fire on the water

s-second

2012-01-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

This the second. I hope this scheduled post comes out at the right time, anyway, and not a day late. I'd like to give you some really fun stuff. . . but I apologize for not being a fun enough person.

I Didn't Die — Yet

2011-12-27T14:06:00.000-08:00

Hi again!

I'll probably have a very fun post for New Year's. I'm sorry for skipping the Christmas post.

Happy Kwanzaa and Hanukkah and every other holiday celebrated around now. . . too.

Excuse me for the brief little thoughts.

contests

2011-12-02T16:50:00.000-08:00

Hi again!

So. . . we have gone for a whole month without that cheerful "Hi again!" lifting our spirits. (Since "11/11/11 was a scheduled posts, I guess it doesn't count.) NaNo is over for most of us, so I may post my blog's first writing contest. (Actually, I'm still in the process of writing my novel, but I can take some time off to boss you winners around.)

There will actually be two contests. One I call 'The Voice Project' and the other 'Songs of Snow.' Here they are.

VOICE

I'm going to list several characters for you to use to narrate a story. You can pick any one of them and use it for any story. The story can be about anything, as long as it's in a canon that the voice would exist in (i.e., no fairies narrating a story about Martians). The story is in third person, and the voice isn't a character in it, but it's a voice — I'll see how you captured that voice. Please write your story with between 200 and 800 words.

List:

WOMEN

Granny Smith — A grandmother telling the readers either a legend or a story about something that happend when she was young

Gran Chan — Same as the granny above, but this one is asian (slightly different cultural views)

Selene — A beautiful young woman (age between 17 and 22) who has gone insane. She stays in her house all day then ventures out on full-moon nights

Polly — An optimistic, bouncy, girly girl (age between 13 and 15)

Freya — An insane woman like Selene, but this one is older (35-45)

Sandra — A woman in her mid-thirties who has a rough life

Alesha — African-American girl with a passion for. . . whatever the artist chooses (15-17)

Holly — If you're writing a story about Christmas, this is the voice for you. Holly loves partying and getting presents. One aspect of her personality is to turn away in disgust when she sees something cruel, but she's very empathetic inside

MEN

Macy's Santa — A guy with a white beard who looks a bit like Santa Claus, minus the outfit. He is supremely kind to all children, and he loves telling them stories

Tony — A high-school boy with some experience of partying

Anti-Scrooge — Cheerful man, not as old as Macy's Santa, more like in his forties or fifties but he's rather lean. Just a normal middle-aged guy

Kenny — Playful six-year-old

Lumiere — (I got the name from the character in Beauty and the Beast.) "Classy" monsieur

Mr. Darkness — Negative outlook on everything. Huge man, long black beard, has murdered more than one woman (did I say he's the worst misogynist? It makes me sick to think of him)

SONGS OF SNOW

This is a poetry contest that isn't limited to poems about snow. You can write a poem on any season, or an aspect of that season (write it about snow or icicles if you're doing it on winter, tulips in a poem about spring, sun in one about summer, etcetera). Also please write a short essay (100 to 300 words) about that object-within-a-season or that season that makes you love it or hate it.

Please try the contest! I guess I'll add another category for microstories (under 200 words) with the Voice Project. If you choose that you can do multiple Voice Project entries (oh, and no matter what you can enter both contests). Submit all entries to manetramsey@gmail.com. It might be really fun to do two microstories where the same thing happens but you use two different voices!

Your prize? I guarantee one of the things you guys suggest in your comments, as long as it isn't the moon. I'll do anything to get your winning submission read. . . also, I'll probably give a prize to all people who try. Life would be so boring without some losers, so that's why I congratulate you on being losers. Rephrase that. . .

11/11/11

2011-11-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

Hi again!

I just felt like I had to post something on the penultimate double-three-er date. (The last will be 12/12/12.) Haha…this post was originally written on October 27.

I have also heard that today is Lose The Game Day. I have just discovered what The Game is, and do you know what? I think it's stupid. I'm going to completely ignore the rules. Why use up more oxygen to take the time to tell everybody when I think of The Game?

Suzanne Vega and a novel

2011-11-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Other people blog about their very-mainstream music tastes. Why shouldn't I tell you that Suzanne Vega released an album yesterday?

(Of course, I just had to use up all my gift-card-credit right before I learned that it was coming out, so I had to buy three songs from that album with my last resort: a system that gives me three downloads each week through our library.) My favorite song out of those three is the half-spoken "Cracking" (this is a sort of best-of album, so this song was originally in the album Songs in Red and Gray. I also enjoyed the song "Undertow" (orig. from her debut album). ("Undertow" has a section about suicide. Maybe the whole song is about murder and death. I don't know.)

And…noveling! November has started, and I think all my readers know what that means. It's NANOWRIMO, and I am not doing too well right now.

Out of readers to this blog…Emperor Palpatine, congratulations for having the most green of everybody else on your little bar in my writing buddy list that says how much you wrote. The others? Last time I checked, Pheris has written 0 words. I'm wondering if Nix has a new account. Gecko is doing better than me at the moment, but he has a much smaller goal. Hedgehogs, I don't know what your username there is though I have a strong suspicion that you're Dork. Avicultureobsessed homeschooler, I'm not sure if you really read my blog because you aren't following it — your family is, and I'm too lazy to check how many words you have written right now.

I've been thinking of starting a midnight noveling commitee. "All-Nighters Every-Nighters."

Oh, and the contest for the school of philosophy that that song alludes to is still open. Please take a guess or two! I want to know how critically insane you think I am…

song

2011-11-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

I might get rid of that "Hi again!" thing that I told Blogger to automatically put into my posts…soon…when I think of it.

I should have published this "poetry" a while ago on this lovely thing called a blog. A while ago, meaning when I wrote it. That was a week ago…or two weeks ago…

"Reflections" could have a better name…but it would be rather dark. "Echoes" and "Shadows" are the only ones I'm going to call it now, so you don't try to put me in a mental asylum. Now I'm going to force you to read my "poetry" (if you wondered why that's in quotation marks, it's because it's really a song, but please read it like a poem because having your unworthy little voices trying to find the melody of this song would be traumatizing) because I have a contest at the bottom for you:

I warble an air into the air

That surrounds me

I listen to the echoes

That weave around me

I listen to the echoes

I watch my moving shadows

That fall around me

The reflections that surround me

Every day is like a dream

Every time I cry I cry a stream

I guess the best thing you could say

Is that I'm living every day

In a lucid dream

(But I can't wake up)

I traveled on the path of a falling moonbeam

Hoping to bathe in the moon's gleam

But all I found was reflected light

In the saturnine gloaming of night

I guess the best way you could help me

Is to take a seat and tell me

How much you love me

How much you never want me to die

How many tears you'd rather be the one to cry

I listen to the echoes

I watch the falling shadows

I watch the children playing in the street

I give them something warm to eat

"Thank you," they reply

But I don't know why

Their eyes are hollow

They're just the projections

Of a perpetual dream

The world as it used to seem

There was love, there were rainbows, there were people inside those bodies

But after too much imagination

After too many ideas

I know they're just projections

I know they're just reflections

In a perpetual dream

The contest is for you to find the school of psychology that this "poem" describes. Just type your guess into the comment box (even if your comment doesn't get through or gets marked as spam, it will go to my email, so I'll still see it).

all hallow's eve

2011-10-31T18:35:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

No, I did not participate in trick-or-treating this year. The rate of trick-or-treating in Hudson has gone rapidly down over the past few years, with so many households offering those new types of candies that taste horrible, or offering pencils, or not participating at all (some families even send their kids out, but don't offer candy! I think there should be a rule about that), but of course we still give out the king-size bars. (Not only those. We also have packs of Skittles and Starbursts in stock.) I also noticed that less people go trick-or-treating.

I read through chapter 9 of Frankenstein while that went on. Oh…I also ate some "put away" bits from that candy basket, and I listened to the new load of Suzanne Vega on my iPod which I have finally re-acquired (for a while I listened to CDs, which drove my parents nuts, then when my mother took away that CD player I produced another one from the basement, and after three songs were played on that I was told that I won the victory). I also wrote a new song called "Blue Moon," which I finished in one sitting. (If I finish a song quickly, it's usually not that great. "Girl's Laughter (Yesterday)" was started at the end of August and was finished only a few days ago. That means it's my best song.)

the puppy with the red heart

2011-10-24T11:58:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Today is the day I will write my 50th post, as the design change might have indicated. (Okay, it's not as huge as I told you huge and the only things I changed were the fonts, color scheme, and the background, but it feels huge.) Today is also my mother's birthday. (She refuses to tell which, so don't ask me.) Today is also a day on which I realize that Google Scribe really needs some improvements. The day before yesterday was my dog's birthday, on which he turned one year old. (I just turned the annoying Google Scribe off.) He chose his present.

We are getting ready to make the attic into a bedroom for me and an office/whatever space for my mother, along with a lot of other projects like redoing the master bathroom that were supposed to get done by the end of summer. Unfortunately, they didn't. We were going to put all that junk in the attic into storage until we have under-the-eaves-storage (I don't know how that'll happen) when the attic (or should I call it a "garret from now on in this post to be fun?) is finished. Of course, that includes my old junk (it also includes my Parisian baby clothes) and I'm pretty sure that some lucky children will get a nice present of my stuffed animals this season of giving (which reminds me that we won't have a Christmas tree this year because the ornaments will be in storage, therefore we won't have the Christmas party on Christmas Day, therefore we shall have to force our next-door-neighbors to have the party, therefore I will have to go, therefore I Will have to actually speak to their younger son, whom you might know here by the initials of JD). My mother was looking through them as Schumpeter (which is my dog's name) was sitting by her, and they found a stuffed puppy with a red heart in its mouth. (I finally got to the point of this paragraph —and —oh no, I'm rambling again!)

I only have 9 minutes of power left on my computer, meaning that I should tell you that my dog kept taking the puppy out of the giveaway bin, and petting it, and so we gave it to him. My mother wanted to name it Mia. I wanted to name it Lottie, after Schumpeter's sister. We realized that it wasn't a boy to Schumpeter, so she suggested the name of Sam. I suggested Samantha, then Peter. Schumpeter liked the one that was his own nickname (Peter). The puppy iss currently blind (Schumpeter ate the button eyes this morning).

♪ "you're never fully dressed without a smile…" ♬♩

2011-10-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Last night, I went to see a production of Annie. No, it wasn't just a production of Annie. It was a phenomenal youth production of Annie, and the star was a fellow Beauty and the Beast villager with me in another production by the same company who was named Sydney Fiesler (I had to put her name out there for anybody Googling it when she's a Broadway star, didn't I?)

I hope that Beauty and the Beast (or BATB, for an acronym) will turn out as well. Of course, we'll have much more magic I have heard that we will have six smoke machines. I also get to be dancing in a tavern scene! Of course, since I'm new to this place, I don't have a single linge, but I might get past the ensemble in the next few plays I do with the Heights Youth Theater.

(Their official website is here. Roll over this text, please.)

Of course, I auditioned for this play, and I didn't get in, but I did get into BATB and I'm glad I wasn't in Annie, because I probably wouldn't be able to see it (from the audience seats), which would take all the fun away. I think I saw Annie a long time ago by a professional theater, but all I remember is a girl with a red wig standing on a table. I also remember that Sandy was played by a human in a dog costume, which on second thought looked rather stupid. Sandy should always be played by a golden retriever, even if the script says that he's a mutt. (We should have auditioned our golden, Margaux, for Sandy, but she probably wouldn't get the part because a. Margaux is more of a redhead than a sandy-colored golden retriever and b. Margaux has trouble hearing, so there'd be a glaring mistake in the scene where Annie tries to get Sandy to come to her in front of the policeman. Margaux also happens to be thirteen years old, which certainly is old for a dog.)

Ivanhoe

2011-10-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

I happen to be at my grandparents' house at the current moment. Their house is four or five states south of mine, so I passed the time in the car by listening to the music my father was recording into his "computer" (he has an Infiniti with a memory box in the stereo that records songs you put into it once, then can play them later when you search for them. Yes, it has a screen) (I listened only when they were worth listening to, or to my tastes), editing photos, and finishing Ivanhoe for my literature class. I know that you're angry at me for not planning my NaNoWriMo novel, a horror/psychological thriller called Make Me Whole Again (I have changed my idea from Characters to that).

I'm going to review Ivanhoe, and if you are planning to read the book in the future and find that knowing spoilers lessens your enjoyment of a book, you may look away. (However, Harry Potter fans [which I am not one of] will not be answering my question then of if J.K. Rowling used the character of Lucas Beaumanoir in any of her books, because —uh, the name sounds familiar. Maybe I only heard it in reference to this book.) If you have read it, you can read this post and look at my opinion on it. If you haven't and are never planning to read it, don't read this. If you are supposed to read it for your current lit class and have no idea what it means, I have the perfect cheat sheet.

Ivanhoe begins with "the horrid chapter," which is a lengthy description of a forest and two characters' clothing. The characters are Gurth and Wamba, shepherd and jester respectively to Cedric, guardian of the fair maiden Rowena and father to the disinherited Wilfred of Ivanhoe. Some strangers come by looking for the way to Cedric's castle, and Gurth sends them in the wrong direction. However, they find their way back.

Back at the castle, a Jew named Isaac is taking refuge for the night in its halls. Cedric accepts him, but wants to get rid of him soon. A "prior" (actually, Ivanhoe) comes by and tells him that he shouold leave as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Rowena (who is in love with Wilfred/Ivanhoe) inquires to other visitors if they have seen him.

I won't describe the next few chapters, but some tournament occurs with a knight who calls himself the "Disinherited Knight" winning the tournament, getting wounded, and when they take off his helmet they find that it's Wilfred. Everybody is shocked, Cedric expressing a combination of concern for his wounds and anger at him coming back, and…da da da.

In the middle part of the book, a Jewish girl (Isaac's daughter) named Rebecca (and said to be fairer than the fair Rowena) takes care of Wilfred, then asks for help while driving through a forest from Rowena, Cedric, and some others on their side. Rowena is blown away by Rebecca's dignity and kindness, though she doesn't know that Wilfred is with them. They go a little bit forwards, and the whole party gets captured by Front-de-Boeuf's team of Normans (the prisoners are Rowena [who de Bracy wants to wed], Athelstane [Cedric's friend, whom Cedric is trying to make Rowena consent to marrying], Cedric, Isaac, Wilfred, and Rebecca). Gurth and Wamba, mentioned earlier, figure it out and cry about it.

At Front-de-Boeuf's castle, several things are going on. De Bracy is trying to get Rowena to not repeatedly say that she doesn't know him, which is a bit annoying, and to threaten her to marry him he tells her that Wilfred is in the castle (which is true) and that he will kill Wilfred if she doesn't consent to marrying him. Rowena cries, and he backs out because, in his words, Maurice de Bracy "can't stand the sight of women's tears."

Brian de Bois-Guilbert goes to Rebecca. He might be kinder than Maurice, but he isn't smarter (as we will find out later). He comes dressed as an outlaw, and she (being the magnanimous Rebecca that she is) tries to give him her gold bracelets to pay his debts. He refuses them and instead flatters her, then he unmasks himself. Rebecca is surprised, of course. After a brief talk between them, Rebecca climbs onto the parapet. Brian gets upset and takes back anything that he threatened, and she climbs down.

Isaac was being tortured and told that Rebecca is far away, but Front-de-Boeuf is about to have him killed when the doorbell rings. (Saved by the bell, right?) He tells them to stop, runs upstairs, and finds that a letter has been delivered by the aforementioned Gurth and Wamba. They threaten war. Front-de-Boeuf laughs. How stupid.

Cedric spaketh to Athelstane in a different room about how he had wanted Athelstane to wed Rowena and how everything would be perfect then. Then Ulrica comes in (Ulrica is a longtime prisoner of Front-de-Boeuf's castle) and talks to Cedric.

After a bit more, Ulrica sets the castle on fire and there's a huge battle scene and Rebecca is taking care of Wilfred in the burning castle and the Black Knight (King Richard) rescues Wilfred and Brian rescues Rebecca and Brian takes her to Templestowe (home of the Knights Templars, religious zealots involved in the Crusades) which is his biggest mistake.

I don't feel like writing the rest, so Google it.

I did not feel satisfied with the end of this book. Rebecca becoming the Jewish version of a nun? Brian being forced to fight against Rebecca? Wilfred riding in at the last moment to save Rebecca, utterly cliched? Wilfred STILL marrying Rowena after fighting for a different fair maiden's life? I would have felt better if Wilfred married Rebecca, or if Brian didn't get killed. I thought that Brian was pretty good at heart, just misguided and misunderstood. In my opinion, the best plot turn would be to have both Wilfred and Brian turning on the Grand Master, then Richard could join the huge last battle against the Templars and they can win and Rebecca can understand Brian! Wouldn't that be great?

Steve Jobs

2011-10-05T17:16:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

You may have heard. Please do not expect any kind of memoriam from me. If you were googling his name and searching the internet for a decent obituary, you have been misguided. There is a "back" button in the upper left corner of this window.

I am only posting this notification of Steve Job's death so I can reduce the number of posts until my fiftieth, and I can have a new "What to Comment On" box so I can ask an important question. Please comment if you are reading this, immediately. I know I don't have that many comments, but I need your feedback, soon…

What To Comment On:

After my 50th, I've considered putting my blog through a drastic design change, which will somehow incorporate celebratory fireworks. However, my current design is a masterpiece. What do you think?

I loathe, hate, despise, detest, abominate, abhor — all healthily

2011-10-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

So. You read my title. I am not ashamed to say that I loathe [something]. It's a great word. Its synonyms, "abhor," "abominate," "detest," "despise," and our prevalent "hate" are all great words, too. Why do modern-day English users find these beautiful words "too strong" and refrain from using them? Why are children who say "I hate asparagus" at the dinner table told that they should use the lighter two-morpheme word "dislike?" In a way, this is a form of making our language like the literary language of George Orwell's dystopian novel, 1984, Newspeak. Newspeak was formulated so speakers would not be able to express higher thought or strong emotions; it would be a literal impossibility to say the sentence "I abominate Big Brother," or anything more than "I dislike Big Brother." I'm not implying that vegetables on a child's plate are akin to Big Brother, but if you don't know the words to say that you hate something, how will you express it?

That was the explanation of my idea for the literary readers. I'll also supply one for the math-loving-readers. If your hedonic scale includes negative numbers and a 0 in the middle, as it should, you can say "I like this" and we will know that it's above 0 anywhere on the scale. However, if you say "I dislike this" all you are pointing to is that you don't rate it above zero. You might feel neutral about it, and it will always rate at zero. In a way, if you don't express yourself with words like the ones I've listed in my title, the 0 on your scale will become the lowest rating you can give, meaning you can't express hatred in any way!

What To Comment On:

What do you think of my ideas regarding these words? Are you one of the people who cross out the word "hate" in their blog posts and replace it with "intensely dislike" (a practice which Stephen King, advising "The adverb is not your friend," would abhor) and can you justify yourself in the name of optimism?

the blogroll (extended version)

2011-10-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

Hi again! This is an updated version of "The Blogroll." Have fun. A note to the owners of the blogs I read: The first blogs are copy/pasted from the original post, so if your blog is scattered around somewhere, it isn't an insult. Your place of honor is not on this blogroll-of-blogs-I-don't-really-read, but in the main blogroll to the right.

To any of you who don't understand the purpose of this seemingly random post: It has two purposes. The one you probably are thinking of is me providing my readers with a ton of blogs written by girls (or mostly girls…) between the ages of 10 and 18. I got the list from other blogrolls and from NaNoWriMo and from many sources.

The real purpose of this post is for my blog to show up in the stats of these blog owners. It's wonderful, indirect way to introduce them to my blog…then they click and instantly become devoted readers. Please click away!

The Word Nebula

Rainy Days

The Cupcake Bakery

The Small Head of Hannah

Colorfully Twisted

A Ninja's Cake

The Ramblings of a Teenage Writer

The Word Asylum

Let's Be Extraordinary

The Ceiling of Jupiter

Kirsten Writes

Hyperbole and a Half

Scribbling On the Computer

The One that Is an It

Leighlights

Lay low and keep quiet

Megan Squared

The Pen is Mightier

Fiction Writer Located Here

How Everything Fits Together

WriterGal 24

Random Bloggers At Work

Up-side Down and Right-side Up

Bottle Thoughts

My Random Me

The Doctor What

Thinking, Writing Girl

One Artist's Visions

Sweets Galore

Types Writes

An Assortment of Corpulent Porpoises

The Diary of a Performing Artist

Writer's Ramblings and Nostalgia

Awesome Me

Those are all for now! It's forty blogs, if you don't want to have to count! Also, links on my blog don't show up any different color, but these are links — mouse over. I might change the link thing, because nobody knows when I'm posting a link or not.

oh no! I have Russian web-crawlers too!

2011-10-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

You can see that I'm bored. One of my Russian web-crawlers is easily identifiable by its bower, Netscape. The others are from Opera and Internet Explorer. Yes, three different bots, all from Russia. They visited me yesterday, too, and all this time I am getting no human readers! They all come from the website adf.ly, which is strnge. I don't know where adf.ly foes to because I haven't tried clicking.

I really should do something else — schedule a LONG blogroll post, tell you that my 50th post is coming up soon, schedule a LONG post with all my favorite songs in it…I have noticed that first our friend Pheris got sick, then Kirsten, and now me!

For alternate news, I have changed my Blogger profile pic. Of course, nobody noticed, because it shows up whenever I post a comment on my own blog and nobody ever comments for me to reply to them, so…Anyway, I changed it because the sassy Manet of last spring has changed into the serious Manet of this autumn. It's true. You can see it in these pictures:

Kirsten has started a contest to see which of her readers comments most. I'd like to try that, but I haven't gotten any comments for a long time, so…I've been thinking of having a contest for my 50th post, but for writing.

500 pageviews

2011-09-28T17:42:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

This is a pretty random post. If you visited my blog at exactly 7:00 tonight and was using either Internet Explorer or Firefox and you live in America, you might have been my 500th pageviewer. Congrats.

I keep you very updated on m blog's statistics, don't I?

gelatin and why I couldn't post

2011-09-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

I apologize for the lack of posts. Our friend Nix might have been celebrating and thinking that the new blogger interface (or Blogger In Draft) turned against me too. Actually, I love the new Blogger interface. To me, it's perfect. I can access my blog stats straight from the dashboard, so I can quickly see when my Latvian web-crawler has popped in. He did that this week.

It was Safari, my trusty web browser. Safari randomly quit on me, leaving me with Firefox, my not-so-trusty web browser. Actually, Safari didn't quit—it just went into "Application Not Responding" mode. I couldn't access the post page from Firefox, and I was heartbroken. I thought that I might forget my blog. Anyway, I got Safari to work again, so I can post now.

If you've been wondering about the mention of Jell-O in this post's title, you probably assumed that I've been making it recently. I strongly recommend putting canned Mandarin Oranges into gelatin mix.

As for writing, I am too impatient for NaNoWriMo, which I have planned my whole novel out for. In my spare time, I'm writing "Evelyn Cried," the first book in a series of four (what do you call that? A quadrology? A trilogy-and-one?) and I have only 723 words, which is still good for a story I started at about 2 a.m. last night. (Look back at the post titled "Midnight Randomness for my sleep schedule…).

Google Scribe

2011-09-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

This is a post about Google. Google Scribe, to be exact. It has graduated from Google Labs, and I am using it in this post. Because I have nothing to do, and I still don't feel like telling you everything about Characters, I'll just use Google Scribe. It's actually quite a cool tool. This version is better than the old one. You don't have to delete the space after the last word of a sentence, because when you type a punctuation mark it removes that space for you. However, it isn't making this post any more lively, so I'll leave you for now.

Hello, Latvia

2011-09-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

I really have nothing to do. I could tell you about Characters, my NaNoWriMo that I'm planning to write this year, but that would take a longer post than I want this to be. So I'll tell you the other things I have learned about my foreign reader, whom you have already been introduced to.

His/her browser is Opera and the operating system is Windows. Today s/he looked at The Third Ten Days Post as well as Today's post, obviously because they were two of my Top Five Most Pageviews posts.

Since my Latvian reader isn't a spambot, I'm going to assume that s/he is a web crawler, a robot that crawls the web looking for email addresses. I'm not too sure, but I'll post a warning to all my readers: Please do not post your email address in any of your comments. Link to your WordPress/Blogger profiles if they contain your email address and you really want to tell me what it is, because if you post it directly you might get some spam.

less readership

2011-09-21T12:52:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

I'm slightly discouraged by my suddenly-less number of pageviews. My stats for each day in a month disappear after that month is over, but I remember that my peak (50 pageviews in one day) came the day (or was it the day after? I don't remember) my post "The Blogroll" was posted. So please look back at that post, click on some of the links, and perhaps give me the gift of one more reader. I might post an updated version of that post soon.

To go with that, my statistics showed me another interesting thing. I appear to have a regular reader from Latvia. In the past week they visited 8 times, even more than the American 7, and in all they have visited my blog 40 times. I'm not sure how probable it is that those were 40 separate Latvians who googled the wrong stuff…and this isn't a spambot, either. I haven't any spam. Anyway, I'm pleased to know that I have such high foreign readership!

in my own little corner. . .I listen to music

2011-09-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

I'm really sorry for the lack of posts. I had a hate post for a casting director that I didn't finish before I was done writing it that I was going to post, but never got around to. It might be a good thing that I didn't, because that would be a horrible block to youth acting director Pierre-Jaques Brault's career. I was really angry at him for not casting me in "Annie." But if you look at it, there were no parts I could play in that. Of course, I could play Annie, but I'm just not that optimistic, I don't have red hair, and I look too old.

I'm writing this after an audition for "Beauty and the Beast," with a lead role that fits me much better and a much nicer director. He laughed a lot more than the other one and didn't cut me off.

I'm listening to Linda Ronstadt's album "Cry like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind." No, not on my iPod, because my parents took that away a week or two ago. I won't post the reason, but I will tell you how I didn't find myself music-deprived. We have an old boombox and LOTS of actual CDs—of my favorite music, no less. I'm not that big on current pop music, and my parents' is fine with me. So last night I took Holly Cole's albums "Don't Smoke in Bed" and "Romantically Helpless," and Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me." I opened my bedroom window as far as it could go, turned up the volume on the boombox, sat back, and listened to a concert in my bedroom. Repeat process tonight.

midnight randomness

2011-09-09T22:03:00.000-07:00

Hi again! You might be reading the blog of an insomniac.

It's midnight here, 12:51 a.m. to be exact, and I have noticed that my poor blog has been neglected for six days. I never did finish that music review. So I needed to post something. (In case you're curious, my laptop was in my room, so I didn't have any problems getting to it.)

Tomorrow (or today) I have to get up early in the morning for an 8:00 a.m. canoe trip in a canoe place a town or two over, so what am I doing? Blogging. In case you're curious about why there wasn't a later appointment for the canoe stuff, there was—only I have another dance recital (my studio dances at a nursing home once every month—count it in as part of my community service) and after that we'll all go to Blossom Musc Center for their last concert of the summer, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. We'll have a busy day.

I could write a move review write now about the movie Paper Moon, which I watched on Thursday night, but I don't feel like doing that. I prefer posting a bunch of randomness about my life.

(Oh—and I forgot to mention what kept me awake. It was our famed Ohio crickets. Their chirp is at about 90 decibels or so, and yes, that was hyperbole. But it really is close to that.)

Analyzing Songs

2011-09-01T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

I'm writing this at midnight. I have a strong desire to review and analyze and write essas about as if it were Shakespeare a song called "Purple Avenues." I am also partially insane. So I'm working on doing that and taking a moment off to write a blog entry. I'm trying to sound professional. This will be a long song review.

If you're interested, the things I've been Googling are the definition of "petard" and the expenses of Baltic and Mediterranean (purple avenues) in the game Monopoly. (They're the slums.)

Some Updates

2011-08-25T13:35:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

The first and most important update is that I'm discontinuing 10 days posts. They turned out to be more work than I thought.

The second update is that we're going to have a featured poll at the top of the sidebar from now on. At the bottom of all the apps in the sidebar, I'll have a ton of polls that are always open. Please vote in these, because…I guess I just like to survey people.

double-rainbow

2011-08-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

Hi again! I'm back.

Of course, I wasn't really gone. I was simply taking a break from the computer and my blog, seeing as it already has 35 posts and I'm only a month in. I'll get to the point. A double rainbow is supposed to be really amazing. I was at the Blossom Music Center last night to watch the Joffrey Ballet Company. Before the performance, it was raining, and at the end of the rain we saw a double rainbow. It stayed in the sky for a very brief period of time, but caused a small commotion.

Today is the first day of school for non-homeschoolers in my town. Naturally, I had to start too, even though the Online G3 orientation is tomorrow. I'm taking five classes this semester. They include Linguistics, British Lit, whatever you call the first semester of the last year of grammar/vocabulary, and American Government (for OnlineG3). And through a different program that I don't yet know the name of, I'll be taking Algebra 1. I'm not as advanced as some of my readers in math. I'm not doing calculus.

I'm joining the now-Nix and Kaires in non-commentability. It's very frustrating. Just so you know, I can't comment on other Blogger blogs affected by this disease, either.

My dreams are not getting any more normal. I actually think that they have always been normal.

10 days

2011-08-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Long Word: None for today.

Quiz: Do you have sunlight inside your cells?

A Blog Worth Visiting: Kirsten writes every day, so there are no long breaks between posts. Update: The part saying "A Blog Worth Visiting" is a link. It doesn't show up as any other color.

What's On My Mind: How many deaths does it take till a man / Knows that too many people have died? (From the song that I'm listening too as I type. It's a reader's quiz to figure out what song that is.)

An Interest of Mine: MUSIC!!!!!!

A Fairy For Today:

Featured Song: "Both Sides Now," by Joni Mitchell. I love how she first looks at the cons and pros of clouds, then love, then life.

Quiz Answer: This was sort of a trick question. You have the energy from the photosynthesis of plants, gained when you eat the plants (or an animal that ate the plants).

sewing project

2011-08-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

My grandmother and I are going to attempt a sewing project, if that's the only way we can have fun together. The only thing that I like about sewing is the designing (the worst part is hemming), and my grandmother didn't want to use my perfect design for a dress which worked previously on dolls' clothes that I made when I was about eight, so we got a pattern that looks much more complex in my opinion. It's going to be a long sundress, and I picked out a pretty teal fabric to make it in. When I'm done I might post pictures of it in here.

scientific calculations

2011-08-09T15:43:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Well, I have a new scientific calculator. I don't know why I"m making such a big deal over it, because it isn't programmable or anything special, but I think it's interesting. The thing that I find the most interesting isn't all the different algorithms it can carry out or the scrolling display, but why do they call them scientific and engineering notation? You actually don't use that much complex math in actual science, unless you're doing a pointless study to find how many times a hippo blinks in one hour. And all you need for that is basic counting skills. You might go beyond preschool math to kindergarten math if you're doing biochemistry and counting up atoms in a chemical equation. Biochemistry isn't about math. It's about understanding the five elements in your body: hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus.

I do expect that you have to do some math to design a space shuttle, and maybe a bit more if it's a successfully orbiting satellite, but…you don't use a certain type of math that involves only exponents that are multiples of three. You need math to find out random facts, but not the kinds of science I'm interested in. I'll admit that you can only calculate the cubic mass of Earth with the geometrical equation for the cubic mass of a sphere. But the earth isn't a sphere. Even computers can't make perfect circles. Did you ever realize that computers make circles by taking whatever radius you're stretching it to, squaring it, and multiplying by pi? How much do these computers know of pi? Even if it's a thousand digits, it won't be an exact circle that they come out with.

Well, you don't get much fun math in science. I have never been asked to use scientific notation in a science class. Maybe that's because my last science class was a few years ago. (I prefer to acquire my scientific education from home now. Meaning, I like to be taught by textbooks.)

What To Comment On: I changed my blog design to make the page text…closer to my handwriting in real life. I thought that looked cool, but I really want to know if it's hard to read. If it it I'll change it back to Times New Roman.

Back

2011-08-07T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

I'm back from camp. I actually got back yesterday, but I iddn't have a chance to write. Last night I went to JD's house and stayed there for six hours. I'll add to this post later, but I'm supposed to drive down to Pittsburg and have dinner with my grandparents. (They live in South Carolina.) That'll take up my whole day.

10 days

2011-08-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Long Word: deoxyribonucleic acid (or DNA for short)

Quiz: What is the name for a sugar at its purest form?

A Blog Worth Visiting: ablogaboutlifetheuniverseandrandomness.wordpress.com Fayah is another friend from the Wife of Arthur's Intelligent Collection of Individuals. Her blog is pretty random and fun, as are lots of blogs I've seen. Is mine random? I actually set out to make it about the arts, not just completely random stuff. And chemistry…don't forget chemistry…

What's on My Mind: How long do you think I'll be able to add another category every 10 days post?

An Interest of Mine: Horseback riding. I personally think that riding is the closest we can get to connecting with and becoming animals. You communicate with your whole body to the horse.

A Fairy for Today:

Quiz Answer: A monosaccharide

The Changing Story Meme: Chocolate Moonlit Night

2011-07-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Here is another blog meme that I hope will grow popular. It is open exclusively to bloggers who write and like chocolate. I don't think we'll have any problems with finding those.

The Rules:

If you are nominated, you are allowed to put in one paragraph to continue the story. If you're writing dialogue, you may write two paragraphs if of speech 2 sentences or under (if it's three sentences that they speak, not including interjections, you can only do one paragraph). People may be tagged again two times at most. The premise of this meme is that each time it's posted, it's a different story because it went to different people, but they all started with the same paragraph. You also have to repost the rules and the entire story so far into your blog post that you have for this meme. Just copy it off the post of whoever nominated you.

Those who actually read my writing will know that this came from my book-in-progress, Monday's Child. (You don't have to copy this and the last sentence.)

The moon was full tonight, and it hovered over the teenagers as if blessing them. Maybe that’s what it seemed like to anybody else. But Ella had the feeling that it was cursing them.

First 5 people to win this writing award will be:

GiGi—I hope you do something fun with it!

Gecko—Knowing you, my story won't be taken seriously. I'm not too sure if you like chocolate or not.

Pheris—You say that you like chocolate and you're a writer!

KT—I'd like to see what you'll do with this. You're really good at writing a lot in only a few words.

Leigh—I wonder what you will add to it!

Flipped—Movie Review

2011-07-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Here's another review.

One thing I really liked about this movie was the way they were able to show both Juli's and Bryce's opinions on the different situations. They had lots of flashbacks to the day or hour before, but they were narrating the whole time as a way to eliminate all confusion. The title made perfect sense, because first Juli had a crush on Bryce, then when she found out that he was throwing away her eggs something flipped, she hated him, and he had a crush on her. It might have also been a pun on flipped eggs. The one sad thing about it was that they didn't kiss. The rating: To me it should have been G, because there was nothing bad, no swear words at all, but I think they rated it PG or PG-13, maybe for Uncle Daniel's ice cream problem or the way Bryce's dad made fun of the Bakers then slapped his daughter for defending them.

That's all for now.

What To Comment On:

You may have noticed that tomorrow is the day I'm off to camp! If this is NOT your first time here and you classify yourself as a devoted reader, PLEASE comment. Comment on anything about my blog. I'm just trying to see how many readers I have!

Goodnight

2011-07-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

I just finished watching a really great movie, Flipped. You can expect a full movie review tomorrow.

What To Comment On:

Why is a number with an exponent of 0 always equal to one? It just doesn't make sense. Can you do a non-serious post on your blog about this, Gecko?

An Introduction

2011-07-28T15:50:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

No, the introduction is not to me or to my blog. It's to a new thing that I'll be doing with my blog posts. After any post that I feel applies, I will add a "What To Comment On." Here I'll ask for names for characters in stories I'm writing, explanations for weird math things, how much you like my theme, and a bunch of other questions. If you have a comment directed to the actual post and not the what-to-comment-on box that's fine, but these are the things that I want answers on from my readers.

What To Comment On:

I need a last name for Ella (protagonist from my book-in-progress Monday's Child). If you can supply a good middle name, that would also help, but I really need a last name. I thought of just using a common name like Johnson, but I'm in need of something…more. Oh, and if you have a link to a list of common U.S. surnames or something like that that would help just as much!

The Third Ten Days Post

2011-07-27T18:59:00.000-07:00

Long Word: hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of long words—I hope none of my readers have it)

Quiz: What is one common characteristic of life?

A Blog Worth Visiting: gigi-ellesig.blogspot.com I met GiGi from The Wife of Arthur's Intelligent Group of Individuals, too. She updates her blog a lot, and I also have to give her credit for being by first blog follower.

What's on My Mind: It's hard to try to play "On My Own" on your own.

An Interest of Mine: Chemistry. Have you noticed that all the quizzes so far have been in some way related to biology or chemistry?

Quiz Answer: We all have highly complex chemical systems. Your answer may differ.

Today's Post

2011-07-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Last night my father and I watched The Sting, which I only really watched because he wanted me to. My best friend (no blog to link to) plays the theme song in the movie, so my father really wanted me to watch it.

REVIEW:

I was grateful for him not making me watch another R-rated movie, but I would have rated this one PG-13 for violence. It's a pretty good movie, only there's a lack of strong female characters (hit woman for a mob? burlesque dancer? brothel runner that picks people's pockets for their plot (she was actually pretty cool, except for her background)?). It's an immensely confusing movie, too. They had almost no foreshadowing that Loretta was an assassin (couldn't she have killed him while they were sleeping together?). And I thought the end was terrible, until I realized that it was fake blood and fake FBI agents. (Did I just give it away to anybody who wants to watch this movie and be confused?)

So, we watched that last night. Today I had a Zhongwen lesson (for those of you who know what I'm talking about) and a dance lesson.

P.S. I'd still like a idea for the plot of my music box movie.

P.P.S. We have had 205 pageviews! The 205th viewer was GiGi. Congratulations! (There's no way of telling who was the 200th. They came from Leighlights, but it wasn't Leigh, because /wp/admin/ wasn't attached to the URL.)

P.P.P.S. Yes. we made it to 50 pageviews in a day yesterday!

Apparently, I got the Smoothie Award again (and an announcement)

2011-07-26T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Do I have to nominate 5 more random people?

I won't. But here's my Banana Ice Cream Smoothie. I'm not going to try to post screenshots again, but here are the instructions:

Take a banana that is almost pure black. If you're lucky, it'll already be liquefied. Put it in a glass. Pour in milk. Refrigerate. You get either ice cream or a smoothie, depending on whether you put it in the freezer or the fridge.

So, make it yourself, and you'll have the real thing, not just a drawing!

Oh. I forgot to link to the person who nominated me. Pheris, thanks so much for giving me the award a second time!

(Whenever I post the name of somebody who has a blog, there will most likely be a hyperlink under it, even if it doesn't turn some other color.)

Here is the ANNOUNCEMENT:

Pageviews on my blog have skyrocketed! I turned on "Don't track your own pageviews" the third day I had my blog. Well, I had 45 pageviews today! And they weren't all from the same person! (In my Traffic Sources, I can see that lots of people leave straight from their blogs to go to mine. Their blog URLs shor up with /wp/admin attatched to the end, so I know exactly that they are the owners ofthat blog.)

Problems with my Blog Pages

2011-07-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

I wanted to know if anybody sees the new page "Writing—Programmed." It's not a draft anymore, but it still isn't showing up.

P.S. If any of my readers use Blogger and have had similar problems, please relate.

The Traveling Smoothie (or Slushie) Travels To Me

2011-07-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

I have been awarded a newly-created internet meme. It's a traveling smoothie. However, I hate smoothies. I think crushed fruit mashed into a glass isn't anywhere near as good as those half-ice, half-flavored-colored-sugar things know as Sluchies. Or Icees. I'm not sure what the official name of them is.

Step 1: Link to the person who nominated you.

Leighlights. She has a really nice blog, and I'm really happy that she nominated me for the award. I found it…maybe from someone else's blog when I was doing my "the blogroll" post? I'm not sure whose. Anyway, doing that post gave me a lot of new friends.

Step 2: Post a picture of it without being colored in.

So, here's a picture of it, without color:
file://localhost/Users/manetnelson/Desktop/Snapshot%202011-07-25%2018-52-52.tiff
I could have the image actually show on this blog if I wanted too, but Blogger is being mean to me. So let me know if you can't find the image at that URL.

Step 3: Color it in.

EDIT: Okay, it didn't work. Blogger hasn't done this before with my artwork, but it apparently doesn't work with any kind of screenshot. It's impossible. Just imagine a blue raspberry slushy with a hot pink straw.

Step 4: Link and nominate 5 other bloggers.

1. GiGi. Okay, you're there? (to any other readers) My first blog follower.
2. Fayah. You haven't posted in a while, but your blog is random enough to fit in a smoothie.
3. Gecko. Your wordpress theme is making it hard to read your blog, I hope you understand. But you're really random too.
4. I actually don't know that many bloggers. So I randomly picked a blog from my "The Blogroll" post (yes, I used Eeny Meeny Miny Moe), and ended on Hyperbole and a Half. Weird blog.
5. So, I guessed that I should just pick the blog that made my URL a bit weird. Fire on the Water was a complete waste of a good URL. There are no posts on it yet.

I'll fix the images soon as possible!

EDIT: They still are refused in the little image editor, both with correct URLs and being on my computer, but these URLS should work:

Colored in: file://localhost/Users/manetnelson/Desktop/Snapshot%202011-07-25%2019-03-54.tiff

Not: file://localhost/Users/manetnelson/Desktop/Snapshot%202011-07-25%2019-03-54.tiff

Making my iPod Work

2011-07-25T15:31:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

So, yesterday, I was trying to actually load some music onto the iPod shuffle that I got for my birthday. I had problems with this age thing, and it absolutely refused to let me get an iTunes account. I tried to get a new email address, but I misjudged Gmail and with some new thing they have I couldn't even get a new email account.

Luckily, by today they had cleared out the emails-from-minors in their system and I could get an account. After a few problems, I was past the age of tech problems, I redeemed my gift cards, and bought ten songs.

ARTISTS I DOWNLOADED FROM

Norah Jones
Linda Ronstadt
Jennifer Rush
Holly Cole
Peter, Paul, and Mary

WHAT I'M LISTENING TO AS I TYPE

Five Hundred Miles (Peter, Paul, and Mary)

WHAT SOUNDS BEST ON MY NEW IPOD

The Power of Love (Jennifer Rush). It's awesome and sounds better than on the car stereo. If iTunes had URLS, I would link it. But if you don't have it, just search Jennifer Rush and find the title song from her album "The Power of Love."

There. I got an iPod a bit later that most kids, but honestly I didn't like very much music a few years ago. I'm absolutely crazy about all types of music now (except…rap and the modern kind of pop.) (I say modern because iTunes classified Jennifer Rush and Norah Jones as pop singers, and they're nothing like Katy Perry or Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber.)

Something to Note

2011-07-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Next Saturday, I leave for a week-long camp. Just wanted to let my (not very many yet) readers know!

I was getting supplies today. I got hiking boots (I found some really nice leather ones), bug repellent, socks, blah blah blah…and clothes. I don't have many jeans and shorts that are suitable for walking through swamps in, so I had to buy some.

An Unfinished Movie

2011-07-24T09:07:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

So, for some random reason I felt the urge to create a movie. Or at least a short film. Problem is, I have no plot. I don't even have characters yet. So, I hope this works. Please comment with ideas on the plot and characters! Note: I have taken ballet lessons since I was two. The character is fictional. It's also a sort of writing exercise, because I write the narration. So, check out the beginning of my movie!

Comments are NEEDED. I'll completely forget about this project if I don't have a plot, and you won't get to see the finished project. Another note: It has to be doable. The only other character has to be a girl, and only her (my friend), but you could take a video of yourself acting and send it to me, as a kind of multi-source video.

Hi again!

2011-07-23T18:18:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

The sole purpose of this post is to keep my blog moving. Nothing interesting has been happening in my life lately, except for the random fact that my referring sites idea worked. Only for two people, but I'll probably see others soon.

the blogroll

2011-07-22T15:32:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Okay, so I made a long list girls' blogs (ages between 10 and 17, I guess) and brought it to you. Here's my idea behind doing this: I (or my visitors will click on these links. In these peoples' blog stats, my blog will be listed as a referring site. They're check mine out from there. It's called "targeting an audience."

Let's start.

The Word Nebula: See, it's in here. Now.

Rainy Days: An interesting blog. I really like the design, and I've heard that it just underwent a huge design change.

The Cupcake Bakery: A fun blog with sweet posts.

The Small Head of Hannah: Hmm. The owner of this one seems to think that she's stupid, but I don't think she is.

Colorfully Twisted: Yes, cool past posts, but the last post was written last Christmas Eve.

A Ninja's Cake: I believe that the owner of this blog does not live in the United States…

The Ramblings of a Teenage Writer: I didn't have much time to look at this one. All I know is that the URL (screaminggiraffe.wordpress.com) is very funny.

The Word Asylum: Okay, the next few are ones I haven't looked at at all.

Let's Be Extraordinary

The Ceiling of Jupiter

Kirsten Writes: Interesting blog.

Hyperbole and a Half

Scribbling On the Computer

The One that Is an It

Leighlights : A really awesome blog. I checked it out.

Lay low and keep quiet

Megan Squared

ktlemonhead: Another good blog that I actually read. I never knew there was NaNoWriMo in July.

THIS IS TOO MUCH! I will add to this post as soon as possible, or you can check out the blogrolls of these people yourself.

Cut throat

2011-07-22T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Please do not suspect that the title of this post has anything to do with violence.

Okay, you haven't seen me for a while. Actually, I haven't posted since before my birthday, on the 15th. (The last 10 days post was scheduled.) I guess I was waiting for some interesting/worth-blogging-about stuff to happen to me. And yesterday, I cut my throat.

I was eating an apple peel shaved off of an apple for apple pie, which I liked because it was crunchy and tasted like green apple—but I forgot the amazing statistics that it's very easy to choke on an apple peel. Luckily, I didn't choke. It didn't go down the wrong hole. It went down the right hole, the one for food, but I had no idea how tiny and thin that hole is before this. A small bit of apple peel decided to not go down. A piece came up and I thought the only stuff remaining was a cut in my throat, but I had to wait for an hour of agonizing pain and discomfort when I swallowed and which water would not go down my throat until the other apple-peel piece finally, miraculously, slipped down my throat. The cut in my throat healed.

And later that evening, I lost my penultimate tooth. Yes, I still have one more, maybe due to the fact that I lost my first tooth at six, pretty late for most kids. One of the orthodontists I posted about seeing a few weeks ago had urged me to let both drop out so the tooth-pulling I'll have to have soon won't be as expensive.

The Second 10 Days Post

2011-07-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Long Word: antidisestablishmentarianism (opposition to authority, especially the Church of England)

Quiz: What color is diamond dust? (answer at post bottom)

A Blog Worth Visiting: collaborativerandomness.wordpress.com A friend from The Wife of Arthur's Intelligent Collection of Individuals made this collaborative blog with his blogging friend. I like the idea of a collaborative blog, and the stuff they post might be the most random you can find.

What's On My Mind: It's hot outside.

Quiz Answer: Black, because it's pure carbon.

Riding

2011-07-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Okay, I just came back from a riding lesson. This time I rode Star instead of Fashion, because they wanted a younger girl to ride Fashion and they wanted me to canter.

I actually didn't canter, because Star's much choppier than Fashion and I needed to spend some time getting used to her. Next lesson.

Riding is all about partnership and confidence, both in yourself and in the horse that you're riding. I personally believe that it's a better sport than all others because you don't fight, you do the opposite. You work with an animal, and you learn how to communicate with them. You also get a lot of exercise, even if some spectators think that the horse is doing all the work. Riding strengthens your muscles and teaches you proper posture, I guess.

wordle of this blog

2011-07-12T09:03:00.001-07:00

Hi again!

So, I made a wordle of my blog so far. You can see that I was surprised to find that the word I've used the most was "fireflies."

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3841947/My_Blog

Here's another wordle, this one of a book that I'm writing:

Okay, that came out tiny, but you can see that the top three words are the names of the characters.

fireflies + ice cream + economics

2011-07-11T12:03:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

The title of my post pretty much sums up what I did last night. I caught some fireflies, using my father ras a helper who opened the jar, until it was found that he squished two while opening it. I classified him as an animal killer and decided that I should have given him Firefly Catching 101.

FIREFLY CATCHING 202

At this level, you may start using an assistant. It is your assistant's job to point out fireflies and open the jar. If you are asked to be an assistant, I suggest that you review what I will teach you.

Assistants must have good eyesight (which the author of this blog doesn't have) and will begin by watching for flashes. When they see ones near where the Catcher is standing, they calmly explain to the Catcher where it is. When the Catcher returns with a caught firefly, their assistant needs to look carefully to make sure no previously-caught fireflies are on the lid or near it. If fireflies are on the lid, hit it sharply and make sure they fly down. If they are near the lid, wait for them to crawl onto it and do the same thing.

So, I was pretty angry at him. But not too angry for ice cream. We went down to Coldstone Creamery with the dogs, and got into an interesting discussion of economics and pollution. When we got home my father handed me an old book called 30-Second Economics. It's a pretty interesting book, but because I'm a beginning economics student it took me about 90 seconds to understand each subject, not half a minute. I probably wont't become that interested in economics, because it requires a lot of math, which I'm horrible at. This book doesn't have any math in it. But anyway, there's no room for creativity in economics.

Ten Days Until the Next One

2011-07-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

For a while a new post will appear 10 days on this blog. Then it might die. Today is the first of those posts, which includes a lot of fun stuff.

LONG WORD: methylchloroisothiazolinone (a preservative often used in shampoos)

Quiz: What is the long name for DNA? (answer at post bottom)

A Blog Worth Visiting: Keep in mind, you might get repeats with this category. thedancingdogpuppyblog.blogspot.com This is another of my blogs, which I created for my dog, Schumpeter. It doesn't get updated much.

Notice: My birthday is on the 15th.

I might add new categories, but I'm just starting this out as a kind of experiment. The posts are prescheduled. Just look here again on the 17th of July! Also, please comment on what you think might be a good category to put here.

Quiz Answer: deoxyribonucleic acid

un chat noir

2011-07-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

Last night, I caught fireflies. I caught about 5, including two glowworms, let them free in my room, and hoped they'd start a colony. The only problem was that the glowworms couldn't fly around, and fireflies lead very short lives. I've prayed that my females laid some eggs.

FIREFLY CATCHNG 101

Materials Needed: A jar

Put some grass in the jar if it doesn't have wire netting, which will act like an air conditioner until it dies.

Look around for the sparks of light. If you see one nearby, run to it and try to find the bug. Catch him and put him in your jar. When you catch your second firefly, you may want to hit the lid of the jar before you open it, in case there are any bugs crawling around on it.

Be on the lookout for glowworms hiding in the grass. If you only have males, you won't have a colony.

While I was catching my fireflies, I found a stray black cat in our backyard. She just ran away from me, so I'm suspecting she was abused and abandoned. Poor kitty. (I have three indoor cats.) I hope she comes back again. But her appearance gave me the title of this post. (I was going to call it "Catching Fireflies," but that's the name of a children's clothes catalogue.)

Post-Dance Performance

2011-07-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

My dance performance went pretty well, excluding the fact that this time there were mostly only family members and friends of the dancers in the audience. We had an Asian mother and her young daughter at the beginning, but after the first two dances, when audience participation was announces, they ran out. Sometime after my solo a father and his very young daughter stopped by, so we did have audience participation then. Somebody's little sister joined.

After the recital we went to an ice cream place. Their ice cream isn't very good, but my mother likes it, so we went with AL, my mother's friend who went to my performance with my parents.

NOTICE: People outside my family (or the online realm) will be represented by their initials from now on. People I met online will be represented by established nicknames (or first names).

After ice cream my mother and I wanted to go to the Talbots outlet nearby, so we went while my father went to the bookstore. I got three much-needed t-shirts at Talbots and one not-needed sweater, while my mother got a sweater for herself.

Then we went home.

I don't think I've told you about what I did after my piano lesson yesterday. Or did I? I went to the Cain Park Art Festival (wich is near where the Ls live) with DL and his father. I found a watercolor artist that DL and I both liked, so we bought some of her small original paintings. Here's a pic of mine.

This isn't a picture of any place; the artist told us that she made it up. The actual painting is flipped around, because I took this picture in Photobooth, which acts like a mirror when I take pictures. DL got his own, which was of mountains too, but they looked like they were near a desert.

We went back to their house. DL asked for an art lesson with drawing flowers, so I taught him and made some drawings of my own. Okay, mine were better than his, but I kept encouraging him and I hope I can give him another one sometime soon. I might post my drawings that I made last night in a new art page.

Then we went home.

Dance Performance

2011-07-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

I need to leave for a dance performance really soon. My new dance studio has these performances (I've already had one last week) at places like a big library or nursing homes. More later! I need to practice. I have a solo!

I call it "Spark Falling." I don't know how I came up with that name, but I guess it's because every time my hands come over my head they do a spark thing.

Orthodontists

2011-07-08T06:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the good fortune to go to two different orthodontists. I got some good news and some bad news from both. The good news is that I won't need braces for 6-9 months. The bad news is that I am going to need about 6 teeth pulled (not at the same time, though).

Today I will have a piano lesson. I've recently been struggling with the piano for "On My Own." It's a really beautiful song, and it's not above my level, but the right hand and left hand play completely different melodies. And I haven't shown it to my teacher. So I need some instruction with that.

The Post that Nobody Will Read

2011-07-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

This is the first post of a blog. The sad first post! Nobody will read it, because it will get lost behind other stuff. If you are reading this, you are probably me.

Well, hi. I thought I needed to start a blog. My life really isn't that interesting, but here it is. Maybe I shouldn't write more because nobody will read this.

I am interested in genetic engineering, music, and editing photos. Which you will learn more about later.