Albums are Albums and Nothing Else!!

When I listen to a complete album, I have to listen to it in its proper order every time.

And I end up memorizing this order. The ending of each song flows naturally into the beginning of the next. Most tracks have a few seconds of silence at the end; in this silence, my brain already begins to anticipate the opening sequence of the next song.

It makes me highly agitated when people put albums that I’m familiar with on shuffle. Track 6 coming after Track 9?

NO. *shudder*

It’s perfectly fine, though, if the songs are scattered through a larger playlist.

This album-oriented tendency of mine has the added effect of causing my brain to connect every song with its track number. Which means that if I hear the song even out of its album context, it will still have its number.

Here are some examples of songs that are 5 (these are all from memory):

    * “When You Believe” - Songs From the Heart, Celtic Woman
    * “Bo Peep Bo Peep” - Breaking Heart, T-ara
    * “웃자! (Be Happy)” - Oh!, SNSD
    * “Your Name Alone Can Save” - Risen, Sovereign Grace Music
    * “Hear The Call of The Kingdom” - In Christ Alone, Keith and Kristyn Getty
    * “Something Bad” - Wicked Soundtrack, Original Broadway Cast
    * “Hold On” - Heaven and Earth, Phil Wickham
    * “Beat Of Your Heart” - Pure, Hayley Westenra
    * “Carolina Rua” - Take Me With You, Lynn Hilary
    * “One World” - Celtic Woman, Celtic Woman


The last one is a special case. My brain also connects Track 6 (“Ave Maria”) from that album with the number 5. This is because the album has a prologue/intro. When albums have a prologue or intro, all the other tracks will have two numbers--one for their track number without the prologue, and one for their track number with the prologue. Thus, “Isle of Inisfree” from that same album is both 2 and 3; “Danny Boy” is both 3 and 4; “One World” is both 4 and 5; “Ave Maria” is both 5 and 6; and so on.

A similar case occurs in the album Incarnation: Irish Hymns 3, which has a Prologue: “Glorious Light”, the song right after the Prologue, is both 1 and 2.

When I fall asleep listening to an album, I can usually figure out the next morning which song I fell asleep on because it’ll be the last one I remember consciously hearing.

The funny thing is, after more than a decade of living in the same house as my older brother, we only found out recently that we both do this instinctively. Pretty much exactly the same way, too.

~~~

THIS HAS BEEN A GLIMPSE INTO THE MIND OF DEL.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE.

What Be This I Doth Not Even--

This is Alix. She is my friend, like Emmie.
Alix is possibly the most awesome of us all.
(Well, in my opinion, she is.)

The first thing that makes Alix awesome is her name. It sounds just like the common name Alex, but it is spelled with an ‘i’. You might think that okay, it’s a variant of “Alex”, but it’s not.
It’s actually the French form of “Alice”. How cool is that?

Don’t try the “genius” trick with Alix, either. You’ll be telling the truth again.

Alix knows everything.
Really.
Sometimes I think that I should get annoyed at her for acting like a know-it-all, but then I realize that she actually does know it all. Or most of it, at least.

Alix says the most amazing things out of nowhere.
One time she was telling me about when she went hunting and suddenly said, “Seriously, the wind chill was lower than the IQ of an intoxicated banana.”
I would never be able to draw such a creative metaphor in the course of regular conversation.








Alix owns everything.
Alix comes up with the coolest costumes.
Alix has mad dance skills.
Alix is really good at art.
Alix is ridiculously smart, especially in areas pertaining to math.
Alix is a masterful writer.
Alix also has a likable personality.

The world is not fair.



...Oh well, who cares?

Nerdy pun picture for Alix :D

I am sick today

It's the sort of unpleasant illness in which the afflicted feels that something in the natural balance of her body is somewhat wrong, but not disturbed enough to warrant staying in bed with a fever the entire day and sleeping the whole time, yet not having any trouble sleeping the next night because the sickness is so draining.
But I'm still sick enough to have stayed in bed for half the day with an awful headache which may or may not have gone away.
I can feel it lurking, like a gleeful monster that's simply waiting to spring forth again and grab the innards of my head and smash them against an invisible wall, all the while letting out spurts of maniacal laughter which further irritates my eyebrows.
I really don't like it when my eyebrows hurt.

Though, this particular illness (whatever it is) comes with the added bonus of throat problems, such as I've never had before.
When I talk, my voice literally cracks every ten words or so. Sometimes less than that. It also goes into an unexpected whisper at the most interesting times: "Mom, can I drink up the orange juice?" As if "orange juice" was a forbidden thing to say.
To such an immature person as me, it is highly amusing. I end up laughing every time I talk.

Why do I always get sick over school breaks?

*sigh* Well, here's to hoping I get better tomorrow...

Blahghdlsalurge

This is Emmie. 
She is my friend. 
Emmie is a lot of fun.
(She is a lot like me.)

Emmie will do very interesting things, like flap. It is her natural response to everything. There is a happy-flap, a distraught-flap, an angry-flap, a frustrated-flap, a rapper-flap, and many others that have yet to be properly classified.
They are all different.
We counted once during Biology; she flapped 70 times in one hour.
70 flaps in 1 hour is more than 1 flap per 1 minute.
Emmie likes to flap. 
Emmie also makes interesting sounds. Some people complain that they don’t understand her when she replaces words with her sounds, but those people are obviously not trying hard enough. It is possible to know exactly what Emmie means.
“Buack” is one of Emmie’s sounds. 
Emmie and I have had entire conversations without actually speaking real words.
(This, of course, is possible because much of human communication is/can be expressed through means other than words, such as intonations and gestures.)

You may be tempted at times to sarcastically call Emmie “a genius”. There is one problem with doing such a thing.
If you call Emmie a genius, you are speaking the truth. 
By age, Emmie is supposed to be three grades lower than she is. But she is three grades higher than she is supposed to be, and has absolutely no problem keeping up with the intellectual work. In fact, she excels in school. It sometimes makes the rest of us feel dumb.
(Which may give us cause to wonder: why is our education system based on age rather than intellectual ability? It seems rather absurd to simply assume that all those of the same age group have the same mental capacity.)
Emmie is a genius.

Emmie is funny.
I like Emmie.

Emmie is my friend. (This needs to be said again, in more languages.)
엠미가 내 친구예요.
Emmie是我的朋友。
I really like Emmie.
내가 엠미는 너무 너무 너무 좋아해요!
我很喜欢Emmie!


EVERYBODY’S GOT A LLAMA-BUFFALO
MINE IS FAST BUT YOURS IS SLOW
CEBUUUU
SARANGHAE
CEBUUUU
JOHAHAE
CEBU.

:D This is a pretzel for Emmie. 

**Heart Attack**

I love cute things. When coming into contact with anything remotely cute, my heart immediately goes into spazz mode. This, of course, has interesting implications on the sounds I produce at such a time.
I will henceforth present you with various examples of the reactions I may have upon being exposed to cuteness of all kinds.


Spazz Catalyst #1:

Reaction:
**begins grinning like a maniac**
*eeeeeeeemmmmmmmmppphhhaaaakkkkkkeeeee*
**bounces in seat**
*guaaaaaagggg*
**looks away for a second**
**looks back, grins again**
**small giggles**




Spazz Catalyst #2:

This only has one reaction. Here I commence a silent wheezing chuckle that starts small but ends up racking my entire body. Then it stops, and I look at the picture again, and the process repeats itself.




Spazz Catalyst #3:

Reaction:
“SMALL CHILDREN!!!”
**violent swaying from side to side**
**headtilt**
*kkeiiiiiiiiiiiyaaaaaaooooo*
**big, dopey smile**
**slow, halting laugh, mouth still wide open**
(Here I may eventually drool from having my mouth open for too long)




Spazz Catalyst #4:
!AEGYO!
[Aegyo (애교): n. the act of being overly cute, commonly by way of high-pitched voices, small sounds, and beaming facial expressions. May cause in others desires of strangulation and/or punching in the face.]
This is best explained through visual means.

(Okay, the second one is not so much aegyo-ish but they are definitely doing it at some points)

Reaction:
*GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCKKKKGGGHHH*
**thrashes**
**covers eyes**
**peeks**
*eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*
**puts hand in mouth to stop from making further noises**
**bursts into nervous-ish silent laughter**
**wipes drool from hand and re-inserts it to mouth**
**thrashes again**
**closes tab because it’s too unbearable**
**watches again**




Spazz Catalyst #5:

This, like Catalyst #2, elicits a single response from me.
“D’aaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww **breath** awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww **breath** aaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwww...(etc.)”


My point: I absolutely adore cute things and would eat them for breakfast if I could.
So...if you ever need to incapacitate me for a small amount of time...




P.S. (Feed me in the comments if you’ve got stuff.)

깝 - Kkap/Kkab

Kkab- adj. "comes from the phrase 'kkab chi neun' which means you are so energetic that you are almost annoying. It can also mean that you are overdoing and overreacting." (according to the urban dictionary)
n. a kkab action, most commonly applied to dancing.


In case you can't recognize the Hangul in the title, this is not Chinese or Japanese. It is Korean. Yes, the writing systems are different.
Anyway, a while ago I discovered a Korean singer by the name of Jo Kwon, who is known in Korean pop culture as the King of Kkab. At the time, I was too lazy to find out why, but last night I had nothing better to do and so Googled "jo kwon kkab". [<<note: this is a great solution for boredom, but do not attempt if you feel conscientious about wasting time.]


Lo and behold, I discovered that the title is not an empty one. Therefore, allow me to introduce to you the wonders of kkab, first and primarily through the one and only Jo Kwon, who is truly the King of Kkab. 
Well, the king of recorded kkab, anyway. 

(Jo Kwon's part ends at around 1:07)

Kkab dancing commonly involves reinterpreting an already well-known dance into the kkab version of that dance. Here, Jo Kwon does exactly that. In the first video you see Taeyeon from Girls' Generation doing her own dance (Gee) the right way...while Jo Kwon, behind her, mutilates it into kkab. The second video shows Jo Kwon kkab-erizing After School's Bang!. You may want to watch at least a bit of the original versions first, as it helps to appreciate how much the dance is being exaggerated. 


Jo Kwon does it again, this time with the Wonder Girls' Tell Me, but we also get to see him perform his audition dance...yes, that skinny little kid in the middle of the clip is Jo Kwon at age 13. 

Though Jo Kwon is rightly called the king, others are quite capable of kkab, too. In fact, Key was good enough that he was challenged to a dance-off:

   

(Obviously you need good hip control to kkab dance the most effectively.)

But do not be deceived! The world of kkab is not restricted to boys. To demonstrate my point, meet Min.

 

The first video begins with Yuri (also from Girls' Generation) demonstrating the proper dance to the chorus of Hoot. Then Min takes over with her own rendition and from her death-glare when she's doing the bow-and-arrow part I deduce that she is seriously out to kill me. 

It's great, isn't it? I, for one, am a big fan of dance kkab now. 

I wish I could do it myself, but as I regularly walk into walls without meaning to and lose my balance while sitting on the floor, I doubt my ability to even attempt dancing. 

I'll just have to stick with being hyper all the time.

Oh, one last parting gift:

 

It's a little bizarre but...I drooled. 

 

Because Everyone Else Has a Blog

...I'm doing one too.


Because, you know, I'm an insecure high-school student who must succumb to the urges of peer pressure, which is even worse because now I'm being pressured to be funny because everyone else is being funny and I'm really not going to live up to the standard that's been set by my peers because my computer is a managed workstation and I can't blog from it because my computer blocks blogs which makes it hard for me to blog seeing as it blocks my own blog because it's a managed workstation and would you look at this I'm not being funny I'm just repeating myself and writing a terrible run-on sentence that doesn't even have correct punctuation
























No, don't worry. I don't write like that often. You may expect blog posts in the future that are much more well-written. They may or may not have more substance.


Enjoy!


(enjoy what? i dunno don't ask me)