Things I Do When I'm Tired

So yesterday, which was Friday (the 13th! AAAAAH) I was exhausted. This year has reminded me exactly how much I hate school. Also, it was just too bloody hot outside this whole week. It was my birthday on Wednesday! It was nice. But I would rather I hadn't gone to school at all this whole week, because I hate people and my school and being in school when it's hot.

I like that school is preparing me for later life, but apart from my World Studies class, I feel like I learn more from random Google searches about topics I'm actually interested in. I hate Trig, I learn nothing, basically at this point I am simply trying to keep out of summer school. Why do I have to learn something that is both useless for any sort of practical use and involves a lot of work that I am unwilling to undertake? WHAT IS THE POINT? Sometimes I just can't take it. I am so tired of 'learning' stuff I don't want to learn. AAARGH.

So I was tired. Clearly. And what did I do when I was tired? I ate an entire bag of pretzels and watched two and a quarter movies in a row. I saw Nowhere Boy and Flipped and part of The King's Speech, but despite my love for Helena Bonham Carter, by that time I started that film the time was almost midnight and I was part-zombie.

Nowhere Boy, if you don't know, is a film about John Lennon and the most important women of his childhood- his Aunt Mimi and his mother Julia. I was watching it partially for Thomas Brodie Sangster, who plays Paul McCartney (Thomas Sangster and Paul McCartney in one? Excellence) and because I like the Beatles.

I forgot, though, that this isn't a movie about the Beatles- it's about John. So the film cut off right before they left for Hamburg, when they really started becoming a bigger sensation, and I didn't get all the music I so unwisely anticipated. I'm glad they didn't put anything after Hamburg in there, though. It would have lost the focus of the film. What made me quite like this movie was the mannerisms of the actors. John's evil, shaming sarcasm, the defiant way he holds his mouth, and the way Paul looks up through his eyelashes while he played guitar all reminded me of the old footage of the actual Beatles. They actors didn't really look a lot like them- they were like them.

Flipped was a lovely book. I liked that book a whole lot, and what was nice about the movie is that they took some of the diologue straight from the book. And they did the film in voiceover, telling the same story from both Bryce and Juli's perspectives. All they left out was a bit of character development, but the characters didn't look like I pictured them. I felt it was a good move to place the movie in the sixties, though. That sweet story might not have survived in the era of texting and Facebook. But it was worthwhile.

I haven't yet finished The King's Speech, but I reached the part where he swears dozens of the time, and I just thought it was funny. He's a prince, and he's trying so hard to keep his dignity with this commoner, and he just goes off. It's fairly hilarious.

Also, weird weirdness is weird: Just last week, one of my oldest friends (meaning I've known her for a long time. She's only a month older than me, so not agewise oldest) was reading Gone with the Wind. And then she asked me about Catcher in the Rye. I wrote about both of those in the space of a month. Coincidence? I don't even tell anyone I keep a blog.

Quote for Saturday, May 14, 2011:

Is nowhere full of geniuses, sir? Because then I probably do belong there.

-Nowhere Boy (2010)

(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1266029/quotes)

Muse for Today:

I didn't always hate school.

Something I find very amusing

For those of us who have read The Artemis Fowl Files, are ardent fans of Artemis Fowl II himself (so, only me) and wanted to listen to their kind of music would have looked up I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2 (Butler's favorite song, which he said could have been written for Artemis) and It's No Game, Part 2 by David Bowie, Artemis's favorite song by a current artist.

So anyway.

I was listening to It's No Game, Part 2, and I looked at the comments on the YouTube page, and every single one of them was about Artemis Fowl. Some people who like David Bowie because he is David Bowie must be baffled.

I bet Minerva Paradizo's favorite song ever is Party in the USA. Or Eoin Colfer will spite me and have her favorite song be I Want To Hold Your Hand or something decent and tasteful and classic like that. But I hope it isn't.

As you may be able to see,

I am alive. I actually did not dance because fate was kind to me (for once)! I hurt my knee tripping in the hallway right before the skit and the skit had to go on without my mad dancing skills. Oh, wait, sorry. Skillz.
It is really really hot outside. Well, it's hot for where I live, anyway (I'm sure my cousins would have something to say to me if I complained about how hot it was), especially considering it's May. Last May we were wearing coats and full-sleeves until the end. Now we are melting and unwilling to move.
Thankfully, my room is in the basement, which is the coldest place in the house in the summer. Unthankfully, everyone wants to move there now.
School is ending in four days, and I have a list of things that I would like to do over the summer. Most of them are watching certain movies and reading certain books. There are also a few things that I would like to bake this summer, like Blondies (a vanilla brownie). I've had them once, and they were delicious!
There is a thing that I was discussing on the phone today with my cousin Questa, who, if you have not guessed by now, is the same person as J. I will give up J and just say Questa.
So I was talking to Questa about Twitter. Ah, Twitter. You suck.
Nobody cares what you are eating right now, unless you happen to be Taylor Swift, in which case K is very interested. Anyway, I am assuming most of us are not Taylor Swift. Or K. So we don't really care about when you go to the bathroom! Do not share it with us!
So we were thinking about a guy who tweeted the stupidest stuff, like:
I am not going to tweet anymore. *post*
I am going outside, and I'm not tweeting while I'm there. *post*
I'm outside, and guess who's not TWEETING! *post*
I'm deleting my Twitter account, yo. *post*
I'm so sick and tired of Twitter! I don't even tweet that often! *post*
Here I am, about to delete my Twitter account! *post*
You won't hear from me anymore! Not like you heard me a lot anyway! Good-bye! *post*
Hovering over the delete button... *post*
There. I deleted it. SUCKS TO YOU. *post*
I can't tweet anymore. I hated Twitter anyway. *post*
And etc.
We went on like this for a half-hour. What if someone made a Twitter account like that? Would anyone actually read it?

Quote for Sunday, May 23, 2010:

A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat.

-P.J. O'Rourke

and

A man is nothing without his hat.

-Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story 2 (1999)

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

Muse for Today:

How much cake can I eat in one sitting without exploding?

Will I ever find out?

Why do I care?

Stupid Joke

Hip-hop music that is no longer in style should merely be referred to as 'hop.'

Be Useless

I found this, 'this' being the Official Crayola Website. On the Official Crayola Website, you can digitally color with crayons!

The hyperlink takes you right to the page, I think.

This is my lovely drawing. (Don't laugh. Please. Please don't laugh.)

Yes, that is a rocket ship. I do not have good digital drawing skills.

It's a...colorful picture. I think that's the most that can be said for it.

Avatar

Happy New Year! If you are reading my blog, as I hope no one is (but you are) this applies to you.

Last night I listened to MuggleCast, like the Harry Potter dork that I am, and re-read the first Harry Potter book for the trillionth time. K got on my nerves and spilled food a lot (we had Thai food that my mother and grandmother made) and it was fun. The food was good, although K is getting on my nerves with his insistent urge to watch TV all the time. (I know that's unrelated. No, YOU'RE stupid.)

We followed the countdown on TV and ate ice cream, and I have never really cared much about 'Oh, it's a New Year.' Despite most of the drivel being spewed about 2010 being a whole new decade, this year, like last year, I was pleased to note the following things: I Survived and I Am Not In Jail. (Of course I noted other things, these are just the first I note. Pitiful? Slightly. Practical? Immensely so.) (I have never been in jail and I am hopefully not dead. I am far too young to be either.)

I did fall asleep at about one o'clock because I was listening to New Year's Day by U2 on New Year's Day, something I have thought about for an entirely unreasonable amount of time.

Just a few minutes ago, we came back from Avatar, that James Cameron movie. (For short, is he James Cam?) (I don't think I've ever known a movie director better than the actors.) (I know there is a man. And I know there is a lady. There is usually a man and a lady. But sometimes not. And some other men. But that's about it.) It is either really overhyped or really good. I wouldn't know, because we didn't see it. Sold out, all the IMAX ones, and the one we did go see didn't have any seats- well, they did have seats, but people have their purses and jackets saving seats.

We're going again tomorrow. And we are pitching a tent at four o'clock tomorrow morning to get seats, and we will sit in the theater until 12:15.

So. What is it? Really good or really hyped?

It probably doesn't even matter. Who can honestly tell anymore?

Quote for Friday, January 1, 2010:

I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.

-Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters (1955) by J.D. Salinger

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._D._Salinger)

Muse for Today:

People. Especially people who can't wait until you get out of the movie theater so they can attack your former seat with popcorn and handbags.

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.