Infinitus 2010

I know it's been, like, forever, but I haven't slept in my own bed in almost a month!!! First texas, then girl scout camp, then more texas, then Disney World, and then the Harry Potter Conference!!!! CRAZINESS!!! But it's been so much fun. I have to say that as much fun as the other stuff was, The Harry Potter Conference - Infinitus 2010 - was the highlight of my summer. It felt so good to be surrounded by people who felt just as passionately about the fates of all my favorite characters as I do, where I didn't feel like such a freak to own certain pieces of harry otter merchandise (coughwandcough), where I felt like I was with my KINDRED SOULS!!!! :D

PLUS, I met the Mugglecasters (minus Jamie Lawrence, which made me sad, but STILL) and it was AWESOME. I've never really seen any pictures or video of what any of them look like, so it was rather wierd seeing their voices come out of these strange people's bodies!!! I have to say, Andrew Sims was a lot hotter than I thought he was going to be. ;)

I met a girl named Alia, who I found out is originally from Bahrain and speaks Arabic fluently. (I totally didn't know this until we were in the MuggleCast event and she stood up and told everyone that, because she doesn't have an accent or anything that would give away that she wasn't born here). She loves Dr. Who and her favorite characters were the same as mine - Snape and Dumbledore! :D

The PARK was absolutely amazing. It looks just like you imagine it to be. Hogwarts is absolutely magical and built in force persperctive, so it looks ridiculously massive, when it's really only hugely massive. The butterbeer is delicious. The fake snow on the rooftops is hilarious, especially in contrast with all the people wearing shorts and tank tops (hello, July in Florida? makes it very uncomfortable to be wearing your wizarding robes around the park) I didn't go to the Night of a Thousand Wizards event at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but everyone raved about how awesome it was. The forbidden journey ride was an experience that I don't think I'll forget. The special effects on the ride are really quite brilliant. You really have to look to figure out how everything works. It really seems magical.

Also, before the conference, I hadn't really gotten into Wizard Rock. But the Wizard Rock Classics Night made me a die-hard fan of the Wrock movement. I cannot wait to hear The Moaning Myrtles, The Butterbeer Experience, and The Remus Lupins again!!!

Can't wait for Ascendio 2012!

I don't wanna go to GIRL SCOUT CAMP gee, mom, i wanna go, but they won't lemme go, gee mom, i wanna go HO-O-OME. GIRL SCOUT CAMP

Okay, so it's been super crazy for me lately. I went off to Girl Scout camp on June 13th and haven't had a minute to spare since. The first Girl Scout camp I went to was absolutely amazing. I had such a blast canoeing and hiking and swimming and rappelling and tight-rope walking over their high ropes course. The counselors were so amazing and were clearly enjoying themselves as well. I love any Girl Scout camp, because I love singing girl scout songs and being sweaty and dirty and talking to the five-year-old brownies at meal time, but this camp added a whole new level to my experience. I had such a blast, and me and my sister actually wrote letters to a couple of the counselors after we got back. I think this camp is where I'd like to become a counselor in the future. ANYWAYS, after I got back from camp, I had a jam-packed week hanging out with my friends, going to birthday parties, and packing for the NEXT girl scout camp.
The second girl scout camp was fun, too (I mean, it's Girl Scout camp, HELLO), but I couldn't help comparing it to the first camp, and I have to say, it didn't add up. The camp had severely declined in numbers since the last time I'd been there - there were ELEVEN counselors - and the camp had ZERO returning staff. It was actually really bizarre. The activities were really fun. I got to go wake boarding, knee boarding, tubing, windsurfing, canoeing, and white-water kayaking. But the people and the environment weren't really what I had been hoping for. The whole "community" aspect of going to camp was completely lost.
My mom has pointed out to me that the experiences I had at both camps have helped me figure out what aspects I like about Girl Scout camp and what I need to look for when I pick camps for the future (even though I totally just plan on going back to the first camp, like, every summer from here on out, but whatever).
SO, I had fun, and there's more to come.

3 Willows by Ann Brashares

gets 1 out of 5 stars. It was essentially the same as her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. The book cuts between three girls during their summer vacationa as they experience essentially the same issues that Brashares' characters in the Sisterhood do. It was vastly unoriginal and formulaic, which was fine, because sometimes that's what you're in the mood for; just don't expect to remember the book ten years from now. What I am looking forward to from this author is her new book, which came out yesterday, My Name is Memory. It seems to be a historical fiction novel revolving around the concept of reincarnation and past lives. It could be interesting.

Swim Team

I suck at swimming. Theoretically, I know how to do all the strokes, but they never seem to look the way everyone else's do... but my strokes aren't even my main issue. ENDURANCE. THAT'S my issue. I joined a swim team in my old town outside Dallas, and I remember the coaches being like "400 free - go" the very first day, like it was nothing. And it WASN'T for any of the other kids there, but me, I was about to cough up a lung after one lap. I thought these days were long past me once I moved to Tennessee, but I decided to join the neighborhood swim team again this year, and alas, they persist. But what I find exceedingly amusing is that here, I'm NOT the only sucky person on the swim team, AND I'm three years older than I was then!!! On this new swim team, I found a communnity of varying age ranges and abilities, and they have actually created a designated "group" for those of us with, erm, lesser ability. I think it's absolutely terriffic - I think every sport in every town should have a designated league or team or unit especially for non-competitive people - that's what makes for a healthy lifestyle. You don't have to be great at a sport to enjoy it or burn calories from it. You just have to DO it. Yes, America?

Summer Goals

The first week of summer vacation is already gone (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and I must say, I have been exceedingly successful in keeping up with my goals:

1. Pewn my little sister at our reading "competition" (I find it vastly amusing that she thinks it's a "competition" at all)

2. Run twice a week so that I can run in the Halloween 5k and pant around in my Harry Potter costume next October, looking like a freak.

3. Update twice a week on this blog (becuase I have been a little... ahem, inconsistent in past posting)

My Summer Reading List

Today, at approximately 2:00 p.m., when senior graduation takes place, summer officially begins (even though we got out of school last friday).

When did "You're so skinny; you look like a stick" become a compliment?

Part of me understands why the fashion industry has come to idolize stick figures. Women were sick of being objectified for their bodies, so the voluptous, curvy form that men were so attracted to became moot, and women with no form at all were introduced, considered to be the new symbol for "women's power." I can understand that. But now we've come to a point where it's us women beating ourselves up about our bodies, not men.

When did this become appealing to us? Who decided that the "ideal" body should contain visible ribs and hip bones???

We don't have to be anorexic to look powerful. To me, a powerful woman is a woman who is strong and curvy and nourished. A powerful woman looks like my beautiful mom, or Marilyn Monroe, or Oprah. Powerful women can be happy with their bodies no matter how sizist the fashion industry gets. Call me a freak (:D) but that's what I believe.

Holy crap, I just realized this!!! RECURRING THEME in my POSTS, MUCH!?!?!?!?!? HELLO, FREAKY

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Guys, this book made me cry. I know this seems to happen a lot with the books I review, but seriously. It's so... I guess "ironically prophetic" as my english teacher would say. It kind of depressed me how right-on Ray Bradybury was in guessing where our society was going fifty-seven years ago. Because it's not exactly a happy guess. seeing as it's this futuristic society where people burn books, because they OFFEND people, and it started out because people didn't WANT to read (Sound FAMILIAR, idiots in my sixth period class?)!!! And just the way people would rather watch their plotlesss non-offensive TV shows and listen to their "seashells" (basically earbuds, except Ray Bradbury didn't have those in 1953, he just happened to take a GUESS at their existence - I know, FREAKY - and he had to come up with a name for them) was so true to what I see today, walking through the halls of my school. What's really wierd to me is that I really do think that Ray Bradbury understood what he was saying - I don't think he just took a lucky guess; I think he was really just perceptive enough to anticipate this kind of evolution within our soceity. Ray Bradbury, if you just HAPPEN to SOMEHOW be reading this blog among the billions of other ones that exist at SOMEHOW the right time to come across this post,

YOU ARE A FREAKIN' GENIUS!!

(Oh and please please please don't be mad at me for my improper use of the English language, kaythanks)

Deep Cheese

It's exam time right now, and there's only THREE AND A HALF DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT. Isn't it kind of crazy to believe that my very first post ever on this blog was about exams? Except they were winter exams, and I published a picture of Harvard's Primal Scream that apparently came up as 100% pornography on my friend's website blogger - isn't that lovely? Anyways, It's wierd to believe that my freshman year has completely passed me by, and with only like five posts for the entire school year? Crazy, huh? I keep seeing this quote by Mark Twain, I believe, something like "Twenty years from now, you'll be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did." As the year is wrapping up for me right now, and I'm thinking of all the opportunities that I didn't take, this quote is totally striking a tune. I know that fear of taking risks is something all generations as teenagers probably experienced, but to me, this trait seems magnified in our generation, because of the environment in which we are being raised. Experiencing life through escapism is the driver for our society right now, when you think about it. Television, video games, social networking, texting, the internet - all methods of escapism we use to experience things without having to take real-life risks or deal with their real consequences. For so long, people in support of all these forms of technology have claimed that they support and promote our social skills, but aren't they really hindering them?
JUST SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT

They are the trees outside my window - he is the far one - tall and thick with dark foliage, angled branches, and a straight and typical trunk and frame. She is the close one - it curves, drapes and weaves elegantly, pink rosebuds clustered on the ends of its branches, rustling each time the wind blows. It's a foreign shape among the trees in the neighborhood, its curvy,estranged branches looking almost deformed when compared to nearby trees.

I went to a psychologist today... I'm going to get tested this weekend to see if I have a mental disorder. I'm not sure what I think about all of this. I don't know if I should be relieved, glad, sad, or freaked out. If I do have a mental disorder, it means I have a problem and I'll have to take medication and it confirms this underlyng suspicion that I've always had that I am seriously NOT NORMAL. On the otherhand, it gives a reason for my inability to do my homework and my constant procrastination and disorganization and the social awkwardness I'm only starting to overcome. I think it might be relieving to know that there's (sort of) a solution to my problems.

In which I give you an in-depth analysis of my weekly schedule..

Okay, Okay, before you get crazy out there in your rolly chairs, let me just fill you in on my insanely hectic schedule right now, okay? Mondays I have art club right after school, an hour to eat dinner and do my homework and softball 'til 8. Tuesdays I have percussion ensemble until freaking FIVE O' CLOCK and then I have to go to my sister's softball games (where there is no internet connection!), wednesdays I have writers' club 'til five and then a meeting with my organizational tutor (because I'm a lazy ass not only in updating my blog, but also in homework - make you feel any better?) and thursdays I have figure skating and then double header softball games, and then on Friday's, somehow I manage to have a social life, and I actually do stuff that's more important than your viewing needs, so HAH. Yeah... anybody else out there got schedule that hectic??? That's right.. I think NOT.

Anyways, I've got some reviews of Wicked by Gregory Magure and one you probably haven't heard of, How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford, which made me cry like CRAZY, so... fun.

How To Stay Goodbye In Robot by Natalie Standiford

was more bitter than sweet. Persuaded by the hot pink cover and bubble-gummy sounding description into thinking this was chick-lit, I was looking forward to two hundred fifty-some-odd pages of irreverant bliss. BUT NO. That is NOT what I got. I just wanted the book to end, because my heart kept breaking OVER and OVER again.

I kept thinking of this guy-friend of mine from elementary school, whose name was Greg. He was my BFF for FOUR WHOLE YEARS (this was record-breaking at the time for me, because I had lived in about eleven houses in eight years). We both fantasized about medieval times and narwhals and neopets and pentominoes and we played jump rope and hopscotch at recess all by our lonesome selves, because we were pretty much outcasts. We were gonna to go to the Renaissance fair together the last day before the summer (in which I was moving for yet another house). But I was STUPID. And I REALLY wanted to be popular. And two days before the fair, I still hadn't told my mom about the renaissance fair. At lunch, a popular girl invited me to a sleepover....

... When I got home, I told my mom about the sleepover instead of the renaissance fair. And Greg never spoke to me again.

THAT is what this book made me think of. It made me cry out of grief and guilt and regret and heartbreak and it WASN'T CHICK LIT!!!!

(edt: BTW, this isn't the official review)

pppiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssseeeeddddddddd (This was from a long time ago and I never published it :D)

As you can imagine, from my last post (I know, I know, it was forever ago, whatever, you'll live) I am NOT HAPPY with the results the judges gave Johnny Weir for his long program at the Olympics.

For those of you who live under a rock, and don't know what's going on, I'm referring to Olympic Men's Figure Skating, and secifically the fact that the best skater EVERwho gave the performance of his LIFE at the Olympics was totally and completely UNDERSCORED.

J-J-Johnny Weir!

So, the Winter Olympics are coming up on February 12th, and I am TOTALLY STOKED. I have to admit, the 2006 Olympics in Torino were rather disappointing... Sasha didn't win the gold, Kimmie Meissner made SIXTH place and Johnny Weir didn't even make the freakin PODIUM!It was an outrage! A Scandal! (Lily and James Potter killed in a car accident!?)

But this year... Ohhh, THIS year... Things shall be very different. I've pretty much completely given up on Sasha Cohen and Kimmie Meissner - I was really only mad about Kimmie Meissner, because she's not normally a very strong skater and she skated a completely EMACULATE program at Torino, but she hasn't really had a good performance since, so... bah. And Sasha just fell off the face of the planet after Torino. ANYWAYS, this year we've got this like whole new GENERATION of figure skaters... Rachel Hamlett, who came outta NOWHERE, let me tell you, and snatched up the US championships, Mirai Nagasu, who was fourteen when she won Nationals in 2008, and there's...

... J O H N N Y W E I R

I have nothing to say to you creepers

21st century soap box lectures...

You know what really pisses me off? When teenage girls spend a bunch of time taking pictures of themselves.... You know, like when they purse their lips, do funky things with their arms, and aim the camera down their cleavage? yeah... those pictures... It's like, you're not fooling anyone, girls, no matter what your subtitles may say, we all know you're self-posessed and care way too much about your physical appearance. Why don't you guys take all that time you spend taking pictures of yourself and instead spend it doing things to better yourself - I think you're more likely to get a boyfriend that way, and he's probably going to treat you a lot better than any boy who'd date you because of the cleavage shots you have on your facebook page. Okay?

Side Effects by Amy Goldman Koss

gets 3 out of 5 stars... Although it wasn't any great piece of literary art to rave home about, it was cute, funny, and refreshing. The grave topic of fatal diseases has been in the media a lot lately, with movies like "Extraordinary Measures" and "My Sister's Keeper" topping the box office chart, but what's refreshing about this book is the stubborn, irreverant, humorous voice of Izzy, a sharp contrast to the tearjerker dramas we're used to. Izzy is an 8th grader who's used to the low of her day being P.E. - not chemo. When she's diagnosed with Lymphoma, she fights it with the fierceness that is typically Izzy. She knows very well that the Lymphoma is not going to kill her - but why doesn't anyone else seem to believe that? And why don't they have any joke books about cancer? Or at least ones that don't make you cry?
Yeah, so good book... I'd recommend it.

In other news, it's snowing like crazy here, and I'm stuck inside with nothing better to do than blog, play guitar, and eat chocolate, because the snow is like, all screwed up, and you can't have a snowball fight, because it would be like throwing rocks... so..whatever.