yeahh

HALLOWEEN TOMORROW! And 3ish hour Set Dec. Whoo, I can feel your excitement IN MY BRAIN!

Q: Are you going trick-or-treating? What's your feeling on the end age of trick-or-treating?

What kind of question is this?! OF COURSE I am!
I suppose there's a point when you're supposed to stop trick-or-treating, but whatever. I don't recall anybody saying that Halloween is for small children and small children alone, SO.

Do you know what your novel's about?
Meh, kind of. The basic idea is that the main character mirrors the physical features of whoever looks at her... sort of weird to explain, but it makes sense in my head. ;) I don't have much of a plot, though, so I'll probably pull the old "make it up as you go along" joke, which may or may not get me to 50,000 words, but whatever.

Do you like to don attire of the dress type? (aka, do you like dressing up for things)

"It ain't easy being cheesy"

I didn't always find Cheetos delicious, but recently all I've wanted to do is eat one mini bag after another (how's that for a hook sentence for my novel?). I only like the crunchy kind. I don't know if there's any particular reason for that. I guess just because they're crunchier.

This recent craving inspired me to read the Cheeto Wikipedia page which was cause for much entertainment.

For instance, did you know that...

- Cheetos have been around since 1948.

- Cheetos are manufactured by blending corn and water

Really, there's actually corn under all that orange, cheesish powder?

- The misogynistic cheetah that has been the mascot since 1986 has a name. That name is Chester. His first slogan was, "It ain't easy being cheesy."

I always thought he was a bit of a womanizer and I never warmed to him like I did to the innocent Snap, Crackle and Pop of the Rice Crispies.

- Before Chester, there was the Cheetos Mouse. The Cheeto Mouse had a catchphrase: "Hail Chee-sar!"

I kid you not. I'm not sure who comes up with this stuff, but I would like to give them a hug.

- In Israel, there are peanut flavoured Cheetos.

Maybe that's why Israel has such a hard time. I think I just discovered the reason for the conflict between Israel and Palestine: Cheeto envy.

I know I should hate Cheetos. They have practically ruined the reputation of cheese. It used to be that you could trust a product that had cheese is in. Cheese was good. Ever since 1948, you can't trust the name of cheese. It could be a nice aged cheddar, or it could be processed powder that will eventually turn your skin orange. *runs and hides*

Interesting event in history?

I would have to say... the invention of the printing press. I don't feel like going back to the time when I learned about Gutenburg or whoever it was, but I think that after that, things got a lot better for us. No more copying those Bibles by hand. We gotz us some new stuff to use. Hooray!

Q: Are you going trick-or-treating? What's your feeling on the end age of trick-or-treating?

(I AM! I'm doing Hallowe'en for Hunger! End hunger; get candy. Don't cha just looove those win/win scenarios?)

Oh and bonus question: Do you know what your novel's about? (2 days: NANOWRIMO!!!)

PUN-ctual

I don't have anything to write about, honestly, but I'm going to come up with something... oh, I know, QUESTION TIME!

*I seriously need some theme music for this... dee da dee lala lala la la la!*

HALLOWEEN!

Aggggh, I have no idea what I'm going to be! This will call for early Saturday thrift-store hunting (usually teh super fun time; not when done frantically, though!) and some makeshift costume that may or may not involve a PUN. Oh how I love puns. This allows for a "costume" to consist of black eye makeup and a construction paper P. Black eyed pea, get it? *cricket cricket* Or maybe Pig Latin. Pig snout + toga = awesome costume, noez? Only I need to ACQUIRE these things. So, that leaves clothes I currently own. All creative costume sites suggest that one color be the basis of said costume. I'm trying to go with black, (I own good "plain" black clothes, looks like dancing attire actually, if I could dance. :/) so THAT leaves either:

A. Ninja (would require some sort of pwnsome ninja weapon... or at least a mask. Group peeps going as anime people I don't know, so this would "fit in" a little more.)
B. Movie theater floor (random movie crap taped onto self... one of my friends did this a year or so ago.)
C. Beatnik (beret to be found...?)
D. Night (Oooooh, creative.)

E. Suggestions greatly appreciated!!! Freaking out a tad, really. I WANTZ my candy, but my Halloweenish philosophy is that you become a candy moocher and thus "too old" for Halloween when you stop putting EFFORT into your costume. I'm trying, I am. (FU end of quarter, why must you distract me from costume-planning?!) And I want candy. I like the spirit of Halloween-- act like a little kid and no one cares, you get rewarded for it even!!

HISTORY!
*not as cool as Halloween, but the BOLDmakes it better, yes?*

Okay, this may sound weird, but the Holocaust. You said "interesting", remember. It's all just so insane and complex, and still a bit controversial to this day. Some idiots DENY it ever even happened! God, how ignorant can you be? And Hitler himself seems like an interesting person. A batshit crazy one, but THAT is interesting! For instance, I'm working on a (5-10 minute, damn. I suck at speeches...) presentation on W.E.B DuBois. Good person, civil rights and all that. Whoop. But c'mon, Hitler? Anyone could talk for 10 minutes on Hitler! One theory is that since he didn't get accepted into an art school, and Jews ran the art school, he equated this to: ALL JEWS MUST DIE, and crap. What in the world makes someone think like that? He's a great psych analysis case, not to mention everything he DID, how people actually went along with this and that stuff.

dear monday, please go die. thank you.

Awful awful day.
Pretty much only academically speaking, though.

There is a somewhat high chance that you don’t care about any of this, and so I apologize. * Today was just really crappy and makes me hate school, which is not a good thing because a) I have to be here for another 2.75 years + college and b) because according to everyone else in the world, students (particularly American ones) are idiots who are stupid enough without dropping out of school. **

That REALLY irritates me, by the by. Seriously, you probably weren’t any smarter than any of us as teenagers so SHUT UP, and what the hell, people in other countries aren’t necessarily smarter. Who gives a shit about statistics, all they tell you is that certain people think similarly (or can pretend to think similarly) to the people who make standardized tests. Obviously the US education system needs some changes but I’m pretty sure most of us know how to count to five, contrary to popular belief...

ANYWAYS. To avoid boring you all to death, BASICALLY I just did fairly crappily on a lab for Chem that I actually put a lot of effort into, and it was SUCH a stupid mistake that I ought to have avoided but for some reason I didn’t see it on the rubric even though it was definitely there are I checked the rubric 3 times, I STILL managed to miss it because I’m stupid and my teacher randomly decided to take off 6 points for it so I got a C on the lab. Which isn’t failing, but when you add that to the fact that I failed a quiz we just got back AND I have NO freaking idea what the fuck we’re doing in Chemistry for a variety of reasons, one being that SOME people don’t EXPLAIN things so I don’t understand ANYTHING *** and we have a unit test this Wednesday and I would rather not fail THAT, well, I just hate science.

I find it much more frustrating when a mistake is definitely my fault, don’t you? In some cases there’s a little bit of “eh, well maybe if the teacher/person/dog was better/smarter/nicer I would have done better” but in this case it’s totally my fault and it’s just so ANNOYING because I KNOW this and there’s nothing I can do about it and BLAH.

And then the rest of my day was just crappy for various reasons that probably aren’t even that big a deal but all together it’s all just a pile of shit.

Sorry. Hopefully I will be more optimistic on Friday.

Cat/dog person? Pourquoi?
BOTH. But if I had to choose, I'm a dog person, just because they're so friendly and cute and happy and AWESOME.

What are you being for Halloween?
ZAZU from The Lion King! I am so excited. I've been preparing "I Just Can't Wait to be King" for days now (i.e., escape while you can).

*Damn I just realized Alex already asked my question... WHY. Hahaha I joke I joke, let me think...*
Thus far, what do you think has been the most interesting event in history?

PS, I’m sorry for being a terrible blogging partner and not commenting on either of your blogs for the past five years (ish). I’ve read all of them, I just haven’t commented because... I am an awful person, and also because you don’t even want me to tell you what’s going on in my head right now because it would probably KILL YOU. For shame! :O

* Of course, this doesn’t stop me from continuing the same subject...
** Not that I’m planning on dropping out; FEAR NOT.
*** And here is where I refrain from calling CERTAIN people names so that, on the off chance THEY ever find this blog, they will not MURDER me (and also because that’s sort of rude)

This is long and has no real point

I really want to read Going Bovine. I may have to go sit in the bookstore for a few hours. I will admit that I've never read anything by Libba Bray before. My sisters said that A Great and Terrible Beauty is weird. I'm going to start reading it today, because I got it out of the library and that's what I do with library books most of the time.

This week I had an allergic reaction to something I still haven't discovered, and it was unpleasant. I spent the next day recovering. Then I went to Vancouver and stalked Jensen Ackles. Then on Friday, I went to the youth day of a writers conference and learned stuff. Then yesterday, I was in Vancouver again for a climate change event/march. I was volunteering and it was awesome. I'm hoping those politicians will stop being idiots. Also I learned about the Alberta tar sands which I had not a lot of previous knowledge of. Today I saw The Vampire's Assistant, which was funny, but excessively violent in my humble opinion. I'm not big on the violence and I hate how our society is becoming "immune" to it. That is my week in a slightly rambling, unorganized paragraph. Today I slept in for the first time in four days, I feel like I know how it is to go to school. And it sucks.

But I learned a lot of stuff. Since the writers conference, my novel has undergone some serious changes. It's now going to be told in multiple first person narrative with some parts in third person and my characters are absolutely amazing and there's only one week left.

Last night I was thinking about boredom. It could be that what I'm about to say has absolutely no truth for anyone but me, but if you could comment with your own definition of bored, I would love to hear it. When I say I'm bored, it's not because there's nothing I could do. Well, sometimes it is, like if you're standing in line at the passport office and there's nothing to do but read government pamphlets and play That Guy Is a Gigolo with yourself. But if I'm sitting at home and feeling bored it means that I don't *feel* like doing anything. There's a bunch of stuff I could do, like schoolwork or chores or reading or drawing, but I just don't *feel* like it.

Which is what depression is to me. Depression is when you don't want to do things that you usually enjoy; for instance if you love bowling with your friends and one day you just don't want to any more. It's like a bout of depression. So what is boredom? I say a moment of depression. Enough rambling...

Questions!

Who are four dead people you'd like to meet?

I have no idea. All the people I can think of are alive... Google is no help. 1. Jane Austen. 2. Walt Disney. 3. That's all you're getting. I'd say J.D. Salinger, but last I checked, he's still alive. Really, I don't want to meet any of the people I've just listed. I mean, what am I supposed to say? "You're dead, but where did your inspiration come from?" I don't understand why I'd want to meet them.

Are you a "cat person" or a "dog person"?

You've all heard about my sometimes possessed cat, but I'm still a cat person. As a child, I never liked dogs, and was even a little afraid of the bigger ones. This ascended to new heights last summer when I was chased on my bicycle by a German shepard. Adrenalin rushes are Googlable (we know this thanks to Eddypuss) and I think I fit the symptoms. Ever been literally scared for your life? Try approaching a freaking GS after that.

25 days until New Moon. I actually saw a preview today and it look just as bad as Twilight was except with a special effects budget. I also saw a preview for a Sandra Bullock movie called The Blind Side, also released on November 20th, which made me cry. I think I'd rather see that than RPattz's bare chest (I have some advice and I don't mean this to be mean to RPattz, though it inevitably will be: button up your shirt, there's nothing there worth looking at).

What are you being for Halloween? (I'm being a environmental superhero, complete with newspaper skirt and recyclables dangling from wherever possible and maybe a mask)

Things I Must Tell You People! (updated)

At library. So effing excited. GOING BOVINE!!!! I haz it.

(Status of THG: 22 holds still. One of which is mine, but I think there's 20 people ahead of me. :()

Grades/quarter/suck levels: Exact same. Your Edwardline (hot hotline for sparkly vampires? What school system is this?!) is Powerschool here. Whoopdee. Unlike you, however, my week of suck has come to an end. (and the math test was so difficult-- as ADMITTED by the teacher-- that if we scored higher on it than on previous tests, that score would replace the lowest grade. If we bombed the exam, that would act as the "replaced" grade and have no effect.) Joy to the world and all that, it was hellish. Time to relax and sleep and read!!!!!

UPDATE:

Going Bovine-- FINISHED. Thanks to no Internet, and need of distraction. It was the only thing that stopped today from sucking completely, really. Otherwise, today was uneventful, and a particular brand of awful that is toothache + headache + stomachache. AS for your question, Vita, it depends on what class it is. Spanish is such a blow-off class for me. Requires almost no effort, the teacher is awesome; most of the time we change the subject to her little kids and just talk for the entire period. She's showed us naked historical art and If Facebook were reality, and this presentation about Invisible Children. (which is this group that brings awareness to the child soldiers in Uganda. Long story short, this A$$hole started a group to fight the Ugandan government, but then he lost almost all of his adult followers, so now he has kids kidnapped to fight for him. He's modern-day Hitler basically, except without the motive and willing followers and government. I can't explain it without going into full-blown rant mode and not making sense and rambling for the next 10 minutes. A$$hole.)

Nothing quite related to Spanish much, but it's honors credit and the whole class has ADD. Hilarity. But other classes I know I suck at, i.e Math, I worry, yes.

Are you a "cat person" or a "dog person"?

The Explosion of the Mind

Bleep bloop.

One of these days my head is simply going to go up in flames. The fire detector will go off and you'll look around and you won't be able to see my head. It'll just be GONE.

The week or so before the quarter ends is hell. There's so much stress about getting borderline grades up to the higher letter and not screwing up the final unit tests (I have FOUR next week and the quarter ends that Friday; WHAT THE HELL). Alex, it's possible that you don't have this experience - I'm not sure if you get report cards* - but Rena, is it the same at your school?

Nobody knows how to talk about anything except grades anymore. It doesn't help that half my teachers don't put half our grades up on Edline so we don't know what we actually have in the class until Thursday or something, at which point it's too late to do anything about it... BLEH.

Aside from any dead relatives/The Great Whoever, which 4 dead people would you most like to meet?
Roald Dahl, F to the D R, Gregory Peck, John Lennon.
Sorry for excluding the female gender; these are the four that popped into my head. I'm sure there's a more interesting answer but I can't think of it at the present time.

What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
Stop terrorism everywhere.

If Robert Pattinson randomly walked up to you and struck up a conversation, what would you do?

Probably be extremely awkward and sort of smile in a fixed sort of way. Social skills are overrated!
I am quite positive that a certain fuzzy animal would come and steal my tongue [to quote Frak ("I just have kittens lick my eyeballs so they don't get dry"), "that sounded a lot cuter in my head!"], though. :) I don't love R-Pattz, if you know what I'm saying, yeah? But I find it difficult to be (intentionally) rude to people, especially those who I've just met...

Do you get really worried/stressed about your grades in school?

AUSSI: Je suis desolée que je n'ai pas fait un blog le lundi. :( Peut-etre c'est parce que je suis un bizarre dans la tete, eh eh?

*Sorry for being so clueless about homeschooling; I'm sure this all seems very obvious to you and I must appear to be on the dumb side, but there are many things that us public school people/just me don't understand. For instance, the answer to the question "do you get homework?" is not clear to me because I'm not sure what you'd define as homework, seeing as your school/home is in the same place. :O

Chronicles of a Stalker

Hmm... what should I write about today? I have no idea. Wait a second, did I recently see the person I am weirdly obsessed with? As a matter of fact, I did. Why don't I write about that?

Today, I was in Vancouver again. I go there so often, I feel like a commuter. It's sad. Last time I was there, my mom turned the wrong way down a one way street (not her fault--lack of signage caused this). I don't recommend doing this. It's kinda scary.*

So I was strolling about Granville Island after the Vancouver Reader's and Writer's Festival--which was awesome, but slightly overshadowed by the event that proceeded it--and Jensen Ackles walked by.

I went to a session on screen writing vs. noveling so here's a movie look at the scene:

[Two girls and their mother are walking

from a theatre to their car. Jensen Ackles walks by.]

Rachel: [grabs Alex's arm] ALEX! IS THAT JENSEN ACKLES?!?!?!

Alex: Holy f***, yes!

[The two girls look at each other and start squealing--fangirlism takes over]

Alex: Let's follow him!

[The girls alert their mother of the situation, turn around and hasten after the gorgeous actor.]

Rachel: This feels weird and stalkerish.

Alex: That's because it is weird and stalkerish. Who cares? It's Jensen Ackles. Hurry up.

[The girls agree to meet their mother later and continue following Jensen and his posse. Unfortunately, they lose him, because they are amateurs in the art of stalking and they were too busy hyperventilating to see whether he went into the restaurant or headed over to the dock.]

*End scene*

Sadly, didn't have a chance to approach him and get an autograph, picture or hug. But seeing as this is the second time we've seen him, chances are there will be a third. Next time, I will be prepared, with a camera, pen, paper and running shoes.

You may be interested in how it feels to be a stalker. I will tell you: It feels awkward and incredibly fun. I'm extremely frustrated that we lost him. I mean, how often do you get to see your favourite celebrity? You think we'd be able to keep up and pay attention.

My God, I feel like a freak. I mean, if I step outsid

e my own perspective and see the situation as an outsider... I look like a crazed teenage fan girl who followed a celebrity. Not a well known celebrity, but still. I cannot explain my obsession with this poor guy. My heart started racing when I saw him. This is not normal.

It brings about the question: why are we, as a culture, so obsessed with celebrities? When you think about it, they're just people. They're n

ot their characters. They just have jobs that put them in the spotlight and make them look appealing. Sure, Jensen is really attractive, but lots of people are really attractive. I don't stalk lots of people. I stalk Jensen.

Dear God, I'm such a creeper. But I have to admit, I'm proud of my fangirlyness.** I commit.

All I can say is this: this is SO going in my novel.

Apparently, those Winchesters don't take kindly to fans. Note taken.

*I just have to note that it is an injustice in our language that spell check doesn't recognize 'signage' as a word, but it doesn't give me a red scwiggly line under 'kinda'.

**That's not a word, either, huh spell check. Go f...ly a kite.

Why do people blog?

Tis the Balloon Boy's fault. Yes, tis.

While having a discussion with my mom about this whole Balloon Boy hoax, this was said:

MOM: "Why do people even WANT a reality show?!
MOI: "To be famous and for money, but mostly just to be known."
MOM: "Like some sick extended need to be popular. That's why people blog. To feel like their opinion really matters They think people care what they think. It's ego maniacal."

**This was said very casually, not in an accusing way, because she knows I blog. She regards this as a sort of public online pen pal thingy; it is, but I doubt she reads this. That would be like the equivalent of your mom friending you on Facebook. Not exactly wrong, but awkward.**

Anywho, there's kind of a point in that statement. And also not. Not when the opinion in question is relating to something important, but stuff like "I ate soup today and it was warm. Yum yum chicken noodle. Good-bye." (but then, these people are twisted enough to think them eating soup IS indeed important...) Points I think have been said here, but every once in a while it's nice to be thought-provoking, no? And European, yes? (I feel the need to point out when I lapse into an affected Euro way of typing... I'm sure the French are offended. How cool would it be to have French people read this? International blog spreading! Whoop! Uck, "spreading" sounds like spreading disease... which is why I refrain from saying "I got it", especially, "I got it from ___". What is IT? My mind jumps to contagious disease, but I'm weird. YAY.)

STOP!
Hammertime!!
*dance break*

Longest, most disconnected train of thought I think I've ever typed. Hooray!!!!

Where was I? Oh yeahhhh, QUESTIONS!

RPattz convo: We would talk for hours about how I *thought* I used to hate him. We'd laugh, of course. We'd discuss the government and environmentalism, over a friendly game of Trivial Pursuit. Then the subject would switch to him, in a polite way, and we'd chat about how he was planning to retire from acting and join an Amazon expedition and cure AIDS. And then write a memoir.

BWHAHAHAHAH!

Real answer: Engage in a "Hey how ya doin?" bit of conversation. I've heard he rarely showers. I would keep my distance, but at least TRY to talk to him.

Question: Aside from any dead relatives/The Great Whoever, which 4 dead people would you most like to meet?

The Key Word(z)

Outside and I are in a spat. This is due to Outside playing with my mind. It's device: the weather.

Yesterday, I was taken on a magical mystery tour and ended up outside in a park. A really big one. Stanley Park. Outside decided it would be really hilarious to make it rain buckets for every second I was in its clutches, and then stop raining the moment I stepped indoors. Outside is trying to trick me into becoming a hermit. I don't know what my retaliation will be. Clearly, I can't just stay inside; that's what it wants. I have to think outside the box. Any ideas on how I should strike back?

***

I have some advice: don't plan things. That sounds like bad advice. Maybe you shouldn't listen to it. Still, spontaneity is fun. I don't like saying I'm going to do this (like I did on Twitter a few days ago) because when you get around to the anticipated activity, it isn't as awesome as it seems. Sometimes it is, but sometimes it's just like, "uh, okay, why was I looking forward to this?"

I did it anyway. Just remind me before I make promises again.

***

So below are some of the searches that brought people to our blog. Most of our visitors come from links (Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Google) and the searches can be a little strange. As I was looking at them, I found myself wondering why people where typing these things into Google. Like, whuh? Here you are...

The first few are not very funny. You've got people who Googled 'ravingpersuasions'(53 of 'em) and 'going bovine'. You'll be pleased to know that if you put 'going bovine spoilers' in the Google box, we are the first link to come up. That, my friends, is an achievement. The best part is that we didn't even post spoilers. The post was sans spoilers. I think the searcher must have gone home disappointed.

• "mind reading internet" - If this blog is successful at all in this respect, I don't need to anything further on the subject.
• "person microwaving their cat" - Okay, I will admit it, my cat can be a bit angsty/moody/psycho sometimes, but I've never tried to microwave him. That's wrong.
• "phobia of pointy objects"
• "psychopath" - I'm offended. I'm wracking my brain or possibly racking my brain for any memory of us writing about psychopaths. I might've made a reference to my cat once or twice, but I can't believe Google would betray us like this.
• "revolutionary war sarcasm" Whuh?
• "round pointy objects" I think this search signifies that we need to clear up the definition of a pointy object. Google is being completely unhelpful. This is the only web definition of pointy it has: "pointed in shape, having a point or points". What if I didn't even know what a point was. This is no help. The only object that comes it mind is one of those little rubber earring things that is a spherical object with rubber pointy bits. I wonder what the searcher was looking for.
• "understand sarcasm" I don't think this kind of thing can be taught. You either understand it, or you don't. And if you don't, I'm sorry. Please go away.
• "vancouver food" Interesting, I didn't know we had a food. I wonder if it contains food.
• "well-known killer" Again, the only thing that comes to mind is my cat.

How do you feel about these?

Q: Do you have your own computer?

A: Yes! I have a PC, and I'm in debt to my mother because of it. I really have to get a job. For those about to get their computer: be prepared to need your own personal computer for the rest of your life. If I had to go back to sharing a computer with my family, I might spontaneously combust. No one wants that.

Q: What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

A: I would win the lottery. Damnit, I'm underage. Maybe I'd get a job at the library. Or maybe I'd do something big like cure cancer, or end poverty. Probably the last one.

Q: If Robert Pattinson randomly walked up to you and struck up a conversation, what would you do?

Motivationalism.

I've been thinking a lot about this, and it seems like humans as a whole need a LOT of motivation. Why do people even get out of bed? To go to work, in which case the motivation is almost solely money. To go to school, in which case the motivation is to get smarter and eventually take over the world. To laze around the Internet, in which case the motivation is to decrease boredom and suck in one's life. Life is less and less controlled by what people WANT to do, (which I guess is a sign of maturity, but that's never fun, now IS it?!) and more controlled by what HAS to be done. Then we all see what's in it for *us* or create a quasi-reward system in our brains.

Ahhhh, this blog is starting to sound like really morbid and depressed. Really, I'm not. I've just been procrastinating and using this train of thought as a way to procrastinate. Motivation is the opposite of procrastination. I'm not good at self-motivation, I thoroughly applaud people who are. *claps*

There ya go. I, on the other hand, need posters such as this:



Oh, wait. THAT isn't motivational! *facepalm* Silly me.



That's better...ish.

My dental history:
Okay. I still have braces, had them since July of last year. I'll probably have to have a retainer or something later, and I'm going to have a tooth pulled soon if I "don't have the balls to pluck it out" myself. (Pretty much an exact quote from my dentist. (Ya. That guy.) Excuse me, I HAVE NO BALLS TO SPEAK OF.) I'm almost used to having teeth pulled, though. I've have 4 pulled so far, 1 in 4th grade, but it was loose so no Novocaine was needed. One in 6th grade, the shot thingy scarred me, so the other 2 I got pulled shortly before I got the braces put on I had to be sedated for. It was strangely fun, in retrospect. I was loopy. Everything was slow and kind of... thick. Air was water and blue was orange. The pediatric dentist's mustache danced. It was a weird mustache to begin with, like your neighborhood sexual offender would have. It creeps me out, but in that state it made me giggle.

Computer situation:

*sigh* I am GETTING a Mac. I have been told this since June, it is to be my graduation present. Our current PC is around 4 years old and doesn't have Word (or any decent essay-typing device), thanks to a hard drive wipe to remove a virus last August. I'm really sick of having to waste my study period typing stuff instead of doing other homework. (that's probably more important...) The powers of persuasion are working, though. If all goes well by the end of next week I will be taking a jaunt to the Apple store and coming come a proud Mac owner.

My question: (taken from another semi-motivational poster)

What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Crazy Americans

People in other countries may call us crazy. Nevertheless, I am a huge fan of using both the metric and the imperial measurement systems. Really, I don't understand this "metric-only" business. When you have both inches and centimeters at your disposal, measuring things is so much simpler - if something doesn't measure neatly in one, you can just switch to the other. As long as everyone uses one system for international scientific things, I don't see the problem of us craaazy Americans keeping our bimeasuring system.

Also, Farenheit makes much more sense to me than Celsius. 38 degrees does not call to mind the image of burning suns, whereas 100 degrees does that quite nicely. Really, people always tell me that 38 degrees C is "quite hot," but I consider anywhere from 85 to 110+ degrees F to be "quite hot" so that doesn't help me much. I suppose if I had to use Celcius, I'd get used to it eventually, but I'd rather not have to learn.

Question: What's the longest you've ever had a song stuck in your head, and what was/is it?
Juliet by LMNT! It's been stuck in my head since 8th grade. "I think you're fine, you really blow my mind. Maybe some day, you and me can run away. I just want you to know I wanna be your Romeo, hey Juliet HEY HEY HEY HEY JULIET." Good thing I love it! Hell yeah for cheesy 90s songs. (Backstreet's Back is another good one... "Everybody (yeah yeah) shake your body (yeah yeah) everybody, rock your body right... BACKSTREET'S BACK ALRIGHT!" Oh the 90s.)

Q: How's your dental hygiene these days (omit if it's too painful to discuss)?
Not bad. I had braces from 5th to the beginning of 8th grade and now my teeth are quite straight (except for one , which is straight but still growing, so there's a little gap between one of my top and bottom teeth... nothing too bad, though). I had to get surgery on one that still-growing tooth in 7th grade because it was stuck, so to speak, and my orthodontist (who is also my dentist) said that it would be easier to get surgery on it so it would grow faster. The surgery wasn't that bad because I was on laughing gas, which is completely trippy but made the surgery itself completely painless (except for after the gas wore off and my tooth started hurting like crazy, but that was only for one day). I still have a retainer that I have to wear at night so my teeth don't get crooked again, but nothing during the day. I don't have to go back to the dentist for another 5ish months, and that's just for a routine cleaning, so it's all good.

Do you have your own computer (one that belongs to you, not your entire family)?

Do's & Don't's of Chamomile tea

I've left this 'till a bit late so forgive me if it seems hurried. I've been having a touch of trouble falling asleep lately so I write this with a mug of chamomile tea in my hand. Well, no, that's a lie. If I had the tea in my hand, it would make typing extremely labourous. Rather, the tea is right next to me and when I pause to think of what I'm going to spew out next, I'll take a sip. Are you satisfied with the effort I put into detail?

I don't really like chamomile tea. I prefer earl grey. But alas, I am not looking for caffeine at this time of night. I'm getting sleepy. *yawn* Don't feel bad if you totally just yawned, too. I'm still not sure why people do this, but it's perfectly natural. If I ever read in a book (or anywhere else, for that matter) that a character scratches their nose, I always have to scratch my nose. It's odd, indeed.

Vita: I have news. Well, it's not that news-y, but it's about NaNo and relates to Holden Caulfield, so I thought you'd enjoy it. Anyway, I've decided that one of the characters in my novel (which has gone through a ton of changes since I last told you about it, btw) is going to have a self imposed mission of erasing all the graffiti from their town. Yes, yes? Catcher in the Rye reference anyone?

My novel is going to have a lot of these kinds of references. And a lot of dialog. And a lot of awesome characters. I'm really looking forward to writing it all. It's almost painful for me to not get out my notebook and start writing down the conversations that inexplicably pop into my head.

I like Regina Spektor. She's a good singer.

Question: What's the longest you've ever had a song stuck in your head, and what was/is it?

I'm going to have to say 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' (or is it just 'Hit Me Baby'? Maybe 'One More Time'?). That songs was stuck in my head for most of my childhood. I'd say at least from age 7-9. Damn that Britney Spears. Hit me baby, indeed.

If you could speak any other language, what would it be? Why?

I'm learning Spanish, which I love. But at the same time, being Canadian, at times I feel like I should learn French.

Fun tidbit: The only officially bilingual province is not Quebec, but New Brunswick. Quebec only has one official language, which is French. Canada, as a country, is bilingual but the individual provinces are not. Confused? So am I. I guess it means that if you're bilingual you have to have road signs, etc in two languages. Seems like a big hassle to me.

So I guess if I could speak any other language, it might be French and then I could learn Spanish? Then I'd be up to three. The reason I'd like to learn Spanish is that it's a pretty widespread language. If you know it, you can travel to Spain, Mexico and most of South America and converse as easily as you please. Sounds like a sweet deal to me.

Bilingualism amazes me. I know a girl from Quebec who speaks French, knows enough English to get by outside of Quebec, and learns Spanish in school. Like, wow. I wish I was trilingual.

This took me longer than usual to write. Now I'm going to brush my teeth. And floss. Because I have a dentist appointment next week and I don't want them to lecture me on the importance of the floss. It's a broken record.

Please remind me not to drink chamomile during NaNo.

Oh, and I'm just wondering how The Hunger Games reading/acquirement are coming...

Q: How's your dental hygiene these days (omit if it's too painful to discuss)?

When all else is fail...

Blame the Internet.

It always works... sometimes.

But really, my Internet has been increasingly FAIL-y as of late. (Why the English terms? I haven't the slightest idea, really. At present I rather enjoy speaking in this manner.)

Dixie Chicks: I've never been a huge country fan, (that's their style of music, right? "Dixie Chicks" just sounds so Southern I assumed.) but yeah. Bush-bashing is all right by me anyway, but it's a matter of rights. It annoys me that people ignore these rights and choose to hate. The song, any group of people. This basically sums up my opinions on a lot of things in a simple way. Everyone has these rights-- quite a lot of them actually-- and certain people get together and deny them and create controversy when really it shouldn't be an issue at all. It's a free country; this is what people are and are not allowed to do.

*sigh*

But nothing is really THAT black and white, everything is either already blurred or gets blurred by people who don't like it.

Your question and Vita's mention of other songs that Bushbash (it's one word now, deal with it. Shall it become the new "w00t"? People do it so often it might as well be a verb!) reminded me of a song on the Juno soundtrack (Seen it? Good movie. I noticed Vita gets excited over Ellen Page, who is in it. Awesomeness.) "Loose Lips"-- which does its fair share of Bushbashing, but is more generally about freedom of expression/protest. Plus it's catchy! :)

Question: What's the longest you've ever had a song stuck in your head, and what was/is it?

Muffinlight

I have been eating a rather distressing number of muffins, chocolate chip muffins to be precise, as of late. I have come to the conclusion that they are muffinpires in reverse - rather than eating me, they force me to eat them. It's all psychological, you see. Sometimes, though... sometimes I wonder if it really is all in my head. Something about this whole - relationship, I guess - seems off-color to me... The muffins did leave me many sweet sentiments, though!

I'm the world’s best muffin, aren’t I? Everything about me invites you in — my chocolate, my wrapper, even my smell. As if I need any of that!

Please forgive me. I can control myself. You caught me off guard. But I’m on my best behavior now.

That is something to be afraid of, indeed. Wanting to stuff your face with me. That’s really not in your best interest.

I couldn’t live with myself if I ever upset you. You don’t know how it’s tortured me. The thought of you, hungry, impatient, drooling… to never see you stir batter again, to never see that flick of your wrist when you put me in the oven… it would be unendurable. You are the most important thing to me now. The most important thing to me ever.

And so the human fell in love with the muffin…

You miss your lemon poppy seeds. You worry about them. And when I bake, the smell makes you restless. You used to talk about other muffins a lot, but it’s less often now. Once you said, ‘It’s too chocolatey.’

If I could dream at all, it would be about you. And I’m not ashamed of it.

And of course, my reply to all of this was...

"Yes, you are exactly my brand of muffin."

If you could have a sandwich named after you, what would it have on it?
Rainbows and unicorns.
In the medium of leftover Thanksgivingturkey.

What's your feeling on the Dixie Chicks controversy?
True to my word, I Googled, and assuming Wikipedia is correct...
I'm behind the Dixie Chicks all the way. Nicest thing to say about Bush? No. Do they have the right to say it? Yes. Should they have said it? Maybe, maybe not, but either way it's a valid statement.
I agree that if you make such a controversial statement so publicly you have to be ready for the backlash. However, I think the Dixie Chicks were well within the envelope of decency, and the feedback reflected very badly on the hate-mail/death-threat givers. They're American! They can criticise the government! Hell, people do it all the time!
Both Lily Allen and P!NK have a whole song dissing Bush; "Fuck You" and "Dear Mr President," respectively. YOU GO for sticking up for yourselves, ladies.

"LOVE is all we need to make it through"

** I know this isn't my day to blog; hopefully this is okay with you all! **

This was NOT written by me; it was written by my friend Kim:

"I'm so disappointed in myself for not knowing about this event sooner, otherwise I would have made my mark to all of my friends to showing the support I have for everyone out there--- I love you all too much to let someone's sexuality disturb my opinion about them . This is almost like the Civil Rights movement-- where there WAS racism, but instead, we have it in a new revolution, where we are experiencing homophobia everyday. I do act upon my friends, and myself when I do hear people say "gay" as a replacement for "stupid", or anything of the sort. I am a strong believer of love. Surely, if you believe in love, I don't see why you have to be against two men loving each other, two women loving each other, two transgenders loving each other, or a man and woman loving each other.
Guys, do help the cause. I'm not asking just ONE day of support, but everyday-- tell your peers of the wrongfulness of homophobia. Tell your parents, your siblings, your co-workers.

Everyone deserves equal rights. Our gays, lesbians, transgenders, EVERYONE deserves the right to win a free, justice-ful and open lifestyle no matter what. We have to work together, respect one another, love each other, and we ALL need to speak out with one another, respectfully, in order to "talk things out" and change our society.. for the better.

Although I am heterosexual, and this is not a speech or an essay, I'm speaking out because this is one of the things in our lives that will affect us for the rest of our lives. I KNOW that years from now, we will be seeing this in textbooks, and we will be the ones telling our children, "ooh. i lived through this. it was a tough time for them..." and I DO want to be the one to tell my child that this was not something fair or happy. I do not want this kind of discrimination to happen again towards ANYONE or ANYTHING. The stereotypes NEED to go away. Our wrongful peers NEED to stop being so judgmental of others and to just focus on the GOOD traits of others, rather than focus on the superficial aspects.
We're fighting til the End!
xoxo
Kimmy"

Controversy

Last night I stayed up until midnight watching a documentary called Shut Up and Sing, which is about the Dixie Chicks and their ups and downs after Natalie's controversial statement in 2003 about the president.

It was a pretty interesting movie about what it means to stand by what you say and your freedom of speech. At one point someone threatened to kill her and did she cancel the concert? No.

One of the thoughts I had about the movie involved the country radio stations who stopped playing their songs after all these people starting hating on them because they were ex-patriots and such. So the radio stations are forced to stop airing their songs because whenever they do they get a bajillion complaints and people who say that if they air another Dixie Chicks song again, those people will never listen to the radio station again. In this situation you could blame the radio stations. You could say that because the radio stations stopped playing these songs after that statement that they were objecting the fact that she exercised her rights. But I don't think that's fair.

Radio stations aren't people who can choose to stand behind other people. Radio stations are businesses. Businesses exist to make money and if a band is bringing in more hate than cash, I think it's fair that the radio gets to stop playing the music.

It sucks, but that's how it is. If you make a controversial statement you have to be prepared for the consequences. I'm not saying that the response was right. The amount of stress and turmoil those women and their families went through is pretty unjust. But I don't think you can just blame the radio station for ruining your career. Not that they did. I'm just saying.

I really loved that through it all, they stuck together. The other two didn't dump that girl when she ruined they career. They stood by her and supported her and it was really inspiring to watch that. If they can do it, so can you.

If you could have a sandwich named after you, what would it have on it?

Veggies! My typical Subway sandwich (I LOVE SUBWAY) is this: Italian herbs and cheese bread, cheddar cheese, lettuce, pickles, light on the onions, cucumbers and some Caesar (or ranch) dressing. That would be so jokes. Walk into Subway, "Yeah, I'll have the Alex. Six inches. Thanks."

Ever seen a white squirrel?

Nope.

There was another question but I have to go make cheesecake for Thanksgiving. It's always been a wonder to me that Canadians have an earlier Thanksgiving than Americans. Maybe Mental Floss will explain.

What's your feeling on the Dixie Chicks controversy?

BEDA 2

Curse you, Alex!

Now I've got nothing to blog about! It's contagious!

I'm going to do what I'd normally do during BEDA as a flashback: (I've done this before, but it's late so spare me. I'll post something intelligent Tuesday. Cuz I'll have Monday to think about it. Without school getting in the way, hooray! Alex, do you just get a day off, without having to do your courses or whatever? Oh duh. It's flipping COLUMBUS DAY, Rena... Discovered AMERICA. I'm just full a verbal vomit today, aren't I? Well disregard that. What about other national holidays?)

Speaking of holidays:

Happy International Newspaper Carrier Day! (Darn... just missed Leif Erickson Day! SpongeBob didn't just make it up! Yinger jinger hergen!) **In the middle of National Carry a Tune Week, beginning-ish Spinach Lovers Month! Yay!**

Wow... it's 10:00 pm and I'm about to go to bed. Sad? I'd prefer to say smart. "Early to bed and early to rise" and all that. But really it's sad. I have no good reason to be tired, as I did not rise early today. Oh well. Nighty night!

WAIT!

Question time!

I'd love to learn to speak Italian, which is similar to Spanish so I'd have an advantage if I tried, right? Hmmm. My school does offer it as a class, but I've been taking Spanish since second grade and it's "practical". Practicality my foot! :P Viva Italiano!

My question:

If you could have a sandwich named after you, what would it have on it?

bad, bad things

Hello people!

Take up the cause to FREE BURMA. Their dictator, Than Shwe, is basically Hitler except not German and far more isolated. Burma has the highest rate of child soldiers in the entire world, routinely participates in ethnic cleansing, and systematically rapes women. The people have no freedom at all. It's sort of like Darfur, but worse. And if you have any idea what Darfur is like... it's bad.

This makes me dislike the Chinese government even more. They supply weapons to both Darfur and Burma, thus enabling the genocide and terrorism to continue relatively easily. I don't hold it against the Chinese people. For God's sake, I don't even really blame the United States. It's difficult for America to strongly influence China - if it ever came to a full-on war, we'd have an extremely difficult time winning. Still, there's got to be SOMETHING we can do, because dictatorship simply cannot continue.

Watch this; it's quite informative (and it's got Ellen Page in it! *excitement*):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zYQqx_GX9U

Have you ever seen a white squirrel?
No! I've seen an albino black squirrel, though.
(Okay, it wasn't really an albino, but it WAS black. )

If you could speak any other language, what would it be? Why?

I dedicate this to Marco

For the first day in many weeks, I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to blog about today. I am having BEDA flashbacks. Oh, how I miss BEDA. Thinking about BEDA is reminding my of NaNoWriMo! Maybe I can write about how excited I am for NaNoWriMo! I kind of don't want to do that because I figure it'll get boring after a little... well, I guess I'll do it anyway for a bit because nothing else is coming to mind.

In case you haven't heard of it, NaNoWriMo (henceforth called NaNo), which stands for National Novel Writing Month, is a event that happens in November, where thousands of people attempt to write at least 50,000 words. In one month. In case you're wondering about the math that's an average of 1666 words or about 3.5 pages per day.

If you complete this incredible feat and on December 1st you have a novel ready for the editing process, then you WIN.

I just have to say write (hahaha--I thought you'd appreciate if I left the typo, Rena) now that I plan on WINNING. I am going to WIN NaNo '09.

Some people actually get their novels published at the end! That's pretty darn happy dance worthy.

I already know what I'm going to write, too. I won't tell you to much about my book, because I feel that it would jinx it, but it is a YA novel about a girl named Clementine. It's kind of like a Sarah Dessen book, or at least that's what I'd compare it to.

And I'm out. Holy crap. Thank you, Google. http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/what-do-i-blog-about/

I'm going to complain a little and maybe not complain a little, because it seems like the easiest thing that will require the least effort. Vita, I'm starting to see what you mean about being lazy...

Dear high heels,

Why do you have to be so pretty and awesome looking and trick me into wearing you? You should be as ugly as the pain that you cause me. To quote a television theme songs (points if you know which one), "I won't get fooled again. No, no."

Yours in hobbling,

Alex

Dear guys who were totally checking me out when I was wearing those high heels,

Thanks you for totally checking me out. It was an incredible ego boost and even though it's kind of perverted to check out 15-year-old girls, it still felt great.

Love,

Alex

Dear people who take disposable cups from Starbucks,

What is wrong with you? Can't your tiny little brain comprehend the fact that those cups are made of paper and every time you throw one in the garbage can a little piece of the rain forest dies? Just buy a damn tumbler and USE IT!

Love,

Alex

Dear mail slots and people who employ mail slots,

I hate you, you know this. 'Nuff said.

Alex

Dear One Tree Hill,

You are stupid. And cheesy. And stupid. I don't know why you're still around.

Alex

Dear Marco (from the remake of Fame),

I love you. Marry me?

Hugs and kisses,

Alex

Book Murder/Blog Fodder

I usually have nothing to complain about in my English class-- English is easily one of my favorite subjects-- but the fact that we HAVE to write in the books they make us read is awful. Ever since about first grade I have gotten seriously PO'ed at people who write in books, dog ear pages, etc...

I realize that annotation is an important part of understanding and adding personal thoughts to the text, but WRITING in them is book murder. MURDER I SAY! Say no to the slaughter of defenseless books everywhere: USE POST-ITS!.

Also, (further complaining, you may want to skip this) I just don't "get" the book we're reading/killing. The House on Mango Street sounds like it's written by a 3rd grader, in a series of plotless, unconnected page and a half "vignettes". It's basically about this girl who lives in the ghetto and all she does is complain about the awful neighborhood and describe her neighbors... pathological liar, baby-grabber, countless drunks who like to make out with her, nuns, a lot of fat people...

Maybe this is supposed to be deep and thought-provoking in its simplicity, but I really dislike it. It doesn't even use quotation marks. (Grammar nerd that I am, this is one of the most annoying things about it.) On the back of the book it claims to be taught in universities, so maybe I'm just THAT dense I don't see that it's supposed to be a scathing political commentary on illegal immigration or something. That would be interesting. This isn't.

Then it was pointed out to us that Esperanza's narration is like a blog. At first I was like, *Pfffft, no. My blog is awesome.* But it makes sense in a way; it's just random thoughts, hardly any connected events... but she describes her life using what happens, nothing really about her personality. It's also written like she doesn't EXPECT people to read this, which I guess is how any blog starts. But then it evolves into how you would really TALK to people, because people are really reading this. It's a conversation, not a diary. Her book-blog isn't even an INTERESTING diary. "One day this happened. Then all this stuff. Cathy is French and Meme is a dumb name and I'm going to go to hell eventually. I have no friends. I wish we had a pretty house."

Meh, complaining over.

QUESTION TIME!!!!

Best/worst/funniest/stupidest/cheesiest jokes: Do not even get me started. Alright, you asked for it. (Not including the ones I've gotten from Hank's 50 jokes videos... and those are pretty jokes too.)

What's orange and sounds like a parrot?
A carrot

Knock Knock!
Who's there
Banana
Banana who (repeat 50000 times, end with)

Orange
Orange WHO?!?!?!??? *spazz*
Orange ya glad I didn't say Banana? :D

A man came round in hospital after a serious accident. He shouted,
"Doctor, doctor, I can't feel my legs!" The doctor replied "I know you can't, I've cut your arms off".

Darn, all the videos stole mine! Go watch them, they're all awesome. (There's 3.)

My question:
Ever seen a white squirrel?

The Wonders of Google

I feel like I've been getting very lazy with this blog. Need to work on that.

What's the weirdest thing you've ever typed into the Google search bar?

Unfortunately I'm on my dad's desktop right now so I don't have access to my Google history (ooh, scandalous). I can't think of anything, but I do like to type random letters and words into Google and see what other people have searched for. "Why do men have nipples?" is a deeply profound question that we should think of every day; after all, it seems to have been plaguing the general public for quite some time. "Is my TV digital?" "How much house can I afford?" "Why are Michael Jackson's kids white?" are just a few of the many examples of our collective brilliance.

Google is, possibly, my favorite website. This is saying something because there are many websites out there, some of which are insanely awesome. However, Google, with its seductive, sleek white background, its classy yet bold colors, its ever-changing logo that constantly keeps me updated on which holiday it is, the way it loads when no other websites do... oh, darling.
(I guess it's pretty cool how it searches for stuff, but we all know that's not the REAL reason people go on it.)

What is the best/worst/funniest/stupidest/cheesiest joke you know?

No one likes a hobbler

To start this blog, I give you a haiku:

Everywhere I go,

I must hobble to and fro,

Don't sleep on a couch.

You may be asking yourselves: why would a young, spry, french fry* like Alex be hobbling to and fro? Well, readers, I fear it there are two reasons behind it:

1. Yesterday I played badminton for the first time in months.

2. Last night I slept on a couch that was about six inches too short to be comfortable.

3. Rebecca.**

Because of the above it takes me about 3 minutes to get out of my chair. My mother is making lasagna (YUM!) and she asked me to fetch some herbs. Normally this would be a simple task, one that would take 45 seconds and be over with. Due to my condition it took quite a bit longer. It took me a while to walk to the oregano and then a little while longer to squat down and pick it. Then there was the trouble of getting back up. It almost pains me to remember it. I had just come back inside when I realized I'd forgotten the basil. Back to the garden. Ow.

Fun facts: The fun facts I make up in my head are much more exciting than those that are real. I have to finish this write now and clear the table for LASAGNA. Lasagna, people, lasagna. I'm sure you all understand why I have to rush off in a hurry. I LOVE LASAGNA! I'll come back and edit this later. Or maybe I won't and I'll make up some fun facts for Thursday. LASAGNA!

Weirdest thing typed into Google: how to get porcupine quills out of belly button

Sadly, I will have to disappoint you here. I looked through all my Google searches and couldn't find anything remotely interesting. I will admit that I put Bohemian Rhapsody in the Google box when I got home from camp, because I'd never heard it before. *gasp*

*I could really get into this rhyming thing.

**I realize this is one reason more than expected. Reason 3 was a whim.

The results are in...

And according to them, I am:

21 Linguistic Smart
20 Naturalistic Smart
19 Intrapersonal Smart
18 Interpersonal Smart
14 Kinaesthetic Smart
13 Logical Smart
11 Musical Smart
9 Visual/Spatial Smart

Yea, Nature is awesome, and environmental issues are important to me, so that I understand. Most of them I agree with, actually. I LOVE music, but as a listener. I appreciate it, but I'm not good at it myself. Relatively tone-deaf, really. I can't tell WHY a piece of music is good, I just like it. I know and fully acknowledge math is not my forte. At all. And apparently I'm so bad spatially I've been tested. Meh, whatever. It's what GPS is for. :)

Fun facts: *I could fill this space with stuff I know about my neighborhood/town. Like that the best Thai place is within walking distance from my house and the owners are really Thai, and I think they think I stalk them. :D IT'S THAT GOOD.*

But, for stuff that would be interesting to other people. (I'm sad you'll never get to eat at Nathan's. I shouldn't get your hopes up by telling you.)

My mom went to the same high school as Michelle Obama. (Whitney Young Magnet School. Only a year ahead of her, back but when they only had freshman and sophomores. (It had only been open for 2 years.) (Also just Wiki'd this-- my dad went to the same HS as Blagojevich. No time near each other, but still. :P )

Historically my community(s) are boring. Carl Sandburg and the Keebler company are the most interesting residents... There's a tiny little "restaurant" (I use that term loosely...) That literally wraps around the corner by a looooooong stoplight, that serves 2-flavored soft serve. Chocolate and vanilla swirled together (it's awesome. I'm hungry.) That's not the interesting part. I've seen people get out of their car, get ice cream, then scurry back to their car before the light changes. It's just weird what people will do for the convenience.

What's the weirdest thing you've ever typed into the Google search bar?

I Dream of Man-Made Lakes

Alex, this might interest you (well, maybe Rena too, but I know Alex is an environmental nut*). This summer, we got a new air conditioning/heating system installed in our house because the old one was very old and constantly on the brink of death. I suppose that nixing the air conditioner altogether would be the best thing for the planet, but a) it gets really, really chilly in the winter and b) it gets really, really hot in the summer. Therefore, we are never going to give up our heating system.
ANYWAY, we got our heating bill today, and in September 2008, our air conditioner let off about 790 kwh. This year (September 2009) it let off a whopping 410 kwh. That's almost half the amount as last year! And we're signing up for some electricity recycling thing, the details of which I am rather fuzzy on, but that should further lower our output. Huzzah!

"Intelligence Test" results:
According to this test, I am:

20 linguistically smart
16 kinaesthetically smart
17 naturalistically smart
7 visually/spacially smart
21 musically smart
17 intrapersonally smart
21 interpersonally smart
14 logically smart

I'm not sure what to label the numbers as; sorry.
Merp merp. I dunno if this is accurate or not. I think that it's difficult to classify a person in any category, even if there are many different options. Still, these intelligence tests amuse the hell out of me. They're so fun; perhaps it has something do with the fact that humans are inherently egocentric. :D

Howza weather?

Temperature-wise, I doubt it's as extreme as in some other places, but it does get up (and down) there. For some reason people never seem to think of Maryland as very diverse, climate and geographic -wise, but there is a crapload of variation in every department imaginable.** I swear our weather is bipolar.
That said, I am a fan of Maryland weather, for the most part. September was strangely cool and rainy (usually it's still pretty hot all the way through) and the weather is a bit depressing at the moment - gray, oppressive-looking clouds; no rain, just a constant gloom in the sky. But it's hot in the summer, nippy in the fall, cold in the winter, and pleasant in the spring.

Tell us a "fun fact" about the area you live in (it doesn't have to be specific; you can say North America for all I care). :)

* I mean this in a kind way. >:)
** Seriously; Maryland is crazy diverse. The only geographical features we don't have (for the most part) are deserts and natural lakes. For some reason, Maryland didn't come with ready-made lakes; they're all man-made. Oh well.

Catching up on life & Thinking WE

It's Thursday, right? The past 6 days have been a tad bit chaotic for me. I'm been juggling ninja battles, tissue boxes, late nights, and hectic volunteer work. Today is the first day in a week that I have nothing planned (other than the buckets full of schoolwork and email to catch up on) and it has been bliss.

Camp was good. The number of pirates was a bit overwhelming to us ninjas, but we handled it with grace. Just goes to show that people would rather be unwashed with a bottle of rum than graceful and professional. I actually feel kind of bad for pirates.

We made friends, which is a novelty for my Ranger group and we had oodles of fun. I don't think a proper meal was served all camp, which probably contributed to my illness, but we survived on our soda and Smart Food (it has to be called that for a reason, right?).

The next camp is in November but I may not be able to go because it's the weekend that New Moon comes out. I mean, how could I ever miss the opening day? I guess the only option is midnight release. Get out your Harry Potter costumes!

When I returned from camp, I slept. Then I was off again, this time to Vancouver for Free the Children's (a Canadian charity, btw) annual We Day. This year was the first time We Day came to Vancouver. I don't know if you guys heard about it in the States, but it's a pretty big event in Canada. 16,000 youth come to GM Place for a "rock concert for social good". Basically tons of speakers ranging from FTC founders Craig and Marc Kielburger to Mia Farrow to the Dalai Lama and performers from Jason Mraz to Sarah McLachlan come together for a 5 hour event that is 100% awsome.

I was one of 500 volunteers at this event. My job was to sell Me to We Style t-shirts. It was crazy busy and very fun. I also got to see some of the show and all the volunteers who were at the Monday night training/thingy got to see Jason Mraz's rehearsal/sound check. Awesome is all around. Did I mention I saw Jason Mraz's sound check? Yeah we practiced dance moves with him. It was ace.

It's a really inspiring event and I'm glad I was able to participate. The whole thing is broadcast live on CTV and millions get to watch. So jokes.

I can't wait for We Day 2010.

Oh and go to www.giveyour10.com and commit to ten actions for a better world. I think they plant a tree in Africa for everyone who does this, or something like that. Please. :)

I'm going to buy Paper Towns in ten minutes. Wish me luck.

-Questions-

Who is your favourite author?

J.K. Rowling. I think. I don't know. It's like picking a favourite parent: difficult and just wrong.

How's the weather?

It's not summer.

It's weird because we had this amazingly warm September and then all of a sudden it's cold and rainy. We were lulled into security and then had it pulled of from under our bare feet. Better bring out the umbrellas. And the sweaters. And the SOCKS. All I can think is: Welcome to October.

Yes or no?

YES! Say yes to life!

Cupcakes or muffins?

I'm very particular about both and I like each in their own respect. Muffins are delicious. I don't really like store bought ones, but homemade are wonderous. As for cupcakes, they must have the correct amount of icing. I don't like an inch of it. So again, no store cupcakes. HOMEMADE FOR THE WIN! Hooray for answering questions with the wrong answer and then not responding to the actual question.

Did you ever have a reacurring childhood dream?

I once had a nightmare that my sister and I were walking through the woods and we were attacked my a mountain lion. I had to run and get help while she fended it off. I only had it once, but I've remembered it ever since.

This dream was largely due to said sister telling me there were mountain lions in the ravine behind our house. I was obviously traumatized by this dreadful lie. Thanks, Caitlyn.

Is Going Bovine sufficient as a book club book? It seems like you like it quite a bit, Vita.

For my question I want you both to do this test and then tell me what order your Multiple Intelligences are... (I'm doing this for school! Awesomeness):

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/questions/questions.cfm