My Game, My Rules

Time to Celebrate

2012-01-31T12:06:00.000-08:00

This is a few days late, but I finally finished the rough draft (or first draft) of Jade's book.
Let's get out the balloons!
Unformatted correctly, the total page count is 99 pages, and the total word count is somewhere around 53,000. That's about the same length as Burning Hope, so I'm pretty pleased with that. I'm also fairly pleased the way that the character development turned out-- Jade went from extremely bratty to, in my opinion, a fairly decent human being.
I'm happy I finally finished. :)

Of course, now I have about a year or two before it's even halfway done, editing wise, and even then I'll always find something to change...
Maybe it'll be done in time for the OYAN contest, though. Not that I expect it'll get even into the semi-finalists... But it's always just fun to join in the hype about sending in your novel to be read and judged. Besides- if it doesn't end up in the semi-finalists... You don't know how awful it might be!

What Grownups Really Mean

2012-01-25T14:44:00.000-08:00

When I was about eight, and Katie about ten (I believe), I was shopping with her and her mother. Her mother had said that it would only be "a few minutes" and then we could leave.
It ended up being several hours.

While we were wandering around with her mom, Katie and I decided we must, MUST, write a book about "what grownups really mean when they say something but don't really mean it". Sadly, this book has never been realized.

But there you go.
This post is dedicated to you, Younger Angela and Younger Katie.
Keep on dreaming.

WHAT GROWNUPS REALLY MEAN WHEN THEY SAY SOMETHING BUT DON'T REALLY MEAN WHAT THEY SAY

In a minute

Usually used when asked "how much longer?", "in a minute" generally means something along the lines of "I really don't know, but probably longer than you want to be here." When you hear "in a minute", be prepared for a very long wait.

Maybe

Translation: No.

We'll see...

Translation: No.

(Very rarely it may mean "maybe, possibly". Try to figure out by tone of voice.)

After your school...

This is usually used when you're begging for something. Its translation according to adults probably is "when you've finished what I've assigned you", but the practical translation goes something along the lines of "As soon as you finish all the piles of boring homework I've piled on you which seems worse for you than usual because you're dying to go do this thing which is more interesting than dividing fractions, then maybe we'll think about it if I'm not too tired by then which I probably will be."

Translation: Not right now, but if you keep bugging me about it I'll eventually cave.

I was thinking...

This usually is an unexpected surprise. Its translation goes something along the lines of "I just had an idea which you may or may not think is excellent, but I sure do, and whether or not you think so doesn't matter because I'm going to make you go through with my idea whether or not you want to because I'm an adult and you're not and I can make you do whatever I want to."

That reminds me

Translation: I'm going to go into some lengthy explanation that you don't want to hear and I'm going to end with telling you to do some tedious, boring job which you don't want to.

I'll have to think about it

Translation: No.

Ask your father/mother/sister/aunt/uncle/brother/friend/distant relation/random stranger

Translation: I'm going to make you go run a marathon to different people to ask them something to which they'll simply reply "go ask *insert name here*".

*****

There you go.

Have a little blurb of Angela's life. XD

Katie Day

2012-01-22T11:12:00.000-08:00

Hey!
So, this is The Secret, Katie.
Happy Katie weekend!

Created by Linda (Cat)

Yes. This is a bunch of people who all got their acts together to tell you how much they love you. Or how awesome you are. Or how much they care about you. Why?
Because you are amazingly awesome.

I don't have much else to say, that I want to say out here on a public blog... But let's just say that Katie is pretty awesome, and she's going through a hard time, and I love her to bits, and that we all hope that she's going to be okay. Forever and ever. :)

Picture created by Katie F. (Sadly, this was sent after I put the video up... :/)

Reasons Katie is Awesome:
1. She makes me laugh. All the time. Even if she doesn't mean to.
2. The craziest stuff happens to her.
3. One time she convinced me that she was a time traveler.
4. She's amazingly smart.
5. She's the only person I know who has a strong enough will to pull all-nighters three times in a row, doing homework all night.
6. She knows what I mean by The Urge, and can resist it.
7. Katie's really really pretty.
8. She writes better than I do. @_@ Her writing is amazing.
9. Her characters are really interesting. And funny. And kind of awkward! (Reflecting on her that she's good at characters.)
10. She is a really good pianist.
11. She can be really serious when I need her to be.
12. And yet she's immature enough that I don't have to worry about acting that much older than I actually am!
13. She has an exellent moral compass.
14. She won't lie to me.
15. I've known her since I was four, and she has always been this awesome.
16. She's a fantastic hockey player.
17. She uses amazing adjectives. XD
18. She blogs really well.
19. She got me to finish our collective novel. And she edits. Voluntarily edits!
20. She has really good taste in books/music.

Modern art by Isaac

I could keep going. But I'm not going to. Because I don't want to bore anyone. And. I can tell her this stuff over texts. XD

From Angela

We love you!

Angela's Music v. Valerie's Music

2012-01-17T17:48:00.000-08:00

We all know that your music can say a lot about you. It's well aware that when you're looking on someone's music player, you're basically looking into their soul- who they actually are. Unless they happen to have a spazzy computer which randomly syncs music onto their ipods/zunes/etc. In which case, you're looking into the computer's soul. (Also fascinating.)
Which is why it takes a lot of gut to both look at someone's music player, and to have someone else look at yours.
So, I want to demonstrate a bit of difference between my sister's music, and my music. Because we have different music tastes, like different bands, and you just might end up liking some of the songs.
Here we go!

Valerie's Music:

Angela's Music:

(by the way- I hope these videos work. Our new computer apparently doesn't have Adobe Flash Player. <_< So I can't see 'em.)

Valerie's Music:

Angela's Music:

Valerie's Music:

Angela's Music:

Valerie's Music:

Angela's Music:

Valerie's Music:

Angela's Music:

Of course, that only covers a few of the songs Valerie wrote out for me. :/ But yes. There you go. Music tastes. Might not seem that different. But they are. (They better be... <_<)

How To Finish Half Western Civ Homework In One Day

2012-01-16T11:20:00.000-08:00

I am a chronic procrastinator. As that happens, I tend to leave all my homework until the last minute- especially Western Civilization. As such, I have perfected the art of finishing half my WC homework on one day- and finishing the rest up the next.

This is how:

1. Start reading the chapter.

2. Highlight.

3. Do the 50 terms as you read said chapter. (They go in chronological order! :D)

4. Take notes for the AP essay (does not count if you have a DBQ.)

5. Finish chapter.

6. Photocopy workbook.

7. Go to sleep.

*next day*

1. Write essays

2. Do workbook.

3. Take online quiz.

4. Correct workbook.

And there you go. Done. Ta da. I'm brilliant.

Cookie Saleswoman Part One: Door to Door

2012-01-15T12:36:00.000-08:00

It's not an easy thing to do, selling cookies. You have to harrass people- probably strangers- to give you money for cookies that they don't even have yet. You have to manage to convince people that they do want cookies. You have to talk to deaf old men. You have to get people to break their new years resolutions and eat sugar/junk food.
You have to do this in January when it's cold and snowy and you'd really rather be home.
This is the art of the door to door cookie harrassment.

Here are some tips to make this better:

1. Bring a clipboard. This way you don't end up writing on your sister's head.
2. Wear socks- if you do not, you will get snow in your boots. And get a blister. And then will complain about it the entire way back until you start walking like a zombie.
3. Wear gloves.
4. Master the art of becoming slap happy on a notice. Having a grumpy guy tell you he doesn't want to buy cookies is a lot easier to accept when you can laugh about his weird eyebrows.

Now that you have some of the tips down, here are the steps to the door to door sale of Girl Scout cookies:

1. Find a house. Any house. As long as there is no "no soliciting" sign, and it isn't your house, it should be fine.
2. Approach said house.
3. Ring doorbell.
4. Wait for 30 seconds.
5. If no one answers the door, leave.
or
5. When the door is answered, smile like a preppy cheerleader on crack and say "want to buy some girl scout cookies?!"
6. When they mishear you (and they will mishear you/not hear what you've said), repeat in a louder, more obnoxious voice, "Do you want to buy some Girl Scout cookies?!?!?!?!?!?!"
7. When they say no, say "thank you anyway!" and walk off.
or
7. When they say yes, ask them what type.
8. Explain that the Girl Scouts do not have chocolate chip cookies.
9. Describe the cookies for them.
10. Write down their order.
11. Tell them you want your money now.
12. Tell them you do not in fact have change for a $20, $10, or a $5 bill.
13. Forget where to make the check out to.
14. Remember where to make the check out to.
15. Take money.
16. Write down address.
17. Leave.
18. Repeat from step one.

And, yes. You will run into people who don't want cookies. Or who don't eat sugar. Or who have a house that smells like hotdogs. Or who will inexplicably have two doors. Or who will have funny eyebrows. But overall, it's worth it.

And if you don't have patience to read all of the above?
Just use my rule of thumb:
If they don't answer the door in 30 seconds, run like heck.
(They're either kidnappers, aliens, not home, or creepers. :))

The Problems With Being An Author

2012-01-13T13:36:00.000-08:00

Authors are strange creatures. To most sane people we seem like the sort that should be locked up in a zoo and studied. We don't necessarily have mental disorders, yet we completely see imaginary people. We talk to ourselves more than we talk to other people, we fail piano exams because our characters interrupt us. We never go anywhere without a notebook and a pen, and we can predict most plot twists in books and movies.
Before I was an author, I thought authors were insane.
Now I'm an author and I think everyone else is insane.

However, despite the fact that it's amazing being an author and most of us enjoy it, there are also many things that are... well... not so good about being an author. I've decided to make a list of them for lack of a better blog subject to post on.

People Think You're Insane
I, and most authors that I know, have gotten so many weird looks when talking to our characters or planning a book out loud, that we keep the conversations inside our heads now, because it's simply easier than explaining about our characters. Conversations aren't the only things, though. We stop when a character walks past. I've freaked out at my sisters before because they sat in a chair my character was on. I've almost slept on the floor because my bed was filled with characters. (Nena, Jade, Gavin, Alyssa, Jack, and Shawn.)

Writer's Callous
Unless you write by hand, chacnes are that you have a writer's callous. That is- a hard piece of skin where your hand rests against the desk as you type. I only have one on my right hand inexplicably, but it's there. (Unsurprisingly, it's the worst in November. Go figure.)

Too Many Ideas
I know some authors who can't get a good idea to save their lives. And it's hard when you are focusing on coming up on ideas. But when you're just relaxing, when you're in the middle of writing another novel already, when life is good... Bam. You'll get an idea, and suddenly that is the one thing that you need to focus on more than anything else. That leads to the next one...

No Focus
Once you have your ideas, chances are you aren't going to be able to focus on anything. Because after a while of thinking about that one, perfect idea, you start to get discouraged about it. Which means you don't want to think about it. But then you don't want to not think about it, because your other books make you feel like failures. This leads to being an author laying on their bed, trying not to think about writing or characters. (Pretty well impossible.)

Feelings of Failure
It's true that anyone can feel like a failure. But authors more so. Because when their characters are being stupid, or they haven't written or edited for a long while, or when they don't want to edit, or when they can't plan out a good plot, or when they get some (good) constructive criticism, they feel like complete failures.

Hope that helps the balance. :)

Characters I Am Proud Of

2012-01-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

I'll admit that I love all my characters with the exceptions of Joanna, Michelle, Alex, Candace, and a few others that I'm not remembering at the moment. But, yes. For the most part, I adore all my characters. However, there are a few that I'm particularly proud of, for various reasons.
Here are the characters, and why.

Smith- Evil as heck vampire
Actually, Smith is one of my all time favorite characters and also the one I'm the absolute most proud of. Why? Because my friends have nightmares about him! Because he's sufficently creepy enough to creep people out! Because I've never been able to make a good villain before him! He's pure evil... But he doesn't necessarily seem like that. Why? Because he's super, super polite, and he's capable of feeling depression/loneliness.
He's still evil, though.

Jade Zamzow- "Cooler than you."
Jade. Oh Jade. Where to start with her? She introduced herself to me, without any summoning. She has a bazillion faults and negative personality flaws, and yet people still feel compelled to love her. She's selfish and sexist (against guys) and considers most people way lower than she is. Yet, everyone loves her. ('Specially Katie's character... XD) I'm mostly proud of her because I managed to give her personality flaws enough that someone pointed that out when critiquing my book (that she's a bit selfish), and yet... She makes a workable main character. Think a chaotic good character, if you're familiar with D&D jargon.

Jacqueline Louise Marqs- Anger management class? What anger management class?
Valerie helped me come up with Jackie, to tell the truth. But she's mostly my invention. Why? Because her personality has shifted so far since she was created. She started out as a mildly attitude-y slightly gothic asian girl... For anyone who knows her, this definition will be completely foreign. Why? Because now she's anger issue-y, completely goth, angsty, amazingly awesome asian girl. Who is awesome. Why am I proud of her? Because I've never made a character who can honestly get mad at someone at the drop of the hat. And, with the exception of Amanda, I have never made anyone who uses violence so often either.

Kezia Dustin- Conservative, protestant.
The reason that I'm proud of Kezia (first. character. EVER.) is because she's so unlike me when it comes to politics and religion. That's pretty much the sole reason I'm so proud of her.

Jacob- Super genius
Why am I proud of Jake? Well, with the exception of Smith, none of my characters can be so much of a jerk. None of them. None of them are as inappropriate and idiotic and just as annoying as Jake can be. Characters generally either avoid him or beat him up when they first meet him. No one likes him, really, and he really doesn't care that much. I'm just proud that he's still a jerkface even though I made him two years ago.

Alyssa- "Glitter! Yay!"
Alyssa is amazing. I love her to death. She's one of my earliest characters, one of the first characters I actually saw, and she's so... happy! That's why I'm proud of her. Because she is, essentially, a bubblehead. She's intelligent, sure, but she doesn't have a ton of common sense. And unless she makes an effort, she's not going to think of things like "Smith might be waiting to kill me". She also gets really happy really fast. And that's why I'm proud of her.

There you go. The characters I am most proud of. If you want to know, here are the books they're in:
Smith = Charele's book
Jade = Jade's book (great titles, right?)
Jackie = Music Box
Kezia = Burning Hope
Jake = Steampunk book of doom
Alyssa = Alyssa's Book

There you go. ^_^

Snow

2012-01-12T13:48:00.000-08:00

It is (finally) snowy here in Illinois!

I know.
It has taken a horribly long time.
But.
It started snowing at about 10:30 this morning, and it hasn't stopped. It's 3:45 now. We must have at least two inches already, too, because it's nearly covered all the grass. (meep!) I'm really excited about this. It's really pretty.

There you go. Snow. The first snow of the year. Finally. And, it's still coming down in large quantities. Which means that my teen sledding day might happen. (Yay!)

Just wanted to post something to celebrate. :)

Myths, Legends, Fairytales, Urban Legends.

2012-01-10T11:45:00.000-08:00

I have always been fascinated with myths, legends, fairytales, and, more recently, urban legends. Before I could even properly read, my dad bought me a book of Grimms' fairy tales. Now, I'm not positive that these are the originals, and I definitely want to get myself a new book of them, but I still love reading them. It's an old, green, leather book with gold printing on the front. Actually, the binding is stitched onto the cover, because at one point it started falling apart and I fixed it.

So, I've grown up with these fairytales.

Because these are so amazing to myself, I thought I'd define the different titles for you. :)

Myths:
Myths generally take place in mythical settings. They often have to do with the creation of the world, or at the least, gods, goddesses, and fantastical things along those lines. They may or may not have humans in them, but if they do, these humans are more than likely going to be superhuman, posessing great strength, skill, wisdom, or some such. A good example of this is the Mayan creation story, which I will sum up...

The gods used to live in the ocean. Eventually they got sick, and commanded the earth to rise up and plants to grow on the ground. After that, they decided that the world was too quiet, so they made animals. Animals could not praise them however, so they attempted to make humans.
The first humans they made were made of mud, and could not stand. They only talked in gibberish, because they had no minds. After it rained they would also fall apart. The gods got rid of these humans as fast as possible.
The second type of humans they made were out of sticks. The stick humans could walk, talk, and stand on their own. They didn't fall apart when it rained. However, they didn't have any brains, or souls. They made no sense when they talked, and they didn't know right from wrong. They'd mercilessly burn their cooking pots, and beat their dogs. The gods made a flood of sap to try to destroy them. Many of them died. The dogs prevented many of them from escaping, and the pans burned them. The houses collapsed when they tried to hide on the roof, and the ones that escaped into the trees were turned into monkeys.
Before the gods created a new type of human, a crow, parrot, mountain cat, and a coyote came to them and showed them corn. The gods figured, hey, we've already tried sticks and mud, and snow won't work, so why not try to make them out of corn? So they fashioned them out of cornmeal, and then fed them special potion made out of corn. The potion worked like a myhical energy drink, and they were endowed with extreme wisdom and strength. They grew to know everything, and could see everywhere on the planet. Eventually the gods realized that they were too perfect, so they blew a magical mist into the cornmeal peoples' eyes, which lowered their knowledge and made them unable to see for miles in directions. Thus the humans were created.

As you can see, the humans were either mud, sticks, or superhumans.

Legends:
A legend is different than a myth, in the way that it takes place to more or less regular people, in more or less regular settings, though often in a land far far away in a time long, long ago. The Odyssey is a legend- Odysseus is a more or less regular human who travels through what was believed to be the way the world was, and then returns. He is not a superhuman-- the only super things about him are his intelligence and his hubris.
(The Odyssey is too long to sum up. Go read it.)

Fairytales (or folklore):
A fairytale is not usually believed to be true. Unlike myths and legends, it does not usually deal with gods or goddesses, and does not have to do with regular humans. They are told mainly for entertainment, and to teach basic morals. The beautiful stepdaughter is a pious, good person, she shares some of her bread with the three dwarves, and then sweeps off the step- she finds the strawberries her stepmom sent her to get, and the dwarves make her grow more beautiful every day, make a gold coin fall from her mouth whenever she says a word, and say that she will marry a king. The evil daughter goes to try to get money, does not share her food with the dwarves, grumbles about sweeping the step... They make her grow uglier every day, make snakes and lizards fall from her lips whenever she speaks, and says that she will die a horrible death. (That's a real fairytale- part of one, anyway.) They often take place in parallel universes, or in the real world as it would be with magic.

Urban Legends:
An urban legend is different than a legend in the fact that it is often told to have happend to someone that the teller knows, in a local place, and relatively recently. Urban legends are stories, so they will have an intro, a climax, a series of characters, conflict, and so on. They often also convey morals, or lessons about life. They are not necessarily untrue. Many urban legends actually come from true stories, or at least facts. However, after being told by different people, and moved from locality to locality, their facts change, the characters change, they are exaggerated and embellished. What once may have started out with "my sister went to the mall and had some creepo try to hit on her" may end up with some story about how someone was lured from a shopping mall to then be raped and killed and how you should never trust anyone. Make sense?

Of all of these, I have to say that my favorites are fairytales/folklore, followed up by urban legends tied with myths. Legends are my least favorite, although even those are pretty fascinating. :)

To find fairytales: search "fairytales". You will find them. Or, go to your library and get a book on them. Or find a book you already have. Fairytales are everywhere.

Myths: go to the library (or search) for "myths". Often it's best if you add a civilization before hand... for example "Ancient egyptian myths" or "Spanish myths" or somesuch.

Legends: search for "legends", and try some of the more well known ones. (Odysseus, Beowulf... etc.)

Urban Legends: try snopes.com. ^_^

Piano

2012-01-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

Piano is truly amazing. The ability to play certain keys at different times- or at the same time- and produce a sound that is at that moment more beautiful than any other in the entire universe. That is what piano is. It is the ability to sit down and play a song, and feel like you are beautiful and part of the music. That is what piano is. It's one of the most popular instruments to play- and yet when you're playing it, it's you and only you who can pull the melody out, who can create the dynamics, who can pluck the keys like you're pulling the sound out of their very beds. That is what piano is.

As you can tell, I adore piano.
Actually, I'd rather play piano than eat. Or sleep. Piano is the one thing that I can say I would sit still for hours just to do. If I didn't run out of music to play, if the songs I loved had endless repeats, I would play them like that. The Invention no. 8 is like that. Instead of playing an F chord at the end, you just hit a single "f" in the right hand, and the song begins again. You can repeat it, and repeat it, and repeat it, and the only thing holding you back from playing it five, ten, thirty times in a row is your ability to play for that long without resting. That is the only thing holding you back.

Piano makes me happy. No- piano doesn't make me happy. Piano makes me unaware of myself. When I'm playing a sonata, and I know I'm hitting the right notes, it's like I become completely absorbed in myself, and yet I'm not there at all. I'm aware of what my hands are doing, and yet at the same time they're moving by themselves, without my guidance. I can ponder through horrible social situations while playing piano, but not feel bad about them because the music makes it okay.

The music makes everything okay.

There's something about music in general that makes people happy. The way it can sweep you away and not let you go until you're ready. But when you're playing the music, when it's you who is creating it, and you know you're creating it well... Then you're part of it. You are not controlling it, and it is not controlling you. You are one, you are together. That is what piano is.

Pian is amazing.

Inspector Gadget

2012-01-03T11:22:00.000-08:00

Best. Theme. Song. Ever.
Except possibly this one.

Or this one.

Or the one that I watch now...

Ahhhh! Nostalgia!
(Veela and I used to wake up at 7AM and wake up our mom and try to convince her to let us watch channel 11 so we could see Cyberchase. The most EPIC math tv show EVERRRRR.)

And... Dragon Tales. Forever part of my childhood.

And we can't forget George Shrinks. Veela and I always wanted this one THE MOST. It was the special one. Partly because for some reason they only played it every two weeks. :/

ARTHURRRRR! Veela and I could still sing along with this. <3

Teletubbies!

Urgh.
Hard to choose. <3

How to End a Conversation

2012-01-03T09:19:00.000-08:00

Do you often find yourself trapped in endless conversations? Are you sick and tired of the same old routines for ending pointless talking? Do you often find yourself hearing about stuff you don't want to? Sick of listening to random strangers? Do you not only want to avoid hearing about these things, but you want to avoid the conversation altogether?! If so, The Guide is for you!

Filled with handy dandy advice on everything you'll ever need to know*, the guide is guaranteed to make your life better, faster, and easier. Buy The Guide now, and we'll throw in a free marshmallow gun for shooting those pesky siblings!
This is a LAST CHANCE offer! Call 1-555-NOT-REAL for this amazing offer!
*The Guide does not contain information on the following subjects: skydiving, how to hotwire a stereo into a bomb, faery extermination, haircutting, La Famille Passiflore, Association for College Management, how to meet Jorge Arteaga, or corporate spies, among others. The Guide will not burst into flames. The Guide does not claim to feed the user. The Guide is incapable of making sandwiches. Side effects may include: headaches, dizziness, cancer, papercuts, purple hair, awesomeness, and in most extreme cases, belief that one is a zombie. Ask your doctor before using.

Chapter 5: How to End a Conversation

Chances are in your life you've found yourself trapped in a conversation when you really don't have time to talk. If it's over the phone or face to face, you'll probably find it particularly bad. How can you tell someone you don't have time to talk- and what if they say that you do? You need a way to get out of that conversation, and fast. Chances are you've already tried all the tricks in chapter four, and they either didn't work, or are unavailable. Maybe you don't have time to walk away and then come back. Maybe walking away means they think it's time to walk and talk. Maybe none of those are available. If so- never fear. We at The Guide have come up with another bunch of tips on avoiding conversations. Read on to find out how to avoid all those unwanted conversations.

Be a killjoy.

No one wants to be depressed. Most people also don't know what to say to something depressing. And if they do, chances are you can play off not talking because you're depressed. There are several ways to do this. Our favorites are saying things along the lines of:

"I went to the wake of a two year old yesterday."

"I haven't seen my friend smile since her dog died."

These usually do the trick of making people shut up.

Taking a phone call.

This is a classic, but is also very do-able. If you have your cellphone along when you're in an unfortunate conversation, text someone and tell them to call you to get you out of a conversation. Or, if no one is available, set your alarm to go off in a minute past, with your ringtone as the alarm tone. Pretend that someone is calling you, walk away and take their call. If you're having a conversation on the phone, do the opposite. Pretend that someone is calling you away from the phone to go do something like load the dishwasher.

Invite someone else to join your conversation.

Granted it won't necessarily end the conversation, but it'll might cause the conversation to become more interesting. In a best case scenario, the person who was annoying you and the person you invited to talk might start talking and you can slip away.

Bombard them with random facts.

It's a sad fact, but most people don't really want to learn about the working conditions of seven year olds in a cotton mill in Britain during the Industrial Revolution. Using random facts like that on people will generally get them to think that you're too weird to talk to. Or, it might convince them to leave you alone. Or, worst case scenario, you've reinforced your memory on western civilization.

Here are a few facts to get you started:

Sharks die if they don't keep swimming.

The youngest chimney sweeps during the Victorian era were four years old.

King Richard the Lion Hearted was probably gay.

Your ears create more earwax when you're stressed.

Lions sleep for more than 20 hours each day.

Pretend to lose use of your legs.

Talk to yourself.

Start reminding yourself of stuff you have to do. Rant about people you don't like. Discuss all the homework that you have to do in the next week. Chances are if you do this, people will stop talking to you.

Remember, if all else fails, just tell them that you can't talk. And if they say you can- keep insisting. Sometimes people really are okay at listening.

Have fun ending conversations!

Not Dreading

2012-01-02T10:57:00.000-08:00

The problem with the week after New Years is that you have to go back to school. And work. And you have to clean the house up from Christmas. And do laundry. And then there's just that horrible feeling when you realize that the year before is gone and you're never going to be able to live there again and even though every morning you're a day older it feels like much longer than that.
Creeeeepy.

So, yes. I am preparing to go back to school. Actually, I'm back to school. I've already worked on WC for about two hours today, and I'm preparing to work on it more after lunch. Piano... Hahahaha. No more piano > food for a while, either. Because if I don't eat, I can't do other school. Which is a pity, because playing piano nonstop for about three hours is really awesome and I wish I could do it more often. Oh yeah. B)

But on the other hand... I'm glad to be back to school. I need to catch up on stuff (Japanese... Math...), and being back to school full time is great for that. I'm just hoping that I can finish my stupid math book before summer. (Good luck with that, Angela.)

On a brighter note...
2012 should be pretty awesome. (This is basically what I should have done in my post yesterday but I was too tired to do).
Because I'm an obsessive list maker, let's make a list. (Ready?!) Here are some stuff I'm looking forward to in 2012. Or at least not dreading.

1. Drivers ed. How creepy is that? I'll be 15 in March, so this fall I'll be able to start learning to drive. Disturbing...

2. Sonata festival. Because I'm a special piano student, I get to be one of the 7 people my teacher sends to the sonata festival. Basically, I play a sonata the very best I can, and then two judges judge me. If I get a gold, I get to go play in this really fancy recital. (Isn't that exciting?! //sarcasm)

3. Western Civ AP. No, not insane. Well, not that insane. I'm actually looking forward to the AP. I'll probably bomb it, but at the moment I'm fairly confident in my ability to remember at least some of this stuff. Besides, after the AP WC is over, which is going to be epic beyond belief. And I'm sort of a strange person and I actually enjoy writing the essays.

4. Watching The Hobbit. Must I say more? I'm soo geekcited for it... O_O

5. NaNoWriMo 2012 Because there's no way I'm not joining in the fun.

There you go. Five things I'm looking foward to- or at least not dreading. :)

Off to lunch then (dun dun dun) school again.

Resolutions

2012-01-01T07:19:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years, Everyone!
(Pointless Capitalization FTW)
I could go on and on about how this year is going to be fabulous and everything, but I'm not going to. I'm going to talk about my resolutions. Why? Because it's a short post and I feel obligated to post something so I can have a little thing say "2012: 1" on my post archive thing, and my sister wants me to move. Alright? ;)

Here, then, I present my resolutions. More or less. You know, if they make any sense at all.

1. Be a kinder person why? Because I'm still not a kind enough person. Oh, I'm plenty nice but I'm not necessarily very kind all the time. Which bugs me. Oh well. Good resolution. Maybe that means I'll stop being an abusive sister, eh?

2. Be more environmentally friendly Because it would really stink to have this be the year that global warming gets completely out of hand. Of course, if the world really does end in twelve months, that won't be such a big deal.

3. Do my schoolwork more often, faster, and get it done on time instead of wasting an entire week saying "I have to do WC" but not actually doing WC 'nuff said.

Anyway, here's hoping that 2012 is better than 2011!

~Angela

**edit**

And my fourth resolution:

4. Beat 2009's post count Because 10 more posts last year and I would have beaten it. THIS YEAR I WILL SUCCEEEEEEEEED!!!!

People Not To Be Like: Anakin Skywalker

2011-12-30T14:18:00.000-08:00

Anyone familiar with Star Wars knows the story of Anakin Skywalker. Talented jedi in training, he marries Padme and then turns to the dark side becoming Darth Vader.
For obvious reasons, you don't want to be Darth Vader. But what about Annie? Why don't you want to be like him?
Allow me to illustrate.

My mother, sister, and I have an inside joke that I actually helped create. It goes something along the lines of this:
Me: But I want a giiiiirlfriend!
Mom: You can't have a giiiirlfriend!
Me: then I want a seeeeeeeeeeecret girlfriend!
Mom: you can't have a seeeecret girlfriend!
Me: then I'll have a wife!
Mom: You can't have a wife!
Me: then I'll have a seeeeeeeeecret wife!

If you notice- that's whining. Why? Because Anakin whines. Actually, Annie whines a lot. It's easy to see where Luke gets it, if you listen to Anakin.
And, unlike Luke, Anakin never stops whining.

He also seems pretty abusive, if you think about it. I went to a lecture for Girl Scouts once, for A Safe Place, which is a home for abused women who need someplace safe to go when recovering (or escaping) an abusive relationship. During this lecture, she talked about the different types of abuse in relationships. You know what?
Anakin fits in two of them.

So, he might be the main character in Star Wars. He might even be really epic in parts. He might end up being the most epic bad guy ever. He might have the most quoteable lines in the entire series of movies.
But:
Do not be like Anakin.

Because he is whiny and annoying and abusive. And just in general not a good guy.

(I'm not a fan, can you tell...?)

New New New New ...ness?

2011-12-29T11:40:00.000-08:00

My mother is always cooing over new parents, saying that they're so cute... and clueless. While I can't quite empathize with her (and can't seem to write a good intro to this post), I can empathize with thinking that new = cute.
No, really.

Newbies are, by definition, cute. I see them on websites all the time. No clue what to post, or where to post, and putting things in the wrong sections, and writing in BIG BOLD COLORED LETTERS that are in colors you can't even read because they clash with the background and using text speech and friending everyone that says hi to them, and just in general making so many mistakes and just not realizing it because they're newbies.
Disclaimer: I have been a newbie. I have made these mistakes. I utterly regret them.
But sometimes being a newbie to a particular group is especially amusing.
Let's take a look at some of the most oblivious, clueless, and undeniably cute newbies that I run into.

The New Author
You see them all the time. The cocky teenager who thinks they know exactly what they're doing. The grownup with too much time on their hands. Mostly it's the teenagers who amuse me, however. (yes. I like to make fun of teens. It's a hobby.) Here are some rules as to how to spot the New Author in teenage form.

1. An obsession with their characters. I mean a real obsession. More than a simple, "Hey, Jackie, go away so I can finish my homework" or "Gavin, get the heck away from that cat!" or even just seeing them wandering around their house. I mean, more than having most of their text conversations morph into character lounges. New authors truly are obsessed with their characters. They will text someone simply so that their characters will talk. They'll be surprised when a character informs them about something that happened in their pasts. They'll greet random drop-in characters in books with surprise, wonder, and utter baby-ing.

2. A disregard for planning. New authors have no experience. Therefore, they do not seem to comprehend the amazingness that is called a "plot". They claim that they're most original when they don't have an outline to stick to, and they claim that plots are for losers.
Oddly enough, after they write their first free-form novel, they then tend to say something along the lines of, "You know, maybe next time I'll plan. I don't really like how this one rambles around."
Please note that I have nothing against free-form novels. I think they have their place, and I'd actually like to try writing one eventually. I just believe that you need to have some experience before attempting one.

The New Homeschooler
Oh, I guess I'm a bit biased on this one, having been homeschooled my entire life. But even I know how to answer all the questions that a new homeschool parent will come up with... "But how do you find other homeschoolers?" "What about curriculum?" "What if my kids don't listen to me?" blah blah blah. (For the record: There are a ton of homeschooling groups out there. Some are religious, some are not. There are a number of ways that you can find these groups, I suggest searching the internet. Another good way to find homeschoolers is to go to the library on a school day. Find a couple of kids that look like siblings and chances are you've found a homeschool family., We personally pick and choose what books we learn from, but there are many boxed sets that you can choose from., Well, that'll happen, but generally they'll more or less do what you say.)
I'm not even going to make some rules for finding New Homeschoolers, because you generally find them wherever there happens to be a group of already homeschoolers.

The New Blogger
Again, I'm biased. I've been writing on this blog for four years, and I've definitely been a new blogger myself. (Some of my old posts? Awful!) but now that I've gotten a bit more experienced, I can poke fun at other bloggers without risking someone calling me a hypocrite. (Maybe.)
Here are some ways to find the New Blogger:

1. Posts apologizing for not posting. I don't even mean the occasional "sorry I didn't post, I was on vacation" or "I'm going away for a while". I mean that every single one of their posts will be an apology for not posting. I went through this stage: it's nothing to be sorry about. It's just stinkin' cute is all.

2. Big, bold, colored letters. Just like forum newbies, this generally shows that they're a rather inexperienced blogger. (except in my case... I used the colored letters about a year into my blogging, which means that I have no excuse whatsoever. Shun me.)

3. Annoying self-advertising. This is different than shameless self advertising. Why? Because with shameless self advertising, you generally know what you're doing is pretty dumb. If you see someone shamelessly self advertising online, they'll say something along the lines of: "Go read my blog! (insert blog address here). Shameless self advertising FTW!". Someone who is annoyingly self-advertising will not apologize for what they're doing, but will instead think that they're being sophisticated. This will include pestering you every time they see you to go and follow their blog.

4. Asking you to follow their blog. No self respecting blogger will ever ask you to follow. They will ask you to read, but never to follow. That's just harrassing you. (Besides. We all know that followers don't always read the blogs they follow.)

Of course, now I find myself needing to apologize to anyone I may have offended. Not because I actually mean it, but because it's the nice thing to do and it keeps y'all reading my blog . So, I'm sorry if this offended anyone. I try not to be too offensive. :)

To make my apology sound genuine, let me add:
I myself am a newbie in so many ways. I am a newbie speaking Japanese. I am a newbie on many websites. I'm a newbie at putting on makeup. I am a newbie when it comes to dying hair. I'm a newbie in so many ways it's not even funny.
Which is why I try to poke fun at the things I'm not a newbie in as much as possible. ;)

So, I shall leave you by asking... (Because you as a blogger know that asking a question is the best way to get a comment... *hint hint*[shameless asking for comments FTW]) what are you not a newbie in? And how do you tell the newbies from the oldies? And what about the ancients?
Heck..
What about Naomi?!

That's a joke from Love Of Chair which is a small part of an old program made in I think the 70's called The Electric Company which was made to teach kids to read. Yes, we have the boxed set. And, yes, I still watch it. :D

The Problem With NaNoWriMo no. 1

2011-12-22T13:58:00.000-08:00

The first problem I have with NaNoWriMo actually only comes into my mind about a month later when I finally get around to trying to write some more on the novel. This problem?
The fact that my book sucks.
In fact, the problem is that since I give myself the ability to write badly in November, I do write badly. Which is the point of a rough draft, of course. But then when I come back to my book in December, I'm suddenly struck with how completely unrealistic and horrible my book is.
Urgh.

Be Warned

2011-12-22T10:02:00.000-08:00

Food. Is. Amazing.
No, really. If it were not amazing, I would not be opening up my post with this. As you can tell, my posting ability has gone down the drain, if I'm just posting about food. My brain has been all over the place (eeewwww) recently, so my one-theme posts tend to be either pathetic, or half-finished in my drafts folder. Sorry. I had some really good ones.
And yet I keep getting comments on my random posts, and not so much on my not random ones... Hmmmm...

But, anyway, back to the subject. Food. It is delicious. It keeps us living. How weird is that, anyway? We put strange substances, such as cheese, into our bodies, and we continue to live. It's a bizzare concept, if you really think about it. About how our bodies are actually really like machines. We don't control any of it. We really can't control whether we're breathing or not breathing or whether our hearts are beating or how fast, or how we're digesting stuff, or anything. Our bodies just do these things.
Bizzare, huh?

Another strange thing to think about is sleep. Every night/day there are (if you're getting enough sleep) about 7-10 hours of your life that you probably won't remember. That's 7-10 hours of your life that you are more or less unaware of. And yet while you're asleep, you're aware of what's going on. Your dreams. Who knows what deams you don't remember!
Or, think about it. You don't remember anything. For all you know, you could be going through extreme pain while sleeping, and you wouldn't remember it. You could be transported to another world and come back and you wouldn't remember it (actually a story idea I have). It creeps me out! But in a good way. :)

Words also don't make a lot of sense. Writing this, you probably know exactly what I'm saying. If I say "a bear with balloons" you probably get the mental image of a large, fuzzy, mammal with four legs, holding a couple of helium-filled balloons tied to ribbons. You probably don't get the image of a small electronic device being pelted by tiny rocks by an army of mechanical pencils. (You might be, though. I wouldn't know.) Words don't make a lot of sense. Why are things named what they are? Why is "blue" called "blue" and not "jigoff"?
I don't understand how this communication thing works so well.

Or colors. For all I know, what I consider blue, versus what you consider blue, could be completely different. Your blue could be my orange, your yellow could be my chartreuse! You never know! It's so creepy thinking about this sort of stuff.

Which, in a roundabout way, brings me to a sort of revelation that I had no clue I'd come to when writing this post which I honestly did think was going to be on that amazing, fantastic substance called food which I am now desiring having not eaten a large breakfast this morning:
We are completely different people.
No, really! We are not only individuals, but we are pretty much completely seperate little units. Think about it. Our minds are like those hamster balls that they run around in. We can bump into each other, and we all somewhat resemble each other, but we're all seperate, all sort of isolated from each other. And we can never get into someone else's thoughts.
O_o
...
...

And that's why I should never start out a post without knowing where I'm going to be ending...

Anway, I'm going to go eat food.
(food. is. amazing.)
Have a (insert holiday greeting here)!

~Angela

Ramblings

2011-12-19T08:41:00.000-08:00

I don't usually wear a lot of makeup. In fact, my so called "beauty routine", makeup wise, usually consists of these steps:
1. put hydrocortisone cream on eczema on face
2. put on facial sunscreen/lotion on face
3. put on foundation
4. possibly apply eyeliner
5. wear lipbalm

Ta da. Mostly I wear most of that stuff because of the eczema. If I don't, my face all looks all flakey and icky and crap.
We don't want that. :)

Last night, however, I went to my friend Catt's birthday party. And, with the exception of the random intimate touching and awkward talking, it seemed a lot like Valerie's slumber parties. For example: we played Truth or Dare. We did makeup. We sung karoke.
Did I mention the makeup?

It was actually pretty cool. We all got paired off and had to do each other's make up. Of course, I have zero confidence in my own makeup skills (you saw my "beauty routine"... That's not a lot of makeup!) so I didn't want to put any on anyone. My friend Nina, fortunately, didn't want to wear makeup (but wanted to put it on someone), so we got paired off.
Heh.
Heh.
Heh.
Life lesson number 5826784: Never let Nina near a jar of facial glitter.

CAUSE THE PARTY DON'T START UNTIL I WALK IN!
I present...
Myself.

See? Glitter! And you don't even see how sparkly my face/covered with makeup my face is, in these pictures. Mostly because I took 'em with my phone, which has a... well, a phone camera. Which isn't the best for taking pictures with.
XD

So, I'm recovering today from the party. Which will be fun. I've already taken a super long shower, put on deodorant, brushed my teeth (and retainer) got dressed in nice clean clothes, washed off most of the makeup (some of the glitter won't leave my bottom eyelashes... T_T) and I am eating breakfast.

Breakfast for Angela today:
A cup of peach yogurt mixed with 3/4 an apple cut up, one banana cut up.
One M&M cookie.
Possibly a cup of water.
:D

Here's another thought on my brain:
the stereotype "emo".
Let's think about this for a while.

Emo is short for "emotional", and was originally meant to mean someone who is overly emotional, especially one who has a problem with self-injuring.
Now, let's look at what it means nowadays:

That is what "emo" means now. It means... Someone with some epic piercings and amazing hairstyle. Who happens to wear a lot of black and punk-ish clothing.
Does this girl look like she hurts herself?
I don't think so.
And, even if she does, do you know how seriously someone would take her if she says "I'm emo" meaning "I cut myself"?
Not seriously at all.
In fact, they'd probably just laugh.
Because "emo" is a stereotype which has come to mean this bit of style and stuff.
Which is why I am anti "emo". Because the "emo" kids who actually do hurt themselves need attention and they need care. They don't need to be laughed at. Because the name "emo" is thrown about for everything. I can't count how many times I was called emo last year.
Introverts?
Emo.
Quiet people?
Emo.
People you're annoyed at?
Emo.
Someone sitting in a corner?
Emo.

Heck, THIS is considered "emo"!

Okay.
I just don't understand it.
And, I could rant about this for another ten pages, but I'm not going to. Because I'm sure it's boring y'all to death. XD

By the way, this yogurt is really good.
XD

I know I said earlier that the sleepover I went on had random intimate touching. Which is starting to venture into the reasons I love my teen group/homeschool friends so much.
Why?
Because no other people on the face of the earth could say "Course there's a f***ing camera! B****es!" and not offend me. No other group of people could come up to me and random start petting my hair without having me freak out and hit them. No one else could sing this song (strong language, be warned) in quite as epic of a way during karoke. I mean... The entire time, I think I was basically snuggling with someone.
(Sounds far creepier than it actually is, I must say.)
Yeah.
Kind of awkward/strange, but epic people.
XD

By the way, may I mention that, during Truth or Dare last night, Lizzy got dared to name one good thing and one bad thing about everyone playing?
And that she couldn't think of a single bad thing about me?
Oh yeah.
I'm just that epic.

M&M cookies are amazing, guys. Just throwing that out there.

Oh!
I want to have a shoutout to my friend Molihua.
She is amazing, and we love her. She's always there when anyone needs her. She always asks us if we need to talk, even when she doesn't have a lot of time. She always wonders how we're doing, and she always posts these really inspiring, kind comments. She's one of the most selfless, amazing people I know, online and in real life.
We love you, Molli!
*huggles*

I'm going to leave off now, because I have a feeling that y'all are getting bored of me.
As a last picture...

People Not To Be Like: Mrs. Defarge

2011-12-17T17:52:00.000-08:00

Because it's totally right when you kill an innocent man and his wife and child, all because that man happens to be the son of the man whose brother raped your sister.
That makes sense, sure.

Revenge in general is not a pleasant thing. When it is carried out to such extremes as Mrs. Defarge in A Tale of Two Cities carries it out, not only is it unpleasant; it is destructive, horrible, unfair, more wrong than usual, and the sort of thing that makes everyone hate you.

Besides that, one of the qualities of Defarge in this book is the quality of not stopping. That is to say- she no longer sees any difference between people. There is no difference between the prisoner and the free man; captured, free; guilty, innocent.
That is why you shouldn't be like Defarge.
(does this post make any sense so far?)

Defarge had a horrible back story. I will admit. It sounds traumatizing and horrible and scarring for life. However, I do not believe that her backstory gives her the right to accuse and bring to death the innocent characters in A Tale of Two Cities.
As dramatic as that sounds...
It's altogether possible in today's day and age. Think about it. Someone does something wrong to you. Let's say it's a parent of someone you know. Because you can't take revenge on this parent, you decide to be cruel and bully-ish to her children.
Do they deserve this?
No.
Although you aren't accusing them of treason and having them executed in a literal sense, think about what you're doing to their brains. You're basically making their life a living hell.
Why?
Because you happen to be mad at their mom.

Or, to set another example...
Let's say you hate a couple of people your own age. And you try to take revenge on them. However, there is also someone else (who you'd ordinarily not mind at all) who is friends with these people. So, you begin to shun her and purposely not invite her to things (and then say "shhh... don't tell her about the party!" knowing it'll get out).
Does she deserve it?
Heck no!
All that's happening here (and with Defarge) is that she's taking all her anger and everything... And transferring it onto someone else. She's taking all the things that she'd like to do to the original person (Darnay's dad and uncle) and transferring it onto innocent people who are vaguely connected to them (Darnay, Lucie, little Lucie). Why? Because she happens to be mad.

So, I'm sort of begging you, in a round about way... Do not be like Defarge. Be kind. Forgive the people. Try to ignore the people who tick you off. And... Whatever you do... Do not try to take revenge. Because revenge is destructive (as illustrated by Defarge dying) and it will make people hate you.

Have a nice day!
<3

Style

2011-12-16T07:48:00.000-08:00

One of the most fascinating things about today is the different clothing styles that I see. There's the girly style. There's the "fashionable" style. There's the sweat pants and hoodies style. There's the punk style. The "I just threw on whatever I found on my floor" style. There's the emo style. There's the "nerd"y style. There's the "normal/boring" style. There's the outdoorsy sort of style. There's the jock style. There's the dressy style. There's the "I don't even know why the heck you thought that was a good idea" style. There's the costume style, like Veela. There's a bazillion different styles.

Which is why I think it's dumb that people say you have to be fashionable. Or say you should follow the trends. Or say that something happens to be trendy. Because EVERYTHING is, at one point or another, in some sect or sub group or another, trendy.

Personally, I don't usually fit in any of the style groups, all the time. I know people who do. I know people who always dress goth. Or always dress costumey. Or always dress... insert style here.
I don't usually, though. Unless "refashioned and restyled and re-done" is a style. Because I do that quite frequently. Altered t-shirts... Altered pants.... Purses made of old jeans.... Homemade jewelry.... Hair stuff made out of random stuff I find lying around... painted shoes...
Yeah.
I guess I do have a style. ;)

Anyway, the reason I put this up here is just to remind everyone (I seem to be reminding people a lot of different stuff) that it's okay to have your own fashion sense. Or, on the other hand, it's okay if other people have their own. You see someone walking and you feel like you want to throw up at what they're wearing? You know what... That's just what they think looks cool.
Or it could be like me on days where I haven't done laundry forever and literally all I have to wear is a pair of jeans that are too short and a strangely fitting shirt that I never wear because it fits strangely. You know, it could just be laziness. XD

On a related note... Possibly after Monday (because Saturday-Monday is going to be insanely busy for me) I'll maybe write up a tutorial for my not-so-original bracelets.
Pictures:

So, I might possibly have a tutorial for thsoe up soon. :)

Decorating the Tree and Somesuch

2011-12-14T14:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we put up our tree. Today we finally got around to decorating it. Of course, it looks pretty much the same way it does every year, only with possibly more ornaments. I think we must have something like six boxes of ornaments, not including the lights, beads, and the star.
Our tree has bling.

Anyway, I wanted to say Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate Christmas, and happy holidays to those of you who don't. And "bah, humbug" to you party poopers who don't celebrate nothin' but instead hang out at your house all season ignoring the cards people send you.
:)
I don't actually have a picture to put in this post (the horror) but I found my Santa hat, so I'll be wearing that pretty much everywhere until... March? And I have my Christmas light earrings, so those are going to be worn an awful lot too.

Anyway, one thing I encourage everyone here to think about is how you're acting around Christmas. I don't want to sound all preachy, but I can tell you... It really doesn't mean anything when you give someone a present, or say happy holidays, if you don't actually care.
So, I encourage you to think about... How you're acting. How you're treating everyone. If you're being a kind person. If you're being a person your friends think they can talk to if they need to. If you're thinking about others. It really does feel good when you know someone who finally comes to you and talks to you about stuff because they know that you won't yell at them or anything- and that's speaking from personal experience.

Love everyone.
All the time.

Happy Holidays!

~Angela
(totally rockin' the santa hat, by the way.)

Math Problem

2011-12-12T09:19:00.000-08:00

Hey, guys! I apologize for not keeping up with my overly prolific post-every-day posting schedule. Procrastination, homework, and people suddenly realizing that I'm awesome and they want to spend time with me has been taking up all my time.
Let me illustrate this last point really fast.
This was my weekend:
Friday = Teach piano. School. Procrastinate. Go to Elena's Christmas party.
Saturday = Religious Ed training, Yule Ball.
Sunday = church, homework, procrastinating, go to movie with Vivian.

Nothing today, though. Thankfully.

Anyway, here is the math thing that I came up with at the Yule Ball. Because I'm an awesome math geek and I have mad skillz. In fact, I'm so awesome, I put a "z" on the end of "skills". Oh yeah.

If
Teenager = Awkward
and
Homeschooler = Dork
and everyone at my teen group is geeky, then what are the people at my teen group?

teenager + homeschooler + geeky = teen group people
awkward + dork + geeky = teen group people
awkward geeky dorks = teen group people

See? It's brilliant! I was so proud of myself. XD

Phocookie

2011-12-11T13:41:00.001-08:00

There is, in fact, a reason that I don't often talk on the phone. Actually, there are several reasons. These include the fact that I don't have very many people that I can call on the phone, the fact that my phone is a piece of crap, and the fact that when I do have phone conversations, they tend to last forever.
Forever = teenager speech for "a really long time; several hours".
For example.
Today, I was bored, after church, so I called my friend. And I'm still on the phone with her. According to the timer, it has been 2 hours, 53 minutes, and... 20 seconds. That's a long conversation. One of my previous conversations lasted almost two hours. Another time, my friend Katie and I called each other about every day for three days and the whole total was something about... twelve? Nine or twelve hours. My conversations? Are really long. Which is part of the reason I don't have them very often. The other reason is my phone. Which is currently getting really warm and slightly overheating and which is still on speakerphone because it's a piece of crap that has issues and won't talk to anyone if I don't have it on speakerphone.
T_T

The other part of this title is for "cookies". Why? Because my amazing family members who are actually posessing of cooking talents, have made cookies today.
Yum.

By the way...
Those are my cookies. >:D
You're welcome, Ashlynne. XD

Writing Contest December 2011

2011-12-01T13:51:00.001-08:00

Believe it or not, I've actually had a request to create a writing contest. On my blog, so non-OYAN students can participate.
Because you guys are amazing followers and don't usually tell me (or ask me) to do stuff for you, and you just let me ramble along with my nonsensical posts about nothing, I'm being a nice blogger and doing this for you.
You're welcome.

~~~

For this contest, you are going to write three scenes for three categories (one scene for each.). You will then submit them to me (I will have a few other judges, don't worry) and then we will judge them. I will then post the results of the three categories up, with first, second, and third in each one. If you want- even if you didn't get to finalist in any category- you will be able to email me, and I will send you copies of any/all your scenes with the notes from the judges, including myself.

The three categories are:
1. Tragic death of a character.
2. A party.
3. An escape.

Here are the categories in more detail.

Tragic death of a character:
This can be your main character, or not. It can be the MC's best friend, or a random movie star that your character loves. Either way, your goal is to create as much emotion as you can. In other words, you're trying to make us cry our eyes out.

A party:
This sounds really weird, I know. But think about all the different types of parties you could have. You could have a ball in a different world. You could have a party where the MC is a spy. You could have a party in a world where music is illegal. Again- your goal is to create emotion. Is it a happy party? If so, we should be feeling uplifted. A party full of serial killers? We should probably be feeling creeped out. Just make sure that it's PG-13 or less.

An escape:
This is another fun one. What is your MC escaping from? Where are they? How are they escaping? What world are they in? Is there magic? Are they alone? Or are they with a group of people? Is it a sneaky escape through a window, or are your characters running through a field away from the soldiers with guns? Again- emotion.

Here are the rules.

1. Scenes must be between 500 and 1500 words long. No longer, or we won't have time to read them. No shorter and I'm afraid they probably won't be very good.

2. Everything MUST be sent to me by December 20th. This gives you at least 19 days to write your scenes, and gives the judges enough time to read/critique them and still get everything out by mid January.

3. When emailing me the scenes, please put "WRITING CONTEST" in the subject line. That way I don't just delete it. ;)

4. Format your writing in Courier New, sized at 12, double spaced.

5. You will retain all rights to your writing.

6. No plagarism.

7. Please provide the name you want us to use when putting up the names of who won. For example, I might say that I want to be called "Chanterelle" instead of "Angela" or vice versa.

8. Scenes must be G, PG, or PG-13. Nothing rated above that; partly because I don't like reading that sort of stuff, and partly because I think it takes away from the scenes.

The fun stuff is a prize, I know, and I'll (hopefully) have a grab button for your blog if you get into the top three, depending on which category you get into. :)

Have fun... And if I remember anymore rules, I'll make sure to put 'em up. XD

50K

2011-11-30T11:37:00.001-08:00

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

2011-11-27T07:19:00.001-08:00

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

2011-11-21T13:25:00.001-08:00

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

2011-11-19T17:16:00.001-08:00

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

2011-11-17T14:04:00.001-08:00

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)

2011-11-15T11:15:00.001-08:00

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

2011-11-13T11:30:00.001-08:00

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

2011-11-07T14:03:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-07T08:42:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-06T09:28:00.000-08:00

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).

2011-11-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-03T16:48:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-03T14:26:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-11-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

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

2011-11-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

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.)

Costume

2011-10-31T15:46:00.001-07:00

Hi guys! I promised pictures of my costume... Here it is. :)

By the way, yes, this is steampunk, just... unfinished steampunk. I have some things I want to add to it, and so next year it'll look way cooler. :)
(As it is it's pretty neat.)

Hallowe'en!

2011-10-31T12:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween, everyone! It's officially October 31st... And one of my absolute favorite holidays.
Halloween.
Candy day.
Dress up as someone else day.
Harass strangers day.

It's just an epic holiday, in my opinion.

Now, don't get me wrong. There are definitely people who think I'm too old to get dressed up and trick-or-treat, because I'm a teenager, and it's a "little kid" holiday, and all that.

But is it really?

According to history.com, Halloween started out with the Celts, whose new year began on November 1st- the day after October 31st. They also believed that the night before the new year was when the line between the living and the dead was blurred.

Thus you must have a ritual. (This was the celebration of Samhain.)

The Celtic druids would conduct this celebration or ritual, mainly by starting the bonfires. Then, the villagers would extinguish the fires in their houses, and go and dance around the bonfire. The celebration/holiday included worshipping their deities by sacrificing animals and grains... By throwing them into the bonfires. They also dressed up in animal skins, probably starting the tradition of costumes that is still practiced today.

According to most things I've read, (read: this one and this one), the way that the Celts would protect themselves from spirits would be to take an ember from the sacred bonfires (on November 1st) and use it to re-start the hearth fires in their houses. This would supposedly protect them during the time of "cold and dark", and keep the evil spirits away from their homes.

The next development in the history of Halloween was when the Romans invaded and took over where the Celts lived. They had several celebrations of their own that took place in the cold months, namely Feralia, which actually took place sometime in early February, and the celebration of Pomona. Although the date of the celebration of Pomona herself is unknown, she apparently shared a feast day with her husband, sometime in August. Although neither of these are particularly near to the Celtic festival of Samhain, they ended up being more or less combined.

Of course, another chapter in the history of Halloween came with the arrival of Christianity. One of the well known trends for the Catholic church is to take the pagan holiday, add a Christian spin on it, package it up with a new name, and then hand it back to the people.

This is no different.

The original All Saints Day was in May, but the church changed it to November 1st. This was also called "All Hallows", meaning that the day was holy. (Hallows- to make holy.) The second day in November was later also made into a holy day- all saint's day. (Or, if you're like the cemetery across from my house, just call the whole weekend "Cemetery Sunday").

Of course, old traditions don't disappear quickly... Especially ones that have been around since the Celts. The night before All Saint's Day continued to be celebrated, as "All Hallows Evening". Another name for "Evening" was "even", which was then added to the end of "Hallows" as a sort of ancient lingo. This was later shortened again to "All Hallowe'en" and then later to "Halloween".

Of course, the tradition that I celebrate here is quite different from the celebration that was practiced in old Europe. As Halloween traveled to the "New World", there were definitely some alterations. Pranks became more popular, as did the emphasis on neighbors and community. This latter aspect was especially helped by the immigrants from various countries. Various traditions also developed- the religious aspect began to sink away as the idea of "trick-or-treating" and just fun began to emerge as more important. By the 1930's, parents were discouraging the superstious bits and the "grotesque" bits, and encouraging more good-humored fun.

However, this is also when vandalism and more pranks began to become a problem.

To encourage the chance that their house would not be pranked, families started "paying off" the pranksters... By giving them candy or money. This is another tradition that obviously survives today, only with the name "trick-or-treating", and not, "let's-buy-off-the-neighboorhood-kids-so-they-don't-egg-our-house".

So, the tradition of Samhaim still continues today, although in a diluted and very different way. Each time another culture comes into contact with the tradition, it seems to alter it. Today's halloween, for example, is quite different from the religious "All Hallow's Eve" which is in turn very different from the Roman celebration of Ponoma.

I wouldn't change a thing.

(Sources: history.com's thing on Halloween. Holidays.net's thing on Halloween. About.com on Pomona. Wyrdology.com's thing on Feralia.)
...

Like it? Figures that I'd write a history of Halloween, doesn't it? I never do anything fun like Linda did, do I. Nope.
I mean, I do have a creepy story. But it was technically for a contest. (Not that I'll enter it as an actual entry... The minimum word count for short story is 3,000, and mine barely hits 600... but I'm still sending it to the runner, because I wrote it for her... blah). So I won't be putting it up until my friend gets it. :)
And yes.
I have a costume.
A really awesome costume.
But I probably won't get pictures up for a few days, because I probably won't have much time tonight... If I do have time, though, I'll put the pictures up. Okay?

But anyway, Happy Halloween. Or Reformation day, if you celebrate that instead. ;)

And a song for y'all...

Hermy The Worm

2011-10-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! Just wanted to share this... For Girl Scouts we're doing a SWAPS event.
(SWAPS by the way, means "Special Whatchamacallits Affectionally Pinned Somewhere")
Our troop swap is made of one of these babies, stuffed inside a tiny plastic bag along with a hair clip. [if you look in our hair in the video, you can see those weird colored... things? Yeah. Those are the worms, with teh strings wrapped around our ears. We figured we'd make it easier for people to put them in their hair by including a hair clip. We're just nice that way.] On the outside of the bag there are two stickers, one on either side. One says "Making New Friends: Troop 1747" (Or just... Making New Friends) and the other one has the link to that YouTube video up there.

Now, there is a short story behind this.
Let me begin with the song.

Despite what most people may think, that song we're singing up there is not the "original" Hermy the Worm song. There are, in fact, two "original" versions, with that one being neither.
Here is the original version I learned. (The words in parenthesis are the words to the other original version, which we didn't use because it was too bloody. ;))

Sitting on my fence post, chewing my bubble gum.

Playin with my yo-yo.

Woo, Woo!

And along came Hermy the worm. He was THIS BIG!

I said, Hermy, what happened?

I ate a bug. (my sister.)

Sitting on my fence post, chewin my bubble gum.

Playin' with my yo-yo.

Woo-Woo!

And along came Hermy the worm. He was THIS BIG!

I said, Hermy, what happened?

I ate a snake. (My brother.)

Sitting on my fence post, chewin my bubble gum.

Playing with my yo-yo.

Woo-Woo!

And along came Hermy the worm. He was THIS BIG!

I said, Hermy, what happened?

I ate a dog. (My mother.)

Sitting on my fence post, chewin my bubble gum.

Playin' with my yo-yo.

Woo-Woo!

And along came Hermy the worm. He was THIS BIG!

I said, Hermy, what happened?

I ate a cow. (My father.)

Sitting on my fence post, chewin my bubble gum.

Playin' with my yo-yo.

Woo-Woo!

And along came Hermy the worm. He was this big.

I said, Hermy, what happened?

I burped.

Now, this is a Girl Scout song.
We sing it every time we go on any camp out.
You could say that it's become our sort of theme song.

Moving on with the story.

I've been in Girl Scouts for six years. So, since I was 8. I started out as my first year in Juniors- because it was either my last year of Brownies or my first year of Juniors, and the rest of the troop was already Juniors, so, yeah.

A few years into being a Girl Scout- I think it was one or two- my first SWAPS event came around. We were wondering what the heck we should do as a troop swap, until we thought of this song.
"Hermy!" we said. "We should make Hermy!"

And so we did.
(this is where I'd have a picture of our original swap, except I'm too lazy to go take a picture of it. I have one on my bulletin board.)

So, the swap was baiscally a green pipe cleaner, wrapped around a pencil (and then taken off) to make a worm. We then glued two googly eyes to the worm, and then we glued it to a fake leaf and put a piece of paper that says "Girl Scout Troop 1747" under the worm, and then glued a pin to the back.

We made a ton of those.

Needless to say, when this year's SWAP event came around, and we were wondering what to make, of course we chose Hermy the Worm.

My troop loves traditions.

So, we decided that the best thing to do was to get the toy worms, and use them as Hermy- and then write the lyrics to the song and put them with the worm.
Unfortunately, though, there were too many lyrics to fit.

So, the YouTube thing happened. Only we changed the lyrics.
I don't remember what fruits we used exactly, but I know the last one was a watermellon. I think the first was a strawberry..
You're just going to have to watch it for yourself.

Anyway, if anyone's wondering, I'm on the far, far left, on the bottom row, in the blue shirt. :) The girl sitting directly behind me, with the long hair and white shirt is Valerie/Veela, and the one on the far right with the blue shirt is Cat/Linda. And no, I don't feel bad revealing her identity, since, y'know, there's like a ton of pictures of her up on the Book blog. So. ;)

Anyway, thought I'd share.
Toodleoo.

My Dilemma, Essays, Procrastination, What Makes me Happy

2011-10-25T16:45:00.000-07:00

Hey guys.
Feeling a bit spazzy tonight, so not only will this be a short post, but will probably have nothing to do with anything else, and will most likely make as much sense as those sentences they give you to type in "how fast do I type" tests!*

*For the record, I just got 94 WPM, but my highest is over 100. I have a friend who is even faster, too.

So, the first thing I want to go to is the last thing in my title, and that would be...
What makes me happy?
I've even written out an advertisement blurb for this...

Do you want to be fabulously happy? Do you dream of always being in a good mood and delighting your family? Do you want to be known as a ray of sunshine? If so you should check out Angela's List of Happiness coming soon to bookstores soon!

Heh.
I like writing those.

Anyway, since Veela kicked me off the computer, this is going to be slightly different in tone than what I first wrote, but you're going to have to deal.
Okey dokey?
Great.

Anyway, the things that make me happy. I'm talking ecstatically insanely completely happy. To the point of writing a post about- although that might not be that big of an accomplishment. As most people have noticed, I've usually managed to write at least one blog post a month for the past four years, sometimes more, and sometimes more than one per day. (There were weeks where I'd crank out posts in the range of 21-45. True story!)

So!
Here goes.

1. the OYAN forum.
2. My brothers. *loves brothers*
3. My sisters.
4. my iPod.
5. Cool settings on my camera. Like making everything black and white! (Notice my profile pic?)
6. YouTube.
7. Disney Broadway music. Like Aladdin. Or The Little Mermaid. :D
8. Super Mario Galaxy music. A la Isaac!
9. Webinars.
10. Happiness!

Next topic.
My Dilemma
Say it isn't so!
Angela?
A dilemma?
Psh.
Like that ever happens.
But oh! Wait! I do! I have a problem, and it's up to YOU readers to help me with it. (Don't you just love cheesy lines?)
The dilemma?
I want to have a blog button. You know, one of those annoying things that you put on your sidebar and say, "take my button! Show the world that you actually care what I write!"? yeah. I want one of those. I even know how to make one!
Problem is?
I don't have an image to use.
As you can tell, while my background is awesomely tranquil and epic, it doesn't have a... hm... "image" I can use as a button.
Which is why I need your help!
I need you either to put a comment on here, or send me an email, about what picture you think personifies my blog, my writing, or anything like that. And then I'll choose one and you can show that you actually do care what this rambling teenage girl writes!
Ha!

Essays

I'm not going to say that Western Civilization is a hard course. In fact, I can't think of very many things about it that are hard.
This is because

a) I have an amazing memory and remember random crap no one else does.
b) I have a tendency to write 2 or 3 pages longer than anyone else.
c) I've learned most of this history already.
d) Essays are easy and I have no problem going from one paragraph to another.

The reason it's hard, though, is because of all the busywork. Each week we have to watch two video lectures, do a workbook exercise, answer about 11 essays, read a chapter which is somewhere between 20 and 45 pages, read handouts, answer any AP questions, and be prepared to discuss them in class.
It's a lot of work.

So, I'm just saying right now that I'm struggling through the 11 "regular" essays. I've already written the DBQ but I'll probably re-write it, since I don't think I've actually answered the question... Whoops!

Procrastination

The thing about my procrastination is that I have a concious. I feel guilty about it. If I procrastinate I go, "NO! I SHOULD NOT BE PROCRASTINATING WHILE THERE IS SCHOOLBOOKS OUT! GO AWAY GO AWAY OR I'M GOING TO SHOUT!"

Only ususally without the Dr Seuss rhyming. :)

But anyway, I'm procrastinating right now. Mostly. I just need to dump PJ on my mom and go write essays.
But I'm not.
*sigh*

Anyway, that's it for my rambling post. I'm not going to put up questions because I'm too lazy too and let's be honest, very few people answer them anyway.
If you have to have a prompt for putting out a comment, though, tell me what your WPM typing speed is. ;)

Why People are Wrong... Again.

2011-10-24T15:01:00.000-07:00

I know that the majority of my posts happen to be slightly funny vamped up rants about why so-and-so is wrong about this thing or that thing or this other thing and why I'm annoyed at them.

So, it really should come as no surprise that today is going to be another (hopefully) slightly funny rant. (If I'm not funny at all, guys, please tell me. As it is, I'm going on the assumption that I make you chuckle/smile/laugh at least once in every five posts. If not, tell me, and I'll get really disappointed and go buy a llama or something equally impossible. kay?)

One of the subjects that most people take for granted is the, "if everyone was the exact same, what would life be like?" subject. If you ask someone, chances are very good (think 80%) that they'll say "boring!" or "Awful!" or "It would be horrible!" or "What the heck you crazy woman get away from me!"

If you ask me, though, this is generally my reply:
"I think life would be really cool. Because no one would fight, because no one would have a different opinion. Think about jelly beans. If everyone only liked red ones, they'd only make red ones, so no one would get jealous about who had red jelly beans when they only had green ones! And if you didn't know that people could be different, it would be normal. So you wouldn't care. So I think life would be awesome."

In response, I usually get someone going...
"You crazy, Angela. You a crazy woman."
(In which case I go, "are. It's 'you are crazy, Angela. Not you crazy." which is also when we start fighting about whether or not I can correct someone's speech. Which obviously I can, since I just did. But I digress.)

But seriously.
Think about it.

I know that the stereotypical response to "what would life be like if we were all the same" is the one people usually give. "Boring"
"Annoying"
"Boring."
"Not fun."
"Boring."
"Awful."
"Boring."
"Horrible."
"Boring."

But I really want you guys to think about it. What if everyone really was like everyone else? Of course, it would all depend on who the person was like. If it was a serial killer with a bad habit of killing ten people on Tuesdays, then obviously the human race wouldn't last very long. (Why? Because everyone would be out having a killing spree on Tuesdays, and if everyone managed to kill ten people before they died, that's a lot of people.) And the same goes if it was a horribly selfish, suicidal person who doesn't care about anyone else. (For the record, though, the nicest people I know are depressed/slightly suicidal. It's weird. The people with the most issues seem to be the ones most open to hearing what someone else has to say. Huh.)
But let's take a normal person.
(Normal meaning "well balanced, with no huge issues".)

Let's create this person.
(We'll call it "Jamie" because that can be a girl or a boy.)

Jamie is a regular human. They enjoy watching TV and eating popcorn. They really enjoy science, and even though they don't like math they know that it's important anyway so they do it. They prefer geometry over algebra, and they play the flute. They're pro-life, but are liberal on most other subjects. They really want world peace, and even though they aren't extreme environmentalists they still recycle what they can and have water-saving showerheads in their houses.

Now, let's assume that everyone on earth has the exact same personality. (Not that they look the same. As far as I'm concerned, we already have that in the general population of teenagers. You know how it is- long hair on the girls, medium/short hair on the guys. They're thin or obese, but nowhere inbetween, they generally wear the same clothing from the same stores and listen to the same music. Bleh. We don't need more of that. As a friend said, "everyone from (insert high school here) looks the same! They're orange, with platinum blond hair, and pink pants!")
Back on topic.

So, now everyone has the same personality. No one knows what it was like when people were different. When someone was pro-choice and someone else was pro-life and some other people don't even care they just want to watch Glee, and when there were some people who believed that the best thing to do was to go shoot everyone and some people who thought that guns were probably the worst invention in the world, and there were some people who didn't like guns but used them anyway because they were in the military and some people who liked pens and some people who liked pencils and some people who liked no writing instrument because they were sourpusses who didn't appreciate the written word...
All they know is that they're the same.

But do they know that? If you blind, born into a society of blind people who had never known someone who could see, who had never heard of sight... Would you know you were blind?
So, I don't think they'd know they're the same.

They would just know that they never fight about anything. They all have the same opinions. Advances in science are easy... but how far would they advance?
If we're taking Jamie's personality as our example, would anyone actually dedicate their life to math? Would anyone make any major discoveries?
Now, I'm sure they would. But I also don't think it would happen very fast. You can discover something by accident, but it's much more likely you'll discover the same thing when you're looking for it.

So, advances are going really slow, but I don't think anyone cares. Or do they? Even if someone has the same personality, that doesn't mean that they're going to be the same person. What if someone got cancer? Some of the others are going to want to help them. I bet that's where the discoveries would come in. Maybe? Maybe not. But there would certainly be more people to work on things like that, since no one has to be a lawyer, or a judge, or have to work in the government, because everyone has the same opinions on everything. And if everyone thinks the same thing, doesn't that get rid of the point of laws?
So, we have more people to work in other things. Like science, like math, like art. Life would be peaceful. No one would care that they were all the same, because it's nice that way, and they don't know what it's like without it that way.

After thinking about that another interesting thing to ponder is how alike we all are. I don't mean the orange skin blond hair pink pants way, but in the ways that we are universally the same.
Think about the "human condition". If you don't know what that is, search it.
To quote this site here,

"Humans, to an apparently superlative degree amongst all living things, are aware of the passage of time, can remember the past and imagine the future, and are intimately aware of their own mortality. Only human beings are known to ask themselves questions relating to the purpose of life beyond the base need for survival, or the nature of existence beyond that which is empirically apparent: What is the meaning of existence? Why was I born? Why am I here? Where will I go when I die? The human struggle to find answers to these questions — and the very fact that we can conceive them and ask them — is what defines the human condition in this sense of the term."

So, if we're all the same in that way, is life now all so different from the life we've imagined up in the body of my extensively long and boring post? Are we really that different from Jamie-Angela-Made-Me-Up-In-30-Seconds?
Would life be all so different?

As far as I can see, even if we aren't as similar as the Jamie-Somewhat-Clones would be, in most things we're alike. Maybe we could do to be more similar. Personally, I detest violence and war, and if everyone just decided that it's a good idea to stop fighting and hurting people and opressing people and abusing fellow human beans, I would be ecstatic.
(Sadly, I don't think that's going to happen.)
But as it is, I think w'ere more similiar than we think we are. How many times do you find yourself thinking, "wow, they just don't understand"? How about, "they're out of touch with my life." or "She's insane!" or "What in the world.... That's not me! I'm not at all like that person! I can't relate!"?
Yeah.
Probably pretty often.

So, I'm going to actually ask now... What do you think? Would life be better if we were the same? Why or why not? If we were all the same, do you think we'd need laws? Rules? Regulations? Lollipops? Curfews? Prisons? Blogs? The internet? Would we all know the same things? Or would we still have to go to school? If everyone procrastinates as much as I do, do you think we would get anything done? Or do you think the human race would die out?
I'm not going to get mad if you have a different opinion as I do. I just really would like to know. And if you want, you can email me about it, because I'm always happy to have another excuse to procrastinate, especially if it has to do with a blog post that took me about half an hour to write up due to the rambling, unending, too extended sentences with love affairs with commas and due to the fact that I usually don't go this deep into... well... anything on my blog, so I wasn't really sure how anyone is going to take it and the fact that I spent 20 minutes before this analyzing documents.
So.
Yeah.
That's the end of this post.
Toodleoo!

My Torture List For Tomorrow

2011-10-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

I know, you're all going to be yawning by the end of this post. But I'll try to make it interesting. This is... ehhhhh... all the school/chores I can tell that I may have to do tomorrow.
If I don't do 'em all, feel free to send orcs to my house.
Or cave trolls.
Though I prefer the orcs.

-Finish all my WC homework.

Finish reading the chapter (8 more pages or so)
Do 12 essay questions
Watch 2 video lectures
Do a workbook exercise
Do the map exercise
Procrastinate again

-Do my mathematics
-Possibly Ancient Greek History
-Biology

Read textbook #2
Read textbook #1
Do a lab
Answer questions in textbook #1 from chapters #1 and #2

-Writing

OYAN Other Worlds
Critiquing
Possibly planning out a story
Planning out my NaNoWriMo plot
Actually replying to my writing buddies' NaNoMail to me

-Eat
-Load the dishwasher-Unload the diswasher
-Piano

Practice the pieces
Do 2 theory lessons
Practice scales and inversions
Practice triads
Make flashcards
Headpiano several times
Practice pieces again

-Geology (whatever the heck my next lesson is)
-Eat again
-Procrastinate
-Goof off on computer

Stalk OYAN forum (even though I left it again today)
Check email 50,000,000 times
Check NaNoWriMo forums
Check for sewing tutorials
Check my email again
Play around on Bookworm Adventures
Write
Pretend to write
Bug some people on my email again

-Clean my room

Clean floor
Dance around to music
Make bed
Change sheets
Randomly fall asleep while changing sheets
Wake up and forget what I'm doing
Procrastinate
Clean the top of my dresser
Do laundry
Fall asleep again
Listen to more music

Phew! I'm sure there's something I've forgotten in there, but considering that my procrastination takes up about... 10 hours of my day, I think that's enough to get me through the day.

(Red = done. By the way, I did most of that coloring as HTML. I feel so smart!)

Re: Why Can't You Be More Like Your Sister?

2011-10-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

To be honest, when I put up that post, I wasn't expecting that sort of response. I was expecting what usually happens- people just shrug and move on.
But that didn't happen.

I think there's a couple of reasons that it got a bad reaction.
First of all... Everyone loves Valerie. (I love Valerie!) and no one likes it when someone rants about someone that they love.
Second of all, you don't go and read a blog to listen to someone ranting. In fact, you don't go to hear negative stuff. At least I don't. So, hearing me rant probably wasn't a good move.
Thirdly, I don't think anyone wants to believe that I have a low self esteem, at all, at any point in my life.

But I also think that a lot of people didn't understand the post. No, I'm not pulling a Sandy Laurence and claiming that my entire audience needs reading comprehension classes and that that wasn't really what I meant and that I just didn't have enough room to type out everything or anything. I understand that I did not write it correctly, that it was rather mean, and that it probably wasn't something I should put out on my blog.

If you'll allow me to clarify my post, however...

When I'm referring to how people are always wishing I was extroverted like my sister, I realize I said that "everyone but my mom" wanted me to be that way. I realize that that was incorrect- I realized that at the time I was writing it too. I'm sorry to everyone who felt annoyed/hurt at that phrasing.

Another thing that I didn't really mention in my post all that much... I do not want to be an extrovert! I am perfectly happy with who I am. I like being an innie. I like being able to sit and people watch. I enjoy being myself, and I wouldn't change if I could.

Yet another (geesh, how incorrect/inaccurate was this post?!) thing I didn't really clarify is that there are actually people who prefer to be around me than to be around my sister. At least at times. I'm not really sure why this is, but it quite possibly springs from the facts that I don't wear poodle skirts and I can have a conversation without mentioning celebs/fashion week/makeup. Just a guess.

Still one more item I haven't addressed yet... that I am not jealous of the way that Valerie dresses. I mean, sure, there have been times where I wish I could look a little more like her. Less tall/thin/awkward than I do now. But then I realize that... that we were made the way we are for a reason! I have a facial shape that practically forces me to have short (read: chin length) hair, which is a good thing, since I don't have time/patience to deal with more styling! Valerie hasn't as good skin as I do (just a fact) which works out okay because, like before, she has waaaaaay more patience with putting on facial crap than I do. I have eczema, which works out since it means that I do at least a little of the whole... makeup [shudder] thing.
Eh.

Again, I just want to mention that while, yes, I'm jealous of Valerie, I don't want to be her. Yes, it's nice when I can talk to my friends and have them be my friends and talk to them by myself, and it would be nice to be able to walk into the middle of a crowd and be perfectly at ease, or to be able to have 50,000,000,000,000 friends, or be able to not be scared to act like an idiot. But on the other hand... I like who I am. I like being able to think things through. I think I make better choices than a lot of teens do, because I'm scared to look like an idiot, because I think things through three times before I say/do them. I like how I look, I like how I dress. I like what music I listen to, I like what books I write. I enjoy playing piano, and I don't want to learn violin. I like being a sarcastic, witty person. It's okay to me that various people still describe me as "cute". I don't mind that. I don't mind sitting in a corner during a dance and watching everyone having fun. I don't like it when I'm having a bad day and someone texts me and says, "oh my goodness, that is the best day in the WORLD", but I don't mind not being part of the fun.
At least not at parties..

On a side note, I am going to a party tonight. In fact, it's going to be pretty awesome, and I get to see my friends. Yes, Valerie is going. Yes, she's wearing her halloween costume and is completely going to embarrass me. Yes, I'm probably going to spend most of the time sitting in the basement, or just avoiding people. I'm quite possibly going to get mad at someone during the course of th (and this is where blogger signed me out and I'm thankful for autosave) course of the night, but I'm still going to have fun.
Because I want to.
:D

Anyway, I hope that cleared everything up, and if it didn't... and if you're still mad/curious/sad that I posted that previous post, feel free to email me the question.

I'm Still 3 Years Old

2011-10-21T08:17:00.000-07:00

When people look at me and say, "wow, she's so mature", they're missing the fact that I'm still 3 years old.
No, not literally.
In fact, I'll be taking driver's ed next year.

But mentally?
I'm still three.

Exclusion
I still suffer from this. I still have friends who are my friend- but are someone else's friend more. I still know people who are incredibly kind to me... as long as their actual friends aren't alone. There are still things that people don't want me to do. When I was 3 it was Dean and Nick telling me that I couldn't play with them because I was a girl. Now it's a party I'm not invited to, or sitting in a corner and watching all my friends talk and not knowing how to talk to them because I don't do IH. And I don't go to the community college. And I don't watch this TV show or that TV show and crime and bad stuff actually does depress me, it doesn't make me fascinated.

Reaction to exclusion
This is also the same. When I was three it was to run to Dean's mom and tell her that they weren't letting me play with them. Now it's... Running to my sister/best friend and telling my sister, or telling him, that I don't actually have any friends and that I'm not in their cliques.

Tendency to get sad
When I was three, I'd randomly get sad for no reason.
When I was six, I'd get randomly sad for no reason.
When I was nine I still got really sad for no reason.
I'm fourteen now... I still get sad for no real reason at all.

Piano
When I was three, my grandma J was teaching me piano. They weren't "official" lessons, just a little bit of instruction. That's when I had el cheapo $20 keyboard sitting on a steamer chest to play on.
In between Amy (my second teacher)'s instruction and Donna (my current teacher)'s instruction, I hated practicing piano. I had two bad teachers, Nick and Corrie, and I didn't enjoy my lessons. Now, though, it's just like when I was 3- only now I have a real piano.

Tendency to feel sorry for myself
As you can tell from the first two bolded titles, I feel bad for myself. I always have. Except nowadays I'm a lot better at not telling people about it... and shoving it away into a little box.

Year or two behind
When I was three I felt four. When I was four I felt six. When I was six I felt like I was seven, when I was seven I felt like I should be nine. I'm fourteen and I feel fifteen. I feel like my brain is too old for my body.

People forgetting my age
And I'm not talking just about my dad's forgetfulness. I'm talking my friends. My friends' parents. My teachers, excluding my mom. My cousins.
On the subject, this tends to swing in two different ways. The first group is usually my family. They're the ones who knew me when I was 3. They also are the ones who seem to suffer under the delusion that I am in fact three years old.
The other group is formed from my friends, their parents, and the other teachers I have. They're the ones who forget that I'm this young. They're the ones who seem to believe that I'm older than Linda is- when I was eleven they were asking me why I didn't participate in teen activities. This group also includes all the random people I meet. In the past two months, about three people have asked me if I'm in college, and two have assumed I'm 16.
It's interesting.

Disney movies
Yes, I admit it. I still love watching the Disney films. I sing along to Aladdin, I love Belle's dress, I get freaked out by the villains in 101 Dalmations, I still love to hate Scar in Lion King. I know a lot of people who just sort of smile at the Disney movies. But they're some of the few I can actually sit through without too much fidgiting.

Mathematics
When I was three, and just starting to do school, I absolutely adored math. It was amazing. I loved the patterns, I loved the Kids Cards, I enjoyed my math programs. As soon as I hit six, I started detesting math. I wouldn't do it. I hated it. When I was twelve I discovered that it was better if I just did it without fussing, and now two years later and I love figuring out what x equals or creating a graph to figure out how much water can flow out of a pipe of x length and fill up a pot of y depth if there's a hole of w width in the pot and b about of water flows out of it per minute.

Friends
Alright, so this is more about when I was four, but it's pretty close. Of all my friends? I'd say that 3/4 of them are people I met when I was under six. About 6/7 of them I've known for over two years. Vivian? I've known her since I was four. Elena? I was younger. Linda I've known since who knows how long, Katie I didn't actually ever talk to until I was about... ehhh... 9, but I knew her for a long time. Dylan I knew when I was 5 and then he disappeared- reappearing this year at literature group.

I hate approaching people
This I hated doing when I was three. I still hate it. I'm okay with other people approaching me, but if I have to go introduce myself to someone, I get knots in my stomach.

People have the completely wrong idea of who I am
When I was three, I don't remember much, except for the fact that people completely overestimated me. They still do. Here's the song that a good friend recently said should be my theme song:

While I'm very flattered that they think that of me, and I really like the song, I think most people would choose this as my theme song.

Yeah. . Let's just say that people completely overestimate me still. And it's not just the social stuff, it's in general.

The wish to be overestimated
I know, craziness, right? But it's true. I hate it when people underestimate me... As I complained to my mom once, in the car after piano lessons, "I'd rather struggle through a song too hard for me that I knew I couldn't do, than to play something too easy." Consider me insane.

Procrastination
When I was three, it was procrastinating doing something to not be bored. Now? It's procrastinating doing my school.
Which I'm going to go do now.
Ta ta!

The Mysteries of my Life...

2011-10-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has been to my house has probably heard either my mother, or my siblings, or I, refer to it as "the house of mystery". The reason for this is clear. Stuff disappears. Our schoolbooks randomly materialize in piano bags. Stove burners turn on with no one touching them, lamps tip over then right themselves again. Heck, once my sister saw floating tomatoes!

But today's post isn't about the paranormal stuff that occurs in (insert my address here). No, today's post is about the far more common, but no less mysterious, things that happen in my life.
Let me elaborate.

Mystery 77%?!
Really? I'm just getting a 77% in Western Civ? After getting 10/10 class particpation in all but one class period? Really? That's it. A C? I mean, I understand that I don't always get my homework done... And I don't write enough essay questions... and I've nearly bombed a T/F quiz before (I think I got a 5 on one of them) and I haven't done really any extra credit.. And I've missed my online quiz before... And I go off on tangents... And I talk wayyyy too much about stuff that probably doesn't matter that much... But a C? Seriously?
Maybe that's a "busted" mystery, eh?

Mystery 45?!
If I didn't know better, I'd think that followers were randomly crawling out of my blog's woodwork! I guess it's a good thing I don't get stage fright- and that clearly it's clear that so many people find my random ramblings and pointless rants to be so entertaining!
Bonus points if you can identify the quote in that paragraph.

Mystery 30
I know that it's not new news that I'm slightly crazy and really ambitious. But 50,000 words in 30 days? With Thanksgiving going on? And schoolwork? And possibly studying/taking the Western Civilization I CLEP?! AND taking care of my siblings?! And... and everything?
I should just go sit under a table until December.

Mystery 7
Yes, yes, I know. I am a fabulous pianist. I play beautifully. I have mad sight reading skills. I can transpose like a pro. (Not really.) But level seven, with no review? I'm sorry. Have you tried skipping a level without reviewing the stuff you should have learned the level before? Yeah. That's what I thought- I'll get back to you. I have to figure out what "senza" and "con" mean, and then match "dolce" to it's meaning along with "presto" and "vivace".
I'm actually glad I skipped a level. And, just for the record: senza- without con- with. Dolce- sweet, gentle. Presto- very fast. Vivace- fast.

Mystery 3
I'm not sure you all want me DMing. I'm not sure what I'm doing, how to describe anything, what to describe in the first place, how to play the monsters well, or even how to not feel guilty when the ranger falls unconcious! But, yet, three- THREE- players are playing my adventure... And one of those even happens to know what he's doing!
This might change to "Mystery 4" if the other RSVPed D&Der shows up... tonight!

Mystery 540
If I didn't know better, I'd think I've had this blog for four years. If I didn't know better, I'd think that I'm a blogger geek just like I'm a music geek. You know, if I didn't know better, you'd actually think that I write a lot! Fortunately for myself, I do know better, I've only had my blog a year, I'm no sort of geek at all, and I don't write at all.
For anyone doubting my music geekiness: Who here has Kabelevsky as their favorite composer? Anyone? Anyone?

Mystery 11
For the amount of people who want me to get a Facebook account, I see very few book reviews going on, and very few people actually trying to convince me to join ol' FB. I'm starting to think that maybe I was right in the first place and I don't really need a way to reach friends that I email/text almost daily. Hmm?

Anyway, there's another little bit of my (mysterious) (random) (boring) life. Enjoy.

2011-10-18T12:56:00.001-07:00

My NaNoWriMo Survival Kit

2011-10-17T18:20:00.000-07:00

So, I think everyone knows that I'm doing National Novel Writing Month this year. Also known as NaNoWriMo. Or, NaNo, because that's a lot of "shift" key to be holding down.

Anyway.

A lot of people don't understand how anyone can write 50,000 words in a month, much less how to do it and NOT get put in a padded cell.
Well!
Here is just one of my secrets... My NaNoWriMo Survival Kit.*

This is what is in my NaNo survival kit:

-Computer**
-Candy
-Hot Water bottle
-The ipad (for when I'm at my grandma's house for thanksgiving but I feel like writing anyway)
-My iPod (Which is a NANO... haahahahaha.)
-Headphones
-Lip balm
-Lotion
-My commonplace notebooks
-My novel plotting notebooks
-The Character Naming Sourcebook
-Pens with ink that don't randomly stop working after a week
-A blanket
-A sweater
-Hot chocolate with coffee in it because I'm too wimpy to just drink coffee
-USB port- both my mushroom one and my regular looking one
-Write or Die
-the OYAN forum, to do more word races
-My phone, so I can time how many words I can write in 5 minutes
-Homework so I have an excuse to be on the computer all day
-Open Office (hopefully it won't freeze up on this computer... xP )
-Stuff to keep my hair out of my face (hopefully I'm getting a haircut before November)
-Hand warmers or gloves or something
-Cool socks
-Hopefully a writing party
-An anti-homeschooler website post so I can get infuriated and then channel my anger into writing (better than caffeine, I'm telling you)
-EditorMinion
-My phone so I can bug my friends about my book when they really should be doing school
-A book so I can whack my sister if she starts bugging me
-The NaNoWriMo forums so I can get my butt kicked into doing something
-My Writing Buddies
-A hat
-No chores (like THAT will ever happen)
-Tea
-My GS sweatshirt
-My towel (Don't forget your towel!!!)
-Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure for procrastination
-Homework for procrastination
-Veggies to snack on
-Blogger
-OYAN forum to update people on my book
-Camera (I take pictures of cool places and then use them as scenes in my books)

and...Yep! That's about it!
Of course, when I actually get a laptop, it's going to be easier, but for now... I'm stuck here. :)
(Not complaining. It means no staying-up-until-5-AM-writing. :P )
And, as you can probably tell... I get cold. Really easily. Thus the warm clothing and/or warm beverages.
(Love my hot water bottle.)

*Not for sale
**The only thing I actually need

An Interesting Idea

2011-10-15T18:14:00.000-07:00

Today, I was at Religious Education Training, and my teacher, Carol, brought up an interesting idea of introverts and extroverts that I hadn't thought of before, but now makes a lot of sense. (I'm actually learning something!)

We were talking about whether or not it was okay to interrupt a child when they were doing art to ask, "what are you drawing?" And she said that, well, no, you really shouldn't. But then she also said that it depended on the child.

Of course, that makes sense, because one child might not want to be asked, and another child might. I know I'm the sort of person who doesn't like to be interrupted/asked what I'm doing, but I hadn't gone the step further that she did...

That introverts and extroverts have completely different ideas of that. That an introvert doesn't want to be interrupted at their work, and an extrovert (while might not enjoying it), won't mind so much.

So, that's one thing that she thought of, that I hadn't applied to that situation.

The second thing she brought up a few minutes later, when we were discussing whether or not it was a good thing to have a simple outline for our album page (describing the different works of the CGS- look it up), or whether it's better to have a monologue type outline, describing what we should/would be saying.

And she came up with an interesting point. (I actually only caught this because the word "introverted" caught my attention and roused me from my drowsiness.)

That an introvert is more likely to require a more monologue-type outline, and an extrovert is more likely to just need a simple, bullet pointed piece of paper.

This makes sense for several reasons. First of all, extroverts are by nature more chatty. They can talk, and talk, and work out their ideas as they talk, and then talk some more, without having an issue. An introvert needs more reminders, and they work out their ideas in their heads. That means that if they don't have everything worked out ahead of time, they can feel put on the spot, and can have awkward quiet pauses when they try to figure out what they're going to say. (Which is why, if any of you have ever seen me doing this, if we're taking turns reading something, I tend to read my passage to myself, just to see if there's any difficult passages, so if there is, I can figure out how they sound in my head, so I cna say it with ease when it gets to my turn.)
This is why a more monologue-type outline is handier for introverts.

This, I'm guessing, is also true for other things.

Say, essay questions.

If you compare the WC essya questions that Valerie writes out, and the essay questions that I write... There's a huge difference in length. Valerie will write, in large, loopy, flourishing handwriting, on a tiny piece of paper, one page.
I will write, in my smaller, messy handwriting*, on normal sized note paper, three pages.
And yet, with the exception of the random facts I include, we get the same answers when discussing out loud.

I thought that was really interesting. I had always wondered why Valerie could get a high class participation with only two pages of essay questions, while I was getting the same score with more!
I guess I have an answer now.

[/end of random thoughts]

(don't worry. I'll work on having something funny tomorrow, or the day after. Those things take timre to plan, my friends. [btw, alliteration FTW.])

*It is messy. If none of you have seen it... Be thankful. O_o I dread the day I actually have to go back and study my essay questions.

Risen!

2011-10-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

Hi guys!
So, I know the title of this post might not make a lot of sense. In fact, for someone who doesn't know what's been going on in my life, it probably sounds like nonsense.
Which is why I'm here to fill you guys in!

First of all, risen applies to some of my friends.
In fact, about four of my friends have randomly reappeared in my life, and it's awesome. :D You guys rock!

Second of all, I've finally gotten batteries into my camera, that work! And I have a (mostly) empty flash card! When has that ever happened...?

Thirdly, I've figured out a way to post comments on other blogs. O_O Amazing! Though it's still not with my blogger/google account, which is weird. I don't know why it's acting up..
But a comment is a comment is a comment!

Fourth of all, I've dug my math book out of hiding, and have been actually working on it, without the regular amount of stressing out that I usually do when I'm behind. (Which I am. By several months. Anyone else...?) And not only that, but I've found the humor to make fun of it!

Fifth- I've regained my sense of humor well enough that I can finally post random pictures of myself, my dog, and my brother (both of them) on my blog! Woot! To everyone, so far I've posted
1. Philip (today
2. Me... I don't know when.
3. My sweetie pie, Carmen. *loves dog*
4. Me... a few years ago, when I not only had buck teeth, but also long hair and bangs.

Sixth, my grade in Western Civ has gone up! I mean, sure. It's just one percentage point. It's still a "C". (75%, baby!) Which is why I always wonder why people insist on saying that I'm so "smart", since most of those people judge their world by grades... O_o (as it happens, I do consider myself intelligent, and I do not base my life on grades. I'm just wondering.)

Seventh! My blood sugar has risen! Thanks to that ^. Healthy Choice 100 points premium fudge bar. You have to use the whole title. "Please, mom, may I have a Healthy Choice 100 Points Premium Fudge Bar?" "Yes, you may have a Healthy Choice 100 Points Premium Fudge Bar." "Yay!"
Those things rock.

Eight. My embarrassment after getting 10/10 on my True/False quiz at WC class and having Gloria call me out to show everyone how many pages I wrote in essays. (seven double sided pages.)

Nine: the amount of books I have planned. Last time I counted I had 18, and I've gotten at least 5 more since then. There is no way I'm ever going to be able to write these all. (But I'm going to have fun trying! :D)

Ten. My ability to know the states and their capitals, and the presidents (in order!) thanks to the animaniacs. :) Wakko for the win!

...

Hope that has enlightened you in my life. :)

Issue Resolved

2011-10-12T09:51:00.002-07:00

A glitch!
Awesome. :)

I Have an Issue...

2011-10-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

Alright, this definitely wasn't what I was planning to post today, but I might as well...
for some reason, blogger isn't showing me the blogs I'm following!
As in:
it says I am not following any blogs. I know this is false, because, hey, I follow a ton of blogs.
Is anyone else having this problem? (Maybe it's just a glich, and I am and it just says I am not...
let's hope!)

The Further Adventures of Angela

2011-10-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

This new thriller will leave you clinging to your mother.
You might even spill your Dr. Pepper.
Hold on to the edge of your seats
Because this is
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF ANGELA.

[dun dun dun]

Anyhoo, I've got a couple of random stuff to post about that I've been wanting to post about for a while, so I thought, hey, why not put all these random mini topics into one post and continue my trend of having monster posts filled with relative fluff?
And my second thought:
That's epic.

So, here goes.

First of all, as most of you know, I'm doing biology. Biology is cool, and I'm actually having fun with it. This is unusual, because I'm not a scientific sort of person. I'm the one going, "gravity... neat... I don't care..." and "bacteria... make me sick?"
Not to make me look like some sort of dunce or something (unless you've debated with me/seen me in Western Civ/heard my shpeal on Joan of Arc/seen my AP score, reserve judgement), but science isn't usually my thing.
Anyway, for Biology, I'm doing this thing here, and I'm on week three. Joy oh joy. I did the reading, and then since my mom said I could sometime, I looked up the Andromeda Strain on Netflix to see whether or not it's on play it now. (It is.)
And...
This is what I saw:

Okay. I'm not a movie rating expert. But even I know that when the Mickey Mouse Collection is rated G, it means that it's some kid friendly stuff.
Which makes you wonder, doesn't it?

The second thing that's been going on is my brother's baptism! (Huzzah for Philip!) It was yesterday, actually, and he didn't cry a bit. Excellent (which, according to Wordle, is the third largest word in my blog.)!
After the baptism, there was a party, naturally. It was a lot of fun, I got to see my cousins, I got to drink Dr. Pepper, eat brats... Otherwise have an amazing time.

And after the party, this is what I sat down to:

In case no one knows, let me outline the stuff on the table for you.

Starting on the left:

A pair of socks.

My phone and my ipod.

My Western Civ binder with my glasses and a pen, and two highlighters. (The highlighters are above the binder.)

A napkin.

My food.

My soda.

My glasses case.

And way up on the top right is my Wester Civ textbook. You can see the highlighting in it. That's before my green highlighter ran out of ink.

So, yeah. To a lot of people, that looks awful. But for me? Except for my phone (and no one was texting me anyway), there are zero distractions in that picture. (Music doesn't count.) I have caffiene, so it's easier for me to focus, I have my glasses, so that makes it even easier to focus, I have my well organized binder (MORE FOCUS!) and I have the textbook.

It was pretty awesome.

On a side note, I believe that I have another internet stalker on my blog! Let's hear it for people obsessed with me! (Black Death, anyone...?)

So, if you're the stalker, congratulations! You have sucessfully become the second internet stalker I have ever had.

Oh.

One funny picture, and a few reminders.

[laughing] I love this picture. :)

A few reminders:
make sure you read these blogs:

The Lonesome Crayon
Paradox 51
My sister's blog

Through Thorns

And

The Epic Blog.

Have fun! ;)

Why Can't You Be More Like Your Sister?

2011-10-08T18:11:00.000-07:00

Thankfully, no one has ever said those exact words to me before. I've never gotten a "why aren't you like your extroverted, fashionable, make up oriented sister? Why can't you be more telephone addicted, hairblower loving, makeup wearing teenage girl?"
No.
Instead, I get subtle things, usually from people other than my parents.

Stuff like the fact that when my sister wears her poodle skirt, everyone thinks it's fabulous, but when I wear my style: refashioned t-shirt, jeans, and either my painted shoes or sequin converse- no one says boo.
I guess it's because they aren't as used to Valerie by now.

Another one of the things that happens is that whenever a friend comes over, it becomes a Valerie and (insert friend here) playdate. My friend came over, and Valerie and she played on the computer for about an hour while I sat in the living room with a book.
Another of my friends came over, and she and Valerie got into a long discussion about a celebrety, while I sat there and watched them because I don't give a crap about pop culture.
I don't know.
It seems to happen a lot.

It's because she's an extrovert, you know. She likes parties. She likes shopping. She forgets the stupid stuff she says. She makes people feel at ease, she gets them to talk. She shares her lunch. She's an eccentric, but in a good way.

Valerie: extroverted.
Angela: introverted.

Valerie: always happy.
Angela: occasionally happy.

Valerie: not afraid to look dumb.
Angela: terrified of looking dumb.

Valerie: makes friends everwhere.
Angela: barely ever makes friends/relies on others to approach her.

Valerie: can write poetry.
Angela: can't write poetry to save her life.

Valerie: always gets along with little kids.
Angela: gets sick and tired of mini people when she sees them too often.

Valerie: thinks up fun things to do.
Angela: had no clue waht to do.

Valerie: makes herself heard in conversations.
Angela: tends to fade to background.

Valerie: shows sympathy to people.
Angela: tells people to suck it up.

Valerie: wants to do popular jobs like modeling and fashion designing when she grows up.
Angela: wants to be a mathematician/pilot.

Valerie: has a common sense of humor- finds funny books funny.
Angela: has a sarcastic sense of humor, barely ever laughs at "funny" books.

Valerie: gets really happy around tons of people.
Angela: would rather hide in her room all day than go to a dance.

Valerie: is the one sitting by all her friends in the cafeteria at GS camp.
Angela: is the one sitting away from everyone in her camp and not talking to anyone.

Valerie: is the one everyone wants to talk to.
Angela: is the one who connects everyone with Valerie.

So, you see. That's why people like my sister more.
I mean, even I like my sister more than I like myself. Why do you think I talk to her all the time? Why do you think I always try to sit next to her at class? Because she's an extrovert. Because she puts me at ease. Because I know that if I get freaked out she'll take care of the problem for me.

It kinda stinks, being an introvert with an extorverted sister.

So, yeah. People want me to be like my sister. (Main point of this rambling post.) My teachers want me to be like my sister. My friends would rather I be extroverted like she. My dad would rather I be a bit more extroverted. I think the only one who doesn't really mind my being completely introverted like I am is my mom. (and myself.) Which is really nice, because if she wanted me to be an extrovert too?

[shudder]

So, yeah. That's why you like Valerie more than you like me. That's why people talk to her and think I'm weird.
In fact, it's awful at Girl Scout camp. I walk past my sister, and her group of friends, before they know me. And the friends start giggling at me, because I happen to be wearing boy's shorts and a tank top and my socks are a bit too tall and my hair is a bit too uneven. And when they find out that I'm Valerie's sister, one of two things will happen.
1. They'll completely accept me
or
2. They figure that I must just be the odd one out in the family.

Ah well.
Thus is the life of your friendly neighborhood blogress.

[/rant]

In Honor of Halloween

2011-10-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

You know what a cootie catcher is, right?
Well, I've made a print out for you to make one!

There's actually a small story behind this one:
When my good friend Vivian and I were both about 8, we had a club called "Historic Girls" where we studied girls from history who did remarkable things. That's why I know so much about Zenobia, Joan of Arc, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Helena of Britain, among others.
For this club we had, we would both do activites after learning about them. For St. Helena, we wrote a ballade that started like this:

Thus begins the story

Of Saint Helena of Britian.

She was the daughter of King Cole

Who was so jolly.

And so on. It was pretty epic, and I still have our original piece of paper with it on.

For one of the girls -and I forget which- we made a cootie catcher telling you how you were going to die. (Proably something when a group of people were being persecuted, I think.) And I know we had good fun with that. We both made something like three of them, all with horribly nasty ways of dying on them.

Awesome.

So, I've always loved cootie catchers, particularly ones like this. Thus, I decided that it would be a nice thing to give everyone a print out!

I did make this on photoshop, so it's not all handmade looking... Sorry... But hey. At least you can read it. :)

If you don't know how to put together/use a cootie catcher, look it up, or email me.

oh, by the way, I got the basic lines from here: http://www.momsminivan.com/cootiecatcher-plain.pdf... I didn't steal anything else, though. Just the lines, which I ended up changing a bit anyway.

Awesome Things In My Life:

2011-10-07T14:09:00.000-07:00

Again. I find myself writing a happy post of mainly a list. Because I have a decreasing attention span recently...
Here goes. We'll see long this goes.

The One Year Adventure Novel Writing Course.
Character Lounges.
This song.
Taking the test for chapter 11 of Western Civ without reading the book and getting 13/20 right anyway.
Sims!
Ice cream. >:D
November.
The sonata by Beethoven my teacher has me playing.*
The Clown by Kabelevsky.
My Biology textbook.

*This is a lie. I hate playing this.

RIP Steve Jobs.

2011-10-06T15:20:00.001-07:00

Steve Jobs, creater of Apple, just died.
RIP, one-of-America's-smartest-people.

To Everyone Who Thinks I Lay Around The House All Day:

2011-10-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

8:30 PM: get home from an exhausting day packing up the farm and a 4 hour car ride.
8:30 - 10:30: Do Western Civ essay questions.
10:30: Go to sleep.
5:00AM: wake up.
5:00 - 8:00: Do more Western Civ homework.
8:00 - 12: I am either in the car going to/from or at Western Civ class.
12:00 - 1:30 PM: Packing my D&D stuff for tonight. Planning out what's going to happen.
1:30: Goes to Orthodontist appointment and gets retainer.
2:15: gets back.
2:15 - 1:30: Goofs off.
1:30 - 1:45: Starts biology homework.
1:45 - 3:00: Writing blog post.

What I still have to do:
-Math
-Piano
-Geology
-Finish biology
-Western Civ homework
-World History
-Writing
-DM tonight

There you go. For all of you poor, mistaken people. That's what I"ve done today/last night. And what I still have to do.

Love,
Angela

Most Watched Movie

2011-10-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! A lot of you probably don't know anything about Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure or Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. Either way. I think they're awesome. In fact, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is the one movie I watch more often than I really should. Honest. Most times I can't sit through a movie. I wiggle and fidgit and get up and eat and sit back down and then have to get up and walk around and so on.

But Bill and Ted?
I put it in voluntarily, dude. So. Here are two clips from the movie. I hope you decide to watch it. Because Bill and Ted are probably the most excellent two teenage boys ever.

Trust me. They're awesome. And the movie is from the 80's, so there is plenty of excellent music. :D

What's Making Me Happy Today

2011-09-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

After my slightly ranty post yesterday, I figure you're all in for a happy post. Like what's making me happy. Because I'm too busy to write up a very good post, this is going to rely on youtube videos. Just warning you. :)

1. Blue glasses! (yes, that is me. With my glasses.)

2. NaNoWriMo: also known as "that crazy thing where you write a ton of words in a month."

3. Rick Rolling people. ;) (Search it if you don't know what it is.)

4. Flash mobs! And all hail the youtube videos:

I don't have any idea how someone can watch a flash mob and not smile. It's impossible for me. :)

5. Vacations! I get to go on one tomorrow! I'm going to Wisconsin. And I'm not doing any homework there. None. Nada. The big goose egg. And I'm going to be gone until Tuesday... That means I get to skip Monday! *wheeeeee*

6. Getting all my Western Civ homework done two days after the class was. Need I say more?

7. Triangles.

8. New music on my ipod.

9. The library, which I might go to today! Wouldn't that be awesome? I could get.. Books! And music! and that would be amazing.

10. Being happy in the first place. :)

Time Management, And I'm Not Feeling so Hot.

2011-09-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

So, hey guys! I know you're all waiting for me to post my rebuttal of the ehow "disadvantages of homeschooling" since I've told no one about that except for my mom and my sister so of course you'll know about it, but sorry.
It's already probably about two pages long, and I'm only a third through.
You'll have to wait for the post of doom.

No, today I'm putting up something about those two words all teenagers dread...

Time Management

Whatever teenager does not get filled with despair when they hear those obviously are either brilliant, or they have completely given up and spend all day sitting in front of the computer. Like me.

But wait!

Maybe I'm not quite without hope. This morning, I woke up at 6:30, and decided that I was going to keep track of everything I do today and how long it takes me to finish. Why? Because it would be interesting. Because I always wonder where the time went to, and maybe I could find out. Because it's motivating and I really do want to get 8th grade math done with for good.

*cough*

(How's that for revealing some of my soul? I'm still in 8th grade math, and it stresses me out every day. *End of semi deep moment*)

So, I've been doing that. And it's pretty cool...

Except for the fact that today was not a typical day for me.

Why?

Because for the past few days, I've been feeling feverish and tired. My blood sugar seems to disappear at the drop of a hat, so I've already consumed most of the candy I got from the orthodontist. I've been sleeping more than usual, I've been more tired than usual. And let me tell you, this is not usual. I mean, sure. There are weeks when I get crabby and grumpy and tired.

But I've never felt this feverish before.

Besides that, I haven't wanted to eat.

I know, I know. Eating disorder alert, call the eating police.

But seriously.

It's not that I feel anorexic. I don't think I'm fat, and I don't make myself throw up. I still eat normal, regular meals... I just don't like them. I don't like bread anymore (too dry) or sandwiches (Same reason.). Milk tastes too sweet, and chips taste sandy. I don't want cake or cookies or anything.

No.

Let me take that back.

I want... Yogurt. And fresh vegetables. And fruit. And water. And that's about it. So, if anyone has noticed me eating strange meals (i.e. a can of kidney beans and not much else for lunch), that's why. Because it's too... dry.

Anyway, getting away from the stuff that might possibly make people concerned about me (psh), let me share a list of why I haven't been posting prolifically like I usually do.

I have way too much homework. And it seems like more since I have to get two Western Civ chapters done, write about four essay questions, do more math, get ahead in biology, and all that, before tomorrow, since I'm going to Wisconsin. For a vacation. (And for once I intend to be vacation-y.)
I've been having friends problems- some of them are being clique-ish (not naming names), and the others have dropped off the face of the planet or are not talking to me. I know, I know. Teenage social drama. And I had tried so hard to avoid it...
I've been too busy running my tongue over my new, un brace-afied teeth. Complete with birthmark! (Yes, birthmark on my tooth. It's.. distinctive.)
I've been watching Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
I had Girl Scout bridging last night! I am officially a Freshman and a Senior at the same time. Isn't that awesome? ;)
Crazy piano lessons. (I could rant about that, too, but I'm not going to. Who really wants to hear someone rant? I mean, I bet most of you wouldn't mind, but who wakes up and says, "wow. I really want to hear Angela rant today!" ...that's what I thought.)
Crazy piano teacher.
Crazy stupid Burgmuller and his stupid Ballade. [/end mini rant]
Thinking about Girl Scout camp next year.
Cleaning my room.
Planning Christmas presents.
Stressing out about math some more.
Writing "Reaper" more...
Planning for 2011 NaNoWriMo! (Who else is doing NaNo this year? Or is no one else as insane as I am to be trying to get 50,000 words done in a month? Come on, you all know you want to turn into hermits attached at the hands to your keyboard!)
Making too many lists about why I'm not posting. ;)

I think that'll hold us for a while...

A Comic I Clipped Today

2011-09-26T11:07:00.001-07:00

So, I don't clip a lot of comics. Only the ones that, to be screwy, "speak to me".
I think this one "speaks" to... Everyone. :)

Got it from here.

I Was Really Tired. Sorry.

2011-09-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

So, yeah. That was me. Sorry about the shrill giggling at the end, but that's what happened when you get a few girls together and have them film a movie until after 9 at night, and then have one of them mess up.
Why did she mess up?
Because this is improv, and hey. I didn't plan what I was going to say.

Finished Video

2011-09-21T05:39:00.000-07:00

So, as you can tell by that blooper I posted last night.. We were filming!
What were we filming?
Roman Religions Survival.
(aka, let's watch Angela talk and see up her nose!)
Thanks so much to Mae, Valerie, Christina, Kenneth, and my mom for this video. :)

If Y'all Are Wondering What Angela Sounds Like Recorded...

2011-09-20T20:14:00.001-07:00

I Speak Pterodactyl

2011-09-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

One of the most interesting things about living with a 4 month old child is hearing them talk.

No. I don't mean words. No "mom" or "dad" or "Ongola" or "Nani" or anything like that. I mean, talking. With airquotes. So, "talking".

See, when Kenneth, my brother, was that old, he swore.
No, not words.
I mean, the sounds coming out of his mouth were exactly "baby swears". He was loud, and grumpy, and sounded something like "Schrush ghes WOIHGUH hihge! HIIGHELK!" and he would get mad. (Which was really funny, because, hey, have you ever seen a baby "swimming in his own chub" get grumpy? Very funny.)

Philip/PJ/Phil/PipSqueak?
He speaks pterodactyl.

In fact, sometimes he speaks so convincingly that we look around, expecting to see one of these in our living room/kitchen/bedroom:

By the way, I do not claim any rights on this image.

But no. We, instead, see this:

Baby.
Not just a baby.
MY BROTHER.
Is a pterodactyl?

Because were are living with someone who speaks the ancient language of pterodactyl, my family and I are gradually learning it.
To say something, you generally pronounce it like this:

AAAAAAAAAAACHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
SQQQUUUEEEEECHHHHHHHHH.
HIIIIKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!
HYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEE!

Say it with much gurgling in your throat.

Oh, and just to make my workbook friends really jealous, here is what I had to do for biology today:

Yes. This is a coloring page of an animal cell. I don't claim rights on the image... just on the coloring job. ;)

Scurvey Dog!

2011-09-19T10:44:00.000-07:00

Angela, your pirate name is
Deckswabber Jacquotte the Bastard
What is YOUR pirate name?
Avast! Today happens to be Speak Like a Pirate Day, ye land lubber! As such, you should check out this link here to find out how to speak like pirate, what yer pirate name is, and what type of pirate you are!

Me ship's name? Arr! The Disgraceful Poison of the Caribbean be her name, ye dog! And that's not all...

You are The Quartermaster
You, me hearty, are a man or woman of action! And what action it is! Gruesome,
awful, delightful action. You mete out punishment to friend and foe alike
– well, mostly to foe, because your burning inner rage isn’t
likely to draw you a whole lot of the former. Still, though you may be
what today is called “high maintenance” and in the past was
called “bat-shit crazy,” the crew likes to have you around
because in a pinch your maniacal combat prowess may be the only thing
that saves them from Jack Ketch. When not in a pinch, the rest of the
crew will goad you into berserker mode because it’s just kind of
fun to watch. So you provide a double service – doling out discipline
AND entertainment.

Here is another quiz, for POTC personalities particularly (I'm:For 40 % you are: Hector Barbossa! You are smart (book smart and street smart!) daring and a bit crazy, but you get the job done. You tend to focus on the big picture through the facts at hand. You know how to make the rules work to your advantage! Your pet is your baby.
18.7400 % of 2508 Quiz participants had this profile! )
Can you be captain Jack Sparrow? (Test says... yes. I can be. xD )
Here's another one
and my results:

What's Yer Inner Pirate?
brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!

Your result for The Find Your Pirate Personality Test...

Yellow Beard

You scored 18 Cruelty, 29 Greed, 22 Evil, and 33 Insanity!

Its all about being a pirate. You rape the Gold, kill the Women, and steal the men. Or is it rape the men, kill the gold, and steal the woman or something like that. Your proudest day in life will be the day your own son murders you. Now if you could just remember where you hid everything.

Take The Find Your Pirate Personality Test at HelloQuizzy

And another pirate name one... my results were "Captain One Eye" and "Evil Blackbeard".

Me thinks that's enough for ye bilge rats!
(Until next year...)

Anthropology

2011-09-18T14:47:00.000-07:00

You know how you're walking along and then all of a sudden something happens and you go "I'm blogging about this"?
Or is that just me?
Well, that's beside the point. The point is- I had that happen about four times today. And instead of putting them all on seperate posts, which takes way too much time and effort, I figured I'd just put them all in one post and hope it makes some sort of sense. You all are smart. I'm sure you can figure it out.

So, our story begins at about 1:30, when my mom, Philip and I ended up at this library book sale. It's the last day, and it was 50% off today. Not the best price, but hey. $1 a book is about as cheap as you can get at Goodwill, and there was a much larger variety.
Anyway.

We were standing around, looking at these card game rule books for Christina, when these two worker people walked past.
Note, for this story, it is very important that you know that they were teen girls. (Also know that while I am making fun of teenagers here, and weeping for my generation, that in no means am I trying to be mean to these two girls.)
See, we were standing in the same aisle as they had the "Sociology and Anthropology" books.
Here is their conversation:

Teen one: Anthropology... What's anthropology?
Teen two: I dunnoooo... Um... I know it's a store? That sells skirts and stuff?

Okay, yes. There is a store called Anthropology, and yes, it does sell "skirts and stuff" as she mentioned.
But.
These books?
WERE NOT ABOUT A STORE THAT SELLS SKIRTS AND STUFF.
No, it was about the 'original' anthropology, which happens to be the study of people and of the behavior of different societies. (I've known that since I was about eight, when I read "Love, Ruby Lavender" which is an excellent book y'all should read.)

Okay. To be honest... No. The definition of anthropoloy didn't just leap into my brain when I read the sign. But on the other hand? It only took me about five minutes to remember what it was.
Oh, and if she had asked me, and I hadn't known the answer?
"I don't really remember, but I know it's a scientific study. Why don't you go over and figure it out?"

Anyway.
My mom and I finished looking at the books, and we went to check out.
Now, my mother had put me in charge of packing the books into this paper bag, and, not to brag, but I have mad packing skills.
I'm not even kidding.
You give me... 25 books and two cliffnotes and a computer game, and I'll get them all to fit into a single paper grocery bag. Even if they're big books.

Unfortunately, people do not understand my mad packing skills and seem to think that I'm an octopus. Or an alien. Or something.

So, checking out at rummage sales and bag days are always interesting.
This was no exception.

As they unpacked our books, to see how much we had to pay, one of the women looked at me and said
"I think I'm going to use another bag. I have no clue how you got these all to fit."

Like I said.
Mad packing skills.

Okay. Here I want to take a small side break and note a couple of the books that we got at the book sale for me. Why? Because I got quite a few cool ones. I'm only going to talk about... oh... Three or four of them, though.
First book:

Tooth and Nail. This looks really cool. In case you can't read the cover, it's a book for learning SAT words. But it's a mystery novel. Not a word list.
And the coolest part of this?
No, not that it cost $1.50.
No, the coolest part is that... I know a lot of these words already. Words like.. Subtle. Decrepit. Context. Commendable. Innovative. Tedious.
Get the picture?
Anyway, yeah. That's the coolest bit about that book.
Next book.

Abarat by Clive Barker.
Awesome book.
Marvelous characters.
Fantastic... pictures?
Yep! Clive Barker has illustrated all the Abarat books so far. (Which is part of the reason that they take so long to get out.) And the illustrations are AMAZING. I love them.
So. I have my own copy of Abarat now. :D
Next book.

Forgotten Realms: The Avatar Trilogy: Book One.
Okay. Okay. Call me a geek (I won't deny it.) Forgotten Realms are a bunch of books that are based off of the fantasy role playing game that you all know I'm avid about. Aka- Dungeons and Dragons.
The reason that this book in particular is so epic is that I had books two and three to this same trilogy, but they hadn't had the first book at Goodwill when I got them. Now I have it! That means... I have... This entire trilogy, the entire "Preludes" trilogy, two random books, and my moms copy of the first one of the first series. (Which were the first ones published, not necessarily the first ones in the... Time... sequence? If that makes sense?)
Oh. If anyone wants to read any of these books, I have a surefire way of finding their location in a bookstore/book sale/Goodwill.
Technique? Find the geekiest looking guys. You know... The Star Trek ones. Chances are they're looking at SciFi. And for some reason, they lump Sci Fi and Fantasy together, even though they're completely different genres. So, find the geeks, and you'll find the geeky books. Simple.

Moving on.
After we checked out, we went to Barnes and Noble to get Slaughterhouse Five, which is what I'm reading for my literature group next.
We got out of the car, and my mom picked up Philip to put him in the sling. As she picked him up, she said the second memorable quote of today:
"You are a stinky baby! Such a stinky baby! You smell like death!"
Just so you know, that is the first time I have ever heard anyone reference the smell of a four month old child to death.
Interesting how my mom's brain works...

Anyway, after we got the book, we got in the car, and went home.
Oh. One more thing quote, also from my mom, from on the way home:
"My college grades weren't great... Sure, there were things I could have done better. ...Actually attending classes, for one thing..."
Yeaaaaah... xD

Anyway, so I've been home now for about an hour... I wrote my name in all my new books (kind of an obsession with me, I write my name in all my books), and came upstairs, and wrote this blog post.
Brilliant.

Now, I'm off to write my own books (either Reaper or Illegal [aka, Morbid's book or Amanda/Gavin's book] I'm not sure which) and then down to do Western Civ (FOR FUN) and then to read other books, then to come upstairs and eat.
Wow.
I read a lot.
No wonder the SAT words aren't unfamiliar...

What Amuses Me

2011-09-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

Is when I get comments on my blog saying "wow! That's so good!" or that I'm a good writer. Or that my work is funny. Or anything along those lines.
It's not that I don't like these comments.
In fact, they make my day/week/month (depending on what's happened in that space of time.)

But.

It amuses me because, generally, I don't plan out what I'm going to write. Sure, I have a loose outline in my head. I know the topic I'm writing on. I might generally have a few sentences planned.
But, really, it's whatever I happen to write down that gets posted. I don't generally go back and erase what I've written, and sometimes (like today) I get some crappy post that isn't going to get comments/be funny.

The other reason it amuses me is because I don't edit my posts. I don't go back and say "wow, that was a dumb comment I put in here about Angela being a psychic, maybe I should change that", because I'm lazy enough to skip it and I don't care if I've made a couple dumb remarks.
So what you people are saying is really good/funny?
That's my cruddy first drafts. (There is a reason I always edit my books/stories at least once before letting someone read them.)

I just thought that was something I should mention. (Although, like I said, I do enjoy the praise. Who doesn't? xD )

Plan for today:
Math
Western Civ
Biology
Other Worlds

Wow. Math? Western Civ? AND biology? My three hardest subjects in one day!
Wish me luck...

G-L-A-S-S-E-S

2011-09-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

I suspect that most glasses-less people go to the eye doctor dreading getting glasses.
Most probably want to keep their glasses-less face.

I am not most people.

For as long as I can remember, every time I went to the eye doctor, I wanted glasses. I was always disappointed when I was told that I didn't need them.

Today...
Was different.

I arrived, sat down, and noticed to both my horror and joy that I couldn't read the last line of letters.
Nope.
I could read the other four, but not the last one. I couldn't see it right. It was blurry and too small. I thought I could make out an "O" but I wasn't sure whether it really WAS an "O" or whether it was a "Q".

At the end of the appointment, the doctor said that I have a stigma in both eyes.

For those of you who don't know, that means that the lenses in my eyes are all wonky and I'm seeing things that are a slightly different shape. (So while the circle might look like this: O I'm seeing it more like this: 0.)
This doesn't matter for most things, but for reading, it definitely does.
(And sightseeing, according to the doctor.)

So, guess who is getting glasses!

My brother!
And me. :)
:D

Ken has a problem kinda like double vision, where his eyes are both projecting a slightly different picture, and his brain has to work 3 times as hard to put the images together. Like my stigmas, it's not a big deal for larger objects (i.e. a car), but for reading it's very important.

So, next week, both Kenneth and I will have our glasses.

Ken will wear his glasses:
While reading
While playing piano
While playing video games

I will wear my glasses:
Whenever I'm doing homework
Whenever I start driving
Whenever I'm playing piano
Whenever I have to see something far away (that matters).

What The...?

2011-09-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, one of the most interesting ways to get a laugh is to search your name, and then "is..." after it.
On google.
Or bing.
Or yahoo.
Or whatever search engine you use.

Here, for your reading enjoyment, are a couple of the weirdest things I get when I search "Angela is..."

Angela is a fictional character...

Huh. Who knew? I certainly different. If I am a fictional character, does that make my blog fictional? And if my blog is fictional, does that make my readers fictional? So are we all living in a nice big fiction book? That can't be, because there isn't nearly enough drama/conflict in my life to be a book. So if the book isn't fictional, maybe I am not? I don't know. It's confusing.

Angela has retired from modelling.

...Am I missing something?

Angela competed for the fourth time at the 2010 winter Olympics.

It's like a secret life, you know?

Angela is a hero.

I'm glad SOMEONE thinks so...

Angela spends most of her time writing books and screenplays.

And just as I start thinking that maybe these don't have anything to do with me, one just jumps out and reminds me that... Well... Maybe I AM a fictional character who used to model, is a hero, and competes at the Olympics while also writing books and screenplays in her spare time. (Come to think of it, that Angela sounds a lot more interesting that I am...)

Angela's pregnancy will not be without complications.

...I'm starting to worry about what happened in my secret life...

Angela is a Real Joy.

I don't know why that's capitalized, but I guess I'm glad someone thinks I bring joy... Or maybe I AM joy... hah! Take that!

Angela is a lingerie football league.

...I have not comment. Not one.

Angela is the 6th woman in the U.S. to have achieved IFMGA Mountain Guide Certification

Holy smokes.

Angela is unique, powerful and inviting- truly angel-like.

I'm not sure if I should be insulted.

Angela is calling you

I'm not even holding my phone and I'm calling you?! Maybe this should say "Angela is psychic"?

Angela is a nationally known, reputable and spiritual psychic...

...Forget I said anything.

Angela is popping up again in downtown Menlo park

I was unaware that I could do that!

Angela's Hooker biography

Oh dear.

Angela is rude.

Beg your pardon but we do not have spicy rice!*

*inside joke. Maybe I am rude... ;)

Angela is an angel and an experienced hellspawn and a bounty hunter.

My secret life is getting more and more... Interesting.

Angela was murdered.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Angela is a college student.

That's what the infamous past high school teacher named Heather thought...

Angela is back

Back from what? Staring blankly at the screen and saying "you have got to be kidding"?

This is angela... She hasn't quite realized prostitution is illegal!

I AM NOT A PROSTITUTE! [headdesk x 12]

Angela is the girl with the pretty red box in her hair.

I don't even have anything to say anymore.

Angela has done it all

According to the search results... Yes. I apparently have "done it all".

so, there you go.

Have a spare moment?

Search your name, and then "is..."

I guarentee that you will find that your secret life is far more... Interesting than you would have ever expected.

EVER.

Edit: Another fun thing to do is search your name on encyclo.co.uk and see what you get.
Personally, I get to add "Angela is slang for a passive male homosexual" and "Angela is a cultured variety of potatoes" to my list.
Huh.
Potatoes.

It Gets Easier.

2011-09-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

The biggest thing people complain about, on their blogs, about their blogs, in real life about their blogs, in email about their blogs, and so on..
Well, there are two things.
1. "I don't know what to blog about"
and
2. "I never seem to have the time to blog."

I guess for them, blogging is like getting a drink is for me.
See, I'm thirsty. I know I'm thirsty. I should drink. But
1. I don't know what to drink (I never seem to want just water)
2. I simply do not feel like getting up to get a drink of water.

So the result?
Well, in their case, it means that their poor blogs will go on being neglected and that their friends will eventually give up reading it.
In my case, it just means that I'll become dehydrated and get a horrible headache and get testy and grump at all my friends until I finally suck it up and get a drink of water.

But don't worry.
It gets easier.

I know that this is hard to believe. How, you may ask, does it get easier to
1. think of a post subject
2. compose a meaningful post
3. get the courage to post it out on the web where basically anyone can read it
4. actually post on a regular basis
how?
How does that work?

Well...
As everything..
The unfortunate answer is "practice".
I know.
I hate that one word too.

But let me tell you. After four years of blogging, after four years of struggling to figure out what to post about, I have finally gotten it down.
After four years?
It's easy.

Let me tell you, though, it has taken work. People expect me to be at least mildly funny in each of my posts, and if I don't have my "voice", chances are no one reads my post.
(For those of you who don't know, your "voice" is basically how you write your posts... If you take one of my posts and one of my friend's posts, and you stick them side to side and remove the names... I'm sure you'll be able to know which one I wrote. Just a guess.)

Here is a short list of what I have to try to get my posts to be:

1. Funny.
2. At least slightly witty.
3. Unique.
4. In my voice.
5. Not too long.
6. Not too short.
7. Interesting.

Here is a list of what my posts need to do:

1. Entertain.
2. Make people think.
3. Make people laugh.
4. Generate comments.
5. Retain my followers. (Y'all are awesome. :) )
6. Make me happy.
7. Allow me a chance to procrastinate.

So, you see, there's a lot I have to do in my posts. Of course, each blogger has different goals. Some of them aim to be deep, or poetic, some of them want to reveal truths about life, some of them simply want to tell people what they've been up to.

Whatever your goals are, there is a good chance you once or a while have no clue what to post and therefore don't.

That's a mistake.

In my experience, it's better to write a cruddy post, than not to write at all. Even your worst, most uninspired, uninteresting, unfunny, uninformative, pathetic posts, will prove a surprise (Sometimes).
I mean, I wrote a post apologizing that it was lame, and people still commented.
This just goes to show.

But anyway, the moral of this post is:
Keep blogging. It'll get easier to think up subjects. The writing process goes smoother. You'll become more confident that you are funny/smart-intelligent/entertaining/etc. You will increase the loyalty of your fans. Your creativity will be sparked.
So, yeah.
It gets easier.

And I apologize for the cruddy post. Just something I wanted to share. :)

Why I Nearly had a Mental Breakdown at Jewel the Other Day.

2011-09-12T18:22:00.000-07:00

Angela stood in front of the refrigerated section, starting at the cheeses.
"Just find the refrigerated, Pillsbury rolls, okay?" her mom asked, handing her a coupon. "Get either the loaves or the bread sticks. I'm planning to have them and some soup for lunch one day."
Angela could barely nod her head. "Alright... Alright..." She glanced at her mom. "Where are they...?"
"They should be down there."
Angela nodded, and walked down toward the refrigerators where her mother had motioned. Scanning the shelves, she didn't see any of the iconic blue tubes that she knew held pre-made, refrigerated dough, made for lazy housewives and cooking-impaired dads who just wanted to get the food done for heavens sake.
"This cannot be happening," Angela muttered. She rubbed her head and tried to stop sweating. "Not this... Not after earlier..."
She flashed back about half an hour to when she, her mother, and her sister Monica had been leaving Michael's. She hadn't felt any better then, either.
"It's not like Monica's talking helped."
She remembered walking down the aisles at Michael's with her overly talkative little sister, trying to find the 'Jumbo bag of mixed buttons'. Not only had it been a complete and total failure, but she had to endure her sister's talking, which included things along the lines of, "Angela! Angela look! Leaves! Real leaves! Are those real leaves? Angela! ARE THOSE REAL LEAVES!" as they passed the fake flowers, or, "I don't want to hold your hand! Glue. Why is there glue? Is that glue? That's glue. Angela!" as they passed the foam aisle.
Angela blinked, the odd stare of a passer waking her from her dream.
"...Crud," she muttered, as her task came back to mind. "Dough... Crap... I don't see it..." She muttered under her breath. "Mommy.." She wiped at her eyes and tried to ignore the prickling sensation behind them. She felt very hot, and the world was starting to blur. The sounds of people talking and bickering seemed to reach all time high levels in her ears, and she felt tempted to sit down and start crying. She would have, too, if she had even felt a bit capable of movement.
"Mommy," she muttered again. "They're not here..."
Forcing her legs to move, she turned around and stumbled back down the aisle where her mom was.
"I can't find them.."

.....

There you go, folks. I didn't do a very good job describing it, but yeah. That's what happens when an introvert is over stimulated, exhausted, stressed out, and hungry.
Blurring and crying and over-emotional responses to random crap.
Moral of this story?
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, go to a craft store and then grocery store with a 4 year old. You will regret it, and come close to possibly having a mental breakdown in the middle of Jewel.

I Was Only Four.

2011-09-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

When the two planes crashed into those towers, when the one plane crashed into the Pentagon...
When the heroes on flight 93 decided it was better to crash their own plane into a field in Pennsylvania, rather than to let the terrorists crash it wherever they were planning to...
I was only four.

I was in the car with my mother, and with Veela, on the way to my mother's doctor appointment. (She was four months pregnant with my sister Christina.)

I don't remember a thing.

All I remember is growing up with this fear of the date "9-11", with knowing that something bad happened then.

And honestly, the only way I really knew about it at all, or remembered, was because 9-11 is what you call when you have an emergency.

I'm thankful for that number.

Even though I don't remember the people who died that day, or even that day at all, I'm glad that I grew up with knowing that something bad had happened.

Something horrible and tragic.

Ten years later, and I'm 14.

I'm not going to lie and say that I'm patriotic and that I start crying when I say the Pledge of Allegiance. I don't get overly hyped up on Fourth of July, or on any of the countless days that we celebrate (or simply remember, on the case of 9-11)...
But I love my country.

And today, I almost started crying for those people.

Imagine.

Before that day, it hadn't happened.

Kids got up. Got dressed. Brushed their teeth.
They went to school.

Adults got up. They went to work. Maybe they died in the towers, or maybe they just got scared as they stood in a McDonald's and listened to the radio.

Either way.
Imagine waking up.
Imagine answering someone "what day is it?"
And not having that drop of the stomach when you realize what day it is.

That's the most horrible part for me. It's the fact that all those people, over 3,000, got up that morning with the full expectation that they were going to live through it.

It's that those firefighters went into the building knowing they were going to die.

And all those people who fought with them. Maybe someone had a teen, and they had ended badly. Maybe someone was worried they were going to get fired, or maybe they had just had bad news themselves.
A car crash.
Cancer.

But after that, it didn't matter anyway.

Sorry for the rambling post. It's kind of pointless, but I just wanted to do something for 9-11. I don't remember, but I remember.
I didn't ever know, but I can't forget, either.
I wasn't ever hating those people who did it, but I have to forgive them.

I pledge allegiance to the flag
Of the United States of America.
And to the republic,
For which it stands,
One nation,
Under God,
Indivisible,
With liberty and justice for all.

Pictures

2011-09-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

Hello, salutations, heyza, hola, bonjour, konnichiwa... And so forth...

Last Monday my family went to "Cake on the Lake", which is basically this big party that's held at lake Michigan, by the rest of my family. It's a tradition... And it's fun...
Yeah.
And it's in September.

Usually, that isn't actually a problem. I mean, it's slightly chilly, but it's usually definitely warm enough you can walk around the beach in a swimsuit and go swimming, and it's not like, "WOW it's cold..."
Uh uh.
This time it was really frigid, and there were huge waves. (Huge waves = huge riptide = not safe), so no one went into the actual lake.

Pity.

Instead, we all huddled around a fire, and buried ourselves under blankets.
And wrestled on the sand.
Fun times.
(Except that my neck/back still hurts... Urgh.)

It was really weird, though, because we stuck our feet in the water, and the water was warmer than the air... Which NEVER happens... So that was really strange.

Either way, I have a few pictures from CotL that my stalker friends will all wanna take a look at. (*cough*Sheila*cough*)

And one more note before the picture-age.. Well... Two..

1. Yes, we are actually at the beach, that isn't just a dropcloth behind us.
2. Let me mention that when I say "the rest of my family", I mean... A lot of people. About 3/4 of my first cousins, a couple of my second cousins, some aunts and uncles, my family (hey, that's 8), my grandparents on my dad's side, family friends, cousins of my cousins... Random dudes who drop by... People. Lots. And lots. Of people.

Enter the picturage.

That's me.

Veela. She's much more photogenic.

And Christina.

The troll- I mean... Monica.

Reason #1 why my neck hurts.

Pretty beach.

Reson #2 my neck hurts.

Squish.

Kenneth!

Veela and I trying to squish each other. Epic fail.

Random picture at the end.

There you go, stalkers of mine. Pictures. (*cough*Sheila*cough*)

How to Ignore People

2011-09-02T07:54:00.000-07:00

Are you sick of people telling you JUST TO IGNORE THEM? Do you hate it when you need to IGNORE SOMEONE but CAN'T?
Do you suffer from the INABILITY TO IGNORE whoever you want to?
Have you found yourself ANSWERING THE PERSON even though you swore you would ignore them?
If you've answered YES to any of the above YOU NEED THIS GUIDE!
The Guide is a COMPREHENSIVE, EASY TO USE guide for all of life's problems*.
Call 123-456-7890** to buy the guide for only $69.99!
This is our EXCLUSIVE DEAL!
Don't MISS YOUR CHANCE!
LAST CHANCE OFFER!

*The Guide is not guarenteed to prevent paper cuts, save your cat from a tree, or save you from a sasquatch.
**Like I always say. Not a real number. I think. Anyone want to try it and tell me what happens? ;)

Chapter One: How to Ignore People (The Right Way)

Chances are good that you have been told at least once in your life to "just ignore them."

Chances are also probably good that you have either been unable to resist making a sarcastic remark to them, engaging in regular conversation, or have been unable to stop them from getting on your nerves. You probably find yourself wondering why they tell you to ignore someone... When it's obvious that ignoring someone is never going to work.

Chances are good you've never read this chapter before.

It is, in fact, possible to ignore someone. If you ever find yourself zoning out while your mother is lecturing you, you are ignoring her. If you ever find yourself forgetting to respond to that text message, you're (accidentally) ignoring the person.

But how do you harness that power? How do you channel it and actually use it to ignore your annoying sister? Or that jerk who sits next to you in class? How do you prevent yourself from screaming when someone continues to bug me?

Well, chances are it changes from person to person. But the staff here at The Guide Inc. have found a few tried and true methods of ignoring someone.

Think about something else. This may seem obvious, but often times we are so caught up in ignoring someone, that we aren't. So, go ahead. Completely forget that someone is sitting there. Think about how you're flunking math. Think about what you'd do if an agent randomly came up to you and told you that you were going to become an international singing sensation. Tell a story in your head. Ask yourself impossible questions (Did the chicken or the egg come first...?). Go ahead.
Eavesdrop. If it's at all possible, focus on someone else's conversation. If your sister and her friend are in the back seat, listen to what they're saying. If your friends are having a conversation a few feet away, try to lip-read what they're saying.
Observe your surroundings. If there's no one to eavesdrop on, and you can't make yourself focus on thoughts, find something to look at. Look at a tree. "Wow. That's a green tree." It's okay to sound obvious. After all, it's just in your head.
Get a song stuck in your head. This is another thing to focus on. Start singing a song in your head. Hum it out loud. Just focus on the song. Choose a really catchy one. If you already have a song in your head... Great! Just focus on the song, and chances are you'll get so caught up singing in your head that you won't notice what the person is saying.

The last tip that we can offer is to focus on what is making you zone out when your mom is talking. Figure out what it is, and use it later.

Have fun ignoring people...

If you were even paying attention to this chapter, that is.

My Commenting Thingy is Working!

2011-08-31T12:04:00.001-07:00

I just managed to comment on a blog.
It was amazing.
:)

Once Upon a Time...

2011-08-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

There was a teenager named Angela.

Angela was a pretty regular teenager, with all the good and bad things that went along with it. She could laugh at the High Schoolers, but her speech habits sometimes lacked a good vocabulary. She got to enter all the teen homeschool activities, but she had to have braces.

In fact, when Angela was younger, she had horrible teeth. Something had gone wrong and half the time her adult teeth would grow up behind her baby teeth, or sideways in between two, or they'd jut out at the wrong angle.
Angela spent a lot of time at the dentist's office having teeth pulled.

By the time that Angela was 12, she had truly atrocious teeth, so her mother took her to the orthodontist.
At the time, Angela didn't know what the deal was, so she went along reluctantly, trying not to think about orthodontists. (See, Angela's grandmother wanted Angela to be an orthodontist, so whenever Angela thought about them, she shuddered at the thought of those discussions she had had with her grandma.)

But although Angela couldn't tell it at the time, she really did have horrible teeth.
It was no surprise when the orthodontist said she needed braces. Angela sort of shrugged and walked away, though, because her mom said that braces hurt far less than they did when she had been a teen.

So, that fall, the orthodontist put the braces on Angela's teeth.

Her mother lied. The braces hurt.

The next two years went along pretty fast, what with school and camp, and everything.
Half the time, Angela forgot she even had braces.

But then came the fateful orthodontist appointment.

Angela walked into the office, and sat down, until someone called her back. She sat down and opened her mouth. Smiled about five times, open her closed her mouth several times more, brushed her teeth, and sat back down on that weird chair that dentists and orthodontists have.

And then the orthodontist came in.
Taking a look at her mouth, her proclaimed the news she had been longing to hear for two years.

"You get your braces off next time. Come back in four weeks."

Wish Me Luck!

2011-08-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

So, tonight is the first night of my training!
Training?
Training for what?

Training to become an atrium teacher! I have one class a month (I think), always on a Saturday night, for about two years.
Then I will be a certified religious ed teacher.
Scary, huh?

Because we had to look at the rules to see if it was even possible for a 14 year old to take the training, I expect I'll be the youngest by at least 2 years, if not more. In fact, I'm fully expecting to be in a class with many adults.
This is not exciting.

But either way, once it's done, that's all I have to do. I'm certified for the rest of my life, and I can take that anywhere in the world.
Anywhere.

Either way, I'm kind of nervous about this whole thing, mainly because I don't know what it's like, who will be there, what is going to happen, if I'm going to be considered one of "those teenagers", or what.

...Okay. So I guess you could say I'm scared.
Very much.

On the bright side, at least I know my Gramma J will be there. So I'm not just going to be wandering around trying to find the place I'm supposed to be, or what I'm supposed to do, or anything.
Thank heavens.

To close off, let me clear up something in my last post:

When I was writing what my "thoughts" were, that did not mean that I'm mad at my friends for texting me. I enjoy getting texts. It makes me feel important. Mainly, I have really sarcastic thoughts, loads of of the time.
Sorry for that confusion.

And here is a homeschool video from YouTube.
It's pretty hysterical.

Introverted

2011-08-26T17:37:00.000-07:00

It's not really a surprise to anyone I know that I'm much more introverted than extroverted.
I hate to go to parties.
I don't like being around medium sized groups of people.
I'm much happier being by myself in a crowd, because it still means I'm by myself.
(To clear this up, though... I don't like to be lonely. I like to be alone. There is a difference.)
I like to sit in my room.
By myself.
I talk much better over written word, partly because I don't have awkward gaps in my speech.
(For example, that previous sentence would sound, in real life, "I talk much better over written word... Partly because... I don't have... awkward gaps in my... my speech.")
I often blurt out what I'm thinking in my head, but only if it's a random fact (fact: they've created a way to identify zebras by their stripes, using the technology of barcode scanners), not if it's what I'm thinking (thinking: This shirt is uncomfortable. And.. wait. What the [beep] is on that woman's shirt?! ...Okay. That was the most awkward thing I've seen all day... Hmmmm... Gah! I'm being attacked by a rabid child! AAAAAHHHH!!! Save me! ...holy [beep]! Can't you [beep]ing people stop texting me for one [beep]ing second?! Gaaaaack! ...Wait. What the... Huh... PANTS!)
Oh. And I detest small talk. Hate it.
That's why I rarely start conversations (unless I've just arrived) by saying "Hello!". No. More like, "I'm trying to write a wanted poster for a future world where 'normal' people aren't allowed, and the 'regular' people are, and they're genetically engineered. So, artificial life. How would you recommend I word this?"

Anyway, enough discussing what I am like... Or more like, proving why I'm not an extrovert.
I'm not, by the way. (An extrovert? Valerie. An introvert? Me.)

One of the things about being an introvert, is that because being an extrovert is apparently the desirable personality type, is that it's very difficult to be introverted around people.

For example, let's throw two people at you.
Both of these people are 15 year old girls, look average, and everything. Okay?
We'll call the extroverted girl "Michelle" and the introverted girl "Alexandra".
Let's start our experiment.

Michelle is the sort of person who is going to bounce up to you and say "Hello!" and then proceed to bother you until you finally acknowlege her existence. She enjoys going to parties. She's good at talking to people. She can banter until forever, but doesn't burden you with any of her problems.

Alexandra is the type who will nod at you, maybe say hi, introduce herself, and then not say much else. I mean, she might sit next to you, she might make some sort of comments on whatever is going on, she might be EXCELLENT at making speeches...
But she's definitely not the type who is going to go out to parties every night. She doesn't say much. She might not smile much. She might ignore you. She might just nod. She's definitely going to try to get away from you as much as possible.

Which of these sound like a nicer sort of person? Who would you rather meet?

Michelle is most likely going to have a huge acceptance everywhere. People are probably going to like her. She's going to have friends. She's going to have fun. She's the type who is going to show up at camp and have at least three friends by the end of day one. (Trust me. I live with an extrovert. I've seen their methods at work.)

Alexandra is much more likely going to be considered "depressed" "antisocial" "emo" "too good" and so on. In fact, every single one of those adjectives have been used on me at least once or twice... Normally when I'm around a group of people, such as at camp, or at a party.
At camp, in fact, one girl seemed to be obsessed with me, and would walk around calling me "seriously depressed". She even wrote the words on her palm, and would flash them at me whenever I ignored her.
Which was quite often.

So, it's harder to be an introvert than an extrovert. We aren't often understood, except by other introverts. It's not always a good place to be, although it does have it's benefits.
For example... We're better people watchers. Why? Because we're perfectly content with sitting, and not having to talk, we can just sit silently and watch people walk by.
Secondly. If we were sims, our "social" need would go down very slowly. I mean, I have to text someone, or email them, or talk to my sister face to face, at least once or twice a day... But often it's just enough for me to be around someone. I don't necessarily need to have a so called 'conversation'... Especially when it's a conversation about me.

Anyway, I could go on and on about this subject... But I'm not going to. I have a feeling that this is quite long enough.
So I'm going to leave you with two links..
Here is one, about Caring For Your Introvert,
and here is the second one, 10 Myths About Introverts.
And in case you're curious, I completely agree with what he says, against the myths, in that second link. Yeah. That's us to a T.

Konnichiha!

2011-08-26T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hello, everyone!

In case anyone's curious why that video is up there... No reason really... It's just really catchy. And I like it. :)

Moving on.

School! Considering the fact that most of my friends have been posting about how much homework they have, I think I'll jump on the opposite bandwagon and say..

I have just the right amount of work!
In fact, I finished almost all my work by noon today... All I still have to do is do two easy Western Civ tests, read some more of Paradise Lost (not as hard as some make it out to be, although I know I'm not 'getting' everything), read a sheet on Socrates, and 'answer' some philos-off-ic-al-ish-y questions.
Which I can all do before dinner, if I can motivate myself to do more than repeatedly listen to feel-good Superchick songs. ;)

Mainly, it helps that I have sort of a schedule. Sort of. Several of the days I have "extra homework", which basically means whatever I feel like doing... Any homework I really ought to have done, but haven't, or... nothing!
I hope this little program has been a nice change from "toooooo muuuccchhhhhhhh homework..."

Besides.

Optimists live longer. ;)

My Deepest Apologies to Matt, KT, Cat, and Anyone Else Whose Blog I Have Viewed Recently.

2011-08-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

I love getting comments.
In fact, I thrive on comments. I get a comment in my spam (yeah, blogger crap goes to spam), and I light up.
Why?
I don't know.
(Voice In My Head: I do! I like it because it means people are reading what I like. And that they obviously don't think I'm too snarky/sarcastic/annoying/idiotic/pathetic to ignore my blog! I like it because it boosts my ego! Because it means I'm special! Because- Me: shut up.)
[cough]

But anyway, I love comments.
So, usually, I try to repay the people who comment on my blog, by reading and commenting on their blogs.
(I apologize. The only blogs I reguarly check are Wak3 and g0, The Lonesome Crayon, Insanely. -Cat, My Place My Space, Through Thorns, (sometimes) Epic Bob, Nairam of Sherwood, and sometimes, I'll Make My Own Path, Thanks.)

So, yesterday, I was trying to comment on a post that one of you had written. In fact, I tried about three times.
Repeatedly.
In fact, the scenario went as such:

Me: [tries to post comment]
Blogger: Please choose Profile.
Me: um... [clicks 'Google']
Blogger: You are not authorized to view this page. Please sign out and try again.
Me: [signs out and tries again]
Blogger: You are not authorized to view this page. Please sign out and try again.
Me: ... [signs out and tries again]
[repeat]
Me: Stupid... Freaking... [gives up]

One would think I would have learned my lesson.
But no.

See, I simply decided that my friend had comment posting turned off... Or only so that he could post.
Okay, I thought, I'll just tell him it was a good post some other way.

Fast forward a day.

Checking the blogs I follow, I noticed that there was a new post on The Lonesome Crayon. Since this is one of those blogs I actually do read, I decided to [gasp] look at the post.
So I did.
Reading through, I wanted to comment on the Western Civ chapter, and say that, "Well... The only real comment I have on the Western Civ chapter is that it's very... Bloodthirsty."
But.

Yet again, Blogger defied my every try to post a comment.
In fact, it wouldn't even show me a preview showing my name as "Angela". Only "Anonymous."
I don't actually think that both of these bloggers have comment posting turned off.

So, here are my deepest apologies.
[hands reader a box]

The End.

The Moral of This Story is...
You probably won't be getting any comments on your posts from me until I can figure out what the [beep] is wrong with my blogger/google account. If you really, truly, and severely need my opinion on your posts...
I will be very honored.
And, you will be better off just pestering me in whatever way works for you... Email, text, in person, over forum, whatever... Until I finally give you my comment.
That's all. :)

Procrastinator

2011-08-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about being a homeschooler is that I get to be my own teacher, most of the time.
So, while other people get to wake up and go to school and do whatever their teachers tell them to?
I get to wake up, take a 3 mile walk at 6:00, come back by 7:20, do whatever I want until 8, eat breakfast, clean my room (always. My room has this... attraction to dirt. And grime. And stuff. My room can be perfectly clean, and in 12 hours it's covered with D&D books, regular books, school books, notebooks, clothes, fabric scraps, tape, pins, notebooks, scissors, paper snips, notebooks, dog hair, random-textbooks-from-classes-I-took-several-years-ago, notebooks, dictionaries, letters, shoes, notebooks, my camera, my phone, my ipod, notebooks, speakers, and all in all, other junk.)...
and then?
Decide what school I'm going to do each day!

True, I have sort of a schedule. I do math on Tuesdays, but not on Friday, I do geology on Wednesday, but not on Saturday, I do piano every day, I write on Saturdays, Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays, but not on Mondays, I do literature on every day except Thursday, Friday, and Tuesday... And so on.

But I usually get to decide what I'm going to do. :)

For example, today this is what I wrote down on the second white board in our school room:

   Angela:
   Math - exercise 5.6
   World History
   OYAN Other Worlds
   Piano: Teach Ken
   Western Civ

See? That's what school I'm doing today. I've already practiced piano, which is why it isn't on there.

On to do exercise 5.6

Earring Tutorial/The Farm/Stealing Cat's Post

2011-08-22T17:52:00.000-07:00

Hello!
As you can see from the title of this post, this is going to be a really, really lengthy one today. Sorry about that, but I haven't blogged in two weeks... Although I did read about five books, write a blog post, write the first chapter of Alyssa's book, and basically be a slug.
But I really need to blog. So this is going to be long.
Just so you know.

First of all..
A tutorial!

So, when we went up to the farm, we were going to play Dungeons and Dragons. As the people who know me, and my gaming style know, my family and I play with tiles and figurines, most of the time.
My sister, Veela, had been using a cat figurine instead of a mini, so she asked my mom and me to get her a mini while we were out. (We were going shopping.)
We stopped in one of my favorite hobby shops (it's not creepy!), but, alas! Wizards of the Coast is no longer making the minis!
This is tragic.
But, we had told Veela that we would get her a mini, so that she didn't have to play a cat, in place of her human rogue.
Debating what to do, we went to Target, and looked around. We found these tiny rubber toys (they have a name, I don't remember it), that look like they're on their way to becoming popular.
But.
They were the right size.
Not only that, they were cute!
So, my mom got two packets... One with Cinderella figures, and one with characters from Marvel comics. When we got back, we gave Veela the Cinderella figure to play with, and then opened the rest.

The thing about my brain is that I get the weirdest, most random ideas out of nowhere. I had already claimed the Spiderman figure as mine, and I also took Captain America (which I later traded for Wolverine. He's cooler.)
But, back to this paragraph's point...
The first thing I thought when I saw the figures? "I could totally make those into earrings!"

So, as soon as I got home (no, literally, it was about an hour after we arrived), I gathered my supplies, and ended up with an epic new pair of earrings. :)

Here's the tutorial.

Step One:
Gather Materials

Materials Needed:
2 Small rubber figurines (I'll put up the name when I remember it)
A hammer
A nail.
Two of those pins/wire things (I do know the name of them. But again. My brain seems to MIA today.)
Two earring hooks
A jewelry tool/pliers (that would be those red handled things.)

Step Two:
Punch a hole through the figurines using the hammer and the nail.

Step Three:
Remove nail.

Step Four:
Insert wires into figurine, with the circular end on the bottom.

Step Five:

Push wire all the way up, so that the circular bit disappears into the divot on the bottom of the figure. (In other words, you're shoving it up where the sun don't shine. If you pardon the image.)

Step Six:
Add the earring wires. (I don't have a tutorial for this yet, but it's fairly easy.)

Step Seven:
Repeat with other figurine.

Step Eight:
Wear!

*end of tute*

Next subject.
The Farm.
The farm is amazing. It's this old farm house in Wisconsin, about four hours away from my house here. It's quite hideous on the outside (well, some of the inside too) but all in all, I love it.
I'll have pictures soon, of my room up there.

*Next subject*
Stealing Cat's post.
So! My friend Cat/Linda has a post up... About 50 random facts about her. Only she only has 25. So I'm going to try to beat that. (Maybe I'll even get 26! Woot! haha). Here goes. (Feel free to skip this. If you want. And you don't mind my minions hunting you down. And all that jazz.)

I have Lyme's disease.
I have been playing piano since I was 6.
For some inexplicable reason, I'm considered to be funny, and have actually managed to summon up some weak laughter from some. And of course, some people just start crying. I guess it's my lame attempt at humor...
I am, in fact, made of ice cream, and will melt if left out in the sun too much. (Alas! I am not ice cream invented by Mr Willy Wonka.)
I am not above making fun of myself, and will in fact, do just that as frequently as I possibly can.
I am not above making fun of High Schoolers, and will make as many jabs in their direction as is humanly possible. (Though, they probably think I'm joking... They're too stupid to realize that not all of us teenagers think we're the greatest things since QWERTY phone keyboards.)
I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons since I was around 8 years old.
I text way too much than I should.
My favorite words are "Autodidact" "Decrepit" "Victimize" "Homicidal" "Pizazz" "Fabulous" "Onomatopoeia" "Java" and "Spectacular".
I want to be a professional blogger.
I will develop superpowers by the time I'm 18.
My favorite superhero is Spiderman, and my favorite hero is Batman. (He isn't a superhero... he has no powers besides being fabulously rich.)
I have the Animanics "Presidents" song memorized up to Woodrow Wilson.
the Animaniacs are my heroes.
I still have not finished reading the Lord of the Rings.
The Hobit, however, is a good favorite.
I believe that most YA books are idiotic, stupid, fluffy, and altogether a complete waste of time.
However, I do not read Adult books, because I find some of the content to be similar to that of the YA.
My favorite Mystery books are Nancy Drews.
I read Murderous Maths for fun.
Veela or my mom and I can recite the Horrible Histories "Alexander the Great" from heart.
I am transformed into a triumphant knight every time I go up the stairs with a broom.
I wave at everyone on roller coasters.
I am, in fact, a trendsetter.
I am totally the meanest.
My secret ambition is to become Legolas and kick butt.
I am a Whovian in training.
Doctor Who, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mythbusters, Merlin, and River Monsters are the only TV shows I will watch.
My favorite number is 2,763.
I think I come off as being cooler than I actually am.
I have had exactly two people cite me as being the smartest person they've ever met.
I don't believe in being smart.
I can literally spend hours playing piano.
My best friends in the world are Hydrocortisone Cream, Fashy (my hot waterbottle), Mr Heater, my Dictionary, and SCOTT.
I'm not really a dog person.
I used to own over 10 fish, and they were the best thing to happen to me since I discovered notebooks.
I am obsessed with office supplies and Alaska.
I have set up a psychic connection between me and my friend's dog, who is secretly an alien.
Up until three or four days ago, I had exactly 149 books on my bookshelf.
I love ancient books.
My favorite vampire book is Carmilla, which is about a lesbian vampire.
The most likely conversation I am to have with anyone is what their plans are for the ZA.
I very recently started considering a career as a mathematician.
For some reason, mathematician makes me think of top hats.
One of the nicknames my family has for me is "Angela I-Need-Another-Bandaid J---------"
If I were to change my name, I'd change it to Cassandra.
I do not have a regular sense of humor... "Funny" books rarely come of as being funny, but things that happen in real life that no one finds funny, crack me up.
Beans are the best thing since beans.
I often use the words "queer" and "gay" in their original meanings... Queer meaning "strange" and gay meaning "joyful" and "happy".

Yeah. I could have thunken up one more. But I didn't feel like it.
Anyway, it's bed time.
Ta ta!
(Heigh ho... do you know... the names of the US residents... who then bcame the presidents...)

I Had Planned to Have an Awesome Post, But Instead You Have to Deal With This...

2011-08-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

My apologies. I had about three different post ideas (weird things people ask me about being a homeschooler, some random quotage from my sister, the "oh well I'll use something else oh look here is that thing I was looking for" syndrome... which one sounds best? Just for future reference)... But do you get to read any of them?
No!
Of course not. Why would I give you guys, my amazing readers, anything that was actually interesting?!
Psh.
That would be crazy.
No, I'm going to fill up my blog with more useless ramblings and apologies.

Apologies?
What?
What has Angela possibly done that requires her to apologize?
That never happens.
Duh.

But, actually, I know it's shocking, but I do have to apologize.
Because I won't be posting for the next 2 / 2 1/2 weeks.
Becuase I'm going to be in Wisconsin, without internet*... And yeah. I won't be posting.
*sobs*
I'm so sorry.
You're going to have to live without my useless talks about pretty much everything and anything and nothing that happens to be going on in my life, mind, imagination, any of the beforementioned in someone else's mind, random quotage from books, and videos from youtube, and the random crap that just jumps out of my mind and onto the computer in form of a blog post and did that make any sense at all?
See?
Yet more Angela-isms.

Anyway, I'm going to be gone, so expect no posts from me, and that's about all. :P

Oh, and a last bit of random quotage...
"Reality is a lovely place, but I wouldn't want to live there" ~ The Real World by Owl City
I was going to have a random YouTube video, but I feel too lazy to go find one.

*Heck, I won't even have a computer. Having internet but no computer would be like having an icecream scooper without the icecream. A pizza pan without the pizza. A bookshelf without books. The cover of a book without the actual book. A digital camera without batteries. The TARDIS without The Doctor. A t-shirt without scissors. A potato chip bag without chips. Anything without a notebook. A blog without a blogger. A...
Do you get the point?

Random Quotage

2011-08-03T12:32:00.000-07:00

But his doom
Reserv'd him more wrath; for now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain
Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes
That witness'd huge affliction and dismay
Mixt with obdurate pride and steadfast hate:
At once as far as Angels' ken he views
The dismal Situation waste and wild,
A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As one great Furnace falm'd, yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Serv'd only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all; but torture without end
Still urges, and a firey Deluge, fed
With ever-burning Sulpher unconsum'd:
Such place Eternal Justice had prepar'd
For those rebellious, here thir Prison ordained
In utter darkness, and thir portion set
As far remov'd from God and light of Heav'n
As from teh Center thrice to th' utmost Pole.
O how unlike the plae from whence they fell!

~From "Paradise Lost" by John Milton

Happy Birthday, Valerie.

2011-07-31T11:38:00.000-07:00

Huzzah, huzzah, you've made it one more year.
Congratulations, oh 12 year old.
Let's hope you make it one more.

Unfortunately, there is no cake (the cake is a lie).
Fortunately, Alexis appeared last night at about 10:30.
Unfortunately, that confused the heck out of me.

Either way.

Happy Birthday.

Christina's Piano Yesterday

2011-07-30T08:47:00.000-07:00

Hi! So, as some of you know, my sister Christina and I had a piano recital yesterday! It was very nice, in this piano shop. My mom has been working on putting the videos on YouTube... So far, she has Christina's up. I figured I might as well put them here, so you can all see what a fabulous job she did. :)

If anyone is curious, the older woman playing the duets with Christina in this video, is our piano teacher. :)

WHAM.

2011-07-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have a moment when you're just sitting there, feeling like you're a complete and total failure, then all of a sudden it's "WHAM" and you realize that you've already done a lot, and that you have a lot coming up, but you aren't scared about any of it?

I sort of had that feeling today.

I was feeling kind of upset today, because I'm behind on my math, and I keep forgetting to teach Ken piano (I remembered yesterday, though!) and I have a recital tomorrow, and I still have to call my confirmation teacher to talk about some money that the church might have for me to pay for part of the tuition for me to take atrium teaching training, and I have still to do any reading at all for Western Civ, and I still have homework for then (and the class hasn't even started yet) and I haven't written in about three months..

I was fairly miserable.

But then I realized that
a) I've handled this sort of thing before.
b) I haven't died from anything so far.
c) All I have to do is focus on my math, and I'll still get the book done in October, even if I do take longer than expected.
d) Grades in class don't always matter... As long as I am learning, it's all good.
e) I like playing piano at recitals (sometimes).
f) even though I'm going to be hopefully taking the AP for world history next year, and I'm taking the honors Western Civ (why do they call it honors? All honors means is that there's more work), and my biology is higher than my level, I'm not freaked about any of this...
And it was like
WHAM.

Yeah.
:)
It was fun.

2011-07-26T15:11:00.001-07:00

Yet More Reasons Why It's Awesome to be Me.

2011-07-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

I get to blog about french toast.
My workout consists of kicking a huge log around the backyard.
I can do my math on my desk.
I can do my math on my bed.
I can do my math under my desk. (Not under my bed, though. There's no room down there. And there's spiders.)
I can do my math wherever I want to.
I can do my math while watching Dr Who.
I can do my math while watching Twelfth Night.
I can do my history wherever I want. (Ha! No more math!)
Piano is awesome.
My logic class comes from loading the dishwasher.
Art = cutting up tshirts.
My mom would let me make things out of "Backyard Ballistics" for science if I wanted to.
For science next year, I get a coloring book.
I've written a novel.
My alarm clock is my mother's, from the 70s.
I have exactly 149 just-for-reading books on my bookshelf downstairs.
I have around 10 snow globes on my bookshelf downstairs.
I have about three statues, a crystal etching, and a candle holder of lighthouses on my bookshelf (and two more statues on my window sill.)
I get to read Murderous Maths for my homework sometimes.
I sleep in a dungeon.
My yardwork today consisted of building a funeral pyre/signal fire/fire-for-burning-zombies-when-the-ZA-finally-happens.
During Sausage Fest, the usual happenings is my cousins and I lounge in the hammock and have discussions over our favorite words.
Victimize is one of my favorite words.
(So is homicidal.)
I have my very own dictionary.
I don't care that people think I'm a dork for having my very own dictionary (and being proud of it!)
All my (real) friends are absolutely brilliant.
All of my friends, including the imaginary/not real/fake/frenemies, are somewhat brilliant.
Because I'm a girl, I can cry as much as I want when watching movies, and no one thinks it's weird. (Why is that, anyway?)
I have 37 followers! (You guys are awesome.)
My little sister wants to be just like me. (Maybe this isn't so awesome for me....)
I look like a zombie on my Great America season pass!
I have in my possession an Animaniacs coloring book.
And I have access to a Pajama Sam coloring book.
My swim towel is green.
I watch Horrible Histories for history sometimes.
Notebooks/office supplies are one of my obsessions.
I also love Alaska.
I have relatives in Alaska.
There's a song on my ipod named "Alaska".
That song is by Adam Young.
I'm an Adam Young fan.
I can DM.
I can DM and not have anyone tell me I sucked.
Granted, I was DMing for a bunch of new D&Ders.
Oh well.
For some reason, everyone thinks I'm funny.
For some reason, most people my age do exactly what I tell them to, when I tell them to.
I live in my own world.
I've visited Candy Land.
My copy of Pippi Longstocking is absolutely brilliant.
I haven't reread Stargirl.
I've altered two pairs of shoes.
Shoelaces are awesome.
I know how to put bullets up in my blog posts!
I have also annoyed the heck out of people in my blog posts.
One of my best posts was a rebuttal to an anti-homeschooling post.
I was told I rocked for that.
By someone who doesn't even know me.
I have the capacity to write a long, rambling, bulleted blog post, with no aim, and yet have people tell me it was awesome.
You guys rock.
One of my favorite books (I forgot about this) is Carmilla.
That's a very old book about a lesbian vampire, in case you didn't know.
I highly recommend it.
People have finally given up on calling me Angie.
Or, maybe, I've just grown a selective hearing filter so I no longer hear it.
I like that second option.
My laundry basket has a sticker of a lion on it.
I have a faery with hospital legs on my wall.
I have a magic door to anywhere I want it to go on my wall.
I have a mushroom on my wall.
I have painted my wall.
My floor is purple.
When I wake up in the middle of the night when my hand is cramping up, the first thing I think is, "My hand hurts, I must be turning into spiderman!"
One Year Adventure Novel is awesome.
My camera is awesome.
My tripod still mostly works, even though I've kind of broken it a lot.
My blog is over 4 years old.

So, that's all I feel like writing up for now...
Yeah...
You guys can feel free to make one of these posts for yourself! though it won't be quite as awesome as mine. heh.