Rec. Volley ball

One event I went to recently is my rec. teams’ volleyball game. Me and a couple of friends on my floor made a volleyball team and play every Thursday and Sunday. We named our team, team hand-hug. It’s an inside joke we have and we even got jerseys as well, which look awesome. I have to admit we aren’t the best team because we keep on losing games, but we have a blast playing in the game. Before our game, we would either go to our school’s foot court and get some food together, or go out to a nearby restaurant and just hang with each other. Somehow we always end up getting to the courts a half hour before the game starts, but it gives time to warm up and just goof around before we start to play. When we do play, it’s just a bunch of laughs all around. There are times where the ball would go over with the most ridiculous acts ever. This one time we tipped the ball, tipping is just when you hit the volley ball with the tips of your fingers, all three times and it got over. I remember there were plays where we just kept laughing while we played. Definitely the best stress reliever ever especially a night before classes the next day. Every time after the game we always head back, shower off, and watch Burn Notice, a T.V. show that has now gotten everyone on our team addicted to the show, and play an old school game called Phantesy Star Online with three of my team mates. It’s a lot of fun being with my floor-mates and making a volley ball team just for fun and socializing and not being all serious about it.

Video game similarities

So this past weekend, my friend got a new game that came out called Dante’s Inferno. It is a great game and great poem too. I really liked how creative the game got and how they depicted hell and each circle. Basically for anyone who hasn’t played the game, Dante committed sins and lost his loved one, Beatrice, to hell and he’s going after her. Another game I love is a trilogy set, God of War trilogy (even though the third one hasn’t come out yet). Kratos has as well committed a huge sin (which I’m not giving away to those who haven’t played the game) and his goal is to be forgiven for it. The game design from Dante’s Inferno was created by the same game designer of the God of War trilogy. I laughed a little because of how similar the two characters are in the game. Through appearance, they pretty much are the same. Both Dante, from Dante’s Inferno, and Kratos, from the God of War trilogy, have symbols on their bodies that cannot be removed and both are red. The fighting style is a lot the same as well; just basic button mashing and you’ll get through the game. Both characters even have weapons taken from God like figures. Dante’s weapon is Death’s scythe that (spoiler) he got from killing Death (ironic right?). Kratos’s weapon is called the blades of Athena that he got. Both character’s go on ridiculous adventures regardless of their own specific goals. The game does have its differences and its own creativity that I love. Sadly I don’t own either of the games, but my boyfriend first got me into God of War and then when Dante’s Inferno was getting ready to be released, he and I both couldn’t wait.


These two links are the main characters from the two games. The first one is Dante from Dante’s Inferno and the second is Kratos from God of War. It just shows how similar their character design looks.


http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/1/14030/899744-screen009_super.jpg
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs45/f/2009/110/a/b/Kratos___God_Of_War_by_Ninjatic.jpg

Memories of Books

Wow, trying to think of a children’s book that I loved to read when I was young. Honestly, I just looked at the pictures a lot and talked for the characters instead of reading the dialogue. If I had to remember one book as a child is was the book, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstone. As for my favorite book today, I’m not really all that sure. I guess I have to say Twilight saga, just because it was just a love story that was sweet to read. I guess it was because of the forbidden love that made it the more exciting and passionate to read. One book that I haven’t read or even own, is a book called Things that can Kill you. I’m not sure who the author is, but I found it at a store on the corner or Adam’s and Michigan Av. in Chicago. It was a cute store right by the art museum. When I looked through it, it had pages and pages of everyday diseases and everyday things that can kill people. Sounds bad, but it’s really interesting and amazing to read. It had data about how painful the object or disease is, the time it took to kill someone, how deadly it is, information on the diseases, how common it is in America and famous people who died from it. I seriously smiled when I picked it up because this is definitely the book for me. As bad as that sounds, I’m really interested in things like that. I told myself the next time I go back to Chicago, I’m going to find that book and buy it as a gift for myself. I can’t wait.

About me

So, I’m here at Illinois State University’s Preview program, and we are all in this big group talking about ourselves. We are all going around in a circle, taking turns explaining where we are from, what we like to do, favorite foods and more! Oh great, here goes my turn. “Hey!” I say with a nervous voice, “My name is Cynthia. I was born half-Chinese thanks to Mama and half- German thanks to Dad. I was born and raised about 20 minutes from Naperville, Illinois, and I moved to Naperville after 2nd grade. My house isn’t nearly as cool as Spongebob’s house. I’m a big fan of the colors black and purple. My favorite foods are cheeseburgers and dumplings- they are the best! Oh, and I love drawing, watching and reading anime, running, listening to music, and playing the piano. “Onomatopoeia” is the best word ever. I don’t know why I love the word, but it is just a fun word to say. I think that it’s awesome because it means a word that imitates a sound. For example, “moo” is the sound that a cow makes. The word “moo” is onomatopoeia. Seriously, the worst word ever is the word “legit”. I absolutely hate that word. Its way overused and reminds me of the feeling someone gets when you scratch fingernails on the chalkboard. Doesn’t that just make you want to cringe? Nothing beats the sound of my parents and my boyfriend when they aren’t yelling though. I just love listening to them and what they have to say.”


I’m getting a lot of smiles and my nervousness is wearing down, so I guess I’ll keep going. “I have big turn ons and turn off’s,” I say, “If you really want to see me excited, take me to an art museum or an anime convention, a place where people get together and watch different anime movies. Some people even dress up as anime characters, which is fun to see! I love watching other peoples’ artwork and anime. Something interesting about me is that I draw in my own signature style. If you were to see a piece of artwork, you would be able to tell if I drew it. My drawing style is mostly dark genre, and the body figures I draw are very tall and slender and don’t really follow the average shape of the body but they do look elegant and beautiful in their own way. If you want to turn me off, critique someone’s work while thinking that you are better than anyone else. Also, own up to what you do. A huge pet peeve of mine is when it’s obvious that someone took something of mine and won’t admit it. So, if you’re an arrogant know-it-all or a thief, you might want to stay at least 100 feet away from me. I think I say, “That’s adorable!” more than anything else in my vocabulary. I’m patient too! Once, I spent 45 minutes waiting in a line just to get the 4th Twilight book. I believe in ghosts, but if I get haunted by one, I’ll go Ghostbusters on it and zap that thing to the next world!”

The group begins to split into smaller groups. We are talking more about ourselves. “I have goals in life. Before God says, ‘Welcome! Come on in!’, I would like to graduate college, make it on my own and earn money, get a job in nursing or something related to the body, get married, and pay back my parents for everything they did for me. I am so thankful for my parents.” A few of the group members were mentioning what they were majoring in, so I added, “At this time, I’m majoring in nursing. I want to help people with their health. No offense to those who are business majors, but I would never want to be in that profession. I just think that it’s boring. I don’t know how I would help someone in that profession. Maybe I would be able to set up a business that donates stuff to those in need, but physically I’d just be sitting in a chair at business meetings. I would be helping indirectly, but I would rather be up-front-and-center helping someone in-person. If I did change majors, however, I would look forensics. You know the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation stuff? I think that it’s interesting.” One guy, named Kevin asks me what my favorite movies are and what type of music I like to listen to. I said with a ton of enthusiasm, “My favorite movie is Princess and the Frog! I’ve never seen any movies or shows that make me gag, including the Saw series and Dirty Jobs. I guess that’s what makes me a good candidate for nursing, since they deal with blood and stuff. I love pretty much any techno band, Metallica, and Safety Suit. Hopefully I will be able to go and see one of their concerts-that would be so cool!”

So, the small groups are finally over and the Preview guide tells us that we are going on a tour of the dorms. I get up and walk with the group, when Kevin asks me, “Have you gone to anywhere cool?” I didn’t need a second to think, I simply replied, “The best life experience I’ve had was going to China over the summer of 2009. I stayed in Beijing the first week, went up in the mountains the second week to see the minorities of the area and learn how they live, and then we went to southern China to see my grandparents, who live in Shen yang, which is a really nice beach-area. It was a local reserve area with trees taken down from the mountains, which I thought was awesome. Overall, it was about three weeks long. There was one town that we went to that was very old. There was a conflict that the town was going to be torn down for tourism. They only had enough money to tear half of the town down, but luckily they kept half of it up because you get to see all of the old art and architecture, for example, the wooden doors with carvings. I have a love for art, so seeing ancient art and modern art at the same time was simply mind-blowing!” Kevin’s mouth dropped. “That’s so cool!” he said.

So when the dorm tours were over, the Preview guide asked us “If you could be any animal/creature/character, what would you be and why?” I think that I would want to be an assassin because they have a good reputation for being the definition of awesome. She also is asking what we would bring with us if we were on a stranded island. I’m thinking to myself, “If I were stranded on an island, I would like to have an IPod, my boyfriend, and food, but I guess that if my boyfriend were with me it would not be a deserted island. I would be happy if I had those things though. I would also be happy if I had a million dollars, but honestly, what are the odds of that happening? Someone once told me that you have a better chance of getting hit by lightening while biking to the gas station to buy your lottery ticket than actually winning it. I don’t like the idea of lightening hitting my head and zapping me to death, so hypothetically, if I had a million dollars, I would find a way to get off of that stupid island. Actually, I’d probably make a boat out of the money and get the heck out of there. Well, one can imagine.” I don’t think that I’m going to tell her that though. She’ll probably think I’m nuts!

So the Preview even is over and soon I’ll be in college and just trying to get through all the classes. But throughout my four, or more, years here, I hope to make a lot of friends. I believe that everyone needs to find his/her niche, and then they will be happy with where they are at. I’ve found some pretty good friends, like Kevin, and I’m working on finding my niche. Once I do, these next few years will be awesome!

My college nights

A lot of people think that once you get to college, its complete freedom. No parents to tell you what to do, no curfew, and of course the drinking. I feel that everyone thinks that college is just drinking, drinking, drinking. That’s cool, whatever they want to do for fun. For me, I’m not a fan of drinking, it just doesn’t taste all that good to me. My weekend nights consist of a couple of my friends, and myself rocking it up in the dorms. A group of my floor buddies, which I will not say the names of but instead say code names for them, got rock band two. It is the best game ever to play obviously because it can have up to four people play. Each of us is usually good at one instrument. J-dog is really good at drums; he’s able to play up to expert which gets pretty ridiculous if you have ever seen drums on expert. It’s just a rainbow of rectangles coming at you. E-dog plays expert base, M-dog sings medium, and I play guitar, usually, on expert. Of course we all switch it up and go on easier levels so we all get a chance to play each instrument. Definitely nights I enjoy a lot, but not only them but another group of my friends got rockband at another dorm building. Only difference is they got rockband one and Beatles rockband, and ACDC rockband. So basically, a lot of games are going around. It’s hilarious when we play Beatles rockband because everyone sings the songs together and it’s really just a full on happy time together. I love having friends who don’t go out drinking every weekend but instead just stay in and goof off like high school kids again, it really brings back good times before college.