winter break ~ game plan

22 tues: local raok-ing, photography, rendezvous site

23 wed: Hotchkiss bs essays

24 thurs: article for HowlerOnline, practice flute, brainstorm book drive, site

25 fri: Andover bs essays

26 sat: free hugs @ district!! work on site & article

27 sun: SPS bs essays

28 mon: hw & review semester for finals, work on site & article

29 tues: photo/wander/picnic

30 wed: Exeter bs essays

31 thurs: work on site & article, new years eve party @ shannon's

1 fri: Deerfield bs essays

2 sat: photoshoot, work on site & article

3 sun: review bs essays, plan coming week, relax!!

open your mouth, let words fall out

I officially spent 15 hours at speech and debate. Wow.

But, I've learned so much. (Sorry I've been listing so much recently! and my capitalization just kind of died on my whim; I don't wanna go back and correct it all.)

a) THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR HARD WORK, if you want to succeed. You can't just not practice your part and expect to magically remember it when the time comes. And when you lose, it's not your competitors; you only have yourself to blame. Really. Suck it up, Northwood, Fullerton works way harder than us. Stop hating/just being blatantly jealous/whiny.

b) PEOPLE HAVE SO MANY SIDES TO THEM... this really nice guy I was talking to before the round made it to finals with his DI about being a psychopathic nine-year-old who kills his mother - ohmygod!!!! His evil laughter sent chills down my spine!!! LITERALLY.

c) YOU HAVE TO TAKE CHANCES - and many times, good things come from them. there was this group of intense looking (most people do in suits) senior guys who kind of intimidated me at first, but I went up and talked to them and they were funny! haha.

d) DEVOTION IS ALL THA TMATTERS. if you are devoted, you will go far. talent is nothing in comparison. (this is kind of like "a"... but whatever.)

e) LOSE YOURSELF IN THE CHARACTER. you're not ACTING your character, you ARE the character. you live and breathe the character. you do not exist during the round - only your character does. (of course... it helps if you don't have to worry about remembering the next line or next sentence... note to self.)

f) I've been thinking about this one for a long, long, long, long time. when I meet people, I can pick up almost instantly this certain depth to some of them. something about them that hints at something profound beneath the surface. & it lures me in like no other. makes me curious. makes me want to get to know them, you know? (I have at least 5 people in mind at the moment!)

g) WE'RE IN THIS FOR THE EXPERIENCE. so while you want to have fun (taboo! flag football omg! ultimate frisbee! lololol), you can't forget the main reason you're here - speech and debate! I can't believe only me and one other person (Rini) wanted to stay and watch finals! Everybody else ended up leaving early. Really, you guys? What did you come for? -_-

h) IRVINIAN IS SYNONYMOUS WITH BRAT. Really. This place really shows me how bitchy and conceited we really are. (By the way, no - racist jokes aren't funny.)

i) TEACHERS CAN BE PERSONABLE. you can play card games with them, or rant about your love life to them (this wasn't me lol), or whatever. Don't come across a lot of these teachers often.

I saw a lot of amaaaaaaazing speeches! (This was a speech competition - I'd be doing debate otherwise.) Ohmygod. For Duo, I remember two of them very clearly. The Incredibles one - ohmygod. Just hilarious. There was also a lot of homosexual ambiguity, haha. Syndrome was gay. And since in duo, you're not allowed to touch your partner except in the intro, another boy-boy partner group (semi-finals) hugged very... intimately? Pelvis-to-pelvis... as Amanda would put it. And then one of the guys did the "snookums" neck thing to the other guy while hugging, with the -innocentface- expression.... memorable, to say the least. I laughed. So hard. My cheeks hurt.

So this specific tournament has actually served the purpose of making me want to enter in LD debate (what I normally do), along with an IE, at normal tournies, now that I'm acquainted with them.

In general, I've learned so much at each one of these type of things I've thrown myself into these past years - Speech and Debate tournaments, MUN conferences, football games, winterguard performances and trips, orchestras - whatever it may be, I never forget.

Thanks for another stressful though great day on Earth. (story of my life.)

you might as well wear a halo

Just letting you know, Mr. Vesely, you still sound like an angel.

The beginning of Your Call still brings tears to my eyes. (& the "and I'm tired..." part!) Every time I listen to it, I'm convinced I've never heard anything more beautiful. But I guess it doesn't hurt that I've just been in a very tear-prone mood recently. I'm going to psycho-analyze myself here. What else have I cried about, and why?

1.) ex-dance teacher/dictator not listening to me after trying to give her some constructive criticism after I quit while she simultaneously kicked me out. of course, I held my tears in until I left. [ reason: not being heard in the face of stark injustices ]

2.) reminiscing about my childhood. me and Ruby & Bukem. me and Noam. me and Yijin. me and Sol. me and Sylvie. me and Stephanie. me and Tiffany. me and Danielle & Jeri. How many of them do I still talk to? I don't even have contact for half of them - hell, for being in a war zone (Noam), I don't even know if you're alive. Every time you make a friend, you give part of yourself to them. When they leave, you feel so suddenly empty. [ losing people close to you ]

3.) Allen killed the bee. I usually don't cry this easily, but when a perfectly functional organism is fine one moment, and a stomp later, has guts and blood trailing out of it while it twitches again stuggling pitifully to stand up... and everybody else goes on like nothings happened... it just kind of feels like life has punched you in a stomach, you know? who are we to play God? [ life is too fragile. something so easily stopped still happened. people not giving a shit. ]

4.) When people keep taking all my "debates" the wrong way. I'm trying to mentally spar with you, not cut you down. I assume you all have some self esteem and won't see it as some personal attack and will be able to defend what you're saying. And then either they get pissed and walk off on me without warning, or feel inferior yourself when I am just trying to exchange my ideas and get some interesting perspectives in return. [ frustration. being misinterpreted. causing pain/anger ]

5.) Being forced to do things I don't want to do. Mainly involving me going on work overload, and then crashing, then stubbornly protesting my work. Then crying because I have to do it, due to the iron fisted school system. [ helplessness, things being out of my control ]

6.) Just because. If I wanted to, I could sit and cry all the time, and never run out of tears to cry, or things to cry about, or I can simply cry for no reason.

7.) I'm touched by things people have done for me. I remember in sixth grade, I went ice skating. I was talking to my friends, my mom was there too. I randomly blurted out "I feel like an icee! haha" just to break the silence. Then went to the bathroom. When I came back, my mom had bought an icee for me.

Improvements:

1: Stop crying and start trying harder. Crying doesn't make matters any better.

2: Always at least drop by/email/aim and say hi! Never ever cease contact. Who knows when you'll be able to see each other again. It might be sooner than you think! :)

3: Can't be helped, really. Just accept life. And then work to MAKE them care. Or they're just gonna do it again. and again.

4: be more clear and less prone to misunderstanding. make sure things are okay. ask people to express what they are feeling so they don't suddenly explode and I'm left confused.

5: Suck it up. Keep working.

6: Just don't do it! haha

7: great. now return the love. :)

my nose turns purple in absence of parsley

what is this feeling

where is it from

the noise in my brain

makes a murderous hum

the sound of my body

telling me no

but my brain has told me

where to go

two more days & two more nights -

oh, that's all that I need

till all the world's skyscrapers

can bend to their knees

so please, Tina, please

do it for me

move it

Do not fail me, Tina.

You know how much I want this A. You know how much this matters to me. You know how much I want to do well. You know how much I want to get into boarding school.

So why are you so selfish and weak that you can't even get off your lazy ass and start studying math?

You know, I love these blog posts, because in the middle I ALWAYS get a sudden burst of inspiration. Most of these posts never get through because they become drafts and never see publication. Because the whole point was to regain inspiration. And I got it! :D

Alright. Let's do this. Mathhhhhh...

Well now that I actually kind of intend to publish it, I should elaborate on my hell week.

Nothing deep here. Just plotting stuff out, half for me, half for... yeah just me. :P

Tomorrow: math test & meet with Mrs. Schneider for t-recs

Thursday: science test & meet with Mrs. Glowacki for bs essay and t-recs

Friday: history test & memorize DI like no other & holiday party

Saturday: sp&deb competition, early early morning to late late night.

Sunday: JE SUIS LIBRE!

heartstrings

When's the last time I had a complete, defenseless heart-to-heart conversation with somebody? It's been a while. But today, that shell has opened again - if only briefly. But who thought it'd be with a stranger?

All this meaningless mumbo-jumbo (stealing your word Char haha) that we go through our daily routines: "oh, the funniest thing happened today", "oh, I love that flavor!", "buy holidaygrams or else!"... they come out of our mouths and stop at the ear. Are hearts are starving for connection. Connection is key in human existence - it's the factor that determines the nature of our consciousness (ex: happy, sad) but my daily life is so devoid of it. We need this vital feeling of being anchored to this Earth, so we don't go flying off into some dream world, or vegetative state. I'm drifting. I'm drifting.

Strangers. They're like the prize at the bottom of the cereal box. Open it up, dig a little bit, and see what you find. Today I found gold. The conversation was a wake-up call - I also discovered how much my life direction has shifted in the past few years, or even months. We can talk about the past, our families, christmas lights, without being embarrassed. That takes a certain maturity. The future beyond school - once considered so far off it is irrelevant to the present... is tangible. Thick and hanging in the air.

The last part, and most important part, was mutual vulnerability. We were unafraid to put ourselves out there, to take a risk and trust that in the end we'd be at least a little bit enlightened by each other. To express ourselves.

I was talking to Jeri on Friday and she said that she learned more from experiences with real people than textbooks. A five minute encounter has given me so much, I see what you mean now.

snail without a shell

why are you so sensitive?

so vulnerable?

so easily swayed?

what is with these mood swings?

toughen up, tina.

toughen up.

we don't have time for games.