One Final List

One Final List

God, that title sounds so depressing.

Hey guys. It's the last day of BEDA. I'm sure you know that by now. I want to end the month on a happy note, so I've composed a list of some of my favorite things.* Hopefully you like them too.

SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS: A LIST

1. A Hard Day's Night: Alison, thank you for making us watch this movie. It's amazing. Ringo might be my favorite Beatle. But I like Paul too. And John's amazing. And George - he's pretty great.

2. Orange nail polish: Everyone should wear orange nail polish on their toes all the time. Then we would all smile at each others' feet. I'm pretty sure that's the way to reach world peace and cure swine flu.

3. May 15th: I hope this needs no explanation. But in case you're a little behind, May 14th is the AP World History Exam, also known as the test-that-will-explode-my-brain-and-cause-the-administrators-to-rip-the-paper-out-of-my-hand-for-getting-brain-juice-everywhere-and-overusing-hyphens.

4. Blogging: Don't worry, I'm not stopping. BEDA's been a lot of fun, even if blog posts do take me way too long to write. I don't know if I'll keep blogging every day, especially with the you-know-what coming up, but maybe after May 15th. We'll see. And BEDA buddies, I love you guys and you're all very funny and interesting and clever and I love reading your posts, so I hope you're not going anywhere anytime soon. :]

5. This video: Watch it, and then you'll know. And seeing mememolly makes me want to redecorate my room and buy all new clothes so I can be as cute as her. (That's a good thing.)

6. My friends: Our numa numa video kicks ass, but besides that, my friends are pretty great. We have fabulous movie marathons and birthday celebrations that attract cakemoochers to our lunch bench. All my friends are wonderful, actually - my online friends and my school friends and Rebecca who lives in Tennessee. Friends are one of the best things in life, ever.

7. Vlogbrothers videos: You know you sqee on the inside every time a new one shows up in your subscription box. If you don't, you must have swine flu, and it's impairing your brain.

8. Shortbread cookies: Especially the ones printed with little chessmen. Especially, especially when they have chocolate.

9. Birthdays: Not just mine, either. My friends and I have lots of fun on birthdays - Alison makes the cake, which is always amazing, and there are balloons. I love being able to make somebody happy on their birthday.

10. Harry Potter: The books are great and the movies are pretty good, but what amazes me is the fandom. Harry Potter nerds are amazing. Just look at what's come out of them: try this, or this, or this. Do you hear the screaming in that last one?

THANK YOU

So I just want to say thanks, to all of you, to Maureen Johnson, to everybody who's doing BEDA, for inspiring me and encouraging me and not throwing things at me when I sound like a sap.
I almost just automatically typed, "see you tomorrow," but I don't want to promise that and then not blog tomorrow. So I guess I'll see you when I see you.
:]

Oh, and one final question, just for old time's sake, I suppose.
What are you doing tomorrow?


* These are a few of my favorite things...

Wal-Mart and Questions

Wal-Mart and Questions

Today I have a short anecdote for you about Wal-Mart and then a bunch of BEDA buddy questions because I've been ignoring those lately. (Even if you're not my BEDA buddy, you can answer. I don't mind, really.)

WALL-TO-WALL-MART-OF-CRAZY

I've only been to Wal-Mart twice in my life. The first time was with my grandparents, who one year decided that instead of buying my sister and I Chanukah presents, they would just take us to Wal-Mart. It was no consolation, let me assure you. Even though I was only 9 or so at the time, I was really really conscious of how much things cost and wouldn't ask for anything too expensive, so I ended up with a rolling backpack.* (It broke a couple months later.) My sister came home with massive amounts of Polly Pockets, and I seem to recall and Shrinky Dink Oven. All I really remember of that trip was the McDonalds in the store. I thought that was amazing.

My second trip to Wal-Mart occurred last year. The new Eagles cd came out, and they only had it at Wal-Mart, so of course my mom decided it was worth the risk. She generally avoids Wal-Mart at all costs - she says it's because the isles are so small that they make her claustrophobic. We pretty much ran in, speed-walked in circles until we found the cd, then ran out. (We did stop to pay for it, of course.) Basically the entire trip was two minutes long, but it was enough for me to see the kind of people who shop at Wal-Mart.** And I recall dollar bins. Lots of them.

BEDA BUDDIES, SORRY IF YOU FEEL IGNORED

1. How do you suggest studying for the AP World History exam, which is in 14 days? Or, if you are studying, how are you doing it?
2. Would you please tell me a crazy story? Something that happened to you in Wal-Mart, maybe?
3. What are your favorite kind of sunglasses?
4. What do you want to be when you grow up?
5. What's your favorite color of highlighter?
6. What is your opinion on papier mache things?
7. What's your favorite t-shirt have on it?
8. Name 3 songs I have to listen to. Now. (Or on May 15th after the AP.)
9. What spell would you like to use on Britney Spears?
10. What is your favorite thing to put on your head?

Ahhh, gotta run.
Shower. Study. Bed. Possibly study in bed.

- Tash

* These were quite in style in elementary school. Everyone who was anyone on the playground had one. And then they all tripped over each others' at recess.

The Art of Waving (And A Sidenote On Werewolfism)

The Art of Waving (And A Sidenote On Werewolfism)

The [Difficult] Art of Waving
(Not fan waving, but that sounds fun too.)

Imagine this: it's about 7:30 in the morning before school, and I'm walking to my locker. I'm in a relatively empty space between two buildings when I see this guy from my English class. He's waving. Is he waving at me? I turn around to check, and there's no one there. He can't be waving at me, though. That would be so weird. So I ignore him. He's not waving at me. There must be someone else around that I can't see, I think. But then he yells at me. Loudly.

"Natasha! I'm waving at you!" He sounds kind of annoyed, but also kind of like he's joking. With this guy, you never know.

"Oh, sorry," I mumble, and wave back. Then I hurry away.

The Queen* has it easy. All she really have to do is master that little hand wave/flick, and then whip it out whenever someone waves at her. If the Queen thinks someone is waving at her, then someone is definitely waving at her. People do not wave at someone standing behind the Queen when the Queen is present. And the Queen most definitely does not offend people when she doesn't wave back.

Unfortunately, for us non-royal people, life doesn't work like that. It often happens that you think someone is waving at you when they're really waving at someone behind you. When you wave back to the waver, there are two common responses: either the waver will look very confused and slightly annoyed, or the waver will wave back while looking very confused and slightly annoyed.

Because this instance is embarassing and uncomfortable, we often are unsure when people are waving at us. So we don't wave back, and then they either get offended and don't say anything, or get offended and do say something. Either way, you've offended somebody, which isn't pleasant, and you've embarassed yourself.

And then on the opposite end of the spectrum, you wave at somebody and they aren't sure who you are, or, more commonly, they don't have their glasses on and can't see you. Either way they don't wave back and you're left standing their like a fool, waving your hand around like you're trying to catch a cab. Unfortunately, I expect this is one of those little things that never goes away.

Unless, maybe, we can stop waving altogether. That doesn't sound too likely, though.

A Sidenote On Werewolfism
(If you're expecting this next bit to be Twilight-related, I'm sorry. Please accept this evil glare in return.)

Last night I was perusing my AP World review book when I cam across this paragraph:
According to Daniel [the prophet of the Hebrew Book of Daniel], Nebuchadrezzar** had a strange dream, and sought advice from Daniel, who told him that he would be removed from office for seven years as a result of an odd and strange disease. Within a year, Nebuchadrezzar did become ill with what scientists now thing was lycanthropy. Lycanthropy results in loss of erect posture, rejection of all human food, and PREFERENCE FOR WALKING ON ALL FOURS. The King became a maniac. He lived in the open twenty-four hours a day, fed on herbs, rejected clothing, and became covered with a dense coat of hair. Daniel had prophesied that the illness would not be permanent, and after secon years, Nebuchadrezzar was miraculously cured. He ruled until his death in 562 BCE at about the age of 80.

Disregarding the question of why College Board would test me on this information, let's consider the fact that Nebuchadrezzar became an animal and grew a fur coat. As soon as I read this, I asked my mom about it, and she automatically associated lycanthropy with werewolves. So, of course, I did what any good investigator does: I looked it up on Wikipedia.

There I learned that lycanthropy is a psychological disorder in which you think that you are an animal, such as a dog or a bird or a cat. Now, what I'm wondering, is if I convince myself that I'm a dragon, will I suddenly be able to breathe fire?

Confirmation-itis

I've just returned from Confirmation class. It seems my case of I-Hate-Comfirmation-itis has worsened, as I was informed tonight that there's singing required at our service. Yes, singing. And we have to read pieces that we've written outloud to our parents and grandparents and crazy greataunts. The piece of mine that I requested the Rabbi keep out of the service is of course in it, which is a bit unfortunate because it basically says, "Dear God, I pray for peace and sanity, because humans are horrible and we're going to murder each other and then die of swine flu." Isn't life wonderful? It's a good thing I wrote most of this post before I left, because if I wrote it now all it would say is, "I hate you all."

Anyhow. BEDA buddies, you might have noticed that I haven't been doing questions lately. I think this post is long enough without them, but don't worry, I haven't forgotten you.

Remember me to Harold Square.

-Tasha


* This can be any queen. The Queen of England, the Queen of Sparkles, the Queen of Narnia, take your pick.
** More commonly known as Nebuchadnezzar of the Neo-Babylonians.

The Significance of Monday

The Significance of Monday

Today is Monday. Monday is significant for several reasons:

1. Monday means waking up at an ungodly hour to slump to school, where there will inevitably be chemistry tests that contain typos, at least one embarassing incident involving either shoelaces or hair or possibly both, multiple encounters with Twilight shirt-wearing Hannah Montana fans, and a run-in with a tall person who doesn't watch where they are going.

2. Monday is laundry day, which is important because it means that laundry hasn't been done for an entire week. Therefore, there is the possibility of running out of matching socks, or underwear, or both, or being unable to wear your favorite shirt because you wore it last Monday. Laundry day also requires you to remember to put everything you want washed in your hamper; otherwise you are without it for another week, until next Wednesday.

3. Being an Advanced Procrastinator, you left all your homework to be completed at a late hour on Sunday night, which required you to be attent and alert when you should have been sleeping. Unfortunately it proves impossible to make up for said sleep on the bus or during the chem test. Therefore you are forced to learn that it is extremely uncomfortable to yawn while doing sit-ups in aerobics, and then be tired all day Monday, then all day Tuesday. Basically, being tired Monday means you're tired all week since you didn't use your weekend to catch up on sleep like you were supposed to.

4. Monday is the day before Tuesday. On Tuesday, the club that you're a big part of meets. As luck would have it, it's your week to come up with a service project. Looks like letters to sick kids again. Tuesday is also the day that your mother forces you to go to Confirmation class with the Rabbi, where you sit in a room with kids you've known forever but know absolutely nothing about and learn about Passover and the Jewish view on ghosts. Because you have to spend two hours there on Tuesday, you have to prioritize your Tuesday homework and get some of it done on Monday. You also spend Monday periodically dreading Tuesday.

5. Monday is five days away from Saturday. It's the beginning of the workweek and the schoolweek and the when-is-summer-vacation-again? week. You, for five days, are no longer allowed to wear your pajamas all day, disregard the cleanliness of your teeth, or skip breakfast. The school has drilled it into you - breakfast is required to pass the test, graduate high school, get into Harvard, and therefore live to be a zillion years old and find the cure for the common cold.

6. Sunday night and then Monday mean your twitter updates and facebook newsfeed are full of things like, "relaxing time is over. School is tomorrow and there is much do. The first thing is sleep." Also, "today... was AWESOME. tomorrow.. will not be so awesome" is a possibility, as is, "what a monday...wow." and, "____ is over school." Aren't we all, ____, aren't we all?

7. Monday means this girl on here. This is not a bad thing. Today, Monday also means youtube maintenance. This is a bad thing.

8. On Monday, this t-shirt is relevant and therefore wearable. The cat, however, is not.

9. "Heroes" is on. Tonight happens to be the season finale. This is 50% good thing and 50% bad thing. Is Sylar good or evil? Who kidnapped Mohinder? Do we really care?

10. This week, and this week only, Monday is the last Monday of BEDA.

Hope your Monday was tolerable.
See you tomorrow.
:]

Band and Books

Band and Books

Hello.

Today I went to the LA TImes Book Festival at UCLA, which was crowded and big and actually not too hot.



The big entrace archway thing.

We got there about 9:00 and there wasn't much going on yet - the booths were still setting up - so we wondered around for a while before sitting down to see Lady Danville play at 10. That pretty much made my day - they sounded great and the people in the audience, most of whom I'm sure hadn't heard of the band, seemed to really like them. I kind of feel a little bit possesive of them since I've been following them for the last few years - I love it when they get more exposure. Plus I got a t-shirt. :]


This was right after the sound check but before they actually started their set. Look at the drummer on the left - during the sound check my sister asked me why he was taping up his fingers and I didn't know so I told her that he must get splinters from his drumsticks. I had no idea he wasn't going to use the drumsticks - or the drums - at all. He just slaps the box that he's sitting on and hits the symbol in front of him. Sometimes he uses a miracca-like thing and then he'll hit the symbol with that.

Afterwards we walked around for a bit more before stopping to have lunch. Then we waited in a very long line to have some books signed by Laura Numeroff, who wrote If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and some other books involving giving animals things. My sister got a book signed by Pseudonymous Bosch, a very strange looking man in a top hat, and then we walked very quickly to get to the room where SE Hinton was going to be.

She was interviewed by Jane Smiley then took questions from the audience. She wasn't at all how I pictured her, but still a really interesting lady. She wrote The Outsiders when she was 16, so it was cool to hear her talk about how much her writing - and her life, really - has changed since then. No signed book, though - the line was at least a half hour long and they ran out of books.

That was a nice conclusion to my weekend - basically no homework done, haven't studied for the chem test at all, but I did buy a box of paper made out of elephant poop.

Hope you all had a good weekend and have a good Monday.
:]

UnFun-ness

UnFun-ness

Hello, dears.

I'm taking a bit of a break from procrastinating to write my post for today. I spent the morning at a review session, then the afternoon eating, watching youtube videos, and basically doing everything possible to avoid my homework. I just took a walk with my family to see the [name of my neighborhood here] Family Fun Days Picnic, which was not so much family or fun or picnic as it was tents and empty rides and smelly tired-looking horses walking in circles. Kind of sad, actually.

My sister spent an hour (or possibly more) on the phone this morning with her best friend, who lives two hours away, discussing English to British translations. It seems that knowing a jumper is actually a sweater is not enough for her. Then she spent forty-five minutes on the phone with another friend (this one only lives ten minutes away) while watching "Phineas & Pherb" on mute and saying very little.

Now she's resigned herself to doing some spelling homework that's due Wednesday while I'm sitting here pushing off a history chapter, some math problems, and a French paragraph, all of which are due Monday. I also have to come up with some kind of service project to do at a club meeting on Tuesday, and burn a whole bunch of cds for my best-friend-from-Tennesee's 16th birthday, which is a week from tomorrow.*

Sorry to complain so much. (And sorry for the short post. I promise something interesting about the LA Times Book Festival - with possible pictures - tomorrow.) Hope you're having a swell Saturday.**

- Tash

* Oh, shoot. I just looked at a calendar. I thought I had at least 2 weeks.
** No day video links for this week. I think I started that last Saturday, and I've pretty much cycled through all of my day-titled songs.

Unrelated Bits of Text

Unrelated Bits of Text

It's Friday again, friends. Hope you're all doing well.

THE END OF AN ERA

I've been feeling a bit nostalgic about the end of BEDA, especially reading MJ's post for today, and it's not even over yet. I've also been thinking a bit about how I've pretty much chronicled everything I did for the entire month of April. Next year when I wonder, "what did I do last April 17?" I can look it up and see a picture of the Leaning Tower of Books on my dresser. (Speaking of which, it's still there, getting a bit taller everyday.)

THIS WEEKEND

Friday night again.

This is pretty much what my weekend's looking like.
I also have quite a bit of homework to get done after an AP review session tomorrow morning. Then I'm going to a carnival in my neighborhood with some of my friends. Then back to the homework. And blogging and facebook and youtube and all the other things I waste time doing.

A RANDOM PIECE OF HYSTERIA

I just glanced at my iTunes and noticed a song by Santana called "Toussaint l'Overture." You may or may not know that Toussaint l'Overture was a leader of the Haitian Revolution in Haiti in the late 1700s. The song doesn't have any lyrics, so I'm a bit curious about how the two are related.

FUTURE COOKIES

I am eating a fortune cookie. The fortune reads: "A resort area will be part of your next holiday plans." Sounds good to me. I hope future me enjoys herself.
I quite like fortune cookies. I've been to the factory in San Francisco where they have flat ones and chocholate ones and strawberry ones. I haven't tried either but I think the original is probably the best.

Enough tangents for tonight. Have a good Friday evening, guys. See you tomorrow.
:]

An Afternoon Wasted

An Afternoon Wasted

A sweet Thursday to you all.

I had no homework this afternoon, but instead of getting ahead on next week's work or studying for the AP exam, I decided to spend my time watching vlogbrothers and MJ on youtube and editing a Numa Numa video my friends and I made.* Now it's finished, and is taking forever to upload to facebook. I'm a bit frustrated. I just watched the little bar inch its way to the end of the box, where it stopped. Please wait while your video is uploading. No thank you, I'd like it to be done now, please.

Caught up in all of that, I forgot to eat dinner. It's 8:30 right now and I just ate. Technically I'm supposed to go to bed at 9, but I don't see that happening.**

Now that I know how to embed videos, here you go:

This is one of my favorite Blue Skies covers. Is it bad that I like it better than the original?

See you tomorrow, guys.

:]

* Before you get confused, that is not our video. Obviously. Our dancing skills in no way match up to Hank's.
** I really don't understand how people function on four hours of sleep, or even five. If I don't get at least six or seven I can't concentrate.

In Which Plants Are Burgled. Or possibly burgleized. Or burglefied?

In Which Plants Are Burgled. Or possibly burgleized. Or burglefied?

I've promised myself not to leave this till the last minute. It's now nearly 7:30 but it shouldn't take me more than a half hour to write, as I actually have something to talk about today.

A VERY MERRY UNEARTHDAY TO YOU* ** AND THE CASE OF THE KIDNAPPED NERDFIGHTER PLANT

So today is Earth Day. The Ecology Club at my school decided to sell Earth Day grams, and my friend Ellie bought me one. It's a marigold in a little pot, and it has four little flowers that I'm calling Arthur, Molly, Fred, and George.*** My friend Dynahlee also recieved a flower, although her marigold had a signigicantly smaller number of flowers than mine did, so she traded it in for a pink flower. She named hers John Green.
As soon as she announced this, Ali and I wondered why we hadn't though of this while naming my plant. (We considered several names, actually. Ellie was for Joey, Josey, or Sheila, and my friend Steven wanted Ezra.) The four flowers could have been John, Hank, Katherine, and the Yeti.
A few minutes later the bell rang to signal the end of lunch. Dynahlee had her back turned, and off Ali went with John. (She was moving rather quickly and only stopped to hit me and tell me to come on, but it took me a minute to realize what had actually happened.) Then Dynah realized that John was missing, and got slightly freaked out, as there is a group of guys who eats lunch next to us and often steals our cookies and, in Dynah's case, our burritos.
It took her about thirty seconds to realized I was involved in the kidnapping of her dear precious John, and she demanded to know where Ali had taken him, to which I responded, "Ali took John and went to Nerdfighteria."
Dynahlee was not satisfied. She ran into Alison's next class (which also happens to be my next class), where she was hiding John, and retrieved him.

NAME-RELATED NOTES

I don't really feel like answering my questions from yesterday, but I will tell you guys a bit about my name. The real story is that the N is from my grandpa Norman, as the Jewish tradition is to name your kids after your dead relatives, but my dad has lots of alternative explanations. The first is Natasha a la Rocky & Bullwinkle, the story being that if my sister was a boy her name would have been Boris.****

Another of his favorites is a quip about how having such unusual names prevents the two of us (my sister and I) from purchasing souveniers with our names on them. Therefore we will keep his house free of light-up key chains, little plastic license plates, and other useless crap.

My personal favorite concerns why I'm not named Natalie.***** This one's actually in joke form.
I say: What kind of wood doesn't float?
And you respond: I don't know.
And then I say: Natalie Wood!
At this time I explain to you who Natalie Wood was, and then you say, "oh" and either laugh or look very confused, as was the case with my friend Simone.****** Now, Natalie Wood had a daughter called Natasha: coincidence or not?

ONE MORE BIT OF ENTERTAINING

I suggest you check out this.


* My good friend Alison is very clever.
** Due to lack of Wednesday songs, I've found you an Earth Day song. I would not watch it unless you are in the mood to cry. Or get very creeped out. Michael Jackson is involved.
*** I have a house plant in my room named Ginny.
**** Luckily she was a girl, and her name is Gillian. Boris is quite an awful name.
***** I quite like the name Natalie. I believe the reason I'm not named Natalie also has to do with my dad's determination to avoid personalized name stuff.
****** Simone also believed us when we told her that gullible isn't in the dictionary.

Sleepy Feet and Dragons

Sleepy Feet and Dragons

A peachy TUESDAY* to you all!

SLEEPY FEET**

Guys, my foot is asleep. This is a problem that I frequently have, as I am a masochist*** and like to bend myself in strange positions in order to sit in my very uncomfortable desk chair and do my homework. While I could sit like a normal person or get a more comfortable chair, I like to think that having to shift positions every few minutes in order to get the blood back in to various parts of my legs keeps me awake.****

QUESTIONS

Should I answer the mine from yesterday?
What do you think of this song?
That's one of my favorite songs.
What's your favorite flavor of popsicle?
Cherry. I only like cherry.
You have a pet dragon. What do you name it?
I have a giant stuffed dragon. His name is Sir Nicholas.

MVI_1773.AVI

Yes, you can see me and my strange friends in this video. Do not stalk us, please. We are skilled in the art of origami. And we know how to dial 911.

NEW QUESTIONS

1) What's the real explanation of global warming?

2) Why do feet fall asleep?

3) What's the story behind your name?

4) Can you find me a Wednesday song, please? I seem to be at a loss for songs about Hump Day.

5) What's one gadget you couldn't live without?

* Here's an alternative Tuesday link. Just in case.
** My BEDA buddies have cute little clever titles for the sections of their posts. I feel obligated to keep up with the Jones.
*** Not really.
**** In case you're not aware, chemistry is not the most interesting subject. I'm studying things that are made up - seriously. Kelvins are fictional. Some guy named Kelvin was like, "I want a temperature unit to be named after me! How about we just add 273 to celsius and get Kelvin?" And then all the other scientists decided that Kelvin was a funny name.

Oven-Like Heat

Oven-Like Heat

Happy Monday! (You know I just have to do that. Everyday. I will find a Tuesday song!)

Today I went to school. I managed to spill acid-base all over myself in chemistry, bomb a history essay, and read 25 pages of a very bad novel, all in six hours. Then I came home and did a lot of homework while attempting not to melt. (Have I mentioned yet the insane heat that we're having? It's desert-like outside. Possibly even oven-like. If it's still this hot this weekend, I might attempt to fry an egg on the sidewalk. Sometimes I wonder about those people who dream about living in southern California.)

Thanks to Kali, I'm now using Pandora, and I have to say that I like it so far. So, thanks Kali! I'll try out that other website you blogged about soon.

Plug of the day: Joshua Radin. Look him up. He is amazing.

-----------------

QUESTIONS FROM YESTERDAY
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
I probably shouldn't have asked this question, since I don't have an answer. I think the caterpillar came first.
Who's your favorite literary character?
Sydney Carton. I really can't explain why without spoiling the ending. But basically I hated the book because it was so hard to read, but then we got to the end and I cried.
What are you wearing on your feet right now?
Dozzzier lent me her invisible slippers.
If you could spend a day with anyone, dead or alive or fictional, who would it be?
I'd love to meet Kurt Vonnegut - he seems like a really interesting, funny guy. I also think it'd be cool to meet Jane Austen. (Sorry guys. I don't watch Doctor Who. Don't stone me, please.)

NEW QUESTIONS (Am I supposed to ask new questions? If I'm not, just disregard these.)
What do you think of this song?
What's your favorite flavor of popsicle?
You have a pet dragon. What do you name it?

-----------------

Heroes tonight.*
:]

* I have to have at least one footnote. I like Heroes.

Slightly Twitchy

Slightly Twitchy

Happy Sunday! (Okay, wow. He sounds exactly the same. And look at that hair!)
This blog post is coming to you in two parts.*

PART I

I am so panicked about getting my homework done right now that my brain is at its best and I'm thinking at top speed but I'm also moving really really fast. So my stomach kind of feels like it's doing flips and I'm sort of twitching. And still I know I won't get my homework done because my history chapter** is 30 pages long. I think I have about 20 of them left. I could be done, I know I could, if I hadn't spent an hour baking Amish Friendship Bread (which smells amazing, by the way) or taken a shower this morning. That's something my AP world teacher said at the beginning of the year - "You may have to give up showering if you want to get an A in this class." I like my showers, thank you very much.

Unfortunately nothing interesting or blog-worthy happened to me today. It's 90 degrees outside right now (California, I knew you had it in you!) but I wouldn't know because I haven't been outside. I had frozen butternut squash ravioli for lunch. Then I worked on a history worksheet, then I made Amish Friendship Bread.*** The only strange thing was when I came downstairs to check on the bread, I discovered my entire family**** watching "Hannah Montana" together. Usually my dad can only stand to sit through "iCarly," so you can imagine my suprise.

Then I rushed back up to my room to write a quick blog post before removing the Amish Friendship Bread from its pan, reattacking***** my homework, then leaving for dinner.****** Then I will return home and attempt to do more homework before going to bed.

Exciting news, though! Lady Danville is going to be at the LA Times Book Festival next Sunday, and my mom said she'd take me.

PART II

BEDA buddy questions! I've already read all of yours for today, and they are really amazing questions. (As in, the kind where I already have answers in mind.) There are also a lot of them. So my post tomorrow answering them******* might be very long. Also, I'm wondering - do we answer our own questions?

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
What's your favorite literary character?
What are you wearing on your feet right now? (This can be when you answer it, or when you read the question. Your choice!)
If you could spend a day with anyone, dead or alive or fictional, who would it be?


* Oooh I've always wanted to say that. Now I just have to lose count and point my arms in a zillion directions while trying to find the sidebar.
** Luckily not due until Tuesday.
*** It's pretty amazing, in case you were wondering.
**** My parents and my sister.
***** Yes, it's a word. I think.
****** My parents aren't too big on cooking. And there's some restaraunt my mom wants to go to. It got good reviews on Yelp! Yelp! is her new thing.
******* That is when we answer them, right? Or in the comments? I'm not sure. What did we decide?

Pringle Phemonenon

Pringle Phemonenon

I'm giving myself the next half hour* to come up with something really good, because now that I know I have BEDA buddies** reading I have to attempt not to sound like a rambling idiot.***

A short anecdote: today I opened up a package of Pringles only to discover that the chips, every single one of them, were sideways! I remarked upon this to my parents, because, as you can imagine, sideways Pringles are an extremely strange occurence. My mom, of course, didn't respond, as she doesn't care about Pringles, but my dad noted that this must be the attempt of the Pringles to save themselves from consumption, as they are extremely difficult to get out when they are all turned sideways. But, obviously, Pringles have very miniscule brains, as they did not realize that I was going to have to break them to get them out of the container. So that's what I did, and then I ate them.**** Their plan to escape my mouth by turning sideways failed.

Tomorrow I get to make my Amish friendship bread and then pass on four more starter sets to my friends. Hopefully the bread comes out okay, because, after my cauldron cake disaster,***** I am a bit cautionary with anything involving heat and edibles. (Although I do all right with pop-tarts.) One of my friends already made hers and she said it was a bit too sweet, so it should probably be just right for me.

I'm excited to start our question thing tomorrow, BEDA buds, if that's still our plan. I'll be thinking up something good.

Happy Saturday.

* "Kings" is on at 8.
** SarahE, dozzzier, and Jessica C. They are cool. You should meet them.
*** Not that this is a normal occurence or anything.
**** It should be noted that this was a mini, snack-size, hundred-calorie pack of Pringles, not one of those full-size tubes.
***** Oh yes, I blogged it.

What High School's Done to My Weekends

What High School's Done to My Weekends

Eighty-nine percent of me loves the weekends. Weekends are great, right? No school, sleeping in, time to take more than 5 minutes to eat breakfast. On the weekend I can wear my pajamas all day and disregard the appearance of my hair and stare at the wall for hours if I want to. But then I remember that actually, I can't.

Here's where dreading the weekend comes in. I am a high school student. Therefore, I procrastinate, leaving my homework until the last possible second, at which point I am hyperventalating about finishing it and failing the test and my grade slipping and omygosh omygosh. This weekend I have an entire history chapter to outline (and read), a gigantic worksheet* for history as well as some thoughtful analysis comparing the Holocaust to another genocide,** about 15 math problems, and various chem assignments.***

On top of this I've committed myself to Chuck, 90210, Greek, a Masterpiece Theater of Little Dorrit that I think may possibly be 6 hours long, and The Au Pair 3: Adventure in Paradise.**** I did manage to catch up on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles with my mom this evening, but my DVR is still threatening to delete things.

I bet you're really interested in how many weeks behind I am on PotterCast. That, my friends, would be 7. And of course there's BEDA, which, thanks to the Ning, takes up more time than just ten minutes a day that it takes me to write a post.*****

And then, there are, of course, these guys. I find myself sitting in front of my computer late at night watching them.

But before I get to do any of that I have to get up at 7 tomorrow morning to go volunteer at the food bank. Then I'll come home and spend the rest of the day attempting to do homework but getting distracted every 10 minutes instead, which is going to suck on Sunday, since I'm going to a college fair that's probably going to be half of the day.


I love you, high school. Just look at what you've done to my desk.

* My teacher is a fan of legal-size sheets of paper.
** This one requires outside research. But we get to use Wikipedia!
*** A formal lab that requires about 8 pages of typing and makes me want to hit my head on the keyboard repeatedly due Tuesday, and companion questions for another lab due Wednesday, as well as two worksheets due the same day.
**** I also watch Heroes live on Monday and Kings on Saturday, but since I don't have to watch those later they don't count.
***** Not that this is a bad thing at all. :]

DOS and Awesome Songs

DOS and Awesome Songs

Happy Thursday!

Tomorrow I'm participating in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement to bring attention to to the silence face by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender teens. The point of the day is to show how LGBT teens (and adults) feel they must act (silent) when faced with bullying, name-calling, and harassment. Think about the voices you're not hearing tomorrow, and then think about what you can do to end the silence.

I'm really excited to get my BEDA buddy/ies tomorrow. I'm glad Maureen came up with the idea, even though BEDA is half over already. I've actually started wondering what we're all going to do when it April ends? I suppose we'll just keep blogging, although maybe not everyday. I can't believe I just wrote 4 (and now 5) sentences that all start with "I."

As I have nothing to blog about today, this is pretty much the most awesome song ever. Although definitely not the best quality video.

Also this song is amazing:

And one more.

:]

Girl (not me, don't worry) chooses Demi Lovato over trip to China?

Girl (not me, don't worry) chooses Demi Lovato over trip to China?

First off I just want to say that I think moving Harry Potter again was completely ridiculous. Two days? Really, WB? That's a Wednesday!

Moving on. I actually have been sitting here for about ten minutes trying to think of something to write about when I clicked over to facebook and noticed one of my friend's status. It reads:
"______ _______* is really, really mad Demi Lovato is coming when she's going to be in China."

Following this is a comment from someone that says, "I'm going!" and then a comment from DemiFangirl saying, "wowwwwwwwwwwww / fml / i want to kill myself / now im hoping i dont get accepted to get to china".

While it's true I don't talk to this girl, I know that she's part of an accelerated program at her high school, is taking really hard classes, and has applied to some kind of academic thing in China this summer. Apparently, she would rather remain at home so she can attend a Demi Lovato concert.**

I'm screaming inside my head right now. While I respect Demi Lovato,*** I can't believe that a 16 year-old would actually give up a trip to China to see a concert that's going to be full of screaming 8 year-olds and parents plugging their ears. I can't believe that a 16 year-old could seriously**** like Demi Lovato, who is clearly marketed toward elementary-school age girls. Honestly what I can't believe most is that Demil Lovato and artists like her are classified as artists. While I do like Demi's voice and one or two of her songs and sometimes I admire her style, she's a Disney Channel artist, which most certainly limits her credibility with me.

Disney kids are marketing tools, used for money-making. The Jonas Brothers could never, ever compare to the Beatles***** and Demi Lovato is not Pat Benatar, even though I've heard her referred to as such. She's the "next Miley Cyrus" - but honestly, would you really want to be the next Miley Cyrus? Miley's fans are little girls, she doesn't get to sing as herself most of the time, has very little freedom,***** and isn't respected by very many of her fellow musicians and actors, not to mention people who are her own age. She comes off rude and stand-offish in her interviews and doesn't write her own songs and, seriously, what was up with that Oscar dress? She's Disney's puppet, a publicity prop at their disposal.

Now tell me: Is that really how you'd want to make your name?


* While this girl is someone that I know through a Jewish program and I don't ever talk to her, I don't want to share her name. I will now refer to her as DemiFangirl.
** Might I add in right here that the reason I am not going to be able to see Half-Blood Prince like I really want to is because I'm going to a 3-week academic program at a university? I LOVE Harry Potter, but priorities! As Ron once said, "someone needs to get their priorities straight."
*** As in, I occasionally enjoy watching Sonny With a Chance and I prefer her to Miley Cyrus. Plus she doesn't sound like a bimbo (a la Miley) in interviews.
**** Seriously meaing listing her among your favorite artists, not being emabarassed to wear a t-shirt with her face on it, and actually paying to go see her.
***** Please don't even try.
****** Oh, she posed bare-backed! Oh no! We're going to faint! What I really want to know is how she's getting away with dating a guy who's 20 when she's only 16. Is Billy Ray really okay with that? And how the heck is she writing a memoir?

Quite a few words on my insanity

Quite a few words on my insanity

Last night I was brimming with ideas for future blog posts, so I typed them up really quick and saved them to my desk top. Just now I sat down to write today's post and opened up my list so I could choose something from it. Only then did I realize that what sounds good in my head doesn't usually translate too well too blogish,* because instead of the insightful, expandable list of topics I was hoping to discover in my document, I found this:

- tv > why I watch so much > why I am insane > why tv is rotting my brain
- oh shoot I wanted to blog about The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan and I forgot.
- what is up with this font?
- BEDA buddies sound interesting
- my AP world review book is frickin' huge.
- why I suck at list-writing
- Harry Potter > why British people are cool
- our desire to recreate abbey road > why we have failed time and time again to recreate abbey road**
- NaNoWriMo! Why don't I have any ideas? Why, whenever I come up with something, am I doing an activity that prevents me from accessing a pen?***
- LOTR > Why am I not a LOTR fanatic?
- Twilight > I shall not blog about Twilight. Forget I wrote that.
- how I seem to spend all day thinking up things to blog about in my head but then not writing them down and therefore forgetting them
- why does "therefore" have an e on the end?
- bedododododobedooooodoooodooo!****
[ did I put too many o's on that? ]
- emoticons limit my face-making on the internet
- how come no one i know IRL is doing BEDA?
- my recent use of random hotel shampoos.


As I noted in my list, I suck at list-writing. I also apparently suck at stringing together anything that makes sense. I didn't write this list while attempting to watch tv, eat, or do anything else that might have distracted me. It wasn't even late at night. And yet, I still manage to create a list of pointless thoughts that probably only make sense inside my head. None of these are blog-worthy, despite what I may have believed last night when I wrote them down. Why would I think that anyone might ever possibly be interested in reading about my recent use of random hotel shampoos?

A month or so ago, my friend and I discovered that we could send videos to each other over facebook, and we quickly became obsessed.***** While I tend to be a bit withdrawn and quiet at school, when I'm talking to my webcam I talk really fast and do some very odd things. Little did I know that one of facebook's recent changes involves allowing you to see other users' content very easily. Soon, this guy in my English class who I'd pretty much never talked to told me he had no idea I was so crazy.****** I, of course, had no idea what he was talking about. Now we don't post videos as much.

That was relevant! I know that was relevant! Crap! I can't remember why that was relevant!

Actually, that might possibly be why it is relevant. I have yet again proven my insanity.


* The language of blogging, in which your words are interesting and what you're talking about is relevant and actually makes sense and is worth reading. A very difficult language to learn, I'm discovering.
** Actually not repeatedly. At our nerd party a few weekends ago, my friends and I decided to recreate Abbey Road, because my neighborhood has some of those big striped crosswalks (unfortunately it has no streets named Abbey Road) but then it got dark.
*** This tends to happen to me either during 2nd period aerobics, when I am doing a zillion crunches to Britney Spears, or while I am in the shower. If I spent all of my time in these two locations, I could probably discover a cure for cancer, and then subsequently forget it because of my lack of a pen.
**** I don't know about you, but I think that this sounds like a very worthwhile topic. I'm sure I could write a blog post at least as long as one of Maureen's, if not even longer, on this topic.
***** Or rather, I became obsessed. She just replied to be nice to me.
****** Crazy is, of course, as crazy does. Therefore, this guy might also be crazy. Also, crazy is relative. For example, my webcam personality might be crazier than my English class personality, but it might not be considered insane-asylum-crazy. Additionally, my extreme use of asteriks to indicate tangents might also be considered crazy by one who considers tangents useless and irrelevent, which they often are.

I've hit a deadend --- Help!

I've hit a deadend --- Help!

A few minutes ago, I finished my Blue Skies playlist and was clicking around randomly for something else to listen to while I caught up on blogs (between MJ's and John Green's and all the others I like to read daily, I have quite a bit of reading to do every day) and procrastinated my homework and then I spotted Taylor Swift.

I like Taylor Swift! I thought. And so I double-clicked her.

Sometimes I'm in a Taylor Swift-ish mood, one of those happy days where I have nothing to do and it smells like summer (No, I don't know what summer smells like. It just smells like summer, okay?) and I can take a bit of peppy occasionally off-key stuff. Sometimes I even like to sing along, but don't tell anyone, please. Today, however, doesn't seem to be one of those days, as I got through two songs and about ten seconds through a third before I felt like my head was going to explode. Taylor's lovey-dovey happiness is just too much for me today.

So I switched over to the Fray. (The Fray is one of my top five favorite bands and I'm seeing them live this summer! Yay!) But for some reason, not even the Fray can soothe me today. So I moved on to Fleetwood Mac. I've been in to Fleetwood Mac lately. Rhiaaannoooon! But it's still wasn't working for me.

You're probably wondering why I didn't just turn the music off, close up my iTunes, move on with my homework like a good girl. Why waste all that time when you could be doing something important, like studying for the AP exam that you are extremely scared of? you're asking.

I, as I've recently discovered, have a problem with silence. The only time I like it quiet is when I'm working on a history chapter, because I need silence to comprehend all the big words, and when I'm reading a novel. (Possibly something to do with words coming at me from headphones or speakers while I'm trying to read words? I don't know, because I write with music on - but I guess that's me coming up with the words, rather than trying to take in words from two different sources.) I can't sit in a car unless there's something playing (preferably music), especially on the free-way. I hate that white noise sound, the rush of traffic. (Obviously you can't play music too loud when you're driving, because that would be unsafe, as well as annoying. You'd be one of those people whose bass is so loud that it shakes all the other cars around it when it stops at a light.)

Anyhow, I switched to my "Top 25 Most Played" list. I made it through two songs before "I'm Yours" came on. Obviously I like this song, as I've listened to it 58 times. (Quick math time... The song is 4 minutes long and I've listened to it 58 times... I've wasted 232 minutes listening to Jason Mraz! I've spent nearly 4 hours listening to Jason Mraz! Imagine what I could have accomplished had I spent those four hours listening to Mozart.) Jason Mraz is perfectly fine, I have nothing against Jason Mraz - but you have to agree with me that this song is a bit overplayed. As in, a lot overplayed. Why would I listen to it by choice when it will probably be on the radio the next time I'm in the car? I tend to not get tired of songs (when I first got "How to Save a Life" and "Over My Head" a few years ago, I listened to them on repeat for several weeks straight) but this one, maybe...

So Jason Mraz isn't gonna cut it, not today. Gavin Degraw? Doesn't look like it. Okay, what about "Southern Man" by Neil Young? One of my top favorite songs, like, ever, but I don't even think I can sit through it today. I think I'm itching for something new. Any suggestions?

In which I ramble quite a bit about food

In which I ramble quite a bit about food

I was going to be like everyone else and tell some kind of interesting, funny Easter story, but then I remembered that I'm Jewish. I have no Easter stories. I do, however, have Chanukah stories and Passover stories and Shabbat stories.

Unfortunately I can't think of one at the moment. All that's running through my head is food: gross matzah-based baked goods, latkes, braided hallah (I do love hallah), my mom's attempt to make matzah stuffing. For Pesach this past weekend, my grandma made for tupperwares of Passover cookies, which my little cousins eat because Grandma is a bit scary. Mendel bread is a bit like those dry crunchy cookies that you dip in your tea - scones? I can't remember the name... And she also made butter cookies using margerine, because apparently you can't have butter and meat at the same meal because you can't "bathe a lamb in its mother's milk." (That's news to me. I really only know the no meat and dairy rule, and of course no pigs. No pigs ever. And no shellfish.)

In any case, Passover tends to be a holiday where I skip dessert. Sorry I'm a bit rambly tonight, I haven't yet had a chance to catch up on my sleep. :\

Happy Easter to y'all, and happy Pesach!

To match my rambly mood, here's a picture of a very blurry, very creepy, very dead animal that I saw at the science museum. About an hour after a took this picture, and several other pictures, I realized the flash on my camera was off. Hence the blurriness.

I am an afikoman failure (in two ways)

I am an afikoman failure (in two ways)

First of all, I failed to find the afikoman. Technically, as the oldest cousin, I am supposed to forget about my afikoman-finding skills and allow one of my little cousins (ages 5, 6, 6, 10, and 12, and 14 months, and 2, but the last two can't participate because they have a limited verbal capacity) to find it and then be very excited and return to to my grandpa to recieve a reward.

(For those of you who are extremely confused right now, the afikoman is a special piece of matzah that gets hidden at the beginning of the seder - the special Passover meal - for the kids to find at the end. Then traditionally the kid who finds it gets some kind of reward, usually a dollar, and then the afikoman is broken up and everybody gets a piece of it for dessert. Which, in case you are wondering, doesn't exactly make sense, as matzah is a dry cracker that basically tastes like cardboard.)

As soon as my uncle announced that it was time to find the afikoman, one of my cousins went over and pulled it out, as he had already seen it and was just waiting for the time to find it to arrive. Then there was quite a bit of chaos as all the other kids insisted that that (ooh, look, double that!) wasn't fair since he didn't have to look and none of the others got a chance to search.But then my grandpa gave everyone a dollar so it was all okay.

The second way I am an afikoman failure: I don't think that's the correct spelling, and I'm too tired to go look it up.

Aficoman? No way.

Officoman? Nope.

Aphi- Okay, that's totally wrong. I must have it spelled right.

My mother, who's been a Jew a lot longer than I have, says it's afikomen. :\ Instead of changing all my a's to e's, I'll just let y'all (yes, I said y'all) see how horrible of a speller I am. My mom's always said I can't spell worth beans. (For the record, I don't even like beans.)