Finally free!

I have 29 posts, 29 posts!!

Thank goodness now I can study!

May the Lord be with me.

Knuckles

I hate it when people crack their knuckles. It's the grossest sound in the whole world.

Ummm, that is the character Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog, close enough!

Old Songs

I miss having a whole period to just sing crazy songs like we did in Elementary School


Have you seen the ghost of John?
long white bones with the skin all goooooone
oooOOOOOOooooooooohhhhhh
wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on?



oh boy, what a great tune!

Poem

Here's a quick poem I'm making up on the spot under pressure because these blogs must get done quickly so that I can study for my test next period!



"Hello there," said the man

and thus produced a frying pan

of which he used to fry pancakes

while he was swimming in the Great Lakes


Oh man I'm going to win the Pullitzer for sure!!!!

Back

My back hurts.

It's frightful.

How shalt I ever make it through the day?

I feel like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

California Lovin'

I give kudos to California for this breaking news:

http://new.927thevan.com/news/articles/2010/mar/24/marijuana-legalization-will-be-on-california-ballo/

So, it's about time that the legalization of marijuana be put on the California ballot. The vote for the legalization of the sale and consumption of marijuana will be put on the November ballot. One doesn't have to be a pot-smoker to be happy that a more peaceful world would come about from the legalization of marijuana in America. Too many helpless people are arrested for a habit much less dangerous and addictive than the smoking of cigarettes. Does this seem right? Certainly not.

Why don't other states wake up and see that such a harmless substance should be decriminalized? One doesn't even have to smoke marijuana to have a strong opinion about the subject. For instance, thousands upon thousands of people die each year from tobacco - a product legal to buy at the age of 18. Alcohol impairs judgement greatly and is a very dangerous substance, in my opinion. Now tell me, what has marijuana ever done?

I am not sure I will ever understand why something so harmless is hated and criminilized by so many.

It's time America wakes up and at least makes marijuana legal for at least medicinal purposes - for how can one criminilize something known widely to help so many people with glaucoma, arthritis, cancer, and many other painful diseases?

Thumbs down to America. Thumbs up to California.

Action Shot

Don't you just love action shots?

Yep, here's consistent post number four...five more to go before I meet the quota this period!

Floating

Some days float by and I don't even remeber what has happened.

I feel as if I'm wasting valuable time, simply floating around.

I need to do productive things with my time.

I want to reflect upon a day and be able to say that I've done something worthwhile.

What have I done with my days?

I don't even know. Honestly. This must change.

Girl Code

Dear "Girl-code",

I do not follow you and break your guidelines consistently.

This probably makes me a bad person.

People should be able to do whatever they please.

Ridiculous

I need to be studying for an AP Government test next period right now.

Ya know - subsidies, economic policy, Social Security, welfare, ALL THAT FUN STUFF

I'm not prepared.

Instead what am I being forced to do?

Write nine blogs for journalism on here.

So prepare for eight more horridly short and uninteresting entries!!

The Witches

I am currently finishing up The Witches by Roald Dahl.

I was recently told by a teacher that the "children's stories" I write are very, very creative - but also very disturbing and that the day I become a published children's author is the day he wonders what went wrong with the world. Thanks!

However, The Witches is a disturbing story of which is based around pure creativity that a child seeks and enjoys. Children don't always like books with upstanding morals about puppies getting caught in sewage drains and being saved by a hunky, well-mannered firefighters. Children want stories that are crazy, out of this world, and something that will make them giggle and be engrossed in the world of words at the same time. A good children's book is one that can be read aloud by an enthusiastic parent who can do voices for characters to get the child to believe that such a crazy world is real. The perfect bedtime story. Such stories get children to later in life read by themselves.

The Witches is a story that I would highly recommend based on the above statements about children's books. The story is about a young child and his grandmother - who informs the boy that witches exist everywhere throughout the world in large numbers. These witches look like real people on the outside - however, they always wear gloves due to clawed hands, scratch their heads due to being bald and having to wear a wig, fitting their wide toe-less feet, have blue saliva, and many other hidden, horrible things. These witches abhor children and seek to demolish them at all costs. To witches, children smell like "dog's drrrroooopppppppingggggs."

The boy is terrified at what he hears about witches and fears for his own life, as a child, since these seemingly ladylike women seek to murder him. One can see why this book was under scrutiny by censors! The story revolves around the boy and his grandmother arriving at a hotel in England. The boy enters a large room in the hotel said to be hosting the "Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children." However, as the ladies start entering the room...it turns out that the two hundred women who have just entered the room are actually all witches! And that he is at the very secret annual meeting of every witch in England - of which his grandmother has been trying to discover the location of her whole life as a sort of "witchhunter."

The Grand High Witch is concocting a plan to destroy all of the children in one fell swoop!!

Who will stop them?

Free Reads

Gutenberg is a wonderful website that I should use more often.

Gutenberg carries a large collection of free e-books that you can either read as text on the computer or download to a Kindle or other e-book reading device. I'm not sure how I feel about Kindles...they may be nice, however I like to look at the stacks of books piled high in my room. I should probably get a bookcase...but just having the physical book in my hands makes it feel old and genuine.

Here is a large collection of books on Gutenberg, divided into a lot of different genres. I need to start telling myself over and over: I must read and write, I must read and write, I must read and write! If I ever want to write my own children's book...I MUST READ AND WRITE!!!

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Category:Bookshelf

Self-Taught?

I feel like teaching myself how to do something of use in my spare time. I've been trying to wean myself off of the laptop that seems to attract my attention and divert that attention onto books. Reading is fun at the moment, however I feel like teaching myself a new language. I feel like I would really enjoy living in Istanbul whenever I'm older. It looks like a very beautiful city. I'm attracted to its old buildings, narrow streets, ocean, bazaars, and almost tropical atmosphere. However, they speak Turkish. I've been wanting to learn Arabic for quite awhile and have some workborks...however, I feel like I might start with attempting to self-teach myself some Turkish and maybe take Arabic in college at Penn State. It seems logical enough, looking at their alphabet. The easy thing about the language seems to be that if you can memorize the alphabet, you are in pretty good shape as far as pronunciation goes - because each letter in every word is ALWAYS pronounced as it is.


So here's to trying to teach myself Turkish!

Istanbul, not Constantinople:

At last, at last!

So, I finally got my ears pierced today. After 18 years.

Some say, "Oh goody goody gracious me, Sam you don't have your ears pierced!?!? I got mine pierced when I was five days out of the womb!" - to which I reply...with a shrug.

I don't believe that parents should force a thing such as a piercing upon their child. It's a scary experience for them and they really don't have the knowledge to make such a decision yet.

Apparently as a toddler I was anti-earrings.

Yeah, I might look happy and cute here...however, this was probably a vicious, maniacal laugh. When I was a toddler, my sister was older than me and had her ears pierced. I saw them as a toy - a chew toy, I suppose - and bit her newly-pierced earrings out of her ears, causing infection and the inability to get her ears pierced ever again.

Aren't I a nice little sister? At least I have earrings now! And no small siblings to bite them out!

Rainy Days

Driving to Belleville in the pouring rain tonight, I had to choose my songs carefully. There's a certain mood I'm in whenever the rain is mercilessly pouring down. This is my collection of the best rainy day songs, especially ones to listen to while driving in the rain.

1. Radiohead - Rabbit In Your Headlights (with Unkle)

2. Radiohead - Jigsaw Falling Into Place

3. Ooklah The Moc - Live Love

A great reggae tune that I can't seem to find a Youtube link of. It all builds up to the horns at the end, which I personally love.

4. The Velvet Underground - Oh! Sweet Nuthin'

such a good jam

5. Everlast - What It's Like

reminisce!

7. The Clientele - Monday's Rain (and also pretty much any song by them is rainy-day appropriate!)

8. Sonic Youth - Superstar

Their tribute to the lovely Karen Carpenter with a cover of Superstar

9. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

as already stated...this song is absolutely brilliant.

10. The Smashing Pumpkins - Dancing in the Moonlight (Thin Lizzy cover)

After falling asleep over three times whilst composing this list...I'm done!

Doodles

A lot of people seem to think that my doodles resemble those of Tim Burton:

A drawing of Edward Scissorhands by Tim

The truth is, I could only wish that I was a good of a drawer as him. I suppose he and I have a similar mind in the things we imagine, but I'll never be as great. Doodling will more than likely always remain a hobby and a way to pass time during Calculus and AP Gov and...the whole school day.

my favorite drawing I've done, unfortunately...I've lost it!

there are a lot more. I suppose the best ones are little tiny ones done in the margins of the paper so, more to come!

Deja Vu

For some reason the album version of this song, Deja Vu, by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young isn't on Youtube.

However, this song is, to me, the most relaxing song I have ever heard. Though this version isn't as great as the one on the album, it's still amazing to hear older men with such powerful voices sing ...there's such emotion in their voices, it's such a powerful song. One of my favorites.

Wants

If only I could become a granny DJ someday!

I believe that I wish for my future much more than I am enjoying living in the present - which is something I promised myself that I wouldn't do. I look ahead and see exploration, travel, great stories...I see getting to the actual "real life" part of this journey. I guess I always feel old, but I just realized today how young I actually am. My whole life if still ahead of me, and I haven't even gotten out of school yet! I haven't even experienced 1/4 of my life yet (assuming, with hope, that I make it to 80 years old!)

I've often thought about what kind of old woman I wish to become. I see myself as a crazy old woman. I'm crazy enough now as it is...so I feel as if I am going to let it all loose whenever I'm an old woman. I won't care about my appearance too much anymore so I'll be able to constantly feed my sweet tooth! However...this is also the road to diabetes so I'll have to control myself! I'll probably have a lot of cats. I'll have a husband who sits on the porch with me and smokes a tobacco pipe while I do word searches and doodle people I've met through my life as cartoon characters. I'd go to Bingo every Friday night. I'll probably be seen as the loony grandma in the family. I'll spoil my grandkids and read them the craziest children's books. I'll read them my own stories. I'll tell them my own adventures.

I just want to be done with high school. I want to be out on my own. I want to do unexpected things. I want to live a life that couldn't be described as "normal." But mostly, I just want to move on to the next stage of life - I've been enclosed in the bubble of school for 13 years!

I want to graduate.

Lament of Pooches

What are people doing to their dogs nowadays?

Think how much this dog must hate his life.

He probably gets smothered with kisses and cheek-pinchings by his obsessive owener. Bathed repeatedly until he feels as if all of his fur has been removed. He cries before he gets locked in his cage at night. WHAT A POOR, PATHETIC CREATURE. Someone unbind his ears and stop this dog-show madness!

Bad Dreams

Have you ever been afraid to do things because of a frightening dream you had about the activity?

I think it would be wonderful to go on a hot-air balloon ride.

However, what I would not be excited for would be a horrific storm stomping in and volatile winds causing the balloon to fly high up into the clouds - where the air becomes so thin one lacks the ability to breath. Then, all the sandbags are cut and the floating balloon falls, very rapidly, to the ground. Life flashes before one's eyes. However, upon the landing of which you expect certain death...everyone is completely fine. You have crashed into a very small, rural town in Georgia and no one is very willing to help you clean up your balloon, help you fix it, or point you in the right direction.

That was my dream. That is why I will always be frightened to ride in one.

There will always be that little voice in my mind before I do an activity I've had a bad dream about saying, "What if dreams predict future events? Who are you to say they don't? What if the dream comes true? Are you willing to take that risk?" And then a decision must be made.

Embarassment

So, I'm sitting here at home...no work tonight! It's relaxation time...and I find myself watching Pink Floyd: The Wall on VH1 Classic and oh boy, I must say, it is simply wonderful. Well, maybe more "unsettling" than wonderful. I can't seem to make up my mind. The music and the visuals blend in so oddly, I feel like I'm watching a four hour saga of an intense soap opera.

I feel like it's that time of the day to reflect on the happenings thus far and look ahead towards the night to see what is to come. As for what's happened...I made a pretty embarrassing flub saying the lunch menu on the morning announcements this morning. I said.. "chicken nuggets with sauce - now that might not be as good as fettucini sauce.." and did not realize my mistake until we closed up the announcements, I went back to class, and everyone in the room began to laugh. I asked, cautiously, "...what?" to which they replied "Fettucini sauce? Alfredo is the sauce. Fettucini is pasta. Really, Sam?"

So I guess I'll add this onto my list of stupid things I've said over the years...some classics such as: "Oh..is there banana in banana bread?" "Does pasta grow on trees?" and one of the more embarrassing.. Teacher: "Sam, tell me some important things that happened in the 1930's." Me: "Well, a lot of people had slaves back then." Teacher: "No, Sam..try the 1800's."

I can't wait to see what I embarrass myself with next!

Future Travels?

Recently I have been toying with the idea of doing something different after I graduate from college than I originally planned. The original plan? To graduate with my English degree, possibly head to grad school at University of Pittsburgh to study Children's Literature...or, to simply graduate from Penn State and immediately find a low-ranking job at a children's publishing house and work my way up the ladder! With this plan, I have always wondered when I would get to travel the world...get away from America and go to places that I actually do feel a connection with. Then I realized that teaching English as a foreign language could be a possibility of something to do after I graduate college for at least a year in another country to build up my resumé and live that life of adventure that I've always craved. I want to have crazy stories. I want to live an unusual life. I want to spend it full of doing things that I love. You get paid very well to teach English as a foreign language and sometimes accommodation is free! Also, you don't need to know the host country's language since the classes are English-immersion, which creates endless

possibilities as to where one can work. However, in whatever country you are living you are usually given free language lessons to help accustom yourself to the local culture.

Ever since I did our school's Living Museum project on a most fascinating woman, Gertrude Bell, I have been in love with Arabic and the Middle Eastern culture. Gertrude was an absolutely amazing woman. She travelled, alone on camel, throughout the Middle East as a sort of spy for T.E. Lawrence and Winston Churchill in the first World War, amongst many many other things. Anyways, after doing the project I intensely wanted to learn Arabic and live in the bright colors so talked about by her. Besides the fact that I would be just a tad frightened to go to the Middle East as an American woman, I plan on doing so...at least to some of the more safer countries - my paradise being Morocco...

Imagine walking along narrow stone streets dating back not hundreds, but thousands of years..the strong smell of spices wafts through the thin desert air. This is a place one can become completely immersed in. This is what I have been looking for. This is a united, collective culture. Everything here is simply Moroccan, it is old world...it is taking a step into a different time, a different world. Men sit on small tables outside of ivy-covered stone buildings sipping sweet-smelling mint tea and taking mammoth puffs of their hookahs. It is a relaxing atmosphere.

This is where I long to be. Teaching English to young, bright-faced Moroccan students in Marrakech or the fertile mountain region of The Kif, amongst the blue-streets of Chefchaouen, as shown below..

However, I do not want to always sit here and stare at pictures of places that I seek to go in my life. Such a thing will only end with me not doing anything but sitting at home depressed and missing out on a significant portion of our world. There are so many things to do, to see...and I hope that I get to do just a fraction of them. One must be bold, however, to step out into what is now such a scary world by oneself. Teaching English to kids across the world may be something very intriguing to do until I feel like moving into a steady life full of a 9-5 job, a husband, kids..etc etc. I want to adventure, garner stories. I want to be a woman full of stories and knowledge. I want to offer something to the world. My English skills? We shall see.