Wednesday, 24 April 2024
Life, the universe, pies, hot-pink bunnies, world domination, and everything
Continuing its year-long trek through space and time, this month’s Random Thread celebrates Elizabethan England. (In Edmund Spenser’s epic poem The Faerie Queene, the character Gloriana represented Queen Elizabeth I.)
The illustration is based on a portrait of young Elizabeth — or should we say Aeioulizabeth?
(Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!)
Date: April 2, 2010
Categories: At the Top of the Blog, Random craziness
Pretty picture! I like Aeiou! First post in two days?
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I love the image! Aeiou as Queen Elizabeth I is quite an intimidating thought. Second post in two days?
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I love the picture Lady B! The jewelry looks really cool and yet slightly funny on Aeiou, and the dress is of course completely flammy. 
Yesterday was funny with all the Pig Latin transformations on MB. 
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No Screnzy thread, so I’ll rant here… Or maybe on the Screnzy Brainstorming thread. Well, I’m already here.
I CAN’T CONCENTRATE AND EVEN IF THIS IS MUCH EASIER THAN NANO I STILL CAN’T STAY INSPIRED AND WHY DID I GET MYSELF INTO THIS AND AGGGGGHHHH.
‘Kay. I’m better now. Somewhat.
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Oh! Oh! She has an old-fashioned Muse issue on a music stand or something! And Koko is in there! 
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[anticlamax]Hey MB…Fools and French fish will have to wait a year.[/anticlimax]
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I love the picture, as always. Well, I’m going to the National Cryptologic Museum today! Yes, and the lady was supposed to e-mail me back about an interview but NNOOOO. Alright, so I’m a little angry, but not really. Today should be good; we’re going to D.C. after the museum! And there are cherry blossoms! I won’t be able to post most likely, but maybe I might steal some internet from another hotel or café.
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Have fun! The weather here in the nation’s capital is perfect.
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Speaking of D.C., I have a question. While there last week, I saw a figure painted on the crosswalks in three places as I walked from the National Gallery to the Botanical Gardens. The figure was an outline of a peculiar little man. The man appeared to be waving. Across his torso, there were three stripes that made me think of horizontal ribs. The first two figures that I saw were yellow and the third was white. The white one was almost directly in front of the gates to the gardens. Do you know if there’s a story behind them?
Have fun, Fishy! The Spy Museum is amazing.
(I adore the picture, Lady Bunniful!)
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It is beautiful outside, indeed! I’m now at a very fancy hotel, and I don’t even know exactly where we are, geographically. I don’t mind. I’m in the lobby using the cafe internet (yay hotel partnerships with wifi cafes!). I’m here with one of my brothers, my mom, my aunt and uncle, and my cousin. And here they come. I shall be back!
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I’m reading the faerie queen in brit lit! not for a month or so though
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Amazing picture, as usual.
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Aw… I missed the stop making sense thread… It must not have been up when I was on yesterday morning… 
Thank you GAPAs, for the great April Fool’s Day! I know that everyone here really appreciates it!
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Lovely picture, AEIOU looks stunning in that gown.
Hmmmmmm. Do I want to change my avatar back to the ship, or stay with this one?
Prithee, what thinkest thou, friends?
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I like this one, but whatever.
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This one’s cool, but personally I really liked the ship.
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I can’t see any avatar other than the ship. My computer hasn’t shown avatar changes for about a month.
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Clear your cache.
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*bursts into song*
Clear, clear, clear your cache,
No matter where you are,
It will fix some computery stuff,
And you’ll see your avatar!
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7.1.1~ Yes! I know exactly what you’re talking about, I too have seen the little man painted on the cross walks and wondered what in heaven’s name it’s about.
Some sleuthing (I think Robert might have put me on the right track? I honestly don’t remember) revealed that his name is “Stickman” and he’s somehow involved in a strange street art movement including mysterious messages called “Toynbee Tiles”. A few Google searches with those keywords should bring it up. Actually, I need to do more searching, I never did get a satisfactory answer to my curiosity about what they’re about.
Hmm. If you find anything interesting, let me know.
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Oh yes! I read about those Toynbee Tiles! Quite cryptic, they are. They’re supposedly all over New York! I’ve never seen any, but perhaps I wasn’t looking.
WHICH REMINDS ME! I didn’t go letterboxing when I went there the other day! 
How could I have forgotten? I can’t even call myself a letterboxer… Oh well, I will find you one of these days, letterboxes.
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We talked about the robot tiles on the blog last year. Apparently the preferred spelling is “stikman,” with a lower-case “s.” There has been an article about them in the Washington Post (www . washingtonpost . com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/18/AR2008091803439 . html).
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I’d say change back.
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Sweet picture! Although…..”Gloriana” just makes me think of “Glorificus” (the name, that is). Which makes me think of the Spelluna….
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Whoops. Sorry. Forgot to take out the link when I changed my name back….
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Aeiou looks so calm in the picture. I like calmness. *sighs*
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AHH IT’S MY FAVORITE MUSE! WEARING A RED GOWN! IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND! I love it Lady B!!!!! *squees*
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The contrast between this post and the one above it is absolutely priceless.
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You are so right! Thanks for pointing that out (they didn’t show up that way in the moderation queue).
By the way, Clare de Lune (15), I like calmness, too, which is perhaps why I paint it so often (usually without realizing it). It’s easier to achieve in art than life.
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Calmness in one’s self or calming the world? Because if it’s the former, I’d say that it would be much easier to achieve in life than in art.
Although, with people who make ‘art’ like I do, it’s pretty much easier in life than in art no matter what.
-A
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The process of creating art is for me profoundly meditative, regardless of the methods or subject matter. Even if my emotions are raging, or if I’m flinging paint, if I’m creating art, I’m in an intense state of calm.
Another pertinent aspect of calmness is the need to be free of outside interruptions or distractions, which can actually feel like acts of violence.
Calm is not passive. It is very much an act of concentration, like maintaining balance in a difficult yoga pose.
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GAPAs. Why did the “Stop Making Sense” thread die??! WHYYYY?!?!?!!?!?!?!
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12.2~ Aha, now I remember. Thanks!
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I read Alice’s description of Doctor Who that I found on some old Random Thread, and I just have one question: If the doctor regenerates every time he dies, how come all the other Time Lords died out in the Time War?
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It takes energy for him to regenerate. If he’s badly injured enough, he dies before he can regenerate.
SPOILER SPOILER END OF SEASON 4 SPOILER.
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This actually happens in “Turn Left”, basically triggering the Dalek apocalypse. But the Amazing Dimension-Traveling Fate-Of-The-Universe Donna fixes everything.
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Oh!
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Doctorless Donna to the rescue!
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12 and replies (Midnight Fiddler; Beedle the Bard; Robert Coontz): Ah, thank you! My investigation turned up nothing about the individual or individuals making the “stikmen” [sic!], but I gathered that they are world-wide. Yellow seems to be the most common color, followed by white, but I saw some red ones, a black one, and a brown, three-dimensional one. Most interesting.
Street art gets me thinking about flash mobs (such as Improv Everywhere’s stunts). Has anyone here ever participated in one? Witnessed one?
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20- I am “in” the Improve Everywhere Chicago group, but I’ve never been to an event nor have any here been really big or noticable. More people “join” the groups than actually participate. I’m unfortunatly to far out of the city to make any myself, alas.
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Cool! The picture is flamablamablous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Cool picture! I remember that one from my Art History class.
I’m on spring break now! Yay! *does happy dance* Tomorrow I’m making a cake for Easter! It’s gonna be a delicious snickerdoodle cake with Easter decor! Cinnamon icing with green food coloring and coconut to make it look like grass with peeps and jelly beans on top!
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Oh! I think this just might be my favourite Random Thread graphic yet!
Tomorrow I’m going to Cape Cod (It just struck me as to how odd of a name that is. Cape Cod. Cape Cod. Hee!) tomorrow because my uncle is turning 60. We are planning a surprise party. It shall be fun.
It was a very nice day off. Kate’s friend who lives in England (And he knows Paul McCartney personally! My gosh!) has returned to America for a week, so all three of us straggled around town together, buying ice cream and jumping in puddles. It was a wonderful day off.
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PAUL !
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Have fun in Cape Cod! (Stupid old Cape Cod who prevented Silver Lining from coming over… grr.)
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I just finished dyeing Easter eggs w/ my family. Thus proving how creatively well-intentioned we all are, but how much we mess up actuall reality.
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We haven’t done that yet, and I somehow doubt we will.
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Yay, me too! I made a French Flag egg.
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I’m going to make an Irish flag egg.
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my dad made an Irish flag egg. He also made a bright yellow egg with “EGG” written on it.
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approximately six hours to doctor who!
in the mean time hewitt just returned all the bit of fry and laurie dvds to the library, so i am going to go check them out and steal them. bwahaha.
i am wearing shorts today! what does that mean? it means it’s hot out, and that my legs are shaved! classy ebeth is classy.
so i was in kroger yesterday (getting ingredients for bill to make us a peanut pie. it was delicious!) and like half the store was filled with easter stuff. dan and were wandering around looking for the ramen (because ramen is what we do) and hidden away in the corner, found one lonely passover stand. i found it lulzy.
la la la waiting for breakfast la la la
everybody’s easters sound delicious so far. i haven’t really done anything easter-y yet but i will go buy me some choklit at some point, probs on monday when it is all awesome and on sale
doo doo doo *whistles* right well, there is really nothing exciting going on in my life right now, so not much point posting more i suppose
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26~ Of course ebeth is classy.
I’m, uh, barefoot and in jeans. And my legs are stubbly. Not so classy, but oh well. I’ll fix that eventually.
Yesterday I was tromping across the field barefoot, in short sleeves and long jeans (I rarely, if ever wear shorts), and realized that I’ve made the transition to summer wardrobe.
Has anyone else ever noticed that in the spring, the first couple days of warm/hot weather you carry a jacket around or wear warmer clothes “just in case” because you’re sure it’ll get cold again before you get inside? I do anyway, maybe I’m just odd. It could also be because I kind of live my life outdoors, and have to take that into account.
Um. What else do I have to say?
I want some sheese. Sheese is this awesome vegan cheese stuff made in Scotland that gives me hope that I can remain at least a mostly good vegan for the rest of my life. (Yes yes, I know I’d do it anyway, and I was born into it, but still. Most fake cheeses are disgusting, or taste nothing like cheese. Ew.)
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I am wearing a hippie skirt! I love it.
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I’m, uh, in shorts and barefoot. And my legs are stubbly. But it’s not like anyone’s going to see me. *shrug* (Obviously not classy.)
I do the same thing when transitioning in between seasons – like right now, I’m outside, and I brought my sweater out just in case, but it turns out that’s beautiful right now and I didn’t need it. Ahh, I love spring.
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It’s 41 degrees out and I just had to photograph my little sister in an outdoor easter egg hunt *shivers* so, while my legs are shaved, i’m wearing jeans and still freezing my butt off. Not classy.
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I’m wearing a short-sleeve T-shirt and jeans, but I like to wear skirts in the summer, or in Spring when it’s not freezing. Spring here is very erratic. On Monday it got to 69.8 degrees, and the next day it was snowing. And my legs are furry.
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I’m barefoot and wearing jeans.And my legs are shaved.
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Well, I feel rather un-classy. I gave up on shaving my legs several months ago. I have decided that it is stupid to have smooth legs just to please society, yet I feel embarassed to wear shorts to school. Oh well. I have also been wearing my pajamas all day, to add to the classiness.
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Re: outfits and leg shaving. Today I was wearing a rather hippie-ish black shirt embroidered with grey-ish silver swirls and flowers. I like it a lot and have had it since I was twelve. It works well in most weathers as it is lightweight cotton and you can wear it with a sweater if it is cold. Yeah. I was also wearing dark red corduroy pants and sandals. (and some black earrings I made out of buttons that match my shirt rather well) I’ve been wearing summer-y clothes of late.
One day I stopped shaving my legs because I felt silly for shaving them in the first place as the reason I had was because my high school friends had told me to. So I stopped. Now I keep the lower halves (I never did learn to shave past the knee) semi- shaven (I do shave enough to stop it from looking too much like a forest but I don’t shave all of it. It is hard to describe but doesn’t look patchy. I thin it out, I guess.) (the past the knee stuff being rather light colored anyway despite my brown hair.)
In other, non vain news, Eleven is awesome!
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*whispers*
I can’t find the charger for my phone, and my mom is going to eat me because of it. Headin’ to the spy museum today. I’ve been blatantly ignoring any subject to conversation on this thread, but for some reason I feel the need to update. The voice tells me that no one is reading this. *listens to voice too much*
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Spy museum? For cryptology research? Sounds fun. Where is the museum, and/or what is it called?
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SFTDP
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND my aunt’s car is gone and everyone is freaking out. This might not be such a great day. Well, I gotta’ head to my room. *sulks*
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27.1~ Hippie skirts for the win!! *high fives* Actually, pretty much all hippie clothing is for the win. When we were in NC we visited a handful of hippie stores, I LOVE their stuff. And those stores always smell good. Seriously.
Speaking of which, I need to fix a skirt and a pair of jeans….
Ohh, licorice is sooooo gooooooood. And sooooo addicting. >.<
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I inherited my mothers (vaguely hippie-ish but not exactly) clothing from when she was in college.
My mother was small and exceptionally skinny….and she more did pioneer and 1920’s style skirts ( mom: so, what do you think? will this work for your Emma Smith DeVoe costume. me: Mom, I can’t breathe[….later…..] me: mom, can I wear this skirt to play Helena? mom: Sure. just don’t wreck it.)
I also got her band shirt.
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Hum dum dum. -twiddles thumbs- Doctor Who today!
I have nothing else to say.
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Lucky! where I am Doctor Who starts april 17. I have another 2 weeks. EXACTLY! *mumbles string of mild curses*
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(Sh, but you can watch it on Youtube.)
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ahh. Youtube. I’ve never actually been on youtube…this could be interesting….
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I’ve gone from three and a half pages to ten and a bit pages on my Screnzy just this morning.
Wow, just thought. I’m one sixth of the way to my YWP goal, and one tenth of the way to the real goal. I’m aiming for the higher goal, but I might settle for the lower one, especially since school is fairly difficult right now. I believe I’m just about on track for the higher one at the moment, though, which makes me happy.
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Urg. My mom is in an angry cleaning mood. *hides*
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My mom pruned once when she was angry. We hardly had any bushes left.
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I have done the math. Doctor Who will finish in the UK at 11:25 in my time zone. This gives me about five-and-a-half hours in which I could watch it as soon as it was posted. After that, I have to wait until after work at least and possibly tomorrow. -agony-
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Ah, finally back from that nightmare of an airport *sigh*
I was wearing shorts and a strappy t-shirt too, forgetting that my plane back home transfered over an near east country. Just wonderful. I hate people looking at me like that.
I love the picture too. Yes, I saw this every month, but I adore Aeiou as Gloriana. She has the right charisma for the picture, if you know what I mean.
33- I hate when that happens. *is a pack rat*
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I know what you mean about Aeiou. She has all sorts of hidden depths.
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She’s so elegant! Maybe she came from somewhere where she was a queen, then was kidnapped and made to be a Muse! And she was so traumatized that she never spoke again (Run! My imagination train is derailing! :lol:)!
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I think she would want to be a Muse… Maybe she ran away to be free?
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Maybe she was the queen in one of those stories about a queen who would only marry the man who could make her speak three times. (Spoiler: a handsome/nice/rich guy, usually a king, succeeds.) And she ran away from the guy she married in order to become a Muse.
*feels inspiration coming on* TO THE MUSEFANFICTIONMOBILE, ROBIN CRRAW!
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The best part of sleepovers is when you’re done watching the movies and it’s past two AM and almost everyone has dozed off already and it’s just a couple of you talking about life.
The best part of spring break is seeing your friends and relaxing and not having to worry about what you’re supposed to be doing, and just IMing with people or paging through xkcd comics or digging out an old arts and crafts kit and carving a stone owl in your driveway.
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My spring break is already over…. *sniffle* But I’m still glad it’s spring, seeing as this is a beautiful day weather-wise outside and I can finally sit around outside and not be cold. Yay!
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My spring break is not next week but the week after. My little sis is currently spring breaking and IT IS NOT FAIR!!!!
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Why is there a Stop Making Sense thread that was made on april first and is already closed? Was it just for April Fools’ Day?
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Yes, it was just for April Fools Day. Otherwise I imagine the PoPos would clog up the recent comments bar and could get very annoying.
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Oh boy. Yes. *shudders*
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27-haha i do that -all the time- (the wearing a jacket just in case thing) but then i live in ohio, and we legitimately flip between snowing one day and nearing on 80 degrees the next.
doctor who countdown: approximately two hours to go! i’m going over to a friend’s at around 5ish (depending on when it finishes downloading) to watch and (hopefully) squee.
i’m just in a ridiculously good mood today. i don’t even think it relates to doctor who, i’m just obnoxiously happy. it’s really windy out, which i loooove. even library fines and having to get a haircut didn’t bring me down.
also, i definitely just found coraline! i plugged in one of the littler drives to substitute me until richmond comes back, and i’ve evidently used it before because it’s got coraline and the doctor who movie on it. score!
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you know, (in response to myself) i think my obnoxious cheerfulness might have something to do with the fact that my ipod’s been set on my happy playlist all day. 
i didn’t even notice, it’s what i wake up to and i guess i just left it going. sadness is impossible when confronted with the new pornographers, matt&kim, simon&garfunkel, great big sea…and i’m not going to list it all but you get the idea. happy bands!
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MATTANDKIM ♥
I just ran upstairs and got my iPod after I wrote that first line (your post reminded me that I’ve been meaning to do that) and turned it on.
I haven’t touched it all vacation.
Guess what song was playing?
Good Ol’ Fashoin Nightmare by MATT AND KIM.
How creepy is that?
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hahaha that is awesome. we’re officially matt&kim buddies now.
that’s right, rest-of-the-blog. you wish you were as cool as us. ipod-sync ftw
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38~ MD is the same way, we can get several seasons in a day.
Simon & Garfunkel! ♥
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(38, 39) Same here. But I got in the habit of always keeping a sweater or jacket on hand* many years ago. Even when the weather is stable, building interiors can be extreme.
*Another advantage to knowing where one’s towel is: when all else fails, you can wrap up in it.
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I always have a sweater around too. Because the colder it is outside, the more uncomfortably hot it is in school. And as soon as the thrmostat hits 80 then it’s time to freeze inside.
Part is due to the fact that the school’s AC and heat is either one or the other, you can’t have it off or change the settings. Alas.
Easter eggs… haven’t done those in a few years. We’re at the grandparents for easter, so we don’t really get the chance anymore.
Also I keep meaningto tell all you Beatles fans, we have a photograph of them that is autographed by all of them. My aunt used to be a flight attendant and she worked one of their flights, and got their signitures for my mom. It is probably the most valuable thing in the house (and what I’m supposed to grab if there’sa fire XD)
Also hmm I should eat something, it’s already 2, a bit late for breakfast…
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41- Easter eggs!
Hahaha that reminds me of that Doctor Who epsisode, Blink. The Doctor is on an easter egg on the DVDs. *obsessed*
I wanna try to decorate mine with wax this year. You know, like the awesome Ukrainian ones. I hope they come out well…
I have soo much homework to do… I put it off all week… Well, except for my anthrax project. I love crazily virulent diseases…
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Zoons, superfast moderation. *whistles*
I think the bread has sufficiently cooled, I’m off to work on my books. ^.^
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Slow day at work.
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YAY! I’m back from Yosemite!
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HOW DID IT GO CSKIA?
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It’s my blogiversary today! *searches out my very first post*
“This is my very first post! *faints* I’ve been reading the MuseBlog for a while now and I know what 
s are. Can’t wait to post more!”
I was rather happy back then. 
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O.o
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Happy blogiversary!
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I was happy when I was a ‘phyte too… *wonders what happened between then and now*
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Same here.
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I’m STILL happy. Happy blogiversary, Enc dearest!
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((PhOoey. You stole the words right from my mouth, Maggie!))
*shoves pie in your face* I believe that was the first thing I ever said to you, Enc…
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I was not particulary happy as a phyte. in fact, i stuck around because MB made me happy.
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I was immature and hyper and ultra-happy a year ago. At first, I was sticking around cause I thought that I was so cool and that everyone loved me. NOT.
Then somewhere along the way I matured and MB became like a sanctuary for me. (Maybe when N was ignoring me? Hm…)
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MB was always sort of a sanctuary for me. I found it (though a friend had showed it to me earlier) when I needed to talk to people and explore a side of myself that I was having trouble discussing with people I know in real life. I was also boarderline depressed (again) Now my real life doesn’t suck half as much as it did, and I have actual friends again, and MB is just AWESOME so I’m still here. And I’m not leaving anytime soon.
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Happy Blogiversary! The first thing I ever said to you:
6(Enceladus)-Ooh, 
and 
… :♥
PIES!!! 
(You mentioned you knew how to do the and smileys.)
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Wow, congratulations!
GAPAs, is the date Month/Day/Year or Day/Month/Year? My first post was either June 12, 2008 or December 6, 2008.
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I was pretty happy. Though I did double post that day…but I did have good grammar…
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Congratulations! (I wasn’t here when you were posted, so I can’t tell you what was the first thing I said…. )
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DOCTOR WHO IS GO
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My mom and I just went to [local meat shop] to buy lamb chops for Easter dinner. They had some samples of veal bockwurst.
It was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten.
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My family is having a leg from a lamb that lived in our backyard. I play with my food while it’s still running around.
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*cries*
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*cries* *pies*
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‘Tis better than eating an animal stuck in a pen for all of it’s life, and fed antibiotics with every meal.
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NO PIGGY. BAD. Do you know what they do to veal?? Wasn’t there a Muse article about that?
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*shudders*
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The conditions for raising veal have become exponentially better in the last few years. According to a Washington Post article from October of last year, the percentage of veal raised in “group” environments (i.e., not in crates) went from less than five percent in 2007 to over thirty-five percent in 2009.
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It’s rainy and cold-ish (actually decently warm, but cold compared to the last few days) here. Meh. But it was absolutely beautiful out yesterday and the day before. I even got out my capris. *almost always wears t-shirts (unless it’s really cold) and jeans (unless it’s really warm)* It felt like summer. I actually got to sit outside in a tree and read.
Happy Easter to anyone celebrating it. I’ve spent the last week eating flavorless cardboard matzah. Ah, the joys of Passover. Did you know that peanuts aren’t kosher for Passover (because they look like wheat)? Or hummus (because the word sounds like chametz, which is the word for food you can’t eat during Passover)? It’s kind of stupid.
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Oops, only the flavorless cardboard bit should be struck out. Did I accidentally use a backslash again? *has been LaTeXing*
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I love Matzah! I steal my friend’s (who is jewish and hence celebrates passover, unlike myself) every so often. I agree it is tastless though. I usually add salt. My friend thinks I’m crazy
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Q: What’s the difference between cardboard and matzah?
A: Matzah doesn’t leave crumbs on the rug!!!! *cue artificial laughter*
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Hahaha. Hahaha. Hahaha. 
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Shouldn’t that be “cardboard doesn’t leave crumbs on the rug”? *has had to vacuum and/or sweep a lot this week*
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… *facepalms* This is the third time I’ve made that mistake while telling that joke this week. I badly need Spring Break.
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It’s fine. Happy Pesach!
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Happy Pesach…two more days to come without MuseBlog. Then again, also with out school. Yay. 
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The hard truths of Alice’s life:
•A girl who wishes to do anything at all must have a job
•A girl who wishes to do 99% of the stuff that interests her must not a job on the weekends
•A girl who wishes to go into the theater must not have a job in the evenings
•A girl who has to go to school cannot very well have a job on weekdays.
Conclusion: I must sacrifice either my job (thus rendering it impossible to do anything (anything=tall ship trips, theater trips, dinner outings, etc.), for lack of money) or my activities that occur on the weekends. Which is every single one of them, except for seeing Cirque du Soleil on a Wednesday night.
One more hard fact, before I go:
I have to wait to see Doctor Who until tomorrow.
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*hugs*
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poor Alice…..*hugs*
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The day turned out to be completely useless. We left at 2:30, because my Aunt’s car got towed. We got to DC at 3:30 I believe, but my aunt brought my little cousin who kept getting tired. We missed the Spy Museum, but I wanted to check out the National Archives or the LOC, but they were all closed! The National Archives would’ve been really helpful, but it HAD to be Saturday (It closes early on Saturday). Going to the National Cryptologic Museum was very helpful, and spending time with the family is always good. I’m going to go try and remember my lines for the play next Friday (I’m such a procrastinator), while stressing about everything else that I have to do in one day once I get home tomorrow. Good night MB!
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AAARRRGHHHH! I CAN’T FIND “THE ELEVENTH HOUR” ON YOUTUBE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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It’s there. Though you didn’t hear it from me.
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What?!?!?!? I couldn’t find the whole thing anywhere! Just little clips. And something about a duck pond…
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Specify your search to include part 1 and sort by upload date.
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I got it, thanks!
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[ebeth offered to share Dr. Who files, but we Administrators don’t help with off-the-blog contacts and aren’t keen on video piracy. Sorry! –Admin.]
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By the way, GAPAs, the muse academy student lounge is locked. There is no new version.
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What are you talking about? It works just fine.
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Could you possibly shorten your name? It is rather annoying in the RC bar.
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I’ve been trying to think of a way to shorten it. Any suggestions?
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Why not just “Beetles”?
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if you cut out the points and the smileys it would be a lot shorter
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*agrees*
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Clare (25): My family hasn’t dyed Easter eggs yet, but we’ll hopefully get to that tomorrow! My sister and I made MB eggs a few years ago. Do you get the dye-stuff with the really bright colors? It is perfect for HPB eggs.
Ebeth (26): Yay shorts! It was 85 degrees yesterday, a record high for my city and 29 degrees above the average. It was fantastic.
Jadestone (41): My school is cold in the winter and cold in the summer, so I just always plan to bundle up inside. But it’s so nice to thaw in the outside warmth of spring/early fall!
Cskia (44): You went to Yosemite?! How was it? What did you see? (I spent two weeks backpacking there this summer, so I’m a Yosemite-enthusiast now.)
Enceladus (45): Happy blogiversary! And now that you mention it…I think I forgot mine. March 10th, was it? Wow, four years. ANYWAY. Yay Enceladus!
And hello, everyone. Happy warm weather!
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27.6~ That’s not un-classy! I know plenty of girls who don’t shave and look perfectly lovely. The PJ’s all day, well…..nah, just kidding.
I mainly shave because otherwise my legs get really itchy.
*imagines what the males of the blog are thinking as we take over the random thread and talk about shaved/shaving legs* *falls over laughing* Sorry guys…
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Wheee! I got a new batik skirt… ‘Tis colorful!
On a more sober note, my parents STILL haven’t gotten jobs anywhere remotely near the US. Time’s a ticking.
Yesterday my friend and I went swimming for a few hours, them played badminton, and then (because my parents are both on business trips for the next couple of days and I have the house to myself, not including my cat) went on a MAJOR movie marathon and watched Star Trek 1-6! Yeeeehaaaaa!
Naturally, the parent-version is that we had a sleepover and ate healthy snacks before going to bed at nine. There are big advantages to having working parents, although there is also the drawback of not being able to see them as much as you might like.
Oh, and my grandparents are ONCE AGAIN pressuring me about college. I’m twelve, for pity’s sake!
Conversation between me and my grandparents (Tatagaru and Nayanama= Grandpa and Grandma) on the phone:
Tatagaru: Is this thing on? Hello! Argh! Amma, I cannot understand these new electronics!
Me: Hi, Tatagaru!
Tatagaru: Hello, Sophie amma. What is up?
Me: Huh? *realizes this is an attempt at small talk* Er, not much. Still hot and humid. Oh, and I signed up for a new advanced writing course.
Tatagaru: *unpronounceable Telugu equivalent of “whatever”* So, amma, you are getting pretty close to taking your final SAT exams!
Me: Well, not for another five years.
Tatagaru: All your cousins have agreed to go to the University of Michigan, amma. Where is your family pride? Please, amma, don’t disappoint us! Go to U of M! You must get a medical degree and become a surgeon!
Me: *has heard this guilt trip before* Uh, actually, I’d like to major in English Lit at Yale and become a middle school teacher.
Tatagaru: Hm. Well, amma, here is our plan: you go to U of M for medical degree and at night you take classes and get your other degree that you want!
Me: Well…
Tatagaru: Nayanama would like to speak to you.
Me: Hi, Nayanama!
Nayanama: Hello, chadi. Have you thought about going to the University of Michigan for your medical degree?
Kudos to whoever has the patience to get through this.
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Heh, I love your grandparents, Chok. (This is your new nickname.) Sounds like your reserves of patience must be boundless. Of course, they’d need to be to teach middle schoolers. (No offense, of course.)
But hey, with a childhood like that, you’ll never run out of things to write about! If, of course, your mind doesn’t break by the time you’re fourteen. I mean, my parents were telling me what classes I needed to take in high school in order to get into a “good” college by the time I was 11, but that was mostly because my mom’s a high school teacher and thinks she owns Word Of God on these things.
Your grandparental units have guilt trip skills.
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Er, I don’t have boundless patience, but I do have fairly abundant avoiding-conflict-with-grandparents-because-they-give-out-really-good-food-and-family-vacations-might-otherwise-be-very-awkward skills.
Poor you. Must be exhausting. I only see my grandparents once or twice a year, and they only call once a month because it’s long-distance.
Yes, they have. A lifetime of when-I-was-a-kid-experiences and pitiful-old-person acting skills. They may be sixty-something, but my Tatagaru runs daily and does bike races and my grandmother can dance like you wouldn’t believe. Of course, all you hear on the phone is blah-blah-old-frail-weak-not-seeing-grandchildren-enough-boo-hoo-blah-blah-blah. Not that I don’t love them, but it can get somewhat frustrating.
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I still think that someday this will all make a fantastic short story. I mean, in ten years, you could publish a novel with them as characters!
There’s got to be something about an archetypal grandparent or mother. In my culture (Jewish) we have the stereotypical mom “He never calls. He never writes. Oy!” (Which pretty much describes my Bubbe all over.) From what I’ve read of Amy Tan, the stereotypical Chinese mother is the same. Maybe it’s just a hormone that gets released when you have kids… to be as amusingly (to others) annoying as possible?
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Gah, Jewish parents. They boast a ton whenever other people are around and then pick on yyou when other people leave…
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Or carefully choose stories about your childhood most calculated to make you want to hide under the house in embarassment and tell them to your brother’s girlfriend. (This happened approximately five minutes ago.) Or burst into tears whenever you mention Israel. Or go on long, detailed explanations of how Judaism is a better religion than all others to your non-Jewish friends. Or insist on having a long, controversial conversation about Israel, even though they know that I know that mentioning Israel makes them burst into tears.
Or something like that, anyway.
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You should feel lucky you have two Jewish parents. Things could be worse. aksfjl I wish it were like that. My dad is gone all the time, and my mom…
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Actually, it’s usually even better than that. My dad isn’t Jewish at all– I was only raised Jewish ’cause my mom made it clear from the beginning that if my brother and I weren’t raised Jewish, she and Dad weren’t going to get married. So Dad kinda tempers out Mom’s… momitude. Then again, nothing can temper out Mom’s momitude, heh.
Worse ’cause she teaches English at my high school, tho. Even worse ’cause she acts the same way as a mom that she does as a teacher. And even worse ’cause she’s teaching my grade. Hence the ubiquitous, “Hey, [Cat’s Eye]! What homework is your mom going to give us this week?”
“Um, I don’t know…”
“You don’t? Really? She doesn’t, like, tell you these things?”
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My mom *lived* in Israel for two years (one in high school and one in college). So yeah, she gets all emotional about it… Although they tend to have some tact when talking about Israel/talking about Judaism. It might help that we’re secular/humanistic Jews (basically Jewish atheists).
But really… My Asian friends always say that I’m lucky not to have Asian parents, and then I point out that Jewish parents are the same except so much more embarrassing…
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andy (my ex) has a jewish grandmother and an italian catholic grandmother
talk about guilt, eh?
as for the boasting and the picking, i’m pretty sure that’s just a general rule of being a parent
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You ARE lucky not to have Asian parents.
Sorry, Mom.
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No, Asian parents are good! My dad’s worse. (American)
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Hm. I don’t know who’s better/worse – Dad (British) or Mom (Chinese).
Are all three of us halfies?
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My dad’s Indian, and my mom’s American. And I’m Kiwi. Indian grandparents can be just IRRITATING (coughcoughhellotatagarucoughcough) even though we love them so. I mean, you get back from the forest where you’ve been having snowball fights with your cousins (mostly male) and you’re met with, “Amma, where have you been?! You know I was going to show you to make curry! Only boys should be out in the cold like this. You are too delicate!”
I don’t mean to say that all Indians are like this, but it’s frustrating to have to sneak out of your room in the middle of the night if you want to climb trees without your grandparents screaming about how bad it is for girls to do that, and your aunt (doctor) trying to surround the tree with trampolines in case you fall.
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Well, I am, if that was referring to me Quafflebird. (Mom – Chinese, Dad – Irish.)
Asian parents can be good….but my mom sometimes gets a little too protective for me. I guess all parents are like that, though.
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I’m half Sephard, half Ashkenaz, but that doesn’t count.
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I, too, carry a sweater around wherever I go.
I like watching things in large groups. This happens a lot a college. We watched the new Doctor Who all together, then all reacted to it together. It was great.
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HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!!!!!! These are Easter Bunnies, not HPBs!!!
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A likely story…
I HAD A DREAM ABOUT HPBS LAST NIGHT! Except there were brown and green ones too.
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Happy Easter (bunnies… ) to everyone who celebrates it!
I may not be on much today, seeing as we’ve got Easter plans (Aka going to church, spending time at a family friend’s, etc.) so I’m going to post quickly now!
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Happy Easter!
P.S. Did anyone know that David Tennant played Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter? WHY WAS I NOT AWARE OF THIS! The Doctor and Harry Potter? *dies*
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SERIOUSLY? SERIOUSLY!?!? *also dies*
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0_o But Barty Crouch Jr. was blond …
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yeah sometimes when actors are playing different characters, they try to look different. you know, to match the character.
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The Doctor’s blond… ish. Doesn’t matter, it’s still the sickest combination on earth. I love them both soooo much…
*dies*
Clare, shall we have a grave together?
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Why not?
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What. WHAT?!
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Yes…..Surely I’ve mentioned this? It’s why I now find BC Jr., um, rather hot. Or I did when I watched GoF last November…..
And the smile. It’s so weird seeing that same smile, that looks so hot in a quirky, insane way on the Doctor, and so insane (in an evil way) on BC Jr…..
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*drool*
I really think we need a DW thread…
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This message brought to you from a Droid! My dad’s. Hard to type on tbhough, hmm.
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I am staying far, far, away from the geeky TV shows thread *doesn’t want Doctor who spoilers and bemoans fact that she doesn’t get to watch who until not next sunday but the sunday after* *sob*
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Yeah, the Droid keypad is super-unsensitve, so you have to wail on the little tiny buttons to coax a response out of the poor thing.
In a world that does…Droid doesn’t. Oh, wait. Sorry, I’m just a little worked up that Verizon doesn’t support iPhone, and I like Verizon because the “can you hear me now” guy is my cousin. Seriously.
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….Really? Your cousin? Cool!
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To sit in solemn silence in a dull dark dock,
In a pestilential prison with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short sharp shock
From a cheep and chippy chopper on a big black block!
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*shudders* creepy…..
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Nah, not really when in context. It’s part of a song of a comedic opera, but is sometimes used in theatre warmup exercises.
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It’s from The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. The Mikado (emperor of Japan) has made flirting punishable by beheading and is becoming increasingly annoyed with a town that has failed to enforce the new law. In this song, three officials of the town (including the Lord High Executioner, a mild-mannered former tailor who has never executed anybody and wouldn’t hurt a fly) try to persuade one another to volunteer to be beheaded for the good of the town. But they all end up declining “to sit in solemn silence,” etc.
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Ooh, I saw that a couple weeks ago!
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Yeah, now I want to watch the whole thing.
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Another awesome Easter. You know, my family isn’t really that bad, maybe after nearly 18 years I’ve gotten used to them, or maybe they’ve changed a bit, but this time was actually really fun.
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Whoo! Did “Translation Party”. Put in “Pwt Pwns” and got this:
pwt pwns
P pwns wind tunnel
The wind tunnel pwns P
Tunnel pwns P
P pwns tunnel
P-tunnel pwns
The P – Tunnel pwns
The p – Tunnel pwns
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heehee, i did “you sass that hoopy ford prefect? there’s a frood who really knows where his towel is”
to be fair, it’s not really official english, but still
you sass that hoopy ford prefect? there’s a frood who really knows where his towel is
You cheeky chikuwa governor of phosphorus shallow? Froude and knows where his towel is really
The shallow phosphorus, the governor of chikuwa cheeky? The fluids, really knows his towel
Shallow phosphorus, the brash governor chikuwa? Fluid, really knows his towel
Sharorin, chikuwa brash governor? Fluid, really knows his towel
Sharorin, chikuwa brash governor? Fluid, really knows his towel
i like the first translation best, to be honest
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Um.
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“Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea”
turns into
“Instead of the tea, but completely different”
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Wind tunnel?
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Wind tunnel? Eh, who cares, wind tunnels are cool.
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Was I zapped earlier? Hmm.
In any case, it was a post that all can do without, no real content.
Much like this one so far, SO:
Jade wishes that Marshal Fields in Chicago was still Marshal Fields and not Macy’s. We got Frango’s for easter and they are delicious, but I miss the old green stripes and stuff : /
Not that anyone really cares about that either, but oh well
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Luna is back at school–just got back about 30 minutes ago. I’m now cooking myself a bag of popcorn and off to watch Doctor Who.
I only got one of my TW books read on the plane–I did too much sleeping, and got most of the audibook listened to, but not quite all…..
And it’s hot here, seriously humid (well, now we’re ahving a thunderstorm, so….duh), about 80. *grumbles*
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i approve of this post oh so much. have fun!
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Oh, I did! I think I’ll head off to the Geeky TV Show thread now….
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I’m leaving for Mexico to build houses for the poor for community service in approximately three hours! Yay! Anyone have any advice/suggestions/things I urgently need to know?
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Drink bottled water, buy lots of colourful things, and get some clothing a size or two too big (so you’ll grow into it). Have fun! Also take risks if they don’t put you in harms way and don’t forget to be awesome.
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Don’t drink the water, don’t buy anything that isn’t a simple souvenir, avoid driving on roads that can be easily blocked off.
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Oh, I probably should have mentioned that this is a church-sponsored Organized Activity, boys and girls. Basically involves sitting in camp trying not to be bored and working your cake off on the work site while making friends with the Mexican family who will get the house. Being at camp also involves getting to meet people not from this town (gasp! cheer!) so at least it won’t be 100% stuck with my small-town preppy rich-kid peers. (None of my friends decided to go. Can ya tell?)
Last year, according to my brother, this exchange occurred:
Kid: *has papaya*
Authority: Hey, hey, don’t eat the papaya! You shouldn’t do that!
Kid: Oh, yeah? Watch me! *eats papaya* *suffers consequences*
Which pretty much sums up my town’s mentality. Wish I had more money to buy awesomeness with–my parents won’t lend me any.
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Papaya is pretty disgusting. But durians are worse.
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Durians….*shudders*. I hate durians. Absolutely disgusting.
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You can argue about the price of anything! Don’t buy anything at the prices the vendors tell you to! If they won’t go lower pretend to walk away!
All things I learned in China but also apply to Mexico or anywhere Americans can be tourists
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In addition to basic food safety and water sanitation stuff, make sure that you agree with taxi drivers about the price beforehand if they don’t have meters. Keep your passport locked somewhere really, really safe. If your backpack or suitcase has a secret/ not obvious compartment, that’s a good place to keep valuables. Oh, and be careful where you buy food. But market food is usually really good. Have fun!
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Okay.
Today was fun. Easter, and all that. Went to church, came home and met our grandparents, etc.
Interesting points of the day:
-We totally rearranged our living room.
-I broke our table. (I jumped up to sit on it while holding our forty-pound dog. 160 pounds on a table without great bracing = broken table. Nobody was thrilled with me.)
-Easter egg hunt was rather fun. Wasn’t that hard, but I guess I know our yard too well for it to be really hard.
That’s pretty much it. We went to a Passover dinner friday night, which was interesting. Some friends of ours were holding one, and invited us. Quite fun.
It’s late, I’m off to bed.
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You brok a table!? Wow!!!!!! *high fives* So, the egg hunt. Wa it those plastic eggs with candy inside? Or were they real eggs?
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Yep, I broke a table. I didn’t mean to, I promise!
They were both. The plastic eggs didn’t have candy in them though, they were just for the fun of finding them.
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So, Easter…
Went to church, and then headed off to a family friend’s, who had like thirty – some relatives over for a huge dinner. We had an egg hunt too! It was with those plastic eggs, but some of them had candy and some of them had money! There were two eggs with five dollars in them. (No, I didn’t find them.) There were a lot of bunnies though. It was kind of scary, actually. I kept thinking of MB. I didn’t really participate in the egg hunt though…we were at a friend’s, and my younger sisters were going crazy.
I just stole all of my younger sister’s money that she found from the egg hunt. Mean big sis, huh? Well, she’s only 5 so I guess I can justify…sort of…… (I might give it back. Maybe. It was only like three dollars total in a lot of pennies and nickels. I love being evil.)
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Luna’s day is NOT off to a good start. Things are really not boding well for the rest of the day.
I got up this morning, grabbed my shower stuff, opened my door, stepped out into the hallway and gently closed the door behind me. *click* That’s when I realized: I’d forgotten my caking ID, which is the key to my room. Yup, here Luna was, IDless, no roommate to quick let her back in to grab it. Luna, dressed in only her towel. And while I realize now that at least I had my towel with me (afterall, if you’ve got your towel, you’re obviously prepared for anything, blahblahblahblah)….All I was thinking then was “Oh, god, oh cake cake cake cake bloody caking hell.” Except of course “cake” was not the word of choice.
Fortunately, there is a kiosk that you can use to get a temp when you lock yourself out of your room. Unfortunately? It’s on the first floor, right near the elevators (so I took the elevator down), but….It’s on the first floor, in an area where anyone leaving for class at that time would be passing through. And I was only in a towel.
And then the first temp didn’t work, and I had to run downstairs again to try and get a second. After standing way too long fighting with the machine in a mad panic, I got one. It worked.
Unfortunately, you can only get 3 temp cards before they start charging you ten bucks a card, and I just blew 2 of those in a day. Admittedly, in the almost 2 years I’ve been at college this was the first time that happened, but….Oh, god, I was in my TOWEL. *sob*
Yeah. Really bad start to the day.
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My only excuse for the lapse in intelligence? Although it was 8 am here at school, it was 5 am back in Alaska, and I’d spent the bulk of Saturday night and Sunday on an airplane/in airports/on a bus. Over 12 hours of travelling…..
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aww! *huggles* yeah i have seen some stranded naked people myself. i really like my setup, with the bathroom in the room. sharing it between four people isn’t nearly as hard as you might imagine
still, you had your towel, eh? eh? think of it as prep for may 25!
also, you still have more dignity than the people who hang out naked in the halls voluntarily
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*huggles back*
Yeah….I was hoping to get something with a bathroom like that (or, really, with just me and one other girl sharing a bathroom) for next year, but….They were all full when I was able to sign up for rooms, as lots of rooms were being reserved for freshies, and the people already in those rooms this year get first dibs on them by nearly a week. But, that reminds me–they’re reopening the thingy to sign up for rooms tonight, so maybe I’ll still luck out….
lol, yup. Still had my towel.
Wait….people hang out naked in your halls voluntarily? Eep. I think our res hall has rules where the guys aren’t even allowed to walk around the halls shirtless (and yet they let us girls go in just our towels to take showers).
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I sympathize and empathize. I pulled a similar trick a few years ago at the fitness center, when I locked all my clothes in the locker along with the key to the lock (which was pinned to my shirt). Apparently, the spare had gone missing, so someone had to come in with the bolt cutters. Happily, I could avail myself of a large supply of towels.
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Ouch. That sounds worse, actually. At least I only had very few people witness my idiocy. The cleaning lady, both on this floor and the first floor, and then a couple people who were in the elevator on the way up.
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Actually, I was there during a slow period when hardly anyone was around. That was part of the problem. I had to wait for someone to come to the locker room so I could send an emissary to the front desk.
That wasn’t nearly as bad as the time I got locked inside the ladies room of a ratty gas station out in the middle of Nowhere, Rhode Island. On a date. The guy I was trying to impress was hanging around in front of the gas station wondering what happened to me, meanwhile, I was hanging out of the tight little casement window trying to flag down someone to let me out.
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Well, at least you didn’t have to walk out to the front desk….That’s definitely a plus side.
I would have loved to send somebody to get me a temp card (and not have to go myself), but it requires your student ID number and your PIN number–which is the last 4 digits of your social. All info that you don’t really want to give to random people….
Oh, that’s horrible. How did you get locked in?
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*huggles*
I hope the rest of your day goes better!
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*hugs* What a great way to go back to college. Poor Luna. I hope the rest of your day is much better!
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*hugs* That sucks… *is really, really glad about our room set up now* We have traditional metal keys, which means that people don’t really lock their rooms much. We have one bathroom (with a shower) in the room (for 2 people). And we have all single sex wings, which members of the opposite sex aren’t allowed in without going through a semi-long procedure (which can be kind of annoying at times). And any way, girls don’t walk around my wing naked… I’ve heard stories about the guys’ wings, but I don’t particularly care to find out if they’re true…
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Yeah. If I can get the room I would like for next year, I’ll be in a res hall that uses regular metal keys (and may or may not lock automatically, not sure). Not sure. *website to sign up is currently being painfully slow* *probably thousands of future freshies trying to get rooms*
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meh. only two suites of the variety I wanted (two single suites–ie, no roommate–sharing a bathroom) available, but they’re in one of the res halls that’s miles from the main part of campus, and definitely way far away from the part of campus I tend to frequent with my classes…..grrrrr.
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72~ *hugs* Ouch. And I’d say you have a pretty good excuse for forgetting it, to be quite honest.
72.2~ I’ve seen rooms like that. The lock clicking every time the occupants of the other room came and went was rather disconcerting though.
Naked hall-loungers? I’m not in college, but I can imagine.
72.3~ Yay for the towels. Hum. My locker room horror story hasn’t anything to do with locks, but with being lost and not finding the pool, and so sitting shivering wrapped pathetically in my towel until someone came in and found me and directed me to the pool.
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i have a question for the GAPAs (or anyone with perspective on this i s’pose)
what are some books you would categorize as “books adolescents should read” or “you’re not insane, read this book for proof” or just anything that you think…MBers should read. for example i would recommend I Capture the Castle to all mbers at basically any stage of their lives but i enjoyed it last year a lot so i guess that would be one of the list?
this should go in books and reading but i’m gonna post it here so everyone can see it.
i know that this is basically a stupid question but i was wondering and i’m on spring break so i have no filter right now harhar
this is also to combat the lists of shoddy fiction for ~teens that are all basically jody picoult and nicholas sparks books…baarrrrf
Luna- !!! so no one saw you? D: that’s horrifying though! can you keep a temp for emergencies? but oh jeez…><
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Not really sure if I count as someone who has perspective on this, but as for “books adolescents should read”, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens is definitely one. Ok, I know it’s not fictional, but it’s really, really funny and just a good “let’s be a better person!” book but it actually works as incredibly corny as that sounds, and it’s just a nice read. I read it all in the first day I got it, staying up until at least midnight to get through it all. And I’ve reread it several times since.
It’s not necessarily just for teens, I mean, I read it when I was 12 and really liked it, but teens would probably relate the most.
Then again, I’m a strange reader when it comes to those things, seeing as I like to read my mom’s magazines, (most of which are incredibly boring…don’t ask) so I’m probably not one with much perspective on the topic, but that’s my pick of the day at least.
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Nooooooooooooooooooo. (Sorry, that deserves that many o’s.) We had to read that in 8th grade… So many caking holes in everything he’s saying. Really. Half the time, I thought that he had no idea what he was talking about. Synergy does not work. Ask anyone who’s had to do a group project. I’m sorry, but 1+1=3 is a mathematical impossibility.
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*hates group projects*
If I’m doing a group project in a non-honors class, I end up working my but off so we get a good grade. It’s sooo unfair. And then I’m working and everyone else is chatting…
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*shrug* What can I say? I liked it.
Then again, I’m awful at math. So saying 1+1=3 doesn’t bother me.
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Fiction:
Imagination and friendship: The Egypt Game
Innovation and quirkiness: Henry Reed, Inc
Mystery: Chasing Vermeer and The Westing Game
Non-fiction:
Far-off adventure: Kon-Tiki
The above, plus meditations on life, the Universe, and everything: Sand, Wind, and Stars
The wonders of the oceans: The Sea Around Us
The wonders of the Unvierse: Cosmos
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Seconded, seconded!
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All of them, or any one in particular?
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The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous. It’s fiction, and it’s pretty good.
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Hm. That’s a tough one. At the moment I can only think that from a very young age I always loved reading biographies of people who interested me. Many of them were weirder than I could ever dream of being and/or their thoughts and experiences resonated with mine. In either case, their lives helped me feel less like an alien. Well, at least less alone in my alien ways.
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Oh gosh…Nicholas Sparks……………………………
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Axa: I agree with Lady B.’s recommendation of biographies. They don’t have to be about geniuses or other “great” people. A couple of my favorites are Come From Away by David Macfarlane (family history in Newfoundland) and Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood by Gwen Raverat (Charles Darwin’s granddaughter and a bohemian artist in her own right).
It sounds as if what you really need is A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer: A Propaedeutic Enchiridion, but unfortunately it exists (so far) only inside another science-fiction book.
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Oh, and the All Things Great and Small series is a great young adult/adult series.
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Along the lines of biographies, I’d suggest Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks. It is about the authors childhood and all the chemistry he did and his life in general.
I second I Capture the Castle, except that was one that you came up with.
I might ask my mom this. She’s a reference librarian and used to work as a children and teen librarian.
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74~ I don’t know, I’m currently reading Fahrenheit 451, and it’s interesting.
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I’m re-writing an essay about how brilliant Great Expectations is.
.
I feel like such a liar right now.
.
Forgive me Father, for I have sinned…
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Okay, so I am FINALLY back from Italy, and I have FINALLY read everything I missed on this thread… (Warning, this will be a long post)
Milan: We arrived really tired (Economy class is not conductive to sleep), and then our bus broke down en route to…
Verona: Once we actually got moving, we came here and saw an ancient amphitheater and Romeo and Juliet’s balcony.
Venice: I ate olives at a table in St. Mark’s Square! I toured the Doge’s Palace and the prison that it’s connected to by the Bridge of Sighs. We went on a gondola ride, which was really fun, even though our gondoleer said he had a bad voice and didn’t sing. But we went by a house where Mozart stayed.
And when we had free time in the square, I went on an Adventure. Our tickets from the Doge’s Palace would get us into any museum free, and I wanted to go to the Museo Archeologico, but nobody in my group wanted to. So I arranged to meet back with them later and go on my own. I went into a shop and asked (in Italian) where the museum was. The clerk didn’t know, but she told me (in Italian) where to find the information desk.
So I went to the information desk and asked there, and it turned out the museum was in the building right behind me. I went in, gave my ticket to the guard, and asked for a map (in Italian), but they didn’t have any, so I decided not to go too far from the lobby so I wouldn’t get lost. They had lots of cool old maps, and a room full of coins from the Renaissance, and another room that was really dim where they kept the armor and weapons. (That was a little spooky) My Adventure over, I went back to the meeting place, feeling really great about myself.
Padua: We didn’t get to see the University or anything related to Galileo, but we got to relax in a pretty park full of statues and see the church of St. Anthony, the saint of lost things. (“St. Anthony, please make it so I don’t need your help anytime soon.” one of my friends prayed)
Florence: Michelangelo Square is amazing. It’s this little plaza on a hill above the city with a bronze copy of the David in the center. You can buy gelato and see the whole city laid out beneath you at night. And if you cover the lights with your arm, you can even see the stars.
I saw Galileo’s telescopes at the science museum! (And the bones of his middle finger in a jar, which was… weird.) They had a lot of experiments in electricity you could try out, and I grabbed a free packet about astronomy featuring Phineas and Ferb… except it was in Italian.
Assisi: The Basillica of St. Francis was beautiful, and the views from pretty much anywhere in the city are incredible, because it’s on a hill. Sometimes there isn’t even a regular sidewalk, there’s just steps, that’s how inclined everything is. We ate at a restaurant with weird decor where I got locked in the bathroom…
Vatican City: I walked across a country in two hours! (Okay, it’s the world’s smallest country, but still…) The Sistine Chapel is amazing in person, and we saw the Pope’s moon rock in the Hall of Gifts. Then we went to St. Peter’s Square and… we saw the Pope! From 200 feet away! And he looked like a little off-white blob! But we saw the Pope!
(Have to go, I’ll finish later…)
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Sweet! Sounds like you had an utterly flamablamablous time!
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My day has gone better than I might have expected, given the lovely events of the morning. I got my cell bio midterm back, and I got an 89 on it–one point better than I estimated I got. This is an A grade (83+ on the test is apparently an A), so I’m happy.
Of course, I am finding it a bit weird that all of my tests recently (with the exception of my second organic test), the grade I’ve gotten on them has been with in one or two questions (on the multiple choice ones) or a couple of points (on free response ones) of the grade I guesstimated I would receive. If only I were as good at knowing what I needed to know for the tests as I seem to be with knowing what I knew on the tests. Then I could ace them all…..
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Maybe you got rid of all of your bad luck when you accidentally locked your self out of your room? Oh, speaking of that…*hugs and choklit*
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72.3.1.1~ I shouldn’t be laughing, but that is horrible and funny at the same time.
77~ That sounds awesome! I’m glad you had a good time.
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Attention! I am officialy changing my name to just “Beetles”!
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Okay, but now I’m gonna confuse you with Beedle the Bard…I tend to rely on names…
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I’ll probably be confused myself. Maybe I’ll change my name, I think Beetles has been here longer than I have. *checks Who’s Here* Oh, no, apparently not. I keep on forgetting I’ve been here for so long…
Beetles, you don’t have to change your name, I’m sure it won’t be too confusing. I might add some stars too my name or something if it does.
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Noted.
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‘Tis okay, it’s not drastically different from your old name.
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(72.3.1.1.1) The lock was broken. Which was actually a relief to discover because part of my anxiety was that the jamming was purely a figment of my own nervousness.
(79) Feel free to laugh. I did. Later, anyway. I have a gift for unintended slapstick when I am trying hardest to make a good impression, particularly where romantic attraction is involved. Fortunately, over the years I have learned that at least half of the stuff that females feel painfully self-conscious about never enters the male mind as worth noticing.
This same guy…the first time I took him to my parents’ house to meet them — we must have been going out for dinner, as everyone was dressed up, coat and tie, cocktail dresses — but first we had to have the obligatory moments of awkward conversation in the living room. The family cat walked straight over to where Jim was sitting and threw up at his feet.
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HAHAHAHA you have the gift of comedy all the time, Rebecca!! Which makes you…Thalia!
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Wow. Which cat?
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His name was Lancelot, better known as “kitty.”
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The cat story…..oh, gosh, that’s hilarious.
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*rolls on keyboard laughing* Omigosh that’s hilarious!
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Oh, finally I’m finished. I hate Great Expectations so much. Rewriting that essay just brought back so many repressed memories…
All right, all right. I have a headache. Great.
Itinerary for the night:
-Science poster (why does it have to be pretty? Why can’t I just do a paper?)
-Research paper (dolphin slaughter in Taiji! *is happy that she has a good topic*)
-Editing my horrible essay
-Clean my room
-Practice for NYSSMA *stress*stress*stress*
-Candle the duck eggs (!!!)
-Clean up my stuff that’s all around the house
-Take a shower
-Oh, I should probably eat too.
-Sleep is optional.
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64&replies- Oh that’s where that was from! I heard it without its source a few weeks a go and tried very hard to figure out where it was from. Best I could come up with was Veggie Tales.
That’s slightly embarrassing, when you think about it. Mistaking Gilbert & Sulivan for… Veggie Tales.
And yes, I heard it as a part of a theatre exercise. We all had tongue twisters and were saying them, then saying them with a finger in our mouth, then dancing across a “stage” in whatever fashion the last to volunteer liked while reciting it. It was fun.
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82- -hurt and astonished expression- I love Great Expectations! What’s wrong with it?
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Please don’t post anything about anything from after Pip arrives in London. *spoilers*
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My lips are sealed. But hurry up and we can discuss it!
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Ok, I’ll try to bypass the scheduled hundred pages per week.
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Sorry, I really don’t like that book. It was sooo annoying to read….
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Re Great Expectations: Amazing beginning, amazing end, way too drawn out middle… There’s one part where he begins a chapter by saying something like “Something enormous then happened to me, but before that, I’m going to spend a chapter talking about Estella.” And it’s a particularly long and boring chapter about Estella. I would have skipped it if I hadn’t had to annotate it.
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I’m back…. HUZZAH!
London was rainy and chilly in its London way… now I’m back and it’s WARM here… good thing I bought some shorts…
Great Expectations:
I liked that book… we just finished reading it in English class. It has clever humor and some spectacular descriptions…
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Italy, continued…
Rome: The Colosseum really is… colossal. And the Forum… oh, the Forum is so cool! We saw the “navel of the world”, the point from which all Roman mapping of roads began, out to the farthest reaches of the empire. Now, my family first bought our camera eight years ago for our trip to Disney World, and one of the first photos we took was of the replica of the Trevi Fountain at EPCOT. So there I was photographing the REAL one, with the same camera, 8 years later!
Pompeii: The area around the entrance to the ruins is REALLY touristic, which I didn’t like very much. But once we got inside, it was everything I hoped it would be. They can tell that there were more right-handed people in Pompeii than left-handed people by looking at the grooves where people gripped the marble public fountains when they reached down for a drink, which I think is incredible.
We saw a baker’s shop, where the ovens looked just like the ones in the pizza restaurant where we had stopped earlier that day. The public baths were very well preserved and we could see the fountain in the warm room and the inscription on it with the names of the politicians who had paid for it.
What was really sad were the plaster casts of some of the people who had been killed by the poison gasses when Vesuvius had errupted. By their belts, the archeologists could tell that they were slaves, and they realized that the rich people owning the villa where the bodies were found must have fled when the ash started to fall, but left their slaves to guard their gold. You could see that they were covering their mouths with their hands, and all contorted. Horrible.
Sorrento: Our hotel was up on the cliffs, and had a beautiful view of the coast and the sea. Our rooms were very nice. I randomly started talkink in bad Russian accent to be makink things interestink. Friends were laughink wery much. Am thinkink should try this accent out more, as was enjoyink a lot.
Capri: The sea was so blue. So incredibly blue. But we didn’t get to go swimming. Alas.
STS-131: I got to see the shuttle take off before I left for school today with my father! And CNN actually had really good launch coverage (Except that the reporter talked over throttle up. Grrr. You just don’t DO that.) So then I went to the window, and I looked up at the sky, and I went “They’re up there now! They’re up there right caking now!”
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I need some advice… (yes, I know there’s an Advice thread, but I don’t think a lot of people go there)
My parents didn’t get jobs in the US, and we’re going to be staying in Singapore for another year. Which I’m very down in the dumps about. I cried for two days. ‘Twas embarrassing at school.
Now, all my friends are in the eighth grade, and will be moving to the high school campus next year. I’m in seventh. My mom has suggested that I consider skipping a grade. I learn pretty fast and I’m sure I could keep up with the curriculum pretty well, but what about the social repercussions? Will I be considered a show-off?
So, in summary, should I skip the eighth grade in consolation for staying in Singapore?
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If all your friends are in eighth grade, go for it! I skipped second grade, and in retrospect, it was probably one of the best things I’ve done. I had some troubles finding friends, but, as it was a new school and I had no social skills at that point in my life, I probably would have had those troubles anyways. Nobody considered me a show-off, and by middle school, all the social stuff had gone away.
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I’d just skip it. I skipped 9th grade, and though some people are less than nice about it, I have more friends than I would have had I stayed in my old homeroom. I’m the Hermione of the group, despite my mess-ups, and I’m stuck with that tag until a graduate. On the other hand, I’ve never been the type to hang out with the delinquents anyway, so no loss.
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Skip. You’ll be with your friends. Ignore the Shawn BulPopulars.
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I can’t speak from personal experience, but if you think you’ll be fine academically wise (Which, judging by your post and from reading your posts in the past, I’m pretty confident that’s not the problem) then why not go for it? Most likely you’ll be happier to have all your friends around you anyway, and I think that it’s worth it. I have a friend who skipped sixth grade and went straight into our grade this year, (Seventh) and I know it’s not the same, but no one thought of her as a show off. She has a lot of friends and does really well socially wise.
And actually, I lied before when I said I can’t speak from personal experience…I actually did skip Kindergarten and went into 1st grade when I started at a new school, but long story short my parents had me repeat 2nd grade when I moved again because we were back in the U.S so I would be back with the “right” grade age wise. When I was up a grade, however, I didn’t have much trouble social wise. I actually really enjoyed it, and I had plenty of friends.
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Thanks for all your advice… I suppose I should do it. Besides, the high school has a swimming pool and an indoor gym.
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Skip it! For the reasons everyone else listed.
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Somehow, the fact that I’ve only posted twice on this Random Thread, besides this post which I will hopefully get around to posting, bothers me immensely.
So I’m going to run through commenting on some things I see.
Kai, it seems as though you had a marvelous time in Italy. Did you see any Muse-related things?
Look! Daisy*Chain is back/1 I hope you had a nice time despite the rain. Maybe you met the drummer in my dad’s band’s parents! That would be awesome in a creepy sort of way.
81- What did the dude say after the cat threw up at his feet?
Oiy, Beetles! Your name is just Beetles now! Amazing! Now I don’t feel strange for not calling you your entire blog name! BeetlesBeetlesBeetles. Urm, sorry.
Okay, that should be enough for today, so I’ll just hunker down and get ready for stupid school. That annoying place that blocks MB and dA.
*grumbles*
P.S. I’m on Gchat so much now, that I keep doing stuff in my post that only works on Gchat. * fails *
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Define “Muse-related”. I saw some trash cans that looked like Daleks. (My friends and I managed to beat them down with improvised weapons. I’ll post pictures when I can.)
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Stuff that most of us would like. Dalek trtash cans work in that category.
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Dalek trash cans? OMG, that would be…Just….absolutely awesome. I want one (you did steal one and bring it back for me, yes?)
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Sorry, we either beat them into scrap metal or fried their circuits and left them tied up for the local Polizia to turn over to the proper authorities.
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Awwww. Oh, well. That’s probably for the best.
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It sucks to be me. It sucks to be me. Is there anybody here it doesn’t suck to be? It sucks to be me. *stops singing Avenue Q and explains*
So I get back to school last night, and things are fine. We had to do a census thingy (which felt really weird, seeing as I thought I was considered to live at home but apparently not). I hang out with my future roommate until in-room and then spend some time on the interwebs and finally get to bed around midnight.
Things go downhill from there. I have math team homework to do for tomorrow that I’ve barely started that I really should have worked on over break but actually didn’t touch. I worked on that for a bit last night (while being on the interwebs), but I still have to do most of it tonight. And it’s really hard. And of course it would have to be due during a Hell week. (Hell week means that we don’t have a day off and thus have to go to school more than 2 days in a row. Which makes us sound spoiled, but really, we need that Wednesday.)
So in addition to the math team thing and the Hell week thing, I couldn’t sleep last night. I had a really bad case of insomnia. I didn’t actually get to sleep until 4 AM or so. Which is pretty bad considering that I had to wake up a little past 6 to get ready for classes. And of course I wouldn’t actually do anything that’s in any way useful (like, say, that math team homework) while I was not falling asleep. So now I’m actually pretty wide awake but on the verge of crashing every moment. It feels like I’ve had a lot of caffeine, even though I haven’t had any.
And then I have a break, so I decide to check my grades, which I didn’t check all of break. And apparently I failed my organic chemistry reaction presentation. I don’t know how I failed it. I did everything she wanted, and she seemed happy with it at the time, but I apparently failed. And I also apparently got a B on the second half of my calc test… Bleh.
And in addition to that there’s just all these little things. Like it’s a gloomy, rainy day. And TVTropes is down. And I have a huge history thing due Thursday that I haven’t started.
So yeah, my life sucks.
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speller,
I’d ask the teacher about the chemistry presentation. It’s possible that she made a mistake. Don’t be confrontational about it; just tell her that you don’t understand the grade.
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It turned out that I forgot to send her the slides after the presentation. My grade should raise some after she gets them.
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*hugs*
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Is anyone else doing Screnzy? *can’t find the thread*
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I’d like to, but I’ve missed 6 days already, I’m not really sure how to format a faux-documentary, and I only have Final Draft on my slow computer.
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I’m doing it, but I don’t think there’s a thread. I’ve been posting my updates here.
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Screnzy started already!?!?!? Oops. Fail. Bad, Keiffer. Keep up with stuff. I guess I shouldn’t start now, unless I want another NaNoWriMo to happen when it isn’t supposed to…
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Nope! I’m not doing it. I think it has something to do with NaNoWriMo… I’m a little biased.
-A
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90~ *hug*
I had a very interesting dream last night. It somehow managed to include or combine Susan Constant, Godspeed, Discovery, Niagara and Zodiac. (Ships I have, at some point worked or sailed on, in case you’re not stalking me and didn’t already know.) Kalmar Nykle, Constellation, Amistad, they may have been morphed in somewhere, but they weren’t as distinct. Kind of like Godspeed and Discovery weren’t distinctly in my dream, but kind of there by association/morphed in.
Anyway. Somehow in this dream I was going to sail on Zodiac, and then transfer over to Niagara or Susan (they kind of got morphed), and I was really busy before I left, so I didn’t pack everything I needed. Like, I didn’t have my carhartts or a wool sweater (both necessities), all I had was generic summery clothes. It was a mess, in any case. So then I was given this key or something that was to open some secret compartment on the next ship, and when I got there the whole crew were a bunch of drunken sods, (this is where it started getting confusing) and so at some point I was sleuthing around this hangar like building, trying to find what I was supposed to unlock with my key, and hiding from someone who was trying to find me, and I got through some passage, and ended up in a newly redesigned museum, and then dad called my cell phone and told me I was late and had to meet him in the lobby, so I was trying to find my way there (dream spaces are amazing, the way they change), and then I had to go to a GoodWill or something to get clothes and stuff I needed because I hadn’t packed very well, and met someone, and then ran into old friends and didn’t get a sweater, and then I can’t remember or I woke up. Probably I woke up.
If you read that, congrats. If it made sense at all, even better, could you explain it to me?
Actually, I think I know why some of the things were in it (like the packing thing, I hate packing, and I’m kind of freaking because I’m going to be crazy busy just before sailing, so aaah), but the whole key thing? No idea.
This is long enough (too long) already. I’ll shut up now. Mkay bye.
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It’s Tuesday already. How is it Tuesday already? My spring break is slipping through my fingers! *sobs*
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I know the feeling….That’s how my break was.
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*cries as well*
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*cries because spring break is already over in San Diego*
I’m actually crying right now. I was just doing a math test, and there was one concept that I simply forgot how to do. After finishing the rest of the test, then staring blankly at my paper for the next half hour, I decided to just let those two problems be wrong. And since I’m trying to get my grades back up from B’s to A’s in algebra, this is definitely not good. I’m going to stop talking about this now, the keyboard of the school computer is starting to get wet.
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Oh, I hate that. *pats back and magically makes problems correct*
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I’ve never had anything like that happen, but I can imagine for terrible that would be. *hugs*
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*sniff* don’t remind me.
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Pax has accomplished one of her life long goals and feels very, very happy. As in, inordinately happy, because all I did was eat successfully with chopsticks. This is one item crossed off of my things to do before I die list!
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I’ve never understood why most Americans/Westerners find it so difficult to eat with chopsticks. It’s really quite easy. Well, this is coming from someone who owns his own pair of chopsticks, but still.
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Yeah, it’s not awfully hard. But then again, I’ve been using them since I was really little, so I can’t say. And my mom has a bunch in our kitchen, but I usually op for “regular” silverware.
However that being said, for someone who’s never used them before or doesn’t use them regularly, I can see how it would be difficult. If you’re not eating Asian food, it can be hard because most traditional Western food (Aka McDonald’s. Kidding.) isn’t really designed to be picked up with chopsticks, therefore causing a lot of, um, slippage.
And that was longer than necessary.
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Yes, it’s easy, and it can be quite fun to eat non-Asian foods with chopsticks. I like to try it every now and then for a change of pace.
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You have your own pair of chopsticks? I need to get a pair that is strictly mine. We have gazillions of them in our kitchen. I hardly ever use forks or spoons when eating- I’ve eaten French fries with chopsticks before.
The Ultimate Test Of Chopstick Prowess:
Picking up tofu with your chopsticks- soft tofu, and without dropping it or smashing it into a pulp. It’s harder than it sounds.
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Yes. They’re collapsible too, so I can bring them anywhere easily.
Rice should be added to the Uiltimate Test of Chopstick Prowess. Not well-made rice either. Rice that’s soggy and doesn’t clump as it should.
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Like porridge? Collapsible chopsticks. SHINY! I want.
Rebecca- Haha, mashed potatoes are fun. I’ve done that too. The mashed potatoes had butter and jam mixed with it. My dad nearly barfed at the dinner table.
Enceladus- Sounds fun. I’d try that if I weren’t allergic to milk. (and lactose intolerant.) Hmm. Maybe next time we get Tofutti, though…..
My parents would think I was insane. All the more reason to try it!
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If collapsible chopsticks you want, ThinkGeek you should visit.
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Chopsticks are not that bulky. Why would you need collapsible ones? ThinkGeek is handy for geeky t-shirts and sonic screwdrivers though.
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Butter… and jam… in mashed potatoes??????? Auglmph!
They do have little spring-loaded chopsticks that are basically elongated clothespins. But they’re all made in pink frilliness or lego for small Asian kids who can’t grapple chopsticks yet.
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But it’s delicious! My mom never lets me make it if anyone from my dads family is there. XD
Rice balls with jam and peanut butter is what is really disgusting.
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I thought you thought Peep HPBs with soy sauce and sweet and sour sauce were disgusting???
(I thought it was quite good.)
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Hey, that’s different. It’s soy sauce. And potatoes are just another starch, like bread.
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I’ve eaten mashed potatoes with chopsticks. That was fun. I buy chopsticks by the bagful at Asian markets very inexpensively. (I use them for drawing, too, so I keep a variety on hand.)
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I must try that.
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My grandmother eats ice cream with chopsticks.
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That is amazing. Chopsticks, though inanimate, still manage to hate me.
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Yay! It took me a loooonnnggg time to fins out how they work, and I still am not that great at it!
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94) Congrats!
I have successfully wasted part of my break doing nothing but thinking of things that I could be doing but am not. Bah.
—
In other news, I might be taking an internship at a radio station this summer! *squeees* It sounds flammy.
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Wow, that sounds really cool!
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That does sound cool! Would you get to be an announcer?
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Probably not. I’ll probably just be hanging around playing with all the little dials and such.
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It’s spring break and I once again have come back to Museblog! Still need to email the GAPAs my Prussiania pictures. Oh well. Right now, I’m just celebrating the fact that it’s spring, the daffodils are blooming, the birds are chirping, and its warm enough that I can have the windows opes. The window it right next to my desk, so I have a lovely breeze.
I’ve been rereading my favorite Harry Potter fanfiction and girding myself up for work on my senior project. ( I can sympathize with peary moppins) Also suffering wave after wave of college rejection letters.I really hope I get into the ones that haven’t sent me anything yet…
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Ooh, what fanfiction? My favorite is Dumbledore’s Army and the Year of Darkness. (It was the first fic I read. My friend sent it to me as proof that good fanfiction exists.)
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I read that one too! Back when it was just a bunch of oneshots, actually. I liked it, then I began to hear about various controversies surrounding the author, and accusation that the story was sexist, etc. It was food for thought. It’s still epic, but now I wonder if I should actually like the story…
I was reading Teddy Lupin and the Forest Guard, and I’m planning on reading all the author (Fernwithy)’s other Shifts-verse stories too. It’s several novel-length stories and oneshots, so it’ll take a while…
(They’re good too. If you haven’t, please try reading them. Even if you don’t like R/T, romance isn’t the only focus, and these stories were what actually made me like the pairing in the first place)
/plug
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How intrigueing (sp?). I just found an alternative museblog, also run by wordpress. It was, too say the least, A LOT more mature than this. And there was a lot of complaining about ‘phytes. Personally, I still feel like a ‘phyte, even though my blogaversery was in February.
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There are several other MB-like sites scattered throughout the Web, most of them run by current or former MBers. They’re not under our control, and we don’t try to keep track of them.
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I recently discovered the blogs of many MBers. [snip]
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We don’t keep track of them, but we do discourage MBers from discussing them here. Change the subject, please.
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Not to further discussion of off-blog blogs, but the complaints about ‘phytes are also related to the growth of the blog itself, and associated posting rates.
And yes, you’re still a ‘phyte if you feel that you’re probably a ‘phyte, but that doesn’t mean that you’re doomed, or a lesser person- just not as bloggerly confident as some others. See you around!
This post may never be read, which just demonstrates problems associated with the posting rate.
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I think that the danger of that post never being read demonstrates more problems with the nesting comments than with the number of bloggers.
-is a hypocrite-
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Possibly. Nested comments are nice when there are fewer posts.
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Yes, it is interesting. *refrains from further disuccsion*
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GAPAs! Lock the music thread and start a new one! There are 42 comments!
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Cake. Cake cake cake. I feel like crying right now.
Have I mentioned how much I hate school? Really, I do. Right now I am getting a 53 in math, and a 71 in science. Oh, and an 87 in Humanities, which normally I would be disappointed in, but I am a bit pleased with as of right now. It’s not even like I don’t know what I’m doing, either. It’s that the work is so mind-numbingly boring I can’t focus on it. We took these computerized tests to see how we would place on the MCAS. I got a 270, which is a good 10 to 20 points above what was needed to get in the highest category on the MCAS. Normally I don’t trust standardized tests, but if the whole educational system is built around them, does it really make sense that I’m scoring far above average on the tests, and yet far below on my report cards? Oh, and I’m supposed to be doing a science project right now, joy of joys. Now the report cards are going to come home, my parents are going to be upset with my grades for like the fifth or sixth time this year, and I’m going to start crying with the hopelessness of it all. Again. Did you know that before this year, I was one of those kids that actually genuinely enjoyed coming to school? I really was. I had an amazing teacher, the curriculum was great. This year, I wake up and think “Is it a school day? Cake, it is.” and my entire mood is shot in the face. I don’t even really have any friends at my school anymore. I think about changing schools, but where would I go? I could go to another school in my district where more of my friends are, like the school Pseudo, P_M, and Keiffer go to, but the curriculum would still be the same. The latest thing I have been considering is the school of another MuseBlogger, but none of the MBers from the kokon go to a private school, at least not one close enough for me to go to each day, and the curriculum would still probably be a problem. My last hope, one I’ve been thinking about more and more, is going to my brother’s school, one of the most epic schools ever. But I just don’t know… the quarter is so close to a close, I have so much missing work… I am doomed. Doomed.
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*5kg of chocolate*
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I detest that feeling. And Sudo you are NOT doomed.
*has nothing else to say, so just delivers choklit and leaves*
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Yes, I am. Every time they send home the progress reports, I think “All right, it’s okay. This time, I’m just going to focus and do my work, then I can space out as much as I want”. I think that at the beginning of every math class. And it never works. I am a failure at school.
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Such are the joys of America’s educational system. It’s all a load of cake that, in my opinion, often does much more harm than good. Perhaps you could ask a counselor about skipping a grade. The curriculum might be less mind-numbingly boring.
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That sounds like it could be a good idea, except that the counselor at my school is a psychotic monster. Also, I’ve seen some of the curriculum for the 8th grade, and a lot of it looks like stuff I was taught last year by my amazing teacher. And I’m not sure if my school will let people skip.
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You’re a seventh grader? So am I. Is this feeling a sort of feeling that you can’t accomplish anything, and nobody really likes you? If so, I sort of know how you feel, though I don’t think I’ve ever felt it to the degree that you’re talking about. With me, everything worked its way out in the end. Still, Albert Einstein flunked high school, and now his name is synonymous with brilliant. Oh, by the way, here’s a tip if you’re feeling down: do something that makes you laugh. Read a good book or comic. Trust me, I know this from personal experiance. I’ll pray for you.
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*Hugs*
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Ouch. I haven’t really ever been there, to that magnitude. *gives pie full of glass shards to pie the curriculum and teachers with*
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*hugs*
That sounds terrible, Sudo. *gives choklit*
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*choklit* That sucks…
Yeah, you’re probably right that the curriculum is the same at our school. (Except for History Day) The most educational thing I did all day was deconstruct my calculator. *ends stupid rant* Sorry.
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*hugs and choklit* I know what you mean…I am doing so terribly in math right now. I hate it. Actually, now that I think about it, I hate every single subject except for Chorus, Art and ELA. But even that’s starting to go downhill…Blah. My only consolation is that April holiday is the week after next and there are only 47 days left in the school year. *more hugs and choklit*
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Please read this essay, Why Nerds Are Unpopular, by Paul Graham.
paulgraham.com/nerds.html
(He’s got lots of good essays, this one is especially relevant.)
He touches on a few good points: School, if done improperly, can be boring and anything but educational. Making things interesting may be the best way to get through it. Involve yourself with things you really like to do, school is just a day job.
Look into private schools and alternatives, and make lists, pro/con charts. You’ll feel empowered when you know your options (and your limits), then you can decide how to approach the problem.
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Oh, poor you! That sounds miserable. I hate that feeling, when you just can’t focus on your work because it’s so boring. What grade are you in?
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I’m sorry… Our education system sucks too, so I see your problem with that. I really hope things get better for you.
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While on the subject, I have a great example of my frustration with school. We have to write these “journal entries” in English class, and they have to be responding to various lines of the Desiderata by Max Ehrmann. They have to be three paragraphs long with concrete supporting details. I was trying to revise one of mine in class the other day:
” “Be cheerful. Strive to be happy” is a positive life value because it makes one seem desirable to others, improves one’s health, and in general is beneficial to one’s life. People are usually not attracted to those who are saturnine and moody. Also, many times I have read in the newspaper about scientific studies that the old saying “Laughter is the best medicine” is true. Being cheerful and happy improves one’s life in terms of friendship and not being put in a sanitarium, but it would also make me very happy if I did not have to write these journal entries because I am feeling a strong urge to crumple this paper up, throw it at the wall and stomp on it while reveling in the sound of paper being destroyed, and then setting fire to it while insisting that really, I’m not a violent person and “Be cheerful. Strive to be happy” is my doctrine and my VERY REASON FOR LIVING!! Gah! Die paper die! I shall now recopy the proper part of this…”
The sanitarium thing was pretty much the breaking point. Featured in the margins of this paper were delightful little cartoons of me ripping my journal entries to shreds and then jumping on them. With my head aflame.
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Magnolia: Google “Deteriorata” or “fluke of the universe.” It might cheer you up a bit.
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HAHAHAHAHA! Thanks Robert! And also thanks for using my preferred nickname!
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I really hate doing that, but now we have to do four paragraphs and it sucks even more. Although, when I did one on that stupid “Be cheerful, strive to be happy,” line, I stuck a bunch of double meanings that she didn’t notice in telling her that she was going to be ripped in half and exploded from the inside out. It was interesting. And she didn’t notice!
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Poor Sudo. *chocklit* *hugs*
The best thing you can do (I think) is find something that you really enjoy that you can do with other people you like and let that be your outlet. Life becomes more bearable until you can find a more permanent solution.
I know how you feel about work being so boring you can’t do it. That’s happened to me before, and I know that you do stop caring about anything and you’re miserable all the time. I wouldn’t try to stay at a school if there’s a situation like that, and if you do find a school you really like, you’ll be a lot happier and you’ll be able to make tons of friends. You are not doomed. You just haven’t found the right academic situation for yourself.
You have all of my sympathy because I went through exactly what is happening to you. I really hope you find something that works out for you. *chocklit again*
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97- Yeah… I know the place. I never went there, because I was scared of the oldbies and the lack of snippage and disapproved of the complaining about ‘phytes. I’m not scared of it anymore and I do enough complaining to be hypocritical, but I’m not really interested either.
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To all who are in tears or nearly in tears over school, I know your pain. I am in your ranks. I’m not crying now, but I somehow managed to screw myself over by making one lesson of math last the whoollllllleeeeeeee day. I seriously need to figure out this whole if I’m not distracted by every single thing that comes to my attention I can get a ton of work done and have loads more time to kill doing whatever I want.
And I never do.
I am an academic failure as well, and I’m an academic failure who has to somehow finish highschool as soon as possible without the aid of any professional councilors and figure out how to get into college. And then not die instantly. And yes, I want to go to college. I really, really, REALLY want to go to college. If nothing else because I want to be sure that I have some real schooling in my life at some point. If I can get in and make it to the other side, awesome. If I actually do well, flamablamablous. If I crash and burn, well, I crash and burn and I’ll be a waitress and leech off my parents forever. Maybe. Or I’ll do something else.
But hopefully I won’t crash and burn and I’ll make it out okay and find work doing something I want to do and live happily ever after, etc.
Anyway. That turned out to be a longer rant than I thought.
But, fellow depressed scholars, it’ll be okay. Even if we fail at academics we can band together and do something else. Imagine, a company run by MBers. Actually, that would be pretty cool, but I digress.
*hugs and choklit all around*
So….what should I do? Get my lazy arse off the bed and take a walk down to the floodplane (now that it’s dark :L) or practice? Probably practice, as I haven’t for a few days, and if I ever want to do anything with my music (and I think I do) I need to do that. Like, a lot. Instead of not at all, like I’ve been doing.
Oh, and I need to scan some music for a friend. Blast. But these stinkbugs are taking over my room and seriously driving me INSANE. I could just about explode in any direction right now. Like, I could be insanely happy, totally pissed off, sad, whatever. It’s very strange having one’s emotion(s) be a supercharged neutral.
GAH my eyes hurt. I spent too much lurking around the interwebz. Floodplane. Tireswing. Yes. That’s where I’m going. Barefoot. In the dark. Being active. Letting off some steam.
I kind of wish it would be as hot now as it was during the day, then I could go swimming under the cover of darkness. That would be awesome, because then I wouldn’t have to worry about spying neighbors if it was one of those “oh, i want to go swimming too bad I didn’t bring down a swimsuit, oh nevermind who cares” decisions. What? Oh, yes, I am a country girl, now that you mention it. But it would also be kind of creepy, there being all manner of Creatures That Lurk in the water. Mmmm, snakes and crawdads and fishies and clams, not to mention raccoons and skunks and who-knows-what-else. Maybe I’ll put on shoes before going down. That might be a good idea.
What was I going to do? Oh yes, get off the computer and take a walk since I’m depleting my eyesight lurking around the interwebz. That.
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Ahhh Welsh accents are amazing.
I’m listening to Scarborough Fair in Welsh!
I trimmed my bangs. They’re not quite straight, but at leas they aren’t in my eyes anymore.
Bless Me, Ultima is actually a really good book. -thumbs up-
That was kind of a “random thoughts” post…
99- Ooh, I’m sorry. All I can say is you’ll make it through…it’ll be over soon enough. You can also stage protests and complain a lot, which doesn’t necessarily do anything, but it might make you feel better.
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Oh, god. Welsh accent. *dies of happiness* Ianto. Thanks to Ianto, I have now have a serious thing for Welsh accents. Just. Yum.
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Ooh, we’re doing Scarborough Fair for chorus! It’s a really amazing song. (Of course the altos get all the best parts.)
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Random thought of the day:
Sacajawea never had a chance. Using dollar coins was a smart idea, as dollar bills are so frequently used that they have to be replaced in a matter of months while coins last decades in circulation. But as long as dollar bills are being printed, people have no incentive to use dollar coins.
When I was in Italy, I saw that there are no Euro notes below 5 Euros. This is smart. As the 1 and 2 Euro denominations are most used, they are coins, and as a result are more durable. The first Euro coins minted in 2002 are probably still in circulation.
I really think the US should stop printing dollar bills and just go with coins.
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The US is basically the only Western country that has paper money with a denomination of 1.
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When you say taht, do you mean single dollar bills, or all paper money?
Constitutionally, the government has the sole power to mint coins, but not the sole power to print money. If they just stopped printing money, once the riots died down, the states or counties or banks or random whatevers would just start printing bills of their own. And not everywhere would accept each other’s money, so you’d have money that was worthless in one state and worth tons in the other. (This is part of why the Articles of Confederation were scrapped)
Also, if we returned to pure coinage, it would be more expensive for the government. Coins are made out of metal that does cost real money. (like the penny that costs more to produce than it actually is) Paper bills are just…paper with funny pictures on them that have worth because we and the government say so. But when you balance coin reuse against the cost of reprinting dollar bills year after year after year, the answer is… I don’t know. GAPAs?
But that would go into a discussion of our stacked-on-cards economy and inflation and being taken off the gold standard and the dollar and its relation to various currencies like the euro…
At the end, however I think that the real reason we don’t change is habit. And the fact that people as a whole are unwilling to accept changes to the money they grew up with for years, that they know how much its worth, even if they don’t bc of inflation…(reason we still have penny)
And the fact that if we were to suddenly stop printing dollar bills it would send a negative sign to our stacked on cards economy aka Wall Street bc OMG the govt isn’t making one dollar bills anymore is it bc inflation has run so high they’re worthless? CRASH. OR maybe the metal companies would suddenly see a huge upshoot in their stock prices. Making metal to make the coins even more expensive.
And I have theories on how to make the penny worth more. Namely, make it more useful. If vending machines and bus stops would accept pennies, more people would use them, giving them more intrinsic worth.
Most of the money in the world is electronic. Physical money is becoming obsolete. Let’s all just switch towards using credit and debit cards, we’re heading that way already
We’ve been discussing the economy in my MUN meetings. I have come to these conclusions.
1. Economics is necessary to understand.
2.Teh economy is ridiculously complicated, making it difficult to understand.
3.No one really understands it, especially not the people in charge. Theories only work so well in real life.
4. Teh economy is run by people who have little to no idea what they’re doing.
5. Teh economy is stacked on cards.
alternate 5. We’re all doomed.
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Help me.
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It’s hard to diasagree with your last points…
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A little historical perspective might help here. Over the past 3,000 years, most people have lived in civilizations with complex economies that they didn’t understand, and–
Hm. Come to think of it, about 99 percent of those people are dead now, and most of their civilizations are gone. If only they’d studied economics…
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No, wait, that wasn’t the point I was trying to make. You see, most people throughout history haven’t understood how breathing or digestion work, or what’s really going on when fire burns, or how crops grow or how water gets into wells. But that hasn’t stopped them from–
Cake. There’s no getting around it: Most of their civilizations are gone, and almost all of them are dead. The penalty for failure may be death, but the penalty for success seems to be death, too.
We’re doomed!
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That reminds me of an Archie comic I read.
Veronica: “The royal families of Ancient Rome all swore by palm-reading.”
Betty: “Yeah, and they’re all dead!”
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Trade and barter would be so much simpler, because then people would decide how much they think something is worth (or at least that’s the impression I got from it) but would it really work on scale as large as the world today? I mean, all the people who used to do it are gone…(Roughly. Mostly. Come to think of it, maybe in the West, but n other parts of the world…And where does haggling fit in?)
And do human civilizations have a tendency to move from trade and barter to money that stands for something else anyhow, so you don’t have to drag your cow or donkey or other physical objects to trade to the market anyhow?
Does it do me any good to ponder these what ifs anyhow?
It’s probably better if I stop. But running through my head is “boom bust cycles, inflation, stagflation, natural recessions (bubbles popping), bailouts and their relative usefulness….”
You can go on and on and still not come to any conclusions, except that we’re doomed.
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Perhaps those 2012 theories do have some truth to them…
*kidding*
But, if society collapses, there’s always MB to step in.
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There are also no Australian notes below $5.
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The vending machines at my school give you dollar coins if you buy something with a five dollar bill. There was a period of time where I only bought things with five dollar bills in order to gain dollar coins.
I love dollar coins because they make me feel like a pirate.
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Dollar coins make me feel like a pirate too. About a month ago I won ten of them in a shiny gold bag. SHINY… *drools*
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102-I just trimmed my bangs, too! I cut them a bit too short on one side, and whenever I see myself in the mirror, my eyes drift over to the right side of my face and it looks awkward. I didn’t do a terrible job of it, so I am pleased.
My emotions are crazy right now. I was positively giddy today in school, and right now I am annoyed and tired. Argh, this is why I don’t like spring. I always become happy at the start of spring, and then last year, I had a mental exhaustion period where all I could do was sleep. I really don’t want that to happen again.
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103~ I found the Canadian money quite nice, there were your normal coin denominations (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters), then Loonies, then Toonies, then $5 bills. And all the paper money was different colors according to the amount, which made it really easy to sort. I liked that. *high fives Kagz*
But yeah, dollar coins make a lot of sense. There are the presidential dollars too, not just Sacajawea ones, though I prefer the Sacajawea ones, being the only money we have with a woman on them. Heh, we need to get over our fascination as a country of famous men and big buildings and start putting different things on our coins, in my nary-sae-humble opinion.
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SFTDP
There is a Very Big spider in my room on the ceiling. I’m going to say approximately 2″ in diameter? Yeah, biiiig, brown and stripey legged.
En is welcome to stay, as long as en remains in the corner in plain view, eats stinkbugs, and doesn’t get any ideas to cuddle in the middle of the night.
*kind of wants to say something about the MBer run blogs, but doesn’t want to continue conversation* Mmffffph. I’ll be good.
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105- Two-dollar denominations are handy too. And what about Susan B. Anthony? Wasn’t she on a coin?
The only issue I can see with coins is that they’re heavy and jingle a lot–so not handy for carrying around in pockets.
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Oh goodness, how do I get my old auto-generated avatar back?
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Try deleting everything from your Gravatar account. It worked for me, but I don’t know if it always works…..
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I think you can also click on the picture in your account that… Never mind. Went to check, and I’d forgotten how you do it.
Click on the email address, if necessary.
Click on ‘don’t use this image’.
I’m pretty sure this works. Not totally certain, but pretty sure.
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So, is anyone doing the Tom’s One Day Without Shoes tomorrow? And what do you all think about it?
(if I can post a delinkified link? It’s mostly harmless, but y’know, it’s youtube…just in case.)
[Can’t take time to watch it, but it’s easy enough to find several videos on the subject with a quick search. –Admin.]
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i am not, because i have athletic band and we will be marching
i honestly don’t really see what purpose it serves, besides the fun of going barefoot. i know it’s supposed to be to raise awareness for kids who don’t have shoes, but one day won’t let you experience anything even close to the pain of having your feet cut up or burned or frozen all the time. and i can guarantee that people are just going to be walking around on the soft grass, not anywhere it would actually hurt.
as for raising awareness through other people seeing you without shoes, it’s summer. people aren’t going to get it. it’s just going to look like people frolicking around enjoying the warm weather
so yeah. i do love going barefoot, but if i do, i’m not going to pretend it will help. now if i gave my shoes -away- that might do something, but going without them for one day isn’t really the answer.
imho, anyway
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It’s not summer here…that’s for sure.
I am not doing it. I have work and parent-teacher conferences and plus I like shoes.
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Nope, not summer. There is no snow in summer.
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Interesting idea….But I certainly couldn’t do so on a Thursday. *coughchemistrylabcough* Plus I don’t fancy walking around campus (where there could easily be broken glass….) barefoot….
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I dunno…no one at my school has mentioned it.
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School- *cries* I got a C on french. A C! Okay, the class average was a D- (no As, on two Bs) but I still feel pathetic. And the math test is tomorrow and just looking at my stuff makes me want to scream. A whopping total of 3 people out of 19 understand (most) of the stuff coming to the test, and the teacher politely told us that she doesn’t give a damn and just thinks we’re too lazy to study. Yes, I understand it, but that because I learn everything at home, just like when I was homeschooled, except that I have to spend 150 mins per week listening to her make infinite rows infinitely confusing. We (the entire math class) were considering cutting the exam, but this will only buy us a few days and we’ll get yelled at by our math teacher, the principle and the assistant principle and the math teacher might give us an even harder test in revendge. Which means we’re screwed. Joy.
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That really sucks.
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Dang. I’m really sorry to hear read that.
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By the way, bookgirl_me, I feel like I’m kinda being a jerk by saying this considering your last post, but it’s your turn in chess. If you have time. Sorry to be a (fill in insult here)
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Today is an excellent day! I’m leaving on a canoe trip tomorrow with my Dad, which will last until Sunday afternoon. Should be fun!
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Have a good time!
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Hey people who have GIMP! How would one with a failing, stupid, doing things by itself-computer go about installing it?
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109- Sounds interesting. Can’t research it just now, but I’ll look it up later and see.
I probably will. Not that anybody will notice a difference, I never wear shoes anyway. And I’m not going anywhere tomorrow.
Hm. I’ll tell the rest of my family about it, once I’ve figured out what, exactly, it’s about.
Anyway, sorry I’ve been off recently. I’ve been getting distracted. Becoming addicted to Harry Potter again. Haven’t been for a while now, but I am again.
J.K.R. is sheer genius. That’s all.
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113- Just search GIMP on Google, Do the first thing that comes up, and find the button on the website that says “Download”.
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Thank ye kindly.
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Leaving for a band trip to Chicago in a couple hours!
I am so excited oh my goddddd
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Ok, can someone explain why this year has decided to skip spring and go straight from winter to summer?
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Forty degrees to ninety in three weeks. I have no idea.
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Mother Nature ganged up with Father Time to get their revenge on the human race.
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By making us wear short-sleeved shirts? Some revenge!
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No, by making us not have any time to ajust to the weather, so now we stink.
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Meh. I stink regardless when it gets hot and humid, adjustment time, or now. Although it probably doesn’t help going from 60ish at college to a week of 40ish at home, to only return to college and find it 80ish.
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And don’t forget the stinkbugs! They’re starting to thaw. *shudder* And my fan is pretty much dead.
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Facing stinkbugs without a fan? Shudder, indeed!
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Indeed it is… for those of us who have summer year-round.
Why does no one appreciate winter? It’s a much underloved season.
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Love winter, hate tolerate summer.
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me too! summer is far too hot. winter is wonderful. spring and fall are the best though
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Spring and fall *are* the best. Only, we have school.
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In the words of Charlie Brown, “Summers fly, winters walk.”
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Because the weather is evil.
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I dislike spring. It’s all good.
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Spring has not been skipped here. There was snow today.
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Today I went to see Two Gentlemen of Verona (set in LA !) with school. And I loved it. Of course, since this is an official 8th grade outing, I had to have a buddy. So I was buddies with Nathan, who is one of my best friends, but it made me think that our friendship would be a lot less awkward if people expected more boys and girls to be friends and not crush on each other (at least I hope Nathan isn’t crushing on me, that would suck) because everyone who sees a boy and a girl together expects them to be crushing, it’s harder for Nathan and I to be close. this is no fair.
Also, funny in an ironic sort of way event yesterday.
I was in the car with my mother and 7 year old sister, and we’re talking about how i’ve signed up for swim team so I get out of the house and get exercise over the summer. My sister, not knowing why I signed up, asks me, and I tell her just that. My mom adds “So she doesn’t turn into a vegetable” my sister thinks on this a bit, and then, thinking of nutritional value I am sure, says “at least being a vegitable is better than being a fruit” Ha. Ha. sickening awkward gag-like pit of stomach flipping laugh. thanks, sis.
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Umm…I don’t get it…
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sympathies re boys. i have that problem too. it’s really quite ridiculous how hard it is to convince some people that it’s possible to just be friends with a guy.
magnolia, i -think- the joke here is supposed to be using fruit as a name for a gay person. but i’m not sure if that’s what clare’s sister was saying or not *shruggityshrug*
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But she didn’t mean it like that. She probably has no idea what she said.
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she definately didn’t know what she was saying.
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“Sickening awkward gag-like pit of stomach flipping laugh” is now officially my second favorite phrase of the day.
But… yeah… even unintentional, that must have been incredibly uncomfortable.
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It was really warm today. And I walked home from school again! And I stopped at the park and laid down in the grass and looked at the sky and it was really great!
I need to do that more.
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Replies to 109~
ebeth: I agree with several of your points. However, I do think that if some people participated in this, they might get a slightly altered perspective, simply because that one day didn’t really hurt very much, but the thought of that being a way of life, without a choice, well, one can hope that there are people who will think about it.
Alice: Not to be mean, but that’s kind of the point. We do like shoes, and we’re lucky enough to have them.
Luna: I agree, it’s a bit of an odd time, I suppose they chose tomorrow instead of a weekend because it would be potentially more of a challenge? Meh, I don’t know.
114~ Same. I’ve been going barefoot for the past 5 days anyway, just because the weather’s so hot and I wanted to.
And yes, JKR is amazing beyond words. ♥
I’ll participate tomorrow, I mean, I’m not going to put on shoes just to not do it, and since going barefoot has been perfectly fine up to now, I see no reason to stop. And if my doing so makes anyone think, great. I kind of doubt it, since I’ll only be going to a violin lesson and my teacher already knows I’m insane, but meh. Why not?
RE: Weather
It’s HOT here. It’s been in the 90s the past few days. I mean, really? It’s early April! Last year at the end of April it was hot like this, and this year it’s even earlier. And yet people refuse to acknowledge global warming and climate change. I truly have to wonder about them.
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that’s true. i guess others do wear shoes more than i do. i’m just afraid that since the weather is so nice, nobody’s going to take it seriously and it will be a wasted effort
but maybe i’m just a cynical old adult now *sigh*
i’m still awesome enough for spontaneous ice cream though! (i just got off work and thought “man i want ice cream.” so i got some. it was delicious)
So i’m thinking i’m going to be a total dork next year. i was already thinking about possibly applying to join OUAB (the group that plans awesome events, like maya angelou and david sedaris and the boondock saints and andy samberg…etc, etc), and now i think i’m going to apply for a spot on the communications committee for humanities scholars. the only problem is the way it’s been described is as sort of a staff writer for the newsletter, and i want to do layout and design as well (right now they just throw everything on a template. and the spacing is off. it makes me twitch). so i’m going to be like “dear scary older people, can i make our newsletter awesome pretty please?”
i was also thinking of seeing if i could get a job at the writing center. i have a good job, but it is, y’know, food. although getting free food three times a week is quite nice. but yeah, i’ve never tutored because they always wanted tutors for like, math and language and stuff that i don’t really do easily. but i could totally sit around editing people’s stuff all day.
so yeah, i guess i have been Making Plans. sort of. i honestly can’t remember exactly when i thought all this up, it’s just been a kind of conglomerate of passing ideas. i might need to drop A-band or something though if i want to do all this. not enough time!
ooh, being in A-band gets me free repair, too. although if i weren’t in it, i wouldn’t have needed the repair… (crowded stairway, kicking feet, sweaty palms…yes, my gorgeous trumpet was dented. i’m thinking i’ll let my parents know -after- i get it fixed)
ugh but speaking of band i’ve gone down to 2nd part. had a long day, was marching and then had to rush right to auditions. didn’t do that well. but oh well, there will be moar auditions next year and band really isn’t anywhere near my top priority any more (although i do still love it)
anyways. yes. that is your update on the life of ebeth. enjoy!
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Funny you should mention the writing center… I found out today that my French teacher nominated me to be a writing center tutor. And since my English teacher (who loves my writing for some strange reason) runs the writing center, I’ll probably be able to become a tutor there… I like editing stuff. So I might become a writing center tutor. But on the other hand, my math teacher wants me to be a tutor/possibly TA for the math class I took last semester, and I’m really the only person in the school who can do that. And I can’t manage 2 work services.
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120- I know. I appreciate how lucky I am to have shoes, and I’m naturally sorry that not everyone does–they could have some of mine if they liked–but my feet are almost always cold and wet anyway even inside socks and shoes, and I see no reason why they should be colder and wetter than they are. It’s not warm here. It’s cold and wet and there’s broken glass and appallingly disgusting surfaces, like the floor of the snack bar. And I know I sound like a wimp and a cold-hearted villain, but if it was forty degrees and raining where you lived you might feel similarly.
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thank you everyone for your books suggestions! they will be put on a list for further research…and after reflecting on it i realized that the biographies suggestion is pretty amazing (one of my favorite books is john adams by David McCullough…LOVE ITTTT)
i think the day without shoes is a great. Raising awareness to issues is ALWAYS important and commendable, and we should remember that it doesn’t stop there. For example this year I’m participating in Day of Silence in solidarity with my LGBT friends but of course it doesn’t stop there, i hope to always be the kind of person who can say discrimination isn’t right and call people out on it (or at least never let it slide)
Fiddler — 90s?! Strangely, I am envious. It’s been getting warmer and warmer here but it’s also been getting drier..*sigh* I love the wind but sooo dry…
It seemed like this winter was really really long so I am happy for the sunshine again and I feel like i need one really hot day so i can go outside in summer clothes and be like YEAHHH GET IT and then never go outside ever again because summer is always unjustly hot. *crazy*
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120.1~ I agree with that. It is nice weather, and I’d be going barefoot anyway, so it’s not really an effort, wasted or otherwise, for me.
Hey, if you’re awesome enough for spontaneous ice cream, not to mention MB, you’re awesome enough for anything.
121~ I agree, broken glass, appallingly disgusting surfaces and 40 degrees and wet is not ideal barefoot conditions, and I do believe I would feel similarly.
122~ Yeah, this was a looong winter, and I’m glad to not be wading through snow anymore. And I totally understand the one nice hot day, then being all mad at the heat for the rest of the summer. Though I practically live outdoors, so hiding inside isn’t really an option for me. You’re crazy, but so am I….so does that make us sane?
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103.2.3/4~ So nice to know we’re doomed, isn’t it?
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We just had a temperature drop-highs in seventies on Saturday, lows in thirties on the next Friday. Meanwhile I’m wondering how on one day, the high is in the sixties and the low is in the thirties.
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Baseball food. Luna’s caf had baseball food today. Not that Luna has ever been to a baseball game to actually know what baseball food is, but…
Hotdogs and cheese pretzels and sno-cones (I’m eating one of those right now) and bags of Cracker Jacks. Plus, all the servers were dressed in shirts supporting the state’s baseball team, so….Yeah. Baseball food.
But my main question: Since when did Cracker Jacks come in bags? They’re supposed to come in little boxes, with a prize inside. I remember loving them so much as a kid, and sitting outside in the woods by our house munching on cracker jack’s out of the little box, and then getting a prize. Now, it’s bags. Admittedly, there’s still supposed to be a prize in side, but bags? That’s just not right.
*returns to flavorless sno-cone*
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sno-cone is no longer flavorless…..All the flavor just seeped to the bottom and it’s quite flavorful now.
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They did that for us at the beginning of the year… At our “carnival”. Which was actually pretty fun.
And when I was little, I always got Cracker Jacks in bags. Maybe it’s a regional thing. Or maybe something changed in the intervening 5 years.
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Maybe I’m misremembering. That’s possible, too…..
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*googles* Hm, no, there’s those boxes I fondly remember. Perchance I was eating them prior to ’97 when the company that previously produced them (Borden) was bought out by Frito Lay. I’m not sure if I was eating them as much at that point….I wonder if they’re as good as I liked when I was little….I’ll eat them later. Right now I’m rather full…..
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I remember the boxes too.
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Okay, so. I got my census form last night, and have filled out all but #6 and #7. But anyways, on these two questions, I would like to know if you all agree with my interpretation (and what the form clearly says) or my res hall coordinator’s interpretation (and what the form clearly does NOT say).
This morning, everyone in the res hall received a mass email from our hall coordinator about the census. Towards the bottom of the email, she says the following:
When filling our your 2010 Census, the answer to Question #7 should be your residence hall address. Although the form is a bit confusing regarding living location, make sure that you list **** as your living location on the form. If you were included on your parents census, still please fill this out and include your address as your **** address.
Well, here is what questions #6 and #7 state:
6. Do you live or stay in this facility MOST OF THE TIME?
Yes — > This completes the form.
No
|
v
7. (If No) What is the full address of the place where you live or stay MOST OF THE TIME?
So, you know, to me that clearly states that you only fill out #7 if your answer to #6 is that you don’t live in your res hall/dorm most of the time. So, as it was early this morning, I’d only gotten 6 hours of sleep, I was feeling argumentative and sent what was probably a bit snarky of an email in response:
Actually, if we’re considering our residence hall (****) our living location, we’re not supposed to fill out Question #7 at all, rather leave it blank. Question #7 only applies if we’re considering a different location to be our primary residence, because if you check “yes” for Question #6 which asks if this is where you live/stay most of the time, it says “This completes the form.” Additionally, at the beginning of Question #7 it says “If No [to Question #6]”, what is your address. We are NOT supposed to put our **** address into #7.
~Michelle
To which my res hall coordinator responded:
Michelle –
I understand that that is where the form gets a bit confusing, which is what I alluded to in my initial email. But, you will want to make sure to answer question 7 even though the form says otherwise.
Thanks!
To which I am now thinking (and really wishing I had the guts to send a really snotty response that I am thinking), no. The form is not at all confusing. It VERY CLEARLY states that you do not want to fill out #7, if your res hall is where you live most of the time. Why the cake should I believe my res hall coordinator (who is not a census employee, and who I don’t know, and who has never struck me as the sharpest pencil in the box) over what the form clearly states? And the form is not confusing there at all. She may be confused, but the form clearly says not to fill out 7 if you check yes for 6. Why would I disregard what the form says in order to do what she says?
I mean, wouldn’t my “interpretation” of what the form clearly says make the most sense? I mean, if she has some additional info, like the Census people told her, hey, yeah, we screwed up the form, disregard what the form says and have everyone fill out 7 even if they check yes to 6, then she should send it, and i will happily write in my res hall address. But presumably she doesn’t, and she just thinks she’s so caking smart and doesn’t want to admit that she’s and idiot who just can’t read the form.
And why am i making such a big deal out of this? Why the cake don’t I just go, whatever, not important, i’m doing what the form says and forget her email and just…..Yeah.
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Oh, we had to do those Monday night… It was kind of odd, actually. I go home for weekends and breaks and whatnot, and I would consider my actual home to be the place I stay most of the time, but they made us say yes for 6 and then not do 7. So I would think that your answers would be yes for 6 and nothing for 7.
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127~ As far as I can tell from that, you’re right. Go with just checking yes in #6, it makes more sense that way, not confusing at all, I agree.
126~ The last Cracker Jack’s I had (sometime last summer, I think. I don’t even know where I got them, meep) I think was in a box….but now I’m not sure. And the “prize” was a piece of perforated paper with a face printed on it that was supposed to be folded a certain way that you could make the mouth move. Umm, what happened to actual toy prizes?! *sigh* I must be getting old. *sniffle*
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As near as I can tell, Cracker Jacks first appeared in bags — in trial markets at least — in 1999, a couple of years after Frito-Lay bought the brand. By 2002 bags seem to be the rule, though boxes may have still been available, as the company announced that Cracker Jacks would be available to ballparks only in bags by 2004, according to a news column. Some online suppliers appear to carry boxes; I’m not certain, since the ones I checked either turned out to be really bags or else “out of stock.”
I thought prizes had reverted to cardboard and temporary tattoos years ago — that’s all I found last time I bought any which was probably in the 1980s. I assumed at the time that the change was on account of choking concerns, but I don’t know. Maybe it’s just cheaper.
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In order to further justify my not participating in the One Day Without Shoes, I will now point out that I was woken this morning by jelly-bean-sized hail being flung sideways against my window, which, combined with the roaring wind, made it impossible to go back to sleep until it had turned into ordinary rain again.
It seems to be summer all across the nation, but not here.
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Yesterday and today my part of Michigan got a sudden cold snap. First there were thunderstorms, which knocked the power out, then on, then out again. Today it’s just rainy, cold, and generally miserable. I’ve stayed inside, which means that going without shoes is meaningless anyhow.
To think that two days ago it was hot, sunny, and sweaty here too. Oh well. Michigan weather is just capricious like that.
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Same here. 2 days ago, I was walking around in short sleeve without a coat and was, if anything, a little hot. This morning I woke up freezing, and my big fluffy comforter did nothing. My heat is currently on. And unlike most of the time when my heat is on, it’s not anywhere close to being uncomfortably hot.
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where is your part of michigan? speaking on a very general regional basis, of course. i’m just curious, if it’s northern or western i’ve lived there myself, and if it’s southern it’s relatively close to me eastern, well, nobody likes them jk, actually my grandma lives there
wow, i’ve got michigan well covered, don’t i?
anyway, the last week or so has been pretty much the same here in ohio, although that sort of odd weather change is common enough to pass fairly well unnoticed. one thing you can say for ohio, it spits out some really great adapters.
i quite enjoyed the thundering actually, i took a leisurely stroll out through the rain to get a burrito. well soaked, totally worth it. the wind was brilliant. sometimes i think i should switch majors and be on one of those super dramatic extreme-weather-hunting shows. but i don’t think i could really take myself seriously. still, it would be way fun.
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south-mid-eastern-ish. Or around there. Not too close to Detroit. [Let’s leave it at that. –Admin.] (It’s awkward trying to figure out what to say and how to say it!)
Do you live in Northern Ohio? It figures we have the same sort of crazy weather…
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centralish. is columbus big enough to be mentioned? probably, but zap if it isn’t i guess.
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Not quite, but I’ll give it special dispensation.
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aww, thanks we’re certainly awesome enough, in any case
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IB planning and schedules are so confuzzling.
For next year (sophomore) I shall take Pre-IB Chem, Pre-Calc Honors, English II Honors, French III, World History Honors, and 2D Art – Environmental Art for electives. Then most likely Instructional Tennis in the fall, Music in the winter, and JV Tennis in the spring. I will also attempt to be in the musical and plays.
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I’ve always thought the worst thing about IB is the organization. All the Areas of Interaction and the Approaches to learning.
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127-Yeah, just fill out the form. It doesn’t matter what people say about it, there are instructions on the form! Well,
we talked about graphs in Geometry, and how for every equation with two variables, there’s a shape to represent it. Descartes was pretty smart. ‘I drink therefore I am’.
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I have a homework question: I know that chocolate is winnowed (the process of removing the shell) with a member of either the monera, protist, or fungi kingdom, but which one is it?
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None of the above? It seems that, in large scale operations, the shell is cracked and blown away by enormous fans; in small operations, it can be done by hand.
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Hm. That’s not what my teacher said… *grumble*
Thanks anyway.
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All I know is that I want some chocolate. OM NOM NOM.
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AGH!
So, I wanna bubble on about something, but I really can’t, because it will immediately give away where I live.
DUDE, IT NEEDS TO GET OUT.
Whatever.
Badminton has been brutal, especially with the killer weather. I’ve really been enjoying it though. I love that little pang you feel and that little woosh you hear when you hit the shuttlecock… I don’t like the warm ups, however. We have to do all of these weird crunches; jogging, skipping, grape-vining, and sliding; push ups, drills, and then at the end of practice, running 3/4 mile. I’m sooo way out of shape. I’m getting better though.
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I love badminton too, though I’m not very good and don’t play on a team…I agree, hitting the birdy is so satisfying.
Only one half day left until I’m FINALLY on spring break…good lord, I have three normal school days this week and it still feels like the longest school week of my life.
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In my opinion, tennis is much more satisfying… PLOING! sounds so much better than plop.
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It’s not plop, it’s more like PING!
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Crud, my computer is still remembering the wrong username.
I have Student-Led-Conferences today. It sucks. I mean, firstly I had plans to go the library, and secondly I already tell my parents most of what goes on at school. And it wasn’t even mandatory, but my mom signed up for it anyway…
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Really? Gosh, that sucks. I like my parent conferences. I think they boost my self-esteem while providing improvement opportunities for the future. *totally does not sound like a teacher*
Anyway, I don’t think ours are mandatory but everyone does them anyway. They have free food, which, though provided by the cafeteria company thingy, is much better than our usual cafeteria food…(Ew. Which is why I mostly bring lunch.)
Well, sorry to digress, but I hope they don’t go too badly for you. *choklit*
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‘Twas a disaster. First my mother mocked me in front of the teacher. Then my laptop wouldn’t hook up to the projector and the print was too small to read on the screen, and then my mother mocked me some more. Altogether not a pleasing experience, and not even the slightest whiff of food in the offing!
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Eek. Not good. Your own mother mocking you? I’m used to my dad teasing me in front of teachers, but only because everyone present knows he’s joking. Aww…no food? You should come to our school!
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Yeah,it sucks having your twenty minutes of pure unaltered boringness.
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Question for the Firefly fans. As requested of me by my wonderful ‘blog sister, I am watching Firefly. However, after watching the first two episodes, I notice that there is a disagreement in the order between the site I am watching it via and the IMDb’s listing for the episode order.
Doing a smidge of research, it would appear that the site I”m watching it via follows the “intended episode order” as opposed to the order it was actually aired in in the US. Which order do you guys recommend I follow? Do I watch Shindig next (as the Firefly wiki says) or “Our Mrs. Reynolds” as the IMDb site says is #3…..
Suggestions?
And should I have watched the two hour movie first? As apparently it was intended to be episode one, instead of “Train Job”? Luna is so very confuzzled.
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No, definitely the “intended episode order”. Fox was stupid in a thousand different ways with Firefly, including showing only nine of the episodes, and out of order at that. Here’s the proper order:
Serenity (Pilot)
The Train Job
Bushwacked
Shindig
Safe
Our Mrs. Reynolds
Jaynestown
Out of Gas
Ariel
War Stories
Trash
The Message
Heart of Gold
Objects in Space
And then, once you’ve watched all these, you can watch the movie Serenity.
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it was aired in the wrong order. Go with the wiki, it sounds right. shindig should be episode 4, i think
the pilot is an hour and a half, and it is called serenity. there is also a two hour movie called serenity, which follows the tv show. confusing, i know…
so the order should be the pilot, train job, bushwhacked, shindig, safe, our mrs reynolds, jaynestown, out of gas, ariel, war stories, trash, the message, heart of gold, objects in space. Then the movie.
hope that cleared it up
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Admittedly I have never seen Firefly, but I was under the impression that Serenity was intended as a sequel.
And I would watch things according to the show’s internal chronological order, as opposed to when they were actually aired. You know networks sometimes just mess up the airing order…
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First, I recommend the intended order, with the pilot episode “Serenity” seen first, “The Train Job” after that, “Bushwhacked” after that, etc. Trust me, the real first episode is the best place to start.
Second – no, you should watch the series first, as the movie is set after them. I know it’s confusing, because the ship Serenity is used as the name for both the episode “Serenity” and the movie Serenity, but the movie was actually created in response to the huge cult following the series received when was put on DVD. It wasn’t intended to be episode one.
So in short, don’t watch the feature film first, watch it last.
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Watch the 2 hour pilot first. Yeah. And watch it in the intended order. Otherwise, there’s some discontinuity. Pretty much the only reason it was aired in a different order was that Fox kind of screwed it over.
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Ebeth, FantasyFan, I-Man, speller73- Jinx! Ha!
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Okay, thanks all. I’ve already watched Train Job and Bushwhacked, but I will go back and find the actual pilot ep Serenity (as opposed to the movie that apparently has the same name) and watch it, then watch the others in the order the wiki (and you all) say.
Thanks! *gives choklit*
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*takes choklit* *uses it to make miniatures of all the main characters*
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I wouldn’t watch the movie at all, honestly. It fell far short of the series, in my opinion.
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it did, but it is kind of nice to have that bit of closure. plus there are some pretty epic moments (although there are certain…character outcomes that i completely disagree with)
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I watched the movie first. So no disappointment for me!
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The movie definitely was a step down from the series, but I didn’t think it was THAT bad. It was enjoyable enough to spend some additional time with the characters.
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This is going to get pretty long, so I suggest fetching some popcorn.
Where to start…
Today was bad. This week is bad. This kind of thing isn’t supposed to happen until hell week ( not the sort of hell week speller was talking about up there, but hell week as in the week of tech/dress rehersals/ preformances for theatre) *headwall*
bit of background info: we ( we being the bloody actors) were supposed to be off book for lines 2 weeks ago, and for songs this Monday. Beleive it or not, most of the principals(principles, maybe, I’m not too certain about the spelling) didn’t know all of their lines, which is mostly understandable, but they still didn’t know them when they came back from spring break, which made Rudd, the director, mad (not good). And they don’t know their songs either, and most of the dances are effing terrible, and the scene transitions are even worse. Ahahaha (that’s my fail laugh, only used when everything has been completely screwed over).
We are doing Annie Get Your Gun ( should be underlined), In which the audience is watching Colonel Buffalo Bill Cody’s “rendition of the (forgotten adjective) and tempestuous story of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler, right here under [Buffalo Bill’s] big top!”, so the set looks like a circus tent, and for scene changes, the “celebrated western actors” move a bunch of crates around to make a whole bunch of different settings, and there are nine scene changes, and nobody knows which box they are supposed to move where with whom at which scene change. Dave( the technical director) wants each transition to be six seconds or less, which could be possible if we knew what we were doing in the first place, but we don’t, so these take at least thirty second each, which makes Dave mad.
He also said this was looking to be the worst musical he has ever been Involved with. Which made everyone really scared…
Yes. It’s pretty failtastic.
Then today we were getting mikes and I get one because I have a non-choros(sp?) role, and I can either sing loud or well/high, and it wasn’t working, and Loren(as well as everyone else) was trying to sing loud, and they also thought I couldn’t sing high, when I have caking WHISTLE TONES, and yes, I love Loren with most of my heart, but I really don’t want this right now, when I already feel like cake. Then we were singing with the orchestra for the first time, and we were also doing the dance while seated, which made people mad, not the dancing in the chairs, but the fact that we were able to do the dance sitting down, save the few times where we have to spin around. They dislike these dances, becaus they seem juvenile and dumbed- down. But yet nobody can do the dance for “Sun in the Morning”. Which I think is partly the choreographer’s fault for making them do it so many times in a row. I know repetition is what does it, but maybe stop after you it 7 times and do a different dance once. Watching that dance is PAIN.
I’m going to stop ridiculing the bloody actors for a while and talk about techie drama. There was, for about a week, four techie couples. That’s nearly half of the techies. Then Lexie and Brandon broke up, which was sad, because Brandon left, and Lexie is sad now, but they have rather rocky for about a month and a half now, so it wasn’t super suprising. Everyone just wishes they could have held on throught the show. Oh well. Sam and Audra started going out during spring break, and they are an intersting couple. They have a lot in common( they are the most pervy, [snip] children in theatre) but they also have a *bit* of an age difference (Sam is a senior, who has passed for 25 before and is 6’5″. Audra is a freshman. Yeah) and have made venturing into deep shop pretty awkward, because Sam is master carpenter, so deep is his territory, which Audra has now come to inhabit as well, and nobody wants to ruin a “moment” for them, so most people have stopped going back there. But the Lexie/Brandon drama has caused lotsa issues. Then Goldendoodle went and got herself a spotlight to control, which puts her up in the booth for the entire show, while I’m down in the shop, which leaves me in a bit of an awkward spot because I’m not too close with any of the oher techies, so I have a feeling I will be doing lots of wandering around with Grant/Felicia (small children who play my siblings- we are annie’s younger siblings) and sitting on the edge of techie circles and trying to avoid jessie(somewhat annoying costumer). Whee. (the bit up there about relatioships sounds like an ordinary teenage girl. Odd)
And I am rather lacking in sleep, have developed a caffeine addiction (*calculates* I have cosumed 76 ounces of caffeinated soda today. Dear God, that’s unhealthy. That’s one bottle of Mt. Dew Code Red, one 44 oz cup of Dr. Pepper(with marshmallows and rasberry syrup) and one can of Coke.I’m going to end up with cancer by next week. Cake. )
Ahahaha. All of this has led to irritability, inability to concentrate, incrased cursing, and general badness. Woot.
HAPPY INTERLUDE:
I really like my costume and some people are funny. Yay.
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I know what it’s like to do a boring dance so much you hate it.
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SFTDP, but that was a *lot* longer than intended. And I didn’t proofread it. Sorry.
*gives choklit to those who read the whole thing (prolly nobody) and didn’t get too angry about my attempts to type on my IPad nano (aka iPod touch)*
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*takes choklit* The spelling and grammar isn’t too bad. You misspelled “chorus,” and I think there was a word left out somewhere, but it was legible. You’re situation is bad, man. Baaaaaaad. *gives hug and non-caffinated choklit*
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SFTDP Waaah!!! I commited the Apostrophe Error! That “You’re” should be “Your,” sorry!
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I had to go to SAT Prep yesterday. Not fun. Sitting in a church basement for two hours while all the other kids act rowdy and a teacher from another school tells you things about Geometry that you’ll only ever use on a test that doesn’t even test anything beyond how well you can take it.
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Oh gosh. Roger Nicholson died. In February. Alas.
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who?
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I found a picture of a Dalek in a magazine! *is overly happy* And then there was a picture of The Doctor next to it! They are currently residing in my pocket.
Ahoy, any Doctor Who watchers! There seem to be multiple series that have different Doctors… and I was wondering which one you suggest I watch? Right now I’m watching the one with the Christopher Eccleston dude, but then I’m also watching the one with the Tom Baker dude… and I guess you get my point. Should I just watch all of them? Urk. I probably will end up doing that…
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Well, I’m sure Luna and other Tennant fangirls will suggest you watch series 2-4, which have (guess who) Tennant as the doctor. The reason there are multiple doctors is that he regenerates when he’s about to die, he turns into a different person. It’s also a handy dandy way to replace disgruntled actors.
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i would actually recommend you continue with the new series after eccleston (so go on to tennant, and then smith) and then you can be all caught up with that so that you can watch as it comes out and things won’t be spoiled and it will be a ton of fun. Then when you have spare time, watch the classics. tom baker, peter davison…i’ve heard a lot of good things about jon pertwee but i haven’t seen much of him.
you could also go at it me-and-luna-style, and watch the new series and then go aaalll the way back to the 1st doctor and try to watch straight through
however you do it, i’d say if you’ve seen one season of the new stuff, keep going with that for now. plus then you can participate in our joyous squeeing over at the geeky TV shows thread
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I would recommend:
Watch all of New Who. The Chris Eccleston season (he only has one) is the first series of New Who. At the end of his series, he regenerates into a new incarnation (the Tenth Doctor) portrayed by David Tennant, who sticks around for 3 series. Definitely watch him. He’s my Doctor. And then we’re currently one show into series 5, with Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor, DT’s replacement.
As for Classic Who (Baker’s time period), I’m planning to watch all the episodes, with all the 8 Doctors it covers (Baker’s sometime closer to the end, I’m still on the First Doctor), but as this is 695 episodes, unless you become a serious hard-core Whovian, I don’t know that you really want to try and watch them all.
But definitely Eccleston and Tennant and the current ongoing season of Smith. (Like I said, New Who. )
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There are 695 episodes, sure, but how many of them are missing? Almost the entire first season of the second Doctor is GONE.
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Well, I haven’t got to the Second Doctor yet. So far with the first Doctor (mid-season 3), there have been 26 missing episodes, but all have had fan-made reconstructions, using stills and the audiotrack. I don’t know if this will be the case for the first season of the Second Doctor, as I don’t know if the audiotrack still exists for them (or how many stills, either, for that matter), but I hold out hope….I mean, so far 26 out of 109 missing episodes have existed in some format….So I’m hoping.
Still, even if not all the missing episodes have recons, there’s nearly 600 episodes….
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there are 63 missing episodes. most of them have clips that survived, although there are three complete stories that have been lost. i think all the missing ones are from the first two doctors
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Okay, cool. Thanks guys.
Enceladus- I know that he regenerates when he’s about to die. What do you think I’ve been learning? Nothing?
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SUCESS. I got the new printer to work. Mwahahaha. I feel powerful. Now I just need to set it up with Mom’s computer. Aaaahhhhh. *dies*
And I mauled some crepes. Nomnomnom.
Watery batter + too much oil = disaster in the form of lumps the consistency of boogers, or deep fried blobs.
thick batter + not enough oil = disaster in the form of batter stuck hopelessly to skillets.
Watery batter + not enough oil = burnt lacy patterns of what should have been crepes
Perfect combinations = disaster in the form of squashing everything while dancing around like a madwoman because it actually WORKED.
*siigh* I’m not a very good cook.
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So in school we watched a movie because some of the other teachers were taking the 8th graders on a field trip, and when my math teacher wrote the choices on the board for people to vote on, one of them was Ghostbusters. When I saw this, I started singing the theme song, and when I got to the “I ain’t scared of no ghosts” part my friend interrupted me by saying “I am!”. Then he wrote “Over 9,000” in the votes section next to Ghostbusters on the board. That is how I know we are nerds.
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Except, it’s “I ain’t afraid of no ghosts”. Wrong verb. *is an even bigger geek than you*
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That’s not a verb, dear. That’s an adjective.
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Sorry, miss. *gives virtual kitten as payment*
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If only virtual payments were real…
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Well, sadly, I had only seen the movie once before this. We also did Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man impressions.
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Oh joy, the “big show” is tonight, and I know something is going to go wrong… Oh well, it’s not as if it counts for anything.
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I feel full of emotion. It was dark, wistful, longing emotion, but now it’s turned around to be elation and possibility–but I’m still stuck. It’s all very well making your own destiny, your own world, your own culture, but it’s hard when there’s no one else involved. Somewhere there are other people like me, young people, stuck in the wrong time or place, or without a right time or place, who believe in magic, who want to sing sixties folk songs and dress up every day and take the best elements of now and then and here and there and everything, to be wandering minstrels and actors. But I don’t know where they are, who they are, how to find them. I suppose maybe I’ll meet them eventually–but I’m an impatient person.
It’s funny, because I just wrote a long huge diary entry, and this ought to be in there, not here. I guess I’m kind of hoping that someone will say “I FEEL THE SAME WAY” and somehow we’ll bridge the country in order to be wandering minstrels together. Huh.
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I agree, well, minus the magic and sixties folk songs…but I’ve always wished I could just wander the country, showing people who they are-and I guess the sixties folks songs do appeal to me, but, well, there’s no culture that’s right for any individual. Remember that. If this culture seems terrible and you think of some perfect culture, it’s not, it’s not, the way it seems it would be. Culture is culture is culture…I want opportunity so much, I guess, but it seems to get it, you lose opportunity. I find myself hoping that the terrible ironies of life are someone’s joke. Not God’s joke, but someone’s. Because then I can think that life isn’t just ironic.
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I think you can have a perfect culture of a sort, or one that suits you, anyway–but you’ve got to make it up yourself.
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Today is a lovely day for a picnic. So that’s exactly what I just returned from. Kool-Aid and sushi and bubbles and wind. Lots of wind.
Have any of you ever stopped and realized: holy cake, we’re in the future. The gorram future. Spaceships and robots and spectacular little devices that fit in the palm of your hand yet can access a mysterious worldwide database. Cars that drive themselves, fighter jets that don’t need pilots. It’s the future.
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Kool-Aid, sushi, bubbles, and wind? Why wasn’t I invited!
Never mind the fact that we live about a thousand miles away…
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144~ Ah sweet, “I FEEL THE SAME WAY.” Not so much of the believing in magic like witchcraft or fairies, but yeah. The rest? Totally.
Being a wandering minstrel sounds awesome.
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145- YES. I think that a lot actually. It’s amazing, really. It’s funny to watch movies from only ten or twenty years ago, of the future, and realize how close we are, or how outdated their notions are–how their future is less technologically advanced than our present.
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The present’s more technologically advanced than the past’s future and the future’s past, but it’s stranger too.
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Well, I went door-to-door last night-I don’t think anything that interesting happened besides me learning how to use a BlackBerry, but it’s very possible that the fluids in my body froze because it was so cold and I forgot something. Or something like that. Please ask about it-maybe I’ll be able to remember something, like the time someone got kidnapped. Wait what? Someone got kidnapped? I can’t quite remember what happened.
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She was invited in by a stranger who said she knew her twenty years ago and was living in her former house. She came out twenty minutes later and stopped talking for the rest of the night.
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Er…what happened?
UPDATE FOR ANYONE WHO CARES.
Finished documentary and paperwork ( KNOCK ON WOOD ) for History Day. States tomorrow – on the BIRTHDAY of my topic!!!!! Hopefully that will be good luck!!!!!! ( She will be 130. )
Wish me luck. Please.
Off to make a list….
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Door-to-door for a tax referendum. The only time before when I’ve been involved in politics was when my dad ran for Congress, and that wasn’t quite voluntary on my part.
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Your dad ran for Congress? Did he win? That’s probably too much information, isn’t it?
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Well, If I move to Washington, you’ll know why.
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147- I agree. Although there is a mysterious lack of personal jetpacks, I must say.
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146- Magic realism. People read it all the time, but no one seems to realize it’s really real. I guess realities are all kind of subjective anyway. Everyone has a different reality, I think, but some of them are more similar than others. And there are different kinds of magic. Eh, well.
We’ve been trying to be minstrels together for ages. I don’t suppose we’re any closer right now than ever before. Meh. Are you sure that you don’t ACTUALLY live on the West Coast? You’re just pretending it’s the East Coast? It’s all an elaborate ruse, right? -wink wink-
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Well then. I just polled my friends on their opinions of my sanity and the majority say that I am completely off-the-wall bonkers. Good to know. Not that I mind really, but I always thought it was just me myself that said I was crazy.
144- I agree, in a way. I feel like I’m in the wrong time, place, body, country, something. This can’t really be where I was meant to be. Personallly, insteadof becoming a wandering minstrel, I want to form my own country. My and my friends have already found the place, and we just need to buy it from the US. It is called Trinia and runs mainly along the River Lagona.
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150~ Unfortunately, no, I’m an East-coastie all the way, Chesapeake Bay? Warm, swimmable water? DC an hour away? Oh yeahh.
I have, however, wanted to get back to Seattle since the day I left it. What little experience of the West coast I have is overwhelmingly positive.
Oh, were you suggesting that we’re actually the same person, pretending to be two? Mwahahaha, that’s a possibility. But then, who’s the real one? Am I an invention of you, or are you an invention of me? Hmmmm. Or are we both made up by some random 30 year old online stalker who failed as a mystery author? *que spooky music* The rest of the ‘bloggers will NEVER KNOW!
I have vague fantasies of taking a year or something and just going places. No schedule, just seeing what happens. Living out of a car, busking to pay for dinner, whatever. Just going whatever direction I end up in with a good friend. Then, you know, settling down to real life or something along those lines.
If you could get yourself to Chicago this summer though! We could have a day at least of roving minstrelhood before being torn apart again by cruel fate and geography. Meh.
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152- I’m pretty sure there will be no Chicago. On the other hand, I’m thinking of not making the theater troupe my senior project–using the living history project instead, which will be much less stressful and leave me to work on the Pied Piper Players for fun. Which would free up my summer considerably.
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Hi everybody! Just got back from college visits. Lots and lots of fun…
In five days, I went to…
-Heidelberg
-Wittenberg
-Bowling Green
-Muskingum
-Ohio Wesleyan
Out of those five, three (Ohio Wesleyan, Heidelberg, and Muskingum) have incredibly strange mascots:
The Muskingum Muskies (fish with big teeth: think piranhas)
The Wesleyan Battling Bishops
The Heidelberg Student Princes (repeatedly ranked as the second-worst mascot in the United States- just after the Watersmeet High School Nimrods).
So, a very fun week, although my mouth hurts from smiling so much. And yes, I have acquired an article of clothing from each college (thank you mom and dad!).
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my mascot is a poisonous nut. don’t even worry
if you go to BG or wesleyan, let me know. i know people there that i will make you find and awkwardly say hello to!
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145- I do. There’s a quote I came across in an older book about the space shuttle from Leonard Nimoy that went something like “We are now living in the futures envisioned by science-fiction dreamers not twenty, thirty years before.” It really is incredible, now much we can do, and how quickly speculation becomes reality.
I got my class ring! It’s white gold with a purple stone in the center that has a starburst engraved in it, and there’s a Cross Country symbol on one side and an Honor Society symbol on the other. My initials are engraved on the inside.
I’m going to have a two-person Yuri’s Night party with my friend Hannah at her building on Sunday. We’re going to watch SF movies and eat snacks and listen to music from the space-related playlists we’re each writing independently. And I’ll get to watch her play Mass Effect, which is her favorite video game ever and the one she talks about to the degree that Luna talks about Doctor Who.
It’s going to be really, really fun.
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Did anybody watch Survivor last night? I’m not sure what to think. On one hand, the Villains are dysfunctional beyond repair. On the other hand, J.T’s idea that he might give the immunity idol to Russell… ay ay ay…
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153~ *sniffle* Oh well.
What are you doing for a living history project? Coming to the east coast and camping with meeee?! That would be awesome.
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157- I wish! No, it’s my town’s…um…hm…how do I not give things away? It’s a living history project, in which local high-schoolers learn about interesting and/or eccentric people from the town’s history, and learn to dress, talk, and act like that person, then go to classrooms, club meetings, and other places in costume, and interpret that person for the audience. It sounds like a lot of fun and involves a great deal of research, + acting + costume, so I’m excited. And I can get a senior project credit for it, but it always seemed like something of a cop-out, but I don’t think anyone else is doing the same thing and I don’t want to have to stress out about Pied Piper Players; I’d rather just do it for fun and have a fairly simple senior project.
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X-men movie marathon online wooooo!
An excellent start to the weekend. I love Hugh Jackman. And his jawline. Mmm. Wolveriiiiine
I love superhero* movies so much
(*Yes, they’re technically mutants, but this is the same category of movie)
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yay, x-men! and yums, hugh jackman. wolverine is the best
man now i want to watch x-men
but today i am going to see how to train your dragon! and then we are going to a celtic rave! (yes, a celtic rave. i love college)
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158~ No, that’d be perfect for you! Not a cop-out at all. It’s not cheating if you choose something interesting, you’ll still be putting plenty of work in, but you’ll enjoy it. Don’t feel guilty, savor it.
But seriously, that is like the most perfect project for you ever, acting, history, dressing up. All you need is to impersonate a sailor and musician and you’ve got your bases covered.
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Yeah, so, Grease didn’t go so well. I literally had to go off the stage to look for Danny who didn’t go on his queue, and in the process we had to skip the scene entirely. Very stressful night.
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Awww…*hug*
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I love music. Especially playing in a chamber music group.
You know, when you reach that place where everyone knows intuitively what they have to do and everyone is blending their sounds together just right and the music is just pouring out and it’s magical? And you feel as though you and your fellow musicians are linked together, just for a little while.
…..and it’s only the second week since we met each other and got our music. This group is awesome, and I’m glad my teacher put us together.
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It seems like everybody’s doing/has done a play/performance of some sort. I know Aggie did Annie, and somebody else is now doing it. Flishy’s did Grease, and Marfwarrior’s doing some play with Annie in the name which I can’t remember. I’m doing Sense and Sensibility (I’m playing the mother. Mrs. Dashwood.) Fireh’s doing some sort of thing which doesn’t sound like a play but is some sort of musical performance.
Who else is doing something?
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Well, our school performance was back in February, but we performed an original fairy tale skit. I was Little Red Riding Hood.
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163- I’m stage manager for our school play, Murdered to Death.
Which opens next weekend >.<
X-Men update: Watched movies one and two last night, going to try to watch the third today but apparently I have chores and housework and other such nonsense that mom says must get in the way of my Wolverine-watching. Hmph.
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Yesterday I went to the library. It was the first time I’ve gone to the library this year. I checked out three books, my sister checked out three books– one of which I plan on reading–, renewed some books for a school project and saw the April issue of Muse.
*sniff* It’s been so long…I’m going to have to go to the library more often, both for Muse and to pick up that copy of Dracula that I started a couple years ago and never finished. I didn’t stay long enough to read the magazine, but I did read the first page. And the Kokopelli & Co. comic. And I flipped through everything else. *sigh* Must go to library again…
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164- Murdered to Death?
Yay, Discovery’s mission has been extended a day! And they’re spacewalking tonight!
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It has been found (after 30 minutes of searching….). And if you have to ask what “it” is, well….You don’t know me very well, do you?
Just google “watch series”, first link, you can find it there.
Off to snag some food and then back to munch on my quesadillas whilst watching it. (Really, you still don’t know what “it” is? Doctor Who.)
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Grease again today, and tomorrow!
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Good luck, now!
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162~ That sounds lovely! I’m gad you have a good group to play with. For awhile my mom, one of her friends and I were playing as a trio for fun (cello, viola and violin, respectively), and it was wonderful, being good friends just seemed to perfectly transition over into our music, it was like having a conversation with music instead of words. Absolutely wonderful.
I went with some friends to a used prom/formal dress sale at a local church, mainly to see them and for fun, seeing as the only prom I was interested in attending was last night ( ), but it was fun. I found this absolutely gorgeous dress, it was bright red, with silver beads on the bodice part, and some sequins on the skirts. It was strapless (eep!), so extremely tight on top, and then had this INSANELY huge skirt to it. Seriously, it was like wearing a hoop skirt, only it was layers (like crinolines) underneath, instead of just empty like hoopskirts. It was pretty much an awesome dress. I seriously considered buying it just because it was so gorgeous and fit perfectly, but, where/when would I ever wear it?! and where would I put it? It certainly wouldn’t fit in my room or my clothes chest, and I’m not sure my mom would let me out of the house in it (being strapless and all), but I’d have totally worn it.
I seriously wonder if I should have gotten it. Meh. Probably at some point I’ll be mad that I didn’t, but oh well.
I have a picture at least.
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162, 169 – I love playing in a chamber ensemble ie quartets, quintets etc. In our school string orchestra our teacher promised us we would do chamber groups later in the year (because we’re the most advanced class out of 4, so we can cope with this things), even splitting us up into groups.
~a random digression~ OK, so there’s a sort of funny story about the splitting us up into groups thing. She said they weren’t going to be according to level, and mixed up so good people would be with less…good people.
However, she then went on to choose the first two desks of first violins (which includes me! Joy! *loves being concertmaster*), second violins, the best viola (we only have three) and the best two cellos (out of five) for my group. And we get the only bass. <– is a sign of how much she loves us. Kidding! Not really…
The next group: third and fourth desks of first and second violins, the second-best viola, and the two cellos who aren't the best but who aren't the worst.
The last group: all the remaining people (ie everyone who sits at the back of their section).
It was pretty obvious to everyone that it was arranged by skill level, but I'm not complaining because it means she'll choose a slightly more advanced quartet/quintet for our group and a slightly easier one for the other groups.
The only thing is she's been 'ordering the music' for quite some time now, and our class is beginning to think we'll never get the chance to play any chamber music. Which is a pity, because we did it in 6th grade once and it was very fun. Except…I was second violin. (I didn't mind too much really. Why did I even say that?)
I suspect that we've been too busy the entire year – the first semester was no good because we were preparing our piece for the competition (which we WON! and haven't had the party for it yet), and it should have been the second semester (now) but we've been practising stuff for our performance in the school gathering on the 19th and our final concert in late May (with the Upper Primary and High School strings classes) which we always do. ~random digression ends, for now~
Which sucks, if we don't get to play chamber. Playing in an orchestra and playing in a quartet are different.
Anyway, the point of all this random digression was to make my point that playing chamber music is awesome. It is.
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Just got back from beautiful, sunny, rainy, Hawai’i! I had a blast, doing lots of cool stuff, which I’m too lazy to explain right now…
But I’m really glad to be back, even if I did catch something there…
I will totally reply to something…soon…when I’m not jet-lagged.
I promise.
Just wanted to say I’m not dead! You guys sound like you’re having fun, playing your chamber music and whatnot.
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So…it’s 8:27 am and I am trying to finish my French homework before my tutor comes, because I always, always leave it to the last minute. Such are the facts of life. And I’m taking DELF B2 on April 26th and 28th! *is scared* *dies* You only need 50/100 to get the diploma thingy though, so I think I’ll pass.
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You can do it! They’re a lot less strict about passing than I feared and my comprehesion orale sucked because there was so much background noise on the tape.
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Sorry, I meant that I got like 16,5 points anyway.
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72 (Luna the Lovely): Ouch. Well, at least you are unlikely forget it again, so you needn’t worry about repeating the experience. (In your towel!)
72.3.1.1 (Rebecca Lasley): May I ask how you got out again?
126 (Luna the Lovely): All Cracker Jacks that I have ever experienced have come in boxes. Bags…just sound so…un-classic. (“Tradition! Tradition…!” Ahh…Tevye says–er, sings–it so well.)
164 (Jadestone): Murdered to Death? That’s a great title.
To everyone involved with a performance of some sort: Break a leg (or good luck, if you prefer it) and remember that mistakes don’t spell the end of the world. Indeed, they sometimes make a performance better!
RE: Easter eggs: Has anyone else here ever used rubber bands while dying eggs?
A box of Hot Pink Bunny Marshmallow Peeps appeared in my house over Easter! I plan to pose some and take photos. One was blown up in the microwave. It was just barely edible afterward.
They have made no visible attempts to infiltrate the building, but I trust them not a bit. *Eyes Bunnies with suspicion*
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My date finally came around to the side of the gas station and saw me hanging out the window. I think we had to get someone to let me out.
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Ah. Thanks. That’s a good deal better than the various scenarios I had imagining: Someone driving by saw you and stopped to see what was going on, someone saw a seemingly disembodied hand waving frantically and called the police, you spent part or all of the night in the restroom until someone opened it and found you, etc. (These seem far more bizarre in text than they did in my head.)
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Probably some of the same scenarios that went through my head at the time.
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True, very true. Not to mention, I have yet to work up the….courage?….to once again venture out in merely a towel, yet.
Yes, bags are very un-classic. Takes half the fun out of it. Plus, even thought I think they taste like I remember, I don’t like the taste as much as I remember. Ah, well.
HPB Peeps? We used to get those all the time, except my sis and I stopped liking Peeps, so….They’d always go stale long before we ate them, so finally Mom just stopped getting them for us.
But speaking of bunnies…..The rabbits on campus have become more active. There was one dashing across the street amidst a fair number of people yesterday, looking positively terrified. I mean, it’s eyes were practically rolling in terror.
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My future roommate called me a pink bunny the other day. (I was wearing a pink shirt and a pink jacket.) *is slightly scared* It wasn’t hot pink, though…
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HPB Peeps? A box of them turned up on our doorstep on Easter. We thought they were back for revenge after the Kokon. Upon closer examination, our mom was found responsible.
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I got some in my easter basket. I think I’ll go eat some right now…
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173~ Rubber bands for Easter eggs: Yes.
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SFTDP
Prepare yourself, this turned out more emo than I had planned.
I just went down to the burnpile with my concertina and played for a bit, just for myself, for fun. Orion was right overhead, so I like to think he was listening, but mainly it was just for me. (Orion and I are buddies. We talk a lot. or I talk, he listens.)
Anyway, I was just sitting there, playing some tunes, singing a bit, feeling that lovely warm feeling that you only get from being next to a fire, enjoying the stars, feeling kind of liberated from my phone and computer an ipod that I’d left in my room, just…..savoring the moment.
And I’m thinking, what am I doing, really? What do I want to do, and why am I not doing it? Right now, at this point in my life, I want to be playing music and having adventures. I want to have friends around, I want to create music with people I love, I want to pursue my dreams, and I want to learn from people. I want to sit around all night with friends telling stories, singing songs, just enjoying each other’s company. I want to maybe play some gigs, get a stage high, collaborate with others. I want pick-up sessions, I want cigar smoke and rum fumes even! I just want to be doing what I love, you know?
And I’m thinking, why aren’t I? I mean, yeah, I have those experiences, i know they’re out there, but why don’t I do it more? Why do I only get to play music with friends a few times a year? Why do I have to wait around for it? If I truly love it, shouldn’t I be out there pursuing it?
And then I remember, I live in podunk MD, I don’t have a driver’s license, and those friends live far away, doing such things costs money and I don’t have a job, etc. etc. But part of what I want to do is to play for money! Agh.
And for the time being at least, I depend on my parents to get me to such places, and mom always gets all cranky because she can’t hear what people say between songs, and she acts the perfect martyr or puts me down, so I figure it’s easier to avoid what I love than to have it turn into a torture session.
And dad doesn’t really get it, even when he’s around.
*sigh*
I’m not really sure I want to be me, but at the same time, I don’t know exactly who I want to be either.
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175- I feel like that sometimes too… See, I live in the middle of suburbia, but HARDCORE suburbia. If you go down my street, it’s the same house over and over and over again (except for my house). My true love is nature, so to be subjected to this suburban wasteland is like, torture. I hate it. Of course, there’s a preserve near my house, a few blocks away, but my mom is so strict, I never get to go there without being with her. It’s sort of ridiculous. I mean, I’m in high school. How many times have I been there? It’s not like I’m going to get lost; I know my way around. It’s only about 10 acres, most of which is taken up by the lake. The path is circular, and you can always see a road. So I don’t get it. *sigh*
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I had another foreign congress this weekend, and our delegation won Best D! (That’s best delegation to all of you non-congress people. :D)
Thankfully, I got a great committee (Environmental Affairs!) and met some great people. This was definitely one of the better congresses. I thought I’d at least get a shout-out for my committee, but I guess they don’t like freshmen… Nobody likes freshmen. I sat down with a few seniors who I sorta knew at lunch. “We don’t sit with freshmen”, they said, and got up and walked away. Rude.
Oh, I’ll tell you how I messed up in front of everyone! I was in plenary (that’s mostly everyone debating in the auditorium) and I got up to speak on a bill. I was all right at first, but then I started getting nervous and forgetting my points. Here’s what I said:
“I want to bring a point that no one has mentioned before. And I just forgot that point. Darn. I’m open.”
Another one:
Me- “Permission to quote from the bill?”
Chairs- *not paying attention because they were talking about something important*
Me- “All right, section two of the bill states that…”
I had fun, regardless of all my mess-ups. You can’t not have fun at congress.
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Hey, congratulations! That’s so mean of the seniors, though. ( OMGeorge, I totally just blanked on how to make one of those frowning evil smileys. )
*smacks forehead* That’s right, that one is : evil: , and the other one is : twisted: .
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Oh, it’s fine. Seniors don’t like anyone.
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Well, I’m glad you handle forgetting things well. I’d probably just stammer and make a fool of myself.
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Oh, don’t worry, I’ve done that plenty of times.
The worst is when you come down from the stage and the whole delegation goes, “(name of delegation) FRESHMAN! *clap clap clapclapclap*”.
Way embarrassing after you mess up.
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144) MEMEMEME! Create new world happy wandering actor yay! Must… dress… in Renessiance… clothing… *dies*
So I’m back from Mexico, having built one house for a three-person family. There’s sappy stuff to tell, and non-sappy stuff. Non-sappy stuff will be told as needed. Sappy stuff all pours out right now. Props to whoever gets through the whole schpiel.
Mexico was both better and worse than I expected… I mean, so many kids were running around barefoot, totally unsupervised and uncared about by their working parents almost every day. It seemed like one might expect a third-world country to be, right? But nearly every day, as my team of students nailed together walls and mixed concrete and had stucco fights, we would hear Coldplay playing. They took the money they could spend on food and water and used it on music to make the world a little brighter And another team was building a house on a street with six kids on it, all named Jesús, and they had spent the money on a football (soccer ball) to play with. These are kids who looked so fantastically happy when we shared our PBJ sandwiches with them I thought I would cry.
But the real clincher for me was on the last day of building, soon before we handed over the keys to the new house to the family’s father. We had a little time before we had to go back to camp, so one of our team’s adult leaders decided to have us build a front porch to the house. The porch itself turned out just fine, a little slab of concrete in front of the door, but it didn’t mean much until Andrew, a kid on my team, suggested we write something on it. We ended up putting BIENVENIDOS (Welcome) on it, and when our student leader was writing it in with a sixteen-penny nail, it hit me.
We weren’t just building a house for this family. We were building a home. The house that they had lived in previously was the tiniest living space I’d ever seen, with walls made of cardboard and plywood leaning up against each other. Everything was stacked on everything. There was just one bed, and barely enough room on it for one person. It’s not like the new house was a mansion, but it had two glass windows with nice curtains, and we built shelves into the walls, and painted blue trim on the roof. It had stable walls and a stable roof, and it won’t fall over if a hurricane or an earthquake comes. And when we carved BIENVENIDOS into that front porch, it turned into more than a place to stay, with walls for the wind and a roof for the rain, it turned into just as much as a home as the one I’m sitting in now.
When we handed over the keys to the father, I don’t think anyone had dry eyes. There were only two people who spoke a word of Spanish on our team, one of them being me and the other being Andrew, and one of our student leaders asked him to translate. She said that this work had affected us as much as it had affected him [the father], and we were so, so grateful for the chance to come down here and do this, and on, and on. Once she had stopped, Andrew just turned to the father and said, “Gracias.†And that was enough. It really was. Because to change the world, to change a life, is really the most beautiful thing in the world. It made me feel so, so happy, because the world is a different place. Because of us. Because of me.
I get to go to Mexico three more times over my high school years. Rest assured I won’t miss it for the world.
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Er GAPAS: On the calendar, for the Towel Day entry, it says “it’s an H2G2 thing”. Hitchhiker’s To Guide To?
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Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s an H2G2 thing, too.
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Er, I think Piggy meant that that should be HG2G? Or, based on Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, HHG2G?
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In the canonical abbreviation for HGttG, you ignore “to the” and credit “hitchhiker’s” with two “h”s. So “Hitchhiker’s” = H2, and “Guide to the Galaxy” = G2.
The abbreviation arose in the pre-chatspeak era, before the numeral 2 became a common abbreviation for the preposition “to.”
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So it should be H2GMB
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I always though it was HG2G.
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THANK you. I used that abbreviation once and eveyone started “yelling” at me.
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175- That’s why you form a troupe of wandering minstrels. Just get your friends, get in your car (you have a car, right?) and start traveling across the country, busking as you go for food and gas money. Maybe you should take some money with you just so if your busking doesn’t work too well you can still eat dinner. I’m honestly not sure how old you are…s…eventeen? But you’re eighteen soon, right? Or already? ANYWAY, hurry and finish up your schooling, and soon you’ll be old enough to leave. Promise your parents you won’t get into drugs, smoking, or alcohol and promise to write them every week and come back to visit occasionally…and then just drive around the country. And come see ME!
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179~ I do have a car…..but I kind of need dad’s mechanical wizardry to keep in going though. I’m 17, 18 in May. And when I can leave, I’ll definitely come see you! *sigh*
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So, how about that Imaginary City? Yeah, I know there’s Screnzy, but still.
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Wow. I just dug out this old school thing-from third grade- we had done this poetry thing. And wow. This poem I wrote…. *cracks up laughing* Ah, the creativity of an eight-year old. I remember me and my best friend were going to invent a car that ran on toothpaste when we grew up, to solve the gasoline problems.
So. The poem.
Poems are pretty
they are nice
they are nothing like some mice
I memorized this,
you memorize those,
I hope you have some wiggly toes.
*cracks up laughing*
Just…. Wow. I was quite the….unique….poet.
And underneath the poem, we have a drawing of a little mouse and a piece of cheese in front of it’s little whiskered pink nose. And it’s written in very precise cursive. It’s impossible not to laugh at it. XD
And that concludes the random thoughts of the day.
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My poetry, circa second grade:
Some winds blow down flowers
Some winds blow down trees
But never, ever, ever, ever
Will a wind blow down me.
Talented little children we were, weren’t we? xD
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Yours is cute, Tesseract! It has a pretty good rhythm, which most kids don’t understand at that age, and it doesn’t rhyme, which also hangs a lot of kids up. In third grade, I wrote a poem that got published in the local paper, but I can’t find it now.
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No, it was supposed to rhyme.we were doing a poetry unit in school. I guess “me” was the best rhyme I could come up with for “trees”?
Haiku from that same unit:
The bird freely flies
Across mountains, through the skies
Birds roam forever
I was so proud of that one…
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Hm.. One of early attempts at poetry:
Tick Tock
Goes the clock
I find it a silly talk.
Sounds like something Winnie the Pooh would write.
I think I also wrote something about the sun. Let’s see…
Oh sun, you light my days
Oh sun, you bring new ways
That one was somewhat later than the clock. Still rather… Unique.
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Early attempts at poetry? I shudder to think of it.
Here’s one I remember, in honor of my friend’s pet rabbit.
Minxie
Sorta’ yellow, white and brown
These aren’t colors to make me frown.
These are the colors of Minxie’s coat,
For that I think I’ll give him an oat.
Running, hopping, playing too,
Minxie, Minxie, we love you!
(So you see, though it was in praise of a rabbit, at least it wasn’t a hot pink one….)
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I remember my first haiku that I was very proud of…
I like to go to
The beach. I wiggle my toes
In the cold water
I don’t think I understood the concept of lines being, you know, separate lines.
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That’s what I do whenever I have to write a haiku. I sort of suck at them.
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I believe I wrote two poems in my youth, spaced very far apart. One, when I was about five, consisted of about three lines and an irregular meter. Another, some three or four years later, was considerably longer and better-written, though probably very bad. I can’t remember the second and am ashamed to admit that I remember the first.
181- Well yeah. I’m pretty sure none of the writers in that one (‘cept TMFA) are doing Screnzy…but, well.
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Earliest attempt at poetry (that I remember, anyway):
We are mice
We think it’s nice
To skate on ice
While eating rice
…etc, etc. There was a part about cats and dogs…
Today I saw a bumper sticker (one of those ‘support’ ribbon ones) that said: “Support Zombies”
It pretty much made my day.
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“Support Zombies”? I want that sticker now.
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When I was five I wrote a poem with the phrase “midnight sun”. If I had it here at college, I would post it. I might have before, though. GAPAs, if you get a chance, could you try searching MB for it?
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Hi, oxlin,
You mentioned the poem back in 2006. It’s comment #10 in this thread: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=492
But I couldn’t find the actual poem itself.
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Happy Yuri’s Night/Day, everybody! I wasn’t able to attend any of the parties, unfortunately ( ) but I told my science teacher about it, because we are learning about astronomy right now. You know what’s interesting, is that there’s no ‘official’ party in Hong Kong but there is one in the city where my maternal grandparents and cousins live, in the south of China. Anyway, I <3 astronomy and space. Congratulations, Mr Gagarin, 49 years too late. It's so sad, the way he died. [minute of silence] And let's not forget the first ever launched space shuttle. *passes around butterbeer*
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You. Me. Impromptu party. Hare and Hedgepig. ASAP.
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or e-mail us at: advancedzommercs@ineedbrains.aol
Have a good day, and happy hunting!
P.S.
GAPAs: This is a joke in response to the “Support Zombies” bumper sticker post. 136 SM Blvd does not exist, neither do the website or email address. Feel free to edit the post if you don’t like it. (you can also cut out this p.s.)
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175- You talk to Orion, too? I thought that was just me! *Star friend hugs*
182- Inventions: I wanted to invent a solar-powered motorcycle that turned into a jetski when I was in first grade. I now realize that this would be a truly impressive feat of engineering that I could never actually build, but if anybody else does, I would still like to buy one.
Early poems: I think I was about 9 when I did this haiku, inspired by a painted manhole cover near my school that did indeed look like a half sun/half moon-
“If I could stand on
Half the moon and half the sun
I could move worlds, me.”
(See, I was writing about the Phoenix Force back then and I hadn’t even heard of the X-Men yet!)
189- Yes, Happy Yuri’s Night!
I had a pretty pittiful two-person party yesterday with my friend Hannah at her house. We played with her dog, who looks like Laika. (I swear, he does!) Then we listened to some music and she showed me how to play Mass Effect. I named my character Judy Shepard, after Judith Resnik, and Hannah named her character Ellen Shepard, after Ellen Ripley from Aliens.
We had a little toast with iced tea, and I said “To Yuri Gagarin, may he have millions of successors, including Ellen and Judy Shepard!”
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Well, we returned from the State Science Olympiad Tournament (Which I Hold In The Highest Regard And Is Therefore Written In All Capital Letters). It was a lot of fun, and we won twelve medals out of a possible 23 and placed 7th overall (It’s only our second year doing this, and we were most pleased to beat some of the snobby teams). However, I must relate the story of The Manly Kilt ***which is rather redundant, I know, because kilts were originally intended for men anyway, but it’s fun to say***
In one of my events, the laboratory we were in requires you to be wearing pants and close-toed shoes. Of course, I was wearing a skirt and sandals, so I borrowed L’s shoes and, because nobody else had their pants with them, (most of our extra clothing had been left on the bus) I borrowed T’s pants. It wasn’t that bad, but I discovered some major differences between girls’ pants and boys’ pants, the main one being that boys have no hips, and neither do their pants. It could have been worse. L’s shoes were only 1 size too small, and I was able to obscure the ill-fitting upper half of the pants with my oversized team t-shirt. When we came back from the event, T didn’t want to miss out on all the fun (A had to wear long pants for one of her events too, so she had T’s pajama bottoms on) so he asked to borrow my skirt. He put it on over his shorts, and it wasn’t long before everyone wanted to take a picture, and his dad made him take off the skirt (which had been renamed “the manly kilt”). It was fun while it lasted.
Science Olympiad secrets at their best!
I plan on donating The Manly Kilt to future generations of Science Olympiad teams. Meanwhile, the story of The Manly Kilt has gone down in schoolname history. In fact, everyone is already calling it The Manly Kilt Story. What was really funny was when, in social studies today (which is first period) everyone was tittering about The Manly Kilt. Finally, the teacher cried in exasperation, “What, exactly, is The Manly Kilt?” We were all rolling on the floor laughing, and when we had all caught our breath and explained, she was laughing, too. One of the best parts of Science Olympiad 2010, no doubt.
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That sounds wonderful!
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It was! I’ve decided to donate The Manly Kilt to future generations of Science Olympians, and my mom bought the fabric to make T his own Manly Kilt. Social Studies teacher has suggested “manly embellishment.” There will definitely be some ruffles involved…
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Oooh, SciOly? What are you events? We have States in a couple of weeks (24th) and I do Fossils, Elevated Bridge, and Experimental Design.
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Oooh! I did Disease Detectives, Battery Buggy and Physical Science Lab (regular events) and Microbe Mission and Model This (trial events). I was almost in Experimental Design, but it conflicted with Disease Detectives (which I like more, and had been training for longer) so some other people got to do it, and they did well. Yay!
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Nice! I don’t think we have Battery Buggy or Physical Science Lab in NC–states tend to switch out a couple of national events with their own events. The problem with Experimental Design is that it’s killer hard to prepare for.
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Thanks Rosanne! Maybe it wasn’t readily available at home either. Hmm. Though right now I can think of the one specific spot where I would look for it.
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You keep tempting us with it! I hope you find it
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Did you know that ducks quack REALLY loudly? My duckies are in the yard, near the fence line, and I’m in my second floor room with the window open, and I can hear them! They’re like the annoying neighborhood dog that never shuts up!
They aren’t usually so vocal, I don’t know what’s up lately. Maybe it’s just the spring weather.
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191~ Oh no, Orion and I have been buddies for a loooong time. He’s the best boyfriend– listens well, is there every night, shows up on time, etc. Not to mention he’s [got] a heavenly body. (Apologies for the lame joke.)
But yeah, Orion is the best constellation to talk to. When I need girl advice I’ll talk to Cassiopeia, but she always strikes me as a little aloof, y’know? Not to mention it’s a little harder to anthropomorphise a big W in the sky than a vaguely human form. *shrug*
*returns star friend hugs*
Yesterday Muffy, Dad and I went to Snip Falls for a few hours, and Muffy and I got strange looks. Homophobes.
“Woah, that was random.”
“Yeah, but it’s us, so it works.”
“True. Hey, budge over, I’m gonna sit here too!”
*budges over*
“Hahahahahaha that guy totally gave us a look like we’re gay!”
“Well, maybe we are.”
*getting up* “C’mon.”
*also getting up” Watch out, it’s slippery there.”
“Eeeep!”
“Aw, you can do it.” *swats rear*
“EEP!”
“HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!”
[more weird looks]
“Woah, it IS slippery!”
“It’s fine, I managed. You need help?” *winds arm around waist*
I feel kind of sorry for Phil and Matt, even though they weren’t there.. But that’s what happens when you know someone for wayyyyy too long and are a strange combination of friends/siblings/almost extensions of the other. *sigh*
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Whoo! Remember the math competition I wrote about a while back? Moody’s Mega Math Challenge (M^3)? My team has won an honorable mention! I just won $200 from doing math! Unbelievable.
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Congratulations!
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yay vendy & team! *math pies*
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Congratulations!!!!
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Changed my avatar!
*groan* everything went wrong today. And yesterday.
So, I had just opened my lunchbox and gone over to heat my tupperware of leftover ravioli in the canteen microwave. This enormous jerk in Grade 8- let’s call him Q, shall we?- comes over, shoves me away, yanks open the microwave and snatches my food out, and puts it in. When I say, “Oi!” (mainly because the thought of such a repulsive being touching my food disgusts me, and secondly because my food had been halfway heated. He grunted, “Whatcha gonna do about it, midget??!” I was so mad. Anyway, I demanded that he remove his finger from the middle of my ravioli, and in response he went and SPAT in it. Yes, that’s right, he SPAT IN MY FOOD!
Then Q called me “midget” again and pushed me once more, but this time I dodged, which aggravated him. He kicked me and I punched him in the stomach. Which made him bellow like a wounded elk, I am pleased to say. The bad news? Our headmaster had snuck up behind us just in time to see me whack Q. And he wouldn’t listen to my side of the story at all! When I finally managed to convey the way that Q had upset me by shoving me, grabbing my food, touching it, spitting in it, calling me a midget, and kicking me, he just said I should “learn to use non-violent methods of retaliation. And then I got an extra ten whacks with a ruler and a detention (on top of my other three) for asking why Q wasn’t being punished for spitting in my food and using verbal and physical abuse!
So, in summary, yes- I GOT PUNISHED BECAUSE A JERK SPAT IN MY PASTA!
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WHAT THE CAKING CAKE. THAT IS THE STUPIDEST THING I HAVE READ ALL DAY AND Q IS ONE OF THE RUDEST PEOPLE I HAVE EVER HEARD OF. HERE IS SOME NON-VIOLENT RETALIATION FOR YOU: *shoves all of Q’s friends to Australia and verbally smacks him down for spitting in your pasta* *and other emotional damage* There. I can’t believe he did that to you!!!!!!! *stomps around* Tomorrow, I suggest you pour milk on his lunch. No, wait – that’ll only extend the feud. Nevermind.
Karma, my friend, karma. He’s got some bad stuff coming to him.
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Wait! don’t send them to Australia! Maths Lover lives there!
*goes back in time* *prevents Q and friends from existing* *prevents headmaster from becoming headmaster*
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Instant Karma’s gonna getcha, gonna knock you in the face…
But seriously. UGH. THAT IS JUST SO…UGH. JASDLVGHIRWQLBHRJLKHNWRJHNJJEROIGHUIYT8914GH. *growls*
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Sounds like something Shawn BulPopular would do. One of my greatest comforts is that he will get eaten by Karma without me having to do anything.
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*creatively and painfully kills Q and headmaster*
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How unimaginative.
*carefully documents Q’s movements, social networking, etc. for ten years*
*discovers guilty secrets, with photographic/video evidence whenever possible*
*shows up at Q’s wedding and reveals all to impending mother-in-law*
*sits back, watches spiral of despair and suffering from Comfy Chair of Evulz*
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A bit too subtle for me.
*takes Q to a parallel universe*
*alters his memories so that he can almost remember what’s different, but not quite*
*he is tortured by trying to figure out what is different for the rest of his life*
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Sometimes I think that must have happened to me.
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Perhaps it did…
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Ducky, I’ve noticed that you’re slightly violent sometimes….
( Why did I just put that there? Why am I questioning everything I do? )
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Violence Rules!
Hey, no parodying Bill Nye!
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WHAT. A. (CENSORED). *sets horde of hot pink bunnies on Q and headmaster* ADGFDBSVVDIQNGDFVJSKCVJG.
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Thanks all for your support. I actually did get off early from detention today because the supervising teacher had some family crisis or other. Only one more to go…
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Four people in my dorm got caught last night for drinking and marijuana. They will either be suspended or kicked out. And half an hour ago I found out that M isn’t coming back next year. *is in a minor shock*
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197~ That’s awful! *hugs and non-spat on choklit*
198~ Hugs for you, too.
It’s raining. I have nothing else intelligent to say. I’m going to go do homework now, since I’m doing way more typos that usual.
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God, I’m so mad at some of the people here. Wait-I just looked something up online, and now I’m even madder. There’s a referendum in our town. I hope this isn’t too specific. It’s to raise taxes for schools. For schools. And look what they have to say about it.
___ voters, these people are asking you to sacrifice your own jobs so that they can keep theirs.
What?!
For every school corporation job saved by increased taxes, a similarly-salaried private-sector job will be destroyed. Henry Hazlitt wrote about this aspect of government spending in his chapter on “public works” in Economics in One Lesson. He illustrated his point using the example of a town building a bridge, but it is equally applicable to the schools:
But the bridge has to be paid for out of taxes. For every dollar that is spent on the bridge a dollar will be taken away from taxpayers. If the bridge costs $1,000,000 the taxpayers will lose $1,000,000. They will have that much taken away from them which they would otherwise have spent on the things they needed most.
Therefore for every public job created by the bridge project a private job has been destroyed somewhere else. We can see the men employed on the bridge. We can watch them at work. The employment argument of the government spenders becomes vivid, and probably for most people convincing. But there are other things that we do not see, because, alas, they have never been permitted to come into existence. They are the jobs destroyed by the $1,000,000 taken from the taxpayers. All that has happened, at best, is that there has been a diversion of jobs because of the project. More bridge builders; fewer automobile workers, radio technicians, clothing workers, farmers.” [emphasis mine]
If the referendum passes, the effect on ___’s economy will be the same. There will be more public school teachers; fewer food-service employees, research scientists, social workers, automotive repairmen, etc.
And you know why they’re saying this? Who does this referendum hit hardest? Slumlords. Yes, even in our town we have them. Renters. Who feel that their mission is to mislead the taxpayer, take away teacher’s jobs, compromise education, and why? So they can charge exorbitant prices. I saw a sign that said “Save jobs, vote No on the referendum”. Under that someone wrote, “Which one do you want?”. Exactly what I feel.
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Then, get out there! Campaign! Make people aware of the reasons for the referendum. (I helped campaign for my town’s referendum for schools in 6th grade. It passed.)
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Oh yeah, I went door-to-door and wrote about it here. I’m planning to go to the Tax Day Tea Party rally, but it might be a hard sell there. The media tells me that the Tea Partiers are crazy, but I don’t quite believe them.
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200- Uhhh taxes pay for things like roads and schools and the military and parks and welfare. Too high taxes are obviously detrimental to society, but taxes are really very quite necessary. For things like schools, probably like one you attend. And if the flow of money does not meet requirements, things like music and sports get cut (see post 208).
Economics in One Lesson is (while I have not read it,) a book with a strong free market bias, so you shouldn’t claim it represents all economics- the point you raise is more of an hypothetical. The cost of that $1,000,000 bridge is going to be spread out over many taxpayers, who will infact derive benefits from it, possibly saving money (resources) on, say, ferry tolls. Taxes are to pay for things that benefit the community.
This school may or may not need the referendum, I have no knowledge of the local situation. But to oppose taxes simply because they are taxes is, from my perspective, antithetical to the concept of community.
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Vendy, i could kiss you. you’ve just said everything i’ve been trying to say about taxes for years. People just don’t seem to understand that the benefits they take for granted are only possible through the taxes that they keep demanding should be lowered. I’m not saying there should be super-high taxes or communism or anything, but if people want roads and schools and things, they need to understand that there is a direct correlation between how high their taxes are and the quality of these services. i hate it when people complain about paying taxes and then later end up complaining about bad roads/schools/etc and then fail to see the connection.
cromwell, i am not saying you are one of these people. don’t think i am ranting at you! this discussion just reminded me about a general complaint i hold against some members of society.
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Oh no, I agree. I’m for the taxes. I was just quoting the ridiculous arguments on the other side.
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oh okay i was doing quick-readings being an oh so busy college student and all
(and by oh so busy i mean oh so lazy)
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Considering it was more than half my post-hey, if it was someone else’s I might not have read it at all, so, well.
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169 – Ahhh yes, I’ve been in this dillemma before. I always think: “What if The Doctor swooped in to take me away? Then I would absolutely have to have this dress, because of all the fancy parties on other planets I’ll go in. ”
If it wasn’t too expensive, I’d buy it, I mean, who know when you’ll have to blend in with the red-and-silver aliens of Galazy 678?
173 – I’ve tried and tried before, but the dye always gets under the rubber bands so I’ve given up. Maybe you need reaaally tight rubber bands. If you can make it work, you should show us!
197 – That sounds terrible! People are insane. We can only hope he’ll grow out of it, right? Maybe you could talk to a superior about this, like a counselor or something? (Although I’m only assuming this is at school, for all I know you could have been on a boat in the Mediterranean sea. Headmaster…of the boat. Okay, it was totally at school.)
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I’ve actually rubber banded eggs for several years now and become quite good at it. It’s probably my favorite technique. I would gladly take pictures to send in, but I’ve already eaten the eggs I dyed this year. Sorry!
If you want to try it again, then here are some tips:
1) Use hard-boiled eggs. The presence of an “infrastructure”, so to speak, helps prevent shattering.
2) The tightest rubber bands I have found are the sort that are put around bundles of leeks and sometimes asparagus and broccoli. They are wider and tighter than is standard, so they stay on really well.
3) Given the low amount of friction between two rubber surfaces, it often helps to put multiple bands on an egg.
4) With standard, long and skinny bands, you need to twist the band around the egg more than once to make it snug. Otherwise, it will just slip off.
5) The best place to put bands, especially when you’re starting out, is on the widest part of the egg. This placement means that a reasonably tight band would need a lot of wiggling before slipping off.
6) Expect to crack some eggs at the beginning! Sometimes, when I slip my finger out from under the band, it snaps back and cracks the shell. After some practice, this should stop happening.
Hope this helpful, or at least interesting!
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Ugh… My computer got a virus. I had to get it reimaged. I’m currently using a school computer. Which is a Mac. I like Macs so much better than Windows… And Macs don’t get as many viruses.
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And now I have to wait until tomorrow to get it reimaged because it has a password. *will be computer-less for the rest of the night*
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201~ There are red-and-silver aliens in Galazy 678? Really?! DANG. I really should have gotten it then! Too bad it’s too late now.
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201, 203- It’s all right, the TARDIS has a wardrobe.
But I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks about things like that.
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Considering it has a wardrobe, why did Amy go out in her pyjamas?
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She didn’t know it had a wardrobe?
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She forgot, and then by the time they were on the spaceship she didn’t care so much.
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Today I had an MRI, which made loud, obnoxious, noises and was a bit stuffy. Actually, I had an MRI at the hospital for which my dad is the CFO, so everyone knew him and gave me odd looks, since it is a cancer hospital. Don’t panic, i don’t have cancer, i was at said hospital because it’s one of two nearby hospitals with an MRI and it was more convient for my dad. then I went home (I’m finally on spring break!) and wasted my time by watching episodes of House and reading a really good book. Of course, I have stuff I’m supposed to be doing, but it’s break and I don’t feel especially good, so I figured I’d actually take a break, which will likely cause my mom to kill me when she gets home. Such is life.
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What for???
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Why? *is concerned*
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nothing too concerning—I’ve had chronic, mild to moderate hip pain since september so first they took an x-ray (they being the doctor and all the techinicans), and they said “well, nothing wrong with your hip, but a disc in your back didn’t close all the way, exposing some of your nerve endings. Its not that uncommon and you’ve had it since birth. We need to take an MRI to see what the nerve endings did, and depending on what your nerves did, that might be causing your hip pain, if so there is nothing we can do about it and we might have to place some causionary restrictions on your life. Or, alternatively, it could be nothing and you just pulled a muscle in your groin, which should heal itself and your life can just be normal.”
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Yeah, I’ve had MRIs before.. very noisy.
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195- Yes, I have quite a close relationship with Orion. (Both the constellation and the capsule design)
40 years ago today… “Houston, we’ve had a problem here.”
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If the GAPAs would allow it, this is an article about Neil Armstrong’s devastation at Obama’s actions concerning NASA and space travel and returning to the moon. Rather a sad note right after Yuri’s Night, but important to read, I think: http: //www.msnbc.msn. com/id/36476183/
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200) Awwe, that sucks. It seems that there are a lot more people working for the government than living their own businesses nowadays.
—
There might not be anymore drama next year. Which is saddening.
So the superintendent of our district decides that the district has no money. She thinks. She decides she is going to cut the same things that she was going to cut LAST year, which everyone protested. The superintendent proposes to cut BAND, ORCHESTRA, DRAMA, AND SPORTS. But not golf. Never golf, because the superintendent’s daughter plays golf. So of course you can’t cut that!
And at the same time, the same superintendent decides she wants to build a bigger auditorium. Why need an auditorium when you don’t have anyone to perform in it?
*steam clouds emit from ears*
Bah.
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DO THEY NOT KNOW THESE THINGS ARE IMPORTANT. WHAT IDIOTS. HOW ABOUT…DOING SOMETHING. LIKE….CUTTING SOMETHING ELSE THAT IS NOT IMPORTANT. OR HOLDING FUNDRAISERS. *throws piles of money at superintendent* I think people will get mad at the superintendent for that. They won’t be able to pass it or w hatever.
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peary’s first comment made me curious, so I looked up some numbers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in December 2009 about 138 million people in the United States had jobs. The federal government had about 2.8 million full-time and 2.5 million part-time civilian employees; state governments had about 3.8 million full-time and 1.5 million part-time; and local governments had about 11 million full-time and 3.4 million part-time. I couldn’t get military statistics for December, but in May 2009 there were just under 1.5 million Americans in the armed forces. Presumably everybody else worked for private businesses.
I don’t feel like adding numbers tonight. Would anybody else like to do some math?
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Which means:
26.5 million people are govt. employed (part time or full time)
111.5 million people aren’t govt. employed. Somehow, it doesn’t seem lots more people are govt. employed than not. Perhaps they’re just more obvious, such as census taker.
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Ha! I always suspected that golf wasn’t a sport.
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Haha!
208.2.1) Hmm. Queer. It seems like a lot of stuff on the news awhile back was about the government taking over privately owned businesses…or maybe that was just them taking over healthcare.
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What the cake. On a side note, I want to know all about your theatre/auditorium.
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SOS-Save Our Schools fundraiser.
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I am mad. I had a pretty decent day, up until this incident after school. There’s this guy, G, that I’m not very good friends with, but I end up hanging out with him a lot. Today, while we were waiting for parents and such outside school, we were play wrestling, which we do all the time. Today, G had a comb in his hand and cut my arm open, then wouldn’t apologize. A few minutes later I tried, again, to make him apologize and he scraped me again. I was talking to some other guy friends later, and said they needed to go beat up G for me, and they were terrified of him. Appearantly he has some reputation as a fighter or something. Oh well, he’s going to apologize tomorrow.
In other news, my best friend H finally told her parents and the school that she was dating a guy, um…B. This makes me happy because she is happy and her parents like B because he is quiet, kinda nerdy, awkward, but very sweet.
Ooooo, random book recomendation!! The Oracle at Delphi by…. somebody. It’s a very good, stand alone (short) novel. It was written in the 80s or something, but it was one of those awesome books that I just randomly picked up at the library. Those random finds are always great.
And I do believe that this is my longest post ever!
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204~ Well, I wasn’t really thinking in terms of Dr. Who (I’ve actually not watched it. Okay MB, you can hate me now. *cowers*) But still.
206~ I know only the constellation, I’m afraid. I did listen to the Teaching Co.’s Introduction to Astronomy course though, and it was fascinating. If I could just re-do it for science each year I totally would. I’m not a huge astronomy geek (far from it) but I do love looking at the stars, and I want to learn more constellations and practical (historical/navigation) lore about them.
208~ Zoons, all the music and performing arts classes cut. I’m surprised they’re cutting sports too though, it seems like our educational system puts a lot of emphasis on sports (too much, sometimes, to the point of abandoning the arts and other important parts of a balanced education). But not golf. I’d cut golf before sports.
I’m assuming you’re in the States? If not, sorry, I’m horribly confused. It seems like we have a lot more international ‘bloggers now than before, which is awesome, but sometimes confusing.
Anyway, I really hope they don’t cut the music and drama, because those are such important parts of an education.
It makes me so sad that they seem to get the axe first.
*hugs*
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It’s okay. It’ll take more than that for us to hate you.
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210.1~ Oh, that’s a relief. So, should I test that by dissing JB? Praising Twilight? At what point do I reach unacceptability and end the target of MB’s wrath?
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Hang on now….It’s one thing to not watch something flamablamablous, but something completely different to diss someone who is completely entirely flamablamablous and brilliant and hot and just all around pwnsome (especially when you have never experienced his awesomeness), just like it is something completely different to praise something utterly horrid.
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I am so stupid. The Colour of Magic was on TV last year and I watched a bit of it and didn’t realize what it was. Although I’m not sure if I had read it yet.
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Wait, add to that. I thought we were on winter schedule, with C D F tomorrow. This means no homework, and I did other stuff during study hall. I then started B homework just to do it (Ch. 39 of Expectations -convict revelation gasp) and finished reading. I then went to pack my books and realized that the schedule is actually C D B. *slaps self silly*
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Color of magic is a good book. I didn’t know it was a movie….
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Bubbles has just finished blowing up Peeps in the microwave with her brother. IT WAS AWESOME!!! Unfortunately, they were just yellow chicks, not HPBs, so I didn’t get nearly as much of the potential satisfaction out of it. It was still fun. We smushed the last three of them into a ball (harder than it looks) and then jammed it in the microwave for thirty seconds, resulting in a behemoth yellow puff perched inside the microwave that was quickly reduced to a white and yellow puddle once it came out of the microwave. The only bad part was, burnt Peeps smell nasty, and I was the one that had to scrape them off the wax paper and into the garbage. Oh well.
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211.1~ Whoa there sweetheart, I was teasing! I know, and I have checked out some of the JB videos you and Ebeth are squealing over, and he’s got a decent voice. And I could never bring myself to praise Twilight, surely you know that by now?
213~ Have you ever tried peeps jousting? Take 2 peeps (the chicks) and place them facing each other with toothpicks stuck in the breast of each. Then turn on the microwave, as they swell up they’ll stab each other with the toothpicks, the first peep to be deflated loses. It’s rather fun, in a macabre and disturbed way.
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Peeps are macabre and disturbed to begin with.
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Oh, I know you were. That’s why no sharp objects (or pastries) were flung in your direction. Ooooooh, you have? Good girl. That one with him singing “Old Time Rock and Roll”. Guh. *eyes roll back in head*
Peeps jousting? Sweetness. I’ll have to purchase some peeps just for the entertainment of doing that.
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oh man you obviously didn’t watch the second one i posted because “decent voice” does not at all do that justice. i’ve seriously watched it like four times now since i posted it
oh man i have never done that but it sounds utterly fantastic. of course my next thought is campfire, peeps on sticks roasting above, stabbing at each other because of me jabbing my peep towards someone else’s. but yes. olympic sport right thur.
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i wish I could try peeps jousting, but my brother insisted we blow up every last one we had. *sigh*
I will buy more, lots more…
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214.1~ This is true. So having them stab each other with toothpicks in the microwave isn’t really out of line at all, is it?
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I’d consider it a duty.
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In response to 197/197.1 (Chocolate_Orange)
Oh, don’t worry. I’m a fully qualified black belt and assistant instructor, I’d be happy to take it up with your friend Q…and of course, seeing as I don’t fall under any sort of school jurisdiction (being homeschooled), I can happily kick his but into sometime next week with no fear of detention. In the meantime, while you wait for me to arrive, go ahead and sue him – it never hurts.
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214.2/3~ Tell me the video to watch, or send it to me and I’ll dutifully watch it. *sigh*
And peeps jousting is completely flammy. The only thing that isn’t is if you let them in too long and they explode, covering the microwave in sticky gloop. That’s not so cool. But if you avoid that, it’s awesome.
215~ ♥
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Ebeth and Luna~
Okay, I’ve dutifully watched (thanks Luna).
He has a good voice for the kind of music he sings. It’s not the kind that I’d actively seek out, but it’s good. I wouldn’t mind it if I were to hear more, I just don’t think I’ll be out looking for it like a crazed obsessed lunatic fangirl.
No one, I repeat no one should have that much energy and jump around that much while singing. 0.o Seriously, it makes me tired just thinking about watching that again. (*insert inappropriate comment*)
And he’s not too hard to look at, I’ll give you that. Though not really my type, so you two can haggle it out between yourselves who gets to have him when he figures out that he’s actually bi and crazy for you.
And one last thing, I know he’s gay and all, and that’s cool, but that’s not an excuse for anyone especially a guy (yeah, yeah, I’m being sexist here) to wear polka-dotted short shorts. Seriously. Just NO. Even if you have nice legs, just please, keep it to the bedroom or porn. Gah.
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Why did you cross out “crazed,” “obsessed,” and “lunatic”? I think they were very apt adjectives, myself.
Yes, he is very energetic. It’s one of the many things I love about him. Although I can see how it would make one a smidge exhausted to watch….
*sigh* If only he would realize he were bi and crazy for you. In the meantime, I can just hope I someday meet him–as he is rather known for snogging people…..
Well, as for the polka dotted boxers….to be fair, the white polka dot design is part of the Children in Need mascot–and his performance of “Old Time Rock and Roll” was being performed for a Children in Need benefit. So the polka-dotted bit was just working in the Pudsey Bear (the mascot)’s polka-dotted bandanna. Just saying.
And I would be so very sad if he kept his absolutely wonderful legs to the bedroom or porn. (Well, unless I could get my hands on the latter)
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I am quietly tiptoeing to a different thread now. Something like the NICE, INNOCENT Wungs thread. *tiptoes off*
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Erm, yes….That might be a good idea. Luna tends to get a bit….crazy….when it comes to JB.
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Well, it’s not the most disturbing thing you could have said. You could have said….
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
(That’s not what you could have said)
“Unless I could get in the former”.
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Um. Really, Enc?!?!?!
*looks between Enceladus and Luna doubtfully*
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Oh, my friends can be much sketchier than that. One of my friends draws rather disturbing pictures.
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Okay…..
Well, really, I guess a few of my friends are much much much worse than that. Mainly Z and M, but sometimes S adds to it. *rolls eyes at Z and M*
Z and M sit in the middle of the dressing room listening/singing along to M’s iPod. I quote L: “I suspect that everytime the two of you pause singing momentarily there is an extremely bad word in whatever you’re listening.” That’s the repuation they have.
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xD
Oh wow, I honestly never thought this sort of humor would show up on the ‘blog.
*resumes hating nested comments*
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It’s spring. We’re getting close to May.
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Gotta love May, in that case.
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Um, I’m missing something I think. Or just because in the spring everything kind of cuts loose?
And May is an awesome month and all, not like I’d be biased.
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*sings*
That lovely month when ev’ryone goes blissfully astray
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actually, my first thought was jonathan coulton’s song first of may which is so very not blog-appropriate
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Well, yes, Enc, that, too. Obviously.
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I am laughing so hard right now.
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218~ Because I was trying to be nice. He’s known for randomly snogging people? Okay then, wow.
Aha, now the boxers make more sense. But still.
Oh Luna, we do love you.
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Oh. Well….I don’t mind being called crazed, obsessed, and a lunatic, as it’s all true.
Well, maybe not precisely randomly snogging people. But he has stated in numerous places that he enjoys kissing, and I think most people who know him/work with him have probably gotten snogged by him. Like I remember him stating once that Billie Piper–who plays Rose, the first companion on New Who–was a very good kisser. And considering they don’t actually have any onscreen kisses (well, maybe a brief peck on the lips….) that would rather indicate he was snogging her on the set off screen….. And he claims that he “may have kissed the waiter” when he learned that he was getting his own spin-off who (Torchwood)…So, y’know, if I could find myself in the same room….snogging just might happen.
If we were to state he were known for something….it would actually probably have to be flashing/mooning. he mooned the audience once on a late night talkshow….I’ve seen it.
And I love you all, too.
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*runs from Luna*
*runs back with a very big cage*
*traps Luna in the cage, using pictures of JB as bait*
*keeps her as a pet, occasionally feeding her with JB paraphernalia*
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Ooooooh, JB pictures! *willingly falls for the trap and wanders into the cage* *lives on JB paraphernalia happily ever after, never having to do school work again*
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*never lets her out to see the sunlight, and she evolves into a cave dwelling JB stalker*
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I wonder what would happen if one of our gravatars was JB. An interesting experiment to test…
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I dunno….I might follow your avatar around everywhere drooling profusely.
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Mmmmmm. Cave dwelling JB stalker sounds wonderful. Thanks, luv.
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Who JB would never want to kiss, or even meet.
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well you’ve of course seen the infamous comic-con kiss with david tennant, right?
ohhh yes, people-who-haven’t-seen-it. it exists. go forth and youtube.
and i would have to agree that he can pull off the polka dotted shorts. i’ve seen similarly awful clothes on much less attractive people, never fear
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Of course I have. He almost doesn’t, and then DT does it for him, and then JB fakes fainting from the total awesomeness of kissing DT. It’s hilarious.
Mmmm, yes. He looks scrumptious in the shorts.
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218, 218.1 – I’m guessing you’re talking about John Barrowman… Just a wild guess. And Luna. Woah. Let’s try to keep this clean here.
My friend said she’d join here sooner or later. She’s a tad… eccentric. Stay open-minded. If she starts hitting on Spock, run and hide. XD
Hahaha. Just kidding. She’s really sweet. Talk to her about Spock, Bob Dylan, and the Beatles and she’ll never leave.
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Me, talk about John Barrowman? What on earth would give you that idea….. Clean. Yes, keeping it clean now, although that’s rather hard when JB’s in the picture….
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Well, I would probably forgive any amount of *insert all the crazy things neophytes have done here* if she likes Spock…
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220~ Yup. Clean here?! WHOT? Oh wait, there are the young’uns…..
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Hahaha, that was for the sake of the others… Let them keep their innocence! Poor PM… Scarred for life.
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Innocence? What is that? Oh, yeah, it’s that thing that younger people have before they’re corrupted by the wonderful world of adulthood.
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Unless they’re GAPAs, who got to keep theirs. Especially Rosanne.
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Mmmmmm. Life as a GAPA must be wonderous.
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It has its advantages.
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I’ve been feeling adulthood looming for eons now. I think GAPAhood is holding it at bay.
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Princess_Magnolia? How is she scarred for life?
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222- See 218.1.1
Luna Barrowman. Goes quite nicely. You should marry him. Hehehehe.
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I don’t think he would have me. I’m the wrong gender, and he’s quite happy with his (hot) partner Scott….
*sniffle*
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221.1.1~ I don’t particularly remember being that innocent when I was younger, either. Is that sad? I don’t know. sometimes I feel more innocent now than I did then, which is rather ironic, but oh well.
I think part of it is this disconnect I get sometimes when I’m exposed to non-innocent situations. “Oh, this is happening? Really? Isn’t that strange. Funny, it’s not like I thought it should be. I suppose this is what the ‘real world’ is like? Hmm. Interesting. I’m not sure what I think of it. I wonder if I’m reacting the right way, or whether I’m expected to do something else? What? Oh, yeah, sorry, I was just thinking…”
221.1.1.1~ Mmhmm. You GAPAs are so cute, you really are.
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If you’ve noticed, that’s how Alice (in the book) reacts to most of her experiences in Wonderland.
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Nope, not sad. I don’t particularly remember being all that innocent as a kid, myself.
They are adorable creatures [the GAPAs], aren’t they?
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224.1~ I’ll have to read it then. It’s a disconcerting feeling, when you think you should be feeling something, but instead all you’re experiencing is a passive, mild curiosity.
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223~ Ahh, missed it. Bloody nested comments.
218.1.1~ Aww, it’s okay. We won’t talk about JB porn anymore. I’m sure the GAPAs (sweet innocent dears, bless ’em) are already squirming a bit anyway.
224.2~ Yes, they really are.
(SFTDP)
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(221, 224) Yes, I believe GAPAhood confers a state of innocence, despite the best efforts of youth to corrupt us.
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Hmmm….innocence. Hard to judge for me, seeing as I still am naive and young, so I probably STILL haven’t lost all of it, but…. *shrug*
I actually was innocent on a lot of counts though from what I can tell when I was pretty young, and then I pretty much lost all of it. Part of this has to do with the fact that my parents were/are kind of protective. I mean, they’re reasonable, but they’re also protective. So I’ve been exposed to more things then they know about, but most of them were, surprisingly enough, through school. And not just friends-school, but teachers at school, which is the weirdest part of it. And I know that just sounds strange, but it’s true. I mean, I go to a really “clean” (well, relatively clean, depends on what you’re comparing us to, but for the most part clean) small school, and yet, I’ve had a lot of teachers who have exposed/told us about dangers in the world, sex, rape, etc. Most of it was probably for our own good, and “somehow” tied into academics, but still. And then the other portion of it I just picked up through books, seeing as I spend a good portion of my life at the library. And I’m probably just rambling now, so I’ll shut up. Did that make sense?
Ew, I’m tired right now and I’ve got piles of homework waiting…..
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What the cake?!
Stupid pollen levels. I can’t go outside for fear of getting sick.
So, here’s the deal.
Over 120-150 is considered a high pollen level.
And the US’s current pollen level is above five caking thousand.
WHAT. HOW.
A late-starting winter, then spring being entirely skipped. Everything blooming at once. That’s how.
But seriously- the Japanese news was big about US’s pollen levels being freakishly high and people are flooding into hospitals because of allergy reactions and stuff.
My advice:
If you have pollen problems during your average spring, then you should probably stay inside as much as possible. Keep the windows closed. That’s what my family is doing.
Or, you could take a dose of local-made honey every day. That will give you at least some immunity to the pollen in your area.
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228~ That makes sense. I’ve always been homeschooled, so I’ve snagged things out o books, the interwebz, friends, whatever.
I have a very distinctive memory of sitting around at a rendezvous one evening with the “big kids”, mainly because Becki had kind of adopted me and I was there with her, so they let me stay. I learned a lot that evening. Loads of dirty jokes that I couldn’t recall now if I tried, but I do remember having an education and a half. I was probably some where around 7 or 9 years old at that time, so the “big kids” were 12 through 15 maybe.
That being said, I still often am the most innocent amongst groups of kids my age. I haven’t tried drugs, I haven’t had sex, I’ve not really broken the law that I know of, I don’t drink, in fact, I’ve never had alcohol, I’ve never smoked…..yeah, I’m a goody two-shoes I suppose.
But I’ve been around people who do, so I have second-hand knowledge I guess. Meh, whatever.
I love how we’ve kind of hijacked this thread.
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Innocence-v. 2010. To relieve the congestion on the random thread.
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Among my friends, I’m considered pretty innocent… And based on my JB fangirling, you guys probably don’t believe it. To keep this in perspective, I live in a place where over 600 hormone-crazed teenagers are confined within one fairly small campus. So the fact that I’ve never had a boyfriend, don’t make inappropriate comments/jokes, etc does make me fairly innocent.
As for JB, he has awesome legs. And an awesome rest of the body…
I do recall Jack kissing Rose, though. In the season 1 finale. Because I remember that he says something about how wonderful Rose is and kisses her, and then he says that he wishes he’d never met the Doctor and kisses him.
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But it was just a brief peck on the lips, not a full blown snog…
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Re: Innocence: It took me so long to come to terms with the number of people who smoke, drink, have sex, etc. at my high school. Actually, I still have no idea what percent of people do at least one of the three. I’ve never done any of them and don’t intend to until a) never b) I’m 21 c) not sure when, but definitely quite a while from now. My idea of a fun day is hanging out with my friends, reading, and going somewhere interesting like a science museum. Why anyone would want to get trashed is beyond me.
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Oh, by those definitions, I’m completely innocent…..It all depends on how one defines it.
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I’m still pretty innocent by other definitions, I think. What would you define it as?
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I dunno, your thoughts? My thoughts often live in the gutter, and I can construe almost any comment in a “dirty” fashion. And my sense of humor definitely falls towards that variety.
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Oh, I’m pretty decent at construing things… “interestingly” as well. So I’m not too innocent in that regard.
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I guess I’m the odd one out, relatively speaking, in this discussion.
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Which discussion?
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Regarding innocence.
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Ummm…I think I myself am rather innocent, of course I know that some people in my grade (8th) have had sex, smoked, etc. but I don’t. So is it okay to know that knowledge, or does that make you not innocent?
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In eighth grade? Holy cake, the mind reels…
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Heck, that stuff happens in seventh grade. I’m part of the tiny minority of people that have never gone out with someone, so I would be considered very “innocent”.
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Apparently I live in even more of a bubble than I thought. I mean, I knew it happened a bit, but I sort of thought it was really rare…
*whimpers* I like my bubble.
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Apparently, at one school in my area one girl in eighth grade already has a kid.
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My friend Sam (a girl) used to go to this school where they had daycare at the school. She did not like that school. (this was when Ty was…. Fourteen? So Sam was maybe…. Sixteen or so.)
They moved a while ago, though, to where they originally were living. ^^
But I think it’s scary they had daycare.
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OHMYGOD NO!
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Wow. That was not me.
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That is scary. People at my school talk about that stuff all the time, but I don’t know anyone who has done it. Not that they would tell me.
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Yes, exactly. My friends are all in the same bubble of goody-two-shoes-ness as me, and so I have no sources to hear this stuff from…
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Ay, my friends make me sad. I’ve learned so much about people, just from being quiet and listening, and I really wish I hadn’t. My best friends come from the same super-protective type homes as me, but my sorta friends are….yeah. I go to a party school, and somehow the sophomore class (mine) is the worst as far as drugs/alcohol/pregnancies. Blech.
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Same way with us. I mean, there are girlfriends and boyfriends and such, but as far as I know, no one’s had sex. Mostly people just talk/gossip about it and giggle.
But that’s scary to think that people in 8th grade, only one year older than me, are drinking, having sex, etc. I mean, like I said, I can understand people talking about it, but it’s sad that people are growing up so fast.
Which I guess proves I am more innocent than I thought.
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Ugh, I only just got done with all of my homework. Must have been 4 or 5 hours altogether.
There were quite a few times when I just wanted to run away to Hadley Rille.
But now I’m on MB, so everything’s okay.
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Innocent?
I suppose I am.
I, also, have an interesting way of construing things… But really, what kind of things do I do that makes me not innocent?
I skip down the hallways at school. I dance like and idiot because I know that I stink at it. I daydream, and my imagination is… way out there. As for smoking, drinking, sex, etc., I don’t partake in any of those activities. I’ve never had a boyfriend. I have tried my hand at flirting, but, well, I sorta suck at it. As for clothing, I don’t dress sluttily. I just always make sure I look nice and presentable. I usually just wear t-shirts all summer, unless I’m going out. When I dress up (concerts, parties, wait, I don’t go to any parties…, anything formal) I make sure I look my best. I keep it modest, yet not too modest. A little more over on the non-modest side. But not slutty.
I know that the vast majority of people in my school do drink, do drugs, have sex, etc. though. That’s why I sorta don’t really talk to a lot of people.
I hang around with the honorsy nerds. We’re together for most of our schedule anyway, since we have mostly the same classes. I like us. We’re cool.
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236 – I know just what you mean (re: honorsy nerds, “I like us. We’re cool.”) As established in a conversation between my friend P and myself, there’s “cool” in everyone else’s eyes, and then there’s our kind of cool. I prefer our kind of cool.
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233~ Really? You don’t strike me as a promiscuous, drinking, smoking, druggie, which seems to be the innocent test around here.
RE: Construing things in an “interesting” way? Teehee, oh cake. Yeah, anything can be twisted and changed and perverted.
Hmm, so what we’re using as criteria for innocence is mostly what we’ve actually done or experienced (in particular, drinking, smoking, doing drugs, and having sex), not what we think? It’s interesting.
What if someone hangs around people who have done/do the things deemed un-innocent? Is one tainted by association, even if they don’t partake?
What about people who act like a stereotypical goody-goody, but then you’re shocked to discover has done things you’d never imagine of them?
What about people who appear to make questionable choices, but actually aren’t?
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What about innocence as a state of mind, an attitude toward life — a renewable resource, as it were?
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Innocence as a state of mind….Yeah, I’m definitely not at all innocent, in that case.
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I didn’t say the content of the state of mind. That is to say, I think my suggestion was perhaps understood differently from what I intended, and at the moment I’m not quite sure how to rephrase it.
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Hmmmm. I’m not sure how to rephrase it either, but I think I may understand where you’re going with it.
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238.1~ I like that criteria better.
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238- No, I’m not a promiscuous druggie smoker. I’ve not done anything illegal (with the exception of some internet shenanigans, the legality of which were unknown to me). But if we went by Lady Bunniful’s proposed criterion, I don’t suppose I’m “innocent”. My circle of acquaintances is also more diverse than, seemingly, the rest of the MBers.
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238.1.1~ Perhaps it’s a sense of wonder? A curiosity? An enthusiasm? A joy in simple things? A sense of compassion? Hope and optimism?
Perhaps a combination of these and other elements? That’s kind of what I got out of it, at least.
Not naivety, but just…I don’t know, innocence. In the world but not of it, to use Paul’s words.
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Or as he also said: “Be wise as serpents, innocent as doves.” An interesting combination of qualities.
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I have gone out with someone, but I think that that doesn’t make you not innocent. It was just kind of an extension of the relationship-we were already friends and all.
Yeah, sure, I’ve done illegal things, but only because the record companies are evil and they don’t deserve my money. But I guess that makes me not innocent too.
I do have friends who have tried drugs, had sex, smoke, etc. I also have friends who haven’t done any of that, like fantasy (which is probably a relatively good measure of innocence), and would probably not be considered suspect.
I, myself? I don’t do drugs, etc., but I sometimes have that mindset your talking about. I’m never ‘weary of the world’, you know, but I know about it. I have started to read fantasy more, if that really counts for anything.
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Re: Innocence- I think there’s a fine line- if you know someone is doing something harmful and you don’t make an effort to stop them, you’re not guilty but you’re not innocent either, because you know. There are some circumstances where one does drugs or has underage sex but is still innocent, in my opinion- one, if it’s the result of your upbringing, i.e. drugs were urged upon you at an early age, and two, if you’re the victim of a crime, i.e. rape.
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So really, there is a thick line.
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My junior high, there was a seventh grader who was pregnant in the grade ahead of me. And my high school had a daycare and two levels of parenting classes.
Am I innocent? I don’t know – I’ve done drugs, I’ve drank. But I’ve never had sex, only had one boyfriend (and that was long-distance), I’ve been kissed once, and while I’ve picked up names of various things from internet and living, I don’t think I would know how to do most of them. Sometimes I kind of worry that I’ll never get a boyfriend / have sex, but that’s another conversation. I like fantasy and sci-fi. I l get really excited when airplane contrails make right angles in the sky. I like flowers and music and running and learning new things. I like looking at National Geographic’s pictures. I also think that innuendo is funny and enjoy the occasional mental-chemistry experiment.
I mean, is there a point into breaking things down into innocent / not innocent? People are people, and I don’t really feel like what someone has / has not done / how many “your mom” jokes they make is that important. Why does it even matter?
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Those are good questions. I don’t have answers, so I’ll just note that people seem to enjoy dividing people (including themselves) into categories and then classifying them. Much of that effort strikes me as a waste of time, but maybe it’s just another ITTIHFOY (Important Thing That I Haven’t Figured Out Yet).
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Innocence- I’d figure myself innocent. Drugs and sex no (I’m 14, so what do you expect), illegal acts not really and drinking not really. I go to public school, so I get various jokes and illustrations and know the vocab., but haven’t had a boyfriend yet. I do have acquaintances who smoke, dress like sluts and it’s a minority that doesn’t drink* e.t.c. but my reluctance to cut classes and drink automatically moved me into the nerdier social regions of homeroom (which I actually like).
*but considering that the drinking age is 16, it makes sense. I skipped a grade and have a late birthday, hence the age discrepancy.
Meh. *doesn’t want to study of do homework*
*has discovered tetris and is figuring out winnin strategies*
Maybe if I ignore Screnzy and Geography and English it’ll just go away…
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tetris: if your version is the same as mine, what you want is to get rid of four lines at once with the long straight lines, because that gives you the most points. I tend to leave a blank along one of the walls and then concentrate on piling everything up as neatly and evenly as possible, and then just drop it in when you get one of the straights. It can be risky, though.
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What is Shakespeare’s favorite colour?
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Er… black?
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LOVE your avatar.
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*drools* *is now stalking you everywhere you go* JB as he is on the cover of his Swings Cole Porter album. A very lovely album it is, too.
*follows*
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Re: Innocence (Psst…sorry if this is long) Like someone pointed out on the innocence topic, I would like to repeat that I can speak from experience when I say that it’s not all about simply knowing or actually experiencing, but being influenced by other people. I mean, the people you hang out with can really change your perspective on everything.
Just this year, I started to become friends with this girl called Haley (Not her real name) because she was fun and nerdy (like me) so we got along really well. But quickly I realized how much of an impact she was having on me. She’s new this year, since she moved away and went to a public school for a year, and while she was there she had sex, got drunk frequently, and messed around with all the guys. She started dressing sluttier, and stuffed her bra, and things like that. I’m pretty sure that she’s lying about more than half of that stuff, (Not the dressing like a slut, because I’ve seen her, but the other parts) but I don’t know. I just know that very little of it seems realistic, and a lot of girls avoid her. She cusses (badly) on a regular basis (Ok, so I cuss too, I’ll admit it. but not on a regular basis, and she does this mostly to show off) and can’t stand to lose anything.
It started getting really annoying, and I realized that I really couldn’t spend time with her anymore when she back stabbed me so much, so I tried to ignore her. Unfortunately, she’s pretty stubborn and she still tries to cling onto me but behind my back she cusses me for every single thing I do. I can’t stand it half the time, but that’s one of the reasons why 7th grade is suckish. End of story.
But like I said, I’m still not quite sure why I hung out with her for so long…there were a lot of reasons, (none of them were good ones) but basically, to tie this back to the innocence thing, she made me lose a lot of it, not because I was experiencing it. And she made me really self conscious about dressing modestly, so I started to feel like I should dress sluttier. But the thing is, none of the guys like her – they all think she’s unattractive, and I have to say, I agree.
Wow, long post.
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I don’t think innocence or lack thereof comes from whether you drink or do drugs or have sex but from a point of view. I think I’d rather be innocent than jaded but I don’t think I’m either. It is interesting to think about.
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I have finally figured something out. This girl that sits next to me in Arts and Humanities is a horrible influence on me. She is an 18 year old senior who wants to drop out and get married, except her boyfriend is in jail. She has 3 tattoos, drinks, and smokes illegal things that she has tried to sell to me. She kind of scares me, but we end up talking a lot in class. And now she is giving me a kitten that I am not allowed to have. (This is awesome, though!!! She will take the kitten to get fixed if I give her the money, and then I will have an outside kitty!!)
I do believe she is making me more rebellious, although not in any very harmful ways.
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FEAR THE FORBIDDEN KITTY! *runs away in terror at the epic cuteitude*
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How ironic. John Simms will be playing the role of Hamlet this year, after David did it last year. *hides from Luna*
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Why are you hiding from me? Luna has no clue what you’re talking about…..Luna does not know very much. Luna’s only guess is the David in question must be the ever wonderful David Tennant, but….Luna is still lost.
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I’m guessing he means John Simm, who played the Master in the new series of Doctor Who
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I think that…possibly, he may have been referring to David Tennant because I did see a Royal Shakespeare Company production (film version) of Hamlet starring David Tennant a few months ago. He makes a wonderful Barty Crouch Jr… *also hides from Luna*
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John Simms is the guy who plays the Master.
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ebeth and Enc–ah, gotcha. I’m not very good with the names of actors and the like and didn’t realize that John Simms was the Master….
Selenium–cake, yes. He makes a wonderfully scrumptious Barty Crouch, Jr.
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ohh man that is exciting. i can see him being a fantastic hamlet, not gonna lie
re: innocence – depends on the definition of course. if we’re talking about general ignorance of naughty things, i tend to sap it from people. if we mean sense of wonder, curiosity, etc, than i have it in abundance. oddly, i tend to seem really innocent to some people and really worldly to others. today in band for example, one of the guest conductors was working on his piece and he said something that immediately made me go “thaaat’s what she said.” waters was sitting there waiting to pass out a new song and he just turned around and was like “wow, i wouldn’t have expected that from you! maybe these guys sitting next to you, but not you.” i thought this was pretty funny, so i went back and told the story to my roommates, and one roomie’s first comment was “really? he didn’t expect that from you? weird…”
i guess i’m in a middling area of innocence? assuming innocence in a sense of general worldliness. speaking in terms of a childlike innocence, well, i go puddle-splashing at every available opportunity and still read children’s books and listen to raffi. so you know. who knows.
in terms of alcohol/drugs/sex and such, again, it’s sort of an odd idea of perception – i don’t drink excessively (in fact, the only alcohol i’ve had has been with my parents) or go to big parties or anything, but i still occasionally get invited to them and other people don’t seem to have an issue telling me about how wasted they got or anything. so i guess nobody pretends for the sake of my innocence, because i don’t appear to have any, even if i don’t do crap like that myself
bah. society is complicated. moving to hermitage now. no need for such difficult questions!
i do think lizzie is right though, it doesn’t really matter. you figure out what you’re comfortable with and find friends who feel the same and life just sort of works itself out, to put it in a cheery, optimistic, innocent sort of sense
in other news, sci-fi movie marathon this weekend! ohyes! i am going to the halfathon only, as i have work on sunday (might even have to sneak out a bit early if i want to get there on time). still, 12 solid hours of science fiction is nothing to sneeze at. and i might be going to see kick-ass sunday night as well. also must to search house for metal file for lockpickings (see now, confusion yet again. picking locks is not innocent, but picking locks for the sake of learning how to pick locks (and perhaps to have an awesome and as far as i know un-illegal place to chill) is totally innocent. ((why yes, un-illegal could be rephrased as legal, but…shaddup)) innocent purposes for devious plans: better or worse than innocent measures put toward devious purposes? discuss.
bleargh, i will be happy when the spring game is over. i am all sweaty and disgusting and my feet hurt. much respect to people insane enough to do this tbdbitling thing for an entire quarter.
mehh i have to see if i can get off of work next friday :-/ people never seem to respond to the emails. much better to corner them in person. unfortunately, i can’t ask the people tomorrow because they’ll be working friday anyway, so i’ll have to wait until the wednesday before, which is a bit short notice. fingers crossed, i guess.
i was considering going home tomorrow night and begging for food from my parents before the marathon (foodstuffs are expensive there) but i have this nagging feeling there was something going on tomorrow night that i should sort of be on campus for. hmmityhmm.
ho hum. i’ll stop rambling now, consider going to bed, reject that idea, fiddle around with the intarwebz a bit more, and end up on youtube watching british quiz shows and wishing america had a sense of humor.
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I am having the Worst Day of My Life. It’s not, of course, but maybe it is. I mean, no one’s died, but I still feel like as far as days go, it’s probably worse than any day I’ve had so far, deaths and fires not excepted. I had four hours of sleep, then learned that my mother had called the police the night before because she forgot that I was on the Cirque du Soleil trip.This struck everyone else as funny but was simply mortifying and miserable as far as I was concerned. So my day started with tears and a headache, and only went downhill. I learned that there’s an orchestra concert the day we leave for Ashland, and my not being there is going to lose my A in the class and consequently my 4.0. Of course my drama teacher wasn’t in the school, so I had to wander about looking for her and of course being asked what’s wrong, which of course made it impossible to keep from crying. More tears, bigger headache, apparently my mom called my Honors US History teacher/assistant principal as well.
My the end of the day, things are looking up. I can talk about Ashland without crying and have progressed to a mild depression (as opposed to deep despair). All I want is to sleep or drink tea or relax or something.
I get home, drink tea, decide that I’m going to go to Ashland no matter how it affects my GPA, and eat some food. My sister has some sort of meeting/dinner that she wants me to attend, and I say I will, in the process cancelling my plan to go see Alice in Wonderland (the play) which was promising to be something of a trainwreck and therefore very fun to watch. We go to the beach, and upon reaching home I announce that I am going to take a short nap, and to wake me up when something’s going on, and I fall asleep on the couch.
I wake up at 7:30. The event was at 7. My mother’s phone is upstairs in her room. They’ve left me here and I HATE being left out. I gave up my own plans for this and they left me here and I don’t have dinner and they’re getting it but I’m not and I can’t contact them.
And I have to go on a field trip tomorrow in science. I don’t care; I just want to sleep.
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*hugs* That sounds absolutely awful.
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*hugshugshugs*
I hate being left out too.
That sucks.
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Re: Innocence: I don’t know. People suspect me of being a lot more innocent than I am, I think, because I arrived as a frightened, sheltered creature whose nearly only experience with kids my age was MuseBlog–I wasn’t really sheltered, but I wasn’t used to people being so open about everything, and doing so many things so young. I still to a certain extent keep up appearances, partly because some stories can’t really be told to my friends, and partly because I’m afraid of losing my innocence…but I don’t care so much anymore. I drink alcohol, sometimes, though I’ve never been drunk and don’t find marijauna or any other kind of drug besides chocolate and sugar appealing. I’ve never had sex, I’ve never really kissed someone or anything of that nature, but it doesn’t really matter to me. I can deal now with other people talking about it, whatever, and anyone who claims that something is too dirty for my tender virgin ears clearly doesn’t know me very well. Whether I’ll find it amusing or interesting is one thing, but whether I can handle it is kind of ridiculous. I always tell my parents: I go to public high school. There is very little I haven’t heard.
On the other hand, I think there is a level of something, maybe it’s innocence, in me which other people my age do not have. Something about believing in magic.
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ooh! I like your line about “Something about believing in magic.”
I like looking for possibilities. I’ve found friends here who like to do that too.
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*hopefully refreshes page* *siigh*
I guess you’re trying to tell me something here, aren’t you? “Go to sleep, Fern. There’s nothing happening. Just go to bed.”
Okay, I will.
250~ I know some perfectly wonderful people with multiple tattoos who drink and smoke, and I also know some wonderful people who are in prison (well, my mom does–she volunteers for an Alternatives to Violence Program in there, but it feels like I know them). But if you’re not careful, certain elements can be a harmful influence.
A kitten? Aww! Why aren’t you allowed to have one, just out of curiosity? And is it okay if it’s an outdoor pet? Because I can’t see it ending very well if a cat is expressly forbidden. Outdoor pets need plenty of maintenance though, since they sometimes get into scuffles with other creatures, and other animals eat it’s food, etc. I don’t know what kind of area you live in, but do realize that there’s a risk to outdoor-only pets. Make sure en’s always up on their shots and all, and check for ticks, fleas, worms, etc. regularly.
It’s good you’re getting it fixed, that’s a good first step.
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Gotta love Alaska as far as pet care goes….No ticks, no fleas, no really nasty worms. Just the pretty easily fixed tapeworms and round worms.
but, yes, Pax–definitely make sure you’ve got everything required to take proper care of the kitten. Including parental permission, or else things will likely go pretty badly….
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Yah. I don’t really go out partying, but people don’t think I’ll gasp and be shocked or something if they talk about it and I like splashing in puddles and climbing trees. In other words, I agree with Ebeth.
Though I also agree with Alice. People seem to think I’m sheltered. Eh.
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The only time I really got drunk was
A. around my parents, and
B. I thought it was legal.
We were in Curacao, and they apparently make great liquor. Someone told us that there was no drinking age. So, off to the place where they make liquor. Free samples, and my dad said I might as well try some. So, over about two hours, I got three shots. With water. My older brother told me afterward that I was probably less buzzed than him or my dad (scary, because my dad was driving). I looked it up later, and “The legal age for both drinking and gambling is 18 years. It is not, however, widely enforced. You will not usually be “carded”.”
Thank you. I see enforcement is rather lax, especially since there was an employee watching us the whole time.
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Oh my, I ran home yesterday and rushed to the computer to hear Obama’s speech at Cape Canaveral, and…
ISS life expansion! Commerical partnerships! A collaboration, not a competition! Beyond the moon! Asteroids! Mars! Orion survives!
In the words of Elphaba…
It’s time to try defying gravity.
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252~ That sounds horrid. *hugs* Being left behind is the worst.
Jumping in mud puddles, climbing trees and reading children’s books is the best!
Being sheltered….eh yeah, though not really sheltered (much), I agree with Alice (as usual) in that I’m not always used to other people. Especially those my age.
But uh, only like on friend acts like my delicate virgin ears will be offended by her various exploits, and that’s because I’m “under 18, and I want your mom to like me. So I refuse to hear anything negative about you, got it?” Though, she isn’t too inhibited around me, it’s all fine. Generally everyone else just gives me weird looks if for whatever reason I miss something.
Drinking, smoking and drugs aren’t tolerated in my immediate family (well, by mom. And she sets the rules, so, it’s not tolerated), so I’m sort of caught between pressure from friends and a curiosity, and the thought of being locked up in a tower by mommy dearest if I did anything and she found out. So I pretty much town the line.
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Addition to last post:
(I hit comment prematurely in order to escape the house)
It seems that I’m always slightly outside of the group I’m with. Compared to some friends my linguistic freedom and willingness to discuss or consider just about anything would shock and horrify. Compared to others, my taking a few minutes to put something together or catch a reference gets rolled eyes and patronizing explanations.
I know they talk about a happy medium, but sometimes the middle ground pinches uncomfortably.
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KaiYves: It’s good to see you soaring again.
Just as a matter of curiosity — if it were entirely up to you, what sort of space program would you design? What would you build and launch, where would you go, and in what order?
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I know that I don’t really know enough about the specifics of everything to be in charge, so I’d listen to experts with regards to those. But certainly, I would push for collaboration with the space programs of other nations, including China, and with the commerical sector, because many hands make light work.
The flexible path plan outlined today is probably the best general model to follow, building vehicles that can be used in many different environments and for travel to multiple destinations. There’s resources and science to be done everywhere, so flexiblity is the best option.
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DUCKY! WE HAVE SIX DUCKLINGS, THE EGGS HATCHED!
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YAY! DUCKS! DUCKLINGS ARE CUTE!!!! Names??
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DUCKIES! *melts from thinking about ducklings*
What are you feeding them? You should feed tham Purina Flock Raiser if at all possible. If you have any questions, ask me.
Magnolia, you can’t really name them until you know if they’re boys or girls, and they have to get bigger before you can do that.
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Oh.
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Thanks! I will definitely try to get the flock raiser. Or at least food for ducklings. It’s hard to even get food for the adults; we have to order it through the pet store, and they order a different brand every time. They’re SOO CUTE! Any other recommendations?
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SFTDP I meant to write this in the above post. Not many people have poultry in the middle of suburbia, that’s why it’s so hard to get food.
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Well, you should try to get them used to you as much as possible so they’ll be easier to handle later, but don’t handle them too much (not that the mother duck will let you), and be careful with their wings and legs. When you hold them, put one hand under them, and the other on their back. Try to find some chick-sized grit for them. Finely chop some lettuce or spinach and put it in a pie tin with some water. They’re so cute when they get in the tin and dabble for the greens. *melts thinking of ducky cuteness*
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We already gave them a little tin and lettuce, they look so cute when they swim!!! One even went in the big pool. Awww….. Da widdle babies… ♥
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261-Fantastic! *high fives*
Sorry I haven’t been on in awhile. I guess me being one of the youngest on here is catching up to me. I can’t relate to a lot of posts on here. For example, “Innocence.” I’s only 12. I think you can guess what my answers will be to that. So, I guess that’s my sorta-PoPo…*shrug*
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Guess what? Part of our road is closed because of this ginormous sinkhole near our house. It’s speculated to be because the people across from us had work on their water main or something like that. Oh, and the resaon I haven’t been on much in the past month is because my mom has grounded me from the computer, which stymied my Screnzy efforts and is generally interfering with my intellectual development :lol:. My script prollably would’ve failed anyway, though.
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I was reading the thread and when I got to the bottom I realized LBK said exactly what I was going to say, so I’ll say something else.
I’m going to Art Camp (not actually called that) next week over April vacation. I’m doing a pottery program with my brother instead of the camp program I’ve been doing every vacation for the past 6 years of my life. And this is the last year I’ll be able to do it (age limit — it’s 12 and younger). I’ll be doing it over the summer, but after that, when I’m 13, I’ll just be a helper instead of a camper. Lucky that there’s programs like Pottery and 2D Media for older kids at Art Camp. Life seems to be going by so fast. Before I know it I’ll be back at school, then doing Chorus and Band concerts, then saying goodbye to my friend for summer vacation, and before I know it, summer will be gone and I’ll be in 7th grade, getting ready for the exchange trip. Wow.
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Can someone manipulate these two sets of numbers in the same way, to get the same number (0-9)? It is sort of important.
10, 22, 30
10, 34
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Yeah. Add all the digits in each row together:
1+0+2+2+3+0=8
1+0+3+4=8
Is that what you mean?
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Yes, it is. Thanks much. *gives slightly unhealthy reward* What am I talking about? Today I adopted a potato and called him Vincent.
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Um…
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I concur. Lawrence would’ve been a much better name for a potato.
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Yes, but I was feeling Doctor Whoish and it looked the potato was missing an ear.
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Now I’m even more confused…..What does feeling Doctor Whoish have to do with the name of the potato? Missing an ear, combined with the name of Vincent, is making me think Van Gogh and…..Oh, wait, there’s rumored to be going to be an ep with him, isn’t there?
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I noticed there was someone in the preview montage for the upcoming season who looked very much like the classic portrayals of Vincent van Gogh.
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Hmmm. I don’t recall noticing that. But, then, I’m not sure if I’d actually recognize him, either…
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Van Gogh was one of my obsessions when I was first learning to paint.
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It’s always good to have obsessions.
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*drools* JB.
Most welcome, by the way. Might I ask for what you needed the numbers manipulated? Because I don’t see how it connects to a potato adoption….Is it supposed to?
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LIKE THE GUY FROM GATTACA *has just seen this movie*
By the way, who’s that on your avatar?
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Who’s….. luv, that’s John Barrowman. John Barrowman, the guy whose Very Nice Legs I’m sure I have mentioned? Who was wearing the polka dot short-shorts that Midnight Fiddler commented on from the YouTube vid I sent her?
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Yes, I know who JB is. But polka dot short shorts? I don’t think so, Luna. *sadly shakes head*
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It was for a BBC TV charity event….Honest, it sounds weirder than it is.
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She’s mentioned it.
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I
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CAKE. There goes my alter ego.
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Maybe nobody noticed. *looks innocent*
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You know, I think JB is better than Chuck Norris.
JB counted to infinity- 3 times.
JB not only can believe it’s not butter, he does believe it’s not butter!
JB isn’t the chosen one, he did the choosing.
*awaits cries of blasphemy*
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I love you, Enc.
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But not as much as you love JB!
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Well, perhaps not. That would be a wee bit difficult.
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Whoa… I was just browsing on YouTube and somehow came upon that video. AAAAAAAAH!
I don’t really think JB is all that good.
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1. It’s really pretty tame.
2. You’re insane.
3. Listen to something else he’s sang and perhaps #2 can be modified
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He’s sung. Past tense, sang; participle, sung. Sing, sang, sung.
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Pleh. I watched five different videos of him, FYI. I really don’t see what you people see in him. Now Mika, on the other hand- he has the most amazing voice ever and is hilarious and all his songs are awesome.
*walks off singing “We are young, we are strong, we’re not looking for where we belong! We’re not cool, we are free, and we’re running with blood on our knees.”*
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Well, I don’t know who this Mika is, but I do know that my JB has the most amazing voice ever (in my opinion), is utterly hilarious (usually not in a child friendly way, but utterly hilarious all the same), and all his songs are awesome.
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We all know you’re obsessed, Luna.
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Luna is by no means alone. He does have a fantastic voice, there are very few people who would disagree with that statement. f+h, what vids did you watch? with some of them (such as old time rock&roll) he is obviously more concerned with having fun than being musically perfect.
watch him singing “i know him so well” it is probably my fav JB vid
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Thanks, Ebeth!
As for voice….Even my sister, who just thinks I’m totally mental, admits to him having a decent voice. And my mom, after showing her the Old Time Rock and Roll vid this past Tuesday, no longer is questioning why I think him hot. She said (and I quote) that it [his being gay] “was a waste of manly flesh.”
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bahaha your mother wins at life
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While he may not have the most amazing voice ever, his voice is really amazing. And as ebeth said, in some of his stuff, he’s not trying to be super musical… If your looking for his best singing, I’d try any of his Cole Porter stuff. I Know Him So Well is also amazing.
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Well, I was quite happy with her, as just on my birthday she’d been rather questioning how a person could find a gay guy hot. Something about she guessed it depended on whether you were looking for the “whole package”. Like anyone has a chance with any celebrity they think is hot? Regardless of their orientation?
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haha that is the exact argument i’ve used many a time. “hey, i’ve got about the same chance with him whether he’s gay or not, so who cares?”
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Why are there two Jakob Wonkychairs? 0.o
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I have two email addresses. The one with the JB avatar doesn’t work, so I’m using it randomly as a Lunexperiment.
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You mean you’re trying to see if I follow you everywhere….
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Oh. Disregard the above.
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Erm, too late….
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I assume he’s using two different email addresses.
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Aaaand the Luna-baiting goes even further. She’s so much fun to pick on. xD
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Oh, it’s all good. If it means pictures of a certain Very Hot Individual, Luna-baiting is a perfectly acceptable form of entertainment.
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Would that be anything like nerd sniping?
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I wouldn’t know, because I don’t know what that is….
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Read xkcd.
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you can also switch avatars though, can’t you?
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268~ Yes, but his two avatars are showing up simultaneously. So it’s blatant Luna-bating.
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Yup. He’s classically conditioning me (wait, would it be classical conditioning, or the other one? I forget my psych 1000) to click on his name every time it appears in the recent comment’s bar, on the off chance that I will get rewarded by the image of the lovely John Barrowman.
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*begins making Velociraptor Entry Point signs*
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Umm… what?
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‘Tis Velociraptor Awareness Day today. (woah, I was just tempted to add luv on the end of that sentence. Luna’s speaking mode is altering my blog language.)
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Wait, how are you picking up Luna’s speaking mode?!
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I sometimes add “luv” to the ends of my sentences.
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Awareness? Well, I’m aware they were real animals…
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This is what happens when you share a computer… Somebody did something that erased all of my pictures, files, and bookmarks, not that anything is extremely important…. Do you think that because my free Microsoft Word trial ended this happened? I don’t know, but I need someone to blame.
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Not that anyone has paid notice…. Somehow everything came back, so it’s all good.
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271 [.1]~ I noticed! I just didn’t…y’know, respond. I’m glad it’s all back! Yay! *confetti*
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^^^^what Fiddler said…..
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Ditto Luna and Fiddler.
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Okay, I am posting on the behalf of AlpacaLips. He has a pun for the ‘blog.
AlpacaLips: SilverLining’s dad should post on MuseBlog as Every Cloud.
f+h: Alpaca, most MBers would die of humiliation if their parents joined MuseBlog.
Alpaca: You don’t seem to be dead.
f+h: One. That’s more something my little sister would say. And two. I think it’s awesome that you are on MB. Except for the puns..
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Oh, right! Because Every Cloud Has A… I get it.
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Yeah…..
*headdesk*
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274~ Hi Alpaca!
And yes, I would probably die a little of my parents were on MB. I mean, it’d be cool to have them here on one hand, but on the other, MB is where I have my friends. I get to talk to my parents enough in real life, it’d be kind of weird to talk to them (or have the around) here too. I dunno. Just how I see it. Other blogger’s parents are fine though.
I’m grinding flour, it’s so boring. And my fingers are super cold, since it’s windy and 50s out here. *shivers* I finally put on a jacket, but my hands are still cold. The keyboard feels very odd under half-numb fingers.
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Yeah. When I mentioned the kokonvention opportunity with Errata (*coughErratadidyouaskyourparentscough*) his first comment was: “What are her parents’s usernames?”
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No, not yet. I’ve been bringing up MB in conversations more often, (aka, bring it up at all. I tend to separate life into compartments, so no matter how obsessed with MB I am, my family rarely hears about it.) and trying to tell them how much I trust everyone on there, etc. I’m not certain it’s going well. My first conversation with Dad finished when I realized how late it was and went to bed about the time he was talking about ‘the first step is admitting you have a problem’ and saying I should stop going on so much, more or less.
*sigh*
That and I’m not totally sure we’re actually going on this planned trip. We probably are, but it’s not definite. And I don’t want to seem suspiciously interested.
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That’s the way I feel too. I mean, obviously other parents are fine, but it would be really weird to have my parents on here. I do think it’s nice to have another parent’s perspective on things, but I really don’t need my parent’s perspective on much. (Just kidding, parents.)
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I don’t want my parents on MB because they’d read the stupid things that I said when I was a ‘phyte and the more recent things that show a different side of me that would let them know a bit too much about… things.
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So today is a really boring day when I’m staying home and not doing anything except computering and homework. And the “p” key on this keyboard needs to be pushed rather hard for a letter to actually appear, which is annoying.
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Is Victory of the Daleks even on youtube? Or another place online that doesn’t have spam surveys?
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Well, there’s one site I found that has it. Look for the user “DoctorwhoepisodesHD” and then find their website.
Note: They’re not me. I’m not on that website. You cannot contact me through that website. (This is so the GAPAs don’t snip)
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Yes, it is on a place without spam surveys. Google “watch series”, first link, you can find it there. I finished it about 30 minutes ago. Lots of annoying pop up ads along the way, but….other than that. *shrug*
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Thanks muches. I went there earlier and they didn’t have it, but now they do. *secludes self in bubble to watch episode*
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daniel posted a link but it was a tinyurl and my computer has been acting up recently so i’m not going to test it by following the link while moving massive amounts of stuff around, and i doubt the GAPAs would take kindly to just c&ping. but i at least know that it is up online. try megavideo or youku or something? it is also in my dropbox but the GAPAs did not want me doing teh filesharings on here
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I’m watching Futurama right now… (my dad got a dvd from the library)
Bender is so funny…
((I still can’t believe they cancelled the show… ))
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Twenty-six new episodes are being made, to air beginning on June 24 on Comedy Central.
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I’m being educated about Dungeons and Dragons by my cousin. It’s quite interesting.
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‘Tis indeed. I played for a while, but the group met only infrequently, and now due to college and sundry other insanities (most of them are older than me- I’m the only high-schooler there) the schedules are too hard to coordinate. Just as I was really hitting my stride as a DM, too…
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279.1~ I’m not sure I completely get it, but it certainly looks like something that would be fun to try. Not sure I’d have the patience to actually stick with it, but it looks like it’d be fun.
Laummmmbadadadadadadadaaaaaaa I’m kind of bored.
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Well, it is complicated. My only advice is not to try to know all the rules- you don’t need to. If you have a grasp of the basics, you can easily refer to the books for all the rest.
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Good news! Good news! Good news! I’m a captain next year! I’m so excited! Marching band will be amazing and lots of my friends are leaders and aahhh excitement
Okay, filtering what I’m typing now.
The leadership positions in band are Drum Major (the student who conducts the show and is in change of the band), section leader, and captain. There’s a section leader for each section (clarinets, altos/mellos, flutes, trumpets, and lowers [trombones + tenor saxes + baritones], basses [tubas + bari saxes].) There are five captains for the whole band. Captains and section leaders are more or less equal in standing–the difference is that section leaders are responsible for helping more with music than with marching, and captains are responsible more for marching stuff than music.
And I’m a captain next year! Along with my friend Z! And my friend N is trumpet section leader! And my friend C is lowers section leader! And my good friend A is clarinet section leader! My friend L is going to be alto section leader, and (I play alto too) we’re going to be an awesome team.
The drum major is going to be a fantastic drum major!
I’m so ridiculously excited for next season!
HURRY UP, BAND CAMP
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Congratulations, Tesseract!
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That’s awesome! Congrats!
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Happyjoyyay! Congs!
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Congratulations!!! Have fun at Band camp!
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Thanks, guys!
Unfortunately band camp isn’t until August… but we have some kind of meeting thingy today with the rising freshmen. I’m not entirely sure what it’s for, but that’s okay.
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Yayyy! Congrats!!
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Maths Lover had her birthday party yesterday. Maths Lover went to the beach. Maths Lover forgot her swimmers, so she ended up swimming in her jeans. Maths Lover has eaten way too much junk food. Maths Lover is going to watch Doctor Who in less than 20 minutes. Yes, they are already showing it in Australia. *is excited* Oh, and did I mention I’ve been spending most of today watching YouTube videos involving “Spock Rock”? Spock= awesomeness. And hotness. *swoon**dashes off to watch more Spock Rock*
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Haha. Sounds fun.
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Did anyone take the Grand Concours? i got first in the state for my level. But it’s Indiana.
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Who else has gotten their NLE results back? Gah, it was a hard set of tests this year. I got my first silver medal. One point more, though, and I would’ve gotten gold. Oh well.
Also:
Migraine + 18 hours of sleep + trying to stand up = BAD
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I totally agree with the migraine and trying to stand up thing. Ugh.
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281- Congrats, Tesseract, that’s amazing!
*was never able to play in instrument well standing still, let alone walking*
*on the other hand, played the piano, so it wasn’t really an issue*
I didn’t take any tests, but I participated in a race (no, not the big score, but I’m not telling you exactly which one. That comes under stalking). Anyway, I’m most definitely running a longer distance next year. Anything under 7 km is no fun. To long to sprint, to short to settle into a good rhythm. I’m not good at running fast, it’s more the “start running, then keep up ’til the cows come home” thing for me. And it was 5° celsius in the morning- I knew I should have worn a jacket. Practically the entire race was two minutes slower than last year minimum- myself included, unfortunately. *sigh*
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This one time at band camp…
-A
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Har har.
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Hey, true story.
XD
-A
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I received 200 dollars from my grandparents for my birthday. What to buy? I’m thinking I might strike a deal with my parents in which that two hundred combines with some of their money and produces, magically, an iPod Touch.
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So today I got to go running with my father, which was good. I wrote my application essay for the National Honor Society and I’m going to try and get some writing done.
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NHS? *shudder* Bad idea. Say goodbye to your soul and your time.
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Yeah… That is what I’ve heard, and I have many a reliable source.
-A
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288.1- Well, I might not get in, you know.
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Ahh, Dungeons and Dragons. I used to play a really free-form version that involved absolutely no tools but [at least] two minds. We had rather vivid imaginations… Games could go on for hours.
The dungeon master would start out by describing a situation and casting the characters. A character could be anyone, but innate ability and possessions were limited (by the DM). After the start, the DM would proceed to ask ‘What do you do?’, and the player[s] would choose a course of action that was entirely unique.
It was really fun… The DM had massive amounts of control over the storyline, but the players could exert a lot of force by coming up with ways to get to where they wanted despite the DM’s best efforts to prevent them.
I think the best part, though, was that I am absolutely sure that everyone playing had a completely different world imagined in their head. And yet, we were all somehow compatible.
-A
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Yeah, the free-form version can be fun… except if people are poor sports, it can devolve into “He hit you!” “No he didn’t!”
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Some of my friends who used to play D&D had a really imaginative DM. One of the objects they got was a bottomless barrel of salt. It was completely useful, but very strange. They once trapped a crocodile. They also would turn bottomless inside out.
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Man, I have to use that. The best I’ve ever given my group was the +3 Duct Tape of Silence.
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It also meant that they could
-get past any swamp
-had a big supply of money
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D&D… Don’t play that, personally, but I do play ITL/TFT, which is sort of like D&D, but much simpler. I’ve read the D&D books, and I just can’t get the hang of the rules.
Unfortunately, ITL is no longer in print, due to some copyright issues, which I’ve heard multiple stories behind. Which is really a shame.
We don’t usually play with really random magical items. I should do that next adventure. Duct Tape of Silence… Brilliant.
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What does ITL stand for?
I hear ya. The edition of D&D I play is no longer in print (they’ve switched over to a completely different rule set). Fortunately, the basic rules are available on various websites (all legal, don’t worry) and one of our group members has practically every book ever published. Now, if only we could play more often than once every three months…
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In The Labyrinth. TFT stands for The Fantasy Trip. Either is acceptable. It really doesn’t make a difference which you use.
Yeah. All of our books are from whenever the game was still published, some thirty years ago. Actually, Dad scanned all the books and reprinted them a while back, I believe. But they were originally bought some thirty years ago. None available now, save occasionally on ebay…
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So, basically, I have hives all over my legs. And we can’t figure out why. It’s a little weird… Does anyone know if allergic reactions can happen over time? I’ve always known them as sudden, violent things.
-A
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Well, you can develop allergies to things you weren’t previously allergic too, but I’m not sure that’s what you’re asking…
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Yay Tess, congrats! Ahh band geeks. I seem to have a fair amount of band geek friends.
I’m home. I’m tired. I need to wake up disgustingly early tomorrow to help set up for MARKET FAIR! WHOOO! Which is next weekend. I can’t wait. But this week is going to be crazyyyyyyyy as all get out. u.u
I might just disappear. Or be on a lot, seeking sanity. Or at least a good insanity.
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How is MB this fine evening?
288) NHS is nice. I’m in it at my school. Of course, I already do community service anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. *shrug*
281) Congrats TEss!
Well, yesterday we visited UNC, which was interesting. My parents want me to goo there, but I’m not sure. One good thing about it was that we learned that I need 400 hours of service at a vet clinic before I can be accepted into State’s vet school. So… I may get a job now! Yay!
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Ooooh, sweet. You’re interested in vet med? Good for you.
If you’re at all like me, you’ll find working at a vet clinic lots of fun. I mean, it obviously has it’s downs, but overall it’s great, you get to see all sorts of interesting surgeries and the like.
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Dum de dum. Another question. Has anyone ever heard the phrase ‘Would if I could but I can’t so I won’t.’ used anywhere at all?
-A
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sounds vaguely familiar, i think….dunno. sorry…..not much help, am i?
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Yes. I have a friend who says that sometimes..
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Yes and it annoys me so much. I think people said it in middle school.
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No. Never.
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I have…but I can’t remember where…
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No, thankfully. It sounds like it would be sort of annoying.
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my mother says that ALLLLLLLLL the time, but i don’t know where she picked it up from!
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292 – (Look, not using comments just for you) Thanks!
We had an Intro to Marching Band thing today with the leadership and the rising freshmen, which was really fun and had the result of making me even more excited for the next season. The band director talked about band for a while, we did some learning-names activity, and the theme for next year was announced. It’s Appalachian Spring, like the symphony. I’ve heard it a few times (it’s on my ipod) and I think it’s beautiful, so hopefully it’ll be a good show
Then the rising freshmen learned some basic marching stuff, e.g. detail to the ready, being called to attention, posture, forward marching, backward marching, etc. Basically, it was the marching information from the first two days of band camp condensed into an hour. Hopefully they’ll retain it until August, but even if they don’t, I think they’ll pick it up faster this time. They were doing pretty well for freshmen too, I think. I remember I missed the first day of precamp and it was awful, when I got there for the second day everyone else knew the basics already and I was still trying to figure out what it meant to “mark time.” Obviously, it all worked out, though
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295~ Aww, so sweet! :3
I got several hundred songs from my aunt and uncle. They had on some CDs and I said I liked it, so they started stacking up CDs going “You’d like this one. Ooh, you need to hear this one. Check this out!” and I had my computer so I loaded them all into iTunes. xD So I have a lotta listening and weeding to do.
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I shouldn’t be up this late….school tomorrow. I can’t sleep though. There is too much on my mind….ugh.
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*mumbles* Morning, ‘Blog… *is depressed* *hates Reading Seminars*
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Top o’ the morning, LBK!
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*hugs and chocklit*
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Thank you…*feels down in the dumps* I dunno, I’ve just been feeling blue lately…maybe its all the work…*sigh*
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*hugs* *choklit*
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294- Yes, I’ve heard that in several places.
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Has anyone else heard the song “Little Lion Man” by Mumford & Sons?
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Well, with all this talk about Doctor Who, I decided to see it for myself. I got out “Cybermen: the Early Years”. The librarian said-
Hey, I saw an episode on PBS. It was about early robots that worked on watches.
I just nodded through the entire conversation, and at the end he noticed it was Doctor Who and then, embarrased, let me go.
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A good episode you can find on the internet to start with is “Rose”
I just discovered Chameleon Circuit. ♥ ♥ ♥
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Internet-I wish. It’s from the library.
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i love them
and they are on DFTBA records (any nerdfighters here?)
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Random confession: When I was a little kid, the square root symbol on the calculator scared me, because I had no idea of what it was for, but whenever I typed it, it turned ordinary numbers into really long, messy decimals.
So today in English class, we read an essay about cheating, and apparently I’m the only kid in my class who takes APs, gets all of my homework done without cheating, and still has time to relax. Which is weird, because with all the time I spend on MB, I was thinking I was really lazy.
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Eh, somehow that seems to be the same thing for me. Heck, the back of our math textbook actually has all the odd numbered answers in them, and I guess our math teacher either
1) isn’t aware of this or
2) thinks that no one will cheat
and happens to assign us problems from these “selected answers” parts. This has resulted in either almost everyone cheating or people simply slacking off and just not doing the homework since he never comes around and checks it or just doing one or two problems to make themselves feel good. I’m probably only one of several that actually does.
Which is sort of surprising, since the majority of the kids in my school are actually decent students…
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Most of the first math class I was in last year were too lazy to cheat, even though all the answers were in the back of the book. So you ended up with this:
Mr B: *writes a homework problem on board* Who can tell me the answer to this?
Populars etc. : *didn’t do homework so carry on talking*
Mr B: Anyone?
*gets it wrong*
Mr B: Has anyone else got it?
*yell out clearly wrong solutions*
Populars etc. : *talk*
Mr B: This class is insane. Yes, ML/someone else in the small minority who did homework?
ML/whoever: *gets it right*
But at least half the people in my current class do the homework, so the atmosphere is lovely and nerdy.
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I just realized I’m a paleo now. Yay me.
I FEEL OLD
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Paleoship is basically an arbitrary title. And if you want to stop feeling old, I’ve been on MuseBlog for about four and a half times as long as you.
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Heck, I’ve been here since I-don’t-remember when (so about 2 years, according to Who’s Here), and I still don’t consider myself a paleo. It’s all in the mind, you know~?
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Oh, you meant like the paleo accounts… *feels stupid*
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Now go get yourself a paleo account and then realize that the paleo therad is basically another, more private place for ranting and crying.
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It passes. I mostly talk to people who haven’t been on as long as me or for about the same time, so I definitely feel like a paleo, but a year or so is nothing to 3 or 4 years so I don’t feel old.
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Oh my stars, you haven’t been here as long as I have? Now I feel old…I’d always thought that you had come on before me.
Anyway, congratz!
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Days until Wizard of Oz opens: 10
Days left of hell week: 4
Days of production week before performance: 3
Number of songs I play in: ~50
Number of songs I can play all of: ~10 (this is bad)
Number of solos I cannot play all of: ~3 (this is relatively decent)
Number of hours per day I am at school during hell week: ~12
Number of tests I have on Wednesday: 3
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Cheating? Hah, I correct my own papers. So yeah, rather high eve of trust there I ‘spose. I don’t cheat though, even though all the answers are sitting in the book next to me. If I really can’t get a problem I just watch the video related to the problem. (I believe I’ve moaned about my math curriculum before-it’s got accompanying DVDs that explain every individual problem. They’re a pain to watch, but occasionally a necessary evil.)
Paleo-ness:
I’ve been here since the fall of ’06. I feel old when I see pictures from the Kokon wayy back in ’07 when I was even more awkward than I am now. But that’s just because I feel old.
I feel new compared to OLDBIES like the Gaboomba era. Though, I guess comparatively I’m closer to early MB than I am to the current one….I dunno, I’m tired. I’m not making sense to myself either, and I can’t remember where my stash of Burt’s Bees lip balm is. This is a Bad Thing, as my lips are all chapped and I’m camping next weekend with means I’ll be dehydrated which means bright red, painful, throbbing, possibly bleeding lips. Yuck. Do not want. Now, where’s my Burt’s Bees stash?! *desperate*
I also need to finish putting sheets on my bed.
And I am listening to Stan Rogers. My life is, while perhaps not complete, much closer to complete than before.
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I don’t really consider myself a “paleo.” I consider myself sort of an older blogger? But it seems like the idea of ‘phytes and paleos doesn’t really apply to whether people act like n00bs or not. then again, looking back, i probably would annoy myself if i were to travel back in time or something.
anyway it seems like it all evens out after a while anyway…like i remember thinking of the chairman and e~a and everyone as OMG SO OLD and being a scared little newbie to their greatness, but now it is just like “oh hey what’s up fellow blogger.” Same with people like luna, i remember being like “who is this, oh well, some new person i can never keep them all straight” but now they are like “oh hey what’s up fellow blogger”
basically, what i’m saying is, oh hey what’s up fellow bloggers
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Paleos- It depends who’s posts I read first; if it’s someone who I know has been here since about 2007, I feel so new, then I come across a post from someone I remember from being a neophyte- look at en, all grown up! and then oops en has been on here for over a year… oh, right *oldness*
The funniest part is the first post I read here was ebeth’s, and then wrote my thing on paleodom, thinking of PM as example for a blogger where I remember en as a neophyte and now en is “all grown up”… Then I scrolled up and read her post. Oh. Another one of those weird same-wavelength things.
Cheating- I only cheat when I don’t understand the subject of the test (i.e., no-one does) and the teacher quizzes us anyway. Which is a rare occurrence. Or for dates in history (I always mix up the numbers, so four digits = hell. Even more so if it has a day and a month. I still have trouble remembering if Colombus sailed in 1249, 1294, 1429 or 1492 (the others are ruled out by logic and yes, I now know it was 1492).
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I remember that it was 1492 only because 1492 was the year in which Nearly Headless Nick was decapitated….And for whatever reason, while I cannot remember real life historical dates, tie it in to HP? Hell, yeah, I can remember. For instance–and I am not joking, even slightly–the ONLY reason I remember that WWII ended in 1945 was because that was the year in which the Dark Wizard Grindelwald was defeated by Albus Dumbledore. Until I eventually put those two numbers together, I only knew it ended sometime in the 1900s….yes, I am that hopeless.
1492 I think it’s probably a slight exaggeration to say I only remember because of Nick’s death, but not by much….
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Then I supposed it’s not a good thing that I don’t not have no test tomorrow on that time period…
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Trust me, bookgirl, you don’t want to remember when I was a phytie. Erase it from your memory. *shudders*
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Of course. What was I thinking of? Never mind. Oh, hi! B.t.w, who are you again XD
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Thanks
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306~ Not too much, fellow blogger. And you’ve managed to convey what I was thinking in a way far better than I could have in my sleep-befuddled state, or my current mostly awake one.
Hm, so now will the common address be “fellow blogger”? Makes me think of the French Revolution, addressing everyone as citizen. Because hey, that’s the kind of weird connections I think about.
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Indeed, Jacques
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Hallo, fellow blogger. How goes it?
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Have you seen ‘Start the Revolution Without Me’?
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Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood!
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307.1~ Fool! Nearly Headless Nick wasn’t decapitated in 1492, he was almost decapitated. Heavens child, get it right.
And despite the fact that I KNOW Columbus sailed in 1492, I still always want to say 1942, it’s most annoying.
Oh, the end of WWII and Dumbledore’s defeat of Grindlewald were the same date (1945)? I must say, I never noticed that before. JKR’s details never cease to amaze me.
When I finally can remember significant numbers/dates (which isn’t often) I usually garble them too.
So at Jamestown, where it’s imperative that I know exact dates and figures to tell to the public (and visitors ALWAYS ask number questions, what date, how long, how many, etc. etc. etc.) I spent a lot of time trying to memorize the ones we regurgitate a bajillion times a day.
One way to remember the number or days the original voyage took and the total number of people on it (sailors and settlers) is “The voyage took about 3 and 1/2 months, 144 days to be precise. There were 144 TOTAL people on board the three ships. A lot of them got seasick, and there were no baths, so it was pretty gross, and 144 is 12×12, so it’s a gross as well.”
And for the ships, I always remember Susan‘s complement by saying “71 total. Flip that you you have 17, which is how many crew. The remaining number is 54, that’s the passengers.” And I only remember 54 because they’re consecutive, going down, and I like the number 5.
Godspeed I think of in terms of 3s. There were 39 passengers (so good, solid divisible by 3 number) and 13 crew (it’s got a three in it at least, and it’s “unlucky” so you can say 12 and a cook, and 12 is divisible by three again), then the total is 52. Which throws off the 3 thing. But it’s 2 less than the passengers on Susan, so it works.
Discovery, 21 total, flip it, 12 passengers. 9 crew. So I guess I should associate Disco with 3s, since all of it’s numbers are divisible by three, but oh well.
Anyway, does that make sense?
It’s how I remember book page numbers too, by making up an equation involving the numbers included or noticing something about their pattern.
And this is from someone who hates math. Yes, I think my brain is trying to kill me.
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Yes, I know he was only nearly decapitated. Obviously. Elsewise he wouldn’t be Nearly Headless Nick, but rather Completely and Entirely Headless Nick. ( )
Yup. That detail, combined with the whole Grindelwald/Hitler similarity in DH (Nurmengard/Nuremberg) and their whole killing off the “lesser” beings….Grindelwald is so Hitler.
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I usually just try to read until I get to a page that’s easy to remember, (Numbers repeated, or multiples of each other are always good candidates.) then remember that.
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I’ve been here, according to the Who’s Here, almost 4 years, but I’m sure no one (except for Rebecca, who said that she remembered a post that I hadn’t back then) remembers me from then, since I’ve only practically been on since Election Day 2008, so really not that long.
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64 whacks to the neck with a painfully blunt ax. Ouch.
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It was a mistake any wizard could make
Who was tired and caught on the hop
One piffling error, and then, to my terror,
I found myself facing the chop.
Alas for the eve when I met Lady Grieve
A-strolling the park in the dusk!
She was of the belief I could straighten her teeth
Next moment she’d sprouted a tusk.
I cried through the night that I’d soon put her right
But the process of justice was lax;
They’d brought out the block, though they’d mislaid the rock
Where they usually sharpened the axe.
Next morning at dawn, with a face most forlorn,
The priest said to try not to cry,
“You can come just like that, no, you won’t need a hat,â€
And I knew that my end must be nigh.
The man in the mask who would have the sad task
Of cleaving my head form my neck,
Said “Nick, if you please, will you get to your knees,â€
And I turned into a gibbering wreck.
“This may sting a bit†said the cack-handed twit
As he swung the axe up in the air,
But oh the blunt blade!
No difference it made,
My head was still definitely there.
The axeman he hacked and he whacked and he thwacked,
“Won’t be too long,†he assured me,
But quick it was not, and the bone-headed clot
Took forty-five goes ‘til he floored me.
And so I was dead, but my faithful old head
It never saw fit to desert me,
It still lingers on, that’s the end of my song,
And now, please applaud, or you’ll hurt me.
~Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington (from JKR’s website)
[’twas actualy 45 whacks to the neck, but that’s not the point]
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Ugh, I have so much to read…
Sorry I’ve been gone. I’ve had my computer confiscated. I’m back now, at least semi back.
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Re: Paleoship: Yeah, I’m a paleo. It was something to be proud of at first, but now it’s no big deal. After all, we’re all Musers here. *grins* Yes, go ahead and pie me.
I’ve been here about a year, but I don’t feel old. I know there are a lot of people who are the same age as me or younger, but I still feel young on the ‘blog for the most part, I guess because it’s all relative when you’re talking about when someone joined the ‘blog. Comapred to some, I’m old, compared to some, I’m young. But in truth, I think that ‘blog age has more to do with maturity level than anything else.
So basically the truth is that even though I am relatively aware of all of your ages, in reality I probably am off more or less for some of you guys. That’s because a lot of what my perception is of age is more maturity than anything else, as is the case with a lot of things online. *shrug* But that’s just my take on it.
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*pies obligingly*
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So, what’s new with Piggy, you ask? An iPod Touch, that’s what. Fun times.
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Cool. My mom and sis both have one of those….
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Congrats! Hope you’re having fun with it!
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Thanks. I certainly am.
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Cool! *loves these things*
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I’ve been for seven years or almost all of my teenage hood which is enough to make this place feel like home.
Hey fellow mbers.
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Luna is, um, trying to thing of a pastry flavoured word to stick in here….*not having any luck*
Luna is *censor*ed. She needs desperately to be studying for her organic test on Thursday, because she’s not done nearly enough studying, and needs to get at least 50% on it to really have any chance at all of keeping a B in the course. She would love to get an 85% or above, because then she might ahve a chance at an A, but she knows that that’s just ridiculously optimistic to even imagine.
But Luna has found a Doctor Who version of Minesweeper at the BBC website. What do you think Luna is now doing? You know, since it combines her obsession with a great way to waste time? That’s right. She’s playing Doctor Who version minesweeper….*sigh*
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What are the mines?
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Black holes.
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Minesweeper = something that I like to waste my time on ( 9 seconds for beginner level!) Black holes = awesomeness. Minesweeper with black holes = something I must try.
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Doctor Who minesweeper? Where?
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It’s not exactly Minesweeper, but pretty dang close.
I mean, you can’t flag the “mines” and you can hit about 3 “mines” before it actually kills you, but…..
bbc.co.uk/doctorwho
1. Click on “fun and games” on the bar at the top
2. Click strategy games
3. Click “Sonic De-Cloaker”
4. Have fun getting absolutely nothing accomplished
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Thank you, Luna, for giving me something to make the exactly six hours and twenty eight minutes minutes until Pseudonym gets here go by faster.
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You’re counting down the minutes until she abandons me??
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Not really, it was just in my head at the moment. But you do realize she abandons you all the time, right? School, soccer practice, my house, painting, piano, and a whole range of other times?
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You’re most welcome.
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D&D- I always really wanted to play D&D when I was younger, but when I got to school, I realized that all the people who played D&D scared me to death (only ’cause I was scared of everyone though). And now I honestly don’t care. I don’t really like that kind of fantasy, except for LOTR which is amazing. Not subtle enough.
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Yeah, subtlety is not a strong point in a game which is basically “KILL THINGS, TAKE THEIR STUFF.” It really depends on who’s running the game and who’s playing with you, though. I’ve heard of a system called E6 in which nobody ever advances past 6th level, leaving the ridiculously powerful abilities out of reach.
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i learned it from my dad, and his gameplay was way literary-based. it was all about the story, the monster-killing was sort of a side effect
also i had his old books and bill had the new ones so we sort of made up our own combination of the different versions. so we basically just invented our own version as we went along
i don’t think D&D is really about “KILL THINGS, TAKE THEIR STUFF” though. and i mean i could be biased just because of the way i learned it, but to me that is just the n00b way to play.
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I was being somewhat facetious. Like I said, it depends on the players whether it’s hack-and-slash, epic tale of exploration, or gritty political intrigue.
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There are other sorts of roleplaying games, you know. You might like Whitewolf’s Changeling game.
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I’ve read a bit about that. Never had an opportunity to play, though.
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So today in APUSH (Advanced Placement United States History), we saw a video on the Kennedy Administration, and they showed part of the “moon speech”, and I was mouthing the words in tune with JFK… without realizing it!
So that’s how pathetic I am.
In other news, Welcome Home Discovery!
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That’s pretty funny. You take loving space to new heights.
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Alice- I like the same sorts of books that you do. Have you read anything good lately? I think you’d like Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrless.
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319- I just read Aegypt by John Crowley. And Folk of the Air by Peter S.; Beagle.
Lud-in-the-Mist? I shall look it up.
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320- I’ll look up Aegypt and Folk of the Air. Hooray for books!
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311.1 –
Completely and Entirely Headless Nick.
Good one. Did JK write that, or was it fanfic?
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The song? JKR. The phrase “Complete and Entirely Headless Nick”? I just made that up….Not sure which you were referring to.
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I now worship you even more for posting that. *worships*
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Got back from school trip to Tioman Island last night. ‘Twas great! Good food, nice hikes, fun snorkeling, and pleasant cabinmates, except for the one who tried to get me to renounce my sins and convert to Christianity. Apparently LOTR is a crime because magic involves summoning spirits, which can lead to possession by demons. Anyway, I laughed her off, almost unintentionally. I mean, LOTR is fairly Christian anyway- it’s all about the “day of judgement” or whatever when Aragorn will restore order to the land and defeat Sauron…
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Help! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!
Okay, so I wrote to my head-of-school anonymously and asked what the protocol for skipping a grade is, and he says I have to arrange a meeting with my campus principal. Augh! You see, I’m terrified of Mr. Q. Terrified. What am I to do?
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Arrange a meeting with him and stare at a spot six inches above his head for the whole time?
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I agree. Just meet with him and explain what you want, while trying to breathe normally. Agents of Mostly Harmless need fear no principals.
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*is tired* *is more tired than before her 20 minute nap* Actually, I didn’t even realize I’d actually managed to fall asleep until, suddenly, “Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate.” Yup, that’s right. I now have a Dalek “exterminate” ring tone. Downloaded it to my computer this morning and bluetoothed it to my phone earlier this afternoon.
’tis a nice ringtone, and now all of my rings that I can mess with are Doctor Who: My general ringtone (Doctor Who theme song), ringtone ID for my mother’s cell (Torchwood opening credits), ringtone ID for my sister (TARDIS take off/landing), ringtone ID for our home number (Exterminate).
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So is Dr. Who your new obsession?
I think we need a Dr. Who thread. Then again, the Geeky TV Shows one should work just fine.
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New obsession? Luna’s been obsessed with DW for ages now…
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Like speller said….I’ve been obsessed with it for ages. Since last October, to be precise.
And the Geeky TV shows thread has been serving as a Doctor Who conversation thread, it’s where we’ve been posting all of our discussions on Series 5.
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Oh. *is clueless on matters of Dr. Who*
By the way, can anyone tell me what they see as my avatar? It should be a white magnolia. ( Wow, it feels weird not to capitalize that. )
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I see a white flower (presumably a magnolia)
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Ditto.
Very pretty, by the way.
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Thanks. Hm, I’ve forgotten how to clear my cache. Cake.
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I ADORE THE TUDOR ERA.
Queen Elizabeth and Anne Boleyn were the best.
That is all.
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Hey, Kokonilly! I personally haven’t seen you in awhile…and you probably have no idea who I am… xD
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Luna, I think you may enjoy this:
www . thinkgeek . com/computing/usb-gadgets/9223/
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If that is what I think it is, my friend has one.
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*whimper* If it is indeed what you think it is (TARDIS USB port), steal it from your friend and send it to me, yes?
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I’ve seen that, actually. (But thank you). It’s on my Christmas/birthday wish list, although it’s one of the things I rather doubt I’ll actually get…
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Wow, I feel like I haven’t been posting much recently. I’ve been kind of busy since now we’ve got soccer practices every day, and plus, I don’t really have anything to say on this thread right now…
But anyways, I have a Latin skit project due tomorrow, and I need to go and memorize some lines. Grrreat….. So right now I’m just procrastinating, but I’ll be off to my homework. (Soon. Hopefully.)
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*shudder* I hate skits.
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Eh, it’s actually not that bad considering I actually do like acting and Latin, it’s just that I don’t like memorizing lines or cramming them all into one night. *sigh* I’m working on them right now.
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Good luck there.
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Oh dear me. I haven’t been here in ages! So much to catch up on… Well anyway! I went to the Cape for a few days with a friend (we’re on Spring break) and on Friday I’m going to Six Flags with some other friends.
I’m so glad the school year is nearly over. 38 days left, I believe. And then there’s MCAS. Fun!
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Well, being an eighth grader, I have 3 MCASs left to take. Enc, how many have you taken so far?
= MCAS.
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MCAS? *shudder* Don’t know exactly what they are, but anything that’s school related and is in all capital letters is (usually) not a positive thing, so I’ll take it to mean that.
As for us, we have other tests-with-all-capital-letters coming up soon. *sigh* Absolutely dreadful, but at least we get off of homework that week!
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Good luck with the capital letter tests, starr.
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P_M~ I saw your new avatar on my mom’s computer, and then when I logged in here I saw your ancient one (the comics one, was it blondie or something?). Anyway, after clearning my cache I now see the magnolia again. It’s quite lovely.
How to clear cache: go to tools –> clear recent history –> check “cache” –> click “clear now”
It was baking day today, and tomorrow is MARKET FAIR! I’m excited.
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Thanks ever so, Midnight Fiddler!
And congratulations to agrrrfishi, you’re number 42 on the WPHM!
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Aha. There. And by the way, it’s Archie, Betty, and Veronica, not Blondie – you mean to tell me you’ve never read Archie comics?
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I went to the track meet today because I want to join-and I was the most severely injured, even though I didn’t compete. I tabletopped someone with spikes on their shoes, and one spike went all the way into my leg and ripped across.
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This pieing incident was captured nicely. It’s good to see the custard corona so clearly.
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What an unusual technique. I’ll have to practice it.
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I think we need a new thread…
Woo! Tomorrow’s Earth Day! (Which means I won’t be on.)
Does anybody else here have any Earth Day traditions? I read the “Pale Blue Dot” essay out loud.
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