By the way, yes, this is steampunk, just... unfinished steampunk. I have some things I want to add to it, and so next year it'll look way cooler. :)
(As it is it's pretty neat.)
Monday, October 31, 2011
Costume
Hi guys! I promised pictures of my costume... Here it is. :)
By the way, yes, this is steampunk, just... unfinished steampunk. I have some things I want to add to it, and so next year it'll look way cooler. :)
(As it is it's pretty neat.)
By the way, yes, this is steampunk, just... unfinished steampunk. I have some things I want to add to it, and so next year it'll look way cooler. :)
(As it is it's pretty neat.)
Hallowe'en!
Happy Halloween, everyone! It's officially October 31st... And one of my absolute favorite holidays.
Halloween.
Candy day.
Dress up as someone else day.
Harass strangers day.
It's just an epic holiday, in my opinion.
Now, don't get me wrong. There are definitely people who think I'm too old to get dressed up and trick-or-treat, because I'm a teenager, and it's a "little kid" holiday, and all that.
But is it really?
According to history.com, Halloween started out with the Celts, whose new year began on November 1st- the day after October 31st. They also believed that the night before the new year was when the line between the living and the dead was blurred.
Thus you must have a ritual. (This was the celebration of Samhain.)
The Celtic druids would conduct this celebration or ritual, mainly by starting the bonfires. Then, the villagers would extinguish the fires in their houses, and go and dance around the bonfire. The celebration/holiday included worshipping their deities by sacrificing animals and grains... By throwing them into the bonfires. They also dressed up in animal skins, probably starting the tradition of costumes that is still practiced today.
According to most things I've read, (read: this one and this one), the way that the Celts would protect themselves from spirits would be to take an ember from the sacred bonfires (on November 1st) and use it to re-start the hearth fires in their houses. This would supposedly protect them during the time of "cold and dark", and keep the evil spirits away from their homes.
The next development in the history of Halloween was when the Romans invaded and took over where the Celts lived. They had several celebrations of their own that took place in the cold months, namely Feralia, which actually took place sometime in early February, and the celebration of Pomona. Although the date of the celebration of Pomona herself is unknown, she apparently shared a feast day with her husband, sometime in August. Although neither of these are particularly near to the Celtic festival of Samhain, they ended up being more or less combined.
Of course, another chapter in the history of Halloween came with the arrival of Christianity. One of the well known trends for the Catholic church is to take the pagan holiday, add a Christian spin on it, package it up with a new name, and then hand it back to the people.
This is no different.
The original All Saints Day was in May, but the church changed it to November 1st. This was also called "All Hallows", meaning that the day was holy. (Hallows- to make holy.) The second day in November was later also made into a holy day- all saint's day. (Or, if you're like the cemetery across from my house, just call the whole weekend "Cemetery Sunday").
Of course, old traditions don't disappear quickly... Especially ones that have been around since the Celts. The night before All Saint's Day continued to be celebrated, as "All Hallows Evening". Another name for "Evening" was "even", which was then added to the end of "Hallows" as a sort of ancient lingo. This was later shortened again to "All Hallowe'en" and then later to "Halloween".
Of course, the tradition that I celebrate here is quite different from the celebration that was practiced in old Europe. As Halloween traveled to the "New World", there were definitely some alterations. Pranks became more popular, as did the emphasis on neighbors and community. This latter aspect was especially helped by the immigrants from various countries. Various traditions also developed- the religious aspect began to sink away as the idea of "trick-or-treating" and just fun began to emerge as more important. By the 1930's, parents were discouraging the superstious bits and the "grotesque" bits, and encouraging more good-humored fun.
However, this is also when vandalism and more pranks began to become a problem.
To encourage the chance that their house would not be pranked, families started "paying off" the pranksters... By giving them candy or money. This is another tradition that obviously survives today, only with the name "trick-or-treating", and not, "let's-buy-off-the-neighboorhood-kids-so-they-don't-egg-our-house".
So, the tradition of Samhaim still continues today, although in a diluted and very different way. Each time another culture comes into contact with the tradition, it seems to alter it. Today's halloween, for example, is quite different from the religious "All Hallow's Eve" which is in turn very different from the Roman celebration of Ponoma.
I wouldn't change a thing.
(Sources: history.com's thing on Halloween. Holidays.net's thing on Halloween. About.com on Pomona. Wyrdology.com's thing on Feralia.)
...
Like it? Figures that I'd write a history of Halloween, doesn't it? I never do anything fun like Linda did, do I. Nope.
I mean, I do have a creepy story. But it was technically for a contest. (Not that I'll enter it as an actual entry... The minimum word count for short story is 3,000, and mine barely hits 600... but I'm still sending it to the runner, because I wrote it for her... blah). So I won't be putting it up until my friend gets it. :)
And yes.
I have a costume.
A really awesome costume.
But I probably won't get pictures up for a few days, because I probably won't have much time tonight... If I do have time, though, I'll put the pictures up. Okay?
But anyway, Happy Halloween. Or Reformation day, if you celebrate that instead. ;)
And a song for y'all...
Halloween.
Candy day.
Dress up as someone else day.
Harass strangers day.
It's just an epic holiday, in my opinion.
Now, don't get me wrong. There are definitely people who think I'm too old to get dressed up and trick-or-treat, because I'm a teenager, and it's a "little kid" holiday, and all that.
But is it really?
According to history.com, Halloween started out with the Celts, whose new year began on November 1st- the day after October 31st. They also believed that the night before the new year was when the line between the living and the dead was blurred.
Thus you must have a ritual. (This was the celebration of Samhain.)
The Celtic druids would conduct this celebration or ritual, mainly by starting the bonfires. Then, the villagers would extinguish the fires in their houses, and go and dance around the bonfire. The celebration/holiday included worshipping their deities by sacrificing animals and grains... By throwing them into the bonfires. They also dressed up in animal skins, probably starting the tradition of costumes that is still practiced today.
According to most things I've read, (read: this one and this one), the way that the Celts would protect themselves from spirits would be to take an ember from the sacred bonfires (on November 1st) and use it to re-start the hearth fires in their houses. This would supposedly protect them during the time of "cold and dark", and keep the evil spirits away from their homes.
The next development in the history of Halloween was when the Romans invaded and took over where the Celts lived. They had several celebrations of their own that took place in the cold months, namely Feralia, which actually took place sometime in early February, and the celebration of Pomona. Although the date of the celebration of Pomona herself is unknown, she apparently shared a feast day with her husband, sometime in August. Although neither of these are particularly near to the Celtic festival of Samhain, they ended up being more or less combined.
Of course, another chapter in the history of Halloween came with the arrival of Christianity. One of the well known trends for the Catholic church is to take the pagan holiday, add a Christian spin on it, package it up with a new name, and then hand it back to the people.
This is no different.
The original All Saints Day was in May, but the church changed it to November 1st. This was also called "All Hallows", meaning that the day was holy. (Hallows- to make holy.) The second day in November was later also made into a holy day- all saint's day. (Or, if you're like the cemetery across from my house, just call the whole weekend "Cemetery Sunday").
Of course, old traditions don't disappear quickly... Especially ones that have been around since the Celts. The night before All Saint's Day continued to be celebrated, as "All Hallows Evening". Another name for "Evening" was "even", which was then added to the end of "Hallows" as a sort of ancient lingo. This was later shortened again to "All Hallowe'en" and then later to "Halloween".
Of course, the tradition that I celebrate here is quite different from the celebration that was practiced in old Europe. As Halloween traveled to the "New World", there were definitely some alterations. Pranks became more popular, as did the emphasis on neighbors and community. This latter aspect was especially helped by the immigrants from various countries. Various traditions also developed- the religious aspect began to sink away as the idea of "trick-or-treating" and just fun began to emerge as more important. By the 1930's, parents were discouraging the superstious bits and the "grotesque" bits, and encouraging more good-humored fun.
However, this is also when vandalism and more pranks began to become a problem.
To encourage the chance that their house would not be pranked, families started "paying off" the pranksters... By giving them candy or money. This is another tradition that obviously survives today, only with the name "trick-or-treating", and not, "let's-buy-off-the-neighboorhood-kids-so-they-don't-egg-our-house".
So, the tradition of Samhaim still continues today, although in a diluted and very different way. Each time another culture comes into contact with the tradition, it seems to alter it. Today's halloween, for example, is quite different from the religious "All Hallow's Eve" which is in turn very different from the Roman celebration of Ponoma.
I wouldn't change a thing.
(Sources: history.com's thing on Halloween. Holidays.net's thing on Halloween. About.com on Pomona. Wyrdology.com's thing on Feralia.)
...
Like it? Figures that I'd write a history of Halloween, doesn't it? I never do anything fun like Linda did, do I. Nope.
I mean, I do have a creepy story. But it was technically for a contest. (Not that I'll enter it as an actual entry... The minimum word count for short story is 3,000, and mine barely hits 600... but I'm still sending it to the runner, because I wrote it for her... blah). So I won't be putting it up until my friend gets it. :)
And yes.
I have a costume.
A really awesome costume.
But I probably won't get pictures up for a few days, because I probably won't have much time tonight... If I do have time, though, I'll put the pictures up. Okay?
But anyway, Happy Halloween. Or Reformation day, if you celebrate that instead. ;)
And a song for y'all...
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Hermy The Worm
Hey guys! Just wanted to share this... For Girl Scouts we're doing a SWAPS event.
(SWAPS by the way, means "Special Whatchamacallits Affectionally Pinned Somewhere")
Our troop swap is made of one of these babies, stuffed inside a tiny plastic bag along with a hair clip. [if you look in our hair in the video, you can see those weird colored... things? Yeah. Those are the worms, with teh strings wrapped around our ears. We figured we'd make it easier for people to put them in their hair by including a hair clip. We're just nice that way.] On the outside of the bag there are two stickers, one on either side. One says "Making New Friends: Troop 1747" (Or just... Making New Friends) and the other one has the link to that YouTube video up there.
Now, there is a short story behind this.
Let me begin with the song.
Despite what most people may think, that song we're singing up there is not the "original" Hermy the Worm song. There are, in fact, two "original" versions, with that one being neither.
Here is the original version I learned. (The words in parenthesis are the words to the other original version, which we didn't use because it was too bloody. ;))
Sitting on my fence post, chewing my bubble gum.
Playin with my yo-yo.
Woo, Woo!
And along came Hermy the worm. He was THIS BIG!
I said, Hermy, what happened?
I ate a bug. (my sister.)
Sitting on my fence post, chewin my bubble gum.
Playin' with my yo-yo.
Woo-Woo!
And along came Hermy the worm. He was THIS BIG!
I said, Hermy, what happened?
I ate a snake. (My brother.)
Sitting on my fence post, chewin my bubble gum.
Playing with my yo-yo.
Woo-Woo!
And along came Hermy the worm. He was THIS BIG!
I said, Hermy, what happened?
I ate a dog. (My mother.)
Sitting on my fence post, chewin my bubble gum.
Playin' with my yo-yo.
Woo-Woo!
And along came Hermy the worm. He was THIS BIG!
I said, Hermy, what happened?
I ate a cow. (My father.)
Sitting on my fence post, chewin my bubble gum.
Playin' with my yo-yo.
Woo-Woo!
And along came Hermy the worm. He was this big.
I said, Hermy, what happened?
I burped.
Now, this is a Girl Scout song.
We sing it every time we go on any camp out.
You could say that it's become our sort of theme song.
Moving on with the story.
I've been in Girl Scouts for six years. So, since I was 8. I started out as my first year in Juniors- because it was either my last year of Brownies or my first year of Juniors, and the rest of the troop was already Juniors, so, yeah.
A few years into being a Girl Scout- I think it was one or two- my first SWAPS event came around. We were wondering what the heck we should do as a troop swap, until we thought of this song.
"Hermy!" we said. "We should make Hermy!"
And so we did.
(this is where I'd have a picture of our original swap, except I'm too lazy to go take a picture of it. I have one on my bulletin board.)
So, the swap was baiscally a green pipe cleaner, wrapped around a pencil (and then taken off) to make a worm. We then glued two googly eyes to the worm, and then we glued it to a fake leaf and put a piece of paper that says "Girl Scout Troop 1747" under the worm, and then glued a pin to the back.
We made a ton of those.
Needless to say, when this year's SWAP event came around, and we were wondering what to make, of course we chose Hermy the Worm.
My troop loves traditions.
So, we decided that the best thing to do was to get the toy worms, and use them as Hermy- and then write the lyrics to the song and put them with the worm.
Unfortunately, though, there were too many lyrics to fit.
So, the YouTube thing happened. Only we changed the lyrics.
I don't remember what fruits we used exactly, but I know the last one was a watermellon. I think the first was a strawberry..
You're just going to have to watch it for yourself.
Anyway, if anyone's wondering, I'm on the far, far left, on the bottom row, in the blue shirt. :) The girl sitting directly behind me, with the long hair and white shirt is Valerie/Veela, and the one on the far right with the blue shirt is Cat/Linda. And no, I don't feel bad revealing her identity, since, y'know, there's like a ton of pictures of her up on the Book blog. So. ;)
Anyway, thought I'd share.
Toodleoo.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
My Dilemma, Essays, Procrastination, What Makes me Happy
Hey guys.
Feeling a bit spazzy tonight, so not only will this be a short post, but will probably have nothing to do with anything else, and will most likely make as much sense as those sentences they give you to type in "how fast do I type" tests!*
*For the record, I just got 94 WPM, but my highest is over 100. I have a friend who is even faster, too.
So, the first thing I want to go to is the last thing in my title, and that would be...
What makes me happy?
I've even written out an advertisement blurb for this...
Do you want to be fabulously happy? Do you dream of always being in a good mood and delighting your family? Do you want to be known as a ray of sunshine? If so you should check out Angela's List of Happiness coming soon to bookstores soon!
Heh.
I like writing those.
Anyway, since Veela kicked me off the computer, this is going to be slightly different in tone than what I first wrote, but you're going to have to deal.
Okey dokey?
Great.
Anyway, the things that make me happy. I'm talking ecstatically insanely completely happy. To the point of writing a post about- although that might not be that big of an accomplishment. As most people have noticed, I've usually managed to write at least one blog post a month for the past four years, sometimes more, and sometimes more than one per day. (There were weeks where I'd crank out posts in the range of 21-45. True story!)
So!
Here goes.
1. the OYAN forum.
2. My brothers. *loves brothers*
3. My sisters.
4. my iPod.
5. Cool settings on my camera. Like making everything black and white! (Notice my profile pic?)
6. YouTube.
7. Disney Broadway music. Like Aladdin. Or The Little Mermaid. :D
8. Super Mario Galaxy music. A la Isaac!
9. Webinars.
10. Happiness!
Next topic.
My Dilemma
Say it isn't so!
Angela?
A dilemma?
Psh.
Like that ever happens.
But oh! Wait! I do! I have a problem, and it's up to YOU readers to help me with it. (Don't you just love cheesy lines?)
The dilemma?
I want to have a blog button. You know, one of those annoying things that you put on your sidebar and say, "take my button! Show the world that you actually care what I write!"? yeah. I want one of those. I even know how to make one!
Problem is?
I don't have an image to use.
As you can tell, while my background is awesomely tranquil and epic, it doesn't have a... hm... "image" I can use as a button.
Which is why I need your help!
I need you either to put a comment on here, or send me an email, about what picture you think personifies my blog, my writing, or anything like that. And then I'll choose one and you can show that you actually do care what this rambling teenage girl writes!
Ha!
Essays
I'm not going to say that Western Civilization is a hard course. In fact, I can't think of very many things about it that are hard.
This is because
a) I have an amazing memory and remember random crap no one else does.
b) I have a tendency to write 2 or 3 pages longer than anyone else.
c) I've learned most of this history already.
d) Essays are easy and I have no problem going from one paragraph to another.
The reason it's hard, though, is because of all the busywork. Each week we have to watch two video lectures, do a workbook exercise, answer about 11 essays, read a chapter which is somewhere between 20 and 45 pages, read handouts, answer any AP questions, and be prepared to discuss them in class.
It's a lot of work.
So, I'm just saying right now that I'm struggling through the 11 "regular" essays. I've already written the DBQ but I'll probably re-write it, since I don't think I've actually answered the question... Whoops!
Procrastination
The thing about my procrastination is that I have a concious. I feel guilty about it. If I procrastinate I go, "NO! I SHOULD NOT BE PROCRASTINATING WHILE THERE IS SCHOOLBOOKS OUT! GO AWAY GO AWAY OR I'M GOING TO SHOUT!"
Only ususally without the Dr Seuss rhyming. :)
But anyway, I'm procrastinating right now. Mostly. I just need to dump PJ on my mom and go write essays.
But I'm not.
*sigh*
Anyway, that's it for my rambling post. I'm not going to put up questions because I'm too lazy too and let's be honest, very few people answer them anyway.
If you have to have a prompt for putting out a comment, though, tell me what your WPM typing speed is. ;)
Feeling a bit spazzy tonight, so not only will this be a short post, but will probably have nothing to do with anything else, and will most likely make as much sense as those sentences they give you to type in "how fast do I type" tests!*
*For the record, I just got 94 WPM, but my highest is over 100. I have a friend who is even faster, too.
So, the first thing I want to go to is the last thing in my title, and that would be...
What makes me happy?
I've even written out an advertisement blurb for this...
Do you want to be fabulously happy? Do you dream of always being in a good mood and delighting your family? Do you want to be known as a ray of sunshine? If so you should check out Angela's List of Happiness coming soon to bookstores soon!
Heh.
I like writing those.
Anyway, since Veela kicked me off the computer, this is going to be slightly different in tone than what I first wrote, but you're going to have to deal.
Okey dokey?
Great.
Anyway, the things that make me happy. I'm talking ecstatically insanely completely happy. To the point of writing a post about- although that might not be that big of an accomplishment. As most people have noticed, I've usually managed to write at least one blog post a month for the past four years, sometimes more, and sometimes more than one per day. (There were weeks where I'd crank out posts in the range of 21-45. True story!)
So!
Here goes.
1. the OYAN forum.
2. My brothers. *loves brothers*
3. My sisters.
4. my iPod.
5. Cool settings on my camera. Like making everything black and white! (Notice my profile pic?)
6. YouTube.
7. Disney Broadway music. Like Aladdin. Or The Little Mermaid. :D
8. Super Mario Galaxy music. A la Isaac!
9. Webinars.
10. Happiness!
Next topic.
My Dilemma
Say it isn't so!
Angela?
A dilemma?
Psh.
Like that ever happens.
But oh! Wait! I do! I have a problem, and it's up to YOU readers to help me with it. (Don't you just love cheesy lines?)
The dilemma?
I want to have a blog button. You know, one of those annoying things that you put on your sidebar and say, "take my button! Show the world that you actually care what I write!"? yeah. I want one of those. I even know how to make one!
Problem is?
I don't have an image to use.
As you can tell, while my background is awesomely tranquil and epic, it doesn't have a... hm... "image" I can use as a button.
Which is why I need your help!
I need you either to put a comment on here, or send me an email, about what picture you think personifies my blog, my writing, or anything like that. And then I'll choose one and you can show that you actually do care what this rambling teenage girl writes!
Ha!
Essays
I'm not going to say that Western Civilization is a hard course. In fact, I can't think of very many things about it that are hard.
This is because
a) I have an amazing memory and remember random crap no one else does.
b) I have a tendency to write 2 or 3 pages longer than anyone else.
c) I've learned most of this history already.
d) Essays are easy and I have no problem going from one paragraph to another.
The reason it's hard, though, is because of all the busywork. Each week we have to watch two video lectures, do a workbook exercise, answer about 11 essays, read a chapter which is somewhere between 20 and 45 pages, read handouts, answer any AP questions, and be prepared to discuss them in class.
It's a lot of work.
So, I'm just saying right now that I'm struggling through the 11 "regular" essays. I've already written the DBQ but I'll probably re-write it, since I don't think I've actually answered the question... Whoops!
Procrastination
The thing about my procrastination is that I have a concious. I feel guilty about it. If I procrastinate I go, "NO! I SHOULD NOT BE PROCRASTINATING WHILE THERE IS SCHOOLBOOKS OUT! GO AWAY GO AWAY OR I'M GOING TO SHOUT!"
Only ususally without the Dr Seuss rhyming. :)
But anyway, I'm procrastinating right now. Mostly. I just need to dump PJ on my mom and go write essays.
But I'm not.
*sigh*
Anyway, that's it for my rambling post. I'm not going to put up questions because I'm too lazy too and let's be honest, very few people answer them anyway.
If you have to have a prompt for putting out a comment, though, tell me what your WPM typing speed is. ;)
Monday, October 24, 2011
Why People are Wrong... Again.
I know that the majority of my posts happen to be slightly funny vamped up rants about why so-and-so is wrong about this thing or that thing or this other thing and why I'm annoyed at them.
So, it really should come as no surprise that today is going to be another (hopefully) slightly funny rant. (If I'm not funny at all, guys, please tell me. As it is, I'm going on the assumption that I make you chuckle/smile/laugh at least once in every five posts. If not, tell me, and I'll get really disappointed and go buy a llama or something equally impossible. kay?)
One of the subjects that most people take for granted is the, "if everyone was the exact same, what would life be like?" subject. If you ask someone, chances are very good (think 80%) that they'll say "boring!" or "Awful!" or "It would be horrible!" or "What the heck you crazy woman get away from me!"
If you ask me, though, this is generally my reply:
"I think life would be really cool. Because no one would fight, because no one would have a different opinion. Think about jelly beans. If everyone only liked red ones, they'd only make red ones, so no one would get jealous about who had red jelly beans when they only had green ones! And if you didn't know that people could be different, it would be normal. So you wouldn't care. So I think life would be awesome."
In response, I usually get someone going...
"You crazy, Angela. You a crazy woman."
(In which case I go, "are. It's 'you are crazy, Angela. Not you crazy." which is also when we start fighting about whether or not I can correct someone's speech. Which obviously I can, since I just did. But I digress.)
But seriously.
Think about it.
I know that the stereotypical response to "what would life be like if we were all the same" is the one people usually give. "Boring"
"Annoying"
"Boring."
"Not fun."
"Boring."
"Awful."
"Boring."
"Horrible."
"Boring."
But I really want you guys to think about it. What if everyone really was like everyone else? Of course, it would all depend on who the person was like. If it was a serial killer with a bad habit of killing ten people on Tuesdays, then obviously the human race wouldn't last very long. (Why? Because everyone would be out having a killing spree on Tuesdays, and if everyone managed to kill ten people before they died, that's a lot of people.) And the same goes if it was a horribly selfish, suicidal person who doesn't care about anyone else. (For the record, though, the nicest people I know are depressed/slightly suicidal. It's weird. The people with the most issues seem to be the ones most open to hearing what someone else has to say. Huh.)
But let's take a normal person.
(Normal meaning "well balanced, with no huge issues".)
Let's create this person.
(We'll call it "Jamie" because that can be a girl or a boy.)
Jamie is a regular human. They enjoy watching TV and eating popcorn. They really enjoy science, and even though they don't like math they know that it's important anyway so they do it. They prefer geometry over algebra, and they play the flute. They're pro-life, but are liberal on most other subjects. They really want world peace, and even though they aren't extreme environmentalists they still recycle what they can and have water-saving showerheads in their houses.
Now, let's assume that everyone on earth has the exact same personality. (Not that they look the same. As far as I'm concerned, we already have that in the general population of teenagers. You know how it is- long hair on the girls, medium/short hair on the guys. They're thin or obese, but nowhere inbetween, they generally wear the same clothing from the same stores and listen to the same music. Bleh. We don't need more of that. As a friend said, "everyone from (insert high school here) looks the same! They're orange, with platinum blond hair, and pink pants!")
Back on topic.
So, now everyone has the same personality. No one knows what it was like when people were different. When someone was pro-choice and someone else was pro-life and some other people don't even care they just want to watch Glee, and when there were some people who believed that the best thing to do was to go shoot everyone and some people who thought that guns were probably the worst invention in the world, and there were some people who didn't like guns but used them anyway because they were in the military and some people who liked pens and some people who liked pencils and some people who liked no writing instrument because they were sourpusses who didn't appreciate the written word...
All they know is that they're the same.
But do they know that? If you blind, born into a society of blind people who had never known someone who could see, who had never heard of sight... Would you know you were blind?
So, I don't think they'd know they're the same.
They would just know that they never fight about anything. They all have the same opinions. Advances in science are easy... but how far would they advance?
If we're taking Jamie's personality as our example, would anyone actually dedicate their life to math? Would anyone make any major discoveries?
Now, I'm sure they would. But I also don't think it would happen very fast. You can discover something by accident, but it's much more likely you'll discover the same thing when you're looking for it.
So, advances are going really slow, but I don't think anyone cares. Or do they? Even if someone has the same personality, that doesn't mean that they're going to be the same person. What if someone got cancer? Some of the others are going to want to help them. I bet that's where the discoveries would come in. Maybe? Maybe not. But there would certainly be more people to work on things like that, since no one has to be a lawyer, or a judge, or have to work in the government, because everyone has the same opinions on everything. And if everyone thinks the same thing, doesn't that get rid of the point of laws?
So, we have more people to work in other things. Like science, like math, like art. Life would be peaceful. No one would care that they were all the same, because it's nice that way, and they don't know what it's like without it that way.
After thinking about that another interesting thing to ponder is how alike we all are. I don't mean the orange skin blond hair pink pants way, but in the ways that we are universally the same.
Think about the "human condition". If you don't know what that is, search it.
To quote this site here,
Would life be all so different?
As far as I can see, even if we aren't as similar as the Jamie-Somewhat-Clones would be, in most things we're alike. Maybe we could do to be more similar. Personally, I detest violence and war, and if everyone just decided that it's a good idea to stop fighting and hurting people and opressing people and abusing fellow human beans, I would be ecstatic.
(Sadly, I don't think that's going to happen.)
But as it is, I think w'ere more similiar than we think we are. How many times do you find yourself thinking, "wow, they just don't understand"? How about, "they're out of touch with my life." or "She's insane!" or "What in the world.... That's not me! I'm not at all like that person! I can't relate!"?
Yeah.
Probably pretty often.
So, I'm going to actually ask now... What do you think? Would life be better if we were the same? Why or why not? If we were all the same, do you think we'd need laws? Rules? Regulations? Lollipops? Curfews? Prisons? Blogs? The internet? Would we all know the same things? Or would we still have to go to school? If everyone procrastinates as much as I do, do you think we would get anything done? Or do you think the human race would die out?
I'm not going to get mad if you have a different opinion as I do. I just really would like to know. And if you want, you can email me about it, because I'm always happy to have another excuse to procrastinate, especially if it has to do with a blog post that took me about half an hour to write up due to the rambling, unending, too extended sentences with love affairs with commas and due to the fact that I usually don't go this deep into... well... anything on my blog, so I wasn't really sure how anyone is going to take it and the fact that I spent 20 minutes before this analyzing documents.
So.
Yeah.
That's the end of this post.
Toodleoo!
So, it really should come as no surprise that today is going to be another (hopefully) slightly funny rant. (If I'm not funny at all, guys, please tell me. As it is, I'm going on the assumption that I make you chuckle/smile/laugh at least once in every five posts. If not, tell me, and I'll get really disappointed and go buy a llama or something equally impossible. kay?)
One of the subjects that most people take for granted is the, "if everyone was the exact same, what would life be like?" subject. If you ask someone, chances are very good (think 80%) that they'll say "boring!" or "Awful!" or "It would be horrible!" or "What the heck you crazy woman get away from me!"
If you ask me, though, this is generally my reply:
"I think life would be really cool. Because no one would fight, because no one would have a different opinion. Think about jelly beans. If everyone only liked red ones, they'd only make red ones, so no one would get jealous about who had red jelly beans when they only had green ones! And if you didn't know that people could be different, it would be normal. So you wouldn't care. So I think life would be awesome."
In response, I usually get someone going...
"You crazy, Angela. You a crazy woman."
(In which case I go, "are. It's 'you are crazy, Angela. Not you crazy." which is also when we start fighting about whether or not I can correct someone's speech. Which obviously I can, since I just did. But I digress.)
But seriously.
Think about it.
I know that the stereotypical response to "what would life be like if we were all the same" is the one people usually give. "Boring"
"Annoying"
"Boring."
"Not fun."
"Boring."
"Awful."
"Boring."
"Horrible."
"Boring."
But I really want you guys to think about it. What if everyone really was like everyone else? Of course, it would all depend on who the person was like. If it was a serial killer with a bad habit of killing ten people on Tuesdays, then obviously the human race wouldn't last very long. (Why? Because everyone would be out having a killing spree on Tuesdays, and if everyone managed to kill ten people before they died, that's a lot of people.) And the same goes if it was a horribly selfish, suicidal person who doesn't care about anyone else. (For the record, though, the nicest people I know are depressed/slightly suicidal. It's weird. The people with the most issues seem to be the ones most open to hearing what someone else has to say. Huh.)
But let's take a normal person.
(Normal meaning "well balanced, with no huge issues".)
Let's create this person.
(We'll call it "Jamie" because that can be a girl or a boy.)
Jamie is a regular human. They enjoy watching TV and eating popcorn. They really enjoy science, and even though they don't like math they know that it's important anyway so they do it. They prefer geometry over algebra, and they play the flute. They're pro-life, but are liberal on most other subjects. They really want world peace, and even though they aren't extreme environmentalists they still recycle what they can and have water-saving showerheads in their houses.
Now, let's assume that everyone on earth has the exact same personality. (Not that they look the same. As far as I'm concerned, we already have that in the general population of teenagers. You know how it is- long hair on the girls, medium/short hair on the guys. They're thin or obese, but nowhere inbetween, they generally wear the same clothing from the same stores and listen to the same music. Bleh. We don't need more of that. As a friend said, "everyone from (insert high school here) looks the same! They're orange, with platinum blond hair, and pink pants!")
Back on topic.
So, now everyone has the same personality. No one knows what it was like when people were different. When someone was pro-choice and someone else was pro-life and some other people don't even care they just want to watch Glee, and when there were some people who believed that the best thing to do was to go shoot everyone and some people who thought that guns were probably the worst invention in the world, and there were some people who didn't like guns but used them anyway because they were in the military and some people who liked pens and some people who liked pencils and some people who liked no writing instrument because they were sourpusses who didn't appreciate the written word...
All they know is that they're the same.
But do they know that? If you blind, born into a society of blind people who had never known someone who could see, who had never heard of sight... Would you know you were blind?
So, I don't think they'd know they're the same.
They would just know that they never fight about anything. They all have the same opinions. Advances in science are easy... but how far would they advance?
If we're taking Jamie's personality as our example, would anyone actually dedicate their life to math? Would anyone make any major discoveries?
Now, I'm sure they would. But I also don't think it would happen very fast. You can discover something by accident, but it's much more likely you'll discover the same thing when you're looking for it.
So, advances are going really slow, but I don't think anyone cares. Or do they? Even if someone has the same personality, that doesn't mean that they're going to be the same person. What if someone got cancer? Some of the others are going to want to help them. I bet that's where the discoveries would come in. Maybe? Maybe not. But there would certainly be more people to work on things like that, since no one has to be a lawyer, or a judge, or have to work in the government, because everyone has the same opinions on everything. And if everyone thinks the same thing, doesn't that get rid of the point of laws?
So, we have more people to work in other things. Like science, like math, like art. Life would be peaceful. No one would care that they were all the same, because it's nice that way, and they don't know what it's like without it that way.
After thinking about that another interesting thing to ponder is how alike we all are. I don't mean the orange skin blond hair pink pants way, but in the ways that we are universally the same.
Think about the "human condition". If you don't know what that is, search it.
To quote this site here,
"Humans, to an apparently superlative degree amongst all living things, are aware of the passage of time, can remember the past and imagine the future, and are intimately aware of their own mortality. Only human beings are known to ask themselves questions relating to the purpose of life beyond the base need for survival, or the nature of existence beyond that which is empirically apparent: What is the meaning of existence? Why was I born? Why am I here? Where will I go when I die? The human struggle to find answers to these questions — and the very fact that we can conceive them and ask them — is what defines the human condition in this sense of the term."So, if we're all the same in that way, is life now all so different from the life we've imagined up in the body of my extensively long and boring post? Are we really that different from Jamie-Angela-Made-Me-Up-In-30-Seconds?
Would life be all so different?
As far as I can see, even if we aren't as similar as the Jamie-Somewhat-Clones would be, in most things we're alike. Maybe we could do to be more similar. Personally, I detest violence and war, and if everyone just decided that it's a good idea to stop fighting and hurting people and opressing people and abusing fellow human beans, I would be ecstatic.
(Sadly, I don't think that's going to happen.)
But as it is, I think w'ere more similiar than we think we are. How many times do you find yourself thinking, "wow, they just don't understand"? How about, "they're out of touch with my life." or "She's insane!" or "What in the world.... That's not me! I'm not at all like that person! I can't relate!"?
Yeah.
Probably pretty often.
So, I'm going to actually ask now... What do you think? Would life be better if we were the same? Why or why not? If we were all the same, do you think we'd need laws? Rules? Regulations? Lollipops? Curfews? Prisons? Blogs? The internet? Would we all know the same things? Or would we still have to go to school? If everyone procrastinates as much as I do, do you think we would get anything done? Or do you think the human race would die out?
I'm not going to get mad if you have a different opinion as I do. I just really would like to know. And if you want, you can email me about it, because I'm always happy to have another excuse to procrastinate, especially if it has to do with a blog post that took me about half an hour to write up due to the rambling, unending, too extended sentences with love affairs with commas and due to the fact that I usually don't go this deep into... well... anything on my blog, so I wasn't really sure how anyone is going to take it and the fact that I spent 20 minutes before this analyzing documents.
So.
Yeah.
That's the end of this post.
Toodleoo!
Sunday, October 23, 2011
My Torture List For Tomorrow
I know, you're all going to be yawning by the end of this post. But I'll try to make it interesting. This is... ehhhhh... all the school/chores I can tell that I may have to do tomorrow.
If I don't do 'em all, feel free to send orcs to my house.
Or cave trolls.
Though I prefer the orcs.
-Finish all my WC homework.
-Possibly Ancient Greek History
-Biology
-Load the dishwasher-Unload the diswasher
-Piano
-Eat again
-Procrastinate
-Goof off on computer
Phew! I'm sure there's something I've forgotten in there, but considering that my procrastination takes up about... 10 hours of my day, I think that's enough to get me through the day.
(Red = done. By the way, I did most of that coloring as HTML. I feel so smart!)
If I don't do 'em all, feel free to send orcs to my house.
Or cave trolls.
Though I prefer the orcs.
-Finish all my WC homework.
- Finish reading the chapter (8 more pages or so)
- Do 12 essay questions
- Watch 2 video lectures
- Do a workbook exercise
- Do the map exercise
- Procrastinate again
-Possibly Ancient Greek History
-Biology
- Read textbook #2
- Read textbook #1
- Do a lab
- Answer questions in textbook #1 from chapters #1 and #2
- OYAN Other Worlds
- Critiquing
- Possibly planning out a story
- Planning out my NaNoWriMo plot
- Actually replying to my writing buddies' NaNoMail to me
-Load the dishwasher-Unload the diswasher
-Piano
- Practice the pieces
- Do 2 theory lessons
- Practice scales and inversions
- Practice triads
- Make flashcards
- Headpiano several times
- Practice pieces again
-Eat again
-Procrastinate
-Goof off on computer
- Stalk OYAN forum (even though I left it again today)
- Check email 50,000,000 times
- Check NaNoWriMo forums
- Check for sewing tutorials
- Check my email again
- Play around on Bookworm Adventures
- Write
- Pretend to write
- Bug some people on my email again
- Clean floor
- Dance around to music
- Make bed
- Change sheets
- Randomly fall asleep while changing sheets
- Wake up and forget what I'm doing
- Procrastinate
- Clean the top of my dresser
- Do laundry
- Fall asleep again
- Listen to more music
Phew! I'm sure there's something I've forgotten in there, but considering that my procrastination takes up about... 10 hours of my day, I think that's enough to get me through the day.
(Red = done. By the way, I did most of that coloring as HTML. I feel so smart!)
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Re: Why Can't You Be More Like Your Sister?
To be honest, when I put up that post, I wasn't expecting that sort of response. I was expecting what usually happens- people just shrug and move on.
But that didn't happen.
I think there's a couple of reasons that it got a bad reaction.
First of all... Everyone loves Valerie. (I love Valerie!) and no one likes it when someone rants about someone that they love.
Second of all, you don't go and read a blog to listen to someone ranting. In fact, you don't go to hear negative stuff. At least I don't. So, hearing me rant probably wasn't a good move.
Thirdly, I don't think anyone wants to believe that I have a low self esteem, at all, at any point in my life.
But I also think that a lot of people didn't understand the post. No, I'm not pulling a Sandy Laurence and claiming that my entire audience needs reading comprehension classes and that that wasn't really what I meant and that I just didn't have enough room to type out everything or anything. I understand that I did not write it correctly, that it was rather mean, and that it probably wasn't something I should put out on my blog.
If you'll allow me to clarify my post, however...
When I'm referring to how people are always wishing I was extroverted like my sister, I realize I said that "everyone but my mom" wanted me to be that way. I realize that that was incorrect- I realized that at the time I was writing it too. I'm sorry to everyone who felt annoyed/hurt at that phrasing.
Another thing that I didn't really mention in my post all that much... I do not want to be an extrovert! I am perfectly happy with who I am. I like being an innie. I like being able to sit and people watch. I enjoy being myself, and I wouldn't change if I could.
Yet another (geesh, how incorrect/inaccurate was this post?!) thing I didn't really clarify is that there are actually people who prefer to be around me than to be around my sister. At least at times. I'm not really sure why this is, but it quite possibly springs from the facts that I don't wear poodle skirts and I can have a conversation without mentioning celebs/fashion week/makeup. Just a guess.
Still one more item I haven't addressed yet... that I am not jealous of the way that Valerie dresses. I mean, sure, there have been times where I wish I could look a little more like her. Less tall/thin/awkward than I do now. But then I realize that... that we were made the way we are for a reason! I have a facial shape that practically forces me to have short (read: chin length) hair, which is a good thing, since I don't have time/patience to deal with more styling! Valerie hasn't as good skin as I do (just a fact) which works out okay because, like before, she has waaaaaay more patience with putting on facial crap than I do. I have eczema, which works out since it means that I do at least a little of the whole... makeup [shudder] thing.
Eh.
Again, I just want to mention that while, yes, I'm jealous of Valerie, I don't want to be her. Yes, it's nice when I can talk to my friends and have them be my friends and talk to them by myself, and it would be nice to be able to walk into the middle of a crowd and be perfectly at ease, or to be able to have 50,000,000,000,000 friends, or be able to not be scared to act like an idiot. But on the other hand... I like who I am. I like being able to think things through. I think I make better choices than a lot of teens do, because I'm scared to look like an idiot, because I think things through three times before I say/do them. I like how I look, I like how I dress. I like what music I listen to, I like what books I write. I enjoy playing piano, and I don't want to learn violin. I like being a sarcastic, witty person. It's okay to me that various people still describe me as "cute". I don't mind that. I don't mind sitting in a corner during a dance and watching everyone having fun. I don't like it when I'm having a bad day and someone texts me and says, "oh my goodness, that is the best day in the WORLD", but I don't mind not being part of the fun.
At least not at parties..
On a side note, I am going to a party tonight. In fact, it's going to be pretty awesome, and I get to see my friends. Yes, Valerie is going. Yes, she's wearing her halloween costume and is completely going to embarrass me. Yes, I'm probably going to spend most of the time sitting in the basement, or just avoiding people. I'm quite possibly going to get mad at someone during the course of th (and this is where blogger signed me out and I'm thankful for autosave) course of the night, but I'm still going to have fun.
Because I want to.
:D
Anyway, I hope that cleared everything up, and if it didn't... and if you're still mad/curious/sad that I posted that previous post, feel free to email me the question.
But that didn't happen.
I think there's a couple of reasons that it got a bad reaction.
First of all... Everyone loves Valerie. (I love Valerie!) and no one likes it when someone rants about someone that they love.
Second of all, you don't go and read a blog to listen to someone ranting. In fact, you don't go to hear negative stuff. At least I don't. So, hearing me rant probably wasn't a good move.
Thirdly, I don't think anyone wants to believe that I have a low self esteem, at all, at any point in my life.
But I also think that a lot of people didn't understand the post. No, I'm not pulling a Sandy Laurence and claiming that my entire audience needs reading comprehension classes and that that wasn't really what I meant and that I just didn't have enough room to type out everything or anything. I understand that I did not write it correctly, that it was rather mean, and that it probably wasn't something I should put out on my blog.
If you'll allow me to clarify my post, however...
When I'm referring to how people are always wishing I was extroverted like my sister, I realize I said that "everyone but my mom" wanted me to be that way. I realize that that was incorrect- I realized that at the time I was writing it too. I'm sorry to everyone who felt annoyed/hurt at that phrasing.
Another thing that I didn't really mention in my post all that much... I do not want to be an extrovert! I am perfectly happy with who I am. I like being an innie. I like being able to sit and people watch. I enjoy being myself, and I wouldn't change if I could.
Yet another (geesh, how incorrect/inaccurate was this post?!) thing I didn't really clarify is that there are actually people who prefer to be around me than to be around my sister. At least at times. I'm not really sure why this is, but it quite possibly springs from the facts that I don't wear poodle skirts and I can have a conversation without mentioning celebs/fashion week/makeup. Just a guess.
Still one more item I haven't addressed yet... that I am not jealous of the way that Valerie dresses. I mean, sure, there have been times where I wish I could look a little more like her. Less tall/thin/awkward than I do now. But then I realize that... that we were made the way we are for a reason! I have a facial shape that practically forces me to have short (read: chin length) hair, which is a good thing, since I don't have time/patience to deal with more styling! Valerie hasn't as good skin as I do (just a fact) which works out okay because, like before, she has waaaaaay more patience with putting on facial crap than I do. I have eczema, which works out since it means that I do at least a little of the whole... makeup [shudder] thing.
Eh.
Again, I just want to mention that while, yes, I'm jealous of Valerie, I don't want to be her. Yes, it's nice when I can talk to my friends and have them be my friends and talk to them by myself, and it would be nice to be able to walk into the middle of a crowd and be perfectly at ease, or to be able to have 50,000,000,000,000 friends, or be able to not be scared to act like an idiot. But on the other hand... I like who I am. I like being able to think things through. I think I make better choices than a lot of teens do, because I'm scared to look like an idiot, because I think things through three times before I say/do them. I like how I look, I like how I dress. I like what music I listen to, I like what books I write. I enjoy playing piano, and I don't want to learn violin. I like being a sarcastic, witty person. It's okay to me that various people still describe me as "cute". I don't mind that. I don't mind sitting in a corner during a dance and watching everyone having fun. I don't like it when I'm having a bad day and someone texts me and says, "oh my goodness, that is the best day in the WORLD", but I don't mind not being part of the fun.
At least not at parties..
On a side note, I am going to a party tonight. In fact, it's going to be pretty awesome, and I get to see my friends. Yes, Valerie is going. Yes, she's wearing her halloween costume and is completely going to embarrass me. Yes, I'm probably going to spend most of the time sitting in the basement, or just avoiding people. I'm quite possibly going to get mad at someone during the course of th (and this is where blogger signed me out and I'm thankful for autosave) course of the night, but I'm still going to have fun.
Because I want to.
:D
Anyway, I hope that cleared everything up, and if it didn't... and if you're still mad/curious/sad that I posted that previous post, feel free to email me the question.
Friday, October 21, 2011
I'm Still 3 Years Old
When people look at me and say, "wow, she's so mature", they're missing the fact that I'm still 3 years old.
No, not literally.
In fact, I'll be taking driver's ed next year.
But mentally?
I'm still three.
Exclusion
I still suffer from this. I still have friends who are my friend- but are someone else's friend more. I still know people who are incredibly kind to me... as long as their actual friends aren't alone. There are still things that people don't want me to do. When I was 3 it was Dean and Nick telling me that I couldn't play with them because I was a girl. Now it's a party I'm not invited to, or sitting in a corner and watching all my friends talk and not knowing how to talk to them because I don't do IH. And I don't go to the community college. And I don't watch this TV show or that TV show and crime and bad stuff actually does depress me, it doesn't make me fascinated.
Reaction to exclusion
This is also the same. When I was three it was to run to Dean's mom and tell her that they weren't letting me play with them. Now it's... Running to my sister/best friend and telling my sister, or telling him, that I don't actually have any friends and that I'm not in their cliques.
Tendency to get sad
When I was three, I'd randomly get sad for no reason.
When I was six, I'd get randomly sad for no reason.
When I was nine I still got really sad for no reason.
I'm fourteen now... I still get sad for no real reason at all.
Piano
When I was three, my grandma J was teaching me piano. They weren't "official" lessons, just a little bit of instruction. That's when I had el cheapo $20 keyboard sitting on a steamer chest to play on.
In between Amy (my second teacher)'s instruction and Donna (my current teacher)'s instruction, I hated practicing piano. I had two bad teachers, Nick and Corrie, and I didn't enjoy my lessons. Now, though, it's just like when I was 3- only now I have a real piano.
Tendency to feel sorry for myself
As you can tell from the first two bolded titles, I feel bad for myself. I always have. Except nowadays I'm a lot better at not telling people about it... and shoving it away into a little box.
Year or two behind
When I was three I felt four. When I was four I felt six. When I was six I felt like I was seven, when I was seven I felt like I should be nine. I'm fourteen and I feel fifteen. I feel like my brain is too old for my body.
People forgetting my age
And I'm not talking just about my dad's forgetfulness. I'm talking my friends. My friends' parents. My teachers, excluding my mom. My cousins.
On the subject, this tends to swing in two different ways. The first group is usually my family. They're the ones who knew me when I was 3. They also are the ones who seem to suffer under the delusion that I am in fact three years old.
The other group is formed from my friends, their parents, and the other teachers I have. They're the ones who forget that I'm this young. They're the ones who seem to believe that I'm older than Linda is- when I was eleven they were asking me why I didn't participate in teen activities. This group also includes all the random people I meet. In the past two months, about three people have asked me if I'm in college, and two have assumed I'm 16.
It's interesting.
Disney movies
Yes, I admit it. I still love watching the Disney films. I sing along to Aladdin, I love Belle's dress, I get freaked out by the villains in 101 Dalmations, I still love to hate Scar in Lion King. I know a lot of people who just sort of smile at the Disney movies. But they're some of the few I can actually sit through without too much fidgiting.
Mathematics
When I was three, and just starting to do school, I absolutely adored math. It was amazing. I loved the patterns, I loved the Kids Cards, I enjoyed my math programs. As soon as I hit six, I started detesting math. I wouldn't do it. I hated it. When I was twelve I discovered that it was better if I just did it without fussing, and now two years later and I love figuring out what x equals or creating a graph to figure out how much water can flow out of a pipe of x length and fill up a pot of y depth if there's a hole of w width in the pot and b about of water flows out of it per minute.
Friends
Alright, so this is more about when I was four, but it's pretty close. Of all my friends? I'd say that 3/4 of them are people I met when I was under six. About 6/7 of them I've known for over two years. Vivian? I've known her since I was four. Elena? I was younger. Linda I've known since who knows how long, Katie I didn't actually ever talk to until I was about... ehhh... 9, but I knew her for a long time. Dylan I knew when I was 5 and then he disappeared- reappearing this year at literature group.
I hate approaching people
This I hated doing when I was three. I still hate it. I'm okay with other people approaching me, but if I have to go introduce myself to someone, I get knots in my stomach.
People have the completely wrong idea of who I am
When I was three, I don't remember much, except for the fact that people completely overestimated me. They still do. Here's the song that a good friend recently said should be my theme song:
While I'm very flattered that they think that of me, and I really like the song, I think most people would choose this as my theme song.
Yeah. . Let's just say that people completely overestimate me still. And it's not just the social stuff, it's in general.
The wish to be overestimated
I know, craziness, right? But it's true. I hate it when people underestimate me... As I complained to my mom once, in the car after piano lessons, "I'd rather struggle through a song too hard for me that I knew I couldn't do, than to play something too easy." Consider me insane.
Procrastination
When I was three, it was procrastinating doing something to not be bored. Now? It's procrastinating doing my school.
Which I'm going to go do now.
Ta ta!
No, not literally.
In fact, I'll be taking driver's ed next year.
But mentally?
I'm still three.
Exclusion
I still suffer from this. I still have friends who are my friend- but are someone else's friend more. I still know people who are incredibly kind to me... as long as their actual friends aren't alone. There are still things that people don't want me to do. When I was 3 it was Dean and Nick telling me that I couldn't play with them because I was a girl. Now it's a party I'm not invited to, or sitting in a corner and watching all my friends talk and not knowing how to talk to them because I don't do IH. And I don't go to the community college. And I don't watch this TV show or that TV show and crime and bad stuff actually does depress me, it doesn't make me fascinated.
Reaction to exclusion
This is also the same. When I was three it was to run to Dean's mom and tell her that they weren't letting me play with them. Now it's... Running to my sister/best friend and telling my sister, or telling him, that I don't actually have any friends and that I'm not in their cliques.
Tendency to get sad
When I was three, I'd randomly get sad for no reason.
When I was six, I'd get randomly sad for no reason.
When I was nine I still got really sad for no reason.
I'm fourteen now... I still get sad for no real reason at all.
Piano
When I was three, my grandma J was teaching me piano. They weren't "official" lessons, just a little bit of instruction. That's when I had el cheapo $20 keyboard sitting on a steamer chest to play on.
In between Amy (my second teacher)'s instruction and Donna (my current teacher)'s instruction, I hated practicing piano. I had two bad teachers, Nick and Corrie, and I didn't enjoy my lessons. Now, though, it's just like when I was 3- only now I have a real piano.
Tendency to feel sorry for myself
As you can tell from the first two bolded titles, I feel bad for myself. I always have. Except nowadays I'm a lot better at not telling people about it... and shoving it away into a little box.
Year or two behind
When I was three I felt four. When I was four I felt six. When I was six I felt like I was seven, when I was seven I felt like I should be nine. I'm fourteen and I feel fifteen. I feel like my brain is too old for my body.
People forgetting my age
And I'm not talking just about my dad's forgetfulness. I'm talking my friends. My friends' parents. My teachers, excluding my mom. My cousins.
On the subject, this tends to swing in two different ways. The first group is usually my family. They're the ones who knew me when I was 3. They also are the ones who seem to suffer under the delusion that I am in fact three years old.
The other group is formed from my friends, their parents, and the other teachers I have. They're the ones who forget that I'm this young. They're the ones who seem to believe that I'm older than Linda is- when I was eleven they were asking me why I didn't participate in teen activities. This group also includes all the random people I meet. In the past two months, about three people have asked me if I'm in college, and two have assumed I'm 16.
It's interesting.
Disney movies
Yes, I admit it. I still love watching the Disney films. I sing along to Aladdin, I love Belle's dress, I get freaked out by the villains in 101 Dalmations, I still love to hate Scar in Lion King. I know a lot of people who just sort of smile at the Disney movies. But they're some of the few I can actually sit through without too much fidgiting.
Mathematics
When I was three, and just starting to do school, I absolutely adored math. It was amazing. I loved the patterns, I loved the Kids Cards, I enjoyed my math programs. As soon as I hit six, I started detesting math. I wouldn't do it. I hated it. When I was twelve I discovered that it was better if I just did it without fussing, and now two years later and I love figuring out what x equals or creating a graph to figure out how much water can flow out of a pipe of x length and fill up a pot of y depth if there's a hole of w width in the pot and b about of water flows out of it per minute.
Friends
Alright, so this is more about when I was four, but it's pretty close. Of all my friends? I'd say that 3/4 of them are people I met when I was under six. About 6/7 of them I've known for over two years. Vivian? I've known her since I was four. Elena? I was younger. Linda I've known since who knows how long, Katie I didn't actually ever talk to until I was about... ehhh... 9, but I knew her for a long time. Dylan I knew when I was 5 and then he disappeared- reappearing this year at literature group.
I hate approaching people
This I hated doing when I was three. I still hate it. I'm okay with other people approaching me, but if I have to go introduce myself to someone, I get knots in my stomach.
People have the completely wrong idea of who I am
When I was three, I don't remember much, except for the fact that people completely overestimated me. They still do. Here's the song that a good friend recently said should be my theme song:
While I'm very flattered that they think that of me, and I really like the song, I think most people would choose this as my theme song.
Yeah. . Let's just say that people completely overestimate me still. And it's not just the social stuff, it's in general.
The wish to be overestimated
I know, craziness, right? But it's true. I hate it when people underestimate me... As I complained to my mom once, in the car after piano lessons, "I'd rather struggle through a song too hard for me that I knew I couldn't do, than to play something too easy." Consider me insane.
Procrastination
When I was three, it was procrastinating doing something to not be bored. Now? It's procrastinating doing my school.
Which I'm going to go do now.
Ta ta!
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
The Mysteries of my Life...
Anyone who has been to my house has probably heard either my mother, or my siblings, or I, refer to it as "the house of mystery". The reason for this is clear. Stuff disappears. Our schoolbooks randomly materialize in piano bags. Stove burners turn on with no one touching them, lamps tip over then right themselves again. Heck, once my sister saw floating tomatoes!
But today's post isn't about the paranormal stuff that occurs in (insert my address here). No, today's post is about the far more common, but no less mysterious, things that happen in my life.
Let me elaborate.
Mystery 77%?!
Really? I'm just getting a 77% in Western Civ? After getting 10/10 class particpation in all but one class period? Really? That's it. A C? I mean, I understand that I don't always get my homework done... And I don't write enough essay questions... and I've nearly bombed a T/F quiz before (I think I got a 5 on one of them) and I haven't done really any extra credit.. And I've missed my online quiz before... And I go off on tangents... And I talk wayyyy too much about stuff that probably doesn't matter that much... But a C? Seriously?
Maybe that's a "busted" mystery, eh?
Mystery 45?!
If I didn't know better, I'd think that followers were randomly crawling out of my blog's woodwork! I guess it's a good thing I don't get stage fright- and that clearly it's clear that so many people find my random ramblings and pointless rants to be so entertaining!
Bonus points if you can identify the quote in that paragraph.
Mystery 30
I know that it's not new news that I'm slightly crazy and really ambitious. But 50,000 words in 30 days? With Thanksgiving going on? And schoolwork? And possibly studying/taking the Western Civilization I CLEP?! AND taking care of my siblings?! And... and everything?
I should just go sit under a table until December.
Mystery 7
Yes, yes, I know. I am a fabulous pianist. I play beautifully. I have mad sight reading skills. I can transpose like a pro. (Not really.) But level seven, with no review? I'm sorry. Have you tried skipping a level without reviewing the stuff you should have learned the level before? Yeah. That's what I thought- I'll get back to you. I have to figure out what "senza" and "con" mean, and then match "dolce" to it's meaning along with "presto" and "vivace".
I'm actually glad I skipped a level. And, just for the record: senza- without con- with. Dolce- sweet, gentle. Presto- very fast. Vivace- fast.
Mystery 3
I'm not sure you all want me DMing. I'm not sure what I'm doing, how to describe anything, what to describe in the first place, how to play the monsters well, or even how to not feel guilty when the ranger falls unconcious! But, yet, three- THREE- players are playing my adventure... And one of those even happens to know what he's doing!
This might change to "Mystery 4" if the other RSVPed D&Der shows up... tonight!
Mystery 540
If I didn't know better, I'd think I've had this blog for four years. If I didn't know better, I'd think that I'm a blogger geek just like I'm a music geek. You know, if I didn't know better, you'd actually think that I write a lot! Fortunately for myself, I do know better, I've only had my blog a year, I'm no sort of geek at all, and I don't write at all.
For anyone doubting my music geekiness: Who here has Kabelevsky as their favorite composer? Anyone? Anyone?
Mystery 11
For the amount of people who want me to get a Facebook account, I see very few book reviews going on, and very few people actually trying to convince me to join ol' FB. I'm starting to think that maybe I was right in the first place and I don't really need a way to reach friends that I email/text almost daily. Hmm?
Anyway, there's another little bit of my (mysterious) (random) (boring) life. Enjoy.
But today's post isn't about the paranormal stuff that occurs in (insert my address here). No, today's post is about the far more common, but no less mysterious, things that happen in my life.
Let me elaborate.
Mystery 77%?!
Really? I'm just getting a 77% in Western Civ? After getting 10/10 class particpation in all but one class period? Really? That's it. A C? I mean, I understand that I don't always get my homework done... And I don't write enough essay questions... and I've nearly bombed a T/F quiz before (I think I got a 5 on one of them) and I haven't done really any extra credit.. And I've missed my online quiz before... And I go off on tangents... And I talk wayyyy too much about stuff that probably doesn't matter that much... But a C? Seriously?
Maybe that's a "busted" mystery, eh?
Mystery 45?!
If I didn't know better, I'd think that followers were randomly crawling out of my blog's woodwork! I guess it's a good thing I don't get stage fright- and that clearly it's clear that so many people find my random ramblings and pointless rants to be so entertaining!
Bonus points if you can identify the quote in that paragraph.
Mystery 30
I know that it's not new news that I'm slightly crazy and really ambitious. But 50,000 words in 30 days? With Thanksgiving going on? And schoolwork? And possibly studying/taking the Western Civilization I CLEP?! AND taking care of my siblings?! And... and everything?
I should just go sit under a table until December.
Mystery 7
Yes, yes, I know. I am a fabulous pianist. I play beautifully. I have mad sight reading skills. I can transpose like a pro. (Not really.) But level seven, with no review? I'm sorry. Have you tried skipping a level without reviewing the stuff you should have learned the level before? Yeah. That's what I thought- I'll get back to you. I have to figure out what "senza" and "con" mean, and then match "dolce" to it's meaning along with "presto" and "vivace".
I'm actually glad I skipped a level. And, just for the record: senza- without con- with. Dolce- sweet, gentle. Presto- very fast. Vivace- fast.
Mystery 3
I'm not sure you all want me DMing. I'm not sure what I'm doing, how to describe anything, what to describe in the first place, how to play the monsters well, or even how to not feel guilty when the ranger falls unconcious! But, yet, three- THREE- players are playing my adventure... And one of those even happens to know what he's doing!
This might change to "Mystery 4" if the other RSVPed D&Der shows up... tonight!
Mystery 540
If I didn't know better, I'd think I've had this blog for four years. If I didn't know better, I'd think that I'm a blogger geek just like I'm a music geek. You know, if I didn't know better, you'd actually think that I write a lot! Fortunately for myself, I do know better, I've only had my blog a year, I'm no sort of geek at all, and I don't write at all.
For anyone doubting my music geekiness: Who here has Kabelevsky as their favorite composer? Anyone? Anyone?
Mystery 11
For the amount of people who want me to get a Facebook account, I see very few book reviews going on, and very few people actually trying to convince me to join ol' FB. I'm starting to think that maybe I was right in the first place and I don't really need a way to reach friends that I email/text almost daily. Hmm?
Anyway, there's another little bit of my (mysterious) (random) (boring) life. Enjoy.
Monday, October 17, 2011
My NaNoWriMo Survival Kit
So, I think everyone knows that I'm doing National Novel Writing Month this year. Also known as NaNoWriMo. Or, NaNo, because that's a lot of "shift" key to be holding down.
Anyway.
A lot of people don't understand how anyone can write 50,000 words in a month, much less how to do it and NOT get put in a padded cell.
Well!
Here is just one of my secrets... My NaNoWriMo Survival Kit.*
This is what is in my NaNo survival kit:
-Computer**
-Candy
-Hot Water bottle
-The ipad (for when I'm at my grandma's house for thanksgiving but I feel like writing anyway)
-My iPod (Which is a NANO... haahahahaha.)
-Headphones
-Lip balm
-Lotion
-My commonplace notebooks
-My novel plotting notebooks
-The Character Naming Sourcebook
-Pens with ink that don't randomly stop working after a week
-A blanket
-A sweater
-Hot chocolate with coffee in it because I'm too wimpy to just drink coffee
-USB port- both my mushroom one and my regular looking one
-Write or Die
-the OYAN forum, to do more word races
-My phone, so I can time how many words I can write in 5 minutes
-Homework so I have an excuse to be on the computer all day
-Open Office (hopefully it won't freeze up on this computer... xP )
-Stuff to keep my hair out of my face (hopefully I'm getting a haircut before November)
-Hand warmers or gloves or something
-Cool socks
-Hopefully a writing party
-An anti-homeschooler website post so I can get infuriated and then channel my anger into writing (better than caffeine, I'm telling you)
-EditorMinion
-My phone so I can bug my friends about my book when they really should be doing school
-A book so I can whack my sister if she starts bugging me
-The NaNoWriMo forums so I can get my butt kicked into doing something
-My Writing Buddies
-A hat
-No chores (like THAT will ever happen)
-Tea
-My GS sweatshirt
-My towel (Don't forget your towel!!!)
-Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure for procrastination
-Homework for procrastination
-Veggies to snack on
-Blogger
-OYAN forum to update people on my book
-Camera (I take pictures of cool places and then use them as scenes in my books)
and...Yep! That's about it!
Of course, when I actually get a laptop, it's going to be easier, but for now... I'm stuck here. :)
(Not complaining. It means no staying-up-until-5-AM-writing. :P )
And, as you can probably tell... I get cold. Really easily. Thus the warm clothing and/or warm beverages.
(Love my hot water bottle.)
*Not for sale
**The only thing I actually need
Anyway.
A lot of people don't understand how anyone can write 50,000 words in a month, much less how to do it and NOT get put in a padded cell.
Well!
Here is just one of my secrets... My NaNoWriMo Survival Kit.*
This is what is in my NaNo survival kit:
-Computer**
-Candy
-Hot Water bottle
-The ipad (for when I'm at my grandma's house for thanksgiving but I feel like writing anyway)
-My iPod (Which is a NANO... haahahahaha.)
-Headphones
-Lip balm
-Lotion
-My commonplace notebooks
-My novel plotting notebooks
-The Character Naming Sourcebook
-Pens with ink that don't randomly stop working after a week
-A blanket
-A sweater
-Hot chocolate with coffee in it because I'm too wimpy to just drink coffee
-USB port- both my mushroom one and my regular looking one
-Write or Die
-the OYAN forum, to do more word races
-My phone, so I can time how many words I can write in 5 minutes
-Homework so I have an excuse to be on the computer all day
-Open Office (hopefully it won't freeze up on this computer... xP )
-Stuff to keep my hair out of my face (hopefully I'm getting a haircut before November)
-Hand warmers or gloves or something
-Cool socks
-Hopefully a writing party
-An anti-homeschooler website post so I can get infuriated and then channel my anger into writing (better than caffeine, I'm telling you)
-EditorMinion
-My phone so I can bug my friends about my book when they really should be doing school
-A book so I can whack my sister if she starts bugging me
-The NaNoWriMo forums so I can get my butt kicked into doing something
-My Writing Buddies
-A hat
-No chores (like THAT will ever happen)
-Tea
-My GS sweatshirt
-My towel (Don't forget your towel!!!)
-Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure for procrastination
-Homework for procrastination
-Veggies to snack on
-Blogger
-OYAN forum to update people on my book
-Camera (I take pictures of cool places and then use them as scenes in my books)
and...Yep! That's about it!
Of course, when I actually get a laptop, it's going to be easier, but for now... I'm stuck here. :)
(Not complaining. It means no staying-up-until-5-AM-writing. :P )
And, as you can probably tell... I get cold. Really easily. Thus the warm clothing and/or warm beverages.
(Love my hot water bottle.)
*Not for sale
**The only thing I actually need
Saturday, October 15, 2011
An Interesting Idea
Today, I was at Religious Education Training, and my teacher, Carol, brought up an interesting idea of introverts and extroverts that I hadn't thought of before, but now makes a lot of sense. (I'm actually learning something!)
We were talking about whether or not it was okay to interrupt a child when they were doing art to ask, "what are you drawing?" And she said that, well, no, you really shouldn't. But then she also said that it depended on the child.
Of course, that makes sense, because one child might not want to be asked, and another child might. I know I'm the sort of person who doesn't like to be interrupted/asked what I'm doing, but I hadn't gone the step further that she did...
That introverts and extroverts have completely different ideas of that. That an introvert doesn't want to be interrupted at their work, and an extrovert (while might not enjoying it), won't mind so much.
So, that's one thing that she thought of, that I hadn't applied to that situation.
The second thing she brought up a few minutes later, when we were discussing whether or not it was a good thing to have a simple outline for our album page (describing the different works of the CGS- look it up), or whether it's better to have a monologue type outline, describing what we should/would be saying.
And she came up with an interesting point. (I actually only caught this because the word "introverted" caught my attention and roused me from my drowsiness.)
That an introvert is more likely to require a more monologue-type outline, and an extrovert is more likely to just need a simple, bullet pointed piece of paper.
This makes sense for several reasons. First of all, extroverts are by nature more chatty. They can talk, and talk, and work out their ideas as they talk, and then talk some more, without having an issue. An introvert needs more reminders, and they work out their ideas in their heads. That means that if they don't have everything worked out ahead of time, they can feel put on the spot, and can have awkward quiet pauses when they try to figure out what they're going to say. (Which is why, if any of you have ever seen me doing this, if we're taking turns reading something, I tend to read my passage to myself, just to see if there's any difficult passages, so if there is, I can figure out how they sound in my head, so I cna say it with ease when it gets to my turn.)
This is why a more monologue-type outline is handier for introverts.
This, I'm guessing, is also true for other things.
Say, essay questions.
If you compare the WC essya questions that Valerie writes out, and the essay questions that I write... There's a huge difference in length. Valerie will write, in large, loopy, flourishing handwriting, on a tiny piece of paper, one page.
I will write, in my smaller, messy handwriting*, on normal sized note paper, three pages.
And yet, with the exception of the random facts I include, we get the same answers when discussing out loud.
I thought that was really interesting. I had always wondered why Valerie could get a high class participation with only two pages of essay questions, while I was getting the same score with more!
I guess I have an answer now.
[/end of random thoughts]
(don't worry. I'll work on having something funny tomorrow, or the day after. Those things take timre to plan, my friends. [btw, alliteration FTW.])
*It is messy. If none of you have seen it... Be thankful. O_o I dread the day I actually have to go back and study my essay questions.
We were talking about whether or not it was okay to interrupt a child when they were doing art to ask, "what are you drawing?" And she said that, well, no, you really shouldn't. But then she also said that it depended on the child.
Of course, that makes sense, because one child might not want to be asked, and another child might. I know I'm the sort of person who doesn't like to be interrupted/asked what I'm doing, but I hadn't gone the step further that she did...
That introverts and extroverts have completely different ideas of that. That an introvert doesn't want to be interrupted at their work, and an extrovert (while might not enjoying it), won't mind so much.
So, that's one thing that she thought of, that I hadn't applied to that situation.
The second thing she brought up a few minutes later, when we were discussing whether or not it was a good thing to have a simple outline for our album page (describing the different works of the CGS- look it up), or whether it's better to have a monologue type outline, describing what we should/would be saying.
And she came up with an interesting point. (I actually only caught this because the word "introverted" caught my attention and roused me from my drowsiness.)
That an introvert is more likely to require a more monologue-type outline, and an extrovert is more likely to just need a simple, bullet pointed piece of paper.
This makes sense for several reasons. First of all, extroverts are by nature more chatty. They can talk, and talk, and work out their ideas as they talk, and then talk some more, without having an issue. An introvert needs more reminders, and they work out their ideas in their heads. That means that if they don't have everything worked out ahead of time, they can feel put on the spot, and can have awkward quiet pauses when they try to figure out what they're going to say. (Which is why, if any of you have ever seen me doing this, if we're taking turns reading something, I tend to read my passage to myself, just to see if there's any difficult passages, so if there is, I can figure out how they sound in my head, so I cna say it with ease when it gets to my turn.)
This is why a more monologue-type outline is handier for introverts.
This, I'm guessing, is also true for other things.
Say, essay questions.
If you compare the WC essya questions that Valerie writes out, and the essay questions that I write... There's a huge difference in length. Valerie will write, in large, loopy, flourishing handwriting, on a tiny piece of paper, one page.
I will write, in my smaller, messy handwriting*, on normal sized note paper, three pages.
And yet, with the exception of the random facts I include, we get the same answers when discussing out loud.
I thought that was really interesting. I had always wondered why Valerie could get a high class participation with only two pages of essay questions, while I was getting the same score with more!
I guess I have an answer now.
[/end of random thoughts]
(don't worry. I'll work on having something funny tomorrow, or the day after. Those things take timre to plan, my friends. [btw, alliteration FTW.])
*It is messy. If none of you have seen it... Be thankful. O_o I dread the day I actually have to go back and study my essay questions.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Risen!
Hi guys!
So, I know the title of this post might not make a lot of sense. In fact, for someone who doesn't know what's been going on in my life, it probably sounds like nonsense.
Which is why I'm here to fill you guys in!
First of all, risen applies to some of my friends.
In fact, about four of my friends have randomly reappeared in my life, and it's awesome. :D You guys rock!
Second of all, I've finally gotten batteries into my camera, that work! And I have a (mostly) empty flash card! When has that ever happened...?
Thirdly, I've figured out a way to post comments on other blogs. O_O Amazing! Though it's still not with my blogger/google account, which is weird. I don't know why it's acting up..
But a comment is a comment is a comment!
Fourth of all, I've dug my math book out of hiding, and have been actually working on it, without the regular amount of stressing out that I usually do when I'm behind. (Which I am. By several months. Anyone else...?) And not only that, but I've found the humor to make fun of it!
Fifth- I've regained my sense of humor well enough that I can finally post random pictures of myself, my dog, and my brother (both of them) on my blog! Woot! To everyone, so far I've posted
1. Philip (today
2. Me... I don't know when.
3. My sweetie pie, Carmen. *loves dog*
4. Me... a few years ago, when I not only had buck teeth, but also long hair and bangs.
Sixth, my grade in Western Civ has gone up! I mean, sure. It's just one percentage point. It's still a "C". (75%, baby!) Which is why I always wonder why people insist on saying that I'm so "smart", since most of those people judge their world by grades... O_o (as it happens, I do consider myself intelligent, and I do not base my life on grades. I'm just wondering.)
Seventh! My blood sugar has risen! Thanks to that ^. Healthy Choice 100 points premium fudge bar. You have to use the whole title. "Please, mom, may I have a Healthy Choice 100 Points Premium Fudge Bar?" "Yes, you may have a Healthy Choice 100 Points Premium Fudge Bar." "Yay!"
Those things rock.
Eight. My embarrassment after getting 10/10 on my True/False quiz at WC class and having Gloria call me out to show everyone how many pages I wrote in essays. (seven double sided pages.)
Nine: the amount of books I have planned. Last time I counted I had 18, and I've gotten at least 5 more since then. There is no way I'm ever going to be able to write these all. (But I'm going to have fun trying! :D)
Ten. My ability to know the states and their capitals, and the presidents (in order!) thanks to the animaniacs. :) Wakko for the win!
...
Hope that has enlightened you in my life. :)
So, I know the title of this post might not make a lot of sense. In fact, for someone who doesn't know what's been going on in my life, it probably sounds like nonsense.
Which is why I'm here to fill you guys in!
First of all, risen applies to some of my friends.
In fact, about four of my friends have randomly reappeared in my life, and it's awesome. :D You guys rock!
 |
Second of all, I've finally gotten batteries into my camera, that work! And I have a (mostly) empty flash card! When has that ever happened...?
Thirdly, I've figured out a way to post comments on other blogs. O_O Amazing! Though it's still not with my blogger/google account, which is weird. I don't know why it's acting up..
But a comment is a comment is a comment!
Fourth of all, I've dug my math book out of hiding, and have been actually working on it, without the regular amount of stressing out that I usually do when I'm behind. (Which I am. By several months. Anyone else...?) And not only that, but I've found the humor to make fun of it!
Fifth- I've regained my sense of humor well enough that I can finally post random pictures of myself, my dog, and my brother (both of them) on my blog! Woot! To everyone, so far I've posted
1. Philip (today
2. Me... I don't know when.
3. My sweetie pie, Carmen. *loves dog*
4. Me... a few years ago, when I not only had buck teeth, but also long hair and bangs.
Sixth, my grade in Western Civ has gone up! I mean, sure. It's just one percentage point. It's still a "C". (75%, baby!) Which is why I always wonder why people insist on saying that I'm so "smart", since most of those people judge their world by grades... O_o (as it happens, I do consider myself intelligent, and I do not base my life on grades. I'm just wondering.)
Those things rock.
Eight. My embarrassment after getting 10/10 on my True/False quiz at WC class and having Gloria call me out to show everyone how many pages I wrote in essays. (seven double sided pages.)
Nine: the amount of books I have planned. Last time I counted I had 18, and I've gotten at least 5 more since then. There is no way I'm ever going to be able to write these all. (But I'm going to have fun trying! :D)
Ten. My ability to know the states and their capitals, and the presidents (in order!) thanks to the animaniacs. :) Wakko for the win!
...
Hope that has enlightened you in my life. :)
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
I Have an Issue...
Alright, this definitely wasn't what I was planning to post today, but I might as well...
for some reason, blogger isn't showing me the blogs I'm following!
As in:
it says I am not following any blogs. I know this is false, because, hey, I follow a ton of blogs.
Is anyone else having this problem? (Maybe it's just a glich, and I am and it just says I am not...
let's hope!)
for some reason, blogger isn't showing me the blogs I'm following!
As in:
it says I am not following any blogs. I know this is false, because, hey, I follow a ton of blogs.
Is anyone else having this problem? (Maybe it's just a glich, and I am and it just says I am not...
let's hope!)
Monday, October 10, 2011
The Further Adventures of Angela
This new thriller will leave you clinging to your mother.
You might even spill your Dr. Pepper.
Hold on to the edge of your seats
Because this is
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF ANGELA.
[dun dun dun]
Anyhoo, I've got a couple of random stuff to post about that I've been wanting to post about for a while, so I thought, hey, why not put all these random mini topics into one post and continue my trend of having monster posts filled with relative fluff?
And my second thought:
That's epic.
So, here goes.
First of all, as most of you know, I'm doing biology. Biology is cool, and I'm actually having fun with it. This is unusual, because I'm not a scientific sort of person. I'm the one going, "gravity... neat... I don't care..." and "bacteria... make me sick?"
Not to make me look like some sort of dunce or something (unless you've debated with me/seen me in Western Civ/heard my shpeal on Joan of Arc/seen my AP score, reserve judgement), but science isn't usually my thing.
Anyway, for Biology, I'm doing this thing here, and I'm on week three. Joy oh joy. I did the reading, and then since my mom said I could sometime, I looked up the Andromeda Strain on Netflix to see whether or not it's on play it now. (It is.)
And...
This is what I saw:
Okay. I'm not a movie rating expert. But even I know that when the Mickey Mouse Collection is rated G, it means that it's some kid friendly stuff.
Which makes you wonder, doesn't it?
The second thing that's been going on is my brother's baptism! (Huzzah for Philip!) It was yesterday, actually, and he didn't cry a bit. Excellent (which, according to Wordle, is the third largest word in my blog.)!
After the baptism, there was a party, naturally. It was a lot of fun, I got to see my cousins, I got to drink Dr. Pepper, eat brats... Otherwise have an amazing time.
And after the party, this is what I sat down to:
[laughing] I love this picture. :)
A few reminders:
make sure you read these blogs:
The Lonesome Crayon
Paradox 51
My sister's blog
You might even spill your Dr. Pepper.
Hold on to the edge of your seats
Because this is
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF ANGELA.
[dun dun dun]
Anyhoo, I've got a couple of random stuff to post about that I've been wanting to post about for a while, so I thought, hey, why not put all these random mini topics into one post and continue my trend of having monster posts filled with relative fluff?
And my second thought:
That's epic.
So, here goes.
First of all, as most of you know, I'm doing biology. Biology is cool, and I'm actually having fun with it. This is unusual, because I'm not a scientific sort of person. I'm the one going, "gravity... neat... I don't care..." and "bacteria... make me sick?"
Not to make me look like some sort of dunce or something (unless you've debated with me/seen me in Western Civ/heard my shpeal on Joan of Arc/seen my AP score, reserve judgement), but science isn't usually my thing.
Anyway, for Biology, I'm doing this thing here, and I'm on week three. Joy oh joy. I did the reading, and then since my mom said I could sometime, I looked up the Andromeda Strain on Netflix to see whether or not it's on play it now. (It is.)
And...
This is what I saw:
Which makes you wonder, doesn't it?
The second thing that's been going on is my brother's baptism! (Huzzah for Philip!) It was yesterday, actually, and he didn't cry a bit. Excellent (which, according to Wordle, is the third largest word in my blog.)!
After the baptism, there was a party, naturally. It was a lot of fun, I got to see my cousins, I got to drink Dr. Pepper, eat brats... Otherwise have an amazing time.
And after the party, this is what I sat down to:
In case no one knows, let me outline the stuff on the table for you.
Starting on the left:
A pair of socks.
My phone and my ipod.
My Western Civ binder with my glasses and a pen, and two highlighters. (The highlighters are above the binder.)
A napkin.
My food.
My soda.
My glasses case.
And way up on the top right is my Wester Civ textbook. You can see the highlighting in it. That's before my green highlighter ran out of ink.
So, yeah. To a lot of people, that looks awful. But for me? Except for my phone (and no one was texting me anyway), there are zero distractions in that picture. (Music doesn't count.) I have caffiene, so it's easier for me to focus, I have my glasses, so that makes it even easier to focus, I have my well organized binder (MORE FOCUS!) and I have the textbook.
It was pretty awesome.
On a side note, I believe that I have another internet stalker on my blog! Let's hear it for people obsessed with me! (Black Death, anyone...?)
So, if you're the stalker, congratulations! You have sucessfully become the second internet stalker I have ever had.
Oh.
One funny picture, and a few reminders.
[laughing] I love this picture. :)
A few reminders:
make sure you read these blogs:
The Lonesome Crayon
Paradox 51
My sister's blog
And
Have fun! ;)
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Why Can't You Be More Like Your Sister?
Thankfully, no one has ever said those exact words to me before. I've never gotten a "why aren't you like your extroverted, fashionable, make up oriented sister? Why can't you be more telephone addicted, hairblower loving, makeup wearing teenage girl?"
No.
Instead, I get subtle things, usually from people other than my parents.
Stuff like the fact that when my sister wears her poodle skirt, everyone thinks it's fabulous, but when I wear my style: refashioned t-shirt, jeans, and either my painted shoes or sequin converse- no one says boo.
I guess it's because they aren't as used to Valerie by now.
Another one of the things that happens is that whenever a friend comes over, it becomes a Valerie and (insert friend here) playdate. My friend came over, and Valerie and she played on the computer for about an hour while I sat in the living room with a book.
Another of my friends came over, and she and Valerie got into a long discussion about a celebrety, while I sat there and watched them because I don't give a crap about pop culture.
I don't know.
It seems to happen a lot.
It's because she's an extrovert, you know. She likes parties. She likes shopping. She forgets the stupid stuff she says. She makes people feel at ease, she gets them to talk. She shares her lunch. She's an eccentric, but in a good way.
Valerie: extroverted.
Angela: introverted.
Valerie: always happy.
Angela: occasionally happy.
Valerie: not afraid to look dumb.
Angela: terrified of looking dumb.
Valerie: makes friends everwhere.
Angela: barely ever makes friends/relies on others to approach her.
Valerie: can write poetry.
Angela: can't write poetry to save her life.
Valerie: always gets along with little kids.
Angela: gets sick and tired of mini people when she sees them too often.
Valerie: thinks up fun things to do.
Angela: had no clue waht to do.
Valerie: makes herself heard in conversations.
Angela: tends to fade to background.
Valerie: shows sympathy to people.
Angela: tells people to suck it up.
Valerie: wants to do popular jobs like modeling and fashion designing when she grows up.
Angela: wants to be a mathematician/pilot.
Valerie: has a common sense of humor- finds funny books funny.
Angela: has a sarcastic sense of humor, barely ever laughs at "funny" books.
Valerie: gets really happy around tons of people.
Angela: would rather hide in her room all day than go to a dance.
Valerie: is the one sitting by all her friends in the cafeteria at GS camp.
Angela: is the one sitting away from everyone in her camp and not talking to anyone.
Valerie: is the one everyone wants to talk to.
Angela: is the one who connects everyone with Valerie.
So, you see. That's why people like my sister more.
I mean, even I like my sister more than I like myself. Why do you think I talk to her all the time? Why do you think I always try to sit next to her at class? Because she's an extrovert. Because she puts me at ease. Because I know that if I get freaked out she'll take care of the problem for me.
It kinda stinks, being an introvert with an extorverted sister.
So, yeah. People want me to be like my sister. (Main point of this rambling post.) My teachers want me to be like my sister. My friends would rather I be extroverted like she. My dad would rather I be a bit more extroverted. I think the only one who doesn't really mind my being completely introverted like I am is my mom. (and myself.) Which is really nice, because if she wanted me to be an extrovert too?
[shudder]
So, yeah. That's why you like Valerie more than you like me. That's why people talk to her and think I'm weird.
In fact, it's awful at Girl Scout camp. I walk past my sister, and her group of friends, before they know me. And the friends start giggling at me, because I happen to be wearing boy's shorts and a tank top and my socks are a bit too tall and my hair is a bit too uneven. And when they find out that I'm Valerie's sister, one of two things will happen.
1. They'll completely accept me
or
2. They figure that I must just be the odd one out in the family.
Ah well.
Thus is the life of your friendly neighborhood blogress.
[/rant]
No.
Instead, I get subtle things, usually from people other than my parents.
Stuff like the fact that when my sister wears her poodle skirt, everyone thinks it's fabulous, but when I wear my style: refashioned t-shirt, jeans, and either my painted shoes or sequin converse- no one says boo.
I guess it's because they aren't as used to Valerie by now.
Another one of the things that happens is that whenever a friend comes over, it becomes a Valerie and (insert friend here) playdate. My friend came over, and Valerie and she played on the computer for about an hour while I sat in the living room with a book.
Another of my friends came over, and she and Valerie got into a long discussion about a celebrety, while I sat there and watched them because I don't give a crap about pop culture.
I don't know.
It seems to happen a lot.
It's because she's an extrovert, you know. She likes parties. She likes shopping. She forgets the stupid stuff she says. She makes people feel at ease, she gets them to talk. She shares her lunch. She's an eccentric, but in a good way.
Valerie: extroverted.
Angela: introverted.
Valerie: always happy.
Angela: occasionally happy.
Valerie: not afraid to look dumb.
Angela: terrified of looking dumb.
Valerie: makes friends everwhere.
Angela: barely ever makes friends/relies on others to approach her.
Valerie: can write poetry.
Angela: can't write poetry to save her life.
Valerie: always gets along with little kids.
Angela: gets sick and tired of mini people when she sees them too often.
Valerie: thinks up fun things to do.
Angela: had no clue waht to do.
Valerie: makes herself heard in conversations.
Angela: tends to fade to background.
Valerie: shows sympathy to people.
Angela: tells people to suck it up.
Valerie: wants to do popular jobs like modeling and fashion designing when she grows up.
Angela: wants to be a mathematician/pilot.
Valerie: has a common sense of humor- finds funny books funny.
Angela: has a sarcastic sense of humor, barely ever laughs at "funny" books.
Valerie: gets really happy around tons of people.
Angela: would rather hide in her room all day than go to a dance.
Valerie: is the one sitting by all her friends in the cafeteria at GS camp.
Angela: is the one sitting away from everyone in her camp and not talking to anyone.
Valerie: is the one everyone wants to talk to.
Angela: is the one who connects everyone with Valerie.
So, you see. That's why people like my sister more.
I mean, even I like my sister more than I like myself. Why do you think I talk to her all the time? Why do you think I always try to sit next to her at class? Because she's an extrovert. Because she puts me at ease. Because I know that if I get freaked out she'll take care of the problem for me.
It kinda stinks, being an introvert with an extorverted sister.
So, yeah. People want me to be like my sister. (Main point of this rambling post.) My teachers want me to be like my sister. My friends would rather I be extroverted like she. My dad would rather I be a bit more extroverted. I think the only one who doesn't really mind my being completely introverted like I am is my mom. (and myself.) Which is really nice, because if she wanted me to be an extrovert too?
[shudder]
So, yeah. That's why you like Valerie more than you like me. That's why people talk to her and think I'm weird.
In fact, it's awful at Girl Scout camp. I walk past my sister, and her group of friends, before they know me. And the friends start giggling at me, because I happen to be wearing boy's shorts and a tank top and my socks are a bit too tall and my hair is a bit too uneven. And when they find out that I'm Valerie's sister, one of two things will happen.
1. They'll completely accept me
or
2. They figure that I must just be the odd one out in the family.
Ah well.
Thus is the life of your friendly neighborhood blogress.
[/rant]
In Honor of Halloween
You know what a cootie catcher is, right?
Well, I've made a print out for you to make one!
There's actually a small story behind this one:
When my good friend Vivian and I were both about 8, we had a club called "Historic Girls" where we studied girls from history who did remarkable things. That's why I know so much about Zenobia, Joan of Arc, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Helena of Britain, among others.
For this club we had, we would both do activites after learning about them. For St. Helena, we wrote a ballade that started like this:
Well, I've made a print out for you to make one!
There's actually a small story behind this one:
When my good friend Vivian and I were both about 8, we had a club called "Historic Girls" where we studied girls from history who did remarkable things. That's why I know so much about Zenobia, Joan of Arc, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Helena of Britain, among others.
For this club we had, we would both do activites after learning about them. For St. Helena, we wrote a ballade that started like this:
Thus begins the story
Of Saint Helena of Britian.
She was the daughter of King Cole
Who was so jolly.
And so on. It was pretty epic, and I still have our original piece of paper with it on.
For one of the girls -and I forget which- we made a cootie catcher telling you how you were going to die. (Proably something when a group of people were being persecuted, I think.) And I know we had good fun with that. We both made something like three of them, all with horribly nasty ways of dying on them.
Awesome.
So, I've always loved cootie catchers, particularly ones like this. Thus, I decided that it would be a nice thing to give everyone a print out!
I did make this on photoshop, so it's not all handmade looking... Sorry... But hey. At least you can read it. :)
If you don't know how to put together/use a cootie catcher, look it up, or email me.
oh, by the way, I got the basic lines from here: http://www.momsminivan.com/cootiecatcher-plain.pdf... I didn't steal anything else, though. Just the lines, which I ended up changing a bit anyway.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Awesome Things In My Life:
Again. I find myself writing a happy post of mainly a list. Because I have a decreasing attention span recently...
Here goes. We'll see long this goes.
Here goes. We'll see long this goes.
- The One Year Adventure Novel Writing Course.
- Character Lounges.
- This song.
- Taking the test for chapter 11 of Western Civ without reading the book and getting 13/20 right anyway.
- Sims!
- Ice cream. >:D
- November.
- The sonata by Beethoven my teacher has me playing.*
- The Clown by Kabelevsky.
- My Biology textbook.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
To Everyone Who Thinks I Lay Around The House All Day:
8:30 PM: get home from an exhausting day packing up the farm and a 4 hour car ride.
8:30 - 10:30: Do Western Civ essay questions.
10:30: Go to sleep.
5:00AM: wake up.
5:00 - 8:00: Do more Western Civ homework.
8:00 - 12: I am either in the car going to/from or at Western Civ class.
12:00 - 1:30 PM: Packing my D&D stuff for tonight. Planning out what's going to happen.
1:30: Goes to Orthodontist appointment and gets retainer.
2:15: gets back.
2:15 - 1:30: Goofs off.
1:30 - 1:45: Starts biology homework.
1:45 - 3:00: Writing blog post.
What I still have to do:
-Math
-Piano
-Geology
-Finish biology
-Western Civ homework
-World History
-Writing
-DM tonight
There you go. For all of you poor, mistaken people. That's what I"ve done today/last night. And what I still have to do.
Love,
Angela
8:30 - 10:30: Do Western Civ essay questions.
10:30: Go to sleep.
5:00AM: wake up.
5:00 - 8:00: Do more Western Civ homework.
8:00 - 12: I am either in the car going to/from or at Western Civ class.
12:00 - 1:30 PM: Packing my D&D stuff for tonight. Planning out what's going to happen.
1:30: Goes to Orthodontist appointment and gets retainer.
2:15: gets back.
2:15 - 1:30: Goofs off.
1:30 - 1:45: Starts biology homework.
1:45 - 3:00: Writing blog post.
What I still have to do:
-Math
-Piano
-Geology
-Finish biology
-Western Civ homework
-World History
-Writing
-DM tonight
There you go. For all of you poor, mistaken people. That's what I"ve done today/last night. And what I still have to do.
Love,
Angela
Most Watched Movie
Hey guys! A lot of you probably don't know anything about Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure or Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. Either way. I think they're awesome. In fact, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is the one movie I watch more often than I really should. Honest. Most times I can't sit through a movie. I wiggle and fidgit and get up and eat and sit back down and then have to get up and walk around and so on.
But Bill and Ted?
I put it in voluntarily, dude. So. Here are two clips from the movie. I hope you decide to watch it. Because Bill and Ted are probably the most excellent two teenage boys ever.
Trust me. They're awesome. And the movie is from the 80's, so there is plenty of excellent music. :D
But Bill and Ted?
I put it in voluntarily, dude. So. Here are two clips from the movie. I hope you decide to watch it. Because Bill and Ted are probably the most excellent two teenage boys ever.
Trust me. They're awesome. And the movie is from the 80's, so there is plenty of excellent music. :D
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