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.