dreamstar27's Xanga

you can say so much with one sentence

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:50:51 GMT

Apologies for the swearfest that was my last post. I was, shall we say, in a mood.

I've had ideas for a new layout for a while, but I haven't been inspired enough to Photoshop. Something new next time, maybe. Skye Sanctuary's layout is pretty old as well.

I recently discovered onesentence.org. Some of my favorites:

"When I was little, my mom told me that the bottom of the pool smelled really good."

"Our relationship ended when she was fantasizing and comparing me to a fiction character: Edward."

"Today you shaved your hair into a mohawk to make my mom laugh over losing hers to chemo and today I realized that you are my hero."

"I conduct job interviews for a living and nothing gives me a better sense of wielding karma than giving the job to the nervous kid instead of the better qualified arrogant prick."

"My online dating service matched me with my cousin." (This one was titled "Probably Not Okay.")

"My mother called me to do a chore and I responded, 'What you need, Woman,' to which my father chided, 'Your mother is NOT a woman!'"

"As I woke up from my nap to find written on my feet 'This is my momma and you can't have her,' I realized that my child is very, very strange."

"I was nearly sent to the hospital because I could not convince the school nurse that my head had always been this shape."

"I took a neuropsychiatric test and realized that I don't have a mental illness after all: I have five."

"Recently I realized that I waste my life on the internet ... and published this insight in a blog."

parents are a real downer

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:08:08 GMT

My mom called home today to check up on me and my brother and brought up the topic of my upcoming UCLA and UC Irvine oboe auditions.

She wanted me to ask my private teacher what she thought my chances of getting in are. "Because if they're not very high......... well, you might as well not bother."

........What the fuck?

Aren't parents supposed to encourage you? Aren't they supposed to support you in your decisions? Aren't they supposed to let you try things for yourself, to let you decide what you want to do, to let you learn from your own mistakes, and to not decide right off the bat that there's little chance you can make it -- especially when they have absolutely no experience in that field? What the hell happened to all those "never give up" talks you gave us as kids?

I shouldn't be surprised, though. They've never supported me in this area, not ever since I brought up the idea that I maybe wanted to go into music (when they themselves were the ones who forced me to continue piano lessons when I was a kid. I just love the hypocrisy of it all). Oh, they say they'll support me, but they strongly suggest I go into something else and keep music as a hobby. They throw my cousins in my face as examples -- several doctors, a wealthy architect -- cousins who kept their art-related passions separate from their careers. They would even rather see me do graphic design instead of music.

And if I were to give in, to give up on music and study what they'd rather see me study, that would be like putting the rest of my life in their hands. When would I be free of them?

Goddamn relatives.

the moral code of webdesign

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 01:23:09 GMT

I'm feeling slightly jipped and extremely guilty.

A couple of days ago a link exchangee of Dreamscape emailed me about an old Xanga layout I had on Skye Sanctuary. It was extremely similar to one of the premade layouts on her site, and she asked for me to remove it.

To be honest, I'd completely forgotten about the layout because let's face it - how long has it been since I made anything for Xanga? I had used her layout for "inspiration" (I know it now as "jocking," to put it kindly) - of that I was guilty. I didn't take her images or anything like that, but I remember trying my best to replicate that particular layout because I liked the style, the image, the feel, everything about it. It ended up being almost the same, with just a few differences.

So I deleted the layout and emailed her back explaining, and hoped against hope that she wouldn't remove me from her link exchange list because she was - is - a great designer that I really admired. (She still hasn't replied yet.)

Today I went and visited my neglected site and clicked around my link exchanges, just to see what I'd missed. I came across one link exchangee who had updated with a new site layout that seemed....... very similar to Dreamscape's current. One of the images was the same, and the affiliates display was extremely similar, and this line thingy to separate the header from the content that I spent days thinking up (unoriginal as it may be) was also very familiar.

My first reaction was, of course, anger, because that was just so unfair. Then I was torn - should I email her about it and ask her to take it down, or not? I've known this designer for a long time, back from when I still made Xanga layouts (on a regular basis, anyway), and it just felt wrong to call her out on it. I mean, the similarities are there, but small, and I'm sure she knows what jocking is and just might not see it as such.

I kept being indecisive and second-guessing myself when it hit me - what I'd done to the first link exchangee (the one who emailed me) was a hundred times worse than what this second link exchangee had done to me. What right do I have to ask that something that vaguely resembles my work be taken down when I myself am guilty of practically copying someone else's work?

In essence, I'm just a big, fat hypocrite.

all the avatars are gone......

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:25:21 GMT

....the ones in the previous entries, I mean. That's because I was lazy and direct-linked them from Dreamscape, and now that Dreamscape's moved to a new URL, the image URLs don't work anymore.

Why yes, this is just a cheap ploy to plug my domain. Thanks to Kururu of Owaranai Kiss Design's Scramble! contest, I won a free domain, Sylfaerien.net. There's nothing there now because I haven't decided what to do with it yet, but I've moved Dreamscape to the domain, and it has a new layout up too that I'm extremely proud of.

I've been meaning to make some more Xanga layouts for a while now, but moving Dreamscape was such a big task that I've found myself reluctant to touch Photoshop lately. I'll be gone for a week for ECYS retreat, so maybe when I get back from a weeklong abstinence from the computer, I'll feel like making stuff.

for real this time

Tue, 13 May 2008 02:19:10 GMT

WHOAWHUTTNEWLAYOUT.

And I'm not trying to psych you out this time.

So. Remember how about three days ago I talked about a brand-spanking-new layout that I was stuck on?

Well, here it is! I'm really happy with the way it turned out. It's very pink, true, but it's pinkish-orange and it's a pretty shade at that. And it features YUFFIE!!! Gotta love it.

I've decided not to post the dreams of the seventh star (my previous layout) on Skye Sanctuary because I think it's a little too personalized to make a good premade. This one will definitely end up there after a while, though, and I'm planning on reslicing/recoding it to make a website template for Dreamscape.

So, I really have nothing interesting to talk about. Except that I'm done with all of my AP tests, which means I'm pretty much done with half of my classes for the rest of the school year. Kind of. We'll still be learning new stuff in math, and there's a big project in bio, but for Japanese all we're going to be doing is singing karaoke.

Yes, yes, envy me. :D

how is two gigs not enough?

Sat, 10 May 2008 03:24:10 GMT

At least, that's what I thought when I got my iPod about a year and a half ago. NOW I'M FREAKIN' OUT OF SPACE. T_T

I guess it's kinda my fault, 'cause I went off and downloaded a ton of Younha stuff (because OMG it's just too awesome; I can't help myself) and it won't fit on my stupid two gig iPod.

GRAAAAAAAHHHHHHH.

So anyway. I was going to update with a brand-spanking-new layout for myself, but, uhh...... I'm kinda stuck. It was going to feature a Yuffie character scan from Crisis Core and filtering stuff and yeah...... but I'm having trouble coming up with stuff for the background. Oh well. Next time, maybe. (Or never.)

A while ago in my Japanese class, we had a series of cultural presentations in which we were given a topic and had to talk about its role in culture in Japan and compare/contrast it to American culture. All the visual presentations are in Japanese, and so is the oral part, but there's always an English translation afterwards, and as a result no one really pays attention to what they say in Japanese. One group did fashion, and the only native-speaking Japanese guy in the group got stuck with the American culture part of it (sensei's doing, I bet).

For some reason, he went back in time and talked about the sixties (? I think....), where guys wore bellbottom trousers and tucked in their shirts. [There were some rather interesting and vaguely disturbing pictures.] He also talked about women's fashion back then, and how they had shorter skirts and stuff. He said -- and I quote -- that "this was when the women began to show off their sexy bodies" and on the word "sexy" he did this wiggle/shimmy thing. [Apparently, I was the only one who saw it, because while I was busy laughing my head off everyone else was giving me weird looks.] It was really funny because he's a guy who dresses much more... elaborately than normal American high school guys and by all outer appearances seems too sophisticated to do something like that. His personality, however, is a different story.

So the guy went on and started talking about current fashions. When he got to teenage girls' fashions, he said, "They have very long hair" (where does he get this stuff?) "and they wear lots of jewelry and makeup and shave their...." He frowns. "Shave their eyeballs?"

"Eyebrows," someone manages to choke out between laughs.

"Oh, sohree." That's literally the way he pronounces it. He pauses, frowns again. "Then what are eyeballs?"

and so ends the hiatus

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:06:25 GMT

WHOAWHUTTNEWLAYOUT.

Or not. Psych!

Well, there's a new one available for you to use at Skye Sanctuary. It's called Endless Story and it features the singer Yuna Ito.

WHOA WHUTT CELEBRITY LAYOUT?! I know. Unheard of. Anyway. It's my first xanga layout in two months, so check it out, please. :]

My locker at school is right next to another locker that has the same exact lock. Same color, same brand, same style, same everything. So when I went to put something in my locker yesterday, I couldn't get the lock open. I tried at least five times, then glared at it and ranted for a good five minutes before deciding to try my combination on the locker next to mine. Surprisingly, it worked.

So now I had a dilemma. My lock was on someone else's locker and someone else's lock was on my locker. My stuff was still in my locker, so I couldn't get to it. I had no idea whose locker was next to mine, or if that person was even the one who had made the switch. Off I trooped to the office to tell them my story.

The reaction: "...................................................................That's interesting."

They told me to give them my lock, and they'd cut off the lock on my locker and put my lock on it. Which they did. So I was happy.

But I feel kinda bad for the other person. Stupid Asian conscience.

definitions from the dictionary of the sleep-deprived

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 05:57:16 GMT

WARNING: Due to the current mental and physical conditions of the author, this post is prone to vague, nonsensical ramblings, sudden and completely unrelated subject changes, and random comments about the weather. Or season. One of those, anyway. In any case, read at your own risk.

My mood's been really *headdesk* lately. That has a lot of meanings. In my case, the most commonly used one is dropping out of consciousness due to exhaustion- slash- lack of sleep.

The second most commonly used one is the reaction that comes after the realization that you've done something incredibly stupid due to said exhaustion- slash- lack of sleep. *Facepalm* is also acceptable in this case.

I'm not really helping my current situation any by procrastinating on my Chinese school homework, which is what I've been doing for the last four or so hours. I'm going on three and a half hours of sleep, a bottle of Starbucks frappuccino, and most of a bag of croutons. Why yes, I did say bag. Don't ever give me food if you want to see it again.

Speaking of which, Cynthia says I'm getting fat. Which is entirely possible. I get no exercise, I'm eating more than ever, and I'm so lazy I don't even walk home anymore. You can't really blame me for that one, though, since it takes me an hour to walk home, and besides, it's starting to get warm again.

The plum trees are pretty this time of year. I think the cherry trees would be too, if I'd ever wake up enough to tell the difference between the two.

Ahh, the life of a junior.

promo video of the day

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:20:56 GMT

I generally don't like the promo videos that our school comes up with, whether it's for rallies or dances or showcases or whatnot. They're usually kind of lame or low-quality or just plain stupid. But this one wins my vote for best promo video (from our school) ever.

Monta Vista Class of 2009 Junior Prom Promo Video

I don't know why, I just think it's so cute. :] Plus the tone of the video matches so well with the music.

I think that Neil (the first guy) had the best acting out of all of them. He looked really dejected at the end there, haha. John (the second guy) looked down [gave up] too quick. Ryan (the third guy) just kind of..... walked, but that has more to do with his part than anything else. And I guess Oliver's part was pretty good. It seemed to me like he just acted like himself, but I don't know him too well so I can't say anything.

But yeah, really cute. ^_^ Good job, 09 officers!

"it's a member of the woodwind family."

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:24:55 GMT

This is for all of you who've ever read one of my entries and thought, what's an oboe?

So Megan told me about this commercial...

("I play the oboe." The what? )

...about a guy who used to play the oboe and now plays football. Apparently, the commercial aired during the superbowl (I don't know because during the superbowl, I was at - go figure - symphony rehearsal).

And now for my two cents:

HECK YESS. Now no one has an excuse for not knowing what an oboe is.