Second Day Back to Class

Yesterday, I had my last two classes so that I have now had all of my classes once!

The two classes I had? Well, one of them was a writing class, by the same professor as my blogging class last year. This time, instead of a blog, I'll be writing my memoirs. They may or may not be published online; I kind of hope that they are not - or at least that my professor follows Internet safety rules a little in doing so.

The other class I had was the one where I'll be going to the farm as part of my requirement. The class itself is something about social justice and I think gender diversity too maybe. I hope I don't get upset too often concerning this class.

The homework that class assigned was to read a chapter in a certain book. I wasn't even through a third of the chapter before I started talking back to the pages; and by another third of the chapter, I was probably yelling at the pages (though not at the top of my lungs - I am in a dorm with several other girls, after all...).

Maybe I'll tell you about what made me so upset tomorrow. There's not enough room left in this post to cover it, I don't think.

So, yeah. Writing and social justice. Combined with the previous day's classes of two English and a French.

It's gonna be a good year.

First Day Back in Class

Yesterday, I had my first day of classes, and I had three out of my five classes total (I'll be going to the other two today).

I had my two English classes and my French class, and I already love all of my professors, even if my one English professor is scaring me.

For that particular class, we're looking at psychological stuff. I kind of sort of wondered if that would mean some disturbing study stuff, but apparently I didn't wonder enough to drop the class. Now I've watched a movie that the professor has assigned, and I kind of freaked out really badly over it. And the professor is warning us that more disturbing stuff is ahead.

Sigh. Pray for me. Please.

Other than that, all is well. My French professor is already cracking the whip and assigning lots of homework, but that's normal for her. And it only took me a few hours last night to finish most of it, yay!

As for my other English class, it's sort of a history class - we're going to be learning about how our modern English was developed. Is it weird that I'm actually kind of excited about learning all the difficult, technical side of our language? For homework, I defined terms like morphemes and pejoration; I still don't know what morphemes are, even with the definition, but I'm still excited. xD

Hopefully this enthusiasm will last all semester. Woot, second college year, here I come!

Farming

Yesterday, I visited a farm with one of my professors and some of my classmates.

The class I visited with is one that is centered around service learning - education via helping the real world survive. My particular class's service learning project is that, this semester, we'll be volunteering at a farm, helping to plant and weed and harvest and whatever else they need.

It'll be hot, really hot, at least for the next month-ish. And it'll be hard.

But I'm cautiously looking forward to it. As long as it doesn't get gross (read: I don't want to touch the glowworms or fish or deal with any of their excretions), hard can be good. It'll be good for me, at least. Getting exercise and sunshine is healthy.

This particular farm deals a lot in veggies and berries and whatever else growable that was mentioned but I forgot. It's all organic, too.

As far as animals go, there are the aforementioned worms and fish. There are also some chickens, I've heard, but I didn't see any on that one trip.

Here's hoping all goes well! =D This post looks somewhat short, but I'mma end it here anyways. Have a great day!

Back at College

Woah, sorry I forgot about you guys yesterday and this morning! I moved back to college yesterday, so I've been re-acclimating to college life.

I got my room set up after some furniture rearrangement, and and of course my room is basically purple again. I have my two purple beds - one of which is set up like a couch with three purple pillows.

And I picked up my books for my classes, and I'm pretty sure I have all of them. One of my professors has yet to post a syllabus online, so I can't be totally sure. But I have that particular class tomorrow, so hopefully I'll find out then if I'm missing anything.

I discovered in the unpacking process that I forgot a couple of crucial things: pencils and lamps.

I love to use my purple pens that write in purple ink, but there are times when ink just shouldn't be used. So I'll need to get some pencils this weekend.

And I have only one light in my entire room, and it's on the ceiling, and it makes absolutely no difference lighting-wise until after the sun has set. So, yes, I need my lamp that has multiple lamps stemmed from it to aid the sun in its generous-but-not-quite-enough light provision through my window.

Aaaand, I guess tomorrow, I will tell you about my trip to a farm that I took today.

Neopets Intro + Latest Plot

I don't remember if I've ever told you this or not, but I intermittently play on a site called Neopets.

I started playing when I was a kid, probably about ten or eleven. It has a lot of stuff to do, from caring to up to four pets to finding hidden avatars to playing the games in its arcade to meeting other players.

Usually, I mainly play Neopets for the 'meeting other players' part. I like to be a part of a guild, where I will generally see the same 5-20 people every day. And often, I enjoy being a part of a roleplay guild.

However, sometimes I also like to play the plots that Neopets comes up with. Lately, they've gotten a plot going that only really got good yesterday. The plot is that the ruler of the biggest desert civilization invited a bunch of other world rulers for a diplomatic visit. To her utter horror, each of her guests had something stolen one night when they were all there, and she needs our help to track down the criminals.

So the first few weeks was tracking down witnesses and getting a bunch of vague clues. Now, we have three days to put those clues all together to figure out who stole what, and when and how.

I spent a good solid three hours yesterday morning trying to answer that question, and I actually loved every second of it. A lot of the players are complaining about the puzzle, saying it's not as action-oriented and player-involving as the plots way-back-when; I suppose they have a point.

But still, I enjoyed it. And now I'm logging onto one of my other accounts just to have a reason to solve the puzzle again. I'm kind of hoping to just confirm the answer I gave on my first account, but still.

It's fun. x3

Annoying, Potentially Harmful Downloads

Sometimes over the summer, I think I accidentally downloaded something harmful, though it thankfully has yet to do actual harm.

It's a thing that pops up on my screen some minutes after I sign onto my computer, every time I turn my computer on. Then it starts some scan to see how at-risk my computer is.

I always cancel the scan before it finishes, but it always tells me the final outcome of the scan anyways. And my computer, according to this scan, is always at extremely high risk.

So of course it wants me to let it clear out those "risks."

I was not born yesterday, scanner. I have been deceived by similar things before and it completely destroyed my computer. I will no longer fall for your fake helpfulness. =_=

So after I cancel the scan itself, I have to exit out of the program separately. Thankfully, just having that scan on my computer doesn't seem to do any damage. I guess I'd have to give it permission to do damage before it can.

I will never give that permission, do you hear me, scanner? e_e

I wish I had never gotten it onto my computer in the first place. I don't even remember why I let it download in the first place, or even how. And it seems non-deletable; every time I try and think I've succeeded, it still pops up every morning when I turn my computer on.

Sigh.

My Memoirs

For one of my classes this semester, I'll be writing my memoirs.

It sounds creepy to say that, like I think I'm going to die soon or something. I haven't even lived half of what's considered a generation.

That aside, though, I have a different problem: I need to think up stories from my life that will take up at least ten pages when typed out.

I think this blog helped a little bit in that. I looked at the posts I'd labeled 'Story from my Life' and may have found a couple potential topics. Trouble is, I need five total; maybe even five plus one.

Another problem with this is my memory. If I'm going to be expected to put these events in story mode, I'm going to have to do a lot of embellishing because I can't remember specific days in order, or all the stuff that happened on a single day. I just remember highlights.

Woah, I just took a look at this post, and I seem to be complaining a lot. o_O

Please don't let my list of problems fool you. I'm cautiously looking forward to this course; I think it'll be interesting to see what I and my classmates come up with.

Plus, I know the professor already from last semester, so I know what it will take to succeed in her class. It'll be a lot of work, and a big struggle to keep my grade up; but it'll definitely be interesting.

One bright side to this is that, unlike the last course I took with this professor, I don't think I'll have to find people to interview. That was nerve-racking, interviewing a total stranger. =P

College Preparing

I'm finally taking my own measures to prepare for the upcoming semester; let's all cheer for my work and boo the fact that it's necessary to do such work. xD

As the result of just one afternoon, I've mostly finished packing. Most of my stuff was already still together after the last year; when we brought the stuff home from clearing out my college room that I wouldn't be using anymore, I just dumped it all in a corner of my room and barely touched it all summer.

As a result, 'packing' for this year mostly included rearranging the stuff in the containers for maximum efficiency and space usage, plus replacing the stuff like soap and shampoo that I was running low on.

Before the week is over, I'll need to start packing clothes too. And whatever books and movies I want to take from my home room to my college room.

I've also looked over the syllabi that have been put up so far for my classes. As of yesterday evening, only two out of my five classes had a syllabus posted. I've read both of those and jotted down notes about each.

And I'm sporadically going back over all of my French notecards, trying desperately to overcome a three-month break from most things French.

So, yeah. Stuff. Busy stuff. Not fun, but necessary. Unfortunately.

At least there are no major deadlines quite yet.

High School Graduation Pt. 4

After my high school graduation ceremony, Mom and Dad invited all my guests back to our house for a post-graduation get-together that I hadn't known about. I knew Mom had made celebratory sweets, but I didn't know anyone but our house guests would be joining us for them.

And then, that Sunday, my pastor and associate pastor called me to the front of the church with my parents and presented me with a new Bible with my name monogrammed onto it!

And then, after the service, we all went to a community lot that my church rents from time to time for some fellowship.

Go ahead, call me dense.

But I had no idea, even when seeing the purple banner of congratulations on the door, that this was a party my church had thrown for me.

It took seeing the purple table-sheets, the purple decorations, and the purple cupcakes with a graduation cap on top, before I realized they were celebrating my graduation.

Apparently (obviously), everyone had known that little fact except for me.

I can't even describe how it felt, that they would do something like that for me. Mom and one other lady, who where there to see my first reaction, both said they thought I looked like I was about to cry. I didn't feel like I was going to cry, but I did feel somewhat overwhelmed - in the best possible way.

♥

High School Graduation Pt. 3

Finally, the evening dusked that I would have to graduate high school and (gulp) give my speech.

I arrived at the school nervous but trying to laugh my way through it. It sort of helped, sort of worsened, when I discovered that my classmates were all nervous too. Two of my classmates also had to give a speech, and even those who didn't have to speak seemed to not want to go through with this.

What probably helped me the most, upon finally entering the auditorium and sitting facing the audience, was noticing that most of my guests had found a seat front-and-center. My parents, my grandparents on both parents' sides, my pastor and his wife, and my associate pastor and his wife - they all sat in the very front row in the very center of the auditorium.

And after the graduation ceremony finished, I must say, I noticed I had had some surprise guests who absolutely positively made my night. A family from my church had driven at least an hour to see me graduate. I felt so special, you don't even know.

I gave my speech.

I must say, I had absolutely nothing to do with my delivery up there. That was fully and completely God keeping my back straight, my smile up, my voice audible and mostly even, and my timing decent.

The audience loved it.

High School Graduation Pt. 2

Having to give a speech at my high school graduation was the worst.

I got pre-planning anxiety, which made me put off starting the writing process.

And when I finally did start it, I scrapped goodness-knows-how-many drafts before I finally turned my weakness (indecisiveness) into a strength.

And then when I finally finished, none of the teachers liked it. My English teacher had issues with the humorous parts, saying she and I were alike in that neither of us knew how to deliver a punch line. My vice principal also worried about me being able to deliver on the humor I'd typed into my speech, and she also worried about some of the remarks I had put in about my classmates.

In fact, the only teacher who was supportive of my speech draft (meaning, he gave advice rather than criticism) was a teacher who was constantly teasing me about tons of other stuff.

So. Needless to say, all the criticism was definitely not helping my anxiety.

But rather than go through the horrors of writing another speech that probably no one would like, I decided to stick with my original.

Terrified I was.

More on further terror next time.

High School Graduation

So. My high school graduation, hm?

Let me first say I cling to normalcy with every shred of my being. I dislike drastic changes, and I avoid them whenever possible.

I wouldn't claim my high school years as the best of my life, but it was familiar. And because it was a tiny high school, I knew practically everybody, teachers and students.

Whatever year I was in, the class sizes I think topped ten students only ever when we were combined with other grades. My graduating class was seven people, including me; I had known three of those six classmates since middle school at least.

Also, I got along with everybody. Teachers and students. There was some conflict here and there, of course; but are you starting to get a picture of why I didn't want to leave?

Anyways, there could only be one thing worse than graduation itself, and that would be if I had to give a speech.

Well, guess what?

I had to give a speech.

Okay, enough background info, I suppose. Brace yourselves for next time.

I Might Be in Trouble

This isn't good; I think I just may have run out of things to talk about.

I've spent practically this entire summer yammering about books and a bit about video games, and now I'm at a brick wall?

With college starting back up, it just doesn't seem fair. I know you don't want to hear that "Hmmm, what should I talk about today?" any more than I want to say it.

And yet here we are, back at that awkward place where I wished never to be again.

I suppose once college starts back up, perhaps I can tell you some stories about what's happening in my life. But I'm worried that most of those stories will be something along the lines of "Ugh, I have so much work to do, a paper deadline coming up, and a test to study for, and blah blah blah!"

Yeah, that's already gotten old, hasn't it?

Hmmm... Have I ever told you about my high school graduation?

I don't think I have. Maybe that can be an idea to last at least one or two days.

Why didn't I think of that before I typed up this post about running out of stuff to talk about? Now I'm too lazy to erase it all; I spent good brainpower trying to think of how to say that I don't know what to say anymore.

Anyways. Until next time, then.

Moving Back

I'll be moving back to college in a little over two weeks, so I've been shopping around lately for stuff to put in my room this year.

Last year, I was supposed to have a roommate but ended up not getting one. This year, my parents are paying for me to have a room to myself. So I'm going a little farther with the decorating process.

For one thing, the extra bed in my room is going to need some kind of cover at least, so it's not just an ugly ol' mattress in the midst of all the other purple I plan on having. xD Along with a mattress pad and fitted sheet, Mom got me a body pillow, a normal pillow, and a pillow with arms that her coworker called her husband when she was in college.

I'll also be decorating my walls more this year. Last year, I just pinned one hand-made poster (from my "big sister") and one colored drawing (from a girl at my church) onto the only section of my wall that the college lets me put push-pins into. This year, I'll be hanging a picture of Jesus, a picture of the Pillar of Fire, and a picture of the Cloud on my walls.

This other stuff, of course, is in addition to all the stuff I'm reusing from last year, like my crates and my fridge. Along with all the other stuff that's too numerous to mention. :P

Oh, and I got a microwave too. Who knows how often I'll use it, but hopefully often enough to make it worth the buy. It was one of the cheapest microwaves they had, at any rate.

So. Yup. Moving back. Fun. Woo. Cheer.

I'm ecstatic. Can't you tell? *sarcasm*

Unknown Dangers in Free Books

I got a Kindle not-sure-how-long-ago, and ever since, I've been getting tons of free books on it, courtesy of Amazon.com.

Some of the free books are pretty awesome, while some are just okay, and others are downright horrible. Sadly, there's really no way to tell ahead of time which will be which.

Oh, sure, Amazon has a place where readers can put their reviews of the books, but it's not always helpful. There's always going to be someone who loved the book and someone who hated the book, and the people who loved it generally outnumber and outrank the people who hated it.

What I would appreciate from Amazon is ratings like they do for movies: a basic code thing that tells what audience the book should be appropriate for and the content that determines that rating.

Occasionally, but only VERY occasionally, Amazon's description of the book or some very thorough reviewer will mention something like "Warning: This book has such and such content," and I'll know to steer clear and not download that particular book. I am very grateful for those moments.

There are also occasions that I learn from experience. For instance, I no longer download books that say they have angels and demons in them because I've learned that the way any of the characters are portrayed is horrible.

But most of the time, I still innocently download books that I honestly wish I'd never ever ever laid eyes on.

Wow, this post doesn't really go with the theme I'd planned on it fitting in with. I guess I'll alter the title accordingly. Have a great day, dear readers!

Reading Beginnings Pt. 5

Although I branched out and found a bunch of authors I liked, I still starting running out of new things to read again.

So how did I solve this problem? Goodreads.com came to my rescue!

A couple summers ago, my mom took my brother and me on a trip to visit family. Dad hates traveling and probably also couldn't really get the time off, so it was just the three of us. To help my brother and me out with killing time at the airport and stuff, Mom offered to buy us new games and/or books as long as the total price didn't go above a certain amount.

Naturally, I chose books. Solely books.

I found a list on Goodreads that had several dozen books recommended for readers my age, and I probably fit at least one dozen titles into Mom's price range.

I can't remember all the books that I got, but I made many new friends out of them before the summer was over. I got the first book in several series and a few stand-alone novels. If I liked the book well enough, I looked for more in the series and/or by the same author.

That summer, I discovered the Mysterious Benedict Society, Cameron Dokey's Once Upon a Time contributions, and Princess Ben, among others.

Two or three years later now, though, I would probably be running out of new books to read again if it wasn't for one thing: free Kindle books.

Reading Beginnings Pt. 4

Probably my first branch outside the books like the Boxcar Children and Nancy Drew was Ella Enchanted.

I've somewhat talked about this before, I think. I saw the movie, and then sometime later I ran into the book at a bookstore. So naturally, I picked up the book.

At first, I was shocked by all the differences between the movie and the book, and stopped reading the book in frustration. But later, once I got my perspective and expectations straightened out, I picked up the book again and instantly fell in love.

From there, I believe I read more of Gail Carson Levine's books, particularly the Princess Tales. After I ran out of Levine's books, I found some other fairy tale stories, either in a library or a bookstore, or maybe I even stumbled across them online and followed up in one of the two types of buildings.

I remember finding Princess Academy by Shannon Hale, Once Upon a Curse by E.D. Baker, and The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Hanley. Those first books were the bait, and I was suddenly caught by the hook. I made sure to read as many of their other books as possible!

One coworker of my mom's let me borrow the first Percy Jackson book. Because it dealt with Greek gods and goddesses, I was bound and determined not to like the series. I took the first book to be polite, but I had already formed my opinion of the series. Too bad Rick Riordan had a different plan, and I fell in love with the entire series as quickly as I could get my hands on the next book, and the next, and the next!

Of course, then, I started hunting for more of his works.

And I believe that will be all for today. See you tomorrow with more fascinating talks about how I started reading! xD ...And I apologize if I'm boring you...

Reading Beginnings Pt. 3

I think last time we left off saying that Trixie Belden had more continuity than Nancy Drew and the Boxcar Children, but didn't say much overall about Trixie Belden; so here goes.

Trixie Belden was having a lonely summer in her home way out in the countryside because at least two out of her three brothers were away at camp. Out of the blue, some rich new neighbors move in on the next hill over and Trixie finds a new best friend in Honey Wheeler. The two girls somehow run into Jim Frayne, who ran away from his legal guardian and is hiding in the third and last house out in this neck of the woods.

After two books focusing on Jim, Honey's family adopts him and Trixie's brothers Brian and Mart come back home. In later books, Di Lynch and Dan Mangan are added as main characters.

These seven teens banded together to form the Bob-Whites of the Glen club. Together, they solve mysteries and sometimes travel to different places. They don't travel quite as extensively as Nancy Drew, and these kids have the addition of school to keep up with. Unlike the Boxcar Children, the Bob-Whites don't only run into mysteries during summer vacations.

I think Trixie Belden was a lot more realistic, but I probably appreciate that now a lot better than I did as a kid. I remember being annoyed with the characters when they would get into arguments, and being especially annoyed with Trixie for complaining about her chores. Shows what I hypocrite I was, I guess, considering I had fewer chores than her and probably complained more.

Anyways, for a good long while, those three series constituted the majority of my reading experience. I probably read some Judy Moody books, but I never really liked them. I probably also read several American Girl books, mostly the ones involving Kitt Kittrage. Other than that, I would just reread the books I had already read - and reread them again and again!

Reading Beginnings Pt. 2

For a good long while, I probably didn't read much of anything for pleasure except for the Boxcar Children series; and then my mom introduced me to her childhood best friends: Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden.

We went over to my grandma's house for some reason, maybe even for the books themselves. Mom pulled out a box Grandma had stored away, and in it were several, several books! Probably about twenty Nancy Drew books (not necessarily the first twenty in the series) and about thirty Trixie Belden books (all the books in the series up to that point).

I dove into Nancy Drew immediately, and I started hoarding copies of those books much the same way as I had the Boxcar Children books. I now have about fifty Nancy Drew books!

Trixie Belden was a little harder for me to get into at the time just because it was so different from what I was used to reading. It was still a mystery series, true; but it had continuity! Shocker!

In the Boxcar Children, the continuity sort of stopped after the first five or so books. The only kind of continuity that continued after that was just the close family: the four kids and their dog of course, and their grandfather, and (very) occasionally their cousin and their great-aunt and (maybe) their housekeeper. And even at that, their great-aunt somehow melted off the years through the books to become just their aunt.

Nancy Drew was sort of the same way. She had a friend Helen Corning in the beginning, which somehow switched to Bess Marvin and George Fayne in later books. After Ned Nickerson was introduced in one of the books, I think Dave and Butch were also added for Bess and George's sake. And then those five became a (near) constant throughout most of the series - the only (near) constant in the series. Well, aside from Carson Drew and Hannah McGruen.