a non-tornado, denim skirts, and trigonometry

Am currently encamped at a homeschoolers’ hold-out in Oregon: i.e., homeschool book sale in the state capitol of Salem. 

Why do all homeschoolers dress alike? Heh...we conform just as much as public schoolers are supposed to. Just to different standards.....

 There’s always a few mothers in denim skirts...I can see a girl now who could have been me a few years ago, in denim tiered skirt [pale blue, slightly grubby] and oversized t-shirt with a horse graphic...did I mention that a majority of homeschooled girls are horse-crazy? I used to be. And long braid down the back. 

This is horrible, I sound exactly like anybody making a stereotypical statement about homeschoolers, smug in my own public-schooled psyche. 

Then there are the other homeschoolers, the ones that dress ‘hip’ in skinny jeans or black or whatever. Ergh, I used to despise them too, and now I’ve become them. 

Another van just pulled up opposite me...I am sitting in the car [mini-van], because I already browsed the books and there isn’t really anything. Workers at the sale got early access...hehe, I WORKED....brought our own books in and placed them round at the appropriate sale tables, trying to get out of much work because my wrist is almighty screwed up from The Dalles.  

Stupidity....at last week’s robotics event in The Dalles, we were setting up the field and all. There was a plethora of strong burly lads, I could very well have slacked off and said ‘Phsh, let them handle the heavy stuff’. I even had a very valid excuse: I was filming the whole thing. But NO, I must needs get in there and show off the fact that even though I probably can only lift about a third of what any lad can, I nevertheless will work just as hard as them. This resulted in my getting aforementioned wicked cuts on wrists, and in my right wrist becoming rather badly screwed up. I don’t think its sprained, it just hurts a lot when I move it from side to side.  That happens a lot in my daily life. 

Or it MAY have been the wrench-turning, which I also did a lot of [on my side on the gym floor, when our robot broke]. I can usually figure out a way to injure myself pretty badly using nothing but an allen-wrench and some lock-tite [glue that is put in screws before the final installation]. 

I have a feeling that I am going to seriously injure myself some day, merely for the admirable purpose of showing off. The ironic part is that it will almost certainly be when there is no-one else around, and I am just showing myself that ‘Oh yes I can! Watch me heft this plywood!’ and then....*crunch* *agony* *Stoicism* 

Well yes. The wrist situation. It’s happened before [namely the first week of build season, when we cannibalized last year’s robot. I was eager to show my dedication and really went at those screws. They’d been lock-tited of course...] but never for this long, it’s going on two weeks...you’d be amazed how much a right-handed person puts sideways pressure on her right wrist. Yesterday I tried to become ambidextrous in math class. The writing-with-left-hand part didn’t go so well. 

Oh! Today in math class I was told I resemble a rabbit. This sounds awful, but it really isn’t. It’s the wide-eyed bounding enthusiasm I usually have in math class. A sandy-haired rabbit.    You ever read Stargirl? Well one time I got called Stargirl, too. By my French teacher...I was walking past, in bright red robotics team shirt, with an immense bag over my shoulder, hair in two long braids, and trademaked jaunty walk....I was hailed with ‘Bonjour, Stargirl!’.  It seriously made my day. 

Also, trigonometry is officially awesome. Law of Cosines allows you to find the measures of all the angles and sides in a triangle, given only two sides and an angle....

Hmm. Seems to me I was talking about this-here book sale. And the mini-vans pouring into the parking lot. We had a tough time getting here, ran into a load of traffic on I-5 coming up but we wound up ahead of schedule, even. 

Last year we attended this same book sale. It is an episode that has gone down in our family folklore so to speak. The weather had been threatening for days...the day before it had been unusually warm, and a thunderstorm came up in the evening and drenched the place. By morning it had blown over but the atmosphere was still oppressive. We drove to Salem [about an hour] and attended the book sale. By 4 that afternoon we were packing up our unsold books when it got dark very fast. The sale is held in a church gym; I made a trip to the car with a load of books and I have never seen a cloud make the sky dark that fast. I think I remember a sickly sort of look to the light.  When it started hailing, very suddenly and very hard, most of the kids helping pack up raced to the gym doors....in a few minutes we went back to the tables, sorting through the unsold books. 

   Then came a moment of terror. A man, one of the dads I suppose, announced [over the pounding rain and hail] that there was a tornado coming down the street and we all needed to evacuate the building [which had a metal roof]. I have been terrified of tornadoes for as long as I can remember. As I like to state, there is a reason I do not live in the Midwest. Well we evacuated that building all right, across the street to the main church building. The street was covered with flowing water, still bucketing down rain. There was no sign of the tornado, I’m not sure if it ever actually touched down in Salem. We huddled inside away from the windows, very damp but not too cold because it was still far warmer than it ought to be in Oregon in June...

We were worried the power might go out [we later learned it did, in my hometown]...I had dreadful visions of being stranded in Salem with the grid down...it was not a happy thought. But soon enough the storm passed and we were let back into the gym. It was still raining a bit. 

We got home and found out next day that in fact a tornado had touched down near my hometown. In a field a few miles from our house they found a spiral pattern in the grass...although as one of my friends said, if they have to ascertain it was actually a tornado from prints in the grass, it does not really count.   It is still a local legend however...or at least I like to think so, I doubt anyone in my town remembers weather events as well as I do. 

robotics fun times

MOAR epic times!  

The good times started rolling Thursday evening when I received a welcome bit of communication from a dear friend  [ :D  ]   This resulted in the effusion of the last post, teehee.  

I was going to ‘go to bed early’ Thursday night, so as to be reasonably sleeped up for Friday morning’s math test.  This didn’t work out so well. In fact it didn’t happen much at all. I was ENTHUSED.  I was working on insane amounts of extra credit for math class....basically writing out notes from the entire chapter.....by the time I got to the last page, I was working on scratch paper from robotics....it was a print-out of the kit of parts checklist. I felt a certain poetic justice. Actually poetic justice has been a motif of the entire past few weeks. Anyways, what could be more appropriate than doing math work on robotics papers? I commented to that effect near the bottom of the page....I think my teacher will understand all too well ;)   I was ALSO listening to The Final Countdown [Europe] and this resulted in a lot of enthusiasm. The Final Countdown is played at robotics competitions...a LOT....

Let us say that I did not get a lot of sleep.

Nevertheless I set my alarm to go off at 6 AM next morning...had to be at school by 7:30-ish to take the test early, because I’d be leaving for a robotics gig at the time my class ordinarily starts. 

The epic day started off when my alarm failed to wake me at 6. A subconscious warning of impending Doom woke me in 20, however. All this getting-up-early business was to allow me to type up and print out a mentor sign-up sheet for the robotics gig...we thought it would be nice to have a sign-up sheet for any victims who might like to support our team, or be a mentor, or that sort of thing. There were also business cards in the offing, which look, I may say, very professional. Yes, well all this goings-on to get the mentor sign-up sheet printed out and I was STILL working on that dratted thing up to the last minute before we left [late]. I was busy having a good breakfast and chatting with a buddy, I had no TIME for such unimportant matters as printing that thing off! I got it made up in my text editing program [Open Office] and then transfered it to the desktop computer via a flashdrive, to print [we have two printers in the house, but only one works at any given time, and right now the working one HAPPENS to be the printer which does not recognize Eddie [laptop]. Eddie sees the printer but the printer thinks if it can’t see, it can’t be seen..... 

So yes. Get the computer fired up, go to print, and the only paper around is BLUE. I race out to the front of the house to get more paper: ‘Oh! Cardstock, that would be nice!’  and take it to the printer. I then had to feed the paper in, in attempts to snooker the printer [‘Out of paper!’]  Printer promptly has a hissy fit: ‘Paper jam. Please remove paper, press Enter, and bug off’. 

Pull the paper out, back to the paper stash to get regular paper and finally print successfully, and race out of the house in the nick of time. 

Math test went well. Promptly at 9, I was down at the robotics lab to catch a ride, as planned, with the CHS robotics team, over to the competition [on Oregon State U campus, cross-town.] They didn’t show. I was worried that maybe I’d missed them, and they’d be fretting over where I was...nipped up to the main entrance, and back down to the lab a few times. I was destitute: no phone, and no laptop with important phone numbers. The main school office proved very helpful however and I was able to get in touch with the important people, and got ride as promised with team.  

Our team, 956, showed up around 11, owing to mandatory school assembly. Opening ceremonies and then we all went off to lunch as provided by the OSU Robotics Club. We all frolicked round in the parking lot, waiting in line for Subway....lots and lots of Subway...

The two teams I have worked with, 956 [‘my’ team] and 997 [team at high school where I take classes] have gotten pretty friendly with each other. This is mostly because of none other than ME. Obviously my chief selling point to convince 997 to take me to Nationals with them was the fact that I’ve been on the Santiam robotics team for years. There was a lot of communication between my dad [teacher/robotics mentor at Santiam 956] and the 997 mentors, also because all 6 of the local robotics teams have mentors on FIRST Force, a fundraising group. 

Both our teams are fairly small and losing a lot of seniors. There has even been talk of our teams combining next year, though of course I hope Santiam can get enough recruits to continue on next year. 

It is really cool to see the sense of community in FIRST. Yesterday our two teams stood around talking, in a big circle...’one big happy family’ as someone put it. 

After lunch we moved on to tours of the OSU engineering buildings. I am becoming very enthused. OSU is one of the top colleges for engineering/technology around. Great school for robotics folks. 

OSU has a lovely campus. Old-growth trees....HUGE trees...lots of them. Old brick and stone buildings...well my town is beautiful in general.  And inside the buildings [I’d never been inside before yesterday] is just as impressive. Then there is the computer lab for students, equipped with Windows, Linux and Macs for engineering students, and Macs for everyone else because of a sponsorship fluke. Big beautiful Mac desktop computers...very new...

The robotics club is a huge part also. One of the students who headed up the event yesterday [a MAMMOTH undertaking] is also on the Mars Rover project, which took first place in the country a few years ago. The Mars Rover project is just that, designing robots to operate on Mars. Cool stuff.  

Aforementioned student is very busy convincing me that I want to take his place in a few years, carry on the torch so to speak. This is HIGHLY convincing, when I hear tales of insane 36-hour days preparing for yesterday’s event....there is just SOMETHING about robotics that ensures that no-one involved gets any sleep. 

But we know that sleep is for the weak  >:D

The competition went VERY well also. Only 8 teams showed for the FRC competition, but there were a lot of FIRST Tech Challenge teams too, it was a busy day. I was behind the camera most of the day and got the usual few hours of assorted robotic footage. Our matches went really well. As usual I vibrated between my two teams, filming one, helping carry stuff in from the car for the other, back and forth, hehe. Coincidentally our teams were assigned spaces in the pit right next to each other...it was great...I walked in with 997, dumped my stuff in 956’s spot, and to and fro, charging batteries and dealing in power strips and totes. The business cards materialized as promised, in 956’s tool chest, and looked very snazzy indeed. 

Oh! At the event last week in The Dalles we had forgotten to bring our beloved sawed-off allen wrench, which was required for getting to inaccessibly little screws. The janitor offered use of some sort of pinchers-thingee....my dad demurred, afraid of injuring it...janitor said there wasn’t much you could do to hurt the shears :P

Well dad and the other student who was with us took hold, one on the shears, the other holding the allen wrench [which should NOT be cuttable]. I mentioned something about ‘SAFETY GLASSES would be a good idea! That thing is going to flip off!’ but they paid no heed [VERY bad example btw, don’t try it at home].  Well Dad bore down on the shears.....and BING. OFF pops the offending part of the allen wrench. It flew twenty feet through the air and hit the wall [I was watching it]. 

Ah where was I. Competition. It was a very cool event. These were some of the top teams in Oregon....regional winning team...regional second-place team..etc. 956 and 997 both did really well. 997 threw a tread [tank drive] halfway through, but it was rather epic....they sent someone back to school for a spare, didn’t even miss a match. 

At the end of qualifying rounds WE, 956 were ranked #2, and 847 was ranked #1  [exactly what our mentor had predicted, come to think of it..]  Team 847 PHRED [Philomath High Robotics Education Department] is rather widely beloved. They have an insane program. Recruit a huge team, but are really helpful to everyone, volunteered to help 997 afford to get to nationals, organize fundraising stuffs, and so on. 847 and their alliance took second place at Regionals in Portland. 

997, on the other hand, was ranked third. 956 was for the first time in the position of choosing our alliance partners. Exciting. A good place to be :)    We, 997, and 847 wound up in a big huddle. We all wanted to be on the same alliance [which would have been absolutely UNBEATABLE] but the way the alliance selection works, that wasn’t possibly. We discussed the ramifications of every choice. 847 wound up choosing another strong team [not local], then we of course picked 997, then we divvied up the remaining two best teams. We went into the finals fairly evenly matched, but figuring 847 would take it. 

We played 3 matches in the finals. First match we were absolutely creamed. One of our alliance partners got flipped over, then 997 discovered that those treads break in pairs. They were out for half the match. 956 was doing well but we obviously couldn’t win against 3.  We called a time-out [6 minutes] to fix the tread. I got some epic footage of members of several teams gathered round 997’s robot, putting a new tread on and frantically putting in screws. 

Worked right up to the time limit. Went back out in the nick of time. We knew this could be the deciding match: if 847 won again, they would win the competition...if we won, we played another match. 956’s mentor got finished getting our robot set up and the announcer said, ‘Team 956 says we’re going to play three matches today.’  Twas epic times. The Final Countdown was, as usual at finals, playing to get us enthused...we were enthused all right. WE WON THE MATCH. 

Went on and played the third match....they trotted out The Final Countdown again....we won. At the end the other alliance only had one robot working which I felt bad about...847 lost communication and one of the other teams got flipped....but we were winning before, while they still had three strong teams active. 

It was a good moment. It was somewhat of a come-from-behind victory, because 847 chose a team that [at least they thought] was better than either 997 or 956. Then we came and took them down. 997 and 956 allied at last.....the Spartans and the Eagles....

[cue epic music] 

Of course it was all the more awesome because 956 was doing the picking this time :)  It gave us another chance to show how well we could do. We could easily have done that well at regionals....the important thing is to feel that you have had your fair chance. We did. We took home a trophy to prove it.   :D 

I came out of there massively enthused, almost as much as Friday [twelve weeks ago in fact....] at regionals, when we’d just played really well all day and unexpectedly got the Xerox Creativity in Design award.   That was easily one of the best days of my life.   After three years in robotics, you don’t really care about anything except giving it your all. Our team was near the top of the stadium, where people don’t usually stand to clap during awards, but I was so enthused I was bounding up out of my seat to clap for each team when they were awarded. 

Then the near-shock when the announcer read out the description of award...then as usual, said a few words about the winning team...this is traditionally a hint about which team it is...we never guessed....then !!!!956!!!!  

and we were running down the dozens and dozens of stairs to go down to the field to receive the award....you get down near the bottom, all the teams are standing, dozens of people giving you high fives....down on the field where the volunteers are lined up to do the same....it is indescribable, knowing that these incredibly awesome people are excited for YOUR team. 

[more on the epic humor of today in a later post, heeh]

wanderings on the dark side

We been having crazy times [when do I NOT say that....], even more than usual. Lotsa techie stuff.
Things pile up, things fall apart.  Plans for the Europe trip are off: in the last week or so circumstances conspired against the plan. Volcano in Iceland not going away, mom's health and treatments, dad's employment, and now my school situation.

   [Tuesday] I was given a note during math class, telling me to come to the office after class. I went down accordingly [remember the counseling office that I got so familiar with last fall whilst figuring out classes?] and found it full of geeks wondering what was going on. It developed that we had all signed up for computer science/programming for next year. Turns out there will NOT be any programming or CS offered next year at this high school.
   Time for a rant. This is disgraceful. My town is arguably one of the most technology-oriented in the area. The two biggest employers in the area are Hewlett Packard and the best engineering university in the state. Our area has the strongest high school robotics community in the state: people from other areas say they wish they had anywhere near the community and support that we do. The local 6 teams regularly are some the strongest at Regionals, chiefly because of the support from the university [mentors and such] and local tech/engineering businesses.  Now the biggest high school in the area is cutting their advanced computer classes.
   Computer programming/advanced computer skills are an absolute requisite in today's world. Sure, some people can learn those skills on their own.....but why are those same skills any less important than courses high schools would never think of dropping, like math or history. We hear every day that the US is losing its competitive edge in the technology market. If students do not have access to quality instruction in techie stuff, how can we be surprised at this?

  Women in technology: another rant.  I am not a feminist. But I do believe that girls should have every chance that boys do when it comes to choosing a career, if they decide to do so. In the last few days I have had a few conversations that have to bear on this.  The programming teacher from last year at CHS is a woman...here's part of an email responding to my query about the programming class: 


 "There are way too few of us in the industry, and employers are screaming for female employees in computer science/engineering.  If you want to be in high demand, and believe you enjoy programming, you're thinking pretty smart for a future! Especially when the government employment department is predicting that in 5-10 years the demand for computer science/engineering employees is going to be 70% higher than currently.  More so for women, too."

 Part of this is because of affirmative-action type stuff that involves quotas for female employees, I have no doubt. Be that as it may, you are still going to have to be top-tier to get a job in computer science [CS].

   Yesterday I hunted down the teacher who was reputed to teach the computer applications class...turns out that is not happening either, but he mentioned an interesting alternative: tech support.  Every year he has a smallish class of people who help with tech support around the school, from repairing computer operating systems to installing software...no experience necessary.  I paraphrase:   'It's always a good class for girls to take....to not be scared to go into the insides of a computer and tool around in there, because really it's just a bunch of junk, it's nothing to be scared of.  I find it gives them confidence they might otherwise lack; not that it seems like you have a problem with that' [I had all but swaggered into the classroom, wearing classic black and carrying Bag of Holding full of textbooks, and spoke with my characteristic poise: anybody who knows me knows what I'm talking about ;) ]

  Tuesday also.....at the meeting for the advanced computer class, I was one of only two girls in the room. Nevertheless, I was the one able to offer forth info about Autodesk Maya [computer assisted design program].

  I'm primed to become the Mid-Valley's leading robotics geek.....I'm practically on two teams, at meetings for one team I wind up leading the meeting, at the other team I tend to have info on whatever event is being talked about. Beloved laptop in hand, I sit at the center of a web of information. A few taps of the keys, and I can tell you the names of the teams registered for the off-season competition at OSU in two weeks; the possibilities of college credit at the area high schools; the season scores of any robotics team; and any other miscellaneous stuff you might need to know at the time.....

  Of course I also have resources other than purely technical. Contacts for one...I know everybody everywhere, or at least I'm working towards that goal. Theatre, robotics, film-making, I get around.

  Then there are the....skillz. Skills like getting people to do things for me. That sounds creepy doesn't it. It's not really.....I think the deal is that I am so sure that people will do what I want them to [this is usually along the lines of, hiring me as videographer, or helping me scout, or getting me into a class, or trying that take of the movie ONE MORE TIME] that THEY think they want to do it too, and away we go, and everyone is happy.    
  And knowing what's going to happen. I don't make much of this, because it sounds presumptuous [to my ears at least], but it's definitely there.  I knew a lot of the things that were going to happen this year...

    Anyways.

I'm back in black.  The past two months are over. Life moves forward.
  

   Don't die, guys.

yah so i'm back and i'm off again!

sorry for these quick posts......but tis late at night and I've gotta catch up with neglected sleep. 

The shows (all five of them) were AWESOME.   An intense striking of the set, cast party awesome, good times good times.  <3

Back to school [I am being extremely nerdy...beeky?]. Good.  I lessthanthree math.  

  Weather good. 

Robotics: tomorrow me dad and I pack, hold conferences with rest of team, pack food for epic expedition to P-town. We leave at dawn on Thursday and get back late Saturday. 

Three days of peace, love and robotics. Woot! :)  I am even now watching over the rendering (very slow) of the video required for Chairman's Award. HOURS of editing THREE BLINKING MINUTES of film. 

Life is good. I've got two dear friends who are really happy [you know who you are]. :)    Things are going well, nothing unpleasant looms on horizon, I'm not in anguish of mind or heart, SPRING IS HERE, you are all awesome and I love you and I'll see you in a few days! :)

Performance Week!

Wellwellwell it's been a while!  

I'm not dead yet.... :D

College Algebra/trig has been going well....so far it's just been 'review'  :P   But it's a good class...very small actually. The teacher is INSANE but very awesome :) and I've got a whole page of quotes from algebra...some from students but mostly Ms. Kimes  :)  It tells you something that she's got a little note on her filing cabinet: 'C___ High School,  ___ Kimes   Evil Cackle'   :D

Rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet are also going...well...ish. INTENSE.  Things got fast and furious about Tuesday of last week, with long rehearsals and lack of sleep.   Wednesday night I came home from a late rehearsal, did math, and around 10 PM I came to the realization that 'Oh crud we really should have competed for the Woodie Flowers award.'  (Robotics stuff: in honor of one of FIRST's founders, Woodie Flowers, it celebrates the mentor [robotics coach-type] who best embodies the spirit of FIRST.)  Well as usual our whole team was too busy building the robot to write an essay, and nobody actually thought of it except ME the DAY BEFORE the essay was due.   And of course I was finishing up Chairman's Award essay and stuff. 

One of our mentors has worked harder than anyone for the past 8 years or so, the team wouldn't exist without him.   Nobody from our team has ever been nominated for WF. I decided that if he can give hours of time, work practically a second job (that's what robotics is :P ) I can stay up and write an essay....

Thankfully there was a word limit, so it only took me about two hours. Writing an essay at midnight is a really exhilarating experience, as was getting up for school next day, Thursday. Rehearsal as usual.

There was a happy moment when I was curled up on the floor backstage trying to catch 40 winks when somebody shouted onstage, and I panicked, thinking it might be me needed, and sat up and banged my head on this pile of heavy metal thingees. Promptly cracked up. Later I managed to stand up directly under another hard boxy thing....fun times :)

 Friday our rehearsal started as usual at 3:30 in the afternoon. Cue-to-cue: the tech people are working on lighting. Actors say a line, stop. Wait. Wait some more. Skip to the end of the scene and wait some more.  Took hours to get through the first act. We were there til 11 Pm.   

It was also the first time run crew (shlepping sets and props and furniture) was actually working with servants (moving more shtuffs for scenes). 

As a Capulet servant, I (with 4-ish other servants) move these four potted trees on and offstage a LOT. Like after every third scene. We only started doing this in the past few days. Oh, and we're still acting in a couple scenes.  

Those confounded trees haunt my every waking thought. Before Friday's rehearsal I had been on top of things, and printed out a list of every scene and what had to be moved on stage. (We are now on the third revision of this important list.)

Run crew and fellow servants love me. There are a total of three people on run crew which is NOT enough. It got really exciting when the four trees blossomed to six, spread amongst us four servants (has to be servants because it's in the scene). 

And there's this miserable bench that I and another girl have to get on and offstage. There was one time when she wasn't there and I raced out onstage to grab it, to cheers from the techies in the audience....a great moment :) 

There was an issue getting home, so I got to hang round the theatre later than almost anybody else. My dad was working late on the robot and did not get home til 1:30 that morning. 

I dreamed all night about rehearsal, and those bloody trees! XD

Saturday proved even more interesting, with a second revision of the master-list, which has made run crew adore me :P   

 This time it was my turn to miss my cue with that blasted bench. Twice. The first time because I thought I had more time than I did, and was marshalling the troops for the next tree-moving bit. ARGH. Then I was all primed to make sure I didn't miss the next bench-scene, and took a SECOND to try and find tree-people, and BAM missed the entrance. Apologies all round, franticness. 

After about 1 pm I rushed cross-town to robotics scrimmage; big pre-competition thingee before the robot is boxed up Tuesday night. We did pretty well, except for a tip-over which resulted in something coming loose, and also the treads came off one wheel....thank goodness for epoxy! 

Stayed there til 7 when my mom came and rescued me from the deadly-dullness of standing-around-not-being-able-to-help-much (as was most of the team, it was just programming issues at that point.) 

My dad was really suffering, he couldn't help much either and was holed up trying not to fall asleep....commented that it was almost like being stuck in an airport at 1 AM.   He got home pretty early thankfully: 9:30. 

I went to bed at 8:30 and got about 12 hours of sleep...off to rehearsal at 1 this afternoon to find it had been cancelled :( I was really wanting to run through again with crew, those trees....Director was beyond enthused about my scene list and general preparedness, commented on my responsible-ness =D  which made me happy. 

and so we embark on the next project

Well well well....It's been busy!   

The four-day weekend proved only somewhat relaxing, but very fun.....Thursday and Friday was mostly taken up with sleeping and rehearsals/robotics. Saturday was a grueling 10-hour day at robotics.....most of the crew peeled off by 5 PM or so but one mentor and one other student and of course my dad and me stayed til after 7  O_o

After that it was off to a sleepover with my best buddy :) which was oodles of fun...we watched the second Star Wars film....stayed awake way too long chatting :)   Off to church next morning....then home where I proceeded to crash, and help parents clear branches and such over at grandparents' property......then to folk dance last night....good times :)

Today was the first day of the new semestre....you'll notice I spell it the British way....I just have one math class at CHS but it looks like a beast.....there were reviews from past students handed round, advice for us....and suffice it to say that the homework will be insane.......we also learned that the class (College Algebra) is one of the hardest math classes at school....yowps.  

This is going to be SO fun.   hehehehehehehe

Look for me tomorrow and you'll find me an insane gal.....heheheh. Rehearsals also go well. 

ADRENALINE

Just a quick and over-capitalized note from Bethie-the-Insane! :D

Today got back our math tests from last Friday (finals week....fun times). We graded them in class, as well as turning in our calculator project (have I actually not posted on that? The assignment was to use a graphing calculator to draw a picture of a cartoon character, using equations.....fun but lotsa work).   

Me calc proj. (Charlie Brown :)  turned out well.....glad to be done. AND the math test was AWESOME!!!!!!     I thought I did rather poorly on it.....but NO.........

WOOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!! 

COLLEGE ALGEBRA, HERE I COME!!!!!!

Came out of class and could not stop smiling XD  

Oh, and rehearsals are AWESOME :)  Three weeks til the show, yowp!   Tried on half of one of my two costumes yesterday, so puurtyy!  hehehehe    Blue tapestry-sort bodice. All the costumes are really awesome. It's so fun to be part of a huge production like this!!!!  We had a hysterically funny and awesome rehearsal yesterday, people running around with costumes, we've got a set onstage, balcony etc. and during the balcony scene bit they've got Romeo climbing part way up to talk to Juliet, and it was a really long scene.......the people watching from the wings were treated to the sight of the guy playing Capulet coming quietly up onstage with a long pole used in a later scene.....with Directorial approval, he later said.....well Romeo did not respond well to being poked whilst ten feet above the stage.........he just escaped falling off laughing......while the rest of the cast went into hysterics, more or less.....good times XD  

and with this, dear friends, I leave you......off to rehearsal! :P

classic epic times

The past week, but especially yesterday, was a classic example of Bethie's-family-craziness. 

Several awesome rehearsals of R + J.  Various situations at school (math class is doing a chapter on probability, which I have always failed at.)  Culinary class.....biology....one day I stayed at school about 9 hours, never came home after class because I had rehearsal after. 

Yesterday was even more frenzied than usual. Robotics 9--5, as usual on Saturdays. Grueling. We had to scoot out directly at 5 instead of lingering, owing to the fact that me dad had to get to a jam session at 6. He and some friends have had a couple of practice sessions and are doing some really fun stuff, rock, a little bluegrass, etc.   They've been recording, and are considering performing somewhere, maybe at parties or that sort. Fun times. So anyway we had to pack up dad's keyboard, into the van. 

Here we pick up a thread of another story:  I was still trying to decide whether or not I could get to Dallan's birthday festivities that evening.  There had been various problems with the schedule colliding with my dad's, and other things, and as of Saturday afternoon I wasn't going. However I started feeling worse and worse about it, and we worked out the situation. 

Promptly upon coming home from robotics I had to deal with the mother-hen situation: We still have only one chick; I think the other eggs are being laggardly.  The hen led the 

peep down out of the nestbox while I was gone, and I had to put them both into a separate cage, warm straw etc.   From thence we ran back inside. 

5:45 pm, carting the keyboard out to the car. We got into the front hall just as the doorbell rang.   We were positive it would be our talkative neighbor, who always pops by to discuss things with my dad JUST as we are either trying to rush out the door, or when he's chopping wood, or you name it. My dad, at the other end of the keyboard, said 'Keep going!' as I backed down the hall towards the door: as in, 'we're coming at our own swift pace'. Meanwhile I laughed hilariously and silently: such a typical scene, trying to send people off in different directions at the same time, pack the car, deal with the critters, and now there's somebody at the door.  :P   Well we got to the door, opened it, and got a happy surprise: it was a different neighbor from down the street (used to be a student of my dad's) and his girlfriend (who I know from dance and so forth)--great people both-- who'd taken us up on our offer to come say hi to the goats whenever they were in the area, and also to contribute to the local theatre :)  ...evidently there had been a battleaxe (unsharpened) from a metel-working place around here, and they thought it might be helpful to my theatrical endeavors. Needless to say, I was very happy with this!  Our house seems to accumulate props.... 

Happy reunion and they helped get the keyboard out to the car, then we went back to the goat cage as I figured out the transportation situation with daddy. Had a good time swapping country stories: tales of poultry-transportation, feral emus, and alpaca-snobbery ;P

They left shortly to continue their walk, as I hustled back inside to continue getting ready. I had decided that I had to go a bit late. But lo, we swiftly get a phone call from Eva.....the whole plan for the evening had been vague in the extreme, and whilst I knew we were meeting at the Chinese buffet in town, she thought it was at Dallan's place. Of course it was dark and silent when she got there, hence the call to me. Well she was about five minutes away from my house so we arranged a ride-share :)  

Rendezvoused at the restaurant. Lotsa fun. Half-dozen of us awesome people :)  After eating we progressed to the bowling alley. It was just down the street so we walked, lovely clear night. Definitely epic times, all of us either skipping, running, or playing follow-the-leader most of the way :D  Provided a nice spectacle for the passers-by.

 

Bowling was lotsa fun, I did really badly (had beginner's luck the first time I guess :P  ) but I still had a fabulous time  as I am not really competitive, hehe.   

I had not planned to go to the movie afterwards with the others as it would be very late and I wasn't too interested in what they were planning to see. However as the evening progressed I had such a good time that I did not want it to end ^^  and then they decided on Sherlock Holmes which 

I'd heard was very good.   Called dad and negotiated. Cell phone issues to the max.   

Jubilation on my part when I at last convinced him that it would be okay if I got home after midnight, etc.   In happy mood we set off (by car, this time) to the movie theatre.  I haven't been to a movie for months....happy times....I don't think I've ever gone with friends, come to that. 

Raced in there just after 10 PM for the showing of Sherlock Holmes. 

Here we are outside the cinema:  sadly our group had pared down by that time. Back to the four peeps that did crazy stuff last fall  :D

And now to the movie review, which will be brief.   I've only read one Sherlock Holmes book, and if you're keen on movies being true to books you may not like this film. I however enjoyed it no end. Definitely PG-13, heh. Some violence but I 

dunno, that never bothers me ^_^ 

Really visually enjoyable film: 1800s London....some stunning scenes at the docks, etc.   The pace was, I thought, perfectly judg

ed. Classic thrilling climax and really good ending.   AND the score was fabulous.   Go look it up right now please. Actually I should put it on my playlist.... I think it's my theme song at this point.....perfectly sums up the brilliant insanity which characterizes me  :D   >:)  You notice Sherlock Holmes wasn't very modest either.....And there was some great Irish music for parts.....The Dubliners I think.....woohoo...

In short, look into this movie, use judgement; if you're going to see it, it deserves to be seen in the theatre. 

Got home around 12:30, then it was off to early church service around 7 AM .....so fun, hehe  

Improvisational theatre class/meeting thingee this afternoon, lots of fun theatre games :D

I have had a splendid weekend.....NOW it's on to conquer the next week....

we survived the first two weeks!

Yesh my friends, it has been a long time. There's been a lot of stuff going on! But s'all good :)

We shall write this post under several heads! I think we need a table of contents! 

1. School

2. Robotics

3. Theatre

4. Whatever I feel like :P

So! School is going well. We had an awful lot of math homework all week, and I managed to not do any biology until Wednesday night, the day before bio class, hehe. 

On Monday night I declared, "Time for a weekend!" after getting home at a late hour. This sentiment was echoed by dad and friends. We had a consensus that Tuesday January 12th should have been a weekend!

We had a math test today, which I think I did rather well on (for me, in math, that means 80% or so). 

In culinary we had an event: catered a lunch for the teachers, Mexican food....very stressful but fun. 

I then proceeded to stay at school because it wasn't much longer til rehearsal. 

Which brings me to theatre, even though it's not in order. 

Romeo and Juliet progresses well, I have fun waiting about as I'm not in many scenes. Good times. Gotta love theatre. 

Robotics progresses even better. The kickoff was on Saturday last, and we have embarked on the exhausting 6 weeks of madness. We have a robot that drives, although it is last year's stripped-down bot with this year's controls, and we have a working device to kick soccer balls (part of this year's game). 

Yesterday I got to solder some electrical wires, and I've been hammering nails and driving screws to build a mock-up of the field. In short, departing from my ordinary course of business :)      

And we have a three-day weekend coming up.....I think this is a happy factor :) 

I am just now realizing how tired I am....sorry this post isn't very interesting! I love you all....leave a comment....leave a chat message.....  :D

Perhaps pedantic

 A quick note from the frozen North! Except it's not frozen.....we've had rather warm weather. Warm and very, very damp. 


My weekend proved harassing: lots and lots of math. Saturday afternoon I went to the second performance of Mary Poppins.....came home and did about 6 hours of math. Went to bed around 11 PM (late for me) but could not get to sleep: at 1 AM I decided that I was hungry and a carrot, some goat cheese on bread, and a cup of hot cocoa would be just the thing. And of course I had to check Facebook while I was up, went back to bed and set my alarm for 6:30 next morning, so as to get the math out of the way early.  On less than 6 hours of sleep I continued through the day, and by evening was slightly high from lack of sleep, and inclined to become enthused at the smallest provocation. In this mood I attended the last (for that weekend) performance of Mary Poppins. 

The show was fabulous, by far the best of the three that I saw. By the first scene I could tell it was going to be a good show, the energy was high, the audience was awesome. I remained positively bouncing with excitement the whole time and started a standing ovation at the end :D 

One of our little errands earlier in the day had been to go to Staples and buy a flash drive, to replace the one which went missing before Christmas. That was a lengthy process and I am now the embarrassed owner of a PINK 4GB flash drive. There was an interesting sequence of events that led to our getting it much cheaper than the identical black one. At least it is a dark, metallic pink, not bubble-gum. Ergh.   It needs a name now.....I think it may be a he.....

Another little highlight of my weekend involved chasing an escaped goat through the mud while Siamsa (Lord of the Dance soundtrack) played in the background.   I had neglected to fasten the gate while getting hay for the goats and of course Fiona made off across the yard at top speed. I slid in the chicken-yard mud and almost miraculously avoided getting any mud on my trenchcoat. Twas truly epic. 

I am feeling more nerdy every day. How embarrassing to decide, in what may be my last year of high school, that I actually sort of like math and might want to be a computer programmer! A little late, don't you think, considering that I barely knew how to use a computer at age 11? 

I haunt the counseling center at CHS, hunting down interviews with officials, trying to iron out the National Merit situation. Note: if you ever qualify for National Merit, do NOT pass it up for any reason! You will regret it and spend your life hanging around sketchy hallways attempting to schedule alternative means: like retaking the SAT.....      

And it would be very handy if I could decide whether I want to be a writer, theatre geek, or computer programmer, or event planner. 

Math was AWESOME today, the teacher is splendid, the energy is high. Conic sections! woot! 

AND my programming book finally came in at the library :D 

A quick note: a beloved follower commented on my use of brackets.....hehe, long story! It began with my messy handwriting and the fact that parentheses look like a C, sort of. Hence I made the switch to brackets and it carried over into typing [as you can observe in this painfully obvious example]. 

I promise, sometime soon we will have a Trenchcoats United award......   >:)   Meanwhile, the name is Copyright!! :P

Did YOU wear your trenchcoat with pride today?

Bethany wants to say goodbye

I feel like I'm making the preparations for my own funeral: putting all my earthly affairs in order, saying a last goodbye to friends, explaining that I will be in a better (?) world. Explanation: school starts Monday. 

I got behind on my math yesterday, so today I have 6 lessons to work through. Please cue loud music and adrenaline. 

Last night I went to the opening night performance of the local AAA Theatre's show Mary Poppins.  Very impressive and a fun show. Am going to the matinée show today, and the evening performance tomorrow. 

This week I have a number of things: goat 4-H club, and on Saturday is the robotics kick-off, at an unholy hour of the morning. And oh yes, I was just reminded that there is still that blasted biology quarterly test to study for and take. :(   Hopefully rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet will start also. 

I shan't be able to resist posting from time to time, because my blog is my journal more or less, but it probably won't be often. So farewell folks, it's been good knowing you  :)

*exits stage left humming 'Chim chiminey chim chiminey chim chim cheroo'* 

I'm being eaten....

by algebra...the teacher was complimentary "There's some good work there, for not having had the class"....
I spent much of my Friday night working on algebra...particularly one problem which took me 45 minutes. Then on Saturday, with no snow in evidence but some very nasty driving conditions (read: solid sheet of ice on road) we got to the robotics meet at 11 AM. Believe me, the LEGO League robotics competition is a placid picnic compared to, say, the Portland FRC regionals! Fun though :) There was only one other person from our team, and only two other FRC (high school) teams there, but there was no shortage of help.
Me dad had planned to not stay any longer than necessary, but I decided I'd rather stay for 5 hours than go home and tackle the algebra! Most of the time I was working in the back rooms where the judges interview the teams on various aspects of their robot, teamwork and that sort. There were some other FRC peeps there, from Philomath mostly, and we had way too much fun in the intervals between groups of FLL kids coming to be judged.

I may have commented on this before, but geeks for the win!! At regionals in March I always notice how nice just about everyone is...as a scout I come into contact with a LOT of people and they are sweet and nerdy and funny (good combination, by the way).

Hehe, this year I'm finally on something of an even footing: engineering stuff is still out of my league (what's a resistor?) but at least I am not so entirely clueless. C++ is the code used for a lot of the programming so that helps :)
Chatted with aforementioned awesome nerdy people....Hitchhiker's Guide...computer science....math ("fun when you understand it")....admiration for my stock of batteries in pocket, and little 9-volt flashlight (SO cool..robotics people are unfailingly intrigued). Way too many jokes and fun for volunteer hours ;)

Then last night I was eaten by the algebra homework that I had so thoughtfully left til the last; also memorized my twenty lines of Shakespeare for the audition today. That's in a few hours o_O

On the subject of geeks, geekery and nerds, neeks, beeks, brains, and other intelligent things: let's talk. I think most of us would admit that we have tendencies to one or the other. Girls are afraid (really? are we?) of being thought nerdy....intellectual..."guys don't like girls who are smarter than they are"....all that jazz.
Lads: weigh in! Are YOU secretly afraid of being thought nerdy? What about nerdy/geeky girls? I have it on good authority that geeky guys like geeky girls....be aware that 90% of the few crushes I have had have been on nerdy guys...so fear not, thou'rt not despised by the entire female population...just the despicable cheer-leading type....give me the good programmer over the football quarterback any day! ;)

Let's get a nice big happy forum going in the comments, folks! hehe...tales of geekery...

from the heart of the Frozen North!

As I speak we expect it so begin snowing any moment!
The weather has been amazingly cold for the past few days....I know 8 degrees and 20s/30s in day sounds mild for you hard-core Northerners, but it is unheard-of here!
The Mary's River is frozen over where it intersects with the Willamette, and that has NEVER happened before.

This morning it was clear and sunny, but when I came out after B block math class it had clouded over ominously and at the end of culinary there was an announcement that the winter formal dance tomorrow might be canceled. I'm not going to anything this weekend very crucial, so I'm all excited :) We stopped at the feed store to pick up some chicken feed and I've never seen it so busy.


Yesterday in math I managed to get myself into the wrong room for about half the class period...looong painful story....it turned out okay fortunately. They all headed into the computer lab...I stayed behind to talk to teacher...then went to the computer lab where we had been the day BEFORE...wondered occasionally why the teacher never showed...they were in a different computer lab..there was another class there, but after two days I still didn't recognize the kids in my class .....so darned FUN! gr...it's really hard to come from homeschooling to large public school....oh wellz
Then today we had a test...there's a lot of review stuff right now, in prep for tests in sync with local community college which grants college credits....I've got SO much of the book left to work through...weekend plans include math, math and more math....

Tomorrow morning I've got a robotics meet of sorts...actually it's for helping the local elementary-age kids with their lego-robotics competition....looks good on your application for the Chairman's Award. I shall have to post about robotics, because it it a large part of my and my dad's year, January through early March.

A note about the film of the play, and Road to Freedom: I am currently in limbo on the video of the play, the recording we got was very unsatisfactory and I'm trying to get hold of a better recording, if that goes through I might get them done by after Christmas break but with trying to catch up with algebra and such I really can't make any promises, and in January life gets slightly insane. Road to Freedom could go out at any time however. I'm sorry, I will need to charge for the copies, shipping and the rough cost of the DVD, shouldn't be too bad though. If you feel comfortable with giving out address, feel free to pop me an email (goatgirlbethie at gmail dot com) and we can work something out. I will try to post clips here eventually, but I imagine the upload times would be rather ghastly on my end, my DSL is slow.

Merry Christmas everyone, it is really beginning to feel like winter! :)

definitely neeky

Oog. Brain fry.

Took my first class in Advanced Algebra today, muddled through as best I could and came home and spent four hours solid, going through the book from the beginning. I have a definite love/hate relationship with math!

The couch by the fireplace, and adjoining table, is covered with nerdy/geeky/neeky books: Algebra 2 (from school), Algebra 2 which I checked out from the public library over the weekend, biology textbook, beginning programming book (thick), programming book by the developer of C++ himself (also from the weekend library trip), biology and math notebooks, Eddie (okay, computer not book, but it's got my bio. notes and the notoriously buggy compiler Xcode on it), bio definitions in lil binder, Hitchhiker's book 4.

Hm....my dad said I couldn't really be a geek, I don't look geeky enough...lol.

Weather continues very cold and dry. Was down to about 11 F last night.

Folk dance on Sunday night was AWESOME, I do wish we had it more often than every two weeks.

The blog needs a Christmas header/makeover...hm..no TIME...

Listening/watching rerun of Bill Cosby show, absorbing the humor from the other room :)

"Now mind you, I'm very cool. I don't know what I'm doing; but I'm very cool."

coooollld weather!

Was so terribly thrilled at biology class yesterday to be able to offer two AA batteries for the camera so that we could take pictures of our cell models. Preparedness for the win! The Boy Scouts' motto should have been mine: "Be prepared": after all, everyone knows that girls always carry quantities of random crud in their purses! I have a purse, and it has a large stash of stuff: blue tape, gloves, hand warmers, and a secondary stash of all the stuff in my pockets. But with my pockets alone I could subsist for a looong time. Might have to resort to eating the band aids, but whatever.
culinary. we didn't cook, did book work, watched video (REALLY boring, haha) etc. My team (four peeps all told) always sits together, back row, and the lads (two boys and two girls) are rather exuberant, shall we say? Katie and I try to squelch them at intervals...anyways, Nate had a rubber-band...he and Katie, who is older, have a love/hate relationship, lol....so he asks me if I have a rubber band and of course I did, in me pocket....he said he wasn't going to shoot it...i forked it over...he took aim and i promptly snatched it back....Katie and I exchanged glances....it was hysterical. there was pencil-stabbing going on, mostly without the teacher's noticing. I wound up confiscating his final rubber-band..i love those things...


At school today I went over the whole school and part of the grounds, hunting up math teachers. I had previously decided to, if possible, join the College Algebra/Trig class which is in the spring term. To the office to sign up, then off to find the teacher. Found that I likely wouldn't be able to do it after all, so it was back to the office and off across the school to hunt up the Advanced Alg. teacher. FInally found him on the other side of campus overseeing the delivery of some oranges for one of the sports teams.
As it stands, it looks like I'll be starting for the tail-end of the Advanced Alg. class, through the end of the term, and then (hopefully) going on to College Alg. GULP!! but just think...College Credit!!


other stuff:
my dad thought he was growing a goji berry (little asian thing) last year...he planted the seeds..nursed them up from the soil...tendered them through the rigors of life..only one survived. I kept saying it looked like a hot pepper plant....in September it developed little hot peppers....clearly identifiable as the Bolivian Rainbow he'd had in the pot the year before.

bread is epic in our house.
my dad has always been a connoisseur. he used to drive up to Portland to buy good stuff. wonder bread or equiv. is not allowed in the house. of course he's tried to make it but no luck. last Christmas we got a book on artisan bread in 5 mins. a day and all heck broke loose. the recipe requires a really wet dough that sits about menacing people for a few days before being baked. it then has to be put on a baking stone (the pursuit of which item down isles of Bed Bath and Beyond is a whole other chapter). and let to rise....it would crawl eerily forth...down the side of the pan...into the sink...into the woodstove...he'd usually get it in the oven around 10 pm, it was quite exciting....and always the wondering, would it turn out??

hum-ty-hum....made a header for Carpe Diem....took a walk...struggled against the freezing weather. There were places in the shade that never thawed today.

The weather is getting very interesting....supposed to be low 20s tonight, looks like Sunday through Tuesday will be coldest, 18-19 at night and barely above freezing in the day...yowps!

Me: (talking about the upcoming cold) I bet the lake freezes.
My dad: Oh boy! We can fall into it!

hehe.

if anybody actually wants to hang around with a crazed theatre geek...

My day has been striped through with lurid melodrama. Actually that's painting the lily rather freely; but it certainly has been an interesting day.

Started off with me suffering the effects of yesterdays rehearsal. I am sore all over; I feel like I've been incrementally and gently ran over by a steam-roller. That ran like a silver thread throughout the events of the day. Started off to school at 10:30 as usual. On the way there I mentioned to my mom that it seemed likely Emily had had flu (she's been sick this week, as garnered from Facebook) and perhaps it was not such a great idea that I go to biology at her place this afternoon? My mom became worried and we wound up popping into my grandma's place (which is under construction) and I went upstairs to use the antique phone, as Grandma was out and we couldn't get into the lower part of the house. Got in touch, went off to culinary class. Nate was considerably subdued; his spirits seemed positively depressed. Poor fellow was starving himself for wrestling weigh-ins at lunch. Made stock with the turkey carcasses from the other day.

Off to biology: Emily hadn't had flu after all, yayz!
I was suffering from not enough sleep. Biology was hectic and long. I am in the interesting position of being the oldest (by a year or two or three) student there, and the most comfortable with the material we're studying, and the rowdiest. Which is crazy, as I am really not rowdy at all. They're just a very quiet bunch. I actually hadn't read much of the chapter in question, but flubbed through with no problem.

Off to my dad's school with Celi's mom. My dad then took me into town for yoga class, but not until we had stopped at the Co-op for some groceries. There was a posh Italian lady there passing out samples of fine olive oil and balsamic vinegar and such. "I feel pampered!"
There was another crisis in the milk isle when my dad collided rather emphatically with a lady who was going the same way rather swiftly. It was given to me to watch helplessly as this occurred, and then to choke in the background as he apologized.

I got to yoga class barely on time and hustled into a room absolutely full of people. There were about 15 teens there, when usually there've been only 4 or 5 at the most. Yoga class was good; my cargo pants did not help matters however. I actually do not have any sweat pants or equivalent....not handy.

I came out of yoga at 5 pm and was immediately plunged into another situation. My mom was waiting in the car and she thrust a cell-phone and address book into my relaxed, energized fingers. It developed that Dallan had called with the info that I could pick up the swords for the play from Phillip. This proceeding necessitated a few phone calls on my part. When I got to Phillip's I was confronted with a positive arsenal of edged weapons. "Here let me just run and get one other thing--" I finally decided on a pair of blunt-edged stage rapiers and a rather nice short-sword (to kill for!! It is awesome!) and longer rapier with a very snazzy guard. The back of the car filled with weaponry, we wended our way homeward.

Now there is an email on my inbox suggesting that we dispense with the sword-fight entirely. I should have got that dagger....awk....costume.....shower....music....iiitt's Tech Week, folks!

I'm sitting on a very narrow and uncomfortable bench in front of our woodstove with Eddie [laptop] perched on my legs which are in turn propped up on a BEAST of an amp....there's a library copy of Life, the Universe and Everything [third Hitchhiker's book] on the floor.....another, smaller amp nearby.....Seeds of Change catalog....study guide for the Freshman College Composition test next to me.....test tomorrow, ugh. And rehearsal tomorrow--yayz!

I need to get hold of the fencing swords for tomorrow's practice but goodness knows how I'm going to get hold of them.....

Went to a photo shoot yesterday with the actors from Two Top Hats....great fun and it didn't rain :) We poked round excellent alleys. Feet hurt now from wearing those hot but painful high heels.....

Placed an order at our splendid local library for a C++ book......fun stuffs! Just the thing to hole up with over Thanksgiving. I really really want it to come SOON....

Which reminds me: who besides me thinks it is sad that there will only be 4 people at the table for Thanksgiving? :( :( wahhhh!


Just went out to get the mail.....in the dark and cold.....

Estoy muy occupado mañana.....sweet....I just said my first coherent sentence en español.....not really first, first after listening to erm erm what's the name of the CD set....oh yeah, Míchel Tómas....getting fancy with the option key, lol.....

And here's a cloud of Facebook words..... :) Who would have thought that rehearsal and awesome would be my top words? ;P

good times :)

NaNoWriMo is my chief concern right now. My current word count is 3847 which is considerably less than my suggested count for today :( I really hope I can get caught up....I sit in front of my laptop, I'm like the Earl of Sandwich who so loved his card-games that he had people bring him bread and cheese at his table. 

The excellent Kendra has an excellent post here, on the controversial subject of Twilight. Yet another subject on which our brains run along the same un-worn grooves...

Culinary class on Tuesday was a débacle. We had a substitute teacher. Attempted to make mayonnaise from scratch. There was confusion over amounts, recipes etc. Our major problem was the fact that we pasteurized the eggs a little too long and they became soft-boiled eggs. What a day.

After culinary class on Wednesday I decided that the lovely sunny day ought not to be wasted. Schoolwork finished, I arranged to hang out with Dallan in town. We meandered [I like that word] all over, from Central Park to the riverfront, to farmers' market, etc. Bought eggs and tomatoes at market; talked in British accents for a while; discussed rehearsal, naturally. 

Rehearsal was fabulous:  people wore their costumes and it was amazing what a difference it made to their acting, they were hamming up up, it was awesome. 

Yesterday was very packed, first culinary class, then off to biology at the other end of town, yoga class which was splendid, home for a wee space of time then to goat 4-H club. We're meeting round this year, at peoples' houses. 

I knew there was going to be an incident of some sort: It was dark, raining, we got a late start, the directions were not epic. We went right past the house the first time. There was a fellow out in the [steep] driveway directing traffic. I came in late, was immediately plunged into a huge group of people, half of whom I didn't know and half of the people I do know weren't there. I was in a chair at the corner of the table, squeezed in behind the first row, lacking an agenda and jotting notes on my goat-glossary balanced on my hand. Things improved as the evening went along. Haha, specially when we went out to see their goat-barn and I was able to proffer the use of a flashlight which I had prudently packed in my jeans-pocket. 

Today culinary class was awesome: we didn't have a test after all, and we baked pies. Yum. 

Time for another blog make-over! 

Vote in the polls! Oh yes: my NaNo heroine's name is now Carissa, but her best friend does Not seem like a Megan.  :(  And the hero is boring. And the plot is nebulous at best. Meh. 

I'm still happy, folks! Good times! 

could you please take a number and wait for the next mood-change?

ooh wow. Meh. Grahgh. Rowr.

Facebook status as of this afternoon: Bethany can't decide whether to be ticked off, happy, satisfied, excited, sad, in the throes of cold wrath, depressed, or what. Welcome to being a teenager. Factor in school, parents, school decisions, and you get something remarkably close to...eh..something. Crud crud crud.

It's been an interesting day. I got up all ready for a nice light school-load and a pleasant day. Tootled around on the computer for too long and got told off by my mom. I diligently applied myself to my studies for the next two hours. Pwned my bio homework through Monday; reviewed for the College Composition test; reviewed biology, took notes, tried to read notes, with limited success; lunched late. Mum came home. I tidied the kitchen, even doing the dishes as a tasty little extra to appease mom who was appeasement-worthy by this time.

Had a conversation about the scholastic plan. I think the worst part of school is trying to decide what to do. The trouble is always with me. I am not self-motivated enough to study and pass lots of CLEP exams [thus relieving the monetary angle of things]. I am going to have a "wasted year". We cannot afford to send me to college without alternative methods such as CLEPs. I am not self-motivated enough....you get the picture. I am spending too long on theatre stuff and Facebook. I would do school if I were told what to do [insert 1000-word discussion on the pros and cons of this, that and the other option. Including stuff that we discussed last year.] Why the dickens would I want to take Spanish I at a high school when I could be getting credit for it at college? I could spend three hours on Facebook if I were allowed to. Well what should I be doing? I did my biology didn't I?

Drat. I'm not trying to berate my mom. I'm sorry for loading this on you all....but then, what else are blogs for. Jest so's you know, this post may or may not be up here very long.

Eh. Biology is going well. Fungus. [Kendra, I will post something on the discussion board SOON! :) ]

Oh drat again. I just remembered some other schoolwork I could have done....

So you don't feel to sorry for me, please note that I did a grand total of about 3 hours of school today. That's a lot more than usual. BUT WHAT THE DICKENS AM I SUPPOSED TO BE DOING???!

Had thoughts concerning C++, computer programming, and such. I was reading along in a writing manual when I came to a chart of...."WOW! Computer terms, defined! Ohmigoodness! Cool!" Who cares that they're ten years old....bits and bytes. Haha, nothing above a KB was mentioned. Oh, these are the days of 200 gig hard drives...

Made a fire. I <3 style="">

Am reading Great Expectations again. I tried to read it at the tender age of 11, and failed. It's quite good. Now I must just convince my mom to let me finish To Kill a Mockingbird on my own.....

Oh splendid, I get to be busy tomorrow! [In other words, out of the house...] Dance rehearsal, and then off to Eva's for the evening. :)

Woow I hate the telephone. Every time it rings I jump and sweat breaks out and my heartrate speeds up. I don't know why, I'm not waiting for a call or anything.

I am considering participating in NaNoWriMo. Hm. I do have a story started, does that count if I finish it off? I really don't want this story to wind up in Unfinished Stories, much as that blog needs fodder...I'm working on typing it up even as we speak. My tiny handwriting is a major pain to read. I really, really like this story. But it needs m a j o r work. For one thing the hero is being set up with the wrong girl. For another, there is a mystery/thriller aspect which intruded itself, all unwanted, into the plot. For another...oh why spoil it? ;)

Ah. I just looked up the website and found started stories don't count. :( Oh well, I shouldn't have much trouble coming up with something...after all, it's quantity not quality and I do have plenty of that lol.....

I am really really excited!!! :)

the times they're getting weird!

First off, welcome and thank-you to my newest follower, Laurel! :) it's great to have another "real-world" friend along for the fun!

We delivered the hapless goat to the buck this evening. Quite the escapade: tried to figure out how to transport a goat all the way to Monroe in a car. The metal washtub proving too small, we resorted to lining the back seat of the Focus with a tarp and inducing goatie to lie down in the back with me sitting next to her. It was a long, long trip but no slip-ups...except that my dad put the rope/leash on top of the car and we drove off without retrieving it. It is somewhere on the highway...but that is as nothing compared to some of the things we have lost off of car roofs ;)

Culinary class was remarkably scattered. To begin with Nate was in a good mood and sort of bounced around. He sets down in his chair and scoots in beside me, making funny noises the while; I give him a sidelong glance and we both crack up. Good times.
Took a test but that was only a short while of our 1 1/2 hour class. Finished up a herb-spread we made yesterday. Another girl and I who'd missed a lab earlier in the week went off in search of apples with which to make our "apple-birds". That search led us to the ceramics lab where one of the teachers was reputed to have large quantities of apples. Up to the jewelery-making room. Found the apple, and back through the rain to make our bird. You make little, successively-larger V-shaped cuts and slid them out, sort of, for wings and neck and such. Had to return it to the original donor who was much impressed :) even though the bird's head kept falling off. On the way back we skipped through the rain which was now falling in objectionable quantities.

Yah, good times. Also I did a facebook quiz which I deem worthy of posting here...warning, it's long :)


What is on your bed right now?
blanket, flashlight.

When was the last time you threw up?
when I was 5.

What's your favorite word or phrase?
I'd have to say *hilarious laughter*

Name 3 people who made you smile today?
[That is not a question. It should not have a question mark at the end.] Nate, Katie, random gorgeous dude in pottery class [which I don't take..we were in there looking for apples..long story] and he was so intent on sculpting, I know it's weird to say a guy is gorgeous but he was :)

What were you doing at 8 am this morning?
snozz...

What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
Talking on the phone.

What is your favorite holiday?
I like Thanksgiving and Christmas. But I also like my birthday. [wow Josiah..me too!]

Have you ever been to another country?
England, Canada, Germany, Switzerland

What is the last thing you said aloud?
"There's tomato sauce there if you want it"

What is the best ice cream flavor?
vanilla

What was the last thing you had to drink?
hemp milk.....

What are you wearing right now?
plaid shirt and blue jeans.

What was the last thing you ate?
I'm eating right now...pasta :) with aforementioned tomato sauce

Have you bought any new clothing items this week?
oh yeah. epic red and black dress for the play! [Photo coming soon...]

When was the last time you ran?
about two minutes ago, to stir the spaghetti

What's the last sporting event you watched?
nope, I don't watch sports

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
England

Who is the last person you sent a comment/message on myspace?
Don't have myspace. but the last person I messaged on FB was Sophie.

Ever go camping?
only about every summer since I was born...

Do you have a tan?
Yes and no. [haha same here Josiah!]

Do you use smiley faces on the computer alot?
oh, but of course! :)

Do you drink your soda from a straw?
I don't drink soda

What did your last text message say?
I don't txt eithr

Are you someone's best friend?
I'm not sure...I'd guess so.

What are you doing tomorrow?
farmers' market, dance rehearsal

Where is your mom right now?
kitchen

Look to your left, what do you see?
lots and lots of County Fair ribbons...

What color is your watch?
black and silver

What do you think of when you think of Australia?
drought...

Ever ridden on a roller coaster?
Nope.

Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru?
I do NOT eat fast food.

Do you have any friends on myspace that you actually hate?
No. I don't have myspace.

Do you have a dog?
nyet

Last person you talked to on the phone?
Dallan

Any plans today?
play practice, take Starlight to the buck

Are you happy?
mmhm.

Where are you right now?
family room

Biggest annoyance in your life right now?
the new Facebook...or being sick..or the fact that most of my friends are sick...

Last song listened to?
Mamma Mia..love it! Dosvedanya mio Bombino by Pink Martini was also there...

Last movie you saw?
um..don't remember

Are you allergic to anything?
I don't think so.

Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?
yeah...Sophie and Emily Harvey know the ones I'm talking about....lol

Are you jealous of anyone?
hm...i don't think so, actually. there are a few things i'd change about my life but I wouldn't want to be anyone else.

Are you married?
no...oh wait...YEAH! hehe

Is anyone jealous of you?
probably

Do any of your friends have children?
Yes.

Do you eat healthy?
heck yeah! ;)

What do you usually do during the day?
stuff.

Do you hate anyone right now?
not really.

Do you use the word 'hello' daily?
i don't think so.

How many kids do you want when you're older?
maybe 4 or 5

How old will you be turning on your next birthday?
18.

Have you ever been to Six Flags?
Nope.

How did u get one of your scars?
dude! so we were filming this one scene in the movie and I totally had to stand in the, you know, blackberry vines and my leg was like dripping blood all over and i go inside and the guys are comparing injuries 'mine was best' 'no mine was best' and i roll up my pants leg and they're all like "sweet! it looks like that A in star wars" or whatever and yeaahhh
I have no idea where that came from :)