8-18-03
i feel like i should be updating this before i officially head off to school & become a dukie. taf was interesting this year. not the happy carefree taf that i'm used to, but worthwhile in its own way. i'm thinking i'll probably give jrs pd-ing a second go next year, greatly because i feel a need for redeeming myself after this year's blunders. as for school, i'm leaving tomorrow and it doesn't feel like it. i haven't finished packing nor have i finished the summer reading book... what nonsense, summer reading for incoming freshmen? how unnecessary =) anyhow, i'm looking forward to college in general, but i'm still in that floaty post-taf mode where anything productive seems like altogether too much. we'll see how it goes though!

7-17-03
i'm sitting at work right now (obviously not doing much work at the moment). i had a lot of fun bumming around this summer, but whenever that happens, i find myself with all these things to do afterward... that's okay though. they're things like taf (in 17 days) and going off to college next year.

5-6-03
well today i spent a good amount of time scanning in more old pictures and making the beginnings of my video for english/for fun. it's very bittersweet looking back. and dude, i'm not even that old=) and for anyone who might still be wondering, i am headed to duke for the next four years. the decision's had time to settle, and i'm quite happy with all that. =)

4.15.03
wow this whole duke/umich deal is getting rather obnoxious. it would be much easier to not pick one and just happen to have one eliminate itself or something =) they're both very nice. but i have no clue which is nicer for me. most people say duke, but they also don't know why. well that's no help =P i have 2 weeks. this is going to be interesting. duke=1 michigan=2. TI89 rand(2). =)

1.04.03
happy new year =)
so my entire break was spent writing essays from 12-4am, sleeping til 1, and bumming around. but hey, i'm done w/ apps. no more college worries. sure, i still have financial aid and other programs to apply for and still have to wait around for rejections and whatnot. but it'll all be fine. no worries =) best of luck to all the other seniors too... you know, theyre still caught up in telling us we're the best class ever to go through syc =P

12.09.02
so should things be based on how hard you try or how good you are? effort vs. performance. i dont mean if you put effort in you should get good results... what if you put effort in and you don't get the results? should you be given some kind of a boost just for the effort? grades, admissions, job selection etc...

12.08.02
i'm rather disturbed by the fact that so many people write so much on their blogs/xangas. hm.. yeah i'm impressed i havent been sucked in. yet. =)

11.10.02
eeeeeee rach3 is so coooooool... and the little round bald pianist yesterday was so funny. i'm amazed he didnt fall off his bench-- it was so far away! oh and hey! we found something that's actually good at applebees! their salads =)

well anyway so today i drove for about 3 hours. first went down to ccm for csyo at 230... left at 4 and took lois all the way to udayton... we took a while to figure out where they were hiding the restaurants... then we ate at chipotle and starbucks... while wondering about the strange paper cutout-like clouds. when all of a sudden it started pouring and lightening outside. imagine that. so we went to regional orchestra rehearsal all wet and cold. and then they made me move my car from where i parked it. oh well so i missed like half the rehearsal. DARN. good music. bad conductor. and then i drove home and got back around 1020. yay. what a great wonderful day.

11.5.02
election day! not that i can vote... so today in orchestra, we got our new seatings and i'm thinking..
hey i didn't move back!.. and heyyyy i get to sit next to nikki!
... oh man... us 4 together? this is too much.
well yeah anyway so it's andrea lauren me and nikki... and we have a propensity for being overly amused during rehearsals. i mean what else can we do... at least it's fun when we keep ourselves entertained. like our chamber music says "No. 4 Pie Jesus TACET" at the bottom... how is that not amusing? but we must be quite a disruption. smarelli may end up sabotaging our playing test scores so that we never end up sitting together again. ah so sad.

10.20.02
oh my goodness... csyo just gets worse and worse doesn't it... so we had rehearsal at 7-9:30 today instead of 2:30-5:30 with some sectionals nazi... it was great. thank goodness for violas who can't play... i mean... um yeah so anyway they took up most of the sectional and the violins... we sat there and slowly went insane. i really think that csyo has degraded my sanity a bit every week. but hey on the upside... we didnt have to pay for parking since it was so ridiculously late to be down at UC. and that's about the only good thing i can say about that.

10.9.02
the carville-gingrich debate was thoroughly amusing... what i could understand of it anyway =) carville does not seem to like enunciating his words.
driving around kentucky for half an hour was not so amusing. i was right anyway. i turned the right way in the end =)
umm i highly despise chemistry class. not really chemistry. just chem class. anything else? nah i don't think so. i like this no school wednesday deal though. very good. we should do this more often. nite nite!

9.22.02
oh man... i really cannot stand bad annoying conductors...
or evil sadistic teachers...
but i am quite glad that i don't have to suffer through those toooo badly most of the time=)

5.21.02
jonny just drew me this wonderful theorem on the back of his circle of fifths worksheet, using his left hand. naturally i love jonny so it's gotta be posted. scroll down for other beautiful jonny drawings.

2.11.02
happy (lunar) new year!
another one of those weeks just went by where i just didn't do anything at all the entire week... hmm...
well i've had my lisence for over a year now and since my brain makes odd connections, i remembered when amy said something about how she'd been driving for 2 years or something like that... that was when she drove us around grand rapids when i went back to visit... so then i remembered hmmmm childhood idol... i actually had one... that'd be amy... and i never told her... actually i never even knew her that well (i still dont reaallyy...) but yes. so i started looking around the umich directory (just curious... and strange connections, like i said....)
what i found most amusing was the tafbrats email list. hehe =) ok yes my brain is hard to follow... incoherent =) but that's just too bad. not apologizing for my illogical logic.

1.22.02
been a while... i feel like i have no thoughts lately... i must have stopped thinking. this is my short bliss before third quarter... and the reality that i failed all my exams... sets in. gosh i soo hope i focus this quarter... i'm going to be so dead. SIGH. c'est la vie.
oh yeah, my homepage has been viewed 1234 times. yay =)
oooh and i should say thanks to all u guyses who said happy birthday... yes i've lived through 18 january 15ths. (that makes me 17, not 18) it was a good birthday, despite exams and studying and all the insanity that allllways manages to occur on my birthdays. LOVE YOU GUYS! =)

12.18.01
aaallmost break! 3 days to go. i can make it...
test scores are back for psats. sounds like a lot of people may be nms next year. good job guys =)
meanwhile, of course, everyone else is already on break... so jonny and conrad came over today. and this is what found on my computer desktop. it's my christmas present from jonny:

hahahahaaa
jonny also left his screenname online on this computer... haha good move.

11.3.01
i figure this is my website so i have the liberty to vent on it as much as i want. here goes! a letter to the chinese concert board that i'm refraining from sending (i'm reaaaal close to wanting to send it though)

what exactly am i supposed to be doing? i have at least 3 different versions of what i should be doing, coming from one committee. as far as i know, i'm completely throwing out my logo design and doing something with a running horse, instead of a standing one. i'm throwing out my other logo as well, and just using a square with "in" on, chinese it for music. i'm also throwing out the directory cover design, both mine and christina's, because we did exactly what we were told to do by AJ and the board decided they didn't want the sponsors listed there. you guys only wanted your logo and the benz logo, really big.
so item number two: why was buying the ad from CSYO rejected? considering the fact that the ad was approved 2 months ago and rejected today at noon, plus the fact that i didn't even get a call about it... i found out when i called mr chuang myself. well, it's due tomorrow and i'm required to sell two ads. but my family is just donating money and counting it as two. since this was the one advertisement that was cheap and made perfect sense, well nevermind then. i guess your budget doesn't allow for things that make sense. it only allows for our dinner at TGIFriday's and lunch from Subway-- things like that.
of course, it's not like i have the authority to be criticizing the committee. i'm absolutely in favor for the concert. i understand the vision and the mission. and i personally would go to see yin cheng zong if nothing else. but it is getting rather vexating being on this advertising team. it's not like i get anything out of it other than my own satisfaction of accomplishment. it is strictly volunteer. i'm not getting money and it's not like i'm doing it it for the sake of gaining volunteer hours. running around bethesda hospital is a lot easier and less stressful. this is probably mostly frustrations misdirected but note that my idea of a website hasn't taken form, my idea to sell a csyo ad didn't ever happen, my brother's horse logo isn't good enough, our directory covers weren't satisfactory, the letterhead wasn't good, in fact nothing we've done has been accepted. at all. but oh well, right? OH WELL! who cares. i certainly care less than i used to!

10.26.01
i wonder why it matters if i get an A or a B in half these classes

10.11.01
lovely palindrome dates hehe
we went up to wittenberg university for a east asian studies workshop type thing... supposedly they invite high school students/teachers to go and listen to lectures and presentations and things... but only our class and one other class from cleveland went...
we left at 4 on wednesday and got back at 530 today- thursday. the program was pretty boring... basically the entire point was to try and sell us on their school/east asian studies program. we had to sit through an elementary japanese class... aiyo that was pathetic... it was stuff we did 3 years ago... yeah
haha but anyway the good part was... it was all free, we had good food, we got to miss school (i felt like i was on vacation... haha), and it was definitely fun staying with the college girls =) my host had an awesome dorm room. & we stayed up til 3 AM. hehe... i dont wanna go to school tomorrow!!!

911
i have to say. sycamore certainly takes the uniqueness label for ways to handle crisis situations. 2 years ago, when they found a "mysterious brown paper package" we ended up stuck in our 4th bell class for a couple hours and they searched everyone's backpacks, afraid it was a bomb. after we went home early, they sent in a bomb squad and discovered that yeah. it was *gasp* a pack of napkins. yes napkins. but still, you've gotta respect their ability to take things seriously when they need to... i guess

so today. i walk into 3rd bell, this is about 910 AM. and however it is that people get information, one kid goes "yea did u know two planes crashed into the world trade center in new york?" i'm sure if he's kidding or mistaken, but i'm not really believing it. well we turn on cnn and sure enough, the twin towers are billowing with smoke. how do you react to something like that?

interesting how much we laughed today.

i'm glad i've seen:
that nyc taffers are safe
the im chain blurbs
intelligent conversations
people change

overall, yeah, i sympathize but to no degree can i empathize. it's all surreal to me. i feel so remote from it all... i feel very little connection to it all. in the middle of the day, our principal came on the announcements and he said over and over again that we were in the safest place we could be by being at school. honestly, that's how i felt. sycamore high school in a suburb of cincinnati, ohio. ohio vs. new york. so yeah, hard for me to grasp. it plays like a movie. especially when we saw "fire at the pentagon" flash at the bottom of the screen. almost makes you wanna go "aaaalright this is insane. whatever."

nevertheless, i hope everyone you're close to is okay. and i'm glad you all are okay. that's interesting too, isn't it? quite selfish. as if people don't matter if you don't know them.

well take care guys.

adding some of my essays from english. (yeahh these are long!)
musical blocks of wood: compare/contrast: violin & piano
the game we play: opinion paper: school is all a game

taf online newsletter article (edited version):
everyone loves taf

intelligent comments from the canoe/camping trip (and these were all sincere too):
the fire's hot.
there's wood in the woods.
what's that water sound?
i can light up the fire.

we say "don't judge a book by its cover"... but how is it any more justified to judge people by their intelligence and personality than to judge them by their appearance? people don't have any more control over brains than they do over looks

i don't get "just do your best". what's that supposed to mean? isn't there always more you could do, more you could've done? i don't think i've done my best in anything, really.

to the speaker of the anonymous monologue... please do not take offense; it's meant to be cute funny... we love u!

why be disappointed when you can accept and move on?

100%code|annawu