new years eve

i can't believe it's the last day of the year. it's all gone by so fast!

if you told me January of last year that some of my coolest friends would end up being overseas, i wouldn't have believed you. i also didn't know what a Nerdfighter was, so...

if you asked me why i'm on the staff of The Guide and why i'm determined to make it a reality, i would tell you it's because being a Nerdfighter and being part of the Nerdfighter community has not only changed my life and exposed me to amazing people, but it has changed me! who and what i have at the top of my value list is different. and i never want that to change.

as for "irl" changes (irl being in quotes because some of the friendships i've made online this year seem more real than the ones in the supposed irl) nothing really has changed. i still go to work and see and talk to my friends occasionally. "occasionally" meaning almost never.

last year at this time i had a desperate hope that better things were coming.

so much unlike last year, i look forward to the new year! because i KNOW good things are coming! VidCon, for one thing, is guaranteed to be AWESOME! (plus it's happening the weekend before my birthday. so instead of a little party, i'll be going to VidCon!)

7NAP. it's fun! and we're just starting! which is so exciting! (video tomorrow! yay!)

The Guide. oh, The Guide. well, it's gonna be epic. and i'm freakin' part of it! i'm on the freakin' Staff! it can't be more awesome than that.

who knows what else this year holds for me? a podcast hopefully. but then, who knows?

see you all in the New Year! <3

video quality

so i got a new camera and i've learned 1 thing. i CAN NOT upload my files as .wmv's. i did this and got this:


which really defeats the purpose of getting a new camera. so, it takes FOREVER to upload, but in the end i get this:


definitley worth the wait n'est ce pas?

video no go?

so earlier i made and sent off my "secret" video. and i was SO happy cuz i was like, "yes! finished! and it's not painfully boring! (i was so afraid it would be really boring) so glad that's done and sent!" and then all the sudden, now that i've already sent it and it's definitely much, much too late, right as i was about to drag my finger across the touch pad and click the "shut down" button i thought, "what if nobody likes it? what if everybody thinks it's stupid? maybe i shouldn't post that. maybe i should make a new one." and then i realized, i can't make a new one because i already sent it in!!! why do my second thoughts always come to me as i'm drifting to sleep/shutting down my computer?! (which is the same thing in my head. the terms are interchangeable.)

i have decided that the only thing i can do in the mean time is be happy about being done with my P4A video! now this is particularly special to me because it is my first P4A video! i hope that the comments it gets aren't, "wow. this one's not that good." that and, "what's with the intro? that's the worst thing i've ever heard!"

wait. i started that paragraph in happy. when did it get all, "i'm just as paranoid about my P4A vid as i am about my 'secret' vid"-ish? because i'm not as paranoid about my P4A vid! i'm just mildly self-conscious. (which is pretty much my constant state of being.)

so yeah. now that i've gotten my ya-ya's out, i'm going to bed!

Videos-A-Plenty

so... who's stressed out cuz they have to re-shoot one video, and do another that they should have done yesterday? yeah, yep, that would be me. i was supposed to have that stuff in the can! i don't know what happened!
ok, this is bad. now i'm lying to my blog. blatant neglect is one thing, but when the lying starts...
i, in fact, know EXACTLY what happened. i was like, "yeah, i know i have vids to shoot, but i'm just gonna sit here and watch YouTube, and talk to Sam, and Karolina, and Emma, and Amy instead. i'll shoot later." and then it was later. and i made a vid on my laptop. and the mic picked up the sound of the fan in my laptop, so now i have a P4A video with shitty sound, and that's simply unacceptable, and... this is a run-on sentence, i'm gonna use a period now. sorry for those i've offended with my complete abandon of grammar.
so long story short, i have to start churning out video as soon as i get home!
the good news is i did make an audio track for the P4A video intro. it's kind of bad, but i'm gonna use it anyway. so don't make fun of me when you hear it, k? thanx!

so... yeah. one day i'm gonna actually have to work while i'm at work. i am NOT looking forward to that day! there's too many things to do online!

ps. i love that one of the options in the dropdown when i type a "p" in the labels box is "half blood prince" followed by "harry potter." :)

probably not original...

music is fluid. instead of quenching your thirst, it quenches your soul.

that's probably not original, but that's what occured to me on my way home from work.

the tea is gone!

i wrote, Jack Sparrow stylee, on my dry erase board at work, "Why is the tea always gone?" and labled my picture "tea mug."

someone decided that the "tea" should, literally, be gone. XD

...well, i thought it was funny!

unexpected beauty

you know what i love?

i love when you're just driving along in your car, putting on make-up at stop lights, driving as fast as you safely can, and all of the sudden BAM!

absolutely beautiful tree with all its red leaves, half of them blanketing the ground surrounding it on the side of the road. just gorgeous. random gorgeous.

that's what i love. :)

Nerdfighters (and The Guide) are Awesome!

oh blog, even when i neglect you, you're still here for me.

which, when you think about it, isn't very healthy. and if you had any self respect, you would leave me. but lucky for me, you are not a person and self respect is not an issue for you. and so you stay.

now that i'm done exploring the depths of me and my blog's abusive relationship, i can talk about other stuff. like my new appreciation for the word "ratiocination."

ratiocination rash-ee-ah-suh-NAY-shun

The process of logical reasoning.

finally! "Nice guy, but no ratiocination." as opposed to "Nice guy, but no sense of logic." what once was three words, now is one! what does it say about me, as a person, that i have the willingness and the need to accept this word into my daily vocabulary? let's not explore that.

hey, remember that time when The Guide wrote to Alan, and he said The Guide was a bad idea, and everyone got kinda bummed out? and then remember all the hilarious Alan jokes that ensued?! (oh, the lols! good times!) and then remember 2 weeks later when Hank said it was a good idea. and then remember a month later when John emailed saying it was a good idea. and remember when we all got to say, "in your face Alan! SUCK IT!" but we were all too awesome to say that. (at least not publicly!) yeah. yeah... that was SO AWESOME!!!

so, i've an observation to share:
twitter is SO much fun when you're mutually following Nerdfighters! twitter is my new favorite IM! <3 my morning was filled with alien rhino men (aka. "guys in rhino suits"), culture package planning, and memory manipulation! since i don't know ALL Nerdfighters, i could be wrong on this, but i'm pretty fairly certain that MY Nerdfighter friends are the most awesome.



oh, yeah. and rl is still boring. just in case someone was under the misguided delusion that it suddenly became overwhelmingly awesome. yeah, it's still not.

ps. i started writing this at 8:45am! ADD much?!

???

why?



why would i want to read a blog called "my life is crap?" that obviously isn't gonna be much fun! plus, maybe we could try proper capitalization when naming our blogs? just a suggestion.

withdrawl

i still have the urge to blog everyday... but i'm not having adventures! no one wants to hear the play by play of my work day. not even me!


**ps. i just Googled "emo tear" and looked at the image results, and that's what i found! :)**

Day 7

8:05am
Last Maui Morning

so we woke up at 5am today to catch the sunrise.


this morning is bittersweet. i don't want to leave, but i'm excited to go home. i'm gonna miss driving through rolling hills of sugar cane, the sweet, sweet air, and the big blue water.



*sigh* time to go back home.

Day 6

10:37pm
Last Night in Hawaii

Today's mission: find Makena Beach (Black Sand) and bring back sand.

we drove through Kihei and Wailea, which were kind of resort-ish and just looked like Santa Monica (architecturally). so, not really that impressive.
while trying to find the "black beach" (which isn't what it's named, but seems to be what everybody calls it), we found ourselves on Big Beach. i asked the life guard where Black Beach was, he told us, but we stayed on Big Beach for a while.

we followed his directions, didn't go far enough, and found ourselves on Big Beach again.
so we continued on, and found where the bumpy little road was, but the orange gate was closed. so we had to walk the path instead of drive it. it's a nice little hike.
but we got there and it was GORGEOUS! or at least i thought so! all this beautiful dark, dark brown sand, and NO ONE ELSE THERE! it was pretty small, but also secluded. it was super-awesome. i was kind of surprised since everyone on the snorkeling tour was told about it. you would think they would want to go to it as well. no sense of adventure, i guess. and before we left, i filled a bag with sand, so mission accomplished!

then we decided that we needed to have dinner in Paia. (you know? that town i said i want to move to?) we got there just before all the shops closed and i was able to get the sarongs my mom wanted. we asked what was a good place to have dinner and the shop ladies suggested a pizza place. we didn't want to go to some old pizza place. so we walked down the block to look at the menu of one of the restaurants. it had all the same stuff i could find at any restaurant in LA. we didn't want The Fish Co. because we already had a lot of fish during this trip. So we went back to Flatbread Company, the pizza place.
as it turns out, everything at Flatbread Company (animal and vegetable) is locally grown, organic, and cruelty free. they also make everything there from scratch (sausage, pepperoni, bread). and it was DELICIOUS! so it wound up being the perfect place to eat! also, each of the drawings on the menus were different and drawn in crayon! WIN!

then we went back to the Green Banana Cafe (AWESOME coffee)and i got another macadamia nut latte. so good! :)

it was a long, dark, rainy drive back, but we made it. now we're packing up and i'm not ready to go!

ps. there's a hoopy frood who really knows where her towel is!

Day 5

10am
i slept in today! and i'm refusing to go to The Guide meeting right now because i know if i start, i'm not gonna leave it and we're planning to go out before it's over, so... i tried not to convert the time, but it was too easy. but it won't be so bad since we have The Guide chat window. i can scroll through when i get in tonight. *sigh* i'm addicted.

10:30pm
so we went to Pa'ia today. it's a little quaint town. not as touristy as the rest of the island. i wanted to move there. there's, of course gorgeous beach, and such cute little shops.

then we went to "The Road to Hana." a twisty, turny, beautiful road! this is where you'll find The Twin Falls. it was so cool!

then it was a quick stop for coffee and bathroom breaks back in Pa'ia before we headed back to our side of the island.


and finally, we came back to Front St. to have dinner. once again, we found ourselves at a table overlooking the ocean! :) we've had luck with that EVERY night! either it's early, or we get the last available one.

the ride back was dark and rainy! we could barely see the road! but it was still the end to an AWESOME day!

and i read The Guide meeting. progress. and new people. and new ideas. i love it!