Ping Pong Table

Yesterday, my dad, mom, brothers, brother's friends, and I built the Ping Pong Table we ordered! We ordered one earlier, but it had a really big scratch on it, so we had to refund it and buy another one which took a looooong time. But it's done, finally! I played yesterday and my dad taught me a bit. I'm actually not too bad now, haha jk I'm still really bad. But someone should come to my house sometime to play!!! :D

Tapioca Pudding

<---- Can you guess what this is?!?
It's tapioca! (You probably knew from the title anyway. :P)

Today, my mom and I made coconut tapioca pudding. :) This is the link to the recipe in case you want to try it: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/coconut-tapioca-pudding-10000001010519/
At first, we had to cook the tapioca. At the end, it was soooo thick and sticky; when I washed the dishes, the stuff felt like slime or something...kind of gross. But it tasted good. :)

Then, we added the coconut milk and sugar and all that stuff, then put them into cups. After that, we made another coconut and sugar mixture (except without tapioca this time) and poured it on top. The pudding's double-layered by the way; the bottom layer is thicker and has tapioca, and the top layer is more coconutty. :)





At the end, it look like this:

<--- TA DA!!! :D

(It hasn't finished cooling yet right now; this picture is when it's still liquid.)

Grad Dress

This is my grad dress! :) My grandma bought it for me from Hong Kong (since the dresses there are cheaper :P), then my dad brought it over here when he came back from China. It's long; it goes up to my ankles. And it's white, and the fabric is just normal cloth. On the picture on the right, it kind of camouflages with my bed because the fabric is so similar. :P

Weekly Bible Verse

During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said: "Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king."

Daniel 2:19-23

Fail Piano Recital...

My piano recital today was sooooo bad. But the weird thing is, almost everyone was just as bad. :P But seriously, I think this was my worst piano recital in my life; I messed up and stopped at least 5-7 times. Sigh.......at least I'm done with everything for this year though! Other than my Social Studies quiz next week, I'm done with all tests, recitals, etc. for everything (piano, school, wushu). :D

On a different note, I need some advice on what type of frosting I should make for my cupcakes. I bought Funfetti cake mix; I'm planning on bringing cupcakes on the last day of school to give to all my friends and teachers, etc. I don't know what frosting goes good with Funfetti cupcakes; I was thinking either chocolate or buttercream. :)

the previous post

Uggh, this Blogger system is so stupid; every time you format something here, it gets messed up once you post it! I should write a letter of complaint to them...haha jk. :P But seriously, I'm so mad about this!
Anyway, don't mind of the captions for the pictures, because the format's all messed up.

Haha, it's like:
Look at the beautiful cake! ------>

"Huh, where's the cake?"

Sleepover with QY and Leta

Yesterday and today, I had a sleepover with two of my old gym friends, and all we did pretty much for the whole time was bake stuff. :P We baked two different types of brownies from Trader Joe's brownie mix and Ghirardelli's brownie mix, and a rainbow cake. :)

So first ,we baked brownies with the Trader Joe's brownie mix. Here's the picture of the finished product:

According to Leta, this brownie mix is supposed to be really good, so either Qian Yi's oven is messed up or we didn't mix well enough. We most likely didn't mix well. :P As you can see, the middle is totally uncooked and it's just like, pure fudge and chocolate chips. :P But I think we cooked it long enough because the sides are hardened. (???) The cooked parts might look kind of weird, but this is just the bottom (since we had to flip it over to cool). The top looks better but it's facing down in this picture. :P

After, we made brownies from the Ghirardelli mix. The finished product looked like this:
Oh, and by the way, the lighting was really weird so some stuff are going to look gray when they're supposed to be brown, like right now. :P I liked this one better. :)

The rainbow cake took forever to make. First, we made the batter. The recipe called for five eggs, so I cracked five eggs into a bowl and mixed it. Then, when we were about to add the eggs, we realized that we needed egg whites, so we had to put the beaten eggs away and crack and separate another five eggs...it was fun though, because we ended up playing with the egg yolks since we didn't need them anyway. :) They're really squishy; you should try playing with egg yolks sometime. This is me with my egg yolk! So after we were done with the batter, we mixed in the colors, which was really fun. :) After baking, this was what it looked like:
Again, the lighting is really weird.


We ended up frosting it the next morning...


And when we were all done with EVERYTHING, this is what it looked like:



And the inside ---------->


By 11:00 PM, I was sooo tired because I had a really long day (school, Chinese, then wushu), but Qian Yi and Leta kept on telling me to be more hyper and I was like, "No, I'm so tired..." Then we tried to look for a movie but there was nothing good, so we started doing stomach conditioning while watching "So you think you can dance." Haha so random. :P Some "So you think you can dance" people who got good comments weren't even that good though; I mean, they were good, but it wasn't anything too special. I bet I'll see this SUPER good dancer from my school win one day on that show. :)

The next day/today, I had to go to a Garage/Bake Sale that I had to help out at, so I had to bring brownies and cake. We had to cut up the cake and put it in a huge cardboard tray-like carton because the plates we put the cake on were too big to fit anywhere else. But then we dropped one on the ground, and I was like, "That part didn't touch the ground yet!" so I picked it up and ate it. And Leta started eating the strawberries off the floor, and we looked like total hobos. :P Then, we had a bunch of leftover whipped cream and didn't want to waste it, so we made chocolate "mousse" out of it. Basically, we mixed in a bunch of Milo powder, sugar, and chocolate chips, and it ended up looking like poop. Nobody bought it at the Garage/Bake sale, so it probably does look like poop. :P

At around 12:00ish, we wanted to go to Leta's house to see her chickens and do other stuff, and we had to walk there. So I had to carry my backpack and sword (from wushu), Leta had to carry her huge duffel bag that she brought, and Qian Yi had to carry her bag. Along with that, we had to carry all the brownies, the huge cardboard carton with plates of cake inside (oh, and the cardboard didn't have a cover), the poop, AND leftover cake Leta wanted to bring home. We walked to Leta's house carrying all that stuff, and we looked either looked like high-class hobos carrying an open cardboard tray of rainbow-colored cake, or some kids running away from home that wanted to bring a bunch of bulky cake along to eat. :P And according to Qian Yi, Leta took the long route to her house so that gave us more time to look like hobos! And they were practically arguing the half the time we were walking. :P When we got to Leta's house, I saw her chickens, and they were so fat! Really cute though! :D It was a female chicken, but it still had the red rooster comb thingy on her head, so I was really confused...I still am. Because aren't only the male chickens/roosters supposed to have the red stuff?

Anyway, that was fuuuunn. Sigh...good times. :))))

Weekly Bible Verse

I think I've been posting way too many things lately, so from now on, I'm just going to post a weekly Bible verse every Monday. :)

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.

1 John 4:15

Last French Lesson (#6)

Hey, I got some complaints from people about my posting too much stuff about this...so this shall be our last french lesson. :( *sniffle, sniffle* And I don't think I'm making this very interesting either, because only my mom and one of my friends (I won't name names) are reading this. I hoped you learned something from these lessons though!

So today, we're going to learn how to say stuff like "There's a chair in my room" or "There's a pen on top of my book." So let's break the sentence into a few sections again, as we did before:
1) there is
2) a chair/a pen (the object)
3) in/on top of/under/etc.
4) my room/my book (a place or another object)

In french:
1) Il y a
2) some objects we can use are:
une chaise (a chair)
un bureau (a drawer)
un lit (a bed)
une table (a table)
une porte (a door)
une fenetre (a window)
You can also use the objects we learned in the previous lesson (Lesson 5).
3) in= dans
on top of= sur
under= sous
in front of= devant
behind= derriere
4) my room/my book
mon= my for male things
ma= my for female things
example: ma chambre, mon livre

So, let's gather one part from each number, and put them together!
1) Il y a
2) une table
3) dans
4) ma chambre
Il y a une table dans ma chambre. (There is a table in my room.) Yay!!!

I hope you learned something from this! :D

Bible Verse of the Day

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it."

Mark 8:34-35

French Cumulative Review (Lessons 1-5)

As you may or may not know, we've learned 5 french lessons so far. Today, we're actually going to take a Cum. Review test that tests things we've learned so far! :D So get a pencil and paper ready! If you get something wrong, I encourage you to look at the bottom (yes, there are answers at the bottom; don't cheat though!) to see which lesson the question is testing you on. Then, go back to that lesson and review again until you know it like the back of your hand! :)

GOOD LUCK! :D

CUMULATIVE REVIEW QUIZ (Lessons 1-5)

Assume you're talking to a close friend. (So you don't have to be formal about anything.) Knowing that, translate the following phrases into french:
1) Hi!
2) How are you?
3) I'm fine, thank you!
4) Please.

5) Conjugate the verb, etre:
I am=
You are=
He/she is=
We are=
You (formal/plural) are=
They (male/female) are=

Translate the following to french:
6) I am nice.
7) He is very mean.
8) You are rather intelligent/smart!

9) Conjugate the verb, aimer:
I like=
You like=
He/she likes=
We like=
You (formal/plural) like=
They (male/female) like=

Translate the following:
10) I like to dance.
11) We like to play basketball.
12) It is 3:00 in the afternoon.
13) It is 5:48 PM/at night.
14) I am American.
15) You (formal) are Canadian.

16) Conjugate the verb avoir:
I have=
You have=
He/she has=
We have=
You (formal/plural) have=
They (male/female) have=

Translate the following:
17) I have a calculator.
18) You have a pencil.







ANSWER KEY
from Lesson 1:
1) Salut!
2) Ca va?
3) Ca va comme ci, comme ca, merci!
4) S'il te plait.
5) je suis, tu es, il/elle est, nous sommes, vous etes, ils/elles sont
6) Je suis sympathique.
7) Il est tres mechant.
8) Tu es assez intelligent(e)! <---depends on whether you're talking to a boy or a girl

from Lesson 2:
9) j'aime, tu aimes, il/elle aime, nous aimons, vous aimez, ils/elles aiment
10) J'aime danser.
11) Nous aimons jouer au basket.

from Lesson 3:
12) Il est trois heures de l'apres-midi.
13) Il est cinq heures quarante-huit du soir.

from Lesson 4:
14) Je suis americaine. (If you're a guy, you'll say "je suis americain" without the "e" at the end.)
15) Vous etes canadien/canadienne. <--depends on if you're talking to a guy or girl

from Lesson 5:
16) j'ai, tu as, il/elle a, nous avons, vous avez, ils/elles ont
17) J'ai une calculatrice.
18) Tu as un crayon.

HOPE YOU DID WELL! :D

French Lesson 5

Today, we're going to learn another verb! It's avoir, which means to have.
AVOIR
I have= j'ai
You have= tu as
He/she has= il/elle a
We have= nous avons
You (formal/plural) have= vous avez
They (male/female) have= ils/elles ont

So, what do people usually have? Well, let's learn some objects you probably carry in your backpack, have around your house, etc. that you have! And keep in mind that even objects have a gender in french. :)
MALE OBJECTS
mini-motorcycle (don't know what they're called; everyone drives them in China though)= scooter
telephone= telephone
camera= appareil-photo
computer= ordinateur
object= objet
pen= stylo
pencil= crayon
book= livre
CD= compact/CD
bag= sac

FEMALE OBJECTS
car= voiture
motorcycle= moto
electrical bike/mini motorcycle= mobylette (people have these in France, but not here)
watch= montre
calculator= calculatrice
radio= radio
TV= tele
stereo system= chaine stereo
thing= chose
(tennis, badminton, etc.) racket= raquette (de tennis, etc.)
guitar= guitare
poster= affiche

There's a special thing that is both female and male though, and that's the bicycle. You can either call it a:
MALE: velo
or
FEMALE: bicyclette
You can call it either way it'll still be the same old bike. :)

One last thing: when you say, "I have a calculator," you have to add the "a" right? So, the "a" or "an" in french is "un" or "une." If the object is male, you put an "un" before it, and if the object is female, put "une."

Now, you take one avoir conjugation, pick an object, see if it's male or female, put the "un/une", and then put the object. So it'll look something like this:
Tu as une montre. (You have a watch.) :D

French Lesson 4

Today, we're just going to learn more about what else we can say after the verb "etre," which means "to be."
Again, the etre conjugation is:
I am: Je suis
You are: Tu es
He/she is: Il/elle est
We are: Nous sommes
You (informal/plural) are: Vous etes
They (female/male) are: Ils/elles sont

So in English, you know there are many things we can be right? Like:
I am nice. (which we already learned)
I am Chinese.
I am in San Jose.

So we haven't learned how to describe our nationalities and where we're at. Let's start with nationalities:
French: francais (male), francaise (female)
English: anglais (male), anglaise (female)
American: americain (male), americaine (female)
Canadian: canadien (male), canadienne (female)
Chinese: chinois (male), chinoise (female)
Japanese: japonais (male), japonaise (female)
Korean: coreen (male), coreenne (female)

Also, in French, we don't need to capitalize the first letter of the nationalities, so that's one less thing to worry about! :)

So an example would be: Je suis chinoise. (I am Chinese.) Notice how I used "chinoise," which is the female version because I'm female. If I was a guy/male, I would say "Je suis chinois" without the "e" at the end.

So now, let's learn how to say "I am in San Jose/wherever."
Places:
San Jose
Etats-Unis (United States)
Californie
Chine (China)
(Most places are pretty much spelled the same as English, so I guess we don't really need to learn that many.)

Now, we take a conjugation of etre. I am (je suis), for example. Then, we put an "in" in between the I am and the place right? Because you're not just saying "I am San Jose." You have to say, "I am in San Jose." So if you're talking about cities, you put an "a." So the whole thing would be "Je suis a San Jose." If you're talking about a country like France or China, you use "en" instead of "a." If you're talking about states, you also use "en." So here are some examples:
Je suis a San Francisco.
Je suis en Chine.
Je suis en Californie.

Bible Verse of the Day

Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name's sake.
Psalm 79:9

French Lesson 3

Hi again, and welcome to your third online french class! :P I posted the previous french lesson like a minute ago, so sorry if you're kind of annoyed.

So far, we have learned how to say stuff like, "Hello, how are you" or "He is interesting" or "She likes to watch TV." I hope you guys remember...if not, you can always go back to the previous posts to review (don't worry, they're not going to disappear!). ;)

Oh, and I forgot to say this, but the annoying thing about french is that there are genders for pretty much everything. For example, a pencil is male, and a calculator is female. (Hehe, awkward!)
This time, we're going to learn the numbers and how to say the time! :D
Here's all the numbers (that we're going to use later to tell time, so I'm only going up to 12):
1- un
2- deux
3- trois
4- quatre
5- cinq
6- six
7- sept
8- huit
9- neuf
10- dix
11- onze
12- douze (OR noon= midi, midnight= minuit)

heure= hour
And since heure is female, for 1, instead of saying un, we have to say the female version which is une.

So, we put a number, heure, and the front part of the sentence together, which becomes: Il est une heure. (It is 1:00. The direct translation is actually "It is one hour.") And did you recognize "il est?!?!?!" That's the male etre conjugation that we learned in the first lesson! :D And it's male because time is male in french. :P So just to clear things up, time/clock is male and hour is female.
Another example is: Il est onze heures. (It is 11:00.)

And here are some extra stuff you can add to the sentence:
in the morning= du matin
in the afternoon= de l'apres-midi
in the evening= du soir

Sooo, to put that all together, the sentence can end up like: Il est huit heures du matin. (It is 8 o'clock in the morning/8 AM.)

But those are just the solid hours, not including the minutes. There's more! More numbers!!! :D And because we're still learning about time, I'm only going to teach you the numbers up to sixty.
dix= ten
vingt= twenty
trente= thirty
quarante= forty
cinquante= fifty
soixante= sixty
Usually, when you say 21 or 31 or 41 or anything 1, put an "et" before that. So 21 would be vingt-et-un. But 22 doesn't have the "et" before it; it's just vingt-deux. (Sorry if I'm explaining this weird.)
But you know how in english, we say twenty one but when it comes to the tens, we say eleven instead of ten one? We do that in french too! :D So here are all the tens numbers:
eleven= onze
twelve= douze
thirteen= treize
fourteen= quatorze
fifteen= quinze
sixteen= seize
seventeen= dix-sept
eighteen= dix-huit
nineteen= dix-neuf

Ok, so know all your numbers first before reading on.

So now that everyone knows the numbers from 1 through 60 hopefully, we can start saying things like, "It is 7:45!"
So you start the same old way: "Il est sept heures...." After that, you add the 45, which is quarante-cinq. Together, it will be "Il est sept heures quarante-cinq!" It's just that easy, just put:
1. Il est
2. (a number to stand for hours) heure(s)
3. (a number to stand for minutes)
together and you'll be able to tell people the time! And if you want, you can add the "in the morning" and "in the afternoon" and "in the evening" stuff after that too if you want. It will be like "Il est sept heures quarante-cinq du soir." (It is 7:45 PM.)

So, how do you ask what the time is? Well, just know this one simple sentence, and you're good to go!
Quelle heure est-il?

Haha sorry, it seems like I'm writing a lot. Maybe I am, I don't know. But I'm putting A LOT of spaces in between everything (I'm pretty much putting a space in between every other sentence) so if you put all this on a word document, it'll probably just be like one or two pages. :) Short and sweet, right? Hehe.... :P

Bible Verse of the Day: Believe

Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

John 11:40

French Lesson 2

Hey, today, I'm going to teach you your second lesson of french! :D Haha I sound so lame....
ANYWAY, here's another important verb you'll need to know when speaking:
AIMER (to like)
I like= j'aime
You like= tu aimes
He/she likes= il/elle aime
We like= nous aimons
You (formal and/or plural)= vous aimez
They (male/female) like= ils/elles aiment

So now that you know how to say "I like," here are some things you can say you like to do.
to talk on the phone= telephoner
to speak french= parler francais
to eat= manger
to sing= chanter
to speak english= parler anglais
to dance= danser
to speak spanish= parler espagnol
to swim= nager
to play tennis= jouer au tennis
to play volleyball= jouer au volley
to play basketball= jouer au basket
to play soccer= jouer au foot
to watch TV= regarder la tele
to listen to the radio= ecouter la radio
to eat out/have dinner at a restaurant= diner au restaurant
to travel= voyager
to study= etudier
to work= travailler

So now, you choose one conjugation of aimer and put one of the above verbs after it! (This stuff is sort of like a recipe; you take one ingredient from each bowl and put them together!)

Here's an example: J'aime jouer au volley. (I like to play volleyball.)
J'aime= I like
jouer au volley= to play volleyball
Here's another example: Nous aimons manger. (We like to eat. <---which is very true :P)
Nous aimons= we like
manger= to eat

See, it's like a recipe! Choose one from each list and put them together, and you've got a french sentence! A lesson 3 will be coming soon....

French Lesson 1

Hey, I thought maybe today, I could teach you all some french! :D

Well, I'm going to start with introducing you to some common sentences that we use often:
Bonjour! (Hello!)
Salut! (Hi/informal hello!)
Je m'appelle Jane. (My name is Jane.)
Comment t'appelles tu? (What is your name?)
Au revoir! (Bye!)
Ca va? (How are you/how's everything going?)
Ca va bien/comme ci, comme ca/mal. (I'm good/fine/bad.)
Comment allez-vous? (Same thing as "ca va" except more formal.)
Merci! (Thank you!)
S'il te plait. (Informal version of please.)
S'il vous plait. (Formal version of please.)

But in order to say stuff like, "I am stupid" or "you are nice," we need to know how to say: I, you, he, she, etc. So, here it is!
I= je
you= tu
he= il
she= elle
we= nous
you (formal and/or plural)= vous
they (male)= ils
they (female)= elles

Ok, now here is a very commonly used verb that you'll definitely need to know when speaking french (and almost any language):
ETRE (to be)
I am= je suis
you are= tu es
he/she is= il (male)/elle (female) est
we are= nous sommes
you are (used when talking formally and/or plural)= vous etes
they (male/female) are= ils (males)/elles (females) sont

And here are some adjectives that can describe people or other things...
amusing/fun= amusant (male), amusante (female)
intelligent/smart= intelligent, intelligente
interesting= interessant, interessante
mean= mechant, mechante
silly/dumb= bete (same for both male and female)
nice= sympathique (also same for both male and female)
timid= timide (also same for both genders)
nice= gentil, gentille
cute= mignon, mignonne
athletic= sportif, sportive

And some extra adjectives to add before that are:
rather= assez
very= tres

So, now, you just put one of the verb conjugations with an adjective, and you've got a french sentence! :D However, when you write about more than one person (like nous, vous, ils, or elles), always remember to add an "s" after the adjective, since you're talking about a group of people.

example: Elles sont assez amusantes. (They (female) are rather amusing.) :P

Lesson 2 will come soon, most likely tomorrow, if I have time. :)

FUNNY PICS :P

Valkyries Spring Show

I made it on the Lynbrook dance team (a while ago, actually), and the Spring Show/my first performance (!!!) is coming up this Friday! :D I hope you guys can come! Here are the extra details:

WHO: Lynbrook Valkyries (I think other dance-related groups are also performing, like Cheer, Colorguard, other dance groups, etc.)
WHAT: Spring Show
WHEN: Friday, May 20 at 7:00 PM
WHERE: Lynbrook gym (Lynbrook is: 1280 Johnson Ave, San Jose, California 95129
WHY: It's a performance, and I think it's also a fundraiser, but I'm not sure. Everyone except for the performers has to pay for admission tickets. The tickets are $8 at the door, and $6 if you buy them ahead of time. If you're someone I see at school or somewhere normally, I can sell you a $6 ticket if you want. :)

Sigh...what I don't like about this is that the team captain bought a top for all of us as a "uniform" for this performance, and she ended up buying a red spaghetti-strap tank top. D: First of all, I don't think I've ever even worn a shirt with sleeves less than 6 inches in public, other than leotards and swimsuits. And now they're making me wear a spaghetti-strap top. :( Secondly, I don't think I'll ever wear a red tank top anytime other than this, so it's like a waste. She could have at least gotten a gray or white one that I can wear with other clothes. :P And now I have a bad feeling about their costumes and uniforms...oh, and also, they make us buy short shorts for regular practice, and I don't want to wear those either. :P

But ANYWAY, I hope you guys can come to the performance!

Word Art

Hey I heard about this website (it's a word art generator) from my friend a while ago, but I just remembered it again. http://www.wordle.net/ It's pretty cool! Here are examples of some I made:

ahahaha :P

Bible Verse of the Day

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

Habakkuk 3:17-18

Bible Verses of the Day

Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.

Proverbs 16:32

I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13
(I talk more about this verse in the last post about Cindy's b-day party/movie)

Birthday Party w/ Cindy & Movie :)

Today, I went to Cindy's b-day party at the movies/Pizza My Heart. :) It was really fun! Cindy, if you're reading this, I wanted to say "HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAY" again! XD

So at first, we went to Pizza My Heart for lunch. The pepperoni they have there are so cute; they look half like mini bowls of oil (because their filled with oil :P) and half like frisbees. In fact, the "plates" they use there are frisbees! I got the pizza that came with a shirt, so I have a Pizza My Heart shirt now.

After lunch, we went over to the AMC Theaters and watched Soul Surfer. It's based on a true inspirational story of a girl, Bethany Hamilton, who loved surfing but got her arm bitten off by a shark, and still continued surfing with one arm. It's really inspirational; I recommend this movie, but if you're the kind of person who gets grossed out by blood easily, maybe you shouldn't watch it. :P It gets kind of gross at the part where her arm gets bitten off, but it's just blood, pretty much nothing else.... I didn't like the bloody parts though, so I understand if you're someone who also gets freaked out by blood. :P But what I do like is that it's really inspirational and has a lot of meaning in it. I can think of at least 2-3 "themes," that were conveyed through the character(s), plot, etc., such as...
*People might sometimes be confused or upset about why God lets such bad things happen in this world (like Bethany's arm being bitten off), but we can always be sure that it's part of His plan for us and that good things will come out of it (like how she ended up inspiring kids around the world). Another theme is...
*If you put your strength and faith in the Lord, nothing will be impossible for you to achieve (like how she still surfed with one arm). A Bible verse they used throughout the movie was, "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength - Philippians 4:13". Oh, and another thing I like about this movie is that it's kind of religious/Christianity-based, which is another reason why it's so meaningful. :)

After the movie, I went to orchestra...nothing interesting happened. But we had sectionals, bleh (I personally hate sectionals). D:

Bible Verse of the Day

My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them.
Proverbs 1:10

Paraphrased version= Don't listen to people who are trying to get you to do bad things, and don't give in to peer pressure.

Bible Verse of the Day

Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.

1 Peter 3:8

Cool Website

I saw this on my friend's stat on Gmail so I went to check it out. It's pretty cool, but I don't really understand what it is.... Visit it and you'll see. :)
http://anasomnia.com/

Bible Verse of the Day: Love :)

Today's verse is short and sweet.... :)

We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:19

CMAT 19 Wushu Tournament

I competed at the CMAT 19th Annual wushu tournament/competition today. I was in the 13-17 age division, so there were some people in my group that were really good. But I was in the intermediate level, thankfully, not the Advanced level. I competed with my Changquan (long fist) form and my Jian (straightsword) form. My mom didn't take any pictures or videos, so I don't have much more to talk about; sorry! Well, just so you know what a straightsword is, here's a picture I found on Google images (this is not my sword, but it looks like this):
And just so you can get a rough idea of what Contemporary wushu looks like, here are some Youtube clips of my coach doing her forms. At some parts, it looks like she fell, but it's supposed to be like that. So if you see her fall, don't freak out or anything. :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2eLWk9hoSI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX1_qWg4WoA&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9meUpFRCbW8&NR=1

Bible Verse of the Day

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ... I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:35,38-39

Bible Verse of the Day

The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

1 John 2:17

Bible Verse of the Day (for yesterday)

I forgot to post one yesterday (and many days before too :P) so here's your verse for the missing days:

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.

1 Peter 4:10

Basically, what this verse is saying is that God made everyone unique and gave each of us unique gifts; perhaps He gave you the gift of being able to comfort people when they're sad, or being able to talk to people and make friends easily, or maybe you're really good at art or sports or something. The point is, everyone has a gift, and we should use the gift to serve others. If you're good at art, maybe you can draw a picture for someone who's feeling sad to cheer them up, or if you dance really well, you can perform for a senior home. Just examples. :) So your gifts and talents given by God can always be put into a good use.

Bible Verse of the Day

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"

Hebrews 13:5-6

Bible Verse of the Day

I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name.

1 John 2:12

:)

Chipotle

I went to Chipotle for the first time today. :)

My friends, even the super Asian ones who only eat Asian food, said Chipotle's really good, so I thought it would be amazingly good. But it's just ok. :P I got a burrito with rice, pinto beans, this spicy stewed beef thingy, tomatoes, corn, sour cream, lettuce, and cheese. Maybe that's not as good as the other stuff they have there....

Any suggestions for what to order next time? Thanks!