What is My Life?

Hello! Today's post is just going to be me filling you in a little on my life, so you can have some context for all this crazy. (I thought the title was appropriate, because I've been saying that a lot recently.)

First, and most excitingly, school ended on June 13th. Lucky me, the math and science program I'm in only gives one exam a day during exam week, so we all got to go home earlier than everyone else. Including picking up my sousaphone from my base school, I was home over an hour earlier than my brother (and you can bet I lorded that over him, because maturity). Although I've spent a lot of time just relaxing, I've also been pretty productive (mostly on the stuff from yesterday's post), and I'm planning on keeping it that way. Since I'm apparently incapable of having fun. It's fine.

Speaking of sousaphones... marching band! I mentioned that our show is Latin, but I thought I'd give you a little more detail. (Yay, details! Come on, at least pretend you're excited!) Our show doesn't have its performance title yet, but right now we're just calling it A Celebration of Mangione. Chuck Mangione is a composer who was apparently big in the '70s. None of us had ever heard of him, but he composed the music for the movie Children of Sanchez. For those of you (like me) who haven't seen it, let me tell you, the music is fabulous. Or we got a really amazing arrangement. Probably both. Both is good. There are way too many sixteenth notes, but I really like the music, and I'm really excited about our upcoming season!

A lot of my time this summer is going to be spent on band and crafts and other fun things, but I also have a decent reading list. My priority is something that was assigned to me for school, called Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History. Something I want to read for myself is The Count of Monte Cristo. Because of the weird way we did our foreign language exams this year, my French class finished about three weeks before the school year did. My teacher decided to use all the extra time to show us the seven hour movie version, starring Gerard Depardieu. Then she challenged me to read it, so I'm going to do that. It's apparently over a thousand pages, but I've read Lord of the Rings, so how bad can it be? I really enjoyed the story, so hopefully I'll feel the same about the book. I also have a few smaller things I'd like to read, which aren't really as interesting. And finally, my dad is continuing his quest to get me to read the Bible and the Koran. Neither of us are religious, but he thinks it's important to be well educated in other people's beliefs. He has a point, so if I get around to it, I'll probably do that.... I don't really know.

I think that's enough of a look into my boring life. At least now you'll have a vague recollection of what I'm talking about in future posts! Speaking of which, I'm going out of town for the next couple of days, so I don't really know when the next post will be, or what it's going to be on. Yay, surprises, right? Right? Well, in any case, I'll talk to you soon!

And now, your question for today: What are you doing this summer/over the next few months? I'd especially love to hear about books you're reading or have read recently, since I'm always looking for new stuff to try. Let me know in the comments!

On Writing and Mechanics

Hello again! This is the second part of my writing post from a while back. I'm not really a fan of either of these posts, since they are more like boring rants and not very interesting to read, but I figured I would just get this up and get it out of the way. Here goes:

One major problem I have when writing for school is using "academic mechanics." For example, one thing that I do a lot, and mentioned in my last post, is use parentheses. Obviously, I have some sort of unhealthy obsession with them, because I will overuse them forever and always, but I find that they're a lot like how my brain actually works, and that helps me share what's going on in there. Besides, if they're so wrong then why were they invented? However, if I tried to turn in an essay, even a narrative essay, with parentheses in it, I'd get points taken off before it was even read.

That's just one example of my own mind constantly battling with my English teachers. Don't get me wrong, I have always been the girl that gets excited when the teacher announces yet another writing assignment or essay, but I've also always been the one who has to switch modes in order to write them. For a while, I thought this was some weird thing, since none of my friends had this problem. They just hated writing essays! But finally, this year, my English teacher taught us what diction is in writing, which kind of cleared it up for me. Basically, whenever I write for my teachers, I'm struggling to take the informal diction in my head and make it formal diction that I can turn in. As far as I can tell, this isn't an unusual thing, but it is a little bit annoying. My inner voice is naturally sarcastic, so when I'm told to get my act together and use an "appropriate" tone, that inner voice sighs and rolls its eyes (yeah, that went in a weird direction).

I think next time I'll be talking about some projects I've been working on the past few weeks: mostly sewing, but also some crochet. I have no idea when that'll be up, but keep an eye out for it! And now, my question for you:

Have you struggled with translating your thoughts into something you can put onto paper? Let me know below!

Snow, Feels, and My Eyelid

Hello everyone! Today is going to be a little bit random and disjointed, mostly because I'm on a five day weekend (yay, snow!) so I'm not really focusing much, and also because I'm having a lot of feels (yay, fandoms!)

First, snow, I think. This storm brought us what we're calling Winter Break, Part 4. Yeah. 4. I honestly don't remember the last time I had a full five day-week of school. We are going to be so screwed during March, since we won't have any three-day weekends or any chance of snow days. But, I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts! We got about a foot of snow on Wednesday night, so we got Thursday and Friday off. I've actually spent a while outside, which is unusual for me, since I'm not a fan of being cold and wet. (Although, really, is anyone?) The rest of the time I've spent either doing homework or reading, which is my idea of a perfect weekend.

And now feels, because I am so full of them right now, and my dad has no idea what I'm talking about. It started with rereading Divergent yesterday. I could barely make it three pages without seeing something that made me want to curl up in the corner. Some of it was from the end of the book, some of it was from the end of the series..... just a lot of feels. Then, just a little while ago, I decided it would be a good idea to listen to the soundtrack from Series 3. Seriously?!?! Why did I mot realize that was a bad plan! It's very good, and I did really enjoy it, but some of those tracks.... Mostly the ones from HLV, now that I think about it.

Finally, my eyelid. Yesterday morning I woke up and my left eyelid was folded weirdly. It just had an extra crease under the normal crease, and I don't know why, but it is still like that. It kind of makes me look like half of the really derpy character from Animal Crossing: Wild World, the one that makes you restart your game if you accidentally get him/her.

(Image from Nookipedia.)

Hopefully it will go away before I have to go out in public!

Oh! Also, I had my first thought in French in the shower Tuesday night. This was very exciting, since my teacher said that once you start thinking in a different language, you're on your way to being fluent. And I really want to be fluent! (This is the same teacher who told us that if we get a 5 on our AP exam senior year she'll spend an entire day teaching us every French swear word she knows. I love this teacher!)

I know, not a very interesting post this week. I still have two more days before I have to go back to school, so I'll try to use that time to write a really good one for next week! Talk to you soon!

Less Than 24 Hours

Hi guys. Are any of you surprised? Because, let's be honest, I think we all knew we were going to end up here. However, alert the press, because I actually have a full 40 minutes to write this!

Speaking of time (I know, great segue), there is now less than 24 hours until the American premiere of Sherlock. And I'm freaking out. A few of my friends have already seen it, and they say that I'm going to go insane. I've been avoiding spoilers like the plague, but I've seen a few things, and I'm quite excited to see how they play out in the next three episodes.

Under normal circumstances, I think time would be going reeeeaaaalllllyyyyy sllllooooowwwww right about now, but I kind of lucked out. Midterms are next week, and I'm totally freaking out in a not good way about those, so time is also going really fast, so it all balances out. We have Monday off for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (the only reason my parents are letting me stay up to watch Sherlock), then my first exam is on Tuesday. It's science, which will be my hardest one, no competition. It's 23 pages long, and my teacher says there aren't any huge diagrams to take up space.... Oh well. I'll be fine! (I may be a shriveled up mess on Tuesday afternoon, but I'll be fine.)

This is really random, but are there any Sly Cooper fans out there? I used to play it all the time when I was 9 or 10, but after I broke the PS2 the PS2 took an unexpected fall I haven't played since then. Lately I've been watching some walkthroughs and cutscene movies, and I'm now re-obsessed! Also I have a major crush on Sly, but in real life I think I would slap him. He's just so sassy!

Next week's post will undoubtedly be about Sherlock, so if you aren't a Sherlockian, what's wrong with you? feel free to skip it. I'll try to be a little less fandom-specific in the next one!

A Tale of Two Barbers*

So about five minutes ago I was in the shower, just casually rinsing my hair, when I remembered a joke-ish thing my dad told me and thought, "Oh, I should put that in a blog post!" And then I thought, "Oh crap, I really need to write a blog post!" So apparently I will be making a habit of waiting until fifteen minutes before my deadline to post every week...

As I obviously don't have a ton of time, I'm just going to tell you guys that joke-ish thing that actually is not a joke but I laughed about for five minutes. My dad says that this is attributed to Mark Twain, although he may not have actually said this, but this is the Internet so I don't think anyone will mind if I accidentally misquote someone. Here we go....

In a town with only two barbers, should you go to the one with the good haircut or the bad one?

Get it? You should go to the one with the bad haircut! (I'm now realizing that this in no way qualifies as a joke. Forgive me, let me try again.)

A photon arrives at a hotel with only one suitcase. The bellhop comments on his lack of luggage, and the photon replies, "Well yeah, I'm traveling light!"

This joke speaks to me on a deep level. I got it from my sort of homeroom teacher's wall. Thanks, Dr. T! (Although I have been using just first initials to refer to people I know, I would like to state that many of his students actually refer to him as Dr. T in real life. This apparently caused some confusion when he arrived at the school last year because people thought another teacher, referred to as Mr. T because of his horrifyingly unpronounceable last name, had gotten his doctorate.)

So now I have told you a joke random thing, a joke, and an anecdote from my school. What more do you people want from me at 11:54 on a Saturday night?

I swear I'll try to have a proper post this week.... possibly even during the week and not at quarter to 12 next Saturday!


*In case anyone is wondering, I am aware that A Tale of Two Cities isn't by Mark Twain, I just thought it sounded good. Poetic license? Even though I hate poetry?

An Update on My Life

Hello again, everyone! I hope you're having a great New Year's Eve, and that you have fun plans for tonight! Today I'm going to give you an update on some stuff in my life (I know, so interesting), which will hopefully be a bit of an excuse explanation for my recent radio silence.

1. School: I am really liking high school now, even though I kind of hate one of my classes. Nothing particularly interesting has been happening lately, unless you actually go to my school, though. It's mostly just been me drowning in homework, mostly for science, and, oddly, English. One cool thing I'm doing is making a French cooking show, which is my big project for, you guessed it, French. We're doing a cooking unit, so everyone has to make a video in the style of a cooking show showing how to make an actual French dish. Pretty cool, no? OK, on to more interesting things...
2. Extracurriculars: Marching band sadly ended on November 8, so I have nothing to do.... Obviously, I'm kidding! Winter guard started a week after that, so I've ridiculously busy with that. Our practices were from 7-10 on Tuesdays and Fridays, and 9-4 on Saturdays, until a week or two ago. Then we split into JV and Varsity (I'm a rookie, so I'm on JV) and now I'll be practicing 7-10 Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So don't expect any kind of brilliant writing during the week! (That is, if you get anything at all...) I'm really excited about the stuff I get to do in our show but I'll probably do a whole post on that some other time.
3. Fandoms: I'm so behind on Doctor Who, since I still haven't finished Series 7.2, so I haven't seen the 50th or the Christmas special. But I'll catch up eventually! (Spring break, anyone?) I'm anxiously awaiting January 19, and also considering sneaking on to a plane to England so I can watch Sherlock on Wednesday. On an unrelated note, I will be hiding in a safe, nonspoilery section of the Internet until the 19th. I'm slowly working my way through Supernatural, and I'm now just a few episodes away from Season 7. I'll get there eventually, although it would help if I just didn't get any science homework until February.....
4. Other Stuff: I got all of John Green's books for Christmas, and I have to admit, I kind of freaked out. I read TFiOS in two hours on Christmas, and I started AAoK last night. I don't have a problem, I swear.

I hope that didn't bore you too much, and kudos to you if you actually read it all! Hopefully I'll be back with another post soon, but no promises, right?

A Saturday Thing?

Hmm, maybe I'll just try to post every Saturday, as that seems to be working out right now! :)

My week was...... kind of weird. I don't actually remember most of the stuff that happened, which probably has something to do with, oh right, I'm going to States today! Ahh!!! It's sort of totally consuming me...


Ok, so I started writing that before I left, but then project and other craziness, so I'm finishing it now. (First I just want to say that I'm in my school's marching band, and we had our biggest competition of the season today. This should make more sense now.) I just got back from IHOP, which is a thing our band does after each competition. Since it was our last competition today, more people were there than have ever been, and we were all in very good moods. Why, you ask? Because at States today, we got..... straight 1s!! (For those of you that aren't music geeks, that means we got the highest score in every category: music, visuals, and overall effect.) That's right, seven different judges thought we were superior (the official name for a 1)! I am so excited, I don't even know how to put it into words, but believe me, it's an amazing feeling!

As I mentioned above, I had a little project craziness this morning, but now it's turned in (my science class does everything online, so we can have weird due dates and times) and I am free! Well, not quite, since our second quarter project is to get it ready to enter into the contest we're doing them for, but I am free for now! Since it's a four day weekend (remember to vote if you're eligible!) I am looking forward to sleeping a ton, catching up on Doctor Who, and reading Allegiant, which my best friend was kind enough to let me borrow. (She's just a little totally and completely obsessed with the Divergent series, and although she did say Allegiant was a bit of a disappointment, I am really enjoying it so far.)

Enjoy your long weekend if you have one, and I will talk to you soon!

This is Awkward

Hi everyone! So, this is a little awkward. You remember that time, over a month ago, when I thought I was going to have time to post here regularly? That was so adorable. As it turns out, high school is crazy, and busy, and a little hard, especially if you're in an advanced math and science program and you have five times as much homework as all of the other freshmen. And I am, and I do. Possibly even more, I'm not really sure.

Right now, my main source of freaking out is marching band. (That's mostly because we have our last normal competition today, before we go to States. Once that's over, it'll go back to science.) I sort of have a lot do before I leave, which is why I'm spending time on the Internet. That's just my kind of logic! We should do really well, but I'm a little worried that I'm going to mess up the visuals, and I still need to get my Spirit Buddy stuff ready, and I think he doesn't even like the stuff he's been giving me, and yeah. I'm a little stressed. But I've been coming up with reasons that none of that matters.... so I should be fine.

The other thing that is occupying my mind is this haunted house thing I did last night. You should know I do not like scary things, but one of my friends invited me, and I have no life outside band, so I said yes. I don't think I have ever been so scared in my entire life! I was with four other people (plus D's mom and little brothers), and I literally spent the entire time clutching R, which was okay, because she was clutching me back. It was terrifying, but a ton of fun!

I really do need to go get ready now, but fair warning, this may be the only post for a while. Again. Stay neeky!