More Books!

More books! More books! 8D I have the distinct feeling this isn't something I should be excited about, that it's something that SHOULD happen at any given time; but college pretty much ruined me in that. I will never again be able to finish a book without truly appreciating it or truly hating it - appreciating for giving me something wonderful to think about, or hating for seriously wasting my time. Like that one book I got from the library a while ago. Talk about a book that would never end... =_=

Anyways. I've mostly enjoyed the books I've read on vacation so far. I'm just a little uncertain how I feel about the romance in one of them, although the romance in the last two books I've read was a bit strange.

Beauty Sleep. By Cameron Dokey. Traditional Sleeping Beauty, in some ways. Definitely changed in other ways. The curse and alteration was the same. The way they came to pass was not. And I don't want to give too much away, so I'll simply say this is the book where I'm not so sure about the romance. If it took place in today's world, I would definitely disapprove; but since it doesn't, I'm not sure. =/

Midnight Pearls. By Debbie Viguie. This story is definitely a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson's story of The Little Mermaid, rather than the Disney version that I'm most familiar with. I do like the story, and I like most of the characters most of the time, although a couple times I wanted to slap one guy upside the head for being so blind. Not in the romance department, though: there was something else he failed to notice. I guess my only complaint with this story could be that it ended big. It started small (with just a fisherman and his family), but by the end there were a lot of characters who needed dealt a proper ending.

These two books, by the way, are part of a Once Upon a Time series, to which more than one author contributes to. I feel like I should just put out there that Cameron Dokey is so far my favorite author in the series, although I have yet to read any of her works outside the Once Upon a Time series. See you tomorrow! Oh, and happy New Year's Eve!

Reading Time

Guess what! In the last few days, I've read three books and am working my way through a fourth! *squee!* A few months ago, that wouldn't have gotten me all excited. It really wouldn't be outside the realm of normalness. But since starting college, I've had next to absolute zero free time. It was only in the last month or so of college that I started figuring out how to force time for pleasure reading.

Sigh, but these last few days have been bliss! Not only have I actually had tons of time for reading, but I've also recently bought several new books! Thrilling to read something new and love it! Shall I do a quick head count for you?

Cassidy Jones and the Seventh Attendant. Serious drama right there. Tons of action, too. But the thing I've been most thinking about since finishing it is the love triangle. Cassidy and her long-time crush have finally gotten together! Great, right? Maybe, maybe not. It's been implied in the first two books that Cassidy's neighbor has a major crush on him, although she always thought (and I agreed up until this book) that it was all for show, considering he's protecting her from herself but only a select few know that. But now in this book, I don't know, something's made me realize that maybe the neighbor's feelings are actually somewhat on the romantic side. Hmmm. =/ I'm really not sure which side of this love triangle I support.

Tuesdays at the Castle. The Castle is alive! It can create new rooms and make others disappear; it can stretch hallways and open passages through windows or fireplaces; and it has a definite will of its own. It chooses who it wants to be king, and it makes known when certain unsavory characters come visiting. It gives big, bright rooms to good people; it shrinks the rooms of bad people. And it has a favorite inhabitant - a young eleven-year-old princess named Cecelia.

Hmm, that's only two, but this post will probably end up being too long if I add the third. Maybe later, then. =) Bye for now!

Mother Gothel

I. Am. So. Tired.

Why? I could hardly sleep last night.

Why? I don't know.

Why? ENOUGH WITH THE QUESTIONS! I SAID I DON'T KNOW!

*fear*

...Great, now I'm the bad guy. =_=

... ... ...Recognize that last quote? Yeah, I didn't plan that until I wrote out that second why, but it fit in pretty well, don'tcha think?

For those of you wondering what I'm talking about, I'm talking about Disney, of course! The movie Tangled, to be more specific. Mother Gothel, to be most specific. She blew up kind of like that when Rapunzel kept asking to leave her tower, and I actually saw a FanFiction story a couple years ago where Rapunzel was a toddler asking why and Mother Gothel blew up at her. I forget how the author of that story worded Gothel's shout, but I remember how at the time it struck me as absolute perfection.

I'd like to encourage you to go find it and read it, actually. It's in the website FanFiction.net. Look under the category for movies, and look for the sub-category for Tangled. It's rated either K or K+, since I never read anything rated T or M.

...I feel like it's painfully obvious that I made this post up as I went along. That's not to say that it's not all true, or at least true at the time as far as I could tell, but I mean basically that I was winging it. And since I'm now no longer quite as tired, I'd like to thank you for waking me up, dear readers. I'll probably still fall asleep on the ride to church, though.

101

Good morning! Sorry this post is a bit late; I was finishing a really awesome book. But at least since this is my one hundred and first (is that proper English? I don't know how else to say it) post, I don't have to sit here and wonder for five minutes what I want to talk about.

One hundred and one. Can you guess what I want to talk about? I bet you can't. Even if you're thinking about 101 Dalmatians, you're only half right. How many of you have seen Disney's second 101 Dalmatians movie - Patch's London Adventure?

I rewatched it relatively recently, and my topic today is going to be Lars - that eccentric artist who paints black spots on white canvas.

Naturally, the instant Cruella de Vil saw his work, she fell in love with it. And Lars was happy to find someone who understood and appreciated his work so thoroughly.

May I be the first to say their first meeting or two were nothing less than downright creepy? Lars had that weird way of moving and talking, and he got waaay too close to Cruella sometimes to ever sit well with someone who knew how evil she was. And Cruella seemed to love Lars far too well for someone like me who hadn't seen the movie in several years to remember if Lars was a villain or actually semi-decent.

Those of you who could actually follow that last sentence and have actually seen the movie recently enough to remember it probably know what the turning point for Lars was. SPOILER ALERT. Cruella brought him Dalmatian puppies to skin and turn into canvases, and he insisted that, eccentric though he may be, he was not a sicko. ♥

That line alone was enough to win me over to his side of things for good. Why have we not seen more of him, I wonder? An unappreciated artist, for sure. Go spread the word and therefore the love. Lars is awesome, in a very weird but wonderful-to-dogs kind of way.

One Hundred and Sims

First of all, THIS IS MY ONE HUNDREDTH POST! Oh, so exciting! Big milestone, people; big milestone!

...I'd go on and on about that topic; but as exciting as it is, I really don't have any more to say on it. o_O So let's move on to second of all: Sims 2!

Okay, okay, I know I had that whole series a while back about Sims 2, but I have a new development to share. Remember the guy I made to marry Brandi? He had a daughter of his own - same age as Dustin, the two became step-siblings. And for that daughter, I had made another family - this one with both mom and dad, with a teenage son. I intended for these two teens to get together and eventually marry.

They did eventually meet as teens, become friends, then love interests. They went steady for as long as they were both teens. Then yesterday I moved them off to college together. I set them up in the same dorm, although it was really tempting to get them their own house on campus. Nothing improper would've happened, but apparently I care about the reputation of my Sims, even if they can't have reputations. o_O

Anyways, so they and six other Sims were in the same dorm together. Eventually, my male Sim proposed to my female Sim! And then eventually, they GRADUATED! Goodness, if this is how graduation feels with my Sims, I'm so scared I won't be able to handle one day having actual kids go off to college and graduate and stuff.

Anyways, then I moved them into separate houses - my female into an old temporary cheapie, and my male into a place I fixed up all nice for their eventual family. And then I threw a wedding party and they got married! AND THEN THEY WENT ON A HONEYMOON! I'd never thrown a wedding party until then, so I guess the honeymoon just comes with that - but I would've thought that honeymoons were impossible in Sims 2 without Bon Voyage!

All in all, very exciting! Happy 100th post, everybody, and I'll see you tomorrow!

The Lone Ranger

So. My family and I watched the new Lone Ranger movie yesterday. Before I share with you my opinion of the movie, I'd like to add in a sort of disclaimer. Action movies aren't really my thing; I mostly watch them just because it's something I get to do with my family. But before you think my opinion is completely worthless, I do like the movies I've seen that come before and after The Avengers, and also the movie The Avengers itself.

Oh, and another quick disclaimer. I'll try to keep spoilers out of this, but this post might contain a couple anyways.

Now on to The Lone Ranger.

It was an entertaining movie, I guess. Or at least it had a lot of entertaining parts. But it also had a lot of really gross and/or irreverent parts. I probably wouldn't have used the word irreverent if my dad hadn't used it before, because I don't know anything about the original Lone Ranger. Was it a movie, a TV show, a comic strip? I don't know, but Daddy does, and says this movie wasn't very respectful towards the original.

I also felt like the main character changed with his clothes. One moment he was an incompetent city boy, the next he seemed completely at home in the saddle as his horse walked on a cliff. I don't remember him having a Texan accent when he was in city clothes, but I definitely noticed it in a couple of other scenes.

The captain from the US government also confused me. I thought he was a good guy acting on misguided principles or something like that, but he turned his back on the truth pretty quickly just because he didn't want to believe that he had slaughtered the innocent. Understandable that he didn't want to be responsible for such a cruel act, but unforgiveable that he blinded himself to that fact and thereby started working with the villains.

I do like the horse. Silver. The spirit horse. But how did he and the Indian manage to drag an unconscious John to the top of what looked like a column of dirt and a very unstable-looking man-made tiny platform???

All in all, I really wouldn't have minded if I never saw the movie. But this post is biased, so you may feel much differently about the movie. I respect that. And I will see you tomorrow. =)

Merry Christmas!

We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!

...Yeah, apparently I'm using the royal "we" now... Or not. o_O

Haha, anyways! Merry Christmas, my dear readers! I hope your Christmas Eve went well and your Christmas Day will go even better!

I, for one, had a pretty good Christmas Eve. The only thing that could've been better was if my brother hadn't been sick. That's two Christmas Eves in a row now, I think. I hope next year will prove healthier for everyone.

At any rate, I spent most of the day trying to finish a 1000-piece puzzle that was in the living room so I could move it to make gift-unwrapping easier. I didn't finish it, but I almost did. So I moved the poster board the puzzle and its stray pieces were resting on to the dining room while we opened presents.

My dad, for what just might be the first time since childhood, was surprised at some of his gifts. The surprise he liked the best was probably the coffee mug that had a gun for a handle.

My mom's gifts were all on her wish-list except for two of the three things I had gotten her: 2 CDs with kids' songs. I think she liked it. I hope she likes it when she plays it. I know she likes kids' songs in general.

My brother, despite being sick, managed to be delighted at a good many of his gifts. For once, he seemed to be excited about an arts and crafts activity - tie-dying. I got him the dye, but a white hoodie was a little bit out of my price range. He got money for Christmas, though, so I think he'll manage, right?

As for me, I got two new Sims 2 expansion packs (University and Open for Business), half a dozen new movies (including a brand-new copy of a movie I got at a yard sale that didn't work), and books! ♥

Again and again, merry, merry Christmas! Have a holly, jolly Christmas this year! =D

Elsie Dinsmore Pt. 3

Okay, so I won't have you thinking Elsie's Dinsmore's life was completely devoid of love. Her mother and her mother's guardian may have died by the time she was four (her mother actually died when Elsie was a baby) and she was sent to live with her father's, but she still had her "mammy."

Aunt Chloe, a slave who nursed first little Elsie's mother and now Elsie herself, moved anywhere Elsie went, as her duties were solely to attend to the little girl. She was as devoted a Christian as Elsie, both of them having learned of Jesus Christ from their Scottish housekeeper in Elsie's guardian's home. Aunt Chloe loved Elsie as dearly as if she were her own grandchild, and although she was not the loving father Elsie so craved, Aunt Chloe was most definitely a big help to Elsie.

And then there's Rose Allison, a friend of Adelaide's visiting for a few months and also very much a Christian. She befriended Elsie during her stay, and afterwards they communicated by letter. This occurred in the first few chapters of the first book, and provided much-needed relief for Elsie.

Then, some chapters later, Elsie's father returned home. Elsie was so excited - until she found out that her father did not love her. That night, she basically cried herself sick. The next morning, though, she determined that, with the help of God, she would be so obedient a child that he could not help loving her.

Trust me, that was no easy feat. Mr. Horace Dinsmore was so strict that even angelic Elsie could scarcely even hope to live up to his expectations. He deprived her of some of her favorite foods, to which she submitted cheerfully. He insisted she look impeccable every morning or he would send her back to her room. He insisted she always do exactly what he said the first time he said it and never ask why. He disregarded forgetfulness as any excuse. And he often punished her for Arthur's crimes, too, especially when Elsie was crying too hard to defend herself.

But, as you might expect, Horace was eventually won over into loving his daughter. This is by no means the end, though, because not only does Horace's love fluctuate depending on certain circumstances, but he's also most definitely not a Christian. Get the full book series in order to follow Elsie's life from her young eight-year-old life through the moment she gains a new mother, through the three marriage proposals that affected her deeply, all the way to when she becomes a grandmother (or so I've been told - I actually have only read the first four books so far - though that does include her marriage, or at least her acceptance of finally the right man for her).

So. There you have it. The story before the beginning, and a couple details in the first book, and a few hints as to what you might expect in the others. Interested yet? I hope so. By the way, you have a choice as to whether you want to read the original series or the rewrite. Honestly, both series have their good and bad points, so I really don't know which one to recommend you. Maybe the rewrite, though. I like Elsie's husband's story better in the rewrite. It's just a tad creepy in the original.

Elsie Dinsmore Pt. 2

Okay, so yesterday I talked about all the adults that were making Elsie Dinsmore's life miserable before her father came. Now I guess I should talk about the children of her step-grandmother, her father's half-siblings - plainly put, her aunts and uncles.

Oldest is Adelaide. I really don't know what to make of this girl's treatment. Throughout the first two books, she kind of sympathizes with Elsie but can be turned against the girl in certain situations. Before the books began, though, I think her treatment towards Elsie was one of confusion and therefore indifference. On the midst of her entire family of hypocrites (the Dinsmores basically went to church because it was "the thing to do"), Adelaide didn't understand Elsie's strong and strict morals.

Next oldest is Arthur. This kid. Causes Elsie no end of pain. Before the series began, though, his mistreatments were generally limited to teasing her in class while the teacher was gone so that she couldn't learn her lessons and so ended up "failing" - because Miss Day would not pass her for a "mostly-learned" lesson. I believe there may also have been times before the series began that Arthur did something naughty and blamed someone else, only to have Elsie step up and tell the truth, which also contributed to Arthur's hatred for her.

Next I think is Lora. This girl has a strong sense of justice, so even though she's also indifferent to Elsie herself, Lora does speak up on occasion when some great wrong has been done to Elsie. It does either girl very little good, though, considering both Miss Day and Mrs. Dinsmore are very much against Elsie.

Next is Louise. The books don't really dwell on her at all. She's kind of a brat, and once in the first book she scares Elsie with a lie, but I think most of the time, she ignores Elsie - including turning a blind eye whenever Arthur does something mean.

Two more to go. I'm not really sure who's older - Louise or Walter, but I'll put Walter here just to break up the list of girls. Walter is pretty much weak throughout the first book or two. He likes Elsie well enough, I guess, but Arthur scares him too much for Walter to try and do anything to help Elsie, and naturally he likes to be spoiled by his mother.

Enna. This girl is almost as bad as Arthur. She's the epitome of a spoiled brat. She waltzes into Elsie's room uninvited and has her pick of Elsie's toys, because there's nothing Elsie has that Mrs. Dinsmore won't make her give up. Enna can demand anything - anything - from Elsie and expect to get it because Mrs. Dinsmore will back Enna up and even work to get Mr. Dinsmore on their side sometimes.

Now can you see what a living nightmare this poor girl had to go through? From age four to age eight, she lived with the Dinsmores and her father barely even acknowledged her existence even in letters to his own father. Hmm, this is getting to be a long post. I guess I'll continue it tomorrow and hope it doesn't run into a Christmas Day post or something. A bientot!

Elsie Dinsmore

Elsie Dinsmore. How many of you know that name?

She's a fictional female protagonist with an entire series of books named after her. Martha Finley, the author, starts the series off with Elsie as an eight-year-old whose mother has died and whose father she has never met.

Elsie is just the absolute sweetest little thing you could ever hope to meet. She's a much stronger Christian than most adults, and she puts up with a ton of abuse from the people around her, as well.

Let's start at the top and work our way down, shall we? There's her grandfather, who cares absolutely nothing for her. He thinks that because she refuses to get angry and insist upon her rights, she's weak; so he basically ignores her except when he needs a truthful witness to some questionable event or other.

Then there's Elsie's step-grandmother. The woman despises Elsie based off of her beauty and considerable inheritance, fearing that her own daughters will be outshone. So the step-grandmother, anytime Elsie is accused of even the smallest and silliest thing, always takes the side opposing Elsie.

Elsie's father, Horace, is the oldest child of Elsie's grandfather, and the only child not belonging to Elsie's step-grandmother. More on him later, since at the beginning of the book he and Elsie have yet to meet.

Hmm, shall we speak of Elsie's aunts and uncles yet, or her teacher? I think I'll tell on her teacher, and save the other brats for tomorrow. Miss Day is the teacher's name, and basically is a classic bully all grown up - so a bully with more power than usual. She hates her job, because anytime she expects to punish one of her students (Elsie excluded), Elsie's step-grandmother interferes and gets her children off scot-free. So in order to vent her frustration, Miss Day does everything in her power to fail Elsie or punish her in some other way, knowing full well that no one with any power will interfere.

That's not even the worst of Elsie's troubles, and we haven't even gotten to the beginning of the story yet! More to come tomorrow, then.

I Don't Know What I'm Doing + Necklaces

Done Christmas shopping, yay! I'd like to tell you what I got, but just in case by some miracle my family is stalking my blog, I really shouldn't reveal any spoilers.

Instead, how about I talk about... How everyone's talking about the upcoming holidays.

Is it boring that I'm probably saying the exact same stuff as everyone else this time of year? Should I come up with something more creative? Or at least something more like what you'd see at any other point in time in the year? Should I go boring in order to get interesting?

Well, mah deer... Mayhaps we shood speak of... Zee topeek that doth declare how uttuhly LAME zeese accent eez.

Oh, goodness, I don't even know what I was doing there. Let's change the subject, before things get even more awkward.

I made new necklaces. I think maybe I mentioned before how I made some choker necklaces via crochet that could hold my hamsters? Yes? No? Maybe so? Anyways, I did, and now I made more.

My mom hated the one I usually wear. She said it was creative, but ugly. Maybe I told you that already, too. But these new ones I've made have received no such comment.

Maybe she thinks I'm a lost cause. Maybe she actually likes these new ones just based off the fact they match a majority of my outfits. Maybe she's finally resigned herself to being indifferent.

Whatever the case, I feel the need to point out that these new necklaces are purple. Because purple just deserves that kind of specific mention.

A demain!

Christmas Shopping

Good morning! Just FYI, this weekend I think is going to be a bit crazy for me. Tomorrow morning, I may or may not have enough time to put up a post. And Sunday morning, it's basically decided I won't have Internet access. But hopefully I'll remember tonight to type up a post or two, so I can publish them quickly anytime I get the opportunity.

That aside, Daddy and I are going Christmas shopping sometime today! We both have to get stuff for Mommy, and I have to get something for my brother. (Mommy takes care of us three herself, plus the extended family - poor Mommy, and she wonders why she's always crazy this time of year...)

Although, I may not need to buy something at a store for my brother. Perhaps I should get what he wants from amazon? He wants to tie-dye a hoodie, and I've found a kit that tie-dyes up to fifteen t-shirts, so it should probably work for a hoodie or three at least right? Maybe up to fifteen, but I'm thinking not, since hoodies are thicker than t-shirts. Plus they have the long sleeves. Hmmm, decisions, decisions...

Anyways, I will probably get Daddy's opinion on that. Or maybe somewhere we'll find something made for tie-dying, specifically, hoodies. That'd be at a craft store, right?

As for Mommy, I have a list! ♥ So just going by that will make things so much easier.

What? Doesn't my brother have a list, you ask? Well, yes, he does. But everything on there is way out of my price range. o_O He's getting to be like Daddy in that respect, because Daddy always has expensive stuff on his list too.

I am done shopping for Daddy, though. He went to a gun show a few weeks ago, bought a few things, and told Mommy and me that we could get him that stuff for Christmas. xP

Story of my Life

So, in high school I wrote the story of my birth for a friend of mine, and she passed it around our class. Would you like to read it?

Once upon a time, two storms struck. The first was a natural storm. The second was a difficult birth. Just as the baby girl drew her first breath, lightning struck the house, giving her super powers. Over time, these powers were made known to her parents. The first that was shown was her ability to turn anything, even living things, the color purple. Her second ability was an attachment to elephants, and the elephant from the nearest zoo turned purple and kept escaping her habitat to be with the unusual baby.

The girl had many more gifts that became evident over time, but she had one very special ability that she kept secret. This super power was that she could hear the thoughts and of the people and animals around her. The very idea that she could keep such a thing a secret excited her, and she used it to help the police anonymously. She thought of herself as a superhero, so she decided to make her own costume and officially fight in the name of justice.

Unfortunately, since everyone already knew she had super powers, she couldn't keep her identity a secret. And it didn't help that she took her pet purple elephant into battle with her.

And that was where it ended, probably because class ended or something (I wrote this during one of our classes that the teacher wasn't having us do anything in). I feel I should point out that every detail is true, but alas, it is not. The elephant attachment was for my friend, who is obsessed with elephants.

In actuality, the elephants are replaced by lions. Yep.

Haha, anyways, it was a fun thing to do, even if the writing is a bit sub-par and I didn't have much brainstorm time. Hope you enjoyed. ;D

Parties and Worldliness

Good evening!

...Yeah, this is a lot later than I thought it would be. My friend came over and spent the night, and I expected her to leave this afternoon. Which she did. However, not without first inviting me to a Christmas party with her youth group. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to go, but go I did, and I guess I don't really regret it.

But there is something that bothers me.

During the course of the evening, we played a game. And it was fun, if a bit difficult. But one of the people playing the game turned it into something rather inappropriate. I didn't like it, but thankfully the subject was changed quickly. I didn't think about it anymore.

But my friend apparently did, because as we were leaving, she apologized to me for its inappropriateness. And she expressed her disappointment in that part of the evening to her mom, who came to pick us up and drop me off home on their way to their own home. And when I talked to her later on the phone, she apologized again for that part.

And it's got me thinking. I am glad I never saw the thing they were all talking about. And the person who was put in the uncomfortable situation of politely rewording the thing that had been written did handle it rather well.

However.

Have I become so desensitized? I know for a fact that a few years ago, I would have been more troubled by less.

Thinking back, I realize that in my senior year of high school, I was given a teacher who... Hm, how should I put it? Maybe he stopped pretending my class didn't know anything about the world. Or maybe he decided it was time someone stopped shielding us. Or maybe he thought we already knew everything he was saying. I don't know, but the things he talked about shocked me, even though he was speaking against those things.

And now, in college, I'm actually running into people who think that those things that shocked me are actually okay. I've heard more cussing these last few months than I have in my entire life. I've met at least one girl who is in a romantic relationship with another girl.

These things aren't right, not in the least. But are they slowly desensitizing me? Dear Lord, help me; I don't want to get used to these things. I want to always be that naïve little girl who, although she knew the world was bad, had no idea how to so much as scratch the surface of such morals - or lack thereof. I want to always be horrified at the idea that there might actually be someone out there somewhere who thinks bad things are okay.

Well, this is a much longer post than usual. Maybe it's a result of posting at the end of the day rather than the beginning. Maybe it's an apology that I couldn't post earlier. Maybe I'm just venting. Whatever the case, thank you for your patience, dear readers. Now I just have to think of a way to summarize all this into some semblance of a title.

Guests and Disney

Good morning! Oh, I should warn you before I forget: I'm getting an overnight visitor this afternoon, so I probably won't be able to make a blog post tomorrow morning. Maybe tomorrow afternoon or evening, just so I can say I've kept up with one post a day, though. =)

So now that that's done, what shall I talk about today? Uhm, I'm going to see Frozen! ...But since I haven't seen it yet, that's not really much of a topic. -_-

Oh! My guest and I will probably be watching a ton of other Disney movies when she comes over! Ever since high school graduation started to be seen on the horizon, she's been talking about having a Disney movies night. The occasion varied from time to time (pre-graduation party for the senior class or at least all the girls in the senior classes, her birthday party, post-graduation get-together for the former senior girls, random catching-up time with maybe just me and her or maybe all the senior girls, et cetera), but the expected theme was always Disney movies in general. =3

And now we're finally getting together, although unfortunately none of our other former classmates are coming. But still, it should be tons of fun~! ^_^

I own nearly twenty Disney movies on DVD; and although I don't have a television, I do have a laptop, which I am typing on now. =P I can't wait can't wait can't wait!

Oo, here's an idea! Starting sometime around the middle of the afternoon (I'm speaking from the Eastern Time Zone, by the way), maybe you should watch some Disney movies too! We'll all be together in spirit and all that. =D Even if we may not be watching the same movie at the same time. xP

Anyways! I'd better get ready for my company, straightening my room out and stuff. It's sort of a mess, but I think a quick shove will work to put most of the stuff where they belong. 0=)

The Shopping Experience

Yesterday... Something dreadful occurred. I went... on a shopping trip...

Yes, I am a teenager. And I am a girl. But no, I do not enjoy shopping.

At least this shopping trip wasn't as bad as clothes shopping. Instead, my mom and I were shopping for a frame for a cross stitch, a wedding present, cards, and the tiniest bit of food we forgot to buy last time.

However, it lasted for about three hours. And. My. Feet. Hurt.

Okay, okay, you may be thinking, "Wimp," but I assure you I've endured worse. I've spent an entire day in the summer swiftly marching through downtown (in a city that maybe I shouldn't name even though it's not where I live) on a scavenger hunt. With a couple of rests here and there and a ton of water, I survived. I've also stood through three hours of a funeral service before nearly blacking out.

But this. Was a shopping trip. Even if it was with my mother, it was shopping. Nothing could change that fact. And instead of wearing my comfortable shoes, like an idiot I put my church shoes back on. Mom later told me I could've worn the comfortable shoes, because she only cared that my shoes matched my outfit at church - afterwards I could wear whatever I wanted.

So shoes, combined with a lack of enthusiasm for the task, combined with it lasting longer than I expected, made sure I felt pretty tired by the time we got back. I simply curled up on the loveseat and set to work on a cross stitch my mom had started two years ago but never finished and so asked for my help. And I worked on that until I think I maybe started to go slightly cross-eyed. o_O At any rate, I started making some mistakes and took that as a signal to stop.

But all in all, yesterday was a good day. =D

Birthday Cards and Index Cards

And thus begins my very first Sunday after starting college that I don't have to pack up to go back to college. (...Or is it the first Sunday since Columbus Day or Memorial Day or something... Hmm, I seem to recall the second weekend of college or something like that being a three-day weekend with Monday off.) Anyways, It's the first Sunday in a very long time. xD And it feels good.

And not only do I not have to pack anything, but I also got to open a card! I can't remember if I told you today's my birthday or not... Anyways, my parents (coughMommycough ;3) got me a beautiful card - on the front was one of those big metalish trays/bowls that are raised up to be on a stand... Maybe I'm not explaining that very well. You know wine glasses? Instead of glass, this was metal. Or plastic. Who knows. And instead of a cup, it was a sort of half-tray-half-bowl.

And IN this container, piled up high - very, VERY high - was all sorts of ice creams and cakes and YUMMINESS. x3 Inside, it said something to the effect of, "Hope your birthday is one sweet thing piled on top of another." ♥

It would've been nice if the picture was real. Nicer if the strawberry flavors were exchanged for a bit more chocolate. And if the cake were less vanilla and more chocolate, too. But because it was a card and not the real thing, it was a very pretty picture. xP

...Oh, wow. This is a total change of subject, but I just realized I have a ton of index cards on my bookshelf. All those weekends when I put off homework until Sunday night because I hadn't brought any index cards from school to home, I HAD INDEX CARDS HOME ALREADY. o_e

...Forgive my outburst. I just can't even believe I was that blind. Something must be wrong with these glasses. I'll need to tell Mom and Dad that I need another birthday gift - an eye doctor appointment. xD

Anyways, I hope you dear readers have a great day! Love you! And because I don't know when any of your birthdays are, HAPPY EARLY OR BELATED BIRTHDAY~ ;) ♥

Biology Is Over!

It's over! Oh, I'm sososo glad it's over! No more tests, at least for another month! And just in time for my birthday tomorrow too!

So. I think I promised a party-type-thing after biology was over and done with.

Well. Biology is now over and done with. And God allowed me to pull out of the class with an A average - a very low A, but an A nonetheless. ♥

I am so glad I'm done with that class! I will not miss it the least bit! All that information about evolution and whatnot... I ask you, how can a student learn information when she has turned her filter on to not believe it? How many of you know how hard it is to pick and choose, out of all those "facts," only the bits that are correct? And yet you still have to know the information you disbelieve with every fiber of your being?

I've got nothing against the teacher. He was a fun professor, and he did his best to break down the information into terms that could be easily understood by his students, all of whom were in that class because it was the one designed for people who didn't like science but had to take it for general education requirements anyways.

My problems lie with the underlying subtleties throughout the entire course. Even when we stopped learning about evolution itself, the entire course was worded in such a way as to point back to evolution every step of the way. And have you ever heard about mutations? Now I can't remember if I had or not before the class; but if I had, I would have thought mutations were rare - "the exception, not the rule," as my dad puts it. That biology course, though, includes talks about mutations so much that it's like they're so common. Supposedly, everyone has mutations, because they're heritable. And the way he went on and on about them, it sounded like every second your DNA was making mistakes when it copied itself.

Ugghh, but thankfully it's over now. NO MORE BIOLOGY! HOPEFULLY NO MORE SCIENCE! ESPECIALLY FROM A PERSPECTIVE ANYTHING EXCEPT CHRISTIAN! WOO-HOOOOO! *sigh* I'm so happy... =3

Anxiety

Good morning, my dear readers! You know, for a moment, I nearly called you by my school's mascot. Whoops. Maybe it was a sort of habit-ish thing, from when I'd tailor all my speeches to my classmates. Oh well.

Anyways. Today. I have absolutely no idea what to expect, and that is making me more nervous than I care to be. Nervous in a different way from public speaking too, and it is definitely not a feeling I enjoy. Rather than be able to get up in front of everyone for a few minutes, blurt out everything I planned ahead of time, and sit back down and say it's over, I have to wait, and wait, and wait, and wait some more.

This French test is likely going to take at least half of the time slot allotted for it. I need to remember that. And I need to take advantage of that. I need to go slowly, make sure I don't make any stupid mistakes. And then double-check everything carefully. And if I run into something I don't know, I can't let myself panic.

You know, never before college did I ever come even close to having something that seemed a bit similar to test anxiety. I rarely even studied, and certainly never had to study for anything except literature and maybe my vocabulary list.

But now. Here I am dreading French and biology tests. I've studied French nearly nonstop all semester. And I've studied for this particular biology test based on the study guide nearly nonstop since my last important test that needed studying for.

I am sooo ready for this holiday. Oh, speaking of which, happy Friday the thirteenth, everyone! You know, some cultures find this day really lucky. Why do we Americans fear it?

French and Biology Exams

Good morning, everyone! Second to last day of finals for me, woot! I know some people are already out, and I'm sort of jealous, but not maddeningly envious. I just am looking forward to giving my brain a break, but I'm grateful for the extra time to study for my two upcoming hardest exams.

French and biology, in case you were wondering.

For the French, I'm pretty confident I know most of the vocabulary and how to conjugate all the verbs I've been taught so far. I'm worried about making stupid mistakes, though. In my last test, I phrased a question wrong. Even though I knew how to do it correctly, for some reason I didn't do it right. Got all the right words in there except the ones to form the question the way the teacher wanted.

I'm also a little concerned about the listening and culture sections. The people often speak way too fast for much hope of comprehension. And I'm not sure what exactly to study for the culture part.

Now biology. Ugh. Thankfully, this is not a cumulative exam. This is just about DNA, RNA, proteins, and biotechnology. And DNA technology and the Human Genome Project, but I think those kind of fall under biotech, right?

I'm all-around concerned about biology. I made some flash cards based on the study guide, and it's considerably less than all my French flash cards, but they're much more difficult for me to remember.

Well, I guess all I can do is my best, with both these tests. Wish me luck, okay? Please?

Hamtaro

Remember yesterday I mentioned my Hamtaro again? And remember in that post I dedicated to him and the friends of his that I possess I said that I couldn't fangirl about his show because I hadn't seen it?

Well, I have an update! I found his show online several weeks ago, and I watched some episodes! Currently, I can't continue that, for busy exam schedule reasons, but still. I saw some Hamtaro episodes! And I am falling in love with my wonderful rubber hamster all over again!

I realized a lot of stuff from the anime that wasn't very clear in the game I've played. For one thing, I've always known that Bijou was French, but it wasn't until I heard her begin to talk in the anime that I realized BIJOU IS FRENCH! I think I may have fangirl shrieked the first time I heard her talk in that French accent. x3

I also knew from my game that Jingle was a traveling musician, but I thought his personality leaned a little in the direction of Elvis. But in the anime, he's a lot more like a hippie poet or something, if that's the correct wording.

Another thing: I knew based off my game (again) that Howdy liked to tell lame puns. But his thick accent startled me in the anime, and his big personality came across more clearly too.

I also discovered a new love story. I knew Boss liked Bijou, but Bijou liked Hamtaro. And I knew that Howdy and Dexter competed for Pashmina's heart. But an all-new adorable couple was shown in the episodes I watched: Sandy and Maxwell like each other. ♥

Anyways, I wanted to give you an update in this area, because as soon as exams are over, I'll probably be spending a third of my time on Hamtaro, a third on Sims 2, and a third on books. ♥♥ See you tomorrow!

Jewelry

*yawn* Good morning, people. Too early, really. I wish this exam started an hour later than it does; then I could wake up at my normal time.

But let's see. Putting the too-earliness aside, what should I talk about today?

Hmmm, how about jewelry? I'm a girl, and to an extent I'm sort of a typical girl. I like jewelry. I wear necklaces and rings.

I have two normal necklaces, one with two hearts as the charms, and the other with a 'k' as its charm. And I have one necklace that I crocheted myself and wear more as a choker than a necklace. Inside the little pouch/carrier thing, I put one of the hamsters I mentioned in a post a while back. Usually Hamtaro#1, but the others take turns too.

I have four, maybe five rings. I can't find the pink one, for some reason. I don't remember if I lost it or if I threw it away because too many of its gems had fallen out. Two of my other rings are designed similarly, but one has purple and the other has clear stones. I have another ring that contains my birthstone, and another ring that has a heart. My mom bought me the first for my birthday, and my dad bought me the second just because it was on sale and he wanted to.

I don't wear bracelets, though. Not even I know why I can't stand them; I just can't. I can't wear wrist watches or bracelets, and I can't even stand to put a scrunchie (that is the right word, right? spellcheck doesn't recognize it) on my wrist for too long. It just bothers me, for some reason.

Anyways, that made for a decent-sized post. Good. See you tomorrow at a more reasonable hour!

Exams

I am sorely tempted to cancel these posts during exam week - this week, starting today. Very, very tempted. Especially since I have a couple exams starting at 8am and I don't usually eat breakfast until 8am to be ready for classes by 9am at the earliest.

However, I'd really, really hate to break my streak with this blog (currently about 80 posts in as many days; can I get three cheers for continuity?). Maybe I'll have to find a spare second or two and type up a blog post in advance for those 8am exam days.

Ugh, why must exam week be so grueling? I mean, it hasn't even officially started yet and I'm worn out! Things were never this difficult in high school. I rarely studied for any of those exams; I rarely needed to in order to make A's.

Some of you readers who are older than me are probably laughing at me right now, aren't you? "Girl, you don't know what hard is. Just wait until your junior/senior year" or "Just wait until you actually get a job." Am I right? Half right, at least?

I hope not. I can probably learn to handle it, but I really don't want to. Just send me back to kindergarten/first grade, okay? Please? I can only remember clearly one test - no, one part of one test - in first (or was it second?) grade. I guess it was some kind of listening test. The teacher wanted us to draw an "I" (or "eye") on the wing of a bird. I didn't know which "I/eye" she wanted, so I didn't put anything. Later, she told us either one was acceptable.

How I wish to go back to those problems. Don't we all? Oh, well, I guess we all have to learn to deal. =/ Well, see you tomorrow!

You

So. ...Hmm, I was about to write something like "What do I want to talk about today?" However, maybe the more appropriate question is "What do you want me to talk about today?"

Honestly, I'd love to have some input once in a while from you readers. I'm not complaining; I'm just saying it'd be nice. That way I could talk about what you want me to talk about. Of course, there are sure to be conflicting opinions once in a while, but I think that'd be interesting, don't you?

Knowing what my readers want to hear would be so great. And if you provide me with a broad-ish enough topic, you wouldn't have to put up with my indecisiveness quite so much. It really seems like a win-win situation, doesn't it?

Sometimes I wonder if I should choose a single event that happened in my life the day before, and give it to you as a story. I suppose that could work some days, but maybe with Christmas break I shouldn't start to try. After all, when I'm at home, I rarely do anything worth mentioning. I wake up, I eat, I get dressed, I do homework if I have it (which at college I always do), I mix in some fun times with nonograms or some other game while listening to Disney music, I have lunch based on whatever my parents decided we're going to be doing for that meal, back to the grindstone, supper gets the same description as lunch, back to work and/or games, then off to bed. Doesn't make for a very exciting story, does it?

Oi, so why did I even write it out? Maybe I should delete it. Or maybe I should post it how it is and wait for you to say you liked it or wished I would have deleted it.

Anyways, I would love for your input sometimes, dear readers. But I still love you even if you never say a word. See you tomorrow!

News

So I just had a thought. Yes, those do hit me once in a while. ...Wait, I lost it.

Oh, okay, here it is again: One reason I probably have so little to talk about is because I don't really read/watch anything that is considered "news." Sometimes news upsets me, sometimes it confuses me, and sometimes I have no reaction at all. So I avoid it. But I think some other bloggers maybe include certain bits of it into their blogs, am I right?

Well, if I'm wrong, more power to all bloggers everywhere! Woot! =D

I vaguely included news into my stump speech the other day. (NO MORE SPEECHES NOW! I'M FREEEEE!!!! ...For the semester, anyways. Hopefully for many years. It'd be great if I went my whole life and never gave another speech.) I decided the problem with news was the appalling shortage of good news. ELECT ME FOR PRESIDENT, AND I VOW TO ENSURE GOOD NEWS WILL BE SHOWN AT LEAST AS MUCH AS THE BAD!

...Yeah, the speech was basically a mock thing where everyone in my class was running for President of the U.S.A. My proposed solution to the lack of good news was make sure that, Mondays through Saturdays, there was a fifty-fifty mix of good and bad news. There was also the potential to make more good than bad. And on Sundays, only some emergency like 9-11 would be able to worm its way into our news. Otherwise, Sundays would be full of nothing but good news.

You like? Yay, then vote for me! ...Yes, yes, I know I just said it was a mock thing, don't ruin my fun. -_-

Work

Hey everyone! Oh wow, I'm suddenly drawing a blank again as for post topics - not good. =/

Well, because college is pretty much my entire life currently, maybe I'll post some more about that. This week was awful, time-wise. I had to do all kinds of stuffs with little to no break. I think I may have mentioned speeches and presentations?

I also had biology homework which I haven't completely finished yet. I find it so difficult to stay focused on biology. I guess part of it is that, even though I know it's important and everything, I just can't find it interesting. Especially the way the books put it - soooo boring!

But I'm thinking there's more to it than that, at least this year. Semester, actually. Thankfully. This semester, biology seems to be revolving around mutations and evolution. Honestly, I don't think I had ever heard of mutations before starting at college. If I had, it was only as the extremely rare exception to an otherwise near-perfect creation. At college, it's all mutations, mutations, mutations. And evolution. Which I find to be wrong, even if I'm horrible at arguing against it. People say there's so much evidence for it, and they provide that "evidence," and they seem to enthused with and stuck on it that I find it so difficult to say, "That's not concrete!"

Meh. Anyways. This is the last official week of school, thankfully. Next week is exam week. I sort of wish I could get my bio exam over and done with, but no... My bio exam is on Friday of all days, doubled up with French of all things. The two tests I'm going to have to study hardest for, and they fall on the same day. I should complain, but I don't know who to, and I probably will continue to be too busy anyways.

Wow, kind of a depressing post. Sorry about that. Everything will go great! God's got it all in control, and I'll survive one way or another. See you tomorrow! =D

Horror

OH NO. I just realized that friend of mine has a birthday coming up in LESS THAN A WEEK and I'm so busy with school I doubt I have the time or creativity to devote to writing a story for her favorite couple like I've done for a couple of her birthdays. Dx

Maybe I'll have to resort to finding a spare moment to draw pictures again. This is awful, what kind of friend am I? I'mma blame college, but I really have to take at least some of the blame myself. Grrr...

Hmm, I wonder if maybe I could come up with a little short plot and just write about our OCs when they were young. She did that for me one year, and it was so sweet. In fact, in a lot of her stories with her OC, mine also played a role of some kind. I, on the other hand, can probably count on one hand the number of stories that I've included both our OCs in. Not that I'm going to try, cuz I absolutely have no time to waste.

Sooo, plotline possibilities... Hmmm... Okay, I'm seriously drawing a blank here. Maybe it's just because I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself to put ideas into this post. Maybe I should just randomly search through my book that helps teach you how to write. That book offers a lot of story ideas. Maybe one of them could work for two nine- or ten-year-olds.

Yeah, maybe something like that. Anyways, absolutely no time to waste. I must do homework and write a story. Busy, busy, busy. See you later, wonderful listeners! ♥

French Interviews and Snacks

If I had the time, I'd try to figure out a way to write this entire blog post in French, in honor of the thing I have today. I have to meet with my French teacher and talk to her for five minutes straight in French only. And I am super nervous.

This week is so, soo busy; but all yesterday that I wasn't in class or eating, I spent studying my French flash cards. And yet I'm scared they won't be enough. I worry that although I know so many individual words, I won't be able to put them together well enough to make a good grade in this "oral interview."

But I suppose that's enough worrying for one blog post. What shall I talk about next?

Oh, I'm running out of snacks in my room. xD

I asked for more when I was home for Thanksgiving, and I was told to write what I needed on the grocery list. But then I came back here Sunday, forgetting even to ask if those items had been bought yet.

So now I have no granola bars to snack on, but I have something similarish yet more filling. And I have peanut butter, but nothing to spread it on. I tried eating just plain peanut butter the other day, but it didn't really work out. I'm not like some of you people out there that can just get a spoonful of peanut butter and eat it plain, unfortunately.

Anyways, I won't starve. A lack of snacks isn't going to kill me. And if it nearly does, I have friends with food that have begged me to liberate some food from them anytime I want.

So. Odd post, going off on two different topics, but there it is. I'm off to study French again!

Two Weeks

Have I mentioned yet that I have less than two weeks left of school in this first semester in college? I'm pretty sure I may have at least hinted about it, but I don't remember if I had yet said it outright.

Anyways, two weeks left! Of my very first college semester! Wow, wow, wow. It doesn't really seem real, but I am more than ready for a month of doing nothing.

Did I tell you about all the work I had over Thanksgiving break? It wasn't really much of a break. Honestly, I don't think teachers know the meaning of the word.

That's why this upcoming month off will be so wonderful. Because all of the classes are coming to an end in these next couple of weeks, and we're starting the new classes when we get back, there's absolutely no way we can get assigned homework! ...Right?

You know, I probably should tone down the enthusiasm just a bit. I really wouldn't want one of my teachers to work at proving me wrong. I am perfectly content with this theory never having any opposition or testing grounds or anything. I have no intentions of daring a teacher to give me homework. Nada.

But I really am excited about the idea of an actual break. This week and the next will probably be so crazy it's not even funny, and I really should be working on other things even as I'm typing this.

Okay, since I brought it up, I may as well concede that this post is long enough and I should stop stalling. It's time to work more on my speech, then once I've given that I'll work on my presentation. And once that's thankfully over and I've hopefully gotten a good grade on it (I really need the extra points in this class), I'll be studying French, French, French for the rest of the day and part of tomorrow. Au revoir!

December

Happy December, people! Yes, I know this is a day late, but remember I was busy with another topic yesterday? Today, I'll be typing very quickly, so forgive any typos please. But I have much, much, MUCH to prepare for today. A test, a presentation, and a speech, then an interview in French. Not cool.

But putting that aside, we're celebrating, right? December is a wonderful month! It's the last month of the year! It contains Christmas! And Christmas break! And for us college students who have courses broken into semesters, that guarantees that we won't get any homework over break. Instead, we get an entire month off to just relax! (Is it a month for everyone, or just for my college? I kind of suspect it's for every college, but please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Also, December contains some wonderful birthdays! Yippee! My birthday, midway through the month. A friend's birthday, nearly a week before mine. And a cousin's birthday, a few days after mine. Just try and tell me that isn't way awesome; you'd be wrong. ;D

I'm so happy about my exam schedule this time around! Why? Because the last day of exams is a couple days before my birthday! Meaning, unlike middle school and high school, I won't be right smack dab in the middle of testing on my birthday! You have to admit, that is wonderful. =3

Anyways, I think this post has gotten some decent length, so I'mma end it here and start back to work on my homework. Evil, evil presentations and the like. Have a great day, and a better December! ♥

Mysterious Benedict Society Pt. 3

Remember Reynie and Sticky from The Mysterious Benedict Society series yesterday? Now you get to meet the two girls on the team!

Kate Wetherall. She always tries to nickname herself The Great Kate Weather Machine, but nobody really takes a shine to it. With blond hair pulled back into a ponytail and a red bucket hanging from her belt, twelve-year-old Kate's gifts are more physical than intellectual. Don't get me wrong - she is smart. Just not Reynie-or-Sticky-level smart. But since she was more or less raised in a circus after her mom died and her dad ditched her, she's got all kinds of awesome physical talents. Oh, and remember the bucket I mentioned? She keeps all kinds of stuff in there: marbles, a slingshot, a rope, a magnet, a spyglass disguised as a kaleidoscope, and more. And when worse comes to worst, the bucket itself can be anything from a stepstool to an "instant ton of bricks - just add water."

Constance Contraire. Short, grumpy, sleepy, hot-tempered, overall rude, and just plain stubborn as a mule, this girl is very well-named. We don't find out until the end of the book that she's only about two-and-three-fourths years old. She can read and write, and her on-the-spot rhyming skills are unparalleled. Sticky's dictionary brain both scares and infuriates her, often meaning Reynie translates. Because she can't and won't walk very quickly, Constance often gets a piggyback ride from Kate. She had the honor of naming the Mysterious Benedict Society, as none of the others could come up with something both creative and accurate. And guess who ends up nearly single-handedly saving the day in the end? You guessed it: our little Connie girl. (She'd hate me for calling her that, by the way.) I'm not going to tell you how; I want you to read the book and find out yourself.

Actually, there are a lot of things about the books I haven't even touched on in these posts. If you need a reminder, this is the series called The Mysterious Benedict Society, and that also happens to be the first book's title too. Each book is written by Trenton Lee Stewart. Head on over to amazon, or a library, or bookstore, kay? Kay. n_n

Mysterious Benedict Society Pt. 2

Okay, so I think my blog is doing something weird since I accidentally published that one post on Thanksgiving. I'm pretty positive I republished it yesterday, but that's not what this site is telling me... Hmm, oh well, nothing to be done about it now, I guess.

Anyways, I was going to describe the four test-takers' personalities, right? Okay, here goes, in the order they were introduced in the book.

Reynard "Reynie" Muldoon. He is described as extremely average-looking - average hair, average face, average height, average clothes, average everything. But I can assure you he is definitely anything but average on the inside. He's got more patience than the average kid, for one thing. And his mind is incredible; he can think his way out of almost every situation. If there's a riddle to be solved, or a seemingly impossible set of directions to be followed, you can bet Reynie can and will solve and follow. And for those of you who care to know a bit of background, Reynie is an orphan.

George "Sticky" Washington. He has a photographic memory and is a faster-than-lightning reader. Although he far surpasses Reynie in this, they balance out by virtue of the fact that Sticky can't always process the information to explain it to others (he can generally only repeat it word-for-word; amazing, right?). He's also "notoriously fidgety," a fact that he and his team take advantage of later in the book. He also happens to be completely bald, because he purposely made all his hair fall out so the parents he ran away from wouldn't recognize him.

Oh, dear. I'm reaching my average posting size already, and I'm only halfway through. o_O Okay, so I guess I'll save the girls for tomorrow.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! You know, I typed up an entire blog post about something else entirely before I remembered it was Thanksgiving - published it, too. n_n; So if you were here before I unpublished it, you may see a "repeated" post tomorrow; sorry about that.

Anyways, what are your plans for today? Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and all that traditional stuff? I think that's pretty much what my family's doing. We might be doing a couple other things today too, who knows. For one thing, I have a lot of homework to work on over break.

However, we're here today to be thankful! So yep, it looks like you're going to have to put up with me being just like everybody else today: listing the things I'm grateful for. ;D

First and foremost, I'm thankful for my Lord Jesus Christ and His gift of salvation. I'm thankful for the family He's placed me in and the home He's given me. I'm thankful for the school He pulled a few strings to get me into, and I'm thankful for the trials He has helped me overcome there.

I'm thankful for days like yesterday, wherein I did nothing but relax. I'm thankful for books, some of my best friends. I'm thankful for games, where I get to control to a degree what happens. I'm thankful for nonograms, which have provided me with many distracting hours of fun and problem-solving and counting, leaving me in the end with a wonderful picture for my troubles.

I'm thankful for songs, to cheer me up or relieve stress or simply express when I'm too happy for anything else. Hey, that kind of rhymed, didn't it? I'm grateful for happy accidental moments, too!

I'm grateful for my hamsters, especially Hamtaro #1, who is lying right beside my laptop at this moment. I'm grateful for Disney. I'm grateful for chocolate. Oh, and I'm thankful for the laptop upon which I'm typing this.

And while I'm at it, I'm most definitely grateful for you! I'm not sure how many of you are regulars at my blog, but I love you all! Even though none of you say anything, it's nice just knowing you're there. ♥

Mysterious Bendict Society

"Rules and schools are tools for fools - I don't give two mules for rules."

Courtesy of the fictional two-year-old Constance Contraire, we get that wonderful line to hurl (figuratively, of course; and it may not be smart to do even that in many cases) at teachers who give us students limitations of some kind. The line comes from the first book in The Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Lee Stewart; I believe I mentioned this series' prequel a while ago: The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict. Although nothing can compare with the epicness of the prequel, the original trilogy itself is still pretty awesome.

This series, as you might guess, is centered around the group that calls themselves The Mysterious Benedict Society. It consists of two boys, both eleven in the first book, and two girls, one two and one twelve in the first book. They're brought together by a series of tests that Mr. Benedict has devised in his search for a team of gifted children.

The tests themselves are pretty cool, and they're only the beginning of the story. It starts off with one mostly normal test with a few oddball questions. However, very, very few children pass it, so there must be more to it than appears.

The next text is much more complex. The students are tested on kindness, integrity, and ability to follow directions. However, Reynie is the only one to completely follow through on the last one, so clearly there's some leeway in these tests. Mr. Benedict knows there's more than one way to be gifted, after all.

Two more tests follow, both wonderful to watch as well, and both solved differently based on the individual's unique talents. Maybe tomorrow I'll give you a rundown of each child's personality and/or how they responded to each test.

Story Time

So I know yesterday I said I'd let you know about the plant music experiments, and I will. But I'm not going to retype them all here. Instead, here's the direct link to the site page that talks about it:

http://www.dovesong.com/positive_music/plant_experiments.asp

Today, I actually have a story about yesterday I'd like to share with you. I have a professor for a certain class who likes to have fun while teaching and get laughs from his students. But yesterday when he walked in, he was so serious he may have even been scowling. When a classmate asked him how he was, he growled, "I'm in a bad mood."

As dead silence reigned from the students, the professor ordered us to get out a piece of paper. We began to comply, but two seconds later he asked us if we were done yet. I could tell a couple of my classmates were getting upset at his lack of common sense plus patience.

I'll be honest. The only thought going through my head at the time was, "Lord, please don't let me laugh, just in case he's serious."

When we finally all had our piece of paper out, our teacher pulled out a box of crayons, grinned, and said, "Now let's all make hand turkeys."

You can imagine the reaction he got. Lots of highly relieved laughter and good-natured complaints about how he scared us all half to death. And we worked on hand turkeys while he talked about our next assignment.

Music Pt. 2

Okay, so remember in a previous post I said something about how different music has different effects, but I didn't know how to go into any detail? Well, I did some research for my biology project, so how about I share some of the info with you!

There's an online article called "Music & How It Affects Your Brain, Emotions." It talks about the part of our brains that processes music. Apparently, music is super effective, because the part of the brain that understands it is the part that also deals with motivation, emotion, and reward.

The article even said that our brains automatically put a pattern to the music we hear! I guess that means we can kind of guess what note is coming next even in a song we haven't heard before?

And you know those goose bumps you sometimes get when listening to music? According to this article, that's the composer taking advantage of what he knows we'll expect and purposely changing it. Incredible, right?

Oh, and I found a website called Dove Song that talks about the differences between positive and negative music. According to this source, here's positive music: "has beneficial qualities and is emotionally and spiritually uplifting, perhaps even healing; can be relaxing, calming, and mentally invigorating." And negative music "stimulates the negative emotions: anger, frustration, depression, hatred and fear."

Whoops, running out of room to continue in this post. But tomorrow, maybe I'll tell you about one or more of the experiments I found. If you don't want to wait that long, all of them are also on that Dove Song website. =)

Let Your Word Be Born

How many of you are familiar with the song "Let Your Word Be Born"? I've heard the chorus for years, but only yesterday in the song service in church did I realize the lyrics of the first verse.

"It was a tiny, simple stable,
"All beaten and worn.
"Hardly a place
"For a King to be born.
"He didn't choose someplace special
"To reveal His Majesty,
"So I know if I'll give Him control,
"He'll be born in me."

How humbling, and how true. We're so unworthy of Jesus Christ as it is; had He chosen a palace or something, He might have had more followers because that was what the world was expecting, but we wouldn't have a chance at salvation.

I love it. So wonderful! x3

Anyways, that was on my heart today. A rather short post, but here it is. Have a great day! ♥

Harvest Moon Pt. 9

Okay, so I think I've covered a lot if not most of the stuff in Harvest Moon: (More) Friends of Mineral Town and Harvest Moon DS, right? The only other Harvest Moon games I've played have been Sunshine Islands and Tale of Two Towns, and I only played them briefly.

Around the time I played Sunshine Islands, my brother got some thingamajig that enabled cheating. Idiot that I was, I borrowed it to help my game go smoother. Well, not only did it skyrocket my progress to where I couldn't even keep up, but it added bugs to my game. Sadly, I didn't play Sunshine Islands too much because of that.

As for Tale of Two Towns, my brother got that game for his 3DS, so the only way I could play it was by borrowing both his game and his 3DS. And that game had bugs in it just naturally, unfortunately. I maybe wouldn't have been as bothered by it if I could save my progress randomly throughout the day, but I think that game only allows you to save after you go to sleep, right?

So you can imagine my frustration when the game froze on me for the fifth time several hours into my day, forcing me to replay for goodness knows how long to get back to where I'd left off. And unlike the other two Harvest Moon games I talked about before, this game actually seemed to have some decent guys. But I never got to know any of them well enough to choose one before I gave up on starting, restarting, and restarting all over again. Pity. =/

So because I only played these two games very briefly, I suppose this post will probably mark the end of the Harvest Moon posting series I've had. It's been fun, though! And I wonder what I'll come up with to talk about next...

Harvest Moon Pt. 8

So, I think I promised to talk about Friends of Mineral Town bachelorettes today, right? Okay, let's again kick things off with my favorite.

Popuri. Pink hair, which is totally awesome in and of itself. But as daughter of the owner of the chicken farm, she loves chickens and her family, even if she complains about how protective that evil monster of a brother that she has is. She also has that certain quality that I never liked in Gray: childishness. Your rival for her heart is the only semi-decent guy in the entire town: Kai.

Karen. Very pretty, daughter of the owner of the local supermarket. No one can outdrink her, and there's only one person stupid enough to try. You even get to witness and referee this event one night at the inn. Your competition for her heart is that no-good, horrid, awful, lying, bossy Rick. (For those of you who actually like Rick, I'm so sorry for you.)

Ann. Gotta love these tomboys, and red hair is a bonus. She's the daughter of the innkeeper, super awesome and, if I remember correctly, sort of thrown into being mature beyond her years since her mother died. The object of her affections, if you don't get to her fast enough, is Cliff. However, if you're slow to woo Ann but you don't want Cliff getting ahead of you, all you have to do is be mean enough to not invite Cliff to the winery for a job; he'll run out of money and have to leave.

Mary. The sweet, shy, but tougher-than-she-looks bookworm. Daughter of a man who can't get enough of plants, she works in the library and is even writing her own book! Should you choose not to try to win her over, she'll end up marrying the blacksmith apprentice Gray.

Elli. Doctor's assistant and love interest, should you delay winning her heart yourself. She's pretty nice, and she has that pesky younger brother we all know and can't help but love. Also granddaughter of the woman who can no longer walk.

And there you go, the five girls from Mineral Town that you can marry in either Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town or Harvest Moon DS. Which girl out of all these mentioned in this post or previous ones is your favorite? Or, if you're less picky about your man than me, which boy is your favorite?

Harvest Moon Pt. 7

Okay, yesterday I didn't even finish half of the available bachelorettes in Harvest Moon DS. So here's the continuation. All the normal girls I think were covered yesterday, so I'll start again with the special girls.

Leia. She's a mermaid who lives in Daryll's (the mad scientist's) basement. He found her hurt and washed up on the beach after a bad storm, so he brought her back to his house. You won't be able to find her until you've befriended Daryll, so Leia doesn't appreciate it if you suspect him of experimenting on her. She's very kind, but unlike other mermaids I've heard of, Leia seriously has no qualms about eating fish.

The Harvest Goddess. Those of you who have played Harvest Moon before probably know there are so many requirements to marry the HG that it is no laughing matter. She's nice, though, and if you have the determination and patience and non-glitched game, go for it. =)

The Witch Princess. Basically the opposite of the Harvest Goddess, I guess. I think there's a minimum wait of five years before you can marry the WP, since you have to make everyone sick at five of the Harvest Festivals. But I have heard of a glitch that won't let you marry her, either.

Keira. She looks like an American Indian princess, and she makes her home on the 255th floor of the third mine. She sleeps constantly, and apparently can't speak; but if you marry her, that first one will change, I believe.

And I still haven't finished all of the girls available in HMDS! But that's okay, because the only remaining girls are visitors from HM:(M)FoMT if you insert the GBA game into your DS, and you can't truly marry them in the DS game because I think your character moves to Mineral Town with her, so your game ends. But maybe I should talk about these girls in the context of HM:FoMT, considering I just sort of glossed over them in order to complain about the men. See you tomorrow, then!

Harvest Moon Pt. 6

Okay, so last post I promised we'd talk about the Harvest Moon DS bachelorettes, right? Oh, wow, there are so so many in this game.

I'll start things off with my favorite, Celia. She has dark brown hair held back by an orange bandana and wears a green dress. She lives with Vesta and your rival for her heart Marlin, and she works with them on the other farm here in the Valley, trusting to the fresh Valley air to help cure her of some sort of illness she has had since childhood. She's very kind, perhaps even a bit naïve.

Lumina.  The light-brown-haired granddaughter of the rich old lady Romana, Lumina can play the piano and is very interested in technology. She's nice enough, although a bit spoiled and uppity, and pretty naïve as well. Despite not agreeing with her grandmother in many things, the two are very close. Your rival for her heart is the playboy Rock.

Flora. She assists Carter in the excavation site all day, so it's only natural that he would also be your rival for Flora, even if he looks like he should be too old for her. Flora's kind of hard for me to put a finger on personality-wise. She blond but definitely seems pretty tough; make the wrong move in her black heart event, and she'll beat you up. She has an interesting style when it comes to cooking; Gourmet can't tell if it's good or bad.

Muffy. This blonde works in the Blue Bar with her love interest (if you don't get her first) Griffin, who also seems like he should be a bit too old for her. She's very cheerful, and she makes absolutely no secret of her affections for you. As soon as she knows how she feels, she goes for it.

Nami. It's a little hard to pinpoint her personality too. I guess she's sort of an introvert? She's a free spirit too, I guess. Get her talking, and you could be in for a very nice conversation. True to her red hair, her first heart event includes a quick, fiery temper that you can easily deflate with the right response. Your rival this time is the hippie Gustafa.

Wow, I haven't even covered half of the girls you can win over in this game! To be continued, then.

Harvest Moon Pt. 5

Now that I've finished the beginning storyline of Harvest Moon DS, maybe this post should contain some of the goals of the game.

Well, obviously, you want to rescue all 101 harvest sprites plus the Harvest Goddess. The Goddess appears after you've rescued sixty sprites, and I do believe that ends up being her black heart event. But more on marriage later.

This is a Harvest Moon game, so of course you want to grow crops and raise animals. At the beginning of this game, your farm has no building whatsoever aside from your house, your doghouse, your dad's friend's house, and a stable. No woodshed, bird shed, animal shed, nada. You have to call Gotz before you can buy any animals at all. But you can begin planting crops immediately, since you start the game off with all your tools plus two bags of seeds. This game, unlike HM:FoMT but like some other HM games I think, has levels for crops! Planting more than one bags of seeds in a single 9x9 square means you may increase the level by one. Harvest and repeat to get the next level. So awesome!

You can also search for and bless all the cursed tools and accessories. Once you've dug them up from the mine, just call the church and dole out the cash to receive a blessed item. (That sounds so wrong, but there it is.)

And speaking of mines, there's not a single one available at the start of the game. You have to have help from a guy named Carter (no, not the same one from HM:FoMT) and your trusty hammer, unlocking one mine at a time.

I guess marriage could be the next thing I talk about, but there are so many bachelorettes that that will probably take up an entire post itself. So, until tomorrow!

Harvest Moon Pt. 4

The other Harvest Moon game I've played for an extended period of time has been Harvest Moon DS. The plotline this time is a little different than just taking over a run-down farm; this time, you're inheriting your dad's farm probably not too long after he's died, so it's not really in horrible shape or anything.

The main goal of this game that I've never been able to completely accomplish has been rescuing all 101 harvest sprites from the other world that the Witch Princess sent them to... Okay, let me back up. The Witch Princess and the Harvest Goddess have this rivalry. The Witch Princess finally got fed up and cast a spell to try and mute the Harvest Goddess, but she cast the wrong spell and ended up petrifying (turning to stone) the Harvest Goddess.

Admitting her mistake, the Witch Princess attempts to undo her spell, but she does it wrong again, and the Harvest Goddess statue vanishes. Horrified, the harvest sprites demand she be returned. The Witch Princess decides that the only way to get the Harvest Goddess back is for someone to follow the Harvest Goddess into the other world and use magic to send her back. Since she cannot go to the other world herself (because she said so! that's why! and don't question again! ;P), she casts a spell to send all 101 harvest sprites into the other world to use their own magic for the Harvest Goddess.

This time the spell works the way it's supposed to, and the harvest sprites vanish. The Witch Princess finds out our main character was spying on her this whole time, but she seems delighted rather than angry. Apparently she's decided that only we can rescue the sprites and Goddess by doing things around the Valley and getting a girlfriend and whatnot. If we don't, "the game won't move ahead!" How she knows she's in a game and that we're the main character is beyond me, but she pushes the main character into finding the first few sprites before leaving him to his own devices.

And then the game begins. Wow, long post describing the beginning of the game. I'll continue tomorrow. n_n

Harvest Moon Pt. 3

You know what? I maybe might have possibly decided I perhaps know what's so addicting about Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town... maybe.

Of course, courtship and then marriage is always great. It's a goal, an objective you can set for yourself.

But HM:FoMT does have other goals too. Power Berries, for one thing. You have to run around the entire town, farm, and mountain in order to find and/or earn all nine, plus the blue one Kappa gives you.

Cursed tools, also. A lot more difficult in this game than in the DS game to get them blessed, because you have to work the curse off yourself, rather than just dole out the cash to have the church get rid of each of them.

Another thing I really liked was befriending the villagers and running into random events with them. There are cooking lessons at one lady's house on a few Saturdays. There are plenty of events at the inn, I think often concerning the telephone or wine. The clinic, Karen's place, and the beach (plus its buildings, and especially in the summer) I think are also good places when you just want to watch some action. Oh, but let's not forget the Harvest Sprites Hut. Befriend them all and they invite you to parties in the spring!

And of course. I could never leave out the animals and crops. They may not be as much 'goals' as they are just an obvious part of the game, but they are certainly where a great chunk of your income originates, plus they stock your fridge when you can finally get one.

I guess  I'll leave it at that for today. Until next time, then, I guess. =3

Harvest Moon Pt. 2

Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town holds a special place in my heart simply because it was the first I'd ever played. I love the background music, the graphics, and even the fact that we had more than just six letters total we could put into names. It made it so much sweeter when the spouse asked if we wanted to be called by a nickname.

I love that the dog was first a puppy, and that when he was grown we could teach him to catch a Frisbee and chase away wild dogs.

I don't love the rucksack sizes. Way. Too. Small. Especially in the summertime, and also in the fall.

Popuri was my favorite bachelorette, so when I had the male version, it was a no-brainer to have him marry her. When I got my very own copy of the game, my dad accidentally got me the girl version - More Friends of Mineral Town. Oh well, I figured. Popuri had an unmarried brother, after all. I could have my character marry him!

Worst. Mistake. Of. My. Gaming. Life. Her brother's name is Rick, defined as rat, and he certainly was a rat, most definitely!

I replayed the game a few times and tried other characters for marriage, but I found problems with each of them. Doctor worried too much. Cliff made promises he didn't keep. Won was a challenge that, when won over, got boring. Gray seemed so childish I never did even try to marry him. Kai ended up being my favorite; but considering my absolute lack of love for any of the others, that wasn't really saying much.

There are two other bachelors, I guess. Gourmet, for one thing. But seriously? How long would that take, considering we only saw him at cooking contests? And I think he requires that you've won at least five, right? And it's not like he's handsome by any means, either. There's always Kappa, but I think his gazillion requirements before marriage kind of daunted me.

Anyways, this post is getting kind of long. I'll end it here, and hopefully tomorrow I won't rant so much about the lack of good available men in Harvest Moon games. ;)

Harvest Moon

You want to know something I was wondering about yesterday? Why are Harvest Moon games so addicting?

I was first introduced to it by a friend who couldn't figure out how to make money in Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. So I borrowed it for a couple of hours and figured out the whole shipping box thing - with her character, since starting a new thing when I was unsure about the rules in that regard seemed unsafe.

When I gave her my answer to her question, she wanted her game back. Of course I gave it back, but I most definitely did not want to. Why? What was the appeal?

I'm still not sure, and that was at least five years ago. Since then, I've played Friends of Mineral Town, More Friends of Mineral Town, DS, Tale of Two Towns, and a bit of Sunshine Islands; and I've loved every second of it.

You start the game off with a farm that's either run-down or just not very upgraded. You raise crops and/or animals to make money. You can also gather and sell wild plants in certain places. You use that money to attain tool or building upgrades, or to buy gifts or cooking ingredients.

You generally have at least five bachelors/bachelorettes to choose from to marry, depending on if your playable character is a boy or a girl. Personally, until Tale of Two Towns, I've preferred my main character to be a boy, because it's much easier to choose a favorite from amongst the girls. I didn't really like any of the guys in Mineral Town or Forget-Me-Not Valley, and Popuri and Celia were just so obviously the best out of the girls. Maybe it's just because I'm so in love already with a different fictional boy, so none of the others can ever compare...

Oh wow, I still haven't explained much about Harvest Moon, and I still haven't a clue why it's so addicting. Maybe I'll make another series of posts and go into a little more depth about the games I've played. Until tomorrow, then!

Don't Brake for Squirrels

Okay, so I know yesterday I said something about describing my own speech if I made it back to you today, but my speech completely pales in comparison to another one that was given. So I'mma talk to you about that one.

Don't Brake for Squirrels. That was pretty much her speech's title, or maybe it was the policy she was advocating. At any rate, she was magnificent.

She described how animals (squirrels especially, but also others such as moose that have become drunk off of fertilized apples or something) are out to get us humans because we have been invading their homes. To assist in proving her point, she used this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40kPEjZpM8M

Another source she used was a comedian, so you can probably guess how her speech overall went with us audience members. But one of the best parts about her speech was the straight face she managed to keep throughout the entire thing. Can you say incredible?

I probably shouldn't end this post without telling you the final point she made. She suggested that in order to keep this situation from escalating, and hopefully to help it to die down even, we stop buying up and building on the few areas of nature left. It doesn't cost anything to do nothing, after all.

All in all, epicness. See you tomorrow!

Recordings

As I'm typing this, I'm listening to a recording of myself practice a speech I have to give in a couple of hours. Thanks to my suddenly extra busy schedule this week, I am grossly unprepared for this. The recording, however, I think is really helping. I get to hear myself give my speech multiple times without giving myself a sore throat.

On the other hand, hearing isn't the same as hearing and saying. Especially when you're multitasking like I'm pathetically trying to do right now.

But once I've finished typing and posting this, I'm going to divert my full attention to the speech. Completely undivided attention. And hopefully these couple of hours before class will be enough to finish preparing. I did spend all yesterday afternoon and evening practicing this, after all.

Recordings are wonderful inventions. I'm so grateful for them. Back in high school, I used to use a lesser-quality recorder thing for memorizing poems or the Preamble or something. It really helped, although I did use it more than twenty-four hours in advance, unlike this instance. I really wish I could've started earlier, but oh well, I suppose. Live and learn.

Are you curious as to what my speech is about? Maybe I'll describe it tomorrow, if all goes well today and I make it back to you alive. Giving speeches is terrifying; who knows if I'll die of fright, even though the last two speeches were gracious enough to allow me to survive.

Adieu, mes amis.

French

Bonjour, mes copains! J'ai un interrogation a mon classe de francais au'jourdhui... Amusant... =/

To repeat in English, hello, my friends! I have a quiz at my French class today... Fun... =/

Yep, I'm learning more and more and more! I can't promise that I used correct grammar here, but hopefully close enough for anyone who speaks it to catch my drift. Oh, and please note: the sarcastic 'fun' was for the quiz, not the language. I'm still enjoying the language itself, even if I'm not enjoying some other aspects of the class.

It's great to get to know some of these words. Within the past year or so, I've read a couple of books that have integrated French into them, and I've heard of a couple of others. If I can find the time to go back and read them now, maybe I'll be able to understand bits of it better. Yay!

Oh, and have any of you ever read/seen the book/movie Ella Enchanted? The prince is called Char throughout a majority of either one, but his full name is Charmont. I recently found out that the author probably based that on the French word for charming: charmant!

I love it. I really do. But I think I'll end this post here so I can review for the quiz this morning, and then the test I'mma have this afternoon. o_O A demain! Until tomorrow!

Ron Stoppable and Ramblings

Here I am again, lost once more. Was that redundant?

Speaking of, Dr. Drakken from Kim Possible makes a nice little redundant line/pun/whatever. "My latest death ray is killer!"

And then Ron, as he mentions the redundancy, gets ferociously pulled out of the way of a more ferocious and unforgiving death ray by his ferocious best friend Kim Possible.

Lots of ferociousness going on. But what can I say, Dr. D is a super villain. Kim is a teen super hero (though without super powers; "you can be super without them!" (Syndrome)). Ron is a teen super sidekick who bungles a lot of super stuff to a super degree; but in the end, Kim couldn't do any of her super heroic stuff without his super mistakes and "mad running away skills" (Ron).

Yes, I'm attempting at parenthetical documentation in this post. Why? I recently found out I'm okay as far as mentioning my sources, but my parenthetical documentation is sorely lacking. And I'm getting off-topic here.

To get back to Ron's skills, he secretly made a super mistake and got himself on the football team. However, once he was found out, he turned out to be a pretty good football player in his own right, thanks to the aforementioned skills.

This is a very ramble-y post. I apologize. Maybe tomorrow I should look at some of the books I've read and type up some form of review for them for you or something. Randomness is only appreciated for so long before it gets old.

Nothing

Hmm, I'm really drawing a blank here as to what to write... But I'm just going to keep typing, because something generally comes to me as I blather on about nothing. Although maybe my topic today should be nothing.

See? It came to me. Usually at this point, I'd erase the part that says I don't know what to do, or at least part of it. However, I think this time that should be part of the post. It kind of explains why at this point I'm still sort of going on about nothing.

Nothing isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's a lack of something. Depending on the something that isn't, 'nothing' can change to a more specific word.

One of my classmates wrote a paper recently on silence, the lack of noise. It can certainly be a good thing. You can reflect on some different things, or you can concentrate better on other stuff.

A lack of light is darkness. I must confess I don't really care in general for this nothing, except when I'm trying to sleep. Otherwise I'm a fan of light.

I really don't want to get too deep into something like this topic, though. I get the feeling it could lead to be taken as something like yin and yang, which I don't agree with.

So instead, let's end it here. This post can still be taken as something shallow and time-filling, which maybe I shouldn't be proud of, but I am relieved about. Maybe tomorrow I'll have something else to discuss. You know, dear readers, it really would help if I got suggestions - hint, hint. ;)

Music

I love music. It's so wonderful!

Too bad that can't be an all-encompassing statement, though. It definitely hinges on what kind of music.

When someone asks me what kind of music I like, I think my answer is somewhat weird, although it's true. My mom plays a lot of Southern Gospel music, and I really like a lot of the songs that are played, especially the older ones. Really, it's the only kind of music I'm generally exposed to, aside from Disney.

Oh, don't get me wrong. At restaurants they have all kinds of music blaring in the background. But I don't listen to it if I can help it. Rock, rap, country (lyrics, mostly), et cetera. I know what kind of music I don't like. But for some reason, I still sort of hesitate when it comes to what I do like.

I'm so weird.

Have you seen anything about the way different musics have different effects? On people, animals, and plants? I haven't. But I'm thinking I should soon. Doing some sort of project on that was tentatively offered as an extra credit thing for biology, and I need all the help I can get.

Well, if I find out anything, especially any unusual details, maybe I'll share them in another post some day. =) Until then, have a great day!

The Sims 2 Pt. 8

Greetings, Earthlings! I believe yesterday I mentioned talking about my own characters in The Sims 2. Maybe I'll do that briefly. Do it because I love them. Briefly because you probably don't care as much.

I created a neighborhood whose name I will not mention because I lack creativity in this regard. But as many expansion packs as I have, those are how many special Sims I have in this neighborhood, with the exception of one that I am still currently in the process of getting.

The base game contains aliens. My neighborhood contains two aliens. One is currently an elder with three children, four grandchildren (one of whom is adopted), and a fifth grandchild on the way. One of her grandchildren, brother to the one adopted, is an alien as well, currently a teenager. His father, my original alien's son, was abducted.

Nightlife contains vampires. Mine is a woman with a Romance Aspiration. She is engaged to the Count but has so far avoided marriage to him. She has raised their daughter to a teenager, and she also has another child who is a toddler (I forgot whose son this one is).

Pets contains werewolves. This one was pretty difficult, but I eventually got one of my characters to befriend the glowing-eyed wolf and it bit her. Then I had her go out into downtown and convert at least four other down/townies to werewolfism.

Seasons contains plant Sims. That's the one I have yet to obtain in my own neighborhood. Of course Riverblossom Hill already has them, and one of the premade characters there I turned into a plant Sim without meaning to.

But aside from all these unusual Sims, I do have a few normal families. My elder alien's two younger children, for instance, both are leading normal lives. Although I do have a story to tell about her younger son. He is a family Sim, married to a family Sim, they have two children, and they want more. But unfortunately, they can't. The wife had difficulties getting pregnant the first time, and the second time she got really sick (pregnant sick, not a cold or pneumonia or anything). So it's too risky to have another child; the next one may kill her. No, don't even try to protest that the game makes that impossible; I'm building a storyline here. ;) Oooh, only just now had a thought that should've been obvious - adoption! xD

You are a terrific, idea-generating, patient audience! Thank you for this past week-and-a-day of Sims 2 talk. I'm probably going to end it here and start on something else tomorrow. Who knows yet what that will be; but it'll be, eventually. Ciao!

The Sims 2 Pt. 7

You know what? Now that I'm done describing the characters in The Sims 2 neighborhood Pleasantview, I'm at a loss again. I mean, sure, there are two other neighborhoods in the base game, plus the one that came with Seasons, as well as any I made myself. However, I didn't spend as much time in any of those.

Strangetown. Way out in the desert, complete with aliens and mad scientists. I played a couple of the families, but not enough to get a grasp on the characters and fix anything that needed it.

Veronaville. Basically Romeo and Juliet. In fact, that's even the main teenagers' names. There are two feuding families and one (maybe a couple more) neutral family. I played Juliet's family for a while, but it's sort of discouraging when everyone in the family comes down with a cold at the same time - then recovers and catches it again. But while I was playing it, I worked to try patching things up between the two families.

Riverblossom Hills. The neighborhood that came with Seasons. I played it to get a handle on how the seasons and gardening worked, so I played a couple families for a while, but nothing major. What I did do while experimenting with weather and gardens was work out the romance somewhat. I found a girlfriend for Leod McGreggor. I reunited Gabe O'Mackey with his wife Alexandra. And I was in the process of finding boyfriends for Patricia Wan (considering Gabe is now taken) and Cleo Shikibu.

And that's all of the premade neighborhoods in The Sims 2. I have made a neighborhood of my own, populating it with just about everything under the sun - and moon. Would you be interested in hearing about that? Or would something non-canon be uninteresting to people other than its creator?