Movie Crazed

Hey everyone,

A new comic is in the works as usual. So that’ll be out by the end of the week. Tomorrow I have a prelim I have take, and the next evening I have to help supervise an Asian event on campus entitled “Asian Film and Karaoke Night.” It should be a lot of fun, but that means I’ll be busy with a couple of things this week. However, I do have something special planned for you guys, and when I finish it, it’ll be uploaded to the site and hopefully you’ll enjoy it.

I’ve been doing a lot of work these past few days, but I’ve also been getting a ton of sleep, which is a nice thing to have, especially since it’s such a rare commodity for Cornell students. That means that I’ve either been in class, in bed, or locked in my room finishing up everything I need to do. But I did have a couple of things to accompany me. I’ve taken the liberty to see all the Disney movies I can, since I’ve been kind of deprived as a child and it’s been quite enjoyable. I’ve even watched the sequels to famous Disney movies that Disney is so fond of. Things like Mulan 2 and The Little Mermaid 2 were things I watched these past few days, and they weren’t so bad. Of course they weren’t as good as the original movie was, but that’s just expected.

Also, I watched an entire season of Pokemon while I was finishing up some projects. When I was younger I was a real avid fan of the Pokemon games and TV show, and I took the liberty to videotape every episode I could back then when the series was running in it’s first two seasons. I loved the games and shows, but ever since the franchise got into more versions of Pokemon (e.g. Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Leaf Green, Fire Red–pretty much everything after Blue, Red, Yellow, Gold and Silver) I kind of lost interest and thought that Nintendo was just milking it for all its worth. I think they’ve added more than 200 more Pokemon to the original 151, which makes the total somewhere around… 350? (Okay, so I just looked it up and there are actualy 386 total pokemon, so I was pretty close :-P) Anyway, since I’ve gotten my Nintendo DS, I just started getting into it again. I’m currently playing Pokemon Sapphire and seeing that most of the gameplay hasn’t really changed and the new Pokemon in the game actually give more depth and complexity to the game. It’s not just a kids game, and I’ve been enjoying it during my breaks in work. Also, the season of Pokemon that I just watched was pretty enjoyable as well. It’s still the same plotline pretty much (Ash goes on a journey, Team Rocket messed with him and his friends, Ash and friends take them out and finish what they were doing in the first place), but the battle scenes are still pretty cool to watch. I sometimes wish that I lived in a world of Pokemon, because it would just be more fun to go off into the world to do your own thing with cool friends with great powers, but hey, that’s just me.

Anyway, I should get back to work. I have to get back to studying, but I’m not really worried about this prelim I have tomorrow. Maybe I’ll put in a short game of Pokemon before I go back…

I’ll catch you guys later, hopefully with the new comic in hand! Take care!

Skye

Oh, what’s up people? I haven’t talked with you all in awhile.

Just to give you a short update… FIND Dialogue at Drexel was totally great. I had fun with the Cornell crew as well as the other National Directors and the entire event was great. There were a couple of problems I encountered when getting there (everything from an “almost” lost credit card to the hotel giving up our reserved rooms), but all in all everything worked itself out. Also, for those of you wondering how my Wines prelim went… it went pretty well. I think I’ll get through this class alright. :-)

I’ve had the weirdest evening tonight. I woke up from a nap and saw my clock and thought it was 6am in the morning. I took a shower, did my problem set that’s supposed to be due Thursday and then worked on this comic. My friend came to visit and I asked her, “What the heck are you doing here so early?” She just looked at me like I was crazy. When I finally realized what time it really was I felt really embarrassed.

Now, I’ve just finished dinner and am enjoying a piece of cassava cake and a good anime entitled Kanon. My friend Roxanne recommended it to me and I’m having fun watching it. I guess I’m a sucker for great animation and a somewhat mysterious storyline. Gosh, I wish I could draw like these guys…

Anyway, the new comic is up and we have a new character. I wonder what this will entail. Stay tuned to the Pillow Book Chronicles to find out!

One More Obstacle Before… FIND!

Okay, so it’s around 2:42am this Thursday morning. I came back home this afternoon a little buzzed after my Intro to Wines class. Yes, here at Cornell we have a class that allows us to hone our skills in “evaluating” wines. And yes, this is what I’m paying Ivy-League tuition for. I’m having a lot of fun with it thus far, but today we tasted 6 fortified wines and wow… afterwards I was just a little bit woozy. You know, I had a little bit of the Asian blush going on… =P If you don’t already know, fortified wines are wines that have alcohol added to their natural state to go up to levels around 20-25%. Regular table wines range from around 6.5%-14.5% in total alcohol content. Fortified wines are just a little bit over that. Although I enjoyed today’s class I have to say that I’m not a fan of Sherry. I’m more of a fan of Port, but that’s probably because it was a lot sweeter than the Sherry was (it really had a pungent smell and tasted too astringent for me). All in all, it was a good class…

But why am I spewing out all of these wine facts at you? Actually later today (around 9pm) I’m going to be having a test. 125 questions in 75 minutes. I’ve been studying like crazy, since it’s going over quite a few wine regions across the US and Europe. Some of the regions we’ve gone over in class are California, Washington, New York and Oregon (in the US), as well as France (the Loire and Alsace) and Italy (Tuscany, Piedmont, and Tre Venezie). I’m pretty confident about this test (or “prelim” as we like to call them here at Cornell), but tomorrow I’m going to go over everything and make sure that I know it like the back of my hand. I just came back from a major study session with some of my friends and I feel like I know the material well as of now.

I really want to make sure I know the material for this test so I won’t worry about it for the weekend. Why is that important to me? Because I’m going to be at the Filipino Intercollegiate Networking Dialogue at Drexel in Philadelphia! I’m really excited for the event and I’m even moderating one of the breakout sessions with my friend Kim (a fellow National Director). I’m really looking forward to everything, so I want to make sure I complete everything I have to do. If you’re going to be in the Philadelphia area, let me know and let’s see if we can meet up!

I have class in 7 hours so I’ll get to bed, but as a last minute review I’m going to list some random wine facts that come to my mind before I pass out. So here we go!

1. The top 8 wines in sales in restaurants in 2006 are the following (from top selling to least selling): Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Pinot Grigio, Syrah/Shiraz, Zinfandel.
2. 2 regions that are famous for wine in France are the Loire and Alsace. Some prominent wines from the Loire are the Muscadet, Chennin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc. Alsace is known for its Reisling, Gewurtztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Muscat, Pinot Grigio and Sylvaner.
3. Varietals put on the wines’ labels from Oregon means that 90% of the grapes from the varietal must be present in the wine (unless we’re talking about Sauvignon Blanc, which only has to have 75% present from that particular varietal).
4. California is the #1 producer of wine in the US, followed by Washington, New York and Oregon.
5. If any wineries from Washington state join the Washington Wine Quality Alliance (WWQA), 100% of the grapes must be from that particular place or American Viticultural Area (AVA).
6. There are 4 regions in New York that have a total of 8 AVAs. The 4 areas are the Finger Lakes (Finger Lakes, Cayuga Lake, and Seneca Lake), Hudson River Valley (Hudson River Valley), Lake Eerie (Lake Eerie), and Long Island (North Fork, the Hamptons, and Long Island).
7. The first recorded vineyard in the US was created by Father Junipero Serra of the San Juan Capistrano Mission. He cultivated a “Mission Grape” called Criolla in 1779.
8. There are 4 Wine Tasting Stages. They are (in order): Attack (Introduction), Evolution, Finish, and Aftertaste.
9. The wines of Italy are classified into 4 categories. They are the following (from top-ranked to bottom-ranked): Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG), Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC), Indicazione Geografiche Tipiche (IGT), and Vino da Travola (VDT).
10. Some varietal characteristics of a Viognier wine are lime, kiwi, guava, apricot, acacia, and anise.

I hope you all don’t think I’m crazy! Alright, it’s time to go to bed… catch you all soon!