Five Years

I've changed so much, but I'm still the same.
Do we ever really change?

Another Religion Post...

Okay. I got thinking about religion, and I kind of couldn't stop (just like Doritos) and I ended up wanting to write something about it. I couldn't figure out a way to work it into the current story, so I figured I'd post it here. Be prepared for a rant. Go grab snacks or tea or something. I'm having raspberry herbal, it's too late for caffeine.I'm Christian. United Methodist, to be exact. I don't know for how long that will be true, but at the present it is, and since the only thing we can be sure of is the present, I'll go with that.What religion are you? Would you still be of that religion if you hadn't been born into your family? Were you raised in that religion? Has there been anything that has confirmed your belief in whatever you believe in? Have you ever thought of converting? Have you ever had people try to convert/evangelize you? Have you really paid attention to what they have to say? Have you ever tried to convert/evangelize to someone?
I don’t think that I would be United Methodist if I wasn’t born into my family. However, I think out of all the varieties of Christianity, Methodism suits me the best. Really though, I don’t think I would be religious if my parents weren’t. It’s always interested me; peoples’ relationship with religion. My dad’s parents made him go to church every Sunday, and he rarely goes now. When he does go, it’s Christmas, Easter, or he’s going to the UU church. My mom’s parents wouldn’t make her go to church. I never knew this before tonight, but apparently when she was a teenager, they didn’t go to church much, but my mom went to church and was involved in youth group. There’s a lot of people who went to church when they were younger, but have stopped going, found something better to do on a Sunday morning. There are also people who grew up with atheist or agnostic parents, but are now devout.
I’ve been in this class on world religions and comparing them to Christianity. It’s been pretty interesting, but the video to go along with the class is kind of narrow minded, not to mention that I could have filmed it (using my mad movie skillzzzz, of course). It only covered six major religions-Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. The portions on Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam were all very focused on the history and central beliefs rather than the rituals of any of the religions. This week was the finale, Christianity. I brought one thing away from the video sermon, and that was that Christianity is for slackers.
Christianity is for Slackers.
He said how all many of the other religions had some sort of work to achieve eternal salvation involved, but with Christianity, Jesus just died on a cross, so you don’t need to work anymore. Is Christianity really for slackers? We give a free ticket to heaven to anyone who can accept Jesus as their savior (easier said than done). What if God decided that if you want to go to heaven, you have to pray five times a day? How many christians would actually make a point of interrupting their day to worship god? What if god wanted you to memorize scripture, whole books of the bible? Who would actually do it? I know that I probably wouldn’t do either- too time consuming, I have other things that I need to do, I don’t think that memorizing is a good way to learn things, the bible was written by people-not the direct word of god. There’s a whole host of excuses that I would use to get out of doing anything for my religion that I don’t feel like.

Does that mean that I don’t really believe in what I say I believe in? That I’m a fake, a poser?

My Sock and I...

I had a really exciting weekend. On Saturday, I went to the DI regional turnoment. I knit a lot while I was there.This is the man in the corn hat. He is a timekeeper. He had the corn hat last year too.
This was waiting for the improv challenge to start. I had a balcony seat,
and I knit
at the awards ceremony.
The sock had never seen that many people in it's life!
Meredy held the sock while we were working at the youth group auction for asp.
The sock handed out numbers.
And I made me a spindle and read A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly. It was a pretty fantabulous book. You really should read it right this very minute. The library should have it in a few hours, after I return it. I read Chicks with Sticks III too. It wasn't as good, don't waste your time unless you're desperate.

This is going to be a weird and random post

What else is new?
*I imagine everyone on the internet to look exactly like me. Chances are, if I read your blog, and you rarely post pictures of yourself, then my mental image of you is a clone of me. It's weird, I know.
*I'm currently at 10,196 words. It's going well.
*This is what my desk looks like (yeah, I got a new desk a while ago. It's from freecycle.)It's a mess, and I really need to organize...later.
*Some knitting content, finally!That's the Urchin. It looks...interesting. I hope it turns out right.
*The following makes me angry.This is the case for one of the cd's for world of warcraft, which my brother barrowed from my cousin. Apparently the thing on the front is an elf. I think that it's pretty objectifying to women, considering that the elf is not wearing very much in the way of clothes, and certianly looks like she has a human torso.
Would the elf still be magic or whatever while wearing clothes? Yeah, she would. And that wouldn't be selling sex now, would it?
*And in case you were wondering what I'm doing in school
That's my Geometry homework from a few days ago. It's a flash tattoo (from Specials by Scott Westerfield)This is the last few pages of my French notebook. On your right was a banner design that never really made it into being, and on your left....I have no idea what it is. There's a garment design at the top, some kind of asymmetrical jacket.And this is a piece of paper in the plastic part of my French binder. Mr. French teacher, in case you're wondering, I don't doodle in class. I doodle on the papers that we were supposed to illustrate verbs on, but ended up not using all of them...Really.
*We had another snow day yesterday! Third one this season! Woot!That's the view from my deck, in case you were curious.
*Oh yeah. I finished Vanishing Acts and a while ago I read....well...I guess I'm going to have to say the title sometime...Sex God. It's not as dirty as you think it is. It's interesting. Stop giggling.

A whole lotta questions.

Why do I have an obscene amount of icons/avatars/whatever you want to call them saved on my computer?
Why did I just cast on for an Urchin? I don't need any more wips! It must be the new yarn daze or something.
Why do *they* tell us about how we need to choose new schedules for next year, *then* they let us go ask teachers about classes, a week later?
What parts of our lives do we remember in the end?
What's worth doing?
Is it a really terrible idea to sign up for French III and French IV next year? Should I just take French III and Health?
Why is Pandora so freeking addictive?
Why was I so surprised that the sermon at the Unitarian Universalist church didn't involve God or Jesus?
Is that the first time I've heard a sermon that never referenced the Bible?
If everyone else in the world was dead and you could live anywhere you wanted, where would it be? Frank Loyd Wright's house? The white house? The Taj Mahal?
Why are stories so fun and easy to start, but terrible to write once you pass 8,000?
Does this sound really stupid? It's supposed to be a journal entry from an annoymous teenager. It's the most recent part of the story.

May 25 8^th grade

Dear you,

Do you ever wonder why we’re here? I wonder if some people are just born knowing this, or if we all have to figure it out on our own. If everyone has to figure it out on their own, they how come I seem like I’m the only one without a clue?

Why does everyone else make it seem so easy to do stuff? I can’t think of anything that just comes to me naturally, but it seems like everyone at school just has some god-given ability to be really, really good at something. Maybe it’s soccer, or hockey, or dance, or math, or English, or science.

Where did that miss me? Why didn’t I get something that I’m really really good at? I bet that the one thing I’m really good at is something totally useless, like knowing the name of every single car I see.

I guess that might be my superpower. It’s pretty much pathetic to have the one thing that you’re any good at be knowing car names. It’s not like that’s ever going to be useful in real life or anything. It’s entirely pointless to know

If you can answer any of the questions, put it in the comments!

Okay, I'm a SLACKER

1.Went to the DIA with Emoline/Bianka. 'Twas funnerfull, even if we did almost get locked in.
3.Organized (for the most part) my yarn.
This is the "Before" picture

Yeah, I know my room's a total mess. It's not always like that though.
And this is the "After" picture.3.I knit. However, I can't show you most of it. You'll just have to trust that I finished quite a bit of relatively complicated knitting.
4.I dyed.
It's some more of the KnitPicks Bare Sock Yarn that I got for Christmas. The colours are pretty spectacular, if I do say so myself.
5.I shopped with my friends. We never go shopping together, so it was funnerful. Makena's crazieness is becoming more and more apparent though.
6.I borrowed a ball winder and swift. My former art teacher's wife weaves, and he lent me it. This is what prompted the organizing spree.
7.Heard about Grey's Anatomy coming back on TONIGHT!!! Squeeeeeee! This is way more exciting than any tv show should be. I've kinda started to stop caring about tv since the writers have been on strike for what seems like forever. It's an interesting feeling.
8.Written most of this list.

Have a FANTABULOUS leap day everyone! Be sure to fit a few leaps in!

Last night, I had to figure out my schedule for next year. It was...well, let's just say that there were an excessive amount of tears involved. The counselors (and Grandholm, for chrissakes) feel the need to constantly remind me that I will die if I don't take a bizgillion math and science classes. I guess that I just don't see the point of taking classes if I don't enjoy them and don't want to go into that field. I also realized that my school requires a full 11 credits more than the state does for graduation, which sucks. If I lived somewhere else, I could graduate a full year and a half earlier than I can now.
Yeah, the school counsel ours sometimes make me really, really mad.
At least they let me switch math classes without too much fuss.
I really should be writing or studying french or studying science or something right now.

Oh meme, oh meme!

I have been tagged by Kaya. I have never been tagged before, so this should be exciting or something.
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

The Seven Facts about Samantha/Froomla
1.I'm writing a new story. It's very stream-of-concisousnes. I will write after I blog.
2.I have no idea what I want to do if I grow up. It will hopefully involve writing and designing knitwear and maybe teaching.
3.I really, really hate it when people comment on my weight.
4.I am a really clumsy person. This is how I burn my fingers and scrape my legs all the time.
5.I just got my hair cut. I like it this way.
6.I hate wearing socks and shoes. I'm usually barefoot at home, and wear flipflops whenever I can.
7.I am thouroughly addicted to my Pandora radio stations.

Now it's my turn to tag someone.
I don't really know enough bloggers who I would feel comforatble tagging, but SoullooN, you're so tagged.

No school, and Yarn Harlot

The Yarn Harlot is coming to meeee! Ann Arbor Library, April 11, 7:00...I am ridiculously excited about this. The other pretty cool thing; I will be able to drive there too!!!! Well, I'll have to have my mom or dad in the car, but still.
We have no school....'tis a PSD day. The teachers get to spend all day making up tests and going to meetings and stuff like that. It pretty much means that we get to do whatever we want today...and the next nine days, because Michigan has this fabulous thing called Mid-Winter break. We have mid-winter break because winter in Michigan sometimes feels like you and your toes never really thaw out, so everyone goes to Florida for a week in February. Except if you're me, your Dad has firefighting classes every night, and your Mom is sick, so there's no way you get to go much of anywhere. And apparently my brother is getting sick too.
At least I have new prettiful socks on the needles to brighten my day.
They're some Knit Picks bare that I dyed weekend before last. The pattern is MataHari by Craftoholic. They shall be knee socks if I can pretend to have an attention span. and yes, I do realize that the yarn is a little busy for the pattern, but oh well...
Bye byes!

Ummm. well...yeah

This post shall be in bullet points, because my brain won't function any other way.

• Quizbowl meet last night. Lost two games. Had one moderater who didn't know what she was doing.
  
• Debate states were on Saturday. Bala won (no surprise there). And it has been decided that "Boehme" shall be the worst insult that one could give to a debater. I totally messed up my second speech.
• Sciencel. I'm failing Earth Science. Earth Science is the lowest science offered by my Hi!School. It's like failing General Math.
• Geometry. I was failing Honors Geometry, so I switched to regular. And I'm doing fine now.
• French 2. Not doing amazingly, but I'm okay.
• Church. There's some stuff going on at my church that's a little messed up, so my mom and I will be going to a new church on Sunday. Not sure where yet, but...yeah...somewhere old and pretty, since those are my requirements for churches.
• I finished my second pair of socks on Sunday night.
• and I don't have a picture. Yet.
• I've read like three books
• But I've been so stressy that I can barely remember them.
• But Nineteen Minutes was one of them. It's amazing. You must read it.
• And The Knitter's Book of Yarn. 'twas okay.
• And Style and Fashion design. Or something like that. It was interesting. I want to be Ysolda if I grow up.
• I'm going to work on my geometry homework now.
  

Tired

I'm tired.
Eugh. I've had a perpetual load of homework that I never seem to finish, and I should be researching for debate right now.
But all I want to do is take a nap.
This is a pathetic post, but I just wanted to tell everyone that I'm still alive.