Sunday, December 30, 2007

Oh... this is love.


I just went to MOCAD yesterday, and I'm totally in love with the place. It's not a very tradtional art museaum in any sense of the word. It was founded last october, and I have a funny feeling that the founders were the ones sitting at the front desk, running tours, and working at the cafe. It feels very...rough. The whole building is bare bricks, I'd never heard of any of the artists, and the whole thing was one exhibit: Words Fail Me. It was all about words and how they interact with art. The second room was all about political statements, at least that's how I interpret it. I think my favorite work was a collection of about 80 different paintings. Big things with black or blue paint, in crazy violent writing, often in broken english and child-like scribbles. It's all pretty cool, and it's free, so what do you have to lose?

I am a posting machine...

I think this website is pretty cool. I've downloaded the introduction to fiction class from the liturature section. I've skimmed the materials, and it looks pretty hard (no duh, this is college level stuff). I think attempting this goes on the Big, Scary Things List. I found out about this from US news and world report. It seems like a good way for a college to do a public service. I understand that none of this gets graded, but I think that their materials for pride and predjuce will help me to understand it better.
For reference, here is the list of BIG FUN SCARY THINGS
*Read at least 70 books, ten of which must be classics. Ten must also be non-fiction. They cannot be the same ten.
*Learn to drive (can get my permit in feb! Love you MI with one of the lowest driving ages in the country!!!)
*Not do terribly in honors geometry (C or higher, but aiming for A)
*Knit 1 pair of socks and 2 sweaters
*Walk my dog at least 4 times every week (if I go for a 1.5 mile walk every time, I will have walked 300+miles by the end of the year)
*Finish and start editing my 2007 Nano, and do NaNo in '08, plus write a NaNoWriYe
*Take better photos and gain more photoshop skills
*attempt the online fiction course from MIT

This shall be one interesting experiance!
P.S. And yes, I know the MIT thing will kick my ass. In a good way.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Books I Love

Okay, some of my fans (just smile and nod) have been asking me for book suggestions. I love books, and I read a lot of books. Not classics, so if you like that kind of thing, this is the time to branch out.
In no piticular order, my top five favorite books of all time:

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K.Rowling
Everyone knows that I love Harry Potter. I don't think that everyone knows that the fifth book is my favorite, simply because it answers all the questions that arise from the first through fourth books. If you've ever thought about reading the books, do so now! I also think that I like this more than the rest because I stayed up 'till midnight to buy it, then read constantly for the next two days and 16 hours. I loved it. Don't watch the movies first, they ruin everything. If you want to seem like a complete weirdo, then you can get the cd's and listen to them while you try to get to sleep. Eventually you start to be able to quote Harry Potter at random (this was me in fifth and sixth grade)


The View from Saturday by E.L.Koingsburg
There are two things I really love about this book. Number one is the way it's written. I tend to have a special liking for books that are written oddly. Each chapter belongs to a character, and they're stories from their past. The thing linking all these characters and their stories together is something I didn't really appreciate until this year: they're all in quiz bowl together, and the thing that makes them remember stuff is questions from the state quiz bowl tournament. The second thing that I really like is the characters. If there's one thing that E.L.Koingsburg excels at in this book, it is character development. They all feel so real to me, and I admire this, because in my novel, everyone is flat. Flat and lifeless, but this book really makes the characters come alive.


My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult
I just finished this, and I was amazed. It was the selected book for my book club this month, and I figured it would take me a long time to read. It didn't. Instead, I was addicted to it, and finished it within four days of starting it. I didn't even read any other books while I was reading it, quite the feat for me. It's told much in the same manner as The View from Saturday, but this time the thing linking them together is a lawsuit filed by Anna. Anna wants to be medically independent from her parents, who only had her so that she could supply blood and bone marrow for her sister, Kate, who has Leukemia. Anna decides that she doesn't want to give Kate her kidney when Kate's start failing. There is a totally surprising twist at the end, which really makes you think about who deserves to live, and who deserves to die in our society.


The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
I like reading journals. I like world war two. The two of them combined, plus the fact that I see so much of myself in Anne is what makes me love, love, love this book. The book opens with Anne getting the diary for her birthday, and she starts just writing about ordinary life. Within a month or two of that, her life does a 180 turn. She is forced to go into hiding with her family, the Van Danns, and Dussel. They annoy her so much, and she feels like no one understands her for the beginning of the journal. It isn't so much a story of the holocaust and hiding as it is the classic story of growing up, but with such extreme circumstances, everything is thrown into a lot of detail. You know you want to read it.

Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson
Yeah, this one is a little more pop-novel than the rest of them are. Still, being popular doesn't make a novel bad. The premise of the novel is this: Ginny's favorite aunt dies, and sends her on a crazy quest around Europe. Left in the restaurant below her aunt's old apartment are thirteen little blue envelopes, each containing a clue for her trip around Europe. It's pretty cool, even if people think it is sometimes a little bit flaky.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Big, Fun, Scary things!

So, Chris Baty sent this email out to all NaNoers about the year of Big, Fun, Scary things. The general idea is that you try to do a few things on the list of things to do before you die. and you actually do them. Not think about doing them, not wish you could do them, you just do it (nike is so suing me for that).
Here's what I posted in the forum:
Big Fun Scary Goals!!!
*Read at least 70 books, 10 of which must be classics
*Learn to drive (can get my permit in feb! Love you MI with one of the lowest driving ages in the country!!!)
*Not do terribly in honors geometry (C or higher, but aiming for A)
*Knit 1 pair of socks and 2 sweaters
*Walk my dog at least 4 times every week (if I go for a 1.5 mile walk every time, I will have walked 300+miles by the end of the year)
*Finish and start editing my 2007 Nano, and do NaNo in '08, plus write...something else...
*Take better photos

This is kind of like a new years resolution, but not the "lose 10 pounds" type. It's more....I don't know. Whatever.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

I love Christmas...


This is exactly how much you can knit on your modified Widdershins by bedtime if you cast on Christmas day and knit every time you want to yell at/shoot someone. I got the needles, along with a ton of yarn to dye for Christmas. I also got Socks Soar on Two Circular needles, and The Knitters Book Of Sweater Patterns, which will be pretty useful for designing.
Btw, I made up the cable pattern. It's called Crashing Cables for the time being.
See that dramatic blurring around the edges? That is courtesy of my new wonderful shiny photoshop. I love it. This is Lichtenstien chilling on the advent wreath at church on Christmas eve. My family was lighting it, and I learned that my brother is incapable of lighting a candle. 'twas hilarious.
I hope you all had a very merry Christmas.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Update on life. And no ranting. Or at least not too much.


A purple lamb. Wasn't this in The Oddesey? That's why I made it.

Cookie decorating!! Yay for cookie decorating!

They let me roll out cookie dough this year. I think this means that no one else wanted to, or that they think I'm all growed up.
So, school let out for Christmas break on Friday, and very little work actually got done on the last two days of school this week, making the total number of working days this week a whopping 1. The field trip was pretty fun on Tuesday, even if Conni sort of got lost, and I've already been to the Henry Ford Museaum about four times.
This cute little monkey is Lichtenstein, named after Roy Lichtenstein. He will be fetured in the blog often.

This was me making the United States out of lepchucken. I love lepchucken.I love lepchucken sooo much.

And this is how far the sweater is. I'll be posting the pattern soon.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

When will she shut up and knit something?

When did life get complicated? I remember life was easy in kindergarten. Life was pretty easy for all of elementary school, actually. Nobody really close to me died when I was in elementary school, so that would be a plus. I think fifth grade was when stuff started getting hard. My teachers and parents thought that I might be having seizures, so they made me have a MRI and an EKG. They found nothing, but the whole thing made me feel like... I don't know, like there was something wrong with me. Maybe I felt like I had a secret, maybe like I was different from everyone else (actually, I've felt that way forever, so i should have been used to it by now.) Fifth grade was also when I started getting homework. I went to the weirdo elementary school that used new teaching stuff and didn't give people homework, so the entire concept of getting homework that you were supposed to do didn't make much sense to me, and it still doesn't now. The philosophy of homework at my elementary school was that you get enough of school at school, you don't need to take it home. I wasn't in the same class as all my friends either, which sort of sucked. That was the year when Steven died too, which sent the entire year straight down the drain. Out of all the people I've known who have died, his was the worst, and I know exactly why. Here's the reason: He wasn't the kind of person who was allowed to die. Some people are allowed to die. Old people are allowed to die. Sick people are allowed to die. Steven wasn't allowed to die, not at all.
When are people allowed to grow up? When are people allowed to die? What defines, who defines stuff like that? When did life start to get hard for everyone else? Does everyone else use their blog as a virtual dumping ground for ideas, random crap coming out of their head, pictures of their shoes, pictures of their large white pieces of paper on walls, and yarn pictures? Does everyone besides for me blog for an audience? Can everyone else in the world see why I usually have trouble falling asleep at night? Am I totally excited about making sugar cookies tomorrow? Yes. Bye byes all.

And also, I'm practically a bizgillionare

Sunday, December 16, 2007

YAY! WOOT!

Snow day tomorrow! Yay for snow days! Is it innappropriate to be running and jumping around the house screaming "We got a SNOW DAY!!!!"? Methinks not.
I shall be enjoying my snowday! You have fun with yours!

My head is *such* and interesting place to be...and religion


That's a large piece of paper on my wall. I write my ideas on it. Is it part of human nature to have an uncontrollable urge to share things. Not tangible things, but stories, and information. What makes us like that? We're all storytellers, really. Maybe you don't write stories. Maybe you stick everything inside your head because you think that it bugs people when you go off on tangents about that one time your dog was running around in the snow and you tried to make a snow angel and then your mom let the dog out and you almost got your mittens bitten off and then the dog jumped on your chest and there was snow in your face and then you realized that there was a very small chance of ever being able to make a snow angel with your dog outside. Or something like that. See, you guys were all dozing off during that little story, and people wonder why I tend to not say things unless someone else expresses an interest in knowing whatever I have to say. Or if I get slap-happy. Which happens with alarming frequency. Why do we still tell stories if so few people out there actually want to here them? The point is, we all tell stories, even if it's just you rambling, spilling your guts to the population of the Internet, sending epic emails to friends about your ex-boyfriend and what a **** he was, making what could be considered a photo-essay all about the weird things your cat does, whatever. The point is, humans are almost made to be storytellers.
What shapes who we are? I used to be quiet. I actually used to be a shy person, and so many people are surprised by that. Someone in quiz bowl thought that I'd changed so much since I was in his class in sixth grade. He thought I was shy (I think he said this in one of those slap-happy moments).
On the list of things that bug me is this:

That's a picture of Jesus, right? What are the chances that Jesus actually looked like that? In my mind, Jesus looks much more like the kind of person who would be thought of as a terrorist than that. *I do not mean that Jesus is a terrorist. I mean that my mental image of Jesus looks much more middle eastern than he does in this picture* He looks white! Also, referring to God as "He". We have no proof that there is a God at all, much less a male God, or a God that even takes a human-like form. How can we say that God looks like that? That's almost like how there are very few women in the Bible, and most of the ones who are in the Bible are in there because they slept with someone important, or because they gave birth to someone important. Or if they're Esther or Ruth. I am now realizing the disturbing lack of facts for everything I've said here. Oh well. Feel free to refute my arguments in the comments. If you feel that I'm bashing your religion, I'll apologize in advance. A lot of my opinions about my religion were formed by the terribly closed minded conformation class that I took last year. My mentor (Who, funnily enough, had been Methodist for less time than I had) and I talked about some...interesting things. Let me go find my binder to show you.
Here it is. It's basically a worksheet of random questions to get the gears turning in your brain (or something) I've italicized all of the stuff that was actually printed on the worksheet, and my answers to the questions are written normally
4.Christian friends can help each other stay in touch with God by
Why are Christian friends so much better than just normal friends?
5.In my friendship with you, you have helped me to
Think openly
6.Friendship with god is a lot like other friendships. Spending time with God helps keep our friendship going. Prayer is a way to spend time with God. If someone asked me to describe my prayer life, I would say
Nonexistent
7.I could improve my ability to pray if I would take the time to
Pray
After you have talked about the above items, take time to pray in silence
*First, think about God's awesome love and greatness
*Express things that your are thankful for.
*Ask God to forgive you for things you have done of have failed to do
*Ask God to help you and others you know who need God's guidance.

The rest of the worksheets in the book proceeded in a similar manner, and my answers were just as smart-assed as they were here. Come to think of it, if I took conformation class now, I would be so much more cynical. Not terribly surprising, is it?
Oh my, here's an even more smart assed worksheet. Woah. I was a little...just wow
1.I believe that being active in my church will help me to
Nothing
2.I believe it's important for a person to be baptized because
It's not
3.I believe that receiving Holy Communion helps me to
Spill grape juice on the carpet
4.I believe that using my talents and financial resources in the work of god is important because
Um. Gods work-another opinion
5.I believe that it's important to be confirmed because it shows that I
can conform
6.I believe that god has given me the ability to
Think on my own
7.I believe that god wants me to
teach others to think
8.I believe that doubts and questions about faith help us to
question
From this, I think it's no wonder why I didn't get confirmed. Who knew I was so...sarcastic at such a young age?

P.S. I got my wish! SNOW!

Friday, December 14, 2007

Watch the crazy girl ramble.

I think this article is pretty interesting. When do we actually grow up? I've been thinking about my future a lot lately, and I've come to one conclusion:I don't have a clue. It's a little bit like in Accepted, Bartelby wrote that essay called "I don't have a clue"
But not.
I just really have no idea what I want to do after Hi!School. My parents obviously want me to go to college and stuff, but I don't really i don't know if that's what I want. I could actually see myself being a teacher, but I'm not so sure. I would hate I would rather teach high school or middle school, but. I don't know. I like art and stuff, but I don't think that I'm actually good enough to do anything professionally. I could see myself maybe being a teacher and selling my art on Etsy or something on the side. My greatest fear in becoming a teacher is that I would end up being one of those teacher s who teaches you everything you already know and just makes everything so easy that you could get an A, or at least a B in your sleep. What if I would be one of those teachers who lets certain kids get away with murder? I would feel terrible to be either of those types of teachers, but maybe those kinds of teachers think that they're good teachers. I don't know.
I really have no clue about anything I want to do if I grow up. We're right back where we started.
That makes me think. Have I ever gone through an experience to end up right back where we started? Let's think about that. I'll use eighth grade as the example. Before eighth grade, I'd never had to work in school. Sure, there was a while in seventh grade where I had issues with the math. Before eighth grade, I had never gotten a letter grade below a B in my life. I got two C's in Algebra and there were a few weeks where I was getting a D in Science and had to go to Academic Improvement. Me, girl who prides herself in just being smart, getting a D in Science. The real reason that I got a D was because we were supposed to be memorizing the periodic table, and I can't memorize much of anything. It took me over two years to memorize my new phone number after the fire, and I've never memorized an address besides for my house- even though there were two and a half years when I lived somewhere else. Maybe the real issue here is school smarts versus just being smart. Maybe I'm just smart, or imagination smart, but what really matters at school is being school smart (aka good at school). Are the people who are good at school good at life? I don't think so. There were some kids in my foods and sewing class who had never sewn anything, and the only things that they could cook were something along the lines of popcorn and sandwiches. Neither of those are cooking. There's some people that, if out on their own, would be able to do just about nothing. If you're good at this kind of stuff, does that make you life smart? Do life smarts translate to just smart?
Here's an example: I have a friend who has a very high lexile score (I think it was around 1400). My lexile score is 1245. The average lexile score for someone in ninth grade honors English is around 1100, to give you an idea of what a good score is. Apparently there are some people in my grade who have lexile scores of 200, but I doubt that I know any of them (I hang out with the nerdy people). Back on the topic of this friend with the high lexile. I rarely see her reading, and I never realized that she had that much in the way of language skills. Let's call this friend X, just to make things easier. X herself said that she was surprised by how low my score was compared to hers, considering how much I read. I tried to make excuses about my score, such as the fact that I read very easy books compared to some things my friends read. I also reread things a lot, which probably doesn't do anything for my vocabulary skills (I've read The Diary of Anne Frank like, seven times. I've lost count of how many times I've reread the Harry Potter books, but let's just say that it's a lot.) I have trouble in English too. We're reading The Odyssey, and let's face it, it's kicking my ass. I understand nothing of it. Well, barely anything.
Speaking of English class (See that segway sentence grandma? Was it even my grandma who was the proponent of segway sentences, or was that my dad?). My English teacher brought this up today: Do you like the city where you live? Do you think that, in ten years, if someone asked you if this city was a good place to grow up, what would you say to them? She was saying about how when she was young, she thought that her hometown was a pretty good place. Looking back, apparently she thinks it wasn't really a good place to grow up as she didn't really fit in because of her religion and how long her family had lived there. When I think of this city, I don't like it. I don't think it's a great place to be, it kinda sucks. It has the cons of a small town (nothing ever happens) and all the cons of a big city (loud, too many people, bratty little rich kids, consumerist society). It's odd that I think this, because out of everyone in my grade, I'm one of the more likely people to live here forever. I know that my parents are going to live here forever, and even though this place feels so damn confining, I realize how used to it I've gotten- I've never actually lived anywhere else. How hard would it be to adjust to new surroundings?
Does everyone adjust the same way? At the same speed? I don't think so. I think that adjustment speed is a very individual thing. It takes me a pretty long time to get used to things. Friend X and I were discussing this the other day at quizbowl: We both still think we're in eighth grade. She had said that the novice team from another Hi! School totally didn't look like they were novice, they looked old enough to be in Hi! School. We both chuckled when she realized what she had said, but I think that just makes the point a whole lot clearer. We never really grow up.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Wow. I am at a loss for a witty title. Sob.

I shall spend this post listing all of the very exciting things that will be happening with my new found free time, and doing terribly with the English. I was not smoking any illegal substances while writing this, even though my writing makes people wonder... The above is the yarn that I will be using for this sweater experiment/project/thing. It is Berroco X-Press, colour 3608, and that white spot in the front of that yarn? That's a quarter, for scale. I'm using size 13 circular needles (Y'all are starting to think that I do not own any smaller needles. I do. I actually finished a had last night with smaller needles, I just haven't gotten around to taking pictures. Bear with me.)

Here's how I will be doing things. Please be aware that these instructions have no guarantees, except for the one guaranteeing that I will mess something up. This will be an adventure at the very least.
I am casting on 60 stitches. I took this pattern, figured out my size and gauge, and then added four stitches allowing for the pull of the cable in front. I also wanted to make the neckline a little lower, so I added 16 stitches, assuming that two sets of raglan increases would be removed with the extra cast on.
Does any of this make sense?
Kool aid shawl picture. Because I can. I've been wearing it more since it got cold. I wish the weather would just shut up and snow. I want snow. Fuck ice, I want snow. You can't sled on ice.
And a tree picture. Because it's been a rough day.

Monday, December 10, 2007

This is why I wasn't on honor roll last year, and a (maybe) wonderful idea

Yeah, I cast on 15 more stitches than I needed to. Stop laughing. This is exactly why I didn't make honor roll last year, I got a C (two C's actually, but vague is good. Vague est mon ami.).
My fantabulous idea is as follows.
There may be a new series on the blog about how to knit a sweater, Froomla style. I will post bits of the pattern, as well as pictures of me trying it on as I go and figure stuff out. Anybody wanna do a KAL type thing, or just think this would be amusing? The general sweater idea is similar to Wicked, only without the baby cables, or the pocket. And with one cable down the front. And sleeves as long as I have the yarn for.
Anyone think this would be fab?

Sunday, December 9, 2007

I am making my math teacher proud...

Yeah, I haven't done any real math since June. And now it's December. Ouchie. But I am conquering the maths and using maths in real everyday life. And admitting to the fact that honors geometry will be sooo freeking hard next semester. At least I'm doing the maths instead of guessing like I normally do.
Why can't I use patterns like a normal person?

Saturday, December 1, 2007

50,489

There. I finished. It's there. Now, the website wouldn't let me validate it , which pisses me off. A lot.
Random Quote: “I’m sorry” Kira muttered , regretting htat she had even said any thing previously . Some one really needed to put some thing in her brain that forced her to think things through throughly before saying them . Hey! That would be just like that chip that those doctors had put in the pretties minde, making htem, you know, pretty mminded. That last thought made kira sound stupid, but it was true. The books had referred to them as pretty minded!
Thoughts on NaNoWriMo: Yeah, it's a lot harder than I thought it would be when I declared that I was doing it last december. Yeah, one of my main characters did try to commit sucicide when he had been perfectly normal , or at least somewhat close to normal , when the book began. Around June or so, I thought that I was going to be one of those people who writes 200,000 words in the first two weeks. Maybe I just didn't realize that the most I have ever written on one topic before NaNoWriMo was maybe 500 words?
Most important thing that I learned: I can do this , even if I finish at 2:00 and only have 15,000 words that make sense to any one besides for me.