Whew

Wow.
I never imagined that senior year would be so... busy. O_O
Last year, I heard seniors saying how easy it was, how relaxing, and that junior year was ultimately the hardest year, so they were glad to be over it.
I have no idea what world they lived in.
So far, senior year has been one big mess of shit, busy busy busy.
First of all, the college applications.
Primarily, arguing with my mom about which college is best for me,
and how many I should apply to.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute is my number one college choice;
I would really, really love to go there.
My mom, however, wants me to go to one of the big-wig ivy league schools; not happening.
Last I checked, Princeton and Harvard do not have programs for prospective Game Designers, like me.
Worcester, though, is perfect; there's no other place I want to go, honestly.
I put my application in already, for their Early Action selection.
It's non-binding, too, so my mom can be happy, since I can apply to some more schools (she was a bit worried about me only wanting to apply to WPI).
But the application process is very busy-making.
After filling out all of your forms and writing the essay,
you need to go get letters from teachers, then lug it all to guidance...
well, it's actually not that bad.
Getting working papers is much worse, in my opinion.
At least with college apps, you don't need to drive all over the place.
Working papers made me go to my house, then guidance, then my job, then my doctor, then guidance again; lots of driving around.
Anyway, that's a bit of topic now.
Yeah... senior year's no walk amongst the daisies, as some people told me.
Lots of homework, papers, projects, homework, club responsibilities (especially now that I'm president of German Club), and lots of other busy stuff.
It feels like I have no time for any fun, like video games.
I haven't played Animal Crossing: City Folk in over a month... all my flowers have died by now, and it's probably full of weeds. I've missed holidays and special events there, too... oh, and all the October buggies and fishies. Even though I hate doing it, I'm going to have to time travel to get them.

Well, luckily, we have a random week long break this week! Lots of fun. Not really, more of a make up week for all the stuff I need to- and want to- do. This, for instance! And my GP blog, too, of course. But that'll come later this week. You see, this break has been made possible through a combination of the election, since some schools will be closed to have polls there, and the teachers convention. Instead of making us go to school for a Monday and Wednesday, they just gave us the whole week off. Wonderful! Finally, some time to catch up, relax.... and do all that work i missed last Thursday and Friday, when I was painting that huge window downtown for the parade. A bunch of other kids have work this week, too, because of it. But the painting was fun, so I'm not complaining. ^_^

It's possible!

Yes, it is possible to win the impossible games at theme parks!
Last night I went to Six Flags.
It was fanawesometasticalicious!
I watched the super tiger show,
and then bought stuff.
But then... I saw the game!
You had to bounce a ball off a board and get it into a bucket.
Pretty difficult, because of the placement of the bucket (right under the board),
and the bar that prevented you from rolling the ball gently or hitting the bottom of the board,
for if you knocked it over, you lost.
I watched a bunch of people doing it,
and then decided to try my hand at it.
I failed the first time, and then... I won!
The worker lady was even amazed- she said no one had won it while she was working, ever.
All she had ever heard were rumors of people winning, rarely.
Apparently, I was the first to win all summer.
So, what did I win?
A GIANT GNOME:

Some crazy lady had her picture taken with me and it, too.

My Summer

Oh, it's been a while since I posted here (again).

Well, my summer's been pretty okay, I suppose. Just okay.
I'm working at a girl scout camp, as an archery instructor.
That's pretty cool. Last week's theme was music,
so they did a cute production of "High School Musical" songs.
I've also been working at an ice cream shop.
That's pretty sweet: free ice cream and all.
Other than that, i haven't been doing much.
There are things I should be doing, but procrastination's won once again...

Well, that's pretty much my summer.
Not much more to write about at the moment.
Once School starts, I'm sure there will be interesting stuff posted here, kay?
Oh, I can't wait until September...

Oh, right. I finally got my driver's permit,
after procrastinating for 6 months after I turned 17.
Yay! I've been practicing, a little... well, not much. 2 times.
I did manage to drive from the elementary school home though.
I held up traffic in front of my house, trying to get into the driveway.
I over-steered, then backed up wrong, and, well, I need more practice!

A Trip to Maine

Last week, my friend and I went to Maine on a week-long vacation. Well, yes, my parents and brother came, too, but they're a bit boring and somewhat annoying, so you won't hear me talking much about their role on the trip! We went to Acadia National Park and a town next to it called Bar Harbor. It was very touristsy; we don't usually go to places with so many people, but it ended up being nice, despite that.

We took a car there, of course. The trip was 12 hours long; uuuuuuuugh. Yes, 12 hours cooped up in a car. Luckily, air conditioning exists...

The first two nights we stayed at a bed and breakfast in Bar Harbor. It was really nice, very quaint. It was in one of the few remaining buildings from historic Bar Harbor, as opposed to the others, which were all redone completely since they had basically all burned in a fire. But our inn survived!

Let me recount for you the events and stuff we partook in.

The first day we went to an Oceanic Museum. That was amazing. There were three parts to the tour. First, we listened to a guy do a presentation about lobster hunting, their main industry in Maine. He showed us the huge cages the lobsters get trapped in. They're made specially so lobsters can't escape. the rope goes into them on an upward incline. The lobster then climbs in, and falls to the bottom. He then tries to escape, but can't because of the angle of the rope, of which the 'exit' is above his head now, too high to escape. But there is a hole just large enough for undersized lobsters to escape through, saving the lobster catchers time when it comes to weeding out those unfit for eating: too big ones, too small ones, and pregnant ones. The too big ones aren't allowed because they want to make sure there are enough full grown ones to breed. Oh, and apparently, it's okay to throw them in a pot and boil them live. It makes no difference; they don't feel pain. They have no brain function other than the basics: to eat, swim, reproduce, and breath. Apparently it raised a moral question, so scientists formally studied the lobsters, which led to that conclusion. Too bad for the lobster-rights club; how can something with no brain or nerves have many rights? We also learned from him how to weave the net. It's pretty easy, but I'm not going to explain it; I would just confuse everyone, since I'm no good at giving instructions for things like that. The sample net piece the guy wove in front of us was given to Michael. That was cool; a souvenir, but for free! That's a rare find at such a touristy place. The next stop of the tour was the Lobster Hatchery. It was full of these large, upright tubes of water with tiny lobsters, only between 1 and 6 millimeters long. The Hatchery obtains pregnant lobsters, and then keep the eggs and babies until they reach a certain stage in their life. Then, they are released back into the wild. Why don't they keep them until adulthood? Well, that would get too expensive. Lobsters are very reclusive, and would each need their own tube, rather than all 6,000 being in one. It is much more expensive to keep them than release them and let the lobster fishermen recatch them. You see, a lobster lays about 6,000 eggs. In the wild, about 3 of them eventually survive, since as babies they are prey to many creatures, as plankton-like things while they float in the open water. Yet by living those early stages in the hatchery, about 1500 eventually survive- much better than 3. Plus, there's no high costs like there would be if kept in captivity. The last part of the tour was a small aquarium and a touch tank. In the aquarium was the biggest lobster I'd ever seen- at least ten pounds, no exaggeration. It was at least three feet long, with claws more than a foot long each. I wouldn't want to get on its bad side! The touch tank was really cool, too. They had a sea cucumber; it was very squishy. The sea urchin was very spiky, but still fun to hold. The starfish, too, I enjoyed. Did you know they have a small eye on the tip of each foot? It looks like a little red dot, and it senses light. The Horseshoe Crab would cringe whenever I blew on its stomach. That was fun to watch [no, I wasn't hurting it or anything- tickling it's more of the word]. There were also large snails, a spider crab, and hermit crabs. Those were cool, too. I really regret not having my camera with me that first day; though, consequently, it led me to be sure I had it on all the other days.

Oh, and we also saw the movie "Up." It was in a historic theater; only one movie playing at one time, since there was only one screen. It was very cool looking, though. The ceiling was painted, and the screen had a curtain over it, like a stage. They had technical difficulties with that; it kept opening and closing during the first five minutes. But, those were previews, so it didn't matter. The lights kept going on and off, too. It was a little freaky, I suppose. Haunted Theater? The movie itself was very cute, though. I liked it.

The next three nights were camping, making 4 days. I hate camping. The beds are not comfortable at all, the "waterproof" tent was leaky as it rained, and everything else about it's just so much of a nuisance.

That first day of camping, day two of the trip, we drove up Cadillac Mountain. It's the tallest point on the easy coast, until Brazil. But unfortunately, at the summit, we couldn't see a thing. It was extremely foggy. We're lucky we didn't fall down the mountain, since we could barely see three feet in front of us.

The next day we went hiking for a bit, to some nice views of the ocean. Then we went to something even more amazing; Improv Acadia. It was a fully improvised comedy show, and the audience got to join in with the ideas. It was one of the best things I've ever been to. I really wish more existed; but I suppose it takes a lot of talent to create such a great show, completely improvised. That was just a sample show, though, perhaps twenty minutes compared to a full hour and a half show. It was for the Art Week in Bar Harbor. There were a lot of free concerts and exhibits and things like that. It's rather hard to explain about the show, but they do skits and things based on the audience's ideas. They're different things each time. For example, when asked for the title of a possible play that doesn't exist, a woman in the audience shouted out "Cairo's Burning," and they created a huge skit about a pharaoh faced with a rebellion, with improvised songs and all. It was really good. They also asked us for an item the would not come with instructions, and we chose 'Sponge'. So, they made an instruction manual for a sponge. It was hilarious; they asked the audience for sub categories, and one of them was "Water Emergencies." So, they made up a long thing about buying thousands of the "Spongetron 5000" to stop a flood. It was much more humorous than I make it sound, though. I do it little justice. After that, we discovered that the sun was actually out! We listened to some of a free rock concert in the park while I practiced cartwheeling on a grassy hill. I'm getting better, I think. We also had a campfire, since it wasn't raining. S'mores rock!

Thursday, day four of the trip, we were supposed to go on a whale watch, but it was once again foggy. Instead, we went on more hikes. One was really awesome; it was out to a small rocky peninsula. we were climbing the rocks, getting great pictures and things. By late afternoon, it got sunny again, so we went back up Cadillac Mountain. That time, we could see the view a bit before the fog rolled in again. It was really, really awesome. a wonderful day. We ended the day with a campfire and S'mores, once again.

Friday was okay, but not the most fun. We were stuffed in the car with all the camping things, and just drove around the island, since my mom wanted to see the rest of it. In Northeast Harbor, I stopped at a store and bought a neat bracelet. I also bought Chinese Checkers, to give us something else to do. Every night before, Me, my brother, and Michael had been playing lots of the card game "Uno," and were getting a bit sick of it. at least, I was; After all those nights, I had accumulated very few points, whereas Michael had over a 500 point lead on Brandt, and more than a 1,000 lead over me. Blah. So I bought a new game to play. We played it that night. it was a very intense game of Chinese Checkers; it pretty much ended in a complete draw. Still, it was fun. Oh, and we stayed at the inn; no more icky camping.

Saturday, the last day of the trip, we were able to go on that Whale Watch! It was a little foggy, but not that bad. We saw a whole lot of Seals, which was very cool. We didn't see any whales, but that was okay. It was still an awesome boat trip. That evening, we all went shopping. Extreme shopping. We visited every store there that was open. I ended up paying a bit more than I usually spend on a shirt, but that was okay, because the shirt was extremely awesome, and unique. It had lots of sparking red and white rhinestones on the black stretch fabric, short sleeved. The stones were in the shape of wings on the back, with a little red sun on the corner in front. It's the best shirt I've ever owned. Then, we went to the Improv again! The full show was amazing; even better than the sample show. I really wish there was one in NJ! I would go every other night. That time, I suggested a part of a skit. They wrote everyone's suggestions down, and during the skit the actors would pick up random ones off the floor and so them, or say the lines, incorporating them into their skit. Those actors did not know what was on the paper, since they went out of the room while we gave the suggestions. Mine was to hunt werewolves. The skit was fabulously funny!

Then, the trip ended with another 12 hour car ride. Actually, it ended up being 14; in Massachusetts, two car accidents held the roads up for two extra hours. I got mad at McDonalds, since they gave me a honey mustard wrap when I asked specifically for ranch.

Oh, and about food. Can't forget that. I got to try lobster. It wasn't as yummi as I though it would be. Didn't taste too different than crab, actually; I don't know why people get all excited over it. My favorite food there was the pizza. There was a great place called Rosalie's. I got Pineapple and Chicken as a topping, and it was one of the best pizza I ever had! There was also a cool diner. It was very retro; it had lots of things all over the walls, which reached up the length of two stories. It had old signs, decorated plates, license plates, and all other things all over it. But it was a cool clutter, especially for a diner. It was amazing. Great atmosphere. I don't remember the name, though. Overall, great food in Bar Harbor. Great ice cream, too. There was one called 'lobster tracks', which was vanilla with white chocolate candies filled with caramel, dyed red. Also, 'black bear', which was raspberry stripes in vanilla, with chocolate candies filled with raspberry syrup. Very yummi, rich ice cream. Only problem was that it had no fast food. Everything was at least ten dollar meals. But, there was a neat restaurant with a cool salad bar. It included muscles. Mmmm!

So, overall, the trip was AMAZING. I recommend going to Bar Harbor and Acadia National park to anyone interested in going on a vacation to a park, but who doesn't want to be really in the wild. Lots of nice inns and hotels to stay in, for those who dislike camping [like me]. Also, many easy hikes to nice views, not far from the town at all, unlike other parks where the hotels and towns are an hour away. Plus, they have great things to do, such as Improv Acadia, Museums, and a Whale Watch, on top of a great town with cool shops and dining. I loved it! ^_^


Some Pictures:


Bar Harbor Street


Aerial View of Bar Harbor


Bee on a Flower


Ship


Foggy Cadillac Mountain


Coastline of Maine


Foggy Island


Graveyard


Seagull


Harbor


Mountains


Lighthouse


Lobster Shop


Lobster Traps


The Inn We Stayed At


Rosalie's Pizza


The Porcupine Islands


Road


Wet Rocks


More Rocks


Our Tents


Theater


Very Touristy Rocky Outlook


Tree with Writing


Turtle Art Exhibit


Atlantic Ocean


Whale Statue


See how much cool stuff there is? These are only a small sampling on the 200-something photos I took. Actually, it was 800-something, but that's just because I like to take ten pictures of everything, then delete all but the few best. I love digital Cameras. I love Maine. But I wouldn't want to live in Maine- winters get too cold. The summer was a nice temperature, though: never too warm, but never cold either... like a NJ Spring, really.

Well, I'm off! Hope you enjoyed my little recollection of my trip to Maine!

A New Art Piece

It's been a while since I got to do one of these.
I used Photoshop to color it, but hand-drew the outline.

It's me and my friend, and my G-Pigs. =3

New Way of Working Things

Okay, so you may or may not have noticed,
but three of my blogs vanished:
Kate and Todd, Schuekeln, and Larissa's Art.
This was not an accident;
I am simply consolidating them.
Henceforth, any art I feel like posting will be posted here.
No, I will not post that which was in those blogs,
for I am simply too lazy to do so.

No, the inactivity of the past months hasn't been due to laziness;
I have truly been really, really, busy.
Of course, now that it's summer, I can hopefully post here a bit more!
Any computer art I do, will of course go here also-
only if it's worth showing, of course.

Shrineland will still be updated, up until there's no more chapters to post-
it's not finished yet, you see, and I don't know when it will be.

Journal of the Game Crazy Guinea Pigs, of course, will still be updated, too.
I plan to make a post to it every week or two, at least, so look forwards to that!

Well, Happy Summer, people!

Hehe. <_<

Long time, no blog, huh?
Well, if anyone is following this, I'm sure you'll want another post to come.
So, here it is! Whoo!

I've been busy the past few weeks... almost month.
Wow, month! O_O Time flies.

So, I've gone on a vacation to North Carolina,
earned mucho money at my new happy job,
and, well, been really busy with school.
This time of year is soooooo busy!

So, I tried dying my hair today.
I bought the $5 dye.
It didn't work too well.
It was supposed to be light brown.
It came out much lighter than it should have!
So, my hair's not a blonde-brown with highlighted areas.
It's okay, but not nearly how it was supposed to be.
My mom likes it- but she was against me dying my hair in the first place.
Michael wanted me to dye it black, but I don't think the world is ready for that yet.
Maybe at the end of the summer.
Next time, I'm buying the $10 dye.

Oh, and yesterday I had a ton of fun at my cousin's house!
They were having a huge party for Katherine's first Communion.
So, there were a ton of people there.
Michael came, too.
We were outside a lot- my cousins have a huge yard.
I was swinging on the swing a lot.
I want a swing like theirs for my back yard!
We also played lacrosse, badminton, Bachee,and various other sports.
It was a ton of fun, a beautiful day.

Well, that's it for my very rambly, assorted post!
I'll try to continue doing this weekly,
if my schedule allows! ;]

Ice Cream Shop Job and Cooking

Working at Mrs. Walker's is so much fun!
I love scooping ice cream for people.
Making shakes is okay, too,
but a little more difficult and messy.
I broke the machine, too, and got shake all over.
It was chocolate, too...
Mopping and stuff at the end of the night's tiring, as well.
But, it is rewarding!
Yesterday, when my friend and I came for ice cream,
I got to scoop my own,
and make Michael's shake!
It was awesome.
The manager even said my ice cream was free!
And tonight, the manager gave me more free ice cream!
It must be an employee benefit.
I love my new job! ^_^

On a side note, I made crepes for breakfast today,
with strawberry-banana sauce.
Both were my own recipe.
Michael said it was delicious. ^_^
It's always nice when a new recipe turns out wonderful.
Maybe I should write these recipes down,
and make a cookbook, as people recommended.
I probably would make a fortune...
not to sound like a braggart, or anything.
I just seem to have a knack for cooking.
Plus, it's something I really, really, love to do!
That always helps, loving what you're good at.
True, sometimes recipes are a flop,
but other times, they're great.
I made coconut fish-rice the other night,
and everyone loved it, to my surprise,
although it did not come out quite as I had planned.
Yet, cooking's like an art-
it rarely comes out as planned.
Of course, it is sciency, too,
since you have to know what goes well together,
and about how much of each ingredient can go in.
Maybe that's why I love it so much-
it's a scientific art,
that pleases people and is yummi!

So busy...

This is the story of my life:
whenever I get work,
I get it from all the activities and classes I'm in.
Projects galore! Whoo.
This work comes when I have club meetings, trips, and other priorities.
When I have nothing to do at all on my calendar,
then I have no work at all.
I sit around bored, wishing I had work.
It must be one of Murphy's Laws.
@___@

In other news, I got a job offer at Mrs. Walker's.
They're gonna call me sometime this week with details. =3

On Saturday, my 4H Critter Craze club went to a nursing home.
We brought one animal each,
and showed them to the senior citizens,
who were delighted to see the animals.
We had rabbits, guinea pigs, and a hamster there.
I broght Ron, since Alex is sick.
Yes, sick. Well, not really sick.
You see, his dew claw got ripped off.
That's this extra useless chunk of nail on the side of a pig's foot.
It's not even shaped like a claw.
But, it got ripped off, and then got infected.
So I have to keep him in this quarantined, sterile cage,
and apply ointment and clean his foot every day.
He is getting better, though.
He should be okay by next Saturday,
for the county Show, hopefully.
And if not, hopefully they won't disqualify him for being 'sick',
since technically he's not sick.

Of course, I'm going to have a bazillion homework things,
since the show's an all day thing.
NO!
I have to stop thinking this way.
I bet it's somehow making the workload worse.
Sine the world works like that,
for some reason.

*falls asleep from exhaustion*

House, weekends, losing weight, more religion, etc.

House.
I just love this show!
For those who don't know,
it's about a doctor clinic place,
and the head doctor dude is Dr. house.
It deals with rare diseases and stuff, mostly,
and also adds a bunch of psychology into it.
It's awesome! ^___^

Anyway, last weekend I was at SJTC.
That is, "South Jersey Teen Conference."
It's a 4-H thing.
The theme was technology this year,
so the two workshops I chose to attend were
"Amateur Radio" and "Making your own Movies".
They were both very awesome and informative!
Also at SJTC,
we went to an indoor water resort.
That was awesome at first,
but we stayed for 4 hours,
whichs eemed way too long.
One or two hours would have been plenty.
I mostly hung out in the Spa,
and went a bit on the lazy river,
and then I played at the arcade.
I won a cool dice,
since iI love dice,
but I must have lost it,
since when I came home it wasn't in my bag.
;_____;
I though I had searched the hotel room perfectly before leaving!
Anyway, after that we had a dance.
I thought I didn't like dances,
but I surprised myself:
I had the best time I've had in a while!
The DJ had lots of games and stuff, too.
It was a blast!

On another note,
I've lost a lot of weight recently.
How?
A combination of reducing my food intake,
and also Wiifit.
It's a great 'game'.
I do yoga at least three times a week,
40 minutes or so.
And it keeps track of what I lose,
so I can know if I'm keeping up with my diet well or not.
It's great. ^_^
Plus, I feel a bit more flexible, too.

I also saw a movie.
It was called 'Knowing'.
It started out really great-
lots of action and interesting stuff-
until it began to have lots of biblical references,
and then the ending was totally nihilistic,
and the moral basically turned out to be love god,
or he'll destroy the world,
and pull a Noah's Ark situation thing.
That totally ruined it. >_<
Of course, you don't want me rambling about
how I hate organized religion and stuff again, do you?

But there is something about me and religion you don't know-
I've found a looser one that I mostly agree with!
It's not strict at all,
and allows for differences in opinion on some things.
For example, it has a goddess and a god,
but some people believe they're only protectors of nature,
some believe they're actual gods,
and others still believes there can be a god in charge of them.
Also, they are very nature- based.
they believe the world is made of five elements,
all acting in harmony:
Earth, Fire, wind, Water, Aether (Spirit.)
Of course, it's not like Aristotle's view of elements,
where everything's physically made of these;
they're just guiding powers int he world,
and work together in harmony in nature.
They're major holiday are on the equinox, solstice, and mid seasons.
They believe in reincarnation,
and an in-between place where spirits wait to be reincarnated.
They believe this place can be contacted,
if the spirit's haven't moved on yet.
But the spirits also can be good or bad.
Anyway, it's also a very misunderstood religion.
Christianity calls it 'Satanic',
but it has nothing to do with Satan at all!
It's just about inner peace and living in sync with nature.
If you haven't guess it by now, I'll tell you:
It's called Wicca.
Please don't hate it until you get the full info.
There's a good wiki article on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicca
Please read it before making any rash conclusions.
Thank you! ^___^

HSPAs and "The Pit"

The HSPA State Test was this past week.
It was okay, I suppose.
They're real easy, but boring.
Since we had the first 2 days of the week off,
due to excessive snow,
the testing was shifted over to Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday,
as opposed to Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
So, the math section, which should have been Tuesday, was Friday.
They were impossibly easy, the questions.
The only issue was the timing.
There was a lot of time left after the persuasive essays-
we had an hour, and we're all used to half hour, like the SATs.
However, there was only 20 minutes for a picture prompt.
That was too short, by far.
No one can write a good story in twenty minutes!
So my beginning was great,
then I began to run short on time,
and had to quickly sum it up and end it.
I couldn't explain in detail any of the plot-
and I wrote up to the last line provided!
Other than that, though, the tests were fine.
The school day after was short, too, which was nice.
We only had six periods a day as opposed to eight, too.
It was nice to only have a few classes.
Much less overwhelming.
School should do that all the time-
four or five periods a day, but not all classes every day.
I believe the term is block-scheduling.

Today, my friend and I explored "The Pit."
What is the Pit, you ask?
An old factory and the grounds around it-
a huge sand pit with small scrubby trees and sand hills.
This was the first time I had been there.
It really looks just like a segment of Australian or African outback,
right smack in the middle of New Jersey.
It's a few miles across, diagonally.
There's also woods around it, too.
So we climbed the sand hills, scurried through the woods,
and enjoyed the wonderful day.

Yes, today and yesterday truly felt like Spring, finally!

Oh, that reminds me. Yesterday.
My 4-H group and I went to a state park.
We walked on the trails and took pictures-
we're a photography club, after all.
But, we didn't know that the path wasn't a loop.
We assumed it was-
all but that path were loops, after all.
Well, yay for the rangers not keeping up with trail markings.
After one and a half hours, we came to a dead end.
We had to turn around and walk straight back.
It was nice, though,
except the younger members complained a lot,
since we were walking so much.

So, overall, a very enjoyable week.
(But mostly, the weekend was the enjoyable part.)
^__^

Ice Cream

I love ice cream!
So, I wrote a poem about it. =3

Ice Cream
The cold, sweet treat
Invades every taste bud.
The cone crunches,
Crumbling everywhere-
Most of it, on the ground.
The sweet plethora of sprinkles
Dissolves in my mouth.
Rainbow always was
Better than chocolate.
I'm enjoying it so much,
I don't notice the bit
Stuck on my nose,
Or the drips on the ground.
I smell the mintiness
Of my ice cream,
But also the peanut butter
Emanating from yours.
You eye mine, as well.
So we switch,
For a bite or three.
Then, it's all gone,
As I swallow my last bite.
You moan in sadness, too.
Buy more? Maybe.
If only we had the money!



Yes, this week's been great!
I had barely any work and activities,
so I had a ton of free time for me~
It was great. ^__^
I got a lot done that I've been wanting to do,
Sucha s painting pictures and things.

Activities

Another week's gone.
Another very very very busy week!
I'm glad- there was just too much.
All my activities from the first week of
February were rescheduled to this past week.
So, I had my 4H photo club on Tuesday,
followed by a Girl Scout meeting (that I was running.)
Wednesday, I had 4H Teen Council and TAB.
(Teen Advisory Board- helps the Library.)
I ended up not going to TAB, since they overlapped a little.
Thursday I went the the German Club's movie night.
Friday I had a doctor's appointment,
and my best friend stayed over.
I know, doesn't sound like a lot.
But, I did have quite a number of school projects,
leading to maybe, oh, an hours worth of free time each day,
sometimes less. Tuesday I had none.
Plus, after school I have:
Physics Club on Mondays,
Math League on Tuesdays,
Art Club and German Club on Wednesdays,
and sometimes stuff on Thursdays, too.
Luckily, the weekend was fun, giving me a break.
But I did have history, math, English, and German work,
and more than just a worksheet in each.
Terms for History turn out to be 2 hours and 5 pages,
English was 20 research note cards and citations, or 1 to 2 hours,
Math was a review packet, so about 1 hour,
and German was the only easy one: sentences.
Saturday Michael and I saw the movie "Coraline",
which was extremely well done, may I add,
so that left all my work to Sunday.
I got that done, and guess what?
Mom gave me chores, since I "hadn't had any all week."
(I never have chores during the week, except for my everyday duties,
such as cleaning pets and the dishwasher, laundry, and garbage.)
So, I had to spend 3 hours looking at colleges I already looked at.
Yes, she made me do the same thing last weekend, with the same results.
She wanted to "double check" things.
Plus, I had a bunch of other stuff to do-
all HER work, for HER job!
I know I'm good at art, but she's the art teacher!
Can't she make her own examples?
All I wanted to do all week/weekend
was to paint the picture I had sketched out in art class.
But I never got to do it...
*sigh*

Valentine's Day

Did everyone have an enjoyable Valentine's Day?
Or, in some cases, Single-Awareness Day?
I know I did.
My best friend and I,
since neither of us have a significant other,
spent a wonderful day together.
Another friend, Danica, was also there with us for a bit,
but she wasn't feeling well at all,
and ended up going home after only an hour or two.

After playing lots of video games,
Michael and I went to see a movie.
We've been wanting to see "Inkheart" for a few weeks,
but unfortunately, it wasn't playing anymore.
So, we saw a movie called "Push" instead.
It was AMAZING.
It's a very complicated story to explain,
so here's a link to the Wikipedia article:
.
It certainly was a great movie,
one of the best I've seen in a while.
The only downfall was that it seemed very fast-paced,
and therefore lacked full explanations of some things,
so most people watching could be overwhelmed.
I know I'm going to rent it when it comes on DVD.
That way, I can grasp a better understanding of the plot.
But overall, it was very well made.
Great acting coupled with great effects made it a must-see.
I highly recommend it to anyone who loves sci-fi/action/adventure movies!
The closest movie I can think of to it would be X-men,
but by no means does that mean they have similar plots or anything!

After the movie, we went to a restaurant next to the theater, Cool Beans.
There, we had NY Cheesecake.
It was very scrumptious. ^_^

Finally, we went home, and played more video games!

Yes, it was a very enjoyable day, indeed!

Whoa. @___@

Sorry I haven't posted in a bit.
My computer decided to go crazy after
my mom accidentally deleted Microsoft Word.
So we had to spend hours searching for the disk.
Took us a week to find it.
But, now it's all better,
and I can access all my stuff, the internet, and use Word.
So that's very happy. ^_^

Oh, and I've been doing a bit of college searching, too.
You see, since I'll be a senior next year,
I have to start looking for a college to go to.
I found 3 that have what I want.
Actually, they don't have everything I want.
I really wanted a school where I could have a
Game Design Major, German Minor, and Archery as a sport.
Well, 3 colleges have the Game Design/German Combo,
but unfortunately none of those have archery...
Anyway, here they are:
~Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY)
~Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY)
~Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, MA)
So, hopefully I'll be able to get into at least one of them.
Actually, looking at their requirements, I probably will get in,
but I really need financial aid, so it'll all come down to that...
Ugh, college searching is so complicated! @__@

Alliteration Zoo

Anxiously Ambling Aardvarks,

Blindly Blissful Bears,

Crazily Chattering Chimpanzees,

Docilely Dozing Deer,

Easily Excitable Elephants,

Fiercely Fraternizing Fox,

Gently Grazing Gazelles,

Happily Hopeless Hippos,

Ingeniously Ignorant Iguanas,

Jittery Jumping Jackals,

Keenly Kicking Kangaroos,

Lavishly Ludicrous Lions,

Melodically Maniacal Macaws,

Needlessly Noisy Nightingales,

Overly Obsessive Orangutans,

Prettily Preening Peacocks,

Quaintly Quiet Quail,

Ravenous Racing Rhinoceri,

Slyly Slithering Snakes,

Tenaciously Treading Tigers,

Unanticipated Ubiquitous Umbrettes,

Vainly Vindictive Vultures,

Wishfully Wading Walruses,

Xenophobic Xeric Xantusiidae,

Yearnfully Yapping Yaks,

Zestfully Zany Zoo!

Note: Ubiquitous=ever-present; Umbrette=type of bird with hammer-shaped head; Xeric= deficient in moisture; Xantusiidae=type of lizard

Poetry- your best (and worst) friend

When one hears ones English teacher say that the class is beginning a poetry unit, one tends to freak out. "Poetry?!" One thinks, "Oh, no! I can't write poetry!" or "Ugh. Poetry's so boring." Well, it doesn't have to be boring or hard at all. In fact, I quite enjoy poetry. Sort of. Okay, yeah, I do find some poems boring, as anyone does. But isn't it the same as stories? Some are boring, some are amazing. There's no comparison between Shakespeare’s works and JK Rowling's, is there? They're two different people, and write about completely different things. It's silly to group them together. Same goes for Poetry. Sometimes, you'll love a poem. It’ll really click, and you'll feel like, "Wow! That’s exactly how I feel!" You can relate to it. Other poems, however, aren't so great. It varies depending on the person, just as one's taste in stories varies. There are many different types of poems, too. Short witty limericks, such as Dr. Seuss poems, ballads, such as Paul Revere's Ride, epics, such as the Odyssey. Some rhyme, some don't. Some go by syllables, like haiku. Others are called free verse, where there doesn't have to be a rhyme, or a pattern, or any rules at all- those are entirely up to the writer! Which is why writing poems doesn't have to be hard, either. Different styles are preferred by different writers. And if you are stuck, just start writing free verse. Jot down a phrase per line, and BAM, you have a poem! It's true; I do get intimidated by poetry. I used to write some, but since I've stopped. I wouldn't write it at all, except for the fact that in Creative Writing we're doing poetry. But I do enjoy poems. My favorite types are the short, quirky limericks, and the longer ballads and epics. I like how they weave a poem and story together. Haiku, to me, is too short and restrained, so I don't like it much. I love rhymes and patterns, although I'm not too good at finding rhymes. I used to go through the alphabet trying to rhyme stuff with "orange," until I discovered there was no rhyme for it in English. But that's okay- one can always make up new words in poetry, after all! Did you know that some poems consist entirely of made-up words, or some poets just add a few bits of jumble to make rhymes because they can't think of a rhyming word? It’s true! Really anything goes in poetry. I've read lots of poems in the past. Besides the mandatory English ones, I have a few cousins and friends who write poetry. They each have extremely different styles, although most of it's free verse. Sometime's they're good, sometime's they're not. Oh, and no one can forget the poems of Dr. Seuss, the greatest children’s' author ever! Anyway, that's all I have on Poetry.

School Poem (last class of the week)

I sat down in math class.
I moaned and groaned with the class
as Mrs. P passed out the test.
The formulas,
she scribbled on the board.
I stared at the test.
My eyes began to close...
No, no. I couldn't sleep now,
I couldn't risk getting an F.
But it was just so quiet,
except for the scratching
of pencils on paper,
and the occasional whirr of the sharpener.
Oh, and there was the soft tapping
of calculator buttons.
The classroom smelled of many things:
pencil shavings, sweat, markers,
and some kid's strong cologne,
mixed with the scents the warm breeze blew in:
crisp almost-summer air,
the sweetness of flowers,
and all those kinds of things.
I was hungry, too,
and the chewing gum didn't help:
It actually made me hungrier.
I leaned my head on my hand as I stared at the test,
but not for long:
The sweat and heat made it
sticky and uncomfortable.
I tapped my pencil impatiently on my desk,
occasionally robotically scribbling the answers,
as we had learned to do them.
The clock went tick-tock-tick;
a kid in the back began to snore.
Mrs. P ignored him;
it was his fault that he let the weather get to him.
It didn't help that my desk
was right next to the window.
It only distracted me more.
Just a few more questions...
Ah, the test was done!
I quickly handed it in
and returned to my desk.
I laid my head down.
The warm sunshine shone on me,
warming the back of my neck.
Before I knew, I was asleep.
I dreamed of the awesome weekend I would have.
A three-day weekend...
what could be better?
I imagined video games, friends,
movies, walks in the park...
BIIIIIIIING!
The bell!
Quick!
Grab your stuff!
And everyone dashed to the door,
and I was caught in the rush.
Time for the weekend!

A Strange (and Lucky!) Event

Last March, I ordered a game from on online store.
I was really looking forwards to playing Tales of Phantasia (ToP).
It was supossed to come between one and two weeks after I ordered it.
Well, when it didn't come after a month and a half, I contacted the company.
They checked with the UPS, and discovered that it got lost between the Wisconsin and Minnesota checkpoints.
So, I got my money back and everything.
The game was forgotten for a while, but after I had beaten Tales of Symphonia 2 (ToS),
I got thinking about how ToP was supposedly in the same world as ToS, but 2000 years later.
I decided to got buy it.
Well, I couldn't find it at any of my usual gaming stores, since it's an older and extremely hard to find game.
There also aren't many used copies floating around, since it's also a very good game.
So, I came home disappointed.
Well, the next day, guess what popped up?
The copy I had ordered 9 months ago was in my mailbox,
battered and weathered so much that you could barely read the address.
It was a miracle!
The game's still in perfect condition, as well, somehow.
And it is a really great game, and I love it. ^__^

The Holidays are Over.

Yeah...
I can't exactly say I had a great time, but overall I suppose it was still good. I got to see my cousins, my room finally got cleaned, and I gave and got some good gifts. I spent all my money on gifts for people, got all that money back, and then spent it all again on myself. <_< style="">


What I got:

From Parents
Zune (my big gift this year! ^_^)
Clothes (1 Pair socks, 2 shirts, 1 jeans)
Accessories (the fake hair earrings were cool)
Nail Polish
Random beautification products
Sparkly hair gel
Hat
Boots
Assorted little things in my stocking
Cheesy Crackers
Pop Tarts
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (w/2 guitars- to share with Brandt)
Digital Calendar/Alarm Clock/Calculator/World Clock/thingy

From Grandpa and Grandma D
25$ Barnes and Nobel gift card
pet photo album
$100 check (half or more for college)

From Grandma B:
4 Manga books
Shirt

From Aunt Nancy, Uncle Ken, and Allison:
Cubic Zirconium Earrings

From April:
15$ I-tunes card

From Aunt Carol:
Shirt

From Brandt:
Earrings (why do people always giving me them? I have too many!)

From Grandpa B:
Wii Fit (to share with Brandt)

From My Best Friend
Healing Stone
Green Journal (with the price tag on it X])
2 Perfumes

From My Best Friends Family (for Chrismakkah)
25$ Movie gift card in a pretty card

From My Brother's Friend
A baby Pet Rat named Nacho

From the Gamestop Store (with my Christmas money+ big sales)
A PS2
An extra PS2 controller
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy XII
Tales of the Abyss
Tales of Legendia
Spyro: A Hero's Tale
PS2 Memory Card

From Secret Santa (4-H):
Photo album with cats on front

From Grab Bag (girl scouts)
Lavender bath set

From My Cousins
Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution
Manga version of Hamlet



What I Gave:

My Family:

Mom: 2 Ceramic masks (she loves art)
Dad: Readers Digest fix-it book, sandpaper, glue, and mini screwdriver set
Brandt: Super Monkey Ball 2
Grandpa D: Honey Roasted Peanuts
Grandma D: 2 boxes of her favorite chocolate cookies
Grandma B: Chocolate caramel turtles
Great Aunt Carol: Gertrude Hawk chocolates
Cats: Tuna Treats
Rat + Degu: Sunflower Seeds
Guinea Pigs: Calcium Treats
(I have too many uncles/aunts/cousins to give gifts to them)

My Best Friend's Family:

Aunt Sharon: Honey Roasted Peanuts
Aunt Sandra: Honey Roasted Peanuts
Gerry(his mom's boyfriend): Honey Roasted Peanuts
(Peanuts were on sale, can you tell?)
Susanne(mom): lotion
Patrick(brother): Auto-inflate whoopee-cushion
Maleek (cousin): Dinosaur encyclopedia
Cheyanne (cousin): Bird pop-up book
(I babysit his cousins every day [well, they're moving back to NY...])
Michael (my best friend): Portuguese reference book, decoupaged heart box, hemalite turtle necklace, animal crossing city folk calendar and post card

Others:

Mandy: Animal crossing city folk calendar and post card
Mrs. S (Mandy's mom/4H leader): Santa Photo Holder
April (4-H leader): Ceramic Santa candle holder
Mrs. G(Girl Scout Leader): candle holder
Sara(4-H secret Santa): socks
GS (grab bag): Gingerbread bath set

Oh, and I got a surprise right before Christmas.
You see, I had won a contest, and the prise wasn't supposed to arrive until after the holidays.
But it did!
My very own wii and animal crossing came. ^__^


So I suppose the holidays ended up all right, despite the yelling and annoyingness of my mom.