Sunday, December 30, 2007

[2][0][0][8]

Good god... Where has my year gone?! Σ(゚д゚;)
Yeah.
I feel myself getting older by the minute.
My back hurt so badly this morning too, when I was playing tennis... (´_`。) 
I feel so old. (´□`。) 



Yesterday, my mom got me a new yearly planner. ( ´艸`)
I get one every year, and I wanted a new one for 2008, and my dad couldn't find one.
Unfortunately, it doesn't have monthly views. (-_-メ
American ones are so bad... But since my dad couldn't get one in Japan, it'll have to do.
The picture is of 2006, 2007, and the new 2008 one. See how they're different?
America failz. 。・゚゚・(≧д≦)・゚゚・。

Here's the insides:

See how the new one doesn't have a monthly spread, but only a weekly one?
o(;△;)o Oh well...

To kick off the holiday cheer...
My stack of college essays... to prove that I actually have been doing some crap these couple of months! ( ゚-゚)( ゚ロ゚)(( ロ゚)゚((( ロ)~゚ ゚



Blog Ranking ブログランキング・にほんブログ村へ A click if you like this entry?

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Whee~~

Because the last entry was super-emo, I needed to make a happy one.
SO.


Happy New Year!




....Sorry. That's it.
I'll get to a meaningful entry soon... -_-;

OH! And a new layout at

Hirokache.COM

!!!!
Check it out? :)




Blog Ranking ブログランキング・にほんブログ村へ A click if you like this entry?

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Sad Moment

Potentially Graphic Images

I just want you guys to know, before you start flaming and dissing me and my opinions, that I am not trying to start a controversy. And this topic, please, is not up for debate. I don't want criticisms on how I'm a lowly bitch and all Axis power-nations should have been mutilated, and that everyone deserved what they got.
I sincerely believe that they didn't.
I am quite aware of the fact that I am extremely biased. But I also know that I am a "person." And I wouldn't want to be dead because America invaded Iraq or Afganistan. I don't think anyone does. If Iraq did indeed have a Weapon of Mass Destruction, and was capable of using it, and did drop the bomb on us... Would any of you tell me that it was justified...? I, personally, wouldn't fucking care. I'd want my life back for things I didn't do.

By the way, I was writing my college essay...
---------------------------


I was randomly browsing sites about the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings. And I came across many anti-Japanese, pro-atomic bomb people ranting and dissing.
It makes me very sad (for a lack of intelligent words at the moment) to see how terrible people can be.

They cite Pearl Harbor, Rape of Nanjing, "it ended the war," etc. etc.
Though they may all be true, do they justify sufferings and murders of millions of people?
I do not believe so.

Militaries do many horrible things. I do agree that the Japanese army has done many terrible things. The Nazis did horrible things. But so has the American Army (Navy, Marine, whatever you want to talk about).
Trail of Tears, massacres of Native Americans, rapes in Vietnam, millions of civilians killed everywhere because of American invasions.



But are the civilians to be blamed? Do they deserve to be killed because of the decisions of their military leaders?
I do not believe their deaths were "deserved." I do not believe the deaths of the children, women, men, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Darfur, Japan, Soviet Union, Germany... anywhere were deserved.

Just because someone is of some background, just because someone is Japanese or German, led to believe that something is correct, or just being of that nationality, does not make it okay to kill them.

You can cite any evidence against Japan, for all the terrible things "it" has done. But Japan is not comprised of a single "it." It is a country filled with people, led to death by some ignorant people. Most times, they are driven by some skewed sense of loyalty and heroism.

Yes; those bombings ended the war. Yes; they probably saved many lives.

No; they do not promote peace in the world.
America went into war with Iraq under the assumption that Suddam Hussain has Weapons of Mass Destruction. Guess what boys? He didn't.



I have visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. And I can tell you that, despite what we have been taught (believe me, I've been in the American education system for the past 11 years, and when they first taught World War II in elementary school, you have no idea how many kids came up to me and declared, "Japanese people are so terrible, I hate you."), I do not believe they deserved any of it.

People from Hiroshima and Nagasaki still cannot marry well. Most Japanese people believe that the radiation has mutated their DNA, and that they will pass on sicknesses and defects to their children. Whether that is true or not, I do not know. But the fear grips us all, and it is a hard truth that they cannot get married. The parents oppose marriages with people from Hiroshima vigorously.

Photos

-------------------

Would anyone tell me that this was justified...? And that it was a necessity in order to better the world? Had Al-Quaeda won... That would have been the "truth"...



"An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind"


Blog Ranking ブログランキング・にほんブログ村へ A click if you like this entry?

Friday, December 21, 2007

Winter Vacation

IT IS FINALLY HERE!
WINTER BREAK!!!
I am so glad.


This is a tribute to one of the dogs that I used to dog-sit. She died of Lime Disease a few months ago. And if you look closely... The top dog is not the same as the bottom two. The top dog is the new dog my neighbors have that they found on the internet and got only a week or so after their dog died.
She was three.
And they got a dog that looks just like her... Even with a mascara.
This is her, last year:

And this is the new one....:

o_O On the internet... Isn't that amazing?

This one is so scared of EVERYTHING. She is scared of the cars. So she doesn't go outside. She is scared of the cars, so she can't go in the garage... One time, after going to the vet, they let her out in the backyard, and she ran under the porch and didn't come out for 6 hours. o_O That's insane... And in the freezing cold, too.

And this is the old-sister Lucy:


And we are dog-sitting them for a week. :) So we have, at all times, 3 dogs and 2 cats. But most times, we have another dog in the house because she randomly comes banging on our glass door to let her in (it's going to break one day...).
Apparently, this is as good as her pictures go... I guess she doesn't stay still long enough for me to take pictures. I'm going to try next time...:


I hope you guys have a lovely break.

Blog Ranking ブログランキング・にほんブログ村へ A click if you like this entry?

Monday, December 17, 2007

Happy Holidays! & School& Stupidity

Oh, you want to know something interesting? They want to do away with Santa Clause because he promotes obesity. First, the Cookie Monster, and now Santa. Who's next? Every obese people in the country? That's going to be tough.
And they want to change his "Ho! Ho! Ho!" into "Ha! Ha! Ha!" because saying "Ho!" is insulting women. I, personally, am not that insulted. You need to have an open mind. This is getting ridiculous. "Politically Correct" does not mean you got ridiculously conservative.

Hm. I realized today that one of the college application teacher recommendations that I got 3 months ago isn't valid. I got one from my Calclus AP teacher that I had for 2 years, and my Early Childhood Education teacher. Well, apparently, electives aren't Academic Subjects...
So now I am waiting for my Psychology teacher to do a last-minute, begging-for-forgiveness recommendations that need to be done this week. Oh god I feel so bad. But I need it. For Gettysburg College and Dickinson College, I need to send in the new one and put a note in it that this is part of Hiroko's application and that it needs to replace her other one. :/ For Swarthmore College and Haverford College, I'll just include 3. Just for the hell of it. Or, as my friend says, Just for kicks and giggles. (He's a moron. :])
So I hope that my essays will be edited by then, and I will be able to submit my last two schools, and I'll be done submitting to all the schools! Then all I need to do is to write the two essays for UMBC that is necessary for their Honors Program. (Which I think I should just be automatically included, instead of having to write TWO essays. >[)


この間、楽譜スタンドに激突して頬に傷がついた。 後一本増えて罰点になったらるろうに剣心になってしまうがな。
顔に一生傷がついたらどうすんねん? お嫁に行けへんやんか。(笑)

この頃寒くて死んでいます。 寒いんなら雪でも降らせ! じゃなかったら10度以上にしてくれ!
後一週間で冬休み。その前に提出しないといけないものがたくさんあるけど、十数日休みになるから。。。そのあと半年分の試験があるけど。数学は先週一年分終わったし。やばいのはスペイン語と物理ぐらいかな。。。

An announcement over the PA system came on in second period today, and announced that there is a lockdown in effect from that moment on, and that teachers must close and lock the doors and pull down the blinds.
That means;
  • There is a Raider in the building. (With pun intended; our school mascot is a Raider.)

  • There is drug search.

There was a drug search in the school this morning. They bring in dogs, guard the classroom doors so that no one comes in, and spends an hour or two sniffing around everywhere. I heard a dog or two barking, so I'm assuming someone got caught. :O
How stupid can you be to leave your pot and crack in your locker...? Quite dumb, I have to admit.

Anyways, because it took a while, we were able to finish all of The Lion King in orchestra class. :) We are playing songs from The Lion King for our Pops-Concert in January, so we watched the movie today as "reference."
It was exciting. We sang Hakuna Matata, I Can't Wait to Be King! and Can You Feel The Love Tonight and other songs.

But because it took over our third period, we missed the lesson we were supposed to do with Head Start (日本語Wiki). This is the second time we missed... And though I'm sure they'd understand that we weren't allowed out anywhere, they must have been pissed off... They were expecting us to do a lesson...

One kid from my physics class was complaining later that the guarding teacher didn't let him go to the bathroom (Sergant M from JROTC), and that he had to hold it for an hour and a half. And that his classmates told him just to do it out of the window... Thank god he held... It would have been quite disturbing.


I finally got my copy of Nineteen Minutes! I'm so excited. I'm going to use it for my definition paper on loneliness.
The book was $27... So expensive. The country is conspiring against people to stop reading books and going to college so that they could mass-produce stupid people and thus enable them to brainwash us all!!!



Blog Ranking ブログランキング・にほんブログ村へ A click if you like this entry?

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

First Snow of the Year!

Edit:

I AM studying!!! I have to admit, this must have been one of my bad choices... To take Differential Equations. No one, I mean, NO ONE can tutor me... Especially not college students, who never have, and never will, take differential equations... I wouldn't either... And the final exam is TOMORROW, and I'm only done with reviewing 1/3 of the material... I have to get going... /Edit



More technically, the first snow of the school year. The picture doesn't portray how it is because it was only a few hours after it started snowing. By now, it's really accumulated, and a lot of slush is on the ground. It's gross trying to drive. I had a math class, like always, at 7:30, and I left the house at 7, but got there at 7:20. It is usually a less than 10 minutes drive.

I am hoping we have no school tomorrow, or at least a delay. The roads are going to suck, and I would really appreciate a few extra hours of sleep.
I have Spanish tomorrow, and I have a little charlar I have to do, and a composition due. I am working on it right now... I guess I just don't want to get up. And we have a band concert we need to go watch tomorrow...
We had our orchestra concert yesterday. And it was... bad. But it's all done. No more. And I did my recording for my CD on Friday. I'm SO glad it's over... Last week was so stressful.
Next week, I have the Final Exam for Differential Equation, and then after that, I have two weeks left of school! I can't wait... I am going to so sleep in... at least until nine... (My mother apparently does not understand the concept of "sleeping in.")


Stonehenge in England


Blog Ranking にほんブログ村 英語ブログへ A click if you like this entry?

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Back from London!


King's Cross Station, Platform 9 3/4

I am very stressed right now. I need to write 5 more college essays. I have sent out 6 applications so far, but I have 3 left to go. And I really want to finish them because my mother refuses to let me out of the house until I finish...
Asians and their threats... I wouldn't have minded a year ago... But...
I am currently writing an application to Swarthmore College. I am trying to think. And blanking out.

This morning, from 8:30, I went to mentor for the PC4Kids mentoring program. I've mentioned it before; it's the program that gives computers to deserving children and mentoring them in order for them to have sufficient training in using them.

I have a Differential Equations exam on stuff like Laplace Transform and I am almost totally beat and dead. I don't know what I should do! I got my classmate to help me with physics AP packet, but we only got done about 9 problems before he had to go to the library to study Differential Equations with our friend, and I tagged along... But instead of having them teach me, I had to teach them. WTF man... Come on. I'm the one that needs help!!!

Safety on the internet is very important. And there has been something quite tragic and surprising that happened a year or so ago. A girl met a guy in a chat room, and started corresponding. He was nice, and praised her to no ends, and was the "man of her dreams." But one day, he started harassing her, telling her that she was fat, a slut, etc., etc. Later, she hanged herself.
They found out quite recently that the "man" was actually the girl's neighbour, and a mother to one of her past friends.

The FBI told the parents to keep quiet while they investigated, and it has been a year. And they finally began to express their outrage now that the "culprit" was caught.
There has been criticism on the girl's mother's part too, though. Though the woman was very immature, there has been a controversy on why the mother let her depressed daughter continually chat with an "attractive boy" for over six weeks. She knew that the girl was depressed, and probably did not take her to a psychologist, which is what she should have done. And also, she apprently regularly checked the girl's internet use. So why didn't she find out about this before it was too late? It was a 6-week ordeal. Why did she not stop the girl from talking to him for 6 weeks when there was something obviously wrong about a "man" sweet talking her daughter unreasonably?
This is a prime example of an un-called-for deaths.

Article


Blog Ranking にほんブログ村 英語ブログへ A click if you like this entry?