Woah, Where Did November Go?

It has been about a month since I last posted, but in my defense it has been a ridiculously crazy month. First of all, it was Nanowrimo so every time I thought about posting here I would feel guilty because that writing time really should go to that. Nano, by the way, went pretty well. And when I say pretty well I mean that I managed to finish by writing 30,000 words in the last 3 days of November. I just barely managed to finish by hitting 50,000 words at 11PM on November 30th, but hey! I still finished :D Then, my classes went into insane mode (despite the fact I had my midterms in October) because I had a bunch of projects and just... insanity. The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 premiered (although, really, that's more of a reason to blog than not to blog) and I've just been attempting to keep up with my life. I also seriously considered switching my major, but now I think I'm back to sticking with my major but perhaps switching an endorsement or two.

Which reminds me, they make it way to difficult for people to become teachers (in my opinion). Don't they want more teachers? Or is this some failed attempt to try and get smarter people as teachers? Admittedly, I had some really amazing and really intelligent teachers throughout my compulsory public school career. Then again, I also had some really under qualified and not very intelligent teachers. However, I really don't think the number of loopholes you have to jump through in order to become a teacher makes it so you get smarter people as teachers. I think the ones who are smart will jump ship, and then you just get the ones who aren't smart enough to realize they should leave and the ones who are smart but crazy enough to stay. I'm hoping I fit in the latter category, because for some reason elementary/middle school teaching still seems to be the path I'm choosing. I did pay $85 to register to take some state required test in order to get into the teaching program at my school, so that right there shows some decisiveness. $85 though XD

So now, I'm currently hanging out in my apartment that has been very excellently decorated for Christmas (complete with lights, fake fireplace made out of paper with stockings hung by it, Christmas tree, two mini trees, nativity scene, and more tinsel than someone should own) on a Friday night, trying to decide what project I should work on or what final I should study for. Mostly this is because it seems like everyone I know already has plans or has to work, so I'm just hanging out here like a lemon.

Oh! Speaking of being lame and hanging out by myself I bought World of Warcraft the other day as a "Yay! You finished Nanowrimo!" present. In my defense, it was purchased because I told a friend I would play it with him over break (so, see, I'm using it to be social with people I know) and because they had a crazy deal to buy $90 worth of World of Warcraft for $20. So, I was already planning on buying it, AND THEN they made it super cheap. Sign from the universe. I haven't bought a subscription for it yet, though. That's going to be my, "Yay! You're done with finals and fall quarter!" present to myself. And I fully realize that's probably why they made the game so cheap, because then you'd be roped into paying them your soul $15 a month for the rest of your life when you wanted to play it.

On that note, I'm going to end it here. I've posted quite a few videos on WeThreeChallengirls this month (including one HERE at the Harry Potter movie premier) and I also posted a video on my personal channel today that I meant to edit and post a month ago where I show you the part of my yarn stash that I have at college. That video is HERE. Watch those if you have the inclination, and I will see you in a month next time :D

Wait, it's November?!

Haha, oops. Look at that. October just kind of flew by, didn't it? Well, it did for me anyway. My life got a little crazy with school (and midterms), social life, and just general life-ness. I definitely thought a lot about blogging, but a lot of it came down to not being interesting enough to say, or me not being sure how to put it into words. Meh.

However, this month is November, which means I have lots of things to put into words! 50,000 of them to be specific. For those of you who don't know, I'm doing Nanowrimo (stands for NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth). Nano, during the month of November, is a huge online-based challenge where everyone participating tries to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. You can write more than that (or less than that really) but the somewhat arbitrarily picked number by the folks over at http://www.nanowrimo.org is 50,000. You can view my profile and progress HERE at this link. I'm a little behind right now at almost 5000 words, but every year since 2007 I'm always behind the entire month. But then I write 30,000 words over Thanksgiving break. Makes me wonder how much I could write if I had more time to devote to it. I'm going to try and be less behind this year, but since I'm getting The Force Unleashed II and Fable III from my brother this weekend, my free time is going to be a little... divided. Plus, my homework is only building on itself, so what free time I do have is limited enough in itself.

Speaking of which, homework is really what I should be doing. I'm currently trying to write a paper for my Japanese class (in Japanese) about this book called The Pillow Book written in the early 990 in Japan by a woman we don't actually know the name of (it's attributed to a Sei Shonagon, but Shonagon is a title based on her position at court and Sei was gotten from her father, so no one knows what her real name was). I've been enjoying my research a lot as I'm super into literature (especially classic literature, big surprise), but I'm getting a little intimidated by the paper. But tonight I will start to conquer it! Hopefully. Maybe.

This could be interesting.

Achieve Able

I am currently sitting at home/my parent's house while dressed in my college sweats and my giant high school senior sweatshirt that I ordered a size too big. I had considered waiting another week or so before coming home, but school and my college town was getting a little overwhelming and I just needed to get out for the weekend. If you are one of my awesome, awesome friends who lives in Bellingham, know that you are the part I missed. Anyway, in addition to the lazing about and watching my brother play Halo, I'm eating tons of junk food because I don't buy soda or potato chips at school, and now I have access to way too much of it. Although, in the long run I figure a bowl or two of potato chips and a can of coke won't completely ruin my goal to be a healthier person. In theory.

Anyway, I've been thinking lately about goals and feelings of achievement. My life has gotten a little crazy in terms of the goals I'm making and the things I need to do to get there. The road to these goals is turning out to be a long one (and getting longer the more research I do), and it's beginning to feel aggravating and the achievements and grades I earn in school don't feel the way it used to. Getting a good grade on a paper? I always find more things I could have done, or better ways to do something. Do well on a Japanese test? No time to think about that because I've got to start studying for the next one while making sure I maintain the knowledge of the last one. I used to get so excited over good grades and discovering that I really was learning new things, but now homework and even getting good grades feels more akin to doing the dishes than say, climbing a mountain. Sure, you can finish the dishes and you can do a really good job on them, but in all likelihood seconds after you finish there will be another dirty dish in the sink. It's the same with any school related ridiculousness. There is always more homework, more tests, and more classes.

Then, there's that thing you always hear about video games, how there's a "false sense of achievement." What makes it "false"? What makes it less "real" than getting a grade in a class or completing anything else? Today I finally finished Halo: Reach on Legendary difficulty, which is as hard as it sounds. False sense of achievement? Maybe. Was it awesome? Definitely. And since at least last June/July I've been making a super conscious effort to eat a lot healthier and continue to exercise (as I got in a pretty good habit of exercising last year). I feel like I achieved something when I made it to the gym a day or two more than I usually managed to, include lots of vegetables in my food, or (yes) when I see on the scale that I've managed not to gain weight or even lose a pound or two since I last checked. So, where does that fall?

What's the point of "achievement" anyway? When you achieve something, it means you did something. Is it the completion of something that matters? Or really, just that you did something? Do I have an answer? No. I'm really just thinking out loud.

Anyway, my point is that I like video games, and in this time of my life where I'm getting fed up with how ridiculous and confusing school is, sometimes I feel more like I actually did something when I complete a level of Halo or increase my gamerscore. Do I feel like video games produce a "false" sense of achievement then? No, I don't.

Despite my complaining about homework and my dislike of the monotony of doing yet another linguistics exercise or read another billion pages for my 8:30 AM English class where my teacher is way to intense for that early in the morning, I still must do it. So... that's what I'm going to do. Right now. Yes.

Side Note: Just because I feel like I wasn't excited enough about it in the midst of my reflective think-y post, I'm going to insert it here. I just want to geek out on the internet because I am so excited. I FINISHED HALO: REACH ON LEGENDARY BY MYSELF. OH MY GAH!!!!! That was ridiculous, and hard, and was at least 18-20 hours of my life where I died at least 200 times.

Side note #2: My posts are long when I think too much.

Videos and Some Thoughts

I posted this video yesterday on the collab channel I share with my first two IRL nerdfighter friends. So, I've decided to post it on here as well. Take from it what you will.

In other news, for the past two-ish weeks there's been all this crazy stuff happening around here because a freshmen went missing the first weekend of school. Lots of people were theorizing on what happened, organizing search parties, raising money so they could have an award for information... etc. Except, they found him today. And, unfortunately, it was his body that was found near the water. I don't really know what to think of it. Some of my friends feel really affected by it, even though no one I know actually knew him (except, my mom said someone at my church was his old neighbor. Either that or a friend of someone at church was his neighbor). Some people I've talked to don't feel affected at all. They feel that it was literally just really bad luck after he got in a bad situation. That bad things happen to good people all the time, and this one just happened a little closer to us than it usually does. As for me? I'm not sure. I definitely am sad for the family and friends, but I don't even feel like I can even really begin to imagine what it would feel like in this situation to even think about how I would sympathize. But on the other hand, I never knew him. The only reason I probably ever found out his name was because he went missing. So, I guess I'm somewhere in the middle. Still, I just felt the need to write out a few thoughts on the matter.

See! Look! I have excuses!

Oh, blog. I feel I have neglected you. But my schedule has been crazy! Seriously, look at this awkwardly screen captured picture of my schedule!

Not to mention the increased travel time it takes to get to class compared to last year, increased time for food making and chore doing (dishes, etc), need for alone/me/fun time, a social life, early morning trips to the rec center, and then pile on mounds of homework and you've got quite the full schedule. I'm not sure how I'm going to manage nine (eight? I can't remember) more weeks of this, but I'm sure I'll manage. I always seem to.

But, October just started and I LOVE October. That slight chill in the air, pumpkins, pumpkin spice lattes, increasing ability to drink tea and wear scarves, impending holiday season starting with Halloween, and the fact that it's Nanowrimo preparation month! Yes, I know. I'm crazy. I have officially declared October to be "Prepare for a month of crazy noveling"-month. I feel it's necessary, even though the preparation is more mental as I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm writing about this year. It's actually a sequel to my first Nanowrimo novel, so it'll be interesting writing a sequel.

In other news, I really enjoy walking. Yes, it does take at least 30 minutes to get to my classes from my apartment due to the fact my classes are in school buildings about as far away as they can be from my apartment, but I enjoy those 30 minutes. The weather has been so nice lately, it almost seems ridiculous not to walk (if I have the time). There have been a few mornings where there just would not have been enough time to walk, so I took the bus. Still, I'm hoping to keep up this walking habit while the weather decides to keep up the nice-ness of it.

And, I realize this is another quick post, but I really do need to go read some Native American poetry for my English class. I admit that I spent all day yesterday playing Halo and watching TV and movies instead of doing homework, doing laundry, getting groceries... so now I'm paying the price.

And I forgot to buy aluminum foil for the recipe I wanted to make for dinner. Fail.

I'd rather be... playing Halo. What a surprise.

Why hello, Blog! And the internet! And any other piece of my audience that still doesn't feel that they're being addressed! Hello to all.

Yeah, I don't know where my brain's been at in the past week either. Probably being rattled about in my head after getting killed by SO MANY headshots in Halo: Reach.

Anyway, this past week has been a week of crazy. I feel like last year the first week of school was not nearly so busy. Of course, neither my job nor volunteering has started yet, so this coming week I'll have at least eight hours of more things to do. Which, makes me a little nervous. I moved in last Sunday, and that day was filled with hauling things into my apartment, shopping for new things, and attempting to figure out how to feel myself (it is harder than one would think). If you'd like to take a look at a little tour of my apartment, you can view my WeThreeChallengirls video from last week HERE. In theory, I'll post another video on that channel on Monday or Tuesday so subscribe if you'd like to see those. I'll probably show my newly decorated walls since I finally decorated the walls in my room now.

As for my classes, they seem pretty good so far. My Japanese class seems INSANE. My early American lit class seems interesting (the teacher is the embodiment of what you'd think an English professor should be) and my linguistics class should also be interesting. Actually, I should probably be doing homework right now, but I wanted to post a little update. Hopefully I will post again soon if my ridiculous schedule doesn't swallow me whole!

Start of something...

Tonight is going to be the last night in the house I grew up in for a while. Not that I mind this. Last year it was harder because I knew only a few people who were going to the same college I was, and I had never really been away from home for more than a week. This year, however, I have friends I'm excited to see again, a place I fell in love with and made my second home, and a good list of exciting new things to look forward to as I move back to college. Still, I'll miss my lazy summer mornings where I slept in until 10, worked out whenever I wanted, played video games without having to worry about homework, and saw my family (in person) every day. I realize that a weekend visit home, Thanksgiving, and then winter break will come sooner than I expect it to, but I really do love my family so I'm going to miss them.

But why, oh why, does moving involve so much packing! When I moved back home for the summer I literally threw everything I owned as quickly as possible into the crates I had, shoved them into the van once my parents got there, and that was that. Heck, I even had time to go volunteer for an hour and have lunch with my parents. Moving back to college, however, has been considerably more complicated. I've spent at least two days this past week shopping and compiling things I felt I'd need to bring. Then today, I woke up at nine and spent nearly the entire day packing until around six or seven. I did take an hour break for lunch and some Halo multiplayer, but still! I packed for the ENTIRE DAY. And I still have a few things left to pack and I'm sure I forgot lots of things.

Anyway, I've been up longer than I planned to, and I'm sure I'll post again soon with pictures and tales of my first days back.

Walmart mirrors make you look fat and Halo makes you swear

So, I just typed up a post, but the internet ate it. Yay internet. In other news, I've gone... six days without posting. I'm sorry, internet. Oh but look! BEDA made me feel guilty about missing six days when before the average length of time between posting was a month. I'm not sure whether this is good or bad, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless.

Now, I could say the reason I haven't posted is because I've been super busy getting ready to move back to my wonderful and amazing college town (which I'm doing this Sunday). This is partially true. I've bought some new clothes, like new jeans, leggings, a nice sweater so I don't swear a zip-up hoodie every day of my life, and a pretty blue and plaid dress because I've been wanting a dress. Although, through some weird, cosmic event I managed to lose enough weight this summer to just barely not be the size I used to be. So, much of my shopping trip was going back and forth to the dressing room to figure out what size actually fit. Which is good, but slightly annoying. I also bought some kitchen things (like a crockpot, silverware, pots/pans) because they were super on sale. I was going to go to IKEA today to look for more super cheap kitchen things, except for the real reason I've been a busy hermit:

Halo Reach.

Yes, I'm one of those people. Although, really, you should have figured that out by now. If you hadn't, well, here it is tipping its hat and introducing itself to you.

We got the game at midnight. Well, attempted to get the game at midnight. There was some issue with how the pre-order receipt was printed for my brother's limited edition Halo Reach fancy-schmancy console he got for his birthday, so he had to wait for the manager to straighten some things out. However, we did finally get both the console AND the exceedingly expensive legendary edition (although the super-nerd in my says the legendary edition may have been worth it). Then my brother felt it was necessary to very slowly and very ceremoniously open the giant legendary box. When we finally did start playing (and when I say we I mean my brother played while I watched and yelled at him to do things like watch the grenade and look out for the elite that's about to shank him with a beam sword) it was so freaking awesome. Seriously, this game is ridiculous in its awesome. Yes, there are problems, but they are definitely made up for by the positives. I'm normally more of an (alert! Nerd Acronyms!) RPG fan than an FPS fan, but this game it amazing. Plus, I'm a sucker for games where you can choose to play a female main character who kicks ass while not having to be a sex symbol. It's the little things in life, I know.

Now, I should really be getting back to the packing I mentioned somewhere near the beginning of the post. I can't quite remember due to the Reach block that's currently inhabiting my brain. Yes, I could go pack, or I could go play Reach especially since I finally got an Xbox Live Gold Account so I can play online multiplayer. Yes, maybe I will do that.

Yay for procrastination.

Forks on the Road

If you've been paying attention at all to pop culture in the past five years, you've probably heard about that little Twilight series. Yes, that one. The one with the vampires and the girl who doesn't realize she's in an abusive/controlling relationship.

Anyway, the reason I initially read those books was because someone told me they were set in Washington. Not only Washington, but small town Washington. Things are hardly ever set in Seattle, let alone in an average Washington town! I love Washington, so I jumped at the chance to read something that takes place there. Of course, I was disappointed due to the fact that the reason it's set in Forks, WA is because it gets the least amount of sun out of anywhere in the US (or so the book says) and that Stephenie Meyer hadn't ever been to Forks (or Washington really) before writing the books.

Despite the long list of disappointments that stem from those books, I have decided not to take them too seriously (beyond being slightly afraid of the influence they have on young girls) and be generally amused by them. Which is why when Chelsea and I decided we wanted to take an end of the summer road trip to the Olympic Peninsula, we HAD to go to Forks. Beyond the fact it's an excellent source of amusement, it's also a really pretty area and near some good campsites.

Chelsea got to my house Tuesday afternoon. After she got there we spent most of the afternoon/night playing Fable 2 and Assassin's Creed (I played Fable, she played Assassin's Creed), getting lost in my hometown while I was driving, getting groceries and packing for the trip, and whatnot. Oh, and Chelsea broke the internet. Well, it was more that her computer decided that it wanted to take over the internet at my house and not let anyone use it. I blame Windows Vista which should have never ever ever been produced.

The next morning we got up early, packed up Chelsea's car with the random assortment of camping supplies my dad collected for us, and headed off. It took us about five hours to get to Forks, mostly because both of us kept getting lost and missing turns. Still, we did eventually get there, and oh was it worth it.

Or not.

Forks is a really small town. There's really only one street going through the town that takes a little over two minutes to drive through (and that's including the time spent stopped at the one light). There probably wouldn't be anything to do at all in the town, except for all the random Twilight stuff. There were two Dazzled by Twilight stores in Forks (there's at least one more in Port Angeles), a Native to Twilight store, Twilight rooms at the motels, some store Alice "likes", a Dr. Cullen parking spot at the hospital, Bella's house, two trucks that resemble Bella's, and some sort of reference in every single business in that town. There were signs advertising stores that Bella would frequent (like the Pharmacy, haha) and signs advertising a THREE HOUR Twilight tour. I'd really like to know what they do for three hours. I suppose they visit all of those things I just mentioned, and maybe a tour of the house (which, by the way, we did not go see).

We did go into one of the Dazzled by Twilight stores. Mostly, I was amused by most of the merchandise. I was tempted to buy the shirtless Jacob action figure, because I have a weakness for action figures (and you thought I was going to say I had a weakness to hot, shirtless guys). Except when I saw that the price was around $35 (it might have been $25, I can't quite remember) I opted not to buy the overpriced nonsense. I did buy a few postcards, because I love postcards and funny things. There was one extremely creepy sticker that read, "Edward can bust my headboard, bite my pillows, and bruise my body anyday!" This sticker pretty much sums up the two main things I don't like about the series. One, the writing is horrible ("anyday" is not a word, just in case you were wondering). Two, the "bruise my body" bit is frightening no matter how you spin it. I mean honestly, doesn't anyone proofread?

That night, we camped at a campsite near Rialto Beach and we managed to set up the tent AND cook our food despite our lack of height and camping expertise. I'm actually really proud of us both with how well the whole camping thing went. The next morning we packed everything back into the car, and stopped at Rialto Beach before heading back home. The beach itself was really pretty and the waves were gorgeous. After watching the waves for a bit, I attempted to skip rocks and to teach Chelsea how to skip them. Except those aforementioned waves kept causing problems.

On the way back we stopped for amazing Thai food in Port Angeles, and we also drove through Chelsea's home town so that I could see it. I enjoyed seeing some of the places she'd talked about and the school she went to.

All in all, it was a good trip. If you'd like to see a little bit more of a dynamic (and shorter) record of the trip, check out my video about it at this link here. Subscribe to my youtube channel if you'd like to see more vlogs from me in the future. I might not update my blog every time I post a video, so subscribing to the channel would be a good way to keep up with the vlogs.

Trying To Figure Itself Out

I find I get the best bouts of inspiration at ungodly hours. Namely, those hours being after the time one should be in bed if that person wants to wake up before noon the next day. If I decide to wait until the morning to climb out of my bed and turn on my laptop in order to take advantage of the inspiration, it's gone by the time I wake up. If I decide to stay up and take advantage of the inspiration, I feel awful and will refuse to do anything the next day. My muse is evil. Or amused with him/her/itself. Or both. Yes, probably both.

Last night was one of those nights after I watched The Young Victoria with Emily Blunt playing Queen Victoria. A friend recommended the movie to me, and after I watched the trailer I knew I had to see it. Plus, I have LOVED Emily Blunt sine I watched her in The Devil Wears Prada. Thankfully, it's on netflix play instantly at the moment (I freaking LOVE that part of the service) so I watched it. I really enjoyed the movie and, according to Wikipedia, it seems somewhat historically accurate (although a few things are changed for the purposes of drama as all movies based on historical events are). Although, it's odd because Prince Albert is played by the same actor who plays Mr. Wickham in the recent Keira Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice. Except, the guy is absolutely adorable and awesome from the moment he appeared on screen, and I instantly wanted to marry him. If you're into movies like Pride and Prejudice, or any sort of period drama with a bit of romance, you should check this one out. I'm tempted to watch it again right now actually. Again, I know I love a book/movie/story when I want to start writing after I watch it, so this one is going into the favorites.

Speaking of writing, the rewrite is going surprisingly well. I thought I would hate rewriting it, but I'm loving how the story is changing and morphing into something better as I go along. This attitude will probably change once I hit those lovely moments of getting stuck, but for right now I'm having fun with it and not minding the whole rewriting thing. I'm not sure what will happen with the rewrite when November comes and I attempt to write its sequel (which has been in my head since shortly after I wrote the first one for Nanowrimo in 2007), but it'll probably just go on hold until December.

In other news, I have finally started using the crafting blog I set up ages ago. If you ever looked at my profile and saw a blog called "Stardust Stuff" sitting there doing nothing, this is what it's meant for. You can find it at http://starduststuff.blogspot.com/ where I've currently got an introductory post set up. Check it out if you're interesting in my crafting adventures.

I'm not sure when the next time I blog will be as I'm going camping with the lovely Chelsea this week, but when I return there will be tales of epic road trip adventures! Or complaints about how it always rains when you go camping in the Pacific Northwest. Or both. Yes, probably both.

Waffle About

It may be September, but I'm still blogging! I took the first few days of September off partially because I did write 31 entries in 31 days, but also because I am one of the most boring people in the summer and had nothing to write about.

However, inspiration came in the form of a random conversation that occurred while dishing up waffles for dinner tonight between my dad and my brother.

Dad: Wait, what are you doing?

Nathan: (After going through all the waffles before picking one) I like strong waffles.

Dad: Strong waffles?

Nathan: No, I mean crisp waffles. Crisp might be a better word...

Dad: (Still going) Waffles aren't strong. Waffles are waffles. They waffle. That's why they're called waffles. Actually, I don't know why they're called waffles.

Which then got me wondering why waffles are called waffles. I started my academic venture in the place where almost every student starts and the truth dies at the hands of crazies and juvenile pranksters: Wikipedia. According to said wealth of information, waffles originated from wafers. Chaucer even mentions them in his classic work, Canterbury Tales, in both the Miller's Tale and the Pardoner's Tale. The only thing I remember about Canterbury Tales, when I studied it in high school, was the awkward puppet show I put on based on The Knight's Tale for a group project and the fact that The Knight's Tale was the MOST BORING out of all of them. Everyone else's tales had sex jokes that they got to tell under the guise of a group project, while all mine had was two guys fighting over some girl.

Also, they had waffle irons (then called wafer irons) in the Middle Ages! Guys! Waffle irons! I am fascinated by this because every time I think of the Middle Ages I picture paintings with odd perspectives depicting hell or the Virgin Mary and serfs toiling away under lords on farms they never leave in their lives. I realize that they didn't plug into the wall back then and were no more than two metal plates they stuck in a fire, but still! Next story I write that takes place in a middle ages type setting I'm going to feature waffles. And waffle irons.

I was curious about this, so I thought I might check a few other sources to make sure some crazy somewhere wasn't pulling my leg. TIME (in theory a much more reputable source) put out an article last November about the history of waffles at the beginning of some Ego waffle crisis (which I didn't even know existed until about five minutes ago). The article also discussed the presence of waffles (and waffle irons!) in the middle ages, although waffles apparently occurred in Ancient Greece first. This wasn't surprising as it seems like every accomplishment that happened in Western Europe either happened in Greece or China first.

Waffles, as mentioned previously, came from wafers for the purpose of religious festivals as Catholics couldn't eat things with animal products during times of fasting. Wafers did not contain animal products, so they were the perfect mid-afternoon snack. Wikipedia states (although without any citations) that apparently the market for waffle vendors was so high and occasionally violent, that a law had to be put into place stating waffle vendors must keep at least 4 meters from each other. Apparently Medieval England was more dangerous than New York because during my trip all the street vendors were usually only four inches from each other.

Now, hundreds of years later I can eat waffles from a pre-made mix with whipped cream and fruit on top. And then proceed to post and awkward blog about the history of waffles based on odd internet articles. Oh, 21st century. While amazing, you have nothing on the Ancient Greeks. After all, they invented WAFFLE IRONS.

End of August?!

Wait, it's the 31st? Calendar, are you sure? Are you absolutely sure?

Apparently it's the 31st, which means that the month of no soda and also the month of blogging every day is over! Well, almost over. I still have about five hours left. There were a few mishaps (in terms of the blogging) but I managed to end August with enough blog posts for every day in August. I wrote 13,334 words (not counting this post). After doing 50,000 words for Nanowrimo 13,000 doesn't sound like a lot, but it's still a good amount of words. I've enjoyed blogging everyday, and I hope to continue blogging more regularly than I did before.

As for what I've done on this last day of August, I jump started my September a bit. I'd been telling myself throughout August that once September started I would start seriously preparing for school. Mostly it involved attempting to get textbooks and e-mailing a teacher a few questions. I know I don't start school until September 22nd, but I like being prepared. Heck, I know someone who has already read the books for one of her classes and now I feel behind (except I don't really). Tomorrow I will probably start my Japanese reviewing and studying ahead among other things. I would also like to get a little further in my novel rewrite, but that hasn't been going too well as of late.

As a parting note I would like to wish a HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY to my friend Claire!! I have no idea if she reads this blog, but it's her birthday so I'm going to wish her a happy birthday on it. I love you dearie.

A Collection of Thoughts

Today has definitely been much better. It's kind of amazing what an actual nights sleep, exercise, and not eating complete crap can do for your mood. It's a sign that maybe this is a biological need, or something. I am currently eating a giant bowl of homemade peach ice cream though. This is the only "bad" food I've eaten all day, and this is homemade! And it's got fruit in it. Which is healthy. Yes, that's how I'm going to think about this. The rest of this blog is now going to be a collection of random thoughts from the day with no real transition between them! Now... go!

Random thoughts number one: Today I contemplated dying my hair red. Not like a bright red, but like, a darker kind of red. I've been really bored of my hair lately, but I feel like there's only so many ways to cut it. So, if you want to do something dramatic and different with your hair that isn't cutting it, what's left? I do like my current hair color, although I would like it better if it was a little light. But, I was toying with the idea (not seriously considering it) until I talked to Chelsea about it and then really badly photo shopped a picture of myself to somewhat see what I would look like with red hair. So, that might happen, but probably not until school starts. If I do there will definitely be pictures.

Random thought that occurred to me today as I was playing Borderlands: I feel like video game and anime characters can withstand WAY more punishment than an actual human being. They can also jump a lot higher. Now, in Halo there is a justification for the fact there's no fall damage and they have a ridiculous ability to jump really high, but most of the time characters are just super-humans with shields. I watched Dragonball Z as a kid and the only thing I remember about it is that battles were 20 episodes long and battles usually consisted of both opponents getting CRUSHED INTO GIANT BOULDERS as many times as possible with giant dust clouds and whatnot. I think they might have been aliens with super powers though, but that doesn't fall in the list of two things I remember about the show.

Random thought number two from THIS VIDEO: The vlogbrothers have been doing this project called Thoughts From Places which is a series of videos in which they create video blogs about places they visit. Except, it's more of a video essay than a video blog. Ever since getting into watching video blogs back when the vlogbrothers first started, I've been really interested in doing things a different way than they are usually done. For example, using a camera instead of a piece of paper/word document/blogging program to record your thoughts. I really like this idea of a video essay because I think it creates a larger space in which to do more in an essay. I like how it enables a different way of thinking and of going about such a thing as an essay. As an English major and a book nerd, I love words and I love essays. Except, they don't have to be stuck on a piece of paper or a computer screen for me to love a good story or a good thought. That's why I love movies, television, video games, and yes, the wonderful world that is video blogging.

Last random thought: I don't understand why blue is the "sad" color. Blue seems more like limitless possibilities and endless time than... being sad. When I look at a blue sky, I'm not sad. When I look at the enormous expanse of the ocean, I'm not sad. Something colorless seems more apt for sad; something colorless is empty.

Meh

I'm going to apologize now for this post, but for the past two days I've been in sort of a... a funk I suppose. I'm not sure what else to really call it. I haven't really done anything, and I don't really care about doing anything. I think I have to actually leave the house tomorrow because my brother wants to go school supply shopping, and supposedly this means I have to go. Even though I don't have school for another three and a half weeks.

I did finish Mockingjay last night, and the ending was brilliant. My favorite books are always the ones that make me want to write. Yes, I love the ones that make me think or I like ones that are fun to read, but the ones I love the most are the ones that make me want to experiment with writing and the ones that gives me ideas I want to play with. Mockingjay definitely did that for me, and it took me over an hour and a half to get to sleep because my mind was racing with ideas.

Of course this morning that desire to write seems to have left, although the ideas are still thankfully in my head. The story has been continually growing in my head now for about three years now, so hopefully one day I'll get it out. Maybe.

If This Post had a Title it Would be Something Like This

I really do love having adventures that go late into the night. But, I hate how lethargic I feel the next day. Well, I don't always feel lethargic, but I just felt awful today. So, I spent the whole day finishing Mockingjay, eating chocolate chip cookies and wishing August was over so I could just have a soda (I'm not giving up this close to the end of the month), and looking at random blogs on the internet. During which I found this adorable blog of a new mother taking pictures of imagined dreams of her baby and this crazy blog post about this artist who makes sculptures out of the graphite on old pencils.

As for yesterday's adventures, it was awesome. I got to hang out with friends I either haven't seen in a while and/or won't see in a while. I was hyper on the car ride up from eating too much of the cupcake batter and frosting while making those cupcakes (it's why I don't bake too often, I always eat half the batter before I make anything) so that made for some amusing times. Plus, Erin was in the car too and she's one of those people that makes me act as crazy as I am in my head, but in a good way. If that made any sense. Not a lot of people bring that out, but middle school has that ability to bond you to people for ever and I technically knew Erin in Elementary school too.

The sushi place we went to was awesome and cheap. And I tried a few kinds I hadn't had before, which was fun. Every time I have Japanese food (or really, almost any type of food but especially Japanese food) I try to eat something I hadn't had before. Partially because I like Japanese food, and partially because it makes me feel that if I went to Japan for three months or if I decided to live there for a while I will be able to eat a good portion of things I come across. I mean, I realize a lot of Asian food in America has been.. well.. Americanized, but part of me hopes that it still counts.

Then we went to that free concert for an hour before heading over to the beach. Then we magically got free parking (there were some issues with the little machine where you pay, so the parking garage attendant just let us out) but then we got really lost before we managed to get to the beach. Unfortunately, when we got there no firepits were open, so we ate cupcakes in the dark while finding guitar chords on my Blackberry so Tida could play random pop songs (or whatever you classify Taylor Swift and Justin Beiber as).

After a while a group left their fire, so we rushed over to take what was obviously not a fire pit. What they left was a dubious fire made from newspaper they piled up on some sand. Which wouldn't be too big of a deal, except that it was windy. Add in a few random drunk guys that came along and awkwardly hit on some of my friends and you've got yourself a classic bonfire-on the-beach-experience. Well, that and s'mores. You can't have a proper bonfire without s'mores.

We grabbed some food at a 24 hour drive-in where I had a milkshake and french fries, both of which were foods I haven't eaten in at least a month (if not more).

All in all, it was a good night. I may post pictures in a future blog, but right now I've still got about 50 pages left of Mockingjay. I had to take a break from it. As brilliant as it is, it's hard to real. There's so much much raw emotion, and then Susan Collins throws that raw emotion into the realities of war. It's hard to read at times, but also necessary to read. I love these sorts of books, but they're a little more difficult to get through than something by Meg Cabot or Sarah Dessen (as much as I love both those authors).

Healthy Cupcakes?

This post is going to be a quick one because I'm leaving in an hour for Seattle! I love Seattle, I really do. I find it lame that it seems like the general USA doesn't consider it a "real" city. I mean, I loved New York and Chicago and the little bit of LA I've seen, but Seattle? I mean, it's got the Space Needle, the original Starbucks, the Pike Place...

Seriously. Seattle OWNS.

I spent most of this morning exercising and making cupcakes for tonight. I made mini vanilla almond mint chocolate cupcakes. Well, the cupcakes are vanilla, with almond frosting and half a thin mint candy and chocolate sprinkles :)

Even better than that? They're healthier than normal cupcakes.

The only issue I have with these is that if you don't get enough cooking spray into the paper cupcake cups the cupcakes REALLY stick to the cups because there isn't as much fat in them as there are in normal cupcakes. Although, I may have mitigated the "healthy"-ness of the cupcakes by putting candy and sprinkles on them. Whatever. I mean, they're cupcakes, right?

Staircases and Ladders

I really like books. I mean, I've always liked books and I assume I always will. Since I was a little kid, books were what held my attention. I went through some paperbacks in less time than the round trip to the bookstore. I love old books and used bookstores. In my dream house, I will have a room devoted to books. I hope it will be similar to Neil Gaiman's home library that I like to drool over.

A love associated to books and libraries is the piece of furniture that holds those books: bookshelves. Wednesdays have become a favorite day of the week at Booklicious where they showcase bookshelves and celebrity libraries. So, here are some of my favorite bookshelves I've found online (or have been featured in that blog).

This one came from a whole set of pictures where this couple shoved books into every possible space in their house. My favorite is this one where they turned their staircase into a giant bookshelf. Can you imagine grabbing a pillow and curling up at the top of that staircase, reading while surrounded by books like that? (Note to self, perhaps dream house home library should be in attic with a staircase like this?)

I really like the idea of painting the backs of the shelves. Especially with the rest of the room being grey like this. It's like, "Hey! Surprise! There's color back here!" It amuses me.

I think the awesome of this one speaks for itself.

Another requirement of the dream home library? It has high enough ceilings where you can have bookshelves that require ladders. Not only does it seem even more hardcore, but when no one is looking I can re-enact that part in Beauty and the Beast when Belle swings around slides with the ladder. I think it might be worth it just for that fact alone.

Also, have you guys seen those invisible bookshelves? I'm amused by the fact it looks like there isn't a shelf holding up the books, but I think I'd only use those for display books I don't actually read. I mean, I have those (like my Harry Potter collector's editions or my really old copies of Shakespeare plays)

Bonus Bookshelf:

I found this on tumblr the other day. I know it's more of a closet, but the converse fan in me squealed a little at this wonderful picture. Oh Chucks, why must you be an expensive brand name?

Oops Part 2

It seems the further I go into August the more times I simply... forget. It definitely was not a conscious decision not to blog yesterday. It was more that I just got busy doing other things. I've started using MyPlate to track what I'm eating which I think has been working really well. It's nice to be able to see everything with the graphs and the tables, and it's nice to have a concrete goal I'm shooting for. It's a lot easier to eat healthier this way than to just vaguely say, "Oh, I need to eat healthier". And I enjoy the little graphic of the glass of water filling up as you track how many glasses of water you've had that day. Anyway, yesterday I was working on that and exercising so I made sure I stayed near my calorie goal. I also got Mockingjay in the mail, so yay! I'm not done with it yet, but hopefully soon. Then we went out to dinner and went computer shopping for my mom. She's been using my brother's old one for a while and it completely died about a week or so ago. By the time we came home after all of this, I felt ridiculously tired (for reasons I'm not quite sure of) so I just went to bed and read Mockingjay for a bit. And then I just... fell asleep. Haha, yes.

So, that's sort of two days skipped now. Except I'm going to do what I did last time and just blog twice today. Again, I think it counts.

Okay, I think "Wednesday's" post is going to be short. Which is fine, because I feel like Tuesday's post was a little long...

Spoilers!

It's day 24 in the exciting saga that is my life (or, you know, not). I wonder if maybe I should have picked a different month to blog because then things would actually be happening. As for today, I spent most of the morning watching trailers on youtube. And then this afternoon I've spent most of it re-watching Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Speaking of those trailers, I was really amused because the end of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader uses the same music as the Mass Effect 2 launch trailer. I find it funny how trailers (mostly) use the same music. Like the music in the beginning of the Dawn Treader trailer? I swear they use that music in EVERY single magical happy fun, this is a family movie, type trailer. Yes, a lot of trailers use the actual music they use in the product (I mean, you made an entire soundtrack, yes? Why not use it for the trailer too?), but there are a lot that seem to the same music. Actually, I liked the music that was in the Mass Effect 2 launch trailer so much, I went out and found it (which is why I recognized it in the Narnia trailer). It's Heart of Courage by this group of makes a bunch of music for trailers. .

Which brings me to another thought about trailers. I feel like I spoil myself a lot by watching the trailers. I mean, I love trailers and I love getting more excited for things that are coming. But, I know that a lot of moments in a movie or video game would have been a lot more surprising and more fun if I had just stayed away from the trailer. Like, there were a few characters in Mass Effect 2 that were character who'd come back from Mass Effect 1. I would have been a lot more surprised and excited while playing if I hadn't watched the trailers (or scoured the internet for every single interview and news post about the game). I completely spoiled the crazy beginning sequence, which would have been more awesome and WTF-worthy if I hadn't known going in what was going on.

Sometimes you can't really avoid being spoiled, like movie trailers at a theater or some idiot in your English class explaining the ending of a book you were halfway through reading (Grrrr, still mad about that, and I STILL haven't finished The Road...) Still, I wonder if maybe for Mass Effect 3 I should stay away from trailers and as much news as possible? I've been somewhat trying to do that for the Deathly Hallows movie. The only thing I've seen is the trailer, and I'm trying as hard as I can to stay away from production stills, sneak peaks, and behind the scenes clips. I've even stopped checking Mugglenet so I'm not accidentally spoiled for how the characters look in the epilogue or where the part 1 and 2 split is. I absolutely DO NOT want to know where the two movies are split.

So, we'll see how that works. Right now I'm beginning to be paranoid about the third book in the Hunger Games series getting spoiled for me. I ordered it from Barns and Noble and am getting it shipped to my house. This was apparently a bad idea because it didn't get here today. I should hopefully be safe on the internet since, while it is pretty popular, it's not Harry Potter. For the 7th Harry Potter book I shut both my phone and computer off until I had finished that thing. No way in hell was I getting my childhood spoiled by someone texting me the end when I hadn't read it yet.

What are your opinions on spoilers? Do you not care? Do you search for spoilers? Are you like me and you would have been willing to murder the idiots who yelled out who got killed in the 6th Harry Potter book to people exiting the midnight release? Because I so would have shoved my copy down that idiot's throat if I could have. Thankfully, no such event happened at my beloved Barns and Noble. But if it had...

Screensaver Picspam of Awesome

If you've ever hung out in my room long enough you might have seen a glimpse into what I call my screensaver folder. I have this habit of saving every odd thing I come across, and that habit has crossed over from the physical into the virtual world. Every time I see a picture/ad/product/whatever I like on the internet, I save it to my screensaver folder. So, for today's second post I thought I would share some of my favorites. Unfortunately, I don't have the picture credits for all of them, so if it's yours and I didn't credit it leave a comment and I'll fix that.

(Want. So. Badly.)

(Actual children's book)

So, yes, that's a small glimpse of my screen saver collection. It currently has 1,039 files. Wow, that number even surprised me a little bit.

Pushing Forward

So, you may have noticed that there is no entry for the 22nd of August and that it is now the 23rd of August. Unfortunately, there will never be a post for yesterday because (in a sense) I've "failed" BEDA. No, I did not blog every single day in August, but I think there's more to this than that. I think there's more to this project than simply putting something up on the internet every day.

Yesterday was not really a good day for any of my projects. I didn't exercise at all over the weekend. Not only that, but yesterday I definitely ate potato chips out the bag and more microwavable food than I've had in the past month. So, after playing Halo 3 on legendary difficulty with my brother for six hours and then suddenly realizing that it was 12:30 and thus had failed BEDA, I went to bed feeling pretty crappy. Okay, the Halo was awesome. I don't regret playing Halo for 6 hours with my brother (and I swear the last Halo 3 mission on legendary is even more epic and crazy than on normal or heroic difficulty, but that's a different story). Partially because I love video games and I love doing things with my brother. No, it's not the Halo I regret. But, when I went to bed last night I had horrible headache and that sort of achy go-away-world feeling.

This morning, however, was different. I woke up, ate breakfast, and made sure I ran on the treadmill for an hour before doing anything else. Then, after talking with my mom for a little bit about running shoes, I decided to drink a protein shake while writing this blog. Because, I think more than anything else, giving up at this point would be more like failing than just not posting yesterday. Not getting up and deciding to get back on the treadmill would be failing. A few days ago I posted a list of random things about myself. However, I feel like I left something off. The thing I hate more than anything else? Giving up. Giving up and not sticking to what you said you were going to do, even if you messed up a little. I think that's something my parents have always drilled into my head, and there's a part of me that's afraid if I give up once I'll see how easy it is and will continue to give up. I don't want that.

I am continuing BEDA. Not only that, but I think I'm going to post twice today (this post this morning and then a post tonight) so I will still have 31 posts for the month of August. So I didn't fail BEDA, I just tripped a little. Which, honestly, there's nothing wrong with that.

As long as you don't give up.

Blast from the Past

Today's post is sort of a guest post. Who is this guest poster you ask? Why, it's six-year-old Heather! I mean, I wrote a letter to my 30-year-old self and I keep talking about the future and becoming an adult, so why shouldn't single-digit-aged Heather have a go?

When I was little I LOVED making picture books. I would write little stories, then I would draw pictures for them and bring them to show my preschool teachers. One day, my mom thought that we could type up one of my stories on the computer and print it out so it would look like a "real" book. Six-year-old Heather was, of course, ecstatic about the idea. Now, due to motherly genius and the miracle of technology I have this treasure to share with everyone today. I'm pretty sure I was the one who typed this, but I think Mom may have helped. Microsoft word probably did some auto correct stuff too (I don't remember how well that worked in 1997). I have not edited this to keep the integrity of the story and the time traveling intact.

The following story is actually from my six-year-old brain. I can't make this stuff up. Well, I used to be able to (apparently) but now I can't.

***

the angry rainbow

once there was a rainbow who was angry because he like the shade better than the sun. The sun was to bright and he didn’t want to work in the sun but rest in the shade.

He was also sad on the inside because he missed his family. His family moved far away while he was at school.

One day there was a little rainbow who came to the land of rainbows. The angry rainbow was surprised by the baby. The baby was scared of all the stranger rainbows.

one day the angry rainbow had to take a test. the test was a math test to see if he could add points in games. he had 10 minutes to take the test. he did takes-aways and he did addition.

he did 1 to 10 he did 10 to 19 he did 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19.

he did 20-21-22-23-24-25-26-27-28-29-30 he did all of those numbers to 30 and he wins.

But he will always have friends like his and everyone was surprised that he was happy and he sang the ABC song. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz now I no my ABC’s next time wont you sing with me .the end

***

Okay, leave it to six-year-old me to write a story about an EMO RAINBOW. I think I took the happiest thing in the universe and made it sad. That's talent right there. Or, well, it's something.

If only I could find the printed and "illustrated" version of The Angry Rainbow. That, my friends, would be what one would call "comic gold".

Random Heather is Random

Due to the fact it is now about two-thirds of the way through BEDA, I'm running out of original thoughts. What does one do when they're out of original thoughts? Steal thoughts from other people of course!

Today's post is stolen from Chelsea where she lists random things about herself. I don't feel too bad about stealing it though, since she originally took the idea from facebook (you know, those "List 25 random things about yourself then tag 25 people who in turn have to to list 25 random facts and tag 25 people who... Well, you get it).

I still check my old Neopets account to collect my bank interest and play the arcade games. My first nanowrimo novel is technically a trilogy (but, honestly, how pretentious is that?). I've recently decided that I am definitely a Gryffindor. Reading Harry Potter instantly makes me feel better no matter what is going on. So does huckleberry ice cream and almost anything with chocolate and peanut butter.

The first computer game I can remember playing was either Winnie the Pooh or something to do with Barbie and horses, but I played games on my Dad's old Super Nintendo before that. I (mostly) single handedly won a reading competition in my first grade class. The class was split into two teams and we competed to see which team had the most reading hours. I was the only one who turned any hours in (save for one guy who turned in an hour or two), but my "team" still won.

I'm a sucker for anti-hero, rogue-ish, and villain-turned-good types of characters. (Example: Han Solo is better than Luke. Prince Zuko in The Last Airbender was my favorite character from the first episode). I actually remember little things about the day my little brother was born and the day he turned a year old (for those who don't know, I was only 2-years-old when he was born).

I've read half of each of the books in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: The first half of both The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, and the second half of The Return of the King. I have read all of The Hobbit.

I love bright colors. It bothers me when the label for something is giant and in the middle of whatever it is. Like t-shirts that have the brand plastered across it. I love covering things with stickers. I collect action figures and comic books. My favorite class in high school was my calculus classes (not, as one would think, my English classes although I did really like my English teacher Junior year). I know how to use basic to intermediate HTML, CSS, and PHP coding because I used to have my own website (it was called only-three.com). I used to be really afraid of elevators, but now I'm only kind of afraid of them (due to the fact that they're kind of a presence in our everyday lives). I'm afraid that I'll back out of doing the things I've dreamed of doing.

I work really hard to make the people around me feel loved, but most of the time I feel like I don't do enough (or say it enough).

Most of my favorite things have been things my brother really liked and introduced to me. The West Wing, Doctor Who, video games in general, and Babylon 5 are a few of those things. Harry Potter, however, I read first. My brother and I used to play Nancy Drew games together all the time when we were younger. When we were really little he also played Pretty Pretty Princess with me when I really wanted to play but there was no one else around to play it with me (because he is the best brother ever).

And I feel that now I have listed enough random things although I didn't really count how many I listed. Anyway, that last paragraph started being more about Nathan than about me. Which is fine, because he's awesome.

Shut Up and Let Me Shoot Things

Every time I go grocery shopping these days (usually with one of my parents, because I'm lame) I think a lot about how in a month I will have to go get groceries for myself. I will have to cook for myself. I will be living a little bit more on my own than I did last year. Admittedly, I'm still in campus housing (in the on-campus apartments) so I don't have to really pay bills and that sort of thing since all that gets lumped in with my tuition. However, it's still that little reminder of, "Hey! Guess what! You need to sort of start acting like an adult." Well, maybe more like a mature child with more responsibilities. I don't feel like I'll be out growing toys (like, I want THIS really badly) or making up worlds for my imagination to play in any time soon.

Anyway, I've been working on trying to learn more recipes and cook more things as the summer goes on. Recently I found this website devoted to healthy eating and working out and whatnot, and have been wanting to try a bunch of the recipes on there. So, I picked up a bunch of stuff to make things like protein pancakes, cucumber salad, healthy cupcakes (this one I'm really curious about), and sweet potato fries. I made these peanut butter bites from that same website tonight after dinner, and oh wow 0_0 So. Good. Then again, I have a special weakness for peanut butter. Add chocolate to it and you've got my kryptonite.

Other than contemplating the impending stroll back into adulthood and real life, I've spent most of the day listening to my brother berate my video game playing. Like, "Wait, you're using THAT gun?", "Seriously, just go for the head shot. Head. Shot. One shot kill. Really useful", and "Hey, you know what helps? Having ammo and avoiding getting shot". Yes, thank you Nathan. Because I'm sure you've never run out of ammo and have never been shot. Shut up and let me shoot things before I grab one of your airsoft guns and shoot you.

Unfortunately, if I said that, he'd probably laugh and say how that isn't really a threat because A) half of them are broken and the other half are finicky and B) I'd probably miss anyway.

English Major-y, Fan girl Rubbish

So today I finally watched the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet (with David Tennant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Claudius) after getting it from Netflix about a week ago. When I say finally I kind of feel like I've been waiting to see it since it was in production in London two years ago (wait, two years ago? Is that right?). I'm not sure why I waited so long to get it from Netflix, but it was nice to finally see it.

As for my thoughts on it, I liked it. MILES better than the Mel Gibson version. Then again, that isn't too hard to do. Honestly, the Mel Gibson version is ridiculous and he sounded weird when trying to do Shakespeare. I know I would also sound weird (pretty sure I would completely botch the iambic pentameter) but I'm not trying to get paid for it, now am I?

David Tennant, on the other hand, sounded a lot better to me. Although, I wish someone would do a slightly more controlled Hamlet. Sometimes I feel that actors just kind of go as crazy and rip through the scene as much as possible. Although, I feel that everyone criticizes everyone's version of Hamlet by saying the actor went a little overboard. So, I liked Tennant's portrayal of Hamlet. Except I kept thinking like "OH GAH please fix his air already!", "Wait, why is he not wearing shoes?", and "What's with the jeans? The other guy is in all-white fencing gear". Plus, the back of my mind kept migrating to the fact that it was the Doctor (David Tennant) versus a hybrid of Captain Picard and Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). So, you know, my appraisal of it isn't entirely English major rubbish. Some of it is fan girl rubbish.

Other than spending some time with Hamlet, I attempted to play Halo 3:ODST since I finally finished my playthrough of Star Ocean at 2:30AM this morning. (Side Note: I forget how ridiculous and how long the end of Japanese games are. The ending battle and subsequent cut scenes shouldn't take two and a half hours). Now, while I enjoy games like Halo I absolutely suck at them. It seems like I die every five minutes and I get annoyingly lost (despite the overall map, map markers, and the giant compass at the top of the screen). Still, I enjoy the story and the fact that Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, and Alan Tudyk do voices for three of the characters. It's like a Firefly reunion, except Wash shoots things and is really good at blowing things up, and Jayne gets bigger guns and fights aliens. And there's no great crime capers or train heists, which in my opinion, is in itself a crime.

Dear... Me

Today has been a bit of a lazy day. I didn't get back from seeing Prince of Persia last night until 1AM. Side Note: Awesome movie! I mean, if you love cheesy movies with cheesy slow motion action secquences, deus ex machina, and video game plots, then you'll like it. Which I do. I honestly can't wait until it comes out on DVD). Anyway, when I got home I figured since I was up late anyway, I spent a good amount of time reading City of Ashes, and I still got up at 8:30 this morning for no reason whatsoever. I really did not have any energy for anything beyond working on a few crochet projects and attempting to finish up my Star Ocean playthrough. So, being productive and working out will continue tomorrow! Yes, that it will. Or perhaps tonight. I can still technically do something before going to bed.

Anyway, as for the point of this post, yesterday as I was browsing through my youtube subscriptions, I watched this video, and this video. I have been 20 years old for about a month now, so these videos got me thinking about what I want in my next 10 years of life. I mean, in the past ten I did the usual graduate from high school, go to college, get a driver's license, and whatever else the average American teenager does.

So, this post is sort of to 30-year-old Heather (egads, that sounds... weird) and also to 20 year Heather so that she remembers she wants to do these things.

Which, by the way is the first thing. I hope that 30-year-old me has stopped chickening out of doing the things you (I) dream of doing. For example, I'm hoping that you didn't decide that studying abroad in Japan was too hard or too scary. I'm also hoping that after you graduated you worked as hard as you could to get into that program so you could live in Japan for a year. If you did that and didn't get in, I understand. Then again, I suppose you could have changed your mind and found another dream? However, considering the me you were ten years ago, I highly doubt that.

I wonder if you're married. Although, again, judging from the me you are in 2010, I'm not too confident in that. I hope you prove me wrong. With all the crazy I'm currently planning for you, you might not have time.

What I hope most of all is that you kept the people you were important to you, and that you still realize that they're important so that you work to keep them. That, no matter what goals you achieve and which ones you don't, that there's always someone there that has your back. And whenever they need someone? That you're there for them too. But, as I keep saying, 20-year-old you doesn't think that's going to be a problem.

Sincerely (cause, you know, saying "Your friend" or "Love" in this case is weird),

20-year-old you

P.S. Man, I'll bet the English teacher you are now probably wants to strangle past you. I know when I go back and read the stuff 10-year-old Heather wrote, I cringe every few seconds.

Ridiculously Prepared

As I'm going to a 10PM showing of Prince of Persia tonight at the $3 theater with a few friends, I decided it might be a good idea if I didn't wait until I got home to write up today's BEDA blog. Not that writing it earlier seems to be doing much for inspiration, but the fact is that the post is here! Again, like nanowrimo, I feel that it's more about the fact that something exists rather than the quality of that thing existing.

Besides planning on seeing Prince of Persia tonight, I've done a lot of preparing for the coming school year. I looked up the textbooks I need to buy (and they're actually cheaper at Barns and Noble for once, yes!), checking on some financial aid stuff (yay! So. Much. Debt. Urg), and played around with the planner I bought a few days ago. Why I bought a planner in the first half of August when school doesn't start until September 22, I don't know. Currently, I already have my fall quarter schedule written down, various other dates that seemed important, and the fact that Nanowrimo begins November first (not that I needed reminding). Then, because I like to prepare for things six months in advance, I looked up when my finals will be since they have a schedule based on what time the class is held on my school website. If all of my classes have finals (which, I'm not entirely sure on that front) I'll have a final Monday, Tuesday... and Friday. Yuck. I guess I'll be really prepared for my Japanese final unless something changes when, you know, I actually start school.

In other news, it's still hot. It took a lot longer today for things to creep up into the higher temperatures and it hasn't gotten as hot today (yet) as the forecast was promising. Still, I'm not a fan of temperatures above 85. Not that the current 90 degrees is too much different, but that extra five degrees gives me something to complain about, darnit! Would I be from Washington if I didn't complain about the weather? No, I would not.

Despite the fact it's still hot I managed to work out this morning (I woke up early enough to where it was still *only* 70ish degrees) and managed to get five miles into the time that last week I'd been managing about 4.5 miles. Although I think I stopped for water more often. Not sure on that one, but still!

Alright, I'm going to go back to farming for experience and random items in Star Ocean: The Last Hope so I can finally finish that game. I've had that game since it came out in February 2009 and I still haven't finished it.

Side note: I currently have Hamlet (with David Tennant), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Heath Ledger's actual last film), and Grave of the Fireflies from netflix right now. I can't decide which to watch first. Any thoughts/opinions/votes on the matter?

LITERAL hotness

What? It's 11PM again? I haven't blogged yet? I NEED TO BLOG?!

Apparently BEDA is making me go crazy. It's also making me repeatedly break my unwritten rule of not writing things in all capital letters.

Or possibly it's this random heat in Washington. It's not supposed to be above 95 degrees here. That's why I like Washington weather. It's not usually too hot or too cold, but apparently the universe likes to laugh at Washingtonians who don't have air conditioning because it's not hot here. So, I've mostly been milling about, being lazy and sitting in front of a fan. I did manage to get up and run this morning before it got too unbearable, but I didn't run as much as I usually do. Because it's hot. Yuck.

A side effect of it being hot is that I really want to go on a road trip. I'm not sure why, but I feel like there's something in my brain that decides when it's hot I need to go on a road trip. Except I have no idea where to go, and not much money to go anywhere. Except perhaps camping. I could go camping.

To make up for this post, here's a youtube video that amused me. Actually, this guy makes a bunch of videos like this and they're generally amusing. My dad, my brother, and I had fun for a while watching his literal trailers. You might want to go to youtube to watch the actual video so you can watch it a little bigger. I had to make it small so it wouldn't stretch the page awkwardly.

Color=Healthy

Somehow, this has been one of the longest and one of the shortest summers I've ever had. It feels like I've been on summer vacation for ages, yet it also feels like I just got out of school so I don't see how I'm going back in a little over a month. I've seen so many of my friends this past week, which has been really nice. Hopefully I'll see more of my friends in the coming weeks, as quite a few of them are jetting off (or driving off) to college. Oh silly schools on the semester system. The quarter system is where it's at.

Another thing I've been working on this summer is trying to cook meals for myself. Mostly, I can manage breakfast pretty well. Admittedly, things like oatmeal, eggs, or pancakes isn't that hard, but I can cook those things well at least. I was proud of the oatmeal I made this morning, so I took a picture.

Yum! I like how the strawberries instantly made it more colorful. I feel like there's a part of me that believes that the more colorful a meal is, the healthier and more delicious it is. I'm sure there are foods that can prove me wrong (like Fruit Loops or something) but I always have more fun eating food in happy colors.

So when I made lunch (two scrambled eggs and vegetables because I'm tired of grilled cheese sandwiches and quesadillas which are the only two lunch foods I seem to make) I decided to add celery (green) and carrots (orange) so my meal wouldn't just be an off white, yellowy sort of thing.

For dinner we went out and ate at California Pizza Kitchen, because it's hot and no one wanted to cook. Admittedly, it's not ridiculously hot, but it's hot for Western Washington. It got into the 90's, which makes me sound like a wuss to some of you who grew up/live in hotter climes, but whatever. No one has air conditioning here, so it's too hot to use the oven. Anyway, I ordered an Italian Tomato and Basil pizza with thin crust. Yum.

So there you have it, the foods I ate today. I think there was a peach as a snack in there somewhere too, and lots of water. I'm not entirely sure why this blog turned into an episode of "What I Ate Today", but I hope at least the colors were entertaining.

Subtract Two Minutes From Awesome

Let me start off by saying I had an awesome day. I managed to wake up before nine (which is something I've been trying to do all day), I had breakfast while playing video games, and then I spent the rest of the day watching Disney movies on VHS with awesome people. It was so ridiculously hot, and there were a lot of people, but I LOVE watching Disney movies with large groups of people. I love singing obnoxiously loud to the songs (and I must say, I'm pretty beastly at "One Jump Ahead" from Aladdin because one day last summer I decided I had to learn all the lyrics) and analyzing the weird things Disney sticks in movies and hopes no one notices. I don't think I've ever analyzed Mulan as much as we did tonight. Like, why do they unroll scrolls and read them horizontally when they're written and supposed to be read vertically? Or where does that doctor come from when they're on the mountain and Mulan (as Ping) got injured? Things like that.

Due to this awesome afternoon of Disney movies and watching Jessica burn off some of the hair on her arm, I was going to make this post about my favorite Disney movies or my favorite Disney characters. I had a list going as I was driving home, and I was already thinking about the pictures I have on my hard drive that I would use.

Except when I was driving home, in the last two minutes of my drive the 10:00 show came on the Christian radio station I listen to. Now, I know that people are going to think differently from me, and I know that some of those beliefs may be offensive to me. And, honestly, I get to a point where I just try to ignore it because it's going to either make me mad or make my a hypocrite to call them out on it. However, when they start to belittle my own beliefs? Then I have a problem.

The radio program was discussing how freedom of religion is being attacked due to Prop 8 being overturned in California. That, by validating same-sex marriage, public education will somehow attack freedom of religion in this country. Now, I understand that some people are afraid of change and afraid of things they don't understand. But then they went on to say how "there are even some Christians" who think that what two consenting adults do is between them. Which I agree with. I also know the fact that everyone sins, that God loves everyone despite these sins, so I try very hard to love and accept everyone no matter what they do or what they believe. I may disagree with them or think that they're wrong. So when someone else tells me that as a Christian I should believe something else? That bothers me.

Anyway, that was really the only bad part of my day. So, two minutes out of the rest of the 24 hours of awesome? I'm okay with that. Still, I guess I don't understand why we must fight wars and hate other people over a difference of opinion. I know I'm not perfect myself, and I get angry with people sometime. I just wish people would try harder sometimes.

Teaching Fiction

Like a lot of people (especially those in my generation) I go through another re-read of Harry Potter nearly every summer. This summer I've been restricting that re-reading to when I'm on the treadmill to help get me to exercise more often. While it has definitely helped to make me run longer on more days, I'm not going through it as fast as I normally do. Today I FINALLY got to Harry's first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson with Lupin, and it made me think about how awesome the teachers at Hogwarts are. Except for most of the Defense Against the Arts teachers, and Snape (I LOVE Snape as a character, but hate him as a teacher).

Which then got me thinking about teachers in fiction in general, which THEN prompted me to make a list of my favorite fictional teachers. In no particular order, here are five of my favorite teachers (actually based on whether or not I'd want them as my own teacher).

5. Minerva McGonagall-Harry Potter

I know, I didn't pick Lupin or Dumbledore. I didn't pick either of them because they get enough love, and Professor McGonagall doesn't get nearly enough. I love how she respects her students, and genuinely cares that they succeed.

4.Mr. Holland- Mr. Hollands Opus

I think it's interesting how he "gives up" his dream, but finds a life he loves better. Plus, he's a band director. EPIC awesome :)

3. Professor Keating- Dead Poet's Soceity

This will probably be the only time I approve of ripping pages out of books. I mean, diagramming the value of a poem? Lame XD Professor Keating on the other hand? Uber awesome.

2. Mr. Feeny- Boy Meets World

If I have to explain this, you've obviously not seen it.

1. Mrs. Frizzle- Magic School Bus

She'd probably be a nightmare for any school district's legal department (can you just imagine the potential law suits from random parents who don't even have kids in that classroom complaining of child endangerment?) but how awesome would it be to go to outer space? Best. Field trip. Ever.

Remember that was in no particular order, just me wishing I could have a teacher who would take me to outer space in a bus or transform into a cat during a transfiguration lesson.

(Still) Writing

As I sit in my ridiculously warm living room (with all of the lights off in an effort to cool it down a little) I'm struggling a little to come up with what I should write about. I've just spent the last 30-45 minutes clicking random websites I have bookmarked, going over the small amount of things I did today in my brain, and reading blog posts by other bloggers I follow. While the act of simply blogging every day for BEDA has been difficult, I've found the most difficult part is trying to come up with something new to write about each day. When you're only blogging once every few weeks/months every blog can easily be, "Whoops! I haven't blogged in a while, but here's a long list of things I've done and I promise I'll blog again soon," so it's not that difficult. The things I've been reading and the things I've been doing actually change when I only blog every few weeks, so things sound more exciting.

Except when you're blogging every day you realize you do the same things every day and you've been reading the same thing for the past three weeks.

So then I try coming up with other things to say, things that aren't based on events that actually happened. Although, today I did go over to a friend's house expecting a third friend to show up, but we didn't communicate with the third friend well so we had to call. And aforementioned call woke her up. Then, I failed at playing Cooking Mama on my friend's Wii. I also borrowed a copy of Ocarina of Time for GameCube because apparently you can play GameCube games on a Wii (once you get a gamecube controller and a gamecube memory card, which is fine with me. I've been meaning to get those anyway).

But another thing happened today made me grateful for BEDA. That friend we woke up with that phone call? Her older sister has been working on a novel for a while now (I'd heard about it a few times from my friend and my friend's sister, in addition to being updated on its status from the sister's blog/twitter) and apparently it's finished. Barring grammar and other sorts of smaller editing sorts of things. In the general sense of the word, it's finished.

Which then reminded me of my own projects that I meant to work on a lot more this summer and how I've been spending a lot more time playing video games and knitting/crocheting than I have writing. And writing was a big thing I wanted to do this summer. Yes, a revision of my first Nanowrimo novel has been in the works, but it's definitely been more of a back burner project. But what has been nice about BEDA is that it's something that makes me write every day. It's something that makes me think about writing, and then once it's written putting that writing on the internet (which, honestly, should be more frightening than it sometimes is. Although, a small audience definitely makes it easier).

Then again, this BEDA project isn't even half way over yet, so by day 20 I may be singing a different tune. For now, however, I'm happy that I'm writing again. Even if it doesn't (always) involve swords or epic quests.

(Still)Currently Reading: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (but I've also started City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare)

(Still)Currently Playing: Star Ocean: The Last Hope (I'm finally on the world where you get to capture a GIANT pink bunny so you can ride it over this quicksand desert. Except I'm also at the point of the game where the hero is questioning his life/decisions/motives/etc so he's a bit... depressed at the moment. Which is not so fun)

A final side note on today's blog: To be fair to myself, my friend's sister has been working on her novel for seven years, and has also lived longer and has had more experiences than I've had. All of these being things that I know writers need in order to be better. The point of this post wasn't to complain about myself or lament anything, but to be happy about simply writing and also that I'm happy for my friend's sister. Writing first draft is no easy task, let alone writing seven drafts of a novel over seven years.

I feel like...

I feel like today was a place holder. Almost like when time travel is invented, I will come back to today and then I will get to do what I was really supposed to do today. I didn't run 4.5 miles like I wanted to this morning. I didn't study Japanese. I didn't even leave my house or change out of my PJs. So, life, can I call a do-over?

...

Wait, I'm not in a video game? I don't have any extra lives? THERE ARE NO SAVE POINTS?!

Which, (not so) funnily enough was what I was saying for an hour and a half when playing Star Ocean: The Last Hope today while I was playing through an seemingly endless dungeon. This particular dungeon was characterized by fighting lizard-men and fearing the glitch that happens in that part of the game where the game will freeze and you lose an hour of your life. This glitch happened to me at least twice in my first play through of the game, but due to some miracle it didn't freeze once and I got all the treasure. Yay :)

I do love playing Japanese RPG's, despite the endless lists of item gathering and creation, annoying 9-year-old children inexplicably joining in on quests to save the world/universe, and painfully horrible English dubbing. However, the ONE THING that always annoys me is the lack of ability to save whenever you want to. I understand that there was a need for them back in the days of Final Fantasy VII when the technology wasn't quite as advanced. However, most games of the RPG type not only have the ability to let you save nearly whenever you want, they have auto-saves and check points where the game saves for you in case you're an idiot. However, JRPG's apparently have a nostalgic penchant for save points that they really need to get rid of. Now, thanks to the shiny orbs/discs showcasing that you have finally come to the point the developers have ordained that you may save the last hour of your life, I am conditioned to feel a sense of relief and achievement whenever I see shiny random objects. Because I really needed help to be distracted by said objects.

Apologies for the nerd-rant. Apparently this blog has turned into a constant discussion of video games with occasional mentions of real life and my either failing or being awesome in running shoes.

Again, any requests for topics? Or are the sarcastic nerd-rants sufficient?