farewell

greetings for the last time, fair readers! This will be my final post: find me now over at writerincollege.blogspot.com.

Thank you so much for offering this place for me to rant. I will miss it greatly, but it is time to move on. It is a season of change, so to speak. Farewell!

college is nigh

Greetings!
Well, Camp NaNo is drawing to a close, and I'm still way behind. I still need to write today, and I have been consumed with packing, so that might not happen. However, all my textbooks have arrived and I'm pretty much waiting for my laundry to finish before I resume packing. I want this stuff OVER with... except I'm packing most of what I wear on a daily basis into a suitcase that I'm not going to need until Wednesday. I don't know whether I'm going to have enough clothing to last me to then, but whatever. I'm going to deal with that when I get to it.

Anyhow, in Camp NaNo news, I'm about to kill Shya. I know, it's a huge spoiler, but I've known this was going to happen for about four years now, or whenever I started writing her.

And in news of the blog, I think I'm going to shut it down and start a new one. By 'shut it down,' I simply mean that I'm going to start blogging on a new one and not blog on this one. I'll do a farewell post when I set up the new one, probably in the next week or so.

Anyhow, thanks for everything, dear readers who have not read. I'll miss you.

posting and stuff

Okay, I realize how sucky I've been about posting. I might try to do better; I might not. I'm not sure how things are going to go once I'm in college. Still.
Anyhow, Update:
I haven't written since Friday, because I've had stuff to do. Yesterday was the College Shopping Extravaganza, and today I've been at a sleepover and at church and then ordering my textbooks. Fortunately I only have two to order, so it wasn't terribly expensive; on the other hand, it was kind of a hassle to try to figure everything out. But it worked, so my textbooks have been ordered and they're on their way. I hope.
Anyhow, I'm going to try to write tonight, but I might not get to it. I still have to finish unpacking from Philmont and clean my room and write thank-you notes for stuff and stuff. I'm pretty sure writing might get booted out, which is really unfortunate because I really want to write.
Anyway, in terms of the plot, Telsiel has been better established, everything has been set up, now stuff needs to happen. That's what I'll get to tonight or tomorrow, if everything goes according to plan. Which it should.
So... yeah.
Right now, I just want to get my word count up to date. As in, write more.
But I can't.
Even though I'm going to be in college in a week and a half, somehow Mother still seems to be able to control everything I do. I think she thinks I don't have any motivation to speak of, which is only partially true. I do have motivation. Just not for the things she wants to see done. It's kind of lame how she can still do that.

Well, I'm off, because I have no way to get out of whatever Mother wants me to do.
Farewell.

Camp NaNo and stuff!

Back from backpacking in New Mexico, which was super fun and all! HUZZAH! I didn't die, I kind of got a sunburn, and I got one of my first actual tans. Unfortunately, it was a watch tan on a somewhat-legit arm tan. On one arm.

I also lost my noveling pen, which was also unfortunate. I took my noveling notebook (and, thus, the pen) on the trail, and then took out my pen because we needed a writing implement on the map, and then it fell out of my pocket at an unknown juncture. It was very, very unfortunate, because I never got to write on the trail, and the notebook wound up as just a dead weight. BOO!

But it was a fun trip, and now I'm back at work and writing and work and writing. I got asked to work full time, which means no more late mornings, less time to write, but a lot more money in my college stash, and some more time with the lovely but loud kids (and the one girl who barely speaks English).

Anyway, on to writing stuff, which is why I am here at all.

So:

Current page: 46 (well, 45 and a few lines)

Target Page: 45, if I am doing the proper word count, which I am this time.

Location in story: Lalania is trying to foreshadow stuff by warning Shya about how mean Tayana is (as if she didn't already know). Shyasha Rinkari, being the headstrong bastard that she is (she IS illigitimate, so it COUNTS), doesn't listen to her. But that's okay, because if she did listen, there'd be no PLOT, and PLOT is important, yes?

Surprises: Shya is providing more motivational conversations than I thought she would.

Goals: Establish Telsiel better soon. Plot needs him and Shya established properly, otherwise it won't work, even with La's foreshadowing and stuff.


So... yeah. TIME FOR MORE WRITING!

Also, I'm moving into college in two weeks. AAAHHH!!! I still haven't decided whether I'm keeping this blog or starting a new one. Will let you know.

Also: need to work on writing in complete sentences again.

Camp NaNo!

Right, well, it's August. And I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo. I'm going to finish Shya if it kills me. I know, I'm kind of cheating, because I already have 17000+ words, but still. I'm going to be on Philmont for a week, and I need the padding.
So... yeah.

Day One:

Words: 17712
Location in Story: meeting Sparraben for first time. Not going to go well, I think. Haven't found out yet.



Farewell for now.

Back!

Okay, I know we got back on Saturday, I was just too lazy to post about it. Also, I've gotten into the unfortuante habit of only posting when something of consequence happens. Trouble is, I don't think ANYTHING of consequence happens in my life. Or, rather, I don't think that my life is anything important enough to blog about anymore. At the same time, I don't want to shut down the blog. So maybe I should pick a theme of the blog and be done with it. But that would take effort....
Anyway, onto the other consequential things included in this post.

First: Back from ASP. SCORE! We did ceiling repair. We did not, however, use any sort of power saws (though we did use manual saws). It made me slightly dissapointed - the last reign of the Saw Queen didn't really happen. I sort of want to be on staff next year, though, because I don't want to leave ASP, and I can get paid! Also, staffing just looks fun.
Second: wrote the Creation Myth of Illindara (the land where Shya's tale is set). This is something I should have done YEARS ago, but whatever. It's done now, and I'm glad it has. It helps with world-building (because it is...), and I'll write Shya's tale better now that her world's creation myths are in order.
Third: "Name of the Wind." My copy is 722 pages long. The kids at camp can't believe it. But you should read it. I'm only around 270 pages in, but it's really good.

Now, go forth and conquer!

ASP!!!

Okay, I know this is the first time I have posted in July (lame, I know), but I'm going out of town on the annual ASP trip with my church.
ASP = Appalacian Service Project (or Awesome Sawing Place, or Amazing Scenery Project, or Awesomest Service Practice).
Anyhoo, I'm going to be getting up, doing some sawing (hey! it's finally legal! SCORE and some power tooling and some serving and God-and-love spreading, and stuff, and then I'll be back, and I'll post about it. WIN!

college and schtuff

Well, I registered for my classes today.  College classes.  All I can say is... wow.
Wow for two reasons: first off, how did I get this old?  Second off, how is it that I have so much free time this semester?  Is this normal?  I do not have any classes that go past 2:00 PM (which is good, because, this semester, that is going to be when I have lunch, since class goes until 1:40 every day but Wednesday), and I do not have to be off to class (as in, my intent is to go to class when I leave my dorm) until 9:00 for a 9:10 class (and that is on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays).
So, what is my course load, you might ask?  Since my school is awesome, we only take four courses in the fall semester.  And what are those?
I am taking Greek 111, a dialect/ dialogue/ drama thing as a First Year Experience (FYE) thing that counts for drama and philosophy, History 100: Ancient Egypt, and English 185 (which is mandatory for freshmen, and which is advisable to take in the fall semester because you do not know how your FYE is going to work out second semester).  English is a seminar writing thing.
It is crazy.  I feel really old.
The other crazy thing is how small the campus is.  I will not have to wake up earlier than maybe 8:00 to get to breakfast/ Greek (on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have to wake up at 10:30 to get to English at 11:30), because it will take me a half an hour to wake up and change, half an hour to eat, and then ten minutes to get to class.
The class I am most scared for is Greek or FYE.  Greek is Greek, which is hard, but it is also really cool.  So if you ever go to Greece (starting two years from now), and you need a translator, let me know.

writing and stuff

Well, I've been kind of failing at Camp NaNoWriMo, I must be honest. Right now, I'll have to write close to 4,000 words a day in order to win. This should be made a bit easier by the fact that I'm currently on knitting hiatus, and I don't really have anything to do this week, but somehow, I've found ways to procrastinate a LOT. I HAVE been writing almost daily since I went on knitting hiatus on... heh... Monday. But the point is, I've been writing. And though I have not been writing enough, it still counts as progress. And progress is important.

Anyhow, in news of my non-writing endeavours, I've had some success. I learned yesterday that I got a small writing scholarship from my high school, which is exciting. Some of my friends got scholarships from our high school for various things, but I was the only one who got this particular one.

Also, I got a job. SCORE! I'm going to be working part-time at my dojang this summer, helping with their summer camp. Basically, I will be helping the kids with their requirements and all the activities and such. Hope that works out.

And I got another commission. After dropping off the hat on Monday, I got a commission on Tuesday for a scarf. It's not due until the end of July, so I can re-stock my navy blue yarn before then, which is nice.

And I graduate from high school tonight. It's very bittersweet, to be honest. I've had good and bad memories at my school; a good number of the bad ones come from middle school, when everyone was awkward and rather mean. Sometimes, I think that a lot of middle school problems stem from boobs. Some girls grow really big, some girls grow kind of small and kind of late. And all the guys go for the girls who have the chests, and ignore all the rest of us. And since the maturity level is still in the negatives, everyone can get kind of rude about it.

The trouble with my school is that a good number of the kids go to both the middle school and the high school, so most of us remember most of the rest of us during that phase, no matter how attractive anyone else has become since then.

Anyhow, that is all the news I have as of yet. I will be posting again... sometime. As for now, I have to go and write my novel, and try to get through four thousand words in the space of... a few hours. Farewell, readers!

Oh, also: laser tag is fun. I highly reccomend it to anyone who has not partaken in it, especially if you like the Hunger Games. You feel like you're in the arena of the Games, except nobody dies and the point is to get points, not to murder everyone else. That, my friends, is the important difference between "the Hunger Games" and laser tag.

Right. I'm off to write.

Farewell.

Senior project... STRESS!

Right. Well. It's the last day of Senior Projects. I'm pretty much done. To be honest, I'm glad it's almost over. I just have to sew some stuff and do two shoots and a backboard, and then I'm done! SCORE! SENIOR PROJECT ALMOST OVER! YAAAAAAAAAY!

I'd say that I won't knit for a week after this, but that will be impossible, because prom is on Tuesday and yes, I'm going to finish my dress. I'm just not working on it right now because, first off, now is SENIOR PROJECTS, not TIME FOR ME TO KNIT MY DRESS; second of all, I don't have it with me, so I can't work on it. After that, I have a commission due. So, yes, I'm going to be knitting next week. And I'm not done designing either. That commission includes custom lettering intarsia, which means that I have to design and knit it (not to mention get all the yarn) by next Saturday.

But yes, after that, I'm not going to knit for at least a week, if not more. I AM SO FREAKING SICK OF KNITTING RIGHT NOW! GAH!

I'm never going on "Project Runway." Ever. Designing under pressure is something I don't do well, I've realized, and I set my OWN challenges. I really don't like working around rules that someone else sets. For some reason, that's never really worked for me.


I really wish I could write more. I want to write more. I really, really miss writing. During NaNoWriMo, I used to pull the same stunt I did last night, but it was a lot more fun: last night, I stayed up till half past midnight knitting, because I needed to get this one project done in time for my shoot at noon today. I was late to the shoot, and the piece was unfinished (Heidi Klum would not be happy with me, and Michael Kors and Nina Garcia would probably bash it anyway). I was late because I had a cabaret rehearsal, the music for which didN't get sorted out until noon, and it was unfinished because I was trying to fit three hours of knitting and an hour of ironing and sewing into two hours (not to mention showering and stuff) this morning.


The Moral of the Story: do not procrastinate, and only use caffeine in situations like this. I've noticed that, frequently, coffee impairs sleep the night after you drink it (which means I won't be sleeping tonight... dammit!) and, last year during NaNo, I felt like I was unable to get into writing as well as I could have because I was hyped up on caffeine almost every day (there was one day when I wasn't, and it was glorious. Really glorious).

Right, well, I'm off, for a half-hour nap before I have my next shoot. I lost a lot of sleep last night (staying up late and waking up early) and I do NOT want to push it any more than I have to. I have to perform tonight.

Senior Projects! and novels! (but not really)

Well, I said I would post photos of my senior project.  I said I would post daily during these three weeks.  I said I would post daily during Camp NaNoWriMo.

In case you have not noticed, that has not really happened all that much.  I admit, knitting too much is harder work than I expected it to be.  I thought I would be totally willing to knit for seven hours a day (which is what I would need if I were to finish the project on my terms).  Truth is, I have barely been able to keep up with doing five hours a day (which is what I would need if I were to finish the project in terms of hours).  There is a mininmum number of hours we need in order to pass well.  I am barely scraping that.

And yet, people have asked me recently whether I have finished my prom dress yet.

I have not. I have not even worked on the five or six hours I need to finish my prom dress.  Why?  Because I need to knit for five hours a day at the bare minimum to pass a project I am behind on.  It has gotten to the point where I have had to boot out the Indiana Jones costume because there is just no time to do it.  It kind of sucks.


As for Camp NaNo, that has not been going well.  I admit, I am picking up a story line, which is not *entirely* legal, but whatever. I have not been writing much since Camp started, mostly because I have been knitting too much.  I am trying to get in at least a couple hundred words a day, and I will be picking up in earnest once Senior Projects are over.  I will probably post more on the blog once that happens as well.


For the photos, I am sorry to say that my camera is not in the best of shape.  He is near death, I think, and I have replaced him.  I feel rather extravagant for doing so, but right now my camera only works if you have your finger in just the right spot, and if your finger budges only slightly... NO PHOTO FOR YOU!

Senior Projects, Day 2

Yes, I know, I said I'd post daily.  But that might not work out, the way I'm going.  I'm behind on my hours by about two hours (cumulative).  I must work on that tonight.  I HAVE TO FINISH!
So, good stuff that's happened:
turns out I get to hack off about 2 hours on my largest project (Lord of the Rings).  If things keep going like this, I'll be able to take off about... eh... four hours total off my whole project?  That is fine, if I get it all done I'll be WAY over the necessary time count, with our without those extra four hours.

BAD STUFF:
Well, I'm behind on my cumulative hours.  There's  minimum number of hours I have to do per week in order to pass the project (25).  At the rate I have to go, I'm going to have to do around 40 hours a week to get all the knitting done in time for the shoots.
Speaking of which, my photographer backed out.  I have to look into it still, but she hasn't been in school in a while, so I'm thinking it's something excusable like severe illness (I HOPE she's not severely ill, because that would not be fun, but if she is severely ill, I'd rather do the shoots with a point and shoot than a sick photographer, because she might get worse and that wouldn't be good).
Also, this morning, I got yelled at for not studying for a calculus final (even though I was working on my knitting, and would have been only half an hour behind if I'd been allowed to knit more this morning), even though I was pretty sure I knew stuff.  Well, it turned out it was one of those situtions where one of the problems was something I went over, but I couldn't remember how to do it (though this was not new information.  I CANNOT do areas of figures with wonky bases for my LIFE).

Well, onwards!

senioritis

Greetings, many (not really) followers!

I have decided how I'm going to track my progress for my senior project (aside from weekly check-ins with my mentor/ uploading photos on Facebook), and it involves YOU.

I'm going to post on here every day for the next three weeks (starting on Monday, or maybe Saturday; it depends when I start Legolas). It'll be like I'd post for NaNo, where I write where I am and where I'm targeting and stuff. And I may even post photos. I don't know what I'll be doing as of yet. I'll be posting for sure.

And for the first week of June, there will be two posts every day *gasp*. That's the way things work when you're doing Novel Posts and Senior Project Posts in the same week.


Right now, I have a free block, and I have nothing to do. Well, that's not really true. I should be writing. Or knitting my prom dress. Or doing something productive like that. I could be doing that. And I should. And I will later. Hopefully.


Senioritis has hit me, I am afraid.


I guess that's what happens when you have NOTHING TO DO ALL THE TIME. I think my junioritis was worse than my senioritis is, though, because I still had to go to class for the last month of school, but nothing actually happened. So I didn't really do anything. I didn't really want to do anything. And, because of the number of my free blocks, nothing ever got done. I had to go to school, because my attendance was still being recorded and it would affect my grades for the worse if I didn't show up to class, but nothing ever happened once I got there, because all the finals and SOLs had been taken and there was no reason to actually study anything. It was rather boring, to be quite honest.

Some classes still are boring. Actually, some classes have deteriorated to beyond boring. For example, I found the subject matter of AP Government was rather interesting during the course of the year. However, now that the AP exam has come and gone and we have nothing to do, we're watching "Legally Blonde". To be honest, that movie is okay as a chick flick, but I've gotten to the point where I think Elle is annoying. REALLY annoying. And annoying for her stereotype as much as her attitude and stuff.

This is why the end of the year really sucks. I'm going to miss everyone when we leave for college and stuff, but right now it's just kind of... blah.

But it doesn't stop Elle Woods from being the most annoying character in my life right now. I've learned that I can't write that sort of character as well. I was going to have a nymph kind of like Elle in my NaNo novel (the one I wrote in 2010 that I'm working on now). But I've gotten to her, and she's not like Elle at ALL. Her sister is, maybe, but Calypso isn't. Calypso's now the most temperamental character I have in the book, and that's including the human bomb that blows up when it's too hot out or his temper gets out of control.

Well, time to work on what sort of adventures I'm going to have this summer. I don't know. Any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.

bleh

Well, here I am. In the library. I should be writing, but I'll get to that in a few minutes, I guess.
In truth, I have nothing to do, which will be foreshadowing the rest of the week. Especially Friday. If everyone turns in their government materials (aka textbook and Lanahan reader thing) tomorrow, then Friday we will not have class, which means I will be able to go home at noon. Which is fine, but also kind of boring, because there'll be so little to do. Yeah, I could hang out with friends (those that don't have class) or write (which I should do), but still. I write a lot and spend all my free time in the library, regardless of whether or not my friends are in here.
This is my world.

I realized something. I need to do the annual Why I Am Excited For Summer List, because I need something to do and Friday essentially symbolizes my being done with school (because then is three weeks of senior projects, and after that is the senior trip, and then after that is graduation, so I am not going to be doing much schoolwork after Friday... except for a calculus final... and an EarthSpace SOL, both of which happen during Senior Projects... grr).

Anyhow, here it is.

Why I Am Excited For Summer
1. Philmont
2. ASP
3. last summer before college
4. chance to have adventures
5. possibility for getting a job
6. DnD with some friends (SO SUE ME IF I'M A DORK)

wow. Surprisingly short this year.
Honestly, I don't know whether I'm excited or not for summer this year. Well, I'm excited for summer in the sense that it's summer, and so there's a lot of fun to be had and stuff. But really, with my degree of social life, it's not going to happen that much. Except for DnD.

So, another list: reasons why I'm NOT excited for summer.

1. Last Summer at home
2. Many of my friends are going to be off for six weeks at music camp, so I won't see them much
3. At the end of the summer, I'll be leaving
4. Honestly, what I'll wind up doing is running every morning and then knitting in front of the TV all day

yeah. Shorter (by two) but more accurate. This is depressing.
You know, I made a pact to myself a while ago that I'd have at least one adventure a day during the summer, and read a lot as well. I'm going to try to implement that, but I'm going to have trouble with the 'fun' part, with everyone being out of town and stuff, but I'll try.
You know, I'm kind of disappointed in myself in that regard. This is supposed to be the Time of My Life, but I'm just blogging in the library and writing every afternoon. Writing FANTASY. I know my characters better than I know actual people. I'll have no stories to tell my kids except the ones I've written. I admit, I kind of feel like a bit of a failure right now. What with senior projects, I'm going to be at home even MORE.
Sigh.
This summer is going to suck.

GOV!

Free blocks. How I adore these amazing extra sets of 45 minutes in which I can do whatever I choose to. Glad someone invented these things.

You know what else I adore? Studying for AP exams.

Not.


The weird thing is, last week and the week before, all the AP I wanted to study was for my Gov exam.  Hey, it was interesting stuff - I have no idea how to study for a literature exam, and I sure did not want to study for calculus (I did some study anyway), so I studied for government.  But I also found Government to be strangely interesting.  I knew that Government was my last exam and that I would have loads of time between Lit on Thursday and Gov on Tuesday, and that I should probably be studying for calculus or something, but still, it was interesting.  I liked learning it.

Well, now I am on the eve of the exam, and I have no idea what I should go review first.  Suddenly, all of that studying I did last week and the week before seems to be completely irrelevant.  I know what I have to study - I need to go over the way Congress and the Courts and the Executive office work, since we did all of that at the beginning of the year and it seems to have slipped out of my brain since then - but suddenly, it all seems to have vanished from the AP study book in the library.  WHERE DID ALL THE ESSENTIAL INFORMATION GO?

Calculus was different.  I could be totally indiscriminate in my studying and still have a chance to bump up my score.  I already knew I would do badly on it if I did not study.

But this is worse.  I know I need to study, and I know what I have to go over, but I cannot find it.  The teacher has not told us what to go over - he does not know what is in each of our heads and what we specifically need to study.

Not like the students.  We did not really do domestic policy, have barely studied economic policy, and have not touched foreign policy.  I know if I do not go over those, I am most assuredly going to be screwed tomorrow morning.


But it is the night before the exam.  How am I going to go and get through this all and remember it at 8:00 tomorrow morning?

By not sleeping tonight and stopping this procrastination during this completely unprecedented free block from English that I did not think was coming (I guess that is why it is unprecedented).  I WILL be going for a run this afternoon, but I will not be knitting at all today.  I forgot to bring it with me this morning, and I will be studying basically all afternoon, so... yeah.  No prom dress for me tonight.  Tomorrow, though.  And then Thursday or Friday, I will start my knitting for my Senior Project.  WOOHOO!



And... yeah.  Procrastination needs to stop... now.



Like, really.


Well, I am off.  I am going on a quest for that missing information that I need.

Camp NaNoWriMo!

Greetings!

I'm here with a lunatic idea (and also a means to procrastinate on my English homework)!

So, as you know, I post daily when I am participating in National Novel Writing Month. And if you don't know this... go back into the backlogs and refresh your memory. It's that little tab over on the right, kind of down a bit.

What you might not know is that the Office of Letters and Light also runs Camp NaNoWriMo, which was started last year and which happens during the summer - this year, it's going on during June and August. I plan on participating, at least during June, because I have a character (Shya) who I really finally need to give a story to, because, honestly, she's been dancing around in my head for four years, waiting to get out onto paper.

Her time has come.

Finally.

Which is where my lunatic (not really) idea stems from, mostly to see whether I am going to actually post more often or not. You never know what might happen in life. (I have no idea where that statement came from).

So, basically, what's going to happen is just what OLL hopes will happen for writers (well, sort of). I write a lot during June, then I get a severe writing cramp from the excess of fiction that is stemming from my pen (yes, I'm doing it by hand... again), and then I post every day about it, like I do in November: the location in the story, the approximate page count, the complaints about writer's cramp... you get the idea.

Yes, I know, it's kind of weird. But I need motivation to write Shya... finally.

In the mean time, before I write Shya, I'm finishing Nemesis. Remember her? She was my first NaNo heroine, if you don't recall. If you do recall, good for you! If you don't... go back into the backlogs and refresh your memory. Directions are in the third paragraph of this post.

Anyway, the only issue I have with this lunatic/ good/ bad/ weird idea (and the only issue that OLL might have with this, considering that they are the providers of all the guilt monkeys) is that... I admit, I've written about 1600 words of Shya's tale already. Does that count as horrible? Probably. It probably counts as cheating as well.

well, last year, I DID cheat... like, a lot. But I'm not really counting last year, because last year... last year, for me, was a complete fail. Like, a COMPLETE fail. I barely wrote at all.

And then I lied about my word count.

I know, I'm a horrible lying person who deserves to be struck down by the heavens. But there you have it. I've come clean about it, and it's over now, so I can't really change it, and it's in the past, so changing it's now physically impossible.

Well, what's done is done.

Now, onward to English homework!

a breakup letter for Calculus

Dear Calculus,

First of all, thank you for letting your AP exam being not as difficult as I thought it would be. I know that isn't exactly the best thing to say, considering that I'm now trying to break up with you, but thanks anyway. I did study up on what you might throw at me (since you frequently had problems during the relationship, I thought you'd probably bring them up again when this ended), which helped, but still. You still had to bring up particle functions, didn't you?

But enough of the past; I must address our plans for our future. Calculus, it HAS been nice knowing you, but I fear I must move on. If you let me do well enough this morning to let me get a 4 or a 5, that means that today is goodbye. My sincerest apologies, but I can't say I'll miss you too much. Admit it, Calc - you and the rest of your math friends have a lot of problems, and you expect everyone else to solve them. Can't you grow up and solve them yourselves?

Of course, if I become a business major, then we will be having frequent lunch dates and long nights where you give me more trouble than I think you are worth. I may avoid becoming a business major for that very reason. After all, I found your limits; you know you found mine when I did not go to sleep until half past midnight several nights in a row. You know you were at the bottom of that.

But, then again, I might change in college, in the two years before we might have to reunite. You might change, too. After all, I spent a good part of this year with you trying to figure out the rate at which your many girlfriends (often named X, Y, and T, and sometimes R) changed, and trying to figure out how they were before they changed, and what they became after they changed. Maybe YOU (or even U) are the reason that they seemed to alter so much - maybe you were trying to get into the nitty gritty of them at their most derivative that they chose to break up with you.

Either way, count me among your lost loves for now. If we meet again, I hope that you will have matured enough to provide some sort of function in future endeavors, as I attempted to provide some help for your current problems.

I can't say I'll miss you. If I become a business major, I hope that we will be able to have a very professional relationship, and not let our mutual irritation (my irritation of your constant need to get to everyone's limits, and your irritation that I sometimes neglect you and refuse to go to the limit with you; I'm sorry, girls don't work that way) get in the way of working professionally together. By that point, I hope you'll have moved on from X, Y, T, and R. They aren't worth thinking about too much, and it hurts relationships if you moon over the old ones. Don't think about U too much, either; he's the sort of guy nobody likes for long. After all, he's a part of you, whether you know it or not.

Until we meet again,

Knitter

college-bound and farewell?

Well, as you can guess from previous posts about college applications and how it's stressful, and how I've decided on a college, I'll be concluding my senior year in June. (part of the reason that this is the first time I've posted all month is because I have my first AP exam tomorrow and I've actually been studying, because I suck at calculus).

That being said, I really don't know what the future of this blog will be. I'd like to continue it, but seeing as my posting frequency has slowed down considerably (and shows no signs of speeding up again), I don't know how possible that'll be with college life. I may start a new blog for Knitter In College, but I might keep this one and just change the banner of it to say "Someone who tries to survive school".

Either way, I want to keep blogging.

If I do keep up with this blog, please don't expect the post frequency that I maintained when I was a freshman. I no longer have that much time to do whatever I want (well, I do, but I don't use it for doing whatever I want to - grades actually matter now, so I kind of have to focus on that), and you probably don't want to hear any more ranty tangents out of me anymore.

So if I keep up this blog, I'm probably going to post with less frequency (but will probably write longer posts), and the content will be different. I don't know what the content change will shift to, but it's probably going to go away from "THIS IS MY LIFE! READ ABOUT IT!"

So, in short, I don't know what will happen. I might stay; I might leave. If I stay... well, it'll be easy to tell. I'll still be posting every month, even if it's only once or twice. I'll probably say something and then vanish into the abyss for another fifteen or twenty days until I decide I'll post again.

If I depart, I'll probably do a farewell post, probably in June and closer to graduation (and probably after all my AP exams are over). I'll miss this blog if I go, but I probably won't delete it. It's almost like a diary - if you go back to the backlog, it's like seeing yourself as a freshman in high school all over again, at least for me. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Whatever I decide, I'll keep you updated. I might just start a new blog for just knitting or just writing, and keep tangents for this blog. I might convert this blog just writing or just knitting and do tangents somewhere else.

But you WILL be updated - ye few who read this blog.

Anyhow, that's what I have for today.

Shakespeare! (and writing)

Well, I have nothing to do.

Well, technically I do. I could be doing Earth-Space homework. I could be working on my prom dress (I finished the front of it this morning! SIKE!). I could be doing calculus. But I'm choosing to blog instead, because I can. Also, because I'm thoroughly incapable of getting a significant amount of calculus done in half an hour, which is all the time that I have before lunch. I'll get to it later, now that I probably don't have a film shoot later today.

This morning, during one of my other free blocks, I decided to look up some Shakespearean settings. Why?

Remember my NaNoWriMo novel last year, the one about the girl who was named Romeo and all the characters were named after Shakespearean people and stuff?

I'm working on building up that world, and because of that, I decided I needed a map of Mercanova, the country where it's set. And, following in the whole everything-except-the-country-and-the-novel's-title-is-derived-from-Shakespeare vein, I decided to name all the cities, rivers, seas, forests, towns, and mountain ranges after Shakespearean locations (which are also real locations, technically, but whatever).

So, for example, the capital city is Verona, the main setting of "Romeo and Juliet" (since my MC is Romeo, I felt obliged). Puck goes to Mantua as part of his back-story, when he is unofficially banished from his faerie tribe (as Romeo Montague was). There's Wizard Island, where banished wizards are sent (Prospero and kind of Belarius), which is in the middle of a sea that I forget the name of that forms the Eastern border. Romeo, Demetrius, and Puck meet Belarius/ Morgan in the Forest of Arden, from "As You Like It." The castle name is Elsinore (and the King and Queen are Hamlet and Ophelia). The Roma Mountains form the Western border (derived from Rome, where a good third of Shakespearean shows are set); the Athenian Forest ("Midsummer") is to the south. There are a scattering of other cities and towns as well, but I don't remember the names of all of them. Several of the rivers have names as well, but I don't feel like pulling out my notebook and recalling what they are. I'll figure that out later.

Unfortunately, Shakespeare did not have a location that might have been labeled "here be dragons," so I just wrote "here be dragons" until I can figure out something more apt.

So that's what's happening right now.

Huzzah!

Also, remember my NaNoWriMo novel two years ago? The one based off of a video game and had a knight and stuff?

I just picked that up to start writing it again.

Huzzah!

Right. I must be off. I have stuff to attend to. Like writing.

And world-building.

And homework.

And knitting a prom dress.

Posting! Again!

Well, this is kind of boring.  I only had two classes today, and I have already done most of my homework.

I cannot do all of it, because the government textbook apparently vanished from the library before Spring Break, and it has not shown up yet.  And I do not really feel like reading "The Crucible."

I cannot leave, because I am helping with a film shoot during the last block of the day (which I have free and during which our directors have film).

But I HAVE done my calculus homework, which is awesome, because I actually remembered what I was supposed to be doing for it.  YAY!

And I did read ONE act of "The Crucible."  I just do not feel like reading the last act, even though it is really short.

Also, I forgot my knitting today, which is kind of disappointing, because I would be more willing to read for homework if I was knitting and reading at the same time, because I am weird like that.  Also, because that is how I am going to try to avoid being a broke college student in the fall - by selling hand-knit stuff.

I just have to build up a stock of bags and stuff, since summer is nigh and nobody wants to buy a hat in the middle of the summer.  Unless they are moving to Scandinavia or going on a scientific mission to Antarctica or climbing Mount Everest (in which case they will probably buy fifty-dollar synthetic-fleece hats because they are less likely to absorb water and get really annoying than a knit hat would).

Anyhow, if you know me, and you want to buy something, I can custom-knit hats, scarves, bags, and gloves; I am working on developing patterns for vests and prom dresses.  Soooooo let me know.  Yeah.  I do NOT shy away from the ridiculous types of patterns, like those hats with ears on them and stuff.  If you give me an image of something and ask that it be knit onto a hat or something, I will probably be able to figure out an intarsia for it.

Yes, I am that weird.

Anyhow, I should be going.  "The Crucible," even though I had to read it last year for English as well, awaits me.  Even though I don't really feel like reading it.

Farewell.

knitting, wool, and legality

Well, it's my birthday. HUZZAH! Since I'm now a legal adult, I can legally do whatever I bloody well want. HUZZAH!

Well, except drinking. But I haven't done that yet anyway, so whatever.

And rent cars. But that doesn't really matter, since I don't exactly have a full license yet.

And a lot more stuff that I probably have not heard.


But I can join the army (which, I must admit, isn't very appealing), smoke (which isn't appealing either, since the Creed of Singers, Actors, Semi-Athletes, and People Who Don't Want To Die of Lung Cancer forbids it), and vote (which is probably the only thing I'm now legally allowed to do that I'll probably wind up doing).

So far, for my birthday I have gotten a book (which is really good), and some writing, and a bracelet, and "Downton Abbey" (WOOHOO!), and a Super Mario poster, and the foreshadowing of a head cold. I may also be getting Indiana Jones; I'm not entirely sure. And by "Indiana Jones," I mean the original trilogy, which I've been meaning to watch for the last year and a half, but have been prevented by the lack of availability on Netflix and Amazon Instant whenever I had the time to watch any of them.

During Senior Project,s I'm probably going to wind up watching and/ or reading of the stuff that my stuff is derived from, meaning that I'll be reading Lord of the Rings (and maybe watching the movies) when I knit the Legolas tunic, and watching Star Wars when I knit the Jedi tunic, and knitting and watching Indiana Jones and knitting and watching Pirates of the Caribbean. Yeah. For that, I am excited.

Speaking of Senior Projects, I finally got about half of the wool I'm going to need for it. Two of my models (Indiana Jones and Lord of the Rings) will probably want to shoot me, because their things are going to be entirely wool (it's NICE wool, though, and the Indiana Jones one is hand-dyed), but whatever. I'll deal with that when I come to it.

And also talk to them at lunch today.

I still have a trip to take to Micheal's for the synthetic fibers for some of the smaller stuff (and for the bigger stuff for Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Wars), and then I will be fully prepared to take on the challenge that is my senior project. Huzzah!

Well, I have to go now.

I will be posting writing... sometime. But for now, I have to go to class and sing. And stuff.

acting and stuff

Guess what I did today?

Cried on camera.

Without expecting it.

And without doing horribly.

In an improvised thing for a class, because I had to.


See, my drama class is shooting a film noir movie, and to help us build up to the actual shooting (developing character and stuff), our teacher is having us do this thing where we go into her office (either alone or with someone our character would normally talk to) and she would film us talking (either to her, if we were alone like I was, or with the other person). My character had some issues with the person who died (we were sisters), and so when I was talking about said issues, I just started crying. Because that's what my character decided she would do.

So I did.

And my teacher wasn't mad; she was actually really happy that I had finally gotten to the point where I could cry and make it look and feel normal, because I was just feeling it. After all, most people don't intend to cry, but they do. I wasn't intending or expecting to cry when I went in and started the thing. But I did. Go figure.

Apparently, not a lot of people in the class would let themselves get to the point where they would cry, on camera or off, in character or not.

But yeah. I did it.

I think it was easier because I was alone (instead of with someone else) and could actually talk about the issues that I wasn't allowed to talk about with anyone else, because that's the way the movie works (everyone has their own experiences, and there was a confidential bit in the info email that we got telling us what our specific, forbidden-from-informing-anyone-else-about experiences were).

In all, it was actually really fun.

Really.

Crying on camera - or crying at all, for that matter - is not usually fun for me, but afterwards, I just felt kind of liberated. I think it was, again, because there was nobody else around and I (or my character, whatever) was able to get the stuff off my chest (or my character's chest) that I was not allowed to talk about normally (or would not let myself talk about normally). My character doesn't really have any friends, you see. She's kind of a loner. Well, she has a few friends, but none of them are in the movie.

Nashville and Stuff!

We got back from Nashville yesterday at around 5:00 in the morning. My mom and I promptly went home and slept. I was asleep for five hours and had a very strange dream that I could fly and do a lot of weird stuff. It was weird.

Anyway, the epic thing that happened on the trip was I met someone who is (going to be) famous. She's not famous yet (I don't think so, anyway), but she's GOING TO BE, because she's AWESOME. Her name is Mallary Hope, and she is a REALLY good country singer. We saw her perform at the Grand Ole Opry, and I really liked this one song she did called "Black Widow Spider". You should look it up when the album comes out.

But the REAL epic thing that happened was that we saw her come down a side aisle a while after she went on, and I would've gotten a photo with her if my camera had decided to actually take the photo (but it didn't want to take the photo, so the photo doesn't exist). Then most of the rest of our people noticed her, and... yeah.

Anyway, aside from singing renegade at the Grand Ole Opry, and seeing the Grand Ole Opry, and going to Dollywood (which was okay, I guess; it would have been better if it had not been raining all day and my shoes had not been soaking wet by the end of it), and doing some workshops with college professors at Vanderbilt, and seeing the "Parthenon" (or the replica of it, anyway) and touring the Country Music Hall of Fame, and touring Studio B (the Studio of a Thousand Hits, which has, indeed, had a thousand songs go to the Top Ten or Number One, I do not remember which, and has recorded over forty-five thousand songs total), and seeing the Ryman Auditorium, and doing some other cool stuff (not necessarily in that order), we did not really do much.

Except for get bored sometimes and sleep.

Yes, I DID just summarize basically everything that happened on the entire trip in a single (albeit long) paragraph, in case you were wondering about that.

I will go into detail about the trip at another time.  I cannot do it right now because I have to go to class in ten minutes and I do not want to be late because I have to turn something in.


Oh, yeah.  Another random thing that happened that is worthy of being noted: we had a lot of bus trouble on this trip.

Well, not 'we,' the senior bus, but 'we,' the music department.

What do I mean by this?

Well, we, the seniors, had to share with some freshmen and eighth graders on the way to Dollywood and on the way to dinner the day before, because first the battery on the freshman/ eighth grade bus died, and then its wheel popped the next day on the way to Dollywood.  And then that same day, the junior bus wound up in a hole.  No, I do NOT know how that happened, and I am not sure that I want to find out about it.

Also, the senior bus was the best, because there were not many people on it, so you could get a set of two seats to yourself.  It was rather awesome.

And I actually SLEPT on the bus!  I did not sleep WELL, nor did I sleep very MUCH, but I got some SLEEP, and it was AWESOME.  I am pretty sure that has never happened before.  True, on the way back I did not sleep as well as I did on the way down, because there were movies playing LOUDLY and prevented sleep from being possible.

Anyhow, I have to go now.

Farewell.

Music Trip!

Well, tonight, about a third of the school is going on a bus to depart for Nashville, where we will make music, sleep on a bus, and (probably) hear more country music than any of us wants to hear ever again.

I'm kind of excited, to be honest. I mean, there was this annoying thing about the rooming this year (I signed up with one friend, but since nobody else signed up in our room, we got split up. I don't mind; my new roommates are reasonably cool, as are my friend's roommates, so it could be a lot worse). I know some of my friends aren't very excited, but I am. See, epic stuff seems to happen on the music trips, simply because it is the music trip.


A recap:

Year One (Atlanta): I found out I passed my black belt test. And the Aquarium was REALLY cool. And we went to the Coca-Cola factory, where I had to give up my Lenten Sacrifice (no soda) in order to participate in the international tasting room. It was worth it.

Year Two (Philadelphia): We went on a Ghost Tour of Philadelphia, which was REALLY cool. I also ate too much of food that had expired and threw up for the first time in a few years. But I got a really good book called Stupid History.

Year Three (Disney World): It was Disney. Need I say more? Also, we sang Vivaldi's "Gloria" (sans the solo bits), which is epic just on its own (if you have never heard it, look it up, even though it's like half an hour long).


I predict that the most epic thing that can happen is that we meet Dolly Parton at Dollywood (she's scheduled to be there the day we are). However, since I'm not a huge country music fan (I'm middling; I don't hate it all, but it's not all I listen to), I may not be able to appreciate it as much as some other people I know. But who knows? Something epic and totally unrelated to Dolly Parton could happen. (I don't know what that might be, since it hasn't happened yet, but whatever).

It's going to be AWESOME. And if it's not, I'm going to be very disappointed, because it's my last year on the music trip. I DEMAND AWESOME!


As a side note, on the topic of Awesome:

I had to do a group poem project thing with a few friends on Monday. Our poem was one by Tolkien: "All that glitters is not gold." When I was doing a bit of research for a biographical perspective, I found out that Tolkien was inspired to write the Misty Mountains when he went trekking, starting in... wait for it... INTERLAKEN, SWITZERLAND.
That was about an hour away from where we were staying in Adelboden. We visited one day.

So, my wondering why Lord of the Rings was not filmed in Switzerland?
Totally justified.
Just saying.

The Awesome Stuff You Learn At School

Okay, I admit I was kind of creeping on some of the physics kids outside at lunch today.  Why?  Oh, for the simple reason that they are using whips for their physics fair project, and they were learning how to use them today.  One of our teachers was showing them how, because she used to work at a Renaissance Festival.

I got a lesson on how to do it.  And it was awesome.

Okay, my technique was rather off at first, so I kind of whipped my hair (not back and forth) in the back, but whatever.  I eventually got the hang of it, which felt really cool.

Apparently, the whip is less of a muscle weapon and more of a movement sort of weapon. With things like swords, you have to put some grunt behind an overhand if you want to do any real damage (and if you want to move the sword at all, in some cases), but with whips, you just have to get your arm movement right, and then people with very little arm muscle can knock someone over from six or eight feet away.  And trip them up.  And stuff.

Apparently, tripping people up is really easy because the whip is designed to wrap around stuff it gets flung at.  Our teacher demonstrated (gently) on one of the people there.  Even though the impulse in her arm was very light, and she was using an eight-foot whip, and it still went around the kid's legs a few times.  If he had been running from her, he probably would have been tripped up and done a faceplant.

Anyhow, that cracking that occurs when a whip is at its full extent is a breaking of the sound barrier because the thin, whippy end of the whip is moving so fast.

Anyhow, it felt REALLY cool to learn how to use a whip.  Definitely writing that into something one of these days.

And I'm probably ready to just quit school and become Indiana Jones.

If that were legal.

stuff and stuff

Well, guess what I did today?

Today, I wrote a paper.

That's about it.

Also, I waited for half an hour for my government teacher to show up.  Turns out he has not been around all day, and we, the class, only found out about it after half an hour of waiting for him, when someone called another history teacher and asked him where our government teacher was.

And that's about it.

Well, I also sang some, and did some stuff about the Great Banks Cod Fishing Collapse, and studied some integrals and stuff.

But that's it.  Yeah.  Really boring, I know.

I think that is partially why I have not been posting as much as I used to - I am really busy, and the stuff that makes me busy is just standard high school stuff, unworthy of reporting across the wide Internet.  That, or I just plain do not have the time anymore.  And big stuff has not really happened.


Oh, yeah, I forgot to post here.  I got rejected from theatre school.  It sucks, I know, but I know I am not brilliant, and theatre is ridiculously competitive, especially for girls.

But whatever.  Moving on.


You know what would be a really cool job?  Choreographing stage fights.  You get to fight, except not beat anyone up for real, but still feel awesome, and make people look really badass.  And it is a very valid excuse to stay really active.  Doing martial arts.  And fencing.  And stuff.


I just did a google search for fight choreographers, and wound up discovering that Pirates of the Caribbean may or may not be becoming a musical.  Which is rather ridiculous, just saying.  WHY ARE THEY TURNING PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN INTO A MUSICAL?  It is rather unjustified, just saying.  It would probably be really hard to pull of an epic PIRATE MOVIE on a STAGE.  It will probably suck, but I will probably wind up going to see it anyway, if it comes to my area and does not close in previews.

Still.

A musical out of "Pirates of the Caribbean"?  WHY?

Harry Potter v Twilight

So, I just found this post online that's completely bull**** about how Twilight's better than Harry Potter and how Harry Potter sucks. Well, no offense to any twi-hards out there, but I don't think that's very true. (the article can be found here).
to refute that, I'm making a list of my own.

WHY HARRY POTTER IS AWESOME:

1. It has a plot. A good plot. It follows the Hero's Journey, in fact. I think. The point is, they have a quest, and they are on it. And they go forth and conquer.
2. It has reasonable character development. The main trio had the chance to surprise you, as did most of the supporting cast. Like Neville.
3. No character is totally perfect. If someone is beautiful, they have a messed up home life (like Draco). If they're really nice or smart, they're probably not attractive (like Hermione).
4. There are themes - friendship, bravery, doing what's right even when you're heartbroken. That's something I didn't really learn from Twilight.
5. It actually has humor. And good villains. (and by 'good villains,' I mean 'villains that are developed, have motives, and who I want to punch in the face at times.' Unlike the Volturi, who were a threat in theory and not in reality.)
6. I nearly cried when Dobby died. Though I did feel kind of depressed when Bella threw herself off a cliff, I think it might have partially been because she didn't die.
7. Dumbledore. Not much more needs to be said. He's brilliant. And who says elderly gay dudes are creeps? I know no creepy gay dudes. I know no creepy gay people, period.

WHY TWILIGHT ISN'T BRILLIANT:
1. Bella doesn't act; she reacts. The one time she acted she did it for love (to stop Edward from going out in the sun and bugging the Volturi), which is noble and all, but it was sort of like... why? Jacob made her happy. Why couldn't Edward have come back and had there been tension while she had feelings for both of them.
2. Edward. Ew. Sure, he's hot, but he's... I dunno. Sketchy? Creepy? Obsessive? He watches her in her sleep, for crying out loud. Sure, I mean I guess that's romantic, but I wouldn't want a boyfriend doing that. I might not be able to sleep if that happened.
3. The Volturi were cool, but they didn't pose much of a threat. I mean, they didn't really DO anything. They didn't really pose any threat, and they didn't have any annoying rules that Bella had to get around until the end of the fourth one. Which brings me to my next point.
4. The end of the fourth book. Ew. It could have redeemed a good chunk of the series with its epic battle and the desperation to make sure everyone good came out alive, and probably could have had some tragic, tear-inducing deaths. But it didn't. It was just Edward and Ari having a thought-discussion. Bella wasn't even in on it. AND THEY HAD AMASSED A FREAKING ARMY. WHY DIDN'T THEY DO ANYTHING WITH IT?
5. There could have been some tension with possibly introducing any of Bella's human friends into the supernatural world. One of Bella's human friends could have had an idea and have tried to get in on it and stirred stuff up. Edward even specifically said that Carlisle could barely pass for the age he was claiming to be - why wasn't someone outside of Jacob's community suspicious of it?
6. Most of the characters, with the possible exception of Jacob, are completely flat. Harry, Ron, and Hermione can surprise you. They have depth. Jacob was the only one who actually was pained by any decision he or anyone else ever made.





In short:
HARRY POTTER: Plot, characters, surprises, action, crying.
TWILIGHT: some action, bending of rules of grammar and supernatural beings.

Wuthering Heights

I recall a post that I wrote several years ago around this time (which can be found here). This post stated (in case you decided not to follow the link) that my dad had learned that Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights had been deemed the most romantic book ever, or something to that effect.

Well, I have been assigned to read said book, and, after laboring over it for five hours yesterday (reading 210 pages in the process), I must say, I DO NOT AGREE.

If it were the most romantic book ever, Catherine Senior would not have died and Heathcliff would have been able to chill enough to stop being abusive and win her heart. Also, Linton wouldn't have been so whiny and I'd have been cheering for Hareton and Catherine Junior to get together. (I must admit, I was rather excited when they got together, but there wasn't enough buildup for that, so that's beside the point).

Maybe part of the reason I don't really see the whole romantic side of it is because I read most of it in one day.


At any rate, here are My Two Reasons Why Wuthering Heights Is Not Very Romantic:

1. Heathcliff. Sure, he was sort of cool in the beginning, but he started acting like an idiot towards the end. One could say that it was romantic that he was acting weird because he was seeing the spirit of Catherine Senior, whom he loved dearly, but I dunno. If he loved her so much, why was he so mean to her daughter?

2. Linton. That boy needs to get himself some guts. Also, he needs to get himself some compassion. Really. Catherine Junior helped him through a tough winter by writing to him, and both of them fancied themselves to be in love because of the secret correspondence and their guardians maybe not being cool with that. Sure, it was adorable. But then Catherine Junior's feelings faded slightly, and I think that if she wanted to marry him, she wanted him to propose to her properly, instead of having Heathcliff forcing them into it. As Heathcliff forced her into a union she was unsure about, and wouldn't let her go back to tell her father what was going on or where she'd gone (the dude is DYING, and her only immediate family remaining), AND locked her in a room, of COURSE she'd have a breakdown. And what did Linton do about it? He ranted about how he was more worthy of shedding tears than she was. Sure, that's good in the LONG RUN, but she's freaking UPSET, and he's not doing ANYTHING! How non-romantic is THAT?


Honestly, my favorite character was Hareton. He had the most to be confused and anguished about, and it was nice to see him finally get together with someone cool.

I just wish it wasn't Catherine Junior, because she was a bitch to him for most of the book, and I wish he'd gotten together with someone before chapter 30 of 34, so Catherine could feel torn. Really.

hiking and procrastination

Well, I AM procrastinating (a bit) on doing my calculus homework, but it is already mostly done, so it is not TOO bad...  right?

Anyhow, I am pretty sure I am officially going to Philmont.  As such, I have to go to a ton of training hikes, and I have to train every day on my own (this is partly to prove to my mom that it is NOT one of my lunatic ideas and that I really do intend to go hiking in the New Mexican mountains for a week this summer, so she will contribute to my Going to Philmont Fund).  This is all well and good, I guess.  However, training hikes are HARD.  For example, I slowed everyone down today on a thirteen-mile hike by actually packing up to weight.  Admittedly, it is not the sort of weight one would normally carry on the trail - textbooks, sweatshirts, and the sleeping bag I am most assuredly NOT taking on the trail - but it was still weight.

Eventually, one of our adults got frustrated with my being consistently behind, so he took out two of my textbooks and gave them to one of our other leaders (who had not brought much, because this was her first training hike) and to his daughter (who was slightly annoyed that she had been issued my calculus textbook).
Now my legs hurt.  Like, a lot.  And I get to do homework, even though I am exhausted!  Huzzah!

Not really.  I admit, I brought it on myself by not doing homework yesterday, though I DID get a water bladder (one of those water bottles - mine is made by Camelback - that is basically a water pouch and has a straw that feeds through one's backpack so one can drink water without having to carry one's water bottle outside of one's pack, thus leaving one's hands free to do as one pleases) and I made vegetarian lo mein yesterday.  It was exciting.

I now can cook for myself!

Admittedly, I will not get much protein, since I did not put chicken or tofu in the lo mein, and I will probably have bathroom issues from too many vegetables if I make it every day, and I will probably gain a lot of weight because it can get really fatty, but I can SURVIVE ON MY OWN!  WOOHOO!!!!!!

Well... roughly speaking.  I guess.

Anyhow, enough procrastination (for now).  ON TO HOMEWORK!




p.s.  I TOTALLY forgot about it, but sixteen days ago (record lateness FTW!) was the blog's third anniversary.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BLOG!

auditions and stuff

So I had my college audition today.
I don't think I was horrible, to be honest.  I'm not going to say I was brilliant, because I definitely could have slowed down a LOT, but I don't think I was the worst person ever.
So yeah.

lunacy and stuff

Well, life is going to get really hard, really fast.

Or something like that. (I kind of just wanted to say that because it sounded sort of epic).

But really, though. I have got a hat and a half to knit, eight bracelets to design and knit, a bag to design and make, a thesis to write, a project to do, a book to write, lots of books to turn in, cast lists to worry about, calculus to figure out, school to be on time for, homework to do, ad stuff to write. It's kind of ridiculous.

Welcome to real life, I guess.


Well, in good news, at least I'm getting paid for the bracelets, and the bag will not have to get started until after Valentine's day. Though I really want to finish the novel, I guess it IS optional. Also, I'm not wholly sure where I left my notebook, so there's that to figure out. And the thesis isn't due until next week, but that comes with the expectation of it being really good. The trouble with that is that I haven't started it yet, which is kind of horrible.

I need to work on my procrastination problems, honestly.

Anyhow, in knitting news, I've started working with embroidery floss. I wasn't sure how it would work out, but it's going reasonably well - better than I expected, at any rate (though I didn't expect much, so I'm not sure if that counts or not).

And in Klondike news, I CAN GO TO THE DERBY!! WOOHOO!! I thought I would want to be out all weekend because of the audition, but I don't, really. On the other hand, it officially means I won't be able to do any homework until 3:00 on Sunday, and on Sunday there's a conflict of having a Philmont meeting and having an ASP meeting, both of which are mandatory.

But those are details... that are important. GRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In college news, I have an audition on Friday for my top theatre school. Sure, I've already gotten in to a school that I want to go to, but its theatre program is TINY (along with the rest of it). And I'm auditioning for a theatre-only program of an all-arts school. The school is REALLY good - fourth in the country for education, and first in terms of value. The only trouble is that it is REALLY competitive.

For example, out of the freshmen last year, 250 people auditioned and 35 people got in.

Yeah. This is going to be hard.

Along with everything else.

But who said life was going to be easy?

Excitedness

Well, I am nearly done with the five hats for Klondike.

Well, actually, not really.

I started the fourth this morning, and I only just learned I had to do a fifth, which is slightly terrifying.  But whatever.  Since the fifth I had NO idea about and only found about half an hour ago (she did not tell me her colors when I posted in the group a few weeks ago), I'm giving her really weird colors (maroon and orange, or something to that effect).


Anyhow, in other news, I am getting SUPER pumped about my senior project, because it is perhaps the dorkiest thing ever.  It started off as the fashion line thing and sort of developed into this, which I am TOTALLY excited about, by the way.  It is knitting a large garment and two extra things based on adventure/ sci-fi movies, particularly Indiana Jones (vest, satchel, wristlets), Pirates of the Caribbean (vest, sword sash, belt), Lord of the Rings (shirt, belt, coin purse), and Star Wars (Jedi tunic, belt, wristlets).  It is going to be rather difficult to get it all done, particularly in three weeks, but whatever.  I really want to get this done.

Also, I have already found people who are willing to be models for it.

The one I ham most excited about is the Star Wars one, even though it is the most complicated (Jedi tunics are hard) and the largest (THREE FREAKING PIECES!).

I'm not selling any of the larger things, by the way (I might majorly piss off George Lucas and the Government for selling his copyrighted stuff), though I may work on some of the vests (neither of which directly appeared in the movies) and sell those, and I'm probably going to work on developing the belts and wristlets to sell as well.

I'm really excited.

Okay, my dork rant is over, and I have to go to lunch.  Farewell.

Senior Stuff and Musicals!

Well, opening night for the musical is tonight, and I am kind of majorly terrified. Okay, not majorly, but still sort of nervous. See, even though I've been in 21 shows (counting this one), the only times I've ever had solos were in Cabarets, where EVERYONE has a solo unless they are deliberately singing in a group. Also, I'm notoriously bad at keeping my own pitch when there is a full orchestra playing under me (I think this is partially due to a severe lack of experience of having a solo with a full orchestra. Funny how that works. You don't get solos unless you have experience holding your own pitch; you don't get experience holding your own pitch unless you get solos). So there's that. However, I HAVE gotten better, which is good. Rather than being notoriously bad, I'm now just cautiously okay.

In other news, I have some ideas of what to do for a senior project. The top three are writing a novel, doing some sort of theater internship, and knitting/ designing some sort of fashion line thing. I know I could do the novel; the theater internship might be harder to secure. The knitting... I'm not so sure.

However, I've been sort of captured by the whole knitting thing (even if knitting is not a warm-weather activity). The only problem with this is that, should I choose to pursue it, I'd be knitting somewhere in the vicinity of five to ten hours a day, including weekends (the senior project rules require that you work at least 25 hours a week). There's no issue of me being able to find the time - if I do senior projects, my teachers generally let me out of class (except for my chorus teacher, but that's only until the spring concert is over), and I don't doubt I will be able to buy cotton yarn somewhere and work with it. The trouble is that whole knitting-ten-hours-a-day thing. I mean, in order to pass the senior project committee (we ARE getting graded on it), I have to do something substantial. And something substantial involves knitting a LOT. Also, what would I do about models? What would I do about actually SHOWING it?

I already have an idea of what I would make - three or four major things (a dress and two shirts; two dresses and two shirts.... something like that), and an array of accessory type things - bags, belts, stuff like that.

The trouble is, I tried knitting a dress in three weeks. It didn't work. It came close, but it didn't work. Partially because I was epically procrastinating on it.

That's another potential for disaster - with an entire afternoon off (and more, when chorus is over), how much TV time will I be logging, and how much will I use TV time to procrastinate on the epic amounts of knitting I'll have to be doing?

I mean, I have to train for Philmont as well, which means I'm going to have to take at least an hour out each day to do some sort of physical exercise. I should have started training months ago, which means I need to start exercising in earnest, like, now. That is a mandatory thing.

If I have to knit ten hours a day, and I'm going for an hour run and getting back at one, that means I will finally put my needles down at 11:00 every night, and that is if I don't procrastinate epically.

Who needs epic knitting three weeks before school lets out, anyway?

Any thoughts?

musicals and stuff

Greetings!

Well, the stuff that I was most worried about with regards to the musical have finally been solved. I have a costume! And we rehearsed the song we need to rehearse! So things are good in that regard. Okay, I don't ENTIRELY like my costume, but at least it exists, and it sort of fits my character's personality! Huzzah!

On the other hand, there's a little over a week until the show goes up, and our set isn't fully built and a lot of people still desperately need to work on their lines. I'm pretty much good, because I only have two lines, but some of the main people really need to work on it.


Also, I'm going to have to miss musical rehearsal in its entirety for the first time ever on Saturday. In the four years I've been doing my school's musical, this is the first time I'm going to have to get out of rehearsal all day.

Of course, I haven't been a senior for the last three years, so I wasn't applying to college the other three years, so that doesn't really count.

On Saturday, I'm going to go for a scholarship interview for a college that's among my top three. I applied early action there and regular for the other schools, so I have heard back from only this one and a few others as of yet.

The whole thing is just sort of panic-inducing because I'm missing rehearsal so close to the show, and it's for something that will affect my future a LOT. I want to get both right, but it's kind of hard to pull off without a Time Turner.


Also, I have awesome news on the knitting front. I've finally started binding off on the Dark Mark Flag, and I actually LIKE how it turned out. Okay, the top could be better, but MOST of it looks cool.

Now I have to start working on the hats that I'm making for the Crew. They aren't matching in color, but the Dark Mark is a recurring theme. The main reason for that is because I don't have enough gray and green yarn to make six or nine hats with; I probably don't have enough gray and green to make ONE hat. But I DO have a lot of other colors and a Dark Mark intarsia pattern, and we DO get points for team spirit at Klondike. Why not add some creativity?


Anyhow, I have homework to attend to before a four-hour rehearsal today. Farewell.

Knitting For Awesomeness

GUESS WHAT!?!?!? I get to knit something! It's a totally awesome something! And the totally awesome something is going to be TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You may think how utterly Not Exciting this is. And, I admit, me knitting something is totally Old News by the standards of pretty much everyone I know. But I get to knit something AWESOME this time!!! And it's going to be AWESOME! (can you tell that I'm excited about doing it?)

Before I say what it is, I need to digress for a second. (It'll make more sense when I actually get to the bit about what it is I'm making).

So, as you probably know, I'm in a Venture Crew. (Venture Crew is essentially co-ed Boy Scouts.) We can do all the stuff that normal Boy Scouts do, except we do it more awesomely because we're co-ed (and we wear different uniforms because we're not actually Boy Scouts).

Anyway, my Crew is sending the first all-girl team (I think - I don't know whether we will be all-girl) to the Klondike Derby (where you drag sleds around, even when there's no snow, and do Boy-Scout-y things). At each of the towns, where you perform each of the tasks (knot tying, first aid, stuff like that), you get little nuggets, which are basically your points. You don't get any nuggets for the things you don't do right, and whichever team gets the most points wins the thing (yes, it's a competition). You also get points for team spirit, which entails a Flag, a Team Name, and a Team Cheer, among other things, I think.

And that brings me to Why I Get To Knit Something Awesome. That Awesome Something is our Team Flag, for which you get points for originality and execution and stuff as part of the Team Spirit Points. Since I can't go to the Derby (which makes me very sad indeed), my contribution to the endeavor of Winning Klondike is making the flag. I have to design and execute the intarsia for it (intarsia = motifs = single-image things that you knit. Fair Isle can be found on all those weird knit sweaters from the 80's). And the intarsia that I'm designing and knitting onto the flag is that of the Dark Mark from Harry Potter. It's based off of the Dark Mark design from the book rather than the movie, because the Movie Dark Mark is more complicated and harder to design for a Newbie Intarsia Designer like me.

Nevertheless, I'm supremely excited.

I've already started working on it, and it's turning out a lot better than I expected. It's also going a lot faster than I expected. I don't know why this might be, but it is. Maybe I've found more time to knit during the school day. Maybe I've gotten faster at knitting. Maybe doing intarsia makes the process going faster. Maybe I'm just supremely psyched to see how the intarsia worked out and am therefore knitting really fast to see how the proportions worked out and stuff so I can have time to go back and do some frogging if I need to (frogging = undoing).

Well, I have to go knit now. Farewell.

excitingness and rehearsal

Well, I have some news, and I have some news.

The first bit of news is that I may or may not be able to write the climax of my novel today. The maybe factor comes in at the times in which I have a choice to make as to whether to keep procrastinating or actually write the darn thing.

The other bit of news is that I have rehearsal all next week, and I don't like it.

Well, I like rehearsal. But I don't like the CONCEPT of rehearsal. Also, I don't have a costume yet, which cannot be said for the rest of the main female ensemble.

I like going to rehearsal and I generally like the musical (except for going to the full-cast rehearsals when nobody pays attention to the directors because everybody is talking to their friends). But, in theory, I don't like the idea of having to spend three hours (or four or five) not doing homework. Generally, though, the musical is enjoyable.

I just have to re-learn time management, because right now it may not be working out well. (We've only been back in school for a week, so I haven't returned to the utterly confusing part of calculus yet).

Being in rehearsals have made me appreciate free blocks a lot more. Especially having two or three free blocks a day. From what I hear, free blocks help a lot of my school's alumni with time management in college. For me, that remains to be seen (partly due to the fact that I don't know where I am going).

Speaking of college, my #3 has finally endeared itself to my mother (it's also the school that I have a high chance of going to, because my #1 and #2 are really ridiculously competitive). I always thought I'd like it there, because it's tiny and has a good writing program and a good classical theatre program, and those are my top two career choices. My mom thought it was the super-conservative type of college (not like deep south, but sort of close), and that, since I grew up liberal, I would probably really abhor it because of that.

There were two things that finally convinced her (aside from my liking it) that I would be happy there.

First, they had an LGBT advocacy week recently. I'm not sure of the direct reasoning behind it (in memorial of suicides? Fundraising against LGBT bullying? Because it was a free week in the semester?), but I'm glad it exists.

The other reason my mom is finally fine with it is that they have a supermassive Harry Potter Movie Marathon planned for this weekend.

Honestly, those two things alone would have convinced me to apply, if I hadn't already gotten in. Huzzah!

Right. Enough about college. I have to go write the climax of a novel that I've been working on for the last two months. Or go to Starbucks. But probably the former, because it's cold and I'm broke, and I don't need caffeine.

Farewell.

Bored and musicals!

So right now, I'm bored. Go figure! It happens a lot when I have free time. And when I've finished all the homework I can do right now. Like reading "The Picture of Dorian Gray."

For the record, the ending of "Dorian Gray" (which is really good book in general, by the way) is the hugest mind-fudge ever. If any of you have read the book, you would know what I mean. If any of you haven't read the book, I suggest you do so, especially if you like books that involve the slow descent into insanity and darkness and people who you think are someone are actually embodied in other things and stuff. And huge mind-fudges where it turns out what you thought was someone was someone else and stuff (think Mad Eye Moody and the polyjuice potion from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). Wait... that was basically the same thing I said earlier. Never mind. But it was still an epically huge mind-fudge.

But, in all, it was a really good book. Also, the painter dude was completely in love with Dorian (ye who have read the book shall not deny the obvious truth to this statement. You know it's true).

Anyway, in other news, MUSICAL REHEARSAL IS PICKING UP!!! This is good because it means that the show will be going up soon. It's bad because it means that I have rehearsal until 7:00 (3 hours a day) all this week and next, with two-hour rehearsals on Saturdays; in two weeks, it'll progress to 8:00 rehearsal every day (4 hours a day); then it'll be 9:00 (5 hours a day) and then it'll be show night. AAAHHHH!!!!!!

I think it's going to be a good show, but we NEED to work on one of the songs. I haven't gotten my music for it, and I have a solo in it. I'm not important enough to have a script, so I need a photocopy of the music, which I haven't gotten. I don't know about you, but I can't really sing something well if I don't know the words. Or the notes. Or the harmony. What's worse is that there are no rehearsal days assigned for the song, so I can't learn it at a rehearsal with the other people in the group. Grrrr.

But some of the songs are going really well. Yesterday, we spent three hours re-working the choreography for one of the all-girl songs, and it turned out really well. I think that'll probably be one of the best songs in the show if it keeps going the way we're going. It just bugs me that I don't have music for the other song. A lot.

Um... there isn't much else to report, except for the fact that I have to do homework later and go to chorus at some point to pass the class and demand my music.

Also, I may have to miss musical rehearsal for the first time ever in a few weeks. I have a scholarship interview at a school that I want to go to. On the other hand, it's a private school, and is therefore expensive, so financial aid in any form it presents itself is very welcome.

So... that is my story/ rant for today. Huzzah!

Farewell. I must depart to go to class and demand music and such.

First Post of 2012!

Hello, and welcome to 2012! For the record, the apocalypse will NOT come in December, if it comes at all - it will come in June, when I graduate. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I'm done screaming. For now. I may come back and scream some more later... maybe.

Anyway, since it's a new year and stuff, I've decided to post my new year's resolutions. Huzzah! Judge them/ me how you will. I really don't care.


Anyway, the list:

1. Finish a novel.
2. Read a lot of books (target: 50-ish).
3. Get good grades.
4. Get into college.
5. Go to college.

Yeah. Not a lot of resolutions to keep, I know. But that's why it's going to be rather easy to keep the resolutions - because there's not many of them.

Anyhow, in other news, I was NOT partying last night at midnight, nor was I watching the ball drop. I was at home. Reading. Yeah. But the book - "City of Bones" - is really good. Yes, I've finally started it. And it's NOTHING like "Twilight," which is very, very nice.

How is it different?

First, there are demons.

Second, the characters have depth.

Third, there are more questions that just "Who/ what are the Shadowhunters?" There are also questions like "Why can Clary tell there are Shadowhunters when she's not a Shadowhunter herself?" and "What is this block in Clary's memory and why is it there?"

Yeah. City of Bones is REALLY good. I love it. I find it rather annoying, however, that I have to force myself not to read it - a rather difficult task, as I really want to go back to reading it, now that I've started talking about it - because I have to read "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and finish a study guide for government instead.

Yes, I have break work.

No, I have not done it yet.

Gotta work on that...

Yeah...

Yep, I'm off to be rather dorky. I will be reading fantasy and doing homework on New Year's Day. I hope this doesn't carry any foreboding for the rest of the year. I do NOT want to be constantly doing homework until December.