her-own-eyes.org

New year's resolution & new layout

Many of you will be happy to note, I'm sure, that I'm not longer speaking in the third person. This doesn't mean that I will never speak in third person again, it just means I've decided to be more free about my blogging. Maybe some days I'll speak in first person, maybe some in third, and even, on very special occasions, in second. Why? Because I'm bored of the third person; it was cramping my style. I was reading very old school blog entries a couple days ago, and they amused me. So it's back to using "I."

Also, NEW LAYOUT, at long fricking last. This was a joint effort, as I'm sure you can guess, between Eleanour and me. :D Hee, I can use emoticons again. /\/=;';/~*~-*-~*^___^*~-*-~*~*\;';=\/\

It's NEW YEAR'S EVE! Nearly 2003, tra la la la. Last year's new year's resolution was to get serious about resolutions next year. I was planning to have a bunch of resolutions like "be nicer," "procrastinate less," and "don't expect life to be perfect because your fragile hopes and dreams always get CRUSHED on the rocky cliffs of reality, and you'll never be happy that way," but I decided that the fewer resolutions you have, the easier they are to keep. So this year I have just one, again, and it's . . . *drum roll*

Be true to yourself.

This comes from reading Reviving Ophelia, and it's a little lame, but I think it's a good resolution to have. I'm off to a sleepover chez KT, so see y'all next year! *hugs&kisses* <3

Almeda Stalks Colin

Almeda Stalks Colin

The Lewis-Cheney family drove to the Wilkes-Barre area today to visit Almeda's mother's father, allegedly. Of course, we all know that Almeda used her Jedi mind-tricks to suggest to her parents that they needed to go upstate and was hoping to sight Colin Baggins, whom she of course is madly in love with. However, Almeda still needs more information to stalk him properly. She saw a sign for "Hazleton," while Colin lives "not in Hazleton but very near it."

Almeda's family went out to dinner with the children's grandfather at a not-very-vegetarian-friendly restaurant. Almeda ordered a salad, mozzarella sticks, and a slice of cheesecake, not a very balanced or nutritious meal, but Almeda ate it cheerfully without [much] complaint. She was rewarded with New Year's money from her grandfather, which was very nearly worth the vile stench of cigarette smoke that has permeated every thread of Almeda's clothing, every pore of her skin, and every hair on her head.

Almeda Is Not A Pretty Pretty Princess

Almeda Is Not A Pretty Pretty Princess

Last night Almeda attended a small gathering chez R. Collins, where attendants played Pretty Pretty Princess, an impossibly complicated The Simpsons trivia game, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and ate chocolate-covered pretzels. An enjoyable time was had by all, as far as Almeda knows.

"I'm a little sad, a little disappointed that I didn't win Pretty Pretty Princess, but I'll survive. Maybe. Anyway, what's wrong with the black ring? I kind of like the black ring; I don't see why you can't win if you have it. Princesses wear black rings all the time, I'm sure. Well, perhaps they don't, but I bet they rarely wear plastic jewelry or crowns either," says Almeda bitterly.

Public Service Announcement: Rape Is Bad

Public Service Announcement: Rape Is Bad

"Rape is a personal problem that cries out for a political solution. The solution to our cultural problems of sexual violence lies not only in the treatment of individual victims and offenders, but also in changing our culture. Young men need to be socialized in such a way that rape is as unthinkable to them as cannibalism. Sex is currently associated with violence, power, domination and status. The incidence of rape is increasing because because our culture's destructive messages about sexuality are increasing.

"Rape hurts us all, not just the victims. Rape keeps all women in a state of fear about all men. We must constantly be vigilant. One day last winter I was cross-country skiing along a jogging trail. A tall man dressed in a ski mask and a black jogging suit ran toward me. It was dusk in a busy residential neighborhood, but his size and shape frightened me. As he approached, he said my name and I realizied it was my own husband.

"Men are fearful for their women friends and family and aware that women are afraid of them. A male student complained that he hated rape. He said, "When I walk across campus after dark, I can see women tense up. I want to reassure them I'm not a rapist." Another said, "I haven't dated a girl yet who trusts men. Every girl I've cared for has been hurt by some guy. They are afraid to get close. It's so much work to prove I'm not a jerk."

"But mostly rape damages young women. They become posttraumatic stress victims. They experience all the symptoms—depression, anger, fear, recurrent dreams and flashbacks. The initial reaction is usually shock, denial, and dissociation. Later comes anger and self-blame for not being more careful or fighting back. Young women who are raped are more fearful. Their invisible shield of invulnerabilty has been shattered. Forty-one percent of rape victims expect to be raped again; 30 percent contemplate suicide; 31 percent go into therapy; 22 percent take self-defense courses and 82 percent say that they are permanently changed.

"Our daughters need time and protected places in which to grow and develop socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically. They need quiet time, talking time, reading time and laughing time. They need safe places where they can go to learn about themselves and others. They need places where they can take risks and make mistakes without fearing for their lives. They need to be valued for their personhood, not their bodies.

"Today girls are surrounded by sexual violence. We have emergency treatment for sexual casualties—therapists, hospitals, rape crisis centers and support groups. But we also need a preventive program. We need to work together to build a sexual culture that is sensible, decent and joyful."

-Mary Pipher, Ph.D. in Reviving Ophelia

Reading Consumes Almeda's Life

Reading Consumes Almeda's Life

Over the past few days Almeda has been reading her new books, sleeping, eating, loafing about on the computer, and having really strange dreams. Not that she's complaining. It beats waking up at six every morning for school.

Last night she read the first half of Reviving Ophelia. "I'm really enjoying it," she says. "It's strange: one page I'm laughing out loud and the next minute I'm nearly crying."

One of my favorite families was the Boyds. Bill was a warm-hearted man who played the ukelele and had formed our state's chapter of Men Against Rape . . . Bill could make anyone laugh. He could cut the tension in a room of angry people with a joke or a song. He gave everyone nicknames they wanted to keep forever. Even though he was a socialist, Republicans liked him.

"I giggled 'cause 'Bill Boyd' is one letter away from 'Billy Boyd,'" explains Almeda. "But then, on the same page . . ."

Abby got depressed in eighth grade. She missed weeks of school because of allergies and stomach ailments. Her grades fell and she dropped out of activities . . . Nan [the mother] had some family history of depression, but she'd never worried about it.

"And I was just like, wow, that's me. Except I got over my depression and am totally ownz0ring school where Abby did drugs and never went to college."

Almeda highly recommends this book to teenage girls and parents of teenage girls. "Go out to your local independent bookstore and buy Cunt, then buy this."

Remember NaNoWriMo?

Remember NaNoWriMo?

In response largely to the nagging of Elly, Almeda has decided to release her unedited, piece of crap novel (if one can even call it that) to her nearest and dearest for "editing and critique purposes" (because she doesn't want to be too hasty about losing all rights to publish it, if in the rare case that she should ever want to.) If you would like to read this pathetic excuse for a novel, please e-mail almeda at her-own-eyes dot org and she will send it back as an attachment or something. Actually, let her know if you would like her to attach it as a Word document or if you would like to read it at a secret, password-protected, private to the mizzax Internet location. Of course, you'll have to sign away your soul to her if you want the latter, but don't let that discourage you.

Please at all times keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the bus, remember the circumstances under which this blight on literature was created, and above all don't get your hopes up.

Almeda Does Nothing Terribly Constructive

Almeda Does Nothing Terribly Constructive

Last night Almeda saw a certain movie with her aunt, mother, & brother for the third time. She spent this morning being delightfully unproductive and reading Cunt, an excessively splendid and inspiring and empowering book. "I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but you MUSTMUSTMUST read it," Almeda proclaims, obviously a member of the "if you repeat something three times, it's more compelling" school of thought. "It makes me want to buy LunaPads and throw a menarche party for my sister when she gets her first period and write a womanifesto and read Pippi Longstocking and start a revolution and CHANGE THE WORLD."

After that, her mother persuaded her to watch His Girl Friday with her, so Almeda did so, while eating Swedish fish, the candy of the gods. Since then, nothing else particularly exciting has happened, although Almeda did put a lightbulb in her new lamp. Winter break rocks.

Almeda Has A Merry Atheist-Kids-Get-Presents Day

Almeda Has A Merry Atheist-Kids-Get-Presents Day* Or as some prefer to call it, Christmas

On Christmas Eve Almeda decided she wanted to curl her hair, so after she took a shower, she twisted sections of her wet hair into little buns [there are no rollers in Almeda's house, so she had to go old school] until her head was entirely covered by little knots of hair. She decided she rather liked the way this looked and decided to forget about the curls. If you don't care about Almeda's hair, too bad. "I have shortish hair, so it often seems like there is little to be done with it, so when I do do something with it, I get very excited," Almeda explains.

With her new hairstyle, Almeda and family went downtown [note: when Almeda speaks of going "downtown," she means going to Philadelphia, in case you didn't realise] to see a Christmas pageant, in which her cousin played a Wise Man. It leaned toward the boring, but Almeda behaved herself wonderfully, which is more than can be said for a certain younger sister of Almeda.

After the pageant, everyone went to Auntie Jane's house for Christmas Eve dinner. When they left, it was snowing, which made Almeda very happy, but it wasn't sticking, which made Almeda very sad.

The next morning was Christmas!!!!!!!11111one When Almeda got up, it was raining. So much for a white Christmas. Almeda's mother told her that at 3:00 in the morning snow was everywhere, and it looked quite pretty, but that wasn't much of a comfort.

After Almeda's father finally got up, everyone opened presents. Almeda got books, some clothes, and some other stuff. Almeda's sister, Nora, got a karaoke machine, which was quite cool. Almeda & fam. spent some quality time karaokeing [Almeda loves verbing words].

Almeda had slept with the knots in her hair and at this point she took them out. Her hair was superduper curly, nearly an Afro, except that Almeda is irredeemably white. Almeda pulled back her hair in what she's always known as a Pollyanna, but only because she had this book when she was younger and that's what they called it. That made it less crazy looking, which was a good thing. Then everyone packed into the car and drove downtown to Jeff and Linda's. Jeff and Linda are not technically family, but they might as well be, and it's tradition to eat Christmas brunch at their house.

There Almeda got more presents and ate some yummy banana bread and quiche. "And while we were there, it started to snow!" Almeda exclaims. "But again, it wasn't sticking."

After brunch, Gram Apple, Jane, Almeda, Colin, Nora, and Leo walked to Jane's house, which was a Bad Idea. Gram Apple's leg started to hurt her, and everyone got wet because at this point it was still snowing, but when it touched the ground it melted, so it was basically like rain. The bottom of Almeda's jeans got wet, so at Jane's house she changed into sweat pants. "I felt a little grungey, but they were really comfy, and it was just family, so who cares?" Almeda says. "And there I read The Importance of Being Earnest, which was very much like the movie. All the best lines were taken from the book for the movie, so excellent job, whoever wrote the screenplay for that."

After relaxing at Jane's house for a while, they went to Aunt Jackie's house for Christmas dinner. "Yummy food, foosball, and more presents," says Almeda. "Oh, and I pulled all of my wonderfully curly hair up in a ponytail at this point, in case you were keeping track."

Finally Almeda's family went home. In the car, as they were driving home, Almeda noticed that there was snow on the ground. "I was so excited! 'cause my dad had said that it was cooler in the suburbs than in the city, and he was right! When we got home, there was snow everywhere!"

Presents
Watch Your Mouth
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls
Lost
The Color of Magic
Lady Knight (autographed!)
Cunt: A Declaration of Independence
Lucky (two copies ^^;)
Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls

Dig Me Out
The Hot Rock
Docudrama

money
a lamp [with a sexy stripey lampshade]
custom jewelry
Sleater-Kinney sticker, monkey tee
Aveda lip balm
socks
games [Twister, Hilarium]
other good stuff

Merry Two-Months-Till-Almeda's-Sixteenth-Birthday*!

Merry Two-Months-Till-Almeda's-Sixteenth-Birthday*! Or as some prefer to call it, Christmas Eve

"The most powerful Christmas storm in decades is roaring across the Midwest and Southeast and will smash into the Northeast Tuesday night and Wednesday, bringing an all-out snowstorm to some areas. The storm will reach its full intensity Christmas Day and Christmas night from Pennsylvania into New England, where some places will get over a foot of snow. The storm will cause huge travel delays and even some road and airport closures." -accuweather.com

Beki and Mimi and Yan all have relatively new layouts.

I heart Dominic Monaghan.

Almeda Tidies Room

Almeda Tidies Room

Almeda spent a good portion of today tidying her bedroom. "It's still not perfect, but at least I can walk from my door to my computer to my bed without stepping on anything," said Almeda. "And that's quite an accomplishment, let me tell you."

While she cleaned, Almeda listened to La Boheme, then the CD Sienna burned for her, a mix of some of Almeda's favourites. "I've decided I really enjoy Michelle Branch," Almeda says. "She is teh r0x0r."

In addition to picking up all the crap (used not in the literal sense) off her floor, Almeda put up holiday cards on her wall (including the adorable one she got from Maddy today), candy canes on her door, and stole some smallish branches from the winter solstice tree and put them on her door, computer, and window. "It's oh-so-very festive," explains Almeda.

And that's about the only thing of interest that happened today in Almeda's life. Ahh, winter break.

Sun Stands Still

Sun Stands Still

The winter solstice for 2002 occurred today, December 22, 2002, at 1:14 UT. Solstice comes from the Latin words sol ("the sun") and sistere ("to stand still"). Many different religions celebrate the winter solstice (or other December holidays that are really the winter solstice in disguise). Religioustolerance.com writes "There has been a recent increase in solstice observances by Atheists in the U.S."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation erected a sign at the Wisconsin State Capitol that says:

"At this season of
THE WINTER SOLSTICE
may reason prevail.

There are no gods,
no devils, no angels,
no heaven or hell.
There is only
our natural world.
Religion is but
myth and superstition
that hardens hearts
and enslaves minds."

In Pennsylvania Almeda's family erected their winter solstice tree. Almeda's parents still feel the need to celebrate the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, so she shan't be receiving presents until December 25.

She did receive the cat she painted at Allison's birthday party. It is q. cute, and she's v. happy with how it turned out.

Almeda Attends a Ballet, Meets Percy Weasley

Almeda Attends a Ballet, Meets Percy Weasley

Last night Almeda, her mother, and R. Collins went all the way to New Jersey to see a performance of The Nutcracker. "We were going to get a ride with KT, but her brother came home from college yesterday and some such nonsense," explains Almeda. "So I convinced my mother to drive." Their mutual friend Mike was a rat, and his father played Drosselmeyer.

"I'm not a big fan of ballet, but it was nice. The dancing was crazy-good, and I loved the music. Of course, the occasional boredom during the production was tolly worth it when we went out after the end and met Mike. Because of the KT affair, he had thought we couldn't come, so when he saw us his face lit up. It was lovely; he's such a sweetheart. And he took us backstage, and we met some of the dancers. There was this one red-haired guy who the mater said looked like Percy Weasley, and I got to shake his hand. And shut up, Nina, but he was cute.

"The car ride was enjoyable as well, when we weren't incorrectly following the directions. I got to talk with Ryan, who is, as my mother said quite a few times, 'a good guy.' He really is the ubercool. I mean, how many [heterosexual] boys do you know who talk about how beautiful the moon is? I really enjoy his conversation, and I'm not intimidated by him like I used to be. Literally, I used to think he was basically an infallible genius, and I always felt stupid around him. But now I know he's a normal person, just like the rest of us. Perhaps a little brighter than the average crayon but a v. nice guy."

Almeda Sees The Two Towers Again

Almeda Sees The Two Towers Again

When Almeda arrived home from school on Friday, December 20, 2002, her mother told her they were going downtown for a tree-trimming party that night. Almeda, who often plans things without notifying her parents first, exclaimed, "What?! I'm seeing TTT tonight!" Almeda and her mother discoursed for a while and decided that Almeda could go to the party for a little while and take the train back out to the suburbs for the movie. Now Almeda just had to notify her friends, but KT was babysitting and Marisa was at swim practice. After much frantic phone-calling, Almeda sent out an e-mail to KT&Marisa with the numbers of her aunts' houses where she would be.

Then Almeda and family drove downtown to the house of Aunt #1. Almeda's mother had been under the impression that Almeda's cousin was in a Christmas pageant that night, but to the great relief of Almeda & siblings, it had been postponed. So they hung out at Aunt #1's house for a while, then around 7 went to Aunt #2's house, where the tree-trimming party was. Almeda had not been there long when Aunt #2 said, "Oh, your friend Marisa left a message on the machine." Almeda promptly called Marisa and got all the details.

They were seeing a 9:30 showing, which meant Almeda had to get on a train ASAP. Almeda's mother drove her speedily to Market East, but the 7:40 train was pulling out just as Almeda arrived. With frustration Almeda found a train schedule and learned that the next train was at 7:55. Almeda had to call Marisa to ask if this would be okay, for the train would arrive in Glenside at 8:17 and Marisa had said they meant to leave at 8. However, Almeda had no change; only bills. She fished a one dollar bill out of her purse and went up to a man with headphones. "Do you have change?" she asked, holding up the dollar. He shook his head and walked away. Almeda sulked. Then she saw the man put a hand in his pocket and pull out a bunch of coins. He came back and gave her four quarters. She gave him the dollar bill and thanked him, then hurried to the pay phone. It said 50 cents, so she put in two quarters and dialed Marisa's number.

The phone told her to put in 35 cents for a minute of phone time. Almeda put another quarter warily in. It asked her for ten cents more. Sighing, she put in her last quarter. As the phone rang, a voice came on the speakerphone announcing that the 7:55 train would be arriving at platform so-and-so. Marisa picked up the phone and Almeda explained that she missed the last train but would it be okay if she took the next one? Marisa said it would be, and Almeda hung up the phone and dashed off, boarding the train just in time.

Almeda arrived at the Glenside train station sometime around 8:17. She looked around but did not spot anyone she recognised. "Hmm," she thought. "Maybe they're on the other side." She hurried down one flight of stairs, then went up another, arriving on the other side of the train tracks. She wandered about but did not see anyone. During this time a train had pulled into the station, so she couldn't see across the tracks. "Hmm," she thought and walked down the platform as far as she could, so she could just see around the train. "Aha!" There was Marisa. Almeda ran back to the stairs, went down them, went up the other flight and hurried towards Marisa. "MARISA!" she called. Marisa did not turn around. "MARISAAAAAA!" Marisa turned around and saw her. "YAY!" exclaimed Marisa. Or that's probably what she was thinking, anyway. They both got into Marisa's father car, where Marisa's father, KT, and Ryan Collins were waiting. "Hi!" said Almeda. "Sorry about that. When I got here you weren't there, so I went round to look on the other side."

They all forgave her because they are loving and forgiving people, and off they went to see The Two Towers.

"Since I saw it at 9:30 this time (as opposed to 4:30) the age of the average audience member was higher," says Almeda. "This made for a different experience. For example, when the title came on screen, everyone cheered. Then at the opening shot of mountains, someone yelled, 'YEAH, MOUNTAINS!!!!111one' Some people might find that annoying," she gave a loud false cough, which sounded oddly like 'My mother.' "But I was q. amused. And then when the camera zoomed in on Legolas, someone towards the back went, 'Rrrowr!' or a similar sound that means 'OMG WHAT A SEXMUFFIN!' Then there was a close-up of Gimli and some guy in the front was like, 'YEAH! WHOO!!!11one' That was highly amusing. It was a fun audience.

"Overall the CG was great [at one point I noticed that Gollum had fine light hairs on his shoulder and chest, and it just boggled the mind to imagine how much time/effort they spent on making him look realistic], but the one weak part, I think, was the Gandalf and the Balrog bit. When Gandalf lands on the Balrog as they're both falling, and they start fighting, that was blah. But then it's just Frodo dreaming, so I can forgive it. I mean, he's a hobbit, he can't be expected to have top-notch special effects in his dreams.

"Merry and Pippin were just as great the second time. I adored Pippin's face when Treebeard opens his eyes. Squee!

"Éowyn's smile when Theoden was freed from Sarumon reminded me of Beki, for some reason. It was the mouth. I dunno.

"Talking of Beki, is it just me or is Frodo completely useless? He throws himself into the Dead Marshes, Sam has to shout 'Frodo!' and Gollum pulls him out. Then when the Ringwraith is flying overhead, he just lays out in the open, and Sam has to drag him to safety. Faramir tries to take the ring from him, Frodo goes and cries in the corner, Sam yells at Faramir. Frodo goes to put the ring on when the Ringwraith is flying towards him, Sam has to run up and stop him. Noticing a pattern here? I mean, yeah, the Ring's corrupting him et cetera, but really.

"I agree with KT: two saddest parts = poor little boys getting geared up for war and Haldir's death.

"I <3<3<3 the music. It complements the movie so perfectly."

"Ooh, and I forgot to say how much I liked this Aragorn moment the first time: when he's wet and wounded and dirty and sweaty and throws open the doors to I forget where. It's in the trailers, but it still is super. I also liked when Theoden was about to kill Wormtongue, and Aragorn is all, 'Enough blood has been spilt on his account.' <peacemakers3 And when Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli walk into Theoden's throne room place and totally 0wnz0r it. That was fun.

"I had more to say right after I saw it, but I forget everything now. I was definitely sad that I missed the majority of the tree-trimming party [especially the food . . . I had some delicious caramel popcorn before I left, but also the people, I suppose. Everytime I get a chance to see Jane and Laura, I always have something else planned, which sux0rz.], but I got to see TTT, and I would do anything for my hobbitses fix."

Public Service Announcement: Her-own-eyes.org Inappropriate for Consumption by Small Children

Public Service Announcement: Her-own-eyes.org Inappropriate for Consumption by Small Children

NetSweeper, an Internet Filtering Solution, has apparently decided that her-own-eyes.org, the personal website of an innocent teenage girl, is a "Sex Site." How they got that idea, Almeda has no clue.

"Um, I've probably said 'sex' once or twice. [The letters "s," "e", and "x" have appeared consecutively 75 times in the history of her blog; 32 of those 75 were in the words "sexy," "ubersexy," "sexxxy," or "unsexy;" 15 of 71 in "sexual," "sexually," "sexuality," "bisexual," "heterosexual," "homosexual," or "homosexuality;" 9 of 71 in "sexier," "sexiest," or "sexiness;" 4 of 71 in "sexist" or "sexism;" 3 were in the word "sex" used to mean "gender;" and 11 times did they appear in quotes from other sources or titles. --ed.] But this is far from a porn site or anything. I mean, I'm FIFTEEN. I'm a teenager. We sometimes talk about sex. But I hardly talk about it constantly, and I don't even have any slightly pornographic pictures anywhere on my site. Well, unless you count the linking to Billy Boyd pictures. He is, as I've said before, teh sex. The only other vaguely pornographic thing I can think of is the link in my links page to Pornography as a cause of rape. Does that count?"

NetSweeper has four major levels of filtering: level 0, level 1, level 2, and allow only. Level 0 has no Internet filtering. At Level 1, all sites which are not in a banned category or are uncategorized will appear. The banned categories are "Criminal Skills," "Cults," "Dating," "Drugs," "Extreme," "Gambling," "Hate Speech," "Sex," "Web Usenet News," and "Proxy Anonymisers," the third to last of which Almeda's site apparently falls into.

Level 1 is divided into two sublevels: 1a and 1b. 1a is the same as Level 1 except that "the key word scanning or URL's and searches will also be enabled." At Level 1b, "Online Gaming" and "Web Based Chat" are added to the banned categories.

Level 2 blocks "common search engines, which allow users to easilliy [sic] find pornographic web sites." It generously allows child-friendly search engines such as Yahooligans to be accessed.

Allow only allows only the following categories: "Entertainment," "General News," "Humour," "Job Search," "On-line Sales," "Politics and Religion," "Self-Help," "Sports," "Travel sites," "News Sites," "Book Review sites," "Resarch [sic] sites (informational sites)," "Movie review sites," "36 ms music artist sites," "Online portal sites," and "Educational Sites."

"If you ask me," says Almeda, although nobody did, "a so-called filtering solution is not doing its job if it filters completely harmless sites such as my own." Some people disagree. Colin, who only recently turned 12, says, "Her-own-eyes.org has scarred me for life. I hadn't even heard the word 'sex' before I went there, let alone knew what it is. My innocence is lost! I can only turn to Jesus now and hope he forgives me. Read Chick tracts!" (.mp3)

One Day Until Winter Break

One Day Until Winter Break

"One more fricking day!" exults Almeda. "I just hope I can survive." Tomorrow is the last day of school at Abington Senior High School for the year 2003; then no school for twelve days. But first, Almeda must read and take notes on the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, complete a chemistry lab write-up, and figure out what she's going to do for presents for her friends.

"I'm so bad at time management," Almeda says. "But I did mail winter solstice cards yesterday to Ell, Bek, Dee, and Hes, so I at least got something done this week."

Almeda is planning to celebrate the start of winter break tomorrow by going to see The Two Towers for a second time. Over winter break, she says, she intends on seeing TTT over and over again, making a new layout, catching up on her pleasure reading, and sleeping an inordinate amount.

The Two Towers: A Review

The Two Towers: A Review

WARNING: Spoilers,

spoilers,

spoilers!

If you haven't seen the film yet,

READ THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

You were warned.

Although exceedingly upset that I did not get to see it at midnight last night, I did go this afternoon. I don't know if I like it better or worse than the first movie—I'm bad at comparing things—but it was definitely good.

Aragorn still has the most beautiful cheekbones I've ever seen and totally kicks all-around arse. I don't know why he'd choose Arwen over Éowyn, though. Éowyn's hardcore, and Arwen is . . . well, Liv Tyler. Favourite Aragorn quote was definitely: "It's the beards." And favourite Aragorn moment was probably him shouting commands in Elvish at Helms Deep. I <3 toughguy!Aragorn.

Merry and Pippin so did not get enough screen time but were absolutely adorable, as usual. "Don't talk to it, Merry! Don't encourage it!" And when Merry got all miffed at Treebeard and went on his little rant about how they live in the same world. Oh, and Pippin!logic: "The closer we are to danger, the farther we are from harm." <333

Legolas and Gimli, on the other hand, got a lot of screen time. Gimli probably got the most laughs from the audience. Pah, stupid ugly dwarf stealing role of comic relief. While I'm not a big Orlando Bloom fan, I must admit Legolas totally r0x0red Helms Deep. When he surfed down the stairs on the shield? Excellent.

Frodo was Frodo. He's definitely creeping me out with the THE-RING-IS-MAKING-ME-EVIL,LET-ME-THREATEN-YOU-WITH-MY-KNIFE,SAM bit. I miss my sweet, innocent, naïve Frodo from the first movie.

Sam and Gollum were priceless. Sam's speech at the end was so sweet, and Gollum talking to himself was hysterical, whether it was meant to be or not. And how they were both fighting over Frodo, teehee.

New characters: Éomer had the potential to be sexy, if he would just drop the facial hair. Beards are so unsexy. And he's so v. Gryffindor. I liked the horse on his nose-protector thing, though.

When I first saw Theoden, I remembered that he fought in the book, and I was like, there is no way this guy is picking up a sword, whether you take off a few years or not. And then he got all young, and I was like, ohhhh.

Faramir was just Boromir junior, only less likable because he didn't die protecting the Pippin-Merry tag team.

Overall, there was just so much damn fighting in this movie, definitely far more than the first movie. Helms Deep must have been the longest battle scene I've ever seen. But not in a boring way, either.

What was up with the mini-cliffhangers? Like, HORSES HOOVES COMING DOWN ON SCREAMING!PIPPIN, cut to next scene! And then there was Aragorn trying to pull a Gandalf, throwing himself off the cliff and whatnot. They weren't very effective, though, if you've read the books. Or even if you haven't, actually.

Can't wait to see this again, o'course! It's too long to remember everything after one viewing.

LOTR Permeates Every Aspect of Almeda's Life

LOTR Permeates Every Aspect of Almeda's Life

At the start of Almeda's German class everyday, the class discusses a question (in German, naturally). In the past some questions have been, "Do you think students should have to say the pledge?" [Almeda quoted her ACLU 'Know Your Rights' book in response to this one], "What's your favorite movie?", and "Would you want to live in a nudist colony?" ["Nein, weil ich kalt sein würde."] Today the question was, "Are you going to see the new Lord of the Rings movie? Why do you think it is so popular?"

Almeda raised her hand and replied, "Der Film gefällt mir, weil es so viele heiße Schauspieler gibt." (Trans: The movie pleases me because there are so many hot actors.) Almeda's German teacher was quite amused, as were many other members of the class, namely Sonjalein, a.k.a. KT. Almeda is not all fun and games, though, and added, "Es ist alte Schule Phantasie. Und auch was Tobias hat gesagt." (Trans: It's old school fantasy. And also what Tobias said.) "Will Bruce, code name Tobias, said some nonsense about the richness of the book and complex histories and lots of details and stuff," explains Almeda. "I agreed with him only because I didn't want to sound totally superficial. And then we talked about LOTR for about the next ten minutes, which totally kicked. German is so much fun sometimes."

Hodgepodge

Hodgepodge

"GOD THERE IS TOO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT YOU. I LOFF YOU."
"you rock, and you and daniel will fit perfectly due to your shared fluent knowledge of german. <3"
"I love you. Pls marry me. You cheer me up ALWAYS. <33333333333333333"

70 days till Almeda's birthday.
15 days till the new year.
4 days till winter break.
2 days till TTT.

"O.K. , Just turn it in Kate.
-Mr. Palmer

Almeda Has Quite an Adventure

Almeda Has Quite an Adventure

Last night Almeda, her friend Stasia, and their other friend Leigh, plus Stasia's maternal unit, attended Feastival 2002, a concert sponsored by Y100, a local radio station, and featuring the bands Seether, Queens of the Stone Age, New Found Glory, Zwan, Good Charlotte, and Coldplay. The doors opened at 5:00 and the three teens accompanied by one mother arrived soon after. When they arrived in the vicinity of the First Union Center, the responsible adult let out the three girls, who, after a few false starts, found the right line in which to wait.

"We waited in this huge line for ages, and then Stasia had to go to the bathroom, so she ran off, and left me and Leigh behind. We eventually got to the front of the line, got patted down [they threw Leigh's water bottle in the trash, the pjoofaces], got our tickets "X"ed, and got our little yellow wristbands. Once we got inside, we waited for Stasia for what seemed like at least twenty-two days," says Almeda. "While we were waiting, I people-watched. There was this really goth-ish girl near us with duct tape on her shirt that said 'wanting 2 b sum1 else is a waste of the person u r.' I was like, oho, teenybopper-speak meets Kurt Cobain. Well, I found it amusing, at least."

Stasia eventually arrived, and the three made their way down to the floor. The first band, Seether, had already started playing. "I don't know, all their songs sounded the same to me. Very metal, very shriek-y. I'm not a big fan of that sort of music, but apparently the middle-class white rebellious teens who seemed to make up a large part of the audience are. Whatever floats your boat, I say. [Whatever makes you smile / whatever book you wrote / whatever rules you live by.]"

After Seether, SL&A went to meet Stasia's mother, Dame Orkwiszewski, at a display with a bunch of hats [whenever a hockey player scores three goals in one game, apparently the standard behaviour is to throw your hat, or bra, in some cases, onto the rink]. They waited there for quite some time, and in that time Stasia purchased a sexy Zwan shirt with the rainbow guitar logo and Almeda took a trip to the local lavatory.

Eventually the Orkwiszewski matron appeared, and everyone went back to the pit for Queens of the Stone Age. "They were pretty good, but I think I enjoy music that I'm used to more than I do unfamiliar music," explains Almeda. "There was one guy with Snape-ish hair and OMG. I JUST REALISED THAT THIS IS THE BAND. FROM BEKI'S BUDDY ICON. AHAHAHAHAHHA. Er, sorry. I only just visited the website to look for a picture of the guy, and then I was like, hmm, I've definitely been here before. Beki, you tolly should have come to this concert with me!!!!!!111one"

After Queens of the Stone Age, the trio took a short break from standing to sit. Next was New Found Glory, whom Leigh and Almeda enjoyed quite a bit, but of whom Stasia was entirely unappreciative. "They had a lot of personality," says Almeda. "Which doesn't necessarily make good music, but it makes fun concerts." Zwan was after New Found Glory, so instead of taking a break, the three pushed their way close to the stage, because Stasia adores Billy Corgan with all her heart. However, when Billy Corgan finally came onto stage, Leigh told Stasia she felt sick.

Leigh crouched down, too woozy to stand, but Stasia helped her to her feet [because the middle of a crowd of mostly-teenagers prone to moshing is not the best place to sit down] and started following her out of the crowd. But Leigh, Stasia, and Almeda got separated in the sea of people, and though Stasia and Almeda emerged safely from the crowd, Leigh did not. "God, I felt so bad for Stasia," Almeda comments mournfully. "She went to the concert for Zwan, and then at the beginning of their set her friend gets sick. So I went to look in the bathroom for Leigh but couldn't find her."

Stasia's mother then says she'll go look for Leigh and tells Stasia to not worry about it because she understands how much Zwan means to her daughter. Almeda and Stasia thread their way back through the crowd towards the stage, but they are nowhere near as close as they were earlier. Still, they are able to enjoy the music. "Billy Corgan was so adorable!" Almeda says. "He had this cute little sweater on, and as Stasia's M. said, he totally didn't look like a rock star. But in a good way. And I was proud of Zwan because they had the only female band member the whole night."

Towards the end of Zwan's set, things started to get exciting. "I was looking at the stage, and suddenly I started to see dots. I closed my eyes, but that didn't work, and then I couldn't see. So I tell Stasia that I can't see, but I'm not sure if she can hear my because the music's really loud and I can barely hear myself. I feel Stasia's hand on my back and she's directing me out of the crowd. The floor feels like it's tilting and I can barely stand. I'm bumping into people and then I feel another arm on my other side. We walk a little further, and I have no sense of how far I've gone. Then I feel a slight pressure on my shoulder, and maybe someone told me to sit down, and I do sit down, cross-legged. I'm pretty sure I remained conscious the whole time, but I'm not sure. I must admit, remembering everything exactly so I could blog about it was not my top priority at the time."

Eventually Almeda's vision came back into focus and she saw Stasia's mother crouched in front of her. Next to Mother Orkwiszewski was a medical staff person. Communicating through Stasia's mother, Almeda told the guy that she felt faint but was all right. He led her to the First Aid place, with Stasia and Stasia's mother in tow. In the First Aid place, they discovered Leigh. She was okay, but apparently she had fainted in the middle of the crowd and some guy had carried her to safety.

"The medical-type guy asked me for my name, my address, my telephone number, and stuff like that, and then had me call home. My dad picked up, and I asked for my mum, 'cause I figured she would take it better. Surprisingly, though, I misestimated my parents. When I got home, my dad was all joking about how I overdosed on drugs and told my brother to be quiet because I had to recover, but when my mother picked me up from school the next day, she was all, 'This doesn't make me too confident about letting you go to something like that in the future.' So, anyway, I called my dad, he said mum was asleep, so I explained the dilly to him. He then talked to the medical guy, who said they could release me to the 'responsible adult,' Stasia's mom, or take me to the hospital. My dad picked the former, so after I got some water and the guy took my blood pressure, we all left. At this point I had quite the headache, and Stasia said I looked green, but I was just thankful that I could see again."

Everyone decided it was time to go home then. Almeda didn't mind too much because she was rather tired, but she and Leigh both felt really bad for Stasia. Stasia, though, said, "Don't feel bad. It's not your fault. If you had chosen to faint, you could feel bad," in her logical Stasia way.

Almeda arrived home around 10:30 and collapsed into bed, exhausted from the crazy happenings.

Almeda Attends Birthday Parties

Almeda Attends Birthday Parties

December 14, 2002 was the twelfth anniversary of the birth of Colin, Almeda's brother. In the evening a small family gathering was held, but unfortunately Almeda had to leave for Allison's birthday party immediately after the tiramisu was cut.

From Allison's house, the eight teenage girls and two parents went to Color Me Mine, an arts-and-crafty place where customers get to paint their own ceramics. "OMG, it was so fun," Almeda says. "We got to pick out a piece of pottery, and there were so many cute things, and it was so difficult to choose! There were fairies and teapots and cups and mugs and bowls and frogs and alligators and cats and dogs and dishes for cats and dogs and ice cream cones and a VW Bug piggy bank [so! incredibly! cute!] and butter dishes and Elvis busts! I eventually picked the "cat decanter." It was a stylized cat with a really long neck and it was adorable. The sample one that they had which was already painted was black and white and really sexy and it had a little red ribbon around its neck."

After much consideration, Almeda painted her cat with paint number 84: "lavender lace," which was the closest colour to the purple she had in mind. Then, inspired by the sample VW Bug piggy bank, she painted groovy kiwi, pink [she can't remember the official name for the pink she picked], and cerulean flowers on her cat. "I'm quite proud of it," she comments. "The people at Color Me Mine are going to fire the things we painted in the next couple of days, then Allison's going to pick them up and deliver them to us. I can't wait!"

They spent two hours at Color Me Mine and returned to Allison's house for ice cream cake and presents. Out of the seven guests at Allison's party, four of them gave her scarves. "I guess she just emits a give-me-scarves vibe," Almeda theorizes. "But I didn't get her a scarf! I got her cute woolen socks and lotion and bath gel and stuff that smells like strawberry & lily."

Almeda Gets in Touch with Her Inner Fangirl

Almeda Gets in Touch with Her Inner Fangirl

Last night Almeda, Katie, and Marisa gathered chez Marisa and watched a documentary on the making of The Two Towers as well as the first disc of FoTR with actors' commentary. Most of the time was spent squealing, swooning, giggling, and making dirty jokes, with a small break for Chinese food and ice cream.

"Billy Boyd is teh sex," says Almeda solemnly. "Although I must admit than I'm becoming partial to Daniel [sic] Monaghan. I didn't really have a feel for his personality until last night, and I've discovered that he is rather amusing." She grins, adding, "What can I say? I have a weakness for funny men. And older men, actually. But only if they're Viggo Mortensen or Alan Rickman. I mean, yes, Daniel and Billy are older than me, but they're not old-old. Oh, nevermind."

Almeda and Procrastination Fight to

Almeda and Procrastination Fight to the Pain

Almeda arose at 4:00 AM this morning to finish writing her paper on women authors of the Japanese Heian period. Somehow she managed to finish, although typically her computer froze several times and her printer was being peevish. Though she did finish, she was late to school and missed the first thirty minutes of first period due to the inefficiency of the dealing-with-late-students system.

"When I walked into English, we were taking a vocab quiz," says Almeda. "I was quite relieved because we were supposed to have read the majority of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by today, and I hadn't because I'd been writing my stupid paper, and I was afraid we were going to have to take a quiz on it, and I would fail, and my life would be over. So there were about ten minutes left in the period and everyone is like, 'Are we not having a quiz on Frederick Douglass today?' and 'I stayed up till two in the morning last night taking notes on Frederick Douglass,' so Mr Lodewick says, 'Fine, you want to take a quiz? We can take a quiz.' Then he passes out lined paper and starts asking questions. At this point I am finished my vocab quiz but I pretend to check my answers so it won't seem like I'm done."

Almeda eventually decides she might as well answer the Frederick Douglass questions, but since she did not read the assigned text, she can only answer three of the ten. When the bell rings, sadly she takes her vocabulary and Frederick Douglass quizzes to Mr Lodewick's desk.

"I gave him my vocab quiz and then I was going to give him my other paper, but he was like, 'Oh, you didn't have to do that,' and gestured to the trash can. I threw the thing in the trash and shimmered out of the room, convinced that Mr Lodewick is, as I've always suspected, a god among English teachers. What a noble, princely man!"

After she left English class, Almeda went to second period, world civilizations, where she turned in her research paper. "I should feel relieved, but I don't think it's really hit me yet," she testified. "Oh, and after everyone turned their papers in, we got doughnuts! And we watched Amistad, which is a gruesome, gruesome movie. It's sad because it's true."

Third period and fourth period passed uneventfully, and then came chemistry. "I had been so busy with my paper that I didn't have a chance to do my chem lab write-up," Almeda says. "I did it during the period after chemistry, lunch, but when I went to hand it in at the end of the day, Mr Palmer wasn't in his room. I think I'll just send it to him via e-mail and see what happens." She pauses for a minute, then concludes, "School sucks."

News in Brief Unburdened.org, Almeda's

News in Brief

Unburdened.org, Almeda's previous domain, expires tomorrow.

Six more days until The Two Towers.

The winter concert was postponed and all after-school activities were cancelled today.

Almeda should work on her research paper, which is due Friday.

Billy Boyd is the second coming of Jesus.

Eleanour is possessive and ungenerous and should study the philosophy of free love. Fucking top!

Allison Turns Sixteen! Allison, arguably

Allison Turns Sixteen!

Allison, arguably Almeda's closest friend, turned sixteen years old today. In honour of her birthday, the superintendent delayed the start of schools by two hours and cancelled morning kindergarten. "It must be because of Allie's birthday," reasons Almeda. "I mean, I don't see any snow or freezing rain out my window, so why else would school start later?"

The celebration of Allison's sixteenth birthday is scheduled for this Saturday, the fourteenth December, from 6:30 to 10:00 PM. Tonight a concert is being held at the school in her honour, and she will be playing the fiddle with the school orchestra. Almeda plans to attend both the party on Saturday and the concert tonight, although she says "I should probably stay home and work on my research paper instead. It is, after all, due on Friday."

Cyber Pheromones?

Almeda, 15, Beki, 15, and Eleanour, 17, have somehow managed to synchronize their menstrual cycles. This would not be so unusual in itself; oftentimes women who live or spend a lot of time together find that the difference between the dates their cycles begin decreases. For instance, Katie and Almeda, who are not exactly together constantly, but certainly are good friends, started their periods simultaneously. For more scientific-type information about the subject of pheromones and menstrual cycles, read Regulation of ovulation by human pheromones (.pdf format).

However, although Beki and Eleanour have met, Almeda lives across the ocean from both of them. "My first theory was that Eleanour had been wearing 4 x 4 cotton pads in her axillae for at least eight hours and then flying to Pennsylvania and wiping the pads above my upper lip," says Almeda. But Eleanour denies this charge. "The only other explanation I can think of," Almeda says, "is virtual pheromones. Perhaps in talking to Eleanour and Beki on AIM, we unknowingly exchanged cyber pheromones! You can have cyber sex, why not cyber pheromones?"

Some people are skeptical. "It's entirely coincidence," says Sybarite Turpitude. "Most ridiculous thing I've heard in my life. Virtual pheromones? Pah!"

For those males out there who are totally clueless in all female matters, her menstrual cycle is something every woman from approximately ages 12 to 52 has to deal with on a monthly basis. The menstrual cycle is divided into three phases: menstruation, the follicular phase, and the luteal phase. The follicular phase is when the follicle stimulating hormone is released, eggs mature in the woman's ovaries, and the lining of her uterus thickens. The luteal phase is when the leutenizing hormone is released and ovulation occurs. If the egg is not fertilized, as is the case for Almeda, Beki, and Eleanour, who are all good Christian girls and do not approve of premarital sex, what is commonly know as "the period" occurs.

When questioned, Eleanour stated that the worst part of having a period (for those of you who haven't had— and never will have— the Menstruation Experience) is "a toss-up between bleeding everywhere and horrific agonizing pain." As for the best part, she had to think a while, but eventually answered, "having an excuse to eat an excess of chocolate, and getting to shout at people and putting it down to hormones."

Almeda agrees with Eleanour about the worst part: "killer cramps and constantly staining my unmentionables, no matter what I do. Thankfully I've got modern medicine for the cramps, though. I don't know how Cro-Magnon women survived without ibuprofen." However, while Almeda no doubt enjoys eating large amounts of chocolate and blaming her mood swings on "PMS," she says that the best part of having her period is "being in touch with my inner moon goddess and connected to all the women who've gone before me and feeling in rhythm with the earth."

Katie laments, "Tampons should come in much larger boxes, and mothers should not be allowed to already be going through "the change" when their daughters need the moral support."

Beki was not available for comment, although she states on her personal website: "but i don't feel like doing anything cause i have horrid stomach cramps (hence the i-hate-being-female) mood today." From this one can assume that she is slightly resentful at the very least of her period.

For interesting answers to the question "Would you stop menstruating if you could?" and other menstruation-related stuff visit Museum of Menstruation website. Don't miss Gloria Steinem's "If Men Could Menstruate" essay!

The Basic Eight Still Kicks Ass

Almeda, instead of writing about themes in Othello, began to reread for perhaps the third or fourth time Daniel Handler's The Basic Eight on Sunday night. Daniel Handler, 32, is also the author of Watch Your Mouth and Lemony Snicket's literary, legal, and social representative. "The Basic Eight," Almeda says, "is one of those lovely books which grow better every time you read them again."

On this reading, Almeda noticed for the first time that Peter Lefcourt, author of The Woody and Abbreviating Ernie, was quoted as saying, "Flannery Culp is Holden Caulfield in drag, forty-five years later." Flannery (the narrator) writes, "I don't mean to sound like Salinger's phony-hating phony or anything but at times at Roewer it seems that everybody's phony and brain-dead and that if it weren't for my friends and the few other interesting people I'd go crazy for nothing to do."

Almeda has not read The Catcher in the Rye yet but knows enough about the novel to recognize "phony-hating phony" from helping her friend Katie with an English assignment to correct sentences other students wrote and turned in about The Catcher in the Rye. She was aware that Daniel Handler had read (and, one might assume, is a fan of) Salinger because of the character Esmé Squalor in A Series of Unfortunate Events, so the above two quotations amused her greatly.

"I also realized that the character of Douglas's last name is Wilde. Not coincidentally, Douglas is gay. And then there's Jennifer Rose Milton and probably other clever things I've missed. That's one of the things I love about Daniel Handler. His books are chock-full of literary in-jokes like that, ASoUE especially. He is such a genius!" she gushes, starry-eyed.

"Oh, and then there's the quote '[Natasha] went on to describe some guy she met at the Harvard Summer Program in Comparative Religion. Natasha's always had a fascination with what people worship. Kate says Natasha's actually fascinated that people aren't worshiping her instead.' which I just absolutely love," says Almeda. "Natasha is too cool. And then there's the whole La Boheme thing and the Othello aspect, which should be even more enjoyable now that I've actually read Othello. Daniel Handler rocks!"

Suburban Teenagers Traipse Around Philadelphia

Yesterday twelve students from Abington's ACLU club and their teacher sponsor, Mr Kummer, left Abington High School at around 10:30 AM for a downtown excursion. While the other students piled into two student-operated cars, the three sophomores in the group, Almeda, Katie, and Marisa, rode in Mr Kummer's car to the nearest train station, from which they took a train into center city Philadelphia. Once at 30th Street Station, many of the students opted to purchase a snack from Au Bon Pain. "I got a raspberry cheese croissant," proclaims Almeda, "and it was sublime."

After the snack, the club walked en masse to the University of Pennsylvania, where Almeda's father works as a computer programmer, and where they were to meet Joshua Brown, the president of the ACLU Penn Chapter. Brown, 20, spoke to the group about the ACLU, the Penn Chapter specifically, and gave out lots of goodies, such as ACLU buttons and pencils and pamphlets with all sorts of information. "One could easily take over the world with buttons . . .," says Katie, clutching hers possessively. A few of the students immediately pinned theirs to their backpacks.

After Joshua had finished talking to the Abington ACLU club members, he led them to the basement of Houston Hall, the cafeteria. Almeda, full from her raspberry cheese croissant, bought only a yogurt parfait and a raspberry Snapple iced tea ("Real Fact #13: Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds."), raspberry being the flavour of the day. She was very tempted to get a Cherry Garcia Ben & Jerry's ice cream bar and even more tempted when she saw they had larger cartons of the ice cream as well.

"It comes in pints?!" she exclaimed, quoting one of the sexiest characters ever from a well-known film about little people and rings and rushing to the freezer which held the pints of ice cream. However, her wiser side convinced her that it was not the best weather for ice cream consuming, and Katie wisely pointed out that she probably couldn't eat the whole pint in one go. Almeda felt differently about that but abstained nonetheless.

When everyone had finished eating, Mr Kummer ushered the students out of the cafeteria and to the Annenberg Public Policy Center, where they met Gary Kallman, a member of the Justice Talking staff. Mr Kallman talked to them from approximately 3:00 to 4:00 about the Reducing America's Vulnerability to Ecstasy [RAVE] Act, the topic of the debate that the ACLU students would be watching later that evening, and drug policy in general. He also gave each member of the ACLU club a little tin of red hots which said "Justice Talking - red hot radio from NPR" on them. Katie was disappointed that they were not buttons, but decided to give the candy to someone else and keep the tin, despite Almeda's insistence that they did not taste all that hot.

Around 4:00 PM Kallman led the group to the The Wistar Institute, where Justice Talking is taped. The two debaters were Terrence Farley, the First Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor and the director of the Ocean County Narcotics Strike Force in New Jersey, and Graham Boyd, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Drug Policy Litigation Project. The moderator was Margot Adler, and the ACLU club members were in the audience. Almeda got to ask a question, as did two other members of the ACLU.

"I really just came up with a question because I wanted the chance to get on the radio," says Almeda. "So I said, 'Mr Farley seems to think that the only purpose of the RAVE Act is to add open air and one time events to the list of places whose owners can be held liable for drug use. What does Graham see as negative effects of the RAVE Act?' 'cause first of all, everyone was asking the other guy questions and I thought Graham needed an opportunity to speak. Also, the other guy was making [the RAVE Act] out to seem harmless, when the background information I'd read said entirely the opposite. So that's why I asked that. Mr Farley (Notice how I refer to the guy whose opinion I'm opposed to as Mr So-and-so, but the guy with whom I agree as First Name? I did that unconsciously.) told me it was a good question, which made me doubt it, but that's okay."

When the debate ended at 6:00, the ACLU club members got a chance to talk to Graham Boyd before leaving. Then they walked back to 30th Street Station, although first Mr Kummer led them in the opposite direction from the one they were supposed to be going, and took the train back to Abington. Marisa and Almeda got transportation home from Katie's father, and all agreed that it had been a super day. Almeda certainly felt the day had turned out especially well, considering its poor start for her.

On Sunday evening she had been having trouble concentrating when writing her Othello essay, so she left half of it undone and woke up at 5:00 the next morning to finish writing. Consequently, she missed the bus. Her mother drove her to school, and she arrived only two or three minutes after the bell had rung but had to wait in a long line for a pass and thus was ten minutes late to first period. "Some reform is needed in that system," Almeda complains grumpily. "Punishing late students by having them wait even later to get to class is completely unnecessary."

Third Person Sweeps the Blog

Third Person Sweeps the Blog

On the night of Sunday, November 8, 2002, Almeda, everyone's favourite fifteen-year-old blogger, made the spontaneous resolution to write all of her subsequent blog entries in the third person. Third person narrative is the style of writing used most frequently in literature in which the author does not use the pronoun "I." When asked how she reached this decision, Almeda explained, "I was writing my essay on Othello last night and finding it difficult to write without saying 'I' as one is meant to do in formal pieces of writing. I think blogging daily in such an informal manner has gotten me out of the practice of writing formally."

Almeda feels that writing articles in the third person, à la Lufelia of News-Girl.com, will improve her writing skills. "Plus," she adds, "It'll stir things up a bit. Lately I think I've been blogging out of habit rather than because I had anything interesting to say or because it's a creative challenge."

At the moment Almeda has no idea how long this whim will last, but says that she plans to keep it up for as long as she feels like it. "Above all, I write this blog for my personal satisfaction. If I'm enjoying writing in the third person, then I'll keep writing that way. Maybe for a day, maybe forever. Who knows?"

Last night was q. fun.

Last night was q. fun. We went to Casablanca, a Moroccan restaurant, which definitely kicked ass. There were low round tables with poufs on one side and a low bench covered with cushions and colourful pillows on the other, and I definitely wish my house was that cool. At first everyone crowded onto the bench, but then we were told that some of us should sit on the floor, so I and a few other people moved onto the poufs even though I was wearing a skirt and probably would have been better off on the bench. xP We had big towels to put on our laps, though, so I didn't really have to worry, anyway.

Then a guy came around with a big basin and a kettle of hot water and we all stuck our hands over the basin, and he poured the water over our hands. He told us to smell our hands, so we did, and they smelled like roses. It was v. nice. =) After everyone's hands were washed [there were four little round tables, all the party guests around the first three, and then Miriam's parents and the other two adults who drove us around the last table], the waiter person came over and asked if anyone was vegetarian. I raised my hand and he was like, "Okay, let me explain to everyone else, and then I'll talk to you."

So he told everyone that there would be five courses: the three kinds of salads that were already on the tables [carrot, eggplant, and another type with like cucumbers and stuff]; this thing with chicken and egg in the middle of a flaky, paper-thin pastry sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon; five dishes of chicken prepared with dates, apricots, olives, something hot and spicy, and something else I can't remember; couscous with carrots, possibly turnips, chick peas <3, and raisins; and baklava for dessert. Then he told me that I would basically have a separate vegetarian dish for everything, which made me feel kind of guilty, but I smiled and said, "Okay, thank you very much."

So then we ate. And it was all really good. We ate everything with our fingers, except when I got a fork for my plate of food which I ate instead of the chicken. My plate had this really nice pastry thing filled with something that tasted like pesto sauce, spinach, and/or cheese; hummus; a shish kebab of mushrooms and other vegetables; and some cucumbers and tomatoes. Yummy. ^__^

Also, while we ate there was music and a belly dancer. There were actually two belly dancers, but they weren't dancing the whole time and only one danced at a time. I felt kind of awkward 'cause I wasn't sure what the proper etiquette is for watching belly dancers. Do you smile at them? Do you clap along to the music? And people gave her money, so it felt kind of exotic dancer-esque. I dunno. You got used to it, though, and they even had people stand up and dance with them. So I did that and made a fool out of myself, but y'know, it was fun, so whatevs.

That was a really, really good time and afterwards we went back to Miriam's house and played the Mafia game and ate cake and ice cream, which was also fun. :D

This morning my family [self included] went to Chinatown to eat brunch with dad's brother, sister, sister's husband, and other sister. My stomach felt terrible, and at first I thought it was because I hadn't eaten breakfast and then we'd gone on Lincoln Drive, which is extremely twisty and everyone drives much faster than the road was intended for, but then I went to the bathroom and realised my uterus had decided to begin its monthly ritual of contracting to expel its lining and causing me a lot of discomfort. So that really sucked, and I couldn't really enjoy any of the food because I was in great pain, but I survived.

Today I need to write my four-page essay on Othello [remember how I said it was due last Friday? Mr Lodewick moved the due date back to Monday], and I probably should work on my research paper because it is due this Friday and I haven't even started it, but I don't know. I'll manage.

And tomorrow is the ACLU fieldtrip! Whee! :D [So, yeah, I have a chem lab due tomorrow but I'm not going to do it because I get to miss chemistry for the field trip! >D]

Went tubing/snowboarding with Stasia y

Went tubing/snowboarding with Stasia y Allison today! Well, my snowboarding was rather pathetic, but that's okay. I had fun. It was so cold and wet, though, and I have no proper playing-in-the-snow attire. But I survived, and when I got home I got my oatmeal raisin cookies and my hot cocoa and la vie est bonne. [And don't even try to correct that, Nina. I don't take French, and I don't care! ;D]

Tonight is Miriam's party, whee. :D

La la la la, hooray

La la la la, hooray for two-hour delays! And then I'm going on a FIELD TRIP for the ACLU on MONDAY, so I will get to miss periods four through eight, huzzah!

Tomorrow is la fête d'anniversaire de Miriam, das Geburstagparty von Miriam, natalem diem Miriamae. =)

Nothing of particular interest happened today.

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." - Robert Frost

One thing I love about

One thing I love about snow is that even after the sun goes down, it never gets truly dark. =)

HAPPY SNOW DAY! :DDD I

HAPPY SNOW DAY! :DDD

I woke up this morning around my usual time and ran to the computer to check for school closings. At first I thought it said that all Philadelphia public and parochial schools were open, which disappointed me, but I went ahead and put in my school number anyway ['cause I'm not a Philadelphia school xP]. It said 309 hadn't contacted KYW yet, so that made me sad, but then I wasn't sure if my school number was 309. So I tried 304, and then I got an error message. I tried to go back to the page before it and got another error message. So I decided to go to my school's website and realised that my school number was 301. Then I went back to the site and entered 301 and . . .

Number 301 CLOSED for today.

And I also realised I had misread the other thing. "All Philadelphia public and parochial schools will be closed Thursday. Offices will be open." So hip, hip, hooray!

*dances in the snow*

Tra la la. It's supposed

Tra la la. It's supposed to snow tonight!

This r0x0rz hardcore. <3 @ the stickers & posters.

Laura [my aunt who's not

Laura [my aunt who's not really my aunt but who's been roommates with my other aunt so long that she's like an aunt] is getting married!!! :D And I get to be one of bridesmaids!!! :D She told me to keep it kind of quiet because she didn't want Colin/Nora getting jealous, but Nora doesn't read this, and I don't think Colin will be too depressed that he can't be a bridesmaid. :DDD I'm so excited for her! xD

I stayed after school today to watch her swim, and that was enjoyable. The swimmeet started around 3:30 and school ends at 2:35, so I did my homework in the library in the time in between. I'm so good at time management. =)

Speaking of good, I started reading Nina's novel last night. She makes me insanely jealous with her skillz.

Speaking of writing skillz, guess who got a 200/200 on her The Crucible in-class essay? This is a major improvement from my 170/200 on my The Scarlet Letter test. And Mr Lodewick wrote "Excellent work!" on it. *beams with pride* Of course, I really enjoyed writing that essay because it was all The Crucible, Salem witch trials, written as a response to McCarthyism, etc. And one of the questions in the prompt was "Do you think this could happen today?" so I rather enjoyed answering that! *cough*The New McCarthyism*cough*

Now in less serious news

Now in less serious news . . . 98 on my math test, excellent work, if I do say so myself. 80/90 on my chem test, which is certainly a shame. I didn't memorize the modern Periodic Law and one of the questions was "State the modern Periodic Law." So if I had known that word-for-word, I could have gotten an 84/90, but sadly I am le stupid. Ah, well. Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on. [Speaking of "Ob-La-Di," in world civ. today we had to perform songs about ancient African kingdoms, and one group sang about Ghana to that song. My group did Great Zimbabwe to the tune of "YMCA." Silly stuff.]

And now, for my "to do" list!

To do

Right before I fell asleep

Right before I fell asleep last night I was thinking about what I said yesterday re: KT & humor as defense mechanism. I was feeling a bit depressed, I think, so the following might not be the objective truth. I actually wrote this down [in briefer form] on an index card 'cause I didn't want to forget.

I decided I am very insecure about my self and especially what I deserve, especiallyespecially friends-wise. I think that I subconsciously think that my only redeeming quality is my sense of humour, and people won't be my friends unless I keep them laughing constantly.

<feelings of low self-worth>I also decided that I use my blog to talk about things normal people would tell their friends. Many of the people I talk to on a daily basis know nothing about me. Like if I gave them one of those online friend quizzes [what's my favourite colour? how many brothers and sisters do I have], they would fail. I avoid getting personal. Perhaps because I don't want to get hurt, perhaps because I have a hard time opening up, perhaps because I'm afraid that people won't care.</feelings of low self-worth>

I think I need to realize that everything I say doesn't have to be a punchline and that I am a beautiful human being, worthy of being loved. ;D So if you're my friend, please reassure me that you don't just like me 'cause I'm funny, kthx.

Don't worry, though, I'm not depressed. This was just something I was musing over last night. There might be a few grains of truth in it, but this morning everyone was like, "HI, KATE! *WAVEWAVE*" so I started to feel that perhaps people care about me afterall. Whatevs. I just enjoy hearing myself angst. ;)

I nearly forgot to do

I nearly forgot to do the Sunday thing again, and that would have disappointed Elly greatly.

Eleanour
Eleanour is like an older sister to me. A British older sister who lives across the ocean, is interested in anthropology, and is in no way related to me. But we have a lot in common! She wants to be made into an action figure; so do I! She likes Pippin; so do I! She knows that LoTR is the one exception to the "books are always better than their movie versions" rule; so do I! Eleanour is clever and funny and I enjoy her conversation quite a lot. If I were a lesbian, Eleanour would be the one person on whom I'd have a crush. However, since I am a 0 on the Kinsey Scale, we don't need to worry about that! Little Nell also has quite excellent music tastes, although we differ on the subject of Jeff Buckley vs. Rufus Wainwright. Of course, it's not her fault that she's completely wrong. I blame the Northampton water. Possibly also her inbreeding. You know those English types. Always marrying their cousins and whatnot. ;D

Friday felt like Sunday, and

Friday felt like Sunday, and then Saturday felt like Sunday, but now it is Sunday for real at last. I haven't really written since Thanksgiving, so I'll just recap my weekend.

On Friday my mum made me and my brother go to lunch with her college roommate and her family in Chinatown, so that was interesting. Instead of ordering stuff off the menu, we had dim sum. So the waiters came around with carts of unidentifiable food, and we had to sort of guess what each dish was because not all of the waiters were especially fluent in English [not that there's anything wrong with that]. This is all well and good, but when you're a vegetarian, it can be a bit problematic. My mother gave me a pork bun thingy, which she assured me was vegetarian, but when I bit into it I discovered otherwise. And I'm nearly positive I ate some sort of fish. Oh, well. They did have really good vegetarian dumplings and tofu, so that was nice.

At 7:00 on Friday evening I went to KT's house and we watched The Importance of Being Ernest. V. brilliant movie, and I absolutely must read the book now. :D J'adore mistaken identities et Colin Firth x 8. [Speaking of C.F., I went to see CoS again today and there was a preview for some movie with him. What a Girl Wants was the title of it, I think.] I also attempted to help her with RazorLame but wasn't very successful. And we talked about stuff, which I enjoyed. Perhaps because I've known Katie so long, I can speak quite candidly with her, and that's not something I can do with all my friends, I'm sorry to say. I don't really talk about serious/intimate things with many of my school friends [if you're reading this blog, don't worry, it's probably not you]. I think I tend to use humour as a defense mechanism.

Yesterday I wrote like mad to meet the NaNoWriMo deadline, pausing only for "Family Game Night." We played a couple rounds of Pinochle, which is a game I do not much enjoy. Pinochle and I have quite a history.

Today I played 13 Dead End Drive with the family [and won three games out of four, go team!] then went to see Harry Potter a second time.

Happy first day of December, everyone, and Happy Hannukah if you celebrate it! =)

HALLELULAH! NaNoWriMo Count: 50,822. Admittedly,

HALLELULAH!

NaNoWriMo Count: 50,822.

Admittedly, it got a little rough towards the end, but with the loyal support of SkiDiva2001 and the lengthy prose of Alfred Lord Tennyson [the court poet in my novel decided it would be a good idea to recite the first couple cantos of "The Princess," muahahahaha.] I emerged triumphant!