Computer Classes

Sorry for not posting in two months. Lately I've been feeding my unhealthy habit of doing nothing.

I have decided to do Computer Bowl at my school, with the first meeting being on the Thursday after break. It's sponsored by my Web Design teacher, which is by the way a really cool class. After we learned about HTML and CSS, we worked on Adobe Fireworks, and for those of us who are ahead (including me), Photoshop. But the Computer bowl is about programming, which is what I'm learning in my Design & Logic class.

I've been pretty ahead in my Design & Logic class. We go by these lessons that we do on our own, and I can usually finish one in a class period. One Tuesday I was absent, and on Thursday we were taking a quiz, so the teacher told me I could take the quiz later unless I was comfortable with Lesson 8, which everyone was just finishing up that day. I told her I could take the quiz because I finished Lesson 8 on Friday (We run on A-day B-day schedules). Needless to say I felt pretty good when people acted surprised.

Well it was my birthday on Saturday (I know, I'm a bit late). On Saturday I was woken up at 7:30 to do a treasure hunt for some of my presents (headphones, a T-shirt, and a Modest Mouse CD "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank") and got ready for the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. We picked up my friends at 9 and headed toward the metro. My friends and I were wearing the Guy Fawkes masks from V for Vendetta. My dad got on one of the trains while the doors were closing so we got separated and had to ride a different train. My dad said there was much jocularity on his train. Meanwhile on ours, everyone was silent except for one guy who was shouting about how Halloween was for the devil.

Once in DC, we walked with our masks on and a few people even asked to take pictures of us. When we got to the rally, we saw even more people with masks on. Once the rally ended, that's when the real fun began. Everyone was walking in the streets and we saw the most funniest signs then. We met up with Hallie in Chinatown and ate with her in a noodle restaurant.
Once home, I opened more presents (Tim Gunn's guide to life, the beauty cookbook, An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, and silk pillowcases).

After that I went to a friend's house and spent the night, where we watched Rocky Horror Picture Show, did the time warp, ate brownies, and fell asleep at 3 in the morning.

NEST Time

Now some of you may know that with my new 1-hour lunch (called NEST time, which stands for something but I won't bother you with the ridiculous acronym) comes clubs and study periods that can be attended during that time. With the urging of family (i.e. Lona) I'm posting the list of things available that they gave us on the first day of school. They are broken up in to A and B. A is the first hour of lunch and B is the second half. I've starred the things that are relevant to my classes and crossed out things that are not, including sports.

"I see the morning light

I see the morning light

Well, it’s not because

I’m an early riser

I didn’t go to sleep last night"

-Bob Dylan

I seemed to have fallen in to an unhealthy habit of being nocturnal, but not by choice. Lately, I haven't been able to fall asleep until 9 or 10 in the morning, and then waking up sometime in the afternoon. Last night I was lucky and managed to squeeze in a two-hour long nap between 10 and midnight. Then after I woke up, I made a smoothie, watched Wealth TV, and went on the computer until 7, where I went upstairs to drink coffee and watch the sun rise. It's giving me headaches and I think it's affecting my appetite too because often my stomach will be growling but I won't feel like eating anything.

Lona's List

1. Grow something (a flower?, a tomato?)
2. Take a long bike ride on the rail trail
3. Write a short story
4. Design a hat
5. Participate in library summer reading program or read items on my randomly selected list (Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, The People's History of the United States, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Huckleberry Finn, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, The Education of Little Tree)
6. Fly a kite
7. Attend Hut Building Workshop
8. Invent a cookie recipe and serve it at a social event
9. Make a movie
10. Collect and eat some wild food
11. Camp out and cook over a fire
12. Clean up your room and donate unused items to charity
13. Make a batch of jelly or pickles
14. Do some kind of art project with Aunt Lona (beads?, concrete?, tie-dye?)

So this is Lona's list of things I should do over the the summer. One of the things that is not on the list but am going to be doing with Lona is going to a rainbow gathering.

Day 2

Today we tried to start the boat up, but we were having some trouble. Ysa had to keep on pumping the hand pump since water wouldn't go to the boiler. Pops made me turn the boat around five times as we got steam and lost it. Also, the whistle wouldn't work and we had trouble with the walkie talkies. Later Ysa and I went to the pool but since the water was so cold we just chilled around it (with sunscreen on of course). After the I took a nap and woke up to the sound of our whistle blowing. It was a pretty laid back day, but tomorrow's going to be bigger.

Day 1

We are here in Canada! Ysa and I did our ritual of sitting alone at dinner and then stealing the bread rolls to feed the fish down at Chaffey's lock. It's so hot in our cabin, Hemlock. For those who know the Opinicon, it's near the place where you keep your trailers. We haven't taken the boat out yet, but we do have it docked. Tomorrow we plan to cruise around and them come back in time for lunch.

Arachnophobia

I have been sleeping on the couch ever since a spidor in my room fell onto my bed a week ago. I then freaked out when there was a spidor on the ceiling above my couch. A spidor on my monitor caused a mental breakdown when I couldn't find the spidor again so my mom could get rid of it. More tears were added when mom found another spidor on the stairs. I use the word Spidor for spiders that freak me out, which are most of them.

Bedroom Problem

SPIDORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Things I Like

• PostSecret

• Tom Lehrer

• Lady GaGa

• Richard Dawkins

• Demotivational posters

• Admiral Ackbar puns

• Lasagna

• Nerds

• Fable

• Historical fiction

Technologically Challenged

Headphones stop working, mp3 players freeze, computers get viruses. This stuff frequently happens to me. I go through headphones fast because one side always loses it sound. Every week or so I have to wait patiently for my mp3 player to run out of batteries, because once it's frozen the only thing I can do is wait for it to die so I can charge it again. This is the second time my computer has gotten something major that makes me want to bang my head against a wall. Commonly the internet on my parents' computer would go off when I touched it. I bet I could be a great hacker just by pressing random buttons and watching it explode.

Journal

So I got this journal at Borders a while ago and I just had to get it because it seemed perfect for me. In case you can't see in the picture, it has my name on it. It also has a poem by Ellen Hopkins inside called "Haven" (I would recommend looking it up cause its really nice). My question is, what should I put in it? As Andelle and I know, we have short attention spans when it comes to diaries. We have a collection of books we might have written on five or less pages that we don't return to. This journal seems too nice to just forget. Should I write in it like a diary? Should I write my poems in it? Should I write a story that takes up its pages? Ideas are appreciated.

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory. I'm hoping I'll be able to use it for an independent reading project.

WHAT TIME IS IT NOW? 9:01

WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Well it's not mine, but it's black.

FAVOURITE BOARD GAME? Monopoly

FAVOURITE MAGAZINE? Washington Post Magazine

FAVOURITE SMELL? Lavender

WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD? Failure

FIRST THING YOU THINK OF IN THE MORNING? Arghdeblargh...snooze

HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOU ANSWER THE PHONE? It depends on if someone else is in the house.

FUTURE CHILD'S NAME? Don't want children

FAVOURITE COLOUR? Cerulean blue

WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT IN YOUR LIFE? Humor in everything.

FAVOURITE FOOD! Lasagna

IF YOU COULD PLAY AN INSTRUMENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Harmonica of course

SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? No, but I do have a blankie

FAVOURITE ALCOHOLIC DRINK? Mudslides

DO YOU EAT THE STEMS OF BROCCOLI? Yes

IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB YOU WANTED WHAT WOULD IT BE? Hanging out in an observatory all day

GLASS HALF EMPTY OR HALF FULL? Depends on how it looks. If it looks slightly more than half, then it's half full. If it looks slightly less than half, then it's half empty.

FAVOURITE MOVIE? Zoolander! "I can't help that I look really really ridiculously good looking"

WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? Another bed lol

WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST WEAKNESS? Fear

IF YOU COULD BUILD A HOUSE ANYWHERE WHERE WOULD IT BE? Somewhere in Maine on the coast.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING? Bell-bottoms.

BEACH, MOUNTAINS OR CITY? City

TECHNOLOGY OR ART? Technology. I had to choose 6 electives for next year. Half of them were tech credits, and only one was a fine art credit.

COMEDY OR HORROR? Comedy

FAVOURITE TIME OF DAY? When it's the weekend, and you're up late, past your parent's bedtime, and you just chill with your friends online.

THE LAST CD YOU BOUGHT? Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3

WHAT TIME DO YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING? 6 am on weekdays, and between 9am-3pm on weekends.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE KITCHEN ITEM? The boombox that chills out there.

WHAT MAKES YOU REALLY ANGRY? Close-minded people. And liars. And posers. And teenagers.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN AFTERLIFE? No

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SEASON? Autumn

IF YOU COULD HAVE ONE SUPER POWER, WHAT WOULD IT BE? To read minds. Gawd, that would be awesome.

CAN YOU JUGGLE? No. I tried to get dad to teach me once, but the only thing he told me was "If you can drop stuff, you can juggle"

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE DAY? Fridays.

WHICH DO YOU PREFER SUSHI OR HAMBURGER? Sushi

WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE SOAP? The one that's in reach

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MEAL? Anything that tastes scrumptious....

IF YOU COULD TAKE A VACATION ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD WHERE WOULD IT BE? I would go to Canada or England with ma cousines et ma sœur.

Brownies

What's a better way to beat the winter downs than with brownies! Me and mom were making brownies in my totally awesome brownie pan, when something smelled like it was burning. We were preheating the oven at the time, and when mom opened the oven door, she immediately yells for dad, and dad comes. Apparently dad forgot to clean up the potato that exploded in there two nights ago, and they looked about ready to burst in to flames. Regardless, I'm still looking forward to some delicious chocolaty goodness.

Socks

What's with the youngins today and their disdain of plain white socks? I admit I am guilty of it. In the beginning of the year I had yellow boat shows, so I decided wearing white socks with it would look weird, so I would wear yellow socks. Well since one person has a limited supply of yellow socks, I went without socks. My feet were freezing when I would walk through the wet grass. I was excited when mom bought me running shoes, but they were low, so I wore socks everyone would see them. I wore them without socks and my feet were so sweaty I had to peel them off. With the shoes I have now, I can wear the brightest, whitest, most embarrasing socks without anyone seeing them. One of my friends had low-top Converse, and she would complain how you could see her socks when she crossed her legs, so she said she should get some high-tops instead. Sure enough, when we came back from break, she got new shoes. I know this post is strange and random, but I haven't posted in a while so