Random Good Day and a Quote

Today was good :D

Hah, sorry, I'm getting repetitive. But these past three days have been really good :D I luv mah life right now. I'm quite happyyyyyyyy. I'm ridiculously happy.

*clears throat*

So, first, the Latin test results:

I GOT A 92!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really think it's 'cause of all the praying. No lie. Because I got ridiculously lucky. I only studied ONE SENTENCE out of the suggested HUNDREDS. It was the one on the test O.o WooT XD

We dissected a frawg. His insides were colorful O.o We thought ours was really buff at first. He had a six pack. But then we got in there and took out, like, a TON of fat bodies (kewl, yellow fingery things XD). He was, like, sumo-frawg.

*is irritated at her use of "like" and the suffix "-y"*

I feel like a bubble-head right now.

*deletes the shallow sentences she had going*

Okay, if I can't say anything of substance, lemme leave you with a quote at least:

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

I really love this quote XD

~Kendra

P.S. I might be getting sick...>.< But I'm still really happy :D

Good Day

Today was kind of *headspins*. I knocked out all my school work. Like, an entire WEEK'S WORTH of school work. Today. Wanna know how? It's this great strategy called Hole-Up-In-Your-Room-And-Don't-Look-At-The-Computer-All-Day XD

I do have a Latin test tomorrow, though, so if y'all wouldn't mind saying a little prayer for me tomorrow morning? Latin has gotten very difficult lately. We're getting to all the irregularities and things are quite hard to keep straight >.<

Other than school, today has been...well, I haven't done anything other than school! But yesterday was good. I got some things worked out that I've been over-analyzing for like two months. That relieved about 70% of my mental pressure, which enabled me to focus a lot more on school.

I am basically kinda ridiculous. Whenever I have a problem, I think about it 24/7 (dreams included) until I do something about it. Not until I DECIDE to do something, until I DO it. I'm quite obsessive. About everything. So yeah.

Anyway.

I do still have about 200 pages of "Robinson Crusoe" to go. Heh. I'm thinking 10-11:30 I'll read. I'm sure I can knock that out. Then tomorrow morning, I will squeeze in some more Latin. Doesn't that sound like a wise way of working? (Shut up :P)

Okay, well, I don't feel like saying anything more, lol XD Today was really good despite all the school. Yay :) Wow.

~Kendra

The Weekly "Most" Awards for Schoolwork

So far, the leading Days in the schedule poll are

#1: Character Day
#2: God Day
#3: Fact or Fiction and Name Day

If you want that to change, vote :)

So, yesterday was the first day back at school. So far, I'm trying to be a better student than I was last semester. I got all good grades and everything, but I wasn't trying my best by any stretch of the imagination.

The Weekly "Most" Awards for Schoolwork

Latin - the Most Surprising
I actually don't hate Latin this semester :O Instead of memorizing junk that's too hard and not that important in real life, we're using our skills to read Caesar's battle notes! How cool is that?? I was like, "AWESOME!!!"

British Lit - the Most (*struggles for the word...and can't find it* -.-) Unique/Unusual/New Assignment
We have to learn to take notes on a book. We're using "A Passage to India" and we have to keep a written list of the characters in the front of the book, write summaries above each chapter, write summaries for each page, circle words we don't know (then look them up and write the definitions in the margins). I think that's a cool assignment. A really good skill to get before college.

Music History - the Most Enjoyable
Basically, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is GENIUS and Debussy's La Mer is right behind. I LOVE THOSE. And the final in this class will be to be able to recognize a piece by hearing a random ten-second clip of it. No sweat. Audio is my best way of learning. This is gonna be a cinch. A really FUN cinch XD

Biology - the Most the Same
...pretty self-explanatory.

Drama - the Most Easy
We read a play out loud in class, and that's all. We don't even have any homework in this class. And it's pretty fun, too. We're reading "Harvey" right now, and it's great.

Debate - the Most Disappointing
Blegh.

Math - the Most Boring
*zzzzzz*

The end :D

Dance tonight! Yay! Talk to y'all later!

~Kendra

An Epic Song Epically Fails in Latin

Wow, two new followers! How awesome is that? Thanks, Izori and Einar!

Well, I took Bethany's advice and switched my internet browser from Internet Explorer to Firefox. So far, so good! It'll take me a while to get used to the slightly different way it works, and we all know how I detest change, but I think I'm going to be happy with this. One thing I'll have to get used to is the spell-check thing. Whenever I type "lol", it freaks out -.- I know I can just add "lol" to the dictionary, but I'm not sure if I want to. We'll see.

Remember that song "Preliator" by Globus that I posted a few days ago? I posted the Latin lyrics and challenged you all to see if you could translate it.

Well, I couldn't translate it in my head right, which was bugging me, so I started trying to work it out today. I made a frown-worthy discovery:

It doesn't mean anything.

Sure some of it make sense, but if the Latin lyrics I found are correct, whoever wrote the song had no idea what they were doing. The endings are inconsistent, and in some places not even correct. Like, some of the endings used don't even exist.

Even where I can translate whole chunks, it doesn't make sense. "I eat the family"? Um, no. But that's what it seems to say. I'm even overlooking the fact that the ending for "family" is incorrect.

Also, maybe this is just whoever wrote down the lyrics, but the words "dies" and "deus" are used interchangeably. *eyebrow* Um, sorry, they may sound alike (DIH-ace and DEE-us) but "day" and "God" aren't exactly synonyms.

*sigh*

Who knows, maybe I'm just a lowly high schooler who doesn't know her Latin, but...I don't think that's COMPLETELY the case for sure.

Sorry. Opposite from last night, I'm kind of grouchy right now. It's because of my sister. It's like she's been taking stupid pills lately.

She's plenty smart, really. She's funny, nice, helpful, good with people, and plenty smart. She has 0 confidence, though. I mean, really 0. And it's all happened all the sudden. She wasn't like this a month ago. I can't image what happened. I mean, I'm sure it's hormones, but she's driving me CRAZY. Typical conversation in the car:

Me (to my dad): I've been listening to this awesome song Kyle showed me lately.
Daddy: Oh, cool. What's it called?
Me: "Preliator". I can't wait to get an iTunes card so I can buy some more songs like that.
Lizzy: Did you say you can't wait to get an iTunes card so you can buy some more songs like that?
Me: Yes. (back to my dad) Anyway, do you want to listen to "Preliator"?
Daddy: Sur--
Lizzy: Did you say do we want to listen to "Pre...Pre..." What's it called?"
Me: "Preliator". Yes, that's what I said. Do you?
Daddy: Sure.
Lizzy: Um...
(I plug in my iPod and we start listening to it. Daddy turns it up a little. He likes music loud, like me.)
Me: Isn't it cool? It has kind of an eerie sound, don't you think?
Daddy: It d--
Lizzy: Did you say it has an eerie sound?
Me: YES!! (I turn around to look at her) For heavens sake! Stop repeating everything back to me!
Lizzy (looking shocked and hurt): I'm just trying to make sure I get it right.
Me (highly frustrated): Well, I wasn't even talking to you, so it doesn't really matter!"

*sigh* That's how every conversation has been lately. She repeats EVERY FREAKIN' THING you say, and then asks you what words mean. Words that she knows! "What does 'take advantage of' mean?" "What's a snort?" "What's bacteria?"

AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

And my mom is out of town, so I have to help Lizzy with her school work half the time, too!! Imagine trying to teach math to her when she's acting like this! Just reading half a page of her rhetoric book takes her thirty minutes and she has to ask me every sentence what stuff like "opportunity" is!

(repeat above exclamation)

She's not stupid, I don't want you to think that. But she sure is ACTING stupid. She's not. I'm sure of it. She's never been this do-less before. She's always been...I don't want to say "slow", 'cause that's not it. Just...now I don't want to sound cocky by saying "not as fast as me". But do you know what I mean? And she's always had confidence issues. But this is crazy! And it's driving me crazy!

(repeat above repeated exclamation)

*sigh* Sorry. I know this was long, ranting, personal and possibly mean. I just wanted to share this frustration. God knows I'm in need of a serious dose of patience right about now. Prayers would be appreciated, but I know there are a lot more important things going on in y'all's lives than me snapping my sister's head off, lol!

Vote on the poll :)

The God of Loser, Failure and Jerk

There was a guest pastor at my church today, and he was interesting. It was extremely difficult to follow his line of thought, and he went off on so many bunny trails, but I got a few random good things from his sermon. My favorite was this:

In the Bible, God is often referred to as "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob". If you think about those three people, Abraham left a lot of things unfinished, or didn't finish them right. You could kind of see him as...well...a little bit of a loser.

But Isaac came behind him and picked up where he left off. God has placed Isaacs in our life to help us out. Of course, Isaac was kind of a wussy who didn't really fix things a whole lot either...He couldn't even finish was was already started a lot of times! What a failure!

Then you have Jacob, who was the go-get-'em type. He liked to seize the moment, which was sometimes great, but sometimes ended badly. God has placed some Jacobs in our lives to help us live in the moment, too. Then again, Jacob's rash attitude earned the reputation for being a tiny bit of a jerk...

So, basically, all three of these guys kind of failed. Abraham never finished anything, Isaac never finished anything right, and Jacob was just too out-there sometimes.

And that's when Joseph comes in. Joseph did EVERYTHING right! He stayed close to God, he was brave, he was strong, he became second-in-command of Egypt, he saved his entire nation! Joseph picked up with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had stopped and he tied everything together. Joseph was awesome!

So...wait.

Why doesn't the Bible say "the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph"?

Our God is the God of the underdogs :) God is on the "losers" side. Thank goodness! We're all "losers" from time to time! Our God isn't just the God of the rich, famous and successful. God is a personal God who's rooting for all the "jerks", "losers", and "failures" right along with the "winners"!

Now, of course, all those titles are in quotation marks, because are any of us really "losers", etc.? No. We might act like jerks or losers sometimes, but, guess what?

God doesn't make losers!

We're all winners in the long run, but just to show us that he's on our side even when we look bad, God calls him self "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob".

I thought that was kind of interesting. What did you think?

Just really quick, I want to share a link to a cool song that Kyle showed me. He finds cool music like this and sends it to me. I usually (actually always) love it.

This song is called Preliator, and the words are in LATIN!! How cool is that? If you could understand them, it'd be even better...lols XD I found the lyrics, though, so if anyone besides me feels like translating, here they are:

Hosana Meus
Fortuna deus
Aeterna Teus
Mystre, Morte, Sancte Pior

Fortuna hosana deus
Legionus ab comae
Fortune fortuna equis
Ad pugnatoris in veritae
Hossana meus
Fortuna dues
Protego causa
In sanctus

Aeternus praetor
Firmitas semper
Coryphaeus
Rex Regis universe
(Prosay solis hosanna
Protego sanctus causa
Padre illuminata
Gloria in resurrectem
Gloria in unum diem)

Terra tenebrae
Telluris malus
Quisere pere curiatus
Genitor edo
In ex domino
Patris illuminata
Rex Regis universe

(Prosay solis hosanna
Protego sanctus causa
Padre illuminata
Gloria in resurrectem
Padre alluminata
Gloria in unum diem)

Lacrimosa, lacrimosa
In ex dominum

Actually, I feel an award coming on...See if you can translate any one section of this. You can use Google if you want to, but try it without first. If you're even moderately successful, let me know in a comment! Hail all the fellow language geeks! :)

School Schedules. Care to Share?

I've been doing so well in keeping up with my school work that today is barely hard at all :)

I'm curious, though. Every homeschooler's day looks different, and so does every public schooler's. What is a typical day for you? Here's mine:

9:00am: Get up.
9:15: Eat breakfast, read whatever book I'm reading for school.
10:00: Art history. Research, write the paper.
11:30: Read a chapter in "How Shall We Then Live?" and make notes of things to add to my timeline.
12:15: Eat lunch.
12:45: Math.
1:15: Read the chapter in Latin, learn the new grammar rules, make flashcards, and do assigned exercises.
2:15: Read 10 pages or so in biology, add new vocabulary, make notes.
3:15: Read a lesson in logic, do the long, easy, brainless and pointless excercises.
4:00: Work on whatever presentation I'm working on (art grant project, a debate, some other presentation).
4:45: Finished with school! Do chores, and whatever house-cleaning I might have to do.
5:15: Oh sweet freedom. Time to check Facebook, read, write, or blog.
6:00: Dinner.
6:30: Leave for dance, or soccer, or play practice. Whatever it is that night, lol XD
9:30: Get back from dance, or soccer, or play practice. Whatever it is that night.
9:35: Facebook, write, or blog.
10:15: Off the computer, brush teeth, get on pajamas.
10:30: Get in bed and read, write, journal.
11:30: Lights out (usually :)).

And that's a typical day for me. Of course, it varies a little with each day. For instance, I've done all my Latin for this week, so today all I have to do is review. Biology wasn't much today either, and neither was the reading. Then you have those days where you've procrastinated and it takes FORTY TIMES LONGER to do everything :)

We're reading "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens, and I am LOVING it so far. The story is exciting and mysterious, the writing style is interesting but not TOO hard to read, and the dialogue is full of dry humor--my favorite kind :)

Also not on the schedule: MY FRIEND'S SWEET 16 TONIGHT!! How fun is that?? The first Sweet 16 I've ever been invited to. Not that I don't have any friends (lol), most of my friends just haven't started turning 16 yet. This is the girl I mentioned in Awaiting the Sensation of a Short Sharp Shock (Emily) who helped me feel more comfortable with the "popular kids". She's so nice and fun, and I'm really excited about her party tonight! Only two things are "bad" about this:

1. I have a soccer tournament game tonight. Yeah, TOURNAMENT. I missed basically the entire soccer season between the play, being sick, and the DC trip. How SUCKY is that?? I can't believe this! I think my team is mad at me, too :( I went to the game last night, and we lost, so we have to play again tonight (EXACT repeat of last year; it's crazy). But I can't miss this girl's Sweet 16, can I? NO! *sigh* I don't know...
2. The restaurant we're going to has peanuts. I'm definitely worried about getting peanut stuff in my food...Oh well. Hopefully I won't die or something. (I won't die, I might break out in hives and feel bad, though...)

Anyway, back to schedules. What does yours look like? Whether you're public, private, or home schooled, we all have different working styles. Care to share?

Character Day: Taking Sibling Rivalry To a Whole 'Nother Level

FIRST: Thanks, Lady Brainsample, for following! I love your name.
--------------------------------
Character Day:

One of my own today--a character that resulted from my temporary obsession with Chinese culture.

Of course, to have a story set in actual China would be too simple. I have to create my own fantasy world based on China (see, that way if I get half my facts wrong, it's not wrong because it's MY world. See how it works? XD). I have no idea how exactly Chinese the culture will be. I've added some things, and will probably change some things, too. The one-child rule was ditched because of my obsession with big families.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever written a story about an only child...(Well, Darren is an only child).

Anyway. Back to my character. Her name is Gembira, and she's fifteen years old. She has twelve siblings, including a twin brother.

The culture she lives in is much like China in its system of honor and respect, but I added the rule that your older siblings are also to be honored and respected, and boys are generally valued over girls (not an original concept, especially for Chinese culture).

This creates a very interesting relationship between Gembira and her twin brother, Gan. Gembira is the older of the two, but Gan is a son. Who has more authority? They often have arguments over this, but at the same time share a close mental and emotional bond.

Gembira's personality is curious and unsatisfied with life, but she mostly sticks to tradition and obeys the rules of society. However, in her mind she is constantly questioning the status quo. She's the third daughter in her family, preceded by Darpana, the practical and harsh "oldest daughter", and the long-suffering but unimaginative Fara.

Gembira struggles between trying to be the perfect daughter and wanting to question the family's way of life. She feels that she has just as much to offer as her brothers, but she has trouble accepting those thoughts as legitimate because of her upbringing.

The story (if it goes anywhere) will begin with Gembira's oldest older brother getting married, followed by a terrible fight between her and Gan (her twin brother). The argument becomes so severe that it is brought to the attention of the parents. Father sides with Gan, being a son, and Mother follows his lead. It is decided that [insert something terrible that I haven't decided yet] is to happen to Gembira.

By this time, even Gan is horrified and wants to help his twin sister, but cannot go against his parents. He decides to help Gembira escape somehow.

The story from there is fairly generic in my mind so far: Gembira is thrust into the world where men rule and girls drool, and she probably gets the help of an "unlikely friend" (how cliche, I know), and discovers more about herself and the status quo and how it's unfair.

OR.

Gan might end up going along with her for some reason and that same stuff happens.

It probably won't be that generic, but I haven't thought through the plot very far yet XD

So, there's Gembira, a curious and unsatisfied victim of unfair upbringing struggling to find herself, no thanks to her power-hungry but close twin brother.

:D

For all the other family-and-character-obsessed people, here's a handy list of all the things you didn't need to know about Gembira's family. The list includes the names of her siblings, their ages, and their name meanings. I found some pictures from Google that sort of look like the character. You can click on their name to see the picture (I didn't have much luck at all with the brothers). Sorry Gembira is in a bathing suit. There's no reason for that except that her face looked kind of like I imagined her looking. *shrug*

Name - gender (hey, it's hard to know by the names sometimes!) - age - name meaning

1. Aran – brother - 25 – forest
2. Bien – brother - 23 – sea
3. Eun – brother - 21 – silver
4. Darpana – sister - 19 – mirror
5. Chet – brother - 18 – brother
6. Fara – sister - 16 – flower
7. Gembira – sister - 15 – happy one (Ironic, right?)
8. Gan- brother - 15 – dare; adventure
9. Hikari – sister - 14 – light; shining
10. Izanami – sister - 12 – welcomes others
11. Jun – brother - 11 – obedience
12. Kiet – brother - 9 – honor
13. Lek – brother - 7 – small person
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Gracie and Krevan both got the answer right to yesterday's Fact or Fiction.

China is considering renouncing its one-child law.

FALSE. That law is here to stay, at least for a while. They are, however, allowing families to have two children IF both the mother and father were only children. Interesting, isn't it?

Sorry, Krevan, you were just a little too late! Congratulations, Gracie, for being the first correct guess! Here's your award:

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Today's been fine. It's raining, so that means the church thing was canceled, so that means I can go to play practice!! Yay! As much as I was looking forward to hearing the church band play, I'm glad I get to got to play practice. I really do love it.

I've listened to NOTHING except Mulan (oh, well, I listened to the LotR soundtrack while I did math, as usual) for about 48 hours. I have never, ever, ever been so totally emersed in something in my whole entire life. (With the exception of being consumed by physical science during exam week last year.) I listen to Mulan, think Mulan, read Mulan, quote Mulan, dream Mulan. I've listened to the CD five times in two days (it's 57 tracks long, people), and had Mulan dreams several nights in a row. I've had nothing but Mulan songs running through my head absolutely-no-freakin'-lie-CONSTANTLY for three days now.

Miraculously, I still love it. Completely do. I don't see how it's possible, but I do. (Haha, I've still got three weeks to go, though.)

School is school. *shrug* Nothing really new there. "Pilgram's Progress" = FTL, but maybe a little less than before.

Still drowing in Latin, but not quite as badly.

Writing...well, Gembira's story has been getting on fairly well for me. (Fairly well meaning a page and a half and ton of back story and character sketches, lol!)

Thanks for reading, I love hearing from you!!

P.S. Also, don't forget tomorrow is Question Day! If you have a question, no matter how weird, awkward (within reason XD), random, generic, or silly, I'd love to hear it!

Imagination and Irritation

Memory Day! Peek into my past... ( ;) )

When I was about ten years old and Lizzy was eight, my parents left us home for an hour or so to go to band practice for our church. Things were fine at home for a little while, but then Lizzy and I heard a noise coming from my dad’s office. It sounded like my dad talking on the phone, so we weren’t bothered by that, until we remembered that our dad wasn’t home. Then we sort of freaked out a little. Lizzy demanded that I go and check in my dad’s office to see if someone was there. After a lot of arguing and freaking out together, I did. I didn’t see anyone, but both of us were convinced we had heard someone.

The rest of the night we kept hearing people! Upstairs, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, in our parents’ bedroom. We finally decided that the intruders had to be invisible. It was the only explanation. I had actually been doing some research on invisibility cloaks for a story I was writing, so unfortunately I knew that being invisible was actually possible. Lizzy and I ended up calling our parents, who were more than little ticked off at me for getting us both all scared.

For a long time after that, I really believed that there were people in my house wearing invisibility cloaks. That’s definitely one of the downsides to having a powerful imagination.

So, yes; I've pretty much always been this paranoid and, um, creative :)
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FIRST: Thanks for following Lisabailey! You rock!! ;)

FIRST AND A HALF (because "second" sounds too late): Thanks to Bethany for making the wonderful new header for the blog! Yayayayayayayay! I love it! Do you? She says she likes working with photoshop, so if you have the need for a banner as well...

Classical went well today. Our class is really back to its regular self, which makes me all warm and fuzzy inside XP It does, okay?! I love how we all laugh with and at each other, and so much more. Most of us have been together since eight grade, and some of us from even elementary school. We're a pretty tight bunch ;D

There was a Latin quiz this week. Some of you may know that Latin was not exactly my focal point this week. Let's just say, I studied lightly at the most. So, when the teacher announced that the Latin quiz was today, it was one of those You're-Joking-Right?-Please-Be-Joking-Oh-No,-You're-Not moments for me. Despite my horrors, I actually did pefectly fine. The quiz was EASY.

The logic quiz...hmm...In my defense, whoever wrote the book is a flat-out HORRIBLE teacher with NO LOGIC EXPERIENCE or GOOD WRITING EXPERIENCE WHATSOEVER. All he talks about is crap like Simple Aprehension and Verbal Expressions and Comprehension vs. Extension and all this junk that has to be put into confusing over-lapping categories! I HATE IT! I *love* logic, so when someone like Mr. What'sHisName comes along and writes a terrible logic book (which we frequently have to change in class because it's INCORRECT), it makes me MAD. Can you TELL?

Lol. Sort of. No, actually, you know what? Not lol.

Other than that, today has been fine. The teacher really loved my "Paradise Lost" paper, which is a major YAY because I loved the book. I hate it when I write a bad paper for a good book.

Tonight I have soccer practice :-/ Normally I don't dislike soccer at all. Normally, I actually love it by this time. The only problem is our coach isn't a great coach. He's not BAD, and he's really nice, he's just not the best coach in the world. So, I feel like we never really learn much. AND, he doesn't make us run, which might be a good thing, except that it means that I'll just STAY out shape instead of improve. Humph.

Desirae Mayes story: I think I wrote some last night, not much, but some. It's going okay. Still not great, and I doubt it will go anywhere. Still, it's good to be writing SOMETHING again, you know?

No play practice tonight :( None, actually, until Friday! *sob*

Hmm...I think that's all for now, folks. The What Disney Movie is Your Favorite? poll is about to expire, so if you'd like to cast your vote, go for it! So far 18 people have voted, which is an all-time high for me :) Yay and thanks, y'all!

Carpe diem!

Nostalgia

Quote Day:

“The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idolized past.”–Robertson Davies

So, today was the first day of school at home.

*groan*

NOW I remember why I prayed for summer. Doing school for 8 grueling hours with no rest will do that for you. And I'm still not done. I have stuff to do still, but it's BritLit, so it's not that bad.

Subject Rundown:

Latin: Somebody just shoot me. Either the exercises are so easily I want to throw myself off a building, or they're so hard I want to throw myself off a building.

BritLit: Awesome! Interesting, not too hard, great! I love literature!

Art History: Ugh, it sounds fun, but there's SO MUCH TO DO! We have to read all these books, write all these papers, memorize all the stuff about famous pictures, make a timeline of all the big music and art stuff we come across. It's just too much! I really like the books (How Shall We Then Live? and State of the Arts), but there's just too much to do.

Debate: Challenging, but fun, like last year. It's basically the exact same thing as last year.

Biology: Not really hard, just a lot of stuff to read over and work sheets to do. It's not good or bad yet.

Logic: Ridiculously easy, not fun, not what I love, and it's so disappointing! I love logic, but this isn't "real" logic. *scowls*

Alebra 1 (um, again): Do I even have to say anything?

Overall, *sob* I miss Challenge I!! Oh my gosh! You really never realize how good you have it until you're gone! I hate this! I *LOVED* Challenge I! It was, like, the best year of my whole life! (Challenge B was pretty awesome, too, though...). *SOBSOBSOB*

I just CANNOT live in the present, can I?? I was living so in the past last year that I missed the complete and utter AWESOMENESS of the year! And now I'm doing it again! I'll never learn.

But this year really does suck (so far...day two).

And last year really did rock beyond all freakin' compare.

Other than that rant, I have nothing to say. I feel like I'm just barely keeping my head above water, and school has BARELY started.

:'(

Next year when I say that Challenge III sucks and that Challenge II was amazing, come over and kick me, would you?

*sob*


P.S. Vote in the poll, s'il vous plait.

My Shallow Mind

Well, I got on the computer for like an hour and a half this morning, then spent the rest of it packing and taking a shower. I haven't had lunch yet. I'm just now getting hungry...

I had something really awesome to say, and I forgot it. Dang it.

Anyway, today is QUOTE DAY! I've missed these a lot lately. Okay. Quote:

"You can't cross a sea by merely staring into the water." - Rabindranath Tagore

Very true. I think a lot of times, I just stare into the water. I'm sort of a hesitant kind of person. I have to come up with all the reasons why I SHOULDN'T do something, and then counter all of them. I have to make sure that I really want to do something, that it's the best idea, etc. Unfortunately, I miss out on a lot of perfectly good, fun stuff because of that. I almost didn't go to the mini-camp thing, but then I thought, "Kendra, you never do anything. Like, ever. You're turning into a boring wall-flower and you need to get a life." So, I decided to go :D

I made a quiz on Facebook about myself. It's really hard, because some of the answers are almost ties, lol!

Blogger is still being stupid.

Uhm...I really wish I could remember what I was going to say. It was worth writing about, I remember that much. *sigh* My mind is so shallow. It must be all the computer time.

Which reminds me, I have to get off. I'm down to like twenty minutes of computer time left, and I haven't even written anything.

Shocker.

Anyway, I'm going to go have lunch and then finish packing. Maybe I'll call Ellie B. Although, she's at her cousin's so maybe that would be rude...whatever. I'm getting off. Talk to ya later!

CARPE TUUS (is that singular or plural?) DIEM!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EDIT: Ohh, I just remembered that "carpe" is imperative, so the "you" is implied. DUH. So, forget the "tuus" anyway. Sorry. Okay, I'm really getting off now.

Terrible Misfortunes

*bites lip hard and takes a deep breath*

OKAY, OKAY, KREVAN, YOU WERE RIGHT.

Lols ;) Carpe (as in "carpe diem") is, in fact, in the imperative. I stand corrected :)

Anyway, I don't have much to post, except that I'm still significantly worried about the physical science exam on Tuesday...I'm just so not good at this! *moan* It's coming along okay, though. I just better get a C or above. 'Cause if I don't, my mom is going to make me take it again over the summer :( But I think I'm safe. I usually do fine on tests, even if I suck at the subject. Mostly due to the fact that I am a seriously good crammer ;)

Um...I'm really sorry, but I don't have hardly anything good to say right now!! Hmm...Okay, here's an idea: I'll find one of my favorite quotes and tell about it :D Kind of second grade, but still. It's something.

Quote: “My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened."
Author: Michel de Montaigne
Why I like it: Well, I like a lot of quotes, so it's really difficult for me to pick my FAVORITE one, but this one is cool because it sort of describes how I live. Even when I was little (playing slaves, orphans, poor people, etc.), my friends and, especially, I were fascinated by the "darker" side of life. Even now, I make up terrible things and pretend like they happen to me. Not seriously, of course! I don't ACTUALLY think they happen, but it's fun to pretend (I get more like a six yeare old by the sentence, don't I? :) )

Anyway, the point is, my life is, sort of unfortunately, very good (parents never divorced, good friends, good grades, good school situation, etc.). And very dull. Nothing exciting EVER happens to me. I mean, little exciting things, sure, but nothing HUGE. Not MY kind of "huge", at least.

My small town life is just PERFECT for a movie/book setting or something. Little town, nothing ever happens, restless teen with a big imagination. I mean, seriously, where is the magical adventure that's supposed to swoop down on me and carry me off on some crazy journey that I later regret wishing for?? *sigh*

I know that won't happen. I know that I'm crazy to even for a second wish that it MIGHT happen. I don't really think it will. I'm not stupid, and I'm actually kind of practical. Still. My life is dull, DULL, DULL, DULL, DULL. I just wish something would happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And nothing ever does!

So, as Montaigne said, I have to resort to making up my own terrible misfortunes. *grins* Talk to you later!

You

*grins* VICTORY! I think I aced both my Latin and my philosophy exams!! Yay! I studied hard, and I think it paid off. Let's hope :) Now all I have to do is take an exam on my second worst subject: physical science, and my third worst subject: American government. *moan* It's not over yet, that's for sure.

But I'm surprisingly really sad about the end of school. Some people I never thought I'd miss, I'm going to miss. I was just thinking about it in class today, and it was. . .just really sad. I wish I could be more specific, but I don't feel like I can since everyone can read this. I'm just really sad. Because I firmly believed that my class was going to graduate together. We love each other. I thought. But it might just be me. I don't know. I can't tell. I'm probably just a more sentimental person than the rest of them. But anyway, this whole saying-goodbye-maybe-forever thing is really sad. I actually cried last night.

Okay. Enough about my crazy emotions. Let's talk about something else. . .like. . .like. . .

Okay, well, we had to write a paper for literature that was about ourselves. It really helped me to evaluate where I am in life, where I have been, and where I want to go. The paper had to include some of our ancestry, our namesakes (if we had any), and what our name means.

Then, we had to give three stories from when we were ages birth to five years old. This kind of helped us see our "real" selves. Because when you're little, you aren't trying to impress people, you aren't trying to fit in, you're innocent and ignorant. You can see the real you. Sort of the un-cut, un-edited ME.

Then, we had to give three of our character traits, with stories to illustrate them. It was interesting to see the parallels between my three most prominent characteristics and the stories from when I was little. It was weird to see that I haven't really changed all that much. (My three character traits were persistent/persuasive, imaginative, and a logophile [lover of words].)

The next section of the paper, we had to talk about the changes we've experienced this school year. Socially, emotionally, intellectually, etc. This was a real eye-opener for me. I mean, you would think you know yourself pretty well, but when you HAVE to really analyze yourself and put thought into how you've changed, it's interesting to see what you come up with. I've become more open-minded this year, mostly due to the semester in philosophy, I think. (Look back at Berkeley. He thought that maybe we only exist in the mind of God. Wow. What a crazy new idea! Weird!)

And lastly, dreams for the future. My personal dreams are to be a writer, a lawyer, a mom, and possibly a kindergarten teacher. I just really, really, REALLY love little kids. So much. So I think that would be a good profession for me. But I don't know. . .Maybe sometime if I don't know what to post, I'll just post my paper or something. Although I might have to leave our the ancestry because I gotta keep my identity safe, lol! Sorry :D

Writing that paper was surprisingly fun, and just FULL of self-discovery. I really think it's something that everyone should do once in their lifetime, preferably when you're younger-ish, lol! It's a really good way to get to know yourself and see where you are in life. Sorry if I sound really dreamy and all head-in-the-clouds. It's actually a pretty concrete way to look at your life, though.

Well, ttyl! Carpe diem! I am SOOOO tired.

*stares at screen...raises an eyebrow...and types this*

Sorry for that really depressing, complaining post last night. I just felt really bad. I'm a little better today.

Oh, but more bad news :( You know how I wanted to have my party on FEBRUARY 13th since that was a Friday the 13th? And then we didn't move so I couldn't? But then we moved and there was a MARCH Friday the 13th? So I was gonna do it then? (Sorry. Like, everything's a question...) Well, now I'm not having it this Friday the 13th either. Because some people couldn't/can't come. :( It sucks, right? *sigh*

School starts back up today. Hmmm. Ugh. Debate (gahhhh!), physical science (*sob*), literature (yay!), Latin (*MOAN*), philosophy (give me that philosophy book!!), math (help me), american government (so...?). AHHHH! I hate this. Summer can't come fast enough. Debate is killing me. And not only me, my partner as well!! It's not fair of me. I MUST DO BETTER RESEARCH. Math...ehh. I'll get it eventually. You know. Before I die anyway. Physical science is kind of like the nightmare that never ends. Latin is about the same as physci.

I know, I know. Shut up, stop complaining, close the blogging window, AND GET THE HECK TO WORK. Okay. I will.

Bye!

And maybe this is cheesy, and I don't know what your thoughts are about God or anything, but pray for me to do my work well today. I always go into it thinking I'm gonna do amazing today, but I always...don't. Or rarely do. I know I can do really well! I just don't. So, pray for me, y'all!

Family Day

Well, today was Family Day! Lol, we made ourselves our own holiday when I was about eight. It's always on Martin Luther King Jr. Day so my dad can have the day off. We do family stuff together and just hang out. Unfortunately, I had a bunch of stupid school work to do :E (That's a growling smiley. :) I made it up lol!) After I go done, we went to the movies and saw the movie "Bedtime Stories." Lol, it was really good! Even though it was a kid movie, I loved it. :)

I don't think I'm reading for my Latin quiz tomorrow. :( Kinda forgot to study...hopefully I can cram and fake my way through it :)

That book "The Host" is getting really interesting. I'm liking it more and more.

Well, that's all for now I think. Hope everyone had an amazing day!!