Thelnie Cracks

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Disneyland with Friends

I often wish I could get alllll my friends together in one place and do something together. It’s hard because we’re all older now with things to do. Half of my friends are working in the real world, some are back or still in school, some are living far away on week days, some just don’t get along with others. When lots of my friends get together and having fun, I become contently happy. Almost in bliss. I like to be surrounded by the people I trust and feel comfortable around…people that have supported me with who I am as I’ve grown up with them. My friends are wonderful people and I’m really fortunate to be a part of it all.

That said, we managed to get a Disneyland trip together! Bryan, Julie, Brandon, Paco, Henry and me.

Soooo cute! Brandon looks a little unwilling though….jK <: P

So fast my tongue is sticking out.

hahaha.

My hat is stuck! Henry’s idea.

Is it just me or do other people like to take pictures of people shooting stuff?

Everyone has something to say. Brandon tried to cover my eyes! No waai!

This is so awesome I wish this show was up when I was little. The trainer was an asian with an Ewan McGreggor accent. Totally weird but cool at the same time. I wish I got a closer look at him…

Once you guys become king, make sure I get to be a princess of the castle mmkay?

Stitch!

Y SO SRS?

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Not all worlds are fair

If you’ve been following the updates and plans that are in the making towards the upcoming release of the next World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King,

does it feel like they’re trying to make WoW a little too fair when life in general isn’t? Trying to make every class be equally represented? hm.

If you haven’t been following, here is a start.

and here for more: http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/9023610738-raid-stacking-in-wrath-of-the-lich-king.html

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Parents’ fear of violent video games

I saw this on the yahoo mainpage and it caught my eye. Particularly because I’ve done research on this very subject. I found out recently that in order to graduate from a university, the title “university” means that you know how to do research. That’s why at UCI, we have to take an upper division writing course that makes you do a research paper. The class I took was People in Society, which is practically any social issue you can think of.

The thing that parents are fearing more for their kids, is the violence in the video games they play. No doubt being heightened by the sensationalize media takes on school shootings. In the bigs ones, like Columbine, and Virginia Tech, the shooters had a history of gaming, and being male, gaming has to do with killing something. They’re not rushing home to play Barbie fashion dress up, or Cooking Mama, or Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

The demographic research on this is, however, that video gaming and violent titles are played nation-wide, but school shootings are not. They are still more prevalent where gun culture is high and places were kids are pressured to blend in with everyone else.

Here is the link to download my paper if you want to read through it. It’s 15 pages in APA format. It’s not all just about school shootings, actually. The paper is about the effects of violent video games on adolescents…how submersed kids can be, how influenced they become…even good effects. Since it’s in APA format, and a research paper, there aren’t any opinions in it. APA format was pretty hard -__-”.

As for kids still being able to buy violent games, it’s like getting into an R rated movie. I forgot if I posted about this in my blog, but I was as EB games one day, and I overheard a grandma and her grandson at the counter.

Grandma: We want uh….a Grand Theft Auto 4? <looks at grandson to make sure she said it right.

Salesman: Oh yeah, lemme get that……okay, just to make sure, the ESRB rating states warnings for blood, intense violence, partial nudity, strong language, strong sexual content, use of alcohol, use of drugs. Is this okay?

Grandma: <looking back down on her grandson> Is this it?

Grandson: <nods up and down with bright eyes>

Grandma: <shrugs> okay, yes.

Yeah, that was pretty easy. Here I was, standing there, almost smirking at the kid’s situation because he surely was going to get a little lecture for wanting to play a game that boasted partial NUDITY and had the word “sex” in there somewhere. But the grandma didn’t even seem fazed by all of that. This was right after I had finished my second draft of my paper too, and I was a bit shocked.

Maybe the only way to solve this is to make sure people show proof that they are mentally stable to be able to play violent video games. In fact, we should all show proof we’re mentally stable all the time. Make it a patch and stick it on our heads.

There’s nothing to fear! I’m mentally stable!

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L.A. Trip

Honestly, I have to say, what is so great about L.A.?

Maybe I’m being a little stuck up south orange county girl, but LA is pretty freaky. The lanes are few and narrow, the drivers are crazy scary, and parking is pretty bad. I don’t think it’ll be something I’ll ever get used to. In fact, though, all these factors I’ve listed have to do with driving. So, if LA ever redid their public transportation, which is near impossible at this point, I would probably enjoy it up there better.

It was Caroline’s birthday and we went to Yamashiro. I’ve heard about this place and I had high expectations, but I probably shouldn’t have had such high hopes. The sushi was good, but not good enough for me to go all the way up there. Happy birthday Caroline!

We were driving around Sunset, and I glanced over at the House of Blues, only to see who was showing there???

Glay! At first, I couldn’t believe it. Was there an American band called Glay here?? We had to stop the car and check.

Omg…it’s true!

At 5pm there were already a couple fans, mostly Japanese. Later in the night when we passed by, there were toooons of Japanese. Where did they all come from? I really wanted to go…I mean, how often do they come to the states? I wanted to see Jiro and Hisashi…wah…

Then we went to the Standard hotel and went up to the top. I just have to say, that if you’re trying to impress me, don’t tell me you recently got a DUI. @_@.

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Angels vs Yankees

8-8-08 (Day of the Olympics which I haven’t watched the opening of)

Is pretty pointless. It’s a sea of red out there.

The highlight was just being able to be close to them and think “wow…they are really here.”

This is a crop. I was taking a picture of who I thought was a-rod, zoomed in at 5x, but I think it was actually Betemit. Good thing he was at the very right of my picture and my picture size was at 8 megapixels or this would have been a tiny tiny blur.

He was warming up, and I wasn’t really allowed down there. He started walking toward the people hanging out right next to the field. You could feel the tension and excitement as he got closer, and closer…and this lady next to me practically had a heart attack. She was like “aahhHhHh!” before she caught herself and realized that she wasn’t just screaming in her head. And then, to make matters worse, he took off his helmet and flashed a smile. Game over. My camera was out. (and taking the wrong picture but I don’t really want to talk about that anymore).

It’s my Damon! He looks hug-able right? Like a comforting uncle or something. He’s so-so for fantasy baseball but I like him anyway.

“Hey guys, don’t fall asleep!”

“Hey, do you want to trade places with me?”

Whoa lots of people

Jeter was booed pretty badly. Louder than A-rod, except with Mr. Rodriguez, you also got throngs of high pitched shrieks from the ladies.

This is an action shot, although he didn’t get much action.

At least the fireworks are good. They chose Beach Boys music this night.

I didn’t have a tripod. I used my leg.

The fireworks went on for about….7-10 minutes?

Sparkly!

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Twilight

This past week I have been engrossed in a book series called Twilight. I’m a little embarrassed, really, because these books are in the Young Adult section, but maybe I had been missing out on this kind of stuff? Not that there really are vampires…

And besides, is it “young adult” because the main characters are in their teens? Romeo and Juliet were very young as well but those books are in the literature classics section.

Another embarrassing point is that is IS about vampires and people that shift into wolves. I’ve been drooling over a fictional vampire character that doesn’t exist and will never exist…the perfect, protective, intelligent, beautiful, intuitive (since he can read minds), athletic, sensual man.

or…boy.

He’s stuck in his 17 year old form.

sigh.

I would read the first book again many times, because that is when the human girl, Bella, and the vampire, Edward, first meet. It’s heart-wrenching and cute. The second book is pretty blah since I wasn’t interested in the love triangle with a guy that really didn’t pose a threat. I loved the third book. The fourth book was really long, less cute, and more dramatic.

Overall, I recommend this book series to any woman or girl who enjoys the feeling of having her breath taken away.

And I don’t usually read romantic books, so I have none to judge this to, but there is adventure as well. It’s not alllll starry eyes.

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Sneak peek at my week

I don’t have much time right now because I have to get ready to head out and being a girl I have to get ready. Here is a quick look at things I did this week.

• Decided that lecture<discussion since I can barely understand the professor and he’s just teaching out of the book
• Reading the Twilight saga and I am officially only interested in mysteriously broody, charming, mind-reading vampires. Teeeeeeeam Edward!! Drooooolz
• Went to an Angels vs. Yankees game this Friday. Only highlight was listening to the females swoon over A-rod as he took off his helmet and walked towards the crowd to greet fans with a huge smile. I also got to see him hit a home run during the game with my own eyes! @_@ <–these eyes.

Embarrassingly enough, the picture I took that I thought was A-rod was of someone else. Hey, it’s hard to target someone at 5x zoom. At least he was at the edge of my picture -__-”.

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First day of school

I’ve always enjoyed the first day of school.

Elementary school: Who is in my class this year?!

Middle school: I get to see my friends again!

High school: Where are we meeting up for lunch so we can reserve it the whole year?

In college, sure I’d dread the thought of going back and try not to look at my schedule until the last minute, but I generally like the first day.

This first day was not so good for me.

The classroom that I thought I knew where exactly it was located was harder to find than I thought. I had assumed it was this classroom that I had taken during the night, but I parked in a different lot and thought I would just find my way over there. That room is also in the half part of the campus that I rarely ever go to. The scary applied sciences part. Eeesh.

My class is in the afternoon, so it’s still bright out. As I walk in the unfamiliar humid heat of the day, I think “geez…this part of the campus really looks different during the day!” To make things more surreal, our campus is forever changing because it’s always under construction. I’m looking around thinking “Was this building always here? When did they add this? Did they change the color??” It was almost like the twilight zone and I was half expecting people to suddenly freeze in place.

I keep walking and I still have not reached the building that used to be familiar to me in the night. Okay…I admit defeat and I’m going to go back to that campus map I saw in the middle of the road. I walk back a quarter of the way I came from, check the map, and it’s even farther than I had originally thought. In fact, it’s the farthest point from where I parked.

As I finally get to my class, only five minutes late, walking on a slight uphill…

“Man…I’m getting too old for this”

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Feminist Mama

A wow friend sent this to me and I found it funny.

I actually do enjoy Cooking Mama. Her bad accent doesn’t annoy me and I like using the wii to “cook” the food. Did I ever think that this was demeaning to the female gender…not really.

I think less people, men and women, would pick up this game if it were called “Cooking Papa” and a guy was cooking it. It’s the same reason why there are more male players who pick female avatars in WoW than female players who pick male avatars in WoW. Cooking Mama just might be more universal than Cooking Papa. If you really want to get down to it, it could be called “Cooking Parents!” and you could either choose the mama or the papa to cook with.

As for Doctor Mama, we have the Trauma Center series which I have and have played. I just can’t finish the last “boss”. I like sewing up people and extracting tumors. It’s the weird worm virus stuff that is hard. Educated Mama would be like Brain Age? And Executive Mama? What is that…sit in a chair and order people around? Do we really need girl versions of these doctor and and academic games? mmm. Given that “Mama”‘ has a strong accent, I’m not sure I would chose her to be a role model anyway <: P.

Uh oh! Not goooOd. Try a leeettle hada!

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I’m soo famous! /sarcasm

I was interviewed for another site this past week! Kind of exciting stuff right?

I answered the questions in an email, and I thought I wasn’t too wordy, but when it was formated for the site, since the column width is not so wide, my words ended up looking like paragraphs! Eeek, I didn’t think about that. I probably look full of myself of something, hahahaha!

Thanks Student Bloggers! Hopefully this can get more students to spill their brains and make the world a better place. My upper-division writing professor who is actually a working psychologist said that the world would be a better place if everyone just talked to a psychologist and there wasn’t a stigma about it. She even went as far as saying health problems would decrease and less people would be in hospitals. I agree. People need to let out their thoughts and feelings. Stress hurts.