We Meet Again

Wow. Hello there, New Post screen. It's been awhile...
I guess you can say that I've been a little preoccupied with life. Senior year is turning out to be even more stressful than junior year, despite many assurances that after junior year it was pretty much smooth sailing to graduation. Except for us poor IB kids. For us, senior year is the worst-- it's when we have all our exams.

Anyway, you haven't missed too much other than my intense school stuff like the 3,500-4,000 word essay I had to write over the summer. (For those interested my final word count was 3,647.) And I am not in my school's production of Beauty and the Beast. "WHAT?" you ask, "I thought you really wanted to be in that musical? Belle's your idol!" Yeah. I know. I still do want to be in the show, but I was sent home and callbacks and the director made it clear to me that I would not be recieving either of the rolls I desired (Belle and Mrs. Potts), which basically meant that I would have been in chorus had I chosen to do the show. I told her that I was only interested in those two roles (as I had previously indicated on my audition sheet)and so I was not cast. Despite her assurance that seniors would always be given precedence over underclassmen as long as the underclassmen were not vastly more talented.

Long story short: the director was a dirty hypocrite. Whatever. I'm mostly over it. It just would have been nice to be in my senior musical since I won't have as many opportunities to act in college since I am pursuing a music career, not musical theatre.

Anyway, enough ranting. Good things have happened to me as well since we last spoke. (Because clearly this is a conversation. It's just very... one-sided...) For one, I love being captain of Madrigals. It's super stressful at times, but it's also rewarding at others like when the choir director compliments me on my leadership skills. It's always nice to be appreciated.

Well, now everyone is up-to-date and I can start being sassy and opinionated in my next post, which will hopefully be in the near future. Possibly even tomorrow! Until then-- DFTBA [Don't forget to be awesome]

If you've never seen a Vlog Brother video, WATCH THIS:

Tune As Old As Song

It's been forever since I last blogged. The worst part is that I don't even have a legitimate excuse. I could say that I've been really busy and just couldn't find the time in my awesome life, but the truth is- I'm a lazy bum. But, hey, it is summer afterall, so my laziness is somewhat justified.

Anyway, though I haven't written anything for some time now, I have been thinking of good things to write about. (Another reason that I haven't been blogging for awhile; I've run out of things to say...)

Yesterday was the workshop for our school's Fall musical, Beauty and the Beast, which is where we get the music and learn part of a dance for the auditions in September. The dance was really hard and I sort of made a fool of myself, but I kind of enjoyed it... but only a little. I really need to work on my facial expression, according to the director, so that's going to be what I do with my time until September like third or whenever the auditions are... You have no idea how much I want to play Belle. She's one of my idols.

In the list of fictional female characters that have influenced my life it's:

1. Hermione Granger

2. Rory Gilmore

3. Belle

She's always been my favourite Disney princess because she's so independant and strong. She wore blue (my favourite colour). She loves books. She's also so... human... like, the way she's always pushing that one strand of hair out of her face. Perfect.

Basically, she's my favourite and I would be absolutely honored to have the opportunity to play her in my school's production.

My Disappointment is Great

Well, school's been out for a little more than a week now, and I have done practically nothing productive-- it's been heavenly. You have no idea how much I have needed this break. Though I must say that even though school is out, finally, I am still very stressed.

I can't remember if I've already said this, but I am a captain of my choir Madrigals! Which I am super excited about, but it also means that I have a lot more stuff added to my plate for summer.

The worst part about all the stuff I have to do this summer isn't the four thousand word essay I have to write, or the four summer school classes I have to take-- it's the fact that I will be unable to attend the eighth Harry Potter movie midnight premiere.


Yep, you did read that correctly. I WILL NOT BE ABOUT TO SEE THE EIGHTH HARRY POTTER MOVIE AT MIDNIGHT. The reason why: I will be at my All-State choir camp. UGH. This is the second year in a row that my choir camp has interfered with Harry Potter and I am really upset about it. This year even more so than last. I mean, this is the last Harry Potter movie premiere ever! And I won't be a part of it.

Harry Potter is my childhood. I grew up watching the golden trio as they fought off Voldemort and the other obstacles in their way and through all those years, I had never been able to attend a midnight premiere for a Harry Potter movie. Mainly because I had been too young, but this year was going to be perfect- I was finally old enough and my friends I could have gone without parental supervision... then I find out the dates for choir camp.

Oh well, I guess it was never meant to be. Though I'll probably be bitter about this for years to come. Especially because, unlike me, all my friends will be going... *sigh*

Too Much Weight on My Shoulders

Today I finished the second, and final, part of my very first IB examination-- Economics. I feel as though a weight has been lifted off my shoulders... The only problem is that there are still twenty-thousand more pounds of junk still there.

I am so stressed. School is stressful. But the good news is that I only have a mere thirteen days left until exam week when I will, hopefully, be allowed to skip class due to exemptions!

Until now and May 27th, though, I still have quite a few things to accomplish:

1. I have captain auditions for my choir, Madrigals, next Wednesday and there's a bunch of requirements that I must attend to between now and then. (For one, I have to teach a song to eight people and then conduct said song in front of the rest of the choir/directors. FUN.)

2. My English IOC is scheduled to take place Friday, May 25 at like 9am. In case I haven't already complained about the IOC is before, it's this thing where we are given a short 30-40 line passage from something we've read in class second semester and we have 20 minutes to create an outline and then we give a 15 minute speech during which we analyze the passage we were given. I'm terrified.

3. My mind is so filled with post-exam mush that I can't think of all the other things I still have to do, but I know there are more.

I'm sure, what with most school years coming to a close, that there are many other people who know what I'm currently going through. Sadly, that doesn't make it any easier on me.

Anyhow... I went to the library today to get the next book in the series I am currently reading (the Mortal Instrument series for those curious) and all three copies were checked out. Needless to say, I was very distraught. But thankfully a dear friend from my Economics class has agreed to loan me her copy tomorrow, so I won't have to wait until June 6th (the first day that a copy was due back at the library) to read it!

That's basically all of the exciting (ha.) news about things going on in my life. I hope you enjoyed this litte update!

Wait, it's NOT Mexican Independence Day?

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo and my Spanish class is apparently going to do some fun little activities in honor of the day.

I don't know about you, but I really don't know anything about Cinco de Mayo... I know that it's the fifth of May, but the meaning of the date in Mexico's history is completely lost on me. When my teacher asked us in class if we knew what it was in honor of I quickly responded (in Hermione-like fashion) that it was in celebration of Mexican Independence-- I was wrong.

Since I had thoroughly humiliated myself in front of my classmates (which I guess isn't that big of a deal considering there are only seven other people in my class), I decided to do a little research on the topic:

I discovered that, despite popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is in fact not a celebration of independence, but the celebration of an unlikely Mexican victory over the French in the Battle of Pueblo in 1862. And that while in Mexico the celebration really is limited to the battle, in the United States it has become more of a celebration of Mexican pride and heritage. Apparently the first celebration of Cinco de Mayo in the U.S. was credited to some Mexicans in California sometime during the American Civil War. Crazy, right?

Actually... I don't find this extremely fascinating (mainly because History is my least favorite subject after math), but there is never a bad time to learn something new and I just hate answering questions wrong, so I had to learn more, so that when my teacher asks us about it tomorrow I will be able to answer her questions.

I promise I won't bore you with history lessons in the future unless I find them incredibly fascinating.

Have a nice Cinco de Mayo tomorrow!

Exterminate, Regenerate

Would you look at that, it's April 30th-- there goes my "blog everyday in April" plan... Oh well.

Anyway, moving on, I hung out with a couple of friends last night. We watched Dr. Who episodes on Netflix, which they have on their Wii. For those of you who have never heard of "Dr. Who", it's a British science fiction series that revolves around the time travel adventures of The Doctor and his various companions.

The show started sometime back in the sixties, but I have only seen more recent episodes thus far. And I've only watched episodes in which David Tennent plays the Doctor. Even though I don't have anyone to compare his Doctor playing abilities to, Mr. Tennent is still my favorite Doctor. He wears converse with every outfit (even tuxes) and actually pulls it off. He also wears glasses sometime, which I think it great because I wear glasses and glasses are cool... (okay, not really, but whatever).

Something that makes "Dr. Who" such a unique and successful show (I mean it's been on since 1960) is that whenever the actor playing the Doctor stops playing the Doctor, the writers thought of like THE perfect way to working changes in casting without disrupting the show-- whenever the Doctor dies in the show, he regenerates. Only when this happens he is a different person, so-to-speak. What could be better than that? I mean it's the best way to deal with casting changes without losing viewers because the character is technically exact same, the actor playing him has just changed, which is a something the writers compensated for. Pur genius.

Sadly, David Tennent is no longer playing the Doctor. In the newest season, which just aired in America last Saturday, Matt Smith is the new Doctor. I haven't seen any of his episodes yet, but I have heard that he is fairly decent.

I have a feeling that David Tennent is always going to be my favorite though, and that is parcially due to the fact that he was in the fourth Harry Potter movie (he played Barty Crouch Jr.).

Anyway, if you haven't ever seen "Dr. Who", I highly suggest it. As of today, "Dr. Who" has been added to my DVR's list of shows to record. You should do the same as well. Unless of course your TV doesn't have a DVR, in which case you should just tune in everyday Saturday at 8:00pm on BBC America.

Random Fact: Charlie, you know that British Youtuber that I keep raving about? Well he's in a band called Chameleon Circuit that plays Trock (Time Lord Rock), which is songs based on "Dr. Who". My favorite song they sing is "Exterminate, Regenerate", but "Blink" is also very good.

Nerdiness Points

So apparently there's some internet rule about blogging everything in April... Well, I guess I already failed that, but I suppose I could try starting now (though I can't promise all the posts to have much substance since my life is incredibly dull at the moment).

Anyway, I believe I left myself some topics in my last post, so I'll at least have something to write about for next couple of days.

I recall proclaiming myself to be a nerd in my last post, so I suppose I should support my claim with facts... Well that, and I just feel like talking about how much of a nerd I am (and besides, it might help explain some things about me).

1. I love, love, LOVE reading for fun. Now, this in itself is not so much nerdy as it is bookworm-y, but don't be too quick to pass judgment; I recently spent over an hour standing in the Barnes and Nobles Classics section of the bookstore debating on whether I should purchase Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. Basically, not only to I love to read outside of my school required reading, but I enjoy reading the types of books (classics) that other schools require their students to read. That is both bookworm-y AND nerdy.

2. I play videogames. Not quite a religiously as some, and I'm not amazingly good at them, but I still find them very enjoyable. The games that I play most often are COD5 (well I supposed that I play Black Ops more now...), Super Smash Bros Brawl and Melee (Melee is my favorite), The Phoenix Wright games, and Pokémon (currently playing Black).

Now, I will say that while I play all these games, they are not my life and I'm not that great at them, so that sort of counts against me in nerdiness points. Regardless, how many girls at your school openly admit to owning and playing Pokémon games?

3. I'm pretty sure you've already guessed this, but I am a major grammar-spelling- syntax-perfectionist. Whenever I read something that my friends write, whether it be on Facebook or in a note, I unconsciously edit it for mistakes (it's quite sad). I've gotten better about keeping these edits in my head instead of voicing them constantly, but I still let one slip on occasion.

4. I am obsessed with Harry Potter. The books, the movies, (but mainly the books)— I can't get enough. I've read the Harry Potter books thirty-some times. (This estimate is based on the amount of times I have read any of the books, not the series as a whole.) I quote the books in casual conversation, and I am able to sit down quote the movies seconds before the actors, creating an echo affect. It's also a very well-known fact to both friends and teachers that I would love to marry Ron Weasley.

5. I watch "The Big Bang Theory". I think that being friends with Sheldon would be really cool. And all of the sciency things that they talk about intrigue me. (Points against me would be that I don't really understand anything that they talk about, but it is interesting!)

6. I find grammar jokes to be highly amusing.

7. I am obsessed with AVPM/AVPS and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog; two internet musical sensations. (I also know the words to all the songs.)

Well...there's an abridged list of reasons why I am a nerd. I'm sure many of you can find various things to laugh at me about, so feel free— I live to amuse.

The Great Harry Potter Miscalculation

I was organizing my locker afterschool last week, something I do many days afterschool (yet another aspect of my OCPD), and I found a list that I had written last year. It was all the books that I had read last year, or at least all of the books that I had remembered. The first seven titles were the Harry Potter books. The first four actually had "(read this twice)" written next to them.

At first, this filled me with pride because it meant that I had read eleven Harry Potter books last year, nothing record-breaking, but considering that I had read a great deal of other books as well it was a pretty decent accomplishment. Then I became a little upset because I had realized something- I had been underestimating the total number of times I had read a Harry Potter book. I had been saying that I'd read them somewhere in the late teens, early twenties range, but after seeing that I had read them eleven times last year alone, I realized that I had actually read them about thirty plus times. A much more impressive, albeit nerdy, number.

And as nerdy as getting upset about such a little thing is, I am slowly becoming okay with the fact that I am a major nerd. I have come to the conclusion that as much as I have, somewhat unsuccessfully, tried to repress it, nerdiness will forever be a part of who I am, and I'm proud of that. Well, I'm proud of that when I'm around other nerdy people, or alone. I'm still working on being okay with it when people are judging me for it. Someday...

Anyway, this realization had inspired a few blog post topics (different types of nerd/the difference between a nerd and a geek, more Harry Potter stuff, and probably one about my nerdiness in general), so look forward to those whenever I find another time to write.

Until that time comes, try to embrace who you are.

What Are You Afraid Of?

Everyday, well almost everyday, I tell myself that I'm going to write a blog post, but, as you can tell by gap of time inbetween this post and my last, I never seem to find the time.

And by "never finding time", I really mean that I waste my time doing things like Facebook creeping, procrastinating on my homework, reading books other than the ones assigned to me by my English teacher-- those kinds of things.

Anyway, it's Spring Break and the majority of my friends have abandoned me to have their own fun adventures in Colorado, Georgia and even Italy. Yes, that's right, the Varsity Choir trip this year was to Italy, and guess whose mother wouldn't let them go-- THIS GIRL. (Not that I'm bitter or anything...) So I decided to take a break from my book (Looking for Alaska by John Green) to write a blog post and watch Kathy Griffin do some stand-up comedy.

A couple days ago I was thinking about how so many people have this irrational dislike, even fear, of insects and arachnids. Then I started thinking about how everyone has irrational fears, but how exactly do people get these fears? I mean they can't just come from nowhere. So today my friends, I am going to psychoanalyze some of these irrational fears and share my thoughts on how these fears possibly came to be. Sound like fun? Good-- let's get started:

Spiders:
An incredibly cliché fear, in my opinion, but as one of the top ten fears its source must be addressed.

Possible Causes:
1. Your parents let you watch one too many scary movies as a small child and the creepy spiders finally got to you.
2. When you were young, you found a large, African bird-eating tarantula hiding in the sheets your parents bought you from Sears. (This actually happened to a friend of mine.)
3. You have fallen prey to the creepy spider stereotype that society has pushed upon us for centuries. Shame on you.

Dolls:
I seriously have two girls in my English class who are legitimately afraid of dolls. I find this fear both concerning and fascinating.

Possible Causes:
1. You came home from Elementary school one day to discover that your younger brother had beheaded your entire Barbie doll collection, scarring you for life.
2. Your parents let you watch Chucky when you were like five.

Frankly I don't understand why that Chucky movie scares people...

I mean, just look at that face-- totes presh.

Heights:
This is one fear that I can sort of see where people are coming from. Personally, I'm not really afraid of heights, but it's really easy to see where people who have this fear are coming from.

Possible Causes:
1. Your dad or older brother did that thing where they pretend to push you off a very high structure when you were young, which caused deep, emotional scarring.
2. You were forced to ride the Hollywood Tower of Terror as a child.
3. You are extraordinarily tall and have a great appreciation for irony.

I'm aware that there are various other irrational fears that I could address today, but I feel that this blog post has already become too long, so we will save that for another day's session of Dr. Em... Until then, please feel free to entertain yourself by watching Charlieissocoollike and reading Harry Potter.