Happy (Belated) Birthday to Meeee.....

Well, nothing has been going on lately and there hasn't been anything to write about.... Though I flew through Harry Potter V in four days, and I've been wading through mounds of Java programming homework, and going to karate, and oh, who am I trying to kid? I'm just too lazy to write anything down. ^^;

Haa.... So now I'm 19 - my birthday was yesterday. It was a pretty uninteresting day overall, though my dad did take the whole family out to lunch, which was a real treat. And I spent a few hours trying to help my dad put down this pink algae bloom that has kind of taken over our pool... Now that was a pain... And there's people coming over this weekend, and the pool might still be unfit to swim in... *pulls out her hair in frustration* Stupid algae. Well, maybe stupid us for not taking care of the pool. <_<; In any case, it doesn't look like the weather's going to be all that spectacular this weekend anyway, and that means I have to find something else to do. It would be great if it were sunny - I could take everyone up to the picnic beach, but if the weather doesn't work out... *muttermutters* It'll be kinda cool to have a birthday party... Especially since I haven't had one since 8th or 9th grade... It's been a while. ^_~ As far as I know, Sarah, Vikki and Vivian are all coming up from MIT, and there's a possibility of Janet coming too. Hmm.... Anyone living in the area want to meet some cool MIT people? Stop by on Saturday or Sunday. ^^

Kristen gave me the first volume of the Di Gi Charat manga that's been published in English! It's something of an anthology - a lot of different manga-ka have contributed to it. Funny of course, though I wish I could get an English translation for the Japanese volume that I have - I finally found out that that one's written by someone named Yuki something-or-other (it's not done by Koge Donbo, the original creator of Di Gi Charat), and she contributed some amusing four-panel comics to the anthology... They are as cute as ever. *heart heart* No, I'm not obessive over Di Gi Charat or anything... ^_^;

Well, I don't think there's much more to say... Other than that Mom's "musical karate" class on Tuesday morning went off quite well, and I was practically dancing along to some of the songs in there, even though I've heard them 10,000 times already. Oh well, what can I say? It was all my Ragnarok Online music that she used, so I'd better like it. :P And now, for the anticlimatic end of me going back to my endless homework. Arrays are my best friends, oh yes..... *shakes head in exasperation*

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Pita Ten OP - Wake Up Angel
Current mood: Somewhat irritated...

Fireworks Like None Other

My, but I've been traveling quite a bit lately... This past weekend (well, Thursday through Saturday) I went down to Boston to hang out at MIT and to watch the 4th of July fireworks that Boston is famous for. I left for Boston on the 7:35 a.m. bus (yawn) because I had to get my stuff into Janet's room before she left for work at 9:30. Well, I made it just fine, and then I met up with Vivian and we went to the Museum of Fine Arts for the day. It was great - I found the netsuke collection - they've got their own room now. ^_^ And the Japanese swords and kimonos were wonderful to see. I also enjoyed the Egyptian section. It never ceases to amaze me that the ancient Egyptian culture was so death-centered. Ah well, what can I say? My favorite Egyptian god is definitely Anubis, the jackal god of death. We also paid to see the Thomas Gainsborough gallery. Fortunately, it's only $5 to get in past noon on weekdays. It was quite nice - they had one room full of huge portraits. They were quite good too. Lots of good artwork, though I wasn't too fond of his landscapes. They all look so dark and gloomy. His later works are really nice though.

We decided to go out to dinner on Thursday night (we being myself, Vivian, Sarah, Janet, and Vikki). Unfortunately, Vikki disappeared sometime during the evening, and since she doesn't have a cell phone (for shame! :P) we had to go without her. Turns out she'd been feeling sick and fell asleep anyway, so it's just as well that we didn't wait for her. Anyway, the rest of us went up to Harvard Square to this Thai restaurant named Spice. I was a little wary of Thai food since I've only eaten at the Thailand Cafe and their pad thai leaves much to be desired. However, after eating at Spice, I can safely say that Thai food has been redeemed. ^^ We also stopped by Tokyo Kid and Newbury Comics (yay, lots of manga!) but didn't get anything. We had the hardest time dragging Janet out of Newbury Comics too. <_<;

And then Friday was the 4th! We got off to a bit of a late start... Vikki organized APO (Alpha Phi Omega - a national service fraternity) to head down to the Esplanade to stake out a good viewing spot for the fireworks. They left at 6 in the morning. @_@ The rest of us got together around noon and decided to bake cookies to bring along. We spent quite some time cooking. We made chocolate chocolate-chip cookies. Verrry chocolatey, in case you couldn't guess. And we made jello and iced tea. But the tea was too hot to bring along, so we left it behind. And the jello melted long before we made it down to APO's spot, so that was kind of useless. But there were plenty of people that offered to buy our cookies. So Sarah and I know what we should do next year... *evil grin* Vivian and Janet wanted to take the bus, but Sarah and I were poor and felt like walking so we walked over the bridge and down into the mass of people. We found the APO "tent" which was made out of a tarp and some poles easily enough, but we didn't see Vikki right away and we didn't recognize anyone else. So Sarah and I went and sat under and shady tree to wait for Vivian and Janet.

We waited for quite a while. o_o; Finally, we called them and it turned out that they were still at the bus stop (after maybe half an hour of waiting!). The buses were running late, or not coming... You know how it is. -_- So Sarah and I went back to the APO tent and this time I noticed that Jim was there (finally, someone we know!). So we hailed him, and he pointed out that Vikki was closer to the water, lying down on a blanket. Several short Asian jokes were the product of this revelation (most of them on my part ^^;). Fortunately, it ended well; we dropped off the cookies and went for a walk with Vikki because she wanted food, and Sarah and I wanted to see the Hatch Shell, where the Boston Pops would be playing that night. Oh yeah, and Janet and Vivian eventually made it over the bridge to meet up with the rest of us. ^_^

It was crowded around the Hatch Shell - the further east we went, the more people there were. We couldn't get too close to the stage since you needed wristbands to get past a certain point. I'm sure Julie was there to see the Pops, or rather, Keith (winkwink) but I couldn't reach her cell phone. *sigh* So even though we couldn't directly see the Pops, APO's location wasn't bad because there was a big TV screen nearby. Plus, we were directly across from the fireworks barge. And indeed, we turned out to have the best seats in the house. The musical performance was great, but the fireworks were even better. I mean, those were the best fireworks I've seen in my whole entire life. Some were so big that they seemed to be heading right for us! All different types, all different colors (even blue - a rare color for fireworks!) - it was amazing. Words can't really describe it. After it was all over, Sarah and I could only look at each other and say "Wow." This is definitely something to see, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's in the area at the time. Boston's fireworks are legendary for a reason. ^^ Makes me want to play around with explosive powder now. ^_^;;

In any case, I'm home now. Vikki, Vivian and Sarah are planning on visiting sometime near the end of the month to celebrate birthdays. This is great - my birthday's on the 23rd, Vivian's is the 26th, and Alissa's is on the 28th (though she's going to be at camp for her birthday). So we can make a big party out of it, or something. ^^ It better be good. :P

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Linkin Park - Lying From You
Current mood: ^___^

I'm Back!

Hey look, it's July already. My birth month! Hey, that means my birthday's coming up.... *suggestive wink* Er, anyway, on with what I really wanted to say.

Whoo! NYC was great! The weather was just perfect - I'm glad all the rain finally went away. We were only down there for two days, but we got to do quite a bit. On Sunday, we went to Kinokuniya. It's this awesome Japanese bookstore that's quite large and has tons of books in Japanese and about Japan, and stuff. And the whole second floor was dedicated to stationery and manga! My, but there was a lot of manga. And all completely unreadable (for me, at least), but I was still in heaven for a little while. It could only have been better if all the books weren't all shrink-wrapped and unopenable. :P Anyway, I was quite torn between buying a big magazine with lots of pretty posters (that I could hang up in my room next year!) and getting a manga and trying to read/translate it. Which is amusing because I know next to no Japanese. But in the end I settled for the manga, and now I have some authentic Digi Charat manga! Oh, it is excellent - it's totally meant for little kids and so it's all in hiragana (which I can read!) and it's very silly. But at least it's not too hard to follow the storyline and I've got my mom to help translate, thank goodness. It's going to take me a while to get through the whole thing... Which is perfect. ^^;

So yesterday we went to Chinatown for Dim Sum (it was really really good) and then we walked over to see Ground Zero. There's not much to see - just a big fence, lots of construction workers, big hole in the ground, and 10,000 tourists (all taking pictures). Seriously though, what is there to take pictures of? All the graffiti scrawled all over the fence? The construction workers driving their trucks and backhoes around? Oh well, it's not my film. It was pretty fascinating to be in the area though; to walk through the streets, wondering how thick the ash fell there. It was especially sobering to walk by the fire station right next to our hotel. That fire station is the most annoying thing in the world - there's never a night that goes by when it doesn't have to send all its engines out, wailing at full blast (I counted 3 such episodes Sunday night). Fires just don't happen during the day - they're all at night. That's when the arsons come out of the woodwork. :P Anyway, they had a big flag with all the names of the men they lost on 9/11. Quite a few. o_o And there's a lovely little memorial garden/area with benches nearby, memorializing the men lost from that station. Kinda sobering, hm?

The rest of Monday consisted of my sisters and I wandering around Central Park (Mom went to Kinokuniya again, Dad stayed in the hotel to do work). Usually, in the park, we count dogs, but this time there was something more interesting to keep track of. Brides. Yes, you heard me right - there were married couples everywhere in the park! It was the funniest thing ever - first we watched this Asian couple out in a rowboat with the bridesmaids and stuff - the cutest thing ever. Then they left, and we eventually headed onward, grinning as we saw them getting pictures taken. Then we turned a corner, and there was another bride and groom getting pictures taken! And we looked down a side path and there was another pair! And then another bride in a white gown came out of the bathroom of the lakeside restaurant! All in all, we saw five newly-wed couples that day. In the same general area. All Asian. Beating the weekend rush, hm? I figure they were all related and decided to make one big party out of it. :P We played on the Ancient Playground a bit (well, my sisters did - I just sat down and massaged my blisters). Alissa claims that the playground has shrunk since we last saw it. ^_~

Anyway, the highlight of yesterday was going to see the Phantom of the Opera. We've seen it before, the last time we were in NYC. That's about three years ago. So we saw it again. It was fabulous, as always, though Christine was rather disappointing, and Meg was beyond annoying. Still, I loved Carlotta - she was hilarious, and Andre and Firmin made a fine, comic pair. Raul was easily the best Raul we've ever heard before - he was perfect for the part. The Phantom was interesting - he had a much deeper voice than what we've heard before. He put a lot of character into his part. It was very good, though I think he could have worked on the 'angelic' part a bit more. Still, it was a great show. I cried at the end... again. I'm such a sap. :D

Today was just the drive back. I didn't have to drive, yay! I mostly read (Princess Bride, and Digi Charat). Of course, for Digi Charat, it was mostly reading meaningless (to me) hiragana and getting the occasional explanation from Mom. ^^; Now I'm back, and it's still nice out, and Kelsey wants me to go swimming with her. Maybe I should. Maybe I will. In any case, that's enough writing for now. See you later.

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Delerium & Sarah McLachlan - Silence
Current mood: Euphoric