Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Have I mentioned how much I hate humidity?

Location: Dorm room desk
Listening to: Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons
Followers: 21!!!

I still can't think of anything to put where I used to have my college countdown. I want to put something that changes fairly constantly. Like, in Hayley's blog, she puts the color of her current nail polish and the amount of Chipotle she's eaten so far this year. Or in Kristina's blog, she puts the last thing that she Googled (and also the amount of Chipotle she's eaten). I want to do something creative that doesn't involve numbers if it doesn't have to. I know I got some suggestions in the last post but I honestly can't remember what they were.

Anyway, I have a new follower!! Thanks csmith2884 (I think those are the numbers, at least). 

It's disgustingly hot out today. I have two fans pointed at me. We have all kinds of freshman orientation, get-to-know-your-way-around-campus, friend-making type activities today. I think most of them are going to be in air conditioned buildings, for which I am eternally thankful. My room mate is over there right now. I don't have to go for another hour. 

I've met a lot of cool people so far. I've made friends with a few other journalism majors who were in the leadership program I went to and who will also be writing for the newspaper. They seem fun. And I made friends with a bunch of RA's. And some people on my floor who were also helping people move in yesterday. 

So far, I really like college. Except the gross heat/humidity. That can go away any time. I'm excited to start classes on Thursday. I don't know if I've mentioned what I'm taking this semester, but I will now.

My Classes:
-History of Mass Communication
-History Through Film (Civil War & Reconstruction)
-New Student Seminar
-World of the Arts
-Global Perspectives
-Theater Appreciation

It should be pretty fun.

Last night a hypnotist came to campus and put on a show. It was hilarious. For one of the things she made a bunch of girls believe that someone was pinching their butt every time she said "magic". So the girls who thought that would get really pissed at the guys sitting next to them. And eventually these two girls started getting up and pushing the guys out of the circle. It was hilarious. They looked like robots.

Well, I can't really think of anything else to say. I guess I'll write more tomorrow when I'm done with orientation crap. If you have any ideas for me about what I should put instead of my college countdown, leave it in the comments.

Monday, August 30, 2010

WIN!


Location: Desk (dorm room)
Listening to: My fans whirrrriiiinng

Hey! So today was super awesome. I just realized that my last post was my 100th post ever!! YAAAYYYY!! I have officially had a centennial. I think that's awesome. I'm really proud of myself even though it just means I've written slightly over 3 months worth of blogs (if I were to blog daily every day every month).

Also, one of the college tech guys got my internet all set up for me so I can blog to you from my very own college dorm room! YAY!! I was really excited about that. Having to walk over to the other dorm (even though it's about 50 feet away from where I'm currently sitting) was a pain.

I ran into Brian, the RA who attempted to hook up my internet for two hours for me the other night, a couple times today. Once in the dining hall, twice meandering between our buildings. He seems pretty cool, definitely someone I could be friends with. He invited me to work out with him and this girl earlier, but I was running to Walmart with some friends.

And because of that Walmart trip, I can show you what my dorm room looks like! How awesome is that? I picked up a memory card reader for $8 so I can finally transfer my photos.




Isn't it nice? My roommate moves in tomorrow. Actually, I have to help people move their junk in starting in about 8 hours so I should probably go. But one last thing!

I just realized I need something new to count down or to put in the spot where I usually have a countdown. Preferably something that changes fairly regularly. Any suggestions?

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Let's just pretend I posted the last few days, ok?

Location - Dorm Computer Lab
Listening to - The hum of the air conditioner
Days til College - -2


Accckkk some asshole was messing with this keyboard so half of the non-letter symbol things are not on the right keys and I'm really confused (I just had to push shift plus 7 for the apostrophe and shift plus 8 for the parentheses).

Anyway, I'm all moved in and settled in and all of that good stuff. There's so much going on here. I've made some new friends and done about a million get to know someone activities and watched movies and played bingo and gone on a scavenger hunt and hung out with some RAs from my sister dorm (where I frequently go to hang out as I am the only person in my early-arrival program in my dorm and most of my friends are in my sister dorm).

On the first night, we were all trying to set up the wi-fi on our laptops so the RAs came to help us. They got Andie's (one of the girls I'm friends with) in about five minutes. They tried mine for over two hours and couldn't get it to work and then invited us to hang out with them as they played Tiger Woods ProTour 09 or something in one of their rooms. It was a good time.

So that's why I haven't written the past two days. I tried! I really did! I even wrote an entry in my journal to post up here on the first night, but the second night after our movie party I went to the computer lab in my basement and it's offline so I had to wait until morning to come over here and use this one.

Tonight is our last night of ULEAD, and then tomorrow we help the other freshmen move in. Should be a fun time. I decided I like meeting new people. Tis fun.

OH! And I absolutely LOVED Mockingjay! It was sooo good. Hunger Games is still my favorite, followed by Catching Fire, but Mockingjay definitely was worth the read. It was more about the politics and ethics of the society rather than action-y (although there was a decent amount of action).

Anyway, I have to go. I need to find time to eat breakfast before I have to go to my first session for ULEAD today. BYE!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Internet People Are Awesome

Location: Couch
Listening to: The breeze outside
Days til College: 1


So, I'm about 100 pages into Mockingjay and it is just as fantastic as I'd hoped, but I just spent the last few hours hanging out with my friends so I decided I'd get this done before I get back into the book since I'm going to have such a busy day tomorrow (today).

Our Taco Bell re-opened today, so my friends and I all went. It was delicious, just like it always is. If you haven't had TBell, you need to go find the nearest one and order a Crunchwrap Supreme. If you have $3, you will have enough for this. It is heaven on a taco shell wrapped in a tortilla and grilled to perfection. Yuuummm.

Anyway, after we consumed more calories than we needed for the next few days, we went to Bobby's house and watched TV and played around on a website a lot like Chat Roulette (it was called Omegle or something weird like that). There were so many penises. It is a really entertaining site because you can meet some really amusing people, but do not go on it if you are opposed to seeing guys jerking off or asking to see your boobs.

We finally decided to prank all the pervs lusting after cleavage. I went on the camera, and when they asked to see my breasts, I would start lifting my shirt and then we'd turn the camera to point at Bobby. He's a bigger guy, and he had his shirt off and was rubbing his chests and gyrating. The looks on peoples faces were hysterical.

We had this site going on about 4 computers, and Alex finally came across this really cool girl named Abbey. She was a lot like me, only British and 16. But we chatted with her for at least an hour. We talked about music and movies and life situations. She was genuinely one of the nicest, friendliest people I've ever talked to. We all gave her our web-contact info, so hopefully she'll get in touch!!

Anyway, I have to go shower now and read some Mockingjay. I have a long day ahead of me. Coffee with Jess, laundry, packing, dinner with my parents, and then a bonfire. And then on Friday I move.

See you once I'm all settled into my dorm room. :)

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

IT'S COMING!!

Location: Couch
Listening to: Nothing
Days til College: 2


My copy of Mockingjay is finally in my city! YAY!!! Except I have plans all day so I probably won't get a chance to read it until tonight. Yes, UPS failed me and didn't bring me one of the most anticipated books of my life on the day it came out. Bright side is that it's still going to be here a day earlier than I originally thought.

I really don't have much to write about because it's 9:30 a.m. and I've been awake for literally 15 minutes. I started learning "Light A Way" by He Is We on my uke last night, and I'm getting pretty decent at it.

Our local Taco Bell reopens today, which is kind of the most exciting thing that has happened all summer (can you tell we live in a small town?). It used to be really ghetto and scary looking, which was half the fun of going there. You felt like you were in real Mexico. And about to be kidnapped by the drug cartel. Plus, it only fit about 20 people inside. During the lunch rush, there were literally people jammed in every open space and you could hardly move.

So now it's all big and shiny and fancy looking and my guess is there will be a lot more seating and it will be considerably less sketchy and you probably won't have to walk outside and around the back by the drive-thru to access the bathroom. (That was terrifying if you had to pee at midnight and you were there).

Ok. I guess that's it. To make up for my lack of stuff today, go watch this video. It will help explain some funny things that happened to me yesterday in a much funnier way than I could on here. See you when I'm done with Mockingjay!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Mockingjay!!!

Location: Couch
Listening to: Malcolm in the Middle
Days til College: 3


AAHHH MOCKINGJAY COMES OUT TODAY!!! I am kind of the most excited person in the world. More excited than when my ukulele came four days early. I decided I'd blog now as I upload a Hanson CD onto my computer and before my copy of Mockingjay arrives at my house (it left Hodgekins, Indiana about 3 hours ago. Hodgekins, IN is roughly a 5 hour drive from my house [yes, I looked it up] so I can only hope it will get here sometime in the next two hours!) and shut myself in my room until it's done.

Tonight is my last shift at the video store. At least, until I come home for a break or something, and I'm not even sure if they'll let me pick up hours then. It's kind of bittersweet. On one hand, I am going to be really glad I don't have to work a job where I literally can't sit for my entire shift unless I excuse myself to the bathroom. On the other hand, I work with a ton of fantastic people. They're all super awesome. I'm going to miss them.

I packed a lot of my college stuff yesterday. I think I'm a pro at packing. I got almost the entire contents of my closet in one suitcase. There are literally four layers of rolled up shirts/sweaters/dresses in there, plus a side pocket completely full of socks and undergarments. It's pretty impressive if I do say so myself.

Also, yesterday we found out that my dog, Buddy, has a tumor the size of a walnut in his mouth. I guess it's really painful for him. And the surgery to remove it costs $800 which my family can't afford because my parents are currently putting 3 kids through college/grad school and just bought a replacement car for my dad and are looking for a new house. I feel so bad for him. I wish there was something I could do.

Ok, my Hanson CD is done uploading. I'm taking that as a sign to stop blogging. Also, I just heard what sounds miraculously like a UPS truck down my street (it's probably not, it's probably a sewer pump truck; they're everywhere today). More tomorrow after I'm done with Mockingjay!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Uploading

Location: Sprawled on the couch
Listening to: CSI: New York
Days til College: Four. Holy crap, that's not many.


So, I finished my article! It came to 463 words, which I think is pretty good for a 5-movie review + 2 sentence intro. I still feel like it was kind of trite and lame, but I sent it off to my editor anyway. We'll see what he thinks of it. Hopefully he doesn't write back and go, "You were so terrible we have decided not to let you major in Journalism. Because we have that kind of power."

Sad.

Well, I'm uploading a video right now. I really just want to go to sleep, but I need to shut my computer down. And there's only a few minutes left on the vid uploading. So it shouldn't be too much longer.

Speak of the devil, it just finished. Hahaha.

I really haven't done anything interesting today. We went to see Dinner for Schmucks so I could have another option for my article. It was funny. Kind of slow at parts, but pretty damn hilarious at others. We also went to my grandpa's nursing home for an ice cream social they had and I practiced some ukulele and knitted and watched Gentleman Broncos (which was a terrible movie) and laid around. And I had my first-ever video chat with my friend Steve. For about a minute. Most of which was spent contemplating how he was going to get my copy of Pride and Prejudice back to me before I leave for school.

I have this odd problem with my laptop keyboard. Whenever I type "s", two s's come out. I'm not sure why. But it's been happing really frequently lately. Odd. Any ideas of why this could be?

Thanks to everyone for the awesome comments on my yesterday post. I really enjoyed all of your takes on High School English classes and such. :)

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Books I Was Supposed To Read In High School

Location: Couch
Listening to: The fan in my bathroom humming

Days til College: 5


I just made the executive decision to start writing about more than just my life. That's what a diary is for, right? I mean, I'm still going to talk about stuff that happens to me, but probably on more of an in-depth level. I don't even know. I'm just kind of confusing myself right now. I'm going to make a list now. Of...um....books I was supposed to read in high school. These are all books that were assigned to me from grades 9-12 that I never actually read (and I've never gotten anything less than an A in an English class, thankyouverymuch). I may have glanced at a few pages/chapters here and there, but I never genuinely read the book. Here we go.

Books I Was Supposed To Read In High School (A Chronological List):

Freshman Year - Advanced English 9:
Lord of the Flies - I hated every moment of this book, and I didn't even read it. I think I might have attempted it. But listening to my class discuss the insane cruelty of these boys made me loathe the story. Plus, I was 15 and it was a total boy book.
Great Expectations - I've just never been able to get into Dickens. I'm not really sure why.
Animal Farm - I think I might have read most of this one. And if I didn't, I feel like I did. I actually liked it. Never have the words, "You communist pig," been so accurate!
Sophomore Year - Advanced English 10:
The Scarlet Letter - I read the 30 page introduction. I liked that part. And then I gave up. I couldn't get into the "My baby daddy is a psychopath and...whoa...so is my baby." plot. Plus, I hate Romanticism. Worst. Era. Ever.
Junior Year - British Literature:
We didn't really read any books besides MacBeth that I can remember. And I read that one.
Senior Year - AP Literature and Composition:
Heart of Darkness - I tried. I really did. I made true efforts to read this book. It seems like a decent story. But our teacher told us we'd do all of the reading in class and he analyzed the crap out of it and I have a hard time reading books when I have to stop after every sentence to deconstruct it. According to my English teacher, this is one of the best/hardest/most insightful books we would ever read. And then he said, "Of course, there is always that one kid who doesn't bother to read it." That was me. (And about half of my class).
Frankenstein - Actually, I think I read this one. Or, most of it at least. I read enough of it to write my AP essay on it and get a passing grade. Good book.
Mayor of Casterbridge - Don't even get me started. I didn't even have to read it to hate it. Michael Henchard is the ultimate douchebag.
Tartuffe - We were assigned to read the whole play in two nights, during which I also had tech week for a show I was in. Obviously, the show took priority.
The Metamorphosis - Hate. Hatehatehate. Franz Kafka, I hope you are happy with the insane torture you are inflicting on poor students everywhere. "I'm a bug. And I'm really unhappy about it. Wahwahwahwah." I would have stepped on Gregor. Hah!

Looking back, I'm pretty sure almost all of the assigned literature I read in High School English classes was Shakespeare. Yay!

Any High School kids out there reading this, let this be a lesson to you: You do not need to read every single book for class (even AP Lit) as long as you pay close enough attention to in-class discussion. I promise, you'll thank me later.


Saturday, August 21, 2010

OHMYGOD!OHMYGOD!!!OHMYGOD!!!!!

Location: Couch
Listening to: Obama impressions on SNL
Days til College: 6


OH MY DEAR SWEET BABY JESUS!! I think I need to breathe into a paper bag or something because I'm SO FREAKING EXCITED. Take a guess. Just take one teeny little guess about what I'm excited about right now before I tell you. Feel free to leave your guess in the comments and then see if you are right afterwards. I'll give you an inspirational picture to look at while you contemplate what could possisbly have me this wound up.




This is a basket of puppies, commonly referred to as a "puppy basket". Images like this are often used on inspirational posters that say things like, "Hope" or "Integrity." Because nothing has more integrity than a basket full of puppies.





Ok. Have you guessed yet? I will tell you. Right now.

MY UKULELE CAME!!!! FOUR DAYS EARLY!!!!! AAAHHHH!!!!

Best ever. I worked a ton today and it wasn't half bad because we have a new Manager-In-Training and she's super cool and it was incredibly slow so we mostly just hung out. And then I came home to find this teeny tiny little guitar shaped package on my bed. Faaannntastic!!

Well, one of these days when I'm not in a house full of people who make me self conscious about my musical abilities, I will play you guys something. Any requests? I'll put some of my exploits up on the YouTube.

Ohh goodness, I'm so excited right now. This is way better than being threatened by a ghost. :)

Friday, August 20, 2010

I must be getting popular

Location: Couch
Listening to: One of those awkward KY commercials
Days til College: 7 (Holy crap, that's a week)
Followers: 20


Yay! New follower!!! Welcome h_m_weasley. I already love you because of the Harry Potter-ness of your name. :)

So, I recieved the first sign that I must be gaining some slight molecule of popularity on YouTube. I got my first ever angry/hateful comment! It mostly made me laugh.

Bigboy75024 (which is a laughable name) wrote on this video: "u wasted 4 minuets of my life i hope that u are happy".


To which I badly wanted to reply, "Yes, I'm sorry I tied you to a chair and taped your eyelids open while you were in front of this video which I obviously made you hit play on because you had no free will in the matter of deciding whether or not to watch this video. I'm sorry I broke your fingers, therefore making it extremely difficult and painful for you to click pause and stop watching this video after it started. I'm sorry I wasted 4 minutes of your life you could have spent learning correct grammar and spelling. The world is a worse place because of this video."


But I didn't. Because I don't want to be a snarky bitch (although, that guy kind of deserved it. It's not like I was holding a gun to his head and demanding that he watch that video. I don't even know who this guy is.) Anyway, this situation made me realize that I have no clue how to respond in this context. If someone said that to my face, I totally would not hold back. But it's someone who I've never met who has never met me who is probably just trying to get a rise out of me.


What do you guys suggest? Would you respond or ignore it? And if you respond, would you be snarky or polite?

Thursday, August 19, 2010

I always do this.

Location: Couch
Listening to: The Vampire Diaries
Days til College: 8


Ooooh, college is getting close. I'm super excited. And nervous. But mostly excited. I can't wait to move in and have my own dorm room and meet new people and try new things and have cool classes and be (mostly) on my own. I love that I'll be (mostly) independent. Yesssss!

I lost my library card for about the five billionth time ever. Which is aggravating, because I have stuff on hold and stuff I wanted to put on hold and I can't get anything without my card. Laaammmeee.

Also, I got my first assignment for college newspaper! I'm so excited. I get to do a review of my 5 favorite movies that came out this summer. The only problem is, I've only seen 5 new movies this summer. And they were Toy Story 3, Despicable Me, Eclipse, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and The Last Airbender. And I really don't want to have to review Eclipse. Because I don't want to give everyone at college the impression that I'm some twi-hard. I really kind of hate that series. But I also don't want a lot of crazed Twilight fangirls haunting my dorm and terrorizing me.

I'm also super nervous for this article. Because it's the only chance I get to make a really strong first impression on my editors and to show them what I can do. And I'm not used to reviewing. And I don't want to sound like a contrived little high school girl who thinks everything is, like, OHMYGOD SO AWESOME! I want to have personality and finesse and persuasiveness and creativity and wittyness. But I'm super scared that it's just going to sound...lame.

Ahhhhh stress, my fickle friend. We meet again.

My ukulele shipped and it should be here by next Wednesday. I hope it comes early. I already getting ideas of songs I want to learn. I'm definitely going to make some videos of my learning experience. Hopefully they're cool. Haha.

Speaking of videos, I'm uploading a new one as I am writing this. It's about my ghost hunting adventure. Go watch it! And leave me some feedback. Ok? Ok. Bye.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Ghost Hunting

Location: Desk
Listening to: The wind outside
Days til College: 9


Two quick things before I get to the good stuff:
1.) MY UKULELE BOOKS COME TODAY (and my uke should be here by Wednesday!)
2.) I got my first assignment for my college newspaper!!!

Ok, now the interesting part.

So, as you might have seen by my tiny post yesterday, I went ghost hunting with some friends (Bobby, Chee, Dillon, Danye, Katie, Becky, and Allison). There's a town a few miles away from where I live with a big, marshy wilderness area. This area has a lot of gravel roads for hunting and stuff. Access roads, mostly. There's this legend that in the 70's, a man disappeared and was found beaten to death back in the marsh. So the marsh is supposedly haunted now.

The story goes that if you drive down there at night, turn off the car and electronics, and sit really quietly, the ghost will visit you. He will write on your windows and make noises and appear. A bunch of my friends went last week and apparently had a really freaky time. They sat and waited for the windows to fog up and they heard a sound they compared to the T-Rex stomping around in Jurassic Park. They got freaked out and left, and when they stopped at their rendezvous point (a grocery store parking lot) they saw that 7 = kill, dead, and other threatening things had been written on the foggy windows. There were 7 people in the car.

So, they told those of us who hadn't been there the first time all this while we were driving down the freaky, wood-surrounded, deeply-pitted gravel road to the turnaround. My friend Danye and I were freaked out, and  Allison and Becky, who'd been there earlier that night, were literally in hysterics. Which freaked us out even more. Add a mysterious red light at the turnaround and we were all freaked out. The red light ended up being another car's taillights. But we didn't want to be down there at night with strangers, so we turned around and went back to an ice cream place.

On the way back, Becky and Allison told us about what had happened to them earlier that night. They went down with Allison's dad (who wanted to see what the hype was about). They parked the car and did all the required stuff. Within three minutes, the windows were fogged up. That's when Allison saw a glowing orange light out her window that looked like someone inhaling from a cigarette. It went out. Shortly after that, she saw a misty figure. She said there's no way it could have been a person, it wasn't substantial. She could see through it. So she started freaking out and her dad floored it out of there.

When Danye and I heard this, we were terrified. We decided we didn't want to go back when they went back and they could just leave us somewhere. But we didn't want to stay at the ice cream place (which was outdoors, because we were in a city we didn't live in and knew no one from) and there was no where else to go. Finally, Danye decided she'd be fine if she closed her eyes. I was still scared shitless, but I wasn't going to stay somewhere by myself, so I decided I'd just close my eyes, too.

I ended up huddled in the back with Danye and Dillon, all 3 of us clutching hands. I kept my eyes squeezed shut the whole time. We got to the end of the haunted road, turned around so we could make a fast exit, and turned everything off. It was dead quiet. And then we heard a rhythmic tapping. And a sound like fingers against the window.

We sat there for about 7 minutes. Bobby and Chee wanted to get out of the car and walk around, but I freaked out and begged them not to. I was definitely the most scared person there. They finally all decided that nothing was going to happen, and I recall saying, "You guys, can we just leave? I don't like this. I feel like I'm going to pee my pants and throw up at the same time." So we left.

Here's the freaky part: As soon as we got back to where the moon came through the trees, we could see the fogged up windows clearly. All of them were just fogged up, untouched. Except the ones around where I had been laying. There were what looked like flames or hand prints on the back window, and something that looked like this next to me:

I don't know what that looks like to you guys, but to everyone in our SUV, it looked eerily like a scythe. Above my head. On the inside of the window. And no one in the car drew it. And the guys cleaned the windows before we left, just to make sure.

Needless to say, I'm never going back there. Nuh uh. Nooooo way.

I survived, though. And the rest of the night was amazingly epic. I can't go into much detail, because there was something highly questionable about the legality of our endeavors, but I can tell you that justice was served, I am a ninja, I can run waaayyyyy faster than I ever thought I could, and hearing a pack of coyotes howling at midnight in the middle of the country when you're half a mile away from your car is scary.

More tomorrow!!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

This is a fast one

Location: Desk
Listening to: Glee
Days til College: 10


Going ghost hunting.
More later.
(If I survive)

Monday, August 16, 2010

So insanely productive

Location: Desk
Listening to: The Super Mario Bros. movie
Days til College: 11


I think I technically already blogged today. But today felt like it lasted about a week (and I got as much done as I usually do in a week) so I feel another post is due.

I woke up at 6 a.m. today due to a nightmare that made me afraid of going back to sleep. I don't have normal nightmares. I mean, I've had the ones where some monster is chasing you and stuff, but normally my nightmares are freakishly realistic. This particular one was about one of my mom's friends attempting suicide, and my mom and I found the note and went to look for her and wound up in this abandoned building which was creepy in itself, but then we got surrounded by gangstas/crack heads/crazies and they were going to kill us. That's when I woke up. Nothing remotely similar to this has ever happened in my life and I honestly have no clue where it came from.

Anyway, so I was up at the crack of dawn, practically, and decided I needed to get stuff done today. I've spent most of my summer sitting around being a lazy bum and spending my money on frivolous things. So after I'd been up for a while and I was pretty sure stores were open, I got read and started my crazy-productive day.

I went to the bank and withdrew the money I owed my parents for my tuition. Which was about half of my savings. But I still have the other half, so I don't care too much. Plus, it's not like college isn't going to benefit me.

Then I went and got my license renewed. That in itself felt like it lasted about a week. I forgot to bring a book or anything to amuse myself with, so I ended up people watching and texting my friends until it was my turn. There was a guy with a really adorable baby, some punk looking guys, and a lot of really cranky looking people. Almost everyone was there with someone. Probably so they didn't get as bored as I was.

When I was finally done, I dropped a fleece jacket/sweatshirt/zip-up thing off at the dry cleaners, because about two years ago I accidentally snagged the zipper on something and the little pull thing came off, so it didn't zip anymore. I finally decided to get it fixed, because it's really warm and will probably be nice to have next year.

I had an appointment for the dentist, so I went there next. I ended up getting there 15 minutes early, which would not usually be a problem, but everyone was on their lunch break. So I did some more waiting.

After that I went shopping with my mom and sister for the rest of my college stuff. I think I'm still missing a few things, but nothing I absolutely can't live without.

And then came the best part: I bought a ukulele. I'M SO EXCITED!! You have absolutely no idea. See, my fingers are really short and I've tried to teach myself how to play the guitar, but I'm not patient enough for six stringed instruments and every time I tried to play a chord, my short fingers would be flat against the neck and press down on all the strings and make this horrible noise instead of music.

But I write a lot of songs. And I play the piano a bit. And I've always wanted to write music for my lyrics. I've never been able to. Exboyfriend #3 once helped me write some music for a song, but that's the closest I've ever come.

So I figure now I can write music for my lyrics and be that adorable/intriguing girl in the dorms who knits things and plays the uke. I'm soooo pumped!!!

I also worked some more today. And I might go out with my friends soon. There was another dance party thing tonight. I'm waiting to hear from them.

Well, more tomorrow. Buhbye.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

It's official. I fail at BEDA.

Location: Couch
Listening to: The Insider
Days til College: 13

Agghhh!!! Ok. Thats it. I'm just a failure at blogging every day. I tried. I really, really did! Yesterday I had a legitimate excuse. My friends were over and I didn't think they'd be here long enough to impede my blogging ability.

Today, I have no excuse. Well, I do. But not a reasonable one. I worked from 5 til midnight, but I totally knew I was supposed to work. I could have blogged earlier in the day, but I didn't.

Sorry.

Well, now that I'm done berating myself for neglecting you guys, I think I'm done. I'm trying to upload some YouTube stuff, so check that out. And so far I've gotten exactly zero suggestions for future blog posts or videos. So get on that. Ok? Ok.

:)

Saturday, August 14, 2010

You be the jury

Location: Couch
Listening to: Fraiser
Days til College: 14 (well, technically 13...)

Hey everyone. Well, technically I think I just failed at BEDA. Yes, I neglected to leave a post before midnight on Friday the 13th, which is sad, because there's so much to talk about! In my defense, I was busy just about all day, and a bunch of my friends just left after our scary move marathon. I think that since I'm still posting before I go to bed, it counts as a post for the 13th. I mean, to me, it still is the 13th. I haven't yet transitioned into Saturday Mode.

What do you think? Have I disparaged the name of BEDA by failing to post by the correct time? Or am I still good?

Also, do you leave two spaces after a sentence, or one?  Because in my sixth grade typing class, they told us to leave two spaces after every sentence.  I guess it does help distinguish a little better.  But it also just makes it seem like there's a lot of wasted space that could be filled with nice things like words and letters.  I don't know.  Thoughts?

I uploaded some new videos today. Neither are really related to anything. Mostly they were just for fun.

Also, as I previously mentioned, I hosted a scary movie night in honor of Friday the 13th. It ended up just being me and Alison and Alex and Steve. And we watched the remakes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, and Children of the Corn. There were boobs in 2/3 movies (and Texas Chainsaw Massacre was not one of them) which was mildly awkward. I mean, those girls are supposed to be like, 20. And they are ridiculously well-endowed. It's just kind of crazy.

The movies were pretty good, though. Well, most of them. For the first two, we designated characters for ourselves. I survived Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but in Friday the 13th, they totally pulled one out from left field and offed me. We all thought I'd be the lone survivor.

The version of Children of the Corn we rented ended up being a Syfy channel remake. It was terrible. Literally half the movie was spent watching the only two non-demonic/evil/child characters fighting over stupid things and making poor life decisions. The rest was watching the one remaining non-demonic/evil/child character be a badass Marine and kick some 8-year-old butt. And an awkward sex scene. But they seem to always throw those into bad horror movies. I guess it really drives the "horror" part home...

Well, that's it for me tonight. I'm going to sleep because I have to work tomorrow. And possibly go shopping with someone. But we'll see about that. Goodnight!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Your mum is so fat, her patronus is a cake!

Location: Couch
Listening to: The whirrrrrrring of a fan.
Days til College: 15


I just discovered the quote that is my title. And I'm still laughing. I honestly think it might be one of the funniest things I've ever heard. Obviously, I'm not the creative genius who came up with it, but I totally wish I were. Or that I knew them and could thank them for their brilliance in person.

I have to post now at the ungodly hour of 5pm because I work at 6 tonight. And I might go over to Jess's afterwards because she's having a bonfire tonight. Or, that's the plan. Except, it's been about five trillion degrees and super humid (my favorite...) all day and I'm pretty sure we're supposed to get some wicked storms tonight, so we might end up just sitting around inside instead.


Tomorrow is Friday the 13th. I'm so excited. Just now I was kind of curious about why Friday the thirteenth is considered to be so unlucky but, like, Wednesday the 13th is just fine. According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, friggatriskaidekaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th. There are a couple theories about why this day is unlucky. None of them really made a ton of sense, though. I mean, they all boiled down to "Friday is unlucky. Thirteen is unlucky. Thusly, the combination is doubly unlucky."


Duh. I could have said that. It doesn't really explain why Fridays or thirteens are unlucky, though. So I guess I'll just have to live in mystery. The one that was the most logical was that apparently, in Christianity, Jesus was crucified on a Friday and there were 13 people at the last supper.


Anyway, for me, Friday the 13ths are always awesome days. Really great things happen to me. I'm pretty sure I've started dating people on at least two of them. I haven't ever died, and my clumsiness seems to recede greatly. To celebrate the superstition, Alison and I are hosting a scary movie party tomorrow night. Like, real scary movies. Not ones like Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter that I really enjoy but everyone else hates because they're so cheesy.


In other, non-calendar related news, I uploaded a new video today. I decided to go ahead and start doing book reviews. My first pick: The Hunger Games by Susan Collins (what else?!). 






If you have any ideas of books for me to read and review, please let me know! I've filmed a few more reviews, but I'm waiting to see if people like this one before uploading them. And don't forget to let me know if there's anything you want to see me blog/vlog about. I want to hear your ideas!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

mmmbooks

Location: Couch
Listening to: Reba
Days til College: 16

I'm sitting here munching on Target brand Swedish Fish and thoroughly enjoying life. Yesterday I went shopping. I intended to spend $100 and save $50 to pay my credit card bill when it comes. I'm not used to having a credit card (I only got it a week or two ago) and mine has a crazy high interest rate because it's for students so it's supposedly teaching me to pay off my bill right away or suffer the consequences. However, in spite of my frugal planning, I ended up spending $140. I saved $10, so I think that has to count for something. And in my defense, several of my purchases can be used for college.

I bought a new pair of shoes and received half off the next pair I buy. And I got a purse with an across-the-body strap, so I can wear it while riding my bike around campus. And some sharpies. And, of course, my swedish fish. Also, after much internal conflict over intrinsic vs. extrinsic (I honestly didn't know 'extrinsic' was  a real word until I typed it just now and autocorrect didn't correct me) value, I spent $22 on a shirt that proclaims me to be a "District 12 Tribute". I literally nearly choked on my own tongue and died when I saw it because I was that excited.

This is a Hunger Games reference. If you still haven't read it, GO AND GET IT RIGHT NOW!!!! It's only about $8 on Amazon. You will not regret it, unless you hate awesomeness.

Yesterday I compiled a list of the books I'm going to bring to college. It took most of a 6 mile bike ride for me to narrow the list down to a reasonable number. This is what it is right now. It's subject to change. I'll probably bring another 20 because I'll be unable to part with them.

Books I'm Bringing To College:

The Hunger Games by Susan Collins
Catching Fire by Susan Collins
Mockingjay by Susan Collins
Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty
Charmed Thirds
by Megan McCafferty
Fourth Comings by Megan McCafferty
Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty
Looking for Alaska by John Green
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Paper Towns by John Green
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Nick and Norah's Inifnite Playlist by Rachel Cohen and David Levithan
The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows 
Love is a Mixtape by Rob Sheffield

I'm excited. I keep thinking of new books to bring, though, and that's a problem considering my limited space.  Oh well. I'll figure it out.

Last night, I received an unsolicited and altogether unexpected apology from ExBoyfriend #3. He's the one I dated last summer with whom things ended rather badly after I found out he kissed my friend/his exgirlfriend while we were "together". I was totally thrown for a loop. He sent me some texts saying he's sorry for everything bad that happened and reminding me that I'm an awesome/talented person. And then I helped him with some songs he's writing.

It's kind of nice to be friends with him again. We did a lot of creative writing/songwriting critique with each other. It's cool to be able to do that again. Honestly, I haven't done a whole lot of songwriting and just creative writing for enjoyment lately besides for a class I took first semester last year. I want to get back into that. But it's hard to find time what with blogging and YouTube and making kick ass blankets out of old shirts and planning for college.

Speaking of YouTube, I uploaded a few videos last night. I'm thinking of also starting a book review series. Mostly because of that Hunger Games shirt I was talking about. Lame? Or good idea?

Also, remember when I mentioned doing some collaborating with my friend Lindsey of DesultoryDevelopment? Well, we got together today and made a video full of all kinds of random awesomeness. She's editing up and then it will be uploaded on both of our channels. So stay tuned!

I have a huge favor to ask of you guys: I see you all as loyal friends and confidants, so I trust your opinions and love to hear your thoughts. Is there anything you'd like me to blog/vlog about? I'd love to get some ideas from you guys and do some posts or videos about what you guys want to hear about or see. So please, if you have anything you'd like to hear my thoughts on or think it'd be entertaining to see, let me know! :)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

I'm baaaaaaaccckkk!

Location: Desk
Listening to: Two and a Half Men reruns
Days til College: 17


Hello, friends.

Well, I definitely had an interesting camping trip. It's a four hour drive from my house to the place where we camped. Oddly, I really love long car rides. To me, sitting in a car with all this gorgeous scenery whooshing past me as I cuddle up on the seat with a book is relaxing. So I rode with my sister on the way up and I finished Catching Fire (it was just as amazing as I'd hoped and I pre-ordered Mockingjay right away when I got home).

So we get up to the campsite and set up the tents and get all the food situated and my brother rolls in about an hour later, and then my family all goes out to dinner. We ate at this restaurant-slash-bar that had fantastic ribs. And while we were there, it started storming. And by storming, I mean, "God got really, really angry at the world and decided he wanted to make as much water as possible hit the ground in the shortest amount of time." You couldn't step outside for more than a second without being completely soaked.

And the rain continued. And continued. And continued. All through the night. It let up once or twice, just long enough that I was lulled into a false sense of security and fell asleep. But then I'd be woken by a crack of lightning that hit waaayyyyy to close to our tent to be comfortable. Plus, the people in the site next to us were apparently trying to leave, but their car kept stalling so the nice "HRRRRRRRRHRHRHHRHRRRHHRRRHHRRRHRHRHRHRHRH" of someone trying to start a car that doesn't want to start woke me up a few times.

Both of my siblings left the next day. And I got bored. Yesterday we and wandered on a beach where I picked up a pretty impressive collection of white and amber sea glass. Only, because I live in the midwest, far away from any actual seas, it was just glass from probably broken beer bottles that had been smoothed out by the water and tossed back ashore. It was still cool, though.

We ended up leaving shortly after our beach trip. The skies showed little intention of clearing up and we were all cranky and wanting to shower. So I actually did come home yesterday.

Then, last night, a bunch of my friends went to this teen dance thing at a conference center in town. I did, too. It was awesome. The DJ played mostly good dancing music and we were out on the floor for just about the entire three hours. I was so sweaty by the time we left. But it was a great time. There's another one on Monday, so my group already has plans to be there.

More minor news: I whacked my elbow really hard on one of those hooks you can hang stuff on in a dressing room at Target. So hard I lost feeling in my arm for a little bit. I think I hit right on a nerve. It's really painful. And it's already bruising.

Plus, I saw The World's Third Largest Loon. How cool is that?

Monday, August 9, 2010

Where am I?

Location: Unknown
Listening to: Sounds
Days til College: 19
Followers: ?


So, I think I had my days til college right until that last post. I really am terrible at numbers. Even counting. How sad is that? At least I don't have to take any math classes ever again. That's a comfort.

Right now, I could be just about anywhere. I might still be camping, but if the weather is unpleasant (i.e. extremely hot/humid/rainy/cold/etc.) I could very well be in a car on my way home, or even home already. If that's the case, I'll just let this post itself anyway. That'll give me one less thing to worry about besides my probably urgent need for a shower and food that isn't pudgie pies and smores.

On Wednesday, my friend Lindsey and I are going to collaborate and do some video-ing. She's hilarious, so I'm really excited for this. She's the one who filmed that Our Town video I posted a while back.

On Thursday, I'm possibly dying my hair. Temporarily. Either red (not Ariel-the-mermaid red, but reasonable hair color red) or blonde. I haven't decided yet. Any opinions? My hair is kind of a light brown color at the moment. I've never dyed it before, so I'm a little nervous. But it's temporary dye and my friend who is studying to be a cosmetologist is going to do it for me.

Well, I'll posts for real tomorrow no matter what. (Tomorrow is Tuesday, right? I hope I haven't lost track of the days...) So you'll get all kinds of fun stories about camping. Yay!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

CampCampCampCampCampCampCrap.

Location: The wildernesss
Listening to: Things.
Days til College: 19
Followers: ?


I just realized I've been getting my days til college wrong. Oops. I gave myself an extra day. I'm too lazy to go back and fix it, so I figured I'd just draw your attention to it and embarrass myself instead. Because I rock.

Hopefully by this point I'll have finished Catching Fire (not literally, I really would not enjoy catching fire, and that's a very real hazard when you take me camping). Hopefully it's as awesome as it seems to be. Hopefully I haven't fallen over a waterfall or gotten mauled by wild animals or managed to mortify myself in any other way.

Since I'm not actually here to talk to you, you guys should suggest things for me to blog about when I get back so it will be extra interesting. Anything. I will write about literally anything (within reason, if it's something gross, I'm gonna skip it).

Have fun brainstorming. I'm excited to see what you come up with for me. If I get enough, maybe I'll do a week where I just blog about your ideas? We'll see.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Not getting eaten by bears

Location: A tent
Listening to: Wilderness noise
Days til College: 21
Followers: ?


Hah! I realized that it's BEDA. And by missing posts while camping, I'd be doing the same thing I did in April for BEDA. Which is fail at blogging every day.

Thank God for the delayed post setting thing.

Yes, ladies and gents that means you will continue to get posts from me, EVEN WHILE I'M NOT AT A COMPUTER!! Isn't that awesome? I can just see you rolling your eyes and going, "Great. I thought I'd gotten rid of her. And here she is, cluttering my internet with nonsense."

Shhhhh. You know you love it.

Well, right now I'm probably either in a car or at a campsite. The place we're camping supposedly has waterfalls, so maybe I'll see some of those. Hopefully I don't fall in. That'd be so typical for me. I tend to fall over a lot (I don't know if I mentioned that at all before). That might make kind of a cool story, though. I could use it as an icebreaker when I meet people in college.

"Hey. I'm Abbie. What's something you did this summer. Oh, that's cool. I fell down a waterfall. Yeah. I'm badass. Let's be friends."


Well, I really don't know what else to write about. Because today hasn't happened yet. So, uh...yeah. Later.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Catching Fire

Location: Couch
Listening to: My dog panting, the wind blowing outside, and my neighbor yelling at her dog
Days til College: 22
Followers: 19


I believe this is the third day in a row I've had a new follower. I really like this streak. Maybe it'll keep going? Who knows. But I like hit. Welcome, Devon(nnnnn)!!!

So, I finished reading The Hunger Games at about 3 a.m. today. I picked up reading at about 11:30 and couldn't put it down. It was so good. And the ending had me completely shocked. I did not see it coming at all. Plus, they left things dangling at the end. So, of course I had to go and buy the sequel today. It's called Catching Fire and I've just started it and I already love it just as much. Seriously, thanks Lex for the recommendation. I'm really glad I chose to start reading them now, because the last book in the trilogy comes out on August 24, so I'll be able to buy it right away. Yessssss!!

I also bought An Abundance of Kathrines today. So now I own 3/4 John Green books (the one I'm missing is Will Grayson, Will Grayson and I think I'll wait til it's in paperback). I'm pretty sure I'll fly through those, too. Especially since I'm clocking at least 72 hours (possibly 96 hours) away from a computer this weekend, 8 of which are going to be spent in a car. So I'll have plenty of time to read. And knit. It's my goal to finish this  damn scarf before I head off to school. And then I'm going to teach myself how to knit mittens. (This will be a dangerous task because I adore mittens and once I learn how to make them, I'll probably make way more pairs than I'll ever need. I'll spend all of my money on yarn for mittens and go bankrupt and drop out of college and have to life on the street with just my abundance of mittens for shelter. How tragic.)

This sudden influx of awesome books to my life leaves me with one big problem. I know, I know, you're all thinking, "How can a lot of really awesome books cause problems? Wouldn't they just make life more awesome?"

The answer is yes. Except that I'm moving to a 9x13ft dorm room in about three weeks with limited shelf space which I have to share with another person. I really need to go through and decide what I'm bringing. I think I'll do that when I get back from camping.

In the mean time, I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend. I'll be practicing my (extremely limited) wilderness survival skills with my family. This mostly entails sitting in a tent/camp chair/on a beach with a book and hoping a bear doesn't eat me.

I hope a bear doesn't eat you, either. :)

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Those crickets sound nice with that police siren in the background.

Location: Couch
Listening to: The crickets outside.
Days til College: 22
Followers: 18!!!


Aaahhhhh!!! Another new follower!!! I've gotten a couple of those just this week. I like that. It makes me happy. HI COURTNEY A!!!! I hope you enjoy this. :)

So today was just as uneventful as the past few. All of the trials that were happening this week got cancelled, so I don't have to be a juror. I guess I feel kind of bittersweet about this. I mean, I'm glad I didn't have to go and sit in a room in the courthouse for eight hours just to be told I wasn't needed anymore, thanks for coming, we'll be sending you a check for $11 + mileage compensation in two to three weeks. Or get stuck with a trial about cows or traffic or something else dull. On the other hand, I could have been a juror for some totally interesting trial. Or I could have gotten paid $11 + mileage compensation to sit in a room and read a book for eight hours. That's more than I get paid for sitting on my bed reading a book for a lot longer than 8 hours.

Speaking of books, I started The Hunger Games today. Oh. My. Gosh. It's so good! And intense. I don't want to talk about it too much because I don't want to give anything away, but I'm totally enthralled by it. I suggest everyone reading this go out and get a copy. I mean, sure, it's aimed at teenagers and can be found in what my friend Dillon likes to call the "Teen Girl" section of Barnes & Noble, but it's so intense. And not at all girly. I think every gender/age/etc. would find it interesting. Unless you prefer really boring things. Then you'd probably hate it.

Other than that, I worked today. I'm getting excited because we're going to have a movie sale soon and there's tons and tons I want to buy. Of course, I'm trying to budget my money, but it's hard because now that I have money, there's so much I want to spend it on. How aggravating.

Tomorrow I have the day to sit around and do nothing. I think I might take my laptop over to my uncle for some optimizing before I leave for school. He can clear up all of the clutter from when this belonged to my mom and she used it for her business and had tons and tons of crap on it. And maybe he can make it run faster. That would be really nice.

I'm also going to see a community production of Miss Saigon that a lot of my friends are in. I'm excited for that, too. Then, this weekend I'm going camping. Yay for mini-vacations!!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I intend to. :)

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Besorceled

Location: The downstairs couch
Listening to: A commercial for some new Drew Barrymore movie
Days til College: 23


Hey folks. Another rather dull day. I worked again. My sister is home for a visit. I've settled onto the downstairs couch to watch my new favorite make-over/dating show (Plain Jane, and don't judge me! I'm a sucker for these things.)

Mina - The first book in that series is called Sorcery and Cecilia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot and it is by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. The second book is called The Grand Tour, and there is a third book that I haven't read and therefore don't know the name of.

I decided at work today while I was thinking of things to blog about while labeling empty DVD cases for next week's new releases that a big part of me loves the first book in that series for one word: besorceled. I think that's it, at least. It might be ensorceled, or perhaps just sorceled. I'm nearly positive it's a made up word meant to mean something about being enchanted by a sorcerer. Do me a favor and say "besorceled" out loud once.

It's fabulous.

I got a letter from my peer mentor today. Every freshman at my college is assigned an upperclassman to be mentored by. My peer mentor is a senior named Vinny. He seems pretty cool. I think he has a good sense of humor and stuff. That should make my first few months in college entertaining.

I think that's it for tonight. More tomorrow. Maybe a new video tomorrow, too. We'll see.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

I can't count.

Location: Couch
Listening to: The 10th Kingdom (again)
Days til College: 25
Followers: 17!!!


Hello, folks. So, I'm pretty sure I previously didn't have 17 followers. I think until today, I only had 16. This is quite possibly wrong because my brain is kind of dead and I'm bad with counting to begin with. Along with the mystery of how many followers I had before comes the mystery of...who is the new follower? Oh jeeze, I feel like a jerk for not remembering who's who.

I've narrowed it down to two possible options. So, WELCOME! to either Jessica or Kristina! And to whoever is not the new follower.....heeeyyyyyyyy.....awkward.......yeaaaahhhhhhhhh.

I didn't do a whole lot today. My plans of watching more Brotherhood 2.0 fell through because I went to Barnes & Noble with my mom. I ended up buying Hunger Games (as per Lex's recommendation) and Paper Towns. I'm excited to read them both.

But first I'm rereading this series I liked when I was younger (and by 'younger', I mean 14, which was only a few years ago). I don't know if the series has a name, but the books are letters written back and fourth between two cousins, one of whom is having her first Season in London (this is pre-1900, by the way) and the other is stuck in the country. And magic exists in their version of the world, so of course they both get mixed up in this crazy magical nonsense. It's really amusing. I love it.

Well, I think that's it for tonight. My friend Lindsey and I might collaborate for some stuff on YouTube. Which would be awesome. But I guess I'll have more to say tomorrow.

Night!

Monday, August 2, 2010

Fighting the Nerdfight.

Location: Couch (where else?!)
Listening to: The 10th Kingdom (a.k.a. the best fantasy mini-series ever to grace American television)
Days til College: 26


Ladies and Gents, I am now, officially, a Nerdfighter. It was a long process, but finally I have reached my goal. And I have to say, I'm pretty happy. Life seems to have changed dramatically in the past 24 hours. It's actually a pretty interesting story to how I got here. So I shall share as I sit here and munch the last of my Nutella on toast. And maybe it will help any of you who are unaware of Nerdfighters (like I was a mere four months ago) understand (and join) our cause.

Back in April, I started this blog on a whim. I was looking for an outlet, and I randomly found my inspiration in Hayley's blog. I wasn't aware of her YouTube fame. I wasn't a fan of her hilariousness who came seeking her blog. I literally stumbled across it. I had Googled "marcus flutie ring inscription" because I love the Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty and I wanted to make this beautiful phrase ("My thoughts create my world") my Facebook status. For some reason, Google led me to a post from Hayley's blog from April of last year. I think I found the quote I was looking for, and then I kept reading. She mentioned Blog Every Day April and talked about life in a really witty way that I could relate to.

And then I realized, "Hey! It's April right now! I could give this a shot and see if it goes anywhere!" So I did. My awareness of Nerdfighters also started with Hayley. I was perusing her profile to see if I could find any good blogs to follow when I noticed her occupation was "Nerdfighter". My first thought: What the hell is a Nerdfighter? Well, Nerdfighters are good finders.....just kidding. I kind of ignored it after that. But then I started following more blogs and realizing a good part of the blogging community I admired were Nerdfighters.

My interest was piqued, but I still didn't look into it. Or maybe I did, but I didn't really get it. My blogging eventually lead me to YouTubing, which lead to an even more heightened awareness of Nerdfighting. Because if you think that the blogosphere is full of Nerdfighters, you obviously haven't seen how many are out there in the YouTube universe.

So yesterday, I decided I needed answers. I Googled "nerdfighters" and got directed to the Nerdfighters Ning page. The short history is in 2007, John Green (author of Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, etc.) and his brother, Hank, made a vow to have no textual communication with each other. So they started a vlog and posted back and fourth for a year. Over the course of that year, John discovered an airport arcade game called Nerdfighters and started speculating about what types of people Nerdfighters would be. The conclusion was that Nerdfighters are various types of Nerds (book lovers, movie lovers, music lovers, gamers, writers, etc.) who fight for the common good.

Pretty much, Nerdfighters are made of awesome.

So last night (or possibly very early this morning) I joined the Nerdfighters network. Today, I watched three months worth of Brotherhood 2.0 (the Green brother's vlog project) while alternately building a Map of Hogwarts puzzle, cooking stew (that in itself is a good story considering my tendency to burn food beyond recognition), and knitting what was originally going to be a Gryffindor scarf until I realized I barely know how to knit, let alone alternate colors on something, so now it's just a red scarf. I intend to watch even more tomorrow. I love it.

In other news, today I had another adventure. I vaccuumed under my bed. I haven't done that in several years. But, in the spirit of preparing my room for my evacuation to college, I decided I needed to clear out the storage bins I have under there in case I need them for dorm room crap. And that led me to a great cleaning spree. I found some really interesting things under there, including:

-my mom's flute from when she was in high school band.
-a black tank top that I have been missing and pining over for at least a year, if not more.
-several bookmarks (including a nice metal one in the shape of Hedwig)
-three socks
-a lot of dust

You could say today was eventful. The rest of the week promises to be as well. I work for the next three days and I have jury duty. Yes, jury duty. Oh the joys of being an American citizen of legal age. There are actually two trials this week that I might have to be on the jury of. One Wednesday and one Friday. If I get selected to sit on the jury, I'll try to remember any interesting stories to tell you guys.

Well, I'm all typed out now. I guess I'll see you tomorrow!!

OH! And thanks to Lex for the awesome book suggestion. I literally remembered that I want to read Hunger Games about thirty seconds before I read your suggestion. I'm going to Barnes & Noble tomorrow and I intend to buy it. :)

Sunday, August 1, 2010

BEDA....again!

Location: The couch
Listening to: Shanghai Noon
Days til College: 26


So, Blog Every Day August has been declared. Crazy, right? So I guess all my free time is now gone. Forever. Goodbye, free time! I hardly knew ye....

I really have just about nothing to write about today. Yesterday I sat around and did nothing. I had pretty much the same plans today. I might knit a little, work on my Map of Hogwarts puzzle, whatever. I already updated my vlog for the day, so that's done with. Perhaps I'll read.

Does anyone have any good book suggestions? I've been rereading old favorites lately because I'm broke and not really sure what's out there that I want to read. I like the typical teenage-girl-oriented books (teenage girl character meets boy, falls in love with boy, faces hardship, gets boy in the end) a la Sarah Dessen and Megan McCafferty. I also like mystery/adventure/fantasy types of things. I'm pretty open minded when it comes to books.

I guess that's it for now. My mind is blank. More tomorrow.