Music List #1

Normally, I hate being asked what my favorite songs or my favorite movies are because I have so many favorites and I often leave out other great songs or movies. However, I mustered the strength to pick out only ten of my favorite songs. Even though this is difficult for me, I managed to choose some of my most favorite and special songs. In other words, these are not the top ten but they are part of that upper echelon.

10. Edge of Seventeen Stevie Nicks - This is one of my newest songs and I started listening to it a couple of weeks before I turned eighteen. It has one of the best guitar riffs I have heard and I really like the imagery of the lyrics.

9. Pioneer to the Falls Interpol - I generally like songs with lyrics that I connect with and Pioneer to the Falls is a great example with lyrics like, "I know you try/ You try straight into my heart/ You fly straight into my heart"

8. Piece of My Heart Janis Joplin - I love Janis's raspy, genuine, soulful singing. This a great classic but I have to mention Me and Bobby McGee which is an equal testament to Janis's talent and it's also my dad's favorite song. We both love listening to her while driving and it has awesome, awesome guitar.

7. Lady Stardust David Bowie - I'm a sucker for beautiful, well-written piano. This is such a great part of the Ziggy Stardust album in that takes a little break from other high energy songs in the album and expresses emotions of melancholy and nostalgia. Because it's from a concept album, I have interpreted, in my own way, the story's narrative and meaning which sort of plays out like a movie.

6. Song Seven Interpol - This song is a big reason why I got my ipod. This song wasn't in a CD and I loved it so much that I had to have it with me instead of it being available only in my computer. The music of the song is so enchanting that it doesn't sound like you're listening to guitars or drums in a rock group but something much more expressive and atmospheric.

5. Crystal Ship The Doors - This is my favorite Doors song and I love listening to it and contemplating love. It has beautiful piano and such poetic lyrics that it really makes you feel what Jim Morrison must have been feeling when he sang this song.

4. Don't Look Back in Anger Oasis - I love Wonderwall, also by Oasis, but I put this one here because it's somewhat more energetic and it's definitely my "wish" song. It has many circumstances that I would like to happen in my own life.

3. Sex and Candy Marcy Playground - What else do I have to say? The music has a great deep feeling to it and its simplicity makes the song so much more enjoyable. "Yeah, there she was/ like disco lemonade/ I smell sex and candy here"

2. The Other Side Scissor Sisters - The Other Side truly expresses my own self when it comes to love and relationships and the type of romantic partner I am. Also, this is the most played song in my ipod with the most recent count tallying it up to a record 226 times in three years. "If don't ever leave a thing behind/ I'll still leave here without me/ If it takes another life, I'll wait for you/ On the other side/ Everything good that comes to me belongs you"

1. Bohemian Rhapsody Queen - I have to give props to what my dad calls our family anthem. I grew up on this song and have been listening to it since I was five. So, what else can I say about this masterpiece in music that hasn't been said before?

Starting Out in a New Class

On August 24, I started off on a new part in life. One of my new classes this semester is my San Jose State MUSE class: Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll.

I'm really excited: I chose this class because I'm really into rock music, mostly the seventies, I think, as well as some eighties and more recently the nineties. I've always been into modern rock music history like VH1's programming before they turned to crappy "reality" shows. Oh... nostalgia. I also have a really weird interest in drug history as well; I recorded VH1's The Drug Years and have seen it a numerous, gratuitous amount of times. The History channel also has the series Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way which is totally top rate and they have an awesome lady narrator with a nice husky voice. And, then of course, (I can't ignore the sex part) It's always interesting to know more about the groupie culture and sex icons; the latter of which I do not know much about.

So, as promised, I will post much more often on my blog but for now it will be exclusively for my MUSE class. I think it's pretty cool how I have to post assignments and I really am looking forward to having a great time in this class and learn things that I didn't know before.

Geez, What a Disgrace

I have been super terrible about blogging, It's like my diary experience, I can't write as often as I would Like too. I hate when I see blogs that haven't updated in months but I'm just as terrible if not worse.

Well, I graduated Tokay High School class of 2009 on May 29 and it was a proud day and the fact that I graduated is bit of a miracle.

Also, I have been officially admitted as a freshman to San Jose State University. It is awesome because I already went there for freshman orientation and spent five days there for the ASPIRE program for disadvantage freshman which is cool considering the fact that I am poor and neither of my parents have a college degree. Right now, at this moment, I feel happy to be going although it took a while to get to this mental stae and i might lose this feeling in the morning.

For a long, long, long, long, long, time I felt terrible about going to San Jose because all I could tink about was who will take care of my little brother and sister even though they're in middle school. I think it's going to be okay but the biggest thing in my life is my family because they're all I have and they're the only family I have in the United States. The big thing that got me psyched to go is ComedySportz San Jose...

It has been my dream to be a part of ComedySportz at San Jose for a year and a half now. Now that I'm eighteen I can enroll in the adult level workshops and start on my way to becoming part of the team. I can't wait to meet the people there and closer to the few that I know. I also have a better shot shot at making it because I am female and a minority. Whoo-hoo, Go me! Haha, I kid, I kid. Anyway, I hope I can make it hee-hee.

So, now I have a nice new Facebook so there's more of Gabster on the super internet highway world and I 'm a theater major at SJSU and I'll get a business minor although I am not entirely sure yet. I also promise to post tons more regularly because it's a disgrace how long I take to make a new post.

What's What So Far

Hey there,
It's been a while since I last posted but for anyone who knows the drudgery of Senior Project and senior year in high school, I think you understand why.

I recently stated a mini-business selling Creepy Cute Crochet charachters made to order. It has been a super-long process, longer than I anticipated. Having a back log isn't fun at all.



Luckily, to keep me sane I started knitting the Checked Cloche from Glamour Knits. It took me a while to finally get Rowan Kidsilk Night in black and not pay an arm and a leg for it. Rowan Lurex Shimmer was a harder find as it is discontinued. So far it has kept me sane through this crochet endeavor with its familiar two needle knit and purl. I wanted to knit this hat since I ordered the book so long ago and I love how I'm finally bringing it to life.

I must tell you though that the hat has grown since this picture.

It's almost done with such freakish speed I admit. Although, I am not happy to report that with my bad knitting luck I slightly messed up. Casting on an extra stitch makes a lot of difference especially when you begin shaping. At any rate, I fixed my error and I'm proud to say that things are proceeding smoothly; Senior Project, unfortunately, is not. I am lacking a mentor and an interview with an expert, but there's hope.

Finally, I want to take this time to announce a system I will start soon featuring posts with four labels: Criterion Collection:Photos, Video, Honorable Mention, and Movie:Honorable Mention. They'll be up soon, just look out for them.

Protected Goes Bad

Everyone knows songs purcahsed from iTunes are in a "protected" AAC format (also known as m4P) which renders it incompatible with any any thing that is not Apple or i"anything". Many of us have been frustrated or angry with this restriction of our well purchased songs, but there is a way...

In my naivete I found a simple solution. I burned four songs onto a CD, three of them purchased in iTunes (thus in protected AAC). Today I decided to test my experiment on Windows Media Player and play the first song in the CD that was from the iTunes store. And, it worked! Clearly, it was a simple solution to a very bothersome problem; I didn't have to reformat anything at all! My happiness was confirmed further when all four songs were successfully copied to the Media Player's library.

For this amazing technological feat I would like to thank my mother for giving me my very first cell phone, the Samsung Juke, my older brother for telling me of a website where I can make my own ringtones free, and La Oreja De Van Gogh for their song "Muñeca De Trapo" the first song from iTunes that I heard on the Media Player as well as "Aquarius" from the movie soundtrack for being my first music ringtone. Thank you all very much for your influence.
Now, I don't fear too much of any repercussions for this is an extremely obscure blog.

Sad Radiohead

Have you ever felt the days were your world was never going to get better?


You want to try but the earth is pulling down, paralyzing you, bringing you down to the depressing reality instead of the honest kind?


I feel bad for my sister. My little brother says he's not bad; everyone else stresses him out and everyone is stupid, fat, and all those things. He says he doesn't like fighting but right now, before I forget, he likes getting people mad. He keeps screaming, insulting, and making the other person (me or my little sister) look like the over-dramtic crybaby who should not be listened to. Look at her crying and rambling, she's obviously mentally unstable. My mother doesn't help much or not at all.
She does have her faults, some are progressing worse. But she doesn't desereve the stress and frustration she's feeling right now; she's only ten. I felt that angry and hurt all the time when I was thirteen and in eighth grade. I dealt with other things at her age much differently.

Maybe it's just her personality and how she learned to deal with past experiences. I don't why but she is very different from me and she feels more sadness than I think she deserves. I just hope she'll feel better soon, I don't want her to be sad, depressed like my older brother and maybe me.

And of couse I might fail this semester of AP English Language. I'm worried this will absolutly ruin my chances of attending San Jose State University, where I want to attend. I know two people in the profressional Comedysportz team there (I want to be a part of it) and San Jose State has a housing building called International House. I want to be the baby of both places. I feel very doubtful very often but my mom says I need to believe all the time that it will happen and I need to work for it too.

In short, I need to keep the faith.



(I put Sad Radiohead because if you listen to Fake Plastic Trees you'll figure out my mood)