procrastinating...
I've finished all my schoolwork that has to be done today, which is good, but now part of me feels guilty because I'm not ahead, and I usually am. Anyhow, so instead of going over that big, thick book on my desk with 'College Trigonometry' printed on it, I'm procrastinating by iPod Touch-app-shopping. Only it's not really shopping, because I'm only downloading free apps, but still... I can think of better things to do with my time, only they're probably not quite as much fun as deciding which of the three million free Sudoku apps I want to download.
'simile'
I don't like the word 'simile'. Why? Because it's of Latin origin (from the word similus, meaning likeness), but is pronounced as if it were Greek. In Greek, a final 'e' preceded by a vowel and a consonant makes a long e sound, e.g. Aphrodite, Persephone, and in Latin, in the vowel-consonant-e combination, the e makes a short e sound.
Therefor, 'simile' should either follow English pronunciation rules (SI-mile), or should follow Latin pronunciation rules (SEE-mee-lay).
Can you tell that my mother has a degree in linguistics?
icky
I have a horrible, miserable cold and no brain to speak of whatsoever. Did I mention that I have a bunch of schoolwork to do? Yuck.
Christmas vacation is over, and I feel like it should have only just started. One week of vacation really isn't enough at all. I wish I had the same winter schedule as Chinese schools do, where you get six weeks off in the winter. But then again, I want a proper summer vacation as well, and I guess that I can't have it both ways, though not for want of trying.
food is lovely
A bunch of people are going to Ann's house for pie. Rational pie! Yummy! And there's a potluck Christmasy kind of dinner on Saturday, because we managed to get hold of a turkey. Mom and I are taking five-cup salad, which is our traditional family Christmas and Thanksgiving dish, because even though we don't really celebrate either of those holidays, we used to spend them with family when se lived in the States.
Anyhow, the salad has one part canned pineapple, one part canned tangerine segments, one part coconut flakes, one part mini marshmallows, and one part sour cream. Anyhow, you mix all the stuff together in a big bowl and put it in the fridge overnight. Mmmm....
happy Christmas!
Right. So on Christmas Eve, I watched Evita, made accounts for a couple of fictional characters, and drank eggnog (minus the rum, of course). This morning, so far I've sat around in my pajamas, successfully not done schoolwork, and eaten an orange roll. There's no holiday like Christmas.
oops!
Apparently I'm supposed to write in first person. I just slipped up and wrote approximately 500 words in first person instead of third, and it felt so right. I can't imagine what I was doing before.
cold
Yesterday afternoon, I went shopping. Usually, I don't do shopping, but I went for the doughnuts. See, there's one place in China at which you can get good doughnuts, and I wasn't going to let a little shopping get in the way of doughnuts. Cake doughnuts with cinnamon sugar are the best things ever.
Yesterday was bitterly cold, down to 12 degrees Fahrenheit, with wind from the northeast at 22 mph. Brrrr!
It snowed a bit this morning, but didn't stick at all, which is sad.
fuzzy wuzzy
I went shopping with Valeh this afternoon. I bought me some warm fuzzy socks. And some hair-gel and other things I've been wanting for a while. Obviously the people in Ningbo aren't big on warm or fuzzy.
I like warm and fuzzy. A lot.
all dressed up and pretty...
Here I am, all dressed up for last night's Christmas party.
Front:
Back:
And the obligatory Mommy picture:
At the party, there was a funny green drink which my mother tried and I didn't. Turns out it was melon wine. I did, however, try a bit of the baked fish (I dislike anything that used to live under the sea with great passion), and it didn't taste bad, but the texture was gross.
I wish they had had pie. :(
I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not, but my mother and I are going to Dalian this afternoon and staying for ten days. It's supposed to snow on Monday. Yay snow!
on government
It seems to me that many people are under the impression that America is a democracy, and I don't understand why. America is not, and never has been a democracy. It is a republic, meaning that instead of people making the decisions, they choose people to do it for them.
Do I believe in democracy? No, not really.
Let me explain myself. I don't believe that the average person should decide how to run a country. I don't believe that the average person has enough time to devote to making informed decisions on every single issue. And I believe that people are generally kind and compassionate, but I don't trust them to make objective decisions when it comes to issues that affect themselves, even if they are well-informed. I think everyone should vote for someone smarter and more compassionate than them, whom they can trust to have the best interests of society at heart.
The end of opinionated post. I promise to get back to water buffalo and illegal satellite dishes soon.
soup
It's ridiculously cold outside (for somewhere the latitude of Southern Florida, that is), and the wind's been howling, so it's a very nice day for The Soup, which has potatoes, carrots, chicken, apples, rice, onion, salt and pepper in it. I make a huge pot and we eat it for a week. This is my comfort soup, and I don't think that I could live without it.
The only thing I hate is when at 4:30 PM, my mother says, "Why don't you make some soup for dinner?" and tells me that she's sure I can do something to make it stew faster. I'm hoping that by six, the potatoes won't be hard anymore.
my fourth grade teacher
Right. Student essay time! My Fourth Grade Teacher, by Layli.
My Chinese teacher in fourth grade was the head of the Communist party for the region I lived in. And she didn't like me. It made things interesting. I especially loved it when we had to study our yearly mandatory unit in Chinese on patriotism. I kept my mouth shut. It was great fun.
The end.
unless my brain runs away again...
Hey. The blog-mistress is officially back.
I've reorganized the links, cleaned up the tags a bit and can think of nothing else to delay my return to (kinda) regular blogging.
Meanwhile, here's a pick of random photos from my hard-drive. They really are random.
Books. Lots of them. I must be in heaven:
Old ad:
Me, in the middle of a sentence, after brushing my hair:
Some pretty place:
Me, talking again:
I must either talk a lot or else only get photographed when I'm talking. What is with that?
prompting me to say...
Yes, another one of those writing prompt posts. Because nothing that I've been doing lately is blog-worthy.
#1
List ten things you want to accomplish before it's too late.
- Own a puppy-sized elephant
- Eliminate small-talk from the world
- Cure klutziness
- Explore an alternate universe
- Figure out why I don't like licorice
- Find out why the answer to everything is 42 and not 41 or 43
- Own all the books I want
- Read all the books I want
- Get a cat
- Meet Dumbledore :)
#2
What one gift would you like for yourself?
Um... wisdom. Definitely.
#3
Things that make me fearful...
- People knowing what I'm thinking about/feeling
- Disappointing someone
- Having someone be angry with me
- Not knowing whether I can trust someone or not
- Being bad at something
#4
My ten favorite movies.
I'm actually not a huge fan of most movies. There's too much action, and not enough character development, and worldbuilding for my taste. Plus, if the movie's based on a book, the book is almost always better than the movie.
#5
People that irritate me...
...generally either have no idea that they irritate me or think I'm jealous of them.
#6
Describe a typical day in elementary school:
6:00- wake up, sit in bed and do homework due before lunch that I was too lazy to do the night before.
6:45- get dressed, eat breakfast, do dishes.
7:15- walk out the door, try to sneak a novel or four to read in class. May or may not get caught. Walk for five minutes, catch bus.
7:28- Get off the bus. Run. I'm going to be late! Aaaaah!
7:30- Do morning exercises (choreographed aerobic thingies that everyone hates) if it's spring r fall, jog (highly choreographed as well) if it's winter.
8:00- Start classes. Usually as soon as the teacher was safely in front of the blackboard, I would either start reading or go into a semi-comatose state, depending on whether or not I was able to sneak a book past my vigilant mother.
11:30- Look at sauerkraut (if winter) or other disgusting food (if summer) on my plate and gag. Try to hide it in my rice and sneak towards the scrap pail outside my classroom door. Usually get caught by the student monitor who's supposed to make sure we don't waste food. Try to sweet-talk said student monitor into letting me dump icky food, on success, dump food, and on failing, go back to my seat and choke some food down.
11:45- Sit at my desk and read or write. After everyone else finishes eating, get shooed out of the classroom either by the teacher or the students whose job it is to clean the classroom that week. Grumble, gripe, plead, but go outside eventually (taking my book/notebook of course) unless it's really miserable outside, in which case mention that I might have a cold.
12:30- Finish my book/realize that my hand is cramped. Go search for some human being that might play with me so that I won't look like a complete loser. Push to play a game that I'm good at/enjoy. Beat them all at it. Feel smug.
1:00- Sit in class and either talk to the people in front/next to/behind/opposite me or doodle.
2:30- Do another round of stupid choreographed exercise thingamajigs.
4:20- Start gathering up my things in preparation for getting out of school.
4:30- Shoot out of the door as soon as class is dismissed. Walk down the street, buy myself a snack, take my time so that everyone else gets on the bus in front of me.
4:45- Get home, eat another snack, do homework.
6:00- Eat dinner.
6:15- Read.
9:30- Go to bed.
#7
Do you work too much?
No. I don't work enough.
#8
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think back to being 18?
Um, I really don't know if I can think back to the future. I'll get back to y'all on that one after I turn 19.
#9
My favorite time of day...
I like dawn and evenings, even though midnight is pretty cool too.
#10
What is truth?
Whatever I command.
?
Right. Here's something for everyone to do while I try to figure out why on earth I have a blog. Have fun!
I think my computer ate my brain.
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