How to dismantle a Geek Squad Computer

O_o

2009-10-04T18:28:00.000-07:00

You Are Balanced and Thoughtful

You view people with suspicion. There is a lot of interpersonal conflict in your life.

You had more conflict with your father than your mother. Your relationship with him was difficult and possibly unhealthy.

You don't deal with stress well. Even moderately stressful events tend to send you in a tailspin.

You require a lot of calm in your life. When things get too hectic, you need to step back and reassess things.

The Inkblot Test

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

Noodles don't bite!

2009-10-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

Why is it that when a girl is dislikes the amount of attention her boyfriend gives another girl, she places all the blame solely on the other girl? She never blames the guy for being a flirt or unwittingly making her jealous; she just thinks the other girl is a slut.
Now I know how Angela must have felt.
Can I just say I didn't do it?
Yeah.
Been a good couple of days.
Watched some really cute movies.
Like "Ghost Town" with Ricky Gervais.
And "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs".
I didn't expect that movie to actually be funny! What a concept!
It was what "Monsters and Aliens" could have been if "Monsters and Aliens" hadn't SUCKED.
"We should send the intern! She's cute, and REALLY perky!"
"Well, those ARE our only requirements to be a weather reporter..."
And it was so cute when he asked the girl on a date, and she put her hair back in a ponytail and put on her glasses and he was like, "You're SO beautiful."
All the girls in the audience (those over the age of 12, anyway) sighed.
Then Alex had the audacity to say, "I think she looked cuter before."
-_-
That's not the point, Alex.
Before the movie, we all went to Target and bought a LOT of candy.
I bought an Xtra-large box of Milk Duds, and three different flavors of Choxie.
It was $8, but I would've spent that much on a wimpy box of Milk Duds and popcorn at the theater.
SO WORTH IT.
Then we messed around at Toys 'R' Us.
Ugh, Charles de Lint. Just don't write anymore. Please.
"X-men" was all right. I finally watched it. Nothing special.
I find myself annoyed by Cyclops, like you're supposed to be.
And I do think Wolverine is pretty cool, if somewhat annoying. "I'm going to walk around shirtless and hit on married women...because I can!"
I loved how every twist in the movie involved Mystique. We'd just randomly yell out, "IT'S MYSTIQUE!" and it made the movie much more fun.
Sadly, a lot of the times we yelled it, it was true.
But now I have to watch the second one. And the third.
I'm just waiting for NIGHTCRAWLER. He's my favorite.
Storm is lame. Cyclops is pretty lame.
But Toad is by far the lamest.
And Sabertooth isn't much better. "Snarl, snarl, I have ugly eyebrows. FEAR ME!"

Just like...blah.

2009-09-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

It's been a weird day.
I found out my friend's dad died last week.
I haven't seen her in a while, and we all knew it was going to happen, but I just found out about it this morning.
But from what I hear, she seems fine.
Well, she's SAD.
But it's not as though her dad just died.
And I know it's a front, and I haven't exactly "been there" for her through all this, but she's sort of closed herself off from everyone except for a select few.
So she's sad, it sucks, but there's nothing I can do about it.
My dad told me that when a guy likes a girl, he often has a backup.
I mean, if you set your sights on one girl alone and she rejects you, well, that would hurt.
So always have a Plan B!
It sounds sort of terrible, but it struck me as funny when he said it.
I don't know. I suppose it might have crushed me a while ago.
It explains some things.
But I don't feel like complaining about how "jacked up" boy culture is.
Girls are just as bad, something Women's Studies does a very good job of pointing out, though that's not Mrs. Taylor's objective.
So I'm gonna get my life together in the mean time.
Focus on the stuff that's actually important.
According to Matthew 6:25-34, everything God has planned will happen when he wants it to, when I seek first his kingdom.
I was thinking on the bus ride home about how weird it is that so many seniors will be leaving youth group at the end of the year, after I JUST go to know them.
Then it will be time for me, and then COLLEGE.
And WSU seems too isolated, but UW and OC are not places I could EVER see myself, and, though I love Colorado, every time I think of leaving home I start to puke.
It turned into this huge worryfest, but my mom managed to talk me through it.
Because God HAS A PLAN FOR ME, one to give me a hope and a future.
And what he has is SO MUCH BETTER than anything I could ever dream of.
And he'll put me at the best possible college. But we're not at that part of the journey yet. I've still got 2 years. And they'll be good ones.

Who knew Yelm could be so INTENSE?

2009-09-27T15:57:00.000-07:00

Refuel was COMPLETELY different from last year.
In a good way.
It was great. Seriously the highlight of my year. GREAT WEEKEND.
They mixed up the cabins this year instead of having cabins for each grade.
A little disappointing, because I'd sort of been looking forward to rooming with some of my friends.
But I did get some people I knew in my cabin, and some I didn't, and the ones I didn't know were pretty cool.
Aaaaaaah, freshmen.
As much as I hate junior high boys, Buck Buck was amazing to watch. There was some talk of playing it on the bus ride home, but we opted for the safe choice, Zoo.
Those junior high boys, though, are SO ANNOYING! There was one in particular that needs to be whipped. It shouldn't be too difficult, he's roughly the size of a terrier.
The whole thing was just fun and crazy and super positive. It was nice actually feeling like I belonged. Last year I made a huge big deal about not knowing anybody and yet not making an effort to know anyone, but this year wasn't like that at all. It felt like the body of Christ SHOULD feel like.
Pastor Paul might just be my new best friend, even though he SERIOUSLY considers Hulk to be a better superhero than Batman.
BATMAN.
His point had to do with his lesson, though, which pointed out that GOD is the one who gives us power (SUPER powers! It was superhero themed, ha), and Batman didn't have powers; he just had money, charisma, and Morgan Freeman.
And Batman doesn't care who he is; he is purely focused on his actions.
With REAL power, there is rest and peace, and he has none of that.
It was a great sermon and it made a lot of sense to a lot of people.
Everyone went up afterwards to thank him for successfully explaining a seldom taught Bible topic.
BUT THE HULK IS NOT A SUPERHERO.
He's a loser with anger issues that just happens to be mightily powerful...and oh so green.
While, you know, Batman's out DOING EVERYTHING HE CAN TO PROTECT THE CITY OF GOTHAM, RISKING HIS LIFE IN THE PROCESS.
Hulk just crushes stuff. And sometimes sleeps with Liv Tyler. Mmmmm...
It was just great. Paul kept emphasizing that we can't CHANGE on our own, the exact OPPOSITE I'd been hearing at OEFC, where it was always, "YOU NEED TO CHANGE."
GOD is the ONLY ONE that can change us. We just have to let him.
And my favorite verse, Philippians 4:13, was sort of this weekend's motto.
But the emphasis was on the latter part.
"I can do all things THROUGH CHRIST who gives me strength."
Then we had an hour long worship session, with some people singing while others wrote letters, postcards, and junk they'd been through.
Then they put the junk in a giant trash can and Ben set it on fire.
But it was less than satisfying.
It didn't explode into a wild conflagration.
It just sizzled a little bit.
Oh well.
Even after Stateside, I didn't feel this good.
God is real, the true power source, and I'm going to live for him.

Clear nailpolish: more dangerous than you would think!

2009-09-24T19:06:00.000-07:00

I'm officially addicted to the "Moulin Rouge" soundtrack.
My keyboard isn't working properly. Too irritating.
But seriously.
David Bowie is always great, but I love the song "Nature Boy" and he managed to blow me away twice.
"Because We Can" gets stuck in my head way too often.
I honestly can't remember "Children of the Revolution", and I don't think "Rhythm of the Night" was there, either.
But "Elephant Love Medley" is cheesy goodness.
And "Roxanne" kills me every time.
So does "Hindi Sad Diamonds", come to think of it.
"The Show Must Go On" was really a perfect song choice. It's the perfect song in general.
Besides "Mr. Brightside". And "(If You're Wondering) I Want You To" by Weezer.
I really want the second soundtrack, but there's been a mishap.
I might get it in the mail after Refuel.
"We're creatures of the underworld. We can't afford to fall in love."
:(
Not SUPER looking forward to Refuel tomorrow.
But I am a little bit excited. I mean, it will be fun.
I'll be hanging out with my brother the entire time, but hey!
And the cabin situation will DEFINITELY be better than last year.
Yeah. Just been tired and sick all week. Not much going on.

You can take that Occupational credit and shove it up your...

2009-09-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

I've had my retainers for more than a year.
They told me the longest I would have my retainers for was a year.
Apparently they lied.
I went to my appointment today thinking I'd FINALLY get my retainers OFF.
Then the stupid dental assistant sits down and starts talking about how I'll never have to make any more appointments with them.
Ever. Again.
So I started to perk up a little bit.
Then she went on to say that I should continue wearing my retainers for the rest of my life.
Or, as she jokingly put, until I no longer want straight teeth!
Ha! Ha! Ha.
What?
Yep. I have to wear my retainers FOREVER.
Does this mean my orthodontist was INCOMPETENT?
"We couldn't PERMANENTLY straighten your teeth, but we came pretty darn close, now, didn't we?" *flashes brilliant smile*
I didn't realize teeth were a lifetime commitment.
I mean, sure, you have to brush them and floss them and whatnot.
But that's just basic hygiene. It would be gross, not to mention UNHEALTHY, if you didn't take care of your teeth.
But there was no REAL reason for me to get braces in the first place, besides the fact that my teeth were crooked.
I wouldn't have DIED because of them. I could chew JUST FINE.
My parents made me get braces anyway.
It's so stupid! It's just about looks!
Straight teeth wouldn't be so important if we hadn't created orthodontia in the first place.
God gave you those crooked teeth, why change that?
I didn't think my teeth looked bad at all! I LIKED my smile!
But I've spent 6 and a half years expanding my jaw, removing teeth, and correcting my overbite in order to fix a smile I didn't dislike in the first place.
Sure, on my parents dime.
But it sure seems like a waste of money.
And, speaking of looks, it's not like I look ANY BETTER with straight teeth then I did with crooked teeth.
It doesn't change the fact that I have acne or that my arms are hairy or that since acquiring boobs I've become a bit chunky.
In fact, if my parents had offered to pay to fix THOSE things, I wouldn't have minded so much.
The orthodontist clearly expected me to be overcome with joy at this news.
"Congratulations! You've graduated from orthodontia!"
"Whoop-de-do. I'll still have your equipment in my mouth for the rest of my life."
"....have a nice day!"
So I threw a temper tantrum in the car and somehow broke my retainer case.
My retainers, sadly, were unharmed.
So now I have retainers AND a broken case to contend with.
I refuse to wear them. There's no point.
But my mom won't let me throw them away.
Fine. I'll just smash them to little bitty bits.
On a positive note: assuming I pass all my classes this year (ha), I only need 4 more credits to graduate.
That means all the electives I want!
Ha! At least my senior year will be fun...

No you girls never know

2009-09-09T16:10:00.000-07:00

How come, when guys want to "go on a walk", they think of it as exercise, though it's technically "hanging out" cuz you'll be walking TOGETHER?
When girls want to go on a walk, it's to TALK.
And girls don't care about the destination. They'll walk ANYWHERE as long as they get to share about their day and how they feel.
Guys go with a specific destination in mind and THEY WILL NOT BE DETERRED FROM THEIR MISSION.
Guys take off their T-shirts differently. Girls pull up the bottom, while guys pull at the back of the neck.
I don't know. It's just weird.
I lost a bet with my history teacher.
I thought I'd heard something about Catholics being the most prevalent Christian religion in America.
Actually, it turns out they're the most prevalent Christian religion in the WORLD, which is different.
So I bought him a Gatorade.
When I say that I bought it, I mean my mom did.
But that's okay! A Gatorade's a Gatorade!
Ugh. Sort of sick of friend couples.
Either they're completely disgusting and irritating.
Or they're one of THOSE couples.
The ones that, before dating, made a big deal about how they were going to stay "just friends". Um, right.
Or the ones that only want to be with each other.
Irritating as all get out.
And everyone just thinks it's a "bitter cuz I'm single" thing!
Noooo, it's a, "Hey, you know how you piss me off? It started when you two started dating," thing.
Aaaargh! Dating friends just shouldn't be allowed!
Oh no, now the courting fiends are going to come back and make a case for arranged marriage. Somebody save us!

Like chocolate cake, only BETTER!

2009-09-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

A bunch of my friends took the Big Five Personality Test.
It was exciting. Four new profiles all to myself!
I spent a long time looking and comparing.
Kevin's profile is spot on, but they pegged him as an ISFJ. Pfft, not hardly.
I don't know. Whenever people start exploring the different aspects of their personality, I find it COMPLETELY FASCINATING. Every time someone takes a test I get a little giddy. Looking at someone else's profile is like starting a new book.
Conclusion: I'm a nerd.
This is what I still don't get: how is KEVIN a more likely candidate for early childhood education than I am? He HATES kids!!
And my #1 was GRAPHIC DESIGN. WTF. I HATE ART AND ANYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH 'VISUALIZING'.
I told my dad, and he was like, "Well, you'd be good at it."
"I don't care, Dad. I hate it."
"Well, but you definitely have some artistic characteristics."
Like what, intense mood swings and utter nerdiness.
The same thing happened a couple nights ago, when I said something and he listened to part of what I said, but not why I said it. Or he listened to the wrong part.
When I want to grow up, I said, I want to BE a french horn.
Not PLAY a french horn. BE one.
And he was like, "Oh, yeah, I think you'd be good at French horn! It's a difficult instrument, to be sure, but you're talented...yeah, I think you'd be great!"
No, Dad. No.
But he's been asking questions and actually trying to understand me lately, and it must be that time of the month again, because the very thought brings sentimental tears to my eyes.
Speaking of sentimental tears, I love "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" SO MUCH. Stephen Chbosky is the man. Every time I read it, I want to hug Charlie. And then, I realized something I hadn't gotten last time, and it made me feel TERRIBLE for him. And yet he got through it and loved his "tormentor" or whatever. It was still sad.
But one day I'm going to go driving with my friends and we're going to listen to The Smiths and I can bet we'll feel infinite.
I finished "Love, Stargirl", too, and it was SO much better than "Stargirl".
Stargirl actually seemed real. It was amazing. It was one of those books where you felt like crying, not because it was sad, but because it was so spectacularly amazing, but you didn't cry because the warm fuzzies you got from reading the book have made you too happy.
:) I feel like being sappy right now. It's been a good day, full of chocolate cake, reading, family bonding, Freddie Mercury, and dad time.
"The Show Must Go On" is seriously the greatest song ever written.
Just like hyperbole is the best thing EVER.
But really. I listen to it a lot and feel depressed, but also happy because I love the song.
I've been listening to "Mr. Brightside" a lot, too. It makes me happy every time I listen to it. Seriously, I can't help but smile.
And "Stars" from "Les Miserables". Javert might be a rule-following psycho, but for that one song he becomes my favorite character. And then darn Valjean has to sing again, so I get distracted. But it's so simple.
Rambling rambling rambling.
It just seems good right now.
I'm going to help with the little kids' Sunday School, because I missed it after my parents stopped teaching it.
What, they need helpers?
Sorry, youth band.
Apparently Steve will feel guilty for years and years if I don't join.
I was thinking about it.
But why spend time with cocky junior high boys who try to sing low and like to jump over tables (don't ask) when I could be taking Ethan on missions to find his family or petting multiple "puppies"?
I'm going to bed in a REALLY good mood. That means tomorrow will either be a really good day or a really bad one.
Oh, and I was wrong about my history teacher. But we'll see how that class goes.

Truly evil people will FAKE A BABY'S DEATH!

2009-09-03T14:11:00.000-07:00

I was watching "All My Children" today, although it was hard to concentrate because my mom was LAUGHING SO HARD.
Admittedly, it was pretty funny.
"They took Matthew...I mean, Trevor. And they faked the baby's death! But his mother will only get custody if she moves in with the crazy father! GASP!"
Fun fun fun.
No, I didn't go to school. School isn't even out yet.
I got out of the shower and smelled something iffy, and all of a sudden, there's this uncontrollable gag reflex. So I kind of passed out on the bed and my mom agreed there was nothing important I was going to miss at school today.
Although my history teacher would have pitched a fit.
He probably did. He'll probably yell at me all day tomorrow.
Whatever. He is SO full of it.
He made a big deal about how much he loves America, and then went on to describe the reasons he hates it.
Yeah, it made a lot of sense.
So that class sucks, but Chemistry ended up being awesome!
Mr. Daniel told us a story about aliens that shot three pieces of paper, which couldn't have just been litter. No, there was a message, which he revealed with ammonia or something.
Then he showed us his squirt bottle, AKA "No-Doze", and it had at least 50 tally marks of students he'd woken with it.
Ha. You're going DOWN, Emory.
Math looks all right. Mrs. Erickson is pretty chill about homework and whatnot. WE DON'T HAVE TO TURN IN NOTES. AND I have that class with a BUNCH of my friends.
Band's all right. We were playing pep today and I missed it. Maybe we'll play at the assembly tomorrow...
There's a cute girl in my history class who may or may not be a foreign exchange student. Hmmmm...
Women's Studies might be okay once we get started. But Innovative Fitness is hopelessly boring when you're forced to listen to lectures about excercising rather than actually doing it.
Argh. Now I'm addicted to Farkle, peppermints, and Milk Duds. I'm definitely going to like it when PE actually starts up. Ryan made fun of me for taking the class, though. He told me it was "shameful". Which it is. It's mostly girls...but there are 2 guys. They look scared, excited, and bored out of their minds.
Blah. It was the most boring day of school I've ever had.
Hopefully this year will get better...but there's football on Saturday! How could I forget!
But we have to sacrifice a virgin to our star quarterback. It's the only way to keep him happy.
Hopefully it won't be me. I'll be busy.

Real men have eunuchs dispose of their enemies.

2009-09-01T14:19:00.000-07:00

I'M ADDICTED TO COMCAST!!!!
Seriously, it's fantastic.
Who knew we could load songs on iTunes in less than an hour?
Or watch Youtube videos without it pausing all the blessed time?
Or load games and web pages like THAT!?
Finally, we've entered the 21st century.
I'm free from the curse of dial-up forever.
AND I made the most perfect chocolate chip cookies EVER.
I didn't chill the dough or melt the butter, which helped.
Oh, and having all the ingredients.
I forgot to add eggs until AFTER adding about half the flour, but that seemed to help.
Oh, and I used parchment paper.
And then I waited until the pans were completely cool to add more cookies.
They turned out GREAT.
Like BETTER THAN MRS. FIELDS.
Who is a big fat liar, it turns out.
"Clue" is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.
Almost as funny as "One Night with the King"!
Amanda HATED IT and didn't want to watch it, but when we did she was laughing as hard as the rest of us.
Yet she still claims to hate it.
Communism! Homosexuals! Call girls! Murder! Blackmail! Intrigue! Multiple endings! Tim Curry!
HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE THIS MOVIE?
Ugh, if someone spells alternative ONE MORE TIME...
I'm not sure I liked "House of Leaves". I finally finished it, except for the stupid letters, which I WON'T READ. I'm done with that book for now. It's bad enough that it's hard to SLEEP.
But the monster turned out to be not a monster at all, but the house itself, which makes me feel a little better.
But then what was wrong with Zampano? And Johnny? They died of paranoia? WHAT WAS THE DEAL?
And it was so sad, the story about the baby, and Navy and Karen, even though that was supposed to be a "happy" ending. Sad stuff.
FLASH FLASH CAR CRASH. Ha. AFI.

F my life.

2009-08-27T20:50:00.000-07:00

They changed my schedule AGAIN.
So they pretty much eliminated any chance of my having classes with friends.
I won't be seeing at least 6 of my friends all year long.
It's pretty frustrating.
Chemistry, math, and history, which tend to be my worst classes, take up the first three periods.
And the teachers seem pretty nice.
But I kind of wanted to be in a bad mood about this year.
They switched up the band schedule, so I wasn't able to take my first choice of English.
Then, all of a sudden, I'm thrown out of my second choice into Women's Studies.
WOMEN'S STUDIES!!!!!
THAT class, however, seems like it might be pretty entertaining. The teacher is pretty funny and nice, and I've heard stories about her. Funny ones.
And PE is full of other lazy teenage girls who want to do Pilates and yoga. AWESOME.
But STILL!! AAAAARGH!
I don't have classes with practically ANY band kids!
Neither with my best friend, but whatever, I guess I've been replaced. Understandable, but lamentable all the same. And irritating. But whatever.
AAAAAAAAARGH, but for some reason, I have LOTS of classes with an overly amorous male aquaintance.
NOT INTERESTED. THANKS.
It's going to be one of those years.
I was hoping to keep boy drama to a minimum. Looks like that's not going to happen.
But friend drama...I guess I'm safe in that department because I'll HAVE NO FRIENDS.
And grades? Who knows. All the teachers seem fairly reasonable.
But I was kind of depressed walking into history. Because I realized any chance of my EVER having Mr. Walker as a teacher flew out the window.
Unless I fail Chemistry and take it next year.
There is nowhere I can turn, there is no way to go oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon!
Darn. Javert is dead. The only thing left to look forward to is Marius' moving solo.
Well, that, and a rousing chorus of "Do You Hear the People Sing?"
I just realized: I HATE the song "Turning". Stupid stupid stupid. Of course they're dead. You could sound a little less happy about it!

Yukon, ho!

2009-08-26T17:32:00.000-07:00

You Are a Mostly Polite Driver

You are generally an easy going, laid back person. However, you can't help but feel a little jealous and competitive sometimes!

You tend to go by what you feel - not by the facts at hand. As a result, you tend to make a lot of uninformed decisions.

You'd like to think you're a fair person, but you occasionally think you deserve a special kind of justice.

You can be a rather tense, grouchy person - but you try to maintain your dignity.

You have mixed feelings about authority figures. You understand their place, but you believe their power needs to be in check.

You are somewhat focused, but you are also a bit scatterbrained. Distractions can get you in trouble.

You don't feel a responsibility to anyone but yourself. You value your freedom more than anything else.

Your ego is a healthy size. You don't think you're more important than anyone else.

What Does Your Driving Say About You?

Yaaaaaaaah! Back to school shopping!
Kristine did some sneaky recon with Jon and ended up at the South Center mall with us before she left.
I bought a hat. It has fuzzy earflaps.
And it was 20 BUCKS.
But that's okay. It was worth it.
My mom bought me a fleece jacket, too, so I'm all set for Refuel.
Or Yukon.
School starts in a week! Colorado already started. Parent Night is tomorrow, and I'm pretty pumped.
I just need to find a fedora...with feathers!
Like the Pranksters!
"30 Rock" is my new favorite show.
I'm trying to upload pictures onto my computer unsuccessfully. I have no idea what I'm doing.
I've been playing a lot of Harvest Moon lately. Sometimes 3-4 hours a day. Sad.
But I managed to woo Nami in 3 days!!
Well, 3 months in game time. But still!
Now we're married and have a kid.
He WILL be a musician. I know it!
Amby and I were talking about Harvest Moon the other day. You can get different colors of horses? Shocking!
Argh my schedule is still horrible. Hate hate hate. I have a lot of classes with friends that I don't see normally, so that's ONE good thing, but most of the people I DO hang out with...no classes. Probably not even lunch.
Argh.

Remember this?

2009-08-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

I did this a couple years back. I kind of wanted to see what had changed in 4 years...
Put your music on shuffle (itunes, etc.) and answer each question with whatever comes up.

What does next year have in store for me?
"In the Light", dc Talk
How insightful. My eyes'll be opened to new possibilities and all that jazz.

What does your love life look like?
"Battery", Metallica
Oh dear. It appears I might end up in an abusive relationship. Great. Mrs. Lutz warned me and warned me.

What do I say when life gets hard?
"Wishes and Dreams", Stellar Kart
Yep...that's something an INFP would say.

What do I think when I get up in the morning?
"Calm Before the Storm", Fall Out Boy
Ha ha, how depressing. Although I'm not sure about the line, "He's well hung and I am hanging on." I'm trying not to take that line literally, but wouldn't that hurt?

What song will I dance to at my wedding?
"What Time Is It", HSM 2 cast
:D BEST. WEDDING. EVER!

What do you want as a career?
"Be My Escape", Relient K
I don't being God is a career option.

Your favorite saying?
"The Thenardier Waltz of Treachery", Les Miserables Original Broadway Cast
Hm, I guess I don't trust people too well, especially potential child molestors.

Favorite place?
"May the Horse Be With You", Relient K
The stable!? Awesome! I haven't been there in a while, though. :(

What do you think of your parents?
"I Got Nerve", Hannah Montana
Hmmm, I'm so rebellious, they're just holding me back!

Where would you go on a first date?
"Fridy Night", Slick Shoes
Well, it would be on a Friday, and we'd just go party, from the looks of things.

Drug of choice?
"Kill the Grey", Olivia the Band
Depression? Melancholy? Numbness? Appropriate choices.

Describe yourself:
"Don't You Know Who I Think I Am?", Fall Out Boy
HA! That pretty much says it all.

What is the thing I like doing most?
"Freedom", Fresh Digress
Dancing with my brothers and sisters in Christ? I guess that's all right...

The song that best describes the president?
"Facedown", The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
:O THAT'S TERRIBLE! I don't think Obama beats his wife...however...if the "she" in the song is the USA, he definitely feels like a man when he pushes "her" around. JERK!

What is my state of mind like at the moment?
"Awakening", Seven Places
I love this song... It's a pastor listing the Seven Places that Jesus bled for us when he died. My friend's dad is dying, and we've been praying for her... That's definitely been on my mind. Hm. Sad.

How will I die?
"Things We Go Through", Hawk Nelson
I'll die from the stress of life's little problems, like getting rejected by the girl I like and running away from home.

What’s your deepest , darkest secret?
"Lithium", Evanescence
I'M A MORBIDLY DEPRESSED DRUG ADDICT.

What am I doing right now?
"Dream Seasons", Blackalicious
Dreaming about the future, I guess...which isn't totally off.

BAND CAMP BAND CAMP BAND CAMP

2009-08-17T14:47:00.000-07:00

It's intense! It's insane!
I love it.
AND I woke up at 6:30 today.
Sort of.
I fell back asleep.
But then I woke up at 7:10 and got ready.
BAM. 8:00. I was READY TO GO.
Again, sort of.
Got pumped up by some Spectacular! and Bandslam.
Screamed "TOMMY IS A CRACKHEAD" a couple times.
We get to play "Viva la Vida".
HOW HARD IS IT TO PLAY BASS DRUM?? The B flat concert scale never sounded so bad.
A SCALE. A SCALE sounded bad.
And their excuse for "The Star Spangled Banner"?
"I didn't know it was in 3/4."
Which shouldn't matter if you're playing on every beat...
And we get to do it again TOMORROW.

Good weekend so far...for a change.

2009-08-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

"Bandslam" was not too bad.
Pretty cute. I liked the music.
And the fact that he was obsessed with David Bowie.
Screw Michael Jackson, he's the real king of pop!
Vanessa Hudgens was pretty enjoyable. The 5 is silent.
I bought two of the songs. I can't go on, I'll go on!
"Someone To Fall Back On" is my new favorite song.
Even though it's Aly Michalka.
Wanna know what's terrible?
Judging from my taste in movies, chances are I'll end up alone.
Or with a girl.
I HATE guy movies.
Hate them.
I like "Star Wars" and "Spaceballs" and "Vantage Point"...that's about it.
I'd rather watch chick flicks, or musicals.
Yet my best friend's GIRLFRIEND has a girlier taste in movies than I do.
This is stereotyping, and completely awful, but why is it that her favorite movies include "A Walk to Remember", "The Notebook" and "A Cinderella Story", and she's a lesbian?
I laughed my butt off during "The Notebook". The only Romantic Comedy on the list that I liked was "10 Things I Hate About You", and she HATED IT.
And yeah, different people like different movies.
But I hate most standard girl fare.
Oh well.
Good worship session! HORNS! They're too cool for earbuds. Uh-oh. Livin dangerous.
I helped my parents with their 4/5 year old Sunday school class. Cute kids.
Only one of them didn't get picked up after Sunday School!
So we went on a mission to find his family, but we couldn't find them.
And we tried to find his little sister, but she'd already been picked up.
Turns out his older brother had picked up the little sister and then stood around talking with his friends FOR HALF AN HOUR.
The kid was FREAKING OUT! He finally started crying and said, "I'll NEVER get to go home!"
We told him there was no way his parents forgot him, and he said, "But they forget things! Maybe they forgot and they're coming back."
It was so sad! But also kind of funny, the way he said it.
They picked him up. He got a hug. It was okay.
And he turned his back on us AND WALKED AWAY.
They grow up so fast...
Then Tie and I went on a walk and were attacked by an elderly Dachsund.
That's the second time this week.

H-e-double toothpicks!! Ha ha ha!

2009-08-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

James Patterson kind of disgusts me.
He thinks he's a much better writer than he really is.
"Maximum Ride" makes me too angry.
I somehow used to love it.
I somehow used to love a lot of things, though, so this isn't that surprising.
Ugh. He's so smug.
Max irritates the crap out of me.
And I'm tired of the whole "save the planet" theme.
Max is pulling a Bella Swan, too, which is always fun.
"I love Fang...wait, no I don't! Let's make out, Fang...no wait, I changed my mind! I hate you...but I hate your redheaded girlfriend more!"
Fun stuff. I'm trying to get through "Max" as quickly as possible.
"House of Leaves" is giving me the creeps - and I'm barely 30 pages in!!
I literally stared at my closet last night for hours, just in case something in there was waiting for me.
Then I fell asleep and had weird dreams.
Like this one: my high school decided to put on "Les Miserables" and I had the part of Valjean, but didn't know any of my lines.
So I just improvised the entire time.
I walked into a spider's web today. Grossest feeling ever.
I sort of miss being tall and lanky.
Yep, still "tall".
Lanky, tho, not so much.
Woohoo, body dysmorhpia!
I'll be throwing up if you need me.

Down with Joe! We want Steve!

2009-08-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

"Paris, Je T'aime" is good every time.
My mom and I watched Jayden and Natalie for a couple hours so Natalie could go shopping. It was pretty funy. Jayden is really smart, and copies everything you say. We watched "Blue's Clues" today, and I really miss it. It was good to see an old-school episode with Steve, rather than creepy creepster Joe, who ruined the show with his celebrity guest stars and blue and orange color combo.
Jayden agrees.
Then we played with Maddie and watched "Oliver and Company" while eating Bunny Crackers.
So. Friday night.
Instead of going to the youth group BBQ, I'm sitting at home.
I blame Sierra.
Sort of.
She said she didn't feel like going, and I don't blame her, cuz I've only felt that way myself a billion times.
But still. I was sort of pumped until all my friends bailed.
There are still the very defined "groups" in youth group.
And since mine would be nonexistent for this event, I didn't feel like going and trying to join another one.
Not like they're cliquey and would turn their back.
But, because I'm a socially awkward failure, I would feel complete awkward and stupid and moronic for sort of forcing people to hang out with me because I had no one.
And I'd feel BEYOND stupid if someone took pity on me and decided to hang out with me then.
Yeah. Definite ego booster, that.
But I still feel like I'm missing out.
Ugh. It's been bugging me since Wednesday, when I found I didn't have a ride in the first place.
So I've been feeling sorry for myself since then.
But that's not a new occurrence or anything.
SARK is the coolest! Her book on writing was actually helpful and, dare I say it, inspiring! And it was funny to read it and have the overall tone be, "Yeah, so I write in gigantic color markers all over the page. SO WHAT?"
Very cool.
"House of Leaves" is actually doing a good job at freaking me out.
"Stick it" was pretty funny.
Good books and movies all around.

Multitasking is not allowed.

2009-08-09T16:51:00.000-07:00

Yeah, thanks.
I probably shouldn't complain about my internet when I'm making it more difficult by having 6 windows open at a time. Ha HA!
Mr. Kovacs always said it was impossible to multitask, because you can't have your full attention on more than one thing at once, so you're just flipping back and forth between projects while subconciously doing others.
And he didn't reccomend it, because you ended up doing a sloppy job on everything.
But who cares?
Anyway, he was supposed to teach me math, not life lessons.
And he taught math rather well.
And I was surprised to find he was an Anti-Gore conservative.
Not to mention a Christian! Cool!
So is another math teacher at Oly, but I haven't had him yet...and I don't want him. :P
My mom and I had a really good talk about stuff. William's at Great Wolf Lodge with a friend and Dad's in THE ZONE, so he doesn't feel like socializing.
In fact, he's MULTITASKING by listening to a recording of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" while painting William's room a girly shade of red.
William doesn't know yet.
But my mom read an article in Christianity Today that made a case for early marriage.
Because your bodies are ready to make babies and most guys are just going to go out and bang someone anyway.
Um...okay?
And then the author said stuff that sort of contradicted his argument.
Like, there's a shortage of young Christian men.
....
All right, but doesn't that mean you should wait.
No, his point was you need to snatch one up before another girl gets him.
Oh. Well, that's comforting. No pressure.
And he didn't hold guys to any standard whatsoever.
Cuz, you know, guys need to get it out SOMEhow.
But that's not really fair.
If a guy messes up ("I just couldn't help it!"): Aw, shucks. Well, at least you tried. We know how HARD it was for you.
If a girl messes up ("I just couldn't help it!"): What do you MEAN you couldn't help it? You should have prayed! You obviously don't trust God enough! Harlot!
My dad gets mad whenever I say this because he thinks I'm taking a feminist approach and am being unfair to young men, because it's harder for them.
Yeah. And it is harder.
But it's also true that a young Christian man "made a mistake", but a young Christian girl will be forgiven, but can never get her virginity back.
I don't know. There's more emphasis put on a girl's virginity and how vastly important it is.
That word isn't used as much around guys. The focus is just "staying pure" in general.
It might not sound like a big difference, but it is.
Argh, and the stupid Catholic argument against birth control still drives me insane!
Onan spilled his semen because he was selfish and knew the kid he fathered wouldn't be considered his; it would be his brother's kid.
It's not as if he was like, "Oh, well, I don't think I'm financially ready to have a child! And my career's just taking off, and I don't feel like staying home and raising kids, not to mention changing diapers."
And how Catholics think birth control is "evil" and "sinning", but other Christians look down on it, because the couple using it "obviously doesn't trust God enough NOT to give him a child". "He's in charge of your fertility, isn't he? Why can't you trust that he WON'T give you a kid?"
That's a fairly valid point, but it's also like saying, "You have cancer and you're STILL taking chemo? Don't you trust that God will heal you without all that?"
Why WOULDN'T you take efforts to heal yourself??
And you wouldn't want to take a chance if you're UNABLE to care for this child, like, gee, struggling financially? Or already have A BILLION KIDS?
And some couples feel convicted, that God has planned for them to have a *cough* LARGE number of children.
But that's not the case for everyone.
Argh. It seems like I can't post anymore without it becoming a crazy emotional rant of some kind about "beliefs" and "what it means to be American"...
...or something to that degree.
I think.
I need to get it out! Otherwise, my brain will explode!
Today was...a REALLY good day.
Except for it suddenly getting really hot in the little kid's room. And it was pretty stifling in the gym.
But I was in a strangely good mood today. Like...giddy and bubbly. Rather strange.
Anyway, we went down to Kidstuf and sang songs (which the kids hated and refused to dance to while all the teens dance maniacally) and explained what happened on the trip.
It seemed a TAD pointless (most of them were in 1st grade and none of them were listening...), but it was fun.
Then lunch, with the sun shining, then girl talk, and such.
I don't know. Good day.
Okay, there's more: another rant coming up.
My mom and I were still on the subject of marriage when we got onto compatibility, and it turns out COMPATIBIILITY DOESN'T MATTER.
Because, while it might help, even a relationship between two "soul mates" won't work if they're not willing to put in the effort.
Ha, like Pastor Barry. "Love isn't a feeling. It's hard work!"
And relationships between "incompatible" couples end up turning into amazing, loving marriages.
Like, gee...my parents? Exact opposites.
Oh, and my grandparents.
Which sort of debunks the theory that my "soulmate" is an ENFJ.
Oh well.
Which means I'll end up marrying an ESTJ.
YES!!!
Awwwww......this quote is sort of adorable.
Or possibly the cutest thing I've heard in a long time.
"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." -Dr. Seuss

How bout 8 pounds of cake?

2009-08-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

Ha. Jim Gaffigan.
I know bagels are equivalent to 5 pieces of bread, but they're also delicious.
Well, the one I just ate wasn't. It was a little too...sweet.
And it was a plain bagel, not cinnamon or anything, so it the sweetness seemed out of place. Curse you, Sara Lee!
I can't seem to find cinnamon bagels. Not cinnamon raisin, just plain old cinnamon.
And I know they exist, because Mrs. Hamblet bought us a bunch and I ate at least 4.
But that's okay. They were mini bagels.
My mom and I watched "Once Upon a Mattress".
Too cute.
A mute king discussing the birds and the bees with his 40-year-old son?
All the possibilities...
Zooey Deschanel getting knocked up by the guy from "Glee"?
Oh dear. Can't say she didn't deserve it.
My favorite part was the wizard pretending to be the Nightingale of Samarkand.
"Ka ka ka ka ka, ka ka ka ka ka."
And then he got angry!
"KA KA KA, KA KA, KA KA KA, KA KAAAAAAAA!"
He was so cute, on his little swing!
But not as cute as the king, who was an adorable old man until he got his voice back.
Oh dear, I've spoiled the ending. Rats. Might as well spoil everything else.
It wasn't the pea!
It was jousting equipment!
I'm rereading the Harry Potter series for the millionth times.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to make headway in "Les Miserables" (I should just give up), while revisiting the "Peaches" trio and slogging my way through the new Maximum Ride (I really don't want to...curse you, James Patterson, and your political agenda).
The dog is exhausted. We took a long walk, and she got in a fight with a retriever puppy twice her size. But she won, which is all that matters.

The main character becomes much less attractive when revealed to be short.

2009-08-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

Heh. Harry Potter.
After a nightmare planning, I finally saw HP6 with my dad and Emma.
Car rides with them is always sooooooooo fun...what with no one talking.
And then we got to the theater and it was attack of the Introverted Feeler Perceivers.
"Do you want popcorn?"
"I don't know, do you want popcorn?"
"Well, sorta. Does Emma want popcorn?"
"Um, no, that's okay."
"No, it's okay, I'll buy some. How about soda?"
"Nah. Do you want soda?"
"Well....yes."
"Buy some."
"Okay."
"And some popcorn."
"You want popcorn."
"Yes."
"Okay, I bought popcorn, but I didn't get butter."
"Oh."
"Oh no! Did you want butter?"
"Don't worry, I'll get some. Would you like some popcorn, Emma?"
Fun times.
And then we had to decide where to sit...
"Is this okay?"
"Um, sure. Do YOU think it's okay?"
And so on.
Previews. Still my favorite part.
They made a Sherlock Holmes movie? And it's an ACTION movie? Whaaaat?
But...it has Jude Law. :)
It also has Rachel McAdams. :(
And Robert Downey, Jr. :/
Meaning I'll probably go see it when it comes out.
But the movie ended up being REALLY GOOD.
Harry Potter, not "Great Scot!: The Sherlocke Holmes Adventure".
Which I thought was weird, considering David Yates is the one who gave us "Order of the Phoenix", yet managed to produce this 3-and-a-half star film.
Wow, David. What prompted this change?
And there were a few things.
But I'm probably the only one who had a problem with them. Because, yes, I tend to overexaggerate things.
But I don't care. There are times when it's "going overboard"...and there are times when some people *cough cough* should just ADMIT "August Rush" was terrible and leave it at that.
I like Michael Gambon, but not as Dumbledore. He would've made a good Gandalf...but it's too late for that now.
Ugh, Emma Watson. When in doubt, close-up on Hermione's crying face!
She can't even cry! Terrible actress.
At least her thing with Ron was somewhat believable. It was a little hard to believe in the other movies when she would continually throw herself at Harry.
I think they finally just told her to stop.
Hate. Hate. Hate. Hermione is supposed to be smart.
Tom Felton was brilliant.
Rupert Grint is, sadly, the best of the three, but not too bad. Might even be verging on good!
Little boy Voldemort was creepy and morose and sort of annoying.
Teenage Voldemort was FANTASTIC, and reminded me of a combination of David Bowie and Lord Sebastian Flyte.
So evil. It was great.
Slughorn was more of a fop than a pompous old windbag, but a funny fop. Perfect for the part.
Wow, when did Hogwarts receive its shipment of fantasically hot guys?
The movie was pretty much excellent all the way through, UNTIL THEY KILLED DUMBLEDORE!!
Not that I didn't know it was going to happen.
But Snape?
They sort of left out all of Harry's suspicions about Snape, assuming that everyone knew how much Harry distrusted and hated Snape.
But most of the movie was focused on his distrust and hatred for Malfoy. Hm.
And I guess they put in the Unbreakable Vow scene. But still.
So Alan Rickman kills Dumbledore like it's no big deal.
Then the Death Eaters LEAVE THE PREMISES, without even so much as a goodbye or a magical battle of some sort.
Well, Bellatrix was busy freaking out. But she always does that. Ugh, that's another thing: Helena Bonham-Carter. It's like she wants her character to be Jack Sparrow of the wizarding world. I think she's just mad that Tim Burton loves Johnny Depp more than he loves her. Still, mimicking Johnny Depp in a HARRY POTTER MOVIE doesn't seem to be doing her much good. Sooooo annoying.
So the Death Eaters go away, leaving Harry with Snape, and Harry's being Harry (even though Daniel Radcliffe managed not to be too useless in his movie and left the annoying whiny grunty groany thing he does when he gets upset at home), cursing him all emotionally.
And Snape's just casually deflecting.
Harry calls him a coward, and you can see Snape's face is full of pain, and you're waiting for him to snap and turn on Harry, admitting his shocking secret, LIKE HE DID IN THE BOOK.
Only he turns to Harry, after cursing him, and goes, and a FLAT, EMOTIONLESS VOICE, "How dare you use one of my own spells against me. That's right. I'm the Half-Blood Prince."
Or something to that effect. Then he SAUNTERS off into the darkness.
It sort of ruined the movie.
But then Harry went back to the Astronomy Tower and all the students were gathered around crying over Dumbledore's body.
Another close-up of Hermione's hideous crying face.
Then Harry goes up to the body and starts to cry. I started to get a little choked-up.
Then all the students raised their wands as a silent tribute to the fallen Dumbledore, and it was the cheesiest thing I've ever seen in my life, but I cried anyway.
Only I was sitting next to my dad, who doesn't cry EVER, and Emma, who gets embarrassed easily, so I didn't start bawling in my seat.
Best Harry Potter movie YET!
I'm so stoked for "Deathly Hallows".
It's just...there's SO MUCH.
They did really good with this movie, but they still had to cut out quite a bit (ahem. Tonks and Lupin!?!? All of a sudden, they're a couple!? What is this?).
And they are splitting the last book into two movies, because there's so much stuff.
But what if it sucks, like #4 and #5 did?
Or is boring, like the first two?
Argh. It's not coming out for a year...plenty of time...what'll I do until then?

Exploding volcano of passion

2009-08-06T10:37:00.000-07:00

Lol, I just read a historical romance by Meg Cabot.
It was basically a rip-off of Princess Diaries. But she won't admit it.
And she wrote another romance with almost the exact same plot, word for word.
Seriously. Read these descriptions:
Nicola and the Viscount
It's only her first London season, but sixteen-year-old Nicola has made up her mind: Handsome, charming, poetry-reading Lord Sebastian is, simply, a god. So when the divine viscount starts paying special attention to her, Nicola is certain she's found her destiny.
Everything is perfect until the infuriating - and disturbingly handsome - Nathaniel Sheridan begins to cast doubt on the viscount's character...and on Nicola's feelings.

Victoria and the Rogue
Wealthy young heiress Lady Victoria Arbuthnot is accustomed to handling her own affairs - and everyone else's. So, when she's suddenly sent to London to find a husband, Victoria quickly finds a perfect English gentleman.
Everything is just as she wants it - that is, if the raffish young ship captain Jacob Carstairs would stop meddling in her plans.

Good times.
But the Nicola plot seemed suspiciously familiar.
A girl falls for a handsome, Aryan god, only to change her mind about him and go for her best friend's intelligent, dark-haired, good-looking BROTHER, Michael Moscovitz, er, Nathaniel Sheridan.
I was on the edge of my seat wondering how it would end! Would it be Sebastian? Nathaniel? Harold? Lol, I stayed up till 1:00 reading it. It had a completely satisfying ending...if you can call it that. But romantic cliches were plentiful and the historical anachronisms made me giggle.
And THEN, I find a preview of ANOTHER historical romance (sadly, not written by Meg Cabot) called "Catherine and the Pirate". The description alone was enough to set me aflame with curiousity...or something like that. It was hard to tell; I was laughing too hard.
Sometimes a girl does have her sights set on the right guy from the start, though. Take Catherine, of the next Avon True Romance, Catherine and the Pirate: she can't help but be attracted to Derrick. So what if he has an unsavory seafaring past? So what if he's her brother's best friend? So what if he acts as though he's not into her? That one kiss had to have meant something! Right?
They went on to describe it as a heartstopping, high-seas adventure.
"Nicola and the Viscount" had plenty of adventure. She was kidnapped by bad guys in broad daylight and locked in a tiny room in a London flat when she refused to bend to their will! Then, when one of her captors came in to torment her, she knocked him out with an ale pitcher and climbed out the window onto the roof! Grant, the evil cabby driver, began to pursue her, but felt himself beginning to slide off! Desperately, he grabbed Nicola's dress, bringing her down with him. Nicola thought she was going to die...but ending up landing in Nathaniel's arms. Grant fell into a water trough.
That's about as exciting as it gets around here.

Thank you, Sam Pratt!

2009-08-04T10:59:00.002-07:00

For the friend suggestion.
At first I was like, wtf? But you know best, apparently.
Emma and I went "shopping" yesterday.
Meaning we complained about consumerism and America while wandering about the mall, where we went to three stores before getting stuck in Barnes and Noble.
Good times.
She bought me a book, which was nice.
Even though the book ended up being about the futility of the "intelligent design" argument and how Christians can (and should) square their beliefs with evolution, because evolution is right. Even the Bible says so.
Um, right.
They did make a couple of good points, I must admit, about proven fact and theories.
But I find it annoying that people that believe in evolution assume Christians believe what the people back in Darwin's day believed: that Genesis 1:1 meant that God LITERALLY created everything in the beginning, including every species of every animal ever.
Which I think is sort of ignorant. Because it's been proven that speciation and mutation DOES occur, but that doesn't disprove the theory that God made the earth.
And it doesn't prove that all those species come from a common ancestor (a sponge).
And it certainly doesn't mean that all existence exploded into being from nothing.
Which is sort of what the intelligent design theory is. But there's God involved, not...nothing.
So I wish a lot of people, especially my science teachers, would stop saying things like, "Adaptation happens! Mutation happens! Therefore, you're wrong! Oh, and we found fossils!"
And I wish loudmouth Christians who have no idea what they're talking about would stop standing by the old school Genesis 1:1 theory. Because it's not true.
And they certainly don't take everything else in the Bible that literally, such as Revelation.
It was weird to see how the book twisted the parable of the talents into a pro-evolution argument.
Just like the Catholics twisted an unrelated Bible story around their anti birth control argument. I still don't know where I stand on birth control, but I think their argument is absolute CRAP.
So whatever. My God is big enough for speciation and mutation and everything else. He made organisms infinitely complex, so of course he could have made it so animals *gasp* CHANGE OVER TIME!
And of course he's big enough for evolution, and some people use that argument.
But I'm still not inclined to believe we came from monkeys, even though that's easier to swallow than the "fact" that cows and whales are related.
Of course...
Anyway. Enough of that rant.
My dad thinks I might be in a cult.
Or at least dabbling in some kind of forbidden spirituality.
Because there was a test on this awesome personality profile thing I found that compared your personality to the personality you SHOULD have according to your zodiac.
And I already don't believe in that kind of thing. My horoscope is wrong half the time, and if not, why is it that my supposedly "Virgo" older brother is one of the most extraverted people ever? And my "Aquarius" dad one of the least friendly?
So the test showed that I only fit one of five Capricorn requirements. In short, I am the worst excuse for a Capricorn this world has ever seen.
I met a guy yesterday who put a lot of stock in the zodiac, and was like, "Yeah, well, we Libras get along so well."
Only I had to tell him I wasn't a Libra. And he said he never would've pegged me for a Capricorn.
Well, yeah, go figure.
Anyway, I showed my dad, because I found it fascinating...and kind of funny.
But, as usual, he focused on ONE detail rather than the whole picture, the whole picture being that I DON'T BELIEVE IN THE ZODIAC and I'd showed him the test because IT BASICALLY PROVED HOW WRONG IT WAS.
Actually, if it proved anything, it showed what a freak of nature I am.
But my dad decided to focus on the fact that the zodiac itself is "dangerous" and I shouldn't be dabbling in stuff like that.
?????
Ooooooooookay, dad. Thanks once again for listening.
He never actually listens to the stuff I'm telling him, only what he thinks he hears.
Argh. Frustrating.

Sunday morning fun

2009-08-02T13:18:00.001-07:00

My mom and dad had to teach the 4 and 5 year-old Sunday school today.
Apparently, it wasn't a positive experience.
My mom is FREAKING OUT. She has a problem with one of the other teachers, who thinks little kids should have structure and discipline.
Well, yeah. To a point. But little kids don't do well with crazy amounts of structure. They rebel.
And she also has a different opinion than I do of chaos and disorder.
A FEW THINGS weren't put in their proper place, but they weren't cluttering up the room, and it looked FINE, like a nursery/Sunday School room is supposed to look.
But a few things out of place for her is disorder and chaos.
Whatever. I'm just a slob.
And she's lived with the ultimate neat freak for 20 years.
But still.
Anyway.
Primetime was interesting.
It's weird. Coming back from Stateside, I made all these "connections" and now I really feel like a part of the youth group.
And, surprisingly enough, I ENJOY Primetime now!
I don't know about Thrive, which was always the bane of my existence, since it hasn't been going on for a while, but Primetime is great.
Sort of.
All these "connections" and new friendships?
Unfortunately, we're all hiding out back in our little groups.
Ahem, cliques.
But I've got one, too.
And it's not like they're all being rude on purpose, and I'm not exactly initiating anything.
And some people are making an effort, which is...really nice.
But it's how the youth group has always been, and that's what I was always complaining about before.
It just seems sad that I spend 10 days with these people and get to know some of them really well, and want to CONTINUE to get to know them, but how can I if we don't really cross paths even when we go to the same church?
There's always FACEBOOK. But really. A little face to face time would be nice.
I just don't want to be stuck in the same lonely group I'm in now. I love my friends, but not all of them want to branch out.
Other than that...
Good sermon, Ben.
He said something along the lines of our feelings might trust God or think he's faithful, but we should always believe that he's faithful and loves us. Our emotions will follow.
I love how Ben always acknowledges "feelings", and how we're not abnormal for having them. They just HAPPEN. And I'm not even talking about ROMANTIC feelings, though he mentions those quite a bit (he thinks those are bull, though).
Unlike some T pastors I might mention.
ENFPs and INFPs of the world UNITE!
I'm going to join the junior group in Thrive again this year, since I actually belong there this time.
Partly because I finally have friends of my own that aren't kindly older kids...but mostly because Bess is gone.
Yes, I'll say it. She's gone. And I'm GLAD.
I know part of my deal with the youth group was my fault, since I made sure I didn't fit in.
But she made me feel like I didn't fit in. And she continued to do it the entire time I was there.
And her job is to make people feel welcome. Right. Thanks. You're an inspiration.
My brother's leaving tomorrow. :/ And I won't get to see him a lot, even at holidays.
He's been here for the entire summer and I was getting used to having him back.
But I guess we're replacing him?
We might be getting a 16-year-old Vietnamese exchange student.
She'll be going to the college, though, so I won't see her at school.
I'm a little bit like, "Crap." Because every time we had Japanese students, even for just three days, it took me forever to get to know them and I withdrew and they withdrew even more because they were all so SHY and POLITE, so that could prove difficult.
But it's a GIRL who'll be living with us long time, and if it's a good fit...who knows? It could be like the sister I never had.
Could be.
Could be.
Argh.
I need some depressing French music.
I AM WARNING YOU JAVERT! I'M A STRONGER MAN BY FAR! THERE IS POWER IN ME YET, MY RACE IS NOT YET RUN!
Fun times.
Playmobil soap opera? Tempting, tempting.
Myeah...not a bunch of bad ideas...LET'S DO IT!

Brideshead revisited...again

2009-08-01T17:33:00.000-07:00

I can just hear a certain pastor's favorite joke, "The Department of Redundancy Department".
A&E said "Brideshead Revisited" wasn't that good, and I'd heard that the relationship of Sebastian and Charles was super flamboyant compared to the book.
It really wasn't that bad.
Charles and Sebastian kissed once, and Charles wasn't even that into it.
Sebastian and Anthony were apparently a couple (? not sure if that's true) before Charles showed up, and within 10 minutes of the film's beginning, we get a kiss from the couple.
I freaked out, more because THEY DIDN'T DATE IN THE BOOK.
It was still a little like, "Hellooooo, Anthony, good to see you...even though you have a moustache!"
Seriously, the moustache grossed me out. I'd pictured sideburns, not a moustache.
What bugged me was that Julia kept popping up and made this weird love triangle between Charles, Sebastian, and herself.
Ugh, I hated her. She couldn't act, and she wasn't even cute!
AND IT WASN'T IN THE BOOK!
Julia and Charles didn't have this epic love that stretched across time. He wasn't interested in her while he was with Sebastian. They didn't have this cutesy forbidden love that "wasn't meant to be"!
Ugh, it was so stupid and disgusting to watch. I guess it worked out pretty well for the director, since Charles' "betrayal" drove Sebastian to drink.
Since the book didn't give a reason, they couldn't leave it all vague. No, it had to be cinematic and theatrical.
Ridiculous.
Other than that, it stayed pretty true to the book.
Emma Thompson was CRAZY. She should play a psycho more often.
My mouth dropped open when I saw Lord Marchmain.
Because I hadn't expected Dumbledore.
And he's not allowed to do any movies besides Harry Potter, of course.
When it came to Catholicism, it seemed ironic that Sebastian, the homosexual dipsomaniac, came the closest. He admitted he needed God's love. Whether or not he found it...he did live with those monks. Cordelia basically said that was good enough, since it was a kind of faith, which went against everything her religion had taught her.
I never thought of Cordelia as stupid, the way the movie portrayed her. But oh well.
Bridey was perfect: ignorant, rude, determined, etc.
When Sebastian moved to Morocco...
It was a poignant scene in the movie, and I was too busy thinking how hot he looked.
Then I started to tear up, because Charles was crying whilst keeping a stiff upper lip. Those British.
It was weird how the movie ended without hope. Sure, Charles learned to RESPECT the altar and the faith, but he walked away after, probably never to be seen again. He just faded away, like the Indians in "Lagaan". Wow. Talk about crappy endings.
And now dinner.
How is it that it's hard to articulate in words what something means to you, but it's easy to write it down...in words?
Doesn't make sense.
Because it was hard to describe the movie to my mom, but if she'd asked me to write it down...
Obviously a career in public speaking isn't in my future. Oh darn.

What do you expect with dial-up?

2009-08-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

My dad's freaking out. When you listen to itunes while you're online, the songs sometimes skip.
But whatever. It only does that when you're on the cpu and/or playing a CD while doing a billion other things.
But my dad is worried that the skipping means the songs themselves are flawed and will sound funny on his ipod.
He refuses to be pacified.
He's also worried that my brothers and I are having the Worst Summer Ever, because we're laying around the house doing nothing.
Or, in my case, spending ungodly amounts of time on Facebook and reading too much Meg Cabot (even though I dislike her strongly, I'm still rather addicted to Princess Diaries).
But no. We have to be doing Activities to be having any fun!
But then he worries that we don't like the activities.
So he's very stressed this summer.
He shouldn't be, though; we LIKE being lazy. That's the WHOLE POINT of summer!
I loved Stateside, it was great, and there was so much stuff to do, but now that it's over, even though I get a little bored with the light workload, I just want to relax.
And we had this weird conversation about the WEATHER of all things, where he freaked out because I'd heard something DIFFERENT from him.
It was so weird. He made it this big production, and it was like, "Dad, really, we watch different news channels. Who cares?"
I've learned a lot about him this summer, and I hope it's helping.
The black-bottom cupcakes don't have enough cream cheese!
Instead of being cream cheesy and delicious, they have a hidden pocket of cream cheese that's overpowered by devil's food!
WHAT WILL WE DO??
I would love it if my internet didn't have a heart attack every time I loaded a game of some sort.
I'm kicked offline 45% of the time because of this.
My dad is all, "Maybe at the end of the summer, we'll get high speed!"
Awesome! Seeing as we're years behind!
Oh my gosh, it's dead.

These shoes are $300!!!

2009-07-29T16:42:00.000-07:00

You think GIRLS are finicky shoppers?
I went shopping for shirts and ties with my brother - he just bought a suit.
Then he and my mom discussed color and pattern for what seemed like hours.
It seemed like they were on the same wavelength, but if I tried to make a seemingly helpful comment, it was wrong.
So they just ENTJ-ed together while I pouted in a corner.
But that was me overreacting again. Nathan finally decided on a white shirt with two solid-colored ties (mustard yellow and maroon) and my mom bought me ice cream, which was nice since I didn't make her shopping trip any easier.
Then, since there was, for some strange reason, a coffee table in the backseat, we all crammed into the front seat.
It was like riding in a clown car.
Then Nathan and I squabbled over the seatbelt ("I was trying to find it." "You were taking forever!" "YOu were sitting on it!" "Why didn't you ask me to move?" "I didn't know you were sitting on it!!!"). Fun stuff.
Life has been pretty slow and the most excitement I had was laughing at some molested turkeys (long story) and trying to figure out who was eating all the Pop Tarts.
Seriously, it's a mystery.
William just ripped out 2 Pop Tarts like it was no big deal, but he said he didn't eat any the day before. Actually, he said he didn't eat 2 yesterday, which, according to William Logic, probably means he ate one the day before, and then one the next day, but that's not technically eating 2 in one day, which is what he is convinced had me so incensed.
I was just curious. My dad was giggling rather guiltily, but seemed appalled that I would accuse him of taking the dang Pop Tarts.
Aaargh. THEY WERE SUNDAE FLAVORED!!!
I just want to know.
Dad's trying to kill the dog. Not entirely sure why.
Life for her in this heat wave hasn't been fun. Can you imagine a black dog, even a short hair one, finding respite from this heat?
I can't either. And she's having a hard time finding it. Instead of being her chipper self, you can find her lying lazily all over the house: in front of the bathroom, in various doorways, next to the screen door, etc.
And on my bed. A lot of the time. We're sleeping without sheets, which means clothes are mandatory.
Awwwww darn.
Lol. Kidding.
Or am I?

Listening to perverts sing

2009-07-27T16:58:00.000-07:00

Thenardier tries to prostitute Cosette in the movie. Sooooooooo icky.
"Perhaps Monsieur would like her to play in his lap."
Ewwwwwwwwwwww.
I'm trying to figure out teenage boys and Facebook simultaneously.
It's proving rather difficult.
Facebook requires a better attention span.
My mustachioed friend is not-so-subtlely pushing for a "relationship".
He thinks I'm completely snowed, too, which is...sad.
There are other random incidents of miscommunication that are still weirding me out.
That, and the double standards about body hair between genders really bug me when I'm out of razors.
We washed the trailer yesterday and ate all of the church's ice cream.
But Kevin took the first one, so it's technically his fault.
And Pastor Mike took one.
We proceeded to eat half the box and many melted otter pops. Mmmmmmm...
CCU gave us a free CD, and it's...
...different.
Aaaaagh, I can't do it anymore.
I need some Les Miserables.
Or perhaps some Matt White.
Mmmmmm, poppy goodness.
I've been listening to Michelle Branch, too.
And Nathan's loving Extreme for their song "More than Words".
Have to admit, I like it, too.
For once I have nothing to say.

Home again...sort of

2009-07-26T20:53:00.000-07:00

The day we left Colorado, it started raining.
Like serious "the gods are angry" type rain.
Then we get home to Washington...and the weather's been insanely nice.
Not to mention HOT.
90 degrees?
How very Twilight Zone.
It's good to be home again.
I thought things would be different when I got home.
I'm not sure how I thought they would be different, but when I got back, everything was back to normal.
I sort of just..."fit" right back in.
I'd kind of wanted to be different somehow, like things just "weren't the same".
But then I'd be Christy Miller.
And I praise God every day that I'm not.
And that was a little...stupid, self-righteous, who knows...of me to think in the first place.
Oh well. Life goes on. And I have changed. At least a little bit.
It was a great trip.
We have a *cough* beautifully written team blog and a couple of videos.
My dad was worried watching the videos that I wasn't having a good time, because I look miserable in the videos.
But no. I was actually completely enjoying myself. I just take bad pictures.
The VBS part was great. The highest number of kids was 42 and on the last day we had 39, and at least 15 were saved!
2 out of 4 brothers in one family were saved, and 3 other kids (all in the same family) got saved and were so excited that they brought their jr. high brother.
He completely hated the VBS, but at least he got to hear the message.
And the jr. high group hadn't had kids for the first three days, so it was nice for them to finally have at least one.
The first graders were squirrelly, but so cute. One of the Australians was the youngest of 4 brothers and knew how to get his way oh so effectively. He had the most evil smile.
Another would tag-team with his younger brother and cause chaos.
But he got saved and ended up being a total sweetie. On the last day, during the carnival, it was the happiest anyone had ever seen him.
Probably because he won an ungodly amount of candy.
But still.
Ew, when Tootsie Pops lay in the sun for a long time, they cease to be delicious.
The team bonded, it was all good.
But really, I honestly feel closer to these people and I made a lot of new friends.
Woo, I sound like a kindergartener.
The encouragement board was my favorite part. I loved getting notes. One of the leaders wrote me the nicest note.
Ugh, there were a couple low points. One of the leaders was kind of a jerk.
Scratch "kind of". He was a jerk.
He was like an overgrown frat boy. He'd act like an immature loser half the time, and then suddenly expect you to give him respect. And he'd do stuff we weren't supposed to do, yet when we pulled crap like that, he'd INSULT us to no end.
Or maybe that was just me. Ugh. He was such a loser.
And then one of my teammates and I didn't get along. It was a matter of misunderstandings and differences in personality, but when I finally started trying to make amends, he LITERALLY turned his back on me. Funnily enough, we kept getting thrown together in EVERYTHING; family groups, VBS, etc. So I think we should work it out. But I don't know how he feels about it.
And, frankly, I no longer care.
Wooooooooooooooo, anyway.
There was delicious food every morning from the dream-crushing cooks, and hot showers in the CCU locker room.
CCU sounds like a cool school.
They gave us goodie bags full of college-y stuff.
I got a mug, a frisbee, a CD, and college information! Yes! For sure!
And the guy who gave us the spiel about the school was so darn convincing.
Hmm...Christian school...never really thought about that before.
Denver itself is great. Outdoor malls? What are those? Now I know! We found an epic indie bookstore, too. It was GREAT!
And there was a fantastically awkward bus ride.
Well, there were a couple of those. And not all of them were fun. :P
But the one I'm referring to was funny because it...wasn't...funny.
I ended up buying 7 ninjas and 3 books.
Don't ask.
And all for $25.75!!
Woohoo. And now I'm going to crash. To bed!

Just a few things

2009-07-15T07:52:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving for Colorado in 8 hours!!
I'll be gone until the 25th!!
I couldn't sleep, so I started thinking about the Sorting Hat/Personality type thing and agree that Gryffindor's are SJ's and Slytherin's are SP's.
And it's just a trend in the house. Harry Potter was an SP and should've been a Slytherin. Dumbledore was an NF and should've been a Hufflepuff.
But it's still pretty cool.
Most of the SJ characters were in Gryffindor anyway, but a lot of NT's were either in Gryffindor or Slytherin, and all of the NF's were in Gryffindor.
But I'll try not to freak out too much.

It's obviously Anti-Semitic!

2009-07-14T14:36:00.000-07:00

"Jesus Christ Superstar" is better than Godspell.
Sort of.
I mean, it's far superior musically, storywise, and ended becoming more famous.
But it's not wonder other Christians hate it.
And I wasn't crazy about it.
I cried a lot during it, though.
Pilate's dream, Mary Magdalene's solo, The Last Supper, nearly every time Judas sang, you name it.
And yet, not a lot during the crucifixion.
After, yeah. But not during.
The whole thing was...weird, and definitely verging on blasphemous.
But I was reading about some of the stuff religious groups didn't like about the movie, and some of the stuff was inconsequential compared to other BIG things.
Jews didn't like it because it blamed Jesus' death on the Jews.
Um, well, yeah, it was mainly Jewish people that called for his death.
And it was the Jewish high priests that wanted him dead in the first place.
It's not as if Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice are raging Anti-Semites who want you all dead.
Blame Hitler if you need to. He was one.
Or other Christians freaking out because Pilate didn't have the dream about Jesus in the Bible! His wife did!
Wow...you would think those people would object to the fact that the movie states that Jesus WASN'T THE SON OF GOD and that Judas WAS JUSTIFIED.
Anyone who's read this blog for a long time knows I think Judas was a sympathetic character.
But I don't think Judas betrayed Jesus for the good of the people, or that he was right about Jesus being a liar.
And Jesus, for the larger part of the film, was portrayed as a petulant, spoiled, ambitious, hypocritical loser.
Then, later, it showed him doubting.
Both he and Jesus ended up yelling at God and showing him to be a cold God who either doesn't care about us or doesn't exist.
Then the disciples, right before he was crucified, started wondering if all he wanted was attention or perhaps an effective way to prove his point and didn't realize the consequences.
Most of the disciples were shown as misguided punks who deserved better.
Then Jesus is dead.
His disciples do NOT carry him around the city singing, "Long Live God".
Instead, he's dead. They mourn. They scatter. And that's all there is.
Wow. How depressing.
My dad won't admit it, but he loved it. He knows all the songs.
My mom hates it. Probably because it's "Anti-Semitic".
I'm undecided.
I watched "Les Miserables" yesterday, though, and LOVED it.
Mmm, Hans Matheson.
I can't tell if Claire Danes is really pretty or really odd looking.
Maybe both?
Geoffrey Rush was scary. I managed to stop screaming, "Barbossa! Barbossa!" midway through the movie.
The suicide was a little overdramatic.
And Liam Neeson somehow walked away from that encounter unscathed, not emotionally traumatized at all.
But, overall, great movie.
I haven't gotten any farther in the book. There's a large section on Waterloo that keeps mocking me.
Ugggggggh I would love to skip that part, but I'm scared I'll miss something important.
I leave for Colorado tomorrow night. We'll be gone for a week and a half.
WOOOO!!! I'm excited.

Aw, fudge.

2009-07-09T20:24:00.000-07:00

Mmmm, fudge sounds goooooood.
I took my driver's test today...aaaaaaaand it didn't go so well.
It wasn't even like, "Oh, you missed it by this much!" I failed miserably.
And I knew it.
First thing on the test: PARALLEL PARKING.
I'd had five people tell me it wouldn't be on the test, but I guess I didn't read the pamphlet thoroughly enough, because I had to do it.
That was the first thing I did wrong.
I hit a cone, then tried to pull into the parking spot, but ended up parking NEXT to the spot.
I was completely parallel, too. How did that happen?
So I tried again.
Another epic failure.
My driving instructor, a really nice Guamanean lady, sighed and wearily asked me to re-enter traffic.
Which I did.
For the rest of the test I did fine. I'm a good driver.
Sort of.
Then I had to back around a corner.
I thought I understood her instructions, but apparently I wasn't listening hard enough or my brain malfunctioned, because an instant after she said them I forgot. I started turning my wheels every which way, bumping into the curb, ramming into brick walls, and asking, "Wait, you want me to turn into the driveway? Straight line into the driveway? Oh, turn RIGHT!" So I turned my car left.
She sighed again and asked me to re-enter traffic without killing anybody, which I managed to do.
The atmosphere of the car wasn't a hopeful one. A dark cloud hung over the Le Sabre and her body language boded ill.
But she was really nice about it.
Ed would have berated me and explained every little thing I did wrong and what a bad driver I was, compared to him and every other teenager out there.
Actually, that's kind of what she did.
But the WAY she did it wasn't as mean.
So she left and my dad came back and I had another big fight with him (we'd had one coming into the parking lot, when he decided constructive criticism was the best way to go - right before my test!!!).
He wanted me to go inside the DOL and renew my permit.
At this point, after *cough cough* bravely listening to my instructor tell me just how badly I failed, I couldn't take it anymore was bawling like a baby.
And my dad expected me to go inside, red-eyed and tear-stained, to smile for my permit picture.
That didn't go over well.
So he yelled a lot and I cried and might have cussed him out.
Correction: I did cuss him out.
Which he let go. I was a little surprised. I've never been grounded, but for what I said, I probably should have been.
It was bad.
But my mom bought me flavored Tootsie rolls and let me chill out and get away from people for a little while.
So Tie and I went on a long walk.
We were greatly cheered by cheery mechanics, cute old people, and skeevy old bikers.
The Lance Armstrong kind, not the tough leather-clad variety.
This one rode by me at least 5 times.
The last time he called out, "Good morning," and smirked heartily.
It cracked me up, but I couldn't figure out his motives.
Was he checking me out (unlikely) or trying to prove that he was so much faster than A GIRL WALKING HER DOG?
Congratulations! You can bike 2 miles faster than I can walk them! Good for you! By the way, I'M 16!!!!
He was at least 30.
Maybe even 40.
Ew.

I'm gonna get so drunk...on Mountain Dew!!

2009-07-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

Tie and I were accosted by some Mormons today.
We'd seen them approach a couple people walking in front of us, so we crossed over to the other side of the street, just to be safe.
There's nothing wrong with Mormons. But I didn't want to take part in a polite, but passionate spiritual debate.
They saw me and greeted me anyway, commenting on Tie's interesting appearance.
For those of you that haven't seen her, she looks like a giant bat/miniature wolf.
Then they politely asked me if I'd be interested in going to their church.
I asked if they meant the Mormon church.
Our conversation went something like this.
"Hello there, ma'am. Are you enjoying your walk?"
"Um...yes." The sky is a lovely dark gray and it's 60 degrees outside. I'm walking 2 miles in flip-flops with an overly-curious dog. Not so much.
"Wow, what kind of dog is that."
I didn't really feel like explaining. "I don't know. I got her off the internet." Weird as it sounds, that happens to be true.
There is a brief moment of good-natured laughter.
"Well, ma'am, would you be interested in checking out our church?"
Um, do you mean temple? "Um, do you mean the Mormon church?"
"Yes, that's it's nickname."
More laughter.
I tried to extricate myself from the situation politely without coming off as a Bible thumper. This is what I managed to come up with: "Um...no thanks. I believe in the Bible, not the Book of Mormon."
The Mormons only seemed a little offended, but they got more aggressive with their pitch.
"We believe in the Bible, too!"
"No, thanks...I'm good." Aren't I so wonderful with people?
"Oh, well, do you know who wrote the Book of Mormon?"
What kind of question is that? "No...."
"Well, it was written around the same time as the Bible. In fact, they were written at the same time." Um, that's cool. I'm really not sure what you're trying to prove.... "I really don't think you understand. We could definitely explain it to you so you DO understand."
"Um, no, that's okay. I'm just...not in the mood for a spiritual debate. Have a nice day, though."
"Oh. Okay. Well, have a nice day."
I felt bad. Maybe I should have talked to them, but I know they would have talked me down. And I didn't really feel like explaining the differences between our two "religions" and pointing out that what they believe is COMPLETELY different from what I believe.
And as soon as I walked away, I thought up all this stuff I could've said that would've been direct, but not overly confrontational.
But that's how life works.
I like Mormons in general. For some reason, they're always really polite and chatty.
Sure, some of them get a little overzealous.
But there were two Mormons who talked to me today, and the one who didn't do any talking was completely cheerful and friendly, where the other guy was friendly, but still a little persistent.
And my Mormon guy friends are chivalrous, respectful, and moral.
So all the good ones aren't taken. They're Mormon. And the Bible (I couldn't resist being a little preachy) told me I shouldn't get involved with someone who doesn't believe in Hell.
Or that Jesus was the Son of God.
Oh, and good works aren't everything.

Glad that's settled...sort of....

2009-07-06T17:23:00.000-07:00

Not again.
I might have a friend who's angling for a more-than-friends relationship.
But I'm really not interested.
We were hanging out today, though, and he told me some interesting stuff about his best friend.
The one who led me on for an entire school year.
THAT one.
He wanted to know "what had happened between us", because not a lot of people knew what was going on at the time.
So I told him the basics without going into the whiny, dirty details.
His reply?
"Hm, intesting. That's basically what he said, but he told me you were WAAAAAY more into it than he was."
Excuse me?
That annoyed me a little. Okay, a lot. He'd semi-stalked me for a month before our whole "relationship" debacle began, and did all sorts of creepy boyfriend type things, even though we never officially went out.
Oh yeah, but he wasn't into it.
But it sort of made sense that he would say that, because don't most guys say stuff like that? "Oh yeah, I broke up with her. It just wasn't working. She was way too into it!"
Then he started telling me about all of his ex-girlfriends and how he led on a BUNCH of other girls, including me.
Oh, and one of my best friends, who ALSO liked him at the time.
WTF?? I feel like I've walked into a teen drama.
The whole situation was stupid when it was happening, but this is RIDICULOUS!
And it makes me mad that after everything, I thought, "You know, he made a mistake, but so did I. It just didn't work out, that's all."
But no. It turns out this guy is REALLY a jerk, and he's been hurting girls ON PURPOSE because he's a JERK.
And I'm still FRIENDS with him!
Ugh. I was pretty mad after that.
And my friend, the one telling me all this, was like, "Yeah, he's kind of a dick."
UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR!!!
So they're still friends, and he's still in my group of friends, but apparently he's been saying stuff about me behind my back (and I haven't exactly refrained from doing the same to him, to be honest...), so this coming school year, I don't exactly think we'll be hanging out.
I just wish my friends didn't like him so much.
Then again, he has sort of changed in the past year, and has been making a big deal about how much more popular/stylish/cool/knowledgable he is compared to the rest of us band kids.
So hopefully he'll decide to just go away.
I'm also mad that he refused to talk to me about it, and I had to figure out what really happened from his best friend months later.
Ugh. Stupid.

Cheesy e-mail forwards gone wrong

2009-07-05T15:38:00.000-07:00

My dad's friends have been sending us a billion, like "For all who love dogs-hahaha" and "Kids explaining the Bible - too funny"!
But there was this one sent that made me cry.
And I felt stupid. But some of them were so sad.
Yesterday was a little bit sad for my grandpa.
Well, not a little bit.
His sister died, and he had to spend most of the day like it didn't bother him, being the host.
And he'd been expecting it.
But something like that would still ruin your day.
Or week.
It was a great picnic, though. Usually I hate the Fourth of July, but I actually enjoyed myself this year.
The ice cream took forever to make, but it was delicious, as usual.
The blackbottom cupcakes were delicious. Nathan tried to steal the one Grandma was saving. But he failed.
I ate an entire bar of Hershey's, but it was disappointing. Kind of dry. Disgusting.
There was some random guy I'm almost positive I'm not related to.
Funny how hormones work.
You see someone you like and decide to be on your "best behavior". From that moment on, you make a complete fool of yourself.
Other times, when you don't like anyone and you're just being yourself, you unknowingly attract someone else.
Weird. No one really wins.

Refreshing foot spray!

2009-07-03T17:20:00.000-07:00

It has rosemary and eucalyptus oil in it.
How...fabulous.
I used to hate the smell, but it's kind of grown on me.
It's a summer pasttime. Might as well spend all my time on quizilla.
I'm actually pretty into "Anne of Green Gables", as lame as that might sound.
I finished the first one and am making my way through "Anne of Avonlea".
I've read the first three a couple of times, but forgot how much I like the series.
So I'll finish that series while reading another and trying to finish "Les Miserables".
Like that'll ever happen.
But I'm hoping that maybe...someday...
Psh. I know what happens to Valjean anyway.
"Love's Labours Lost" is my new favorite Shakespeare play! It's a riot, even funnier than "The Taming of the Shrew"!
There are all sorts of inappropriate sex jokes.
Boyet made one about inserting his arrow into Rosaline's mark or something, and the translation at the bottom was, mark: female genitals, arrow: penis.
Rather shocking.
Biron was my favorite. The King and the three scholars all wrote sonnets to their lady loves, but Biron's was the best.
I swooned a little bit reading it. He can shoot my mark anytime.
But I was expecting a huge quadruple wedding at the end, but it wasn't to be.
I could care less about the other people, but Biron and Rosaline were supposed to rush into each other's arms and embrace passionately.
Oh well. At least she said she'd consider marrying him in a year's time.
And I like how one of the themes was Girl Power. All the guys were losers.
Except Moth.
I've been cooing a lot. Maybe I should stop exposing myself to overly romantic stuff.
But I can't help it! Awwww, Biron. Awwww, Gilbert Blythe. Stuff like that.

SJs rule the world...no wonder...

2009-07-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

Male and Female Personality Graphs

2009-07-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

You're so vain...

2009-07-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

Parents.
Yes, the only reason I'm alive is so I can make you mad, Dad.
You see, it's my fault the concert in Keyport ended early.
So I sat in the backseat of the car trying to make him laugh, while he explained to me how my jokes weren't funny because they were innacurate.
Yes, I know Michael Jackson wasn't an albino. That's not the POINT.
But I digress.
I'm 58 pages into Les Miserables! Yes! Only 1410 pages to go!
Crap. I'm trying to find this book I saw about the art of making playlists, but it doesn't seem to exist.
My brother and I got into an argument regarding Les Miserables.
After listening to the CD a billion times, I found it rather depressing. The peasants continued to lead hopeless lives where no one gave a crap, and most of the "good guys" die. Marius is getting married and should be the happiest man alive, but he can't help thinking about all the friends he lost and can't celebrate. He literally lost ALL of his friends. Every single one of them DIED!
But Nathan argued that, later in history, the good guys eventually won, so the musical wasn't sad at all. And Javert, one of the "bad guys" died, so not everything was bad.
Hello? Eponine is dead. Gavroche is dead. Javert wrestles with his conscience and has the chance of becoming a good man, but decides he can't live with himself after all the things he's done and KILLS HIMSELF. Thenardier, one of the villians, ends up on top by robbing people. And Valjean, the hero, a changed man who's lived a full life, DIES.
Sure, of old age, with his daughter by his side, but STILL.
It's not the kind of thing I listen to when I want to be HAPPY.
But no, Nathan berated me for not thinking of the historical context and for even being sad at all.
Ugh. He was sort of joking, but of course he thought was right.
As usual.
We constantly butt heads over stuff like that.
I'll be sad about something, and he'll be all, "Well, logically..."
Irritating.
And yet my mom gets it???
Who knows.

Interesting theory....

2009-07-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

Someone just combined two of my favorite things: Myers-Briggs and Harry Potter!
They think that each of the four houses represents a different group of personality types.
Although I agree with another person who posted and said Slytherins were the Protectors and Gryffindors Creators, rather than the other way around.
Because many of the Gryffindors were rather impulsive (a P characteristic). The only one who wasn't was Hermione.
So that means:
Protectors (SJ): Slytherin
Creators (SP): Gryffindor
Intellectuals (NT): Ravenclaw
Visionaries (NF): Hufflepuff
I'm a Visionary (INFP), and I took one of the more accurate Sorting Hat quizzes, and it put me in Hufflepuff.
What do you know? That fits!
What a cool theory.
Psh. Gryffindors are overrated anyway.

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

Jesus sure looks nice in that Superman T-shirt

2009-07-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

Crap. "Les Miserables" is at the library.
All 1438 pages of it.
Aaargh.
I don't want to read that many pages!
I have 8 other series to read this summer!
And I could barely focus while reading LOTR, what with all the fighting and recapping.
The French Revolution is going to be even worse!
I read the abridged version. That should count for something.
William and I watched "Godspell" last night.
An article in A&E stated that there are two kinds of people: Godspell people and Jesus Christ Superstar people.
Not having seen Jesus Christ Superstar, I wouldn't know.
But I'm not really that into Godspell either.
It was pretty trippy.
People follow the magical horn of John/Judas the Baptist/Iscariot, who pops in out and out of windows, ballet dances, and libraries for some odd reason.
Then they all jump into the fountain and dance to "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord".
Then Jesus appears wearing nothing but blue boxers. He wants to get washed up!
After being baptized by John, he pops out of the fountain WEARING CLOTHES!
That part threw me a little, and I stared at the TV with my mouth open for five minutes afterward.
Then they went on to act out parables in strange, unorthodox ways.
Then again, Jesus himself was pretty unorthodox in his day.
But that didn't make the movie any less weird.
The music was great. Alas, alas, you lawyers and Pharisees! "Day by Day" was somewhat ruined for me by the fact that Robin sang like a man.
I really couldn't understand how tying a man's arms to a chainlink fence while he stands on a bucket could ever be fatal. I know that wasn't really the point, but still.
And then it was as if the director ALSO missed the entire point of Jesus' death: he DIDN'T rise from the dead!
And, yeah, whoever wrote the play obviously didn't believe Jesus had, didn't believe he was the Son of God, etc.
But still. Why write a play about Jesus if you leave out one of the most important parts?
And yes, I can think of reasons why.
But it made the ending somewhat of a bummer.
His disciples decide to carry his dead body around town, while they sing merrily.
Which could be interpreted as joy because they know Jesus did good things and now it was their turn to share the good news with other people.
But if Jesus never rose...what good news would they have to share?
I also found it weird that Jesus died but Judas lived.
The other disciples didn't seem mad at all that Judas betrayed and essentially killed their Rabbi.
In the Bible? He killed himself, because he felt so guilty, and maybe (this is speculation) he knew that the other disciples wouldn't be able to forgive him.
In fact, they might even have killed him.
So he beat them to it.
Which makes me sad because he screwed up big time, but he was sorry afterwards.
Yeah, that sounds lame, but it wasn't just, "Oh dear, I regret that decision." His attitude was, "How can I live with myself after what I've done? What a terrible decision!"
So he bought a field and possibly hanged himself. There's a verse that talks about his blood and guts flying everywhere, which didn't sound like a hanging. :O Maybe the other disciples got him after all.
When the high school did "Godspell" last fall, they changed the ending and it was pretty epic. Shafer had commented that the ending seemed kind of hopeless and wanted to include the Resurrection into the script. So, in the play, Judas and another disciple placed Jesus' body in a box. While they were singing "Long Live God", they opened the box and revealed to the audience that Jesus wasn't there (they literally tore that thing apart, so it was pretty obvious he was gone).
Then, when everyone was clapping, Jesus runs out in a white suit onto the stage and joins the other actors as they take their bow.
Genius? You bet.
But carrying around Jesus' corpse works, too.
Next, to torture ourselves, we're going to watch "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Oliver!". Should be fun.

I'm stepping through the door...

2009-06-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in a tin can, far above the world.
Though I'm past 100,000 miles, I'm feeling very skilled....
David Bowie.
Come on. Surely there's an unabridged version of "Les Miserables" out there somewhere.
My mom got the orginal Broadway cast soundtrack of the musical.
Hm. That sentence sounded suspicious.
Anyway...
I loved the book, until I found out it was abridged, and the music was beautiful.
Javert! Nooooooooooooo!
And Eponine.
Why?
She reminded me of Rebecca from "Ivanhoe" (another book I have yet to read, though my dad seems to be enjoying it).
But when we watched the movie, SHE was the one everyone was rooting for.
SHE was the one who actually DID something, rather than sit around pouting and looking Saxon.
SHE was GORGEOUS. Everytime you saw her, it was like, "Helloooooooo, Olivia Hussey!"
But no. He chooses shallow, petty, fugly Rowena.
Of course.
It just ticked me off.
And Eponine had a way better singing voice.
Josh disagrees with me about "Fiddler on the Roof".
He liked Perchyk, and considered him a "cool guy" who "told it like it was".
I thought he was a manipulative, controlling, selfish jerk who was supposedly so "giving" and didn't do anything for himself while he ruined everyone else's lives to suit his.
Grrr...
Gavroche!!!!!!! Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Beet down!!!

2009-06-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

Ha ha, that's what my T-shirt says.
With a picture of a dead beet lying on the ground.
No one I know got it.
Which sort of defeats the entire purpose.
The seeds have sprouted! My boobs might actually exist, and are bigger verging on ginormous!
5 years of acne and awkwardness suddenly became worth it.
Probably none of you wanted to know that, and it's not really a thing you would put out on the internet for all the world to see (especially since my grandma reads this), but...yeah, can't really justify.
Still, don't expect any pictures of them any time soon, or anything like that.
"Moulin Rouge" is on Channel 10, so my brother is watching it secretly.
But if it's on a regular channel, they cut out half the movie, so how bad can it be?
Ugh, Nicole Kidman is kind of making me mad.
She has this weird quasi-British accent and her Australian accent keeps popping up, though she pretends it doesn't.
And her voice is nasally when they sing.
It ticks me off.
A lot.
But I just watched the "Elephant Love Medley" scene.
And that's really all I wanted to see.
We had an awesome team meeting today at church.
Following two really good sermons, and fueled by delicious lasagna, we made crafts, roleplayed some scenes regarding recruiting people for VBS, and talked about chivalry and whatnot.
Ben made it clear that he didn't think we were really slutty or "tuned into the culture", but that we should watch what we wear anyway.
And that guys should take the lead, be chivalrous, and watch out for us when we went out and knocked on doors, in case some axe murderer attacks us or something.
It just nice. They seemed to take it pretty seriously.
So now I'm pumped. We're leaving on the 15th. Should be great.

Every dotcom's refreshing for the Journal update

2009-06-27T11:22:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

And they wonder why I'm paranoid...

2009-06-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

Just typing away in my own little world while my dad plunks away on piano.
But he's not paying attention.
Now that we have all this glorious free time, he's been thinking up all these projects we can do.
House cleaning projects, not Girl Scout crafts or anything.
We cleaned the windows yesterday. Weeee...
It involved a lot of Windex and Brawny paper towels.
I miss the old Brawny guy. Have I ever said that? He was a real man.
But anyway.
I cleaned the insides and he cleaned the outsides.
There was a frustrating point where he gave me really vague instructions on how to do something involving the vacuum, so, after spending an agonizing five minutes trying to figure out how to put the hose on (I figured it out eventually, lol), I vacuumed up all the dust and dog hair on the window sill.
How dog hair got on the window sill is beyond me.
But that's what I thought he wanted me to do.
But, apparently, I HADN'T done what he'd wanted and suddenly he's at me with all these detailed instructions.
And I got mad because if he'd wanted me to do all that, why hadn't he told me in the first place?
But his response was, "Well, I'm telling you now."
But I thought it was a job well done, and now he's telling me I haven't done the job at all. This wouldn't have happened if you'd told me in the first place!
"But I'm telling you now."
Ugh.
It's strange that we can't seem to communicate, even though we're more alike than different.
Thankfully, David Bowie was playing in the background and brought peace to the situation.
Half-Priced Books is my new favorite store.
My mom and I went on Wednesday, and we walked in to find a mini-Powells, with huge stacks of books, CDs, and stationary everywhere. There were hundreds of movies in wooden shelves that stretched halfway across the store. There was a music section with tons of CDs, new and old. I found Elvis Costello, David Bowie, Morrissey, the Beatles, Fall Out Boy, Rod Stewart, Michael Jackson, and Billy Idol, but ended up buying only one CD.
The teen section had more books than Barnes and Noble.
That section alone was bigger than the entire Used Book Store in Silverdale.
Maybe not.
But I found tons of stuff.
I ended up getting Princess Diaries #7 (the only one I needed besides the pesky 1/2 and 3/4 novels); two of my favorite books, "Chasing Redbird" and "The Boyfriend List"; "The Mother Daughter Book Club", which had cutesy tween illustrations on the cover and looked distracting; and David Bowie's "Changes"; and half a dozen books for my mom, all for only $32.
How amazing is that???
I haven't been this exciting since visiting Tacoma's Borders Books, where I bought two books for $7 each.
Borders is amazing...
...but Half-Priced Books is even better, I must say.
"Changes" is my new favorite song. Well, that and "Heroes". And "Diamond Dogs". And "Fame".
Ugh, my brother's friend is here and they're being irritating and pre-teen-y.
He was playing with Hillary, my Darth Sidious doll (long story).
Just playing around like it was totally okay.
It was not okay.
But I just kept my mouth shut and made grilled cheese.
It was a pretty delicious sandwich, too.

Because you know it's true

2009-06-25T21:38:00.000-07:00

You Are Jan Brady

Brainy and a little introverted, you tend to think life is a lot worse than it actually is.

And while you may think you're a little goofy looking, most people consider you to be a major babe.

What Brady Are You?

Wow....that sums up my entire life.
Except for the babe part.
Because I'm obsessed, I found a Harry Potter quiz on e lockhart's blog (THE NEW ROO BOOK IS COMING OUT SOON!!) and went to take it, only to find out it was the Meyers-Briggs personality test, but each result corresponded to a different character in the series. Most of the primary characters were there and it was enlightening and explained a lot of things about each of the characters and it was one of those things that nerds like me get off on.
And, according to personalitypage.com, a person's "natural mate" is a person whose personality type who's two middle letters are the same as your own, but the outer two are opposite.
For example: ESFJ's "natural mate" would be ISFP.
So, being a nerd, I took the results from the Harry Potter quiz and paired up the characters who seem to be made for each other.
And, of course, none of these characters got together in the books, because of age, sexuality, and morals (um, yeah, Voldemort)?
But it was still kind of cool.
For instance, Hermione's soul mate is Draco Malfoy.
Mwahaha.
ISTJ+ESTP = Hermione Granger + Draco Malfoy
ISFP+ESFJ = Harry Potter + Molly Weasley
INFP+ENFJ = Remus Lupin + Olympe Maxime
INTP+ENTJ = Voldemort + Minerva McGonagall
ISTP+ESTJ = Madam Hooch + Percy Weasley
INFJ+ENFP = Albus Dumbledore + Fred/George Weasley
INTJ+ENTP = (this is a good one) Severus Snape + Sirius Black
ISFJ+ESFP = Rubeus Hagrid + Ronald Weasley
So yeah. I just thought it was kind of cool. Because personality doesn't necessarily determine who you'll get along with, but it sort of explains why Mrs. Weasley considered Harry a part of the family. And why Dumbledore turned a blind eye to Fred and George's tricks.
But not why Severus and Sirius hate each other.
But we knew that already.
Farah Fawcett died today.
So did Michael Jackson.
On 20/20, they kept bringing up his many allegations of child molesting.
Or maybe it's not that many. But it's been more than once.
And Barbara Walters or one of the many blonde-helmeted news people asked him if he'd ever sexually "abused" a child, and he said, "Never, never, I would NEVER harm a child."
Yeah, but....
....a lot of child molestors don't think they're "hurting" the child at all.
It's weird, and messed up, and it doesn't justify what they do, but that's how they think.
So he wasn't guilty either time (he might have been once? I don't know)...but it makes you wonder if he was.
I don't know. I was just thinking about it.
And it made me sort of sad for him. Because his early life had sucked. A bunch.
But that's like saying, "Oh, that guy had a hard life. It's totally cool if he abuses his horse."
That was in a book, by the way. I didn't just randomly pull that out of the air.
But it wouldn't be any less weird if I had.

Prostitute? You mean courtesan!

2009-06-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

I finally saw "Moulin Rouge", and sort of understood why everyone was (and probably still is) obsessed with it.
Sort of.
The first part of the movie sucks.
It's a blur of crappy camera work, modern music (Nirvana? Really?), and crotch shots.
And John Leguizamo.
After listening to him whine as a semi-retarded sloth and a wannbe drag queen, I never want to see him in another movie ever again.
And yet, there he was, in all his mystical, drug-addicted, midgety glory.
Then Nicole Kidman was rolling around on the floor, pretending to have an orgasm, while Ewan McGregor decided to make the situation better by singing.
But it got a lot better.
Well, after they slogged through a ridiculous performance of "Like A Virgin".
"El Tango de Roxanne" was brilliant, with all the interwoven songs, and Christian's angst, and the Argentinian giving Sting a run for his money. The choreography was great, and the way the Duke shamed Satine was tragic, inevitable, and hard to watch, but also beautiful, in a sick way.
Zidler was hard to figure out. At first, he's sort of a bumbling, stupid pimp, then he's this selfish idiot, but he really cares for Satine and he somewhat selfishly decides not to tell her that she's dying until he needs some really good blackmail, but still loves and wants her happy, even though he knows real life won't let her be.
"The Show Must Go On" killed me. It was really hopeless and all these bohemians, prostitutes, actors, etc., who act as though their jobs and lifestyles are everything, really having nothing to live for and see life as this bleak, pointless thing, but that's how it must be and the show must go on.
One of the other dancers (courtesans, whatever), Chocolat, was my favorite. He saved Satine from being raped, and, throughout the movie, he understood everything she was going through. She fell in love, but of course couldn't afford to; it wasn't part of the job. She became sick with TB; the show must go on. She had to sleep with the Duke in order to finance the show and further her career; it's all part of the job. Through everything, he understood and "The Show Must Go On" also applied to him, because, really, what did he have to live for?
It made me wonder if he was one of the "disgusting" far out of the closet gays back in the day who was so despised that he had to go "underground" to Montmartre and the Moulin Rouge, yet had to sleep with the same people who hated him in order to make a living.
Sad stuff.
My mom compared it a lot to "Rent", because it borrowed themes from "La Boheme", but it also talked about immoral people from "the other side" who take a page from Ecclesiastes and proclaimed everything in life meaningless.
But I felt that "Rent"'s ending had some hope. Mimi had a near-death experience, but survived. She and her group of friends now needed each other more than ever and continued to live in the moment until their last breaths, thankful that they could live just a little bit longer.
"Moulin Rouge" had no hope. Satine dies, leaving the show (and Christian) without a leading lady. Christian chronicles their tale, a year later, and says that their love will last forever, but it doesn't sound as though he believes it, and, seeing as TB was SUPER contagious, he will most likely contract it and die pretty soon anyway. How depressing is that?
But yeah, great movie. Not perfect, but really good.
Emotionally traumatizing, orgasms and all.
Now if only I could figure out which soundtrack to buy.
Surely not both?

Can you blame me for wanting a super monkey?

2009-06-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

He's fast! He's strong! He'll pop all your bloons!
School finally let out on Thursday. Classes were only 27 minutes long, but each class was the longest 27 minutes of my life.
And I wore a skirt for the first time in 2 or 3 years. I was girling it up. Flaunting it. All that good stuff.
Then we went to Dairy Queen and I got the crappiest dipped cone I'd ever seen.
It was like a mountain rather than a triumphant curlicue. And not a beautiful mountain. If there is such a thing.
And it tasted like a melancholy cloud.
It would've been poetic if it hadn't been so disgusting.
GROSS!
And the weather has kind of sucked since then. It was like, "Woooo, Summer Break!!!" And yet there are clouds in the sky, it's down to 50 degrees, and it rained today.
Fun.
I hate it here.
But we went to Seattle for the Mariners game, which made me love Washington again.
I know. We have a complicated relationship.
My dad and I sat right behind home plate, and talked about music ("Do you like Candlebox Twenty?" "....") while eating delicious pizza and full-fat ice cream.
Yeah, I'll be honest; I only got to baseball games for the food.
But I managed to pay attention...and we won! So that was nice.
The helmet cups were overrated. It's $7 for a helmet full of ice cream, and you say to yourself, "A whole HELMET? With whipped cream? $7? BRING IT ON!" So you troop over to the ice cream stand and wait in line forever, all while chanting and psyching yourself up for a whole HELMETFUL of ICE CREAM! It's 7-year-old Bill Cosby's dream-come-true. So you get up there and fork over 7 bucks and choose from a grand total of 3 flavors...and then they bring out the helmet.
It's tiny.
It's smaller than the $5 cups they use for ice cream.
It's a rip off.
But it's so darn cute!

When you think about it...

2009-06-12T15:34:00.000-07:00

...Nair is sort of disgusting.
It does awful, awful things to your bodily hair.
When you feel the hair in question, it's awful and stringy and disgusting.
But that's after not shaving for a while.
It keeps the hair away longer! Yay!
Enough about that. I probably shouldn't be telling you that.
Ahem.
The crazy cheerleader that made me so angry yesterday is once again sending confusing signals.
But what else is new?
Soooooo one day she's insulting me, and the next she's trying to engage in stimulating conversation?
Or throwing herself at the guy I like for weeks at a time, then joking around with me and ignoring him for three days in a row?
WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME??????????????
I doubt her intention is to make my life hell.
At least not all the time.
But it's so weird. I can't figure her out.
And there are days when I'm bipolar like that, too, so I can sort of understanding, but still...?
Confused.
The oral book reports continued today.
I was really surprised by the one this one kid gave.
He did it on Laurie Halse Anderson's "Speak", which was a good book, but he didn't just like it, but it seemed like it really affected him.
And he was super honest in answering the questions about how he related to the main character and how he felt for her and you could tell me meant all of it.
It was really cool, because I'd never seen that part of him before.
He might be an ENFJ. Hm.
But, when reading up on personality types on this amazing website, they mentioned that everyone is different. Even a group of 20 ISTJs are completely different people, even though they might think or act similarly in certain situations.
So it helped remind me not to prejudge or go off on another rant about Sensors vs. Intuitives or Judgers vs. Perceivers.
Even when someone was asked WHY men abuse women, and someone answered with WHAT men do to women.
Because they gave the WHAT information, it was assumed they'd also covered WHY.
And the Intuitives in the room freaked out. Myself included.
It's part of dealing with people, I guess.
Phew. Sophomore's almost done. 4 more days. Then a whole summer of missions, sun, and working on people skills.
And teambuilding, now that you mention it.
Hm. Our team better start planning soon. And drama! The meeting's in two days! Memorize script!
AND FINALS ARE NEXT WEEK.
Phew.

Angry body language means she WANTS to be flirted with!

2009-06-11T14:36:00.000-07:00

Yes, that what it means.
Not.
DO NOT TOUCH ME.
Argh. One of those days that kept flipflopping. There were really good moments, followed by really frustrating moments.
We had to give an oral book report today, where, following a brief overview of the book, we'd answer the questions he gave us.
Of course, not thinking clearly, I chose "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides.
I had, after all, spent four hours finishing it the night before, and, though not perfect, was a great book.
And, yes, it was about a hermaphrodite.
That was probably my first mistake.
But the book report went fine. Yeah, some people freaked out because a hermaphrodite has *gasp* a penis AND a vagina! And the oh-so-subtle guys in the back were making fun of me the entire time.
But my friends thought it was cool, albeit freakish, a couple people asked questions, and Mr. Rosendale had read the book before and didn't give me any crap, so that helped.
And I honestly didn't care what they thought anyway.
Okay, I sort of cared.
But, then again, if I'd REALLY cared, I would have done a different book.
When I was finished, however, one of my least favorite people commented loudly, either too stupid to remember that I was a few feet away (understandable, she is a cheerleader), or bitchy enough to say this (strongly, STRONGLY leaning towards the latter), made the remark that I must read books like this because they make me feel better about myself.
-_- And a girl who called herself my friend thought this was hilarious. She laughed. Which felt great.
And whenever people make comments like this, people are quick to assure you that that person is just JEALOUS, and obviously so insecure that she has to take it out on someone like you.
That doesn't erase what she said, however.
And I feel all mad and self-righteous, and, "Oh well, at least I know HOW to read," and stupid, smart-kid comebacks keep popping up in my head.
Because of course I can't think of anything better.
And even though I say all that, I don't mean it, which I find unfair. I've NEVER had to refer to the stupid popularity dichotomy and though cheerleaders do tend to be idiots, I don't bury myself in clothes from Hot Topic and emo music so I can make fun of their stupidity and conformity like some (I do that in regular clothes).
But when she said that, it put me in that "Us vs. Them" mindset, where I thought because she's popular she thinks she's entitled to look down on "us nerds".
I really thought that.
And, speaking of stereotypes, I AM a nerd. I rely way too much on my "brains" and look down on "stupid people" and am not always the nicest person to be around. So even though she said that thing about me, I say things about her (though not always outloud, or at least not PUBLIC), so the only reason I'm mad is because I'M jealous of HER.
Which isn't fair but is sort of true.
Aaagh it's so complicated, yet simple, and contradictory, and for these reasons I hate high school girls, but I find this really depressing because that makes me the angsty, unpopular emo chick instead of the nice, well-rounded, not-bitchy, interesting I'd like to be.
And the so-called "balance" between the two isn't a great mixture.
So all that crap I just typed means nothing. I just had to vent.
I did see "Up" yesterday, which made me cry, but was also fantastic. Pixar's best movie, and way better than anything Dreamworks has ever done.
But I'll focus on that when I'm done pouting.
For now, I'll just listen to music and/or Tyler telling me how overdramatic I'm being and how I took what she said completely out of context. Sounds like a fun afternoon.

CLOSURE CLOSURE CLOSURE

2009-06-07T12:39:00.000-07:00

One of the fantastic differences between Judgers and Perceivers: Judgers need closure and if they don't have it they will hyperventilate and die. Perceivers really DON'T CARE.
Which is what happened when my mom asked if I would like to get together with my friend this afternoon, and I mistakenly said yes.
BOOM! Now there are all sorts of decisions to be made! What time should this take place? What are you going to do? Would this require transportation? Do you need money? Do either of you like cheesecake? Would she like to stay for dinner? CALL HER.
I just got home. I'd rather be a good introverted perceiver and recharge from all my socializing while pretending decisions don't need to be made and deadlines don't exist.
Anyway. That was kind of the theme of "Spectacular!":
Selfish ISFP wannabe rockstar is kicked out of his own band, and strikes a deal with desperate ESTJ show choir leader: if he agrees to be their male soloist and helps them win at Nationals, she will give him half the prize money (which he will then use to pay for his own demo).
It was terribly acted and had a cheesy plot riddled with cliches.
And it was a musical.
In other words: fabulous.
Nickelodeon does better movies because, unlike Disney, they don't consider "butt" a cussword and have the female lead make witty comments about the villain's weight.
Tee hee.
The morals weren't all that positive, though. Screw authority! Do what you want to do! Blame corporate America! Judgers are tightwads who always need a schedule! Be a Perceiver and go with the flooooooow!
Fun times.
I finished "Every Young Woman's Battle".
Yay! A Christian book that doesn't shy away from sex or insist on telling stupid allegories about sexual purity!
They got fairly graphic, but only a little bit. And they made good points, but didn't condemn those who'd had sex before. They ALSO (thank God) didn't act all condescending and imply that the "sinners" were forgiven, but God would always remember the nasty, dirty, rotten little tarty things they'd done before.
*cough* Christy Miller *cough*
The author herself had had sort of a bad past, and she said, "I'm telling you this because I wish I'd known." But she's married with two kids and finally happy, and she's trying to show girls that they can be happy, too, rather than sneering self-righteously at them and telling that, even though he SHOULDN'T, God would "forgive" you.
*cough* Pastor Jim *cough*
The last few chapters were cool, too. It talked about marriage, Christian guys' perspective on girls, and true love, which, surprisingly, ISN'T A FEELING. That explains a lot. When I was reading it, I was looking at the things it said about "relationships" (still hate that word) and what you need to have to be ready for one, and I'm not even close, so I'm putting my purity ring to good use and am not going to date. I lost two really good guy friends by trying to rush into Coupledom, so I'm going to spare myself the drama and focus on my relationship with God instead.
Which sounds just as self-righteous and condescending as the people I described.
But I don't mind.
As long as I don't grow up to be Christy Miller.
"God is awesome. OMG TODD! God who?"

Venting, venting, one, two three

2009-06-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

Awesome. So I'm a terrible friend.
Because I get a ride home with my neighbor ONCE IN A WHILE, not every day, but when she does pick me up, it's like I have to race in order to guarantee my spot.
Because my other friend wants a ride.
Even though she lives 10 minutes out of the way, while I live across the street from my neighbor, so she's acting like winner gets a ride home when IT'S MY RIDE. NO ONE SAID YOU COULD GET A RIDE HOME.
But unless they say, "Get out of the car, you moron," she doesn't get out. And they feel bad for making her get out. I mean, it's not her fault....
Ugh. It didn't make me so mad before, because I don't mind walking, but when I'm expecting a ride home from school and all my friends have ALREADY LEFT and I want to play with the BABIES on my nice, restful RIDE HOME, it's frustrating to have my friend go, "So sad. I got here first. Have a nice walk!"
Today, she handed me a stack of CDs she'd borrowed from me (at least 15 of them), and said, "Yeah, it sucks that you'll have to carry those home. While you walk, I mean."
!!!!!!!!!!
And she offered to walk home with me to "help" carry them....
....but she didn't offer to give up her nice, comfy seat in the car, now, did she?
And apparently she's mad at me, so she feels good about taking my seat.
But whenever we hang out she acts like everything's fine.
Whatever. I'll just ride with my mom and/or walk until the end of the school yaer.
Thankfully I won't have to deal with it next year.
Sorry. It's just been irritating me all day, that she's been doing this, but whenever I show up at the car first, she CRIES. Okay, not in front of me, but she feels like crap. And she tells her mom. Who calls my mom.
Which is ridiculous.
So I'm the villain here. It's all my fault. Bad Lauren.
13 more days!
Awards ceremony!
CK graduation?
Can't go to that, even if I wanted to.
Soren's leaving. :(
Rosey's retiring. :(
"Bless Me Ultima" sucks, as does "Swing Kids".
Some stupid kids FREAKED OUT while we were watching "Swing Kids" today, because they commented on Count Basie's music, and how the Count was a "negro".
All 12 of them, NOT ONE OF THEM BLACK, kept saying, "Awwww man, that's JACKED UP!! How could they say that? That is SO MESSED UP! I can't believe they SAID THAT. It's a DISNEY movie!"
Hello? That's what they said back then!
And it's not like they said the other n-word, or "colored", or "coon", or anything like that!
And it was all the Filipino kids saying this. The black kids didn't CARE!
Oversensitive much?
Ha ha ha. I'm going to sign that petition. Because David Bose told me to.
Everything but marriage!

Christians at an alehouse?

2009-05-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that I didn't get into bed until 2:00 AM last night, and then Tie stole all the covers, Grad Night last night was pretty bomb.
And yeah, I was the only one who didn't whip out a brand new prom dress for the occassion.
But my dress was one of those perfect, God-given shopping moments.
You see it and you just know.
Because my life is a romantic comedy with Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman.
Ew, I just watched "Kate and Leopold" and it was terrible.
They always describe Meg Ryan's characters as "quirky" and "independent" when the proper word would probably be "ditzy" or "clueless".
Anyway.
Good times.
And the pastors didn't give me questionable stares because of the amount of leg and cleavage I was showing.
Speaking of pastors, Pastor Mike hid under the stage for 3 HOURS during the "Clue"-esque production put on during dinner.
It's always the quiet ones...
...but it was really Milton Bradley.
And it was a little disappointing pulling up to BJ's in Tacoma after a seemingly endless drive, but the Pizookies were totally worth it.
And the flatbread pizza.
Mmmm, vanilla bean ice cream.
And our waitress was all wise and actually enjoyed her job.
Why that was memorable, I don't know why.
But she was nice.
And had cool hair.
And gave Josh an orchard full of lemons for his homemade lemonade.
Harry Potter seems like perfect summer reading material.
Because every book opens in the beginning of summer, when it's hot out and everyone but Harry is lazing about.
And then, while you laze about yourself, you get to read about a school 10 times cooler than yours will ever be.
Even if it's always cold there.

You don't have morality; you're a dog!

2009-05-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

Ha ha, Michael Medved.
The gay penguins broke up.
One of them moved out.
How sad.
I thought they would last forever.
Athletic shorts!
California was awesome.
True, we only got to see restaraunts and theme parks, but the weather was great, the scenery was beautiful, and the people were...completely fake, but who cares about them?
We were coming back on the plane, and there were clouds and it was just a little bit colder, and everyone went, "NOOOOOOOO, TURN AROUND NOW!"
As Steve so aptly put it, "Why be happy when you could live in Washington?"
The weather here has been great this week, however. 77 degrees today. w00t
"Lagaan" was actually really good.
Or at least enjoyable. And entertaining.
And he picked the right girl. I was so happy.
Now for "Slumdog Millionaire"!
They're making a remake of "Fame"!
I'm pumped.
Grad night is tomorrow.
Ew, dress.

Smart people are afraid of cars

2009-05-20T16:55:00.000-07:00

But who said America was full of smart people?
We're getting on the plane at 9:00 AM tomorrow.
In order to do this, we have to be at the airport by 7:00 AM.
In order to get there on time, we need to leave the house by 5:30 AM.
In order to get ready in time, we need to wake up at 4:30 AM.
Why??
That's so early!!!
Jessica's sleeping over.
There are overly greasy, very moist Otis Spunkermeyer muffins for breakfast.
Kevin will be waiting in the dark all creepily.
Sarah has some of my stuff, but that's okay.
I don't have a swimsuit. >:(
"Shipping will take 1-2 business days."
Whatever. It's been, what, a week now?
Grrr.
It'll be 70 degrees every day.
The weather just started getting nicer here, though.
So we're going to miss out.
By the time Monday rolls around, it'll be raining again.
Pessimism: The spice of life!
Psssh. Why is looking at the glass as half empty a bad thing?
People who see it as half full still don't have enough water.
Californiaaaaaaaaaa, Californiaaaaaaaaaa, here we cooooooooooooooooooooooooooome.

Why would they write out all the eye candy in one episode?

2009-05-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

Oh no.
"Robin Hood" just gets worse from here!
We just finished the episode about racism and slavery and Islam yesterday.
How fantastically preachy.
Christians are wimpy pansies who hate Muslims! Only Muslims know how to worship properly! Religion actually means something to them!
And who didn't know that Djak was a girl?
Her boobs were pretty obvious. And her pants were pretty tight.
But Will Scarlett couldn't tell until he walked in on her naked, and was like, "Boobs? You have boobs?"
She freaked out and hit him in the face with a tree branch.
Way to be all nonchalant.
I miss Roy.
If they were going to kill off a character, why couldn't it have been Little John? No one likes him anyway.
And if Robin is so "noble", why does he only give himself up when he knows there's a way out?
Roy sacrificed himself for his friends, and he KNEW there would be no saving him.
:(
I have to say it.
MY TWO FAVORITE CHARACTERS LEAVE THE SHOW AFTER THE SECOND SEASON!!
WHY???
WHY?????????
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY??????
>:(
And it's not Robin Hood.
But they are getting a new actor for the part of Robin in Season 4. Hmmmm....

Robin Hood: the terror continues

2009-05-17T07:46:00.000-07:00

AAAAAAAAAGH!
I HAAAATE Robin Hood.
He's an egotistical, chauvinistic mysoginistic jerk, but everything he does is rationalized as heroism and self-sacrifice.
Like how he gives himself to the law every five minutes, but always has a plan of escape.
And how he waits to see the gratitude of the people he saves before leaving, because without it he's nothing.
And how he's all condescending about Marian and how "womanly" she is, because as a woman back then, she had no power, and completely hijacked her "save the starving peasants" operation, even though she specifically asked him not to "help", but whenever she offers him help, he's like, "NOOOOO, GET AWAY, WOMAN!"
Ugh.
Roy!!
Nooooooooooo!
I didn't even like Roy all that much.
He'd definitely lost a battle to an Ugly Stick a long time ago.
And he had a really annoying accent and kept saying stuff like, "Lavendar boy," and, "See ya!"
But he was forced to choose between his mother and Robin Hood.
And he chose to kill Robin Hood.
Which fell through.
Lame.
But they went to save his mother (oh boy, ANOTHER rescue mission), and she was going to be hanged, but they saved her until...
DUN DUN DUN.
...the Sheriff got Roy by the throat and threatened to kill him if Robin Hood didn't leave.
But Robin Hood HAAAAAAD to be the hero and was like, "If one dies, we all die."
And all the Merry Men just looked at him like he was crazy. "Dude, we don't like Roy THAT much."
But Roy knocks the knife out of the Sheriff's hand and is like, "Run, guys, run!"
And then he allows himself to be stabbed at least 30 times by guards while his pansy friends run away!
:O
Talk about self-sacrifice.
We're only 4 episodes into the series and already an important character is dead!
Why couldn't it have been Robin?
Although without Robin, there would be no show.
Lol, I love the Sheriff. He reminds me of Mr. Rosendale. Tres amusant.
Mmmmm I want me some Will Scarlett.
I don't the think with Guy of Gisborne is going to work out. Apparently he has some illegitimate children...and baby mama drama.

With a love like that, you know should be...

2009-05-16T16:46:00.000-07:00

GLAD!!!
The parade wasn't bad today.
It went really well.
And it was fun.
It always is, though. Everyone makes a big deal about how hot it is and how much they hate marching, and then they get to the parade and instantly perk up.
Marching in those hot uniforms in heat = not so much fun.
We sounded okay until the last leg of the parade.
By then we were too chopped and tired to play all that well.
And my trombone, which isn't that heavy, suddenly seemed to weigh a billion pounds.
But there was Living Water and chocolate Drumsticks to look forward to.
Mmm.
Jake loved the parade. Charlie slept. Isabelle liked it for the most part, until the iron fist of discipline came down for no particular reason.
My mom's Mother's Day present finally arrived.
We bought her the first season of BBC's "Robin Hood".
Being BBC and all, we were expecting something semi-spectacular.
The show isn't completely awful.
But it was made by (and probably for) guys.
Robin Hood is always fighting, scoring with some random chick, or making a statement.
He went on for an entire episode about how war is bad and we should be giving to the poor and how injustice will not be tolerated.
The Sheriff then countered that he was just upholding the law, and told Robin Hood that everyone needs laws and structure, so really the bad guy was Robin Hood.
Please. What a subtle allegory.
Crusades = war in Iraq. Giving to poor = better health care. Sheriff = George W. Bush.
So Robin Hood himself is pretty annoying. And he has a spectacular cleft chin.
But there are plenty of other reasons to keep watching the show.
Like Guy of Gisbourne is Jack Thornton from "North and South"!!!
And he's a bad guy with long, greasy hair, but who cares!?
His children will have such beautiful profiles.
And Much is actually sort of funny.
Will Scarlett is sort of annoying and brooding and intense, but pretty cute. With a really weak chin.
Maid Marian is a cutie, and is sort of a stereotyped "outspoken woman of the time period", but she's fairly witty and acknowledges multiple times how lacking in sex appeal Robin Hood really is.
So this show is sort of addicting.
We're on episode three. The fun continues tonight!
We see Robin Hood fight...we watch Robin Hood score...
And then he manages to do both AT THE SAME TIME!

Could I be different, too?

2009-05-13T15:52:00.000-07:00

Nobody knows you, nobody knows you like I do.
"Lagaan" sucks. Surprise! Bollywood musical! But everyone who's seen it has apparently loved it.
The dialogue is awful, and the acting isn't much better.
:P
But "La Belle et La Bete" is pretty fantastic, for a 40's fantasy movie.
The special effects are cheesy, but kind of cool.
Except for the faces on the mantle. And the bed covers that pull back by themselves.
Just about peed my pants watching those.
The Beast is kind of a creeper, but not as much as Avenant, who practically rapes Belle in the first 5 minutes.
If she says no, it's rape!
But he apparently doesn't care.
Luckily, Ludovic walked in.
Ludovic is sort of an awful person, but a nice brother. At least to Belle.
But he tells Avenant to slap his other sister (who's crazy), so Avenant does, and then he gets all mad and is like, "HOW COULD YOU SLAP MY SISTER? WHAT IS IT WITH YOU AND MY FAMILY!? NEVER TOUCH HER AGAIN! EVEN THOUGH I DON'T LIKE HER AND SORT OF WANT HER TO DIE ANYWAY!!!"
Okay.
A bunch of people are doing Running Start next year, which is a waste of time, but I can't stop them, which I want to, because it's a waste of time and other such things.
But I guess I can't stop them.
But one of my friends keeps asserting that NOTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE and that we'll still hang out ALL THE TIME and she'll GO TO PROM and everything.
But it won't be the same, and she refuses to see that, but I can't TELL HER THAT.
And she acts like I'm challenging her decision ALL THE TIME, but I haven't said anything, because she's doing it no matter what I say, so why bother?
We have new seats in English, and they suck.
Terribly.
Because all the annoying people gravitated to the same spot.
And just have fascinating conversations.

Jelly Battle, ha ha ha

2009-05-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

I'm a corporal! Take that!
I'm a sergeant!
But not a captain.
Well, now I am.
I guess I don't really get Pandemic at all.
It was really cute, the Sunday School classes came out and handed carnations to all the mothers for Mothers Day.
One of Mike's kids gave me a flower.
But I'm not a mother.
But that's okay.
Lol, the game Pandemic is completely awful, but sort of entertaining.

What IS my butt telling the world?

2009-05-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

Awww, it's freakish.
I'm laidback, but uptight?
Tyler ate glue the other day.
He took a huge bite of an almond-scented Elmer's stick.
And nearly threw up.
Sometimes I wonder about him...
We listened to random screamo and metal bands today.
Like THE CLASSIC CRIME.
Which is really funny for some strange reason.
I sort of spaced out all week and haven't been paying attention in most of my classes.
Which could be a bad thing.
But I finished "Brideshead Revisited" just the other day, and it was so worth it.
And all of Evelyn Waugh's other novels have received high praise, so this might be the summer of classic literature.
Followed by the annual Harry Potter binge.
Evelyn Waugh was a Catholic. Huh. Charles Ryder displayed such a convincing disdain for it.
Charles and Sebastian were gay together, that's for darn sure.
Anthony Blance was hilarious. "Don't be a tease, Toni, buy me a drink."
He would just randomly pop up with his boyfriend of the moment, analyze people, and disappear again.
Aloysius. "He was portrayed by a teddy bear named Delicatessen."
Once the TV series came out, it was suddenly cool to carry teddy bears around again.
I love Lady Gaga. She'll just do something ridiculous, but stand by it.
"Yeah. I carry around a giant teacup. What are you doing to do about it?"

17 DAYS!!!

2009-05-04T17:27:00.001-07:00

Really. I've run out of witty titles.
A fun, drama-filled weekend, followed by an equally challenging Monday.
Okay, deflecting is not fair.
When you're being a hypocrite and treating people like crap, you are not allowed to deflect people's comments towards your behavior and be like, "Whatever, it's just you."
>:(
And one of my friends made a BIG deal about how emotional I am all the time and how bitchy my other friend can be when she's PMS-ing.
Then she spent the whole next day snapping at people and being an emotional wreck.
Et tu, Brute?
Of course, if we said anything, we were chewed out for being insensitive.
So then a fight erupted and I got thrown in the middle.
Thanks, guys.
Guess who ended up apologizing?
Us, of course. After we were so horrible to her, after all.
-_-
Just lame. So we got that out of the way. Sort of.
Then I get to lunch and someone who's supposed to be my "friend" is ragging on me about EVERYTHING.
And he's trying to pass it off as "just joking", but he's saying really mean stuff and his body language and tone of voice are completely negative.
And when I made one joking comment back, he got REALLY offended and spent the rest of the lunch period, "Gosh, SOMEONE'S moody. And impatient. And mean. I'm not saying you're mean ALL the time [which he was], just sometimes. But whatever. You're so immature. You have an excuse for every time you screw up."
WTF????????????????
And yeah, we've been having friendship "issues" as of late.
That little "situation" I've been talking about has been going on for a whopping 6 weeks, but neither of us want to deal with it.
So we both sort of swept it under the rug.
And I was still annoyed about it, but he kept saying, "Whatever, I don't care," so in order to keep him as a friend I had to act like I didn't care either.
But I'm not the one insulting him at lunch for an entire thirty minutes without respite.
Finally, I was like, "WHAT IS YOUR DEAL? Why are you being such a jerk and targeting me? If you really have such a big problem with me, you can leave."
His witty reply?
"Whatever. You're not the boss of me."
Congratulations! You're 12-years-old! Regression becomes you.

ESTP? That's a lie!

2009-05-01T18:02:00.000-07:00

Your Birthday's Wisdom is Rebirth

You believe the beauty of life is that anyone can be reborn at anytime.

The world is full of fresh starts, and you take one whenever it comes your way.

You are constantly evolving and changing. And to you, that's a beautiful thing.

You aren't the person you used to be... you're so much better now!

What's Your Birthday's Wisdom?

STRENGTHS FINDER!! FIND YOUR STRENGTHS!

2009-05-01T17:37:00.000-07:00

My mom bought "Strengths Finder 2.0" and I just took the test.
My top 5 strengths are:
1. Adaptability
2. Empathy
3. Intellection
4. Connectedness
5. Developer
I was sort of skeptical of the first one, but it actually seems to fit.
Connectedness and Developer...not so much.
Some of the descriptions fit, but they make me sound like Locke on "Lost".
EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON!!!!
And Developers sound like coaches. Like Mr. Freeman. Like Coach Allen.
But everything is scarily accurate.
Some of the phrases jumped out at me, and I was like, "THAT'S ME!"
Sort of like that ice-breaker game they have you play at camp.
Stuff has been happening.
Yes. Stuff. Nothing important, hence the informative noun and lack of adjectives.
Chris read the poem from "10 Things I Hate About You" a few days ago for his poetry presentation. It was genius. I did Classic Crime's "Headlights" and it didn't go over so well, so I was jealous.
Janessa's a big sister...four months early. But the baby's doing okay.
Charlie, Jake, and I were in the back seat of Toni's car, and Jake kept flashing me and Charlie was going to scream.
>:( They won't let me play with them anymore.
I'm sort of pumped for the team meeting this Sunday. Kristine and I are going to hang out beforehand, and it's fun having my closest friends there when we talk about VBS. None of them are in my group, but the people in my group are pretty cool and we get along all right...so far, anyway. And there are other people that are actually really awesome that I wish I'd hung out with before, so I'm excited to get to know them.
How very Pollyanna.
She got to eat a 6-layer cake.
Whenever I think of that movie, I think of the cakes.
And nothing else.
Mr. Basaillon shaved!!!!
He looks completely different. Before he looked like a "Brian" and now he looks like a "Brandon".
And the name "Keith" reminds me of omelettes.
But it reminds Q of zebras.
And Darle thinks we're both insane.
All the Blogthings I've missed!!! Raaaaah!
The Apostle Paul was an INTJ.
And Peter was either an ENFP or and ENFJ.
And they hated each other.
It's fun reading the letters Paul wrote...
...until he gets all logical and is like, "You were dead to the law, THEREFORE..."
It's like, "That's nice, Paul. But get back to the important stuff."
And then he gets all huffy and I have to hang out with Peter for a little while.

Hey Jude

2009-04-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

We're playing a Beatles piece in band!
And we'll be playing it at California!
It's SWEET! "Hard Day's Night", "Michelle", "Yesterday", "I Want To Hold Your Hand", and "Hey Jude".
Trombones get melody quite a bit.
:O
Why are Alvin and the Chipmunks on itunes?
Not iTunes in general...
...MY iTunes!
Dad....
Oh, Randy Travis. Your deep baritone makes me smile.
Giddy-up jingle horse, pick up your feet, jingle around the clooooock...
He's only 5'8"!
I'm taller than Randy Travis!
I'm making a birthday mix for Jessica, even though her birthday was weeks ago.
So pack up, go home, you're through.
How could I make a man out of you????
You must be swift as the coursing river, with all the force of the great typhoon, with all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of THE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!
Who doesn't love that song?

Football coaches aren't soft

2009-04-25T18:34:00.001-07:00

Yoast seemed suspiciously Feeler-ish, though.
We watched "Remember the Titans" to build our comraderie.
Kristine, Sierra, and I formed a huddle of blankets and were quite comfortable.
Until Sierra's face got cold and she had to resort to listening to the movie rather than watching it, and Kristine burst into tears after Bertier's accident, and I followed soon after, more from consequences due to an extremely unbalanced diet in the past 12 hours than from sadness.
But 45% from sadness, definitely.
I got put on the 1st Grade team and I'm really excited. First grade is one step up from kindergarden, meaning the kids are still adorable and cuddly.
I don't envy the people who were put on the Jr. High team.
The people in my group seem to be really cool, too. There are no instant personality clashes, anyway. Well, maybe one. But it's completely one-sided.
Possibly.
I might just be imagining things.
AGAIN.
BECAUSE THAT'S THE ONLY THING I'M GOOD AT.
Sorry. Bitter.
I also signed up for the Drama Team, but they haven't said anything about that yet.
Parent meeting tomorrow!
Yeah!
Gooooo team!

You Are Vitamin A

You see the world vividly. You are a very visual person, and you pay special attention to colors.

And while you appreciate a sunny, beautiful day - you also like the subtle visuals of night.

You are youthful both in appearance and spirit. You are likely healthier than average.

You shine brightly and are best in small doses. Too much of your company can be overwhelming and even dangerous.

What Vitamin Are You?

She's my best friend's girl

2009-04-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

Yeah, she's Jesse's girl!
I know, two completely different songs.
Alex Sanchez is all right.
"Rainbow Boys" was better than his other book.
About the 8th grade kid in California.
Who couldn't speak Spanish.
And fell in love with a boy.
Who was too scared to come out of the closet.
And made fun of another boy.
Who was probably gay.
But his best friend was in love with them.
And SHE didn't want to believe he was gay.
It was one of those novels that was like, "Ho hum, that was a good book."
I don't know why "Boy Meets Boy" was hailed as a revolutionary novel.
It wasn't that great.
Nearly everyone else I know that has read that book said the exact same thing.
They all said, "Well, it was okay..."
But it didn't deserve all 500 million of the book awards it got.
David Levithan is way overrated.
"Starbucks Boy": cutest short story ever written. Romantic, imaginative, etc.
Every other story he wrote: LAME
As writers mature, they're supposed to become BETTER writers.
It just seems like David Levithan has gotten worse.
Every time I think the drama's over, it starts up again, with yet another tearful weekend followed by a week of the silent treatment.
But I think it's officially over.
At least I'm making it official.
So everything is back to kind of sort of normal.
Or at least our interpretation.
But if it starts up again....
California is going to suck.

Planning will make it worse!!

2009-04-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

One good thing has come from me being sick:
I've mastered Schwing State.
For the most part.
I got up to South Carolina, which is pretty great.

Your Personality Cluster is Introverted Feeling

You are:

You are tolerant, flexible, and open to new ideas.

You are also a stickler for integrity and authenticity.

You are totally passionate. You speak your mind about causes, beliefs, or politics.

You are likely to have many "best friends" from many walks of life.

What's Your Personality Cluster?

Colonel Brandon...
He's everything we could ever want...
He's rich, romantic, attentive...
...and is probably going to die soon.
I know, that's terrible.
But even though he was only 35 in the book, people back then didn't live past 45 often, so his happy ending with Marianne didn't last long.
Aaaah, my computer is making scary beeping noises!!!
With sort of a cha-cha beat....

Judy Garland dances funny.

2009-04-21T18:03:00.001-07:00

But she doesn't care.
We watched "In the Good Ol' Summertime" last night.
Little Liza Minelli made her bigscreen debut at the end of the movie.
So cute.
Ugh, stupid Mr. Oberkugen. What a jerk.
He and Nellie had been "courting" for like 20 years.
20 YEARS!!!
That's ridiculous. They were both old, and he hadn't proposed yet!!!
So he's essentially been leading her on all this time.
She decides he's being an unfair jerk (which he is) about many things, so casually mentions that she has a date for that evening.
With another man.
And he gets all mad and jealous and decides to keep EVERYONE after work because his woman is acting up.
Even though she's not his. I mean, being a guy and all, and it being the 1930's, you would think he'd know that he was supposed to initiate some kind of official "relationship".
So he pouts about it for hours and hours, until she comes in, and he's all, "I'm not worthy of you. I obviously don't deserve you. I was just hoping that one day you'd love me," and she has to stroke his ego (among other things) in order to get him to send his employees home and convince him to take part in a committed relationship.
Ugh. Just so stupid.
Sorry. It just really bugged me.
Woo, so I just failed the science WASL.
Good thing I don't need it to graduate.

Babies only like good things!

2009-04-20T17:29:00.000-07:00

Because babies are pure and beautiful and could never be naughty or treacherous!
We had little kids over yesterday, and they kept calling Sully a "babyhead".
He countered with, "Oh yeah? Well, if I'm a baby, what are you?"
Their answer: "Chickens."
I'm so glad I have a girl dog.
Yep. That's all I have to say.
She smells terrible and we can't figure out why.
Besides her love of poop as a snack and her affinity for finding and rolling in dead things.
Are people really, REALLY that stupid?
In an EXTRA long English period (:P), Mr. Rosendale explained our poetry project, that none of us have started on (even though it's due Monday).
And no one got it.
They had the freaking directions out in front of them, yet none of them thought to read it.
Then they'd ask for ALL THE DETAILS AT ONCE, and, once given that information, would start hyperventilating!
"Too many details! Sensory overload! I'm confused! I don't get it!"
So frustrating. And they wasted the whole freaking period.
But Mr. Macaras let us sit outside after the quiz. Best math ever.
It's so hot outside. They say it will rain the rest of the week.
Oh well. 70 degrees in April is nice...
BBC did a terrible version of "Sense and Sensibility", and Betty Buckley ruined "Seasons of Love" for me forever.
:(
WHY?????????

What a dreadful prospect

2009-04-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

What has poor Armand done to be condemnded to matrimony?
Why did the Day of Silence T-shirts have to be yellow?
The Day of Silence itself was good.
I didn't talk until lunch. And I sort of stopped being silent during 5th period.
But I got the point across. Sort of.
It was so stupid how many people were like, "I talked! I can't stay silent again all day! I'm such a failure!"
They could have always been, "Oh darn. Well, here I go again." There's no rule that says if you break the protest, you can't take part in it again. It's pretty hard to do anyway, keeping completely silent all day long.
Apparently some people got a lot of crap for doing it. I didn't get any, except for my math teacher jokingly saying he couldn't hear me when I gave the answers on my hands.
But I didn't get any homophobic comments, like a couple people did.
One girl got called a fag, which doesn't even make sense.
I met a couple of bisexuals who were like, "Aagh, I hate super religious people who make rude comments! It's not like two men can't be happy."
But he apologized when I was like, "Well...I'm a Christian."
Even though what he's saying is technically true.
But I mentioned what the Bible does say about man + man = happiness.
Because, even though the Bible thumpers aren't exactly nice about the Day of Silence, they're right when they say it's wrong, according to the Bible.
But then we talked about loving your neighbor and such.
And he'd never heard that part before.
Hmmm....
I wasn't the only Christian at the party, or the only one participating, which was nice.
A bunch of my Christian friends were either like, "I tolerate homosexuality, but I can't condone it," so they didn't participate.
And a couple were like, "No one should ever be made to feel worthless. I'm doing this for all people being bullied."
And a couple were like, "I feel REALLY strongly about this, so I'm going to participate."
We ended the day with a delicious cake Ed made, homemade frosting and everything.
And that was that.
"Hello Dolly" is a great movie and all, but I had forgotten how long it is.
Two hours of singing and ten minute dance sequences.
At least there wasn't any trippy ballet interludes with Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse, or worse: Jud, Laurey, and Curly.
Not that those aren't loads of fun, or anything.
Ew, my dad played Jud in high school. How gross is that?
Pre-nose job Barbra Streisand is somewhat of a babe.
"Out There" reminds me so much of "Wall-E". William and I were singing along, and my dad kept asking, "How do you know this?"
Please. I only watched this movie five times in first grade.
Ew, Walter Matthau is so lame. And sort of tone deaf. And they had no chemistry. She was much too sparkly and fabulous for him.
Tommy Tune is ginormous!!!!
Speaking of music, I got out "Letters to the President" and started listening to it again.
Oh, the memories.
And those fantastic summers where we went to concerts all the time and screamed the lyrics to "Sadie Hawkins Dance".
That might have just been one summer.
And probably not that fantastic.
But the nostalgia made me a little nauseous.

Where are those cliches when I need them?

2009-04-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

Why is Jamie Lee Curtis at my library? WHY?
"Outliers" sounds like a cool book.
There is no such thing as an overnight success.
Which we knew. But we needed Malcolm Gladwell to put it into words.
Isn't it cool when you meet a fictional character who could very well be your soulmate?
Okay, that makes me sound creepy and pathetic.
But I don't mean romantic soulmate.
I mean, they say something profound, or maybe just mundane, and you go, "EXACTLY! How did you know how I felt? You're not even real!!!!"
And then, if you're me, you determine their personality type and discover it's the same as yours.
Yes. It's true. I'm sorry.
But Hope McNeill could be my soulmate.
The pugs! Ugg boots! New York! Telling our moms everything!
It makes sense.
"The Dead Poet's Society" was overrated.
To be blunt: I hated it.
Someone was going to kill themselves. Or at least, I knew someone was going to die. As was proved when, right before watching the movie, some girl protested, "I can't watch this movie. It's SOOOOOOOO sad."
Hm. I wonder what that means?
And it's a group of teenage boys. And they're horny. And they're studying poetry religiously.
One of them is going to die.
But why did it have to be Neil???
I didn't like Neil!!!
It was really sad. REALLY sad. I mean, he felt like he had no other option, and the only place he felt free was on the stage, but even that had been taken away from him.
So he blew his brains out.
And it was disturbing. Kevin laughed and all that crying girls refused to speak to him all day.
But I cried more over Angel, and I knew that was coming.
I cried more over Arvid, and that movie was terrible.
And the ending. :P Whatever.
We wanted closure!!

Oh, blogthings. You know me too well.

2009-04-14T21:17:00.001-07:00

You Want to Impress People You Know

You want friends and family to think you're beautiful. You mostly focus on inner beauty and being a good person.

You want your friends and family members to think you're smart. You like been seen as insightful and wise.

You are at your most playful when you are around family and friends. You are more serious around people you don't know well.

You have no problem letting strangers see the real you. You are upfront about who you are.

You are open to becoming close to people, but it takes some time. You don't let just anyone in.

Who Do You Want to Impress?

You shall above all things....

2009-04-14T21:09:00.000-07:00

Math WASL is over.
Thank goodness.
Gee, I wonder if I passed.
I'll be on the edge of my seat until the results get back...
...in August.
Waste of time.
Ew, "West Side Story"....
This whole stupid situation has just gotten worse.
And a lot of it's my fault.
And the fact that we're both immature idiots.
"The Scarlet Pimpernel" is my life.
He's done wrong! He can't be trusted! I have to hide my feelings! But true love prevails!
Only this isn't true love. But he's my best friend, which is why this sucks.
Lol, romanticizing teenage conflict. So fun.
But seriously, "The Scarlet Pimpernel" is the greatest movie we've watched all year.
Ian McKellen! Jane Seymour! Ew, Percy Blakeny has a very weak chin. It's rather hard to take him seriously.
They seek him here, they seek him there,
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere...

I've got headaches and back luck, but they couldn't touch you, no

2009-04-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

Easter is tomorrow!! It came way faster than it did last year. Same with Christmas. And just about every holiday we've had so far.
But we had Saturday service up in the sanctuary today, which was sort of new and unheard of.
But exciting.
Even more people came than usual.
And when you're standing on stage waiting for the worship portion of the service to start, there's nothing else to do but stare at everyone that comes through the door.
Not to be mean or intimidating.
Just curious.
And some pretty hot guys go to my church. ;)
There was this one guy who walked in that was pretty cute, and tall, which is a plus.
He looked sort of familiar, but I didn't know who he was.
Then, as my dad and I were leaving, we saw this family from Sylvan Way (AKA hell) that we used to know a billion years ago.
And that guy was with them.
....
....
....
....
....
NO WAY!!!!
Turns out it was my best friend from 4th grade.
The one I used to have a crush on.
The one who beat me on every science test because that was the one subject he was better at.
The one I got in a huge argument about evolution with.
The one I haven't seen for FOUR YEARS!!!!
THAT ONE.
So that was surprising. He comes to Saturday night service every so often, but is also checking out another church his parents like.
And he recognized me right away.
My bad.
Ha ha, Nick at Nite.
:O
"Am I a genius or what? It works every time."
What a jerk! Dump him, Anna, dump him!

Slightly more accurate...

2009-04-08T16:54:00.000-07:00

You Are a Lynx

You are a quiet observer of the world around you. Your wisdom comes from listening carefully.

You've always been extra sensitive and aware. And it's made it difficult for you to fit in.

You see past people's outward personas. You are able to penetrate a stranger's soul.

What you've learned about people is both beautiful and ugly. And you keep these secrets to yourself.

What Big Cat Are You?

Doc, there's a hole where something was

2009-04-08T16:41:00.000-07:00

Butterfly bandage, but don't worry....
Lol. Tyler and I were tuning timpanis in 6th period.
While watching yet another History Channel movie on the Black Death.
Yeah, it was icky.
And a lot more devastating than I ever knew.
And really sad. People abandoned their sick family members and whole families were left to die in their own homes.
And it was a really painful way to die.
But I don't see why Leonard Nimoy had to tell us this.
And why Mr. Hurd had to explain what the movie was about and tell us EVERYTHING that was going to happen.
You obviously know all this stuff. Why are we watching a 45-minute movie if you're just going to condense it into a 10 minute lecture anyway?
Rosey is so cool. He was in the paper this morning.
And "St. Francis and the Sow" is his favorite poem, too.
We were interpreting "Lost" by David Wagoner, and Amanda was being really insightful and understood the entire thing.
We were in awe. She decoded everything to the very last detail.
"The Legend" is so sad. He wasn't just a man on the street! It reminded me of the homeless people in Seattle.
Along with "Miss Rosie".
Poetry is so cool. Only we have to write some of our own soon.
And there's a book report due Friday.
And we have to measure the roots of our radish plants.
And we have a WASL vocab quiz tomorrow.
So the flash cards are due.
And Mr. Macaras expects us to do that massive math packet.
CRAP.

You Are a Cougar

You have more strength than most people, and with it, the ability to inflict a lot of harm.

Your power gives you confidence, and you find leading others to be easy.

You believe that you need to the best, and you are very driven to excel.

Most people immediately admire you, but some people feel very envious of your abilities.

What Big Cat Are You?

WSU, here I come!

Depressed. Again. Happy?

2009-04-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

You Think Emotionally

Your brain works best when you are able to really get passionate about something.

You like to feel connected to whatever project you are working on. You crave meaning.

You work to bring people together, and you're always thinking of a way to compromise.

You believe that the only way to get things done is to have everyone in harmony.

How Do You Think?

You Are Ceramics

You are open to the world and it's possibilities. You are able to start something without knowing how it will end.

You trust your intuition above everything else. Going with your gut often works out.

You believe that every day objects can and should be art.

The best art allows ordinary life to be more stylish and beautiful.

What Type of Art Are You?

Irregularity is the spice of life!

2009-04-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

And I don't mean in your bowels.
Hm, I could unintentionally be referring to my infrequent posting.
Just agh.
School started up, which wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be.
But the drama is still there, but no one wants to deal with it.
So I'll sit here stewing, come home from school every day crying, and bristle every time I see Skankasaurus Rex from now until summer.
Mr. Williams told us he already has the rooms planned, and Kevin and I were anxious as to what the assignments would be.
Because he doesn't want to room with the guy who has a heterosexual man crush on him, and I don't want to room with the really stupid girls who use words like "glam" and ask questions like, "How do you spell found?"
Seriously, if this happens, we'll switch rooms.
Creepy manboys vs. Remedial English?
Manboys win every time.
Ugh, speaking of English, we're watching "The Dead Poet's Society" and I don't see what all the fuss is about.
Robin Williams is great. But Robert Sean Leonard? Really? So gross.
And Ethan Hawke. Please. As if we didn't see enough of him in "Gattaca".
Oh no, speaking of "House", I died last night.
I haven't even watched the show for that long and I cried during all of last night's episode.
Kutner...WHY??? Why not Taub? Why not FOREMAN!?? No one even likes him!!!
But when Foreman randomly grabbed Remy's hand after ignoring her for the entire episode and she started crying, the tears started coming.
When Taub sat on a bench alone and began crying, the tears were pouring down.
When House found the one picture where Kutner looked absolutely hopeless and all these different emotions crossed his face, I was weeping. Pretty pathetically. William was just fine.
Argh. Oh well.

PG-13 is the new R.

2009-04-03T08:27:00.000-07:00

Meaning my life is PG, thank you.
Wow. Youth Group. Fun.
We got into a rather heated discussion over whether or not gay men should be pastors.
And it got ugly quite fast.
It all started when this one girl asked whether or not a girl could be a youth pastor, which brought as right on back to 1 Timothy 2:12, a verse I'd had Sunday School teachers dispute over in past years.
"Oh, well, women can cut their hair as short as they want it, but they can't lead in the church!"
Why would you disregard one verse and adamantly preach another?
Argh. Sorry. But it still bugs me.
Anyway, we sort of skirted past the "women leading the church" issue, when another girl asked if a gay man could be a pastor.
Her reasoning: He wasn't a woman, and God was all-loving and all-forgiving, so surely he could look past his gayness and let this man lead.
That's when all hell broke loose.
Some of the more opinionated people took charge in explaining (rather passionately) what the Bible said about homosexuality.
One of the not-so-sensitive (ahem) homeschoolers BERATED this girl for not knowing all that the Scripture said about this issue.
A few people (including myself) tried to speak up and got knocked out the way.
Some of the more neutral and quieter people got very uncomfortable and hid in the background, waiting for our hour to be over.
And then our leader decided to read a very long passage about not just homosexuality, but all sin, and how sinners would be dealt with if they did not repent.
You could see the girl getting madder and madder until she just stopped listening.
Then she left.
AAAAAAAAAGH of course this is the ONE issue I have trouble with, and I wanted to talk the girl personally, because, with my big ego, I was convinced I could get her to understand without being agressive and shoving Scripture down her throat.
But then some people accused me of being too soft and PC, and told me that we can't always spoonfeed people, and that they have to know the truth, and God's word will always be hard for some people to swallow.
And I don't disagree with Janine reading the Scripture. But after all that had been said already, a reading of the entire first chapter of Romans didn't seem like a good idea to me, and just made things worse.
And yeah, this is her issue. And yeah, Christians are pretty good at offending people and sometimes it's necessary if we're going to stand up for what we believe in.
But some of what was said was NOT necessary.
Gah.
So. That's fun. We're going to WSU, and hopefully won't get ticketed for not having snow tires.
It's just slush. I think we'll be okay.
But I'm pretty pumped. It's going to be freezing cold and my brother is going to be busy all weekend, but we get to eat out, so who needs him?
I just want school to start up again.
If only jazz band wasn't so early....

Tyler, you were wrong about those guys

2009-04-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

RyRy is pretty gross.
Tony's nothing special.
Aaron's nice, though.
Why is he toasting me?
Ewwwww, you were right about Corey, though.
Other non-Tyler related junk:
Another rousing Sims session today. Finally, some Family Sims! They're always the most fun. And I'm thisclose to fulfilling Lilly's Lifetime Want, which I've never done before, so that's pretty thrilling.
WSU in...2 days!
SO PUMPED.
Yeah, I get to see my brother.
And the campus.
But I'm pretty excited about eating out.
And getting a new T-shirt.
Sorry, Nathan.
Do you know those people who accidentally type profanities (for example: missing the r in "T-shirt") and laugh hysterically, then show EVERYONE what they've done. "GUYS! Hey GUYS! Look what I typed! *giggle giggle*"
Um, yes. Hilarious.
Ew, my mom and I watched a really, really terrible remake of "Pride and Prejudice" that took place in Utah.
And I kept remembering all of Justin's Mormon jokes.
And I couldn't help but laugh.
I love how he's an out and proud Mormon...but knows more Mormon jokes than anyone else.
That tends to be the case, though, right?
"She Gets What She Wants" is hysterical. "Mean Girls" was lauded for being witty and "right on", but "She Gets What She Wants" is just as funny, if not funnier, since I hated "Mean Girls".
It's just less subtle. And very Texas.

Be dumb! It works!

2009-03-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

Excellent book.
Perverted and sort of icky, but at least interesting.
He was 23!!!
Elizabeth Gaskell was (and is) overrated. BBC seems to be in love with her, but she's not that great.
Not that I've actually read her stuff.
But I plan to.
And the movies I've seen based on her work, that apparently stay very true to the books?
Not impressed.
"North and South" was a lot better than "Wives and Daughters".
But it still seemed like she had to pull a rabbit out of a hat to get the desired ending.
And she made all these random subplots that never went anywhere.
Take "North and South" for instance. Her brother is a CRIMINAL and will be KILLED if anyone finds out he's in England. A drunk catches him leaving the train station and almost turns him in, but Fred pushes him down the stairs and he later dies, making Fred not only a mutineer, but a MURDERER.
And, as you're waiting impatiently, wanting to know what will happen to him, Margaret (the main character) makes a side comment about him being happily married in Spain, and that's THAT. You never hear from him again.
Seems like a bunch of unnecessary drama.
Ugh, I HAAAATED Margaret soooooooooooo much. She was like a homeschooler on CRACK - everything she did was offensive, and she made no effort to try to understand people and the Northern culture. And Elizabeth Gaskell's main characters are always praised for speaking their minds in a time when women had no rights and being revolutionary and forthright and whatnot, but you didn't get the impression that Margaret was outspoken or revolutionary - just irritating. And out of ALL the characters, she grew the LEAST. Sure, she changed her opinion about the mill owner, but only because he was so dang attractive (mmmmmhmmm), and every stupid decision she made was justified by her idiot father, even if she disobeyed him by INVITING HER CRIMINAL BROTHER INTO THE COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!
John Thornton was a much better male lead than Roger "Moron" whatever-his-last-name-is.
The ending was really epic. Margaret randomly inherits money from her father's old friend, after EVERYONE ELSE DIES (seriously, at least 6 main characters kick the bucket), and moves back to London.
But, when she's riding away in the carriage after saying goodbye to Thornton, he's watching her go, almost crying, saying, "Look back. Look back at me."
But she doesn't. Because she's an idiot.
Then she moves to London with her gross aunt and her ditzy best friend and the creepy stalker with GROSS sideburns who had been stalking her since the beginning of the movie, and was STILL pouting over her rejecting his proposal!!!
Then Thornton loses the mill, but he and Higgins are best friends, so that's okay. Margaret makes a lot more money and buys the mill and visits Milton, where Thornton's mom chews her out for rejecting HER son as well, and Margaret's like, "Well, he IS rather attractive..."
ANYWAY, the epic part: she's on a train back to London, and Thornton's on a train back to Milton from Helstone (long story), and they both have a delay and their trains end up right next to each other, so they both leap out of the trains and start making out on a bench, while Henry "Gross sideburns" Lennox pouts in his car. Then Margaret goes into the train with Thornton and its a wonderfully happy ending with icky sideburns going home that night - ALONE!
And that's pretty much been my entire Spring Break, so far.
Besides graduating my Sims from college (finally) and spending time at the beach with my family.
My grandparents have been married 57 years. 57 YEARS. That's a long time.
Beaches are awesome. Even when it's a balmy 47 degrees outside with freezing winds.

You can take the girl out of Hicksville, but you can't take the Hicksville out of the girl

2009-03-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

So true.
Better days at school.
My dad thinks I have an eating disorder, though.
Please. It's not like I'm throwing up my breakfast on PURPOSE.
But mixed messages abound. It's getting really annoying.
It sucks to be melancholic and everything, but phlegmatics are just as annoying...in uniquely different ways.
Tyler and I did our England presentation today. Finally. At least it's out of the way. It might not have been 5 minutes, but at least it was 15 minutes like this one group, who stuttered painfully and paused for minutes in between topics.
And we weren't boring.
And we argued during it, which "caught people's attention".
But when we were done, people only had questions about the London Eye, the world's biggest ferris wheel.
Only that. And we couldn't answer them all.
Poor Maricel. She has to do it all by herself.
So we'll help her with the chocolate chip scones. Mmmm...
"They're supposed to be bitter!"
British people eat crappy food.
And don't like Jesus.
RENT! I love Anthony Rapp. Except for his icky goatee.
And Jesse L. Martin. He has a nice goatee.
And Wilson Jermaine Heredia's goatee looks pretty nice. HE is nice.
We're starting a poetry unit in English. It's a lot better than I thought it would be. Edgar A. Guest is totally cheesy and kind of lame, but I love Langston Hughes, Anne Sexton, and Mary Oliver. "Wild Geese" made me cry.
We have to pick a topic, find 5 poems that support that topic, write 2 of our own, and then present them to the class. One of them was "On the Edge", and I don't want to be melodramatic about it, because my poetry tends to be, but there was a poem in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" that fits the theme perfectly.
That one was sad, too.
The guy who wrote "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" also wrote the screenplay for "Rent".
No wonder I liked that book so much.

Reality Checks for Lovesick Teenagers

2009-03-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

I'm actually in a fairly good mood, not bitter at all.
For the most part.
Just very sarcastic and a little cynical.
But only a little.
Musicals were a great invention. That and 80's music. Seriously, are William and I the only people who thought Huey Lewis was black?
But yeah. This is me trying to be funny.

1. For guys: Everyone has an excretory system.
Meaning the girl you think about day and night takes a dump every now and again. Heck, she's probably taking one right now. And, being perfectly honest, they *gasp* FART, too! I know you didn't want to hear it, but it had to be said. My point is: nobody's perfect. And they sometimes smell gross.

2. For girls: Though all teenage boys play guitar, most of them don't play it that well.
So don't be expecting any Joe Jonas-esque love songs. They're probably still struggling with "Smoke on the Water"...and love songs are the last things on their mind, for various reasons.

3. For guys: Of course she gets moody once a month.
What else did you expect? Here's what I suggest: either run and hide or LEAVE HER ALONE. And just because she's a nightmare now doesn't mean she stopped "loving" you. WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MAKE HER FEEL BETTER. THIS COULD RESULT IN WEEPING, GNASHING OF TEETH, AND/OR DEATH.

4. For girls: He's going to stare at other girls.
There are some cases where he can't help it. If you're really bothered by it, start wearing shorter skirts. (To Christians: Sorry, just kidding!)

5. For girls: Do NOT overanalyze every conversation.
There is NOT a hidden message, spelling either, "I love you," or, "I hate you," behind every sentence of his. He usually just means what he says.

6. For guys: Yes, she really is talking about you in the bathroom
But you already knew that.

7. For guys: She'd rather hear, "You're beautiful," than, "You look hot."
Because the latter makes you sound stupid. And sort of sleazy. Unless you WANT to grow up to be a 40-year-old virgin/lecher.

8. For girls: Be glad that he has guy friends.
Sure, you freak out when he'd rather hang out with his male companions than you, but all that estrogen can be cloying after a little while. And don't be worried that he's really in the closet and is sneaking away to be with his boyfriend: it's not true. If he wants to hang out with other girls, however, then you've got a problem...but I digress.

9. For guys: Sports are boring. So are cars.
Yeah, some girls like them, but for the most part, Nascar and March Madness don't get them excited. So don't dwell on those subjects, please.

10. For both: THIS IS NOT LOVE.
It's mostly just hormones and other things. You will not marry this person. You will break up sooner or later, and may or may not remain friends.

Yep. Exactly. And this is coming from "Dr. Love".
That was super entertaining, though. Immature and fun. But now I have to go to bed.

For some reason, they always target the band geeks....

2009-03-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

I hate band contest. Really. They always give us the earliest possible time slot, we just happen to sound terrible, and while practicing, people decide to add an extra shot of annoying to the morning latte.
But, even with the lack of sleep and idiots who were convinced that we were performing at the junior high, not the high school, none of put me in a super bad mood.
Okay, it annoyed the bloody hell out of me, but it only put me in sort of a bad mood.
Then my pseudo boyfriend decided he'd rather hang out with his cute timpani playing sort-of-slutty "friend" than me.
And has either forgotten or doesn't feel the need to speak to me since Thursday afternoon.
Seriously, one day it's all good. We hung out like usual, talking, nothing special, and then by 6:30, concert time, I'm invisible.
Because our little friend needed help "tuning the timpanis".
And it SUCKS, because I'm pissed and feeling used and have spent pretty much all day moping, but he's NOT MY BOYFRIEND. Sure, I like this guy, he's one of my best friends, but we're not officially "dating", so if I tell the little tone-deaf slut to back off, I'm just a jealous loser who obviously took things the wrong way.
For approximately 6 months, anyway.
Yep. I'm that bad at reading boy signals, apparently.
And he's not exactly telling her to back off. He loves the attention, I can tell.
It makes me SO MAD, because it's not like she's so much better than me.
Sure, she's cute, and sort of musical, but she's annoying and dumbs herself down so much that she's borderline retarded.
I have never dumbed myself down in my whole freaking life and know what a frigging key signature is.
But she's got more to offer.
And, come Monday, all this moping will have been for nothing. Oh, that was just a misunderstanding, he really likes me and he didn't know she bugged me (B.S.), but whatever, I'll probably accept his apology because I'm an idiot like that.
Either that, or we're no longer "friends" or whatever we were. We weren't "just friends", but we weren't "dating", and we weren't stupid enough to be "friends with benefits".
Ugh, and I hate the fact that this girl REALLY ISN'T THAT BAD OF A PERSON. I LIKE her. She's not my friend, but she's REALLY nice. Sort of a tease, but NICE! We can talk about politics like nobody's business and be on the same side, and she's been nothing but nice to me.
Except for hitting on the guy I like. And just about every other male in the school.
So it's really confusing to watch her throw herself at him, and then give me a friendly "hello" while I'm putting my trombone together.
Band Contest wasn't even that bad yesterday, the lack of sleep and musical idiots ("Oooooh, that's a B Flat?") notwithstanding. I saw Emily for the first time in like, what, a year? It was really cool to see her because she's so optimistic and always happy and she can put herself into any situation and get along with people. We talked for a little bit and it was the high point of my day, but I probably won't see her again for another year or two.
But then we had to go back to school.
Ugh. At least if I'd tuned those freaking timpanis, they would have actually been in tune. That's supposed to be an E, sweetheart, not an F#.

She loves you, and you know that can't be bad

2009-03-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

She loves you, and you know you should be glad, OOOOOOOO.
Michael Moscovitz looks much better after a little plastic surgery, thanks for asking.
Argh, Stateside.
It started off as my friends pressuring me to go.
Then Janine got in on it.
Then God went, "Surprise. Guess who's side I'm on?"
But you can't argue with him.
So I started filling out the application, and realized that I really do want to go.
Not just because Sierra's going, and not just because it will be the last time I see Kristine, but because I finally realized I can't be closed off forever and that I need more friends, since Kristine is leaving and that's what the body of Christ is about anyway.
And I've never been on a missions trip and this will be a cool experience.
My parents are all for it, and are ready to back me up financially. It was pretty cool last night, because I was worried about money and different factors regarding the trip, and my empathetic Thinker mom explained to me why they were supporting me while my Feeler dad sat on the floor just listening and pretending he needed tissues for his allergies.
But filling out the application was still pretty scary, because I realized if I'm completely honest, they might not let me go. Up until this point (okay, it still continues to this day), I've had sort of a bad attitude regarding the youth group and I know Ben has picked up on that, so when he reads parts of my application (there were questions like, "Why do you come to Primetime?" and "Do you have any personal problems with anyone in the Youth Group?" that gave me pause), he might interpret it negatively.
Which scares the crap out of me.
But I've been praying about it since last night and worst case scenario is can't go: there's always next year, and now I know what I need to work on.
Phew.

You Are the Communicator

You are a collector and facilitator of knowledge. You love storytelling and teaching.

You light up when you're around other people, and you especially light up in front of a crowd.

You are a charismatic person who's genuinely a joy to be with. You remind others to have fun.

You love life, and you're wake up grateful for every new day. This attitude makes the people around you love life as well.

What's Your Life's Mission?

You Are a Chocolate Cupcake

You are deep, richly interesting, and at times overpowering. You have a strong personality.

You are drawn to people who adore you. You love it when your specialness is recognized.

You are like a cupcake because it's hard for people to get enough of you.

You have a mysterious charm that makes you incredibly addicting. People are drawn to your drama.

What Flavor Cupcake Are You?

Karma: Attractive people having ugly babies

2009-03-10T20:08:00.000-07:00

But the babies shouldn't be punished for it.
Just their parents.
AAAAAAAGH I was playing with my Princess Diaries Sims and all the teens went to college.
They all looked pretty good for young adult sims, at least pretty normal.
Then Michael Moscovitz got out of the car.
He used to look like this. He's the only one not wearing glasses.

You don't even want to know what he looks like now. Actually, I'd show you, but I don't have a current picture of him.
Speaking of babies, Tyler and I made one together. Her name is Captain and she has black hair, blue eyes, clodhopper feet, and is freakishly tall.
Tyler made her look disgusting.
Great. Our child is a clown.
Even though, seeing as we're cousins, she should have three heads and flippers, so I guess she doesn't look that bad.
Classes for next year! Paul and Kevin are taking English Lit with me, but Amanda is going full time at the college (lame) and Emma is dropping out of band.
So next year has some possible suckage.
Ugh, if any of my teachers mentions the WASL one more time, I'm going to walk out.
THE WASL IS A WASTE OF TIME.
THERE IS NO NEED TO PREPARE.

Dangerous dumplings

2009-03-08T17:51:00.001-07:00

Hwaaaaaa!
Argh. It's like my dad and I communicate backwards. I was really tired, about to pass out, and I didn't want to go to Primetime and listen to a boring sermon after I'd pretty much ignored my favorite pastor preach for about an hour, so I told my dad, and he starts LECTURING me about how I can't always get out of it and I might regret it now, but in the end I'll be happy. So I started crying, because I was REALLY FREAKING TIRED and I didn't want to have to deal with all that self-righteous crap, and he was making me MAD.
So I'm sitting there, fuming, and he lets me for a good half hour, and then, when he takes me home, there's suddenly all this overwhelming sympathy! He's really sorry, and everything, but by now it's too late, because I'm just MAD and TIRED and UNREASONABLE and I don't need this.
Argh. It seems to be becoming a pattern, too.
And why is it that when someone sees that their friend is angry, they decide that the BEST possible way to cheer their friend up would be to annoy the bloody daylights out of them??
And then they're so surprised that their friend is even angrier, and they pout because of it!!!
Are you insane?????????? What kind logic is that???
So people are frustrating, but God created dogs, and they are nice. I mean, humans are sort of becoming more dependent on technology and English is going down the toilet, but dogs can't "communicate" with us verbally, yet seem to know exactly what we're thinking all the time. Body language is all we have to go on. They're like little "Lie to Me"'s.
That show is pretty cool.

You can feel it all over, people

2009-03-06T13:13:00.000-08:00

Stevie Wonder, "Sir Duke"!!!
When you have a sore throat, $25, and endless free time, all sorts of things can happen.
So I bought some Stevie Wonder, Queen, Paramore, and "Rent".
Now I'm reading Sims 2 blogs.
Weeee, March. Greatest month. And it's getting warmer (sort of) and it's sunny pretty much all the time. It's like a different state.
If you were to rob someone, would you really take their couch?
Not only is it heavy, but how else will they watch TV?
My dog smells awful.
I watched a half hour infomercial about 70's music. My dad watched with me and salivated over Tony Orlando's music collection.
I also watched "ShakespeaREtold", which was pretty excellent. "Much Ado About Nothing" was really well done. The ending of "Macbeth" was genius. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" sucked, but I hated that one anyway.
Ugh, watched "The Bachelor" on Monday. Jason Mesnick is such a scumbag.
First, he proposes to Melissa. She seemed so happy and they were so cute together.
Then, literally 5 MINUTES LATER, on "After the Final Rose", the camera cuts to Jason sobbing as he admits he doesn't love Melissa anymore and wishes he could bring Molly back.
HELLO???
He spent 6 WEEKS with Melissa. He spent all the holidays with her family and she bonded with Ty.
But that wasn't good enough, because the chemistry "changed".
Well, DUH! As you guys get closer, your relationship changes. That's the whole point!!
But no. He went crying back to Molly.
Melissa came on the show and chewed Jason out, calling him a bastard and saying that he might've loved Melissa, and wanted to be with Melissa, but he didn't want to fight for Melissa, because he was a balless sissy.
Well, she didn't say the last part. But she might as well have.
And I couldn't stop thinking about how SELFISH he was. SERIOUSLY! On the show, he was never worried about how the girls would feel, and he was only worried about what he wanted. His son is probably really confused after spending all that time with Melissa, having his dad promise that Melissa would be their new mom, and then dumping her. His son is probably never going to have a normal life because of his dad's fame, but it was NECESSARY. Jason NEEDED to find love.
And he ASKS Molly to take him back.
AND SHE DOES!!!
What. An. Idiot. If she doesn't think he'll do the same thing to her, she's kidding herself.
The opposite of love is selfishness. No wonder he got divorced.

Takes one to know one, sassypants!

2009-02-25T20:44:00.001-08:00

*gasp* Juice!
It was Emma's birthday today...but she had to fast, because she's Catholic!!
Ooooh...THAT'S AWFUL!
We were discussing the passage of the Bible where Peter dreams of all the "unclean" animals.
But they're not unclean.
It's okay to eat pork!!
Really, it's not a big deal!
We don't need to keep Kosher anymore!
Well, I never had to, but still!!
Mmmm, Thin Mints.
Keisha and I are a great team.
Tyler and I are cousins.
The band kids have their own favorite movie.
"I'm the melody." "No, I'M the melody." "I'M the melody!" "I'M the melody!"
Helloooo, Spartacus.

You Are Apple Juice

You're very likable and quite popular. It's hard not to find something to love about you.

You are playful and fun. You try to bring levity to situations.

While you are entertaining, you're not very hyper or mischievous.

You are laid back, low key, and even a bit sensitive.

What Kind of Juice Are You?

That Adam Lambert.
The Sims have drawn me back in.
Paul's a cat person.
This can't work.
"Stop trying to kill my mate."

You Are a Yellow Light

You take life at a sustainable past. Fast enough to do a lot, but not fast enough to leave everyone behind.

You are open to whatever may come your way in life. You're very receptive.

You are quite thoughtful and knowledgeable. You have the perfect mix of reflection and experience.

You think before you act. You like to know some of the facts before you make a decision.

What Color Traffic Light Are You?

Gentlemen, we've got work to do.

2009-02-23T19:54:00.000-08:00

You Crave an Important Life

Your dream is to life a live a life that leaves a mark.

You'd like to have a mission or journey to complete, even if it takes years.

You want your life to be meaningful, and having a final goal brings you meaning.

You'd like to accomplish something big, if only to inspire others to believe it can be done.

The Sunset Test

You Would Win Best Supporting Actor / Actress

You are a quirky, fascinating person. You understand the world well.

There's no one quite like you. Your uniqueness leaves a strong impression on people.

You are bold and willing to take risks. People may love or hate you, but at least they'll notice you.

You are just different enough to make a great character actor. You can make a smaller part come alive.

What Would You Win an Oscar For?

Your Birthday Predicts You're Independent

Ever since you were born, you've loved doing your own thing.

You enjoy puzzles and games. Anything that stretches your mind interests you.

You are a quiet person - often lost in your own thoughts. Others find you completely mysterious.

You have so much fun thinking, dreaming, and planing. You hardly have time for friends.

What Does Your Birthday Predict About You?

WE WANT YOU!

2009-02-23T19:30:00.000-08:00

Wow. It has been an insane week.
The teachers decided to bombard us with random projects and essays, so I've been really busy.
And I got sick. Again.
The second my teacher mentioned a virus going around the school, I started sneezing my brains out.
Thanks, Mr. Hurd.
Wow. No wonder the "Rent" movie flopped. I saw a recording of the last performance last night and...wow. Coarse, yeah. My parents were flinching at every F-word and put their foot down on watching the "sex scene". (I watched it later and it's a little offensive, but there is no nudity, just sexual dialogue. And I got what Jonathan Larson was trying to show. These three couples' relationships have been strained recently and a night of bad sex is the last straw for all of them. And I'm still the same no-sex-before-marriage person I was before, so while I don't condone that, I understand it. My mom thought it was showing how all the relationships were based only on sex, but I disagree.) And it was so much more powerful, open, and raw than the movie ever could have been (no offense, Chris Columbus. Nice try.). Mark was an actual, 3-dimensional character, not just a background image. Benny seemed like a worthwhile person who'd bought in the system, but still loved his friends more than anything and would have done anything for them. And Roger, my least favorite character from the movie, was less of an arrogant, angsty jerk and more of a human being. You could see that he had trouble opening up, was scared of what the future would bring, and your heart broke when you saw him lose the one thing (or person) that made him so happy.
And, since it was the last performance, the original cast came up on the stage afterward and everyone was bawling through a rendition of "Seasons of Love". That's when I lost it.
And as much as Jonathan Larson hated Christians, the church, and religion, his parents were some of the nicest, most open, and loving "religious" people ever. It was great to see them with all the cast members, regardless of sexuality or whatnot. And they were so proud of their son and it sucks to think he never got to see how many people he reached with his musical.
Dustin Lance Black's acceptance speech for "Milk" last night reminded me of the musical, because he was gay, and had always hoped that he would one day fall in love and get married. But the part that hit me the most was when he gave a shout out to all the gay and lesbian teens and told them that they were beautiful and that God did, in fact, love them. And I just started crying, because it's true, but a lot of Christians don't think that, and even those that do have a hard time showing it, because the media assumes that if we hold our stance on gay marriage, we somehow hate gays, but it's not true.
And, just like it's possible for Christians to love non-Christians, it's possible for Christians (or regular people) to be gay. It's not right, I do think it's a sin, but they're not faking their love.
Just saying.
Phew. Now to rant about something else.
Ugh, like "Twice Upon a Marigold". "Once Upon a Marigold" has been my favorite book for 6 years, and when I saw the sequel at Borders, I just about had a stroke. Then I read it, and while it was okay, it seemed a little pointless. Jean Farris only wrote the book because fans wanted to know what happened next, and I felt like she didn't really answer that question, which was irritating. I never wanted "Once Upon a Marigold" to end; I couldn't wait for "Twice Upon a Marigold" to end.
Oh, and I am in love with Peter Abrahams. His Echo Falls series is the bomb. It's hard for me to put down his books.
Laaaaame two of my best friends started dating. They're a good fit for each other, and they seem really happy, but it is SO awkward to hang out with them as a couple. It was even more awkward when I was the third wheel at a sort-of date. It was like they were more comfortable with me there, but they didn't actually want me there. They didn't want me to leave, but they weren't going to make it easy. So I just left.
And I've noticed a bunch of my girlfriend's think is totally okay behavior, to invite friends along on their dates. WHAT THE HECK?? One of my friends kept avoiding dates with her boyfriend, stating, "It would be too awkward if it was just us."
??????
SO?????? Isn't that the point? "I'd be more comfortable if you were there."
??????
I'M NOT YOUR BOYFRIEND.
Yeah, fun weekend. "Rent" was so worth it, though. Why did it have to close???

So much coffee, so little time: Michael Phelps does NOT have an IQ of 127

2009-02-17T21:31:00.000-08:00

You Are Coffee

You are highly ambitious and goal oriented. You feel like there isn't enough time in your day to get it all done.

You are outgoing and creative. You love talking with people, thinking up crazy plans, and then acting immediately on them.

When it comes to caffeine, you'd like a refill. You can almost always use an energy boost.

Life is too short. You're going to get as much out of it as you can. You live for today.

Are You Coffee or Tea?

Wow. I'm VERY behind in schoolwork, and my hormones are going off the rails on a crazy train, but we won our last basketball game, so that's good news.
Seriously. Why are there suddenly so many good-looking guys at my school?
And everyone's hooking up all of a sudden.
Wait till spring!!!!
Shoot. The math project.
My science review.
The math worksheet.
Section 5-7: General Solutions.
JULIUS CAESAR!
I am SO behind and I failed at least two quizzes today.
Sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow it on down.
And take the Straight Road to Kyle.
Mmmmmmhmmmm, Kylie Minogue...
...is a tone-deaf loser.

Singles Awareness Day: Why meet people when you can mope?

2009-02-14T21:07:00.000-08:00

I didn't mope. Much. Valentine's Day was all right.
And there was MUCH chocolate.
My dad got these Black Forest Truffle squares, I decorated a pink-frosted chocolate cake, we bought Ovaltine powder from Fred Meyer...(mmmmm....XP)...good times.
I'm listening to "Happiness Is A Warm Gun", and it got to the part where Joe Anderson is administered Naked Girl drugs by Salma Hayek...and I have nothing deep to say about that. I was just thinking about it, and how high he manages to sing. Good song.
I'm a Beatles convert. My dad got two giant Beatles anthologies from us for his birthday and they have EVERYTHING: "She Loves You", "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da", "The Ballad of John and Yoko", "Get Back", "Hey Jude"...and it's all great.
So, yeah, "Magical Mystery Tour" still sucks, but their hundreds of other songs are pretty fantastic.
And it's fun to listen to stuff like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and go, "MAX! LUCY! ACROSS THE UNIVERSE!! NOOOOOOO WAY! SHE CAME IN THROUGH THE BATHROOM WINDOW!"
Gabrielle Zevin is so wonderful. She's so clever and funny and I love how she writes.
Michele Jaffe is a riot. I got first pick from the new stuff in the Teen Section at the library and SCORE! "Kitty Kitty" AND the next book in the Echo Falls series!!!! YESSSS!
Just...everything.
"The Jane Austen Book Club" wasn't that great a book. Maybe I just don't appreciate it enough, but I loved the movie and felt way more for it than I could ever feel for the book, which was sort of confusing and boring and had nothing to do with anything.
Awesome.

Woo, a nonsexy aphrodisiac!

2009-02-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

You Are Asparagus

You're not exactly subtle. You seduce people by being highly suggestive.

And surprisingly, it works. Your outrageous ways are very appealing.

You always try to look as sexy as possible. Even if it means being a bit inappropriate.

You somehow always manage turn the vibe sexual. You have more fun when everyone is being naughty!

What Aphrodisiac Are You?

Your Valentine's Day Personality is Practical

As far as you're concerned, Valentine's Day is simply a commercial holiday.

You don't place any real meaning on it. You don't think it deserves too much celebration.

For you, Valentine's Day is just the day you avoid restaurants and candy stores.

If you love someone, you already show it. You don't need to go all out for a silly holiday to prove your love.

What's Your Valentine's Day Personality?

Shakespeare romp turns into suckfest

2009-02-13T10:35:00.000-08:00

Kenneth Branagh. You were doing SO GOOD.
"Much Ado About Nothing" started off great.
Except for the giant bathing orgy, where the women started stripping down and rubbing each other with shampoo, and the men wildly ripped off their clothes and swung like Tarzan on a vine into the public fountain.
And you got to see EVERYTHING.
Those were DEFINITElY pubes.
And Keanu Reeves can't act to save his life. He is POSITIVELY terrible. His first big scene found him on a massage table wearing nothing but leather pants, though he quickly became angry and began to fondle his henchmen. The whole homoerotic vibe wasn't helping. "Betruchio! Rub me with oils while I describe my evil personality!"
And that guy from "House" was in it and I kept thinking, "Peter from 'Swing Kids'! Peter from 'Swing Kids'!" When things got slow, I whipped out my trusty umbrella and began screaming, "Swingheil! Swingheil!"
He, too, was a terrible actor. When he grew upset, he chose to destroy scenery and cry rather than fondle men.
When Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh were together, the movie was great. Even when they were apart, they had some great comedic scenes.
And I don't know who to blame for this, Shakespeare or Branagh, but those two characters reconciled their differences a little too quickly for my taste, and suddenly disappeared from the movie's plot for at least a little while.
MICHAEL KEATON WASN'T FUNNY! I suppose it might be to some, but his Patchy the Pirate impression didn't really do it for me. It was sort of distracting and stupid and unnecessary and he, Keanu Reeves, and Robert Sean "Swingheil" Leonard should have all jumped off a cliff together to rid the world of such talentless scum.
Actually, they'd have to take Brad Pitt, too. And Tom Cruise. And John Travolta. And George Clooney. And the Jonas Brothers.
I can't decide whether it was better or worse than "A Midsummer Night's Dream". I hated that movie, and the fact that it was practically a 2-hour long Shakespearean porno. But this one was so disappointing and just as nude.
And somehow, Kenneth Branagh managed to pull of "As You Like It", one of my favorite movies of all time.
Grrr....

So much to catch up on!

2009-02-11T15:11:00.000-08:00

You Are Caramel deLites / Samosas

You are blessed with a brilliant, dynamic mind. It's sometimes hard to figure out what your focus should be.

You're the type of person who does almost everything well. You are very competent but also unfocused.

You're not an easy person to pin down. You are vibrantly complex.

You have many facets to your personality, and they're often in competition with one another.

What Girl Scout Cookie Are You?

You Communicate Passionately

You speak from the heart. You can't separate your feelings from what you're saying, even in a professional context.

You tend to speak dramatically, with lots of passion and emotion. It's easy for you to get swept up in what you're saying.

You like to connect with people early on so that you can personalize what you are saying to them.

When you converse, you try to find common ground and harmony. Even if you disagree with someone, you try to emphasize where you agree.

What Kind of Communicator Are You?

You Are LOL

The internet is always cracking you up. You could waste the day away finding things to laugh at.

You're usually the first one to find a new funny video, picture, or website.

You're always up for wasting time online, even if (especially if) you're at work.

You also tend to spend a lot of time chatting, especially with people who make you laugh out loud.

What Internet Slang Are You?

Flu-like syptoms may occur.

2009-02-11T14:36:00.000-08:00

February decided to screw with us and dump a load of snow on the ground, yet, somehow, our school was the ONLY one not to have a 2 hours late.
But that doesn't really matter seeing as I didn't go to school today.
Woohoo, the flu has struck!!
And it sucks.
But I didn't throw up this time, which was a plus.
Not even chicken and milkshakes.
And it gave me time to catch up on "All My Children".
It's pretty sad, because I haven't watched it in months, but I caught on pretty fast.
Except Babe is dead? And I've been watching this soap since seventh grade, and David and Krystal were together once before, and now they're together again.
Bianca has finally resurfaced.
Aidan and Greenlee are over, and Greenlee is marrying Ryan - again.
Annie is going crazy because she apparently killed her brother and is obsessed with Ryan, but Ryan is totally over her because he's a jerk.
Seriously, I never liked Ryan. He was always sort of a player.
Susan Lucci needs to hurry up and die already.
Valentine's Day is coming up, and I'm sort of pumped. Sure, I won't be getting flowers from "my special someone", but there's chocolate and heart-shaped pizzas from Papa Murphy's!
Ugh, a bunch of my friends are making a big deal about how it's not Valentine's Day, it's "Singles Awareness Day", and Valentine's Day is just a stupid holiday that's not real and love isn't real and all that.
Well...yeah. Valentine's Day kind of sucks a little bit if you're single.
But it's not that big a deal. It's just high school.
And, for reals, the word "relationship" is kind of making me sick.
Several couples I know broke up and it ended badly for all of them. But now they're all complaining about how this love obviously wasn't real and the relationship was so hard and why can't guys be real, bla bla bla.
Ugh. It's HIGH SCHOOL. Of COURSE this didn't work out.
Yet because they've gone through this "tough time" and have more "experience", they're the mature ones.
And it's annoying.

ZOMFG PRINCESS DIARIES FAN ART!!!!

2009-02-07T16:51:00.000-08:00

Really? Is there really no one else in this world that didn't enjoy "Princess Diaries 10: Forever Princess"?
I mean, it's been a month.
You can't tell me EVERYONE liked it.
But apparently everyone DID.
So much, in fact, thtat they consider it THE BEST ONE IN THE SERIES.
Wow. Weird.
For 99.9% of the female teenage population, this book made them replace Stephenie Meyer with Meg Cabot as the BEST writer of all time!!
Yet for me, it did just the opposite.
I am most likely never going to pick up a Meg Cabot book ever again for as long as I live.
Well, not true. I'll probably reread "The Princess Diaries" series from time to time.
But I'm not really enjoying Meg Cabot's predictable style.
And I'm still bitter for having Mia end up with Michael.
Making J.P. out to be a creepy, self-centered loser was pretty lame and sort of immature.
And, as an expert on all things immature, I would know.
I've been seeing a lot of Princess Diaries fan art with pictures of Mia, Michael, Mia and Michael, and "memorable" quotes from the series.
So I was really bored...
...and used the Candybar 5 doll maker to make a Mia doll.
Yeah, really.
It just kind of bugged me!! They were making pictures of Mia with brown or black hair!!! Mia is blonde (with green streaks, apparently)!! And Michael ended up as a manly, broad-shouldered, stupid-looking jock.
What?? That's not what comes to mind when you think "sarcastic, demanding, selfish, intelligent computer geek".
That's right. I made a Michael doll, too.
And it was sadly the most fun I've had all day.
It was surprisingly hard finding a suitable outfit, though.
But we got there eventually.
Superfans were also making "Princess Diaries" playlists.
Which I scoffed at.
Until I realized I do the exact same thing.
Whatever. They added "Love Story" by Taylor Swift and a LOT of Katy Perry songs.
Geez. Who knew Katy Perry was a Princess Diaries fan?

Change is lame...as is this semester

2009-02-04T20:04:00.000-08:00

Your Energy Level is Moderate

For you, life is all about balance. You keep active, but you rest a lot too.

You have enough vigor to get everything done... with a little left over for some fun.

You find that you have plenty of energy, as long as you give yourself time to recharge.

But if you don't take care of yourself, you notice that your energy levels really plummet.

What's Your Energy Level?

You Are Cool

You don't necessarily dislike other people, you just don't feel all that comfortable around them.

You tend to keep your distance. However, people may misread you and think you're being a snob.

If you want to be warmer, try starting small. Smile more. Greet people. Ask them how their days are going.

It doesn't take a lot to get some warm energy going. And it will make both you and the people around you feel better.

How Warm Are You?

Oh snap, was I right again?

2009-02-02T17:06:00.001-08:00

I watched the ENTIRE Super Bowl Game.
And not only was it very exciting, THE STEELERS WON!!
EVERYONE in my entire family was rooting for the Cardinals, and they were a little peeved when my team won.
And after every touchdown they would say, "That didn't count. That shouldn't count. Oh, they counted it. Whatever. They're cheating. Did they pay the refs again?"
Sore losers.
There were some pretty good commercials, too.
And some excellent food.
So, all in all, a good Super Bowl XLIII.
Plus, my cousin sold us some delicious (albeit expensive) Campfire Mints.
Mmm, almond and caramel.

You Are Mac and Cheese

When you are stressed out, you seek safety above everything else.

And nothing is more nourishing than a big warm plate of carbs.

Taking risks takes a toll on you, and you prefer your comfort food to be old fashioned.

You're the type of person who could eat the same meal every night, especially when life is hard.

What Comfort Food Are You?

My guy friends and I sat in the library reading back issues of Seventeen.
They claimed it was to gain understanding about the enemy's mind.
But they seemed pretty into it.
Agh, new semester looks like it's going to suck.
There are all these new people in my classes and they scare the crap out of me.
CHANGE IS BAD, RESIST CHANGE!