Hey, long time no see.
I think I should start posting here more often, and this will be my blog when I leave home, so I may do some cleaning up and so forth before I do. Nevertheless, I feel it's time that I write something here again.
Let's see what I've been up to. Well, currently I'm in a state of mild hysteria, as I have a million things I need to be doing, but I seem to be edging along slowly at each of them. On top of that, I'm sick. If I could relate my life to songs from any album right now, it'd be Muse's Black Holes and Revelations. I've loved the album since it came out the past July. I'm tired of swinging in between major stressed-panic, where my life feels like "Map of Problematique" and then in ten seconds revolving to feeling happy like in "Starlight."
I just want to feel comfortable and curl up and read a good book now. I'm ready for all of this to be over, because I already know where I want to go. I'm tired of going to a magical world, and all I want is to hold someone tight and make real memories that I can look back on twenty years from now and still laugh. I want sunshine and gentle rain.
Show us your desktop.
Submitted by Anthony.
My window screen size is 1280x800 (widescreen). It's rather a hassle when I try to game on here, though, especially with Lineage II, which I've been obsessed with lately. It shrinks the screen down to whatever the default is (and it's not like I can change it) and when I exit the game, my desktop remains shrunk and then I have to go and restore the widescreen settings and so forth. It's also a bit of a hassle because then I also have to drag around my icons and folders to where I had them before. I tend to put them to the sides so I can see the wallpaper in the middle...but it proves to be a problem in cases as previously mentioned.
Anyway, this lovely desktop I'm showing today was made by Helena. You should visit her beautiful LJ and see the rest of her graphics! They are very pretty. Also, Happy Holidays to those of you who may see this. Perhaps the next time I post will be next year!
So everyone's taken this quiz already, but I thought I'd finally give it a go. For some little reasons, I don't like posting quizzes on my LJ, so here it goes. Well, I guess I'm cuddly? Hehe.
I do like the holidays and vacations because it's finally time for me to relax and spend time by myself doing things that i enjoy doing instead of all the work and studies I have to do every day. But...there's always still some things that I just can't stand about the holidays.
1) I absolutely hate it when people bother me with questions of, "Hey, what do you want for Xmas?" with happy grins on their faces. It's not like I think that presents or similar are all what it means for holidays. After all, what are you, five years old and wanting a new toy car or a pony? No, I'm not like that...I look to holiday time as spending more, much needed time with friends and family, not time being spent gathering presents and giving presents. Whenever I get them or give them, I always get a sense that people are giving back and forth the feeling of need of giving back a present or something, as if it's more of a present of "who-owes-who-whatever." Sure, presents are nice...but please. I'd like to hope that people aren't always so materialistic...and it makes me quite sad.
2) Holiday concerts...I'm a pianist, so I find these a bit of a pain, as fun as they can be. After practicing the same holiday piece over and over again, I grow tired of it...and it rather spoils the purpose and meaning of a festive piece of music. I don't know...I do like listening to other people play, however, and I love caroling even if nobody can really sing. It's the amusement that counts, but when the song grows stale after 70+ hours of practicing, it can be disappointing, too.
Hmm...I do like holidays, though. It just seems that this post makes me out to be a scrooge. Haha...
If you're reincarnated, what do you think you'll come back as?
Submitted by Diana.
I'd probably be reincarnated as a bat because in real life, I am pretty much legally blind. Even so, my senses of smell and hearing are a lot keener, and I've always wondered if it's because I play piano or if it's because they're making up for my poor eyesight. Nevertheless, I really think I'd be a bat if anything because of my blindness and also the fact that I used to suffer from severe insomnia. (Not so much lately, thankfully...)
Even so, if I could actually pick something to be reincarnated as, I'd definitely want to be a cat. Even though I'd always loved cats since I was a little girl, I never had the joy of owning one because both I and my youngers sister were allergic. (Well, I've grown out of my allergies, but my sister hasn't.) It would be a very fun and relaxing lifestyle as a cat. I probably wouldn't want to be one of those lazy ones who enjoy sleeping all the time, but instead I'd be an exploring cat that wanders around all the time. Hehe...
How do you eat your pizza: folded, flat or with a fork and knife?
Submitted by danimass.
Sadly enough, I don't really like most "American" food, but I suppose pizza isn't really American?
Despite this, some of my closer friends may know that I have a severe weakness for pizza...it's a little amusing. My favorite is spinach with mushrooms and garlic. Sounds weird, maybe, but it is so yummy and it's vegetarian-friendly! Anyway, to answer the question...usually I'll just eat it normally, but I tend to eat the crust first, even if it's not filled with cheese or something. If the slice is too big or too hot, though, I do eat it with a knife and fork. (Or...if it's strangely shaped...)
Augh..hungry...
Ahaha, I think I came across about fifty posts here on Vox about how LJ is down. I was up doing things around 6 this morning and saw that it was down, and it is now 2:30 and it is still down. Kind of sad, but I suppose it is a good thing so I can concentrate and get some things done!
At any rate, I haven't started writing for Nanowrimo yet. I feel very guilty, but as I completely missed all of my classes yesterday, I'm even more behind with coursework as well. Meh. I hope those of you who are signed up for Nano are doing well on your stories! I want to start mine sometime soon...before the month is over, haha.
How did you pick your Vox name? Does it mean something?
Submitted by LeendaDLL.
Well, my username is "reflections." I don't know, I kind of just signed up with the first word that popped into my mind, as I didn't want the same username that I use for other websites and journals.
After all, I do reflect on thoughts in my journal, no?
Do you believe in ghosts? Have you ever seen a ghost?
Submitted by Nancy.
I never really "believed" in ghosts, but I do believe in spirits of people that linger after they die. I don't know...while some people may disagree with me and say that ghosts and spirits are the same thing, I really feel that there is a difference. Ghosts are what we believe we see, whereas spirits seem to be more of a sense or feeling that someone is there. Spirits are the souls of people who did not die peacefully...or that they wish to linger on Earth until they find answers to what they long for. That's what I think.
At any rate, there have been a few times that I thought I saw or felt something supernatural. When I was a child, I looked out the back window to our deck at our old house. The deck was maybe twenty feet or so above the ground, and over that, you could see the sky and many trees in the forest behind my old house. One day, I was sitting at the dining table doing homework, when I looked back there, and there was something large, white and golden, and rather blurry/vague sitting atop one of the larger branches of the trees. While I kind of jumped, I kept looking, but I assumed that my eyesight was just [like always] poor or something because I couldn't see it clearly. And then...I bounced off to fetch my camera to take a picture, but by the time I came back, it had gone. Whatever it was, it was very large -- about three feet tall, I'd say, and maybe about a foot wide. I asked my mother, and she said it was perhaps an owl, but it has since been a mystery in my mind. (I'm not religious, but I had a fleeting thought that perhaps I had seen an angel...haha..)
In my junior year of high school, my favorite class was still French. Except...for one day, where I had a rather out-of-body experience that still puzzles me today. Mme Barry was talking, and while everything was really silent, I opened my mouth to cough, but instead this weird, gentle gasp and "Ah..." sound came out that very well wasn't my own voice. Or so...it didn't sound like myself, and when I turned to ask a classmate if she'd heard me say anything, she said she didn't. What was more strange was that when the sound came out of my mouth, it felt very forced, like a bubble fizzing to the top of water. Maybe it was a burp...haha...but I've always felt it was really weird, and I remember being somewhat faint-headed for the rest of that day.
As for something more recent, this year - 2007 - had two "ghost months." Ghost months are part of a traditional celebration that my family and many other Asian families undertake, and usually it's just July (or August? I can't remember) of the lunar calendar. This year, however, it spanned over July and August (or Aug/Sept? I think it might be the latter, but suddenly I can't remember)...so I guess more spookiness? I did feel many strange things, and I guess the whole idea of "ghost months" added to my suspicions. Throughout September, there were lots of weird things that went on. As a new school semester started, I started up my insomnia nights again, often staying up late to study...and afterwards not being able to sleep, so I'd sit and surf the net. However, I discovered random splotches of blood on my hands (not big ones..just little spots), even though I had no scars or scratches anywhere. It was really weird, and I thought maybe I had a nosebleed or something from lack of sleep, but I didn't. It was awkward, but I might have just felt so because of the "spookiness."
So. Do you believe me?
Do you remember your first flight? Where did you go? Why?
Submitted by Laurel.
I think my first flight ever was when I was barely a year old and flew back to Taiwan. All of my family and relatives live in Taiwan, but I was the first to be born here in the US. (New Brunswick, NJ to be precise.) Anyway, I don't remember much about it all, but I think I went back to see my relatives for the first time.
Oh! I do remember a very large, beautiful white birthday cake with strawberries, though. I think that's why I always like making those kinds of cakes for other people. I celebrated my first birthday there, but other than that, I don't recall much of it.
