School!

The title says it all! I like most of my classes, in fact I like all of my classes. It's the subjects that really bug me.

I got a temporary job working for the Indiana Space Grant Consortium at the State Fair. While I was there, I of course got to walk all over the place and see what goes Moo in the night. Here are some pictures!



I loved this cow! She was a little Mini-Moo and I liked her best at the FFA petting zoo (okay, maybe it was a he...I didn't look too much.) Her nose felt like leather that had been in the freezer. Weird image, yes, but if you had pet this cow you'd get it.



OH MY GOD THE EGG:CHICKEN RATIO HERE IS SO SMALL I CAN'T EVEN SEE IT!

Why Harry Potter is Good Literature

I just got back from seeing the sixth film, and I think it was brilliant.

I write the following essay from the point of view of someone who purely enjoys reading the Harry Potter books. I am not a screaming fangirl, nor have I ever been to a midnight premier of a movie, nor have I ever constructed an elaborate costume involving glasses and/or fluffy or red hair and/or wands, capes, or striped scarves. (I have dressed as Harry Potter characters as a child but none of the costumes were anything to gaze in wonder at. Think a cape. And a witch's hat.) I do not draw fan art or write elaborate fan fiction depicting complex love polygons between various students at Hogwarts.

But to those who claim that Harry Potter is not worth the public attention that it gets, and that it is badly written, I will stand up and contest your opinion. I defend this one point, and that is J.K. Rowling's ability to create an excellent work of literature.

Rowling's world is so complex and has such a unique atmosphere that it's instantly recognizable to anyone who is familiar with the stories. It's not hard to imagine that she has an entire Middle-Earth-esque map of England mapped out somewhere, with every detail of the Harry Potter world's history marked. Every corner in Nocturne Alley and every hidden corridor of Hogwarts has some sort of connection to the seven books written about Harry. All of the people in the history of Rowling's magic world practically have their lives written in Hogwarts' books, and thus Rowling's books, and they all tie into the story she writes. No character is out of place or unnecessary, and her ability to connect the lives and personalities and choices of such a huge number of people to one main plot climax frankly astounds me.

The characters themselves are extremely distinct in personality, down to the rarely-mentioned neighbors of the Dursleys, the fans at the Quidditch World Cup, and each Hogwarts student. Whether or not one considers them to be a strong or a weak character, to be admirable or detestable, is not my issue--the fact is that Rowling has established hundreds of personalities down to such detail that readers can swiftly identify with them and recognize their behavior. A reader who pays attention can instantly picture Rowling's characters down to the way they walk, whether or not their eyes flit about or stay focused, and how they might approach one another in conversation--if ever. I can rarely put a clear face on the characters of books, but Harry Potter is a world in which I have the clearest mental image of any book I have ever read--and that's not because of the movies.

Finally, whether or not a reader enjoys it, Rowling has constructed a plot so complex and so heart-wrenchingly close to the literates of my generation, that people have followed Harry Potter's life as if their own lives depended on the outcome of his conflict with the Dark Lord. Her incredible ability to tell a tale, to weave a story, regardless of your affinity for it, is extremely rare. To those who suggest that J.K. Rowling does not actually write the books themselves, I don't believe you. Such creative genius exists in the world, and it deserves every dollar J.K. Rowling has earned. To capture an audience of billions so completely with one story means you did something right.

Works in Progress (and some that are finished)

I've been artsing around like crazy lately. This is what's currently in the art crock pot:

My customized vintage luggage set:

My mom buys these old suitcases whenever they show up at Goodwill with the hopes that someone will decorate them and use them or give them as gifts. When we were cleaning out the garage I found a "set" that almost matched (a suitcase and a makeup-type box). I painted them light blue with white piping/edging and now I'm FINALLY getting around to the big fancy flowers! I went with poppies:





Here's the mate that I haven't started with the floweries yet:



Last night Ellie and I stayed up late to make earrings. I went crazy.



I'm planning on making many more. I also drilled holes in some root beer bottlecaps and Ellie wired them for me. No photograph; I can't take true credit for making them. Just the power tools.





I also have one acrylic painting in progress. It's been halted because I hate those white flowers in the corner. I'll finish it eventually. It looks much prettier than I originally expected. The poppy on the suitcase has proven itself to be much more Fun per Unit than these flowers, though.



Not to mention...my mother's custom cupboard door! I'm so proud of this.



Gratuitous CORGITUDE!

Yet another colloquialism I despise

I remembered another one today while parked outside of a nail salon.

Mani-pedi.

Take your pick, you can have a manicure-pedicure or a man pedophile; this handy phrase is short for both!

Phrases and colloquialisms that bother me for no good reason

"Here there be dragons"

I really don't understand where this came from. Maybe it's from some famous fantasy book--god help me if it's from Lord of the Rings and I don't realize it--but I hate it. I usually find it in those catalogs of Cute Things that Old Ladies Buy For Their Houses and Hapless Relatives. Wall plaques, T-shirts, little stones for your garden...well, since it's phrased in such a way that sounds mock medieval, there MUST be dragons.

"Balla/Ballin'/Baller" (however you spell it)

Who came up with this? Does anyone else realize that when you say something is "Ballin'" or "Baller" it sounds like you're comparing them to pieces of male reproductive equipment? I hate talking to people at school only to have them tell me that some anecdote I just shared is "baller." Ew.

The word "dollop"

Yes, we get it, you can light up the room with a dollop of Daisy. Don't get me wrong, I ADORE sour cream. I eat more sour cream on my taco salad than lettuce. But in my ears, the word "dollop" has the same ring to it as the word "turd." I prefer not to think of things I put into my mouth as the linguistic cousin of a turd, let alone write a song about how a dollop of it lights up the room.

The world "delish"

DO NOT TRUNCATE THE WORD "DELICIOUS." IT MAKES YOU SOUND LIKE YOU'RE TRYING TOO HARD TO BE COOL. I CAN'T EVEN TELL IF THE WORD "DELISH" IS A NOUN OR AN ADJECTIVE.

"Now, now."

Basically meaning "Come on, let's be nice/less prejudiced/not make fun of the disadvantaged people in the world," the phrase "Now, now" has no contemporary relation to its connotation. On top of its lack of sense, it's humiliating to hear when it's directed at you. It makes me feel like a puppy who just peed on the floor.

"Hominy."

I first heard this word used to describe the contents of Wilbur's slop in Charlotte's Web and I have hated it ever since. I'm not sure why I have no tolerance. I never knew what it was until just a few seconds ago when I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it sounds approximately what I guessed--grain-based food probably eaten by farmers and/or their livestock. I was right:

Hominy or nixtamal is dried maize (corn) kernels which have been treated with an alkali.

It doesn't sound all that revolting--not like scrapple--but use your best creepy-stalker voice and say it several times really quickly:

"Hominyhominyhominyhominy."

It begins to get a little weird. If you do this in a public place, old ladies will blush and mothers will likely hide their children behind their hoop skirts and throw you threatening looks.

"Pot stickers."

There are a variety of hilarious hippie hash and marijuana jokes I could make; but I will refrain. In general, the term "pot stickers" turns the very warm, welcoming, and friendly concept of a dumpling into something disgusting, something gooey, something doughy that sticks to everything and can't be chewed. Stuff that sticks to the pot is sticking to the pot because it wasn't eaten and has been allowed to sit in the sink for 24 hours and is now waterlogged and gross. You don't eat what's sticking to the side of a pot. This is a phrase that should be left over for old macaroni and cheese, oatmeal, or rice.

What's Been the Haps

So, what I've been doing lately since I got off school:

1. Painting my room! It's springy mint green with blue "highlights". It looks very nice! I will miss my paneling but the new coat of paint gives it my own personalized feel. Ellarina has been helping LOTS, and we've been singing at the tops of our respective respiratory systems...Don't Stop Believin'...

2. Training Herbie! Herbie and I have been working hard together. We hope to be registered in the Delta Society within a few months and to be able to participate in the local chapter, Caring Paws. (Herbie has a distant friend, Zephyrus, who's already a partner in the organization with his buddy Andrea. Go Zeph!) He's a very good dog, and we've been training every day to make sure he knows his stuff extra well, and he's been introduced to all sorts of new people and dogs to practice his best manners. We go to PetSmart and visit with friend doggies Lexi and Buobi. Thanks doggies!



3. Painting pictures! I've been working with acrylics because they involve fewer fumes than oils do.

4. Working on my web site! Kiwibug.com! It's got some things that need improvement, but I've corrected most of them and just have to put it on the server.

Artistic Hypocrisy

I was just browsing through art to see if there was any new Ayn Rand fan art up on Deviantart--the Rand fan art rate is fairly slow, but occasionally I spot a nice one.

I frequently come across Rand-fan-art with descriptions below it that go something like this:

"I decided to draw (insert some part of an Ayn Rand novel here)...I dunno, I was reading the book, and just had to. I can't stand Rand's ideas, though. The philosophy is horrible."

Then why, for the love of all that is sacred, did you take time out of your life to emulate her philosophy through your artwork?

WHY?

Do you not understand what art means? As an individual who creates, you choose to create what you value and what you think should be expressed in concrete form--in essence, you see something you think is worthwhile, and you record it and/or try to convey it to millions of people on the internet. Why would you draw a hero or heroine of a book whose philosophy you claim to deplore? These pictures are never drawn in a hateful way, either...they're generally quite attractive, but I cannot bring myself to place them in my favorites list because of the blatant hypocrisy in your claims of hating Rand's ideals. Something in the book compelled you enough to draw it, and draw it in a good, heroic light. You show reverence for it by drawing it...and you turn around and claim to hate that very reverence?

Being Realistic in High School

I write this both on behalf of myself and on behalf of several friends who are experiencing difficulties or have experienced difficulties with this in the past (and may in the future).

High school, like most of childhood, is a period of huge amounts of learning and mental and personal growth. It's legally a transition from minordom to adulthood. Students at high school have to suck in huge amounts of information every single day. We spend 7.5-8 hours in school each day, counting lunch hours. That's a lot of time we spend each day cramming information into our brains from multiple subjects--in my school's case, up to 7 subjects per semester.

My school maintains a fairly ambitious and rigorous schedule for its students, and expectations run very, very high. We get extremely high test scores (some of the highest in the state, behind a few private high schools). Many of the students I attend school with work very hard toward academic achievement.

I've been going to school for two years now. I like it overall, and school passes quickly for me. One thing I've noticed that I strongly disagree with, however, is the overload of homework that teachers assign.

No, I am not anti-homework, nor do I think all of the assignments we're given are stupid. For instance, math homework drills and repetition makes sense, because math takes repetition to become skilled at it, and 50-minute class periods don't always contain enough time to properly practice.

Almost every student at my high school takes a study hall once or twice a year just to have time to do the homework assigned. And really, it doesn't entirely make sense--having to give up a class period and a credit that you might be using to gain more knowledge just so you can finish outside work for other classes? Why not just have fewer classes in the day and extend the time a little bit? It all boils down to the same thing: we get too much homework.

This argument might sound extremely subjective, but I notice patterns at school. This is not just the case of one person or one subject, but multiple instances from various people.

I urge teachers to put it into perspective:

1. Ridiculous assignments
There will always be the occasional hard assignment, project, paper, etc. that will take lots of time. But sometimes assignments are just too long and too frequent to be a "fluke" that turns into "a long night." I've had assignments on an online homework grading service (you all know what I'm talking about) that take up to 30 or 40 minutes to figure out a single problem. They're extremely difficult, and in proportion to the amount of lecture/teaching time we got in class for them, it was never enough to help me fully and completely understand everything that the subject involved.

I suffered greatly on my quizzes and tests in this subject because I was so focused on merely trying to solve one problem at a time, and also to complete additional assignments like multi-page lab reports, that I often had a hard time grasping the big picture of the unit and missed conceptual topics. I was so wrapped up in trying to salvage my grade on these difficult, long, time-consuming problems that I had to exchange valuable study time for desperate, frantic just-try-to-figure-it-out-I-need-one-more-point-to-have-a-B-minus! time. Not to mention it cut into time I had for other homework--

*side note: online services are also a pain in the ass because they frequently have technical difficulties or are wrong, or have different background information than we learn from our books or in class and therefore can't even do our problems right.

I don't even play sports! I can't imagine how the kids who have two hours of sports practice every evening must feel. We also have to have dinner and need a little bit of chilling time to do what we enjoy--reading, drawing, listening to music, or blogging.

2. Do we really NEED the homework?
In some subjects, like I mentioned with math, it makes sense, because repetition is how we study and learn it. And you can never practice math too much, really, so it's reasonable to spend some time drilling outside of class.

I'm lucky this semester to have a fairly light homework schedule; I have several teachers who rarely give homework, if any. A good example is my American History class. My teacher hardly ever assigns homework, and if she does it's usually a simple worksheet to help us grab key points about what we're learning. It takes no time at all to do the work for this class, and I have an A. I enjoy American History because the class time is used efficiently and valued. I don't need to do extra boatloads of work to learn it.

3. WE NEED TIME
As an artistic and philosophic student, I need my time to chill, think, and be creative. I spend time every evening writing, drawing, listening to music, and reading. I like my creativity time. I need it. If I didn't get it, I'd feel drained and resentful every day. I think everyone needs spare time to actually utilize their knowledge and do what they think is important to them--if we're always working on cramming our brains full of knowledge and working toward goals, when do we get to spend time to utilize what we've learned? What you choose to do with time you have control over expresses who you are as a person, and if you have no time to yourself, you have no time to exert your values. Granted, not many people view it that way. Lots of kids just want a break to not think about anything, but I look at it as more of a time to truly be who I am. Drawing, mainly. Also, kids have to go to extracurriculars, work, eat dinner, and have enough time just to change clothes and brush their teeth for bed.

I know people who have gone through periods where they literally don't have time to eat because they have so much homework. 50 problems in science, 15 math problems, have to read 6 chapters of Dracula, fill out a study guide, must study for my history test, have to do a poster for Spanish class...this sounds like a week's worth of homework, but realistically, it can be in a single day for people at my school. I've had days like this.

As growing young adults, we also desperately need sleep, something I think has been proven over and over again that we don't get enough of it. I get on average 7.5 hours per night if I sleep in and almost miss the bus and barely eat any breakfast. Teenagers need about 8 just to fall into an important stage of REM sleep where the brain sorts and encodes new information (something of which we're getting a lot in high school!). Not getting enough sleep makes you about 40% less capable of retaining new information, too...it makes you stupid.

All of this I learned in psychology class, in which I never have any homework. Seems to be working out okay.

Yes, there is a certain amount of preparation for the heavy-duty learning in college that must be done. Yes, adults face many challenges and have little spare time in their daily lives as well. Yes, an important life skill to learn is how to organize your schedule and be time efficient. But when you see so many friends flopping on their desks from lack of sleep, something seems amiss.

You might argue that some people are just naturally capable of doing well with or without homework, some kids pick up on information better than others, etc. etc...but we all need time and sleep. There has to be a balance somewhere.

Just a suggestion

"We suggest you eat your giant gummy bear's head first."



I most definitely want one of these things. Birthday present? Of course! Stocking stuffer? COVERED. A gift to show how much you care about your best friend/sister/daughter/girlfriend/granddaughter/cousin? I gladly accept. Thanks, giant gummy bear on a stick!

Bleh

I just saw the Twilight movie. Overall, minus the music, if it had not been a cheesy book, I would have liked it.

Other than that, all I have to say is: ROBERT PATTINSON'S HAIR, GET DOWN FROM THERE! YOU'LL BREAK YOUR NECK!

Image NOT mine. http://www.popartuk.com/g/l/lgpp31687+robert-pattinson-is-edward-twilight-poster.jpg

Serenity is Back from the iHospital

My nice iMac recently suffered a mental breakdown and her poor hard drive quit. :( For a while she would freeze up after I woke her up from sleeping all night, and then she started having problems booting (I'd have to try booting twenty or thirty times before she'd actually let me log in). My home diagnosis was a problem with the Systems Management Unit, for which there was a quick fix listed on Apple.com. I tried it, but apparently Serenity was allergic to the medicine. She passed out and we had to send her to Indy.

My mom brought her home on Friday. She looks as good as new but she's not quite the same--she suffered total amnesia; the only thing she remembered was my Dad's name. I lost all my pictures, sans what I had suspended in the ethereal goodness of the internet, but I had SO many more pictures than were actually online it makes me sad. I also lost a great deal of past homework assignments and writing projects I had been working on...major groan. And all of my hundreds of music albums and photos.

Serenity's undergoing rehab at the moment as I attempt to refill the hard drive with all of my crucial stuff. Luckily I can regain a lot of the final product pictures that I've drawn but all of my writing is gone. Damn me and my lack of backup!

Various Apostrophes--Complaints to the Inanimate Objects in my Life

First of all, Disc Drive of my PC: Please move away from where I rest my thigh when I'm on the computer. I do not want to open the disc drive just because my thigh is there. Thank you.

Secondly, Retainer, it's great having you around. I like you much better than braces, but you have the annoying tendency to slur my speech and make me sound like I have fewer IQ points than I actually do. If you could remedy this, I'm sure we'll get along better. Maybe I'll consider not biting you as much. Kindest regards.

To the doorknob of the hallway door: Honestly, it's not that much to ask to stay out of the way of my elbow. You come into constant contact with one another, but only elbows bruise. You come away from these incidents laughing, like you've done something funny, and my elbow comes running to me tattling that you just smacked it. Please, can't we all just get along?

MERRY CHRISTMAS

http://www.isitchristmas.com

Yeah, that's right

You're jealous of my bra pants, aren't you? Don't deny it.

Bloggin' in a Winter Wonder*THWOMP*

I just got punched for a bad pun.

Winter has set in. We got our new puppy! She has entered the Monster of Terror Kennel stage and is in full-fledged MUST BITE AND CHEW EVERYTHING IN SIGHT ESPECIALLY WHEN I'M REALLY HAPPY! Her butt is a wiggle machine; I'm considering hooking it up to a generator as a source of renewable energy. I'm surprised the Japanese haven't already employed it as an energy source. They're corgi fanatics as much as my family is. I can just see the labels on the KORG Generators they're cranking out from a factory near Tokyo:

"This will be pleasing to the family and her regaling figure of wealth, the mother earth. To please plug puppy into car or house. Renew the lovely life of nature by hand placement on youth dog. We will now be joyous all together!"

Something along those lines. Okay, so I stole the last line from "Deck the Halls", not Engrish.

RUBY

Last night we picked out our new puppy!!!!! We get to bring her home once she's older.

Jazz Hands! Stuff with Ellie

English class with Ellie has got to be the best thing ever. The first or second day of school, we chose seats next to one another (and Joanna) and proceeded to tease Joanna by being creepy and writing messages to her on our hands. (don't question us, just laugh.) We wrote "I see you" on the palms of our hands and held them up for her to see without making eye contact with her. Joanna was sufficiently creeped out by our efforts. Then, in a stroke of brilliance, Ellie wrote "Jazz Hands" on her hand and held it up with a wicked grin. Ellie is awesome.

Also, Ellie's and my new favorite line is "NUN NUN NUN!" I can't remember exactly what context in which we were discussing nuns but Ellie came up with that little play on words.

This blog entry to be continued.
NUN NUN NUN.

Random scattered thoughts to catch up on

Life is busy. Within the last few weeks I started school. Blogging has not been much on my mind until today.

Before I left for vacation, Joe and I went out to see the Dark Knight. It was appropriately disturbing and quite good. I don't think I'll ever wear makeup for the rest of my life, though. I came out of the theater quite woozy for lack of having eaten lunch. Mexican food proved medicinal (thanks Joe).

Chemistry, so far, contrary to my friends' many warnings, is not hard nor time consuming. Yeah, yeah, if any of you read this and start to groan: I acknowledge the fact that it will get harder. Just, for now, it's not torture. I don't mind it. Life is good in that respect. The most interesting thing we've done so far, though, is burn magnesium, so I'm thinking that when we actually start to see some explosions and get sound effects then chemistry itself will be harder. That's my theory on the direct proportion of interesting-things-burning and the difficulty of chemistry class...

Today I felt like such a book character. The weather was perfect--exactly what I picture perfect weather to be like. Cool, breezy, no clouds, and it smells like autumn. Yay! After school I put my stuff in a basket on the back of my bike and went to the library to do my homework. I also went over to this little Asian grocery store called something like "La Village Market" that I absolutely adore. They have the most awesome drinks there and everything's really inexpensive. I just need my drink of choice (only there were so many Asian soft drinks with smiling pieces of fruit on the bottles that I really couldn't decide) to complete the whole dorky-girl book-character aura. Even my outfit was perfect. I love my brown jacket. I think I might actually start writing on that...the atmosphere seemed straight out of a book. Maybe that was just the weather messing with my brain though.

As far as art goes, I have not done much unless you count the Sharpie scribblings on the cover of my school notebook. I think I have a flying rabbit, several dogs, random shapes and flowers, the phrase "I cannot brain today; I have the dumb" scribbled all over it so far, and today I added a quote from Percy Bysshe Shelley in English Lit class:

Sow seed, -but let no tyrant reap;
Find wealth, -let no imposter heap;
Weave robes, -let not the idle wear;
Forge arms, in your defence to bear.

I found one of my new favorite artists on Cordair: I especially like "The Letter."

Brilliant Insight from the Family

The people I love frequently have incredibly brilliant and wondrous observations to make. I was lucky enough to catch two such observations from various members of my family on the same lunch outing today.

Observation Numero Uno

My dad: "Well, they don't all have hair like that."
Emma: "Yeah, but some of them have weird fluffy hair. Like Bon Jovi."

Observation Numero Dos

My dad: "Look at that old guy on that lawn man."
Me (inwardly): Whut the...?
My dad meant lawnmower, but was apparently too caught up in the incredible spectacle that was an old man riding down the sidewalk on a tractor to speak clearly. Oh, well. We all trip over our own language on occasion.

The world is truly an amazing place.

Dog on a Bike

Okay, so it's not quite as creepy as Snakes on a Plane, but Dog on a Bike definitely wins the award for cute. Yes, this is me and my dog Herbie, who I am teaching to ride in a basket on the back of the Ute.



I expected him to try to jump ship, but he seemed perfectly content with riding around in the basket. I feel like some cute cartoon girl in a piece of artwork riding around with a dog in the basket of her bike. I think I'm going to have to make a scarf and give him some little doggy driving goggles to complete the look.