Halloween

So. Today's Halloween. Hmm…Maybe I'll go as a Soldier. What do you think? Oh…but then I have to go somewhere, right? Maybe I'll go to the chow hall. Maybe not…I'm kind of afraid everybody else will steal my idea. Oh well. I'll just have to be more original next year, I guess. Any ideas?

Song of the Day: "Fool in the Rain" by Led Zeppelin

Today has been the first rainy day in I can't remember how long. When it rains here, everything turns to mud. The walk to and from work is terrible. It makes me wish I lived closer to work like the rest of my coworkers because they don't have to walk through all the dirt-turned-mud. I do like watching the lightning though. When I walked to work tonight, the sky was angrily flashing a million shades of purple and hot white. Just as long as I get to watch it from afar, thunder and lightning is actually really enjoyable for me. I think it probably used to scare me sometimes, but now not-so-much.

So, in the spirit of it being a rainy day, today's song of the day is "Fool in the Rain" by Led Zeppelin. This is probably my all-time favorite Led Zeppelin song.



Lyrics


One of my all-time favorite bands, Maná, covered this song in Spanish several years back for a Led Zeppelin tribute album. Here's a video of Alex and Fher talking about the song.






Lyrics (Letras)

Here's some other cool facts about "Fool in the Rain."

Song of the Day: "You" by Raheem DeVaughn

I discovered this song back in May of 2007. I think I was searching on Youtube for videos of the Korean pop star, Rain, to figure out who he was and if he really deserved to be in People Magazine's list of the World's Most Beautiful People. Turns out he probably does deserve it, based on this video…Anyway, the song totally rocks.

Lyrics | You lyrics

Check out more Raheem DeVaughn songs and his music videos on his Myspace page here.

Song of the Day: About

When I have nothing else to blog about, I'm going to blog about one of my favorite songs or artists. I have a bunch of songs on my iPod that I haven't gotten around to listening to yet, and my favorite setting is to put it on shuffle. Sometimes I come across a song that's awesome that I haven't heard yet or haven't really listened to the words closely before and it kind of strikes a chord with me. I'll post the song with the lyrics and hopefully a video or a link to the video. Enjoy.

Finally! A New Layout

Ok, I'm not completely satisfied with this layout and there's a bunch of bugs in it, but I think I'm done messing with it for a while. The archive button and search box at the top don't work, but I don't really know how to fix that yet, so if somebody knows, please comment and help me out! Thanks! Ah, and please let me know what you think of the layout.

우정 밖에 바라는게 없어요. 그냥 편하고 친하게 지내려고요.

There was a T-shirt I saw not long ago that said, "I'm shy, not anti-social. You can talk to me." I thought I should probably get that shirt.

 
 

I like chatting on the Internet sometimes. I've been chatting with people all over the world for probably the better part of ten years, off and on. Ever since I started using the Internet. I've met some really cool people through chat, although I have never really met any of them in real life. I think part of me has always been a little paranoid about talking to maybe the wrong person who will end up being a real weirdo or worse.

 
 

It's hard though. A lot of times, I go into chat rooms because I'm bored, and it's really difficult to find people that are actually interested in having a half-way intelligent conversation. I've never really been one for voice or video chat, so a lot of people shy away from me when I tell them I don't have that capability. I'm even a little scared about revealing my picture or receiving pictures of people. A lot of the conversations I've had with people in just regular chat rooms have been difficult. It sometimes seems like the only people online are foreign men who either can't speak English or they can't type and all they want is cybersex or they just tell you how much they love you and how pretty you are even though you haven't even shown them your picture yet. It's really fake feeling, and going into chat rooms when I'm bored is probably not a good idea anyway because this kind of interaction just makes me even more bored.

 
 

I think that the key though is to find a niche market that you are interested in, and you'll have a better chance of meeting some like-minded people. These days, I've been spending some time on Livemocha.com, a social language learning community where you can make friends that speak the language you're learning and you can chat with them and do language exercises and get feedback from the community on them. Sure, I've talked to a few weirdos on there, but I think the majority of my "friends" on Livemocha are pretty cool people who, like me, are trying to expose themselves to languages.

 
 

At this point in my Internet life, with social networking and knowledge sharing so important to the very existence of the Internet, I think I might be willing to meet some of my new found "friends" in real life. I've always been kind of a shy and quiet person when I first meet somebody, but maybe after chatting with these people for a while, I will have opened up to a few enough so that when we'd meet it wouldn't really be like meeting somebody for the very first time and not knowing anything about them. The way I see it, I probably have a lot more to gain from the experience than to lose…and hey…I might get some yummy meals or good sightseeing guides out of the deal. So…wanna be friends? :)

I think I've fixed one of my major problems with this...

My blog titles have been messed up for a long time. I think I may have fixed it, so this is a test...

Getting a new layout is going to take a lot of work!

Well, I found a bunch of cool layouts, but I couldn't get any of them to work the way I wanted them to, so I'm reverting back to my old layout for the time being and I'll try again soon. Grr.

Song of the Day: "Home" by Michael Bublé and Blake Shelton




Lyrics | Home lyrics

Today, as I was listening to shuffle mode on my iPod at work, I came across this song by Blake Shelton and it really touched me and made me want to go home even more. After doing a little bit of research, I realized that this song is originally a Michael Bublé song. I don't know which version I like better because they're both really good and the whole reason I like the song is the lyrics, but I think I like Blake Shelton's video better. Check out Michael Bublé's video here.

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Now playing: Michael Bublé - Home
via FoxyTunes

Ok, I've finally decided to change my layout. It's a work in progress.

Got this in my email earlier today, and it does a pretty good job of summing up my life these days. The things I had just a minute ago tend to be thoughts, not necessarily concrete things though...now, what was I doing?

Greased Lightbox - Update available (v0.17)

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Upcoming plans for this blog

I knew when I did it that deleting a whole blog just because of one person's negativity towards me was probably not the best decision, but I felt a need for a drastic change at the time anyway, and that was probably the most drastic thing I could have done at the time that didn't damage me very much.

 

I've been thinking a lot about what direction I want this blog to take in the future. I'm generally not the most creative person in the world, but I occasionally have the overwhelming urge to create something. I have the urge, yes, but actually starting and finishing a project tends to be very difficult for me.

 

Right now, I'm writing this posting from my Gmail account, and I'm not even sure if I'll be able to finish it or whether I'll just let it be filed away into my drafts folder. If it actually even gets to my Blogger account, that'll be a miracle.

 

Ha. It's a little ironic to me that it's always so easy for me to write about my insecurities about writing, but so difficult for me to write about much of anything else.

 

Anyway...I must stay on topic, and my original motivation for this post was to talk about my upcoming plans for this blog. I'm planning on getting a sweet smartphone when I get back home. I'll probably end up getting a BlackBerry of some sort, probaby a Curve. I'm making Sean get the same one, although he's not as in love with gadgetry as I am. I've never really used the camera/video camera on my phones before, but I'm going to make a concentrated effort to make more videos and take more pictures with my phone. I'm also going to figure out how to post those videos and pics to my blog here and to Youtube and Flickr and whatever other service I can.

 

The general subject of this will be my regular life, I'm thinking. I'm hoping that this will make me try and be more interesting. (Not to say that I'm not interesting already, of course. ^^)

 

I also want to do something about this layout I've got here. I've had this same layout since I started this blog, more than two years ago. Blogger has had a bunch of updates and now you can add a bunch of cool stuff to your layout, and with my current layout, I'd have to completely redo it in order to try out any of the cool new tools. So, someday, I'm gonna have to take some serious time and change the layout.

 

Plans, plans and more plans. I'm really excited to start putting these plans into action. My life is REALLY going to take a drastic turn very soon, and I'm SO excited about it...just being stuck in this planning phase is really starting to drive me a little crazy, I think. I really hope the next few months go by quickly but slow enough for me to thoroughly enjoy all the good parts!

 

------ Listening to "Pinhead" by The Ramones

Lately, I've been kind of feeling down in the dumps and not wanting to really do anything. Day in and day out, I go to work, go to chow, sleep, surf on the Internet. It seems like my life is set on repeat. The only reason that I can think of for why I'm feeling this way is I'm just getting really tired of the monotony here and I'm also getting really anxious to finally go home and begin my new life as a civilian. 

I've learned a valuable lesson this time around though: change is a good thing and not only is it inevitable, it's an essential part of life. I'd like to be somewhere in the middle of always doing something different all the time and having a solid routine. I really think I've gone too long on the same work hours and the exact same job this whole time. I really should have switched shifts in order to work days for a while. It's too late for that now though, I think. 

I think my only option for now is to just go home. I've just got to endure a little while longer... Man, these days are long...

The end of Yummy Korean
So... I blogged about Korean for a couple months because I thought I would have some content to contribute, but it appears that I didn't, so I've gone and deleted that blog entirely. In all honesty, I probably should delete this blog too, since I hardly ever post anything of real interest on it anyway. Maybe I should just quit everything and try to find what really interests me, because I don't really know right now. Apparently, I'm unmotivated, lazy and uncreative. I don't want to be that way. I want to do something meaningful. My whole time in the military has left me feeling utterly useless. I thought I wanted to learn a language, but in the six years that I've been studying Korean, I'm still barely able to have an intelligent conversation with somebody. I have trouble communicating even in English, how can I possibly expect to be fluent in any other language? Maybe I should just give up language learning all together, and just focus on my travel education. But would I even be any good at that? I don't even know what I'm good at. I thought I was okay at Korean, but I guess I'm not.
These past couple weeks have had me really burnt out, and I guess right now I'm feeling really depressed. I hate feeling depressed. I think what I need to do is just take a deep breath and tell myself "Tomorrow will be better." I really hope so.

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Now playing: The Beatles - Yesterday
via FoxyTunes

Introducing: 냠냠...Yummy Korean!

This blog, Blue Oceans and Palm Trees started out pretty much as a diary blog of sorts. I didn't really have any idea of a direction that it should go, and subsequently, I started ignoring it a lot.

One of my passions right now is learning Korean. I've been studying Korean for the better part of 6 years now, and I am really just now starting to enjoy it. So, in order to help organize my Korean studies a little bit more, I've decided to start a blog called 냠냠...Yummy Korean. (냠냠 means "Nyam Nyam" and is an onomatopoeia that's pretty much like you're chewing on something or eating with gusto, I guess.)

I'll continue to blog on here periodically about stuff in my life that's not related to Korean, but for the time being, I'll probably stop blogging on here for a while.

If you're interested, click here to check out my new blog! I still have a lot of work to do, but it's coming along quite nicely, I think!

Have a good day!
Kendra

Oh, Mojito!


I was reading my blogs earlier today and I came across a recipe that said it was a Cherry Mojito. The Mojito is one of my very favorite cocktails, so I thought I'd check it out. The recipe sounded tasty, but was entirely NOT a Mojito, and so I got a little upset for somebody ruining my favorite drink. Why did they ruin it? Well, this drink was made out of vodka and had no mint! ARGH!

A mojito has five basic ingredients: rum, mint, lime, sugar and club soda, and there are a bunch of slight variations. I'm generally a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to things like this, so since the mojito is a Cuban drink, I like to use Cuban rum. Because I live in the United States and we've got an embargo on pretty much all-things-Cuban, I use the Cuban exile rum, Bacardi. (Yes, I know it says Puerto Rican Rum all over the bottle, but the Bacardi brand of rum is originally from Cuba.) I also use white rum. The mint and lime will be fresh and depending on what's available and what my mood is, I usually use simple syrup or regular sugar.

To make a mojito, you must have a muddler. A muddler is pretty much a stick that helps to mash up your mint and lime. When you make a mojito, you start with a Collins glass. (I eyeball pretty much everything except the rum.) Put a few mint leaves in your glass and cut your lime in wedges and put about half of it in the glass. Take your muddler and gently smash it around a bit in order to release the essential oils in the mint and marry it with the lime. (I sometimes put the sugar in before muddling, if I'm using regular sugar. Simple syrup doesn't work as well if you put it in before muddling.) It doesn't make much difference. After you muddle, add ice to the glass and then 1.5-2 ounces of rum. If you haven't put in the sugar yet, do that also. Top the glass off with the club soda and stir. Yum.

Some people don't like the hassle of muddling the fresh mint and lime, so they opt for the mojito mix. I'm sure some of them are tasty, but like I said before, I'm a traditionalist, so I prefer the fresh mojito. I think it tastes so much better! If I ever have a bar, the mojito will definitely be on the drink menu and it will always be made fresh!

That's it for me...Happy muddling!

Note: The picture in this post is my mojito from the bar at Hotel El Convento in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. If you ever get the chance, I recommend staying at least one night at Hotel El Convento. It is a fabulous hotel in the heart of Old San Juan that was originally a convent (hence the name) in the 15th century, and is one of the very best and most unique hotels in Puerto Rico.

A Little on LOVE <3

My lovely Aunt Sandy sent me the following in an email and it got me thinking about love and all that. I even got out my Bible to look up 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 and I realized, not for the first time, that love is a wonderful and magical thing. Also, I'm a big sap when it comes to love stories. :)

Love can not be measured in time or in value, not in measurement of a rule or gauged by a scale.

Love can not be thrown away like rubbish, or whisked away in the breeze or take flight by a gust of wind and banished from your heart or soul.

Love should not be tossed into the winds as though it were a pail of water.

Love should be taken to the heart, cherished and kept within the portals of the heart, held onto as though it was in intricate part of your own being.

Love comes into our lives through different stages of our time on Earth.

Love is granted by God to allow your heart to care for someone more than your own being.

Love comes in so many levels of emotion, giving way to tenderness of heart as is shown by the love of a Mother, a sibling, a spouse, a child, a lover or a friend.

Love comes in the form of compassion for another human being, allowing yourself to make someone 's world brighter, just by knowing you cherish them.

My Aunt Sandy wrote this. Isn't it pretty and so true? Love you! 사랑해요!


"Amor is to love you, Amor is to care, Amor is two people with something to share. Amor for the Spanish, Amour for the French, Love in any language always means the same!" - "Amor" by Amigos Invisibles
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Now playing: Amigos Invisibles - Amor
via FoxyTunes

Love Me If You Can

I know that some of you may not like country music, but oh well. I went through my stage of hating it as well, and coincidentally, it was Toby Keith's song, "American Soldier" that got me listening to country again after about 6 years of hating it.

I've seen Toby Keith in concert twice. In Iraq. It's kind of become a tradition, I guess. I got the opportunity to see him for the second time about a week of so ago, and I learned that that show was like his 115th or something show that he's done for us deployed troops since the war started. That's one of the many reasons I admire him. Another reason is that Toby Keith is an amazing songwriter and several of his songs have really meant a lot to me. One of my favorite things about country music is that a majority of the songs tell a story, so not only do the artists write songs, but they tell stories as well. (Another cool country storyteller/singer that I've started liking recently is Brad Paisley.)

Anyway, to make a long story short and before I go off on any more tangents, "Love Me If You Can" is a really great song, my new favorite song. Download it or buy his newest album, "Big Dog Daddy." Below are the lyrics and pictures from the concert.

Love Me If You Can

[verse 1]

Sometimes Think The Poor Is Necessary
Every Night I Pray For Peace On Earth
And I Hand Down My Dollars To The Homeless
But Believe That Every Able Soul Should Work

[pre Chorus]

My Father Gave Me My Shotgun
That I'll Hand Down To My Son
Try To Teach Him Everything It Means

[chorus]

I'm A Man Of My Convictions
Call Me Wrong, Call Me Right
But I Bring My Better Angels To Every Fight
You May Not Like Where I'm Goin'
But You Sure Know Where I Stand
Hate Me If You Want To
Love Me If You Can

[verse 2]

I Stand By My Right To Speak Freely
But I Worry 'bout What Kids Learn From Tv
And Before All Of Debatin' Turns To Angry Words And Hate
Sometimes We Should Just Agree To Disagree

[pre Chorus]

And I Believe That Jesus
Looks Down Here And Sees Us
And If You Ask Him, He Would Say

[chorus Out]


Have a great day!
Kendra

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Now playing: Toby Keith - Love Me If You Can
via FoxyTunes

I like to E

So it took me some six days or something to get from D to E...if you notice, I just posted D, but I wrote it several days ago. I thought I'd be creative and put some pictures of stuff on there...who knows if that even worked. I'll have to check when I can actually access Blogger and fix it if needed. Ugh. Well, on to E...

I like to eat.

Everybody has to eat to live, right? I like to live, thus I like to eat. I'm a bored eater though, and that isn't a very good thing, but good food is AWESOME!

I like to explore.

I like to find out where a path leads.

Geez...as soon as I start writing, I start feeling unmotivated to write. I am going to eventually get to Z though, even if I can only post "I like to X..." I can do it!

I can't believe some people blog for a living. They must really have a lot to say...but then again, some blogs I've seen say nothing at all...much like this one, I suppose.

At any rate, have a great day. :)