TWILIGHT.

The title says it all.

It is my new obsession after Harry Potter.

With the upcoming movie and all and practically everyone raving about the books, I knew I had to give the first book a try at the least - so my brother got me Twilight for my birthday this year. I finished it in a couple of days and I LOVED it.

I really never thought I would become re-fascinated with vampires after I stopped watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer when I was still in elementary school, but I guess I like Stephenie Meyer's portrayal of the "cold ones" more.

I'm well into the 2nd book, New Moon as of now, and bought the sequel, Eclipse after class tonight. This obsession is a little more intsense than Harry Potter ever was; yesterday I had actually considered asking my own boyfriend to pretend he was secretly a vampire - jokingly, of course - but I think I partially meant it in my head. However, this was during my World Music Lecture around 8:35 pm so I can't be sure of how clear I was thinking of anything, for that matter.

I am probably going to buy the soundtrack and poster sometime this week (and I have not bought a poster myself since Spice Girls were popular, or a soundtrack since the first Tomb Raider movie). As for the movie, I will probably wait it out until the crowds and lines subside, well after the 21st (which was supposed to be Harry Potter's day! HARRY POTTER'S!!). If I can wait that long.

I have a problem.

I have a serious problem - a spending problem (and working at a clothing store does not help matters at all). It was never as bad as it is now, but that's probably because I've never had a job until the last couple years.

Not only am I constantly making staff purchases of endless numbers of clothes and bags at the store I currently work at, but I have now plunged myself into the world of online shopping, as well as buying used bags and tops from local girls in the city through an online forum. Just last Friday I had gone to the mall after withdrawing $200 and left with somewhere around $50. That $200 was supposed to last me until next payday. The 3 digits may not be a lot, but it is for me especially when it was used in a mere 3 hours. That day I had:

- gone to get my PR card photos taken ($12)
- bought a Joker tee from FCUK for my boyfriend because they were having their 3-day 40% off regular priced items sale ($26)
- purchased a plaid skirt from a local girl ($5)
- picked up an order of clothes I made with a bunch of local girls ($32)
- gone into a cheap clothing store to pick up tops I could wear on my birthday...and came out with a belt and a dress as well ($42)
- gone into another cheap clothing store to kill time and bought one top to wear to work ($12)
- bought a Paint Pot from MAC after deciding to kill time in there...a bad mistake on my part ($20).

The last 3 was an intention of wasting time, not my money. Although I'm pretty content with my purchases, I am pretty ashamed that I had spent so much on myself within such a short span of time. Not to mention next week I have plans to meet up with other local girls to buy a used Kathy Van Zeeland bag for $46 and a used Coach pouch for $65. I know what you're thinking - but they are being sold for more than half of retail price! That's something I have a hard time passing up; good deals. I of course don't need more handbags. I do, however, have a need to acquire more every week.

I know, it's pretty ridiculous. Knowing others have it worse makes me feel a little better. Well, not really, because they have more money to spend than I do at the end of the day. Me, on the other hand, have $30 to last me the next 2 weeks.

Nightmares!

I've been having some nightmares these last couple nights. Of course, with most of my dreams, I barely remember them at all, but from what I remember, one dream included my younger brother who was seemingly being possessed by the devil because he was doing all this exorcist-type shit. He kept on beating me while I fought back and he just kept on throwing cut-up pieces of cardboard for further assault (what's odd is I think I helped him cut them). At the same time, he was closing up my throat with his mind, Darth Vader style. But I could still breathe. He was just keeping me from calling out to my parents when I finally realized that this wasn't like the childish fights we used to have when he was 3 and I was 11 and he finally started to seriously freak me the fuck out.

The other nightmare was me being shot in both arms (one bullet per arm) execution style by some thug - I don't know why, I don't know where. But the thing is, it didn't hurt at all - and not a lot of blood came out, either. But the worst part is nobody around me gave me any sympathy after the holes in my arms were stitched up. What kind of friends and family do I have in my nightmares? And where was my so-called boyfriend? I bet he was hanging out at Denny's with Mikey stalking Asian transvestites...

Potter movie pushed back

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I had already booked off the 22nd of November so my boyfriend and I could go see it together, when it comes out on the 21st. This is because I love Harry Potter.

And now, guess freaking what. The release date got pushed back!!!

I have been waiting months for this movie's release and now they are not going to release the 6th installation until July 19th, 2009. 2000-freaking-9!!! And do you know how long that is? 335 days.

What's worse is that the movie is going to be ready for release for November yet they are going to keep it sealed tight in their vault for another 8 months. And guess what the cause of all this fan-disturbing commotion is?

The Dark Knight!!!

That's right, I said it, it's Batman's fault.

For details as to why, you can read the new article on LA Times.

Not the sharpest tool in the shed

And whom am I speaking of, you ask? ME. Yes, that's right, ME. I'll admit it, with an amount of shame I cannot measure, that I am in fact an inner blonde at times (no intentional offense to natural or fake blondes).

Since The Dark Knight has been released in theaters, I have viewed the film a total of 2 times, enough time before and after both of those times to read up on the actors who starred in the film as well as on background information. I knew I heard the name Gary Oldman somewhere, but nothing clicked for me when I was watching the film (neither of those times). Earlier today when I was browsing through Wikipedia, I click on the actor's name and I take a look at his filmography - and what recent movie of his do I find there? Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. He was Sirius Black! And all this time, I was convinced I was looking at an actor I have never seen before in the face on the big screen. I felt like a fool at a certain level, as I felt it was a responsibility of mine to know the actors who take part in the films, being a fan of the Harry Potter series. Speaking of, I am certainly ready for the upcoming movie that is to be released on Novemeber 21, 2008. In October I will be asking the earliest time I can purchase tickets and buy them for the 22nd, and arrive several hours early for the good seats. And when I say several, I mean 4-5 hours.

Moving on to my dry, empty skull...

There was even a time when I was in Japan and I was watching a Nissan car commercial - and I asked my dad, "why does Nissan make cars and instant noodles? aren't they a little too different? Although Yamaha makes pianos and motorcycles..." My dad gives this a thought for a second and responds with a half-laugh, "Nissin makes noodles, not Nissan." This was a little more funny and a little less embarrassing.

But what's embarrassing is my knowledge (or lack thereof) of geography. Any geography. Don't even try and ask what I got in Canadian Geography last year. I know where Nunavut is, that's all I can say. And American history? If I know anything about that, it's from watching National Treasure. Case closed. This just goes to show that not all university students are even close to smart. It's not like I don't want to remember everything bit of history or any information regarding the wold we live in because I do - but seriously, it takes effort to remember stuff learned in school (a matter of 3 months per semester) and I need to make room for whatever I am required to "learn" the following semester.

I'm taking World Music next semester, a 300 lecture course, where grades are pretty much based on the exams from what I hear.

I'm expecting no higher than a B+.

You can OD on caffeine!

I have somewhat of what I would like to call a "relationship" with high-caffeine (energy) drinks. This relationship is kinda what other people have with coffee, except in this case, it's energy drinks. I wouldn't go far as call it an obsession, but rather a former, deep, dependency on the beverage (but NOT addiction).

Last Summer at my old job I would always work at 8am until 4:30pm 5 days a week. I would sleep about 5 hours before getting up for work, so I often craved caffeine prior my shift, and lots of it, fast. I used to really like coffee when I was 13 but recently I had stopped taking any interest in its bitter taste and the small amount of caffeine. After being introduced to high-caffeine drinks through my dad when he brought them home one day (back then I was consuming them like cans of Coke), I turned to them for the energy I would require to push throughout the day. At first it was Energy, then it was Red Rave - pretty much the cheapest ones at 7-11. Red Bull was overrated and contained only 5mg more of caffeine than the former 2. If we didn't have any in the house, I'd just leave a couple minutes early to drop by the convenient store to purchase the thin can of caffeine goodness. I did this pretty much through the entire summer, a little over 3 months. 1 can a day, 5 cans a week.

By the following Fall semester, I was once again in need of surges of caffeine to make up for the loss of sleep (due to nothing special, internet or TV...) on school nights, to keep myself awake during lectures. But alas, the 75mg of caffeine per dose no longer had an effect on me anymore. And I mean NONE. It's not like it had a much more minimal effect, I mean it did NOTHING. it was a very disappointing moment, though I guess I had it coming. As a result I was forced to move on to the much larger cans, containing twice as much caffeine. That was pretty much Rockstar or Full Throttle (I didn't like Monster), what the campus sold. A couple sips and I was wide awake. I turned to these and burned a lot of money drinking them up before and in lectures to last throughout the day. So you can pretty much guess what happened next - a few months after I discover that one giant can no longer did anything for my body or alertness. I was convinced I was immune to caffeine. Having read the back label of these several times, I know that one big can was all I could have according to the recommended dosage.

But it's a drink. A non-alcoholic, legal beverage. How could having a little more hurt?

One day I needed to get some readings done so out of false hope I downed one Rockstar. It didn't work, obviously, so I popped open another a couple hours after. I was drinking, reading, highlighting, and finished the second can for the day. The second can definitely worked and did the job, but before I knew it I was feeling all jittery and shaking and couldn't keep myself still. I also had a sick feeling in my stomach as if I was going to vomit it all back up (which would be a total waste..). I began to get somewhat worried so I did a little research on the internet. And guess what?

You can overdose on caffeine!

How the fuck was I to know this? I guess I never saw caffeine as a harmful substance when taken in large doses. Well, any dose. I read that I'm not to induce vomiting unless instructed to by a physician - so I kept it down in there (though it wasn't like it was on the verge of coming up). The next morning I felt fine and vowed never to OD on caffeine again.

I stopped taking energy drinks since of any type or amount shortly after as the daily dosage was doing me no good and neither was the over dosage.

This was last Summer and Fall.

This Summer, I had one Coke Zero an hour before going to bed and could not get a blink of sleep until 3 hours past the hour I had decided on going to sleep. Until that night I was still kind of convinced that I still had a little bit of immunity left in me towards the deadly, strong stuff (especially because a couple weeks prior to the incident I had a couple of huge cans of Inked, supposedly a new type of energy drink, being sold for a 2 for 1 deal at 7-11). Either way, I have no particular interest in finding out anytime soon.

Taking Religious Studies at SFU

During this past Spring semester I enrolled in Introduction to Religious Studies at SFU, where I am still attending. I thought, "hey, I liked Comparative Civilizations in high school, and this is kinda like that. I like studying religion, although I never really studied it to be honest. I will like this course". Well, it was pretty much what I expected. It was very intro, and very basic - the textbook basically covered world religions and that was what consisted of the distance ed course. Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, Judaism, Islam...yeah. As part of the curriculum we were also required to read Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins. It's actually still sitting on my book shelf.

With distance ed courses and really long, boring texts, it's really rather difficult for me to wrap my head around them at home as I get distracted quite easily. So obviously despite my attempts to finish all the readings for all 12 weeks, by the end of the semester I had successfully read the first 4 weeks of readings, excluding the novel (which I had read the first 8 pages of out of 400).

By the time exam week rolled around, I had no intention whatsoever to finish those readings. I mean, who didn't know bits here and there about Moses? Karma? The chapter on Shinto was fairly short though just as detailed - but growing up in Japan proved the time spent reading that portion of the text was a waste as it was all everything I knew already anyway. As I figured the primary interpretation of the various world religions were generally all the same, I turned to the one source of information I turn to with a thirst for knowledge - Wikipedia. Profs will tell you and me all the time that Wikipedia is in fact not a reliable source of scholastic information - or information in general, for that matter. But I took my chances and studied for my exam via the site. It was pretty helpful, I must say, though I obviously wouldn't recommend this studying this way for obvious reasons.

With the 2 papers we had to write and the online discussion we had to take part in, I walked away from the class with an A-. I know I shouldn't be proud of this but it did make me pretty happy, as half way through the course I had realized that I was taking an elective I did not need (I miscalculated the amount of credits) thus piling on more readings and papers and exams for myself. The GPA boost did nothing.

Oh, and in case you were wondering how I bypassed the question regarding the novel I didn't quite finish in the exam, make Google (GOOGLE, not like that piece of shit HotBot) your friend if not already (and if even possible) - it works luxurious wonders.

(Ir)rational fear?

I have a fear that is somewhat debatable in terms of whether it is rational or irrational. And that fear is of extra-terrestrials. And I don't mean like the one above whom Drew Barrymore is kissing, I mean like Alien vs. Predator extra-terrestrials. Like zip-right-out-of-your-gut-making-a-bloody-mess-for-everyone-to-see-and-freaking-
everyone-out extra-terrestrials.

I guess this all began when I kept on waking up in the morning to find a small scratch on my nose. This happened several times, it was always around the area of my nose and it was the same brown scratch, always around the same length as well. Just one scratch. I just figured that I must've scratched myself in my sleep, but I found it odd that it was always on my nose and it was always the same depth.

A few days prior to my discovery of these marks on the nose, my dad was talking to me about these sheep on a farm that had been found dead by the farmer one morning, and all he found among them was a small perfect hole in each one where the blood had been assumed to sucked out of. There was no bloody mess like you would expect from a raid of wolves or coyotes, just empty farm animals, all (seemingly) perfect and fluffy on the outside.

So obviously I came to the reasonable conclusion that aliens were coming into my home at night and retrieving samples from my nose, leaving the evidential scar.

Although, I must admit, I have not found any scratches on my nose for the past year and this specific fear has in fact subsided. But it's not something I will forget or pass as an impossible situation. The aliens, they have their ways.

Cosmo obsession

Maybe the word "obsession" is a little extreme, but I am ashamed to say that I am somewhat of a regular buyer of these magazines. Okay, maybe I'm not even a regular - but I do have a habit of automatically grabbing for one whenever I'm dropping by my local London Drugs. Especially if I know I have nothing else to read that night.

I'm not even sure why I don't even have a subscription yet, because I would have saved several dollars in total if I did. Although I'm not even sure why I would have a subscription, let alone read it every couple months when it merely talks about the same subjects repeatedly - reading men and how to have better sex. It's pretty much been the same since I began to read them a few years back, with the exception of its much more graphical nature when explaining sex positions for the best orgasm.

But it's the city girl's bible, the city girl's best friend.

Rants from a sales associate (though not all are fair)

I work at a women's clothing store. So that means I pretty much fold all day, for minimum wage and a 40% discount. I'm usually put on closing shifts, and let me say that I rarely get out on time, cleaning up after everyone, especially during this summer season with the mass amount of tourists on weekends. As a result, on behalf of all managers and sales associates of clothing stores (unofficially), I would just like to let all customers know a few things.

1. You CANNOT place any of our merchandise on the floor of the changing rooms - are you fucking retarded? They are products consumers BUY, with MONEY, ergo you can refrain from throwing them onto the dirty floor you stomp on when you're done trying on the clothes. Dumbass.

2. When you are finished trying on clothes, you absolutely do NOT leave them in the goddamn changing rooms, especially if you have just finished trying on 15 tops, unless you happen to be one lazyass pig. This goes with hangers as well, for those of you that think that leaving hangers in the rooms is okay because we associates apparently don't mind leaving the hangers in there and letting it pile up through the day.

3. Does our store look like a gas stop to you? Our store is not a place for you to leave your half-consumed fraps on random shelves and counters in the store. You do know you're lucky that we are allowing you into our store with that shit, yes?

4. If we tell you we do not have it, for the love of god, we don't have it.

5. When you ask us, "do you work here?", it just makes you look like an idiot especially when we are wearing our staff tags and we happen to be organizing a certain rack of clothing. Do you seriously think a customer would be doing both of these?

6. It also makes you look like an idiot when we have to ask you not to sit on the merchandise/tables/ladders, when we have a perfect bench just few feet away.

I mean, I get it. You're shopping, it's your day off, you're on vacation, yada yada. But it seriously takes no effort at all to abide by the 6 points mentioned above. Being a customer and shopper doesn't give you the right to be a lazy asshole.

My love-hate relationship with horror flicks.

I have one. Yes. I love watching horror movies all the time, whether it's after seeing an attractive trailer for one at Cineplex or randomly finding one on Movie Central when I simply have nothing better to do. But seriously, with my imagination I should stop for my sanity's sake - recently after watching the movie The Strangers, I had a lot of trouble closing my eyes in the shower, let alone to wash my face as I was afraid of The Man in the Mask appearing in my bathroom. Yeah, just popping out of nowhere. Y'know, just standing there, waiting to smash the glass door encasing me to let either Dollface or Pin-Up Girl stab me to death.


I know what that sounds like, but it is what it is. It's either this or having the girl from The Grudge going through my hair with her pale hands without my permission. For days after watching the American adaptation of The Ring, I was worried I was going to see her just pop up somewhere - even outside my window (and I live on the 18th floor in an apartment - and I don't think we ever saw the girl fly). I know it sounds unhealthy, but I swear I am sane and I do not suffer from any panic or anxiety attacks of any kind. Mostly it's the J-Horror flicks that do it though. I mean, come on, how would you end up if all you ever saw whenever you closed your eyes were pale Asian girls with long black hair crawling on the floor toward you as if she has just suffered a major accident causing all these weird angles in all her joints? Not pretty.

(There would have been more pictures, but I just couldn't do it. I don't think I have the courage to place pictures of Sadako/Samara on my blog. Ever.)

I am not PC savvy.

Although I really wish I was considering the recent conditions of my laptop during the past few weeks. In a nutshell, like the naive and careless owner of this Gateway laptop that I am, I had let my computer become super-duper-foot-shoved-up-ass infected with all sorts of nasty pests. There was definitely some adware lurking here and there, as I continued to be bombarded with sudden popups on Internet Explorer while browsing on Firefox. I had of course come to the conclusion that uninstalling IE from the system would do the trick, but surely enough, I was not correct. Furthermore, I kept on getting these error messages that would not go away along with Windows disallowing me from turning on my automatic updates.

Thus I had set out to download any anti-virus program I could find to quickly scan my computer to retrieve my free and undisturbed use of my computer. I first went with Norton's, I'm not sure exactly why I had went with that choice in the first place, but I went ahead and downloaded and scanned the system as soon as it was installed. 25 hours later, the results show 15 threats and over 400 infections. I'm not too keen on what that means precisely, but I know enough to know that that's not so good. Did it fix the problem? Nope. And what's worse is (and this is the worst) I later find out my browser is failing to load all the biggie (and super vital) websites - Hotmail, Google, Blogger (explaining the gap between updates), Livejournal, Yahoo!, you name it. This is where I somewhat began to panic because I depend on Google a HUGE amount as a visual art student. It was during this time that I had to use HotBot for a search engine and my boyfriend's PC to check my email. So after the failure of Norton, I went and downloaded AVG, avast!, and AntiVir, yeah, all three of them, as one after another failed to remove the one pest that banned me from using Google. It was one of the three that finally did it, and alas, here I am.

Getting my laptop infected was a scary thing - I didn't want to turn to getting it reformatted again as I did last summer, with my mom finding out and getting angry with me for downloading so much crap (which is of course true). And not being able to use Google would have been a somewhat life-altering situation when the fall semester rolls along, as I would have been forced to retort to staying in the studio late to use the mac lab in there for my googling luxuries. I love that studio, but I would rather not spend any more time than I have to in a place located in the middle of hobo town. Not something I looked forward to.

Where is my pot?

This week I was in Anaheim, CA with my boyfriend (for which I will post pics later) and we were wandering around in Downtown Disney when I found a Sephora store there. Excited as hell as I do not have the luxury of shopping at a Sephora here in Vancouver, I immediately pulled my boyfriend in there and looked at the Stila products, looking for the one makeup product I have been wanting for almost a year now - the Smudge Pot in Jet Black. I see every single colour the product comes in, except black. I ask a clerk if they have anymore and she checks the counter and the drawers underneath, and to my disappointment, she tells me they are out.

I've been trying to find this Pot at my local Holt Renfrew which carries a varieties of cosmetics not found at drug stores and the staff tell me that I would literally have to come in everyday to see if a new shipment came in (because at the time it was sold out). Are they fucking kidding me? Are there no wait lists I could sign my name on? I considered purchasing it online as I now finally own a credit card but with shipping it would come up to $23.00 (I have a shipping address in Blaine, WA). For one pot. Although, as a I speak, they are currently offering free shipping for purchases over $50.00.

It is now time for me to consider their talking Smoking Eye Palette ($40.00 - and yes, it talks!) to make that order over $50.00.

Cause for a blog

I at the moment have a personal diary online which I try to jot in on a daily basis. I didn't really want my deep intimate feelings clashing with my meaningless rambles of everyday life so this will be my personal blog for that (If you've read any of my entries from my diary you might find I may sound a tad different). I actually personally hate using default templates/layouts (like this one) but I cannot figure out xml to save my life right now. Is it called xml? Whatever it is, it's not like the html/css I know and am familiar with. So default template it is, I guess.

Writing all this down at the moment - why does blogger have the post box on the very left side of the screen?? Is it just me? It's so irritating I have to turn my monitor (or in my case the whole laptop) towards my right to see it properly. Just because of this I might move to Livejournal. Or even Diaryland where I know what I am doing when fixing templates.

I will most likely blog (yes, I must say "blog"..where else am I going to use that word?) about events and observations in my everyday life. Such as how my job at Off The Wall is doing or my current obsessions of DS games and makeup.

I just hope I can commit to it considering how much more I will be writing here. In a blog. My first blog.