I Feel Old

Does anyone remember that there was a time when movies came out on tape before DVD? And there was a time when DVDs—and Blu-Rays, which I'm not sure I'm spelling right—weren't even invented? And you could buy a car that would play cassette tapes instead of CDs? God, I feel so old. I'm not old enough to remember vinyl records or silent movies, but I still feel really, really old.

I went to the optometrist today and they put on The Little Mermaid II in the waiting room for these little girls, and it was on video tape. When the lady was putting it in the machine, I thought, "Whoa, weird." Then I remembered, "Oh yeah…I was part of the generation that watched movies on tape, even if I was on the tail end."

In addition to feeling old, I'm also feeling loopy from having my eyes dilated and staring at the screen is giving me a headache, so now I'm going to go lie down for a while.

Memorial Day

I'd post a bit about it being Memorial Day and all, but my mind still hasn't gotten past "Bluh…hot…wahhh…"

I got some ice cream a few minutes ago. In my mind, I fantasized about it looking something like this:

I kinda stole the picture from Google Images…

What a lovely fata morgana. It ended up looking like this:

Sorry I ate most of it on the way upstairs. Also: Yes, I'm eating ice cream out of a mug, and yes, I often use books as tiny little tables when I'm sitting on my bed. 

If I could think of anything else to say, I'd say it, but…bluh…hot…

Uh, happy Memorial Day! What a miserable excuse for a post. Here is my favorite awesome thing for today. If you want an awesome thing vaguely related to this post, then here and here. *drools*

(My ice cream is gone now. I am sad.)

Swords & Bridges

[My dad and I crossing a bridge]

Me: If I had a sword, it would be hard to resist the temptation to slice this wire just for fun.

Dad: Then the bridge would fall into the water.

Me: Yeah, but I'd run to the other side before that happened.

Dad: In flip-flops?

Me: Pfft, if I had a sword I wouldn't be wearing flip-flops.

Dad: You can run across the bridge anyway. You don't have to destroy it.

Me: What would be the fun in that?

Dad: 0_o

[I honestly don't know why my parents haven't started tuning out as soon as I say "If I had a sword…"]

Whatcha Doin'?

Hey, hi, how ya doin'?

Good, good… Yes, I'm alive. Now, I know you've all been pining for another post for days, eagerly clicking over here to see if I've updated.

So here's your stupid post. Laugh yourself sick on it.

Oh, sorry, did that come off as mean? I do apologize.

"Why don't you actually say something, instead of hemming and hawing and making references to The Simpsons DVD commentary? That's probably the nerdiest thing you've done on this blog."

Nerdiest on this blog, but not in real life.

"Get on with it!"

So-rry, Miss Persnickety.

"Maybe you should talk to your audience now, instead of having meaningless arguments with your muse."

You are not my muse, Claudia. My muse is an elephant. Um, that made more sense in my head, I promise.

And now it's time for some actual content.

…

Screw it. I'm taking the day off.

Towel Day

Towel Day was yesterday, and in all the kitty excitement, I just plum forgot to write a post about it! I feel like such a bad Hitchhiker. I mean, I carried a towel around with me all day and everything, but still.

What's that, you say? Explain what Towel Day is? Well, if you insist.

Now there's a frood who really knows where her towel is.

It's a tribute to Douglas Adams! Who wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! Everybody carries around towels all day! See quote from the book:

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

See? (Yeah, I kinda copy+pasted that from Wikipedia. That's why the font's all messed up.)

Well…yeah. Maybe next year I'll dig out a beach towel, instead of just grabbing one from the bathroom.

Kitty Pictures!

Do you know how incredibly hard it is to get a kitten to stay still for longer than a few seconds?

Even if you don't, I have great news:

I got a cat! Guys, meet Sally:

God, she's adorable. She's kind of hiding under my bathroom sink at the moment. I'm about to go check on her again, but I just wanted to post some adorable kitty pictures.

Ciao!

EFIT: "She'll love exploring all the nooks and crannies in your room," says my mom.

"She'll love leading me around and around in circles, no matter how many times I try to find her," says me. "This is supposed to be MY little empire! She's just the Archduchess!"

Now she's hiding under my desk and mewling. Here, kitty, kitty…

(Um, is it obvious I'm chasing her around my room or not?)

How A Winking Car Turned Me Into A Tree

Well, not me. It wasn't me at first. It was this guy and a girl.

In case you couldn't tell from the title, this is a post about a dream.

I spent most of this dream watching this guy, who was some sort of underground-dwelling humanoid species, and his friend, a human girl, run around town following a set of instructions. I wasn't in the dream, I was just an observer.

I can only remember two parts of the dream: At one point, the guy asked the girl which part of town had streets that were paved with brick, and at the end, they went to a lake. While they were looking around, the guy saw a car parked on the path and tried to get the girl's attention, but she just said, "Whatever, it's a car."

And then the car winked at him and turned into the evil guy who was apparently chasing them all along. He turned them into trees in order to get the instructions, but the guy, who I had somehow turned into, dropped the paper on the ground and stepped on it. So the evil guy never got the instructions, because they were trapped in tree roots.

Or so I assume. I kind of woke up then.

Missing Elevators and Freezer Ladders

Okay, I had a very weird dream last night. I was walking around this park-like place carrying a bunch of stuff--two cats, a couple of books, and a jumble of objects wrapped up in a jacket. But then I had to leave, and the only way to get out was up a ladder that was inside one of those freezers, like the ones at grocery stores that hold milk and frozen pizza. I told my mom that I couldn't go up the ladder with the two cats and jacket package, so she told me where to find an elevator.

While I was waiting for the elevator, I happened to see two guys I knew, and we started talking (I don't remember what about). After a pretty long time, I decided that the elevator was never going to come, so I went back to the ladder.

For some reason everything I had been holding except the books and the jacket had disappeared, so I wrapped the books in the jacket and tied it around my waist. Then I climbed up the ladder and found myself back home. It wasn't my real life house, but apparently dream-me lives in some sort of messed-up treehouse.

I can't remember exactly what happened after that, but I know it helped along my theory that dream-me is a lot smarter and more sane than awake-me. Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you about the dream that I had that led to this theory. Believe me, it's pretty cool.

Cat. Cat? Cat.

This might be a long winded post, so I'll cut to the chase (that's a funny phrase, cut to the chase. I wonder where it--*):

I'm getting a cat!

A kitten actually. And it's definitely going to be a girl, because my mom has already had two guy cats and she wants a girl cat now.

I already have a litter box and cat food and some catnip-filled mice, so now I just need to figure out a name. Freya? Artemis? Some other name that has nothing to do with ancient mythology at all? No. That would be just silly.

Okay, I think I smell like cat food… Oh well, that's just one of the steps to becoming an evil overlord/crazy cat lady. Yes, I've decided on a career.

*"Don't ponder it, just write it and be done!"†

† Sorry, Claudia. Jeeze.

Post Which I Forgot To Name The First Time. Oops.

Apparently, some guy said the world was going to end yesterday. It didn't. When I woke up this morning, I knew without even getting out of bed that the world was alive. Because the internet and electricity were still working and people were still posting on the NaNo forums. (Yes, that's the first thing I check after waking up.)

Also, I just heard my dad sneeze downstairs.

But that's not the important thing! The important thing is: I might be getting a cat this week! So…*drumroll* I've decided to clean my room! 

Don't panic, this isn't the first time I've ever cleaned my room. It's rare, but it happens…but it's rare…but it happens…but it's rare…but it happens. (Bonus geek points if you know what I was quoting there.)

Yeah, I'm actually going to clean my room. Like, sweep and clean the windowsill and stuff. And put all my dirty clothes down the laundry shoot. And maybe I'll find a lid for my box of stuffed animals. And clean my sneakers, which are still covered in mud from when I visited my grandparents' house. *facepalm*

On another note: Awesome List! I will certainly be following these rules if when I become an evil overlady.

WHAT?!

Apparently, Pringles makes pickle-flavored chips. They don't taste as good as the real kind.

So, to business.

What business? You've spent all day writing and watching 3rd Rock From the Sun. 

Shut up, Claudia.

Yes, business.

I've been drawing a lot lately. Every so often I drop into a flurry of doodling and sketching, and then abandon it a few days later in favor of Internet-surfing. I might draw a lot, but that doesn't mean any of the things I draw are proportionate to each other. And I can't draw people that look like real people (I drew a poster for my Screnzy script, and Count Brussels looks nothing like Joseph Gordon-Levitt.)

I'm sensing a theme here…

Shut. Up.

But I'm still very proud of my drawings. And I'm getting pretty good at drawing Daleks now! …If by "good" you mean "they don't look like salt and pepper shakers anymore."

Wasn't there originally a point to this post?

Yes! No. Wait, yes. At least, I think there was…

Was it that you're mad because you can't find your sketchpad?

Probably.

I'm mad because I can't find my sketchpad. And I want to know where all the little goblins are taking my things!

You forgot to give the nice people something awesome today.

Yes, of course. Here. Here is your stupid awesome thing.

Feeling Uninspired

Yeah, I'm not in a good mood today. (Stupid school which I will be doing all summer because the stupid school stuff is messed up.) And when I'm in a bad mood, inspiration is hard to come by, which puts me in an even worse mood. It's a never-ending circle of bad mood.

But when I'm in a bad mood, I like to listen to music. One of my favorite bad-mood songs is Singin' in the Rain, which always makes me feel a bit better. Also, Eric The Half-a-Bee. Which might explain the influx of deformed animals and thunderstorms in my novel…which actually makes scary, scary sense to the story.

Yes, this is a post with the thinly-veiled purpose of telling you why I can't write a good post today.

Oh yeah, I went to the library yesterday! I got two new books. Which is why I was giddy with excitement yesterday and…less so today. (I finished The Time Paradox this morning. Now I am sad, because it is over.)

(Did that last post have any relevance whatsoever to anything I was talking about earlier? Surely not! But it's my blog, my rules. Humph.)

Procrastination

YesMomIdidmyhomeworktodayyoudon'thavetoworryabouthatkthnxbai.

Ah, procrastination. My biggest vice. Youtube, Email, blogging (heheheh), the NaNo forums, writing… I have much more important things to do, but I still automatically think "ZOMG NEW EMAIL! MUST READ!" before "I should really do some more homework. I have to get all this done before September. *twiddles thumbs*"

My biggest source of procrastination is probably Youtube. Partly because I love clicking between channels, seeing if people have posted new videos, and partly because, for every two minutes of music I listen to, I spend five minutes clicking around, looking for new music.

Ironically, I stopped in the middle of this post, which was a source of procrastination in the first place, and did some other random stuff. So I procrastinated on procrastinating (within a dream!) Funny, that.

Awesome-Video-That-I've-Watched-Several-Times-Already: I've been waiting for this forever! And--and--Steven Moffat!

*epic fangirl squee*

I Feel Like A Little Girl Again

Yeah, I haven't read The Lord of the Rings. I just…can't. But my dad has been trying to get me to read them. Today, he started reading The Fellowship to me. That includes doing the voices.

Very short post today, but all my inspiration has been channeled into my current writing project, which doesn't have a title. Don't Call Me Alice? Allie in Wunderland? Eh, I'll name it when I'm finished with it. I'm halfway there!

Now I have Livin' On A Prayer stuck in my head. Drat.

Shadow, Pt. 2

Okay, so I kind of lied in this morning's post. Not about shadowing at my probably-new-school or the fact that I was terrified. I didn't have any dreams last night, delightfully eccentric or otherwise. 


1. The school is awesome. I want to go there. I had no reason to be terrified this morning.
2. Don't ask for a #2, because I don't really have anything else to say. 
3. Now I feel immature for laughing at Thing #2. 


Now, I'm going to go nap. Today was a long day for a person whose usual morning schedule is:


1. Wake up at 8 AM, fall back asleep, wake up again an hour later
2. Grab Andy (the laptop) and check my email, the PE thread, Games, Diversions, And Other Exciting Forms of Procrastination, and my blog.
3. (optional) Eat breakfast. 


Post Script: I've just found out that it is National Cow Week. That must have been lovely for the people who didn't get up at 7 because their alarm clock failed to wake them at 6:30.


Post Post Script: I don't know whether post script is one word. 


Post Post Post Script: Apparently, it is.


Post Post Post Post Script: I'm going to put a quote and a picture in here, just so that I have this post labeled as something other than Immature Jokes. 

If you are an aspiring writer, write. Don't think about writing, don't plan to write, don't hope to write. Just write.

--Neil Gaiman

(The quote has absolutely nothing to do with the picture, other than they are both related to Doctor Who. I'm a nerd.)


EDIT: Amazing thing of today: Try listening to this while reading this post. And remember to look at the purdy pictures!

Shadow

For those of you hoping for a delightfully eccentric post about a dream I had last night (it was delightfully eccentric), an anecdote about why I hate ponds, or a rambling monologue about nothing in particular, you are about to be sorely disappointed.

All I wanted to say in this post is that I'm going to shadow at my probably-new-school today. In, like, ten minutes. There's no reason to be scared, I know I was this nervous before my first day at HA, and I keep telling myself that.

But Holy Hades of Hell, am I terrified.

I'll update as soon as I get back this afternoon. Cheers!

(Also, this blasted cut on the tip of my finger makes it hard to do anything. Like button buttons or type. See ya!)

Nothing More Terrifying (A Psychological Assessment)

No, not that. Or this. (Oh my God…)

I mean the fear of the unknown. Sometimes I get up late at night to go to the WC, the light switch of which is only a foot or so away from my bedroom door, and find that some idiot (love ya, Mom) has turned off the hallway light.

Sometimes I end up standing in the door for five minutes before deciding it's not worth it. Other times, I'll turn around and grab my phone, a book, and a Sharpie. Yeah, I need all of that in order to sprint the two feet to the loo. Like you've never been scared of the dark.

I'm fairly sure there's a reason behind this. We don't know what could be waiting for us in the void of the stairwell, or on the other side of the darkened window, or just behind the craft room door, so our minds fill it in for us. Have you ever noticed how movie previews seem a lot more exciting than the actual film? It's like that.

What could be waiting for us in the dark? (Warning: Only click that link if you've got a few dozen hours of your life to waste.)

Extraspecial Pt. 2: Awesome, totally not scary thing of the day: Ice Cream Changes!

That's When Everything Changes

A quote from Doctor Who, on a post that may or may not end up with me squeeing over last night's episode.

(If you haven't heard of Doctor Who or I haven't forced you to watch Blink, then you should watch it. The first five seasons are on Netflix and I've been watching the sixth on YouTube. Shh, it's a secret!)

Blink has been my favorite episode since I first watched it, but not any more. The Doctor's Wife was on last night, and I love it beyond belief. It is the quintessential DW episode.

See, the title of the post references the fact that Blink isn't my favorite episode any more. Just in case that wasn't obvious. The quote's from The Big Bang. ("Who are you?" "Oh, you're going to find out very soon now. And I'm sorry, but that's when everything changes." <--quoted from memory)

I haven't started using ALL CAPS yet, so that's good. Usually when I go off on a fangirl tangent I put SOME words in ALL caps, LIKE THIS.

So that's what this post is about. If you haven't watched Doctor Who, you should go do that. If you haven't seen The Doctor's Wife, go look it up on YouTube.

Post Script: Do you like the layout of my blog? Yes, I'm talking to you. I'm a little worried that it might be kind of hard to read. Just wonderin'

Word of the Day: Psychotic

Because I was trying to remember that bloody (pun intended) word earlier, while writing an email to one of my friends. (Hi, Alexis!) Alternative word of the day: transpontine. I bet you didn't know that word, huh? (Unless, of course, I've repeated it several times in a conversation with you, just because I can.)

Also, this is my favorite thing of today. It's been stuck in my head since last night, and I love it. Lots.

5 Amazing Books

I know you were all wondering how long it would take me to do a really long book-themed post.

Simply put, five books that I absolutely adore and inspired me to become a--ahem--novelist.

1) Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce

A really amazing book. Quite possibly the book that made me decide to be an author. I remember that we got it on CD from the library, and after we took it back I demanded a copy for my birthday. (I ended up with two. I had a short list that year.) I think it's the book that really introduced me to the concept of world building ("What do you mean, she doesn't know what rice is?") without being, er, Magic Kingdom For Sale--SOLD!

I was pretty young then, so I don't exactly remember exactly why I loved it. What I do remember was wanting to be exactly like Daine, and you could be sure that the name Alanna would work its way into whatever game I was playing.

2) Lemony Snicket. Period.

And you wonder why I have a vocabulary the size of Jupiter. Another book that imprinted itself on me at a young age, I got the first three as a present along with the first two Spiderwick Chronicles books. (Yeah, we're not even going to go there.) So far, I have 11 out of 13 of the books, and I've gotten Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Biography from the library twice. Anybody who knows me knows that I love the series to pieces. (And if you do know me, but didn't know that… Well, this is awkward.)

At this point, I'm just going to leave it at that. It's a, er, Very Fine Documentation.

<.<

>.>

*crickets*

3) Anything by E. L. Koningsburg

Her books are amazing. (I wonder how many times I'm going to use "amazing" and "book" in a single sentence in the rest of this post.) All of them are about quirky kids doing epic things. In From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, an adolescent girl and her brother successfully hide in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for an extended period of time, which to little me was a lot more awesome than solving the mystery of the weeping angel statue.

Do I even have to go on?

4) The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Along the same vein of Koningsburg, but slightly less realistic. Slightly. 485 pages of quirky characters, vocabulary expansion, secrets, and kid power. How could I resist?

I can't remember how I discovered this book--probably in the same way as A Series of Unfortunate Events and many of the other books I love--but I will never forget how awesome it is.

5) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

A recently rediscovered this book. It's a classic. Everybody knows it, right? It's like Peter Pan: Everybody knows about it and it would be hard to find someone who wouldn't be able to tell you the plot. Still, I have to say I like Through The Looking Glass better. I just like the characters more, and… Look, I just like it, okay?!

-------------

And there you have it. I can't think of much else to say, other than… Okay, I really can't think of anything more to say.

And What Is This?

I leave you alone for half an hour and you've deleted my newest post. The post which I am fairly positive I posted.

"Fairly positive? How can you be fairly positive?"

I just can! Don't contradict me, Claudia. I'm in a ludicrously bad mood today.

NE way…

Why I shouldn't write anything at 1:30 AM:

 “Rats,” said Arthur, without a hint of emotion. He was terrified out of his wits. “Gosh.”

The rats stared at the humans. The humans stared at the rats.

“They're awfully large rats,” Lily remarked.

“What do we do now?” Arthur clamped his hands together behind his back to stop them from trembling. “Seeing as the rats see us. And they are definitely armed. I've never seen firearms so…I believe the phrase is pimped out.”

“Basically,” Lily said slowly, inching down the stairs, “we implement Emergency Backup Plan C7b: Only In Extreme Circumstances.”

“What's that, then?”

“Run."

My protagonists' speech patterns seem to be mimicking my thought patterns at that time. Hey, it's not my fault that I stumbled across Wil Wheaton's reviews of Star Trek: TNG episodes or that online games are so delightfully addicting.

Will not click that link…will not click that link…

Today's awesome thing: This. Period.

Not Quite Sure What To Do

After doing a solid, hour-long block of schoolwork (okay, I might have spent a few minutes on TVTropes. But no more than a few!), I decided to take a break. I read a few new posts on the NaNo forums, I checked my email (nothing), I checked a couple of blogs, I checked my email again (STILL nothing! It's like all my friends are in school, learning things, instead of hanging out on the internet as if they have no life!), and then came here. After I clicked the "New Post" button and the page loaded, I realized I had no idea what I was going to post about.

Sure, I have things that I could talk about, like that giant list of weird facts I probably shouldn't know (did you know that LSD is not addictive?) or my trip to the school I'm going to next year. But none of them seem like something I want to talk about.

I feel very stuck right now. Obviously, my lack of material is a sign that I should probably not be a blogger. I can't think of any dreams that I haven't already recounted a million and one times, and I can't think of anything interesting that's happened to me recently. I went to the Botanical Gardens? I had a cup of tea this morning? It was really hot yesterday? I…have no idea what to say. Oddly enough, I have no trouble talking about some aspects of my writing In Real Life ("So, my antagonist is a dormouse who owns a company that makes cleaning products and she kidnapped Allie in order to lure Lily and Arthur to her secret office block and they break in wearing suits…") but that just doesn't strike me as something I want to blog about.

What do you think? What do you want to hear about from me? Do you even want to read anything in particular? I'm pretty sure I fixed the comments so that anyone can comment. I am relatively new to the whole blogging thing.

Why Halloween Is My Favorite Holiday

A few minutes ago I went downstairs with the sole intention of finding that Band on the Run album (Jet! Jet! Doo doo doo doo doo doo!) to import to my iTunes. I came upstairs without it, instead clutching a plethora of Beatles, Monty Python, Halloween sounds, and Beethoven. Which kind of tells you all you need to know about my musical tastes. Yes, I now actually have an album of Halloween sounds on my iTunes.

I never did find Band on the Run…

Okay, have I mentioned that I'm going to Ireland next month? No? Are you sure? Well, I am. A great opportunity for me, because I have a ton of themed outfits that I've planned but never worn (would my new striped cardigan or the 90's sweater go better with my hipster outfit?), and now I have a reason to try them out. See also post title.

Also, this Ireland brought up an issue that I had totally forgotten about. When I was little, I lent my book of Irish folklore and fairies to my friend's mom and then forgot I had ever heard of the thing. And that is my random memory for today. Carpe diem.

Internets, Lovely Internets. And Claudia Is Here

I'm back! I couldn't post yesterday or the day before, because my grandparents don't have Wi-Fi. But I had fun visiting them, and my aunt was awesome, as always.

"I doubt anyone noticed you were gone. Also, I've noticed some grammatical errors in your post title."

And this is Claudia, my inner editor of life.

"And ‘Newfallen’ isn't a word. It's either ‘New-Fallen’ or ‘New Fallen,’ but it can't be ‘Newfallen.’"

She can be a little harsh sometimes.

"Sometimes? I'm harsh all the time, sister. Also, you should really go do that homework day you've been putting off."

You sound like my mom, Claudia.

"I'm not your mother, but I can act just like her if I need to."

Please don't.

"I really don't deserve this. I could have been inner editor to J.K. Rowling, but I got stuck with you."

If you had been J.K. Rowling's inner editor, the Harry Potter books would have been a lot worse.

"I sense gloom here. Why don't you try and smile once and a while?"

I am smiling. You just can't see it, because you're in my head and can't see my mouth. Oh yeah, I'm smiling really big. I feel like the bottom half of my head is about to fall off!

"Watch that sarcasm, Omnia."

If I tried to keep my sarcasm in check, I'd have nothing to write those books you love trashing with.

"Of course, dear. Now why don't you end this post before you alienate your friends? It's getting a bit long and argumentative."

Whatever.

Spreadable Butter is Stupid and Hates Me

The subtitle of this post is "The Post Whose Title Has Nothing To Do With Its Contents. Again."

Anyway, I didn't post yesterday, which I bet nobody noticed unless you're closely following my blog for insights into my slightly warped mind (In which case you're probably either a stalker or a psychiatrist). But today I have a couple things to post.

Thing 1: Today, I'm going to visit my grandparents! Which is going to be lovely apart from the 12-hour round-trip car ride. The horror. But I have knitting and a 10-hour Jasper Fforde book-on-CD to listen to, so hopefully it'll be better than my last trip.

Thing 2: Today in history. According to my li'l calendar thing, today was pretty eventful. Not only is today the anniversary of the first postage stamp (England, 1840), but it is also the birthdays of Robert Peary and Sigmund Freud (both in 1856. Coincidence? I THINK NOT ) and the Hindenberg explosion, which my calendar defines as (I quote): "Airship Hindenburg blew up and burned."

Lovely.

I noticed there were two "Things" in this post. 

So here is a picture of Thing 1 and Thing 2. 

Today Is The Best. Day. EVER!

In terms of my phone is working again. But the camera…well, I'll work on that. It was working, and then I deleted my pictures because Andy is keeping them now (I named my laptop Andy). Now it isn't working. But, whatever. It'll work eventually. I will be optimistic, like Phil!

Huh? Huh? Anyone? Really? Nobody knows what I'm referencing there? Jeeze…

PICKLE CHIPS and ROOT BEER FLOATS!

Yeah, you read that right. Jealous much, Emily and Claire?

I went to the Botanical Gardens today. It was fun because I met this awesome girl, Lindsay. (Lindsey? Lindzey? I do not know.) We kind of got lost from the rest of the group at one point, and we wandered around the Japanese Garden for a while. She is like a crazy ball of Doctor Who-watching, Anime-loving, Shakespeare-acting crazy awesome.

And then I went to this one restaurant that I took Emily and Claire (hi!) to last month when they visited. Pickle chips! Root beer floats! I got one with coffee ice cream. And I got a margarita (I have no idea how to spell that) pizza again.

After that I went to the LIBRARY! I have the next Artemis Fowl book next to me right now. Say hello, next Artemis Fowl book.

(Hello)

*fangirl squee*

My copy has the cover on upside down. It's really cool.

Man's Crisis Of Identity In The Latter Half Of The 20th Century

If you recognized the Monty Python reference, you are now my new best friend. Unless you already are my best friend, which is very, very likely. Unless you are my mom, in which case I know you recognized the Monty Python reference and therefore do not need an upgrade. 

I don't really have anything to say. I don't know why, but today was very, very boring. I mean, it should have been a great, noteworthy day. I went to the park! I drew a maze! I got a hug! I ate gelato! (There is a difference between gelato and ice cream. Gelato has a lower butterfat content. Gelato typically contains 4-8% butterfat, versus 14% for ice cream in the United States. [I just copy+pasted most of that that from Wikipedia.]) I…watched Splash! But no. For some reason, nothing really sticks in my mind as something blog-worthy. 

Instead, I will…post this picture of…

A plug!

There's an interesting story attached to that plug. Or socket, or whatever it's called… Once, I blew it up using nothing but a metal necklace chain and a loosely connected charger for that weird/awesome nightlight I got at Ikea. Pffizzt, SPARKS! I'm a modern-day Michael Faraday, I tell you! 

Wheee…

Well, I had a unproductive but happy day, apart from a minor kurfuff--

Sorry, what? I was just--

I apolog--

Sorry! I was distracted by the--by the--

I'm watching Phineas & Ferb, okay? That's why my day was happy and unproductive. I'm on episode 19 of season 2, which is okay until you realize that I started yesterday. Yeah.

So I was--

*giggles hysterically* I'm not even sure why that's funny. It's like mind control!

Hang on. I've just realiz-- O_o AWESOME BRITISH GUY.

I think I'll end this post before it gets out of hand. Better go run around for a while to get out all that pent-up energy. Or maybe I'll have a snack. I'm hungry.

The Return Of Stampy

Remember Stampy? The very large stuffed elephant that, until this afternoon, resided in the loft of the cabin? C'mon, somebody has to remember Stampy. Well, Stampy's back! My dad brought him along with a truckload of other stuff this morning. I love him! (Which can be applied to either my dad or the elephant.)

Say hello to the nice people, Stampy.

hellolZZ!

(Stampy typed that message just for you! [By which I mean, I typed it--using his trunk])

Now that Stampy has returned, I can finally start on my plans for world domination! MUAHAHAHAHA!