Night Ramblings

Before you even start reading:

Thinking of starting a blog?
Don't choose Blogger!
It is the slowest, most unreliable thing on the planet of blogging. I would switch to Wordpress but I'm already too scatterbrained, I can't handle transferring ALL THE POSTS and learning the antics of yet another thingymerbob.  

Not happy with you, Blogger.

It's literally nearly four in the morning and I'm completely wide awake. During the school week I average roughly 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night, so I don't know why I don't grow some brains and use Sundays to catch up on sleep (Saturday counts as a school day cause I have to wake up at 8:00, though it sure is a lot better than 6:00 like normal).

I had a whole slew of things to rant about as well as a serious topic, so I'm going to do my serious topic in another post some day.

First things first: Youtube changed it's format thing. Google people, Facebook people, internet people, when will you stop pulling format changes on us? Just kidding, keep doing it. I actually really like the new format, even though it's a bit weird. I actually kind of watched it change. I was watching a video by vlogger AmazingPhil, left to go do whatever, came back for the next one, and boom! New format.

Yeah.

That brings us to item number two! Vloggers. And British people. British vloggers. They are the coolest people ever. I sound extremely ditsy and typical American girl saying that (disregarding the fact that I'm Chinese), but I literally cannot stop watching those videos. I used to fangirl over charlieissocoollike and nerimon but now I've added like four others, including said vlogger above and his friend danisnotonfire. I'd be a horrible vlogger. I sound like an idiot on camera and I stink and talking, so here I am hiding behind my keyboard and writing. But it's so AWESOME.

Item number three. Peak Gymnastics Academy. I wrote about that in another post somewhere (here) in a news article style thing. Well, it's completely becoming a reality. Last week, we got our demo/spirit leotards, team colored grip bags, headbands, and hair ties, we've had our first demo (go Middle Creek Elementary Book Fair!) and we have MAGNETS.

And a leotard and hair tie which do look fantastic in real life, just I have a weird angle here:
 
[imagine it cause Blogger flips out when I try to upload it]

And past this I wrote a bunch earlier, then my browser crashed, and it only saved this much of my post. But apparently if you use too many pictures [ahem, guilty] it doesn't actually save... The rest of it went something along the lines of:

 

1. No Peak Gymnastics website yet. :(

Peak website maybe soon?

2. Ms. Angie and Ms. Brittany rock.
3. Mike from Kenney's rocks for putting up with us for six months!!
4. E.O. Wilson Global Town Hall at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences on Thursday, livestream it in science class or something here!
5. Kylie met Santa and didn't cry.

[another unuploadable picture]


6. Happy birthday Sandy who I wished a happy birthday to a bunch of days late so now I'm making up for it.

Good night, small group of stalkers and other viewers who have stumbled upon this rambling post!

P.S. I won (finished) NaNoWriMo! 50,000+ thousand words during the month of November. :))

Someone is about to reach 100 posts... (and other happenings)

... and that person is so not me. I'm at a humble thirty two.

That person is one of the closest friends of one of my good friends who happens to be one of the other best friends of one of my best friends. Lost yet?

Yeah, me too.

Anyways, she's super nice and this is her blog here. She and I went to the same middle school in Georgia, and while I don't ever really recall sustaining more than a maybe two minute long conversation with her in person, I'm friends with her on Facebook. And bloggers attract one another like magnets, so every time she links a blog post, I totally stalk it. :) Check it out. Congrats, Lilly, on 100 when you get there!

On a totally different note: the dreaded month called November has yielded some pretty terrific results this year.

1. I scored a 2220 on my November SAT. As a sophomore, that's a darn good score. 730 Critical Reading, 740 Writing with a 10 on the essay, and 750 math.

2. I'm not epicly failing at NaNoWriMo! Sure, I'm two days behind (about 34,000 words when I should have 36,674), but my see-how-it-goes plot plan is still going strong, and I haven't given up yet. It's funny; because of this silly challenge, I've been maximizing the number of words needed to state everything possible - my sentences must be super long now.

3. Thanksgiving - power went out on my pie while it was in the oven. Not sure how it tastes 'cause I'm too scared to try. It's currently sitting in the fridge. Black Friday - yay! New iPod! But I don't get it until the December SAT is over.

December SAT? What? Yeah. 2220 is apparently not good enough and it must be taken again to get that stupid 800 in math. Okay, time to go study. At 1 in the morning. After hours of standing outside stores. Actually, I think sleep sounds better. Good night :)

PS: I'm gonna be a red kettle bell ringer for the Salvation Army's annual collection for two hours next Saturday. I can't wait :D HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

AP World History Homework

This was my weekly project-type assignment for AP World. The unit was Medieval Europe, and we had to write a ballad, so I chose to write about the Manor System. I actually had a lot of fun writing this. It's no Fair Mary of Wallington, but it's interesting? Plus is was a good break from all the NaNoWriMo stuff (ended day three with 5290 words!)

XD Enjoy. Or not. Your choice.

The Lowly Serf and the Lord of the Lands.

 

The lowly serf, protected with work,

I have nowhere else to hide.

I cultivate crops on land of the lord,

And by his words I always abide.

The lowly serf, protected with work,

Justice is given in exchange for goods.

My piece of the manor teems with crops,

But some I must take from my own brood.

 

The lowly serf, protected with work,

We must blame the decline of trade.
I have to stay on the land of the lord,

Or I’ll be unprotected, my family afraid.

The lord of lands, laughing with glee,

The fall has been good, I must say.

Without those traders keeping me on my toes,

All’s not fair in love, war or pay.

 

The lord of lands, laughing with glee,

I bang my fist on oak.

“Two bushels of corn, three slaughtered pigs,

Any less and you endanger yourself and your folks!”

The lord of the lands, laughing with glee,

I’m not as evil as I seem.

Without a market economy or specialization,

I’m really just trying to get what I need.

 

The lowly serf, protected with work,

I technically still am free.

I own my livestock, crops and seeds,

But it is them that still control me.

The times were hard, for all of us,

Life without any proper tools or plans.

The Dark Ages causing all of our words,

Manorialism quickly lost fans.

Outsmarted By A 14 Year-Old

Note: I tried to emphasize that my current political standpoint is not at a closed minded or set-in-stone stand still, and I don't want to come across as having something against religion. I don't want to offend anyone and am always open for discussion or debate.

Ah, how much I love the North Carolina state fair... rip-off carnival games, rickety roller coasters, deep fried everything-you-can-possibly-imagine... and stupid politicians?

I went to the fair today with two friends of mine. After mindlessly wandering, wasting money on games from which we won a total of 6 stuffed animals combined (but then I lost one -.-), and watching me fall on my face, we focused our efforts on finding the awesome political stickers that everyone was wearing.

If I were eligible to vote, I'd base my votes on liberal/independent ideas, depending on the subject. I declare that outright. However, it's because I am atheist with humanist ideals, and trust in science more than anything. It's not that I renounce those with faith, I just personally don't have one (I even got a sticker from the faith tolerance/world peace booth from the fair XD). One of my two friends, let's call him Joe, is far more outspoken than me. After noticing him run into a lot of people, I jokingly called him clumsy. "I'm only running into people with Romney stickers," he replied.

Pledge For Peace sticker because it's awesome - did not sign the actual pledge because I don't want to be leaving my name and address in a public place, but I support this.

Naturally, this personality resulted in him debating against a man twice his size.

With Joe, our other friend, and I wearing Obama Biden stickers and passing by "Republican Row" in the Hunt Horse Complex on the Fairgrounds (I think...), a random man standing beside a booth looks at me and asks, "Want a sticker?"

It was a "Vote Republican" sticker, so I kind of smirked and said no thanks. (I smirked cause I didn't think he'd offer me one with a blatant Democrat sticker on my shirt, not cause I hate Republicans or something!)

Sticker on the shirt

I asked for four - here are the other three!

He called after me, "Another guy in an Obama sticker came by and took one of my stickers!"

And that unleashed the crazy, unabashed political debater in Joe. He headed back to the man, a Republican candidate for one of the positions on the Wake County Board of Commissioners, who proceeded to say, "there was another man, the one with the Obama sticker, who took one of my stickers after he talked to me, because he listened to me and figured out I was the better candidate."

Joe: "What makes you the better candidate?"

Commissioner candidate: "I'm not like the other guys, my constitution is better."

Joe: "What's different about your Constitution that makes it better?"

Candidate: "I follow my Constitution and my supporters know that. I follow my Constitution."

Joe: "Right, so your Constitution is better because you follow it..."

Joe takes the sticker and begins to walk away, when the candidate called out, "Now you're just being sarcastic, young man!"

Over his shoulder, Joe responded, "No sir, you're wrong. I was being sarcastic the whole time." And promptly throws the sticker away.

None of us even remember this man's name. He was on the right of the Romney-Ryan booth. We also don't know whether this guy was a good candidate or not. Whose fault is that? Joe didn't attack the man because he was looking for a good show. He asked innocent questions that could have been skillfully and smoothly answered. But they weren't. We didn't take flyers or read them because the candidate was right there. Can't he tell us his platform? Tell us what separates him from other candidates and why his position is superior? No?

Get interrogated by a 14 year-old and not be able to answer a single question? What kind of leader does that make?

Quotations are again not exact, but close to truth as I had both my comrades "fact-check" and correct mistakes. Purposeful unintelligent-ification was not used; he really did respond with vague, inconclusive answers.

The Marathon

Wow, it's already well into October, and I have barely been preparing for NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo, what? Is that some kind of weird computer program? No, dearest non-writers. It is National Novel Writing month. And as far as the rules go, it is a marathon.

NaNoWriMo is almost pointless, in retrospect of my decision to absolutely yank myself through it. In one month, aspiring writers write a full novel: 50,000 words. The month of November is only 30 days long (glad they didn't do it in February), so around 1,700 words a day are required to just meet the deadline. Really, to some, that's no challenge. However, my longest story is roughly 9,000 words total. And it's wordy and ramble-some and full of unedited prattle.

Why is that useless? The point of NaNoWriMo is the rigor of novelization. It's about the length; quantity is valued over quality.

I've never tried it because I never have comprehensive enough ideas to make into more than a short story, and never enough time or desire to attempt. This year, I have the least time of all. But if I keep putting it off, then it's never ever going to happen, right?

To my few readers: the one with the initials M.C. should totally try it too. Actually, that's two of you, isn't it?

Yep. Really excited to total fail at this.

Side Note: PSATs and SATs are coming up! I took the pre-ACT (the PLAN, harharhar) two weeks ago, as required by my school and probably the whole county. Also required, the PSAT is this week. As for the SAT, I take mine on November 3rd, the 3rd day of the marathon. I'm trying to get accepted into NCSSM, a public boarding school here in the Triangle. It's extremely selective, which means I've got to get my act together! Give me a hug, SAT vocab list!!

What Kylie Is Up To

Kylie is currently camping out in my room. With her beloved Mrs. B. I spent 15 minutes teaching her the names of three characters from Doctor Who, and she's got them down pat. Then came time for AP World History homework.
"Go find daddy, Kylie."
"No."
"See if daddy has any toys."
"No."

[many minutes and brain cells lost later]
"Kylie, do you have a bear?"
[blank stare]
"Mrs. B? Go get Mrs. B!"

She trotted off to retrieve her plushy teddy and sat down in my closet. Yes, the closet. It's her cave, apparently. A second play area besides the living room.
I'm not embellishing this post because previously mentioned AP World homework is still unfinished, but there is a toddler in my bedroom singing to a teddy bear, using the teddy bear s a pillow, putting the bear down for a nap, and trying to feed the bear...

Enjoy:

- Chichi