Creation

This week's W3CG video! I know, I skipped a day again, but (as I mention in the video) my Japanese midterm of doom part one was today. Part two is tomorrow. I'm leaving now to do the studying I've put off ALL NIGHT.

WTWA: Uh, I'm halfway through my Japanese midterm and tomorrow it'll be over? No, that's sad. I played video games today. So, yes. That's why. I played video games today.

My life is sad XD

Going Crazy

Social Media

So I'm posting a youtube video on a blogger blog talking about Facebook/social media. I'm not sure what that means, exactly, but it sure seems interesting.

Click here for the Amazon page where you can get The Young and the Digital. I mean, you don't have to, but I said in the video I'd link to it.

EDIT: WTWA: So I forgot to say why today (although yesterday now) was awesome. I think it was awesome because it felt like a Monday but it was actually a Tuesday due to the fact there was no school Monday.

W3CG Video about Books!

Here's my WeThreeChallengirls video for the weeks in which I talk about the craziness of my life and books. Mostly books.

The links to the sites with the award winners are this link for the Printz award and this link for the other ones like the Newbery award. I'd really like to read Ship Breaker and Moon Over Manifest personally. Anyone else see an award winner that strikes your fancy? Or did you read a children's or young adult book in the past year that you think would have deserved any of these awards much more?

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

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.

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!

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.