Twins: Everyday Thoughts of Grandeur

Peanut Butter and Love Poems

2012-02-14T17:25:00.000-08:00

I just want you to know that I ate an entire jar of peanut butter in a month. This isn't your normal peanut butter eating, either. I mean, I didn't eat it on anything, I just scooped it right out of the jar, and after a while I realized that I could see the bottom. It just happened. But I went to Wal-Mart today, and I bought another, bigger, more crunchy one. I don't know if peanut butter is brain food, but I know it has a lot of protein in, and it makes me feel happy, so I think I will continue eating it at my present pace, because it is better to eat peanut butter while I do homework than to eat candy while I do my homework (I have not bought any candy for weeks, you should be proud).

I was going to get my oil changed, too, but the only place I know where you can get it done here is at Jiffy Lube, and when I googled how much it cost to get oil changed there, all that came up were a bunch of horror stories from people who had been totally scammed there. So I don't want to go. I will probably just stop in Harrisonville the next time I come home and have it done there. I feel bad that I'm putting off this whole oil change thing but it's not like I'll be driving at all between now and then so I guess I won't be racking up more miles.

The cool thing about that CD that you left in my car is that the bass of songs comes through a lot better if they're on a CD rather than a tape adapter. When I was driving back from Mor Mor's on Sunday I listened to Turn It Up a few times with the bass up high so I could feel it. It was pretty cool. The only other CD I have in my car is a mix one that Elise made, and there is an old-school Black Eyed Peas song on it that gives me the same artificial feeling of being a badass.

There is this line in How Gee that goes "I wear my sunglasses at night/still 20/20". Cracks me up so much.

Sometimes when I do my laundry, the washing machine just flips out and when I go to put the clothes in the dryer, they're soaking wet. It's really annoying because dryer cycles are an hour, and this load is going to take at least two cycles to get dry. On any other night I'd be in bed by the time it's done. First world problems.

There's only one remaining day of teaching for Literature of Adolescents. I am ecstatic. I can't wait to be done. If there's one thing this class has done for me, it's shown me how unready I am to be a teacher. Thankfully I have a couple more years before I have to step out on my own with this. It's pretty scary to think about, but then again most of what makes being a grown up makes me sick to think about. There's nothing quite like independence to make a body feel vulnerable. I'm determined to own it though, just you wait.

The window in our room has been wide open for weeks. It got pretty cold outside a few times, but it never matters - regardless of the weather outside, it is always a steady 75-82 degrees in this room. There is nothing to do that will make it any cooler. Part of the reason is because the heater is right below the window, so it blows up a hot air barrier that prevents anything cold from coming in. The heater never turns off. The last three nights my roommate went and slept in her friend's room downstairs just because it was too hot to sleep. It doesn't bother me when I fall asleep, but there's nothing quite like waking up sweaty to make a body feel cranky in the morning.

I am probably going to watch that movie you recommended while I wait for my laundry to finish. I can never resist beautiful people being talented on screen. You know how I am.

-Amy

P.S. I forgot it was Valentine's Day, because I was too busy thinking about other things. But there was chocolate fondue in the cafeteria today, so that was cool. Thankfully no one's been particularly mushy in my vicinity, but I was at Wal-Mart earlier and there were a lot of uncomfortable-looking men buying roses. It warmed my heart a little.

P.P.S. I also bought you a birthday present today. It is pretty exciting.

P.P.S. My eccentric World Masterpieces teacher also celebrated today by breaking off from Dante's Inferno, which we're reading, to read several famous subtly suggestive love poems of yore. We all lol'd, but it was also pretty awkward, because Shakespeare sure was into innuendo. Dang.

It is pretty late.

2012-02-11T22:25:00.000-08:00

It is pretty late. However, I slept in this morning, and I can sleep in tomorrow, so I am probably okay.

So you may have forgotten (you haven't, because I think I have probably told you a few times by now), but I am in choir. And I am not the hugest fan of it. I mean, I adore singing and getting better at singing, but everything else is not the greatest. But this weekend, my choir had two days of singing at a a conductor's symposium - basically grad conductors and student teaching conductors from all around the Midwest came to conduct our choir, and then receive pointers from other, more experienced conductors. Anyway, basically what this meant is that there wasn't really any actual scrutiny on us for a change, but scrutiny towards the conductor instead. But we still had to sing for two hours straight last night (past my bedtime) and two hours straight this afternoon. It was actually pretty tiring and I think I was dehydrated after today. Also I learned that conducting is basically upper-body dancing - they even use the same lingo (choreography, flow, step, flexibility, etc.).

Anyway what I meant to say with all that was that I made friends with the lady who stands next to me in 2nd sopranos (she sells for Mary Kay and offered me a free facial because my eyes "speak" to her - how could I refuse??), and also I got to talk to the Korean girl in the choir too and she offered me help with Korean if I ever needed it. She also said that she knows a lot of American people who are her friends who are teaching English in Korea, so that made me pretty happy. I already have a few questions lined up to ask her next choir class. The most pressing one is, since age and seniority is so important, how does one find out how old the people they meet are (if it's not clear)? Do you ask right away what year they were born, or do you just speak respectfully until they let you know? That's the most important question to me right now because it's not something I can just google. I can google almost everything but not that. I really feel like it would be rude to refer to someone as agasshi or tangshin or something like that if you've just met them. Is it ever possible to be too formal? I guess you could just use their name with sshi added whenever you're speaking to them instead of any pronouns. But that is bad for me because I'm horrible at remembering people's names, even in English. Maybe this will help me.

I filled out some scholarship applications today. I don't know if I'm an exceptional enough student to get any, but my fingers are crossed. Plus the little cover letter I wrote for each one was pretty good. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's turning a pretty phrase (it's been confirmed that that is, indeed, the only thing I'm good at). As far as writing went, I actually did a lot. On one of my breaks I started working on one of my old stories again. I had to do a lot of research for it, but I finally got up the courage to write about a guy with PTSD... they say "write what you know", but the truth is that I've already done that, and I've run out of things I know, because it turns out I know very little, and even less that's interesting. So we'll see how this goes.

So I'm halfway through the teaching that we're doing in my Literature for Adolescents class. In a way, it's both better and worse than I expected. Turns out I have an exactly spot-on pre-assessment of my own teaching abilities... I gave a 20-minute lecture on Tuesday and it turned out exactly how I predicted: boring, nerve-racking, and I made too many hand gestures. What I do when I'm at a loss for words is I move my hands a lot in a really meaningless way. As I'm doing it, I'm fully aware of it, but there is literally nothing I can do to stop it. In the end, I spent hours and hours preparing for that lecture and it ended up falling a bit flat just how I thought it would. Even though we weren't very rehearsed, all my group fellows did really well because they're all quite charismatic. It was a little disheartening. Jamie says I should go into theater, and I think I'm tempted (right now the determining question is, do I want to be stressed out and hungry, or not stressed out and really hungry?). Anyway, we've done two days of teaching and we have two more, and I'm crossing my fingers. I have a pretty big part to play on Tuesday, and I hope I can be interesting about it. But how do you rehearse interestingness? All I know how to do is rote memorization, and that is boring as a rock (if a rock also gestured lamely). It's not very good for my other classes, either. Even though I got 39/40 on my first History exam, I haven't been able to do all the reading for my other literature classes (Dante's Inferno in three days for one, and Huck Finn in three days for the other) and it makes me feel stupid when I go to class and I don't have anything interesting to contribute to the class discussion. I've done a lot of the reading for next week though, so that will probably be better. Having a weekend where I wasn't home has been good, because home is really bad for my homework getting-done skills.

I don't know if you have watched much Hello Baby lately, but I wanted to tell you about how I watched what's available from the 5th season (it's airing, so there are only 4 episodes). At first I didn't like it because MBLAQ aren't even half as cute as SHINee, plus they have to take care of three kids who are YooGeun's age (about 4). But after watching it for a little longer, it really took a turn for the serious... the group really had no idea to deal with three kids, two of whom had really strong personalities, and almost right away they were kind of forced into making decisions about real, actual discipline and routines and being really mindful of what they said around the kids. I think because the group itself is older (maknae is 19, leader is 25), they were able to make more serious decisions about what to do about kids that were energetic or hurtful or really disrespectful. I actually don't think you would like it at all, because it was filled with really uncomfortable or horrible moments where either the kids or the dads or both would make a bad decision on camera and no one would know what to do. Eventually they went to see a child psychologist and she helped them out a lot and it was really cool to watch them come to these realizations about parenting that had never crossed their minds before, and then earnestly try to do better with the kids. Anyway, in that way it really reminds me of Supernanny, which my roommate watched marathon-style all day today (it's either marathon style or nothing), and which I adore. Supernanny is seriously one of my role models.

Anyway I'm totes going to bed now. I always think I'm going to make these posts brief but it never works. Sorry.
안녕,
Amy

Seventeen to One, Complete Victory.

2012-02-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

Shinwoo, beasty as always,
fights crime on his off days.
He's probably wrestled a monster,
and now he wears its downy soft fur,
as a fashionable and stylish shirt,
when he fights he's swift and curt,
though the damage done is extensive,
he gets the point across, and the victims live.

Seventeen to one, complete victory,
Kang Shinwoo, as cool as could be.

Kang Shinwoo is a totally gentleman,
he stayed with the girl, when other boys ran.
The guys are all incredibly jealous,
They get angry and make a fuss,
They leave their girls and go sell drugs,
But its Shinwoos job to fight the thugs,
He gets on his bike and chases them down,
They're under a bridge, out side of town.
Using only his helmet and back belt kung fu,
They dream of doing what Shinwoo can do,

but its Seventeen to one, complete victory,
Because Shinwoo is as cool as could be.

They're all knocked out, in a pile on the ground,
Shinwoo tightens his tie and leaves without a sound,
There are seventeen girls, without a date,
cause their boyfriends are thugs, which they hate.
But Shinwoo is there, and they're all in awe,
Hes the most handsomest man they ever saw,

Seventeen to one, complete victory,
Kang Shinwoo, as cool as could be.

-Michelle Sullivan

poo.

2012-02-07T14:46:00.000-08:00

Amy, your news about my surprise birthday party saddens me greatly. If you are too busy right now to do it, we can do it later. and by later I mean in three weeks or so. Whatever part of the planning is hard for you, I can do. Like who to invite and when to do it.

BUT IT WOULD BE REALLY COOL IF YOU WERE STILL INVOLVED IN THE MAJORITY OF THE PLANNING. : D

Amy, if I had a little sister that wanted me to do something great like plan her sixteenth birthday party, I would be honored!

No, but if you really are too busy I guess you don't have to do it....

Quote of the day,

"I can't sleep in Shinwoo's room. He's a man." - mi nam
"What?"
"Oh.....you are too...." mi nam
"So are you!"

"I think I'll make a quick post before really getting into my homework" writes post that, if printed, could probably be used as a doorstop

2012-02-06T19:03:00.000-08:00

A few items:

Firstly, I can't believe you're watching You're Beautiful right after, and I mean right after finishing PT. Sometimes you are hopeless, like me. I guess the post-show blues go to you pretty seriously if you just jumped right into the next one. Anyway, it's a pretty adorbs show, so you have that at least. Also, ShinWoo is officially cool, forever.

Second, my playlist I made is now awesome, so listen to it when you can, because there is some really good stuff on there that you may or may not have heard yet. I am listening to it now, and I am on Breakdown by Taeyang, one of the happiest-sounding songs ever.

Third, tomorrow is the first day that we're teaching my Adolescent Literature class, and I have experienced several stages of nervousness this afternoon alone. I'm not necessarily afraid of speaking in front of people, so right now my biggest fear is disappointing my group fellows by making a presentation that falls below their expectations. I know I'm the maknae by at least two years, but I'm still feeling a lot of pressure just because they're really good and I'm, well, not. I'm rewriting my lesson plan right now, because I have had a lot of caffeine and sugar, so I am ready for anything (excluding sleep, and really, who needs it?). I figure if I spend two minutes talking about DESE standards, and three minutes talking about each of the five lesson plan questions, I will easily have a fifteen-minute presentation, which should be a fairly okay. And I think I might have enough material to do that, so I guess all I need to do now is figure out how to make it interesting (a daunting task). My roommate has advised me to feign sickness and just stay home, and I am sorely tempted. If only my suck-up tendencies would allow such a thing.

Fourth, you know about that party thing you keep talking about? Yeah, the truth is that every time I think about it I feel that sense of encroaching doom. Not because it's your birthday, but because I think my head is about to explode. I think it's an actual mental disorder, the fear of an exploding head.

Actually, I wasn't expecting this, but I just googled it and it turns out exploding head syndrome is a real thing. My existence has been legitimized.

Long story short, it would be awesome to have a party for you, especially since it's your sweet 16 and stuff, but a surprise party may not be possible. The truth is that right now any party you throw or we throw together would literally be a hundred percent better than anything I could come up with on my own in the middle of my student teaching. It looks like you have a lot of good ideas so, by rights, it should be you figuring out what the party's going to be all about. It would be awesome if I could help though, so I can feel useful as a person once again (college kills personality). Like, I am pretty good at doing things like decorating if someone (you) tells me it looks good. I also crave affirmation.

I had a fifth item, but I forget what it is, and I promised myself that I would only have two items related to Korea.

Oh, I remember now. Today I sped read 90 pages of Dante's Inferno and 70 pages of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The truth is that such a thing is not possible on this mortal plane, which is why I am a superstar. Or a superhero, depending on how you look at it. Having experienced reading 160 pages in about an hour and a half, I have decided that speedreading should be considered a supernatural power. I know you agree with me (I know no such thing, but if you don't agree with me I will probably come over there and show you my tears of ink to convince you otherwise).

I'm going to go finish my lesson plan now. You can remember me while you're having oodles of fun watching Shinwoo being awesome and Jaekyung being a meanieface but still pretty cool, and Jeremy being the most adorable boy ever. Can you tell I'm jealous? I really regret watching any Hello Baby this afternoon, because even though Shinee as really uncertain fathers is one of the most cutest things I've ever seen, I have so many less interesting and more pressing things to be doing.

Peace,
-Amy

Oh, Being Sixteen

2012-02-02T16:10:00.000-08:00

Wow, there, 16. Its right around the corner. Like, LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AWAY. wow. WOW. I don't know what I'm going to do on my birthday, but it definitely won't be school or anything depressing like that. I'll probably spend the whole day reading the letters to myself that I'm supposed to open when I turn sixteen. I hope one of them has money in it.

Amy, that language thing IS really confusing, but I'll figure it out. Ya know, cause I'm cool like that.

Also, Taeyang. GAH.

Back to my Birthday. My party. Now, I don't know if you've already got this thing planned, but if you don't, gosh, two weeks is a short time. Just saying. In case you didn't know. because I don't know how many party's you've planned, in your life.

Oh no dad is singing along to Big Bang.

Yeah, I watched some more of Personal Taste. Oh my gosh its so incredibly funny. It makes me lawl and squirm a lot.

Oh yaaay you're coming home this weekend! We're gonna be super busy, but when we aren't we're going to watch Personal Taste and eat cookie dough and ramen noodles with chopsticks (YES, I do mean cookie dough with chopsticks. Get on my level) and talk about Taeyang and how he looks like Channing Tatum. Also I'll probably show you what I have of the Neverland dance. I don't have it memorized but I have MOST of it down (the "most" in caps means that there is a great deal of it that I don't know very well, but I can pretty much do the whole thing ok, and I've got the chorus down.)

Anyway, my birthday party: Don't do party favors. I know mom will want to. But here's the deal, I used to go along with that, but now its like, what the heck? "Here, let me give you a present for having a really fun time." thats lame and no one does that. The present is my presence.

And no, I don't want a pinata. But maybe a pinatas worth of candy. And yes, rollerskating is included in the 'no skating' rule. We aren't like five. Though I really enjoy skating to my song of choice. But another time, another time.

Stay Classy,
Michelle

Yeah, Language

2012-01-31T19:15:00.000-08:00

Dear Michelle,

You are pretty set on this whole party thing. I think it's cute that you know any party I throw would probably be pretty lame but you're still sticking by me.

In Korean, W is like Y, it's just tacked onto the front of vowels. I didn't give you the W vowels at first because I didn't want to overwhelm you and to be honest they aren't used as much as the other vowels. W vowels are just two vowels put together, and the W sound just happens. Anyway, I will list them out for you here just in case you ever need them. I put the silent ᄋ in front of all of them just because there always has to be a consonant in front of vowels. That's just the way it is. If you can't see them, make sure you're using Chrome.

와 - wa
왜 - wae (this is also the word for "why" or "what")
외 - weh
워 - tall woh
웨 - weh (pretty much the same sound as 외)
외 - wi
의 - uei (this is the suffix often added to names, etc. to make them possessive - much like 's)

There you have it.

I have free time all of a sudden because my history class has been cancelled twice so I'm a little low on homework, so I am watching Iris. TOP is a seriously small character, but when he is there, he is basically the best. He sorts of flits in, shoots someone discreetly (or holds hapless Japanese people hostage for a while), and then flits out again, and no one's the wiser, except everyone is probably jealous of his totes classy taste in clothing.

We are talking on Facebook though, so I will end this madness now. Peace.

-Amy

My Birthday Party (cause I know you've forgotten)

2012-01-31T15:40:00.000-08:00

Dear Amy.

I hear that the hardest hardness of your school ends on the 16th of February and I would like to inform you that that is a Thursday and also two days after my birthday. Now, I know that it will be hard for you to plan a surprise party for me when you are absolutely swamped, but you may enlist the help of Phoebe, and also you may have the party a weekend after (or any weekend after) my actually birthday, that will be fine. Now I realize that you may not know all the friends that I would like to invite, and that too is fine. If you're having any trouble deciding, just ask me or the Weeb. I would prefer not ice skating since I will dominate everyone and that gets tiring after awhile. Also if this is a co-ed party (which is preferred. I don't want this party to turn into anything like the ride back from Oklahoma or a baby shower) its best if we don't go shopping. And as much as we both may want it, no this may not be a Korean Drama themed party. Though I would not be opposed to K-Drama/K-pop merch of any kind. Speaking of the K's, what is "w" in Korean?

Anyway, back to my surprise birthday party. Please make sure that it is not at an inconvenient time where I don't want to see anyone/look like "a dirty trash can full of poo" (name that movie: SURFS UP. got it before you!). Also I would prefer it if the house/place of party had some streamers or a sign or any way for people to tell that it's a party, because I know our family doesn't usually do that stuff, but this is my sixteenth birthday, and I don't want the house/place of party to look like it does every other day. Its not every day that you turn sixteen, am I right? AM I RIGHT? I am. You only turn sixteen one day of your entire life. YOU'RE ENTIRE EXISTENCE.

OK, well. I'm doing this to make it easier for you, just to let you know. I hope it helps.

Your loving sister,
Michelle Awesomepants Sullivan.

Homework-Induced Procrastination Which I Cannot Afford

2012-01-30T16:03:00.000-08:00

You're in Oklahoma now, where they probably don't have internet (I know nothing about Oklahoma. How am I to know if they have even a primitive social structure to their name? Do they even speak English?). I, however, am in Warrensburg, a utopian educational society where the residents dutifully see to the betterment of their minds at all hours of the day and night.

No wait, that's just me.

I am going to be up late tonight, again, because I have a lot of writing to do for tomorrow. I have most of the reading done, it's just that I have to write these papers. They're only a page, single-spaced, which doesn't sound like much, but both of my teachers are absolute sticklers for conscientiousness and if you don't ponder every word and thought exhaustively, they'll know. Land sakes, they'll know. I can't just BS these things like I used to. College: it seems easy at first, but then you get teachers who actually care.

Luckily, I have had all afternoon and I have the rest of the night to do said homework, and I'm maybe halfway through it. The reason I'm not further is because I'm really good at keeping my mind off of the utter monotony of it all by doing things like looking at facebook, reading about the cultural reasoning behind the differences in mindset that America and Asia have towards cosmetic surgery, listening to 2PM just being swoony in general, wondering if I should cut my hair again, and, of course, writing this blog post. I also tried to take a nap, because my sleep has been, to put it mildly, absolute crap the last few nights, but it didn't work for some reason even though I'm desperately tired. I don't know why my sleep's been weird, but I suspect it is connected to stress, because I'm stressed out, and also I am losing weight. And that's just stupid. I'm sure things will get better after I'm done with this whole teaching thing (the 16th), so I'll put it on the calendar, and make sure to have biscuits and gravy for breakfast whenever possible.

I realized about a week ago that I've reached this amazing place in my quest to learn Korean - I was watching Iris (though I haven't had the chance to watch anything for a while, except when I was home with you all) and for some reason there was about a twenty-minute segment where the subtitles just cut out for some reason. And you know what? With context and the verbs I know (I made sure to learn the most common ones first), I was able to figure out roughly what they were saying most of the time. And it was awesome and exhilarating. Obviously I have a ridiculously long way to go, since I've hardly scratched the surface of this whole Korean thing, and actually formulating a sentence that makes sense is still a huge challenge, but this small, happy reward was beautiful and motivating.

The Place

2012-01-26T09:07:00.000-08:00

What wonders lie beyond the world so gray,
An incredible place, where you would like to stay.
Don't wait too long, to find The Place,
Why wait, when you can be flying in space?
Don't wait until you're old and lost,
until your body and soul are covered in frost.
Don't wait until death has come and taken you away,
Far away from the wonders of night and of day.
Don't cry, my child, sleep tight, my child,
Dream of a place where imagination runs wild.
Its lovely and wonderful and ever so right,
and not a care, nor a person nagging, in sight.
You don't have a need to sort through
your emotions, for they're all gone too.
Run, run, my child, don't ever look back,
I promise you, there is nothing you will lack.
Don't get too caught up though, for one day,
you will hear and unwanted voice say,
"Wake up, wake up, come back to the light,"
And you will say no, you'll want to fight.
But go, go, go back from where you came,
for you shall come again, it will be the same,
and if every night you dream of The Place,
life on earth will no longer be an losing race,
It will be easier, with something like this.
I will leave you, good night, good night with a kiss.
Go, go, but don't be too long,
Go to the place where there is no wrong.

-Michelle Sullivan

100 Pictures Carrying Me to Fame

2012-01-25T16:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I counted all of the pictures/drawings/paintings/posters that I have on my walls and it came out to the grand total of 100!

I put the pictures up in little collages, and there are four main collages: The Wall of Fame, The Selena Gomez Shrine, the Logan Lerman/Percy Jackson Shrine, and two random dandom collages with pictures of animals and me as a kid and my grandpa at my dads age stuff like that.

So heres how it all added up, in case you were wondering, (because I know you were.):

24 Pictures of Selena Gomez. Now, some people might think this is totally crazy and fan-girly of me, and it is, but heres the deal. I don't just like Selena Gomez because she is like the prettiest girl on the planet and because she's dating Justin Bieber (of whom there are no pictures in my room), but because I like her style and her legacy inspires me. You know the title of this post? Yeah this is what I was referring too. Stuff that inspires me.

18 Asians. Because, ya know. Asians are cool.
12 pictures of Animals/ scenery. I used to cut up animal calendars and save the pictures.
11 pictures of me/ friends.
8 movie posters. Three Harry Potter, Ramona and Beezus, Lightening thief, Iron Man, Spider Man, and Avatar.
7 Movie pictures. Pictures. From movies. Like The Emperors New Groove and Psych.
4 book covers.
4 drawings by Amy/me.
4 Drawings by Kristin
and last but not least, 2 maps. one of the world at night, with all the lights, and one of the USA. because I like America.

Now I know what you're thinking right now, "Michelle, thats not 100 pictures, you totally lied to us" (actually I know you aren't thinking that because you aren't the kind of person to ever do that kind of mental math when you don't have to) "well now, don't jump to conclusions, I didn't lie at all. There just aren't categories for the last six pictures."
Which are: a picture of a quote from Neil Patrick Harris, a picture of Michael Phelps swimming butterfly, a drawing of some memes. and a logan lerman picture from vogue.

Also I wanted to say, since we were talking about Selena Gomez and all, I helped choose what her perfume would smell like, on this site, like months ago, and I'd forgotten that it said that the first 100,000 people to help would get a free bottle sent to them. The only problem is that sometimes I put in bogus zip codes to websites because my mama taught me good. So I spent like half an hour trying to figure out if I'd put the real zip code on here.

I didn't find it. So, I guess I'll know when I get the perfume (or not). but its going to have some flower and some fruit flavor, I don't remember, but the base smell (the one that stays) is vanilla, which is what I voted for, because its scientifically proven that guys are attracted to the smell of vanilla. Eh hah!

Ok. Peace out people.

The Fault in Our Stars

2012-01-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

Dear Amy
There are a few parts to this blog post. Some of it is funny and some of it is serious and some if it is John Green.

The Relatively Funny Part:
So you showed me some songs the other day that I would like to think changed my definition of beat-tastic. I've found that I have become sick of the simple boom-clap-boom-clap that rules american pop as the singer wails about 'oh no she left me again' or 'oh yes we're gonna party tonight' or 'oh yes I love that girl' or 'oh i cheated but when I'm rich I'll give you material things to make you feel better about it, so please don't leave me.'

And I'm not saying that a lot of K-pop isn't boom-clap-boom-clap, but not knowing what they're saying really helps. I'm not the kind of person to listen to a song because I relate to it. The only song I've ever listened to because I related to it is Sexy and I Know It.

So what I'm saying is I can respect a song more when I'm not thinking, "oh my GOSH, I've heard these lyrics a billion times. 'somebody to love,' are you kidding me?"

I can definitely rock out more to a song when I'm not thinking, "oops he just cussed, oops he just cussed again." I don't listen to songs because I like what they're saying, I listen to them because I like the way the way they make me feel.

I don't know if this is how it is for you, Amy, but when I listen to an incredibly beat-tastic song for the first minute or thirty seconds of the song I'm just thinking, "wow. wow. wow. wow." and then I'm literally thinking about nothing but dancing. I feel like I need to express the way the song makes me feel and the only way for me to do that is not in words, but it movement.

So there are two songs that I listened to yesterday where I had the exact same thought process listening to them. The songs were "Love Ya" by SS501 and "Keep Your Head Down" by TVXQ. (also Digital Bounce, but that was a few days ago) Heres what I was thinking:
Someone needs to be doing acrobatics right now.

And here's what that means: almost nothing I can do can express how extremely and incredibly awesome this makes me feel.

The Serious Part:

I wait a lot to listen to k-pop and dance. The main reason I'm waiting is because I'm doing school. This semester I've kind of realized how hard school can be, and I don't mean challenging. I mean hard to make myself do without having some kind of breakdown because I can't stand how uninspiring and futile it is. Nothing that I want to obtain I am getting through school. Math mainly just makes me feel stupid, as I try to get my mind around concepts that are too confusing for me to understand, and therefore to profitless for me to care about.
In History I relearn things that I've learned a billion times, maybe in hopes that, for the kind of things you usually forget, "this time it will stick," and for things that you already know, "this time it will be drilled so hard into your adolescent brain that the foundation will shatter and you'll forget the difference between 'what actually happened,' and 'what my textbook thought I thought happened.'"
I'm still doing handwriting, since mom still wants to shape the kind of human I already am. Handwriting is just one of those things, you know?
I guess I'm just now realizing that the real challenge in school is not "remembering things just long enough to get a b on the test" but "remember to care enough to actually get a b on the test."

John Green:

Probably part of the reason I came to that conclusion is not because I'm a teenager and the I play the devils advocate and I have to disagree with everything everyone tells me, especially my parents; but because I'm reading a book about a girl with cancer and whenever it acknowledged that she was not going to school and just sleeping a lot and not really doing anything, I found myself thinking, "Doesn't she need to do something, so she can....you know...know how to do stuff when she grows up?" and then I realized two things:
1. She has cancer, and things like school and productiveness and doing-things-now-so-she-can-know-how-to-do-things-in-the-future, are not really relevant to her.
2. Do I really think that the only reason I do school and anything I don't want to so that I can do it later in life when my parents aren't around doing it for me?

And therein, I suppose, lies the problem. I guess I'm just now realizing that I'm just doing school to do school, not to learn about the Vietnam War and not to learn about distributing and factoring.

But on a happier note, I am reading a pretty incredible book by John Green called The Fault in Our Stars. Its funny and it makes you think about things, obviously. It also brings back my fear of having cancer. I'm really scared of getting cancer. I don't think its that irrational either.

But the book has some pretty incredible quotes, my favorite of which, I will leave you with:
"Look, let me just say it: he was hot. a nonhot boy stares at you relentlessly and it is, at best, awkward and, at worst, a form of assault. But a hot boy....well."

-Michelle

One of Those Weekends

2012-01-23T15:57:00.000-08:00

Dear Michelle:
Basically it is the coolest thing ever that you are learning all these dances. I agree, though - girls don't look too good in blazers, so if you want to look sharp I would suggest going for the Janelle Monae look. She seems to wear tuxedo-type things exceedingly well.

That reminds me though, last Sunday (a week ago, not yesterday), I went jeans-hunting because the two pairs of jeans I have don't fit me very well any more and they're faded so they look sort of crummy when I try wearing them with a nice shirt. Anyway, so I was out looking for jeans, and I had this idea that I would go to Maurices because I've heard good things about their jeans, but they're closed on Sunday, so I went to Factory Connection. They sell mostly jeans, but the thing I noticed the second I walked in was that almost every single pair of jeans in there was really low-rise and really flared. I don't really know why stores insist on carrying mostly flared jeans when they went out of style about four or five years ago. Maybe it's a small-town thing. I also don't really like super low-rise jeans because they don't work too good on my body type and when I wear belts to remedy the problem, they cut into my hips uncomfortably. Anyway, I was in Factory Connection for upwards of an hour before I found a reasonably high-waisted pair of skinny jeans. I like high waisted pants because they're pretty worry-free as far as bending over and belts and everything goes. Plus if you tuck a blouse into them they look really sharp.

I had kind of a weird weekend. On the surface it looks like pretty much every weekend I spend here (homework, sleep, maybe eat, finally finish homework, spend the rest of my free time doing something fun that doesn't require me to leave my room). On Saturday I spent the whole morning listening to music and studying Korean, it was pretty good (You know in City Hunter where Kim NaNa called the prosecutor her Daddy Long Legs? Well I wondered what she was really calling him in Korean, so I looked it up, and the words, pronounced "kidari ajusshi" literally mean "waiting man." I wonder if there's a story behind that). Then in the afternoon I did homework, deep-cleaned my side of the room and folded all my clothes. Stupidly, that evening I sat down and decided to look at a kdrama to watch, because I felt like an all-around productive day deserved a fairly entertaining end.

So what I did is I watched the whole thing in a weekend. It wasn't too ridiculous, I mean it wasn't nearly as long as BBF, but it was a pretty similar story arc and it was ranked just above BBF on that dramacrazy place, so I thought, what the hey, why not. And the truth is, it was pretty unforgettable and tons of fun. There's something about sitting down to a good story and a steaming cup of Earl Grey that's just one of those things that I never want to be too busy to enjoy every now and again. The real problem with watching it so quickly was that it was quite an emotional rollercoaster, so I've spent all Monday sort of emotionally exhausted. Getting invested in stories like that is pretty cool, only afterwards, as you well know, there's a while where you're just really sad it's over, or you're still mulling over the story in your head and you don't want anyone or anything to interrupt you. I had that also with this book I read since I got here, it was called Little Brother, and it was really cool. Really cool stories don't exactly litter the street, so there's always a sense of deprivation after they're over. I think that's why I read my favorite books over and over again. I like to revisit good times.

I don't know about coming home this weekend. I would really like to, but the thing is that I'm probably coming home the next weekend to make sure you girls don't burn down the house while Mom and Dad are gone or something. Wouldn't put it past you. I might come home two weekends in a row anyway, just because. Then there's always the possibility that Mom and Dad don't go, if the weather doesn't permit it. Anyway, I'll think about it and we'll talk again on Thursday or something when I'm more sure about my homework situation and stuff. I like having empty days in the middle of the hecticness just to get all my thoughts in a row (something about spending a morning alone is really good for getting things into perspective), but after a while even that gets pretty lonely. I need a little ridiculous in my life. Well, I guess there's a lot of ridiculous here, because college students in general just pretty much defy the sensibility of society, but that's just the normal garden variety of ridiculous and nothing like a good weekend in your company can come up with.

This was a pretty long post thing. It's probably because I like talking to people who understand me, and out of all the people here, nobody understands me like you. People. What a bunch of bastards.

-Amy

I'm your man

2012-01-19T17:14:00.000-08:00

Wondering about the title? Thinking about six well dressed men? I'm learning the dance. its going to be legit except for the fact that I'll have to, like, buy a blazer, and I personally think that 99% of the time girls look horrible in blazers.
Speaking of songs, one of my friends linked a Katy Perry song on facebook called Who Am I Living For? that is surprisingly good.

So as I may have said before, I am in an incredible amount of pain, but here's the deal: I thought it was pain before, but that was before I'd had to take off the old rubberbands and put in new ones. I can't touch my teeth without it hurting, but I had to push and pull and go through something that I assume is close to childbirth until I had unhooked my and rehooked the torture device.

Now, here's something fun for you to try: reach your lower jaw out as much as you possibly can, then reach it about twice as far, then imagine it being held there by rubber, and its jamming into your upper, also completely lose-feeling and totally-sore, teeth.

And then imagine never ever being able to say a single word or bite down or stuff anything into the small crack that is created if you stretch your mouth open as much as it can go (about 1/2 inch). Not being able to brush your teeth, or eat that delicious thai dinner that you made, while your family sits around you eating it, telling you how great it is, while you eat canned cream of chicken soup, and the only thing you want to say, if you could talk, is (beside lots of really mean things) "I bet its great."

And then imagine never being able to sing along with anything, and imagine not being able to laugh or lick your freaking lips. I can't lick my lips. I can't do it. And if I try, my tongue usually gets stuck between my teeth. And you know how when you swallow, you bite down, or at least bring your lower jaw back a bit? Yeah, can't do that either.

Ok, I'm done. For now.

Is there anything in this house that IS swimming in gravy?

2012-01-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

Well today i went to the orthodontist, so you can imagine the kind of pain I'm in right now. OH WAIT. NO YOU CAN'T. So I go in and she takes off the power chain (the colorful thing that stretches all the way across,) and then she leaves me there for like half an hour, and it was really warm and comfortable there, laying down, so I may or may not have fallen asleep a few times.

Then she came back in a took out my wires and put in a wire that was significantly stronger, and she tried to push it into the depths of my jaw with a large medal tool.

And by "into the depths of my jaw" I mean into this tiny little hole on the last bracket on the last tooth. So the difference is the same. Just thought I'd specify.

It was like my tooth was being pushed in a way that it couldn't be pushed, similar to the way someone tries to push you into splits when you're no where near that flexible.

The nerves of that tooth were crying out to the innermost part of my being, where my soul got down on its knees and begged for the horrid pain to stop. But it just kept going.

And then the wire was in and the pain was gone, but if I touched the tooth at all, it was like being struck by lightning. Because yeah, I know what that's like.

So then she puts another power chain in, which is essentially a inch long piece of elastic with little holes in it that she stretches all the way across all of my teeth. It was like my teeth were being ground into each other. It was like someone had taken my teeth and sawed through them, glued them back together, then drilled through them and bolted them together, seven hundred times closer to each other than they had originally been.

I wasn't crying, and I don't know what my 'almost crying' symptoms are, but my eyes may have been tearing up. (good thing I'm not Lee Min Ho or any Korean, for that matter, or my waterline would have been redder than blood and thats a dead giveaway)

And then she tells me, "now I'm just going to put the rubberbands in."

"What?" says the only part of my brain left sane. "what was that you said?"

and then it happened. She attached the 1/8th of an inch rubberband to my back lower molars and my canines on the top.

Suddenly, I know what real pain.

They say that the most painful thing in the world is breaking your pelvis, and then childbirth (sometimes the same thing), and then its definitely getting rubberbands installed in your braces after getting your power chain put in after getting a new wire put in.

My lower jaw is being pushed (understatement) toward (and past) my upper jaw. It only took me about one attempted word for me to understand three things:

1. I would not ever be able to eat with these rubberbands in

2. I was almost completely unable to talk.

3. I had a total and complete overbite.

It was like Michelle Obama and Michael Phelps got together and had a baby.

It was like Kristin-Stewart-Determination-Face and Pain and Hate got together and decided to make my life a horrible thing.

I don't look like this: though, its in between regular-michelle and severe-overbite-michelle.

I don't even look like this, though we're getting closer. This is the look I get when I open my mouth.

Its not even really like this, though sometimes I wish I could rock an underbite like Seth Rogan does.

This is the closest thing I could find. and its ironic for two reasons.

1. I'm a swimmer.

2. Back in the day, and by that I mean the 2004 summer olympics when my boy Michael was a wee rookie, Elise had a totally crush on him and it just so happened that I could do his underbite-smile really good, and she made me do it all the time.

If only back then I'd know the mess I was going to get in nearly eight years (oh em gee I'm old) later.

When I got back in the car after my torture session, I definitely shed a single tear out of each of my eyes about ten or more times.

So that's my story.

I'd rank it in Awesome somewhere between Brendan Fraser's profile picture on IMDb and Michael Aranda's story of how he got stuck in France.

Also there is nothing soft in this house..... great.

Can't Put a Price Tag on my Childhood

2012-01-17T17:20:00.000-08:00

So I have a little dilemma. This week, I found myself academically in need of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, a book which I own and which I have read at least three times, but which is very far from me at the moment. I went to Wal-Mart, which literally had every Harry Potter book except the second one, and then to Hastings (buy/sell/trade book, movie, & music store here, pretty awesome actually), but the only Chamber of Secrets they had wasn't used, and it was hardback, and it was $25. You kidding me? With $25, I could buy ten wash/dry cycles, or at least four full meals at Taco Bell (probably five), or 250 printed pages, or 25 boxes of Sour Patch Kids. There are a lot of other things $25 could buy, but at the moment the only things I can think of are things that you could probably get for free anyway, like a cat, or a bouquet of flowers, or a couple albums worth of kpop (Pretty sure Grooveshark is the best thing that's happened to me in the last couple of weeks). All these things give me joy, more joy than I would get from reading a Harry Potter book again. Instead, I think I shall take advantage of the library, and try to resist writing in the margins (we are teaching from it, after all).

My roommate is watching Law and Order: SVU. Usually I tune it into the background, but on the episode that's on right now, Robin Williams plays the creepy bad guy, so I couldn't not watch. Even though he's a bad guy, I still look at him and hear him talk and wish that he was my grandpa or something. He's just so cool.

Even though I don't feel great today, I'm still on this high from doing that poem today. I didn't tell you this, but about a half-hour earlier, I had done another presentation in a different class about Impressionist painter Childe Hassam. So by the time I got up to do my poem I was already in the zone. It was good. I censored some of the poem, because I thought my instructor might not be a huge fan of the cussing or whatever (even though this is college, you've got to curb your vulgarity sometimes for the sake of making your professors happy), but there were still a couple of bad words in it, so I think that made it a little more memorable, maybe? Yes, I am a horrible person.

I got up early this morning to do homework, so I think I'm going to go to bed early, too. Who knew going to college made people less interesting?

-Amy

P.S. btw, I totally agree with your #1 reason for our blogging slackerness. I'm not exactly ashamed of our common interests, but they can get a little weird and honestly I don't need more people thinking I've gone off the deep end a bit (who am I kidding? Everyone already does. even my roommate thinks I'm crazy). I've said this to Angela before. We used to bond a lot over shows like Prison Break and Veronica Mars and stuff, especially when we lived at Mor Mor's at the same time. They were good times.

Pain. Lots of Pain.

2012-01-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

Amy, here's the deal. So I did that dance in a day, yesterday, and it was awesome and great and I was very proud of myself.

And by the end of the day, I was really exhausted. Not the kind of exhausted you get after you get like right after you've run seven miles, and you just want to collapse and drown in a puddle of sweat, I was, at times, that kind of exhausted, but it passes very quickly and is replaced with a kind of exhaustion that I don't experience very much, and I kind of imagine it being like what it feels like to be old.

I had literally no energy, I wasn't sore (yet), but I didn't want to move. At all. And it wasn't the kind of "I don't want to move" that you get when you've done nothing all day and you're just really lazy, this was the serious business. This was like, "I don't ever want to tense a muscle in my body again. ever" kind of exhausted, and I can't even tell you how happy I was to go to bed.

So I woke up this morning (actually I woke up like seven times. I used to not be a snooze kind of girl, but lately...), and I laid there for a minute, trying to wake up, then I tried to get up, and...

Oh my gosh, I'm sore in all these places I've never been sore in. Like, my stomach, my thighs, and my calves are the places that get sore for real a lot, and then my arms get sore sometimes, so this was really weird: my back was sore. like, so sore I couldn't even move for a second. And the right side of my neck. oh my gosh. And left shoulder.

I don't even know how this happened, I mean, I know I was dancing a lot yesterday, but my back? I didn't even know I had enough muscles back there to get sore.

I will now.

I don't mind being sore that much because it means that when the soreness is gone I'm going to be freaking ripped.

Back rippage, just what I've always wanted.

Anyway, beside not being able to move, I wanted to tell you that I cleaned out my Grooveshark, which was really really hard, and now I have like half the playlists that I used to. I'm listening to the playlist you gave me, and its so awesome, I can't even tell you. K-pop makes me super happy.

Also I saved a lot more pictures to put on my wall of fame. I just need like 500 more thumb tacks....

PEACE.

Oh, hey!

2012-01-17T08:50:00.000-08:00

So today Angela asked me why we don't blog anymore, and I was like, "...I don't know...."
But that was like two hours ago and I've come up with at least four reasons why we don't blog anymore.
1. The first, and biggest reason, why we don't blog anymore is probably (Amy you might not agree) because the things that we now share in common are so weird that we're afraid that if we write in public letters to each other that all of our family (and some of our friends) to see, everyone will suddenly realize how strange we actually are.

For example: Amy and I spent more than four hours talking about nothing but K-pop yesterday.

2. The second reason that we don't blog anymore is because we both have youtube accounts and when we aren't getting ready to/actually filming a video (which is like never) we're watching videos. And I also got a tumblr so I can share wonderful pictures of wonderful things in a place where one-picture-posts-with-no-words are accepted. You just can't do that on a blog.

3. We just spent a month together, and when we're together, we don't blog. And this also means that in the last two weeks I've been in severe Amy-withdraw mode, so when I want to tell her something I have to tell her right then. And facebook is incredibly convenient for that. Also sometimes private conversations are necessary (see reason #1).

4. We're both really busy this semester. Last semester I was the busy one, and now Amy is, and...I am too. I have to admit, it was really weird when I found out that my sister who goes to college had at least twice as much free time as I did. This semester I'm just about as busy as I was last semester, but Amy is also busy. Not too busy to talk to me for hours on facebook, but too busy to come home and too busy to have fun. (lawls. Not true at all)

So I guess I'm just going to use this blog now to tell Amy stuff, and she doesn't have to respond I guess, since shes so busy.

I mean sometimes I just feel bad about writing on her wall four times, and sending her about seven private messages.

So get ready! I'mma be bloggin' up a storm!

Slower Days

2011-11-17T10:43:00.001-08:00

I seem to recall that in other semesters, this last couple weeks was the most frantic part. But for some reason this year it is not so. It seems like half my classes are getting canceled every other day, or they're winding down extremely leisurely. To me this semester has been about two seconds long, so I'm still in the "middle of semester" mentality. I feel like I just got here, but the first step is already almost over. I guess that's what happens when you're living the fast life like me.

So I finally got my hands on some sheet music for a song I actually like (but no one else does, for some reason). I absolutely refuse to pay for sheet music, because on top of the cost of the actual music, there's the cost of printing, which is 10c per page (absolute robbery). So usually I get it for free somewhere, but lately I've been having a hard time finding music that is both free and to my liking. Anyway, the point of all that is to say that I found some music and I've been practicing it a bit and it'll probably be video-ready soonish. Even though I probably won't actually film a video until after Thanksgiving break. I'm not too good with this video thing at the moment.

Tonight I am going to an impromptu Thanksgiving dinner put on by one of the 2nd floor residents, which means that instead of turkey, potatoes, and gravy, we're having microwavable pizza rolls, cookies, and maybe a rotisserie chicken (but only if I bring it, which will depend greatly on how much it costs. I have no idea how much a rotisserie chicken is supposed to cost, do you?). But the spirit of Thanksgiving cheer will be there, so I guess the food part won't really matter.

Tomorrow I'm going to be home later than usual because I have to go to the middle school. I've had to start going on Fridays as well as Monday and Wednesday because I suddenly realized that I wasn't going often enough to get in my thirty hours of observation before the semester ends. You may not know this, but thirty hours in Middle School Time is about three hundred in Normal People (i.e. me) Time. As it is, I'm going to be there through finals week. I am obviously not very good at forethought.

Anyway, see you tomorrow. Peace.
-Amy

COLLEGE KIDS ARE LAME! LITERALLY!

2011-11-16T09:20:00.001-08:00

Or they will be, once I'm finished with them. If there was a whiteboard somewhere for ME to write on, I would write wonderful things and draw unicorns and rainbows.

I would write awesome quotes from awesome movies, and tell those people whose whiteboard it is that THEY ROCK, even if I don't know them.

Stupid people, with their stupid words.

So, like, you're gonna be here all week and me must make many multiple songs and record. We will be famous soon enough.

So you're gonna be home this weekend and that's super duper beyond awesome. I need to make a list of things for us to do, because we're gonna have a lot of time. a loooot of time.

me madre is fixin' up Josephs old room and it looks niiiiice.

But anyway I have to do school and stuff so we can have free time next week.

I've gotta get on that list too.

Peace out brother.

People I Don't Even Know Keep Slandering Me

2011-11-14T13:13:00.001-08:00

So hopefully this week will be a little more productive than last week. I can never get anything done when I don't feel good. All I felt like doing the whole week was lying around watching romance dramas, drinking hot chocolate, and feeling sorry for myself. Thank God those days are over! Mostly over.

So about the title of this post, you know how my roommate put up this whiteboard on our door? I'm pretty sure it's some people's goals in life to go around and write something mean/gross/stupid on all the whiteboards, because half the mornings I get up and go to class, someone I don't even know has written something mean about me or Alyssa on there. Stupid college kids. Sometimes it's funny though.

Today I have this stupid presentation to do in Library class. The assignmnts count for almost nothing (but attendance counts for basically everything), so me and my group didn't try very hard on it. It's a good presentation, only I think there are probably things we didn't care to foresee so we'll probably get mixed up when we're up there. It's okay though, because we dressed all professionally for it, so we'll look like we know what we're talking about. And that's what's important!

We just did our presentation. It wasn't too great, but it was okay. At least it's over, right? Right. I'm ready to not be wearing these slacks anymore. I hate my slacks. I think I am going to bring them home next week and narrow the legs a little, because they are as wide as 2003.

-Amy

Bundling

2011-11-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

Now that fall is pretty much just over, I am starting to wear hats. Today I'm wearing one with earflaps, because it's windy. If it gets any colder, I will wear my fuzzy hat with earflaps.

So I pretty much have a lot to say about The Hunger Games (not least the casting choices for the film), but my hands are cold right now so I'll probably just wait until I get home tomorrow. I'm thinking the second book would be a good Christmas present to ourselves (I could buy one half, you could buy the other). Heheh.

So the other night I watched this Thai movie called Raging Phoenix. It was an action movie. I think it kind of had too much of the same kind of action. It got a little boring after a little while. I can only watch a hundred-pound girl beating up thugs with tae kwon do for so long. It was pretty fun though.

This morning my roommate said that she hears me talking in my sleep almost every night. She told me that last night I was going "hahahaha... wow." over and over again in my sleep. I don't know what it's like to hear a sleeping person laugh, but I'd guess it's a little creepy. Sorry, roommate.

Anyway, library class is over so I must away. I decided to try out NaNoWriMo this year. So far I have 4,000 words (on top of the 20,000 I already had). It's going pretty well, I guess. I killed off one of my characters, so that's good.

Keep it classy,
-Amy

I don't even know where to start

2011-11-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

By the way, people, this going to be the most spoiler-tastic post, so if you haven't read the hunger games, go read them and then come back and read this, and if you have: enjoy my conflicted feelings.

So, over all, I loved it, it was amazing and I read it in like two days.

But here's what was weird, though out the whole book, and what made it hard to predict what was going to happen:

I couldn't tell where the author or the characters stood, as far as 'morals' go, and I'm not saying that an authors morals carry out into the book, because a lot of times, especially in a book like this, they don't, but I didn't know what kind of standpoint she was taking.

In video games and stuff, theres lots of killing, and its kind of no big deal. Kill the guards, kill the spies, kill the bad guys. Kill everybody. A lot of games are win-by-killing-everyone games, but its not like that translates into real life or anything. I don't think that most people could kill a person. I know its different when you're raised in poverty and you kind of just do what you have to do, and you're used to the horrible horrible games.

I didn't know if Katniss would kill anyone and I didn't know if Peeta would. But most of all, I couldn't tell if they were going to feel anything or regret it, if they did, and I couldn't tell if it would be looked down upon when they got home that they'd just killed a bunch of teenagers.

And there is absolutely no way you could go into something like that and come out in the least bit sane. Even without it being about winning, it would still be almost impossible to live for weeks in that kind of condition, virtually alone, especially with those creepy mutt things.

And I didn't know what could possibly happen in the games, because there could only be one winner, and when the rules were changed it did almost seem a little too perfect.

But back to the storyline.

At first, I loved Peeta. He was like awesome and cool and funny and cool and awesome and funny and nice and SUPER SWEET and cool and all around just the bees knees.

He was nice to her and she was a little standoffish about it, which really annoyed me. I mean, why can't she just accept that some people are just nice.

I don't know, and it really annoyed me that she thought that it was all an act and that he was just trying to get her to open up to him so he could kill her when the games started. Gosh. GOSH.

And then when when he was in the interview and he said all that stuff, I stopped right at the end of that chapter to have dinner, and I was freaking out I was so happy. Like FINALLY! ( actually thought that he was going to say he liked her sister, I don't know why I thought that, but it would also be a real problem. I mean, prim wouldn't accept him if he'd killed her sister, but if he didn't killer her sister, chances were he was going to die, yah?)

And then I read some more and I was like, "what!" So he pretty much admitted that it was all a fake, just to make her more valuable in the games, right? Well, WELL, I TOTALLY believed him when he said he had a crush on her, and then I can't really remember what I thought when he said that it was fake. I mean, I was totally crushed. (crush, crushed. GET IT?? AHHAHAHA)

And then I was devistated all the way until I read that he killed that little girl that made the fire and I was like, "uh huh, there is no way, he haass to be playing" I thought he was playin', but i wasn't sure, and I was just really sad because nothing was working out at all!

And then that whole wasp thing happened, and she was all delirious, and he saaaved her. And I was so happy I jumped around for a couple minutes (I pretty much read this entire book in my room and I can't even tell you the crazy emotional rollercoasters that happened. I did a lot of silent screaming.)

And I knew, I knew. He wasn't playin'. I didn't know that he actually liked her, but I knew that he wasn't all bad, and that he really was that totally sweet bread boy. so sweet.

And then ya-da-ya-da-ya, I didn't know he actually liked her until he was like, dead, and they were like, on the same team. And then I did a lot of this:

"OH MY GOSH KATNISS YOU ARE SO. DUMB. STOOOOOOOPPP BEFORE YOU CRUSH HIS SOUUUUL!!!!"

And I was so sure so. sure. that throughout this whole thing he knew she was totally playing because 1. he told her he was playing, and she knew, and they had this whole compromise thing. 2. he's smart, and he should have picked up on her horrible acting skills. 3. yeah. he should have just known.

So I totally didn't see the end coming and its sad sad sad, and I want the next book NOW.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

2011-11-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

Oh.....siiigh.

There's almost nothing worse than reading a book with some awesome awesome character that is totally unappreciated. That's what its like reading The Hunger Games.

And I just looked it up, and Josh Hutcherson is TOTALLY playing Peeta and I am TOTALLY excited about it.

Oh, yeah, sorry I haven't been blogging. I've been busy reading.

I read like the entire Neptunes Son yesterday. I was a little iffy about it at first, but I really liked it because percy was one of the main characters, and it wasn't in first person, and it was nice to have it be about percy from someone elses perspective. Ne was still funny and joke-y and puntastic as always.

The other characters were awesome, and I'll TRY not to give a ton away, but their "curses" or "gifts" or whatever were a LITTLE weird in the beginning. But then it all worked out. Also, I didn't really like how they introduced Nico in the beginning and deceived us into thinking that he wasn't going to be some kind of big character or something.

AND I didn't like how Percy's memory came back gradually. I wanted more anger and annoyance at not being able to remember anything, you know, like, what would actually happen. And I wanted there to be an amazing realization moment when he remembered EVERYTHING.

Also I didn't like how the whole book was pretty much leading up to him and Annabeth being reunited, but then the book ended RIGHT before it, so I KNOW they aren't going to have it in the next book. Ugh, I mean, I waited like 500 pages for that reunion.

And just because Nico wasn't a big character doesn't mean that theres not going to be a rap. You aren't going to get out of beatboxing THAT easily.

But I know what the next book is going to be about and I'm totally PSYCHED.

SO ANYWAY, I'm reading the hunger games. Wow. WOW. WOOOOOW. oh my. Gracious. The whole premise makes me want to hug our country for being so not-horrible.

I hate those fatalistic people, I know you said you're one, and thats probably true, but GOSH. I mean, people are all "Oh yeah, we're all going to get engulfed by the sun, or die via dictation from horrible ruling powers, but heres what I say:

DUDE, we're doing really FREAKING GOOD! We made the atom bomb and there wasn't even any apocalypse. And you dude, back there, bein' all "actually, the depression--" I don't want to hear it. We made it out fine and trees still cover 29 percent of the the dry land!

But I still like reading these crazy post-apocalyptic books. I think its because the thought of starting new and being able to do whatever you wanted as a people is pretty fascinating, even though I've got to say, having teenagers fight to the death for entertainment is kind of one of the last things that I would think of having a post-apocalyptic book be about.

I really like the thought of these mockingjays. When I write a book like that, instead of them breeding birds and birds for spying reasons, I'm going to have them breed birds and horses, and narwhals and horses, so I can have a pretty sweet army of unicorns and pegasi. Wouldn't that be sweet? Yeah, it would.

Anyway, back to reading. See you friday!

Happy November

2011-11-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

It's pretty lonely up in this blog thing! I think I might have to switch it so that it's my Facbook profile on the side.
So I know you resent all the free time I've had lately. I kind of don't like it all that much either after a while because having a lot of free time and not a lot to do in that free time makes me feel lazy and dull-witted. That's pretty much why I've been doing all this stuff like trying to learn Korean and writing and playing piano. It helps me feel industrious. But I decided to up the workload a little next semester, so I'm taking 18 hours instead of just 14. So I'll be pretty busy.

Anyway, one thing I haven't really been doing is making videos. Since I see you every weekend I'm finding it a little hard to find things to talk about. If you have any ideas feel free to toss them my way. I have a couple ideas but we'll see. Video should be out sometime this week.

Yesterday was Halloween. Never has a holiday passed with me so incredibly apathetic about it all around. However, I did wear those fake nails with the cute little ghosts on for the entire day and some people complimented me on them. I also did some laundry, which in itself isn't remarkable except I decided to wash that fuzzy red blanket and it must have been the first time it's really been washed because that thing covered the lint screen in the dryer with an inch-thick layer of red lint. Also the red fuzzies got all over the rest of my clothes. So that's going to take a little while to clean up.

I have a science test in 25 minutes. It's mostly about energy and how we've squandered the world's beauty with our greed for oil. This class is pretty fatalistic if you ask me. I'm a pretty fatalistic person myself, though, so I'm fairly confident that I'll do all right on the test. I have to try extra hard to get good test grades in this class though because the teacher doesn't take attendance and to be quite honest, usually my ticket to a certain A is good attendance (teachers love the people who are there every day).

Anyway I'll see you later.
-Amy

School Beans

2011-10-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

I think my only real problem with learning Korean verbs is that they're simple where English is complicated (the sheer number of conjugations in English versus only four in Korean) and complicated where English is simple (English has no levels of courtesy in the verbs or anywhere else, while Korean has about a million, and they're all extremely important). So it's hard to wrap my head around it all.

Today it's cold and damp and I really want to just stay in and drink tea. Instead I am in the library, with the taste of hazelnut-flavored coffee still lingering in my mouth from breakfast. I can't believe I keep forgetting to bring a little bit of coffee from home so I can make myself the odd actually good cup of coffee when the mood strikes me. Speaking of home, I can't remember if you're coming up here tomorrow or Saturday. Either one's fine though.

The other day I picked a song to learn and I went to the music building yesterday to try it out. It's called Powerful Stuff by Sean Hayes. It's a really fun song but I don't think it's going to work. Not because I have to translate guitar to the piano; I guess me and the song just don't really vibe. I'll have to find something else. Usually I have to be really excited about a song to be able to learn it. I learned that Adele song in like three days. If you have any ideas hit me up.

The other day I watched a really fun and awesome movie called Castaway on the Moon about a guy who tries to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge but ends up surviving and washing up on this little abandoned island right next to a city, but he can't get back because he doesn't know how to swim and he ends up being stuck there for like five months while civilization is only like half a mile away. It was funny and a little sad too and I think you'd like it even though it's a foreign film and I know you don't like subtitles.

Now that the end is in sight for school (my Foundations of Education class ends on the 3rd... that's only a few days away!), I'm starting to think about Christmas for realzls. They already have some Christmas decorations up in the cafeteria which seems extremely premature since Halloween isn't even here yet, but since I'm planning on pretty much making everything I give, I have to start thinking about it right this minute. I have some good ideas but some of them are going to be pretty hard to carry out. We'll see. I'm excited.

À demain (je pense),
-Amy

Spoilers

2011-10-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you but I can name at least four seperate occasions where I was watching a show and I was like, "Oh, this actor is cool/really familiar, I think I'll look him/her up", so I do, and I inadvertently happen upon a spoiler... usually a really huge one. It happened with Jericho, Doctor Who (multiple times), Harry Potter (okay, it's a book, but still), Dexter, 24, and many others that I won't try to think of right now because they make me sad.

Anyway, all this to say that it happened again today. With Merlin. I didn't even know there was definitely going to be a season 4, I was just looking to see if it was a possibility, and on the first google result, the spoiler just jumped out at me. I was powerless to stop it! I'm... I'm sorry.

So, yes. There's a season 4, and it's airing right now. And let's just say intense things happen. I'll be nice and not spoil it for you. But the tagline is "The darkest hour is just before the dawn." And it's supposed to be much more gritty than the other seasons. and there's going to be a 5th season, too. Excited?

My quest to understand Korean verb conjugations has come to a place of stagnation. Maybe I'm looking for answers in the wrong places. After I've exhausted the abundance of confusingly-worded and heavily accented YouTube Korean tutorials, I think my last resort is going to be one of the Korean students here, even though I don't really know any of them and they've probably never tried to explain Korean verbs to a English speaker before. Reaching dead ends like this is depressing sometimes.

Ah, first-world problems.

Later,
-Amy

Vending Machine WIN

2011-10-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

Amy, that sounds like the BEST vending machine ever.

Actually, here are the top five things I would want in a vending machine.

1.daritoes, twix, sprite, arazona tea, and nerds
2. nachos, grapes, water, easy mac, and dippin' dots.
3. hamburgers, pizza, french fries, milk shakes, and cookie dough
4. an extra change of clothes, a brush, lip gloss, makeup remover, and kleenexes.
5. blank CDs, a kitten, a pillow pet, a cheesy romance novel, and duct tape.

Thats a pretty awesome list.

Ok so about Merlin, yeah, its not all fun and games, but its still cheesy, and its still funny, and yeah that Uther episode was frreeeakyyy! But I think it gets funnier as the season progresses. My favorite being:

"What happened to you, you look like a startled stoat." - arthur
"Well you look like a bone-idle...toad." - merlin
"You're saying I look like a toad?"
"Yeah and maybe one day you'll magically transform into a handsome prince. Just...magics outlawed so that will probably never happen."

And OH MY GOSH, AMY. Morgana isn't in some stupid trance thing and shes NEVER going to thank Merlin for real and they're NEVER going to get together, gosh!
I'll say it one more time: MERLIN AND MORGANA WILL NEVER GET TOGETHER.

OK, well, with that said, I will re-say something that I said in the message I left you that I don't know HOW you miss took it.

The costumes I was asking you about were for this graceway party. Duuuh I'm not changing my awesome cheshire cat costume for that party tomorrow. duuurh.

PEACE

-michelle

Warm Things Like A Boss

2011-10-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

So you know know I left you a message last night and I said that I was going to go to bed? Well I had this headache that was really annoying and I was super tired, but when I tried to sleep I guess I was too aware that it was only 9:20 and I wasn't able to drift off. So I was like, I need something to distract me to sleep, and it had to be something fun, so I decided to watch some Merlin. Now I vaguely know what happened at the end of season 2 even though I didn't really watch it (the dragon got out, Merlin's dad was around for a while or something and he died maybe, something about Morgana being missing), and I was hoping there would be some kind of recap at the beginning of season 3, but there wasn't. Good thing the plot's wonderfully easy to follow. Anyway, I watched the first two episodes while I was trying to get to sleep. It wasn't as fun as I was hoping. Mostly it was scary or awesome. Those dead people that Uther kept seeing were pretty scary and since I had all the lights off it was kind of terrifying. Anyway, I'm still under the impression that Morgana (seriously, what is up with her flashy outfits? Do we really need any more hints that she's a dark temptress of sorcery?) is under some kind of delusion and eventually she'll snap out of it and be incredibly grateful to Merlin for not killing her the millions of times he had the chance to. And then they'll hook up or something. I'm still hoping for it even though I know Morgana is the villain in all the King Arthur stories.

So yesterday I finally went and bought a warm thing at Wal-Mart because I have a jacket/coat but it is very thin and flimsy and not enough for any weather below 40 degrees. So I got this boy's thermal jacket that is so soft on the inside that it gives me little shivers of happiness whenever I feel it. Angela says that I look like a lesbian in it, which is probably true, but I don't care because I'm pretty confident with my sexual orientation and if anyone thinks I'm batting for the other team (or am I?), I don't really care either way (or do I?). Anyway. So today I'm wearing this warm thing with my awesome boots and an orange scarf and no one is warmer than me. I love it when I can cheaply purchase a piece of clothing that I know I will use constantly through the entire season and probably next year too.

Every now and again a tour of high school students looking at UCM as a prospective college comes through here (the computer commons) and the tour guide tells them all the wonderful things about it. Anyway, there was a tour just now from a private school, and frankly I was kind of thrilled by their uniforms. It's not very common to see schools that still do uniforms (usually private schools just have a dress code or something), but these ones are really nice looking. They've got a white button-up shirt, a dark blue blazer, khakis, a red-and-blue striped tie for the boys, and a red-and-blue striped bowtie for the girls. I'm sure it would get really annoying after a while to have to wear the same thing every day, but it sure looks nice.

There is a venging machine in here that sells scantrons, blank CDs and DVDs, flash drives, kleenexes, Advil, and Tylenol. It is possibly the most depressing vending machine ever.

-Amy

Dance Class Dance Class DanceDanceDanceClass

2011-10-19T18:35:00.000-07:00

Oh hey Amy hows it going. I just had some yummy dinner, and before that I was at piano lessons, and before that I was at dance class.

Aaaah well, dance class is going really fast and its really totally awesome. I love all the girls in the class and some of them think I'm funny or something, which is pretty cool, I gotta say.

And in hip hop class we listen to cool music. Our routine song isn't TOTALLY awesome. Its little drummer boy 'hip-hop-rapper' version, which, they did a good job, but they could only do so good, you know? Yeah.

We're almost done with BOTH of our dances, and they're going to be totally totally awesome in every way. You can come to our performance, were I will first be a totally g and then I will be a totally angel.

Isn't it weird how the word gangster has changed? It IS.

But anyway I've been watching Merlin and OH MY GOSH this season is soooo epic! I can't believe it! Its not all "merlin saves the day and then no one gives him credit" anymore, its more like, "merlin figures out whats wrong and everyone fights for it and then FINALLY merlin saves the day RIGHT as uther is about to die or RIGHT as aurthur is about to get married or RIGHT as SOMETHING REALLY HORRIBLE is about to happen" and its so so so so so so so awesome and so so so so so so so so so funny!

I lerrrrve it.

Anyway I'm going to mormors this weekend and I'm exciiited! I'm also going to make some videos! Probably more covers than vlogs. I like vlogs but I like singing SOOO much more. Also I will be spending the weekend with you and Mo here. Alone. It'll be a furriil party we'll stay up AS LATE AS WE WANT. and get up AS LATE AS WE WANT BOOYAAAH!

OK well I have to finish my episode. And watch that Selena Gomez thing again. I wish my gangster side was half as cool as hers. BYE

UCM Hipster Populations

2011-10-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

I've actually spotted one or two hipsters since I got here. I think the reason I don't see them more often is because most of the people living on campus are freshmen or sophomores, and since they're just out of high school they're still fresh off the mill of conformism. Once they're at college for a while, though, a few fall off the wagon and go for something a little more extreme (or less extreme, depending on how you look at it), and usually upperclassmen move off-campus into a house or apartment, so you don't see them as often.

Today, like yesterday, is pretty cold and dreary. At breakfast this morning my roommate was talking about how it's like this every day in Colorado, and then our friend from Nepal said that this (upper 40s), was extremely cold in Nepal. I think she's a little miserable because she knows it's only going to get colder from here. Speaking of the cold, though, today I'm breaking in the boots that Mom and Dad bought for me for my birthday. So far, I love them to bits. They're warm and the toe part is all shiny, and they lace up, and they're red plaid on the inside, and even though they probably look a little funny on me, I adore them and I hope we have many happy winters together.

I usually write my blog posts in the library because I've found that I can think of more interesting things to say when I'm not in my place of residence. I think I get inspired when I'm alone in a crowd of other people who are doing their homework. The library is new and huge, probably the biggest building on campus, and from the outside it looks sort of like a grand city hall from a futuristic utopian society. There's something otherworldly about it (not sure what, though. The color? The way the wondows are?). Anyway, there's a miniature Einstein Bros. shop just inside the door, and since it's run by inexperienced college students, every time I walk in I'm met with the smell of burnt bagels. I've come to like it, actually. Maybe now whenever I smell burnt bagels I'll be reminded of the library instead of my multiple bad experiences throughout childhood of burning precious bagels beyond retrieval.

So you know my last post about not having met a single homeschooler? Well it turns out I had met one who actually lives on my floor, I just hadn't known he was homeschooled until yesterday. I should have guessed, really, since he exhibits all the signs. And guess what? Another girl acted all surprised when she heard I was homeschooled and said that she thought I was very "socially capable." VICTORY. So I can fake social skills after all! You should be pround of me.

-Amy

P.S. I remember when Iron Giant came out. I used to watch it at Elise's all the time, and we'd quote it at each other constantly. I also remember how hugely my mind was blown when I realized that Harry Connick, Jr. was the voice of Dean. And then, years later, my mind was blown again when I realized that Vin Diesel was the voice of the giant. That movie never fails to be awesome.

P.P.S. I haven't been able to film that video yet because I had two papers to write in the last two days, so I was a little busy. It will be this week though. Promises.

P.P.S. I found out today that in Korean the word "joy" (죄) means crime or guilt. So much for having a happy middle name. This is my name in Korean: 술으븐 애미 죄. Phonetically, it's "suleubun amy joi". It sounds funny without the V.

"Kent Mansley, I work for the goverment."

2011-10-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

First things first, last night we watched Iron Giant and even though I was making a totoro shirt (dude, its TOTORO, not TOROTO. I've been saying it wrong all along and I bet Mo was laughing silently to her self for a number of hours.) I still ended up crying like a baby. That movie is really funny, but also amazingly sad. I'm still sad about it.

Second things second: The reason those people haven't gotten onto Google+ is because its not mainstream yet. Facebook is still the thing. Hipsters get on Google+, not conformists, which apparently make up your whole school. I mean, you're like the only girl with short hair which is already telling me something about your school. ITS HIPSTER FREEEEEEE. I'm not saying that all hipsters have short hair or anything. Because they don't. I'm just saying that hipsters are different, and if theres no one different at your school, then theres no one on Google+

But yeah. Thats all I have to say. Yaaay for short posts!!!!

Homeschoolers

2011-10-17T08:45:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd meet other former homsechoolers at college, especially at a somewhat rural college like this, but so far I have not met a single one. It's a little sad but also cool because now I can feel like I have my own little minority (being a part of a minority is underrated. We get to have exclusive parties! ...I'm so alone). The more I learn about public schooling in my classes, the more amazed I am at what homeschooling actually meant for me. It meant not only that I got to have an education that was fairy tailored to my learning style, but also that, essentially, I was exempt from all standardized testing. In public schools, the MAP test is like the most important thing for a teacher to keep in mind when she's teaching. At the end of every schoolyear (sometimes multiple times throughout the schoolyear), children are given a state standard test that determines how well they as individuals, as a class, and as a school have learned the target material. It's like the ACT, only every single year. Because the government puts such importance on these sorts of tests, the fact that homeschoolers usually don't have to take part in them is really incredible. It either demonstrates that the government doesn't care about homeschoolers as long as their parents are still paying the property tax that goes to the schools, or the government has massive faith that homeschoolers don't need that yearly assessment because they're likely to succeed anyway, whether they take it or not.

It's cool that homeschooling is allowed, even though sometimes the social repercussions on individuals are a real pity. I think I'm going to make a video about it soon.

I am wearing the shirt you made me today. I had to put on a big cardigan because it's so cold, so I haven't gotten any remarks on it yet, but I'm still hopeful for the future. If I can't find the homeschoolers, I'm going to find the nerds, because we have challenged social skills in common.

I was just in Educational Psychology (I wrote a 4-page paper for it last night, and I must have been half-asleep for a lot of it, because when I went to print it this morning I had the wrong class name, teacher name, and title at the top... good thing I caught it in time), and when the teacher was talking about cultural circles he used an example from Google+, then said "who in here is actually on Google+?" and I was the only person to raise my hand. Seriously? I thought college students were the ones to pioneer trendy new social networking sites! I guess I was wrong.

-Amy

Bad Coffee Again Today

2011-10-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

I have mixed feelings about coming home this weekend, mostly because I have two papers to write that are due on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. But I am pretty excited to see what you made for me and if it is anything like that Winnie-the-Pooh picture you made for Mo, I will love it.

I will probably call you later to get more deets on what's going on this weekend, but if I do come home, here is what we have to do:

1. Sing a song together and record it. It could be Tiger Mountain Peasant Song or anything else you think is cool that two people can sing. In a month or something we should also record the Christmas songs we've done in the past because those were fun and we got pretty good at them (also there's one that Angela and I learned in voice lessons that was really cool that I could teach you). Anyway.
2. I also need you to brainstorm with me to think of really cool Christmas present ideas that are inexpensive. I'm down with doing handmade stuff but it can't be something boring like a hat or scarf or something. I have to get started now if I want to have a present for everyone I want to have a present for.
3. You need to remind me to bring The Hunger Games and then you need to read it so we can talk about it. I don't want to play it up but I would say it's up there with Percy Jackson in my Independent Chapter Books that are Awesome category.

There was some other stuff but I can't think of it right now. I'll keep you posted.

Last night I wanted good cheer so I watched some Psych while I did my crosswords and ate the last of my birthday chocolate and went over Korean verbs (I am good at multitasking). It was funny. However much I like Gus and Shawn's banter, I still think Lassie is my favorite character, just because he's so predictably disdainful and he gets really pleased with himself when he says/does something clever.

If Sonni's getting baptized, are we going to Graceway or South Fork? Just wondering.

Later,
-Amy

This Weekend

2011-10-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry to hear about all of your horrible problems with video editing programs. I've never been alone in the house so I haven't made a video yet. There's something weird about talking/singing to yourself when people can hear you. Well, actually, its weird no matter what, but I'd rather be weird with no one witnessing it.

I don't know about an XP's ability to run Windows Live Movie Maker, but I'll look into it. If it can't, I can download it on dads computer, which I'm actually using right now. I like it a lot except its huge and really light weight like it COULD be smaller, but it just isn't. Also, the keys are really loud. The reason I'm using his computer is because our laptops power cord broke, ONCE AGAIN. How many times has it broken? Like four times? I say we should just get a new computer, Its been like five years, but they don't this that. Even though sometimes when you turn it on, half the screen is black.

Anyway I made something awesome for you last night Amy, and you need to come back today to see it and take it back with you.

I know you're just dying to know what it is so here's a hint: I can't promise that it has nothing to do with something that has to do with Asian people.

Tehehehehe, you're never gonna get it (I realize that you might think that "teheheh" is another clue but its not. I will tell you outright that it is not anything that has anything to do with "TEE HEE")

You should also come back this weekend because Sydney might becoming over, but other than that we're going to be doing nothing ALL WEEKEND!!!! Beside church. And Sonni's baptism.

I might make you cookies if you come home today. Or I might make you a bagel.

"Glass of water, crust of bread." Name that movie.

"Yeah, I know," CHESTER KNOWWWS! You can name that movie too.

PEACE OUT.

Stupid Technology

2011-10-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

So you know how you were talking about how you have no way to edit your videos because Windows Movie Maker won't open them? Well I downloaded it because I heard that you can do split screen videos in it (two videos playing side by side), and I was stopped up completely by the fact that it's not compatible with .mp4 videos. So I looked around FOREVER online for a free video file converter that actually worked, and when I finally found one, it took forever to convert the videos I wanted to use, and by the time I was able to open my videos, I was so frustrated that when I couldn't get split screen to work I gave up completely and went to watch a movie instead. I might try to make it work again today, but it was essential to the video I was planning all week to make so that may be slightly postponed.

Anyway. That said, I highly recommend for you to download Windows Live Movie Maker, because it opens any video file and it's about a billion times easier to use for simple things like trimming and adding titles and words and things. It just doesn't do split screen, which just really is not cool.

So That list of things to do before you have kids was pretty cool, but I've already done most of those things. Everything except 6, unless my own room counts, 8 because it's impossible, 11, 12, 13, and 14. My list of things to do befor eI have kids is probably a mile long, and most of it has to do with traveling, writing, and the crazy and eccentric things I'm going to do when I live alone. Stuff like that. I went to this career fair yesterday (it was lame, the only people there were corporations like Honeywell and insurance companies. I guess it was sort of like a career fair for people who are about to graduate), and the only interesting booth there was one looking for people to teach English in Japan, all expenses paid. It looked like a pretty sweet deal. It would be pretty cool to just set aside a year after I've graduated to go teach English somewhere, not to get money but just to enjoy another culture. The cool thing about speaking English is that it's a global language, and there's always somewhere in the world that's going to want someone to teach it to their kids. So there's another thing I'd probably want to do before I have kids.
So the other day I read The Hunger Games (in one day). It was awesome. It brought me back to the Percy Jackson/Alex Rider/Redwall days when I would regularly gobble up a book in one day just because I could. Anyway, Hunger Games was really, really cool and I think you'd love it. Lately I've realized that I'm a reactor. When I watch things or read things, I outwardly react in a way that my roommate probably thinks is really weird. I can't help it! I did a lot of laughing, sounds of dismay, etc while reading my book, so you know it's good. It's my dream to one day be able to write a book like that, that gets people so involved with the story and the characters that they don't want to put it down. It'll probably take me a while to get there. I think the first step will probably be to find someone who will read my writing and be willing to get down to the nitty gritty of what's wrong with it with me. Someday.

Anyway, I have to go to Environmental Sci now and get an A. I only got 88 on the last test which is inexcusable because it really is an easy class, so I've got to step up my game and take better notes this unit.

Laters,
-Amy

2011-10-11T18:23:00.000-07:00

I'm glad to hear that your roomates and biz are calling you mom. Angela had her time being called mom, and so did Diana (except shes actually a mom so it doesn't really count), and now it is your turn.
I'm sorry to say, though, that I do not hope to follow in your footsteps. Its not really a dream of mine to be called "mom" anytime before I have kids, and so i won't be being called "mom" for another fifteen years or so.

Did I just say I'm not going to be a mom until I'm 30? I may have. Maybe I won't. There are so many things to do before settling down and being stuck at home 24/7. I must say, caring for a child is great and all that, but the thought of being tied down like that doesn't intrigue me one bit. Not one bit.

Here is a part of the wonderful list of things I want to do before I have kids.

Actually I'm going to do two lists. This first one will be:

Things to do while I'm still single

1. Go to a movie alone.
2. Try water skiing, wind surfing, jet skiing, and tubing.
3. Set up a mouse trap. (I'm picking from a list, btw. But when I saw this, I realized, yeah totally, thats like a big part of growing up)
4. Live alone.
5. Watch as much reality TV as you want.
6. Be a good wingwoman. (dude. DUUUUDE. I'm already a SWEET wingwoman)
7. Attend a wedding alone.
8. Take advantage of the whole bed. Put your pillow in the middle and do the starfish. ( I saw this and it made me lawl. I totally need to do this! I'm totally a "my side of the bed" kind of girl, and I sleep alone! MY BED IS HUGE. Every time I turn over I'm like, "Helloooo over there, stuffed St. Bernard! Hows it goin' over there in China?")

Things to do before having kids (single or not)

1. Get ice cream in the middle of the night.
2. Eat waffles for dinner.
3. Stay at an amusement park until it closes.
4. Get so engrossed in something that it keeps you up all night (NOT homework)
5. Jump on your bed.
6. Decorate your own home JUST the way you want it.
7. Sing as loud as you can along to songs while in the car by yourself.
8. Get really good at a sport.
9. Eat cheese dip for dinner.
10. Go to a double feature.
11. Go to the mall and go absolutely crazy. (its kind of like a dream of mine to be given 500+ dollars and left in a mall....)
12. Have FOUR cats.
13. Get a little dog.
14. Have crazy girl slumber parties like once a month.
15. Watch the entire season of any show in one day.
16. Have a craft day once every week or two.

And thats my list, for now. I hope you like it. I love writing lists, its so satisfying.
You should make cookies or something at college. I know you don't want a microwave or anything, but if you got a little microwave oven, just THINK of the possibilities! You could make cookies, chicken pot pies, casseroles, pizza, corn dogs, ANYTHING.

When I go to college, I'm gonna be cool like that. Speaking of which, I think we're coming over there in two weeks or something. make sure not to have any homework. Eh haha just kidding, have all the homework you want, me and mo will walk around the sweet campus and buy ice lemonades and "UCM MULES" shirts. It'll be great. They have ice lemonades, right? RIGHT? They better, or college is totally not worth it. I'm not walking up and down four flights seven times every day if I can't have some delicious cold thing.

You should get a mini-refrigerator. Then you could have candy bars and juice and cheese balls and salsa and guacamole and the works. Yup. I've got all the best ideas.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT BACONHAM LINCOLN???

Peace out sister.

It's a battlefield out there

2011-10-11T08:46:00.000-07:00

So you know how I linked you to that song on Facebook and you thought it was totally sappy? It is totally sappy. I'm pretty sure the only reason it made me emotional at the time is that I was PMSing majorly. It's a hormonal battlefield right now. This post may or may not be coherent as I'm heavily medicated at the moment.

Now that it's the middle of the semester, things are getting harder in my classes. I'm going to have to step up my game a little. I didn't do spectacularly on the last two tests I took and it was probably because I thought they were going to be as easy as the tests I'd had before them. I'm determined to get an A in all my classes because if I don't then everything I've said about college being easy will make me look silly. And I do have a solid A in all my classes except Ed. Psych, so it shouldn't be too bad to get up to snuff.

But speaking of classes, I just went to my Library class and it was, if possible, even more ridiculous today than it has ever been. I don't understand how any self-respecting instructor could actually recommend this to the school as a required class for everyone. It makes even the goody-two-shoes students (read: me) want rebell violently.

So you'll be completely unsurprised to hear that my roommate and her friends actually call me Mom now. I'm not really sure how it started, but it almost warms my heart.

-Amy

P.S. What should I draw on my window with the window crayons you and Angela sent me? I was going to do a pumpkin but I don't have orange or brown, so that's too bad.

Hustle

2011-10-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

Today I did a lot of stuff. Some of the stuff was even school! I had a test in Ed. Psych. I feel like I did pretty well on it, but I probably got some terms mixed up along the way. I also worked on this song thing that was inspired by your song thing for a couple more hours. Tomorrow I think I will be finished with it, and I will make a video. It's been a while since I made a video. I don't really have an excuse except that most of what happens to me that I want to talk about is only mildly interesting at best (and never funny).

The thing about college (there are a lot of things about college actually. This is just one of them) is that people here don't know how to 1) keep it in their pants, and 2) keep the resulting drama to lower than a dull roar. At least it keeps things interesting? I guess living in a co-ed hall doesn't help much like Mom says, but I'm pretty sure the drama permeates everywhere, even the all-girl halls. I am pretty immune to drama though, so I'm good. I guess there's one good thing about keeping to myself all the time.

Today I also went on a toiletries run to Wal-Mart. I don't know about you but I can survive on very little. The things I absolutely can't do without here at school are q-tips and toilet paper, both of which I was horribly low on. This is the third time I've bought toilet paper, so I think I'll make someone else do it next time. I also bought a toilet brush because I think I'm the only person who actually cares about having the bathroom clean every now and again. As you know I'm not the most bathroom-clean person, so that's saying a lot about my suitemates. Now that I'm showered and the bathroom's clean and all my homework can wait until Sunday evening, I'm ready for a relaxing weekend. Hopefully it'll turn out that way. I think there's homecoming or something like that (I had no idea that homecoming happened at college too, and I still have no idea why), so there probably will be a lot of people here.

I need to go water my sedums. They say sedums are the easiest plants to have, but I obviously am not too great a plant parent, because my sedums are getting a little brown around the edges.

Laters,
-Amy

"nerds" is blurred

2011-10-06T19:43:00.000-07:00

I KNOW RIGHT? I love that song. Love it.

Speaking of songs, yes, I did kind of upload that Gaga thing on a whim, but there was no one in the house for like five hours and what was I supposed to do, stay home and knit? No! I have potential, I have a life! and it has always been a life long dream of mine....

You know how sometimes you watch videos and you're like, "eeeehhh that person sounds off tune!" well, heres the truth: in real life, I didn't sound off tune, though I may have in the video.

I think I might do more of that stuff if I can swallow my fear and embarrassment.

You don't have to come back this weekend, because we're going to be gone a lot. If you want to come home, thats cool. You can take me to cedar ridge and you can also take me to buy a present for Katie.

That is all.

And all your stuff about "nerds" is...

There are so many different kinds of nerds its ridiculous. Theres those really smart nerds like the Green bros. I'm not that kind of nerd....at all. I like Doctor Who. I also like ridiculous songs with ukuleles.

Baconham Lincoln.

Peace out

Best day

2011-10-06T16:30:00.000-07:00

I pretty much agree with everything you said in your last post, mostly the parts about talent envy. Usually I avoid that sort of thing by passively avoiding people around me who are talented and only concentrating on talented people from afar, like on YouTube, because if I don't know them I don't get as depressed.

So today has been pretty awesome as far as days go. Classes were cancelled in the morning because of this college function, so I went to get donuts with a few people in my hall, and then when we got back I went and printed out some sheet music. It cost $0.60. I feel robbed. However, it was totally worth it because I went straightaway to Utt (for a music building, it doesn't have a very musical name) and got to work! You should know that the vigor with which I set forth was entirely inspired by your awesome and unexpected video that you posted this week of you Gagaing it up. I am working on something similar but it will take a little while to put together. Anyway, I was so involved in learning this one song that before I knew it, two and a half hours had gone by. I rarely get so lost in something that I completely lose track of the time, but it happened today and it was great.

One of my main issues with nerdy shirts is that if I wore them no one would understand the nerd in-jokes. I have met a few nerds since I was here but they are all nerdy about things I don't understand. So I figure it's pretty unlikely that I'll meet someone who's nerdy about things like musicians on YouTube or British and Asian television or writing stories about all the adventures they wish they could have. If I do meet that person, though, I'll probably be so happy that I'll propose immediately.

The song you linked was beatlicious. I am putting it on my mp3 player straightaway. I have a playlist called Dance, and everything in there is phantasmagorical. I think I used that word slightly incorrectly, but I don't care one bit.

I can't help liking school. The weird thing is that most of the time it's not the actual school that I love, only the good feeling that comes when I do an undeserving amount of work and still get an A. Sometimes I think that colleges sacrifice a lot of potential smartypants in order to make sure that no one gets left behind. That's why all the lower-level classes are obscenely easy. It's sort of depressing. Another think I like about school is the fact that I'm here, but since I don't have any obligations here, I get to spend all my time engrossed in my own betterment. So far it's working out really well. That probably means I need to get a job. Also I'm thinking about joining this honor society. They don't really do anything but it will probably look good on my resume. Thoughts?

-Amy

Asian Shirt

2011-10-06T10:05:00.000-07:00

Wait a moment while I watch a friend of a friend sing Wicked songs like a BOSS...

Ok, back to the blog.

Um, you really likes school, and its weird to me. Really weird to me.

Heres why I do't blog very much: because I can't be blogging and logged into Youtube at the same time.

Speaking of youtube, yesterday I made the "nice guy" picture on my shirt and its legit. I'm calling it my "Asian shirt" and I'm planning to cover it with all sorts of asian youtubers inside jokes, and it will be the best thing that ever happened!

I wore it last night and I esplained it to nicole and she thought it was pretty clever...but no one else got it. Thats the problem with wearing nerd shirts, you're always like, "oh maaan, I'm gonna meat some real nerds if I wear this doctor who shirt. They're just gonna come out of the woodwork!" and then nothing happens and you just feel like a weirdo.

Yeah so last night was youth group and it was pretty totally amazing.

You know how you watch really talented people play piano, or really talented people dance or sing or do whatever really good, and your initial thought is, "OH. EM. GEE. THAT IS SO AMAZING! THAT PERSON IS AMAZING." and then that kind of boils down to a slight resentment and jealousy and a feeling that I like to call, "stage longing." that happens after you watch movies like "never say never" and, even if you didn't want to be a performer before, you want to after. Well theres this kid that plays drums at youthgroup, and I think that my whole experience getting drums and learning how hard they are really made me appreciate and notice drummers even MORE, and so whenever there is a really good drummer, I think I really notice it more than other people.

And anyway, this kids birthday was yesterday and he turned fifteen. GOSH. DARN. I HATE THOSE YOUNG TALENTED PEOPLE! thank the lord Justin Bieber is older than me or I really would be having trouble ever doing anything. I dunno, theres something about talented people that are younger than you that is, at first, really cool, and then really really REALLY discouraging. So yeah, hes a totally awesome drummer, and I turn to nicole and I'm like, "that kid is totally awesome!" and shes like, "he just turned fifteen! today!" Like, what? I wasn't even talking about that! I was just saying I'm jealous of his superpowers! Gosh.

On other news, I was listening to the Peter Pan soundtrack like constantly, until about tomorrow morning, when I got a part of this cool song we danced to in Hip-Hop, but I didn't know what it was called, so I just searched the words I remembered and after about fifteen minutes of shady blogs and youtube videos, I FOUND IT! Before I give you the link, I need to tell you something about just how awesome this song is:
There are few songs that I can listen to on replay and every. single. time it makes me want to dance like a maniac. And there are very few songs that I can listen to replay. period. Ok so here it is. Bask in the awesomeness.

Oh and apparently that artist is christian! Ha! Sweet!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETuhIHqJ0Rg

ohhhhh oh oh ohhhhhh.

Don't worry, I'm still walking down the isle to Peter Pan. Though no guarantees about my first dance.....(BTW spell check sucks. I wrote "garantees" and they didn't even have "guarantees" Ugh. Was Steve Jobs in charge of that too or has it always been that bad?)

Yeah Steve Jobs died. I've never owned anything apple...but...I'm sure..

No Steve Jobs was great I'm sure and I really like his style, and the style of his products, but gosh, I hate everything else about apple.

You know, Mo has an Iphone, (she bought in the airport, ha!) and so theres no music on it, right? WELL WE CAN'T PUT MUSIC ON IT. BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE ITUNES. and we can't get itunes because we don't have ipods, and parents would have to do all the paying, and they won't do that, and ya da ya da ya its annoying. Also we can't get her a sim card without shipping it in, because you can't open iphones.

Anyway.

What do you know about Baconham Lincoln??

PEACE OUT!

Sundry Items

2011-10-03T08:54:00.000-07:00

Usually family non-communication doesn't actually bother me that much because chances are that when there's an important piece of information going around (or rather, not going around), it doesn't directly affect me. For instance, the fact that Diana's pregnant, while totally awesome, wasn't a matter of life and death if I didn't hear it right at the moment that everyone else did. In the same way, almost every piece of Family News isn't something that requires my attention or participation right away, so I don't have to be devastated every time I hear something through the grapevine two weeks after it's happened.

That actually turned out sounding kind of heartless, but what I'm trying to say is that Family Non-Communication is just, y'know, whatever. I don't mind it all that much. However, if you get a boyfriend or decide to move to Africa to be a missionary, I'd rather hear it from your own lips than two weeks later through the grapevine, if you don't mind.

So you know how I returned here early after the wedding yesterday so I could do my laundry? It's a good thing I did, because I had so much laundry that the load was really big, which caused it to take two dry cycles to actually get dry (and even then the towels were still damp). The dryer costs a buck in quarters and the washer a buck twenty five, which means that I ended up paying $3.25 just to replenish my supply of clean underwear (which was distressingly low). The money situation in itself was a crisis of sorts as well, because I started out not having any quarters (or any cash at all), so I went to the ATM on campus, which if you know anything about ATMs, only dispenses money in increments of $20. I then took the ol' Andrew Jackson to my dorm hall's front desk to ask for some quarters, at which time they told me that they can't break twenties at the front desk. How messed up is it that the ATMs only give you twenties but the college won't break them? I just really needed quarters to do my laundry! So I went back to my floor and asked about ten people if they could give me change for a twenty, and everyone was so poor apparently that they didn't have any cash. By the time I was able to start my laundry it was 8:00, and it wasn't finished until half past ten. In hindsight I probably should have slept during those two and a half hours, but I have this rather ungrounded paranoia that someone will steal my favorite clothes between the time that a load is finished and I return to the laundry room, so I have to watch the clock and always be on time. So instead of sleeping like I should have, I sat in the hall library trying not to laugh uproariously at this show I was watching so as not to disturb the one other person who was actually studying in there.

So you know that case study paper on Isabel for my Ed Psych class I was telling you about? Well I just got it back and I got 24 out of 25 possible points on it. YEAH. I'm going to get an A in this class even if it kills me to do it. Here's what I love: when I get a good grade on a paper, the best thing is when the teacher hands it back and it's underlined, commented on or has pretty little stars by the sentences or ideas that they like the most in the paper. So later when I'm feeling morose about my academic ability I can read through it and get a self-esteem boost because my teacher thinks that I have good ideas about abstract and hypothetical thought processes in children who are going through the concrete operational stage of life.

Hooray, academia.

-Amy

2011-09-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

Here's the dizzle Amy: I don't really like to make posts right before you come home because then I always either end up telling you everything in the post, or try not to tell you anything in the post, and it just doesn't really work out. Hopefully, though, this weekend, we'll be pretty busy, so it won't leave much time for us to lay around and me feel like I have to tell you something about whats been going on around here.

In reality, I can't really tell you what's been going on around here, because I've been gone. Here's what I love about being gone while mom and dad are also gone: when I get back, I don't feel like something crazy and huge happened while I was gone, like I feel every time I leave the house.

And this feeling of being left out of something huge isn't for no reason. This paranoia isn't irrational, it is born from a fair amount of what I like to call, "family non-communication"

One of my biggest fears is "family non-communication, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, heres a definition written by non other than yours truly:

Family Non-Communication is when something happens within a family and they never discuss it even though they all know that they're all thinking about it. You know they know. They know you know. They know you know they know. You know they know you know. Family Non-Communication also includes the failure to communicate to an absent family member that something absolutely huge and family-shaping has happened.

This has happened to me on a number of occasions.

Let us travel back to 2005 or maybe 2006. I don't remember which year and I am practicing Family Non-Communication Resentment, so I"m not going to ask anyone.

Anyway, back in the day, I went to my friends house, and when my family picked me up at the gas station in the big fifteen passenger van before going to "the Living History Festival", there was a distinct absence of noise. Not silence, just an absence of noise. Now, Family Non-Communication is something that breeds the absence of noise, and that's what I was picking up on. Even though I was like seven.

Now at the time I was looking forward to "the Living History Festival" so I passed it off as "Joseph isn't in the mood to pester me and everyone else is tired," but I knew, something was wrong.

So the whole day went past, and I was surrounded by whispers and giggles, and I thought, maybe, just maybe, I would be able to pick up on what the secret was if I just stuck close to Diana and Angela and pretended like I wasn't listening, but NO, that didn't even work.

And it wasn't until probably ten hours after I got in that van and realized something was wrong until my mother told me that Daniel was "courting" Catherine.

THAT's what all the whispering was about? Dude, its not THAT big of a deal! I thought someone had died or got pregnant or something!

And that was the first time it happened. Since then its happened may times, (once when Daniel got engaged, once when Diana broke up with one boy and started dating another, and once when Kristin got engaged.)

In my pact against Family Non-Communication I have perposefully tried not to pick up any hints or signals so that when my parents finally do decide to tell me something, it will be the first time that I've heard about it. That, or I pick up on it way before they do and then when they tell me and I don't act surprised they think I'm some selfish droid. (yes, I already knew that Diana was pregnant. or at least guessed it. When they're popping them out like popcorn its not exactly 'surprising'. Not to say that I'm any less excited or anything, I just was totally expecting it.)

So help against Family Non-Communication, and remind your parents that 'If They're Whispering About It, It Concerns You' they need to know that every time we hear a whisper out of them we instantly assume the worst. So its just better if we know.

Now if it actually is "the worst" that's a whole different story.

PEACE OUT AMY. SEE YOU IN HALF AN HOUR!!!!

-Michelle

So Much to Do, So Little Time

2011-09-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

The thing about being in college is that you can choose what you want to do. Since the only things you're really required to do only pertain to some classes that you take a couple of times a day or a part-time job, the rest of the time is free for you to be beholden to no one but yourself.

I'm in love with this aspect of college.

In fact, this is one of the primary reasons I avoid social obligations. I don't want to let anything encroach on the time I have to pursue the things I'm interested in. There are a few problems with this (besides the obvious, potentially socially stunting problem). Firstly, the more time I have, the bigger my list of interests gets. It started out with writing, which is something I've been interested in since I was eleven or twelve. But once I got writing, a whole new vista of possibility stretched out before me. Writers can't just write - they have to write about something, and usually in order to write about it, they have to do research on it. So pretty quickly I started pursuing knowledge in international politics, corporate crime, small firearms, swordplay, desert topography, Middle Eastern culture, kudzu growing habits and state government. Soon there were so many that I couldn't really get in-depth on any of them. So I had to pick and choose, narrowing my research down to one writing project and then throwing myself into one thing at a time. The topic I've settled on to focus on at the present moment is virology (specifically smallpox). It's interesting and fun and I get to put a lot of the informtion I find into my story, so that's good.

That's just one example of how quickly things can get out of hand and how drastically I have to rein myself in (otherwise I'd just be a frazzled mess who skipped class all the time to read up on the science of gecko's feet so I can derive from it for an alien race I'm writing about). Another example would be TV. As you know I like to watch a lot of shows, and a lot of the time I'm not very picky about how critically acclaimed they are. As long as they're about something that interests me, I'm good to go. Recently my love for TV led me to start watching some Korean television. Korean film is extremely new and often extremely derivative, and a lot of the time it's hit or miss. But the thing I like most about it is that from what I've seen Korea is very proud of and relishes its culture, and its television uses that culture to set itself apart from other Western shows. I was really intrigued by what I saw so I started to read up on the culture and customs in Korea, which led me to reading about the language, which was really intriguing, which led me to learning basic phrases and sentence structure and the alphabet and whatnot.

Age of information? Yes please.

This process of exponential interest growth has happened to me countless times and begins with the simplest things, like hearing a really great song and wanting to find the sheet music, or watching a really great video and wanting to get a camera to do my own videos, or seeing an awesome hat and wanting to learn how to purl so I can make one too. The problem is finding the time and energy to actually invest in these things (and developing the ability to let some things pass by for the sake of my sanity, no matter how desperately I'm interested in them). Here's how I've had to narrow it down. Everything I research/do has to

1. Pertain to something productive (learning or practicing a relevant skill or making a useful product), and
2. Only use available resources that don't cost extra (library, internet, piano, and technology that I've already purchased like my laptop, camera, and flipcam. This also means no printing, driving, or purchasing materials of any kind).

Obviously this doesn't narrow things down all that hugely, but it's a start, and with writing, virology, French and Korean, I've pretty much got my hands full.

This post was obscenely long and not very interesting, but I was in an introspective mood (when am I ever not in an introspective mood?) and I had to get it all off my chest. Next time I promise I'll try my hardest to say something funny.

-Amy

P.S. I discovered a band called Klaypex. They're like the Glitch Mob only they're more consistent about making you want to dance every second. I listen to them in the early mornings so make myself feel good about the rest of the day.

Illegal Blog Post

2011-09-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

I accidentally left my gmail signed in in my library class computer ALL WEEKEND. I didn't realize it until I got here and IE signed me in automatically. It was scary! Thankfully no one took the opportunity to send embarrassing emails to everyone on my contacts list (at least, I don't think they did...)

The reason this post is illegal is because I'm in library class right now. I'm acing this class while slacking off . That should tell you a thing or two about how useful a lot of college classes really are.

So I have a thing or two to say about the water here at UCM. As you know, my immune system is pretty awesomely equipped to deal with public bathrooms, door handles, and the illest handshakes. It is for this reason only that I haven't gotten sick yet on the water here. You've heard about Drexel water, and how in concentrated form it's a festering brown sludge. I'm sure all water is like that to some degree or another, but it's not often that water in the US starts smelling foul after you've left it in a cup overnight. I didn't actually notice it until one of my LIB classmates pointed it out, but now I can't stop noticing it. So I cleaned out my electric kettle the other day, and I found out that the inside was covered in a film of grayish scum. Gack! I still brush my teeth and shower in it, but I think from now on I'll only drink the filtered water from the cafeteria, or water that I've boiled (it's still gross, but at least it's more sanitary).

Otherwise, life here is pretty good. I learned the days of the week in Korean, plus other things that are more useful (they have two completely different number systems that they use interchangeably. WHY), like "what?" (bo? or uey?) and "yes" (ne) and "no" (aniyo) and the alphabet (19 consonants, 10 vowels, 11 SUPER vowels), the common honorifics (really super important), and other sundry things about sentence structure and how yes doesn't exactly mean yes and no doesn't exactly mean no. It's extremely different from anything I've tried before but at least it makes sense (the more I study other languages, the more I realize how screwed up English actually is... sometimes I'm truly sorry for the rest of the world that it's one of the global languages).

Yesterday I started my classroom observation. I got 7th grade Language Arts. Public school is pretty much exactly how I imagined it would be except about half as interesting. The teacher is good and all, but boy am I glad I was homeschooled. I think I would have withered and died in public school, just from the absolute intellectual wasteland that is a byproduct of mass education. After I started taking my Foundations of Education class, I realized that I actually have really strong views on education. The fact that I as an individual teacher probably won't be able to change the royally screwed up education system in America is probably going to drive me crazy one day, but as long as I truck along believing that I can make at least a small difference, I ought to be all right.

Anyway, I'll see you later. I'm so excited about the care package you said you sent yesterday that I almost want to skip class to go see if it's in my mailbox. But I won't, because it's biology, and I need a better grade in that class ( I know 92 is already an A, but the class is so easy that I pretty much have no excuse for getting less than a 95 at least).

Keep it classy,
Amy

P.S. Have you ever been on TV Tropes? Every once in a while I rediscover it and then can't pull myself away for a good hour or two. It came to my attention again lately when someone made a link to this page, which made me realize that I'm actually writing a character exactly like that (also, it made me lol).

HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAAAY

2011-09-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

1. What the what is VLC? And I don't know about the formats, I'll just have to have someone (you) look at that when you get home. I'm usually good with the figuring-out-technological-things but I don't understand formats and whatnot. I love saying whatnot. I mean, what does it even MEAN?
2. HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAY! I was going to call you. I picked up the phone and then I realized something: I don't have my phone so I don't have your number, and I'm still iffy on the last two digits of everyones cellphone numbers in our family beside mine and dads.
3. You're right, I AM super busy, and I'm sooo sorry that I haven't been writing and I haven't been putting up videos, believe me, I've made some. I tried to upload some like three times but our internet the last week or so has been about half as fast as it usually is, and maaaan is that sayin' something.
Here's what I'm doing all the time that is keeping me from you:
A. School. I have 10 subjects and within those subjects are little sub-subjects.One of those subjects is Economics. Thats right. Ugh. I start school at about eight and I end at about two or later.
B. At about two, I start what I like to call "clean up the house because no one else will." which is, actually, pretty self explanatory. If I don't go to crazy cleaning up the bathroom or my room, I'm usually done with this at about 3.
C. By 3 I usually want to check the interwebs.
D. I try to have some crafty hands-on thing ready about a half an hour after Mo gets home from school. So I figure it out and have it going by about four, and we do that for a little while.
E. Then, two nights a week, or so, I make dinner, and that takes a while.
F. Believe it or not, in the last three weeks I have watched like a totally of five hours of movies/shows. Which sounds like a lot, but considering that every movie I watch is about 2 hours, its not that amazing. I'm usually doing something with Mo. Like being beaten at my own game.
G. If its Tuesday or Thursday, I make dinner early with Mo and then me and her and dad go to Sign Language class which lasts all evening.
H. If its Wednesday, I go to the Youth Group at Graceway. (which, by the way, is AWESOME. Theres this drummer whos on the worship team, and hes SO. GOOD. And he has inspired me to hit the electrics.)
I. And on sunday we go to church, which lasts like all day.
J. Then there is the irregular stuff. Orthodonist Appointments, Shopping sprees with the family, spending the night at someones house, getting a new phone.

Wait.

Wait wait wait.

What was that last one? WHAT WAS THAT LAST ONE? Yeah. Yup. Getting a new phone. That's gonna happen. Yup.Yup......

No more not-wanting-to-use-the-Glorified-Watch-because-I'm-slightly-ashamed. No more "I don't have texting" no more, "you can't call me at my home, we don't get service." NO MORE.

This just means so much to me.

YAAAY I get to see you tomorrow.

Stay classy!

-Michelle

Hooraaay

2011-09-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear Amy, happy birthday to me.

Birthdays are pretty anticlimatic in college. I thought about skipping class and making a day of it, but I chickened out. I'm going for a perfect attendance record this semester (so that teachers will be more inclined to give me A's). Instead, I started the day by watching an episode of a Korean action drama just so I could feel like the day's different from all the others. The only problem with that is that Korean action dramas, however much I adore them, are usually not very well subtitled and they make my grammar bone twitch (yes, I have a grammar bone). Whoever did the subtitles wasn't the best at English. At least they were able to largely get their point across though, so that's something.

The other thing that happened today is that I realized that the Chinese guy who sits next to me in Library class is kind of a slacker. If it was anyone else I wouldn't be surprised, but he's the first Asian person I've ever met who wasn't more motivated than me to do well in school. It was pretty surreal, to be honest. Maybe I can get his autograph.

I got some chocolate from Mom and Dad in the mail yesterday. It was pretty fancy and awesome and I've been eating it with tea. Karl said that it made my room smell weird but I think he has super senses or something because who ever heard of chocolate smelling pungent? My room smells perfectly fine (I illegally burn a candle that smells like clean linen).

So now that I'm nineteen, what can I do? The answer is nothing that I wasn't able to do before. One of my neighbors asked me, since it's my birthday, what would I like to drink? I told him I drink at home but not at college. Turns out I'm cultivating a perfect little angel persona here as well. I'm sure you'll be happy to hear it. I'm pretty sure that the words "perfect little angel" were actually uttered by my roommate in reference to me. I guess since I've got the title here and at home, it must really by true. That's kind of depressing.

I'm probably coming home tomorrow. It'll be good.

-Amy

crickets

2011-09-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

Hi Michelle. Sometimes I feel lonely, like I'm the only one making posts on this blog.

...oh wait. I am the only one making posts on this blog! And posting videos too, for that matter.

Don't mind me though. I obviously have a lot more time to kill than you do especially now you have your own personal student of American culture to teach things to.
There are a lot of things about UCM that are extremely inferier to the very same things at JCCC, namely the print system, the Writing Center and the age and functionality of the buildings, but I will say this about UCM: in the computer lab they have Windows, Apple and Linux computers for anyone to use. So that's cool.

I'm planning to film a video sometime in the next day or so, and this one's going to be more well-structured than some of my other videos have been in the past. *cough* At least, I hope it'll turn out that way. To be honest I film a lot of videos but I only actually post about half of them. The rest will never see the light of day, and for good reason.

I remember that you said that Windows Movie Maker wouldn't open your video, which is weird because the format of it is in .wmv to begin with, I think. One thing you could do is try opening it in VLC or some other program just to make sure that your camera is actually working. If it is, try downloading Windows Live Movie Maker and see if that works. Also, once you're finished editing a video, make sure to select "Save Movie" and not "Save Project", otherwise it won't upload to YT.

Anyway if you have any questions you can probably call me. And make a post.

Laters,
-Amy

Blagosphere Confessionals

2011-09-08T08:48:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make. Sometimes, when I'm really depressed about being in college and realizing that it's an intellectual wasteland, I go watch videos of Asian-American people playing pretty music and making clever skits about life and the human condition. It makes me feel better for some reason.

I was able to get my camera working (as long as the battery is more than half-full, it'll turn on almost without fail), but sadly I cannot say the same for my bike, which is currently inoperable due to a problem with the chain that I know is an easy fix but requires clever hands and a tool that can unscrew screws, neither of which I possess. Because of this, I did not go to Wednesday night worship last week because it's a fifteen to twenty-minute walk to get there. This week, I figured a long walk isn't a good excuse for not attending worship two weeks in a row, so I made the walk and it took even longer that I thought, and when I finally got there several people came up and introduced themselves to me, saying that we'd met before at fondue night or in a class we shared, and I pretended to know them as well. I hate that I do this, but I put people in little categories in my mind, so if I was in a small group with someone in one of my classes and I learn their name and a little bit about them, I still will not recognize them if I encounter them in a non-academic setting. In my subconscious, that person only exists in the classroom, and every time my conscious mind suggests that perhaps that's not true, I get an acute sense of how ludicrous it is that said classmate continues existing once they step out of the classroom.

Anyway. I'm coming home tomorrow, so at the moment I'm counting down the hours. I have a lot of stuff I need to remember to grab while I'm there, mostly warmer clothes since the weather got cold a lot quicker than I thought it would. I could wear hats if I wanted to! I rarely do want to, but still. Also my birthday is soon. Nineteen sounds like a horrifically transitional age. For some reason I never encounter people who are nineteen. It must be like Purgatory, a purgatory that you can never admit to being in. I'll make sure to make the most of my time as nineteen, but I can't help but think that I'll spend the entire year with a vague sense in the back of my mind that I'm in some kind of limbo.

I've been thinking a lot about writing lately, mostly because I've been doing a lot of writing lately. Anyway, I was thinking about how I'm pretty sure I'm best at writing comedy or parody, but for some reason I don't ever actually spend any time writing comedy or parody. I think it's because I really enjoy reading dramas and thrillers and things, so I end up mostly writing dramas and thrillers and things even though I can't really write them well. So my new resolution is to start writing what I'm good at and see how it goes, and have at least one comedy project on the side going while I write what I love to write (it's currently dystopian America 40 years in the future).

...or maybe I should make future dystopian America into a comedy. Wouldn't that be fun?

Anyway, off to Biology again. See you soon.

-Amy

Yes... I am in class right now

2011-09-06T08:46:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would be one of those people who messed around on the computers in class, but my Library Research Skills class is so crushingly arbitrary that I'll go completely mad if I don't keep myself busy in a non-class-related way. Right now we are learning how to use Google. We just found out that if you're on a fact-finding mission, typing "what is the meaning of life?" into the search bar isn't going to get you any solid answers.

Shocker!

I am writing a blog post because my camera is having technical issues that involve the power button only working one out of every twenty times I push it. Hopefully one day soon I'll be able to make it work for long enough to make a video, but until then I guess this blog is a pretty good way to tell you about my life. Don't you just love how many meduims of communication we have available to us other than Facebook? Which reminds me, I have a mailbox here. And it is depressingly empty. If you think of it someday, it would be cool if you sent me something. It doesn't even have to say anything on it. It'll give me joy even if it's a postcard you didn't write anything on.

I'M SO ALONE.

My phone just rang. I had it on the loudest ring because a couple of days ago I set it that way when I was waiting for an employment acceptance call from Family Video that I absolutely didn't want to miss (it never came... tear). It's REALLY LOUD. Since I'm in class, the sound of it directed attention to me when I'd rather it didn't. I am writing a blog post in class, after all. Everyone else is just chilling on Facebook, which is excusable apparently.

So I'm all at odds with myself because I didn't see any of you home people this weekend. I like to think of myself as an independent person but the reality is that after a couple of weeks of being here, all I want to do is hang out with people who actually care about me. I'm selfish that way! It's totally silly that you would abandon me and go to the farm, of all places. I almost feel insulted, except I did get to spend the entire weekend laying around in my dorm room drinking coffee and writing. For some reason I've been finding it a lot easier to do productive things at college than I did at home. I guess there isn't really an abundance of distractions here. Also, it's inexplicably become a lot more difficult for me to keep my attention on a show or movie, which is why every time I come home, I still haven't watched that show that you recommended to me (the OC and Glee season 2 come to mind. The truth is that it's really hard for me to watch something that I'm not extremely excited about even before I start it). I've been reading, too. whenever I get my camera working I'll tell you about some of the books I've been reading and how I finished Thirteen Reasons Why. There may be tears involved.

I have a playlist on my mp3 player called "badass" that I can't get enough of right now. I got out of my library class and went to the computer commons, where noise is frowned upon, and listening to this playlist in here presents to me a conundrum which I have never encountered before, namely that I'm listening to a badass playlist but I'm unable to sing along to it, which is a dilemma I've never had to consider before. I'm pretty sure I haven't listened to Supermassive Black Hole a single time without belting it out like I'm the British popstar I've always aspired to be. I guess there's a first time for everything.

Biology test in twenty minutes. I get distracted a lot in that class because the teacher commits subject-verb disagreement in speech on a basis so regular that it's brought me this close to seizures on a few occasions. Here's hoping that my epileptic spells won't prevent me from getting an A on the exam.

Stay classy
-Amy

P.S. I created a "college" label because I'm in the mood to do things that don't make any difference in the big picture.

College is Almost Exactly How I Imagined High School Must Be Like

2011-08-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

Everyone talks about sex.

All. The. Time.

One more reason for me to chill with my electric kettle. It's never spoken in non-subtle innuendos in my vicinity, and it never will. A true friend.

Vhere....is theh Nazi goollt!"

2011-08-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

HEY AMY! Hows college going? I'm watching crabstickz videos, if you can't tell by the title. I heard your first day was great, which is totes cool. I haven't done anything since I saw you except me and Joseph and Angela went to Cowboys and Aliens. It was cool but I'm pretty sure I would have liked it 50% less if it hadn't had Sam Rockwell, even though he had a kind of small part. I guess Daniel Craig is awesome even when he's going for a girl that looks like she could prooobably be his daughter. And Harrison Ford is old. Thats all I have to say.

Oh and the aliens were weird. I would probably rather have seen Apes movie or the Glee movie again. But whateves.

Another thing that happened was I mentioned both Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez to Joseph and he didn't say one bad thing or make on annoying noise concerning them. It was amazing. He must have been in a really good mood.

When Abduction comes out I'm hitch hiking to warrensburg to see it with you. Or I'll just hitch hike to a theater and watch it by myself.

We started school today and we're doing planning and stuff.

That is all.

Oh, hey there.

2011-06-16T07:42:00.000-07:00

Yeah as far as blogging goes I've kind of...not been doing it.
Usually I don't blog unless Amy isn't near, so I can tell her all the happenings, but since Amy moved back for the summer I've just told her everything to her face, but that doesn't mean that I've got plenty of things to tell YOU.

Lets see, last time I blogged was the middle of may? Lots of things have happened since then.

Like, swim team started. I have mixed feelings about it, still. You'd think that by three weeks in I would have decided weather or not I hate getting up at five and freezing/working really hard for two hours, but I haven't.

Things I like about swim team:
1. swimming?
2. winning.
3. Coach Kyle
4. the people. They're all cool.
5. Getting totally ripped.
6. Getting totally tan.
7. Boasting about how I'm still alive even though I get up at five every morning.

Things I don't like about swim team:
1. Getting up at five.
The first ten minutes are like the worst thing that ever happened, literally, and then you wake up and its OK. Its really not the tiredness that I hate about it all, its the coldness, which is my second point.
2. The coldness.
Swimming in a pool that is less than 80 degrees is like swimming by an ice burg with a wet suit on. Except there are no ice burgs and there are no wet suits.
On monday the water was 76 degrees, which is like six degrees away from being the exact opposite of a volcano. Meaning if it were 70 degrees we would have frozen where we stood.
3. There are a couple other small things I don't like, such as some of the other pools that we go to, but I've told myself I wouldn't complain about those because I never want to feel the wrath of Kyle again.

In other news, I'm, like, driving. Its crazy. I'm 15 and now I'm driving. I can hardly believe it. But what is even more ridiculous is that mom is letting me drive to swim team at five thirty in the morning. I totally have it under control but I still feel like it should be illegal or something.

I'm also playing the drums again. I watched a video of like seven-year-old Justin Bieber playing the drums and it was preeettty inspiring, but not inspiring enough for me to actually do anything about it. So then I watched some Nick Jonas playing the drums and then I listened to some Muse and I've played the drums like an hour every day since then.

Beside all that I'm really doing nothing but sleeping. When I get home from swim team I eat like a boy and then I fall asleep for like three hours. Its the kind of sleep where you wake up and you feel like you've become one with the bed, and then you get up, and you sit down somewhere else, just so you can wake up the rest of the way without falling down, and you end up falling asleep there, too, and then your groggy for the rest of the day.

Stay Classy
Michelle

Binary.

2011-05-19T10:05:00.000-07:00

This morning I got up at six thirty and drew binary for two hours.

It was for Josephs Birthday sign which is totally awesome. When you come home you will be stunned by its awesomeness.

Yeah Angela should read City of Ember but she must be warned, the first book was totally awesome, the second book was pretty alright. The third book was horrible. The fourth book was unsatisfactory and horrible.

Yeah.

Today I cleaned off my desk and it took me a really long time. Like fifteen minutes. Which is a long time to clean three square feet.

Yesterday I did four math lessons. Then today I did four more. Yeah its crazy!
I'm learning about graphs in math. Its just about the most interesting thing I've learned all year, which isn't really saying anything. Math doesn't interest me in the least.

Heres what interests me: Summer and swimming.

Today I got up at six thirty and I was like a totally zombie for five or ten minutes, then I snapped out of it, but they were still like the worst five or ten minutes of my existence. Mainly because my breath was absolutely horrible.

But as a sat there, on the floor, unable to keep my eyes open without it hurting, I thought, "welcome to your next two months, Michelle." and then I was like, "except you'll be waking up an hour earlier than this and swimming in freezing cold water for two hours." and then I was like, "No you'll be waking up an hour and a HALF earlier than this and swimming in freezing cold water for two hours."

Yeap, thats right. Instead of getting up at 5:20 every morning and stumbling around the house before we leave at 5:35, I'm going to get up at 5:00 so I can be fresh and happy and awake by the time I get to freeze to death.
It was Angela's idea.

Nothing else interesting happened except last night I was on the computer and mom said, "Michelle, are you ever going to read a real book?" And I had to sit there for a second to try and remember how many times I had talked to her about my summer reading list, and then I had to try and remember how many days it had taken me to read The Lightening Thief and the Sea of Monsters (like 9) and then I had to try and remember what happened in both of them, because I always forget when I read the books too fast.
And then I responded with, "I've read two whole books in lest than two weeks!"
And she was like, "...Only two?"
Well, I don't know about you, but two is a lot, considering all the other things that are going on in my life right now. Like school.

But as of today I only have like fifty-six days to read the last three books of Percy Jackson and all seven of the huge harry potter books if I want to get them all finished before Deathly Hallows part 2 comes out.

Peace out, homie.

To tea or not to tea?

2011-05-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

That is the question. I'm at school, the weather's horrid, I have an hour and a half to wait for my next final (Western civ, will invariably be torture), and the temptation to purchase a hot drink in strong. I have no idea why I didn't think to just bring a car cup with me, and now I'm living with the consequences.

I'm in the computer lab as of this moment. The computer lab is a soulless place, filled with lame equipment, unnatural lighting, and sleep-deprived zombie students pressing keys aimlessly in the hopes that it will better prepare them for the inevitable Final Exam. Not only that, I sat down to this computer about a half-hour ago, only to realize that the computer next to me is evidently the only computer in the entire lab that has Windows 7 on it, with the shmancy graphics and the slick-looking desktop. While I'm over here typing away on what is probably Vista but seems more like Windows 2000, with the bad resolution and the stretched screen and the infinitesimally slow processing skills.

I'm an ungrateful hag!

Yesterday Angela and I went to see Hanna. It was interesting but I'm not completely sure how I feel about it. I certainly enjoyed all the cinematography and the details and a few of the lesser characters, but the premise was really odd and I felt like a bad person for enjoying a film about a 14-year-old murderer. Saoirse Ronan was pretty incredible though. It makes me want to see City of Ember again. Can you believe that Angela hasn't seen that movie? She hasn't even heard of the book. I think we need to make this a priority, don't you?

Today is my last final day. Since I will not return to JCCC at all in the foreseeable future, I think that I will treat myself to that tea. I am excited to be done with school. It's lasted a long time.

-Amy

You're a Superstar!

2011-05-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

Thanks for doing that song thing. I had it on my to-do list but it kept on getting pushed down by other things (that I still haven't done).

Anyway, if I'm not made completely broke by fixing my oxygen sensor on my car, I'm thinking about buying a flip camera. As corny as this sounds, I've actually wanted to record myself doing some piano things because I'm one of those lamers who uses YouTube to watch piano-playing vids to help me learn songs, only a lot of the songs I want to learn are missing from there. So I learn them anyway (the hard way) and now I want to upload them to help other people.

That was sort of long and didn't make much sense. Sorry. In any case, I'm going to buy a flip camera eventually. It's probably going to be sort of cheap. Then we can sing covers to our hearts' content. But we can't sing any lame ones.

You're right, cars are cool. Now that I spend so much time driving around, I notice them a lot more. I still don't know anything about how any cars actually work on the inside, but they don't all look the same to me any more. Pretty much all I can do is notice that there are three brand-new Camaros I see on a regular basis at school. One of them is black (awesome), one of them is yellow with black racing stripes (pretty cool), and one is bright, bright neon green (awesome to the power of ten). I figured you'd like the last one.

There's also a black Mustang I pass every day on my way to Personal Communication that is made more awesome by the fact that it belongs to a handicapped person. If I had a handicap I, too, would compensate by 1) wearing awesome shoes, and 2) driving awesome cars.

-Amy

DID YOU KNOW:
When you're on the "Edit Html" tab on the post (it's on the top right corner), if you try to put pictures in, yes, they will come up in code. But they'll still show up as the pictures when you post it. And, this way, it's much easier to move the picture around in the post.
NOW YOU KNOW

"....it was only a corvette..."

2011-05-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

Cars. Are. Cool.

You know, I didn't use to be one of those kind of people.

I tried to upload some pictures of some awesome cars, but it all turned up in code, so that plan failed.

So this summer is going to be all busy busy busy.
I'm doing so much awesome stuff.

Speaking of awesome things that we'll be doing this summer, we have to make that one show awesome by showing our faces and singing our song.

Sydney told me that we should do covers on youtube. I gree.

ANYWHO that fleetfoxes song. Whell, I figured it out because you didn't.

YOU SING THIS VERSE.
Wanderers this morning came by
Where did they go
Graceful in the morning light
To banner fair
To follow you softly
In the cold mountain air

I SING THIS VERSE.
Through the forest
Down to your grave
Where the birds wait
And the tall grasses wave
They do not
know you any (both of us do the "more" thing)more

BOTH OF US SING THIS VERSE.
Dear shadow alive and well
How can the body die
You tell me everything
Anything true

BOTH OF US THING THIS VERSE.
In the town one morning I went
Staggering through premonitions of my death
I don't see anybody that dear to me

WE BOTH SING THIS VERSE.
Dear shadow alive and well
How can the body die
You tell me everything
Anything true

WE BOTH SING THIS
Jesse
YOU SING THIS
I don't know what I have done
I'm turning myself to a demon
WE BOTH THING THIS
I don't know what I have done
I'm turning myself to a demon
THEN COME THE LA-LA-LAS

GOT IT? YUP!

Useless Superpowers!

2011-05-11T13:20:00.000-07:00

I was cruising the nets today and I found something really funny. Do you want a superpower? What if the super radioactive gamma rays ended up bestowing a superpower on you that you couldn't actually use? Behold, the humor of the Spanish-speaking peoples:

Here's a translation!

Acid Tears
Invisible in the Dark
Controlling the TV control
Speaking to fruits
Detecting Trash
75% of levitation
Turning on lamps
Attracting Bullets
Read your own mind
Instant Baldness
Anormal Hair Growth
Attraction of Bad Luck
Super-Slowness
Bring dead bugs back to life
Ultra-Fast Aging
Insivible Writing
Super-Strength of 1 second
Turning into a Laptop
Seducing Hats
Desaturation

I personally would like the ability to turn into a laptop. My Spanish-speaking friend would like to be invisible in the dark, because, as she says, "being invisible any time would be useful. Even in the dark." I guess that makes sense.

I sold my books back to the school today. I had a lot of them, like 12 or something. But I only got $74 back. Dumb. The reason it's so little is because I only got $1 or $2 back for the smaller books. It's like robbery. Sigh.

Today I helped a guy with a speech about fuel-effiecient cars. Even though fuel-efficient cars is like the most popular topic for speeches these days, I had a really fun time helping him out because he was writing about a specific kind of car, called the biome car. It's a new Mercedes-Benz concept car that is made of organic materials that are (allegedly) lighter than plastic and harder than steel. It gets ridiculously high mileage because it runs on something called BioNectar (basically sun juice) and, while about the size of a Camry, it only weighs 875 pounds. Not even half a ton. Anyway, we were both skeptical about it, so we ended up watching a whole bunch of YouTube vids about it and reading articles to see if it was really real. It looks like it came out of Tron or something.

Anyway it was really fun. We talked about Tron and I, Robot and Fast Five. This is what I do at work on good days. It's awesome.

Friday. That's when I'll see you. I'm coming home to pull for the market, then I'm leaving again in the evening to go to the Arboretum for a work end-party. So we might not get to party on Friday night. But Saturday night definitely.

-Amy

Quickie

2011-05-06T11:35:00.001-07:00

I just watched Fast Five on my break (I have some crazy breaks). Now I want to go be a badass! And I want Ludacris to be my sidekick.

-Amy

P.S. You're really bad at making blog posts!

Guess what?

2011-05-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

I was looking back on my old chats in gmail, and the second oldest chat is one with you from August 13, 2007. Here's how it goes:

Michelle: hi amy im on gmail and i just looked up lots of names like jasmine and arial. i now a girl named arial...
me: Hi Michelle, you don't know how to punctuate to save your life. How about trying?
Oh, and how about capitalizing too?
Michelle: I Can capitelize(?)See?YOU TYP FASTER THAN ME
ARE YOU ON THAT WEARD BLUE SITE AGAIN?I THOGHT SO.YOU ALWASE ARE
me: SPELLING. TYPE. CAPITALIZE. WIERD. THOUGHT. ALWAYS.
Michelle: oh thanks for telling me the nice way.

How little has changed.

About Blogs

2011-04-29T11:35:00.001-07:00

I was thinking about it today and don't you think it's a little weird that all the Sullivan girls have blogs? In related news, Kristin did more of her amazing stitchery art and I have been ogling it.

In other news, I've spent most of today sitting around the Writing Center having a grand time. I think today is the first time I've realized that I'm going to be leaving here in a couple of weeks. Everyone's in here waiting for the tutor meeting, just hanging around laughing about silly things, and I'm sure that there are people in here who are getting mad at us for being so loud. We're not too concerned about noise in here, obviously. I'm going to miss this place.

You know how I had that phase when I was watching all those accent videos? Well I got back into it because I wanted to show one of my coworkers them because he's really good at accents. And so I've been listening to British people pretending that they're Australian and swearing like sailors. It's a blast! Also, I was puzzled as to why all of them spent extra time talking about the Vietnamese accent because apparently there is a big Vietnamese population in London. And I was wondering why they all sounded so weird until I realized that there is a Vietnamese girl in my Personal Communication class and it's true! The way they intonate all their words makes them sound perpetually a little bit pissed off. I don't know why that is, but I lol'd.

Anyway, meeting is starting now so I should get going.

Be awesome (at least until I get there in a couple of hours).

-Amy

Hares. Hairs. And Hears, Heres, and Hers in a redneck accent.

2011-04-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

Hares can run 45 MPH.

Wow.

Really fast humans can run 25 MPH.

45 is a lot. Its a big number. Its almost as old as our parents.

Shows in Kansas City. Wait...WHAT?

2011-04-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

I like making lists too! I haven't really done anything since I saw you, though.
Last night I made pancakes for dinner. Dad wanted to have peas or something, but I said, no no no no no that totally clashes.

The pancakes were absolutely DELICIOUS. I spelt delicious without spellcheck. YES!
Spelt is a word.

I went to lit. class yesterday. I was having trouble paying attention because I need to cough the whole time and my nose was clogged or running or something, and it was uncomfortable.

Me and some other people (Jesse, Timothy, Taylor, Rachel, Maria, Phoebe and me) have to do a play of A Midsummer Nights Dream.
Like...WHAT?

It has to be ten minutes, and we have to write a script, but the planning didn't work out at all, so it kind of sucks, and they decided in the end that its pretty much going to be all improv. We're going to die.

The idea is that we are playing the actors, and the actors are putting on a play about the four lovers.
I play Helena. No one loves me, except in the end Lysander settles for me, even though I make a metaphor involving me being his spaniel. Like, what kind of guy is going to settle for a girl who does that? I'll tell you what kind: the kind that had the girl they love stolen away by some other guy.

We went to youth group after that and we played soccer again. There are a lot of people there that are really good at it. I am not one of them.

THOUGH may I say I did make a couple of totally awesome goals. Yeah, me. I think it was all because my moral-boosting dance was one of the MC Hammer dances. har.

I'm seeing you later today. I'm excited. We can watch Ugly Betty or that show set in Kansas, what? (I said 'what?' like Gus from Psych) and eat ice cream and lots of yummy tea.

stay classy

Michelle

o hai

2011-04-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

Hi Michelle. It's Amy! Remember me? I'm that sister that you were totally hanging out with yesterday. I know it's not been very long since we talked, but I almost started to forget about you and I was worried that you might forget about me too, so I decided to write a blog post. Here is a list of some things. I formulated them into a list for a reason that doesn't make any sense. I just like making lists.

1) Disregard anything I said in the previous paragraph. Of course I haven't forgotten who you are! I saw a picture of you today on Facebook and it all came back to me.

2) There's a thunderstorm outside. I never actually see outside while I'm at school, and since I'm currently in the computer lab there are no windows for me to see a thunderstorm, but it must be pretty bad out there because I just heard a really long bit of thunder over the hum of computers and the clamor of several quasi-college students frantically typing out their status updates.

3) I have just had two cups of coffee in the WC so I'm a bit hyper, even though I don't feel very good at all.

4) I skipped yoga today! See previous point.

5) When we were at B&N the other day (all right, it was last week), I saw two books that I really really want. One of them was the prequel to the Bartimaeus trilogy. It's called The Ring of Solomon and it looks cool. I love Jonathan Stroud. I also saw the very last Alex Rider book is now out. It's called Scorpia Rising. I have a special place in my heard for the Alex Rider books not only because they accompanied me throughout my rocky early teens (not even kidding, I started reading them when I was twelve. Twelve.), but also because I read the previous book, Crocodile Tears, while I was on the train from Cambridge to Edinburgh. It's incredible how much more enjoyable a book becomes when you're in the country it's set in.

6) Speaking of settings, I was wandering through Netflix the other day and I came across this show I'd never heard of called Jericho. I've gotten to a point where I sort of skip over anything that has less than a four-star rating so I'm not tempted to watch anything really horrible. Anyway, this show Jericho had a good rating and it said that it was set in small-town Kansas. You can't just skip past a show set in the Midwest. At least, I can't. Anyway, I watched the first couple of episodes. I can't tell you if I like it or not, because I wasn't paying attention to the story as much as being weirded out that the people on the TV were talking about familiar things like Kansas City and Sedalia and I-70 and Wichita. People! On the TV! Talking about things in Kansas! Anyway, it was cool. I don't know if I'll continue. Maybe later, when I'm not stressing out about the end of the semester.

7) So I enrolled in classes at UCM yesterday. I'm finally going to get to be in classes that have something to do with my major! Namely, education. Most of it is going to be me going to the local middle school/high school and observing teachers in the classroom. I think it'll be fun. I'm also taking a biology class and a British Lit. class and a required Library class (research skills, dumb). I was heartened when I was walking around the campus because I saw a lot of people there who I can imagine myself being friends with. And that's the first step to having friends! Right? Anyway, I'm feeling better about my future college experience.

Word vomit! I have to let it all out or else my suppressed emotions will manifest in other, more explosive ways.

Anyway, I have to get to Personal Communication. Ciao!

-Amy

P.S. Never let me say Ciao again.

Late-Semester Depression

2011-04-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

Not to be a total downer, but I'm really ready for this semester to be over. I really like going to school, but the cumulation of time spent here every week is so huge that I'm beginning to become a bit exhausted by it all. I guess I'm just ready to be done with these classes and just move on. And now that I'm about to go to college in earnest, I'm starting to look forward to it, whatever misgivings I might have about the whole experience. So I'm thinking about how much money I'm going to have when next semester starts, and what sorts of things I'll have to buy to survive in the academic bayou (one of the first things I thought about was stuff to personalize my dorm room - I will enlist your help).

It is 4:47 and the W.C. is dead as a bag of rocks. Actually there are exactly four non-staff people here at the moment, which is close enough to dead that I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs, wondering what how I'm going to memorize my verse for tonight (it is three verses - I have the first part down but not the second).

I have one more project in Creative Writing. It can be anything, and I'm thinking I'll probably write another short story. If you haev any ideas to throw at me, I'd appreciate it. I need to think about these things in the early morning, not late afternoon, when I am beginning to slooooow doooown.

I will totally see you on Friday.

-Amy

P.S. I learned how to say "You're welcome" in sign language today. Now you know how to survive in the ASL community. You're welcome.

Tiger Mountain Peasant Song

2011-04-06T08:25:00.000-07:00

The great thing about this song is that the name is amazing, and it reminds me of "caption not related" because, though the song the word "mountain" in it, it has nothing to do with tigers or peasants.
Maybe it does. Maybe there is a deeper meaning that I'm missing.
I am, surprisingly, not tired at all, even though I didn't go to sleep until 2:30 AM last night. AM. A. M.
It was the morning when I went to sleep!

I have a question that I should probably know the answer to. If it is 12:00 midnight, is it the next day yet? Or do you have to wait till 1?

Also I think I have a cold coming on. My throat has got that feeling, you know?

I am still watching heroes, and I am STILL in the third season. Its getting a little deep and serious for me. You know something is wrong if the only time you laugh on a show or movie is from something the crazy serial killer bad guy says or does.

Unless its Sylar, because he is awesome, and has a pretty hilarious sense of humor. Or Hades, because there wasn't much else to laugh at in Hercules, and he was just a riot (a riot, srsly? Oh no I'm turning into one of those people that says riot. Its all over now.)

I like when Sylar had that Luke kid. That kid was pathetic and funny. He also had microwaves for hands.

Hahaha funny mental image! Actually, he had microwave powers in his hands, but you know what I mean.

Did you like my poem about Missouri?

Speaking of misery, I'm feeling quite miserable right now. My throat is hurting.

Don't come down with anything.

Stay Classy,
Michelle

Bite-Size Post

2011-04-05T07:06:00.000-07:00

So I have to go to yoga in like three minutes, but I wanted to let you know that 1)I won't be at Mor Mor's tonight (can't remember if I already told you that or not), 2) last night I watched Camp Rock 1 and Camp Rock 2 with Angela. I'm angry at myself because I'm so easily taken in on the teen heartthrob bandwagon. Nick reminds me of Brandon sometimes. I don't know why so many people remind me of Brandon. He's just a personable guy? No, that's not it. Dunno why. Anway, and 3) last night I was also thinking about what song we will do for the talent show this summer. I was thinking we could try our hand at Tiger Mountain Peasant Song by the Fleet Foxes. It's that one song that those sisters sing in the woods together that Dad really liked. You should YouTube it and tell me if you think we could do it without a guitar.

Anyway, here ends my bite-sized post. Hope you enjoyed. Off to yoga (meh).

-Amy

Ode to Missouri

2011-04-04T08:14:00.000-07:00

An Ode to Missouri, the moodiest teenager I know.

(we're doing poems a lot, so why not?)

Missouri, yesterday I could sing,
Today I reflect the gray clouds,
Missouri you need a mood ring,
you could kill a vulture crowd,
this wind is fierce and tornadic,
Yesterday it was sunny and summer,
today its dark and making me sick,
This weather is a real bummer,
Last night I could have used the cool,
I was burning and couldn't sleep,
I could have swum in a pool,
Steady weather you cannot keep,
you trick us into thinking its for real,
then you come back and bite us,
Compassion for you, I do not feel,
You're so annoying I could cuss,
but I'm not going to, it just rhymes,
Listening to Nick Jonas helps a little,
Missouri you're bitter like limes,
no on wants to solve your riddle.

You liiiiike? I'm proud proud prouuuud! I think this one is right up there with the google chrome, the percy jackson, the bsafe and all the other poems/odes I've ever written.

Dear Amers

2011-03-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

So, yeah about the self esteem thing. I can't bring a dictionary because that is way too much of a Jack thing to do.
Last night they DID talk about self esteem and Mr. Dearing said that esteem is when you lift something/someone up in appraisal.
And I was like, nuhhuuhhh!
Just because someone said they "Highly esteemed" something doesn't mean that the word esteemed by itself means high regard too.
I just looked at the definition of esteem by itself and it says, "The regard in which one is held, most commonly used positively."
And it annoys me so much because every single week we go there and they're like, "Do you think self esteem is a bad thing or a good thing?" and I'm like, "Its necessary," and they're like, "But self esteem means you think a lot of yourself," and I'm like "NOOOOOOO it is what you think of yourself. Positive or negative! GET IT RIGHT!" and then Jack always says something like, "Can you define some words for me? Because Self-esteem means you think highly of other people and you put other people before yourself, but selfISH-esteem means you're selfish." and then everyone looks sideways at each other and them Mr. Dearing says, "And thats a great point." and then moves on.

I presented my Island thing, it was totally awesome and everyone loved it. Some of the other ones were really funny and cool.

Me and Angela watched camp rock 1&2 back to back and it was like the best thing we've ever done together.

Can you believe it, we're actually BONDING without you!

And she has hardly said anything about how dirty the bathroom is ALL WEEK! Its a miracle or something.

Yesterday I drove to peculiar with Angela. It was awesome except on that curve on that hill in freeman we past A HOUSE. YEAH. A trailer house. ON THAT HORRIBLE CURVE!

I almost died! Thankfully there was a driveway that I was able to pull over into a little bit, but HO my gosh it was horrid. It was like he was driving on my side of the road, and then the house was like overhanging the trailer by like five feet. It was so bad, and then Angela was laughing because the guy driving was on the phone and she thought it was like the most unfortunate funny thing to happen to me.

I, personally, was scarred for life.

On other news, Joseph got some of those little magnetic balls that the Packinghams have, and after working at it for like three hours over the span of like three days, me and angela BOTH made cubes and its totes awesome.

And on OTHER news, you haven't called me enough. I want you to know that you can call me anytime because I never do anything.

Unless its on wednesday any time after 3. But ANY other time I am completely free, and you should call me because I never know when you're free, and I'm always like, "Oh I should call Amy! Wait shes probably at work, or school or something equally horrible that has to happen."

Angela is leaving early early early on friday, so you need to rush back home because I will have no one.

Stay Classy
Michelle

It is almost 4:00 AM

2011-03-31T01:43:00.000-07:00

Just thought you might be proud of me for staying up all night like this. It was out of necessity, I assure you. And it pretty much turned out exactly how I predicted it would in my last post (my eyes are indeed red-rimmed, and my brain is indeed oozing vital liquids). However, I'm amazed at how long nights are if you're not spending them sleeping, and how much time there is to get things done. For instance, I was able to write a speech, preactice my speech, compose a Powerpoint presentation (an AWESOME powerpoint presentation) to accompany it, finish all my Neitzsche reading and questions, and still have a couple of hours to spare. I think I'm going to clean my room next, since the cleaning ladies are coming later.

Anyway, just thought I'd drop in and say hi. Hope you're having a really good night's sleep.

-Amy

Dear Michelle,

2011-03-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

Your ideas are all good. The only problem is that even though I really want to do all those things so I can stop being sad, I don't actually have the time to dance to Imma Be at the moment. Actually tonight I'm planning on imbibing massive amounts of hot, caffeine-saturated liquids, then turning my burning, red-rimmed eyes to the evaluation of the flowery, elitist philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche. And when I've finished pounding at my brain with a giant cast-iron tenderizer, when it is seeping vital fluids, prostrate in a position of abject, miserable submission, I shall sit down to write the speech that I have not yet begun, which I will be delivering tomorrow at half-past 11. And when the sun finally climbs over the horizon, and I'm still slaving away, I shall recycle yesterday's outfit and head off to open at work, beginning yet another day of this long, long week.

It's cool that you get to write about Communism. It's good to know about these things. I read the Communist Manifesto the other day for school, and it was pretty interesting. Way better than Nietzsche, who is a big fat meanie-faced elitist toadstool.

You're right, it is kind of dumb to talk about self-esteem for so long. From what I remember, it seemed like, yeah, those people don't really know what the definition of self-esteem is. Because I'm such a nerdy nerd, I looked it up. Self-esteem: a realistic respect or favorable impression of oneself. I bolded it for emphasis. Maybe you should bring a dictionary next meeting and read it aloud to them.

I have to go. Tonight I put my foot in my mouth and agreed to go to Bible study with the girlies. So now that I'm well and truly screwed on homework, I may as well just resign myself to not getting any sleep at all tonight.

Imma be

2011-03-30T08:16:00.000-07:00

If you're not feeling good, theres a number of things can do.

1. Go to Edward Monkton site (www.edwardmonkton.com) and watch the little videos.

2. Listen to Imma Be.

3. Dance to Imma Be.

4. Wear more make up.

5. Watch fun movies. Like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Things to do if you want to feel horrible.

1. Read A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift. ( You should read it because its like a "classic" or something. Keep in mind while you're reading it that Mrs. Finley had us read it OUT LOUD in literature class. It was horrid.)

2. Watch "Its Friday,"

3. Do school.

4. Work in the freezing cold/smoldering heat.

5. Write a paper about Communism.

Yeah neither of those lists had anything to do with my week. At all.

OK FINE, I pretty much did all those things this week. The paper was actually about Anti-communism, but in order to write about that you have to write about communism. It was not awesome.

So I hope you have a good week.

I'm going to drive to freeman today. I'm going own the road.

I'm also going to Youth Group tonight and if we are talking about self esteem for the FOURTH WEEK IN A ROW I'm going to eat someones head off. Probably my own. I don't have a problem with self esteem. No one in the group has problems with self esteem. How many hours are we going to spend talking about other kids problems? Lets talk about OUR problems! Hahaha just kidding, I would rather talk about self esteem than talk about our for real problems.

I have a question. What do you call that....emotion? that is like you being worried about what other people think of you? Like I don't think thats self esteem.

Because self esteem is like what and how you think of yourself, right?

So what is it when its you worrying about what other people think, right?

Like when your worried that everyone will make fun of you for wearing something bold?

I don't think thats self esteem. Maybe it is.

Pathological liars are crazy weird. I don't understand how they can live with themselves.

Stay classy

-Michelle

PS the other day I heard a song that said "physique" and it made me think of you.

PICKER-UPPER

2011-03-29T12:59:00.000-07:00

This one describes my mindset about three days out of the week. I couldn't make it smaller. Those little drawings were the bundles of joy I needed to rise above my melancholy. Who is this Edward Monkton guy? When can I marry him?

It's funny that we posted at like the same time. Now my post is buried beneath a pile of delicious snippets of wisdom, and I'm okay with that.

The interesting thoughts of Edward Monkton

2011-03-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Edward Monkton: My favorite person. Here are some (LOTS) of his amazing works.

Bring you some joy? Yeah!

-Stay classy

Michelle

Homework Eats my Soul

2011-03-29T11:52:00.001-07:00

I had to post all the poems so I could get some sort of approval from you. I like to think that I'm an island, but in reality I crave affirmation at every turn. I probably should have showed you my short story before I left, because now I'm really super insecure about it, and I'm handing it in in a little under four hours. I just started printing it out (19 copies, 9 pages each). It's going to take FOREVER, and there's going to be SO MUCH PAPER. I'm really killing trees here. There must be a better way to do this whole peer review thing. The earth is crying simply because I'm required to kill it's children in order to express my creative self. If there was the option of printing double-sided at school (which there isn't), I would definitely be doing that.

Okay, so I just went to grab my stuff off the printer. You know how many pages 19x9 is? 171. A hundred and seventy-one fractions of a carbon footprint that makes a bunny cry. On a side note, paper fresh from the printer is the same as clothes fresh from the dryer: warm and delicious and environmentally homicidal.

I'm going to be giving a speech in Personal Communication on Thursday and since the teacher really didn't like my unconventional approach to the art and skill of asking great questions, I need a new plan of attack. So I was wondering if you had any suggestions as to which species of questioning skills I should focus on speaking about. I made a list of a few possibilities of settings in which a different set of problem-solving questioning skills are needed:

Academic setting (student/teacher)
Job and workplace setting (coworkers/boss)
Justice setting (prosecutors/defense/witness)
Law enforcement setting (interrogator/suspect)
Personal/emotional setting (romantic/family relationships)

I'm leaning towards the law enforcement setting simply because it'd be the most interesting, but I'm pretty sure that my teacher really isn't going to like it. We shall see. Anyway, stay classy. I might be making more posts than usual this week because I'm so lonely.

-Amy

P.S. I don't know why the computer won't let me post this without paragraph breaks, but it just won't. So sorry for the wall of text and the apparently random topic changes.

P.P.S. Fixed!

What is with these poems?

2011-03-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

I like all the poem/things that you wrote they are all very cool.

Speaking of Sheba, I will write you a poem about all the cats to update you on their happenings.

Ebony.

Ebony is as fat as ever,

She really likes to purr,

She has very black fur,

She has an infection

so she can't have fun.

Her eye is in pain,

and is emitting rain.

Sheba

Sheba likes to steal

my annoyance is real.

She takes hair things,

And chews on my rings.

She meows at my window,

But I love her so

Ali

Ali has really bad arthritis

I want to give her a kiss.

She is a very pretty cat,

She could not catch a rat,

even if she really wanted to,

Tadaaaaah

Post Script

2011-03-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

I wrote another poem today (I think this will be my last one for Creative Writing). I wrote it during Personal Communication, so it might be sort of depressing. Sorry about that.

History is a memory,

like how the smell of clean rubber

still brings to mind

hardwood floors and mirrors,

and cold hearts in denial.

History is in people.

My son made the decision

to pull the plug on his comatose daughter.

Her absence is a chasm between us...

I can hardly look at my son.

History is in notebooks

stacked carefully in a closet;

stored, but not forgotten.

They chronicle a long life:

a woman, weary under the weight of her mistakes.

History is now.

I didn't used to know that.

I wish I had.

I would have spoken of my love for them

so that, now, I wouldn't be so alone.

POST.

Brooding Betty

2011-03-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

Not to be a total pooper, but today hasn't been what I would call fantastic either. I committed a big no-no by submitting a paper in Personal Comm that was all rebellion and no teacher suck-ups. I usually suck up to the teacher in my classes because I want to get a good grade, but as you know I've been pretty fed up with PC altogether, so I wrote this paper that was a bit unconventional. Even though I freely acknowledged that my paper was rife with moral turpitude, my teacher handed the paper back with a long lecture on it explaining just how awful it is that I would write a paper like this (she may not have used the word "awful", but it came across that way). Eventually I had to stop reading her extensive notes, because 1) I'd already anticipated what she was going to say, 2) it was getting really long-winded, 3) I had better things to do (like study for Western Civ! AAAAA-), and 4) I was trying really, really, really hard not to care. At all. Not even kidding, through half a semester of not caring in that class, I still have a good grade in it, which is a pretty amazing amount of fail on the teacher's part.

There is a long display cabinet on the third-floor passageway between OCB and LIB that I pass almost every day. The display cabinet belongs to the fashion department, and the sheer amount of stupid displayed within it is, at times, very surprising indeed. The display changes in some way almost every week, so I get to witness an astonishing amount of lack of judgment on a frequent basis. For instance, a few weeks ago there was a display of designer mascara, with words written on the window: "THY GIVETH AND THY TAKETH AWAY."

-sob-

At the moment, there's a display of twenty or so bras that have been altered in some way, "altered" here meaning slathered with glue and encrusted with cheap craft glitter, rhinestones, and synthetic feathers in garish colors. How these people have the nerve to call themselves a fashion department is beyond me, especially when their idea of acceptable advertising involves dressing a mannequin in a Cavs cheerleader uniform that's about four sizes too small for it.

I'm really mean today, aren't I? You should post something wonderfully placating and kind to balance me out and cheer me up.

I have to get back to work.

Yours,

Amy

Long Day

2011-03-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

I'm making another post because I have word vomit and because I'm trying and failing to avoid going crazy about this test tomorrow. Also because Ondrej said I look "horrible" and stressed, and that just won't do. Stress is so bad for my complexion.

So far this week has been pretty stressful all around. I had a ton of homework due yesterday and I wasn't able to get it all done. Sometimes I feel like my creative writing class gets shunted to the sidelines a lot because I don't deem it as important as my other classes. So my short story is going to be a week late. Also I seem to be having a lot of moments where I get to my car and I can't find my keys in my bag and I have a horrible few seconds where I think I locked my keys in the car. [insert expletives of choice here]. Excuse my French. Eventually everything turns out all right but I've had too many scares.

I wrote a poem about Sheba. It goes like this:

Regally self-important

and dressed in a robe like forest shadows,

she lies

draped upon the chaise with an air of sovereign grace

languid and lithe.

The electricity of her power is hidden,

only betrayed in the tiniest charged movements

and in the way her yellow eyes follow you

observing with veiled interest.

Her limbs, long and shapely, are revealed

as she unfolds herself from her repose,

drawn by your beckoning hand,

to knead;

her needle-sharp claws digging

as she purrs a homely song for your love.

I know Sheba doesn't have claws but I put it in anyway for the sake of style. All writers are liars anyway. It's sort of supposed to start out just sounding like a pretty lady or a queen or something, and the cat part is supposed to come as a surprise. Tell me what you think.

I have to go take a nap or something now. I wish there were Cheerful Motivation pills. There probably are but I don't want to get busted for doing drugs.

-Amy

Flash Drive Caps

2011-03-23T12:07:00.001-07:00

That's the phrase for the day. For some reason, people have a really hard time remembering to grab the little caps for their flash drives before they leave. I've seen two orphaned caps today already.

I was thinking about this semester today, and I came to the realization that we're already halfway through it. I'm having a hard time coming to terms with that because to me it feels like the term just started. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because I don't have many classes this semester and it feels like I haven't been doing as much work as in the previous semesters. Whatever. Anyway, I'm glad that time is flying because I would like to get college over with and get on with my life.

Your rap was amazing. I think you should snag yourself a beatboxer so you can record it.

I don't have a lot to write today because I'm burnt out. I've been at work for four hours and I've helped so many people with their papers that if anyone tries to talk to me now I'm afraid I'll snarl at them. Also I inadvertently got into a long conversation about PCs versus Macs (it was only long because it was mostly one-sided - I don't know much about either, so I had little to say). I also talked about cars for some reason. One of the other tutors has a dream of fitting a Prius with the engine from a Corvette and zooming his way down the road yelling "suckers!" at all the people who believe that Priuses stand for all that is good and right and green in the world. I'm off duty right now but I can hear him still talking about it to the other tutors. Everyone thinks it's a grand idea.

I'm having a panic attack about Western Civ. Tomorrow I have an essay test and I'm NOT READY. So rather than writing this post, I should be going to a table, spreading out all my books, and studying until my eyes fall out. I'll keep you posted.

A poem about nothing but me

2011-03-22T11:16:00.001-07:00

(I'm writing a long poem in rhyming couplets for you, and the easiest subject to write a long poem about - beside Percy Jackson - is myself)

A Poem For Anyone Who's Listening

By Michelle Sullivan

You want to know? I'm just a fifteen year old girl

Another one who desperately wants her hair to curl.

I like playing any games that don't involve a ball,

My favorite seasons are spring and fall,

It don't like too hot and I don't like too cold,

I like to think my clothing taste is bold,

Someday I'm going to be a triple threat,

And I want a narwhal for a pet.

Pop culture is important to me,

I like most stuff that kids my age like, if you can't see.

I watch a lot of different kinds of TV shows,

My taste in entertainment is very wide

I love roller coaster rides.

My favorite book has got be Harry Potter,

But Percy Jackson is a close second, yes sir.

I don't have a favorite movie, or five movies,

When I hear a jammin' song I get the groovies,

I like Batman and I want to be a Superhero,

I've got 1million life points, you've got zero,

I've never been on a ferris wheel,

Everyone always says, "Are you for real?"

I'm more for real that you could ever wish to be,

I'm going to be president of the world, you'll see,

There will be more taco bells than starbucks,

And everywhere there will be...ducks.

One day I'm going to be a rapper,

I'll trump eminem and kanye, durr

I'mma not let kanye finish, I'm takin' the stage,

Just sayin', Rebecca Black's music video is all the rage,

She totally should have won the VMA instead,

After I am at the top I will go to space,

What will the spaceship have on it? My face.

Yeah I have ideas of grandeur, thats just me,

If nothing like that happens I'll still be cool, you'll see.

I'll go into psychology or maybe dance.

Maybe I'll meet famous people and move to france.

Sometimes I just say things because they rhyme,

And because I don't want to spend too much time,

And sometimes I do this, "I want to eat and orange."

AAAAHHH! Oh no what am I going to do?....blorange!

Wheeeh that was close! That was almost a little scary.

What rhymes with scary? Maybe fairy?

You know what else nothing rhymes with? Purple.

ThE eNd

I hate it when people do that every-other-letter-caps.

I Also Hate It When They Do This.

Peace out homeslice

-Michelle

I don't got The Mondays todayy

2011-03-21T08:38:00.000-07:00

You know how sometimes you're having a horrible day and you don't really know why, because you're doing school like every other day, and you're doing everything else like every other day of the week, and then you realize: It's monday. I've got The Mondays. Sometimes you can get The Mondays on other days because the mondays is pretty much just an attitude toward life that most people get on monday.

Sometime there is the senario before, but also sometimes the mondays is something that you wake up with. Its like you wake up and you're like: Ugh. Its monday. The first day of five days of hard work/school. The first day of five days of going to bed early and getting up early.

But today, I DON'T GOT THE MONDAYS!

And do you know why?

BECAUSE ITS THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING and BOY does it feel like it! I jumped on the trampoline today and changed into summery clothes and I got an AMAZING night of sleep last night.

YOu know how that is when you just...can't...open...your eyes... Well, that actually happens to me like every morning, but this was worse, and my eyelids were oh-so-much heavier, but when I finally did wake up all the way (I have this alarm on my phone and I set it to a fun peppy song that makes me happy) I was happy and I cleaned my room just listen to that sentence. When in the world does Michelle clean her room on a MONDAY, RIGHT after she woke up?

It really is crazy. Keeping my room clean for a week is so out of reach that its on my bucket list. Along with punching someone in the face and riding a narwhal.

Did you hear that before? Yeah, people (not you, Amy, you already know this. I mean, I know this is technically like a letter to you, but since I've been with you all week its like you already know everything that is happening in my life) I gots a phone.

A small flipable talking device. I can't or do anything like that but I've decided to be happy with what I've got, because the original plan was for me to get a phone when I'm sixteen, and this is like eleven months early! Its great!

-Stay Classy

Michelle

Sonni

2011-03-10T11:26:00.000-08:00

I'm glad you liked my post. I'm glad it made you laugh.

Heres something else to make you laugh.

You've probably seen it before, but it will make you laugh anyway because its funny.

How does Moses make is tea?

HEBREWS IT!

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHa

Well anyway. I called this post "Sonni" because on the drive home last night, Sonni said many a funny thing.

They included, "When I grow up I'm either gonna be rich or a farmer...."

What? What? Who says that? Thats like saying, "When I grow up I'm either gonna be a butcher or a vegetarian....."

She is just so elohel funny.

I just spelled out LOL so that people would say it 'lul' like angela does.

Kind of like Eminem. Hehe.

Then she said, "I want to be rich so I can help people out."

"Who would you help out?" -mrs. Larson.

"Oh everyone. I'd help out you guys." She was talking to the larsons when she said this.

"Oh how would you help us out?" - mrs. Larson.

"Um...a maid and stuff. Whatever you need."

"Thats really nice."

*Sonni turns to me* "Don't worry, I'll help you too, Michelle."

Ooooh funny funny.

On other news I am making a collage of awesome things on my door. I got a poster and on the back of it I'm putting pictures of cool stuff I like and then I'm going to put it on my door and it will wow millions.

And in OTHER news. Veronica mars is happening. Its pretty good. Pretty awesome. Pretty cool cool cool.

Also It would be really cool if you would think about driving to harrisonville on saturday to drop off a child. Katie, is her name.

We don't have many chances to hang out because she lives a million miles away AND has soccer every weekend. Just a thought, I don't know if its going to work with her yet. I thought I'd ask ahead because I'm that kind of kid.

Today I got some hair dye. I hope it works this time. If it doesn't I'm going to feel really bad for my hair but I'm going to keep on dying it until there is no red and no roots.

Also it would be cool if you came home today. Just sayin'....

It would also be cool if you came home tomorrow and brought me something as an apology for not coming home today.

Also I need to know what the youngest Knight boy's name is. The one that is my age. He's younger than Isaac, right? I can't remember his name and its SO annoying.

I already tried creeping around on facebook, but they all have protected accounts so I can't see who their friends are or how old they are or any of their pictures.

-Stay classy.

Michelle

Caffeine Is Bad For Me

2011-03-09T12:19:00.000-08:00

I just want you to know that I read your post and lol'd. For serious. For whatever reason, I'm in a pretty good mood today. Or maybe it's just a slap happy mood.

Don't sweat your permit picture. You don't have to show it to anyone. Not even me. The only time you conceivably would have to show it to someone would be if 1) you got pulled over, or 2)you're traveling and they demand some form of picture identification and you happen to not have your passport on hand. Neither of these things is likely to happen, so don't worry about it. My permit and first license pictures were both horrible. I finally got the hang of it by the time I got my intermediate license, so it's okay. Or maybe not, because I renewed my passport around that time, and I seriously look like I'm about to be sick.

tl;dr - don't sweat your permit picture.

I feel bad because the guy sitting on the computer next to me in the WC is really good at typing. He's got the home row thing all down, and here I am hen picking my way around this blog post in an ungainly fashion. It doesn't help that he's obediently writing a paper while I'm just having fun over here, giggling at you talking about people all around you getting shot.

It's okay that you don't like needles. At least it is now. Later on you'll have to deal with them a lot more often, so I suggest you do away with your fear as soon as possible. They're not all bad, even the gigantic ones that they shove into your arm when you give blood (that thing is like a bamboo shoot, friggin HUGE).

Last night I had Creative Writing. The thing was, I had a four-hour wait between Western Civ and Creative Writing where I didn't have anything to do (except watch 24, don't hate). I contemplated going to Mor Mor's and coming back, but gas is getting really expensive so I didn't. So there I was, sitting in front of my laptop in a dim hallway, beginning to nod off, so I decided to go get some Mountain Dew to wake me up (critiquing poems is no fun when all you want to do is sleep). MISTAKE. I hardly drink Mountain Dew, and never past lunchtime, so I wasn't prepared for the resulting tragedy. My hands started shaking. I got dizzy. I couldn't keep still. And when we're talking about the metaphor of fog in poetry, none of these things are beneficial. I hope no one noticed that I wasn't very forthcoming with helpful feedback.

I was devastated when Beaver turned out to be the villain. He was one of my favorite characters for a long time.

-Amy

P.S. I have to write a paper, three sources, 625 words, that can be about anything pertaining to the art and skill of asking great questions. I want to make it something interesting in order to spice the class up for myself a little bit (we watched the same scene of Dead Poets Society THREE TIMES in class just so the teacher could illustrate a point). I would like ideas from you! Should I write a narrative paper about a troubled couple with communication problems? Methods to mend a friendship with an erstwhile companion? Committing identity theft? (like that episode of Psych about the leprechaun and his wife asking people obscure questions so they could get past security precautions?) Any ideas you could shoot my way would be appreciated. I have all spring break to work on it, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

P.P.S. SPRING BREAK. Yeah.

Churches should always be unlocked

2011-03-08T07:36:00.001-08:00

Thats my thought for the day. It annoys me when I hear people going out of their way to get the key for the church, or leave before someone locks up. Its a church, gosh!

So yesterday I got my permit.

I went to the armory feeling very confident. I went in the room and she gave me my test. The chair was comfortable. There were three other people in there.

One kid finished his test when I got in there and he watched me until she was finished grading his. It was awkward.

So I'm doing this test, feeling confident, except about a couple questions, and I go up there and give it back to her and she says, "You got eight wrong, do you want to try it again?" and I was like, "WHAT?"

So I looked at the test that I got wrong, and all the questions that I got wrong had to do with license suspension and drinking. All of them.

So I took it again and it was a different test, but I was feeling pretty good about it, mainly because there were less questions about drinking and more about how to deal with road rage.

And I took it up to her when I finished and I only got three wrong. I was very happy.

So then I took the vision test and then had to sign some thing, and I signed it with pencil, and the lady pursed her lips and looked annoyed and said, "Next time sign with a pen" and I was like, "Ok"

So then I went to the license place and they asked me questions and then they took my picture, and I was feeling pretty confident about it.

Its like those camaras take everything that can possibly be ugly on you and magnify it by twelve.

Its a HORRIBLE picture, I can't even believe it. And on top of all that mom was like waving around her arms all crazy so I looked to the side for like a very split second, and so in the picture I'm looking to the side like a creeper or something.

Its the worst thing that ever happened to me.

And then mom went to go give blood, and I had to sit in the room, people getting shot all around me, for a whole hour. An hour.

I hate needles. I used to not hate them so much, but ever since I've watched heroes I've hated them worse.

Which is weird, because after you see stuff a lot your supposed to become like immune or something, right? But it just made it worse. Why were there so many needles in that show? Its crazy.

I still haven't driven. At all. It rained like a billion buckets times ten to the power of a popped collar, so I don't think I'll be driving for a while.

In other news, I finished the second season finale of Veronica Mars. It was pretty cool and stressful and super sad.

I liked Cassidy. And I like him and Mac. They were cute.

But then he turned out to be dumb, so I don't like him any more. Even though he and Joaquin Phoenix share a nose.

-Stay classy sistah

Sicky sicky

2011-03-04T07:18:00.000-08:00

Kind of like Picky-Picky from Ramona and Beezus. But not, because I'm sicky, not picky.

I'm not too sick to go see Beastly. I'm srs. I'm so excited. I'm also excited to see you. I'm pretty sure that nothing ever happens around here when its just me. Its like a coffin.

Last night we watched the old Parent Trap. The girl was a good actress, but I like then new one better. Some of the scenes were like exactly the same as the scenes in the new one.

Vicky, the bad lady, is better in the new one.

I made tortilla soup for dinner but it wasn't as delicious as I would have liked. Also I wasn't feeling so good so that probably had something to do with it. I had some canned soup for lunch yesterday, can you believe that? It was crazy good, which is weird.

I decided last night that I'm going to have a sweeeet graduation. I like graduations, especially if you've known the person who's graduation for a long time. I like watching those slideshow things. I can't believe you didn't have a graduation. I mean, sure, your little thing at the Packinghams house was great, but it just didn't do the trick for me. I'm pretty sure what I was wearing was nicer than what you were wearing, then I took pictures of me and Elise the whole time. Gosh, sometimes I can't even believe that I survived six months without her.

And now I can't believe I'm getting sentimental about it. Well thats no good.

I think what I missed most was how shes the only person who is just between you and me personality-wise. So whenever I really wanted to do something, she would kind of want to do it, and then we would convince you to do it too.

Just like how I'm about to try and convince you to NOT go to Belton to watch Beastly. I know what you're going to say,

"I already drove down from the city today, I don't want to drive up there again," And I'm going to say,

"GOSH, Amy we've been waiting for this movie for more than a year!" right? "We need to have the experience. We should totally go to the palazzo so we can see it on the opening weekend screen!"

And then you'll do that whine/grumble that you do when you're about to be persuaded,

and the Elise will be like, "Amy, come on, its Beastly. I mean, this is Alex Pettyfer."

And then you'll be like, "Fine."

I'm really smart about this stuff.

And no I will not buy your ticket if we make you go to somewhere beside Belton or Harrisonville.

But I will give you a hug.

And maybe a piece of candy.

-stay classy guuurl

Eating the Bead out of the Crust: The way I like to look at life

2011-03-03T07:48:00.000-08:00

Do you know what I'm doing right now? Well Elise made this wonderful bread for us and brought it over tuesday night, and We've gotten to the last inch or two, and the crust is kind of hard and un-tasty, but the middle is AMAZING. so I decided to just eat all the good stuff out of the middle, and so now I'm left with a crust rind/bowl.

And I realized, as I got an AMAZING amount of crumbs on the table/laptop/my lap, that this is one great analogy for the way I take on everything in life.

I just skip around all the bad stuff and eat the mushy delicious middle.

In other news, last night we drove Sonni home and she told us yet again how much she loves the movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou, and how shes seen it a million times, which means shes been watching it since shes like seven, which is weird because I've never actually seen that movie. I think its kind of like Groundhog Day and The Man Who Knew too Little. Everyone in my family is always talking about those movies, but I've never seen them.

She also sang us "On the big rock candy mountain" which I happen to know because we like have that soundtrack or something, and then she told us how she likes the version that says "whiskey" rather than "lemonade", which is funny, because I'm pretty sure I thought whiskey was a bad word when I was 5-9, just like I thought it was bad to say "my bad". Like, where did I get that? Sometimes Little kids are just the weirdest.

Um, YES we're going to see Beastly this weekend, I'm TOTES excited!

Haha, I don't know if you saw this on my facebook, but when we got to the Harpers house last night we were driving down the driveway and Sonni was like, "Don't run over the cat, I think shes out tonight. Shes a maggot. A real maggot. Literally. Her name is Lovey. Yeah, shes....not a bad child."

It was the funniest weirdest thing that I have ever heard her say.

Also I'm listening to this song, and its got pitbull in it, and I'm pretty sure he does some Spanish talking, because the song is Spanish. I'm pretty sure its Spanish, at least....

Anywho, nothing has really happened and you need to come home.

Oh, Yeah, weevil is not awesome. Hes not nice to Logan.

Meg is pregnant. That is all.

-Stay classy.

'Sup, Homeskillet

2011-03-02T10:45:00.000-08:00

I totally knew that Weevil was in Heroes. The only problem is that I can't actually remember what part he's in. It's been too long. But Weevil is the best ever, right?

I'm sorry your 21st-century eyes have no tolerance for blocks of text. I won't humor this! Once you get to college, all you'll be doing is reading tl;dr paragraphs. All day long. I'm just preparing you for a life of misunderstanding and disappointment.

I'm totally jealous that you got to see Elise last night. But she's coming over to Mor Mor's tomorrow afternoon, so that's cool. I need an Elise fix, because without her I have become a cold, cynical shell of a human.

In other news, this week has been good. In fact, it has been rosy. No reason really. Yesterday actually started out pretty horribly because I'm an irresponsible girl and I leave my homework to the last... the very last. In fact, I leave it so to the last that I have to skip other classes in order to finish it. Yoga took the hit this week. But now, as a result, I am intimately acquainted with the themes of Romaniticism, Newtonianism, and the lame storyline of Frankenstein. I really didn't like that book and I especially hated coming up with discussion questions for it. The discussion was okay though. Everyone's finally starting to warm up to each other. It's the same way in Creative Writing. I never thought I'd say this, but I think that this class is going to teach me to appreciate poetry. Last night we talked through several poems that my classmates had written, and some of them were really good. There was one about lying that was pretty awesome. All the people in that class are really diverse so we get a lot of cool stuff going on. I like it, even if there are one or two slitty-wrist poems in the mix.

So are we on for Beastly this weekend? I need to be busy not thinking about the Communist Manifesto, and I think a crappy romance will do just the trick.

-Amy

P.S. Someone put a picture of a horse handbag on the tutor table and named it Sarah Jessica Parker. Sometimes we get bored. Obviously.

"Its all behind me now, like a long night after a bad taco."

2011-03-01T14:39:00.000-08:00

Wait...Is it just me or is that the funniest thing I've ever heard come seriously out of Sylars mouth? (That and, "Are you going to eat my brain?" *leans in and whispers* "Claire thats disgusting.") I dunno I just thought it was hilar.

Well I did a lot of school today and I still don't have my permit. Was that meant to be one sentence? Yes. I'm blaming school for me not getting my permit because if I blame mom then I probably won't ever get it.

So I have this picture as my desktop picture on the laptop and every time I see it I laugh really hard and then cough really hard.

Oh, didn't you know? I have a really weird cough. I don't feel bad and my throat isn't scratchy or sore, but whenever I breathe to fast or too deep I cough cough cough. It kind of sucks.

I framed a picture of all of us girls plus Elise on my wall. Its the one where we're in the garden and we're all spread out and looking into space with deep thinker looks, except me.

Its nice and makes me feel more connected.

Amy the way you write posts makes them hard to read. The long paragraphs just kill me.

Elise is coming tonight. I'm not sure if I should make a sign or what. I'm kind of spent right now because I've been cleaning my room and it is hot hot hot up there. ( sometimes I say things three times so I can feel like Nanny. Now all I need is newspaper in my skirt that rustle when I walk)

Isn't it cool how I connected what I was saying about Elise to Eloise? Their names are kind of the same....

So, I need to tell you something. You know Francis Capra, Weevil from Veronica Mars? Well you know that part on Heroes (You probably forgot) where Sylar goes to Claire's house to get her healing power, and he sees the files on all those people, and theres a picture of some guy, and I was like "Hey, Mexican!" and then I was like, "Hey Weevil!" and then I was like "Hey Francis Capra!" And then I was like, "On heroes?" So then I looked him up and turns out it really is him, and hes on three episodes.

He better be a pretty cool character or something. At the end of the episode I'm pretty sure he was claiming to be Peter Petrelli (I spelled that all by myself) I don't know what thats all about.

And don't you agree that if Mohinder Suresh were going to have a superpower it would be mental, not physical? Hes a geneticist, gosh.

Just sayin'. I can already tell this season isn't going to be nearly as cool as the first, or even the second. Its sad. But Peter, Matt and Sylar are still around (so far, but I've only got one episode in) so I'm happy.

Stay classy.

Your Sister is a Snow-Driving Superstar!

2011-02-25T07:13:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I put up posters. Aaaall over. They say, "Amy Wants You To Read Her Blog" and has a big chariacature of me pointing at the reader, Uncle Sam-style.

I found out where the student lounge is and I might go over there later on today. The only problem is that unless they have free food, there's not really anything over there to draw me in. Arcade games? TVs? Air hockey? Not really my thing. Maybe they have really comfy couches. All I need to survive this really long break is a comfy chair and an outlet so I can plug in my laptop. And there's free food at the Writing Center anyway. At the moment it's honey mustard and onion pretzels, which are surprisingly delicious. And coffee, which is good too. So I'm sitting in a hallway on a comfy chair next to an outlet and some vending machines (and a lady who's been sitting here staring into space for the last fifteen minutes, kind of starting to weird me out), and I'm all set.

Today I read a paper that was submitted online that was a high school student's reinterpretation of the phrase "all's fair in love and war". I thought of you. The only problem was that it soon became obvious that she didn't understand the generally accepted meaning of the phrase and she had no idea where she was going with it, ultimately BSing something about romance during wartime and covering up her BS with flowery language. I wasn't fooled. But how do you tell someone that they need to restart their entire paper from scratch? Let me tell you - it's a lot easier to do it over the internet. We tutors don't even have to sign the emails with our names, so we can bluff if any wronged students come to the WC looking for blood.

You know how last night it snowed? Well I'm here to tell you that I AM AWESOME and was able to slip and slide my way to school in a half-hour (which is what it generally takes on a normal snow-free day). Just thought I'd let you know. However, you'll probably be hearing from me after work meeting because I'll need to know if it's safe to drive on Nelson and whatnot. Since it's probably pretty soupy down there.

When I get home we need to party with Kristin and that one guy because they'll be leaving sometime. Sunday? Monday? Anyway. We should make them a card or something so they don't forget about us.

Cheers,

Amy

Slacker.

2011-02-24T17:53:00.000-08:00

What, is our blog famous or something? Are you putting up posters around the school that say, "Go to this blog, ITS TOTALLY AWESOME!" or something?
As true as that may be, that's still weird.

Is he looking at your history on the computer? Ehh! Sneaky. I admire a sneaky man. He is a man, right? I think Brendan sounds like a man name. Is be Brendan Fraser? Is he the one that looks like Michael Cera?

Speaking of Brendan Fraser, go to his IMDB, his profile picture made me laugh (on the inside) for like ten minutes.

That means I'll be laughing for the next nine and a half minutes inside.

Uhh, I don't think its cool that all that personal "Comm." makes you mad. It shouldn't. And don't fume in your journal while you're around people. If you're going to be mad let everyone know, but if its a dumb reason keep it to your self and suck it up.

Joseph got me Bolt.

And I'm going to watch Ramona and Beezus.

Sooo... stay classy.

Don't get in trouble.

BYE

Delinquency!

2011-02-24T09:10:00.000-08:00

Yeah, it's kind of sad how Heroes gets not so cool after the first season.

Guess what! I SKIPPED A CLASS. My first time this semester. Here's how it happened:

So I was busy busy, rushing around the campus doing things that were arguably productive, like work and yoga, and then I went to Personal Comm. So I was sitting there in the classroom before the class started. It was really hot in there, and the teacher was writing out all the things she was going to talk to us about after we finish this film (Bend it Like Beckham, only so-so). This has gone on for three classes, where we watch a part of the film and afterwards we go into exhaustive (and I mean exhaustive) detail about all the relationships in the film and the communication of it and the culture of it, all of which is readily evident and only really warrants a passing mention in class. The inanity of it and the time being wasted was making me so mad that I would end up writing inflammatory things in my notebook to keep myself from listening or talking (or else I would become even more mad). So today, when I sat down in class and saw the teacher preparing for another round of this, I suddenly thought, "I don't even have to be here!" So I got up and just left.

You might not think that's a very spectacular story, but skipping a class is really major for me. I'm supposed to be a responsible tutor! But I'm actually not a very good example. You can be certain that tomorrow I'm going to be obsessively checking Angel (the online part of the class) to see if the teacher assigned anything while I was pooped out. I don't know why I even skip classes if the stress of skipping makes me so jittery.

There is a guy here (I'm in the Writing Center, did I mention that?) who's wearing a newsboy cap with rhinestones on it. Whaaat?

Last night, I went to Angela's play with her. I can see why she didn't want Mom and Dad to see it since it's pretty crude or whatever. I didn't really mind. I kind of liked it. Some of it was funny, and the rest of it was just horrible. The story, I mean. It was depressing. UMKC is pretty nice, as far as I could see. Probably nicer than UCM, which is a little depressing, but I can handle it. I think the real problem is that I have had this mentality all along that Warrensburg is a small town of similar ilk to Harrisonville or somewhere sad like that, and that's the reason I've been dreading it a bit all along. Hopefully I'm wrong.

I'm pretty sure that we would be a really boring family if Mom had never made us cook and clean together. Food is like the centerpiece of our relationships. And I'm okay with that.

I think I've vomited up enough words for today.

-Amy

P.S. Elise gets home on Sunday. We should go to the airport with Auntie Ann.

P.P.S. One of my co-workers found out about this blog through no fault of my own. If you're reading this, Brendan, BUGGER OFF.

Kidding.

-Amy

Don't be a chicken.

2011-02-24T08:13:00.001-08:00

Chickens are ugly. Chickens are noisy and dirty. Chickens are the bane of the birds existences.

You know at family reunions theres always that one really weird really drunk uncle (I said uncle because whenever anyone says anything about weird or rich relatives they always say uncle. I didn't say that because we have a few of them, I just said it because its what most people can relate to) that everyone is always kind of ashamed to be related to?

Thats what the entire bird family thinks of chickens. Chickens are the dumb ones that have no brains and after four weeks their legs are too weak to support there meatiness.

Chickens are like the extra who gets killed off before the opening credits of the show. That guys life is always way too short for him to have a name, he's just there to get the point across of how dangerous the villain of the episode is.

Chickens are like that because their lives are so short that no one cares enough to genetically change their legs to support their genetically changed fatness. The chickens are not there for their life, they're there for food.

So don't be a chicken Amy.

Yesterday I made my awesome cookies for youth group, but they didn't really turn out awesome because they were kind of dry. Heres what I hate: dry cookies.

Heres what else I hate: popcorn.

Mom made me bring lots of popcorn, but no one really ate it, and then I got Jack take it all home. The cookie dough for these cookies was like heaven, and Kristin was in the kitchen doing something on her computer.

I had put heath pieces in, and she was talking about how she needed at least one cookie because she was watching me make them.

Then I told her she could have the mixer things, and she pretty much said she would do anything for me. She was so happy. I don't think I've ever seen her so excited about anything. Ever.

She kind of got high and I was making fun of her being sarcastic, and we were both giggling (but mostly just her) and then she said,

"Vitamins should be made with toffee."

And I was like, "I'm pretty sure the planet would implode."

and then Joseph came in and was like, "Everyone would die from vitamin overdose."

I don't know why I told you that story. I guess I just wanted you to know that your poem is very accurate.

Everything happens in the kitchen.

I don't think I would know Joseph at all if we didn't clean the kitchen together. Like at all.

I'm still watching heroes. I'm still on the second season. Its pretty good. I didn't like how Hiro went to the 1600, that kind of seemed like a really weird side story for a really main character. It reminded me of Inkheart, in the second book when all this weird stuff happens to all the main characters, and its like every chapter is about someone else in a different time and place and planet. Yeah.

Peter is still awesome, which is good. His Irish girlfriend is out of the picture, lets hope forever.

Sylar is just not in it enough. I don't like that every time I see him is when I see those dumb Mexicans.

I know how racist that sounds, but they really are annoying. That Maya girl is all like, "My eyes can turn black and I can cry tar, and I can make everyone around me pass out....or something....."

and then Alejandro is like, "I can counteract her creepy non-power by holding her hands and looking in her eyes...kind of...I think...."

I like that Adam guy. I kind of think I've seen him in something else.

Micah is awesome, his mom is not. And DL is dead. Why don't they just call him Daniel? thats an awesome name!

Claire still has that boyfriend or something. Her dad just got killed and then before that episode he got healed.

I kind of felt like thats happened before.....LIKE TEN TIMES.

It happened to Claire, it happened to him, it happened to Sylar and it happened to Peter a couple of times.

Everyone is dying, and reviving, but now even the non hero people are reviving!

I kind of hoped that would be the end of Mr. Bennett. I really can't stand him. He's annoying and weirdly over protective.

Matt is being awesome. I liked the whole thing with his dad.

Now he has mind manipulation. I hope it doesn't turn him into a bad guy.

Stay Classy,

-Mitchy Ray

Slacker!

2011-02-23T13:27:00.000-08:00

I'm calling you a slacker! Basically sometimes at work I have nothing to do so I go and obsessively check the blog, even though the amount of times per week that anything happens on it is like three. And I feel dumb getting on Facebook here because it makes me feel like all the other college students who come to the WC to get on Facebook. Besides, this is work. It's just not a good idea. So I'll write a blog post to pass some time.

I was going to do this in the other room (LIB 307) because it's more out of the way, but I got in there and realised that the entire room smells like a cat peed in a corner. You know that stale cat pee smell. I have no idea how the smell got there (unless there was a homeless person sleeping there recently), but it's strong enough that I don't want to walk in there to help anyone any more.

So I shared my poem in Creative Writing last night (I changed it up a little bit since posting it here, but it was essentially the same) and even though Angela thought that it was a little too harsh of a representation of our family life (probably was), a lot of the people in the class liked it and a couple of them came up to me after class to tell me that they really liked it. I feel affirmed! However, this doesn't mean that I'm ever going to enjoy writing poetry. Some of the people in that class crack me up. Creative writing people are never quite normal, you know? We've got everything in there, from cutting-my-wrists poems to poetry about the military and patriotic duty and suchlike. I would find it all very interesting if I weren't this close to falling asleep the entire time. Six to nine at night is not a very good time for a writing class.

I'm in the slow process of editing (i.e. making readable) my story so I can send it to you. I feel bad about it because there are "thematic elements" (really, what does that even mean?) in it that you probably won't like or I won't like you to read because I wasn't thinking about readers when I wrote them and suddenly it all seems very risky to me. In short, I'm starting to chicken out but I must force myself not to! At the moment I'm writing a section of it that includes a little backstory of the anti-hero and his little sister who tired to commit suicide. I don't like it at all, but I don't know where to go to get the info I need to make it convincing. Sigh.

Okay, my shift starts in a couple of minutes. I'll see you later honey bun (sounds delicious right now).

-Amy

Poems are dumb, yeah, poems are no fun. See what I did there?

2011-02-21T08:32:00.001-08:00

This is the kitchen, where we bicker about everything;
past transgressions and fresh wrongdoing.
In the kitchen, nothing we do is ever right.
The dish is never clean enough,
and you should wipe the counter again
because you were too lazy the first time around
and I can still see crumbs.
We point fingers with secret smiles;
we twist the knife and laugh.
We confess our affection by causing strife
and with dissent, commit love.
But in the end, someone has to scrub the pot;
the one that's encrusted with dried, melted cheese.

I'm finished with that. FINISHED, I tell you! I shall never touch it again (except to print out 22 copies. dumb). I don't care if it's the worst poem you've ever read, or that it's not a poem at all. I don't care!

I've decided that we need a poetry tag, so I have created one. Capiche?

The poem response

2011-02-18T12:58:00.001-08:00

So I'm writing this blog post, as a response to yours, I'm also timing myself.

I'd say its more of a rap though...

Gimme a beat, here.

Yeah, its totally cool when people check you out,

its like the care and feel like you know what you're about

Yeah but most the time they just checking out your hair,

or trying to tell you your fly is unzipped, like you care.

No I care about my fly,

But the amount of material there is unreal,

So if you don't care, thats all right,

just go on thinking they're checking you out, thats tight.

I could really go somewhere with this rapping biz,

I'm good so good, like the coke to the fiz,

and no I'm not talking about drugs,

why does everyone assume that?

If I were talking about drugs I would use drug lingo,

not the name of a classic yummy brown soft drinko

Did you know they found the secret ingredient in coke?

Its got alcohol in it, isn't that crazy? I don't know if I believe it,

but what the heck, I don't drink coke cause it makes me want sneeze-it.

I'm pretty sure I'm a rhymin fool,

I pun like a rapper and I work like a tool,

Did you get that one? Not surprised you're too slow to keep up

I'm going places with my rappety name,

I got cars and money and boys and fame,

Mitchy Ray goin' to the top in this game,

I probably own your house so don't you dare say this's lame

I got the works, yes I do, I got style and glam,

On the weekends I go out and hang with the fam.

You shouldn't be surprised that I'm a down to earth kid,
I've got talent and I'm worth it and I know what I did,

I've got people and homeys and lots of bling bling,

I got silver necklaces and a big gold ring,

I got fame and fortune and a little o' errythin

Confidence is key and looks are the lock,

So do what you do and don't forget to let it rock!

14 minutes. Yeah.

-stay classy.

I may rap this to you when you get home.

Cool Beans

2011-02-18T10:12:00.000-08:00

Yeah, you pretty much just listed like every super power ever there. I would have a hard time deciding between telekinesis and telepathy. It used to be between flying and breathing underwater, but not so much any more. It would be cool to be able to move things with my mind just because it would be cool. But it would probably be cooler to read minds because then that would eliminate social awkwardness and I would be able to be a super interrogator. I would go work for the CIA and become a secret agent because that's been my ambition in life since the beginning of time.

There's a guy checking me out in the WC. I can't be sure if that's really what he's doing, but he keeps on looking over at me (I'm off-duty at the moment) and it's nice to imagine that someone checks me out every once in a while. Good on the self-esteem. But still creepy. Why am I even writing this?!

I'm excited about coming home too, except I heard that it is supposed to rain this weekend which means that I will have to spend $7 on a carwash on Monday instead of $4. My car is already really encrusted in mud from last weekend in the sticks and I was waiting for the opportune moment to clean it. The opportune moment has moved from today to Monday. Until then, I practice boondocks pride. But what's the use of boondocks pride if no one writes snide comments in the dust on my car in the school parking lot? Everyone here is just too well-mannered.

The WC is hopping today and I sort of feel like stepping in to help even though I'm not on duty because Ruth "Beyonce" Knowles couldn't make it to her shift. Nah. These kids can handle themselves.

Yesterday I wore sandals to school BECAUSE I CAN. The only problem with this was that it's been so long since I've worn sandals that I wasn't careful with the door of the Carlsen Center and I opened it on my foot. Two of my toes started bleeding immediately. However, I took the pain like a man until I could get to a bathroom, where I rummaged around in my bag and found my last two band-aids! I keep band-aids in my bag because there was this one time last semester where I had a shoe emergency at school and had to run to the convenience store there to buy some. Anyway, I had two left and I used them on my poor toes and the disaster was averted (I hear they charge you for using the first-aid kits at school if it's not an emergency). Anyway, that's my miracle of the week!

My Personal Comm class is going to drive me insane. Not even kidding. Yesterday when I was in class I could feel my brain starting to get drippy around the edges. Any more of that and it would have started oozing out of my facial orifices. I'll risk your sanity and tell you all about it when I get home today.

-Amy

P.S. for the tutor meeting today I heard that someone's visiting us from another department to do "strengths training" with us. Still no word on what that actually means, but Ehsan figured they'd set out some dumbbells and have us all lifting weights. I'd rather do that than talk about how my strength is that I'm so good at making people feel horrible about themselves. I'll keep you posted.

P.P.S. It's true, I borrowed Angela's nail polish without asking her and then forgot about it. It's sad because she's never at Mor Mor's anymore. I think I saw her a grand total of like three times this week. Unpaid jobs that suck up your entire life are dumb.

"I wouldn't nuke the dog!"

2011-02-18T09:03:00.000-08:00

Wouldn't it be horrible to have nuclear power as your superpower? Yeah. It would.

I don't cut off all human contact when I get into a show. I am not like you in that way. Really.

Usually I don't spend that much time watching shows, and not that much more time than I usually would have already been on the computer.

I'm happy because you're coming home today.

I'm sad because I'm afraid you won't remember all the stuff that I'll be obsessing about. You know how that is? You just remember like two things that happened on a show that you watched in like one week? I think you're like that. I'm like that. I did that with buffy. But there were 7 season of buffy, so it was a little more unhealthy.

Beside Heroes, nothing has happened. At all. Literally.

I went to literature class and then youth group, for like the second time this year. We played a fun game and we ran a lot and I fell a lot on the ground and my knees are bruised like crazy business, and my thighs hurt. Also I showed my bruise to nicole (it kind of turned yellow, and there are two dark dots on it. Its gross and weird and its a really good battle wound) just to make sure she realized how much pain I'm in all the time. I made sure shes sorry:) I'm so good at that.

Then yesterday I went to the orthodontist and something really funny happened, but it wouldn't be funny if I told you on here, because nothing is as funny when its typed.

Then I got a driving book, and I'm totes going to get my license of permit or whatever next week.

Also I had a lot of weird dreams. The kind of dreams where when you wake up you remember it, and you totally think its real, and then later you remember thinking about it, but you don't really remember what it was, and you figure out it wasn't real.

I'm pretty sure that the one I had last night involved me in an interrogation room with Matt and Peter. We were on the same side, we were fighting crime together. We were like the FBI or something awesome like that. I just remember we were like...friends...and it was like...cool.

Also I know I dreamed something else, and I dreamed something the night before, but I can't remember either.

I have weird dreams about meeting/being friends with famous people or characters from movies or shows. One time I had a dream I was dating Jake T Austin and I was singing with Justin Bieber. In the same night. Yeah.

Another time I had a dream that I was doing a music video with Willow from Buffy and Allan Rickman, who had on real moose antlers with big wasp nests at the end of them. It was weird.

So if you had a superpower what would it be? I'm pretty sure I would want teleportation or something.

Healing would be cool too I guess, but only if you were in death situations a lot.

Flying would be cool, but I feel like I would have to keep it secret, and it would be REALLY hard to keep it secret and still have fun.

Being able to find anyone in your mind would be cool too I guess.

Reading minds would be AWESOME but only if you could control it. Like only be able to read people when you want.

I think that the whole water/ice/fire thing would be pret cool too. Like Billy! or Bobby or whatever his name was. And Pyro. ( I just switched superhero movies, did you catch it?_

I might just want to teleport because thats what Will.i.am did. tehe.

OOh Ryan Reynolds power was cool too. The one he had before he came mute and creepy.

Telekinesis would be cool too. Thats moving things with your mind, right? Yeeahh..

See you lata sista.

-stay classy.

What.... have I done.

2011-02-17T07:02:00.000-08:00

Ah, for the good old days of burning through shows like firewood on a midwinter night (my sleep-depreived analogies are great, right? Right?). I sadly don't really have the time to watch five/eight episodes of Lost on end like I used to. Those were the days. I hope you're not shutting out humanity like I used to. I've been watching a little bit of 24 though. Turns out ZQ is actually pretty cool after all. He may hate women but he knows how to be awesome in a crisis. Does that sound horrible? Yes!

Last night, I kid you not (I hate it when people say that), I painted my nails. The only nail polish Angela had was this really light green-blue stuff, which suited me. I feel pretty now! There's a first.

This week I wrote a long reflective essay about myself for Personal Comm. It was what I'd call a really dumb assignment. Maybe that's just me. As you probably know, I spend the majority of my time in self-reflection, so an exercise like this is extremely inane (I've been using that word a lot lately. It's just so appropriate!). I'm afraid I got a little snide around the middle, after I'd gotten tired of writing exaustively about the workings of my own mind.

Gotta go to yoga now. Laters.

-Amy

Twins: Everyday Thoughts of Grandeur

Peanut Butter and Love Poems

It is pretty late.

Seventeen to One, Complete Victory.

poo.

"I think I'll make a quick post before really getting into my homework" *writes post that, if printed, could probably be used as a doorstop*

Oh, Being Sixteen

Yeah, Language

My Birthday Party (cause I know you've forgotten)

Homework-Induced Procrastination Which I Cannot Afford

The Place

100 Pictures Carrying Me to Fame

The Fault in Our Stars

One of Those Weekends

I'm your man

Is there anything in this house that IS swimming in gravy?

Can't Put a Price Tag on my Childhood

Pain. Lots of Pain.

Oh, hey!

Slower Days

COLLEGE KIDS ARE LAME! LITERALLY!

People I Don't Even Know Keep Slandering Me

Bundling

I don't even know where to start

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

Happy November

School Beans

Spoilers

Vending Machine WIN

Warm Things Like A Boss

Dance Class Dance Class DanceDanceDanceClass

UCM Hipster Populations

"Kent Mansley, I work for the goverment."

Homeschoolers

Bad Coffee Again Today

This Weekend

Stupid Technology

It's a battlefield out there

Hustle

"nerds" is blurred

Best day

Asian Shirt

Sundry Items

So Much to Do, So Little Time

Illegal Blog Post

HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAAAY

Hooraaay

*crickets*

Blagosphere Confessionals

Yes... I am in class right now

College is Almost Exactly How I Imagined High School Must Be Like

Vhere....is theh Nazi goollt!"

Oh, hey there.

Binary.

To tea or not to tea?

You're a Superstar!

"....it was only a corvette..."

Useless Superpowers!

Quickie

Guess what?

About Blogs

Hares. Hairs. And Hears, Heres, and Hers in a redneck accent.

Shows in Kansas City. Wait...WHAT?

o hai

Late-Semester Depression

Tiger Mountain Peasant Song

Bite-Size Post

Ode to Missouri

Dear Amers

It is almost 4:00 AM

Dear Michelle,

Imma be

PICKER-UPPER

The interesting thoughts of Edward Monkton

Homework Eats my Soul

What is with these poems?

Post Script

Brooding Betty

Long Day

Flash Drive Caps

"I think I'll make a quick post before really getting into my homework" writes post that, if printed, could probably be used as a doorstop

crickets