Seriously, someone please get water; I am not joking.

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Previous 20

Aug. 13th, 2009

Does anyone have or know where to get Free YA books?

mood: excited!

Hi F-list,

So if you're a member of either

newyorkers or

nyc_for_free, this post will be insufferably redundant, and I'm sorry if it's popped up on your F-list for the third time now.

But if you're not, here's my plea:

I'm going to be teaching 6th grade Humanities in a relatively new middle school in Brooklyn. The student population is 98% free/reduced lunch, which affords myself and the other teachers some grant money from the government, but not nearly enough to compile the kind of in-class libraries we want for our students. All of my student resources are Social Studies-centric, but in this position, I will be teaching both English Language Arts and Social Studies. I'd like to bolster my anemic Young Adult book collection with books primarily targeted for grades 4 - 7. (Their reading levels are all over the map, but generally below or approaching 6th grade level.)

So far, I've checked:

Discount bins at public libraries in NYC and NJ
The Strand
Craigslist
Donors Choose (I am going to write a formal proposal with my department at the beginning of the school year)

I've had some luck with libraries and The Strand, but not so much with Craigslist. So my questions are:

1. Can you think of other sources in NYC (or even NJ) that I can find free or really discounted age-appropriate books to stock my class library?
2. Do you happen to have any age-appropriate books that you want to donate/want out of your garage or storage space? I'm happy to come pick them up in the coming weeks or even after the school year starts.
3. If you know of anyone who might be interested in donating age-appropriate books they don't need anymore, can you let me know?

THANKS F-LIST! YOU RULE!

Jul. 29th, 2009

This is exactly what is going to happen tomorrow

mood: nervous

That. Is eerie.

Posted at 08:39 pm | Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

Jul. 18th, 2009

Least Fun Internet Quiz Ever

mood: fleh

music: my family snores; it is annoying

I take back what I said. Real apartment hunting is DEFINITELY less cool than fantasy apartment hunting. I was going to make this big, long post seeking advice as to what I should do about my housing situation given my circumstances, but instead, three questions, and responses, regardless of familiarity with living in NYC, are appreciated:

1. Assuming all apartments are about the same price, would you rather...

A) Live in a small-ish 2 bedroom apartment in relatively safe area of Manhattan that is close to vibrant nightlife and has convenient transportation to all of what Manhattan has to offer, but also happens to be a lengthy commute from your job (45 minutes to an hour by subway);

B) A nice apartment (hardwood floors, large bedrooms, possibly a brownstone) in a neighborhood-y area of Brooklyn with nice architecture and a lot of young people, cafes, bars, produce markets, parks, and cultural attractions, but it also is a 30 minute commute to downtown Manhattan
and still a lengthy commute to your job (45 minutes by subway/bus);

C) Live in a completely new, modern condo with brand new appliances and a chef's kitchen, a terrace, balconies, huge bedrooms, well-designed interior, and large living room area that conveniently located from your job (10-20 min by subway/bus/walking) but happens to be in a more removed, developing, formerly-industrial area of Brooklyn that does not have much of a community or nightlife and is a bit sketch in reputation

2. Would you rather...

A) Live with a flatmate in a 2 bedroom apartment and save about $200+ a month in the process, but also deal with their neuroses and irksome habits (if they have them)

B) Live with two flatmates in a 3 bedroom apartment and save about $300+ a month in the process, but also deal with double the neuroses and irksome habits (if applicable)

C) Live by yourself, pay slightly more than you should, possibly face momentary bouts of loneliness and misanthropy, but have a nice apartment all to yourself?

3. Are you...

A) not at all a
B) kind of a
C) a major

douche b if you live in Manhattan (where real estate typically cost more per sq foot) to Brooklyn? Why or why not?

In other news, I'm in Maine for the weekend with my parents and

jujukoo. Lobsters eaten so far: 1. Ridiculous New England accents heard so far: ~.

Jul. 1st, 2009

My Life, by JK Rowling

mood: sigh

music: Discovery - I Want You Back

The principal of the school I interviewed/did a demo lesson at finally called and told me that they love me, that my references were outstanding, that my demo lesson was fantastic, and that they think I am perfect for their school. And then she said that she can't officially hire me until the teacher that is leaving his position (6th grade Humanities) gets a new position in another school. Once again, I kind of have a job, but I kind of don't. And now we play the waiting game. Again.

So basically:

Voldemort = Me
Professor Quirrell = Living in New Jersey
Sorcerer's Stone = Job
Harry Potter = New Teacher Hiring Freeze
Blood of Unicorns = Dwindling bank account/Dwindling Collection of Unicorn Blood

Jun. 29th, 2009

She is way too genius for MMIAF

mood: hilarity

music: Theresa Andersson - Na Na Na

Me: Would you be angry if I became Mormon?
Mom: No. I just wouldn't talk to you ever again.
Me: What if the man I loved were Mormon?
Mom: Well, he would love you. And someone else. And someone else.

She cracks me up.

Apr. 14th, 2009

Writer's Block: Looking Back

music: Maps & Atlases - Artichokes

LiveJournal is turning 10 and we're feeling nostalgic. What was your first LJ post about?

View 503 Answers

My first entry was written when I was thirteen years old. The Friday, 13 July 2001 inaugural post is titled, "Canadian Cousins and White People." In the post, I displayed my latent frustration with racism and stereotyping with rudimentary observational and largely hypocritical humor, which I still do today. I basically started a livejournal while I was on vacation in Vancouver for the sole purpose of lightheartedly poking fun at my oblivious relatives... which I also still do today.

Jesus H. Christ I have not changed one bit over the last 8 years. This is both immensely disappointing and a great relief.

Tags: first post, lj birthday, reminiscing, writer's block

Posted at 11:01 pm | Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

Apr. 12th, 2009

I like this meme!

music: Ra Ra Riot - Can You Tell

The Post Your Drive Meme, courtesy of

boobookittyass !

Post ten (10 Only) pictures currently on your hard drive that you think are self-expressive.

NO CAPTIONS.

They must ALREADY be on your hard drive; no Googling or Flickr! They have to be saved to your folders sometime in the past and be something you've saved because it resonated with you for some reason. They can be of anything or anyone; family, friends, macros, maps, movie stars... anything that expresses you and your life or personality.

( Here we go... )

I love this meme!

Feb. 24th, 2009

Music

mood: tired

Dopstathon: you are a self promoter to the max

Oh how right he is. New song! It's called "Do I Want To" and it sounds summery. I actually really like it even though I have some crazy pitch/tempo issues going on. Wuteva.

http://www.myspace.com/janellegendrano

In other news, in the past two nights I have only gotten 7 hours of sleep total. What's that about? lollylol.

Posted at 05:58 pm | Link | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

Feb. 22nd, 2009

(no subject)

mood: creative

New Post at HOWTOBEANEWYORKER. CliffsNotes version: I am a creeper. Basically, this is nothing you did not already know.

I spent all day recording a new song that I love, except the recording sucks, and I'm getting really frustrated. Boo.

Posted at 11:22 pm | Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

Feb. 12th, 2009

15 Albums

music: Kings of Convenience - Winning a Battle, Losing a War

Well I never thought I'd type this phrase, but... x-posted in [dun dun dunnn] Facebook. But I'm pretty sure Facebook is going to implode one day, so I'd like to keep this one in my LJ for posterity's sake.

( 15 Albums is the new 25 Things is the new Black. )

Feb. 8th, 2009

(no subject)

where ismy journal

Jan. 28th, 2009

Perhaps the best LJ secret ever:

mood: tired

music: Passion Pit - Cuddle Fuddle

Jan. 25th, 2009

This Weekend = Pooptastic in the best way possible

mood: happy

music: DeVotchKa - Queen of the Surface Streets

New Post in HOW TO BE A NEW YORKER. Cliff's notes version: Crunk.

In other news, this weekend was pretty solid. My sister

jujukoo came down from Boston for the weekend. Sister bonding time is always good, unlike sister bondage time, which is just weird and wrong I don't want to think about it. On Friday, I met 3 of her friends, they met one of my friends, and we all ate great Korean food. My friend left, and the remaining five of us went to the most stereotypically Asian thing ever aside from a San Rio store, Karaoke in Koreatown. I thought I was the only Asian person in the entire world who didn't care for Karaoke, but it was actually pretty fun, which has caused me to hate myself and question all of my beliefs. We then went to Brooklyn and I met her friend's hilariously obese cat that was prone to tipping over. I'm allergic to cats, which wasn't very good, and that combined with rampant polite indecision by everyone in the group as to what we were going to do next and a solo 1.5 hour train ride back to Morningside Heights soured the rest of the night.

I took a Zyrtec and woke up drooling all over myself at 3pm the next day unsure how I got in my bed. Zyrtec is like legal GHB with pleasant allergy-relief side effects. It is potent and it scares me. My sister came up to my fakepartment, and three hours later, we left for the East Village to catch DeVotchKa, one of my favorite bands in the entire world, at Webster Hall. The opener, Clare and the Reasons, was a wonderful surprise-- their sound is great, and I might catch them again next week at some show in the Lower East Side if I can peer pressure someone into going with me. Devotchka... no words. Amazing. It was such an energetic, fantastic, and beautiful show that looked kind of like this, if your eyes are slightly near sighted and your vision is grainy, almost like the cameraphone of a Blackberry Curve...

( DeVotchKa )

After the show, after a moderate amount of indecision followed by a bout of fiscal responsibility, my sister and I decided to get a cheap but good bowl of Ramen for a post-concert snack at Rai Rai Ken in the East Village. It's a really narrow, cramped, but homey restaurant that only has an L-shaped counter at which to sit. The restaurant started out empty, but as my sister and I ate our bowls of Ramen, it started filling up. When I was finished, I went to the restroom at the back of the restaurant. When I got back to my chair, I noticed a funny piece of luggage near it and a guy dressed in black about to take my seat, which was fine since we were on our way out anyway. I thought to myself, Who the #@!$ brings luggage to a ramen bar?!, and I looked up to see who the culprit was. I recognized the black shirt because of it's distinctive buttons, and before my eyes reached the guy's face, I knew it was one of the guys in the string section for both Clare and the Reasons and DeVotchKa!

My sister insists he was a viola player, but he could have been a violinist. I don't know. What I do know was that after I awkwardly introduced myself to him and complimented him, we talked for a few minutes, and I found out his name is Todd, and he is ridiculously cute and a really nice guy, and I would probably have his babies if he asked me and assured me long-term financial support. Sometimes I think my life is like that show That's So Raven, because honest to God, half an hour earlier, I was standing 5 feet away from the stage at the concert and imagining meeting a band member or two after the show and having a conversation with them and then making them fall in love with me, and that happened, minus the falling in love with me part. It was a pretty cool night.

Today, my sister and I met up with my parents and went to Jing Fong, an enormous dim sum place in Chinatown. It was delicious. We went at noon, and it's 9:00pm and I have not yet eaten because I am still full of dumplings and shu mai and other random crap that came whizzing around on dim sum carts after my mom aggressively hailed them down. So good.

This might have been the longest entry I've written in months. I am awkward and I don't know how to end this, so I'll leave you with a string of letters that equal a weird awkward sound I would make in real life if I were telling this to you face to face narrrrrrglmmmmmmmmmmmmzrrrrrrrfgggggnnnnnnnnnnnnjjmmmklllllllllllllllazzzzm.

Jan. 1st, 2009

New Year, New Post

mood: hungry

music: Lykke Li - Little Bit

How to Be a New Yorker

Cliff's Notes version: I talk about my aversion to the Times Square celebration and my love of the Hellen Keller card in Apples to Apples.

Dec. 24th, 2008

I LOVE BAKING

mood: hungry

music: Sufjan Stevens - Joy to the World

A friend of mine and I got into a friendly argument over whether cooking or baking is the superior culinary process. I am solidly in the baking camp. Baking is like a follow by numbers, except with food. And everyone knows that food tastes way better than paint.

These lovely, massive, dense, delicious, crisp on the outside and chewy/juuust baked on the inside cookies are my current winter break baking specialty. Note: amazingness unable to be fully captured by crappy camera phone.

( Cookies! )

Dec. 2nd, 2008

So this is how music is made

mood: we are amused

music: Sufjan Stevens - In the Devil's Territory

Gleefully stolen from the lovely

thewindow13!

Put your MP3 player on shuffle, and write down the first line of the first twenty songs. Post the poem that results. The first line of the twenty-first is the title.

(Of course, I don't know how to read or follow directions, so I did 25 songs. Whatever, the last verse is the best anyway. You'll see.)

-----
Oh the Razorblade
(An original composition)

We're going down the road to tiny cities made of ashes
I've got a cupboard with cans of food
She doesn't care whether or not he's an island
Who knows how long I've loved you?
When someone wants me to listen, I can't.

Wont you look up at the skyline
Oh no, she's not a secret now
Whisper whisper whisper whisper
Meadowlark, fly away down
These walls are paper thin and everyone hears every little sound.

Get lost ugly boy
Lover face, I'll view you as the revolver
I know where the summer goes
I've been waiting for so long
I'm sittin' in the railway station
Camping next to water.

Sweet communist
I want to live where soul meets body
Pay close attention
Let it die
I don't want to.

Please please please
I never said that it was mine
I be the first ever Asian astronaut
You're everybody's second home
I got a faulty parachute
----

So basically, this is the best song ever.

Nov. 16th, 2008

This is way too early, but--

mood: excited

music: Bon Iver - Blindsided

Unofficial poll (except not the fancy LJ kind, since I don't know how to make one):

What is the best Christmas song of all time?

It's almost Thanksgiving, which means it is THAT MUCH CLOSER TO CHRISTMAS! I have to get my iTunes ready...

Nov. 12th, 2008

What's yours?

music: Hellogoodbye - Baby It's Fact

I wrote a paper for one of my classes about my identity. I swear, I must have been assigned 9 different versions of this assignment ever since I started college, but I never mind writing it... it's healthy to think about who you are and why you are the way you are from time to time. Too bad this paper doesn't explain my love of Fruit By the Foot or why I have legitimate panic attacks when I see a Build a Bear store. For posterity's sake, I post:

( Twinkie? )

Nov. 10th, 2008

(no subject)

mood: exhausted

I think God decided to have my life's trajectory reflect the NYSE this past week

Posted at 12:34 am | Link | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

Oct. 21st, 2008

???

mood: confused

music: The Very Most - Good Fight Fighting

Despite me setting my thermostat to 50, my heat is on WAY too high (the room temp is like 87 degrees Fahrenheit). I have my window open to let cool air in, and it's like a high pressure meets low pressure system in here. There is actually wind being created in my corridor organically (as in, no wind coming in from the outside) and blowing my stuff around/making my doors rattle. I wonder if I can make it rain in here, but not in the innuendo, Fat Joe way-- in the weather pattern, Sam Champion way.

Posted at 09:44 pm | Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend

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August 2009

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Aug. 13th, 2009

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