My Holidays have gone well so far with my friends and family! But NYE is still coming, and after that I'm on the road again. I received many things, and they all contently fit in a considerably small box. They will travel nicely. My best friend has branded me a minimalist recently, which is pretty close to what I am. I need money for my upcoming trip to Toronto and have all this stuff laying around that I have no attachment to and it feels like clutter. In a way that kind of stuff is overwhelming. Every thing fits into the box, except my new 2NE1 poster. :)

I also received an album by The Cranberries, "To the Faithful Departed." I heard it didn't get the best ratings, but I enjoyed it. I plan to write a review on it after my little road trip. Speaking of reviews, I also bought myself a couple of cds from the local f.y.e. that is closing. :( I felt I could only buy stuff for my self after Christmas. One, because someone might already be planning to get it for me, and two, it just doesn't seem right to me. So, I plan to write reviews for Tegan & Sara, Within Temptation, and The Sex Pistols!

It's snowing here right now, so travels may be delayed, but it depends. - and I just shoveled the decks 0_0

Happy Gregorian Calender New Year! :)

Awaiting 2011 Releases

As 2010 comes to an end, the time feels longer as artist announce release dates into the next year. I have to keep telling myself, "It will come sooner than you think." There are many singles and full length releases coming out within the next year that have interested me, but here are just a few I have been thinking about:

2NE1

Although these four girls haven't been around for a year and a half since their debut in May 2009, 2NE1's popularity has risen quickly not only in South Korea, but also worldwide. Dara (far left) and Bom (second on the right) have even had some solo debuts. Some say 2NE1 has a certain unique style, both in music and fashion. Both CL (second on the left) and Minzy (far right) carry out strong rap verses, while Bom and Dara sing out melodies. Personally, CL always surprises me with what she wears. It's not like Lady-Gaga, but it's out there, and totally awesome. It's not just CL either, everyone has fun style, and their performance is full of energy.
Recently the girls have worked with will.i.am, and are planning an full length, English album debut. The release has been moved into 2011 to make sure every song has enough potential to be a hit. BoA, another Korean artist, attempted this move last year, and shockingly, she didn't become as popular as hoped, even with her excellent English. Hopefully, 2NE1 can overcome the "United States' cultural barrier." (I have always been amused at the United States, for being one of the only countries that doesn't listen to music in foreign tongue.)
With 2NE1's unique style and energy, there is still much to expect in their upcoming U.S. release. Maybe this will produce a U.S. tour? :)

Dir en Grey

As one of my favorite bands ever, of course I would anticipate this release. At one time the Japanese band would release a single every three months or so, but in the past few years Dir en Grey has gone hardcore on touring. About a year ago, the band released a single titled, "Hageshisa to Kono Mune no Naka de Karamitsuita Shakunetsu no Yami." Yes, long title. I know. This song ended up serving as the final track in the SAW 3D sound track. I never found the SAW movies interesting, but I was excited for their achievement. Fans have been saying they are hoping the upcoming release, "Lotus," will be a 'ballad.' The terminology is slightly questionable, since the term is associated with boy bands, but it maybe the lyrics, telling a story that makes the term fit. I'm just as curious as the rest of the fans. 

The Ting Tings

The British Duo, has only had one full album release, titled "We Started Nothing." For a while it was thought it would only take a year at the most to make a new album. Two years later, in August of 2010, the single "Hands" was released, along with an announcement with an upcoming album in 2011. When their first album was released in 2008, it wasn't till a year later when I heard their music on a pop radio station in the U.S. The Ting Tings have upbeat songs that are creative, and it could even be called a "simple" style. After hearing "Hands," I know their upcoming album will have a new musical twist from the last; evolving is good. 

Releases from The Ting Tings, 2NE1, and Dir en Grey are only some of the upcoming, exciting music of 2011. Three very different bands, huh?

Turkish Music in Season

Listening to: Sinanay- Pin Up

Recently I have come across Turkish music. In the past I have had my Japanese and Korean, along with some Russian, French, and German music. I do have to say the popular music in Turkey is unique, and has a cultural twist to it. The artists that have caught my attention so far are Pin Up and Ayben. Pin Up is a four girl alternative rock band, often seen in fantastic colors of hair dye. Ayben is more about pop, hip-hop, and rap. Two very different artists indeed, but I ended up liking both of them. By looking at the statistics of the Youtube videos, Turkish music has not spread nearly as much as Japanese or Korean music has around the globe. I always feel like I am in a good area when the majority of viewers are concentrated in an area or specific country.

(Ayben)

I finally finished my Chinese presentation today. It shouldn't have taken me long, but it took longer than expected. Now my big project is to read my books for school, but that due date is a few weeks into the future, so no pressure. Though, I shouldn't procrastinate again! Lets see... I also cleaned the kitchen today, while my mom was at work! That was relaxing, believe it or not.

This year we have two Christmas Trees; one is fake, the other is real. We also have more presents than usual, and we did more shopping this year. This is all thanks to my Mom's boyfriend and his daughter that moved in this year. We get along. It's nice when I am bored.

Back to the Land of Birch Soil

Now that I have completed my 600 mile car ride, I am standing in a relatively quite place. Yes, I am indeed standing. An hour ago I started feeling overwhelmed, and decided it was because of my lack of working out. Missing school for three days is okay academically during the holidays, but I still have a need to get my energy out. So I am typing, standing-style, periodically jumping around in a circle. Later I will actually do something that raises my heart rate. I may also feel overwhelmed because of the quietness of the woods. Last night I got out of the car, refusing to follow the line walking in the door, and stood still for a moment. After the door had closed shut, I extended my head toward the sky, seeing the large moon, perched in a sea of stars. I have to admit, the stars sky is a lot clearer farther north from the big cities. Glancing across the lawn, my innocent childhood came back to me simply, as the fresh snow sparkled delicately. I remembered my self running down the driveway in blissful moments like this, watching the snow's sparkles change in different perspectives. The snow is even different from the city. The snow started to crunch under me, as my boots started to turn toward my dog waiting patiently beside me; the only sound accompanying the cold, soft wind. No matter what experiences happened, there is always something special about the place of childhood. For me its settling and peaceful.

School has gone good recently, minus the out of control PE class, though even there I seem to find the nice things. Grading is harder in Gym recently, and I finally got my grade up to an A. I am sure I will rant about my gym class some time, but not now. And by the way, it's not the teacher, it's the students that bother me. But of course, just after I receive the one grade I needed to have all A's, I get a B+ in a Chemistry test, and my grade in science goes down to a B. But the next unit is not that hard. Otherwise I am just trying to keep up with whats going on in my classes. In other words, my Chinese presentation. The website we are using at school, is not working out as well at home. I think I may use Windows Movie Maker instead.

As always I am using procrastination this holiday season, and I don't have everything yet. But hopefully I will be able to put something together. I am pretty excited about it actually, and it doesn't involve money! I am mostly thinking of my mom's present.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Recently... or a long time ago

Listening to: Follow Me/ Try to Copy Me- 2NE1, and my brother playing Call of Duty

I sit here eating my candy cane, realizing how long its been. opps...

Well, here is a quick update:

I went to my mom's house over the summer, seeing friends, taking an online course, going to concerts, and so on. Things went really well, including the information on my AP Human Geography test: I passed. I saw Brandi Carlile in concert. She is really fun live, interacting with the audience. Plus, I love her voice. My friend and I tried composing music, which didn't go as planned. In short, I am not experienced in composing in the metal genre! Big surprise! This friend also introduced me to even more K-pop over the summer, in which I started learning some dances. I have improved and really benefited from this. I find it more entertaining then running for exercise, something else I experimented with this summer. And of course, I could go on, but this would become long.

This school year has been rather nice, compared to the AP work I did last year. Next year I hope to take three AP credits, and APHUG will help out a lot! I have actually had time to play the PS2 this year! I know its 'old,' but its my favorite, mostly because of the games. Over all this year has been better than last both academically and socially. I even went to a dance this year: homecoming, which was a blast by the way. Plus I have more time to hang out with my friends.

I am going to go back to my mom's house for the Holiday's soon, and missing three days of school because of it. My friend and I are hoping to be able to do a 2NE1 cover soon. This is something that I am keeping my fingers crossed about. We don't necessarily do everything we say we are going to do. I was there recently for thanksgiving, and my 'step-sister' (she's not really a step-sister, but its close enough!) has an awesome room that she had made in our basement. She has chalk paint on one wall. She's an artist, so really owns the wall. My bedroom has a lot of white... It's rather sad, but my mom decided it needed to look bigger, so she turned light blue to white. Not the whole room was painted, so the some color is still there, but the majority of my furniture is white. I have asked to paint it other colors! It's fine though.

Hopefully I will be able to keep up this time around!

One More Day of Exams!

Okay, well i have made it through five exams! Three of them were very easy! Of course APHUG was not and that one was a major fail! Everyone got exceited this morning because our English teacher had put our scores from our exams online, so a few of us darted to the computers in the library, almost causing the tables them selves to be knocked over. I was not included in this group, because it was to early in the morning to acknowledge what the fast words coming from the informing classmate actually meant. Plus, once i figured it out i didn't know my username or my password to go online and check it. This resulted with me getting the info though text messages with my dad. I got really excited when i went see what i got on my score was, and then i was really dissapointed with my self... 90/100. Yes it wasn't bad, no not at all, but i really like English class and i guess i thought i would do better. And heck, the question i submitted to the teacher as a possiblity for an essay was used in the test! Oh well, but as usual i turned my day around very quickly and i was very happy through out the day! Now we are only having two exams per day, meaning that we had a half day. After school Taz and I walked to the bakery. She got a sandwich and used my money on rolls for my family, because i had this weird overcoming that i wanted to suprise everyone with my step-mom's favorite rolls. Then we went over to my house for a few hours and that was awesome because we had fun, waiting for her mom to come and pick her up, spending time on the computer and messing with my stuff in my room. By the way, both of my tests today, French and Geometry, were multiple choice.
Tomorrow I have one exam and that is biology. I should probably start studing for that soon! I also have orchestra tomorrow, but we don't have an exam, yet we still need to be at school. We are doing a few small quiz type things with rhythm.
I really want the Dir en Grey single that came out in Dec '09, but for some reason i keep holding off on getting it. I have an obsession with saving money sometimes. There are even a few limited addition for sale left! Agh, mabey i should just get it, huh? Mabey its more of a procrasination thing than it is an obsession for saving...
Yesterday I went to the eye doctor and showed them my problem with my contacts, which are very tricky to see out of. They told me I need a toric lens in my right eye, too. I only have one in my right eye, to prevent me form seeing two of everything. :p I also picked out a new pair of glasses, since my brother broke mine in the beginning of the school year with a pillow. And no it wasn't my falt for his actions! I was sitting there motionless on the coach and he wanted me to go swimming with him and I said no so he used "operation: lets annoy her until she agrees." I can assure you that this fails 89% of the time. I was really tired, which was good for him, and just laughed. Soon they started rubbing up againist my nose and creating a scab. I have had glasses since i was around the age of two and for some reason i swiched back to plastic frames.
Tomorrow some people are coming over to my house after exams are over for this semester!! And then my next exam, which is a few months from now, will be my AP test. 0_0 scared! (Help?) Im sure there will be a story to that one!

Oh wow has it been a while...

Listening to: my family watching Community

Well ah.... Happy 2010! There was so many awesome things that have happened to me since i last wrote! Unforturnatly i wont be able to write everything down because of my time issue. It is semester exams week at school. Im sorry if i forget to write something!
Well lets see here i went to the Dir en Grey concert! :) so awesome! it was so exciting and i experienced one crazy event after the next! Well yes my step mom did park the car at least ten blocks away from the venue, but that was not the only adventure! Oh and yes they were AMAZING!!! It was really exciting and i can not wait till the next concert! Die was also very awesome too and it was really cool to see all of the members live! I almost shoke Die's hand, but when he reached out his hand i failed to shake it when i was in "ah." I also got Shinya and Toshiya's singnatures and many many other things happened. and ah yeah i will have to write about that later because that was a whole new adventure by it's self and will take up some time and pics and mabey even a few videos! Plus i can probably go on for a while! :)
Hmm....
Then i went back to my mom's house for Thanksgiving and went to over to our friends house. It was a very good dinner, because this house is home to a genius cook, with a wonderful side dish of what we call "green stuff", but some other people call it pastashio pudding. Really pudding? i dont think so... more like marshmellos! (i think i spelled that wrong...) And then i believe i was dressed up as a disco turkey (we have to do something creative to get desert.) We also played games and i started talking really fast because i was sleepy! It was really a lot of fun.
During thanks giving a saw a few of my friends and had some more fun. I showed Lizzi some stuff from the Dir en Grey concert.
Then i dont think much happened.
and then i went back for Winter break. I also shadowed Lizzi at her high school, which went ok. I saw a lot of people that i missed and hadn't seen in a while. Plus i got to play with the orchestra, which i was very glad i could do.
Then spent a lot of time with my mom which was cool to, along with some of my other friends, but i was really happy that i could see Lizzi a lot and we did lots of fun and crazy things! :)
Well it looks like i have to go to bed soon! so i will try and write again soon and up load things!
-Ran