The Website: Hidden Reflections
|| Purpose || Being the online collection box of musings and memories.
|| History || I started website design back in 2002 because it was a "cool thing" to do; I also found HTML programming (if it can be considered so) to be rather fun. Besides moving from GeoCities to (Free)Webs and finally to a subdomain of my brother's ithildin.com, the site itself hasn't evolved much over the years. Well, there may be more slightly sophisticated coding now, but that's about it. =)
Actually, creating a website was an excellent excuse for me to play with Photoshop as I'd make new layout designs every few months reflecting / depending on my mood, time, latest interest and care for creativity (I especially liked "Where Food Flies" in which I first sketched everything on paper and then transferred it to Photoshop). At least that's how they used to work; nowadays, I tend to go more for simplicity and functionality.
Version 6.0: Hidden Reflections, simple inspiration
Version 5.12: Happy Holidays '07, Promises to Keep (nighttime)
Version 5.11: Happy Holidays '07, Promises to Keep (daytime)
Version 5.0: Something There, Forever Friends bears
Version 4.1: Happy Holidays '05, Maukû and Friends
Version 4.0: To A Waterfowl, William Cullen Bryant's poem
Version 3.1: Happy Holidays '04, Forever Friends bears
Version 3.0: Where Food Flies, mantous amidst clouds
Version 2.02: Into the West, Annie Lennox's song_RotK
Version 2.01: Into the West, Annie Lennox's song_RotK
Version 1.1: Watch thy Path, inspiration from a quote
Version 1.0: Here's to Us, Forever Friends bears
The Vague One
|| The Basics || This is the short and incomplete story of a girl who was born on an all even-numbered day, month, and year at an all odd-numbered time. She has lived in three states so far (MN, OH, and now IL for college) and visited over twenty others during family vacations and countless many college visits; she's also visited several countries outside the US including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the lovely islands England and Taiwan. As for the family, she has a brother who is older by three years minus three months & twenty-one days and currently lives & works in a rather rainy city; her parents, who used to live in the land of enchanting English accents, are now back in the States; the rest of the extended family ... most likely in Taiwan.
|| Likes and dislikes || Stacy enjoys learning (both academic-related and not), the Bible (and what it brings), music (but not rap), sleep (and naps), cuteness (in sounds, words, plushies, etc.) and a hodgepodge of other strange things from which stem rather strange habits. These include a penchant for numbers in general and words such as tintinnabulation (tinkling of bells), floccinaucinihilipilification (judging something to be useless), zenzizenzizenzic (eighth power), and ainulindale (from "The Silmarillion"); invention of codes; writing backwards (in English and Spanish, and perhaps code); memorising fonts (not on purpose!); and being creative with her resources (origami from leftover church bulletins -- lots of them!). She doesn't particularly enjoy the activity of eating and finds it to be a waste of time when not done concurrently with another activity. As for food, she dislikes oily or sweet foods (including ice cream and chocolate) but harbors a soft spot for 'bland' food (especially mantous and dry cereal), and, of course, finger fruits (especially grapes and cherries).
|| How the Brain Works || This 21-year-old suffers from absolutely terrible workaholic & perfectionistic tendencies, indecisiveness, clumsiness, sleepiness, and perpetually cold appendages in any temperature below ~77F; she also has rather severe OCD tendencies in regards to cleanliness, neatness, and patterns. She has - quite ironically - a habit of spelling words containing 'z' as in '-ize' or '-zation' with 's's instead, possibly stemming from the fact that she once read too much Tolkien. Anyway, it is much easier to reach for the 's' key than the 'z' key.
|| A Final Note || Despite working towards a BS/MS in Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University (which she likely would not repeat if given a second chance at college), she enjoys word puzzles, writing, editing, and speaking in riddles.
16 more random facts (completed originally for Facebook; some are repeats from above)
- I like to keep track of things with numbers. If you go through my computer/website, you'll find excel spreadsheets about the number of stars I've made (2000+), or the time or number of something's I have/did/etc, respectively. I particularly like to keep track of the number of photos I have: ~25,000 (adding up to 30.5 GB with videos). Approximately 4,000 are from college alone, and 16,000+ from family events*.
- I like memorising numbers, mathematical as well as random. In particular, I memorise phone numbers if I call them enough; currently, I can remember at least twenty off the top of my head; these include ones from England* (+441912856386, +441912281982, +447917790543) as well as the first one I learned (6144319689). [Please don't call these numbers]
- My least favorite number to write is 5, followed by 1 and then 6. [Edit] I change my mind after going back to lab; 1 is now okay, 3 is really annoying[/Edit]. Awkward combinations of numbers/dates also bother me, and I actually try to avoid them whenever I update my website.
- It bothers me when people spell words incorrectly. I have probably corrected anyone and everyone who has dared to misspell 'definitely' in my presence. I also correct grammar a lot and notice when people say "more ____-er" (i.e. more easier). I also notice extra spaces between words. Extensive internet speak bothers me.
I do spell some words "incorrectly" - it's called British spelling: memorise, realise, practise, favour, humour, etc. I had a British exchange professor for AP European History, and I read too much Tolkien. I also find the 's' key to be more easily accessible than the 'z.'
- I have a habit of saying some words incorrectly. I always have to think before saying 'ogre' (I always see it as 'orge'), and I still think of 'rectify' as 'recetify.'
- I love Tolkien: I love the Silmarillion, even though people say it's the most boring book ever. Once upon a time, I wanted to name my kids after words from the Quenyan or Sindarin languages. However, I'm not so crazy about those Elvish languages that I would go and try to learn them (awkward phrasing); I just appreciate his writings.
- *My parents lived in England for the past three years. During that time, they traveled like no other all around Europe; they also brought me along whenever I was there. Within the span of ~ 2 months, we drove ~3,000 miles in at least 5 countries; I remember looking that number up and discovering that it was almost the flight distance from Cincinnati to London.
- I almost went to England for high school during that time. Unfortunately, I would've been placed in the grade below (not sure why), which would mean 2 more years of schooling instead of one. As a result, I stayed in the US for my senior year.
- I've broken more piano strings than violin strings. I broke at least two of the piano strings playing Liszt's 'Venenzia & Napoli' Tarantella (I actually enjoyed that piece). Side story: another favorite piece to play is Chopin's Fantastie-Impromptu, which I can still play bits and pieces of even though I learned it back in 6th grade.
- I had perfect attendance from 5th until 11th grade. I ruined it 11th and 12th grade only because I skipped for APs or college visits. =(
- I really like finding alternative ways of writing. I've invented at least two codes that I use sporadically; I also used to write notes (to friends) in backwards (Da Vinci style) English, backwards Spanish, and maybe even -- once -- backwards code.
- I really like Tetris. It's one of the (only) games I really got into as a kid and continued (though not nearly as frequently anymore).
- I have a habit of multi-tasking and would even go so far as to say I'm not too bad at it. I usually have at least 5 windows open at one time, and maybe at least 5 more tabs within Chrome. (I currently have 10 windows and 5 tabs).
- I really like organizing, and it bothers me if things are out of place/unequal. I periodically go through my computer and making sure that all my music files/tags are named correctly/in the same fashion; it makes me sad that my laptop keys have differing amounts of wear.
- I tend to be workaholic: even when it's break, I usually find myself working and/or studying (i.e. chemistry or Chinese). I guess it's a way for me to be productive while relieving boredom.
- I tend to write too much since I like to explain things. I always think I won't be able reach the page limit for essays and papers; I usually go over in the end.
Last updated: 07/18/09