People Not To Be Like: Anakin Skywalker

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

An Angela Quiz

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

3. You like tape.

4. You like having short hair.

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

6. You don't like socks.

7. You don't like shoes.

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

9. You enjoy writing.

10. You like writing essay questions.

11. You like to alter stuff like clothing.

12. You talk to your characters sometimes.

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

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

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

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

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

18. You like airplanes.

19. You plan on becoming a pilot.

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

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

22. You like learning about stuff.

23. 'Spare time' sounds like foreign languge.

24. The only language you speak fluently is American.

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

26. You get jealous randomly for no reason.

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

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

29. You can knit.

30. You can sew.

31. You are learning to crochet.

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

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

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

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


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

0-12: Not like Angela at all.

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

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

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

In Defense

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

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

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

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

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

How girls think of guys.

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

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

You could consider most girls I know to be sexist.

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

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

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

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

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

Mission Ink

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

End of backstory.

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

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

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

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

This was very puzzling.

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

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

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

You know what?
That made my day.
Literally.

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

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

This day is amazing.

D&D Groups

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

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

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

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

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

However.

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

Nope.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, I've come to this conclusion.

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

Like my conclusion?
I do too. :)

Funny Life (Video at bottom)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Appearances and goodness go hand in hand in these stories.

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

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

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


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

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

Surviving November

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

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

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

Treat Us Like a Noob.

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

'Nuff said.

Find Something Just as Annoying.

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

We're The Chosen One.

Look here.

'Nuff said.

Be Overly Enthusiastic.

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

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

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

... You get the idea.

Give Candy If You Can.

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

Rant About It To Other NaNoers.

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

Know That You Are Awesome.

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

Becuase No One Wants to Read 4 Pages

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

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

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

Repeat.

Proof That I've Changed

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

Well.

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

Let me demonstrate.

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

Yeah.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See?
I'm a changed girl!

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Things You Wouldn't Expect

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

My Album Cover(s).

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

Anyway, here is how to make your album cover:

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

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

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

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



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

Here is my cheaters cover:

Likey? I do.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prologue

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

----

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

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

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

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

   The remaining siblings of mine, though?

   Deadly.

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

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

   Well, that’s the plan, anyway.

Another Blog Roll

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


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


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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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






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