Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Random Snippet of my Life

Me: these scones are Irish.
Valerie: No. They are American. They were made in America.
Me: Well, the recipe was from Ireland
Valerie: true.
Me: since it's from Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel.
Valerie: ...I thought he was Chinese.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

How to Avoid Answering Questions You Don't Want to Answer

Are you sick of answering awkward questions? Do you live in fear for the days you know you'll meet nosy people?!
Do you find yourself changing the subject all because you know that you have no good reply?!
If you answered YES to any of those questions then this guide is for you!!!
Remember, this is a LAST CHANCE OFFER!!! To buy the COMPLETE GUIDE please call 123-456-7890!*

*Again: I don't know what happens when you call that. :D

Chapter Two: Avoiding Questions

   Chances are, if you're reading this section of The Guide, you've found yourself up against some uncomfortable questions. Maybe it's your mom, asking you how your day was. Or it's your annoying brother, asking whether you have a crush on a certain guy. Or maybe it's just your friend, asking you whether or not they're invited to your birthday party, when you know you aren't inviting them.
   In any of these situations, you probably find yourself changing the subject immediately, in a desperate attempt to get away from the question as fast as possible, without answering it.
   Let us look at an example situation:

Lucy: So, do you have a crush on Jamie?
You: That math test is really horrible.
Lucy: HA! You DO have a crush on him!

   As you can see, if you really wanted that to be a secret, that is not the best way to go about hiding it. Changing subjects rapidly and without answering the original question only provokes the questioner, and causes them to just pursue the subject more relentlessly. 
   A better way to avoid uncomfortable questions is to briefly answer the question and then to change the subject by making a comment on your surroundings. Let us look at that same example, only using the new, improved, and better technique.
Lucy: So, do you have a crush on Jamie?
You: *shrugs* kinda, I guess.... Hey, Lucy?
Lucy: ha... yeah?
You: could you help me out with this math problem? The math test is really horrid.
Lucy: yeah, sure. It is, isn't it?

   The important thing to remember when answering the question is not to straight out deny anything, nor straight out say yes, either. If you said "No!" when Lucy asked you the question, you would have provoked her more. If you had said "Yeah, yeah I do", it does the same thing. The idea is to answer somewhere neutral, but in either direction.
   Another important thing to remember is to use your surroundings. If your little sister does something really cute, point it out! If you see something really colorful, point it out! If Lucy has something in her hair, point it out! Thing is, changing the subject using your surroundings is a lot more deceptive/sneaky than it is to start talking about something completely unrelated to anything!

Now, go out and avoid those questions.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Where I Shall Be Disappearing To This Summer (part two!)

So, some of you have already read my "Summer Plans" post. This is sort of a continuation of those excuses! Because... dun dun dun... today I actually took the trouble of searching around the OYAN forum, and the OYAN wesbite, to find out that there is going to be a contest this year.

The deadline is August 15th.

It is currently May 23rd.

That means I have three months.

"Alright", you're thinking. "Angela is officially a nutter." Well. I'm not arguing with that fact. But. I am intending to enter this contest. Which means that I have to write a GOOD 12 chapter novel, edit, format, and submit it in less than three months. Some of which time (a week, exactly) I will not even be here. Another four weeks my entire morning will be taken up with Junior Life Saving lessons. And I have homework, literature class, I'm teaching Kenneth piano lessons, and I have to do all my regular homework.

Yet, I'm still trying to enter this thing.

So! I'm going to need some encouragement with this! I have Write Or Die  , I have EditMinion, I have the OYAN forum (anyone up to critique? ;) ), and I have a ton of friends.
And I have my trusty computer. (The one who doesn't randomly freeze up and delete my writing! Booyah!).
Oh. and I have three months.
(And this video. :D )

So, let's see if I can do it!

I WILL TRIUMPH!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Rummage Sales

Welcome to May! That is... THE BEGINNING OF GARAGE/ESTATE/RUMMAGE SALES! Today I went to one rummage sale ($3 for a bag... I got two bags full of stuff), and it was awesome. I got
  1. A denim (DENIM! *is in love*) comforter for my bed.
  2. One sweater made of wool, which I am cutting up right now to unravel (so I can knit the yarn again),
  3. A bunch of t-shirts to refashion
  4. one long sleeved flannel-y shirt that I can just wear
  5. One sparkly gold sweater/shirt that I wore to my piano recital this morning.
  6. One pair of white keds I gave to Valerie for her to graffitti.
And that's about it. :)
Now, I've been going to rummage/garage/estate/yard sales for as long as I can remember. There's just something about them that I love. Maybe it's the stuff for 50 cents. Or maybe it's the fact that the stuff is weird. Or because you meet weird people. Or because it's just fun.
But either way, I feel very privileged to be part of the second hand sale community. I am, however, aware that not everyone has that. Therefore, here is an excerpt from my Guide (see post below this) which I am sharing for all of you poor deprived readers.

Chapter 6: Second Hand Sales

   If you're at this section, it is very likely that it is sometime between the months of May and September. You're driving along in your car, and you are suddenly being blinded by the obnoxious neon colored "GARAGE SALE", "ESTATE SALE", and "HUGE KID'S SALE"* signs. You go to church and are blinded by the not-so-neon "RUMMAGE SALE" and "BAG SALE" signs. You don't know what these mean, and you are frightened. Suddenly you're seeing zombies around every corner, the Earth has become flat, and people you thought were sane are all of a sudden freaking out about these mysterious sales you see!
   Stop what you're doing!
   Here is our easy to comprehend guide for these sales you see everywhere. First, we will define the types of sales, then we will break them down into two general subcategories.

*Though I'm not sure why anyone would be selling "Huge Kids", it certainly seems to be quite common, at least around where I live...

  1. Garage Sales.  These are probably the most common types of summer sales you will see. They usually take place at someone's house, with the family living at the house running the sale. It is also usually the family's belongings that are for sale. They are pretty much the same thing as Yard Sales, and most usually take place in the garage and the yard.
  2. Estate Sales.  These are pretty awesome. What this means is that there was someone who had an "estate"... That is, a household of junk. When they died/moved away, they or their relatives sold pretty much everything to an estate-sale-expert, who then held the sale. Estate Sales are virtually always held at the person's house, and you normally have to go into the house and through the rooms to find the stuff. Things are often more expensive than at Garage Sales, but there are often far cooler items for sale.
  3. Rummage Sales. Our personal favorites, Rummage Sales are usually held at a public area such as a church and are, in essence, a blown up Garage Sale. You never know what you're going to find here, and often the items are priced at a very low price. In fact, the last day is usually a Bag Sale, where if you fill up a bag with items**, it will cost a certain amount of money- $5-$3 is the norm.
**With some exceptions. Once I went to a rummage sale, and for some inexplicable reason you weren't able to put shoes or belts in the bag. You weren't allowed to put the piano in one... I cannot imagine why!

   Now that we have broken the sales down into their first categories, let me add the two subcategories.
  There are two types of Sales:
  • The Money-Making (MM) ones
  • The Get-Rid-Of-Junk (GROJ) ones.
   The difference is quite important. MM sales are ones where the items are usually priced higher, and the stuff is far less interesting. There is often fewer items for sale, and the people are not nearly as willing to bargain with you as the ones in the GROJ ones. The GROJ sales are as they sound- some person has a whole lot of crud in their basement, and they're trying to sell it for as cheap as possible*** before they have to give it to Goodwill.

***Which type do you think my family usually has? 

   Now, go forth and conquer them Sales! 

Friday, May 20, 2011

You're the Chosen One.

Alert, alert!
Are you sick of having a conversation where you have no good reply to what the other person is saying?
Are you sick of  smiling and nodding for lack of a good reply?
Do you often find yourself in situations where you have nothing to contribute to the conversation?
If so, this guide is for you!!!!!!!!!!
Within the guide you will learn how to avoid conversations, how to talk to people with fancy hand gestures, how to get away from your annoying Aunt Martha, and how to reply when there is no reply!
Here is a selection of the guide for you to read, for the entire contents, please call me at 123-456-7890*  to order!*

*This is not a real guide. I don't actually know what would happen if you called that number. :)

Chapter 3: How to Reply When There is no Reply

     If you are reading this chapter, there is no doubt that you have found yourself in conversations where after hearing the one person talk for length about something that you don't really care about, you find yourself resorting to smiling and nodding. The problem with that tried trick is that it's fairly obvious that you aren't paying attention, and that it sometimes angers people when they realize that their monologues, which are obviously interesting to themselves, are far from fascinating.
   This is where this guide comes in.

   Let us observe a conversation using the smile and nod technique.

   Sara: ...And I was stuck in traffic for SO LONG yesterday! I can't believe it!
   You: *smiles and nods*
   Sara: And then the groceries went bad in the back of my trunk because I turned off the car to wait, and that turned off the AC!
   You: *smiles and nods*
   Sara: And that's why I don't have anything but melted ice cream!
   You: *smiles and nods*

   As you can tell, this conversation is not going to become interesting in any amount of time. It will slowly shrivel and wither until it's dead, and you are standing around saying things like "Alright" and "So..." and "Anyway..." until someone finds some excuse to leave.

   Here, in this guide, we suggest a different approach: Replying to the nonsense with a random saying! There is almost no limit to what random saying you can use, but here are the favorites of the staff here.
  1. You're the chosen one!
  2. You're a fashion victim.
  3. How many roads must a man walk down? (The answer is blowing in the wind, my friend.)
  4. Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak.
But it's all just a matter of preference, of course. Now, let us look at that same conversation, only with you using this new, improved technique.

   Sara: ...And I was stuck in traffic for SO LONG yesterday! I can't believe it!
   You: You're a fashion victim!
   Sara: .... Um... sorry?
   You: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment, tweak!
   Sara: *gives you an odd look*

   Now, unlike the previous conversation, this one is actually going places. It could turn into a fascinating conversation about the Harry Potter books. It could turn into a shouting match about your odd sense of conversation. It could turn into a conversation about TV shows, or music! The point is: The conversation has just taken a positive turn.
Of course, you could always use the Smile and Nod technique.
It's all up to you.
You are the chosen one, after all.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

A Day in the Life of a Homeschooler

This homeschooler, to be exact.

See, so many people ask me "what's your day like?" because I'm a homeschooler, that I figured that I might as well just write a post on it, since they all seem so intent on knowing my exact location at each moment in the day.

Come to think about it, that sounds somewhat stalkerish.

Anyway, here is my day, today, starting this morning, and going until now. (1:35 PM). I will then write what I expect to accomplish in the later hours of the day.

6:00- I wake up, start listening to music, and lay in bed.
7:30- I get up, after deciding that I'm not going to lay in bed anymore, because I feel like a sloth. I go upstairs, sit in the living room for five minutes or so, realize that the only people up are my sister, Christina, and my brother, Kenneth, and then decide to actually productive and do my math homework.
7:45- I start doing my math homework and reading the day's comics.
8:00- I eat breakfast. (For all you SUPER stalkerish types, it was cinnamon sugar toast and cereal. Boring.)
8:20 to 10:00- I keep doing math. I finish one math exercise of easy word problems and start another one.
10:30 to 11:30- I take a shower, complete my personal hygiene routine, eat lunch, and start my science homework.
12:00- I take a break from science to play Disney songs on the piano, hold Philip, and load the dishwasher.
1:00- I go back to doing science homework.
1:30- I decide to do a blog post.

that's all I've done today... I'm also planning to finish mt new math exercise (NEM 2 exercise 4.2, word problems dealing with money... easy peasy), finish my science homework (draw a picture showing how similar fossils being found in Brazil and South Africa is a reasonable amount of proof for continental shift), do some history (reading... I think I'm in the middle ages now), practice my actual piano (Guild Auditions are on Friday... And my recital is on Saturday... o_O), I might re-do a blog background for here (this one is kind of... dark...), I want to finish reading these (two) books, and go to the library*, and go outside for a walk. :)

*ever get it where you get a ton of books from the library, and for the first few days you have them they look really really interesting? But then a week later you go "Oh! Let's read something!", and you look through your books, and all of them are "Meh"? I don't know why, but that's what almost always happens to me. I end up having to read all the books I get in the first week I have them. Which is hard for me. :P So I have to get more books. Besides, I need to get "Dandelion Wine" for my literature class  book club. :)

Monday, May 16, 2011

How to Make A Blog Background



Heyza! So. I bet a bunch of you have noticed my new background. Mwahaha. Let's just say that background took a lot of work. :P
And I'll probably be changing it soon anyway... Something whose materials I actually made (yeah, I got the materials from this...) Anyway. Very cool, and I am very thankful to the maker of the materials. :)
Alright. But on to the tutorial. Alright? First of all, you're going to need some type of photo image thingy a jig. I use Photoshop. But that's just me. :)
First of all, you're going to make a new document.



So, I've heard that making the width "14.5" works best for most people, but since we have a very wide monitor here, and I'm actually planning on maybe using this one, I have to set it at 20. For all of you with normal ones... 14.5 might be the best way to go. :)

Next, you have to get your materials. There's tons of Free Digital Scrapbooking sites all over the internet... I have found this one to be very helpful.
You download whatever papers/embellishments/etc. you want to use, then save them in a file you will be able to remember, then open them in your image/picture thingy. :)


To make the background, all you have to do is take your background design (I'm using the stripes), and make it fit into your blank document.

To make the center (which has to be around 7.5 inches wide), I usually make a new (blank) area, with the height of 11, and the width of 7.5. Then you can make your middle color (I'm using the plain green) and make it fit there. Then drag it over onto your background, center it, and there's that bit. Add your embellishments, drop shadows, writing, etc., etc., etc...



then flatten all layers. Save the file (remember to make it large) then go to your blog. put a new post, and add the background as a photo.



Then, you're going to "view picture".



This will bring up your picture (really background) in the window. There will be an url at the top of the page- the link to your picture. Copy this link!!!

Now go to your blog's "Design" tab, and click "edit HTML". Then click ctrl-F, to bring up your find box. put in this bit of cooding "body { background" and find it.



See the bit that says

body {
background:$bgcolor

? I mean, on your HTML. Mine has the link to my background in it. ;) Delete that bit of script. Then put in this bit:

body {
background: url(INSERT YOUR BACKGROUND LINK HERE) no-repeat center fixed #FFFFFF;

in the INSERT YOUR BACKGROUND LINK HERE, you are going to put the link to your background which I told you to copy. When you opened up your picture in "view image"? That's the link to put here. Put it in. Click "Save Template" and then preview it to make sure it looks good.

Oh, and if anyone has any problems seeing my background, please, PLEASE let me know. If it's too wide, tell me, as well, because, like I said, we have a super wide monitor so the screen that fits here might not fit anywhere else.
...
In which case I will change the width so it'll fit basically anywhere. :)

If you have any problems or if you need help with anything, or if my instructions were not clear, you can put a comment here and I'll put the help up in this post.


~Angela

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Blogger... Fifteen reasons it stinks.

  1. It deleted the comments I got from Sandy and from Cat two and three days ago, without me telling it to.
  2. Half the time it tells me it can't post my posts because of some tag error, when all I've done is type.
  3. It makes tag errors when all I do is type.
  4. Sometimes, when I put on pictures, what Blogger does is make them go invisible when I'm on the "compose" tag, so I upload them twice, and only realize it when I post.
  5. It's really tricky for me to figure out where my followers' blogs are located when I click on their pictures.
  6. Most times when I try to post, I have to try twice because it says that it saved it at the same time I was posting it, and I should just try again.
  7. When I go to sign in, it sometimes makes me type my email address and password about fifteen times before it will register that I have signed in.
  8. It's tricky to find my dashboard.
  9. It's stupid when I try to put up a new background.
  10. It goes all wonky on me when I put up a custom header.
  11. It's so fussy about what your domain name is.
  12. It won't let me use different font sizes within one post.
  13. It makes changing the color of my letters really hard.
  14. It never tells me what my original font is, so I have to go through all of them if I want to change a copy paste section into the same font as the rest of the post.
  15. It has a really, REALLY bad search engine. (I search "Rachel Carson" and it'll pull up something about Girl Scout Camp. *headdesk*)
That's all for now. :)

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

My Summer Plans

Hello, everyone!

I realize I haven't posted much recently, breaking from my "complete and total blogging addiction" as I say. :D But.
This is going to change.
Eventually.

Right now, I'm super busy.. You can thank Philip (one "L", not two... geesh), a ton of homework, a crabby computer, a crabby sewing machine, my other hobbies (refashioning, sewing, writing, planning-things-that-will-never-happen, cleaning my room, doing homework, talking, being on the computer, etc., etc., etc.), and just generally my lack of subject matter to write about.

I guess you can also blame it on the fact that after writing one or two really funny posts, I now feel pressured to be funny in all my posts, which is really, REALLY hard for me, since half the time the only thing funny about me is my tone of voice.
Which you can't hear over the internet.

But anyway, the point of THIS non-funny post, is basically to write up all my excuses why I won't be posting a ton over the summer.
I know it's lame.
Give me a break.

So, here are my reasons.

  1. Girl Scout Camp. Again, I will be attending a Girl Scout camp. Woot! This time as a Senior Girl Scout... I'm so freaked out! It's going to be really fun, but it also takes up an entire week (the ending one of June, to be exact.)
  2. Junior Life Saving Lessons. Well. My mom hasn't signed us up yet. But she is going to, soon. These are going to be in the morning, almost every day for about four weeks. But the fact is, I'm going to come home with only two goals in mind: Eat. Sleep.
  3. Literature Class. I'm taking a literature class (Ha! It's much more like a book club) at my friends Catt and Mikel's house. The books are going to be quite a bit harder than the ones I did over the fall/winter, and I'm going to be spending a ton of time trying to get through them.
  4. Book Challenge. Must I say more?
  5. Piano Lessons. Not only am I probably taking summer lessons, I am also going to start teaching my younger brother, Kenneth, how to play piano. Possibly even Veela, although I don't know whether she'd actually listen to me. *eyeroll*
  6. Letterboxing: This year is going to be my letterboxing year... Though that's something I tell myself every summer. But really, this year I mean it! I'm going to actually try to up my F (find) count this year! Yay go Garden Elf!
  7. Farm Trips. I am planning to go to Wisconsin at least once this year, possibly for an extended (Read: two weeks or so) visit with my family, this summer. One can hope, anyway.
  8. Refashioning. If I'm not already obsessed, I don't know what I am. Besides, with teaching Ken (read: my mom paying me) I might actually have some money to go and buy stuff to refashion! :D
  9. Gardening. I am actually going to take care of my garden. (Go ahead. You can call me on that lie.)
That's about all I can think up... Unfortunately. I do like to have nice, even, "ten reasons" posts... oh well.
Maybe number ten just went invisible?
;)

Monday, May 2, 2011

Phillip and Kenneth (and a poll announcement)

Hiyza y'all. So, I haven't put anything up here about my brother, Phillip.. But yeah. I have a new brother! He was born yesterday, in the wee hours of the morning. We visited him yesterday, and again today. He and my mommy (geesh I sound like I'm six...) are coming home tomorrow. Here's a picture of Phil and Kenneth. (Sorry for the cruddy quality... taken with my phone.)


Also, if you've noticed, I've put a poll up on the side of my blog... About which book I should read first... If you would take the few minutes it takes to just choose which title you think I should read (sorry, no synopsis' yet... :P ) That would be fantastic. :)