My Game, My Rules: 2010

I'm the Anti-Hero

Alone, broody, and so insanely cool it hurts.

Which character are you? Find out at Springhole.net

Thursday, December 16, 2010

New News- try to say THAT five times fast.

Well! There's some news here, at my house. I'm not sure if I posted it...
*checks blog*
Yes, I did... I said
"Plus, did I mention- my mum's pregnant! Wham, just gonna throw that out there"
So, THAT'S not exactly new news, now is it. But, for those of you who read half my post then skipped the rest (Can you keep a secret? I do the same thing too.. shhh it's a secret!), then let me remind you:
my mom's pregnant!
She's actually due in May sometime, so, that's exciting.

Anyway.

Today we went to her ultra sound (oh boy- stand around in a stifling hot room with your parents and four siblings watching a grainy gray picture on the computer, then go outside and sit for fifteen minutes, waiting for your parents and suffering from the suspicious looks thrown in your direction by a grumpy looking pregnant woman across from you), and we found out... it's going to be...

*drum roll*

A baby boy!! Oh Boy! (literally, lol.)

See? SEE?! LOOKATHISNOSE! That, my friends, is the *insert last name here* nose!!! YES!!
Oh, and on a side note: to those of you who had the same worry as my brother Kenneth*, it is in fact a human being.

*my brother, six years old, was concerned that my mom was going to give birth to a puppy.
sorry to disappoint you, but..
nope.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Do you know what I love?

I love when my brain suddenly and apparently randomly, comes up with some brilliant idea that makes me jump up and down laughing like a demented hyena, and makes me want to rush to my phone and call all my friends just to rave about how brilliant my brain is. (Note: I say "my brain" not "me", because these things usually come when I'm not thinking about them at all.)
Today has been one of those days where those brilliant moments come often and close between. I will illustrate.

When I was working on my OYAN Other Worlds book's plot, with Valerie and my mom helping me, I came up with several grand ideas, all by myself, and eventually finished planning out my plot. This wouldn't be so amazing, except for the fact that not only has the "main" plot been planned out, with a happy ending, but I have managed to work in three SUBPLOTS, which is usually one of my weaknesses. Subplots. I don't do so well on them.
I managed to plan out my week of homework*, in a simple, comprehensible way. Let me point out that planning my homework in a way that gives me a chance of actually completing the work on any given day, that is a skill that I normally do not possess.

And the best part of this? I got up at 8:20, and my first brilliant bit came at... oh... 11, I'd say. It's now noon, and I've had two smart bits so far.
If the rest of my day continues like this, I might actually manage to get myself off the computer and do some work!

*I'm trying something new: scheduling my homework as it would be scheduled in college, as a class about twice a week. This is my latest attempt to feel that I might actually have some control of my life. Not that I ever have, really, I just like to pretend I do.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Cookie Time!!

in several different ways!
First way- GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!! But unfortunately, not yet. I don't think we can start selling until January. xP
Second way (and the reason I'm doing this post): CHRISTMAS COOKIES!!!
My mom and I just made (with ~~no help~~ the help of Monica) around 150 Christmas cookies. That's a lot. The type that I made (I made 93) were the M&M cookies. I am aware that this is a lame post, that sounds like it was written by a three year old. BUT- I have some pictures of the cookies, to make up for the lame writing bit. Forgive me?

It's still snowing!

Hello everyone! That song up there ^ is "She's a Rebel" by Green Day. It's one of my favorite songs at the moment. Just posting that there because I like posting songs. :)

As the title of this post says, it's still snowing here. It started last night, I think, and so far I think it has snowed about an inch. Maybe. It's hard to tell, because yesterday almost all of the snow melted away. :-\
Usually, snow would not bother me at all, at this time of the year. It's 12/12 (wow, just realized that), so snow is expected here, in Northern IL. But there are a couple of factors working against the snow here- at least in terms of how welcomed it is.

My dad is having a small house built in the backyard, so he can work out there in peace and quiet.
It is *windy*. Each time the wind blows (as it has been since the snow started), the snow blows off the roof, off the piles of snow in the front yard, off anywhere it can, and it blows somewhere else. It seems like the most popular "somewhere else" is on the driveway.

Snow I can handle. Wind I can handle. Snow AND wind, I can usually handle. Snow AND wind AND freezing temperatures? Not so much. I haven't been outside at all today, almost, and I'm dreading the moment that my dad and mom tell me that enough is enough, and that I have to go and shovel the driveway. (Valerie and Christina were out there this morning shoveling away.) Today I had to altar serve, and the door between the... oh drat, I forgot the word... the preparation room, and the place where the family mass is held, the door was locked. So Valerie and I had to go outside the buildings, and run along the sidewalk until we got to the door of the main church, where the "regular" masses are held. Let me tell you- it was cold and miserable.

That's basically all I have to say today. IF this seems like a lame post (Which it very well might... don't I get points for the video?), it's because I don't have a lot to post about, but I feel that I should probably update this blog occasionally. After all, I've had it for about three years, and it hasn't failed me since, I shouldn't fail it, either. :)

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

This is what it looked like outside, early yesterday:

And this is what it looked like when I woke up for the second time (the first time was at 5:30), at 9:00 AM this morning:

Apparently it was snowing last night! And not just snowing: we've gotten around three or four inches already, and it's still snowing.
The amazing thing about snow is that it always continues to fascinate me. Every time I wake up, come upstairs, look out the window and see SNOW, I always think, "Oh. My. SNOW!". It doesn't matter if it's in the middle of winter and it's snowed every day for three weeks. I always get that... Wow. It snows here. And there's snow. Outside. Now. Feeling.
According to Veela (Val) who reads the weather forecast, we're supposed to get around six inches of snow, today. As of yet, I still haven't gone outside, however. I'll probably end up shoveling the entire driveway (when it snows again- mum and dad just went and shoveled it) with only the help of Valerie and Christina, so I'm none to eager to go leaping about in the snow like a retarded, demented fawn named Bambi.
So, that's the news of the day (well, yeah... Plus, did I mention- my mum's pregnant! Wham, just gonna throw that out there), and I'm back off to work on indices (five to the power of negative two times three to the power of four over the top of seven to the power of negative two times nine to the power of four....).

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Read Epic Bob

In my quest to make my friend Katie's blog, Epic Bob, famous, I've made a little button for it. It's down on the side of my blog. No, that isn't Bob. That's MY favorite character- Marvin's girlfriend and Bobette's best friend- Sunflower Girl! She's awesome! And she's alive!
So, I have the awesome Sunflower Girl button, and the somewhat retarded looking Epic Bob button. (not Bob- he's not retarded. It's the button, because I thought... this is about Bob. Not Sunflower Girl. I suppose I should make one with his face. And so I made it, and it turned out looking stupid.) but anyway, those are the two buttons... if you take one, LINK IT TO: http://epicbob.blogspot.com please!

Monday, November 29, 2010

I'M A WINNER!

YAY! I finished my NaNoWriMo, at 50,022 words! As such, you can see the little "winner" thing on the side of my blog... and yay me! That was tough. And you wanna know a secret? the books not even done. I'm about half way through, and I ended up summarizing the ending and middle of my book, which came to a total of 80 words. yay!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

A "word on the side" poem. About pie.

Pie
Is
Extraordinary.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Write Or Die (aka my NaNoWriMo lifesaver)

Some of you probably have heard of NaNoWriMo, or National November Writing Month. For those of you who don't know what it's about: Starting on November first, you try to write an entire novel, ending on November 30th. For the adult program (which I'm doing), you have to write 50,000 words. For the kid's program, I'm told that you can set your goal. (A friend of mine, her goal is 5,000 words, just to play it safe. :P )
Anyway.
So, today is the 23rd. And I'm waaaaay behind. As in: I'm supposed to be up to something around 46,000 words, and I'm up to 27,000. So I have some catching up to do.
How, you may be asking, do I even start to attempt to catch up with 20,000 words?
There are a couple of ways I do. These all involve racing something.

Word races with my friend. Word races are easy. What you do is you decide with someone, how long you're going to write. Usually it's something like two minutes, five minutes, etc. The longest race I've ever done was 20 minutes. As you can see: these are short. Then you write for the designated amount of time. When you're done, you check back in with the other person, and whoever has written the most amount of words in that amount of time is the winner. These are awesome because they are really REALLY motivating because you want to beat your friend, goshdarnit! Also, they involve other people. Helps make writing less lonely.
Races against yourself. These are basically what a word race against your friend is, only you're racing yourself. Let me explain. You set your time goal (like before), then you set a word goal. For example... "I'm going to write for twenty minutes, and I want to write 1,200 words in that time." Then you write, and if you manage to get to your goal (or get more than your goal), you win.
Write Or Die. Write or die is basically a word race against yourself, only with extra motivation. The link is here. At first you just see the "PAY $11" thing, and you're just like... whatever. no. But if you look on the right column, you should see something that says "Write or Die Online". There you can put in the amount of time you want to write, and how many words you want to write. Then you select your level. Gentle mode I think just does lights. Normal mode gives you lights AND unpleasant music. Then the kamikaze mode erases your words, if you don't keep writing. (You must write. Or be punished. So if you stop writing for a couple of seconds... BEEP BEEP BEEP... ) Then you click the forgiving grace period. That controls how long you can NOT write before it starts flashing, giving you music, or erasing your words. Then you click go... and you write! Write or die is honestly a NaNo lifesaver. A friend of mine (my NaNo buddy, actually) is wayyyyy farther behind than I am, then I sent him the link... and he's written like, 1,688 (just a guess... probably a different sum (but I'm too lazy to go look at it), but close enough) words already.

So there you go. Go and write, with Write or Die.
(Oh, and if any of you are doing NaNoWriMo, find me on the NaNoWriMo site! My username is Chanit_Henellia )

Thursday, November 18, 2010

steampunk cat

Monday, November 15, 2010

Epic Bob (and why you should care.)

My friend Katie has started a blog. A blog with a cartoon. In this cartoon, she documents different adventures of a stick figure named Bob, Bob's girl friend, Bobette, Bob's best friend, Marvin the enchanted magical banana, and Marvin's girlfriend (And my favorite character, despite the fact that we haven't met her yet (maybe in the future?)), Sunflower Girl.
Here are several reasons why you should read... THE EPIC ADVENTURES OF BOB:
1. Katie is awesome and deserves to have people read her blog.
2. Bob is awesome.
3. Bob's adventures are awesome.
4. SUNFLOWER GIRL HAS AN AWESOME NAME!!!
5. They're fairly hilarious.
6. I think Marvin and Bob are secretly gay and are going to get married.
7. It has the word "EPIC" in the title. (hello? Epic?)
8. Because I say so.
So, go check out The Epic Adventures of Bob. There are currently only two cartoon strips, and one of the characters, so you know it won't take long to read. (yet. just wait. There'll be more. trust me. I'll pester her.)
So, go check out the Epic Adventures of Bob, right now, and be awesome.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Great song.

WHICH UNFORTUNATELY I CAN'T EMBED. *fumes*

so here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrXIQQ8PeRs

Monday, October 25, 2010

The turnip who ate San Fransisco. And New York.

You may not be aware of it, but my family grows vegetables every year. We plant radishes, peas, tomatoes (yes I'm aware that's a fruit- I'm probably listing tons of fruits, I just don't feel like correcting myself, deal?), spinach, lettuce, broccoli. We also plant those pinkish colored veggies called "turnips". Are you acquainted with them? Good.
Today we found out what happens if you plant a turnip in the spring, and don't harvest it until October.
First, here is our sink, filled to the top with, yes, turnips.

And here, my friends, is the gargantuan turnip that I swear is going to give me nightmares of the worst sort tonight.
(Note: that is my mom. Holding a turnip. Right next to her. (so it's not that distance size thing.). My mom is 5' 9". She is not a short person.)

So, we decided to cut it open. The turnip was very heavy, so that was a good sign.

It was also very hard. Which was also a good sign. It meant that it probably wasn't going to be rotten and filled to the top with ants. (can we hear a collective "ick!"??)

here is the turnip, in all it's turnip-py goodness:

My mom finally managed to cut that baby open:

and final decision: it IS "good", but it is far too bitter to ever eat.
so, there ends the life of the turnip.
....
....
....
or so you think.
*dum dum duuuuuuuuuummmm!!!!*

Thursday, October 21, 2010

My crazy dream from last night.

I will tell this as a story.

Once upon a time I was at a Girl Scout camp out. This campout took place in the middle of nowhere, and strangely there were no girl scouts on it, except me, my mother, and my sister Monica. (who isn't even a girl scouts.) There was a house of which no one ventured into, and then three paths leading off into the forests.
I was just walking around outside the house when something black flew at my face, and a young man with black hair jumped in front of me.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" he yelled (or something quite like it, I'm not sure of the spelling), and brandished what appeared to be a long pointy stick which could quite easily take out my eye.
I ducked to prevent that happening.
He turned around. "I'm Harry Potter. Those are dementors."
I nodded. Oddly this didn't seem odd.
"Here." He gave me a bottle of white spray paint. "Use this to scare them off." He ran off, waving that senseless pointy stick and yelling the gibberish words.
"Acck!" I spun around and sprayed a black thing.
It seemed to shriek though it made no noise, and fled backwards.
"Angela, Angela!"
I spun towards the voice.
My mother stood there, holding the leash attached to our dog, Fritz. "You won't believe what I Found! It's perfect for a letterbox!"
I frowned, but followed her into the forest.
For the living breath of me, I cannot remember what happened, but one minute I was walking along behind her, listening to her talk about her ideas for letterboxing, and the next minute I was standing on a bridge in front of Chicago, with two girls (who were fighting quite noisily) behind me.
Then it hit me.
I was there to get the amulet!
I took a step forwards, before man jumped in front of me.
"Am I not allowed in?"
He shook his head. "No. Chicago is closed."
I frowned. "Already? It's not even five o'clock."
He nodded. "it is... but you may want to go save them." he pointed over my head.
I turned around to see a dementor attacking the two girls, whose names I now remembered to be Meg and Kate.
"Save us!"
"Help me, save me!"
I rushed over and tried to spray the dementor with my white spray paint. It didn't work. I held the bottle the wrong way, and it flew onto my face, and I found it hard to breathe.
"Help! eeeek!"
I turned the bottle the right way, and sprayed the dementor, all the while gagging from the paint. Somehow I knew that I looked like I had a sickly white disease on my face.
"Thank you! Now we shall give you the amulet." Meg held out her hand and gave me a small round thing, which had three bars reaching upwards for about half an inch before they met and formed a cone.
"But I need the thread to make it work!" I took it from her, but gave Meg a worried look.
"No problem. You just have to dance."
I walked over to the signpost next to me. There were small scraps of blue paper pinned onto it. I have, to this day, no idea what they were for.
"But I don't dance!"
Then it was like I was in third person- I could see myself and hundreds of other people dancing! Two of them, girls dressed in long sleeved mini dresses made of a black and white woolen material, with long black braids were quite brilliant.
"Here, we award you the thread."
I took the magical thing and wrapped it around the amulet and hung it back around my neck. "I better go back."
"yes."
I turned my back on Chicago and started back down the path towards the Girl Scout campsite.
When I reached the camp site, I had strangely turned into Mr Utterson- a character from the book The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde .
I ventured into the house at last, and walked downstairs.
There was a large desk, and in front of the desk was a piece of wall covered in blue wallpaper and wooden paneling on the bottom half.
Ellen Degeneres stood in front of the wall, holding a water bottle. She nodded at me, and accidentally spilled the water on the ground. Then she walked off.
A woman with blond frizzy hair walked over, and glared in Ellen's direction. "Horrible woman. I wonder how the walls would like dye?" she took out a bottle with pink stuff in it, and squirted it over the walls. Then she took out a clear plastic bottle and sprayed that over the top too. I recognized the clear stuff to be acid.
I grabbed the bottle from her, and hurried over to the desk, where my friend Dr Jekyll (who was of course the judge) sat.
"It wasn't Ellen!"
"How do you know?"
"I saw it! And you can trust me- I'm an honorable victorian lawyer!"
Dr Jekyll nodded. "I believe you. Leave now."
I nodded, and left.

THE END.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Do you ever get it where you get one thing in your head and it won't leave?

I certainly do.
A couple weeks ago, I was trying to think of a word. I knew it started with a "B" and I knew it was used when someone said something along the lines of "He (insert word here) his sword and charged into battle." But I couldn't remember, for the life of me, what the word was!
I asked my mom. I asked my sister. I asked my smart 15 year old friend. I asked everyone. AND NO ONE KNEW! I knew it was a word. But I couldn't think of it!
And I couldn't figure it out.
Not for weeks.
Today I sent my friend (you know who you are) an email, and I asked her "*barrishes* WHAT THE HECK IS THAT WORD?! the word, it starts with a B.. I think.. and it's like.. holds up and waves in the air... You know, like He (insert word) his sword."
She emailed me back.
"Brandishes?? Is that the word you're looking for? lol"
YES!! YOU ARE CORRECT!!

bran·dish[bran-dish]

–verb (used with object)

1.

to shake or wave, as a weapon; flourish: Brandishing his sword, he rode into battle.

–noun

a flourish or waving, as of a weapon.

that is the word. :)
Have any of you ever had an experience like that? What happened? Did you ever figure it out?
And that concludes this post!
(and again, thank you, oh friend!)

Thursday, October 14, 2010

In case you need to cry...

Two songs/music videos.
They make me cry every time I see them.

and here's one too, that I can't embed.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Let's talk stupid.

So. Today was the science fair. That went beautifully- even though there was virtually no one there, and I finished my project ten minutes before we left. (not kidding.) But it was after we left the park (we went from the church to the park across the street) that I learned something:
That park discriminates against teens.
I'm not even kidding.
This park is right on a busy street. Where people can see the park. All the time. It's about a block from a police station. And it's next to a dance studio.
A couple of blocks down the road is the local high school. When school lets out, the teenagers like to go to the park. It's right next to the McDonalds- they can get food, go to the park, sit with their friends, and talk. Pretty simple, right?
If you answered yes, you are right.
It *is* simple. There should be nothing wrong with this. The park is public land, and people of ALL AGES are allowed to be on it. As long as they aren't being destructive, or doing anything illegal, it should be fine to have a group or two of teens on the property, right? (Correct me if I'm wrong.)
But *apparently* we teens are disruptive, destructive, and just not a good thing to have around. The evidence: if more then FOUR TEENS are in the park at one time, the dance studio has to call the police.
The police then come, look around, and either sit in the parking lot until they leave (um, creepy much?) or break it up and tell the teens to leave. The thing is, virtually always the teens are just sitting on the grass and talking. Apparently there was one case where two girls were fighting, and another where the skateboarders left their skateboards in the parking lot where a car could run over them.
In my opinion, this is discrimination, and they're leaving a fairly wide area for someone to sue them.
But what's your opinion?
Leave a comment with it in it.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

so sorry that I'm taking soooo long. If you even read anymore.

Which I wouldn't blame you if you don't. Read this blog anymore, that is. I know I don't *cough* read any blogs *cough* anymore.. *coughcough* sorry! I just.. there's so many amazing blogs to read and I just can't read them! *hides ashamedly* sorryyyyyy!!!!!! don't kill me!! (in fact, leave a comment and I'll go back to reading your blog.. yes it's a bribe!!!)
anyway.

Tomorrow is the science fair, omigosh I'm a procrastinator. I got the email about it last month, and I didn't even CHOOSE a project until yesterday. *headdesk* I'm so stupid. Anyway, I'm doing a poll for it.. I'll post my results on here when I can. :) (really gotta get back into blogging.. and then maybe I'll get back into reading blogs!! :D ) So.. yeah. I'm back for now!
And to leave you, my brilliant blurb on sound (yeah right):

What is sound, anyway?

Sounds are vibrations in the air. When something vibrates, it causes the air particles around it to vibrate. Those in turn hit others and cause them also to vibrate, and so on. Eventually the air runs out of energy and stops moving. Think about a rock dropped into a pond. The circles move out, but eventually get slower and slower until they stop moving at all. That's like the sound waves. If you (and your ear) are close enough, the vibrations go into your ear and hit the ear drum. That in turn vibrates the same way the air was, and re-creates the “sound”. If the air waves are close together, they create a very high pitched sound- like a mosquito. If they're farther apart, they create a lower sound, like the sound of your younger sibling growling in irritation.

Sounds, while they sound the same to most people, can be perceived differently. It's up to your brain to identify the sound, and then mark it as “pleasant” or “unpleasant”. Because everyone's brains are different, people are going to think about different sounds differently. So I might think that the sound of rain is a pleasant sound, while someone else might think that it is simply horrid.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

I'm back with another video!!

I just got back from the farm a couple of days ago. Yippee for home!!! :D :D :D :D :D and I have a video. This is one of my favorite songs. But it's not normally available in my country on youtube. and it's not in the American itunes. (just the Australian one.) so I got this discolored one off of youtube (someone had it)... so here goes!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Thank you, Jen!

Hi, everyone! *waves* I don't know if any of you read Cake Wrecks, or Epbot. If you do, yay go you! If you don't, I'd strongly suggest looking at them. The author, Jen, is quite hilarious. She's a girly geek/steampunk fanatic. Anyway. Today on Epbot she posted some pictures. What were the pictures? They were some of the color prints from the 1940's that were released for the first time by the Library of Congress. What of? They are of Rural America. So she had the link to the site, and I clicked it. And I love most of these pictures. Below are a few of my favorites.

Apparently this picture ^ is of a bunch of kids, asleep during a square dance. I love it, they're so cute, and my siblings have done similar things during, say, piano recitals. :)

This one ^ intrigued me. It's of a worker at a carbon black plant. It makes me wonder, for example, why he's working there, what his story is. If he's sick. At first I thought he was a coal miner, to be honest...

Rural school children. I love this one because of the... simplicity. It's just a beautiful picture. Look at them- all of them looking at the globe... and the posters. :)

ISN'T THIS PICTURE AMAZING? ^ ??? It's of a fighter plane... in California. I think it's an amazing shot of an airplane in flight, over mountains. *hugs picture*

My first thought when I saw this picture? Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. On the river. Fishing. *hugs picture* This one has got to be my favorite. :)

That picture is of a wielder. I think it's an amazing contrast- the gold yellow sparks, contrasting against the dark. It makes it seem, in my opinion, like they're doing something at night, maybe preparing for an adventure or something. :)

Here's the link to the rest of the photos: http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/26/captured-america-in-color-from-1939-1943/2363/

now off to dinner!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

I've got a lot to say....

...So be warned that this might, just might, be a long post.
We're going to start with a song.

That was composed and played by a friend of mine. Good job. :)

Alright. On to the news. There's quite a lot, like I said before, so go grab that popcorn, a glass of water, a tissue maybe, and be ready.
I don't know how many people read my sister, Veela,'s blog. Those of you who DO, probably have heard about Astro. I, myself, haven't blogged about him. For those of you who DON'T, here's the info.He died.While we were in NY.
I was just sitting there, on the couch, and I turned on my phone. It had been off, because it was almost dead. So I turn it on. And there's around four text messages from my mom. Almost all of them say to call her. I'm curious as to what is going on. So I call her. previously, she had said that Astro was having difficulties. He was having bowel problems, and he was having trouble moving. So I ask, how's Astro. And she sounds all funny. Like she's not crying, but could. "Astro's dead." Of course, I think you can probably imagine my reaction. "What? He's... He's... Astro's dead?" Because it all seems like a joke. Like it isn't really happening. Astro doesn't just... they don't just die. Not while we're on vacation. It's always been this huge long process for me. With Cicily it was a process of a couple of months. Of her slowly losing her will to live. Before she died of cancer. With Bilbo it was around a year and a half. A year and a half of slow torture. For both him, and us. And Astro, it was just... poof. Like when we got him. We just adopted him and brought him home. No deliberating. Just... it was done. That's what this was like. So I brought out the phone, and I told Val. And she... She just cried. And cried and cried. And we all did. And cousins weren't particularly helpful... Okay, Evvi hugged us, and whatshisface said sorry. But then came the questions.
"Why is your dog lost?""They said you lost him.""I hope you find him again." (That one just about broke my heart. Yes. I hope I find him too. I hope I find him too."
So, moral of this story? Astro's dead.

I'm sure you don't know this about my parents: they love life. That's why they got pets. That's why they had us (nice to know that the reason you were born was the same reason your parents got dogs. JK!!) so it wasn't a huge shock when they started talking about getting a new dog, oh, a week after he died. I was still pretty upset, I think understandably. When Bilbo died I was sad- still am sad. And when Astro died, I was just as sad. So I wanted to wait. And then we went to GS camp. And it seemed longer there, then it actually was. So when we went to get a dog, I thought I'd be ready. It had been around three weeks. I was okay. I wasn't utterly thrilled about it- heck, I would probably have waited. But Carmen was lonely. My parents were excited about getting a new dog, as were my siblings. No matter how many times I said to them "I don't think I'm ready", It wouldn't have mattered. We were getting a dog, gosh darn it! And get a dog we did. We went to the same shelter we got Carmen and Astro from. Oh, that place brings back memories. I kept seeing the cage where Astro was, and thinking "oh no. don't cry." (I cried anyway. once on the way there, and once or twice while I was in the shelter). I was very sad.
There were two dogs we were looking at. One was named "Leo" and one was named "Tommy". Leo was a mix (I think), and Tommy was a German Shepherd mix (though we don't know what he's mixed with). My dad has a thing for German shepherds, ever since he had Heidi the wonder dog when he was 4. So, guess who we ended up adopting?!

If you guessed Leo, you're WRONG. :P So we have a very tall, very thin, very long, German Shepherd named Fritz. (I came up with the name. And then I somehow managed to convince everyone else. :P ) He's a sweetie. But I miss Astro.

That up there is Astro.

But it's, I think, better now. So, yes. That was my adventure with dogs, this and last month.

And that up there is Fritz.

But oh wait, that's not all! I said we went to GS camp. So, I haven't posted about that, either, have I. Nope!
Sadly, I have almost no pictures. I didn't bring a camera, and the only pictures we have are of the flag ceremony at the very end of camp. (which, depending on my patience by then, and my frustration with blogger, I may or may not upload. :P you'll just have to wait and see. ☺)

So. Camp. Camp camp camp. What can *I* say about GS camp. Well. There was a lot of singing. We sang after every meal. There were, probably, a total of 10 songs. And we sang around 5 every time we sang.
This led to be a very repetitive, monotonous, and boring. But it is as it is, and I can't change it.
I was in artistic crafter (no, what, I'm a non-artistic crafter?) in Blue Jay. Yes, that's the stereotypical name for camp. Yes, I told my parents that when I found out where I was going to be. But by the end, it didn't seem *as* stereotypical. Oh, sure, it was, but it didn't *seem* to be. In artistic crafter, we, well, made crafts. I made a birdhouse (out of crappy wood with evil nails), a basket (which is, as yet, not finished), a wire tree (which is SO COOL). We made God's eyes (which are beautiful) and we went to see a glass blowing demonstration. Note: this is around the fifteenth time I've seen a glassblowing demonstration. I still love it. It was at this amazing little shop called Starved Rock Hot Glass which is run completely by one woman. It's amazing there! I loved it! :D Absolutely amazing.
Besides the crafty stuff, we also did a couple of nature-y things. We went canoeing (Which caused me to get a blister on my thumb which hasn't quite healed yet). We went creek walking (AMAZING- and totally inspiring for a story idea. XD ). It was quite a lot of fun. I was homesick a lot, and I got quite annoyed.
You want to know why?
okay.
Well, I'll tell you. I get REALLY annoyed by gossip. And by complaining. In my house, if there's something wrong, you DON'T COMPLAIN. You either deal with it, or you find some way to fix it. If you hate your science (totally seemingly unrelated subject) you either deal with it until you get new, or you tell my mom, and try to arrange something different. you do NOT talk behind her back about how horrible she is, how it's lame, or anything. (Well, you can complain about it, but you still try to figure something out. And not talking behind backs.) In my homeschool group, sure there's gossip. There's the regular celebrity gossip (did you hear about Selena Gomez?!) and there's good gossip. By good gossip, I mean things like "Did you hear, Lucien got a 5 on the AP." "Valerie's birthday is coming up, we should get a party for her!" "Shh, don't tell, but Vivian's mom actually loves her sketch of the flower." Things like that. Positive things. Things that don't hurt people. At the GS camp, it was a total opposite. Sure, we didn't get to do all the crafts. You know why? BECAUSE EVERYONE TOOK SO LONG TO GET READY! Val and I are used to getting up. We're used to following people's instructions. So when we were told that we had two minutes to be up and dressed and under the shelter, we hustled. Then there were other people, who DIDN'T. And they were the people who made sure we *didn't* get to do any crafts, and also the people complaining about it. I heard so much complaining. "The counselors are mean." "They're impatient." "This is ARTISTIC CRAFTER, and we haven't done any crafts!" "The counselors are horrible!" "Nora's so mean!" "Alexa keeps saying..." stuff like that. It irritated me. Besides the gossip, there were "best friends". Like, I didn't know WHY they were best friends. they were always gossiping about eachother, always being mean. They always complained about each other, always fighting. they never got along, and they were never talking to each other. There were around two or three sets of the "best frenemies". And it puzzled me.
But back to the gossip.
You ever hear of peer pressure? I'm sure you have. And I'm sure you've heard that it's hard to say no to it. So I, Angela, am proud to say that at GS camp, I didn't give into peer pressure. This is (if not exactly) what a conversation went between us. (Names are made up. except for mine.)

Kate covers the stamp with soap and washes it off under the sink. "Gosh* they are so impatient."
Diana nods. "They should be more patient."
"I know! They're soooo harsh on us."
I sigh and finish drying my stamp. I notice that while I'm practically done with all of them, the girls have only done around one each. "You know that they're probably just all stressed out. They've been here for six weeks."
Kate looks very annoyed. "But they can still be more patient!"
Diana nods. "Yeah. Totally. They're so harsh. Even if they ARE stressed out, they could just work on being more patient, couldn't they? Like, Daisy, she's always snapping at us!"
Kate nods. "And no one even likes Squinss."
I bit my lip. I'm not going to say anything. nothing.
"Girls! We have to go!" Daisy calls over to us from the other side of the area.
"Yeah, coming!" Kate then turns back to slowly drying the stamps, and gossiping. "See? They're so impatient, it's stupid. And we haven't even done any crafts. They should have more crafts for us! We're artistic crafter, after all."
"Yeah, we haven' done, like, any!"
"I agree! this sucks! I signed up to do CRAFTS, not to be ordered around by impatient counselors!"
I love the counselors. Squinss is grouchy, but she can also be very nice, and she's helped us tie up our tent before. Daisy is amazing. Sleeping Beauty is beautiful, and hilarious! Stars... I don't know Stars very well, but I know that she's also funny. I love the crafts. Sure we haven't done a bunch, but you never know why that is.
"Yeah. Our parents paid for us to do crafts." Kate looks quite annoyed as she dries off another stamp. "My mom's like, throwing away her money on this!"
And that's it. I slam down the paper towel (well, if paper towels made a slamming noise when they hit a garbage can.) and take a deep breath of air. "You know what? I hate this."
They all look at me, as if I'm joining in their discussion. Which I'm so NOT.
"I hate this. It's all just gossip. The counselors are just stressed out. You would be grouchy if you were them, too! At my homeschool group, sure we have gossip. But it's good gossip, like 'hey, Lucien got a 5 on the AP! Yay him!' and 'Sabrina's birthday is coming up!' but it's not bad! I hate it when people talk bad about other people! It just makes me so angry."
"then you wouldn't like it at my school," Diana says, grinning at me. How can she be grinning?!
"No." I glare at her. "I wouldn't. I hate it at a lot of places, because of the gossip. It's horrible. I don't care if you want to gossip. Just don't do it around me. I don't want anything to do with that." I pick up the stamps and stomp quickly off to where Daisy is. I want to get there before Diana and Kate.

*She took his name in vain, and, I'm sorry, I don't do that.

Sorry. Just couldn't resist. :) I'm usually a go along girl. I'd usually just sit there. Not join in, but not say anything either. So I'm quite proud about my little outburst there. Surprisingly, I didn't hear one drop of gossip after! :D

So, that's what's been going on in my life. If you want the future, though, I'll tell you that, too. Week after next, I'm leaving for Wisconsin! The farm! *hugs farm* YAY!!! :D I'm kind of traveled out, but you know what? Going up to the farm isn't even like travel. I have my own room up there. It's all light purple and calming. I have my own bathroom. granted, my door doesn't exactly close correctly (or it might.. they fixed the house... I forget if it does or not, but it used to not.) but it's still my room. I have a dresser, my own bed, my lamp, my books, two windows, it's my own little room. I've been going to the farm since I was around... 4? So it's pretty much my second home. I will make sure to take a ton of pictures (going to be up there for 2 weeks) and post em! I'm also going to be critiquing around FOUR books. O.O one of them is written by the composer and piano player in the movie up there. IT'S SO LONG! But, yeah. four books. better finish typing up the critique for The Ruby Treasure and the Revelations of Cara Robina, empty out some binders, (a huge one for Aladdin's, lol), and get printing. O.O

on the subject of books, I'm going to be editing my book the second time, in a couple of weeks. I've gotten a bunch of fantabulous critiques from some friends (KBarkman and Isaac, I don't even think you're reading this, but if you are, THANK YOU A KAZILLION! XD ) and I'm going to revise my book again. When it's done, then I'm sending it to an editor I know. Then letting some other friends critique it, and then editing, and then, when I'm finally satisfied, I'm putting it to the huge test... O.o
If you guessed getting it published, you are wrong.
I'm going to let Veela read it. AHHHH!!!
And if *she* likes it, *then* I'm going to try to find some publishers. :D
Oh, and about the giant Veela test? I utterly trust my sister. If she says she doesn't think I'll like a book, I'm probably not going to. I've had people question this. They've recommended a book to me, and I said "Look, Valerie said she doesn't think I'll like it. I trust her judgment." And they were like "But... you trust your... *sister*?"
Answer:
YES I TRUST MY SISTER! WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM? WHY WOULDN'T I TRUST MY SISTER? SHE'S ONE OF MY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY BEST FRIENDS. I'M NOT JUST GOING TO DISREGARD HER AND HER ADVICE BECAUSE SHE'S RELATED TO ME!
:D

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

New York (Aka- the post of doom)

I'm sure this is the post you've all been waiting for. The post of doom. The post with... lets see here... 34 photos and a movie. Actually, 34 is down from the total of 170 I took while I was in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. :) Alright, here is the so far, story, accompanied by photos, and my probably not very interesting commentary. In my own story. Yeah. that makes a lot of sense...

Anyway. My grandparents came on the 8th, and slept over. Then, on the 9th (which also happens to be my father's birthday... Happy Late Birthday, Dad!) we left. We left at the crack of dawn. Aka, at 7. Yes, we left at 7. Yes, that is when we were aiming for. No, I don't see why that was called "The crack of dawn." Because it's not. The crack of dawn is, I dunno... five or so. Anyway, it didn't matter when we LEFT, Valerie and I were awakened bright and early at 4:30 AM by the sound of Paramore's song "That's What You Get" blasting from my phone.
Ouch.
That wasn't fun.
Then we left.
It's interesting being in the car with my grandparents. They do swear quite a bit (though it's not their fault of course), but since Valerie and I know practically every swear word (but of course don't use them. duh), and know not to use them, it really wasn't that big of a deal. We got through Indiana without much happening- it's really just like Illinois, only... well, it really is just like Illinois. :P Then we got to Ohio.

This is Cleveland, Ohio. I'm pretty sure this is the city my mom said she'd demolish with a nuclear bomb if she had the power, and wanted to, destroy a city with one. She says it's because there's practically nothing there.

They had some really cool, buildings, though. Very old ones. Where I live, we don't really have very many old buildings. This made this trip VERY interesting, because it seems like every building in New York has a little plaque that says something about how this house or building was built in 1700 something (or 1800 something) and all about it. And they are all SO OLD. Anyway, moving on.
We got through Ohio (Friendly in the middle and round on either side) without accident. Then we got to Pennsylvania. Most of that ride wasn't super interesting, either. That is, before we got to Erie. (Say it like the adjective, eerie. Then say "Eerie Pennsylvania." cool, right?). That's when things got interesting.
You see, by then it was getting late-ish. And we were very tired, and New York was still about four HOURS away (uhgggghhhh) SO we decided to stay in Erie for the night. On our way to find a suitable hotel, we passed a number of odd signs.
The first one was a sign that said "CAR WASH" and had a picture of a lipstick kiss. *scratches head* ummmm... could someone explain... how do these two... go together? I actually took a picture, to post, so it could baffle YOUR minds as well, but I deleted it to make room for the other pictures (which it ended up that I didn't actually have to, but whatever. What's done is done.) the second cool/weird sign (kinda) was this guy:

WHOA! I saw SPIDERMAN! O.O Granted, he was moving SO FAST I couldn't get a good picture but...
I'm not really fooling you, am I. Of course not. My readers are too smart for that. *cough* no, this was next to a comic book store. I'm sorry about the blurry picture, but when we stopped, it was too bad of a place to take one, so I had to snap a shot of Spiderman while we were driving. Which really isn't opportune.
And he was HUGE! He was soooo tall! If you can see that creamish building next to him, that was the comic book store, which was about average height. You see? Random giant spiderman!
And by then Valerie and I were getting a tad bored. I don't have a "normal" picture of ME, but I'm sure you know what I look like by now. (if not, go and look at my profile.) Here's Valerie:

And here is what we did when we were bored:

Those are M'nMs. :D my grandma had a bag of them, and there were only about fifteen left. So we started doing... that. Yeah. We're weirdos. We confess. Feel free to call us weirdos, we'll say either "Yeah, I know you are, but what am I?" or "Thank you! You're so nice!" (this is sarcasm, but we say it in a sweet, thankful voice, like we really mean it, lol.)

On the road again!

Okay. you're probably wondering why the heck I have this random picture of a building with fences. Ready?
THIS IS A PRISON.
A big prison. With probably electric fences. We saw barbed wire. Giant security things. This isn't like the jails by my house. This was for the bad BAD people. A little ways before this prison, there was a sign that said "The (insert jail name here (I forgot it)) Institute. DO NOT PICK UP HITCHHIKERS!" o.O I was scared... yeah... one of those creepy sort of not real horror stories. What if there had been a killer? What if someone picked them up?! WHAT IF THAT PERSON DIED?!
now you know what goes through my head.

Okay, that day we got to New York. Yay!!! FINALLY! We went to my great aunt Martha and my great uncle Harvey's house. It was a very nice house. With very COLD air conditioning. (You see that blue shirt I have on in the goofy pictures? I ended up wearing that all the time because it was so cold because of the AC.) The next day (I think...) my sister went fishing with my uncle John, uncle Harvey, and my grandpa. (Those three are brothers, and look virtually the same, and sound THE SAME.. only John is quieter, grandpa is loud and has a WI accent, and Harvey... just sounds a bit different?) and I went with my grandma, aunt Martha, and Aunt Sue to a dog show. :) These are all pictures from it... (with the exception of an occasional commentary, I think they speak for themselves.)

Mop dog! Their hair naturally grows like that. Even if you washed it all the time, it would still grow into dreadlocks.

:) Beagle- STUPID DOGS.

I called this type a centipede dog.

In... a couple of days we went up to Keuka lake, where my aunt and uncle have a cabin on the lake. It was a beautiful lake, but the sneaky thing about it... ZEBRA MUSSELS. All over. We had to wear water shoes (ugh) or else our feet would get all shredded. My first time in it, I cut open my finger. It bled for a LONG time. Also that day, I cut open my thumb on a cheese knife. *winces* ouch.

That day we also met our second cousins. More about them later.

This is the lake, from the boat:

Pretty. :) And it really was all grey (I can spell grey with an e if I want to, spellcheck!)
This is my cousin... I don't know how to spell his name. :P Anyway, this is one of my 2nd cousins. He's 4 1/2:

And this is the other second cousin, with my sister. She's 3. not my sister. She's almost 11. The cousin. The cousin is 3. :

Some things about my cousins.
They couldn't get my name.
Alright, so I had Evvie (the blond girl) call me Angela ONCE. Other then that, Valerie and I were "Cousins!" And I think from lack of attention at home, we had to do everything with them. It was cousins this, cousins that. "I want cousins to sit next to me!" "COUSINS!" We took to hiding in the basement. Not that they weren't cute, or anything, just... well, they weren't very polite, and they were quite self centered.
Not their fault. Just irritating.
Moving on:
The day after we met "Cousins", we went to the Corning glass museum. IT WAS AMAZING. I loved it. Loved loved loved loved loved loved LOVED IT. I didn't get to see as much glass as I would have liked to. We took a short tour, saw a glass blowing demonstration (where the poor glass blower accidentally broke the glass. :( poor him. He looked sooooooooo embarrassed.) and then left.
But what I DID see, was amazing.

There was another one of these cute teapots, but it doesn't show that it showed up. :P Oh well. They were made by taking tiles of glass, laying them on a flat surface, then melting them slightly, then shoving them together, then draping the finished peace of glass over a mold. Then adding the metal bits. ISN'T IT CUTE??!!! I loved these things. :) They were amazing.

Ho hum, glass fruit. But what you don't see is that this art was HUGE. These fruit pieces were probably as large as my 2 year old sister, if not larger. PER PIECE. It was huge. Huge.

Okay, in this one you can see a little. You see that person on the side? She wasn't super tall, but wasn't incredibly short, either. And the thing is way taller then her. It was sooooooo sparkly. I think it was lead glass, and it was so glittery. And it didn't even have the candles in it. Can you imagine? O.o it would have glittered and glittered and sparkled, and light would have gone everywhere.

This was another chandelier, another big one. This one was also lead glass I think, and it was made mostly for people in India. Because it was so colorful, it wasn't really the fashion in England and America, and probably wouldn't have been bought.

These two (the ship thing and the table) are actually different pieces. They probably weren't displayed that way, and there is no purpose to the boat thing. Nothing. It's just pretty. Actually, if I remember what the tour guide said correctly, a maharaja bought one and brought it back to India.

CINDERELLA'S GLASS SLIPPERS!!!! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! Everyone loved these. Even the teen boys. Even the grown up guys. Even all the girls. EVERYONE. They were maid for an actress who was going to play Cinderella. Thankfully for her, the movie never happened. So she never had to step down, to have a shoe break and glass splinters shoot up into her foot and go lame for most of her life. But they were amazing never the less. Just beautiful.
Actually, the tale of Cinderella is French, and the French word for "Glass" and "Fur" was about the same, and there is actually a debate about whether or not the guy who wrote it down (his mother told him the story) meant the shoes to be fur, or glass. Interesting fun fact..

I caught a picture of this dude on the way out of the display of Cinderella's shoes. I was like... OH MY GOSH! HOW FUNNY! And took a picture. :) I love his surprised face, and the way they used just green, and green, and made it still look interesting. :) I didn't get to look at this one, it was a "hurry up Angela!" "One picture! *snap*" moment.

Another one of those moments...

We were actually on our way to go and see the glass blowing when I found this GIANT BALL OF GLASS. And it was hollow. Those glass bits were just hair thin threads all formed and molded to make it look so beautiful. Just amazing. And it was huge, too.

These I thought were just interesting. I love the colors of the hands... and the fact... that they're hands. interesting sculpture, and these were next to the giant glass ball. Those two were also on the quick photos, so I know nothing about them. :'( The part of me that loves info is crying!

These were actually for sale, but I thought that they were so pretty that I had to take a picture. So I did. :)

This is Valerie on the boat, on the Erie Canal. I do have info about the Erie Canal. (YES!) So be warned, this might go on quite a bit. (My great... great great? grandpa came on one. Or maybe it was my uncle. And maybe it was just my great great... I forget. :P )

The Erie canal runs for approximately 363 miles. It runs from Albany, on the Hudson, to Buffalo on Lake Erie. In case you don't know, Albany is the capital of New York, and Erie is in Pennsylvania. That's a long ways. It's about 8-10 feet deep, and... I don't know how wide. But the impressive thing is that the entire canal was dug by hand. It was an easy way for Immigrants to get work. And fast. It was hard labor, and many MANY people died, but they did it. They dug a 363 mile, working canal. There are tow paths on either side of the canal. They used to be used for mules (a cross between a donkey and horse- if it's a girl it's called a jenny. (another fun fact: A jenny can't have foals.)) to pull the barges up the river. Because there is virtually no current, this used to be a necessity. Now days the tow paths are paved over and are biking/walking/jogging paths. (But that's why it's called a "tow path".) The canal isn't really used for commercial use anymore, according to my uncle Harvey. It's mostly recreational.
I had another photo, but it disappeared. And blogger made this underlined. Why is this underlined? Blogger doesn't let me do underlines. What is up with this?

This is me (on the left, duh) back at the lake. They have these amazing water cannons, and it was the great joy of all involved to shoot at everyone who wore a swimsuit. This is my grandpa and I having a fight. Val took these pictures, so lets all give her a hand for her epic photographical (I know it's not a word, but whatever) skills. *claps*

Then we headed back, after many MANY days of in New York. We ended up going through (sorta) Chicago on our way back. This was one of the bridges on the sky way, up there ^. It was quite dramatic- dark bridge, it was darkish out (though you can't see it) with A LOT of lights. :)

Skyline of Chicago.. if you look on the far left you can see the sears- cross that, the Willis tower. (Bleh. What kind of name is "Willis tower"? I know it won't matter in a couple of years, and everyone will forget it's the "Sears" tower, but I can be indignant while I want to, can't I? After all, it IS the widest known thing in Illinois!)

And then we got home! And a couple days (three, to be exact) later, I posted this! Yay! *claps hands for self*

Shout out to my friend! You know who you are, because I have posted that video down there. Bouncy. Sort of countryish. but happy. :)

now, did you enjoy the post of doom?

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Tuesday, December 21, 2010