Carpe Diem

Nostalgic Memories (2009-Present)

2011-02-27T15:51:00.000-08:00

I was looking through all my pictures on my Photobucket and my cellphone and just simply reminiscing all the good memories that has gone by. The 2010 Vancouver Olympics is something that was a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and I wish I could relive those 17 days all over again.

(Victoria 2009)

(Vancouver Art Gallery 2010, Vancouver Winter Olympics)

Do you ever wonder about the people who you accidently take a picture of? They're stuck in time and in your memories - you browse through your albums and you see faces of people you have never met before. What are their life stories? Who are they? Are they from Vancouver, are they from Cape Breton, have they lost someone they have loved recently... Questions flow within your mind but you just accept the fact that you will probably never see them again. They're just captured in that moment, in that time and incidentally into your life.

(Vancouver 2010)

(Then GM Place March 13th, 2010: 1st home game back from Olympic Road Trip.)

(Vancouver goal, exuberance)

(One year anniversary of the Vancouver Olympics, February 12th, 2011.)

(Granville Street, February 12th, 2011)

(February 26th, 2011, 9:20 approximately: snow falls late in the Lower Mainland)

There's A Bluebird In My Heart

2010-08-20T18:17:00.000-07:00

I've been working at the PNE / Playland again, and it's so much fun as always. It's such an adventure every day, you never know what might happen and who you might meet. The atmosphere is always astounding, no matter what the weather is like. You can never beat the squeals and giggles from little kids and the rambunctious laughter from the parents caused by the look of innocent fear in their children's eyes as they are whipped around in one of the rides. I could never ask for a better summer job!

Now, since it's been such a long time since I've posted a poem and I have to go out to the PNE parade, here's a poignant one that always stirs my heart whenever I read it - what a melancholic, heartfelt poem!

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pur whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?

- 'Bluebird' by Charles Bukowski

Last of the Days

2009-09-07T15:40:00.000-07:00

There's nothing worse than having to work in the rain. Yesterday was my last day at the PNE, which I'm really depressed about. But of course on that particular day, it rained cats and dogs. Frigid rain blowing in the face, numb fingers desperately working on a cotton-candy bag while one hand clutches on to a cold cup of coffee, as if it's a thin thread that's keeping me from falling to a point of no return.

It was actually so cold that I could see my breath when I talked. And it was so cold that the cotton-candy instantly turned into a sticky, crystallized mess as it's pulled out from the warmth of the machine. And it was so cold that my scalding-hot cup of coffee instantly turned into brown ice-water in the matter of ten minutes.

Other than that, the night went fine. I'll miss the atmosphere of the place, though. In exchange for the squeals of laughter and shrieks of fear, I'll have the monotonous tone of a lecture and the droning sound of a broken heater. I can't believe that I wasted my summer with summer-school. It was honestly a waste of time - everything was repetitive and redundant. That's probably because I took the course before, but I regret the choice. Next year, I won't make that mistake again, I swear to it!

One After Another

2009-08-24T13:46:00.001-07:00

Here, finally, is another picture that I had taken for myself. The weather has been spectacular as of late (with some exceptions), and I could finally take a picture of the sky a couple of days ago - a picture of the sky that I had described as looking like it's on fire.

Our neighborhood is surrounded with trees, and I can hear birds chirping every morning. Except, the thing is, today I didn't wake up to the cheerful melody of the birds, and the sun doesn't shine through my blinds. Instead, I had a rude awakening as I heard the cacophonous sounds of crows and ravens cawing outside my window, and when I peered outside the window, the sky was streaked with heavy, gray clouds. And of course, today I have to work. From 7:00 PM to at least 12:00 AM. Working for at least five hours, listening to the high-pitched shrieking of little kids. The peals of laughter from the crowd at the Fair, while I'm behind the counter, mechanically churning out drinks, popcorns, Sno-Cones, and cotton candy one after another. It's times like this that I wish that school would start.

Sleep is my best friend. All I've been doing is going to work, eating, sleeping, and repeat. The only time when I'm not surrounded with loud noises is when I'm at home, in my bed, cuddling up with a new book. Sigh. That makes me sound like an old hag with a million cats. Of course, that is going to be my future, considering how much of a loner I've been acting like during the summer. With the exception of the eight birthday parties I've gone to. Honestly, why are there so many birthdays during August?

Still Believe!

2009-08-17T21:21:00.001-07:00

I have been listening to Britney Spears. All day. For over five hours.

It's not because I want to - trust me on this, I honestly do not want to. But for the reasons against me, I have to study. Well, not necessarily studying, but "gather information." And of course of all the lyrics that has to be stuck in my head, it's the "My loneliness is killing me... And I... Must confess, I still believe (STILL BELIEVE)!" And I'm pretty sure that I got the lyrics wrong, but that holds nothing against me.

Anyways. During the weekend, I went to Pitt Meadows to this amazing lake, and took some pretty legit pictures, if I do say so myself. Considering how I took these on my cellphone camera, with the lack of sleep and food, I am pretty proud of myself. Look at that. By far the best picture I've ever taken. For one thing, there are no...

Fingers blocking the corners of the photo.
People walking past at the last second before the shutter closed.
Out of focus objects off into the distance.

As I said before. I am proud. I'm more of the "hit the shutter button and hope for the best" kind of picture-taker. But the picture does not do justice to the beautiful scenery we saw. The sky was the kind of pure, sky blue that you can only see near the country-side, and the grass was far more greener than what it appears to be.

But to be a hundred percent honest, this is the only picture that made the cut. Out of the twenty-something pictures I took, this was the only one without any faults. That's slightly disappointing, because that means that only 4% of the pictures I take are actually decent. Oh, to be a skilled camerawoman. That would be the day.

Seeing how I'm deprived of sleep by my own wandering imagination, my spelling is littered with errors. Thank God for spell check. And now, I'm off to bed - and pray for some sleep to hit me before I'm up again early in the morning. Good night!

Summer Lovin'

2009-08-09T13:30:00.001-07:00

Summer school is over. HURRAH! Three hours of math everyday is enough to ruin Einstein - the only thing that was keeping me from turning into a puddle of whining mess was the fact that my friends and I continuously threw paper balls at eachother. Basically, a war between the French Fries and the English Muffins. My friends from the French immersion side sat at the back, while we English Muffins sat at the front. (Completely coincidental - we weren't sitting at the front to swoon over our summer school teacher. Of course not.)

I'd like to believe that we won the war, but that might be a tad biased. All I can say is that I feel sorry for the janitor - when he sees the floor, covered with balls of white, I honestly can imagine him swearing at us, the immature adolescents.

The only thing I've been doing that is close to being productive this last few days (sounds like a run-on sentence) is searching through the web for a good laugh. And buying books. And watching movies. But that isn't productive in the least, is it? Especially the latter. And former.

Hahaha, that is one picture that will never fail to make me laugh.

I've been yearning to go to France and Italy. To look at the Louvre, and search for the hidden meanings within Da Vinci's pictures. To go to Italy, and scope out all the amazing architectural buildings. Look above and to see Michelangelo's infamous painting above me. Wouldn't that be something?

Pooped Out Beyond Belief

2009-06-20T14:02:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow's Father's Day, and I've been through a sojourn searching for the perfect present. I travelled across four or five cities looking for the gift, and now that I finally bought it... I realized that I forgot to buy the Father's Day card. So, I have to make one from scratch (it's no biggy, except for the fact that I already have tonnes of stuff on my plate that I haven't accomplished yet) and I don't have any craft paper hanging around the house.

Time to go out again to buy craft supplies.

Other then that, this week has been relatively easy-going and peaceful. School ended on Wednesday, after the finals. Thank God the finals are over. I rushed through them all except for the Math final, which was all multiple choice. One would think that since the test was all in multiple choice, it'd be the easiest. But no, no it was not. I randomly chose bubbles when I didn't know the answer to the questions (which was more often than not), and I'd erase a couple to make the choices seem random. All I can say about the test other then what has already been said is, "Darn that trigonometry!"

I've applied for various jobs, and I have an interview scheduled for early July. I gotta admit, I'm rather nervous since it will be the first interview I've ever had. I hope that I don't stutter and leave a bad impression. But I won't mind too much if I don't manage to grab a position as a worker. Then I'll be able to have fun in the sun and leach at the beach.

The Summer has Come!

2009-05-21T18:23:00.001-07:00

I am so elated - there is only three to four more weeks of school left! I'm not so relieved because of the obvious break from the turmoil of...

a) School.
b) Work.
c) Homework.

It's mostly because the end of school and the beginning of Summer Vacation just shouts out "SUMMER" to me. However, d'après moi, the first sign of summer isn't the obvious spike in the temperature, but rather the cheerful notes of the Ice-Cream Truck (notice the emphasis found in the words). The first sign of the Ice-Cream Truck seems like the first sign of summer for me. "Happy Birthday," "The Entertainer," and other high-spirited songs just raises the richter scale of summer.

But I have to say, the best thing of now being a part-time worker is that I can buy ice-cream from the Ice-Cream man without begging my Mom and digging through her pockets for spare change - which was what I used to do when I was younger. Two weeks ago was the first time I bought the PowerPuff Girls ice-cream. Fittingly, I was given Bubbles, my favorite PowerPuff. I mean, my favorite PowerPuff when I actually used to watched the show. Of course.

I finished writing my story for a writing contest (http://blog.nwpl.ca/?p=920). Of course, I realized that my story was approximately one hundred and twenty-two words too long, give or take. It's a good thing that the contest doesn't start until June 1st.

The All-Time Procrastinator.

2009-02-15T19:10:00.000-08:00

There is no use denying it - I am a procrastinator.

I have so much homework - and yet, I'm sitting here in front of the computer, doing nothing. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zero.

This flaw of mine is making my life miserable, to be honest.
What is wrong with me?!
So, to ease my worrying, I decided to post a quote here on my blog, and then start working on my homework.
I hope. I think.

THE STRANGER IN THE PUMPKIN

The stranger in the pumpkin said:
"It's all dark inside your head!
What a dull one you must be!
Without light, how can you see?
Don't you know that heads should shine
From deep inside themselves--like mine?...
It makes me sick to look at it!
Go and get your candle lit!"

- John Ciardi.

Seize the Day.

2009-02-07T17:17:00.000-08:00

"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."

Today has been a nostalgic kind of day - I had decided to read novels that I have loved in my childhood, like "Emily of New Moon" by LM Montgomery. I couldn't concentrate on the text, however. I started to think how accurate little kids' thoughts were. Like how Heidi had said, "The mountains are on fire!" when she had very first looked at a sunset. That was exactly how the sunset looked like the day before yesterday, with the different hues and colours of red, orange and yellow - the sky looked as if it was on fire.

How accurate that statement is!

(Oh, and the picture seen above isn't mine. Although I wish it was. However, I was searching through Yahoo and found this picture, which looked uncannily like the scene I could see outside my window... Just, there'd be more trees and a couple of houses along the way.)