It's my b-day!!!

List of things to accomplish in the next year. AKA, my Ultimate Accomplishments of Awesome List.

1. Study things that are interesting to me
2. Memorize a book of the bible
3. Journal like crazy
4. Color a lot more in my coloring books
5. Look at the Stars until 2 in the morning
6. Stay up all night talking
7. Go to Chicago
8. Dance all night
9. Sign Language? Maybe
10. Acquire and learn how to apply make-up
11. Dress Up for no reason
12. Have a tea party
13. Buy more tea
14. Buy a New Teapot!
15. Pen Pals! I need to work on this...
16. Photo shoot
17. Walk through Kalamazoo with Emily, singing along the way
18. Have more Kalamazoo adventures
19. Finish my dress
20. Become comfortable with my singing voice
21. Reread Fahrenheit 451
22. Own Last Words of Notable People
23. Own/Read all of John Green's books
24. Watch every Vlogbrother's video
25. Read a lot of poetry
26. Read The Hunger Games
27. Read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
28. Read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
29. Read two Shakespeare plays I haven't read before
30. Read the Phantom Tollboth
31. Wear my Octopi shirt
32. Have fun awesome walking adventures with some of my favorite people
33. Camp out in my backyard with some of my favorite people
34. Blog about interesting stuff, not just keep a type of online journal
35. Write a short story
36. Do the Romans 8 thing Emily, Kiersten and I talked about
37. See at least one musical
38. Go to shows and artsy things
39. Go to at least one museum
40. Think about my life, a lot
41. Read my bible every day. Maybe read the new testament in three months or something like that.
42. Make my people/ideas/quotes/inside jokes book
43. Index my journals by people (Maybe only the most important people? Or maybe only the more current important people in my life... I started doing this, and it will take a long time, even with not doing indexing everybody that I've written about in my journals)
44. Hang out with people more
45. Decrease World Suck
46. Learn how to do the nerdfighter salute

My mental state is... yeah, not good

Dear Loser, Hormones,

I don't appreciate what you're doing to my body right now. Mood swings are no fun, especially when every single one of them is toward a more negative place. Did you really have to flow through my body right now? During Finals week? Am I not already stressed out enough? Did you decide that finals and studying on my birthday was just not enough agony and horribleness? Cause I really don't appreciate what you're doing to my mental state right now. And while I'm perfectly aware of what you're doing right now, I can't make myself feel better. Sometimes, emotions suck. Sometimes you hormones are so inconvenient. Let me rephrase that. You hormones are always so inconvenient and bad. I hate you.

Hate, Hannah

On a related note, I always like to think that this song is about PMSing:

Heimdalsgate like a Promethean Curse

I'm in a crisis

I need help

Come on mood shift, shift back to good again

Come on mood shift, shift back to good again

Come on, be a friend

Nina Twin is trying to help, and I

Really hope that she succeeds

Though I picked the thorny path myself

I'm afraid, afraid of where it leads

Chemicals, don't strangle my pen

Chemicals, don't make me sick again

I'm always so dubious of your intent

Like I can't afford to replace what you've spent

Come on, chemicals

Nina Twin is trying to help, and I

Really hope she gets me straight

Because my own inner cosmology

Has become too dense to navigate

I'm in a crisis

I need help

Come on mood shift, shift back to good again

Come on mood shift, shift back to good again

Come on, be a friend

Chemicals, don't flatten my mind

Chemicals, don't mess me up this time

Know you bait me way more than you should

And it's just like you to hurt me when I'm feeling good

Come on chemical

It's time to return home, to return home, to return home

I'm just in a self-pitying type of mood. Listening to the Terrordactyls, feeling like crying. I want to be done with school. With Exams. Everyone else is done. Well, practically everyone else. It just seems like so much. So much pressure. So much work. And my birthday is in two days. What am I going to do to celebrate? Study for Exams. How stupid is that? And I'm going to miss my Duke Family Christmas. Stupid Exams. It's December 17. And it doesn't feel like it at all. I can't do this. I don't even know what would make this better. On a side note, the Terrordactyls are perfect for my current mood.

My bed at the end of the day...

looks like this...

Notes on New Jersey

I'm currently watching Garden State, instead of studying... Which is probably a very bad idea. I mean, I don't have an exam until next Tuesday. But still. I really didn't feel like studying, so I'm watching Zach Braff and Natalie Portman. Note: Rated R for drug use, language, and a scene of sexuality. Other than that, it's a really good movie. You should see it, when your parents won't get upset at you for watching it. Also, Maggie's (and mine, as well) friend Emmy who I'm going to live with next year with Maggie, is from New Jersey. And I saw her today, for the first time in three or four days. Which is kind of unusual, as she's always over here hanging out with Maggie. But finals week is messing up all our usual social habits. Finals week is annoying. I just want my exams to be over already. Oh well.

Notes from a fire drill

So in recent news, my dorm had two fire alarms in less than 24 hours, my roommate and I actually talked to and hung out with some kids from our hall, and I'm almost done with my classes and just need to study for my exams. Also, I haven't really blogged in a few days. And while this may seem like a bad thing, and I do feel sorry about it after saying I would continue blogging, it's actually a symptom of a good development. I've started journaling again! I think that it's actually because of NaBloPoMo. I got into the habit of writing everyday, and then when I had stuff to talk about that I didn't want to put on the internets, I naturally turned to my journal. And now I haven't blogged regularly since I started journaling again. Whoops! I'll have to find a happy medium between blogging and journaling...

Sitting in Linguistics Class, bored

Today, I keep zoning out in every one of my classes. It's bad. I can see why insomnia is bad. Fun at the time, not fun the next day. But I'm being productive. Just not paying attention in class. Yet I'm still the one talking the most. So my teacher has told me not to answer this question. Awkward silence ensues and I still answer the question. Oh Linguistics class and my four quiet classmates who just don't care or pay very close attention. Or maybe they just don't know as many random facts as I do. Or weren't very interested in history as children. Whatever reason, I can still check facebook, blog, and fill out class evaluations and still pay attention.

Greenberg on Languages of the Americas

1) Eskimo-Aleut

2) Na-Dene (Athabaskan and Navajo)

3) Amerind (everything else)

An Apology and an Explanation

So I haven't written in several days, voiding my statement last weekend about continuing to write every day. I'm very sorry about it. I wouldn't think about blogging until it was late, or I would think about it early in the day and not have anything to say, so I would put it off not end up writing. And while I had the same problems during NaBloPoMo, I had a couple other impediments to blogging the past couple of days. Their names are Emmy, Ian, and Ian. Emmy and the Ians are some of Maggie's friends who come over here and hang out. Maggie met Emmy at orientation, and the Ians went to Maggie's high school. They're all fun to hang out with, and I enjoy it when they are here. This past week they've been over here a lot, though, which has resulted in me not blogging. Like Friday, Maggie and I and the Ians hung out for seven hours. Yesterday, between Emmy and the Ians, it was about nine and a half hours (up until I went to sleep at three this morning). Basically, it was a lot of being social, and putting off homework. Which is fine with me, but doesn't help the blogging situation. So that's basically what my past couple of days have been. And now I need to go do more math homework, which I've been putting off for a couple hours.

So much win!

Apparently everything I own and do is cute and adorable. I'm okay with this. Also, we now have a new wall decoration: post-it notes that Maggie wrote me over the past few months, with more post it notes saying "SO MUCH WIN!" and a few more such as "Quotes from..." And a family tree of Maggie and the little group of friends that hang out here. So much win!

AAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, I just had to spaz about the fact that I just bought his music, and it's now IN MY ITUNES!!!! And, yes, I did preorder it as well, but really, the money all goes back to him anyway, so I'm perfectly okay with it. Also, I used an itunes giftcard to purchase it.

*Fangirl spazzing and hyperventilating*

A Swashbuckling Good Day

So I just watched The Mask of Zorro. And it was amazing! I love that movie. I love fun swashbucklers where the good guys win, the bad guys lose, and everything ends up how it's supposed to. So that's happy. Today was a good day, despite the mist/rain, midterm, and paper due. I still had a good day, and saw quite a few people I knew while walking to class/eating dinner, etc. And while that's not an unusual occurrence, some of them noticed me as well and we smiled and waved at each other. Which made me happy. Because I know people here now, and I'm not all alone. Plus, Emmy and Maggie and I had a laugh-ourselves-silly conversation earlier, which, while normal, is also fun and makes me happy. I'm glad that I'm going to room with them next year.

And that's all I've got for you tonight. Sorry. I've got homework and stuff I need to do. Like journal, and read things I should have read last week, and start math homework.

Also, happy end of National Blog Post Month! I think that it's been a good month, and I'm looking forward to continuing posting and reading your blogs. (Tomorrow is December. What?!)

I don't swear online, otherwise this post might be peppered with expletives...

Sometimes I wish I could sleep through all of my problems. I wish sleep could solve all of my problems. But it can't. Taking a nap right now would not be helpful, and I'm not tired anyway. I have a math test to study for, and a paper to revise. And I just realized that I have three two hour final exams on December 21st. That's six hours of exams. That's more time than my longest day of classes (4 1/2 hours). Well, crap. I'm screwed. And the Sunday before, I have to go have Duke family Christmas at my Aunt and Uncle's house. I'm upset about this. Very Upset.

I've got a gal in Kalamazoo! (Several, in fact)

So I'm back at school again. I had to leave my gals, Emily, Kiersten, and Abby, back in Kalamazoo. (Was that the proper application of commas? Or should I have used a semi-colon or two? I'm not sure what the proper punctuation for that sentence was.) And I already miss them, because they're fabulous and make me feel fantastic. I'm so blessed to have such good friends, even if I can only see them not-very-often. I got back to my dorm after another Thanksgiving dinner and put up some Christmas decorations. Which makes me happy. But I need to go buy more. I don't have enough Christmas lights. At all. And I have seven more minutes left in today, so I'm just going to leave it at that. Sorry. You will(might) get more tomorrow. I wish I would promise that, but I have a test and a final draft of a paper due on Tuesday. So I'm not sure how much extra time I'll have tomorrow.

Follow up to Personality Tests

Okay, so this is going to be a follow-up to my last blog post. Thank you Kiersten and Emily for replying. It made me feel good. I do want to clarify a few things. I don't normally feel unappreciated or undervalued, but for some reason I've just been emotional for a week and a half. When I'm emotional, sometimes my head knows things that my heart doesn't believe. And when I'm at college, away from all of you, I sometimes just need reassuring that you love me and are there for me. (Wow, it's really hard for me to articulate my own needs. Maybe I should work on that. I think maybe I just assume that people will understand what I need. Or maybe that they'll look at what I do for them, and reciprocate. Hmm...)

To Emily: You didn't give me the wrong idea in your post. This post has nothing to do with your post. I wasn't even thinking about your post when I was contemplating writing this. I know our friendship can survive even when I'm a hundred miles away. And I knew that I haven't abandoned you, and that even if you did feel like it one time when you were lonely and sad, it was just a passing thought. You're my bestest friend. How could I abandon you? I have invested time into our friendship because it's important to me.

And Kiersten: Even if you don't have an official title like Bestest Friend, or BFF, or Best Friend, you are one of my best friends. You're just Kiersten, and I can't think of a name or title better suited to you than that. I love you lots and lots, and I try to invest time and effort into our friendship, especially because I'm in a different city. Which is one of the reasons I'm always trying to comment on your posts, because that way, we're using these blogs to communicate and converse (I wanted to say conversate, but apparently that's not a word) and that strengthens our friendship.

I try to comment on Emily's and Gwen's and Kiersten's blog posts every day, because I know how good it feels to know that someone took the time and effort to sit down and respond to what I had to say, even if it's a couple sentences. So I made this rule for myself that I'm not allowed to read your NaBloPoMo posts unless I have the time and energy to write a response directly after reading. That way, I comment every day, because I want to read every day. And this past month I've been taking the time every day to blog and comment, which has been really good. I feel like our friendships have been getting stronger this month. Or maybe it was just that we were still spending time and energy to connect, even though I'm a hundred miles from Kiersten and Emily, and Gwen is in a completely different state.

Actually, I try to invest time and effort into any friendship that I really super value, which is basically youth group people. I really value my friendship with Emily, Kiersten, Abby, Aaron, Gwen, Megan, Ava, Brenna, and Monica. There are others, but I don't have such a strong bond with them, or we're just starting to form a strong bond, or I don't have to take time out of my day to devote energy to them, because I live with them (Maggie).

Because of this connecting and keeping friendships strong thing that has happened over the past month, I'm going to try to continue to post every day. And I know that there will be days where I don't post, but I'll keep trying. And I know that my journal will suffer because of it, but I'm kind of okay with that. I don't feel like I'm in a journaling season, and as long as there is some record of my life, written by me, I'm okay.

Personality Tests

So this is going to be a post about my personality, and a personality test I took a while ago. I took this Meyer-Briggs personality test last month, and I'm an ISFJ, which means Introversion Sensing Feeling Judgment. I'll use the wikipedia definitions of each to describe them and the type as a whole.

"I – Introversion preferred to Extraversion: ISFJs tend to be quiet and reserved. They generally prefer interacting with a few close friends rather than a wide circle of acquaintances, and they expend energy in social situations (whereas extraverts gain energy).

S – Sensing preferred to iNtuition: ISFJs tend to be more concrete than abstract. They focus their attention on the details rather than the big picture, and on immediate realities rather than future possibilities.

F – Feeling preferred to Thinking: ISFJs tend to value personal considerations above objective criteria. When making decisions, they often give more weight to social implications than to logic.

J – Judgment preferred to Perception: ISFJs tend to plan their activities and make decisions early. They derive a sense of control through predictability.

Myers-Briggs description

According to Myers-Briggs, ISFJs are interested in maintaining order and harmony in every aspect of their lives. They are steadfast and meticulous in handling their responsibilities. Although quiet, they are people-oriented and very observant. Not only do they remember details about others, but they observe and respect others’ feelings. Friends and family are likely to describe them as thoughtful and trustworthy.

Keirsey description

According to Keirsey, ISFJs, or "Protector Guardians", are most concerned with taking care of people by keeping them safe and secure. They are modest caretakers who do not demand credit or thanks for their efforts. But while they are essentially compassionate—and in fact exercise more patience in dealing with the disabled than perhaps any other type—their shyness with strangers can lead others to misread them as standoffish. Only among friends and family may this quiet type feel comfortable speaking freely. ISFJs are serious people with a strong work ethic, not inclined to self-indulgence. They believe in being meticulous and thrifty. They work well alone. While they may enjoy taking care of others, they do not enjoy giving orders."

I know this might be a little boring and long, so stick with me. Or you might find this fascinating. I don't really know. I myself think that this is fascinating, and helps me understand myself better. And I would really enjoy hearing what you guys are, if you feel like taking the test. Because I enjoy nurturing people, and having an idea of what other people need can help with that pursuit. I'm having a hard time weeding out what I really want to highlight about the descriptions of my personality type, though, so I'm sorry about that.

"The ISFJ feels a strong sense of responsibility and duty. They take their responsibilities very seriously, and can be counted on to follow through. For this reason, people naturally tend to rely on them. The ISFJ has a difficult time saying "no" when asked to do something, and may become over-burdened. In such cases, the ISFJ does not usually express their difficulties to others, because they intensely dislike conflict, and because they tend to place other people's needs over their own. The ISFJ needs to learn to identify, value, and express their own needs, if they wish to avoid becoming over-worked and taken for granted.

ISFJs need positive feedback from others. In the absence of positive feedback, or in the face of criticism, the ISFJ gets discouraged, and may even become depressed. When down on themselves or under great stress, the ISFJ begins to imagine all of the things that might go critically wrong in their life. They have strong feelings of inadequacy, and become convinced that "everything is all wrong", or "I can't do anything right".

The ISFJ is warm, generous, and dependable. They have many special gifts to offer, in their sensitivity to others, and their strong ability to keep things running smoothly. They need to remember to not be overly critical of themselves, and to give themselves some of the warmth and love which they freely dispense to others." (http://www.personalitypage.com/ISFJ.html)

I have to say that I do feel a little undervalued sometimes. While my head knows that you guys love me and care about me, sometimes I need some proof. I was fine when I could see you guys every week, but now that I'm no longer in Kalamazoo, it's harder to get the proof that I crave. So basically, I would really appreciate it if you just took the time and energy to maybe write a comment or two on my blog posts. It would mean a lot to me, little as it is.

If you want to read more about my personality type, here are some links:

http://keirsey.com/4temps/protector.asp

http://typelogic.com/isfj.html

http://www.personalitydesk.com/type-profile/isfj-protector

Also, if you want to take the same test that I did, here's the link:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Thanks for reading this. I appreciate it a lot that you read to the end.

The Lighthouse Keeper

This is a short story/sketch that was inspired by Kiersten's Blog post "Harbor without an anchor." I hope you enjoy, and keep in mind this is just a first draft. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

The old man hobbled out of the dark lighthouse, his beard tangled and grey. On his shoulder sat a tarnished bird, which must have glinted when new, but now was as used up as his master. The man scanned the sky for any unusual lights, set against the unchanging backdrop of the stars. The ships were passing by less and less frequently now, and he hadn't seen one in weeks. Most of the time, they were merely bright dots far away in the vastness of space. Turning, he stopped abruptly and stood still.

The pilot scanned the darkness of space looking for the astroids his instruments told him were near. He sighed in relief as they appeared in the headlights, but something was strange. He started in shock as he realized what he was looking at. A tower seemed to grow from the foremost asteroid and before it was an old man, standing as if he had been hewn from the same rock the tower had been made from. As the pilot looked closer, the large, lumpy astroid behind the old man reconfigured itself into the ruins of buildings and towers. A great city once stood here, before it was abandoned to the mercy of space. And space had not been kind. As the space zeppelin hovered closer, the pilot saw where meteors and space debris had knocked down towers and caused craters.

The pilot wondered how this had happened. Why the old man had stayed or survived when the city was abandoned. Why the lighthouse (it was a lighthouse, the pilot noted as he went past) still had a tenant. Was there a mass exodus of everyone but the old man? Had there been a disease or plague that killed off everyone but the lighthouse keeper? Had he been left to tend the lighthouse when his people left?

The old man waved, a wave so slow the pilot was almost unsure that he had moved at all as the shiny space zeppelin moved on, leaving behind the lonely lighthouse keeper, guardian of a dead city.

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving. The time to sit down, eat copious amounts of food, and give thanks. So, in that spirit, I'm going to write a blog post about some of the things I'm thankful for. And I'm starting this early, so I'll be able to post it before I leave for my Aunt and Uncle's house. So here it goes. In no particular order.

Music. I'm very thankful that I'm able to sit here, with music coming out of my computer speakers as I type this. I'm thankful that I have so much music that I love, and so much music that reminds me of other times and other moods. I'm thankful that I'm going to get Charlie's CD in a week or two. I might get so excited about it that I also buy a digital copy, with an itunes gift card I have. I'm thankful about that. I'm thankful that I was able to go see the Weepies and that I have their new CD. I'm thankful that my dad plays many musical instruments, and that he's playing his trumpet right now.

Family. I'm very thankful for my family. I'm thankful that these are the people I'm related to, my mom and dad, my brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, cousins' kids, cousins' boy/girlfriends. These are my people, and I love them so much. I'm very happy that I get to see some of them today.

Food. I'm super thankful for all the delicious food that I'm going to consume today. Also all the varied food with all sorts of flavors and spices that comes from all over the country, if not the world. I'm so lucky that I live in America in this century, where we have such an abundance and variety of food.

Friends. I'm so so thankful for my friends. I really don't know how I would have survived high school without you guys. I love all of my friends so much and am so grateful that I got the privilege of knowing you guys. I knew that I can trust you with anything, and that you'll still love me. Thanks for being there for me.

God. Words cannot even describe how thankful I am to God and how grateful I am for everything he's done for me. Just yesterday I was in the Family Christian Bookstore with my mom, because she wanted to pick up a CD, and I wandered over to the bible section. I wanted to buy a Message bible, because I couldn't find the copy that James gave me a long time ago. All of the ones I found were super expensive, so I gave up. But when I got to the counter with something else I found (it's a surprise for you people who go to New Day. You'll see on Sunday), I noticed a copy of the Message below the counter with a bunch of other stuff. The clerk said that everything there was five dollars. So I got my new version of the bible, and it was totally God. Plus, he's done so much for me, and I'm eternally grateful for him. He saved me, and not only that, but he continues to save me. And he loves me. I'm so thankful for God.

Books. I'm so very thankful for books. They're amazing, and I love them so much.

Movies. Similarly, I really enjoy movies and I'm so thankful that they exist and that I have the resources to buy them so I can watch my favorites whenever I want.

My roommate. I'm very thankful that Maggie is my roommate. We get along great, and are friends. We make each other laugh and enjoy living with each other. I miss her when I don't see her for a few days. Basically, I really lucked out in the roommate situation. Except it wasn't luck. It was God. Thanks God!

The list goes on and on. I'm so thankful for everything! Well, not everything. Just most things.

On being home and other occurrences

So I'm still home, haven't yet left for my Aunt and Uncles house to eat copious amounts of turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes. It's been a rather relaxing day, and I didn't get all that much done today, which I'm okay with. I also started watching Glee again, so I spent about an hour and a half catching up with the last two episodes. I'd forgotten how much I love some of the characters. I also went shopping, and picked up a few holiday decorations for my dorm room. I'm mondo excited about Christmas. I love all the lights and decorations and seeing my family. I'm also excited about Thanksgiving, tomorrow. I love my family, and even though James and Ashley are not going to be there, it will be fun. I'm going to see James tonight, actually, before he and Ashley leave tomorrow morning for Minnesota. I'm glad. I really do love my big brother James. And my big brother Jesse as well, but it's a little different because they're two different people. But family is the best.

I'm Home!!!!!!!

Basically, I'm home in Kalamazoo, and very glad to be here. I just won three out of five games of sequence against Jesse and Ashley (and Mom, for the last one). I ate a little something, realized that I left a few items in Ann Arbor, and now I'm on here. I'm kind of sleepy, which I think is because I'm home. Which is why I stopped playing Sequence with the fam. Also, because I'm sleepy, I don't really want/have much to say... I'm going to go read your guys's blogs and see if I want to add anything to mine, or just reply to you. I should really create a few blogs in advance for times when I don't have much to say.

You know how some days just suck. Yeah

Of course today was Monday, and rainy as well. And everything went wrong, of course... I don't have much to say... I'm going to sleep.

Thanksgiving!

I'm so pumped about Thanksgiving. I'll get to see my family, and eat delicious food, and be around my family, and not worry about schoolwork. I'll be able to go shopping and buy Christmas decorations and everything! I'm excited! I'm also sleepy right now, so I'm going to add a thing that's been appearing on Facebook, so this will be longer.

I've read 34 of these, and started 5.

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Productivity

My to-do-list for today:

Laundry

Astro HW

Great Books Reading

Call Parents

Study Math

ATM

Glee Club Concert

Watch Movie?

Blog

Things I've accomplished so far:

Laundry (mostly)

Astro HW (mostly)

Great Books reading (mostly)

Call Parents

ATM

Watch Movie

And I'm blogging right now.

I've been letting my laundry go for a while. I always wash like colors together, and I wear a lot more blues, greens, browns, and greys than other colors, so the other colors get neglected. I had a load of whites and a load of bright colors to wash, in addition to about three loads of blues, greens, browns, and greys. Basically, that equals a lot of work and time and money. I spent ten dollars and five hours, on and off, to wash my clothes. And I still have more work later, when the clothes on the clothesline are dry. So that took up most of my day.

My astronomy homework is super easy and not due for two weeks, but I thought that it would be a good idea to get it out of the way now. I have one question left, and it's pretty easy. I've just lost the gumption to do it.

Great Books reading should have been done on Wednesday, but that didn't happen, so I need to catch up on that. I read a little bit earlier, but have no desire to finish that tonight.

I called my parents to let them know I was coming home on Tuesday, and ended up talking to my dad. He told me about what he was currently reading about, as usual. My dad reads a lot. He's constantly learning about things that interest him, and a lot of the time, he likes passing on that information to me, and my mom. I have more background information on most of the subjects than my mom does, so he usually tells me. It's fun. It's as if he's the teacher of a class with one student that meets whenever and who's subject is anything in the realms of science, music, philosophy, economics, and academia. I miss those talks.

I got money out of an ATM for the first time today. I'm quite proud of myself, actually. I figured out how to use the machine, found my pin number, and didn't look like a fool doing it. Of course, I used the ATM when there was no one else around, so that might have helped.

I watched Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day while folding laundry. And it was perfect. I folded my last shirt just as the movie ended. I was very happy about that.

And now I'm blogging about what I did today. I'm going to go to a glee club concert in about forty minutes, and after that, I have no idea. Maybe another movie... or some more laundry... or I might be ambitious and do some more homework. Who knows?

Harry Potter

So I saw Harry Potter 7 and it was amazing!!!!! And I would talk about it, but I'm sure that you don't want to hear me gush... And I don't have anything else to talk about... So I'm not going to write much else...

On Math Homework and Movies

Do I finish my math homework, or do I watch a movie? Hmmm... Such a difficult choice. Maybe an hour of math homework, then a movie? Sounds good. And what movie, do you ask? Why Harry Potter 6, of course.

I'm sorry for the brevity of this post. I'm kind of pressed for time right now, what with math and Harry Potter.

Poems from long ago

I felt like posting a few poems I wrote a long time ago... I don't really know why... something about Kiersten's new poem, maybe.

Paper flowers

The silver wishes are tarnished

The hopes are now flown away

The sincerity is gone forever

The roses fade to grey

All seem as paper flowers-left too long in rain

Of insubstantial worth and always full of pain

Trbx

“I have no emotions associated with briefcases” and flippant coconuts tell of blackness and rain. A horse named Brideen and cuteness contains chopsticks and Emily’s top hat. The rain soaks through velvet moonlight to freeze on my skin-a kind of healthy change from clamminess and trees. Penny Quinn turns Pink and the ironies of archaic and no strings attached become manifest as a blank titled poem unravels into a jumble of numbers turned letters turned numbers-hexadecimal riddles and pastel flowers and this would be a cool puzzle cloud. Somehow, the rain falls on Morrie and Emily Dickenson, to make Tuesdays with singing feathers-a fitting testament to September. Philosophers and dentists are weirdly combined and inextricably merged as the nebulosae roll over.

Never Know

I’ll never know

How you think

What poetry is

How music speaks

I can only

Listen to you

Write unknown words

And cry at strange emotions

Jonas

I flew this morning-riding my bike-fleeing from something or to something-not quite sure which. Outdistancing my thoughts, my tiredness, my sleep deprived emotions. Riding fast, going hard. Brakes barely slowing me down, wind chilly past my body. On an island of grass-three deer. Two fled from my approach-one remained. And just looked at me. Just stared a me. And I felt this-this is what I was running to.

Finis

The walls crumble around me

I am trapped here forevermore

I have seen friends die and I have killed

I am forever changed by war

Bleak rain falls outside these walls

Snuffing fight and fire

Cold chills resound inside

An eternity to mire

Beneath the tower you and I wait

For an end to the end of time

While her castle collapses here

We listen for our last bells to chime

The bells sound at last

And we stay frozen in lime

She truly is at an end

And we have paid the price for her crime

once

once i knew how to dance in the rain

how to sing in the shower

laugh for an hour

once i knew how to be myself

without a doubt

for another self they never did tout

once i knew how to tell you things

secrets in the nights

when we stopped our fights

once i knew the voices of nature

of the flowers

of rose-covered bowers

once i was a child

much like you

but now i'm old

and now i'm through