Saturday, January 16, 2010

Back With Books

Hello...sorry that I have been absent for such a long time from the blogosphere! Holidays, and homework, and finals coming up means my life is homework, sleeping (not enough of this), and running around trying to do either of the two. But I did get some AMAZING books this year (or should I say last year? Ack...brain doesn't like time), so here are a few you should definetly read, atleast twice.

Paper Towns, by John Green:

If you haven't read anything by John Green, you are missing out! Looking For Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines are amazing books. So is Paper Towns, which I don't actually own, to my sorrow, but borrowed from my next door neighbor (Thanks Shannon!) who got it for Christmas. It follows the senior year of Quentin Jacobsen, your completely average nerdy gamer who spends a lot of time hanging around the band room, even though he's not actually in the band, and his hopeless love for his neighbor Margo Roth Spielman. His life changes one night when, a month or two before the end of the year, Margo climbs into his window dressed as a ninja, and they rampage the town in a deadly plan of revenge. His life changes even more when she doesn't come to school the next day, or the next, or the one after that...and she's reported missing. And, as if it couldn't get any more exciting, Quentin discovers clues Margo has left to help him discover where she is, and why she's hiding. But, as he goes deeper and deeper into Margo's disapearence, he begins to wonder whether or not she really ever wants to be found, and if she's really the girl he fell in love with. Culminating in an across the state road trip of epic proportions, this book made me smile, laugh, roll around on my bed, and glue my eyes to the pages. It is written so well...I actually wrote a song about it afterwards. Who knows, maybe I'll post that on here someday. But you should read Paper Towns...it's deep thought disguised in a graduation gown of hilarity.

With that awesome metaphor, I have to leave. Expect more books later. Dun, dun, dun.....

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

As I said before, I am trying to write a novel in 30 days. That's 50,000 words...and I have 1,390! But here is what I have so far (thank you Emiko, this is for you!). Sorry, quick post, need sleep and I have quartet performances tommorow in Orchestra, so I have to practice for that! The busy life of a nerdy teenager...

Anyway: Here's what I have so far. And this is a rush of creative ideas, so it is not edited in any way. Beware!

Prologue: The Pen

It was a cheap, blue, 15 cent, reusable, Walmart pen. I didn’t know how it had gotten onto my desk, as I had a personal vendetta against Walmart, and pens in general. You can’t erase anything you write with a pen; it’s too permanent. I don’t like permanence. I guess I’m a little weird that way.

Anyway, the pen. It was blue, had a few dents in the lid, and was sitting mysteriously on my Pre-Calc desk, smack dab in the front, two desks from the pencil sharpener and three from the window. Basically, the desk right in the middle of everything, where it would be difficult to plant a pen. But there it was. Battered and blue, taunting me.

It was a last minute decision. I wasn’t going to pick it up; I wasn’t even going to touch it. I was going to go to lunch, buy a pumpernickel bagel and orange juice, and sit outside in the courtyard with my history textbook, like any normal Tuesday afternoon. But, somehow, this didn’t happen. I picked up the smooth pen and tucked it into my bag, and left the room. And it wasn’t a normal Tuesday anymore.

Chapter 1: The Significance of a Pumpernickel Bagel

Nobody likes pumpernickel. It’s pretty much a proven fact. And this is why I always eat pumpernickel bagels on Tuesdays. Tuesday is bagel day, and by the time I get to lunch, which is late, since I actually write down the homework on the board and don’t sneak out of class early by asking to go to the bathroom seven minutes before the bell rings, there is nothing left but about seventeen pumpernickel bagels, which the staff keep ordering, even though they should know by now nobody likes pumpernickel, some limp carrots, and orange juice. And so this has become my Tuesday diet.

On this particular Tuesday, I arrived at the cafeteria to discover there were no pumpernickel bagels. I was shocked speechless. After 156 days of pumpernickel bagels, there were none. None. Not a single bagel was left in the foil-covered tray where they were usually carefully stacked. I could not believe this…something was drastically wrong. I stopped in my tracks, and checked my watch. Yep, it was lunchtime on Tuesday, September 23rd, and there were no bagels. Instead, on the whiteboard where purple pen spelled out the torture item of the day, there were two words: Vegetarian Lasagna.

Lasagna? Who ate lasagna? Especially vegetarian lasagna? And on Bagel Tuesday? This could not be happening. First the stupid Walmart Pen, and now this. Ultimate wreckage of Bagel Day, and thus the rest of my Tuesday. I slouched towards the lunch line, and purchased a cheese stick and orange juice, both of which were warm, and looked sad and lonely on my tray without a bagel.

With the day already in ruins, I headed over to the doors, running into them with my face and propelling myself forward. This is the proven best method to open doors, if you don’t mind weird looks, and have stuff in your arms. Which I normally do. Plus, it is a test of strength: me against the evil steel doors of the public school institutions of the world. Watch…one day I’ll be on Oprah. Or have broken my nose. One of the two.

After my struggle with the doors and the purchase of warm lunch items, I headed to my bench, only to have my stomach plummet through my red converse covered in doodles. There were people sitting on my bench. Not just sitting, however. But making out, and drinking chocolate milk in between kisses. With straws. As if the making out wasn’t horrible enough, they had plates of vegetarian lasagna lying next to them, halfway eaten.

My head was about to explode. There were lasagna eaters making out and drinking chocolate milk on my bench. The red bench, carefully positioned underneath my favorite vine maple trees, with perfect angles for people watching, and reading unnoticed. And right up against the stone wall covered with ivy, so I could lean back, and be both shaded and protected from the wind. That bench was my solitude: it was my Lord of the Flies clearing. And the people in it were being pig’s heads in my clearing.

Stepping back into the doors, I banged my head on the steel bar at the top, and received a temporary shock to reality. One, I didn’t own the bench, and anyone who wanted to could sit there. Two, I had just made a Lord of the Flies analogy. I obviously needed a social life or religion, and badly. I had reached a point of nerdiness that wasn’t even funny any more. Gosh, this was one heck of a Tuesday.

Turning around, I headed for the next available spot: the reference section of the library. No one reads reference books, unless forced to by an evil social studies teacher or their very out of touch grandmother, and so I was sure it would be safe. Not that my assumptions were having any pull here today, but, luckily, I was correct. There was nobody in the library except for a few sophomore geek-types, some over-achieving independent math students, and the librarian, who was hidden behind a battered copy of The Fellowship of the Ring. I headed back to the reference section, and pulled out my pitiful lunch from my canvas bag.

A quick note on canvas bags: they are taking over the world. I know we’re supposed to be eco-friendly and all, but really. Pretty soon small Asian children will be making canvas bags in sweatshops in Canada, and they’ll be piling up in department stores everywhere. The employees won’t be able to make it out of the store, the stacks will be so huge. We’ll have to evacuate the country, and make all of our clothes and shelters out of canvas bags with the words “Green is the New Black”, “Save the World”, “Go Green!” and “Fred Meyers” printed on them.
But, back to me, my pitiful lunch, and the reference section. Let me suffice to say, it was a long lunch period.

Chapter 2: Stick Figures

Lunch was not the high point of my day. But what came after lunch made it look like 7th Heaven: a free period.

Now, I bet most people in the world would not be dreading a free period. They would be rejoicing, spinning in circles, inventing new, untried ways to sneak and off campus and not get caught, and finishing up the homework due the next period. Okay, the last one’s a long shot, but you never know. Miracles do happen. Sometimes.

But, of course, I am not most people. Consider this: It might take some imagination, but I know you can do it. I have no friends (I left them all in Oregon when I moved in 7th grade), a perfect 4.0 GPA, all my homework is done the night before, and I’ve no desire to leave the school campus, plus no way to be back in time for 6th period, as I have no car, no driver’s license, and my bike has a flat tire. In short, my life is a pathetic sob story.

I protested the free period, but it was in vain. This is the problem with having no extracurricular activities and no social life, and taking online classes for fun. Plus thinking AP Biology and AP Lit are fun classes. Basically, my nerdiness has defeated me, once again. Darn.

Anyway, with absolutely nothing to do and a whole period in which to do it in, I have been cultivating a hobby: drawing stick figures. With top hats. I call them the Minions, and they live in the back of my Spanish notebook. They’re cultivating a small society there, inventing microwave popcorn and shoelaces, and all the good things in life.

But today I was too tired to help the Minions microwave the popcorn and tie their shoes. I was too tired to think, or look at my AP Bio book, or even eat my warm, limp cheese stick. I just put my head down on the table and sighed. My sigh knocked over the large reference books stacked around me, and they slowly dominoed onto my head. Typical.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

The Craziest Idea Ever

Well, I think I've gone insane. My family agrees. Because (wait for it, wait for it): I'm going to try to write a novel in 30 days. Yes, 30 days. The entire month of November. Here I go, the girl who can't write a 5 paragraph essay in a week, trying to write a whole book in a month!

You can blame my friend Dana for getting me into this crazy scheme. http://evergreendr.blogspot.com/ This is her blog, Elf, where she first advertised the crazy scheme: The NaNoWriMo contest. Write a novel in 30 days, since November is National Novel Month. And me, being the gullible writing-crazy girl that I am, went right to the website (http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/) and signed right up. So, we'll see where this goes. Maybe it will turn out something good...maybe it will be a complete disaster. We'll see!

Monday, October 5, 2009

Forced Flow and Apologies

You know the feeling when you have something to say but you just can't seem to find the words to say it? It seems like I'm living in that state permanently right now.

I'm sorry I haven't posted in such a long time...school started and wham! Homework hit me over the head like my AP US History textbook. And it was not comfortable.

But about that feeling. That is one of the reasons I write, because I feel like, if I can force the words out onto paper and throw them into something that can say what I wanted to or not, then maybe, someday, it will be easier to get them to come out of my mouth. So far this hasn't happened yet, but I'm still hoping it will.

And I guess the reason I said that is that I have been writing a lot of poetry and songs in the last couple weeks, and it all seems to be trying to make sense of what's inside my head. It doesn't make much sense (neither does what's inside my head, for that matter), but I feel like it says something important. So, because I have been horribly neglectful to my blog and because I need to show it to someone, no matter who that might be, I'm going to post a couple of the poems on here. If you like them, then that's great...if you don't understand them, than your brain probably works in a normal fashion, unlike mine. Here goes.

The raindrops
pound drumbeats on my window
blur the outside
into torrents of gray mist
and I sit
waiting for someone
anyone
to break the loud
silence
with nothing but the raindrops
for company


It's the same old story
prove your glory
friend then enemy
what have you done to me
feeble reality
touch my lips to yours
one last time
I can claim you
even when you're forced to be mine
freezing
burning
the girl on fire
perect eleven
please aspire
to kill me
sparks fly upward
catch my dress
burning
transformed
fly away
before you too
catch fire


Turn up the music
it blocks out
your thoughts
thinking is too routine to be painless
lacking orignality
you mind is like a playlist on repeat
the ferris wheel
circling over the suburbs
carrying the weight of everyone
but yourself
you trip over everyone else's burdens
in your haste to turn off the light
everything looks better
when all you can see
is the dark
Bittersweet chocolate chips
Ripped paper
Thousands of never finished sentences
Millions of words never formed by my shaking lips
Salty cheeks
Belated news
Caps lock is on
And everything is a love song
She said it was dangerous
And forbidden
So we rushed out
To prove ourselves reckless
And to prove that love
Conquers everything
We swung our legs
Over the edge of the bridge
Laughed at the height
Heady in the danger
And your perfume
Popping multi-colored bubbles
With our bare feet
Glittering highlights
Of sunlight
In your caramel colored hair
You said you’d be here forever
I said that I knew that
Already
And we sat in our isolated moment
Until
I woke up
Disclaimer: The second poem, entitled Game Piece, was written right after I finished the book Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins, which was about 20 minutes ago, actually. It's the sequel to the Hunger Games, and I won't give you a summary, because it is impossible to do without giving something away. But if you like twisted love stories, rebellion, action, moral decisions, and cliffhangers, you should read this book. After the Hunger Games, of course. If you have a hard time with sadness or some bloody action though, it is definetly not the book for you. But it's a nonstop adrenaline rush, with an amazing complicated plot and characters. Here's the cover: And, hopefully, that makes up for my absence in the cyber-world of late. Hope you enjoyed reading, and I shall see you (well, not exactly, but you know what I mean) next time I happen to be in the cyber-world.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Possible Employee of The Best Bookstore Ever

So, as I was buying Running Shoes today for Cross Country, I decided to go over to Village Books, my favorite local bookstore in the entire world, since it's right across the street. I walked in with a pair of shoes, and I walked out with a pair of shoes, Cathy's Book (which will probably be reviewed here soon), and...a job application.

Some background information: I love Village Books, and it's been a running joke in my family that they should just hire me, since I spend so much time there anyway. It's my dream job: working in a bookstore, helping people buy books, and reading books ALL DAY. What could be better? And my mom had talked to the owners at a function she went too, and they said they could give me a job if I applied. They can't pay me until I turn 16, but I would still get to work there, and I could count it for volunteer hours.

So, I went in with my mom today, and picked up a job application! I have to write a letter about my interests for working there, and fill out the 8 pages of the application, turn it in, and we'll see how it goes!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

History Mysteries and Purple Shoes

Sorry I haven't been posting in ages and ages and ages....I have been doing homework! I know, here you may gasp "Why? School doesn't start for another two weeks!" And I shall tell you why. I'm taking AP US History this year, and we have too (no, we get too!) read 5 chapters in our textbook and take notes on them. I'm halfway through Chapter 3: Settling the Northern Colonies, 1629-1700. So, a book you don't want to have to read this summer: The American Pageant. It's actually kind of interesting, if you like history, slavery, religious radicals, and tobbaco. Oh, and corn. Lots of corn. But it's also not too fun to spend a summer day inside taking notes. So, if you feel like a long book full of more than you ever wanted to know wbout the US facts, pick it up at the Sehome library today. They probably won't let you check it out if you're not taking the class, but you could always try.

Off to my last summer run...I start Cross Country practice tommorow! School is fast aprroaching! But, I will be facing it in a new pair of purple low top Converse, so like isn't all bad....

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Bloody Brilliant!

I have to say, I've been dissapointed by the Harry Potter movies in the past. They all seem to be missing crucial parts, they cut out my favorite characters, and they skip really awesome lines. But, 4 hourse ago I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in theaters, and I am astonished. Amazed. Stupified. It was BLOODY BRILLIANT! It was the best Harry Potter movie so far, in my opinion, and this time they actually managed to stick to the story line and make it a great movie. Wow. If you have an opportunity to see it on the big screen, do it.

Part of being a die hard fan is, of course, dressing up for the movie. I went with my sister, my dad, and one of our friends. In order to dress up as Tonks (Nimphadora Tonks, Animorphmagus and punk Auror), I had to die my hair purple. This is us before we headed off to the theater. I'm in the middle, as Tonks, my sister is on the left as Luna Lovegood, and our friend Dana is on the right, as Bellatrix Lestrange. Our costumes were the best of the bunch, I must say....and the movie was as good as the book. Maybe even better...