Applications = finished

Yes. I have done it. And, I am proud to say, two days before most of them were due. How's that for proactive? (sadly, that's not really a joke for me...)
It's sad; I just finished all of my applications, and some people have already learned where they will be attending college next year. Stupid early decision-ers - not really though. I respect their ability to care enough to apply early, and I'm very excited for the few who did get accepted. To be honest, I thought I was going to die from stress if I applied early anywhere, and I had no definite favorites, so it's probably good that I didn't - though it would be wondrous to know (then again, most people just got deferred, so there ya go).
My mom keeps asking me if I checked everything - over and over, so that now I'm starting to get nervous. Do you think they immediately chuck you into the "Reject" bin if you're ungrammatical? I had a momentary heart attack the other day because I went and checked what I've been calling my "diversity" essay, which went on to two or three college apps, and I thought that the horrific ending (which actually didn't make any sense) had been a part of the version I sent colleges. Luckily the Common App lets you view the apps you've sent, though you can't edit them, so I checked and it seems to be something I added later while trying to edit the essay...but still. It was a terrifying thought.

In other news, life chugs on. Between CIS, math and Econ, I'm swamped - though not over break, thank god. Everything that was due was due the week before break, which led to some major stress then, and some major relief now. So it all works out in the end.
Hopefully once the semester ends, and CIS/applications are over I'll have more time to do stuff like blog. I'm considering taking the CIS Writing class, so we'll see...it's possible the craziness will continue.

Hunger Games and Life

So I shouldn't be writing this right now, I should be studying for my math test, BUT:
HUNGER GAMES TRAILER.
So: go look it up. I'll wait.
.
.
.
Back? Okay. Thoughts:
It looks awesome. I'm happy with pretty much everything in that trailer, from Jennifer Lawrence to Lenny Kravitz. Whoever is writing this score is bomb. The only thing I can come up with as a complaint is Donald Sutherland as President Snow isn't as creepy as I thought it would be; I was, for some unfathomable reason, essentially expecting Voldemort.

Now that that's over: general other stuff
I have some Ideas for blogs I kind of want to write, but I have no time, so those will have to wait. Hopefully I don't just lose interest, like I always do, but...well, it's me. Let's be real here.
Swimming is over, which would be sad, except it's not really. I kind of miss the team, but for the most part, I'm thrilled we're done. I'm also super duper excited for the end-of-the-season banquet, which should be fun - senior gifts! Yes, I am that selfish.
I never mentioned on here, but I got into the pit orchestra for the musical, which would be exciting, except they let in three flutes when they only needed one, maybe two. So I don't get to play that much. On the other hand, that means I get to sit out and not play at all for the first act during tech week, meaning I can actually get stuff done, which is fantastic.
I got a new phone; it's the iPhone 4s. My parents love me.
We're going to Chicago (ish; Hinsdale, which is nearby) for Thanksgiving, and I am massively excited. Have I mentioned I want to go away for college now? No? Well, I do. I want to leave so badly. Oh lord.

When I no longer have homework and college and fifteen billion books to read, I will post again. Don't hold your breath.

Teeeeeeeeth

So I got my wisdom teeth removed yesterday. I opted for laughing gas and Novocain, instead of general anesthesia, which meant, unfortunately, I was NOT loony and out-of-it after the procedure; it also means I was awake for the whole thing. So: Thoughts1. They actually use words like "suture" and "hemostat"! It was kind of cool.
2. I am a mouth-breather, and the laughing gas thing was on my nose, so I had to concentrate on breathing through my nose the whole time, and sometimes I forgot. Then I'd get more lucid. Then I'd realize I was lucid and start breathing through my nose again. Also, laughing gas makes you feel really, really weird.
3. I will never be able to look at those things they use to suck out your spit at the dentist's the same way ever again. Guess what they used it for in this operation? Yeah, that's right. Sucking out blood.
4. They have to give you Novocain using giant needles. In your mouth. Three shots per tooth, for a total of twelve. I am so proud of myself for not flipping out more than I did; that shit hurts. And those needles are HUGE.
5. The funny thing was, there's a difference between feeling and pressure; I had no feeling in my mouth, because of the Novocain, but for each tooth, they had to do something that involved some intense pressure, and I could feel that, and it's not like it hurt, per se, but....it almost did.
6. I wrote this blog post in my head to distract myself from the fact that they were cutting holes in my mouth and I was completely awake.
7. I can cross Vicodin off my list of potentially addictive substances: it makes me nauseous.

So I sort of dropped off the Earth for a while

Yeah. School started, and it's senior year, and while the first week wasn't all that bad, after that...things spiraled, pretty quick. Part of it was the mystery party a friend and I planned, which meant I was spending pretty much every free moment writing characters so that they would all have motives and goals. The other parts were swimming, English, math, and college essays.
It pretty much all peaked/climaxed that week before our birthday party, plateaued (spelling?) and stayed horrifying stressful until this week. Last week was especially bad; my iPhone was stolen, and on top of that I was extremely hormonal, which magnified ever little thing, until I ended up having a minor breakdown on Thursday.
This week's been better; my outlook's improved, I feel like I'm actually getting things done for college, all that good stuff. So hooray for non-hormonalness (unfortunately, I think it may be my mom's turn as she's been rather...on edge recently)!
Meanwhile, I've been trying to watch things, but Fox is being stupid and not letting people watch their shows until over a week after they've been aired. It's especially annoying to see that there's an episode of Fringe and I just can't watch it because I don't have Dish network or whatever.
(Fringe is the best show ever by the way.)
Anyway though, this was mainly just supposed to be an "I'm back" type announcement! Hopefully I'll get better at keeping up again...

School started

Things I should be doing:
-Writing journals for my college-level English class (2 or 3)
-Writing a research paper for the same class
-Finishing math homework
-Writing my college essay
-Figuring out the rest of my college applications
-Practicing my flute for tomorrow's lesson
-Sleeping

Things I did instead:
-Plan my birthday party for an hour with a friend.
-Discuss the swimming drama going on with another friend
-Type this blog

Yes, I am a productive child! Yes I am a successful child! Bleh.

The Help

I didn't mention before, but I finished the book about half a week ago; I really enjoyed it. I won't discuss the whole thing with the premise being that the black side hadn't been told and yet it was in fact written by a white woman, because I'm still not sure how I feel about that fact. I will, however, say that it is a good book, and if I had to wager, I would guess it's at least decently accurate.Anyway, that's not what I was going to write about. I was going ot write about how I saw the movie with my mother and my sister tonight.
As always, we must first discuss the previews: I won't lie, I wanted to see most of the movies that had previews, including One Day, which I've heard got panned, but I don't even care, I still want to see it. I also really want to see whatever the movie involving Anton Yelchin was, becuase Anton Yelchin is awesome, and I totally managed to correctly identify the girl in the movie as the one girl from Northanger Abbey, which makes me feel proud (god my life is maybe a little pathetic).
On to the movie: for me, the start was rocky. I think there were times when things were edited a bit oddly, and maybe it's just my recent reading of the book that's making me think this, but parts just seemed like they weren't flowing/weren't connecting in a way that made sense. Like, Treelore's story seemed like it didn't quite...fit. And Skeeter's random demand to know what happened to Constantine during dinner was just odd (also, I'm sorry, they should've done something else for that flashback. Emma Stone just looked like she was wearing weird clothes, not like she was truly younger). In addition, I have to say: there were some inconsistencies in characters that really bothered me. Minnie was a big one; she sometimes seemed like the badass/funny woman she was supposed to be, and sometimes she just...wasn't. Mrs. Phelan was another one; the whole, "suddenly not racist" thing was weird. I don't know, it just felt wrong.
To be honest, the Minnie issue, and some of the other ones, sprung from the fact that the movie was weird in how it played the funny-serious line. It didn't feel quite right; the funny parts were funny, and the touching parts were truly touching (definitely cried a couple times), but they were awkwardly put together. Like, I feel like Up did this great job of leading off with the terribly sad and moving, and then getting to funny really successfully, and going back and forth beautifully, and I felt like this movie managed to kind of do this most of the time, but then other times just...lost it. I also think that maybe the other part was that the movie lacked the fear: I didn't ever feel like these characters were truly risking things, not even when Medgar Evans was shot. And that lack of fear really makes the entire thing just a little bit flatter; it lacks that extra oomph.
Anyway, enough complaining: now for things that were done really well: Aibileen. She was amazing, especially in her scenes with Mae Mobley. Elizabeth, who had just enough of that subtle, passive-aggressive racism. The Stuart-Skeeter relationship: it actually felt real, and wrong, and it was kind of wonderful that you could just tell they were wrong, without it being necessary to show all these different moments when there was a disconnect. Celia Foote, and the Benefit were also great, and pretty funny. Um...the soundtrack?? Thomas Newman is AWESOME, and his scores always have this hopeful-yet-sad sound, and their so subtle you don't even realize they're there (I'm a little in love with his Series of Unfortunate Events soundtrack. I can just listen to it and start crying; it's that good.)
So yeah. I would probably recommend reading the book after seeing the movie on this one; I tried to avoid comparing them in this post, because that seldom really goes well, but the book has such a strong voice to it, it's a little like a movie playing in your head - and so seeing the movie afterwards is just really disconcerting. But do see the movie; just make sure you read the book too.

Cheers to the freakin' weekend

...and while I won't drink to that, because I'm a goody-two shoes who doesn't like the taste of alcohol, I will go on a dinner-picnic with friends in celebration.
(okay, so it wasn't actually a "Yay weekend!" celebration, but whatever, I just wanted to mention it so you all know that yes, I actually do have friends. I know, sometimes I sound amazingly addicted to my computer on this little blog, what with all my talk of shows and books and stuff. I dunno, hearing about someone going out with friends usually isn't all that interesting, so I tend to avoid that subject. You understand right?)
SO. Now that we've got that confirmation of my real life existence out of the way, we can move on to the stuff you know you're really interested in: my opinions on television shows.
Oh Pretty Little Liars. How you try my patience sometimes.
First off, we have the whole kidnapped therapist thing, from the previous episode, which I can't get over: she's an adult. An adult who is apparently not an idiot. So explain to me why, exactly, she would reveal that she knew the name of A in her office, which she KNEW was bugged. YOU KNEW IT WAS BUGGED. WHY. EXPLAIN WHY.
However, my biggest issue this episode was the fact that when one of the liars (Emily) was trapped in a barn with a car that is apparently filling the barn with noxious, deadly fumes, she just sort of gave up and passed out. Girl, that barn is big. You'd have at least an hour. Go try and break open the car or something - if it's not running, the fumes won't kill you. That thing has windows. You have shoes. Seriously.
Beyond PLL, I have an embarassing confession: I started watching Glee again. I know, I know. Santana drew me back in (I think it's possible she's slowly becoming one of my favorite characters). I still hate Will most of the time, and Sue has gotten amazingly old, but to be honest, the rest aren't...horrific. Rachel's pining was annoying, but Kurt and Blaine are cute and Brittany is once again hilarious. So's her cat.
So I watched the available episodes on Hulu, and yeah. I mean, Glee is all over really: sometimes it really hits the mark with certain quips or storylines, and other times it is SO FUCKING RIDICULOUS. Since the Prom episode was the most recent one I watched, we'll talk about that first: I was almost happy for about two seconds when Jesse returned, because it meant Rachel would stop pining over Finn for an episode. Except she didn't. Stop. Pining. Which made his return both implausible and useless. You flunked out of UCLA? And then came back to Ohio? And now have this idea that you will advise show choirs? I don't remember your character being this stupid; is your character really this stupid? Also, what is going on with your scarf thing? Also also, what high school allows a non-high school student to go to prom? Oh, apparently one where the principal allows write-ins to determine prom queen, and then proceeds to read out that prom queen, despite the fact that apparently it was yet another attempt to bully/tease the gay student (we must address this too: I didn't realize until the whole awkward-lack-of-applause that it was meant as a hurtful thing; I just assumed, you know, support/breaking the crown thing in Mean Girls. You know. Like, maybe people kind of thought he wanted to get the crown because of how he generally acts around school...I dunno. I mean, I understood in the end that it wasn't that, but at first, that's how it seemed.)

Beyond all this stuff: school starts on Tuesday. My last first day ever. Kinda weird, I won't lie.

Hunger Games again.

So I saw the teaser trailer for the VMAs just now.
I kind of went to bed earlier than usual, and apparently 4am is a natural wake-up/non-sleepy time for me (this has happened before), so I've been wasting a couple hours looking up movies. Which eventually, of course, led me to the Hunger Games teaser trailer.
Well, it's like nothing. It's maybe a minute long, and all it has are shots of Katniss running, with some voiceover person telling her she's awesome (if they mess up continuity/plot so that Gale plays a larger part in the movie, simply to play up the love triangle, I may be slightly to very upset. Just saying.) Yeah. Talk about teaser.
This has put me back on the fence about Jennifer Lawrence. The thing is, she just doesn't look intense enough, especially not in this. Like I said, I don't know exactly what Katniss looks like in my head - but I do know it's not this. That said, if she's a good actress (and I'm about 85% certain she is) I should be able to get over that. Also, it's totally possible she just seems less intense because of the music that's playing - I was having some Twilight flashbacks. Like seriously. GET BETTER MUSIC. PLEASE. Don't make me have Twilight flashbacks during The Hunger Games by doing that thing with the music and the panoramic sweep and/or the flashes of running.
(final note: apparently Liam Hemsworth's Australian accent is identifiable to some in this voiceover, but I didn't notice; who knows whether that's because of the quality of the video I watched/the fact that I watched it on my iPhone, or because I'm just not so great at accents. Maybe it's not that bad, and people are just looking for something to judge. We'll see.

Life update

Yeah, it's one of those boring posts about my life/media again, sorry, but unfortunately for you, these things are sort of important to me, so suck it up.

Let's see...in terms of movie media, I've managed to watch (500) Days of Summer, The Sandlot, Hoodwinked, Letters to Juliet, and part of Catch and Release. My Thoughts are as follows:
(500) Days: I was informed, multiple times, that this movie was AMAZING. I thought it was good...but not that good, though maybe all the hype fooled me into having expectations that were waaaay too high. Who knows. In any case, I wanted to strangle Summer by the end/middle of it, and also Tom was SUCH A WHINY LITTLE WIMP.
I've already seen The Sandlot/Hoodwinked. I think the former is hilarious and a perfect summer movie, and the latter is hilarious and I need the soundtrack to it.
Letters to Juliet was painful, but I made it through it;  I realized too late, unfortunately, that the main guy was nowhere near hot enough to save the bad acting/plot of the movie. Meanwhile, Catch and Release did have a couple hot guys who might've been enough to carry on the movie, were it not for the weird sex scene in the middle. That was just too much. I couldn't finish it and still feel like a decent human being (okay, it wasn't that bad, but it was pretty bad).
For television: Pretty Little Liars and Covert Affairs. Unfortunately, I've fallen behind on White Collar, though I'll probably just read the episode summaries somewhere and continue watching anyway, and thankfully Hulu is only airing episodes a month after they air, so it's okay that I missed a couple (brb, actually, I'm going to start now. Okay, done, we'll continue).
My book count is now up to 53, but I won't bother to summarize/list all the books I've been reading here, except to mention The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien because I really, really, really enjoyed it - it's sort a collection of short stories, but they're all related to one another, and deal with a platoon of soldiers in the Vietnam War. (If you're like, super duper interested in what books I read (not sure why you would be...) I list them/my reactions here.
Let's see...oh yeah, life! Actually, go-outside-and-see-people life! I forgot about that...
Well, we had a French exchange student for a little over two weeks, something that we also did last year. This year our girl was quieter, and had more difficulty with English - she also seemed a bit...not kinder necessarily, but our girl last year struck me as a bit more of a "popular" girl, whereas this year our girl was more chill. She was also almost 19, so a little more maturity was a given.
Swimming has started, and it's been an eventful two weeks: glass shattered on the pool deck, causing us to have to find a new pool for three days, and to (thankfully) only have one practice a day. Yesterday, a girl hit herself in the forehead with a wrench while trying to undo the lane lines, and had to have four stitches; unfortunately, she did it after practice was over, so no cancellation there.
School will start soon. Senior year, hooray! I have classes that I am actually happy with, and I'm excited to see friends/have a late start some days. Ummm...yeah. That's kind of it for now.

An update on The Hunger Games

I feel like I should update my previous thoughts on castin re:The Hunger Games, since, you know, new photos came out and I just noticed and all that.
I can get behind Liam Hemsworth, who looks extremely like my pictured Gale with his now-brown hair, though I still thunk he looks a little like a gorilla when seen from the front. Meanwhile, Jennifer Lawrence/Katniss is looking okay, though to be perfecty honest: I never fully imagine what a character looks like in my head. They're more a vague conglomeration of characteristics, rather than a definite face. So any time a book is made into a movie, getting my head around the characters of the movie as being the same as the books is kind of hard (there exists only one exception to thus that I can think of: Harry Potter.)(Oh wait, I guess The Lord of the Rings, but I feel like that book doesn't really cause me to visualize the characters at all, so it doesn't really count.) So what I'm trying to say is: Jennifer Lawrence doesn't really look like Katniss to me, but then I don't really have the most solid idea of what I think Katniss looks like, so it's all a moot point in the end.
In other news, Rue was cast, and she's the appropriate skin tone so we won't be hearing screams of fury over that on the Interwebz! (This is all sort of a late update, so really those screams of fury would've happened a little while ago). Also, I don't know if I mentioned last time that Stanley Tucci was cast as Caesar Flickerman, but he was! And Stanley Tucci is AMAZING. So, more happiness. Hooray!
Yeah, so those are my thoughts.

So I saw Harry Potter.

There are many Thoughts I have about this movie, and the whole movie arc in general, but I'll try to keep it short.
1. Something I didn't understand: when they want to get at Bellatrix's vault, and they ask for identification/her wand, um, why exactly don't they just give it to them? They have the wand; they proved that. I just don't get it.
2. I was fine with the epilogue in the book, because it gave a chance to see the future for the characters, but in the movie...well. I would say the two Weasleys aged the best, with Rupert Grint truly looking almost 40; Emma Watson, on the other hand, looked her age, and seeing her with chidren was...unsettling.
3. I'm not sure where the Ariana storyline went, but I missed it; it helped explain so much about Dumbledore, about why he never told Harry he needed to die. (As a matter of fact, I miss all of the storylines that they just completely dropped from the movie. Not that I'm still bitter over HBP. Never.)
4. Speaking of Dumbledore, I really dislike Michael Gambon playing him; he's too angry. And then, in King's Cross - just, not. I don't know.
5. Also, the gleeful McGonagall thing was a bit much in the movies; the "I always wanted to do that" was out of place, and the "Send all of Slytherin to the dungeons" was just wrong - I know you can say what you will about making an "evil" house (which, to be honest, isn't all that evil all the time - I think in times when Voldemort wasn't in power/his followers weren't the parents of the students, Slytherin House wasn't necessarily evil. Look at Slughorn, or Andromeda Tonks, for example) - but seriously, this is the sort of thing that the book would've addressed as something that makes us them, becoming the enemy, etc.
6. I have to say, I actually thought the two Fred deaths were both pretty comparable, in terms of emotional impact; in the book, there's the obvious shock and the fact that you can see/hear what Harry's thinking, but in the movie there's the scene with the whole Weasley family crying over him, which is much more emotionally stirring to see, rather than read about.
7. Neville and Luna are a thing in the movie! It's adorable!
All of this being said: I thought the movie was fairly well done, and I cried at the appropriate moments, but...I don't know. There was something missing. It just didn't...feel right.

So. I am in a bit of a quandary.

Swimming will start in one and a half weeks, and once it begins it, along with a college English class and Advanced Topics math (which is like AP Calculus BC/Calculus HL), will eat my life. So, in my quest to make life slightly less stressful for myself this fall, I am trying to get a jumpstarton the college essay.

YOU GUYS

THEY'RE MAKING A CAPTAIN PLANET MOVIE.

Home again

So this year's camp experience was a success; despite the crap that I was put through on kitchen, it really gave me a chance to get back in the swing of things at camp, and get to know some of the staff before I was in a cabin. My cabin second session was the most amazing group of girls, and I'm not sure if I could have asked for a better first cabin; they all got along, and hung out all the time during their free time, despite the fact that they came to camp in pairs or groups of friends. My co-staff wasn't the warmest or loudest person, but I think we balanced each other, and since she's someone I would be afraid of/intimidated by, it was kind of nice to get a chance to really get to know her better. I managed to make friends with the CITs and some of the ACs too, so I'm pretty psyched for next year.
The downside to this awesome experience is that now I'm super depressed to be home. I seriously miss camp; it's all rainy out today, and while at camp I would be well into my day, working my first camptivity, at home I'm just...sitting. At the computer. Feeling depressed.  Also, the prospect of school/swimming is making me want to hurt something (fall of senior year, what what, going to die die, yippee)

Other news?
1. There's a new spin-off for Avatar called The Legend of Korra and I AM SO FRICKIN' EXCITED
2. I saw Transformers (not worth the ticket) and Friends with Benefits (meh-y, at least it was funny, and it was JT and Mila Kunis so I'm okay with that) on our nights out at camp. Also saw Remember Me and No Strings Attached in our peak my first session.
3. A girl in my peak met Barack Obama, with her family; apparently her dad helped him raise money. Anyway, he sent them an actual handwritten card when her grandma died. Also, Zach Gilford from Off the Map (which, by the way, has been cancelled) used to go to my camp. Seriously, I think he was a counselor there. And Tina Fey worked at the YMCA that our camp is based out of.
That's all for now folks!

Camp update #1

So I'm at camp. Did I mention I'm in kitchen this session? Cause I am. It sort of sucks; we help with prep, serving, and clean-up for all three meals, and I ended up on pots and pans, which is absolutely killing my hands. I have random bruises and cuts all over, from lugging various things around the kitchen and hitting myself with boxes and pans. So far though, I haven't had any major spills or accidents, so hooray for small miracles.
It really isn't going to bad; you bond when you're on kitchen, and because your schedule is so radically different from everyone else's, you naturally end up hanging out with the other people on kitchen, which is what has happened for me, and why I don't feel nearly as alone as I did at the beginning of the session last year. This year, I actually spend my time off doing things I need/want to get done (like sleeping. Or showering.), instead of awkwardly attempting to find ways to waste time.
Also, this two weeks of support staff has actually helped me ease my way into getting to know other staff members; instead of hanging around a camptivity not really knowing anyone, and pretty much only interacting with the kids, I can tag along with the people I know from kitchen and get introduced/get to know people and have conversation that way. Having a big peak (peak = where counselors sans campers live) also helps; again, I can tag along with the people from my peak and use them to join conversations. So all in all, I think this year has been going better than previous ones.
Hopefully next session will be just as good; I think some of mah peak buds gonna be leavin' though, so it might be a case of having to start all over again. Hopefully not, but you never know.
Anyway, I wanna sleep before we have to help prep dinner (tonight's my night out though, so no need to help serve or clean up after!) so I'M OUT.

It's pronounced MackinAW. Jsyk.

We arrived in Mackinac, late becausen I realized I'd forgotten my passport 20 minutes out of St. Paul (I need proof of citizenship before I can work as a counselor and get paid). Still, the drive wasn't too bad, and I don't know that we really missed too much - the idea of having dinner with some of my cousins is maybe a little bit off-putting, simply because they're all so young, and screamy.

I'm only here for tonight and tomorrow, and then we leave so I can get to camp, so honestly this whole trip seems a little silly and a bit of a sidetrack. I do plan to enjoy the singular day I spend on this island, don't get me wrong. I haven't been here since my aunt and uncle's wedding (I was the flower giiiiiirl *pretendstoswooshskirts*), and all I really remember is that we rode carriages, I was bored during the wedding, I hide under a bed and was scolded for potenetially messing up my hair, and I ate something questionable and had to take Pepto Bismal.
It's a little less magical than I remember, in part due to the fact that's it's overcast today, and in part due to the whole growing up thing. You know. But it's still beautiful, even if it is filled with people who remind me vaguely of my aunt and uncle and therefore scare me (yuppie-ish golf-playing, polo-wearing important money-making people). I never like people like that; they're all above me in the social structure which exists in my head (it's complicated, don't ask).
ANYWAY, so yeah. Beyond all that stuff, I am typing on a new computer - new for me at least. It is/was my dad's, and while it isn't the shiniest and bestest of the bunch, it has a long battery life and doesn't suck, and I might take it as mine since my dad offered and it'd be free (my dad has four computers or something, and this way my parents don't feel guilty about not getting me a computer for college next year/ever).
So yup. The following month will be a test trial. I'll be using this to update/check things at camp, and maybe I'll actually update this blog too. Probably not, but I guess you guys can hope (har har, see what I did there?).
PEACE.

p.s. Wrote that all last night but couldn't connect to the Internet to post it. We had a semi-eventful day; rode our bikes downtown to check out the fort, then proceeded to bike around the rest of the island until we ended up back at our hotel. I then took a two or three hour nap. Ate dinner, then played with the cousins, who, while adorable, are also SO MUCH WORK. It's okay though; the adorableness makes up for it.
Also, I know, I know, I'm a shallow person, and I probably talk about this way too much (I swear, I don't bring it up this much in conversation in person. Or at least, not if you're not a really good friend I don't), but whatever: Mackinac is a pretty good place for guys, imho. Then again, it may just be that I'm been deprived of any sort of thing like this at home. St. Paul's a great family city; not so great if you just want to be able to see cute guys walking down the street all the time. (Also helps that there's no cars, meaning they're literally walking down the street/you can see them)
Kay, freaky boy-obssessed girl will go hide now.
 
p.p.s. Also, I feel like this blog post is a lot more structured than most of my recent ones have been.

World: shattered

Not actually. But who here knew that Henry from Fringe and the guy from X-Men: First Class were different actors? And if you did, why didn't you inform me?? Now I feel silly.

More movies, more life, etc.

Watched two lovely movies today while recovering from my semi-busy weekend. Love and Other Drugs was sad and I cried, but at the same time I liked it. I adore Anne Hathaway, and want to be her when I grow up, pretty much, and Jake Gyllenhaal, in case you haven't noticed, is HOT. So there's all that, and their chemistry was wonderful, and yes, I'm glad they didn't cop-out with a happy ending, but at the same time, I love happy endings, so.
Easy A, meanwhile, was a perfect romantic teen comedy thing (I struggle with movie genres), and now I like Emma Stone, whereas before I was just "meh" and Woodchuck Todd is awesome and I would like him in my life. Also, the humor in that movie was awesome, and her parents are my favorite things ever. I want Stanley Tucci to be my dad. Not that I don't love my dad, but Stanley Tucci is awesome. Maybe he can just be my uncle or something.
Camp is this weekend, after a short stop at Mackinac Island for a gathering of my mother's sisters. I'm a little bit upset, as I'll only be there for a day before being driven down to camp; the beaches in Michigan are amazing. Oh well; I suppose technically my camp is in Michigan too, so the beach there should suffice. At the very least it'll be better than the beaches near where I live.
I can never remember how much I've talked about camp on this thing. A lot? A little? I know I talk about how excited I am for it semi-regularly, and also that I've mentioned that I get nervous for it, but I don't think I've fully explained why. To be honest, it mainly has to do with the other counselors: because they all essentially go or went to the same two high schools, they all know each other from outside of camp, while I only know them all from camp (/very rarely from before I moved). And so they're all semi to very comfortable with one another, and since I've been a fixture at camp for some years I don't have any of that "introduce the new person to people" thing going for me, and I always forget people's names, and in general it's all just sort of awkward, because as I've mentioned I have a very strict social hierarchy and difficulty talking to people above me which makes introductions and small talk awkward especially with guys and oh my lord this is such a bad run-on/long sentence. Whew.
SO yeah, there's all that, but I really do think that the fact that camp pushes me out of my comfort zone helps me in my day-to-day life at high school. I really do believe that as awkward as I am, I would be so much worse if I didn't go to camp. So that's a plus. Also, I really do enjoy it, as a whole. I always semi-dread it going in, thinking it's going to be super bad, but I come out really excited for the next year, so obviously something's going right.
Yup, that's about all for now.

I really need to come up with something better to write for titles than, "Stuff"

I am really having difficulty remembering Harvard - it's only been two days! It just wasn't terribly distinctive, so unfortunately, the only thing that really stands out was the awkwardness of the information session. Though I do remember having the impression that it was prettier than I'd thought it would be.
As for MIT, well, it wasn't ugly as I'd feared, though it was quite ugly. In this case, the info session went a long way to, if not winning me over, then at least making me consider MIT as an option - mainly because the admissions officer and most of the tour guides were a lot more normal than I'd thought they'd be.
I've been hearing that everyone that visits Brown loves it, and let me tell you, it proved true for me. Providence was pretty and not too small, Brown itself was equally pretty - it was pretty much what comes to mind when you picture college.
Yale is really pretty and in a semi-European style, though its surrounding area was the most industrial of the four, if that makes sense (also, of the four, I think you'd be most likely to use the blue light system at Yale).
On our final night, my dad and I went to see Super 8. I enjoyed it - the kids were great actors, it was a good mix of terrifying and funny, the plot was good, if nothing to write home about. It was really recognizable as a J. J. Abrams film - the beginning reminded me so strongly of Fringe, it was ridiculous. Surprisingly, I think having followed Fringe made the ending actually a little anti-clmatic; there are just so many horrifying things in Fringe that Super 8's monster couldn't even really compete. But distanced from that, it was really good, and it still manage to make me silently mouth, "Oh shit oh shit oh fucking shit shit shit."

Falling Skies and college tours

So I'm watching Fallng Skies, and I have to say, this might be a new show to add to my list. Of course, it completely depends on whether or not TNT will have videos up online later for me to use to catch up, because I'm going to be at camp for the entire month o July (!!!), so I'd need to have some way to catch up.
Questions I have because I missed the first hour or something: do we know why the alien thing had a robotic shooting machine that followed it? Do they all have those? Why was a small-ish child brought on the scouting/food mission (that kid was like 12...[later: HE WAS 13 BOO-YAH])
(My commitment has been established mainly, sad though it is, because of the presence of a pretty face, namely that of Drew Roy. What else is new? Though it is slightly intriguing on its own merits as well, if a little reminiscent of, well, every alien/apocalyptic doom movie ever made. Also, thank you for having this hot guy date the badass chick and not the touchy-feely doctor/nurse/Catholic/obviously flirting with someone else's guy girl. Seriously. I have no problem with religion, just don't try to pick up guys with it. Please.)

Anyway, beyond my obsession with hot guys that I will never ever meet, and probably wouldn't date even if I did meet them, we (as in my dad and I) are checking out colleges on the East Coast. Solely Ivies/"Ivy Plus" schools (I just looked up that, no I didn't know it off the top of my head, not that you care) this time: Hahvahd, Yale, Princeton, Brown, MIT. (ALSO someone recently said that Stanford was an Ivy. I would just like to take this time to mention that I was right, and it's not. HA.)
We'll see how these go...to be honest, most of these schools are fairly similar, in the end. I'm going to have some severe dificulties when I have to decide where to apply, and, more importantly, go. I know I need a school with a semi-strong science/math department, I know it needs to be at least over 2000 people, I know I don't want to go to a po-dunky town in the middle of nowhere, and that I want to go to a school on a coast or Chicago, with very few exceptions - that is to say, the South/Southwest/most of the Midwest are pretty much completely out off the question. That still leaves a ton of schools, and I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA, excuse me, that was rude, I'm sorry, I just am feeling the stress a little. Also, an alien just jumped out on the TV, and it freaked me out a teeny bit.

Aaaaaaand thus concludes our boring update into the trials and travails of a hormonal, self-obssessed teenager. Why you bother to pay attention to them at all is beyond me.

...and my shows are back

And so, back to watching Pretty Little Liars, and it's reminded me why I watch this show: for eye candy and a sense of terror. Because honestly, plot holes are so common, I'm surprised the characters aren't falling into them; there is no basis in reality here. Also, the handling of romantic conversations and relationships is so cheesy and ridiculous, I can't help but laugh.
Also, also, after all you've been through you don't keep 15 different copies of that video, all of which are hidden in various places and whose locations are known only by yourself and one person, who is different for every one? Well, that makes you stupid. Also, why you still haven't told your boyfriend (who already knows what you did to Jenna) EVERYTHING that's going on, is beyond me (ex, THAT HIS HOME HAS BEEN BROKEN INTO).

Miscellaneous topics.

So forgot to mention, last weekend was our state Ultimate tournament.
I missed the first half of our first day and our first three games due to SAT testing, so I wasn't nearly as wiped as some of the other girls. This is only the second year we've had a girls team, and our numbers are low - so low, that between me and the four other girls who couldn't be there from the beginning, our team only had one sub! So props to all of them for not dying. Also, no surprise, we lost all our games that day.
The second day we had way more people, but it was so much hotter. No breeze at all. We managed to win one (of two) games that day, so yay, not last! That's about how well we did last year too, and considering we have significantly less people on our team compared to most of the other girls teams (meaning less subs), I think we did okay.
We got to watch the open teams' final championship game after we were all done, and it was amazing. Those guys throw super far, make the sickest catches, and can run the entire field length in no time at all. Most of them played nearly the entire game, and yet they still were so fast. Also: one guy's arm was popped out of his socket and he was back on the field two points later. Seriously, it's such a fun sport to watch when the teams are that good.
Um, other news? We're almost done with school. THANK THE LORD. The first two days of this week were especially god-awful as well, because there's no air conditioning in the classrooms in the building, and it was at least 100 degress F on Tuesday.
Graduation's tonight. I actually hate graduation with a passion. We (the band) have to be there to play Pomp and Circumstance on repeat for honest-to-god, I kid you not, at least 30 minutes. Probably more, I just don't want to get overzealous in my estimate. (Don't worry, I'll count tonight). The tuba part of that piece has no rest after the first four measures. We play some other stuff too, listen to some amazingly boring speeches, and then have to sit while the ENTIRE senior class is handed their diplomas, just so we can play the Recessional at the end. There's over 500 of them!

On a happier note, I finished Driving Lessons today! I love Rupert Grint, he's adorable.

SO we saw X-Men

And by "we", I mean my family and me, because sometimes we have family bonding ley's-go-see-a-movie times, and I always go because hey: free movie.
So anyway: it was good. I liked it. Let's talk about it.
First off: I've never actually seen a full X-Men movie. I've seen enough clips of the other movies to understand the jokes made about the various characters, and to be able to  identify them all, but not enough to know who would turn out "evil" or "good", or to understand any major plot lines hinted at in this movie. My mom, on the other hand, has seen some of them, and so she explained some things; however, there might be other stuff I completely missed.
SO: my thoughts, in some kind of semi-coherent order (HA, just kidding, not at all).
(Also, half/most of this won't make any sense/be funny if you haven't seen it. If it was ever going to be funny at all.)
-First movie with Kevin Bacon I've seen! WOOHOO. Actually, I feel pretty proud of that.
-So, not only does Little!Erik have to go through seeing his mother die, he also has to live with the guilt of killing two men by CRUSHING THEIR HEADS with their metal helmets (I mean, assuming he would feel guilty, which I'm not 100% certain of, which we'll get to in a sec, don't worry). AND he has to deal with the fact that he didn't even try to kill the man who actually shot his mother, i.e., Shaw the evil scientist.
-Baby!Xavier is not the greatest actor when we get into that awkward, "I always knew there must be other people like me. Different." scene, but that scene was just really awks in general. Also: "You'll never have to steal again." Okaaaaay then...
-Only thing I could think during that whole CIA thing was "You're going to get caught, leave, leave, leave, leaveleaveleaveLEAVE NOW WHILE YOU STILL CAN." And then they didn't even see her. Let down.
-Hank is TONY, yay! And he's nerdy, how adorable! And he has monkey feet, like me, only more extreme!
-Only thing I could think while they were recruiting Angel was: "You realize they can see you through the windows right? Like, seriously. Close the curtains.
-And then they recruit Henry the Cab Driver from Fringe! Of course, he would be the one to die, too. I almost cried during that scene.
-FLYING WITH SOUND SOMEONE FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO THIS.
-The scene with Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence was just really, really awkward, IMO. The age difference! Not okay! I literally could not watch it (yeah, I have some problems with sex/implied sex scenes. But it's only when they're SLOW sex scenes, you know? It's just sort of weird to me. I feel like I'm invading someone's privacy.)
-James McAvoy is always so tragic. Just looking at him makes me a little sad. For more than one reason...and this is the perfect place to segue into one of my other comment time thing-ys, namely, the hot people in this movie.
HI MICHAEL FASSBENDER
HI JAMES MCAVOY
HI GUY FROM HANNAH MONTANA MOVIE

Anyway, moving onto slightly *deeper* and *more reflective* comments: something I actually wanted to discuss a little more in-depth, and thus refrained from commenting on before was the extreme amount of violence within this movie. In general, I don't have a moral issue with violence in movies (ex: I really enjoyed Inglorious Basterds). However, in this movie, there were multiple scenes where the violence disturbed me for vairous reasons. First: the inn in Argentina where Erik/Michael Fassbender just straight up stabs some guy in the hand repeatedly. And then shoots a bartender, who, for all we know, is completely innocent of any sort crime except attempting to stop some apparent psycho from stabbing someone in his inn. Which I think is a sort of reasonable thing to try to do. So you know: as hot as you are, Michael Fassbender, there's something seriously wrong with your character. Like, I literally cannot comprehend how anyone could do that - just cold-bloodedly sink a knife into someone's hand multiple times. Moving beyond this scene, there's also the one where the facility where the mutants are is attacked; it's pretty much horrifying. The whole, "let's transport people so they're really high up and then DROP THEM." And the smack. And the stabbing with the tail - I just don't understand how anyone could ever join with people who literally massacred that many people, and in that manner. I don't care if you think you're more advanced or whatever - would you be okay killing that many chimpanzees? Gorillas? I wouldn't be able to. And then there's the scene with the coin. Watching James McAvoy screaming, because he can feel the pain of it through Shaw's mind was just horrifying.

AND finally: I would be remiss if I did not mention the epicness of the trailers which preceded the movie, which involved Cameron and 13 from House, Kate and Ana Lucia from Lost, Ryan Reynolds twice, and Tom Hardy aka IAMES FROM INCEPTION, WHO I LOVE.
(Seriously, there were like twenty minutes of commercials. (My parents kept track of time, because that's how we roll in my family) Let's see if I can name them all: Immortals, Green Lantern, Battle: Los Angeles,  The Change-Up, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers, Warrior, and Real Steel. BOO-YAH.

More YA stuff.

So, we have a minor uproar on Twitter, prompted by this article in the Wall Street Journal, in which the author pretty much says that YA is the equivalent of those horrifyingly violent video games that are ruining our youth, with its intense depictions of "damage, brutality and losses of the most horrendous kinds." It also contains this gem: "Self-destructive adolescent behaviors are observably infectious and have periods of vogue."
As in, cutters cut because it's "cool".
.
.
.
I really have very little to say that hasn't already  been  said, except this: I almost find that side thing most offensive: "Books for Young Men/Books for Young Women"
Really? Is there a reason some of these books are under this? That's a rhetorical question - I've read some of those books, and there's no reason they'd be more suitable/preferred for girls or boys.

So in conclusion:

Movie time again

So. I'm on a slight romantic comedy bent right now, because I'm a masochistic person who torments herself by watching romance unfold onscreen even though it doesn't happen in real life.
Leap Year: it had this odd style to it. I'm not sure what it was, but sometimes it seemed so bright, and other times so dark and there were some odd camera angles as well. It had this weird feel as both a romantic comedy and....well, Merlin. Which has to do with scenery, I know, but it threw me, because I associate the accents and the setting and style with those serious semi-depressing indie flicks/darker British comedies, so in contrast it was just odd. 
Beyond that, Irish accents are awesome. As any girl can tell you.
All in all: I liked it. I think Matthew Goode and Amy Adams are both amazing. Though apparently they royally screwed up geography, Ireland is beautiful. And it has a happy ending.

When I get tired I write about weird things.

Don't judge me.

So I watched The Ugly Truth, and while it didn't suck, the humor was perhaps a little too awkward for my taste, because while I think awkwardness in real life is ridiculously funny, I don't enjoy watching it onscreen. However, there were previews for Julie & Julia in the beginning, which made me think about the following topic.
So normally I don't really think about movie genres in a clearcut, verbal way, but there is an intense sorting system going on in my head, and though I sometimes find it hard to vocalize reasons why out loud, I know which movies should be grouped together, both broadly and specifically, so that feel and genre are right for me (wow, I kind of sound insane right now/on something, though I swear I'm not). Anyway though, so yeah, I'm going to try to explain a genre that exists in my head, though maybe not completely in real life; I call it guy romcoms. You know normal romcoms? Well, guy romcoms are kind of like those, except they focus more on the comedy aspect/may be referred to as comedies only, and tend to be from a (nerdy) guy's perspective exclusively (ex. 40-Year Old Virgin) (we could talk about the sexism that is sort of present in the (non)existence of the exact girl equivalent of movies like this and how that's changing (ex. Bridesmaids), but that's another post for another day)
I should probably establish right now that there is a distinct difference between adult and teen romcoms, and I'm referring to adult romcoms throughout this entire thing.
ANYWAY THOUGH so what I think is sort of sad is that there aren't many girl romcoms (and I'm going to define these as romcoms that involve/are centered around the perspective of the girl) that involve the girl falling in love with a nerdier/quieter guy, which slightly disturbs me, because that's totally who I'm going to fall for one day. With the exception of 13 Going on Thirty, in fact, I'm not sure if this type of comedy exists. But it should, because I WANT IT TO and the universe exists to give me what I want, duh, I wish.
So in conclusion: future film makers, make this movie, for me, and for all the pretty nerdy girls out there who don't necessarily want to date that awesomely handsome man, but instead like his slightly nerdier and less-hot-but-more-adorable friend. (I suppose that I should maybe mention that there are some notable movies that do follow this, but none that I can think of that aren't teen-oriented and/or stupid. But for examples, let us look at Princess Diaries, Bring It On, and John Tucker Must Die.)
(Also: please give this friend glasses, because glasses can be surprisingly sexy, and they don't exist enough in movies.)

(also also: you may wonder how Julie and Julia led to this topic. Well, it is the result of that one scene where her husband wears glasses and I realized that glasses are awesome. And then I thought about adult romcoms and how there aren't any nerdy cute guys in them.)

Oh and HUNGER GAMES

A very very very quick update because it is waaaaaaay past my bedtime.
So: Lenny Kravitz is Cinna (...wait, Lenny Kravitz acts? Okay then...except all he's ever played are a "Newborn baby" in the Rugrats movie [remember Rugrats? Ah, Chuckie, my baby OCD soulmate] and Nurse John in Precious [still need to see that movie...] Don't know how big a part Nurse John was, but so far: not impressed.)
Stanley Tucci is Caesar Flickermann (not gonna lie, first time I read that I thought Caesar was Cinna I had a minor meltdown)
Woody Harrelson is Haymitch

I can live with these.
(also, too late for thoughts.)

I FINISHED MY HEALTH STUFF.
Sort of. Whatever.

10 Things I Hate About You

I saw this movie for the first time on Wednesday, after having seen the first fifteen minutes at a friend's house last summer.
I just....don't even know. I watched it three and a half more times over the course of three days, made multiple other people watch it with me (including my APUSH class...) and I still want to just keep rewatching it and finding new photos and shit. And it's pretty much mainly just for Heath Ledger.
I have some friends who go through periodic "So-and-so is my ideal date/person," and I never understood it until now. I was always sort of flippy-floppy; like, yeah, he's hot, and an awesome person, but then again, so's that guy, so you know.
But Heath Ledger/Patrick Verona. Um. Yeah. His facial expressions/smile are actually the best things ever. And then there's the accent. And I think it wouldn't be as bad, except there's the knowledge that he won't ever make another movie again, and so, you know, that sort of makes everything a little more intense.
So yup, pretty much every relationship I ever have in the future will be marred/marked by this.


(though who am I kidding, I need to take what I can get, because honestly, I think that maybe I repel boys or something. Not actually, it's just that I find the idea of a relationship where I haven't really known the person for very long as mildly repulsive, just because how can you have any sort of comfort with someone you don't really know? I am not blessed with immediate ease around (some) people, which has to do with the intense and immovable idea of social hierarchy that I have in my head, and which pretty much puts me below a surprisingly large number of people and also has very little to do with age [to the point where sometimes eighth graders are above me on that thing]. Andbutso this means that while in terms of outer appearance my bar is pretty low, in terms of inner stuffs I tend to get picky, especially as it relates to how well I know them. Not when it's just friends, but like I said, deeper relationships are different. So yeah, if you didn't manage to follow all of that weird-ass shit, the upshot is just that relationships that are non-platonic are strugs for me. Even platonic tends to have some issues, when it relates to people who are more acquaintances)

Boring Updates (or all the things that make up my life)

Hey, guess what I haven't done in a long time? Updated the number of books I've read this year! My rate of reading has shown a remarkable decline in the past few weeks, but give me a break, next week is AP testing.
So: we're now at 31¹ for the year, which is sad, because the year's almost at the halfway mark, and I'm nowhere close to being near 50.
My family and I saw Jersey Boys this last Thursday. Now, I haven't been able to properly express my love of musicals on this blog for a little while now, and unfortunately, while Jersey Boys was amazing in its own right, I don't think it's one of my favorite musicals ever, mainly because it was more like a super long concert with some narration in between the songs than an actual musical-story. Not to say I didn't like it. I did. It was awesome.
I also saw Water for Elephants tonight. I enjoyed it; I've read the book, though I didn't really remember all of it so I had more of a feeling of deja vu throughout the entire movie than true recognition. I have to say, Robert Pattinson looks decent when he's not in horribly weird face make-up, and constantly making his constipated face (though never fear, the face still showed up in this movie for a cameo appearance in at least two scenes).

In other non-entertainment-centric news: I have a semi-job now! Hooray, I'm not a failure as a human!

It's cleaning (tidying up, vacuuming, swiffering) a neighbor's house once or twice a week. The neighbor and her husband are both gone a lot, and they have three boys and a cat, so...yes. It pays $12 an hour, and I can go over whenever I'm free. It's awesome.
I also passed all my certification tests! Hooray extra $25 a week at camp!
I'm going to fail my IB Music test this week! Hooray!



¹(For those interested the books read since the last update are...
The Glass Menagerie
In Defense of Food
A Long Way From Chicago
Garden Spells
Heart of Darkness
Sabriel
The Dark Lord of Derkholm
Sunshine
100 Years of Solitude
Ratus a l'hopital
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof -
Lirael

The return of my reviews of television shows.

...not interesting to anyone who doesn't watch it, but yeah, whatever.
I didn't realize that the season finale for Off the Map had aired! I thought that this it was just another episode, and avoided watching them because I assumed I was so far behind that I didn't even want to think about how much time it was going to take to catch up, so I was half pleasantly surprised, half disappointed, that there was only one.
I say half disappointed, because I genuinely like this show, which is surprising. I know that most of the time it's ridiculous¹,  what with the whole intense backstory thing, and everyone being "damaged" in some way, and sometimes the dialogue was cheesy as all get out (Mateo's little speech while he and Lily danced that one night springs to mind), but I ended up liking it. I loved Mina (Meryl Streep's daughter! Her name is Mamie! She's kind of awesome!) and her chicken, and Zee, and Fuller, and pretty much all the characters, except maybe Keeton, who's kind of too serious. So yeah. Kind of really hoping there's another season, because if there isn't and I never know what happens with Fuller/Mina I will be upset. Also, need to know if Mateo's going to die or not. Also, it kind of has good music.
So yes. All that.


¹ Honestly, most doctor/hospital shows seem silly when you think too much about them, because seriously, how often do intense crazy almost-death cases really happen?

Jane Eyre

I ever mention that I saw Jane Eyre? 'Cause I did. And while I love the actors/actresses more than any other version I have half-heartedly thought about watching (and then subsequently did not, because I didn't like the look of the actors/actresses), I don't think it managed to convey the story of Jane Eyre as effectively as some of the others probably did. At times it seemed to skip time and go too quickly, while other times (the romaaaaaaantic scenes especially) it went too slowly. I vaguely remember that when I was reading the book, the bits where she wasn't with the Mr. Rochester seemed to far outnumber the times when she was. I think in general the main issue was that the movie just seemed too short, even if it was two hours.
All in all: I liked it. I think I'd watch it again. Mia Wasikowski (eh, it's something like that. I could look it up, but that would take effort.) played it well, and the girl who played the young Jane Eyre was (according to my mother) a much better actress than some of the others who have come before her. And Judi Dench was in it, which automatically earns it twenty awesome points (God I love Cranford). Also, Michael Fassbender, while possessing a mildy unfortunate name as well as a horrible mutton chop-esque beard thing for most of the film (it turns into an even more horrible full-grown beard at the end¹), was still a) far more attractive than any other Mr. Rochester I've seen and b) maybe one of my favorite parts of the movie. Yes, I know. I'm shallow.

¹In general, hair in this movie was horrible. At first I thought maybe it was just Jane's, done to make her seem uglier. Nope. Not true. Everyone's was horrifying. Yes, I know: historical accuracy. Whatever. People had horrible hair back then, obviously.

Hi.

I'm still here, i.e., not dead.
I hate physics.
I love calculus.
It snowed here yesterday.
I can't find the book I was reading. I might have lost it.
I spent Thursday rewriting all my sheet music for the William Tell Overture down an octave because I have trombone music instead of tuba music.
I made a treasure hunt yesterday with some friends.
I want to see Jane Eyre tomorrow with my mom.
Lifeguarding class still sucks.
I miss France still.
I want summer.
Prom is coming up and there are no interesting couples going and I am disappointed.
I saw some friends play a show-thing the other day, and they are desperately in need of some good critical feedback. But I'm not that good friends with them so what's a girl to do?
I want to watch a romantic comedy.
I want my life to be a romantic comedy.
That is all. For now.

Hunger Games Debrief

So I know I haven't posted about France yet, but that'll be a longer post anyway - I figured I'd have time enough for a short debrief on casting decisions for The Hunger Games.

I would like to note that I'm not going to talk too much about race/hair color in this post. Hair color can easily be changed, so obbviously any complaints on that front are stupid. In terms of the whole race debate, well, first let's agree not to get offended. Second, let's agree that we are not going to come up with complex theories, but instead assume that the less complicated the answer, the better.
So: Katniss is described as having "olive" skin, black hair, and grey eyes.
Her mother has blond hair and blue eyes. We can assume this means Caucasian.
We don't know what race her father is.

Many people in the Seam (located in Appalachia) have the same looks as Katniss. Appalachia has many people who are generally (ethnically) lots of different types of European with Native American thrown in sometimes.

So: Katniss is maybe a "person of color". More likely, in my opinion, she is mixed Caucasian with slightly darker skin. (Remember, olive skin does not equal person of color, it equals olive skin. Not all Caucasians are pasty-faced and stark white.)

All of the above reasoning applies to Gale too, since he looks like Katniss.

In short, it's possible that even a "white" actress like Jennifer Lawrence could look like Katniss - her hair will (hopefully) be dyed, and Katniss is usually pretty dirty, making skin color hard to get extremely specific about in the first place.

1. Katniss Everdeen - Jennifer Lawrence

  Honestly: I can picture this one working. It'll depend on her acting, but I can maybe see her pulling it off. Unfortunately, I haven't seen her in anything so no judgement there.

2. Peeta Mellark - Josh Hutcherson

This one I'm almost completely okay with. I like Josh Hutcherson; I haven't seen The Kids Are All Right, but I've heard good things, and I liked him fine in Bridge to Terabithia.
He definitely has the solid, steady look that I envisioned for Peeta.

3. Gale [...something...] - Liam Hemsworth

...not sure how I feel about this one. He looks like a gorilla.

Not actually, but he does have the vague look of an ape. And also not appropriate for Gale - who should have been more brood-y and darker. Also, I didn't really picture Gale as being a...giant neck, football-y type of guy, more of an understated muscle-y guy - Peeta was always more traditional muscle man in my mind, while Gale was....I don't know. More subtle-strong.

In conclusion: the only one I'm not fully okay with is Gale.

To Whom it May Concern

Back from France.
Will post later about the amazingness of it.
Right now am dying under a mountain of homework.
I wish we'd never come back.

France. What.

We will be leaving for France in less than 24 hours.
WHAT.
Have I mentioned this already? It's a school trip. We'll be in Paris for three days, and Normandy/Caen for the rest. While in Normandy, we'll be staying with a host family. I am excited.
I am also sick, woo. Fell ill with a form of DEATH on Wednesday night after our meeting, didn't go to school on Thursday, went in on Friday (= bad bad baaaaad idea) and took the SAT on Saturday. It went well enough, thank you for asking, thought it seemed easier than some of the practice tests I've been taking. Watched Cranford, fell in love with Dr. Harrison/Simon Woods, found out he was gay, was upset then got over it. Sunday I overstretched myself going to the mall to get shoes and gifts for my host family, and then had severe asthma that night and only slept for three and a half hours. Stayed home Monday and watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (love that movie). Felt better, and I went to school today. Hooray, lovely lovely, hope I do not die on this trip. Plan on inducing mild coma (ha ha, just joking) on plane tomorrow via Benedryl (joking about the coma, not the Benedryl).
Whew, and that was my stream-of-consciousness (sort of) for the past couple of days. Back to France: I am all packed, raring to go, etc., etc. There was a mild Thing re:rooming in Paris, but we will avoid that topic and move on past, because I am reconciled and okay with it now. By the way, in my head when I talk in this way, I imagine myself leading a tour on a Segway, whooshing about, you didn't really need to know that but oh well.
Aaaaaand yes, that I believe is all. I will attempt to blog daily/every other day/sometimes when I am in France/also maybe journal. And take pictures. I have resolved that though I am loath to look like a tourist (doncha love that phrase? So British...) I will grit my teeth and do it, for the sake of posterity. And because otherwise I will regret it.
Next up: For a little while I thought I owned that shirt that Emily is wearing at the beginning of the latest Pretty Little Liars episode. Except my shirt has long sleeves.
(Re: that episode - why the hell would you have creepy clowns just standing around your town? That's messed up, like seriously. Also makes me think of Halloweentown. Kind of want to watch that now).

Best. Coincidence. Ever.

You guys.
The guy who plays Oliver Wood's real name is Sean Biggerstaff.
Just let that sink in.

Biggerstaff.

Updates are boring, I know.

Sorry, I don't have time to actually write things. Ah well, whatever.
I have lost all will to do any sort of schoolwork.
Tomorrow we have a parent meeting for our trip (8 more days!!!) and I had better get a packing list. And an itinerary, or I will explode. (You think I'm joking, but seriously: I start packing a week or two in advance. So the fact that I still don't have an official packing list is killing me, because yes, I can think for myself and figure out what I want, BUT STILL.)
This weekend is the SAT. Kill me now please, I have to wake up at 6 so I can be there by 7:45.
I will be watching Saving Private Ryan/Cranford this weekend. YES.
Hopefully I will also buy lovely clothes/shoes/bags this Friday. MORE YES.
Also, hopefully Jane Eyre is coming out this week. I think it is? I hope it is, I want to see it. (It is, I checked, BUT IT'S NOT PLAYING IN MY AREA THE HORROR NOOOOOOOOOO)
Um, yes. I have read lots of books since the last time I bothered to update this re: stuff like that.
I have lots of new music! Eric Hutchinson, Ingrid Michaelson, Adele, Lily Allen. Hooray!

Cool.
Now I'm off to sleep for 8 hours. YES.

Camp!

Aaaaand I also just got my confirmation for a summer job! I'll be an in-cabin counselor for one session, and a part of the kitten staff for the other (...this may be an issue, for a number of reasons)

SchoolschoolschoolFRANCE

Countdown: 12 days until we leave.
I am so excited.
I need to get some music in that amount of time. (Suggestions?)
I also need to decide what books to bring.
And clothing. Clothing is also important.
Possibly also another suitcase.
I love packing. It's one of my many things (one of the oh-so-many things...). It's possible that making packing lists is one of my favorite parts of traveling.

Quick Oscar debrief

One day late, but I'm always one day late, so whatever.
1. Poor Anne Hathaway. I love you, and I think maybe James Franco hates you, which is sad, and therefore I don't like him. (I never really did, after the brown hair.)
2. In fact, whatever anyone else may say, I enjoyed that rendition of On My Own.
3. Melissa Leo's f-bomb was a little bit adorable.
4. Randy Newman is great, and his acceptance speech was one of my favorites.
5. Billy Crystal = sanctuary from Franco and Anne
6. Cate Blanchett voiced my sentiments exactly. That was gross.
7. Gwyneth Paltrow, I like you, but maybe you should stick to non-live performances.
There were other comments, which I'm forgetting, but I want to sleep now kinda, so oh well.

(OH! 9. Kirk Douglas was actually hilarious to me. Have I mentioned I want to be a semi-crazy old person when I grow up? Being famous to boot would make it even better. I want to be like Betty White, in The Proposal)
(Aaaaaand to round it out: 10. RDJ and Jude Law are the best and I love them both and yes. Cannot wait for the new Sherlock).

Media/life updates

I realized I haven't done one of these in a little bit, so might as well.
Recital on Wednesday went surprisingly well, thank you for asking. I played Syrinx by Debussy, and due to the nature of the piece, I don't think anyone noticed my screw-ups.
I saw my friends' play on Friday with her and another friend - that is, she wasn't in it, but she was the assistant director/intern. It was surprisingly good - based on the idea that the story/book Dracula was based on real-life events, it tells both the story of Dracula and how the people involved were affected when the book was published. It was also surprisingly funny, though I was told that some of the moments that the audience laughed at weren't really intended to be humorous - but oh well. The main fault I had was the length - 3 hours, not including the 15 minute intermission. Also, the second half was quite confusing in terms of exact details; I understood the gist of it all, but kept getting confused as to what was happening exactly. All in all, I wouldn't actually mind seeing it again, if it cost a little less.
I also mentioned a fashion show - it was at the U of M, and the collections were the graduate projects of the seniors. It was fun, and while I didn't like all of them, I certainly had fun commenting on the different outfits.
In other media news: I've been trying to keep up with all the shows, but it's hard, especially since some aren't always put online. Quick run-down though:
-Pretty Little Liars : completely caught up, and though it's still worth watching, there haven't been many truly creepy moments for a while now. Also: whatever happened to Lucas?
-Being Human : I am kind of liking it, though I'm not sure about the ghost plotline - won't she sort of move on soon? I'm an episode behind on this one.
-Glee : midway through the latest episode. Honestly, I no longer watch Glee because I have any sort of vested interest in the characters; it's all about the singing/dancing and random one liners now. Also, I kind of hate Schuester and Finn. And Sam's a straight up idiot. Also, this show is massively offensive in about fifteen different ways.
-White Collar : two episodes behind. Liking the story so far, but I'm just waiting for the moment when it's finally revealed Kate's not actually dead.
-Off the Map : Mateo's hotness is possibly the best thing about this show. I also think party boy/Alma's relationship is adorable, and I like what's-her-face the blondie.
-Top Chef : I missed most of the last two episodes, but Fabio's elimination = immense sadness, and Carla is my favorite person, possibly ever.
-Fringe : All caught up and excited to see how this pans out, especially Olivia and Peter's relationship. Also: Fauxlivia carrying Peter's child makes me upset to a level that I cannot even express at this point. And that bug episode made me want to puke. And the old couple were adorable.
-Merlin : Haven't seen an episode since that goblin one, meaning I'm super behind. Luckily, I have an iTunes gift card, so rental, here I come!
-House : slowly working my way through season 4 and loving it
(so, looking at the gigantic list above makes me feel like I should have no social life, but I swear, I do)
In terms of the books I mentioned last time, I've managed to get through...
-One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey : Enjoyed it more than I thought I would, and I also saw the film; it was interesting to compare between the two, because they really were quite diferent.
-I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett : the book that prompted that lovely rant below; a part of the Tiffany Aching series
- The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen : other book I mentioned, a bit of brain candy (not very dense)
- Killing Britney by Sean Olin : Quite different from the normal stuff I read, this was a thriller; I didn't love it, but it wasn't bad either.
- The Poison Eaters and White Cat, both by Holly Black : The Poison Eaters was an anthology of short stories, most of which I liked. White Cat was also quite good, I'd recommend it.

Phew. Well, that's all. I' going to be attempting to get sone other posts out that don't relate to shows or books, but I don't really know how that'll work with time.

Fantasy

I was trying to describe a book about Tiffany Aching by Terry Pratchett to a friend recently...

Checking in

Hectic week, which is weird, since I really don't have that much new homework - it's just that I'm so behind on the old homework, and the things I want to watch, that I don't have much spare time.
So yes, just checking in to confirm that I'm still alive (I'll refrain from the standard, "As if anyone reads these regularly" joke here - I know, they get old). Lots of lovely books have been successfully read/are being read, some shows have been watched (I'll update on those later), and I have successfully converted a friend to Firefly!
Non-media related news...I had my interview for camp counselor yesterday (exciting! And I think it went fairly well, no major screw-ups on my part), I auditioned for our city honor band on Friday (went suprisingly well, and the judicator was a nice old man who gave me some pointers on breathing after I was done), and my French oral I did today - after the recital on Wednesday, I'm all set for nerve-racking presentations/performances for a good amount of time. And I'm all set up to see a fashion show this weekend and a friend's performancce, though I have no idea how I'm going to afford both. My ass is broke, due to the fun ice-skating/dinner excursion last Friday and this new cardigan I'm wearing. What can I say, I need to get a job.
I do have some ideas for things I'd like to write about, but those will have to wait until I have more time.
That's all for now folks!

My moment of brilliance

I successfully identified Roberto from this past week's episode of Off the Map = that one kid from the newer Fame who what's-her-face the evil dancer broke up with. Without the use of IMDb, thank you very much.
Speaking of Off the Map: I knew someone had to die at some point, but did it have to be the Fame kid? I actually cried during that whole scene with the wife.
ANY way, it's sad that I'm as proud as I am about this, BUT oh well. Also, this is why the IMDb app is the most essentiel thing on my iPhone.
(Related to ABC: Has anyone else seen the Secret Millionaire commercials from ABC? I feel like there's something messed up about the concept of reality show + charity.)

Other news from the week:
-FINALS FINISHED THANK GOD ALMIGHTY. I did pretty well on mine, Hallelujah.
-Saw Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which was actually really funny and may help me get over my prejudice against old movies that do not involve singing and dancing.
-Finished four more books: The House of Bernarda Alba (a play read because of English), The Chocolate War (those kids terrify me), Thirteen Reasons Why (about a girl who commits suicide, but first makes tapes telling people why), and Me Talk Pretty One Day (David Sedaris!). I would recommend all four, though Thirteen Reasons Why is probably the most "mainstream" teen/YA book, while The Chocolate War is for fans of Lord of the Flies, and The House of Bernarda Alba is really one of those plays that comes off as really weird and kind of silly, but which has all sorts of hidden meanings/symbolism that's kind of fun to find in English class. Me Talk Pretty One Day was just hilarious.
-Haven't yet gotten around to watching Merlin or White Collar, but Fringe had some horribly distrubing imagery, and I am now upset with Peter. Also, really enjoying Being Human. Pretty Little Liars, meanwhile, has been sadly lacking in the Shit What Was That *SCREAM* category for the past couple of weeks, but hopefully next week will change that.
-Saw The Social Network (love for Andrew Garfield forever. Also, the whole twins thing was super weird - they made comments that amounted to "WE ARE THE SAME" ALL the time, which I found odd) and The King's Speech (like a smorgasbord of Pride and Prejudice actors/actresses! Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy, and Mr. Collins, all in one movie!). Watched the beginning of Paris, Je T'aime (the Chinese/Asian hair one was weird, the mime one had an adorable little kid, and the Muslim girl one was just really cute).
-Started catching up on House. Woo, sarcasm!
-French meeting today after school = I AM EXCITED! I want to start making packing lists now. Actually, I might go do that...

I have regressed.

I couldn't help it, I started watching the episode for tonight.
First off: they still hadn't figured out what "The only place where yesterday comes before tomorrow" was. Because they're idiots. Honestly.
Second: Patricia just FLAT OUT KIDNAPS a guy from the hospital. Niiiiice.
Third: Mara has suddenly started caring about her appearance/become a bitch. Okaaaay.
Fourth: I was wondering where the whole need for secrecy had gone, when suddenly Victor showed up. Bless.

Lots of ands and alsos.

This short interlude of fast and furious posts is going to be coming to a (hopefully) temporary pause. Finals week is fast approaching, and I need to start cracking down on that and (DUN DUN DUN) SAT studying. Bleh.

Merlin: This is the third episode of the third season of Merlin that I've seen thus far. Though the episodes came out in the U.K. about half a year ago, I decided against illegally watching them in favor of getting to watch them on an ACTUAL television.
I'm not going to recap them, but I do have some quick comments for those who have already seen them:

Bald Uther!
The sight of Arthur waking up and immediately standing on his feet and whipping out a sword was pretty much one of the best things in the season thus far (...added bonus: no shirt).
Gaius licking his lips is one of the weirdest and most disturbing things ever, but him slapping a bald Uther is PRICELESS. AND THEN UTHER IN HIS HAT. AND THE FARTING.
Oh god, Arthur has donkey ears. Officially my favorite episode.
Beyond Merlin, there's still Off the Map (in an odd way, I like it; it reminds me of Lost, but without the massive stupidity of Jack and all the other melodramatics. ALL. THE. TIME. We'll see though, I bet that Off the Map will start to get annoying soon. Favorite character thus far is the uptight blonde woman)
Also: Castle and House and getting caught up are goals of mine.
And finishing Brideshead Revisited.
And Little Women.
And reading more.
Also also: I give up on House of Anubis, officially. I may still continue watching it every once and a while, unofficially, though I won't be posting recaps or anything. Probably. Nothing is every certain on this blog.
(Also, Fringe started back up today, and while it wasn't the most exciting or horrifying or terrifying episode ever, it had its moments. I have to say, getting to see Olivia show her feelings more and be vunerable around Peter is nice.)

Also, I am becoming mildly addicted to the country music station. This is like my childhood coming back to me, along with summer. God I miss summer.

House of Kidnap/House of Cat-nap & House of Cameras/House of Numbers

House of Kidnap/House of Cat-nap
In the beginning of last night's episode, a black cat shows up, apparently one the "Saboona"-ites found in the basement. (I never mentioned that did I? They have a seriously messed up "secret handshake" that involves them covering one eye with their hand, then saying "Saboona". Yes, it is as stupid as it sounds).

An update

So we have Thing to Discuss.
Firstly, today was my second recital (of three) that I'm doing as a part of the requirements for IB Music. I
don't know if I've mentioned it, but I have a serious issue with presenting things in public. It's taken me a little while, but I've finally gotten over most of my nerves for presentations done in English; and my French is finally at a level where it's not so bad either. But recitals, specifically those on flute, kill me. I also play the tuba in our band, and those solos aren't nearly as bad; I know that I'm not all that great, and honestly, if you're expecting something absolutely beautiful from a tuba solo, you're expectations are out of whack anyway. But a flute is one of those instruments; the ones that people play and are astounding good at. And so when I fail at the flute (which sometimes happens) it is so much worse than when I fail at the tuba.
Anyway though, at the very least it's over, and there's (essentially) no homework for tonight and nothing to freak out about anymore! Yay!

Martin Luther King Day

I don't know what everyone else's experiences with Martin Luther King Day is, as I'm sure it varies hugely in how it's celebrated and acknowledged from neighborhood to neighborhood, much less city to city. I'm not even sure if anything like this is celebrated in other countries (I'm going to guess it's not). But I'm going to talk about my experiences, because, well, this is my blog, and I think that my experiences were actually pretty unique.
From Kindergarten to 4th grade, I went to a school named after Martin Luther King Jr., which prompted the emphasis that you would think it would. By the time I was in 4th grade, I knew all about the Civil Rights Movement; Little Rock Nine, Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, and Martin Luther King. We'd watched nearly every movie about that time period as well: Selma Lord Selma, Ruby Bridges, The Ernest Green Story, Our Friend Martin (When I reflect back on it, Selma Lord Selma was probably watched in a later grade, because it was a little more violent). Every year we had a Martin Luther King Assembly, where every grade presented something, be it singing or reciting parts of his I Have A Dream Speech. I can still distinctly remember memorizing parts of his speech so that I could get a "solo". We sang songs like Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and other spirituals (just found out Swing Low, Sweet Chariot has become the unofficial song of the English rugby team - ??). By the time we had hit 4th grade we were writing essays on various topics related to Martin Luther King Jr., something all the older grades did as well. The winning essays were presented at this same assembly.



Our assembly from 2nd grade

 Even after I left King Lab, there was still focus on the Civil Rights Movement - we spent quite a lot of 5th grade learning about it (I think this was when we watched Selma Lord Selma).
What did everyone else do? Was it just a day off from school, or were there assemblies and speeches? I know my sister says they never did anything like this at any of the three schools she's gone to.
I'm inclined to think that we were fairly unique, but maybe that's just because I want to believe that.
In any case, I think it was a great experience to have, especially growing up.
(As a random aside, I just found out John Cusack went to my elementary school!)
(Also, from what I can tell from the school site, the assembly is a three performance event, which sounds pretty much right - I think I can remember having multiple performances)

More TV Shows??

Started watching Off the Map on a whim, and after five seconds, figured out the pairings: Attractive Older Doctor and Bown Newbie end up together, with the extra complication of the woman who showed up at the end of the episode and both of their Troubled Pasts. Black Doctor and Spanish Doctor are possibly already a couple; if not, they will be. The remaining two Newbies will end up together.
I feel like new doctors or patients will have to turn up eventually, because otherwise where would our love triangles/issues come into play? It'd be far too simple if everyone could just be happy with one person.
(If anyone's keeping track, I am now following five shows currently airing, and an additional five that will be starting within the week, plus another one that's been airing and that I'll start watching. Oddly enough, none of them are aired on Thursdays. Also, approximately four of these shows will not be available online after the fact.)

(Additionally, I need to finish Lost sometime, catch up on House, and I'd really like to start watching Dexter, The Big Gang Theory, Mad Men, and Castle)

Pretty Little Liars

Using recaps found via Google and the five episodes up on Hulu, I have successfully been introduced to the world of Pretty Little Liars. I am extremely excited to follow this show, though I am hoping desperately that it doesn't go on for too long - the problem with mystery-based shows is that once the mystery is solved, it's nearly impossible to keep them going, so you have to just keep extending the twists and turns in order to squeeze more seasons out, and honestly, it gets tedious after awhile.
Setting aside my fears for the future, it's actually a pretty good show, and has helped me to figure out my strange addiction to House of Anubis: Anubis has mystery but no suspense or terror, whereas I legit screamed like a small child multiple times when I was watching the 5 episodes on Hulu. In some ways that's good and bad: I never feel the need to skip ahead or close my eyes during Anubis, which is a plus since I hate really scary things. However, it also makes the entire show seem silly and pointless, because I'm really not that invested in the characters or the story. Meanwhile, Pretty Little Liars is absolutely terrifying, and made me call my sister into the room just so I wouldn't be alone while certain scenes were going on.

As far as I can tell, just based off of the Wikipedia synopses (synopsese? synopsisses?), the books and the show differ remarkably in terms of plot. Judging by the brief glimpse I got from the aforementioned synopses, I'm glad. The book plots sound even more complicated, and less likable. This is mainly because it makes me really glad that in the television show, it doesn't seem as though Toby was abusive/raped Jenna, though I may be proven wrong later. Also, he didn't kill himself whichis good, because Keegan Allen is attractive. Not all the time, as sometimes his hair in this series needs a serious haircut/someitmes he looks seriously creeptastic, but other times...yes, please. Noel is also attractive, though perhaps a little too...put-together? I don't know what the word I'm looking for is, but there's something about him that bothers me. He's just a little too generic.

Pretty Little Liars also has a plethora of look-alikes on the show. Besides Jenna, who's the girl from Spectacular!, that musical that Nickelodeon did about a show choir (yes, it was before Glee), which I was mildly in love with, despite the unfortunate haircut of the main guy, and which led to the following video clip:

(which I was also mildly in love with. I also may have had bad taste, I don't know, STOP JUDGING ME.)
Anyway, besides her, there's also a Shia LaBeouf lookalike (who, it turns out, was in that made-for-tv Disney movie, The Luck of the Irish):

 And a Dean-aka-the-one-boyfriend-from-Wizards-of-Waverly-Place lookalike:

 THEY COULD BE THE SAME PERSON.

(Also, this is why I have the IMDB app on my phone. So I can look up what these people have been in previously.)

 

Pretty Little Liars has also led me to The Pierces. After hearing that intro for the first time, I immediately downloaded the entire album. I wish all of their songs were as creepy as Secrets, but they really aren't half bad.