I will read ALL THE BOOKS.

So yes, It's the 28th of December and I still have to read three books to make 100 for 2010. WELL! Here we go making plans for 2011: one hundred AND ONE books (WOAH)! Also, I will give at least, um, one quarter of them starred reviews SURE WHY NOT. (ETA: "Review" is a rather loose term.)

MAGGIE'S BOOKS

1. Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin. (Raises questions like "If I forgot my life for the last four years, would I be ashamed to be me?")
   
2. Acting by Richard Boleslavsky. (Very interesting, but since I don't plan to dedicate my life to theatre, I don't know how much it really helped me.)
   
3. Suicide Notes: a novel by Michael Thomas Ford. (Three stars (of five). Eh. The reviewers I read were far too enamored of this.)
4. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. (Four stars.
   
   I don't mean to follow trends, but I'm very interested in zombies right now and this was an angle I hadn't seen before. It takes place generations after the outbreak--so long that nobody really knows when. Mary lives in a small, entirely self-contained village ruled by the Sisterhood (nuns taken up a whole bunch of notches) and enclosed by an elaborate fence, outside of which is a literal tree-forest, but it's also full of zombies.
   
   The Z word is never actually used. They're called Unconsecrated because of the heavy religion that controls the village.
   
   It was definitely not worthy of five stars because I am getting really tired of love triangles. And it was more like an awkward love-and-commitment tetrahedron, anyway. (I'll draw you a diagram if I have to.) AND I will be annoyed if I decide it's actually anti-religion. If it's anti-extremism, I'm fine with that, but I have a feeling that the Sisterhood represents all Christians ever.
   
   Definitely reading the sequel.)
5. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. (Four stars. Really pretty good. I happened to read it on Groundhog Day. Haha.)
6. Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin. (Two. Bleck. If I hadn't been procrastinating so hard I wouldn't've finished it. Just not worth it.)
   
7. The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman, writer; Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III, artists; Todd Klein, letterer; Robbie Busch, colorist; selected recoloring by Daniel Vozzo; Dave McKean, covers. (Five stars. Less than three. (HAHA.))
8. Stardust by Neil Gaiman. (I wanted something old and comfortable to read while I donated blood. Of course, they ended up just poking around in my arm and giving me a big bruise because I don't have veins or something, but it's a good book anyway.)
9. Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian. (Three. I officially do not get the hype about Siobhan Vivian. (Cool name, though.) This was "good..." and there will always be that ellipsis adding "but not very.")
10. The Sandman: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman, writer ETC. (Not gonna lie, I'm reading these for the Gaiman and would have a hard time caring less about the illustrators. I mean, it's nice and all, but whatever.)
11. Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins; read by Paul Boehmer. (Four, probably.)
12. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling; read by Jim Dale.
    
13. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. (Five.
    
    “A poor woman who since childhood had been counting her heartbeats and had run out of numbers...” (A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale For Children by Gabriel García Márquez.)
    
    Four or five years ago I babysat a pair of sisters every week. The younger one died two and a half weeks ago, of a heart defect that wasn't supposed to be causing trouble. She was twelve. I won't pretend we've kept in touch the past few years, but I would still see her now and then. Her death is quite possibly the reason I found this book so heartbreaking.
    
    It's about Lennie, whose older sister Bailey--to whom she was closer than to anyone else--just died of a random heart defect. Lennie had always lived happily in Bailey's shadow, and now she needs to figure out how to be her own person. Other things happen too, less pertinent to my point--they have a grandmother, an uncle and a lack of a mom, a boyfriend (ex?), a best friend and a new friend. Bailey acted. Lennie plays clarinet (or avoids it) and writes poems about loss and then buries them, or drops them, or leaves them behind.
    
    Second book ever to make me cry.)
14. The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan. (Better than the first. Yaaaaaay.)
15. Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr. (Very relateable. (It's a word now.) I definitely liked it better than Sweethearts, which I'd heard was her best. Fourish, I guess.)
16. Lord of the Flies by William Golding. (Five stars, naturally. This is one of my favorite books. I picked it for my final paper this semester, so I spent one intense day rereading and highlighting the life out of an old garage sale copy. I suspect you shall be receiving multiple posts on the book before my paper is finished, so I shan't keep you now.)
17. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale.
18. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.
19. Paper Towns by John Green.
20. You by Charles Benoit. (An actually good book in second person.)
21. Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
    
22. Enna Burning by Shannon Hale. (Continuing, of course, my re-reading of my favorites.)
    
23. Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Charles Vess.
24. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. (Three and a half. I don't have any particular complaint except that it was super depressing and not at all what I expected. For those not in the know, it is from the perspective of a dog, Enzo. Obviously, I was expecting a fun, light-hearted book highly reminiscent of Dug from Up, or, if GS insisted on making it sadtimes, the heartbreakingness of a sad puppy who has no idea what's going on (though it might be obvious to the reader). Nope, we have a human-type mind that is fully capable of understanding his and his owner's miseries.)
    
25. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
26. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card.
27. Daniel from the Bible.
    
28. Xenocide by Orson Scott Card. (I enjoyed these rather less this time around. Sigh.)
    
29. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: a novel by Aimee Bender. (Four. The premise is still super amazing, but the execution was maybe just not my style.)
30. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, read by Jim Dale. (Not exactly life-changing. I mean, I realize that I already knew what was going to happen, but still.)
31. 100 Cupboards by N. D. Wilson. (For a book discussion I ended up missing. It was a fun book.)
32. Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce, read by Erin Moon, Michal Friedman, and Suzanne Toren. (Modern-day Little Red Riding Hood sisters hunt werewolves. Four stars. It was pretty good, even though it made me feel less awesome for reading something so faddish, and also SO MANY OF THEIR PROBLEMS WOULD HAVE BEEN SOLVED WITH CELL PHONES. Or walky-talkies, at least. Note: I really liked the narrators, and I spoke in a Georgian accent for a few days because of them.)
33. Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger. (Two and a quarter, maybe. I can see why JDS has been a popular author; twenty pages into the book and I felt I either loved it or hated it. As the story wore on I grew more apathetic, but in the end I hated it somewhat more than loved. I can see the point (moral?) of the book, but it seems to me like a kind of flimsy argument. Also, it's in two parts, and the first part is entirely unnecessary, except it's rather good at making this reader feel uncomfortable. YAY. And one of the characters was apparently so obsessed with something that she stopped eating and got the flu? Because she's that much a genius? Anyway, I feel slightly more pretentious for having read this (and then typing out Buddy's letter to Zooey as an experiment), but I rather wished I had used that time doing something else.)
34. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, read by Nick Podehl. (Seeing how recommendable the audiobook is. It's fine, but I definitely still prefer reading.)
35. The Sandman: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman etc. (Five. Very good etc. A Midsummer Night's Dream was my favorite, but I fairly loved the others too.)
    

Best finds of the year so far: 7, 10, 13, 20, 35.

introvert

Sometimes I'm too tired for social interaction. Is that okay?

I'll give you a sec to catch your breath!

We have had a crazy-interesting time getting my Bethel bill paid. It shouldn't've been that hard, but we'd keep getting letters even AFTER we supposedly took care of it all. Apparently they automatically gave me an EXTRA loan for which I did not ask. So Vati went through all the nonsense to get that taken care of, and ended up with an 800 number he was supposed to call to resolve everything. He called, WITHIN the specific time, and got an automated message that they weren't answering questions right now. So perhaps if I go online and fill out a form, it'll be done and all. You want to know why they changed procedure and we got in this stupid mess?

Obamacare. Apparently it's been a HUGE pain for (at the very least) the Bethel financial aid office. INTERESTING, RIGHT? Just saying.

I want another brownie.

Look at these wings, so perfect to hold you!

NaNoWriMo, cats and kittens.

That's all.

"Fa la la la la." She shook her little head. "Nay, nay, that cannot be."

What are my priorities?

After church, school, sleeping (and not usually enough of that), eating, and enough socializing that I don't die, I hardly have any time left to write. That's probably my lack of organization, but that's not going to change any time soon.

Bleahhh. I WILL figure this out for NaNoWriMo.

Don't panic.

Preface: Nobody's hurt or anything.

We had a burglary. The grand list of stuff gone, being very specific:
Main computer
monitor
2 laptops
2 laptop cases
mouse
modem
DVD (it was in my laptop)
TV
portable DVD player
Wii
Wii remote (only one; they didn't see the other
sound system thing (I'm not sure what it's called)
two cheapish point-and-shoot digital cameras
nicer digital camera
bike
papers for bike (we think)

It amounts to about $6000 worth of stuff. Also they broke open a window screen and made some rooms smell like cigarettes.

Seriously this year.

Unless something big comes up, this:


It's on October 9th, a Saturday (naturally).

The picture is a link.

Gotta get back to HT! Gotta get away from school! Gotta get back to HT, where everybody knows I'm cool!

Bethel tries to be Higher Things. It's also school, of course, but it's trying to get me excited and go to all their "services" and the sessions (classes, which I actually do go to, because they're required and sometimes interesting) and hang out with all them other youths between.

That's my main point: it wants my school friends to be like my HT friends. And it works, for a lot of people; I see people hanging out all the time and have THE BEST TIMES apparently. I mean, that's what Freshman Year Experience is for, making bestest friendses. I think the "block" is the equivalent of an assigned youth group or something.

So guess what. After having classes with them, hanging out during orientation and going to a block party and even (gasp!) occasionally greeting them outside all these activities, I am in fact a little fond of these people. None of them are terribly annoying at this point in our acquaintanceship, and some of them are entertaining. However, most days I'd still rather be alone. I'm an introvert, okay? It's only the people I really, really like that I want to spend time with.

You hear me, Bethel? (No you don't, you're not invited. Also you're inanimate.) I DON'T HAVE ANY FRIENDS THERE. And don't force them on me. I'm actually pretty happy this way.

I think this is about the most I've ever missed Higher Things—not only the company, but also the GOOD theology etc. Y'all who have experienced Post-HT Blues knows how drastic that is.
I can't wait for next year.

I should sleep.

Practical "You" Paper (15%)

You will complete a short paper (not to exceed four typewritten pages) in which you will write your "Jesus Story." How did you begin your journey with Jesus? Have you experienced any detours, speed bumps, or potholes in your journey with Him? Where are you right now in your journey? Where would you like to be? What is your greatest challenge/joy in following Jesus? Don't just answer the questions but use them as a catalyst that will help you to engage your journey with Jesus and share about the real you. In conjunction with your personal journey with Jesus select a Bible character that you relate to or one has encourage you in your journey and briefly share why they are meaningful to you. How has their journey with Jesus encouraged your helped you? Maybe it is someone from the Gospel of John!

For Exploring the Christian Faith. Ugggghhhhhhh!!

Salvation unto Us Has Come, LSB 555.

4. From sin our flesh could not abstain,
Sin held its sway unceasing;
The task was useless and in vain,
Our guilt was e'er increasing.
None can remove sin's poisoned dar
Or purify our guileful heart—
So deep is our corruption.

9. Faith clings to Jesus' cross alone
And rests in Him unceasing;
And by its fruits true faith is known,
With love and hope increasing.
For faith alone can justify;
Works serve our neighbor and supply
The proof that faith is living.

Notes From Organ Workshop, 2008 edition.

Hahahahahahahahaha.

I can't stop.

Weirdo arches.

Sooooo this. I've been skating ice. Except my feet are all weird and malformed or something so the skates hurt, even when I'm wearing my arch supports. On the other hand, I picked up the whole moving-and-not-falling thing pretty quickly, so that's fun. Today I worked on going backwards.

I probably looked pretty stupid.

Also! My blog is private. I'm pretty much inviting random people I know read my blog, so if I seem to have forgotten someone just let me know. My arches probably deleted them or something.

dreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

eeeeeeeeeeeeem

SO in my dreem we were putting on a play of The Matrix, only it was also Harry Potter AND The Hunger Games. Exciting times! (The color-coding is for those who are not familiar with all these series.)
Anan was the director.
I played Trinity/Ginny.
Robin/Tavi played Hermione/Prim.
Gary Oldman played Sirius/Morpheus.
Someone unknown played Neo/Ron/Peeta.
(Oh, and I mean that Trinity and Ginny were the same person, et cetera.)

Also, the play was also an amusement park ride, which was also a pair of earrings in a very surreal movie-type way. (As in the camera zooms in on the earrings and you see there are people on it and hey, now the movie is set here.) I got the earrings for free from a company called Orange Orange Orange because I was famous.

So while we were doing the play, Anna was organizing my shoes (because directors aren't really needed for plays, apparently). She organized them by colour and suddenly I had about a dozen pairs of gray shoes, a dozen pairs of black shoes and a few navy shoes and that was it. Some of them didn't have matches (mainly the navy ones) and most of them weren't even my size.

This created a problem when I wanted to go try on awful prom dresses with Robin. I needed the right shoes! Luckily, she still had the bouquet left over from her prom, so even though it carried so many bad memories she'd hated it to death, I could hold that and she could hold the sunflowers from our backyard. Which was also where the play/ride was, which also went very deep into the earth to the dwarfen mines, where it was so hot you'd melt if you stayed there longer than about ten minutes.

Also, my room was clean, which was silly.

Farid.

In Arabic, "فريد" or "farid" means "unique."

Because I specialize in free time!

Well, seeing as I have nothing to do this week but continue being anti-social and chewing slowly (see: minor oral surgery), I'm going to try another book challenge. Well hey, the one I'm doing now is actually going pretty well.

The rules are enough that I'll let you follow the link and find out for yourself.

CHALLENGES COMPLETED

1. Read Your Doppelganger:
   
2. Blogroll Roulette: The Farwalker's Quest by Joni Sensel. (Unfinished.)
   
3. 100 Best Book: Something from here. (Unfinished.)
   
4. Prize Winner Book:
5. Title Word Count:1
6. Genre Switch-Up:
7. Break A Prejudice:
8. Real and Inspired:
9. Same Word, Different Book:
10. Become A Character:
11. All in the Family:
12. Author Anthology Pick:
    

Comments.

Comments is maybe broke.

In Sylvia Russia, comments leave you!

The end result of which is I want to make people fall in love, mess up, fall in love myself, mess that up, and fail to be bitter about it. Ha ha, etc.

Watched the first three hours of Emma this morning/early afternoon, then all of Funny Girl this evening. Two fantastic movies, you know?

Oh, and how I wouldn't've liked to spend this day in a car, to arrive in a confusing place with a bad cafeteria.

Why am I up late? After watching most of Emma with my Maglena and two little girls, I came home quick to teach piano. Turns out two social activities in one day is too much; I took my darvocet and slept nearly forever.

Goo goo g'joob, y'all. Sheepdog out.

Of puppies and wisdom.

Or: things I no longer have.

I got my wisdom teeth out. It was something like this:
Go in.
Get asked a dozen times if I'm okay, lie and say yes.
Get put in a chair and told the dangers (which we already learned about—and signed we understood—when we came in for the consultation).
Get a pep talk.
Get an IV.
Take deep breaths. (I counted; I only got to 4.)
Wake up puffy-faced and fuzzy-minded, need help walking to next room.
Lie down with an ice pack, get up and go home with an ice pack, wonder why I'm not asleep.
Seriously, didn't everybody say I'd fall asleep?
Still don't fall asleep.
When tongue has regained enough movement to swallow, take pill with yogurt.
Finally fall asleep.
Spend next days napping and eating pudding and rinsing mouth out with warm saltwater (which is actually lovely because for a moment my mouth actually feels clean).
Stay home and don't go anywhere until you feel better!!
Etc.

Also, I need protein! Only I can't use my molars. So here's the food I've been able to eat so far (minus beverages, those are easy):
yogurt
pudding
gelatin
ice cream
flan
mashed potatoes
cranberry sauce
tomato soup
banana
blueberries
strawberries
tuna salad

Also pertinent, I think: I'm missing my first HT conference since I started going the year I turned 12. D: D: D: I just want to take a moment to say THIS IS NOT COOL.
Okay, moment over. I can no longer complain about this. (Haha, like I'll stop.)

Wordsworth

I know most of you know this, but not all—
Tuesday night we came home from church and Wordy was dead. The vet suspects a heart attack (or something similar) as he's been in perfect health as far as we could see. Vati took him up to TQ/Snap/et all's place and he was buried.




I'd go on for a while with eloquence, but there's not much to say. Sorry.










Wordy, baby, you're the sweetest dog I ever knew. I love you always.

Huge sewing etc. giveaway link!

Ummm, so I guess I haven't posted in... two months... oops. It felt like I was posting 'cause I kept updating my book list (which needs to be updated again).

ANYWAY the point of this post: get sewing stuff GO GO GO

I like the kind of e-mails I sometimes get in my Bethel account.

A squirrel trap with a squirrel in it was stolen from outside the library between 12:00pm and 1:30pm this afternoon, Thursday, April 22, 2010. I would appreciate any information on this theft. The person who took the squirrel should also be aware that the squirrel may have sarcoptic mange, a disease which is contagious to humans. I would appreciate it if the squirrel is 1) released unharmed, and 2) that my trap is returned undamaged. Also, the individual should know that only those with a scientific purposes license are allowed to trap and handled squirrels, and thus, they are in violation of Indiana state law. Stealing the trap also was illegal. If the trap is damaged in any way, that is vandalism, which is also illegal. If anyone has information or saw who committed these crimes, please let me know as soon as possible.

The individual should also know that I do have a PhD in wildlife ecology and management, and I do know what I am doing, and that the squirrel was not going to be harmed.

Really? We're down to stealing squirrels?

Okay, okay, so I can't keep up a lie. I can accept that.

April Fool, my darlings. The video thing was true, the tinily worded bit was not.

I spoke too soon.

My OT Lit teacher does, in fact, know about Holy Week. At the end of our class on Wednesday, after studying Isaiah, he played us two videos.

The first was a collection of clips from The Passion of the Christ accompanied by Amazing Grace sung in the heavily stylistic, jazz-inspired way that is so dear to Bethelites. The second was O Sacred Head, Now Wounded in the same style, for which I may never forgive them. Afterward several of my classmates and my teacher were crying. It was really awkward and painful.

Speaking of awkward and painful... a certain... pink-hatted fellow I knew slightly asked me out the other day. I didn't mention it to anyone, but I figured I'd have to sometime.

Pop quiz!

1. What do you call the week leading up to Easter?
ANSWER: HOLY WEEK.

2. How do you act during Holy week?
ANSWER: SOLEMN.
[Edit: I will also accept partially synonymous answers such as "prayerful," "sad," or "contemplative."]

Congratulations! YOU NOW KNOW MORE THAN THE PEOPLE AT BETHEL. Yes, meine Freunden, Easter is already being celebrated at Bethel. A Christian college.

There were plastic candy-filled eggs in the cafeteria (except this one girl near me kept finding eggs filled with salad) and my teachers talk about Easter as if it's pretty much here.

REALLY, BETHEL? Are you too optimistic for that tiny matter of CHRIST'S DEATH? You know, THE MOST IMPORTANT PART EVER???

In case you can't tell, I'm REALLY REALLY APPALLED at this behavior.

Behavioral Self-Management.

Read Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Please. It's pretty short, and one of the characters is named Margaret Cadaver.

Anyway, what this post is really about: School, for duh. In Psych we have an assignment to manage our behavior. (See post title.) We picked a behavior—say biting your fingernails or drinking water. (*Nudgenudge*, Snap.) For one week—last week—we observed how often we performed this behavior. Say we bit our fingernails 30 times a day or drank 0 glasses of water. Then we set goals for ourselves for the next three weeks: Get down to 20 bitings a day, or 1 glass of water a day for the first week, 10 bitings or 2 glasses the second week, 0 bitings or 3 glasses the third week. The point is gradually changing.

To do this, we also set daily and weekly rewards.

My behavior is writing, seeing as I don't seem to write at all. For one week I observed how much extracurricular prose I wrote, rounding it down to the nearest hundred. I wrote 0 all week. (Despairing emoticon.) So this week I'm just writing 500 words a day. If I get that before midnight, I can read facebook and other peoples' blogs. If I do it every day for a week, I can call someone. (Y'all might know how I like to talk on the phone sometimes.) Also—for every 1,500 mark I get in any particular story, I can read a chapter of Forest Born. And I don't mean I can write 1,500 in one story and 1,500 in another; I mean once I hit the 1,500 mark in a story, then 3,000 in that story or a different one, then 4,500—etc. (There are 30 chapters in Forest Born, so I'll write 45,000 words.) This ought to be incentive to stick with a story, right?

Right?*

Over the next two weeks I'll increase it to writing 1,000 and 1,500 words a day.

The thing is, I didn't get enough words on Thursday. I was going to call zAaron after this week because I haven't talked to him, but now I can't. I'm sorry.

*Why do I keep writing my paragraphs long-short-long-short? It's kind of funny. I've been doing it for a long time.

If I would complain about any part of my writer's block, it would be sprinting. In November 2008 while I was writing that novel, I could write 500 words in 10 minutes, no sweat. I'd do two 10-minute sprints and a 20-minute sprint and have 2,000 words for the day. It was kind of tiring, but I was still able to do it. And now I can't get 500 words in under 13 minutes, and it's like pulling teeth. It's been a year and a third. Please, when can I start writing again?

What is it with all this SCHOOL?

Fifth post in a row about school, and yes, I know I haven't even posted for going on two months.

So that computer program for Sight Singing & Ear Training is REALLY LAME. For SERIOUS. It makes things way harder than they need to be, and is extremely confusing. I had to just hope I was doing the right exercises because I needed to get them done and I didn't have time to troll through pages of "Help" to see if it addressed my problem. Fortunately, not only did I catch up my 3-weeks-of-homework-in-1, I accidentally did 6-weeks-of-homework-in-2, and am completely done for the semester. Whatever.

Psych is really fascinating. OT Lit as well, though it more often slips into questionable theology.

What is the definition of "friend" in college? Is it someone you say hi to in the halls, someone who'll make you a copy of their notes, someone whose dorm you've hung out in?

In case some of you haven't been checking, I've been updating my book list. It's SO EXCITING you will have a HEART ATTACK.

More happy, happy adventures in school!

Doing homework to catch up with my new class, I learned:

1. if I want to get everything right, I'm going to be a bit slow by the computer's standards.
2. if I actually do it faster, the computer says "Too quick for accuracy. Your score is 0." EVEN IF I GOT THEM ALL RIGHT.
3. —despite my teacher saying this several times—the computer DOES NOT SAVE PROGRESS.

So there's an hour lost on frustrating, tedious stuff I already know, which I now have to repeat.

I suppose I'm exaggerating a little bit... it's more like forty-five minutes that was lost. For some reason the computer DID save what I did at first. Weirdo.

Happy fun shiny times!

Sort of.

Apparently when one takes Music Theory I, one must also take Sight Singing & Ear Training I in the same semester. I'm signed up now (for 8:00–9:20 on Tuesday mornings, ugh), and have three weeks of homework to do and one week to complete it.

And most of it has to be done on a computer in the piano lab at Bethel.

Thank you, adviser, for not telling me about this class when I registered for my other classes. This is really just making my semester.

Okay, I'm going to go practice my solfege and be less sarcastic now. Maybe someday I'll blog again, and it will mean something.

School's cool.

Music Theory I
9:00–9:50 AM Monday, Wednesday, Friday

General Psychology
12:00–12:50 PM Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Old Testament Literature
1:00–1:50 PM Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Teaching Piano Lessons
2:30–3:30 PM Monday

Physical Science
4:30–5:00? 5:30? PM Monday

Voice Lesson
as yet unscheduled Wednesday or Friday

Homework
ALL THE TIME (except when I'm procrastinating)