New Years Resolutions

So this New Year, I have a few resolutions:

1. Write more. For the past year, I haven't been writing as much as I would like to. But now (now that college applications are done), I have no excuse. My goal is to write and publish an average of 1 chapter a week, which is ~1000 words. 1000 words per week is definitely doable; I can easily do 500 words on a weekend day; maybe 200 words on a school day. I might be able to achieve more than 1 chapter a week, but I'm not going to push myself for more than that.

2. Keep my room clean. Wait, screw that. I hate cleaning my room, and when I do, it always stays messy. Just like some people have hair that is unmanageable, I have a room that is unmanageable. Yea. My room is clean now, but I doubt it'll stay clean.

3. Work out more (this one goes in to effect once swim season is over in February).

4. Get an A in AP AB/BC Calculus and AP Physics winter (and maybe spring) term. I almost had A-s in both fall term, and I think that now that the pressure of college applications is gone, I should be able to get a solid A in both of them.

Summary Of "Twilight" (warning: spoilers)

So for Christmas, I got the entire "Twilight" series ("Twilight", "New Moon", "Eclipse", and "Breaking Dawn"). Yesterday, I finished reading "Twilight".

Almost nothing happens in the first ~200 pages. Seriously. I was disappointed that the word "vampire" wasn't even mentioned until halfway in to the book, but more disappointed that nothing really happened for most of it.

This is my summary of the majority of the book:

BELLA- Hi, I'm Bella, and I'm an idiot, so I decided to move to Forks, Washington. There's too much green here. I'm really klutzy, did you know that? I also faint when I see blood. Oooh, who's that? OMG, he's gorgeous. His name is Edward. It's not like I stalk him or anything, really. It's just that he's perfect, beautiful, amazing, breathtaking, and gorgeous, and also my favorite stone depends on the color of his eyes at any given moment. And when it snows, the snow looks like the end of a Qtip. Snow isn't supposed to look like a Qtip, damn it! It wasn't so cold and rainy back in Arizona.

EDWARD- I'm Edward.

BELLA- Hi Edward! (to herself) OMG, two boys just asked me to the dance? What should I do? No! I can't go to the dance! OMG, why isn't Edward in school?

JACOB- Probably because he's a vampire.

BELLA (to Edward)- OMG, Edward, you're a vampire.

EDWARD- Yes. And you smell amazing. I can't keep myself away from you. The smell of your blood is delicious.

BELLA- Make me a vampire, Edward. Because if you don't make me a vampire, then one day, I'll die, and I won't be near you.

EDWARD- But I don't want to hurt you.

BELLA- (whining) But I don't caaaaaaaare!

EDWARD- Hey, look at my skin sparkle in the sun!

BELLA- OMG, that is so cool. Edward, I love you.

EDWARD- I know. And I keep saving your life. Plus I can read minds.

BELLA- That is so cool!

EDWARD- But I can't read your mind. I don't know why.

BELLA- How can I become a vampire?

EDWARD- I'm not telling you. Hey, wanna play vampire baseball?

BELLA- Yes!

EDWARD- FYI, we have to wait for a thunderstorm.

BELLA- That's so cool. Edward, I don't care if it hurts, I just want to be a vampire, because I am obsessively in love with you.

:)

"Camp Rock" vs. Power Chord Academy

So I've decided that it was about time I wrote a blog comparing Disney Channel's Original Movie Camp Rock with my own experiences at Power Chord Academy (referred to from now on as PCA), a rock music camp that I have attended for the past 2 summers.

Similarities between Camp Rock and PCA:

1. People are there because they want to spend the summer doing something awesome with music.

2. Open mic night takes place in the cafeteria. Well, at PCA, open mic night takes place... wherever, but last year, it did take place in the cafeteria.

3. People wear long pants in the summer.

4. "Celebrity [sort of] guests". At Camp Rock, "Shane Gray" was a counselor, and his band "Connect 3" played at the "Jam". At PCA, at the end of each session, a "real" touring band comes and plays a concert (Yellowcard, The All-American Rejects, Sparky's Flaw).

5. The food is "better this year". At Camp Rock, Connie's Catering is better than whatever they had last year. At PCA, this year's food was slightly better than the food last year.

Differences between Camp Rock and PCA:

1. At Camp Rock, every musical performance includes elaborate costumes.
At PCA, no one wears costumes. Maybe an awesome outfit for the concert, or sunglasses on stage, but no... costumes.

2. At Camp Rock, people wear high-heeled shoes.
At PCA, people wear sneakers. Because at a real music camp, you'd be an IDIOT to wear high-heeled shoes. It's hard to walk in high heels; you'll likely trip at some point. Also, it would kind of hurt if you got an amp dropped on your foot, and you were wearing open-toed shoes, don't you think?

3. At Camp Rock, they have dance class, and their music routines include choreographed dances.
At PCA, they don't have dance class (not many rockers are dancers- although occasionally some, including yours truly and one of her friends, are), and there are no choreographed routines.

4. At Camp Rock, guitars are loud without being plugged in to an amplifier.
At PCA, you actually have to plug in your guitar for it to make any noise.

5. At Camp Rock, we know there is at least 1 drummer (Andy, the kid who couldn't dance), but that's it, and he never plays the drums.
At PCA, there are usually multiple drummers, and they actually play the drums.

6. At Camp Rock, "it's all about the bling"; people are very image-concered, and they judge each other on shallow things.
At PCA, you're more likely to be judged on your musical taste and talent on your instrument, than on how much money you have.

7. At Camp Rock, they sleep in cabins in the woods.
At PCA, we sleep in dorm rooms at a college.

8. Camp Rock is right next to a lake, which has canoes.
PCA (in NY) is right next to a bunch of pizza places and chinese restaurants, which have awesome pizza and dumplings, respectively.

9. At Camp Rock, there seems to be no organization of musical activities/no organized lessons.
At PCA, there are organized band practices ("jam sessions") several times a day, with an adult (producer) helping.

Things I've Learned Recently

So here's a list of things I've learned recently...

1. Rice cakes aren't supposed to go in the toaster, or the microwave (learned from the rice cake package).

2. Snow is fun, until you have to drive in it.

3. College applications are no fun, but getting in to college is.

4. Being deferred from two colleges is half the fun of being deferred from one, until you realize that tons of people got rejected, so maybe the admissions officers actually liked your application. Maybe.

5. Swim practice doesn't actually get easier over four years, but as you get in better shape, it feels easier (even when you're swimming in a faster lane).

6. Leaky goggles during a T30 suck, and will cause you to have "red stoner eyes". Additionally, even the best goggles become leaky after a point.

7. Calculus is awesome, and it's way better than algebra. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong.

8. Friendship bracelets are fun, and they look really pretty, too.

9. Mechanical pencils are far, far better than regular pencils (actually, I didn't learn this recently, I learned this in like 9th grade).

10. Links are fun!

<24 Hours

There are <24 hours until I'm on vacation.

Yesterday I was worried I'd be feeling sick (remember that swim meet?), but thankfully I was fine. The meet was good and bad. Good because I didn't have to swim the 200 free relay AND the 100 back (the relay is RIGHT before the back, so when I do both, I'm always exhausted for the back, which sucks), and I got to swim the backstroke in the 200 medley relay. Bad because we got KILLED. At the end of the meet, the coach gave a speech about how it's really important to actually come to practice over break, considering county champs are the first day back (January 5). I'll probably come to all of the practices, because I'm not going away, so I don't really have any excuse not to.

After I got home last night, I was exhausted, but I still had to: (1) study for finals, (2) write college essays, and (3) check my decision for MIT. The MIT decisions came out at 9:00pm yesterday; I had been thinking about it all day, but by 8:30 I realized I couldn't concentrate at ALL on any work, so I stopped.

I got deferred. The thing is, it's annoying to have to wait another few months, but- MIT was a "Far Reach" school for me; the general consensus (among my college counselor, my parents, and I) was that I'd probably be rejected outright. I may still rejected in March, but I might get accepted.

In French today, we watched the movie Ratatouille. The teacher was all, "But it's in English!" when the first words of dialogue were heard, but the movie takes place in Paris, so it's kind of French. Sort of. I love how the guy's name is Linguine. Linguine isn't my favorite kind of pasta (I prefer farfalle) but it's just such a cool name.

I came up with a semi-productive unproductive thing to do during free periods: making friendship bracelets. This summer, while working as a camp counselor, one of the activities I had to "teach" was making friendship bracelets (35 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 4 weeks). I've made a lot of bracelets while at home, in the car, on the plane, or anywhere boring. So yesterday, I realized that it would be a great idea to make friendship bracelets during free periods. See, most people would tell me that during free periods, I should be doing homework, or studying. But honestly, when I HAVE homework, I usually do it during free periods, sometimes, but not always, and I can't study for an exam at school (I just can't. It just doesn't work.). Normally, I'd go in to the art studio and make art, but there's no sense starting a piece RIGHT before break, so I figured that while being unproductive, I should at least attempt to be semi-productive, so, I'm making friendship bracelets.

I can't wait until vacation. Seriously, I love the holidays. I love wrapping gifts (I'm so good at wrapping gifts). I love making cookies (frosting them is the best part). I love not having school. I love seeing family. I love watching TV for several hours straight (come on, who HASN'T spent at least ONE vacation day doing nothing but watch TV?). I love actually having time to write (I haven't updated anything in forever). I love not having to worry about homework/tests/finals/projects. I love snow (I hope it snows). I love winter break.

I lost my voice

So, as the title says, I lost my voice.

Until this summer, I had never lost my voice. Sure, after screaming for hours at a concert, my throat would be a little sore, but I had never really LOST MY VOICE until this July, and it's happened a few times since then.

1st time- ~July 16-17- I had a sore throat, but I could talk perfectly fine. Then, I woke up the next day and I could hardly talk (although my throat wasn't sore). Of course, I still had to go to work (I was a camp counselor). Imagine the fun morning I had trying to teach swim lessons when I could hardly talk. The afternoon was a little better; I was in arts & crafts, and I used the good old pen-and-notebook method (that method doesn't really work when you're teaching swim lessons; the notebook gets wet; plus the kids wouldn't be able to see that when they're at the other side of the pool).

2nd time- ~August 29-31- I had a sore throat, and I could hardly talk. It turns out I had strep throat (isn't that fun?) and I was lucky I got the drugs from the doctor before school started on September 2nd.

3rd time- December 12-14(+?)- On Friday (12), during the day I felt okay. But after swim practice, I was feeling pretty stuffy. I could hardly breathe through my nose (which makes swimming rather difficult); it felt like my whole head was just filled with snot (okay, gross, I know), and I was extremely tired; I went to bed at 10:30 (which is pretty early for a Friday night for me). I woke up yesterday (Saturday, 13) at 9:45 (11 hours of sleep) and felt exactly 0% better. In lieu of doing anything productive, I sat around and watched TV and did friendship bracelets and wasted time in other ways (although I *did* work on some college essays for about an hour). I went to sleep last night at 11:00 (still not feeling any better) and woke up this morning at like 8:30. Yeah. I know. I can breathe now (sort of...), and I feel a little better, but I've lost my voice. I can't really talk, and it sucks.

What I've noticed about losing my voice is that I tend to do a lot more thinking. If I have something to say, I always think about it before I say it. And then if I DO have to talk, I always feel exhausted after. When you lose your voice, talking sucks.

There's a swim meet tomorrow, and I sincerely hope I'm better by then.

News as of 12/12

1. My camera still isn't working, and I'm very annoyed. For IB Visual Arts (note: I originally typed "IB Visual Warts"), we have to keep a "workbook", which is a sort of journal in which we keep records of our art. We're supposed to take pictures of our work in progress. It's really annoying when I can't use my own camera to take these pictures (I use the Arts Department Camera). It's also annoying when I can't take pictures of stuff I'm doing at home (well, there are 2 other cameras in my house, but one of them sucks). I went to a concert back in November (Mest, 11/2), and I brought one of the cameras (the one that doesn't suck) but the battery ran out. I was really upset, too, because not only was it an AWESOME concert, I was REALLY close (like right-up-against-the-barrier CLOSE), and the lighting was REALLY awesome (like two-different-colors-making-really-cool-shadows-on-the-musicians AWESOME). I still had fun, though.

2. I got deferred from Caltech. I would've liked to be accepted (duh, that's why I applied in the first place), but being deferred is better than what I initially expected (my application to be shredded up and sent back to me in an envelope with big red letters saying "DENY!" on the front)- and less than 50% of all applicants got deferred or accepted (>50% got denied, though maybe not quite as spectacularly as I thought).

3. I'm sick. I think I have a cold. I'm incredibly stuffed up. I can hardly breathe, and I can barely smell. I slept for 11 hours last night (I love sleeping for 11 hours straight), and I didn't go to swim practice this morning.

4. There are less than 75 days of school left until Senior Check-out (what? it's not like I've been counting down since the first week of this month). I am SO ready be out of school.

5. I like crafts. I'm currently knitting a blanket with fuzzy black, pink, and blue yarn. I'm knitting small squares, and then sewing them in to strips, and then I'm gonna sew the strips in to a blanket. I've only got like 1/10 of the squares I need; maybe I'll do some work on it over winter break. I'm also working on a friendship bracelet now. Yay.

Parkway<22

So I've been doing a lot of driving recently, including driving on the Garden State Parkway and on Route 22. And honestly, the Parkway is WAY easier than Route 22.

On the Parkway, it's pretty much just driving straight, and then you get off at your exit. People drive fast (speed limit? this is new jersey; you try going exactly at the speed limit, even in the slowest lane), but sensibly (well, mostly). When I'm on the Parkway, I drive along for a few (hundred, thousand?) miles, and then I see the sign that says "Exit X- 1 mile/1/4 mile/Next Right"- I change lanes if needed, and then I drive a little more, see the exit sign, and take the exit. It's painless.

On 22, it's driving straight, mostly, but people are turning in to parking lots at every waking moment. It's crazy. Most of the people driving on 22 drive insanely. There are always more cars on 22 than on the Parkway, or at least it seems that way. 22 isn't like the Parkway, in the sense that there are no signs saying "Target- 1 mile" or "DSW- Next Right". So people are changing lanes basically all the time. It's a nightmare. People also drive really really close together. I hate it. If I could, I would completely avoid 22 in favor of the Parkway, except I can't.

Thanksgiving, 2003-2008

I love Thanksgiving. I also love cooking. And for the past 6 years, I've been cooking for Thanksgiving. Here's what I've cooked:

2003- Apple pie and pumpkin pie
2004- Apple pie and pumpkin pie
2005- Apple pie and pumpkin pie (and the day after Thanksgiving, I made pumpkin muffins)
2006- This was my first year as a vegetarian!- Apple pie, pumpkin pie (this time, since I was a vegetarian and so I wasn't going to use Pillsbury Pie Crusts, which has lard, I began making my own pie crusts- which is totally worth it, though it does take more time), vegetarian gravy, mashed potatoes, vegetarian "sausage" stuffing, and cornbread stuffing (including homemade cornbread). I was cooking for like 48 hours straight. It was completely exhausting.
2007- Apple pie, pumpkin pie (again with the crusts made from scratch), vegetarian gravy, vegetarian sausage stuffing
2008- Apple pie, pumpkin pie (again homemade crust), vegetarian gravy, vegetarian sausage stuffing, two kinds of cornbread muffins (both from mix)

2003-2004, I made my pies the day before Thanksgiving, since I was in middle school, and got home early that day.
2005-2007, I made my pies two days before Thanksgiving, since at my current school (high school), we have no school Wednseday
2008- Well, I had swim practice and a doctor's appointment on Tuesday after school, so I wasn't even home until like 7:30pm. And at that point, I didn't really feel like making pies. So, I made the cornbread muffins, just to get them out of the way (they were really easy- much easier than the pies). Yesterday (Wednesday), I woke up early to make pie. Then, after I got out all the ingredients, I realized that I didn't have lemon juice (for the apple pie) or tofu (for the pumpkin pie), so while my mom was at the grocery store, I made the crusts. I was a little nervous, since the recipe I used to use for the crusts, I couldn't find, so I had to use a new one (the old one used only crisco as shortening; this one used butter and crisco). The dough was also kinda sticky, even with the flour. I guess it's the butter. Anywho, eventually, when my mom got back, I mixed up the filling for the apple pie. I also made a lattice crust (a lattice crust is when you weave strips of crust on top. It looks so pretty!).

I should also add that most years (well, 2003-2006), I end up with either four pumpkin pies, or two pumpkin pies and like 24 mini (cupcake-sized) personal pumpkin pies. See, the recipe on the can of pumpkin says it makes 2 pies, but I would always forget that, and double it. I thought I was ending up with 2 pies, in reality, there was enough filling for about 4. Before I made my own crusts, I would have to wait while someone went out and bought more pie crusts, but eventually I just made another batch of crust.

By the way, in case you were wondering, it's totally worth it to make your own pie crust. It's SO much better than Pillsbury (or whatever store-bought crust you use). Having tried two recipes (crisco, and butter/crisco), and I can say that if you want the absolute flakiest crust ever, use crisco, but if you want it a little "richer", use butter too.

I can't wait until winter break. I'll be wrapping lots of presents (as always! I love wrapping presents and tying ribbons... I should probably charge my parents this year, haha, rather than doing it for free. If I charged $5 a gift, I could make like $100 or something. But I wouldn't charge). I'll also be making some Christmas cookies. I'm thinking Gingerbread cookies (of course!) and World's Best (similar to these-http://recipes.recipeland.com/recipes/recipe/show/Worlds_Best_Cookies_6646 - except I use two additional ingredients). When I heard it was hard to stir the dough for World's Best, I thought that would mean that it's really really thick. It is, but it's also an enormous amount of dough. Last time I made World's Best, I got well over 100 cookies (and I'm talking normal sized cookies, not those dumb little "mini cookies" that are the size of a marble).

Only 2 more weeks of school, then finals!

Long Day

So today was a really long day...

6:10am- Woke up; got dressed and did my hair
6:30- Ate breakfast (scrambled eggs! yum!); then did my makeup
6:55- Left for school (I had to leave early for the dance concert)
7:30- Got to school; changed in to my costume (they were these gorgeous teal dresses with a little bit of sparkles- so pretty), fixed my hair and makeup, and began warming up
8:10- DANCE CONCERT! The piece I was in was to the song "Way Back In To Love", from the movie "Music and Lyrics"
9:00- After the dance concert, it's time for AP PHYSICS. We did a short lab where we plucked a guitar string and measured the frequency. I like guitar strings.
10:00- Free period, so I decided I should do my French homework (which was due in class, last period, at 1:35).
10:20- Format some pictures for IB Art on my laptop. They were for a project that's due Monday (11/25). I ended up having like a gazillion pictures, which translates in to 10 full pages, with like 9 pictures on each page. I wanted to print them out, and since I can't print on the school's network printers from my laptop, I saved the pictures (in a ginormous word document) on to my USB drive. I figured I'd plug my USB drive into a school laptop, open the file, and print directly from my laptop.
11:00- After plugging my USB drive into a school laptop, it took forever (literally, like 10 minutes) just to open the file (seriously, it was ginormous). Then, I tried to print it. It wouldn't print, so I tried again. It still wouldn't print (damn huge files), so I asked the librarian, and he said to go to the tech office. So I went to the tech office, and told the tech guy what was going on. He said my problem was that the file was just too huge- and not to mention that, the laptop that I had been using had "problems". I decided I'd go on to my own laptop, split the file into several smaller files (with each page in the original file being its own file), and then print them out individually. But
11:45- IB Art! We had a gallery talk today, which I had totally forgotten about. It was really cool, though. It was a group of all women, showing together.
12:40- Lunch. I ate quickly, then plugged my USB drive into my laptop to split up the files.
1:35- AP French. We played a game in which the teacher gave us a French word that none of us knew, and basically (to make a long explanation short) we all had to make up definitions. Some of my definitions: "jaspiner --> spinner en circles (spin in circles... wrong)", "palichon --> (palatial and large... wrong)", "engranger --> devenir plus grand (become more big... kind of right)", "funeste --> comme un funeral (like a funeral... vaguely relates to the real definition)"
2:25- Finally, the school day ends. But before I could go home, I had a lot to do. My first order of business was to print out the pictures for IB Art. I did, but it took longer than I thought. I thought I'd be done in 10 minutes. Um, no. I didn't finish printing for about 45 minutes (laser printers are great, but the ones at school are super slow).
3:15- I'm about to head down to swim practice (which technically starts at 3:15), when I realize, I need my art supplies, which were in the art room. So (carrying my book bag, laptop bag, and dance/swim bag) I walked to the art room, and got my supplies.
3:25- I finally got down to the locker room (it wouldn't usually take so long, but it's kinda hard to walk fast when you're carrying three large bags and a wooden box (part of my art supplies).
3:30- I'm ready for swim practice. Everyone's on deck; practice hasn't started yet.
3:32- Coach hands out the set list for practice today. It doesn't look too bad, until I see... T30. A T30 is when you basically swim laps for 30 minutes... without stopping. T30s aren't much fun.
3:35- Practice actually starts (I should probably mention that practice NEVER starts on time).
4:10- Time for the T30! T30s are interesting. I always go through a few thought stages as time passes in a T30- (1) This isn't too bad. (2) After a few minutes, I realize this is kind of hard. (3) Then I'm all, this is really hard. (4) Next I kind of just get in to a rhythm. The strokes, kicking, and breathing, become rhythmic. (5) I start to think, "when will this end?" (6) The coach sticks a kickboard in the end of the lane, signalling that there are 10 minutes left, and I realize that we are 2/3 done. (7) The rest doesn't seem too bad. (8) It ends. What was really fun about today's T30 was that my goggles were leaking (so water kept getting in to my eyes), and I had to keep fixing them every 50-100 yards. That slowed me down a bit, but even so, I managed to swim 1500 yards (which was my goal, yay me) in 30 minutes. Yay.
4:45- The best part about swim practice is the shower at the end.
5:15- On the way to sell chocolates for a fundraiser, my friend tells me my eyes make me look like a stoner, since they're so red (from the chlorine). The fundraiser is long. Really, really long.
6:00- I'm hungry. There's no substantial food available (I thought someone would be selling pizza or something, but no one was). I'm annoyed.
7:00- I'm really hungry. Oh look, free cookies! Yum.
8:00- I'm bored. I'm really, really bored, and also extremely exhausted.
9:15- Time to go home. My car is freezing (the steering wheel feels like ice!), so I crank up the heat.
10:00- Finally, I got home. Today was a long day. I'm exhausted.

I drove on the parkway

First of all, saying "I drove on the parkway" sounds, to me, odd. Why do we drive on the parkway? Shouldn't we drive on the driveway (and thus park on the, you know, parkway)?

Second, I like driving. What I don't like is not knowing where I'm going, and thinking I'm probably lost.

Yesterday, I drove from school to a friend's house. I had never been to said friend's house. In fact, I had never been to the town she lives in.

But I figured I'd mapquest directions from school to her house, then ask my mom if the directions looked good. My mom said not to use those mapquest directions, and told me a better way to go.

She said to follow this one street "all the way". I originally figured "all the way" would mean I'd be on that street for about, oh, 10-15 minutes. Oh no. It was way more than that. It felt like at least half an hour. On top of that, it was raining on and off the whole time (when I left school, it was pouring, but after that it was on and off). I drove through like 3 towns I'd never even visited before. It was crazy. And oh yeah, I had the temperature in the car set to something like 72 or 75 degrees (Fahrenheit, that is), and all of a sudden, it felt like it was about 100 degrees. I've got no clue why- all of a sudden, it just got really, really hot.

So eventually, I got to my friend's house.

On the way home, I drove on the parkway (hence the title of this blog). Now, I've had my license for over two months (experienced driver, I know) but I've never actually driven on the parkway. I've never had a reason to. I drive to school every day, I drive downtown a few times a week (for dance class, etc.), sometimes I drive to the mall or to the movie theater. But I'd never actually had to drive on the parkway before, so yea, I was kinda nervous.

When I was getting off the parkway, I was freaking out that I'd taken the wrong exit, but I didn't. And eventually I got home okay.

Something I realized though: driving on the parkway isn't actually that hard. It's actually much easier than driving through 3 suburban towns you've never been to before. Yea, you have to drive faster (~65mph vs. ~30/35mph), but people aren't trying to turn all the time, pedestrians aren't crossing not at the cross walk, you don't have stop lights or stop signs every 10 yards, and plus the parkway is pretty much straight (or at least much straighter than most suburban streets).

T-Shirts (pics coming soon)

So in addition to math, physics, dance, and music, I also like art/arts & crafts. I take IB Visual Arts, and recently spent 3 straight days (~2+ hours/day) matting various drawings and photographs.

I also like to make t-shirts.

I made one last weekend for the Mest concert I went to (11/2), and it's pretty awesome. I bought two t-shirts, navy blue and hot pink. I cut the letters "M E S T" out of the pink shirt and sewed them on to the blue shirt with acid green (not lime green, not neon green, ACID GREEN) thread.

I decided I wanted to do something similar, but this time for Angels & Airwaves. I printed out the Angels & Airwaves logo:
I traced the "AVA" part on to a black t-shirt, and cut it out. Then I sewed it on to a purple t-shirt with light gray (I wish I could call it silver, but it's definitely not, it's definitely just light gray) thread. Then I wrote "Angels & Airwaves" underneath in black, just like the logo here.


I wanted to take some pictures (personally, I think the t shirts look pretty sweet!), but my camera hasn't been working. By that, I mean I have fully charged the battery, inserted it into the camera correctly (and then tried inserting it differently), not been able to turn the camera on (I press the on button, and it just won't turn on), and repeated this whole process about 4 times. It's a Casio Exilim, by the way (and it's a pretty cool camera, I definitely recommend it).

Anyways, I shall have pictures up as soon as I figure out a way to fix my camera.

Senioritis

I think I'm coming down with a case of senioritis. It's not full-blown yet. I'm still motivated to work hard in some classes, but I definitely just want to slack off and not do work in some subjects. I can't wait till January.

Why Caltech's Bookstore Is Awesome

So I visited Caltech last Friday, for the second time. I didn't have an official tour or info session, I just walked around a little, and I went to the bookstore.

And let me tell you, Caltech's bookstore is awesome. Why?

(1) Back in 2006 (?), during MIT's Campus Preview Weekend (CPW), cleverly disguised Caltech students brought some free shirts to MIT pre-frosh. These shirts said "MIT" on the front, and on the back... "because not everyone can go to Caltech". What does this have to do with Caltech's bookstore? Well, these shirts were on sale for $14.95 in the Caltech bookstore.

(2) There was a sign by the shirts that said: "$5 from each sale goes to the 'Retaliation against MIT fund.'"

(3) Sweatshirts that said "JPL" (Jet Propulsion Labratory) and "NASA".

(4) Rubber bats.

Halloween Costumes

So today is Halloween, so of course we had the costume parade at school. There were some funny/interesting costumes (mostly, but not all, middle-schoolers):

-"Deviled eggs"- someone wore read sweats and devil horns and tail (devil), and a white shirt with a yellow circle (egg)
-"Chick magnet"- a sixth- or seventh-grade boy attached stuffed chicks all over his outfit, and threw some in the audience
-A group of junior boys dressed up as Monty Python monks
-Seven seventh-grade girls dressed up as seven crayola crayons
-Four middle-school girls were a s'more- one marshmallow, one piece of chocolate, two graham crackers
-A boy dressed up as a fairy
-A seventh(?)-grade girl dressed as a "dark fairy"
-A hobo. Okay.
-A paintballer
-"Change we can believe in"- ninth-grade girl, carried a sign that said "CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN", covered her clothing with fake coins, wore a black afro-ish wig
-A seventh-grade girl was a "vampire", or something
-Some middle-school girl was Sarah Palin
-Keith Richards.


Tonight, I didn't go out trick-or-treating, but I did give out candy to the kids that came to my door. There were a few fire-fighters, superheroes, and athletes.

Then, four boys came up to the door. They were all probably about 12 years old, or something. One of them was a hippie. I don't remember what one of them was. Two of them were wearing all black, studs, black hair, make-up.

I asked them what they were dressed up as.

"We're emo drug dealers."

Not emo kids. Emo drug dealers.

These kids were like 12.

My first blog

So this is officially my first blog. Yay!