). One particular "baby" alligator sunbathed itself on a small marshy island just 4 feet in front of the boat, its jaw gaping wide, boasting all 80 (or so I heard from our tour guide) of its yellowed teeth. I got quite a few close-up shots, which I will post later.

After the tour, we were about to hop back in the car when I noticed that the souvenir shop's sign boasted quite an interesting set of words: "Coopertown Restaurant and Souvenir Shop: We Serve Gator Tails." Gator tails? To eat? My curiosity was most definitely piqued. After obtaining permission (and money) from my parents, I ordered this exotic dish called "Gator Tails." They claim it is made from genuine gator meat, which, after trying the dish, I am willing to believe. To be honest, it tastes sort of like chicken, except the meat is slightly chewier. If I were to have been eating this under the pretense that it was chicken, I would probably call it "unusually chewy chicken." Plus the way it was prepared resembled chicken nuggets; the waitress even called it "Gator tail nuggets." Overall, I think it was one of those "must-do-before-you-die" kind of experiences that you only need to do once... Gator meat is expensive!

Our next stop was originally supposed to be a hiking trail in the actual Everglade Park, however the wait to enter the park was upwards of 2 hours so we decided to skip the park and drive back to Miami to tour South Beach and whatnot. To say the least, this public beach is highly commercialized. Every single building was either a store, a hotel, or some other form of commercial business. These buildings were jammed into every space available, lining up like fat concrete dominoes along the boardwalk. I got plenty of souvenirs from these shops (namely t-shirts, since I seem to perpetually be at a loss for clothes) at great deals (well, mostly great deals). We walked around in the suffocating city polluted air for another 2 hours  or so before finally retiring to an amazing Italian restaurant that served extraordinary pasta (albeit lavished richly with heavy cream, butter, and fat calories) and ravioli.

The fitness center at this particular hotel is pretty shabby (c'mon, not even some barbells or weights to lift?)- the room is only about 60 square feet, boasting an incredibly powerful arsenal of two treadmills, one bicycle machine and one circular leg-rotator machine thing whose name escapes me at the moment. Oh, and there is also a yoga ball (which makes everything much better). I quickly ran about 2 miles on the treadmill (just to make myself feel better about consuming that entire portion of pasta) then dashed back to the hotel room just to type this entry (look how dedicated I am to this blog... hah). What a day!

(P.S. Parentheses seem to be the main theme of this particular entry. I promise that I will try to use less of them; they seem to detract from the main points. Oh, and it doesn't follow FORMAL WRITING RULES! Gasp!)

Florida, Day 0

12/25/09

Yes, I traveled on Christmas Day. At night. What's the first thing that comes to mind with this combination...?

CHRISTMAS DINNER. On a PLANE.

Yes, that's right... My Christmas dinner consisted of a cold, limp turkey sandwich about 3 inches long (I couldn't even eat the lettuce), a mini Twix bar, and an incredibly inflated, puffed up bag of Ruffles chips (it had ridges!). Hey, it was better than last year, when they didn't even SERVE us dinner! I guess I should be thankful for something... but it's just not hitting me.

Anyway, technically today was "Day 0" since I didn't really do much except sit on a plane and halfheartedly factor polynomials, simplify expressions, and reduce square and cube roots (oh, the joys of receiving graded math assignments over winter break). We arrived at the Miami airport at approximately 9:30 PM. After checking out our rental car, we drove straight to the hotel, and after a quick shower (ARGH why do the hotels always provide "VOLUMIZING SHAMPOO!" I mean seriously, not EVERYONE needs ridiculously floofy and frizzy hair) I crashed in those oh-so-comfy hotel pillows and crisp, impeccably ironed white sheets, eagerly awaiting a bright day tomorrow.

HUGE Updates, and... Winter Break!

First of all, yes it's been a long time. There are plenty of things to write about that I could be writing about that has happened in the past... what... 1 month that I've sadly ignored my blog, including fencing updates, school rants, grammar rants, rants on my newest hero/idol, who happens to be almost 200 years dead (VIVE L'EMPEREUR)...the possible topics are endless. Hopefully I'll have some time to write about all those promising  subjects at a later time. But for now, I'll stick to current events and gradually catch up, one topic at a time.

So, first thing's first. Happy (belated) Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, whatever seasonal holiday you celebrate. I hope everyone (or what little amount of people still bother to read this) is enjoying their nice winter break... And for those of you who are all freezing your butts off up in the Tri-State area, I'll be enjoying all the nice an sunny weather down here in FLORIDA!

That's right... I'm in Miami, b-insert censor here-tch. (no cookie for very obvious reference) :)

Actually I'll be traveling all around Florida to tour a few nice places, and it started this morning after waking up from a (not very) long 3-hour plane ride. Some areas of interest include: Everglade National Park (airboat tours), Miami Beach, Key West, Key Largos (which will include snorkeling and other water-related activities), and possibly even a visit to the legendary Ernest Hemmingway's house.

After finally finding a way to "borrow" internet connection from the hotel I am currently in (I mean seriously, charging 10 bucks for 1 hour of internet time?! Absurd.), I hope I can maintain this nightly internet connection for this period of 5 or so days so I can keep a journal of my adventures around Florida. Maybe I'll be able to post a few pictures later on, just to make you people who are standing in the freezing snow jealous.

...oh wait, that would be mean. :P

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

To be honest, I had never intended on actually participating in such a ridiculously impossible event. But, as it turns out, I was somehow suckered into participating, and now there's no way out...!

Basically, NaNoWriMo is exactly as its title might suggest: You are to write a 50,000 word (that's approximately 100 pages on a Microsoft Word Document, 12 pt. font) novel in 30 days during the National Novel Writing Month- which is, naturally, November. Now if you do the math, you would find out that in order to meet this requirement, one would have to type approximately 1,667 words EVERY SINGLE DAY, for all 30 DAYS.

What?! Yeah, that's right. It sounds ridiculous even to me, who spends most of their time procrastinating ranting on miscellaneous things. Also, I was a bit late to join, beginning my novel on the 5th of November, 5 days AFTER the official countdown had started. If you count up those missed days, that totals up to 8,335 words behind schedule. Now, today being the 9th of November, we are officially supposed to be up to count on a total of 15,003 words.Guess how many words I've written?

Roughly 4,000. That's not even half of what I had to catch up on. Can you say "officially screwed?" Of course, my nature being by default that of a procrastinator, things are not looking good for me as of present. Do I believe I can still hit the 50,000 words mark by the 30th of November? Perhaps, if I didn't have so many assignments in my normal English class. Every word I type out now is valuable, and I've come to face the sad truth that if I want to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, not every single sentence is going to be of my normal quality content. Oh well. So kids, remember to never procrastinate!

...and if you're up to the challenge of starting 15,000 words behind, I highly recommend that you take the challenge. Here's their official website: http://www.nanowrimo.org

Ack! The above 338 words could have been time spent writing words for my novel...!

The Last Day

It's finally over. The update-your-blog week has finally come to a close.

Am I free from this voluntary time-wasting curse? Perhaps; however, this new drive to write blog entries has now been ingrained into my subconscious self, and presently I feel as if I need to continue blogging often, if not daily. Whether or not this was your intention Emily, I do not know, but I have a strong hunch that this is what you hoped for...

AND I SHALL RESIST, for as long as I can! Because I simply do not have such time to blog as often as I did this week! My narrow schedule was consistently strained as I went out of the way to satisfy your blog-reading needs! I could ramble forever about the many pros and cons of this whole week-long event, but unfortunately I lack neither the time nor motive to do so. That being said, I'll just end the pain for myself and finish off this entry right now. Expect some scattered entries, but I wouldn't recommend checking back every day; you'll only find yourself disappointed. Maybe once a week, but that's not a promise.

Goodbye, crazy blogging week!

Banners, Amongst Other Things

Our theme for Homecoming is "A Night On Broadway," and as such, we chose a musical that would represent our grade. Since Student Council decided to hog all the popular musicals, we ended up choosing "West Side Story." Though our banner had a rough (and slow) start, with the help of the rest of the class officers and a couple point-seeking friends, we managed to make it in the end: after much hard work (as well as plenty of fooling around), our freshmen class banner is finally finished. Actually, I'm quite surprised that the end result turned out so... decent.

Being a class officer (I'm Treasurer) is tough work. Just for the record I'll put down a little common rumor: As Treasurer, you are not entirely in charge of the money or counting the revenues and whatnot. Heck, I don't even know how much money we have in our class funds (but I do know that we are no longer in debt!). The 5 class officers all just share the duties, and the only officer who really has a specific job would probably be the Historian, who takes all the pictures (but truthfully we haven't taken very many yet). It's an implied duty to be present at EVERY single event, but although the responsibility is huge, it's actually quite good to know that I'm accomplishing something for my class. Even as I type this, I realize that we have a Powderpuff meeting this Sunday (yes, that's a weekend day) to choreograph and finalize the act. Finalizing... at their first rehearsal. In case you didn't know, Powderpuff day is basically when the roles of the men and women are reversed-- the girls play football, and the guys do cheers. Yes, imagine a bunch of guys in cheerleading uniforms chanting encouragement to the female football players. It'll be great, except for one teensy problem...

We have a total of 3 participating guys, and a bunch of overzealous girl choreographers.

Way to support your class, guys.

Anyway, I also just realized that it is 15 minutes to midnight and I have piano lessons first thing tomorrow morning. Whoops... But on the bright side, I only have to keep this blogging thing up for one more day...!

"Great Expectations"

(...which, I should mention, is the most boring book in the world)
---
The leap from middle to high school is certainly a big one, especially in a school district such as mine. I honestly don't think they do enough to prepare us for high school, but I guess they assume that we can learn from our own mistakes (but sometimes making mistakes aren't enough. What if there's that one kid who just doesn't realize they're doing something wrong?! They need someone to bluntly put it to them: YOU'RE WRONG. Ah, anyway...).

The typical freshman usually enters high school with some preconceived notions about the first year, myself included. Obviously I'm not going to tell you exactly what I thought about how 9th grade year would be, but let's just say that we've only been in school for one month and everything I expected have proven to be mostly false, for better or for worse.

The biggest jump I've noticed is the dramatic increase in workload. There's more homework, long-term assignments, frequent tests, a profusion of writing AND reading assignments for English and even other subjects, you name 'em. I've personally never been a big fan of expending my efforts in vigorous studying and working (I look to optimize what little time I have each day, and yet I still feel pressed for time); therefore I have never really studied for tests and the such. That could possibly have been the biggest mistake I've made in my middle school years of habit-building. As soon as high school arrived, I began to see the effects of my slacking off. I now literally see papers flying at my face left and right, forcing me to smash my previous loose schedules and abandon the free time I used to take enjoyment in. And, as the world works, I find it necessary to study, or flunk. But of course, I shall take the higher being's path and look into the future, realizing that all this will HELP me in the future (eh... yeah right)!

After proofreading (yeah I know, who proofreads their blog entries? ME!) the above paragraph, I realized that it was all just a jumbled block of mixed thoughts. I'm thinking of deleting it all and rewriting it, but you blog readers will just have to deal with it, since it's 11PM already and I WANT TO SLEEP. You too, no?

5 days down, 2 to go!

3 Tips When Typing an Assignment...

1. Always, always, ALWAYS ALWAYS NEVER NOT SAVE YOUR WORK PERIODICALLY.
(When I say periodically, I mean every 2 minutes as if you're a paranoid schizophrenic)
2. Make sure that u dont randomly add ch4tsp33k into your essays. Teachers hate it. Not that I would evar do something liek dat...
3. Play Typer Shark. It'll improve your average wpm. (I swear, that's how I got my 120 wpm!)
4. Just kidding about number 3.

So you probably want to know the reason why I'm offering such helpful advice without a request first (as you know, I usually don't readily spew my vast knowledge to just any ol' person... Ahahaha, no. Just kidding, again. Why am I writing this all in parentheses? Oh well, probably just another subconscious effort to make this post longer). Well let's just say I had, oh, an assignment for school in which I had to type an entire email in French. As is obvious, French is not my first language. Heck, it's not even my second or third. (Sarcasm is my third language, obviously) Yes, that means it takes a great deal of effort to type in said language, especially when you want to throw in all the proper accents.

Of course, I spent a good 30 or so minutes working on this email, hoping that my French pen pal would appreciate that I typed more than two sentences, as mostly everyone else in my class did. Proud of my work, I hastily clicked the "send" button... and just as the thought of "Gee, I should really copy and paste this entire email into a word document, just in case..." crossed my mind...


The page refreshed.

And my session timed out.

Meaning I had lost all of my work.

At this point I was ready to smash my desk in half with my forehead. The only place I had written this email was, of course, on my email processor. Naturally they had the "save as draft" function, which again, I was careless enough to not use. So guess what I had to do?

...Yep, type the whole darn thing over again. What a great way to spend another 20 minutes (which according to my schedule, should have been used for math homework).

So the moral of this story is? Always save your work before you do anything else, folks!

P.S. Day *4* of unofficial blogging week. More than halfway there now...! Sorry for such late updates.

Oh noes D:

Yes, to your disappointment, something funky happened with the comments button, preventing anyone from leaving a comment. It's quite depressing to the average blog lurker, I'm sure. So what am I going to to about it?

...


Absolutely nothing! Suck it up, big baby. You can read my blog without leaving your random opinion. Who needs it anyway?!

...

Just kidding. I would die without feedback from my fellow viewers (yes, all 4 or so of you)! Therefore I am currently working on getting this fixed, and in the mean time, you'll just have to live with it. If worse comes to worse then I'll just have to change my layout (AGAIN) and start from scratch.

Day 3 of blogging-week madness. Yes, this entry counts. Sorry folks, I lied in the previous entry... Unless you somehow found this entry "moderately amusing." I absolutely promise (and when I say "promise" I tend to keep it) that I'll write a legit entry tomorrow.

Until then, I'm over and out for today.

A new layout?!

So I've decided that my plain green-themed default blog layout was quite boring, so I'm going to try something NEW! This current one is only temporary, as I am currently searching for one that is more to my liking. However, this one isn't bad, and if it seems that people actually are fine with it then I might just keep it. Keep me updated on any suggestions you might find though!

On a note completely unrelated to the topic title, it is now officially day 2 of my insane friend's unofficial holiday of "Update your blog every day of the week week," and I have yet to blog about something useful and/or interesting. I assure you, I shall find something of moderate interest tomorrow. Really.

...I think.

Once upon a time...

there was a girl named Emily. She was obsessed with reading blog entries, and so demanded an entire week of daily updates, dubbing the week as a holiday: "Update-Your-Blog-Every-Day-of-the-Week week. Here's yours from me today. Cheers.

And don't forget to study for that Odyssey test.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Also known as the day when you can eat a bunch of assorted pastries of various exotic flavors called MOONCAKES!

Looks delicious, doesn't it.

So, being the slightly-disconnected-from-my-heritage-one, I didn't even know that today was the Mid-Autumn Festival. But obviously I now do, since I'm writing about it, right? Anyhow, my family and I were invited to one of "those" parties where all the parents gather to drink and talk and laugh and karaoke their hearts out, their mouths molded in a perpetual "O" as if wanting to devour the microphone, which in turn blasts their contrasting high and piercing (women) and booming and low (men) oh-so WORLD-CLASS voices through speakers that are turned just a little too high for my taste (yeah, I know I should have edited that last sentence to be less of a run-on, but some people wanted an update, and at midnight I'm making this as quick as possible). On a related note having perfect pitch is a hard life, really.

The worst part is that I didn't even eat a whole mooncake! Oh, the horror! But the truth of the matter is...



They're not very tasty, in my not-so-humble opinion.
Oh well.

So in lieu of mooncakes, we ate random other oriental foodstuffs such as pork, sticky rice cake, rice, duck, ice cream, rice, and RICE! Nah, I actually didn't eat that much rice. Some other highlights include watching "Scary Movie" (if there's one movie I never want to see again, it's this one), being owned at SSBM, being owned at manhunt, being owned at life-- wait no, that's not right...

Overall, I'd say I had a pretty good time. To sum it all up, here's a brief non-artistic poem from the depths of an insomniac mind, about the gloriously scintillating full moon tonight:

"Untitled"

I rest; I can not sleep

I look; I can not see
anything but

a sky, painted black
clouds, haphazard and grey
but there is also
a luminous sphere
'tis quite blinding, I fear.
Shining light
that it does not own
but nonetheless, bright.
The single ray of radiance
in my world of night.

Please, no comments about my rather melancholy writing style; I'll write something more cheery only when the mood strikes. kkthxbai.

PS: As a side note, I thought I'd mention that starting tomorrow, apparently I'm obliged to update my blog every day of the week. The length of the post is not specified, so no complaining if I write a 2-sentence entry. :D

Bubbles and a semi-update.

Well, first of all... It's been a long time since the last update way back in March, and I have some very good reasons for this:



...Wait, no. Actually I don't.
I was just being lazy.

Anyway, that's off the point, because now I'm posting, see, see? And what better to get back on track with than a refreshing ("Refreshing like a spring breeze?" Naah.) article about popping bubbles! They may seem like such an ordinary thing to the naked eye, but with a high-speed camera... your entire point of view is changed.

Here's a preview of it:


Beautiful, isn't it. You can find the entire article about the guy who took these amazing photographs right here.

Sorry if you were disappointed by the completely random update. Even though it's summertime (and no comments about high school musical please), the amount of work I still have to accomplish before school comes 'round again is enormous, so I just don't have the time to write lengthy rant-like updates. I guess bubbles will have to do for now. Maybe another time I'll decide to do a real update of what's happened in the past 3 and a half months or so...

'Later folks!

Regions Jazz Auditions

were a failure. I actually really wanted to be in it this year, but I guess I got beat out by someone who wasn't as motivated. It crushes my soul to know that the piano spot will be occupied by... Uh, never mind. Actually, I shall just accept defeat and the fact that they're better than me even though they try less, which is incredibly unfai--- never mind, take two. So uh, all I can say is, DON'T LET ME DOWN?

Oh well, at least I still have next year.

My Sister's Pet Hamster...

...ran away.

...Three days ago. For three agonizing days (at least in the eyes of my sister), her "poor" hamster lived as a rogue nomad/wanderer, mingling with the basement spiders and then some. I could imagine it, squeaking with joy, "I'm a FREE hamster now!" (to the tone of Pinnochio's "I'm a REAL boy now!") It met up with the basement mice gang, defeated their leader, and climbed its way to the top of the rodent social ladder.

Just as it was enjoying its freedom, hunger began to gnaw at the pits of its tiny stomach. My sister, being the semi-clever one, left the door to the hamster cage open, attempting to tempt (haha) it with some delectable morsels of dried corn and... stuff. For three nights she waited, observing the slight change in the food level. She knew her precious hamster was alive; just in hiding. Like a refugee. Finally, she could bear it no longer. She hired me, the bounty hunter, to go off in search of this rogue hamster. As I snuck downstairs into the basement, I heard a faint shuffling sound, like tiny rodent paws clawing at the smooth wooden flooring. The corner of my eye caught the glimpse of a tiny shadow, scampering across the floor. Turning on the lights, I dashed after it, snatching the pathetic thing up in my nimble hands then plopping it back into its cage. The rodent squeaked and screeched in protest, but I would not open that cage door again.

Sorry lil' fella, but your life as a free hamster is over.

...and that just about sums up my (non)epic story of how I the bounty hunter successfully caught the rogue hamster and was rewarded... nothing. She didn't even say thanks! -.-

(Yep this is what procrastination does to you)

Blog Layouts

Yeah, I've realized that the layout of my blog is rather plain and traditional, so I might need some people to direct me to some decent layouts. It's not that I don't enjoy the simplicity of my current one; just that I'd rather stray away from the layouts that many others that use similar, if not the same, layout as mine. I really don't have the time to code my own, so I'll just have to find something on the web. Any suggestions would be nice though...?

Phoenix Wright

I needed something to distract myself, so I thought of the one-and-only, amazing Phoenix Wright. Despite first appearances of a rather silly yet strategical game, he, as well as his rivals and allies give amazingly insightful quotes. Again, the only purpose of this post is to steer myself away from my problems in the world outside of games... and for entertainment purposes. Here are some of my favorites. Some may be humorous, others may be serious, and others yet are actually quite insightful and might actually make you think. Without further ado:

• "Just my luck... An assassin with a conscience. Who would've figured...?" --Phoenix Wright
• "And their fate is to live with the knowledge of their guilt on their shoulders." --Shelly De Killer (the assassin with a conscience)
  
• "Sink or swim... The only way through is forward!" --Phoenix Wright
• "Your... precious... UUUUURNNN!!" --Adrian Andrews (oh wow)
  
• "Life doesn't end with the closing of a case." --Lana Skye
• "And even though the weather outside is gorgeous today, it's raining inside my heart..." --Phoenix Wright
• "I am not totally confident here, but I know I must press on, no matter what!" --Phoenix Wright
• "I know the path I have walked. You don't need to tell me." --Miles Edgeworth
• "There's a sad feeling in the air, now that the party's over..." --Phoenix Wright
• "Even if the whole world turns against me, this is one fight I can't give up on!" --Phoenix Wright
• "But have I just run out of luck this time...? Is all our hope for naught...?" --Phoenix Wright
• "Why are you speaking in riddles all of a sudden...?" --Phoenix Wright (to Mia Fey)
  
• "OBJECTION!" --Self explanatory
• "I feel as if... Something inside me has died." --Miles Edgeworth
• "I can't forgive myself for what I've done... And no one else should forgive me either!" --Miles Edgeworth
• "...Zvarri! The truth has once again been elegantly revealed to me!" --Luke Atmey
  
• "I am sorry to learn you are no longer that person." --Judge
• "Why is it... That all I want to do lately is cry?" --Phoenix Wright
• "Why is it... I suddenly feel like I want to scream?" --Phoenix Wright
• "I set my ATM card's number to '0001' because I'm number one!" --Manfred von Karma
• "...and the world just got a whole lot crueler..." --Phoenix Wright
• "...I ate it." --Phoenix Wright
• "I'm such a fool... It took me all this time to realize it." --Lana Skye
• "No one can change the past. The only thing we can do is strive to make up for our mistakes. Why must we make up for our mistakes, you ask? Because in doing so... we can find the way back to our path. And once we've found our path, we can move on from our past mistakes toward a brighter future." --Phoenix Wright (this is my favorite)

I've accumulated a list far longer than this, but these are the highlights and among some of my favorites. Now here comes my testimonial/rant... zomgphoenixwrightisanamazinggameandithinkallofyoushouldgetitandplayit,becauseitwillgiveyourperpectionoftheworldawholedifferentangle, andyoumightstartevenapproachingsituationswithalittlemorerationalitythanbefore, andthinkthingsthroughfirst,asihavelearnedfromthis. SOGOPLAYPHOENIXWRIGHT! [/addiction]

Irony.

So, lately I've been doing a lot of thinking. When someone is given a long time to think, think harder, and rethink, they start to notice many smaller details of life that they may not have registered before. I've always found a fascination with the stranger half of life, namely, irony in its pure, most ironic form. I would insert some lame pun about iron (Fe) and irony due to our current science unit about the Periodic Table of Elements, but the inspiration is repelling me like same-pole magnets. (Whoops I think I made that one too vague. Fe Co Ni ring any bells? If it doesn't then good... now you know that I'm the only one going insane.)

Anyway, so... about irony. I've began to notice so much of it nowadays that I feel as if it's always been around me; I've just never taken the time to think about it. I don't know the official definition of irony, but it goes something like this: A form of "humor" (humor as some may call it... I personally don't find it funny at all; simply intriguing to notice and quite amus-ing. Ahh stupid science unit.) that occurs as a result of something else that is contrary to that other thing. I really don't know how to explain it... You really have to experience it yourself. Since this is a public blog (that no one reads anyway, but that's off the point), I can't go into my usual violent rants about irony. But I will say the following: Iron[y] is all around you... And if you ever happen to have the time to go searching for it, you don't have to look very far. Just think of what's happened in the past few hours, or days, or weeks... You're bound to find tons of examples.

My final words of nonsense (I've thought of way too many of these lately)-- Take an iron, add a why, and you have irony.

Happy New Year!

Yep, it is that time again, when yet another 365 days have passed by in our lives, right in front of our eyes, and now we are 3 years closer to the Apocal-- ER, to... uh, wait, never mind that.

Anyway, 2008, despite all this "financial crisis" and whatnot that surrounds us (which we under-18-year-olds have yet to be concerned about), has been a pretty good year. Lots of interesting events, many good times, and memories to be remembered for years to come. Now before I get all nostalgic and start from the beginning of last year in review, I shall veer away from the past, and look forward to the future (what a grim future... if the world is really going to end in 2012... Whoops did I say that? >_>)...! 2009 shall bring many new surprises I'm sure, and all we can do is ride this everchanging current we call "life!"

...Oh, and tomatoes. [/random]

Well, I suppose I should list some of my New Year's Resolutions:
These are in no particular order, by the way...

1. Be healthier in general. That means less junk food, more health nut food, more exercise, and more sleep. Hey, those things will help me with my other resolution:
   
2. Grow taller. >_> When you're barely over 5 feet, you know you're in trouble height-wise...
3. Gain flexibility. I need to be able to do a split...
4. Procrastinate less...
5. Higher grades. (say wut?)
6. Shout less... It's really hard on the throat.
   

Some of these (1, 3, 5 and 6) I'll most likely be able to achieve, while others (2 and 4) will be a "bit" harder...

Well, all in all, here's to a new year, 2009! Cheers!