50K

Hi! As I'm sure that all my twitter followers, blogger followers, friends, acquaintances, and random people on the NaNoWriMo website know, I have been struggling for the past 30 days to hit my monthly word goal each day.
Guess what.
...
I WON!
*squee*
So, here are some pictures. 'Cause I can't help bragging about it.

Yeah. That's the word count thing on Open Office. That, strangely enough, says I have a word count less than I actually do. Weird.
And if you're trying to read any of the writing there- that's a rough draft. It's going to be full of mistakes. But they're trying to break into a building. Just so you know. XD

And... Yeah. That's my "official" word count. (Before you ask- yes, it has fewer words than the OO word counts says I do. That's because I just had another word war with my awesome OYAN sister Ruana Xuxa and I haven't updated my word count on there yet. ^_^) :D I'm so excited. It's amazing. After 30 days of working my butt off, not only do I still have a butt, but I have more than half a novel written to show for it!


It's actually kind of funny. This novel originated a couple of years (?!) ago when I got a new tanktop (it's the "I'm not shy, I'm just quietly examing my prey" tanktop) and I was trying it on.
Poof.
I had a new character.
She introduced herself as "Jade, seventeenth princess and better than you. I like your shirt." and then spent the next two (one? two?) years following me around almost every day.
I was actually very surprised when I finally managed to get a story plot for her. She didn't come with one. This isn't a plot driven book.
And yet...
I think I did pretty frickin' awesome.
:D

See ya, NaNo! I'll be back next year...
>:D

An Angela Quiz

I am often notified by my friends that I am quite awesome. In fact, I've been called a variety of things. Here is a list of things that I have been called.

• Awesome
• Witty
• Loser
• Geeky
• Funny
• Hilarious
• Kind
• Mean
• Stuck up
• Smart
• Intelligent
• Clever
• Boring
• Interesting
• Annoying
• Not annoying at all.
• Contradictory.
• Stubborn
• Go along
• Quiet
• Loud
• Energetic
• Depressing
• Majorly depressed
• Cheerful
• Happy
• Down to earth
• Whimsical
• Quirky
• Very tall

As you can see, like most human beans, I'm a mix of good and bad. Or, more accurately, traits that not only condtradict each other but often seem to be at complete war with themselves. Down to earth and whimsical, for example. You wouldn't think that someone could be both. But... here I am!

Another thing that people have called me is 'original'. This may or may not be true. Let's put this to the test.

Instructions: Get a piece of paper. And a pen/pencil/sharpie/marker/etc. to write with. Draw a line down the middle of the paper. For every item on this list that applies to you, make a hashmark on one side of the paper. For every one that doesn't apply to you, make a hashmark on the other side of the paper. At the end, count up the marks for each side and then decide whether you are more- or less- like Angela.


1. You'd rather get dressed than lay around in your pajamas all day.

2. You do not like glue, but will use it when necessary.

3. You like tape.

4. You like having short hair.

5. You love blue jeans and wear them whenever possible.

6. You don't like socks.

7. You don't like shoes.

8. You can type quite quickly, but not as fast as one of your friends.

9. You enjoy writing.

10. You like writing essay questions.

11. You like to alter stuff like clothing.

12. You talk to your characters sometimes.

13. You like to play D&D, either as a PC or as DM.

14. You know what D&D, PC, and DM stand for and use the terms daily.

15. You have never gone to school in your life.

16. You have, however, gone to a summer camp.

17. You are not interested in becoming a worker in a 'business' where you work with paperwork and computers.

18. You like airplanes.

19. You plan on becoming a pilot.

20. You hate being random and try to avoid it at all costs.

21. You dislike most YA books but used to think that they were the greatest invention ever.

22. You like learning about stuff.

23. 'Spare time' sounds like foreign languge.

24. The only language you speak fluently is American.

25. You are much more extroverted online than in real life.

26. You get jealous randomly for no reason.

27. You often bounce back and forth between having the best day of your life and having the worst day of your life.

28. You haven't read the entire LOTR trilogy, but you've seen the extended version of the movies several times.

29. You can knit.

30. You can sew.

31. You are learning to crochet.

32. You get into debates way too often with people who like to attack your position.

33. You don't always know what you're talking about, but you're good enough at improv and using fancy words that people think you do.

34. The things that people think you don't know about are actually the things you're more or less an expert on.

35. You're way too ambitious for your own good, and often feel like a failure because you set yourself up to fail miserably.


There we go. How'd you do? Oh. Here's a scoring thingy for you.... Check how many hashmarks on the "this applies" side of the page you have, and compare them with this.

0-12: Not like Angela at all.

13-20: You're a little less than more like Angela, but you're slightly similar. So, you're about average.

21-35: You're pretty much just like Angela!

35-?: You are just like Angela, including accidentally writing too many hashmarks or counting incorrectly! Congratulations!

In Defense

One of the things that has been bugging me lately is the way that girls have decided to view guys their age.
Now, don't get me wrong. I think boys are weird. Teenagers in particular are icky, and they can be incredibly annoying.
However.

I have recently talked with some lovely OYANers who have claimed that it's worse for a guy to be mean to a girl than it is vice versa. I personally disagree with this, for the simple fact that it's not like the guys aren't affected by it.

One of the reasons that people consider me to be a weirdo is the fact that I do talk to boys. The other night I was at a movie night, and in the time between the two movies we watched, we took a break. What ended up happening?
Well, all of the girls except for me disappeared upstairs, and I was left hanging out with the guys. The woman whose house we were at- and who runs the teen group- came down a few minutes later and asked, "Who are we missing down here?" meaning, specifically, who are the people who left to go upstairs and talk about pointless anime and paranormal romance novels?
The answer came from one of the guys.
You are probably curious at this point as to what he said.
Want to know?
"All the girls."
Of course, this was quickly ammended by some people because of the weird look that Zsuzsanna (the teen group leader) gave them after they said that.

My personal theory on why they didn't count me as being "one of the girls" is because I'm not in their little "girl clique". Actually, I'm not in any of the cliques, but I guess that's beside the point.
Anyway, like I was saying. I'm not in the girl clique. I don't consider all guys to be pointless, rude, too dumb for words, or even so icky I can't talk to them. Actually, I've found that they're often better at listening than girls are, they're easier to talk to, I can relate to them better, and, frankly, they aren't as mean as most girls I know.
Interesting, right?

Now that I've showed that I actually tend to be friends with guys more easily than girls, let's get back to the original subject.

How girls think of guys.

Like I said before, don't get me wrong. Guys are icky. They always have been, they probably always will. I'm not saying that that's wrong. I'm not even saying that they're better than girls. All I'm saying is that they're a lot better than most girls my age say they are.

Sexism is defined as "discrimination on the basis of sex, esp of men against women". Now, this does not say "discrimination against women". This says "discrimination on the basis of sex". Of course it mentions "especially of men against women", but that's not the only definition.

You could consider most girls I know to be sexist.

The people I've talked to recently claim that it's worse when a guy is mean to a girl than when a girl is mean to a guy. They have quoted a Bible verse at me, saying that women were given to men, and are therefore men's to protect and cherish and all that, and therefore it's worse when a guy is mean to a girl than vice versa. Now, I'm not saying that this Bible verse is not supporting them.
I'm just saying that their stance is not agreeable to mine.

My opinion is that it's bad when a guy is mean to a girl, and it's equally bad when a girl is mean to a guy.

Let me take a moment here and define what my definition is of "mean".

Cruel remarks, gestures, words, et cetera. Talking behind person's back. Insulting them. Considering them to be inferior to yourself. Being physically abusive. (Really physical abusive. Not just whacking someone gently when they're goofing off.) Etc.

Is it worse when a guy is mean to a girl? Well, obviously, it can be more painful. Especially if we're talking physical abuse.
But how about words?
To tell the truth, most girls I know are better at ignoring insults than the guys I know. We're better at just shrugging and saying, "oh well" than they are.
So is it worse?

Mission Ink

I'm not sure how many people are aware of the so called "issues" I've been having recently, but the short story is that I've been slightly to moderately depressed for the past few months.
A while ago- maybe a month?- I put up a prayer request on the One Year Adventure Novel forum, basically just asking people to pray that I got better.
Of course they said they would, and I figured that everything was over a few weeks ago- I was okay, whatever, moving on.

End of backstory.

Today I logged into the OYAN forum to find that my Internet Second Best Friend (it's a title), Isaac, had changed his profile picture. I clicked on it.
It was him...
With my name written on his arm.
Not to mention the fact that his profile had been changed from "Welcome to Myst" to "You are loved, Angela".

Okay, I thought. That's a little weird, but since a couple of people said they wrote my name on their arms so that they would remember to pray, I figured... Whatever. Isaac is awesome. He just wanted me to see that my name was there.

Then you know what? Someone had a status update. I don't remember who, but I know that they had a picture of their arm or hand with my name on it.
"Angela".

And then there were more. And more. And so many people had pictures of my name. My name. It appeared in pictures and drawings and written on arms and hands. A bunch of people said that they were "sorry, but upload is being dumb. I can't get your name up on my profile!".

This was very puzzling.

At first I thought it was just a trend. You know... Just something that one person decided to do and then other people would copy them and so on.

No.
I was wrong.
You want to know what was happening?

Turns out that one of the most amazing people in the world, AO, decided that today, the 19th, would be "Angela Day" and started something called Mission Ink. She and a couple of my other OYAN friends sent out hundreds of these personal messages. I'm not sure what they said, but it must have been about how the 19th everyone would put an avatar of my name up.. Just to surprise me and make me feel loved.

You know what?
That made my day.
Literally.

I started crying, at one point, as I saw all these people commenting on my profile saying stuff like, "Chanty, you're awesome. Love you!" or "You are loved." or "You are amazing! Don't forget that! God loves you too!" and "Love you so much." and people changing their avatars to having my name and all these people I look up to telling me they love me and that they're praying for me.

It's amazing.
You don't honestly know how much people care, or how much they're willing to do until they do something like this. You don't realize just how many people love you or how much until they do something like this. You don't know how far someone is willing to go until they actually go there and send out a hundred PMs and organize this amazing thing for one person.
You just don't know.

This day is amazing.

D&D Groups

About two months ago, I started DMing for the homeschool teen group I belong to. Even though I haven't been DMing for very long, I've come to realize something very important. That little bit of wisdom?

You shouldn't give a crap how many people are in your D&D group, so long as you can all work together, actually role play, have fun, and beat the crap out of a the twenty minions your DM throws at you.

In our D&D club, we have two DMs (myself included), and six other players. Because neither Cole nor myself felt confident DMing for seven people, we decided that the best thing to do would be to split the group up so we each DMed for three people. That way too we could have our own adventures and do things our own way.
No problem, right?
Wrong.

In my group, I originally had Jake- Human fighter-, Elizabeth- Human fighter-, and Alex- Longtooth ranger-. Sure. It sounds like an alright combo. We're missing a leader and a controller, sure, but it could work out pretty well, right?
(this is where I laugh at you.)

See, Elizabeth is new, so she didn't really know the rules all that well, and Jake is the "watcher" type... he doesn't really want to play, he just wants to make sure that everyone is having a bit of fun, and Alex just wants to beat up every single thing he sees.
Not that this is a bad thing.
In fact, all three of these types are acceptable- even encouraged- in Dungeons and Dragons. The game is designed so that every role has it's own thing to do. A campaign has a plot line so the storyteller has something to do, it has RP moments so the actor (that would be me) has talking to do and a chance to get into character. It has moments where you need to talk out of character, which is great for the watcher, it has bits where you level up and the optimizer can... well... optimize their character. The battles are great for the ones who live on smashing as many things as they can in as little time as they could, taking as few hit points against themselves as possible.
It's great.

However.

The fact is that in my original group, we had no one who liked to "role play". No one got into character. Even after Jake stopped coming and Kenny- Alex's friend- joined, we still didn't have a role player. No one cared about the plot line. No one wanted to talk to the squeaky voiced gnome mayor. (That disappointed me. He was personally one of my favorite NPCs ever.)

Nope.

So, last night I DMed again. Because Elizabeth couldn't come, Cole and I decided that it would be a good thing to combine our groups. No one wants to play with two players only, and apparently his players weren't getting excited about the extensive and complicated plot line. (Cole- story teller all the way.)

So, I DMed for six people. Technically, this is the perfect amount of players, because all the roles can be covered. We had a wizard, two rangers, a rogue, a cleric, and a paladin. That would be, one controller, three strikers, and two leaders.

The thing is, though, is that for the people who were used to a tiny group, they decided that things were going to slow. (I don't blame them. I had about six inches by six inches to put all my books, my dice, my notebook, my pencil, my pen, my bag of glassglobs, and my adventure. It took me a while to do anything.)
Halfway through the game- right after an encounter- we decided to take a break.

Somewhere in this break three of our members were eaten by cave trolls and absorbed into the magical slime of the TV.

It ended up that only the serious D&Ders were left. By serious I mean, not getting up every five minutes to talk to someone out of game, not spacing out, not talking about video games in the middle of the game. Think- the ones who had their own dice. Yeah. They're that dedicated. [/sarcasm]

And you know what? Even with one ranger, a cleric, and a paladin (a different paladin than before- Cole's character got past -10 HP), they did awesome. They blasted through a level 4 encounter with three level two characters, and got probably about 600 XP in the process.
Wow.

The weird thing is is that the more well balanced group of six had barely managed to get through a level two encounter.
Huh.

So, I've come to this conclusion.

It is better to have a well role balanced small group of gamers that know how to use strategy and who don't pout when they miss, than it is to have a larger group of gamers who aren't all that interested in helping out the goliath that just dropped to 2 hit points kill three orcs.

Like my conclusion?
I do too. :)

Funny Life (Video at bottom)

One of the messages that people are constantly confronted with in today's books, movies, TV shows, and so on, is that "it's what's inside that matters". Over and over we see the unattractive heroines winning the hearts of attractive heroes. The outcast boy learns to overcome whatever fears he has and take on the villain, winning the hearts of those who used to hate him. The lonely, ugly boy who grows up to be an ugly, lonely man, dies and leaves behind the legacy of his love with the MC's mother... (bad example. I love Snape.)
Over and over, it's "what you appear to be is not the important thing". Over and over we are told that appearances aren't important, that we should judge people instead on how they actually are, and all of that.

I'm not saying that this is a bad thing.
In fact, I would prefer it if people judged on what is on the inside, most of the time. Of course, the best would be if no one judged at all, but the chances of that are zero.

However, I do not agree with this "appearances don't matter" crap. It's true. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Just being pretty isn't going to get you far. You shouldn't aim to be just like those people you see on TV advertisements.
However.
Think about the people you admire for their intelligence. Chances are they do not give off an appearance of being stupid, unintelligent, or anything along those lines. Chances are, they appear to be smart when they start talking. They look polished, or at least they talk that way.

Believe it or not, that's an outward appearance.

It's true that the history of "appearances aren't the most important thing" dates back for quite a time. However, the earlier stories of these seemed to be somewhat more realistic than they are today.

Think about King Arthur and his knights.
First of all, they were honorable. Intelligent, brave, honorable, willing to do anything to protect their kingdom... And yet... They were also polished, polite, and handsome. They knew that although it would be nice to be treated the way you deserve due to your personality, that's not always going to happen.

Or take the Grimm's fairy tales.
Over and over again in these stories you see intelligent, honorable princes and princesses. Fairies, elves, dwarves... The good guys are always selfless, kind, willing to forgive, willing to admit that they were wrong. The bad guys are evil, selfish, unwilling to share power, and greedy.
But, again, you see that the good people- or at least the people with potential to be good- are beautiful, while the evil- or with the potential to be evil- are ugly.
This is enforced in the ideas of the warty old hag, beautiful princess, and the handsome prince. This is even more enforced in the stories where, through her good heart, the heroine becomes more beautiful every day, while the ugly stepsister, through her cruelty, becomes more ugly every day.

Appearances and goodness go hand in hand in these stories.

Now, I'm not saying that a more unattractive person can't be good, or that a beautiful person cannot be cruel. In fact, that can often occurr. However, the idea that appearances aren't important at all is, in my humble opinion, utter crap.

Think about the people you admire.
They probably are not the rude, callous, sexist, and racist who look like they just rolled out of bed and put on whatever clothes stuck to them. They're probably the polite, more polished, kind, fair people who have a fashion style that you would either like to have, or admire them for having.
These are all outward appearances.

Like I said earlier, I do not believe that you should focus so much on what someone appears to be that you don't notice who they actually are. As I said, I'd prefer it if people would judge only on who someone actually is, if they judge at all... However, this does not mean that you shouldn't try to put some effort into how you look, or how you act. Appearances can take a lot of forms. This can include making sure that your pants are pulled up all the way, or that you've brushed your hair. This can include being polite, or smiling at someone- NOT in a creepy way.


If that post made any sense to you at all, good. It's mostly just food for thought, in my opinion, but whatever.

And here is the video I promised! :D
This is me playing the Sonata in G Major, Op. 49, No. 2, by Beethoven... It's just the first... 3 pages... :P I'm supposed to be playing this is in the Sonata festival in February...
It is memorized, by the way... Just thought it wiser to play with the music. ;)

Surviving November

See, I was going to write a list of tips for surviving NaNoWriMo for the participant, but then I realized. Not only is this overused, not very helpful, and already done by hundreds of NaNoers, but it's also prejudiced against the other percentage of the world.

So, here you go. This is honor of you, supporters. You put up with our whining, complaining, moaning and groaning and carrying on, our constant word counts, our ranting about our books, our demands to read what we've written, our obsession with cookies around this time of the year, and our excitement when our characters actually do something.
Thank you.

How To Survive November When You Know A NaNoWriMoer or Two:

Treat Us Like a Noob.

Yes. That's N-O-O-B, not N-E-W-B. That is, I'm using the more mean version. Why? Because we probably deserve it. After updating you on our word counts every hundred words, after ranting, after insisting that you read our cruddy first drafts- with no plot- you have every right to treat us like a noob. That is to say, as I told my friend, "Just smile, nod, and thank God you aren't as annoying." 

'Nuff said.

Find Something Just as Annoying.

That is to say- find a hobby, stick to that hobby, and start insisting that we listen to you talk about it. Chances are we won't get the hint that we're that annoying, but it helps blow off steam.

We're The Chosen One.

Look here.

'Nuff said.

Be Overly Enthusiastic.

I can't tell you what's more annoying than having someone update you every time their characters do something more exciting than waking up and going to sleep... But a close second, or a tie, is being overly enthusiastic about that fact. As in:

NaNoer: JADE JUST GOT IN A CAR CRASH! AAGHEG! I'M SO PROUD!

NoNaNoer: THAT'S FANTASTIC! CONGRATULATIONS! I'M SO PROUD OF YOU! I THINK YOU NEED TO CELEBRATE! EAT CANDY! THAT'S JUST EPIC! WE SHOULD HAVE A FRICKIN' PARTY FOR HER! WOW! AMAZING! GOOD JOB! THAT'S THE MOST EXCITING THING I'VE HEARD ALL DAY!

... You get the idea.

Give Candy If You Can.

Or other food. Having our mouth full and our fingers sticky just means that there really is no way that we can communicate our love of pointless word counts, unless you and the NaNoer know sign language. In that case... A lollipop?

Rant About It To Other NaNoers.

No. Really. Thankfully I know how annoying it is when people constantly update you on stuff, or I would be one of those ignorant NaNoers who enjoy updating you every time they so much as blink. However, if I weren't, I can guarantee that being told how annoying someone else is about that would definitely make me shut up. (So, this also works too if X is the person being annoyed and Y is the person being annoying, and X starts ranting about B- also a NaNoer- to Y, even though she's really just wanting Y to shut up, not B, because B is not annoying. It's a nice way of saying, 'stop it. You're driving me crazy, and since I'm already the mayor of Crazy Town, I don't need any more insanity in my life!'"

Know That You Are Awesome.

I probably don't know you. But you're probably awesome nevertheless. And knowing that you are, in all honesty, awesome, funny, smart, epic, pretty/handsome, and otherwise capable of a lot will help you. It can let you lean back in your computer chair and think, "Bravo. Your character just managed to kill someone. Good job. And you're writing 50,000 words in a month. I'm not. But you know what? I'm epic. So HA." and then delete the email/text/whatever.

Becuase No One Wants to Read 4 Pages

I'm doing another blog post.
That and I like to bury other blogs on my "following" bit in Blogger.
Mwahahaha.
Deal with it.

And, also, because Rachel asked, in general, what our school day typically is.
Because I can never resist doing posts like this.... (NEVER.)
Here goes.

6:30 - 9AM: Wake up.
30/45 minutes after I wake up: Western Civilization, Writing, or Literature.
*breakfast*
30/45 minutes after breakfast: Western Civ, or Mathematics.
if I finish that before lunch: Western Civ or Math, depending on what I did or did not do.
*lunch*
10/20 minutes after lunch: biology.
10/15 minutes after that: Writing. (In November: NaNoWriMo)
After that (generally around 3:30 pm): Break time.
Piano.
Western Civ, if I haven't done 2 hours of it yet.
More piano.
More writing.
Japanese.
*dinner*
Sleep time.

Repeat.

Proof That I've Changed

I don't usually capitalize on the ways I've changed. I really don't. I usually talk about how much I've stayed the same (see: I'm Still 3 Years Old). But the truth is?

Well.

If you've read my blog since I first started it at age ten, you can see a fairly obvious change.

Let me demonstrate.

This is my first post, ever. And, if you judge it against some of the posts I'll be putting links to later in this post... It's pretty advanced. I was a pretty smart ten year old. I mean... I used the word "emits" properly. How many ten year olds use that that word in a regular sentence?

Yeah.

That's why everyone claimed that I was incredibly smart, smarter than people oder than I, and that I was going to be able to do anything in my life at all.
No, wait, that was because of my test scores. Sorry.

Around March of 2008- my 11th birthday- something happened. My brains got sucked out of my nose or something. The preteen mind started setting in. How can I tell? Take a look at my birthday post. Oh me, oh my! Bold yellow letters!

However, 2008 also had some amusing posts... Like my one on the crusades. 

To tell the truth, it's kind of painful reading my posts. It's no wonder that I didn't have very many followers.

I mean, look at my post that I did in July, that same year. Good grief! You think I was an enthusiastic little bugger or what?! I don't USUALLY capitalize THAT MUCH in one POST!!
Or use "ur" anymore. Thank heavens.

Fortunately, I have one good excuse for why I started writing like the text-speek-brain-washed-pre-teen I was.
*drumroll*
...The llama song. I remember when that was the trendiest thing you could be singing. In particular, I remember going to 6 Flags with Abigail and Katie and on the way back, that's all they would say to me. They'd sing the llama song. Or they'd just say, "Angela! Angela! Angela!" and if I didn't say anything, they'd laugh, and if I said, "What?" they'd laugh.
I think the only person on my side that night was Gloria. xD

This was also back when (in December) I decided that I'd try to do a weekly/monthly thing.
Yes, I still used awful fonts and colors.
But at least they aren't bold, and yellow.

I am also aware that I still use run on sentences. You probably couldn't read every single one of my  blog posts out loud without taking a breath in between a sentence at least once or twice. However, I've gotten much better since this post, and at least I no longer go from overly enthusiastic to sounding pathetic.
I hope.
(And what's up with my title? "eve eve Christmas"? What the heck?)

The next year, 2009, was really crazy. Not only were many of my posts still crappy, but for a few posts in a row, I started every title with "so". However, this is also when I first started asking people if they played D&D, as you can see here.
Heh. I'd like to think I'm a bit more sophisticated about asking people if they play RP games now than I was back when I was 11. What do you think?

I also apparently never capitalized anything but the word "I". Hm.

One of the ways that I apparently haven't changed though, are with my random spaztic posts. Like this one, saying how I'd hate it if the color green was outlawed. Truth be told, I still think I made some pretty good points in that post.

One of the most miraculous things, also, in my history, is the fact that my iPod has still survived. I mean, I have only ever had one iPod in my entire life. And it's this one, in that color. In fact, if my ipod didn't have a couple of scratches and a ton of dust under the screen (whoops), it would look exactly like that one. The miraculous thing is that I've had it since 2009. I celebrated it's coming here.
That's one old electronic.

In 2009, the orthodontic work on my teeth also started. Thank heavens that's nearly over...
And this post, certainly shows what a freak I am! Not because I have a running commentary on any movie I've seen more than twice (I am probably the worst person to ever come to a movie night, ever...) but because I decided that instead of adding different paragraphs, I would color the words of each person a seperate color.
I had class. Blogging style.
(You can tell from "the txt spch". xD)
I also seemed to go through an obsession with blogging quizzes... An example is in this one.

More proof I've changed is here...
To prove it, here would be my new list:

Things I "<3"
Movies: Harry Potter 1, 2, 3, 6, & 7, Bride and Prejudice, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Labyrinth, Shrek, Aladdin, Never Back Down (ehhhh).
Books: The Ordinary Princess, Pippi Longstocking, The Bell Jar, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Music: Snow Patrol, Life House, Eminem, Three Days Grace, Owl City, Port Blue, Swimming With Dolphins, Flyleaf, Sky Sailing, OK Go, Weezer, Superchick, 3 Doors Down, and, as before, much more.
Best Friends: You know who you are. Really. You know.
Food: Sushi, mushrooms, candy, cheesecake, mashed potatoes, ham.

Things I "h8"
Movies: Harry Potter 4, Cats and Dogs, Prince Caspian (Narnia)...
Books: The Secret Language of Girls, Slaughterhouse Five.
Music: Justin Beiber, Miley Cyrus, Paramore (I apologize!), most Rhianna, Barlow Girls, A lot of other stuff as well I can't think of.
Food: Wayyy more than I can mention here.

See?
I'm a changed girl!

(Want a break from this long post? See this post here, and do the dance!)

Fortunately, around 2010, my brains were returned to my head, along with a healthy dose of grammar, spelling, the ability to choose coherant titles, and a good sense of what makes a good post.
Probably the first sense of what my posts were going to morph into was this one, here, which was a rant about anti-homeschoolers.
As demonstrated here, my ability to capitalize words also seemed to be coming into play. For once, the starts of sentences had capital letters.

This is also around the time that I took (and passed- with a 5) the American Government and Politics AP. I actually did a post about taking it, here, and it definitely doesn't seem like over a year ago that I took it. Hm.
I also went to New York at this time, and wrote probably the longest post I've ever seen in my life. I felt very accomplished.

Around January this year, I started developing my sarcastic voice. You can see it in effect here, and here. Actually, that latter post is probably the funniest thing I've ever written. My GS leader read it out loud at our meeting.

In March, I got what ended up being practically an early birthday present. A real piano. True, it still hasn't been tuned, and last time I sat down on our piano bench it literally collapsed under me, but I love our piano.

2011 is also when I started posting The Guide posts, starting with "You're the Chosen One". Believe it or not, I know you peeps really do read my blog, because occasionally I actually have people say stuff to me like, "You're a fashion victim" or "balloons" when I say something that they don't care about.
I'm so proud of everyone!


After that, you guys know what happened. I morphed into sarcasm-super-long-post-super-girl-bloggess. It's awesome, isn't it?
And, for anyone who isn't happy on how I post....

At least I don't use BIG BOLD YELLOW LETTERS anymore.
Love ya!

Things You Wouldn't Expect

There's some funny little quirks of life.
I mean, not the "oh, wow, freak rainstorm" sort of thing, but the types of advantages that I get without meaning to. The random mood swings (upward) I get when I do something... that I wouldn't expect.

Like NaNoWriMo.
Believe it or not, but I get motivated in November. Really motivated. Not just for writing- though that's a biggie- but for all my school. It's only the 6th and I've already finished one math review and I'm working on a miscellanious exercise and I got a really high score on my first DBQ and I've read half a WC chapter, and I've made an effort to print out my biology lab  and I might even get to critiquing something and I've practiced piano a ton and I've memorized nearly the entire Beethoven Sonata I'm supposed to have memorized by Thanksgiving and which I have to have perfect by January.
It's crazy.
But awesome.

Another one of the weird benefits of things is from D&D.
You'd think, "wow. That's a fantasy Role Playing game. There's going to be no real life benefits." But... there are! There are many!
Like the fact that I can talk to people much better now than when I didn't play D&D. Why? Because I was the only one who decided that the elven king needed a comprehensible report, and therefore had to come up with how to basically sum up the entire past D&D year (in D&D time- actually just about three months) in language he could understand, while projecting my voice over the nonsense of all ten of my fellow players.
Or the fact that I'm much more logical now. After once having to go deaf because I messed up a puzzle, I think about things a lot more now. I always remember to search the ceiling. I don't just assume that because someone looks like they're a good person means that they are.

Or playing piano.
I mean, of course, there's the obvious advantage of being able to play an instrument. And the fact that pretty soon I'm probably going to start teaching piano- causing myself to actually have a source of income.
But besides that.
Ever notice that I tend to sit up very straight?
That's because you look stupid when you hunch over a piano. Seriously. I'd show you a picture of me hunched over the piano, but I don't actually have one at the moment, so I'll show you one where I'm sitting up more or less straight.

Yep. That also happens to be me in my Halloween costume- that's at my Halloween recital.
Like I said- I'm not perfectly up and down yet, but I'm getting here!
Secondly?
Hand eye coordination. I have it. Not only because I knit, crochet, sew, and do needlepoint (People don't usually assume that I'm a home-ec-y sort of person... heh... I'm not... I could be if I wanted to, though), but because of the piano.
Why?
Because when the music says "Bb" you want to be able to play a Bb and not a C# or a regular B. When you're playing a F Major scale, you don't want to slip up and play an F minor. You can't always be looking down at your fingers when you play, unless the song is memorized. So, hand eye coordination is important.

Another thing with an unexpected aspect is writing. I enjoy writing. And it gives me so many benefits.
First of all, I can write much better. (Upcoming post, by the way.)
Second of all, I have so many more new, good, excellent, amazing, intelligent friends. And the friends that I had before are so much better, because we both write. Huzzah for common interests!
Another good benefit is the fact that when you write, you research. This doesn't just mean reading and stealing quotes to use. It means that when I'm writing a book that takes place during the Salem witch trials, I learn about them. I figure out what names were used. Why the hysteria began, where it began, how it began, how long it went to, what sort of people were persecuted, why they were persecuted, how many people died, how they died, what sort of religions were popular back then, where Salem is, where the different town locations were (old maps are good for that), what the prisons looked like, how people spoke back then, what they believed in, and so on.
I sort of know much more about the Salem witch trials than most people my age. And that was when I was 12, writing my first book. How many 12 year old girls can tell you exactly why, when, where, and how the witch trials began, why they continued, how many people died, what the statistics were for people who died in jail and people who were executed, and why they ended?
Exactly.
The other unexpected benefit is that you learn to watch people. Why? Because, and I'm sort of paraphrasing my friend Mikel here, the characters that are based off of real people are far more realistic and 3D than are characters who you just come up with.
So, you watch people. And you watch them. And you describe them. And you learn how they feel and why they feel, and why people act the way they do, and what the different types of personality types are, and how various people types would act, and what sort of weird habits people have, and how to tell if people are lying, and stuff like that.
It's quite fascinating.

Or blogging.
You learn to write better, sure, but there are, as usual, unexpected good things that happen.
The ability to not offend. The ability to accept with grace the fact that people are going to get mad at you. The ability to navigate Blogger's quirks and devise ways to post comments even though Blogger apparently doesn't want you to. (Hint: try a different internet browser.)
And... My personal favorite...
Shameless Self Advertising! Before I started blogging, I considered self advertising to be... well... a bad thing! You should wait for people to refer you to others, right? Wait for people to discover your talents.
...Ha.
No, blogging has taught me that if you want people to read your stuff, you have to be out there, participating in blog carnivals, and shoving your writing in peoples' faces, and putting your link up on forum blog rolls, and telling people about it, and then mentioning it again, and saying stuff like, "and, as I mentioned in my blog post, which is here: (insert link)" and so on.
Thus the "Shameless" part.


Anyway, this is a really long post, so I'm going to end it here...
Kudos if you read it all. :)

Shout out to Sandy: Hi! *hugs* we all love you. :)

My Album Cover(s).

I got this from my mom who got this from a friend who got it from another friend who got it from who knows where.
It was on facebook.

Anyway, here is how to make your album cover:

1. Go to wikipedia and hit random. The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2. Go to quotationspage.com and hit random. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first ...album. (Edit: Three usually works best. :) )

3. Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” (or just go here http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days). Third picture (no matter what it is) will be your album cover.

4. Use photoshop or similar (picnik.com is a free online photo editor) to put it all together.



So, I cheated. Why? Because the first two pictures I got were of some random chick, and then a plastic halloween pumpkin respectively. So, I went until I found one that didn't consist of someone random, or something chintzy that looked like it was taken out of an Oriental Trading Co. catalog.
I also had to do a couple random Wikipedia pages, since the first few I got were stuff like "Alabama Lions' Club Women's Vollyball Team." which is kind of a mouthful... "What are you listening to?" "Alabama Lions' Club Women's Vollyball team." I don't think so.

Here is my cheaters cover:

Likey? I do.

And... Just for kicks, this is my completely-following-the-rules one:

That one looks cool too. xD So, I set out to see how random I could make mine...

This one I also cheated on- I changed the background image to be all funky colored.
So I must do another!
Oh dear!

Thereeee we go. Looks like a postcard, doesn't it? Yeah. And it makes a bit too much sense, even though "Manns Choice" is apparently a town in Pennsylvania.
Harrumph.

This one?
Looks sorta like a Christian band cover...
Shall we aceept it as last?
Nah!

That's a bit more random..
But let's see if we can get something REAAALLLLY strange, shall we?

Nooo!
These are too comprehensible!
I. Need. Strange!

Well, I'm starting to not understand..
Shall we attempt one (or two) more covers?
(I'm having waaay too much fun with this.)

Okay, I have to admit... This one was a hard one...
I think I'll finish there.
I'm dreading getting more black or white pictures...

Prologue

This happened completely by accident. That I have a prologue for this book.
I hope everyone likes it... If not... Pity. It gives me another 294 words.

----

I love my country. It’s one of those places that you wouldn’t believe exists until you see it. Of course, I don’t usually appreciate its beauty until after the contests on Father’s Day when I’m left bemoaning the fact that I’m not in the running to rule it yet. So goes the life of Jade Zamzow.

   It’s not really my fault I’m not in the running, though. Of all seventeen of us, I’m the youngest since my brother Eliot- child number eighteen- committed suicide at age ten. To tell the truth, I’m still not exactly sure why he did it, and I’m kind of sad he did.

   However, that still leaves me sixteen siblings to fight against.

   Sure, John went away to become a hippie, and Aimee was disowned because she supported a revolution. My elder brother Nick decided to become a priest, my other brother Marshall was disowned for a plot against the king- our father- and Lanx wouldn’t be in the running if my dad knew he was gay. My twin, Samantha, isn’t much of a threat either, but that’ just because she’s mentally ill and has zero interest in becoming the monarch.

   The remaining siblings of mine, though?

   Deadly.

   They have to be! If you want to rule the country, you have to be drop-dead gorgeous and equally capable of killing someone with your bare hands and beating every single member of the adult chess club at strategy by the time you’re twelve. But that’s beside the point.

   The point is that this Father’s Day, which is when the annual contests are held, I’m going to win. And I’m going to make it into my father’s favorite five group, and I’m going to become queen.

   Well, that’s the plan, anyway.

Another Blog Roll

I know. The last thing you need is more blogs to read.
But!
These are truly awesome blogs. And it's not like I haven't shared the links for them multiple times in my other blog rolls and no one has read them.
So, I'm going to have another blog roll. Some of these are different, so you should read 'em. Or at least take a look at 'em. Make the bloggers feel special. Post a comment.


Come on. If I read them, they've got to be decent, right?


To start this blog roll up, here is the brand spankin' new blog of my friend Erin. She only has one post so far, but I know for a fact she's planning to post more.

Let's face it. Everyone wants to follow Angela's friends, don't they? Of course they do. I'm only friends with epic people. Katie is no exception, and she even updates her blog frequently! :D

Matt hasn't updated his blog in a while.
The loser  maybe if we bug him enough he'll post something!


Another blog that I haven't really done enough promoting for is my sister's blog. Warning- large type abounds!

Here is another blog.. again. She doesn't post much, but what she does post is really quite epic, and I think you should go read it. :)

Linda is obviously one of the authors of the book blog. She's also one of the more prolific, because somehow she's mastered the mysterious art of "time management" and actually has time to read. What is little known about her though is that she has a personal blog, which you can go find, here.

I will admit. I don't always know what Sandy is writing about, and I think that's kind of the point. However, not only does she have some epic posts, but she also has the little location finder thingy at the bottom. So you can show up there! If there's no other reason to go look at her blog, it's so you can go and stalk the other readers. xD


Mercia blogs on Wordpress, but we won't hold it against her. And, unlike me, her goal is to write "short, simple, and to-the-point explanations that don’t take an hour out of your busy day to read." Kudos to her, and her website, which is here. Oh, and it has an epic name. Just letting you guys know.






Anyway, even though I'd like to put EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU guys up here, I don't have time. In fact, I'm going to go read Western Civ for another hour, eat dinner, and then try to hit 5,000 words tonight.
Which equals something like three thousand words in two hours.
...Heh. Anyone up for word races? xD

I Am Triumphant!

After struggling for... oh... twenty minutes on the first paragraph of my NaNo novel, I finally have a beginning that I can work with! :D
Here it is:

 

The thick, metallic taste filled my mouth, and the smell of blood mingled with that of rubber and sweat. The sound of the crowd made it too loud to think, much less get my brother off of me.

“Three... Two...”

“Come on, Jade!”

“One.”

Burr shoved my face against the mat, and for the third time that day I blacked out.

It's not great.
But it's a rough draft.

Whaddya guys think?

My School is a Meanie

The title of this post is fairly misleading.
I am not ranting about my schoolwork. (I will be simply putting up my ideas for it at the end of this post so I don't forget.)
No, I am discussing one of the finest words in the English language- Meanie.

Meanie (mee-nee): noun: someone who is mean or unkind.

This is a word I think every three year old has in their vocabulary.
Unfortunately, it's also a word that every of my characters have in their vocabulary thanks to my friend's character. Character, you know who you are and will probably say that you're completely epic for being included in this post and then order me to make you food.
By the way- No.

"Meanie" is such an amazing insult. First of all, it serves a variety of purposes. You can call your mom a meanie if she says you can't go somewhere. You can call your friend a meanie if they don't show enough sympathy. You can call your little sister a meanie when she says something like, "you're fat." You can call basically anyone a meanie at any time.

Why?

Because it's a three-year-old insult. People don't take you seriously, and yet it's a fabulous way to show how irritated you are. You can insult whoever and they won't get mad at you. If someone calls you a meanie, you won't take them seriously. Why should others?

Origins of the word:

The word "mean" obviously came first, meaning (heh. Pun.) "offensive" "selfish" "stingy" and "inferior in character". The letter "y" was then added onto the end around 1927, leading to "meany" which meant "someone who is inferior in character". Both the spelling "meany" and "meanie" are used today, although the most common to find around my blog/friends/characters is "meanie".


Ode to Meanie:

Oh meanie, oh meanie
How useful are thee
You I do use
Against those who would bruise
My sense of dignity.

Oh meanie, oh meanie
How useful are thee
May you always be around
To insult with no fear.


^Proof that I am no poet. xD Feel free to laugh at my poor poetry. I laugh too. And then throw it away. ;)


So, the word "meanie" is useful. Use it. Use it more often than you already do. It's a good insult. No one actually ever feel insulted.
Toodleoo.



(Plan for school: spend 2-4 hours writing each day, spend 2 hours on WC and if it takes longer, too bad, spend rest of day doing school, do at least 2 hours of [fun] reading at night. Joy.)