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Nandoodles
25 November 2006 @ 01:27 am
I just shut down my Xanga. I'm thinking of becoming a Blogger on Blogspot. It would give me a fresh start and let me put down my thoughts in a new forum with some modicum of intelligence. I kinda want to bust out of the emo abyss of LJ.
 
 
Nandoodles
20 November 2006 @ 01:46 am
-I'm getting an Imac this week. It's a sweet sendoff to the PC.
-I have Indian food in my minifridge
-I'm going to India over Winter break
-My body is unable to wind down before 2am
-I watched Desperate Housewives tonight and enjoyed it
 
 
Nandoodles
08 November 2006 @ 03:21 am
We just won the House. We might win Senate. I'm brimming with satisfaction.
 
 
Nandoodles
04 October 2006 @ 11:04 pm
Wow. It's like daily LJ updates. I feel the need to update when I'm feeling emo, which I guess is obviously happening a lot lately. Snap out of it, Nandini!  People who appreciate your personality will follow. Harsh quoted something to me today which is not at all something you haven't heard before: "Be the change you want to be." Start being your regular, happy, generous, appreciative confident, normal self again!
 
 
Nandoodles
30 September 2006 @ 04:37 pm
It's a fitting time to talk about life so far. College itself is good. I'm doing so well in my English class(es) that I'm pretty much considering myself an English major. I'm not at intimidated by the juniors and seniors in my Intro to Rhetorical Theory class, Ms.Goodwin prepared me well for college English.

I found my new best friend too, but she went home this weekend for her high school's homecoming game. We're planning to go to Quebec over Spring Break, because neither of us has been there. I also met a guy, but that doesn't matter because he doesn't talk to me about anything but the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I'm all up for that, but I don't like to hear people trash talking ethnic groups.

A bunch of us are also working on a musical endeavor. But it's a secret right now, so I won't drop more than that.

I started work as a "caller." I call Maryland alumni and update our records of them/update them on what's going on at Maryland/ask for a generous gift of $300/$150/$100/$50/$25/anything. The first day was awful and depressing--people were putting their kids to sleep, eating dinner, living in assisted living homes, trying to pay for their own medication. The first guy who I called started grilling me: "Where's the money going? How are resources allocated? I'm definetely not going to give you money, but I want to know what you ARE doing with the money." It was nervewracking and I almost thought of quitting but the 2nd day was much better. So that's bringing in a paycheck.

At the same time, there are people here who I consider close friends, but still can't count on them. I have one friend who goes home every weekend to see her boyfriend, which is great for her, but she ditches me for it. I'm definetely her closest friend on campus, and if something should happen to her relationship, I'm going to be the only one she can turn to, so she should start treating me better. Well, the onus is on her to apologize because I'm not going to take any of that crap. It's so middle school.

There is SO much to do around here that it's overwhelming! I want to join the Diamondback, be a peer counselor, gospel choir, take ballroom dancing. College would be better if there were no classes.
 
 
Nandoodles
22 September 2006 @ 12:51 pm
How exactly am I supposed to find a new best friend on a campus with 30,000 students?



Where do I start...
 
 
Nandoodles
19 August 2006 @ 06:45 pm
Friday was the last day of work, and this time next Saturday, I will have moved out and be setting up for college! Having a job was nice, except this time around, I don't have to worry about going from working in the adult world back into high school again. This time it's more exciting. I went to Target and IKEA and got (matching) bedding plus everything else.

What else?...I met some people at orientation, so I'm not particularly worried about making friends, but more about finding ones who I can be close with. I'm excited about my classes, especially my literature seminar that focuses on children. There's a little too much Dickens involved, but I think there'll be interesting writing assignments and that makes me happy.

Can't wait for my Family Guy poster to get shipped in.
 
 
Nandoodles
25 June 2006 @ 08:07 pm
So I was told today that I will be jailed behind the fat wad of glass that are my spectacles until I'm 21.

I'm trying really hard not to cry, although every time I think of it, I do. The refractive eye surgery can't be performed until my eyes stabilize, and right now they're slightly vaccilating. But I think there might be a loophole. (For those of you who don't know, my doctor has labelled me as having everything from "really weird shaped eyes" to "a visual disability.") Whenever I read the wall of letters and he fiddles with the prescription, the changes he makes are absolutely minimal. They make no difference to me in terms of reading off the letters. And I especially don't know myself if it's "Better 1? Or 2?" because I don't really know what it's like to see clearly! One prescription could just as easily be the same to me as another. I hope that I can convince him or another opthalmologist that my eyesight really hasn't changed, that I just really can't tell the difference and that is the reason behind my so-called changing prescription, which really may not be changing at all.

It's going to be a pityfest up in here for a while to come. This surgery is no longer an aesthetic choice, I think my lifestyle in college is going to depend on it. And God knows, if it stays like this is 21,....well I hope it won't.
 
 
Current Mood: crushed
 
 
Nandoodles
22 May 2006 @ 10:39 pm
The NYT book review came out with an article yesterday saying that according to a bunch of professors, literary folk and writers, Toni Morrison's Beloved is the best American book written the past 25 years. Maybe I should reread it then. It was a good book, but too poetic and abstract for me to get last summer. It dealt with some really disturbing issues too: the African-American post-slavery psyche, not to mention a dead baby haunting it's mother. Everyone hates a slow-paced book, but I guess we can't write it off as quickly as Churchill kids do.

Umm STILL haven't finished Great Gatsby, although by now I've forgotten everything that happened in the beginning so I started it over and have to go through the whole thing.

I'm not doing ANYTHING this week. So hang out with me, okay?

My last day of school is Wednesday, I believe.

Since I'm not doing beach week, if anyone has any better ideas for something cheaper/shorter/better I could do, let me know.
 
 
Nandoodles
15 May 2006 @ 08:23 pm
Let the world know that today, I took the large black ant that I'd trapped under a glass on a ledge the day before, and freed it on the sidewalk. It was really excited, I could tell. Its antenna's just went crazy and it kind of crawled around on the book I kept it on until I got annoyed and made a slamming noise to scare it off. And it scurried off into the grass where I suppose it will eventually be crushed under gigantic human feet. Karma, baby. Someday something like that will happen to me.

Things were really great today. Countdown to prom is finally underway. Yea, they went really well. Couldn't have asked for anything better.

Totally watching Napoleon Dynamite today. Totally. I'm looking forward to knowing what all this Vote for Pedro fuss is all about.
 
 
Nandoodles
11 May 2006 @ 01:09 am
I really miss having the Sundance Channel. It was a true companion to me and introduced me to cool random foreign films. It was turning me into a film snob, and then suddenly, all was lost.

It's just way cool that on page A7 of the Washington Post today, there was an ad placed by the Hanso Foundation, and for all the LOST geeks out there, that's the fictitious organization that's making all the weird experiments on the island. So the ad says something along the lines of "Don't believe Gary Troup's novel, 'Bad Twin'" Then I heard on the radio today that Gary Troup is really an anagram for "purgatory" which led me to go to the website mentioned in the ad, www.thehansofoundation.org which is eerily similar to those websites of pharmaceutical companies, except this is creepy. It has hidden texts and links and videos and it's really quite riveting for a geek like me.

The other way cool thing that happened today is that AP's are finally over. Not that I studied for them or anything.

I miss being in a choir. Like a really large, beautiful choir. Holy crap, the first thing I do on UMD's campus is weasel my way into the gospel choir. And a concert choir too.

I haven't finished The Great Gatsby yet! It's just sitting there on my bed, beckoning me.

Also, a note to college people. Hurry up and get back!

I graduate May 31st and start the internship on June 5th. Which gives about a week of true relaxicizing.

For the first time in high school, I'm truly angry at someone. For that betrayal and just general cocky apathy. Only a matter of time before a confrontation?
 
 
Nandoodles
08 May 2006 @ 09:57 pm
High school's almost over. It's tremendously exciting. Senior year is unlike any other year of high school. Last year I thought that being a senior would be like a holding place till college started. But I managed to take so many risks this year, get closer with friends, let go of my neurotic definition of success and appreciate myself, things that I would have never done before. This year, I picked up books just because I wanted to know more and restarted the piano because I love it even though I suck. I started to look at the world as a book, and my experiences as motifs in a novel. I began to take acceptance, rejection, excruciating waitlists as a sign that even with those hundreds of roads and paths at my feet, the one I take will be right. This wasn't just any year in high school.
 
 
Current Location: A sofa
 
 
Nandoodles
18 April 2006 @ 03:32 pm
When I grow up, I think I will be the CEO of a theme park known as Starchworld. The only food offered there will be bread and various delicious condiments, such as cream cheese and churned butter to eat with. There will be noodles galore. But for now, picking up a loaf of whole grain bread at Giant will have to do. I crave bread.

Other than that, I got a 92 on my Invisible Man paper, which really makes me feel good because I worked hard on it and I'm glad that I was able to spit out something coherent. Ah, writing is cool.

Speaking of which, I'm entering the Asian Pacific-American Essay Contest. Yep, sponsored by NBC and Freddie Mac. Only, this time I'm pretty sure I count.

Choir conducting is going pretty badly these days. The choir knows the song now, which means I can't sit there and go over the parts again and again. I actually have to conduct and I'm alarmingly bad at it.

Currently Reading:
All The President's Men by Woodward and Bernstein
Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan

Both good books, highly recommended

And for the cryptic topic of the day: One can bathe in modesty
 
 
Nandoodles
07 April 2006 @ 10:57 pm
And with today, I have officially terminated my employment. I am one free chick.

I'm going to Terpland this fall.

I'm going to Florida for spring break where I will also observe Passover and eat matzo balls.

I'm kinda really enjoying things right now. Everything.

I'm going to hang out with a certain Bob Woodward on May 2nd. No joke.

LOST is the best ever.

Mark Twain in my new favorite person.

Yay I have drama in my life. Like good drama but the kind that's nerveracking. But it still gives me something to pore over because I'm bored.
 
 
Nandoodles
01 April 2006 @ 07:04 pm
UMD's giving me a one time scholarship of $1500. Pleasant.

I'm not nor was I too upset about the Georgetown rejection. I realized a month ago that more than wanting to actually go, I just wanted to get in. You know. Pride, ego-inflation, that sort of thing. And then I realized that I'm not really aiming for a corporate career type of thing after college. Although maybe that should remain an option so I can save up for a bit. What would I save up for? Probably for when I start wandering around the country or internationally in search of some kind of adventure, or when I volunteer, which will definetely happen.

Back to the present. I went to Barnes and Noble today, armed with $30 worth of gift cards. I came back with:

"Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut
"Essays and Sketches of Mark Twain" by (duh)

And my personal favorite:
"Macaroni and Cheese: 52 Recipes from Simple to Sublime"

Jealous yet?
 
 
Nandoodles
25 March 2006 @ 08:46 pm
shot down by georgetown. so that's nice and everything
 
 
Current Mood: grumpy
 
 
Nandoodles
23 March 2006 @ 02:42 pm
*Waitlisted to Boston College
*$5000/yr scholarship to UPitt
 
 
Nandoodles
20 March 2006 @ 04:24 pm
My thrilling senior skip day consisted of me finally getting my permit. Atleast it happened, now if things go as planned, I can hope to have a license before college starts. Well hey, it's better than nothing. I may have lied just a little about my weight.

I'm sort of losing my self-esteem as a writer lately because sometimes it scares me when I can't come up with a good thesis in English. Like that's what we've been doing religiously for the past 2 years and I feel awful when what I write comes out shoddy and vague and not well thought out. I need that self-esteem back quick: the final feature story is due to the Washington Post this Saturday for scholarship consideration.

This weekend, I ordered a copy of Invisible Children, this documentary about children in Uganda who are commuting for hours everyday to sleep in the streets of local towns for fear of being kidnapped by "the rebels," who make up some evil insurgency-type opposition to the Ugandan government. This thing was filmed by recent film school grads who were sort of seeking out an adventure in Africa and stumbled upon these starved, emotionally and physically abused kids living in some sort of black holish reign of terror. Since then, they've turned it into a non-profit organization aimed at getting these kids to safety, to food and shelter and an education. The filmmakers came to our school and talked about how they need as much grassroots help as possible because they're a measly non-profit, so I got an idea. I explained the film and organization to the lady who is heading the seminar at the Washington Post and asked her if she'd be willing to get the information out to the right people because it's such a good but forgotten cause. She took down notes and everything and I'm planning on giving her a copy of the DVD to pass around the Post and hopefully, HOPEFULLY, it will take shape into an article in the second most widely circulated newspaper in the country.

Other than that, things are at a standstill. Just kind of waiting for college news to come, ready for the disappointment or elation or whatever combination that will come from in tiny envelopes from around the country.

I'm a crappy writer.

 
 
Nandoodles
19 March 2006 @ 07:30 pm
I know I'm supposed to let everything go because I'm a senior and most actions on the part of my parents are due to underlying reasons of fear and uncertainty over what's going to happen next year. But I just don't get my dad. He's like a grandfather clock, except less predictable and he stays on the angry side more often. And I that's what keeps me from talking to him too much or getting too comfortable in his presence because he'll explode into a million little pieces at any second and I won't know where to begin to look to figure out what happened.

That's not something that started this year, though. It's kind of gone on since I was a kid. But it's great that I'm going to college and getting away from it.

Speaking of college, Northeastern offered me $7500/yr. But it's a sketchy school, so I'm not going.

Speaking of money, my dad didn't fill out the CSS/Profile forms, which is a requirement at all the private colleges I applied to, which means I'm not getting any aid from those schools (provided I get in)
 
 
Current Mood: indifferent
 
 
Nandoodles
18 March 2006 @ 08:11 pm
Ahh. Today was fun. I got up early for the seminar at WashPost and found that they did not have cream cheese danishes at breakfast there. I was a bit disappointed, but the coffee cake made up for it. Then they paired us up with reporters who had evaluated our articles on a fake press conference held by the (real) head of the NAACP in Washington, Hilary Shelton. And you guessed it, the reporter was (drum roll please) Indian. Fantastic. He was good and everything though. There was only one real thing wrong with my paper and that was that my lede wasn't much of a hook, but that's okay. My first stab at a news writing.

Then, Alex O and I went to the National Gallery for no particular reason. On the way there, we were discussing very loudly about how the National Archives doesn't display the real Constitution and how that kind of makes it a waste. Then a photographer-man behind us says "Well its there, but they have it locked up in a vault." We laughed and labelled him as Number 1. The first random person of the day.
There was a Cezanne exhibit, but the line was really wrong. We skipped that and had way too much fun analyzing the other exhibits. We saw what I would describe as an 18th century depiction of the pilot show of LOST. . You know, with the blazing inferno and the chaos and except with a ship instead of a plane....and without the hot people.
We made fun of the Napoleon Bonaparte painting and then came across the bust of a elated old, bald man. I decided that I wanted to take the man home and fashion clown wigs for him. Then of course, we realized it was Voltaire.  Then we walked into what I can only describe as the Hail Mary room; the room was filled with sculptures of Jesus and Mary. We decided that we couldn't make fun of anything in there because we would go to some kind of hell for it. So while we were taking a breather on the sofa outside the room, I explained to Alex the premise of a book that was featured on Jon Stewart a little while back called "Quoting Jesus" or something along those lines, and how the monks who copied and recopied (and added their own stuff in between) the Bible probably eroded the word of God over the two centuries after Jesus's death. She agreed that the Bible is a good guide to morals but shouldn't be followed literally. Then I said "Jesus seems like he was a good guy. I would have been friends with him." And to that she said "You would probably be the only one he'd HATE." Then we ran out of there before God could smite us, or some Evangelist could come and take things into his own hands.

I was determined to find the Vermeer, especially after reading "Girl with a Pearl Earring," so we embarked on that little journey. So we asked a security guard for directions, and he told us that the Vermeer wasn't close to here. "Dang it," I said and he goes "Why don't you hang on a second, you're like my daughter, talking before I'm done what I'm sayin"  Then he directed us to the obscure Room 13 on the lower level. Random Person Number 3.

Then I wanted to throw a penny into the wishing well and use it to wish for world peace. I missed.

When that was over, we went to Au Bon Pain after shedding silent tears in seeing Cosi was closed. Au Bon Pain was closing too in about 30min but I wasn't about to leave, not when I saw that they were selling Macaroni and Cheese. Except they had run out, and so I shed a very loud tear and the manager agreed to make some for me specially. Random Person Number 7 So while I was having my Mac and Cheese and Alex was having her Chicken Salad Wrap, we wondered what they do with the delicious pastries when they close. We knew from previous meddling experience that Starbucks throws their stuff away. Could ABP do the same? We Rock Paper Scissored, I lost and asked the lady at the counter. "We throw them away on weekends and sell them for half price on weekdays." Aha, it's a weekend. So I convinced her that our tummies were a good enough cause to let us have some. Thats when we met Random Person Number 9.

He is an ABP employee, himself mooching off the danishes and a conversation somehow struck up between the three of us. He speaks French (as I sort of do) and Spanish (as Alex sort of, but better than me, does). He's seeking political asylum from the Cameroon(ian?) government that sort of kicked him out because he was a Philosophy teacher back home. He was really cool and Alex liked him because she likes Philosophy herself. So although our conversation was cut short because they were closing soon, Alex and I decided to come back and visit again because it's great to meet random people because it makes everything interesting. She agreed that we would have never met so many random people if it wasn't for me and my loudmouth. Why thank you.
 
 
Current Mood: chipper