1. Super Obama World - Obviously a fusion of the 2008 election and Super Mario Brothers. Watch out for the Palin Snow Machine!
2. Crossword - A simple crossword puzzle on the internet. Or is it…?
3. Mod Cloth - Very cute items that have a retro/vintage style to them.
4. Vector Magic - An amazing website that shows you how to vector a specific image you have. One of the best tutorials in the history of best tutorials.
5. Rev.iew.me - Want your site reviewed? Click on this link. It’s like yoursite.nu, or the reviewing section of your favorite MB, but 10x better.
6. Double Picture Illusion - Do you see dolphins…or something not so innocent?
7. The Facebook of Genesis - Too lazy to read the Book of Genesis? Read this instead.

I stumble a lot, but I keep getting the same links to the same stuff. I’ve also booked a whole lot of tutorials on various things, so I’ll know where to go if I ever want to get started on making that darn theme. Visit my stumbleupon account (see link above) or delicious account for more linktastic links.

P.S. Anyone want cake?

Once upon a time, an Empress¹ woke up to a beautiful day. Why, it was none other than her sweet sixteen, a celebration of sixteen years of life! The day started off pretty well with a nice, big breakfast she made for herself. Her father bought breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds, but she was near close to finished making breakfast before seeing the bag of toxic seemingly tasty food.

Next, she arrived at choir rehearsal with someone yelling out, “Is it someone’s birthday?!” The Empress happily replied, “HELL YES!” and received many wishes from numerous folks in the choir. (That tiara she put on to show off sure did come in handy, even though it hurt her head for a bit.) The rehearsal itself went well, but she hope she don’t forget where she was placed in our grand show. Playing Poke’mon Sapphire with a friend’s Gameboy SP during breaks was awesome too. Ironically, nobody ever sang for her except two girls.

Even though some people didn’t end up going and rejected invitations last minute, the Empress didn’t lose hope. Her beloved sister and aunt brought leftover food for her at Claim Jumper, and her dear aunt delivered her present: 3 Ed Hardy shirts. Oh thank the lucky stars! After an hour of rest, she ventured over to Best Buy and encountered her two friends, Dillon and Christine, to receive my coveted iPod nano (iTouch was too expensive, as she later realized).

A few DDR sessions, one encounter with the boyfriend, and two smoothies later, the four of us watched Changeling together. It was a sad movie, but she loved every single minute of it. Even though it was long, the reader (aka you) should really go see it.

As Christine departed after the movie, the Empress, Emperor (boyfriend), and Chancellor (idkmybffDillon) took a trip to Olive Garden, to eat a confectionary of Italian dishes. The Empress was outraged at not being able to receive a free cake for her special day, but the Emperor and Chancellor reassured her it would be fine. Otherwise, the food was delicious. As a “sorry we’re so frickin’ cheap”² gift, she received a consultation gift of a dozen mints placed inside the check.

Finally, the day concluded with all three of our heroes stranded in the cold, waiting for carriage rides home. They made it in time, and all went home, tired yet satisfied with the outcome of the day. As the Empress had to get back to her life and work on that outside reading project she procrastinated on, she sighs and wishes it could happen over and over again as she keeps typing this blog.

And everyone lives happily ever after. The end.

¹ That’s me, in case you couldn’t figure it out.
² I wasn’t too pissed off for not getting my cake. I was just surprised they don’t give you things like that for free. =P

During middle school and most of freshman year, I was concerned of being “liked”. Not just in the romantic aspect, but being socially accepted into groups and being friends with people. Even though I have a boyfriend and a few good people I can trust and talk to about anything, I still feel somewhat unaccepted. I’m very independent, unlike before, but I’ve learned that most people interact with others just to gain something. Whether it be a few invites to parties, that put off math homework, or just acceptance in general, human interaction is one of the most important things to gain emotional stability and fulfill one’s needs. What would it be like if you couldn’t talk to anyone for the rest of your life, and isolated? I don’t know about you, but I’d probably go insane, and I’m one of the slightly more introverted types of people.

A psychologist by the name of Abraham Maslow has developed the human needs pyramid, which explains what humans need in order to maintain physical/emotional stability:

At the very bottom of this pyramid, the most important thing that makes up the foundation for this stability is physical needs. Things like “if you can breathe” and “if you have AIDS or not” fall into this category. The next thing is safety. Knowing where you are and making sure you won’t be jumped on any second in your neighborhood falls in this section. The third most important thing is social…the topic I talked about earlier. Feeling loved and belonging is important to most people. Why? It’s just human nature to feel accepted into humanity and feeling normal.

Let’s stop at the third level of the pyramid in this blog. I’m well aware that most teenagers claim to be “different” and are “random” or “crazy”. But really…I just see this all as a result of an inferiority complex. I believe that most people act this way just because they are sick of fitting into groups that they’ve been rejected from. Hell, even I’ve done it, more than most people know. Yes there are exceptions where people are actually “independent” instead of being those annoying non-conformist kids.

Truth is…in some way, we need human acceptance to work in the real world. If not, then what we do have to fall back on? What is it that we live for? Obviously, the very first thing we live for is ourselves, to make sure we survive. But once that’s fine and dandy, what else? Surely we need to interact with some people in our lives, otherwise people will mark us as crazy and put us in an insane asylum.

Independence is important, but let’s make sure that none of us step on people and see them as “evil” just because we can’t get our way from them. Someday, they may be rich and successful and probably deny your friendship just because of ignoring them in the past. People do remember these things and although may not hold grudges (some people at least), they will still remember emotional trauma and hardships more than anything else. After all, it is the emotional pains that give us a desire to achieve happiness even more and help us remember the true feeling of happiness.

And finally…the important question most of you are asking: “Merinn, what the hell was the point in all of this?”. It was just two days ago that I wanted to yell and scream at the world for not fitting in (personal issues), but I remembered what my ex said to me back when we were dating. He was a very logical and psychological person, and was looked upon for most problems. “People can’t understand you or even think of speaking to you if they don’t know what you’re trying to say,” he said. He convinced me that communication was important and I needed to break out of my shyness shell.

This entry is dedicated to all the shy/anti-social/reserved people out there. If you have a hard time making friends, one word like saying “hi” is all it takes. I still have a hard time breaking this shell, but I do try. It’s very healthy to socialize. Not like a party animal, but don’t withdraw yourself from the world. It’s good to gain independence from depending too much on people, but in a fast growing society like this, you just can’t do it alone.

I have a few tips on how to “break this shell” that work well for me, along with success rate percentages, but that’s coming up later.

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, an iPod touch. Now, I know that most people complain iPod products are expensive and break within the first six months. But seriously…if you break something that you’ve had for less than a year, obviously you’re not taking care of it very well. They’re not that weak. I’ve dropped my iPod many times and, aside from scratches that cover the entire glass surface on the back, it still works like magic. I don’t see why people have stigmas against Mac products. They look awesome, and I’m not a part of the whole bandwagon when I say this. It has wi-fi and 32GB, which is pretty good space. I’ve maxed out the 2GB space on my iPod nano sometime ago, which is why I can’t wait to get this thing.

Aside from this soon-to-be-mine iPod touch, I’m really not planning anything else. I wanted to learn to make a wordpress theme before my birthday, but that plan had an epic fail due to my schedule. Not to mention, there is a choir rehearsal on my birthday. Bleh. I probably should plan out something with friends, just to add to my many fun social experiences as a teenager before life gets harder and I can’t socialize as often.

I’ve also been thinking more about colleges after I keep hearing on the school announcements that so-and-so colleges are coming to our school. I plan to go to the Art Institute (well, one of them). Not only am I worried about school, but I’m also worried about the requirements. For several locations, they required a portfolio of projects in order to be accepted into the media arts (animation, game design, website design, etc.). I’m just thinking, “WTF?” I don’t exactly take those kinds of classes in high school, and most of whatever I make isn’t good enough to put on a professional portfolio to get into college. Oh well. At least I have backup colleges…

Tune in next week for more blogs, sponsored by teenage angst: when you need a moment, cry it out with a pillow. (sorry…I’m kind of high on energy drinks at the moment =P)

P.S. : I also wanted to say I’m sorry for two of my affies’ projects that I promised to help on but never really did. As I explained in my whole homework sucks and it should die rant, I’ve been ultimately busy setting my priorities straight. I know that you guys really wanted to unleash your respective projects, so I apologize deeply. I will help out whenever I get the free time, and finish taking care of my own site (and fanlistings) first.

This experience led me to think: “Is the real world strictly like this too?” Are there actually some people that shouldn’t go higher than what they already accomplished? Over and over again I have heard people say, “If you try hard enough, you will make it.” But what if you tried, and you’re still stuck at that same point? I’m not talking about the last entry I had concerning grades, because grades can change. I’m talking about one’s overall position in life. If you were the underdog before, are you going to be an underdog in the future? If you’re a born leader now, should you try and do things that have plenty of “leadership” experience when you grow up?

I understand that radical changes are possible, but can’t people do something different than what they were “meant” to? I may be a shy person, but I’ve always wanted to take the lead at least one time. It was my dream as a little girl to stand out in some way, and be a big star. Who doesn’t want to be famous, at least once? With performing (and anything else in life, really), one has to be confident, motivated, and determined to get what he or she wants, grueling in a long path of hard work before he or she gets to the top.

The quality of the voice wasn’t really a problem, since I’m in a group that has had a lot of training and amazing voices. I’ve also tried to relax myself before I went to sing, but I still had some anxiety before trying out. I’d be fine doing the underdog role for the rest of my singing career, but couldn’t I have just stepped outside of that role for my “15 minutes of fame”? (in chatspeak) plzzzzzzzzzz???????

In all my years of “maintaining a website”, I have never been this busy in my real life before to actually stop caring about it. I’ve stopped doing most of my hobbies (kamikraze included) because of schoolwork, and that has been my priority since day one. However, I have started to gradually care less and less about schoolwork as well.

I can’t quite explain the root of this dilemma since my mind is everywhere…but it’s along the lines of time management problems and laziness as influences. The influential adults in my life were seriously right when they tell me to find friends that give you “good” peer pressure, or actually influence you to succeed in life. Ever since middle school, 99.9% of my friends have been the lazy/procrastinating/BSing types that never cared too much about their education. Not all of them showed outward symptoms of it, but most of these friends either don’t have advanced classes or have extensive amounts of freedom to the point where they’ll do whatever they want, and no one (not even their parents) stops them.

Their “habits” haven’t affected me until this year…when I’m getting into their mindsets. Little by little my parents start to give me freedom in socialization, and of course the first people I go to for social times are my lazy friends. They’re the people that I generally hang out with and that are the closest friends I know. However, they’re pretty much useless for schoolwork help since I’m the person to bail them out for that kind of job. The few people that I know that do care about their grades are the ones that never pick up their phones/get online since they themselves have to do their own work.

Another problem that could contribute to this are the “influential adults” themselves, mainly my parents. Being raised in the 1960’s era of the Philippines, they have no frickin’ clue on the quality of education here in America 2008. [I'd say it's better now, but then again I wasn't around in the '60s.] However, the state that I live in has one of the worst standardized test grades, so my dad expects that I do fairly high in all of my classes. Problem is, he and my mom don’t know how much work I do in my classes. I get assigned 10 pages of notes from the history textbook, some reading evaluation shit in English, and 2 pages of math problems on a daily basis. My parents see this as normal for a “girl with high intellect” still in high school. I’ve explained this problem so many times to them, but they just don’t get it. They kept saying “we were teenagers once and it’s hard to stay focused and blah blah blah…”

Of course I have problems with concentration and forcing myself to do this with the other things I could be doing. What teenager doesn’t? But I’m trying my best. Until I do something really drastic, they don’t see that I can actually do the best that they want me to be. I could kind of see why they put a lot of pressure on me since my 32 year old sister never finished college, and my 20 year old sister failed a class in high school and struggles with college.

Finally…there is my school counselor. In my request of dropping out of physics honors, she has warned me that I might have a slightly lower chance of getting into really good colleges if I take “a regular class”. She wants me to “reach my full potential” and other stuff like that, and got very pissed once I made the switch. I told her that my reason for switching was I had to make things a little bit easier for myself and work on things at slower paces. Besides, most likely I’m headed for a state college/university anyway since the economy is bad (and even more personal reasons), and I don’t really need advanced courses for those types of schools.

Advanced classes are great for a higher education outside of high school, but I seriously have a snail’s pace for finishing most analytical work such as reading, note taking, etc. and when I’m not around a school-type setting I get distracted like no tomorrow. I’m trying to finish all my advanced classes for this year, but I’m not doing any for next year. Currently I am taking small steps such as sleeping early, limited amount of texting, and still shutting off my computer. It’s the big things such as my influences mentioned above that I’ll need a little help with.

Overall, I don’t know whether I need to step up my game, or the world needs to lower its bar so I can jump over it. I’m guessing both, but any kind of advice other than the obvious “gtfo the computer” will work. I sound so weak and helpless in my entry as a tone, but after I type this line in my blog I will start on math homework. =P

Anyways, enough beating around the bush. Here is what you just analyzed:

1. Your favorite animal symbolizes how you view yourself.
2. Your favorite color symbolizes how people view you, or how you want people to view you.
3. Your favorite food describes the kind of romantic relationship you want to be in. Yes, this one is weird, but if you think about it: love is sweet, cheesy (with all the little gifts and things you and your ideal significant other share), yummy, hot, etc. It is also the way you view love.
4. The reactions you have when trapped in a dark room is how you view death. The people that posted feelings about uncertainty, despair, and the like, are the more religious types. If not religious, at least somewhat kind and helping in real life.

So…if you are happy with your results, great! If not, please don’t kill me. Like I said before, this “test” isn’t on-the-spot accurate.

In a nutshell, this is an “analyzing-yourself” meme-type thing that’s taken for the hell of it. If you want to try this, keep reading and follow the instructions carefully. If you’ve seen this/taken this before, don’t ruin it for the other people that haven’t done it!

For the first three, do not say the thing that you are describing. Instead, use adjectives that describe the thing you are talking about.

1. Describe your favorite animal.
2. Describe your favorite color. If you’re having a hard time with this, use adjectives to describes the shade (bright, dark, neutral) and/or what feelings it represents (happy, sad, etc.)
3. Describe your favorite food.
4. You’re trapped in a dark room with no way out. Describe how you feel.

I’ll leave this up for a week or so, or at least until a good amount of people have answered this. Check back often, as I’ll tell you what you’ve just described about your life using the adjectives in my next blog entry. Happy analyzing!

Edit: Use at least 3 adjectives for each description.

Today however, my allergies have been acting up like crazy. I used so many tissues during my morning classes my teachers literally gave the box to me. While the flu is 10x more severe than normal allergies (and yes I know the difference), I thought that it was very weird that I get sick like this out of random. I work out once-twice a week, drink fluids, and (try to) resist the temptation to binge on snack foods. Yet, whenever my allergy symptoms come, I remain in a near bed-ridden state for a few days. It was okay during summer, but my school year hasn’t gotten any easier and I can’t afford to miss one day of school.

With things like this, I wonder if nature is telling me to go get a flu shot and start a strict regimen of more exercise, proper diet, and a full eight hours of sleep. Like everyone else, it’s telling me to stop being so damn lazy and take care of myself better, since throughout the year I’ve had 3-4 incidents like these.

Maybe I’m just impatient, but on the medicine my parents give me it takes WAY longer than 4-6 hours to make me feel like I’m in a decent state of health. I guess that’s what I get for settling with the generic stuff. If I get sick easily like this now, I really can’t imagine how much stuff I’ve got to take when I’m 40.

I really do hope that none of you other bloggers get sick. Otherwise, I’d have nothing to read on my feed reader once I get better.

=P

Whenever I share my iPod with people, four out of five are cool my taste of music. However, most of them go to more of my “popular” songs from Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, Pussycat Dolls, etc. I don’t have every single genre that was ever played on there, but some artists that nobody listens to with me are: Disturbed, Utada Hikaru, Van Halen, Rockapella, etc. Heck, I even have some stuff that 99% of my classmates wouldn’t even have on their mp3 players like classical, 50s and 60s jazz, broadway, etc.

It’s pretty interesting to find out what people’s tastes in music are, but seriously. I hear these popular songs like 39487329847239874938 times on the radio…must you listen them on my iPod too? Whenever I look through other people’s mp3 players, 85% of the time I always end up finding the same radio crap over and over again. What is even worse is when I have to listen to the same radio crap full blast into my ear. Now c’mon. Do you want to be deaf by the age of 40? It not only makes my ear ring for the next half an hour, but I lose most of my hearing for five minutes.

I also find it pretty funny that when I have something unusual on my iPod and people find it, they’re like “WTF is this?” It’s usually when they find some sort of Asian (not just Japanese) music, old (past the 90s) songs, or some song you would hear on Youtube like The Hamster Dance and Shoes. Sometimes I feel embarrassed, but my music is my music.

The most varying iPod music that I have ever seen is on my best friend’s iPod. He leans to the genres of rock/alternative/metal, but he has some other interesting stuff like rap, techno, pop songs, etc. He too also has to deal with people staring at him weirdly whenever they find something “questionable” to their ear.

So anyways…what kind of music does your iPod/Zune/whatever have? What are some songs that people like on it, and what are some songs they dislike?

If you can, please add me on last.fm. I know it seems like I never go on much of anything on the internet anymore, but I’m always open to listening to anything.