Muse and Quote- December 10, 2009

I'm reading this book called Anything But Typical. I picked it out because I like stuff that is not typical, and it is a very nice book. The main character is a boy with autism, and he writes stories and posts them on a website called Storyboard. He meets a girl named PhoenixBird, a.k.a. Rebecca, and I don't now what else because I haven't finished it yet. That is my Muse for Today.

Quote for Thursday, December 10, 2009:

I bumped into a woman I hadn't seen for nearly three years. The first thing she said to me? 'You've lost a lot of weight since the last time I saw you!'

'Well,' I said, slightly nonplussed, 'the last time you saw me I'd just had a baby.'

What I felt like saying was, 'I've produced my third child and my sixth novel since I last saw you. Aren't either of those things more important, more interesting, than my size?' But no — my waist looked smaller! Forget the kid and the book: finally, something to celebrate!

-J.K. Rowling, "For Girls Only, Probably..." at her website in "Section: Extra Stuff"

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J.K._Rowling)

Knowing

People are really set in their ways- or at least, a lot of the people I know are. They're set in their habits; who they talk to, who they ignore, who they eat lunch with every Friday, who they call for help, who they try to impress.

All of these are based on assumptions.

People say "Oh, I know him" or "Yeah, I'm her best friend" or "You know I love you" nowadays like the words, strung together like that, don't have any value. Sometimes, in that context, said by that person,

they don't.

But all of those are based on assumptions too.

They might not know or love that person. They love what that person lets them know, or what they read into and find, or something like that. Sometimes they read in too deep, and they find what isn't there.

Sometimes they read and find the wrong things. Sometimes they find the right things and take them the wrong way. Sometimes everything is right.

The truth is no one knows anything or anyone. People can be bendable. The Laurel Jones you know may not act the same way around me. Who knows what's real, what's Laurel Anna Jones? Laurel might not even know.

Sometimes the person is that way all the time, and all the evidence is there, but you're in your bubble, bobbing along on the swirling tycoon of insanity that is your life, trying to keep everything straight, trying to make sure your head is on your shoulders and your hands are in your pockets, then barreling through the plaster and facing the world. That takes a lot, and of course you care about this person, of course you worry about them, you think about them. But they play second fiddle to you sometimes, and then you find out something about them. Indirectly or directly, it shows how you are.

It doesn't change everything, but it straightens nothing and blurs others.

It's so freaking obvious.

But was it?

People only show what they want to show, and if they show too much emotional garbage and become vulnerable, a strange mix of bravado, charisma and the so-called 'unimportance' of the situation tends to cover that up.

It works rarely, but then it does.

You look at that person in a different ways. Sometimes things shift, and you are left with a veil of a feeling.

And that is all.

Hello, Hello! As David Says

I have realized that my last post was mostly ranting.

I have also realized that I only posted five times through the month of November and I'm never going to reach my 100th post if I continue to post that way.

I only made this blog a few weeks after Questa, and guess what? She has 126 posts and I am somewhere in the seventies, which was a good era for music but not a good number for blog posts.

This isn't a competition, or anything. I just hate the feeling of incompetence.

Anywho, I shall be doing my best to post at least twice a week.

Unless that's a bad thing, and I should skip out on this 'blog' thing altogether.

(Do you know how you can remember how to spell 'together'? To get her. A friend's older brother told me that in the fifth grade, and it must have worked because I never spell it wrong!)

(And I still remember it. Huh.)

I just thought I would mention that. As holiday break comes about I might post more.

Good bye.

Quote for Saturday, December 5, 2009:

Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.

-A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843)

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christmas_Carol)

Dear December

Dear December,

Did I mention I hate you?

There have been a lot of you in my lifetime, and you are bad enough because you are cold. And dying. And K is reading over my shoulder and that creates pressure and good he's gone. No. Now he's back. And I don't want this post to be about him and now he's left once more.

And you come by too fast. Since we have holiday break, we are trapped inside all the time and I think my jump rope is outside! What will happen to my jump rope? And then we are cooped up and K and I try at least once a day to kill each other and mi madre says "I can't take this anymore!" and then we look sheepish and sit quietly and read. Even so, attempted murder is not festive.

No. Not at all.

And I hate you.

More reasons? Gladly! You know a reason why this winter? Particularly this winter?

YOU WON'T EVEN HAVE SNOW!!!

I understand that there are people that I know who would love for it even to be cold. But where I live, there is snow. Every winter!

And now there are 'possible snow showers' that never show and 'light evening snow' that never snows, light or night!

So. I hate you, you eejit.

Fairy Lights

Today is the Ultimate Shopping Day, Black Friday. It's the day when people wake up at midnight and wait outside the shops, then wrestle each other for 50% off everything in the entire store.

Last year, people died from being trampled outside the stores.

And shopping is girly, K? Really? I'd like to see you strangle people for a sweater.

(It had better be a lovely sweater.)

I've never done this shopping thing though. I'm not quite sure whether I would like to, actually. It seems a little obsessive, but there's also a weird, creepy thrill that comes from being outside a store in the middle of the night, clutching your coupons to you madly, elbowing that lady wearing the hat in the ribs so you can get ahead of her.

Then, twelve minutes later, you're fighting her for the sweater.

I enjoy this time of the year. It's kind of like everyone is making a huge, manic, last-ditch effort to do things, but kind of giving up at the same time, because another year is about the corner and you have a huge slot of time in which you can mess things up to your heart's content.

The scary thing is I remember last year so well. The year drags until my birthday (May 11th! I'm waiting for the doodle!), or the summer or something, and then you're back at December again wondering if you did anything productive at all. (For me? No.)

But I can remember writing 2009 very excitedly upon my Story-Writing Binder. Now it is like this:

FRAS

2008

2009

And the idea that soon I will have to write 2010 underneath it and I haven't finished my Vinnialia story yet is sad.

But it's still November. I have time,

right?

I can totally finish a story in that time! I'm not the slowest writer I know!

On a happier note, my neighborhood is filled with Christmas decorations! It looks so pretty, looking out at night... even if those eejits had everything decorated last week...

Quote for Friday, November 27, 2009:

True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings.

-William Shakespeare

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hope)

Muse for Today:

Fairy lights.

Google Doodles

I very much enjoy this site: http://www.google.com/logos/ because they have the archived Google doodles. Those are the nice pictures of randomness that show up whenever there is a holiday going on. You can almost always count on Google, except I really want a doodle for my birthday.

Would that be so hard? May 11th, a doodle specially designed for me?

(November 14, 2009)

(November 13, 2009)

(Wallace and Gromit! November 4, 2009)

(Ah. Big Ben. May 31, 2009)

(November 18, 2009)

(November 22, 2009)

(August 25, 2009)

(August 12, 2009)

(August 5, 2009)

(July 7, 2009)

(Women's Day! March 8, 2009)

Those are just some of my favorites, I have a lot more.

I don't know anything about copyright laws, and, frankly, I don't care much about them, but do I have to say I don't own any of this images? I hope that's implied. I don't own any of this, by the way.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Trailer

Is it bad that the only thing I was thinking when I saw this was "I hate this"?

I really, actually don't care if that's bad. That's what I thought.

Here's why:

• I don't like the Annabeth actor.
• I don't like the Grover actor.
• I don't like the Annabeth actor.
• I don't like the Percy actor.
• I DON'T LIKE THAT SILLY ANNABETH ACTOR.
• I don't like that they made out that Percy is some iPod obsessed Zac-Efron-haired-kid. (I mean, honestly? Logan Lerman, the idiot that plays Percy, had a voice that reminded me of High School Musical. And using his iPod to look at Medusa? What are they playing at? I know they're trying to make it all modern, but they're losing the spirit of the books!)
• I don't like that they acted like Grover was some skirt-chaser instead of a nervous little goat-boy.
• I don't like that Percy is seventeen years old. Has the script writer read the book? It's all-important to a prophecy that Percy turns SIXTEEN. SIXTEEN is slightly younger than SEVENTEEN. So what are you going to do, huh? Percy Jackson and the Suburban Family of the Camp Half-Blood Kids?
• Did I mention that I DON'T LIKE THE ANNABETH ACTOR?

Life

This is the author JOHN GREEN. He is cool. He is really, really funny, and so is Hank Green, his song-writing, corn-dog-eating brother.

Another thing that's cool is the UNIVERSE in GENERAL.

On this video, note the date- March 15.

Note 2:57-3:07.

I'll finish the song!

That's K's birthday!

How the world works!

Look at all these exclamation points!

I mean, exclamation points.

Elevator Music

My first post for November- happy November, everyone!

(A bit late, but that can't be helped anymore...)

Right into our main topic-

If you read Blue Roses, you probably have read Questa's post about Olympic elevator music.

Four words: Olympic. Elevator. Music. STINKS.

Not, sadly, that I would know firsthand, but when (Spoiler Alert!) Percy wonders whether he should have given up immortality to change the awful elevator music, it gives you the idea that it is not the best.

(Who chooses the elevator music? Apollo? Zeus? Random Maintenance Guy?)

The only reason I bring this up is that K, my wacky brother, is playing one of his favorite Wii games ever, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, and he is going "Staying alive! Just barely!" and Stayin' Alive is one of the perfectly horrible songs on the Olympic Elevator-ing System.

Here is the video for the song. Enjoy. Or not.

[Warning: If you have an aversion to tight pants (like me) you might want to skip this video. Think: All the Jonas Brothers. Put together. *shudder*]

Even if I think Stayin' Alive is a horrible song, my ABBA and Green Day and Led Zeppelin and Simon and Garfunkel and etcetera punky music is probably not music to someone else's ears, so ignore me.

(K likes this song.)

One cool things about this song is you can sing Stayin' Alive while doing CPR. Why? Because (a friend told me this) the song has 100 beats per minute, the recommended number of compressions per minute for CPR.

So sing Stayin' Alive to yourself the next time you perform CPR.

But if you're singing that, they may pretend to not be breathing just so you'll leave.

Quote for Tuesday, November 10, 2009:

In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.

-John Von Neumann

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mathematics)

(You just get used to the varying feelings of confusion.)

Muse(ic) for Today:

The Bee Gees!

All Hallow's Eve...Eve

I am back to (hopefully) give you a decent post that you will enjoy reading.

If you don't, well, I don't honestly mind, just as long as you don't lower my self-esteem by telling me so.

I have many things slotted for today- my opinions of stuff, mostly. Fan fictions, certain (cough cough) Disney celebrities I HATE, the fact that Halloween is just one day away and I am almost jumping from excitement. Hooray!

Then there is the stupid, idiotic stupidity of a dance. A dance has to ruin my day.

I've said before that I hate school dances. Proms, homecoming, socials, anything. I do, I REALLY do. They're pointless and superficial. So I refuse to go to any.

I have nothing against people who enjoy dances (what difference would it make whether I did or not, really?). No, I have things against the times when people look at me as though I'm a few marbles short when I tell them so.

Friend: Are you going to the dance today?

Me: (VERY matter-of factly) No, I hate dances. Why would I go?

Everyone in that section of the room drops their stuff and looks- stares, actually- at me.

Egads.

This stretches farther than a dance. People are all different. Everyone likes different things, and I don't think that you should have an exaggerated reaction to my opinion just because I'm not going to do something that many other people are.

I'm overreacting, I know. But this has bugged me for years.

Moving on.

Tomorrow is Halloween. The one day where Stranger Danger doesn't apply- you can take candy from strangers.

That is, of course, with proper supervision. And cool costumes.

• To the stray high schooler: PLEASE be more creative with your costumes! Wearing a mask or devil horns or anything that did not take considerable effort and planning SHALL NOT be condoned! If you don't wear a costume, you are cruel. You are stealing candy from the people who deserve it. Like me.
• There is always at least ONE house with the jumbo-sized chocolate bars. Find it.
• To candy-givers: Don't open the door to any people without costumes. Or, if you have to, give them the linty ones from behind the sofa cushions.
• Never accept linty candy. Throw it back in their faces. Then run.
• Stay safe!
• And be smart, of course. I don't need to tell you that...you're reading my blog, aren't you?

Quote for Friday, October 3o, 2009:

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.

-Lear, Scene I

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/King_Lear)

Muses for Today:

Sigmund Freud, Freudian slips, Podcast Friday, and Halloween.

Hooray, believeinthegods!

This- this just made my day.

http://believeinthegods.blogspot.com/2008/09/jonas-brothers-are-worst-evil.html

My cousin introduced me to this blog, and it is about many of my favorite topics- Britishness, Harry Potter and Percy Jackson...

Actually, this is showing me that Harry Potter fans aren't the only crazy ones! I had no idea that there was a 'Percabeth' and 'Prachel' like there are H/Hr and R/H shippers.

(If you didn't understand that last sentence I suggest you: a) do some research b) leave me your question as a comment c) ask me or d) ignore this and skip happily on your way.)

George

George was a good fish. He deserves a post.

George has died. He is gone forever, and I feel really bad. I didn't take care of him properly. I forgot to feed him, I forgot to plug the oxygen filter back in, I felt lazy and forgot about him. And still resilient little George swam on.

K is crying. He feels worse than I do. I remember when Blues, my cousins' fish that I took care of, died. I felt the same way.

Death is weird. It's hard to comprehend. It's odd to think that someone was there yesterday and be gone the next.

Fred, my dear, other little fish, K's fish, actually, will probably die too. He is not used to being alone.

He is little too.

Then the fish tank will be put away, something else will take its place, the singing of the filter will stop, and those two, orange little fish will be memories.

Where the Wild Things Are

I've cannot count how many times I've seen blog posts titled this.

Where the Wild Things Are can refer to one of two things, sometimes both. One is the picture book written by Maurice Sendak in 1963 that many schoolchildren have read, at least in my experience. The other is the recent movie that was directed by Spike Jonze (sounds like a biker. It's a cool name). Wait. There was another movie made in 1973, but I'll stop trying to be professional and not beat around the bush. I am talking about the book and the recent movie.

I've heard a lot about the movie. It is confuzzling me. I recently re-re-re-re-reread the book and there is not much content you can use to create a movie. I heard they put in a reason for Max being a bad kid (Max is the main character, a badly behaved boy), like his parents were getting a divorce or something. When I read the book for the first time, I didn't think much of it. I was about five to seven years old, so I thought very simply. Max=boy. Boy=bad behavior. But I also heard the movie was geared more towards adults 'looking for deeper meaning in a favorite childhood book.'

Hmmm.

I shall postpone further criticism until I actually see the movie.

Have you realized how much the movie industry is running out of ideas? They're all based on books. Harry Potter. Twilight. Coraline. Fantastic Mr. Fox. Confessions of a Shopaholic. Angels and Demons. The daVinci Code. I Love You, Beth Cooper. Inkheart. Sherlock Holmes. The Time Traveler's Wife. A Christmas Carol. Slumdog Millionaire. Alice in Wonderland. Marley and Me. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Ballet Shoes.

Just off the top of the top of my head.

Quote of the Day:

People would cry for the death of a bird, but never for the blood of a fish. Blessed are those who have a voice.

-Ghost in the Shell

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fish)

Muse for Today:

George, my fish. Rest in peace, little fishy.

I'm Baaaaack! *cricket chirp*

Hello, readers! (If I have any left, that is.) I've decided to do an actual post, not the EPIC FAIL of yesterday.
I am casting around for inspiration, and I see a cookbook. It's lying open, to the Breads section, and some of these breads sound yuck, some sound delish. (Delish is one step up from delicious.)
Farmhouse White Bread doesn't look very interesting. It looks like a normal round of bread! The comfort is I bet it tastes like normal bread too. Who doesn't like normal bread?
It's not like the kind from a store, either. It looks very tasty, with flour sprinkled over the top.
Olive-Rosemary Bread Loaves? The description is very nice:
Kalamata olives- deep purple, brine-cured Greek olives- and woodsy fresh rosemary flavor these robust peasant loaves (Good Housekeeping: Great Baking, page 121).
But how would it really taste? What if you put, say, parsley in? Parsley is cool. Thyme is used more often, but why? I'd bet there's plenty of parsley available.
It's a pretty cool book, with all kind of recipes. Actually, I've got a lot of really cool cookbooks, mostly from Christmas- Indian ones, that are full to the brimming of recipes galore and a hot chocolate one (who knew- hot chocolate is like an art! It's really kind of amazing how underestimated hot chocolate is).
The recipes that are sent to me- like one B sent me for pancakes. (They were very good.) One for GINGERBREAD! In Honor Of Churchie! (That was the time I found out that I need to make friends with a family that has an abnormal love of gingerbread but has no idea how to make it, because K and my parents have no love for it.) (I thought it was brilliant.)
I think I've run out of topics on baking. Maybe I'll revisit it. Wrap-Up time.

Quote for Sunday, October 18, 2009:

If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me.

-Alice Roosevelt Longworth

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alice_Roosevelt_Longworth)

Muse for Today:

Yes, I know Hestia isn't a Muse, she's an Olympian, but she's the Greek goddess for the hearth and home, which has a relation to cooking. Hestia (or Vesta, the Roman name) is today's Muse.

Wimpy!

I've heard that there have been some issue with getting to my blog. I hope it's okay now. I didn't change the blog address, though I'm considering it. If I do, I will give you notice, unlike a certain Questa that I know who changes her blog address without telling anyone until after they get to the changed address.

I haven't done any blogging lately, so I'm slightly out of practice.
I'm also out of practice with answering my e-mails.
This is a wimpy post.
Be back later.

Homework and Politeness

The names of my blog posts are so important. I called this 'Homework and Politeness' and so you will see it and what shall you think? "Oh, it's about homework and politeness, oh, how boring..."

Yeah, Sarcastic Susie? Is it? Is it really?

I. Think. NOT.

What I actually wanted to write about is...writing. I'm not a master author, I can name an extraordinary amount of people who are better writers than I, but there are my little pet projects, and they're all very particular. VAL, for instance. The 'inspirational soundtrack' for VAL is ABBA. Why? Well, I was listening to my iPod one day, and in the middle of Fernando, I think? Or Voulez-Vous, or something, I had this sudden image of Vinnialia, Aster, and Lindsay-Rhoslyn wearing stupid wigs and gigantic sunglasses and pretending to play instruments and mouthing the words to the song. Also, Aster had 'ASTER' on his collar. I was disgusted. Amused, but disgusted. I only write that in cursive-pencil, too.

Curtains is, of course, U2, and that is only blue pen. Why? Ask the Gods of Penliness.

Quote for Thursday, October 8, 2009:

Never fear, angel. I've got you now, and for always...angel?

Last Words of: Christopher Carrion

Source: Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War by Clive Barker

Notes: Spoken seconds before Boa, the character he was affectionately addressing as angel, deliberately broke a window, letting in the flood outside and killing him.

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fictional_last_words_in_literature)

Muse for Today:

Sarcastic Susie.

jacksonpollock.org

Evidence that I have too much time on my hands.

Frank the Sheep

<---This is a nice icon. It makes me laugh. I like Frank. Dare to be different, Mr Sheep! Don't take the peer pressure from Bob and Franklin and Simon, with their pirate hatless ways!

I'm ornery today. Frankly (ha! No pun intended), that is a new word for me. I know the meaning, but I'm not sure if I am using it correctly.

Ornery ornery ornery.

[hums mindlessly]

Well...nothing to say...

FRAS

My nickname, comprised of my intials, is FRAS. It sounds cool to me, like a flower. Fras.

I did a search on my nickname (http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/FRAS), and look at this:

• Frame Relay Access Support (Cisco)
• Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society
• Federal Reserve Automation Services
• Frame Relay Access Server
• Four Rivers Audubon Society
• Florida Resident Assistant Seminar
• Free-Rocket Antisubmarine
• Force Recording & Analysis System (chiropractic treatment)
• Florida Resident Assistant Symposium

What you never knew about Freedom R.A.S.:

She IS, yes indeed, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. (No, not really.) (I could be, but I'm not a fellow.)

This is Halloween!

...well, no it's not.

But 'tis October! And Halloween, one of my favorite holidays (alongside Christmas and any holiday that causes a day off from school), is in October!

Stop the music! I have a problem- I don't know what to be.

I do know that despite what various people (otherwise known as thickheads) would say about my age, I am going trick or treating this year. Maybe someday I'll go to a haunted house or stay at home to hand out candy to those who come, but for now I like the idea of the one day of the entire year when you can walk up to random strangers and demand candy.

And they give it to you.

(I am wondering what Ms. Pickle plans to do on Halloween. Many murders lined up? Not me?)

K doesn't know, either, but in his typical K fashion, he wants to be- wait for it- a whoopee cushion!

I was considering being a gypsy. Or a goth. Anything where I get to wear lots of eyeliner.

The problem is my glasses. Large sunglasses would help, maybe? No. Those would look stupid.

Then I considered maybe the hated MINERVA PARADIZO! *dies*

But that, my comrades, would be hypocritical.

And I, the great F.R.A.S., am not a hypocrite.

Only in special cases.

Well. What are you being for Halloween?

Muse for Today:

Melpomene.

Quote for Sunday, October 4, 2009:

Qui plume a, guerre a.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

-Voltaire

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire)

Nostalgia

If you type 'nostalgia' into Google (or Blackle or Givoogle or whatever it is you use) you get songs and definitions of nostalgias, but 'nostalgia' is really when people gaze off wistfully into the distance and remember the times passed.

A few days ago, my mother found her old school, and Facebook communities formed by people who'd graduated from there. It was a Kindergarten through Grade 12 school, so she knew it all her life. She said she feels so nostalgic right then.

This means something, I'm sure, but I'd like to consider nostalgia at some other time.

[K just got home from soccer. They lost again. Let's hope they weren't playing first graders. (We can only hope.)]

Mr Bean is a lovely TV series and I think group of movies too, but I wonder about him. He's funny and confused and nice and oblivious, but does he ever get lonely? In The Return of Mr Bean, he is forced to buy himself a birthday card and be surprised when he gives it to himself. I don't remember exactly, but I saw the episode Merry Christmas, Mr Bean, when his girlfriend broke up with him, and it was very sad.

Does he have any family? Is he ever scared?

I have to remind myself that Mr Bean is actually Rowan Atkinson who has two brothers and a mother and father and a wife and two children and does have a family, thankyouverymuch, but Mr Bean seems a person to me. Thinking of Mr Bean as a person and not a character is so sad.

I'm going to Gives Me Hope now.

Quotes for Saturday, October (yikes! October?) 3, 2009:

They're sharing a drink they call loneliness

But it's better than drinking alone.

-Billy Joel, "Piano Man"

All the lonely people, where do they all come from?

-The Beatles, "Eleanor Rigby"

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Loneliness)

Muse for Today:

Mr Bean.

Eye of the Tiger

There is some stupid thing called a 'meme' and I'm not sure what it is, but I got it from Libba Bray's blog, and thought it could be fun. So here.

RULES:

1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.

2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.

3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.

4. Tag 15 friends

5. Everyone tagged has to do the same thing. (Except only if you want to.)

6. Have Fun!

IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY?

Hey There Delilah (Plain White T's)

Hmmm.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?

I Am A Rock (Simon and Garfunkel)

I am gray and hard, with pockmarks. Yes, sounds about right.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?

With or Without You (U2)

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?

Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock! (Harry and the Potters)

...well, he can't. (I'm starting to believe this is rigged.)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?

The Longest Time (Billy Joel)

WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?

SPEW (Harry and the Potters)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?

Jailhouse Rock (Elvis Presley)

They think I'll get thrown in jail and do a song-and-dance? Sadly, that's not hard to believe.

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?

Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own (U2)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?

The Weasle (Harry and the Potters)

Need I say any more?

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?

Mamma Mia (ABBA)

I don't have a best friend, but sure!

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?

Burnin' Up (The Jonas Brothers)

No comment. (My life story is by THE JONAS BROTHERS?)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?

White Horse (Taylor Swift)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?

We Didn't Start the Fire (Billy Joel)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?

The Sounds of Silence (Simon and Garfunkel)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?

I Have a Dream (ABBA)

Dreams? No! NOOOOOO!

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?

America (Simon and Garfunkel)

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?

Love Song (Sara Bareilles)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?

The Weapon (Harry and the Potters)

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?

Eye of the Tiger (Survivor)

Fear of...

I found this thing called 'The Phobia List.' I have always wanted one of these. I have wanted someone to just compile a dictionary of this, put it in book form, publish it for all the world to see. Have they? I wouldn't know.

The gorgeous, prayer-answering site has the weirdest, sometimes most redundant phobias ever.

Nudophobia- Fear of nudity

Chirophobia- Fear of hands

Cathisophobia- Fear of sitting

Euphobia- Fear of hearing good news

Bacteriophobia- Fear of bacteria

And the classics:

Phobophobia- Fear of phobias

Sesquipedalophobia- Fear of long words

I once saw a movie where a guy was afraid of EVERYTHING. How is that possible? How do you live if you're frightened of everything you meet? It must be awful.

THINGS I'M SCARED OF:

Coulrophobia- Fear of clowns

Didaskaleinophobia- Fear of going to school

Arithmophobia- Fear of numbers

Scopophobia or Scoptophobia- Fear of being seen or stared at

Phalacrophobia- Fear of becoming bald

SCARE OF THE DAY:

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia- Fear of the number 666

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia- Fear of long words

I almost fainted. What's fear of fears that have names that are too long?

Quote for Saturday, September 26, 2009:

A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward.

-Johann Paul Friedrich Richter

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fear)

Muse for Today:

The Phobia List, of course! Fear, oddly enough, inspires me today. Like fear of my teachers if I don't finish my homework.

Amaranth, Up in Smoke

Amaranth.

It's a lovely sounding word. Reminds me of alabaster plaster (ooh, a rhyme) scroll work cut into the wall of some rich person's sitting room. The kind of place that is painted scarlet and can hardly be pictured outside of a store window, or a Victorian pamphlet. Apparently it can be said as 'love-lies-bleeding' and means 'deathless.' That's some flower power, if you ask me.

Smoke and fire are weird things. I'm thinking about it quite a bit, while I'm writing Vinnialia. It's coming along well, by the way. Smoke and fire....smoke is beautiful, if you ask me. It smells like being little, smelling the fire, watching the shapes of the smoke twist and swirl. Smoke is harmless. Fire is another matter entirely. I don't have arsonphobia (yes, it's a word) but fire, for me, has the power to destroy more than warm, or anything else really.

If something is deathless can it burn?

Freen!

Today is Freen's day.

This could be difficult, you see, because Freen Mackenzie England's identity is quite important to the story- so I can't tell you much about her.

Yes, I am speaking about the story that always comes with the tag 'VAL', in case you didn't realize this. I haven't a title for the story, it's usually called 'Vinnialia' if ever mentioned.

I do like her (Freen's) name (it sounds a lot like mine) but I hate her very much. She's disdainful and mocking to Rhoslyn, of all people. Rhoslyn is so imperial that Vinnialia fears her! She listens to what she says, for the love of Pete! (Speaking of which, what would happen if I ever met a person named Pete? "For Pete's sake!" "For the love of Pete!" What do the Petes of the world say? "For the love of Bob!"?)

But as for a physical description (which is prudent, seeing as Freen is horribly vain), she has kind of white-blonde hair, with striking violet eyes. She is thought (by some) to be even prettier than Rhoslyn and that one Princess Someone that I cannot remember the name of.

She is drastically important, fantastically evil, and really, really weird.

Random Quotes for Today

I don't have much to say today, but I don't want to leave you with a post about school, so I will 'skip to the end' and just do quotes and a Muse today. These quotes come from pressing 'Random Page' on the side of the Wikiquote page. You should try it sometime. But you don't have to. I am.

Muse for Today:

Calliope, Muse for EPIC Poetry. Not just any poetry- EPIC.

The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous.

-Shana Alexander, The Feminine Eye (1970), p. 33

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shana_Alexander)

If a man cannot make his point to keen boys in ten minutes, he ought to be shot!

-Robert Baden-Powell, The Scouter (November 1928)

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Baden-Powell)

Death is always and under all circumstances a tragedy, for if it is not, then it means that life itself has become one.

-Teddy Roosevelt, Letter to Cecil Spring-Rice (1900-03-12)

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Teddy_Roosevelt)

Kramer: Bookman? The library investigator's name is actually Bookman?

Librarian: It's true.

Kramer: That's amazing. That's like an ice cream man named "Cohn."

-from Seinfeld, the episode called The Library

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Seinfeld)

Jamie: Do [the actors of Harry Potter] have guards with them all the time? Or are they just walking around?

Ben: They always have a bodyguard with them.

Andrew: Yeah, like, Dan [Radcliffe] did.

Jamie: Could you have taken them all at one time?

Ben: Most likely.

Jamie: Without the nunchucks and the swords, and the AK-47s?

Ben: Easily.

Andrew: Why didn't you try? That's what I want to know.

Ben: Because I'm a big fan of not going to jail.

-from MuggleCast: Episode #99

(http://www.mugglenet.com/mugglecast/index.php?page=transcripts/99.php)

Ranting About School

Why do some people do what they do? I say, but that's general. Some people are just crazy. But:

WHY DID MY TEACHERS BECOME TEACHERS?

They probably didn't realize that they'd get trapped with a lot like us.

I mean, you'd think that after so many years of being in school, you'd rather do anything-anything-but go back there.

Our teachers are great teachers, they all know what they're talking about, they like the subjects they teach, but-

Our grade is just not cool when it comes to 'respect' and 'being quiet' and 'listening' and convoluted stuff like that.

That is all. Carry on.

Facebook + Peer Pressure = Mess

i am typing today without capitalizing anything except names. i have envied people who can do this without going completely crazy.

i keep on pressing the shift button, and feel like i should be using abbreviations like 'w/o' and 'b/c' which is weird because I don't do that.

I GIVE UP.

My friends in general are Facebook-ing, Twitter-ing, AIM-ing, Photobucket-ing, texting, be-ing so generally tech savvy that it's darling and makes me want to throw up. A blog and an e-mail account are about as tech-y as I'm getting, O Waves of Peer Pressure! So go home, using your high-falootin' GPS! I'll be here, using PAPER and PENCIL! Or at least a keyboard that's a normal size! *blows raspberry*

Of course I'm not an advocate for the good old days, I'm as bad as anyone else. I have no idea how I'd live without a computer/iPod/phone. Even TV. How would I watch Ace of Cakes?

Enough of that. Book I'm reading right this moment- The Orpheus Obsession. It's quite good, the main character, Anooshka, thinks in a different way. The way this author writes, Dakota Lane, makes grit and dust and lime green sparkles seem like fairy dust. This one made-up place, called Constellation, seems like dark magic, the stars so close, just waiting there for you to see.

Well, my round up for today is done. I have karate and homework to do, so I will leave you.

Quotes for Tuesday, September 15, 2009:

The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for.

-Homer

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Friendship)

Muse for Today:

I've decided that a 'Muse' for me will sometimes be a real and actual Muse, and sometimes, like today, it will just be something else. What makes me think? Today it's The Orpheus Obsession, by Dakota Lane.

P.S. Today's the fiftieth post. I guess that's a landmark?

Captain Obvious and Things Not Obvious

This is a lovely picture, and one of my many sarcastic catchphrases. I got it from the MuggleNet Wall of Shame. This was at the very bottom, when someone tried a formula for how much hate mail Emerson Spartz, founder of MuggleNet, gets.

Needless to say, it was epic fail.

Moving on.

I have this book that is quite nice, called Fact of the Matter. It has random facts, trivia, and it's really really cool.

I can't find a page to cite it. Grr. Here's the ISBN: 978-81-89906-12-2. Does that count? I hope so.

• The oldest known goldfish lived to be 41. Its name was Fred.

This is quite heartening, seeing as I have two goldfish, and one is named Fred. (The other is called George, in case you want to know.)

• Elephants only walk on their tip toes, because the back of their foot is complete fat. There aren't bones in the back to support their feet.

This means that elephants could conceievably do ballet. It's not a fantasy anymore. Ella and the Dancing Elephants: Coming to a Dance Theatre near you.

• The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896, when Zanzibar surrendered in 38 minutes.

Must have been dinnertime, huh? I wondered how much that 'war' cost. It's about the length of a TV program, for Pete's sake!

Quote for Sunday, September 13, 2009:

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.

and

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

-Mark Twain

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Twain)

Muse for Today:

Euterpe, Muse for Music.

Colorful Sound

I am slightly sick-ish today. But worry not! My blogging fingers (attached to my hand-arm-shoulders, of course) will not let you down!

I have been thinking about voices, especially in the absence of my own. I once read a book where the main character thought about what her friends' and family's voices sounded like. Her best friend was 'crackling autumn leaves', her other friend was 'cool water pouring into a tall glass.'

This and colors. I've heard of a book, A Mango-Shaped Space, where a girl has synesthesia. I don't know all the specifics, and I've never read the book (why haven't I ever read the book?), but she hears in color. Like, her cat's name is Mango, because his purrs sound like a mango-yellow-orange color.

That had me wondering, too. She might be badgered quite a lot. I know I'd like to know what color I sound like. And let's say there are two people named Mr. Louis James Thomas. One is awful, the puppy drowning type, and one is very good, the helps orphans out type. Would both of their names be the same color? Would their personality bleed into the name?

Back to voices, I've been thinking-what color do the people I've heard sound like?

A fire engine. An alarm clock. Brownies baking (yes, THAT HAS A SOUND). Taffeta crinkling. Rain on a tin roof. Candy being opened. Chocolate being snapped into pieces. A bass guitar. Steel bending. Spring grass with a breeze blowing through it. Silk. A down comforter.

Some of those I just made up, but they look nice, don't they?

Quote for Saturday, September 12, 2009:

The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

-William Faulkner

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Life)

Muse for Today:

Clio, Muse for History. I have a cool history project due next week-on Nellie Bly.

My GMH for the Day

Today, I was standing in the bus line, clutching my book and waiting for the awful jostle to figure out that people need air to live. And some of these people are claustrophobic in crowds.

There were two boys fighting, and when boys fight it turns into a fist-fight pretty soon, in my experience, so what happens?

One pushes the other, right into this tiny little girl.

They both fall, the boy on top of the girl, and, of course, the guy doesn't even stop to say sorry. It was a bad fall, the girl has tears streaming down her face. I say, "Are you okay?" even though anyone could see she's clearly not. She nods yes.

A group of the boys, who usually shove younger kids across the bus just to get to 'their seats' at the back come up. They make the boy apologize to her and ask her if she's okay. (They also tell him not to swear about this. Yay!)

This is what makes me hate my school. We are a lousy bunch of hypocrites, so capable of acting mean to each other, but that's just it-acting. I suppose we all could be really nice to each other- we just don't try. Or care. Or both. Most likely both.

For any other school, this would be a really small experience, but at my school, it's pretty important. Especially considering how my year behaves the rest of the time.

This was the other part that made me think. Last week, two boys put tape in my hair, and they laughed about it. (Did I mention I hate my school?) One of the boys was the boy who fell. The other made him do the apologizing.

Hmm.

Quote for Tuesday, September 8, 2009:

"We are all hypocrites. It is in our very nature to be so. So much so that even our protestation of hypocrisy is, in itself, patently hypocritical."

-Claire Worthington

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hypocrisy)

Muse for Today:

Thalia, Muse for Comedy! Why? I don't know. Today wasn't funny.

Long and Ridiculous

As my last post involved long and ridiculous names, I realized my blog name is one of those.

It sucked generally. Now it makes sense. www.museforaday.blogspot.com.

This shall last until I change the name again.

Of course, when you read this, you will have already found the new domain name. So this post is redundant.

Ah, well. What can you do? The world can only make so much sense at one time.

Like this blog post, called Long and Ridiculous, but instead it should be called Short and Illogical.

Quote for Monday, September 7, 2009:

"I never tell anybody exactly how clever I am. They would be too scared."

-Artemis Fowl, from Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code (2003) by Eion Colfer

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Artemis_Fowl)

Muse for Today:

Terpsichore, the Muse for Dance, because how do you pronounce that? I am curious. (By now you must have realized that the Muses don't quite pertain to what I am doing at the moment. For instance, I don't like dancing very much.)

GMH

I often read this site called GivesMeHope.com. The stories are really, really nice, and it makes me feel better to read them. Like this one:

One of my classmates in high school had leukemia, and he was really depressed after his first round of chemo when he came to school with no hair. When they found out about it, all 70+ members of the varsity football team shaved their heads too. Their yearbook picture is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. GMH

I really do love this site.

http://www.givesmehope.com/

Lindsay England, Otherwise Known As Rhoslyn Roxanne Eolande- Oh Forget It

Since I've already written about Aster and Vinnialia, I guess I'd better tell you about Lindsay, the oldest book character in my tale.

Lindsay is Aster's adopted sister, but she's is his (and Vinnialia's) actual cousin. Of course V and A don't know this. At the moment I am writing, she is cavorting with the enemy, a federation of ghost-children, to kill Vinnialia while Vinnialia is eating Aster's cheese sandwich. Aster is greeting everything in his room. ("Hello, lamp! Hello, half-eaten pastry!") But this post isn't about them.

Oh, and she isn't trying to kill Vinnialia because she is eating Aster's cheese sandwich. Although I know some people *cough* B and K! *cough* who might attack someone for eating their cheese sandwich. Maybe.

'Lindsay R. England' is her disguise name. Her real name is Rhoslyn Roxanne Eolande Tania Vendil. She goes by Rhoslyn. I don't know what I was thinking when I named her that. It's a really crazily long name. I've just now realized how utterly irritating that would be.

"Your full name please."

"Okay." [deep breath] "Rhoslyn Roxanne Eolande Tania Vendil."

[pause] "What did you say? Could you...repeat that?"

[sigh] "Franklin. My name is Franklin."

Later, I am hoping I can make her nicer, because at the moment, plotting to kill your cousin, especially when your favorite cousin believes that she is the only real family he has, does not make people feel like they can trust you. It probably will make people feel as though they can lock you up in a padded cell.

Quote for Saturday, September 5, 2009:

All That You Can't Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb are both really mad long titles. As I've just said them, I've just realised how ridiculous the titles are.

-Bono, CNN Interview, after the 2006 Grammys (9 February 2006)

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bono)

Muse for Today:

Clio, Muse of History, because 'Clio' comes from the Greek root meaning 'to recount' or 'to make famous' and I am concocting a story in my head about being famous. Hark.

I Am Epic Fail

Unanswerable Question for the day: Shoot. I forgot.

I'll come back.

Cash Cab and Ace of Cakes are my two favorite shows. Maybe because they're reality TV...but not? I hate real reality TV. I have tried watching them, oh I really have, but they bore me so much! Cash Cab is nice because it takes place in a taxi cab, plus it's a quiz show, and I'm not sure about Ace of Cakes. Maybe because....because they make cake. What other reason does one need?

Now that I have introduced by talking about television, of all the limely things, I will try and find a topic to speak of.

[awkward silence]

Oh, for Pete's sake.

Oh, discussion topic! At school, my friends and I are making it a point to 'discuss' one topic a day. Today, I brought up the question- is a hallway considered a room? We found out no, it's not, and we agreed the most random state discussion (also brought up by me!) is best.

We should also agree that this discussion is not. I'm going to end it right here.

Quotes for the Second Ever Podcast Friday, September 4, 2009:

One of television’s great contributions is that it brought murder back into the home, where it belongs.

and

Seeing a murder on television can…help work off one’s antagonisms. And if you haven’t any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.

-Alfred Hitchcock, National Observer 15 Aug. 1966

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Television)

Bonus Quote!:

All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things.

-Bobby Knight

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Writing)

Muse for Today:

None. As you may have noticed, every muse has abandoned me today. Today, however, will be Erato, Muse of Lyric Poetry, because I like the name. Ooooh. 'Erato.'

Full of Doubt

Sara Crewe. If you have a story with that name, you know it's going to be good. Or at least, I've heard A Little Princess is good, but I insist upon being so contradictory that whenever someone tells me to like something I will hate it out of habit.

I was wondering this morning why I was so much more interesting when I was little. I wondered more, I thought more, I (ahem) talked to myself less. I was a very irritating young 'un, to use Young Hermione terminology, but I was interesting. Now I can't even make decent small talk. I answer in "Yes. No. Maybe. Yeah. Uh-huh. I don't think I am."

I am stimulating, am I not? Yes. I stun even myself.

Today I:

• became a Salt Enthusiast, along with a friend of mine (noun-someone who is very excited about salt)
• discovered my friend's potential job
• held my firm belief of which countries and states are the most random ones (not IGNORED, random)
• discovered an important thing (not my friend's job, something else)
• wowed everyone in Lit
• played speedball in Gym
• and escaped alive

Then I realized that I am always going to believe that my thoughts are interesting. What's so original about my thoughts? How do I know that someone else in East Timor or England or somewhere else isn't having very similar/exactly the same thoughts as me? Maybe someone has a blog, and is typing things like I am saying! Maybe they're Pepper Enthusiasts! How do I know? I can't walk around putting whipped cream (with salt!) in everyone's shoes!

Maybe I should try saying things so outlandish that no one could posssibly have said it. Unless they thought of that too.

This is frustrating.

Quotes for Thursday, September 3, 2009:

We cannot unthink unless we are insane.

-Arthur Koestler

and

Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much.

-Walter Lippmann

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thought)

Muse for Today:

Urania, Muse of Astronomy. I have a current obsession with the sky. Probably from the book Indigo's Star.

Mistaken! Read First

I just realized that 'frak' is a swear word! Oh no!

I will never say it again.

I am truly, truly sorry.

Note: I just deleted a part of a post where I wrote about how relieved I was that I could use the word because it sounds like a swear word though it's really not, but I just found out that it is swearing and I have misled you.

Ohdearohdear.

Secret Keeper

I am back from school, thank goodness, because I thought I would go crazy because of another second of superficiality. And a certain person in one of my classes would do well to know that I am not the teacher! If you want to know about a worksheet, I can't pull it out of my ears! Go find the teacher!!!

Oh, I've started this out on a completely unrelated note. I wanted to tell you about one of my friends, and that she told me a secret!

It's a ridiculous secret, but in school, so many things happen that make me wonder that it's nice to know something no one else knows. Or maybe (probably) someone else does know. Blast.

I get that sometimes, though. People tell me secrets, ask me for advice, like Worksheet Fellow, and sometimes, like Ol' Worksheet Guy, I can just say "GO ASK THE TEACHER, YOU IDIOT, I DON'T KNOW!" but sometimes it's much, much harder. Sometimes one friend will tell me their reservations about another friend, and I'll hear and see two different sides, and I don't know what to think anymore. I go to other people for my advice, like my mother, for example, not neccesarily my friends, but they go to other people. Who go to other people. Who get on talk shows and get their advice there. But even they get advice from someone!

Who does everyone get their advice from, tell their secrets to? Is there just an old wiseperson who knows everything about everything? Or is it all in a circle and, indirectly, the talk show hosts get their advice from me?

Quote for Wednesday, September 2, 2009:

When your mother asks, "Do you want a piece of advice?" it is a mere formality. It doesn't matter if you answer yes or no. You're going to get it anyway.

-Erma Bombeck

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Advice)

Muse for Today:

Well. I don't know. I went to Chorus today, so Polyhymnia, Muse of Choral Poetry.

Minutes Later, I Get A Title

"Muse for a Day."

Yeah, you're thinking, whatever. But I've decided to put the name of the Muse kind of mood I'm in. I need a theme, you see.

Thanks to my old buddy, Wikipedia, here's a chart of the muses and their meanings and emblems.

Today seems like a Melpomene to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Muses

I Really Need A Title

Sometimes the titles of my blog posts sound like really weird chapter titles.

I have no idea what I should name this thing!

I'm just putting this out there to assure you that 'Blah Blah Blah' isn't a permanent title.

Percy Jackson Stuff

Right now I'm reading Tales of The Greek Heroes, by Roger Lancelyn Green, and he is very good. I've read Percy Jackson, too, and familar names pop up, to which I smile (or frown- depending) for names like Hesperides, Minotaur, Procrustes, Hercules, Pan...

There seems to be an excess of beautiful maidens and brave princes and adventuresome heroes in those days, like in King Arthur's days, where you step out of your front door with your coffee and thirteen different adventures land upon your head and clamor for your attention. Too bad things aren't this way now. Really. I haven't had one adventure, ever. I just went outside, too. Approximately cero landed on my head.

Two of my friends at school, a boy that I hate, and I are the only people in the entire year that have read Percy Jackson! It's a bestseller, won the- the Caudill, I think? and is a worldwide phenomenon, and there's one stupid school in the world that spoils it for everyone.

My newer friend wore her 'Camp Half-Blood' homemade shirt today, and we walked around lying to everyone.

Everyone: Camp Half-Blood...what's that?

My Friend or/and Me: It's a summer camp.

Everyone: What do you do there?

My Friend and/or Me: Oh, you know, the usual stuff...archery, rock climbing...it's really fun.

Oh, I love in-jokes! The only problem is what if they read the books?

Additionally, for a little bit of HP, it's Hogwarts's First Day of School! And my cousin's birthday!

Quote for Tuesday, September 1, 2009, My Cousin B's Birthday!:

Birthdays are just nature's way of telling us to eat more cake.

-Anonymous

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Birthday)

Happy 11th Birthday!

Blog Title

I really need to change the title of my blog, so as a place holder, it shall be called 'Blah Blah Blah' until I think of something better.

Popcorn

Yesterday was a very fun time- for the first time in my whole entire life, I learned how to catch popcorn in my mouth! They hit the ceiling, then somehow managed to land in my mouth. I caught thirteen of them, and then everyone except me realized how the popcorn was burnt and it had to be thrown out. They were just jealous of my popcorn catching skills. (cough cough) Yeah. Sure.
Today is Sunday, and I realized the beauty of Saturdays, because Sunday is just a day made to taunt you. Giggling and telling us to enjoy it now, because tomorrow is the beginning of a whole. New. Week.
Joy.
Sunday always has seemed like a day that shouldn't be there, like Saturday was the only real weekend and Sunday was an excuse to have seven days in a week. If Saturday and Wednesday were the days off, the world would be in perfect balance. No, wait. If there were more Harry Potter books, and the third Penderwick was out right now, and people weren't mean for the sake of being mean, and I could catch twenty pieces of poporn in my mouth in a row, my life should be perfectly perfect.
Wouldn't yours?

Diolouge for Sunday, August 30, 2009:

Evelyn: You told me you got it on a dig down in Thebes!
Johnathan: Yes, well, I was mistaken.

Evie: You lied to me!
Jonathan: I lie to everyone, what makes you so special?
Evelyn: I am your sister!
Jonathan: Yes, well, that just makes you more gullible.

-The Mummy, 1999 film

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Mummy_(1999_film)

Skip This Post If You're In a Bad Mood

I have overcome my depressed state. Yes, school starts tomorrow, but there's nothing I can do about it. So.

I have always scorned watching pointless videos on YouTube even though I frequently have, but I no longer do, because as I say this as I have an interest in watching a video of someone from MuggleNet eat five Big Macs because of a 'thank you' for a fundraiser. It's disgusting, but interesting. 2500 calories altogether! I have never seen the end, and I hope he doesn't vomit. Yuck.

Jamie: Why are we doing this again?

Andrew: To thank all the people that donated.

Jamie: Well, I could have just written them a card...

My friends troll through YouTube and send me random videos, some of which are completely pointless, like Redheads Protest Wendy's and the song about where the chapstick is, and some which were nice, like The Duck Song.

What a pointless post. I have nothing to say, and my rambling often makes people angry. If I have nothing to say, then I should just not speak!

But that would make people angry too, so I just pick one depending on what day it is.

Quote for Tuesday, August 25, 2009:

Some artists claim praise is irrelevant in measuring the success of art, but I think it's quite relevant. Besides, it makes me feel great.

-Chris Van Allsburg

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Irrelevance)

Math Homework and School OR The End of All Life

As I type this, I am doing my math homework. Every sentence means a problem. And yes, they are problems indeed.

School is starting in two days. The day of Doom approaches. There is nothing that could lift my spirits now.

Ode to My Documents

My Documents are dead. The Desktop has fallen. They are coming.

By some horrid, twisted mistake, most of my documents on my computer have been deleted. The stuff I hardly ever look at were saved, but my poems? My story beginnings? All gone.

Sick, sick irony. I don't know how it happened. But I guess it's a lesson learned the hard way; always double-check everything, back things up on hard copies, and as my aunt wisely said, "Save it in multiple places."

But, even as I sob and throw a bouquet of virtual flowers on my no longer existant documents, I will look back on the things I can remember from there.

My Poems and the Notepad Gang: I Say, What I Am, From the Corner, Keyless Gate, Rhoslyn's List of Words, Words, Facts, Massacre, Unsung

The Stories, Featuring Lists and Definitions: Excerpts, V.M.D. Backpack, Marlite Legends, Odd, Storm Ferne and Martlett, HP Icons, The Story of Griselda Marchbanks

*sighs*

Pessimistic Quotes

The Wikiquote page for pessimism is so lovely that I'm putting lots of them here!

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true." -James Branch Cabell

"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, it's the light of the oncoming train." -Robert Lowell

"There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist, except an old optimist." -Mark Twain

"Optimists are useless and merely find hope where pessimists will work." -Ben Dory

"The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." -George F. Will

Anyone who hates these should not be afraid to let me know. (Heh heh heh...)

It's Gonna Be a Good Day

Have you ever had a day when you wake up and you just know it's going to end up beautifully? First of all, I had a brilliant idea right before I went to sleep. It was about Quinn and his brother and sisters, the Curtains story. So of course I had to write it down. I just need names for his siblings. I was thinking of naming them James, Dreia, and Gail. I'm not quite sure. I woke up and read the bit, and it was nice, in my opinion.

I finished Book One of Little Women. Sadly, I've read Book Two already, and what depresses me is that Laurie and Jo don't marry each other! That is what I hate about Jo! Otherwise she and Laurie are my favorites, but she doesn't marry him! She marries some old Professor, and Laurie marries Amy, the worst of the lot!

I'm calm now. But Louisa May Alcott made a mistake there.

And it was bright and sunny, with dew on the grass when I woke up. MuggleNet.com was updated. Wikipedia's main article was about Down With Optimism! (Well. Not really. But that's how I took it.) K woke up and behaved like a mop (that is the word 'moron' but I accidentally pressed the 'p' and spacebar. Again.) but I didn't lose my temper once!

Of course I've got a large amount of math to do, but nothing can spoil this day!

(NO! I'm not being optimistic! I know it's going to be fine! Not hoping! Knowing!)

It's a Rosalind Penderwick kind of feeling. I know that today's going to be great.

Quote for Sunday, August 23, 2009:

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."

-Woody Allen

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pessimism)

Broken Glasses

Just to give you an adequate image of me, I wear glasses. I have for quite a long while, and if it goes on getting any worse I shall be blind. That would be awful! How would I read? How would I blog? How would I get to MuggleNet? How would I know when people are laughing at me? I wouldn't! My Auspicious End-of-August Resolution will be to take care of my glasses, because I broke them again the other day.
What I was doing with my glasses broken was wandering around the backyard, being a zombie. Zombies don't need to see. They need to be weird and awkward, and I am accomplished at both. I was avoiding K as I perfected my zombie walk, because he was attempting golf with a baseball bat, and I knew it might not end well for anyone.
I was attacking an innocent village of weeds when I was hit with a golf ball. I then decided to turn my life around, right then and there! I became...an artist!
I drew large, colorful pictures with a tub of Crayola chalk! They were good enough to see without visual aid.
Then, of course, it started to rain and my life's work was washed away. I advise all budding artists not to use chalk outside unless you want your hopes and dreams to be gone in an instant of ten-second showers!
I am getting new glasses today, and wish me luck-I hope my power doesn't go up.

Diolouge for Saturday, August 22, 2009:

Max: “Did you know it wasn’t me, the other Max?”
Fang: “Yeah.”
Max: “When?”
Fang: “Right away.”
Max: “How? We look identical. She even had identical scars and scratches. She was wearing my clothes. How could you tell us apart?"
Fang: “She offered to cook breakfast.”

-Maximum Ride: School's Out-Forever by James Patterson

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maximum_Ride)

Mysterious Ways

One day you will look... back

And you'll see... where

You were held... how

By this love... while

You could stand there

You could move on this moment

Follow this feeling

That's from the U2 song Mysterious Ways. The song reminds me of certain curtains. The curtains are dark silky purple, with black velvet stars and moons all over. The mysterious curtains frame a picture window at night, sweeping the floor elegantly, gathering dust and making people sneeze. There is a group of four people sitting on the window ledge: one, a boy, dozing as he holds an open book in his hand; another, his sister, a skinny girl with dark hair, frowning and sulking with her back to the sea; their older sister, plucking nervously at a silver bracelet she's wearing, staring at the ocean as though it had taken something irreplaceable from her, long ago; and the last, the oldest brother, tall and serious, who is waking up the younger boy while keeping an eye on the shady shape lurking at the door.

The youngest boy, Quinn, wakes up and sees how the moon shines through the curtain, making it glow in the dark. Mother's favorite curtains. Do they really have to leave them behind? Now?

"Quinn, let's go!"

This scene is completely made up, of course, but the curtains, though lengthened, are not. I have them! Oh, gorgeous curtains! Lovely!

Quote for Friday, August 21, 2009:

Resolve to take fate by the throat and shake a living out of her.

-Louisa May Alcott

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Little_Women)

Nerve-Wracking Wednesday and Terrifying Thursday

I hope everyone appreciates the title. You have no idea how long it took me to type that. Sad, isn't it? My mad typing skills? (I have decided from this sentence on I will not backspace anything, just so you can see how bad I am at typing.)
Well, yesterday was, of course, Wednesady (#1) I mean, Wednesday, and I had a recital. Yes, that means I sing solo for the vert (#2) I meam (#3) I MEAN the very first time in front of people. Alone. By myself. In front of people. Yipes.
And, of course, K insisted upon tapig (#4) taping it on the new video camera I won! Yes, I actually won something in a raffle!!! For the first time in my life! YES!
Other people liked how I sang, but I listebed (35 (#5 and #6)) listened to myself on the recording and I sounded awful. I sang the ABBA song "The Winner Takes It All" and it is a lovely song. Just not with my voice. (I don't speak in front of people, I don't talk (#77 (#7 and #8)) sing in front of people voluntarily.) I was shaking. But it's over.
Today was day one of math classes at the high school, and I ws (#9) was scared again, my stomach was in knots, but it was fine. As I have learned from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, eigthm (#10) eigh (#11) eighth graders are ignored by high schoolers. So that was fine as well. No homework.
I am doon (#12) done with my experimenr (#13) experiment. Thirteen mistakes, for me, is not bad.

Quote for Thursday, August 20, 2009:

Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions than ruined by too confident a security.
-Edmund Burke

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anxiety)