Kay Whyy Ohhhhhhh Teeeeeeee

Wha--what is this? Another post? In the same week? What's wrong with me?! :0

Oh yeah, it's Spring Break and I'm bored out of my mind.

Whelp, you can tell my boss is out of town because my manager has had the radio station turned to 95.5, i.e., KYOT, a.k.a smooth jazz station. Normally I'd puke at such a thought...but KYOT has changed. I wouldn't know when the change happened, but now there's a smooth jazz song about every six songs and--I can't believe I'm saying this--it's tolerable. The music is still "chill" music, but they play a lot more vocal songs now, and a few oldies. I-I actually didn't mind listening to it as I worked.

OH GOSH, I MUST BE GETTING OLD.  ; A;

Actually, I think more than anything, it reflects on how awful the rest of the radio stations in the Phoenix area are. Usually at work, the only stations playing are 99.9, 98.7, or a country station (GAG). I am absolutely sick of all those stations. Positively, absolutely have had it with them. Just thinking about them now gets me worked up and makes me all annoyed-feeling. If they had faces, I would punch them. Every once in a while after everyone else leaves, I'll turn it to 94.5. Yay oldies~ But even that station has changed a bit. Rather than "KOOL Oldies," it's "Arizona's Greatest Hits," so now they include 80s songs. I am not okay with that, because they're all the same 80s songs you hear on 99.9 and 98.7 anyway. No good 80s New Wave songs or anything like that--Journey and crap. Ugh. They still mostly stick to oldies, but the whole reason I don't like listening to 99.9 and 98.7 is because I'm trying to get away from all those same songs. Playing those songs is their deal, so stick to the oldies, 94.5. That's what makes you unique. I feel that 99.9 and 98.7 are stations for middle-aged people to listen to to try and still pretend they're young and who still think they're kinda cool.

Sometimes if I'm working with a certain girl, she will change it to 101.5 or some other young-ish station. I try not to, because the songs are not always appropriate for our demographic in a bread store. But whatevs. I didn't mind it at first, until they repeatedly played the same songs twice in the same hour. If you want to play the same song in the same day, whatever--just wait at least two hours, please. Some of us are stuck with the same station the whole work day.

Unfortunately, since the change, I don't think KYOT has the deep voice saying "Kay Whyy Ohhhhh Teeeeeee" anymore. :'c  Whenever I think of smooth jazz, I think of this commercial now.

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

And I have no privacy, whoa-oa-oa~

Kind of a-feared for my life right now. It's always a little unnerving to find out someone's been keeping tabs on your insignificant little life, no?
>_______>
<_______<
o_______o

Alright, so it's honestly not that bad. But to think that someone felt a little threatened by one or two teeny little things that they saw? Wow. I know even the best of us Facebook stalk a little every once in a while, but I never thought I was important or seemingly interesting enough to be a stalkee.

Also, I think I forget all too often that sometimes what you post on someone else's wall will show up on a completely different person's feed...AND YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHO.

DUN DUN DUNNNNNN!

O AO      ﾟ Д ﾟ

(y'see? they're faces with their mouths open!)

Some people, I honestly wouldn't mind if they saw or not. But those people are actually cool, and unfortunately few in number. And it's too much work to hide certain things from 15/16ths of your "friends" on Facebook. Siiiiiiiiigh.  （￣～￣ ）  Hmmm, hope you can decipher that face...

As much as I love Mesa, sometimes I wish it wasn't so........Mesa-ish. C'mon people, expand your thoughts, broaden your horizons! Exercise imagination! It's probably one of God's greatest gifts to us! Having a crappy day? Tch, not after you've imagined yourself riding through a field of lollipops on a magical robot unicorn, laughing at all the silly people that have offended you in some way or another dressed like little Keebler elves as you ride by them with rainbows trailing behind you!

What prompts me to say this? Well, for one, having to explain the little emoticons I sometimes make. The average person is so woefully afflicted with the limited knowledge of only these painfully boring and predictable emoticons:  :)  :(  ;)  There are other reasons too, but I won't delve into them right now--this was just supposed to be a short, quick post about stalkers! Anyway, I'm not saying that all those who come across this blog lack imagination--it's just that I've grown accustomed to having to explain so many things to people, as a result of the environment I've grown up in. I suppose it's sad how little faith I have in people sometimes, but where do such opinions come from? Experience. Too much of it. I just wish people could think and ponder and muse about things sometimes. Our society is so used to instant gratification. It's hard for people to come to their own logical conclusions. Anything unfamiliar and foreign to them is instantly deemed "weird." People don't try to look from other people's perspective and speculate why it is the way it is. 

Or maybe I'm just too analytical.

-shrug-

I Belieb in a Thing Called Henry

I meant to post this yesterday, dangit! Why? Because March 1st is Justin Bieber's birthday! 8D

Say whaaaaaat?

I actually am NOT a fan, belieb it or not (sorry sorry, couldn't help myself xD ). I mean, I guess the kid's got talent. But he's blown a little bit out or proportion. Still, as apathetic as I am toward him, I do admit that the fanclub name makes me lol: Beliebers. And I do kind of like his "Somebody to Love" song, but that's only because he was lucky enough to get a good producer. And "Baby Baby" is alright too...but really only when performed by this guy: <3

That, my friends, is Henry Lau. Isn't he just adorable? Now this is one talented kid (okayyy, so maybe he's 21...). Reasons why I love Henry and you should too:

He can sing
He can dance
He can play piano
He's amazing on the violin
He's from Canada (lolololol)
He's cute
He's Asian

Oh hohohohoho~ Alright alright, I'm being silly. But really. Just thought I'd share. For those of you who don't know, Henry Lau is in a boyband (don't judge me) called Super Junior-M; it is a sub-group (it can be a bit complicated to explain, but I shall if you so desire) of the Korean boyband Super Junior (don't worry, I still chuckle at the name too, but that doesn't mean I don't love them), and is designated with the "M" because they sing in Mandarin and actively promote in China and Taiwan. Yeeeah, their entertainment company is pretty ambitious. They're infiltrating all of Asia. Pretty soon, they'll reach the whole world! :0  DUN DUN DUNNNNN! Not that I'm complaining. ;D  Here's Henry playing the violin:

He can also dance while he plays, but I couldn't really find any good .gifs showing that. :\  I prolly wouldn't have normally made a post all about Henry (well...then again...), but that clip of him singing "Baby Baby" was pretty recent, so that's what prompted this. c:

As an interesting sidenote, an ex-member of Super Junior-M, Han Geng, was one of the torch bearers for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the first boyband member to be chosen in history. Now ain't that interesting? I'm sad he's not in Super Junior anymore, but I won't go into that story...

Before I go, for your listening pleasure, here is a song by Henry released on Super Junior-M's latest album that came out about a week ago. You've probably never listened to a song in Mandarin before, but give it a try.

Blog a Blog

Y'know, like the DDR song "Dream a Dream"? Eh? Eh? No...? D;

If I remember right, someone once told me I came up with great titles for posts. I've felt I had to live up to that ever since. Alas, I am here to tell you...I have failed miserably. I'm sorry I'm not witty all the time. It's hard. It's not something you have much control over. Apologies.

Moving on, I'm curious as to what the general populace thinks of blogs. I was talking with two friends the other day and they both dislike blogs because they think they are vain displays. I didn't say anything because I [barely] have a blog myself (I don't know if they remember that or not...) so I just listened to their opinions. I'm not sure I'd have to agree. I'm not sure I fully disagree, either. They tire of when bloggers post pictures of every single thing they do, and I concur--it is a little ridiculous. I don't want to see five pictures all from different angles of a boring plate of chocolate chip cookies you just made! One friend expressed her continuing frustration for fashion blogs (flashionogs? Ah hah hah, lame attempt). I can understand that. They're almost kind of nice in that they can show us pitiful nonfashionables how to make something out of nothing (so they say--but then they also have a wardrobe twice the size of mine). But to take a picture of your cute little outfits errday? ...I think you're just rubbing it in my face at that point...
; ~; While on the topic of flashionogs...please look forward to an upcoming joint project between my friend and I... B]

Alright--I'll admit--I personally like blogs. I do like having one. Does that therefore make me vain? Maybe. You tell me. I like it because it's a platform where I can express myself. In high school, maybe the only places I expressed myself was at home and online forums. Then Facebook came around and I let myself out a little more. Then I decided to get a blog. How cliché of me. I almost feel silly having one sometimes. Blogs are a popular thing. Many times, I frown upon popular things. I can't always articulate why many popular things displease me, but the fact is they do. I am not non-conformist just to be non-conformist, however, and I hate when people assume that. Notice I said "many popular things" and not "all popular things." A blog to me is like a journal, though much less personal. There are things I write in my journal that I wouldn't put on a blog; there are things I write on my blog that I wouldn't write in my journal. A blog is also where I post ramblings and opinions that I couldn't be bothered to explain in real life. I also like sharing things, whether it be an interesting new bit of information I learned (such as Sentinel Island, yet to be contacted by the modern world), a funny video, or some music I listen to. Maybe it's because I'm a writer that I like to write in (on?) a blog. It sounds silly to say it, but my blog is a piece of me. Who doesn't like sharing yourself with others? I, for one, am sick of hiding as much as I used to all the time (not saying I'm still divulging everything here, oh hohohoho~). Again, is that vain? Is it vain to show people your true colors? I don't know. If you come across me once in person, you'd probably have no significant impression of me. If you look me up on Facebook, you might see some weird pictures of me dressed like a little boy. But if you look up my blog, you'd see (hopefully?) that I'm still a [mostly] normal sane person with a complex personality. Yes, I'm telling you about my personality. That's not vain at all, ha. But the fact is, I'm still trying to dissect it and figure it out myself; please bear with me.

In the same vein, I also do enjoy reading other people's blogs. Of course...only certain people. I can see how my friends dislike blogs because they've been exposed to some (excuse me) bad ones. I think your opinion on blogs really depends on whose blogs you're reading. I like reading good blogs because they allow me to see more depth to that person. Now they're more than just a pretty or weird picture on Facebook. I don't have to Facebook-stalk someone and make inferences if they have a blog. I can see what's going on in their life more than Facebook lets on, because I'm also getting more of their feelings. People don't always like throwing everything out on Facebook because it can show to all their "friends." Only people who truly care and are interested will look up their blog (that is, if they have one). I like reading about others' opinions and I like reading about their quirks. What can I say--people interest me. It's just nice to know that not everyone is two-dimensional all the time, y'know?

So I suppose those are my thoughts on blogs. For now, at least. They might change, they might grow. Anyway. Care to share your thoughts?

I'm going to go give my stinky dog a bath.

(P.S. I think our VCR (lol!) is possessed... >_____> )

A Not So Creative Blog Title

Wow, was it really back in October that I last wrote?  It's better than the usual 6 month gap or so between entries, but geez, time really has flown.  I can't believe 2010 is almost over...  ._.  I remember last year thinking, "Whoa!  2010!  Double digit number!  Weird!  Crazy! aslkdhalkjsd!"  And now it's already 2011.  @_@  I'm thinking to start off the new year, I should make some changes to this here blog.  Change one: post more often.  Change two: re-name it!  As I'm sure you can tell, I was rather uninspired when I first created this blog and dubbed it.  I'm not sure I like the sound of "A Creative Blog Title" anymore...sooo I'm asking you, my non-existent readers, to help aid me in the choosing of a new name.  If you honestly like the name how it is now, go ahead and root for it.  Or, you can come up with something new!  Maybe something wacky and out-of-the-blue, maybe something that you think would fit my personality, or maybe something based off a few nicknames I have been known by.  Here's a list:

ssquared - a previously commonly-used screen name (if you couldn't already tell, based off my initials)

cheerlubber - a screen name I use more often now, because it's funny and odd.  Originating from Teen Girl Squad, Cheerleader says, "Here I am, right between Cheerladder and Cheerlubber!"

Stacey-waste - a nickname lovingly given by my sister-in-law

Smithy - perhaps my most well-known nickname so wonderfully conceived by my dear friend Laura in the 9th grade

Stakey - a mis-pronunciation of my name that I came up with when discussing with friends how people mis-pronounce their names, heh heh  (sounds more like Stackey)

soulstace - Ch'yeeeah, you like that?  Crafted it myself, lol.  It's a play on the word "solstice."  Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to publicly debut this yet.  Not sure if I should make it a new screen name or not.

Well there you go.  Participate if you'd like.  Silently watching as you snigger is perfectly acceptable as well.  Comment and let me know what you think!

"I can't believe they scheduled school pictures for the same day as 'Tape-a-Dead-Thing-to-Your-Face Day'!"

"That finch was hard to kill!"

'Cause I'm Like All Crafty

Title is a quote from Boxxy. Find out about the strange phenomenon here.

I still love my new layout. I was thinking of changing the words in the speech bubbles from time to time, but when no one comes to visit your blog there's really no point because no one would notice when it changes. :'c

I feel like I've been getting so crafty lately it's weird. But at the same time, I don't feel like it's being crafty because I always found that word to be more associated with scrapbooking and making ugly things cute and other such creative junk. I don't do that stuff. What I do like to do, though, is knit. And now make costumes. Yeah, costumes. Because I hate that Halloween is the ONE day every year that you're allowed to dress up. I love dressing up, 'kay? It's fun to pretend to be someone you're not. And it's fun bringing characters alive, whether they're ones you came up with or ones someone else invented. I suppose part of this comes from the "writer" in me. I love making characters. It's fun playing with different personality combinations (uh, Blogger? Why are you putting a red spelling squiggle under "combinations"? :\ ) and imagining how these different personalities would interact with each other.

So back to feeling crafty. Here's why: I just finished making a Faris (Final Fantasy V) costume that I wore to Saboten Con 2010, I'm planning on doing an Orange Caramel (and also maybe Perfume if time permits) with Emily and Maggie for another con in January (that I found out about only a day after Saboten, pahaha. Mom's sure gonna be happy... 8D; ), I'm also putting together a Hufflepuff costume (or persona, rather, hehe~) for the Harry Potter movie and for a Harry Potter party, I'm "knitting" a blocked stripe scarf for that costume, I want to knit a Sackboy for cousin Jessica (andthenoneformyselfahhhsocute~) for Christmas and maybe some little accessories, and then after that I want to really knit a trapped bar striped Hufflepuff scarf for Deathly Hallows, Pt. 2. I'm super excited to do all this, but I almost feel a little overwhelmed too. Oh, and then there's Phoenix Comic Con next summer too! What am I going to cosplay for that?! @A@

With all this stuff going on, I'm surprisingly not going to spend a lot of time on a Halloween costume this year. If I wasn't doing all these other costumes then sure, but I think add on one more to the load so soon would be too much. That's not to say I'm not going to dress up, though. I'm going to be a cow~! :3 I'll use my cow pajamas that Emily gave me for Christmas (looooove iitttttttttt, loooooove herrrrrr~) and wear black gloves and black socks over some flip flops. I thought about maybe painting a black patch around my eye, too. I think we're going to a cardboard box maze on Halloween and I'm pretty stoked. It'll be fun crawling around in a cow costume. :D

So my Harry Potter/Hogwarts/Hufflepuff costume is getting me real excited. I found THE perfect skirt at Goodwill the other day!! I was just in awe at how good my luck was that day. It completely made my day. So much. You don't even know. It's gray and the perfect length and PLEATED. I didn't really expect to find a pleated skirt anywhere. I was just going to go with a plain gray skirt. I found one there that I would've been completely content with, but then I thought, "Let's try looking just a little bit more." AND THEN FIVE STEPS DOWN IT WAS THERE. ; A; Those are tears right there. Tears of joy. I was looking at some character stills from the movies the other day and saw one with Hermione wearing basically the same exact skirt that I got. Seriously. I found a Hogwarts skirt, guys. All the way over here in America.

Wizards do exist.

I also found a good plain white button-up shirt at the same Goodwill. At DI the next day, I found a good black v-neck knit vest and a black graduation gown that I might use. I already had black knee-high socks with yellow stripes and Shauna is letting me use some old, black, slip-on shoes of hers that work great. I'm working on my scarf. I'm going to sand down a scrap of pine wood we have into a simple wand. I would love to actually buy a legit wand because some are just gorgeously made and it would just be awesome. Buuut they're also a little on the expensive side and I don't want to invest too much into this costume. Maybe I'll buy one for Pt. 2. And then the tie. I can't decide if I should buy an officially licensed one for $20 or if I should make one by modifying a yellow tie. It might be cheaper to modify, but would it turn out just as nice? :\ And then maybe I'll get a Hufflepuff patch. Dunno.

Sooo that's my life right now. c: The semester is halfway over hallelujah. That also means I need to go in and see an adviser so I know what to do with my life. D;

Concerning Democracy's Countdown (And Fwd's!)

This is a forward I received from my mother. I think the message is very interesting and a little worrying, to say the least. Just thought I'd share it...in it's original form. More thoughts about that at the bottom.

This is one of the most interesting things I've read in a long time. The sad thing about it, you can see it coming.

I
have always heard about this democracy countdown..

It is interesting to see it in print.

God help us !

How
Long Do We Have?

About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler,

a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh ,
had this to say about the fall of the

Athenian

Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

'A democracy is always temporary in nature;

it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.'

'A democracy will continue to exist up until the time
that voters discover they can vote themselves
generous gifts from the public treasury

' From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates

who promise the most benefits from the public treasury,

with the result that every democracy will finally collapse

due to loose fiscal policy,

which is always followed by a dictatorship.'

'The
average age of the world's greatest civilizations
from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years'

'During those 200 years, those nations always progressed
through the following
sequence:

1.
from bondage to spiritual faith;

2.
from spiritual faith to great courage;

3.
from courage to liberty;

4.
from liberty to abundance;

5.
from abundance to complacency;

6.
from complacency to apathy;

7.
from apathy to dependence;

8.
from dependence back into bondage'

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University
School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota
points out some interesting facts concerning the

2008 Presidential election:

Number of States won by:

Democrats: 19

Republicans: 29

Square miles of land won by:

Democrats: 580,000
Republicans: 2,427,000

Population
of counties won by:

Democrats: 127 million
Republicans: 143 million

Murder
rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Democrats: 13.2

Republicans: 2.1

Professor Olson adds:

'In aggregate, the map of the territory the
Republicans won was mostly the land owned by the
taxpaying citizens of this great country. Democrat
territory mostly encompassed those citizens living
in government-owned tenements and living off various
forms of government welfare...' Olson believes the
United States
is somewhere between the 'complacency and
apathy' phase of Professor Tyler's definition of
democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's
population already having reached the 'governmental
dependency phase.

If
Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals, and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA
in fewer than five
years.

If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message. If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

WE
LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE
FREE,
ONLY BECAUSE OF THE
BRAVE

WE MUST VOTE !

Okay, so the message is provocative. But the thing that bothers me SO MUCH about this email is the atrocious formatting. And obviously it's not just this one person that originally wrote this email that does it either. My parents send me a lot of forwards and they all have good messages. But they all share a common trait: atrocious formatting. What if this were some pamphlet you wanted to pass out to the public to spread this info? Would you ever want huge text with obnoxious background colors like NEON GREEN?? NO!! Then why is it excusable in emails that you want forwarded across the nation?!?! It's really hard to take a lot of these forwards seriously, y'know? It's like they typed it up and then asked their five-year-old daughter to come make it pretty for them.

I'm so sick of it! Someone should send out a forward with a lesson on how to send effective forwards. Maybe I will, 'cause it doesn't seem like anyone else has yet. In fact, anyone else want to join me? Cover more ground? If I can get some volunteers, we should definitely cook up something and send it to all we know. Something professional and intelligent looking. I know that appearance shouldn't overshadow the message, but if it's controlled and simple, it makes the message much more effective, don't you think? First impressions are real. And if someone gets a forward claiming it's the best thing they'll ever read, yet they see neon green text at the top, do you think they're going to actually want to read all of it? How does neon green text at the top convince them that it's nothing to be brushed aside and forgotten?

But really. Let's set up a campaign against bad forwards. D: