Time

  I haven't updated for a long time, but I feel like I should to make up for all that I didn't type in here.
First of all, the seniors are getting more and more pressure from homework and tests since the teachers have to get our grades in for college applications. As for college applications, the deadlines are coming up, and everyone is rushing to finish their essays and send their envelopes before the deadline. I'm just glad that I finished mine (though technically it wasn't me who finished it, but whatever). I guess I could say that I'm making it through and catching up on most of my work that I missed when I went to Singapore.
  Singapore was pretty fun. The conference was a little bit upsetting the first day since I was feeling uncomfortable and extremely emotional, but the other days were way better. I can't believe that our debate turned into a concert! (The delegate of Norway was really funny and humorous, and our chairs were pretty cute as well) The resolution I co-submitted passed with flying colors, as well as Jingmin's resolution. James passed his resolution as China, which is pretty good, and Amanda almost passed a resolution on the issue of DPRK in the Human Rights Council, which is damned impressive. I went shopping for two nights, but somehow I didn't buy anything on Orchard Road because I either didn't find something I like, or everything was too expensive. The food was good, though. When we went to the airport, I went crazy and bought a bunch of stuff. Though I'm still disappointed that I didn't spend all of my money (and I'll have to wait for so long until I get the chance to again).
  Christmas is coming, and I can't wait for the holidays. The senior class hasn't start to prepare for our performance (which is really annoying). The hip hop dance class is also going to perform, which is annoying as well, but oh well, what can I do? Sports day is also coming, which is even more annoying (yes I know I'm saying annoying a lot but seriously, everything is annoying these days). I haven't exercise for a heck of a long time, and I can almost be certain that I will die when that day comes. Hope I can somehow get sick on that day so I don't have to go and play tug of war and obstacle race. Speaking of being sick, I caught a cold in Singapore, and it just recently went away.
  Once again, I can't wait until Christmas break so I can go back to Tainan and relax, play, and don't worry about anything. I have two objectives: update at least two chapters for my story Our Hearts Intertwined, and finish my dance routine.

Flight

  Four hours ago my brother departed to the airport for his airplane flight back to Washington Seattle, America. His second year of college is starting in a few days, so he has to go back a little bit earlier to move into his newly rented apartment with five other people.

  I'm quite happy now that he's in the airport (still is) because the house seemed to have reverted back to its usual quite peace and calmness, which I missed for the three months that he had been home. His presence seemed to take up a lot of space - too much space actually - and it's really annoying that whenever you pass the hallway you trip on his (damned) long legs. I'm also happy because I no longer have to argue with him over petty little things and issues, and one less annoyance is one more peaceful day for me.

  The only bad thing is that I'm responsible for and have to do the chores at home from now on.

MUN

  Today we had our first diagnostic Model United Nations conference, after school. Our topic for this diagnostic was the illicit trafficking of small arms and weapons. I was the country of Peru. Peru is quite a main country for this issue; the country has passed and ratified a lot of laws and regulations concerning illicit trafficking of small arms and weapons, and there are also many implementations concerning this policy.
  The conference started out with the two MUN counselors giving some information concerning model united nations. Then, we proceeded to lobby for fifteen minutes, followed by the actually debating, which took one hour. I have to be honest and say that even though I did research on the topic for my country, I didn't really read the resolution. Therefore, I didn't participate in the debate, other than during the voting procedure. I personally think that today's debate was not very efficient and productive. The amendments and clauses were only minor, and did not change the resolution too much as a whole. Maybe the next diagnostic debate would be more efficient and productive.

+ HW

  Today I realized not for the first time that taking days off could mean so much extra homework, especially if you were sick, like me. The physical strain of trying to keep awake or clear headed when working on assignments is just too much. So much that I had to take a nap just to recuperate. And to think, I only took a half day off! For AP Microeconomics, we had homework from Ch.1, and then we had to complete the Study Plan, which too A LOT of time. Too much time. Then we also had to read Ch.3 in our textbook, as well as Ch.1 in our novel (which is pretty good by the way). Finally, we are going to have our unit 1 test on Friday. And all this is only for AP Microeconomics.
  For AP English Language and Composition, or APELC for short, we had to read until Ch.2 for two of our books, and for one book we had to write notes. Then we had to write an entry for our class journal. We also need to prepare a presentation that is due on Friday. So much stuff. Fortunately, I got a small portion done now.
  Still working to keep up!

Revived

  This morning I felt a little uncomfortable, but I guess it was nothing too much. However, after my calculus test, I started to feel really uncomfortable. I had study hall for second period, and I was originally planning to type my story, but I was feeling so uncomfortable I went to sleep on the sofa. It didn't really help much, and when I wanted to go get some water after the lunch bell ran, I suddenly felt like I wanted to throw up. And I did. I'm glad that I was able to rush to the bathroom before I threw up.
  After that I took the day off, called my mom, and went home. The first thing I did went I got back home was sleep. It did me some real good. I feel way better after that sleep. I woke up around two hours later, ate my first meal of the day, did some math, then went back to sleep again. Then I woke up around eight and just sat on the sofa doing nothing until I finally decided that I should do some work.
  I feel so tired right now, and I really want to crash. I haven't even eaten my dinner yet and it's already night thirty. I really have to look out for my health...

Love Challenges

  I'm almost done with my first fan fiction! This story is actually not the first one that I wrote. In fact, it's like, the eighth or ninth one that I started to write. Yes, started to write; the main point is that this story is the one that's gotten the closest to being finished! I have to confess though, this story is a one-shot, unlike my other stories, which are multi-chapter. Still, I'm pretty happy with my story because it's kind of long, and I like the way it developed.
  I especially like the name of the story. It's a small romance story, and it's called "Love Challenges" because, as the name implies, the plot centers on (well, not really centers on, but depends on) a challenge. The name of the story can actually have two meaning, with "love" as an adjective or as a verb. When "love" is an adjective, the name means "challenges of love". When "love" is a verb, it means that I/we/the characters love the thing called a challenge. The story was originally going to be called "Love Pranks", but then "Pranks" changed to "Challenges" because it's pretty hard to write and develop the plot with a prank. So in the end, I opted for "Challenges".
  Anyways, I think I might be able to finish it either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. I'm going to keep working hard!

TOEFL

  I finished my TOEFL yesterday! The test was alright in general, but I think I failed my speaking section. There were six questions, and I bombed three of them. For one, I was stammering a lot and combining two words when I was reading. For the other one, I didn't have enough time to finish, and the sentence that I wanted to finish was actually just BS. The last one was the worst: I had sixty seconds to talk, and I only did for thirty eight, meaning that I left twenty two seconds of blank recording! Which sucks. But! I'm already done with the test, so I guess I'll just have to wait to see if I bombed the whole test in general or not (of course I hope not).
  Today, there was also some good news. I went online and checked to see if my Japanese N3 test scores were out or not, and they were. Surprisingly, I passed! Which is really weird because I didn't review for the test AT ALL. I didn't go to classes, I didn't self-study, and I didn't do practice tests. Still, I'm glad I passed, because that means my mom no longer has any more complaints.
  One more thing for today: I got my new glasses that I ordered yesterday! My head's spinning right now because my eyes and brain are not accustomed to the degrees of my new glasses. Things do look clearer, but then my brain is spinning, so everything is blurry again. I guess I'll have to wait for a day or two until I can look at something properly without seeing stuff beside things.

Health

  I just realized today that I really need to watch out for my body. I've been neglecting it for quite a while now. I don't give it enough sleep, and it has wounds and injuries all over it. I scratched my finger this morning, as well as my toes. Also, I went to the hospital today to discover that my illness from half a month ago has not yet fully healed, which is why my back is hurting like hell. My blood pressure also went up above the average level for teenager my age.
  I really have to find a way to discipline between college work, homework, extra work, test preparations, and rest. I'm taking the TOEFL tomorrow and I'm still here typing my journal. I just finished reviewing for the TOEFL. Why am I still doing it as this hour? Because I totally didn't prepare for it, and I need to at least know the format for the test.
  Anyways, I'm going to sleep now. Wish me good luck! Good night.

Lazy + Smart = ?

  Today I have been thinking about a character for my story, and I have been debating with myself as to what type of job he should be doing. His personality is as follows: he is lazy, but has a very high intellect and is especially good at planning and creating strategies for about everything. Now, I have a few options for his career. The first one is a very common job found in stories; he's a businessman. His intellect would be very favorable for creating business plans to help the company profit. But then again, he's lazy, so he would be procrastinating a lot (which may get him fired). Option two is a private investigator. I believe that this one is the best option. His smart mind will be able to help him in investigations and related jobs, and even though he's lazy, he will have time to rest between jobs (and he can decide whether or not he wants to accept a job). The last option is similar to the second one. He's a policeman. But the cons are that he's lazy, and being a policeman means that he has to be at work on time. So I guess option two is the best. I'm still deciding.
  I also have to take into consideration that his girlfriend is a fashion line designer, along with his girlfriend's best friend. In my story, this character's job must be able to help his girlfriend in some way, but I don't know in what way. If he's an investigator, then maybe he will help his girlfriend's best friend with investigating something about the male protagonist (this character isn't the main character). I guess I'll have to work it out.

Tired

  I know it's kind of ridiculous that I'm already so tired and it's only the second week of school. Even though we have SAT Reasoning and Math II classes and college brainstorming for the next three days, I'm kind of glad that we get to take a break from that entire homework load. We still have them, but at least I know I can relax and do them at a pace that's not too slow but still comfortable for me.

  I feel like my brain's bursting from all the homework, practice tests, essays, and readings for classes that we have to do and complete. And it's really draining that I know when I wake up tomorrow I'm just going to have to face this all over again, and I absolutely dread it. It seems so far away until I will finally be able to escape this pressuring and stressing routine. But then again, right after I escape from all this, I plunge into another similar routine called college. I guess this is why I hate studying. The only part that I like is that I get to spend time with other people, and not all alone by myself. I'm not saying that I don't like it myself. It's just that I'm afraid that one day I might get isolated from other people.

  Anyways, what I really need right now is a whole week of sweet, sweet sleep. Goodnight!

Sacrifice

  Today I read a story that had tears forming and threatening to fall. A few of them escaped, and I wondered about one thing that was my moral of the story: sacrifice. What is sacrifice? Why do people sacrifice for others? I cannot help but not understand the feeling and meaning of someone doing so. All my life, sacrifices seemed so far-fetched from something that I would do, especially when it concerned life and death issues. I asked myself, would I give my life away to save someone I loved? My honest answer to that is that I don't know. I don't know because I never felt something that was even close to that type of strong emotion of love. Then I asked myself, do I yearn for love? And this time my answer was a bit clearer: yes, because I want to experience all that is good about it; and no, because I never want to be faced with a situation that has to do with sacrifice. It might seem like a coward's way of thinking, but after all that I've seen and heard, I don't think that I will be able to take a thing as heartbreaking and emotionally stressing such as sacrificing. If someone else did it for me, I would wallow in the guilt and not be able to live a proper life. I guess that I would be blaming myself for that person's sacrifice, and like the male protagonist of the story, be afraid to open up to anyone else and be afraid to love again. I don't know if my views of love and sacrifice will ever change, but I hope that one day I can find someone who will be able to open me up enough, like the female protagonist did the male protagonist.