5 hours and counting

I waved giant happy new year's eve signs (i was holding the eve). i got a giant nivea hat. technically i snatched it from someone behind me... craziness.
i screamed at cameras. i watched greyson chance perform live - that kid is so adorable! god i am loving this.

watched ke$ha perform. try dancing your butt off while screaming a song at the top of your lungs and with no care at all that a million people are in the same square as you. just go try it. :D

4hrs! backstreet boys and 1 million people singing i want it that way. and hat throwing!

1 hour awayy!!!! GOT TO SEE TIAO CRUZ. oh my dear god there are so many people. jeezums. confetti like paper fairies

New Year's Eve Times Square!!!

8:00 just got into nyc. been up since 6am getting ready (there is so much food stuffed in my bag) and getting dressed (i'm wearing 3 layers of pants ><). i watched the sun rise over the highway.
in times square now.... not that many people yet, me and sally are just wandering. the stage and stuff are all being set up for tonight :D
went by the ABC studio and saw a crowd of people in there. apparently they opened the doors at 6am and took a bunch of people off the street for today's Good Morning America. saw a few famous people.... too bad i dont watch the show so i don't know anyone lol. (edit: google says that this is Robin Roberts o: )


9:30ish. sitting in mcdonalds lol. its cold.

12? left McDonalds about an hour ago, after draining my water bottle and then emptying my bladder. no bathroom starting from now, for the next twelve hours. dear god.
i'm sitting on a plastic bag on the street of times square... the nivea stage where ke$ha is scheduled to perform is about 10ft away from me :). i have pictures with things that will never go near the internet - if you want to see them you'll have to ask xD. think "only in nyc"
now the crowds start filing in and the boredom comes. joy...

1: a few people next to me just got interviewed by cnn! :O  i wonder if i got in.... on the edge of the screen.
Just signed giant posters/signs that this guy made. I have no idea who he is. Nor does he know any of us. Oh well. pretty cool idea though.

~time lapse~ sorries. there were about 3 hours where i was just standing around completely unable to move... pretty fun. we were caught in limbo between the crowd who could see the film crew arrival and the crowd up front by the stage. LG had a giant billboard that you could text messages to and they'd post it up. i texted a happy new year message to my iple group -- it either never was put up or i never noticed it. some girl next to me said she texted "yo front, what's going on up there?". no reply yet lol.
met quite a few interesting people. one of them is from indiana. the other one starting yelling when my mom began to peel oranges (he was certain she'd need to have a bathroom break because of it). there were so many people squashed into that space it was even difficult for us to make room and let people out to use the bathrooms at all.
then the police they started shepherding us back and forth and penning us up-i swear that's what the nypd called it-before settling down in a crowd along the side of the NIVEA stage. phew.

5 hours to go! Just watched the first hourly countdown + fireworks. :)

New Years Eve Times Square: 12.30.2010

the prep:

i'm going to do this real quick before i go sleep, seeing as its midnight and i have to wake up at 5am tomorrow to go to new york city.

spent an hour or so googling faqs on the whole affair, and then spent the past half hour looking for clothes to wear tomorrow. layers layers layers. all in the icy winds and recent slush of the greatest city in the world.

i'm so excited!

even though I went already last year, that was entirely different. Entirely different.


i'll be updating throughout the day tomorrow!

cheers and good night! :)

New Year's Eve Times Square: the first experience

this was last year's trip. probably one of the craziest, most epic experiences of my life. i was planning to use this as an app essay, but I guess not :)
anyway. happy reading

“Don’t come. It’s so crowded there’s no room!” With that, my grandmother left, leaving my parents and me frozen in shock.

It was New Year’s Eve, three hours until midnight.

“If they don’t want us at their dinner, we’ll make our own New Year’s dinner.”

Even so, I still had an unshakeable feeling of loneliness. I looked forlornly at the television, at the millions celebrating in New York…

“New York City? You can’t get there. Everything will be blocked.

“You can’t find parking now.

“You can’t make it in time.”

“There’s nothing to lose.” My mom and I left. The clock was ticking.

10:30. “What if Lincoln Tunnel really is closed?”

It was dark and ominously silent. The only thing we could see was the pale stretch of asphalt before our lonely headlights. I saw the panic in her eyes, and felt it within myself.

11:00. The car burst out the other end of the Lincoln Tunnel. The city was alive with celebration, flooded by a wash of rainbow colors. It seemed like half the world was out on the streets.

 11:12. “This is too good. How can I be so lucky to find a spot so big, right now?”

I already had one foot in the slushy snow. The car was sitting indecisively on 49^th Street. Times Square was just seven blocks away. “Just park! We can’t miss this!”

11:45. “Sorry. This area is closed,” the NYPD told us at 49^th. And 48^th. And 47^th. The closer we got to 42^nd, to the heart of it all, the more blocked it became. Persistently, I headed uptown. There has to be an open street somewhere.

11:50. “Quick! It’s open!”

I grabbed my mom, jammed into the crowd, and swarmed through the open roadblock.

“Ten minutes!” My voice was lost in the screaming masses.

“I don’t know if we can make it!”

“We’re going to!”

11:55. “There’s a gap here.”

I squeezed through and grabbed the cold metal railing that separated me from the center of Times Square. I could see the one million, freezing, cheering, and ecstatic beyond belief. Just like me.

11:59. One million voices rose into the air. 60. 59. 58… I added mine, declaring the numbers loud and clear.

31. 30… The railing opened. I joined the hundreds who were rushing towards the moment where it all counted.

22. 21. 20… The numbers left my lips in elated screams. I was vibrating with excitement.

10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1! The clock struck twelve as a million voices filled the winter air in one deafening chorus: Happy New Year! A shower of confetti exploded from the heavens. A golden bubble of bliss descended upon New York City.

1:00. The headlights glowed brilliantly, one star among hundreds along the glowing streets. I looked out into the clear night sky, at the millions of celebrating people, the almost tangible promise of possibility. One billboard caught my eye. Bright, simplistic, unmistakable, three words: Go for it.

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!

Since its Christmas Eve and I probably won't be anywhere near a computer tomorrow...

Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays! :D

Blood Moon on Solstice Night

In 1638, on a cold winter night in December, the darkest and longest night of the year, a full moon rose overhead. It cast its light out over the land and bathed everything in a wash of red.

Last night, the same full moon, eclipsed into a dark red hue, hung in the black sky of winter solstice.

Now that I got that out of my writer's system....
Yes, it's true. Last night, December 21 2010, the full moon came into a complete lunar eclipse on the night of Winter Solstice. It took 372 years for the earth, moon, and sun to line up and coincide with the passage of time to allow for this. It's only the second time that this has happened in the common era (according to wikipedia).

I spent quite a long time lying in bed, wondering if I should go out and see the moon, or if I should, at the very least, pull up my blinds. Then I freaked out. Why? Call me superstitious, but a total lunar eclipse on the darkest night of the year just didn't sit too well with me. There's a reason that some people refer to last night as "blood moon on solstice night."
Basically, three major things happened: there was a full moon, it was Winter Solstice, and there was a total lunar eclipse. From a spiritual/Wiccan perspective...
Full Moon -- the time when spiritual and magickal energy are at their height. If there was ever a time to pray or do rituals, particularly for protection, it's during full moon.
Winter Solstice -- the darkest and longest night of the year -- signifies the of the Sun. Except the birthing part doesn't happen until the next day, when daylight hours are a fraction longer. During Solstice (Yule), the world is in a standstill of symbolic darkness, lit only by the light of the Moon -- the Goddess.
Lunar Eclipse -- I never know what to make of these, since some cultures (ex: Chinese) view such an event as an omen. Wicca sees it as another time when magickal powers heighten, as the three main celestial bodies around us align perfectly. It also shows the passage of all the moon phases in one night, and therefore the cycle of the goddess -- maiden, mother, crone -- which can lend to ritual work.

The issue is: this has only happened once before. There is no tradition or guideline regarding this whole affair. Quite a few people out there are using the combination of these three events for special work, and see the balance of power and forces, unions and dynamics. Others, like yours truly, are wary of this double delumination -- that of the sun and the moon -- and speculate occult activity.

Either way, I decided upon two things: I'm honestly very happy that such a rare event has occured in my lifetime, even though I was too scared to see it. I also recognize, and felt, the force of power and energy last night, no matter what it meant. Some things in nature are truly beyond our understanding, so rather than try to answer everything, we should probably just sit back and let ourselves feel the majesty and perpetual wonder of this world we live in.

Reminisce

I am happy. Apps are over and done with/put away never to be looked at for several years (if not decades).

I reorganized my bookshelf, so that one shelf holds a mulitude of my past school things:

• a calendar from when I was in 5th grade -- I was anal enough back then to mark the few due dates, assignments, projects, and events that I had (like the 5th grade play rehearsals + performances lol)
• 7th grade Verbal essays, Night (Elie Wiesel) notes, Julius Caesar (Shakespeare) notes, research notecards. Wow. We actually had to write notecards. (6th grade got lost)
• 8th grade poems & Freshman writings (some)
• Sophomore essays, negatives and prints from photography -- some are surprisingly nice, like the ones I uploaded here. Psych notes, pre-calc notes (why aren't those burned? o.o), World History stuff, Chem stuff
• Junior year stuff -- the millions of SAT I, SAT II, and AP books -- isn't on the shelf, particularly the APUSH binder. They're bequeathed to my sister.
• Folders from Frosh RMC, RUMUN 08 :), RUMUN 09 <3, RMC West Wing, duotangs! and some notes and speeches from past Model UN tryouts
• the Clarion paper that I was featured in for Runaway
• Handwritten manuscripts for Runaway, SQuared, and the new novel I was working on this November
• my 2 proof copies for Runaway
• Envelopes that I was supposed to give to guidance to send to all the others schools I planned to apply to but ended up not ;)

Eight years of my educational history (except for 6th grade D:) all culminating to this moment. JHU 2015 :)

"Jonathan" Hopkins ;)

Interesting day.

In the morning, I headed over to Chittick to volunteer for Buddy Ball. Basically, its a place where disabled kids can play basketball. Most of the volunteers there ("pals") actually do play basketball. I can probably count off one hand how many times my aimlessly thrown shots actually made it in the basket. oh well.
I just have to say that those hours that morning were one of the most rewarding hours of my life. There was must so much community spirit in that little gym (elementary school gyms are smaller than I remember). No one really cared who won or lost, everyone was just happy doing drills and playing ball. There was even this one boy, probably in middle school or so, who was working with this really tiny kid who seemed kind of shy when it came to shooting. So the pal ended up going down on one knee so he was level with his buddy, put his well practiced hands over his buddy's nervous ones, and helped him shoot from down on the floor. It was honestly the most adorable and heart warming thing I saw in a long, long time.
Even though I honestly can't play basketball to save my life, I got a lot of fun running up and down the court watching my assigned "buddy" shoot hoops like a pro.
I might be using the bball words wrong but oh well.

Right after, I went to tutor. I'm going to say it again, just like I did all the time when I taught over the summer: I love my students. I love utterly their creativity. To a writer, creativity is gold. I just want to say to them: keep up the good work & happy holidays! <3
I also happened to be wearing a Johns Hopkins shirt. One of them saw it and asked if I was going to "Jonathan Hopkins University."
"It's Johns Hopkins. Johns with an 's'."
It's true what the students/alum say. Once you're a Hopkins student, you get kind of sensitive about the s.

physics/iple/whatever am I going to do about that JHUMUNC paper?

Winterize

This is, without the slightest shadow of a doubt, one of my most favorite times of the year. por quoi?

Christmas/the Holiday Season, even though I'm not Christian.
I think Christmas represents more than being Christian. It's the magical joy and cheer that permeates every particle that is in the air during this time between Black Friday and Christmas Day. If Jess Yang were here, I'd ask her to figure out the chemistry of what exactly that joy and cheer is. There is just so much love and possibility, it makes apps and the coming of decisions almost bearable. Not the mention the fact that it makes me want to sing holiday songs at the top of my lungs (now that is saying something, since not even Adina has heard me sing that much in our twelve years of friendship).

As with every year, I need to make everything in my life ready for this season. I just put up my Christmas tree on Saturday. It's glowing rainbow colors on my floor right now, and all glittery with our baubles from when I was five years old (whatever is left/hasn't shattered yet) and the other assortment of ornaments saved up over the years. Outdoor lights should go up this weekend, hopefully. My internet themes are all changed, and I am singing... in the quiet privacy of my bedroom.
Trips to NYC are due, parties to attend, presents that need to be bought, cookies to be baked, popcorn for the reindeer...... everything.

Because, quite honestly, it's the most wonderful time of the year. :)



Success - day 30

50,278 words so far  

In case anyone was wondering, it is possible to rush 4000-5000 words of a novel on a school day when you have an IPLE paper to mass edit/finish. All before midnight.
Actually I finished at 11:40 something.

Definitely not as dramatic as my first NaNoWriMo, where I literally put in just over 50,000 words at 11:59pm (I was shaking in my bedroom from excitement), but still very adrenaline rushing.

Now for the whole noveling business...

First of all, I need a title for this new story. This is always a problem for me. A lot of people ask me, "if you're a novelist, why do you hate titles so much?" I just do. Noveling is a lot of expansion. It's difficult, for me at least, to condense everything -- emotions, tone, plot, etc. -- of a chapter into a few words, much less the contents of an entire novel into one title. Runaway had chapter titles. After that book, I gave up and fondly title them all "Chapter 1, 2, 3..." As for the book title, I grab a random word that shortens the idea of the book and it just sticks. Runaway is definitely better than "the book where four girls run away for a year." SQuared is infinitely better, and I guess catchier, than "that book with the squared numbers and roots." Perhaps I should just do that again, although I do not seem to be as attached to this story as I was to my previous two books..... Might have something to do with the length (this one is probably half as long as Runaway).

For some odd reason, I also hate coming up with character names and I hate coming up with titles. For Runaway, all my character names were from an online website with specific meanings attached to them, so no biggie there. But for SQuared. Oh my goodness. All my names were provided by my friend, Fanny. Even the name "Luvelle", which she entirely made up off the top of her head and is now one of my favorite names.

But looking back, I think I should take a break from noveling. For one thing, I don't read very much when I'm writing -- I don't want the authors' writing style to influence mine. Also, I really need to be focusing on college apps. Noveling makes me far too fluffy and descriptive of a writer, which isn't good when I only get 200-500 words per supplemental essay.

We'll see. I said this exact same thing after I finished SQuared, and I still ended up doing NaNoWriMo again anyway.

oh the joy of winning. Even if it is a clash of your will/determination against common sense and time.

and now to sleep

I'm Going to Hogwarts...

via Union Square Station

college apps? who needs those when I can take Dark Arts and Charms and expand my room to twice the size it really is. All I want now is the Hogwarts letter :)

btws.
1) Who was disappointed when they turned 11 and didnt get the letter?
2) Anyone ever wonder...
    What their own wand would be?
    What House they'd end up in?
    What their Patronus would look like?
3) Who really wants to play Quidditch, right now?

Day 22

um I kind of suck at this whole NaNoblogging thing, particularly when I hardly have time to write, much less blog.
Anyway, I caught up almost 10000 words over today and yesterday. Sometimes I question my sanity.

Also, are there any NaNo people out there in East Brunswick? I feel horribly lonely. Knowing that just one other person who's as crazy as I am makes things a little bit better. Especially when I need to spew about my plot in ways that saner people probably wouldn't understand (ie: I feel horrible that I just impregnated my main character and completely ruined her life.)

Or maybe its just the Rihanna song that I'm listening to that is depressing me right now, but I needed a soundtrack to go with the dark pages I was writing. Maybe I should write about happy rainbows next time, just for a change of mood...

Then again, I have too many plot ideas swirling around in my head to think up of a new one. For one thing, I have to write the story of my great-great grandfather, and his whole part in the Wuchang Uprising/Xinhai Revolution of 1911 that overthrew the Qing Dynasty. I promised myself I'd try to finish that one by Oct. 10 of next year in time for the 100th anniversary of the Wuchang Uprising. Not sure if that's possible. Not sure what my mental state would be if I do make it... Interesting to undertake though.

7:44pm. IPLE time. ><

Ke$ha + Harry Potter?

I found this online! lololololol
(set to Tik Tok)

Wake up in the morning feelin like Lord Voldy
Grab my spellbook from out the drawer
I'm gonna hit Diagon Alley
Before I leave let my owl out, and make sure I pack
Cause when I leave for Hogwarts, I aint comin back

Im sayin' im the one the dark lord Knows Knows
Tryin on our new robes robes
Goblins keeping all our gold gold
Train-hoppin buying our favorite candies,
goin to the castle parties
Trying to get everyone sooooorrteddd...

[Chorus x2]
Don't pick Gryffindor
I dont wanna be a bore
Tonight, sort us right
Slytherin is Dynamite
Hufflepuff dont got the stuff
Ravenclaw is not enough, nooOoOoo OoooOoo

And got a care in the world but got plenty of butter beer
Aint got no problems with Dumbledore and Snapes Chillin right here
And now the girls are lining up, cause they hear we're death eaters
But we kick em to the curb if they're mudbloods like Miss Granger

I'm talkin bout everybodies got dark marks marks
we're trying to raise them up up
gonna bring the dark lord back back

Now now we going until the prophecies true true
or the Order shuts us down down
Order shuts us down down
Order shuts us...

[Chorus x2]

You are the one
You killed the spare
My dark marks hot yeah it burns me
With my wand up
Put your wand up
You got that spell yeah avada

You are the one
You killed the spare
My dark marks hot
Yeah it burns me
With my wand up
Put your wand up
Put your wand up up up up up up up

Now the party dont start till Voldemort wins

[Chorus x2]

The story that launched a thousand (millions?) viewers

Call me crazy, but in a short while I'm leaving to go watch the midnight showing of Harry Potter 7!!

There are just some things where you have to grasp the chance, because even if you try to make up for it, it doesn't feel the same (much like 1st time weddings :D)
This is one of them.

From a writer's standpoint, JK Rowling is my idol. She is amazing. The Harry Potter books are books that I grew up with (I was 8 years old when I read the first one, and was in 8th grade when I read the last one), largely because her stories are that captivating and appealing to so many people. Every reading brings out new ideas and themes and things I never picked up on before. Each book penetrates a certain maturity that you won't realize until you are at that level of maturity (ex: 4th graders can read HP5 and not really get anything out of the OWLS studying part--I know I didn't at the time. Read it again as a high schooler with APs to study for and all of a sudden.....)
That series was designed, whether she intended for it or not, to grow with her readers. We grow and mature as the characters do. After trying my own hand at novels, that is honestly a very difficult and amazing feat.
If anyone has influenced me to pursue a level of noveling/writing that was deeper than just words, it's JK Rowling.

school night? no biggie. I'll just see it as any other night that I stay up till 3am and then slug off to school at 7 the next morning. my work is finished anyway.

There is only one problem: I CANNOT FOR THE LOVE OF MY LIFE FIND MY GRYFFINDOR SCARF. that is a problem.
I shall hunt now.

"Just Kiss Already!" -- day 17

I just realized. My main characters, who are madly in love with each other, have not kissed.... or hugged.... or even held hands..... Nor will they ever. [O__________o] That's upsetting
Probably because I'm giving the girl away to a guy old enough to be her father, in the next 5 pages or so.
I'm upset enough about that to yell at myself for putting the poor girl through this. Or I'll go yell at her parents... At one point, I was typing and found myself yelling "Just kiss already!" at the computer screen. They didn't.
That's another quirk about writers: we talk to everything that can be talked to: real people, our characters (aka fake people?), inanimate objects, voices in our heads that pop out of nowhere, the paper, the darn pens that just have to run out of ink in the middle of a climax.... you get the picture.

Word Count update? Somehow, I managed to get myself behind. Again. Not my fault though: last night, I had to...
-study for Anatomy test (and memorize every last bone & joint in the human body; not even kidding)
-memorize To Be or Not To Be (via sporcle! and incessant muttering to myself)
-finish IPLE speech (I do believe our group set a record on how quickly we got it done)
-uh..... I ignored Stat studying.

  So basically this is where I'm at. 27,720 words, with 614 more to go if I want to be "all caught up." Fun stuff.

It's 9:14 and I still have English homework. How did this happen? Why does it feel like it's seven o'clock? Where has my brain disappeared to?

Here Comes the Bride (day 15)

I'M BEHIND BY 2867 WORDS!! (hence the sad panda)

ok. Now that I got that out of the way...

We talked about weddings in lunch today, with Jess (Yang) having quite a cynical take on the whole affair (she doesnt think weddings are as special as some people, like me, make them out to be). I think weddings are something to be cherished, at least the first time around. You only get your first wedding once, just like your first kiss, date, etc.... It's not as fun the second time around (I think).
But Jess did note something quite interesting about me while we were discussing this. I can't, for the love of my life, plan for next week or even for tomorrow, but I have my wedding planned out. I'm not usually the type to be dictatorial (I'll leave that to certain people in my AP IPLE class), but my wedding better go as I plan it. I'm also a dreamer (even though I never, ever remember any of my dreams unless they're the ones that scare me awake), which I don't if that's a good or bad thing.

But since this is supposed to be about NaNoWriMo... Our conversation, and Jess's views on marriage, reminded me of the fact that I am marrying off my main character... to a man who is over twice her age. To those of you who have read my writing/book, this is kind of strange for me. I can pick off characters one by one in SQuared, but I always try to make the love story aspect a decently happy ending (shush to those who know how SQuared ends). But I've never destroyed a love story so early on in the plot. For goodness sake, I'm only at 22000 words. That's barely a quarter of the way for my usual novels (even though I have a feeling this book might actually end around the 50k).
Now I have to go back to thinking about how I'm going to grind out the next 3000words. I wish my characters would just do something already. Maybe she's mad at me that I'm marrying her off to someone who's almost as old as her father.....

and then there's anatomy homework, Stat homework, IPLE speech for Wednesday, college apps. Whoever made the calendar year should have just given us that extra .25day (the one that acculumates into the leap year)

----------
It's 12:00am. I just submitted my words into NaNo for a count: 25016! :D    jeezums I wrote 3965words between the time I got home until 2seconds ago. And finished a majority of my homeowrk.... (minusing 2 art history pages. why are these study guides so long?)
anyways. sleep time.

Pumpkin Spice and Empty Pages (day 14)

So much for blogging about NaNo. I haven't even had time to write for NaNo, much less blog about it. Upsetting.
Anyway. I had been ahead by 2000 words or so until Friday came, and I wasted my day watching TV and doing not much else. Saturday, I tutored in the morning, and then went to Starbucks and into the fun world of IPLE -- Four Treatises of Awesome. **note on Starbucks: Pumpkin Spice is so good (thanks Sue!). It's so fluffy (there's no other way to describe it. It feels like you're drinking clouds from Autumn-land).

So now I'm here. I just finished-ish editing one of our versions, taking a break from Wednesday's paper by blogging/catching up on word count. I should be reaching 23k today and I'm only at 20k. Goddammit that's 3000 words that are not, for the love of my life, going to magically appear anytime soon today.

Writer's note: we make up words as needed.
Yesterday, I wrote "Deadendish" and "Actuatable" on Jess's paper. I wish we could use them in the real versions. Wouldn't that be impressive.

yay Starbucks!

30 Days of Insanity -- (Day 10)

It is the 10th of November. November is a very special month to me, and to many people out in the world. November is the month of National Novel Writing Month. To those of you who do not know what it is, it is basically where you [try to] write 50,000 (count the 0s kiddies) words of a novel in the 30 days of November. To prevent myself from going completely crazy over this third noveling project, I have decided to blog about my NaNoWriMo experience this year.

First, a little bit about Jess Fong, the writer.
I am an novelist. I've been happy to call myself a novelist every since July of 2008 when I put the "The End" on my first ever novel (Runaway). Before writing a book, I never gave much thought to the whole world of noveling. Afterwards, well...
So what do novelists do? We write like there's no tomorrow. We carry around notebooks and pens like lifelines. We think of plots and scenes everywhere we go (including shower and other bathroom activities). When we (or myself at least) are really intensely involved in a project, there is no life beyond its pages.

What do novelists eat? Ink and coffee. :D

Exactly how crazy are novelists? Crazy enough. I have stacks of notebooks sitting in my room because they are my handwritten manuscripts and simply cannot be recycled, even if it saves trees. I also refuse to throw out the ancient keyboard I'm currently typing on even though it's been around since before I was in fifth grade. Why? Runaway was written on this keyboard. So was SQuared. Finally, I crashed a computer trying to write a book. Granted, the computer was at least four years old when Runaway was done, but just a few weeks after I finished it, my computer completely died. According to my father, I killed some hardware in the CPU (technology-deficient here).

And this is where I bring us back to NaNoWriMo, the adrenaline boost in the year of many, many writers out there. If any of you are wondering why I have been scribbling nonstop in the last section of my 5-subject AP Stat notebook, NaNoWriMo is why. And so far, my progress (including the 4 day weekend where I was away in Baltimore, indicated here by the flatline) stands thus:
As of this moment, my word count stands at 17,356.

Anyway, this project will most likely be novel #3. I've been looking for it to happen since I finished SQuared back in February. Yes, I do belive I'm dangerously addicted to writing (as Ali so wonderfully put it this morning). Or I could just be, as Srishti said, "out of [my] freaking mind."

Either way... 50,000 words here I come!

Abnormality

Jess Yang (on google docs!): lol, is jess [fong] ok? -________________________- is not a normal expression

It's 1:42am according to my clock. How I love AP IPLE. And how I so dearly love daylight savings. Screwing with time is always fun.

Today, I not only got an extra hour of sleep in the morning (which was offset and rendered almost useless by aforementioned class), I also got more time to type 5000 words or so for my 3rd novel, made pasta, went out for dinner for several hours, and of course spent the last 2 hours or so editing 4 paragraphs.

Life is wonderful.

BTWs. My face is fine. :D

One number away

I am one number away from submitting my early decision app. Just one. Not an SAT score, or a grade, or a random thing like the number 4 (if you read the Runaway prologue you'd probably get this lol)...

I need my mom's credit card number to make the application fee payment.

Hitting that [SUBMIT] button (3 times!) was probably the scariest thing I've done all week.


Goodness gracious.

Good luck to one and all! :)

Congressman Rush Holt & Mr. Scott Sipprelle

Point #1: November 2nd is election day. In the 12th district of NJ, the two candidates are Rush Holt & Scott Sipprelle.
Point #2: while the Chinese population has made enormous contributions to America's economy, it is frequently left out of the political mainstream. Many times, they want to be involved but don't know where to start.
For this reason, I invited Mr. Rush Holt to visit HuaXia East Brunswick (HXEB) Chinese School yesterday (10/30) so the Chinese population in the area can meet him and know who he is as a candidate, Congressman, and as a person.
Mr. Scott Sipprelle was also invited by the HXEB school administration to visit.


It turns out that a lot of Chinese parents, grandparents, and teachers were quite interested in know what these two candidates' views were regarding a number of issues, and what they hope to do as representatives. Of course, many people were concerned about the economy and government spending. There were also some  who asked about immigration reform, US/China relations, and the international economy (i.e. exchange rates).   Those with kids naturally were worried about the education system, including Math/Science/Foreign Language programs.
Overall, the event was very successful. This is a major first step for many families to learn about and get more involved in their community.


A group's political influence comes primarily from its voter turnout of that group. It does not matter how many government officials that group has. It does not matter how big the group's population is. What matters is how many people choose to vote and become involved -- how else will representatives know of and respond to the concerns of that group?
The act of voting itself seems simple. However, while many people know of major elections like that of the President, they do not know of campaigns "smaller" that that. It is important that we remain informed about these elections, particularly those of the state and local levels, as these are the people who will be representing our issues and concerns to the national government.

No matter what your citizenship status is, no matter if you are eligible to vote or not, you are still living in the United States of America. Our government's decisions will definitely  impact you. What you can do is to make sure you are involved, particularly with the people who may be directly representing your opinions, your concerns, and your rights to the national government.

Powers and rights come from our participations of political process. If we give up "by people", then we will not have "of the people" and "for the people".

 

Mr. Scott Sipprelle

 
Congressman Rush Holt

Mr. Holt & myself.

On another note: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 
(& to those who are going for the Nov. 1 deadline, like me, have fun & good luck!)

"I hate you all" (love you too Jess Yang)

AP IPLE. It depends on gmail/gchat/google docs. That's all.

Of our IPLE Unit, three out of four of us use gmail. The exception is Jess (Yang), who is fixated on hotmail.She actually has a gmail, she just refuses to use it.

The moment she came over my house, Mike and I linked her hotmail to her gmail. And so ensued a 30min. meltdown. Goodness we should have filmed it.
In between sorting through all the unread messages that gmail automatically ripped from hotmail, our frequent reassurances that it would not be difficult to set up her "system" again... that filters and labels are not horrible... she was saying "I hate you all"

Jess, I must tell you, a month from now, you'll love us again. :D

Gmail is for the common good.

On another note, Jess and I have decided not to use our English names in IPLE anymore. It is too horribly confusing. Particularly if, during competition, someone were to say "I disagree with Jess.... but I agree with Jess in that...". Or one of us would end up contradicting ourselves in trying to disagree with the Jess that it not ourself. If that made any sense at all. In any case, we will be now know by our Chinese names, which I will write here and tally how many people are successful at pronouncing it.
Jess Yang: Zexi
Jess Fong: Xinyi

On a final note, I'm about to embark on novel #3. I'm utterly insane.

Chronicles of (a summer in) China

I really don't want to do college essays. I'm used to 200-300pages, not 250words. Goodness.

So while I'm procrastinating, I'll finally decide to post about my internship ("traineeship" as my fellow Belgians call it) as a translator in China... through photos because I am awfully sick of writing.

06.17.2010: I wake up at 7am to go to JFK, the most confusing airport in the world. And wait for 3 hours because my flight was at noon. -.-"

21 hours later (14hrs to Tokyo, 3hr layover, 4hrs to Beijing): a family friend picks me up to spend the night at their house before I fly to Wuhan. China is in World Cup Craze. I slept so much that my body has no sense of time whatsoever -- no jetlag :)

06.18: Beijing airport, where I first met the delegates I'd be translating for (I was with a Belgian trade delegation).

Followed by a 1hr flight from Beijing to Wuhan, then we immediately went to 3 different factories.

Dinnertime with family & my little 6 year old cousin! (last time I saw him, he didn't know how to walk).

 

06.19: this is after the first company meeting.

 

06.20: second & third company meetings. business the chinese way. such good food.

 

06.22: another company meeting (sorry no pics this time)

afterwards... adventures along the yangtze river!

lol

06.23: arrival of another delegate + family. his daughter spoke no english, only french, dutch, & some german. i spoke chinese, english, & spanish. --> hand motions for the next 2 weeks! <3

Wuhan Historical Museum. then lunch & sightseeing.

06.24 - 06.30: and then we traveled around for a week.

Wuhan >> Shanghai. took the maglev train = [!!]. my nonenglishspeaking friend & i managed to converse for the entire 6hrs without asking any of the delegates for translation. we are that awesome. she spoke french, i alternated spanish & english, we scribbled on a notepad. :D

Shanghai >> Changzhou. went to a huge company + its factory. epic dinner at a restaurant that looked like an ecological exhibit (see picture below). almost got a cold -- it was actually kind of chilly there while Wuhan was at 40Celsius.

 

Beijing. Forbidden city pictures are on my uncle's camera D:

Then the delegation went back to Belgium. I hung around China for another week and then flew back to find myself in the middle of a heatwave. Reaction? It was around 110 in Wuhan everyday. heat wave? I think not.

Overall? An amazing trip and something that I definitely want to do again. It combined everything that I love in life: travel, good food, talking, international affairs, meeting people...

Hoping for more traineeships in the future.

And now in need of sleep.

Switchiness!

I confess. I did have a blog before, embedded on my website (jessfong.com). I have not managed it well--not at all--so I will start anew on this one.

I think I shall move over some of the posts on my other blog, so this is not abjectly empty...

One more thing: in English and Spanish speaking countries, I'm a novelist. In French, Italian, and Portuguese speaking countries, I'm apparently a romance artist. :)

Stationary adventures

Two days ago, I watched my friend buy out half of Staples. We went in there with the intent of exchanging a notebook that she had. We (rather, she) left with:
-A roll of tape
-A pack of manila envelopes
-Air freshener
-Six mini metallic markers
-A mini stapler
+ the original notebook that she didn't end up exchanging

Then we went to Target and got freaked out by a robotic dinosaur that responded to your voice and actually roared. Oh the things they make these days.

Preocupada

Life is so busy. Jeezums. Got back from the best internship in China two weeks ago (on the 7th). I spent three weeks with as a translator for a Belgian trade delegation looking to open foreign trade with a few cities in China, watching, learning, translating, negotiating. All day, we were in and out of executive offices, factory/manufacturing sites, and high end restaurants with Presidents, CEOs, Chairmen... I have never learned so much information/gathered so much experience/had so much fun in so little time. It was awesome. Pictures and more details in due time.

i Tutor

Will be on a flight to China in 3 days. I haven't been back in 6 years. This is insane. I'm excited beyond anything imaginable. I haven't been this supremely happy in months. BTWs. My protege: a little kid I tutor in English writing who, after 2-3 sessions, advanced to the top of the class (with a grade improvement from a 2/4 to a 4/4. :D)

Seventeen

3194 years ago, the Greeks sacked and burned the city of Troy to the ground. 17 years ago, a little asian baby girl was born in New York City. Jeezums I feel old.

Rutgers Model Congress

Oi it's been a while.
What has happened since NHSMUN... *ponders*
Rutgers Model Congress? Note to anyone wishing to do this conference in the future: if they're planning to run West Wing, apply for it. It is so much fun. It's a completely different experience running the executive branch (powers of the Office of the President) + we got a crisis, which was incredible.

Anyway.
EBHS ASIAN NIGHT THIS FRIDAY (03.21)!! everyone if you are in the vicinity of new jersey, please go. art director peoples even made this awesome commercial.

NHSMUN

BACK FROM NHSMUN! :D (National High School Model United Nations in new york city) Delegation: Republic of the Philippines Committee: Social, Humanitarian, & Cultural (SOCHUM) Ooh it was such good fun. and such wonderful people. Pictures click here please :) Germany's rap aka the best one I have ever heard: click here.

Pandemonium

It rained all day on Saturday. When I got to HXEB, the back corner of the office was flooding -- the rain had leaked in from the swampy courtyard and under the door in the back. The custodians mopped it up and the piles of cloth and rags held the water back for ... about half an hour. Then the water began seeping in again.

As the teachers and volunteers came in, we had to warn them to stay on the right side of the room -- the back corner was still flooding. The custodians literally spent almost two hours (2-4ish), with mops and a giant water vacumning thing, trying to keep the rainwater from spreading too far into the room.

Each volunteer that came in was soaked, and immediately ran to the bathroom to use the dryers. Sherry's first words upon seeing the crew in the back corner were, "Are we all gonna die?"

Seems like that was a major concern. First the lights flickered. Then they went out altogether for a few seconds; Sherry and I both screamed at the same time. The back corner kept flooding.

At four, I was asked to substitute the art class. I went down, introduced myself, and drew a circle on the board, all in the course of five minutes. Then the lights flickered and went out completely. Literally half a second had passed when I jumped up and yelled, "OK EVERYONE, WE'RE ALL GONNA STAY CAAALM." The kids probably didnt even register the blackout yet. I thought the lights were going to come back, and I'd resume teaching. Um... well, a minute later, the door opened and I heard the admin calling for everyone to leave class. School was closing early. So there I was stuck with a class full of little five year olds, six of which had no parents right there to get them out. Headcounting all the way down the hall, I took them to the office, which was vacated and flooded completely and into the little loby area.

There was massive chaos. All the kids, teachers, parents, admin, were congregated there, yelling and talking and somewhat panicking. There was a metal door barrier thing that apparently had come down automatically, thus sealing off the other end of the building. Amy came rushing over to me, telling me that Bo and her students were locked on the other side. So I told her to stay with the kids, make sure they don't leave, keep them together, then went out into the raging storm to get the other people. The winds were so strong the rain hardly touched the ground; my 114lb. frame was nearly blown away. I finally did find Bo, taking her class of little five year olds out. Screaming at the top of my lungs over the wind, I told them to all go outside and around to the office to wait for their parents.

What followed after was a good forty five minutes of screaming instructions from the top of a chair, frantically calling parents, screaming more directions, keeping an eye on all the young students, sheperding students into the lobby area to wait, making sure no one left the building without the accompaniment of an adult, etc. etc. etc. Meanwhile, the building just got steadily darker. The hallways were pitch black, except for the eerie red glow of the EXIT signs. At five, everyone had left, and my father and I went home.

Along the highway tempest raged on, and the Poe-story scenery continued. Route 18 (the major highway through the town) was entirely dark. All the stores, the traffic lights, everything was out. Trees were knocked over, some uprooted. Electric poles had fallen. Traffic lights swung violently in the air. I called my mom's cell to let her know we were on the way home; she said the whole house was shaking.

We did homework by candlelight, carried flashlights with them into the bathroom. People's basements were flooded. We couldn't open the refrigerator. The whole town sat under a suffocating shroud of silence, anxiety, and impatient worry. It was like a ghost town.

This morning, I woke up to a slightly calmer day. Electricity was back to some people's homes, though a call from the township said that 70% of the town was still affected. My father went out to buy emergency groceries and said that Route 18 was completely flooded and closed down. Tree limbs littered my backyard; the shutter from one of our windows had blown across the lawn. In the afternoon, the power went out for another hour. Just three hours ago, the township called again to say that the water plant had flooded, the water to our homes may be contaminated, and we should boil all water being used for consumption.

And the skies are still gray, and everything is still as silent. We're all waiting...

HXEB Chinese New Year Celebration

HXEB Chinese New Year Party. 02.20.2010

In all honesty, I really haven't had much time to write on this blog. The past several weeks have been clogged with Model UN papers, SATs, midterms at school, and massive preparations for aforementioned new year party/celebration. I will be more dutiful on this in the future.

The Party.

In the five years that I have worked at HuaXia East Brunswick Chinese School (HXEB), through six major events and several more small ones, through one term as Subleader and two terms as Director of the Youth Volunteer Team, I have never organized and managed a party that was so... big. Perhaps because the mayor (who had come before) was attending, and several members of the council, TV reporters, etc. Everything was big. Needless to say, the preparation prior was an maddening affair.

The party was originally set for 01.23.2010. Actually, this would have been a saddeningly unfortunate date. A large half of the HXEB Volunteer Team was taking the SATs that day. Nevertheless, I put in efforts to prepare, including finding a hiphop group from my high school to perform for the show. There were two girls, both of which were quite good, who agreed to perform. Thankfully , the party was moved back to the 30th, then changed almost immediately to the 6th of February. This was really the best date. It was eight days before Chinese New Year (the 14th). It was two weeks after SATs and literally the weekend right after midterms. I would be able to put my full, undivided attention organizing the event. We hit a snag. The girls who were originally going to perform hiphop said they couldn't make the Feb. 6th date. So that very day, I asked another group (a quite large, fairly well known one in my school) to perform. It was a bit of late notice but they agreed.

Of course that's just too good to be true. Wednesday night, I received a message from the group leader, saying they couldn't make it. Wonderful. For two days, the school administration went haywire (the program was already out and a lot of people wanted to watch the hiphop) while I tried to dig up another group. Literally Friday night, my sister, Sally, lifesaver that she is, comes to me and says a group from her school may be able to do it. I call them immediately. And, lifesaver that they are, they agree. In a wonderfully sweet and cordial manner too. I was so happy I could've gone and hugged them all. So big thanks goes out to Converse Methods Crew -- Alex Kal, Nate Imperio, Brendon Lee, Chris Matthews, Shaun Scripps, Kevin Shen, Stan Chu, Anik Ray, Connor Grant, and Alec Grant!

Everything was all ready. I'd ordered all the prizes and game/activity supplies for after the performance. I'd written up an English script for the hosting of the entire show. My hosting lines were memorized. I knew how to catwalk beautifully for the modeling act. I knew my Latin dance routine. I had all my costumes/dresses (I had three different changes). The twenty or so volunteers were all ready to go. It was going to happen.

Then came the snow. The big massive one that swept in from the DC/Maryland area and utterly buried us. So the party was cancelled (technically it was pushed all the way back to the 20th) and I was about to cry.

Finally. February 20th, 2010. The HXEB Chinese New Year Celebration. Bright and early, I got up - my sister had to devote the next two hours to straightening my impossibly curly hair. I packed my shoes, dresses, makeup, script. Then off we went. The school was in a whirlwind of preparation. I had to run through last minute rehearsals for modeling, the latin routine, practice lines, fill in last minute changes to the program. In between, I had to give instructions to the volunteers on pre-party setup, during party setup, post-party setup, escorting guests, acts standby, etc. etc. etc. I had to organize the things for the special guests that would be there. All in the course of two hours. To top it all off, I had the brilliant idea of changing early, so I was running around the polished school floor in a dark pink dress and strappy silver heels.

Four o' clock. The four hostesses (myself and three other girls) stood backstage and tried to breathe. We looked at our lines. We wondered if the mics would work. We drank water to calm our rapidly parching throats. Then the backstage crew opened the curtain a crack and ushered us out. We stood in a line under the bright glow of the stage lights, looked upon a full house, took a deep breath, and gave our opening lines.

Fifth act: I ran backstage to change into a completely besequined Chinese chipao. Then we (four girls) went out and walked for the modeling act. The audience was awed, and we were blinded by camera flashes.

Eighth act. I ran backstage right after hosting the seventh and changed my shoes and into my sparkly, gold latin costume. A girl drew dramatic, glittery stage makeup around my eyes. There was no time for glittered hairspray; we ran on stage and danced our hearts out. Ninth act: I literally ran back on stage, in my costume and full makeup, and, still vaguely breathless from the intense workout that latin dancing gives, announced the next act.

The latter half of the show passed flawlessly. Before I knew it, I was on stage for the final time with the three other announcers, we bid the guests good night, smiled to ringing applause and an explosion of flashes, and gracefully tottered offstage to massage our aching toes.

The games afterwards were wonderful as well. The volunteers handled everything beautifully, and the little kids had so much fun. After several pizzas, boxes of Chinese food, crowds of jumping and laughing kids, a table flooded with game prizes, and floating animal balloons, the volunteers and I sat down and let out a deep breath. It was done. And it was amazing. As much work as it all was, as exhausted as I was, I knew that I would give everything to do it all again. The experience was exhilarating, and unlike any event I've ever done before. The tumultuous applause, the thrill of the stage, the music pounding under dancing feet, the laughter and smiles and pure joy, was something that just can't be described.