Saturday, July 31, 2010

ILU: Music!

I am a proud music-lover. And I'd like to think that my taste has some range: from Vitas to Vanessa Carlton. From Sheryfa Luna to S.H.E. Okay, maybe not as much range as my sister, but still a much wider range than people my age today. The thing is: music has been a big part of my family, my personality, my life, my upbringing - I can't ever remember a time when there wasn't music in my house. Although I am not a very good singer (that's actually putting it nicely), I don't let that inhibit me from bursting into song as I walk, or crooning into my showerhead as I wash.

I think music is one of the biggest happy-makers in the world. Forget exercise, it's music that sets you free! And also, depending on what mood you're in, you can always fit it to whatever song. As of right now, I have 5246 songs on my iTunes. It tells me that it would take 14.4 days in order to get through my whole iTunes, and is a whopping 33.03 GB. My aim is to have 6000 songs by the end of 2011. Hmm... I wonder how many GBs that is.

Okay, yesterday I blogged about this project I'm embarking on. For further reference, please see the previous post, I'm too lazy to repeat myself. Anway, today's letter is supposed to be addressed to "Your Crush". I'll be honest, I have no idea what to write for this because I have no crush right now. So, instead of writing to an actual crush, I'll address this to what my future crush might be like.

Dear Crush,

You do not exist yet, but I'm sure you will one day. And when that day comes, I hope you'll know exactly what you're supposed to be like.

I like someone who can make me laugh and I can make laugh. Basically, when I'm having an off day, you've got to crack a random joke that's so lame it's funny (very important skill to have). I need someone who's smart. My crush would never be some idiot who needs three seconds to discern his right hand from the left. You'd be able to carry out an intelligent conversation (or argument) about the merits of modern literature or nature vs. nurture.

My requirements are not too many. They're mainly just common sense. But if you're ever going to ome out of hiding, those are two basic rules you must follow. But don't be too daunted by my official tone, I'm really quite a nice person - most of the time.

Exist soon!

Calista


Well, that was strange. This project is not as fun as I'd hoped, but I'll try sticking to it. I'm afraid this is rather a short post, but as I still did nothing yesterday, I have extra to catch up today. The weekend's whizzed by again and it'll be Monday (Boo! Hiss!) before I know it (tomorrow...).

Whoever's reading (not many), good luck for whatever trials you may face. We are all strong enough to carry through. Much love!

- Calista

This Weekly Madness

It's been a while since I last posted. I love blogging, but it's really time-consuming and I just don't have that kind of time right now. I've been surviving on an average of 4-5 hours sleep everyday for the past week, and now that it's the weekend, my body is completely crashing. I slept from 4am-2pm today! Anyway, all that fails to dampen my spirits because my bandwidth updated on the 28th! That meant my internet was fast and refreshed and I was a very happy girl!

All the goals I made for myself just aren't working out. My room still looks like a hurricane blew its way through and my homework is nowhere near completed. Ugh! So this is really some more blograstinating, if you will. But, hey! Blograstinating is much more entertaining than picking up paper scraps from my carpet (which I will get around to sometime in the future).

I'm currently reading 'Gone With the Wind' for the umpteenth time. Some people might get turned off by its immense length (it is one crazy-ass long book and the printing is pretty small), but Margaret Mitchell was one hell of a writer. I watched the movie when I was really young, along with all my family members, on this ancient VCR and a huge cube TV. Technology has advanced somewhat since those days and I now own a beautiful anniversary edition of GWTW which I can watch on my asus laptop very conveniently, but I guess my point is that this story has been a big part of my life.

I actually read the sequels ('Scarlett' and 'Rhett Butler's People' - neither of which were written by Margaret Mitchell) before I read the actual book. I, too, was daunted by its size and tiny printing. But I braved my fears and bought a copy from Borders, settling down one night to make a start. What a mistake. I should never have started at night. The result was that I only went to bed at 8am the next morning. It was so soul-sucking good that I couldn't stop. I kept thinking to myself, just one more chapter and then I'll go to bed, but somehow one chapter morphed into half the book. Basically, this is a fantastic book which everyone should read at least once, if not more, in their lifetime.

I went on a mega shopping spree yesterday. I am usually quite frugal, so let me just state that I don't do this a lot. But money was burning a hole in my pocket (or my card - whatever) and I had to buy me some stuff. Besides, I had a list of things I needed. Anyway, I really need to stop spending now. Online shopping is an enemy I must conquer. I just can't help buying stuff and then feeling guilty, and then feeling happy when my purchase gets delivered to my doorstep (oh, by the way, if you haven't received parcels, you haven't lived. Gettig parcels is like getting Christmas presents). I'm gonna end up broke again!

My friend, a fellow blogger (although not on this particular site) had recently embarked on a special project. She has a list of different people she needs to write to each day. And she has also coerced me into joining her. So, here is today's letter subject: "Your Best Friend". Hmm... I actually don't have a best friend (except for money, but our relationship is rocky), just a lot of really good friends. Okay, well, I'll have a go anyway.

Dear Best Friend,

You've always been there. Not just in my mind, but physically there. I can't even remember a time when I didn't know you. I'd accepted it as easily as I'd accepted I had parents. You were a great bonus on a wonderful poackage (if that makes sense).

We haven't had a smooth friendship. There's been shouting, misunderstandings, tears. But, in the end, you can always sit me down and give me the best advice. And when the worst comes, you'll be there. This is all so cliched, and giving me some shivers (I'm not really a warm fuzzy individual), but I wanted to thank you for your constant presence by my side. I always take it for granted that you'll be there, but you'll leave someday and then distance is all I feel.

Here's to a lifetime of arguments, anecdotes, Irish Cream, technological issues, firework birthdays, nail polish, and cake. We've been through it all, complete, whole, and happy. Best of luck for the future. You have a bright one and I'll be waiting to bask in your success when you hit he big time.

A torrential amount of love,

Calista.


Well, now. Wasn't that so sickeningly sweet? It's the truth, but the truth can make me cringe sometimes. It's getting late, and as us tradition, stuff needs to get done. I'll be signing off now. The next letter subject is "Your Crush". Well, that should be... interesting. Until then!


- Calista.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Baby, It's Cold Outside

First of all, I really like that song (my title). Right now, I'm actually listening to it. You know, the version with Zooey Deschanel and Leon Redbone. Most people don't know that I really adore this genre of music. It's kind of jazzy, a little christmassy, lovely piano undertone. It's gorgeous. Stuff like 'New York, New York', 'I've Got Rhythm', I really like it. People my age nowadays don't seem to even know those kinds of songs. Such a shame.

Anyway, it's been a hectic day. Mondays usually are. I got up late because class starts late on Mondays, so that was a nice start. Then, I had to give a speech for English. That went off all right, but I was glad it was over all the same. My topic was 'The Importance of Being Rich'. Funny, no? Actually, the whole damn thing was peppered with lame jokes that nobody laughed at. Psh! Who cares? I've got Physics, Chemistry, and Maths homework due tomorrow, as well as my piano lesson. I haven't done any homework at all seeing as I just got home at 8.45pm after my English class. So, yeah. Totally hectic. I just want to rest my feet and soak up the heat from the heater.

The song completely matches New Zealand's temperature. It is frickin' cold outside. I can't breathe without a swirl of smoke-rings blooming around my face!

I wish I could figure out my personality. I'm not completely sure what kind of person I am. I do know that I'm a typical "nice" person. I'm impatient, selfish, speak without thinking, loud. Those are horrible characteristics. However, I am also very loyal (if lazy) and considerably sunny (on a good day, anyway). I just wish I could clearly label myself with black and white adjectivs. But I never really understand myself.

Gosh, now I'm just confusing myself. Better not dwell for too long on this particular topic.

Have you noticed that there are so many out there that seem to think they're invincible? They seen to believe that they'll be around forever. I know that I'll die one day, but that day seems to far away, I just don't want to face to it coming. Ugh! All this dreary talk of death and poverty is really getting me down. I was a little too exhausted today and had a bit of a hysterical laughing fit. Everything is so much funnier when you're:

a) drunk
b) high
c) absolutely exhausted

I was c), and it really showed. Everything made me giggle crazily, even I was getting pissed with myself.

Oh, on the bright side, that book I reserved "Dead Until Dark" - by Charlaine Harris finally got returned (FINALLY). It was due back on the 30 June, and it's already nearing the end of July, which is kind of creepy, but you know...

I don't even want to begin contemplating externals and school exams. I have such a niggling feeling that I'm going to tank on my school exams, it's growing stronger by the day as I realise how little I've learnt and how bad I am at organising my time. There's so much CRAP! I need to seriously relax. Maybe some yoga or meditation would help?

Anyway, caffeine and chocolate just seems to make me cranky or fat, so I'm trying to cut down on those. And no matter what chair I use, I just seem to have a neverending stream of back-related problems. Also, after I sprained my ankle in my hockey game, I went to an accupuncturist. She stuck needles (hate needles) in my ankle in certain nerve points and vibrated them very painfully. Anyway, now there's something wrong with my ankle (that's not the sprain) because if I bend them just so, it feels like a million more needles are stuck into my ankle, even though there aren't.

That was another woe-is-me speech. This is turning into a familiar setting: one I should not be making into a habit, actually. I know! I'll make a list of things I'm grateful for:

1. My family is safe and healthy
2. My house is nice albeit messy
3. I have many opportunities extended to me which may be unavailable to some other unfortunates
4. I've got good books to read (and no time to read them, but this is supposed to be a positive list)
5. I have a heater to counter the cold raging outside
6. I did my speech today which means IT'S OVER! YAY!
7. It's only 10pm, I have 2 hours until midnight to finish my homework
8. I have friends?
9. Running out of ideas
10. Nothing

Okay, that was spiritually nourishing. I'm going to try making a list for 10 things I'm grateful everyday now. It can help me have a more positive outlook on things, and I'll start shedding my negativity. Yeah! Sounds like a plan! Now I just have to stick with it. Wish me luck!

Right, enough with the blograstinating (procrastinating via blogging). It's homework time.



- Calista.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Sunday Afternoon


Wow. The weekend's already nearly over - that's crazy! I feel like it's hardly begun. Naturally, this very bad news for me. I basically wasted away my Friday night and Saturday. More POOS! Okay, okay. What do I still have to do?

-English Homework
-Maths Homework
-History Essay
-Piano
-Chinese Homework
-Chemistry Homework
-Physics Homework
-Other

Damn! I knew I shouldn't have watched Pride & Prejudice last night. Now look at me! That was basically my woe-is-me speech. Effective, no?

I understand the concept of homework: it's supposed to help you remember work you completed in class so you can retain the knowledge for an extended period of time (as opposed to just learning and forgetting, I suppose). But homework is just so annoying! I never seem to have enough time. And on top of all that, my room is resembling a pigsty (for the umpteenth time). I need to air it out. It stinks like anything.

Do others have the same problem I have? Time management, that is. I am just plain ol' awful at it. Inside, I know what should come first (priority is not an issue). And yet, I watch a movie instead of finishing that homework. Why? That's my other problem: procrastination.

Procrastination and I go waaaay back. I have gotten so good at it I should write a book like The Art of Procrastination or Procrastination 101. I just seem to love putting things off. For instance, let's take a metaphorical peek in my brain. This is my inner conversation with myself.

God, there's so much unfinished homework. But it's okay. I can still get it done. There's enough time. I'll allot an hour for English and 45 minuted for M- ooh! I haven't seen Mean Girls in a while! The best way to enjoy studying is probably working while I watch! Besides, isn't it, like, scientifically proven that women can multi-task better anyway?

Let me just say that science doesn't count me. I cannot, under any circumstances, multi-task. So I might start off thinking like that and being all pumped to complete my mountain of work, but end up abandoning my supposed 'one hour worth' of English in favor of laughing at Lilo on my computer. It doesn't work out. EVER.

In fact, just blogging right now is another form (yes, there are many forms for me) of procrastination. I have no desire to face the History essay I was supposed to finish on Friday, so I am blogging out my stress. It's calming me down, but it's not getting my work done: basically useless.

If I want to earn money for my travel dream, I need good qualifications (as stated in my previous post). And to gain good qualifications I need a good university. To get into a good university I need good grades now. And unless I step up my game (like, really step it up) there's no way I'm ever gonna get to Greece (one of my dream destinations). Or Switzerland, or Germany, or Japan, or South Korea, or France, or Italy, or China.

So, for the sake of future, I am going to stop blogging/procrastinating now and get on with it. I need to thoroughly reorganize myself.

- Calista.

Friday, July 23, 2010

First Post



You have n
o idea how many 'First Posts' I have out there. Seriously. I have too many blogs to count. And I'm always moving from one to another, swearing that this will be my new "official" blog. Let's see: there's my webs.com one, my wordpress, my livejournal... And now I have blogger too! I bet I'll get a blogspot in a few years as well.

Anyway, my livejournal is my current main blog, but I don't like it. Be it the template or the design or the whole damn setting - I just
don't like it. So I am considering moving my "official" blog (again) to blogspot (which I just now discovered I had already signed up to. Oops). I prettified the whole thing, refreshed my profile, uploaded a pic, yadda yadda yadda.

The worst thing about constantly moving blogs is knowing how everything works. Like, I'll get really pro at wordpress, but then moving to livejournal will be completely new and I'll have to work out how to design my template or post a picture and all that crap. So now I guess I'll have to figure out blogger. POOS!

It's Term 3 already and I must admit I'm a littl scared at the rate at how the time passes. It doesn't seem like the year's barely started, nevertheless halfway through! To think, I used to believe a year was such a long time. But really, it's not at all. I'll be going to uni in a couple of years, and I still have no clue what I want out of life. It's quite disconcerting.

I always think I have so much time - but I'm only just beginning to realize how foolish that was. We'll all die someday, and as the lily-livered coward I am, I am terrified of the prospects of (quoting Dead Poets Society) fertilizing the daffodils. I want to live, truly live, freely live, and face death with a smile and a clear conscience. I don't want to creep around for twenty years with some crappy desk job and a weedy perspective of the world.

One of my biggest dreams is to travel. I adore traveling. It's so exciting and new and wonderfully fresh! From the airplane ride to the new cuisine - traveling is heaven. Some people travel a lot, but they just don't know how to travel right. In my opinion, to truly taste the full flavour of travel, you must travel for a purpose. That being said, I think traveling to, say, Australia's Gold Coast to spend a week at an amusement theme park is a complete waste of time. Don't get me wrong, I love a good themepark (and I swear I WILL go to Disneyland - all of them - someday), but it's just such a waste to spend all that time and money to sit in roller coasters and eat melting ice-creams.

Every destination has its own culture, history, uniqueness that give them their charm. And that is what I think traveling is about. It's about learning and experiencing and involving yourself outside your box and comfort zone. You don't want to be like some frog crouched in a well, forever thinking you've got all the best things right here. Sure, your life might be one of contentment, but it's also very small and contained. Why settle for a circle of sky when you can have the whole thing?

When I go traveling, and mark my words I will, I am going to go to every museum I have time to go to. I want to learn the country's language, understand their culture, immerse myself in different surroundings and their way of approaching things. I want to eat foreign dishes you'd never even heard of. I want to try their national sport, entertainment. Because that is what traveling is. And isn't that the best? Learning and having fun at the same time?

Gosh, that was a long ramble. Traveling's just something I'm getting quite passionate about (that and nail polish). But to travel well (man, don't those expensive hotels just make you feel so spoiled?), you need money and free time. So to work for my dream of constant travel, I've got to be able to afford it in style. No backpacking for me, thank you.

So that leads onto money. I won't talk/type about it now because it's way too long (money's another thing I am passionate about). I need a good job to fund my dream. That means I need good qualifications. I love writing, but writing's not really an idealistic occupation for me. Unless I can hit it big like J.K. Rowling, I'll be doomed to smoking cigarettes in a tiny flat, looking out at the sidewalk through my grime-tinted windows and seeking inspiration from middle-aged women who want to tell me all about what they achieved in their youth. I want to write something with meaning, but inspiration will come when it comes. So writing's more like a job on the side for me. I want a job with a salary and can pay the bills.

This first post is the longest first post I've ever written. It feels so good just letting my feelings and thoughts flow through my fingertips. I think blogging is the most effective way of relieving stress and sharing excitement - forget about stress balls.

Anyway, there's - as usual - a ton of homework waiting to be completed. I am determined to get my life on track and breeze my way through my externals at the end of the year. That's really not about to happen unless I get really organised really fast. So wish me luck! I know I'll need plenty of it.

I wish anyone actually reading this post a merry future and all the good things in life.


- Calista.



P.S. It's lifeinaday today! That means globally, people are filming/documenting 24 hours of their life! Some clips will be chosen to star in Ridley Scott's documentary! I was going to participate, but my life has nothing moving or special about, and I'd never get my videos uploaded in time (stupid bandwidth).

P.P.S. Ignore any typos. I am prone to mistakes when I type fast out of excitement.