Haven's Harbor

December

2011-12-01T19:15:00.002-05:00

Ever since Thanksgiving weekend ended I've been watching holiday-themed rom coms on Lifetime and Hallmark. Right now I'm watching The Santa Clause on ABC Family, which is the first movie in a month long event called The 25 Days of Christmas. I just absolutely love Christmastime movies. It's all we could talk about at school today.

Another thing I love is Christmas songs. I listen to a Christmas music station on Pandora. The only thing I don't like is how every pop singer has to make their own Christmas album. I often skip past songs by Michael Buble and Mariah Carey because I like the classics, like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Nat King Cole.

My favorite Christmas tradition is going around to historical houses in our area with my mom. These places usually have a Christmas event, and I like seeing extravagant Christmas decorations hung up. We also go walking through our neighborhood so see the lights strung up on the houses, and maybe catch Santa Claus on his firetruck and get a candy cane from him.

I know I'm buying into the commercialism of Christmas, but I can't wait to buy Christmas presents for my friends and hang out on New Year's Eve drinking three bottles of sparkling cider between us.

BAM

2011-11-21T23:06:00.002-05:00

Sometime in the past month a new bookstore has invaded our town and set itself in the shell of what was Borders: Books A Million. My first impression of Books A Million wasn't great; the only Books A Million I've been to was the one in Dupont Circle. It was a tiny place with not a big selection of books.

The other day I found myself walking into the new bookstore that had roosted itself where my former hang-out spot was. My expectations were low. My friend who I met in there texted me earlier that she could cry from the unfamiliarity of it all.

As I found my friend in the back, I noticed the placing of the different sections. Borders had it's quirks with its design. The college books were right next to the cafe, which was perfect for us. My friends and I would joke about how the romance section was taking over the science fiction section. Here the sci fi was separated from the romance novels. From where the sci fi section is now used the be the World War II section, where we would sit in the chairs and spy on the piano teacher from our school who we would see from time to time perusing the Harlequin novels. Next to the WWII section was the religion section, which were shelves of bibles with one row dedicated to such heathen pursuits as the Kama Sutra.

Our favorite section to hang out in was definitely the psychology section. It was 3 tall shelves set closely together forming a horseshoe. On one side were the self-help books, another side had gender studies, and the third side had books about relationships. They had 2 chairs placed next to each other.

The cafe area was filled with junk had yet to be configured. Instead the college books were in the back. The WWII books were now a single row on a mainly empty bookshelf in the back. The non-Christian texts were replaced by bible covers. The psychology section was no more. The only chairs to be seen were 6 neatly arranged next to the music section.

When I looked for a book that I swore I saw in the sci fi section, I realized sadly that I was thinking of Borders. But this was no Borders. The people here weren't the same people who came to Borders. At Borders I once helped a man with his algebra homework. Another man once trusted my friend with plugging his iPod into her laptop.

I suppose I'll learn to love it as I must in order to keep the memories of Borders alive. But I'll be frank, they better have good chai tea latte once they get their cafe together.

Happy Halloween

2011-11-04T19:32:00.004-04:00

This past week was quite eventful with the combination of spirit week, my birthday, and Halloween.

The first day of spirit week was nerd day. I wore a t-shirt with the numbers of pi shaped into the letter pi while everyone else wore suspenders and glasses without lenses. The second day was decade day. I went as the 60's and wore corduroy bell-bottoms that were striped dark green, orange, and brown with a Beatles shirt. Halfway through the day I changed into a blue skirt suit I bought at Goodwill for my Halloween costume. A lot of people went as the 80's. Third day was mix-match day. I didn't do anything for this except not brush my hair in the morning. Meanwhile people went all out with different shoes and layering shorts over pants. A lot of people looked they did for decades day. Thursday was character day. I had no set character in mind but I went as someone out of character as me. I wore a short dress with fishnets and heels. By the end of the day my feet were killing me.

Finally it was spirit day. Freshmen wore white, sophomores wore yellow, juniors wore red, and seniors wore black. Throughout the day you could see girls applying eye black with black eyeliner or writing their graduation year with red lipstick. We dismissed two hours early to attend the pep rally in the stadium. There were floats by the separate classes, different sports and clubs walking with banners, and performances from the cheerleaders, poms team, and marching band. There was beauty pageant between the teachers where male teachers dressed as women and vice versa. There was also a battle between the classes, where the freshmen won against the seniors in the tug-of-war because the seniors celebrated a bit too early so they ran from the rope cheering while the freshmen kept pulling. Although in the end the seniors still won the most spirited.

On Sunday it was my birthday. It wasn't the best birthday I've had since I was suffering through a combination of a bad reaction to something and a sunburn on my face. The day started with a treasure hunt to find my first present, which was My Little Pony toy. Later I got the most awesome sweatshirt ever with a man carrying a Victrola on the back of it. My grandparents came over and gave me a steamboat necklace and a ring of mine they fixed. My mom made lasagna and blueberry pie and I opened more presents. I got a pair of headphones, a new mp3 player, and a card I can insert into it so it will have more space.

On Monday I went to my friend's house after school and put together the final touches of my costume. I was a Pan Am stewardess, and had the blue skirt suit and the heels I bought from Goodwill, nylons I borrowed from my mom, white gloves that were my great-grandmother's, and a paper hat and wings that I printed off of the internet. I even had "Persian Melon", the official lipstick of Pan Am. My friends were the witch from Left4Dead, a lumberjack, a nurse, a soldier, and a creepy jester. After trick-or-treating I tried to watch The Blair Witch Project, but had to stop it once the people heard noises in the woods.

October

2011-10-08T16:51:00.003-04:00

October is by far my favorite month. The colors of the leaves changing and crispness of the air that signals the coming of winter is sublime. The other day my dad ordered firewood, which means we'll use our fireplace soon. Here's a list of somethings I love about October

Sweaters: Lately I've been getting into sweaters: pullovers, cardigans, knit tunics. And fall weather is perfect for sweaters. The air has a hint of frost, but not too much that I want to a huge coat.
Corn mazes: I've been trying to get my friends in a corn maze for the past week. Corn mazes are the perfect autumn activity. the more complicated the better. I especially love the maze that are on farms with other activities, such as hay rides, pumpkin patches, and farm stores. I tried to go to a corn maze last week to ring in the season, but it rained too much. I went last night with friends where we got lost and celebrated with apple cider afterwards.
Pumpkin carving: I have fond memories of going through pumpkin patches, choosing the perfect pumpkin (round, but not too short), and being elbow-deep in said pumpkin's guts. I've bent a few knives in my time trying to cut the perfect jack-o-lantern face. And when all the carving was done, my dad would take the pumpkin seeds and toast them in the oven. Although this year there probably won't be any carving going on because of the cost of a perfect pumpkin, my dad bought a small pumpkin yesterday for a pie.
Rocky Horror Picture Show: Although not the most appropriate movie, I've been watching this movie every year for as long as I could remember. Hopefully one day I'll get to watch it one day in a theater with other fans. I'm planning on seeing it at a local amphitheater, although I don't know the level of participation they accept there.
Spirit Week: At my school, spirit week is actually pretty fun. There's mix-match day, hat day, character day (which is basically like Halloween), and other cool themed days. It ends on the Friday of the homecoming with a pep rally.
Halloween: The only day a year where you can dress however you want and get free candy from strangers. I always love the hour before my friends and I start trick-or-treating because getting ready is always so much fun. I'm a little worried because Halloween is on a Monday, but hopefully people will feel generous this year.
My birthday!: This will be my sweet 16, the day before Halloween. I'm going to celebrate it in the classiest way I can by going to a tea room with friends. Although my celebration choice may seem sophisticated, I absolutely refuse to grow up.

County Fair

2011-09-12T22:15:00.000-04:00

Words cannot express how much I love my county fair. I love the 4H building. I love the free pens they give you in the commercial building. I love the flower arrangement contest. I love the produce contest. I love the cages full of bunnies and chickens; the pens of pigs, cows, sheep, and goats. I love the man who plays folk songs and has a rack full of hats. I love the man who talks about reptiles with a monotone voice. I love the one room schoolhouse. I love the carnival rides held together by duct tape. I love the beauty queen named after a certain chemical found in tobacco. It's like everything I love about my county put in one place.

It's been a tradition that schools close on the Friday of the weekend of the fair, because Friday is the day that school kids get in free. Unfortunately with the two hurricanes that hit us this month, our school has used up 3 snow days because of flooding and power outages. They canceled fair day this year, which, according to my chemistry teacher, is the first time they've done that in a loooooong time.

My friends and I were talking about what day to go to the fair and one of them said he wasn't going because he doesn't like the fair. In a rush, I basically spouted everything I said in the first paragraph really fast. I hear kids complaining about having to go to school on Fair day but then turn around and say they don't like the county fair. Personally, I don't see how you couldn't love the fair. When I go away to college, what I worry most about is if I'll be able to go to the fair. I definitely won't take it for granted.

New School Year

2011-09-05T23:34:00.002-04:00

So the new school year started on Tuesday last week (due to not having power on Monday), and I feel like I had a productive summer. I had my ~~first~~ second earthquake and a nice hurricane that never even turned off our power. I went on trips to upstate New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. I went to a training camp for environmental activists and tested dissolved oxygen in the Mattawoman Creek for DNR. I went to a baby shower, I went to a funeral, I hung out with friends. I even managed to squeeze in two college tours.

This year I got all the classes I wanted. This year at my school they're really pushing doing activities during lunch so they issued ID cards that you scan and one of the administrators said that if she never saw your name scanned in she'd hunt you down and choose something for you to do. Thankfully I won't have that problem this year because my first meeting for the National Honor Society this year is tomorrow.

For my spring break my parents and I are planning a trip to Germany and Poland. We're going to visit my cousin Hallie who's studying in Berlin, and then go to Krakow where I can tour Auschwitz and go to the hometown of my great-grandmother who I'm named after. I'll have to miss at least two days of school but I'm assuming (and hoping) that my teachers will be forgiving of an international trip.

The Tudors

2011-08-18T21:53:00.002-04:00

Some of my favorite blogs are about one of my most favorite topics: The Tudors. And I'm not talking about that historically inaccurate show on Showtime. I'm talking about England's most infamous family. And the one Tudor that I am most enamored with is Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII's second wife and mother of Elizabeth I.

The only thing I love more than Tudor fact is Tudor fiction. I own seven novels on Anne Boleyn, plus every book Philippa Gregory has written on the Tudors and "The Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII" by the renowned David Starkey. I think that the reason I like them so much is they're like fiction, but it all really happened!

The first time I read about the Tudors was in sixth grade when I borrowed "Doomed Queen Anne" by Carolyn Meyer from the library. After reading it I thought it was the most amazing story until one day I found out it all happened.

Anne Boleyn, a nothing in the court of England, was the sister of Mary Boleyn, who was the mistress of King Henry VIII until he tired of her. The king was famous for having many mistresses while still married to Queen Katherine. While the king was so worried about not having a son (all he had was princess Mary), Anne Boleyn beguiled the king and held his affection for six years while he worked out his divorce and separating from the pope to lead his own church, even without being his mistress.

Unfortunately, the honeymoon ended soon after they got married, for Anne had a daughter Elizabeth (who we all know now was one of the greatest monarchs of England). She had three miscarriages after her and the marriage only lasted three years. The king was ready to get rid of Anne, so he had someone devise a plot. Anne was accused of having carnal knowledge of six men, including her brother, which is treason. She was arrested and beheaded. The king went on to have four more wives after her.

I still can't put my finger on why Anne Boleyn intrigues me so, but I think she was a strong woman, who wasn't afraid to risk anything to be powerful and spoke her mind. She was very intelligent and got an education most women didn't get back then. Unfortunately a strong-willed woman is what the king wanted in a mistress, not a wife, and Anne wasn't able to have children after her Elizabeth.

2011-07-19T17:44:00.004-04:00

As I creeped out of my room this afternoon, I had today's Washington Post shoved in my face by my dad. On page A9 was the news we all secretly knew was going to happen but never wanted to think about: Borders closing.

NEW YORK — In a story on July 19, The Associated Press, relying on a company statement, reported erroneously that Borders was expected to ask a federal bankruptcy court to allow it to be sold to liquidators. Borders plans to ask the court to appoint liquidation firms to conduct going-out-of business sales. They will not buy any assets of Borders.

To me and my friends, Borders was way more than a book store. Every Friday after school we would go and discuss colleges, what happened during the week, new hairstyles we were considering, and just joke around until it closed at 10pm.

As my dad said, bookstores are for books you didn't know you wanted. I doubt I would've bought a book on double standards between men and women or a one where the revolutionary war had been fought with dragons had I been perusing Amazon. And I'm glad I found those books, especially the many college books I looked in at Borders. You can't just look through books in an online store, but at Borders my friends and I would gather them and bring them to our table in the café and point out interesting ones and talk about what we liked about them. When we went through a bridal gown phase, we would get wedding magazines and share the dresses we loved and laughed at the ridiculous looking ones.

After we ate lunch at a restaurant today we walked to the grocery store, passing an empty storefront that used to be a Blockbuster. My dad said people don't use DVD's anymore since they get everything off the internet. Although I admit there have been times when my sister and I or my mom and I have huddled around a monitor to watch a missed episode of Glee, watching things on a TV is just better. One day after a rough week at school, my friend came to my house with a DVD of the seventh Harry Potter movie and microwavable popcorn, which kind of goes along with my ramble in the second paragraph. It's all about sharing. My friends lend their books all the time. I don't know of anybody who would give away their Kindle willingly, but you already know what I think of Kindles.

All in all, I think the situation that's going on is ridiculous, since it seems people would rather stay in their houses than venture out into the world to get a book or a film. It's either that or people aren't reading anymore, which is worse. When my Borders closes, there will be no bookstore in the county. I would have to go to Baltimore to get my fix in the Barnes & Noble (which I hear is going down too).

Steamboatin'

2011-07-05T19:41:00.003-04:00

For the past 12 days I was on the Erie Canal in New York on my grandparent's steamboat. I was with my grandparents, my sister Andelle, my cousin Hallie, and my aunt Innes. It took us two days to get to Little Falls, which was the first stop for the Great International Steamboat Flotilla. Little Falls was a cute but dead town, which was what I found in common with Canajoharie and Amsterdam, which were two other towns we stopped in along the way to our destination.

Our final destination was Waterford, where they had a weekend full of activities planned for us. We got there on Wednesday, and Thursday was our chill day. Hallie, Andelle and I noticed that other boats had wooden signs that they had on the dock, either for show or to hold their place. Earlier that week a lockmaster gave us Erie Canal coloring books so Hallie bought crayons in Schenectady and we used the crayons and colored on two by fours that we got off our boat. We made one for our boat and for two other boats whose owners we're friends with. Then we started making them anonymously for boats that didn't have any. Soon people who already had signs gave us some of their wood to make them signs on, and two people said they would varnish theirs.

On Friday we called my mom and told her to go to a website that had a live feed of a camera that pointed towards our boat. We all waved to the camera and even pulled in some other steamboating friends. We also had a "parade", where the boats went a few miles down the river and followed behind an old tugboat called the Urger, which dates back to 1901. When we got back to the docks, we had pizza and wings in the visitor center. My grandmother, Hallie, Andelle and I (my aunt left on a train in Amsterdam) were wearing matching French sailor shirts, which impressed everybody. We also got free t-shirts of the Sayonara, whose captain basically commanded the entire trip. For Saturday we got food vouchers to pay for our meals.

On Saturday there were vendors selling just about anything on the docks. The was a lot of people walking around, checking out the boats. The steamboaters congregated in this one area under a shady tree with small fold up tables and lawn chairs. The adults drank gin and tonic while my cousin, my sister, and I played cards. This one boat was firing a cannon and we got to take turns firing it. At night we sat on the boat and watched the fireworks across the water.

On Sunday there was a farmer's market, where my sister bought berries and a strawberry rhubarb pie with the remaining food vouchers. We steamed down to a lock where we parked the trailer in the pouring rain and we were on our way. Two days later we were home where I am now.

HSAs -> Internet

2011-05-22T21:40:00.002-04:00

So this past week was pretty hectic with two HSA's (High School Assessment, a 3 hour test required for graduation) and the fact that teachers put caution tape everywhere, blocking off half of a wing so as not to distract the test takers.

When HSAs roll around, my web design class gets kicked out of the computer lab. I find class enjoyable even when we aren't using the computers because the teacher shows us cool videos about things aren't directly related to our lessons. In the lab we're learning about tools in designing web pages, like Flash or Dreamweaver; but in the random classrooms we're moved to we learn about the future of the internet and what it means for us.

Personally I find the internet astounding. So much knowledge and information that can be utilized almost instantly. It's so helpful too, connecting people around the world. Looking at my stats page, I'm still surprised that 22 people in Iran, 9 people in Ukraine, and 6 people in Indonesia visited my blog in the past month. Donovan Leitch, one of my idols, said that the internet is the new 60's.

"The dream of the ’60s, of me and John Lennon and the others, was: How do we speak to everybody on the planet at the same time? The first answer was via satellite, but that didn’t connect to everyone. Then John would say, ‘How about telepathy?' Then we forgot about it until now we realize that the Internet fulfills that dream of communicating with everyone. I’m not afraid of the Internet because it’s that the dream we had. The Internet is the new ’60s as far as I’m concerned."

The Internet has produced many an amazing thing, like WikiLeaks, the hacking organization known as Anonymous, and Facebook which helped the protesters in Egypt. And god knows I'd be lost without Google (I wouldn't even have a blog!). And lately Chrome, the web browser owned by Google, has been putting out commercials that highlight the many fine qualities of Chrome and other things Google owns (Gmail, YouTube, Picasa)

I use Chrome and I love it. It's super fast and the address bar doubles as a Google search bar. And Gmail is awesome too. I can chat with my friends and add cool labs, like one where I can undo sending a message up to 5 seconds after sending it.

Without the internet we wouldn't have been as connected as we are now in the world. The HSAs would take forever without the internet. When I talked to the admissions counselor at the community college, he said computer science has many areas and you got to find your niche. I think I've found my niche right here, with the internet.

P.S. I'm not writing this just because I'm so happy my internet came back on. I'm writing it because I'm angry I missed my web design class because of HSA testing.

2011-05-10T19:32:00.002-04:00

It's amazing what fun you can have without the internet.

Yesterday the internet was gone for the whole evening, and since I had no homework I had nothing to do. When I got home I took a 3 hour long nap and ate a whole pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream with my mom after she woke me up.

I typed up a spreadsheet for my dad and downloaded a bunch of music to my mp3 player. My mom and I tried a "face smoothie" to hydrate our skin. We mixed together a banana, a cup of yogurt, a tablespoon of honey, and two tablespoons of rolled oats in a blender and let it soak our faces for 15 minutes before we rinsed it off. Our skin seemed more irritated than hydrated, but you live and learn.

After I played tetris on my cell phone for what felt like hours, I had an idea to install some floppy disks I found of Richard Scarry's Busytown. Unfortunately they didn't work too well and my mom and I were disappointed. Also, she noticed me scratch a red spot on my arm and said it was poison ivy. I insisted it wasn't since it wasn't itchy anymore, and I even put some poison ivy cream on it. Sure enough, today it is way small, less red, and not itchy at all.

Stats

2011-05-02T18:13:00.002-04:00

So I've been looking at my stats for this blog after I discovered I could do that (Thank you Google empire!), and here's what I found:

The most page views I got in the past year was in January of this year with 204.
The most viewed post of all time is Adorez with 193 views. Runner up is New Book with 43.
The biggest referring sites are Lona's blog or Google.
Most of the page views come from America, but the second amount is from Russia with 89.
64% of the viewer's browser is Internet Explorer (for shame, internet users!)
And of course, 94% use windows.

In other unrelated news, I have taken to the couch again since a spider appeared on my ceiling last night. Armed with anything I could find on my bunk bed, I threw odd projectiles at it, ranging in size from cough drops to college books. I finally gave up the fight and retreated to the living room.

Gauguin

2011-04-06T19:06:00.003-04:00

Recently in my French class we learned about Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, so hearing about a crazy lady attacking a Gauguin painting really rustled my jimmies. She called it evil and called the two topless women in the painting homosexuals. Don't even get me started on the whole "radio in her head" thing.

It's acts like this that makes me feel sorry for our country. Blatant acts of homophobia and prudishness that could damage what others would call culture and history are uncalled for. Speak your mind, write a letter to the editor, blog. Don't attack it!

And the women in the painting weren't even doing anything vaguely homosexual. One was carrying a platter. The other one wasn't. ~~It's obviously symbolism~~. And the way she seems to connect homosexuality with evil is heartbreaking.

Now I'm not surprised at how the news shows reported it. They want viewers like any other show and don't want to deter anybody. What shocked me was what they mentioned about the reactions of the 2004 summer Olympics opening ceremony in Athens, where they displayed bare-breasted statues of Greek goddesses.

First we had to be subjected to the breast of Janet Jackson in the [Super Bowl and] now an even more gratuitous display of pornography an [sic] indecency during what was suppose [sic] to be another family viewing event.

Wait what?

How can people be so disgusted and/or offended by seeing a naked breast? One person just outright said “My children saw an exposed breast during the opening ceremonies” as if they hadn't seen one before.

What these people don't seem to realize is how insulting they are to others and their cultures. At the Olympics, they were displaying artifacts of their great history. In Tahiti I wouldn't think it would be too uncommon to be half-nude. And there are many other French paintings that could be considered more "evil". Manet's Olympia anyone?

Woah

2011-03-24T21:29:00.002-04:00

I don't know when my stalker count went from 12 to 34, but boy, does it raise one's self-esteem.

One thing that had happened in those two months that I haven't blogged was course selection for next year. I'm taking AP Language and Composition, AP World History, Chemistry, Physics, Pre-Calc, Web Design II, Java Programming, and French IV. I've planned some college tours for my spring break, where I'll visit University of New Haven, Quinnipiac, Tufts, and WPI. I also took a placement test at CSM so I can take some summer courses there. This should be fun :)

Kindles

2011-01-09T19:54:00.001-05:00

I have decided to put in my two-cents of what I think about the kindle and other e-reader type electronics:

If you like 'em, great. Personally I wouldn't want one (though it would be handy to get books faster and cheaper). I wouldn't be able to bring it to school, and the squareness of it would be uncomfortable.

You see, the way I read at home is I curl around the book. My favorite reading spot is on my couch upstairs. I don't lay back, instead I sit up with my legs bent so the spine of the book fits perfectly on my legs. I usually lean my head against the back cushion of the couch with my chin down the read the book and my arms slung over my knees. Doing that with a solid rectangle would be uncomfortable and weird, especially since I'd have to move every few minutes to change pages.

Computer Classes

2010-12-27T01:04:00.003-05:00

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.

2010-11-04T21:36:00.004-04:00

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

2010-09-05T23:47:00.007-04:00

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.

2010-08-23T07:37:00.002-04:00

"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

2010-07-01T16:39:00.002-04:00

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

2010-06-21T21:48:00.001-04:00

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

2010-06-20T21:52:00.002-04:00

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

2010-05-17T20:37:00.004-04:00

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

2010-05-11T20:50:00.000-04:00

SPIDORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Things I Like

2010-05-06T20:06:00.010-04:00

PostSecret

Tom Lehrer

Lady GaGa

Richard Dawkins

Demotivational posters

Admiral Ackbar puns

Lasagna

Nerds

Fable

Historical fiction

Technologically Challenged

2010-04-07T15:46:00.003-04:00

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

2010-02-15T01:31:00.001-05:00

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.

2010-02-11T20:50:00.003-05:00

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

2010-02-05T14:06:00.003-05:00

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

2010-01-06T16:35:00.003-05:00

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

New Year's Resolutions

2009-12-28T19:52:00.002-05:00

I don't know when someone is supposed to tell their resolutions; before New Year's, right before the ball drops, after the ball drops? Anyway, I need something to post, so might as well post them now. You may post yours if you like.

Learn to play the harmonica.
Expand my hat collection.
Collect family stories.
Try more in school.
Take better care of myself.
Try to be more sympathetic.

Happy Boxing Day!

2009-12-26T15:46:00.001-05:00

So I woke up at six yesterday morning so I could wake up everybody and open presents, but everyone was a pooper and wouldn't wake up. I got toy trains, chocolate, and a bigger and better mp3 player (finally) from Santa. My mp3 player can hold videos and photos, so I put in my favorite Bob Dylan and Donovan photos so I can look at them while I listen to "I Love My Shirt" or something. I got three CDs from my mom. I got Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume II, the I'm Not There soundtrack (for those who don't know, I'm Not There is a movie about the many sides of Bob Dylan. The two CDs are mostly just random covers of Bob Dylan songs and not really from the movie at all), and The Hollies sing Dylan. The Hollies is another good band from the 60's, and the CD is just them singing Bob Dylan songs. My mom also got me this weird little electric bug thing that scurries away from you if you make a loud noise. It's weird. My dad got me that record player I was talking about earlier. We have a plan to clear off Andelle's old desk and connect it to her computer, then we can move the files to my computer using my new "memory stick" that my dad also gave me. The next best present I got was a brownie pan that has lines going through it so every piece can have an edge. Andelle didn't have her annual meltdown in the morning like she usually does, but she did later when we refused tell her something that's none of her business.

More Bootlegs

2009-12-11T21:47:00.002-05:00

Bob Dylan bootlegs are the best. Dad let me steal some from his computer. It has some of my favorites, like "She Belongs to Me", "Love Minus Zero/ No Limit", "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", and my new favorite "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" Groovy.

Christmas Shopping

2009-12-05T22:02:00.001-05:00

So the big thing I want for Christmas is a record player that can also save music on my computer. The only problem is that there's so many issues. Also it's kind of expensive. The cheapest one so far was $100, but that's because it was literally cheap.

I need to either get a flash drive or plug it directly in to my computer. I don't want to move my computer into my room, because my room is cold and it smells. Also I'd have no life because then I'd just be a creepy kid who never leaves. I don't want it in the living room because two record players in one room is stupid and I don't want Torry to touch it.
I'd need a stero to listen to it, which would mean more money. Or I could get a boom box that I would be able to plug it into, which is still more money, but not as much. Or I could plug it into my computer, but that would bring back to square one.
Do I want a cover or no? Will I be okay with putting the stylus on manually? Oh, if only I could plug my computer into my dad's record player, but since he bought his 25 years ago, that isn't possible. I can only imagine using a record player exactly like my dad's, so it's very hard imagining using something else.
The reviews on Amazon scare me. People saying the platter was warped, the stylus scratched their records, the belt went too fast, it couldn't play music when it was recording, it would only play music if it was recording. All it takes is one bad review and I look elsewhere.
I have no clue what I want exactly!

Yay!

2009-12-04T19:07:00.001-05:00

I love giving my mom hugs <3

Rules for Seeing the Water

2009-11-30T21:01:00.000-05:00

You must actually see the water.
The water must be in liquid form.
It must be an actual body of water, not a puddle, precipitation, or in a bottle.
You must declare it to win. Thinking about doesn't count.
To declare you must say this exact phrase: "I see the water!" Nothing more and nothing less. Saying "What is 'I see the water?'" is the only exception. You won't get extra points, but you may get kudos.
If you did not see the water, you may grumble.
At the end of the day, the person who saw the water the most gets bragging rights and may gloat and/or write a haiku about it and post it on Facebook.

New Tactic: Optimism

2009-11-19T17:45:00.003-05:00

Today in Geometry, we're starting a new unit. When we get to a new unit, I always have to sigh with relief. Starting a new unit is like starting afresh but still using the most important stuff from last unit. I actually think I did pretty well in the last unit test, so I'm super excited about that. So the way things go in Mr. Spencer's is:

Talk about the homework we just turned in.
Talk a little about what we're going to learn today
Hand out the packets for the chapter we're working on that day
Tell us the vocab words and maybe explain them if we don't quite understand
Tell us what goes in the blanks for the notes. The packet already has the notes in them with blanks we have to fill in.
Then we have the rest of the block to sit around and do the work.

So today we went through the notes pretty quick and it all made sense. He told us we could move and work with each other to do our work. He said he knows some people will finish it all today. So I get to work with optimism, and it was really easy! I worked with my friend who's kind of a slacker and does her work at home, so I kind of made it into a game so, explaining everything out loud what I was doing, and getting so excited about getting the answer. My friend was just kind of annoyed since I'm like never peppy at school, but today in Geometry I was like a firecracker, and soon I was finished with it. I just made it seem like I was genuinely excited to do math, so then I felt genuinely excited. Usually math is my worst enemy but today it was like my best friend. It's all in the mind I guess.

I Can Haz Magnetite

2009-11-04T18:39:00.003-05:00

For a lab in Science, we had to bring in 12 rocks in an egg carton. Me, leaving it to the last minute, was trying to think of ways to get rocks last night with it being cold and dark outside. The solution: my room. I found lots of pretty rocks that I've collected on various trips, and kept them in random places in my room. Picking the prettiest of the prettiest, I put them in an egg carton and got prepared for bed. The next day (today), Ms. Robinett was explaining the stations, like finding volume, weight, size, and streak. She was explaining some, like the acid test, the magnet test, and looking it over with a magnifying glass. She said for the magnet test that if it's magnetic, then it's magnetite, except for that's very rare. Guess who found out she brought magnetite!

When I asked Ms. Robinett again what kind of rock is magnetic, she said magnetite and asked if I had it. I was so excited! One of my friends asked where I found it, and I said my room. Ms. Robinett laughed and said I found it under my bed with my asteroids. One of my friends who has the same science teacher after me said that Ms. Robinett told them about a student having magnetite for the first time in 20 years.

2009-10-26T16:00:00.009-04:00

With every new obsession comes new questions asked by my mother. Every time mom hears me listening to Bob Dylan, she just has to ask what the songs are about. Time after time I have to tell her they have no meaning. Sure, they may have intention, but they have no real meaning. Some songs are obvious what the intention is, like Ballad in Plain D is about his relationship with Suze Rotolo, but not all of them do. In the movie Dont Look Back (and yes, the absence of the apostrophe was intentional), there's a scene where Dylan is being interviewed by a man from Time magazine. His words are , and I quote "...I have nothing to say about the things I write. I just write 'em. I don't have to say anything about them, I don't write them for any reason, there's no great message. If you want to tell other people that, go ahead and tell them." But there are some people who think that Dylan is such a genius that everything he says, and does, has a meaning in there somewhere. On December 3rd, 1965, there was a press conference in San Fransisco. The first question was from the creepiest looking guy ever, who asked if there was a meaning to the cover of the album with Subterranean Homesick Blues on it (that would be Bringing It All Back Home, but by the way they are describing it, I think he was talking about Highway 61 Revisited). He thought that the motorcycle on his shirt was "...an image in [his] songwriting...", where Dylan said that we all like motorcycles and the photo was taken one day when he was sitting on the steps. So there mom, if I have to explain to you one more time that I don't know how Edie Sedgwick has had so many songs written about her, I will throw you under a camel!

Flowers Nerebend Wi' Th' Rainfall

2009-10-23T18:27:00.004-04:00

I be havin' a sore throat (that dasn't hurt that much, jus' uncomfortable), I be coughin', an' now sneezin'. Nay fever of yet. I also found a website that will translate words in t' swashbuckler speak.

Today there was a pep rally which was more fun than I expected. I sat with my friends and watched all the people walk by with their clubs. We cheered for the marching band people because we knew three people. They later joined us in the stands because although the step team, poms, and cheerleaders get to perform, they told the marching band that they could play at the end if there was enough time (which there wasn't). The floats were pretty cool and they all had a theme, which was beaches or something. The Freshman float was very intricate, and it had the motto "We put the fresh in freshman." It was a tiki hut with a hammock outside it. They threw Milky Ways at us, but they were only fun size, so when I asked my friend for some because he caught one, it was like the smallest thing ever. The Sophomore one was just a boat with some floral decorations and it had a sign that said "I'm On A Boat!" with a cut-out of T-Pain. I loved the Junior's float. It was a pirate ship! It was big because there was people coming out of it and walking the plank. The Senior's float was stupid, but they won just because they're seniors. Basically it was a small boat, but then they got out a dummy of a Leonardtown football player and proceeded to beat it up and rip the head off. Watching the clubs walk in between the floats was funny, because there were clubs that I never heard of before. I didn't know that we had a golf team, and I wondered why since golf seems so boring, except for put put golf, so my friends suggested we have a mini-golf team. A few people threw candy that they got from the floats at the people walking by. The looks on their faces were priceless. The cheerleaders cartwheeled in the parade, and one football player got out of line, back flipped with them, and ran back.

There was an obstacle course where they picked one person from each grade. The freshman won, but that's because the only person ahead of her was a football player and thus couldn't kick a soccer ball straight. Hanging with nerdy guys was funny when listening to their commentary on the performances. They said that cheerleaders are not as hot as they used to be. The step team was doing Michael Jackson, and asked why they grabbed their crotches. During poms they said that anybody could kick their legs like that. I exclaimed "I could be on the pom squad!", and one of my friends turned around and said "Please don't." One girl on the pom squad obviously had no clue what the choreography was, so it was kind of obvious to point her out.

Although the actual pep rally wasn't that great, it was fun to hang out with my friends for two hours. When a song came on that one of my friend's love, we started singing it out loud and saying stuff like "This is my jam!" People came from Chick-Fil-A and handed out discounts which I thought was funny since I knew a music fundraiser was coming up at Chick-Fil-A. One of my band friends complained about how people were going to use the discount at the fundraiser. People were slingshotting (or attempting to) stuffed cows. We were sitting in the middle, so there was no way that one could possibly reach us, yet my friend tried getting one anyway. I said to him "You'll never get one," when out of nowhere one flies in to the crowd and he caught it. Near the end I stole his shoe and didn't give it back to him. When he was close to taking it, I gave it to another friend and he wouldn't give it back either. When the friend with the stolen shoe looked away, the other friend hid it under my feet and told him that he passed the shoe down the crowd. The only problem with nerds is they figure stuff out fast. One thing that kept on happening throughout the pep rally was people kept touching me. You know when people poke you on your shoulder and you're left really confused? Well when it happened I made a big fuss about someone touching me, so then everyone started doing it. I never found out who was poking me when, except for the friend who was sitting in front of me. He wasn't trying very hard to be sneaky, so I didn't tell him off. He eventually stopped, but I kept on feeling pokes on my shoulder all afternoon. I don't know if I'd go to the actual homecoming game since my friends would either be in marching band or won't be going.

Adorez

2009-10-15T16:09:00.005-04:00

Don't you just love it when you find a new song that you absolutely adore? Don't you just love it when you find out you have it on a record? Don't you just love it when the record has a bunch of other songs that you already absolutely adore? Don't you just love the word adore?

Blurg

2009-10-09T20:50:00.004-04:00

I got my braces off today, which was not fun. I waited for like five minutes before the lady next to me asked what color I wanted. Instinctively I answered teal even though I knew I would be getting my braces off. After that the lady left. After what felt like forever the actual orthodontist came over and said "Sorry I'm late" and told me I'd be getting my braces off, and then left. The first lady came back after what felt like forever and said "Sorry I'm late" and then told me all the stuff she was going to be doing. She seemed surprised that I wasn't really excited to get them off. First she had to get the brackets off, which she said was a painless process, but it wasn't. After that they had to put this stuff on that either protected my teeth or whatever that tasted like water, smelled like sunscreen, and felt like sand. The lady out floss in between what seemed random teeth for whatever reason she said. Then they had to put this big red thing in my mouth to stretch it so she could put the bond on my teeth for my permanent retainer. It felt like forever, it tasted awful, and my lips were cracked and numb. Meanwhile the whole time my mouth is dry and uncomfortable since they put a thing in my mouth that was running through the whole thing to suck up my saliva. After another eternity went by I heard someone comment that they couldn't believe it was 10:30 already. My appointment was at 9, so think that over a bit. Then they had to use like a laser gun to dry the bond, so the lady put on special glasses and she told me to close my eyes. The warmth was much appreciated since the room was so cold. Then they actually put on the permanent retainer. When they took out the big red thing that was forcing my mouth open and the thing that was sucking up the saliva, I was close to tears. My lips hurt, my mouth was dry and terrible tasting, and I was missing the math quiz in second block. The lady told the orthodontist that she might have messed up the top permanent retainer, so they had to do it all over again. The lady then had to get the dental floss out of my teeth, but one of them was stuck to the bond of the permanent retainer, so she cut it short, thinking that would help it, but it just made it harder to get out. She had to call over another lady which took forever because she had to pull, and scrap, and floss and until finally she got all the little pieces out. Then they had to get the glue from the brackets off of the front of my teeth, so I had to have a cotton ball stuffed under my upper lip and had to put on safety glasses on as they scraped off the glue with like a drill. I was so grateful when they said I could rinse out my mouth and brush. I still couldn't get the glue taste out of my mouth, and the way I looked in the mirror made me want to cry more. The glasses left a mark that made it look like I had a unibrow, I had glue all over my lips which looked like someone punched me in the face, and no matter how hard I brushed behind my teeth, the taste of the bond wouldn't go away. The ladies waited patiently for me while I stared in the mirror and willed myself not to cry. If I'm uncomfortable, like if I'm sick or I'm cold, then I'm miserable. I hated the permanent retainer. Why would I get my braces off just to have more metal in my mouth? My throat burned with unshed tears. The last thing we had to do was make a mold for my retainers, the clear ones I would get later today. When I sat in the chair, I remember the first time I sat in it, when they did the first mold for my teeth. I had my greek fisherman's cap, the one I called my Billy Shears hat when I had to get my first molds, one and a half years ago. I finally cried when I realized that getting braces wasn't worth the whole process of getting them off. During the whole thing the lady kept asking me if I was excited about getting my braces taken off. I kept on giving her the "so-so" hand signal since her hands were always in my mouth. The lady said we could do the molds later, but I said no, do them now. And I wiped off my eyes before the other lady came in to do my molds. Its hard to breathe only through your nose when it's running. When she did the mold for my top teeth I almost felt like gagging since it was oozing so much almost down my throat. When I finally got out of there my dad told me I was in there for 2 hours. When the secretary gave me a school note, I saw she put 9, since that was when my appointment was scheduled for. Before I went to the office at school, I checked the mirror in his car to see if my eyes were red from crying. My dad laughed thinking I was checking my teeth, which I resent. When I handed the note to the school secretary, she asked if I came directly from the orthodontist. I said yes, and I can understand why she said that. The pass she gave back said the time was 11:36.
I passed my theatre arts teacher to go to my locker, and he asked what's wrong. In French my hands were shaking. Definitely not worth it.

Debate

2009-10-06T17:02:00.002-04:00

Today was the first meeting of the debate team. Actually it was more of a debate club since there's no competition unless we want to participate in the mock trials. The first debate was pirates vs. ninjas. I chose pirates. Ninjas had better speakers, but pirates had more points. Win.

2009-10-05T16:33:00.005-04:00

Last night I went to bed at 8 again and woke up not as tired as I usually am. I haven't been using a pillow lately and I now wonder at what the significance of one is. I should start going to bed earlier regularly. Today was actually quite nice. In Government my friend was talking about all the nerdy clubs we could join, like chess club, debate team, and this republican youth club (as a joke). In Geometry, I was arguing with the same friend about how PCs are better than Macs. We were using laptops and they weren't helping my case since they were sooooo slow and stupid. I asked if she wanted my Moxie, which is a soda I bought in New England. Since I wouldn't be able to get upstairs in enough time if I stopped at my locker, so I gave her my combination. In French I told our conservative friend about joining the republican club and wearing Obama shirts, and he said they would beat us up. In Health it was super easy because all we had to do was watch a movie about drunk driving. After school my friend that I gave the Moxie to stopped by my locker and gave me a juice box that she got from IKEA, a Swedish drink made from elderflower. As soon as I came home, I decided to start on my homework, which if you know me is surprising. But the real reason is Torry left and I wanted to use the record player. Torry won't move me if I'm doing homework.

Blah Monday

2009-09-21T18:36:00.002-04:00

Monday wasn't that bad today, but like always, I find something to complain about. I went to bed at 8 last night and I was still tired getting up at six this morning. In Government we took a quiz, and even though I didn't know what federal, confederate, and unitary governments were, I took educational guesses and I think I managed to get a B, maybe even an A. In Geometry we spent like the whole day doing homework, which was fun. In French I gave a guy the story our group of friends started last year. It was my turn last year but I refused to continue it until another friend gave me the missing pages. The guy whom I gave the story to ended it by saying Korea nuked us all and said we could not change it or alter it at all. Then we got into a whole paradox conversation because I told him he wrote it in pen and that I could just erase it. His conclusion was that we'd all implode. During lunch one of my friends stared at my purse because, I have to admit, it's ugly. But I only use it to carry my lunch. I go to my locker right before lunch and right after lunch so I don't have to lug it around. In Health we had to summarize articles about common sleep problems and caffeine. We had the whole period to do it, so we ended up talking most of the time. After that me and a girl in my science class went to our science teacher to ask about when our research paper was due.
On Thursday in Earth and Space Science we got to pick our research topics. The two that really stood out to me was stellar evolution and astrobiology. I took Earth Science in 6th grade and that was boring, so I'm really looking forward to the space part of this year's science. Astronomy has always really intrigued me. So guessing stellar evolution was the life cycle of stars, I picked astrobiology because I didn't know what it was. After class I went to the teacher to tell her my mom changed her email address. I also asked her what astrobiology was, and she told me it was life "out there". I secretly congratulated myself for picking that topic because the first day of class she told us that she does that for NASA. She told me it was an interesting subject and she could show me some interesting stuff.
When I came home today I took a nap, and had to listen to Torry complain about chips. When dad bought chips, he instantly hid them in the place where I hid the last box of them. So when Torry was grumbling about them, I told him that Dad was the one who hid them. He then told me he was going to search my room, and even called his friend to look for them. Eventually he found them since I hid them behind the couch where I was lounging. I then told Dad I was hiding them in my room and promptly did so. I think it's funny how I can announce to the whole blogosphere that I'm hiding chips in my room and Torry will be the last person to know. I only had science homework to do so I did that right away. Only 4 problems and they were so easy. I figured out a way to get Torry to not turn of the record player and turn on the TV as soon as he gets home. I staked out my ground on the futon with my backpack and put on a Bob Dylan album, and when he came home with Wendy's and asked not very politely to watch TV, I stood my ground and told him I was doing homework. A thing I don't understand is how could he think he deserves to eat the chips my parents buy and yet go out and buy Wendy's.

Win of the Day

2009-09-13T21:43:00.001-04:00

Me and mom were volunteering at Smallwood state park today and there were people in the kitchen. They made us lunch; onion pie, curry chicken, and saffron cake. One of the people said the saffron cake was nice and yellow. The other said mellow yellow, and proceeded to whistle mellow yellow for the rest of the day.

It's on!

2009-09-12T11:05:00.000-04:00

Well last night I kept turning off Torry's computer because the fan was making the most annoying noise. Once I did knock on his door to ask him, but he didn't respond so I assumed he wouldn't care...much. So now I wake up this morning and find that my mouse is gone. It's a good thing I know a bunch of keyboard shortcuts. But seriously tho. He shouldn't be acting so childish.

Blargh

2009-09-09T22:19:00.001-04:00

One spray of nasal spray per nostril for sinuses, one Zyrtec pill for allergies, and two Advil tablets for pain from braces. No wonder I'm feeling dizzy.

Second Week

2009-09-04T22:46:00.002-04:00

When I came home from school I fell asleep until like 6. I am exhausted but feeling much better. A few things that I've noticed that have helped me during the first 2 weeks:

Having an upperclassman buddy. I didn't feel as lost as I could have been knowing there was somebody who could help me.
Taking bubble baths. Now that Andelle's gone I have a bathroom to myself. While cleaning it out with mom, I found an old Scooby-Doo bubble bath stuff. It said it was mild and long-lasting, but the bubbles were kind of lame so I'm hoping to get soapier stuff to have bubblier baths :D
Chocolate. And lots of it. Nuff Said.
Having something I brought from home. During the day my motto is "I wanna go home" and I often think of things I'd rather be doing, like sleeping, so I taped a small newspaper article that I thought was funny to the inside of my agenda book. I look at it, think of home, and get back to work.

What a Week!

2009-08-29T23:24:00.004-04:00

You never realize how tired you are until you fall asleep at ten with the TV still on. I woke up at 6:30 and realized I had left it on all night. I turned it off, went back to bed for half an hour, then couldn't fall asleep again. Mom and Dad came home today, which I'm grateful for. This week was a riot, but I'd rather have my parents home. Special thanks to Lona for visiting me and chasing away Torry's 'bro'friends. We went and saw the play Pops cameo-ed in, "Dearly Departed." Of course me and my short attention span, the thing I remember the most was he was wearing green suspenders with trains on them. Oh, and the fact that his death brought the family together. On the way home we listened to a CD where blues singers sing Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde. Blues isn't exactly my thing, so when we got home I put on the actual album. You might be a Carlson if you do the cancan to Rainy Day Woman with your mother. Mom then showed me things she saw and bought in Philly. I won't say what they are in case they pop up in someone's mail slot soon. I'm so tired I'm going to bed after I'm done typing this (or at least when the record ends)

First Day of High School!

2009-08-24T19:22:00.004-04:00

My first impression of high school was scary. When I got to the bus stop, I saw so many more people, some of them I didn't even know, that I got so frozen from the unfamiliarity of it that I didn't go to the stop sign, I just stayed across the street. The bus was crowded, too crowded. When walking to the cafeteria, where the freshmen were supposed to go, I got a dizzy spell, like I couldn't believe I was doing this, and I had to wave my hand in front of my eyes. In homebase we got our schedules (again, in case you lost yours since orientation), and the papers you need to fill out to get your locker. First block was government. The teacher was kind of crazy in a in-your-face way, but he's a coach, so he has an excuse. We spent about five minutes going "Kapeesh?" "Kapeesh" "Kapeesh?" "Kapeesh". Second block was Geometry. He jokes around a lot. He told us a really lame joke. "What did the tree say to the other tree?" "Gee, I'm a tree (geometry)." He says he gives a lot of homework, but he gives a lot of time to do it in class. There were lots of sophomores there, which was kind of intimidating. Next block was French. Since I was in French II, there was older kids there, too. French was fun. Most of the time we learned about the teacher, who was a hoot. After French was lunch, which I had most of my friends in. What was surprising to me was that lunch was with other grades too! I was shocked! Same with health, which I had after lunch. I'm so used to the structured classes and lunches of middle school, where the different grades have their lunches and electives at certain times. I don't know how tomorrow will go. Tomorrow I have theatre arts, earth and space science, honors English, and chorus. I have to say that today was okay. A lot better than I thought it would be. Now I'm home, and Torry randomly handed me fries and a chicken sandwich from Wendy's. Not my favorite meal, but at least I won't have to cook dinner.

Home Alone!

2009-08-23T12:58:00.002-04:00

Well not really, since I have Torry. I just got home from grocery shopping with Pops and GangGang. Torry is currently gone, and something tells me he had a party last night, since there's beer cans in the bathroom trash can, which I will transfer to the recycling bin later. One good thing about having no one around for a week is I can blast my music! MWUHAHAHAHA! I put a record on when I got home, but the sound wasn't working, which scared me. Then I plugged in a random cord, and it worked again :D

Oh what now?

2009-08-17T17:59:00.001-04:00

My underwater woven basket!

Back from an awesome week of Camp CEO!

2009-08-15T16:56:00.006-04:00

Camp CEO was a blast! Everyone got paired with a CEO, and I got paired with Karen Howze, a DC magistrate judge. She was a lot of fun, and we went synchronized waterfront watching, underwater basket weaving, and making potpourri together. Camp CEO is the strangest, most interesting girl scout camp ever. Monday and Tuesday were a blur, but Wednesday was when things really started to pick up.

Wednesday was when my CEO buddy came, since the CEO's only stayed for one day and came and went throughout the week. When they came, we'd sing:

We welcome you to Camp Coles Trip
We're mighty glad you're here
We'll send the air reverberating
With our mighty cheer RA RA!
We'll sing you in, we'll sing you out
To you we'll give a mighty shout
Hail, hail the gang's all here
And welcome to Camp Coles Trip

And when they left we'd sing:

Hats off to you
Hats off to you
Camp CEO is proud to say
Hats off to you
We're glad you came
We'll shout your name
Hats off to you *insert CEO name here*
Hats off to you!

Jan, who was from the GSCNC council and seemed to run the show, told me that her folk idol when she was a girl was Pete Seeger, who she asked to sing at Still Singing After All These Years. He sent a reply via postcard saying he couldn't and that he hoped they sing This Land is Your Land. She has the pamphlet from the concert and the letter from Pete Seeger is framed in her office. She said that she wants to bring everyone together by singing like Pete Seeger did.

Anyway, on Wednesday we got to sign up for what we'd want to do, and I chose the waterfront. There's only two things to do at the waterfront; kayaking and waterfront watching. At first I went kayaking, where when we got out far enough we could get out and swim. The seaweed was really creepy. Afterward there was enough time for us to go waterfront watching, where you sit in chairs in the water. The tide was high so we synchronized waterfront watch, where we sat in a circle and stretched our arms and legs in unison like synchronized swimmers. The kayakers were too late to do underwater basket weaving tho. Later that day we had to get in to groups again to prepare for dinner. Wednesday was dinner on the porch, where we have a fancy dinner and everyone has a part. My group was making potpourri which was placed beside every plate. Dinner on the porch was awesome. There was entertainment before dessert and we drank sparkling cider. My CEO left that night and we sang hats off to her.

Thursday was groups again. I went to the waterfront again, and instead of kayaking I did underwater basket weaving. Now let me tell you, the stairs to the waterfront are steep and long, and it is hell getting back up. Thankfully we took a shortcut, so it wasn't as bad. After that people came and taught us modern dance. Why? I don't know. Then we went to the amphitheatre to listen to two CEO's that work at universeties talk about college. The amphitheatre is also the place where we have 'Dreaming Your Future', where after breakfast every morning, the CEO's that are there sit on a panel and tell people about their careers and take questions.

Friday was jam packed. After Dreaming Your Future, we had a 'Scout's Own' for a woman who died and participated in Camp CEO in past years. After lunch we split in to three groups and went to stations. The first station was working with Jan on planning our book. Yep, they're making a book about Camp CEO 09. The next station was making a scrapbook page about us to be put in a big scrapbook. A photographer from the Washington Post was there taking pictures of us, and he probably thought I was crazy. He pointed out my pen tatoos and I said that hopefully I'll get a sunburn so that when I wash off the pen I'll get real tatoos. Third station was cooking with one of the CEO's, Ris Lacoste, who's a chef and will be opening a restaurant in DC in October. She even asked us if we needed a job, but I figured a thirteen-year-old wouldn't be that great in a restaurant. The dinner was made by the other groups. My group made the hummus, salsa, and guacamole. I was dicing onions, tomatoes, and peppers, so I got to hold a realler big knife. Since it was the last night, we had sparkling cider. We had to present our scrapbook pages and say something we learned, then we got our badges and pin, and a CEO (if yours wasn't there) read the letter your CEO left out loud. It was nice to hear all the praise the CEO's left all the girls. Jan announced all the staff one at a time, and a few of them had standing ovations, especially Foodie, who's the camp cook. At Camp Potomac Woods they usually sing a parody of Leaving on a Jet Plane, but they didn't here, so I sang it to myself (the real version) in the tent.

I learned a lot from Camp CEO, like leadership skills, who I want to be, and what I got to do to get me there. Now that I'm home, its time to rest since I only have a week before school starts for me. It's been a fufilling summer I think. Dad got me a webcam so I can talk to Andelle at college, or so I can report to mom during the first week of school since she won't be here.

CAMP!

2009-08-08T20:40:00.002-04:00

I'm going to Camp CEO tomorrow, and I'm über-excited! Andelle went there, and says its really fun. For a whole week I will be learning about being a CEO, eating awesome camp food, and swimming in a river. And I'm going to bring my buddy, Gumby. I decided to no pack Agent D, the Fabulous Snail, and Kylie since I won't be able to pack a plethora of plushies. Besides, gumby's my new buddy. I will miss all of you greatly, especially Andelle (she's beautiful soul)
Smiles! :D

Medical Mystery

2009-07-19T19:29:00.002-04:00

My mom has been having these pains lately, and after having a nice picnic at Pops and GangGangs, people have been diagnosing her. They also suggested that I write her symptoms on my blog so everyone can join in the fun!

Symptons

Nausea
Dull, throbbing pain in the lower left back (her left)
Pain feeling like a pulled muscle in the front left pelvic area
Woke up at 2 am with nausea and pain, initially hot then cold
No constipation
No problems urinating

Suggested

Diverticulitis
Kidney stone
Gall bladder stone
Ovarian cyst
Stretching of the ligaments of the uterus
Pregnancy

Uno

2009-07-16T17:06:00.002-04:00

Playing Uno on Facebook with Andelle made me realize how competitive it is. One time this guy made me draw two cards twice in a row, so I managed to reverse it and make him draw four. I find when playing with Andelle, we try and hit each other with the most skip or draw cards. But if someone has uno, we work together to make the person draw cards. One person kept on making me draw cards and skipping me, turn after turn, until I finally reversed it so I could pelt her with action cards. Its the first time I played Uno in a long time, and its really fun, even if you do fail miserably.

Levers

2009-07-15T20:56:00.002-04:00

Today me and Andelle were helping at Pops and GangGang's today, and I was sweeping around the pool, which gave me an idea of what I shall post about today. I shall now enlighten (or bore in some cases) with the one thing I learned about in GTT: Levers. Now if you already knew this stuff, I suggest leaving before I embarrass myself. There are three classes of levers. The way you tell the difference is by where the fulcrum, input, and output is.

First class. The fulcrum is in between the input and output. Examples are seesaws, scissors, and crowbars.

Second class. The output is in between the fulcrum and the input. Examples are a wheelbarrow, a nutcracker, and a wrench.

Third class. The input is in between the fulcrum and the output. Examples are an arm lifting weights, a stapler, and (the thing that gave me this idea) a broom. I found when the input (my arm) was lower on the broom, there was more force sweeping the leaves. But when my hands were higher up on the broom, the more distance the broom moved.

Now I know there's a whole thing on on resistance and effort, but I've quite forgotten it. It's best I just write all I know down so I won't forget it next year.

2009-07-13T16:10:00.007-04:00

When mom saw this comic in our Sunday newspaper, she said it reminded her of me. I resent that. But then again, nothing interesting has been happening which means nothing interesting to post. This morning me and Andelle baked croissants with chocolate in them, and this time the bottoms weren't burnt. Of course, Andelle left to hang out with her friends, so I'm alone once again. Thankfully Torry left also, which means I can blast my music as loud and as long as I want. Hopefully this blogger will have something important to blog about someday, besides her like of dairy products. (Pssst, I've got goldfish! ^_^)

Canadia!

2009-07-06T20:51:00.005-04:00

I'm now in Montréal, Québec. It's actually surprising how much French there is everywhere. I thought there might be English labels below, but mostly everything is just French. So far we went to the science center and a museum about archeolgy and history. So far Andelle's been going on and off between annoying and pleasant. Like right now she's complaing a video she needs to see on youtube that just came out and complains that I've been on too long, even though she spent all day yesterday on. Right now I'm getting my fix of Donovan that I missed the week I was in New York. She's sitting right behind me now and it's really creepy why she can't just leave. It was fun at the museum of archeology and history, because of the tour guide. We called him the Tour Guide of Character. What's fun is that we're just winging it through Montréal. Tomorrow's my dad's birthday (and Ringo Starr's), and we've been trying to find a restaurant for him, but he's no help. It's been fun watching cartoons in French, and I wish Ysa could've come, but instead she decided to go to five-week-comic-book-camp.

Rawr w/ <3

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T10:32:00.001-04:00

Its festival day in Waterford. There's vendors everywhere! I got a new ring that reminds me of my old one that got squished in gym, but instead of a ying yang there's a star. There's also fireworks later. The visitor's center is awesome. There's internets, free books, a place to charge my phone, and an awesome guy named Jim. We put the curtains up in the boat, which is where I'm sitting now. This place is lovely besides the fact that they support the yankees.

2009-07-03T10:50:00.001-04:00

This is what we're doing on our mad adventure!

2009-07-01T07:32:00.001-04:00

Its been a few days since we have had eletricity, so I have been using my cell phone sparingly. Today we are in Schuylerville and are going to Waterford. A note for mom: bring the best detangler we have to Montreal.

Hail Hail the Gangs All Here!

2009-06-27T09:18:00.001-04:00

We picked up Ysa last night and just started our journey north now. We had a delicious breakfast of cereal and oj. Ysa kept on stealing Kylie and Agent D, but she couldnt get the Fabulous Snail because he's way too fabulous to steal. I found out that we're going to be sleeping in parking lots most of the time, so we get to be hobos! :D

Agent D!

2009-06-26T11:15:00.000-04:00

Meet Agent D! She's currently reading a book while Pops & GangGang are hitching up the trailer. So intense! Me and Andelle stayed up until one watching Princess Protection Program. I had to wake up at seven this morning, so I'm really tired. Thankfully we're almost ready and about to leave.

Kylie the Koala!

2009-06-25T19:16:00.002-04:00

Meet Kylie! I'm going to bring her, the Fabulous Snail, and Agent D (a dolphin) with me on the boat trip. Right now Kylie is helping me pack by holding my toothbrush. Rather protective I might add. I have decided to put off packing until today, which was a stupid move. My clothes are in the wash now, so I'm waiting for that to be done with. I'm so excited!

The Fabulous Snail!

2009-06-21T19:41:00.002-04:00

Meet the Fabulous Snail! This is just a test because I managed to find a way to send pics to my blog from my phone. This will be useful when I go on trips this summer. Hopefully this won't be the last you see of the Fabulous Snail. Don't mind the messy background, thats just my desk.

Runescaping

2009-06-19T18:49:00.003-04:00

Wielding my new sword

Appreciating some relaxing music

Mining some rune essence

What is it with summer?

2009-06-15T14:48:00.004-04:00

During summer you seem to lose track of time. All the days seem to run together. You forget easily. It doesn't make sense. You'd think you'd be sharper since school's out, and you have less stress to haze up your mind. Staying up late and sleeping in definitely doesn't help. Thanks to my wonderful mother, she has a plan to reverse that. We have to do an hour of each every day so our internet can stay on the next day:

Something physical
Something intellectual
And something to help around the house

And everyone wins that way :)

End of the Year!

2009-06-08T18:19:00.002-04:00

The official last day of school is June 12, but after promotion, which is June 10, eighth graders don't have to go to school. Today we had promotion rehearsal where we basically walked in and out and in to the gym three times. We also practiced standing up and down and up and down...I've listened to that graduation song so many times! ARRRGH! Anyway, today we had to clean out our lockers, and I found a moldy tangelo. Exciting!

Here is a song I heard on Andelle's Pandora which she was playing on her iPod touch.

2009-05-27T18:29:00.002-04:00

I told someone that the reason I couldn't go to Hershey Park for the chorus field trip was because I was going to a family reunion. He said he didn't like his family reunions. I said my family reunion was going to be über-fun since we're going to make puppets and put on a puppet show! He was like "Do you hear yourself?" Lol =D

Unessecary Music Update

2009-05-23T11:45:00.004-04:00

Dad just gave me some Beatles Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane sessions, which got us into a long conversation about LP's, EP's, and 45's. It's really weird to hear different version of Strawberry Fields, its so eerie. In other news, I've finally quit girl scouts on Friday. Today we opened the pool. Let me tell you, there is nothing like cleaning rubber with your feet :D

Summer's in the Air

2009-05-21T16:27:00.002-04:00

I feel the end of the school year coming. So far all we do in science is labs, which are way cool. We had French class outside today in the courtyard. In social studies the teacher put on a video about the civil war that took a long time, so me and my friends played cards. I can't wait till summer!

Chorus Concert

2009-05-19T16:53:00.002-04:00

I have my spring chorus concert tonight. And instead of having to dress in a stupid whit e blouse and black skirt, we get to wear t-shirts, khakis, and sneakers. WOOT!
Before my dad wiped out my computer we were able to save my music, which I'm listening to now. :D

Oh Great

2009-05-17T00:51:00.002-04:00

Sorry about the last two posts.My computer got a huge virus, so I had to post from my phone. For some reason technology is not liking me now. I'm learning HTML now with this great book mom bought me, but when I'm trying it out on my internet it won't work. I tried to put Beatle songs on my mp3 player, but it won't work. My keyboard shortcuts that I love won't work. Technology is crap :'(

2009-05-16T15:28:00.003-04:00

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2009-05-16T15:28:00.001-04:00

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Teachers Actually Listen?!

2009-05-12T17:40:00.002-04:00

Well today in GTT we found out we were starting a new and final project. We have to do do a presentation and a brochure on a field of engineering. Me and my partner were just being crazy, and we asked the teacher if we could do imagineers! (She's used to our hyper-ness, mind you) She said that we could only pick from one of the fields she gave us, and that she already knew what one would be good for us. We were like "What?" She said as "self-professed hippies", she thought we'd do environmental engineering. Later I told my partner that she must actually listen to our strange conversations.

EAB

2009-05-05T17:34:00.002-04:00

Today I saw those purple boxes in the trees like Lynnis was talking about. Luckily for me one was in my friend's lawn on her tree. We didn't know what it was, but there was a sign stapled on the tree saying it was put there by the Department of Agriculture. We looked on the website they put on there, and it was really interesting. So far I've only found two purple traps, but now we can make in to an activity when we're driving instead of counting red trucks.

2009-04-30T16:30:00.002-04:00

I finished the gears in GTT! And no help to never-there-partner. When I was doing science MSA's during first block on Tuesday, she did three of them. But today she was doing testing and I finished the rest, which was five! All by myself! We still haven't done the questions yet, but they're easy and due on Monday. I'm also done with all MSA's, and I'm going into all high classes next year. We got our course selection sheets, and though I'm still confused about the electives part, I've done all the important stuff done. All I have to do is have my chorus teacher sign the fine arts stuff.

Celtic Festival

2009-04-26T21:38:00.014-04:00

I went to the Celtic Festival yesterday. I bought two rings to replace the one that broke in gym class. I also searched the Andrews clan tartan. I couldn't find Andrews, but I found Anderson, but they said that it was the same thing. I watched the Pyrates Royale and sang along, signed a petition to save Mattawoman creek, talked to some Vikings, met a guy who I thought was King Henry VIII (but was not, since he was Scottish), watched caber tosses, listened to bag pipes, looked at fancy knifes, and drunk iced teas.

The not King Henry VIII

Kilt people

Anderson ancient tartan

Anderson modern tartan

My ring I bought

My other ring I bought

2009-04-24T18:09:00.004-04:00

Today I have Girl Scouts. I have to bring 20 pictures of me, which was hard because, who prints pictures any more? So I had to print out a bunch of pictures from facebook. Though I think I have way more than just 20 pictures. I'm sorting through them now. I'm going to make a scrapbook with them.

At school it was career day. I learned about the Department of Justice, Cisco Networking, and some dude on the SWAT team. After that in GTT we had to model different kinds of gears or something, and my partner is this preppy girl who's always off doing the morning announcements, or doing something for SGA or yearbook club or whatever. Today she must have been helping with the career day. So for the period I just sat about trying to figure out the darn gears. What sucks even more is that for every gears there's a bunch of questions. The whole thing: the questions for the gears, and the signatures approving the 10 models we're supposed to be building is due on Thursday. So thanks to the idiot I'm paired with, I have to make 8 models in two days. I shake my fist at the world for my unlucky fortune, my sore throat, and my allergies.

New Book!

2009-04-22T16:55:00.002-04:00

Today in Language Arts, we are reading A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's sad that this is the third book we've read in the class but it's the only good one. The one's we've before were Farewell to Manzanar and The Pearl. In A Midsummer's Night's Dream, I am Peaseblossom, just because that name is so awesome. Though I wish I got a big speaking part so I could pronounce words correctly. My experiance with reading Anne Boleyn books help greatly. I have four lines, and I quote: "Ready." "Hail, mortal!" "Peaseblossom." "Ready." Awesome, I know. There's also another line where me and the three other fairies Cobweb, Mustardseed, and Moth say "Where shall we go?"

Here's The Beatles playing the play-within-the-play

Back From Camp

2009-04-19T11:18:00.003-04:00

Sorry about how short that last post was. I accidentally hit send on my phone too soon. There were only six girls from our troop came camping, and since we were the older girls we had to help with everything.
On Friday there was pizza delivered, I helped make the salad. I spent majority of the dinner time behind in the kitchen, helping the troop leader resupplying the servers with pizza and throwing away empty boxes. There was something strange with the water since it smelled like sewage, but other than that, dinner was food.
Afterwards there was a pajama party, but I was just too tired and I didn't want to scare the little kids. My friends in my Girl Scout troop said I was speaking gibberish when I came out of the bathroom after brushing my teeth.
Since our leader was the cook she wasn't there to tell us what to do, so most of the time we wandered around. On Saturday we had pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage for breakfast. Since there were a whole lot of kids the food was the kind you microwave, except the eggs. Thankfully there was applesauce to quench my picky stomach. My troop had to clean up after breakfast, and I got so wet when I was cleaning dishes with this clumsy girl.
We went down to the amphitheatre to watch these two people from the Port Tobacco Players talk about theatre. Afterwards we hung out in our cabins until the older girls told us we were late for lunch. It was cold-cut subs and chips. We went on a walk to Trefoil Lake. Near the biffy we saw an old boat that we took a picture on. We found a trail near the biffy, too and took it, not knowing where we would go. It was a long trail through the woods, and I led the way following the red markers. After that we were so hot we splashed each other with water.
Two girls got into a water fight and ran off. Me and another girl hung around our cabin until one of the girls in the water fight came back and chilled with us. We realized we should be doing something by now, and there was stations going on, so we went to the stations they said we had to go to, which was mask making. My mask is total awesomeness, and after that we hung in our cabin again.
Later in the evening we did skits in the amphitheatre, and had hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner. I was crazily tired, so I read in my cabin until the girls in my troop said we had to be in the amphitheatre for s'mores or something. I spent a while there, until I was just too tired and walked alone back to the cabin in the dark. In the cabin when everybody else got there, we talked and threw marshmallows at each other. We laughed our selves to sleep. In the morning I was so glad to go home to take a shower and see Andelle (i <3 u), and blog about it =]

2009-04-17T16:03:00.001-04:00

Today I'm going camping with my girl scout troop to Camp Winona.

2009-04-16T16:48:00.002-04:00

Last night for dinner we had strawberry shortcake. Also yesterday in gym they made us run around for nearly the whole class, so today I feel sore all over, especially in my legs.

2009-04-14T21:01:00.002-04:00

I found out a way to make a blog post using text messages so I'm testing it out. Lately we've been having breakfast for dinner. Like last night me and mom ate sausage. Tonight we made potato chips, and I cooked bacon. Mom says I made perfect bacon on my first try. ^_^

OMGOMGOMG

2009-04-08T18:59:00.002-04:00

My dad gave me 21 volumes of this radio program about the history of The Beatles and their songs. All. Of. Them. I even have two of them in German. So now I have about all their songs, and it's so frickin' awesome! Except I can't get it on my mp3 player because it's being a buttnut.

2009-04-06T19:07:00.000-04:00

Today I searched the Other Boleyn Girl movie online, and 72 minutes into the movie, it stopped. -_- Not cool, man, not cool.

I tried searching the series The Tudors. I couldn't find season 1 episode 1, but I did find episode 2. Missing one episode is all it takes to not understand what was going on.

If I feel like learning some real stuff about the Tudors, I use the most awesome website ever: http://tudorhistory.org/

School News!

2009-04-04T23:13:00.002-04:00

Turns out MSA's is most definitely not over. Eighth grade has to take the science MSA's. How dandy.
In other news, the results from the North Point STI programs are in *drumroll*

WAIT-LISTED!
Which is just a fancy term for "never going to happen". But I don't really care, since I'm going to North Point anyway.

Here's a game that i'm addicted to: http://www.costlife.org/

2009-04-02T16:53:00.002-04:00

Today in LA we were making covers for our short stories, and I decided to name my story "Summer of Haight." I cut out a peace sign to put on the cover, and my teacher walks over and asks, "Why do you have a peace sign?" I was about to answer when she said "Oh yeah, you're a hippie." "Gee, thanks."

Stupid LA

2009-03-30T17:05:00.002-04:00

We have to write a historical fiction short story, and the era I chose was the 60's. I don't know what year to write on, though. I asked my dad about the pinnacle of the hippies, and he said 1969, thought I was thinking that might be too late. I was thinking about 1967, since I want to include the San Francisco song by Scott McKenzie, but I'm not sure.

MSA's!

2009-03-26T20:27:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was the last time I have to take the MSA's ever! Last week was the math MSA's on Tuesday and Wednesday. My GTT teacher wasn't there to supervise the test, so we had the two art teachers, one of whom seemed like pure evil for some reason. We had to take the test in the Home Ec room, which was pretty cool. When we started the test I saw Mme. Jerow walk in. It turns out she was also supervising the test! During the breaks she would freak me out by telling me about some upcoming quiz. We later found out that my GTT teacher had pneumonia. We asked her if it was contagious. She said that viral pneumonia was, but bacterial pneumonia wasn't. We asked if she had bacterial pneumonia. She said she hoped.

This Tuesday and Wednesday was the reading test. Even with my GTT teacher back, we still had Mme. Jerow, which I thought was creepy and unnescessary. The good part about the MSA's was that the desks would be moved into rows, which I liked. Also the classes were shorter. It was fun because in social studies all the time he had we used watching our teacher google himself.

I'm So Tired

2009-03-22T18:56:00.003-04:00

I just came home from April's wedding (which was fun by the way), and I feel sooooo tired! I was hoping I could just put on a record and fall asleep on the couch, but no. Dad's record player has been acting stupid lately. The other day it wasn't plugged in, and once we fixed that, it wasn't plugged in to the speakers. Today it's working, but it's not making a sound, even though it's plugged. Too bad that Dad's too lazy to come downstairs and help me fix it! Later he did come down, and it was really strange because everything was plugged in. Normally I'd blame Torry, but he's currently not here, which makes it physically impossible to blame him. Then again, with him not here, there was nothing that was blame-worthy. The record player is working fine now.

Something's fishy...

2009-03-12T18:48:00.002-04:00

In gym I can't bear to think of leaving my ring in my locker and losing it, so I tie it on to my right shoelace. Today I decided to go different for once and I tied it on to my left shoelace. Sure enough, when I go to change my clothes, my ring is squished and beyond repair. I found that rather strange.

My choir did get into state, which is awesome! But the day after Fesival I got a sore throat and now it's working its way into a cold. Thank goodness I have my awesome vanilla hazelnut tea.

Festival!

2009-03-10T18:03:00.002-04:00

Today my chorus went to Festival, a thing where middle and high school choirs get together at North Point to sing and sight read in front of judges. It's sort of an assessment for the choirs. I've heard rumors that we got into state, but so far the teacher hasn't told us.

OMGNOWAY!

2009-02-26T19:52:00.001-05:00

Holy crap. I just deleted 25 of the latest posts. *headdesk* That was not supposed to happen...

Odd Christmas Song

2008-12-15T17:12:00.002-05:00

I realized, Frosty the Snowman is like Jesus. He came from magic (virgin birth) and knew he would melt (be nailed to a cross), but he promised he would return.

Heh Heh Heh

2008-12-11T17:14:00.003-05:00

I got my social studies teacher to start singing The Beatles and The Monkees today. He actually has a good tastes in music, even if he doesn't know how to appear smart. The other day he put on the song "500 Miles" to as high as the volume could go, put on his Twisted Sister wig, air-guitared with his ruler, and forced us to sing it. Afterwards I said "Why did you do that? God! I love that song!" Then this girl said "Used to love it."

Nooo!

2008-12-08T16:27:00.002-05:00

My hands are getting cracked and dry. I hate when that happens. Yesterday Andelle, Pipsisewa (mom), and I went shopping at the thrift store. Andelle bought clothes for interviews and It's Acedemic. Pipsisewa bought wool sweaters that she could felt and turn into handbags or something. I bought jeans, a vest, and a dress.

And now the random Monkees song you've all been caring less about: