Okay, one entry. I wanted an outlet for my frustration with myself and for my disappointment. I thought I was almost done with French 1, and then discovered that I’m only about a fourth of the way through. I should have spent way more time on school last year, besides chemistry, and now I’m suffering the consequences. I really, really, really want to graduate at the end of this school year.
I’m done ranting now, at least on here :6: . Have an amazing rest of your life.
- WM
I probably won’t post again until October 1, because I need to finish up my 11th grade schoolwork by then and am trying to remove distractions. I might update my costume blog, but I’m not sure.
Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM
I realized the day after I posted it that I spelled Shawn Johnson’s name wrong (Sean). I didn’t fix it because it had already been automatically imported to Facebook :p So, sort of because I was being lazy, because I would have had to delete it and import it again.
Here, have some pictures. It rained, so I photographed the grass. A bunch of hummingbirds (at least nine) were at the feeders, so I did the same to them. Sydney was lying in the sun, as she often does, so I took pictures of her, and then of Molly.
I edited them a bit on Paint Shop Pro 7.
Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM
Yesterday evening, my sisters and I went to rent a movie. We ended up with two. My older sister and I wanted to see The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and my younger sister College Road Trip. I saw Hitchhiker’s once two or three years ago, and seemed to remember it being better than it actually is.
My Dad bought The Family Man recently (for $5 at Wal-Mart) and since we doubted he would be interested in the movies we rented, we watched that with dinner (homemade pizza). My parents had seen it before, but didn’t remember it being as bad as it was.
A bit of explanation on the plot: The main character was in love with a young woman and had a business trip to London. His love, whose name happened to be Kate, didn’t want him to go because she was afraid she would never see him again. She had good reason to worry. He ends up going after a life of successful business instead of marrying her. 13 years pass, and something happens, and then he wakes up to find himself the husband of Kate, the father of two children, and a tire salesman. He sees what life would be like if he had married her. In the end, he goes back to normal life, looks her up, and we know they get married.
Negative elements:
Cussing (someone turned off the profanity filter and forgot to turn it back on), two scenes Mom told us to skip before we saw anything, and some highly suggestive dialogue. The MC is quite immoral.
Positive elements:
The MC (I think his name is Jack Campbell…The actor is Nicholas Cage) becomes faithful to his wife (after wanting to have an affair. He doesn’t, though). The film encourages that and staying with your spouse and growing old together.
There were some funny parts, but I do not recommend this movie.
After that, my sisters and I decided to watch College Road Trip. I expected another cookie-cutter Disney movie. It was better than I expected. Mom watched it, too. Dad watched a little bit.
Negative elements:
The main character goes behind her parents’ backs and tells them she’s going to the library when she’s really going to a party. She shows disrespect to her father once or twice (that I remember).
Positive elements:
The bond between the daughter and her father and the rest of their family, the father’s desire to bond with and protect his daughter (even though he goes too far on this matter at times). And there’s only a moment of silly romance (she’s smitten by some dude at a college, which ends as soon as she figures out her dad hired him to try to get her to go that college instead of one far away)! Although in the end, she does bring home a guy from college for Thanksiving. And there’s no gross kissing!
There were some hilarious parts that had us all laughing (I usually don’t find the average Disney girl movie very funny). Even Dad laughed. And it was surprisingly clean (it is rated G). The movie I expected not to recommend is the only one of the three that I do.
Um, yeah. Three movies in one night. We also watched The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Just my sisters and I for most of it. My parents went to sleep, and my brother was upstairs on the computer most of the time, but he came down and watched the end with us. The movie ended around 1:30 AM, so I can’t claim to have been awake enough to list negative and positive elements. All I can say is that, while there are some amusing parts and I appreciated the imagination it took, it’s a very strange and silly movie, quite unbiblical, and not worth your time.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
- WM
Hancock Fabrics has Butterick sewing patterns on sale for 99 cents through the 17 of August, so Mom took me there today since she needed to go out and do grocery shopping. I bought three patterns - a shirt that looks similar to the one Prince Caspian wears throughout most of the movie, a Robin Hood spin-off that I got for the trousers, and a cloak (the one Legossi makes her lined cloaks from) – along with some boning and bias tape. I discovered it’s cheaper to buy boning online (after I looked at the receipt. Mother payed for said items).
We went to Zaxby’s for lunch, and then on to Wal-Mart. I found some multi-purpose shorts that go down to my knees, some earrings to replace the ones I lost, and some sewing pins to add to my blunt, almost-ancient collection. 
My sisters and I have been staying up late to watch Olympic gymnastics. We watched Americans Nastia Liukin and Sean Johnson win the gold and silver medals, respectively, for the women’s all around last night. The American women’s team placed second in the team all-around, and the American men’s team recieved bronze medals for the men’s version the night before last and the one before that (but not respectively; switch it around).
Yesterday, Mom made a list of the schoolwork I need to get done this year to graduate. I have to finish French I, geometry, history, and vocabulary from 11 grade (I slacked off while taking a chemistry class taught by another homeschooling mom who gave us, in my humble opinion, way too much homework). And for 12 grade, I have algebra II, astronomy, French II, history, vocabulary, and literature. I think that’s all.
“That’s all” is actually more than I would prefer, but that’s okay. It does mean I’ll probably end up putting aside the reading of fiction almost completely, so I’m not sure when I’ll finish A Tale of Two Cities. I read a little in the car today.
Speaking of things I need to do, house-cleaning is one of them.
Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM
A one-eyed squirrel has been visiting our birdfeeder. Rumor has it, he lost the eye to a Telmarine king and hasn’t spoken since. But that’s unlikely.
The Telmarine probably wasn’t a king.
I shall attempt to get a picture in the future, if I remember.
I need to start setting an alarm or something, because I sleeping late because it takes me forever to fall asleep because I keep sleeping late because I stayed up late. Last night, I thought very thoroughly about costumes I want to make and somewhat about short stories I want to write while I was trying to fall asleep.
Today, I worked on a dress I’m making, did some house-cleaning, spent quite a bit of time studying Prince Caspian’s brigandine and researching scale lamellar and fun foam online, and researched various other costumes. (My laptop is being so slow at the moment, I think it deserves an award of some kind.) I’m seriously considering trying to construct a brigandine, but it will probably wait until after the other costumes I want to make (Ithilien ranger, Susan’s farewell overdress) which will wait until after the costumes I’ve comitted to making (two basic Renaissance lady outfits).
Oops. I just wrote about sewing outside of my costume blog. :ninja: There’s a link to it on my sidebar.
I have yet to finish A Tale of Two Cities. I should go back to reading more. I also started Bringer of Storms, and I’m reading From Sea to Shining Sea for history (which comes before pleasure reading, so I don’t know when I’ll finish the other two).
Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM
I remembered what else I was going to say about Prince Caspian. Two thoughts: Ben Barnes’s acting seems too modern at times, and I like the way Peter says “dislocated”.
Okay, I’m done with that for now. Last night my sisters and I were trying to think of something to do. We decided to cook something, and something ended up being fried potatos and scrambled eggs. We played Clue while the potatos cooked. Then we watched TV. We went back and forth between my preference, a show on the history channel about an ancient Chinese dynasty, and their preferences (Food Network, How Do I Look?, John & Kate Plus Eight). Other than some gruesome, probably R-rated moments of violence, it was very interesting. The battle reanactments really deromanticized the idea of riding off to battle.
And now I should go do geometry. If they ask me to reproduce another triangle, the things are going to take over the world.
Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM
My family except for my brother went to Sweet Red Tomatos for lunch (well…breakfast for two of us…*coughcough*). I’d never eaten there before. I like the food (they have salads, soups, breads, fruit, and dessert). Then Mom, my two sisters and I went to a cheapo theater ($2 a ticket) to see Prince Caspian while Dad ran some errands in the area.
I enjoyed it much more this time. I was sick the first time I saw it. But from the part Caspian goes to Miraz instead of the gatehouse to the end of the scene, I didn’t enjoy the night raid on the castle. Caspian is rather naive, but I wish he had thought about the lives he would be putting in danger by seeking to satisfy his own desires. Granted, it was an important matter and I can scarcely blame him for letting such shocking information muddle his thinking, but still…
And then I found myself unable to enjoy the character at all. I dislike knowing things about actors that I wish I never knew. I worked it out in my head that he’s Prince Caspian in the movie, not Ben Barnes, and Prince Caspian is noble. Then I started enjoying his part again.
The kiss at the end, Susan’s eyeliner, and Peter’s and Caspian’s bad attitudes still bother me, but overall, I enjoyed the movie a lot. I liked musing about the inner motivations of the different characters. I’m glad they gave Reepicheep the voice he has, instead of a squeaky, stereotypical mouse voice. At some point I want to try to make a more modest version of the dress Susan wears at the end. I made a list of things in the movie I wanted to comment on, but I’m not sure if I recalled them all or not. My “inner editor” would like you to know that I used “enjoy/enjoyed” too much in this post. Similar or exact words repeated in close proximity to each other is a no-no when you’re writing. :p
On the way home from the theater, my sisters convinced our parents to stop and buy frozen pizza for dinner. We came home and played The Lord of the Rings monopoly . We didn’t finish the game, because it was getting a bit long and we became somewhat distracted by the Anne of Green Gables movie on TV. We discovered HGTV’s next design star (Jenn Iforgotherlastname), and now I’m writing this entry.
Oh, and Prince Caspian comes out on DVD in October :ninja:
Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM
Instead of doing Summer Novel Writing Month for July’s extra credit project (*weep weep*), we did Snapshots. Each participant created a fictional town somewhere in the real world. They wrote 30 scenes, each one from the point of view of a citizen of that town. No POV could be used twice, and only four characters could be related to each other. The genre had to be historical fiction, contemporary, or futuristic science fiction. Instead of doing the project, I opted to give feedback to two people that did. Neither of the two people assigned to me posted stories for a while, so I was reassigned to one person and kept one who was planning on posting. Then the one who was planning on it dropped out. The other person completed all 30 of her “Snapshots”. She did a good job. I need to feedback six more scenes for people not recieving official feedback to get the t-shirt prize.
[random] I often eat oatmeal for breakfast. I usually put chopped apples, almonds, and cinnamon in it, and today I added dried cranberries to that. I think they’ll be a permanent addition. [/random]
I did make up my own town and start writing unofficial snapshots just for fun. I’m on the ninth. It’s very enjoyable. They’re perfect for my attention span :6: Each scene is around 1,000 words long and has its own main character, conflict, and resolution.
I haven’t been reading very much lately, so I’m still on A Tale of Two Cities.
On August 9, a few Clean Place members from Georgia and one from TN are getting together. One of them I’ve never met before. I’m looking forward to it. I hope I can think of things to say.
I want to see Prince Caspian again.
Have an amazing rest of your life!
- WM
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