Life

A lot has happened since I last posted. I mean Jessica Lange won an Emmy for starters.

On a much less exciting note I started back to school. Things are going pretty mediocre. It's a lot of work and my teachers have very...interesting...personalities. My third period bores us all day long with busy work that gives me deja-vu of second grade and stories about her children that aren't the least bit exciting. Then I move to fourth period where my teacher always finds a way to slip a sexist comment or two before the hour and a half class is over with. My personal favorite, "behind every good woman is a good man." 

*face palms*

But alas, I should be grateful as the fact that I'm a 16 year old girl who goes to school for free (aside from school supplies and such) is quite a rarity in this world.

First day of school outfit for the win:

Also starting tomorrow will begin the first of many book and movie reviews from my summer reading and movie list. I will start with The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult and The Silence of the Lambs, so get as excited as you possibly can.

On an unrelated note, I've began pondering whether I should get into the phenomenon that is Doctor Who. I know I'm approximately ten million years late in joining in on the empire that this TV show has become, but better late than never I suppose. Also no one bothered to tell me that there's more to Doctor Who then the series that started in 2005. I began watching it on Netflix (I'm on episode three of season one), and after an Internet revelation that the show actually started all the way back in 1963 (obviously my knowledge of Dr. Who is very very limited), I'm stuck as to whether I should just watch the recent seasons or start all the way back in the beginning.

I'd love recommendations from those who have actually stayed up to date with the series. Have you only seen the most recent episodes (from 2005 onward)? Or did you go hardcore and watch every episode since 1963?

I also read that all together there are 802 individual episodes of Doctor Who, so I obviously have a lot of catching up to do.

Well, that's a wrap for another life post. Hope you're enjoying your own.

Have a fabulous day.

Awards are Fun

First off, thanks to everyone who commented on my post from a few days ago. It was great to hear from you all and thanks for your kind words.

And yes, I know, I know. Another blog award. I just love doing them, alright?

F @ The Fence of Stars has nominated me for the Sunshine Award so if we're really looking for someone to be the scapegoat and show up at her doorstep with pitchforks and fire, then she's your girl. Kidding, kidding. Personally I'd show up at her doorstep with a pizza and my top five movies to show my personal gratitude for the nomination. I love blog awards as I like to talk about myself. Ego issues? Me? Never.

So there are some rules as always.

1) State five facts about yourself.
2) Answer the five questions.
3) Create five new questions and nominate how many ever bloggers your heart desires.

Five Facts:
1) I've been recently obsessed with the song The New Workout Plan by Kanye West. It's not my most proudest obsession by any means.
2) I start school tomorrow. Cheers to another long nine months of education.
3) I love watching documentaries. My favorite kinds are the ones documenting cults. Why? Not sure.
4) There is not a TV channel I hate more than HGTV. I don't understand how they have five separate shows following people buying houses. I do not find that fun or exciting. Now a reality show about toddlers getting spray tans and crying because they didn't win ultimate grand supreme while their moms live vicariously through them? That's exciting.
5) It's 11 am and my phone is already at 20% battery. I'm not sure if that means I use my phone waaaay too much or that my phone just has a shitty battery life. We'll go with the latter.

F's Questions:
(1). What is your favourite mythical creature?
I'm going to jump out on a limb here and say Dobby the House Elf. I know, I know, he's probably not the mythical creature you were hoping for, but I couldn't resist. I mean elves are mythical creatures, right?

(2). If you had to change accents, which would you choose?
Probably an English accent because I'm mainstream.

(3). What was the last good book you read?
Shit, I must say this is quite hard. I finished My Sister's Keeper a little while ago and its ending was quite amazing, so I'll go with that.

(4). What's your favourite modern slang word/phrase?
Probably rad. Except it's not very modern, but it is slang. I'm trying not to over achieve here, okay?

(5). What's a little-known fact you just found out?
I didn't just find these out, but they're my personal favorite little known facts: Anne Frank's sister also had a diary, it was just never found. Also Martin Luther King Jr. limited his wife's role in the civil rights movement because he expected her to be a house wife. There was also a girl named Claudette Colvin who refused to give up her seat to a white woman nine months before Rosa Parks did, but the NAACP decided to not publicize (and for the most part) not represent her because she was 15, unmarried, and pregnant.

My five questions:
1) Who is your favorite Harry Potter character?
2) What's your most viewed post?
3) What do you believe is the biggest flaw among people?
4) What's your biggest blogging challenge?
5) What is the theme song of your life?

And I nominate everyone reading this post because I'm uncreative like that and most the people that I would nominated have been recently nominated. Leave your answers in the comment section below. Or create your own post and leave us the link. Thanks everyone.

Have a fabulous day.

Two Months to the Date

At the beginning of my summer break, I lost someone who was an important piece of the puzzle that is my life. Today will mark two months and although a lot of the initial pain has subsided, new feelings seem to take its place. While I was laying in my room trying to sort out my feelings like they were crayons in a box, I decided, why not make a blog post out of this situation?

So here I am.

Hooray for me finding old pictures from when I tried my hand at photography. I don't want to say I gave up on doing this, just simply ran out of time. I'll get back at it soon enough.

In the process of living through these past few weeks, I've noticed the hardest part of losing someone is the darkness you feel at night. Not the darkness that blankets the world outside, but the darkness that blankets your feelings and thoughts and emotions. Thoughts of loneliness and the aching pain of hurt squirm in your head like Kindergartners trying to sit still, irritating and uneasy. Every memory floats by and then turns into a sting in your stomach which then turns into tears and before you know it you're balling your eyes out from a simple thought about milkshakes.

And yet sometimes, I'm happy these things come to me at 2 am and not at 2pm when I'm trying to wrestle with life. I'm happy that I generally only get the need to ball my eyes out and spill my feelings when it's the middle of the night and I can cover my face with the four walls of my room. 

A lot of people, especially in the initial days after her death, would throw generic phrases at me like an unhelpful emotional band aid. "She's in a better place," they'd say. I'd smile and nod and choke back my tears, but in actuality I wanted to run away screaming bullshit. I knew they had sincere intentions behind saying these things to me, but really I wanted to give them a twenty minute rant about how many times I'd heard that and how with each time, it became less and less meaningful.

This heaven that I've unconsciously heard of since I was an infant is the biggest mystery I've yet to understand. The biggest concept I've yet to grip is how can someone you love, see you hurting, see you crying and not feel pain? How can they happily sit up on a chair of clouds eating ice cream and chatting with God and not want to cry with you?

Even with all this time passing, I still have yet to come to an understanding.

And I know that all of a sudden this blog has become a depressing place with just this one blog post and I might as well paint the background black and start referencing death in every other sentence, but I'll try to refrain.

The next post on here will certainly not be this depressing, but in doing this I hope to look back in another year or two or ten and see where I was and realize where I have come.

Have a fabulous day.

Teenage Blogger Central

Back when I was a struggling teenage blogger (which is a slight lie because I still consider myself a struggling teenage blogger), I found myself countlessly turning to Google to find teenager written blogs. It was hard to sort through the professional adult blogs and mommy blogs and crafty twenty somethings blogs to find little corners of the Internet written by people my own age.

Finally, after weeks of combing through articles and websites and search result pages, I found Teenage Blogger Central. The blog is written and updated by a teenager nonetheless whose name is F (I love pseudonyms ahem) who also writes at The Fence of Stars. I honestly consider her one of my first blogging friends that I ever met in this virtual teenage community, but let's not get too emotional or sappy right here, right now.

Anyways.

Not only was the website a fantastic place to easily find other teenage written blogs, but once I registered my own blog I started to get a stream of new followers and traffic. It was certainly a win-win.

Anyways I come to you today to tell you about this wonderful opportunity in hopes that you too can benefit from TBC as much as I have. Not to mention it's free and quick and easy, which is a good deal considering we as teenagers are broke and like to procrastinate.

Now stop immediately what you're doing so you can go and register your blog before I have to come over and do it for you (which would be rather hard so spare me please).

Have a fabulous day.

Life

This week I've been swimming in my own self glory at my ability that has appeared out of nowhere to stay up to date reading blogs and actually continually write for my own. I'm sure this won't last much longer and sooner than later I'll be reading blog posts written two weeks ago and posting one paragraph long posts on here, so enjoy this while you can people.

Sigh.

On another note, so far my summer reading and movie list is coming along better than I expected. I still have a lot of books to read (oops), but I've already written and scheduled four posts, with a fifth half way written. My projected start date is the first Monday of September and I will be publishing a review every Monday for the next twelve weeks.

Books:
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

The Blue Mirror by Kathe Koja

Divergent by Veronica Roth
Post Secret by Frank Warren
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Under the Dome by Stephen King

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Looking for Alaska by John Green

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Movies:

The Silence of the Lambs

Jobs

Rent 

Amber Alert

The Diary of Anne Frank

Devil's Knot

Love Actually

The Blair Witch Project

Contracted

Sightseers

Heathers

Antiviral

On another note I made my own white converses. I found a pair of old blue high tops stashed in the back of my closet right next to all the other things I lost but don't miss. Five minutes later, I had a cup of bleach and toothbrush in hand. 

They still have a tint of blue in them, but I got it out after
another round of bleaching.

Did I mention it was also one in the morning?

Anyways, I had operation I need to bleach these converses but I also don't want to go outside so let's try not to get any on the carpet underway. Personally, I think it turned out well.

Sometime around the dead of summer I made myself promise that I would finish writing the book I'm currently working on before I turn 17. Around that time I had almost two and a half months to curate my book and it seemed like a plausible goal.

Now I'm one month and one day away from my birthday and I'm punching myself for ever thinking I could do such a thing. I'm an extremely slooooooooow writer to say the least. I like to take my time and perfectly pick the words that will be just right in that particular context. Some days I kid you not I only write two paragraphs. Some days I write none at all.

*unrelated picture from a day last week*

I've come to notice that if I ever just sit down and tell myself I'm not getting up until I write 2,000 words (for example), I come back the next day and absolutely hate everything that I wrote and I get friendly with the backspace key and before I know it, it's like those 2,000 words never happened.

I find I do my best writing when I'm okay with only writing six paragraphs a day and not forcing myself to do x amount of words. I feel eventually if I ever want to take up this craft as my career, my writing pace will definitely need to change, but what try and force myself now?

Anyways, I'm about to head off to a weekend up in the mountains. I'll hopefully come home with lots of new pictures and stories and thoughts to share.

Have a fabulous day.

Washington, DC

When summer first started I thought I'd all of a sudden get really good at this blogging gig. Like I'd have tons of spare time to type blog posts and write stories and I'd be able to bring something to this little space of the Internet three or even four (gasp) times a week.

I've since learned that what I think will happen and what actually happens usually differs quite vastly. Even though I spend a majority of the seven days of the week at home binge watching Parks and Rec and reading other people's blog, I ironically have spent very little time on my own actual blog that I've been curating for almost two years now.

Funny how things turn out.

On another note I did actually get out of the house during the summer, I just failed to blog or even mention it. Two weeks or so ago I spent a few days in Washington, DC, which is the capitol of the good ole USA. I went there some time in middle school with my classmates, but like most school trips you spend more time chasing down adolescent boys and calming crying hormonal girls (true story), than actually doing the fun things you envisioned would happen.

(The above picture had the best waffles in all of DC. The entire place was run by Asians and was by far the best food I ate the whole trip. Also it was one building over from the place where Lincoln died and was across the street from where Lincoln was shot, so the name made me love it oh so much more.)

Luckily this trip had no such problems and was an extremely enjoyable two days of marveling over the tourist industry and how this nation runs (somewhat smoothly). I also took a political science course this year, so personally I loved the government aspect of the city a lot more than my parents (I was sadly outvoted on taking a tour of the supreme court building).

My dad's really into history, so we hit up as much of the Smithsonians as we could see in two days. The Smithsonians (for anyone who may not know) are a "chain" of 19 different museums/galleries and a national zoo. I use the term chain as 17 of the museums and the zoo are located in DC (the other two are in New York) within a relative close proximity (most of them are along the national mall, which is in fact not a mall at all). There is almost literally a museum for every interest of every person somewhere among the Smithsonians. There is an American History Museum, two Air and Space Museums, American Art Museum, African American History Museum, American Indian Museum, Natural History Museum and about a bajillion more.

(An unimportant but very pretty building.)

I'm pretty sure you could spend an entire year exploring the 19 museums of the Smithsonian and I'm not even exaggerating. We went to one of the Air and Space Museums where we spent almost three hours. Granted my dad wanted to look in depth at almost every thing (which I didn't mind too much as I love my own fair share of history), but even with him spending thirty minutes in the Orville and Wilbur Wright exhibit we could have probably lasted another two hours.

We also went to the American History Museum which was no joke NEVER ENDING. I mean, we're a relatively young country (238 years old) and yet somehow the museum went on and on and on. We spent a good bit of time on the first floor (two hours I'm telling you and I didn't even get bored once) only to realize there were TWO MORE FLOORS. I'm not kidding you people, we have a three floor museum on American history.

We eventually didn't even venture onto the second and third floor as we had reservations at the Holocaust museum that we couldn't miss. I was a tad disappointed I missed the first lady exhibit in the museum, but you always need a reason to return.

(This was me protesting Michelle Obama and her healthy kids program. Also street vendor pretzels are the best kind of pretzel if you ask me.)

(There was a rather large protest going on outside of the White House while I was there. They were urging Obama to help free Palestine from their conflict with Israel. It was just another reminder that I needed to get myself together and get caught up on the conflict as I still don't have as much of an understanding as I want. 

It seems most people around here (as in the southern part of the US, not necessarily all of America) support Israel, but part of me thinks this is mainly because Israel is a (generally) white, Jewish nation and a majority of those in the south are white Christians and Christianity is in some ways similar to Judaism (and the Bible mentions that we must "protect Israel") and so on and so forth. I'm certainly not trying to discredit anyone who supports Israel, but I have my suspicion that most people from "my parts" aren't exactly doing their homework and are simply supporting Israel because of religious reasons and Palestinians are generally Muslim and any use of the word Muslim rings fear from 9/11. Many of the ignorant folks of my country still think all Muslims want to blow up our country and gosh darn we would never support anyone like that. *sarcasm*

I'm not necessarily saying I'm pro-Palestine, but I'm not pro-Israel at the moment either. I'm still trying to figure out which side I'm on as I have quite the limited knowledge on all this. Sorry end rant.)

(The Washington Monument.)

We also went to the Holocaust Museum where we spent WAY too many hours (four and a half of them). It was an extremely well put together and fascinating museum/memorial that I would go back to in a heart beat.

(The house on the left with the green shutters was where President Lincoln died (called the Peterson House) after being shot at Ford Theatre which was across the street. One may wonder why the picture is focused on the non important house to its right, but that's merely because I found out the historical importance of the other house ten minutes later. *Face palms*)

(A close up of the Peterson House.)

(A very large, 34 foot stack of books all written about President Lincoln. He was quite the famous man.)

(Washington had all these weird sort of midway crosswalks. You would cross half the street and end up at a slab of white bricks in the middle of the road and then get stuck because there wasn't enough time to cross the other half of the street. Granted it made very good picture opportunities. The building in the distance is the Capitol where the good ole productive Congress meets.)

Overall it was a great trip that I would do a hundred times over. I love the city and I love politics, so maybe some day I'd end up here permanently.

Have a fabulous day.

TMI Tag

A very long time ago, and by a very long time ago I literally mean a very socially unacceptable in the blog world long time ago, I was nominated/tagged to do this Q&A type deal called the TMI Tag. I was tagged by Yasmine at Cloudy Dreams, which as usual you should go follow as is only common courtesy and you don't want to be like me and do socially unacceptable things.

Anyways. I've got a lot of questions to answer, so enjoy.

1: What are you wearing?
A pair of athletic shorts and a t shirt.

2: Ever been in love?
Not ever. The theory of love (as I like to call it) is actually something that I find very hard to comprehend, especially considering I'm 16 years old and this is the time where I should be falling head over heals for some guy with half a brain and half a high school degree. It kind of overwhelms me to think that someday I will actually find someone that I can get along and live with for the rest of my life. Or maybe I won't. Who knows.

3: Ever had a terrible breakup?
From the answer above, this is obviously a no. I had two really quick relationships when I was in seventh grade that was like, "I like the color blue. You like the color blue too? Let's date for a week." I'm quite ashamed. I dated another boy in 8th grade for a solid six months but no 14 year old relationship is ever real in my opinion and we broke up over the phone, so once again no. And once again I am ashamed.

4: How tall are you?
Around 5 feet four inches if we're being generous.

5: How much do you weigh?
About 120-125 pounds. I like to think a lot of it is muscle (because two seasons of soccer a year shouldn't result in a lot of fat), but considering it's the dead of summer, it's probably not at the moment haha.

6: Any tattoos?
Not at the moment. Maybe in the future, but I'm still thinking about it.

7: Any piercings?
I have two piercings in each of my ears.

8: OTP?
So I had to literally look up what this meant because sometimes I get really lost in the sauce. 
1. Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt (Parks and Rec)
2. Sabrina and Harvey (Sabrina the Teenage Witch)
3. Derek and Meredith (Grey's Anatomy)

9: Favorite show?
As someone who uses her Netflix account compulsively, this will be hard. I love Grey's Anatomy, Bones, Parks and Recreation, American Horror Story, I could seriously go on and on, but I'll stop here while I have the chance.

10: Favorite bands?
I'm hoping favorite bands and favorite singers is interchangeable here because I don't like a lot of bands, but I like a good bit of individual singers. I basically find someone I like and buy every album on the planet they've ever written. My current (and longtime) favorite is Ed Sheeran.

11: Something you miss?
I miss a lot of things and a lot of people.

12: Favorite song?
Home by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros (if I had to pick just one).

13: When is your birthday?
September 16 (I'm so close).

14: Zodiac sign?
I think it's Virgo, but don't hold me on it.

15: Quality you look for in a partner?
Someone who doesn't mind going out to eat (my relationships revolve around food).

16: Favorite quote?

"Good and bad run on parallel tracks, and they usually arrive at the same time." -Ron Dunn

17: Favorite actor?
Considering my Netflix addiction, I have a lot of these. Jessica Lange, Cameron Diaz, Sandra Oh, Ellen Pompeo, Emily Deschanel, Amy Poehler, Jessica Capshaw, Sara Ramirez, Michaela Conlin, Chandra Wilson, I'm not kidding you when I say I could go on and on and on.

18: Favorite color?
Light blue or maybe a dark purple.

19: Loud music or soft?
Depends.

20: Where do you go when you’re sad?
Usually outside in my hammock.

21: How long does it take you to shower?
Sometimes I can take a shower in three minutes and sometimes it takes fifteen. Mostly depends on if I've brushed my hair in the past 24 hours or if I have to shave.

22: How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?
I have perfected the art of getting ready in fifteen minutes. It's a wonder how much quicker you can get ready when you pick out your clothes the night before and are desperate to sleep an extra five minutes.

23: Ever been in a physical fight?
I can't say I have.

24: Turn on?
Doughnuts possibly? Or maybe really good french fries.

25: Turn off?
Douchebags. So pretty much every boy.

26: The reason I joined YouTube?
So apparently this used to be a tag that went around YouTube for a while, so I'll ignore this one.

27: Fears?
Social awkwardness, new situations, things that bite...

28: Last thing that made you cry?
When Ben proposed to Leslie on Parks and Rec.

29: Last time you said you loved someone?
My mom as she makes me say it pretty much every time I leave the house because she's clingy and strange like that.

30: Meaning behind your YouTube Blog Name?
I really like sunsets and I really like Sundays.

31: Last book you read?
The Blue Mirror by Kathe Koja.

32: The book you’re currently reading?
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

33: Last show you watched?
Portlandia or maybe Lost... (I watch way too much TV).

34: Last person you talked to?
My friend.

35: The relationship between you and the person you last texted?
Another friend (sorry for being quite vague here).

36: Favorite food?
Probably french fries. Or a really good pasta dish.

37: Place you want to visit?
Anywhere that I get to ride an airplane to get to. And having really good food wouldn't be too bad either.

38: Last place you were?
I'm currently at my house but I was last at a restaurant.

39: Do you have a crush?
Not really.

40: Last time you kissed someone?
My mom? Or is that not the kind of answer you were wanting?

41: Last time you were insulted?
Every second of my life (are they really your friend if they don't insult you?)

42: Favorite flavor of sweet?
Any candy that is watermelon flavored.

43: What instruments do you play?
Piano and french horn (don't ask, but it's true).

44: Favorite piece of jewelry?
Probably earrings. Or the spoon bracelet I made myself last year.

45: Last sport you played?
Soccer.

46: Last song you sang?
A really bad rendition of Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus.

47: Favorite chat up line?
Is that the same as a pick-up line? Because I can't say I really have one.

48: Have you ever used it?
No..

49: Last time you hung out with anyone?
Like twenty minutes ago.

50: Who should answer these questions next?
Anyone who's up for the challenge because I'm getting extremely lazy with these award things. Maybe one day I'll take the time to nominate people, but today is not that day.

Have a fabulous day.