Debate

Ugh. We had a debate meet last night, and it was totally ugh-worthy. The real problem was the PO (presiding officer). I had never debated against her, so I had no idea if she was any good at being a PO. She was terrible. Absolutley terrible. She didn't have the easiest job in the world, but I'm convinced that I could have been better at it than her (and she won a trophy from super session too!) She never called on Makena and I, even though we kept on raising our hands to speak.
Ugh.

Discoveries

me: OMG

Makena: i know

me: I have a dent in my head!

Makena: what does allegretto mean?

me: maybe that's why I think the way i think!

Makena: how did you get a dent in your head?

haha!

7:59 PM me: I have no idea

Makena: wierd

me: but it is so there

Makena: that is wierd u were prob dropped on ur head when u were little

JK!

8:00 PM me: no...that's mean

This is more of a flat spot with an indentation in the middle

8:01 PM Makena: that sounds like what babies heads are like yours it seems just never grew to cover the whole which is wierd since merrits hole has hardend over

me: no, it's not a soft spot, it's a flat spot

As you can see, I have recently discovered that I have not only a flat spot, but a dent in the back of my head. This is rather unnerving, but it could explain a lot.
I started dance. I have it first block, and we strech. And that makes my legs hurt. And then I whine.
No really, dance class is a lot of fun. It's physical activity, but without the horrible team sports that have been the bane of my existance since kindergarden and the introduction of gym class onto my otherwise happy childhood. I'm not one of the more skilled people in the class, but I'm not the worst either, which is good. And apparently, I have developed a comma fetish, damn.
Honors Geometry is surprisingly easy. You should remember that in May when I'm whining about how hard Honors Geometry is, then you can say "You said it was so easy!"
Earth Science is interesting. The teacher's good, but really hard. This will probably be harder than Honors Geometry.
French Two is hilarious. I don't really know anyone in that class, but the people are pretty funny. Haven't learned a ton, but I have a feeling that I will actually have to conjugate French verbs, which we totally didn't have to do last year. Eugh.
This is getting boring, I know. I'll stop now.

The Story of Stuff

We, as Americans, tend to have too much stuff. Our stuff has become a symbol of who we are and what we are worth. When was the last time you assumed something about someone based upon what they were (or weren't) wearing or about the stuff they have. I don't know about where you live, but my county is in the top 10% of dirtiest counties in the country. I'm not sure about where this pollution is (it doesn't really seem dirty to me) or who's doing it, but it's probably because we have a constant need to get more Stuff.
Watch the story of stuff. Take action. Buy less. Save the Earth. Click the picture.

Pride...

That is what my feet looked like this morning. That's right people, I've finished my very first pair of socks! I actually finished them at 11:30 last night, while watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I am ridiculously proud of them, and want nothing more than to have someone ask me where I got them (but I know that's not going to happen)
Crashing Cables Socks!
Pattern: Widdershins toe, CosmicPluto's heel, and my own cables (which have been named "crashing cables" for the time being)
Yarn:TOFUtsies in the blue/green/yellow colourway
Needles: size two Knitpicks Circs.
I love them, even though they don't entirely match. I've cast on for another plain pair with the leftover yarn, which there is a lot of.

I also read The Knitter's Book of Yarn today. It was pretty good, but it doesn't really go in the top ten. It isn't a really interesting topic (to me anyways), but they told it in a relatively interesting way.

I'm going to dance in my new socks. And other clothes too.

Random inner ninja thought of the day: How much work do you have to be doing to technically have "free time"? Is there a certain point when all of you time becomes free?

Finals: Part Two

Well, I'm offically done with finals. I got 102/110 on the history final, but she was scoring them out of 100 instead, so I have 102%. Yay!
For Graphic Arts Tech, my mom had wanted a logo made for DI shirts, so instead of doing the final, Mr.W let me scan and make the drawing into a graphic.
I'm going to see The Great Debaters tonight with my nerds. I think that the quizbowl and debate stuff sort of propels me into the nerd catagory, but it's more fun to refer to my friends in the third person.
I'm not really making sense. Tests do that to a person.

Relief

That's exactly what I'm feeling right now.
Today was finals: part one, and my English final was hard (that's a total understatement), but at least Art was pretty easy. All we had to do was name colours, shade a sphere and some squares, and do a planning sketch of Anorexia. I messed up a little on the detail, but I did pretty well.
Now I get to go study for History and Graphic Arts Tech. Yay.
It's so weird to finally have another half day. The last one was in like sixth grade or something.
Edited to add:No, I think the last half day was in like, seventh grade when there was a water main break and no on had any water and we were all totally dehydrated.

Jodi Piccoult

I finished Salem Falls at school today. Loved it so much. All of Jodi Piccoult's books are really great, but they're not really the kind of book that I read a lot of. I usually read what would be called the Twinkies of books. They're not deep, not challenging, and they don't make you think. They're kind of a weird comfort food. Jodi's books are the whole wheat bread of books. They make you think. Okay, so it might not be as deep as scary books (just about everything on the quiz bowl literature list) but it's deep to the point where it's still interesting.
I've also read My Sister's Keeper and The Tenth Circle. I think I liked My Sister's Keeper best, though.

Huh...

So I'm sitting in seminar (that's what they call the homeroom-type thing at my school. We have it after first block on Tuesday and Thursday.) right now, listening to my teacher help people review for their French final. I think it's rather odd that people are talking (not talking to the teacher, talking to friends) while he is going over how to say time in french. He doesn't need to tell them this stuff, they should have been paying attention in class the first time.
I wonder if I do this stuff sometimes. Goof off when I know I should be paying attention.
It seems like so many of my classmates are just in school to get through, just learning things for the grade. I wonder how many people think that they're actually here to learn, and those are probably the same people who get mad when a teacher teaches us nothing about the Korean war, other than the fact that it took place in Korea. And that it took place after the Cold War.
Yeah......

Full of questions without any answers

The title does not illustrate anything new.
SouLLooN posted about this the other day, and I know the two people who he was talking about. That made me think about who is smart, and what is smart. Is someone who gets really good grades, takes pre-calc in their freshman year (I know some people who actually do this), takes two science classes every year, and is really good at school smarter than someone who can't read, but is really good at hands on stuff (I was thinking machinery type stuff, but substitute your own hands on thing)? Are people unable to get an education stupid? I don't think so, because in LEAP, we would always talk about how all people have a potential, even if the circumstances prevent them from reaching that potential, and why education is important. The teacher always used some uneducated orphans in Africa who could find the cure for cancer as an example, but I think the kid who has a high IQ, who hates school because school thinks differently than them is just like that. What is potential? For some people, they will make great discoveries, save the world, etc., and they may not have reached their potential yet. There are other people, for whom being a greeter at Mijer will be their potential, and if they reach that, good for them.
When I was trying to test out of health this past summer (I didn't pass, but nobody else did either), one of the things I was studying was Maslow's Hierarchy. I guess that I don't take an issue with his pyramid thingie, but the real thing I had issues with was the idea that about 1% of all people reach "Self Actualization" Which is apparently the peak of their ability or something. How depressing is the idea that, no matter how hard you try, chances are that you will never reach your full ability, and my other question is: who the hell determines your potential, and when you have reached it? I don't want to be judged by them (yeah, it's the U.S. Department of THEM), and they have no idea what my potential is. Me studying this got me so angry, the last time one piece of paper made me that angry, I was asked to design my own gravestone in conformation. Then I asked the teacher if I could go to the bathroom, then ran up to the library and cried. That was insensitive of them, but whatever.
Back on topic.
Some blogger (I am thinking it was Grumperina, but I might be wrong) had posted a 100 things about me list, and one of the things was something along the lines of "in an ideal socicety, where no one would judge me for wasting my brain, I would be a construction worker. I would operate the crucher." Is it fair that people who get good grades are expected to go to college and live fruitful lives, when many people wouldn't have an issue with a smart person who doesn't apply themselves not going to college and ending up flipping burgers (like what the counselours tell you will happen if you drop out of high school.)?
So, tonight I went to the second to the last class of the advent study class. There was this part of the lesson about what kind of spiritual relationship you have. I think the kinds were Contemplative, Intellectual, Creation, Worship, Service, and a few others. The one I identified most with was probably Contemplative. I'm not really into worship, and frankly, don't see the
point of it. Yeah, I like to dance at church, but I don't really consider it worship, it's just dance. I like to help others, but it doesn't make me feel close to God or anything. I guess that leaves Intellectual, Creation, and Contemplative. I think I'm mostly contemplative. I just need my alone time, and sometimes, I just need to stop and think about stuff.
Another thing touched upon today was the idea that inside every person, God resides. I guess that I don't really think of it that way. How would we treat people differently if we thought that there was a little chunk of God inside them? Would we judge less? Would we be nicer to strangers? Would we ask "Can I help you?" Would we be more open with our feelings?
Yeah, still no clue what I actually believe. But this class makes me feel a little more...comfortable with the notion of God. I probably would never go to church if not for the minister who teaches this class, and my Sunday school class.
In other news, the Yarn Harlot is knitting crazy socks.

My sad, title-less life.

I was reading Ramblings of a Knitting Obsessive (link that way>) and noticing her Tangled Yoke Cardi that she just finished. She posted about buying the yarn on December 16, and then finished the sweater in the past few days. If I can figure this out right, then she finished a whole adult sized sweater in less than a month- on size four needles too! People like this scare me. Eunny Jang is one of those people, and she scares me too.
Which, if you wander around my brain for a while, eventually leads to the topic of knitting expertise. Is someone who's good at knitting a fast knitter? Is someone who is good at knitting capable of doing lace, cables, colourwork, whatever? What if there's someone who could do things like lace, cables, and colourwork, but what you really want, and what you really feel like knitting is just stockinette hat after stockinette hat? Does that make you less of a knitter, just because you don't want to use your skills? How long does it take to get "good at knitting"?
Food for thought.
Oh, how did you guys find my blog? I know that Krista found me through the Yarn Harlot, but how did everyone else find me?

Photography...and stuff.

Emaline wanted to know what I could do with photoshop, so here is a demonstration of my photoshop skillz.
The above is not fixed, a picture of my sock and my computer screen. As you can see, the sock is a little too dark, and the flower is washed out.In the edited version above, the flower is coloured in, and the sock is lighter, so you can see the pattern better.

The world's not black and white...

This puts feelings into pictures.

It's from PostSecret. It perfectly describes the feeling here.
In other news, I've turned almost nocturnal! Maybe I'll get echolocation next.

Politics. And books. And other stuff.

And don't forget those fragments of sentences. In case you have been living under a rock for the past 48 hours, Huckabee won the Republican caucuses in Iowa. If he gets the presidency, I am so moving to Canada. They have better yarn. I was a little surprised that Obama won, but I don't really have an issue with him. I have an issue with Huckabee on a lot of issues. I don't know much about the republican candidates, but geez, I'd rather they choose anyone but Huckabee. That sentence made no sense. Oh well.
I think that Caleb needs to die. Not a real Caleb, my character Caleb. Or he should be turned in to the overly perky counselor by someone who he thought was a friend, and then he...I don't know what comes next, but I'm sure I could figure it out.
I just finished Grass Angel by Julie Schumancher, which is officially the first of the seventy books which I shall read this year. It was okay. It's not amazing, and the whole thing seemed rather...direction-less. It seemed like something that my unplanning self would write. What happens is that this girl's mom goes away to this spiritual retreat in Oregon, and she ends up spending the summer with her aunt Blue, who is a little eccentric, to say the least. This boy says something about how he thinks her mom is off at this spiritual retreat that he thinks is actually a cult. She freaks out, and her brother ends up running away from the camp. This is not one of my favorite books of all time.
At lunch today, one of my friends expressed that she thought that I had a twisted mind/issues/was a psychopath. This was after I told her about how Caleb needs to die. Does it seem to you people like I think about emoful things constantly? Because I don't really. So you can all chill out, and any people who are reading this who are the type of people who would totally make me talk to a counselor or something can just know that I'm fine. You know who you are.
Wow, this post is a little ADD. That is maybe the way my mind works, jumping around from topic to topic like that. It's kind of almost going against my better judgement to post this, because it's just so...jumbled. And I can't really see a way to get it out of the jumbleocity. I made that word up.
Be a little crazy. You might end up like me one day!

Update

I've finished my sock. I'm going on a walk soon.
Happy new year to all.

Fresh Starts

What does the new year mean to you? I think it means a fresh start for a lot of people. That's the whole point of a new years resolution, right? Dudes, I can't even write that without thinking about the resolute desk. National treasure, with their odd historical facts, has infiltrated my mind. And I have very few random historical facts to prove it.
You know what? I'm starting an advice column! That was really random and out of nowhere, but I am full of good advice and random quotes said by famous people, so I figure I might use my superpower for good rather than force it to fester around in my brain. After all, "The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself." Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
Therefore, whenever people leave questions in the comments, I will do my very bestest to answer them. Go ahead, ask away!
Back to the new beginnings thing. I think that it's a little silly to use the new year as a new beginning. Every day could be a new beginning if you really want it to be one. For instance, tomorrow (or today, really) I will work on my speech for English. I will walk a fair amount. I will write at least 400 words on my novel. I will. That's such a simple sentence, but it has so much power when you actually follow through on things. Just a few thoughts.
Have a happy new year.
By the way, I read the tenth circle yesterday morning, and I loved it so much. Seriously.
And my current wordcount is 37590. My nanowriyear goal is 50k higher than that.