El Sabado Lluvioso

I had an extremely slow day at work. Saturdays are often slow, so it wasn't a surprise. The day dragged on slowly, and it seemed eternal, this workday. Finally, it ended and Shane and I decided to finish out the day with a little shopping. Shopping has become our favorite pastime.

Why is it that these days I walk into a bookstore and walk out with a book in hand? Who would have known that books are the ultimate temptations I would face? I'll admit it: I am having a slight surplus in funds. I am now free from debt, and no longer obligated with the burden of monthly car payments. My auto insurance has also gone down over $100/month, and now I'm finally getting some room to breathe, in regards to my finances. So it has become even harder to walk out of BN or Borders without buying.

Shane bought a leather jacket from Banana Republic; I bought Fast Food Nation from BN. Will I get around to reading this in 2004? Probably not. This will have to stand in line behind Anna Karenina which is behind The Other Boleyn Girl, which then, is behind The Moor's Last Sigh. I've cheated a little and started on The Other Boleyn Girl. It's not nearly as good as I had expected it to be, but it's a quick page-turner. Oof~ Let's not forget The Da Vinci Code. I am about third of the way through, and it is getting more and more intriguing. I was never one for mystery novels, but it has so much to do with art and symbols. I don't know. It's just fascinating.

Well, I got home about half past seven, had a light dinner, got bored and tired, and crawled under the blankets. It has suddenly turned chilly -- just a couple of days ago the days were in the high 80's and 90's. I was awakened by my mother who just came back from a concert -- a bunch of Korean pop singers (Shinhwa, Rain, Hyolee, Jongkook Kim, etc.) came to the Hollywood Bowl to perform, and my aunt had a free left-over ticket. My mom didn't quite know what she was going to see/hear, but she just went. The show got caught in the rain, and my mom figured that it would take eons to leave after the show, so they left as the show winded down toward the end, but before the final acts.

My mother's arrival awakened me and that is when I found the most pleasant surprise. I had read in the weather report that it was to rain tomorrow -- I am very sensitive to the weather and harbor a keen interest in it, especially to rain, as it is my favorite weather. I just love the rain. Of course, I don't particularly enjoy walking or driving in the rain, but the sound of rain falling is so beautiful and calming.

I can hear the rain now... it is lovely. Quite lovely. It sounds like I'm going to have a pleasant lullaby to send me off the dreamland. Mmmm~

Happy

Can I blog yet another entry about being happy? Yes, I absolutely can. Even though I am currently recoving from the worst tummy ache ever (yes, ever), life is good. So good, in fact, it is beautiful.

I love my blog. Can I say that without sounding pompous? I absolutely adore my blog. It's so..... me! I love the new look that I created -- I was okay with the orangy one, but somehow it didn't quite make sense and the image was kinda yucky looking, especially on my work monitor. The pink is working real well with the black (two of my favorite colors), and the image, one of the Gamine Girls, is very... bold. Kind of mod. Well, it's a bit frilly to be mod-ish, I guess. But I like it. And understated pink butterflies. Butterflies are pretty awesome creatures, but in design, if they're too overstated, it can get redundant and cliche-d. I think I did a good job with incorporating butterflies within the pink -- it blends in and it's not "in-yo-face" -- just the way I had intended, of course.

HTML is coming along very well, and I can get away with using mostly CSS rather than tacky HTML codes. I think I am ready to move onto bigger and better things as far as my blog goes -- perhaps tackle photoshop... learn php or something. Am I getting too conceited? Lemme know when my head gets too big...

Only in ...

Rock the Vote Campaign

Christopher over at Californian Sojourn had blogged about this a few days ago, regarding blatant statements made by celebrities in attempts to get the word out to vote. He is critical of the way that these people campaign to increase voters (critical of the method, not the idea, of course), because it doesn't address issues directly and frankly, and rather, by using shock value of loud statements, it gets young people voting, but more often than not, blindly. I suppose this is one of the ways that these "Vote or Die" people are connecting to prospective voters. E-mailing, with the title about getting drafted! Now, I would have thought that it was very clever... I mean, you can only do so much to motivate the people. After motivating them to vote, it is up to them to learn the issues at stake and get with the program -- one cannot spoonfeed people about how and who to vote and why.

I, of course, am not eligible to vote. So I'll just stop rambling now...

Ecstacy

... and I'm not talking about the drug. How can I possibly describe my elation? No words can do that. No sentences. I can only express myself with the sudden outbursts of squeals. You know, I'll just be sitting around, and I just start jump up and down or stomp my feet really fast (if you're happy and you know it stomp your feet...) and squeal in a frequency that all the dogs in the neighborhood can hear! My cat is seriously annoyed by my irratic behavior. She eyes me carefully in the corner -- I don't blame her. She must feel that she's living with a psychopath and think that she better watch her back or I might just go after her and eat her or something. It might seriously have something to do with the fact that after I got my letter yesterday, I grabbed my kitty and told her, "Nabee, I'm so happy I could eat you up!" I am weird.

I am weird, but I am happy. I couldn't sleep last night, and for once, it was for a good cause. Normally I lie awake with worries and fears -- they used to strangle me. But last night, I was smiling in my sleep, and I was so happy, in my bed, under my blankets, and suddenly, the world felt good. It felt like a good place. My life felt good. There is a sense of just in the world.

I have asked several instructors for recommendation letters, which I don't even need anymore (but I'll get'em and hold onto'em for future application needs). I was bracing myself for another round of applications -- you know what that feels like? Ugh! It's the worst. It's like you've been bracing yourself, as a psychopath shot a round of bullets at you. You relax a little as he reloads his gun, and then, you breath in and hold your breath and hug yourself tight because you have to face another round of gun fires, which isn't too unlike college applications. They're not as bad as getting your teeth pulled by the dentist, but about as bad as a random madman shooting at you (yes, I despise the dentist and I will cry when he drills my teeth and bawl like a baby afterwards!).

In less than three months, I will start being a Junior in college. Imagine! After all these years of piling on units after units and still being considered a Sophomore in college. I'm 24 years old for goodness' sakes! Oooooh! I hate that I can't be typing this at home (due to sucky DSL situation). Blogging at the school library isn't good, especially times like now. First of all, it is freezing temperature here, despite the fact that it is close to 90 degrees outside. Secondly, I can't jump up and down or squeal or scream or laugh out loud -- people are trying to sleep (I think 10% of all the people in this building are sleeping).

Because I am now debt free, and I have paid off my car loan, I have been able to save more money than before -- I could probably save up close to half a year's tuition at CSULA by January. Then the question comes -- what will I do for the next year and half (or so)? I was expecting to quit my job (be gone, clients from hell!) but when push comes to shove, I may have to reconsider that plan. If I can possibly squeeze work into my school schedule, and if my boss is still willing to keep me around to do paperwork, I may still have to work, although considerably less. But school will always come first. This is the opportunity I've been waiting for several years -- earning a few bucks cannot be a higher priority, ever! Oh, I'm rambling, aren't I? I think I have a valid excuse to ramble on and on though. This is probably the happiest I've ever been since... since... who knows when!

My Triumphant Emerge

October 14, 2004 12.57 AM ¡°Dear Haemi, It is my pleasure to inform you that we have received your application and that you have been granted provisional admission to Cal State L.A. for the Winter Quarter 2005!¡± I am normally a very verbal person. I talk a lot. I write a lot. I¡¯m not stingy when it comes to words. So it is very hard for me, right now, to work with this moment. I need to use some sorts of words to describe what exactly is happening and report how I am feeling, but no words. Absolutely no words. Allow me to regain my composure. The above, quoted lines, are the actual line from a letter I received this evening. It outlines the requirements of this ¡°provisional¡± admission, and to comply isn¡¯t difficult at all ? piece of cake! And it has sent me the instructions on how to register for my Winter classes. I read it over and over and over and over. They couldn¡¯t be sending me instructions on how to register for classes if they weren¡¯t serious? I kept reading it over and over, to find some detail that would be the usual ¡°let down¡± such as, ¡°April Fools!¡± or ¡°you must be a U.S. resident to apply¡± or ¡°we thought your GPA sucked.¡± There was no buts. It wasn¡¯t one of those, ¡°close but no cigars¡± moment. It was a full on, smoke your cigars until your lungs turn black sort of a thing! (So to speak) My attempts to get into a nursing program starts, coincidentally, with the birth of this blog. This blog was started about the same time I had started the application process for nursing programs, after I had finished the prerequisites. So you know, if you¡¯ve been reading all this time, or even just a month or two, that I have been living with frustration and turmoil every step of the way, with every rejection. Although I am not a professional writer, I understand when some of the writer bloggers (Tinka, Zarina) write about the rejections of their manuscripts. Because I, too, was rejected. Multiple times. And now my day has come. I have been accepted. I am approved. I am wanted. Some of you who are new to my blog may think, ¡°what¡¯s the big deal about CSULA? It¡¯s not Harvard, and most certainly nothing close to UCLA ? the standard for accepting students are minimal.¡± Lemme ¡®splain. It took me TWO FRIGGIN¡¯ YEARS to get into one single nursing program in the LA County area. All the Cal State Universities I had applied to, other than CSULA, has sent back my apps because their nursing program is impacted and currently not accepting international students. Because I am a foreign national, an international student, admissions offices have slammed the door in my face without even glancing at my application. So after TWO FRIGGIN¡¯ YEARS, I am finally here. It means a lot to be here. Nursing programs are generally two years, two and half at most. Since CSULA is a 4-year institution, it means I will not only finish the nursing program and be eligible for a RN license (upon passing the NCLEX-RN, of course), I will be a college graduate. With a Bachelor of Science degree in hand. Getting in, it seems, is the hardest part. I have no doubt that I still have many hours of studying and toiling to do, but I have won HALF THE BATTLE. As soon as those two years are up, I will have graduated, with jobs lined up, and I will most certainly find a sponsor, and I will start my process to becoming a U.S. Resident. A Permanent Resident. Not Temporary Alien. Perhaps I can even vote in the 2012 election. At least, the 2016 definitely! How grand! Tonight the internet is not working again, so I am typing this into a word processor. I will have to publish it tomorrow or whenever this DSL crap decides to work again -- but no worries. Nothing can ruin this moment for me. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. Not a single damned thing.

Where's My Blog?

I am going to pull out all my hair and scream like the horsemen of the apocalypse just arrived at my front door!

As you may know, the DSL service at home hasn't been very nice to me, and I've been trying to keep my frustration level to a minimum. I tried yoga, among other methods, to unwind and keep my anger at bay. Most of my life revolves around the WWW, and I am so lost without it.

An essay was due for last night's English class, and I had written a beautiful one, and I didn't even have to cut out chunks of it because I had written a perfect 769 words (approximately 750 words requested by instructor). It was fluid, very well connected, and I even surprised myself that after a long dull summer, I was still able to retain some skills I had honed over last semester. I fine tuned the paper, editing to make sure it would be my finest work (come on~ I was writing about Shakespeare -- It had better be my best writing, or he'll turn over in his grave!).

A few minutes before I planned to leave for class, I tried to print it out. Key word being "tried." Our last printer croaked, and my brother recently borrowed a printer from a friend, and he hadn't installed the thing on my computer, and I wasn't about to install the temporary printer when I was short on time. Our computers are networked, but for some reason, it didn't work. This had already happened two nights before with another paper I had to write, so it wasn't a surprise. I'll just do what I did that time, I told myself. I copied and pasted the essay into my e-mail, and sent it to me.

Or I tried. As luck would have it, the ISP decided to go on strike at that moment, and stopped running altogether. "AAARGH," I said. But I'm a patient woman. I'm a resilient woman. I am a resourceful woman. "Ommmmm~" I chanted in my mind, trying to keep the anger from bursting through my arteries. Blood pressure was slowly on the rise.

"I know!" A lightbulb went off in my head. How could I be so dumb? I'll just save it on disk, and hop over to my brother's computer and print it from there! Eureka! By golly, my genius common sense has saved the day!

The person who said not to count your chickens before the eggs were hatched, was right. When I popped a floppy disk in, I felt a bit weird. It didn't make that low noise that it usually did. And lo and behold, for some odd reason, my disk drive decided to go kaputz. No matter what disk I put in, my computer kept telling me to put in a disk. I wanted to kick the damned thing. Go to the happy place.... Ommmm...

By this point, there was no happy place, and no amount of Ommm-ing could help me. I was already late for class. I finally came up with the solution to just burn the file on a CD and take it to my brother's computer and print it. Finally, that worked. But I was sweating like a pig under the pressure, and I was stressed.

Today, I get into work. A little before noon, the internet starts to act up. It's not completely dead, but it's slower than dial-up. I can't do crap. A lot of my work is done with the computer, and most of that, on the web. E-mails, webpages, informations, downloads, customer service. Then it gets worse and worse. Finally, the boss decides to call SBC DSL service (which is what I also have at home). After nearly an hour of trouble-shooting, the rep transfer me to a "tier-1" rep. I suppose the tier 1 rep has more knowledge and power. Only the tier-1 rep doesn't speak English very well. After half an hour of more trouble shooting, and talking extremely slowly so that she can understand me, she finally tells me that our service is down because of an outtage. They will fix it by 9PM. Now WHY THEY COULDN'T TELL ME THAT during the first 5 minutes of the phone call, I do not know. Why they had me changing my cookie settings when services were down? I was on the verge of breaking into tears.

Now I've written this long blog entry and it probably won't even publish. Who knows. Maybe it'll get lost in cyberspace again. DRAT.

So What Year is It?

I was reading the LA Times today. The brief Education page had an interesting title and image, and drew my attention. I got to reading the third paragraph, shown above, and got to... "William Trombetta, 54, a supervisory contract specialist for the U.S. Air Force at Los Angeles Air Force base, went back to school WHAT YEAR to be better equipped for a possible promotion." What does "WHAT YEAR" mean? If anyone has a clue, let me know.

DSL Down, People!

I am having DSL problems at home. I cannot check e-mails, blog, or read blogs, read the news, whatever. I am disconnected from the world I know best and that makes me feel utterly lonely.

I am currently at the school library. Normally the computers here have been programmed to disallow people from acessing e-mails, but obviously they haven't gotten around to blocking gmail yet. Blogger has also been posing some problems -- it takes a zillion years to log on, and another zillion years to open up a new box for entries, then another two zillion years to publish. I've been using my e-mail to e-mail the blog entry to my blog -- blogger provides something -- it looks like an e-mail address -- but when you write to the address, it goes directly on your blog. So that's what I'm doing.

Now I have to get my butt to stat class, which isn't particularly the highlight of my day. Hope my DSL is back up at home -- service has been sporadic, and it's making me depressed, to say the least.

Interesting Keywords

Here is another set of interesting keywords that brings people to my blog:

It seems that an avid student of the epic Beowulf has searched numerous times for Beowulf info, only to arrive at my page.

beowulf and grendal photos
picture of grendal's mom
BEOWULF: COMPARE/CONTRAST THE BOOK AND THE MOVIE

And then there are the usual kinky keywords:

perverted disney glitches
lottery post blogs viagra lottery

And as usual, the cocktail soju seekers:

how to make yogurt soju
And more of that, such as yogurt soju, how to mix yogurt soju, cocktail soju, and so on.

One of the more interesting ones that was neither dirty or alcohol-related, was: function of violin chin rest and strings. I was listed #39 on the query. Now this, I can really help y'all out, as a veteran, albeit amateur violinist. The strings, obviously are there to make the sounds. The chin rest is an integral part of violin. Unlike the cello or the flute, a violin must be held clamped on between the shoulder and the chin. One may think that the left hand holds up the violin, that is very untrue. A violinist cannot adequately have control over the violin, if the left hand is busy holding up the damned thing (s'cuse me), as the fingers on the left hand are constantly on the move, even when playing just one note, because of the vibrato that is done with the fingers.

Always glad to tailor my service to the needs of my readers! (Even if they only come by once, never ever to return.) But alas, you will find no photos of Beowulf, nor of the godforsaken Grendal, nor the mother of Grendal. They're just real camera shy.

Maize Maze Craze

These are images made in various fields, mainly cornfields. More and more farmers are turning their farms into art!

Superman Dead

The original Superman, Christopher Reeves is dead. He has fought a brave battle with his spinal cord injury, for a decade, and died from an infection of a bedsore.

The Business of Sunday

I went to bed rather early this morning, about 2AM. Needless to say that I got a pretty late start on the day, since I got up about 9 AM-ish. I managed to drag myself out of bed and made my way to the apartment complex's gate where the LA Times gets dropped off. There are times when I would have felt the necessity to actually wash the eye-crusties out and tame my beastly hair, as well as adorn the lower half of my body with something other than a pair of boxer shorts, when leaving the sanctity provided by my apartment. However, seeing as how my paper is frequently stolen or left decimated by the hands of fowl neighbors, I really can't afford to waste another minute to self-groom before dashing out and retrieving it.

My neighbors sure are early risers. Thankfully, the neighbor(s) who are prone to stealing my paper didn't get a chance to swipe it yet; but a family was congregating in the open middle area of my building, it seems, in preparation to leave for church. They were gussied up in ties and slacks, and looked at me in horror, as I slithered downstairs, in the clothes I had slept in, in the hair I had slept in. I wore a T that used to be a really crisp burgundy color -- key words being "used to be" -- and it had numerous holes in it due to several wrestling sessions with Nabee. The boxer shorts are the ones my mom had purchased for my brother, but they were a size too small and I ended up wearing them. It has that nice opening, slightly below where the belly button would be, and the hole teases, by giving slight glimpse of what is underneath the cloth, as I walk. Sometimes they just open agape, but that's another story. I am the female equivalent of the ultimate male slob.

I had on my glasses, but much like a just-born puppy, couldn't get my eyes open. Thankfully, I don't need much of my vision when making my way downstairs, as I am quite familiar with the area, and I am fully capable of maneuvering my way. I was squinting at the brightness of the day which had nearly reached noon. My jaw dropped, exposing my oral cavity to the world, as I broke into a stretched out yawn. And that's when they saw me. Those eyes, staring at me in unison, without blinking, without turning away. What can I do? I just grumbled, "good morning" and pretended everything to be normal, grabbed my paper, and casually walked back to my apartment, and then slapped myself in the forehead for making such a fool of myself.

So that was my morning.

After lunch, my family sat down and had my brother's birthday cake which I bought yesterday. It was a white cake with white cream and decorated with fruits -- strawberry, mandarines, kiwis, pineappes. Then I finally had my first cup of coffee and watched Korean videos with my mom. Then my coworker Shane called and we went to the mall. It was packed with Type A shoppers, who were viciously scavengering for the bargains of the Columbus Day Weekend sales.

Macy's cosmetic department was having a promotion -- gift with purchase. What woman in her right mind can resist a GWP? A GWP! The advertising executives for Lancome and Estee Lauder and the like hit a gold mine with that very concept. Because a woman, will purchase something, for the GWP. As I always do. I have more make ups from GWPs than I have from the ones I actually purchased. Today was no exception. I bought a luxurious Lancome cleanser, one I had been eyeing for nearly a year.

After strolling around the shopping center, we called it a day and split. I came home, called up Tony Romas ($5 coupon from the Sunday paper -- now you see why I absolutely MUST get that paper in the morning!) and ordered two dinners, one for me, one for my mom, and we proceeded to have a hearty meal, probably more than enough for two bigfoots, and promised each other that we will re-start the weight-loss regimen tomorrow.

Now it is 10PM. It is only now that it struck me -- I must write the English paper on the two Shakespearean comedies, Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing, and read at least half of Richard III, and start on the research paper for the political science class, learn the statistically related functions on a graphing calculator, read a chapter of the philosophy text and do the homework, and those are just school related items! Yikes. Why is it that I procrastinate so much work to be done on Sunday night?

It would be fabulous, if, for once, I can spend Sunday playing catch-up and sleep early, so that I can start Monday feeling just a bit less stressed. At this rate, I will feel like the week will plow through me like a full-speed train on its tracks! Now, I will sleep late tonight because of all the school work I have to do, and will have to get up Monday morning earlier so I can do more work, and then go to class, then work, and then the night class, and when I come home at 10PM after class, instead of relaxing and having a light dinner, I will have to finish up essays and whatnot for Tuesday, and so on and so forth! I am just hoping that because tomorrow's Columbus Day, people will think we are closed and the workday will be relatively quiet... relatively quiet, because quiet for my line of work is something close to the apocalypse for somebody else.

Well, instead of blogging, I should have gotten back to work. But again, procrastination is in my blood. Eeeeek~ Well, better hit the books now.

Tada~!

Welcome to version 10 of my Haemisphere. This will probably be the last look for 2004, as I probably won't have more time to devote to another look. I know I should be reading textbooks or start on Richard III, but giving your blog a facelift is just too good of a reason to procrastinate, yanno?