Thank You, Internet

I'm sure every writer has at least one author that they look up to.  I have quite a few.  One thing about the Internet, is it allows you to learn more about people you wouldn't otherwise know.  Before the Internet, people just read books and didn't really know much about the people who wrote them.  (I assume.  This was before my time...)  Thanks to the Internet, I now follow some of my favorite authors on twitter, read their blogs, and even watch their Youtube videos.  I love it.  Before, authors had a lot of anonymity.  They still can if they want to (although maybe not to the same extent), but they can also interact with readers a lot more.

Not only is this great for the authors, it's also great for the readers and those who hope to become published authors some day.  I love that I can learn more about the people who write such great books.  As someone who wants to be an author, I enjoy learning more about what being an author's really like.  If I'd been born twenty or so years ago I wouldn't have that.  I don't even know if I would have wanted to become an author.  It's entirely possible that I would never have paid attention to the fact that someone put a whole lot of work into each book that I pick up.  I may not have considered writing to even be a career possibility.

The Internet is great for many different reasons, but I am incredibly thankful that it has allowed me to interact with amazing authors that never would have been possible before.  I may even have the Internet to thank for bringing the career of writing to my attention.

Even More Stress

Is it really only Wednesday?  This week has been so long.  Today was a mixture of getting things out of the way that have been bothering me forever and adding even more things to stress me out.

We had an open book test in AP U.S. history today.  It really wasn't hard since it was open book.  If only we could do that for every test...

All we did in AP English today was work on our annotated bibliographies.  I still don't have mine even halfway done.  I'm not looking forward to working on that.  Even though it's not that difficult to write, I feel like it's going to take forever.

Ji and I have one yearbook page that's due this Friday.  The only problem is standardized testing is going on the next couple of the days in the computer lab, so we can't work on them during yearbook class.  That means we have to work on them at home.  I didn't even know we could access the yearbook stuff from home until Ji told me we could today.  I really hope we're able to get that finished.

At the end of computer applications I had to go up to the guidance office.  I've been trying to send my transcripts to colleges through this e-transcript thing for over a month now, but the guidance office wasn't getting my requests through the thing.  I'm not even really sure what was going on, but we have it all sorted out now.  My transcripts have finally been sent!

During lunch Haley and I ended up sitting at the table where Jordan and Bridget were selling dance tickets.  Haley said she sat at our usual table, and some immature boy started throwing food at her, so she moved over there.  I didn't see it happen since I was late to lunch because I'd been in guidance.

Peer tutoring was pretty much the same as usual.  I helped two girls with some worksheets, and in the other class, I really just sat there and watched.

We had a test in economics today.  The thing with econ tests is that I feel like I know it well, and I do perfectly fine on most of it, but there's always at least two problems that I get to and have no idea what the answer is.  It bugs me because I swore I went over everything.  Today, there were still a couple of hard ones, but I thought I remember talking about it, so I may actually be right this time.

I completely forgot that I had a hair appointment after school today until my sister reminded me as we were getting off the bus.  Regina was trying to get me to cut a ton off, but I told her that wasn't happening.  I don't think I've had my hair short since freshmen year.  I like how easy it is to brush my hair when it's short, but other than that I hate when I have short hair.  Instead, I just got it trimmed.

I really need to go work on my annotated bibliography, but I want to get some other stuff (including another blog post) done before I work on that.  It's going to take up my whole day!

Background Music

I know a lot of writers like to listen to music while they write.  Some even create playlists to go along with their books based off of what music they listened to while writing.  I am not like those writers.  When I listen to music, I can't do anything but listen to music.  It's too distracting to me.  I start listening to the music and lose track of what I'm doing.  Or, I completely tune the music out so that I don't even know it's there, but that's only occasionally.  Most of the time the music does nothing but annoy me because I'm trying to focus on something else, and the music is just distracting me.

Don't get me wrong.  I love music most of the time, just not when I'm trying to do something else.  When I listen to music, I want to focus on the music, and when I'm writing, reading, or anything else, I want to be focused on what I'm doing, not music.

Sometimes kids at school try to convince teachers to turn on the radio because it's proven that music helps stimulate your brain and helps you learn and focus.  I can see how that could be true, and I'm sure it works for a lot of people.  But I can't focus on something else when there's music playing.  To me it's the same thing as having a people talking right next to you while you're trying to focus.  Just like with music, that doesn't bother some people, but it does me.  (I hate trying to do homework at school when everyone around me is talking loudly, and I'm one of those people who can't stand when someone starts talking during a movie I haven't seen before.)

Do you like listening to music while writing, reading, doing homework, or anything else, or does it annoy you like it does me?

Thanksgiving is Over and Advent Begins

I didn't even realize that it had been a few days since I posted.  I was either doing absolutely nothing, or I wasn't home all day.  Yesterday, we left to go to my grandma's in the morning and didn't get home until about eight or so in the evening.  We were there to celebrate Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family, and it was a whole lot of fun.

Aside from just talking and things, we also played board games.  My sister Regina, Aunt Kate, and I played this Hunger Games training game.  I got to play as the District 12 tribute (which isn't specified as being Katniss, but her skill is archery so...).  It was extremely confusing at first, but after we figured the game out it turned out to be a lot of fun.  Regina, our cousin Danielle, and I also played several games of Clue.  And all of us grandchildren (except my brother Matthew) played Quelf.  It was Regina's first time playing.  We had so much fun!  It's impossible to not have fun while playing Quelf.

I completely forgot that today was the first Sunday of Advent until this morning.  As far as I'm concerned that means it's officially Christmas season!  Speaking of church related things, today was also the first time we used the new translation of the mass.  That turned out interesting...  Even though we knew the responses had changed, it's hard to say something different when you've gone your whole life saying it the old way.  It'll be interesting to see how long it takes before everyone gets used to the new translation.

Tomorrow is school again.  It's always a little weird to go back to school after breaks, even if they're only five days.  The month until Christmas break seems like such a long time.

Movie Review: Breaking Dawn Part 1

Release date: November 18th, 2011

Rated: PG-13

Directed by Bill Condon

Written by Melissa Rosenberg and Stephenie Meyer

Studio: Summit Entertainment

Synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes:

In The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson), plus those they love, must deal with the chain of consequences brought on by a marriage, honeymoon, and the tumultuous birth of a child...which brings an unforeseen and shocking development for Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). -- (C) Summit Entertainment

Review:

I'm going to start off by saying that Breaking Dawn was by far my favorite Twilight film.  I consider myself a Twilight fan, but I'm not really a fan of the books themselves.  I'd much rather be reading well-written fanfiction about the wolves.  As far as the movies go, I've enjoyed them.  They weren't the absolute best movies, but they were entertaining.  Breaking Dawn blew me away though.  I thought it was the best shot Twilight film so far, and I'm sure Part 2 will be the same as it has the same director.

One thing that really surprised me about this movie is that I had a huge smile on my face for at least the first half hour because of how cute it was.  I don't like Edward and Bella much.  I've never really cared about them a whole lot.  Sure, I want them together, but there's so much about them as a couple that annoys me.  It bugs me how unhealthy their relationship is.  But I has a huge smile on my face during the wedding and most of the honeymoon.  I kept thinking about how adorable they were together.  That didn't happen for me in the books.

One of my favorite parts of the movie was getting to see more of the wolves.  They are by far my favorite characters.  I love getting to see more of them.  My friend Haley and I got excited everytime Seth showed up.  (I love him.)  I also loved seeing Jacob, Leah, and Seth as a pack, since their three of my favorite characters, and I love how they interact with each other.  The scene where all the unimprinted wolves (the previous three I mentioned plus Embry) were talking about imprinting was great, and I'm not just saying that because it involves my top four favorite characters.

I got way too excited at the end of the paper.  From the moment I knew Bella was about to go into labor until the end of the movie I was on the edge of my seat.  From the moment Edward tries to hand off Nessie to Jacob and he won't take her I was sitting in my seat whispering, "Oh my God.  He's going to imprint."  You can ask Haley because I'm sure she heard me.  Since it was done differently than in the books, I got a little mad when Jacob went outside instead of imprinting.  That scene was so perfect though that I got over it quickly.  Even if I was slightly worried for a minute that he wasn't going to imprint...

I'm still not sure how I feel about the "fight" scene between Sam's pack and everyone else.  I think it was well done, but I also don't think it was entirely necessary.  It did kind of let us see their reactions to Jacob's imprint though, which I guess is a plus.  And of course the fighting looked really cool.  I think it was done better than the battle in Eclipse.

The only absolutely negative thing I have to say about the movie was the wolves' voices when they were phased.  What was with that?  Having CGI wolves talking through voice-overs is going to be a little cheesy anyway.  Did they have to make it worse by adding weird effects to their voices.  Most of the time I could barely understand what they were saying, and even though I can tell most of the wolves apart (way too obsessed...), it was harder to distinguish between their voices, which would make it harder for people to follow who's who.  I think they should have just used their voices without any effects at all.  It would have worked a lot better.

I never get fangirly over Twilight unless it involves the wolves, and even then, I'm not usually this bad.  I loved Breaking Dawn though.  In addition to showing more of the wolves than I think any of the previous films have, it was also shot really well, and I think everyone who worked on it did a great job.  It's definitely my favorite Twilight movie.

I'm editing this to add a couple of things I forgot to mention.  The way they made Bella look like she was dying was amazing.  It was almost hard to watch because she really did look almost dead.  It was also really cool when they showed her turning into a vampire.  I thought that was neat.  The whole labor scene was shot really well too.  As someone who's extremely squeamish around blood, I didn't have an extremely hard time watching it, which was nice.  Hopefully I've got everything now and won't need to come back and add on to this again!

After the DVD came out, I made a post about the special features.  You can read that here.

Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to write a quick Thanksgiving post.  If you're in America, I hope you're having a great Thanksgiving, and if you're elsewhere in the world, I hope you're have a great day even though it isn't a holiday.

My dad's side of the family is getting together this weekend, but for today it's just my grandma, dad, sister, brother, and me.  My mom is unfortunately at work today, but someone has to be at the hospital even if it is Thanksgiving.  My grandma and sister are downstairs while everything cooks right now.  (As you can tell, I'm being a great help.)  Everything was already put together last night, and today just really involved sticking stuff in the oven to cook.  We should be eating really soon!  I can't wait for the dressing!  That's the best part of the Thanksgiving meal.  (My family has a dressing recipe that's just amazing.)  And of course pumpkin pie is another amazing Thanksgiving food.

I got up early to watch the Macy's parade for the first time in a few years.  I used to watch it every single Thanksgiving, but then I got older and discovered the joys of sleeping in.  Since then, I've usually only caught the end of the parade.  Today though, I was supposed to help my sister cook, and I was determined to actually see the whole parade.  Our dog Poppy woke me up just before my alarm this morning by coming into my room and laying on my chest.  After that I was wide awake, which under most circumstances would be good because I'd actually get up, but I really didn't want to move her.  She looked so peaceful sleeping there even though I was in a slightly uncomfortable position, so I laid there a little longer than planned.  I still managed to catch all of the parade.

Ji's mom made a Korean dish called kimbap today, and she wanted us to have a roll of it.  I'm not really sure why, but Ji brought it over to us about an hour ago.  It was an interesting experience.  It wasn't that I didn't like the kimbap.  It's just not something I'm used to eating.  I think it's something I could get used to eating if I had it over and over, but it's probably not something I'd seek out.

Since it's Thanksgiving, I'll do a little list of things I'm thankful for:  family, friends, our dogs, books, writing, Harry Potter (especially the fandom), J.K. Rowling, the Internet (that may sound stupid but really think about all it's done), the fact I have a chance of going to college even though applications are stressing me out recently, and all of the other things that make me happy.

I hope all of you Americans enjoy your Thanksgiving meals!  I'm ready to go eat all of our awesome Thanksgiving food!

Old Stuffed Animals

Usually days I don't have school seem to drag on forever, but today actually went by very quickly.  I feel like I didn't get a chance to do anything today.

My sister has been cleaning her room all day.  The two of us used to share that room, and because of that, tons of our old stuffed animals are stuffed in one of her closets.  She got all of those bags down, and we went through some of them.  I hadn't seen those stuffed animals in years!  Most of them were hers as some of my old ones were moved into boxes into my room when we got out own rooms.  Still, some of my old stuffed animals were in there with hers, and I ended up taking a few.  They're now sitting in my room for absolutely no reason.  Most of them are dirty, musty smelling, and squished looking, but I haven't seen these in years!  I'll probably stuff them in my closet after a few days and forget about them, but it's still weird to see them after so long.

That's just about the only note-worthy thing today.  Other than that I've done nothing but read (not as much as I would like) and do various things on the Internet.  Now I'm off to do a bit of homework (Yep.  I'm studying during Thanksgiving break.) and then finish a college application.

I think I'm helping  fix Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow since my mom will be at work.  We'll see how that actually works out, since it requires waking up early and getting my sister and me to cooperate.  I'm excited for the Macy's parade and the dressing!  (My family seriously has the best dressing recipe ever.  That's the best thing about this time of year.  It's the only thing that tastes good as leftovers.)

Female vs. Male Point-of-View

I have yet to write a story with a male main character.  Being female, I just relate more to that point-of-view.  It's familiar to me.  Sure, every girl is different, but there are still a lot of things that usually stay the same from one girl to another.

Someday I may try to write about a male main character, but I don't see it happening anytime soon.  It would definitely be a bit of a challenge I think.  It'd be something new and interesting.  If I do ever write from a male perspective though, I see it as being years from now.

The truth is I really like writing in a female perspective, since I am female.  It's what I know, and it's what I want to write about.  I can't see myself writing in a male point-of-view.  To be completely honest, that doesn't sound as interesting to me although I have no idea why that is.

This is kind of reflected in my reading too.  Almost everything I read is in a female perspective.  It's actually a bit strange that Harry Potter, my absolute favorite series, is just about the only books I read with a male main character.  Other than Harry Potter, John Green books, The Giver, and The Chosen are the only other books I can think of that I really enjoy and have a male main character.  (Although Harry Potter and The Giver are female authors writing male characters).

I may explore writing in a male perspective in the future, but for now, I'm going to stick with my female protagonists.

Favorite Antagonists in Books

Trying to think of my favorite antagonists from all of the books I've ever read is difficult.  I know I'm going to leave some awesome antagonists out of the list, but here are a few of my favorites.  Warning: most of these contain at least slight spoilers.

Voldmort and the Death Eaters from the Harry Potter series.  I couldn't help it.  They had to start off this list.  I would have listed several different Death Eaters seperately, but I didn't want to clog this list up with Harry Potter characters, so I won't list any Death Eaters individually.  I don't think I could ever despise another fictional character as much as I do Voldemort, Bellatrix, and Wormtail (and the next character on this list).  They're so well written and so horrible.  Plus, I love that we get lots of backstory on Voldemort, and we get to kind of understand why he turned out the way he did.

Umbridge from the Harry Potter series.  She's almost worse than the Death Eaters.  I can't stand how she does whatever she's told to by whoever has the most power.  I swear she would have become a Death Eater early on if she'd known Voldemort was out there and would control the Ministry.  Not only does she act like a puppet in order to gain power, she also does horrible things on her own, such as giving a fifteen year old boy a detention where he has to write lines in his own blood.

Coin from The Hunger Games series.  I'm putting her on this list but not Snow.  Ever since reading Mockingjay I've hated Coin more than Snow.  Snow tells Katniss they shouldn't lie to each other in Catching Fire, and he really never does lie.  Everyone (except the Capitol citizens of course) know that Snow's corrupt/evil/etc.  Snow does horrible things, and sure, he puts on an act when he's in public.  Coin, however, goes even farther in my mind.  She tries to act like she's on Katniss' side, even to Katniss, and then, she tries to kill her.  It's not really that different from what Snow's doing, and yet it seems so much worse in my mind.

Dr. Cable from the Uglies trilogy.  She doesn't have that large of a role for most of the books, but the role she does play is very important.  She's interesting because she's not really evil.  As far as she's concerned, she's doing what she needs to do to protect the society they live in.  Plus, she surprises Tally (and me as well) towards the end of Specials.  I think that's when I really realized that she isn't that bad of a person.  I don't think she thought of what she was doing as wrong, and I can see her justification for her actions.  I think she's a very interesting character.

I'd add more to this list, but it's past midnight and I need sleep.  Besides, most of the books I read don't have one clear-cut antagonist.  I actually realized that in most of the books I read the protagonist themself is also the main antagonist.  Still, I hope this list is fun to read, even if it is short.  I feel like it's almost unintelligible because I'm half asleep.  I'm going to bed before I fall alseep while on the computer.

I Need a Break

I'm am so ready for Thanksgiving break!  I need these five days off of school.  I'm beginning to get really stressed out, and a break will be nice.  I mean most of the stress is coming from college stuff, and I'm going to spend break applying to two colleges.  Still, no school helps take a bit of the stress off, and I think I could the main college-related thing that was stressing me out sorted out today.  So, hopefully it will be an unstressful break for me.  (If my sister succeeds in getting me to go Black Friday shopping, then I guess we can throw the unstressful break out the window.)

Since it was the last day before break, we didn't do much at school today.  I had an AP U.S. history test first thing this morning, but other than that, I didn't do much today.  We're researching for our trend analysis paper (with an annotated bibliography) in AP English, but I don't really consider researching to be hard work (unless you're having trouble finding information).

Our Jostens yearbook representative was in our yearbook class today to show us how to create the portrait pages, but all that required was us sitting quietly and listening to him talk.

I'm way ahead in computer applications, so our teacher asked Ji, Bethany, and me to help her wrap pennies from Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF.  Once we were finished with that, Ji, Alyssa, and I went up to the guidance office since we each had seperate things that we needed to get worked out.  That's when I hopefully got the biggest college-related thing sorted out.  Guys, applying to college can be hard when things don't go right.  I think I go to a great school, but something I didn't learn until this year is that it's sometimes hard to get things figured out because of the small staff.  I've been trying to get this sorted out forever, but our guidance office consists of two people (a guidance counselor and a secretary), and whenever I have time to go in there, they never seem to be in there (hence why I went during class today).  It was starting to get frustrating.  I've never had this problem until this year, since you don't really need to deal with guidance much (except during scehduling times) until senior year.  Hopefully, that's all sorted out though, and as soon as I send in these two applications, I'll be done applying to college.  (Then I just have to be accepted...)

Just like us high schoolers, the middle schoolers weren't doing much today either, so I didn't do much during peer tutoring today.  In the first class I'm in, I helped one girl with math a little bit and helped two boys study for a social studies class.  In the second class, the were watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving while working on a math worksheet that they didn't really need help on, so I spend the whole time just watching Charlie Brown.

We did actually do work in econ today, but it was easy and not nearly enough to take up the whole hour and a half we're in there.  Most of the class was spent doing nothing.

Since getting home, I feel like I've accomplished a lot, but it really doesn't seem like much looking back on it.  I managed to get some reading done, which hasn't really happened in a while.  I got half of a college application filled out, which I'm relieved that it's nearing being done.  I also filmed a video that I was currently in the process of editing before I got in the shower and then started writing (first my story and then this).  I have over twenty minutes of footage, so I hope to get it edited down a lot, which probably won't happen since I can't bear to leave out anything when it comes to books.  As soon as I post this I'm going to get back to editing that, and I'll hopefully have it up before I go to bed, which is looking less likely as it's getting late.

Favorite Romantic Disney Moments

It's another Disney post!  This one is about my favorite romantic moments in Disney movies.

The end of Beauty and the Beast.  Of course I have to start this post with Beauty and the Beast.  Belle and the Beast are my favorite Disney couple, and I love the end of the movie so much.  Belle's also the only Disney princess on this list because I honestly don't like the romances with any of the other princesses.  I feel like out of all the Disney princess movies, Belle and the Beast are the only ones who really seem to fall in love with each other (except maybe Aladdin and Jasmine because I really like them too).

The ballroom dance scene in Beauty and the Beast.  This is a close tie with the other Beauty and the Beast scene.

The spaghetti scene in Lady and the Tramp.  This has pretty much become a classic scene that everyone recognizes.

EVE "kisses" WALL-E in WALL-E.  These two are so adorable for the whole movie.

Simba and Nala during Can You Feel the Love Tonight in The Lion King.  I love the two of them so much!

Jane deciding to stay with Tarzan in Tarzan.  I love the romance between them, and I love when she decides to stay.

Dresses and Breaking Dawn

I've had a busy weekend so far.  After school on Friday, Ji, Regina, and I went shopping for Christmas dance dresses.  We stopped to get something to eat, and then went to this house Ji's parents are fixing up.  (This is in a city a little less than an hour away, and they're moving out there when the house is done and stuff.)  We left Ji's car there, and her mom took us to the store where she had us (particularly me for some reason) try on a ton of dresses.  Luckily, I found one, so I have that done with.  I'm not a huge shopping or trying on clothes fan.  Ji's mom was really into it though.  She wanted to see me in every dress, and she kept going to get more.  It felt like I was in that dressing room forever.

Today I went to go see Breaking Dawn with my friend Haley.  I was so excited!  Every showing before ours had sold out, so I was really worried this one would be when we got there, but we managed to get tickets.  I loved the movie so much!  As of right now, I can really only think of one complaint.  For the most part, I thought it was done great.  I'll post a review of it later.

My biggest thing was that the Hunger Games trailer wasn't shown before the movie!  It was supposed to be, but for some reason it wasn't at our theater.  Haley and I were dissapointed because we both really wanted to see it on the big screen.  I hope I get to see it in front of something before the movie's out.

This doesn't really sound like a busy weekend, but it sure feels like it.  I think most of it is because I woke up really earlier this morning.  I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep.  Usually, I lay in bed a while anyway, and I eventually go back to sleep.  I didn't do that this time, and I regret it.  I've been so tired today.  Plus, I can't sleep in tomorrow, so I'll start off the week tired.  Thankfully, I only have school two days this week!

My Pencil Got Stolen in the Bathroom

I got the pleasure of beginning my day by standing out in the rain waiting for the bus.  I was also alone because my sister stayed home sick.  I'm so glad that the bus actually came early today.  Normally, I would mind the rain, but being stuck at school with wet clothes and hair isn't fun.

All of the seniors with a certain GPA or above had a meeting this morning about a scholarship.  One person in our county gets it, and the winner recieves full tuition for four years at any college in Indiana.  It's a great scholarship, and I'm going to apply for it.  It's just that I don't want to go to college in Indiana.  There is one college (that I really like) that I applied to that's in Indiana, so I'm still applying for the scholarship.  We'll see what happens if I get it.

This meeting ran into our first class, which meant I had less time than normal to complete my AP U.S. history test.  Thankfully, I got done on time.  I think it's because I knew I had less time, and I made myself focus more than usual.  (I'll admit that I sometimes zone out in the middle of tests.)

We got to peer edit papers in AP English.  Basically every problem that was pointed out in my paper is stuff I already know.  The problem is I'm not sure how to fix those problems.  This paper is proving to be very difficult.  When I'm finished writing this, I'm going to go through it and do some editing myself.

Here's an interesting story:  Whenever I go to the bathroom at school, I always leave my books and things sitting on this ledge thing over the sinks.  I've been doing this since freshmen year, and I've never had a problem.  Today I did the same thing I always do, and when I went to get my books, my pencil was gone.  My eraser, book, and notebook were all still there, but the pencil was gone.  I looked around, thinking maybe I dropped it, but it was nowhere to be found.  I think someone stole it.  I wasn't too bothered by it.  I just went to my locker and got a new one.

I really funny part of the story was during econ.  Some people started complaining about how they'd had bad days, so our teacher started going through every person in the class and asking them how their day went.  When he got to me, I was just going to say that my day had been fine when Jordan mentioning that I did actually have a bad day.  I don't know if she was referring to the pencil thing or what happened while peer tutoring (I'll get to that in a minute.) as I had just told her and Haley both.  I kind of stammered for a bit before just saying, "My day was fine, but my pencil did get stolen in the bathroom."  Everyone in the class, including me, burst into laughter, and I turned bright red, which Haley pointed out to me.  After a few minutes, the teacher said he wasn't even going to ask for that story, and we moved on.  It was interesting though.

As for what happened during peer tutoring over at the middle school, I was put in charge of helping three sixth graders with a math worksheet today.  They were doing really well.  They were each dividing up the problems and doing them on the board.  Then, the boy got frustrated over something and decided he wanted to do them himself, so he went and sit at a desk and worked on them alone.  Then, the two girls got into an argument because one girl didn't think the other was being fair, so they insisted on working the problems alone.  It was kind of dissapointing.  I remember at the beginning of class being really impressed by how well they were working together, and by the end of class that had fallen apart.  At least all three of them had a pretty good idea of what they were doing.  That was the point of the worksheet.

On a bright side, the pouring rain had stopped by the time I went over to the middle school, so I didn't have a problem with that.  I also got a ride home with Ji instead of riding the bus.  That was especially nice since I was lugging home books for my sister Regina, so she could get homework done.  Overall though, it wasn't a bad day.

Disney Quotes

Here are just a few awesome quotes from Disney movies:

A dream is a wish your heart makes when you're fast asleep. In dreams you will lose your heartaches. Whatever you wish for, you keep. Have faith in your dreams, and someday, your rainbow will come smiling through. No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dreams that you wish will come true. - Cinderella

Do not be fooled by its commonplace appearance. Like so many things, it is not what is outside, but what is inside that counts. - Aladdin

It's because I like you, I don't want to be with you. It's a complicated emotion. - Finding Nemo

Always let your conscience be your guide. - Pinocchio

Absence makes the heart grow fonder... Or forgetful. - Peter Pan

Forever is a long long time and time has a way of changing things. - Fox and the Hound

Teenagers. They think they know everything. You give them an inch, they swim all over you. - The Little Mermaid

What do you want me to do, dress in drag and do the hula? - The Lion King

Let me get this straight. You know her. She knows you. But she wants to eat him. And everybody's okay with this? DID I MISS SOMETHING? - The Lion King

Yes. So whenever you feel alone just remember that those kings will always be there to guide you and so will I. - The Lion King

The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it. - The Lion King

The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all. - Mulan

Oh, it's not the first time I was tossed out of a window, and it won't be the last. What can I say? I'm a rebel. - The Emperor's New Groove

Someday, you're gonna wind up all alone, and you'll have no one to blame but yourself. - The Emperor's New Groove

This is my family. I found it, all on my own. It's little, and broken, but still good. Yeah, still good. - Lilo and Stitch

Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten. - Lilo and Stitch

Pudge controls the weather. - Lilo and Stitch

Boy, have you got your lions crossed. - The Lion King

You can speak whale? I wish I could speak whale. - Finding Nemo

There are so many other great ones.  I'm impressed that I didn't put any Beauty and the Beast quotes considering it's my absolute favorite Disney movie.

Harry Potter Spells I Wish Were Real

I'm sure most Harry Potter fans wish they could perform the spells they see in the books and movies.  How cool would it be to be able to do magic?  These are the spells I wish were real the most:

Accio.  I can't even tell you how many times I could have used this spell.  It would be so handy when you can't find things.  I spent hours searching for something the other day.  I can't be the only one who's said this in complete desperation when I've been searching for something forever.

Expecto Patronum.  I would never want to come face-to-face with a dementor, but I would love to see what my patronus would be.  I hope this will be something Pottermore will do when it gets to Prisoner of Azkaban.  It could be like finding your wand.

Alohamora.  This kind of goes along with accio.  I wouldn't want to break into places or anything, but it would be handy when you're locked out and things.  I had keys and locks.

Episky.  This spell would be handy when you're injured.  Being someone who absolutely hates blood, I'd love to be able to have this spell rather than actually dealing with a wound.

Lumos.  As someone who's scared of the dark, I would love this spell.  Most people don't carry flashlights all of the time, but if you could do magic, you'd almost always have your wand with you.

Muffliato.  This would be handy when you really want or need to talk about something with someone, but you're in public.

Disillusionment charm.  I would love to be able to become invisible, and this would be the closest I could get without an invisibility cloak.

Book Review: Avatar The Last Airbender: The Lost Adventures

ISBN: 159582748X
Published:  July 27th, 2011
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Read from October 16th to November 11th, 2011
Synopsis from Goodreads:

One of America's hottest shows returns! For three years, millions of eager fans tuned in each week to watch Nickelodeon's hit animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Ever since, fans have been hungry for more - and now their wait is finally over!



This volume collects the long-out-of-print, fan-favorite comics previously published in Nickelodeon Magazine and with the Airbender DVDs, plus over 70 brand-new comics pages. That's over 26 stories set in Airbender continuity, by a host of top-notch talent, many of whom worked on the original animated series itself.

My review:

Books That I Was Skeptical About But Loved

For this post, I'm going to go through the books I have listed on Goodreads to find ones that I was skeptical about but really enjoyed.  These are all books that I didn't really think I was going to like when I began reading, but I gave them at least four stars on Gooodreads.  I'll post a link to the book's page on Goodreads, the synopsis from Goodreads, a little on my thoughts on the book, and a link to my review if there is one.

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact and continue their lives apparently unchanged. Most of humanity has succumbed.



When Melanie, one of the few remaining "wild" humans, is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.


Wanderer probes Melanie's thoughts, hoping to discover the whereabouts of the remaining human resistance. Instead, Melanie fills Wanderer's mind with visions of the man Melanie loves - Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer begins to yearn for a man she has been tasked with exposing. When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.

Please don't judge The Host based on Twilight.  I know it's the same author, but they're completely different.  I can't really tell it's even the same author, and I know several people hate Twilight but enjoy The Host.  The reason I was skeptical at first is actually because it's about aliens.  I think it's the first (and probably only) book I read about aliens.  They're not your typical aliens though.
 
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women is the heartwarming story of the March family that has thrilled generations of readers. It is the story of four sisters--Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth-- and of the courage, humor and ingenuity they display to survive poverty and the absence of their father during the Civil War.

I really only picked this book up out of boredom.  I have to admit though, I've only ever read the shorter kids version.  I plan on reading the actual one at some point.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

My sixth grade class read this because our teacher was a bog Lois Lowry fan.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

I only read this book because I'd heard such great things about it from other people.  It didn't sound at all interesting to me.  I'm always interested in WWII stuff, but for some reason I was reluctant to read The Book Thief.  It sounded boring.  I'm so glad I finally gave in and read it!  It's a great story.  The fact that it's narrated by death put me off a little at first, but I really did enjoy The Book Thief.

Plastic Fantastic by Simon Cheshire

Fifteen-year-old Dominic is crazy about the pop group Plastic—especially their attractive lead singer. Lisa Voyd is a style goddess, and her voice makes Dominic’s heart melt. He knows every word and every note of every song, of course, and has sworn his allegiance to all that is Plastic. So what if Dominic’s best friend, Emma, thinks he’s wasting his time? The silly girl likes classical piano music. Anyone who knows anything knows Plastic is the best.



But when Dominic gets trapped in an elevator with none other than Lisa Voyd, she’s nothing like the star he thought he loved. Turns out the life of a pop singer is not all it’s cracked up to be. And the world’s biggest fan might have an even bigger fan of his own.

This is probably the least known book on the list.  I was at a Book Warehouse, and if you bought so many books, they were a certain price.  I needed another book, so I picked up this one.  I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy it.  It really is a nice book though.  It's also a British book, which is always a plus.  I wrote a short little review on it over on Goodreads.

The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter

When John Cameron Butler was a child, he was captured in a raid on the Pennsylvania frontier and adopted by the great warrrior Cuyloga. Renamed True Son, he came to think of himself as fully Indian. But eleven years later his tribe, the Lenni Lenape, has signed a treaty with the white men and agreed to return their captives, including fifteen-year-old True Son. Now he must go back to the family he has forgotten, whose language is no longer his, and whose ways of dress and behavior are as strange to him as the ways of the forest are to them. A beautifully written, sensitively told story of a white boy brought up by Indians, The Light in the Forest is a beloved American classic.

This is the start of the books I read for school and ended up loving portion of the list.  I've ranted about all of these books numerous times in various places.  I'll just add a link to my review on Goodreads.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The tragic story of the complex bond between two migrant laborers in Central California. They are George Milton and Lennie Small, itinerant ranch hands who dream of one day owning a small farm. George acts as a father figure to Lennie, who is a very large, simple-minded man, calming him and helping to reign in his immense physical strength.

My review is here.

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

Few stories offer more warmth, wisdom, or generosity than this tale of two boys, their fathers, their friendship, and the chaotic times in which they live. Though on the surface it explores religious faith--the intellectually committed as well as the passionately observant--the struggles addressed in The Chosen are familiar to families of all faiths and in all nations.



In 1940s Brooklyn, New York, an accident throws Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders together. Despite their differences (Reuven is a Modern Orthodox Jew with an intellectual, Zionist father; Danny is the brilliant son and rightful heir to a Hasidic rebbe), the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship. Together they negotiate adolescence, family conflicts, the crisis of faith engendered when Holocaust stories begin to emerge in the U.S., loss, love, and the journey to adulthood. The intellectual and spiritual clashes between fathers, between each son and his own father, and between the two young men, provide a unique backdrop for this exploration of fathers, sons, faith, loyalty, and, ultimately, the power of love.

I've ranted about my love for this book so many times.  I thought I would hate it, but it's one of my favorite books of all time.  My review is here.

This list isn't that long really.  I'm usually pretty open minded about books.  I try not to judge whether or not I like it until I read it.

Veterans Day and Mixed Up Schedules

We started off the school day with a Veterans Day program.  It was nice.  We had a guest speaker who had been in the army but is now a dentist.  They honored the seniors who have joined the National Guard.  It was a cool ceremony for the most part.  If any U.S. veterans read this, thank you so much for everything you've done for our country.

Because of the program, our schedule for the rest of the day was a bit different than normal.  The middle school, where I go part of the day for peer tutoring, also had a different schedule today.  This made it a little weird when I went over there today.  Usually, I'm in two different classes.  I start in one class, and then when the bell rings, I go to a different class.

When I got there today, the first class I'm normally in had already started.  (I usually get there right before class starts.)  Then, they were going to their third block class instead of their fifth period class like usually.  (If it sounds confusing, that's because it is.  I have no idea who in the middle school thought it was a good idea to just completely reorder all of the classes one day.)  There was nothing for me to do in either of the classes I'm usually in, so I just sat in one of the teacher's rooms and wrote random stuff.  It was a bit awkward most of the time because she was just sitting at her desk while I sat at a desk scribbling in my notebook.

After a while, the bell rang, and the kids were now going to their fifth period class.  I headed over to the second classroom I'm normally in.  I was there for a total of ten minutes before it was time for me to leave and head back over to the high school.  I feel like I did nothing.  That's not really true though.  I did help one girl with some problems, come up with some dividing fractions problems for a boy to work on the board, and read a quiz to a couple of kids.  Still, because of the long amount of time I spent just sitting there, it feels like I did nothing.

We finished watching The Italian Job in econ.  It was a good movie.  It's not typically something I'd choose to watch, but I enjoyed it.

I feel like there was something else that I really wanted to mention in this post, but I can't think of anything.  I can't shake the feeling that something else kind of big happened to me today.  Maybe I'm just thinking that because it's 11/11/11...  I'll probably remember in a couple of minutes.  I'm too tired to worry about it now.  It's past midnight, so I'm going to go to sleep.  I'll add on to this in the morning if I remember.

Notebooks and Stories

I don't know what the first story I ever wrote was.  I had a lot of noteboks that I scribbled small notes in here as a kid.  There was one notebook that I had all sorts of "important" stuff in, and I remember keeping it with me almost all the time.  Nothing in it could be classified as a story though.  Don't get me wrong, I came up with stories all the time, but most of them stayed in my own head.  I was a bit older before I actually started writing stories down.

I still have most of those notebooks.  It's interesting to look in them now and see some of the things I wrote.  Sometimes I just have to wonder what was going through my head when I wrote something.  You can definitely tell that I've always had an active imagination.

Even though nothing in these notebooks can really be classified as stories, these notebooks really helped me get to the point where I actually wrote.  In a way, a lot of the stuff is exactly like things I write down when I'm coming up with a story now.  I plan on keeping all of these notebooks (and the ones I use now).  They should be fun to look back on years from now.

English Papers and Fanfiction

Remember how I was having such a hard time writing my paper in AP English yesterday?  Well, today proved to be a lot better.  I'd say I'm about one-third of the way done with the paper (rough draft only of course).  It's still not that great, but at least I have something down.  I can work on it from there.  I'm having bit of trouble describing the Harry Potter situation though.  I mean I'm trying explain about Voldemort ordering Draco to kill Dumbledore, the Unbreakable Vow, Dumbledore asking Snape to kill him, and more in just a few paragraphs.  It's difficult to do that in a way that makes sense to people who haven't read Harry Potter.  I'm kind of using Ji and Kayla as test readers.  I've asked one of them to read bits of my paper at least a million times and tell me if it makes sense.  I have a lot of work to do.

We had a sub in Econ(omics) today, so we spent the entire time watching a movie.  We watched The Italian Job which I had never heard of.  It's an okay movie, but I'm not really that into it.  It doesn't help that I know when we finish the movie tomorrow I'm going to have to write about economics in the movie.

I don't know if I ever mentioned it in a blog post, but if you follow me on twitter or have noticed the little button on the side of the blog, you'll know I'm a prereader for Sparkly Red Pen.  I became a prereader for them a few months ago, but I was just assigned to work on my first story today.  I'm so excited!  I'll definitely let you guys know when the author posts the first chapter.  I have the first chapter, but I can't actually preread it (like comment and stuff) until I hear back from the author.  I'll let you know when the first chapter's up.  Hopefully, it's good!  It's the author's first fanfiction, but she really seems to have a good start.

Favorite Harry Potter Movie

Over the years my favorite Harry Potter movie has changed numerous times.  For a while, my favorite Harry Potter movie was just the latest one.  As I got a little older, I began to constantly describe Prisoner of Azkaban as my favorite film because I found myself watching it almost every week (compared to every month or so).  I still absolutely love Prisoner of Azkaban and consider it one of my favorites, but over the past few years it's been over shadowed by the last three films.

Even though Prisoner of Azkaban was my favorite, it's also the one I complain about the most.  I mean, where's the Marauder's backstory!?  I think that's the reason it slipped lower on the list.  I love the way the last three films were done, and there weren't any major changes that I got really upset about.  If the Marauder's story was in PoA it would probably still be my top Harry Potter film.

Out of the last three, I think Deathly Hallows Part II is currently my favorite.  I say currently because I don't feel like I've seen it enough to firmly proclaim it as my favorite.  I only saw it twice in theaters, and I definitely need to see it more before saying it's my absolute favorite.  From my two viewings, I think it'll be able to stay at the top after a million and more viewings.  I thought the whole movie was beautiful and brilliant.  Were things cut and changed?  Yes, but none of it was done in a way that ruined the story.  Were things added?  Yes, but I thought they did it really well.  Things were different, but it was still very true to the story J.K. Rowling created.

Although I don't want to inscribe it in concrete yet, I'm fairly confident that Deathly Hallows Part II will be my favorite Harry Potter movie for years to come.  (But I want to say that I love them all so much, and it's very hard to choose between them.)

Dr. Seuss and Economics

We started writing our comparative analysis papers in AP English today.  Our last papers were challenging, but this is definitely the hardest yet.  I sat in front of the computer for what felt like forever before I even got one sentence typed.  It's definitely a tough paper to write.

I brought in my senior picture today for the yearbook.  For some reason, our yearbook teacher decided to show it up on the projector for the whole class.  It's a small class, and everyone's going to see it in the yearbook anway, but it was still awkward.  It's weird having everyone look at your picture and make comments (even though they were all positive).

We got to read Dr. Seuss in Econ(omics) today.  We got into groups and read The Lorax.  Then, we had to identify different economic stuff in it.  After we were finished we watched the cartoon version.  Who would have thought you'd be reading children's books in a high school econ class.  I'd actually never read The Lorax before even though I'd heard a lot about it.  Then, I came home and randomly stumbled upon a new Australian teaser trailer for the new Lorax movie that's coming out.  Weird timing.

This is a random fact that I found out the other day.  Thanks to kids in my grade dropping out, we now have a grand total of 99 kids in my class.  (Honestly though, we've always been just a little over a hundred, so this isn't really huge drop.)  We just keep getting smaller and smaller.  A pretty large portion is also graduating half year, so it'll be interesting to see how many seniors we actually have in school next semester.

Harry Potter Books vs. Movies

While you'll find lots of people who have watched and enjoyed every Harry Potter movie without ever reading one of the books, I've never found one person who's actually read the series and picked the movies over the books.  How can you when the books are so great?

Don't get me wrong.  I love the Harry Potter movies.  They're some of my favorite movies in the world.  Deathly Hallows Parts I and II were freaking amazing.  But even they don't quite compare to the awesomeness of the books.  This isn't really just a Harry Potter thing.  I love movies, but I would always pick books over movies.  I like being able to imagine things in my head.  It gives you a certain leeway to decide things on your own.  You have descriptions to go by, but overall, what things look like is all up to you.  Get a group of people who've read Harry Potter, and each one of them will have imagined Hogwarts just a little bit differently.  In the movies, you don't have that option because Hogwarts is given to you right on the screen.  That's not really a bad thing.  I love actually getting to see a version of Hogwarts, but it's not the same as the Hogwarts in my head.

Of course, we could also get into the changes that were made in the movies.  The movies could never fit in all of the tiny details we get in the books.  (Or apparently big details like the Marauders' backstory.)  In the movies, we didn't get Archie and his nightgown, Remus rushing to Shell Cottage to announce Teddy's birth, or any of Winky's story.  None of these things a really important to the plot, but they help make the books special.

The Harry Potter movies will always be special to me and some of my favorite movies.  They're wonderfully made, and I love almost every single actor in them.  The books just happen to be a bit more magical.  I like that they give us small little details sometimes, and that they allow us to imagine things on our own.  These things make it seem a bit more real and allow us to make the Harry Potter universe our own in some ways.  None of us experience the books in quite the same way.

Harry Potter vs. Hunger Games vs. Twilight

Comparisons between Harry Potter and Twilight are everywhere.  You see them less and less now.  (Now, it tends to be Hunger Games vs. Twilight or even Harry Potter, which is just as bad.)  Still, I see the comparison pop up every so often.  I think comparing series like this is one of my biggest pet peeves.

What do Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games have in common?  Nothing really.  Sure, both Harry Potter and Twilight have vampires and werewolves, but they're not even similar vampires and werwolves.  The Hunger Games isn't even fantasy but dystopian.  I've never understood why people insist on making comparisons between the three.  You can't compare things that are so unalike.

Yes, I know most of this comes from the fact that all three are extremely popular book series there were or are being turned into films, but I don't think that makes it reasonable to compare them to the extent people have.  I hate that almost everytime I see an article on one of the three (other than on fansites) one of the other two is almost always mentioned.  For the most part, it doesn't happen when talking about Harry Potter and not so much Twilight anymore, but almost everytime I see something about The Hunger Games, the article will also mention Harry Potter or, more often, Twilight.

I just wish this would stop.  Why can't the three series remain separate.  They're way too different to be compared.

Operation Christmas Child

I'm still worn out from the weekend.  I was at the school enough for the play that it doesn't even really feel like I had a weekend.

I got to start off my Monday with an AP U.S. history test.  Luckily, it wasn't bad.  As far as AP U.S. history tests go, it was fairly average.

I was looking forward to actually going home after school today, but I ended up staying after for about fifteen minutes with Ji.  She was calling this college for information and wanted someone there for moral support.  After she was done with the call, she asked if I was interested in going to the Dollar Store with her to get things for Operation Christmas Child.  We're supposed to have everything for that turned in to school tomorrow.  We stopped at my house, so I could get some money, and my brother and sister ended up coming with us.  We looked around the Dollar Store for a while and found some stuff.  We got a pretty good mix of hygiene items and small toys.  We even saw Randall (who I've known since 4th grade) while we were there.

Once we were done shopping, I just headed home to sit around the house for the rest of the day.  I'm very happy to say that I had no homework today.  It was nice to have a day with no play practice and no homework.  I was even able to watch episodes of both Naruto and How I Met Your Mother.

The Final Performance

Today was the final performance of my school's fall play.  Everything went great.  In fact, it was probably the best of the three performances.  It was the only one that I wasn't extremely nervous before too.  I'm glad everything went so well.

I'm a little sad that the play's over because I had so much fun being a part of it.  At the same time, I'm glad it's over.  It took up a ton of time, and I was staying up way to late to get homework done and doing other stuff.  I'll have much more free time now, and I won't be rushing to get my homework done so I can sleep.  It'll be nice.

Today has been a long day.  This whole week has been long.  After today's performance, we had to strike the stage, put all of the props up, and take the set apart.  It took a little while, but not that long especially compared to how long it took to make.

I'm extremely tired.  This weekend definitely wasn't a refreshing one.  Funnily enough, I'm looking forward to this week because I'll actually have free time after school and I'll be getting more sleep than I have been.  It'll be nice.

DVD Review: Mona Lisa Smile

As I mentioned in my Stepmom review, this movie came with that one.  This review isn't going to be much better than that one although not for the same reasons.  It's only been about a week since I watched Stepmom, but I just can't seem to focus on writing a good review.  (I'm starting to get nervous about the play tonight even though yesterday went great.)

I really enjoyed Mona Lisa Smile.  I didn't really know what to expect when I started watching the movie, and I was pleasantly surprised.  I feel like I've seen bits of it before, but I can't say that for sure.  Maybe I'd just heard the title before, and that's why it was familiar.  Either way, it was a great movie, and I really enjoyed it.  I loved the time period and the story and all of the characters.  It was just great.  I wish I could say more, but my brain just isn't cooperating at the moment.  I may do a joint review of Stepmom and Mona Lisa Smile later that's better than these two reviews.  We'll see...

Barefoot in the Park: Opening Night

Today's been a long day, so I'm going to try and keep this short.  Things were pretty uneventful during school today.  The most noteworthy things were that we got our Key Club shirts (which look so awesome), and some of us got free ice cream during lunch.  Other than that, nothing that happened during school really sticks out.

After school, however, is a different story.  Tonight was the first performance of our fall play: Barefoot in the Park.  In case you didn't know already, I'm on stage crew.  I wasn't nervous at all at school today.  I didn't really start getting nervous until I showed up at the school at five o'clock.  I was so scared I was going to screw something up and ruin the play.  Luckily, nothing like that happened.  Before the play and all during the first act, I was in one of those moods where I was laughing at absolutely everything because I was so nervous.  I finally calmed down by the time it was intermission.

Everyone in the audience seemed to enjoy it.  Haley and Jordan seemed really excited about it when I saw them afterward, and they've even posted great comments on facebook.  Ji also told me it was good although she wasn't as hyper about it, and everyone else seemed to have enjoyed it.  I think everyone did a great job.  I know a lot of the actors were nervous in the beginning, but they were great.  I just hope tomorrow and Sunday's performances go just as well as tonight's.

Debates, Papers, Yearbook Covers, and Dress Week

The first thing that happened today was our debate in AP U.S. history.  Our group was debating the cons of Indian removal.  I was really worried about how the debate was going to go because I didn't feel as if we were ready.  I was pleasantly surprised that it went extremely well.  Our group argued our point well, and I think we definitely got our point across.  It went great, and I had so much fun.  It makes me wish our school had a debate team.  It would be so much fun.

We're getting ready to start writing our next paper in AP English, and it's going to be an analysis that deals with obedience to authority.  Guess what I'm analyzing.  Voldemort ordering Draco to kill Dumbledore, and Dumbledore asking Snape to kill him.  I'm so excited!  Hopefully I can make it work well.

I don't think I did a blog post where I mentioned our ideas for the yearbook cover.  Well, we were going over ideas for the cover the other day, and I think it's going to be awesome!  We had some awesome ideas.  I just keep getting more and more excited for this yearbook.  I can't wait to see it finished!  (I can't believe I'll be in college when it's sent out.)

Play practice was interesting today.  This week's dress week.  I can't believe it's that close to opening!  We had to change around jobs and things for one of the scene changes today, which was a bit stressful.  Now, instead of bringing stuff out on stage during the first scene change, I'm helping Bridget with her quick change.  I wasn't sure how that was going to go, and I was a bit worried that she wouldn't get ready in time and it would be my fault.  Luckily, she got ready in time.  Overall though, I think practice went well.  I think we'll be able to pull everything off this weekend.  Some of us crew members are now doing our curtain call behind the "window" too, and five of us have to climb up on this bench thing.  I hope that doesn't look to awkward (and that one of us doesn't fall over or something).  Hopefully it all goes well.

DVD review: Stepmom

At least a year ago my mom bought this DVD that had two movies in it.  One disc is Stepmom and the other is Mona Lisa Smile.  I'm going to talk about Mona Lisa Smile some other time, but I'm talking about Stepmom in this post.

I'd seen Stepmom before, but it had been an extremely long time.  Long enough that I knew I had seen it, but only a couple of minutes here or there felt familiar.  The end was what I remembered the most.  I honestly watched this a month or two ago, and I'm just now getting a review up.  I've forgotten anything I would have wanted to say by now.

I really enjoyed the movie.  It was a sweet movie, and the end of the movie made me cry more than any movie has in an extremely long time.  The special features were also pretty cool.  That's really all I have to say.  I know it's not much really.  I'd probably say more if it hadn't been so long since I'd watched it, and it wasn't so late with so little time.  I'd definitely recommend watching it if you haven't seen it before.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had an awesome Halloween.  Mine wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't the best either.  It really wasn't very Halloween-ish.

There's really no way to describe last night other than weird.  I feel like I spent most of the night only half asleep.  I kept waking up, but I can only vaguely remember it even though I could out of bed at least two or three times.  I've felt half asleep all day.

Since it was Halloween the first thing we did at school today (after announcements that is) was watching the Halloween parade.  Every year my school lets the people who dressed up to walk down the hallway, and then they choose cutest, scariest, and most original costume.  Ji was taking pictures for yearbook, but it turns out the camera's memory card won't upload to the computer, so we can't really use any of them (or any that we've taken recently).

The only good thing about not being able to use the yearbook camera is that a lot of the teachers recently got iPads, so we can use our yearbook teacher's to take pictures.  Ji and I spent yearbook class walking around the school taking pictures of people who dressed up.  Interestingly, most of the pictures are color-coordinated.  It just so happens that each class tended to have people with the same color costumes.  I think it looks cool.  My favorite pictures we took was of what I'll dub the "black group."  My friend Haley's in the picture with a Slytherin tie and Harry Potter glasses with a terrified look on her face while a vampire is behind her about to bite her neck.  They're not the only ones in the picture, but that's basically the focal point.  We actually got several hilarious ones of that group.  They were the largest and really the only ones who posed in a funny position.

Our computer applications teacher gave us blow pops because it was Halloween, which was pretty awesome.

After school came play practice as usual.  You'll be hearing a lot about the play from me this week as it's dress week, and we open Friday.  This means five and a half hour practices all week.  The awesome part is that we get supper, and there's not really anything left for us to do other than scene changes (and people doing lights and sound), so I have time to do my homework during practice.  (Not that I got much done today during practice.  I don't work well when I have a headache.)  It's weird thinking that the play opens this Friday.  It doesn't feel like this is the seventh week we've been working on it.  Hopefully, everyone who comes to see it enjoys it!