Happy Father's Day!!!

Question of the Day: Tell us what makes your father the best dad in the world! :)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

Here's to all the dads, uncles, grandfathers, stepfathers, and every other father figure out there!!! Thanks for saving us every single day, just by being there for us. :) YOU'RE THE GREATEST SUPER-DADS EVER.

Happy Father's Day!!!

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30-Day Challenge 20: FoR tHe LoVe Of GrApHiCs

QOTD: Do you read your horoscope? What do you think about astrology?

Day 20: One word that sums you up as a person. Oh WOW this is a really hard one. Hmm,luckily I just stumbled upon this page of "words that don't exist in the English language", and I have to say meraki sums me up best.

Meraki--(Greek): doing something with soul, creativity, or love

~ ~ ~

One thing I really like about Blogger is that you can follow any blog you want regardless of its site domain...it can be Wordpress, Tumblr, anything! Tumblr is one of my guilty pleasures and probably my #2 source of procrastination (Facebook is #1), but it just makes me so happy. You can always find the most random things--graphics, quotes, photos, you name it--and they are always just...so inspirational.

Over the next couple of days I will be writing a rather lengthy movie review, so today I just thought I'd share with you some of my favorite graphics that I have had the lucky opportunity to "tumble/stumble" upon in the past. Enjoy!!!

So, so cool!

dream room!!!

Two of America's greatest and most famous superheroes!!!

oh em gee...so heavenly!!!

Haha wow Savage Chickens always makes me laugh...

I will own this library. Someday.

LOLOL

Epic. Perfection.

I second that!

Which graphic is your favorite? Do you stumble/tumble?

30-Day Challenge 20: FoR tHe LoVe Of GrApHiCs

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30-Day Challenge 14, 15, 16: Happy Belated Mother's Day!

Question of the Day: What was your favorite book to read as a child? Why?

this is a cute comic square that I discovered here

Happy Mother's Day to all those who are mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, and all other female guardians! Thanks for everything that you do for your little ones, including those like me who may not seem so little anymore. :)

Day 14: Seven things that cross your mind a lot.

• food--particularly macaroni and cheese, popcorn, chocolate, and dumplings. Mmm, my favorites. Gosh I'm hungry now.
• writing--I am always, always arguing with my characters and mulling over how I can improve my WiPs--whether it be the voice or the pacing or a certain scene that just isn't quite right.
• blogs--I am constantly pondering over thoughts such as, "when will I have time to post another blog entry?" and "I wonder how many people have Liked my Facebook page so far?" and "Personal reminder: Blog about Lydia Kang's awesome I want to read ____ next Contest so everyone knows to sign up and participate!"
• turtles--no matter what mood I am in, I love thinking about my red-eared slider turtles! The thought of them always makes me smile.
• people--especially the people I love and the people who love me :) warm&&fuzzy
• Superman--I mean, who wouldn't want to think about this?
• sleep--sleepy sleep, can I?

Day 15: Put your iPod on shuffle. First 10 songs that play.

(I provided the YouTube links for you as well)

1) Move Along by All-American Rejects

2) Yellow Submarine by The Beatles

3) Once in a Lifetime by Dragonforce

4) Supermassive Black Hole by Muse

5) Numb by Linkin Park

6) Scar Tissue by Red Hot Chili Peppers

7) Hit Me Baby One More Time by Britney Spears

8) It's My Life by Bon Jovi

9) If You're Not the One by Daniel Beddingfield

10) Dark Blue by Jack's Mannequin

Day 16: Something you regret.

Rather than talk about something I regret, let me tell you what I WILL be regretting in the next few days. Ladies and gentlemen, I have to announce a very tragic truth: I probably will not be able to watch the season finale--and thus, the finale to end all finales--of Smallville due to conflict with my travelling plans. Yes, it is no longer fair for me to call myself the #1 Superman fan. I know, I know....*disgrace*

Lastly, don't forget to sign up for my first-ever 100-followers blogfest, "Inanimation"! FIVE DAYS LEFT!!! To learn more and sign up, click HERE!!!

30-Day Challenge 14, 15, 16: Happy Belated Mother's Day!

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30-Day Challenge 10, 11, and 12: Catch-Up Day

Question of the Day: Does life ever make you feel rushed? Do you ever feel so busy that, everywhere you look, there are deadlines and chores and mouths to feed and must-do's staring at you from every angle....and for just one moment you wish you could close your eyes and make all time and space stop?

I know I do! As exams and papers and end-of-the-year whatnots are looming over my head like levitating post-it notes, sometimes I feel like I could just make everything disappear so that my mind may be at peace for just a moment...a moment... *pause* And THEN the world can start spinning again like before.

Even so, I have found that, overall, I rather enjoy working under pressure with a million things to do rather than lounging about being unproductive for hours. It genuinely feels like my time is being spent well and effectively. (It must be confessed, however, that I am extremely looking forward to summer!!!)

~~~

This afternoon, I will be catching up with my 30-Day Tumblr Blogger Challenge. Not only do I still have a long way to go, but tomorrow I will also be posting an interview with the lovely Jordan-Marie Smith, who is one of the coolest, most creative and most expressive people I have ever met. But you must wait until the morning to learn more about Ms. JMS! :)

Day 10: Song you listen to when you are: Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad

Happy

Sad

Bored

Hyped

Mad

Day 11: Another picture of you and your friends.

So I discovered on the amazing world of Facebook that "Red Angel" comics actually exist! This was super exciting and I just HAVE to roleplay for this. I just have to. The genre is steampunk/science fiction, and the superhero of this series is Captain Victoria Angel of the airship Red Angel. Ahh, I just think this is so neat!

(if you can't see the drawing or caption, just drag the image to your URL bar)

Day 12: How did you find out about Tumblr Blogger and why did you make one?

This blog has been around since January 2010 and is officially 1 year and four months old. YAY!!! I began using Livejournal back in 2005 (when online journals suddenly became the middle school fad) and continued that for at least four years. My LJ was private, though, and could only be viewed by a select few of my friends. I really loved being able to share my values, my daily doings and personal opinions with other people, and learning more about my friends through their own LJs helped me discover more about them than I would have known otherwise.

Although I'm a total advocate for the printing press and would rather use a paper book rather than a Kindle any day of the week, towards the end of 2009 I started to get really into reading online articles and blog posts. I mean, there was just so much interesting information...on the Internet, everyone has a story to tell and everyone wants to have those stories told. I came across several blogs on Blogspot...in fact, most of the blog posts I'd seen were hosted by this site. So I thought, hey everyone else is doing it, why shouldn't I? Thus, I created this blog.

And I am so glad I did! :)

30-Day Challenge 10, 11, and 12: Catch-Up Day

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YAYYYYY! for NaNoWriFri!!!

Question of the Day: Are you into math and science or are you more of a humanities and literary arts type of person? Or are you a mixture of both? If so, why do you think that is?

EEK! I am SO excited for National Novel Writing Month I can hardly think of words to express my, er... excitement! There are only FOUR more days!! I have heard people use SO many adjectives to express their thoughts about what NaNoWriMo is like. Crazy, impossible, amazing, unthinkable, ridiculous. What do I call it? Exhilarating.


Most of the time, my life nowadays is a routine. Day in, and day out, I go to class, I study in the library, I eat at the university dining hall, I study some more, I eat, and I sleep. Oh, and I blog. ;) I enjoy my days, but quite honestly they can get kind of monotonous after a while. I mean, eating the same shrimp scampi and vegetable soup from the same cafeteria every single day CAN get a little boring. Just a little bit. Sometimes, I feel like I just need to...GARRR!!!! Have some sort of wild frenzy and chaos.


That is exactly what NaNoWriMo offers. No wonder I've been addicted to it since 2006.
Thirty days. 1,667 words a day. One novel. Completely exhilarating. For every NaNoWriMo that I have participated in, it's been just that. Creating plots, characters, settings, and gosh knows what else, and compiling it all together in a would-be coherent book is what NaNo is all about. With the clock ticking and my hands flying all across the keyboard from left to right, I feel extremely pressured...but in a good type of way. I feel like I can let go of some of my extra energy and stress and take a break from the monotony that inevitably dominates over my daily schedule. During the moments that I am writing, there's nothing that is more alive to me than the story that I am creating.


Ahhh. Just thinking about it now and imagining all of this makes me anticipate NaNoWriMo all the more, if that's even possible. And what's even COOLER about this year is that I will be participating in weekly write-ins and meeting up with regional NaNoers for the first time. PLUS, I persuaded one of my best friends, Michael, to do NaNoWriMo with me!


So. Michael and I proposed a NaNoWriFri. Yes, National Novel Writing Friday. This Friday, we
are going to go to our regional Kick-off Party at the local Panera, meet all sorts of cool NaNoers, and then plan our novels together at my apartment. See, I'm not completely done with the planning of my novel, and neither is Michael. (I blame the textbook reading and essays that I've had.) On Friday night, he will be coming over to my apartment and we will be having a sort of "prelude" to the frenzy of NaNo. We will be comparing plots, filling out NaNo charts and completing our novel outlines together.


NaNoWriMo is fun just by itself, but it is definitely 10x better when you do it with a friend! So if you don't know anyone else who's writing for November, let everyone know about this awesome competition you'll be taking part in and try to get some of YOUR friends to do it with you! Especially if you're a newcomer, you will definitely appreciate any inspiration and motivation from other people to keep on writing.


Ultimately, National Novel Writing Month is a competition with yourself. A competition to see how fast you can write your novel, how many words you'll be able to get down on a day by day basis, and in the end if you got past your goal of 50k.


I found this cute comic from Google. It's kind of fuzzy but if you drag it to your URL bar, you'll be able to see it more clearly. I hope you enjoy! :)



~TRA

YAYYYYY! for NaNoWriFri!!!

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One Week Until...Season 10 of Smallville Begins!

Question of the Day: Who is YOUR superhero?

For those of you who have followed my blog for a long while (and I appreciate that!), you probably know that my favorite show is Smallville and that my favorite superhero of all time
is indeed Clark Kent, aka Superman. Just a brief 1-phrase summary, Smallville is about Clark Kent growing up (from childhood to adolescence to early adulthood) and how he came to be who he is today: The Man of Steel.

This television series first started out as a WB show and is now hosted by The CW. It was actually my sister who discovered Smallville in 2000, and now...ten years later, the very last season is about to begin on September 24th. 8pm.

EEK!!! No words can express the excitement as well remorse mixing and mingling within me during these final days leading up to Season 10.



In addition, I just bought my Comic of the Year! What is that, you ask? Well, starting in 2009, I decided that each year from then on I would buy myself a very nice Superman comic book as an incentive for myself. Kind of like a self-Christmas present, a pat on my own back, you get the drift. One thing I love about the students stores here at the college is how they have a diverse multitude of books to choose from...including graphic novels and comic books. ;)

Aaaand luckily it was on sale for 25% off that day! I just couldn't resist...

(Sorry for the bad camera quality here...couldn't get a good vertical shot; and yes, my camera is now fixed! :))

What happens when you combine the extraterrestrial powers of Superman with the gadgets and bad-ass attitude of Batman together? A comic book that's sure to be riveting...so bad-ass that it's out-of-this-world! :P

Oh yeah. Gotta' love it when Superman rips his shirt open to reveal the amazing S. And, of course, Batman's 60-pack abs, mysterious look, and dangerous toys are pretty darn awesome if you ask me.

The colors and shading and glossiness in this comic novel are sooo intense and full of depth...HUGE props to the publisher and the artists for using such awesome tools of creation!

So do any of you collect comics or know anybody else who does? (If so, YAY! I'm not the only nerd here!) What television shows are you just dying to watch and absolutely cannot WAIT for their premieres to air?

~TRA

One Week Until...Season 10 of Smallville Begins!

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New Month, New Projects

Happy Sunday!

This weekend has provided me with a big peaceful rest from schoolwork. Yesterday, I went to the local Junior Miss program, which is a scholarship program designed to encourage today's young women to "be their best selves." The winners of local JM programs go on to compete at the state level, and then every year in Mobile, Alabama, 50 Junior Misses go on to the national level at America's Junior Miss to represent their state. I think the Junior Miss program is a great opportunity for young women to showcase their talents, meet new people with new perspectives, and overall change their lives for the better.

After the past week, which was full of deadlines and exams falling one after another like dominoes, it was both relaxing and exciting at the same time to watch the Junior Miss program. It got my mind off of future stress, like that god-awful reading quiz coming up soon, and gave me the opportunity to converse with some amazing people involved in Junior Miss that I have not seen for a while. Congratulations to the loca Junior Miss of 2011!
Alas, it is Sunday now and tomorrow marks the first day of a brand new week as well as the month of March! It is mind-blowing to think that the third month of 2010 is already approaching our doorstep; it seems as though time is zooming by faster than ever now. Before I know it, it will be time for Prom (Friday, May 21!!), and then Seniors' Graduation, and then College. =D
Beginning tomorrow, March 1, 2010, I will be having my own private, personal NaNoWriMo! I am working on a not-so-little writing project that will be a gift for a friend of mine in the near future. I am so excited! I am making it a NaNoWriMo competition for myself so that I stay motivated throughout the project and can complete it in time. I have already started planning it out, and am eager to start working on it right away! You can check my current progress under the NaNoWriMo bar to your right. Inspiration, comments, and other encouragement is much appreciated! :) Unfortunately, I shall say no more about what this project entails, but I promise to update about the status of it throughout the month. Wish me luck!
I am also going to start up a blog ritual called, Question of the Day. It is sort of like a writing prompt, but it is more a prompt for the mind to ponder over. Questions will range from a variety of topics...feel free to answer them in your comments! =)
In addition, I hope to begin drawing a sketch of my idea of The Red Angel. I have already studied several anime pictures on DeviantArt to familiarize myself with the type of art I will be working with. It's going to be pretty difficult, as I have never been very good at drawing people, much less angels. When I am completely finished, I'll be scanning the drawing and making a blog banner out of it. If you have any suggestions, that would be great!
To close my blog entry for the day, I'd like to share with you some of my favorite pieces of anime that I found online:*

Have a great day! Goodbye, February...Hello, March!!

~TRA
*These anime were found on Photobucket and DeviantArt.

New Month, New Projects

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"Mouse Loves Rice"

So basically this is my favorite Youtube video ever. I am not a big fan of anime and manga, but this is the sweetest video ever, featuring various scenes from famous anime shows depicting love between characters. English subtitles are provided in the video, but the song is sung in Mandarin Chinese.
I heard this song for the first time at it last year's local Chinese New Year Festival 2009. An American man sang this song by himself in Chinese while playing it on the guitar. He dedicated the song to his Chinese wife and provided Chinese and English lyrics on an overhead Powerpoint. I thought it was a really cute and touching Chinese New Year gift and festival performance. =)
Watching this video always makes me feel happy and cozy inside...every time I view it, I get this urge to hug everybody I love and tell them they rock!! Hope this video makes your day!
Upcoming Blog Posts:
*The pros and cons of online gaming
*Three book reviews
*Neopets tutorial
*A new special writing project of mine
*A series of my poetry
*Healthy Choice steamers
*Personal recipes


~TRA

"Mouse Loves Rice"

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The Greatest of Superheroes

I have a confession to make: I don't watch very much television. In fact, I almost don't watch any television at all. Almost. Don't get me wrong; I used to spend hours viewing the latest Nickelodeon episodes of Hey Arnold! and Pinky and the Brain and even Rugrats. For me, those shows were classic and, no matter what mood I was, could always make me fall into peals of laughter. The unforgettable characters, the silly plots, the catchy show tunes all make them award-winners to me; why can't today's shows be more like them? To me, it seems that almost all modern television shows is nothing but fake reality, ridiculous sex jokes, pointless drama that never ends, and erroneous, one-sided facts. Almost.

You see, every Friday night I spend an hour watching my favorite television show: Smallville. I have been an avid fan of Smallville ever since the series started at the beginning of the decade 2000. For those of you who are clueless about what on earth Smallville is, let me give you a brief explanation:

Smallville: A television series that tells the story of Clark Kent, the "alien" from the planet Krypton, who has been sent to Earth in order to save it from ultimate destruction and to give the humans a symbol of hope. The series ends the moment that Clark Kent officially becomes "Superman," otherwise known as "The Man of Tomorrow" or "The Man of Steel," and embraces his destiny.

Even when as a young child, I always loved to watch new episodes of the Superman on Cartoon Network...there was never enough for me; I longed to see more of Clark Kent saving Lois Lane once again from disaster, preventing the world from annihilation by Lex's dangerous weapons of mass destruction, and doing double duty as a superhero by day and hotshot Daily Planet news reporter by night. I'm not sure if it was the chemistry between Lois and Clark that kept me hooked, or perhaps if it was that snazzy red-blue costume that caught my eye; whatever it was, The Adventures of Superman has always been the highlight of my day.

I really love what Superman stands for in the comics and cartoons. In so many ways, he portrays justice, hope, and truth. I’ve always admired how Clark looks at the bright sides of people and believe that everybody deserves a second chance no matter what. I think that's a valuable characteristic to have in life...there are so many ruthless people out there who are only too eager to bring down the reputations of others and take revenge of others' mistakes. Superman has always been a reminder to others that we cannot make things better by doing wrong; we can only improve the world by doing what is right.

Clark defines the role of a superhero well, inside and out. Not only does Clark have the physical capability to save humans in peril, but he has the courage and bravery to do so, even those whom he doesn't even know, and helps them with no questions asked and receives zero credit for it. I think that is a big part of what integrity is….doing these good deeds even when nobody is watching. You know you’re doing them because they are the right things to do, not because you want to attract fame and attention and money. Superman truly sets a perfect example.

What greatly saddens me is the fact that Smallville has been pushed back to Friday nights at 8pm. Correct me if I am wrong, but the least popular shows are always on aired on Fridays; I mean, who typically spends their Friday nights at home watching television? Ninety percent of my peers go to the beach, to the club, to the local fancy restaurants. They do anything but stay home. Thus, Smallville has naturally decreased its popularity and, like the rest of the nation, has suffered from severe budget cuts. Nevertheless, the show is still going on persistently.

Smallville is nowhere near as exceptional as it used to be, but the legacy of Superman is still living through this series; amongst the many ridiculous shows that are running today, Smallville keeps up the idea of morality. It is sad that so few still enjoy thesy episodes of young Clark Kent and adventures that he embarks on to save planet Earth.

Okay, I am getting sappy. >_<>, or other form), I encourage you to give Smallville a chance. You never know, it may just end up being on your top list of current favorite shows, along with the famous Top Chef, Next Top Model, The Secret Life of An American Teenager, and whatever else is blaring on the television screen these days.

Meanwhile, in between my daily blogging (one of my many activities that I have slowly but surely become addicted to), my ritual Smartfood White Cheddar popcorn feasts, and my Calculus homework, I will be squeezing in one hour each week into my schedule and dedicating that hour to watching yet another thrilling episode of Smallville, just like I always do.

~TRA

The Greatest of Superheroes

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