her-own-eyes.org

The birthday that never ended

A parcel from dearest Eleanour arrived today! :D There was a Bliss Babe [heehee] Elijah Wood poster, and an amazing fuchsia homemade card, and marvy gorgey wool accessories! You can see the loffly choker on your left, modelled by someone who, I must say, has an amazingly graceful and swanlike neck. ;) There is also a super cool bracelet. Eleanour is teh god of textiles! <3

Lifeosity

Went to Willow Hill again, was reprimanded for not standing during the pledge o' allegiance, but didn't really mind because was basking in the glow of adorable fourth graders who again hugged me before we left. Can't. resist. littlekid. hugs. But not in freaky-deaky pervy-dervy way.

After school tutored at the junior high. Only not really tutored because kid had no homework and was just studying for a math test. Did help him with two problems, but that was about it. Had art project and Frodo action figure [ta, Ryan, it's great :D] with, so kid was all: "Can I have this?"

"No."
"Can I have this?"
"No."
"Will you draw me a picture?"
"I guess, but it will be bad."
"Why?"
"Well, what do you want me to draw?"
"Draw him. *points at Frodo*"
"Fine."

So spent the time drawing ugly!Frodo and eating cheeseballs. Not bad.

When mum picked up, took to library. Borrowed Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas, Welcome to Higby and Their Eyes Were Watching God. Had forgotten how hilarious KOBMNN is.

Is supposed to snow tonight. Perhaps no school tomorrow. Will see.

Oh! Also: in maths, teacher calls self up to front of classroom, says, "You were one of the top 21 scorers who took that mathematics test thingummy and you get to go on to the next level or whatever. Only three sophomores [although he really meant three of the sophomores he teaches] did, so that's really good." Felt q. proud of self. Perhaps will be mathematician when grow up. If not chemist.

Tricksy hobbitses

I think my brother is a hobbit. He is short[er than me], has Frodo-coloured brownish hair that he rarely washes, and when he arrived home from school today, he promptly took off his socks and shoes [and the bottom half of his pants: he has special pants with zipoff bottoms; one minute they're pants; the next they're shorts!]. Meanwhile I am shivering my arse off AND wearing three layers. He is so insane.

Also, my mother would like the general public to know that it wasn't her fault she didn't have her driver's licence. She had given it to my dad to fax with the request for my birth certificate, so really, my dad is to blame. Just so you know.

Today I did finally successfully submit my passport application, so it should arrive in about five weeks. =)

Pretoria

My dad's going to South Africa tomorrow for two weeks. =\

Also, tomorrow is the Virtual March on Washington.

It's just a jump to the left

I rented & watched Rocky Horror Picture Show last night, which kicked @££. Frank is so hot, y0. And OMG, Rocky has the same hair as that cute junior I've mentioned before. Like, exactly the same. Like, Rocky is sitting at the dinner table and I am like, OMG, is that Aleksander Vey? Aleksander Vey being the cute junior's name, although I really shouldn't say that here because he might find it and be like OMG LIBEL BEYOTCH. Also, apparently he is not a junior, but a senior, as I've just found out by looking at the school's website [he is on the swimteam]. Silly me and my misapprehensions. Anyway, enough stalking.

This morning I was walking down the hallway and Will Bruce was like, "Are you going to the Zwan concert?"

Me: What?
WB: Zwan. Are you going with Stasia?
Me: Um, I dunno. Stasia didn't ask me.
WB: Well, do you want to go with us?
Me: Um, sure. When is it?
WB: April.
Me: Okay.

So that's exciting. I was talking about it with Stasia in chem and she is all SQUEE! Although I did feel the need to point out that Billy Corgan is so not attractive. And now I suppose I'll need to go download Zwan songs, which should please Beki and Rich. Talking of Beki, I really want to see Idlewild at the Theatre of Living Arts March 7. And now that I've got my birthday money, I can buy my own ticket!

After first period this morning I went to Willow Hill [an elementary school] with the peer mediation crew. Sara A. & I had a discussion group with about ten fourth graders about respect. They were so adorable! At the end they asked us if we would come back and hugged us. :D We will be going back on Thursday and next Wednesday, so that ought to be fun. Yay for little kids!

After school my mother took me to a photography place and I had my picture taken for my passport. Then we went to the post office, except after waiting in line for half an hour my mum realised she didn't have her driver's licence. So that was terribly frustrating, but we will go back tomorrow.

Now I ought to go do my Zora Neale Hurston poster.

Age of consent

I'm now old enough to legally have male-female sex and female-female sex [And male-male sex as well, but that would probably be a bit difficult.], take my learner's permit test [I got the booklet from the library this evening], and get married [with parental consent]!

TEN AND SIX!

Guess who is official sixteen years old as of 12:22PM today!

Yes, meeeeee!

I was born in Franklin Maternity Hospital in Philadelphia and was eight pounds two and a half ounces and twenty-one inches, so write that down in your little Almeda scrapbooks.

Yesterday afternoon was the family party, and I had a lovely time. Joc cut out my name and the number sixteen from some really pretty pink wrapping paper and put it on her door, there were pictures of me from various ages on the wall, and my aunt Rose got beautiful tulips for me! We had lasagna and salad and cupcakes, and I got money [lots of it xD], a really neat TinTin wallet, clothes [such as the loffly pink shirt I'm wearing at this very moment], some nice-smelling body lotion & stuff, and chocolate! Yay for birthdays!

Today, the proper anniversary of my birth, was also quite nice. I got cards from school friends and flowers in the mail from Laura [<flowers3] and oil paints and my "pedigree" from my grandparents. It's really cool: it has my ancestors on my dad's side tracing all the way back to the sixteenth century! Roger Eastman (Estman) born 1556 in Downton, W, England is the oldest I can find. R0x0r and a half. And of course, as I've mentioned before when I was staying with my oma and opa, dead people have the coolest names. I am so naming one of my children Appolonia. That is, if I have any children. Maybe I will join the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.

Also, KT's father happened to have brought the mail with him when he picked KT, Marisa, and I up from the ACLU club meeting, and in the mail happened to have been the buttons she ordered for me! So now I have my loffly, sexy buttons! They are so hot, trust me. There's Kathleen Hanna holding a book called Radical Feminism, "Save the trees", a recycle symbol, the Guerilla Girls logo, b&w Sylvia Plath, a skull and crossbones [just because], the flower that's on the cover of Cunt, a tampon with a line going through it, "Safety First! Keep your socks on," and a woman lifting dumbbells. :D KT r0x. I just don't know what to do with them, though. I don't want to put them on my backpack for I fear they might be stolen in the den of crime and immorality that is my local public education center.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ME!

Die Party für Freundinnen [und einen Freund]

I had a really great time last night, and I hope everyone else did too. =) We played Cranium and did karaoke and cracked cascarons on other people's heads and ate cake and opened presents [well, only me] and listened to music and stuff.

And I got Merry & Pippin action figures; Scarlet's Walk; Bath & Body Works stuff; embarrassing photos of me plus frames; a My Little Pony keychain; a tie-dye frog; a wild orchid candle; a sexy, enviroment-friendly car [a toy car with a picture of Dom taped to it xD]; socks; and misc. other stuff. :D

Also, a letter from Gram Apple and a package from Laura arrived yesterday. I was going to save them for my actual birthday, but I don't have much self-control, so I opened them. ;D A cheque from my G and The Clash, London Calling & a beautiful journal from Laura. Yay!

W00t!

Party in T minus 15 minutes and counting. I loff birthdays. You get to have parties for doing nothing other than being born, and your mother did most of the work for that, anyway. :D

Later

So I just got back from Little Shop of Horrors. It was q. excellent. Seymour was great, Mushnik was great, Orin was fanfuckingTASTIC, Audrey was great, Audrey II was amazing, and everyone else was too. :) It's a bit depressing, though, what with everyone ending up dead by the finale.

I teared up a bit as Audrey was dying. Although Audrey made me want to weep throughout the whole thing. She's just so pathetic and unempowered. I wanted to send her some feminist literature. Or Cunt! I think Audrey would benefit from a reading of Cunt.

And of course, I got to see Mr Kleba and my dear Saul [he voiced Audrey II], both of whom I haven't seen in ages, so that was nice.

And now my birthday weekend commences!

It's Friday!*

* More later.

La Misérable

My nose is runny, my eyes are watering, my throat is sore, and my head aches. But other than that, I'm pretty well, thanks. I just hope it goes away very soon because it would be highly disappointing to be ill on one's birthday.

In course selection news, I think I'm going to have to sacrifice art. I can always take it senior year, after all. Although I am v. sorry to disappoint Ms C.
Perhaps you remember when she asked me if I was a music person? But alas! What poor Ms C did not know is that she would lose me to the wiles of chemistry, not music!

Ah, well. That is the way life goes, I suppose.

Tomorrow is Friday, huzzah! I'm seeing Little Shop of Horrors at the junior high. Saturday is my partay! Sunday is my partay the second! Monday is my birthday! :D

Course selection

Here is my dilemma: today Mr Fisher, the AP chemistry teacher, talked to us in our chemistry class about taking AP chem next year. I've decided that this would be a v. g. idea, and I would really like to do it. However, I also would really like to take art and Latin. But I can't take all three. Even if I somehow figured out a way to get out of gym, I would only have four free periods [AP chem would be five days a week plus a lab]. I h8 school.

Periods per week: 40
Classes: American studies, 5; AP chem, 6; art, 5; English, 5; German, 5; gym, 3; intro. to calc, 5; Latin, 5; physics, 6; total, 45.

I'm going to talk to my guidance counselor during lunch on Friday and see what she has to say. I'm going to have to come to some sort of a compromise, but I really really really don't want to not take AP chem, art, Latin, or German, and the rest are non-negotiable.

Other than that, today was quite nice. I had a leisurely morning, which was especially super because the sun was actually up when I got up! Then there was no English or academic access math because of the two-hour delay. We watched Little Buddha in world civ., had a sub in art, did a lab in chem, took v. few notes in math, and talked about our weekends in German [since the weekend was extra long, it took the whole period, which was q. excellent]. A v. slow day, perfect for the transition back to school from a four-day weekend. And tomorrow I get out of second period for a peer mediation meeting, but we're just watching more of the Buddha movie, so that's a bit of a waste.

Five days till my birthday!

Langeweile.

Today has been rather dreary. I was going to get my passport today, but apparently my birth certificate is in a safety deposit box, so my mum went downtown to get it. I was also going to go sledding with Stasia, but I told her I was going to get my passport and thus couldn't go.

So instead I ended up shoveling snow and reading The G-string Murders.

Two hour delay tomorrow.

Reckless Administration May Reap Disastrous Consequences

"To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences. On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on some level must be contemplating the horrors of war."

Read more. V. g. speech by Robert Byrd.

Teehee.

*swells with pride*

I tidied my room, and my, it looks swell. I can actually see the floor now! ;D It's so nice to have a clean room; too bad it so easily falls back into a state of disaster. Ooh, and I found my log sheet! It was on the floor the whole time. >.<;; Silly me.

In other news, no school tomorrow! Isn't that exciting? xD <blizzards3

Walking in a winter wonderland

I believe I've mentioned before that outside one of my bedroom windows there is a shed whose roof lines up perfectly with the window. So this morning I wake up and glance at the window [it's over my bed] and GASUPAH. It's nearly entirely covered by snow. And it is still snowing now, my darlings! Ohohoho, what fun!

In other news, I think I'm suffering from a Hermione Granger complex. I dreamt that Ms Farrington [my world civilizations teacher] had assigned three problems for homework. I had only finished the first one, which had about ten or so subproblems, and told her this when she was coming round to check them. She then told me that the first problem was worth two points while the second was worth forty and the last was worth fifty. So that's 2 points out of 92. I nearly cried.

And now I really must tidy my room. Pip pip!

Come on, possums, wave your gladioli

Oh-em-gee, Dame Edna is HILARIOUS. Last night was so fantastic. I was laughing the whole time. She made fun of the audience, made fun of food, made fun of seniors, made fun of political figures [remember how I said I hated how people clapped during every pause in the State of the Union address? She commented on that, too. xD], made fun of her late "husband," did psychic readings of the audience members' shoes, had audience members come up on stage and eat arugula, telephoned an audience member's mother, dressed audience members up as members of the royal family, sang, danced, and was generally a riot and a half.

Thank you, Jane, that was a delightful birthday present. :D

Afterwards I slept over at my auntie's house, and my family was going to come in for brunch, but then it began to snow, so brunch was cancelled and I was sent home on the train. It's still snowing now and it's supposed to continue snowing until tomorrow night or something ridiculous like that. But I'm miffed because tomorrow is Presidents' Day, so we have off anyway and it's a waste of a perfectly good snow day. Alack.

Article on the march.

Things I Ought To Do:

1, 2, 3, 4, we don't want another war!

Greetings from Philadelphia: the city that loves you back! Because my mummy is such a nice person, she took me to the anti-war march. We took the 11:12 train to Market East and walked to Broad and Spring Garden. At noon the march started; we marched from the State Office Building around City Hall to the Liberty Bell with several stops in between. It was a really great [freezing, but great] experience.

The diversity of the marchers amazed me. Men, women, old people, young people, middle-aged people, black people, white people, Asian people, hispanic people, Quakers, veterans, lesbians & gays, and more all sharing a common cause. At one point Mutti and I were walking near a guy and a girl speaking in German and I tried to eavesdrop, but they were speaking too quickly and I only caught a few words.

I really wish I had brought a camera; I would have liked to take pictures of the signs people were holding. There were some really clever ones. Also, people had written "NO WAR" and drawn peace signs in the layer of snow that covered some parked police cars, which would have made for great photographs. And of course it would have been great to take pictures of the people 'cause there were [not surprisingly] some really interesting-looking people.

So I'm really glad I got to go. Right now I'm at my aunt's house. Mutti and I walked here afterwards, and that short walk was about 8x colder than the march itself, probably because we weren't surrounded by warm bodies anymore. I recuperated by eating one and a half grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, and hot chocolate and listening to Fellowship of the Ring on disc. Then I took a nap.

Pop. Six. Squish. Uh uh. Cicero. Lipschitz.

Chicago was quite excellent. "Cell Block Tango" was probably my favourite song, but that might be because I've had it downloaded since last year [actually, my computer tells me it was last modified on 2/24/02— my birthday!]. I also enjoyed "Mr Cellophane." Amos reminded me of Mitch from A Streetcar Named Desire so much. Poor Amos.

This afternoon I had wanted to go downtown for the anti-war march, but I can't find anyone to go with me. Marisa said she might, but I got her answerphone [I am so pseudo-British xD] when I rang her.

Tonight at eight I am seeing Dame Edna with my aunt Jane! :D

Happy Valentine's Day!

Roses are red
Violets are blue
All my base
Are belong to you

:D Today was so much fun. I got a yellow rose from my dear friend Mike, valentines from my other assorted friends such as Elisa, Patty, KT, and Miriam, and ate far more candy than is wise. I also got to see/hear seven singing valentines, which were amazing. The Madrigals divided into a group of boys and a group of girls and went around singing to people during classes, which was especially fun when one was interrupted in the middle of a quiz, as in German. >D

I got sunshine, on a cloudy day
When it's cold outside, I got the month of May

A couple weeks ago we fillled out these surveys with ridiculously inane questions like "Who's your favourite Spongebob Squarepants character?" and "What's your favourite jelly bean flavour?", and today, for a mere dollar, we could receive a list of people who, based on our answers to the questions, we are compatible with. So apparently Melissa Hevener should be my best friend. :D

And Allison and I both noticed a common denominator between a good number of the boys on my list . . . a lot of them are skateboarders/punks. I was like . . . okaaaaaay. Perhaps I am a sk8r boi at heart or something.

In academic access English a guidance counselor came in and talked to us about course selection for next year. I think I'm going to take:

Honors English III
AP American Studies I
H-Introduction to Calculus
Honors Physics
German IV Honors
Latin II Honors
Art II / Art History

I'd really like to take AP Chemistry, but there's no possible way I could fit it into my schedule, so I suppose that will have to wait until senior year. Also, apparently our school offers Latin IV, but you can't take Latin until sophomore year, so how would you work up to Latin IV? You'd have to take like summer classes or something. Whatevz.

In chemistry we got our tests back from yesterday: 100! I heart chemistry so much. We also got a project to make a poster about an African-American scientist for Black History Month, so I picked Zora Neale Hurston, anthropologist! [Elly, aren't you proud?]

After school KT, Marisa, Sara A., and I went to Copper Beech [the elementary school I would have gone to had it existed when I was of the elementary school-attending age; most of my old teachers work there] to help organise Celebrate the Arts night with Mr McKeough [my elementary school art teacher] and Mrs Sterner-Porecca [my elementary school music teacher, except she was just Ms Sterner then]. It was quite a good time, and I saw my brother there. I was like, "HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY," and he was like, "BEWARE OF POKEY THE PENGUIN" or something equally random. He's crazy, that one. Don't know where he gets it from.

>.>

<.<

And now I'm off to see Chicago with Ryan, KT, & Marisa. TOODLEZ.

<Heather3

:D I received a loffly birthday card today from Heather [who has a sexy new layout!] and it's so cute and she also sent me a friendship bracelet and the Little Book of Wrong Shui, which is hilarious, and she is TOO COOL FOR WORDS! xD Ta, Heather, you r0x0r.

"Attract visitors to your home by placing stereo, video, and computer equipment where they can be seen from the road."

So now I'm in a super cheerful mood right now, and if you want to ask any favours of me, now would be the time. ;) Of course, you are all my dear friends and would never try to take advantage of me.

Mr Lodewick was out AGAIN, but I didn't mind too much because we had the Elijah Wood clone again. We took a test today in chemistry, but it was incredibly easy, which made me v. glad. There's a test tomorrow in math, but I totally 0wnz0r logarithms, so I'm not too worried about that. Also, Allison M. B. is a genius, and I would never imply that she is stupid because she's not; in fact, she is quite clever and SUPER.

After school was a Building with Books meeting, and we received more information about the "cultural exchange" we're doing. Twenty or so students from an urban high school are coming to visit us next week, and we'll each have a student "shadow" us for the day. This is what I needed my log sheet for [no doubt you remember my semi-nervous breakdown over not being able to find it], but I talked to Ms Duncan [my jr. high guidance counselor who also is running the tutoring thing at the jr. high] and she said she would e-mail Ms Schillingsburg [Building With Books sponsor] and let her know that I've been doing my hours.

Anyway, that ought to be fun. And in return we get to go to their school and follow them around for a day. I just need to have my teachers sign the permission slip.

After BWB, I went to the junior high to tutor, which was slightly boring, but I was rewarded with chocolate. [I swear, that's the best part of going: Ms Duncan gives us food ;)] My mum picked me up afterward, and we went to CVS, where I copied a photo to put on my German foreign exchange student form. I have absolutely NO recent pictures of me. The one I finally used is from when my hair was still really long, which is like a year ago.

Oh, well, I guess my German exchange student will get a surprise! Although now that I think on it, there's a section for "additional notes," and I could mention that my hair has since been chopped off.

And my mum let me purchase some chocolate at CVS, and it's so GOOD. It's Hershey's, but it's got almonds and toffee chips and it's pure, sweet love.

Valentine's Day tomorrow! I get to see Chicago with my friends! :D Looking forward to that a great deal.

xDDDDDDDDDDdddddddddddddd Y'all should send me mail more often. I am really in such a good mood now. This is better than drugs! ;) Heather rocks!

Elijah Wood lookalike

Mr Lodewick wasn't here today [he has a daughter in daycare who is constantly bringing home germs to him, so he is constantly out], so we had a substitute teacher, and he totally looked like Elijah Wood. Well, not as much from the front, but his profile was like . . . *jawdrop* . . . *starestare* . . . is that Elijah Wood?!

Hee. *sighs dreamily*

We had to read more poetry in Lodewick's absence: this time it was Longfellow. I really enjoyed "A Psalm of Life." Also read some Dickinson, though it wasn't assigned. KT, aren't you proud? ;)

Oh, and happy Lincoln's birthday!

Report card!

Report card came today: All "A"s in second marking period and for the semester, but no surprises there. That's one downside to LetterGrade: the mystery is gone.

G.P.A.: 4.444
Rank: 8 in class of 568

I really wish I knew how they worked out G.P.A. At the end of last year I had 4.455, and I know I got more "B"s last year. Stupid biology.

Oh, well, I shouldn't be complaining. It's quite excellent, regardless.

A message to cereal-making companies: adding coloured marshmallows DOES NOT NECESSARILY IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF THE CEREAL. I mean, come on, Froot Loops with marshmallows?! Chunderiffic. The only way you could possibly make it any worse would be to add chocolate. More is not better. Le sigh.

Might go sledding with Stasia O. this evening. Yay! =)

Forty-second day of the year!

"This was originally billed as a debate only because I was a bit anxious coming here. I didn’t think I was going to have time to prepare anything and also, in a room full of such luminaries, I thought ‘what could I, as an amateur, possibly have to say’? So I thought I would settle for a debate. But after having been here for a couple of days, I realised you’re just a bunch of guys! It’s been rife with ideas and I’ve had so many myself through talking with and listening to people that I’d thought what I’d do was stand up and have an argument and debate with myself. I’ll talk for a while and hope sufficiently to provoke and inflame opinion that there’ll be an outburst of chair-throwing at the end . . . ."

Douglas Adams's speech at Digital Biota 2.

Happy Adams Day, all! In honour, I plan to read some of Last Chance to See, which my belurved auntie Jane gave me on Sunday. I've never heard of it before, but it's apparently a nonfiction book written by him and this other bloke "for anyone interested in the beauty and variety of Earth's wildlife." I read the reviews on Amazon.com and apparently it's quite excellent.

Two weeks until my birthday!

*prints party invitations* Tra la la!

What a world we live in

Here is what I love about the Internet: one can easily have a conversation with people with whom one would never normally have the opportunity to talk.

For example, I just spent a half hour speaking with a twenty-two year old law student in NYC. And there are all my other online friends who, largely because of location and age, I would otherwise never have met, such as my British chums [Elly, Beki, Rich, Hes] and my college friends [Abbey, Yan, Brinzy].

The Internet is too cool.

The weather outside is frightful

It's snowing like a mother, but it didn't start until sometime between 10 and 11 this morning, so alas, school was in session, and alas, an early dismissal there was not.

However, all after school activities were cancelled, and I didn't feel like staying after school, so thumbs up to that.

Meh. Mein Leben ist so langweilig. -_-

Transcendentalism

Mr Lodewick was out the other day so we were assigned to read a bunch of Ralph Waldo Emerson's poems ["The Snowstorm", "Concord Hymn", "The Rhodora", "Brahma"] and answer questions about them during his absence. There was a quote of his in one of the questions that just hit me today.

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not."

I really like it.

Also, I just want to thank everyone who comments and who has ever commented on my blog. I've had 2794 comments to date [although some of them are just me replying to other comments ^^;], I read every single one, and you've no idea how much I appreciate the feedback. Thank you so very much. And props to Yan for the most amusing comment names.

Long live the Republic!

Oh, my God. Les Misérables* was so good. I sobbed. So hard.

* The 1998 movie version with Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman, Claire Danes, and Hans "I'm too sexy for my revolution" Matheson.

Livin' la vida loca

I've been going through old entries and deleting double comments [I've deleted 1000+], and I've realised that I am just so incredibly weird!

Exhibit A. Random song lyrics in the middle of sentences.

Exhibit B. Let's get medieval, baybee. ?!

Exhibit C. Random marriage proposals.

Exhibit D. Library thievery, overuse of capital letters, subpar biology skillz, general immature insensitivity. [You might want to read more from this time period; my insanity level was extraordinarily high.]

Exhibit E. Extremely silly dancing.

Exhibit F. Completely inexplicable pirateness.

It was a murder, but not a crime

Allison saw Chicago without me. *sadface* Oh, well. Maybe my mummy will take me.

This afternoon I went to the library with Monsieur Ryan et Mademoiselle KT and mathed. Also borrowed Les Mis and Joan of Arc. Hung out at Ryan's afterwards. Ate cookies, played Scrabble, etc.

Dispatch - General

Went to auntie Joc's flat today for her birthday. Got to see Gram Apple, Joc, cousin Leo, & Jane. Ate cupcake. ^^

Colleges: Macalester, Kenyon, Brown [pre-college summer program], U of Miami, Williams [where my uncle Mike works], and Hiram [Abbey signed me up for their mailing list. ;P]

This is a song I really enjoy:

There was a decorated General with a heart of gold
That likened him to all the stories he told
Of past battles won and lost
And legends of old
A seasoned veteran in his own time.
On the battlefield he gained respectful fame
With many medals of bravery and stripes to his name
He grew a beard as soon as he could
To cover the scars on his face
And always urged his men on

But on the eve of great battle with the infantry in dream
The old general tossed in his sleep
And wrestled with its meaning
He awoke from the night to tell what he had seen
And walked slowly out of his tent.

Go now you are forgiven
Go now you are forgiven
Go now you got to be got to be got to be got to be got to be yeah

Post 800

This is the eight-hundredth post I've made to this blog over it's history at quiddity.f2s.com, glorp.zosteria.net, unburdened.org, and now here at her-own-eyes.org. To give you an idea of how much I've changed, I went through the blog archives and picked out the first, hundredth, two hundredth, three hundredth, etc. posts. However, these happen to be rather shortish posts [namely 100, 200, + 400], so you might want to go to the posts before or after these after clicking on them.

[A note: older posts (with the exception of the landmark posts which I retitled and deleted the extra comments from) might have double comments because when I was converting the blog from blogger to movabletype, I accidentally uploaded some of them twice. Also, since blogger didn't have an option for titles, the majority of the old posts are titled the first five words of the post.]

Post 1.

Post 100.

Post 200.

Post 300.

Post 400.

Post 500.

Post 600.

Post 700.

Gottseidank!

It's snowing! :D And a damn good thing, too, 'cause I watched About a Boy last night instead of doing all my homework. It was so worth it, too. Much funnier than I was expecting, and Hugh Grant is teh sex with his dry, British, selfish bastardness. And the little boy was so adorable! <3

The banks of the Nile are overflowing and running red, so I get to use my Lunapads for the first time ever! :D Right now I'm wearing a sexy leopard print one. xD Tra la la. Having my period has never been this fun!

And now for a mini-lesson in German, in case you're ever wandering alone and weaponless down a dark alley in a shady neighbourhood, and a group of hoodlums seize you and demand, "Translate this into German or we will kill you!"

T = D

1. Gott = Godd = God.

2. tragen = dragen = to drag [also to carry or to wear - "en" means infinitive]

3. Tanz = danz =dance

[Exceptions: Telefon, Toilette]

Try it yourself! Can you figure out "trinken," "Tür," and "Teufel"?

D = TH

1. danke = thanke = thanks

2. dies = thies = this

3. Daumen = thaumen = thumbs

[Exceptions: Dezember, Dialog, Datum]

Can you figure out "Dinge," "Durst," and "denken?"

Z = T [except when it's C as in Zirkus, Zentimeter, Zement, Zigarette and Zensur]

1. zwanzig = twantig = twenty

2. zwitschern = twitschern = twitter

[Exceptions: Ziege - goat, Zucker - sugar]

Can you figure out "zu," "Zunge," and "Zweig"?

Always remember: German is just English pronounced funny!

Nicaragua

Last night I had an orthodontist appointment, which went suprisingly well considering I haven't been wearing my retainer. Afterwards my mum and I went to TLA and rented Pretty Woman, About a Boy, and The Wedding Planner. We watched The Wedding Planner, which was enjoyable. I think just about every movie I see is enjoyable, though. There are some I would watch again and some I wouldn't, and there are definitely different levels of enjoyment, but you know, if it's a movie, I most likely find it enjoyable.

Then I spent some time frantically searching through my backpack and around my room for my service hours log sheet. This caused me to become rather agitated, and I was in one of those moods where everything everyone does is wrong, and when my dad asked me to go do the laundry or told me to go to bed I had to keep my mouth shut lest "LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE SHIT FUCK HELL" inadvertently popped out. And I slammed the door on my poor, unsuspecting brother, who responded by calling me crazy. Pish, what does he know?

All my irritation was for naught, though. Well, not entirely naught, because they did collect log sheets at the BwB meeting after school, but I was definitely overreacting. I'm guessing I'm premenstrual. Stupid raging hormones.

Today at the BwB meeting we watched a fifteen-minute movie on Nicaragua and got application forms. Two people from the school will go on a two-week trek to Nicaragua where we'll help build a school and be "immersed in the culture." I'm really excited about this, so I hope no one else applies and I'll be automatically picked. >D I have to fill out the form, though, answering four open-ended questions and writing a one-page essay.

Identify a person who has used his/her influence to promote tolerance and understanding either locally, globally, or both. How has this person done so? Did she/he use music, art, poetry, education, etc.? How has this person influenced you? What will you do with the message that was left?

And I need to have a recommendation, so I'm thinking I'll get my German teacher to write that, since I've had her for four years and she [hopefully] will have found something nice to say about me by now.

Things I want to see:

Is it Friday yet?

Painted sets for The King and I after school today. Paint has still not entirely come off hands. Bleh.

I started planning for my birthday party last night, and by planning, I mean making a list of names of people I want to invite. It will be Saturday, February 22, I think, so if your name is on the following list, plz don't schedule anything uber important for that date:

Allison
Amy
Elisa
Katie
Krysta
Marisa
Miriam
Patty
Rachel
Sienna
Stasia

If your name begins with an R and rhymes with buyin' y'all inz, would you feel uncomfortable being the only male at my party? I could invite other carriers of the Y chromosone, if you would appreciate that.

Today letters from Allegheny, Boston U, Brandeis, Chicago, Columbia, and Quinnipiac arrived. Why are there so many colleges, and why do all of their letters say basically the same thing? How is one supposed to decide?

YOU! GO CALL 911!

I majorly overslept this morning and had to get a ride to school, but fortunately I got to class with minutes to spare. While my mother was transporting me to school, she told me she dreamt that she took the car to a garage and a handsome, sweet man was there, and he showed her pictures of his azaleas.

Who was the man? Witness-era!Viggo Mortensen. Why does everyone have Viggo dreams except for me?! *sulks*

School was as monotonous as ever today. We changed seats in world civ. and German, so that was fairly exciting, but not much else of interest occurred. In gym, we watched a movie about CPR, which was painfully lame. Remember, it's ABC: Airway, Breathing, Circulation!

In German I got a form to fill out for my exchange student.

"Do you smoke? [no, occasionally, little, a lot]"

"If your host family wished to do so, would you be willing to reduce this amount?"

"Do you object to others smoking around you?"

NO. N/A. YESSSSSSSSSSS!

Letters from William & Mary, Tulane, Washington & Jefferson, Hood, Northeastern, Fordham, and Lafayette came today.

On Death

Because I am such a morbid [or not] person, I like to think about these things.

Cremation
I really like the idea of cremation. Having my ashes thrown into the ocean or scattered to the four winds appeals to me. A circle of life type thing. Or, if you've read His Dark Materials, like in the third book.

The first ghost to leave the world of the dead was [censored to protect the unspoiled]. He took a step forward, and turned to look back at Lyra, and laughed in surprise as he found himself turning into the night, the starlight, the air. . . and then he was gone, leaving behind such a vivid little burst of happiness that Will was reminded of bubbles in a glass of champagne.

"Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I'll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again . . ."

"I'll be looking for you, Will, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you . . . We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams . . . And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won't just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight . . ."

Perhaps not completely scientific, but I like the idea of the atoms that made up me being recycled in other things. Of course, this will happen cremation or no, but I like the symbolism of cremation.

Organ donor/donate to science
These are the options that the good person in me knows I should do. It's not like I'm going to be using my body anymore, so I might as well put it to good use and give it to a dying/ill person who needs a new heart or lung or kidney or a medical student who needs a hands-on education or is dabbling in necromancy. This, I think, is the most responsible thing to do.

Burial
While the mental image of slowly decomposing is not very appealing, this has its pros as well. I like the idea of being buried somewhere, so that when I'm the next Jesus/Shakespeare/Queen Elizabeth I, people can come to my gravestone/tomb and, I don't know, do whatever people do at shrines. Pray or worship or contemplate life, I guess. It can be a tourist attraction! Yes, I realise I'm egotistic and ambitious and this is making the assumption that I am someone special and that people will care about me after I die. Perhaps a bit unlikely, but hey, I'm human. If there's one thing we do well, it's thinking that we're the centre of the universe.

Having one's ashes compressed into a diamond
I like this just because it's weird. I saw an ad for it someplace, and I'm sure it's reallyreally expensive, but I think being a diamond would be fun. I mean, obviously I wouldn't know that I was a diamond, but just the idea is cool. And then I could be put in a ring and then I'd be a diamond ring! And someone could wear me! Or, similar to the burial plan, I could be put in a museum and people could come from afar to view the diamond that was once Almeda!

Of course, all of these options take for granted that I'll die of old age. If I'm lost at sea or kidnapped and murdered and never found or disintegrate in a space shuttle or die in a fire or something else, then my body won't be dealt with as per my instruction. But that's the risk you take by living, I suppose. Ohh, la vie.

La Semaine Internationale de Culte D'Almeda

I realised last night that I had missed the observance of the International Days of Almeda Worship! Even if the two days are extended to a week of celebration, today would be the last day. So really, the past week was a week of Almeda Worship, you just didn't know it. ;) Ah, well, c'est la vie. There's always next year and my birthday, which is a mere THREE WEEKS from today.

Talking of birthdays, here is a list of things I want [some more reasonable than others]:

Happy Groundhog Day!

According to Punxsutawney Phil, we still have six weeks of winter left, which is fine by me. Maybe we'll get another snow day.

From ladysisyphus:

Place 1/2 cup uncooked rice in a small plastic bag (a snack-size bag or sandwich bag work fine). Squeeze out excess air and seal the bag. Wrap it in a piece of paper on which you have written, "If your enemies are hungry, feed them. Romans 12:20. Please send this rice to the people of Iraq; do not attack them." Place the paper and bag of rice in an envelope (either a letter-sized or padded mailing envelope--both are the same cost to mail) and address them to: President George Bush, White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 20500. Attach $1.06 in postage (three 37-cent stamps equal $1.11, so consider the extra a five-cent tip to the USPS).

She makes me want to study linguistics. Language is something I'm interested in. Religion is also something I'm interested in [like Natasha >D]. And I'm interested in people, although, sorry, Elly, but I don't particularly want to be an anthropologist. ;P

Speaking of stuff in which I'm interested, I got four college letters yesterday. Wesleyan, Rochester, Drexel, and Temple. Rochester and Wesleyan intrigue me [just as math intrigues Mr Kusner, Allie ;)], but Drexel and Temple are too close to home. xP Now should I be sending back these cards that say "Yes, I'm interested! Send me more information"?

I doubleplusreally ought to do my chemistry lab write-up.

The weekend

I wish I had started keeping this blog earlier. I would love to be able to go back and read what thirteen-year-old me or ten-year-old me or even five-year-old me had to say. Alas, when I was five years old, blogging didn't exist as we know it today. Talking of blogging, I'd like to read this book. Unfortunately, I don't want to read it enough to buy it, and my local library never has new books. In my ideal world, one could borrow books from the bookstore, which always has new books that one would like to read.

And now to recount my weekend backwards à la Beki.

I just had some really yummy homemade fudge, while sitting here at the computer and doing my usual thing. That is, chatting to my friends on AIM, reading my dailies [nearly half of which were down because of trixy Ataraxy.net], getting distracted by random links.

I spent the morning in bed reading my autographed [!] copy of Lady Knight, which I enjoyed v. much. One of the characters is named Dom, so I grinned whenever I read that. However, I think the Song of the Lioness quartet will always be my favourite of Tamora Pierce's books. If I ever have children, I'll make sure they read it.

That, and Philip Pullman's books, especially the Sally Lockhart trilogy, and Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles. There's tons of other books I love as well, of course, but the ones mentioned here all have especially strong female protagonists.

Last night I went to Sienna's party. I went with Allison, and Molly [a girl from my English class], her friend Marissa, and Sienna's friend Max were there. It was an enjoyable time, and we watched parts of What Lies Beneath. It had Éowyn in it!

Before going to Sienna's house, I watched The Princess Diaries, which I'd seen before, but since seeing it the first time, I've read the book[s]. I enjoyed the movie, but spent much of the time pointing out differences between it and the books to my mum. "In the book, she lives in Greenwich Village," "In the book, her father doesn't die," et cetera.

Before that, I went to the library and did math with Ruairi Ó Coileáin.

Fin.

16. ARGUMENT FROM INTIMIDATION

(1) See this bonfire?
(2) Therefore, God exists.

A moment of silence

The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated, with six Americans and the first Israeli astronaut on board, seventeen years and three days after the Challenger exploded.

Gung Hey Fat Choi!

Happy Chinese New Year! It's Year 4700, the year of the Ram. And happy February, too! The shortest month of the year and black history month. [Coincidence or conspiracy? ;)] And of course, February is the month of my birth. Twenty-three [23] more days until I'm sixteen!

Last night was fun. I got a ride to the game with Patty, whose mother drives a silver VW beetle. That was my first time ever in a beetle, and it was q. cool. :D

Abington was losing the game for the first three quarters [I think the score at the end of the third quarter was 21-34], when in the fourth quarter BOOM BAM, BABY, and they won, 50-42. 'twas q. exciting.