Over the hill and far away,
I’ve finally turned old.
At the ripe age of twenty-five,
I feel like I am twelve.

But then again, at other times,
I think I am sixty.
So with that thought in my mind,
Age is but a number.

Thanks to Helena, I’ve been in a poetry writing mood. Kudos to those who knows what a tetrameter, trimeter, and ballad stanza (minus the rhyming) are! *sheds off her English major mode*

Anyway, my break is going well. I’ve enjoyed my last few days of being twenty-four, and I’ve reluctantly accepted I am twenty-five now. I try to convince myself that age is nothing but a number, but that’s proving to be futile. With that said, time for a recap on what I’ve been doing on my vacation so far, along with the obligatory “I’m freaking old” birthday post. Continue reading this entry »

I’m surviving the snow. I’ll admit; it’s not fun walking out in the snow without snowshoes or boots. Plus, the slippery ice are not fun. I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve almost fallen! I’m just glad I haven’t . . . yet. I’ve probably jinxed myself now.

The last few days were pretty interesting. I spent a vast majority of it hanging out with my two friends who are visiting from the states. Thanks to them, I’ve managed to see and do some neat things. Also include being narcissistic and materialistic, and that pretty much defines the last few days! Continue reading this entry »

Thanks to my wonderful Korean cousin who can speak and read Korean much better than I ever will, he bought two tickets to this bloody awesome, fantastic, marvellous, cool, spectacular concert — Distant Worlds, Music from Final Fantasy.

I received this news way back in September, where a friend emailed me this information. Since then, I’ve been looking forward to the ticket sale. I almost forgot about it, though, until a friend mentioned something about “concert”. I checked that website, and I saw that the tickets were on sale. Well, sort of. I called up my cousin, who came all the way to my house, and he tried to buy them through one of the ticket sites, but it wasn’t appearing there. So he ended up calling them, and they said it wouldn’t be on sale for another week. That was last week. This week, my cousin called to tell me that he was going to buy them for me (with me sending him the money, of course!). I asked him to purchase two of them — one for me and one for a friend. I asked him to get the 99,000 won ($98) ones.

As of right now, he confirmed with me that the tickets are on their way to his house. About half an hour ago, I read one of my friend’s Facebook status thread about this special tickets. I checked the website and saw that they were advertising a new special seat ticket. It’s 110,000 won ($108), and you get to meet Uematsu Nobuo prior to the show. !@#$!@#$!@#$!@#$!!!!!!! That message was NOT there last week! AUGH!

Therefore, I am HAPPY that I can go to this concert, but at the same time, I want to throw a bloody axe at these concert organisers for misleading me! Sure, this notice might be last minute and all, but it still makes me go into the BLARGHARONI mode!

Ah well. At least I can finally hear Final Fantasy music at a live concert. I can cross one thing off my never-ending list of “Things I Want to See/Experience/Hear Before I Die”!

This time from Suikoden IV, the song “Rune of Punishment”. Get the usual .MUS, .PDF, and .MID file here. Again, this is an arrangement — my personal arrangement — so it will not sound exactly like the original!

. . . No more arranging and notating sheet music for a while. I don’t want to try to figure out rhythmic structure and note duration for a long time now!

. . . And we’ll see how soon I break that vow.

Seriously, why I am up late doing this kind of stuff? I have no social life, hahaha! :)

Okay, it was over a week, but whatever. It counts. I’ve been occupied with a lot of activities, so that’s my excuse for disappearing from this blog for a while. Now, I am going to present my adventures in a list format because lists are cool!

KTX Trip to Gwangju

• Six months ago, I visited Gwangju (on the same day of former President Roh’s death). On November 6, 2009 (Friday), I decided to visit my grandmother again.
• Gave my mother $100 and my grandmother $100 each.
• KTX tickets are expensive ~_~;; $75 for round-trip.
• Spent six hours (three hours one-way) riding it where I slept through most of the ride.
• I surprised my grandmother, my aunt, and even my mother, who knew I was coming!
• Brought my grandmother some more fuzzy socks and snacks for her.
• Spent over $50 on taxi money for one day. In fact, this whole trip cost me $350 more or less.
• But it was worth making my grandmother happy.

Greek Cuisine Excursion

• I found a Greek restaurant, called “Santorini”, behind Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon, and I was curious to try it out with my friend.
• We made it during lunch time, so we got to try their pork gyros and chicken gyros set menu for 13,000 won ($12) which included fries and drinks.
• Also, we ordered this yoghurt, garlic, cucumber dip thingie, which came in handy for our fries and the free bread.
• Their fries, which were sliced up potatoes (like thick potato chips), were bloody fantastic!
• Their baklava (which I’ve been dying to try because I read it in one of The Baby-Sitters Club books) was good but so sweet. Wow. I have a high tolerance for sweet, but that was overdone.
• All together, our meal came to cost about 42,000 won ($40), and it was well worth it.

NaNoWriMo “FanficWriMo”

• Finished editing my 30K-words long fic for Harry Holidays.
• Betad a 30K-words fic for someone else.
• Signed up for two fanfic “challenges”.
• One fic I’m working on will be a Hogwarts University fic.
• Finished the fanmix for that fic, including coming up with the song list, renaming the songs, and designing the cover and the tracklist.
• Need to plan an outline for the other fic!

Osan Air Force Base Escapades

• I went there on November 13, 2009 (Friday the 13th!).
• After running an errand for work, I visited Osan to see a friend and hang out with him all day.
• I slept on the bus going there.
• Had brunch at awesome, wonderful, amazing Checkertails!
• Went to the BX and bought a wallet, two gloves, a Santa bear, Skittles, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, and a new bag for Portie. How all that came to $94 is beyond me.
• Headed to the shopping district area outside the base.
• There’s an Obama’s Realty, a club called Badabing, a GameStop rip-off that only accepts USD and sell Korean version of the games, and a bunch of other weirdly named places.
• Could not find a decent cafe there, so spent time at Baskin-Robbins. FAIL.
• Discovered they had ice cream fondue set for 12,000. It really enticed us, but we refrained from getting it.
• Had dinner at Checkertails again.
• Came back to Seoul by sleeping on the bus again!

An Ode to My Slytherin Scarf

• It keeps me warm.
• It saved me from freezing in one of the cold spells on a 0 degree Celsius day.
• It is very thick!
• It also makes a wonderful pillow when folded up! Especially on a bus ride!

Conclusion
I was very busy. Yay. Now to be even more busier with a four-day training from Monday to Thursday! The training starts at the most ungodly hour of eight in the morning and lasts until two in the afternoon. Then I have to work on some of those days until 8pm. I am so looking forward to a ten-hour work day!