BAM! Kicking it up a notch!

Yay for the rebirth of our LJ group XDDDD

On that note, I have nothing to say. nothing.

Band tryouts on Wed. I'm bringing it hard, yo'.

Started wathching Lil' Bush this evening. I thought I would hate it. It was fairly amusing. Tee hee...

Tried out Branham for shareboarding this summer. He's ginormus and an absolutly beautiful horse. Loved his jumping, loved his flat riding. Can't wait to intruduce him to y'all.

My thoughts are everywhere this evening. Can you tell?

as the title says. Stevenson has, once again, royally fucked up my life.

Went to talk with a private tutor today for math (which I'm fairly close to not passing) and realized just how much shit I'm actually in.

I knew I didn't have enough credits to take Geo Acc, but my parents told me to take it anyhow. Last year, I only had 1/2 a year of AAA, before dropping down to Alg I. According to this lady, "Not only do I have major holes in my understanding of math because of this, but I will need to take Algebra II again next year just to be able to even comprehend what I'm learning this year. And because I'm getting Bs and not As in all my other classes, I should NOT take them acc. and should focus more on getting my GPA (currently a 3.0) back up."

My schedual BEFORE we realized stevenson fucked up:
-Pre Calc Acc
-Advanced Photo
-AP english
-AP US history
-Chinese 3x
-Honor Band (maybe)
-Public speaking
-Gym

My schedual AFTER we realized stevenson fucked up:
-Algebra II
-english acc (I might be able to convince her otherwise)
-US history
-Honor Band (maybe)
-Enviornmental Science
-Gym

GOD! I don't know wheather to cry or be angry. Probably both.

So! The weekend is over, and what a weekend it was.

Friday night, in preperation for my brother's Bar Mitzvah, we went out to dinner with all the Canadian/Californian/Texas cousins, which was nice, becuase I got to see them, but after food and shul, they all came back to our house and stayed until around 11.

Saturday was, of course, the Bar Mitzvah, and I'm really proud of my brother. Who knew the kid could sing as well as he did!? He always practiced in the closet so I couldn't hear him. I was very impressed. The party afterwards was lots of fun; the highlight of the evening was seeing Greg Sergay (we had invited their family since our families seem to be really close) do this one line-dance sort of thing called "The Mississippi Slide," which was like a hill-billy cha-cha slide. Hystarical! We didn't get home 'till about midnight (urg!)


And then this morning we had all the Canadian/Californian/Texas cousins over for brunch, which lasted until about *checks watch* five-ish.

I'm pooped XO

Dear god I need a life out side of cooking XP
List of things I've made since Spring Break started:
-Failed pate a chox
-mint chocolate pudding
-correct pate a chox
-creme-de-banan pastery cream
-cream puffs
-pastery puff dough (which hurts your hands like nothing else! Can you say 'one hour of kneeding?)
-mint chocolate cupcakes

Today I'm applying for a summer job at Deerfield's Bakery XD wish me luck! (If I get the job, It'll be dishes and probably cashier work, but one can hope :D)

Also got a hair-cut XD ended up changing my style after all, but I think it looks good ^^'

Last but not least, found this XD TOTALLY the wrong season for it, but it made me laugh so hard, so....

Couple of notices, actually:

1. If you live in Buffalo Grove, DO NOT drink tap water. The water was contaminated yesterday after some dumbass pooped in the sewage system. So...

2. My computer is being taken in for general maitenence/upgrading to Window's Vista, so I won't be on for a bit (1-2 weeks)

That is all

do do do do do
la la la
do do do do do
la la la
Want to, want to want to play

Haha~sorry, I've got Australia stuck in my head XD

Anyways...EXCITING NEWS! WOOT!

I got a collage letter....FROM CULINARY INSTITUE OF AMERICA IN NEW YORK! OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG! This is a school I was really wanting to look at, too :D YAY!

Yeah, that's it >_> I don't really have anything else going on here, just thought I'd share that with y'all.

Buh

Went shopping with Mother today to look for something nice to wear to Mark's Bar Mitzvah. After about an hour in XXI forever, we found a really nice sleevless grey dress and a really REALLY pretty purple silk shirt to wear over it. I'll have to get the dress shortened, but I'm really happy with the outfit overall. I'll wear that day-of. For Shul the night before, Mother and I got smiliar but not matching dresses from White House|Black Market. Mother's is kind of a low-top that flairs out at the bottom, and she wears it with a plain white cammie and a thick black-and-white belt. Mine is much more form-fitting and doen't flair at the bottom, but kind of resembles a greek-style robe. Very stylish. I also got my first pair of really high heels, which are NOT as umcomfortable as I had expected and I really enjoy tottering around in them. I'll post piccys of this stuff later.

My brother is having his Bar Mitzvah next month. He's going to be freaking 13. I'm going to be 16 in August. Dear lord, I feel OLD!

Other Exciting Things:

SOLO/ENSAMBLE IHSA CONTEST!
I played 3 events; flute solo, piccolo solo, and flute duet. I got a Division II on the Pic solo, and a Division I on Flute. I didn't really want to stay the extra hour to find out what I scored on the Duet, so I dunno 'bout that one...I was mildly upset about getting a II on the Pic, but after looking over what everyone else had gotten, I didn't feel AS bad. TONS of people got IIs, including Alex Slepack (le gasp!) and about half of Honor Band. And I got really nervous for that piece and didn't play well, and didn't deserve a I. But all-in-all, I'm pretty pleased with how I did, considering how freakin' RIGID judging was this year. Man........so many IIs........

CAR CRASH!
Well, not really. Basically, I had been hanging out at Shayna's (David, Katie, Andrew, Shayna, Kirstyn, and myself) and Andrew offered to drive me home. We turned onto the one-way part of Schafer, and narrowly avoided sliding into a pole. We instead landed in a ditch on top of a rock. Stuck. Apparently, Andrew's van is so old, it doesn't have 4-wheel-drive, or for the matter, proper brakes. But no one was hurt and the van didn't get broken. It did, however, get really, REALLY stuck on that rock, and so he had to call a Tow Truck, which ended up showing up at about 12:30 at night (the accident happened at about 10:15) I waited with him until his Mom showed up. Geez...scary stuff O_O


Also randomly read today that the Guy who writes Megatokyo (which I decided to start re-reading for lack of other interesting things to do) had a baby <3 congrats XD

Eh, that's all, I think.

So! As you may or may not know, my Harvest Moon for GBA that took me weeks to find, save up for and wait in the mail for has stopped saving progress. Frusturated and not yet ready to toss it, I asked a bunch of people at school how to repair GBA games. "Just change the battery" they said, "and it'll all be ok."

So! I opened up the game only to realize I have no idea which one the battery is. Not to mention that after opening up two MORE GBA games to see what the inside looked like that I realized my HM game had some big melt-down in the middle.

So! I was wondering if any of you know any place I can ship/send my game to be repaired. That would make me really happy. Because I've given up all hope of trying to repair the game myself.

XDDDDD So watching MTV this morning, I saw an ad....
...you all remember Dominico, the crazy Italian guy from ASALwTila Tiquila, right?

...
...
...
MTV IS GIVING HIM HIS OWN DATING SHOW XDDDDDDDD

*much laughter*
The show itself looks HORRIBLE, but I mean, it's Dominico, so yay!

So! After making 40-some cupcakes and 3 out of 8 toppings, I decided...that I was tired. So I'm going to finish making the toppings tomorrow ;D Anyway, for the three I did, here's what happened!

Elysian Custard
I was hoping for more of a thick, rich sort of thing (like a cream, I guess) but no matter how long the thing cooled, it was still pretty watery. Anyway, if you don't know, Elysian Custard is essentially milk, cream, honey, egg yolks and sugar. You heat the milk, cream and honey, taper it into the yolk and sugar mix, and heat it all back up again. As far as presentaion, it was gloppy and hard to work with. As far as taste, it was too sweet! You could really taste the honey! too much! blech!

This gets a rating of 4 out of 10

Strengthened Whipping Cream

From the begining, I knew this would be something to use for fillings and garnises rather than covering a cake. Anyway, this recipie is pretty much just whipping cream with powdered sugar rather than granulated sugar and geletin. It tastes and acts like regular whipped cream, but is firmer and holds more. As far as presentation, it looked good and held up. As far as taste, it tasted like regluar whipped cream and wasn't sastysfying to use as something to coat a cake. I will, however, probably use this for fillings in the future.

This gets a rating of 7 out of 10

Vanilla Pudding Topping

I had NO IDEA how this one was going to work, but it ended up being really tastey and good looking. It's essentially vanilla pudding folded into whipped cream. It tastes like a light and fluffy pudding, or a very vanilla-y whipping cream. It's a nice cross over. I was really REALLY happy with this, and will probably use this in the future. AS far as presentation, it was easy to work with and piped well and held its shape. As far as taste, it tasted REALLY GOOD and will work well to coat a cake.

This gets a rating of 9 out of 10



TOMORROW! I take on the Heavenly Cream, the 'special' buttercream, and the Snow Peak Frosting.

I decided last week that maybe Buttercream tastes like crap. So today, I am making 40 cupcakes and 8 types of frosting to find an alternative. Right now, cupcakes are in the oven, and when all is said and done, I'll post about the results of my findings.

*big sigh*

I don't know if its lack of sleep or stress or SOMETHING, but today when I got home I just kind of burst into tears. I'm not quite sure what I was crying over or what I was even crying about (it confused the HELL out of my mother) but when I was done, it was oddly refreshing. Maybe I just needed some sort of outlit for those pent-up anxiaties I get about life. Maybe I'm just overtired (I can't sleep late on weekends anymore, and since taking driver ed I've had to stay up later doing homework) or maybe I'm just being streached too thin here-and-there, but it's the first time in a long time I've had a really good cry. I'm really hoping there's nothing wrong with me (who just randomly bursts into tears!?) and that it's just from being anxious and tired, but...whatever.

Huh.

Today I was given a small gift as my mother was going through boxes in our basement getting rid of things! I was humbled and touched to recieve my Grandfather Jim's journal from his visits to China. I never met my Grandfather Jim (my mom's dad), however every year we have a picnic on the day he died at his grave with all the family, so I guess I do kind of know him. Anyway, the notebook is full of lessons from when he was learning Chinese in China. I was surprised to find more than half the pages blank, however; guess he didn't use it that often! Anyway, I decided it would be fun if I put some of MY chinese notes in the book, so now, I have a notebook full of things my Grandfather wrote as well.

There is a quote I immidiatly think of:

"It is no accident that you are reading this. I am making black marks on white paper. These marks are my thoughts, and although I do not know who you are reading this now, in some way the lines of our lives have intersected... For the length of these few sentences, we meet here.

It is no accident that you are reading this. This moment has been waiting for you, I have been waiting for you. Remember me."

- Duane Michals

In this way, I feel connected with my heratige. Connected with myself.

When you wake up feeling old
At this piano filled with souls
Some strange purse stuffed nervous with gold
Can you be where you want to be

I started working on the first draft for the World's Fair posters today. I've decided to go with the 'omg TENSION' approach, and so even though World's Fair isn't until April, I think I'll start putting up posters in the up coming weeks.

Walk down any street you can find
Look at any clock telling time
Sing some strange verse from some strange song of vines
and you'll be where you want to be

The pre-poster poster (before the actual info posters) is just going to be a blank paper with a big picture of the world, and under it in bold it shall say "It's Coming." and then the date of World's Fair. Of course, that's just an idea I'm tossing around, but it would lend itself well to both posters AND the display case.

Who knows anything. I don't know?
There are so many things I must leave alone.
Some strange person is calling you their home
Can you be where you want to be

I have Wilco stuck in my head, if you couldn't tell.

A very happy New Year to everyone! May 2008 be a year of happiness, healthiness and hopefulness for all.

Looking back on 2007, I feel relativly happy with how it turned out. Nothing too catastrophic happend to me directly, however I know it was a hard year for some of those close to me. I belive that 2007 was a good transition year, and that 2008 will be a year to embrace change around me.

My resolution for the year: to not be so sensative. I will try my hardest to be a more rounded person and to not take everything so seriously!

Out of curiosity, do any of you have resolutions? If so, I want to hear :D

Happy New Year! May this up coming year be full of good oportunities!

Winter break is here, and that makes me both happy and nervous. Happy, becuase NO SCHOOL FOR TWO WEEKS, obviously. Nervous, because...finals right after. So! I'm going to start studying now rather than put my studying off like I usually do. I really want to do well!

Classes I'm going to miss terribly next semester:

Photo I
Nonwestern Civ

Grrr! I'm not AS up set with loosing Photo I (since I'm taking Photo II) but I'm really going to miss first hour nonwestern. It was really fun and interesting (especially the Jihadists, which were FACINATING!) and I'll miss Ms. Gerber, who was a great teacher and a good person.

Classes I'm not looking forward to at all next semester:

Health
Math
English (le gasp!)

Health because it's gross and sex ed and all that good stuff. Math because our new math teacher (our old teacher just had a baby! Congrats!) is terrible at controling the class and we never get ANYTHING done. And English because my teacher is a scary, scary man...

On a totally different note...

Rented "The Namesake" this evening. It was absolutly FANTASTIC! I cried so many times during it...all of you should watch it. It was facinating, exciting, and really really gripping and emotional. It's pretty much about a first-generation Indian family in New York and how the children and adults deal with marrage, death and trying to blend old and new cultures. It's officially my all-time fav movie.

I have (finally) updated my icons! Now that I've switched to the 'advertisement thingy' I get 15, but I only really wanted 11...anyway, you should check them out! Yes! You should, muahahahahaha~<3

Other things going on...hmmmm...

Dating Alex Slepak now (yay <3) apparently, he found my lj yesterday (which makes me giggle. Haha, I didn't know you could find this. I have hidden it well up until now) *waves at Alex*

Tonight for dinner I had shrimp. It was wonderful.

Oh! Bought some parsley for Piggy the Kidd, who enjoyed it very much.

And...

FOUND MY COPY OF THE GOOD EARTH Which is by FAR my favorite book of all time. So I've spent the last hour reading that. Ehehe...

That's all, I think. Nothing really new. We have the "Window-Man" at our house right now. He's "looking at windows," or so I'm told. Adults are strange...

Pep Band. I didn't really know what to expect since it was my first time playing in pep band. I knew I had to wear my band polo, but I couldn't find it...I called up Tori and asked if I could borrow hers. She said she could lend me Steve Brask's old shirt. For those who don't know who Steve Brask is, he was the largest player in the band last year (he graduated) and so, needless to say, the shirt was a little big. Anyway, I show up wearing this giantic shirt a half-hour early and Mrs. D just gives me this "oooo-kay" look. The game was alright, we ended up winning, so that was fun. We played LIBERTYVILLE! Ordinarally, I hate libertyville since the fans are really rude. But they brought with them...THE MALE CHEERLEADERS! Which was AMAZING, hahahahaha! They were doing backflips and everything. I wish Stevenson had male cheerleaders...-ahem- so after the game, I called my father, who was apparently 'busy' so I was stuck at school for a half-hour. They locked the school. I had some spicy nachos, so the inside of my mouth was BURNING but I myself was freezing.

Last night was....interseting. All in all, I'm looking forward to the next game!

It's been a while, everyone! Good to see you/hear from you. Firstly, happy first night of Hanukkah! let's all be thankful for family, friends, and everything good granted to us, because there are always people worse off than ourselves. That being said, don't forget (chloe/julie) to donate food for give-a-thon (I was going to forget this morning, so here's a reminder for y'all)

It's snowing a lot, which makes me very happy. As I walked to the train station on the way home from school with Greg and Sam, Greg got giddy and started drawing giant (whatever the plural form of penis is) in the snow. He was very proud of it. >_> It was funny, though. He drew one right outside a teacher's car.

I need a new theme/icons. I think I'll work on that at some point...

So many things to say! Firstly, HAPPY TURKEY DAY! EAT A WHOLE LOT OF WHATEVER, EVEN IF YOU FEEL LIKE THROWING UP. HYAH!

what else...

Oh! OMG! Went to teh mall t'day with Jeffy and Jennings to buy myself a winter coat/Jeff a new wardrobe, so that was fun. and GUESS WHO WORKS AT ROCK AMERICA...!?!?! yes, that's right Julie. You're saying it (chloe, I dunno if you know this person, but...) it was....SCARY JOSH! AAAAAHAHHHHHHHH! So he was all 'can I help you' before he realized he knew Jennings, and they started talking, and then he told me.....that I was really really short. >_< More about that on monday...

Uhm, lesse, there was more on my list of things to say.

Oh! Yes!

I found this quote and I LOVED IT! So this is my new take on life. This is how I wanna live my life! Yah!

( Read more... )

That's all, I think. Happy break to EVERYONE!