2008 in three minutes

I've had this post planned for awhile. Thankfully, the army isn't going to screw my plans over this time, and I can go through it like I planned to.

I wanted to bring everyone up to speed on the current stats of my blog. Over the past year, I've posted:

76 Videos

153 Pictures

51 Lists

366 Times (367 once this is published)

I think that over the last 12 months, my blogging ability has greatly improved. Here's a sample from each month, showing just how much of a difference a year has made.

January: from "Oh, Mr. Todd!"

I'm so happy, I could, eat you up I really could...

I finally found the video for By The Sea, one of the main reasons I want to see Sweeney Todd. It's low-quality, but hilarious! Toby building a sandcastle...classic!

February: from "Triple Crown"

The actual killing parts weren't too awful. To be truthful, the most intense part of Judge Turpin's death was the reprise of "Pretty Women" before hand and the whole "BENJAMIN BARKER!!!" thing. Still not a good choice for young audiences, but as an avid Sweeney Todd fan, I survived it. As for Mrs. Lovett's death...*Shudder* don't even get me started. SCARY.

March: from "I Vanna Be A Show Stopper!"

Ever since I saw Cabaret, I've been a Liza Minnelli fan. Ever since I created a role play character who looks/sounds just like Mikhail Baryshnikov did in his early 20's (The character's name, coincidentally, is Mischa. His real name is Mikhail, but don't call him that.), I became a Baryshnikov fan. What would be better than Liza Minnelli teaming up with "Misha" in two shows: Showstoppers, and Baryshnikov on Broadway.

April: from "Happy National Orlando Bloom Day!"

Ally has decided that we are in need of yet ANOTHER holiday this month, so she and her cousin came up with National Orlando Bloom Day. I suppose it's celebrated about the same way National Johnny Depp Day is: watching Orlando Bloom movies. I've been itching to watch the third Lord of the Rings for some time now, so I'm probably going to be doing that tonight.

May: from "A New Type of Procrastination"

Ever since January, I've been stalling on making an animation for a certain song.I have the storyboard for it laid out and everything, I've just never convinced myself to make the actual video. However, today I decided to get started, and wound up getting a good 15 slides of animation done!

June: from "At Last!"

Maya and I are finally skittling again. It's been forever since we've done so, and currently we're writing about the Phantom Crew having a PJ party at Phantom's. Raoul ate the key in his Key Lime Pie, so everyone is stuck with just their pajamas. Let's see how that goes.

July: from "Y-M-C-A!"

Item #3: We're currently having a Sweeney Todd marathon---we're watching the Angela Lansbury stage production right now and might watch the Johnny Depp movie. However, Johnny Depp/Helena Bonham Carter remains my least favorite pairing our of four. (Scratch that---they are fourth out of five. Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris are my least favorite. You're great, Cerveris, but having LuPone as Mrs. Lovett ruins it)

August: from "Week Two Begins"

At least I haven't had a lot of homework recently. I mean, I have to study German every night, but my book is really small, and it doesn't take long to just review my vocabulary words. We've started having quizzes and tests already, though---I actually need to look over my science vocabulary words for the quiz tomorrow.

September: from "Playing the piano"

Apparently, when I'm sick, I'm more creative. I created The Website's current layout when I was sick about a month ago, and today I was absent again. Therefore, I used AccessColor to make sure there was difference enough between my colors and stylesheet, then validated the code for EACH PAGE. Maybe that's just busywork, but hey---I learned the DOCTYPE was important. (I also figured out a better navigational system).

October: from "Excepting foolish fun"

My friend JoAnna (From Beauty and the Beast) is spending the night tonight! Sure, we're probably not gonna stay up all night...but there might be random outbursts of stupid laughter from time to time. (JoAnna says, "Actually, we promise it.")

November: from "Wacky Wednesday"

The strangest thing happened this evening. After the pool, my PJ pants (which I wore over my suit), were soaking, and I didn't want to sleep in watery pants. I took them into the bathroom, grabbed the hairdryer we were provided with, and about 10 minutes later, came out with mostly-dry pants. I am wearing them now, and they feel fine.

December: from "What a pain in the mouth today was!"

Today was Dentist Day. It didn't exactly start out well, with my iPod dying right before I went in. Thankfully, Mom let be borrow hers, so that turned out well. After a bit of initial clean-over, they strapped me down, leaned me way over, and turned on the Happy Gas. The numbing process went rather well, especially thanks to the gas. I felt like I was in a scene of "Bohemian Rhapsody".

However, there's a section of one post that's actually from January that I really like. Let me give you an except from "End of the End (D)":

I'm really looking forward to April. Not that thing is happening (as far as I know), but then my Good Charlotte calendar has a big picture of Billy on it. Then again, so does May, June, and November. We all have our things to look forward to.

That's right. We do all have our things to look forward to, and I've accomplished mine. I don't know what I'm totally looking forward to in 2009, but I'll find out soon enough. I suppose that so far, Perdita and the YTHC Pizza Party are the two things in the near future I'm looking forward to. Most of all, I'm looking forward to another round of Blog365.

See you all next year for another 12 months of my interesting life!

The Penultimate Post

Tomorrow marks the end of 2008 and Blog365. I have plans for an uber-post, but I won't post details (As that would be worse than the online leak of Midnight Sun!)

Rather, here are the photos from a little rodent photo shoot I did to really try out my camera:



Or at least, there's one of them. I really need to get Photoshop so I can crop my images---these are HUGE.

What a pain in the mouth today was!

Awhile ago, I visited the orthodontist for a checkup. Imagine my delight when they said that sometime soon, I'd need to get eight teeth pulled. Eight! And I already had a ton of gaps! The last thing that a needed was two-by-two holes on either side of my mouth.

Today was Dentist Day. It didn't exactly start out well, with my iPod dying right before I went in. Thankfully, Mom let be borrow hers, so that turned out well. After a bit of initial clean-over, they strapped me down, leaned me way over, and turned on the Happy Gas. The numbing process went rather well, especially thanks to the gas. I felt like I was in a scene of "Bohemian Rhapsody":



I then spent about an hour listening to the first act of Les Miserables and watching some show on TBS that WASN'T Sarah Silverman, during with the dentist changed gears from Numbing to Loosening. I might be crazy, but I think that Les Mis is only fully experienced when on Happy Gas. I was randomly able to hear all the alternate lyrics, harmonies, etc. It was rather amazing. The only strange thing was that I giggled through "I Dreamed a Dream". Maya will be pleased to know that when the dentist was away, I had a tendency to sing the occasional Javert line.

Only half of my mouth was numbed over, so that if we didn't want to take out all eight that day, I wouldn't be stuck with a huge numb mouth. I'm glad we didn't numb me over full way, except for two small things: I felt like Michael Crawford as Phantom with the giant swollen half-of-lip, and whenever the dentist had to put pressure on the other jaw to try and yank the tooth out, that hurt a lot.

We were in there for a good hour and a half and had gotten MOST of a tooth out. One tooth out of the eight we had hoped to pull. Apparently, not all baby teeth are easy to remove. My brother's (last year or the year before that) came out fine. As I understand it, mine are fused to my jawbone, and the roots wrap around the permanent tooth.

So today wasn't technically a successful day in Tooth World. I guess it could be worse...



...but my mouth does hurt a lot.

2009 Movie Listing

Last night I watched Prince Caspain after Ally bugged me enough. I had kind of a mixed feeling on it. Reepicheep and Edmund were awesome, and it was funny seeing all the actors growing up. However, despite his really good acting, Ben Barnes did not totally impress me. I couldn't understand a word he was saying, and made everything rather confusing. He was rather pretty, though.

Anyway, I took a look at the movie previews on Front Row. Here's my list of movies that I really want to see in 2009 (Even if they came out this year) in either theatres or on DVD.

- I've Loved You So Long
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Knowing
- Confessions of a Shopaholic
- The Secret Life of Bees

Relearning old tricks

Today was a blissful 70 degrees (Why can't the entire Winter be this way?) and my dad decided to pump the unicycles back up, as they were looking rather pathetic. I've gotten tall enough to upgrade to Mike's first unicycle, and so on top of remembering how to ride, I had to learn to balance on the bigger wheel.

Well, I rode it around the soccer field when we took Ginger on her nighttime walk, and I even got to where I can mount by myself. I think I'm going to be doing it a lot more now!

Charlie Bucket cracked a joke

On my mom's blog, you can read about the curious case of Bruce and Kevin the reindeer. There's a photo of the three unrelated reindeer in our yard (One of which we won from the Australians that bought Bruce and Kevin). Mom said they have no names, and then when it said "the Australian cousin is the little one in the middle", something struck me.

I went onto Wikipedia and found some names to a very famous Australian novel and commented this:

"Get four more and name them Meg, Pip, Judy, Nell, Bunty, Baby, and The General. Gotta love the 7 Little Australians."

Apparently, that's hilarious. My dad came into my room, asking how I heard about The Seven Little Australians, and I showed him a book that I've had since I was four or five---thanks, Uncle James and Aunt Meredith! It's called Great Girl Stories, and it includes excerpts from famous novels with lovable heroines, including Meg of the Seven Little Australians. It's arranged by Rosemary Sandberg, if you're interested.

You're welcome, world.

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone out in the Internet had a nice Elf Day. Things were low key over here---we emptied stockings around 9:30, had breakfast (Dad's blueberry pancakes), and then opened presents. I got a camera from my grandparents (Thanks, Mimmie, Papa, Grandma Grace, and Dave!), so hopefully once I figure out how to really work it, I'll have some pictures on the blog of better quality than those I take with my little webcam.

We're spending the rest of the evening watching some of our new movies (Mamma Mia! and The Dark Knight).

I'll add a little EDITED once I have my Christmas skit on MTP.

Getting ready for Sandy Klaus

"Klaus" is pronounced like the name, not like "Claws". Just thought I'd point that out.

Tonight's Christmas Eve! I swear, Christmas seems to come sooner than the end of the school year. I very clearly remember last Christmas, but only hazily remember the end of 7th grade. I kind of wish it were reversed, but whatever.

I still have to put away my laundry, but afterward, I'm crawling into bed with my laptop to watch the SpongeBob Christmas Special (The one from the second season---its the only one worth watching) and Nightmare Before Christmas. I'll catch A Christmas Story tomorrow.

I just sent out my annual Christmas skit, and tomorrow it'll be on Missing Triplets. For those of you who received it (Basically just my fellow MTP people), don't open it until Christmas day! That's only in about three hours, so I hope you can wait.

For now, here's one of my favorite YouTube Christmas Specials, by my favorite YouTuber, Marcobat16:

Blog365: 8 days left

Tomorrow I think is going to be a major day.

I need to do some last last-minute shopping. It's going to be Christmas, so everyone's going to be excited about the holidays. I need to finish the Christmas skit I've been writing since this afternoon (I'm on a time crunch!)

Starting tomorrow, it'll be the last week of Blog365 and 2008.

Sing with me!

Blimey, Cruella!

My musical theatre class (That I spent so much time learning "White Christmas" and "Polar Express in) is doing Aristocats and 101 Dalmatians as its spring productions. In most things that I've been in, I've been in the chorus. I suppose this has to do with me being an alto and not a very good dancer, and thus I imagined that's what it'd be like for these two.

I got the cast list, and I was right. Half right, at least.

I'm a chorus cat in "Aristocats". I'm actually really happy about that. I like a lot of the songs that the chorus are in for Aristocats. The list for 101 Dalmatians was on the back, and I'm not a chorus dog.

I'm Perdita.

For those of you who do not remember Perdita, she is the one in the blue collar (The red being Pongo):

Sudden craving

I just had a craving for a StarBucks cookie. I usually hate them, but they just sound so good right now. I'm starving and it's late, so I can't just go downstairs to the kitchen. Now Quinn and I got to the topic of food (Something about Raoul in a banana suit, peeling him, putting him in my grandma's banana pudding and serving him with fried clams).

I'm hungry.

Early preperation

For next summer's show, YTHC is doing Wizard of Oz. I've never liked the movie very much (I can see the zipper in the lion's costume!), but it's playing on TV right now. Toto looks a LOT like Ginger, so I think I'm gonna like it better. There's also the fact that I like Liza Minelli, and she's Judy Garland's daughter...

I hope I like it! (I'm going to be stuck with it for three weeks)

A strange stroke of luck

Yesterday, at the orchestra concert, my bassoon reed broke. Normally, I'd be in a minro freak out about that, but actually, it was kind of funny.

My reed was dying for a couple of weeks, and I've never been able to get with my bassoon teacher and buy a new one. I've been really careful with the reed, treating it like gold. It was sensitive, but I knew that if it survived through the concert, then things would go fine.

It did survive. It played well. Then, when we were told to stand up, the left wing (with the bocal and reed) slipped, and the neck clip unfastened. Trying to steady the bassoon, I kind of brought it a little to close to me, and SNAP!

Just as I finished needing the reed, it broke two seconds later. Strange, no?

Finally on break

Winter Break is here!

And it couldn't be here soon enough.

With thanks to Aubrey

Tomorrow is the last day of the semester, and I just wanted to do a little shout-out to Aubrey.

Thanks for putting up with my insane schedule and giving me some down time to procrastinate and be lazy. I'm totally going to make up any missed Sake-posting opportunities that I've missed over the last two weeks, as well as making up for any sucky one-line-dialogue posts I might have posted.

Things should be getting a little more normal soon!

Oh, and a mini shout-out to Ally:

YAY you read Henry Orient! You must get on AIM sometime so we can discuss it :-D

Cheated

Today, there was a BUNCH of ice pretty much everywhere. Snow was here and there, but ice was in abundance. Last year, when the ice came, school closed for a day. This year, the ice came. Meade, Hardin, and all the other counties/districts in between were canceled.

Not Knox, though!

Nope, despite all teachers living in E-Town or Louisville (And having to drive through the ice), school was in session. We had to wait in the cafeteria for another fifteen or so minutes, as "not enough teachers were there". That's when you ought to draw the line.

So maybe we're Army Strong and stuff---that's no excuse for no snow day!

Stupid weather.

UPDATE: Several neighbor schools are now closed. Guess where we're at?

"NO DELAYS OR CANCELLATIONS".

Milestone!

It's my 400th post, readers! And there's 16 more days and posts until the end of Blog365/2008!

I'm just full of accomplishments.

Well, except for a few things. I need to vacuum my floor and clean the bathroom. I really need to do the last three problems in my algebra homework. And I need to write a note for the morning to remind myself to get stuff from downstairs.

I'm doing pretty well, though. The end of the quarter is Thursday, but I'm gonna be out that day. That would mean that I only have two more days. Hoozah!

Being accomplished

You know the list I made yesterday? Well, I put it on Remember the Milk, and it looked something like this:

- Blog
- Clean bathroom
- Clean room
- Do laundry
- Put away laundry
- Do algebra homework due Tuesday
- Study for German Final tomorrow

Now, it's been cut down to this:

- Blog
- Clean bathroom
- Do algebra homework
- Study for German final

My bathroom can remain in it's morbid state for another day. My algebra homework isn't due until day after tomorrow, so unless I have time after my studying, then it'll be put off. I'm just about to start studying, and if I go until nine (Taking a melatonin so that I can fall asleep easier) then I'll have an hour and a half of study time done. Considering I'm pulling a high A this quarter as well as last, I think that's good. Actually going to sleep will be even better---I haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately.

I'm about to scratch off "blog" now.

Cramming

Another night of cram blogging!

Tomorrow, I'm going to have to do the Typical Sunday Student routine. That includes some, if not all, of the following:

- Clean my room
- Do my algebra homework from Thursday (Due Tuesday)
- Study for my German final on Monday
- Clean the bathroom
- Do laundry
- Put AWAY laundry
- Blog

Hopefully, I'll get it all done. If not, here's a condended, MUST DO version:

- Clean my room
- Study for my German final
- Blog
- Do laundry

Notice how "put away laundry" and "clean bathroom" are missing, as well as "algebra homework". The homework isn't due unto Tuesday. My clothes can typically sit in a basket for the longest time with no wrinkles. My bathroom isn't going to get much cleaner should I clean it or not, so that isn't my top priority.

I'll go put this into Remember the Milk now.

Countdown

Currently, there's only two more days until my German final.

Six more days until Winter Break.

Thirteen more days until Christmas.

Twenty more days until the end of Blog365 (and 2008).

And thirty more minutes to blog.

Three weeks left

I officially only have 21 more days to blog.

I'm also tired.

So here's an LOLcat for your troubles:

Living up to my expectations

I am.

I'm never tired at night. So I usually go to bed at 10 or 11, then I'm tired all day. Well, tonight, it's not even 9, but I feel like I'm gonna collapse. I'm kind of happy about that, as that means that I have no excuse to myself to stay up longer.

22 more days left in 2008.

Obsessed

Maya just got me hooked on this song, as it reminded her of a scene in a roleplay we're doing.

My 80's look alike

Molly Ringwald.

As many of you know, a lot of my friends are guys. I also love 80's movies. Randomly, tonight those two kind of met.

In a lot of her Brat Pack movies (Mostly Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and Sixteen Candles) Molly's friends tend to be guys. I've noticed that several of my friends seem to be similar to Molly's friends in their own...unique ways.

Of course, Molly/Claire was popular in Breakfast Club. Hmm...

Hopefully, I didn't have homework

Or at least anything that will take awhile due tomorrow. It's 10 PM and I want to go to bed. I'm gonna check my binder now.


No, I did not have homework. Good night.

Into the woods you go again. . .

. . .you have to every now and then!

We saw Into the Woods again, this time by another fancy performing arts school in Louisville. I think I liked it even better than the other one! The girl playing The Witch was amazing (She did her Bernadette-Peters research!), and some Sondheim music was certainly a good thing to lighten the mood right about now.

Oh, and they had a bassoon in the orchestra.

This post is rated: PG-13 for mild language

(More warning than witty. If you don't want to see the Alicebelle on rampage, I'd suggest you stop reading.)

I cannot freaking believe this.

My post for today was all planned out perfectly. The day was fine---everything went well, not much homework, HS band practice, etc. We were also supposed to get the call saying if we're moving or not today, and we've been getting conformation left and right for a month, all saying, "You're going to Germany!"

Naturally, I was excited by the idea. I was looking forward to getting the final OK and being able to blog about how I'm excited about taking Ginger to restaurants, how the school has an actual drama program, etc.

Rather, we get a call from my dad, who just got the call. "All set, you're off to Germany?" Nope. Let's reverse this to "You're staying in Fort Knox for a fifth year, and you (meaning my dad) are deploying."

To say it lightly, I'm pissed as hell.

I was looking forward to reinventing myself, as no one would know me in Germany. They wouldn't see the social baggage I've carried for the last three years, all stating something such as "Teacher's Pet", "Dork", or other such tags. I probably wasn't going to be "popular", but I'd slide in and be what an "average kid" actually is.

No. I'm stuck in Hell's Social Life right about now. Granted, I do have friends. I have a couple friends at school, and I have a lot in Youth Theatre.

However, it seems like every summer, my friends from the previous year ditch me. I don't know what it is---maybe they're out of contact. Maybe they've made new friends. Or maybe I'm just not good enough for them anymore, and would just be an embarrassment in their new, "pimpin'" lifestyle.

I'm starting high school next year, and getting into a new school while scrambling to get back onto my feet is not on my top list of priorities. With the military, it seems that if you're new (And pretty/hot/sexy), then you can slide in pretty well. Nobody knows you, so you don't have to try and hide some sort of secret (Such as, if you were a Basket Case/Misfit at your last school) from the world. I'm going to be trying to get back into the regular groove of school life, as well as knowing that I should be in a different time zone by now.

Whoever hoped that I'd stay, I hope you're happy. Because I sure as Hell am not.

Scenes from 11 PM

I'm in bed right now, starting to wrap up an IM with Maya. The 11 PM bugle just went off, marking my fifth night up past "my bedtime". This week has been incredibly hectic, and I'm looking forward to the weekend. After school tomorrow, I might just have to pull on my PJs and sleep.

Up late doing homework

So nothing interesting is going on.




Here's the video for the contest I recently entered.

Fort Necessity

My social studies class is doing group projects with different parts to it, including a skit, a page-long paper, and a poem. My group is doing the French-Indian War, and I was entrusted to do the poem.

We could do a parody of a song, so after about an hour, I whipped up this little beauty to the tune of The Bare Necessities.

We're at the Fort Necessity
The British Fort Necessity,
Forget about the Frenchies on our tail.

Though at the Fort Necessity,
You all will become casualties,
But that's okay, because we will prevail.

We battled with France, we spread it beyond,
We brought it over across the pond!
All we wanted was their fur
We didn't mean to cause demur!
An' we wanted their land, "Just because,"
We didn't think of the buzz it'd cause,

So we called out our corps.
Then Fort Necessity was off to war!

We're at the Fort Necessity
The British Fort Necessity,
Forget about the Frenchies on our tail.

We're at the Fort Necessity,
We're fighting battles overseas.
But that's okay, because we will prevail.

It's not a fort at all,
G. W wanted it done.
But if we had a tall wall,
Then we'd have won!

We lost the Fort Necessity,
Our glorious Fort Necessity!
It came down in 1754.

But in 1763,
We signed ourselves a peace treaty,
Proving that Britain won the war!

My mom didn't understand how "demur" want used in the context, but it was the only thing I could find. Basically, if you also don't get it, it's basically to raise doubts.

For those who haven't heard the song Bare Necessities in forever, here's the song:



I do realize that I left out most of the part about the pawpaw, pear, and raw paw. It was impossible to rhyme them while doing the part some justice.

31 Days Left

Today is the first day of December, marking the nearly-end of 2008 and the nearly-end of Blog365. I'm kind of excited about it!

The thing I'm most excited about is the fact that there are thirteen more days in school before it's let out for the semester. That doesn't include weekends, but weekends are so great that they shouldn't be put in countdowns to the end of a school period.

With the end of the semester comes German (and possibly Algebra) exams though, which I am not looking forward to.

This song always puts me in a December-y mood. Hope you like it.

No more NaBloPoMo

Today's the last day of NaBloPoMo, which means that I only have 31 more days left to blog this year. Of course, it also means that I only have 25 more days to do any Christmas shopping that I need to do (AKA a lot).

But I promised you a sample of my Saturday, and you're gonna get it.

We went to this local museum that my gradma has been trying to take us to for awhile. I have to admit, it was pretty cool. Two points that I found interesting were a barber's chair and a very certain piano.

The barber's chair looked like it could be fresh out of Sweeney Todd, so just to be sure that it wasn't, I checked to see if it had a flipping mechanism.

I think the piano really caught my eye. It was from the 1800's, so it hadn't been tuned in awhile. Some of the keys had kind of broken down, resulting in a piano that looked an awful lot like this one:



Yes, that's from Corpse Bride, which is exactly why I liked it. The owner let me play it a little, and so I played some of "Sally's Song". It's true what they say---Danny Elfman music sounds great on the untuned piano.

After the museum, we all went to a local park to take a family picture and a cousins picture:



We all went home for an afternoon filled with football, naps, or Adventures in Babysitting (Me).

Later that evening, though, my Aunt Meredith decided she wanted to give me a makeover with some of her Mary Kay samples. I really liked the way it came out. Pictures will come once my mom edits them, as many of them are sideways (And my Photoshop trial just ended).

Back from AL

We all had a nice drive back from Alabama. We dropped Dad off in Nashville, and had Cracker Barrel for an early-ish dinner. We rolled in here right about 8 PM eastern time, and things have winded down since.

Maya and I have wasted so much time looking back over old YTHC pictures that I've run out of time to post a real post about yesterday. I suppose it'll work well for tomorrow, as all I have for tomorrow is Cleaning and Homework.

Alabama Day

I'm blogging from my grandparent's computer, but I've had so much fun today! I can't post it all tonight (We're about to leave for the no-Internet lakehouse we're staying at), but in the car tomorrow, I'll type up a nice, long post describing today, full of pianos and makeup.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, all. I'm taking advantage of the Internet here at the hotel, so I just wanted to do a quickie-post before the NaBloPoMo and Blog365 ghosts eat me.

Wacky Wednesday

Today has just been full of surprises. We took off for Birmingham, Alabama at about 11 this morning (Eastern) and got here at about 6 (Central) this evening. We checked into the Embassy Suites, and it's rather nice! They allow dogs, which Ginger is very happy about. We got back from the pool about an hour and a half ago, and ordered pizza for dinner. I have a couple slices left, which I'll probably give to Dad when he comes.

The strangest thing happened this evening. After the pool, my PJ pants (which I wore over my suit), were soaking, and I didn't want to sleep in watery pants. I took them into the bathroom, grabbed the hairdryer we were provided with, and about 10 minutes later, came out with mostly-dry pants. I am wearing them now, and they feel fine.

NaBloPoMo: Day 25

I just received a wake-up call from the people at NaBloPoMo. Blogging every day for this year has made it such a routine thing, it's almost like brushing your teeth. Imagine getting an email from NaToBruMo (National Tooth-Brushing Month) saying that "We're in the final week, don't stop brushing! If you skipped a day, come up with a funny excuse and you might win a T-shirt."

That was what it was like to get an email telling me there was only a week left to blog.

I wonder if I'll get one of those during the last week of December. December's actually coming so quickly (Gack, Christmas shopping and end-of-semester exams in German and possibly Algebra!), it's strange to think that I only have to blog 36 more times until I'm done.

I'm just taking a break from packing for our trip to Alabama to write this. I have all my clothes packed, and now I have to charge up my cell phone and iPod, put together my DVDs, and power down the computer. I'll probably do that last.

"Sky-y-y-y yo ho"

I think I want to sing this for my next audition:

Back to normal

Mom's back from New York, and now (after the next few days) things will go back to normal. I have three shows in the next two days, and I'm currently missing my character shoes. I have my jazz shoes as backups, and they always seem to have some big bin of character shoes, so hopefully I'll be okay.

I do hope I find them, though.

Winter movie list

Every so often, I look through recent movie previews on FrontRow. I checked out a few trailers today, and have set almost a goal thing for myself: to be able to make time to see these before the end of the winter:

- Twilight
- Eagle Eye
- The Secret Life of Bees

Of course, there are several that I probably won't go see (But wish I could anyway), mostly due to ratings:

- The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
- Changeling
- The Duchess

I do know one think though: if it kills me, I am going to see Twilight!

Over

That's what Les Miserables is.

On the bus, I finally finished page 1463 of Book Nine in "Jean ValJean". I absolutely loved it, but now I'm not entirely sure of what to do. My mom nagged me to read Henry Orient. Maya nagged me to read this. I might be wrong, but I might have just about read almost every book on my shelf. The only ones I haven't covered are some of the books of the Anne of Green Gables series.

Any book suggestions?

Ought to go to bed

It's 10:17 and I'm involved in 2 IMs. I'm so glad tomorrow's Friday.

Reasons why I don't wear high heels

• They hurt
• They crunch my toes into the front
• They're hard on my heels
• They're hard to walk in
• Today at Musical Theare

We've had to dance in character shoes since day one, which always kind of freaked me out. I've never liked heels before, and I'm not coordinated. Therefore, the prospect of moving in them didn't sound good.

So far, I've been pretty good. Today, I decided that it was time to get a little personal with the dances. After a couple of chassés in Sisters, though, gravity decided to go against me...

My ankle hurts.

Meep!

Anyone who's ever seen The Breakfast Club knows about Allison, who had the jacket with the furry hood she always hid under:



Today, I finally got my new jacket in the main. I totally love it: the color looks nice on my, there are sweater cuffs inside, hand-warming pockets...the whole kit and caboodle.

However, another reason I love it is because I can be an Allison in it:



Versus:




Meep!

Lovely Monday

Today has been so laid-back, I've mistaken it for a Thursday (Or better yet, a Friday). Sadly, however, it isn't. It's only a Monday.

Mike had an appointment today, so I did all of my homework (AKA five algebra problems) in the waiting room. I wasn't feeling especially well, so I missed the optional dance rehearsal in favor of having a calm afternoon at home.

Not having homework, I was able to get some stuff accomplished. Sure, I did stay online for a good long while, but I also pulled out DDR after months. Right now, I'm currently watching The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (I heart you, Karen, MaiMai, and Bea!!!) and about to go to bed.

I hope that tomorrow will be similar, as I do believe that today (And the last few days, actually) have gone unusually well. I haven't had much homework, the school day itself has been surprisingly nice, and I've had nice afternoons.

The ending credits are currently rolling, so I'll wrap this up. If I have time tomorrow, I'll probably watch something else (Maybe White Nights if I start earlier. I do want to get some good DDR in tomorrow, though).

Cookoff

Katie and Sarah invited me over to Katie's house to make cookies this evening. I accepted (Who doesn't love baking cookies?) and took over a box of oven-make Halloween cookies.

Well, they already had a box of mix. A BIG BOX. It had seven or eight bags of mix, and technically, you're only supposed to use one.

We used all of them.

We kind of messed up on several of them. They called for flour, and we smart people put in sugar by accident, then realized we messed up and put the flour in. Sarah didn't especially like the idea for some odd reason, but we did it for almost every batch anyway. They tasted extra-sweet and amazing.

I've now eaten more crap this weekend than I think I ever had.

Coming to a desicion

My mom and Mike are at a swim meet, and I'm finally going to go through my blog posts, find pictures that have been taken off Flickr, and repost them. I'm coming across them every so often, and it's bugging me.

Eventually, I'll also take down the direct linking I used to use. That'll take longer, as I'll have to find the posts and see if the URL is Flickr or Blogger, and if it isn't, upload it to blogger, and do a bunch of other coding stuff.

I'll feel a lot better once it's done, though!

Into the woods...

...and home AFTER dark.

Mom and I went to go and see Into the Woods tonight, and it was really good! Everyone did a really good job, but my favorites were probably Little Red Ridinghood, Baker's Wife, and the two Princes.

It's 25 until midnight, so I'm keeping this short and simple. The weekend is here!

One more day

Tomorrow is by far my favorite weekday ever; Friday. Wednesday is great with getting out early, but an hour versus two days? There's no competition.

I have a little bit of homework tonight (All having to do with "critical thinking", thus making "level three" questions) and a test in science tomorrow. I really wish I had everything finished, but alas, I don't.

But still.

TOMORROW'S FRIDAY!

A long day

That's what today was: long.

I'm having last minute freak-outs with two of my extracurricular things, and it sounds like I just got signed up for another one without my knowing what it even is.

I'm watching The Breakfast Club right now to try and unwind. I finished all my homework at the dentist's office, so I'm good.

Dare: day two

Maya and I just exchanged our songs ("There's A Fine, Fine Line" for "Somewhere That's Green"). I don't think I did incredibly well overall, but some parts were better than others.

We have plans to try again on Saturday with the same songs. We're gonna compare the originals to the redos, and hopefully it'll improve.

Dared

Maya and I have gotten into another "argument" about voice hatred. In an attempt to convince each other that the other one can singer better, we're each making an MP3 tomorrow of us singing one of two songs.

My two selections:

- "There's a Fine, Fine Line" from Avenue Q
- "Cabaret" from Cabaret

Maya's selections:

- "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" from Sweeney Todd
- "Somewhere That's Green" from Little Shop of Horrors

One day week?

We don't have any school on Tuesday, so I really just go tomorrow and have a day off, then three more days. I kind of wish we didn't have to go on Monday, and that we could all just have a four-day weekend, but it'll be easy to just get through tomorrow.

Ow, I just cut BOTH my thumbs on the bottle cap for my root beer...

"The guy's only doing it for some doll!"

Tonight my mom and I went to go see Guys and Dolls at the John Hardin PAC. It was put on by the drama club of one of the local high schools, and was great!

My friend James (LeFou from Beauty and the Beast) played Nathan Detroit, and the role seemed to be designed for him---last minute, out of it, and insane. I kept thinking how much he needs to play Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors.

At the Meet-n-Greet, we were both able to talk for a little bit before we had to head back to Fortress Knox. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the show is joining Music Man and the crew on my List of Musicals I Like.

Ready for the weekend

Yes I am.

This week has been so incredibly slow and hectic. Two days normally seem like nothing to me, but these seem especially long. Two entire days off: it's my kind of vacation.

Checking off the list

I'm actually beginning to flip out a little bit here.

I usually try to go to bed at nine, as to not be wicked tired the next day. Usually, that isn't a problem, as any homework that I have tends to take ten minutes or so.

Not the case tonight.

So far, I've had:

- German Review, sections 1-7
- Algebra I: increase and decrease percent, problems 1, 3, 4, 5
- Finish English writing prompt (If you suddenly aged 10 years)
- Study for science vocabulary test tomorrow
- Study for Kapitel Drei test in German (again, tomorrow)
- If possible, looking over this duet I wrote for band

I had to miss orchestra rehearsal because I knew that with about three hours out of the house, I wouldn't be able to do everything. I've been working since about 4:45, and I've so far accomplished:

- German review
- Algebra

The vocabulary test shouldn't be that hard, as it's only ten words that are in my notes. However, I'm really going to have to cram the German tonight---a lot of the test is "listening", and the tape that we have to listen to I swear was recorded by Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter. Not that I DISLIKE Tim or Helena, but they can be kind of hard to understand.

Oh, and they usually talk REALLY quickly.

I'm probably not going to be able to practice bassoon tonight, and I still have to put my laundry away. I'll have blogging out of the way, but that's only ONE task on my agenda.

Heck, I don't even have time to put my stuff on Remember the Milk, which is supposed to help you do stuff.

It's about ten minutes until seven. I had high hopes that I would finish my homework before then so that I could watch Edward Scissorhands before bed. That doesn't exactly seem likely, so I'm moving the deadline for the prompt up to eight. Then I can watch SOME of it as I get ready for bed, and look over my science notes as I watch. I'll pause every once in awhile to study my German (and I mainly just need to look over my vocabulary to prepare myself for "Timo Burton", as I call German Tape Speaker), and HOPEFULLY still get to bed by nine.

Hopefully.

Tired

I stayed up rather late last night watching the election. I mean, I'm glad I did (And even more glad with the outcome) but going to bed at 12:30 AM doesn't exactly mix with waking up at 5:45 AM.

Oddly enough, I've been feeling great all day. I wasn't tired, and just did what I needed to do all day.

Until now.

I have Youth Orchestra tomorrow, and I haven't exactly practiced my music much. I also have a German test on Friday, and a pretty big review that I need to do for it. I planned to bassoon tonight, and then tomorrow do all my homework and studying.

I think I've changed my plan. I believe that tonight I'm going to enter some of my music into Finale and check how it's supposed to sound. I mostly have tempo problems, and that's just with one song.

As for my German? I'll have some time tomorrow. I probably won't bring it to school, as it isn't due for another day, but I'll have time after school, in the car, after rehearsal, etc.

Goodnight.

Things I ought to be doing

- Studying my German vocab
- Studying my English vocab
- Going to bed soon

Rather, I am:

- Watching the election (Things are still tense, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Obama!)
- Talking to dad via mom's webcam
- Checking on my Adium, hoping that Maya or someone else will sign on
- Wondering what's gonna happen next in Lés Miserables (I'm on page 188 today---started at 46 this morning. Best. Book. Ever.)
- Blogging

Hopefully, I'll be able to concentrate sooner or later and get the Der-Die-Das thing under control and remember the difference between "Delusion" and "Reluctantly" (I do know them...but I need to check them out anyway)

Catching up on Google

Every so often, I scan around the blog and notice fads where I've posted tons of pictures or random content about random things. Examples include Kynt Cothron, Billy Martin, Orlando Bloom, and Missing Triplets. Then, finding these things, I search them in Google and see how far up I am in hits. I've been the first Kynt Cothron image hit (and still am on the front page) before, and many other things.

Search "Guten Aben", though, and I'm your second hit. I'm on the bottom of the front page. I'm the fourth for "MTP news".

You know what I'm the first hit for?

"ilikehats.blogspot.com"

Never would have thought that, would you?

NaBloPoMo: Day Two

I think I just had to most teenager-ish day ever.

I woke up at about nine, and spent about an hour and a half online, catching up on boards, emails, Photoshop, YouTube, etc. Once summoned away from the laptop at about eleven, I showered, put on my glorious green corduroy pants (And I mean REALLY green!), and walked the dog.

I was feeling lazy after eating so much junk for the past few days, so I decided to walk Ginger around the soccer field rather than just up to the school and back. Upon returning home, we "helped" my mom hook up the sprinkler for the grass. My friend Sarah was walking HER dog, so we talked a bit outside.

Once she put the dog (Cooper) back in the house, we remained outside with Ginger, as it was a rather warm day. We eventually decided to go inside, in which activities varied from eating Halloween candy, singing/playing "Be Our Guest" on the piano, and discussing our views on Christmas and what we might get for people.

Once she went home, I cleaned my room---but didn't vacuum---and walked the dog around the soccer field yet again. After the walk (and dinner), I went upstairs and practiced bassoon. I even used GarageBand and recorded some of it.

Now, I am blogging. I'm about to do the little bit of homework that I have, and I'll probably go to sleep by around nine tonight. All things considered, that's not half bad!

So that was my day. Boring? Yes. Blogworthy? Not exactly, but for our purposes, yes.

A whole new world...

...of YouTube musicians:

Forgetting the obvious

Sometimes I wonder what I'm thinking.

I'm here in bed, coding furiously at a page that will simply not look like, and wondering what to blog. Oh, sure, we did go out and canvas in New Albany, but you can easily catch up on that on my mom's blog.

Then it hit me.

It's the first of November.

It's NaBloPoMo.

DUH!

Although the Internet probably won't explode this month if it hasn't already from everyone posting for an entire year, it'll still be fun. I just sent my blog in for the blogroll, and doesn't my button look just dashing?

Happy Halloween!

Happy day to all on my favorite holiday!

I was Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas:



And Mike was Joe the Plumber:



Katie-Perchick (She was Perchick from Fiddler on the Roof for Halloween) is sleeping over tonight, and we're currently watching---what else?---Nightmare Before Christmas. Then, if the sugar from the candy holds up, we'll watch Edward Scissorhands. As we fall asleep, it'll be Fiddler on the Roof.

"What a wonderful combination of movies," says Katie.

Halloween '08 was a success. I have to admit that I'm gonna kind of miss the buildup. I absolutely loved ABC Family's "13 Days of Halloween", where they claimed that it was a variety of Halloween movies, let's face it---aside from The Adams Family, it was just a big Tim Burton marathon, and you know how I love me some Tim.

It was absolutely GREAT this year, but as they say in "Poor Jack":

"And I just can't wait until next Halloween!"

PS- Katie says, "And we're gonna watch The Great Pumpkin next year!!!"

A day in the sick ward

I was home again today, mostly as a recovery day. I feel much better, and I believe tomorrow (being Friday) is a great day to go back to school.

I spent most of the day lounging in bed with Ginger. We (meaning me) performed several non-demanding tasks, including:

- Editing my Flickr page/deleting old "photos" that are part of the older MTP site design. (If any of you are going through the archives and see a picture missing, please tell me which post it is!)
- IMing Quinn
- Attempting to edit PDFs
- Listening to "Dark Waltz" over and over again for no reason
- Watching Memoirs of a Geisha on YouTube---and having to go to TWO channels, as one cut it off at part seven or nine. It was a high odd number.

Sick, but not sick enough

I don't exactly like being sick, per say, but I have to admit that on the right day, it does feel really good. I'm kind of in the middle.

Like, today, I felt horrible. After a day in bed, I've kind of gotten better. But right now, I feel insanely tired, my stomach feels gross, my back hurts, and I just feel gross.

I suppose it's kind of a two-way deal. Tomorrow, I'll probably be well enough and sick enough to either suck it up and schlep through the school day or have a recovery day. However, if I do decide to schlep, then calling home for the recovery day is kind of out of the question, as that's the nature of recovery days. You either take then full or don't take them at all.

So now I'm trying to figure something out. I'm not sure if I want to be sick tomorrow or not---like I said, I hate being sick. But going to school after one day of sick leave is kind of tiring, since you're not entirely fine. On the other hand, I don't want to be seen at the Kid Skipping School. By doing that, though, I also don't want to have to go half-rested.

Now I have contemplation.

Wasted (Day)

Maybe not technically "wasted", but I did spend my entire afternoon IMing people. I kind of feel like I should cut myself some slack, though---I haven't talked to my IM people in forever. It's been nice being able to actually work on MTP, my roleplaying site, and figuring out if random MTP ideas are good or not (A couple of them, yes, some more, no)

Tomorrow I'm going to have piano, Musical Theatre, and probably homework. It was nice to have today as a little mini-cation, though.

Having a case of the "Hmm"s

I'm brainstorming random ideas that probably suck for MTP. Visitor rates went down again, so I figured that if we all started adding content like rapid fire, they might rise up a little. I'm deciding to actually film the little movie that I've been planning, just on my Mac's webcam. After all, I can just edit what would NEED to be edited in iMovie.

So far, I've got a few guides in the process of idealizing, but I need to get to bed soon. I have to present a German project tomorrow, and I'm kind of nervous. I have it pretty much down-pat, but...still. I wrote a lot of the content today, being the procrastinator that I am.

Hmm...maybe a downloads section or something would be good.

Multitasking

Right now, I am thinking about, doing, or helping with several things right now, to include:

-Blogging
-Cleaning my room
-Bassooning
-Updating a roleplay
-Sewing my dress for my Halloween costume (Actually, my MOM is sewing...but I'm passing her the right sheets of felt to sew)
-How I'm going to finish my German project due Tuesday
-Spirit week next week and
-If I'm going to be busted for wearing school pants and a non-school shirt for Dress UP day

Expecting foolish fun

My friend JoAnna (From Beauty and the Beast) is spending the night tonight! Sure, we're probably not gonna stay up all night...but there might be random outbursts of stupid laughter from time to time. (JoAnna says, "Actually, we promise it.")

Waiting to fall asleep

I'm listening to "A New Argentina" right now, and just waiting to get tired enough to turn the computer off. So far, it might be a few more minutes...

Or a few more videos.

I just hope it's soon; we kind of have to wake up kind of early tomorrow.

Meet Molly!

This video brightened my day:



"What a cute dog."

Big thanks to Katie!

My friend Katie just posted on her blog a very nice post about Missing Triplets. Visitors are beginning to come back, and we've even had a visitor from Malaysia! That makes two foreign countries that have visited MTP.

I follow Katie's blog almost daily, and I totally love it.

As I promised her, in return for her awesome post, I'm providing a link to her blog in this post, and it's also in my sidebar.

Visit Adventures of an Unschooled Girl!

Thanks again, Katie!

Lost and found

As many of you know, I've carried my hat everywhere. Like, NYC, Syracuse, Florida, you name it, and its been there. It's a rather special hat.

I've also taken it to school several times. Granted, I can only wear it on the bus on either side of the day, but I've always done it for some reason. Once I enter the building, I take it off, put it on my jacket pocket (which is in my locker) and don't worry about it for the rest of the day.

Today, though, apparently the hat either slipped out of the pocket or someone broke into my locker, because apparently the hat wasn't there. I didn't realize this until fifth period, when I found it.

Someone put it in another kid's locker, who took it out and tossed it on the floor in confusion. I examined it, and once I saw the velvet ribbon and "Trixie" tag, I knew it was mine. Sure, he apologized for tossing it on the floor, but I think it's almost good that he did: otherwise, I'd have lost my Special Hat.

Talk about a stroke of luck! I'm still not carrying my hat to school anymore.

Cookies!

My new favorite video, staring Bea/Quinn:

Why am I so freaking tired?

I've done nothing active all day. I swear. I've walked the dog, I've cleaned my room, I sorted some catalogs (And read a Pottery Barn Teens one; one can only dream, looking at the huge rooms with fancy furniture), and something rather strange.

I took all of my stuffed animals out of the net and tossed them onto the floor. I then sorted them into separate piles and categories, such as Anteaters, Hello Kitty, Neopets, Diddl Maus, etc.

Once they were all in their neat little piles, I waited a few minutes and admired them. Then, in no order at all, I tossed them all back into the animal nets, keeping the pillows on the bed (I have a lot of little pillows that were up in the net).

Good night.

Requesting advice

How does one lure people to their site?

Cause Missing Triplets has not had any visitors at all for three days straight.

I've entered it to search engines, the URL is in everything I can possibly put it in, and I tell people about it all the time. Still, nobody's visited!

Therefore, I am asking you, as my dear readers, if you know of any secrets or articles to get more page hits. This no-visitors-for-three-days is really starting to put a lull on my weekend, and it'd be nice if things could go back up.

Or if you don't have advice, maybe click on the link I provided and wait a few seconds so that it appears like I've had visitors. Cheap? Probably. Easy? Sure thing. (I'm just kidding, by the way)

My latest obsession

Nightmare Revisted! (Sally's Song, at the very least)



We got "Boo'd" tonight, and our goodie bag was filled with a nice variety of assorted Halloween stuff. I put most of it back in the bag...but snagged this for the nail polish right off the bat; mostly for the nail polish, but I might retake my Marilyn Manson shot sometime when I'm bored.

What does Sally look like?

Mom, that's the best answer I could find.

Favorite Book #2

The World of Henry Orient.

My mom's been bugging me to read it for years, and last year she actually went out and bought it. I read the first few chapters, thought it was wicked-boring, and tossed it aside.

This year, though, I needed a book for a report due Friday, so I reluctantly picked it up. I finally finished it, and here's the report:

The World of Henry Orient was written by Nora Johnson and takes place in 1950's New York City. The two main characters are Marian Gilbert and Val Boyd, two thirteen-year-old eighth grade girls. Marian's parents are divorced, and she lives with her mother ("Wimpole," as Val calls her) and Boothy, her mom's friend. Her life is plain and boring, unlike Val's. Marian spends her mornings surviving Norton School and her afternoons eating butterscotch sundaes at a local drugstore. Val, on the other hand, has rich parents whom she rarely sees, and she lives in a boarding house with an artistic couple, the Hamblers. She mysteriously leaves Norton every day before school is let out to see her Dr. Braintree, her psychiatrist. She's also very fond of playing the piano.

Despite their differences, Val and Marian become best friends. Trouble arises though when they go to see a concert by pianist Henry Orient at Carnegie Hall with Ms. Gilbert and Boothy. Val finds herself obsessed by Mr. Orient, and, not able to keep her crush secret, finds out as much as she can about him with Marian. They learn where he goes after concerts and in his free time, what is his favorite place to go for fruit cups, and much more. As they find these facts and put them in a "Bible," problems with Val's mental health and within their friendship become bumps along the path, but nothing prepares them for Val's mother's complete disapproval of Val's obsession and "the Bible".

The climax begins when Val and Marian decide that Val has to meet Henry Orient in person to free herself of her guilt and obsession and to get her life back under control. They go through New York City at night alone, going to Henry's favorite places, his concert, and eventually, to his apartment building.

One of the themes of this book was that not all problems are black and white but are often a shade of gray. Val is often confused, troubled, and occasionally depressed throughout the book. Marian gets annoyed at Val's moodiness but has to try to keep a level head to help her friend. She doesn't know if she totally understands Val and her problems.

Although the plot took awhile to get off the ground, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't especially find the first few chapters very invigorating, but after they went to the first concert, things became really interesting. I thought that I was really able to connect with Marian, though, which I really liked. I know what it's like to want to help one of your friends, but whenever you try, they find a way to be difficult. My favorite part of the book was when Val and Marian drew Val on cardboard, cut it out, and burned it, therefore "burning away Val's demons." One of my friends and I did something similar once, so I was able to relate.

I would recommend this book to any teenage girl who's confused about her school life, friends, herself, and where she fits in. The way that Nora Johnson wrote Val and Marian makes them so lifelike and realistic, and you can quickly see yourself as either one of them and your best friend as the other. In that way, it was almost like a nonfiction memoir. Although it doesn't exactly give any answers to problems that many girls have, it puts those problems into just enough words to fill thirteen chapters.

Just like I promised

It's the Karen and Alicebelle Show!

Home Again!

We rolled into the back alleyway at just about 6:45 tonight, and we're all just unpacking and readjusting. I'm also uploading a video of Karen and I---probably what I'll wind up blogging tomorrow. Tomorrow is right back to school (5:45 AM---ew) and the beginning of the second quarter. Christmas Break doesn't seem too far away!

Road Trip!

In about thirty minutes, we'll all be in the car on the way to Alabama and, eventually, Kentucky. Fall Break has been nice, but I'm actually kind of excited about starting the second quarter (And being that much closer to the end of the first semester). I still have to read The World of Henry Orient in the car for a book report due Friday---I want to write it in the car---but I think that in the 16 total driving hours that we have, I'll be able to squeeze in a movie or so and work on my new script just a smidge.

Look out, Fort Knox---we're coming back.

Florida---Saturday

It's our last day! We're watching Into The Woods, and I'm trying to find out who played Little Red Riding Hood, as well as how old she is.

It's been a nice break, but I'm ready to go home.

LOL of the day

UCF

Long day. UCF was hot.

Got two new sheet music books. One's for bassoon/trombone.

Have seven minutes until midnight.

Florida---Wednsday

Today we continued Mike's Let's-Look-For-Colleges trip by visiting UF. After some serious parking issues (The tour guide actually suggested not bringing a car if you go to UF), we were all kind of in a bad mood about it.

However, the tour and college proved to be really nice! I know they mainly ran over the good points, probably skimming over the negatives, but they seemed to be pretty well-rounded. I think I'll be giving it some consideration when it's time for me to start looking at colleges.

Directed by me

My latest YouTube video:

MTP News

For those of you who followed Rodents on the Roof, you may have noticed that I haven't posted in forever. If you're a pessimist, you might have decided that it was dead, and the rodents would never be heard of again.

Well, in my ongoing attempt to add as much content to MTP as possible, I took a good look at the Rodents skits---skits being the key word. They were short, yet rather funny, probably good for younger readers who either

A) Had short attention spans or
B) Didn't want to/weren't allowed to read Quinn's flirt sessions with Robert Pattinson

I spent most of the afternoon today editing seven of the eight posts (I skipped the one with Ginger, but might add it sooner or later). Now, when you go to my skits' page, you can see each of them, proudly proclaiming their *NEW* status.

I also began adding the art section. I'm asking around on IM for pieces to put on the site (Rather than sending out a huge mass email---when people come onto Yahoo! or AIM, I ask them for submissions). Right now, I have five pieces of mine that I rather like. Quinn's getting a self-portrait in soon, which is going to be cool.

On other note: Mike got his driver's license today!

Go Dogs, Go!

Today was the Dog Party at Hal and Desiree's house. We brought Ginger to hang out with their dogs Willow (Golden Retriever) and Panda (King Charles Cavalier Spaniel), and she had so much fun! Panda is actually Ginger's size, so they seemed to enjoy each other's company as they ran around the pool in endless circles.

Ginger seemed to get anxious whenever Mike and I got into the water. She'd start barking like there's no tomorrow, and would stop when we swam over to the side to pet her. Eventually, we thought she wanted to come in, so I held her and slipped her into the pool. She stayed in for a few seconds, then scrambled to the pavement.

However, that apparently wasn't good enough for her. A few minutes later, after even more ear-piercing barking, she sprang right off of her short legs into the pool. I wish we could have filmed it---it was epic.

Tomorrow, I might be seeing Karen for the first time in about six months. If I don't then, it'll be Tuesday. Either way, we're having lunch with Grandma Grace and Dave tomorrow, and we're all excited!

Film Fest 08

Today was our Movie Day.

We began with my DVD production of Beauty and the Beast, which took us until about mid-morning-to-noon. Minutes later, it was followed by War Games. I wasn't such a huge fan of the very beginning, but by the end, I was pretty close to going to some hacking site and learning how to do more with my Mac than PowerPoint presentations.

Right now, we're watching The Breakfast Club special features (We already watched the movie). I liked it a lot more than I thought I would---watch me add Judd Nelson to my List of Obsessions, right next to the Pink and Black Attack.

Tomorrow we're headed to Hal and Desiree's house for a Dog Party with the non-injured Ginger. We're all excited!

Posting from Florida!

We made it to good old FL! We had Bellini's for dinner (Their manicotti is heavenly), and we're ready for a nice week of food, visiting, and watching the Presidential Debate.

Stay tuned!

We're off!

It's about 5:45 AM right now, and I'm just about to get ready for school, as always.

However, Mike and I are being picked up at around noon to go home and prep for the drive down to Alabama!

Hopefully I'll have a better post tomorrow, filled with nice little travel stories. As for now, see you Friday, Florida Peeps!

One Midnight Gone!

"Slotted spoons don't hold much soup."

Tomorrow we'll be in Alabama! Once THAT Midnight has passed, then we'll be on our way to Florida. It's coming up really soon, people!

Oh, and I promised Karen that I'd post a picture of her and ask all you good readers: which celebrity should she be for Celebrity Day for her school's Spirit Week/Homecoming?



(That's her with Nat from "HeartBeat Boys")

"The Amazon Truck is a-comin' down the street..."

On Sunday, I ordered some stuff from Amazon for the trip down to Florida (TWO days until the trek starts!). Although it was supposed to come tomorrow, seems like I got lucky.

Here's what I got:



For those of you who can't see the titles---and I don't blame you, as it was hard to position them all when I only have means up taking pictures through my computer's internal camera---it's Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, The Prince of Egypt, and Nightwish's CD Once.

I'm really happy to have these for the long drive, and even happier knowing that said long drive is only two days away!

Three Days

Three days exactly until we head down to Alabama, four until we tow down to Florida!

Guinea pig squeaks!

Weekendend

It's the end of the weekend!

I have to admit it, though---it's been a REALLY GOOD weekend. I got Misisng Triplets up, was able to webcam-chat with Quinn, edited some skits, got some clothes for our trip down to Florida (Five days!), and was able to see all of my Youth Theatre friends this afternoon.

I'm actually not dreading school this week. It ends on Thursday, and actually, I'm being picked up at about noon on Thursday so that we can roll into Alabama at around dinner time.

All I really have to do is a German oral presentation tomorrow. Then it's mostly going to be a lot of in-class work, like every day. I'm not entirely sure if we're doing a SECOND oral presentation in German (I think there's some Family Tree we have to do, but I'm not entirely sure).

Florida peeps---can't wait to see you!

Missing Triplets Productions

Remember that website I told you about last winter? Well, it's finally up. It's actually BEEN up for awhile (I bought the domain at the very beginning of September), and Maya, Quinn, Karen, and I have worked our fingers to the bone finishing it up this month.

It's a really big deal for all of us, but I think I have a little more sentimental attachment to the site (And yes, I know we all love it dearly). I did edit it over the series of a year, though, taking it through many layouts, trying to host images temporarily on Flickr (They're still there, I think---I should probably take them off sooner or later).

Anyway, if you're interested in the link (Which you should be), it's Missingtriplets.com. I think it turned out really well, and we're adding stuff all the time. After all, we're gonna keep writing skits, as well as adding original videos, art, stories, and more.

Well, it's no longer a secret. I've just let the cat out of the bag to my immediate world; now go tell all the people in YOUR immediate world to tell THEIR people, etc.

You're probably going to be hearing a bit about the site now that it's public. Hope you like Barney and Phantom!

Coming Soon!

I am, at least.

Fall break is only six days away! Florida peeps, looking forward to seeing you. I'm bringing the bassoon!

97

That's how many days until the end of the year, and, more importantly, Blog365.

All that aside---as I can have an emotional post when we get to, say, fifty (Only 47 away!) or even NaBloPoMo. I'm about to work on a paper for English on the Mayans; yes, English class. About the Mayans. Don't ask. It's a rather short report, as the only requirements were to have five paragraphs. Sometimes you need a break from trying to be an "overachiever".

This reminded me of my Youth Theatre times, for obvious reasons:

My Big Backyard

I was absent from school again today, mostly as a recovery day from Monday and Tuesday as well as not whipping out my go-bang-stay-awake energy before the funeral today.

However, I was upstairs in bed---probably watching Nightmare Before Christmas---and my mom yelled for me to come downstairs, get the dog hooked up to her leash, and come to the front. Curious (though mostly confused in the dazed sort of way), I did, and saw she was out with her camera.

Apparently, there was a fox on the opposite side of the street. The pictures she put on her blog are kind of blurry and remind me a bit of the pictures of "Bigfoot" and the video of La Chupacabra (Yes, I know I didn't post quotation marks around La Chupacabra). Still, it's pretty cool.

Oh, and she also got a picture of George.

Playing the piano

I ought to get sick more often.

Apparently, when I'm sick, I'm more creative. I created The Website's current layout when I was sick about a month ago, and today I was absent again. Therefore, I used AccessColor to make sure there was difference enough between my colors and stylesheet, then validated the code for EACH PAGE. Maybe that's just busywork, but hey---I learned the DOCTYPE was important. (I also figured out a better navigational system).

Odder yet was when I sat down at the piano this evening. I messed with a couple of songs I knew---"On My Own", "Beauty and the Beast", etc. However, then I actually started improvising. It might have sounded a bit better, but I've tried improv on piano before, and it didn't turn out well. This time, it actually wasn't half bad. I used some of the rhythm things that I've been thinking about over the week, but aside from that, I figured out whether to hit Bb of F quick enough to keep a little natural pace.

Kind of impressed with how it went, I tried piecing together a few songs I've enjoyed recently; "Children Will Listen" and "No One Is Alone" from Into the Woods, "Jack's Lament", "Sally's Song", "This Is Halloween", and "Making Christmas" from Nightmare Before Christmas, and "Ice Dance" from Edward Scissorhands.

Some went better than others. I've figured at least part of the melody for "No One Is Alone", "Children Will Listen", "Sally's Song", "Jack's Lament", and "Making Christmas". Sure, I found the first eight notes for "Ice Dance", but I don't really consider that "figuring out the melody".

I'm kind of surprised that I actually got to some of the possible bass clef lines for "Sally's Song", "Making Christmas", and "No One Is Alone". I have the definite first four bass clef notes for "Sally's Song", and the rest is mostly just "This sounds nice, even though it probably isn't what the real line is".

I can't figure out an Andrew Lloyd Webber piece or Evanescene song to save my life, even though I have sheet music. (Yes, I know that these guys are awesome and stuff, but other people just write more complicated stuff that make the orchestra beg for mercy.) However, I'm figuring out all of these Danny Elfman and SONDHEIM pieces by ear.

Is that weird?

Mom was right

I'm sick, and you're getting an LOLcat.

Blog365: Day 264

I suppose my mom's blog revealed the only news of the day, depressing as it is.

Other than that, all I can say is that I attempted to validate the website, edited one or two more things to put up, and listened to/watched a "Tibby and Bailey" video put to "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol. Tomorrow I'll wake up at 5:45, and thus will start Week Eight of the first quarter.

Last Midnight Homecoming

Not technically, though.

For the past three years now, I've spent Homecoming night alone at home. I actually kind of like it; nice a quiet, house all to myself, free to eat a little ice cream...

Tonight's activities consist of web design, looking for free versions of "Ice Dance" sheet music, and listening to said arrangements. Nothing terribly exciting, but a nice way to end my homecoming alone streak, cause I'm gonna be a freshmen next year! (Oh my gosh, I'm gonna be a freshmen next year)

My Place in the Sun

You know how a couple years back, my mom did this rapid Google search to see where her top hit was? I just found mine. In image search, of all places.

Many of you probably have caught on to the fact that I'm more or less obsessed with Kynt Cothron. In my attempt to make the world realize how awesome he is, I've been sending pictures around (Much to some of my friend's moans and groans) with cries of "Isn't he GREAT?"

Tonight I had to recruit Karen, so I googled Kynt Cothron in image search. After finding the picture I wanted, I noticed something odd; my blog logo was the last result on the first page.

Noticing I was on to something, I continued by searching Kynt Cothron hat, which bumped it up to the third result on the first page. Excited, I made the final search on Kynt Cothron hats and presto: I was the first hit!

It doesn't prove much besides that I've posted Kynt's name over and over again, but hey---it gave me a day's worth of post AND a feeling of accomplishment, no matter how useless said accomplishment is.

Something Finished

Maybe my day overall wasn't that much better than the last two (I think I'm getting kind of sick---I'm sore all over and freakishly tired), but there were a couple things that were actually pretty nice.

- Youth Orchestra. Playing bassoon for an hour and forty five minutes? Awesomeness!

- I finished this group project thing I had for social studies! I don't have a picture of the back (Which actually looks rather nice---the Democratic Donkey is walking down the 'Road to a better America' with good things about Obama in the crowd), but here's the front:



Personally, I wanted to do some major photoshopping for the back with said Donkey on said road: I would have loved to put Obama's face as the sun, like this:



And then, in no particular order, I'd put the faces of Palin, Bush, Cheney, and McCain in these little critters, possibly RIDING the Donkey to a Better America:



Doesn't that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

Nothing to Report

My idea that I would have stuff to post today was a blow. I'd rather not go into why my day was on the lower side of things, but yet again, I don't want to treat you all to another LOLcat.

Therefore, I'm just going to say that piano was fine, I didn't have any homework today, and I didn't faily my German vocabulary test. That's about it.

Feeling Blue

So here's an LOLcat to count for today's post:




I'd normally write more, but my idea for a post got...called off, so to speak. Hopefully, better content tomorrow.

This post was brought to you by procrastination

Yes, even with my beloved Remember the Milk, today I became the victim of procrastination. I could have spent my non-homework day studying my German or Science vocabulary, bassooning, practicing piano (Even though I did get about 10 minutes of practice on the ancient little keyboard in my room), or various other activities. Rather, I just edited my iTunes library by adding album cover art and grouping things together.

I feel like a failure.

Tomorrow WILL be my do-stuff day, much like Sunday was. I'll piano, bassoon in all four books/folders (Band, Youth orchestra, Disney Classics, and Weisenborn for bassoon lessons), practice my German vocabulary (I'll have my Science quiz tomorrow and won't have to worry about vocabulary for that class), and maybe even vacuum my room if I feel that good. Perhaps, if I have time, I'll also work on the website (Ever since it really got off the ground and with a little reminding from Maya, I've been trying not to say "my site"), send out some mail that I need to send, and finish off the day with a little DDR.

I guess I'm not alone, though. Looks like Mike had a fairly lazy day to kick off Homecoming Week:

Don't forget the milk!

I just joined Remember The Milk, and so far I totally love it! I've noticed myself just doing stuff so that I can cross it off---it's really fun, even if it is just click-press C-click.

I like it a lot more than plain written to-do's, as you can set up separate lists of to-do's that you have. For example, I have Personal, Music, and School right now. You can set due dates for all of them, as well as setting up priorities. They are then displayed by name, due date, or priority.

If, by any chance, you don't Complete a task by the due date you set for it, it is set as Overdue and is kept up, probably at the top of your list or in red or something. Even still, if you even forget to check THAT, you can set up a way for it to remind you. Right now, it's set to my AIM, so when I sign on to iChat with a missed task, a message will pop up reminding me to get OFF iChat and go do that task!

I haven't messed around with it very much, but I think I'm really going to like it! If you're looking for a to-do-er, I'd really suggest that.

On a more school-y topic, I have a book report tomorrow. I had to make a prop for my presentation, and I spent today and yesterday here and there finishing it. Anyone want to guess which book I'm doing?

Aubrey (Punkmoney)!

(If you are not Aubrey, then this post probably has no relevance to you. Still, just need to post this out)

Hey Aubrey (Not roleplay Aubrey---blog Aubrey)

I noticed that you set your blog to private, and I'd love to be able to still read it! I'd usually email you, but since I don't have your email, that makes things a little hard...

Just in case you still read my homey little blog, I just thought this might be the best way to both get a post out of the way AND tell you that I'm still a fan of your blog. Please gain me entrance!

-Alicebelle