Good morning, Canada!

Today is a day of Firsts.

First post of this year. First post since God knows when. First post since finishing studying Grade 12 Biology: Chapter Three--Photosynthesis. First post since--hold your breath, ladles and gentlespoons--FINISHING. THE FIRST DRAFT. OF. THE. SEARS PLAY.


Exciting news successfully condensed and announced.

Now for an Imagist poem!

The Dinner Table
Flat but uneven;
Unsmooth and splintered;
It holds our conversation
Stable enough.


Lastly, First Post announcing a Series of [Possibly Collaborative] Posts Concerning (Songs to) Tune Out & _________ (to).

Parantheses obliterated, it's just gonna be posts containing YouTube playlists with different themes each time but every playlist will be something to escape to.

I've a few ideas on what to play when I tune out and...

• Study
• Stop being hormonal
• Dance my pants off (DANTSOFFPANTSOFF ANYONE?)
• Eat (<3)
• Read
• Cry (a good cry does you good)
• Laugh (funky, funny, freckletastic)
• Revisit old memories

Now, to sleep before the dreaded Bio test tomorrow.

Oh, one last annonce:

MURDER MYSTERY DINNER PARTY

featuring a collaboration between the DRAMA DEPT. and FOOD DEPT.

Yes. They just decided to combine the two loves of my life.

More information to come in the Spring! :)

Live, laugh, fall on your face, appreciate life and all that.

-Maggie

The Caf's Mexican Rice with Chicken Fingers!

So I finally found time to blog again. And of course, the first thing I'm going to blog about is food. I felt like eating something tomato-ey and herb-y but still rice-y. So Mexican Rice it was :P

I haven't cooked in ages so I was ecstatic when I found out how simple it was to make. Just some ingredients almost everyone of any culture has in their pantry/fridge and you can throw together some yummy orange rice. It turned out well, considering I've cooked a proper dinner about once in my lifetime. xD

THE RECIPE

What you'll need:

1. 1 tbsp olive oil (great for your skin, fantastic for your arteries!)
2. 1 cup medium or long-grain rice
3. 1 cup chicken liquid stock (or a cup of water, a teaspoon of salt and half a tablespoon of powdered chicken stock)
4. 1/2 an onion, finely chopped
5. 1 clove garlic, minced
6. 1/2 bell pepper (any colour; optional)
7. 1/2 a medium-sized tomato, diced (optional--I know many of you dislike tomatoes and bell peppers!)
8. 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of tomato sauce or tomato paste (you can add more or less according to your preference)
9. A pinch (around 1/4 tsp) oregano (dried or chopped)
10. A pinch of parsley (dried or chopped)

3 breaded chicken strips--I cheated on this one, haha.

What to do:

1. In a skillet (or wok xD), brown the garlic and onions in olive oil. Add the rice and brown that, stirring constantly, for about four minutes or until the onion is soft. This process adds a nutty, rustic flavour to the rice. Set aside.
2. 
   
3. In a saucepan (or wok! :D), bring the chicken stock to a simmer. (Or heat up water and then add salt+powdered stock.) Add the tomato paste/sauce, tomato, bell pepper, oregano, parsley, and a dash of salt. (A dash=roughly a teaspoon. Don't add more salt if you want to eat less sodium!) Bring back up to a simmer and add the browned rice/onion/garlic mixture. Cover and let the rice cook for 15 to 25 minutes.
4. 
   
5. You may want to open it up and stir the rice occasionally (every three minutes) to make sure it doesn't burn. Personally, I like my rice a little dry and a little crispy but I'm sure there are many people who dislike a few hard grains of overcooked rice.
6. 
   
7. As the rice is cooking, place the chicken fingers/strips in the oven or toaster oven at a toasty 425 degrees Farenheit. (Oh shush, I know I'm Canadian but I see Imperial measurements EVERYWHEREEE.) Let them bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how dry you like them and your oven's power. Flip after ten minutes.
8. 
   
9. When complete, plate the chicken on the rice and serve! :D

Now, back to my journal-ing.

I finally finished my speech for English! And jeez, Grade 12 this year is a pain. But at least Ms. Mo marks easier than Mr. Hulme! xD

I've decided to do a eulogy. You'll find out how I've decided to do it at my presentation. Hmm.. math test tomorrow... Ugh. I guess now I'll finish eating and go study.

The Menagerie

A reflection on things that require restraint.

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There's this menagerie in my backyard. I never asked for it but it came with everything else I inherited. It seemed cool at first—and it definitely got me lots of attention—until I realized how hard it was to control my animals.

First, there was Misery, the whale. And wail did she ever. It was mostly incoherent blubbering but from what I could gather, life was a series of tragic misfortunes conspiring to make her miserable. I don’t think she has ever smiled. It was one whale song after another: the Premium Whale Feed tasted like expired shrimp meat, the Luxury Standard Marine Enclosure was way too small and should have been graded “Hobo Standard”, all my friends were “idiotic morons”, what had she ever done to be sentenced to this pathetic place, the food sucks, her "goldfish tank" sucks, life sucks.

There are some who enjoy listening to whale songs. Most people were okay with Misery the first month or so. They gave her lots of attention, even asking for encores and such. Misery was entertaining. When the excitement died down though, she took a turn for the worse. She wailed through the night, blubbered through the mornings, and moaned all day. Soon, even the whale-lovers began moving away.

Along with Misery came Ire. Ire was a mangy old dog with an iron will: as long as he could see you, he would never stop trying to bite your head off. Once, a troupe of neighbourhood kids came by and giggled at the way Ire lapped up water. Two minutes into their teasing, he lost it, barking until every bird in the neighbourhood started flying south early. I think he even managed to nip a little girl’s finger.

Ire was near impossible to control. Even after I locked him in a cage, he’d bark at every friend and neighbour who came to visit. Everything was a challenge, a competition, a threat. He had no mercy for harmless public servicemen, either. Nowadays, no one visits anymore.

When the flow of people first started to thin, I found some comfort in Mirth and Mockery—one monkey with two faces. On her better days, her laughs were infectious and she could light up a room with smiles. On her worse days, she would hang off railings and chandeliers, shatter vases with throw pillows, and tear the house asunder in a torrent of Johnny-Depp-driven glee. It was all too funny for her. My visitors found Mirth a delight until she began mocking their words, garbling contexts and twisting meanings.

Mockery behaved the worst the day a lawyer friend of mine visited. His father had recently been diagnosed with cancer and he was torn at the news. Mirth tried to cheer him up but when it proved fruitless, Mockery stepped in and laughed every time he choked on his words.

I didn’t hear from that friend again for a while.

When things continued to worsen, Paranoia surfaced. Paranoia was an entire meerkat herd but only one meerkat ever appeared in the open at once. No entity, living or otherwise, went unchecked and everything was considered a threat to their very existence. Whether it was a child, a fly, or a leaf, the reaction never changed. One meerkat would emerge and inspect the surroundings and then they'd all scurry further out of sight.

At first, I thought Paranoia would remain hidden away from public eyes, as long as there were safe places to hide. Later, I learned nothing was considered safe—everything was fatal. And all things fatal needed considerable examination. I found Paranoia hiding in nooks and crannies everywhere. Some huddled in closets, others shied in drawers, still others crouched behind sofas, in teacups, and under area rugs. If the other animals had not driven my visitors away, finding Paranoia spying on them from behind the shower curtain surely did.

As neighbours disappeared and friends made other plans, Pride redoubled her efforts. She was like Mirth and Misery in that respect: less attention meant more potential for attention. The fewer eyes turned to her, the brighter her Gucci-patterned cage and Tiffany-blue eyes shone. The fewer ears turned to her, the lustier she sang. She had a voice like an untrained parrot but that didn’t matter because she hailed from a faraway, exotic land. Those that once cooed over her beautiful feathers avoided visiting again for fear of her absurdly loud croaking. Any neighbours still left joined the others. No one wanted to be kept up by Pride’s midnight trumpeting.

By now, as you might have guessed, I’ve lost some friends, most of my neighbours, and all of my visitors. It’s demanding, desperate work. Won’t they ever give up? Some days, their enclosures weaken and I almost can’t be bothered to keep them under lock and key. It’s tempting, really. What if I just let them all go? I’d never have to deal with them again. They’d be someone else’s responsibility. I could stop caring and let them do whatever they want. I could let loose.

And then I check myself. I can’t let loose. Because this is my menagerie and they are my animals—no one else’s. When I have no visitors, they are my company. When I have no will, they are my strength. When I have nothing else, I will have my menagerie.

I am their keeper as they are my muse.

Bailey's Blog: Everything's Okay... Everything's Going to Be Okay... REALLY?! [Repost]

Hey all--lazy weekend, so it's going to be another repost. This one's from a friend I met at the ESU program at Queen's University one summer day in 2010. Those of you from Ms. Mo's Grade 10 Gifted class will remember that fantastic week....

But enough about us.

This article's rather thought-provoking and the point-blank prose speaks aloud what I believe many people think once they've gotten to know a few close friends.

Everyone has a story. And everyone has a cover.

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Bailey's Blog: Everything's Okay... Everything's Going to Be Okay... REALLY?!

Everyone is perfect. Everyone has the perfect life. Everything is okay. Everything is going to be okay. Everyone is happy. Everyone has one big happy family. No one is left alone. No one cries. No one is heart broken. Everything... Is... Okay...

That's what they want us to believe. That's what we want to believe. It's easier. The world is perfect. We can just relax. Ignore everything. Because, everything is okay.

But is it?

I was walking through the hallways at my high school today when it hit me; that's what it looks like. Everyone has this face, this mask, that any outsider percieves as they're okay. But, sometimes, you have to wonder what's going on behind that mask. Whose heart broken? Whose depressed? Who had a fight with their parents this morning? Who doesn't have parents? Are they really okay?

Maybe it's none of anyone else's business. But I realized you can't judge a person by what they look like.

I grew up in a world where everything was perfect. Families stuck together. We never fought. Everyone had a Mom and a Dad. No one was struggling. No one was sick. There wasn't a single worry about money. Everyone was happy. Everything was okay... and always would be. But I guess, not everyone is so fortunate. It was kind of a eye-opener when I started high school.

I met a girl. She lost her mother three years ago. I met a guy. He lost his father three years ago. I met a girl; her father's hanging on for his life. Someone just broke up with someone they still loved. Before walking out the door this morning, a girl had a fight with her mother. One girl lost her sister... Less than a year ago. A bunch of people lost a friend.

But they still smile. Or at least, pretend to. No one knows the difference.

It amazes me how strong they can be, to put on this mask when they come to school and give off the impression that everything is fine.

That's until you meet them, talk to them and maybe if they're comfortable with you, they'll tell you... that's when you realize you can't possibly judge someone from a first impression or glance.

Is everything okay?

I don't think so.

I wish it were though.

Field Hockey Wins! Glee! Asian Camp! Awkward Situations! Epidemics! ANALOGIESSSS!

Last week was pretty intense. In addition to two field hockey games two days in a row (which we won 1-0 v. Agincourt and 2-0 v. West Hill, thanks to our top scorer Mily Chen!!), the new season of Glee started (the first episode of which provided Colin and I with material for a legendary argument), the Ontario Universities Fair had a fantastic start, I finished that annoying analogy essay with seven minutes to spare, there was a cold epidemic with an epic Tree of Blame.

FIELD HOCKEY is deadly.
The first two practices were inches away from hell... but now I have an excuse to spend an hour at the new Timmy's having Girly Girly Gossipfests with my girls. And we're so much more in shape now! Nothing gets your legs going like the competitiveness on the field. Plus, the two wins top of the season helps boost morale too!

Agincourt was a learning team, so it was nice to see how our mostly-learning team played against them. West Hill was... very competitive. They were kind of ferocious, haha. And major kudos to those girls who got hurt but kept playing like champs!

GLEE! Brings me such glee!
Oh my goodness, I loved how they talked about Asian camp--it actually exists. All us Asians from 8 to 18 gather together and do lots of Asiany things: including traditional Chinese calligraphy and arts & crafts; traditional Chinese yo-yos; Chinese spinning tops; shuttlecock; jump-rope tricks; traditional dances, often incorporating fans, ribbons, and parasols; an end-of-the-week camp extravaganza featuring 12-year-olds dancing with swords... ironically, the only non-Asian thing there was the cafeteria food!

LEGENDARY ARGUMENTS
If you know me and/or Colin well enough you'll have heard of or been witness to one of our legendarily heated arguments about really petty things. (I think we're both OCD and love to be right.) Anyway, our most recent L.A. was about Rachel Berry's increasing skankiness. He argued that the writers made her slutty all of a sudden and he didn't like the direction they were taking her. I argued that she was always an "attention whore" so the uh... gradual disappearance of the first part of that title was bound to happen, especially with the attention she's gotten since joining Glee Club both on- and off-stage. We started at 9:00. We ended at 9:40. And about halfway through, we actually forgot what we were arguing about:

maggie. IMPROVE YOUR YEARBOOK says (9:26 PM): Wait. What on earth is this
argument about?
xD
I forgot halfway through.
Colin says (9:26 PM): I don't really know...

Anyway this was our conclusion: Rachel's attitude and evolution from fashionably-challenged and seemingly innocent to brash and almost wanton in appearance were all external manifestations of her internal insecurities. She has progressed from a type of awkward insecurity in which she covered everything up to a more open insecurity where she openly welcomes any kind of attention to reassure herself that she is valuable.

Agree? Disagree? Think we're ridiculous for spending 40 minutes arguing something like that? (I agree...)


OUF-BOY and BUTT-BOY
At the Ontario Universities Fair the morning before Shifa's birthday:
[1] OUF-boy
Patricia complains about how difficult University will be and how her future may already be in tatters.
Maggie: "Maybe you should just be a trophy wife."
P: "Good idea! In that case, all I have to do is stick with Jasun--his family's rich and he's gonna be a lawyer."
M: "Unless he gets a hot secretary..."
Colin: "I hope you're up for threesomes."
*Guy in front looks back at the THREE of us*

[2] Butt-boy
Patricia is midway between a dramatic, expressive exclamation about how she's fed up with all this University drama. As she lifts her hands to gesticulate, she pushes forward underhand and grabs a random boy's buttock. Quite firmly. The funniest thing was that he didn't even react. As if he got that kind of attention all the time....

BIRTHDAY BLOG SURPRISE
So this is where the Analogy Essay is supposed to go according to my introduction. But insteaad, I'd like to take the time to wish a FIRCKIN AWESOME belated happy birthday to my BESTEST BUDDIES and FIELD HOCKEY SISTERS, SHIFA ABBAS and CHRISTINA SPINELLI.

Happy birthday, girls! I hope you both had FANTASTIC times (and I know you both did ;D ) and that you both LOVE your gifts! (One's future-tense, one's present-tense :P)


THE COLD EPIDEMIC
Oh my goodness, EVERYONE is getting sick! It started two weeks ago when Terence first got sick. And then Mily, I and some others also got sick. And then that just snowballed until nearly everyone was sick! During the math test, there was pretty much a sniffle or cough every ten seconds. It was enormous.

And then, fingers were pointed and witches were hung. Who started the epidemic? Suggest your blame trees below!


THE MENAGERIE
And, lastly, that deadly essay. Is it just me or is coming up with a lengthy analogy rather tricky? I had the hardest time trying to get everything to flow together. Mine was about the most annoying emotions that are hard to control vs. personized animals in a personal menagerie.

A couple shout-outs to some of the best analogies I've read, though!

Ashwin Baskaran -- Prejudice vs. a Wall that protects? Or imprisons?
Terence Ho -- Parliament vs. a Farmyard in which hens peck at political issues without accomplishing much of anything
Patricia D'Silva -- Fashion & Media vs. a God that twists little girls' minds and tortures them with the demons of Anorexia and Bulimia
Colin Gallinger -- Political Parties vs. Packs of Wolves warring for One More Tree!
Mily Chen -- Life and Motivation vs. Rowing a Boat on the Sea: some days the tide is with you, other days it's against you but either way, you've gotta row to get where you want to go.

OPEN CALL for Yearbook Design Assistants!!

WANNA MAKE YOUR YEARBOOK MEMORABLE AND AWESOME-LOOKING?

Details below, folks! (OR, click here for a high-resolution printable PDF file.)

Graphic Advisors: You'll be previewing the Yearbook to check for design mistakes and other details

Graphic Designers: You'll be creating designs to decorate our Yearbook with. Digital artists only, please!

Why would we want people to help with Graphic Design? There are a few reasons:

1. There are about 140 pages in the Yearbook. Most of the time, these pages are not cohesive and, as a result, look really unprofessional. It is realistically impossible for two people to go through every page and check for design flaws on top of regular course loads and other extra-curriculars.
2. You people are brilliant. The more minds = better product. The more Feedback we can get on the Yearbook before it gets out, the more we can improve it.
3. We aren't pure-Photoshop experts. Yes, we love arts and crafts and we like to format and design things but at the end of the day, we are only mixed media artists. We can't use just Photoshop to create magnificent Text Art and other graphics from scratch.
4. The Yearbook needs people to make it cohesive. I know there are people who just can't stand the look of something unprofessional. I bet some pages in the Yearbook just grind your gears. So make it better. Make it awesome. Join us.

「守株待兔」 or, "Carpe diem."

Like a cat in heat stuck in a moving car--
A scary conversation, shut my eyes, can't find the brake--
What if they say that you're a cloner?
Naturally, I'm worried if I do it alone...
Who really cares 'cause it's your life
You never know; it could be great.
Take a chance 'cause you might grow.
Oh, ah, oh

What you waiting--
What you waiting--
What you waiting--
What you waiting--
What you waiting for?

--"What You Waiting For?" - Gwen Stefani

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I feel like Science Fiction is a most depressing genre of books because it's written so realistically that romantic endings are rare. It reminds you how sad and insignificant your life is--and how unfair life is in general.

Momentary emotional stormcloud aside, let's talk about the end of this week.

This evening's List: HOMEWORK.

MATH: Study for the test by doing questions from the Handbook.
ENG: Write a rough copy analogy essay. Pretend to read Fifth Business. Don a gorilla costume and forget English exists for a full five minutes.
ART: Do sketch.
BIO: Say I did the worksheets and don't.
CHEM: Do some of the worksheets.
CHINESE: Check out the CD-ROM, do the homework, be a good little girl.

There's really not much more to blog about.

Life has been the same, pretty much. Went out for lunch today. Congee Wong. Good food, good pricing, amazingly quick service. If all Chinese restaurants were animals, all of them would be tortoises and Congee Wong would be a hare.

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Let's finish with a nice Chinese maxim/fable: 「守株待兔」 (shǒu zhū dài tù) or， "Guarding a treestump to wait on a rabbit." Okay, so maybe it sounds weird when translated... but the story behind it is really quite meaningful.

Once upon a time, there was a farmer. On his farm, near his fields, was once a great tree. All that was left of it was an enormous stump, hidden by surrounding weeds and tall grass.

One morning, he tending to his fields when, all of a sudden, a rabbit rushed by him. It seemed to be in a frantic rush and did not see the tree stump hidden behind the tall weeds. To the farmer's astonishment, the rabbit ran straight into the tree stump and broke its spine. Overjoyed at his luck, the farmer dropped his tools and went to pick up the rabbit and bring it home. That night, he had a rich rabbit stew for dinner.

From that day onwards, the farmer did not go to tend his fields. Instead, he settled himself among the tall grasses near the great tree stump and waited there for another rabbit to run into the tree stump. However, as days and soon weeks went by, not only did no rabbit run towards the tree stump but none of the farm's surround rabbits could be seen; the farmer's neglect towards his fields had allowed his crops to die and no animal would come by to find food.

The farmer's foolish hope for another windfall had doomed him. His greed and laziness became his downfall.

Moral of this story? I know you smart ones wouldn't sit around and wait for everything to be placed in your lap. But one mustn't give up hope in one's own abilities either. Every talent is worth using.

So whatcha waiting for?

Seize the day and make it yours.